October, 2002, Archives

Happy Halloween! I can't come up with a costume for tonight, so I'll just wear a slip and write "Freudian" on it.

The 15th Annual Early Bird Sports Expo will be held January 22-26, 2003 at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds. Hours are Wednesday and Thursday, 5-10 PM; Friday, noon to 10 PM; Saturday, 10 AM to 9 PM, Sunday, 10 AM to 4 PM. Admission is $5, $.50 off with coupon which will be available at various merchants and at www.earlybirdexpo.com . A special "Senior Discount" admission of $3 is being offered on Friday afternoon from noon until 4 for anyone whose age makes them eligible for a Medicare card (no coupon required). Parking is free. Good homemade-style food will be available at reasonable prices.

The show will feature outfitters, seminars, products and services related to outdoor activities, including hunting, fishing, camping and trapping. The show will feature the state's largest indoor 3-D Archery competition, youth and amateur turkey-calling contest as well as the PA State Professional Turkey Calling contest. There will be a trout pond, B-B Gun range and fishing and casting contests for kids. This year's Expo will feature the Zaft buck (Pope and Young latest record) and a "walk through" Canadian forest exhibit with amazing deer and sheep antlers."

The opening night seminar will feature Gary Alt discussing Pennsylvania deer. Other seminar topics during the Expo will include turkey hunting, bass fishing, coyote hunting, processing game, cowboy action, wild game-food plots and more. A sportsman's auction will be held Sunday afternoon when the Rhinehart targets used in the Archery Competition will be offered to the highest bidder. Many other items of interest to the outdoorsmen are among the list of products and services to be sold in the auction.

Registration information for the contests is available at 570 683-5360 and through Tom and Mary Lou Austin's website www.earlybirdexpo.com you can get late-breaking information on the show and obtain a coupon for the admission discount.

Effective January, US Airways will cut more than 50% of its staff at Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton International Airport and eliminate Boeing 737 jet service at the airport in favor of smaller planes.

The Brass Pelican Restaurant, due to celebrate its 16th birthday November 12, will be depicted in a replica that will soon be available for purchase at the restaurant.

Pennsylvania has joined in a lawsuit to block the proposed merger of EchoStar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corporation, the 23rd state to join the suit. The state feels the merger would diminish consumer options by placing satellite television customers in the hands of only one corporation after EchoStar agreed to purchase Hughes last October for $25 billion in cash and stock. The Federal Communications Commission has rejected the proposed deal, but said the companies could resubmit their application if they addressed the FCC's monopoly concerns.

A 3-year-old Amish boy injured when a van struck the buggy carrying him and six family members died last night following Sunday night's accident. A van struck the horse and buggy in Holtwood, Lancaster County. State transportation officials are creating a new safety manual for horse-drawn buggy drivers following the 371 horse-and-buggy crashes in Pennsylvania between 1996 and 2000. The new manual will focus on common sense and courtesy, and will emphasis lights and reflectors the law requires on carriages to give them higher visibility. Eighteen people have been killed between 1996 and 2000.

Don't expect a call just when you are sitting down for dinner. Effective tomorrow, telemarketers can't call the more than 1.6 million state residents who signed up to be placed on a statewide "Do Not Call" registry. If they do solicit residents on the list, they will be subject to minimum civil penalties of $1,000 per violation.

"No sexually violent predators are currently registered as residing in Columbia County," according to http://www.psp2.state.pa.us/SVP/index.htm , the list of sexually violent predators residing in the Commonwealth.

The walls are starting to come down on the old Steve Shannon Tire Store on Mill Street. And the Old Filling Station's future home has a great new parking lot.

On this date in 1517, Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. In 1926 on this date, magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam on this date. And in case you forgot it this morning, be prepared tonight for Halloween. In Benton, Trick or Treaters will swarm from 6 until 8 PM in spite of mad bombers, concealed snipers, creative accountants, war looming, terrorists striking and the stock market quaking. If you see Rick Wilson today, wish him a very happy birthday. Rick shares his birthday with CBS anchorman Dan Rather, 71, and NBC anchorwoman Jane Pauley, 52.

Ann Moore, Camp Hill, passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon, October 30, 2002. Mrs. Moore is survived by three children, a son and two daughters. One of the daughters, Mary, is married to a former Benton resident, Wayne K. Baker, Arlington. Please include the Moore and Baker families in prayer Saturday during the funeral.

ALL report cards (elementary, junior high school, and high school) will come home November 8, 2002. Plan to review the report cards with your children and appropriately reward your kids for a job well done that night.

Quickies:
• The 3,116 dogs coming to the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds this weekend should make for a great show. Read the PE for details.
• I-80 was closed for 20 hours because of the flipped truck Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Daniel Opdenhoff, 24, diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, is now in a psychiatric ward in New York. He is accused of killing his former Danville parents in State College.

Iowa has a growing absentee ballot scandal and Detroit's mayor says there are 150,000 more registered voters than there should be. Watch the national spotlight on election day get wrestled away from Florida.

Recently we talked of Christmas presents, and DVD players were mentioned. DVDs are CD-size discs that can contain a complete two-hour-plus movie with a six-channel Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack, plus extra material. A reader wrote that she didn't know how to program her VCR yet! No problem. VCRs will soon be extinct. Since all DVD players use the same basic technology, any price player should work just fine for you. A DVD player, however, is an addition to, not a substitute for, a VCR at this point, because it can't record programming. Some points:
• DVD players offer picture and sound quality far better than a VCR. DVD players also play standard audio CDs, except that may still have problems reading the CD-R and CD-RW discs that you record yourself.
• The DVD player is still in transition. On the near horizon are reasonably priced DVD recorders. But for now, recording your favorite TV programs on VCRs or digital video recorders are best.
• Low-end models that include all the video-output jacks you might want are available from $100 to $300. They can be connected directly to your TV for viewing movies or routed through your receiver to play on your home-entertainment system. Multidisc models, like CD changers, accommodate two to five discs are available from $160 to $600, but you probably don't need one.
• DVD-based movies usually allow you choose between the 4:3 viewing format of conventional TVs (4 inches wide for every 3 inches high) and the 16:9 of newer, wide-screen sets.
• DVD players give you controls you didn't know you needed (and probably don't need); i.e., you can zoom in on a specific frame, or even reverse frame-by-frame to get you backward incremental movement. Slow motion? Sure.
• Navigation on a DVD is a snap. DVDs are sectioned. Chapter preview lets you scan the opening seconds of each section, or chapter, until you find what you want. Go-to by time lets you enter how many minutes into the disc you'd like to skip to.

Quote of the Day:
"Santa Claus has the right idea--visit people only once a year."
--Victor Borge

In Bloomsburg University sports...
• The field hockey team (18-0) will host the PSAC championship game at 1 PM this Saturday.
• The men's basketball team will start its first season under new Interim Head Coach Rich Mills at a tournament at Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on Saturday and Sunday, November 23 and 24. BU plays Belmont-Abbey at 6 PM on the 23rd.
• The wrestling team, under new Head Coach Dan Wirnsberger, will travel to the University of Pittsburgh for a meet on Tuesday, November 26, at 7:30 PM.

I feel about as lost as the student who became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?" The student replied, "When I was number one for takeoff." The many emails that need to be answered won't be gotten to until late this afternoon, and tonight candy needs to be handed out. Please be patient. Progress to date in response to a reader's questions/comments:
• there is "a weekly bluegrass and folk music jam near Benton." Can anyone identify it for the reader?
• The many admirers of former Columbia County sheriff Woodie Brewington will be happy to know that his step-son said "hi," from Florida. Woodie's wife, Jane, 91, is hanging in.
• Yes, we would love to share your photographs with the reading community of the Benton News, but we don't feel that we are proficient enough yet to handle them. Give us a little more time.
• Can someone identify the location of the former "West Creek Methodist Church?" I fired off a request to the United Methodist Conference in Lewisburg after striking out from people I talked with.
• The granddaughter of Burr and Cindy McHenry, formerly of Jamison City, said "hi" from Chicago.
• The grandson of Ray Cole who lives in Annapolis reminded me that at one time I worked for his father at the U. S. Radium plant and that St. Gabriel's Church should be better represented on www.bentonnews.net. It is after last night, although my fingers are now exhausted.
• Thanks to the many people who said that they would contribute articles about the area and the fine people of the area.

-=-

October 30. On this date in 1938, "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS radio. Five years ago today, a Cambridge, MA jury convicted British au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. (The judge later reduced the verdict to manslaughter and set Woodward free.)

Last night around 7, accumulating snow on power lines caused power outages for about 2,900 PPL customers in Columbia and Montour counties, all of Catawissa Borough, nearly 1,900 in the western Danville and Valley Township area, and 740 customers in Montour and Cooper townships and the Rupert section of Bloomsburg.

Now lets face it. How many times have you been in a Halloween parade during a moderately hard snow storm? Last night Espy whimped out and cancelled its parade, but Benton held its Halloween parade and what a parade it was. Well, actually, since we were in it all we could see were snow flakes in front of us and the flashing lights of the Benton Volunteer Fire Department's fire trucks behind us. We don't know much about the rest of the parade. We can tell you that the donated Benton cider was delicious. And Mary Ruth's pies for sale on the square were the best ever.

We received so many emails as a result of the article in the Press Enterprise yesterday that we simply can't even read all of them at this point. Without an exception, all comments were positive. Even a new reader from Annapolis reminding us to include St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in the Church listing was gentle about it! A reader felt that if we could write about the non-existent town Emmons, we could include Byrnesville, another non-existent town in Columbia County--and now we have. We'll get to all of the requests and suggestions and comments as time permits. They were all appreciated.

A wrecked tractor trailer and a leaking hazardous material container (the chemical methyl acrylate) near White Haven closed an 11-mile stretch of I-80 Tuesday and forced the evacuation of 66 residents from their homes near Freeland. The crash occurred just after 5:30 AM, when the westbound truck turned onto its side in the median of I-80. The crash happened 900 feet west of the White Haven exit, closing the highway in both directions between the White Haven and the Hazleton/Mountain Top exits. I-80 was still closed last night and many interstate drivers will remember northeast Pennsylvania for a long time!

Dark Honey's Homegrown Music show, originally scheduled for earlier this month, will air on WVIA FM this Thursday, October 31 at 9 PM.

Quote of the Day:
"People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure."
--Russell Baker

We mentioned earlier this week about FriendGreetings.com. Canadian company Cytron Communications has taken down this site, but a new site, cool-downloads.com, went up in its place. The corporate parent of the site is Permissioned Media Inc., based in Panama. The Cytron-enabled e-mail greeting mimics many legitimate greeting card sites by including a personalized subject line: "(Recipient) you have an E-Card from (sender)." Within the message, there is a link to the Web site and a small note: "E-card viewer plug-in may be required to view some cards." Stay away from these messages. Keep your virus protection software up to date.

The average fuel economy for the 2003 model cars and passenger trucks is 20.8 miles per gallon, about 6% below the high point set 15 years ago.

Parents in our generation were practical parents. Mother washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. Father was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. Their best friends lived barely a wave away and phone calls never opened with a "hello," they simply started and continued a cherished phone conversation of earlier that day. They are still there in our memories, Father in a tee shirt and Father in trousers and white shirt and tie, Mother in a sunbonnet and housedress, Father exhausted from hard work and no sleep, Mother making milk pie and coffee soup for the third time in the same week. Living in a small town sometimes drove us crazy, like the time I told Mother that I was going to leave home if she didn't do something about the hot weather one July, and why did we have to mow so much lawn when we could be swimming in the dam, and why did they always play cards on Saturday night instead of taking me to the movies, and why couldn't we have a television set like Grant Brink did up on the hill. All that re-fixing, re-heating, re-newing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant there'd always be more. But on that inevitable day when the joy of small-town living was shattered by death and we discovered so abruptly that sometime there just is no more, we discovered the real value of the bonds of living beside Fishing Creek. It happens when what you care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return. So, while you have it, it's best to love it, care for it and fix it when it's broken, heal it when it's sick. That's true for marriage, old cars, children with bad report cards, dams along the creek, dogs with bad hips, and aging parents. You keep them because they're worth it, because you're worth it. Some things you keep. Like a best friend that moved away, or a classmate you grew up with, there's just some things that make life important. Being Back Home in Benton, PA, is one of them.s

October 29. The Halloween parade is ON for this evening. The parade will form at 6:30 PM: floats on North Street, West of Main toward 3rd Street; walkers on North Street, East of Main toward Park Street. The parade will move at 7 PM from North Street down Main Street, West on Market Street, North on Third Street, East on North Street, South again on Main Street to the municipal parking area where free cider will be provided to the parade participants. For those not going to the Halloween parade tonight... The final debate between gubernatorial contenders Republican Mike Fisher and Democrat Ed Rendell is scheduled for tonight at 7 PM.

Today was a busy email day, with people all over the country saying "hello," as a result of the Press Enterprise article. It was very nice to talk with so many new people. Reminds me of the local fellow who slowly got up from his seat and with his hands on his hips and a note of pain in his voice said to another person, "I am suffering from arthritis." "Why now, I'm right glad to meet you," replied the other, "I'm Benscoter, from Benton."

On this date in 1929, "Black Tuesday" hit the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed as panic selling wiped out thousands of investors and America's Great Depression began. The mood of optimism and confidence in the United States economy that Herbert Hoover brought into office in 1928 was over.

"I'll have to see my broker
Find out what he can do.
'Cause I'm in the market for you."
--George Olsen and His Music

Quote of the Day:
"The nation is marching along a permanently high plateau of prosperity."
--Yale University economist Irving Fisher, 1929

Hunting season for wild turkeys, ringneck pheasants and cottontail rabbits open next Saturday. Turkey season lasts through November 23, while pheasants and rabbits are legal targets through November 30. There will be another chance for pheasant hunting December 16 to February 8. Once plentiful, seeing a pheasant these days is almost an event as exciting and infrequent as seeing a bear in the wild.

Over in Berwick, the old Eagles building has been updated into a dental clinic and various offices, including a workforce development center run by Luzerne County Community College. LCCC's 167 acre main campus is located in the center of Luzerne County, with 14 off campus sites located throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. The article is in today's Press Enterprise.

Arcadia Word of the Day: "Jauntsamore"
JAUNTSAMORE (phrase). Asking if one wants seconds at mealtime.

The excitement is building for the buckwheat cake and sausage supper at the Benton Christian Church next Wednesday, November 6. The griddle will be hot from 4 PM until the cakes are all sold. Oh, sure, there will be eggs, potatoes, pies and cakes and other good things, too. And all of this for only $6 per person. Jauntsamore? No problem, seconds and thirds are on the house. Please mark your calendar and tell your friends. Dayne Hartman and Whittier Letteer are heading up the dinner, and even remembered to fill the tanks with gas.

We took a look at the beleaguered WorldCom empire last night to see how the company was recovering from the latest scandals. The company promised that "our new management team is committed to putting our financial house in order and to ensuring that WorldCom's ethical standards are beyond reproach--at all times and at every level of the organization." We were happy to hear that. We then took another peek inside WorldCom Inc., not from bankruptcy filings or corporate jolly rot, but from the December issue of Playboy magazine. A dozen female WorldCom employees posed for a 10-page spread entitled "The Women of WorldCom." Apparently some of the employees didn't get the official word...

From the "Terrible Verse of the Day" department:
Here's our thoughts on what needs to be done
On the merits of having a gun:
Ask anyone harmed
By a thug who was armed
If he wishes he, too, had one.

The Press Enterprise included an article about "The News From Back Home in Benton, PA," and its web site, www.bentonnews.net, in this morning's edition. You can read the article in its entirety from the link to the Press Enterprise on our web page.

Seven Amish, including five children, were injured when a car collided with a horse and buggy Sunday night in Pequea, Lancaster County. Two children and the horse died when an Amish buggy carrying nine family members drove into a pond this weekend near Gowanda.

The new Steve Shannon tire store, Mill Street, had lots of customers and visitors yesterday. The eight-bay garage was an immediate hit. Demolition of the old tire store should begin immediately, except for the residence part.

Instead of "snowbirds," lets call them "sandbirds." Bill and Loretta Hiscox will make one of their infrequent trips to Benton from Palm City, Florida, arriving Thursday evening.

We've had it with the criminal profilers, the ones who predicted the serial sniper's race, age and economic status. In the end, the destitute suspects were primarily caught through forensic evidence, especially fingerprints, and because of their own arrogance. Profiles didn't even count in the final capture. Solid forensic evidence in the case should result in a slam-dunk conviction when the shooters are tried. We just hope that al-Qaeda agents don't make this sort of activity a plan of action to further terrorize the nation.

-=-

October 28. On this date in 1962, Nikita Khrushchev ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. The Jack Benny Show made its television debut on this date in 1950. We didn't hear much gunfire Saturday during the wet and miserable first day of the early muzzleloading season. Smiles still break out this morning when we think of yesterday's weather. Wasn't it nice not to have rain for a change... There were well over 125 classic cars parked at Grotto Pizza, Harvey's Lake, yesterday, from a 1929 Model A Ford coupe to the car Jeremy Varner brought up from Berwick, a neon orange 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier that took over nine months to customize. The lap around the lake may have stretched out over a mile.

From time to time things come along that are completely useless, but just might be useful at some unknown point in time. Most of us have a great filing system, but a terrible retrieval system. Where to put this potentially valuable information is the question. We have something like that for you today, and we'll do the filing on www.bentonnews.net under Leisure Activities, so you can retrieve it when you need it. For the next time your travel takes you by airplane, here is the information on every seat on any plane operated by American, Continental, Delta, US Airways, and United. Choose your aircraft from a list of several carriers, and then get information on every seat on the plane, including the best, the worst and the ones closest to the rest rooms. And even if you aren't going by plane in the near future, try it out.

US Airways is eliminating 471 pilot positions by May to offset rising fuel costs and continued weakness in the airline industry. Additionally, US Airways will furlough more than 900 flight attendants by December.

It is hard to understand sometimes, this stock market... Tyco International Ltd. which acquired AMP Inc. down in Harrisburg four years ago dredges up major corporate scandals for each day of the week it seems. When Tyco reported a fourth quarter operating loss of $1.5 billion, its stock bounced up 10%.

We hate to spoil your day telling you about virus alerts, but a virus named the "Friend Greeting Application" worm is spreading via email, carrying a link to an E-card site. As users click on this link the email is propagated to a random number of email addresses in the application "Outlook's" mailbox. The virus appears to disassociate the files on your computer from their respective applications. We recommend not to click on the URL link inside a message with the subject that includes the words "you have an E-Card from ..." You can also enable your Content Filter and block access to friendgreetings.com and friendlygreetings.com.

