Hallstead – One day after the recent high water a couple of the residents along the river found a filled barrel of what appeared to be good, old, hard cider or vinegar, tightly corked and partly washed up on one of the islands.  Procuring a boat and a little extra help and after a couple of hours’ hard labor the barrel was rolled up a steep bank, and while all hands were resting the barrel in some way fell over and rolled down into the river again.  Such a prize could not be easily lost and a grand rush was made to capture the barrel.  Again, with much hard work, lasting into the early evening, the barrel was once more rolled on to the bank in a safe place, where with pans and pails the party eagerly waited to sample the contents.  We will draw the curtain here, for that carefully bunged-up cider barrel contained nothing but stale river water, too rank to use.

Lenoxville – While the occupants were nearly all at home and in the house, one day last week, a fire broke out in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ruland, destroying much of the furniture and other household goods.  The house burned to the ground, effort to save it being unavailing.

New Milford – E W. Watson has purchased the feed business of the Haight Milling and Mercantile company and is in possession.  Mr. Watson was a former businessman of New Milford, having conducted the grocery store now owned by F. K. Sutton for a number of years.  The new feed store will be known as the “Ideal Cash Feed Store.”

Silver Lake – Let us hope we will have more snow, as we have no kind of traveling and would like to hear sleigh bells once more.  ALSO  The Quaker Lake skating club gave a silver loving cup as a prize to the best skater last Friday afternoon.  Judges were: Miss Kathryn Nolan and Mrs. Francis Dougherty.  The prize was won by Miss Agnes Hanigan.

Fowler Hill – Messers Katz and Winer, of Montrose, were on the Hill Wednesday and Thursday collecting junk and furs.

Brooklyn – The Ladies’ Aid will hold a corn Supper in the basement of the Universalist church, Thursday, Feb. 24th, at 6 p.m.  Hulled corn, hominy, Johnny cake, mush, milk, cake, cheese and tea will be served.  ALSO M. D. Sterling and J. M. Owens made a transfer of Mr. Owens’ farm to Mr. Sterling.  The farm is known in that section as the “oil well farm.”

Kingsley – The Valentine social held at Aqua Inn last Friday evening was enjoyed by all.

Herrick Center – The Highland motorcycle club met at their rooms, at Tennant’s Garage, Saturday evening.  The membership is growing and all report the club a big success.  Send in your application at once and be a charter member.

Jersey Hill, Auburn Twp. – Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Stevens and son, Master Elwyn, were much surprised at their new home, Feb. 8, when 55 of their friends came in to spend the evening.  Mr. Stevens just moved from Springville Hill to the Rifenbury farm at Jersey Hill.  Splendid refreshments were served at midnight, after the younger set had indulged in various games.  People in the neighborhood are very glad to have these estimable young folks move there.  At Shannon Hill farmers are improving this little run of sleighing by hauling lumber, and everybody who has logs to haul are getting them into the mill on sleighs.  Tom Crawford, of Auburn Center, is getting out saw logs in C. A. Dean’s woods and hauling them to Meshoppen.

Lynn, Springville Twp. – The pie social held at the home of C. O. Button and wife was a decided success in every particular.  Fifty pies were auctioned off by A. D. Crisman and brought the enormous sum of $40.00.   Some of them ran up as high as $1.80 each.  Rather a stiff price for an ordinary pie.  Oh, well, as it was for a good cause it will do.  ALSO Several from here attended the funeral of the late G. W. Lewis last week. He was a man of about 80 years of age and a veteran of the civil war.

Springville – All the contestants for the piano at Lee Bros. want to get busy, as the contest closes March 31.  Those who entertain for one hour at the store during business hours, by piano or vocal music, are to get 10,000 coupons instead of 1,000 as previously given.  This extra amount can only be obtained during the present week.  ALSO The Ladies’ Aid will serve a dinner at the church on Feb. 22.  George and Martha Washington will be on the reception committee, and will extend a cordial welcome to all.

Middletown Center – Our famous huntsmen, Frank Conboy, Alfred and Harry Jones, are having splendid luck hunting foxes as they killed six this week.

