We are pleased to note that on Friday, Nov. 16, from 4:30 until 7 p.m., there will be a Brooks barbecue chicken dinner at Christ Episcopal Church to benefit the church’s Global Mission Outreach. It should be mentioned, in case there is any confusion, that for the first time this fundraising dinner will be held on Friday instead of Saturday evening. The dinner will be held in the Parish House, at 69 Fair St., Cooperstown, and will feature Brooks chicken as well as coleslaw, baked potato, baked beans, roll, dessert and beverage. Both half chicken dinners,
at $10, and quarter chicken dinners, at $5, will be offered. Takeout meals will also be available. In addition to the dinner, there will also be a sale of homemade pies. For more information about the dinner, please contact the church office at 547-9555.
We were somewhat surprised, and greatly pleased, recently to discover, while purchasing gas at Taylor’s here in Cooperstown, that the young gentleman pumping the gas also took it upon himself to clean both our windshield and back window. We must admit that we do not remember the last time that was done for us without our asking. And of course, when we find ourselves having to pump our own gas, the windows do not get cleaned unless we do it. So we greatly appreciated the attention paid to us during our recent gas purchase. In fact, it made our day.
Of course, we are much less enthusiastic this time of year by the annual influx of mice which always seemed determined to take up residence with us. And while we have only captured two this fall, we did find ourselves dealing with three earlier in the summer. We found the summer invasion to be somewhat unusual but did determine that we were not alone in dealing
with a summer mouse problem. And, from other reports we have received so far this fall, we are actually fairly lucky that we have not encountered more of the little beasts. Of course, we suspect that once the little dears read this column, they will be right over to correct an obvious error on their part.
We were interested to learn, via our various e-mail contacts, that for the arrival of emergency events, like hurricane Sandy, there is in the state of New York, an emergency alert system for farmers. Quite frankly, we had never heard of such a system but do think it makes sense.
The email we received read in part: “The State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is at a Level 1 Activation and the Department of Agriculture & Markets is staffing its desk 24/7. We will also have our Animal Protection Functional Branch (ESF) up and running until the activation is reduced. Some of the information exchange throughout the event will take place
through the Cornell Cooperative Extension EDEN.” And while we assume that all farmers in New York are well aware of this system, we were not. Nonetheless, we are glad that someone is responsible for making certain that those responsible for providing food have such help available in times of emergency.
We also received, via email this past week, the transcript of a comment made by a local official at the recent hearing held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Oneonta on the topic of the Constitution Pipeline. And while we support completely the right of anyone to make a comment expressing his or her opinion at such a meeting, we were somewhat taken aback by the tone of this person’s closing statement which read:
“The one thing I bring for FERC to take away from this meeting is that if they do not accede to the will of residents of New York state to reject this pipeline, then just as happened with the New York State DEC DSGEIS hearings on fracking, these FERC hearings are not the end but just the beginning.”
Somehow this seems to sound somewhat like the schoolyard bully who announces to a fellow student that “If you don’t do what I tell you to do, you are going to be in big trouble.”
We must say we think such behavior has the tendency to be somewhat self destructive. We can but wonder what the representatives from FERC must have thought when presented with this not so subtle threat. Surely there must be a better way to express one’s opposition to the pipeline than giving a comment like this one.
Of course, we were also amazed that in the congressional election for this area, we received at least two dozen fliers which seemingly denigrated one of the candidates running for the seat. Yet we received absolutely nothing promoting the other candidate in the race. And while we realize that negative campaigning tends to be effective, we think we are in a sorry state
when our elections are decided not on the merits of a candidate but rather on the perceived shortcomings of the competition. We are always more interested in knowing what a candidate is for instead of what a candidate is against. Besides, not only did we find the time, effort and money spent on sending all those glossy fliers to us to be a waste, we also resent having to
now haul them off to be recycled.
PLEASE NOTE: Comments regarding this column may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 547-8124 or by email at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
