Christians commemorate Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead today, Easter Sunday. We'll let Mark (16:2-8) tell you about it:
"And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you."

Michael DiBerardinis, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, says he is considering charging entrance fees at state parks. He would also like to develop trails and special-use parks for drivers of all-terrain vehicles on the state's 250,000 acres of abandoned mine lands.

Term of the Day: "a fine kettle of fish!"
An awkward state of affairs. A kettle was any large vessel used to boil stuff in. Thomas Newte wrote in 1785, "It is customary for the gentlemen who live near the Tweed to entertain their neighbours and friends...giving 'a kettle of fish'...a fire is kindled, and live salmon thrown into boiling kettles." Perhaps the kettles of fish looked messy after boiling and this may have lead to the saying.

We are packing Laptop Larry for our annual MerleFest trip. This year the headliners start with Emmylou Harris, Rhonda Vincent, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Del McCoury Band, Sam Bush Band, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites and Bela Fleck.

In response to a reader's question, the person to contact if you would like to reserve a space at the Benton Park for a reunion or other function is Sheryl McDonald, 925-2447.

Two Army sergeants stumbled across a sealed-up cottage in Iraq that aroused their curiosity and ultimately unearthed an estimated $650 million in cash. The sergeants tore down a concrete barricade and found 40 sealed, galvanized aluminum boxes on the stone floor. Breaking open one box, they found 40 sealed stacks of uncirculated $100 bills, $100,000 per stack, or $4 million in the box. Those 40 boxes were assumed to contain $160 million. Next door, they found 40 more aluminum boxes assumed to contain $160 million more in currency. Next door--well, you get the picture.

The Farmer's Almanac Advice for Today: "There is no cure for birth or death except to enjoy the interval."

Don't forget the Storytellers Session at the Brass Pelican Monday morning with the North Mountain Historical Society.

We are including an article entitled "Sketches from the Susquehanna-Tioga Turnpike" under FEATURES. The article was first published in Carver Magazine in the Spring of 1990 (Vol. 8, #1) and is reprinted with the express permission of Bloomsburg University. The author, Kenneth T. Wilson, is a retired Professor-Emeritus from Bloomsburg University. From 1963 through 1996. Mr. Wilson was a Professor in the Art Department of the University and from 1988-1996 he was Chair of the Department of Art. For ten years he was Director of the Haas Gallery of Art.

Printing on a McHenry whiskey bottle:
Printing on side:
"REWARD. We will give $100.00 for evidence leading to the detection of any one refilling the McHenry bottles with any other whisky or adulterating the McHenry Whiskey in any manner or for selling something else and calling it McHenry when McHenry is asked for. Rohr McHenry Distilling Co.

Printed on back:
This whiskey is the product of selected Rye and Malt pure mountain spring water and scientific distilling with years of perfect aging in charred barrels in heated warehouses and coming direct from us it brings to you the finest & purest Whiskey made, and costs you no more than the other brands.
--Coutresy of Zane Unbewust

Term of the Day: "Terminal Moraine."
Sign posted by Harry Cole, Bloomsburg, on a rock along the road near the Iron Bridge above Camp Lavigne. The depiction was of an Indian. Although Harry was close to being right for the actual location, the terminal moraine was a bit further south. A terminal moraine is a linear ridge marking the furthest position of advance of an ice sheet, and forms by the melting of ice and the release of the debris. When the edge of the ice sheet stays in the same place for a long period, the debris builds up to form a ridge. Each time the ice sheet stops for a period during its retreating phase, it deposits a new moraine perpendicular to the ice sheet flow direction.

We received many emails concerning our article on the Welle Hesse Covered Bridge. We've incorporated some of the comments, as follows.
• David Laubach remembers the bridge simply as the "covered bridge," since "when you grow up in Guava, there is only one of everything." Dick Sutliff and Robert Lewis would sneak a smoke, but David remembers that many kids used to get off the school bus there and walk the rest of the way home for the same purpose.
• Ralph Laubach, a retired farmer, lived in the house on the highway side of the bridge. Ralph is the father-in-law of Louise and Alice Lewis, Benton.
• George Follmer was a gentleman farmer, kept a few animals, made a little maple syrup and raised a few crops. He was also a foreman at the ACF plant in Berwick. George's wife, Geraldine, was an original Hess and she is a legend in her own right, beginning teaching of first and second grade at the Sugarloaf school when she was 16 or so and teaching at least 50 years at that location.
• Everything from the covered bridge up the creek was pretty much Hessville, including Grassmere Park which is still in Hess hands. For example, the church in Central was the Hess Memorial Church, and every window in the church was dedicated to a Hess. Grassmere Park had a brief flirtation with dances on Wednesday night in the skating rink which attracted, in the writer's opinion, "the wild and the restless from the hills and vales of Northern Columbia County to what had to be an all out stomp." He writes that Carlton Laubach pronounced it a "Hell hole," forbade his children's attendance, and condemned it." Obviously, that pronouncement prompted higher attendance!

The former residence of Bob and Nancy Devore, Distillery Hill Road, is for sale. We hear the asking price is $189,900. And in Stillwater, the first cousin to the Benton News GO-4 (the staff car of reporters Chloe and Buster) is for sale at Kocher Motors.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003, is municipal primary election day. None of the incumbents from Town Council are on the ballot this year, although we suspect that they will continue to volunteer their services if asked. There are four vacancies.

