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A Woman’s Place Is in the Lab Scientists Are Doing Big Things in the Small Labs at Mansfield University By Carrie Hagen
Inside Painted Post’s Global Clock Workshop Seneca Farms Serves up Tasty Tradition in Penn Yan The Alpine Stars of Clinton County
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Volume 15 Issue 8
14 What to Do When ‘Ya
A Woman’s Place Is in the Lab
Gotta Undo It’
By Gayle Morrow
By Carrie Hagen Women scientists—with some men thrown in for good measure—are doing big things in the small labs at Mansfield University.
Local event organizers back up, reschedule, reboot, and improvise.
16 The Chipmunk Taxi By Karey Solomon
22 Time Machines
By Karey Solomon
Tick tock goes Painted Post’s Global Clock.
30 A Box of Buggy Tales
6 An Alpine Star Shines in Lock Haven
By Michael Gerardi
Insect folklore to share with the young and young at heart.
34 Back of the Mountain
By Linda Roller Not to be outshone, the sisters of the Sons of Italy formed a league of their own.
By Linda Stager Summertime sash.
18 Ice Cream and Fried Chicken Secrets Cover photo Katherine Thompson by Christopher Brown; cover design by Gwen Button; this page from top: (left to right) Dr. Kristen Long and Dr. Elaine Farkas at a 2018 conference, courtesy Elaine Farkas; middle, Lucy Caprio, first president of the Alpine Star Lodge, courtesy Alpine Star archives; bottom, Seneca Farm owner Joe Trombley, courtesy Seneca Farms.
By Mike Cutillo Over four decades of delicious at Penn Yan’s Seneca Farm.
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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Patti Bandy, Joseph Campbell, Beverly Kline, Richard Trotta Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, Mike Cutillo, Melissa Farenish, Alison Fromme, Michael Gerardi, Carrie Hagen, Lisa Howeler, Don Knaus, Janet McCue, Dave Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, Jan Smith, Karey Solomon C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Bernadette Chiaramonte, Diane Cobourn, Mike Gerth, Michael Johnston, Nigel P. Kent, Roger Kingsley, Beate Mumper, Peter Rutt, Jody Shealer, Wendy Snyder, Linda Stager, Curt Sweely, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Ardath Wolcott, Deb Young
D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Layne Conrad, Grapevine Distribution, Duane Meixel, Linda Roller, Phil Waber T h e B ea g l e Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2020 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838. TO ADVERTISE: E-mail info@mountainhomemag.com, or call us at (570) 724-3838. AWARDS: Mountain Home has won over 100 international and statewide journalism awards from the International Regional Magazine Association and the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association for excellence in writing, photography, and design. DISTRIBUTION: Mountain Home is available “Free as the Wind” at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in PA and Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in NY. SUBSCRIPTIONS: For a one-year subscription (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 or visit www.mountainhomemag.com.
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Courtesy Mansfield University
Eyes on the future: Katie Hoover, a Mansfield University senior, is studying causes in change in desmoplakin.
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A Woman’s Place Is in the Lab
Women Scientists—with Some Men Thrown in for Good Measure—Are Doing Big Things in the Small Labs at Mansfield University By Carrie Hagen
M
ansfield University’s Assistant Professor of Physics Dr. Elaine Farkas remembers the first time she encountered recent MU graduate Katherine Thompson in class. Then a junior, Katherine came across as a shy, silent girl from a rural area in western Pennsylvania. She recognized the student’s aptitude, however, so when Katherine asked about a potential research project,
Professor Farkas was happy to involve her in an interdisciplinary collaboration that she shared with Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Kristen Long. Katherine’s interest and ingenuity, combined with the professors’ mentoring, propelled the shy student from Greenville into a world of scientific accomplishment and stature. In late May, Mansfield University named Katherine Thompson the 2020
recipient of its Outstanding Senior Award. She will start her PhD in chemistry this fall at Penn State after turning down offers from Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, and Stony Brook University. Her success story is one of several similar narratives coming from Mansfield University’s science department. See Mansfield on page 8
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Investigative team: Katherine Thompson (left) and Professor Elaine Farkas are studying the biological effects of microplastic and nano-plastic ingestion in plants and animals. Mansfield continued from page 7
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Mansfield is a small school in the state system with a student body of approximately 1,600. Students at larger, wealthier universities have a host of research opportunities and lab facilities that schools like Mansfield don’t have the resources to outfit or operate. Larger institutions can afford to hire grant-writing professionals— even grant-writing departments—that assist professors in securing research funding, and they can more easily attract financial gifts from corporate donors. Consider the function of endowments in higher education. The interest from these monies—donations, often from wealthy alums—allows schools to fund things like scholarships and groundbreaking scientific research. Harvard University, the wealthiest college in the world, has an endowment of over 39 billion dollars—that’s with a “b.” Thomas Jefferson University’s endowment hovers around 933 million. Mansfield University’s endowment is 1 million. That a small state school’s students can compete with those from well-funded, private universities is a testament to its professors’ creative, student-centered pedagogy.
