Delmar DustPan

I guess in writing about California blogs I should include Bake Town . Bake Town is about everyday happenings in Bakersfield, California and the writer's life. It is much more conventional than Nakejen so maybe not everyone in California lives that lifestyle. In fact, it is a blog I encountered prior to starting my blog up and the DustPan is patterned somewhat along the lines of Bake Town. Unlike so many blogs it is not a constant gripe about the same thing on every post. I find it is interesting altho it is conventional and may not be of interest to everyone.

In doing the previous post on Dinah Shore weekend I happen to think that the lifestyle in California is so much different than here. One of the blogs I read routinely is Nakedjen

I think Nakedjen real name is Jennifer Neal. She lived in Seaford, Delaware in the 1970's and 1980's where she attended school and rode horses. She moved away and ended up in Santa Cruz, California. Now in my provincial Eastern Shore mind, nakedjen lives a California lifestyle that I assume everyone in California lives. In reading her blog she apparently likes; naked tree hugging, she is a Holistic Intutive Health Counselor, is a vegetarian, does holistic studies, holistic healing, foot massages, reiki treatment, and she is a feng shui consultant. She also attend anti war protests. With her blond hair could anyone be more California-like. She also writes a very entertaining blog, so take a look at it.

I realised today that this is Dinah Shore weekend in Palm Springs California. Dinah Shore Weekend is a big lesbian event held each year. When I worked at the Wicomico County Detention Center I first heard of it from some of the female Correctional Officers who were lesbians. Do not misunderstand me, I did not say all female correctional officers are lesbians, a few are however. There was a higher percentage of them in the workforce makeup at the Detention Center as compared to other places I have worked. The newspaper in Palm Springs, The Desert Sun reports it as any other event. As they describe it "Dinah Shore Weekend isn't just about fun, sun and a few thousand of your closest lesbian friends ". I don't think Dinah Shore was a lesbian, she just happen to host a golf tournament with her name on it that turned into a lesbian event.

The Delaware Department of Health has started putting a summary of their health inspection report for Delaware eateries on line. The report is at Food Establishment Health Reports

Among the Delmar places listed are;
Memories Rest. and Lounge inspected 1/5/07 no violations
Perking Cheers/New Dragon inspected 2/20/07 no violations
Delmar Jr-Sr Hi cafeteria inspected 3/19/07 no violations
Express Food Market inspected 3/16/07 no violations
Top Hat Coffee House and Deli inspected 2/207 written up for reheating of hot food, and not controlling pests, reinspected 2/20/7 no violations

In Laurel the Lancaster Meat and Cheese place was written up for four violations.

The NanKing Cherry is blooming. I rarely get cherries from it as the birds beat me to it. For about two weeks a year it looks good with the blossoms.

In todays News Journal was an article about ex-Christina School District Superintendent Joseph wise and his spending habits. See School Audit

You can look at the spending in Audit at a Glance page from the State of Delaware auditors office for an "official" disclosure.

I question why this is coming to light now. There were suppose to be annual audits and they should have exposed these items. It seems funny that the audit groups that apparently did not do their job in the past now are "discovering" these items. Joseph Wise was but part of the problem that occurred in Christina School district and the people that helped cause the problems are still there.

I often think because the Delmar Police Department does not publish their crime reports one day we too will have a major crime issue "develop" in Delmar that no one was aware of.

All bloggers have their favorite subjects and obviously mine is white collar crime. This form of crime costs all of us and it is rarely punished by the court system. In the news Journal was an article about Ruth Fallis of Hockessin who stole a million dollars from Perry Anthony Design Group, a Mill Creek salon. She was their bookkeeper since 1992. She was insulting enough that when confronted with the theft she bragged she was to well connected to go to jail. As crappy as the court system is she probably is right.

Daily the outside world sends Delmar a moving art exhibit. Some will say Delmarites do not appreciate public art but I for one enjoy drinking my coffee in the kitchen and watching the art displayed on various rail cars as they roll pass.


Maybe Norfolk Southern, which doesn't appreciate mobile art, should hire Joe Albero and his graffiti cleaning crew.