Traffic will pick up on Center Street now that the street repaving is essentially complete. Take a ride down the spiffy new street and look at the sidewalks and the paving. Wouldn't it be nice if we could afford to have nice streets all over town... Anyway, Fireside Video has been hampered by poor access to their store and in celebration of finishing the paving so cars can drive to their front door, they are offering to new JLink customers a free month of Internet service for only renting three videos at the store. Call toll-free 1 877-335-5465 for more details.

While you are riding around town, take a look at the castle and the lady in the bikini on Third Street.

Two British companies are joining forces in the technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the first roll-up computer screens and TVs.

PennDoT has about $163 million to keep the state's roads clear of snow and ice this winter, up from last year's $118 million on winter-related services. PENNDOT has more than 3,000 trucks, and about 603,000 tons of salt in stock statewide. Last winter required about 468,000 tons of salt and 377,000 tons of anti-skid.

The meter will spin tonight as Hershey Foods Corp. flips the switch on a 15-story sign, 215 feet tall and 60 feet wide, hanging over its chocolate factory store on Times Square in New York City, the largest permanent fixture ever constructed in Times Square. It shows the Hershey chocolate factory, complete with smokestacks, four steam machines and more than 4,000 lights. The Hershey store should open in December.

Things are back to normal on I-80 now, following the Sunday morning spill of a garbage truck on both lanes of I-80 in Valley Township. The accident resulted in three minor injuries. A New Jersey truck driver and two passengers, including one only eight years old, dumped a 1996 International onto the north berm. The truck traveled about 320 feet before jackknifing and overturning.

Have you started your Christmas shopping? You don't know what to buy? Well, here are some ideas. The hottest item this fall seems to be the DVD player, which also reigned last year and in fact the year before that. The number of movies available on DVD has doubled to nearly 20,000 titles since last year. This season, DVD players cost about $150 on average, and models can be found for as little as $79. Flat-screen computer monitors at decent prices and scores of inexpensive handheld computers and combination radio/MP3 players will be hot on store shelves. Digital cameras followed by color TVs are probably the next most desirable gifts in the video category. You'll quickly notice that a man compiled this list and that there is really nothing new for 2002 on the list.

Amelia Bachelor died in April at age 94. Although not many know her name, she holds the record of appearing in more Hollywood motion pictures than any other person. Who was this lady? Answer at end.

The Benton Lions, members of the community and the VFW will host the Benton Halloween Parade October 29. All floats are welcome. The parade will form at 6:30 PM: floats on North Street, West of Main toward 3rd Street; walkers on North Street, East of Main toward Park Street. The parade will move at 7 PM from North Street down Main Street, West on Market Street, North on Third Street, East on North Street, South again on Main Street to the municipal parking area where free cider will be provided to the parade participants. The rain date is the 30th. The Lions will also be having a donation float to help finance next year's parade. Let's make this a great parade. Please come out, either as a spectator or as a participant. Buster and Chloe look forward to their ride in the Benton Newsmobile during the parade and hope that we'll see you there.

We've enjoyed listening to people who have never expressed political opinions to us before who just before election are starting to have shooting pains of feeling for or against the stand of a candidate, and thus for or against the candidates themselves. We have recently heard (and have probably also uttered) some rather strange reasons to support or not support a candidate. Most we talk with are flabbergasted at the flip-flop that politicians are so adept at, the public utterances at the outrage of spending state or Federal dollars unnecessarily while at the same time driving the butcher truck of pork into their home districts. We simply point out that trying to run a political campaign in these times must be somewhat akin to driving a fright train while still building the railroad tracks.

But after we bad mouth the political candidates, we look at some of the weighty issues they have to tackle. Down in Harrisburg, for example, candidates yesterday were asked the following question: "What taxes would you use to replace K-12 public school-funding property taxes: local income tax, local earned income tax, local sales tax, state sales tax, state income tax, higher state business taxes, or sales tax on clothing?" Have you ever heard of "dancing around an answer?"

The final outcome of Moscow's heart-stopping hostage crisis will be precisely the opposite of what the Chechen rebels who seized the crowded Moscow theater had hoped.

Quote of the Day:
"Like with the submarine Kursk, the story repeats itself once again--'We have no problems, we can solve everything ourselves.'"
--Boris Nemtsov, head of the Russian reformist Union of Right Forces commenting on the government's refusal to identify the gas, even to doctors treating the freed hostages, and its decision to keep most of the hostages incommunicado in hospitals

The Anaheim Angels won the first championship in their 42-year history by defeating the Giants, 4-1, in Game 7 of the World Series.

We would suspect that Penn State football players are getting tired of being called the toughest opponent on the enemy's schedule.

An AP story on the arrest of the co-owner of the infamous blue Caprice in the sniper case said that the car had been purchased from Sure Shot Auto Sales Inc. in Trenton September 10. The man apparently agreed to be listed as a co-owner on the car because he had auto insurance and Muhammad did not, and now is in enough trouble to last a lifetime.

We got an email from a new reader yesterday from the Pittsburgh area who happened to mention a new disease, one we had never heard about before. She called it Carpool Tunnel syndrome.

The CHURCHES area of www.bentonnews.net needs to be updated. If you are a member of a local Church, please review the church area of the web site and if you feel that your Church needs to update their listing, please have a member of the congregation contact the web meister. We'll include a current picture of your Church if you'll lend us one; otherwise, you'll have to wait until we take one.

Amelia Bachelor held the torch in Columbia Films' opening credits. She posed for the picture in 1936 and earned just $25. Today, she holds the record for appearing in more films than any other individual thanks to the torch role.

-=-

October 27. There are only 65 days left in the year. A year ago today in Washington, the search for deadly anthrax widened to thousands of businesses and 30 mail distribution centers. Scores of investigators continue the work today. Did you turn your clocks back an hour and did you change your batteries in your smoke detectors and then did you check your smoke detector? Pushing the button on the smoke detector can test most smoke detectors. If you hear a high pitch noise, the smoke detector is working properly.

Russia is just no place to be a theatergoer, especially if there is a bunch of Chechen rebels on the warpath. Saturday morning at dawn, Russian troops pumped an unidentified and probably illegal incapacitating gas into the theater, blew through a wall with explosives, and stormed the room in an attempt to release 750 patrons of the theater who were being held hostage. Russian troops gassed the theater, killing almost all of the rebels and many of the hostages. All but one of the 117 hostages who died were killed by the effects of gas used to subdue their captors. Initial reports were that fifty of the rebels were killed and four were apparently captured alive. . Some of the militants were reportedly shot and killed after the gas had rendered them unconscious. The Post says the gas was likely banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia signed in 1997.

We are attempting to give our readers a quick and easy way of accessing information about the Benton area, without us having to tell you about it. Our web site, www.bentonnews.net provides an easy jumping off point for information. For example, you can navigate directly from there to find local weather, TV, movies, directions, points of interest, history, news and death notices. We will no longer be providing detailed death notices, except in rare cases. In the future, in those cases where your attention needs to be directed to a death notice, we'll simply mention it and tell you where you can find out more about the appropriate details.

Passing:
Wayne W. Kile, 84, York, died Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002, at the York Hospital. Born in Jamison City, Columbia County, Oct. 9, 1918, he was a son of the late Walter F. and Deborah I. Peterman Kile. He was a 1936 graduate of Benton High School. His obituary is in today's Press Enterprise.

From the "It Doesn't Make a Hill of Beans in Benton" Department:
International Business Machines Corp. scientists have built the tiniest computer circuit yet using individual molecules, a move toward smaller, faster electronics. IBM researchers have built and operated a computer circuit in which individual molecules of carbon monoxide move like toppling dominoes across a flat copper surface. One circuit is so small that 190 billion could fit on a standard pencil-top eraser.

According to the Patriot News, the top 10 available foods for wildlife in the state, based upon abundance and productivity, are acorns in the red oak family, black cherry, pokeberry, blackberry, dogwood berries, sassafras berries, corn, acorns in the white oak family, oats and raspberries. Acorns are generally a reduced size this fall, the lack of oak production and earlier-than-normal acorn drop in some areas.

We should all take the time to make sure that our computer is virus free. One of the worst bugs around is W32.Bugbear@mm, a mass-mailing worm. Go to http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.bugbear@mm.html in order to get more information. In fact, it would be a good idea to head on over to HOW TO on www.bentonnews.net to see a whole list of things that may be of interest. After you do, you will probably get hooked on PC Pitstop, a free site to get your PC running fast, stable and secure. PC Pitstop runs diagnostics on your PC to identify things that might help improve performance. The process is fully automated, private and safe. After the diagnostics run, they'll give you tips for improving all kinds of things. Best of all, the service is free! Go to http://www.pcpitstop.com/ .

The Anaheim Angels' classic 6-5 victory, in front of a crowd of 44,506 believers at Edison Field, defies explanation. The Anaheim Angels were down by five runs to the San Francisco Giants in the 6th inning of Game 6 of the World Series, only six outs from elimination, and up stepped Barry Bonds to whack a homer. Troy Glaus's double didn't hurt a thing, either! The World Series heads to a deciding Game 7 for the second year in a row.

Quote of the Day:
"You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you."
Yogi Berra

Consumers are expected to spend $3.6 billion on prepaid phone cards this year, up from $750 million in 1995, according to the latest study out of Boston. Prepaid cards usually are sold in denominations of $5, $10 or $20, or in minutes in half-hour increments up to 90 minutes. But plans can vary widely. You need to compare rates per minute, plus other charges, fees and taxes that may appear in fine print. As an example, the Phone Bank card, offered by Locus, advertises a rate of 2.4 cents a minute to Britain, or 364 minutes for $10. But the fine print reveals a $1.25 connection fee, a 49-cent monthly maintenance fee and an extra 49-cent charge to call from a pay phone. Some cards expire within 90 days of their first use.

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October 26. Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 AM Sunday. Your clocks should be turned back one hour tonight. And it is a good idea to change the batteries in your smoke detectors, too. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is 55 today, in case there is somebody out there who cares.

With shrimp defrosting in the pot, this came to mind. The three Pennsylvania towns known as the "three pots" are Pottsville, Pottstown, and Chambersburg.

Term of the Day: "throw in the towel" meaning to give up after a long struggle. The term comes from prize-fighting. If a fighter was obviously going to lose, his seconds would throw something into the ring to indicate they were conceding defeat on his behalf. At the time, the most readily available item was the sponge for wiping the blood and sweat off their man's face. An early form of the expression was "to throw in the sponge." Jack London's 1913 story "The Mexican," reads "Danny, battered and heroic, still kept coming up. Kelly and others near to the ring began to cry out to the police to stop it, though Danny's corner refused to throw in the towel." Other metaphors come from boxing. "Up to scratch" refers to the line drawn on the ground to which boxers were brought for the encounter, "to hit below the belt" is an illegal act in general and in boxing, while "to throw one's hat into the ring" is to accept the challenge of a contest. Politicians (who really practice in-fighting) are "lightweight" or "heavyweight."

The following is a joke. You may skip to the next paragraph if you do not want a Halloween joke, this one about three vampires who went into a bar. The barmaid asked, "And what would you guys like tonight?" Vampire #1 said, "I'll have a mug of blood." The second vampire said, "I'll have a mug of blood." The third vampire shook his head at his companions and said, "I will have a glass of plasma." The barmaid wrote down each order, went to the bar and ordered from the bartender "Two bloods and a blood light."

The subject of the Brass Pelican having a birthday brought several emails. One reader wrote about an experience overheard in a restaurant in the Lancaster area. A customer asked for a doughnut and a cup of coffee, without cream. The young waitress said that they had no cream, but that she could give the customer coffee without milk if he wanted it that way.

Pennsylvania Town in today's spotlight:
Scranton, (1990 pop. 81,805), seat of Lackawanna County and located by the river of the same name. A string of names preceded the present name; some sources say it was first called Capouse (after Capoose, father of Winola, chief of the Munsee tribe, from which "Muncy" in Pennsylvania and Muncie in Indiana takes its name. Other names included Slocum Hollow which the city of Scranton today accepts, Deep Hollow, Unionville, Harrison, Lackawanna Iron Works and Scrantonia. The city was eventually named for George and Selden Scranton who came from New Jersey in 1840. They bought most of what is now downtown Scranton for $8,000 and began to smelt iron. The first commercially successful electric street car system was put into service in Scranton in 1866. Scranton was once called the "Anthracite Capital of the World." Scranton High School, formerly Scranton Technical High School, built in 1904, is still in use. Iron was first forged in Scranton in 1797.
Early products were coal-mining machinery, locomotives, and rails. Scranton is the seat of the University of Scranton, Marywood College, the International Correspondence Schools, and a state school for the deaf. Scranton is the home of Steamtown National Historic Site, http://www.nps.gov/stea/ . Scranton is 57 miles from Benton, via routes 239, 11, 29 and I-81.

The Pennsylvania County in Today's Spotlight:
Lackawanna stems from the Algonquin Indian word meaning "where the streams meet," referring to the junction of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Rivers. Lackawanna County was created August 13, 1878, from the northern end of Luzerne County. It became Pennsylvania's 67th county, the last county formed in the Commonwealth.

The Columbia-Montour Barbershoppers will present a "USO" type of musical evening, barbershop style, in their annual "Showcase of Harmony," Saturday, November 2, at the Central Columbia High School Auditorium, promptly at 7:59 PM. Heading up the program will be the groups "Cornerstone," "B & S Connection" and the Susquehanna Valley Chorus. Admission is $8. Here is a little about each group...
• Cornerstone: Formed in November of 1984 in Rochester, New York, the three leads and a bass like to think of themselves as the "audience's choice!" The quartet has performed live on the stage of a professional comedy club; on more than 100 barbershop chapter shows in 10 districts; a featured spot on Norwegian Cruise Lines, the MS Leeward; and have produced their own video tape with comedy routines.
• B & S Connection, Greg Notestein, Musical Director. The popular local group consists of Greg Notestine (singing lead), Dale Thomas (singing tenor), Brian Willis (singing baritone), and Ed Burket (singing bass).
• Susquehanna Valley Chorus. Local members include Greg Notestein, Bernie Shultz, Lynn Watson, Gerald McHenry, Evan Thursby, Joe Goode, John Herbert Laubach, Bob Benton, and Bob Alleger. The chorus will include the following numbers:
• Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning, Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

• God Bless America, written by Irving Berlin

• Battle Hymn of the Republic, words by Julia Ward Howe

• Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!, words and music by Frank Loesser

"Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion!
Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion!
Praise The Lord, and pass the am-mu-ni-tion and we'll all stay free!

Marilyn Seward pointed out to us that the Shickshinny Historical Society has thanked State Representative George Hasay and the Luzerne County Historical Society for their help in obtaining two signs that were erected in the towns of Mocanaqua and Huntington Mills. The signs were recently dedicated by George Hasay and with customary political hoop-la were photographed and placed on the Shickshinny Historical Society web site, http://www.rootsweb.com/~pashs/siteindexFrame1Source1.htm and distributed with the Press Enterprise. The signs were erected at the Conyngham Twp Building in Mocanaqua and alongside of the bridge by the Huntington Mills Post Office. The signs read:

"Huntington township. Named for Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Organized in 1793 and was used as a stage stop on the old turnpike road between Berwick and Towanda between 1812 and 1840."

The implication is that the old Berwick Turnpike passed through Mocanaqua and Huntington Mills. Actually, the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike started in Berwick and followed a route over Jonestown Mountain to the town of Jonestown. The road continued through Cambra and Fairmount Springs in Fairmount and Huntington townships. In this portion of the turnpike, after a few years the road closed as a turnpike and eventually reopened as a public road. The turnpike followed an exhausting, serpentine route up Red Rock Mountain. You can read a more complete history under FEATURES on www.bentonnews.net.

Arcadia Word of the Day:
MIZEWELL (phrase).
Usage: "Kin I heavy dew me a favor? Dorothy sez shasta fetch her raffle, she's told them politicians a hunnered times they is wrong and we mizewell git out of the way."

The Guv came to Bloomsburg yesterday with a $1 million check for the technology center in the old Elks building on Market Street.

After a particularly bad day yesterday where the rules of gravity seemed to be forgotten, all that's left for me to break today are the rules of spelling.

Quote of the Day:
Many candles can be kindled from one candle without diminishing it.
--The Midrash

Most of Pennsylvania was under a drought warning or drought emergency since early in 2002, due in part by lack of adequate rainfall over the previous 12 months. For many state producers, this is the second severe drought in four years. State Agriculture Secretary Sam Hayes estimates that Pennsylvania agriculture has suffered an average of 46 percent crop loss statewide. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman has declared a disaster in 12 Pennsylvania counties and all Pennsylvania counties (except for Erie and Greene counties) are eligible for emergency assistance. The remaining 54 Pennsylvania counties have received primary disaster designations.
--from an article in Farm and Dairy Magazine

When Dallas defeated Berwick Saturday night 20-19 in a double-overtime game the 4-5 Dawgs got knocked out of playoffs for the first time since 1986.

Oops. Two Wilkes-Barre men say they've spent $263,000 to turn a dilapidated building at 650 S. Main St into a bar and restaurant, only to discover they can't open for two more years because of a ban placed on the building because it formerly housed a nuisance bar, the former Gordy's Cuckoo's Nest.

It may soon cost much more to cross the I-80 bridge at Delaware Water Gap, one of seven toll bridges operated by the Delaware River Joint Bridge Toll Commission that could see massive toll increases. Tolls would go from $4.50 to $19.50 for trucks, and from 40 cents to 75 cents for frequent commuters in passenger cars. The impact on Wise Potato Chip Company, for example, could reach an estimated $100,000 a year.

The debate over the snipers now begins. How could anybody be so utterly evil? Or so crazy? Explaining shocking behavior of this nature depends on whether you put your faith in God or in science. Or maybe there is no explaining it...

The Nittany Lions are 5-2 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten Conference. Both losses have come in overtime, caused by Iowa, Michigan, and guys wearing black-and-white striped shirts. Today at Ohio No. 18 Penn State takes on undefeated No. 4 Ohio State (8-0, 3-0).

Worth watching:
Tuesday, October 29: Galileo's Battle for the Heavens (PBS, 8-10 PM): An installment of "Nova" based on the letters Galileo's daughter wrote to "the father of modern science."
Wednesday, October 30: Unsolved History (Discovery Channel, 9-10 PM): This new series investigates "Forensics in the White House" to see if Zachary Taylor was poisoned. It also examines how an assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt shaped today's Secret Service.

