Batten down the hatches and get the popcorn ready, folks! Why? Because I’m about to share with you some of the spontaneous thoughts I’ve shared with friends and family online. Yay!

Ballerinas everywhere

Madison Avenue Dance Studio had its spring recital on May 21 in Brookings, with 160 or so little ballerinas from Brookings, Volga, Willow Lake and elsewhere taking part.

How do I know this, you ask? Well, it involves an invasion. Really, Mondell, you ask, an invasion?! Yup. A swarm of 50 or so little ballerinas and their families invaded Pizza Ranch in Brookings after the recital. 

I know. I was there. I survived the cuteness overload and, more importantly, the run on the buffet shortly after their arrival. 

Music to nobody’s ears

Ah, yes. Another breakup song is playing on one of the local radio stations. This time it's the "his version" song. Next time I bet it will be the "her version" song.

You have to wonder if the artists in the music industry ever truly fall in love. Seriously. Think about it. Far too many of these artists profess their love publicly for each other in, say, January, and then by, oh, July or August they've publicly fallen out of love.

Bang! A month later, the dueling versions of breakup songs begin playing on the radio and in other mediums. They shoot up the charts as the artists' fans spend money devouring their respective artist's breakup song.

Mission accomplished. It was never true love, folks. It was all about the Benjamins. And, as usual, too many of us fall for it. 

Adventures in grocery shopping

So, here I am on a recent shopping at a local retail store. Really exciting stuff, right? Bear with me, though: 

I'm making my way down an aisle. There's a woman in the aisle, too, slowly pushing her cart along as she looks for whatever it is that draws her interest. I go to walk past her. She picks up her pace. Dumbfounded, I briefly pause and then attempt to walk past her again — and again, she speeds up. This lady absolutely refused to let me pass her.

Folks, I've heard, seen and experienced road rage. This, however, is the first time I’ve encountered its cousin, aisle rage. If I see her again, should I crash my cart into hers?

Cutting-edge humor

Do you want to know how exciting my life is right now? No? Well, tough luck!

I spent a portion of a recent Friday night cleaning and drying the shaving heads on my razor. Yup. What? I gave you fair warning and yet here you are, still reading. I’m proud of you. You’re a tough one, sticking it out to the very end — I bet you’re waiting for a punch line, huh?

Well, there isn’t one. Maybe next time, when I’m not caught up in the excitement of cleaning and drying the shaving heads on my razor!

Cover thy eyes

This one’s from April 8: Today was GLORIOUS! GLORIOUS!! With a high in the mid-60s, and for the first time since late October, I threw open the windows in my apartment and ran outside shrieking and shirtless! RAWR! RAWR!!

Everything was OK after I helped the neighborhood recover from its collective heart attack. Sheesh. You’d think folks living next to SDSU had seen more shocking things in their lives, right?

Wrapping things up

• It’s Barbenheimer Weekend and, yup, I’m going to be there for director Christopher Nolan’s half of the equation, “Oppenheimer.”

On the surface, you’d think a brainy movie centering on American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb,” wouldn’t stand a chance against director Greta Girwig’s “Barbie,” but I think it’ll do just fine. After all, while “Barbie” is based on a doll line that has greatly influenced American consumerism — and some would say unduly influenced girls’ imagery of themselves — for many decades, “Oppenheimer” is focused on a truly weighty subject matter that could literally extinguish humanity from the face of the Earth, if it were ever fully unleashed.

In fewer words, both movies cater to distinctly different audiences and, thus, they won’t be cannibalizing each other’s audience. It should be a good weekend for Brookings Cinema 8!

• I recently wrote a story on my friend and high school classmate, Nikki Moir of Bruce, who is battling stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. She has truly made a difference in this world since we graduated together from Sioux Valley High School in Volga in 1993.

Follow her CaringBridge page at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nikkimoir to keep up with how she’s doing, to lend a hand if desired, and to keep track of events that are planned to support Moir.

These include an opportunity to purchase “Team Moir” apparel at https://nikkimoir.itemorder.com/shop/home/, but you’ll have to do it before 10 a.m. Monday!

Another opportunity to help arrives at National Night Out in Volga on Aug. 1 from 5 to 8 p.m., where — among other activities — a free-will donation meal will be provided by The Valley Restaurant. All of the proceeds will go to “Team Moir.”

That’s all I have for now, folks. As always, reach out to me or any of my other colleagues at The Brookings Register if you have story ideas or feedback you’d like to share.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.