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“I’ll come out and say it,” declares Professor Farkas. “Our kids can compete with the best of the best at Penn State, at Cornell, because they get the hands-on experience to know what they are doing.” The project that Professor Farkas invited Katherine to join is an investigation into the biological effects of micro-plastic and nano-plastic ingestion in plants and animals. Farkas initiated the research after considering studies that found micro- and nano-plastic particles (invisible to the human eye) in the organs of fish. Wondering what long-term effects plastic ingestion would have on the human digestive system, she approached her colleague, Professor Long, a cancer researcher who helped design a mammalian study that tests the effects of plastic bead consumption on mice; after the professors feed the animals beads, students help to study the animals’ tissue samples and bodily fluids. Their collaboration has become the first U.S.based mammalian model for the effects of plastic consumption on digestive systems (as it continues, the microplastics study will evaluate blood serum markers for organ-specific inflammation; these markers are carefully chosen to model the human response, and preliminary results from Professor Long’s and Professor Farkas’ work indicates that the mammalian liver could be a target for these plastic particles). “[Farkas and Long] pushed us quite a bit to quantify and analyze the pervasiveness of microplastics in mouse tissue,” reflects Katherine. She and others looked at the livers, kidneys, and spleens of affected mice, and considered whether bigger mammals would have beads persisting in the same organs. See Mansfield on page 10
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Over the past two years, Katherine’s work—particularly her study of the pervasiveness of plastics in the animal spleens and livers—helped her earn three prestigious summer internships: a nanotechnology experience at the University of West Virginia, a Department of Energy placement at Brookhaven National Labs, and a third opportunity at Oakridge National Lab. “That’s really incredible for any undergrad at any school, let alone a primarily undergraduate institution like Mansfield,” says Professor Farkas. Katherine presented her work at the American Chemical Society national meeting this past spring (virtually), and last year, at both the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Biologists conference and at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her presentation at the latter won Mansfield a first place prize in chemistry, besting students from Thomas Jefferson University, UMBC, and other schools. Katherine says that with modest lab facilities and studentcentered instruction, her mentors helped her “make meaningful contributions” by teaching her “to think outside of the box to come up with creative and innovative solutions.” • Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Dr. Maegen Borzok says that teaching at a small undergraduate-minded institution is vastly different than working at a large university focused on graduate and faculty research. Prior to arriving at Mansfield in 2018, she taught at the Ohio State College of Medicine, which recruited her from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she received her doctorate and began her teaching career. While at Ohio State, Borzok ran a successful lab, but the push to publish, source research funding, write grants, and conduct research—in addition to her teaching load—put several stressors on her young family. Borzok and her husband, a Wellsboro native, decided to change their lifestyle. She applied for a job posting at Mansfield and knew it was the place for her as soon as she stepped on campus. “This is what I want,” she remembers thinking about the small-town feel of the campus. “This is what I’ve been missing.” Once hired, Professor Borzok arranged her office and lab areas to accommodate student “hang-out” areas. She also brought with her a fully developed research project that she could use to engage future scientists. The lab focuses on a genetic mutation in desmoplakin, a protein that helps the heart function. When the mutant agent is present, it is often undetectable and leads to arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a fatal heart disease for which there is no cure. Borzok and her students work with collaborators from Yale University, James Madison University, and Ohio State to study the causes of the genetic mutation in desmoplakin, with the goal of fixing it at the molecular level. These partnerships allow Professor Borzok to engage her students in a sophisticated project with the resources which are available to them. Team members at Yale can source patient-specific stem cells in their cutting-edge labs, those at Ohio State study the physiology of the disease using a mouse model, and researchers at James Madison University can ask
structural questions about proteins. At Mansfield, Professor Borzok’s lab focuses on biochemical questions using analytical tools and computer simulations. “I can use a fairly simple lab to introduce students to really cool science with big implications,” she says. “We don’t need big fancy tools—they’re not necessary for the work we are doing. Students can see that they are capable of this work with the resources they have.” Mansfield students involved in the research have individual projects that allow them to authentically test and contribute original ideas to the study. Even before the pandemic, they met virtually with collaborators at other universities through bi-monthly Zoom meetings. Katie Hoover, a rising senior from Enola, Pennsylvania, has been studying what causes changes in desmoplakin and how to potentially fix these mutant variants at the molecular level. Her current work—running surface calculations on protein models and studying a particular enzyme linked to desmoplakin protein mutations—has led to weekly virtual meetings with Professor Borzok throughout the summer.
“She doesn’t give me all of the answers,” says Katie of her mentor. “She makes sure that I take the time to think, and she’s taught me that it’s okay not to have the answer right away, that it’s really important to sit with the data and internalize it before you draw your conclusions.” In 2019, Katie and another senior, Jared Hopkins, presented their research with Professor Borzok’s lab at a regional conference. This past semester, Katie won a grant from the Scientific Research Society Sigma Xi—one of the oldest and largest of its kind internationally—to outfit a “wet lab” with biochemical tools that she and Professor Borzok will use to further their analysis. (Historically, Sigma Xi awards financial grants to only 12-15 percent of applicants.) Katie is preparing PhD applications now as she enters her senior year at Mansfield. After graduating with a degree in chemistry and a concentration in biochemistry, she hopes to have a researchbased career. • Associate Professor of Geosciences Dr. Jennifer Demchak says that six
years ago, Mansfield’s science professors decided to focus more heavily on engaging undergraduates in research projects. At the time, the school wasn’t sending many students forward into graduate school. That changed with the arrival of several younger faculty members, who focused more on getting students into hands-on experiences that would “put them ahead of the curve and make their resumes shine.” Professor Demchak says that when professors trust undergraduates to envision and tackle research projects, the students assume a new level of faith in their abilities. “So many of our students are first generation college kids local to Bradford, Tioga, and Sullivan Counties,” says Professor Demchak. “It’s hard to fathom another level beyond college. Field research is pretty exciting for them.” In her senior georesearch class, Professor Demchak—an expert in watershed management—has students write a project proposal as if they were graduate students. She teaches wetland identification and has students take her lessons into field work; they perform See Mansfield on page 12
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Mansfield continued from page 10