Two cows were standing next to each other in a field. Daisy said to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning."
"I don't believe you," said Dolly.
"It's true, no bull!"

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport officials reported a third consecutive month of revenue losses. So far this year, the airport is more than $174,000 in the red. At this time last year, the airport was running a deficit of $120,000.

Today, instead of computer news, we'll give you computer history. Clifford Berry's birthday is today (1918). Clifford co-invented the electronic computer. Together with John Vincent Atanasoff, he built the world's first electronic digital computer in 1940, 63 years ago today.

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says, "I've lost my electron."
The other says, "Are you sure?"
The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive..."

Officials at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg said Thursday that a man from Northeastern Pennsylvania is being treated for SARS after being admitted to the hospital Monday.

The Annual Roast Chicken Supper, sponsored by the Columbia County Shrine Club, to benefit the Philadelphia Crippled Children's Hospital and the Boston Burns Center, will be held Friday, May 9 at the Caldwell Consistory, Main and Market Streets, Bloomsburg, PA. Serving from 5 to 7 PM. Cost of $6.50 includes 1/2 Roast Chicken, Baked Potato, Cold Slaw, vegetable, roll, beverage and home-made cake. NO TICKETS SOLD AT DOOR. TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE. By mail from C. Harold Bankes, P. 0. Box 14, Orangeville, PA 17859. Enclose check with ticket order and tickets will be mailed to you. Deadline May 5.

The United States took Iraq in less time than it took to take the Branch Davidian compound. The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended ten years ago today as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including David Koresh, were killed.

We didn't mention it yesterday in the Welle Hesse bridge article, but Robert Lewis and Richard Sutliff smoked their first cigarettes in the Welle Hess bridge, keeping a watchful eye out for cars containing tattle-tale neighborhood folks, prepared to drop the cigarettes in the creek below to avoid getting caught.

Didja you hear about the Florida cattle egret that rode from Orlando, Florida, to Pennsylvania stuck in a minivan bumper? The 20 inch-high white egret rode to Mechanicsburg where the hungry, irritable bird was found. The driver heard their minivan hit the flying egret and thought that they killed it. They saw feathers and a wing dangling from under the car when they arrived home. After removing the minivan's headlight, left splash shield and left inner fender, the bird was freed. And that is it for today; we're heading to the Jeep to see if a bird is causing all the strange noises we've been hearing lately...

This picture was taken between Laubach and Grassmere Park, just below the present home of Shirley Lockard.

After the collapse of the bridge, the South entrance to he old George Follmer property was closed.

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

About 5 AM in 1906 on this day, the San Francisco Earthquake, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale, smashed thousands of brick buildings killing over 3,000 people. A fire lasted three days and swept through the entire downtown area, destroying 514 city blocks. Bubonic plague spread by rats eventually spread through the city. And we'll have to mention that today is the birthday of lawyer Clarence Seward Darrow (1857), famous for defending some of the most unpopular people of his time. He once said: "I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure."

And we have to mention that the longest professional baseball game began on this date in 1981: three days, eight hours, and 25 minutes, 33 innings. Pawtucket, RI finally beat Rochester, NY, 3-2.

It is the birthday today of Ruth Kline, a wonderful woman to have as a sister-in-law. It is also the birthday of Denise Hack, born on this date in 1957 when the Top 5 Pop Singles on "Your Hit Parade" were "All Shook Up," by Elvis; Little Darlin' by the Diamonds; "Party Doll," by the Diamonds; "Round and Round" by Perry Como; and "Butterfly," by Andy Williams.

There are several reported recent incidents in the Borough of a white male in his 50s knocking on the door of elderly, single women and attempting to get into the house on the pretense of buying their antiques. In one case, the man actually worked his way into the house. The man is of medium build and has been reported in both a car and a van. The police do not have a license number at this point. In a different case, a male attempted to create a disturbance at a front door, while someone attempted to get in the back door of the house. Be a good neighbor and report any unusual happenings to 9-1-1.

A roaring fire gutted the landmark Mount Nittany Inn Tuesday afternoon, blocking state Route 144 atop Centre Hall Mountain. Forty to 50 firefighters battled the fire. No one was injured in the blaze, which fire officials said began with a grease fire in the restaurant's kitchen. About 20 fire companies helped fight the fire. Parts of the structure were almost 80 years old, but is considered a total loss.

We wish our daughter-in-law, Lydia Becker, the very best as she runs the 26 mile, 385 yard, 2003 Boston Marathon Monday at noon. You can find out more about the race at http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/ .

Don't forget to polish up your stories for the storyteller's session at the Brass Pelican Monday morning at the North Mountain Historical Society.

The AP Headline of the Week:
"Principal Pleads Innocent to Having Crack."
--The Associated Press in a story about a high school principal pleading innocent to charges of possessing crack cocaine.

The beautiful Bloomsburg fountain is flowing again.

The famous twin bridges of Columbia County are the
• East Paden, designated 38-19-11, a Queen Truss bridge [simply a type of wooden truss allowing for long spans], 79 feet long), designated as structure #79003180 on the National Register of Historic Places, and
• West Paden, designated 38-19-12, a Burr Arch bridge [adds an arch to the Queen Truss to help support the load. Longer spans may also be achieved], 103 feet long), designated as structure #79003179 on the National Register of Historic Places.

The bridges are located on Huntington Creek in Fishing Creek Township, east of Route 487 and a stone's throw east of Forks, off route 1020. Both bridges were constructed in 1884 by W. C. Pennington and named for John Paden, a sawmill operator who lived near the bridges. Twin Bridges County Park was created in 1963 when a new road, 1020, eliminated the need for using the twin bridges for vehicular traffic.

A large crowd attended the Twin Covered Bridge dedication at Forks that Sunday afternoon in 1963. Cars lined all approach roads and jammed the parking lot. The newly refurnished bridges were glistening in their new red paint, their metal roofing reflecting sunshine. Under the longer of the two bridges, a small dam had been hastily bulldozed two days before to form enough of a pool to make the bridge interesting and provide a wading area for children. Suddenly the abandoned twin-covered bridges become an attraction for picnic parties and tourists with cameras rather than the stream of traffic the bridges had known for decades.

The new red paint for the exterior of the bridge came out of a drum, unlike the original paint that came out of a milk bucket with barn-red paint mixed using brick dust and coal-oil.

The bridges were reconditioned when it was decided to make them a focus for a recreation area. Weathered siding was ripped off and replaced, leaving intact the mammoth beams which were framed together with oak pins toward the roof, heavy metal bolts farther down. Heavy planks where horses and buggies, teams, spooners, and loads of hay once raised clouds of dust as they rumbled through the hollow tunnels of the bridges were ripped up and a smooth flooring substituted. The flooring was made heavy enough for picnic crowds, but was not intended to withstand vehicular traffic.

Stout barriers guarded both ends of the bridge and the interiors once reverberating to the clop-clop of horses' hooves suddenly resounded with childish laughter as families relaxed from their farm lives and spent a day in the shade while youngsters went skipping off down the steps to the graveled water's edge and the coolness of the shallow creek.

Picnic tables and benches were contributed by Columbia County places of business and paraded down the middle of the two bridges. The Sunday that the Twin Bridges Park opened for the first time, visitors crowded both the bridges and the open space between them where the ceremonies were scheduled to begin at 2:30. The ceremony actually got under way at 3 PM. Part of the crowd went on to Stillwater, where another abandoned bridge awaited approval from the County Supervisors to be saved.

Harold A. Swenson, director of Tourist Promotion, gave the main address. Dr. Sylvester K. Stevens, director of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, made remarks after unveiling of the plaque bearing the date and names of the three Columbia County supervisors. The master of ceremonies was Richard Walton, chief clerk, standing beside a deeply-carved legend in the curving strut of the covered bridge, which said simply "Peter loves Mary."

You can see pictures of the bridges at http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/pa/east_paden.html , and of West Paden at http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/pa/west_paden.html and under FEATURES on www.bentonnews.net .

Doris I. Robbins, 79, 678 Central Road, Benton, (Central), died April 16, 2003, at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was a daughter of the late Burr and Sinda Crossley McHenry. She was a 1940 graduate of the former Sugarloaf High School, and was employed at the former Milco Industries plant in Benton and the Benton Shirt Co. She was a member of Christ United Methodist Church, Central. Two husbands died previously: Herman L. Stackhouse, on June 1, 1974; and George H. Robbins, on April 4, 2002. Two daughters died previously: Janice Elaine Stackhouse and Dixie Lee Stackhouse; five sisters: Helen A. McHenry, Virgie Kline, Susie T. Yocum, Carrie Cole and Alice M. Tomaino; and three brothers: Elmer B. McHenry, Peter McHenry and George McHenry, as well as two siblings in infancy; and two stepdaughters: Paula Olree and Georgiana Whelan. Mrs. Robbins is survived by a son, Robert H. Stackhouse, Benton; two daughters: Linda M. Boudman and Mrs. Martin J. (Kathie) Sheridan, Benton; three grandchildren; a stepdaughter, Mrs. Jeff (Gail) Bradley, Millville; three stepsons: Royce Robbins, Delaware; Randy Robbins, Bloomsburg; and Mark Robbins, Millville; and a number of step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be 3 PM Saturday in Christ United Methodist Church with the Rev. Howard W. Leh, officiating. Burial will be in St. Gabriel's Cemetery, under the direction of the Kriner Funeral Home, Benton.
--from a Press Enterprise obituary

For the reader who lost sound on her computer, the sound may be muted. If the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the screen has a red circle with a line through it, click once on the speaker, and click to remove the check mark from the "Mute" section.

B & S Railroad Advertisment from 1902

Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" is the inspiration for a new musical coming to the F. M. Kirby Center April 19. "Copacabana is a tale of love and romance set at the heart of the swinging nightclub scene of the 1940s." Tickets are now on sale, but don't expect Barry to be there.

Forty-two percent of Americans don't use the Internet and the majority of them do not believe they ever will, according to a study released yesterday. The study also showed that half of the people not using the Internet are over 50 years old, while people currently enrolled as students are most likely to use the Net. The statistics are based on phone interviews with 3,553 people in the spring of 2002.

