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COLUMNS: MONTROSE: Monday last, wash day, which is ordinarily blue enough anyway, was given a more vivid hue, by a phenomenon in nature, which we have never heard of before. The Monday’s wash was hung out the usual way, but when it was time to take down the clothes, the housewives were dumbfounded to find that the clothes, which were of a snowy whiteness, had the appearance of being badly mildewed, or sprinkled with an inky solution. The clothes had to be taken in and put through a rinse water which, however, easily and quickly restored them to their former state of cleanliness. The first impression was that soot or a sediment from some chimney must have done the mischief, but we have had communications from different parts of the county (Birchardville reported the same incident), stating the same experience. It was caused by a precipitation from the clouds. (Another article reported that some believe that it was caused by the going up in smoke of over a million dollars’ worth of McHenry whisky in Columbia county. If this is so it would tend to prove that whisky is bad whether it goes up or down.) SPRINGVILLE: Homer Young is building an automobile garage for the repairing and storing of such vehicles. A nice thing for our city. ALSO, Jerry Lyman made W. E. Stevens and family a short call on Friday before going to his new home at Dayton, Ohio. HARFORD: Floyd B. Tennant, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Tennant, of this place, and who has been for some time stationed with the rest of his regiment at Fort Snelling, Minn., has been sent to Texas in response to the call for arms, in relation to the Mexican maneuvers. HOPBOTTOM: The Book Club met on the 12th with Mrs. E. M. Tiffany. The evening was celebrated in St. Patrick style with Irish songs, contests and games. The decorations were shamrocks and green festoons. Dainty refreshments were served. Rev. J. H. Ballow, of Lestershire, rendered some old time melodies on the flute. Shamrock ferns were given to all present. DUNDAFF: The chicken supper held at the home of Mrs. Sanford Wayman was a decided success. Ninety-four suppers were served by the ladies and $24, the proceeds, was given toward the pastor’s salary. HALLSTEAD: What might have been a serious fire was discovered in the home of Mr. Isaac Bound, on Saturday afternoon, but which was soon subdued without much loss or damage. Mr. Bound is employed in the meat market of W. J. Day on the same street, and had a large kettle of fat and other pieces of tallow on the stove frying it and had left the house alone for a few minutes while he went across the street to wait on a customer in the shop. When he got back the kettle had boiled over and the contents were running all over the stove and floor, and the kitchen was filled with a smudge. Several of the neighbors came in to help Mr. Bound, thinking the house was on fire, but after the doors and windows were opened and the kettle removed to a place of safety, it was found there was no other damage but soiled wall paper and [a] greasy floor. EAST KINGSLEY: Mrs. Margaret Manson is spending a few weeks with her niece, Mrs. A. E. Tiffany. She will celebrate her 80th birthday, March 24. She is engaged in embroidering ladies’ shirt waists, and has embroidered 12 since last November and is noted for the fineness and beauty of her work. LITTLE MEADOWS: Arthur Deuel, son of late ex-sheriff Deuel of this place, is employed by the Grand Trunk Pacific railroad in Saskatchewan, Western Canada, where he is a civil engineer in charge of a gang of surveyors, at a fine salary. SUSQUEHANNA: The town is much depressed over the action of the Erie Railroad in laying off 100 men in the shops and shortening the hours. EAST ARARAT: An extraordinary freak of nature occurred in John Avery’s meadow back of the schoolhouse, last Monday, when it snowed and blowed. The snow was very wet and large flakes. After the storm the meadow was literally covered with snowballs rollen up like cotton batting. One of them weighed four pounds and they were anywhere from 2 to 12 inches in diameter. The truth of this can be proven. DIMOCK: One of our old widowers has sent to Sears & Roebuck for a wife, who will be here in a few days. LAWSVILLE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: For the management of the annual reunion of the Truesdell, Warner and Marsh families, and for the observance of the centennial of the settlement in the old town of Lawsville, of Samuel Truesdell and family, which is to be held in the old homestead farm of Samuel Truesdell in Liberty, Susquehanna County, now owned and occupied by Mr. John Dillon, on the last Thursday in August, 1911, and to which celebration the descendants of the early settlers of the neighborhood are invited to participate. BROOKLYN: Paperhanging and painting is the order of the day. Mr. Griswold has painted and papered several rooms for Mrs. A. J. Ainey and Mrs. E. S. P. Hine. W. J. Byram, of Hopbottom, and his son Ray, have been putting the finishing touches on the beautiful home of Luther Ely. Phil Burbank is making alterations