Off Deadline

New look for yorkdispatch.com

By now, readers of our Web site,  I hope, have seen our new look. Late Monday afternoon, we unveiled this.
It’s not really a huge transformation, but it does mark a change for us. Our masthead, long a replica of our print masthead, is now its own look. I like to think it’s a bit snazzier, as my mother would say.

But don’t let me be the judge. What do you think?

Probably more important to readers is what appears on the Web site. Today’s story about arrest reports in York City schools for the last school year is a real eye-opener. The district says there was one, yes one, arrest in all of 2008-09. The police say otherwise.

We, too, tend to see that figure as low. As regular police scanner listeners, we know how often police get called to city schools each day at dismissal time. Bottom line is this report, apparently, leaves open a pretty big loophole in how arrests are reported.

Sen. Jeff Piccola has plans to change that. Read our editorial about those plans here.

Also today, don’t miss the neat story about Gov. Ed Rendell coming back on a plane from Haiti with 53 orphans. After a week of horrid news out of that country, finally a story that might make you smile.

Finally, I apologize for my long absence on this site. I have no good excuse, so I won’t offer one. But I plan to return to regular blogging. Gotta have something for the non-American Idol watchers like myself to read. OK, so there’s only 10 of them out there, but still…

Goodbye, friend

This is a hard one to write. Everything seems so trite.

Sgt. Bill Cahir, who used to report on Washington, D.C., for The York Dispatch/Sunday News as well as The Evening Sun in Hanover (when I was editor there), was killed in Afghanistan.

I shouldn’t have identified him just as a reporter; he was also a friend. One of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever known.

We worked together for several years. After 9/11, he said he wanted to take a leave from the newspaper and join the Marines - not as an embed, but as a Marine. He was 34, and just made it in under the age requirements.

We all thought he was nuts. But he felt his duty passionately. I’ve never met another person like him.

About a year after he left the newspaper, he wrote a Sunday piece about boot camp and life as a Marine. Reading it, I remember thinking he hadn’t changed at all. And that was a good thing.

Later, I read he was running for Congress in his home district in Bellefonte, near State College. He lost that race, and I lost track of him. Just kind of assumed he was still back home.

Bill friended me on Facebook a few months ago, and I was happy to hear from him, surprised to see he was still in uniform. We only kept in touch through photo postings and status updates.

Today I read in the news accounts of his death that his wife, Rene, is pregnant with twins. May they grow up knowing what a great guy their Dad was.

Rest in peace, Bill. You made a difference.

Check out our e-edition

Want to read The York Dispatch on your computer screen?

Paste this address - http://yorkdispatch.pa.newsmemory.com - in your browser, and enjoy The York Dispatch e-edition.

It contains everything that’s in our print edition, an exact replica, plus you can change your screen layout, move easily through pages and sections, save and send articles, and search an archive of past editions.

It’s free until Aug. 22. Take a look around, and let me know what you think.

More on this later…

Fiddle dee done

Boy, nothing like a story about food to get people talking.

Monday, business reporter Chris Kauffman learned the Harp & Fiddle downtown and LaMotte’s in New Freedom both had closed. For different reasons, but both still closed.

As soon as we posted Chris’ story about the Harp & Fiddle to the Web site, it started climbing the Top 10 Most Read list, eventually sitting there through today. And the comments came pouring in: People were shocked. They’d just eaten there. They loved the bar. They hated the bar. They loved the food. They hated the food. They saw this coming. They never saw this coming.

Several commenters blamed the restaurant’s demise on crime in the city, but I don’t buy that. How would you explain the Left Bank staying open then? I work on this block. It has crime, but that didn’t shut down this restaurant. More likely, the economy did it, just as the owner says. But the place always was crowded when I ate there, so go figure. I will miss their cashel blue chicken salad….

