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December 31, 2010, the birthday of Kathie Williams Post, Silvia Vincent, Frank Gould, Marie Castrogiovanni and Richard Savage. It is the wedding anniversary of Deb and Scott Jones. It is the last day of 2010 with the new year arriving tonight at midnight.

On December 31, 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting for the first time; in 1946, Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II; in 1955, General Motors Corporation became the first U.S. corporation to make over a billion dollars in one year; in 1983, the AT&T Bell System was broken up; in 1999, Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the acting president; in 1999, control over the Panama Canal and land adjacent to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone was turned over to Panama.

This year was just awful
in almost every way
And when will we recover?
it's too early to say

The first New Year's Eve celebration in what is now known as Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, took place in 1904. But just for grins and giggles, take a look at New Year's eve in 1920 when our nation formally went "dry." The beginning of "Prohibition" found forces banning highly suggestive language such as "the cat's pajamas" and the "cat's meow," the "clam's garters," the "sardine's whiskers" and the "snake's hips." Moral guardians began a campaign to banish "blue" and double-meaning lyrics from the market and vaudeville shows were cleansed of shimmy and jazz dancers. During Prohibition, the U.S. outlawed the manufacture, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages under the Volstead Act (1920-1933). The result was increased alcohol consumption in America and the act was repealed in 1933.

At midnight tonight, a new year begins. This new year will be given to you by God to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do each day is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow and a new year comes, today will be gone forever, leaving in its place something you have traded for it. May your new year be for gain, not for loss; good, not evil; success, not failure.

While my head may nod off tonight, other more significant drops will be taking place in the Commonwealth: a strawberry, an M&M, a hemlock tree and a 200-pound piece of bologna. In Harrisburg, the M&T Bank New Year’s Eve Celebration will be a strawberry drop from the top of the Hilton Harrisburg with a fireworks display following. Hershey has a giant replica of a Hershey kiss followed by fireworks. Hummelstown will drop a lollipop, while other municipalities will drop a hemlock tree, a wrench, a ship's anchor, a cannonball, a 200-pound hunk of balogna, a replica of a Lightning Guider sled, Mrs. Pickle following by Mr. Pickle, a hard hat and a lighted cow. Benton will mostly drop off to sleep.

Happy New Year, whether you are watching bologna drop in Lebanon or a pickle drop in Dillsburg or Waterford crystal drop in Times Square! See you next year.

• December has been a doozy, with heavy rain at the beginning of the month and bitter cold heading into the holidays,. It wasn't a month to travel by airplane, either in Europe or North America. Other than the cold, the Atlantic coastline blizzard was easy on the local area. Expect ten to fifteen degrees above normal through this weekend, with rain possible Sunday and a return to cooler weather Monday.

The goodwill that owner Becky Green has created over the years resulted in the fire company springing into immediate action with just about every piece of fire apparatus roaring across Fishing Creek from the fire station to be of aid.

The firemen returned to the station at 8:40 and fire chief Ron Robbins and all firemen were "clear of incident" by 9 PM.

Photos are available here.

Please drive safely tonight. We'll see you again next year,
same time, same place.

December 30, 2010, the birthday of Tracy McHenry Hunter, Matt Lauer and Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. It is the wedding anniversary of Chris and Pam Young and Roy and Betty Kilczewski. Expect temperatures in the 40s Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It is essentially the end of the old year and only hours from the beginning of a new one. With the arrival of the new year, it is customary to issue some resolutions--mostly that we would not do this or that in the coming months. The hard part is finding something that we can actually give up. Most of us are so good that giving up anything would make us a lesser person. Resolutions for neighbors or acquaintances to do or not to do, if followed, would make them into fine, more congenial and pleasant human beings.

We joke about our resolutions, which we rarely keep more than 48 hours, but there is a sense of seriousness. We realize that another year has ended, with its joys and sorrows, its triumphs and disappointments. What will come with the new year? Will our plans be successful, our dreams fulfilled, our bodies healthy, our hope for peace and economic recovery achieved?

Charles Clinton "Clint" Willard, "a kid on Walnut Street back in the early forties, then known as 'Charlie,'" died Wednesday, December 15, 2010. He was born in Millville, a son of the Lutheran minister, Rev. Pierce Willard, and his wife, Belle. As the son of an Army Chaplain, Clint lived in many places growing up. Clint served in the Air Force, and during this period, met the love of his life, Anne-Marley Cass Fox. They were married September 12, 1952. Clint graduated from the University of Maryland and became a technical writer for Western Electric in Winston-Salem from 1962 until 1975, and then served as an aerospace technical writer in Baltimore until 1995. He is survived by daughters Cass W. Marshall and her husband, Mitchell S. Pockrandt, Boulder, Colorado, along with her son, Robert B. Marshall III, and her granddaughter, Alana C. Marshall. Daughter Mary Pat Reese, Winston-Salem, has three sons; Steven (and his wife-to-be, Amanda Stewart), Phillip (Kathryn), and David who is serving in the Marine Corps. A memorial service will be held Saturday morning at 11, January 8, in the sanctuary of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 520 Summit Street, Winston-Salem.

Helen Knapka (Nov. 4, 1913-Dec. 25, 2010), 204 Old County Road, Benton, died on Christmas at the Birchwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Nanticoke. She was 97. Helen was born in Pittston. She was a daughter of William and Josephine (Domulevitch) Kvietkauskas. She was a 1931 graduate of GAR High School, Wilkes-Barre, and lived in Fairmount Springs since 1939. She was last employed by the former Leslie Fay Inc., Wilkes-Barre, retiring in 1972.

Helen was preceded in death by her husband, Walter John Knapka, on Feb. 22, 1942; and by her three sons: Joseph, Thomas and Andrew Knapka. Surviving are grandchildren MaryEllen DeMarco, Newtown Square; Joseph A. Knapka, El Paso, Texas; Cynthia A. Haller, Sykesville, MD; John J. Knapka, Meadville; five great-grandchildren: Steven J. Haller, Christina A. Haller, Annze J. Knapka, Abigail M. Knapka, Nicholas J. Knapka; a nephew, William Kvetkas, Annapolis, Md.; a niece, Elaine Mulcahy, Morris Plains, NJ; and various cousins, including Helen Wempa, Irving, Texas (102 years old); and Dan Wilverding, Wilkes-Barre.

A future memorial gathering is being planned. Arrangements are by the Dean W. Kriner Funeral Home, Benton. To sign the guest book or to send a message of condolence, go here.

December 29, the birthday of Daria Larned, Tim Grose and Amber Mae Holoman. Saturday might not drop below freezing and could hit 47° for a high. I am ready to start looking for robins...

It is a pleasure to wake up and not have the 111th Congress giving us a new law a day, many of which politicians had not personally read or about which they had not been adequately briefed. Take the 2,700-page health-care bill, or the so-called "cap-and-trade" bill with its 309-page amendment filed after 1:30 AM just before the vote on final passage, or the 2,000-page financial-reform bill. Why is Congress voting on bills that no one reads or understands? Congress had lots of time to read the new START nuclear treaty, but did anyone read it? What about the part about reducing spending if the Bush-era tax cuts were to be extended? Were the terms of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy understood? What about a healthy debate on food-safety regulations and extending health benefits for 9/11 rescue workers?

A favorite place to "get away from things" is Eagles Mere, high on a Pennsylvania portion of the Allegheny Mountain Range, a place of relaxation on a breeze-swept lake surrounded by heart-healthy fresh air, 24 miles northwest of Benton. There is suddenly a lot of fuss over the 2,250 foot-high lake in the Endless Mountains of the Commonwealth, a scenic body of water that for more than a century has not had a lot of fuss. The concern is the impact that Marcellus Shale drilling could have on its cool, deep water and on its adjacent two-mile square borough and 142 or so full-time residents.

The 114-acre lake is surrounded by hemlocks and mountain laurel. On the lake is a swimming dock and a small sand beach. Canoes and sailboats are available for rent. There once was an old-fashioned green wooden bathhouse. Jet skis and gas-powered motorboats are forbidden. A 26-foot wooden boat dating to World War I , the Hardly Able, carries passengers around the lake making three scheduled stops. Most Eagles Mere property owners are members of the 335-member Eagles Mere Association, which allows them use of the lake.

Eagles Mere is more than just a dot on a map to most of us who take pride in pleasurable Pennsylvania places. The borough has no numbered streets. Its residences are known as "cottages." Cottages, generally larger than most primary-residence houses in this area, begin filling up as soon as the late Spring weather becomes tolerable. Summer vacationers love Eagles Mere for the temperatures ten to fifteen degrees cooler than Philadelphia. Everyone seems to know everyone. The borough and its well-preserved examples of late-19th- and early-20th-century residences for the wealthy holds a well-deserved spot on the National Register of Historic Places. The borough has a history of hotels and cottages that would not take a back seat at Bryn Mawr.

Eagles Mere has a long tradition that goes back to the days when bear and deer were the primary residents of the woods and hemlock trees up to five feet in diameter and a hundred feet tall covered the hills. Times haven't much changed at Eagles Mere from the days more than a century ago when summer residents spent their leisure time bathing, rowing, riding on the steam launch, playing tennis and dancing, flirting and love making. There were wonderful hotels back then, from the most pretentious--the Crestmont--to the Lakeside, the Eagles Mere, the Raymond, the Allegheny, the Forest Inn and the Lewis. The hotels are gone now, but on a Summer night imagination can bring back the strains of music from the ballrooms of a bygone era.

The lake is one mile and a quarter from end to end and about four miles in circumference. It has sloping lawns and turf tennis courts, fringes of mountain laurel and forest trees and its surface is dotted with row boats during the summer months as vacationers head to the bathing beach. The lawyers, merchants and iron men of Williamsport did a great deal to develop the natural beauty of Eagles Mere. Current residents do a great deal to maintain their little bit of heaven on earth.

Preservation Pennsylvania's annual Pennsylvania At Risk list, www.preservationpa.org/files/publications/presfundpa/ppa-23-1.pdf , includes eleven endangered resources in the Commonwealth, including the Eagles Mere Historic District. The concern is that drilling in the Marcellus Shale with its accompanying need for water during drilling could have a devastating effect on the mountain resort.

Following yesterday's article about Bradford County drilling, a reader asked who the major players are in that county. It is difficult to be 100% accurate in these matters, but here is a stab at it, thanks to some help from the Daily Review:

• Chief Oil and Gas has 600,000 gross acres in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. Chief had drilled 93 wells through the end of November with 42 wells placed on production, 15 wells waiting on a pipeline and 36 wells waiting on completion. Currently, 20 wells are being drilled in 2010. Chief had three drilling rigs at the beginning of 2010 and expects to exit 2010 with seven rigs. Chief has drilled and completed 44 wells in the Commonwealth with five in Bradford.

Susie Barkley in frozen Taylorsville, North Carolina, recovering from her first white Christmas since 1947, one of my buddies from the MerleFest, teaches a class for seniors and one of the things she tells them about is spam. She sent me a (sanitized) spam email which depicted two angels reciting the Lord's Prayer. The essence of the email was to send the email on to "20" or so friends so as to "not break the chain." Susie does pray the Lord's Prayer and does not need anyone to send it along in an email. She asked if I would say something about spam on the internet and security for computers.

Many people take shortcuts when they log on and off sites requiring a password and user ID. Browsers often ask if you want the computer to remember this information so that you can save a nanosecond when you log in. You can, but don't discount the possibility of a compromise. Counting the asterisks is easy to do. Yesterday, someone hacked my Facebook account. Although not a huge fan of Facebook, I give them credit for telling me that someone in New Jersey had logged on via my password. Facebook told me to change that password if it is used elsewhere anywhere on the internet. Oh, drat!

There is too much information being distributed around the internet and there is little privacy. Don't have your bank account raided. A job applicant was surprised to find that during the interview, several questions were asked about the amount of information shared on his Facebook page. Have you seen popups appear on your monitor out of nowhere, saying some suspicious activity was detected on your computer? Whoa! Slow down. Don't do what it asks you to do. Don't click that little red X button. A nice little man didn't suddenly appear in a holiday expression of helpfulness. Reboot your computer. Security on your computer is not up to the software you load. The software is just a series of doors that have to be opened before the goodies are stolen. Common sense will go a long way to keep your computer safe. What kind of comfort level do you have for your passwords, user IDs, software, anti-malware protection, etc?

December 28, 2010, the birthday of Paula Bowles and Frank Ohl. We are rapidly approaching the time when we say "Farewell, 2010." On this date in 1954, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

On December 28, 1732, a 26 year-old Bostonian transplant living in Philadelphia released a helpful calendar under the name of Richard Saunders, which he published for about 25 years as Poor Richard's Almanac (1732–1796). An advertisement for the almanac appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette on December 19, 1732, in which author Benjamin Franklin explained that the almanac would contain "Lunations, Eclipses, Planet's Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun and Moon's Rising and Setting, High Water, besides many Pleasant and witty Verses, Jests and Sayings" and much more.

The publication was filled with wit and wisdom including "Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," and a favorite in our nation's capital, "A penny saved is a penny earned." The sayings ranged from "Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee," "Plough deep while sluggards sleep And you shall have corn to sell and to keep," "The first mistake in public business is the going into it," "He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir," and "The poor have little--beggars none--the rich too much--enough not one." Franklin tried to make the publication "entertaining and useful."

The publication was good to inventor, statesman and publisher Franklin. He admitted that revenue annually came in "near ten thousand." He was able to retire at the age of 42. He wasn't a golfer, so he squeezed into his remaining years the discovery of electricity, the invention of the lightning rod, the iron stove, bifocals and the glass harmonica. When things were moving slowly, he developed still-standing theories on meteorology, heat absorption, electricity and ocean currents. In his spare time he founded the first insurance company, fire department, public hospital, public library, night patrol and first militia. He became the colonial postmaster and civil defense chief for the French and Indian War. As he started to slow down, he was chief delegate at the Albany conference, which organized the colonies and then was appointed chief negotiator with the British crown in London. When those negotiations failed, he returned to the United States to help draft the Declaration of Independence. He was sent to Paris where he won the support of the French which eventually helped win the Revolution for the colonies. He returned home and helped pass the Constitution of the new nation. After that, he did little that was important aside from a few inventions and a couple of immortal publications. Go here to see a larger list of his accomplishments.

In 1758, Franklin collected the best of his contributions to Poor Richard's Almanac, then published them in Father Abraham's Speech, better known as The Way to Wealth. You can read this publication here. Franklin in the 1780s brought the first bathtub to the United States and from that time forward liked to do his writing while soaking in the bathtub.

The local area dodged a bullet Sunday night into Monday as two inches fell in Erie, about thirteen inches in the city of Philadelphia and about a foot at the Philadelphia airport. No snow fell in Benton. The National Weather Service reported that Kane, Pennsylvania, received 59.7 inches of snow since December 1. The forecast high of 44° Friday will be welcome! A New Jersey reader talked with a friend in North Jersey who found out that starting early Monday morning all his wife did was look through the kitchen window. The snow was nearly waist high. He said that if it got much worse, he was going to let her in...

According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, 355 of the 1,368 Marcellus wells drilled in Pennsylvania this year were drilled in Bradford County. That county leads the state in gas production. Five-man rig crews work 12-hour shifts for two weeks, then get 14 days off, when they return home, mostly out of state. Chesapeake employs about 1,100 people in Pennsylvania, 500 of them state residents. It took over a vacant Ames department store south of Towanda as its regional headquarters, and has 22 drill rigs operating on 1.5 million leased Marcellus acres. Chesapeake plans to employ more local rig workers as quickly as they can be trained at the new Athens Township complex. Rig workers make about $60,000 after the first year. State officials blamed Chesapeake for tainting at least six residential water wells with methane in Wilmot Township. The company now supplies residents with clean water. You can read the article here.

December 27, the 361st day of the year with four days remaining until the end of 2010. It is the birthday of Chris Dawson, Donna Laubach Moros, Nancy Leh and Harry Schlichter. Donna Laubach and Edgar Moros Ruano celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary today.