Pennsylvania House Minority Leader William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg) introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow each of the state's six licensed racetracks to operate up to 3,000 slot machines, claiming the state should rake in an estimated $585-million in annual revenues.

The 26th annual Bloomsburg Renaissance Jamboree will be held rain or shine from 10-5 Saturday, April 26. Artists will sell arts and crafts and food vendors will help not-for-profit organizations raise funds. There will be entertainment throughout the day with a special Bloomsburg's Historical Market Square Fountain Dedication Program at 10:30 AM. The Postal Service will provide a fountain dedication post card, printed by the Columbia Montour Area Vo-Tech School, with a special postal cancellation stamp. Proceeds will go to the Fountain Restoration project. Main Street in Bloomsburg will be closed. Free parking is available from the Bloomsburg Hospital parking lot and the Bloomsburg Fair grounds parking lot.

In April, 1963, about one quarter of the roof of the old covered bridge at Stillwater was torn off during extremely high winds. The roof was blown off in winds that were clocked "only seven miles per hour under hurricane intensity." Mrs. Gearhart Letteer, who lived nearby, remembered hearing a loud roar and looked toward the bridge just as the roof section was torn off. It was carried to the top of "50-foot-high trees," near the bridge approach. Another section of the roof apparently landed in Fishing Creek, and floated away.

The bridge was the second bridge on this site. The first was an open bridge erected in 1823 at a cost of under $500. That bridge was destroyed in 1848 by the Kauff flood, named for members of the Kauff family who were victims of the flood.

James McHenry built the covered bridge with help from his brother Daniel. The bridge is a 168-foot Burr Arch, which cost $1,124. The foreman on the job was John H. Edson, New Columbus, who was also the builder of the Berwick and the Catawissa bridges crossing the Susquehanna. The Stillwater bridge opened for use in 1849 and was used for one full century before it was closed in 1949.

On April 10, 1951, the bridge was selected "for all time as a memorial to all covered bridges in Columbia County." The dedication of the bridge as a "lasting historical memorial was on May 16, 1951. It has since been kept open for pedestrian traffic only. For the record, the motion which made the bridge a memorial was made by Commissioners G. Clayton Welliver and John Q. Timbrelli. At that time, it was decided to close the bridge to vehicular traffic and leave it open for pedestrians.

The bridge is designated as Structure #79003177 on the National Register of Historic Places, and can be identified as Stillwater Covered Bridge No. 134. For pictures of the bridge and additional information, go to http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/pa/stillwater.html , http://www.coveredbridges.org and http://www.columbiapa.org/coveredbridges/381921.html .

Colley Street at Third Street had its share of snarling drivers yesterday, following the installation of 4-way stop signs.

We were asked about the Benton Wildcats, a woman's basketball team from the late 1920s and 1930s. We don't read much about sports from the past and never heard of the team. Can anyone help?

Didja know that giving dogs raisins or grapes can cause kidney failure in the animal. Make sure raisins and grapes are in a safe place so your dog cannot get at them. Cigarette and cigar butts, nicotine gums and patches can kill a dog within 15 to 45 minutes of ingestion. Second hand smoke from cigarettes is just as harmful for dogs as it is for people.

The Guv basically spent 2002 running for office, but with his wife, Midge Rendell, they earned nearly $570,000.

This probably isn't worth the time it takes to figure the whole thing out, but state Senate Republicans have posted an online calculator designed to help Pennsylvania residents determine what financial impact Gov. Rendell's tax-shifting plan will have on them. Users need to enter their home county, their total taxable income, the amount they pay in property taxes and the estimated homestead reduction in their school district. Go to http://www.senaterepublicannews.com/calculator.htm .

Bob Edwards responded to the mention of England, saying, "Interesting info on Benton (England) and it does bring back memories. I was on a teaching exchange some years ago (Fulbright Scholarship) in a village just outside Newcastle-upon-Tyne and at times visited the villages referred to in (yesterday's) news. Interesting to hear the slant on the origins. The Geordie dialect that the man refers to was a heavy dialect in the school where I taught. I could NOT understand many of the children for weeks and had to have a interpreter in each class."

The United States seems to be Syriaous about Syria, accusing the country of harboring Iraqi officials and has cut off a big oil pipeline that runs between Syria and Iraq. (What? Syriaous is not in the dictionary?) We wonder where this is heading...

Like the worker who was never appreciated, but when he retired the company replaced him with three people, Ford Motor Company announced that the Taurus would slowly phase out and that three new vehicles would replace it beginning next year: the Five Hundred, a large sedan, and the Freestyle, a combination sport utility vehicle and station wagon replacing the Taurus wagon, will show up soon.

In 1991, Rodney King was pursued by police through the San Fernando Valley, and later beaten by four officers while the cameras rolled. After acquittal, deadly 1992 riots broke out and lasted for four days, leaving 55 dead and more than 2,000 injured. The mayhem caused $1 billion in property damage. King later received a $3.8 million settlement from the city of Los Angeles. Rodney is currently hospitalized with a broken pelvis after he lost control of his 2003 Ford Expedition while weaving through traffic at an estimated 100 mph before crashing into a house Sunday.

