Sunday, March 19, 2006 THE POST PAGES EDITORIAL @OMENTS IN TIME The History Channel ® On March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” is published. The novel, written in reaction to tight- ened fugitive slave laws, sold 300,000 copies within three months. ® On March 25, 191, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York's Lower East Side, a fire quickly engulfs the factory and claims 146 lives in less than an hour. Trapped inside the flaming building, many of the work- ers either expired from asphyxiation or leapt from windows - a fatal, 10-story fall. The company's owners were eventually found guilty on charges of manslaughter. * On March 22,1929, Will Rogers signs with Fox to write and star in four films for $600,000. With the dawn of talking pictures in the late 1920s, Rogers became a top box-office draw. His films included “Happy Days" (1929) and “A Connecticut Yankee" (1931). ® On March 26,1937, America’s first monument to a comic strip hero is unveiled in Crystal City, Texas. The 6-foot-tall, brightly colored concrete statue of Popeye was unveiled in Popeye Park-during the city's second annual Spinach Festival. ® On March 23,1940, long-running radio game show “Truth or Conse- quences” debuts. Unlike giveaway game shows where the draw was huge cash prizes, “Truth or Consequences” paid only $15 for right answers. For wrong answers, guests were required to perform outrageous stunts - pushing walnuts across the stage with their noses, howling like a dog, or collecting hundreds of thousands of pennies. ® On March 24,1955, Tennessee Williams’ play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” opens in New York, two days before his 44th birthday. The play would win Williams his second Pulitzer Prize. ® On March 21,1971, “The Andromeda Strain,” the first movie to use computer animation, opens. The sci-fi thriller, featuring scientists racing Michael Crichton book. j (c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc. @ time and an alien virus, was also the first movie to be made from STRANGE BUT TRUE King Features Synd., Inc. ¢ |f you're like the average American, you generate four pounds of trash every day. If you're surprised by that high number, consider this: When the daily waste of each person in the United States is added to- gether, it amounts to a total of 210 million tons of garbage every year. e |t was Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling who made the following sage observation: “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” ® Has a colporteur ever knocked on your door? It's possible, though not very likely to happen these days. A colporteur is a person who sells Bibles and religious artifacts. ¢ In the Deep South, cornbread is sometimes called “Arkansas wed- ding cake.” e Someone -- who had plenty of time to waste, evidently -- has figured out that if you add up the number of letters in the names of the playing cards, the total comes to 52, the exact number of cards in a deck. Try it yourself: ace =3, two = 3, three = 5, four = 4, five = 4, six = 3, seven = 5, eight = 5, nine = 4, ten = 3, jack = 4, queen = 5, king = 4. e According to historians, France's King Louis XIV owned 413 beds - that's enough to provide him with a different place of repose every night for a year and six weeks. ® Pollen is one of the only naturally secreted substances that lasts indefinitely - it never deteriorates. (EK J & Thought for the Day: “Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with il your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” - William Saroyan READING PROGRAM BEGINS APRIL 5 The Back Mountain Memorial Library will kick off its partici- pation in the program “Pennsylvania one Book, Every Young Child” during National Library Week. Storyteller and musician Mary Baker will present a reading of “Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse” complete with puppets and a song at 6 p.m. Wednes- day, April 5 in the Children’s Room. Baker will also give a musi- cal storytelling program for children ages preschool through grade school. A “Traveling Trunk” filled with mouse-related puppets and games for young children will be available for hands-on creative play. Children's librarian Janet Bauman will distribute a paperback copy of the book and early literacy information to each family in attendance. Pennsylvania libraries, museums and public television sta- tions are joining forces to increase awareness among parents and the childhood care and education community of the need for literacy development. Using a "one book, one state” mod- I, the yearlong program hopes to communicate how to devel- pment early literacy skills through interactive experiences with books and stories. Several copies of “Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse" will be available for patrons to borrow from the library throughout the year. Two copies will remain in the Children's Room refer- ence section for in-house reading. Bauman will visit the chil- dren who attend the Dallas and Lake-Lehman Head Start and Early Intervention programs later in the month to read the book, present a story time and speak with the teachers about early literacy. For more information or to register for the pro- gram, call the library at 675-182. THE POST TIMES©LEADER Community Newspaper Group 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 18711 ® 570-675-5211 thepost@leader.net Patrick McHugh PUBLISHER David C. Konopki EDITOR Erika Calvert ADVERTISING express shock and dismay. And we will shoulder the sacred duty to suck it up, brush it out and make the ride right again. Ah Spring, we | s certainly as winter retreats, we will discover the detritus left in the wake - the crumbs and crud and rubbish of a full season. We will salute you. NEW BOOKS The following new books have been donated to the collection at the Back Mountain Memorial Library, 96 Huntsville Road, Dallas. For more information about do- nating books, call the library at 675-182. EXPRESS(1 week) “Second Honeymoon" by Joan- na Trollope “False Impression” by Jeffrey Archer “The Templar Legacy” by Steve Berry “The Old Wine Shades" by Martha Grimes “Sour Puss" by Rita Mae Brown FICTION “The Templar Legacy” by Steve Berry ; “False Impressions” by Jeffrey Archer "Second Honeymoon" by Joan- na Trollope “The Rebels of Ireland” by Edward Rutherford "Kill Me" by Stephen White “The Two Minute Rule” by Rob- ert Crais : “Halfway House" by Katharine Noel “Deadly Kisses” by Brenda Joyce "Son of a Witch” by Gregory Maguire NONFICTION “Breaking the Spell” by Daniel Clement Dennett “The Wal-Mart Effect” by Char- les Fishman “The Laurel Line” by James N.J. Henwood MYSTERY “Sour Puss" by Rita Mae Brown BIOGRAPHY “The Other Side of Me" by Sidney Sheldon LARGE PRINTFICTION “Sour Puss” by Rita Mae Brown “The Myth of You and Me" by Leah Stewart “Saving Fish from Drowning" by Amy Tan “On Beauty" by Zadie Smith “Walk” by Heather Graham “Lovers and Players” by Jackie Collins “Reckless” by Shannon Drake “The Cat Who Dropped a Bomb- shell” by Lilian Jackson Braun “Irish Gilt" by Ralph M. Mcl- nerny REFERENCE “Summer Opportunities for Kids & Teenagers 2006" “Current Biography Yearbook 2005" YOUNG ADULT “Ptolemy's Gate" by Jonathan Stroud “John Lennon: All | want is the truth” by Elizabeth Partridge “Ready or Not: An all-American girl novel” by Meg Cabot “Mimus” by Lilli Thal "Zap" by Paul Fleischman “The Minister's Daughter” by Julie Hearn BOOKS ON CD "Watch Your Back” by Donald E. Westlake “Murder She Wrote: The Maine Mutiny” by Jessica Fletcher “Nightcrawlers” by Bill Pronzini “Class Action” by Clara Bing- ham and Laura Leedy Gansler “Swing” by Rupert Holmes “Love'em or Lose’em” by Bever- ly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans “Cards on the Table” by Agatha Christie “The Adventures of Nero Wolfe" by Rex Stout "The Martin and Lewis Show" “Trail Mix" by Louis LAmour “The Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy SEVENTY YEARS AGO ~ March 20,1936 FLOODING IN VALLEY, BACK MOUNTAIN The worst floods in 70 years cut communications with Wyoming Valley. Hundreds of residents were unable to go to work as Sus- quehanna does on sec- ond ram- page in a week, Flood water inun- dated the West Side and wash- outs of track in the vicinity of Bakers above Noxen on the Bow- man’s Creek prevented deliver- ies of milk from Dushore cream- eries. Appeals for funds for the Red Cross were made through the Dallas Post. With river crossings at White’s Ferry out and with the water up to the doorstep on its Harding exchange, Commonwealth Tele- phone Company probably had a more. intimate contact with flood conditions than any other organization in Dallas. Emergen- cy calls were routed through Scranton to the Valley . \ 7 > Rim {eT x % 1 Y/ > ONLY YESTERDAY Bids for completion of the an- nex to Dallas Township High school will be opened by direc- tors at a special meeting next Tuesday. The annex will include four classrooms and an auditori- um to seat about 400 people. The Post is offering a series of eight articles illustrating smart and practical household items which a woman can make her- self. We SIXTY YEARS AGO March 22, 1946 LEHMAN STUDENTS PERFORM AT STATE Lehman High School is the on- ly local school planning to enter the Pennsylvania Forensic and Music League competition this year, following Kingston Town- ship’s decision not to compete. Mary Lamoreux will compete in the oratorical contest and the band will compete with solo numbers by Sylvia Brown, piano; John Milauskas, cornet; Harold