I think I can sum up this council meeting as long and boring. It started at 7PM and ended at 10:15PM. Altho, I have in the past complained about the councilpeople wanting to wrap things up by 9PM, frankly I was ready to leave when this one finally wrapped up. As I have said in the past, the Town should go back to having separate council meetings for each side of town and than a joint meeting. Personally, I am tired of listening to Maryland business of annexations, proclamations and ordinance changes and I am sure the Maryland people attending are tired of hearing about Delaware woes. Among the missing were Mayor John Outten and until 9PM Mary Lee Pase.

Some of the items discussed were;

John Cannon and Joe Hollaway from the Wicomico County Council were at the meeting.

Proclamations; Honored Thomas Lee Lathum, Made April the Fair Housing Month, Made April the Maryland Municipal Government Works month, Proclaimed March as Red Cross Month. For those who may read this blog you will know I have a grudge against the American Red Cross from my days in the military and my feelings that it is an inflated bureaucracy, so it did please me when Diane Buckley abstained from voting on making March the American Red Cross month. She did it because the proclamation highlighted not just the support in the form of volunteering but also called for support in the form of contributing money.

The Maryland side had their public hearing on the Real Estate Tax increase that will occur if the tax rate of $.676 per hundred is not reduced. Overall, with the tax rate the same, the Maryland side will haul in more revenue due to real estate reassessment and growth. This is not a nice thing the town does to keep you informed, it is a requirement from the State of Maryland to publish this information in local papers. Delaware does not require this so Delmar Delaware has no public announcement of revenue is going up.

The first reading (announcement) of the budget for the town was declared. I will be making additional posts on this subject in the next couple of weeks. You can review the budget of both Towns and the Utility Commission by going to Town Hall during normal business hours and asking to see it.

The Maryland passed resolution 2007-03-26 giving approval to join the Council of governments being formed in Wicomico County Maryland. Maryland Commissioner Carl Anderton questioned the wisdom of this if the City of Salisbury was to be given two votes instead of the one vote the other members will have. He was talked out of this logical question and the Maryland side voted to be subordinate to Salisbury and join the Council.

Dr. Wayne Bastian and crew from the Delmar Library came to talk about the how poor the library was. During the talk Joey Morris, Fire Chief, cell phone went off and he had to answer it. As some form of justice for this impolite act when he gave his Fire department report later in the evening someone elses cell phone rang during his talk. The library wants money from the town (taxpayers). I will do a separate post on this subject.

The Delaware side transferred monies from the Municipal Street Aid Fund to the General fund.

The Maryland side approved a resolution to annex "Acorn Land", a plot of land out by Wood Creek. There was some question about what would go on this land, no one knew for sure but town houses were spoken of.

The Maryland side increased the parking in a fire lane fine to $75.00. The Delaware side did a "me too" increasing their fire lane parking fine to $75.00.

Chris Walter from the Delmar Revitalization Committee got his agreement passed and now they will fall under the umbrella of the town. He can now receive "start up or seed" money from the taxpayers of the town.

Planning and Zoning
602 East Chesnut wants to have a single family two story house built there.

At Walnut and 7th there will be 4 houses built and the developer will built the road extension.

606 East Grove will have an addition and garage built

The old Furniture Plus/ laundry building on first street has had inquires into purchasing it. The most favorable one was a wood working shop employing two people.


Town Manager report
The lot at 201 East Jewell has had some inquires about purchasing it. The Town Manager said the minimum bid would be the cost the town incurred in tearing it down.

The auditing firm of Trice and Geary and Myers will continue to be the town auditors for the next three years.

The new Director of Public Works never showed up for his first day on the job. They are looking for another Director of Public works.

Comments
Delaware Councilperson Diane Buckley expressed that the meeting was too long, if she had been sitting in the audience in those wooden chairs she would have said more than that. It was like a bad Preparation H commercial.

Maryland Commissioner Joan Tisinger said she was under the impression when the Rite Aid and associated properties were annexed into town there was an agreement that the motel (Delmarva Inn) would be closed after three years. Other council people were not sure.

Delaware Councilperson Mary Lee Pase commented on the portable basketball nets that have popped up with the warm weather. There is danger of children running out in front of a car when they use these things.

Dr Bastian commented about the orange wrapped advertiser papers that are being thrown out in front of everyone homes and than left in the gutter. He asked the town to do something about it.

The Delmar Utility Commission had it's monthly meeting on March 26th. The meeting started late (6:40PM) because Mary Lee Pase and Diane Buckley were not there so we did not have a quorum. Diane Buckley arrived and assumed command.