The chairman of US Airways Group Inc. says the airline won't move from its Virginia headquarters any time soon. An attempt was made to get the headquarters to move to Pennsylvania.

Unemployment numbers in some areas of Pennsylvania are heading toward double-digits because of the continued weakness in the economy. Over in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton market the February rate hit 7% while out in the Cambria-Somerset County area the rate hit 9.5%. The state average is 6.2%, compared to the February national unemployment rate of 5.8%. The harsh winter get a lot of the blame.

We received some wonderfully well researched emails on the subject of the Titanic, but we won't play them back for the readers. The bottom line? Amy Stackhouse concludes that the Titanic "flew a British flag, it's home was in a British port, it's "rules" were governed by the British Board of Trade, and the Titanic had a British crew. Our Canadian friend, Michael Donnison, agreed to that point, but Amy continued that "It was a White Star Line ship, which in turn was owned by the International Mercantile Marine, which was an American company owned by JP Morgan. The ship was technically an American owned ship despite the flag." Well, now, a conundrum! If Ford owns Jaguar, is Jaguar a British or an American car? The Titanic was a British ship and only ultimately an American-owned ship. Technically it was both British registered and British owned. By now everyone has lost interest in this subject.

"Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them!"
--Gone with the Wind (1936), said by Scarlett O'Hara

April 15, 2003

"Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."
--Benjamin Franklin, writing in 1789

The Grand Ole Opry is performed every Friday and Saturday night in Nashville. Each show features a number of performers and lasts over two hours. Tickets are $26.00-$42.00.

On Monday, you can join your neighbors and friends and a few strangers at the North Mountain Historical Society as the storytellers of the area convene for stories of the area. Breakfast starts about 8:30 and story telling begins about 9:20.

If you are a volume user of Microsoft Word, try the one-key paste that is available in the program. Go to Tools|Options and the Edit tab. Place a check mark at "Use the INS key for paste" and hit OK. From then on, pressing the INS key will insert copied material at the cursor location.

There are 102 call boxes along Interstate 81 in Luzerne and Schuylkill Counties. The wicked winter weather is blamed for corroding the circuits on 22 of them. PennDot says 80 of the call boxes are working.

Geisinger Health Plan has more than 600 doctors and 57 primary care offices operating in 31 Pennsylvania counties. The health insurance plan has about 300,000 members. In 2002, the program lost 29,000 members, about 12% of its total enrollment, and lost $8.4 million compared to a $12 million profit the prior year.

America Online Inc. has assaulted junk e-mail by filing five lawsuits against more than a dozen individuals and companies accused of being major purveyors of "spam." The lawsuits reflects a heightened industry, legal and legislative effort to combat spam, which has grown so rapidly that it accounts for an estimated 40% of email traffic.

The road of life takes strange twists some days. A Canadian living near Quebec City but born and brought up in the North-East of England discovered the Benton News by accident recently. He nicely reminded me that the Titanic was a British ship, not an American (yesterday's email version stupidly called the ship the "USS Titanic"). I quickly changed the web page to show the "RMS Titanic, based on the official Titanic site. But the reader pointed out that the ship was registered to carry mail which was the purview of His/Her Majesty so it wasn't the Post Office but The Royal Mail. The RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship. However, the official registration classed it as a "steam ship" so while it was usually called RMS it was officially SS. And this site proves him right.

He reserved most of his comments for the town name of Benton. He wrote, "The biggest city in the N.E. of England is Newcastle upon Tyne and is where I grew up. A northern suburb of the city is Benton and another is Longbenton. Benton many years ago was a small village outside the city and was swallowed up during the city's expansion." He wrote, it "also struck me as odd that the closest big(?) town to you is Berwick, the original of which is on the English-Scottish border about 90 miles north of Newcastle. The accent of the area, actually a dialect, is called Geordie and the same nickname is given the people. I lived in a suburb of Newcastle called Byker and it is Old Norse meaning "by kerr where by is village" and kerr (pronounced car) is marsh so that Byker was a small village beside the marsh. Many of the small towns and villages, especially those close to river, are Norse and most of the rest are Angle with a few Norman-French thrown in for good measure. I don't know what Benton meant originally other than it is Angle, there were hardly any Saxons in the area. Ben has so many possibilities it would be guesswork but it probably was a male first name something like Biorn. Ton means an animal enclosure of some kind or a farm or even just the farm-house. Together, it would be the same as someone nowadays saying 'Ben's place.' Over time, Biorn's family would start farming there too and it would have become a small village. It never grew very big otherwise it would have been Benham, a fair-sized village and a smaller one is a hamlet." Our use of the word Benton is much simpler. Look under HISTORY above for the short explanation.

Words of the Day (courtesy of our guest writer from England, via Quebec City)...
"There are many words that are Angle and Norse in our area. Angles came from Southern Denmark, Saxons from south of Denmark--modern Saxony, and Norse could be anywhere from Scandinavia. So Geordies don't wade in water, they plodge. They don't get a splinter in their finger, it's a spelk. They don't call an adult female a woman, she's a wife regardless of whether she's single, married or divorced. This is from the old Angle wif or wyf meaning woman."

