Hoosier lore

This is an oddly structured guest opinion in the Indianapolis Star. It starts off as if it's one of these sappy New Age pieces about how companies are going to have to bow to the changing attitudes of young people about work, as if members of the baby boom generation didn't screw things up enough by demanding to be taken so seriously when they were still wet behind the ears. But then, it eases into what seems to be the real message:

Just a small tip for those of you who like to live on the edge: Don't celebrate being released from jail by getting drunk, then stealing somebody else's beer:

I love yard sales and garage sales and rummage sales and neighborhood mega-sales and even cheesy auctions of old household goods, but this may be too much bargain hunting even for me:

PENDLETON, Ind. -- A 50-mile-long yard sale is expected to draw crowds of bargain-hunters to a stretch of Indiana 38 this weekend.

The sale, in its third year, runs between the central Indiana cities of Noblesville and New Castle.

Maryland is cracking down on roadside memorials:

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - State officials are cracking down on some roadside memorials to people killed in accidents because the tributes are so large that they've become distracting to drivers.

Until recently, highway officials have only loosely enforced a law against unauthorized memorials on state-maintained shoulders and medians.

This is shocking:

Robert Adrian Porcisanu, 28, a Romanian citizen, and his Franklin, Ind., business, Stucco Design Inc., were named in a 12-count criminal indictment unsealed Monday in the District of North Dakota.

According to the indictment, Porcisanu and his company undercut the bids of competitors and won contracts to perform stucco-related work by using illegal workers to reduce labor costs.

A Beverly Shores couple says there was a chilling effect on their free-speech rights because they were arrested after "they honked their car horn, took photographs and allowed their dog to bark while driving along a public roadway." They also say they did not "disturb a game animal," which is what the fuss is all about, as they were attempting to interfere with some deers' right to be killed by hunters.

Sorry for that cheap shot.

The alien hordes are coming to get us! No, no, not the ones from Mexico, the other alien hordes, the scary ones who abduct us and probe us and create memory gaps we have to explain to our spouses. All of this makes perfect sense to me. If you were from a superior race, advanced enough to build ships to travel millions of light years, wouldn't you spend your time driving a guy in Bloomington, Ind., crazy? Of course you would:

Maybe Indiana doesn't get its fair share back from the federal government, but we seem to be doing all right by God. There are only seven American saints recognized by the Catholic church, and a 19th century Indiana nun seems likely to become the eighth. And all it took was the healing of a Sister in 1908 that was not medically explainable and a Terre Haute guy not having to get eye surgery in 2001.

When you start more or less guaranteeing groups representation, as the Voting Rights Act does, beware of unintended consequences, as Abdul Hakim-Shabazz of Indiana Barrister warns about a Lawrence, Ind., case:

Larry Bird wine? Can't wait to see the Journal Gazette's critics review it. Can't top this:

If athletes want their fans to support their ventures into wine making, they must insist each bottle truly captures who and what they are.