WOOLLY WORMS: We thought we were all through with woolly worm weather predictions, but an email arrived Wednesday that changed our mind.

Carl Milks of Bradford has single-handedly stood on its head our woolly-based prediction of a harsh beginning and end to winter with a long mild stretch in between.

We based that prediction on a sampling of four different woolly worms provided by three different people in different parts of town. Those caterpillars had black at heads and tails and long swatches of rust brown in between.

We discounted as too far out of our area (and too unpleasant) an all-black woolly worm from Brandy Camp that portended a horrible winter.

Carl’s email missive said:

“Been following RTS concerning Woolly Bear Caterpillars and the pending weather predictions. I have observed them for quite awhile lately and out of 26 specimens, I’m not sure what kind of winter to predict. Seen six with wide black bands, seven with narrow bands, two with no bands (all black), one with no bands (all brown), and 10 with intermediate bands.”

In a follow-up phone call, Carl said he had looked at the caterpillars at his home on Bolivar Drive, his office in Smethport and points in between and couldn’t detect any discernible pattern.

“So I guess it’s pick your own prediction this year,” his email concluded.

We think that’s good advice, especially because with that many different predictions, at least one of them has to be right.

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OLD RULER: Phil Smith of Smethport dropped by our office with an Era artifact that we didn’t recognize at all. It was a 12-inch wooden ruler stamped “The Bradford Era, the live newspaper” with  a number of different slogans that appeared to be directed at students and educators. 

The back of the ruler read, “The Era costs two cents. The price of a postage stamp. Its daily message will aid in your education.” 

Phil did a bit of research and found that postage stamps were two cents between 1919 and 1932, which would make the ruler at least 82 years old.

He found the ruler around 1975, when he purchased the Smethport building that was the last office of the long-defunct McKean County Miner, complete with its old press and linotype machines. He said the ruler went with him when he moved to Colorado in the early 1990s, and came back with him when he returned to live in Smethport earlier this year.