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Police: Man who provided officers with false name caught with heroin

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Summer in the city: For some, season starts at Kirby Park

<p>When one of the Friends of the Osterhout Free Library asked me to be a &#8220;celebrity bagger&#8221; at this week&#8217;s annual book sale I said, &#8220;Sure. That&#8217;s how I&#8217;ll celebrate the summer solstice.&#8221;</p><p>So, for about an hour early Wednesday afternoon, I helped volunteer cashier Jason Oatridge, of Kingston, and fellow bagger Karen McNulty, of Wilkes-Barre, send book lovers on their way &#8212; loaded with bargains.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got all I can carry,&#8221; one gentleman said, as he left with a huge stack that included hardcover editions of &#8220;Oliver Twist,&#8221; &#8220;The Sun Also Rises,&#8221; and &#8220;Shakespeare, A to Z.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My wife&#8217;s gonna yell at me and say, &#8216;Where are you gonna put them all?&#8217; &#8221; another customer admitted as he left with several coffee table books, including one with a cover that featured a beautiful closeup of the face of Michelangelo&#8217;s &#8220;David.&#8221;</p><p>One fan of James Patterson is trying to keep up with the prolific crime writer &#8212; and told us it isn&#8217;t easy.</p><p>&#8220;It seems he&#8217;s writing them faster than we can read them,&#8221; he said as we crammed paperbacks into a bag for him.</p><p>Speaking of bags, Saturday is the final day of the sale and you can consider it &#8220;bag day&#8221; or &#8220;box day&#8221; because you can fill a grocery-size bag for $5 and a really big box for $10.</p><p>But if you&#8217;re a book fan, you&#8217;ll probably want to come more than once. Certainly, come on Saturday for the super-stupendous bargains. But come today or tomorrow for more of a selection.</p><p>I really enjoyed seeing so many happy customers satisfying their different interests on Wednesday, from the little kid with the &#8220;Captain Underpants&#8221; paperback to the older woman with several devotional books to the teacher from Virginia who took a whole series of Civil War video cassettes.</p><p>But I&#8217;ve got to admit, it actually felt a little embarrassing to be billed as a &#8220;celebrity bagger.&#8221;</p><p>Many years ago, I remember, a volunteer from a hospital auxiliary called the newsroom and asked if I would like to take part in a &#8220;celebrity dunk tank&#8221; at their fund-raising fair. I suggested she&#8217;d more easily find recognizable names and faces at a television or radio station.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a celebrity,&#8221; I told her, trying to let her down easy.</p><p>Later, when I told my co-workers about the conversation, they all agreed. We&#8217;re not celebrities. If we were on a celebrity cruise, we&#8217;d be the crew. We&#8217;d be swabbing the deck and I&#8217;d be trying not to fall overboard because, you know, I really don&#8217;t like the idea of being dunked.</p><p>But, hey, for the Osterhout book sale, I&#8217;ll help out at the check-out anytime.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption"><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Mary Therese Biebel </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_marytheresebiebel.jpg</photo0><caption0><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Mary Therese Biebel </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photos </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the byline: Celebrity appearance? It’s in the bag