For work reasons, I've been in touch over the past few days with some of the members of Jessica Lynch's family in Palestine, West Virginia. These are sweet, small-town folks. In a conversation with a local minister there, he (and we're not making this up, as Dave Barry would say) referred to Jessica's grandfather as her "grandpappy." Everyone in town has to be sick of the media innundation, but all the people I've talked to have still been unfailingly polite.

Anyway, I saw this in an article in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, the main newspaper in the Lynch's area of Wirt County, recounting a phone conversation she had with her parents from her hospital bed in Germany:

At one point, Jessica asked if there had been any mention of her in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.

Deadra said her daughter, who has dominated headlines for days in West Virginia and around the world, does not realize how much attention is focused on her and her family.

"I told her she was a hero," Deadra said.

Jessica Lynch asked if there had been any mention of her in the Parkersburg newspaper. How can you not love that?