March 6, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

From our readers

Hardship from construction

The very true reality of all the small business owners affected by the Germantown Avenue construction is that the banks holding our loans may very well foreclose on them before the construction is complete. Your worst case scenario is that in 2011 one of your two cars may be behind a trolley car that breaks down. I wish that was my only possible hardship.

Donna Fitzgerald Robb
Chef/Owner
Cresheim Cottage Cafe

Thanks Hugh

Hugh Gilmore’s column on Feb 21 [“Your freedom to swing your cat ends where my nose begins”] is another testimony to his terrific craft.

The “Sylvester/Tweetie” issue is an upsetting situation for many of us in Chestnut Hill.  And we are stuck. Reasoning simply doesn’t work. Nor is the quality of the lives of birds and chipmunks likely to make it onto the agenda of our local politicians.

Hugh, however, captured the situation with a nod to the human dilemma cats create for us. And, I hate to say this, but it really is the quality of our lives, too, that is diminished by the loss of all sorts of creatures. They have no idea how we feel.

Thank you, Hugh. I started this letter trying to make indoor/outdoor cats enemies of reading but you have cleverly made the entire matter animal friendly and humanistic at the same time.

Peg Smith
Chestnut Hill

Birds retaliate

Dear Hugh Gilmore, purveyor of fine old books, now pundit in newspaper. I was chastened by your criticism of cat owners who permit their ferocious beasts to roam backyards. I am one of these and surely, I shall burn in hell. I adore my well-fed “Ink” (her name) and she adores the outdoors. Probably more than she adores me.

But lest you think your darling birds are quite defenseless, let me tell you a story.

Last spring, I rescued a young blue jay from Ink’s teeth and set the befuddled bird outside hoping it might live to fly, and I imprisoned Ink. The next morning when I let Ink out, one, two, three adult blue jays arrived instantly and the three birds were sufficiently menacing that Ink was driven inside. They kept this treatment up for an entire week, thus punishing the cat, amusing her owner and ensuring that the young bird would recover from the assault. I braved the harassment of the adult jays, who are as you know, quite ferocious themselves and discovered the young victim had survived and was perched on a tree watching the play from a low branch.

Such is life outdoors.

Marilyn Monaco
Chestnut Hill

Thanks for Hill theatre article

Thank you for editing and publishing my article, [“Hill Theatre made us feel young and part of history,” in LocaLife, Feb. 28]. Please extend my gratefulness to Erin Vertreace, who took my photograph, and to Regina Holmes who computerized the manuscript.

I know my naming Cresheim Valley Drive as Cresheim Valley Road (CVR) caused unnecessary confusion. I apologize for this. Your editor-eyed need for correct details is what we all need to keep us on track. On the right side of the tracks, I might add.

For mentioning The Wrong Side of the Tracks, I am indebted to you. Perhaps an agent or book editor will read the article and want to see the complete manuscript. Thank you for offering this opportunity.

Already, I have received two favorable e-mails from Peg Donohue Rauner, a subscriber and former Germantown resident, and Jerome Cannon Prevette, a man with an elegant, humorous touch with words. As a youngster I knew Peg. I don’t know Jerome, but he wants to meet me for lunch at Cin Cin, perhaps this week. All good things because of your publishing the Hill Theatre article.

Joe Hill
Huntingdon Valley

Owner of Dovetail wants to meet you

Thanks so much for the fabulous article written about me and my store, The Dovetail Artisans [“A consummate traveler through inner and outer worlds,” Feb. 28]. You did such a great job, I’d even want to rush right out and meet me after reading it! Which brings me to both the good news and the bad news. The good news is that I’m going to Costa Rica on vacation, leaving March 1 and returning to the store on March 11.

The store will still be open, of course, and Donna Donohue, the former owner of the store when it was called The Dovetail Forest, will be taking good care of everyone who comes in. The bad news is that I’ll miss the opportunity to meet those people who come to the store after reading the article. However, if you do stop in and enjoy the store as much as Len Lear (who wrote the article), I’ll probably get another chance to meet you when you return.

Elayne Aion
Glenside

What about the national debt?

While all three presidential candidates have promised glowing things, many of which would cost huge amounts of money, none of them have offered any plans to reduce the huge national debt, which today is in the area of 10 trillion dollars!

Surely, each one of them knows that, left unbridled, the national debt can rise to an area which our nation will find it impossible to pay. Even in trying to reduce the debt, we might see reductions in Social Security benefits, health care, etc.

Thus, it would be most interesting to see a debate between all three candidates in which this most important area would be discussed. While many elderly residents (like myself, age 90) feel they will not be caught up by this problem, why aren’t they thinking about what it will do to their children?

Gerald Samkofsky
Chestnut Hill