wetland delineation, use data sheets as consultants would, and write reports on watershed restoration. “They need to get their hands dirty,” she says. • Mansfield’s biology program requires students to fulfill an independent research requirement. Professor of Biology Dr. Jeanne Kagle says that one of the benefits of teaching undergraduates at a small school is the freedom to investigate any research project that a student proposes. “I try to spark their interests,” she says. “I want to help them think like microbiologists. To think about how to come up with interesting questions and ways to answer those questions. How do all these pieces fit together? The knowledge part is easy enough. I want them to think about how they take the facts and move them forward.” When a couple of her students approached her with an interest in the effects of essential oil combinations on biofilms, she helped them develop a project. Another student who completed a work/ study with her presented his study on watershed management at a conference for the American Society of Microbiology in New Orleans in 2017. The time it takes to further undergraduate interests, Professor Kagle says, is something that professors at larger universities don’t often have because of the funding and research pressures that drive their placements. On the flip side, she says, these professors have a better chance of getting funding. Because small state schools don’t have the infrastructure to support large grantfunded projects, grant-making agencies often won’t consider their research interests. But that’s not always a bad thing. “Those who get big scientific foundation support are then locked into doing that specific research and getting results,” says Professor Kagle. • Student inquiry drives Professor Farkas’s love of teaching. “In the past, I have worked with biology majors on the vibration response of cockroaches and their potential as early earthquake warning systems, the tensile properties of treated human hair, and the effects of pollution on coral fluorescence,” she reflects. At a key point in the microplastics project that she is conducting with Professor Long, a student named Katelyn Davis from Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, approached her with an interest in tardigrades. Tardigrades are aquatic creatures that do not identify as mammals, reptiles, or amphibians. They have the ability to survive extreme environmental conditions by changing their body morphology, and, because they can exist in a state of cryptobiosis (neither alive nor dead), they can serve as indicators of ecological consequences on animal life. Tardigrade research has become an important part of the microplastics study. Advised by both Professor Farkas and Professor Long, Katelyn presented her work, along with student collaborator Kory Wolfe, at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Biologists conference in 2019. They won first place in the “Ecology and Organismal Biology” division. This fall, Katelyn will begin medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic See Mansfield on page 28
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What to Do When ‘Ya Gotta Undo It’ Local Event Organizers Back Up, Reschedule, Reboot, and Improvise By Gayle Morrow
O
n the afternoon of May 27, 2020, two astronauts were on a launch pad in Florida, strapped into a SpaceX rocket, ready to blast off to the international space station. Minutes before the final countdown, the mission was scrapped due to weather conditions. If you can imagine the work getting to that “…five, four, three, two, one, blast off” point, think about whether it’s any easier doing the whole process in reverse. Likewise, cancelling an event that is in perpetual planning, one that typically draws in thousands of people and thousands of dollars, one that calls for coordination from individuals, municipalities, and businesses, is somewhat more complicated than a casual, “Oh, I guess we won’t have a festival/concert/ tournament/race this year.” Actually, “calling it off was the easy part,” says Julie VanNess, executive director of the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce, of the decision to bow to COVID-19 and cancel what would have been the seventyninth Pennsylvania State Laurel Festival. It was everything that had to be done, and undone, after that decision was made that was the challenge. Contracts had been signed, she says. Requests had gone out to all the bands that typically participate in the two-plus-hour parade that is the culmination of the week-
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long event. Schools had picked their Laurel queen candidates, and those young ladies had sent applications, photos, and made their arrangements to be in Wellsboro. Vendors had sent money to reserve their spaces on the Green for the juried arts and crafts show. Concerts were planned, races were organized, retailers were ready. “We had to write letters, mail letters— everybody had to get a letter,” Julie says. “There were hundreds of [refund] checks to write. We actually had a couple of vendors already cancelled. “There are lots of pieces to the Laurel Festival puzzle,” she continues, “and it has to come apart the same way it goes together.” For more about what the chamber has in store for the rest of the year, visit wellsboropa. com or call (570) 724-1926. “We do work on them year-round,” concurs Coleen Fabrizi, executive director for Corning’s Gaffer District, of the large-scale happenings based in and around Market Street. She describes the decision to cancel GlassFest, characterized as the downtown’s flagship event, as “overwhelmingly sad.” “We realized doing an in-person event was simply not going to happen,” she says. “The first thing I did was reach out to our sponsors and tell them that, as difficult as it is, we can’t imagine a way to do this safely.”
Then, she says, they notified the vendors. And then, the wheels started turning. Initially there were thoughts of simply postponing GlassFest, or holding some sort of “abbreviated version” later in the summer, but with the uncertainty of how and when the virus might spread, that consideration was nixed. However, Coleen says she and her team are “not really discouraged by ‘can’t’.” What about a virtual event? She laughs as she remembers that when she told the sponsors she and her team were considering a virtual GlassFest, the response was “Yeah, of course you are.” And of course they did. The virtual event had “a different flavor, but it was still GlassFest.” “It’s critical to do everything you possibly can to keep businesses in front of the consumers’ minds,” she says. “The bottom line is to help our small, independently owned businesses do the best they can during the ‘high season.’” To find out more about exploring Corning, visit gafferdistrict.com or call (607) 937-6292. That impact on small, local businesses was also a factor on Jim Baney’s mind when he and other members of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Snowmobile Club decided to cancel the thirtieth annual Upper Pine
Creek Trout Tournament. “We had a discussion,” Jim says. “Last year we had over 500 participants, and everyone came into the clubhouse. With COVID, we couldn’t do that.” They considered doing registration and socialization outside, but decided that wouldn’t be the best option, either. “It was tough for us, because it brings so much revenue into our area,” he continues. “People were calling months before the tournament to check on dates [it’s always the weekend after Mother’s Day] so they could make room reservations. One restaurant owner told us ‘your tournament brings more revenue into our restaurant than fall foliage.’” The fish the club buys for stocking come from Rainbow Paradise, near Coudersport, and that order had to be cancelled. Not only does the business lose the sale price, “they will have to feed the fish for another year.” With tournament fees, the club is able to give three college scholarships to local high school seniors, but, with no tournament and schools closed, there was not way to make that happen. Other local charities that typically benefit from tournament proceeds will not, and plans for two special thirty-year-anniversary drawings of $1,000 each were also scrapped. “We talked about doing it in September, but look at how low Pine Creek is—we can’t do that.” Jim muses. But are they planning for next year? “Absolutely,” says Jim. You can find out more at pagrandcanyonsnowmobileclub.com or call (570) 724-2888. However, if you’re looking for a glimmer of a silver lining in all of this, you might find it with an online listen to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, performed live (well, sort of) by artists who would have, ordinarily, been together and participating in the Endless Mountain Music Festival. Cynthia Long, EMMF executive director, explains that once the organization’s board agreed that cancelling the 2020 event “was what was needed,” there remained the question of “how to remain relevant in a sheltered world,” especially when everyone—composers, musicians, and audience—was sheltered apart from one another. A feature of this year’s EMMF—the fifteenth anniversary—was a showcase for emerging Hollywood composers and the music inspired by films. Eight composers had been selected and assigned a decade for which to create an original work. The plan then became to save the compositions and the performances for 2021, but what about that notion of remaining relevant? Enter Copland’s familiar and uplifting Fanfare, recorded individually, then mixed and combined against a backdrop of local first responder faces and places—all designed to honor those individuals. That’s the start of the virtual EMMF, one that includes trailers and teasers from the eight composers, and performances from the likes of Peggy Dettwiler and the Mansfield University Chorus, pianist Bram Wijnands, violinist Siwoo Kim, and the “Celtic electric” group Fire in the Glen. “We started July 1, and it will go until December 31,” Cindy says. “We’ve had over 1,000 hits so far.” The plan, of course, is for all this to happen live next year. Cindy says the board is “looking ahead,” and considering outside venue options if that need arises. Until then, take your musical journey at endlessmountain.net.