in his house, which will add to its convenience and comfort. FOREST CITY: H. A. Purple, who conducted an undertaking establishment in this place for 6 years and in Carbondale for 17 years, has sold his business to Frank E. Blickens, of Dickson City. Harry, like most undertakers, is a very genial gentleman, always bubbling over with good humor, and the place that attracts him will secure a very desirable citizen. ALSO, George F. Horton, who has been proprietor of the Forest City laundry for the past two or three or four years, last week sold the business to T. P. Kilhullen, who took charge on Monday. Under Mr. Horton’s management the business was greatly increased and there is no doubt under his successor, Mr. Kilhullen, who is a hustler, there will be no falling off. WELSH HILL, CLIFFORD TOWNSHIP: Alfred Harris is visiting his parents, Mrs. and Mrs. J. L. Harris at Welsh Hill. Alfred was on crutches. He had a leg broken recently by falling down a shaft at a mine in Nevada, where he was working, and came home to recuperate.
From the Desk of the D.A. Several months ago, I wrote a column about the efforts to expand the “Castle Doctrine” in Pennsylvania, which explained the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association’s objections to a bill that the Pennsylvania legislature had passed last year. I did this column because I was receiving a surprising number of calls from constituents asking me to call Governor Rendell and encourage him to sign the bill into law. Governor Rendell vetoed the bill and there were quite a few angry folks and some of that ire was directed at the district attorneys for the opposition that they provided to the bill. Since that time, the Pennsylvania Legislature has been working on a revised bill with input from the PDAA. In particular, the PDAA was seeking certain amendments to the bill that would eliminate the potential that it would allow criminals to utilize it as a defense tool. There were a number of things that the PDAA wanted eliminated from the bill to assure that prosecutors were not hamstrung in their efforts to get violent offenders off the streets. Generally, deadly force can only be used in a situation where you are threatened with death or serious bodily injury - in common parlance you cannot bring a knife to a fist fight. As you may recall, the right to use lethal force in self-defense generally requires that you first attempt to retreat if you can safely do so, except that there is no such duty to retreat in your residence unless you are the initial aggressor, i.e., you started it. The lack of a duty to retreat in your residence is often referred to as a Castle Doctrine. The new legislation was designed to extend the Castle Doctrine outside the home, i.e., eliminating the duty to retreat in public places. The PDAA was concerned that the blanket extension of the Castle Doctrine would create a shield for criminals who get into shootouts on the streets, i.e., gang members and drug dealers who claim that they were only shooting the other bad guy because he had a gun drawn. In some of the larger urban areas, there was a reasonable fear that the extension of the Castle Doctrine would create a Tombstone-like atmosphere where law enforcement would be able to do little to stop the violence. The Legislature has now addressed the legitimate concerns raised over the extension of the Castle Doctrine to a degree that the PDAA has withdrawn its objections to the bill. What has changed? Well, the new legislation would eliminate the duty to retreat in public places but only in certain circumstances. The shooter must have possessed the gun legally. In other words, the gun cannot have been a stolen weapon or purchased illegally. The gun owner must also have a permit to possess and conceal the weapon on the streets - otherwise the weapon would not have been carried legally. The new extension of the Castle Doctrine does not apply if lethal force is used against a law enforcement officer. The protection of law enforcement seems like a common sense requirement but it was absent from the initial bill that the PDAA opposed. Significantly, the new legislation will not extend the Castle Doctrine if criminal activity motivated the shooting. So, if you are a drug dealer and the deal goes bad, you cannot then contend that you should be allowed to use lethal force without attempting to retreat. Given the reasons for the PDAA’s opposition to the initial bill, it is clear that this provision was essential in securing the PDAA’s support. The extension of the self-defense law should be tailored to protect law-abiding citizens, not provide an added defense tool for violent thugs. For those who called and expressed anger over the PDAA’s opposition to the initial bill, I hope that you now agree that Pennsylvania will be getting a far better piece of legislation than initially offered - and that the new legislation is more appropriately designed to afford law-abiding citizens with the right to defend themselves without giving criminals a means to avoid responsibility for their violent acts. Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.
