100 YEARS AGO
May 1, 1924
A long-haired bewhiskered stranger, who had been performing in a mysterious and suspicious manner in the outskirts west of town Saturday was picked up in the afternoon by Sheriff Gard, who started to escort him to the county calaboose when the stranger came to the conclusion that he was not particularly interested in accompanying the sheriff and when in front of the abstract office began to show a combative spirit. Howard W. Turner noticed the situation and went out to lend a hand and for a space of some fifty feet the sheriff and justice of the peace were kept pretty busy. The stranger was a husky individual and for a minute or two had the officials demonstrating new steps in the terpsichorean art. Pete Kane came along and, believing that a little more assistance would not come amiss, calmly reached over and incarcerated the combatants proboscis thereby shutting off his supply of oxygen whereupon he decided that the war was over and permitted himself to be taken to the court house – because he could not help it. There being nothing definite against the man, he was escorted to the city limits and given ten minutes to make himself scarce. Two minutes was all he needed.
70 YEARS AGO
April 19, 1954
A stone plant which will produce a polished grained stone, to be known as Colorite, is being set up in Madras, according to Ike Whiteley, one of the owners. The firm will work with rock quarries in Jefferson County.
Incorporation papers were filed in Salem recently by Whiteley, L.R. Blume, Mel Corwin, Byron Corwin, and Ford Harvey. The corporation, which occupies a recently constructed shop near the Madras city limits on the northbound The Dalles-California highway, will be known as Colorlite Stone Company incorporated.
The firm will cut the native stone into various thicknesses and grind, chemically harden, glue and polish it before fabricating mantels, facings for fireplaces and tabletops, facings for buildings, and various furniture applications, Whiteley explained.
Most of the machinery used in the various processes has to be specially designed. Whiteley, assisted by Blume, developed plans for the heavy saws, grinders and polishers and also worked out the chemical hardening, polishing, and cementing processes used.
The stone, a ceramic which is found only in this area, is comparable to marble and granite when treated, Whitely believes. Equipment is being installed so that four by eight-foot panels of the stone can be processed. Actual production is expected to start in the next two weeks.
50 YEARS AGO
April 25, 1974
In 15 letters, what’s the word for a sexagenarian that regularly tickles the fancy of more than 30 million Americans?
Answer: “crossword puzzle.” No matter how you spell it, across or down, it is America’s most popular leisure-time activity, surpassing poker, bingo, bridge, chess and checkers.
It became a sexagenarian (in the sixth decade of age) last December 21. And as long as zoos (collections of living animals) have gnus (antelopes with downward-curving horns), it seems certain of an undimming destiny.
A desk editor of the old New York World, Arthur Wynne, though up the first one for the Sunday edition of December 2‘1, 1913. It was a variation of a simple word game that had been around since Roman times.
Beneath Consideration
“The puzzle obviously had some nut following,” one of the other editors disdainfully remembered, “but was regarded in the office as beneath a sensible man’s consideration.”
Soon sensible men everywhere were considering the daily sophisticated successors of Wynne’s “word-cross puzzle”. It was the great leveler, and taxi drivers and bankers’ wives alike learned that the great Egyptian sun god was named Ra.
Today few newspapers dare eschew a daily crossword. Even as an infant craze, “the eighth lively art” was being hailed as “the greatest known foe of boredom” (ennui).
A versifier of the day mused: “The fans they chew their pencils, — The fans they beat their wives, — They look up words for extinct birds – They live such puzzling lives!
Crossword Widow
QA New Yorker was hauled off to jail for refusing to leave a closing restaurant before conquering his crossword. A Chicago divorce was won by a “crossword widow.” A Pittsburgh preacher entranced his congregation with a sermon in crossword-ese.
A Budapest waiter left a suicide note explaining a mad denyingly unsolvable crossword drove him to do the deed. A champion cruciverbiste in France – where crossword experts have followings of fellow fanatics – fears someone stumped for an answer at two in the morning will get through on his unlisted telephone.
From the beginning, crossword puzzle books and magazines took off like a simoon (violet desert wind). Sales of thesauruses and special crossword dictionaries have followed like an oe (Faeroe Islands whirlwind).
Such helps are not mete (allowable) by purists. In tournaments, competitors vie against each other or the clock. Winning time of the current all-England champion is 8.5 minutes. Show-offs use a pen.
With plenty of time to \learn the difference between an emu (only the ostrich is bigger) and a namaycush (lake trout), convicts, especially lifers, think up and sell many crossword puzzles to publishers.
After 60 years hunters in the crossword jungle have encountered everything from an aardvark (it eats termites with extensile tongue) to a zyzzogeton (its front tibia are grooved).
25 YEARS AGO
April 28, 1999
Margaret Sturza, Madras High School Athletics Director, has been selected Oregon Class 3A Athletics Director of the Year by her peers on a recent ballot of the state’s 64 3A Ads.
“This award reflects on everyone involved with Madras athletics,” she said. “I can’t do this job alone and there is a wonderful administrative staff, secretaries, coaches and excellent community support that make this possible.”
Each 3A league in the state nominates an athletics director to represent them in state balloting by the Oregon Athletics Director’s Association. Last Monday at a banquet in Sunriver, Sturza was selected by her peers as Oregon’s best at the 3A level, something she said made the honor extra-special.
Phil Riley, Jefferson County 509J school district superintendent, said Sturza is a perfect representative of what Madras – both as a school and community – stands for.
“She’s been terrific as our AD,” he said. “It’s delightful she’s gotten the recognition she deserves. Margaret’s the best you could find anywhere. Every high school athletics event here is well-planned and organized and she’s a big part of that.”
Sturza, a long-time MHS coach and teacher, has served as athletics director for the past five years and after nomination by the Tri-Valley Conference, had to submit a stack of paperwork – including several personal letters of recommendation – to the state selection committee.
“It’s an honor to be selected by my peers, but this award represents the whole Madras High School athletics program,” she added.
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