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Highlands Today

Things just creep up on us

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By Norm Cukras | Highlands Today

Published: May 8, 2009

Back before time, at least for a lot of people living today, spirits, the alcoholic beverages kind, were sold in bottles called "fifths." It was an intriguing name. And a lot of those who bought them never realized that a fifth was called a fifth because it was a fifth of a gallon. Or if you prefer, 4/5 of a quart.

Then one day when I got home with a "fifth" I looked at the bottle only to realize that what I bought was not a fifth but a .750 liter - which is three quarters of a whole liter - or it can be expressed as 750 ml (milliliters). Now instead of saying "I want a fifth" one has to say "I want a small bottle," because spirits also come in the big economy 1.75 liter bottle.

I guess the reason behind this was the government's attempt to put our country on a metric system. A drive that kind of petered out because there wasn't enough immigration enablers available back then to demand more metric changes. Actually the whisky bottle changes happened around 30 years ago, although I never recognized this plot to confuse the consumer until in the '90s. After all, who really pays attention to container contents anyway?

Since prices always seem to go up, I'm sure that the spirit (not spiritual) retailers expected the consumer to pay for the extra measure in the metric bottle since a fifth is only equivalent to .7257478 liter, which means there is about a 3 percent difference in volume of liquid between the fifth and the thingy-sized bottle.

The decency not to change
Speaking of change, I would think that Sen. Arlen Specter has a responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania who voted for him. He is their representative in Congress. If I voted for a representative who told me he, or she, was a Republican I would expect the representative to represent me as a Republican, not switch to another party because it became more politically advantageous for him.

That is not right. That is a betrayal of the trust the voters put in him. Sadly there isn't enough time for the voters of Pennsylvania to mount a recall campaign, but come November I hope they remember that if someone does what Specter did once there is every likely that he may well do it again.

The brothers are at it again
It's all a matter of timing. We went over to the Blue Crab for a late breakfast on Monday and ended up being the first diners to sample the new noon buffet that the Pearson brothers, Bill and Jim, cooked up.

"It's designed for the workers who only have a limited time for lunch," Bill told me as he arranged that planned selection of the daily meat (meatloaf), pasta (manicotti), fish (baked) and dessert (cannoli). Also included in the $7 price is the soup and salad bar and drink. The buffet will be available from 11 a.m. til 2 p.m., Monday thru Friday.

Glad tidings
I got a call from Helen Kupec at Golf Hammock. She lives closest to the nesting sandhill cranes that I wrote about two weeks ago. The avian couple had decided that the nearly dried out lake guarding the 12th green there was ideal for a growing family and soon momma crane sat upon 2 eggs and two golf balls. Well one hatchling emerged last Friday followed on Saturday by its nest mate.

The little ones have been seen by a number of golfers wandering the golf course under the protective eyes of the proud parents. There has been however no reported sightings of the two golf balls

More glad tidings
Tomorrow is the day to honor that special gal of yours. Whether it's your mom or your wife, or both of them, make sure they hear from you and if possible give them a big hug. In fact give them two; tell them one is from me.

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