Many people find writing to be a challenging task, and I am no different.

While writing might come easier to me than most people I still have times when I struggle to come up with a good topic for a column.

Occasionally I will begin writing and realize I do not have enough to say to fill this space so I start over on a different subject. This week I have several such items on my mind.

I have thought about it the past couple of days and decided to write a couple of mini-columns this week, so please excuse the lack of a central theme.

Poor cell reception

This fall I will be taking sports coverage in Franklin County to a new level as the Franklin County Times will have a Facebook page and Twitter account dedicated to area sports.

We want to get final scores and reaction out as quickly as possible, but that depends on the reception my cell phone gets at each venue.

There are some area high schools where I have great reception and others where reception is only a fantasy. I did not have a problem with this until a few weeks ago.

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel and there was a part where an animal was attacking a guy in Ethiopia and the only way he could get help was by calling someone on his cell phone.

My question is why can a guy in Ethiopia get good cell reception, but I can’t get a signal in Tharptown?

If that were not bad enough, somebody was telling me commentators for the World Cup said they have had full 3G reception everywhere they have gone in South Africa — the event’s host nation — including the non-populated areas.

Now I don’t have a smart phone, but I don’t like the fact somebody can have Internet access on his or her phone in the middle of nowhere in Africa while I cannot call my wife when I am five miles outside of Russellville.

Politically correct cereal

OK, I will admit I am behind the times on this one, but I’m throwing it out there anyway simply because of my sense of nostalgia.

The other night I was watching television and I saw an ad for Cookie Crisp cereal and was surprised because the mascot was a wolf instead of the criminal and cop I grew up with.

I figured the only reason for this is political correctness. After all, how could a responsible corporation use crime as a marketing tool?

I did some research on this and found out General Mills changed from the criminal and cop mascots to a dog — that eventually evolved into the wolf — in the late 1990s.

Like I said, I am behind the times on this one. I never liked Cookie Crisp and the television stations I watch typically do not have commercials for children’s cereal.

I still find it interesting that the change in mascots occurred when the movement for political correctness began taking off.

For the most part I do not see the need for political correctness, especially in a kid’s cereal.

I don’t think a criminal on a cereal box will push kids to a life of crime.