Sold!

Pook & Pook's big auction of J. William Warehime's collection brought in just over $600,000, almost double the high estimate. All 395 lots of furniture, artwork, jewelry, urns, lamps, sconces, mirrors, silver, candelabra, and so forth sold.
"Hundreds of bidders from all over the world bid online, in house and over the phone," announced the Downingtown auction house after the March 26 sale.
I was amused reading the condition report of a Chinese stand ("wobbly") and an elephant figurine ("one ear reattached, small repair at tail").
Warehime was the son of Harry and Airie Warehime, founders of the Hanover Foods Corporation.

Good Samaritans

A mini-drama unfolded at the Kennett Y on Saturday. It seems that a woman accidentally left her bag at the New York Bagel shop in West Goshen. A bagel-shop employee, who noticed the left-behind bag when the cell phone inside kept ringing, spotted a YMCA card on it and phoned the Kennett Y, hoping that they could use the information to track down the owner. Sure enough, a Y employee looked up the member, phoned and left a message telling her where her bag was. 
I'll bet that was one very relieved person.

The end is near

There's a sign on Route 82 at the Route 1 bypass predicting that May 21, 2011, is going to be Judgment Day. A religious group has pinpointed this day for "The Rapture" and believes that God will destroy this world 5 months later, on Oct. 21. "These dates are 100% accurate and beyond dispute," says its website.
Clearly somebody was motivated enough to have these signs printed up and to go out and post them. How is he or she going to feel, I wondered, if May 21 passes by without incident and the sun comes up just as usual on Oct. 22?
"When Prophecy Fails," a classic 1956 book by social psychologists Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter, addressed this very issue. They studied a UFO cult that believed the world was going to end in a flood on Dec. 21, 1954, but because they were such fervent believers they alone were going to be rescued on a flying saucer. The book gives an account of the key evening:

• Dec. 20: The group expects a visitor from outer space to call upon them at midnight and to escort them to a waiting spacecraft. As instructed, the group goes to great lengths to remove all metallic items from their persons. As midnight approaches, zippers, bra straps, and other objects are discarded. The group waits.
• 12:05 A.M., December 21. No visitor. Someone in the group notices that another clock in the room shows 11:55. The group agrees that it is not yet midnight.
• 12:10 A.M. The second clock strikes midnight. Still no visitor. The group sits in stunned silence. The cataclysm itself is no more than seven hours away.
• 4:00 A.M. The group has been sitting in stunned silence. A few attempts at finding explanations have failed.
• 4:45 A.M. Another message by automatic writing: "The cataclysm has been called off."

To try to reconcile their cognitive dissonance between what had happened and what they had believed, the members decided that aliens actually were visiting them, only in human form. They also believed that by believing so strongly and preparing so diligently for the planet's doom, "they had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction."

Pizza Connection

Order a large pizza from Fox's Pizza Den this Sunday, April 3, and the owners will donate $5 to the Unionville Community Fair. The pizzeria (http://www.foxspizzakennettsquare.com/) is in the New Garden Shopping Center, near Big Lots. Be sure to mention the Fair when you order! The special deal is running the first Sunday of each month through September.

West Marlborough meeting

In case you'd like to attend a West Marlborough Township supervisors' meeting, the next one is Tuesday, April 5, at the township building in Doe Run. Things usually get started around 7 p.m. It's a good way to see your neighbors, hear some news and keep abreast of what's going on.

Above and beyond

I stopped by Wal-Mart the other day to pick up a few things and I am delighted to report the good service that I got.
First, a housewares clerk asked if she could help me, and then spent a few minutes searching for picnic-type platters. She seemed genuinely disappointed when she couldn't find any. "I guess they didn't send me any this year," she said, perplexed. Two seconds later I spotted them at the end of the aisle, and her face immediately cleared.
Then I was waiting in line at checkout, with my a-dollar-apiece platters, and a guy at the watch counter called me over and offered to ring up my items so I could be on my way.
Nice!

Downtown Kennett

1. Challie's Famous Grille on East State Street closed down last week.
"Challie has retired (briefly)," the owner said on Facebook. "We would like to thank each and everyone of you for everything over the past 5 years!"
The property used to be a grocery store, and when Strato Moriello was renovating it as the Pizza Gallery back in the late 1990s he took us on a tour and showed us the stacks of old wooden soda crates still sitting in the old dirt-floored basement.
2. One block east, the sign at the old Kennett Cafe still says that Jack McFadden's new restaurant will open in "early spring," but I'd say that's wishful thinking. According to Historic Kennett Square's January newsletter, "Jack McFadden has begun to earnestly work on his property. He is hoping to have renovations completed by June but admits that it may take a bit longer."
Cinder blocks, stones and other construction materials are piled in the alley next door, along with many bags of potting soil, and it looks as if there's going to be a sunken patio out back--which would be very cool.
3. On South Broad Street, a "for lease" sign has gone up at the former Cafe Lindo, which shut down a few weeks ago. One of the Lindo regulars hasn't gone far, though: I spotted him, along with his dog, having coffee at Talula's Table, just around the corner.

