To help folks understand the concept of reporter's privilege - at issue in the Dover intelligent design trial - we put forth a column of explanation. I hope this makes the concept a little clearer:
Jason (jshow16@suscom.net), an autograph collector, has picked up the "mother lode,‿ a Babe Ruth signature from the 1920s. It was written on Hotel Penn letterhead.
Where was the Hotel Penn, he asked?
It’s George M. Leader and Tom Ridge on the same ticket.
Yorkblog.com officially went live this weekend. For those interested in the official launch proclamation, I've posted my York Sunday News column for Sept. 25.
Happy motoring.
Often, the work of a writer doing journalism overlaps with that of the researcher doing history.
It has been said journalists write the first draft of history. As time passes, historians take the long view of that draft, often adding perspective and context.
A fun part of my job comes when both journalism and history synch up... .
I receive several queries each week from genealogists and researchers who are trying to figure out how to get started in their study of many-layered York County and its interwoven families. Some researchers are simply trying to bore through a box canyon and need a bit of guidance.
Sometimes, they have a question about availability of newspaper microfilm. Other times, they are seeking census information. Often, I'll direct them to the vast resources of the York County Heritage Trust archives, as I did with my response to a query from a frustrated genealogist on Tuesday:
Could you locate Dogtown, Pinchgut or Hollywood on a York County map?
Well, after working my way through the "Gazetteer of York and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania," I can get close.
The South Central Pennsylvania Geneaological Society has produced the 90-page geographical dictionary, listing thousands of county places, prominent and obscure.
Dogtown, for example, covers Adams Street in West York between Princess Street and the Codorus, also known as Highlandtown and Smoketown. Highland Park, an electric or trolley park operated near there in the early 20th century. Reformer Carrie Nation and other notables lectured there, amid the amusement park fun.
An old York County newspaper story tells about brewer Hannes' bout with an aged hermit.
It seems that Hannes produced a beer that stopped headaches, created a good appetite and abolished constipation.
After drinking two quarts, a surveyor was able to run a line without chain, merely seating himself and adjusting his "carriers."
Now the old hermit, Hannes' neighbor, had seven pairs of old leather breeches, some of which had not been washed for "10, 12 or 15 years."
The hermit, thinking Hannes' brewing vat was there for laundering purposes, took advantage of this fortuitous situation.
But he didn't want to be too uncouth. He put just one pair in the first brew, another pair the next time until all seven were cleansed.
"But heavens above!" The Gazette reported. "(T)he story came out, and Hannes lost the title of Doctor, and his famous small-beer acquired the name of breeches-water."
To which, the newspaper’s publisher Solomon Meyer concluded in a note: "Even if our correspondent has made this story up, we can still derive from it this unmistakable lesson, that from all the salves of quacks that hover up and down this country, more harmful stuff is often given to the ignorant as 'medicine.' " ...
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