2009-11-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
The reader wanted an answer. Why had his letter to the editor been cut by more than half? He sent back the original letter, underlining every sentence and word that had been trimmed. The writer, a regular whom I enjoy hearing from, noted that the number of words in the original was not "......
2009-11-08 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
As the clock ticked toward 12:40 a.m. last Sunday, Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera entered the ninth inning of Game 3 of the World Series. With one out, the Phillies had scored a run to cut the New York lead to 8-5. Part of me, the fan part, wanted to see Philadelphia mount a big rally t......
2009-11-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Some of the most interesting news, and often the strangest, can be found in our police logs. Take a look. • In East Lampeter Township, a college student was reported to have driven into a shopping cart in a parking lot. He was arrested for underage drinking and taken back to his school,......
2009-10-25 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again to check the e-mail box for readers' comments. You can't make up this stuff. • "I feel Gil Smart is a blubbering idiot. I will never visit or read your newspapers ever again since I watched him spouting off about protesters and Fox News. I now see you are a liber......
2009-10-18 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Around Strasburg, Bill Phifer wears a blue baseball cap with a white "B" on the front. On his sleeve, he wears his feelings for the team the cap represents — the Brooklyn Dodgers. As a boy, he would lie awake at night and be able to tell from the crowd noise at nearby Ebbets ......
2009-10-04 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Deb Yunginger took a leap of faith the other day. With some 330 students in the School District of Lancaster still waiting for uniforms, she placed a $2,000 order with a clothing wholesaler to provide for a fraction of them. She was relieved when unexpected donations covered that bill....
2009-09-27 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time to look in on our local ne'er-do-wells for whom crime, or bad behavior, does not pay. • After a dispute with his girlfriend, an East Lampeter Township man took some of her clothes out to his apartment patio and burned them, He was cited for dangerous burning. • If you......
2009-09-20 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
• The march in Washington was more newsworthy than the pup mills deep in doo in your Sunday News. Can see why your readership is waning —you do not report the news. You just report your agenda.• I remember as a young boy we were told about how real news was ......
2009-09-13 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again to look at comments from letters, e-mails and Internet postings. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From a post on TalkBack (LancasterOnline.com's community forum), after I noted that a man charged with two......
2009-09-06 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
The caller was direct. "I just thought that was completely tasteless ... absolutely unnecessary ... the man did a great deal of good in his lifetime ... that was horrible." The subject? The editorial page cartoon last Sunday that showed a St. Peter type on the phone assur......
2009-08-30 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
We've moved some features around and revised two sections in the Sunday News today. The Books pages, which had been in the middle of the Perspective section, have a new home in the Living section (Pages 6 and 7 today), providing space not only for more book reviews, but for more news abo......
2009-08-23 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
There's a famous Norman Rockwell painting that shows a man speaking at a public meeting. In Rockwell's 1943 view of what's right with America, the man stands tall. He is informed. Sticking from a pocket of his worn jacket is a rolled-up copy of a report. Around him you see othe......
2009-08-16 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again to test the IQ of our local lawbreakers. (The "I" does not stand for intelligence.)
• Aren't you a little old for this kind of carrying-on?
When a Manheim man, 66, thought that a 36-year-old Manheim woman had cut him off in traffic on Ro......
2009-08-02 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and anecdotes:
Her fame is real
In a recent column, I said that the claim to fame for Chris Noel, working to keep a veterans' shelter open in Florida, was acting in the Elvis Presley movie "Girl Happy" which came out in 1965. Ms. N......
2009-07-26 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Gerry Stoltzfoos grew up in a Beachy Amish family on a dairy farm at Gap. He finished the eighth grade; his family saw high school as "a waste of time." In his late teens, seeking a more evangelical approach to his faith, he earned a GED diploma and went on to Valley Forge Christian C......
2009-07-19 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
One of my favorite faux headlines comes from The Onion, a rather rude publication that parodies the news. It reads, using the date Nov. 22, 1963, and the tag "Late Edition":
Kennedy Slain By CIA, Ma......
2009-07-12 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and anecdotes. • Starting July 26, listings for some of the additional digital channels now carried by three local stations will be added to TV Week. Those channels will be: WGAL 8.2, known as "This TV"; WHP 21.2, "mytwentyone"; and WHTM 27.2, "Retro." This is in......
2009-07-05 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
No doubt about it, we need a brighter class of lawbreakers around here. • From the "D'oh!" department: A man was charged in June with robbing two local banks. Police found his fingerprint on a holdup note left behind at one of the banks. • If you have something......
2009-06-28 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
One reason for writing this column — besides refereeing verbal bouts between readers and Gil Smart — is to give readers an inside look at what is happening at the Sunday News. Come Monday, a tradition ends at Lancaster Newspapers. The Lancaster New Era will no longer land on po......
2009-06-21 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes, anecdotes and the latest from those who can't help but pass on what they see or receive on the Internet: "How do a group of Syrian anti-American protest leaders create the most impact with their signs by having ... slogans printed in English? "Answer: &quo......
2009-06-14 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again for comments received in letters, e-mails, online postings, phone calls and conversations. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From an e-mail this past Sunday morning: "Shame on you for getting the date of Flag Day incorrect. Flag Day is June 14 , not June......
2009-06-07 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Cue the "Dragnet" theme. The stories you are about to read are true; the names have been deleted to protect the embarrased from the double jeopardy of having their names in the newspapers again for their odd misdeeds. Taken from police files: • A Lancaster man, 35, and woman, 25, were char......
2009-05-31 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Paul Wright gets to the point about the Urban League of Lancaster County: "We're struggling." Grants have disappeared. Only five paid staff members work out of the office at 502 S. Duke St. Wright, a board member, can't make it any clearer. "We desperately need help.......
2009-05-24 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
John Sanders doesn't want to be portrayed as a "desperate soul," but he has been out of work since Feb. 11, when KB Toys and his job as district manager disappeared. The 54-year-old, married father of three grown children worked 32 years for the retail toy company that had two sto......
2009-05-17 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
The ribbing started the moment the staff learned I was hitting 40 years with Lancaster Newspapers. Photographer Vinny Tennis stuck up a picture of himself posing as a Geico caveman (no makeup needed) with the caption: "Marv has been here so long his first photographer was a caveman."...
2009-05-10 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again for letters, e-mails, calls, faxes and online posts from the readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff. (Well, you could if you tried real hard.) • From an e-mail about a monument in Bayonne, N.J.: "I had never heard of this before ... .Why didn't the press report it?"...
