Yeah, you try to hide 150,000 Easter Eggs

If you feel like taking a drive tomorrow, you might want to head to Homer, Georgia. It's not only tobacco-wad spittin' distance from the birthplace of pre-steroid baseball legend Ty Cobb, it's also the home for what locals claim is the world's largest Easter Egg hunt. Visitors will be searching for 150,000 eggs, including 100 containing some kind of prize (hopefully not a chicken embryo). The event is sponsored by the Banks County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Yeah, I know the BCCVB web site says the hunt is April 11, but it just hasn't been updated. While the Georgia tourism department claims Guinness Book of Records calls the Homer egg hunt the largest, that title -- according to Guinness -- is held by Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, which on April 14, 2001 was the site of 254,000 hidden Easter Eggs being hunted by 8,200 children. Regardless, 150,000 Easter Eggs is still a lot of freaking Easter Eggs. Maybe it just feels like the world's largest Easter Egg hunt to the guy hiding the eggs.

UPDATE 3/27/2005 -- Sundays are free on my cell phone so, bad connection and all (they don't build cell towers in the poor section of town), I checked in with the folk holding the Easter Egg hunt in Homer. A single family, the Mack Garrison, Jr. Family, sponsors the hunt, pays for all the eggs and has been doing so for 46 years. It started within the family with Mr. Garrison's grandfather hiding the eggs, grew to include the employees of the Garrison's cotton mill and their children. Then town's people were invited and well, one thing led to another and it has blossomed to be an annual event involving folk from all over the area, says Mrs. Garrison. The hunt had been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest Easter Egg hunt until just a few years ago, she said, clearing up the confusion. That's when the Canadians snagged the title. This year's hunt included 100,000 candy eggs and 100 prize eggs. Some 50 volunteers showed up at the Garrison's door this morning to help hide the eggs and it took them about two hours to complete the task, she said. The Easter Egg hunt is open to all ages and this year's hunt lasted about two hours before the skies opened up. About 2,500 people showed up for the event despite the gray skies and threatening weather. This is the fourth year in a row it's rained on the Garrison's Easter Egg hunt. A bummer for the families participating, but, hey, look on the bright side, it could have been wetter.

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The world can empathize: The case of Terri Schindler Schiavo is not unique to the U. S. The Christian Science Monitor has written a very good article examining how other countries are coming to grips with the dilemmas posed by their own similar cases. Just as a general note, in all my years as a professional consumer of media, I have never found a more balanced publication than CSM. It should be on your regular reading list.

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Unasked questions can't be answered: Associated Press writer Jill Barton is reporting that a young woman was a minute late reaching her dying grandfather because of the security outside Woodside Hospice where Terri Schindler Schiavo is located. It's heartbreaking. The inference is that the terrible tragedy could have been avoided had not those protestors positioned themselves outside the hospice to pray for Mrs. Schiavo. Ms. Barton fails to mention the crush of media trucks and vans. And she also fails to ask the questions that would have prevented the situation. Why has Michael Schiavo placed his wife in the Woodside Hospice instead of taking her home? The leftists claim she's a vegetable and should die because of that. The husband claims that she wouldn't want to live the way she currently exists. She's dying and the courts won't stop it, so why is she in a hospice and not in Michael Schiavo's home? The Associated Press won't ask that question, much less answer it. Just keep telling yourself the coverage is fair, balanced and objective.

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

I went to a general store, but they wouldn't let me buy anything specific. -- Steven Wright