Transformer

"Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen" is something to be ashamed of. Why was this movie allowed to be released? Weren't there hundreds of people whose job it was to make sure it wouldn't be like this? Will any of them ever work again? They might if they lie on their resumes. The film is a sequel to the 2007 movie "Transformers," itself based on a popular cartoon and line of toys. For those new to the franchise, Transformers are fighting robots from another planet that live undercover on Earth disguised as everyday objects.

Without wasting any time, 8-year-old Andrew Trostle headed straight for Santa Claus at Friday's 22nd annual Greencastle-Antrim Heritage Christmas in downtown Greencastle. When you have a unique Christmas request like Andrew's, the youngster wanted to make sure St. Nick knew exactly what to load in his sleigh. “I wanted to make sure he got my list. I told him I want a cross chopper mower head,” he said Andrew's mother Holly Trostle of Mercersburg explained that the item is a piece of farming equipment.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A transformer that failed Wednesday afternoon at Allegheny Power's Martinsburg substation caused a utility service outage that affected about 1,700 customers for several hours, a company spokesman said. The failure first was reported to Allegheny Power at 1:18 p.m., and spokesman David Neurohr said "everybody was back on" by 4:30 p.m. The transformer failed because of a fault in another piece of equipment, causing a chain reaction, Neurohr said. The outage appeared to affect multiple blocks of King and John streets, but Neurohr could not specify the exact area.

For the serious cook, a kitchen island is as delicious to contemplate as a vacation spot in the middle of the sea. It represents an extension of work space, a convenient place to plug in an appliance or a work surface near one of the main work centers in the kitchen - the sink, the range, and the cooktop and refrigerator. In larger kitchens, the island can also double as an eating bar or offer a place for a cooktop or maybe even an under-the-counter oven. But small kitchens are often limited to the three basic areas with little room for much else.

HAGERSTOWN - Amanda Thomas stood in front of a table of junk and accepted a challenge - take what life throws away and turn it into art. With her creative juices flowing, the 5-year-old filled her arms with soup cans, buttons, feathers and shells and headed to a work area to begin her masterpiece. The end result? "It's a sculpture of me," she announced. The Hagerstown youngster was among 40 children who participated Saturday afternoon in an art workshop at Discovery Station at Hagerstown.

marlob@herald-mail.com HANCOCK - Jim Joy believes he has two of the toughest jobs in the world - custom home builder and restaurateur. But he said he is enjoying both despite their high customer-service demands. The owner of the Log Cabin Inn since July 2004, Joy immediately threw himself into renovating both the building and its reputation. The steakhouse bar and grill reopened last November as a rustic and comfortable, but elegant, family restaurant. "I took on one of the roughest places around and transformed it," Joy said.

SMITHSBURG - Fire crews were at Bikle Road Saturday night after a report of an explosion at a substation, a Washington County emergency dispatcher said. About a dozen calls came shortly after 9 p.m., the dispatcher said. Firefighters arrived to find some transformers on fire, he said. Allegheny Power spokesman Allen Staggers said a circuit breaker at the substation failed and caught fire. No customers lost service, Staggers said.

HAGERSTOWN -- The mission of a new Christian radio station in the Tri-State area becomes quite clear once the WHGT call letters are explained. "It stands for Where Hearts Get Transformed," said Pastor Larry Aikens, president and general manager of the station. Listeners in the Chambersburg, Pa., area can currently pick up the station, which is broadcasting at reduced power on 1590 AM. Aikens said weather has delayed into early spring the station's plans to increase power to its full 15,000-watts and broaden its coverage area.

Nearly 800 Allegheny Power customers in the downtown Martinsburg area are without power because a large transformer failed, an Allegheny Power spokesperson said Monday afternoon. The transformer failed at 3:46 p.m., blackening some downtown traffic signals and prompting police to direct motorists. At City Hall in Martinsburg, employees were left sitting in the darkened building, but a generator helped offset the loss of electricity for emergency lighting.’ Power may not be restored until 10 p.m., according to an Allegheny Power spokesman.