Instead of the usual wild rant or an engaging - yet utterly random - personal story about lemons or bubble-wrap, I've got something a little different this week. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Preston Wrangler Emmons.

Preston is an 11-year-old boy from Kokomo, Ind. He's currently in fifth grade at Western Intermediate School in Russiaville, Ind. At the moment, Preston is working on a project where each student chooses a state and creates a scrapbook detailing facts about the state.

The reason you're being introduced to Mr. Emmons, is that he will receive extra credit on the project if he can get a newspaper from his state (his is New York, in case you missed the clue train). Preston sent a very polite e-mail to the Crier office last week explaining the situation and asking if we would send him a copy of our paper, since he had visited Cooperstown two years ago with his parents and thought it would be neat to get a paper from us. He signed it "My mom and dad told me to say thank you for your time."

Naturally, we couldn't let such a request go unanswered. Of course, as New York's representative newspaper in a classroom presumably full of different state's newspapers, it simply would not suffice to just send a paper and forget about it. Something special was needed.

I replied to Preston's e-mail with a few questions and told him I would be more than happy to send him a copy of the paper, but thought that we could spice things up with an article talking about his class project. He quickly responded with the information about his town and himself that I asked.

Preston said his city has approximately 46,113 residents and is called the "City of Firsts." He said some of the firsts to come out of Kokomo were the pneumatic rubber tire, carburetor, howitzer shell, transistor car radio and canned tomato juice. He said Elwood Haynes invented one of the first successful gasoline-powered automobiles in Kokomo and went on to invent the muffler and several different metal alloys.

He said there are three major employers in Kokomo— Delphi, DaimlerChrysler and Haynes International. He said Delphi's recent filing for bankruptcy has created a lot of stress in the city. Kokomo is "very much a factory town that was built with Union principles," he wrote.

Preston said the city made the news in the 1980s when a child named Ryan White was expelled from public school because he had AIDS.

On a personal level, Preston said he loves playing football, baseball and basketball, and enjoys Jeeping with his dad. His school mascot is the Panther. He chose New York because he has been to the state several times, and enjoys it here.

Thanks for sending the info, Preston. In return, here's a little information about Cooperstown for you and your classmates.

As you probably already know, Cooperstown is widely regarded as the birthplace of America's pastime, home to both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and historic Doubleday Field - named in honor of Abner Doubleday, the man who supposedly helped develop baseball as we know it.

What you may not know, is that research shows Cooperstown probably is not the exact birthplace of baseball. No one is certain about the true birthplace. No one doubts however, that Cooperstown is - in any case - still the spiritual home of baseball.

The village is a lot smaller than Kokomo, with approximately 2,000 people calling Cooperstown home on a full-time basis.

The school's sports teams are the Cooperstown Redskins. The boys cross-country team just won the state title this fall and the girls soccer team won the sectional title and finished with 22-1 record, losing only to the eventual state champion.

It's a small town that receives a lot of tourism and a lot of national attention, which makes it a pretty fascinating place to live and work. And certainly a great place to visit.

In any event, allow me to extend a warm greeting from the winter wonderland that is New York to you, your classmates and your teacher.

Oh, one last thing: my editors told me to say thank you for your time, Preston.