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By Ashley Lee - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84261772
The Chipmunk Taxi By Karey Solomon
S
omething strange was happening in my garden. Plants burgeoning with health in the morning were dying or had disappeared by afternoon. Closer inspection showed the main sprouts of cucumbers were bitten through and sometimes mostly eaten, despite their discouraging little spines. Tomatoes were simply bitten through and left in place to wither, discarded after that first taste, but each tasted hopefully, as if a mother somewhere kept encouraging her children to just try this. The mystery remained unsolved until an early morning garden visit scattered dozens of chipmunks having a political discussion by the beets, sack races down the garden rows, and an exercise class near the chard. Later that morning I caught the
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first one of the day in a Havahart live trap and drove it to an unpopulated area to let it go. I brought the empty trap back to reset with peanut butter and soon had another. Eastern chipmunks, those cute stripey acrobats often seen running with their tails in the air like happy cats, are among the busiest of rodents. Found throughout the eastern U.S., they hibernate in cold weather, so they need to eat and gather food when it’s warm. A lady chipmunk can produce up to five pups every few months, so she could easily be eating for six. When she finds what she wants, she’ll stuff her cheeks with the bounty. Chipmunk cheeks hold more than your pockets—birdseed, berries, nuts, and whatever she finds in my garden, including whatever I wanted to harvest that she got to only five minutes before I decided to pick it.
While their usual wild habitat is woodland, they’ll also happily condescend to enjoy a garden thoughtfully planted by their human neighbors. Further down on the list, but still potential living spaces a chipmunk can work with—or, from the human perspective, seriously damage, are your house, car, and lawn. You know you’ve got chippies in residence when you find holes in your lawn, about three inches in diameter. These are barely the tip of the iceberg where a chipmunk residence is concerned. There can easily be more than thirty feet of burrow below-ground (or extending into your house foundation), a complicated feat of rodent engineering that includes a nest for hibernation as well as drainage channels, food storage cavities, several ways of getting
out, and a few blind alleys for indoor exercise. They’re supposedly solitary creatures, though apparently several dozen can easily cotton simultaneously to the same good idea about your house, lawn, or garden. Their curious natures, acrobatic ability, and sharp, alwaysgrowing teeth lead them to explore and chew on any place their noses lead them. Fences can’t keep them out. They laugh at chicken wire. Discouragement may slow them down but they have the persistence of creatures who know for a certainty they’ll outlast us. This year, thanks to the little Havahart, I’ve made the acquaintance of many memorable individuals. There are philosophic ones who sit down to eat all the peanut butter and polish the plate, then calmly wait for their car ride to a new location. When the cage is opened, they pause for a moment and ask “Really? There’s not going to be any more peanut butter? Okay, then I guess I’d better see what’s in these woods.” There are the really nervous ones who run back and forth in the cage, wringing their paws, too keyed up to eat, and tromping through the peanut butter with their feet. Release the gate and they hang back saying, “No, I don’t believe it. It’s a cruel joke. They’ll close the door before I can get through it.” Then they back up for momentum before flying through with the speed of toothpaste leaving the tube after a good hard squeeze. Ms. Two didn’t want to leave at all. Ms. Eight did a tap dance in the cage on her way to release. A passerby stopped to find out why my car was stopped and when the driver learned I was releasing a chipmunk, cheerfully offered me thirty more—“free!”—from his own farm. Number Ten was one of the nervous ones, but was delighted to see I’d released her near a set of chipmunk-sized holes in a woodside embankment. She immediately popped down one of them, then backed out thoughtfully, a look of dread on her face. Mr. Eleven, a philosophic and cheerful fellow, ate the peanut butter and bounded out to climb a tree, gazing around his new domain with a look of approval before scampering off to make new friends. And no, I don’t really know their genders. I’ve just randomly assigned the male persuasion to odd numbers on general principles. I’ve often seen one in the cage with three or four friends sitting nearby, offering sympathy and advice. There are six holes in the beet area and two more near the lemon basil. None, for some reason, by the garlic. And I know there are a few clever ones who managed to grab the peanut butter and leave before the gate closed, not sticking around to hear what I had to say about it. If it weren’t for the garden, they’d be welcome to stay. They’re cute and fun to watch. They’re good sports about relocation. Even in enforced departure, they’re model passengers. Though I placed a layer of newspapers under the cage, it remains pristine—their car manners are more thoughtful than those of my cat on the way to the vet. They listen without interrupting while I drive, and cordially accept my best wishes when I let them go. The adventure continues as the reserves are far from depleted. And that might not be a bad thing. Though they destroyed part of the garden, at least they entertained me in the process. I’d like to think that’s mutual. Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and needlework designer who teaches internationally.
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Courtesy Alpine Star archive. Bright beginnings: Charter members of the Alpine Lodge #1827 (left to right): Lucy Caprio, Mary Michele, Angelina Verelli, Anna Casciani, and Rose Colaccino.