The good news; the Pine street pump station is working again. The cost to repair the pumps were less than expected (only costing $14,000) to repair). The bad news is the Wood Creek Pumping station now has a pump down.

There has been a problem in billing and collection for the Delmarva Inn, the motel out by Rite Aid. They owed $24,000 due to a billing foul up but payment is expected shortly.

The agreement with the private utility comapany, Tidewater, is progressing. A bulk rate for Maryland users is being worked on by the Town Contracted engineering firm.

Public Works is down to 2 full time employees and one part time employee. If you want a job contact; the town.

The steel plate over the road cut on Foskey Lane may be there for a while as the Harvey Mack Trucking company is trying to work out an easement to develop a drainage swale on the property across the road. Time to call in Dana Breig Probert

I made my daily trip to Walmart today, there was a lot of smiling employees. It seems WalMart had given out bonuses. The News Journal newspapers said it exceed last year's amount of $1,000 for full time employees and $500 for part time employees. The bonus is based on if the store where the employee works meets a benchmark for sales and profit. Now there isn't to many companies on the Eastern Shore that give bonus so a big plus to Wal Mart for doing that.

By clicking on the site meter icon a list of people that have accessed my blog will appear. I sometimes look thru the "by referrals" to see how people reached my blog. In looking at it today I see someone accessed my blog from the Google search string of "What should I do to get a lighter sentence in an embezzlement case". The search originated in Missouri at 1:24PM, I hope my blog was helpful.

Another Delmar blogger has appeared. Andy F. has a blog called Delmar At Its Best . It's motto is Any and Everything to do with Delmar.

In the next week the following meetings/events will occur;
March 22nd Thursday 6:00 PM Sussex County Planning and Zoning
March 24th Saturday Delmar Jr and Sr Little Leaque Tryouts
March 25th Sunday 1 to 4 Beef and dumpling Dinner at VFW for the High School Band tickets are $10.00, see a band student
March 26 Monday 6:00 PM Public Works Meeting
March 26 Monday 6:30 Pm Utility Commission
March 26 Monday 7:00 Pm Joint Council Meeting
March 27 Tuesday 10:00 AM Sussex County Council Meeting

The first day of spring. Ritas is doing their annual giveaway of a free 10 oz italian ice.

Over at the Colossus of Rhodey there is an interesting post (March 19th) on Muslim cashiers who refuse to scan pork products in their normal job of checking customers out. They felt it was a conflict with their religious beliefs. The problem currently seems to be occurring in Minnesota. The store where it is happening is Target and Target has attempted to make allowances for the Muslims by supplying gloves to them so they don't have to touch pork products.

The original article was at Star Tribune To quote from the article;
"In the Muslim world, there is even a stronger taboo against pork than alcohol, said Owais Bayunus, an imam at the Abu Khudra Mosque in Columbia Heights. Wearing gloves will not solve the issue, he said. "There is a school of thought within the Muslim community that if you sell pork or alcohol to someone, then you are contributing to the propagation of a sinful activity," he said. "Many Muslims do not want to see non-Muslims involved in a sinful product."

At Target stores, some Muslim cashiers opposed to selling pork had grown accustomed to waving over other employees whenever they came across bacon, ham or other pork products, even pepperoni pizza."

Needless to say this has produced an uproar. The "Star Tribune" has a blog called the Buzz and this will link you to the emails the newspaper has been receiving on this subject the Buzz

So will Catholics cashiers at Wal-Mart start refusing to scan condoms because they can be used as birth control? What about PETA cashiers?

Will this mean the Muslim congressmen will not be able vote for all the pork spending bills the government put thru congress? See Porkbusters

A big Happy Birthday to Gale Culver!!

Today I went to Metompkin Bay Oyster Co in Crisfield for oysters. When I arrived I found it looked closed but the door was open so I went in and finally found an old man (my age) in the office who told me the place was closed this Saturday. Actually what he said was "Some Saturdays we're closed and some Saturdays we're open. This Saturday we're closed but if you come down on a Saturday we're open, come early as we may close early". Loosely translated; "No Oysters for you today from Metompkin".