2009-05-03 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Time again for some remedial work on writing letters to the editor. Some of you do a superb job of observing the 150-word-limit sign that runs on the letters page every Sunday. Others blow right by it. The idea behind the limit is give letters a tighter focus and to get more of the......
2009-04-26 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes, and did you see that a Philadelphia study group has suggested that to modernize the city's government and save money row offices should be eliminated? Wouldn't it be great to look into something like that for our historic but creaky Lancaster County government? Oh, y......
2009-04-19 00:02:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Unless you've been shanghaied by pirates (not the ones from Pittsburgh) off the coast of Africa, you know that Harry Kalas died Monday. The Phillies' announcer collapsed in the press box at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., before a game. Tuning in to the pre-game show, I saw his......
2009-04-12 00:02:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Some letters, e-mails, postings and phone calls from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From a letter: "Smart is not Smart. Pitts is the Pitts. Dowd cannot compose a sentence without insulting someone or something. Funnies are not funny, and 90 percent are ridic......
2009-04-05 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Amadeo Zazueta is moving to Lancaster this spring to take a new job. Like many young men in a new town, he needed a place to stay. He got lucky. He will live with a Lancaster police detective's family. You'll meet Zazueta this summer. He will be working at Clipper Magazine Stadi......
2009-03-29 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and anecdotes:
Weathering a storm
In the wake of William Ayers' controversial visit to Millersville University, we got a letter from a Willow Valley Square resident who lived in a Chicago suburb during the time of Ayers' involvement with the ......
2009-03-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Sunday News staff writer Paul Franz's article on last Saturday's Harrisburg Tea Party was picked up by the Drudge Report Monday. The article, about one of a number of protests brewing around the country......
2009-03-08 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
I have people. People who forward e-mails to me about supposed outrages perpetrated by their favorite targets: Congress and the media. The Internet is an astoundingly fast way to get out information. It's also an astoundingly fast way to put out misinformation. Newspapers make ......
2009-03-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
People hit the ceiling. How could the college at Millersville invite him. A war raged, and this anarchist (traitor, druggie — pick one, or all of them) and his band had spread violence and civil disorder. Worst of all, he was unrepentant. Letters filled local newspapers d......
2009-02-22 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Officer Josiah King has the day off Tuesday, but he's behind the wheel of a Lancaster police cruiser. When you have a wife, a small son, twin boys on the way and a new house, you work all you can. The young officer who joined the force in 2005 is on overtime for the state's "D......
2009-02-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Linda Steigauf was upstairs Feb. 4 in her home on Westfield Drive when she heard the noise. "I first thought it was an explosion of some kind," she said last week. No explosion. The Steigaufs had a late visitor to their West Hempfield Township home. When Linda got downstairs......
2009-02-08 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Every Saturday morning I get a Top 20 list from my friends in the interactive media department here telling me what Sunday News articles were the most read over the past seven days on LancasterOnline.com. The list is a good indicator, I believe, of what is also being read in print. Wanna b......
2009-02-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and which team is more popular here, Eagles or Steelers? TV ratings show it's the Eagles, but is it my imagination, or do we see — year round — more people wearing Steelers shirts, hats, etc., than Eagles gear? Maybe Steelers fans only own one shirt. I......
2009-01-25 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Over the past three years, I've gotten smiles, knowing nods and some groans when I've shared the comments of daughter Abigail at the end of columns. Abigail is special. So is your young child. They are special because of the times they live in. Their generation is very differe......
2009-01-18 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
It was early Saturday evening, but already a caller had a complaint about the next day's Sunday News. That does happen occasionally because some readers receive the "pre-run" Saturday, delivered by carriers trying to lighten their Sunday load. That package, printed Thursday and Fr......
2009-01-11 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
It's time for another round of catching up on e-mails sent by sharp-eyed, and sharp-witted, readers.
Where's your Faith?
• From a reader (male) who thought a photo revealed too much of a beautiful country music star: "The TV Week cover with Fai......
2009-01-04 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
In the previous seven Sundays, the Sunday News printed installments of a series, "Drunk ... and Driving." Staff writer Jon Rutter takes a break from it today, but he's not finished with the series, which opened with a snapshot of drunken driving on county roads from Oct. 26 to Nov......
2008-12-28 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
In a business ruled by the clock, WGAL-TV's early-morning news ran a little longer Wednesday. Matt Lauer and the "Today" show had to wait. Dick Hoxworth was saying his goodbyes. With his family — wife Sue, son Jonathan and daughter-in-law Tera — watching from the ......
2008-12-21 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Frank Zitz needed a horse. It had to be white and wearing its winter coat. It had to be big, big enough to not look out of place carrying a big man — in size and legend — George Washington. The horse also had to be dead, as in recently dead. Zitz runs Frank J. Zitz and Co.......
2008-12-07 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
You hear it this time of year: "Grandpa wanted to see one more Christmas, and he did." Many of us have stories of those who clung dearly to life until a holiday passed. Then, they passed on. Mark DeBord is in a business to see it. He operates the Kearney Snyder Funer......
2008-11-30 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
The readers write: • From an e-mail on columnist Gil Smart's reasons for voting for Obama: "What could be worse than voting for a person because of the color of his skin? And your paper allows this person to continue his racism?" I don't know where to start t......
2008-11-23 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
After an election, there's usually a lull in letters to the editor. Not this year. Readers continue to write about the outcomes of Nov. 4, particularly the election of Barack Obama as president and, locally, the defeat of the home-rule charter. But what really stirs writers her......
2008-11-16 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
A great amount of my time is spent refereeing matches between Gil Smart (on the left) and some readers (on the right) and explaining to other readers why a crossword puzzle and its clues don't match.
Love/hate
From e-mails:
"I am appalled ......
2008-11-09 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and are you as glad as I am that this election is over?
Keeping score
"Congratulations, the Sunday News ... [has] succeeded in helping to elect Sen. Obama." That didn't take long. This message hit my e-mail at 1:06 a.m. Wednesday....
2008-11-02 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
The Sunday News won't tell you today why you should vote for Barack Obama or John McCain. Or Bob Barr. Or Ralph Nader. The Sunday News does not endorse candidates. I remind you of this because local columnist Gil Smart writes on Page P1 that he will vote for (surprise!) Mr. Obama....
2008-10-26 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican candidate for vice president, spent the night in Lancaster last weekend before wowing the home crowd at the ballpark. But finding out where she stayed, or if she did anything else while she was in town, wasn't easy — even after her campaign had moved on....