As for LaMotte’s, OK that’s a horse of a different color. This place was shut down for health and building code violations. Commenters on this story were equally disgusted by the description of those violations as they were nostalgic for the best crab cakes in York County. Kind of hard reconciling one image with the other, you know?

I only ate at LaMotte’s once, but wow, that was some crab cake. Many people I’ve met over the years mention LaMotte’s crab cakes when they hear I live in York. But I don’t imagine there’s going to be much of that anymore…Sad.

Here’s hoping both establishments get new life.

Voters stay with change

Wow, what a primary election!

All day Tuesday, as we in the newsroom were discussing the possibilities, I maintained Stan Rebert was a lock again for district attorney. He’s been challenged so many times, and won so many times, it just stood to reason this year would be no different. Wrong!

The same reasoning could be applied to the Harrisburg mayor’s race, where Stephen Reed has ruled since 1982. Again, wrong!

I was right, however, in the York City mayor’s results. Kim Bracey clearly was going to take that one. And I’m pleased with the Warrington Township decision to allow alcohol sales, if only because it’ll help a local business: Ski Roundtop.

As far as primaries go, this was a good one. And, I think it echoes the theme set by our new president last fall: We want change.

You are what you look like?

Two people who have captured folks’ attention in the last week offer an interesting study in contrasts:

* Susan Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent contestant with the homely face and lovely voice.

* Philip Markoff, the accused Craigslist killer with the good looks and allegedly evil heart.

The pairing of these two stories is perfect.  In the one, we’re shocked - some to the point of tears, for goodness sake - at the talent an ugly woman can have.

In the other, we’re shocked at the thought that a handsome 22-year-old medical student with a pretty fiancee could be a killer.

Somehow Boyle as killer and Markoff as singer makes more sense to us, right?

The underlying thread tying these stories together is, of course, prejudice.

We expect certain things of our beautiful, our privileged, our elite….and it’s not murder. We expect nothing from our frumpy, our middle-aged, our weak…and we sure can’t even imagine success.

We should be ashamed.

The Revs lay an egg

Up until yesterday, I would have told anyone that I thought the York Revolution marketing group was doing a great job in sustaining interest in the team and the sport and a night out at a nice stadium.

From booking local bands to play outside the gates before games, to scheduling special interest nights that appeal to just about everyone, to those funny little kids who dress up as fruit and run the bases….all good stuff. All good family stuff, and pretty cheap. Plus I love baseball.

Then yesterday.

Our Revolution reporter Jeff Johnson and photographer Bill Kalina came back from the first day of spring training with a story about a 3-foot-2-inch player, Dave Flood. Really. It’s his job to draw the walk, which should be easy since finding his strike zone should be impossible.

From the get-go, this struck me as weird, but I thought “Hey, why not give a little person who plays well a chance?'’ Boy was that naive (not the first time I’ve realized that about myself). Flood isn’t even a baseball player. He’s a radio personality. And he can’t even walk off the field well. He uses a golf cart.

He seems like a nice guy, and he invokes the name of Eddie Gaedel of the 1951 St. Louis Browns. He says he’s serious about this.

OK, so this is entertainment pure and simple. The Revs have found a new low, even for an organization that’s as much about entertainment as it is sport. This organization didn’t have to do this.

Manager Chris Hoiles doesn’t look all that comfortable in this video talking about this ”experiment,'’ a word he used six times in 60 seconds when Jeff Johnson was talking to him.

I’m uncomfortable with the whole of it. Of course it’s not my decision. If Flood wants to play baseball and is serious about it, that should be enough, right? To put himself on display like this…well, that’s his choice.

I don’t think I’m the only one who finds this distasteful. But if this guy does make the team, the Revs better hope I am, because this gimmick could backfire.

Death, and taxes

I come out of the long winter blog hibernation today to talk about … death.

Seems appropriate, given the weather. (I could say that every day lately. Sheesh, we’ve had enough rain already, but you know the forecasters will still say we’re in a drought no matter how wet this spring is.)

Anyway, I digress. We’re here to talk about death. Notable deaths. And how yesterday brought a bunch of them.

First, Harry Kalas. Ah, the Voice of the Phillies. I know his voice as well as I know my own mother’s. Growing up in suburban Philadelphia in the ’60s and ’70s, I couldn’t help it. He was always there. Huge loss for Phillies fans. But we’re all so glad he got to announce a Phillies World Championship last year. We’ll miss you, Harry!

Next, and baseball again: Mark “The Bird'’ Fidrych, former Major League pitcher who only played a few seasons in the 1970s. But he was Rookie of the Year in 1976, and I remember him well for his antics on the mound. He got his nickname because he looked like Big Bird from Sesame Street. He was a hoot, really.

The third death, which I didn’t learn about until last night, was Marilyn Chambers of porn-movie fame, also in the ’70s. Now, calm down, I’m not going to sing her praises - just noting that a famous person died on a day two others also did. According to her obit, she’s credited with “bringing hard-core adult films into the mainstream.'’ Really? I just knew her as someone lots of guys talked about when I was growing up. Now I know why.

And the final death, a much more personal one for me: My computer hard drive. Yep, got the blue screen of death yesterday morning and by noon four years of work was gone forever. It’ll take me the rest of the week to even figure out what I don’t have anymore, but I’m working on it. Meantime, if you’ve sent me anything in the last four years or so and really think I need it….resend.

I’m really hoping this death theme goes away…just in time for tax day.

We need more free food

I think I’ve found a way to stimulate the economy: All restaurants in York County should follow the lead of Denny’s and Arby’s by offering free food for one day.

Last month, Denny’s dished out free Grand Slam Breakfasts for about six hours on a Tuesday, and the place was packed. Just yesterday, Arby’s gave away a new RoastBurger to anyone who purchased any size soda. The manager of the East Market Street store estimates they went through about 1,900 sandwiches.

OK, so you’re wondering how anything free can stimulate the economy, right? Well, chances are that folks will pay for something else if they think they’re getting something, anything for free. That’s clearly what Arby’s was doing, and Denny’s was banking on people trying something for free then coming back and paying for it another time.

I say we need more free stuff.

I’d like Giant to offer free groceries for a week, Tom’s to give away one free tank of gas, PetSmart to donate a 10 lb. bag of free cat (or dog) food and/or cat litter or pooper-scooper bags, and the beverage store a free case of soda or beer. Not both, that would be piggish.

I’d also like York Water Co. to give me one month free in the summer garden-watering months and Met-Ed to give me one month free in the winter high-heating-cost months.

I think Bon-Ton and Target and Boscovs need to excuse me one month’s payment but NOT have that amount held over the next month plus accrued interest.

I think iTunes should give each of my teenagers’ one day’s free downloads and Comcast should forgo Pay-Per-View fees for one weekend.

Add to this the stuff I’ve always thought just ought to be free…like toilet paper and paper towels and shampoo and toothpaste and potato chips. You know, essential stuff.

I think I might be onto something here, something big the government might want to consider as we navigate these rough economic waters. Hmmm, I’m thinking I might be better at this than Bernanke and Greenspan.

Those guys made a ton of money getting us to this sorry state. Heck, I’d do it for free …. if it meant folks just stop losing their jobs.

All the Presidents Day stories

Briefly on this Presidents Day:

So that’s why gas prices keep rising while the cost of a barrel of oil doesn’t. Read our story by Chris Kauffman if you’re wondering the same thing.

And speaking of Chris, don’t miss her four-part series starting Tuesday on what to do if you become unemployed. From how to file a claim to how to get health insurance to how to get job training, we hope to cover it all. Whew, scary times indeed when this story is warranted, huh?

Speaking of scary, recession-filled times, read this story about your favorite foods that might be disappearing from store shelves.

And finally, some good economic news from a local business.