A reader snarled at me for not including any recent recipes. At first, I thought that I would do what Gene Bardo used to do when asked for a recipe. He would give out a recipe that was 98% correct, but would usually omit or amplify or modify a key ingredient. He would somehow omit the word "butter" from the longer word "buttermilk." Or he would omit the word "tepid" from a description of using dry yeast in a batter mixture. The person receiving the recipe was happy as a pig in the wallow and Gene was happy because he remained the king of the cooks. I saw Gene do this stunt with the recipe for buckwheat cakes.

What follows is a recipe for buckwheat cakes. We all recognize that different recipes can be used, but this is a good one. Take three and a half cups of buckwheat flour (not self-rising), a quart of buttermilk, a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Dissolve a cake of yeast (or a packet of yeast) in three-fourths of a quart of warm water. Wisk. Your griddle has to be HOT. If you use the mix every other day or so, the yeast will be fine. If you need to make more mixture, basically duplicate the above recipe, but go a little easy on the sugar and possibly the water. If you have stored the mix in the refrigerator for a week or so without using it, do add yeast when you mix up the next batch, otherwise you can omit the yeast the second time.

With New Year's Eve coming up Friday night, we should include a recipe for a drink. In this case it is Kuala. Take 2.5 cups of sugar, four cups of water, three-fourths of a cup of decaffeinated coffee and a cup of regular coffee (my proportions are based on my need to eliminate or reduce caffeine intake), three teaspoons of vanilla extract, three cups of vodka. Simmer without vodka for 45 minutes. Turn off and cool for a bit, then add the vodka. Make it now because it is best when it sets for awhile.

For the first half century after its founding, the US Postal System's main job in life was to circulate newspapers. True, you could send letters, but the rates were much higher than for periodicals. It cost 25 cents a sheet in 1840 to send a letter from Boston to Richmond--one-third of what the average laborer made a day. Postal inspectors spent time checking newspapers for people who sent each other newspapers at the cheaper rate, then added pin-pricked coded personal messages in certain letters.

Congress lowered the cost and standardized sending letters in 1845. The country was immediately caught up in an exchange of personal correspondence in an effort to keep up with Americans who were spreading out across the United States. The New York City Postmaster, Robert H. Morris, provided special stamps (markings) showing the prepayment of postage. You may have heard of these as Postmasters’ Provisionals.

The Post Office Department issued its first general-issue postage stamps in New York City on July 1, 1847. One five-cent stamp honored Benjamin Franklin and a ten-cent stamp pictured George Washington. The stamps were removed from sheets by clerks using scissors and then sold. Only Franklin and Washington appeared on stamps until 1856, when a five-cent stamp honoring Thomas Jefferson was issued. A two-cent Andrew Jackson stamp was added in 1863. George Washington has appeared on more U.S. postage stamps than any other person.

Businesses discovered the advantages of mass mailings, and evil doers began promoting get-rich-quick schemes. The daguerreotype process permitted the sending of pictures across the country and photographers opened shops in and around our local areas. All of grandmother's trunks included scads of these pictures, but regretfully if your family is like my family there are few names to go with the pictures on the front of the cards.

By the late 1850s, Americans were buying ready-made valentines that cost from a penny to several hundred dollars. People sent cards to numerous objects of their affection, often taking advantage of the possibilities for anonymity that the mail provided. Moralists complained that the postal system promoted promiscuity, illicit assignations and the distribution of pornography--and there is a ring of truth to that. People sent each other cards for Christmas, Easter and birthdays, as the greeting card became a fixture of American life.

Much of the outgoing mail, especially early in the month of December was mail to the "North Pole." In Lancaster, Santa's letters were intercepted by the local radio station and read aloud weekday evenings between 5 and 5:30 for the three weeks before Christmas. Richard Rhoades, an old friend and neighbor from Arlington, Virginia, and his two sisters and their parents would listen each night to the Lancaster radio station hoping to hear their names mentioned along with their under-their-Christmas Tree toy wishes. The wishes from the Rhoades children numbered only one, two or three items--unlike some of the households I visited over the Christmas holidays..

The United States issued its first postal card in May 1873. Postal cards, sometimes known as stamped cards, are produced by the government and carry preprinted postage, unlike privately produced postcards, which do not bear postage.

The first U.S. commemorative stamps, honoring that year’s World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, came along in 1893. The first stamp honoring an American woman was the eight-cent Martha Washington stamp of 1902. The first to honor a Native Americans was 1907’s five-cent stamp honoring Pocahontas. In 1940, a ten-cent stamp commemorating Booker T. Washington became the first to honor an African American. The 1993 29-cent stamp featured Elvis Presley. The stamp was selected by the public voting for the "younger," not the "older," Elvis for the stamp’s design.

Stamp booklets came along in 1900, containing 12, 24 or 48 two-cent stamps. The first roll stamps were issued in 1908, in response to business requests. The first stamps without a printed value in the United States were two Christmas stamps issued October 14, 1975.

Richard Rhoades recently refreshed my memory of the years between 1947 and 1950 when the mail came through the door slot in our Virginia homes two times a day for the two weeks closest to Christmas. It is also possible that this double duty mail delivery also included once a day December Sunday delivery. Twice a day mail delivery ended in 1950. We now hear discussions of ending Saturday delivery.

In the late 1960s, it was great sport to soak and reuse stamps and it was for this reason that the Postal Service developed self-adhesive stamps to make precanceled stamps more secure. Precanceled stamps skipped a processing step that often caught reused stamps. With the Christmas 1974 issue, the Postal Service experimented with a slotted, self-adhesive precanceled stamp that the government felt couldn't be soaked off. The stamps cost three to five times more to produce than regular postage stamps, they could still be soaked off and reused, and stamps in the hands of collectors started to self-destruct.

December 26, 2010, the birthday of Pam Record Scott, Carol Dowhower Burns and Ray McCourt. Hold on for the white stuff coming this evening--estimates range from three to seven inches. Go here for the current weather map.

The state Department of Environmental Protection in a new report cautions that some of the state's rivers and streams are threatened by pollutants. Some rivers are polluted by agricultural, industrial and other sources. A few rivers are now in the "impaired" status. The report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,indicates that about 80% of the state's 84,867 miles of streams and rivers that are assessed for aquatic life use are attaining that water use. Read more.

The controversy continues in Dimock as some residents feel they were treated as residents of Centralia were treated: money is waved in their faces in return for the loss of their homes. The state Department of Environmental Protection and Cabot Oil & Gas arrived at a monetary settlement with the owners of properties on which 18 water wells were contaminated with methane from Cabot's gas-drilling operations. Homeowners were told in September by DEP that a pipeline with drinking water would be piped from a nearby water-treatment facility. Funding would come from reimbursement by Cabot. The actual settlement involves Cabot giving the homeowners $4.1 million and a treatment system for their well water. The 19 families with wells will be offered payments equal to twice the value of their homes, with a minimum payment of $50,000. Some homeowners reported methane in the water before drilling began. The proposed settlement is good for 85 days, although those who decline have until Dec. 31, 2012, to change their minds. After that date, the money reverts to Cabot. Go to a Post-Gazette article here for more.

It isn't easy and it isn't clean, but it is an alternative. Natural gas is being looked at in a new light as a possible way of making diesel and jet fuel in lieu of using crude oil. The price of natural gas is cheap while oil prices are rising. Thanks to new and advanced exploration, well drilling and completion technologies, drillers are better able to access gas resources which until recently uneconomical to pursue. A South African firm, Sasol, plans to buy a half-interest in a Canadian shale-gas field, so it can explore turning natural gas into diesel and other liquids. Sasol’s proprietary conversion technology was developed decades ago to help the apartheid government of South Africa survive an international oil embargo, and it is a refinement of the ones used by the Germans to make fuel for the Germany Home Defense during World War II. Learn more about this subject by heading to a New York Times article .

Keep your eyes on what the lawmakers from coal-producing states do--not what they say they'll do--when it comes to replacing aging, inefficient coal-fired power plants. These lawmakers seem overly committed to keeping coal as the nation's primary producer of power.

U.S. futures prices for natural gas fell 26% in 2010 as stockpiles climbed to an all-time high for the second consecutive year. Beginning in 2011, about 6% of our national output can be pumped through new pipelines from states such as Wyoming with the nation’s second- largest reserves, to California and Illinois, the U.S.’s second- and fifth-largest consumers. Gas prices from the Rockies have remained low because of difficulties of getting the gas to the customers. TransCanada Corp. will open the Bison Pipeline in south Montana and northeast Wyoming to the Midwest in January. El Paso Corp. will open the 680-mile Ruby Pipeline in June to move 1.5 billion cubic feet a day to the Pacific West. Expect that natural gas prices will be pressured by these action. Read more from Bloomberg.

As expected, Joel and Ethan Coen do a magnificent job with the remake of the 1969 movie True Grit. Jeff Bridges has a hoot with the role of Rooster Cogburn with his eye patch and whiskey jug, but is often upstaged by supporting players of a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf played by Matt Damon and newcomer to the screen, Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Mattie Ross. Mattie, 14, is out to avenge the death of her father and is looking for someone with "True Grit" to bring back killer Tom Chaney, played by Josh Brolin. The movie is filmed in sepia tones that make you think you are in the 19th-century West. It is possible that by the end of the movie, you'll conclude that young Mattie is the one with the "True Grit." The Coen brothers captured the film exactly from writing and casting to cinematography, editing and sound design. I suggest that you see the movie. Expect to see multiple Academy Award nominations from this movie, with Hailee Steinfeld a likely "Best Actress" winner.

I stopped in Wegman's Christmas Eve to pick up supplies for a recently-decided-on Christmas-Day party. It was hard to believe the number of last-minute shoppers. The store was a madhouse. My attention was soon drawn to a boarded-up attempt by the Government to sell wine in a grocery store via a kiosk. I could see the wine, but it was behind closed and locked glass doors since Tuesday of this week. I didn't intend to buy any wine, but I spent some time looking in the case. Now lets see if I remember this. To buy wine from this kiosk or one of the other 29 across the Commonwealth, assuming that it wasn't broken and not working, would have required me to...

Had the kiosk not been boarded up and had I done everything I listed above in the proper order and had done it correctly, I might not have received my wine. The Liquor Control Board released a news article about the problems, which stated: "That may be because a turnstile doesn't turn, the door doesn't unlock, the computer screen freezes up. It could be any one of those issues." Bottom line: no wine comes out. It reminds me of when Dave told Hal in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to "Open the pod doors, Dave . " This Government debacle has taken a bad idea and escalated it to an impossible one. The State Store Boys spend too much money on technology that consumers will not appreciate or use. It is time to kiss these bureaucrats goodbye. The Auditor General is looking into the problem.

Rep. Lee served as a Republican for 18 years beginning in 1957 in the state House from the 111th District comprised of Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties. He served as House speaker in 1967-68 and 1973-74, majority leader in 1964 and minority leader in 1965-66 and 1971-72. He was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1974. Lee was Sullivan County district attorney between 1953 and 1957. He practiced law in Sullivan County for 35 years and, following his retirement from the Legislature, remained active in civic affairs locally and in Harrisburg.

His survivors include his wife of more than 66 years, Marjorie Cole Lee, and five children. A private service will be held at the Eagles Mere Cemetery. A celebration of Lee’s life will be held at the Eagles Mere Country Club from 2 to 4 PM January 1, 2011.

Joann L. Ruggles (July 9, 1946-December 23, 2010), 474 Klinger Hill Road, Benton, died Thursday at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville. She was 64. Joann was born in Whitplain Township, Montgomery County. She was a daughter of Edward L. and Amanda E. (Saylor) Myers. She lived in Sugarloaf Township for more than 50 years and attended Benton High School. Joann was last employed at the former Market Street Cafe, Benton, and earlier at Weis Markets, Bloomsburg, and the former Dol-Ang Dress Factory, Benton.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Thomas E. Ruggles, on June 10, 2008; daughter, Tammy Showers, on November 5, 1989; son, Henry G. Hollinger III, on Nov. 28, 2001; granddaughter, Jada M. Hollinger, April 23, 1986; brother, Edward L. Myers Jr., April 27, 1971; and sister, Jane Pulli, in January 2009.

Surviving are daughter, Lisa Ruggles, at home; a granddaughter, Amanda R. Showers, East Stroudsburg; a great-granddaughter, Haileigh Slagus, East Stroudsburg; and two brothers: Frank C. Adams (Irene), Marlton, NJ; and Richard E. Adams (Gloria), Waynesville, MO.

Graveside services will be held on Monday at 1 PM in St. Gabriel's Cemetery, Sugarloaf Township. There will be no viewing. Arrangements are by the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home , Benton. To sign the guest book or to send a message of condolence, please go to www.krinerfuneralhomes.com .

Freeman E. Robbins Jr. (November 23, 1918-December 22, 2010), Unityville, died Wednesday at the Muncy Valley Hospital Skilled Nursing Unit. He was 92. Freeman was born in Unityville. He was a son of Freeman E. Sr. and Estella Mae Raines Robbins. He was a charter member of the Unityville Vol. Fire Company and a Republican committee man for Jordan Township for many years. He was a self-employed farmer, logger and equipment operator.

His wife of 62 years, the former Rena E. VanDine, preceded him in death on March 23, 2001. Surviving are sons Max R. (Gloria) Robbins, Millville, and Terry R. Robbins, Muncy Valley; daughters Peggy J. (Jerry) Fritz, Benton, and Patsy Ann Kramer, Millville; a sister, Carrie Ann Gordner, Muncy; 12 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held 11 AM Monday with viewing preceding at the McCarty-Thomas Funeral Home, 557 E. Water St., Hughesville. Burial will follow in Salem Cemetery, Unityville.

The family will provide the flowers and suggests memorial contributions to STEP Office of Aging, c/o Meals on Wheels, P.O. Box 3156, Williamsport, PA 17701 or Unityville Fire Company, P.O. Box 44, Unityville, PA 17774 or Susquehanna Home Health Hospice, 1100 Grampian Blvd., Williamsport, PA 17701.

Friday, December 24, and Saturday, December 25, 2010. Both days will struggle to make it to the freezing mark. Monday could bring some snow.

December 25, the birthday of Natalie Funkhouser and that old Silver Fox, Ralph Ford, Huntington Mills. It is the wedding anniversary of Taylor and Kim Remphrey. It is Christmas, the day that Shakespeare once said turned all griefs and quarrels into love. It is the day to "Rejoice," as an old Christmas carol went, "Our Saviour he was born on Christmas day in the morning." Dickens wrote that "Christmas is the only holiday of the year that brings the whole human family into common communication."

Today is a great day to think back to the Frankish king Charlemagne, King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. Huh, you say! Why, you ask? Before Charlemagne, dates were computed based on some prominent date, such as the beginning of some Grand PooBah's rule. Popes had come up with dates from various starting points: when a local ruler assumed power, or when a local ruler had his head lopped off and in one case from what was assumed to be the creation of the world--as if anybody has a firm grasp on what that date was.

Charlemagne saw it differently. He tied his dating system to the birth of Christ. In fact, he was crowned on Christmas Day in order to establish a link between his reign and Christ and the establishment of "A.D." as the basis for calculating dates.

By the time of Charlemagne, hundreds of years after the birth of Christ, Rome had long since lost its preeminence. Constantine's capital was powerful in the East, while Charlemagne's Western empire spread across much of modern-day Europe. Charlemagne came to Rome eight hundred years to the day after the pronounced birth of Jesus and knelt in the Vatican during Christmas Mass at the shrine of St. Peter where Pope Leo crowned him emperor.

To begin a counting system such as "A.D.," took some doing, but the world was in the midst of an intellectual revolution of sorts. Monks latched onto the system of measuring time. The basic framework appeared practical. If Christ was the ruler of all mankind and if he began his reign when he was born and if this was indeed when the Divine became flesh and blood, what Christian could argue with the system? Time began to be measured from "the year of our Lord," "anno Domini."

You can read more about the monarchy that reached to the limits of Christendom and about the king named Charlemagne who was crowned on the turning point of a century and who came along at the exact correct point in history to make himself a pivotal player in a number system that has lasted until the number expressed in terms of years--2,010 and in a few days to be 2,011 years--by picking up a copy of "The Forge of Christendom," by Tom Holland. You can also go here for information on the subject.

