Scribbler

A few weeks ago, Mr. and Mrs. Scribbler wandered around the Sunnyside peninsula. The peninsula is formed by a large horseshoe bend of the Conestoga River at Lancaster City’s southern end. We were searching for any sign of a trail along the water.

Hong Neok Woo, one of at least 10 Chinese men who served in the Union or Confederate armies during the American Civil War, worked as a pressman for a Lancaster newspaper before returning to Shanghai in 1864 and becoming a priest and medical assistant.

Robyn and Michael Hodgson were carefully exploring an abandoned house when Robyn fell through the living room floor.

Radically intelligent alien beings create a supercomputer called Deep Thought in Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Deep Thought’s sole purpose is to determine “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Deep Thought spends 7 1/2 million y…

Columbia historians know their town once was known as Hempfield, but this designation is news to the Scribbler.

If you live in Manheim Township or Millersville, you may find this difficult to believe: Up to 10% of Lancaster County residents speak Pennsylvania Dutch. Many also speak English, but at home they generally speak Deitsch.

Bruce Levine presented a vivid virtual lecture on Thaddeus Stevens a few days ago. The retired history professor based his LancasterHistory-sponsored talk on his new biography, “Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice.”

Ken Miller has been searching for and photographing the extant lime kilns of Lancaster County for decades. He always said he was going to write a book about them. He finally has done that. The result is splendid.

The section of the Conestoga upstream from the city of Lancaster often is called a “creek.” Below the city, the waterway is called either a “creek” or a “river.”