MAPLE: It’s National Maple Syrup Day.

We learned this from Pennsylvania Maple Ambassador Tori Miller from the Pennsylvania Maple Syrup Producers Council,

“If you are looking for ideas, try starting off your day by adding some maple syrup to your tea or coffee in the morning,” Tori suggested. “Then you could try some neat maple recipes, like maple glazed carrots or a maple glazed ham that you could even use for a holiday dinner.”

For maple glazed carrots, she said to start by cutting them into sticks. Warm a skillet over medium-high heat. Melt a little butter in the skillet and put the carrots in. Once they look like they are pretty much done, turn the heat down to medium-low. Add some pure maple syrup, salt and brown sugar — however much you like, Tori suggested.

Let the carrots cook uncovered in the glaze for about 10 minutes, stirring often. The glaze will begin to thicken. Place the carrots in a serving dish and pour the rest of the glaze from the pan over the carrots.

Sounds tasty.

ZIPPO: Zippo has made made it into the pages of a newspaper on the other side of the country.

Brittany Voie, a Zippo lighter collector and a columnist for Centralia, Wash.-based newspaper The Chronicle, wrote a recent column related to her collection.

She was seeking information on a possible Vietnam-Era lighter found years ago on the side of a highway. It was inscribed on one side with the name J.A. Lary, and on the other was a hand-carved griffin and the word BANGKOK.

The closest match she found was a man named Jeffery A. Lary, a former resident of Pierce County, Wash., who is now deceased; she was unable to confirm the connection.

The column was “a last-ditch effort, in case anyone reading remembers a ‘J.A. Lary’” from her region of the nation.

Read more about the the found lighter at www.chronline.com/news/brittany-voie-commentary-searching-for-j-a-lary-owner-of/article_2ae8c6e0-0019-11e9-93c5-a7fb1fb3b836.html