The last two months have been full of changes for Williamsport Community Radio. The station is now back on the air after recovering from a lightning strike and surviving a hurricane and a tropical storm. We’ve now installed a battery backup system and continue to move toward building a professional studio where we can broadcast…
Hey lady, How are you? How’s that beautiful baby boy of yours? I’m good. I had to write because I just read “The Romance of Tristan” for class and it was amazing, yet also horrible, and now I have all these thoughts about the world that I just can’t get a handle on. But first:…
ARIES—Do not, under any circumstances, even consider dressing as anyone from “The Jersey Shore” for Halloween. Trust me on this. Avoid herbal teas made with purple flowers. Do, however, wear a purple hat. Chew gum to help curb your tendency to break into song at inappropriate times. TAURUS—Th ese cool, dark mornings have you…
I’ll admit that in the three years I’ve invested in getting Williamsport a new public concrete skatepark, I’ve had my doubts that it would ever really be possible. Don’t get me wrong. The support has always been there. The dream has always been there. Mayor Campana initiated the idea after realizing that hundreds of our…
Peg & Bill’s II Diner is tucked in between residences on Memorial Avenue near the Pajama Factory. The place was recommended by some of the folks who pull late-nighters during Guardian publication time, and I was thrilled to learn of it, because I just adore diners. I lived in New England for the best part…
I’m sure that at some point in the past I have called my brother an idiot. After watching Our Idiot Brother, I feel the need to correct that and admit that my brother is definitely not an idiot. Neither is Ned, the main character of the film, who is ably played by Paul Rudd, even…
I admit it: I love celebrities. I love to see what “they” are doing. I love to see what “they” are wearing. I love the air of glamour they portray while I am wearing peanut butter-crusted yoga pants that I happen to be wearing for the second day in a row. It is escapism for…
Recently, I was able to catch up with the überbusy Matt Parrish. Matt, the Entertainment and Arts editor at the Sun-Gazette, has art featured at the Grey Gallery and is part of a current group show at Lycoming College. Perhaps fittingly, we met up at the hub of all things creative—the Pajama Factory—to discuss his…
The Susquehanna River: America’s most endangered river Union County Public Library, 255 Reitz Blvd, Lewisburg Tuesday, October 11, at 6:45pm The Otzinachson Group of the Sierra Club will present a program on our threatened Susquehanna River. The presentation will be made by Liz Garland Deardorff from the American Rivers organization, which for the past 25…
Dallas billionaire T. B. Pickens addressed a crowd of 1700 in a folksy “conversation” at the CAC in Williamsport on the last Friday of September. The evening began with a fairly short monologue consisting of a few entertaining anecdotes, opinions on our political and economic situation, wisdom gleaned from the oil patch, and cryptic references…
When I was a kid, my father used to get free press passes to the circus when it came to Madison Square Garden. As a writer for a New York newspaper, he also got passes to go where ordinary mortals couldn’t go, like the VIP viewing platform for Michelangelo’s Pietà at the New York World’s…
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein Hopefully, there will come a time when it is widely understood that people are complex organisms with varying degrees of political persuasions. But these days, the media have become a successful tool in shaping our inner monologues in…
GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES FEMA/PEMA/County of Lycoming Disaster Recovery Center This location brings together federal and state flood assistance for individuals and businesses affected by the September flooding. Open 7 days a week from 10am until 7pm. Directions: 740 Fairfield Rd, Montoursville. Take Interstate 180 or Lycoming Mall Drive to Fairfield Rd. Follow signs for parking.…
COUNTY COMMISSIONER Steve Shope I’m running for county commissioner for two reasons. First, I was tired of seeing career politicians ignoring the will of the people that put them in office. The issues facing our county have become too serious to allow complacency and party politics to keep us from getting the work done. I…
The gas rush is bringing rapid changes to the landscape and quality of life in our region. Some individuals and advocacy groups have responded to those changes and the risks they pose to our air quality, water resources, health, and peace of mind by calling for a complete ban on shale gas development. Let’s just…
There is a movement happening. I am not referring to a small percentage of angry kids walking behind an empty cause. The Occupy Wall Street protests have drawn a following from every age, race, occupation, gender and sexual orientation. The movement has even spread out of Manhattan and into a projected 65 cities within a…
I am for laughter. I am for hugs. I am for playing in the dirt with my kids. I am for romantic movies. I am for songs that make me sing out loud. I am for believing that people are generally good, no matter how many times they try to prove me wrong. I am…
The Williamsport Guardian thought our readers might be interested in the following e-mail exchange on the subject of public comment on Chesapeake Oil and Gas’s application for a water withdrawal and filling station in Hillsgrove, a topic we covered in our last issue. Dear Mr. Dehoss and Ms. Ballaron, Please include what I…
Take-home pay of the chairman of Merck in 2010 … $17.9 millionNumber of workers Merck plans to lay off this year … 13,000What the CEO of Bank of America takes in annually … $10 millionNumber of workers Bank of America has announced it’s laying off … 30,000Amount of nation’s income taken in 1979 by those…
In our last issue we printed a letter to the editor that asked: “What are you for?” and so in this issue we asked some of our regular writers as well as candidates for local office to tell us what they are for. It therefore seems appropriate for me to use this editorial space to…
Cliff Rieders, author of “Yiddish for Politicians,” listed his membership on the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Board at the end of the article. That got me wondering. Is there a Pennsylvania Client Safety Board? It seems only natural that if there is a need for a Patient Safety Board, there must be a need for a…