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Writing About the Ones That We Love
So I few years ago, I read an article in one of the Pittsburgh newspapers about “The Girl Factory” by Karen Dietrich. This is a young woman’s memoir about growing up in Connellsville,…
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Colonial Snakebite
Snakes fascinate me. Today I pulled down “The Day Must Dawn,” by Agnes Sligh Turnbull. (This is a fiction novel about colonial Westmoreland County and the burning of Hannastown in 1782. The author…
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Mystery Writing
First, I have many special memories about visits to bookstores. I grew up south of Somerset, PA. Even a trip to the “local” bookstore to buy the newest Baby-Sitters Club book was…
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Hey, Westmoreland County Leaders
Trib articles rarely spur me enough to post in the Woytek blog. So this is your lucky night. Tonight I respond to the article Westmoreland County needs more, better branding, leaders say, by…
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The Parade
So tonight I went through the photos that I took in New Kensington in 2017. Most came from the parade on the weekend prior to July 4. This was the 2nd year in…
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Snakes on a Plantation
I listened to a few episodes of The Nod last month. The Nod, by Gimlet Media, is a podcast about Black life hosted by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings. I highly recommend The Nod‘s…
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“A Season with the Witch”
So, I read this book: “A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts,” by J.W. Ocker. J.W. Ocker lived in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife and two…
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The War On Christmas. Also, Happy Solstice!
People get outraged over how other people celebrate December. Centuries ago, people got outraged over how other people celebrated December. Here’s an episode from New England Legends Podcast which explains all this: When…
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This Year’s Tree Adventure
This year’s tree adventure was a little… different. We have traditionally cut down our own tree, from the same farm my parents went to when we moved back to this area and started…
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3 Après-Halloween Folklore Podcasts
Today I read on Facebook that “marriage is just sharing the same germs” or something to that effect. Anyway, I’ve been laid up with a cold since Thursday night. I spent these days…