| Escape to Orlando
It was just beginning to rain when I got out of the car. Not rain, really, more of a sprinkle, the kind that's warm and touches you so gently that you don't think of it as getting wet.
This wasn't my first sighting of Lake Eola. There was something about the lake that had instantly charmed me, kept me coming back for drive-bys so that finally I just had to park the car and get out, walk on the grass, take a few pictures--a welcome escape from the thrill-a-minute overload of the theme parks this city is best known for.
Here, no movie theme songs blared, no cartoon characters awaited. I didn't have to worry when the next performance would start, because there weren't any. And I didn't have to stand in line; there weren't any of those either.
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Seven confirmed dead after bus plunges into river in NW China
URUMQI, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a bus accident in northwest China rose to seven on Tuesday after divers retrieved the last body from a river into which the bus plunged. Divers recovered the last body at midday on Tuesday from the 10-meter deep, Nangan irrigation channel in Alaer City, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The bus, with 19 people on board including the driver, veered off the road and into the river at 3:40 p.m. on Thursday due to a steering wheel malfunction. Twelve managed to escape. Three bodies were found in the 40-seat bus which was lifted out of water six hours after the accident. Two bodies were retrieved Friday and one was found on Monday in the river.
F. Culver, 100, news carrier
Floyd Culver, 100, of South Philadelphia, a beloved newspaper deliveryman for 60 years, died Tuesday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after suffering a stroke. Seven days a week since 1947, Mr. Culver (respectfully called Mr. Floyd by his clients) loaded up his battered black bicycle, equipped with an oversize basket, and delivered The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News to more than 300 homes along his route. Every morning, Mr. Culver rose at 2, cooked a breakfast of bacon, eggs, grits and coffee, and picked up his newspapers from a storefront at 18th and Bainbridge Streets. No matter the weather, Mr. Culver delivered newspapers faithfully to customers who loved and respected him. He earned about $40 a day. "He was more reliable than the post office," said his daughter, Brenda Taylor.
Beech Hill stone hut restored in Rockport
Coastal Mountains Land Trust of Camden, which owns and manages the Beech Hill Preserve, recently completed restoration of the building from its foundations to its sod roof.Land Trust staff and board members will be on hand to talk about the history of Beech Hill, now on the National Register of Historic Places, and the process of bringing Beech Nut back from the brink of total deterioration. A shuttle will be available for those unable to make the climb up the road to the hut.The Land Trust engaged Scholz & Barclay Architecture of Camden to design the restoration, based on a previous historic evaluation of Beech Nut conducted by the preservation architecture firm Barba & Wheelock. The general contract for construction was awarded to Landmark Construction of Warren, whose workmen and subcontractors have worked with great care to bring Beech Nut back to its original glory.During the process all of the wood structure in the floor and roof was removed due to rot, and the building was reduced to its stone walls.
Reminders that drivers can be intolerant of cyclists
When I heard the report on CNN a week ago, my worst fear about bicycling on roads was confirmed: The anger of some motorists toward cyclists goes beyond the inconvenience of sharing pavement. In Arizona, a judge sentenced 27-year-old Melissa Arrington to more than 10 years, actually one shy of the maximum, for negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated DUI for running into and killing cyclist Paul L'Ecuyer on Dec. 1, 2006. While the minimum sentence is four years, the judge's decision to give her a harsher penalty was due to a telephone conversation she had with a male friend that was taped one week after the accident. During the conversation, the man told Arrington that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had "taken out" a "tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot." Instead of showing remorse, Arrington laughed.
B-N's first 'smart fortwo' car hits streets
McDaniel is smiling, too.After a nearly yearlong wait, he has the Twin Cities' first “smart fortwo" car. He picked it up in St. Louis on Monday and spent most of the day Tuesday showing it off to friends and co-workers.“I think it's great," said John Rediger, heating and air conditioning supervisor at Country Insurance. “I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's got plenty of room."You wouldn't guess it from the outside. The car, which only measures 8.8 feet long, 5.1 feet tall and 5.1 feet wide, takes up only half a parking space.“It only looks small from the outside," McDaniel said. “It's half of car. It has three cylinders instead of six and weighs 1,700 pounds instead of 3,400."That leads to decent gas mileage — 41 miles per gallon on the highway and 33 miles per gallon in town. (It uses premium gasoline.)“It has an 8-gallon tank, and I had 200 miles on it and still had half of tank of gas," McDaniel said.It's also ecologically friendly.The smart fortwo, produced in France by smart, a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, is painted with water-soluble paints.
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