On the way back I encountered a business ideal so obvious you have to smack your self in the forehead and go Duh, why didn't I think of that. As I passed Cor Pak on the way back to RT13 a catering/chuckwagen type van was pulled up outside of the plant. It was from some Mexican restaurant and sold Mexican food for lunch. A long line of Mexicans were buying food. Now, we know almost all the processing plants and construction sites are at least 75% Mexican now days, so a Mexican Chuckwagen type van looks like a good ideal. For those who want to be politically correct insert Hispanic or whatever you want, where it says Mexican.

As anyone who has read a newspaper recently knows they are going to auction off, tomorrow, the weapon collection of Gene Koski. Now I figured there was nothing there I could afford, but I did blow $8 on gas to go up to the fair grounds and look at the collection today. It is a super collections of a rich man's toys. There was about 400 pistols, rifles and swords. I wish I could afford a tenth of it. There was about 50 to 75 men viewing the collection when I got there. The last time I saw that many happy smiling men was at the Canton Inn.

I have an interest in Mauser Broom Handle Pistols and they had about 5 there.


Smith Civil War Carbine

A Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver
The auction is being conducted by Scott Reagan of Reagan Auctions I understand you can go to their website in about a week and the prices the items brought will be listed. The nice thing about an auction is you to get to pick up and handle the weapons.

While reading the online version of the Belfast Telegraph I came across this article on Obama. It says Obama had a Great Great Great grandfather, one Falmouth Kearney, who was Irish. Now this may be older news to some but it is the first time I read it. So on St Patrick day will he wear a button saying, Kiss Me I am Irish?

And over at the Free Republic is some interesting comments.

At the Jamaica Observer, Miss Jamaica World, Sara Lawrence, relinquished her title because of pregnacy. Maybe she got a little Irish in her too.

I have just been made aware of another Delmar Blogger; Karen, of A Woman's Point of View. Welcome to the blogging world Karen. Karen says she hopes to write about the Maryland side of town, which I usually do not. Her blog currently only has a couple of posts but hopefully she will pickup on the frequency of posting and we can see what she thinks of living in Delmar. I hope she has thick skin as blogging is like an elected office, what every you do someone is going to disagree with you.

In the News Journal, today,were two articles that interested me. First was a man who shot a fox and second was an article about an 84 year old man who had a standoff with police. Both were examples, at least to me, of Delaware bureaucratic agencies going over the limit.

In Dover Mr. David Kingsley shot a rabid fox. He was fined by the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife for shooting a firearm from the road. The Fish and Wildlife Division said the officers were doing their job. Isn't that the same thing the Nazi who were on trial at Nuremberg said in their defense? This is the same as if I had shot an intruder in my house and than the Delmar Police Force fined me for discharging a firearm in the town limits. Of note, the state environmental officials were called prior to the shooting to come out and handle the fox but they didn't come to do their job. Common sense has to take precedent over the law at times. It is an example of government wanting to be all omnipotent but than are unwilling to fulfill that obligation leaving the citizens to fend for them selves.

In the second article Mr. Joshua Bushweller, 84, of Milton refused to leave his house for four hours on Wednesday. The State police surrounded his house declaring he was armed (he had a BB gun and a pellet gun) and had a four hour standoff. Mr. Bushweller finally surrendered. It seems ridiculous that a man can't stay in his own house without being bothered by nosy relatives and police.

Big Congratulations to Daniel Foster, a Delmar High School Student, who won the Delaware "Poetry Out Loud" National Recitation Contest. Mr. Foster goes on to Washington DC to compete in a national contest May 1st.

I guess the fire department doesn't run the fire trucks and the Mayors have a town parade if you win a non athletic event. At least I didn't hear of any town recognition for him. Get your heads out of your asses Delmar there are other winners in town beside athletics.

In today's News Journal was an article about the amount paid some of the auditors on the Delaware Christina School district audit. Simply put the school district is in deepshit financially. Two Auditors, Frank Rishel and Kenneth Brown were paid $82,261 and $41,688. According to the paper this was at $100 an hour. Both people had worked for the Christina School District and apparently were part of the team that created the problem. Frank Rishel was Christina Deputy Superintendent and Kenneth Brown was the Financial Officer. So what goes on? The school district paid them while they were creating the mess, than the state brings them in to audit it and the school district pays them again. Does that sound like bull shit to you?

