The Murphy Messenger and The Cruise Lady, Sherry Pace, with Cruise Planners hosted a cruise seminar on June 2nd?in the Murphy City Hall Community room where at the conclusion the Messenger gave away a free cruise for two to Mexico.

Winner Judy Henley and her husband will be spending 5 nights on Carnival Ecstasy with ports of call in Progresso and Cozumel. Congratulations Judy!!!

Pictured is Marcia Jowers (left) Messenger Owner/Publisher and Winner Judy Henley (right) getting in the spirit of the Mexican cruise.?

Finding the fun in life’s frustrations: Murphy humorist Diana Estill to be featured at Barnes & Noble’s Great New Writers Event

Plano, TX—Murphy resident and author Diana Estill will sign and discuss her latest book, Deedee Divine’s Totally Skewed Guide to Life (Corncob Press), during Barnes & Noble’s Great New Writers event, Saturday, March 28, noon to 2:00 p.m., at the Creekwalk store, located at 801 W. 15th Street, Plano, TX.

Deedee Divine’s Totally Skewed Guide to Life, Estill’s second book of humorous essays, earned a 5-star review and an online listing in Small Press Bookwatch? from Midwest Book Reviews. “A must read for those who want to truly understand the irrationality of the world … utterly entertaining reading,” says Midwest Book Reviews.

Pulitzer nominee Susan Reinhart, author of Dishing with the Kitchen Virgin, says “Reading Deedee Divine’s Totally Skewed Guide to Life is like spending an afternoon with your craziest girlfriend, only the laughs are harder and the credit card damages are gentler.”

In essays such as “Family that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” “7 habits of highly self-absorbed people” and “Silent night (hammer sold separately),” Estill shares her amusing and often outrageous advice for trying times.

Diana Estill has written for the Murphy Messenger, The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post and The Miami Herald. She has appeared on WFAA (an ABC affiliate), Good Morning Texas and many other TV shows and radio programs.

Deedee Divine’s Totally Skewed Guide to Life is available in paperback through Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.

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Rhonda Hodge, the Messenger's Reporter/Writer is in Washington, D.C. to cover the Presidential Inauguration. For a special feature, National Public Radio contacted Ms. Hodge and interviewed her regarding her upcoming trip to D.C. The segment aired on Saturday. You may visit the link below to see what Rhonda told NPR.
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Inauguration Journey: Small-Town Paper's Big Story


http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:npr708:403ecd93e7e6dc04eb5923d0ff658624

By Rhonda Hodge

Friday, July 18, 2008 started about the same as any other summer day for Mr. Harvey Browning of Greenfield Drive in Murphy. He mowed the lawn early in the morning before the sun was totally unbearable and decided to take his morning jog. Mr. Browning usually takes his normal route through a neighborhood park near the elementary school.?

As his wife Tammy took her morning walk with the dog, she heard the EMS sirens in the background. Upon returning home, she noticed that Harvey had not returned, even though he had left over an hour ago. Considering that he had cut the lawn as well as gone for a jog and the warming temperatures, she decided to go in search of him. Not finding him at the park or along his usual route, Mrs. Browning returned home with concern now setting in and recalled the sounds of the blaring sirens somewhere in the neighborhood.? Before panic could fully take over, she noticed the blinking red light of her answering machine. Three messages since she left the house in search of Harvey! They were from a hospital emergency room in Plano alerting her that her husband had been admitted at 9:15 a.m. and had not regained conscious until forty-five minutes later. Tammy and Harvey’s paths had virtually crossed just minutes before and only a few streets apart in their neighborhood.

When Mrs. Browning recounts the events surrounding this potentially life changing event, their family is most thankful for the Good Samaritan who stopped to render aid when he noticed Harvey collapsed along Heritage Parkway near Betsy Lane. The Good Samaritan, who prefers to remain anonymous, had approached the area with caution since he noticed that several cars before him were tapping on their breaks. However, no one stopped to offer assistance. He did, and placed a life-saving 9-1-1 call to the Murphy EMS and Police Departments. CID (Criminal Investigation Division) Sergeant Snow Robertson was the first to arrive on the scene and administered CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) until the EMS Team arrived, mere minutes later.?

To read the rest of the story, click on "Full Story"

An Offering to the Trash Gods
By Margaret Malone

Charles Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend” opens with a description that reminds me how fortunate we are to have that all-important event on the city calendar, Bulky Trash Day. Perhaps it will become a national holiday one day. It also reminds me that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

You see, the London that Dickens portrayed didn’t have landfills or garbage pickups, and was once oppressed during a particularly hot summer by a phenomenon aptly called “the great stink.”

Dickens’ London was home to a scavenger underclass that lived by harvesting all manner of rubbish. There were the “mudlarks,” children who wandered the banks of the Thames, gathering anything they could use or sell. There were the “toshers,” who combed through the sewers for the same reason. There were the rag-pickers and bone-pickers…and the “pure-finders.” You don’t want to know what they were looking for. It makes dumpster diving look posh.

I don’t know about you, but I love Bulky Trash Day. When I was a kid in England, we didn’t have a municipal large-trash pickup service. We did have a neighborhood “rag and bone man” who would go around the neighborhoods every so often, collecting all manner of large junk. The rag and bone man was a cultural figure in many cities and towns. There was even a popular and very long-running sitcom, “Steptoe and Son,” devoted to a hilariously vindictive rag and bone man and his oppressed son. The show was later remade in the USA as “Sanford and Son.” Waste Management’s service seems awfully refined by comparison.

So I’m looking forward to an opportunity for a bit of liberating de-clutter. It’s amazing how much junk a family household can collect. Although we donate almost everything we no longer use, broken and worn out items tend to collect over time, like the Jurassic-era fossilized computer and the broken kitchen chair I got rid of last trash day.