Alarming

A house burglary in West Marlborough on March 22 has sent shudders through our community. The victim, understandably, didn't want her name or address published, but here's the account she wrote for me:
"I was away from my home from noon till 9:30 pm Tues. afternoon. My front door was locked, the back door was not. Had I locked the back door the door window could easily have been broken and the door opened. Had I applied the dead bolt the process would have been more difficult and possibly deterred the thieves.
"I believe there must have been more than one thief or they would not have been so bold as to go up the narrow stairs to the second floor, or down the very narrow and awkward stairs to the cellar.
"Electronics were taken: 2 external hard drives, one cell phone, one pair of binoculars, one expensive pro-level digital camera, one pro lens, the camera case with batteries, filters, memory cards etc. Guess my old glass tube TV was not worth taking and thank God my desktop PC was left behind. One of the external hard drives was totally full of four years of photo work, most of which I have also saved on DVD's, but some of the recent work I had not saved elsewhere.
"All of my filing cabinets had been opened. I was unable to discern if any documents were removed. They left the back door open, the glass door was shut, the light was on in the upstairs back room.
"The police were helpful; they reprimanded me for staying in the house waiting for their arrival. I did wait two hours for them to arrive. A forensics detective visited the following morning and was able to retrieve fingerprints that might or might not be useful.
"That's all I know right now. I phoned a few pawn shops and was informed that they all send in reports to the police of merchandise brought in on a daily basis."
This hits really close to home, and it's scary stuff. The victim asked me to say that she's offering a reward for the return of her stolen property.

Just Peachy!

Congratulations to my pal Susan Hoffman of Over the Top Farm in Newlin for winning a well-deserved first prize in the "Dessert and Sweets" category of the Hunt Breakfast recipe contest sponsored by "Foxhunting Life"! Susan's winner was "Andrews Bridge Peachy Bread Pudding," and she was kind enough to share it with all of us.

Ingredients:

2 large Challah bread loaves, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 large ripe yellow or white peaches, pitted and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup sugar, plus a few Tablespoons for topping
½ cup peach schnapps
8 large eggs, well beaten
4 cups milk
1 cup grade A maple syrup
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) cold salted butter, cut into pieces
Cooking spray or a few Tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread bread pieces on baking sheet and toast for about 10-15 minutes or until slightly browned.
2. Whisk all liquid ingredients together (schnapps, eggs, milk and maple syrup.)
3. Add sugar to liquid mixture and stir well.
4. In a large bowl, combine toasted bread pieces, liquid mixture and peaches. Fold gently until bread pieces are evenly coated with liquid and the peaches are well distributed. Let sit about 5 minutes for liquid to soak into bread.
5. Coat bottom and sides of a large baking dish with cooking spray or butter.
6. Turn bread mixture into the dish and gently spread evenly. Dot with cold butter pieces and dust with sugar.
7. Bake for about an hour or until pudding is set and top is golden brown.
8. Note: Depending on size of the bread loaves, you may need to add or cut back on liquid amounts. More maple syrup and/or schnapps can be added if mixture looks too dry.

Being green

I checked out one of my favorite way-off-the-beaten-track places on Monday and found both skunk cabbage and watercress already sprouting. Magical!
By the way, Claire Murray of Inverbrook Farm here in West Marlborough writes a wonderful, thoughtful blog about farming, nature and country life at http://inverbrook.blogspot.com/. She spotted skunk cabbage and heard peepers long before I did this spring.

Nice people

How nice to see that lovely photo of Peggy Newton on page 2 of last week's "Kennett Paper"! Each year at the Kennett YMCA's Good Kids fundraising dinner, Peggy presents an award in honor of her late husband, E. Marshall Newton III, which "recognizes a volunteer who exemplifies the YMCA values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility." What an appropriate way to remember Marshall, a good man who gave so much back to the community. And Peggy is a classy, gracious woman and a delightful human being.

On the House

Probably like many of you, I received a postcard from our U.S. Congressman (and Unionville resident) Joe Pitts the other day: "If you would like to hear from me regularly, please visit www.house.gov/pitts and sign up for my weekly e-newsletter."
I did so.
Little-known fact: Joe was my ninth-grade science teacher.

After all is said and done

Yes, he has nasty habits (or at least he did), and he probably does take tea at 3, but I've been totally riveted to Keith Richards' autobiography "Life," which I borrowed in CD form from the Bayard Taylor Library. The Rolling Stones guitarist tells about his boyhood in post-war England, the fledgling days of the band and their many years of international success and wild excess. It's funny, endearing and profound, revolting and maddening, but always fascinating. The best parts are the ones that Keith himself narrates with that trademark raspy voice and throaty chuckle. But please don't listen if you mind lots of really bad language or really stupid behavior.

The Long Way Home

For some Pennsbury Township residents, getting out and about is back to normal. A Brintons Bridge Road bridge crossing a tiny tributary to the Brandywine reopened last week after being shut down for reconstruction for 18-1/2 weeks, forcing motorists to take lengthy detours.
As one of those affected, my mother has been tracking the bridge's progress closely. She said she came home to find that the detour signs blocking the road had been pushed out of the way. She'd been told that the final blacktop coat wouldn't be applied until warmer weather, but hoping against hope, she drove down to the bridge site and found, to her great delight, that it was completed.

With an extra shot

As a frequent Starbucks consumer (in the past few weeks I've been to the Longwood, Jennersville, downtown West Chester, and Lionville branches) I was interested to read that Howard Schultz, the CEO, received his largest-ever bonus in 2010: $3.5 million, up from a paltry $1 million the previous year.
Based on a story in the March 18 "Wall Street Journal," it was well deserved: "Starbucks recently turned around sales after the toughest stretch in its 40 years. The company's profit more than doubled to record levels...Starbucks investors also got richer, with gains in the stock plus dividends up 24.9% last year."