In March of 1918 the first cases of people dieing from what was at that time referred to as the Spanish Influenza, now being more politically correct it is referred to as the 1918 Killer Flu. The first wave of flu hit soldiers at Fort Riley Kansas in March of 1918. When it had run it course between 20 million to 50 million people would die worldwide. A great Aunt of mine, Lillie Dickerson Davidson was killed by it. Lillie stayed at home taking care of her Father and Mother until she was 31 and married Martin S. Davidson, a young man 12 years her junior. They had been married less than a year when both were killed by the Spanish Influenza.

When you do family tree research and visit graveyards you will find the year of death of 1918 to be a frequent occurring date. It was due to this flu. The flu overstimulated the body causing their lungs to fill with fluid. They died from drowning in their own body fluids. It left the blue black marks on their faces associated with cyanosis (lack of blood oxygen in the blood). By October the flu was at it's worst, schools were closed and public events cancelled. Sussex County had to hire additional grave diggers to handle the burials. Martin S. Davidson was 21 when he died. His father and mother were Curtis and Margie Davidson, all are buried in Oddfellows in Laurel.

In addition to Lillie and Martin, Lillie's sister in law Maude died of the flu the same day as Lillie. All were attended by Doctor E. H. S. Farlow. Curtis and Margie Davidson were given a hard blow that month with a son and daughter dieing. If anyone knows anything about this family I would like to know about it. I understand Margie went to live with a daughter in Wilmington after her husband died in 1924. Both are buried at Oddfellows, next to Martin, Maude and Lille.

The Spanish Influenza (in Europe called the Spanish Lady, as in the Spanish Lady called at our house) was called that because Spain, not being involved in World War I, had a free press and did not censor reports of the Influenza, so Spain became associated with the Influenza because none of the warring nations were reporting it.

Two other flu viruses have spread across the world in the past. The Asian Flu in 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. All three were originated from swine viruses. Now we all wait for some new bird virus to appear.

For the first time I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Hopefully it will be the last time. This year's theme was "Legends of Ireland". Now when I think of Ireland, flowers do not come to mind. Maybe grass and trees, or killing and drinking but not flowers. Never less I was amazed at the number of forced blooming plants and trees I saw. The place smelled like a Florist shop, simply great. For some reason the displays were in semi darkness with a spot light shining down on the display. I don't know if it is normally that way at their shows or if they were trying to create a mood of walking thru Ireland at dusk. Anyway it failed with me.

This is one of the first scenes you see on entering.

My photos are never good and those at the Flower show were particularly bad. Between the darkness and crowds shoving you along it was set up for poor photo shooting. This was a very nice display. The tables are setting on a pool of water.

There was a very nice Irish Raguis dance routine every hour for a half hour. The crowd was big and you could not get close to the stage.

I did not care for the show and will not return because of the crowd. I had hoped to find some garden ideals I could use but the crowd shoved you along so you could not study the displays. I would have done better with a book of photos.

I was impressed with the convention center it was held in. One of the measurements I use for ratings facilities is how long the line is leading into the ladies room. There was no lines at this convention center and the crowd was mostly women so I give the convention center 5 stars.

Let's face it any flower show without a display of bottle trees is a poorly done show. I saw none at the Flower Show and God knows the Irish have enough empty beer bottles to make some, so I guess the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society lacks class.

This month in 1947 was when the two towns of Delmar jointly purchased the private run water system. It was purchased for $55,000. Delaware Mayor Marion L. Hastings and Maryland President A. U. Davis signed the purchase agreement.

A Belated Happy Birthday to Mark Howard who turned 36 on the 9th.

Belated Happy Birthday to Terry Keene, another old person who works at the Wicomico County Detention Center.

Once again I am having computer problems. Posting may be intermittent.

Our former Delmar Delaware Mayor, John McDonnell, will become the new Fruitland city manager. Should be a change for him going from Mayor to City manager but I am sure he will do a great job. Congratulations John.

The man that created Thunderbird and Ripple wine died at 97. Ernest Gallo was leader of one of the world's largest winemaking empires. His wines have created some great times.

There was a nice write up in yesterday's paper about Judy Hearn's art class painting portraits of orphans in Honduras. The 24 students each selected an orphan, painted the person's portrait, and sent the picture and a letter to the person.