An Alpine Star Shines in Lock Haven
Not to Be Outshone, the Sisters of the Sons of Italy Formed a League of Their Own By Linda Roller
I
t all started as an argument. It might have become a fight, but Jenny Calasandro and her good friends Lucy Caprio and Rose Bombassei were not the type of women to start a fight. But they wanted to be members of the chapter of the Sons of Italy that was being founded in Lock Haven in 1937. But the rules were clear. No women were allowed—not as members. Oh, they could help with projects, get involved. But no voice in the organization. And that didn’t sit well with these hard-working Italian-American women, wives, mothers, and daughters of the men who were forming the Loggia Giosue Carducci chapter of the Sons of Italy. So, for them it was simple. No fight. Just start their own chapter. Women only. Jenny knew how to push, to get the charter. And so it was that the Alpine Star Lodge was formed at the same time as the Lock Haven chapter of the Sons of Italy. But they needed to decide on a name. Jenny thought about how the stars over the Bald Eagle Mountain reminded her of the sky in her birthplace of Calabria, Italy. Thus, the name Alpina Starre,
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Alpine Star, was born. This quarrel was, at its heart, a lover’s quarrel, and soon mended. For Alpine Star’s desire to serve the community and the pride of their Italian heritage was the same as the husbands and fathers who created the Sons of Italy lodge. Even the Lock Haven Express, the local newspaper, got it wrong. They saw Alpine Star as an auxiliary, not as a separate lodge. But for that, they can be forgiven. Once the lodges were created, they worked closely together, as they did in business and as families. Although Jenny was the sparkplug for the organization, it was Lucy Caprio who was the first Alpine Star president and served from 1937-1953. Mary Louise Graziano, who was also president later, remembered Jenny as a nice older woman, and Lucy as a little lady, but feisty. Mary Louise was involved as a youngster in some of the lodge’s early projects. “In the mid 1950s, we collected canned goods to pass out to people who needed it. We put all of them on a big table in the garage.” Both Mary Louise and Phyllis Colacino, who
was the secretary for a long time (“No one wanted the job!” she recalls), also remembered the March of Dimes drives from that era, and all the walking they did for that charity. And for years, Alpine Star members sold daffodils for the American Cancer Society. Though they served the entire community, Alpine Star kept a special place in its heart and mission for the Italian community. There were Founder’s Dinners, visits to sick members, flowers at Christmas, and deceased Alpine Star members honored at their wake with a rosary from the members, along with special prayers. From the first, Alpine Star had a space at the Sons of Italy lodge. “We never had a physical lodge,” says Phyllis. “The Sons of Italy gave us permission to use the rooms upstairs at no charge.” And the women’s group had access to the Sons of Italy kitchens. That led to their most famous fundraisers—the dinners. At first, it was spaghetti dinners. The Alpine Star bought the food and used the Sons of Italy kitchens. The profit from the dinners went to the various
charities that the women supported in the area. But then, the women started getting creative. Mary Louise says that the women worked in groups of three, with one group hosting the dinner for a night. The groups rotated. “We started making specialties—special family recipes,” she remembers. “It could be eggplant parmigiana, rolled lasagna, manicotti, soups like Italian wedding soup, and Italian hot dogs. Everyone looked forward to the dinners.” It wasn’t long before the Sons of Italy were buying the food and the women were working their magic in the kitchen for an entire city. The dish that Mary Louise was known for was her aglio e oglio. Just talking about it around Phyllis’ kitchen table was a joy as the women recalled those dinners. “For the dinners, I made it with green and black olives, red pepper, and anchovies—beautiful!” she says. But she also recalls that, in earlier, leaner days, she had made it for her family with sardines (which also sounds good). Her recipe was later printed, along with all the other family favorites that made their way to the Alpine Star dinners, so that the tradition could continue after the public dinners ceased. That cookbook was redone in 2003-2004, when Alpine Star worked on a major exhibit on the Italian families and Italian influence in Lock Haven. The exhibition was at the Ross Library, and included cooking, and tastings, along with research and photos of many families in the area. That collected information was published in a book, to preserve the stories and heritage of the early twentieth century Italian families in Lock Haven and surrounding areas for future generations. And the money raised through the cookbook sales? Like an Italian grandmother’s apron money, it went in many directions, giving help and hope. Donations were made to St. Joseph’s, Ronald McDonald house, and donations for research on Cooley’s anemia, a disease that has a genetic component and appears in Italian families. It went for scholarships for young members who graduated from high school to further their education. And it went for myriad needs in the community. “When the community asked, we gave,” Mary Louise says. And the tradition continues, as the group welcomes new members. Meetings are the third Thursday of the month at the Sons of Italy Lodge, 1 N. Henderson St, Lock Haven. Membership is open to Italian-American women or women who married ItalianAmerican men. For more information, contact Ruth Ruhl at (570) 748-4226.
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Mary Louise’s Aglio e Oglio ¾ to 1 pound cooked spaghetti 1 Tbsp. minced garlic 2 Tbsp. minced parsley ½ c. olive oil Salt and black pepper to taste You may add whatever you want to this. For example, sliced green and black olives, thinly sliced mushrooms, diced fresh red pepper, and/or anchovies (or sardines). When you drain the cooked spaghetti, reserve a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water, then, while the spaghetti is still hot, toss that with the oil, garlic, and parsley. Add the rest of the desired ingredients, toss again, and serve. Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania. 19
Beate Mumper
Sarah Wagaman
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Diane Cobourn
Jody Shealer
Sarah Wagaman
Gayle Morrow
Linda Stager
Jody Shealer
Color My World
Linda Stager
A
ugust offers so many gifts, some so subtle you might overlook them. Color is not one of those. A summer sky sports that soft mix of mauve and mango. A green field is not just green, it’s emerald and avocado and jade and lime. You have to wonder if that redwinged blackbird perches there, against the backdrop of open water, on purpose. Does the bumblebee dining on zinnia nectar realize what a color contrast he provides? August knows, even if we don’t. Mike Gerth
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Karey Solomon
Time Machines
Tick Tock Goes Painted Post’s Global Clock By Karey Solomon
R
obert Doherty’s workshop at noon bursts into a concert. The larger clocks offer up the Westminster Quarters—the melody made famous by the chimes of London’s Big Ben. Little doors on cuckoo clocks open and the painted birds fly out to cuckoo a dozen times. There’s a small pause and other clocks…chime in. The staggered sequence is intentional, so Robert can watch the evening news or conduct an ordinary conversation without having to pause on the hour. Robert is the proprietor of Global Clock Services at 5135 Wixon Road, Painted Post. He chose that name for his business with a sense of humor because his work on clocks is only limited to clocks located on the planet. He’s repaired huge clocks whose presence in a city is a matter of civic pride, and smaller heirlooms that matter to a family’s history. A clockmaker with forty years’ experience, Robert was drawn into the field almost by accident. While living in Philadelphia, a friend and fellow judo enthusiast, John Biddle, suggested he try clock repair and offered to teach him. Between jobs, Robert agreed. At that time, his friend John’s bread and butter was the
repair of time clocks, those devices used to stamp time cards as employees report for work. On Robert’s first day at work, John took one apart as his student watched, then walked away, challenging him to put it back together. He did. The second day he was given more difficult clockworks, and was similarly successful. It’s hard to explain the process, because Robert seems to intuitively understand clocks. “You can’t learn this on YouTube or from books,” he says. All those little gears and pinions and the tiny shafts that anchor them in the works are mystifying to the lay-person, but he knows what each does, where it belongs in the clock, and whether it needs cleaning or repair or replacement. He’s got two small lathes in his workshop to accomplish the latter, if necessary. “If you know what’s driving a clock, you know what its purpose is,” he says in an attempt to clarify the way he learned to deal with a profusion of small gears and bearings. “I was getting paid to do a puzzle. It just made sense for it to go together that way because of what it had to do. Repairing a clock is like repairing an automobile. If
there are symptoms, what is it supposed to be doing and isn’t?” By the time he moved north, he repaired watches as well as clocks. In 1999, contemplating a career change and back in college to become a history teacher, Robert lost everything, including all his tools, in a devastating fire. He says now he wondered whether this tragedy signaled a personal change of direction. His plan had been to teach during the school year, then repair timepieces in the summer. But when rules about the requirements for teachers changed, and customers kept calling him for repairs, he decided to return full-time to clocks. His workshop is compact, but it’s home to dozens of specialized tools, some packed into cases for specific sorts of jobs, others arrayed on his work surfaces. “In this business, you never know where you’re going to go,” he says. He also has trays and bottle caps to hold small parts, and multiple pairs of glasses, so he always has a pair close at hand. Even though he says he could fix many clocks blindfolded, he seems happier being able to see them. One epic repair job was the Centerway clock in downtown Corning. The clock had See Time on page 24
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Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) On Loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kara Walker, Signage Station, Summit of Maryland Heights, 2005. Lithograph and screenprint on paper. Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment 2008.19.1.15
The CF Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum’s traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.