Didja notice that somewhat akin to seeing a movie in 3-D for the first time, we are seeing the world today through our Christmas glasses? Our vision has become rosy with the good that we see in the world and in our fellow-men. Just a few days ago, the coffee drinkers I hang out with viewed the world and our Government in particular as gloomy and unpatriotic, filled with evil doers, wretchedness, sin and poverty. Today as we look at the world with our Christmas glasses on, we see it in a new light. We can see good and peace and joy--perhaps only for this short season, but wonderful, nevertheless.

Let's assume that we are looking at the world through our hearts that have been touched with the spirit of the Christ Child. If you have noticed this change in the demeanor of your fellow Americans, go out and make someone happy this weekend, do something nice for someone who is not able to be with their children or have no one to eat with on Christmas day. Be like Tiny Tim when he raised his little crutch and cried out, "God bless us, every one!" Be like Donna Laubach Moros who asked that the "joy of the Christ child, who lives with us, be part of your celebration."

December 23, the 357th day of 2010. There are 8 days left in the year and you can do the math for yourself on shopping days left until Christmas. Today will be the warmest day through Sunday. If you are looking for stocking stuffers, don't forget the $6 booklets on the Benton fire of July 4, 1910, available at The Center. It is the birthday of Rob Stuehrk, Donna Remley and former Rep. Robert Walker. Victor Borge died on this day in 2000. Here is his segment on inflationary language . Last night's presentation at The Center was very successful with 42 attending. Dale Payne, a Civil War re-enactor and member of Regiment 142 Pennsylvania Volunteers Company G, discussed how our troops celebrated Christmas during the Civil War.

• Peter Mastroianni took a detailed look at www.WellOwner.org yesterday. Instead of that site, Peter recommended www.wilkes.edu/water which will take you to the home page of Wilkes University Center for Environmental Quality Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. There you can download a "Water Quality" pamphlet about wells and water quality. It was prepared by Brian Oram who runs the water lab at the University. After reading the pamphlet, if someone wishes to have their water tested, they can click on the appropriate link. Peter recommends the Option 1 kit. This information has been provided to the members of the Fishing Creek Watershed Association and its monitoring committee, "The Water Dogs."

• Do you enjoy listening to or playing bluegrass? If so, come to The Center on Friday, January 7, starting at 6 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Local musicians of any level are invited to come to the Center and join in the fun. Bring your acoustic guitar if you want to participate, or just come and listen. If you have questions, call the Center at 925-0163.

• A reader asked about the availability of "free" fax service. Good luck! I have spent more time looking for "free" than I care to think about. My suggestion: forget free and go for "good." I use MaxEmail at www.maxemail.com for internet fax service and find it works just fine. The "light" or "least expensive" service is the "MaxEmail Lite Non-Local service," good for occasional use. You will get a non-local phone number (Chicago area, an A/C 815 number), and you can receive 100 faxes a month before you have to pay $.05 for additional copies. You can send faxes from your computer at $.05 per page, which is certainly cheaper than buying a fax machine. The service is $24 a year, with a one-time activation fee of $10.

A salad is a wonderful way to begin a meal and the salad dressing is a big part of its enjoyment. Here is a simple recipe for an excellent salad dressing: half a cup each of cider vinegar, water and sugar. Heat the three ingredients until dissolved. Add 3 tablespoons of salad oil, a teaspoon of Nature's Seasoning blend and a teaspoon of Salad Supreme, two or three cloves of garlic. Put all ingredients together, shake, cook and enjoy.

A month ago, during a momentary lapse of reason, throwing a holiday party seemed like a great idea. In my current degraded condition of not feeling well, the thoughts of freeloading friends, acquaintances and relatives dropping by to guzzle booze, inhale food and drag mud through the house, all in the name of a little Christmas cheer, is very discouraging. I suppose I'll simply continue with my pattern of "early to bed, early to rise..."

It is always interesting to hear how others spend their holiday season. Rev. Donna Laubach Moros reminds us to keep the "joy of the Christ child, who lives with us, be part of your celebration." On Christmas eve, Donna will be with 47 refugees in her church center in Venezuela. They will sing Venezuelan Christmas carols, called "villancicos." They also sing "Silent Night," in Spanish. Donna says the song is interesting since it is sung with Venezuelan cuatro, not with a guitar. As we celebrate Christmas, each in our own way, Donna's family will eat hallacas, pork, ham bread and hen salad, with lechoza for desert. There will be some wine. Gifts are exchanged on the evening of the 24th, not on Christmas Day. Feliz Navidad to our friends in Venezuela.

For some, the holiday season is not a happy season. If you need a little cheering up, do it the way four old friends did it when they gathered over coffee and relived their memories of a neighbor and a friend, O.B. Savage. Two of the men, Alfred "Bub" Laubach and Dayne Kline, were neighboring farmers along Route 487. The third man was the former County Agent for Columbia County, Stanley Hummer. The fourth man, John King, owned a 127-acre fruit farm that was once the orchard for the McHenry Distillery, once known as FarField Farms.

From the recollections of these four men, from stories we remember and stories told to us by people who knew O.B. and his wife Margaret and their son Richard, we have collected some stories we think most people will enjoy reading. We do issue the disclaimer that the life and times of O.B. Savage were unique and slightly out of kilter with the way that most of live today. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and read about O. B. here.

December 22, 2010, the birthday of Mark Fenstermacher, Chris McKim, Justin Beishline, Dick McHenry and Mary Janney. Tonight at 7 at The Center Dale Payne, a Civil War re-enactor and member of Regiment 142 Pennsylvania Volunteers Company G will discuss how our troops celebrated Christmas during the Civil War. Civil War artifacts will be available for viewing and discussion. For additional information, call the Center at 925-0163. If you are dreaming of a White Christmas, forget it!

• Stop at D.R.'s MiniMart today and say farewell to Dean Ribble who has been a part of the Benton retail business for the past 25 years. The mini mart will close at 10 PM tonight and will not reopen before noon Thursday as inventory is taken and the turnover to Acorn Markets takes place. Eric Whalen, Director of Information Technology for Putnam Company/Acorn Markets, is excited about the move to Benton. He said that “Welcome to Benton” is a "phrase we’ve been hearing a lot lately! Acorn Markets, Inc. is proud to be taking ownership of DR’s Quick Mart and couldn’t be happier about the reception we’ve received from the community." Acorn Markets is headquartered in Wellsboro. The company owns and operates 15 convenience stores in Tioga, Potter, Bradford and Sullivan County and in the Southern Tier of New York. The company also operates one gas station, one free-standing Subway, and a full-service restaurant. Most of the stores are located in towns about the size of Benton. Eric said, "We pride ourselves in G.R.E.A.T. customer service and delicious food. Our store managers and employees are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to be active in the community. As we begin our relationship with Benton, we look forward to meeting each of you personally as customers!"

• It is a far cry from the number of Pennsylvania Representatives when former Benton native John Geiser McHenry served in the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses. During the Sixty-second Congress March 4, 1911, to March 4, 1913, during the third and fourth years of William H. Taft's presidency, there were 32 Representatives from Pennsylvania. That number increased to 36 Pennsylvania congressmen later in the 1910s and 1920s. As a result of this year's Census, the state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives will fall from 19 to 18. The state Legislature and governor will decide over the coming year how to redraw the lines of the state's congressional districts.

• We recently recommended that you hold off if you were thinking of buying a new smartphone. Verizon has some new phones in the pipeline and will be rolled out alongside the carrier’s new 4G LTE network about January 3. As major US cell providers come out with their versions of a "4G Network," all are based on different technology. Verizon’s version of this technology is fastest of the bunch with speeds from 5 to 12 Mbps. Learn more about this network here. These new devices could also come with an added monthly fee following the lead of T-Mobile and Sprint’s $10 surcharge.

• On the traditions of Christmas, Arla Mae Miller said that she and her three brothers each received an orange and a candy cane. She still keeps some velvet oranges in one of her Mother's crocks under her tree. Cousin Linda Lea Kline, writing from Florida, remembers putting up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. "Mother would always burn bayberry candles that night. Supposedly, burning a bayberry candle from tip to socket puts luck in the home and gold in the pocket. Because of mother, I still burn those candles." Linda also agreed that "giving does replace receiving in our hearts," and quoted LUKE 12; 48, "For unto whomever much is given, of him much shall be required." One reader said he was in third grade and another said she was in fifth grade when they received the sad truth about Santa Claus.

• One writer commented about my failure to deliver an oration at the Christmas party. Roy Davis couldn't blame me "for not being able to follow the act that came before." The story reminded Roy of his mom's story about a "celebration" at their little country school when she was a child. One of the little kids was supposed to recite "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck." He could not talk plain and changed the lines a little. He got up and orated, "The boy stood on the burning deck, eating peanuts by the peck. He told his mother he couldn't go, because he 'yiked' his peanuts so!"

• A former China/Burma/India airman during the Second World War as was brother Dayne remembers the "loneliness of being over in Asia on Christmas. All around us silent peaks of the highest mountains in the world. I stood outside our tent and looked up at a black velvet sky brilliant with constellations. And I felt so bad because I could not recognize any of them. The Big Dipper and the North Star were well below the horizon. I was alone and far, far away from home and the warmth of Christmas with Marion and my family.

• A get-well recipe for my lack of speaking voice that is accompanying my cold hasn't been tried yet, but if I don't start feeling better I will try it. The ingredients? The juice from a quart of Scotch!

• The Pennsylvania Public Utility says 582 will be the new area code for much of northwestern Pennsylvania. The change will affect Erie, Crawford, Warren, Venango, Forest, Clarion, Jefferson, Elk and McKean counties. Parts of Clearfield, Armstrong, Mercer and Indiana counties will also get the new area code. Learn more by going here. The new code takes effect February 1, 2012. The 814 code will work for affected numbers for about six months after that. The Commonwealth will have a total of 12 area codes following the split.

• Didja think about the average S&P 500 stock that has risen nearly 12% and the average Nasdaq stock up more than 16% this year? Not too shabby, but remember that the Philippine’s stock market is up 38.7%, Indonesia’s is up 47.1% and Peru’s is up 59.7%. If the big guys in the stock market--the hedge funds, mutual funds, pensions and wealthy investors--take their profits before December 31, they’ll get clobbered with a big tax bill on April 15, 2011. If they wait until after the beginning of the new year--twelve days from now--taxes on the profits won't be due for 15 months.

Just when we thought that Government was going to take a rest, the Federal Communications Commission passed 3-2 new "net neutrality rules" yesterday. A divided FCC banned internet-service providers like Comcast Corp from blocking traffic on their networks, provoking warnings the rules would be rejected in the courts and threats from Republican lawmakers to overturn them. The FCC did allow internet providers like AT&T and Verizon to "reasonably" manage their wireless networks and to charge consumers based on levels of internet usage. The FCC is going to create two classes of internet access: broadband providers will not be able to block sites. Wireless providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, etc..) will be able to block applications and services. Verizon could block the Google Maps app on your phone, as an example, and force you to use Verizon Navigator, which isn't as good and isn't free. Expect the debate to head to the courts. Read more in the New York Times.

• Like him or not, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who recently had a 28-point fourth-quarter comeback against the New York Giants, certainly is worth watching.

• The Center is offering a new tumbling and gymnastics class for kids. Three programs will be offered: KinderGym for children age 4 and 5 on Saturdays 9:30AM – 10:15 AM; Tumbling for ages 6 through 8 on Saturdays at 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM; and tumbling for ages 9 through 12 on Saturdays from 11:30 – 12:30. There will be two sessions for each age group: Session I runs from January 22, 2011 through February 26; and Session II runs from March 19 through April 24. All classes are limited to the first 14 paid registrants. KinderGym costs $45 per session for Center members and $60 per session for non-members. Tumbling classes cost $60 per session for Center members and $75 for Non-members. Two instructors will offer the classes. Samantha Smith is a former Optional Competitive Gymnast who has been coaching and teaching children aged from 3 years to 13. Leanne Becker is a former Optional Competitive Gymnast for USAG and USAIGC who also coaches a Gymnastic Club during the summer. Both instructors are students at Bloomsburg University. For further information or to register, call The Center at 925-0163.

• Newly retired state lawmakers will receive generous pensions and other benefits, writes Harrisburg's Patriot-News. Six lawmakers who left office last month are going to be getting annual pension payments that exceed the salaries they used to get as legislators. Former Senate Democratic Leader Robert Mellow, Lackawanna County, will receive a maximum pension payout of $330,915 a year. The recently departed House members could be eligible for taxpayer-paid lifetime medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits, while spouses and children up to age 26 can receive those benefits.

• Andrew Hoke is looking for photos of the Wilkes-Barre and Western that ran from Turbotville to Berwick or the Catawissa Railroad. He is also looking for images of the train stations in Rohrsburg, Millville and Orangeville and any old railroad photos from the Berwick and Bloomsburg area. Andrew has an impressive web site , which is a collection of railroad-related photographs for railroaders, railfans, model railroaders and anyone who enjoys trains.

• Chief Oil & Gas LLC and Radler 2000 Limited Partnership have entered into an asset purchase and sale agreement to sell natural-gas properties in the Marcellus Shale to EXCO Holding PA, a subsidiary of EXCO Resources, Inc., for approximately $459 million. The sale includes 15 producing wells, 11 wells waiting on completion and approximately 50,000 net acres located primarily in Lycoming, Sullivan and Columbia counties. Chief Oil & Gas has drilled 95 wells in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At the end of 2010, Chief will be the operator of 9 rigs drilling in the Marcellus, not counting non-operated interests owned in leases and units being drilled by multiple rigs operated by others.

• Phyllis Conner (July 1, 1912-December 19, 2010), born in Benton, a graduate of Benton High School, daughter of Josephine (Purcell) and Marvin Ellis Conner; sister of Janice Conner, Glenda Glassmire, Guild and J. Hubert Conner, died on Sunday. She was the oldest and the last survivor of the five Conner children. Phyllis resided in the retirement community Broadmead in Cockeysville, MD. She never married, but is survived by many nieces and nephews. The service and interment is private. Arrangements by the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home. There will be a graveside service at the Benton Cemetery at a future time.

December 21, 2010, the birthday of Kate Neary and coaching great Joe Paterno. Happy anniversary to Joe and Loraine Feola.

A milestone passed Monday morning at the Brass Pelican restaurant as the torch of command of the North Mountain Historical Society passed from Ruth and Jim Vance to Christopher and Monica Diltz. Jim and Ruth started the informal gatherings about 18 years ago. Ruth remembers that "When we had the Happy Group at Mother’s church, you could hear the older men talking about different one-room schools and where they were located. So we thought it would be fun to pick a topic and everyone get any information on it they could find and get together and chat about it." The group continued to call itself the "Happy Group" and get-togethers were conducted in that fashion for about two years. The group spent a lot of time in Ruth Vance's mother's living room, but soon needed more room and ended up going to the Brass Pelican. After about two years at the Brass Pelican the group ran out of topics and decided to get speakers to come in and speak and make it into a "history group." Many of the early minutes were recorded by Betty Ruckle and preserved on the Benton News . Jim and Ruth feel that people with new ideas are now needed to make the monthly event a continuing success. So the leadership has now passed to Christopher and Monica. They are going to continue finding speakers and having history groups every third Monday. When you see Ruth and Jim, thank them for all they have done over the years and tell Christopher and Monica when you'll be able to contribute your time as the monthly speaker.

The heat was up for the 110 residents of Yeonpyeong Island as South Korea finished live artillery drills, the site of heavy bombing by North Korea last month. North Korea decided that they would not react to the drills because they were "inconsequential." Former New Mexico Governor and United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson apparently deserves credit for defusing a dangerous situation. Pursuing a policy of "respond sternly, with restraint," the South Korea military had announced that it would strike back to defend the nation if North Korea responded to the drill with an artillery barrage.

The Augusta Chronicle article was straight forward and to the point. The stabbing of a U.S. Marine reservist outside a Best Buy store in Augusta, Georgia, took place as he and three other Marines collected toys for children. Inside the store, a surveillance camera picked up a shoplifting suspect putting a laptop under his jacket. When confronted by store personnel, the man pulled a knife and ran outside where the four Marines were collecting for the "Toys For Tots" program. The Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed Cpl. Phillip Duggan in his back. The suspect was subsequently taken to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken leg, possible broken ribs, assorted lacerations and bruises he obtained when he fell trying to run after stabbing the Marine.