Albert R. Boscov, businessman, humanitarian, philanthropist and visionary, and chairman of Boscov's Department Stores, will be honored at the 104th annual dinner of The Pennsylvania Society at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York City December 14. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry named him the "1990 Business Leader of the Year." Boscov is a former member of the board of directors of Meridian Bancorp, and past president of The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts.

Long's Supply, 200 Montour Blvd., route 11, Bloomsburg, is closing and everything is now 60% off.

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October 25, 2002. On this date in 1957, Albert Anastasia, a New York gangster, was murdered in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel. He is believed to have killed 31 people for "Murder, Inc." Forty years ago on this date in 1962, U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson demanded before the UN Security Council that Soviet delegate Valerian A. Zorin confirm or deny the existence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, saying he was "prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over." Stevenson then presented reconnaissance photos of the bases to the council. We breathed damp and cold and the smell of rain yesterday, but it was inhaled with a sense of relief at hearing about the snipers being captured after weeks of killing.

Benton continues to experience a light, misty rain this afternoon. The temperature gauge on www.bentonnews.net does not seem to be working this afternoon, but the 4:00 PM temperature is 40 degrees. We hope that the weather improves for tomorrow's sale of tools previously owned by Tom Shaw. At 10 AM tomorrow, Letteer Brothers will auction off Tom's tools. A tent and food will be provided. The sale is on Third Street, near Everett..

Up in Elk Grove, the excitement is building for the birthday party November 12. The Brass Pelican restaurant will celebrate its 16th birthday that day. And a fact not generally known is that the buckwheat cakes we all love to eat there will also be 16 years old. Monica is actually using batter that she claims was started on the day she opened--still going from the original batter. We totally agree with her claim that "you have to go up this road a long ways to beat our buckwheat cakes!" And that goes for anything that you get from Ramona and Jackie and Becky and Monica! Stop and wish them a "Happy Birthday." And have some buckwheat cakes and sausage while you're there!

A reader complained about a computer error message that appeared, but then went away and she could not find it again and didn't know what it said. To take a screen shot of whatever is on your screen, click the print screen button. Now click "start/run" and type in mspaint. When Paint opens, click "edit" then "paste." Now you have a screen shot of whatever was on your screen when you clicked the print screen button. You can save this file as a BMP (bitmap), JPEG, PNG, TIF, or GIF by clicking "File, Save As" and giving it a name and choosing the file type you'd like to save it as. Make sure you remember where you save it.

Prosecutors around the District of Columbia weighed murder charges against a former soldier and a teen-ager suspected of being behind the sniper spree. Down in Montgomery, Alabama, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in an earlier fatal shooting tied to the pair. The situation reminds me a bit of the Dutch man about to be sentenced for a crime, who said, "I feel a little like a bride on her honeymoon day--I know I got something coming, but I don't know how long it will be."

Question of the Day:
"Have you seen him since the last time you saw him?"
--Question asked by a reporter on national television of an acquaintance of one of the sniper suspects

The Selinsgrove Borough Council purchased the town's former train station from Norfolk Southern for $35,000 last year. The borough has decided that the cost of renovating a vacant 1,200 square feet train station is too high, so the property will be sold November 21 at auction at 7 PM. The one-story train station was built following the start of construction of the Middle Creek Railroad in 1865. The first train arrived in Selinsgrove in 1871.

Can you imagine the embarrassment of a Minnesota man when he was shot last Saturday during pheasant season by Sonny, his year-old English setter pup? The hunter was sitting on the ground, his loaded 12-gauge shotgun lay beside him near the frisky dog. The dog stepped on the gun and it went off. The dog and pheasants are all doing well. The hunter's ankle is not.

Fine wine: two perspectives

• "Men are like fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with."
• "Women are like fine wine. They all start out fresh, fruity and intoxicating to the mind and then turn full-bodied with age until they go all sour and vinegary and give you a headache."

Spotlight on a Pennsylvania Town:
Honesdale. To transport coal to markets further east, gravity railroads carried loads out of the Lackawanna Valley and over the Moosic Mountains into Honesdale. The D & H Canal Company planned to transport their coal from the mines in Carbondale to the Hudson River entirely by canal. Sufficient water was not available at the summit and the number of locks needed to scale the Moosic Mountains between Carbondale and Honesdale precluded this plan. A "gravity railroad" was the solution, and construction began in 1827, utilizing a series of inclined planes and steam engines to pull carloads of coal up and over the Moosic Mountains, a rise of almost 1,000 feet. A young assistant engineer, Horatio Allen, brought to Honesdale America's first steam locomotive, the Stourbridge Lion. Completion of the "gravity" in 1829 enabled the canal to transport a great percent of its tonnage in coal. While built primarily for coal, cargo also included wood, stone, brick, Rosendale cement, and provisions. At Honesdale, coal was transferred onto the barges of the D&H canal. The canal construction had been pioneered by Philip Hone, a wealthy New York mayor and first president of the D&H. The town was known in 1827 as Hone's Dale. Navigation on the canal from Honesdale to Rondout began at the boat basin in Honesdale, where the coal was transferred from gravity railroad cars to canal boats. The canal's route followed the banks of the Lackawaxen River for 108 miles through 108 locks until it met the Delaware River. The D & H Canal was originally 32 feet across at the top, 20 feet at the bottom, with a depth of four feet; its 76' x 10' locks could accommodate 20- to 30-ton-capacity boats. At 1-3 mph, the canal boats pulled by mules made the round trip in 7 to 10 days. Honesdale is 80 miles from Benton, via routes 239, 11, I-81, the Lackawanna Valley Industrial Highway and route 6.

Quote of the Day:
"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"
--Charlie McCarthy

Passing:
• A Mass of Christian Burial for Andreas "Andy" Joscht, 71, Benton R.R.1, will be celebrated 2 PM Saturday in Christ The King Catholic Church, Mendenhall Lane. Burial will be in Benton Cemetery, under the direction of the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home. Joscht died Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002, at the Geisinger Medical Center. He was born July 5, 1931, in Yugoslavia; he was a resident of Benton Township since 1974, he formerly lived in New Jersey and in Vienna, Austria. Joscht was self-employed as a carpenter and later worked for Little Lumber Co. for 15 years, retiring in 1996. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, the former Esther Hedrich; a daughter, Katherine Joscht Leahy, Mahanoy City; and three grandchildren.
• Funeral services for Charles O. Tester, 45, 133 E. Knouse Road, Benton, will be 11 AM Saturday at the McMichael Funeral Home, 4394 Red Rock Road. His body was found on the Route 487 bridge Wednesday. Burial will be in Waller Cemetery. Born June 18, 1957, in Newburg, NY, he later served in the Marine Corps. Mr. Tester had been employed as a truck driver for Whitebread Trucking, Conyngham. He is survived by his wife, the former Rebecca Comstock; a son, Joshua, Benton; two siblings: Darlene Franco, Newburg, N.Y.; and Arthur Tester, Florida; and foster parents: Gerald and Erlene Schoonmaker, Circleville, N.Y.
--from Press Enterprise articles

A rick of firewood does not refer to size, but is a description of the way a cord of wood is stacked. A cord of wood measures 4x4x8 feet, or 128 cubic feet, and a standard cord is piled in a 4x8-foot stack, or rick. Rick also refers to a stack of hay or other material left in the open air. With temperatures in Benton duplicating a typical first full week of hunting season, we thought that you would like to know that.

Term of the Day: Flea Market. Flea generally meant low-rent or cheap, because such places were often infested with fleas. The term "flea market" literally means "market with fleas," an outdoor market where second-hand goods are sold.

Thanks to the generosity of Betty Ruckle, Recording Secretary of the North Mountain Historical Society, we are slowly adding minutes of meetings to the FEATURES section of www.bentonnews.net. We don't pretend to be done, and like our summer closet, we are "working on it."

Spotlight on a Pennsylvania area:
Pocono. From the Indian word "pocohanne," meaning "stream between two mountains," referring to the Delaware Water Gap. Pocono Mountains are a range of the Appalachian system up to about 2,000 feet high, found in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Just when we were breathing a sigh of relief... The FBI issued a warning to state and local law enforcement officers nationwide Thursday about a possible attack against transportation systems, particularly railroads. The warning suggested that terrorists may try to take out bridges or key sections of tracks.

The U.S. government said on Thursday it ran a $159 billion budget deficit for the 2002 fiscal year, marking the return to deficit spending less than two weeks before key congressional elections. In 2001, the government ran a $127 billion surplus and in 2000 it posted a record $236.9 billion surplus. The budget gap for the fiscal 2002 year, which ended September 30, is the first since 1997's deficit of $22 billion and the largest since the $164 billion deficit in 1995.

Budget deficit or not, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter pledged Thursday to seek funding for the "Susquehanna River Landing," a project that would use a large screen theater and interactive displays to turn the Irem Temple Mosque in Wilkes-Barre into a cultural center with a museum, cafe, retail and public gathering places. The price tag? Somewhere between $80 million to $100 million, Specter surmised. He should know. He could soon be chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Probably a pig farm should be included in the project, since it is certainly bringing home the bacon. "Senator (Robert) Byrd is now chairman and he has been able to pave half of West Virginia," Specter said. Looks like it will be Specter's turn now. We suggest that you go back and read the paragraph preceding this one again. Congressman Paul Kanjorski predicted the proposed Susquehanna River Landing project at the Irem Temple would "actually create the greatest downtown in Northeastern Pennsylvania." The U.S. Army Crops of Engineers will hold a public meeting on the study November 6 at 7 PM in the Burke Auditorium, McGowan Building, King's College in Wilkes-Barre. We certainly like our Wilkes-Barre neighbors, but we don't like the return to deficit spending and we suspect that Congressman Kanjorski has been drinking the river water when he makes quotes like the one above.

We received a nice email from Vito and Pat Arcaro, former owners of the Grid Iron Hotel, Lopez. They live in the Lopez area, on Dutch Mountain Road, not far off 487. Vito said that "We don't miss the Hotel, just some of the people we met over the years. I am into carpentry...preferably remodeling...as I like the variety and design challenges. The last time I was in the Hotel was a couple years ago. The bank sold it to the current owner who has made some necessary structural repairs over the past couple years, but does not live there."

An AARP survey released Wednesday showed that prices of four common prescription medications varied widely at pharmacies in Pennsylvania, by as much as $210 for one drug. The price for Prilosec, taken to combat acid-reflux disease, varied from a low of $38 to a high of $248 for a 30-day supply. The highs and lows for cholesterol-lowering Lipitor varied by $99 and Celebrex, used to combat arthritis pain, varied by at least $70. AARP had "mystery shoppers" call 587 pharmacies in five counties during June and July and ask for the prices of a 30-day supply of each of the four drugs.

The Back Mountain Recreation Complex on Outlet Road in Lehman Township is getting off the ground. The project begins in the spring, with the construction of outdoor facilities including six soccer fields, five baseball fields, trails, picnic areas, pavilions, tennis and basketball courts, a lacrosse field and an outdoor ice-skating rink.

Prayers are needed today for Mrs. Ann Moore, Camp Hill, mother of Mrs. Wayne Baker, Arlington, VA.

Benton finished its girl's field hockey season with a record of 11-6-1 as Mifflinburg scored first in overtime and came away with a 2-1 overtime win in a District 4 AA quarterfinal game. Eva Diemer scored Benton's only goal.

Quote of the Day:
"We gave our four years. If we could, we'd give four more years to Coach. The girls are like a family. It is hard to leave a family."
--Tara Goode, at the end of the Benton field hockey season yesterday

The Benton Store Company Merchants Antique Co-Op announce their grand opening November 2 and 3, from 10 AM to 5 PM. This store gets better each time we visit, with a nice selection of antiques and collectibles including glass wear, pottery, coins, furniture, paper items, and Christmas decorations, plus old and unusual items. Check out the beautiful chest on chest. The store will be decorated for Christmas and will introduce their new gift shop with unique and one of a kind items. Everything in the store will be discounted 10% for the event. There will be refreshments and a door prize. The store is at 235 Main Street, Benton. The phone number is 570 925-5925.

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October 24. Jane Seymour, the third wife of England's King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward, later known as King Edward VI. Spain ceded Florida to the United States on this date in 1820. In 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. In 1964, The Rolling Stones made their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," but so many people complained that Sullivan said he'd never invite them back (they made another appearance the next year). Lopez, the "Icebox of Pennsylvania," had a frigid 16 degrees two mornings ago, and it hasn't been a lot warmer here the last couple of nights. Benton had a cold day yesterday, and as Center Street was being paved leaves were flying everywhere. We hear that Dollar General wants a change to the entrance of their new store on Mill Street, and that may move back the planned opening date. The whole town was buzzing yesterday over the state police presence in the Benton/Stillwater area. One person who watches this sort of stuff counted 11 cars at one time yesterday and everyone noted speed laws in getting where they wanted to go were ignored.

Passing:
• Ronnie Flick, Berlin's Trailer Court, died Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2002, a victim of brittle diabetes. He leaves behind three children. Funeral and burial will be in New Jersey.
• Andreas "Andy" Joscht, 71, Benton R.R.1, died Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002, at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville. Arrangements will be announced by the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton.
• Charles Tester, 44, Benton, died Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002, in Sugarloaf Township. Arrangements will be announced by the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton.
• Rev. Arden A. Lancaster, 95, Berwick, died Sunday, Oct. 20, 2002, at the Berwick Retirement Village. Rev. Lancaster assisted in establishing the North Mountain Bible Conference, Red Rock, which held summer conference ministries from 1941 to 1970. He served as the assistant director and bookstore manager.

It is the time of the year to get out and see the leaves. And while you're doing it, why not include a trip to Scranton to see the world's only museum devoted entirely to Houdini? Visit http://houdini.org/ for details. And while we have your attention, www.bentonnews.net is expanding its WORTH VISITING section. As we work on it, please feel free to recommend to us places of interest that you feel should be included in the web site. You might also notice that now you can get the daily TV schedules from the Benton News web site.

Halloween is held October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day, observed with traditional customs. The word comes from medieval England's All Hallows' eve (in Old English, hallow means "saint"). Many of these Halloween customs predate Christianity, going back instead to Celtic practices associated with November 1—-the beginning of winter and the Celtic new year. Witches and other evil spirits were believed to roam the earth on this evening, playing tricks on human beings to mark the oncoming winter. Bonfires were lit, food offerings were made, and people would disguise themselves as roaming spirits. These early practices can be found in countries of Celtic influence today, such as the United States where children go from door to door in scary costumes demanding "trick or treat." This year, Halloween will be celebrated in Benton October 31 from 6 to 8 PM when trick or treating takes place in Benton and many adjacent towns.

The Pennsylvania Town in the Spotlight:
Fowlersville. A village in the southeastern part of North Centre township, named for Gilbert Fowler, the first postmaster. The Fowler family settled in the area after the Revolutionary War. The village was probably named about 1851 concurrent with the establishment of the post office. The covered bridge dating from 1887 known as the Fowlersville Bridge was at this location. One of the last covered bridges built in the county, the 40-foot Fowlersville bridge (38-19-05) was built by Charles Krug in 1887, at a cost of $397.00, and was known as a Queen Truss bridge. Fowlersvllle Bridge is located on a branch of Briar Creek, in North Centre Township, having been moved in 1986 to Briar Creek Park, north of Rte. 93 and east of 1017. Fowlersville is 15 miles from Benton via routes 487 and 93. The town is midway between Orangeville and Berwick.

Quote of the Day:
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.
--Albert Camus

The California Supreme Court let stand Wednesday a $290 million verdict against the Ford Motor Co. over a deadly 1993 rollover accident involving a Ford Bronco. Really, can one accident be worth $290 million?

Read this IF you are an Excel user and want to know how to use the "Fill Handle" in Excel. The bottom right corner in an Excel cell or range of cells always has a small black square called the "Fill Handle." If you enter the number 1 in cell A1 then select A1 you can left click on the Fill Handle. If you hold down the left mouse button you can drag down and this will copy the content of the cell down. You can also do this by holding down the Ctrl key, and the number will increment. If you want to increment by seven, for example, type 1 (or any starting number) in cell A1 and in cell A2 type 8 (or 7 greater than your starting number). Now select Cells A1:A2 and drag down with the Fill Handle. Try it with a date. Type in any valid date, like 10/24/02 into cell A1. Right click on the Fill Handle and drag down; for kicks and giggles, go to cell A15. Release the right mouse button and up will come a pop-up menu. Select "Series" and you will see the Series dialog box appear. Leave the "Series" set for Columns and the "Type" for Date. Check the "Weekday" option and change the "Step Value" to 3. Now click OK. The columns may need to be widened to see all the dates, but they should be only every third weekday starting from 10/24/02.

We try to provide useful information in the News From Back Home in Benton, PA, but we'll momentarily pass on that. Go to http://www.sunbelt-software.com/stu/eye.htm and run your curser over the image. Remember that we are keeping our eye on you while you waste your time.

Grab your cameras! Saturday, the 25th of October marks the end of an era. On that date, the old Steve Shannon Tire Store building on Mill Street ends its career as a car repair shop, automobile dealership and a tire store. Take your pictures for your memory book as soon as possible. Only one phone line remains in the old building today, in anticipation of reopening Monday morning in the spiffy new building. Although the computers won't be hooked up until Thursday (who can live without computers these days?), the new store will be open for business as usual Monday.

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
—-Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

The former four-term Governor of Louisiana, Eddie Edwards, began his Texas residency this week via the federal prison system after conviction on racketeering and extortion charges. When Edwards was asked what federal institution he wanted sent to, he replied, "The U.S. Mint."

If you see "Crash" Cole, say "hi." Ed's van got rear ended at the Lycoming Mall, then a deer smacked him on the Beech Glen highway in his rental car while the van was in for repair.

If you believe that reading www.bentonnews.net is worthwhile and would like to recommend it to a friend, please forward the URL to one person (or more if you have the time) you feel might not know about the web site. Let that person know that the Benton News is a one-person, private project (with one proofreader who helps out after the misspellings and the sloppily constructed English has been sent to the entire world). We are not part of a publishing empire's stable of publications. We don't have a budget, have no staff or production facilities and we mostly depend on readers to alert us to stories. On the other side of the coin, we do have a staff car, the same color as our web page, and two Bichon assistants who are learning to sniff out stories and frequently have a leg up on various news sources.

