Published November 7, 2009, 12:02 AM EST

by JANE HOLAHAN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - "Sesame Street" turns 40 on Tuesday.Gosh, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie all heading into their 40s? It's hard to believe, isn't it?Can you imagine Ernie grumbling about arthritis, or Cookie Monster having to switch to low-fat cookies?If Big Bird buys a little red s......

Published November 6, 2009, 1:48 PM EST

by JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Marlin Groft, a Marine rifleman, and Francis Miller, a B-17 gunner, had radically different experiences in World War II. Groft fought his way through several horrendous battles with the Japanese. Miller was captured, imprisoned and underfed by Germans until the end of the war. These L......

Published November 4, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by LARRY ALEXANDER

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - This week, let's focus on recent national and local news stories because, quite frankly, folks, I can't dream up this stuff.First, we had that Northwest Airlines flight that overshot an airport in Minneapolis, Minn., by 150 miles.I don't know about you, but when I am on ......

Published November 3, 2009, 3:07 PM EST

by JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - In the summer of 1905, when cars were uncommon and roads were rough, Thomas Edison took an automobile tour of central Pennsylvania. In Lancaster, he stayed overnight at the Stevens House. In Harrisburg, he blasted road conditions. "You have the finest farms and the worst ro......

Published November 3, 2009, 6:00 AM EST

by AD CRABLE, Outdoor Trails

WARDENSVILLE, W.Va. - It's perhaps the most glorious day of fall. And I'm smack dab in it. Fourteen feet up in a treestand on a ridge in the Appalachian Mountains. Leaves in crayon yellows, russets and muted oranges swirl by on their downward spiral, forming a new soft carpet on the forest floor. T......

Published November 1, 2009, 12:03 AM EST

by PEGGY SCHMIDT, Daze of Our Lives

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Oh, no, it's November. Already? When we have just stored the dahlia tubers, saving them to plant again next year, when we have only last night turned the clocks back to standard time, when we have not yet dug out all the winter-weather clothing from its attic hideaway ... it is already Novem......

Published November 1, 2009, 12:02 AM EST

by P.J. REILLY, Woods and Waters

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Pennsylvania Rep. Ed Staback of Lackawanna County isn't ready to throw the baby out with the bath water just yet. The Democratic chairman of the House Game & Fisheries Committee on Oct. 22 presided over a hearing during which he and other legislators heard from Pennsylvania Game Comm......

Published November 1, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by P.J. REILLY, Woods and Waters

CHESTER COUNTY, Pa. - I became a statistic last week. Actually, I found out last week that I'd become a statistic. Who knows when it actually occurred. Someone stole one of my tree stands. It happens every year to hunters all over the country. Maybe it's happened to you. Now I kno......

Published October 30, 2009, 3:10 PM EST

by JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Here is a spine-chilling poem for Halloween by the late Ernest Waldo Bechtel, as translated from the Pennsylvania German by C. Richard Beam: A skeleton is not pretty, has hard white thin legs. The head is bared and hard and the eyes are gone. The skeleton s......

Published October 28, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by LARRY ALEXANDER

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Friday is Trick or Treat Night across Lancaster County. From 6 to 8 p.m., children will go door-to-door dressed in the silly costumes of a clown, Spider-Man or a Supreme Court justice.Are county officials kidding? What child is capable of covering enough homes to obtain tons of candy in ju......