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auto-data-snapshot: 2026-09-26T03:13:13 (3 data files) — cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json
b33a8cff3f250e5e733a95337c58b4253e3e8200 · 2026-09-26 03:13:31 -0700 · auto-commit-fleet
Files touched
A cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.jsonA cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.jsonA cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json
Diff
commit b33a8cff3f250e5e733a95337c58b4253e3e8200
Author: auto-commit-fleet <steve@designerwallcoverings.com>
Date: Sat Sep 26 03:13:31 2026 -0700
auto-data-snapshot: 2026-09-26T03:13:13 (3 data files) — cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json
---
.../20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++
.../20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++
.../queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 197 insertions(+)
diff --git a/cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json b/cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c41356
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cartoons/queue/20260926-bleacher-superstition-tower.meta.json
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+{
+ "blurb": "A fan's lucky-seat ritual earns one more unmovable object with every win, until the stack on the bleacher bench is taller than the fan sitting beside it.",
+ "story_id": "sw-lucky-seat-relics",
+ "tags": [
+ "superstition",
+ "local sports",
+ "small town news",
+ "editorial cartoon"
+ ],
+ "new_story": {
+ "id": "sw-lucky-seat-relics",
+ "category": "sports",
+ "categoryLabel": "Sports",
+ "location": "Chadron, NE",
+ "byline": "Sports Desk Reporter Odessa Lunt",
+ "image": "images/sw-lucky-seat-relics.jpg",
+ "intervalSec": 37,
+ "offsetSec": 12,
+ "stageIndex": 0,
+ "article": {
+ "dek": "A season-ticket holder at a junior-college ballpark has added one object to the bench beside him after every home win, and the stack has now passed his seated height.",
+ "photoCaption": "The accumulation in Row F of the third-base bleachers at Pike Field, photographed before Saturday's first pitch, with its owner seated to the left.",
+ "paragraphs": [
+ "CHADRON, NE— A pile of personal effects occupying roughly four feet of bench in the third-base bleachers at Pike Field has grown to a height of 51 inches, according to a measurement taken this month by the groundskeeping staff.",
+ "The pile belongs to Odell Prusk, a retired grain elevator operator who has held the same season ticket in Row F since 2011. Prusk said he began the practice after a home win in May, when he left a cap on the bench rather than move it.",
+ "'They won with the cap sitting there,' Prusk said. 'I am not going to be the one who finds out what happens if I pick it up.'",
+ "Each subsequent home victory has added an item. The stack now includes, by Prusk's own accounting, a thunder-stick, a borrowed jersey he has not returned, an unwashed scarf, a single sock, a folded program from June, a thermos he no longer opens, and a foam finger.",
+ "Groundskeeper Iva Deschene, who measured the pile at the request of the facilities office, said the issue is not the height but the footprint. 'It is two and a half seats,' Deschene said. 'Those are seats we sell.'",
+ "Pike Field operations manager Curt Bramhall said the stadium has no ordinance covering the situation and has not sought one. 'There is nothing in the fan conduct policy about accumulation,' Bramhall said.",
+ "Prusk has offered to purchase the adjacent seats outright. The club has not responded to the offer, according to Bramhall, who said the matter is 'being looked at by somebody.'",
+ "Asked what would happen at the end of the season, when the bleachers are pressure-washed, Prusk declined to speculate. 'I have thought about it,' he said. 'I would rather not have thought about it.'"
+ ]
+ },
+ "stages": [
+ {
+ "headline": "Chadron Fan Leaves Cap On Bench After Win, Declines To Move It",
+ "detail": "Season-ticket holder Odell Prusk left a cap where it sat following a May home victory at Pike Field. 'I am not going to be the one who finds out what happens if I pick it up,' he said."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "One Object Added Per Home Win, Stack Reaches Eight Items",
+ "detail": "A thunder-stick, a borrowed jersey, an unwashed scarf and a single sock have joined the cap. Prusk keeps the order intact and washes none of it."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Groundskeeper Measures Pile At 51 Inches, Two And A Half Seats",
+ "detail": "Iva Deschene said the concern is footprint, not height. 'Those are seats we sell,' she said, after measuring at the facilities office's request."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Stadium Finds No Rule Against Accumulation, Declines To Write One",
+ "detail": "Operations manager Curt Bramhall said nothing in the fan conduct policy covers the pile. Prusk's offer to buy the adjacent seats has gone unanswered."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Pile Now Taller Than Its Owner Seated, Season-End Washing Looms",
+ "detail": "The stack has passed Prusk's seated height, and the bleachers are pressure-washed each October.",
+ "conclusion": "Asked what happens then, Prusk said he had thought about it and would rather not have."