There was always an annual church pageant the Sunday night before Christmas. The first one of these I remember was at the Benton Christian Church. All of us kids paraded to the front of the church and recited a little verse, then quietly walked to the side of the church to respectfully sing a Christmas carol. I haven't a clue today what the little ditty I was to recite, but I do remember that the boy directly in front of me was somewhat tongue tied and his poem came out "Merry Twitmas to Too, Merry Twitmas to Too," etc. As I approached the center of the stage to deliver the lines that relatives had come from miles to hear me say, my mind went completely blank--washed out completely by the words "Merry Twitmas to Too, Merry Twitmas to Too." It was a completely humiliating experience for me. It was as my Aunt Esther later that evening said to me, "How could you forget the 15 words you were to deliver?"

In our house, the ceiling-height tree was usually very plain, standing there in the parlor bare but regal in its fresh greenery. Around the tree for about four feet from its outer edge was the fresh woods smell of the side hill from which it had just come. Cookies and cakes lined the tables in the room. Our Christmas tree always appeared in the parlor the day before Christmas. The decorations were ringlets of paper glued on the ends to gird the tree, plus ornaments that had accumulated over the past ten or so years--a gingerbread man, a bird of some sort now fading from my memory, striped candy canes, an electrical gizzie that was large at its base, then tapering like a chimney to the top where bubbles slowly rolled heavenward. An angel crowned the tree, although it leaned toward 11 o'clock and its garments had migrated to tell-tale gray from white.

There had been mysterious bundles on the top shelf of the closet behind the bathroom, but they were now in this room. This was the room in my parent's house where I was later told that I first tried to eat a Christmas ornament, where I first heard about Little Toot of tugboat fame and first heard the sound of bicycle gears turning. It was the same room where Mother faked her delight at receiving an apple-coring machine, the same room where Father worried about falling pine needles and danger of fire. Christmas was when we actually did dream of a white Christmas, and when we were allowed to have a glass of eggnog with the grownups.

Mother would tell a story in front of the Christmas tree, which usually began, "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus..."

My first memories of Christmas included relatives gathering for Christmas dinner to eat food prepared on a wood-burning stove and served on an oil-cloth covered kitchen table. It was a time to gather in the parlor, usually unheated, now furnished with a Christmas tree, presents and scads of wrapping paper.

Brother Dayne's picture, in uniform, was respectfully taken from its place on top of the piano to a spot alongside of the Christmas tree. He had a gift, I was later told, and it was kept wrapped for him to open when he came home from World War II. Dayne was 20 years older and he was away at the war. Somehow I never thought it was fair to have Christmas presents accumulate for four years until he came home from the war. It wasn't until many years later that I realized that with these childhood memories of Christmas is a constant reminder of a hope and love that knows no bounds, kept alive in the traditions that bind a family together across countries or a half a world away. When I was a child, joy came in receiving; as we mature in age and knowledge, it comes in giving.

I remember the community Christmas tree "on the square" in Benton--a vivid, lovely tree. It was in the municipal parking lot, at the location where Santa Claus made his yearly appearance.

I remember the deep snows we received at Christmas time and the bitter cold we experienced. I remember the bad colds our family would get at this time of the year, and today I am struggling with a similar cold that has taken my voice. I remember the roads that were almost impassable for a rural-mail carrier, but Father always made it through. I remember one year when he kept his chains on his car for what seemed like two months. I remember the thrill of receiving an orange, some striped candy, sugared popcorn and the first year I got my own knife when Father went to the "city," his term for going to the seat of government of Columbia County.

I remember being told at school that there was no Santa Clause. I was heart-sick. It wasn't so much losing Santa as it was losing faith in my father. All the virtues I had were directly attributed to him in his perfection. I remember the time that he scoured out my mouth with kitchen soup for telling a lie. How then could he have lied to me? Learning the truth never came easy to me. I remember when David Dodson told me "the facts of life." Yes, Father had missed that step! And Mother always said, "Talk to your father about that." So when David told me the facts of life, I mulled things over in my mind, and after thinking about the subject for a minute or two, said to David, "No, I don't think you're right." I figured that if Father didn't know the facts of life to tell me, how in the world would David know what he was talking about...

December 20, 2010, the birthday of Laurie Banacka Laubach, Ernie Matthews and the First Lady of PA, Judge Midge Rendell. Both North and South America will experience a total eclipse of the moon tonight. On the East Coast under partly cloudy skies, the eclipse begins half an hour after midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 21. On the West bank, it starts around 9:30 PM PST Monday. It will be the first time a total lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice in 372 years. And on top of that, a meteor shower could put on a show while the eclipse darkens the sky. Depending on weather conditions, the moon should appear as a bright and copper color, possibly brown or dark red-black, depending on the atmospheric pollution. NASA will show the eclipse live from space. The next total eclipse of the moon will take place April 14-15, 2014.

The International Telecommunication Union (the global wireless standards-setting organization) defined the meaning of the fourth generation (4G) of cell-phone service. Wireless carriers today are not yet able to achieve the upper limits that constitute 4G. A 4G network would have to be capable of download speeds up to 100Mbps. But no one wants the other guy to get out in front, so the various mobile providers redefined "4G" as meaning their own fourth-generation technology, not the "4G" of the ITU. In fact, providers are all achieving speeds better than standard 3G speed. Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint say they have 4G service, with Verizon getting the highest "theoretical" upper limit. Verizon’s 4G service for smartphones is expected to launch in the first or second quarter of 2011, so don't push Santa for a smartphone this Christmas. If you want to buy a smartphone to run on a 4G network, it has not yet been sold to the public (and that includes the iPhone 4 which is not a 4G phone). Still confused? OK, we'll drop it.

Follow our Benton high school wrestlers while they compete at the "King of the Mountain" tournament at Central Mountain high school, Mill Hall, through the wrestler's Twitter account.

The Gaming Act of 2004 was supposed to bring some property tax relief to Pennsylvania residents. Now it turns out that an economics professor, Michael Coulter, concludes there are "underlying disparities" in "rural and older areas compared to newer, suburban areas." Good grief, we have known that for years. And so have the residents of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Erie.

James J. Gaito (July 21, 1956-December 16, 2010), Tioga Turnpike, Benton, died Thursday in The Hospital of the University of PA, Philadelphia, after a ten-year battle with heart disease. He was 54.

Jim was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and lived in the Benton area since 1972. He was the son of Frank and Naomi Ann Gaito. He attended Northwest Area High School and later operated The Fairmount Spring Country Store and most recently owned and operated Jim’s Candle Shop. Jim was a big man with an even bigger heart. He put up a tremendous fight with dignity and courage, always maintaining his great sense of humor to the very end of his battle. He will be truly missed by all who knew and loved him. He was a very loving son, brother, uncle and a loyal friend. He was a kind and gentle soul who loved his pets and was always concerned about helping others in spite of his illness. Jim was an avid football fan and lifelong supporter of the NY Giants.

He was also preceded in death by a brother, Tony, in 1975. He is survived by a brother, Frank Gaito, Jr., Shickshinny, and his daughters, Janet Cumberland and Rachel Davenport; four sisters, JoAnne Gaito, Guttenburg, NJ, and her daughter, Jessica Ramirez; Cathy Spencer (Mark), Huntington Mills; Susan Gaito Lawson, Berwick, and her sons, Tony Lawson and Steven Lawson; Lisa Gaito Mowery, Leesburg, VA, and her children, Max and Hailey Mowery; and great niece and nephew, Alyssa and Samuel Cumberland.

Memorial services will be held Saturday morning at 11, January 8, at the McMichael Funeral Home. The family will provide flowers. For online condolences, please visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

December 17, 2010. On this date in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright went on the first successful manned powered-airplane flight on the outer banks near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville took off in his machine, built up a speed of about 10 mph, rose to about ten feet, and landed immediately. They made two more attempts, then Wilbur took over. Flying straight into the wind for nearly a full minute, the machine covered 852 feet. After Wilbur landed and got out of the plane, it rolled over necessitating months of repair. The Christmas drama "Angels of Mercy Hospital" will be presented at Sweet Valley Church of Christ, 5439 Main Road at 7 PM tonight and tomorrow night. Call 477-2320 for additional information.

• The Center will host a presentation by Dale Payne, a Civil War re-enactor and member of Regiment 142 Pennsylvania Volunteers Company G. Mr. Payne will discuss how troops celebrated Christmas during the Civil War in his presentation entitled "Holiday Traditions During the Civil War" at the Center on Wednesday evening at 7, December 22. Civil War artifacts will be available for viewing and discussion. The lecture is free and open to the public. This presentation is a great way to celebrate the holidays and to commemorate those who are still serving. For additional information, call the Center at 925-0163.

We wake to the news that the U.S. House has given the American people a massive $858 billion tax package which keeps us from having a tax hike on New Year's Day. The bill now goes to the President who is expected to sign it quickly. What do we get? Tax cuts for families at every income level, jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed renewed and a new one-year cut in Social Security taxes that would benefit nearly every worker who earns a wage--and a whole lot of pork. The House gave final approval 277-148 to the measure just before midnight Thursday with 139 Democrats and 138 Republicans voting for the plan.

Here is a recipe for a pumpkin roll, an excellent choice for this time of the year. You'll need 1/4 cup powdered sugar to sprinkle on a towel, 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3 large eggs, a cup of granulated sugar, 2/3 cup pumpkin, a cup walnuts, chopped (a nice touch, but not needed), 1 package (8 oz.) room temperature cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted, 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, powdered sugar (looks nice for decoration). You make the cake by preheating the oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, start checking to see if it is done after 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack. Here is how you prepare the filling. Beat cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Re-roll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired. Put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Today's music is a "Pick-your-own." Enter the name of the Christmas song you would like to hear and it will be sung to you.

Didja ever notice how friends and casual acquaintances "poke around a subject," rather than coming to the point by being candid? Times have changed from when Father directed "Mow the lawn before you head for the dam to swim." Now, it is "Don't you think the lawn needs mowing?" Mother taught me the use of "Number one," "Number two" and TP. I am no better today. During the middle of a lively conversation, I sometimes have to heed "the call of nature" in the "comfort station," or "do my business" in the "smallest room in the house." Women "powder their nose" and are "indisposed" in the "rest room."

It was at one time that the church softened certain words. Over the years, "God" was changed into "Gosh," we converted "damn" to darn and "hell" to "heck." It isn't just the church: "breasts" became "bust," "impotence" become "erectile dysfunction, older women sometimes have a "Gentlemen friend." We tend to use "respectable words" when a dubious one seems more correct. Children whose parents aren't married once were "bastards," but that seems too harsh so they became "illegitimate children."

We are even more indirect when it comes to sex, parts of the body, money and disease. We hear of people being "broad in the beam," "built for comfort not speed," having a "bun in the oven," Some are "full-figured," some "knocked-up," some who have a "roll in the hay" end up "with child."

Bombardiers no longer "drop bombs"; they unleash vertically deployed anti-personnel devices. Businesses that once showed "losses" now have negative-cash flow. Politicians don't "lie" but do sometimes "misspeak." We substitute unthreatening words for ones that make us figit.

I'm reminded of the story about Winston Churchill who asked at a dinner party for a breast of chicken. He was immediately reprimanded by a woman at the table for using a vulgar term instead of asking for "white meat." By way of apology, the next day Churchill sent the woman a corsage with the message "Pin this on your white meat."

We once used euphemisms to be polite, but we now use them for cover-up and obfuscation.

We have "events" at the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant near Berwick, but events also take place when the life of the President is in danger or there is a threat of an assassination attempt. At times, the word "occasion" is substituted, but that doesn't actually convey much information.

During my high-school days, newspapers referred to "flamboyant," confirmed bachelors" and "never married" when they actually meant "homosexual." Today "gay" is a word often used. When Wilbur Mills tanked into the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C., newspapers said he was "flushed," when they really meant that he was drunk. Couples with "complicated relationships" actually are on the verge of killing each other, while a professional might fudge the words into "unfinished business." Politicians have a "frank exchange of ideas," but each side mutters under their breath when they leave the room that they better never meet in a dark alley!

Boys and girls are sometimes caught "sleeping together," which reminds me of the boy who asked the girl if he was the first person she had ever "slept with." She gazed into his eyes and slowly said, "if you doze off, it will be."

Discussions that "beat around the bush" on the subjects of sex, the body and body waste are just fine. The couple "is intimate" conveys more information than I actually want to know.

Tony Soprano "whacked" guys left and right, soldiers come up with terms to lessen the high-impact words such as "kill," couples "get to know each other" before they "get it on." A soldier might understate a fact: "The tank is now inoperative," takes the place of "we blew that sucker to smithereens." The student was engaged in "inappropriate behavior" doesn't give us a clue the nature of that behavior. The hotter the topic the cooler the words we use to convey the thought.

The "morally correct" way is say things is probably best--we don't offend anyone and probably have used a better sounding substitute.

December 16, 2010, the birthday of Katrina Hunter Bigelow, Michael Quinn Taylor, actress Krysten Alyce Ritter, Robert Keller, Anna Pennington and Kris Letteer. It is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party (the 1773 version). In 1944 on this date, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise counterattack in Belgium. Keep Jim Harvey in your prayers. Jim is in the Bloomsburg Hospital for observation. Watch the roads this morning. They will be slippery.

Polly A. Laubach-Eckrote gave up her genealogy research for a few years while helping to take care of her late mother, but she is back at it again. She is still concentrating on the elusive John Godhard/Getter (who died at Christian Laubach's place in 1797) because Ol' John is related to so many people around Columbia County and especially Benton. If you're a Laubach, Hess, Cole, Frutchey, Fritz, etc., you're probably descended from John.

Polly is transcribing documents pertaining to the 1797-1803 court squabbles concerning John Godhard's estate between, among others, Executors Christian Laubach and John Frutchey vs. William Hess, Ezekiel Cole, Abraham & Sophia Tronsou and others. Among those documents is a list of estate items sold at auction, mostly mundane things like "2 shirts to Philip Fritz for 1 s 5 d, 1 hat to Jonathan Robins for 3 s 6 d, 2 caps to Mathias Roan for 2 s 9 d, etc."

There is one thing that Polly hasn't been able to figure out: "1 Howell & pincher" sold to Jonathan Cally for 4 s 6 d. Can anybody help Polly by identifying or helping to identify this item?

If you want to have some fun with local history, read some of the "Pale Pages" Polly has written. And don't forget to think about "Howell & Pincher."

Benton defeated Sullivan County Wednesday night 43-41. The wrestling match began at 7 PM at Benton High School. Benton moves to 1-0 and Sullivan is 0-1.

Benton competes next at the King of the Mountain Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
--thanks to Bryan Hart for wrestling updates

Clude K. Benjamin (October 21, 1932-December 15, 2010), died Wednesday at his home on Benton Manor Drive following a lengthy illness. He was 78. Clude was born in Benton. He was a son of Rendon and Letha B. (Speary) Benjamin. He attended Benton Schools. He was a member of the Waller United Methodist Church. He had been employed by US Steel, Berwick; TRW, Danville, PPL, Little Lumber Company and PennDOT, where he retired in 1974 because of poor health.

Clude and his wife, Loretta R. (Brittain) Benjamin, celebrated 53 years of marriage on November 15. Surviving, in addition to his wife, are his children Linda Artley (Dennis), Somerset; Roxanne Hughes, Benton; Thomas Benjamin (Lisa), Stillwater; Dianne Long, Bloomsburg; Lynanne Hendricks (Dale), Catawissa. There are 13 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Neva Benjamin Bitzer; a son-in-law, James D. Hughes on March 21, 2009, and by twin grandchildren Brianne and Zachary Hughes in 1985.

Funeral services will be held Saturday at 11 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Waller Cemetery. A viewing will be held Friday evening from 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home. To sign the online register book or for online condolences, visit www.mcmichaelfuneralhome.com .