Montrose – The Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. will open a store in Montrose the first of April, having leased the W. A. Cooley store building on South Main street, now occupied by D. Simon.  Mr. Simon will go to Binghamton and open a clothing store in that city. ALSO  The Montrose Motor Car co., L. H. Sprout & Sons, Prop’rs, has sold the following cars during the week: Undertaker J. C. VanCampen, a Chevrolet roadster; I. D. Hawley, a Chevrolet touring car; S. W. Oakley, a 6-cylender Oakland touring car.  The firm reports many local people are purchasing cars this winter, in anticipation of securing early spring deliveries.  The great improvement made to dirt roads and the laying of macadam stretches by the state highway department they attribute in a large measure to the increased desire on the part of local people to buy cars.  This firm is also agent for the Paige, Chandler, Oldsmobile and G. & C. truck

Franklin Forks – The mercury was down to 20 below zero Tuesday morning at this place, which is the coldest we have heard reported.  In other sections it ranged from 12 to 18 below.

Gelatt – W. E. Gelatt, with a force of men and teams, are filling the ice house at the creamery with ice from Stearn’s Lake.

Forest City – Up in Forest City, seven years ago, they knew S. L. Rothapfel as a pleasant, extremely enthusiastic and very ambitious fellow citizen, running a little café with a nickelette on the side.  The same S. L. Rothapfel today is one of the most prominent moving picture house directors in New York city.  And energy, enthusiasm and ambition, plus intelligence, did it.  Probably not a week in which he is at his office in the Knickerbocker theater, where he is the director of the Triangle films being shown there, passes, but what he greets one or more persons from the Electric City [Scranton], whom he knew when he was a resident of Forest City. He attributes his success to the habit of studying human nature.  In the beginning of his moving picture career he was sort of a doctor for small houses about the country, traveling from place to place, sizing up the houses, the audiences, and the shows and from the knowledge thus gained, picked out the flaws to eliminate in order to put the houses which complained of slow business, on their feet again.  His success attracted metropolitan attention and in the last few years his climb has been rapid.  He successively put new life into three big New York show houses and is now the guiding genius of the Knickerbocker.  At the age of 33, when most men are beginning to put a little aside, this former Forest City resident and “Belasco” of the movies is said to be counting his fortune at half a million.

In August 2013, members of the York County Drug Task Force used a confidential informant to purchase 59 prescription pills from Jon Keller.  The drug buy occurred in a local parking lot and Keller arrived driving his black 2009 Ford Mustang.  During the course of the transaction, Keller retrieved some of the prescription pills from the passenger compartment inside the Mustang.  Keller then made remarks that he would be able to get cocaine and provided the undercover officer with his telephone number.

An hour later, the undercover officer called Keller to purchase cocaine.  Keller met the officer in a different parking lot and Keller was again driving the Mustang.  At this point, Keller demanded to search the officer and his vehicle to make sure that he was not law enforcement.  After conducting the search, Keller was apparently satisfied that he was not dealing with the police – and told the officer he could purchase two “eight-balls” of cocaine for $400 – this amounts to approximately 7 grams of cocaine.  The officer agreed – Keller demanded the $400 upfront and stated that he would have to go somewhere else to get the cocaine.  The officer refused to give him the money without getting the cocaine in return.

After some negotiations, Keller agreed to take $200 in cash as partial payment and leave his Mustang and the keys with the officer as collateral to assure that he returned with the cocaine – or the officer’s money.  Keller then left with a third party – and the officer waited there with Keller’s Mustang and its keys.  After several hours, Keller had not returned.  The officer then called Keller and threatened to leave with his Mustang if Keller did not return soon.  Keller then returned with a small amount of cocaine – but not the two eight balls that he promised.  Keller was arrested for the two deliveries of controlled substances.

Thereafter, the Commonwealth sought to forfeit Keller’s Mustang as it had been utilized in the drug dealing activities.  In particular, Keller drove around in the Mustang to one of the deliveries, he had stored some of the controlled substances in the Mustang that he later delivered (the prescription pills), and he later used the Mustang as “collateral” in the transaction involving the cocaine delivery.  The trial court agreed with the Commonwealth on the basis that it had been used as collateral in the cocaine transaction and ordered the Mustang forfeited to the Commonwealth.

Keller filed an appeal contending that the Commonwealth has engaged in “forfeiture entrapment.”  This was a novel legal theory that attempted to borrow upon the entrapment defense found in criminal prosecutions.  Keller contended that it was not his choice to use the Mustang as collateral; rather, the officer demanded collateral before he would allow Keller to leave with the buy monies.  Thus, Keller argued that “but for” the officer’s demand, the Mustang would not have been involved in their drug transaction.  The Commonwealth Court rejected the idea that the entrapment defense could be used in a civil forfeiture proceeding – it was a statutory defense for criminal prosecutions only.

Even if the entrapment defense had applicability in a civil forfeiture proceeding, the Commonwealth Court was still not convinced that Keller had demonstrated “forfeiture entrapment.”  The criminal entrapment defense requires proof that the police used “methods of persuasion that would ensnare an otherwise honest, law abiding citizen.”  The Commonwealth Court noted that the entrapment defense requires police conduct that “rises to the level of outrageousness.”  The entrapment defense is considered a “sanction” for “overzealous and reprehensible police behavior.”  The mere fact that police provide “an opportunity to commit a crime that the defendant seizes is not entrapment; the police behavior must be outrageous and egregious.”

In this case, the Commonwealth Court noted that Keller had already been engaged in a prior drug transaction with the undercover officer, Keller had provided his contact information, Keller had proposed a cocaine transaction, Keller suggested the two eight balls of cocaine and the price, and Keller negotiated with the officer as to how the transaction was going to occur.  The mere fact that the officer was not going to let Keller walk away with the buy monies without any guarantee for delivery of the cocaine did not amount to outrageous police conduct necessary to support an entrapment defense.  In rejecting Keller’s “forfeiture entrapment” defense, the Commonwealth Court simply concluded: “The problem was on of Keller’s doing.  Instead of leaving his keys with [the officer], Keller could have decided not to go forward with his proposed illegal drug transaction.”

York County is now the proud owner of a 2009 Ford Mustang – and Keller lost his ride.

“Even winter — the hardest season, the most implacable — dreams, as February creeps on, of the flame that will presently melt it away. Everything tires with time, and starts to seek some opposition, to save it from itself.” ~Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart, 1986

What wonderful news for the Literary World! It seems that a long-lost Beatrix Potter book, entitled “The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots” has been discovered and is set to be released this fall, 150 years after the beloved Author’s birth. The story was “Stumbled upon” after discovering a reference to the story in a letter from Ms. Potter to her publisher. The letter was followed up by a trip to the publisher’s archive, where not one, but three manuscripts were found, two are hand-written in children’s school notebooks and one was typeset and laid out in a “Dummy-book”. A rough colored sketch of Kitty-in-Boots and a “Pencil Rough” of the arch-villain/fox, Mr. Tod, was also uncovered. Those who have loved and grown up with Peter Rabbit will be happy to learn that the famous bunny is also included in this story. Ms. Potter only finished one drawing for this book, so Quentin Blake, who is known for his art in Roald Dahl books, will be the illustrator for this treasured find. According to notes by the Author herself, the story went unfinished due to the start of World War I and her marriage. Not to worry, Ms. Potter, your beloved characters and stories have fascinated children of all ages for many years, and now, will open up a whole new world for

generations to come!

The Hallstead/Great Bend Library location will be holding their Spring Story Hour starting at 10:00 am on March 4th, 2016. If your child has enjoyed this in the past, please stop by or call the Library and sign up as the Story Hour is very popular and fills up quickly. More details about this special program are forthcoming.

Also, the lucky winner of the Hallstead/Great Bend Branch’s Book Raffle is devoted Patron, Scott Wiggins!! Congratulations Scott!! We hope you will enjoy every title and we also thank Penguin-Random House Publishing for their kindness and generosity. You have helped to make one reader extremely happy! Many thanks also to all who entered—we could not do, what we do, without your participation.

A Beautiful Americana Quilt has been lovingly created by the Susquehanna Library Quilters Group, to be raffled off, with proceeds going to the Susquehanna County Library Association, and will be shared by all four Branches. The quilt is a blend of many beloved quilt block patterns, and also is highlighted by buildings, such as a Church, Schoolhouse and Barn and the American Flag, among others. It would be the perfect accent in anyone’s home. You may purchase a raffle ticket from any of the four Library Locations. The tickets are $10.00 each and only 200 tickets will be sold, so don’t delay. You can’t win if you don’t play! The drawing will be held on September 16th, right in time for snuggling under a quilt on chilly nights.

