Chicken Feed

Traffic along Interstate 95 in Delaware County was disrupted for much of yesterday after a tractor-trailer loaded with chicken feed spilled its cargo onto the busy highway Tuesday night, authorities said. Chester police said motorists were backed up about three miles into Ridley Township for most of the day after the mishap, which occurred about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the southbound lanes near the Kerlin Street overpass. The truck, driven by Douglas Leon Blanchard, 30, of Belvedere, N.C., was hauling 86,000 pounds of chicken feed from a Philadelphia milling company to a Frank Perdue Inc. plant in Maryland when the sides of the trailer buckled, police said.

Yes, fiberglass animals have rights, too. At least, one anonymous local businessman thinks so. He has come to the defense of the most persecuted bird in town - the big, bright rooster in front of Norview Farms. The benefactor has offered $1,000 - not chicken feed - to anyone with information that leads to the arrest of whoever broke off the bird's legs in April. According to police, busting up the bird has been a longtime tradition. The rooster has not been repaired since the last mauling and has been damaged at least six times in the last 20 years.

The Kaljanac family is gathered around a table laden with delicacies. Roasted lamb, shish kebab, stewed mushrooms, stuffed meat pies, feta cheese, onion-and-cream spread, baklava . . . The scene is from Tarik Kaljanac's first-birthday party on March 17, 1991. It is on videotape. This night, the Kaljanacs are eating biscuits cobbled together from their U.N. food rations. Ekrem Kaljanac switches off the VCR and laughs. "This is what we do when we're hungry. We watch what we used to eat on video," says Ekrem, a police officer who lives at 42 Logavina.

In 1995, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed poultry producers to begin using antibiotics called flouroquinolones, even though public health experts warned that it might worsen the problem of antibiotic resistance. Now, just five years later, that warning has come true, and the FDA has asked drug companies to voluntarily withdraw the poultry medicine. Abbott Laboratories has complied. The only other manufacturer, Bayer Corp. - which dominates this $20 million market - is not keen on the idea.

Mack McKenzie, 64, an entrepreneur who made his living from septic-waste removal and farming with sludge as fertilizer, died in his sleep from brain cancer yesterday at Genesis Health Care Center, Voorhees. A Mount Laurel resident since 1975, he was born in Waycross, Ga., where he was orphaned at age 10 and quit school in sixth grade to work on his grandfather's farm. When he was 18, he moved to Philadelphia, where he found work playing steel guitar at nights. It was the early 1950s, and his day job was installing the television antennas that were just beginning to become commonplace on rooftops.

Robert C. Melzi, 96, of Bala Cynwyd, professor emeritus of Romance languages at Widener University, died Thursday, March 1, at home. Dr. Melzi was on the Widener faculty for 30 years and chaired the Romance language department in the 1970s. He also taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's University, Villanova University, and Bryn Mawr College. In 1967, Dr. Melzi, an expert on Dante, wrote Castelvetro's Annotations to the 'Inferno': A New Perspective in Sixteenth Century Criticism . After 11 years of work, in 1973 he published the Bantam New College Italian-English Dictionary . "Up until now," he told the Philadelphia Daily News, "the bilingual dictionary for the most part reflected the tastes, culture, and language of Great Britain.

Vacationers who toss bread or popcorn to geese and ducks, take note: The seaside town of Fenwick Island, on the Delaware shore just north of Ocean City, Md., has grown weary of waterfowl droppings and is taking aim - at people who feed the birds. We're not talking chicken feed. The town council approved an ordinance in March setting fines of $200 to $1,000 for those caught feeding the waterfowl. The ordinance, already in effect, applies to visitors and residents alike and calls for street signs noting the prohibition.

The Rev. Harold Edwin Taussig Jr. says he's proverbial proof that "God works in mysterious ways. " Consider: If it wasn't for a sterile bull, Taussig might still be riding herd on a bunch of cows in the Blue River Valley instead of tending a flock of the faithful in Chestnut Hill. No bull! Taussig was born and bred on a 360-acre cattle ranch just outside Kremmling, Colo., (Pop. 600) where gophers and bobcats play. It's where Taussig's dad earned a living leading steer to market and his mom picked off pesty magpies with a .22 from the dining room window.

There are only 23 shopping days left until Christmas, but it will be the upset of the yuletide season if good will soon prevails between Doug Williams and Andre Waters. Indeed, bad blood exists between the Redskins quarterback and the Eagles strong safety - whose teams square off Sunday at Veterans Stadium. It was evident here yesterday at the Redskins' training facility when Williams said: "I tell you what. I think it's good that I'm not a receiver. I'm sure he'd be trying to take my head off in the secondary, but at the same time, every time I would get a shot against Andre Waters, I would take it. I don't have nothing against tough football players.

Lettice Moon has found the child within herself. And it shows - in her art. On her dining room table sits a glossy piece of ceramic chocolate cake with strawberry icing. Complete with wings, taillights and exhaust pipes, it looks as if it's breaking the sound barrier standing still. Next to the drag-strip dessert are perched two colorful toucans. Nearby sits a mother cat, with legs outstretched, telling a story to smaller cats perched on the legs, shoulders and stomach. Behind them all is the Philadelphia skyline.

Robert C. Melzi, 96, of Bala Cynwyd, professor emeritus of Romance languages at Widener University, died Thursday, March 1, at home. Dr. Melzi was on the Widener faculty for 30 years and chaired the Romance language department in the 1970s. He also taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's University, Villanova University, and Bryn Mawr College. In 1967, Dr. Melzi, an expert on Dante, wrote Castelvetro's Annotations to the 'Inferno': A New Perspective in Sixteenth Century Criticism . After 11 years of work, in 1973 he published the Bantam New College Italian-English Dictionary . "Up until now," he told the Philadelphia Daily News, "the bilingual dictionary for the most part reflected the tastes, culture, and language of Great Britain.

At Moriarty's Pub on Walnut Street, they have two guys just cutting celery and carrots into sticks for three days before the big day. At Wings to Go on Castor Avenue in Rhawnhurst, the line for to-go orders will start at noon. And at Chickie's & Pete's on Packer Avenue in South Philadelphia, they will be hard pressed to restock the wing fryers after hosting the hectic Wing Bowl weigh-in Thursday night. Every year on Super Bowl Sunday, wing fever hits its peak. Moriarty's alone says it will sell a ton. Nationally, it is the biggest wing-eating day of the year, with 100 million pounds of wings hitting plates at parties and bars around the country.

In 1995, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed poultry producers to begin using antibiotics called flouroquinolones, even though public health experts warned that it might worsen the problem of antibiotic resistance. Now, just five years later, that warning has come true, and the FDA has asked drug companies to voluntarily withdraw the poultry medicine. Abbott Laboratories has complied. The only other manufacturer, Bayer Corp. - which dominates this $20 million market - is not keen on the idea.

Yes, fiberglass animals have rights, too. At least, one anonymous local businessman thinks so. He has come to the defense of the most persecuted bird in town - the big, bright rooster in front of Norview Farms. The benefactor has offered $1,000 - not chicken feed - to anyone with information that leads to the arrest of whoever broke off the bird's legs in April. According to police, busting up the bird has been a longtime tradition. The rooster has not been repaired since the last mauling and has been damaged at least six times in the last 20 years.

Vacationers who toss bread or popcorn to geese and ducks, take note: The seaside town of Fenwick Island, on the Delaware shore just north of Ocean City, Md., has grown weary of waterfowl droppings and is taking aim - at people who feed the birds. We're not talking chicken feed. The town council approved an ordinance in March setting fines of $200 to $1,000 for those caught feeding the waterfowl. The ordinance, already in effect, applies to visitors and residents alike and calls for street signs noting the prohibition.

Mack McKenzie, 64, an entrepreneur who made his living from septic-waste removal and farming with sludge as fertilizer, died in his sleep from brain cancer yesterday at Genesis Health Care Center, Voorhees. A Mount Laurel resident since 1975, he was born in Waycross, Ga., where he was orphaned at age 10 and quit school in sixth grade to work on his grandfather's farm. When he was 18, he moved to Philadelphia, where he found work playing steel guitar at nights. It was the early 1950s, and his day job was installing the television antennas that were just beginning to become commonplace on rooftops.

The Kaljanac family is gathered around a table laden with delicacies. Roasted lamb, shish kebab, stewed mushrooms, stuffed meat pies, feta cheese, onion-and-cream spread, baklava . . . The scene is from Tarik Kaljanac's first-birthday party on March 17, 1991. It is on videotape. This night, the Kaljanacs are eating biscuits cobbled together from their U.N. food rations. Ekrem Kaljanac switches off the VCR and laughs. "This is what we do when we're hungry. We watch what we used to eat on video," says Ekrem, a police officer who lives at 42 Logavina.

Cabbage is everywhere. Carrots and cabbage, and there were cucumbers for a while and then they disappeared. Potatoes? Who knows where those things went. Fidel Castro went out to the potato fields himself to praise all the doctors, lawyers and bureaucrats who had "volunteered" to help pick the record potato crop, and for a while there were plenty of potatoes on the otherwise empty supermarket shelves and then they just vanished one day. Leaving only the cabbage. For a while there were chickens - no, not roasting chickens, but live baby chicks that the government grocers decided to just give away to the people of Cuba because, according to several consumers, the government figured out that it would be cheaper for the state if its citizens got chicks and raised them themselves, and so now all you hear at dawn is the cock-a-doodle-doo of next summer's supper.

Lettice Moon has found the child within herself. And it shows - in her art. On her dining room table sits a glossy piece of ceramic chocolate cake with strawberry icing. Complete with wings, taillights and exhaust pipes, it looks as if it's breaking the sound barrier standing still. Next to the drag-strip dessert are perched two colorful toucans. Nearby sits a mother cat, with legs outstretched, telling a story to smaller cats perched on the legs, shoulders and stomach. Behind them all is the Philadelphia skyline.

The Rev. Harold Edwin Taussig Jr. says he's proverbial proof that "God works in mysterious ways. " Consider: If it wasn't for a sterile bull, Taussig might still be riding herd on a bunch of cows in the Blue River Valley instead of tending a flock of the faithful in Chestnut Hill. No bull! Taussig was born and bred on a 360-acre cattle ranch just outside Kremmling, Colo., (Pop. 600) where gophers and bobcats play. It's where Taussig's dad earned a living leading steer to market and his mom picked off pesty magpies with a .22 from the dining room window.