MRN Top 10 Letters and Opinions: Everybody has an opinion, and it seems like people like reading about them
What’s the line? “Opinions are like a**holes: Everybody’s got one, and everybody thinks theirs smells nicer than everyone else’s.” Or something like that.
Whether you agree with the author or think the author was off their rocker, opinion columns and letters to the editor always are a popular read on Muddy River News.
Listed below are the top 10 most popular on the website in 2024, according to MRN analytics.
1. The letter from the grandmother of Sean Grayson’s fiance triggered a flurry of online commentary. Grayson is charged with first-degree murder for killing Sonya Massey inside her home near Springfield on July 6. The Illinois Supreme Court declined earlier this month to issue an order to release the former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy as it considers whether to hear an appeal regarding his pretrial detention.
2. Steve Eighinger let readers know the names of the people who portray the Mayhem Guy on the Allstate insurance commercials, Lily Adams on the AT&T saleslady commercials and Flo, the Progressive Insurance woman, among others.
3. Steve Eighinger provided his go-to picks at fast-food franchises in the West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri area. He broke down his selections into three categories: sandwiches, Italian/Mexican/Chinese and sides. (What a shocker: Steve writes about food.)
4. Steve Eighinger taught readers that famed sheriff Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, just 100 miles from Quincy. Earp was a true legend of the Old West, earning reputations as both a gambler and lawman (mostly the latter) in such iconic stops as Dodge City, Deadwood and Tombstone. He rubbed shoulders with and called Doc Holliday a friend.
5. Multiple people wrote to Muddy River News to ask about migrants being housed in the former ShopKo building. When Ryan Darr, a project manager for RLP Development in Edwardsville, was asked if the property eventually would be used to house migrants from Chicago, he laughed. “Absolutely not,” he said. The former ShopKo building remains empty today.
6. Marvin Betts was sentenced in Adams County Circuit Court to 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the murder of 18-year-old Amanda Folker of Burlington, Iowa, on May 20, 1997. Betts, now 50, was paroled from the Jacksonville Correctional Center on Sept. 13. He is eligible for release on Sept. 13, 2027. Todd Eyler, first assistant state’s attorney in Adams County, said Betts must register as a convicted felon with the police department in the city where he lives. “That’s the only requirement he has,” Eyler said. Betts now lives in Quincy.
7. One of the 76 million Americans at home on May 14, 1998, watching “Seinfeld” that evening was Nancy Sinatra, daughter of the Chairman of the Board. Nancy had been scheduled to visit her dad that day but got caught up watching reruns of “Seinfeld” leading up to the finale.
8. After WTAD-AM announced it was dropping its high school sports programming, Bob Gough wrote that local radio station operators have claimed they “haven’t made money” on local sports for years, but they have also greatly reduced their local news content, shifting primarily to nationally syndicated programming. “They forget they were given the public trust of the airwaves to serve their communities,” he wrote.
9. Frankie Murphy-Giesing offered his thoughts after a reorganization plan for Quincy’s Catholic grade schools was introduced. “From not fully and explicitly stating the problem and making parishioners read between the lines for three years. I have never heard anyone say that St. Dominic is failing, and if the big-money parishes don’t bail them out, we’re going to lose them to the public schools,” he wrote. The reorganization plan eventually was shelved for another year.
10. Steve Eighinger wrote about the double cataract surgery he underwent in November. He had worn glasses since he was 10 years old. “Let me just say the medical team headlined by Dr. Joseph Guza at the Physicians Surgery Center in Hannibal, Mo., did a magnificent job,” he wrote. “Simply magnificent. I have nothing but superlatives for them. I can see better now than I have at any time in my life.”
The rest of the top 20:
- 11. Gough: Silent (Friday) night
- 12. Letter to the Editor: Don’t hide your head in the sand and hope you never see a roundabout
- 13. Daily Dirt: Who has more money … Taylor Swift or Donald Trump?
- 14. Letter to the Editor: Adrian is human and changed his mind, rousing the rabble to pick up pitchforks
- 15. Letter to the Editor: The state of our “Gem City”
- 16. Daily Dirt: It’s hard to believe that Petula Clark is 91
- 17. Gough: Farha says medical issues led to tax problems as he considers future as 4th Ward alderman
- 18. Letter to the Editor: Another roundabout in Illinois is about to become a success
- 19. Letter to the Editor: With location for new bridge set, time to look at electrical distribution on Quincy riverfront
- 20. Daily Dirt: The 7-foot-7 Manute Bol reportedly never played a game sober in his NBA career
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