Another web site that you might want to remember is http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/, entirely devoted to units of measurement. We measure temperature in degrees Fahrenheit or degrees Celsius, but don't forget degrees MacMichael (measuring viscosity of chocolate), and degrees Quevenne, (density of milk--and in comparing your milk to some other liquid, just remember that five degrees Quevenne equal one degree Twaddle.) This dictionary will help you learn more about units of measurement.

Remembering the year 1978...
Twenty-five years ago in 1978 we were going to toga parties, the Prime Rate was 12%, the City of Cleveland went into default, OPEC raised oil prices 14%, Pete Rose set a National League record by hitting in 44 straight games, Egypt's president Anwar Sadat and Israeli premier Menachem Begin met for a 13-day conference at Camp David led by President Carter, Jim Jones's followers committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Pope Paul VI died at 80, the new Pope John Paul I, 65, died unexpectedly after 34 days in office and he was succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II.

The Guv has just proposed a surcharge on "reckless" drivers to help generate revenues for school property tax relief. The governor's proposal would levy a new $50 fee on all drivers who get a ticket, and driving under the influence would cost $500 above the existing hefty DUI fees and fines. Drivers wanting their license restored after suspension for a serious violation, including hit-and-run driving and fleeing a police officer, would pay a $100 fee. It will be interesting to see what the Legislature does with this one...

Town Names: Stillwater. A Borough located in the north-central part of Fishingcreek township. Daniel McHenry is believed to have been the first permanent white settler, dating from 1783. He and his wife Mary were the parents of "Hunter" John, born in 1785, the first birth of a white child in the county north of Knob Mountain. The area was probably named Still Water for the peaceful waters of Fishing Creek. The Still Water Post Office was established February 25, 1851, and the town was incorporated September 25, 1899. The town's name change occurred after the end of the Civil war. Stillwater's covered bridge on Township Route 629 over Fishing Creek was built in 1849 and named for the town. In 1949, the county closed the bridge to traffic and ordered it maintained as a historical site. The village of Iklertown (or Eichleretown, as it was once called) is within the borough of Stillwater.

We seem to get a request a day for the URL for the singing horses that we talked about a few weeks back. The link is http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf . To revisit things you read before, go to the opening screen and depress both the CRTL and the "F" key. Type in the key word of what you are looking for and hit the ENTER key repeatedly until you come to what you want. In the case of the horses, when you get to the site, click and unclick on each horse.

On this day...
• in 1912, the SS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic shortly before midnight while on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The ship had half as many lifeboat spaces as passengers, and many of the lifeboats were only partly filled when lowered into the 30° water. Over 1,500 people drowned in the icy waters.
• in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln made the fatal mistake of going to Ford's Theater, Washington, DC, to see a play. The President's bodyguard went next door for a drink following intermission. During the third act, while the audience laughed at a line in the play, actor John Wilkes Booth, 26, shot the President at point-blank range.
• in 1828, Noah Webster, then 70, published the first edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language, after working on it for more than 35 years. He learned 26 languages to write the dictionary, was the first to document distinctively American words, and was considering "darsn't" for inclusion in the dictionary at his death.

There are a lot of sore backs and tired people this morning, the day before income tax filing, reminding us what Mark Twain once wrote, "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin." Why does the word "procrastinating" keep coming up at tax time?

You'll never see many fourth innings like the one yesterday in Cincinnati. The Phillies blasted the Reds 13-1, doing most of the damage in an amazing half-inning that included seven walks, six hits, and a record 13 runs. The previous Phillies record for runs in an inning was 12, set in 1923.

Isn't it sad that combat troops dodging enemy fire and hunting for chemical weapons of mass destruction make little more for waging war than those who help theater patrons to their seats or help schoolchildren cross the street...

The Farmer's Almanac Advice for Today...
"If fowls roll in the sand, rain is at hand."

USA Today says that American Airlines could seek bankruptcy-court protection as soon as Tuesday when airlines begin announcing first-quarter losses "likely to top $3.2 billion." The newspaper predicts that that 500 newer-model commercial jets could join the 800 parked in the western deserts since September 11, 2001.

Arcadia Word of the Day:
DOT (noun). The act of eating sparingly to lose weight.
Usage: "You look like 250 pounds of chewed bubble gum. You need to go on a dot!"

Words You May Have Never Heard Before...
"Dialarhoea," the inadvertent dialing of a cell phone in a pocket or handbag.

Want to contact PennDOT?
• The year-round maintenance hotline is 800 FIX-ROAD (800 349-7623).
• Call 888 783-6783 to get interstate road conditions.
• PennDOT Web site on the Internet is at www.dot.state.pa.us .
• Driver licensing/motor vehicle services, 800 932-4600.
• Special tag reissuance program, 877 PA NU TAG (877 736-8824).
• Engineering District 3-0 District Office (covers Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, and Sullivan counties, among others). Call
877 PADOT 3-0 (877 723-6830).

The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeastern Pennsylvania teamed up with WBRE-28 and WKRZ ratio Sunday at the Wyoming Valley Mall for its 10th annual telethon. The foundation is a wish-granting organization for seriously ill children between 2 and 15. The Make-A-Wish Foundation raised $285,020 which will make the wishes of 63 children come true this year.