+ }
+ ],
+ "tags": [
+ "superstition",
+ "local sports",
+ "small town news"
+ ]
+ }
+}
diff --git a/cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json b/cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bccbbaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cartoons/queue/20260926-festival-mascot-election.meta.json
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+{
+ "blurb": "A festival mascot's costume name is typed into the Grand Marshal candidate field by clerical accident, wins every vote cast because nothing else is on the ballot, and is sworn in without removing the felt head.",
+ "story_id": "es-festival-mascot-grand-marshal",
+ "tags": [
+ "mascots",
+ "community event",
+ "small town news",
+ "bureaucracy",
+ "pageantry",
+ "editorial cartoon"
+ ],
+ "new_story": {
+ "id": "es-festival-mascot-grand-marshal",
+ "category": "entertainment",
+ "categoryLabel": "Entertainment",
+ "location": "Bracken Hollow, PA",
+ "byline": "Civic Traditions Reporter Odell Thistlewood",
+ "image": null,
+ "intervalSec": 59,
+ "offsetSec": 5,
+ "stageIndex": 0,
+ "article": {
+ "dek": "A clerical error placed the Bracken Hollow Silt Festival's costumed mascot on the Grand Marshal ballot as the only candidate, and the borough has now sworn it in with the felt head still on.",
+ "photoCaption": "P24 illustration.",
+ "paragraphs": [
+ "BRACKEN HOLLOW, PA—The costumed mascot of this borough's annual Silt Festival was sworn in as Grand Marshal on Tuesday after appearing on the ballot as the only candidate, the result of what the festival committee has described in writing as a filing error.",
+ "The committee's Form GM-1 asks for the legal name of the Grand Marshal nominee. Festival clerk Bernice Ottweiler said she entered 'Chomper the Rivermuskrat' — the costume's name — in the field where the performer inside it was supposed to be listed.",
+ "'The form asks who is going to be the Grand Marshal,' Ottweiler said. 'I answered the question the form asked.'",
+ "No other nominations were filed before the deadline, which the committee attributed to a widely held assumption that the slot was already taken. Ballots went to the printer with a single name and a single checkbox on them.",
+ "All 214 ballots cast were marked for the mascot, according to the borough's canvass. The costume itself was not eligible to vote, borough solicitor Hadley Prewitt confirmed, on the grounds that it is not a registered elector and, separately, is not a person.",
+ "Prewitt said the office reviewed whether the result could be set aside and concluded it could not. 'The ballot was printed correctly, the count was accurate, and the winner received every vote available,' he said. 'There is no defect to cure. There is only a mascot.'",
+ "The oath was administered at Tuesday's committee meeting to the name printed on the certificate, which meant the performer inside was never formally identified and the head was never removed. Prewitt said this was deliberate and that removing it 'would have raised a question nobody wanted asked on the record.'",
+ "Ottweiler said Form GM-1 will be revised for next year to add a second line reading 'and who is inside that.' The mascot's term runs one year and, under the committee's continuity rule, renews automatically if no one else files."
+ ]
+ },
+ "stages": [
+ {
+ "headline": "Silt Festival Mascot Lands On Grand Marshal Ballot By Filing Error",
+ "detail": "Festival clerk Bernice Ottweiler entered the costume's name, 'Chomper the Rivermuskrat,' in the field meant for the performer's legal name."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Nomination Deadline Passes With No Other Candidate Filed",
+ "detail": "The committee attributed the empty field to a widespread assumption that the Grand Marshal slot was already taken. Ballots printed with one name and one checkbox."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Mascot Wins All 214 Votes Cast; Costume Ruled Ineligible To Vote For Itself",
+ "detail": "Borough solicitor Hadley Prewitt confirmed the costume is not a registered elector and, separately, is not a person."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Solicitor Says There Is No Defect To Cure, 'Only A Mascot'",
+ "detail": "Prewitt found the ballot correctly printed and the count accurate, leaving the borough no procedural basis to set the result aside."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Grand Marshal Sworn In With Felt Head On, Performer Never Named",
+ "detail": "The oath was administered to the name on the certificate, so the costume stayed intact through the swearing-in.",
+ "conclusion": "Form GM-1 will add a line reading 'and who is inside that,' and the term renews automatically if no one else files."
