Fowl

Medford Lakes residents have been too kind to their fine-feathered friends, but after tomorrow night the free lunch for ducks and geese in this community of 21 lakes had better be over. The Borough Council will hold a special meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Oaks Hall, the municipal building, to revise the ordinance regulating the use of lakes in the 1.2-square-mile borough in hopes of getting rid of certain unwelcome guests: Canada geese. Until about five years ago, the geese made Medford Lakes only a short stop on their annual migrations north.

The most celebrated meal in American history is, without doubt, the one shared by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians at harvest time in 1621. Let's call it the first Thanksgiving, ignoring competing claims, because facts are mostly beside the point in discussing a nation's thoughts about itself and because that meal embodied so many of the things we hold sacred. We have little information about that legendary feast and, in culinary terms, it was probably a modest affair.

A love of nature combined with care for the environment was the theme Saturday at the Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol Township, as youngsters ages 8-12 learned to manufacture bird feeders out of materials that could be found around the home, such as old jars and plastic milk cartons. The workshop was part of a Saturday series.

The San Francisco Giants are tired of all the walks Barry Bonds is drawing this season. The club will begin selling orange rubber chickens named "Walk'er" tomorrow, when the Giants open a four-game series against rival Los Angeles. The chickens - described as "your average fowl" - will sell for $10, with proceeds going to the Giants Community Fund. Their purpose? "To officially protest the number of intentional walks at SBC Park," the Giants said. This season, Bonds has drawn a major-league-leading 94 walks in 58 games, 51 intentional.

The Miracle Bird of Elizabethtown led the Outdoors page of a Lancaster newspaper one morning this spring, a feel-good tale if there ever was one. The column told how Pati Mattrick, a 57-year-old grandmother and preschool teacher, had rescued the hatchling from a howling rainstorm four years earlier. And now the bird was returning the favor. Mattrick's German shepherd had discovered the tiny creature - pink, fuzzy, and soaked - buried in the backyard ivy at the foot of a towering spruce.

I met Mitzi Perdue, wife of Frank, this spring in the fire tower of the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia, at a gathering of gluttons - otherwise known as a networking breakfast for food folk. We'd both gotten tired of waiting for the elevator and ended up walking down 24 flights of steps together. By the time we reached the convention floor, we had compared treadmills, publishers and husbands; I decided she was ahead on all three. The following afternoon our latest cookbooks sat cheek to jowl at an autographing table, and so did we. My husband Alvin brought us tidbits from the buffet to keep our signing arms supple, which impressed Mitzi, but unnerved me. I've been Alvin's wife for 25 years and I know he's only that considerate when he's getting ready to reveal some really hideous secret.

The wild waterfowl of this small borough are getting a big dose of tough love: The borough has outlawed feeding the ducks and geese that have made the Paint Works lake their year-round home. "It's for their own good," said Mayor Ed G. Campbell 3d. A new ordinance, requested by the owners of the lake and passed earlier this month, is meant to discourage the well-meaning people who feed the fowl bread crumbs and other snacks in the fall - a situation that has the unfortunate effect of fooling more and more of them into thinking they should spend the winter at the lake.

Banana, anyone? During a lunch break yesterday from lacrosse camp on the Haverford College campus, Bryan Witte, 9, tried to share his fruit with the fowl. At first, they walked off. Later, he got some takers.

The day before Turkey Day looks fit for ducks, but less so for motorists and air travelers. In the Philadelphia area, rain from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning could be heavy at times, making for even slower driving on annually jammed roads, according to meteorologist Walter Drag of the National Weather Service. Icy roads are a marginal threat overnight Wednesday and Thursday, especially in areas to the north, as temperatures flirt with freezing throughout the region.

WE KNOW the restaurant business is tough, but Flavor Flav's Chicken in Iowa hasn't even been open for four months and already it's lost its Flavor. Turns out the chicken is finger blingin' bad. According to TMZ.com, Flav has pulled his name from the eatery and blamed his business partner for mismanagement. Flav says the shoddy operation gave him "a bad reputation. " "I had a licensing agreement with Nick Cimino and that's all we had," Flav told TMZ. "It was his business to run from there and the business was not run right.

IS THERE a conspiracy to keep the public from the review of a proposal for a duck-boat operator to paddle on the Schuylkill? Some people think so. A committee of city agencies is meeting at the behest of the managing director's office to review details of a proposal submitted by Ride the Ducks to move its operations from the Delaware. The office is staying mum on the names of the members to avoid having them subjected to pressure. We don't like the idea of closing off opportunities for public input, but we don't think that's what is going on here.

The Miracle Bird of Elizabethtown led the Outdoors page of a Lancaster newspaper one morning this spring, a feel-good tale if there ever was one. The column told how Pati Mattrick, a 57-year-old grandmother and preschool teacher, had rescued the hatchling from a howling rainstorm four years earlier. And now the bird was returning the favor. Mattrick's German shepherd had discovered the tiny creature - pink, fuzzy, and soaked - buried in the backyard ivy at the foot of a towering spruce.

Sylvia Fowles scored 13 of her 23 points in the third quarter as the U.S. national team beat the WNBA All-Stars, 99-72, on Saturday in this year's version of the league's midseason showcase in Uncasville, Conn. Candice Dupree and Swin Cash had 13 points apiece, and Connecticut senior Maya Moore added 12 for the U.S team. Fowles shot 9 for 11 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds, earning the game's MVP award. Michael Gilchrist of Somerdale, Camden County, had 30 points and 15 rebounds to lead the United States to a 103-80 victory over Canada in the semifinals of FIBA's Under-17 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.

Former major league baseball coach Rich Donnelly went to Haddonfield a few weeks ago to tell students about the chicken that ran at midnight - the story of his cancer-stricken daughter, a magical baseball game, and the grace found in helping others. Donnelly shared his tale in the hope of helping seriously ill children in the area, including a 7-year-old borough girl named Mia Strobel, who is battling cancer. At Haddonfield Memorial and Paul VI High Schools, students sat in hushed attention.

The suburbs can be cold and lonely. Seeking refuge from noise, bustle, and danger, people retreat behind moats of rye and fescue. They might live on the same street for decades, but know nothing more about their neighbors than the kinds of cars they drive. Then something happens - an accident or tragedy, perhaps - that compels contact and connection and evokes a common humanity. The Villages at Pond's Edge is a townhouse development with 120 units. They are built on hilly terrain near Baltimore Pike west of Chadds Ford, far enough from the busy highway that the sound of traffic does not disturb the pastoral peace.

Here are some tested recipes using farm-raised pheasants. If you're ambitious and have two days to spend with a complex recipe, try this challenging pheasant dish from Sandy D'Amato, chef and co-owner of Sanford Restaurant in Milwaukee, Wis. This recipe instructs you to prepare the legs and breast separately. SEARED BREAST OF PHEASANT WITH DRIED PLUMS, LEEKS AND LEMON MOLASSES AND CRISPY CRUMB BREAD SAUCE 2 1/2 cups white wine 3 shallots, sliced thin (2 to 3 ounces) 6 sprigs parsley 4 sprigs thyme 12 juniper berries, crushed 25 peppercorns, crushed 3 garlic cloves, crushed 3 bay leaves 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 pheasants (about 3 pounds each)

In some homes, a pricey beef roast is the yuletide equivalent of Thanksgiving's sweet potato and marshmallow casserole: essential. Yet in tougher times such as these, a $100 rack of prime rib is out of the question for many hosts, a $150 cut of filet mignon unthinkable. Even for those who can afford it, luxury meat can seem distasteful, an edible symbol of the excesses that have contributed to our financial woes. "I've served prime rib for the past five years . . . but this year we'll be doing a turkey," says Lois West, a school administrator and Center City resident.

Sylvia Fowles and the U.S. women's basketball team were too big for South Korea. Fowles scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the U.S. to a 104-60 rout last night, advancing to the semifinals of the Olympic tournament. The Americans will face Russia, an 84-65 winner over Spain, and its American point guard, Becky Harmon, in one semifinal. while China plays Australia in the other. South Korea held tough for the first quarter behind hot shooting. It was 9-for-16 (59 percent)