Sexting: skinny dipping for the digital age

Time was, I am told, when teenagers would occasionally gather at the local swimming hole, shuck their duds, and jump in the creek. I’m thinking, as I write this from my advancing chronological vantage, that most of the participants turned out OK. They re-donned their duds and became doctors, lawyers, and farmers.
Unfortunately, for most of [...]

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Those silly ad phrases

Some of the boilerplate verbiage we encounter as we are prevailed upon to purchase various wares guaranteed to help — or at least not hurt – us, is a bit amazing. Most of them are on television, and an ad starring Alec Baldwin may explain why.
In the commercial, Baldwin has come to Earth to promote [...]

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21st Century Pen Pals

I am on Facebook, one of the better known “social web sites.” Users of Facebook get to designate certain people as “friends.” Mostly it is simply a place to leave each other messages.
My site has remained mostly dormant for the several months I have had it. My real friends generally communicate with me more personally: [...]

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What a way to start the year

The news Wednesday night carried a rather innocuous notice: The U.S. Post Office has asked Congress to allow it to stop delivering mail one day a week.
NBC gave the story a little history. On CBS, there was a simple one-liner.
Neither network mentioned the number of jobs that would be lost when mail delivery drops from [...]

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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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The true cost of volunteer services

In another place, probably 15 years ago, the volunteer ambulance service that had served residents longer than most of those then living could remember was shut down.
Was it better to maintain the tradition of volunteers, which clearly was less expensive, at least to the taxpayers?
Or was there more advantage to paying taxes for a service [...]

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Where have all the people gone?

The county seat is getting four more traffic lights. The word is they will make traffic flow more smoothly through the borough. That remains to be seen.
I timed a couple of lights in Gettysburg. Yellow was on three seconds. I noticed that if I were driving the 25 mph speed limit and saw the light [...]

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Mr. Dell, meet Mr. Nystrom

The computer monitor after which I had lusted arrived in good time and works very well. It will be a wonderful tool as I work with one of my hobbies — photography. As with all my purchases from Dell over the years, and those others have made for which I have been responsible. I have [...]

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Where are the buses?

Another set of traffic lights are about to be installed at Hanover and Sixth streets, on the eastern edge of Gettysburg.
New traffic signals also are planned for Carlisle Street and West Middle Street.
Rural is a state of mind difficult to maintain when you’re sitting at traffic light after traffic light, burning gasoline that could easily [...]

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Appropriate attire required

I left the house naked the other day.
I did not realize my error until, nearly an hour and 40 miles from home, I discovered I could not pay for my coffee. I’d left my wallet at home.
If my car had not required a key, I’d probably have forgotten that, as well.
I rented a car recently [...]

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