Free Press – March 23, 2006

Unclaimed Property, Gibbons Surgery, Riegler Buchanan, Globalization, Hall Of Fame

Dear Friends,

Good morning. It pays to read newspapers. Last Saturday, I read an article about how to look for unclaimed property. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer (March 18), more than 80,000 people and places may have unclaimed cash, about a billion dollars, all told. It’s sitting in the Pennsylvania State treasury. “The commonwealth is in the midst of its annual ad campaign to find the rightful owners,” the article reported.

Mighty Betsy ordered me to the computer to see whether the state was holding several million dollars for us? The Inquirer listed a website (www.patreasury.org) and a phone number (1-800-222-2046).

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news was that billions are not awaiting us. The good news is that the state is holding several General Motors dividend checks for us…but it’s less than $100. The website provided forms and we’ll see what happens. We better act quickly. I’m not certain whether GM will be around much longer.

The moral of the story is obvious…seek and you may find.

Item.

Did you see that Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons is now a nonsmoker? After successful quadruple heart bypass surgery, Gibbons (47) is calling it quits on smoking.

The same thing happened to me 25 years ago. I was 46 when I (like Gibbons) failed a stress test culminating with bypass surgery. I too was a heavy smoker and promptly gave it up, vowing to smoke an occasional cigar if I ever reached 70. Last August, on my 70^th birthday, I lighted up a big, ugly, smelly cigar and promptly got sick. “Serves you right,” Mighty Betsy purred sweetly.

The moral of the Gibbons/ Meredith story is…don’t smoke and it pays to have a stress test after your 45^th birthday.

Item.

The Pennridge-Quakertown Area Sports Hall of Fame has sent ballots out to the membership. Three candidates from each area will be inducted at the annual banquet on May 12.

The Quakertown nominees are: Sylvia (Moyer) Angstadt, Dave Evans, Todd Youngbood, Earl Rodenberger, Shirley (Neas) Merring, and Arlington (Puts) Lewis.

The Pennridge nominees are: Alan Frick, Karl Oettel, Don Spier, Elwood (Pete) Ehly, Joan Price, Bruce Constanzer, Robert Arnter, Eric Fargo, Mark Hollenbach, Phyllis Shaak, and Kenneth Kratz, Jr.

Members must cast their ballots by March 30. If you not don’t belong to the Hall of Fame association, it’s easy to join. Call the Secretary, Bill Cramp at 215-536-2467 or the Treasurer, Emma Whitney at 215-536-4150 and they’ll tell you how to sign up.

One of the Pennridge candidates, Karl Oettel graduated from Sell-Perk (the precursor of Pennridge) in 1938. His candidacy intrigued me not because he lettered in baseball and track. He was an outstanding athlete and pitched a no- hit, no run game during his high school career. But he also won letters in cheer leading.

We generally think of high school cheer leading as a female activity. But at my college alma mater, 50 years ago, all the cheerleaders were male. You were a big man on campus if you were a cheerleader. Come to think of it, when you see college football these days, the cheer leading is evenly divided among the sexes.

Item.

Father Fred Riegler sent an email commenting on my March 15^th column. In it, I extolled the virtues of Condoleeza Rice and thought she’d make an excellent president. “Where does one sign up for the ‘Draft Condoleeza Rice’ movement,” the St. Isidore’s pastor wrote? “She would be outstanding. I am afraid that politically she would not stand a chance. My own bias is obvious in this area since she comes from a clergy family! Condoleeza has always shown what we sorely need in this country: lots of class.”

Bravo, Father Fred. That’s one of the qualities I admire in him. He’s outspoken and unafraid of taking strong positions. Father Fred was also critical of Pennsylvania’s only President, James Buchanan, and agrees that he deserves to be listed as the number one, worst blundering Presidents. “Fortunately, his successor (Abraham Lincoln) was the finest example of leadership,” Riegler added. “Incidentally, historians are almost evenly divided as to whether Washington or Lincoln was our greatest president.”

Last item.

One of our friends sent this little gem via the Internet. What is the truest definition of Globalization, she asked? She went on to answer: Princess Diana’s death. Why?

“An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scotch whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines,” our friend began.

“This is sent to you by an Englishman, using Bill Gates’ technology, and you’re probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals…That, my friends, is Globalization.”

Ho Ho!

Next week, we’ll look at the chances of commuter train service beginning any time soon, and why the national anthem is so hard to sing…and remember.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith