readers forum Stones From Glass Hopse by K»« V>n Mrlfr I'would llke'lo respond to charges made by Middle Township Committee candidate Bill Deaver about the hiring practices at Township Hall. While'Mr Deaver would have you believe that Middle Township government practices political patronage, I would like to point out that there are many Republicans as well as Democrats who arc employed by the Township of Middle For example, our fine tax assessor ariH tax collector are both Republicans, so are several police officers including sergeants, lieutenante. and patrolman. These people arc employedbecauseof qualifications - not because of political affiliation like Mr Deaver would hive you belipve. I think his charges are a slap in the face to every Middle Townahip. employee , .. HOWEVER, when MR. DEAVER made these charges he did hot tell the public that he was hired because ol party aftiliation rather lhan qualifications Mr Deaver, who is Cape May County's purchasing agent, was hired when he didn’t even have.a purchasing agent's certificate of license - and to thus date, he still does not have his license or certificate. That’s patronagh! Moreover, when Mr. Deaver talks about patronage, why does he fail to criticize His friends in the Municipal Utilities Authority and the county government who hire employees based on the most abusive political • patronage system in the entire stale? Maybe people who live in glass houses shouldn t throw • stones'’ Mr. Deaver has once again criticized something he knoWs nothing about But what do you expect from a person who nevers comes to a Township Committee meeting? If a person like that gets elected he could make some very serious mistakes with your tax dollars. (Kate Van Meter is a private citizen interested in , government) Picking Candidate

For Committee

by wyilam Ackley I have read several articles which have recently ap peared in your paper concerning the race for the seat on Middle Township Committee These articles have been very informative and they give the voting public a chance to decide on the-candidate it would like to represent it on Township Committee. believe that Charles Leusner is the best qualified person based on his knowledge of the issues confronting our township He has been involved in many activities in the community and he discusses issues which affect the v way we live HIS OPPONENT offers only criticism of Mayor DeVico and Township Committee while Chuck discusses the 9-11 emergency telephone number. A Shade Tree Commission, and bringing back the leaf truck. Also, you carried an article where l^eusncr testified about .the poor cable TV. service at a public hearing before the Board of Public Utilities. I think he is the

V

type of candidate who would make a good commit-

t’eeman for our township

William Ackley is a resident of Rio Grande.

— NOTICE TO— Letter Writers

Opinions for our Reader’sf orum should: • Be signed hy Ihf writer and include the writer’s address and phone number Letters can be printed anonymously, but the newspaper must have writer

verification

Dr<E.n t « among other things.

Pumpkins are for Beer and Thought

by Ink Mendelsohn i Consider the pumpkins of the field, how they grow ... and grow ... and grow. However, unlike the biblical lilies, they also toil. , , .. Pumpkins work harder to be useful to people than just about any other fruit, but one matter should be settled immediately. The pumpkin is a fruit, not a vegetable. Smithsonian Institution botanists tell us there’s an easy way to tell a fruit from a vegetable. If it has seeds, it’s a fruit. And that includes cucumbers and squash. In fact, botanically speaking, pumpkins and squash are varieties of the same fruit, Both belong to the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family. Getting down to species, Cucurbita pepo includes both pumpkins and summer squash. But you can’tjniss the pumpkin; it’s the big. round orange one. 7 . .. The pumpkia wasn’t born yesterday. Pumpkins were grown in the Mexican highlands at least 9,000 years ago. In North America, nearly all the Indian tribes planted them, from the Zunis of the Southeast to the Wampanaogs who befriended the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The colonists might have starved if the Indians hadn't taught them how to plant pumpkins, how to bake, bojl and fry pumpkin pulp, how to stew pumpkins with bedns, peas and corn, how to make a coarse bread from pumpkins and how to dry them for the winter, the better to make pumpkin soup. Is it any wonder that an anonymous Pngrim penned these lines around 1630? We have'pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon. If it were not for ppmpkins we should be undone. THE COLONISTS, however, thought up two ways to devour the delectable pumpkin all by themselves. One was pumpkin beer - made from pumpkin, maple sugar and persimmons which were allowed to ferment. The flavor, it was reported, wasn't the same as beer, but the effect was. The other was, of course, pumpkin pie. No one knows who served the first pumpkin pie. Pumpkin was, most likely, served at the first Thanksgiving, but not as pie. However, by 1796, when Amelia Simmons published the first recipe for pumpkin pie. the dessert hod already become a tradition at Thanksgiving celebrations. SARAH HALI^s editor of Godey’s Lady's Book, a

