KEYED UP: We found this bizarre. See if you do.

Lee Morehouse of Bradford phoned the other day to tell us he was
at Bradford Regional Medical Center, on his way from a session at
Upbeat, its cardiac rehab facility.

He found a key on the floor in the hallway.

He took the key to the Information Desk in the lobby thinking
the person who lost it might stop there to inquire. The person
manning the Information Desk pulled out a drawer and had keys by
the handful – at least 40-50 of them. It was individual keys and
whole rings of them.

Being the curious sort, we checked with our own front counter.
Sure enough, we have collected quite a few sets of keys along with
sundry other items. Too bad there’s not such place where people can
be reunited with their lost keys.

There is something about keys, though. How often do you clean
out drawers and find a bunch of old keys – and yet you can’t bring
yourself to throw them out.

EAGLE NOTE: Even though eagles are no longer considered
endangered, we still consider them unusual.

Rhonda of Port Allegany writes this week, “I was driving through
Bradford today at around 2:30-3 p.m. and I was in front of the Valu
Hardware and was quite surprised to see an eagle flying overhead.
Did anyone else happen to see it?”

Believe it or not, Rhonda, you’re not the first person to tell
us about an eagle in this vicinity. It must find that stretch of
Tuna Creek appealing for some reason.

ERA PLATE: Beverly McCune stopped by this week to show us an
ceramic pie plate that evidently had been given out to the general
public by The Era at some time – at least 14 years ago.

Beverly found the item in her mother’s things. In the center of
the plate was a recipe for pecan pie that sounded pretty tasty. We
suspect this was a promotional item given out by our circulation
department to new subscribers at one time. In fact, there’s
probably more in our storage closet.

Fourteen years? Heck, that’s no time at all around here.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “The public is not rejecting the principles
underlying traditional journalism. Rather it suspects journalists
are not living up to those principles,” said Tom Rosenstiel,
director, Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2005.