DANGER SPOT: Ernie Durphy phoned Tuesday with a word of warning
after reading our report that a local girl and her friends who not
only still swim in local streams but “ride pump jacks for fun.”

Ernie, who spent 18 years working in the local oilfields, tells
us riding pump jacks can be dangerous. He know of several people
who have been maimed or killed when they got caught in the pitman
arm or belts and pulleys.

“It’s a bad idea,” he said.

Ernie even had heard of bear who had gotten caught in one of
these contraptions and it cost him his life.

At one time, a couple generations ago, youngsters became quite
familiar with the many hazards associated with oil production. When
oil well were being plugged rather than pumped, the danger pretty
much dissipated.

Now, however, with a renewal of the oil industry, these hazards
are resurfacing to a new generation of youths. Parents: Take
note.

OH, ZIPPO: Doug Sanders of Petaluma, Calif., writes: “Recently I
saw an article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat stating, ‘Why mess
with a good thing.’ They still stand today: Scrabble (game), 1938;
zipper, 1913;  G Y blimp, 1940s; pencil, 1565;  and ZIPPO LIGHTER,
1933.”

THE CARVING: More e-mail: Joey Festa writes, “Thank you for the
art work without The Bradford Era (c) across it. Cassie L. Brandow
is one heck of an artist. Hope to see more of her work.”

The note was in reference to a wood carving by Cassie featured
in a specialty magazine. As for the (c), we place our copyright
mark across our photographs to help people avoid the temptation to
lift photographs off our website for purposes of reproduction.

Online readers of newspaper websites will undoubtedly begin soon
to see more aggressive strategies in the future as we attempt to
protect not just photographs but stories which we pay to produce.
It’s become common for so-called “bloggers” and others to use our
material without giving any attribution — not to mention
remuneration, of course.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Today’s booming media world of instant stand-up
reporting still needs the old-school skills of the news/city
editor, aka crap detector,” said John C. Quinn, founder, Freedom
Forum, Chips Quinn Scholars Program, 2004.