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Luzerne County man facing 100 child-porn counts

<p>So Chicago-area goons stroll into Edwardsville, sample a few potato-stuffed pasta pockets before tossing them ingloriously into the trash and lick their fingers as one says &#8220;You got a nice pierogi festival here. It&#8217;d be a shame if, you know, something were to <em>happen</em> to it.&#8221;</p><p>Turns out the Windy City, or at least one of its suburbs, is full of blowhards. Some Chi-town chumps want to shakedown our west-side borough for a little potato payola. &#8220;Hey, you wanna hold a pierogi festival? You need to talk to <em>us</em>!&#8221;</p><p>Puh-leeze! Where do you even start with such spud-headed nonsense?</p><p>You want a sitcom plot, feel free to use this one, though be prepared for the Twitter twerps and Facebook trolls dissing the absurdity. If you didn&#8217;t see the federal court paperwork, you would dismiss it as dismal drivel that could never happen in the real world.</p><p>To stuff it into a pierogi-sized recap: The Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce Inc. &#8212; in an Indiana suburb 30 minutes from Chicago &#8212; has threatened to sue the Edwardsville Hometown Committee for infringing on the trademark &#8220;Pierogi Fest.&#8221; According to <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/669861/suit-fights-to-save-edwardsville-pierogi-festival" target="_blank">papers filed</a> in defense of the Edwardsville extravaganza, said chamber contends there could be &#8220;consumer confusion&#8221; between the &#8220;Edwardsville Pierogi Festival&#8221; and their &#8220;Pierogi Fest.&#8221;</p><p>Right. You know how it goes. You really wanted to attend that event in Indiana, but accidentally parked in Pennsylvania. Happens all the time. You aim for Lake Michigan and end up on the banks of the Susquehanna River. You&#8217;re looking at Kingston Corners when you dope-slap your forehead and &#8212; in your best Bugs Bunny voice &#8212; admit &#8220;I knew I should&#8217;ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque!&#8221;</p><p>Indiana, Pennsylvania &#8212; sometimes you get confused. If you have a tater for a brain.</p><p>If the Indiana Idaho mashers actually <em>did</em> trademark &#8220;Pierogi Fest,&#8221; it may be time to tighten up the rules about what words can earn that designation. But in fairness, they would have legal grounds to protect their name, even if those grounds sound as solid as melted butter. And once you go through the trouble of trademarking, it&#8217;s understandable you can get a little defensive.</p><p>Heck, the Indiana uber tubers seemed to suggest as much, offering a sort of &#8220;golly, shucks, we <em>had</em> to protect our trademark&#8221; explanation, while pointing out being near Chicago doesn&#8217;t make their little burb a big baddie.</p><p>But couldn&#8217;t we bypass the courts? Surely this all could have been avoided with some one-on-one conversation rather than threatening letters and legal briefs. Maybe the two sides should get together and roll some dough (literally) rather than standing 700 miles apart flinging federal filings.</p><p>Perhaps they could, as it were, see potato eye to potato eye.</p><p>But wait, maybe something more subtle is going on here. Perhaps this is the equivalent of a scripted feud between pro wrestlers, a clever play at pierogi publicity. You know, a sort of &#8220;you saute mine, and I&#8217;ll saute yours&#8221; deal. After all, it did make the Associated Press wire.</p><p>And that kind of PR is no small potatoes.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dressed as a Pierogi Jenna Brody 15 leads the parade down Main Street Edwardsville  to open the Pierogi Festival Saturday ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 6-10-17</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_pierogi1_faa-cmyk.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dressed as a Pierogi Jenna Brody 15 leads the parade down Main Street Edwardsville  to open the Pierogi Festival Saturday ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 6-10-17</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our view: Pierogi feud may just be small potatoes