• Cornell University professor Dr. A. R. Ingraffea will speak tonight on "Unconventional Gas Plays: Information for an Informed Citizenry," at 7 PM in Room 132 of Luzerne County Community College's Educational Conference Center, 1333 S Prospect St, Nanticoke. Dr. Ingraffea is an expert on hydraulic fracturing. His award-winning research concentrates on computer simulation of fracturing processes, including hydraulic fracturing. He is the Dwight C. Baum professor of Engineering and Weiss Presidential fellow at Cornell University's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has won numerous awards, done research and development for organizations including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Gas Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Transportation and several private companies, and is on the candidate list for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board for the Review of Hydraulic Fracturing Study. The presentation is free and open to the public.

• The federal representative on the Delaware River Basin Commission, Gen. Peter DeLuca of the Army Corps of Engineers, heads up the group developing regulations for gas drilling in eastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York. He outlined the position of the administration in a letter written to a New York Representative in which he indicates that the drilling moratorium in the Delaware Basin should remain in place until a "cumulative impacts" study completes. The pro-drilling forces are upset that drilling is allowed in other parts of the Commonwealth, but not in the area drained by the Delaware River. The river is an important provider of water for Philadelphia and New York city.

• Fracking opened the floodgates of opportunity for developing the Marcellus Shale. The process is deemed safe by the industry, but is highly suspect by those worried about clean, safe water supplies. The natural-gas reserves under our Commonwealth could permit the switch from coal to the clearer-burning fuel. As the industry grows, so do jobs in a state much in need of a stimulus program that doesn't end up costing taxpayers money. Many landowners are reaping in small fortunes from the leasing of their land. With the good has come bad--the contamination of some creeks and drinking-water supplies. Pennsylvania has had a long history of funneling state and federal money to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Erie. With little of the Marcellus money providing an economic boost to those centers of population, there is much resistance to drilling from residents of those areas.

• For an overview of the impact of the Marcellus Shale on nearby Towanda, read a recent Wall Street Journal article .

• Bloomberg reports that PennDOT will soon exempt local companies from compliance with bonding requirements related to posted-weight limits on many four-digit state routes in heavy Marcellus Shale drilling areas in Susquehanna and Wayne counties. The exemption will apparently not take effect in Columbia, Sullivan or Luzerne counties. Weight limits were applied so that gas-drilling companies would fix the damage caused by their trucks. PennDOT decision will exempt local companies that do not use the roads heavily. Emergency and construction vehicles, school buses, or classifications covering residential, commercial or farm vehicles will be excluded. In Sugarloaf Township, the necessary ordinances were passed relating to weight limits on four-digit roads, $6,900 in signage was erected stating the road-weight limits, all roads were photographed and benchmarked as 100%.

• Drilling activity at the "Bear" well on Route 118 is at a standstill until the driller (Chief) comes into compliance with county requirements. A donnybrook on this one is possible. The same is possible with XTO in Sugarloaf Township.

December 15, 2010, the birthday of Larry Brittain. Today is the last day of the Christmas and ornament sale at The Center. Hours are from 10 AM to noon and 5 PM to 7 PM. You name the weather today and we'll have it; i.e., windy, cloudy, cold--with late-day snow squalls. Doctors have said that Dottie Rabb's lungs are now clear and she has been given a clean bill of health following her pneumonia. This afternoon at 3 PM, the employees of the Benton branch of the First Columbia Bank will drop off presents at the Bonham Nursing Home, Stillwater, to share the joy of the holiday season with those unable to be with their families. The employees are providing a token of Christmas in lieu of exchanging Christmas presents within the bank family. Health concerns at the Bonham Nursing Home are currently restricting actual visitors.

On this day in 2003, streets in Benton were filled with snowmobiles, ATVs, garden tractors, snow blowers, tractors, and end loaders as six inches of snow fell, followed by sleet. By the time the storm was over, snow was piled eight feet high in the D.R. QuickMart parking lot.

In 2005 on this date, we had an ice storm and Libby Lewis gave us the "you-know-what" for complaining about "cold weather" of -10°. Libby pointed out that in 1936 temperatures didn't get "above -30° for several weeks. She reminisced about postman Joe Reece carrying mail in his Model T, barely visible from the front porch of her Father's Elk Grove house because of all the snow accumulation. When the weather warmed up in March of that year, the flood waters ripped out the bridge South of the present Brass Pelican restaurant and people in Elk Grove had to go "over the mountain" to Nordmont. Wilkes-Barre also endured catastrophic flooding in 1936, as the Susquehanna crested a record 33 feet above its normal levels, flooding much of that town.

Paying too much for television coverage? Don't care about barns burning, teenagers wrecking their cars, local banks being robbed? Perhaps www.ivi.tv/, the online-cable system, will work for you. The service has quite a lineup of broadcast channel offerings for Chicago, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles--sixty-five American over-the-air channels, plus a handful of international channels. Philadelphia will be added in the next several weeks.

The service provides a way to enjoy television stations by streaming live broadcast TV signals online. People without any cable or satellite television service can now watch local television through their computers. The company does not have contractual permission from the channels, but claims a "legal right to take free, over the air signals and package them for online viewing." The basic package contains all the major broadcast channels from cities mentioned above for $4.99 per month. The first 30 days are free to try and the contract can be canceled at anytime. After downloading an app to your computer, you can watch as much television from these four markets as you want. A high-speed internet connection is needed. Sign up on its website, www.ivi.tv.

Eric appeared on a "From the Top" broadcast taped before a live audience in Abilene, Texas, November 16 at the First Baptist Church along with several other of America’s best young classical musicians . Broadcast from Abilene, Texas, the show will air nationally the week of December 27 and will be available online at www.fromthetop.org .

Eric is the son of Bill and Nancy Fricke. He is a senior at Keystone High School, Bloomsburg. Eric accompanied the St. John’s College Santa Fe School Choir and participated in a master class with Cameron Carpenter at Organ Exposé in September 2008. Aside from music, Eric enjoys reading, writing, organizing and cooking.

On the show, Eric performs “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Joe Hisaishi, which he arranged himself, on the Shelton Organ. Appearing with Eric will be 15-year-old organist Karen Christianson, Media, Pennsylvania, performing “Everyone Dance” by Calvin Hampton; 12-year-old pianist Halle Puckett from Abilene, Texas, performing Etude in F major, Op. 72, No. 6 by Moritz Moszkowski; 16-year-old cellist Taeguk Mun from Westbury, New York, performing Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, accompanied by Christopher O’Riley on the piano; and 18-year-old marimba player Austin Allen from McKinney, Texas, performing “Ilijas” by Nebojsa Zivkovic.

For the past decade, "From the Top" has shared the stories and performances of pre-collegiate musicians with millions each week. Please visit www.fromthetop.org for more information. WVIA airs the program on its HD2 stream Sunday at 7 AM. If you have an HD radio receiver you'll be able to receive it over the air. If not, you can listen live online by going to www.wvia.org. This episode should air on January 2, 2011, at 7 AM.

Buster and Chloe heard from their friend in Florida whose name is also Chloe. The Chloe in Florida belongs to Teddy and Shirley McHenry, who recently drove South petrified of what Chloe would do on her first long, boring trip. Teddy and Shirley patiently explained the situation to Chloe's veterinarian, who prescribed a tiny white pill and said that the pill would make her sleep on the trip and not be a bother. Still, there was the nagging feeling that the trip would be a horrible experience because of the dog. There were visions of the dog getting carsick, of the dog not alerting its master that it needed a walk, that it wouldn't eat or drink, that--well, you get the picture. The trip was half over before Shirley said to Teddy that she never expected the pill to work so good. They talked about the possibility of additional trips because of the ease of the trip. Chloe did not utter a sound and in fact rarely lifted its head from its pillow. The dog mostly lay in this semi-comatose state until their arrival in Florida. It wasn't until the dog was gently lifted from its cushion that Shirley discovered that the dog had faked swallowing the pill and in fact had laid on it for 1,000 miles. Chloe had not needed any pills. She was loving every minute of the solitude she enjoyed on her ride to the Sunshine State.

Didja ever notice that some people retire from politics and some retire from ethics?

Teresa Wojton concludes that she feels she is "officially old." She explains that she can't go to the grocery store without gasping at the prices. She hears herself saying things like "I remember when you could get pasta 3 pounds for a dollar. and dried beans for less than 50 cents a bag." Teresa thanks God for his provision for her family, but "feels a strong concern for those who are living in poverty." Teresa is considering starting a co-op to deal with the staggering prices. "Some of our local ladies like using spelt flour and other organics, me I'd just like to get oatmeal and almonds at a fair price," she says. Teresa is serious about starting a co-op and would like to talk to anyone interested in the same subject. She would like to get started in January with the goal of selling bulk and whole foods in the spring in the camp store at Whispering Pines Camping Estates. Teresa's number is 925-6810. Let's get this ball rolling...

December 14, the 348th day of 2010. There are 7 days until the official start of Winter and the rare arrival of the Full Cold Moon on the same day. The weather this week feels as though Winter has arrived. Today is the birthday of Jim Rhone, Betty (Eveland) Sones and Chase Kline. Keep Chase Emerson Stewart in your prayers today as he faces leg surgery at 3 PM in the Shriner's Hospital, Philadelphia.

On December 14, 1799, the American health-care system let the number one politician in the new nation down. The man was George Washington and he thought that he had a mild case of flu because of his swollen and infected throat. A doctor today would probably have immediately suspected acute tonsillitis or perhaps strep throat. Doctors in Washington's day thought that the drawing of blood was the answer--somewhat akin to the taking of a baby aspirin or eating foods with high amounts of salicylates, omega-3 fatty acids, natural antibiotic properties and vitamin E supplements. President Washington's problem was not in the thinning of the blood, it was in the number of well-meaning doctors who believed in it. Doctor after doctor prescribed thinning the president's blood which resulted in multiple blood-lettings. Authoritative records probably never existed to document what the collective doctors did, but some suggest that as much as 40% of his blood was drained in 24 hours. The president went into shock, dozed off and died in his sleep.

As a reminder of this day, remind the folks in charge in Washington that tinkering with treatments can sometimes be fatal.

A hard freeze is expected to bring hours of overnight lows into the mid 20s in South Florida from the Treasure Coast to Jupiter and west to the interior, raising the specter of devastating losses in farm areas already slammed by last week's snap. Lows could be in the upper 20s as far south as Boca Raton. Below-freezing temperatures have arrived in our area, making it feel more like winter even though that season is a week away. The National Weather Service says we will have a frigid and windy day, with a high in the 20s. Wednesday, the highs should get a few degrees above freezing.

One of the "events" that will take place this Christmas is the release of the Joel and Ethan Coen movie, True Grit, a movie that the Critics Choice Awards gave 11 nominations to yesterday as "Best Picture. The movie comes out 40 years after John Wayne put his brand on the one-eyed Marshall “Rooster” Cogburn. For those who don't remember or never saw the movie, it is about a hapless cretin of a villain and a mean drunk as the hero. I have been a fan of the Coen Brothers ever since several of us from the Benton Christian Church took Rev. and Mrs. Vernon McDormand to see one of their son-in-law's movies which starred his daughter, Frances McDormand. The look on Noreen's face when she emerged from the movie after the last reel finished was something to etch in your memory forever. Her eyes were the size of an owl's eyes, a look of disbelief spread across her face. She simply said, "Such language." The episode reminded me of a Jewish woman I once knew who said about something I long since have forgotten, "I never heard such words." To which someone blurted out, "so how did you know what they mean?"

The Guv has 36 days left in office. He spread "Christmas Cheer" to the western part of the state Monday by coughing up $139 million in taxpayer dollars from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Projects (RCAP) fund. We expect he'll be wearing a white beard by Christmas day...

It isn't just any day that I let go of one of Mother's prize recipes, but today is an exception. This is her recipe for baked beans. The ingredients are one large bag of Great Northern beans, a teaspoon of baking soda, up to two pounds of bacon, and lots of pepper. Lots! Soak the Great Northern beans in water at least 12 hours, then drain. Cover with water again. Add about a heaping teaspoon of baking soda (Your digestive tract will thank me for this later) Bring to a boil for five minutes, scooping off the suds that rise. Drain again. Add two pounds of cooked bacon cut into small pieces. You can add a little of the grease, too) Add up to four cups of sugar and a whole lot of pepper. Cover this with water and bake at 350° for three hours. Stir hourly, of course.

Didja ever want to learn about 300 years of fossil fuels in 300 seconds? If so, watch a clever video produced by the Post Carbon Institute. The "anti-frack" folks will enjoy watching "Living in a Fracking Wonderland."

Sunday evening will bring music to Benton with the Christmas music program at the Presbyterian Church with the Lumpkin family, Jean, Jeremy, and Al, joined by friends, Warren and Ann Fisher and Judy Ellis. It takes place at 7 on December 19. The group is known as "Susquehanna String Theory." The group will also present a concert of "not-Christmas music" at The Center on January 14.

Bernadyne Ruth (Goss) Hunter (September 9, 1927-December 12, 2010), 83, a resident of Ross Township, Hunlock Creek, passed away Sunday in the Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, two months after the death of her daughter, Rosalie Hunter Harrison and five years this week after the death of her husband, Elmer Hunter. She was 83. Bernadyne was born in Wilkes-Barre. She was a daughter of Willard and Ruth Harrison Goss. She is survived by her son, Dustin "Dusty" Hunter (Mazie), the Summerhill areas of Berwick; grandchildren, Melissa Hunter, Christy Hogbin, and Judy Harrison; great-grandchildren, Akayla Cobb, Nadia Cobb, Jessica Hogbin and Shawn Hogbin; sisters, Marian Pursel, Benton; Lois Zultevicz, Cambra; Ethel Mae Noss, Berwick; and Edythe Ann Titus, Berwick; as well as brothers, Ronald Goss, Nanticoke, and Richard Goss, Berwick. Bernadyne was preceded in death by her husband, Elmer Hunter; daughter, Rosalie Harrison; sister, Laura J. Goss; and brothers, Willard and Samuel Goss. Interment will be in Saint Gabriel Cemetery, Benton, at the convenience of the family. There will be no services. Funeral arrangements are by the Clark Piatt Funeral Home, Hunlock Creek.

December 13, 2010, the birthday of Joe Griffith, Ruth (Letteer) Schmidt and Jane Sutton. There is a clothing giveaway from 10 to 3 today at the Stillwater Christian Church, Wesley Street, Stillwater. It will be interesting to see what the stock market does this week, following two weeks of gains with the S&P 500 hitting a two-year high Friday helped by General Electric (+3.44%) and Procter & Gamble (+0.52%).

• The allure of covered bridges is strong in both Columbia and Lycoming Counties. Lycoming County will spend $866,000 to renovate one of its three remaining bridges. This one crosses Little Muncy Creek near Lairdsville. The bridge ends on the "far side" in a grass turning-around area. The county is not choosing to call the renovation a "fix-up" of the "bridge to nowhere," but the "bridge to the past."

• South Florida is bracing for its third cold snap in two weeks, a concern to the region's already hard-hit crops. The forecast for early Tuesday in the Treasure Coast is for the temperature to drop to 40° along the coast and the lower 30s inland. South Florida's sugar-growing and important citrus crop is getting hammered. Citrus damage can occur when temperatures drop to 28° for four hours or longer. South Florida is seeing a repeat of the weather pattern last winter that brought the coldest winter in three decades. Cold snaps usually appear between late December and the end of February.

• There are hazardous materials, a lack of quality control, corruption and child labor. We should mention poisoned baby milk, contaminated pet food and dangerous toys from China. When products are built to match specifications, cutting costs takes place in ways that range from unsavory to dangerous. Packaging is cheap, chemical formulations are altered, sanitary standards thrown out the window. A new parody video, "Buy, Buy an American Pie, " written and performed by the "Capitol Steps," takes a humorous look at cheap products from China as viewed from the eyes of Uncle Sam. Take a minute and watch , then kick back and Buy American. Save a job for an American.

• If you want to keep up with Santa as he travels around the globe delivering presents on Christmas Eve, you can track his journey on Google Maps, on Google Earth with the plug-in and on your mobile phone.

