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 Holabird AdvocateProviding all the news we see fit to print since 2002!Thursday, October 31, 2002 VOL. I Issue 10L W TOUCHES DOWN IN HUB CITY At 9:15 this morning Air Force 1 landed at Aberdeen Regional Airport. Air Force 1 is a 757 instead of the usual 777 that has brought W to South Dakota before. This is the first time a sitting President has visited the Hub City since FDR visited in 1936. While in Aberdeen W touched on all the same issues that he has been right along. Those being homeland security, Social Security, forest management, and he talked a little about farming without any talk of actual drought relief money. This was a campaign stop, so he talked about getting John thune elected to the Senate, Bill Janklow elected to the House, and Mike Rounds elected Govenor. One minor slip of the tonuge had W thanking Mayor Hooper of Aberdeen (the man's name is Hopper) but all in all he was well recieved. Exitement was rare this time as only half to two-thirds of the crowd cheered at times. W took off from the airport at around 10:30am to continue his campaign stops. He has a big agenda today, as he is also going to Indiana and West Virginia today. Aberdeen is called "The Hub City" because back inthe old railroad days it was a railroad "hub", or center of activity. FDR came to Aberdeen by rail because there was no such thing as Air Force 1 back then. In fact there was no presidential airplane until 1947. W may be in Sioux Falls on Sunday. If he is we will not be covering it because the press room is closed on Sunday and Holabird Advocate publisher Jerry Hinkle has said "Nobody, not even the Presdident can get me to open the press room. I didn't do it for my Grandad, and I sure won't do it for W." DRACULA LURES FANS TO TRANSYLVANIA FOR HALLOWEEN By Dina Kyriakidou of Reuters Die-hard Dracula fans are flocking to the Carpathian Mountains to visit the count's old haunts, watch a medieval witch trial and attend the Miss Transylvania pageant for this year's Halloween. They come to the remote Romanian countryside lured by both the blood-thirsty vampire of Hollywood movies and the historic prince whose notorious cruelty toward Turkish prisoners inspired the novel "Dracula." "They are welcome to come but they must know that they might not survive the experience," said Nicolae Paduraru, president of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, which organizes some of the expeditions.Banned by the communist dictators, Dracula was translated in Romanian as late as 1992, and the small Balkan country only recently has started to capitalize on one of its most-recognizable names. "There is a fascination with the unusual," said Howard Cohen from London, who is on his fourth tour of Dracula land. "What you have is the added mystique because the whole concept of Dracula was banned for so long here." The two dozen, mostly American and British visitors on the Transylvanian Society of Dracula's weeklong tour, will have a chance to join the society and even become knights of Count Dracula Order -- for a small fee. They will then attend the pageant, where 13 Transylvanian maidens will compete for the honor of becoming "Countess Dracula." After coronation, the winner descends a staircase only to return white-faced and with bite marks on her neck. "It's a nice fairy tale. I wanted to do something different," said Tony Whiting from Tamworth, Britain, who was planning to take the six chivalry tests, including arm-wrestling, archery and riddle-solving, to win a knighthood. The real 15th century Prince Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes, who defended his country from hordes of invading Ottomans, has little to do with Stoker's Dracula, whose legend is set around 1890. But Romania, which emerged from decades of communism almost 13 years ago, is quickly filling in the blanks. Like Castle Dracula, the Golden Crown hotel in Bistritsa, where Stoker's innocent London lawyer Jonathan Harker spends the night, is a concrete communist hotel complex. "People are creating the history to match the myth," Paduraru said. Bran Castle, a medieval fortress 156 miles from the count's traditional feeding grounds, often is called Dracula's Castle because it resembles the typical horror film backdrop but is not part of Stoker's novel and Vlad never set foot there. The Prince was born in 1431 in the medieval town of Sighisoara, where the society holds a Halloween witch trial every year. Although vampires are not part of Romania's folklore, witches were tortured and burned as late as 1753. Paduraru's tours are filled with such historical and cultural facts, but he denies he uses Dracula almost as a pretext for getting tourists to know his long-isolated country. "I am only a humble servant of the Count," he said. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN by Jerry Hinkle, Special to the Holabird Advocate Scary things are afoot in the world. Whether it is Dracula or politicians, we have every right to be scared this Holloween. We have a President that will campaign for his friends in his own party, but he won't give the drought stricken farmers their due. The current farm bill promised $6 billion more than it delivered. He didn't address that at all. W is more concerned with getting a Republican Congress than fixing what is wrong with this country. Just call him "Dracula with a Texas Accent". W can come to South Dakota every day until Election Day, but if he doesn't bring money for the farmers in the form of a drought relief proclamation, I predict that John Thune will not be among the ranks of the Republican Senators next year. One last thing for you, the Readers to thiunk about. This trip was paid for by the Thune for Sanate campaign, but if Janklow and Rounds had any conscience ( a mighty big "if") they would kick in a little to this trip, as they got just as much benefit from W's trip as Thune did.
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