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Time continued from page 22
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European model shown. Professional rider on closed course. Dress properly for your ride with a helmet, eye protection, riding jacket or long-sleeve shirt, long 24 pants, gloves and boots. Do not drink and ride. It is illegal and dangerous. Yamaha and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation encourage you to ride safely and
respect the environment. For further information regarding the MSF course, call 1-800-446-9227. ©2019 Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. All rights reserved. • YamahaMotorsports.com
been repaired at least twice prior to Robert being called. The first time, the out-of-state repair crew removed the original works and replaced them with an electronic movement. When this failed a few years later, the same company replaced the motor. Unfortunately, the second motor also failed within a few years. Robert was consulted, and learned another replacement motor was unattainable. Worse, the motor’s failure had deformed a critical, unreplaceable part. What to do? “I prayed for guidance,” he says. Then, seeing what needed to happen, he rebuilt the motor, and had new parts made to ensure its longevity. Sandie Wilson, director of Administration and Operations for Corning’s Gaffer District, knows Robert, though her acquaintance with him came after that earlier, critical repair. She met him first when her own special clock could not be repaired by the first few people she consulted. Instead of giving up, she tried a Google search and found Global Clock Services. “He fixed it ten or eleven years ago, and it’s worked beautifully ever since,” she says. Her respect for Robert’s talents increased after his work on the Centerway clock. “He’s definitely a treasure, highly knowledgeable and very professional,” she says. “He’s wonderful to deal with and a delightful man to talk with. He appreciates the history of the clock tower and what a landmark it is for our town. He’s been instrumental not only in fixing the clock but pointing out necessary repairs to the clock tower.” In his own workshop, when he starts a job, Robert also begins a page in his log book where he details the time it takes (he keeps a digital stopwatch on his workbench to keep track), the repairs and parts needed, and includes additional notes and sketches. As his hands work, he might be making up jokes and puns to share with the next caller. “Jokes are in my DNA,” he explains. “They get pent up when I’m working by myself.” Or he’s mentally planning his next puzzle—he creates and crafts brain teasers to share with family and friends each holiday season. A clockmaker’s work is naturally solitary. He begins early, to catch the morning light, and will get so caught up in the process he’ll skip lunch and keep working. Some of the clocks in his shop are ones he’s collected over the years and fixes when the business slows, as it has during the virus crisis. Some are already fixed and are being tested to make sure they run as they should. “Think about you being taken apart and put back together,” he muses. Once the case is off and the works are exposed, Robert can often see a lot about the health of a clock by the color of the brass parts. Before he begins, he is likely to know who made the clock— he knows clockmakers of previous centuries like old friends—and when, what it will take to get the parts cleaned and working, and how long it’s been since the clock was last repaired. He’ll know most of what he needs to do before removing a single screw, though some timepieces have surprised him. He loves his work (he’s taught it to his sons, but they have no intentions to follow him in this field), and he has no plans to retire. “This is the job people retire and start,” he says. “Horology is low pressure. I got a forty years’ head start!” If you have a clock problem, you can call Robert at (607) 937-5959. Karey Solomon is a freelance writer and needlework designer who teaches internationally.
