Betty Lee Devers, in character as Dolly Levy from ‘Hello, Dolly’, hugs a young guest at the St. David’s Tea, held on Tuesday evening at Dr. Edwards Memorial Congregational Church in Edwardsville.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Diamonds to Dr. Edwards Memorial Congregational Church in Edwardsville for again hosting their St. David’s Tea this week, an event that celebrates the church’s rich Welsh heritage and brings together folks of all ages to laugh at a few jokes, sing a collection of songs in both English and Welsh, and savor copious amounts of home-made bread and Welsh cookies with tea or coffee. This year the featured entertainment was “Changing Habits,” a collection of exceptionally high-spirited women from Gate of Heaven Church in Dallas who start out singing in black habits as religious sisters but morph throughout their performance into top-hatted formal wear, feather-in-cap marching band members, veiled brides with bouquets, and —for a broadway medley — play characters like Annie Oakley, Dolly Levi, Little Orphan Annie, and Nelli Forbush. The latter, from the South Pacific, had a head of faux suds (cotton balls) with little figures of men she could yank out and toss. Great fun, great food and a great tradition.
Coal to the Sugarloaf Township man who not only engaged in cockfighting but didn’t make an effort to deny it in court, entering a no-contest plea to a single count of animal fighting as part of a plea agreement. In exchange for the plea deal, prosecutors withdrew a whopping 828 felony and misdemeanor counts of animal fighting, criminal conspiracy and neglect of animals. The case began when SPCA of Luzerne County humane officers found chickens that were not being fed and were living in filth. They then found evidence that roosters and chickens were being used in cockfighting. It is, simply put, a barbaric practice that should have faded forever decades ago.
Diamonds to the many local celebrations of Read Across America week, an annual event highlighting the works of Dr. Seuss while encouraging youngsters to pick up a book —lost of books, preferably —on a regular basis. Many local schools, like Northwest Area Primary, combine reading instruction with an array of costumes, games, and sometimes snacks. Why Dr. Seuss? Aside from the sheer joy Theodor Seuss Geisel brought to children and adults through his inventive prose and creative illustrations, he also made countless lifelong readers. The list of benefits to being a reader is long, but in true Seussian fashion, the inventor of the Grinch and The Cat in the Hat kept it profoundly simple: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Coal to another case of alleged animal fighting, this one with dogs. A federal grand jury in Scranton indicted a West Hazleton man with selling drugs, and while executing a search warrant, found 28 dogs, including puppies, in crates, as well as evidence of animal fighting and medications. They also found a spring pole in the yard, used for dogs to grab onto to strengthen their jaws and upper bodies, and a treadmill used to build the canines’ endurance. The comment about cockfighting applies here as well, though this is arguably worse because dogs can be particularly trusting of their owners, compounding the physical abuse.
