Origin

By ELLEN LYON Staff Writer Carol Marcum earned the moniker "Grandma Chickie Leg" when she was only about 9 or 10 years old, she said. Her sisters, one older and one younger, would each grab a leg and pull in different directions, remembers the 45-year-old Hagerstown woman. "They used to call me Grandma Chickie Leg because I would scream like a chicken," she explained. They still laugh about it whenever the family sits down to a chicken dinner, Marcum said. There hasn't been much research on the psychological meaning or impact of nicknames despite how common they are, especially in small towns, according to local psychologists Ann M. Filinger and Lou Lichti.

tarar@herald-mail.com One of the highlights Thursday for Usama Qadri was being on national television, the 14-year-old Washington County Public Schools student said after bowing out of the 75th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Usama, an eighth-grader at Smithsburg Middle School, was eliminated for the competition when he misspelled "nephalism" during the fourth round of the competition. "I'm just happy I got this far," Usama said shortly after leaving the stage.

How many times have you heard that you were “gonna get the dickens” from someone? What kind of punishment came with “the dickens”? Did you ever inquire about the origin of “dickens”?   I once was told that “dickens” came from writer Charles Dickens, who wrote scathing articles scolding government, businesses and individuals who polluted the air, water or ground; exploited children; tolerated slums; or were greedy. I later discovered that “dickens” was a name used to refer to the devil, long before Charles Dickens was born.

HAGERSTOWN -- S. Michael Goulding was doing some landscaping in the backyard of his fiancée's new house on Paradise Church Road Sunday when he made an unsettling discovery: The granite blocks that formed a low wall around a gazebo were inscribed with names, birth dates and dates of death. "We were rather shocked, you know, when we flipped it over," said Goulding, who alerted the Washington County Sheriff's Department Monday, thinking the footstones might have been stolen from a cemetery.

A survey of neighboring landfill fees revealed that: Frederick County, Md., charges $45 per ton to dump in its landfill. County residents hauling loads of less than 1,000 pounds can pay a $20 annual fee or a $9 per trip fee. Small businesses can pay a $100 annual fee for loads of less than 1,000 pounds. At the Mountain View Reclamation landfill in Upton, Pa., owned by Waste Management, fees range between about $28 to about $45 per ton, depending upon the origin and amount of the waste.

Halloween is upon us. If you're a kid, this means good-natured ghosts, friendly Frankensteins and monsters who mean well. But if you're a teenager, Halloween is a time to watch people get hacked up by slashers. Here is a guide to cinema's most famous blood-splatterers. Michael Myers Franchise: "Halloween" Origin: As a boy, poorly raised Michael went crazy and killed his older sister. He has spent most of his life in a sanitarium, but now wants to get his hands on his younger sister.

The exact origin of our modern celebration of Christmas is unknown. The old English word for Christmas is "Cristes Maesse. " In Dutch it is "Kerst-misse. " In Latin it is known as "Dies Natalis. " This gave the French name "Noel. " Italians call it "Natale. " Germans refer to it as "Weihnachtsfest," from the preceding sacred vigil. The word Christmas translates into "Mass of Christ. " However, people dispute the origin of the term yule. The name in Anglo-Saxon was "geola. " Christmas was not among the earliest.

BLUE RIDGE SUMMIT, Pa. - A woman inside a house destroyed by fire overnight Saturday was flown by helicopter to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore for burns, said Blue Ridge Fire & Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Steve Moffat. Moffat, who said he did not know the extent of the woman's injuries, said that she was walking outside the house at 15287 Dutrow Ave. when crews arrived. The fire at the two-story woodframe construction home was reported at 10:54 p.m. Saturday, and firefighters from seven departments were on the scene until 1:10 a.m. Sunday.

julieg@herald-mail.com Nora Roberts' name often is synonymous with romance, but she also is a warrior on the bookfield. Putnam recently released "Origin in Death," the 160th book written by Keedysville-area resident and New York Times best-selling author Roberts. As of Friday, "Origin in Death" was No. 11 on The New York Times best-seller list for hardback fiction. On the best-selling paperback fiction list, Roberts' "Night Tales: Night Shift, Night Shadow" was No. 5 and "Black Rose" was No. 6. Roberts, who doesn't rely on inspiration, said she works hard to craft each story, working ideas out, doing research and working from a skeleton of the story line.

"Hey, what's up n-?" What is the deal with everyone and their grandmother using the N-word? I hear it all the time in school, in the stores, and just about everywhere else. I mostly hear it when teens are talking to their friends. I also hear teens use the N-word as peoples' names. All around school this goes on, and I just don't understand. I would honestly like to know what the obsession with this word is. Is it cool or something to call somebody the N-word, as if it were their name?

