We recently received an e-mail from former Cooperstonian Doug Preston, who told us he enjoyed our deer versus bushes story. He pointed out that at least deer don’t make noise like red squirrels in the attic and walls! Evidently Doug has had an ongoing battle with red squirrels which we definitely think is more problematic than the deer in our yard.

But, we have determined that there are two, not just one, deer wandering the neighborhood. We thought this was the case when a deer ambled through our backyard, checking the rhododendron along the back of the house.

He then dashed across the driveway and disappeared at virtually the same moment that a deer ambled into sight around the back corner of the garage.

We decided that it was highly unlikely that the first deer would have been able to disappear across the driveway, dash around the garage, through the bushes, screech to a halt and amble around the corner of the garage in a second or less. It had to be two different deer, a fact which a number of neighbors have since confirmed.

We must say that we find it somewhat disconcerting to glance out into the backyard and realize that a deer is nonchalantly curled up napping in the middle of the grass. One day, after a nice morning nap, the creature got up, just as the noon whistle blew, walked across the yard and down our driveway to nibble on the neighbor’s dogwood before dashing across the front yard to partake of another neighbor’s hosta. He then returned to the backyard for his afternoon nap. When a friend drove her pickup truck in the driveway, he did look up but, as he seemed completely unconcerned, he continued with his nap.

And while we find the deer to be disconcerting, we must say that we are delighted that they seem to have eaten every crab apple which has fallen off our tree. We do not recall another year when we have not had to deal with crab apples in the fall. Of course, we suspect that we will have to deal with other droppings as time goes on.

Doug Preston also wrote us a bit of a follow up to his earlier piece on the Busch railroad car to tell us that he got some more information about what might be the car in question from John H. White, retired curator of transportation at the Smithsonian.

According to Doug, Mr. White is a recognized authority on passenger car history and had a truly massive book on the subject published some years ago by Johns Hopkins University Press. In response to Doug’s question about the car, Mr. White wrote: "If I am thinking of the right car it was one of two built or rebuilt from old diners, one for the MP and one for Busch (who hated airplanes). It was latter acquired by Bill Krateville, of Omaha; he leased it to Amtrak for some time and Bill may still own it ... Not sure what happened to the MP car. They were heavy weights that looked like light weight."

We thank Doug for this information and for his answer as to just what MP might stand for. We were reasonably certain it was not Military Police and we were right. Doug explained, in this context, it stands for Missouri Pacific, a fairly sizeable railroad absorbed a few years ago by the Union Pacific which is also known, not surprisingly, as UP. Of course we always thought UP referred to a certain part of Michigan. Obviously our knowledge of railroads needs a bit of brushing up.

We also need to brush up on our ability to keep track of items we wish to use in the column.

We have made note recently of various Cooperstown events which were listed in several inserts in this paper in recent weeks. However, even though we carefully clipped the article, we neglected, as a result of, we think, creeping senility, to mention the write up in the September 2006 issue of "Relish" on the Cooperstown Cookie Company. Although we must admit we have not tried a Cooperstown Cookie Company cookie, we must admit that they looked rather good in the photograph accompanying the little article. We have quite decided, they are most definitely a real Christmas gift possibility, especially since they are available on-line.

In closing, we note that the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women’s Club of Cooperstown, will next meet on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown library.

The book for discussion will be "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. Looking ahead to November, we note that the group will meet on Thursday, Nov. 16, the third, not the fourth, Thursday. For some reason, no one ever wants to meet on Thanksgiving.

The agenda for the November meeting will be the selection of books for 2007. All meetings of the Literary Discussion Group are open to the public and anyone who is interested is encouraged to attend.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths