Sunday News

We gazed at real stars

No way out

Notes, quotes and anecdotes and a comment:

Children are lucky today. In my day, we only had "stars" in sports, music, movies, etc. Today, they have superstars.

One of the stars in my early years was Stan "The Man" Musial, of the St. Louis Cardinals, who died recently at the age of 92. One night, as I was watching a Phillies game with my father and learning the finer points of baseball, Musial led off the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game with a homer that literally left the old St. Louis ballpark. My father immediately got up and turned off the TV. Why, I asked, there were no outs? That's when I learned about last bats and Stan Musial.

Later, when I was sports editor of the Intell, I tried to get an interview with Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver before the season opener. Weaver didn't have time to talk in his office, but said to follow him to the bench to watch fielding practice. I did and had a great (and profane on his part) conversation sitting with him. The most enjoyable part was being interrupted by a writer from Sports Illustrated who introduced himself (no self-esteem problems there) and sat down and asked questions. Even then, Weaver directed the answers to me. As the team was coming off the field, Weaver turned to me and smiled, "Got enough?" He never remembered my name. He called me "Lancaster."

More than enough. Weaver died at 82 on the same day as Musial.

nHow many subscribers do not take the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition? One source says that last year it was just over 21,000 out of 1.56 million magazines.

nWomen and men differ greatly on their favorite Christmas movies. Women lean toward "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life." For men, Esquire magazine reports it's the original "Die-Hard" with Bruce Willis.

nI can't get enough of the restaurant inspections we run every Sunday in the Business section. Recently a food handler at an Ephrata business had to be reminded -- by a state food inspector -- to wash his hands after blowing his nose. He washed his hands in a the ware-washing sink, which brought another warning to use only the hand sink for washing his hands.

nDiane Thompson, the CEO of Camelot, the British company that will take over the state lottery, is a dead-ringer for British actress Judi Dench.

nWord games:

Why do we say we'll have a "more complete" report later? If it is complete, how can it be made more complete?

And what about carmakers who advertise a "completely redesigned" vehicle. Completely?

nIn a recent column on memories of Lancaster gone by, I mentioned the diner that sat at the bottom of South Prince Street. Beulah Markley, whose parents Charles and Violet Stauffer owned the restaurant, called to tell me the name of the diner was Stauffer's Day and Night Diner, although, she said, some called it the Engleside Diner, and still others, the Whispering Diner, because of the nearby Singing Bridge over the Conestoga River. Her parents had the diner from the late 1940s into the 1960s. Other tried to make a go of a restaurant there after the Stauffers, but the building was turned into the present-day motorcycle shop.

Got us lost in a shopping center parking lot the other day looking for an exit.

"People are going to think we're tourists," daughter Abigail, 17, complained.

Hey, I don't get out much.n