Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: Cheers to Southmoreland quarterback Anthony Smith for throwing four touchdown passes in the Scotties’ 31-14 Interstate Conference football victory over visiting Derry last Friday night. Smith, only a freshman, connected with Elliot Premus on TD tosses of 10 and 30 yards and also threw scoring passes of 35 yards to Jackson Mickens and 9 yards to Stanley Betters. Smith completed 16 of 26 passes for 296 yards, which ranked as one of the top performances in the WPIAL last week. For the season Smith has connected on 67 of 124 throws for 1,276 yards with 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while helping Southmoreland get off to a 1-0 start in the conference and an impressive 5-1 record overall.
Jeers: October is here, and that means it’s time for drivers to be alert. This month, along with November and December, are the peak months for motorists to collide with animals, particularly deer. And of all 50 states, Pennsylvania has the highest number of claims filed annually for animal collisions, according to a just-released report from State Farm Insurance. All in all, you have 1-in-61 odds of hitting an animal when you are traveling on the roads of Pennsylvania, according to the report. It’s better than the 1-in-40 odds you have in West Virginia, but a far cry from the 1-in-11 million odds you have of dying in a plane crash. The best advice at this time of year is be on the lookout when driving, especially in rural areas and between dusk and dawn, don’t speed, don’t be distracted by your phone, be alert for herds of deer, and don’t swerve if you can’t avoid striking a deer or some other animal. Being watchful and taking it easy on the gas pedal might make all the difference between getting somewhere uneventfully and having to call your insurance agent.
Cheers: During his lifetime, Charles “Teenie” Harris was a workaday photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, the region’s Black newspaper. He captured everyday images of Black life and also snapped memorable images of some of the 20th century’s greatest luminaries when they visited Pittsburgh, including Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Jackie Robinson and many others. The work of Harris is now part of the Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection, and historians value it for the way it chronicles Black life and culture at a time when many metropolitan newspapers were ignoring both. For much of his professional life, Harris worked out of his house in Homewood and developed his photos in a darkroom in the basement. Last week, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission unveiled a state historical marker outside the house, and relatives and local leaders were on hand to pay tribute. According to Pittsburgh radio station WESA-FM, Matthew Falcone of the group Preservation Pittsburgh said Harris was “without question one of the greatest historians our city has ever seen.” Journalists – and, indeed, everyone – can be glad that Harris has been honored in this way.