Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Cueball thoughts for Nov. 24, 2013.

1. $100 sentence…

Today is the beginning of the 30 Days of Christmas promotion starting with a feature on the Wynn Wellness in the blog below. We ended up with 21 businesses participating in the promotion, which didn’t quite reach my goal of 30 businesses, but it was a nice start for the first year of what I hope is a Christmas tradition.

In order to give the 30 days of Christmas promotion a special kick, I am going to give away $100 in cash to the first person who can figure out our Wheel of Fortune type game. It will be the same principle as the popular TV game show but with a twist. We will be using words instead of letters.

Each day for the next three weeks when we feature a 30 days of Christmas business. Within each of these promotions, there will be an underlined word such as this. The words will be released in chronological order. You will need to fill out the sentence. The first person who correctly fills out the sentence and e-mails me the sentence at sumnernewscow@gmail.com will win $100.

We will announce the winner publicly after the last 30 days of Christmas blog is released. 

By the way I want to thank the following businesses for participating in the 30 Days of Christmas promotion. And please people shop locally first. This is your community Wellington and Sumner County. Help keep it alive.

Nov. 24 — Wynne Wellness.

Nov. 25 — The Dore

Nov. 26 — DirectTV

Nov 27 — Mill Creek Lumber

Nov. 28 — Wellington Wal-Mart

Nov. 29 — Countryside Sidewalk Trading Post.

Nov. 30 — Wellington Hometown Rental.

Dec. 1 — Manilla Liquor

Dec. 2 — Countryside Motors.

Dec. 3 — Peapod Consignment.

Dec. 4 — Wellington Fitness Center.

Dec. 5 — Barbara Jons.

Dec. 6 — KanOkla.

Dec. 7 — Wellington Regent Theater.

Dec. 8 — OakTree Inn.

Dec. 9 — The Gold Corner.

Dec. 10 — Cobb’s Liquor.

Dec. 11 — Stalcup Realty.

Dec. 12 — Federal Tire.

Dec. 13 — Wellington Golf Club.

Dec. 14 — Wellington Chiropractic Center/Crossfit.

2. The $100 sentence.

OK, here is the sentence in the second paragraph below. Remember only one word (not counting the website link which is always underlined) will be underlined in each blog. The words will be released in sequence. There are 21 words in this sentence you have to collect. We are throwing in the “A” “of” “that in an” to move the sentence along.

I’ll give you a freebie as an example. The first word is in the Wynn Wellness blog has the word “growing” underlined. Look in the blog and you will see in the sixth paragraph that particular word is underlined and only that word. So that will be the first word of the $100 sentence.

A 1. growing 2. __________ of 3. __________4. __________ 5. __________ that in an 6. __________  7. __________  8. __________ 9. __________  and 10. __________ 11. __________ are 12. __________ 13.__________ to 14. __________  and 15. __________  in 16. __________  that 17. __________  their 18. __________ 19. __________  and 20. __________  21__________ .

3. K-Mart commercial.

Parental warning. If you’re easily offended don’t watch the K-Mart Christmas – Show your Joe Boxer video below. For the rest of us, this commercial is hilarious.

This commercial works and I guarantee K-Mart and Joe Boxers will benefit greatly from this marketing plan.

The key to business success is a great marketing plan. And it will work in Wellington as it will in Wichita as it will in New York City as it will Timbuktu. It just takes a little thinking outside the box.

4. 1960s TV coverage.

I watched my share of retrospects on the JFK Kennedy assassination Friday and still have a few on the DVR left to view. Without a doubt, the best documentary of all was “JFK: 3 shots that changed America.” It was an un-narrated collection of archived news and home movie footage as events unfolded – some of it rarely seen (see info here). All these news clips are presented in a time sequence with a digital clock clicking the day way and dreaded music in the background like something you would hear in a horror film.

It will give you shivers I guarantee you.

A couple of things struck me viewing these news clips 50 years later. I was amazed how news anchors would light up a cigarette and smoke on air – sitting next to a heaping pile of cigarette butts in an ash tray and talking about the tragedy unfolding.

I then was amazed at how TV reporters, all male and in suits, were in the Dallas Police Station stacked in the hallway where Lee Harvey Oswald was being interrogated like rats in a cage.

No wonder Oswald got shot by Jack Ruby. It was disorganized chaos.

Reporters were tripping over one another getting tangled in camera wires. The JFK situation was not a funny matter, but I was a bit amused how a camera man would accidentally focus on the competition’s news anchor and then suddenly jerk the camera away looking for the news anchor he was supposed to be filming. The reporter would be yelling “I’m over here!” and then you would see the guy talking about the latest development with just his forehead showing while another reporter was standing in front of him obstructing the view — picking his nose or whatever — while waiting to deliver his report.

Today, that just wouldn’t happen. They would throw us reporters in a roped off area in a separate media room. There would be a degree of separation amongst each news station, and all information would be delivered in a press conferences – provided you could get through with a security clearance. Oswald would have never, never, never be asked a question by a reporter, let alone being shown live on camera.

5. Shout out of the week. 

This week’s shout out goes to the Triumph Accessory Services for remodeling the Rock Island Concession building at the softball field complex (see story here).

Here is the picture of the building before the renovation.

Here is the picture of the building after the renovation.

I can’t tell you how cool this is. Community initiatives seem to be picking up steam. We’ll focus on a few of the local initiatives during the Christmas season. By the way, thanks Triumph!