The Healthy Geezer Q. I get low blood pressure after I eat a meal. It makes me a little woozy. What can I do about it? This is a senior malady called, “postprandial hypotension.” When you eat, blood pours into your digestive system. To maintain your blood pressure, your heart pumps more often and your blood vessels constrict. But these compensatory mechanisms don’t work for some people. To help prevent postprandial hypotension, eat small portions several times a day and limit high-carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. In many instances, low blood pressure isn't serious. However, it is important to see your doctor if you have hypotension symptoms, because they sometimes can point to serious problems. Chronic low blood pressure may increase the risk of Alzheimer's-type dementia in some older adults. Q. I am a senior who is afraid that my infirmities make me a target for dogs. Am I being paranoid? What should I do when confronted by a dog? Seniors are bitten by dogs more than any other group except children. Older people are more prone to being bitten by an aggressive dog because they tend to be slower and weaker than younger adults. Here are some tips from the experts on how to avoid being attacked by a dog: * Don’t look a dog straight in the eye. This is provocative. * Do not run away from or past a dog. This can make them aggressive and want to chase you. * Never go up to a dog you don’t know and try to get friendly, especially if the dog is behind a fence, tethered or in a parked car. * If an unfamiliar dog comes up to you, stand still. Most of the time, the dog will sniff you and then walk away. * Never bother a dog that is eating or sleeping. And stay away from a mother tending to her litter. *If you're threatened by a dog, don’t yell. Respond calmly. In a commanding voice, tell the dog to go away. Try to stay still until the dog leaves, or back away slowly. * If you are attacked, give the dog an object, such as a jacket or tote to bite. If you are knocked down, roll yourself into a ball and lie still. Cover your head and face with your hands. Q. Does bursitis get worse with age? Yes. Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa, which is a small sac filled with fluid. We each have about 160 of these bursae, which act as shock absorbers and grease for our joints. They are buffers between bones and overlapping muscles or between bones and tendons/skin. When bursae become inflamed, they can ache. While repetitive motions are the usual culprits in bursitis, simple pressure can cause inflammation, too. A couple of examples: Pushing a vacuum cleaner can give you bursitis in your elbow. But sitting on a hard surface for a long time can inflame the bursa over a bone in your buttocks. You can usually take care of bursitis yourself. Rest the affected joint. An ice pack will reduce swelling. To reduce pain and inflammation, take a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) such as ibuprofen or aspirin. It usually takes a week or so for bursitis to go away. You should go to your doctor if the symptoms don’t subside after 10 days; you have a fever; there’s excessive swelling, redness, bruising or a rash in the affected area; pain is sharp, shooting or disabling; you have a medical condition or you take drugs that may increase your risk of an infection. If you have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.
Library Chitchat Recently, I had a problem with a torn retina requiring laser surgery and was instructed by my doctor that I could not read until the follow-up visit when he could determine if the healing was progressing properly. It was then that I discovered how limiting it would be if you could not read. I had not previously considered this as a possibility. I am constantly reading; sometimes more than one book at a time. My favorite evening pastime is to curl up in bed with a book. However, printed books were off limits for the time being but audio books were not. In past columns, I have suggested the convenience of borrowing media items, such as audio books, from the collection of the Susquehanna County Library. I noted that you could pop them in your car’s tape or CD player and listen to them on your way to work or on a trip. But, until this recent experience, I had not thought about how invaluable these audio books could be to those with eye problems that make it difficult or impossible to read printed books. At our various locations (Montrose, Hallstead/Great Bend, Susquehanna, and Forest City) we have quite a collection of audio books. We have fair number of books on tape, but even more books on CD’s, both fiction and non-fiction. Stop in at your local library and check out our selection. Remember it is the goal of the Susquehanna County Library to be everyone’s resource for lifetime learning.