Verlina Odeh of Wilmington was sent to prison for three years and five months on Monday. She stole $1.3 Million dollars from Chase Bank over 4 years. The Judge said she would have to pay the money back at $250 a month, which would take her 43 years to pay back the money. Lets see, if she is 42 now and spends 3 years in jail, with a payback time of 43 years, so when she is 89 years old she will make the last payment, if no interest is added to the $1.3 Million. Looked at another way if she does 41 months in jail for $1.3 million, she made $31,707 a month. More than I will ever make. They say they don't know what happened to the money, but there were wire transfers to her husband in Jordan. Maybe due to poor internal controls over the money in Chase Bank, Chase Bank may be financing the next 911.

Delmar, Delaware is well blessed with churches. Some are more humble than others. If the quantity of churches is an indication of morality than Delmar, Delaware is one of the must moral communities on the Eastern Shore. With at least ten churches (Those storefront go and come so quickly I may have missed one) and a population of 1,400, than we have a church for every 140 people.

Opening Day
As you might expect I am not a fan of Stock car racing and NASCAR. In particular I am not a fan of Delaware International Speedway, outside of Delmar, as I listen to the noises and smell the exhaust all through the night in the summer. However I do recognise the momentary impact it has on Delmar. As such I will list this website for those who do not already know about it redbud

I was looking at the Bankruptcies listed in the News Journal today and two of them stood more than the other ones. Filing Chapter 7 was Bruce and Leslae Southard of Rehoboth Beach with $21,470 in Assets and $447,024 in Liabilities. This is a ratio of 20 times as much liabilities as they have assets. The other bankruptcy was Michael and Ruth Ann Gulyas of Georgetown filing chapter 13 with $7,835 in assets and $180,272 in liabilities. This about 23 times their liabilities as their assets. The question is how do you get in that position? I know there are times when hard luck falls on people, they become sick, lose their job etc but a logical person, I would think, would allow for those events and start taking corrective action before it reaches a stage of a ratio of 20 to 1. I blame the government for most of this as they can not control their own spending (God knows we are owned by the Asians in the bond market) and it just sets an example for individuals. Easy credit does as much harm as it does good. My daughter recently graduated from college. She was lucky enough not to have any student loans, but I know a number of her friends who are carrying $40,000 to $60,000 in loans that once they graduate they will be burdened with those loans for a number of years. Just as scary is the way the credit card companies are giving out credit cards. I must receive two or three credit cards a week in the mail. All of us will bear the cost of these defaulted loans by way of higher interest costs and service fees.

Unless indicated otherwise all meetings at Delmar Town Hall
March 6, 2007 Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Delmar Revitalization Committee
March 7, 2007 Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Parks and Recreation
March 8, 2007 Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Sussex County Planning and Zoning meeting The Arion Development is on the agenda at the Sussex County Council Chambers, Administrative Office Building, in Georgetown.
March 8, 2007 Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Concerned Citizens
March 10, 2007 Saturday at Camelot Hall a Spaghetti Dinner 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Adults $7, Children 6-12 $3.50, Children under 6 free

Rat Killing Week

No it isn’t a week to hunt your favorite blogger down and kill him, although I am sure a number of people would like too. Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s each town would have a week in which they hunted rats. Rats were much more prevalent then, as they are now, and like trash week in Delmar, a combined civic-minded town effort would be made, usually in March or April, to kill these rodents. Remember, this was a time when residents kept chickens, and various livestock in their backyards. Feed for the animals was available for the rats. There was also a town dump just on the outskirts of town. An article in the Bi State News announcing that Rat week was to be March 21 to March 26, 1938 in Hurlock is shown above. I am sure I have an article about Delmar Rat week but I can’t seem to find it.

In the first couple of months after I was elected to the Delmar Delaware Town Council in 1984, we had a rat breakout in a ditch over by Hearns Flower shop (on the Maryland side of Town). In a joint Council Meeting the Commissioners and Council people were talking about various ways to get rid of the rats. One suggestion was to send the Delmar Police Force over with shotguns and pistols and shoot the rats. Does everyone have images of the glass greenhouse at Hearns Flower Shop being shot all to hell? Another suggestion (seriously) was to find a World War II flamethrower and go in and burn them out. When I heard this suggestion I know I had found a home in Delmar government. As I recall we resolved the problem in a less dramatic fashion and had an exterminator set traps for them. On occasion you can still see a rat running down the gutters in Delmar today but they are rare.