• Google has a new feature on its voice service that allows people to send and receive free personalized calls from Santa. Go to sendacallfromsanta.com and choose an option to send unique customized phone calls to anyone in the U.S. Users can also send the messages from Santa via email, Facebook and Twitter. The Google Blog has more information. Special requests or messages for Santa can be left at his Google Voice number: 855-34-SANTA. Although he’s too busy to return messages himself, you can always create one on his behalf at the Send a Call From Santa site.

The staff and volunteers of the Benton Area Schools held the annual tribute to those over 55 years of age Sunday afternoon. The cafeteria of the middle/high school was filled with both seasoned eaters and enthusiastic teachers, volunteers from the community and the high-school, a return visit from former Superintendent Gary Powlus and a surprise visit from Rick Harowicz, "Mr. Wonderful" in Marcia Seely's life. Pictures are available for viewing as a slideshow and individually where they can be copied, emailed or printed.

What took place next--at 2 PM--was the Benton Area Schools "Sounds of the Season" concert in the Richard E. Martin Memorial Auditorium. The concert band, concert choir, mixed ensemble and jazz band performed under the direction of Jennifer DiLossi and Jennifer Welliver. The program consisted of the Jazz Band "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," followed by the group playing "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Rockin' Bells," and "Hot Chocolate." The Concert Choir performed "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," "Carol of the Bells," Ocho Kandelikas," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." The Mixed Ensemble played "Bidi Bom" and "Joy! A Medley of Carols." The Concert Band did "Christmas Music for Winds: A Symphonic Scenario," "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime," and concluded with "Thematic Variations of Dona Nobis Pacem."

No sooner than the "Sounds of the Season" ended, directors Jennifer DiLossi and Jennifer Welliver high-tailed it to Bloomsburg for the 4 PM Jubilate Choir and Orchestra concert at St. Matthew Lutheran Church. Jennifer DiLossi moved from behind the conductor's baton in Benton to the ivories of the piano and Jennifer Welliver picked up the French Horn in Bloomsburg.

The Bloomsburg concert was under the direction of Alan Hack, who segmented the program into the "Advent," the "Manger," the "Nativity," and the "Celebration." He concluded the performance with three hymns for Christmas: "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "I Saw Three Ships." One of my favorites was "De Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy." The performance was being recorded for a probable eventual release, so someday you'll be able to have a copy of your own. If you haven't heard the song, you might take a listen to this version of the song. Other songs performed included "Silent Night," "This Tiny Child" and The "First Noel." It was a brilliant performance. The concert was a professional community effort, with participation from Bloomsburg, Berwick, Danville as well as Benton. In addition to the two Jennifers, Grace Feola, Elizabeth Schaffer, JoAnn Walk, Mariah Krygier, Paddy Langenbach, Kathleen McKenzie, Lisa Gordner, Joe Goode and Kristie Schaffer are from the Benton area. (Please forgive me if I have forgotten anyone.)

December 12, 2010, the birthday of LeeAnn Wagner, Amanda Janney-Hayman, Peg Root, Ann Marie Nesbitt, Cheyenne Geffken, David Arthur Powell, Dennis Threlkeld and Harry Ritter. Get your rain gear out today.

Didja ever think that the height of irony is to give father a wallet at Christmas?

On the subject of natural gas...
• A lawsuit has been filed in Bradford County against Chesapeake Energy Corporation and one of its affiliates which contends that a natural gas-drilling operation contaminated a ground well that provided the main water supply to the plaintiffs' residence. The lawsuit contends that methane, ethane, barium and other pollutants and substances were discharged as a result of the gas well drilling operation, and contaminated the ground and aquifer near the plaintiffs' home and into the ground water well used as a water supply.

• Canton Township will probably get an RV park, complete with 30 self-contained units 48 feet long, for use as an "open camp" with 180 beds to accommodate the workers in the natural-gas industry.

• Pennsylvania uses a State Route (SR) highway system. The SR system replaced internal routes (IR), so that route PA 239 became SR 239. All SRs are written as four-digit numbers with padded zeroes; i.e., SR 0239. These SR numbers are maintained for the entire length of almost all signed state, US and interstate routes. All other state-maintained roads, such as secondary roads, interchange ramps, truck-escape ramps and rest areas were given four-digit numbers above 1000. SR numbers above 1000 are specific to each county. The SR number and its segment number are displayed on little white signs along SR routes. Expect some problems in the future over weight restrictions on local roads. PennDOT has 10-ton weight limits on all SR four-digit numbered roads since the end of August. By limiting the weight on the road, natural gas companies are forced to bond the road if they use it to insure that they will repair any damage their trucks cause. Small, local contractors who also use trucks over 10-tons can expect future headaches.

• The Delaware River Basin Commission issued a "Draft Natural Gas Development Regulation" December 9, 2010. If you have an interest in the subject, take the time to read appropriate sections, including discussions of regulating water withdrawals from bodies of water, well-pad siting in flood-hazard areas, on steep slopes and areas that serve as critical habitat for federal or state designated threatened and endangered (T&E) species; setbacks from water, wetlands, surface water-supply intakes and water-supply reservoirs and from occupied homes, public buildings, public roads, public water-supply wells, and domestic water-supply wells; monitoring of surface and groundwater near well pads involving high volume hydraulically fractured wells; monitoring, tracking and reporting of water usage and wastewater treatment and disposal. The regulation will require all wastewaters be transported to approved treatment and disposal facilities.

• There is a lot of speculation about the findings from the Martin well near St. Gabriels Church and about why EnCana pulled out of Fairmount Township with its drilling operation. The bottom line on the Martin test well will not be known by the public until such time as it is in the best interest of Williams to allow that information to be made public. As far as the economic health of EnCana, decide for yourself by reading their third quarter earnings . Watch for other drilling operations to come in looking for fire-sale price holdings.

• New York Governor Paterson issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Environmental Conservation to "conduct further comprehensive review and analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale." The Executive Order requires that, if approved, high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing would not be permitted until July 1, 2011, at the earliest.

A fisherman once said that we should govern about as we would cook a small fish. Don't overdo it!

December 11, 2010, the birthday of John Kaileb-Joshuwa Kaminski .Jr., Thomas Tishler, Wilbur Kocher, and the wedding anniversary of Betty (Hiscox) and Ray Weston. A bit of warming takes place today, with highs nearing 40°, with rain and possible snow late. The Sunday weather forecast is for rain. Monday should see temperatures dipping again. The Benton News will resume normal distribution and content beginning with the Monday edition.

There is an open house today and Sunday from 10 AM at Black Bear Pottery, 255 Main Street. Call 925-1000 for more information. The Fishing Creek Players will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at The Center. Tickets at door. The Jubilate Choir, with its 70 voices and a 30-piece chamber orchestra under the direction of Alan Hack along with its community handbell choir and 20-member children’s choir, under the leadership of Lydia Greene, will be in concert at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 123 N. Market St., Bloomsburg tonight at 7 and Sunday at 4. The concerts are open to the public at no charge. Light refreshments will be provided following each concert. A Christmas production takes place tonight presented by the North Mountain Community in the village of Central at the North Mountain Fire Co. grounds, with beautiful music, live animals, realistic outdoor sets and original costumes. After the free production, enjoy complimentary hot chocolate, cookies and warm up by the bonfire where you can toast marshmallows. Witness the birth of Jesus, his life story and resurrection. For more information, contact Christ United Methodist Church at 925-2304.

Quickies...
• The first two performances of the "Best Xmas Pageant Ever" at The Center went very well. It is a superb production with 25 talented performers who did their job well. Teri Chadd did a great job of directing the children and adults. It is a "must-see" for this Christmas season. Pictures taken at the Friday night performance of the "Best Xmas Pageant Ever" at The Center are available for viewing as a slideshow and individually where they can be copied, emailed or printed .

• The Benton Wrestling Booster Club and wrestlers of the Benton Area Schools served spaghetti to 236 hungry people Friday night. The young wrestlers were perfect gentlemen as they served the meal.

• Those celebrating Christmas in Pennsylvania might enjoy seeing how it is celebrated in Florida. Go here and see if you recognize anyone you know.

• Didja know that 80% of smartphone sales at Verizon in November were Android devices (46% of those were Droids). Every day, 300,000 Android handsets are activated in the United States, according to Google.

• Looking for a place to retire? The top places to retire are shown here. The worst states to retire in, you ask? The same website names Illinois, California, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Nevada. The worst states got in that shape because of fiscal health, taxation and/or climate.

For starters, here are the gas companies that import Middle Eastern oil: Shell, Chevron/Texaco, Exxon/Mobil, Marathon/Speedway and Amoco. Oh, and don't forget about Citgo who gets its oil from Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez. And then there are some large companies that don't get their oil from the Middle East: Sunoco, Conoco, OASinclair, BP/Phillips, Ness, ARCO, Maverick, Flying J, Valero, Kwik Fill and Murphy Oil USA (sold at some Walmarts).

So I ask--do you hear politicians moaning and groaning about the oil imports? Heavens to Murgatroyd no! They don't even mention reducing foreign oil imports. You aren't hearing about an energy policy or an energy plan, no one is trying to reduce oil imports, you don't hear about a plan for natural-gas transportation. Natural gas transportation could usher in an era of American prosperity few today can even imagine. The government simply prints more paper dollars to pay for our foreign oil imports.

December 10, the 344th day of 2010, with 11 days remaining until the official start of Winter. It is the birthday of Larry Paul and the wedding anniversary of David and Theresa Hilley. Five years ago, the snow accumulation in Benton Borough exceeded 8" and higher amounts were recorded in outlying areas. The Benton Area Schools were closed. Temperatures today will hardly break freeing and expect flurries to continue. Sunday's forecast of ice and snow has not improved.

On December 10, 1927, radio announcer George Hay introduced the "WSM Barn Dance" as "The Grand Ole Opry." Originally known as the WSM Barn Dance, the show started its career in the station's fifth floor Studio A on November 28, 1925. "Uncle" Jimmy Thompson "fiddled the bugs off the tater vines" in the first show. The name of the show changed when announcer George D. Hay ad libed after the WSM Barn Dance came on the air after a broadcast of the NBC Music Appreciation Hour. Hay said, "For the past hour, you have been listening to Grand Opera. Now we will present Grand Ole Opry!" Want to listen to the Grand Ole Opry? You can, on SIRIUS Satellite Radio or by going to www.wsmonline.com .

Employees of the First Columbia Bank, Main Street, Benton will extend season's greetings to their patrons today from 11 AM. Stop and say hello. The Benton Wrestling Booster Club in conjunction with wrestlers of the Benton Area Schools are putting on a spaghetti dinner tonight from 6-8 PM in the Benton High School cafeteria. The junior high and varsity wrestlers will serve as waiters. Take-out is available. Cost is $5.

The North Mountain community will perform a live Nativity musical drama, "Breath of Heaven," tonight and Saturday night at 7 at the North Mountain Fire Co. grounds on Elk Grove Road in Central. There is a Nativity musical production with beautiful music, live animals in realistic outdoor sets and original costumes. There is complimentary hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows and cookies and warm-up by the bonfire. The Fishing Creek Players will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” tonight at The Center. Prices posted Wednesday in the Benton News were incorrect. The correct admission prices are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; $5 for children under 12; and free for all other children.

It was a heck of a day in Washington, D.C., yesterday. Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have repealed the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy, with the outcome likely to be that the policy remains in effect this year. The Democrats in the House pulled some political theater over the tax deal President Obama struck with Republicans by taking a symbolic vote against it, although the measure moved closer to passing in the Senate.

It doesn't make sense for a sane man to wade into the murky waters of the tax benefits accorded to the corn-ethanol industry. Yet editorials in four major U.S. newspapers--The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune--made the case for ending the wasteful and redundant corn ethanol tax credit by highlighting the massive costs to U.S. taxpayers of redundant corn-ethanol subsidies. We receive very little in return.

We have about 10% ethanol in most gas tanks when we fill up our Firebelch 500s and swoosh down the road. Ethanol helps get us away from dependence on some crumb-bum nations for our supplies of oil. We're told that ethanol cuts carbon emissions. According to figures from the four newspapers, those who refine our gasoline get a tax credit of 45 cents a gallon--$6 billion in 2009 in tax credits. The numbers are far worse when put in terms of greenhouse gases. The Congressional Budget Office reports that it costs a staggering $750 to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions one ton by burning corn ethanol. Oh, and did we mention that you gas mileage goes down with an ethanol mixture? Mechanics report increased cases of carburetor damage over time in small engines, attributable to increased water retention in ethanol.

The extension of the Bush-era tax cuts now being hotly debated in Washington includes action on ethanol and biodiesel credits, although you don't hear much about it. The deal isn't done and who knows how this will all end, but it appears that ethanol and biodiesel tax credits could get a temporary extension through 2015. The ethanol credit of 45 cents per gallon is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

Roxie Janney suggests that cooks "Take a big jar of applesauce and add ¼ cup cinnamon heart candies and 1/3 cup of sugar. Stir frequently until candies dissolve--about 2 hours. Makes a very pretty deep-pink applesauce," she says.

Lutheran Airlines is now taking off. Even if you are not Lutheran or from Minnesota, you'll enjoy hearing about the airlines. As the airlines mention in their promo for the flights, "Vhile the pilot is dalking, click on de scmall square on de bottom right of de screen to enchoy a nice light shew. Tank kwew." Listen by going here.

Speaking of Minnesota, here is their version of a Christmas poem, entitled 'Twas Da Night Before Christmas.

Twas da night before Christmas I began to relax to a point
ven I heard creatures a stirring all over da yoint.

My old socks vere hung by da chimney wit care,
in hopes dat dere odor would get them creatures out of here.

Da kids vere all nestled all snug in dere beds,
vile visions uff fresh lefsa danced in dere heads.
Me and Ma in our skivies vith down pillows of goose
had yust settled down for a long winter's snooze.

When out on da lawn dere arose such a clatter,
I hid under da sheets til ma saw what was da matter.
She flew to da window in a 300 pound dash,
tore da shutters off dere hinges and flew open da sash.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear on da loose,
but a miniature sled and eight tiny reinmoose.

With dat tubby old codger looking frostbit and lost,
I knew in a moment dat it must be dat Claus.

More rapid dan herring his coursers dey came,
as he bellered and svore and called dem by name.

"Now Odin! Now Ingman! Now Gunner and Vixon!
On Nordal! On Olaf! On Agnew and Nixon!

As I drew in my head and vas turning around,
down da fake fireplace came old man Claus vith a bound.
He vas dressed kind of goofy from da front to da back,
and his clothes vere stretched out from putting on too much fat.

His eyes, dey vere bloodshot. His nose full of ooze.
His cheeks vere like roses and his breadthe smelled like booze.
Da stump of a stogie he held tight in his teeth,
and da smoke dat encircled him stunk like a burnt out wreath.

He spoke not a word but vent straight to his work,
pocketing all my valuables dat crafty old jerk.
And laying his finger outside of his nose,
he pushed me aside and up my fake fireplace he rose.

He sprang to his sled and to his moose yelled out clear,
"Ive got all der goodies, let's get da heck outta here!"

But I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight,
"You should never leave your fireplace unlocked over night!"

December 9, 2010, the birthday of Deb Ginger. This edition of the Benton News is sent out late. My excuse, you ask? I went to see "The Next Three Days," the drama thriller movie starring Russell Crowe. If you have seen the movie, you'll know why I didn't have any energy left to write the Benton News. If you haven't seen it and plan to, my suggestion is to gently lubricate your bottom before the show so that your squeaking seat won't disturb others in the movie.

It was on December 9, 1945, that the colorful but controversial American general, George S. Patton, the master of tank warfare, was trying to take his mind off his troubles. The war had ended, but Patton continued to say politically incorrect things that overshadowed his brilliant military reputation. Papers in the U.S. began to call him a one-trick pony. He had been stripped of his Bavarian command for refusing to remove every government leader who had been even a minor Nazi Party member. His latest kick was to argue that Communists were now the threat. He threatened to resign from the Army. Rumors began surfacing of a political committee being formed and the name President Patton did have a certain ring to it. On this day he and his chief of staff set out to go pheasant hunting. As the two men sat in the back seat of his chauffeur-driven Cadillac talking, Patton's driver missed a left turn signal on an on-coming "deuce & a half." The truck turned and the staff car smashed into it. Everybody in the truck was okay. Patton's driver, 20, was okay, as was his chief of staff. Patton said he was okay but couldn't feel his legs. Eleven days later, he learned he would never be able to ride a horse again. The depressed Patton went to sleep and never awoke. Patton, the folk-hero general, died in a Heidelberg Germany hospital December 22, 1945. His death was, officially, an accident. The cause of death was a blood clot which developed gangrene in his lungs and weakened his warrior heart.

