Those comments keep coming in

Just so things don’t get “lost in the sauce,” I’d like to point out two posts that have been getting a lot of comments from readers lately.
The following post about a speeding motorist has evolved into a debate in the comments section on the pros and cons of the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority (LASA):
http://columbiapa-17512.blogspot.com/2013/04/motorist-driving-120-mph-eludes-police.html?m=0
Secondly, there’s this one, whose comments discuss the Columbia River Park:
http://columbiapa-17512.blogspot.com/2013/04/susquehanna-river-trail-hub-lacks.html?m=0
I’m glad readers have found this blog to be useful as a public forum, and since I believe spirited debate is healthy for democracy, I’ll continue to publish comments (provided they’re not libelous or obscene).

Pennsylvania could see stink bugs' return

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
You’ve been craving more sunlight and warmer temperatures for months, right? And now that spring-like weather finally has arrived, you feel your energy returning? Well, so do the stink bugs.

Those infernal pests that zoom through your house, cluster in your windows and release foul-smelling fumes when disturbed — being sucked into vacuum cleaners or squashed with tissues, say — love light and warmth just like people do, local entomologists say. And while we got a bit of a break last spring from emerging hordes of the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, bug experts say that 2013 just might be the Year of the Stink Bug.
Beginning right about now.
MORE HERE:

Fishing On The Susquehanna In July by Billy Collins

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure — if it is a pleasure —
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one —
a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table —
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia,

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandana

sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.
Billy Collins

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fishing-on-the-susquehanna-in-july/

Billy Collins is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004-2006.

Facebook post about Boston attacks goes viral

(CNN) – Comedian-actor Patton Oswalt may not seem the most likely person to soothe the wounded national psyche after the deadly bombs that struck the Boston Marathon. Oswalt has no obvious ties to Boston, and he makes a living telling jokes, not comforting the afflicted.

But Oswalt's eloquent thoughts about the attacks, which he posted Monday afternoon to his Facebook page, have been widely passed around the Internet as an inspiring testament to humankind's inherent goodness in the face of evil. (Warning: he uses strong language.)

“I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, 'Well, I've had it with humanity.' But I was wrong,' ” wrote Oswalt, best known as the voice of Remy the rat from “Ratatouille” and for playing Spencer on TV's “The King of Queens.”

“This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness,” he wrote.

“But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

“So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, 'The good outnumber you, and we always will.' “

MORE HERE:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/tech/social-media/patton-oswalt-facebook-boston/