High water kept many anglers away from Fishing Creek yesterday for the opening of fishing season, but in some places the banks were lined with fishermen. It was a far cry from opening days from year's past. Because the streams were not all "fished out" opening day, the season should be a good one.

The FBI's Internet fraud unit said the number of complaints it referred to law enforcement authorities tripled last year, as did the cost of fraud to victims. The bureau's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) received 75,063 complaints last year.

Homer H. Robbins (1906-2003), 93, 74 Robbins Road, Stillwater, died April 12, 2003. He was a son of the late Dean C. and Viola M. (Stout) Robbins, graduated from the former Huntington High School, and lived in Huntington Township. He was employed by B.G. Coon Construction, Inc., Wilkes-Barre, for more than 20 years. Mrs. Robbins, the former Edna M. Augustine, died Oct. 29, 1997. He is survived by daughters: Marline Rhinwald, Fairport, NY, and Mrs. Ronald (Kay) Fiorani, White Haven; a son, W. Dean Robbins; eight grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter. Services will be at the convenience of the family.
--from a Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise Obituary

It is nice to have Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch, along with 49 other patients, back on U. S. soil. Her injuries requiring surgery and treatment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, included operations on vertebra in her lower back. She also has fractures in her upper right arm, upper left leg, lower left leg and right ankle and foot.

It is always fun to poke around and look at the localisms of the area. We did that recently with the word "darsn't." and we'll try some other words today. Our aim is not to prescribe how Bentonians should speak or to describe the language we should generally use. We are simply documenting the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States--those words, pronunciations, and phrases that we learn at home rather than at school, or are part of our oral rather than our written culture. Some examples are...

And while we're mentioning mangos, of the fruit variety, we'll tell you that they are an excellent source of vitamin A and C, and provide potassium and fiber to the diet. The skin of most mangoes becomes tinged with more red or yellow as the fruit ripens. A sweet, fruity aroma around the stem is indicative of a good fruit. Mangoes are ready to eat when they yield to gentle pressure. Ripe mangoes should be stored in the refrigerator and used within two to four days.

Quickies...
• Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, appears largely abandoned, according to early reports.
• Friends of Christina Savage will be happy to hear of her excellent progress following her recent surgery.
• Members of the Red Hat Society will meet at the Old Filling Station at 2 PM, Wednesday, April 16. The menu is chicken and biscuits, salad, hot vegetable, dessert and beverage for $6.95.
• President Bush reported $856,056 in adjusted gross income for last year and paid $268,719, about 31%, in federal income taxes.

We mention Famous Amos because on their homepage you can click an icon and the company will donate to Literacy Volunteers of America, a national network of local volunteer literacy programs. This organization recently merged with Laubach Literacy International, an organization founded by Dr. Frank Charles Laubach in 1955. And everyone in Benton knows that Dr. Frank C. Laubach, a pioneer of the contemporary adult literacy movement, always called Benton "home." As a reminder, you can see Dr. Laubach's boyhood home under the Photo of the Day, but you'll have to scroll down when you get thre.

April 12, 2003, the opening day of fishing season. The picture at the top of this page is a far cry from the "old days," when fishermen were everywhere. We should mention that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission no longer stocks Fishing Creek at the Benton Dam. The creek is stocked above and below the dam, according to Jay Yorks.

On this date...
• in 1861, the Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
• in 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.
• in 1633, Galileo was put on trial for publishing evidence that the sun and not the earth was the center of the solar system.
• In 1934, Mount Washington, New Hampshire, had wind gusts of 231 miles per hour. If you would like to see what the weather is like there today, go to http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/ and take a look through the eyes of the web camera.
• In 1947, 56 years ago, TV host and comedian David Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was an ABC television announcer in Indianapolis for four years, then got a job as the replacement weatherman. Later, he said, "You can only announce the weather, the highs and the lows, so many times before you go insane. In my case, it took two weeks. I'd draw peculiar objects on the cloud maps, and invent disasters in fictitious cities. I made up my own measurements for hail, and said hailstones the size of canned hams were falling."

Joan E. Moseley, (1934-2003), 69, died April 11, 2003, at the home of her son, Paul, Benton Township, where she had resided since September 2002. Born March 7, 1934, in Jamaica, Long Island, she was the daughter of the late Henry and Myrtle (Rohman) Bauer. She was a graduate of Sayville High School, NY, and the Baptist Bible Seminary of Johnson City, NY. Mrs. Moseley retired in May 1990 from the present NCR Corporation. Mrs. Moseley was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Robert E. Moseley. She is survived by sons Rev. Paul S. Moseley, Sr., Benton; Robert J. Moseley, Bangor, Maine; Mark D. Moseley, Winchester, VA; and a daughter, Elizabeth Clark, St. Cloud, FL; and nine grandchildren. Her funeral service will be held 11 AM Tuesday, at the Bible Baptist Church, 250 Shickshinny Road, Benton. Officiating will be her son, the Rev. Paul S. Moseley, Sr. of the Bible Baptist Church. Interment will be in the Benton Cemetery.