2008-10-19 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Notes, quotes and how 'bout those Phillies? A lot of people who went to bed late Monday night with the Fightins losing Game 4 of National League Championship Series were shocked when they picked the paper off their driveways the next morning to find out their team had won. Isn't this fu......
2008-10-05 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS, Editorially Speaking
Worried about the meltdown on Wall Street? The wars in the Middle East? Think times are tough? You could turn to the history books to see how Americans overcame obstacles in the past, or you could go to a reunion of the Manor High School Class of 1943. Members of that class were child......
2008-09-28 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
One purpose of this column — besides giving you glimpses into the anonymous mail I get — is to let you know when changes are coming in your newspaper. Starting next Sunday, the Automotive section will be renamed Automotive Weekly and printed as a tabloid. It's a good change......
2008-09-21 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and anecdotes:
Apolitical
I am not a political person. Instead, I find the process, local and national, to be on the level of slapstick. Inconsistency reigns. Try this test: If your favored candidates were running on the other party's tick......
2008-09-14 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
I enjoy hearing from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff.
Picture this
From an e-mail:
"Your picture [Sept. 7] of Sarah Palin and stories shows what a left-wing newspaper you are. Of all the pictures of her smiling, you had to fi......
2008-09-07 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
The silly season — my description of political campaigns — is on us again. That means it's time to remind writers of letters to the editor of the ground rules. The rules aren't any different than any other time of the year, or for other subjects, but burning political p......
2008-08-31 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
In a recent column on earth-shaking issues, I wrote that the term Southern End has come to mean everything south of Lancaster, which it just isn't. I claimed the Southern End begins at the Enola Low-Grade Line. Being magnanimous, I asked readers what they thought. The Rev. Mic......
2008-08-24 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
When it comes to letters to the editor, we can't always print exactly what readers write. Letters must be factual. Opinion is one thing, facts are another. Sometimes letters don't tell the complete story. In a letter last Sunday, a writer took issue with a church that held a g......
2008-08-17 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Time for another installment of comments from readers. You really can't make up this stuff.
Where's Gil?
An e-mail from a reader in New Holland on Gil Smart's recent column on personal responsibility:
"What did you do with Gil Smar......
2008-08-10 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and anecdotes: • After reading about Lancaster General Hospital refusing to further cut hospital bills for the Plain (who don't carry health insurance), a reader wrote to tell us about the recipe book she had just received from the LGH Wellness Center. On the cover i......
2008-08-03 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Twenty years after he made his pitching debut in the Solanco Church League, Dave Stokes will pitch at Clipper Magazine Stadium Thursday night. His name won't ring many bells with fans, because the 38-year-old isn't a baseball pitcher — he pitches fast-pitch softball and does it qu......
2008-07-27 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
For nine Sundays (with one more to go), we have devoted a great deal of time and space to explaining the home-rule charter, article by article. Formulated by the Government Study Commission, this is an important document. If voters approve it in November, it will mark the first major changes in......
2008-07-20 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
It has been our policy — one handed down by past Sunday News editors — to rarely attach an editor's note to a letter to the editor. An editor's note makes it look as if the editor has to get in the last word. I don't get the last word at home, so why should I have i......
2008-07-13 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
For those of us who work in newspapers, our bible (the one with the small "b" ) is the AP Stylebook. I await the book, updated each year at this time by The Associated Press, as eagerly as I used to wait for Christmas catalogs as a child. The stylebook, in print and online, is a ......
2008-07-06 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Time for another installment of those ever-popular comments from readers. The following are taken from e-mails and one conversation. You can't make up this kind of stuff.
Re cycling laws
From an e-mail in which the writer got really revved up over last Sunday'......
2008-06-29 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Karen Dinkel was weary of chasing the young woman who had racked up more than 50 parking tickets. The 22-year-old, facing an arrest warrant, said she would take care of things, but then made herself scarce. The city's warrant coordinator turned to a source she doesn't like to use: ......
2008-06-22 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and an impression: Most of us saw our major-league sports dreams end in the midget leagues, but nearly everyone thinks they know sports better than the people who report it. After I became sports editor of the Intelligencer Journal in 1977, I heard a speaker at a seminar put ......
2008-06-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
At 50, Rick Bowman is quick to tell you that he's caused some of his own problems. But trouble has sometimes literally come down the road and shown up at his door. The tall, bearded Bowman lives and works at the bottom of the steep hill that runs up to Marticville. He's a comm......
2008-06-08 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
The article on last Sunday's front page showed how the city is trying to speed up the mind-numbing process of getting condemned houses on the market. It also referred readers to LancasterOnline.com for a graphic that mapped all 100 condemned properties. Simply click on a property and inform......
2008-06-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes, anecdotes and a question: What state would you guess has the least knowledgeable drivers? According to GMAC Insurance's annual survey, New Jersey drivers know the least about driving laws, scoring 69.9 percent (70 is passing). The smartest drivers live in Kansas and aver......
2008-05-25 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
In the 1947 movie "Magic Town," Jimmy Stewart plays a pollster who discovers a small town that reflects American opinions dead-on. The national media must also see something magical in Lancaster. Before the primary, you could go to Central Market to buy produce and give your opin......
2008-05-18 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
If the price of gasoline is hurting us, we have strange ways of showing it. No, I'm not going to preach about driving less, pedaling a bicycle to work, car-pooling or giving up your SUV. My wife clings to the wheel of her SUV like the NRA sticks to its guns. We live where four-wheel-dr......
2008-05-11 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
It's another round of letters, e-mails, online posts and calls from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff: • From an e-mail: "On the front page [May 4], we have [a headline] "Uneasy lies head of Disney princess." What the heck does that even mean? ... No......
2008-05-04 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Questions asked, answers questioned: • Are you as happy as I am that the Pennsylvania primary is over? • Now that the Lancaster Post is publishing, will our critics stop calling us the "monopoly newspapers"? (Answer: Not likely.) • Does it make you as nervous ......
2008-04-27 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
If a frown could wound bad drivers, oh my. Yes, you, the woman in the SUV, talking on the cell phone, who ignored the children trying to cross the street. And you, the man behind the wheel of a pickup truck, who drives like it's your first time in the city, hanging a left and forcing p......
2008-04-20 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
We often do a poor job of telling you what's in this newspaper or on LancasterOnline. Did you know that "Jumble," which is in the Intelligencer Journal six days a week, was added to the Sunday News a couple of months ago? One reader, who called to ask if we would consider pri......
2008-04-13 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
The readers (bless you) always write. You can't make up this kind of stuff: • An e-mail reply to my comment last Sunday on Dr. Laura Schlessinger being wifty when she said on the "Today" show that wives bear some responsibility for wandering husbands: "Dear Mr. Adam......
