The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 13

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2007 THE MORNING CALL INDEX Obituaries Police Weather Price of unpreparedness B6 too high, shoppers told, B3 Ml themorningcall.COfn?xtra THEM0RNINGCALL.COM BROADBAND: Watch video from recent local news and events Comment BILL WHITE ml mmm vet a tribute at last after his unit, Company was cut off from the rest of the 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment by the 1 1 1 1 1 'Unnecessary' quote mark's strike chord I wV I rapiuiy advancing soiaiers of the North Korean Peo4 pie's Armv. A MEMORIAL PLAQUE has been placed for Harold Eugene Fye of Bethlehem, reported missing in action on July 29,1950 during one of the early battles for control of South Korea. Dtnwtra Stamus Special to Tne Morning Call Memorial service to be held today for Pfc. Harold Eugene Fye, declared MIA in Korean War. By Daryl Nerl Of The Morning Call Harold Eugene Fye of Bethlehem fought in what one military historian has described as a forgotten regiment in what many people have called the "Forgotten War." On July 29, 1950, in one of the early bloody battles for control of South Korea, Pfc.

Fye was reported missing in action Although Fye was officially declared dead on New Year's Eve 1953, his remains were never found. Fy. Family members he had six brothers and five sisters were unsure of what to do or how to pay tribute to him. There was never a funeral, a memorial THE CELTIC CLASSIC HIGHLAND GAMES AND FESTIVAL A Highlands fling FYE PAGE B2 1 A -7 fc'V i 5 1 4 ft 41 OUT FOR YOU OR Steve Donnelly of Delmar, N.Y, keeps the beat with his bass drum of the Celtic Classic Highland Games and Festivr I in Bethlehem on Photoi by Harry Fisher The Morning Call as he rehearses with the Capital Region Celtic Band on the final day Sunday. 3 Cdsino plan loses race for license! State panel instead OKs horse racing and slots for Pittsburgh area.

By Tom De Martini Of The Morning Call Backers of the proposed Freedom Park horse racing track and slot machine casino in Palmer Township battled down to the wire with several competitors to land the final license from the state. But the 100 Purses group, which in 2003 proposed building the facility on farmland adjacent to Route 33 near Tata-my, saw its hopes dashed Sept 4. That's when the state Harness Racing Commission approved a plan submitted by Centaur Inc. of Indiana for Valley View Downs, a harness racing and slot machine casino proposed for Lawrence County, about 55 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The decision effectively scuttled hopes for 100 Purses, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Benevolent Protective Association, to gain licensure for a horse racing track and slots casino.

The racetrack was scheduled as the first phase of a plan to construct a hotel-conference center, retail and entertainment complex on about 500 acres in Palmer. The horsemen's group hoped to host between 150 and 200 live harness or thoroughbred racing dates per year, but received stiff resistance from some Palmer and Tatamy residents, who formed an alliance dubbed People Against the Racetrack. Members voiced concerns -about increased traffic and FREEDOM PAGE B2 Road Warrior appears Mondays and Fridays. i i 1 it Today's Grammar Police column is a "tribute" to Bethany Keeley, a young blogger -who has created a forum for "highlighting" the unnecessary use of quote marks. You see this all the time, particularly on signs for restaurants public attractions (Children and convenience stores Shoes, No Shirt, No Why are these quote marks there? No one is being quoted.

If anything, they imply that the words within should be taken with a grain of irony, probably not the message a restaurant wants to send about its "Good Food." The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, the 24-year-old Keeley's creation, is a hoot. You can find it at blogspot.com. People send her photos of the unnecessary quotes, and she adds her own comments. Recent entries include a birthday cake with the message "Good Luck Amy," surrounded not only by quotation marks but also parentheses sort of like wearing a belt and suspenders on a really tight pair of pants and a note from a transportation company, Hiring "Good Drivers." She also has links to sites about apostrophe abuse check my headline, which I did on PURPOSE, so don't write me about it and the misuse of the word "Literally," as in "They thought we were literally two peas in a pod." If we were literally two peas in a pod, we would be peas. In a pod.

So the next time you're tempted to say, "He literally jumped out of his skin," don't. Keeley, a grad student in communication at the University of Georgia, says unnecessary quotation marks were a family joke. She had no idea this would catch on when she started the blog a couple of years ago. She was getting 3-4 visits a day for the first year. Gradually, she started getting more visitors and more submissions.

When she was linked on Yahoo this month, her daily readership jumped to about 2,000 and then The Associated Press sent out a story about her. That day, she told me, she had 18,000 hits. "I think it's really funny," she said. Keeley insists she's not one of those annoying grammar pedants who are forever picking at other people's mistakes. She gravitates only toward errors that are really funny, such as weird quotation marks and dangling modifiers.

Her only entry so far from Pennsylvania originated at a gun club in the northeastern part of the state. The handwritten sign said: "Please Take Note" "When Leaving Party" Drive slow 25 mph Police Do Be Out Never mind the goofy quote marks. What's with the ebonies? For Keeley, this popularity is just a bonus. Whether she has three readers a day or 18,000, it's all about having fun. "You're unlikely to make money for it, and there's no telling when or if your blog will become popular," she said.

"So if you don't like doing it for the sake of doing it, it's really not worthwhile." If you think unnecessary quote marks are "funny," start watching for them and send them to me. I'll put a collection together sometime for a future "column." And if you get a picture, remember to send it to Bethany Keeley. We need to put Pennsylvania on the unnecessary-quotation-mark map. 3 Call, mmm in i 'c Sean Moran of Albany, N.Y, who is also a member of the Capital Region band, above, plays the bagpipes before the Celtic Classic pipe band competition. At right, Craig Smith of Dayton, Ohio, clinches first place in the open stone throw with a toss of 55 feet, inches as part of the festival's Highland Games.

road mtm DAN HARTZELL LOOKING Whafs that in the air at Good Shepherd? MAIL ROAD WARRIOR The Morning 101 N. Sixth Allentown, Pa. 18105 e-mail hartzellmcall.com On my way to work every day, I drive past the Good Shepherd campus on S. Fifth Street in Allentown. A couple of months ago, they completed construction on the campus, and things looked very nice.

However, just recently they began digging up the concrete near the parking deck as well as directly across Fifth Street at the new building there. They installed concrete columns on each side of the street, and just recently they seem to have installed a concrete platform between columns, above the roadway. What is going on? Are they building a pedestrian walkway? Jest Fisher Upper Black Eddy A The capital improve- ments to the Good 0 Shepherd campus, though controvert sial at one time chiefly because of the closing of St. John Street and the attendant loss of parking and convenience for the neighborhood, have resulted in an improved traffic situation overall, by the view through the Warrior's windshield. The $4L7 million worth of new buildings should help this century-old nonprofit social agency continue its tradition of community service for years to come.

Despite the inconvenience to some neighbors, traffic seems be flowing efficiently through the area, and that should only improve as more motorists become familiar with the new patterns. And the closure of St. John Street carried a side benefit: improving the safety of the campus by reducing the need for people in wheelchairs or others who have limited mobility to cross a busy street. The refurbished campus WARRIOR PAGE B2 Din Hwtzelt The Morning Call AT GOOD SHEPHERD'S CAMPUS in Allentown, a pedestrian bridge will allow employees and patients to cross over S. Fifth Street blll.whlte'Smcall.coni 610-861-3632.