Rock Doc Light Overcoming The Darkness There’s good news all around us. On March 20 we hit the first day of spring, known to us geeks as the spring equinox. That’s the point when those of us living on the northern half of the Earth finally start to see daylight overwhelm the darkness of winter. We’ve survived the shadow that started to fall across our existence last September, when we went through the autumn equinox and nights became longer than days. The spring equinox falls on slightly different days during different years, ranging from March 19 to March 21. That’s the case for a couple of reasons. Our human calendar doesn’t perfectly match with Mother Nature. And the Earth’s trip around the sun isn’t exactly the same each year, in part because we actually get pulled and pushed around a tiny bit by other planets. The “reason for the seasons” lies in the fact that the north pole of the Earth is not at 90 degrees to the plane in which our planet moves around the sun each year. In the summer, the tilt of the North Pole is toward the sun. Six months later, we’ve moved half way around our orbit, making the tilt of the North Pole away from the sun. Most citizens don’t understand that, so let’s make it more clear. Imagine you take a blue ball and stick a toothpick in it. The ball represents the Earth (it’s blue because so much of our planet is covered by the seas). The toothpick you stuck in the blue ball represents the North Pole. Set the blue ball near the edge of a table with the toothpick nearly upright but pointed a bit at the center of the table. Now put an orange in the middle of the table to represent the golden sun. What you have is a model for summertime. Our part of the Earth (the northern half) is tilted toward the sun. Life is good. We get more daylight than darkness each 24 hours. If you keep the blue ball and the toothpick in the same orientation, but move the ball around the orange to the far side of the table, you have a model for winter. The northern half of Earth is pointed away from the sun. Life is dark and dreary. One of my favorite lines of poetry was inspired by the condition shown on the tabletop in this second condition. The verse is: “The sun that brief December day rose cheerless over hills of gray.” At least when I recite that line, I can feel the icy darkness of winter, when the northern hemisphere of Earth is pointed away from the sun. But for the next half year from where we are in March, sunlight will be blessing us northern peoples. And the farther north on the Earth you go, the more daylight you get. That means folks in Fairbanks get more light than us in the Lower 48. That sounds grand, at least if you like sunlight as much as I do. But it’s also true that the sun is low in the sky in Fairbanks. And winter up there is so long and dark I’m not sure any poet has captured its effects on people. I once was in Fairbanks in June. My big brother was kind enough to include me on an almost endless camping trip from New Jersey, across Canada and then to Alaska. One aspect of sleeping in a tent in the Arctic in June is that it’s tough to get enough rest. There’s so little darkness, you can lie awake with light in your eyes for hours and hours (and, of course, it adds to your pleasure that you’re on the cold, hard ground.) Last thought: if you go outside as the sun sets on March 20, it will show you where due west lies. You can use the shadows from the dying light to see if one wall of your home is lined up due east-west (and therefore the adjacent side is due north-south). That’s likely to be true - we tend to line up our buildings and streets with the poles. How’s that for abstract astronomy at work right around you? Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a native of the rural Northwest, was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. Follow her on the web at rockdoc.wsu.edu and on Twitter @RockDocWSU. This column is a service of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resources Sciences at Washington State University.