Our Favorite Bumper Snicker of the Day:
"COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, MEN ... SOME THINGS ARE JUST BETTER RICH"

Our Spotlight on Towns for Today:
Forks. A village in the south-central part of Fishing Creek Township at the confluence (forks) of Huntington and Fishingcreek. Bernard Ammerman was the first settler we could find, dating to about 1820. The post office opened thirty-five years later, a relocation from neighboring Pealertown, with Ammerman as its first post master. For reasons we don't understand, the post office didn't last long at Forks, and reverted back to Pealertown in 1861, but bounced back to Forks in 1871. Apparently tired of yo-yoing, the USPS discontinued the post office at both sites in 1904. Forks became a stopping point on the Bloomsburg and Sullivan railroad line in August 1887 and for many years was one of two locations for the Neil S. Harrison store. Covered bridges, known as the Twin Bridges (East Paden and West Paden), are located on Huntington Creek east of Forks, off route 1020, east of Pennsylvania Route 487. The Twin Bridges were constructed in 1884 by W. C. Pennington for $720 and are named after John Paden, who operated a nearby sawmill. Twin Bridges County Park was created in 1963 when a new road bypassed the structures. The site is a popular visiting place during the Twin Bridges Festival held each year in early October. Forks is located south of Benton on route 487, midway to Orangeville.

Everyone in the free world should know by now that a former Army soldier and a teenager arrested without incident this morning at a Maryland rest stop in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice near the Pennsylvania line are believed to be behind the deadly Washington area sniper shootings. A rifle, a scope and a tripod were recovered from their vehicle. Law enforcement sources say suspects' car had a hole bored in the trunk that would allow weapon to be fired from inside the car. Ten people are dead, three wounded and millions of people were afraid to complete everyday tasks even as simple as going out of their homes.

Have a modern or antique clock that needs repair? Kenneth A. Druckenmiller, 201 Main Street, repairs all types of mechanical clocks. All work is guaranteed and he offers free estimates. He specializes in antique clock movements and case repair. The number is 570 925-6733.

Christmas at the Ol' Country Barn takes place November 29, 30 and December 1, off route 487, six miles north of Benton. Watch for the signs. The Country Barn will be open 10 AM to 5 PM for crafts, antiques and collectibles with door prizes thrown in for good measure. Call 570 925-6295 for additional information.

You may think that Im pulling a prank,
But I'm trying my best to be frank:
In my search for a rhyme
I have run out of time,
So you'll just have to fill in the ___.

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October 23.. Researchers at the University of Toronto announced the development of an electronic cardiac pacemaker on this date in 1950. On this date in 1957, the New York Stock Exchange enjoyed its best day since November 14, 1929. We hope that about the same thing will again be true today. A year ago today, the anthrax scare hit the White House with the discovery of a small concentration of spores at an offsite mail processing center. The swallows leave San Juan Capistrano, California, today, if someone remembered to set the clock. The Ritter family celebrates Shirley Ritter's birthday today, her first since her retirement. Sharing the birth date but not the birthday cake is former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, 77.

The three candidates for Congress in the 11th District will square off Thursday night for their only currently scheduled television debate. U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Republican candidate Lou Barletta and Reform candidate Tom McLaughlin will debate live for 90 minutes beginning at 9:30 PM. Watch it on WVIA.

The PGC tells us that although many hunters will have to pass on bucks they normally would have shot in previous years, hunters have one of the largest antlerless deer license allocations ever. The PGC also says there is a good supply of large-racked bucks and puts this year's total statewide deer herd numbers about 1.3 million, which is down from 2001's population of 1.4 million.

Pennsylvania Area of the Day:
Wyoming Valley, and the town and County of Wyoming. The Delaware Indians called the valley M'chwewormink: "extensive plains or meadows." New Englanders shortened the word and for a time the valley was called "Wayomik" and "Waioming."

Pennsylvania History Term of the Day:
Onas. William Penn was called Onas by Indians. The name meant "quill" or "pen," from the fact that he governed by these instead of guns.
--History of the Lackawanna Valley, by H. Hollister, M.D., published in 1869.

Whittier Letteer had his heart cauterization yesterday. Doctors found two arteries blocked and surgery will be necessary next week. Please keep Whittier in your prayers.

A reader said that she could not find an article that she wanted to reread from the archives of September articles on www.bentonnews.net. Here is how to find what you want. Go to the page where you think the article would be stored. For example, if you wanted to check the date of Clair and Marlene Harvey's 50th wedding anniversary, go to the September archives and hit CTRL + F and insert the name "Harvey," and hit FIND NEXT. As an exercise, follow these instructions under TOWN NAMES for Mocanaqua.

In a settlement most of us could see coming, the state Attorney General's office has settled its lawsuit against the Psychic Reader's Network. The psychic company must cease advertising and operating its pay-per-call psychic services in Pennsylvania and must drop its efforts to collect nearly $3.6 million in charges disputed by Pennsylvania residents. Consumers had been charged nearly $5 per minute for readings that were to be free. Consumers have until December 21 to contact (800) 441-2555, the office's Bureau of Consumer Protection, to obtain refunds.

Come on, Barry Bonds, hit a home run! Taco Bell is promising free tacos for the entire country if Bonds, or any other player, hits a 15-foot-wide bulls-eye floating in the bay in San Francisco where boaters often wait for a Bonds splashdown. If any Giants or Angles player hits the target, Taco Bell will give everyone in America a freebie. Of the 27 home runs that landed in McCovey Cove since the park opened three years ago, Bonds has hit 21 of them.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Motorola Israel will supply 630 communications systems to the police in Pennsylvania for $6.9 million. The systems to be installed in 1,200 police vehicles, will provide cellular access to police databases, allowing officers to check out photographs, maps, and text.

Today's Quote of the Day:
"I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up, and I hate to be alone."
--Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (1903-1968).

Etcetera...
• A disinfectant cleaner spilled in the basement of the Columbia County Courthouse Tuesday, sickening two county employees and sending four others to the hospital as a precaution. The courthouse is open for business today.
• Radnor's Adam Cohan beat first-round leader Robert Rohanna of Waynesburg on the fourth hole of sudden death to win the PIAA Boys' Golf Championship Tuesday. Benton's Tyler Brewington, a Junior, placed fourth, tying with Butler senior John Aubrey.
• Drive slowly through New Albany starting in February, as the 137 connections to the New Albany Water System will be completely replaced as part of a system upgrade.
• As temper's flare, the Towanda Area School Board decided to postpone until November 18 a vote on whether to sell the Towanda Township school to Bradford County for $184,000.
• Over in Hazelton, the former Prestolite factory is proposed as a
170,000-square-foot retail center including a food court, farmer's market, flea market, factory outlet stores, antiques shops and recreation area for children.
• R/C Theatres may be willing to finance a 14-screen theater in a Wilkes-Barre Main Street location half a block from the South Washington Street hole dug a year ago. The theater's entrance would be on South Main Street next to the Park N Lock Central and the building would extend back onto the empty lot at Northampton and Washington streets.
• Don't mess with Luzerne County juries! Seven women and five men decided Tuesday that an Old Forge woman inappropriately took the law into her own hands when she fired five gunshots towards a man who robbed her. The woman missed her shot, but was convicted of recklessly endangering another person for shooting at the robber hot-footing it.

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October 22. Forty years ago on this date in 1962, President Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island. Today marks the wedding anniversary of Ed and Susan Cole.

In today's Press Enterprise, you can read about:
• An apparent double homicide occurring this weekend in State College. Police discovered the bodies of William and Georgeann Opdenhoff in the living room of their home. They had died as a result of trauma, possibly from a firearm. Police said they are attempting to locate the couple's son, Daniel Opdenhoff, who resided at the home, but did not say specifically if the son is a suspect in the killings. Opdenhoff was Danville's school chief from 1982 to 1993, when he left for his State College school post and was replaced by Superintendent Richard Martz.
• An 18-year old Benton girl spentt the night with a carnival worker in his van following a "he said, she said" alleged rape. The couple had "dated" for a few days prior to the incident.

A theatre complex in Wilkes-Barre has a chance of becoming reality using private funds rather than city funds now that Al Boscov has thrown his weight behind a South Main Street location in lieu of the South Washington Street one. The Times Leader reports that the city bought Dyer Lane, at the S. Washington Street theater site from the Redevelopment Authority in 1999 for $1 million--over $595,000 more than the assessed value of $405,000. Also in Wilkes-Barre and consistent with the theme of getting people to come to the downtown area, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking at improving the River Commons with recreational amenities such as portals and an amphitheater. (Portals are openings cut into the levee wall to allow people river access at street level.) Half of the funding would come from the Federal Government and half from Luzerne County.

Investigators may have a highly unusual opportunity to forge a relationship with a serial killer. While not trying to downplay the importance of such an interplay or even to suggest that the world has better people to talk to, this bizarre dialogue is very reminiscent of other strange people like Kaczynski, the Son of Sam, a jerk named Jack, and Zodiac.

The Serial Killer Quote of the Day:
"I am down on whores and shant quit ripping them til I do get buckled."
--London's Jack the Ripper, who relished writing boastful letters in 1888

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star Nia Vardalos receives hundreds of marriage proposals following her role as a woman who can't find a guy. Flattering certainly, but Nia has been happily married to Ian Gomez for 10 years.

A friend sent along one of those endless unsigned Internet stories, but a good one. We have modified it partially, but it said, in part:
As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags, we rode in the back of a pickup trucks, our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint, we had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets. We drank water from the garden hose. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. We ate cupcakes, milk pie, bread and butter, and drank vanilla Coke, but we were never overweight; we were always outside playing. Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. That generation produced some great risk-takers and problem solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Pennsylvania Town of the Day:
This article on Newell, has been moved to Town Names.

Quote of the Day:
"Women should be obscene and not heard."
--Groucho Marx

Lech Walesa, the founder of Poland's Solidarity Labor movement and president of Poland for five years, will host a Polish program on the fine art of fishing. The show, to be seen on Poland's Channel 3, will begin airing sometime next month. The champion of the blue-collar workers is said to be an excellent fisherman. And, with his great communications skills, should prove quite a show host. Walesa is now in his late 50s. After failing in a bid for re-election, he tried again but only received one percent of the national vote.

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October 21. David and Linda Bronson have been married thirty years today. Happy 30th anniversary! Robert Rabb is celebrating his birthday today. There is a full moon tonight.

We have added MP3 music. Admittedly a fast connection helps, but click on Music Site in the green area on the left and listen to MP3 music. You will enjoy this if you do not have a slow computer.

The extensive staff of the News From Back Home in Benton, PA, increased by 100% yesterday when we commissioned an experienced after-the-fact proofreader to make sure that we improved our output quality. He proved his worth overnight when he fired off a correction to our statement of yesterday that >>> Flags flew at half mast and church bells tolled...<<< in Australia in memory of those lost in Bali. Our trusted employee noted, "No, they didn't. Those flags were flying at half staff if they were mounted on buildings. If they were on ships, then it's half mast. I know you're going to tell me that's a half-assed rule, but it is the rule." We stand corrected, trusting in his experience in these matters. Experience, after all, is the wonderful knowledge that enables us to recognize a mistake when we make it again. We suspect that there are mistakes in our most recent attempt at poetry, but if there are we know our proofreader will catch them:

There was a young lady of Worcester,
Who dreamed Marlon Brando sedorcester.
But she woke up to find
It was all in her mind:
Just a lump in the mattress that gorcester.

Tyler Brewington is the Press Enterprise Athlete of the Week for October 6-12 after a strong performance in the Susquehanna Valley Golf League Medal Play Championships. Austin Kelsey, was a runner-up, making 36 saves in two games--14 in a scoreless tie and 22 in a 1-1 stalemate.

Quote of the Day:
"What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living."
--Doug Larson

On November 5, voters will get a chance to vote on a referendum asking if the state should borrow $100 million to help volunteer fire departments. You probably haven't heard about this referendum because the people who would tell you about it are the volunteers themselves who are either working at their private jobs or fighting fires. You may soon see volunteer firefighters doing a little campaigning for the referendum. The referendum would not increase taxes but it would allow the state to borrow money and lend it to volunteer fire companies. One possible source of partial funding would be a 25-cent- per-month surcharge on the use of cell phones.

Looking at the movie schedule, we notice that many drive-in theaters are calling it quits until Spring. We heard that the definition of drive-in theater is wall-to-wall car-petting.

We are passing along some definitions of terms we have all heard:
• CEO--chief embezzlement officer.
• CFO--corporate fraud officer.
• BROKER--What my broker has made me.
• MARKET CORRECTION--The day after you buy stocks.
• STANDARD & POOR--Your life in a nutshell.
• YAHOO--What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.
• CASH FLOW--The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

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October 20. There are only 72 days left in the year. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? On this date in 1973, special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned in the "Saturday Night Massacre." On this date in 1968, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy created a marriage of convenience to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and in 1977, Kelly Yost reminds us, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in a plane crash. Today is the birthday of Edward Lee Cole. He shares his birthday with another Heartbreaker, Tom Petty, 52. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be flirting with C O L D nights.

With a sniffle, we remind you that a week from today, it will be dark outside at 5 PM. When the time changes on Sunday, October 27, please take the time to replace all of the batteries in your smoke detectors. You might as well wipe off the boob tube screen while you're at it, 'cause you'll probably be spending more time in front of it...

Millions of Australians today mourned those lost and injured in the Bali bombings a little over a week ago. Flags flew at half mast and church bells tolled across the nation as people of all faiths and beliefs gathered for memorial services for the victims. More than 180 people were killed in the suspected terror blasts, the majority of them young Australian tourists. Please take time out this Sunday to think of the Australians and New Zealanders who were killed in Bali, Indonesia. The Australian Government has declared it a day of mourning.

The 107th Congress adjourned Friday until after Election Day. Close margins in the House and Senate made it difficult to get things done and lawmakers went home without having approved homeland security legislation, health care reform and dozens of other major bills. Significant changes were made in campaign finance laws, corporate accounting standards and trade policy--while dealing with unpredictable events like 9/11.

After Saturday's last hurrah, the Ames Stores closed for good. Bankruptcy forced the Connecticut-based company's move. Ames purchase of the Hills department store chain and the slumping economy apparently put too much of a burden on Ames and the company was unable to survive.

An internet quiz said that the only two-syllable word in the English language that has no accent on either syllable is "farewell." Don't you hate these quizzes that don't give the answer. I spent two days on that one and never did get it.

"The McIntosh basically froze out," said Kent Shelhamer, Orangeville. A late spring freeze damaged apple blossoms in some Pennsylvania counties, where the fall harvest is lighter than usual, particularly for McIntosh varieties. None of that was evident at Heller's Apple Orchards, Wapwallopen, as sales of scrumptious apple pies and apple dumplings were selling via long lines on a perfectly beautiful Fall day. And scores of people said good things about the singing of Neil Metcalf, Benton, owner of Metcalf Steel. The next time you see Neil, please recommend that he record. He is that good.

From the "Two Quotes For the Price of One" Department, comes:
"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one."
--Leo J. Burke
"I usually take a two-hour nap between 1-4."
--Yogi Berra

Archived "News From Back Home in Benton, PA," is now stored in the September archive section. Other months will follow.

Monday morning the North Mountain Historical Society will present Sue Hand in words and painting. Sue has artwork included in public and private art collections in nearly every state of the United States as well as ten foreign countries. She creates primarily in watercolor, but she also works in and teaches all fine art drawing and painting media, including acrylic, casein, pastel, ink, alkyd and graphite. She has also been featured in several episodes of Windsor Park Stories, a series on PBS. She has written, illustrated, and published several full length books. She is a graduate of Kutztown State College (now Kutztown University). She is currently painting 1,000 scenes of northeastern Pennsylvania, including 100 from Columbia County and fifty from Sullivan County. She will demonstrate her landscape painting ability using local scenes, and if time permits will also demonstrate charcoal and watercolors.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with 114 discount outlets, is now the largest private employer in the state crowding out universities, steel companies, railroads, drug manufacturers, the phone company and airlines.

Yesterday at the 14th Annual Apple Festival at Heller Orchards, Wapwallopen, there were folks churning butter, pulling and pushing on crosscut saws, doing spinning-wheel weaving and corn shocking, all to the beat of music by Pat and Al Hess. The Covered Bridge Cloggers are there and so is the miniature horse exhibit and the antique saws display and the horse drawn plows display. Yesterday, children painted pumpkins, made bracelets, helped churn butter and took pony rides. Oh, and heavens, don't forget the crafters along the road, near the pond and down on the lawn behind the Heller homestead. There are handmade items, you can sample homemade food or learn about country traditions. And don't forget the apples, apple cider or apple dumplings. Rev. Vernon McDormand's St. Peter's United Church of Christ, Hobbie, and St. John's in Wapwallopen organize and benefit from the event. Today Neil Metcalf provides the entertainment.

Penn State took out their frustrations on the hapless Wildcats yesterday, rolling to a 49-0 Homecoming victory. The Lions record in the Big Ten is now 2-2 (5-2 overall) as they get set to face Ohio State Saturday in Columbus. In the 19th meeting between the Pittston and Berwick high school teams, Berwick came away with the victory for the 19th time yesterday. The 13-10 victory improved the Dawgs to 4-4 for the year.

Buds will form on a Christmas cactus when it is kept at a constant temperature between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit or when you give it at least 13 hours of complete darkness each night. If you can achieve either of these conditions at this time of the year, you'll have December blooms.

Be glad you were not traveling I-95 south of Washington, DC, last night. When the sniper (or copy-cat sniper) hit 80 miles below the beltway in Ashland, VA, highways were shutdown and will continue to be shutdown "until each vehicle can be inspected and the occupants interviewed" according to local police. I-95 was closed to just north of Richmond. Police called the sniper response plan "prudent." Benton snowbirds, take note!

For the third year in a row, Rhonda Vincent has won the IBMA's Female Vocalist of the Year award!

Today "Term of the Day:"
"Something is rotten in Denmark." Attributed to Shakespeare, from "Hamlet." Marcellus: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

If Democrat Ed Rendell becomes Pennsylvania's next governor he will have a lieutenant governor he did not choose. Catherine Baker Knoll won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor by defeating 10 other candidates primarily through name recognition as a former state treasurer. Should Rendell and Knoll be elected November 5, there is a possibility that Knoll would be unable to complete her term in office (she declines to state her age, but it is generally believed she is in her 70s.) Now hold on! I am not slam dunking a political party or individual. My point is yet to come. If her office would become vacant for some reason, Robert Jubelirer, a Republican and the current lieutenant governor, would become lieutenant governor because he is the highest ranking member of the state Senate. Does anyone else think that something is rotten in Denmark with a system that permits something as stupid as this to happen? Regardless of party, shouldn't the system permit the Governor to select his own lieutenant governor?