2008-04-06 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Things to ponder: •If the city goes to angled parking on some streets, will residents need to put out more stuff to hold their spaces after snowstorms? •Why do we say and write "hundreds braved the elements" when we're talking about a little rain or cold? When did s......
2008-03-30 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
It has been a while since we've talked about letters to the editor. But it's time for another revival service. Writers have a history of backsliding when it comes to length of their letters. After I set a 200-word limit several months ago, most of you ignored me as if I were an Old......
2008-03-23 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Another round of letters, e-mails and online postings from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From a snail mail: "I think everyone over 60 should not pay school tax unless they have a child in public school." I disagree. As a 57-year-old with a 12-year......
2008-03-16 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
One of the aims of this column has been to give readers insight into how a newspaper is put together. The process is not an exact science, and there are times it becomes "all the news that fits," a takeoff on the N.Y. Times motto, or "all the news that we're able to fit in by......
2008-03-09 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Following are comments from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From a reader's e-mail on my crusade to strike the meaningless term "valid license" from the lexicon: "If you forgot to renew your driver's license ... it changes from a 'valid&......
2008-03-02 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Things that make me wonder: • Why do coaches who break the rules and corporate execs who run businesses into the ground get huge buyouts? • Why can the dog go back to sleep after she gets me up at 4 a.m to go out, but I can't? • Besides my daughter, who buys that st......
2008-02-24 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
From a post on LancasterOnline.com's TalkBack to our story last Sunday on the county commissioners deciding to "do over" a meeting:
Just so I understand the LNP position correctly: A violation by Dic......
2008-02-17 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Following is another installment of comments from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff.
Good grief!
• From an e-mail: "Why bring back 'Hagar [the Horrible]'? It is such a boring comic. I swear it repeats itself on an eight-week cyc......
2008-02-10 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Never took a music lesson until the other day, when I got one from two experts. Down on the first block of North Prince Street, the interior of the $21-million-plus Pennsylvania Academy of Music is shaping up. It's a dream come true for Michael Jamanis and Frances Veri, the husband-and......
2008-02-03 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and my declaration of surrender: The cartoon "Hagar the Horrible" will return in a couple of weeks. Gone will be "Ollie & Quentin," which never hit its stride on Sundays. Also, its artwork was just too small. (Even in the the old comic-page size, the c......
2008-01-27 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Questions answered, answers questioned: • Men's neckties grow wider or narrower, but how come old ties in your closet never make it back into style? • Why is it that children can't wait to get out of school, but then spend after-school hours playing school? • Wh......
2008-01-20 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Anytime I believe I'm doing something right, readers set me straight. You can't make up this kind of stuff.
The countdown
From an e-mail: "I noticed that today's [Jan. 6] Sunday News contained the last of your ... countdowns on the terms of our ......
2008-01-13 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
We have added two comic strips today — "Family Tree," by Signe Wilkinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and "Quentin and Ollie" by Piers Baker. Both strips debuted nationally last Monday. "Family Tree" &md......
2008-01-06 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Things that cause me to wonder: • When did auto makers start offering turn signals as options? • How did Adam Sandler get to be a movie star? • Has Bill O'Reilly ever had any doubts? About anything? • Why are liberals so forgiving of liberals, but not con......
2007-12-30 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
A compilation of reader comments taken from letters, phone calls, e-mails and TalkBack. You can't make up this kind of stuff. • From an e-mail to a Sunday News columnist: "Dear Godless Flaming Liberal Education Establishment Apologist." Is it safe to assume you......
2007-12-23 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Late in the 2006 season, there was excitement as the Phillies' Ryan Howard made a run at 60 home runs. Why, since 60 was the old record set by Babe Ruth in 1927, broken by Roger Maris with 61 in 1961, obliterated by Mark McGwire in 1998 with 70, and toppled by Barry Bonds in 2001 with 73?...
2007-12-16 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Last Sunday, readers of the Sunday News picked up their papers to learn the surprising news that Sen. Gib Armstrong would not be running for a sixth term in the state Senate. Except for those in the senator's family and inner circle, that was breaking news. But there was another group ......
2007-12-09 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and a sharing of my wisdom that increases as my hair turns whiter: (Not buying that are you?) • Remember when meetings were canceled because of the weather? Now, meetings are canceled because of the forecast. I'll bet most churches had fewer congregants las......
2007-12-02 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
More comments from readers, who don't have to be coaxed out of their shells. You can't make up this kind of stuff. From an e-mail: "Would you please please, please, change the commissioner countdown to read: 'XXX days left in the term of President George Bush and......
2007-11-25 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Whenever I walk through the second block of North Queen Street, I think of how the block looked before it was demolished in the 1960s, allowed to sit vacant for years, and then filled with an architectural monstrosity, and I wonder: What were we thinking? I wonder that about a lot of thing......
2007-11-18 00:02:00
MARV ADAMS
Recent comments from readers, taken from e-mails, letters, calls and "Talkback," LancasterOnline.com's home for people who make me wonder if there's anyone "home." You can't make up this kind of stuff....
2007-11-11 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
How's it going, "Gary Brown"? Since I wrote about you Sept. 30, I've heard from many people who met you and, from the goodness of their hearts, gave you money. I doubt that's your real name, just as you always give a different street where you live. And different jobs......
2007-11-04 00:02:00
MARV ADAMS
I knew when I recently gave a refresher course on our letters-to-the-editor policy that all of you would take it in stride and work to keep letters at 200 words or below. Silly me. From one reader (you can't make up this kind of stuff):
"More and more it has become ......
2007-10-28 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes, and is there a better season than fall? Spring barely exists here before giving way to summers that are too humid. Winter is too damp. Now, if only a nice wind would come up and blow our leaves into the Browns' yard ...
Parting shots
Thi......
2007-10-21 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
The writer of a letter to the editor wasn't happy. His letter had been shortened. After editing, it might have been one-third the length it had been when he mailed it. But in taking out the redundancies, the point of the letter was still clearly conveyed. Also gone was a lot of th......
2007-10-14 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
I don't see why that had to be spelled out." The caller was African-American, and she was upset by the use of the "N-word" in a Sunday News article last week. The word jumped out at readers in a quote from a black student, who said that a white student at Warwick High Sc......
2007-09-30 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
I've got to tell you, friend, you are smooth. A couple of weeks ago, you walked into a Sunday-school class with your hard-luck story. Casually but neatly dressed, you stayed for the lesson. You told one person you lived on Bay Street. You told another you lived on James. Your......