Cornell, trombone; Ethel Ide, clarinet. Bernard Gerrity is di- rector. King Smith, veteran of service in Europe, has returned to the home of his master, Col. Norman Smith, Huntsville, following his discharge from Fort Robinson, Nebraska. King is a thorough- bred German police dog who en- tered the K-9 Corps in May and served for more than two years in the ETO. Harveys Lake will have air ser- vice during the summer months. Smith Flying Service of Forty Fort will transport persons and packages by aircraft between Harveys Lake and other points in Pennsylvania. Burgess George Williams has instructed police officers to round up all stray dogs ad dis- patch them tin accordance with the State Department of Agricul- tures 180 day rabies quarantine in Luzerne County. The American Legion buys lots on Lake Highway and dis- cusses plans to erect a building. FIFTY YEARS AGO March 23, 1956 ANIMALS RESCUED FROM HOME FIRE Fire guts the home of Mike Kozich in East Dallas but neigh- bors rescue chinchilla stock worth $20,000. Back Mountain people had an opportunity to see Kingston Township’s new firemen in ac- tion Wednesday at the Kozich fire on Demunds Road, The fire- men did an excellent job of di- recting traffic and kept motorists where they belong. The second annual Industrial Conference of Northeastern Pennsylvania Council of Indus- trial Management Clubs, affiliat- ed with YMCAs will be held at Irem Temple Country Club, Sat- urday, April 27. Lemuel Troster buys Dallas Insurance agency from Robert C. ; Hale, with offices in the Himm- ler Building, Lake Street; Dallas. FORTY YEARS AGO March 24, 1966 HAYFIELD HOUSE AT PSU HOSTS TOURS Penn State Representatives of ‘women’s organizations in the Back Mountain met at Hayfield House Wednesday at noon as guests of Pennsylvania State University to enjoy lunch, tour the newly acquired building, view slides of the mansion and gather information about pro- posals for the future. Mike Wilkes, Dallas cager, is named to the first of the 1966 Pennsylvania All Scholastic teams. Wilkes is the first Dallas cager to receive the honor. Medicare will be explained on Friday at a meeting at the Back Mountain YMCA. Mr. and Mrs. John Cathrall, Dallas teachers, are named to the Sigma Gamma Epsilon Hon- or Society of the University of Oklahoma. They are pursuing advanced study at the university. Mrs. Cathrall is the former Judy Richards of Trucksville. On sab- batical leave, the couple expects to be home in time for fall class- es. THIRTY YEARS AGO March 25, 1976 DALLAS FAN FINED, OTHERS DISMISSED Disorderly conduct charges against two West Side Tech fans and a PIAA off duty official were dismissed while Dallas High School fan was fined for disor- derly conduct and harassment at a hearing last Thursday night be- fore District magistrate Earl Gre- gory Charges against the four men came at the Dallas West Side Vo- Tech game Feb. 10 at Dallas Se- nior High School. America’s craziest and most unpredictable sport — donkey basketball — will be featured at Dallas High School Gym at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 29. Teams will be made up of senior and junior high faculty mem- bers. Jackson Township organized a new fire company auxiliary. Offi- cers elected were president, Mrs. John Fielding; vice presi- dent Mrs. Ralph Esser; secreta- ry, Mrs. Elmer Laskowski and treasured, Mrs. Sidney Fielding. Helene Haley and Helen Fran- klin were auxiliary organizers. TWENTY YEARS AGO March 19, 1986 OFFICIALS EXAMINE ROCK CUT ON 309 State and local officials from the Back Mountain met last Sun- day afternoon at the rock cut sec- tion of Route 309 to examine hazardous conditions existing there including the lack of light- ing The stretch of road in ques- tion, a half mile strip starting from Wasserott’s in Courtdale to just below Franklin's gas station in Kingston township has seen the scene of over 100 accidents dating back to 1982. Just one day after being criti- cized by state senatorial candi- date Charles Kirkwood for his part in the flood aid bill, Sen. Charles D. Lemmond Jr. R. Dal- las announced last week the sen- ate has approved an amended version of that bill which will provide aid for flood and tornado victims in those affected areas of the state including Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Dallas High School girls basketball team was eliminated in Saturday night's Class AAA Eastern quarterfinal girls basket- ball in a game with North Schuylkill. The Spartans posted their 28th win of the season with a 74-64 win over Dallas. The North Schuylkill used a full court press, forcing turnovers and hampering Dallas shooting. In the final quarter, Dallas cut the lead to seven before the final buzzer.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers