An oxymoron

A friend reports that he was in line at a local convenience store when he overheard a woman asking for "organic cigarettes." He is a jaded and world-weary fellow, but the idea of organic tobacco surprised even him: "Organic cigarettes! I ask you!" I suppose these cigarettes are being marketed as a way to minimize a smoker's ingestion of unwholesome chemicals.

Election

You probably don't need me to remind you that there's an election coming up: it's hard to miss the dueling campaign signs at every intersection, and I've been receiving political literature for weeks. The primary election is Tuesday, May 20.

Fill 'er up

Racking up discount gas points at the Giant grocery store has now become a competitive sport. I filled up my gas tank today, the day before this discount period expired, and felt pretty pleased with myself that I'd saved 80 cents per gallon. But then a Facebook friend chimed in: she was saving a whopping $3.50 a gallon! She must buy a lot of groceries and take advantage of every "5x gas points" special deal.
The gas station was hopping, as it always is toward the end of the discount period. They even had employees in yellow safety vests stationed at the exit and entrance to direct traffic.

Sharing the road

Lew and Terry Kinter of Unionville were kind enough to remind me of Pennsylvania's "Four-Foot Passing Law": when passing bicyclists, motorists must slow down to "a prudent reduced speed" and must stay at least four feet away from the bike.
"Spring and summer are prime cycling seasons," the Kinters wrote. "Accidents between car and bicycles generally leave cyclists with serious injuries. Please slow down, be patient and give us at least the 4 feet required by law. We can all share the road."
I wholeheartedly agree.

Spectators

Pity the Young Relative: at tonight's URA baseball game, his parents, his aunt, two grandmothers and a grandfather were all sitting in the bleachers waving and cheering for him. (Then again, by now he really should be used to a large and vocal family turnout at any activity.)
And it was a perfect spring evening to be a fan in the stands: it was 70 degrees, the sun was just setting and a slight breeze was wafting over the smell of BBQ from Hood's.

Extraction

My Cranky Friend has one less reason to be cranky: he had an infected tooth removed. The persistent infection had been waxing and waning for months, kind of like the underground fire in Centralia, but being strapped for funds and lacking dental insurance, he just put up with it.
Finally he made an appointment at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia. At the dental school's teaching clinics, students learn their craft under the watchful eye of faculty, and fees are correspondingly much reduced.
I volunteered to drive him into town and dropped him off at the Robert Schattner Center in the middle of Penn's campus at 240 South 40th Street. I found a place to park on the street just a few minutes away and then returned to the oral surgery clinic. While I waited, I knitted and enjoyed watching the earnest, enthusiastic and very young-looking dental students bustling around the place, their clinic coats flapping.
After only an hour, the Cranky Friend emerged, with a mouthful of gauze and minus the offending molar. Almost immediately, he claimed to feel globally better than he had in  months; let's hope that cheerfulness lasts.

Defining "logging"

A West Marlborough resident was within his rights to fell about a dozen tulip poplars on his property -- but he does need a permit for his chicken coop.
At the May 6 township meeting, township zoning officer Al Giannantonio said that he checked into a report of "a logging operation" on Willem Ebersöhn's property at 947 North Chatham Road (Route 841). Mr. Giannantonio learned that before felling the trees, Mr. Ebersöhn had gotten advice from a Longwood Gardens arborist that they were unhealthy, and he was having a sawyer come in to cut up the trees, which he planned to use for building purposes. Because he wasn't removing the trees from the property or selling the lumber, Mr. Giannantonio concluded that the activity didn't fall under the township's definition of "logging" and wouldn't need a permit.
The chicken coop that Mr. Ebersöhn installed does, however, need a permit.
Mr. Giannantonio also reported that he is looking into a farm lane that Richard Hayne has built across from The Whip tavern on his Doe Run Farm. He said Mr. Hayne did not get township permission to do so.
He also reported that two building permits were issued in April: one for repairing the stone mill at Blow Horn corner, which was damaged by a truck, and one for reroofing the tenant house at Rokeby Hollow.
In other business, township resident Don Silknitter praised township secretary-treasurer Shirley Walton for her hard work, saying that when he was in the township office recently he saw her simultaneously cleaning the bathroom and answering the phone.
"You'll get no argument from us," agreed Bill Wylie, who chairs the board of supervisors.
Only two supervisors, Mr. Wylie and Josh Taylor, were present at the monthly meeting. The third supervisor, Hugh Lofting and his son, Hugh Lofting Jr., who is in charge of the township's road crew, were in Wilkes-Barre attending a program about maintaining dirt and gravel roads, which are dear to the hearts of many of us who  live in this rural township.