You have heard us go on and on about the need for firewalls on your computer. A firewall reduces risk for your system, but it does not eliminate risk. There is always the danger that something built by a human can go fatally wrong. The firewall at http://www.ranum.com/pubs/a1fwall/ is the only 100% guaranteed secure solution.

here is a guide to buying computer memory (RAM) at http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1103-8-20088841-1.html?tag=ld filled with tips and suggestions on upgrading memory in your computer. The article explains the various types available, where and how to purchase the chips, and tips on installing the chips into your computer. More RAM should make your love affair with your computer even stronger...

Have you seen the TV ads put out by Pennsylvania featuring the "fairy job mother"--a pudgy, winged guy in a pink tutu and construction boots who extols the state's quality of life?

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October 19. On this date in 1781, British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, VA, in the American Revolution war. On this date in 1957, CBS carried "Perry Mason," "Dick and the Duchess," "Oh! Susanna," "Have Gun, Will Travel," and from ten until 11 PM "Gunsmoke." Happy birthday today to Joey Sue Laubach!

We hope to eventually include information about the majority of significant events in our local history as part of the News From Back Home in Benton, PA, and its web site, www.bentonnews.net. We are proud to include an account of one of those events, the Benton Fire of July 4, 1910. Less than three hours after the fire started, the equivalent of four blocks in the heart of Benton, an area of about five acres or one-third of the town, was destroyed. Sixty homes, stores, barns, and outbuildings were gone and 200 people--over a fourth of the town's population--homeless, with over half of the business community destroyed. The history of the fire was written by George A. Turner, President of the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society and member of the Bloomsburg Town Council, a former Professor of History at Bloomsburg University. He holds the rank of Professor Emeritus. Professor Turner presented the history of the Benton Fire of July 4, 1910, at the September 17, 2001, meeting of the North Mountain Historical Society. The article appeared in Carver, a journal published by Bloomsburg University, v. 20 (2002). It is reprinted with permission from the author and Bloomsburg University. The article can be found under Features at www.bentonnews.net .

In response to the question about how we liked staying in the mountains for the past couple of days, we can only say doze were the days!

Today's Saying of the Day:
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
Early risers get a jump on everyone else. Some man by the name of Fitzherbert wrote about 1523: "Erly rysyng maketh a man hole in body, loler in soule, and rycher in goodes," and today we have another saying because of it.

Trailing unbeaten Williamsport by two touchdowns halfway through Friday night's Wyoming Valley Conference Division I showdown, Hazleton Area scored with 11 seconds left to win, 29-26. And speaking of sports, what do you think of a California World Series? Tonight is Game 1 between the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels, and the only question is which California team will win? The Angels are playing in their first World Series in their 42-year history. It's also the first time that two wild-card teams will compete in the series. The Angels host the first two games.

Quote of the Day:
"It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course."
--Hank Aaron

The Guv participated in a candlelight vigil Friday night to protest the VH1 premiere of a show that features prison musical groups, including a musician who is serving time for the murder of two teenage girls at Lehigh University in 1995.

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October 18, 2002. Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team, announced his retirement on this date in 1950. On this date in 1957, the Everly Brothers made #1 with their pop hit, "Wake Up, Little Susie." Gas prices are inching up! Prices in Benton Friday afternoon for regular unleaded are $1.359 and $1.399. Center Street is going to look like new next week when the paving machines arrive. On the mend in the Bloomsburg Hospital is Doris Gordon, Benton Township tax collector. On the mend at home is Frank Hess, 62, Asbury, a heart attack victim last week.

There are bargains left in Canada. People over 60 riding the railroad (VIA Rail Canada) on a full-price senior economy ticket (which is 10% less than the standard adult fare) can take a companion of any age along for free, except for a few blackout dates and restrictions, through February 28, 2003.

Quote of the Day:
"Try and fail, but don't fail to try."
--Stephen Kaggwa

Sue Hand of Sue Hand Imagery, an artist from Dallas and well known in the Cape May, NJ, area, will be the guest speaker at the North Mountain Historical Society October 21. All meetings are held on the third Monday of each month at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove. Come for breakfast at 8:30 and stay for the speaker at 9:15. Except for the price of breakfast, there is no cost and the entire event is open to the public.

Local boroughs who buy electricity from PPL and sell the electricity to its residents have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania against PPL Corp., PPL EnergyPlus Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates for alleged violations of federal antitrust laws. The boroughs include Mifflinburg, Watsontown, Blakely, Catawissa, Duncannon, Hatfield, Kutztown, Lansdale, Lehighton, Olyphant, Quakertown, Schuylkill Haven, St. Clair and Weatherly.

Playboy Magazine has ranked the nation's top party schools and named Lehigh University 23rd in the nation.

The AP story, "Kinzua Viaduct Succumbing to Age," has appeared in quite a few newspapers. It's about the plight of the Kinzua Bridge, which appears to be not far from collapse. It was banned to train traffic in June and pedestrian traffic in August.

Some definitions...
• Baloney: Where some hemlines fall • Burglarize: What a thief sees you with.
• Primate: What you have to do to get your husband away TV.
• Misty: What Tiger Woods never does.
• Eclipse: What happens at Ed Cole's Barber Shop.
• Rubberneck: What you do to relax your wife.
• Heroes: What a guy in a boat does.

If you go to the Cigna web site and click on the pink ribbon, Cigna will donate $1.00 to fight breast cancer, but only for the month of October. Go to http://www.cignafoundation.org/ .

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot have jumped from 1 in 80 million to 1 in 120 million.

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October 16. Forty years ago today, in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. The Farmer's Almanac says that if it is dry today, it will be dry next spring! Well, have I got news for you...

Arcadia Word of the Day: "Jauntsamore"
Asking if one wants seconds at mealtimes.

We will be in the mountains today through Friday afternoon, and will not have email or phone service. We'll enjoy a chance to sleep in for a couple of days as this old he-coon is tired of walking just before the light of day. We'll acknowledge John Unbewuest's birthday today. The next Benton News will be available Friday evening. May the world be sniperless during that period.

This summer, fears of Hershey Corporation being sold to another corporate giant propelled an idea that is now taking wings. Although not well known, Hershey Foods Corporation is not in Hershey, but is in Derry Township, founded about 170 years before Milton S. Hershey built his first chocolate factory in 1903. In an effort to protect the town's identity, Derry Township supervisors will ask voters November 5 to change the name of the municipality to Hershey Township.

Still remarkably feisty at 75, Joe Paterno wants a comprehensive review of Big Ten football after controversial calls in its two overtime losses.

In our "News of the Day in a single sentence" Department:
Police hope that firsthand accounts of Monday's Home Depot attack will lead to a breakthrough in the sniper search, an FBI terrorism analyst was the ninth person killed by the sniper, VA Gov. Warner will slash thousands of workers saving the state $858M, we should start to see the Quecreek Mine survivors appearing on talk shows since it is only five weeks until their story is told on ABC-TV, despite everyone's effort to clean up what goes into it the health of the Chesapeake Bay is still a disgrace, the listeria outbreak that caused at least 39 illnesses and seven deaths apparently originated at a suburban Philadelphia meat processing plant, next Saturday the state's third muzzleloader antlerless deer season and the traditional squirrel and grouse seasons get under way.

Yesterday we wrote about Mocanaqua, and today we present the "other side of the story," the story told by the people of the Wabash Valley of Indiana where Frances Slocum lived and died in her near-Indian life. But first, we'll get the complainers out of the way. Yesterday we started, "Mocanaqua (MO-kah-NAH-kwah)..." One reader thought that we should have started the article "Mocanaqua (Mahk-uh-NAHK-wuh)," and another said "everyone around here just calls it 'Mock.'" We give up and you can call it whatever you want to.

Anyway, lets travel to Wabash County, Indiana, an area rich in Indian lore. The area was chosen for its beauty, resources, and its location along the Wabash River by scores of Indian tribes over the centuries.

The last of the tribes was the Miamis. As they tell the story in the Frances Slocum Bank, Kokomo, IN, Frances Slocum's parents were early Quaker settlers along the Susquehanna River near Wilkes-Barre, "the edge of the western frontier in 1778." Frances Slocum, a five-year old girl with auburn hair was stolen by Delaware Indians in November,1778. Search parties failed to find any trace of Frances or her captors. Frances had been taken by canoe to Tioga, an Iroquois village on the Susquehanna, and then overland to the Niagara River and a Delaware village. Here Frances was given over to a Miami Indian couple who had recently lost their own daughter. They adopted Frances as their own, naming her Maconaquah (ma-con-a-kwa), which means "little bear woman." Frances traveled westward with them to their home at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne), Indiana. Frances grew to a woman in the Miami villages lovingly raised by her adopted parents Strong Bear and Meshinga.

After one unhappy marriage Frances returned to her adopted parents. During that time she found a wounded Miami warrior that had crawled inside a log to die. Frances helped him back to her camp and in spite of his serious wounds nursed him back to health. After a winter in which the injured brave helped provide for Frances' family, Frances and the brave Shepoconah (She-po-con-ah) were married.

In the years that followed, Shepoconah became a powerful chief of the Miamis, and Frances' brother and sister never gave up the search for their missing sister. Late in her life Frances related what little she knew of her parents to a trader named George Ewing. Through George Ewing's efforts, Frances' brother and sister were finally able to locate her and arrange a reunion. Frances chose to remain with the Miami Indians…where she had become a legend of peace and courage. Over her lifetime she had become known as the "White Rose of the Miamis," respected by pioneers and Indians alike. When many Indians were forced to relocate, Frances' relatives appealed to the U. S. Congress to allow her and her descendants to remain on the land given by treaty to Frances' daughters. The congressional resolution passed without dissent, and Frances and her relatives stayed in Indiana.

Frances Slocum died on March 9, 1847, at her home on the Mississinewa River and was buried beside her husband and children…on the land she loved and cherished.
--The Frances Slocum Bank has offices in Wabash, Peru, Kokomo, and North Manchester, Indiana.

Quote of the Day:
"Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf."
-American Indian Proverb

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October 15, 2002. Winter is 67 days from officially arriving. The temperature is 29 degrees at 6 AM. Rain arrives after dark tonight, possibly up to 2 inches through tomorrow night.

We all have to live with a lot of rules, especially those of us who are married. If you want the rules for practically anything, go to http://www.everyrule.com/indextop.htm . After you read the rules, would you please explain them to me!

Quote of the Day:
"The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own."
--Michael Konda

Over in Mifflinburg, the Mifflinburg Area High School Class of 2003 saw its shark float catch fire before Mifflinburg's Homecoming Parade Saturday. The ex-float depicted "Jaws" with a moving jaw and large teeth. Undaunted, the class plans to re-stuff 10,000 napkins, put new paper mache on the shark and pull the float in Mifflinburg's Halloween Parade. The 20-foot-long float was surrounded by 10,000 napkins stuffed into chicken wire. The new name of the float will be either Jaws 2 or Jaws Returns.

The LA Times makes it official: duct tape can remove warts. The paper reports an Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine study that the over-the-hardware-counter duct tape is a more effective, less painful alternative to freezing warts with liquid nitrogen. Patients wore duct tape over their warts for six days. Then they removed the tape, soaked the area in water and used an emery board or pumice stone to scrape the spot. The treatment continued for a maximum of two months or until the wart went away. The duct tape apparently caused an immune system reaction that attacked the growths.

Camp Victory, near route 254 between Millville and Rohrsburg, will host its first Camp Victory Benefit Buffet from 3:30 to 7:30 PM October 19. Proceeds benefit Camp Victory's KIDS KASH Program. Cost per person is $6.50 for adults, $3.50 for children ages 3-12, under age three eats free. And the food sounds great: roast turkey, beef, pork, corn, peas, mashed potatoes, gravy, parsley potatoes, veggie tray, salad, rolls, cake, pie, ice cream and beverage. Camp Victory hosts 22 camps each summer with over 1,100 special needs children overcoming such challenges as cancer, spina bifida, hearing disorders, heart, kidney and liver transplants, mental challenges and dwarfism Personnel at Camp Victory can fill you in on all the details if you call 570 458-6530.

The Columbia County Farmers National Bank in conjunction with the Bloomsburg Hospital will offer flu vaccines for club members at the Lightstreet office from 9AM to 2 PM, November 7. The cost is $10.

The steam was rising this morning at Steve Shannon's Tire Store, as paving began on the frosted ground surrounding their new building. Both of the new buildings should be up and running next month at this time. Chris and Dennis Dawson are preparing to paint the exterior of their upcoming Main Street restaurant and we can hear lots of pounding of nails inside. Mayor Swan's house on North and Main Streets looks wonderful. The town is starting to look a lot like Halloween. That nasty rumor of two inches of rain tomorrow has not gone away.

Caterpillar Inc. will temporarily lay off up to 3,270 employees because of weak demand for heavy-duty truck engines. The layoffs will hit management, salaried and manufacturing employees at plants in Illinois and Georgia.

Eugene McCarthy once said, "Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important." We work ourselves into the same box when we try to understand the promises of politicians at this time of the year. What they promise certainly sounds good, but we all know that there won't be any presents under the tree once the clamor of the election is over.

The Farmer's Almanac Advice of the Day "Take time when time comes, lest time steal away."

Wilkes-Barre will soon have lots of real estate to rent in the dog-eat-dog retail world: The Kmart in Hanover Township, Ames stores in Edwardsville and Wilkes-Barre Township, Service Merchandise, Phar-Mor drugstore and Dunham's Sports, and the 114,000 square feet Wal-Mart store near Sam's Club. The valley has an estimated 625,000 square feet of new retail space by the Times Leader's estimate, and an estimated 385,000 square feet of major retail space is empty or soon will be empty. The new additions are a soon-to-open 300,000-square-foot Target center and a 325,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter complex, both near the sports arena. Wal-Mart, by the way, recently backed away from a planned massive distribution center in the state which would have brought about 1,000 jobs to the state, citing public opposition to the project.

The 53rd annual Irem Shrine Circus is at the 109th Field Artillery in Wilkes-Barre and runs through Sunday, October 19.

The San Francisco Giants won the National League pennant last night. The last time they did that, an earthquake hit before Game 3 of the 1989 Series between Oakland and the Giants at Candlestick Park. There were no problems like that last night.

In local sports, Tyler Brewington, a Benton high school junior, won the District 4 golf championship at the White Deer Challenge Course, beating two-time defending district champion Matt Schall, Jersey Shore. Tyler shot a 4-over par 76. The Benton coach is Kay Hoosty.

Four candidates for the Guv's job--Republican Attorney General Mike Fisher; Democrat Ed Rendell, the former Philadelphia mayor; Green Party candidate Mike Morrill; and Libertarian Party candidate Ken Krawchuk--fought it out in a nationally televised debate at Wilkes University. All candidates but Morrill favored expansion of legalized gambling in some form. Rendell would use the revenue to fund schools and a property tax cut, Fisher would use it to expand prescription drug assistance. A few points, realizing that reducing the debate to a paragraph isn't exactly fair:
• Rendell wants to use money generated from slot machines at race tracks to fund a significant increase in state education spending, suggesting that it can result in a 33-percent decrease in property taxes statewide. He favors reducing class size to 15 or 16 students in a classroom, expansion of preschool and statewide adoption of full-day kindergarten.
• Fisher favors expanding preschool and increasing state funding of education, allowing voters the option of staying with property taxes or switching to another taxation form, such as an income tax. Fisher's plan on getting more state revenue for education is to sell off the state liquor stores.

You can track your stock and mutual fund portfolio by looking at Barron's Online. You can get the full weekly listings for mutual funds, plus stocks traded on the New York and American Stock Exchanges and the Nasdaq National Market at http://www.barrons.com/data/intro.html .

Mocanaqua (MO-kah-NAH-kwah), 1990 pop. 1,100, Conyngham township, Luzerne County. The name origin of this town on the Susquehanna, halfway between Nanticoke and Berwick, is very interesting. On November 2, 1778, American Indian braves of the Delaware Tribe (Lenni Lenape) entered the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Slocum and carried away Frances who was then just five-years old. Raised with the Delaware and taken along as the Indians moved westward, she spent the rest of her life with them. Slocum was renamed "Mocanaqua" and later married a chief of the Miami tribe. For 59 years her brothers searched for Frances. Fifty-nine years after her abduction they found her living on a reservation in New Reserve, IN. She had been married twice and had four children. Frances refused the pleas of her brothers to return to Pennsylvania, finding her white brothers' alien to her way of life. Frances Slocum died in 1847 in New Reserve, IN, at the age of 74. Near Peru, IN, there is a state park named for her and along the Mississinewa River in Indiana there is a monument at the final resting-place of Mocanaquah, the "Young Bear." And there is also a state park in PA dedicated to Frances Slocum and named in her honor. From exit 170B of Interstate 81, take Route 309 North approximately 7 miles (7.2). Go east on Carverton Road about 4 miles. Turn north on 8th Street Road and go approximately one mile. Turn west onto Mt. Olivet Road and go one mile. The Frances Slocum park entrance is on the left and is well marked. Mocanaqua is 16 miles east of Benton on route 239.

Remember those nasty dreams as you were growing up, falling off a cliff, being caught in a burning building, sinking up to your nose in quicksand? Tain't gonna happen. Quicksand is solid ground that has been liquefied by an oversaturation of water. Water injects itself into grains of sand mixed with water, separates and lifts them, causing them to tumble over one another, making them helpless to support heavy objects. Quicksand can be found near the deltas of rivers, or near the shore where a layer of stiff clay collects and retains the water. Quicksand does not suck unsuspecting victims to their gruesome deaths, contrary to those old Tom Mix movies you saw although this theory provided good material for low-budget horror and western films! Since quicksand is heavier than water and saturated with liquid, it allows anything or anyone who steps into it to float higher than possible in water alone--if you paddle in slow motion. By moving slowly when initially landing in quicksand, the quicksand can flow around one's body, thereby making swimming or floating possible. The more you struggle in quicksand, the faster you will sink. If you just relax, your body will float in it since your body is less dense than the quicksand.

Quotes of the Day:
"I worship the quicksand he walks in."
--Art Buchwald

"A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween."
--Erma Bombeck

October 14, 2002. Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born on this date in 1890. This is the Columbus Day observance in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Forget about the banks and the post office today. We hear the term "scattered frost" in the forecast for tonight.