popular Victorian magazine, lobbied to establish Thanksgiving as a national feast day and called pumpkin pie "an indispensable part of a good and true Thanksgiving " President Lincoln decreed the last Thrusday in November as an official day of Thanksgiving in 1863 - making the pumpkin pie official, too. Pumpkins were food for thought as well. A notorious loner, Henry David Thoreau, told the world, "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion." Mark Twain, a notorious cynic, remarked, "...it is generally conceded that the pumpkin as a shade tree is a failure." * Mark Twain ma* h?ve pounced upon the pumpkin s only inadequacy. In the past, pumpkins have been used as containers for everything from soup to feathers, as halfshelled guides for round Pilgrim haircuts, as weather predictors when the frost was on them, as a house for Peter Pumpkin Eater’s wife and as a coach for you-know.-SOON THESE giants of the fruit world will enter yet another arena. They will be engaged in a battle of the bulge for the "Grand International Pumpkmship Title, the heavyweight title of the pumpkin world. Held each fall in Half Moon Bay, Calif., the pumpkin capital of the Golden State, the contest is expected to draw thousands of partisans. Top-seeded contenders from the United States will be pitted against world class comers from Nova Scotia, Canada. Last year’s winner from Nova Scotia weighed 391 pounds. Move over, Mr. Thoreau, these pumpkins are big enough for two or three or more. And you thought pumpkins were only good for jack-o'-lanterns or to be processed and put into cans for pumpkin pies. Just remember, that in addition to all of its other attributes, the pumpkin is a symbol of eternal hope. Why else would Linus wait in his pumpkin patch year after year - suffering the slings and arrows of scorn and skepticism from that famous scqrner, Lucy, and that ever-famous skeptic, Snoopy? Great Pumpkins! (Ink Mendelsohn is a Wfiter for the Smithsonian News

Service.)

Coming Back to Inadequate TV

• Deal with one topic of issue in an accurate,

nonlibelous manner

CAPe WlAY COUrVTY

Puhthilird Kvfry H'rtnrsd* Th*SeiwBvM orpomllon Jacob Schaad Jr.

Honnir Reina John Dunwooay Darrell Kopp

Hsralfc Managing Editor General Manager Advertising Coordinator Publisher

SmowovCotp mt . All fOMrriMl ah p»ooof«y Id* tho omw* ol »K.» publxo'ton thoH b* ft'opt", ol Uowoio Co*p No po>< Woo* n*Oy b* ■•p'oduiod mlbout p'«x mt.llon <ontonl

DEADLINES News & Photos

Advertising Classified Advertising

Thursday Friday • 3 p.m. . Friday-3 p.m.

t W7-3312 For News Or Advertising Information 1 Srlther porlklpplln* »«l*lYUirrs "<>r On 1 |nibli*hrr» ol Ihr HKHAI II AMI I.ANTKKN Will hr rr*pon*lhk of llahlr lor mlOnformatlnn. mUprlntv np«*r«phlc»l rrnn» Hr.. In in* Inur The editor resent* the rlRht loedll pn> teller or artirln submitted (or puhllrp.

Lower Township

LANTERN

1‘ublhhed Every Wedne*d»* B> The Seawave (orporalton

HO Bo*4M Cold Spring. N J 082M

by Jane Ann Cunningham Arriving home in Cape May County after a trip through Pennsylvania, I was once more reminded of the inadequacy of South Jersey's television coverage. To be more accurate, I should have said ALL of New Jersey s coverage. After a week spent viewing the nightly news hi three different sections of Keystone State, (the Lancaster area, Centre County and the northeastern section), the differences are striking Because we have become so accustonfed to being inundated with news from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, we don’t realize how much we are missing. Except for our local Channel 40 and our unsatisfactoryjeducational sUition, Channel 23. the amount of informiRion wc get from TV about our state and our region is gHiful. In each of the three regions we were in, although nhey had channels from larger cities, each had one oPtwo which were regional. The Lancaster sution, l about the same distance from Philadelphia as Atlantic City), is the station that New Jersey officials challenge each license renewal, petitioning the FCC lo have its signal moved to New Jersey. So far. they have been unsuccessful. Lancaster area residents receive not only Philadelphia and Baltimore stations. but gel good coverage of whal is going on in their own area and their statehouse from the local station and the Harrisburg one. in Central Pennsylvania. Altoona and Johnstown inform the residents of local and stale news, and the Pitt sburgh channel gives them a broader view In Northeastern Pennsylvania local channels supplement those from the large metropolitan areas.

MOST PENNSYLVANIANS SEEM TO GET a tremendous amount of information about what is happening in thier counties and their sta'e compared to what we get in New Jersey. Is it any wonder New Jersey has the reputa lion of being corrupt? Is it any wonder New Jerseyans have a poor self-image? Philadelphia and New York Tv stations give the minimum FCC-mandated time to New Jersey news, and it is usually about an Atlantic City jackpot winner, an overturned truck on Rt. 73 or something of equal significance. We racely know of what our senators and congressmen are doing, let alone what our state representatives, and our freeholders are. We know more about the search for a school superintendent in Philadelphia than we know of what laws our Assembly is considering. For those of us who once enjoyed the fine programs on Channel 12. many of which Channel 23 doesn’t carry or presents at odd times, the difference is aggravating. One striking example is Wall Street Week. In each area, it was presented between 7 and 8. In fact, even in the Virgin Islands it tomes on each Friday night at the same time it does on Channel 12. On Channel 23, it is often listed for Friday night at 10:30, but more often than not. another production usurps the time. (They do have a repeat at some strange time over the weekend.) Other popular programs just do not appear on Channel 23. It’s obvious that the state of New Jersey and its millions of residents have a lower priority with the FCC than cities such as Lancaster, Johnstown and Altoona. (Jane Ann Cunningham is the former publisher of The Herald)