Adult viewing recommended

WQED-TV will feature the Monongahela “Calendar Girls” Wednesday (Oct. 10) in a segment on its Emmy-winning news magazine.
The group of older women from Southwestern Pennsylvania who posed semi-nude for charity will appear when OnQ airs at 7:30 p.m., the public television program announced Tuesday.
The women, the youngest of whom is in her late 70s, have sold nearly 3,000 of their 2008 calendars to benefit the Monongahela Area Historical Society. Their story is expected to air in repeats.

(Caption: Calendar models Lois Phillips, left, and Kathleen Bordini at a fireman's parade in Monongahela.)

Far away ferry

FREDERICKTOWN, Pa. – If this old river ferryboat was closer to a city, it would be earning huge tourism dollars.

But, stuck deep in the country, Ferry Boat Frederick mainly shuttles prison workers back and forth across the Monongahela River between Fredericktown and East Fredericktown in Fayette County.

“It’s not going to be a tourist attraction,” said Scott Bower, a local historian from Fredericktown.

“Can you believe it’s in little Fredericktown and no one knows it’s here?” added Bower’s son, Scott, who co-owns a nearby bar.

There has been a ferry in the area since 1790 or earlier, when James Crawford escorted people across the Mon in a wooden boat that crossed a short distance to the north, where Fish Pot Run spills onto Route 88.

The current, 60-foot steel boat was built in 1948 and is the only remaining one of its kind in operation east of the Mississippi River. The 35-ton vessel is powered by an engine that pulls it across the river along an underwater steel cable. It can carry as many as six vehicles and a small number of pedestrians.

The ferry sat on the shore from about 1963 to 1973 after its former owners, Ed and Betty Bercoski, realized it was no longer profitable to stay in business.
The red and white boat was rescued in a partnership between Washington and Fayette counties because there are no bridges in the area. It would be dry-docked for repairs one more time in 1997 after a coal barge struck the cable.

The ferry’s future was again in doubt two years ago when its hours of operation were cut because of a shortage of pilots, who must be certified by the U.S. Coast Guard. At the time, it was making about 50 400-foot trips a day across the river.
The pilot shortage came at a time when ridership had doubled with the 2004 opening of State Correctional Institution at Fayette, a prison across the river from Fredericktown.

“In the summertime, it’s beautiful,” said Jim Harvey, 60, a ferry pilot from LaBelle. “The wintertime, high water, can be a little tricky and cold.”
“I love it,” added Carl Walker of Waynesburg, a prison manager who uses the ferry to get to work.

Pioneer Square and Seattle Underground

The Seattle underground is a perfect complement to the West Coast city's quirky characters.

Big John's ring?

Private John Palmer of Philadelphia boasted the honor of having been the heaviest Colonial soldier to fight in the American Revolution. So said one of his descendants, Norma Langham, who made her way to California University of Pennsylvania two centuries later to teach theatrics.

Before she died in January 2003, Langham laid her hands on a giant ring at a flea market, a band that Palmer supposedly flashed on the ring finger of his right hand. She prized the possession so much that she even wrote a poem, Fat John Palmer, that paid tribute to the man, his ring, and her family’s unsuccessful bid to claim the land the Quaker once owned in Philadelphia.

“Philadelphia now has a lot of debt and we don’t want it,” wrote Langham, who also was an actress, singer, poet, composer, playwright, investor, producer and director.
Her poem about Palmer went on to thank him for “being fat, else we never would have known the ring was yours.”
At her instruction, the ring was donated to the archives at the California Area Historical Society, which counts the object among its weirdest possessions. And its staff has some doubt as to whether the ring really belonged to the soldier who tipped the scale at more than 400 pounds.

Either way, the society has an incredible collection of history that relates to the borough along the Monongahela River in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It should be the first place to turn for anyone who is chasing down genealogy that has a connection to that area.

Fall sick in Pennsylvania

It’s autumn in Southwestern Pennsylvania and time to welcome the whitetail deer into our vehicle headlights. This is deer rut season, when buck run their breeding competition for a suitable mate. The men deer lose all sense of their summer passiveness as they chase down a female to cuddle before the winter freeze arrives.

But sadly, this annual ritual leads to slaughter along unfenced highways, especially Interstate 70, where these animals succumb in large numbers to the steady flow of big rigs and cars that compete for the four-lane highway. The resulting deer blood bath is disgusting, one that should require a periodic wash-down of the highway to remove the carnage.

This is Pennsylvania, where it's too much to ask for a smile from the snuff-rubber behind the wheel of a rusting white Ford pickup truck who always flips me the bird for pulling onto I-70 and into his path to Greene County.

If you are heading here to "oh and awe" over the tree leaves as they turn, each fall, to brilliant shades of red, yellow, orange and brown, consider bringing a barf bag if you follow I-70 to this neck of the woods.


(Caption: OK - that is not a whitetail deer in the leather postcard, above, dating to the late 1800s but you have to admit that it's cool.)

Home of the Slavic dumpling

The pierogi might have originated long ago in Eastern Europe but the delicacy also known as the Polish dumpling has found its home in Pittsburgh. The recipe brought to Southwestern Pennsylvania by Slavic immigrants seeking work in steel mills and mines remains a staple around Pittsburgh, and especially during Steelers season. Those who are too lazy to roll out dough and spend hours filling it with potato and cheese, sauerkraut or cottage cheese have stooped so low as to make pierogi casseroles with store-bought lasagna noodles, mashed potatoes and cheese.

Though my heritage has lines straight to England, I count myself among the fans of pierogi, and will settle for store-bought under the Mrs. T's label when I can’t get them sizzled with onions at a street festival or ethnic church bizarre. (Mrs. T makes a fine pierogi)
Among the best in Pittsburgh are those sold at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, which is also known as Pittsburgh’s only Polish party house. Polka music blares from speakers inside the bar where one wall is lined with mirrors and the other a picture window overlooking the drab-gray concrete and asphalt Bloomfield Bridge.

The dumplings, along with a Polish sausage called kielbasa, are served with a paper, red and white flag of Poland rising from the food atop a toothpick. The kielbasa is grilled well done and served with the red Polish platter that comes with mounds of dough, cottage cheese and beef-stuffed cabbage. And go figure ... the establishment at 4412 Liberty Ave. is located in the heart of what is known as “Pittsburgh’s Little Italy.”