2007-09-23 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
What has happened to the news in the Sunday News? More to the point, where has it gone? ... There was ... [Page One, July 1] a hint there might be news on Page A3. Really disappointing.
E-mail from a reader
Whenever I allow myself to think for a mo......
2007-09-16 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and a question about which is worse: To have your favorite major-league baseball team out of contention in September, or to have your team in contention the last month of the season? I'm not sure. With all of their injuries and a pitching staff that makes the one fro......
2007-09-09 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Following are comments from readers, gleaned from phone calls, e-mails and letters. Trust me, you can't make up this kind of stuff.
Q. As I once again throw your TV Week into the recycle bin, I am compelled to write you and let you know that you should not bother to cut down a......
2007-09-02 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
The opening of school always reminds me of the despair that my fifth-grade classmates and I felt as we rode the bus that first day of school in September 1960. A third-grader cackled that nothing could save us. We were due, we thought, to get the meanest ol' teacher in Pequea Elementary....
2007-08-26 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Years ago I observed a phenomenon: Very little happens in this world without the involvement of someone from Lancaster County, or someone who has a connection to Lancaster County. It's like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which you try to connect the actor to any other actor with just si......
2007-08-19 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
There's something new on today's Page One, something that you've never seen, unless you've been around these parts a very long time. That something is an advertisement. Yes, across the bottom of the page and 1 inch deep is an advertisement. If you read other area newspapers or nationa......
2007-08-12 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Just how divided are we? I got a quick answer during the Weber v. Lancaster Newspapers Inc. et al defamation trial in late July. That answer: Very, especially when it comes to picking a local jury. As I wrote here last Sunday, a jury decided that case in our favor. But before the......
2007-08-05 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
I've been told you never know what a jury is going to do when it starts deliberating behind closed doors. I thought of that Tuesday when I watched nine women and three men leave Courtroom 8 after Judge Paul K. Allison instructed the jurors on the law and tasked them with finding a verdict....
2007-07-29 00:07:00
MARV ADAMS
You might think newspaper editors spend all their time dealing with serious subjects and weighty issues. Issues like freedom of speech, the Sunshine Law. Subjects like formulating an editorial policy or keeping an eye on the county commissioners. Or girding for reader reaction to the ne......
2007-07-22 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes, and I was surprised when stories started to appear about the Phillies approaching, and then reaching, their 10,000th loss since the team was founded in 1883. I thought I had watched or listened to that many losses since 1955. Actually, the Phillies have won more games than t......
2007-07-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and I'm never surprised by things that happen in the newspaper business. I'm just left scratching my head every now and then.
Return to sender
We verify letters to the editor by checking the phone numbers and addresses submitted with letters and......
2007-07-08 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Whenever I get invited to speak to a group, the question du jour is: "What do you see as the future of newspapers?" "I don't know," I answer. "And if I did know, I wouldn't be here today." You see, I tell them, if I knew that answer, I would b......
2007-07-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the things I miss as Lancaster County has changed. I invited readers to tell me what they miss. Tom Lefever, of Lancaster, wrote: "I used to spend many evenings on my deck listening to the Phils and eating ice cream (or having a few summer cocktails......
2007-06-24 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
A fire chief called Monday. I knew at least one would. The news has not been good for chiefs: a young firefighter arrested for starting a fire in an Amish school; a rescue attempt of a cat in a tree gone wrong (the cat died); and neighbors unhappy with a fire station they say has become a rowdy......
2007-06-17 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
A reader (see "Letters to the Editor") questions why we don't put out a special Father's Day section, as we do for Mom's Day and Grandparents' Day. Those large sections are produced by our retail-advertising department. Because the Mom's Day section is so large and......
2007-06-10 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
People, places and old ways I really miss: • The Horseshoe Drive-in and the owners, Bill and Arlene. I saw Arlene at a reunion of patrons and employees of the Horseshoe Grill (the drive-in's predecessor) a few years ago; she hadn't changed. • Driving for pleasure. It'......
2007-06-03 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and an observation: Whoever said time flies wasn't watching the countdown (Page P2) for the number of days left in the terms of county Commissioners Molly Henderson and Dick Shellenberger. It's at 215 days and dragging.
Funny business
......
2007-05-27 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
There are debates that I find to be excruciatingly unending. Abortion, evolution versus creationism, gun control, the designated hitter. To that list, I add deer hunting in Pennsylvania. I've been hearing from hunters who were upset by a May 13 column by John McGonigle, our outdoo......
2007-05-20 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and a question: Would you rather lose an election big, like Heidi Wheaton Tuesday, or lose a squeaker, like Charlie Smithgall, in their unendorsed runs for county commissioner in the Republican primary? Wheaton was blown out by more than 8,000 votes; Smithgall, by just 460. A......
2007-05-13 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
This is getting to be a habit. The last two times "Sunday's Guest" columnist Bill Adams used his column to endorse candidates just before an election, I had to write columns about his columns. Then last Sunday, Mr. Adams, a stalwart Republican, took issue with Heidi Wheaton&#......
2007-05-06 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
My personal philosophy: It's not the peaks and valleys in life, it's the dips. Last Sunday, we had dips.
Alice still lives there
Alice Hess, a Lancaster Newspapers colleague who works in the classified advertising department, wrote: "As a ......
2007-04-29 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, quotes and comments (you can't make this stuff up) from readers:
Let us pray
"Certainly Mr. [Gil] Smart is free to express his opinions. But I don't have to read his column, and I don't anymore. "However, just between you and me, I do ......
2007-04-22 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Tuesday, Lancaster City Council will consider the appointment of Arthur E. Morris to the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority board. If approved (and only a complete breakdown of our social order would stop it), he will attend his first board meeting Thursday night. We were happy t......
2007-04-15 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
William R. Schultz spends the remaining days of his 84th year at Hospice of Lancaster County. There is some irony to that. In the late 1970s, as editor of the Intelligencer Journal, he campaigned to help establish a hospice program, a place where the sick could spend their last days in a h......
2007-04-01 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
It was April 1, 1990, that we broke the startling story. A hungry giant eagle, up from the headwaters of the Amazon, was flying our skies, looking to lunch on small dogs. At least one unlucky dog, Pookie, being walked by her mistress in School Lane Hills, was lost when the eagle swooped in......
2007-03-25 00:03:00
MARV ADAMS
Notes, anecdotes and the quote of the month: "I'll call this the last snowfall." — Millersville University meteorologist Eric Horst, March 8, 2007, in the Intelligencer Journal. I hope Eric was shoveling or blowing snow with the rest of us March 16.