Back in the 1960s when I was dating my wife and I lived in Pocomoke. The dating practice was to go to the Pocomoke Town dump and shoot rats at night. Your date held the flashlight on their shiny little eyes and you shot. If you killed a hundred in one night it didn't put the slightest dent in the rat population. Ah yes! Date life on the Eastern Shore.

About a hundred or so people were at the Little League Field today for the 9 to 12 year old tryouts. On March 24 will be the tryouts for Juniors and Seniors from 10 till noon.

Going for the high pop up

I have not been by the basketball court in a while. I see they now have both basketball hoops back up. A number of kids were playing on it.

Today, in Anchorage, the ceremonial start of the 35th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be held. There are many websites following the race these two are as good as any Iditarod 35 and 2007 Iditarod

82 mushers will actually begin the 1,100 race tomorrow in the town of Willow, 30 miles north of Anchorage, to Nome. In Anchorage today at 9 AM EST it is 13 degrees and in Nome it is minus 8.

In the days before the internet was popular I use to take out a 3 month subscription to the Anchorage Daily News just to see photos and read articles on the race. I think it use to take about two weeks for me to get my copies of the newspaper so it was old news.

On March 3rd, 1959, at the age of 52, Lou Costello died. He was half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. Who's on First? was one of their famous comedy routines.

The blog Gunpowder Chronicle made an interesting post on the Salisbury Officials and Joe Albero.

Since March is the month for Saint Patricks day I thought I would write about Lenny Murphy, who was born March 2nd, 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was the leader of a group called the Shankill Butchers. At the time of the Shankill Butchers, 1975 to 1982, (refered to as the troubles) there was fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants. Murphy was a loyalist (Protestant) with a great hatred of Roman Catholics. The Shankill Butchers got their name from both the Shankill road in Belfast where they hung out in the Protestant bars, and from the butchers' knives used to torture and kill their victims. The 20 plus member gang kidnapped Catholics in Belfast late at night, tortured and killed them.

One example of their killing was the murder of Tom Madden. Madden was abducted and then stripped naked. He was hanged upside down from the beam of a lock-up garage, and slowly skinned alive. He eventually died of slow strangulation.

The Shankill Butchers tortured and killed 26 or more Catholics. Murphy was killed by the IRA in 1982 when a van pulled up by him and opened fired with machine guns and 22 bullets ripped into him. The gunmen fled and a couple of days later the IRA claimed responsibility for the killing. In 1982 under an agreement to stop the killing between Catholics and Protestants the Shankill Butchers were not tracked or hunted down for their actions.

For added comment see this blog Its a Matter of Opinion

The Shankill Butchers inspired this great little Irish children's song by the Decemberists;

"The shankill butchers run tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They're sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint

And everybody knows if you don't
Mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The shankill butchers wanna cut you away

They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy

And everybody knows if you don't
Mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The shankill butchers wanna cut you away

The shankill butchers run tonight
They're waiting until the dead of the night
They're picking at their fingers with their knives
And wiping off their cleavers on their thighs

And everybody knows if you don't
Mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The shankill butchers wanna cut you away"

"Not everyone believes that Friday is unlucky, but nearly everybody agrees it is a waiting day. In business, the week is really over. In school, Friday is the half-open gate to freedom. Friday is neither a holiday nor a workday, but a time of wondering what Saturday will bring. Trade and amusement fall off. Women look through their closets to see what they have to wear. Supper is leftovers from the week."
From "Sweet Thursday" by John Steinbeck

From the BiState News March 4, 1938

Not a very clear photo of the article but it writes about a 55 gallons still, 400 gallons of mash and 11 gallons of whiskey destroyed and 400 pounds of confiscated near Columbia. William Bradley, Charles Robinson, Isaac Matthews and Charles Timmons were arrested.

You hear less and less about moonshine and moonshiners now, but I am sure moonshine or at least some form of illegal alcohol is still being made in the area. My neighbor, Butch, told me in the 60's his family lived in a house on the Maryland side of town, out by the profax bottled gas company, and the house had previously been lived in by a well known moonshiner. While doing some home repairs they came across a hidden room where he suspected the moonshiner stored his whiskey.

In the Baltimore Sun is an article Stabbing about a stabbing over who was next in line to order crab cakes at G&M Restaurant in Linthicum Heights MD. It would seem when the counter help asked who was next, both Keith Rantin and Jeffrey Rites step forward. Both wanted to order crab cakes and in the ensuing fight Rantin stabbed Rites.