PPL Corp. has restarted the 1,094 megawatt Susquehanna 2 unit of PPL Susquehanna's nuclear power plant above Berwick. The unit has been off line since September 30, when it automatically shut down because of a problem on the non-nuclear side of the plant. The company's initial attempt to bring the reactor online October 3 was delayed when the startup transformer caught fire. The transformer was replaced and the facility is now operating at full power.

Reassuring Quote of the Day:
"If U.S. lives are going to be put at risk...the U.S. must have a darn good reason."
--Donald Rumsfeld

Do you like physics and astronomy? Go to http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ .

We have added the Cinema Center movie schedules to www.bentonnews.net and from that site you can also click on the movie title to get a review of the movie. Look for "Local Movies" on the gizmo on the left side.

Term of the Day:
Gizmo: "Navy slang for a gadget type of doohickey.

And since it is a slow news day, we might as well have another lesson in English. Lets try similes and metaphors. They are both comparisons, but similes always use the word "like" or "as." An example is "Her eyes are like pools." The comparison in a metaphor is more direct. To emphasize a point, something becomes something else, as in "Her eyes are pools."

Isn't it wonderful that we live in the United States? Take Iran. A hard-line cleric there has called for a clampdown and arrest of dogs and their owners based on "moral corruption." Gholamreza Hassani called "on the judiciary to arrest all long-legged, medium-legged and short-legged dogs, along with their long-legged owners." Strict Muslims consider canines "unclean." Police have sporadic clampdowns on dogs in Iran, fining owners and confiscating their pets in streets and public parks.

Just when we were looking forward to reporting good news for a new week, the Press Enterprise reports Benton made the top of the list--in local tax bills, and Jackson, Sugarloaf and Fishingcreek townships and Stillwater borough were in the top eight among the highest total tax bills. Benton borough levies a property tax of 12.63 mills.

From the "Athlete of the Week" Department comes this:
Tara Goode was named the very best athlete for the week, getting the award from the Press Enterprise for her ability in playing field hockey. The high school senior recently scored three goals and added six assists to practically double her season totals, helping to give the Tigers four consecutive victories. Last week, for example, Tara had four assists and a goal in a 7-0 win over Notre Dame, then scored Benton's first goal in a 3-2 victory against Millville, scored the game-winner 38 seconds into overtime in a win at Central, and assisted on Benton's first two goals in a 3-1 victory at Shikellamy. Tara has seven goals and nine assists for the season to lead the Tigers and the area in scoring with 23 points. Her assist total is the team-high and the Mid-Penn Conference's best. Janelle Reese, Benton, got an honorable mention, as she achieved a pair of goal shutouts with 18 total saves in a 2-0 soccer week. The field hockey playoffs start on the 21st (away, location TBD). Come out and see Tara, Janelle and the rest of the splendid team.

And speaking of sports, don't forget that Wednesday at 4 PM is the last boy's varsity soccer game for the year. They play Montgomery at 4 PM at home. Come out and cheer the team to a rousing finish. You can get all the sports schedules on our web site, www.bentonnews.net. Go to NAVIGATION on the left side, scroll down to Benton Area Schools, then hit Sports Schedules.

Sports goes on in the Benton schools, but things are hectic around the beltway in Maryland and Virginia. In Montgomery County schools, for example, no outdoor activities will be allowed for students, and in Prince George's County, all athletic events and practices in the schools have been suspended. Tip hotlines were flooded around the Washington beltway after police released composite images of a white box truck that witnesses reported seeing near several fatal shooting scenes. Closer to home, the Williamsport area was jumpy yesterday when someone reported a suspicious white van with Virginia license plates in a Weis store's parking lot. A man "milling about" didn't help the situation. Enter the police on "high alert" who did a background check on the van registered to a man in Bealton, VA. About the same time, someone spotted two suspicious white men in a red Jeep parked outside the Williamsport National Bank with one of the men standing outside the vehicle gawking at the police in the Weis parking lot. When the man noticed the police looking at him, he "ran to his Jeep and sped away at a high rate of speed." The Jeep was subsequently stopped by police and the men were detained. As it turned out, the Jeep had been in the Weis lot, and police had asked it to leave while the van was being checked out. The van's driver was a former Williamsport resident visiting the area.

Maggie Jayne, 18, Elgin, IL, made her fourth try at winning the Equestrian-USA Equitation Medal Final at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show a winning one. She and her horse, Grappa, beat a field of 253 qualifiers from 31 states, Canada and Bermuda Sunday.

Cooperative extension services for farmers originally received $27.8 million from the state for fiscal year 2001-02. But more than $800,000 was cut when the state ran into budget trouble earlier this year. The appropriation for the current fiscal year was reduced to $27.6 million. Penn State has eliminated 80 faculty, staff and administrative jobs in agricultural research and cooperative extension. Thirty-five of those were from county extension offices throughout the state.

The Wilkes-Barre area celebrated a 30-year reunion over the weekend, remembering digging out of mud and debris after the flood of 1972. You can read the account of Hurricane Agnes at www.bentonnews.net, under FEATURES, Hurricane Agnes.

As Yogi Berra said, "It's d`ej`a vu all over again!" Memories come flooding back as I recall walking into the Wilkes University gymnasium on South Franklin Street, Wikes-Barra, to hear a senator I didn't know much about. His name was John F. Kennedy and he was making overtures about being president of the United States. What a thrill to hear him speak. And tonight, Candidates Mike Fisher (Republican), Ed Rendell (Democrat), Mike Morrill (Green) and Kenneth Krawchuk (Libertarian) will be in the same gymnasium for the one-hour debate, scheduled for 7 PM. The debate will be broadcast live on WBRE-28, the Pennsylvania Cable Network and C-SPAN.

The largest meat recall in U.S. history is underway by poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride, recalling 27.4 million pounds of cooked sandwich meat after warnings of possible contamination from the listeria bacteria. The company recalled 295,000 pounds of turkey and chicken products from a suburban Philadelphia plant Wednesday, but expanded the recall nationally to cover deli meat sold under the company's Wampler Foods brand. The meat was processed at the company's plant in Franconia, PA, from May 1 through October 11.

In our continuing series of names of Pennsylvania towns, today we have two names for one town: Mauch Chunk and Jim Thorpe. You can find these towns at www.bentonnews.net, under Navigation, Town Names.

Quote of the Day:
"Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It's hard to stay on top."
--Paul Coffey

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October 13 On this date in 1792, the cornerstone of what is now known as the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia. We didn't get the name of Autumn Brooke Pollock/Shimer" correct yesterday when we talked about Donald and Dottie Rabb's great granddaughter. We did this time, we hope.

Hush, baby, my dolly, I pray you don't cry, And I'll give you some bread, and some milk by-and-by; Or perhaps you like custard, or, maybe, a tart, Then to either you're welcome, with all my heart.
--Mother Goose

Frances McDormand will star in the New York Theatre Workshop season opener, Caryl Churchill's "Far Away," opening November 11 for a run through December 22. And in other news involving Frances McDormand, Sony Pictures Classics will release Lisa Cholodenko's new film "Laurel Canyon" sometime this fall. The movie tells the story of a free-spirited, pot-smoking record producer (Frances McDormand) whose straight-laced son (Christian Bale) comes back to Los Angeles with his equally straight-laced blue-blooded fiancée (Kate Beckinsale) upon graduating from Harvard Medical School. After the young couple moves in with his mother, a considerable strain is put on all parties and, slowly, unresolved issues--between mother and son, with the two young lovers, and between generations--begin to surface and complicate all of their lives. Frances McDormand's proud parents are Rev. and Mrs. Vernon McDormand, Benton.

PA Town of the Day:
Emmons was located in Davidson Township..Article moved to the TOWNS area of the web site.

Trace Adkins, a popular figure at the Bloomsburg Fair this fall, was treated at a Nashville-area hospital following an accident on his farm in Rutherford County, TN, earlier this week. Adkins was building a gravel road when the small tractor he was operating toppled on him after a portion of the new road collapsed. Adkins was trapped under the tractor and sustained a crush injury to his chest, a rib-sternum separation, bruises to his shoulder and pelvis. He was able to call for help with his cell phone. Adkins is not new to accidents. Last year, Adkins broke his ankle while trying to push his stuck truck from a mud bog. This spring, his fingers were crushed by a 400-pound boulder. Adkins survived a bullet through the heart and lungs courtesy of his ex-wife, a nose reattachment following a car accident and a severed fingertips while working on an oil drilling rig. Randy Hess, son of Al and Pat Hess, is a member of the band working with Trace Adkins.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made available drought disaster assistance to farmers in 54 Pennsylvania counties. The primary agriculture disaster designation makes all qualified farmers immediately eligible for low-interest emergency loans, currently at 3.75%, through the Farm Service Agency. Farmers have eight months from the date of the disaster declaration to apply for the loans. A Livestock Compensation Program is also available to provide assistance for cattle, sheep and buffalo producers in counties that have received primary disaster designation due to drought in 2001 or 2002. More information is available at http://drought.fsa.usda.gov .

The Rawhide Rodeo Company was established in 1987 by Sam Swearingen, Leicester, New York. The Rawhide Rodeo Company produces the annual Benton Rodeo and does a great job of it. Along with many local hard-working people, it is a top-notch rodeo. Since its inception, the rodeo company has won numerous awards in various associations for its stock and its rodeos and is continuously growing--now producing over 60 rodeo performances in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Canada. This year's awards and accomplishments of the Rawhide Rodeo Company were reviewed at the New York State Fairgrounds October 11 and 12 in Syracuse, NY. Along with the best cowboys and cowgirls in America, the show honored the Benton Rodeo as the "Best Rodeo of 2002!" Our congratulations to everyone involved...

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October 12. On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas. And on this date five years ago today, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, CA. And you may not believe that a year has passed since NBC announced that anchorman Tom Brokaw's assistant contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter. Don't forget the Sullivan County Fall Festival today, or the doings at the 'Ol Country Barn or at the Benton Store Company Merchants. There will be no "Benton News" tomorrow morning, so we'll say Happy Birthday one day early to Rose Zimmerman. And whatever you do, stay dry...

Sports schedules for Benton Area High Schools are now on the Benton News, www.bentonnews.net . Simply log on and go down the left side to Sports Schedules; check sports schedules by the day or by the season. Now that you can find out about the sport of your choice, please get out and support the local teams. We no longer list the schedules in the lead paragraph and the email version of the Benton News and will let you get the schedules off the web page. Thank Allen Turner for setting this up for us. We continue to recommend that you make the Benton News your home page.

Baseball playoffs (Fox 56, 4 PM and 7:30 PM) should get our minds off the continuing rain today (and tomorrow). The California Angels, who have won their first playoff series in 42 years, duke it out against the Minnesota Twins and over in the National League, Barry Bonds leads his San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals. And while we're on the subject of TeeVee, we hear that Gleason (CBS, 9-11 PM, Sunday) is no honeymoon, apparently concentrating on Gleason's dark side. Dog Days (Animal Planet, 10-11 PM, Monday) is a new series about dog owners and their four-legged friends.

I didn't mention the elk watching last night and several readers asked about it. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Game Commission who introduced Rocky Mountain elk into the state from 1913 through 1926, we had a very enjoyable look at the elk in Elk County for the past three days. We probably saw 100 animals. The PGC brought 177 elk from Yellowstone National Park and from a private reserve and released them in central and northeastern Pennsylvania early last century. Only the north central releases survived. The present-day herd of 400+ animals are found in Elk, Cameron and Clinton counties in woodland settings, natural meadows and reclaimed strip-mined lands. Elk prefer to feed on forbs, legumes and grasses, but will browse on trees and shrubs when ground vegetation is not available. On this trip, we saw elk eating from black alder trees and we saw one wading in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Bulls and their harems are still together for the rut [breeding season] [which happens in September and October]. Although the prime watching week probably coincides with the Bloomsburg Fair, we had generally good viewing, although not up to prior-year standards. Elk in the state die of old age, arguments with automobiles and a few by being one of the 70 unlucky hits during the elk hunting season. Elk in Pennsylvania just don't have the worries that elk in other states have. The elk in the state can go up to 8X8 and even 9X8 sizes.

From the "Let's Get Our Terms Correct" Department, comes:
• A menu bar is the top command bar in a window. Choices are usually File, Edit, View, etc.
• A toolbar is the second bar in a window, has icons to use for the commands, and varies with the program. For instance, in Internet Explorer, the toolbar has Back, Forward, etc., and in your Outlook Express the toolbar has Send/Recv, Create Mail, Reply, etc.
• The taskbar is the bar at the bottom of your screen and keeps track of open folders and running programs by listing their names. Your Start button is in the taskbar.

We have to feel for the people of West Hazelton, a town so hard hit financially that the mayor predicts will not have a staffed police department before 2005 and because of the threat of losing their liability insurance, may have to "close up shop and call it a day."

Donald and Dottie are happily doing "great-grandparent" things in Florida with newly arrived "Autum."

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October 11, 2002. Beatrice Roberts celebrated her birthday today.

According to state Department of Transportation officials, cost estimates for the Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation project, a limited-access, four-lane highway, have climbed to $380 million. The project will widen routes 11-15 via a bypass to be built around Hummels Wharf and Shamokin Dam. A new bridge will cross the West Branch of the Susquehanna River near Winfield, connecting Route 15 with Route 147. Some work on Route 147 has begun. When the entire project begins, construction will move north to south.

Moving east from Sidney, Nebraska, "Cabela's," the outdoors outfitters, announced they will build a East coast superstore on a 100-acre site near Hamburg, Berks County. The site will open in the fall of 2003 and be a 225,000-square-foot store near Interstate 78 and Route 61. The store will feature a 55,000-gallon walk-through, freshwater aquarium stocked with fish native to the Northeast, a 250-seat restaurant, a gun library, a shooting gallery and indoor archery range. Cabela's is probably best known for its mail-order business, with more than 75 million catalogs mailed each year to customers in all 50 states and 120 foreign countries. Hamburg is 74 miles from Benton, via Catawissa and route 61.

This is for the antique buffs... Atomic Warehouse Inc., a retail outlet specializing in antiques, interior design items and collectibles from 1900 through 1970, opens for business Saturday in Harrisburg. The 4,800-square-foot store is at the corner of Market and Cameron streets. The store is open Tuesdays through Saturdays. For hours and information, call 717 236-1900.

Consolidated Freightways Corp. has delivered all remaining freight and has shut down its U.S. trucking operations.

Request for bids to renovate the new buildings of the Benton Volunteer Fire Co. have been sent to contractors. The renovated building will include six truck bays, a control center, a 200-seat social hall, an equipment-cleaning room and a training room. The showroom part of the building will get a Dryvit Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems (EIFS) type of finish. The PE reported that the fire company predicts that the fire company will be able to renovate the Colley Street building from its current budget without additional costs to the boroughs and townships it serves. The Columbia County Farmers National Bank is instrumental in obtaining a special loan to finance the project. A public meeting will take place in the November timeframe to announce the cost of the project and answer any questions about the project.

Keep only cheerful friends, the grouches pull you down. Throw out nonessential numbers, including age, weight and height. We pay doctors to worry about such things. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants or hobbies.

According to Professor George Turner who researched the subject so thoroughly, the 1910 Benton fire started in George Crossley's blacksmith shop and barn on Center Street, east of Third Street. Clyde Hirleman saw the barn on fire and ran only a few feet to turn the alarm in at the Town Hall. Forced to use water from Fishing Creek and private wells and with only a "chemical" engine, the available firefighters were no match for the rapidly spreading fire. An old-fashioned hand pumper and rotted water hose proved almost useless and with transportation only by horse and buggy and the nearest town of any size twelve miles away, things rapidly went from bad to worse.

Etcetera...
• The eleven year old, 95,000 square feet Wal-Mart on route 11 will be vacated after the Wal-mart Superstore opens in the fall of 2004 in the Buckhorn Mall area, according to the PE. Wal-Mart currently has 1,647 Wal-Marts and 1,066 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States.
• Pennsylvania U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum both voted "Yes" to join the House on the Iraq war resolution.
• To replace one-half of the $6.8-billion in revenue generated by the current property tax, it would be necessary to increase the state personal income tax from 2.8% to 4.1% OR increase the state sales tax from 6% to 8.8% OR raise the cigarette tax from the current dollar to nearly five dollars a pack. That makes decision making pretty tough. Or pretty simple, depending on your outlook.

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October 9, the 282nd day of 2002. We head out to see the elk this morning and will see Lee and Carolyn Remley, Bob and Gloria Miller, Dayne and Ruth Kline and Whittier and Joyce Letteer there. There will be no news reported tomorrow and so we will miss the opportunity Thursday to wish Dottie Rabb and Frank Edson a happy birthday. Beatrice Hess Roberts will celebrate her birthday Friday.

We wonder if it refers to Sinatra, Lee Speaking, Zappa, Lloyd Wright or Keating... The sign at Kameeo's Restaurant, formerly the Mortgaged Inn, simply reads, "Frank's Gone!"

"Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.
--Wendell Johnson

There is lots of maneuvering as EchoStar Communications Corp. attempts to buy DirecTV, owned by Hughes Electronics Corp., a division of General Motors Corp., in a $32 billion deal that would create one giant satellite television provider. The FCC has hinted that they are close to a decision as to whether the sale can go through.

The Homegrown Music program on WVIA featuring Dark Honey was postponed due to the Congressional Hearings airing on NPR. The postponed show may air Wednesday (tonight) at 9 PM.

We rarely see them around Benton, but the "God Speaks" signs are great. Here are a few we've spotted...
"Let's meet at my house Sunday before the game."
-God

"We need to talk."
-God

"Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage."
-God

"Will the road you're on get you to my place?"
-God

"You think it's hot here?"
-God

"Have you read my #1 best seller?
-God

"Don't make me come down there."
-God

The look of the former Little Lumber Company site along Fishing Creek in Benton should change a lot starting about November 1, when escrow closes for the Benton Fire Company and the Columbia County Redevelopment Authority. Based on information provided to Town Council at their Monday night meeting, it is expected that the fire department will almost immediately go out for bids for renovation of the main building that will house the fire and rescue equipment and for their headquarters building. Additionally, the state has now preliminarily approved a loan to help pay for construction of 11 patio apartments in the same complex, according to an article in this morning's PE, quoting Bill Klink, head of the local Redevelopment Authority. The cost to build will be about $1.2 million, construction should start in the spring and low-income seniors could have apartments to live in by next winter. Rent will vary from $320 to $405 a month, based on income. The 800 square foot apartments will each include one bedroom, a bathroom, a small kitchen and a large living room. The complex will also include a community room for small gatherings of the residents. The land the authority plans to buy from Little Lumber includes space to build more apartments if the public is interested, Klink said. Under current requirements, a person must have an income of $18,180 a year or below for one person or $20,760 for two people to be eligible to live in an apartment. The redevelopment authority also hopes to build a $1 million community center near the elderly apartments.

