November 10, 2004

Visiting the Crackerman of Etna

Today's Ithaca Journal Our Towns section visits the Crackerman of Etna, a baking business run by John and Beverly Bender of Etna. They've revived old-style crackers, and bake them in their house, a real cottage industry. If you want to try them but don't want to drive into Ithaca, Ludgate Farms carries the crackers, as well as cookies and biscuits.

In Dryden Town Talk, Cathy Wakeman reports on the $250 grant the Dryden Youth Opportunity Fund donated to the Garden Club at Dryden Elementary School. The Garden Club is growing several different gardens, including one of potatoes that go to the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard to be given away. She also notes that the second annual Dryden Athletic Club Hall of Fame will be held on Saturday, November 13th, at 7pm in the Dryden High School gym.

Briefly in Dryden reports that there will be a Women's Business Showcase on Sunday, November 21st from 11:00am to 4:00pm at the Dryden Veterans Memorial Home, and that the Dryden Youth Commission is looking for a new member.

The Community Calendar and Today's Events (both print-only) list the Dryden Democrats' post-election gathering tonight at 7:30pm at the Dryden Town Hall, 65 East Main Street, Dryden (map). Democrats and Independents are welcome.

At the county level, only four people attended a public hearing on the county budget last night, two of them municipal officials.

On the Opinion Page, the Journal published a letter from me criticizing our state legislators and the Journal's coverage of them. Unfortunately, they trimmed my last line, I think dodging a bullet aimed squarely at them. Here's the original final paragraph, with the missing line in bold.

The Syracuse Post-Standard published a series last month on borrowing through state authorities that the leadership uses to reward members loyal to them. More than $30 million of that spending landed in Tompkins County. I haven't seen a word about that here.

Last time they trimmed a letter of mine, I thought they made it stronger. This time I wonder about their ability to take criticism. Trimming that sentence makes it sound like that $30 million of borrowed money might be a good thing, which is pretty definitely not what I meant. Fortunately, I have my own media outlet!

Posted by simon at November 10, 2004 8:30 AM in , , , , , ,
Note on photos

2 Comments

NYCO said:

The Crackerman of Etna... sounds like a scary bedtime story. "Be good or else the Crackerman of Etna will get you!"

Unfortunately there are still people who think Dryden is Village of the Damned... now there's this Crackerman of Etna character... hmmm...

I'll send you some crackers and I suspect you'll think more kindly of the Crackerman. They're really tasty!