...
2007-03-18 00:08:00
MARV ADAMS
Just as there is a separation of church and state in our government (please, no letters), there is a separation of the news side from the advertising side in our newspapers. I have nothing to do with advertising, just as the director of retail advertising at Lancaster Newspapers, John Derr, ......
2007-03-11 00:05:00
MARV ADAMS
Following are questions and comments I've gotten in letters, e-mails, postcards and phone calls. The questions and comments are in bold; my remarks are in light-faced type. Cross my heart: You can't make up stuff like this.
You're going to be eating a lot of cr......
2007-03-04 00:10:00
MARV ADAMS
The unhappy reader wrote:
"As an employee of the Sunday News, [Gil Smart's] opinions can be interpreted as representing those of the newspaper's management in the same manner as if he were writing a weekly editorial. Since Mr. Smart is not a syndicated columnist to which you......
2007-02-25 00:01:00
Marv Adams
A few times a year, I get a flurry of letters to the editor written by students who have been given that assignment by their teachers. What I like about young writers is that they get right to the point (maybe because they want to get it over with). We've printed a letter today from......
2007-02-18 00:00:00
Marv Adams
In the movies, they call it a back story — a narrative of what's behind a character's actions. There are a lot of back stories in newspapers, some obvious, some not so obvious. We published a letter to the editor in September 2001, not long after the 9/11 attacks, about Ge......
2007-02-11 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
As you can imagine, the talk of the town, and this building, last week was the county coroner-Intelligencer Journal grand jury case. The coroner, Dr. G. Gary Kirchner, wound up in handcuffs, charged with unlawful use of a computer and criminal conspiracy, for giving five Intell reporters acc......
2007-02-04 00:01:00
MARV ADAMS
Keep those cards, letters, e-mails and phone calls coming, folks. The following are questions and comments (you can't make up stuff like this) from readers:Q. Your picture is different. You're smiling. Why the change?
A. Dick Shellenberger ann......
2007-01-28 00:01:00
Marv Adams
Last October we ran a poll asking you to rank the Sunday comics. More than 2,000 of you replied, half online, the other half on paper. It took us a while to input all those paper ballots, while other things kept coming up. But now we have the results from our number-cruncher extraordinaire, ......
2007-01-20 23:27:39
Marv Adams
It is passed along, repeated. Soon, because it’s been heard, posted or read so often, it comes to be accepted as true.
One of those statements, coming in the aftermath of the grand jury investigation of the sale of Conestoga View, goes like this:
“Because the Sunday News is own...
2007-01-13 23:28:02
Marv Adams
If you decide to continue in office, I offer my services to help both of you more fully understand the state’s Sunshine Act.
Oh, that’s right. I’ve been trying to do that for the commissioners, including outgoing Commissioner Pete Shaub, for more than a year in this column.
Com...
2007-01-06 23:39:36
Marv Adams
Moving day
We have moved a few things around in today’s paper. The police log, the weekly lottery listings and corrections are now on Page A2.
The national and world briefs have moved farther into the first section.
Pennsylvania Briefs returns to Page B5.
...
2006-12-30 23:41:33
Marvin Adams
Nothing would ever be the same again.
About six hours later, at 9:51 p.m., Abigail Helen Adams arrived. The nurses at Lancaster General Hospital were hoping she would be the New Year’s baby; I got my wish, a tax deduction.
She came into the world looking like all the other bab...
2006-12-23 23:44:09
Marv Adams
Can’t cry uncle
Q. Is Bill Adams a relative? I don’t know how else he could have gotten the job of writing a column.
A. No, we’re not related. But if the former head of Armstrong World Industries wants to tell people we’re related, that’s OK.
Q. You actua...
2006-12-16 23:30:29
Marv Adams
No rest in peace
A note to the agency that is collecting from people who are delinquent on the city’s per-capita tax:
Elwood Stevens is not a deadbeat.
He is dead.
Mr. Stevens died 16 years ago.
His widow, Barbara, who is taking your not...
2006-12-03 00:07:17
Marv Adams
It’s probably also the heaviest.
It might have awakened you when it landed — THUMP! — on your doorstep this morning. That’s if you get home delivery, as an astounding 80 percent of our readers do. The average figure for Sunday papers is 70 percent.
I’m sure many carriers weren’...
2006-11-25 23:53:29
Marv Adams
It’s a common move in the corporate and sports worlds to pay an officer or player to just go away. Why shouldn’t it work in government?
I don’t think the Republican commissioner has a snowball’s chance in July of winning a second term, so why put us through these next 400-plus...
2006-11-18 23:52:17
Marv Adams
Actually, it was Patty’s second retirement. She retired in 1996 but continued to work part-time while also working in the county sheriff’s office.
Her time here was spent working nights in what we used to call the composing room, back in the good ol’ days when molten lead was turned into ...
2006-11-11 23:27:41
Marv Adams
One of the letters, from Rod Geib, who lives in Manheim, asked why we printed an “outright endorsement of incumbent Rick Santorum’’ by “Sunday’s Guest” columnist Bill Adams.
He mentions the editor’s note about giving candidates and readers a “cooling-down’’ day.
Mr. Geib wrote:...
2006-11-04 23:19:01
Marvin Adams
Ten-year-old daughter Abigail asked me a question the other day, which I thought I was too busy to answer. “It’s a long story,’’ I said.
“I have the time,’’ she told me.
And, as I found, so did I.
Now, the rest of the column. For those who tell me they only read t......
2006-10-28 23:29:55
Marv Adams
Perhaps Three Mile Island in 1979 comes closest.
What has set this story apart, after the unrelenting horror, is the forgiveness exhibited by the Amish of the killer of the five children, and of his family.
It has also brought a question: If the Amish are such a forgiving peopl...
2006-10-21 23:34:50
Marvin Adams
Unlike baseball, football and basketball, this sports season actually comes twice a year, around May and then November.
It’s the campaign season. It’s the season when normally logical people turn downright silly.
It’s the season when common sense takes a long, long holiday. ......
2006-10-14 23:26:59
Marv Adams
Same religion, different pews.
Maybe the next time we’re held up by a horse and buggy, we might slow down and think about the people inside.
The story of the tragedy in the schoolhouse was a difficult one to report, because of the unfathomable violence against children, and for...
2006-09-23 23:34:37
Marv Adams
I’ve felt that numbering their days on our editorial page said enough and took up less space.
But then something comes along that can’t be ignored.
Commissioner Dick Shellenberger, who has said he hasn’t decided on whether to run for another term, has been out shopping for supp...