If you have a question about wills and estate planning, turn to the collection of frequently asked questions at http://referral.nolo.com/nc.cfm?t=NB001000032744 to find answers.

The letters PRN on a prescription bottle stands for pro re nata, which is Latin for "as needed."

New content has been added under FEATURES, Jamison City.

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October 8. On this date in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted.

The Benton Lions, members of the community and the VFW will host the Benton Halloween Parade October 29. All floats are welcome. The parade will form at 6:30 PM: floats on North Street, West of Main toward 3rd Street; walkers on North Street, East of Main toward Park Street. The parade will move at 7 PM from North Street down Main Street, West on Market Street, North on Third Street, East on North Street, South again on Main Street to the municipal parking area where free cider will be provided to the parade participants. The rain date is the 30th. The Lions will also be having a donation float to help finance next year's parade. Trick or Treating will be held in the Borough on Halloween from 6 to 8 PM, Thursday, October 31.

The State House yesterday passed legislation mandating that medical malpractice lawsuits be filed in the county where the alleged incident occurred. Trial lawyers will no longer be able to shop around for a county where juries routinely provide sky-high damages to plaintiffs. Senate action is necessary before the legislation goes to the Guv.

Quote of the Day:
"When people say, 'Why now?' they imply that somehow it will be better later. We don't know when it will be too late with Saddam, and he's dangerous already."
-- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz

Sometimes beefy is best, especially when bouncing your butt on the bottom of a borrowed bike! A biker's beefy size saved his butt in Edmonton, Alberta, when he fell off a stolen Harley-Davidson motorcycle while going "whole hog." Police called off the chase when speeds hit nearly 90 mph but the big guy wiped out and went bouncing along the pavement. The suspect suffered a mild concussion and some road rash. After a night in the hospital, he is expected to be in court today to face charges. A guy fitting this description rode through Benton one day earlier this summer.

Workers at the Kawneer plant, Bloomsburg, accepted a contract Sunday even though it mandates 12-hour shifts for some workers.

Today's Town Name: Hazleton This is the case of the famous misspelling. Hazleton was referred to as Hazel Town in the first half of the last century, because of the many hazel bushes in the area. The name later became one word: Hazeltown, then Hazelton. A story often told blames the spelling of the town’s name to an error by a clerk in Harrisburg, who should have spelled it “Hazelton.” If you really want to know the whole story, go to http://www.standardspeaker.com/Pages/FeatureFR.html . Hazleton is 39 miles from Benton via route 93 through Orangeville and 41 miles via route 80.

Someone described "courtship" as an entertaining introduction to a dull book. And that reminds me of the old saying, "He offered her a scotch and sofa, and she reclined."

Jamison City and Long Pond became connected in September 1891 when construction was completed on a corduroy "pleasure" road, joining the short-lived plank road in Jamison City. Today, that road down the mountain is simply referred to as the "township road." Little is written of the Jamison City plank road, but it is assumed that planks about eight feet long, laid on wooden rails and secured to the ground by foot-long spikes were used to transport the two- and four-horse teams of leather, bark and hides.

The early days of Jamison City included mining coal and copper, both of which proved unsuccessful. Two men named Craig and Blanchard purchased a large tract of land to find coal but their effort was unsuccessful. Early settlers knew of the presence of copper. A vein was opened in the Fritz Hill area when a butcher named Sutliff discovered a copper vein in 1897. The Pennsylvania Copper and Mining Company started operations in 1901 and mined some copper assaying an average of 4% copper. The company advertised that they were located in the "Atlantic Copper Belt at Central Pennsylvania" and that they opened sixteen mines and erected a smelting plant "capable of handling 150 tons of ore a day." Many local residents invested in the company, although the stock prospectus boldly stated that there was "no personal liability to the maker." The company faced continuing hard times and was sold at a sheriff's sale in March, 1909.

During the fall of 1851, some Towanda businessmen decided to build a railroad from the Bernice coal fields to Catawissa. The line was surveyed in November, 1851, and the legislature authorized the building of the Towanda & Catawissa Railroad. Because of the poor veins of coal actually found, the railroad was never constructed.

The contest between nine-termer Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, and Barletta, the Republican mayor of Hazleton, is expected to heat up shortly, according to two local papers. They predict an onslaught of negative advertising to begin this week, brought to the campaign by outsiders. Expect U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House. U.S. Senators Arlen Specter, R-Philadelphia, and Rick Santorum, R-Pittsburgh, will campaign for Barletta in the district next Thursday and Friday. You can watch Kanjorski and Barletta debate October 24 courtesy of WVIA.

Politicians remind me of a phrase I learned in Warren Ketner's Latin class, in fact the only phrase I can remember: "Errabundi Saepe, Semper Certi." As I recall, it means "Often Wrong, But Always Certain."

The best years of a woman's life are usually counted in man-hours.

Many doctors in the state claim that medical care is sicker than ever in Pennsylvania. These doctors are campaigning to cap jury awards for medical malpractice victims, and insist it's the only cure for escalating liability insurance premiums. There are threats of unstaffed emergency rooms unless relief comes soon. The Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, however, argue that doctors' claims of a medical crisis are exaggerated, and said steep liability insurance premiums are the fault of the insurance industry, not patients and the courts. In any event, malpractice premiums have shot up across the nation. An article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer claims a doctor retired because he could not afford the $250,000 premium his insurance company was charging for protection against potential lawsuits and said seven physicians moved their practices out of Pennsylvania because they could no longer obtain medical malpractice insurance. Be well!

The U. S. Supreme Court refused Monday to consider the multiple cases that are challenging Pennsylvania's unequal size congressional districts.

Seventy elk hunting licenses have been issued for the elk hunt November 18-23. We are heading for the wilds of Elk County tomorrow to see the critters before 70 of them are history, so there will be no news Thursday. But as someone who had a black cloud hanging just above their shoulders once said, "no news is good news."

Quote of the Day:
"Hatred--The anger of the weak."
--Alphonse Daudet

A 65-year-old Lycoming County woman has been diagnosed with West Nile Virus.

Phil Shultz turned over about $300 to the Town Council last night. The money came from donations to the restoration of the Town Hall, part of the $1,700 collected to date. Donations can be sent to Phillip Shultz, P. O. Box 224, Benton, PA 17814.

An article about Ganoga Lake has been added to the Features section.

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October 7, 2002. It is always nice to know just who we are and where we are from and why we are called what we are called. We're going to start a regular series of articles on local names of towns. We'll try to catch everyone's town by the time we're done. Today we'll start in Columbia Country and end up Back Home in Benton, PA.

As nearly everyone in the civilized world knows, Benton is in Columbia County. The county was first organized Mary 22, 1813 and its name was taken from Joseph Hopkinson's song, Hail Columbia, popular during the War of 1812. The county had been part of Northumberland County, with the county seat at Sunbury, from 1772 until 1813. Interesting places in the county included Sugarloaf Township, formed in 1812 under the name "Harrison" with the name later changed to reflect the importance of the maple sugar industry in the area. There were three post offices in the township in 1887: Coles Creek, Guava and Central. The Central post office was established in 1836 under the name "Campbell," after a doctor by that name.

Benton Township, established in 1850, was named in honor of Thomas Hart Benton, a nationally popular senator from Missouri. Benton served in the United States Senate for thirty years, but was defeated in 1850 by a division in the Democratic party over the slavery question. Senator Benton almost killed Andrew Jackson in an 1813 duel, though he later supported Jackson in his successful 1828 presidential campaign. Benton himself was occasionally encouraged by politicians and newspapers to run for president, but he never showed any interest. The Benton post office was established in 1852 and Daniel Hartman, who had started the first store, was appointed postmaster. Benton was incorporated as a borough in 1894.

Quote of the Day:
"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation."
--Kin Hubbard

Rebate checks from the state's Bureau of Consumer Protection are going in the mail this week. The checks are worth a combined $1.7 million to Pennsylvanians who made large purchases from Publishers Clearing House thinking that the purchases would enhance their chances of winning a large cash prize. Over 8,300 residents will receive prorated refund checks ranging up to $2,200. The $1.7 million is part of a settlement with PCH to resolve a lawsuit filed against the New York-based marketing company.

Do you have a question for our next Guv? Mike Fisher and Ed Rendell will both be on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) for telephone call-ins this week. Rendell is on this evening (Monday) at 8 PM and Fisher takes over on Wednesday evening at 7 PM. The toll-free number is 1 866 PCN-LIVE.

Governor Mark Schweiker signed a law Friday increasing fines and jail time for repeat offenders under the state's drunk driving law.

Evelyn Mcginn's daughter Robin Christalaw was united in marriage Saturday, October 5, to Clyde Wenner, Drums, at the home of Rick Bardo on Whiskey Hill. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Allen Lumpkin. Evelyn is a trustee of the First United Presbyterian Church, Benton, and lives at the foot of Jonestown Mountain. "Old timers" will remember Evelyn as a waitress at Yost's Restaurant when Emerson (Bull) Stoneham ran it.

The Benton Town Council meets at 7 PM tonight at the water treatment plant.

The PE announced that Alma M. Houseknecht, formerly of Divide, died Sunday at the Millville Health Center, where she had been a patient since 1998. Arrangements will be announced by the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton.

Quote of the Day:
Concentration is the secret of strength.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ever wonder how we survive the complex world in which we live? We can understand how we make it when more is know about the backgrounds of the four basic groups of people who made up our early Pennsylvania ancestors:
1. The Quakers, including William Penn, who brought from England, Wales, Holland and Germany a sturdy and pious body of citizens united by little more than a common religion;
2. The Germans or Pennsylvania "Dutch" attracted to the state by the peace principles of the founder, and a zeal to establish homes in a land of civil and religious liberty;
3. The Moravians carrying the Bible to the Indians, living a community life devoted to the humble and poor of their faith;
4. The Scotch-Irish, aggressive and fearless, completely unrestrained yet having no other group pushing them around, moving the farm and the school and the church into the wilderness.

All of these diverse elements were held together by religion. Penn and the Germans were in the majority, while the peace policies of the Quakers dominated the life style. This non-combative spirit made Pennsylvania notably conservative in anything offensive, until the struggle for independence changed the balance of forces and created a more aggressive environment.

If you have Microsoft Word, you don't have to address envelopes by hand. Word can do the work for you. Click Tools>>Letters and Mailings>>Envelopes and Labels. On the Envelopes tab, enter your return address. Put an envelope in your printer and click Print.

The once-dominant Internet browser Netscape has only about 3 percent of the market today, but like Avis it is trying very hard. Netscape says version 7.0 is faster and more convenient than previous versions but it is a big 26-megabyte download. You can get it at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp . And speaking of Netscape, a reader lamented that she could not open some of the Vintage Photos on www.bentonnews.net using Netscape 4.xxx. Sorry, we have optimized for Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 6.0. Older versions of the browsers may not perform satisfactorily.

A woman rushed in to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattled off to her doctor how she woke up and looked at herself in the mirror and saw her hair all wiry and frazzled up, skin all wrinkled and pasty, eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and she had a corpse-like look on her face! She demanded to know what was wrong. The doctor looked her over for a couple of minutes and calmly told her: "Well, I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with your eyesight."

We had to smile at an AOL offer we received in the mail. If we signed up for service with AOL, they in return would give us free 1,025 hours for 45 days. That is 22.8 hours per day! We would have jumped at the opportunity but when we checked we found that we only have about 7 minutes extra time in every 12 hour period and we just couldn't fit it in...

Have you hit the lottery and need a new Firebelch 500 car? Bentley automobiles, now manufactured by Volkswagen, may fit the bill. Incidentally, the Bentley Arnage T has a 450-horsepower V8 weighing 5,700 pounds that goes from zero to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. It retails for $240,000.

About 13,560 pheasants will be stocked this week by the PGC on state game lands and other lands open to public hunting in preparation for the state's first youth pheasant hunt Oct. 1, 2 and 14.

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October 6, 2002. There are 76 days until the official start of Winter. A storm brought 26 inches of snow to Auburn, NY, in 1836. All the mountains in western and northern New England were also covered. The crows must be crazy to be on the ground today on this 66 degree afternoon, but we saw them in the fields today as we returned from the Poconos. Remember the old saying, "Crow on the fence, rain will go hence. Crow on the ground, rain will come down?" Today is the birthday of Robert Zeitler.

Donald and Dottie Rabb, trying for the "First Snowbird in Florida" award, left this morning at 7:30 AM for the Sunshine State and will be Back Home in Benton Tuesday the 15th.

Randy Hess, son of Pat and Al Hess, had a great visit with his parents last week when he appeared at the Fair. If all goes as scheduled, he will be going to Afghanistan on a USO tour in November with Trace Adkins. Al and Pat had a busy weekend at the Covered Bridge Festival yesterday and today playing with son Glen and their grandson, along with Blaine Long, Al Dunkin, Joe and Lorainne Feola, Sissie Dietrick, and Don Schuller. Next Sunday, the 13th, they will be at the Pumpkin Festival at the Country Barn above Benton. And on October 19, they will be at the 14th Annual Apple Festival at Heller Orchards, route 239, Wapwallopen.

Please don't forget that the Benton Lion's Club contributes a great deal to the community. But here is something you can contribute to them. They collect eye glasses that are no longer needed. If you have a pair you can contribute to support a needy person, please drop them off at the elementary school in the drop-off box, or at the Benton Post Office to Gary Strauch.

And speaking of the Lions... The Benton Lions and the VFW will host the Benton Halloween parade Tuesday, October 29. All floats are welcome and the parade will form at 6:30 PM. The rain date is the 30th. The Lions will also be having a donation float to help finance next year's parade.

The sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Danville, are trying to raise nearly $2 million to continue their work with the poor, ill and elderly. Michele Ridge, wife of former Pennsylvania governor and current director of Homeland Security, will serve as honorary chairwoman of the effort.

Conan O'Brien reminds us that scientists in Boston have successfully grown human teeth in a laboratory for the first time, great news for dentists and even better news for guests on the Jerry Springer show.

Isn't it time that Benton celebrated the life and times of our favorite son, Dr. Frank Laubach (1884-1970)? Many of us well remember September 2, 1984, when the USPS honored Dr. Laubach with a "First Day of Issue" stamp and envelope, appropriately marked, "Frank C. Laubach, Teacher of Millions." Well, true, his boyhood home will be available on election day in the form of a wooden cutout, but should we not broaden our scope and ask the state of Pennsylvania to erect a highway sign to remember and appropriately honor the man who founded the "Each One Teach One" program and who personally helped millions learn to read and write? The each one teach one philosophy means that if you can read, you can teach another person to read.

Here is how to nominate a highway marker in Dr. Laubach's name, if any community-minded group including the Town Council would step forward and do it. For information on how to nominate a marker, visit http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/doh/hmp.asp?secid=18. The state's popular "Guide to the State Historical Markers of Pennsylvania" is available at http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dps/browse.asp?catid=20.

Dr. Laubach summarized what he believed were basic teaching principles by talking about "compassion:"
C Cut 'no' out of your vocabulary.
O Observe what the new reader already knows: respect and build on this knowledge.
M Make certain you respect his time; begin and end promptly.
P Prepare your lesson carefully; confidence begets confidence.
A Allow your students to progress at his own pace and to teach himself as
much as possible.
S See that your student gets honest praise and encouragement.
S Serve unnecessary chatter until after the lesson.
I Introduce something new every lesson.
O Offer friendship and understanding: but avoid patronizing.
N Notice and encourage ways in which your student can teach you.

Our state tax revenues for September were 5.3 percent less than had been anticipated, personal income tax revenues were below estimates by $37-million and corporation tax revenues generated $31-million below original projections. Since July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, overall tax revenue to the state is $89-million below estimates. The solution for about the same problem in VA? Virginia Governor Mark Warner will take a $19,000 a year pay cut (15%) as part of a $2- billion state deficit and is asking all state agencies to cut spending by an equal percentage.

Don't you just love children? There isn't a more creative, entertaining or imaginative bunch of people around than children--well, except perhaps for politicians in Washington.

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October 3, 2002. There are 79 days remaining until the official start of Winter. At midnight on this date in 1990, East and West Germany were reunited as one nation, the Federal Republic of Germany. Happy birthday, Eleanor Sands!

Hurricane Lili slammed into Louisiana and threatened South Mississippi with high winds and tornadoes this morning, but local forecasts are not too bad for the weekend, so we'll pack it up and head for the Poconos for the weekend. It is leaf watching time! We'll resume the news Sunday evening with a week wrap-up, which very well could turn out to be a weak wrap-up!

Over at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant there was some excitement this morning as a fire broke out in a start up transformer on the 1,094 megawatt Susquehanna #2 nuclear unit, but was safely extinguished. PPL was trying to restart the unit that had tripped off line earlier in the week. The incident had been classified an "unusual event." Local fire companies were called as a precaution. The company said it appears the fire was the result of an internal failure in the Unit 2 start-up transformer and said it has a spare transformer on site and will replace the transformer before Unit 2 can begin to restart. The adjacent 1,190 MW Unit 1 continues to operate at 100 percent power. The Susquehanna plant, located in Luzerne County about seven miles north of Berwick, is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc. and is operated by PPL Susquehanna. PPL Susquehanna is a subsidiary of PPL Corp., Allentown, which controls nearly 11,500 MW of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets, and delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.

If it is true that it's not getting drier and that the amount of precipitation received in Pennsylvania has actually increased 10 percent in the past century, we're just using more water than we get. Now that we have that figured out, we can move on to something else.

If you like to cook, or if you like to eat, you should visit http://www.cooking.com/recipes/ .

The fall dinner and program of the Columbia County Historical and Genealogy Society will be at the Orangeville United Methodist Church November 9. Only 45 reservations are being accepted for the dinner, but the program following the meal is free and open to the public. At 7 PM, George Turner, Bloomsburg, will speak on the subject, "Bloomsburg's political struggle to replace Danville as the country seat of Columbia country."

The merger between Laubach Literacy International (LLI) and Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA, Inc.) is now official. The resultant organization is now ProLiteracy Worldwide, with 1,450 affiliates in the United States serving 250,000 adult learners every year. Internationally, the organization sponsors 82 projects in 45 developing nations where people can acquire and apply literacy skills to alleviate poverty and poor health. As we walk through libraries throughout the United States we often see requests for volunteers in the community we are in to support Dr. Frank Laubach's "Each One Teach One" program, one of ProLiteracy Worldwide's programs.

