KILGOROUND

ON THE subject of weather - isn't that what you and your pals were discussing when we walked in and interrupted? - the 2007 edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac is on the streets.

THE big surprise that it predicts June, early July, late July, and early August will bring our hottest days in 2007. Seriously, that's what it says right here on page 196.

IT also predicts the longterm drought will continue in Texas.

(DISCLAIMER: We don't actually spend our wellearned money for the Almanac; the publisher sends us a "review" copy that costs us only the time we invest in reading it.)

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THREAD hijack: the city has replaced those broken Texas stars in the wall at the amphitheater in city park.

THE first set of stars were wrecked when someone apparently took a hammer and beat the stuffing out of them. CONTRIBUTIONS from local citizens and businesses built the amphitheater under the watchful eye of the Kilgore Improvement and Beautification Association.

+++ DON'T forget we've a brace of events here to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 destruction of New York City's Twin Towers. HANOVER will host its nowannual community blood drive at the company's facilities on Hwy. 135 north. From 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. it'll work this way: You give blood, the company provides free food and games for kids. AND ANA-LAB and Kilgore College are sponsoring an evening of patriotic music in the Dodson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m that evening. THE concert will open with the Air Force Color Guard and include music from more than 200 musicians and singers. And, says Ana-Lab president Dr. Charles Whiteside, Congressman Louie Gohmert will be on hand. IT'S all happening Monday.

+++ HAPPY birthday today to Joe W. Roberts, Betty Jo Mobley, John Neugebauer, Willie L. Clark Jr., Bridget Okray, Jimmy Guins, Lyndi Bione, Lisa Hopper Henry, Emerson Jones, Linda Allen, David Welch, Bill Edney, Tara Leroy, Brenda Laurent, Dee Ann Goddy, Dreka Ranson, Steven Knighton, Amy Reese, Patsy Haynes, Jo Lisa Thompson CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries

today are Dr. and Mrs. Charles Florio