RTS (Round the Square)

RT HONORS: The awards keep coming for Smethport artist Julie Mader. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) has chosen her “Power Within” as one of...

BIG BEAR: We hadn’t heard much yet this spring about encounters with bears until this week, when Cora Roupe of Aiken dropped by with some pictures of ...

OPENING DAY: For local trout fishing aficionados, today is a holiday. A number of readers responded to our call for fishing stories to commemorate the...

FISHING STORIES: Last week we asked readers to share their favorite fishing stories, and we’ve gotten a few. This one is from Bill Robertson, who live...

TASTEE-FREEZ: Last week when Jim Belardia told us that a Tastee-Freez stand had once stood on East Main Street where the EZ TV and Appliance store has...

JEEPERS: We were catching up on some overlooked email when this one caught our eye: “Walked my dog on Tuna Trail about 8:15 this evening and heard the...

OLD BOTTLES: Jerry Olshefski of West Washington Street dropped in last week bearing a box of bottles. Not just any bottles, but old ones. Clear bottle...

SIGNS OF SPRING: Because of this almost never-ending winter, there hasn’t been the usual flow of reports of horticultural awakenings we expect this ti...

TASTEE-FREEZ: Jim Belardia noticed a story last week in The Era about a new Shults Auto body shop being built on the site of the former E-Z TV and App...

CARS ON ICE: Our last couple of columns have recounted the history of the timed automobile ice trials that ran from 1964 into the 1980s on Red House L...

ICE RACING: It was 50 years ago last month that the Allegheny Valley Sports Car Association held its first ice trials on Red House Lake in Allegany St...

WHAT A DEAL: Overseas con artists must think it’s sucker fishing season here. In the past couple of days, two doozies have shown up in our office, pro...

NITRO SHOOTERS: Work in the oilfields can be dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as it was in the early days of the industry, when safety standards...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: There’s no reason to send a gift or a card, but it’s worth noting that Sunday will be Pennsylvania’s 333rd birthday. On March 9, 1681,...

BIRTHDAY WISHES: We’re jumping the gun on this one a bit, but Frances Wolfe Haight of Kane gave us plenty of notice that her birthday is coming up by ...

LOTTERY PAYOUTS: Nobody in Pennsylvania has won one of the huge multistate lotteries recently, but it isn’t for lack of trying. We’ve done our share t...

CHASING THE BLUES: Ann and Vic Longo have come up with a light-hearted way to keep the winter blahs at bay. This year, instead of taking down their gr...

STORM PREP: Watching television news reports and reading wire service dispatches about the winter storm that hammered the Carolinas and Georgia before...

SWEET MEMORY: We’ve grown to look forward to mail from Frances Wolfe Haight of Kane because her letters frequently include a poem or two that she’s wr...

PHIL’S SONG: Bradford native Kevin “Slim” Forsythe, who sang at the annual Groundhog Day observance in Punxsutawney a week ago, sent us a link to a Yo...