A true friend

Given the number of locals who were glued to the TV watching the Westminster Dog Show last week, I wonder if anyone knows the story behind this charming canine statue in front of the Cleaden tombstone at the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery?
An online caption says it's a whippet, but a pal who's a dog expert says it's not: "Hair on body and tail too long; chest cavity needs to be deeper in relation to narrower hips." According to the tombstone, the person buried there is James M. Cleaden, who died in 1873 at the age of 48. On the plaque his sister describes him as "an affectionate brother and a true friend." But there's no mention of who the dog is.

Workout buddies

Our local YMCAs had a bring-a-friend special this past week, and a woman in one of my exercise classes persuaded an office-mate to join her, apparently by telling her the class was fun and easy. The newcomer realized within minutes that her friend had perhaps not been quite forthright about the level of difficulty and began giving her looks of disbelief and mock-protesting: "Relaxing, you said! It's just stretching, you said!" At one point she wondered aloud what on earth she was doing in a room "with a bunch of fit chicks." She was actually a very good sport, but I suspect things may have been a tad tense at their workplace the next day.

Number, please

A friend and neighbor phoned the other day asking me where he could recycle his old cell phones. I told him I'd be glad to look into it because I, too, have a bunch of vintage ones sitting around. The best on-line reference I found is campaignforrecycling.org, which gives detailed information about the recycling programs that each carrier has in place (T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.) as well as general drop-off places like Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy and Lowe's. Wisely, they caution you to delete all your personal data from the phone first.

Fun on Route 202

I was watching a morning news program in a waiting room and the announcer was describing an unusually bad traffic tie-up along Route 202, in the construction zone near the Route 29 interchange.
"How about that!" I remarked. "I was in that exact spot yesterday."
The gentleman sitting next to me commented that even though he knows perfectly well the lanes are still 12 feet wide, it makes him uneasy driving along an extended stretch of road like that hemmed in by those temporary concrete barriers.

In the course of conversation of the next few days I was surprised how many people agree that those "cattle chutes" give them the willies, whether they drive a Ford Focus or a Dodge Ram pickup.
Speaking of road construction, it seems that the off-ramp from the Route 1 bypass to Route 796 (Jennersville Rd.) is going to be widened to two lanes, and a traffic light is going to be installed, as part of construction of the proposed medical center going in just north of the interchange. That can certainly be a clogged intersection: I've often seen exiting traffic back up all the way down the ramp at rush hour, and impatient motorists tired of waiting sometimes make rash decisions about pulling out when they finally reach Route 796. It'll be interesting to see if this improvement has any impact on the adjacent intersection at Route 796 and Old Baltimore Pike.

Paperwhites

Thank you to my friends at RP Nurseries in Willowdale for stocking the very best paperwhite bulbs anywhere. I bought 25 of them late last year and planted them in pots around the house for indoor forcing. They just finished blooming this week, quite a lengthy season! There wasn't a dud in the bunch: all of them produced lots of green foliage and several stalks of those little white flowers with that intoxicating scent.

Why Facebook exists

I was committing some stacks of clippings to the recycling bin the other day and a circular piece of paper, a couple of inches in diameter, fell out. It was a promotional sticker for Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, an extremely minor punk-rock band of the late 1970s. If you've never heard of them, that's OK: they had only one hit, and I can absolutely, positively guarantee you it's not going to be on the program at the Hillendale Elementary School Spring Concert.
Amused, I posted this obscure find on Facebook. Within minutes a musician friend who lives in Pocopson replied, awestruck that a relic of this band still survived. He wrote: "I used to close my DJ sessions with one of their songs. I had no idea who they were, actually found the tape lying in the road in Fort Lauderdale on Spring Break in 1979. Played it six months later and was blown away by how awesome they were....I can tell you that for a college DJ in 1979 that song, following "Flashlight" by Parliament, was the KILLER of all closes for a dance party."
I told him I'm mail him the sticker immediately but warned him it was rather scuffed up and had long ago lost its adhesive. He didn't care in the least: "it's so awesome that it even exists." He plans to give it a place of honor on one of his guitar cases, "I just haven't decided which one."

Capital mushrooms

The other evening I had a few extra portabellas (I know; let's have a pity party for Tilda), so I sliced them up and roasted them around my chicken like you'd do for potatoes. They turned out to be delicious, just the right texture and so fragrant! And they were grown right here in West Marlborough. Try it and see what you think.

Ice-cream parlor?

