BIG CATS: A couple more items today about those mountain
lions:
Bill Jamieson of Mendota, Ill., drops us an e-line: “Regarding
the controversey over mountain lions in PA: In the last few years
there have been a few mountain lions accidentally killed in Iowa
and western Illinois.”
“Since the cats are not native to this area, the belief is that
they are migrating from the western states, much as coyotes did
decades earlier. It’s entirely possible the big cats have moved
even further east.
“Western PA would be an ideal home for them with plenty of cover
and prey.”
We also heard from Jerry Kleisath of Preble, N.Y.: “About 50-60
years ago when Doc McCleery had the lobo wolves near Kane he also
had some mountain lions.”
“He was picking up a dead cow from us to feed the wolves and was
telling about the lions.
“All of a sudden he stopped in the middle of the story and we
figured that one escaped by the way the story went.
“Shortly after, near Kane, a baby was playing in their yard when
a large cat came in and the family dog fought it off until the
child got in the house. I believe that the cat was shot but not
before it killed the dog.”
OH, ZIPPO: LaVerta Miller of Austin writes, “For your Zippo
sightings – Placed in Frank Sinatra’s casket: a bottle of Jack
Daniels, a pack of Camels, a Zippo lighter; and 10 dimes (so he’d
always have change for the pay phone). This was in my Uncle John’s
Bathroom Reader page-a-day calendar for 8-8-07.”
We also had a note from a reader who suggested that the Zippo
museum was the rightful place for that Cadillac once owned by Zippo
founder George G. Blaisdell. We had a recent column on that
vehicle, now parked in a private driveway on Congress Street, which
Mr. Blaisdell had lost on the flip of a coin.
TODAY’S QUOTE: “A righteous challenge to authority is as honored
in America as any hero, concept or slogan that triggers
fife-and-drum background music in the national psyche.”
Today’s quote is from an editorial, the Dallas Morning News,
2005, according to our Freedom Forum calendar.