The Robinson/Sordoni Gas Group will meet tonight at the Benton high school. The meeting begins at 7 PM and is open to the public. Jack Sordoni will update the group. Starting today 4:30 to 9 PM and continuing Friday and Saturday, 10 AM to 9 PM is the Christkindl Market in downtown Mifflinburg, an authentic outdoor German Christmas market featuring food, crafts and entertainment. The Fishing Creek Players will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” beginning tonight night at The Center. Prices posted Wednesday in the Benton News were incorrect. The correct admission prices are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; $5 for children over 12; and free for all other children.

At approximately 9:50 Wednesday morning Alabama time, it began snowing in Enterprise, Alabama, at the home of Dick and Janet McHenry, and continued snowing most of the morning. Richard noted that "we only see this about every 10 or so years so it's news down here." Heck, this darn weather is news all over the East coast! The weather due here Sunday and early Monday doesn't sound promising...

Connie Hatch sent in this pie crust recipe which uses lard. I have never tried it, but here 'tis...

Is it too much to ask the politicians in Washington to get our economy back to reasonable health, get unemployment rates below 7%, get some oomph in the housing market and persuade business to start investing some of its saved-up bucks that it is currently afraid to invest? Failing to do that will mean a bloodbath in Washington two years from now.

Guv-elect Tom Corbett’s team has an impressive lineup of inaugural events for the week of January 17, 2011. Monday, January 17, will showcase Pennsylvania’s performing arts, Tuesday, Corbett and Lt. Gov.-elect Jim Cawley will participate in the Celebration of Mass at The Cathedral Parish of Saint Patrick. Tom Corbett will be sworn in as Pennsylvania’s 46th Governor at a swearing-in ceremony scheduled to begin at 11:30 AM outside the East Wing of the state Capitol. About 9,500 state workers at the Capitol will get the day off. Taxpayers get the bill, which the Patriot-News estimates at $2.2 million. Later that evening, the Inaugural Ball will be held at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center, at a cost of $150 per person,

The phone seems to be ringing with calls from groups opposed to natural-gas drilling who plan to boycott the inauguration on January 18 to protest during the inauguration of Tom Corbett.

December 8, 2010, the birthday of Kim Notestein and Anna Dressler. The Columbia County Landowners Coalition group meets tonight at the Benton High School Auditorium from 7 to 8 PM. André Dominguez will lecture on the history of saws, the significance of the up-and-down saw in the building of America and the location of sawmills in Benton Borough and Benton Township. The presentation is at 7 PM at The Center. It is free and open to the public. Flurries today, mid-teans for the next two nights.

On this date in...
. 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed as he stood outside his New York City apartment house, the Dakota. The "fan" was quickly apprehended. Mourners listened to Give Peace a Chance, as a tribute to the musician and songwriter. Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife, and others set up a permanent memorial to her husband in an area of Central Park called Strawberry Fields.

. 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The "sleeping giant" had awakened.

Quickies...
• What is the shortest day of the year? Answer at the end.

• Do you see the value in transforming plastic waste into a liter of oil, using about 1 kW·h of electricity but without emitting CO2 in the process? A Japanese inventor has come up with a machine that uses a temperature controlling electric heater to process anything from polyethylene or polystyrene to polypropylene . One kg of plastic produces one liter of oil, which costs $1.50. This process uses only about 1 kW·h of electricity, which costs less than 20 cents! See the process in action by going here.

• I will acknowledge that people told me that it was cold in Florida yesterday. Looking at the map of my favorite places, it was all cold! Temperatures dropped as low as 26° in western Palm Beach County and in the low 20s in inland Martin County as vegetable fields were slowly burned by frost. The cold snap is hitting winter vegetable-growing areas just as crops are needed for Christmas and New Year's dinner tables. By Saturday, the daytime high is to be in the low-to-mid 70s in the Treasure Coast of Florida.

• The Benton Wrestling Booster Club in conjunction with wrestlers of the Benton Area Schools are putting on a spaghetti dinner on Friday night from 6-8 in the Benton High School cafeteria. The junior high and varsity wrestlers will serve as waiters. Take-out is available. Cost is $5. There will be items for sale, including the 2010-11 Benton wrestling posters ($5), orange state champion T-shirts ($10), gun-raffle tickets ($20). Orders will be taken for the team's new t-shirts ($15) and sweatshirts ($27) for the upcoming season!

• Two full-time, permanent, middle/senior high school learning support positions are available in the Benton Area Schools. PA Teacher Certification in Special Education is required, as well as ability to work collaboratively as a team. Positions are available January 2011. Send letter of interest, PA standard application, resume, transcripts, recommendations, copy of PA teaching certificate, Acts 34, 114 and 151 clearances to Mrs. Penny Lenig-Zerby, Superintendent, 600 Green Acres Road, Benton, PA 17814. The deadline is January 4, 2011. EOE

• It is very easy to make delicious applesauce from mediocre applesauce. Dottie Rabb calls it "doctoring it up." Simply take a 24-ounce jar of applesauce, the house brand will do, a quarter cup of packed brown sugar, a half cup of sugar, two teaspoons of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and a dash of allspice and two tablespoons of butter. Combine everything in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat four to five minutes.

• The Son of Mary Christmas Program at the Benton United Methodist Church scheduled for December 18 has been canceled.

• You say you can't think of the perfect gift for that perfect someone this Christmas, or for a birthday, graduation, or whatever? Head here and you'll find it easily and quickly. You don't know what is out there until you try this site.

. The winter solstice occurs this year on December 21, and is the day with the fewest hours of daylight. The shortest day of next year, however, is on March 13, 2011 when we turn our clocks forward to go on Daylight Saving Time. When we move the clock forward, we subtract an hour from the day. Therefore, that day is only 23 hours in length.

• Fishing Creek Players will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” beginning Thursday night at The Center. It is a show for the whole family that will amuse and delight everyone. It tells the story of a very, very bad group of children who learn about the spirit of the season in spite of themselves. Fishing Creek Players is the area’s first community theater run under the auspices of Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, Benton. Price is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; $5 for children over 12; and free for all other children.

Range Resources Appalachia LLC has drilled the most natural-gas wells and reported the highest production in the Commonwealth. Chesapeake Appalachia LLC has the most permits. Talisman Energy USA Inc., East Resources Management LLC, Atlas Energy Inc. and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. are active in drilling in Pennsylvania. To learn more, go to the searchable database of Marcellus Shale permits issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

December 7, 2010, the birthday of Barbara Fritz and Holly Hartman-Kishbaugh. Carolyn Stevens is home from rehabilitation following a fall resulting in a broken leg and arm. It is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in honor of those who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor.

It was on December 7, 1791, when one of the brightest minds in history was laid to rest, two days after he died. He began writing music at the age of 3, composing minuets by the time he was 5. By the age of 10, he was an accomplished musician on six different instruments including the harpsichord, the violin and the organ. He was appointed concertmaster by the Archbishop of Salzburg at the age of 14. He was such a genius that the Emperor hired him and his fame spread to all of the civilized world. By the time he reached 35, he had written more than 600 major works: 20 operas, 50 symphonies, 30 concertos, 40 violin sonatas and a raft of other major chamber and choral pieces. His symphonies, small operas and concert pieces have lasted more than two centuries. But on this day 219 years ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 35, was unceremoniously dumped by strangers from a wagon into a pauper's grave. Like the long winters of Pennsylvania, he had fallen out of favor of friends and patrons and had gone through his money. In his short lifetime, he had suffered from smallpox, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, typhoid fever--to name a few. Some historical references note that the only acquaintance to accompany the former toast of Europe to his final resting place that cold and rainy December day was his faithful dog which followed dutifully behind the lonely funeral wagon. The sad and forlorn canine was the only living creature in sight as the body of the man all of Europe had once toasted and applauded was taken to a common grave at the St. Marx cemetery as was the contemporary Viennese custom. For more on the death of Mozart, go here. For more on his funeral, go here and to learn more about his dog, go here.

At dawn on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in an attempt to cripple the fleet and hinder U.S. intervention in other Japanese targets in the South Pacific. Airfields, port facilities and warships in Hawaii were severely damaged and two battleships, the Utah and the Arizona, were destroyed. After the attack, Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said, "We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve." The attack truly did awaken a sleeping giant. The United States mobilized the United States and signaled its entry into World War II.

• On Wednesday, December 15, at 3 PM, the employees of the Benton branch of the First Columbia Bank will visit the Bonham Nursing Home, Stillwater, to share the joy of the holiday season with those unable to be with their families. The employees are providing this token of Christmas in lieu of exchanging Christmas presents within the bank family.

• André Dominguez from the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society will give a presentation Wednesday, December 8, in which he discusses the history of saws, the significance of the up-and-down saw in the building of America, and the location of sawmills in Benton Borough and Benton Township. The presentation is at 7 PM at The Center. It is free and open to the public. For those not familiar with the term "up-and-down saw," most original mills used this saw before the circular saw came into use. America's first "power-driven sawmill" was built in 1631 at Salmon River Falls, Maine, by colonists using water to operate an up-and-down saw.

The Jubilate Choir is a volunteer, community-based choir that serves the Benton, Berwick, Bloomsburg, Danville and surrounding areas. The choir was formed in 2005 under the direction of Alan Hack. Beginning with 28 singers accompanied solely by piano, the choir now boasts more than 70 voices and a 30-piece chamber orchestra. This year’s concert entitled “Rejoice!” will feature The Fountain Ringers, a newly formed community-handbell choir, along with a 20-member children’s choir, under the leadership of Lydia Greene.

The Jubilate Choir added the orchestra in 2009 to celebrate its fifth anniversary. After attracting more than 1,100 community members during its 2009 concerts, the choir decided to expand its mission to permanently include the orchestra in all future programs. The Jubilate Choir & Orchestra are supported by grants from the Pennsylvania Partner in the Arts and the Danville Area Community Foundation as well as generous sponsorships from individuals and local businesses.

Concerts will be held at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 123 N. Market St., Bloomsburg on Saturday, December 11, at 7 PM and Sunday, December 12, at 4 PM. The concerts are open to the public at no charge and light refreshments will be provided following each concert. For additional information, please contact 784-4515 or 854-0733.

Today's recipe is for sweet peppers cooked in oil, a favorite of mine when eating meat, for flinging on top of pizza or for combining with ham and eggs for a morning omelet. For this recipe, you'll need a third of a cup of extra virgin olive oil, 4 assorted red, yellow and orange peppers (cheaper when purchased in a combination bag than when purchased individually), then core, seed and cut into ¼" strips. You'll need about four cloves of garlic, thinly sliced, half of a medium white onion, thinly sliced, salt and ground pepper to taste, and 3 teaspoons of red-wine vinegar. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the peppers, garlic, onions, a half cup of water and season with salt and pepper. Cook, partially covered, stir occasionally, until the peppers are soft, somewhat less than an hour. Stir in the vinegar and move to a serving bowl. If you try the recipe and like it and want to plant some sweet peppers in next summer's garden, a source for the seeds is Burpee .

On the subject of natural gas...
• Newsweek Magazine suggests that fracking--the method of harvesting gas by blasting shale with a mix of water, sand and chemicals--may be poised for a comeback--at least politically--with the arrival of Guv-elect Tom Corbett. If he reopens state land to drilling, as one of his spokesperson told Newsweek that he will do, expect as many as 10,000 wells and tens of thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions in state- and local-tax revenue. Look for New York Guv-elect Andrew Cuomo to consider doing the same.

• For those who want a refresher on Marcellus shale, go here. If you need the same on horizontal drilling, go here. For hydraulic fracking, go here .

The Fishing Creek Players will present
Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
with performances at the
Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, Benton, PA,

December 6, 2010, the birthday of Nina Ford, Corinne Houseweart Fornwald Hess, Bob Green, Robin Hough McCourt, Nicholas Geffken and the wedding anniversary of Jim and Elaine Laubach. There is a guitar-ensemble concert tonight at 7 with Matthew Slotkin directing at Gross Auditorium, Carver Hall, on the campus of Bloomsburg University, 400 E. Second St, Bloomsburg. Ginny Mazzei will conduct a free holiday yoga for relaxation class tonight at 6:30 at The Center. Call 925-0163 to see if you can still get in the class. Expect some snow Monday and Tuesday. Dottie Rabb continues her recovery from her bout with pneumonia.

On the eve of December 6, many countries in Europe celebrate the Feast of Sinterklaas, or St. Nicholas. The legend of St. Nicholas is shrouded in mystery, much like the lives of many saints. We know that he was the bishop of Myra in Lycia, part of Asia Minor (which we now know as most of the Republic of Turkey), during the fourth century. He is credited with saving three sisters from lives of ill repute by throwing bags of gold and jewels into their house (some say down the chimney, others say through the window) to put some money in their dowries. It is hard to believe that legends about being nice to children would start from a beginning like that! Children around the world continue to hang their stockings by the chimney or place their shoes by the window for St. Nicholas to fill them with presents and other goodies on the eve of his feast day. He is considered the patron saint of children.

For the next thousand years, Nordic tribes told of his love of children and his generosity by giving gifts to their children and the poor on St. Nick's feast day, December 6. When the Dutch came to our country, they brought their gift-giving "Sinte Klaus" with them, which Americans promptly mispronounced as Santa Claus. They also saw no value in December 6, so the day was moved to Christmas. Winters for the Nordic and the Americans were darn severe, so throwing gifts through open windows became impractical and the chimney became the next point of entry for the jolly old man. None of this front door stuff for him. The cold, wet weather of Winter necessitated hanging stockings by the fire and they became the place to hide the jewels (gifts).

• Say you're on the square in Wilkes-Barre, and you want to find a nearby coffee shop. Go to Google and type in 'coffee shops on the square in Wilkes-Barre, PA'. Google will produce a list of just what you typed in; i.e., local coffee shops near Public Square with basic information of name, address, and phone number, and if they exist, reviews, ratings and links to other relevant resources. If you go to Google.com and type in a phrase, such as "restaurants in Benton, PA," (you could also pick a related subject or a related location), you get two local restaurants and one that is out of business, plus two in Millville . Local businesses should update their Google database.

• The Robinson/Sordoni Gas Group will meet on Thursday, December 9, at the Benton high school. The meeting begins at 7 PM and is open to the public. Jack Sordoni will update the group.

• There was no time to reconstruct the recipe section for today, so I am only including one recipe, one originally served by Kim Baker on a cold evening at Painter Den. It may not exactly be a Christmas recipe, but it is a keeper...

• Some shoppers got an unexpected surprise while eating their lunch in mid-November, when about 100 people broke into song. Click here to enjoy.

   • Google is offering a free $10 calling credit during the holidays to military families in an effort to help them keep in touch with their loved ones serving abroad. Go to the Google Blog for more information. You can call from Google Voice or from inside Gmail. You'll get roughly 30 minutes of call time to Afghanistan, 60 minutes to Iraq, or hundreds of minutes to many countries in Europe and around the world. To be eligible for $10 calling credits, military family members must...

   • Be a member of either Blue Star Families or Sesame Street Family Connections . Registration is free for all military families
   • Provide their Gmail address
   • Enable calling in Gmail and accept the terms of service OR have an existing Google Voice account
   • Complete this registration form by December 22, 2010

December 5, 2010. It is the birthday of Kimberly Bogert, Arla Mae Miller, Linda Lee Kline and Joseph Grenewich. Today will be the warmest of the next four days. Keep Peg and Carl Stuehrk, both 83, in your prayers following a Saturday morning car crash on I-80 near Bloomsburg. Both had moderate injuries and are in Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

A community Christmas hymn sing takes place tonight at the Benton Christian Church at 7. The program will include singing of Christmas carols and hymns by the audience and various groups presenting Christmas music. Groups participating include the brass ensemble, the chorus from Benton High School, Waller United Methodist Church choir, Christ the King Catholic Church choir, The Feola family and the Benton Christian Church choir. The Watsontown United Methodist Church, 1319 Eighth Street Drive, Watsontown will also present its instrumental and vocal choirs in "A Christmas Concert" at 7 PM. For further information, contact the church office at 538-1017.

