It is that time again. A couple of Cheers to those who deserve some praise, and a couple of Jeers to those who do not.

One of our biggest Cheers in a long time goes out to any and all who had anything to do with Giant Days weekend in Blue Earth.

Wow! It was totally awesome. After the whole event (except the fireworks) was canceled last year due to that coronavirus pandemic thing, it was determined by a few people to make this year’s event bigger and better than ever.

I’d say they succeeded.

Oh sure, there was that little glitch with the weather. It did rain on our parade. But, you know, everyone put up with it. The parade went on as usual, people were lined up to watch it, and we all just got a little wet maybe.

In typical Minnesota fashion, most people just said “It could’ve been worse. It could have been 95 and so humid you couldn’t stand to be outside.”

It never really rained real hard. But, I did have to put the top up on the convertible which was carrying the parade’s Grand Marshal, Elloyce Queensland. She didn’t get to ride up on the back of the back seat and do the queenly wave – and she did not really want to do that anyway.

So, it all worked out.

This year there was a Giant Days Committee formed, and they took this task to heart. They planned a two-day downtown party, complete with bands, food-trucks, kiddie fun (like bounce houses, horse rides, train rides and more).

And a street dance and beer garden both nights.

The turnout was huge, despite the cloudy weather.

Everywhere I went, there were people. People downtown, at the fairgrounds and at Giant Park. And everywhere else around town, it seemed.

It was pretty terrific to see. I sure hope you had a chance to see – and participate in – at least some of the activities.

So a big Cheer to the Chamber of Commerce, to the Giant Days Committee, to anyone and everyone who was helping out in any way at all to put this one together. It took a lot of effort by a lot of folks.

Take a bow. You done good.

• A Jeer, once again, to those folks who just can’t seem to slow down.

It is true that we now seem to live in a fast-paced world, and everyone is in a hurry to get to where they are going.

But speeding, especially excessive speeding, has become chronic. And it is one thing for people to be speeding along a freeway, quite another to do it in a town, where there can be pedestrians and bikers around every corner.

Now it is Winnebago that is trying to do something about people speeding down their residential streets. They were first going to try stop signs at intersections.

However, police enforcement of speed limits might be the only answer.

• A Cheer goes out to Faribault County deputy Brian Bonin who was recently honored for risking his life to get another man out of a potential life threatening danger.

Deputy Bonin exemplifies what we need in our law enforcement officers, and we congratulate him on his honor.

• A Cheer and congratulations also go out to this year’s Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce honorees. Community Service Award honoree Elloyce Queensland, Business of the Year Heartland Embroidery – Lissia Laehn, and Rising Star honoree El Tio Restaurant.

All three honors were very much deserved.

• A Jeer goes to those folks who spread lies and innuendos, and who bad mouth others and their ideas.

That includes people who send us unsigned, anonymous letters to the editor. Yes, we do get those from time to time.

It also includes those people who don’t have anything good to say about anyone or anything going on in their town.

They are negative about any kind of progress. I call those the CAVE people. It stands for Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Luckily, these people are still in the minority.

• A Cheer goes out to Blue Earth Area School Superintendent Mandy Fletcher, who has taken it upon herself as a private citizen to organize an event to remember the Sept. 11 attack on our country 20 years ago.

We applaud her efforts to lead a community event to remember and recognize that day.

• Finally, a Cheer and a Jeer to the fact that the city of Wells is losing their city administrator.

The Cheer goes to CJ Holl who has done a fine job as administrator of the city, and as the chief ‘cheerleader’ for the city of Wells, organizing things such as ‘Team Wells.’

The Jeer is for the loss the city will feel with the departure of Holl. Hopefully, they will find another excellent person to fill the position.