Hoosier lore

Here's the deal: Daylight-saving time is now a reality in Indiana. You can skip the "fall back" part in a couple of months, but be prepared, as difficult as it might be to think about, to "spring forward" by setting your clocks an hour ahead when the time comes. And forget about the time zone -- it isn't going to change.

If you're near a computer terminal with an Internet connection at 1 p.m., watch a little history being made. It will be the first time an Indiana Senate committee will have a live Webcast of a hearing. Legislators will try to assert their authority over the Daniels administration's efforts to close license branches.

A General Assembly study committee on emient domain will have a hearing next week in Indianapolis. The committee was formed before the Supreme Court's outrageous Kelo decision, which pretty much gave government carte blanche to take private property and turn it over to other private interests. At least Indiana property owners have an advantage over those in some states: Our property has to be declared "blighted" for it to be taken.

Some people in northwest Indiana are under a "boil advisory." As I understand it, that doesn't mean that filthy, disgusting contaminants are in your water, only that they might be. The increasing likelihood of contaminants would probably lead to "boil watches" and "boil warnings." At any rate, in case it ever happens here, you should be prepared.

Fifth Third Bank doesn't operate in Fort Wayne, but it has a very visible presence in this part of the country, including Indianapolis. Every time I visit my mother and sister there, I see a Fifth Third branch and wonder where in the world the name came from. I've asked around from time to time, and the answer is usually something like "those are the streets the bank started on in Cincinnati." I finally looked it up, and the real answer is even more mundane, but interesting in its own way, as Cecil Adams points out.

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be one more controversy about gambling in Indiana, here comes the great Texas Hold 'Em confusion, brought to you by a state government that only knows one thing for sure about gambling: It's a safe bet for the state, but anybody who tries to muscle in on the state's territory had better watch out.

I'm all for economic development and bringing in businesses and replacing buildings and moving things around and not being complacent and embracing change and all that. But, come on, rural development? Can't we leave one place alone that stays the way it always has, just so we have a retreat when all this city agitation we've been creating starts to get to us?

Well, we knew this was coming, but it's still a sad day. If you like the idea of Fort Wayne having an L.S. Ayres, an Indiana mainstay forever, too bad; start getting used to the absence of the name. In fall of 2006, Federated Department Stores is dropping the L.S. Ayres brand and renaming all those stores Macy's. We're luckier than Indianapolis, at least.

After a car-egging incident late at night that led to a teenager being shot and killed, the city of Indianapolis is vowing to tighten enforcement of its teen curfew law.

When you're zipping through newspapers, don't forget to stop by the letters to the editor. Here's a bit of clever observation from, of course, a Hoosier in the Chicago Sun-Times. I would add to his list of stupid signs the ones in buildings everywhere, "Thank you for not smoking." Oh, I have a choice?