2006-09-16 23:52:07
Marv Adams
Judy, shown below, lives on Misty Drive. She gets four tickets and a parking pass to the Oct. 14 Michigan-Penn State game at Beaver Stadium.
Eleven people had picked Notre Dame to win and also picked 58 points. Judy’s name was drawn first.
She was surprised when she got the cal...
2006-09-09 23:36:19
Marv Adams
Our retail advertising department has produced its first Grandparents Day section. It puts local grandparents on display and allows them to show off, without stopping you on the street, pictures of the people they adore and who adore them — their grandchildren.
Grandparents Day is a genui...
2006-08-26 23:42:59
Marv Adams
I thought she had lost her mind.
I remembered that Monday morning at the church, while searching for pants, size 8 boys husky, to fill an order.
From newspaper articles, I knew the need was great.
Hundreds of children in the district are considered “homeless’’ because t...
2006-08-05 23:32:55
Marv Adams
The Sunday News (the Intelligencer Journal and the Lancaster New Era, too) has reduced the printed part of its pages by three-eighths of an inch in width.
Aug. 27, the change will become more noticeable as the margin around the pages is trimmed by about half an inch.
This is a ...
2006-07-29 23:41:08
Marv Adams
“Never change the TV book.’’
Well, Clyde, er, Dave, we took your advice.
For nine months.
Next week, there will be some changes in TV Week.
As I wrote when we trimmed the stock market listings, the Sunday News, and other newspapers, look for ways not just ...
2006-07-22 23:29:54
Marvin Adams
Soccer is no closer to joining the professional (or collegiate) ranks of football, baseball, basketball or even ice hockey than it was four years ago.
Millions of children kicking around balls (driven literally and figuratively by those famous soccer moms) have not translated into TV rati...
2006-07-08 23:40:47
Marv Adams
As I read the article, I pictured the elderly minister.
I was 19 or 20, a reporter with the Intelligencer Journal. I had the job of interviewing an older person every week for the “Senior Citizens’’ column.
It wasn’t a plum assignment, but from it I learned how to interview peo...
2006-07-01 23:49:35
Marv Adams
“I understand the argument that you can’t be expected to agree with everything you publish, but his column is different from a syndicated writer’s in that regard. Whether or not you endorse him, he is speaking for the management of the Sunday News by virtue of his position as an employee.
...
2006-06-24 23:26:31
Marvin Adams
“Winston takes good, like a cigarette should.’’
“See the USA in your Chevrolet.’’
I’m showing my age with those ads, but that also shows, many years later, how effective those repetitive ads were.
Which brings me (surprise) to two county commissioners, Molly Henderso...
2006-06-17 23:41:32
Marv Adams
Tuesday was one of those days.
I went to an early-morning meeting of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority, where a version of “Alice in Wonderland’’ played out, Mad Hatters, March Hares, Queens of Hearts and all.
The “special’’ meeting was called to approve the fili...
2006-06-11 11:47:58
Marv Adams
He lies just a few feet from a field on the family farm. Next to him are Aunt Gloria and an infant son. Three sons survive.
Seven months earlier, we held services for his older brother, my Uncle John, in the church a few yards away.
My mother is now the last of her immediate family....
2006-06-03 23:35:58
Marv Adams
I think the NBA season will finish about the same time.
Greetings!
Speaking of my friends, the commissioners, the letter last week from famed attorney Richard Sprague, demanding a retraction for their comments about the county’s former law firm, Stevens & Lee, sounds li...
2006-05-27 23:13:09
Marv Adams
When will county Commissioners Molly Henderson and Dick Shellenberger take their stand in front of heavy equipment at the Watt & Shand site?
Daze of our lives
The soap opera that is the downtown convention center-hotel project continues.
T...
2006-05-20 23:31:37
Marv Adams
Addresses (not exact ones, but the block number of a street or road) will still be used so that neighbors are aware of problems.
Victims of crimes have told us they feel they’ve been victimized twice because lawbreakers know their names once they’re published.
Appar...
2006-05-13 23:40:00
Marv Adams
Notes, quotes and I want you to get out there and vote in Tuesday's primary election.
Sorry, but I won't be joining you.
I'm a registered independent. I'm also a free thinker, who goes his own way.
Except at home.
Making the news It's always an eye......
2006-05-06 23:00:01
Marv Adams
It’s a funny movie, and the title is probably based on the old saying “in spring, a young (and older) man’s fancy turns to baseball.’’
For the first time this spring, the fancy that has moved me since I was 9 (and managed by the legendary Homer Mylin) to play organized baseball or softbal...
2006-04-29 23:47:38
Marv Adams
Ahead of her time
The news that Lancaster’s city hall needs more than $4 million in repairs reminds me that Janice Stork, in her second term as mayor, wanted to buy the old post office building on West Chestnut Street for a couple of million and spend a couple of more million ...
2006-04-22 23:22:08
Marv Adams
“I’m hopeful this report will help Lancastrians understand what actually happened at Conestoga View,’’ said Commissioner Chairman Dick Shellenberger of the $100,000 study that showed running the home cost the county an average of $875,000 over the last five years.
Not so fast, Dick, Molly...
2006-04-15 23:35:57
Marv Adams
So you say
I always smile when a reader tells me there’s only bad news in the newspaper.
The truth is that many of you don’t bother reading the good news, because you’re not interested in it. It’s difficult to tell which articles are being read. There are......
2006-04-01 23:18:05
Marv Adams
The reader didn’t think a picture of President Bush getting hit by a cricket ball, and articles on an Amish farmer fined in the death of a nephew, and the county trying to attract family reunions, belonged there, while an article on millions starving in Kenya was printed on Page 7.
What r...
2006-03-25 23:43:11
Marv Adams
The sale of Conestoga View is a perfect example of what can happen when public officials work in the dark.
Would the commissioners be in the mess they are in now if they had brought this before the public immediately?
Would county residents be on the hook for so much money in a...
2006-03-18 23:41:38
Marv Adams
I enjoy watching and listening to Bill O’Reilly. The Fox pundit is a real newsman who knows what his public wants, and he delivers. His no-nonsense attitude also keeps the shows moving. I love it when he gets that “I can’t take any more of this’’ look on his face and cuts off a guest or caller.
...
2006-03-05 00:03:55
Marvin Adams
Readers react
I’m never sure of how readers will react to what’s in the newspaper on Sunday. Discuss us, cuss us, but please don’t ignore us.
We hit the mother lode last Sunday with three columns. One, by Gil Smart, wound up making the Bill O’Reilly television report ......
