Shorts, flip-flops and reindeer games

You
think Wal-Mart jumps on Christmas early? Let me tell you, sugar plum, they
don’t hold a motorized multi-hued LED candle to Land Line.



The
editors and designers start sweating deadlines long before the temps at Grain
Valley fall below 90. Sunset’s still about 8:45 CDT when “Land Line Now” news
anchor Mark Reddig starts testing his permanent outdoor Christmas light
display. And we

OK, it’s really Christmas …. My Mack catalog is here

Every morning I get mail, email, phone calls by the armload.
It’s part of the job. But last week – in my daily mail, there it was … my
favorite catalog, Mack’s Bulldog Basics – Official Licensed Merchandise wish
book.



Not only does it have everything needed to smartly outfit
the Mack truck owner, driver and enthusiast, not to mention what you need for
your Mack truck to be totally lunked

So I walk into the Midway Truck Stop …

Anyone who has jumped off of Interstate 70 at Exit 121 knows
that there are two things you can count on about the Midway Truck Stop:
friendly people and never knowing what you’re going to see.




Joe Bechtold, center,  sets up the strongman competition.


My idea of Sunday afternoon fun the week before Christmas
was to load up the kids (two teens and a tween) and head out to Midway for the

Let’s get real

Medical professionals, many who stand to benefit from such a
regulation, continue to beat the drum that most truck drivers should be tested
for sleep apnea.



I have a short reply:



Americans are 10 times more likely to die because of a medical
professional’s error than they are in a crash with a truck.



Let that sink in.



As Land Line reported
last week, advisory boards including the

Now just hold on a minute

If
you think the National Traffic Safety Board is going too far in recommending a
ban on hand-held phones and texting in all vehicles, you better hope they don’t
see research that indicates the, um, hydraulic pressure that builds up after
drinking coffee or soda and being in the cab for several hours is as
distracting as being drunk or sleep-deprived.



Researchers
in Australia – where they

Wreaths at Fort Leavenworth