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25
Kristine Cutillo
Ice Cream and Fried Chicken Secrets Over Four Decades of Delicious at Penn Yan’s Seneca Farms By Mike Cutillo
F
orget about why the chicken crossed the road. The pertinent question when it comes to Seneca Farms, an iconic eatery in the heart of the Finger Lakes, is: How does a restaurant become famous for its fried chicken and its ice cream? Joe Trombley, who has owned the redand-white restaurant on Route 54A just south of the Yates County village of Penn Yan since 1976, laughs at the question. Yes, he admits, it’s an odd combination, but it works. Oh boy, does it work. The place had been a dairy since the 1950s when Joe and his father bought it four-plus decades ago, so the ice cream part was only natural. “It was always a dairy and they delivered milk and made their own ice cream, and then over the years, they just started buying Perry’s ice cream and selling that,” says Joe’s daughter Nitosha Fingar. “When they bought it, Dad decided that everyone was doing Perry’s. So, there was a course you could take at
26
Penn State to make your own ice cream. He went and took that, then started doing the homemade ice cream here.” Joe corroborates his daughter’s story, saying he took the class so that he wouldn’t be locked into dishing out the same brand of ice cream that everyone else around town was selling. “Perry’s made me mad because they were selling to everybody in town,” he says. “I started thinking that I would never make it if I didn’t make my own. It was the best decision I ever made.” As for the fried chicken? That came after a kitchen was added in 1978 and a menu was being developed. “We tried many recipes and this last recipe seems to really be working, and how the combination (of ice cream and chicken) started, it wasn’t my actual idea at the time, but it just worked,” Joe says. He says “this last recipe seems to be working” like they just hit on it last week,
but, in reality, it came after various trials and errors, mostly variations of recipes from family and friends. He won’t give up the secret to the rock star fried chicken, which is crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and loaded with tons of flavor, other than to say it’s beer-battered fresh every day with a tasty blend of herbs and spices. “It’s really hard to say more without telling you the whole thing,” Joe says with a laugh. Fair enough. As for that ice cream, in addition to the fresh fruits, nuts, and fudges that flavor it, it is made with cream that has a higher percentage of butterfat than most, making it creamier and richer. There is soft ice cream and hard ice cream, about two dozen regular varieties with a handful of rotating seasonal ones, it is hand-swirled, and made on premises—about 900 gallons a week in the heat of the summer. Seneca Farms—located near Indian Pines Park and lovely Keuka Lake—is not
(3) Kristine Cutillo
just chicken and ice cream, however. Tiffany Phillips, Joe’s other daughter, who co-manages the place with Nitosha as Joe phases himself out, ticks off a list of other top-selling items: handmade burgers (with beef from the village’s popular Morgan’s Grocery), Hoffman hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, corn fritters, macaroni and other salads (many of which are their grandparents’ recipes), and chicken fingers. Wait, what? Corn fritters? In upstate New York? Joe, a Penn Yan Academy grad, was living in Florida when he and his father learned that Seneca Farms was available for sale. While developing a menu, Joe recalled food from his Florida days. “There was a place that sold chicken and corn fritters, and I thought to myself, ‘We should sell corn fritters, no one else has them.’” “People come from all over to get the corn fritters,” Tiffany says. “They take them home in the winter and freeze them; they make corn fritter sundaes. They love them.” They must love the rest of what’s available at Seneca Farms, too, as people come here from all over. The grounds include an outdoor pavilion and about a dozen round picnic tables topped with red-and-white umbrellas. On a steamy summer day, license plates in the parking lot were from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Florida (maybe there to check out the corn fritters?). Meanwhile, a constant line of vehicles snaked around the building, their occupants loading up on food and ice cream at the pickup window, which happened to be the first drive-through window in the region. And no feature on Seneca Farms would be complete without mention of its extensive collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia—everything from chandeliers, Crazy combo: from their mirrors, and posters to Coke-can-crafted toy cars, fried chicken and ice cream to a classic Coke trucks, and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. motif, Seneca Farms That started with Joe buying some items brings homemade and to accent the restaurant’s red-and-white colors; history to the table. it spread to the customers, who have donated numerous trinkets over the years. The Coke motif really exploded after a fire in 2005 almost destroyed the business. Joe rebuilt it bigger and better than ever—especially the kitchen—and the result was even more business and more Coke items. “Because we lost so much, people were bringing us boxes of their Coca-Cola collections,” Nitosha says. “Coke themselves donated some stuff. Somebody wrote into them about our fire, and they sent us a whole bunch of stuff.” So, a family-run joint for over four decades—Nitosha and Tiffany both started working there when they were about twelve and have a combined fifty-three years in now with children of their own who are helping these days—that has built an incredible reputation behind the unlikely combo of killer ice cream, scrumptious fried chicken, and corn fritters can also pass as a bit of a Coca-Cola museum. Open from the first Thursday in March to the last weekend in October, if you are exploring the Finger Lakes—and especially Keuka Lake—make Seneca Farms one of your stops. You can also find Seneca Farms at senecafarmsny.com, or call (315) 536-4066.
Mike Cutillo is a journalist who has covered the Finger Lakes for 35 years and never passed up a dish of fried chicken or a bowl of homemade ice cream. 27
Time continued from page 12
Medicine.
Courtesy Dr. Maegan Borzok
Christopher Brown
Courtesy Mansfield University
Courtesy Adrianna Vaskas
• Helping undergraduates like Katelyn find a focused career path in the sciences is one of Professor Long’s passions. Her own academic narrative began just like those of her students—at a state school. After graduating from Millersville University, she earned a PhD in microbiology and immunology from Drexel University before pursuing postdoctoral work in the pancreatic cancer research lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Last year, two of her students had the opportunity to drive their own research work for verification from Mansfield to the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “First generation students have no idea that they can come to an undergraduate institution and get funded and published,” Professor Long says. “I never thought I could publish in one of the best cancer journals in the world. You never think it can be you.” When her students fear that they won’t get an internship, Professor Long rattles off her own rejections. “Failure is part of science.” In May of 2019, she co-presented research on pancreatic cancer at the American Association of Cancer Research alongside one of her students, a recent graduate named Adrianna Vaskas. Mansfield was the only primarily undergraduate institution present at the conference, and Adrianna the only undergraduate presenter. From Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, Adrianna first had Professor Long for a cell biology class The future of science: in the spring 2017 semester. Adrianna had (from top) Adrianna a great uncle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Vaskas standing next to her work on curcumin; and she knew that a physician had mentioned Dr. Jeanne Kagle working curcumin—a compound that comes from with biology students; turmeric—as a potential plant-based therapy. Dr. Kristen Long at MU; “I wanted to see how curcumin affected (left to right) Dr. Maegan pancreatic cancer, and that blossomed into Borzok, Katie Hoover, something I never expected,” says Adrianna. and Jared Hopkins at a Professor Long mentored her on how to pursue recent conference. funding, and in 2018 Adrianna was the first MU student to receive a NASA research scholarship. Her work in Professor Long’s lab focused on whether curcumin had an effect on shrinking tumors in mice that lacked T-cells, immune cells that fight infection, and on those with tumors that had functioning T-cells. The animals without the T-cells responded well to the treatment, but not the others. “Vaskas’ studies showed that curcumin won’t work against tumors that grew up in mice that have a normal immune system (which mimics how tumors grow up in people),” reports Professor Long. “Her studies are more of a word of caution that even though [curcumin] works in mice, it may not work in people.” Today, Adrianna is working at a hospital in her hometown and readying an application for medical school in 2021. She refers to Professor Farkas and Professor Long as “pioneers” whose collaborations inspire students to do more than what may seem possible. “They taught me everything I know,” says Adrianna.
