Wildwood 2.22.2006

Talk about your slow eaters!
A 4000 year old bowl of noodles was recently un-covered at an ar-chaeological site in western China.
The find, re-ported in Nature Magazine, is being touted as proof that China in-vented pasta be-fore Italy.
Here we go again.
During the Cold War era, it used to be Russia that was always hogging credit for doing things first.
Now that Rus-sia’s no longer the Red Menace, China is position-ing its self to take over as the world’s number one credit grabber.
I don’t know about you, but when I call the Dragon House for take out, I’m not thinking about lasagna or lin-guini, I’m think-ing egg rolls and shrimp fried rice.
If I want pasta, there are plenty of good old Ameri-can, er, Italian restaurants more than capable of handling the or-der.
So why tamper with time-honored culinary tradi-tion?
Especially since in today’s flat world, the argu-ment could be con-sidered moot since all the inventing being done these days is the result of collaborative efforts from all four corners of the planet.
Leastways, that’s what New York Times colum-nist and three time Pulitzer Prize winner, Tho-mas Friedman writes in one his books, The World Is Flat.
In Friedman’s worldview, tech-nology has flat-tened the world by making it possible for work to be done anywhere by anyone with a lap-top and a little imagination.
Our wonderful new world of gadg-ets and gizmos has brought us all so close together that I can call in my take-out order on my cell phone while I cruise through the red light at the Park-way intersection at Burdette Tomlin Hospital.
My call is beamed by satel-lite to the take-out joint’s call center in Banga-lore, India where my order is proc-essed by a local customer service rep who sounds like he’s doing a bad impression of Joe Piscopo.
By the time I reach whatever place it was I thought I was calling, wheat will have been grown in North Dakota, shipped to Italy where it’s ground into the finest flour, then it’s off to China where the flour is processed into assorted products ranging from hoa-gie rolls to won-ton noodles.
After that, it’s shipped back to the states for distribution to our millions of Chinese restau-rants and Italian pizza joints.
While we’re at it, let’s not for-get the profits generated from selling these foodstuffs to lazy guys like me.
That money is churned over and reinvested in businesses and perhaps some makes its way to some highly speculative ventures such as offshore banks in the Cayman Islands and condos in Wildwood.
So who really cares who invented pasta?
Maybe the cul-prit was Marco Polo who took a slow boat home after a visit to China 500 years ago and, upon reaching Italy immediately opened a Philly cheese steak shop in downtown Venice.
But no matter who gets credit, you’d better eat your order faster than that guy in western China did 4000 years ago.
The fate of the entire world econ-omy may be depend-ing on it.
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The Love of Linda Cancer Fund is holding a beef and beer benefit dance on Saturday, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Bo-lero, Oak and At-lantic avenues, Wildwood.
Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door.
Call 522-5191 for more informa-tion.
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Reminder. The deadline for fil-ing nominating petitions to run for Wildwood Board of Education is Monday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m.
Wildwood resi-dents interested in running for the board can obtain petitions from the board secretary’s office, 4300 Pa-cific Ave. during regular business hours.
Call 522-0786 for more informa-tion.
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Beth Judah Tem-ple, Pacific and Spencer avenues in Wildwood is pre-senting a lecture series on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
The topic for the lecture is the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah.
A discussion will be part of the program.
This is a nonde-nominational pro-gram and all are welcome.
For more infor-mation, call the office at 522-7541.
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Congratulations to students at Margaret Mace School who were named to the Honor Roll for the sec-ond marking pe-riod.
Earning first honors are: Alex-andra Helm, Kevin Laffey, Salvatore Zampirri, Paul Henor (third grade); Samantha Barrett, Jacquelyn DeLong, Sean Pop-ovick, Nikole Kantzios (fourth); Grace Lederer, Anthony Madle, Jordan Montgomery (fifth); Katherine Jett, Dawn Ken-nedy, Elizabeth Morinelli (sixth), Zachary Madle, Mark Rucci (eigth).
Earning second honors: Alis-samarie D’Amico, Glenn Bratlie, Sydney Broadbent, Austin McClure, Olivia Shelton (third); Craig Belasco, Devon Bradshaw, Emmett Cawley, Jake Free-man, Joseph Jett, Mariah Kennedy, Richard Martin, Lauren Matteo, Elizabeth Messing, Summer Sorbello (fourth); Evan Thame, Zachary Turner (fifth).
Earning second honors from the higher grades are: John Stanton, Samantha Fox, Wil-liam Oakely, Sarah Visalli, Katherine Youschak (sixth); Ky Carlin, Alaina Fox, Laura Martin, Katherine Sel-grath, Christina Tolomeo (seventh); Joe Rogowski, Ky-lie Smith, Angelo Walton, Joseph Cooper, Joseph Freeman, Sean Hol-ton, and Alec McA-larnen (eighth).
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Wildwood Zoning Board meets Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 27-28 at 6 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall, 4400 New Jersey Ave.
Wildwood City Commission meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the same location.
North Wildwood Board of Education meets Monday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. in room 206 at Marga-ret Mace School, 1201 Atlantic Ave.
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Story time for pre-school age children continues tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at the Wild-wood Crest branch of the county li-brary, 6301 Ocean Ave.
Call 522-0564 for information.
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How about taking a jump in the ocean? Sure, the idea may sound goofy but it’s for a good cause.
The fifth annual Polar Plunge for Andrew takes place Saturday, March 4 at noon on the Jefferson Avenue beach in Wildwood Crest.
It cost $25 to do it.
The money goes to a scholarship fund established at Wildwood Catho-lic High School in the name of Andrew Alameno, a Wild-wood Catholic graduate who per-ished at the World Trade Center on September 11.
For more infor-mation on the event, call Lisa Fitzpatrick at Crest Tavern, sponsors of the event.
Her number is 729-0048.