Zane Unbewuest has a saying we agree with. It is simply, "I'll know it after while." She says this when she forgets someone's name--and other things that I now forget! Anyway, this morning I neglected to mention the last names of the members of the class of 1937 who were getting married in November. "After while" having arrived, he is former Benton postmaster, Bill Mather. She is Dorthea (Stout) Swank. Our very best to both of them.

The Guv is going to be pooped when he gets to Bloomsburg Saturday! Today he kicks off the seventh annual Keystone Ride, a two-day bicycle trip to promote travel and tourism in Pennsylvania beginning in Pike County and pumping through Northampton and Bucks counties before finishing in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Museum of Art at approximately 5 PM tomorrow.

Viola Marie Pisano Threlkeld, 78, Netcong, NJ, died Tuesday, October 1, 2002, at St. Clare's Hospital, Denville, NJ. Born in Reading, she was a lifelong resident of Netcong. She was a lifelong member of St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church. Her husband, Leavis O. Threlkeld, died in 1976. She is survived by two sons: Dr. Wayne Threlkeld, Randolph, NJ; and Dennis Threlkeld, Orangeville; four grandchildren; and two sisters living in NJ. Funeral services will be 8 AM Friday at the Leber-Lakeside Funeral Home, Main Road, Landing, NJ. Burial will be in Stanhope Union Cemetery, Mount Olive Township, N.J.
--from a Press Enterprise article

Which foods should not be frozen? (Answer at end)

The summer heat and lack of rain have been especially tough on area farmers and landscapers. Robert Wenner, Bendertown, is pressing cider again, although he can find applies from only two orchards (rather than his usual five) this fall. This summer's drought has resulted in some strange-looking pumpkins. Many are taller and thinner than usual, if you can find one. The usual display of pumpkins is gone this fall from Bob and Margie Kline's "Pumpkin Patch," although "Farmer Moofie" has some. If you want to see a lot of pumpkins, consider Longwood Gardens and their autumn displays. Through October 18 at Longwood Gardens, near Kenneth Square, you can see shades of yellow, orange, purple and red in the flower gardens and trees throughout the 1,050-acre horticultural gardens. Daily programs, weekend concerts, exhibitions of bonsai and ikebana--and Senior Day on Tuesday, October 8--add to the garden's fall charms. Longwood is open 9 AM to 6 PM daily. The picnic grove, the Terrace Restaurant and the Gardens Shop are also open daily. Admission during "Autumn's Colors" is $14 for adults ($10 on Tuesday), $6 ages 16 to 20, $2 ages 6 to 15, and free under age 6. South of the house, the Flower Garden Walk features masses of chrysanthemums sparkling in shades of amber, burnt orange, crimson and scarlet. The leaves will turn in the next two weeks and it should be spectacular.

Many of us grew up thinking mums were the autumn perennials. A very nice variety is the "Autumn Red" which forms a solid mound 18 inches tall and 36 inches wide and bears thousands of showy red blossoms with yellow centers. Ask to see it.

Yesterday at Painter Den, members of the Benton High School Class of 1937 and friends celebrated fall amid the beautiful fall scenery. Leaves are less than a week from their fullest there. We wish Bill and Dorthea the happiest in their engagement and upcoming November marriage.

And rolling into Bloomsburg about the same time as Hurricane Lili is the huge combined Town of Bloomsburg Bicentennial, the Bloomsburg University Homecoming and BHS Homecoming parade 10 AM Saturday. This makes us think of Professor Harold Hill visiting that small Iowa town in 1912 with "Seventy-six Trombones" playing in the background: a three-hour extravaganza with mammoth parade balloons, Gov. Mark Schweiker as grand marshal, a drum and bugle band, over 30 floats and 30 marching groups, antique cars and trucks and a genuine 35-member Philadelphia Woodland String Band. Heck, there will even be an A-10 Warthog and a C-130 cargo jet fly-over at 1,000 feet. The parade will move from the hospital parking lot to Lightstreet Road, Main Street to monument, Market Street to Town Park and should take three hours. At 1:30 PM, assuming that someone actually can get near the stadium, Bloomsburg Huskies will host the East Stroudsburg Warriors. "State Fair" will be staged by the Celebrity Artist Series, Haas Center for the Arts, 8 PM, $25 and $28. Call 389-4409. On Sunday, October 6, is the Homecoming Pops Concert featuring the Concert Choir, Husky Singers and Women's Choral Ensemble (Concert Choir alumni, 2:30 PM; Haas Center for the Arts; no charge.
"Seventy six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand
They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos;
the cream of every famous band."
--76 Trombones

The nice part about living in a small town is when you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does.

Under a 1998 legal settlement, the tobacco industry agreed to pay 46 states $206 billion over 25 years to compensate for the costs of smoking. States could spend the money however they chose, but many hoped that states would spend money on anti-tobacco campaigns, which in other states have yielded sharp declines in smoking. Pennsylvania broke rank by spending less than 10 percent of the recommended amount. States with the highest smoking rates tend to be the worst at diverting the funds to other uses, researchers said. Nationally, only 6 percent of the money states received in 2001 went to tobacco control programs, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

It is elk watching season again. Ed and Susan Cole had poor luck seeing elk in Elk County last week, but Clair and Marlene Harvey traveling with Carlton and Shirley Keller saw lots of elk "up close and personal." Dayne and Ruth Kline and Whittier and Joyce Letteer are going Wednesday.

A movie about Quecreek mine finished shooting in Pennsylvania this week. The story tells of the nine miners trapped 240 feet beneath the earth's surface this summer and although we know the final outcome (all nine miners were pulled up in a steel cage after 77 hours) we'll probably want to watch the currently untitled movie, scheduled to air in late November. The movie will focus on the miner's time underground and the experiences of their unseen families. The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, paid the miners $150,000 each for rights to the story. ABC was committed to filming in Somerset, though the network couldn't reach an agreement to shoot on the actual rescue site. Instead, scenes were shot on a farm several miles away. The flooding scene will be filmed in Los Angeles.

According tot the Farmer's Almanac, raw vegetables and cooked potatoes, soft cheeses, cream fillings and puddings, gelatin dishes, hard-cooked eggs, and bananas should not be frozen.

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October 2. Strangers in a Florida town laid 63 pound Chester Miller, 18, to rest Monday, while his Hazleton neighbors prayed the teen-ager found peace. They have now raised $3,300 to pay for his funeral. Chester's mother and her live-in boyfriend are charged them with assault and endangerment and remain in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 bail each.

Billionaire publishing magnate and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, 94, died yesterday of pneumonia. Forbes magazine listed him as No. 39 of wealthy Americans in 2002 with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.

Benton won a 3-2 victory in a Mid-Penn Conference field hockey game with Millville yesterday. Tara Goode scored off a pass from Amy Comstock only 4 minutes into the game. The Tigers only had two first-half penalty corners, but both plays led to Benton goals. Parks' first goal with 4:36 remaining in the half gave Benton a 2-1 lead. On another penalty corner play, Comstock passed to Parks who scored again, and Benton took a 3-1 lead. Millville needs to win four of its last six games to qualify for district playoffs. Benton moved within one win of districts. The Tigers will be at Central Columbia Thursday afternoon game.

Live tonight from Bloomsburg University, WVIA-TV Channel 44 on their "State of Pennsylvania" program will ask regional civic, educational and business leaders to explain the opinions people have of their communities and quality of life. Local panel members include Jessica Kozloff, board member and president of Bloomsburg University; and Dean Girton, owner of Girton Manufacturing, Millville. Questions will be taken from the viewing audience at (800) 326-9842 and prior to its airing.

Seen on a post card mailed in 1957:
"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?"

Web Sites to Visit:
• A site that should be viewed is http://www.spacewander.com/USA/english.html, where you will travel 142,000,000 miles to Mars. It is an excellent site IF you have a fast computer.
• You can find a calculator for every purpose at http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/RefCalculators.html . This site presents a great deal more potential then the Windows built-in calculator.
• Want to decorate for Halloween? Go to http://home.wnm.net/~debi/halloween.htm for Halloween wallpaper for your computer. Try the Nightmare before Christmas wallpaper that includes a calendar for October 2002.

Quote of the Day:
"There's one way to find out if a man is honest--ask him. If he says 'yes,' you know he is crooked."
--Groucho Marx (1890-1977).

We inquired about chestnuts yesterday from Leona Bardo whose trees for the past 40 years have been loaded with the nut about this time of the year. The summer has been so dry that she will even have to buy chestnuts for herself. There are none worth harvesting on her trees. The same thing goes for pumpkins at Bob and Margie Kline at Kline's Pumpkin Patch.

We wrote about Frances McDormand yesterday, and received an email asking "but what about Vernon?" The question obviously asks what Rev. McDormand is doing in his retired life. Well, glad you asked. After retiring from the active ministry at the Benton Christian Church, Vernon tried sitting around and didn't like it. He has now accepted the position of Interim Minister at St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Hobbie, PA. Hobbie? Hobbie is located 23 miles from Benton and it takes about 45 minutes to drive it. From Benton go to Shickshinny and continue on route 239 south. You'll wind around Millets and Wapwallopen Road and route T390 and legislative route 40018 and the like. And if you are going, you should go either October 19 or 20 for the 14th Annual Apple Festival at Heller Orchards on route 239 in Wapwallopen. From noon until 5 PM on Saturday, the 19th, Pat and Al Hess will provide the music and on Sunday Neil Metcalf will provide the entertainment. There will be butter churning, kid's crosscut saw competition, the Covered Bridge Cloggers will be there and so will the miniature horse exhibit and so will the antique saws display and the horse drawn plows display. All of this is to benefit Rev. McDormand's Church and St. John's in Wapwallopen. Oh, and don't forget the narrated history of the area at 12:30 Sunday. They will probably tell you about the Powder Hole. Here is a little of what they may tell you...

The Powder Hole on the Big Wapwallopen Creek between Wapwallopen and Hobbie made black powder--or "blasting powder" or "gun powder"-- starting five years before the American Civil War until 1913. Black Powder was used then for fireworks, bullets and for blasting rocks.

The black powder made in the Wapwallopen mills was made from charcoal, sulfur and sodium nitrate. Getting charcoal was fairly easy. Sulfur was mined. Sodium Nitrate came from bird and bat droppings from South America, Chile to be specific. The "guano" was hauled to the powder mills after coming by ship from Chile. In the mills, it was refined by forcing steam up through it, cooking off the impurities, leaving only the Sodium Nitrate or "Saltpeter."

A man named Silvers started the black powder works in the Powder Hole in 1855, making powder for the mines in Northeast Pennsylvania. Anthracite coal was the up and coming thing at the time, thanks to the invention of cast iron grates which could stand up to the great heat provided by the coal. Until Mr. Silvers opened his factory, the powder had to be hauled into this part of Pennsylvania from the DuPont company in Delaware.

Silvers eventually had financial problems, and DuPont bought the place in 1859. At that time, DuPont expanded the mills and continued to do so until the closing in 1913!

Rail cars at the Powder Hole were drawn by horses wearing shoes of gutta-percha (a rubber-like substance), to avoid deadly sparks. At Wapwallopen, the powder was ferried across the river where it was picked up by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The powder was dangerous to carry, and it was put on a car which was isolated from the rest of the train by one or more empty cars.

The engineers of the powder mills designed the buildings with the expectation that there would be explosions. Each building had three masonry walls; the remaining wall and the roof were made of corrugated iron. The iron roof and wall acted as a "safety-relief valve" when an explosion occurred, blowing off in time for all the blast to be directed away from the other buildings. E. I. DuPont brought this concept of mill construction with him from France. The concept of rupture panels is still used in related industries today.

You can hear the whole story if you stop by the Apple Festival at 12:30 Sunday, October 20. And when you do, say "hi" to Rev. and Mrs. McDormand. If we know them, they will be right there with the rest of their congregation.

-=-

October 1, the 274th day of 2002. There are only 91 days left in the year. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Forty years ago on this date in 1962, Johnny Carson succeeded Jack Paar as regular host of NBC's "Tonight" show. Carson was introduced by Groucho Marx; the guests on his debut program were Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, Tony Bennett, Mel Brooks and The Phoenix Singers. Happy birthday today to Tara Lane Kline and Gerald Kocher. The Fishing Creek Investment Club meets tonight at 7 PM. Enjoy today, as temperatures should again rise to the mid-70s.

Ever notice Burger King likes to build next to McDonalds? Ever notice that when it rains it pours? Ever notice that when someone somewhere has a bad day, someone somewhere has a good day? In addition to the planned Home Depot near the Cracker Barrel Restaurant at the Buckhorn exchange on I-80, less than a mile away on a corn field a Lowe's home improvement store and a Wal-Mart Supercenter are planned as part of a proposed 400,000-square-foot, 75 acre retail center. And in a related story, Long's Supply store, Montour Township, will close its doors soon because of "a sluggish economy." Most of what's left at Long's, by the way, is being sold at 40% off from 7 AM to 5 PM on weekdays, and 8 AM to noon on Saturdays.
--from Press Enterprise stories

This is not the team from year's past... The Berwick Bulldogs football team is 2-3, and the three losses have come in consecutive games.

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-11, has co-sponsored a bill intended to limit medical malpractice insurance rates. Last week he voted against a medical malpractice bill that passed the House, saying it harms senior citizens by limiting the amount of damages they can recover for malpractice claims. We'll have to read the fine print to understand this issue.

A reader said that his computer clock no longer keeps accurate time. Sometimes it loses a few minutes; other times, hours. In order to display the correct time on www.bentonnews.net and on outgoing emails, he has to manually set the time each day. It is obvious that his battery is running out of gas and needs replacing. Batteries are located on the motherboard, probably about the size of a nickel and held in place by a small clip. If you consult your user's manual, you can see it is probably easily replaced. But if it looks look like a barrel and is soldered in, take it to a computer shop to replace it.

In addition to the clock, the battery powers the CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) chip and BIOS (basic input/output system) settings. You'll see a reference to these settings when you boot up when the computer displays something like, "To enter Setup, press Delete." The settings tell the computer what equipment is present and how it interacts. When the battery dies, the settings are lost and your computer is in trouble.

Some people advocate changing the battery every few years, just to be safe. That's fine if it's the easy kind; if it's soldered, wait until it dies. Regardless, to protect yourself, print out the BIOS settings. Go into Setup and press Print Screen. The settings have to be reset after a battery change, and you'll need that information. You can get a new battery at an electronics store.

Quote of the Day:
"Great spirits have always received violent opposition from mediocre minds."
--Albert Einstein

When people in Benton mention the name McDormand, conversations stop and people listen. And that applies to Vernon, Noreen and daughter Frances. This is about Frances. She was born June 23, 1957, in Illinois and moved a good deal during her childhood, mostly throughout the Mid-western United States following her father--a Disciples of Christ preacher. The family eventually settled in Pennsylvania, where she became enamored of acting after playing Lady Macbeth in a high school theater production. After graduating as the only theater major of her year from Bethany College, WV, she entered Yale Drama School. After Yale, McDormand moved to New York where she roomed with Holly Hunter and performed with the O'Neill Playwright's Conference. Through Hunter, she met Joel and Ethan Coen, two brothers who were casting their debut film, a low-budget thriller. McDormand won the lead in the film, that of the unfaithful wife of a Texas bar owner who decides to have her and her lover killed. Blood Simple, released in 1984 to overwhelming critical acclaim, marked the beginning of her personal and professional collaboration with director Joel Coen, whom she married in 1984. The couple has an adopted son, Pedro. Her parents, Vernon and Noreen McDormand, are Benton residents.

McDormand appeared as a nun in Crimewave (1985), written by Joel and Ethan Coen. She reteamed with the Coen brothers in the comedy "Raising Arizona" (1987), which featured her old roommate Hunter in her first starring role, opposite Nicolas Cage. McDormand received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her emotional portrayal of a southern woman abused by her bigoted husband in the civil rights drama Mississippi Burning, starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. That same year, she brought home a Tony Award nomination for her turn as Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire." She had a small role in the Coen brothers' "Miller's Crossing" (1990) and a featured role alongside Tim Robbins in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" (1993).

Frances won an Oscar for Best Actress as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota policewoman who cracks a decidedly twisted set of crime in "Fargo" (1996), written by Joel and Ethan Coen, directed by Joel Coen. Using a perfect Minnesotan accent--complete with countless "yahs" and "you betchas"--and sporting a huge prosthetic belly, McDormand truly seemed to become Marge, underscoring her unmatched ability as a character actress.

McDormand costarred with Glenn Close in the World War II-era drama "Paradise Road" (1997), the little-seen independent film "Talk of Angels" (1998), and the schoolmistress Miss Clavel in "Madeline" (1998).

Her role in "Almost Famous," earned McDormand her third Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her new movie is "City By The Sea," also starring Robert De Niro and directed by Michael Caton-Jones (R, 108 minutes). De Niro plays Vincent LaMarca, a New York homicide detective who has fled Long Island to escape a broken marriage and thoughts of a father who was executed for murder. Ms. McDormand and Mr. De Niro get high marks for their performances, but several reviewers are not kind toward the movie. We look forward to the movie arriving at a local theater and we'll make up our own minds, thank you.

Remember Louis Pagnotti III whose family owns the assets of the Reading Railroad Company, the owner of miles of railroad track between Benton and Bloomsburg? Pagnotti was arrested in August after he allegedly stole a vehicle owned by a Larksville driver who had stopped to help Pagnotti after he crashed his Jeep Grand Cherokee on Interstate 81. In return, he allegedly stole her Jeep with her two children in it. The U.S. Secret Service now says they have an open case on Pagnotti, a member of a prominent area coal family. An agent with the Secret Service would not comment on the investigation other than to say it is not criminal.

We don't make this stuff up! The Centre Daily Times reports that despite speculation to the contrary, a man's shoe size is not in any way correlated to the size of his penis. Two British scientists have put their foot down on the idea that there is a link between the two variables, according to a report in the British Journal of Urology International. Actually, as we get older we sort of know these things without the benefit of a "scientific study."

We have added a number of "Vintage Photos" to www.bentonnews.net. Since writing HTML for a web page is brand new to us, we aren't very swift at it and we continue to mount pictures upside down and sideways, we still use some words not found in a dictionary, we don't always know the best way to do things. Bear with us. But we do have a favor. We want to add descriptions to all of the photos eventually. If you can help with descriptions of photos used, we would appreciate it. Email the name of the photo and your comments about the photo to David Kline .