Turn to the sports pages of the Press Enterprise today to read the story of Benton's Amy Comstock, who travels in a few days with her under-19 national field hockey team teammates to Holland. The best of the best, picked from a list of 4,200 athletes, Amy will practice, play in tournaments against some of the best high school players in the world, and have a little time to sight-see. For more information, go to http://www.usfieldhockey.com/

Pennsylvania streams are ready for fishing, thanks to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. That group stocked an estimated 2,295,265 hatchery trout in 731 streams and 111 lakes in the state. State residents pay $17 to cast their lines in the water; trout stamps are $5.50.

Although this happened yesterday in Clinton County, it is noteworthy because of our proximity to Interstate 80. A surprise interstate tractor-trailer inspection of 44 trucks found a violation with every one. Twelve of the trucks were had violations serious enough to take the trucks out of service, with one truck missing 2 of its 18 wheels!

The email version of the Benton News is shipped off in several different mailing lists each morning before 7 AM. Yesterday, one mailing list of about 300 subscribers, distributed by Topica, failed to distribute. This has happened before with this mailing list and each time we rattle our sticks and threaten appropriate retaliation. In the past, eventually, that list gets distributed and our anger subsides a little. Regretfully, the list has not processed correctly in 24 hours. We apologize for the inconvenience and recommend that affected readers read the news on the web site until Topica fixes the problem. Today's email version did distribute OK, although it went out late.

Do you know what a weblog, or "blog," is? They are a personal or professional news web site using one of several content management software programs, such as Blogger. A good example of a weblog in Pennsylvania is the Pennsylvania Gazette, http://pennsylvaniagazette.blogspot.com/ . You will find that they are usually opinionated, but tend to be interesting reading. You can find other Pennsylvania weblogs at http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/search.asp .

General Motors, the world's largest automaker, has pulled the plug on their 102 kilowatt electric cars. The web site is still up, so hurry over and take a look at http://www.gmev.com/ . Dozens of the futuristic autos are lined up in Van Nuys, awaiting their fate. If you want one, join the line of museums and investors. And if you want to buy an electric car in the future, you may have to buy a Japanese one...

Quickies...
• Until 1993, Pennsylvania had only four area codes. It currently has nine area codes.
• Report cards for the Benton Area Schools came home this week.

Golf is played by the world's slowest people ahead of you and the world's fastest behind you, a colorful sport that keeps you on the green, in the pink and financially in the red, and played by a person who yells "fore," takes six and puts down five. It is nice to see Mill Race Golf come alive. And another sure sign of Spring was the opening yesterday of the TasteeFreeze, at the bridge in Benton.

Kent D. Shelhamer, Jr., Berwick, has been named Director of the Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards for the State Department of Agriculture. He is the son of a former State House Member, a Board and Executive Committee Member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, a member of the Fruit Growers' Association, a member of the Columbia County Farm Bureau and has served as a member of the board of directors. Shelhamer farms produces apples, peaches and nectarines. He is married with three children.

If you are a local business and are not listed on this web site under BUSINESS, please contact us to be included. The businesses that are listed should periodically review their listing to make sure that the information is current and factual. As a reminder, you can go to the page and enter CTRL + F to find the business that you are looking for. As an example, enter "camping" without the quotes and hit FIND NEXT. If you do that, you should find that the word camping is listed four times. This is a very quick and easy way to find local phone numbers and addresses.

The community center that will serve Benton and surrounding communities has been renamed the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center in order to better characterize the function of the center. This change was necessitated because of the interest in the project from outlying townships and from residents as far away as Luzerne and Sullivan County. Many items of historical value have been donated to the center by a number of people. The street leading to the community center will be named "Community Drive" and the area's community center will be located at the end of this drive which runs between Miles Little's home and the new fire hall.

The board of directors for the community center are:
Elsie Buyers, President, 458-5288
Charles Chapman, Vice President, 925-6972
Andreae Kay Hoosty, Secretary, 925-6327
David Kline, 925-6974
Dianne Laubach, 925-5199
Rev. Howard Leh, 925-2304
Paul Reichart, 784-4400
Sharon Little, 925-6774
Dr. Harold Ackerman, 925-2978
Rich Kisner, 784-9373

The Advisory Committee consists of Dr. Lynn Watson, Bernie Shultz, M. R. Daniels, Scott Roper, Dan Hartman, Jim Vance, Carolyn Beach, Steve Root, Dr. Andy Pollock, Paul Yankovich, and Jan Swan. If you would like to serve on the advisory committee, please let any member of the board know.

Senator Helfrick and Representatives Hasay and Gordner have been briefed about the center, and the Board of Directors have discussed state financing and grants with them. These three gentlemen have pledged their assistance, but stipulate that the community needs to raise around $250,000 of the total amount needed. We have raised approximately $130,000 in donations and grants to this point and we need to raise an additional $120,000 from the entire community that the center will serve. Any additional money raised will go toward furnishing the building.

Fund raising for the community center begins this month. Several of you will get word of this through your Church through the Benton Area Council of Churches. We are not seeking cash (although we will not turn it down), but we are seeking pledges now for fulfilling about two years from now. Even then the contributor will have five more years to pay the pledge in equal payments. While many of you will receive a letter and pledge card at church, many others will receive them by mail or in person. If you don't receive a pledge card, please contact any of the directors.

This is your opportunity to make a lasting contribution to our area! We urge you to give serious consideration to what the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center will mean to your family and to our area. Please contact one of the members of our board of directors or email the center.