+ }
+ ],
+ "tags": [
+ "mascots",
+ "community event",
+ "small town news",
+ "bureaucracy",
+ "pageantry"
+ ]
+ }
+}
diff --git a/cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json b/cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17e6560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cartoons/queue/20260926-halftime-show-runaway.meta.json
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+{
+ "blurb": "A small-stadium entertainment committee books \"just one more act\" between innings until the ballgame is delayed by the entertainment scheduled to fill its delays.",
+ "story_id": "sw-halftime-act-creep",
+ "tags": [
+ "local sports",
+ "community event",
+ "pageantry",
+ "small town news",
+ "editorial cartoon"
+ ],
+ "new_story": {
+ "id": "sw-halftime-act-creep",
+ "category": "sports",
+ "categoryLabel": "Sports",
+ "location": "Zanesville, Ohio",
+ "byline": "Sports Desk Reporter Tanner Voss",
+ "image": null,
+ "intervalSec": 44,
+ "offsetSec": 12,
+ "stageIndex": 0,
+ "tags": [
+ "local sports",
+ "community event",
+ "pageantry",
+ "small town news"
+ ],
+ "article": {
+ "dek": "The between-innings entertainment at Glenhaven Municipal Field has grown to eight booked acts, and Tuesday's game was held at the fourth inning for two hours and forty-five minutes while they all went on.",
+ "photoCaption": "P24 illustration.",
+ "paragraphs": [
+ "ZANESVILLE, OH— Tuesday's game at Glenhaven Municipal Field was suspended at the middle of the fourth inning for two hours and forty-five minutes, according to the official scorer's log, while eight scheduled between-innings acts performed in sequence on the infield.",
+ "The delay was not weather-related. It was entertainment.",
+ "The Glenhaven entertainment committee, a five-member volunteer body that books the field's between-innings programming, began the season with one act: a 90-second kazoo number performed by the Municipal Kazoo Corps after the third inning.",
+ "\"It went over,\" said committee chair Arlene Pockrus. \"So somebody asked if we had room for one more.\"",
+ "They did. By the end of June the card included a dog frisbee team, the Airborne Retrievers, and a four-rider unicycle relay that circles the warning track twice. Each act was booked, Pockrus confirmed, to follow the act before it, which is how the committee's minutes describe every addition since May.",
+ "Groundskeeper Milo Fenwright said he stopped raking the infield between innings in early August because there was no longer a point. \"I'd get out there and there'd be a dog in the air,\" Fenwright said. \"You can't rake under a dog.\"",
+ "Manager Dee Stallworth said both dugouts have adjusted. Players now sit on the steps with their gloves in their laps, and the bullpen has been instructed not to begin warming until the second-to-last act. \"You can't ask a guy to stay loose for two hours,\" Stallworth said. \"So we don't ask.\"",
+ "Asked Tuesday whether the committee had considered simply stopping partway through the card to resume play, Pockrus said the question had come up and been settled. \"We can't stop mid-act,\" she said. \"These people rehearsed.\"",
+ "The committee meets Thursday to review a ninth proposal, a precision lawn-chair drill team, which has offered to perform free of charge. Pockrus said the committee is inclined to approve it and slot it after the unicycles.",
+ "Tuesday's game was eventually completed. The final score was 2-1, the same as it had been in the fourth."
+ ]
+ },
+ "stages": [
+ {
+ "headline": "Glenhaven Field Adds Between-Innings Kazoo Act, Crowd Response Positive",
+ "detail": "The Municipal Kazoo Corps performed a 90-second number after the third inning Friday. Committee chair Arlene Pockrus called the response 'the best thing we've done all year.'"
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Committee Books Dog Frisbee Team To Follow Kazoo Corps",
+ "detail": "The Airborne Retrievers were added to the card this week, scheduled immediately after the kazoo number. Pockrus said the committee 'had room for one more.'"
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Unicycle Relay Added; Groundskeeper Stops Raking Between Innings",
+ "detail": "A four-rider relay now circles the warning track twice. Groundskeeper Milo Fenwright said raking became impractical: 'You can't rake under a dog.'"
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Card Reaches Eight Acts, Bullpen Told Not To Warm Until Second-To-Last",
+ "detail": "Manager Dee Stallworth ordered relievers to stay cold through most of the program. 'You can't ask a guy to stay loose for two hours,' Stallworth said."
+ },
+ {
+ "headline": "Game Held At Fourth Inning For Two Hours, 45 Minutes As Full Card Performs",
+ "detail": "The official scorer logged the delay as entertainment, not weather. Pockrus declined to cut the program short, saying 'we can't stop mid-act — these people rehearsed.'",
+ "conclusion": "The game was completed. The final score was 2-1, the same as it had been in the fourth."
+ }
+ ]
+ }
+}
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