2006-02-25 23:33:45
Marv Adams
Some of us have resigned ourselves to skipping to the fourth or fifth paragraph of “news” stories to see what they are about, but I don’t think we should have to. It usually even takes the fourth or fifth paragraph to find the actual score of a sports event.
I realize that every journalis...
2006-02-12 12:57:06
Marv Adams
In wake of the violent reactions to the Danish cartoons, where is the outrage at the hypocrisy so quickly attributed to church and religion?
Yes, there is the obvious hypocrisy of the Muslim-based media that publish anti-Semitic and anti-American material. But when U.S. news a...
2005-10-22 21:37:40
Dave Hennigan
That’s right, Clyde. My last day in the office will be Oct. 29.
“What’s going to happen to me?’’
I’m afraid, Clyde, that our little weekly chats will end.
“Do I have any say in this, Mr. Editor?’’
Not now, Clyde.
“Doesn’t seem fair, Mr. Editor. ...
2005-10-15 23:30:21
Dave Hennigan
“Like a band, Mr. Editor, full of sound and fury,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
How’s the city race going between Mayor Charlie Smithgall and challenger Rick Gray?
“Caught the debate the other day at Rotary, and thought it was pretty even.”
...
2005-10-01 23:53:08
David M. Hennigan
“Where are they coming from?” my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
Who, Clyde?
“Dick Shellenberger and Molly Henderson, the county commissioners. Why are they so strongly opposed to the convention center-hotel project? Why were they so insistent...
2005-09-24 21:37:24
Dave Hennigan
“That county commissioners meeting Wednesday was one of the most contentious sessions I have attended in quite some time,’’ my jogging friend said, sipping his coffee.
How’s that, Clyde?
“About 60 hostile people who opposed the sale of Conestoga View had no kind words for the c...
2005-09-17 21:14:37
David M. Hennigan
“It’s business as usual with the county commissioners,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee. Sounds as though you have a problem with that, Clyde. “You can say that, Mr. Editor.’’
What gives, Clyde?
“Well, the proposed sale of Conestoga V......
2005-09-10 21:58:33
Dave Hennigan
“There’s a chance that the sale of Conestoga View may be put on hold,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
How’s that, Clyde?
“The county commissioners are taking a lot of heat from some respected community leaders, and it’s starting to show, Mr. Editor.’...
2005-09-03 23:50:11
Dave Hennigan
“Some folks in the city are pretty upset by loud music,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
You mean in cars, Clyde?
“No, Mr. Editor, from a bar in center city.’’
Oh. Which one?
“Marion Court.’’
What’s happening?
...
2005-08-28 00:27:02
Dave Hennigan
“We are having a battle of the fences,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
What do you mean, Clyde?
“Suzy Hoover and Gaudenzia want to install a fence between their properties. And from the looks of it now, Ms. Hoover is going to lose.”
Can yo...
2005-08-20 23:43:38
David M. Hennigan
“Don’t know about new, Mr. Editor, but there’s a lot of anger and suspicion floating around,” my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
Such as?
“Well, the raise that legislators voted for themselves isn’t going away, Mr. Editor.
“Usually ...
2005-07-30 23:55:42
David M. Hennigan
“Being summer, Mr. Editor, you would think that things would slow down in this town. Hasn’t happened,’’ my jogging friend said, sipping his coffee.
What now, Clyde?
“Well, there’s a plan floating around to address concerns about Central Market. It was discussed for ...
2005-07-23 23:42:51
David M. Hennigan
“Nice to be here again, Mr. Editor.’’
Good trip?
“Oh, it was fine. Ocean Isle (N.C.) is a pleasant community. Lots of beach, golf and happy hours. We had a couple of minor incidents, but that’s to be expected.’’
Such as?
“Had to go to a dentist...
2005-07-09 23:52:36
David M. Hennigan
“The county commissioners played a little ‘full steam ahead,’ on Wednesday,’’ my jogging friend said, sipping his coffee.
Indeed, Clyde. What do you mean?
“They approved the sale of Conestoga View in record time, Mr. Editor. It took the commissioners only six days f...
2005-07-02 23:51:28
David Hennigan
“It was quite an unusual council meeting Tuesday night, Mr. Editor,’’ my jogging friend said, sipping his coffee.
How’s that, Clyde?
“It started with a song and ended in a walkout. In between there was even some city business that took place.’’
What’s with the song, Clyde?
...
2005-06-25 23:32:36
David Hennigan
“Suzy Hoover is having problems again,” my jogging friend said the other day, sipping on his coffee.
What do you mean, Clyde?
“Last year, the basement of her house at 204 E. King St. flooded because of some wayward work. That was essentially resolved after much anxiety, but now she has...
2005-06-18 23:48:37
David M. Hennigan
“Lot of talk around town about setting up a county health department,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
Who is pushing it, Clyde?
“Some doctors, Mr. Editor, who believe that health care could be improved with the addition of a department.’...
2005-06-11 23:54:02
Dave Hennigan
“Right, Mr. Editor. It’s also whining time,” my jogging friend said the other day.
What do you mean, Clyde?
“That situation at McCaskey, Mr. Editor, where some seniors got into trouble.’’
What happened Clyde?
“A week or so ago a bunch of seniors painted th...
2005-06-05 00:02:13
David Hennigan
“Caught a Barnstormers game the other night,’’ my jogging friend said, sipping his coffee.
How did it go, Clyde?
“That sure is a nice stadium, Mr. Editor. Don’t think there is a bad seat in the place. The concession stands, the restrooms, the Barnstormers’ store, all are first rate....
2005-05-28 21:30:27
David Hennigan
"Saw where the folks down in Washington worked out a compromise on the judge thing, Mr. Editor,'' my jogging friend said the other day.
Right, Clyde. Sounds as though the voice of reason came out on top.
"One of the columnists said that was quite an accomplishment, especially in light ...
2005-05-22 00:10:04
Dave Hennigan
“No, Mr. Editor. It went pretty much according to plan,’’ my jogging friend said the other day, sipping his coffee.
“But there were a couple of interesting tidbits, Mr. Editor.’’
How’s that, Clyde?
“Ivan Acosta-Velez lost his bid for a council seat on the Democratic side; so did...
2005-05-14 23:27:31
David Hennigan
How’s that, Clyde?
"At the city council meeting Tuesday night, and at the commissioners’ meeting Wednesday morning, officials put a three-minute restriction on public comment.
At council, the ruling met with opposition; at the commissioners’ meeting, it had general acceptance.’’
...
