Accomack Arson, Ocala Horses, & the Pope

Last week, there were ten new fires that were attributed to the Accomack County arsonist. So far this week, the Whispering Pines Motel on US 13 and an empty restaurant near Onancock became victims of this pyromaniac. I never stayed at Whispering Pines, but seeing the billboards for the motel along the highway, and then finally seeing the buildings and neon sign itself, always meant I was near home (Chincoteague) and that I was finally in Accomack County. The Whispering Pines has seen it's ups and downs over the past 70 years, but it was, at one time, a very beautiful, well-run motor court (and well known restaurant and bar) for people travelling up and down the Eastern Shore, or for those who couldn't decide whether to stay on the Bay or the Ocean side... The reward for turning in the Accomack arsonist is till at $25,000.

  In Ocala, Florida, the Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Ocala Breeders Sale had a breath-taking moment yesterday. Hip number 333, a grey or roan colt, sired by Smart Strike and out of the Pulpit mare Mini Sermon sold for a whopping $1.8 million. The next-highest price for a 2-year-old was $600,000.

  So the Roman Catholic Church has a new Pope - "il Popa." As soon as it was announced that he would be using the name "Francisco," I wondered if it was in reference to St. Francis of Assissi. I was correct, which really surprised me, because I am not a Catholic... The new Pope Francis was the Cardinal of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He lost one lung to a nasty infection as a teen-ager, was a history teacher, and is a member of the Jesuits. His parents were Italian immigrants to Argentina in the late 1920s. He is 76 years old, wears glasses, cooked his own meals in a tiny apartment in Buenos Aires, and rode the bus for transport. He seems to be an interesting man, but I don't expect any new and sweeping church reforms from him.