Midwest Memo
Wall-smart
by Alan Shultz

We're saving the cost of paint and wallpaper in the kitchen these days. However, the method of this savings will never find its way into the home and garden decorating magazine. Honestly, I don't know how I've gotten away with the current state of affairs.

Let me explain. I'm a confessed newspaper article clipping fiend. I can't comfortably read a newspaper without a pair of scissors within arms reach. When I'm caught without a pair of scissors I resort to ripping out my articles, rather than pass up an opportunity to save some gem of a news item. I've earned some really annoyed looks from neighboring readers when I resort to the ripping method.

News article clipping is easy work. The activity rarely generates any calorie burning. I've never broken into a sweat during the process not even on the Sunday paper. However, the habit does extract its toll. Let's face it; you've got to do something with all those articles.

In my work as an attorney I've been the executor of many, many decedent's estates. It's easy to spot a former chronic news clipper. The giveaway usually is a collection of paper grocery bags sitting on their sides gathering dust and overflowing with news clippings, dry, dusty, fading news articles waiting to go somewhere.

It's a chronic problem.

Some of us with the clipping propensity gene like to look to others as our solution. We use the U.S. mail to mask our problem. "Thought you'd enjoy reading this."

"This made me think of you."

We pen innocent little phrases on the top of our clippings, pop them in the mail and go back to find the scissors.

But back to our kitchen nook near the phone.

First, the wall was painted with semi-gloss scrubbable enamel. Second, when I started, the wall was plain and empty... a waiting canvas, or an untouched bulletin board.

The first article I taped up on the wall is dated Jan. 5, 2005. That doesn't seem all that old, just a year and a half plus back, but it sure looks old these days. Yellow and brittle it has become. The clipping is an article written by Associated Press writer Neelesh Misra in the aftermath of the South Asian tsunami disaster.

Misra's article, written from Port Blair, India, tells how five indigenous tribes on the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar Islands survived the tsunami that took the lives of so many others.

Quoting from the article: "anthropologists believe that ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds," may have saved these folks. In other words, long before the waves hit, these islanders had headed for high ground. They already knew instinctively what was coming.

Every time I look at this article it speaks to me. It reminds me that in my own memory I have lessons already learned that will instinctively guide me... if I will allow that guidance.

How could I toss that article away? But alas, where does one put it?

Well, it was the first to find its home on the kitchen wall.

The next article that followed was about a guy who fought city hall in Chicago and won.

Quoting from the article by Abdon Pallasch and Steve Patterson for the Chicago SunTimes: "County officials used to wince as they'd see Jones coming down the hall. Sometimes they would ask security to escort him out."

Jones was Charlie Jones of Michigan who fought on behalf of his Uncle Jermiah Davison, who lost his home in a tax snafu. The county wound up paying Davison $190,000, due to the nephew's sure persistence and tenacity.

Now I ask you, how could I part with this gem?

The fight city hall article was followed by one about Queen Esther in the Bible. A Volvo ad followed that. Recently I taped up an article about retirement accounts, followed by one on cabinet making.

I'm going to stick with the wall solution until my wife screams. After that it's probably the old standby of paper bags lying on their side, or that old sneaky method involving a little collusion with the postman...

"Thought you'd want to see this."