Get outside and play

A popular children’s television cartoon features a boy-cow named Otis, with udders. About a year ago, there was a movie about bees, and the boy bees left the hive in search of pollen for honey.
In rural Adams County, I’m guessing most kids pretty much know how to tell a bull from a cow, and probably [...]

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The Key to Afghanistan

We are about to withdraw our soldiers from Iraq — and send them to Afghanistan. They are needed there, Cong. Todd Platts, said Wednesday, to help knock down a Taliban resurgence in the southern part of the country.
“In the short term, we may see more casualties,” Platts said. “In the long term, it will result [...]

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Let’s vote, already!

Be done with it already!
What are any of the candidates going to say in the next week that will a) change minds, or b) not get them in trouble? Which could change some minds.
I am amazed that anyone can remain undecided at this point. I believe some voters have not made up their minds; I [...]

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Green space, white space

I was raised in the country. Real country. My folks owned 50 acres of woodland in the middle of several thousand acres of woodland in a part of the state that was mostly trees and big rocks.
Imagine Gettysburg, with nothing but a few scattered houses between Gettysburg and, say, Arendtsville. Then make believe I lived [...]

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Bring water, and they will drink

Soon, it appears, the Susquehanna River will have a branch running down Route 30. There’s water in that-there creek, and there’s folks arriving in Straban and several townships west of Gettysburg who are going to be mighty thirsty.
More than 80 percent of the water Adams Countians drink comes out of the ground. The problem is, [...]

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Obesity and bulldozed apple trees

I have a picture in my collection of a map depicting the layout of the housing development in which the map is posted. It’s one of those maps one can drive up to and, from the comfort of the family chariot, see the geometric patterns in which the streets are laid out, sweeping curves among [...]

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Times they are a-changin’

I marked my 60th birthday this week, which caused me to think of some significant changes of the past half dozen decades.
When I was 15, I had lots of woods in which to run around. I regularly rode a bicycle over most of the county in which I was raised. I thought that was pretty [...]

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Drive for Homeland Security

It may seem a little strange to some people, in this age of $3 gasoline that likely hasn’t seen it’s highest price, but driving can be a good thing for the environment — taken in moderation, of course.
Specifically, a drive next month through the back roads of Adams County — the 9th annual Land Conservancy [...]

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Political mis-statements

One of the things I dislike (rather strenuously) about Republicrats, though the Rs seem more eager (if only slightly) to do it than the Ds, is picking out and picking on phrases that have little or nothing to do with the point — as though some oratorical mis-step, either verbal or visual, uniquely defines a [...]

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No Parking in D.C.

Every now and then, it’s good to leave home, to find out, as my mother often said, “how the other half lives.”
I don’t know that I really got a look at “the other half” last Saturday, but I got a look at Washington, D.C. traffic.
My destination was a farmers market at 14th and U. Where [...]

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