Nuisance

Oh, the angst of sending your firstborn off to college. Not to mention the expense. Beyond tuition, there's a long list of must-haves for moving in: from computer to clothes, dictionary to desk lamp. And while you're making that list and checking it twice, please note that hundreds of colleges and universities say to pack extra-long twin sheets. "What's with that?" said Edie Altschull, a 1996 graduate of the University of Virginia. "We all thought it was the biggest sham.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has issued a warning to Montgomery County about a potentially flammable amount of methane buildup in the county landfill off River Road in Upper Merion. For more than a year, the gases have been building up, but the county only learned of the problem from the DEP in April, county Solicitor Steven O'Neill said. The DEP called the county's failure to dispose of the gas "unlawful conduct" in a letter dated April 20. It demanded that the county implement a plan to significantly curb the volume of noxious gases emanating from the landfill, which is near some homes.

When Falls Township officials proposed at a meeting more than four years ago to build a municipal salt dome, pole barn and truck wash, residents delivered an emotional appeal against the structure, vowing to fight the project till the end. Well, the end has arrived. And the structures are still standing. On Friday, Commonwealth Court affirmed an April 1999 decision of Bucks County Court that had dismissed the complaints from Falls residents. "I don't think we're going to appeal," said Emil Iannelli, the group's attorney.

While this blue-collar borough has had some trouble attracting new businesses and residents, it's having no problem attracting visitors from abroad. Problem is, the visitors are Canada geese. So many of them enjoy Newton Lake and the short grass of the Oaklyn Public School's playing fields that border the lake that they have decided to take up residence. "It's great goose habitat," said Janet Bucknall, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Information Service Wildlife Services.

It's a circus in the Wawa parking lot, nearby residents say, and they want it to stop. "People are making all kinds of noise - there is dancing out there, they have radios blasting," said Louis Molinari, a Rowan University professor who lives across the street from the Wawa on Route 322, just east of Rowan. "This noise continues and then abates around 2:30 a.m., when the deliveries come in. It's a hard thing to live with. " As a result, the Borough Council is considering an ordinance that would make it a municipal offense to allow any type of noise that can be heard 100 feet away to emanate from a commercial property, said Councilman Anthony Fiola.

What to do with all those little, annoying plastic-foam peanuts that come tumbling out of mail-order and Internet-order packages? Call the Peanut Hotline. Consumers who phone the 24-hour, toll-free number (1-800-828-2214) are directed to the nearest shippers and shops that collect those fluffy bits of plastic foam so they can be used again to protect other items during delivery - and terrorize other consumers. Tino E. Perez, manager of Mail Boxes Etc. at 211 South St. in Philadelphia, thinks it is a great idea.

Steve Windsor will get his football uniform dirty this year. The Strath Haven linebacker/tight end will be out there against Manheim Central in the state Class AAA semifinal game at West Chester University on Friday at 7 p.m., catching passes and making tackles and generally trying to make a nuisance of himself. Which beats last season's state semifinals, when Windsor watched from the sideline as the Panthers dropped a 13-12 decision to eventual state champion Allentown Central Catholic.

"Mommy, is that the tree that killed Daddy?" The century-old trees that line almost every city neighborhood haunt 3-year-old Tyler Robinson. A tree fell on his dad, Tyrone Robinson, last Thursday during Hurricane Floyd. The tree was a silver maple, more than 60 feet tall. It cracked and fell onto his 1988 Honda Accord, killing the 36-year-old father of two instantly while he was stopped for a red light on Belmont and Montgomery avenues in Fairmount Park. Robinson, a computer technician for Drexel University, was on his way to rent videos for the family, said his fiancee, Iola Carter.

tHE next time you walk your dog on a city sidewalk, remember this: Big Littermate may be watching you. If your dog poops on the sidewalk and you don't clean it up, you can be fined $25, provided you pay the fine within 10 days. If you don't, you could be hauled into court and fined $300. But when is the last time you saw somebody get busted (much less summoned to court) because their dog dumped on a city sidewalk? That's the problem. And it's not just sloppy dog owners.

It's always exciting to discover you enjoy a constitutional right you never even knew you had. It's also nice to know that we are all now a little more citizens not just of the United States but of every state in it. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a moronic law enacted by California that reduced the welfare payments of Californians who recently moved from other states. The main reason it was moronic was that for all the welfare-bashing instincts it satisfied, the law was about saving 72 cents.