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UPDATED May 9 with photo of Bonnie preparing for a race

By Bill Herr
Bluffton Icon columnist

Who was the fastest Lady Pirate in Bluffton High School track history?

Arguably, it was Bonnie Stratton. She is the oldest of Jay and Barb Stratton's three children. Their two boys, R.J. and Robbie, were outstanding football players for the Pirates. When they played, their grandpa, Rod Stratton, engineered a cannon that fired every time the Pirates scored a touchdown on Harmon Field. It was loud. I was told it scared the referees.

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Review by Robert McCool

Words can be weapons; whether written or spoken, or the more dangerous implied threat by authority.

Poetry has to be words too; a light illuminating the darkness in some human souls.

Such is the premise in the new masterwork by Celeste Ng, titled Our Missing Hearts ($34.00, Random House ISBN978-0-593-63267-3).

The story begins after the collapse of the United States economic system (which is blamed on the Chinese, of course). This is the time of PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions), a totalitarian authority that controls the whole country. PACT has the power to suppress any activity that is considered UN-American or seditious. PACT has the power to read all mail, wiretap any phone, or impose an ongoing curfew, which the breaking of brings down the law. Big time.

They also have the right to remove any child from its family if the parents do not follow PACT constraints faithfully to protect American values. These PACT laws were passed unilaterally by the House and Senate in an effort to bring America out of the Crises.

CONTINUES

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By Bill Herr
Bluffton Icon columnist

What is the most treasured trophy ever won by a Bluffton Pirate team in sports or academics? I recently looked in the sports trophy case by the gymnasium and the academics trophy case by the old gym. Here are some candidates in sports: 1929 State Runner-up Boys Basketball, 1981 State Champions Boys Wrestling, 1991 State Runner-up Boys Football 1997 StateRunner-up Girls Track & Field, 2000 StateRunner-up Girls Basketball, 2008 State Champion Boys Track & Field, 2019 State Runner- up Boys Soccer.

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By Robert McCool

After a spell of ill health, I find myself back at the books and the keyboard during a winter storm, ready to talk about a book I wanted to hate, but couldn't.

Barbara Kingsolver is a great writer who presents her stories as plain-faced as a tale can be. This leads to some unpleasant topics sometimes when a story absolutely must be told. Such is “Demon Copperhead” ($34.50 ISBN:987-0-06-326746-6), an Oprah's Book Club 2022 selection.

The book is all about a boy (Daemon) with red hair (Copperhead) growing up up in the Apalachicola South, with all its poverty–which means plenty of teen mothers and drugs, among other things like high school football, drinking excessively and having not much future to look forward to. On the other hand, family is tight and most important in life.

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By Bill Herr

What was the first Bluffton High School Pirate sports team to win a state championship?

The 1981 varsity wrestling team. In wrestling at Bluffton High School, there have been 48 Pirate wrestlers that qualified for the State Championships in the 46 years between 1975 and 2021. 24 of them qualified multiple times and 7 became State Champions. The high caliber of this sport at BHS reached a peak in 1981 when the varsity wrestling team won the State Championship. This is their story.

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Paul Silas remembered: Durable rebounder/defender stalwart latest in long line of Celtic legends to recently pass

By Professor Parquet for www.celticsblog.com
A.k.a. Cort Reynolds

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