A page in a book without words is something we encounter so often that we rarely stop to think about it. Pick up virtually any hardcover or paperback title and you’re bound to see at least one or two blank pages in the front, back, or both. Do you know why books have blank pages? It has to do with signatures, which is industry talk for the groups of pages that printers fold and cut to assemble a book. A signature can be as few as four pages or as many as 32 or 64—all divisible by at least four. If the title has 200 pages, it could fit perfectly. If it’s 203 pages, that means there’s likely to be a page leftover from one of the signatures. One extra page of text could require an additional four-page signature, with three blank sheets. Not wanting to pay for paper that goes unused, some publishers opt to fill the extra space to feature checklists of an Author’s other works, excerpts from other books, or illustrations. My suggestion is that you jot down whether you enjoyed/liked the book, any details about the characters, and if you would consider reading it again. As a voracious reader, it helps refresh your memory and would be helpful to those who borrow the title.

As I prepare to fill the wild bird feeder, I will leave you with this thought:

“With the lengthening days which distinguish the third month of winter from its predecessor, come ardent desires for spring, and longings for the time of birds and flowers. An adventurous swallow too early flying from the south, a vision of snowdrops in the snow, a day of April warmth lit by a slant February sun, are all hailed with pleasure as harbingers of a more gracious season on its northland way.” ~Oscar Fay Adams, January 1886

Collecting Maple Sap—Amethysts—Sledding

ENJOY!!

Buy your bug zapper now before it is too late

It’s not quite summer yet with its warm temperatures, kayaking in the lake, evenings outside watching for fireflies and SWAT! those pesky mosquito bites. While attacks from these blood-sucking nuisances are hardly a reason to call 911, this year, skeeters have the potential to become a major health threat. A certain type of mosquito – the Aedes aegypti – is now a carrier of the Zika virus.

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease and possibly a sexually transmitted infection. Discovered in Uganda in 1947, the disease was confined to the equatorial belt of Africa and Asia and produced mild flu-like symptoms. Some people did not have any symptoms at all. But apparently, perhaps during the 2014 World Cup held in Brazil, a traveler who was infected brought the virus to that populous country where it exploded, spreading to more than 20 nations and likely infecting hundreds of thousands of people. The reason why Zika became such a concern is because suddenly and within the last year, 4,000 cases of the otherwise rare microcephaly (small headedness and, thus, smaller than a normal brain) were reported in babies born to women who had been bitten by the mosquito. This alerted health officials to take action.

But a smaller head is more than just having to wear a smaller hat. Children born to women who have been infected with the Zika virus are often mentally retarded. No cure or treatments exist. It would be a lifetime of supportive care and probably no prospects of leading a normal, productive life and the independence that comes with it.

Will Zika come to the states? At this point in time, there have been a few cases, all in travelers who became ill somewhere else and brought the virus home. So far, there are 2 cases that were sexually transmitted. The World Health Organization has said that the virus will eventually reach every country in the Americas except Canada and Chile where the Aedes mosquito has not yet traveled. But who knows? The world has shrunk due to advances in aircraft and other type of transportation. Climate change may allow the mosquitoes to fly farther north and spread to Europe as well. “Things like this tend not to go away,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases in a recent Time magazine report. A vaccine is in the works. However, as with the flu virus which mutates each year, a vaccine against Zika may be a long time coming and may not be 100% effective. “Cases may go up and down” says Dr. Fauci, “but (Zika) is not just going to go away.” Another problem is that many countries in Central and South America, which are dominated by Catholics, who do not favor ending a baby’s life, view abortions and contraception a grave sin. Now that we know men can transmit it to women via sexual intercourse, the numbers may skyrocket.  

What to do? Avoid traveling in these areas until we know more, especially if you are pregnant. Use condoms or other barrier contraceptives until we can unravel the pathology. The jury is still out on breast feeding. Use mosquito repellant and cover as much skin as possible when out in the evening. Get a bug zapper for your deck. And pay attention to future reports until we know more about this unwelcome virus.

Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him with any ideas or comments at ron@rx-press.com.