The 405 Aired Oct 1st, 2025

While growing up & when in the library, O.K.'s favorite reading material was the Great Falls Tribune newspaper. Want to guess which sections he read, and in what order?

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Episode Transcript

OK Solberg (00:00):
I wanna again welcome you into The 405 Coffee

(00:02):
Break. Get your cup of coffee.Beautiful day. Glass iced tea or
bottle of water. Let's seewhat's happening.
Spring wheat $5.16 a bushel.550lb steer calf, $4.40 a pound,
I hope to shout. That is a lotof money. Butcher hog in Iowa,

(00:22):
59¢ a pound. And a lamb that'sfat weighing 100 pounds in
Billings will fetch you $2.02 apound. But guys, there's more,
much more. Okay.
I've been thinking back to myhigh school days. I do that
quite often, you know. And whenwe were in study hall with Mrs.

(00:45):
Flansoss, well, we could get upout of our desk and go to Mrs.
Cron's library. When in thelibrary, my favorite reading
material was the Great FallsTribune.
I cannot tell a lie. The firstplace I went was to the comic
strips. I know, but that's thetruth. I like Blondie and Beetle

(01:08):
Bailey. Of course, I had to readPeanuts. There was the Wizard of
Ed, and don't forget BC. Oh,wait. Also, Hagar the horrible.
Then when I got done with thecomic strips, then I got a kick
out of reading Dear Abby. I knowit might sound odd, but I found

(01:33):
them mildly amusing. One thatsticks in my mind is this one
right here.
Dear Abby, our son married agirl when he was in the service.
They were married in February,and she had an eight and a half
pound baby girl in August. Shesaid the baby was premature. Can

(01:57):
a eight and a half pound baby bethis premature? Signed, wanting
to know. Dear wanting, the babywas on time. The wedding was
late, forget it. Okay. Thanks alot, Abby. I found reading Dear

(02:18):
Abby was fun. Some were verydumb. But you keep looking and
you find a zinger like that one.
Then I'd turn to L. M. Boyd'strivia column and read each and
every one. I loved them, guys.They went something like this.
If you're more than three feetaway from a housefly, it can't

(02:40):
see you. Next one. There are 300varieties of shark, not counting
loan and pool. Loan shark, poolshark.
Here's another one. Thinktoday's interest rates are high?
The Pilgrims borrowed $7,000from a London company in 1620

(03:04):
and devoted the next twentythree years to repaying it at
43% interest.
If you were married and havebeen married continuously to the
same partner for more than ninepoint four years,
congratulations, your marriagehas lasted longer than The US

(03:27):
average. End of quote. Remember,it was printed in a newspaper in
1986, that one.
Having a baby isn't so bad. Ifyou're a female emperor penguin,
she lays the egg, roll rolls itover to the father, then takes
off for warmer weather to eatwhile he stands stiff, balancing

(03:53):
the egg for two months withoutnothing to eat. Wow. That is a
long wait, and your stomach isgetting empty.
A spork is a plastic picnicspoon tipped with pointy prongs.

(04:13):
I'm not even gonna say thatagain. Said it once. It's not
even a word, is it really? Ifyou were born earlier than 1952,
you got here before the wordautomation ever appeared in the
dictionary. End of quote.
L.M. Boyd printed his tidbitsbefore the Internet, of course,

(04:35):
but my fact check says the wordautomation was first used in
1912. Well, maybe it didn't getinto the dictionary. Anyone out
there born before 1912? In theGreek city of Sparta, at the
peak of its power in 400BC, theslaves outnumbered the citizens

(04:58):
by about 20 to one.
And then in his final column, L.M. Boyd noted, nose length of
the female flight attendantaverages two point one eight
inches. The Federal AviationAdministration has determined
that, but I don't know why. Ifstudy hall hadn't ended yet, I

(05:24):
would then peruse the news, butit was always in that order.
Funny how we get stuck in ahabit. Oh, well, I hear the bell
ringing, I better get us a bibleverse and get to Mr. Jensen's
literature class. I better getthat paper written. 1st
Corinthians 13:1 if I speak withthe tongue of men and of angels,

(05:47):
but do not have love, I become anoisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Well, I hope I'm filled withlove, but I hear a noisy gong or
bell or something.
Gotta get to class. See you. Sountil next time, as you go out
there, remember now, don't bebitter.