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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
September 20, 2022     Shelton Mason County Journal
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Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday. Sept. 29, Election seasonbegins in Mason County elcome to the circus. This week marks the beginning of the general election season here at the Shelton-Mason County . Starting with this week’s edition of the paper, the Journal will begin running a series of question-and-answer pages with the candidates in the Nov. 8 election. This week, we look at the races for Mason County as- sessor, Mason County sheriff and the 6th Congressional District. You can see the planned schedule in the breakout box. Both candidates in each race are asked the same five questions, followed by the candidates asking a ques- tion of their opponent. The responses are printed exactly as submitted without any V. oases memos EDITIIII’S CHAIR correction. We have planned our scheduled pages to run over the next four Weeks, with the final responses set to run Oct. 20. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to Mason County voters Oct. 18. Also beginning this week, we have reopened our Letters to the Editor to letters about candidates, including those for and against. Several let- ters included in this edition were submitted earlier in the month and are now being published. We will run candidate- related letters until the Oct. edition. No original let— ters regarding candidates will be published on Nov. 3 due to Election Day being the following Tuesday, how- ever letters directly rebut- ting a previous letter will be considered. For those considering writ- ing a Letter to the Editor in the upcoming weeks, here are a few things to know: What we will publish Letters that support, oppose or ask questions of the candidates. Don’t feel afraid to ask tough questions and demand answers. Anyone running for political office should be willing to truth— fully answer questions from their constituents. Ask about their platform, their plans if elected and why they’re running. Letters will be ed— ited for grammar and style. We also reserve the right to edit or reject letters contain- ing profanities or excessive graphicness. What we won't publish Letters that allege can- didates of illegal conduct -or law-breaking. If you be— lieve. a candidate has bro- ken the law, report it to the appropriate authorities or jurisdiction. The Journal is not a courtroom nor a place for public litigation. If you would like to submit materi- als for the Journal to review, feel free to do so, but publish- ing unsubstantiated and un— founded claims of illegalities places the writer of'the letter and the newspaper at risk of legal action. Elections offer us an op— portunity to have our voices heard about our futures and the future of our cities, coun— ty, state and nation. It’s one of the most sacred rights we have as citizens. I Justin Johnson is the editor of the Shelton-Mason County Journal. He can be reached by at justin@mason- county.com. What’s on Our mind? Serial killers, apparently. was at an Alcohol— Iics Anonymous ’ meeting many years ago when a fel- low shared a story about baseball and beer. The guy said that before watching a ballgame, he would .buy a case of beer (24 ‘ containers) and then drink one at the top and one at the bottom of each inning, making for a minimum of 17 beers consumed per ball game. Someone asked what he would do with the extra beers, and the man replied, “In case of extra innings.” When he quit drinking alcohol and tried to watch a baseball game sober, the man said, “I had no idea baseball was so boring.” That story doesn’t have too much to do with this column, but it is a ‘ wonderful sports story with a happy ending. And, it’s a nice counterpoint to the depravity that follows. I was home last week with a couple of friends watching the Seattle Mari- ners’ game against the Oakland A’s, the one that was 0-0 throngh the top of the seventh. The A’s eventually ‘ won '2-1. It was nine innings of ho— hum, so I invented a parlor game with my phone. I’d type in a first name into the Google search bar on myAndroid phone’s home screen and ask my pals Slpllonmdsottflonntn ilowmal uses 492-800 KIRK ERICSON THESE TIMES to guess which last name showed up first in Google’s suggested this-is-what-you— might-be-looking—for list. V Here’s what Google. com has to say about items that show up in such a list: “When a user enters a query, our machines search the index for matching pages and return the results we believe are the highest quality and most relevant to the user. Relevancy is determined by hundreds of factors, which could , include information such as the user’s location, language and device (desktop or phone). For example, searching for “bicycle repair shops” would show dif- ferent results to a user in Paris than it would to a user in Hong Kong.” I typed in some random first names, then started typing in the first names of the people in the house. I typed in “Gordon,” and No. 1 on the list was chef GordOn Ramsey. I typed in “Kirk,” and the first name listed was Kirk Cousins, an NFL quarter- back. I typed in “John,” and the first name was John Wayne Gacy, the ‘ clown/serial killer from Illinois. Having Google suggest I’d be most interested in learning about such an exceptionally sinister John seemed odd, especially when considering the other Johns that could have showed. up as_No. 1: Lennon, Depp, Mulaney, Cena, Appleseed, Legend, Fogerty, the Baptist, Kennedy, Locke, Stuart Mill, Wayne, Steinbeck, Oliver, Good- man, Candy, Malkovich, Krasinski, Stuart, Travolta, Cusack, Cleese, Leguizamo, Doe, Denver, Mayer, McCain. Instead, I was encouraged to click on the last name that summons a man who was convicted of sodomy, and the murder of 33 young men and boys? So we started thinking up other se- rial killers with common first names. Typing in “Charles”'put Charles Manson as No. 2, after King/Prince Charles. “Richard” had Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez as No. 1. Ramirez was convicted of killing 13 people in California in the 19805. “Ted” put Washington’s own Ted Bundy as No. 1. ' , “Henry” summoned Henry Louis Wallace, who I hadn’t heard of. He showed up as No. 4 in the “Henry” rankings. Wallace was convicted in 1997 of killing nine people in South and North Carolina. No. 6 was Henry Kissinger. Considering Mr. Kissing. er’s rap sheet, his ranking seems a little low. v And coming in at No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 in Google’s ranked list- . ings under the name “Jeffrey” was cannibal, killer and joke punchline Jeffrey Dahmer. The only person who prevented him from sweeping in the “Jeffrey” category was Jeffrey Ep- stein. Having “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” being the top-watched show on Netflix likely aided Dahmer’s prominence. To ensure Google hadn’t mistakenly thought that myself and my phone were inordinately inter- ested in serial killers, I typed five first names into Mrs. Ericson’s phone — my wife might be the most un-serial~ killerish person you’d want to meet. Here are the results from her phone: John: John Wayne Gacy, No. 1; Rich- ard: Richard Ramirez, No. Ted: Ted Bundy, No. 1; Charles: Charles Man- son, No. 1; and Henry: Henry Louis Wallace, No. 3. Serial killers all. I emailed Nils “Nick” Marcks Von Wurtemberg, a friend who lives in Sweden, to ask him to type the word “Jeffrey” into his phone’s Google search bar. I wanted to test whether our homegrown cannibal killer has international appeal. Here is his response: . . “Hi Kirk, first is Jeffrey Epstein and two is Jeffrey Dahmer. A canni-l bal from Wisconsin? Will be interest- ing to read your column. Right now I’m watching a soccer game between Sweden and Slovenia. Still 0-0. Nick” Let’s conclude with a quote from George Carlin, this column’s favorite comedian: ’ “When you’re born into this world, you’re given a ticket to the freak show. If you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.” I Contacthirk Ericson at kirk@ masoncounty.com ' Owned and published by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send. address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, R0. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Published weekly by the Shelton-Mason County Journal at W. Cola St, Shelton, Washington. ‘ Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone: 360—426-4412 Website: www.masoncountycoin Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington. The Journal is a member of the Washington Newspaper Publish- ers Association. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $79 per year ($55 for six months)‘ for Mason County addresses and $99 per year ($70 for six months) outside of Mason County. Single issue price $2.00 Publisher: John Lester Advertising: Theresa Murray, Ad Representative Newsroom: Justin Johnson, Editor Gordon Weeks, Reporter . Matt Baide, Reporter Kirk Boxle'rtner, Reporter Kirk Ericson, Columnist/ Proofreader Shawna Whelan, Photographer Front officer ' ‘ Dave Pierlk, Office Administrator Karen Hranac, Customer Service Delivery: Jon Garza David Olson Niel Challstrom Composing room: Kim Fowler, Advertising Design Linda Frizzell, Advertising Design a Creative Director: Lloyd Milllen All regular editorial, advertising and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the Monday prior to publication. To submit a letter to the editor, email editor@masonoounty.com.