ARCHIVED NEWSSTAND FEBRUARY 2002

Welcome to The Borodino Bullett Online Newsletter. We are STILL The Unofficial and irreverent voice for an area of Central New York that almost no one knows exists.

NEW SECTION: THE WALL

Interviews with live humans. This week on The Wall:

INTERVIEW WITH POST- STANDARD REPORTER,  SARA ERRINGTON

Sara Errington is the government reporter for The Post-Standard's Neighbor's West, covering Spafford, Geddes, Jordan, Marcellus, Solvay, and Onondaga. What's her secret? Jumbo cups of coffee "from Marcellus" and "generic brand" raisins. Learn more...

Some of the articles written by Sara about Spafford in 2001:

• 7/18/01 To Neighbors: A Sad Gateway to Spafford

• 8/16/01 Town wants property complaints in writing

• 10/11/01 Borodino volunteer group builds a sense of community

• 11/15/01 Fear of tainted soil undermines Borodino improvement project

• 12/6/01 Joyce Green's got the scoop on Borodino

• 12/20/01 Spafford goes grocery shopping in Borodino

BORODINO BARNS
Painted by watercolor artist, Susan Spencer. Many thanks to Michael Spencer for his permission to include this wonderful picture in The Bullett. Click here to visit the Susan Spencer website.

KEN'S CABLE UPDATE
Just spoke to Adelphia's Construction Coordinator. Here is the status as of today, 2/20:

Verizon's work is complete
Alltell has started their work and has completed as much as possible.
They are waiting for NYSEG to complete some new construction. They expect to complete work on April 12th. NYSEG's work is progressing. Interface Cabinet has been designed and construction of the pad is scheduled to commence mid March. Adelphia expects to start attaching cable to the poles in late April. 

Thanks to Ken Lieberman for providing this continual update.

PIRNIE REPORT
Dr. Peter Pirnie has written another letter to the Spafford Town Supervisor and Councilmen, dated February 11th. Read here...

COMPUTER SECURITY
How safe is your computer? Run a test and see. Find out what you can do to stop spam in its tracks, protect your computer now.

BORODINO FIRE HOUSE GRILL OPEN SATURDAYS
Hi!  It's me, Gerard. Where can you get  breakfast for only $3? Eggs, sausage, toast and juice or coffee served up with an angelic smile, every Saturday from 8-11 AM at the Fire House on  Nunnery Rd. until further notice. 

The Borodino Fire Department has a new web page (hosted by The Bullett) in hopes of increasing public awareness and involvement. 

Post- Standard crime & safety writer, Dick Clarke,  interviewed Borodino FD President, Matt O'Brien about their need for community support and new recruits. See this Neighbors West article written 1/10/02, "Borodino firefighter sounds alarm over recruiting." 

AND SPEAKING OF FIRE FIGHTERS...Subject: Amazing Ice Sculpture

This is an ice sculpture made by a lady in Timmins, Ontario for their
winter carnival this year.  Open this to see why she won!

(fireman-angel.jpg - 270 kb--takes a while to open--at least until we have Adelphia cable here!) Use your browser's Back button to return to this page.

This was sent to us by Bill Littlehales, who says he received it from a former EDS co-worker. 

ORIGIN OF VALENTINES
As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. The names of teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men.

Thus, a man was assigned a woman companion, for their mutual entertainment and pleasure (often sexual), for the duration of a year, after which another lottery was staged.

Determined to put an end to this 800-year-old practice, the early church fathers sought a "lovers" saint to replace the deity Lupercus. They found a likely candidate in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some 200 years earlier.

Traditionally, mid-February was a time for Romans to meet and court prospective mates. Young men offered women they admired and wished to court handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The cards acquired St. Valentine's name.

As Christianity spread, so did the Valentine's Day card. The earliest one was sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. It is now in the British Museum.

The first American publisher of Valentines was printer and artist Esther Howland. Her elaborate lace cards of the 1870s cost from five to ten dollars, with some selling for as much as thirty-five dollars. Since that time, the Valentine card business has flourished. Except for Christmas, Americans exchange more cards on Valentine's Day than at any other time of the year. 

Excerpted from "Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday things," Charles Panati, Harper & Row, NY 1987 pp 50-52

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