Column:

Former Carson City mayor Harold Jacobsen called to say his granddaughter, Chelsea Bibb, the runner-up in the Miss Nevada pageant in Elko, is also a Carson City native. She's the daughter of Marty Bibb and graduated in 1999 from Carson High School, where she was class president. She's now attending the University of Nevada, Reno and went to the pageant as Miss UNR. Proud grandfather Harold went to Elko and said the pageant and contestants were impressive.

Packard fan Al Escalante says he wants a nice copy of Friday's Personal Appeal to frame for his collection. The page featured the first automobile to arrive in Carson City, a Packard on its way to New York City.

"I've been a Packard collector for 30 years," said the owner of Moonlighting Inc. in Carson City. Al's family owns Custom Auto Service in Santa Ana, Calif., where they restore Packards.

"They do a lot of work that are in the world-class concourse," he said.

"You can't just go to NAPA for the parts."

He said he is going to send another copy to his family.

I read in the July 2003 edition of The Sierra Wave that the Navy League is bidding farewell to Ray Alcorn on July 18. Ray was a guest at the infamous Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War and later served as commander of Fallon Naval Air Station in 1988 and head of Nevada's department of veteran affairs.

Ray and Jeff Ackerman were among members of a group that went back to Vietnam a few years back.

Jeff wrote a series of stories about Alcorn going back to the Hanoi Hilton.

Larry E. Rackley was named as the new leader of the north district of the Nevada State Elks Association in St. Louis, Mo. Larry attended the 139th Grand Lodge Convention, which ended on Thursday.

Larry helped out the Vincent family in March when they couldn't afford to go pick up the body of their daughter, little Ajia Mae, after the 7-month-old died during a transplant operation in California.

No the Appeal hasn't got a new reporter. Our city reporter, the former Jill Keller, has a new name. She married John Lufrano two weeks ago and the couple enjoyed a honeymoon in beautiful Las Vegas.

While in Las Vegas they stayed at the Mandalay Bay and at no time met a flying Elvis.

A cautionary tale for all you would-be freelancers. Appeal entertainment writer Karl Horeis got a gig with ESPN.com working the Outdoor Games in Reno. On Friday, photographer Brad Horn and I went to the Web site, hoping to see some of Karl's work, but we didn't find any.

As it turns out, Karl found himself herding other reporters around the games and making sure the TV crews didn't fall into the pool with the log rolling competition.

It's important that whenever you take on a job to make sure you know exactly what will be expected of you.

Tom Blomquist called and said he managed to give away eight of 11 puppies at PetSmart last week.

He says he still has three of the half AKC golden retriever dogs.

For $125 anyone adopting the dogs will get two months free insurance, spay or neutering, training by Guy Yeaman, a microchip and registration and a few added benefits.

"A guaranteed improvement in people's blood pressure and a cure for baldness," Tom says. "These dogs are so smart that they practically house train themselves."

Anyone interested can contact Tom at the Silver Springs Spay-Neuter Project at 577-3518 or e-mail them at renegadebooks@powernet.net.

I remember when I came back to The Record-Courier to announce that Lance Modispacher would be the new public information officer for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

"Modispacher?" was the answer I got. I think Lance surprised a lot of people in his job as the voice of Douglas County law enforcement. He was a great information guy who would do his best to help you, no matter how trivial or silly the question.

I'm not going to miss being able to pick up the phone and call Lance, because he and wife, Kellie, are going into the real estate business and I'll be able to call him and say hi. Kellie graduated from the same class at Douglas High School as my wife, Jennifer.

Kurt Hildebrand is acting city editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com