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Inspired and haunted by true stories, IRMA and Keystone Awardwinning writer Carrie Hagen is the author of We Is Got Him: The Kidnapping that Changed America. She lives in Philadelphia.
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© Brittany Lytle
A Box of Buggy Tales
Insect Folklore to Share with the Young and Young at Heart By Michael H. Gerardi In loving memory of James K. Grimm, professor of biology at James Madison University.
F
olklore is a collection of tall tales and unbelievable beliefs that are shared by the young and the young at heart. You don’t learn folklore in school. Folklore is too cool for school. Folklore is passed from person to another, over and over. Sometimes when people tell a tale, the tale gets taller— that is, people tell more than what they were told. Although the tales are not true and the beliefs are not believable, folklore is truly unbelievable! Popular tales include Br’er Rabbit and the tar baby, and the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. There you go! That’s a tall tale: an ox with a blue tail. There are tall tales and popular beliefs about bugs, too. That collection of collectible tales and beliefs is known as insect folklore. Insects bug us every day. Bed bugs sleep in our bed. Cocktail ants drink in our house,
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and that little stinker, the stinkbug, leaves stinkers wherever he goes. That’s all he doo! There are gazillions of insects. They can be found in many sizes, shapes, and colors. They crawl over and under your footsteps. They buzz around your head and in your nose and ears. Sometimes they get stuck on you. When we did not understand the habits of our little bedfellows and housemates, insects became the source of many tall tales and beliefs. They were given funny names, and they were used to predict the weather, make potions for the sick, and play cupid. Perhaps the best way to enjoy some of these tall tales and beliefs is to open a box of insect folklore. Let’s call it a Cracker Jacks® box— one filled with caramel corn, peanuts, and… insects! Go ahead. Sit down. Open your box and munch on a bunch of caramel corn and peanuts and enjoy, if you can, whatever surprise crawls, jumps, or flies from your box. So, what’s in your box? Some of the
insects rushing out of it, or hiding inside, have funny names. And here they are: bombardier beetle, pot-carrier beetle, dung beetle, and inchworm. The bombardier beetle “dive bombs” you and squirts you with a boiling hot liquid. It zings and stings. The pot-carrier beetle can’t dive bomb, because he can’t fly. His wings are too small to carry his weight, and they look like tiny pots. He carries his pots and crawls on you and gives you a scratch, or is it an itch? So you itch the scratch, or you scratch the itch. Pee-yew! What is that awful smell? It’s not those stinkbugs, even though they do stink. Running from the box and looking for a place to go is the busy dung beetle. She’s collected the dung or poop of an animal (that’s the stinky part) and shaped it into a ball. She’ll lay her eggs in the ball and roll it away. Where? I hope not in a Cracker Jacks® box! See Insect on page 32
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You can’t overlook the caterpillar slowly crawling to the top of the Cracker Jacks® box. It’s the inchworm. It has legs on the front of its body and legs on its back. But it has no legs on the middle. So this caterpillar walks with a looping motion, as if it were measuring inches without a ruler. Here come the first weather forecasters. Ants, crickets, and others were used to predict everything from temperature, the arrival of the first frost, dry and rainy days, and how bitter the winter would be. Did you know that crickets chirp faster when warm and slower when cold? Because they do, some people considered crickets to be accurate thermometers. To know the temperature, they counted the number of chirps a cricket makes in fifteen seconds, then added forty to that number. If you listen to the music that some insects make, you might hear a symphony that predicts the arrival of the first frost. Crickets would squeak, chatter flies would chitter-chatter, cicadas would rattle like tiny tambourines, and, three months before the first frost, katydids would bleep like a goat. However, if the katydids bleep just “Kate” instead of “Kate-ee-did,” the first frost was soon on its way. The smallest of the weather forecasters are the ants. You could watch ants at work and quickly tell if it would be dry or rainy. If ants were widening the opening of their nest or piling dirt high around the entrance to their nest, dry weather was soon to arrive. However, if ants were closing the entrance to their nest or carrying their eggs from one nest to another, rainy weather was coming. How cold might the coming winter be? Look at the two-toned wooly bear caterpillar and make your prediction. The beginning and end of winter would be colder than the middle if the colored bands at each end of the caterpillar are larger than the middle band. All of winter would be mild if the bands at each end of the caterpillar are smaller than the band in the middle. If your box of folklore is not empty, you may want to gather ’round with the kinfolks as the last of the insects leave. Itty bity bed begs and dirty cockroaches no longer hide in the caramel corn and peanuts, and butterflies get their chance to open their wings and dance. From bug stew to Cupid’s crew, take a view at what the kinfolks thought these insects could do. A mix of bed bugs, cockroaches, sweet oil, red pepper, and lard were boiled together to make a bug stew, or is it a witch’s brew? A sip-a-day of this stew would do to cure earaches and red eye. And its smell was sure to keep the doctor, and other family members, away. The subject of love is as old as man and insects. So it’s not surprising to find that insects, especially butterflies, are associated with many affairs of the heart. In insect folklore, Cupid’s arrows were butterflies, so many folks watched the flight of butterflies to find their sweetheart. For instance, if a little girl made a wish for a sweetheart with a white butterfly in her hand, the direction the butterfly flew when released would show the little girl where to watch for her sweetheart. Easy, right? If you already have a sweetheart, what wish would you make with your white butterfly? Would it be for another box of insect folklore? Michael H. Gerardi is the author of twelve science books. He prepared the folklore article for the young, and the young at heart, to bring some laughter during the coronavirus pandemic.
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B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N
Summertime Sash by Linda Stager
O
ne night last August I drove past this scene of a beautiful farm perfectly framed in the cradle of a field of tall corn stalks on Ridge Road in Middlebury Township, Tioga County. To top the scene off was the appearance of the “Belt of Venus,” a mostly summertime atmospheric phenomenon that happens during civil twilight (the technical term for just after sunset). When it is a perfect, clear, low-humidity night, this rosy pink band of color near the horizon appears. It all came together that night to create this scene in one of my favorite neighborhoods.
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