Didja ever think that a positive attitude won't solve all your problems,
but it will annoy enough people to make the effort worthwhile?

Quickies...
• Much of the country was bathed in wintry weather following the Thanksgiving weekend, sending natural gas prices up. During the period November 24-December 1, the Henry Hub spot price increased $0.39 to $4.21 per million Btu (MMBtu).

• Ken Hull likes to jump on his Harley from his hometown of Boalsburg and visit the backwoods and backwater places that serve good food. One of his recent travels brought him to Benton where he visited The Old Filling Station, 140 Main Street. He refers to it in his new book where he reviews "cool places for you to eat, drink or just hang out with a cup of coffee." He reviews 64 restaurants in central Pennsylvania, including the Old Filling Station. Ken didn't know much about Benton, except that his fishing buddies Barry and Cathy Beck lived here, there was a Bluegrass festival in July and Ricketts Glen State Park was nearby. David "Otto" Kurecian from the Columbia/Montour Tourist Bureau told Ken about the restaurant's culinary-school trained chef preparing American cuisine and a cook from Thailand making "authentic and amazing Thai" food. Ken was enchanted from the moment he approached the backside of the two-story house and saw the outdoor patio filed with beautiful hanging baskets of flowers. To learn what he said about the inside, you'll have to buy the book! The book is on sale at Amazon.com and at the Old Filling Station.

• And now the worst for last. I carefully compiled the recipes that I wanted to share when I was in Camp Hill this week, but neglected to bring them back to Benton with me. Ah, the curse of getting old and forgetful! But remember what someone once said about the nine ways of poaching eggs: "each of them is worse than the other." You might not have liked the recipes. I will reconstruct them and try the series again Monday.

The Center is hosting its annual holiday-gift exchange and sing-along from 6 to 8 tonight. Bring a gift to exchange and your favorite holiday treat to share. Label your gift with the age and gender of the recipient. The event is free and open to the public. The United Methodist Church, 1319 Eighth Street Drive, Watsontown, will hold a baked steak dinner this afternoon starting at 4. The price is $8 for adults and $4 for children ages 5-12. There is a holiday bazaar from 9 AM to 3 PM at Christ Community United Methodist Church, Selinsgrove. Lunch is available from 11 until it is gone. You can see Bloomsburg's historic homes and churches decked out for the holidays and listen to the sights and sounds of the Children's Choir and have refreshments galore today. Tickets available for tour only or tour and luncheon. Tour begins at Bloomsburg Elementary School, 500 Market Street, Bloomsburg. The Christmas Boulevard, Berwick opens tonight through January 1 from 6 to 10. This mile-long car tour on Market Street features animated characters, lights and music. The kids can say hello to Santa. Habitat for Humanity in Columbia and Montour Counties will hold their first holiday craft show at the Moose Exchange, 203 West Main St, Bloomsburg.

While looking for that recipe, I came across a bunch of other recipes that are favorites of mine, especially as we approach the Christmas season. I'll share some of them over the coming days, and if you have some you would like to share please send them to me. Let's start at the beginning...

The part of Christmas I liked most when I was growing up hung from the Christmas tree in the form of clear, hard candy. There just wasn't any extra money to go around and so the tree was chopped in the woods, the ornaments were handmade and edible and often in the form of a reindeer, the only candy mold that Mother seemed to like. Mother took two cups of sugar, a half cup of light corn syrup and the same of water, a tablespoon of vinegar, and a few drops of flavored extract and food color. She would mix the sugar, corn syrup, water and vinegar in a saucepan past the time that it came to a boil until the foam subsided into large bubbles which a cook told me equates to 280° on a candy thermometer. Mother would turn down the heat and boil slowly until the thermometer read 300° and a little syrup dropped in cold water formed a tiny ball. Mother took the candy from the stove at this point and flavored and colored and stirred it all in until she got the same color throughout.

Mother then poured the mixture into lightly oiled cookie cutters laid on cookie sheets. When the candy got hard, she ran hot water on it and pressed out the candy. To this day, hard Christmas candy is a favorite.

John Herbert Laubach took his mother's cherished recipe box and converted them into 78 recipes from the collection of Bernice Parker Laubach (1894-1936). These recipes were then read onto a cassette recorder by Lillian Edson and Frances Dietrichson. The recipes were often interspersed with instructions, such as "add butter like an egg," meaning to add about as much butter to a recipe as in an egg. Some details are a tad on the sketchy side, as you'll notice in the following recipe for mince meat for twenty-six pies. The recipe called for "9 pounds of apples, 4 pounds of meat, 5 pounds or less of sugar, 1 quart of molasses, 1 quart of cider, 10 tsp of cinnamon, 5 tsp allspice, 2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp salt, 1 pint vinegar, 2 quarts water, 1 pound citron, 5 pounds raisins, 1 pound currants, 5 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves. Add water if too thick. Mix altogether in pan or in large kettle, and let come to a boil. Then can or keep in open jar in cool place."

We never thought when we were young to take our friends away
And entertain them at a club or in some swell cafe.
When mother gave a dinner, she would plan it all herself,
And feed the people that she liked the best things on the shelf.
Then one job always fell to me, for I was young and stout.
I brought the leaves to father when he stretched the table out.
--Edgar A. Guest, 1921

We'll be more specific with recipes that you may enjoy when we get together next time.

The Benton Area School District school board meetings for 2011 will take place in the Middle/Senior High School cafeteria. The Committee of the Whole/Special meetings take place at 6:30 PM and monthly meetings take place at 6:30. These dates will also be posted in the Upcoming Events page of the Benton News, www.bentonnews.net/events1.htm .

December 3, 2010, the birthday of Michele Humann, Tom Peirson, Betty (Kelsey) Miller and Brian Morris. It is the wedding anniversary of Paul and Barbara Henne. The weather forecast is "partly cloudy and cold," moving to "mostly cloudy and cold," then becoming "partly cloudy, brisk and cold." By Saturday, we'll have "partly sunny, breezy and cold" while Sunday will be "mostly cloudy, windy and cold." Snow showers should be with us Monday.

Tonight at 7 enjoy free popcorn, free Valley Pizza and the comic genius of Mel Brooks' in his politically incorrect and hilarious "Blazing Saddles." It all takes place at The Center. At Mitrani Hall, Bloomsburg University, tonight at 8 is Natalie MacMaster in "Christmas in Cape Breton." Tickets are $30. MacMaster performs her style of folk and Celtic music, often throwing in a bit of crowd-pleasing step dancing. Tickets are $30. After the show, drop down the hill to Bloomsburg where many stores will remain open until midnight and will offer discounts, specials and refreshments. Treefest opens tonight in Caldwell Consistory and runs through December 5. There is a roast-beef dinner at the Lime Ridge Community Center on Old Berwick Road from 4 to 7 PM for $6.50 per person. Stony Acres is having an open house today, Saturday and Sunday. Stop in and have a cup of hot cider from Campbell Apple Cider Mill and sample their refreshments. Anyone who purchases something will get a free pointsettia. And ask about their November flower special of a dozen carnations with fresh greens in a vase for $17.99.

Didja ever think of saving some get-well cards and stacking them on your mantle
so when friends drop in unexpectedly
you can say that you have been sick and didn't have time to clean?

Several readers have become frustrated with the coverage of natural-gas drilling on the Benton News. About a third of those who write to us on the subject don't want to read anything about drilling. Another third strongly favor drilling. The last group is very vocal in their displeasure at the slightest suggestion that any drilling will take place. This messenger has been shot a number of times. Future discussions of natural gas will be clearly identified so that readers can avoid the subject. We begin now...

It is interesting to read about fracking of natural-gas wells in plays across the United States. The one thing that seems to be lacking in other regions of the United States is the continuous harping on water safety that we hear with the Marcellus. There doesn't seem to be another region that worries as much as we do about whether hydraulic fracturing contaminates water supplies, although in addition to our Commonwealth, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas have linked hydraulic fracturing to contaminated water and illnesses. Gas-well drilling has on occasion impacted groundwater resources that are the source of water for household water wells and springs. The Marcellus is the only major play where groundwater has comingled with hydrocarbons to any great extent. The result could be that we price ourselves out of the competitive business of supplying natural gas by virtue of additional safety precautions that are needed to extract the gas in our area. If this happens, the sale price of natural gas from other areas would rise to the benefit of land owners in those areas. We can also hope that fracking mixtures can be made less toxic in the future.

As our area prepares for the first serious gas-well drilling, make sure your water is tested. Go here to find an accredited water-testing laboratory in our Commonwealth.

December 2, 2010, the birthday of Marsha Doty Whitmoyer and Bradley Allen Kocher. The eight-day Jewish festival Chanukah began at sundown yesterday. The festival commemorates events that took place in Judea more than 2,000 years ago when the Syrian king ordered the Jews to abandon the Torah and publicly worship the Greek gods. This act provoked a rebellion in which the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by the Syrians, was taken back. The central feature of the observance of Chanukah is the nightly lighting of the Chanukiah, an eight-branched candelabra with a place for a ninth candle, the shammes, used to light the others. One candle is lit on the first night of Chanukah, and an additional candle is lit each successive night, until the Chanukiah is fully illuminated on the eighth night.

Rosalie Harrison would have been 67 today. In honor of this fine lady, here are some tips to raise awareness about how early detection can make the difference between life and death when battling cancer. Rosalie's daughter found out too late that her mother "had symptoms pointing to colon cancer for more than a year but ignored her symptoms because she did not have medical insurance." Had she gone sooner for a colonoscopy, she probably would be here alive and healthy. You don’t have to be “old” to have cancer. The sooner cancer is diagnosed the better your chance of beating it and surviving. If you have a family history of any cancer, you should start screenings earlier than recommended and maybe more often than other people. Better safe than sorry! A lump needs to be brought to the attention of your doctor. A lump behind Rosalie’s ear turned out to be malignant lymphoma--cancer in her lymph nodes. That’s why doctors feel your neck when you go in for a regular appointment. If you have unusual bleeding in your stool, in your urine, bleeding while coughing or blood from your breast you need to see your doctor. If you have a major change in your stool or urine see your doctor. Go to www.cancer.org and talk to your regular doctor.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission announced preliminary figures that indicate during the first statewide, five-day archery bear season 224 bears were taken and during the restructured three-day bear season, which included a Saturday-opener, 2,815 bears taken. Bear hunters harvested a preliminary total of 3,039 bears in 53 counties in 2010 compared with 4,164 in 2005; 3,124 in 2006; 2,362 in 2007; 3,460 in 2008; and 3,512 in 2009. The top five bear-harvest counties were Clinton, 248; Lycoming, 228; Tioga, 183; Clearfield, 182; and Potter, 148. Preliminary county harvests for Bradford were 38; Sullivan, 57; Luzerne, 58; and Columbia, 20. The top 10 legal bears processed at check stations for the two seasons all had actual or estimated live weight in excess of 615 pounds, with 37 bears weighing 500 pounds or more. The largest bear taken during all bear seasons (shot with a bow and arrow) was in Monroe County weighing an estimated 875 pounds. This was the heaviest bear ever harvested in Pennsylvania. A 656-pound male (estimated live weight) was taken in Forks Township, Sullivan County.

Hydraulic fracturing is not exactly new to the upper Fishing Creek valley. John McHenry, Camp Hill, told the story of his grandfather, Jay McHenry, who consulted his across-Main-Street neighbor Butch Hess many years ago about the best way to dislodge the buildup in the family septic tank at the rear of the funeral home. Butch was an old-hand with dynamite and said he felt that a charge of dynamite lowered carefully into the ground would "do the trick" if discharged properly. This is somewhat akin to what happens to me when I attempt plumbing repairs. The plan went awry. When the charge was ignited, the planned "fracking" of the soil to let the sludge permeate ran into more resistance than planned. The resultant explosion didn't extend sideways, but chose the path of least resistance and in the grandest tradition of fireworks on the Fourth of July headed skyward in every possible trajectory. There were casualties. The back side of the funeral home went from a pleasant white color to a doeskin brown in a matter of seconds and Jay and Butch, who were not at all appropriately attired for the caustic downpour that resulted, sought shelter. Budd Fritz remembered that event and said that the "side of the building was shelacked."

When septic tanks and sump pumps were installed, the drilling through ground and rocks carefully depended on the sound of hissing air. This noise indicated to the driller that he had entered an underground cavity. Here is where the homeowner drained the effluent from his septic tank or cess pool. If the drainage slowed, a charge of dynamite often opened new cracks through which the water would gurgle away.

Budd Fritz reminisced about the days when he lowered "about a quarter of a stick of dynamite" down water wells from Jamison City to Stillwater in order to blast the bottom off water pipes so that water would again begin flowing.

All that reminds me of the story of a 68-ton whale that came to rest on a beach in Oregon in August 1936. Nobody knew how to get rid of the whale--that is, until someone got the idea of blowing it into pieces with dynamite. It was on the evening of September 1, 13 smelly days later, that Powderman A. W. Foster bravely planted 500 pounds of powder in the carcass of the 50-foot finback and set her off.

If you were paying attention in a previous paragraph when I told about the two Benton men who stippled a house by cleaning out a septic tank with a half stick of dynamite you'll guess what happened next. It truly was a "whale" of a downpour as the beast was spread over a generous portion of Clatsop county. The chunks of blubber that spattered down on roofs and yards could hardly be called manna from heaven.

The whale was gone, all right, but the memory lingered on. So did the odor. The odor was simply spread over a wider area.

Clatsop County, Oregon, had dealt with beached whales before. After all, it was Bill Clark and Meriwether Lewis who were holed up in Fort Clatsop on starvation rations in January 1806 when meat suddenly became available on the beach. The two men and helpers hot-footed it to the beach where they found a whale 105 feet long bedded in the sand and rapidly getting "ripe." (Clark in Moulton V.6, 1990:167) There was also about one Indian for every inch of the whale. The Indians had no intention of sharing their wealth by giving up the ownership of the whale to a bunch of palefaces who didn't look like they could live to spring anyway. The journal of the event, dated January 8, 1806, went like this...

Lewis and Clark had not come through 3,000 miles of wilderness to starve to death. They used persuading ways to get some meat from the Indians and by the time they returned to Fort Clatsop they had 300 pounds of "ecola," the Indian name for whale. They ate it, too. If you want to know more about rotting whale meat and this story, head here.

Didja ever think that one of the delights known to us at our age,
well beyond the grasp of youth, is staying home and not doing anything?

J. Hubert Conner M.D., Media, Pennsylvania, died November 24, 2010, at Crozer Chester Medical Center near Philadelphia. He was 83 and had been in declining health for a number of years. He was born and raised in Benton, but lived in Upper Providence Township for 38 years and at Lima Estates, a continuing-care retirement community in Media since 2003. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He graduated from Waynesburg College in 1951, Jefferson Medical College in 1955 and completed his residency in General Orthopedics in 1960. He was affiliated with Crozer Chester Medical Center, Riddle Memorial Hospital, Taylor Hospital and Sacred Heart Hospital. Dr. Conner was Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Crozer Chester Medical Center from 1964 to 1980; he was also a member of many professional medical associations. He was a member and elder of Media Presbyterian Church. Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Sara "Sally" R. Conner; children John, Dorothy (John), Steven (Karen), Janice, Andrew (Julie); sister, Phyllis Conner; sister-in-law, Margaret Fox; also 8 grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. There will be a memorial service at 11 AM December 4 at Media Presbyterian Church, 30 E. Baltimore Ave., Media, where friends may call from 10 to 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Media Presbyterian Church, 30 E. Baltimore Ave., Media, PA 19063, Jefferson Medical College, 925 Chestnut St., Suite 110, Philadelphia, PA 19107 or to a charity of your choice. Rigby, Harting & Hagan Funeral Home, 15 East 4th St., Media, PA 19063, provided the arrangements.

The Archives for the Benton News

for December 2010