New Hope

NEW HOPE, Va. - In 1902, 26 years after Alexander Graham Bell patented the first telephone, a group of about two dozen New Hope farmers decided it was time they had access to the new technology making the world smaller. "They were just some farmers who wanted access to the markets in Staunton," said Kelly Chapman, who has been either president or vice president of the New Hope Telephone Company Board for 42 years. "So they got together and did it themselves," he said. Almost 100 years later, the New Hope Telephone Co. is still tiny - the second-smallest in the state - with 864 customers, about 1,000 lines and five full-time employees.

Bartlett Jere Whiting, 90, a professor emeritus of English at Harvard University who was renowned for his compilations of proverbs and for his classes on Chaucer, died Aug. 24 in Belfast, Maine.Selma Burke, 94, who sculpted the profile of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that appears on the dime, died Tuesday of cancer in New Hope, Pa.Hajime Mitarai, 56, the president of Canon Inc. who helped invent "bubble jet" printing, died of pneumonia yesterday in Tokyo, a company official said.Fischer S. Balck Jr., 57, an economist whose financial theories provided the cornerstone for Wall Street's global options market, died of cancer Wednesday in New Canaan, Conn.

The Natural Products Expo East 1998, one of the largest conventions ever at the Baltimore Convention Center, has brought 18,000 participants and 1,500 exhibitors to town, all hawking one thing -- healthy living.The trade show -- which is open only to retailers, distributors, manufacturers, importers and exporters -- officially began yesterday and will end tomorrow. The expo is a key opportunity to network and introduce new products, organizers said.The educational component of the expo -- 55 seminars on events in the industry -- began Wednesday.

Hopewell H. "Hope" Barroll III, a retired WFBR-AM executive who enjoyed creating gardens with his wife and was also a noted outdoorsman and eminent practical joker, died July 1 of cancer at his Ruxton home. He was 78. Mr. Barroll, the son of Hopewell H. Barroll Jr. and Mary Louise Maslin, was born in Baltimore and raised on Overhill Road in Roland Park. His father, who had been executive vice president and general manager of WFBR, died in 1948. Mr. Barroll had attended St. Paul's School and graduated in 1950 from the Solbury School in New Hope, Pa. He attended the University of Virginia and later served in the Navy for two years aboard the battleship USS Mississippi.

When a picture editor called me at home to ask whether I could start work early Monday morning to cover the opening of the New Hope Amish School, I cringed inwardly. Not because of the pre-dawn start, but because I knew the Amish dislike being photographed, and I couldn't help but think privately that maybe the media should be leaving these folks alone. Such thoughts are not conducive to receiving a regular paycheck in this profession, so I kept them to myself (until now) and said yes. That night, photographer Kenneth K. Lam was kind enough to drop off two long telephoto lenses that the staff shares as pool equipment, so I could get a quick start in the morning without detouring to the office.

A hotel delivery in China; A memorable placeOur plane shuddered and yawed, heightening our apprehension and uncertainty. Outside the window, rich fields of rice and red sorghum sprawled to the horizon. Water buffalo roamed about. The Yangtze River flowed just beyond our view. Beautiful! But our purpose for being in China was not simply the landscape.We landed in Changsha. The airport terminal was an aluminum shed with sparse seating and one undersized luggage rack - paltry for a city of 6 million people.

Soccer and lacrosse have their loyal, ever-growing constituencies, no question, but don't discount baseball as continuing to be maybe the truest harbinger of spring in Howard County. Youth baseball organizations locally have some new leadership, which is the norm. In several instances this year, there is reason for new hope - and maybe even some growth in interest. An informal sampling of some things baseball folks are talking about locally while hoping to work in at least a few practices before opening games in the next couple of weeks: "Whatever slump baseball was in seems to be over," said Howard Carolan, who oversees all of the Howard County Youth Program's operations.

The Washington Redskins offer the kind of story lines that authors dream about. With all sorts of twists and turns, subplots and intrigue, the Redskins have more suspense than a political espionage thriller. The question is: Can Washington crack the best-sellers' list? No one knows. Coach Joe Gibbs isn't making any predictions and the players are clinging to hopes of a turnaround with a franchise that hasn't tasted the playoffs since 1999. "The great thing about pro sports is that you don't have a clue [about what's going to happen in a season]

Hours remain, but most of 1993 is history. All right, some of it is history. Much of it was merely tasteless.But that's getting ahead of the story.Time already for the Year in Review, another probing look at the last 52 weeks in which Baltimore did not get the ball, Michele McCloud did not get City Hall Employee of the Month and Del. John Arnick learned that the Andrew Dice Clay routine plays poorly in a mixed crowd.It seems only yesterday we were saying: "Zoe Baird? A Peruvian baby sitter?

The problems of a 10-year-old sound something like this. "Can I pleeeaaase have an email account?" pleads Lindsey Duquette, jumping up and down in front of her mom, Pam Duquette, in the family kitchen in Sparks. "All my friends have email. " It's enough to make any parents roll their eyes. But for the Duquette family - dad is former Orioles vice president turned baseball analyst Jim Duquette - childhood dramas like this secretly make them smile. A year ago the now rambunctious Lindsey was bedridden and lethargic.