I love a great sandwich. In fact, I would love to have held court with the Earl of Sandwich to see the first creation as it took place. As such there are a variety of sandwiches and flavors, but my next recipes will focus on the wonderful flavors of a muffuletta. Muffulettas originated in the New Orleans' French Quarter and have as many twists and turns as a Mardi Gras festival has partygoers.  The burning question is whether to serven them hot or cold. A traditionalist would swear that cold is the way to go but a new wave of customers are begging for a hot sandwich.

Another extension has been granted to the contractor for the Washington County Free Library system's central library, delaying its opening likely until mid-summer, library officials said Tuesday. Three approved extensions had been granted through the end of May, but another is needed, library Board of Trustees member John Schnebly said at the State of the Library meeting and budget presentation, which was attended by the Washington County Board of Commissioners and the Hagerstown mayor and City Council.

The Fairplay Volunteer Fire Co. was established in 1947 after a resident's pants caught on fire while he was burning trash. “It did some pretty good damage on his legs,” Fairplay Fire Co. founding member George “Pete” Warrenfeltz said. He said the incident convinced residents to start a volunteer fire department. Warrenfeltz, 82, and fellow-founding member Charles Semler recently said they were disheartened by the Washington County Board of Commissioners decision to suspend the fire company because of inadequate response times to calls.

An area resident recently submitted a question regarding how local restaurants are permitted to apply sales tax to orders when a customer uses a coupon, specifically a “buy one, get one free” offer. In an email, the woman said she has used “buy one, get one” coupons at several area restaurants, but one in particular applies sales tax to the full amount of the bill prior to taking out the discount. “When questioned on this, they say their accountant says they are allowed to do this,” the woman said in her email.

“And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker.' So God made a farmer. “God said, 'I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.' So God made a farmer. “I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon - and mean it.” So God made a farmer.

More than $1.6 million in funding requests from nonprofit organizations were submitted to the Washington County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday by the Community Organization Funding Committee, a figure it had pared down from requests originally totaling more than $2.6 million. The committee recommended a total of $672,840 for the Washington County Commission on Aging Inc. for five senior citizen projects. Three other organizations would split $46,660 for other senior projects, according to the recommendations.

Clayton Wilcox, the superintendent for Washington County Public Schools, asked the state Board of Public Works Wednesday to restore about $2 million in school construction money that was requested by the school district, but was not part of the proposed capital budget announced by Gov. Martin O'Malley last week. The capital budget for fiscal year 2014 sets aside $6.5 million for school construction in Washington County, and the district had requested about $9 million. The meeting at the governor's office is an annual ritual, where school district officials from around the state ask the board for school construction money that has been requested but not fully allocated.

The deaths of a Berkeley County man and his 9-year-old son in January 2012 now are being investigated as a double homicide because of the discovery of new evidence, West Virginia State Police said Wednesday. James A. “Mack” Hutzler and David C. Hutzler, 56, were found in the master bedroom of his father's mobile home at 436 Apple Harvest Drive west of Glengary, W.Va., on the morning of Jan. 6, police have said. Police initially had said they believed Hutzler shot his son, set the home on fire and then took his own life.

Time is running short for City of Hagerstown officials to request money from the state in support of a stadium project that would keep the Hagerstown Suns. But now, after a new stadium proposal made Tuesday by Suns majority owner Bruce Quinn for a facility that may not be built in the city's core, there's no guarantee - at this point - that the $400,000-a-year contribution from Washington County would be available anymore, either. Quinn's plan, albeit just a concept, assumed that the county's portion and another large chunk from the state would factor into a 20-year debt service model on a $21 million to $22 million facility to be built possibly somewhere in the city's East End. “The solution I presented to council was based on all the available financial information we have been privy to,” Quinn said in an email Wednesday night.

View streaming video from the finish line at Springfield Middle School from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday online at www.herald-mail.com .   On the nightstand of Buzz Sawyer's room in Somerford Place is a copy of “The Flying Scotsman,” a book about the Olympic runner Eric Liddell, and copies of Track & Field Magazine. “Born to Run” and “The Perfect Mile” are in his bookcase, along with an All-America cross country award from 1954, and the walls are crowded with framed photos and newspaper clippings of a life spent on the run. At 83, William Joseph “Buzz” Sawyer Jr., the founder of the JFK 50 Mile, has slowed a bit and a walker stands by his chair, but he hopes to be at the dinner Friday night before the 50th running of the race and, possibly, there to see the finish Saturday.