You know you’re from Danville when….

Last week I was looking at the Daily Item’s website when I saw something that caught my eye. I turned to city editor and fellow Danvillite Bill Bowman and said, “Well, you know how townie I am? I just saw the announcement that the Southside Carnival is starting next week and I thought, ‘Well, there’s dinner for next week.’”

The Southside Firemen’s Carnival is a tradition for those raised in the Danville townie lifestyle – it’s something those outside of the fold would hardly consider a “fair.”

But those in the know understand that the food can’t be beat there. You go, you see your fellow Danvillians, you gain 10 pounds, you listen to some great music, maybe play a game or ride a ride with the kids and you leave.

It’s great.

I had wings and french fries, followed by a funnel cake. I probably exceeded my monthly quota for cholesterol intake, but I don’t regret it.

Here’s a peek at what I’m talking about:

This is in the cafeteria-style pavilion as we were getting started.

Election night and pizzas go together like PB&J

Yesterday was election night. Check out the results for the Valley’s elections here.

For journalists, that means a late-night shift including the newsroom staple: the election night pizza.

Pizza is cheap, most people like it and low-paid journalists will do just about anything for free food.

The Daily Item had them, and so did a lot of other newsrooms, as evidenced by tweets coming out of newsrooms from across the state. Here’s just a small sample.

Re-routing to office. RT @madnewsboy Election night officially underway @wistatejournal with the arrival of THE PIZZA twitter.com/madnewsboy/sta…

— Nick Sunderland (@NSunderlandWSJ) April 2, 2013

Free Rita’s

In much of the Northeast, yesterday was a holiday.

It was the first day of spring, which means one thing: free Rita’s!

The lines were long, but worth it.

Here’s a picture from the Danville Rita’s at 5:30ish

I got green apple. What did you get?

Story goes Facebook viral

If there’s one thing I know about the news, it’s that people love restaurant news – what’s opening, what’s closing, what’s even thinking about opening a new location.

And now with social media, it’s even easier to get people the news they’re dying to know about.

Take, for example, a story that broke this week, that Texas Roadhouse is planning to take over the former Ruby Tuesday site in Hummels Wharf. I posted the story on Facebook, and it exploded. It got something like 150 likes.

But that’s not the most impressive stat.

Facebook metrics tracks a stat that indicates how many “shares” a story has. It shares this data on your newsfeed when you like a page to give you an idea of what people with similar interests are talking about. If there’s a really exciting story, sometimes it will have 200 shares.

Here’s the stats that popped up on my newsfeed Friday:

847?! Amazing!

Just goes to show you – sometimes it’s not the investigative, hard-hitting news people want to read…..it’s just as simple as checking zoning applications.

 

Bonus Photos: Community Harvest

Monday, I met with a group of Americorps service members who were helping out Community Harvest, a Milton-based food program.

They served a meal and helped organize the group’s food pantry, with the goal of bringing it up to Central PA Food Bank standards so the group can become a “member organization” and purchase more and better food for less.

Here’s some photos from my trip there:

The Americorps volunteers are getting their assignments.

Organizing the pantry

Touring St Andrew’s UM Church, where CH is housed

New Daily Item blog!

Blogging is catching on: Photographer Rob Inglis has started his foodie blog ClikandEat!

Check it out here.

Here’s a snippet from his first blog post on Lemon Tart [Note: I had one of them, and it was amazing.]:

This was a new recipe for me to try so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My wife makes a nice lemon desert as well so I thought maybe it would turn out like that, but it was definitely a lot different, which just goes to show, you shouldn’t pre-judge a recipe before it’s done and should keep an open mind when trying new things, or meeting new people. I won’t go saying which I like better, hers or mine, I know better than that. The finished product turned out, well, in my opinion pretty good, but if you really want better proof, just ask my colleague Francis Scarcella who ate about 5 pieces of it when I brought it into work.

Know of any other cool Valley-based blogs? Send them my way!

 

Fun at the Farm Show!

Here what people are saying about the 2013 Pennsylvania Farm Show. Send me your favorite moments at awislock@dailyitem.com!

1. 

   one of the best parts of the farm show! #chocolate #milkshake #sogood #farmshow #yum http://instagr.am/p/UKT6i8FsZL/

   Jen Reibsane@jenniferxamanda

   Sun, Jan 06 2013 15:43:46

   ReplyRetweetFavorite

Ziosk-ing

This week in cool Valley restaurant news:

The Red Robin in the Monroe Marketplace got “ziosks” aka tablets which allow you to play games, listen to music, order food or pay your bill from your table.

It even prints your receipt!

Here’s my sister using it:

Our waitress said they Just got them Tuesday.

You have to pay for the games and extras, but even the regular features were cool.

Have you tried the Ziosks? What did you think?

Gum for dessert

I went to Tokyo Diner on Route 11/15 this weekend and was pleasantly surprised when instead of mints, we got Japanese gum with our check:

It was really good! I had the strawberry And the orange.

It got me thinking about what else can be given out as a post-dinner snack.

What have you seen? What would you like to get?