EARTH TALK Dear EarthTalk: Instances of people with thyroid problems seems to be on the rise. Is there an environmental connection? ~Dora The American Cancer Society reports that thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that have been on the rise in recent decades, with cases increasing six percent annually since 1997. Many researchers, however, attribute these increases to our having simply gotten better at detection. Regardless, exposures to stress, radiation and pollutants have been known to increase a person’s risk of developing thyroid problems. Thyroid disease takes two primary forms. Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid produces too much of the T3 and T4 hormones that regulate metabolism. This can cause a racing heart, weight loss, insomnia and other problems. In cases of hypothyroidism, the body produces too few hormones, so we feel fatigued and may gain weight, among other symptoms. According to the American Thyroid Association (ATA), many people with thyroid problems don’t realize it, as symptoms can be mistaken for other problems or attributed to lack of sleep. Thyroid problems in children can delay or impair neurological development. Doctors are not sure why some people are prone to thyroid disease while others aren’t, but genetics has much to do with it. One recent UCLA study found that genetic background accounts for about 70 percent of the risk. However, researchers have begun to find links between increased risk of thyroid disease and exposure to certain chemicals, especially among women. “Pesticide Use and Thyroid Disease among Women in the Agricultural Health Study,” published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2002, found that Iowa and North Carolina women married to men using such pesticides as aldrin, DDT and lindane were at much higher risk of developing thyroid disease than women in non-agricultural areas. According to Dr. Whitney S. Goldner, lead researcher on the study, 12.5 percent of the 16,500 wives evaluated developed thyroid disease compared to between one and eight percent in the general population. It’s not just farm women who should worry. Trace amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers most certainly end up in some of the food we eat. The nonprofit group Beyond Pesticides warns that some 60 percent of pesticides used today have been shown to affect the thyroid gland’s production of T3 and T4 hormones. Commercially available insecticides and fungicides have also been implicated. Likewise, some chemicals used in plastics and flame retardants contain toxins shown to trigger thyroid problems in those genetically predisposed. And a 2007 study at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio found that triclosan, an anti-bacterial agent found in everything from hand soaps to facial tissues to toys - it’s present in the bloodstreams of three out of every four Americans - could be causing some mothers’ thyroid glands to send signals to fetuses that may in turn contribute to autism. An increasing number of doctors now believe that hypothyroidism could be precipitated by a dietary deficiency in iodine, a trace element found in the thyroid’s T3 and T4 hormones and essential in small amounts for good health. Besides eating more seafood, switching to iodized salt and/or taking iodine supplements can boost iodine intake without the need for medications. But too much iodine is not healthy, so always consult with your doctor before embarking on any new health or diet regimen. Dear EarthTalk: I understand that, among mining’s other problems, like providing climate-warming coal and endangering miners’ lives, it is also a serious water polluter. Can you enlighten? ~Richard Mining disasters have grabbed a lot of headlines of late, but mines pose another insidious threat that tends to get little press attention: pollution of the nearby environment which, in turn, threatens the health of the people who live nearby. Environmentalists are particularly concerned about water pollution from mines. Mining operations use large amounts of fresh water to process recovered ore; the resulting mine effluent is typically a stew of hazardous acid-generating sulphides, toxic heavy metals, waste rock impoundments and water - and it is often deposited nearby in large free-draining piles where it can pollute land and water supplies for decades to come. When this waste water drains into local streams and aquifers, it can kill living organisms and render formerly pristine local waters unsafe to swim in or drink. Increased soil erosion around mines also leads to excessive sedimentation of nearby waterways. This reduces the productivity of fisheries while limiting the availability of irrigation sources. “Mining by its nature consumes, diverts and can seriously pollute water resources,” reports the nonprofit Safe Drinking Water Foundation (SWDF). “…mining has become more mechanized and therefore able to handle more rock and ore material than ever before,” reports SWDF. “Therefore, mine waste has multiplied enormously.” The group warns that “as mine technologies are developed to make it more profitable to mine low grade ore, even more waste will be generated in the future.” Here in the U.S., increasing recognition of the water (and other types of) pollution problems caused by various forms of mining led the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue much more stringent guidelines in April 2010 regarding how and where mines on American soil must dispose of waste. In January 2011 the EPA got the opportunity to walk its talk when it vetoed a permit that would have allowed the largest “mountaintop removal” mining operation in the history of West Virginia coal mining to go forward. Mountaintop removal is an aggressive form of coal mining that strips a mountain bare of vegetation and then blasts off the top of the mountain with explosives. It is the most destructive and polluting form of mining. Environmentalists praised the EPA for not only standing up to industry but also for saving some 2,000 forested mountaintop acres and nearly seven miles of riparian habitat while sparing surrounding communities from the effects of polluted land and water. Meanwhile, environmentalists have been pushing Congress to pass the Clean Water Protection Act, a bill first introduced in 2009 that aims to protect fresh water supplies from mining contamination by sharply curtailing mountaintop removal. Green groups including Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club are lobbying Congress heavily to consider the bill sooner rather than later. EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.
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