Last month I wrote about the possibility of an ice-cream parlor opening in downtown Unionville, in the first floor of the Cemetery Lane building that until recently housed Andra Rudershausen's quilting shop. The East Marlborough supervisors will hold a conditional-use hearing to discuss the proposal, submitted by Henry I. Brown III and Doug and Pat Mooberry, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 4, at the township building. The site is in the village commercial zoning district.

At Union & Cypress

Noelia Scharon, the owner of the Michoacana Grill in downtown Kennett, told me that she's buying the building next door and plans to expand her wonderful Mexican restaurant. Up to now it's been pretty much take-out only, but she plans to put in chairs and tables so you can enjoy your chicken burrito or fish tacos right there! Great news! She said she hopes to have the addition up and running by the summer.
Aren't we lucky to have such great Mexican cuisine around here? On Wednesday some financial business took me on a trek along Route 1, Lancaster Avenue and City Line Avenue, and I couldn't help but notice all the chain Mexican restaurants along the way. They don't know what they're missing.
In other restaurant news, Hood's in Unionville is going to be closed Wednesday, Feb. 20, through Thursday, Feb. 28, for spring cleaning and preparing for BBQ season, according to the notice posted on the door. They'll reopen March 1.

Rest in peace, Jack

Jack Singer, who died Saturday at age 81, was a guy who seemed to be at home just everywhere. You'd see him at the post office, at the Buck & Doe Trust breakfast in the Laurels, at equestrian events, directing traffic at accident scenes and of course at his shop, Chester County Timber. For years he served as the official photographer at the Unionville Community Fair, and he'd spend the entire weekend at the Fair, chronicling every single event from the Fair Queen pageant to the cow-milking contest.
Jack was an old-time Unionville native, and it's safe to say he was one of a kind. He was enormously friendly and always ready to settle in for a chat, and it's almost impossible to imagine that we won't see him around town, grinning and sharing the latest news. How fitting that his final resting place is at the Unionville Cemetery right in town, where he'll have no trouble keeping up with what's going on.
I'm so glad I knew Jack. My deepest sympathies to his family.

Under the weather

I felt sorry for the people in front of me at Route 796 and Baltimore Pike on the afternoon of Feb. 8. During the rainstorm that constituted our brush with Winter Storm Nemo, they were moving house and had their belongings loaded up in what looked like a small hay buggy, mostly open at the sides and covered, insufficiently, with a tarp. I could see cardboard boxes, computer equipment and a TV. Everything must have been soaking wet by the time they reached their new home.

No soliciting

Well done, East Marlborough supervisors! Those of us who just like to be left alone while running our errands greatly appreciate the anti-peddling ordinance that you approved, as reported in last week's Kennett Paper.
Back in July 2011 I complained in this column about two panhandlers in East Marlborough, a man and a woman standing at the entrances to two shopping centers along Route 1, holding white buckets and soliciting money from motorists: "The guy is well dressed, wearing a tie and a traffic safety vest, and he was approaching motorists with great enthusiasm. Their buckets say they are collecting for a religious organization I had never heard of."
You can bet they got no money from me. Let's hope this ordinance is enough to discourage these annoying panhandlers. (Of course, legitimate groups like our local fire companies are still allowed to solicit, and I'm happy to drop a few bucks in their buckets.)
(By the way, according to Yahoo! the term "panhandler" comes from "a supposed resemblance of an arm stretched out to beg to the handle of a pan.")

Ready for reading

Don't forget, the Unionville High School PTO's annual used-book sale is Feb. 22 and 23. Last week I assembled all of my donations, collected additional stuff from a friend, and dropped off multiple bags and boxes of books and videos to the Charles F. Patton Middle School, where the helpful Signal 88 Security guy stationed in the lobby helped me unload my car. Donations can be dropped off until Feb. 20 at the marked boxes in any of the school lobbies.
Hours for the sale, held at the high school gym, are:

• Friday, Feb. 22, 5 to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 23, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• $8 Bag Sale, Saturday, Feb. 23, 3 to 5 p.m.

Snow dates are March 8 and 9.
And two dates to put on your calendar: the 68th running of the Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds Point-to-Point Races (in simpler terms: the Cheshire Races) will be on Sunday, March 31, and the Bayard Taylor Library's annual house and garden tour will be Saturday, June 1. As always, I'll be a volunteer at the latter, which this year will center on the Unionville area.

Back in the saddle

A Cochranville friend has mixed feelings about getting back on her horse after such a long layoff (prompted by the treacherous footing). After one week off, she can expect him to buck once; after two weeks, two bucks. But after three weeks without being ridden, she told me, all bets are off.