As a follow-up to the mention in last week’s column, I asked neighbor Joe Malago whether or not he had heard from many people concerning the wasp sting that gave him immediate relief from carpel tunnel pain in his left hand.

    An operation had earlier relieved carpel tunnel pain and difficulty of movement in his right hand. He had planned for a similar operation to his other hand when the wasp sting saved him that step.

    So, what are his thoughts about his experience?

    “Well,” he said, “I figure I lost an opportunity for starting a little business by getting rid of the other three little wasp nests in my mailbox! I could have set up shop next to the mail box and waited for customers.”

    That’s a little fanciful, of course, as is the direct quote I have made of his paraphrased comment.

    Anyway you look at it, though, it is still amazing that somehow a very painful wasp sting, or apparently a bee sting as well, can relieve pain in some people.

    Our daughter Ruth, who lives in Milford, happened to be bitten in the ankle by a wasp a week or so after Joe’s experience and in her case her ankle swelled and really hurt. It didn’t stop her, though, from participating in another 5K race a few days later.

    Probably Joe was wise in not going into the sting business after all. Some people might have been helped, others could have found swelling to go along with the sting pain itself.

    *****

    As someone who has long appreciated the painting of the late Norman Rockwell, whose fame is based in large part on his extensive series of Saturday Evening Post covers, I was pleased to see the news story about a visit to Dover by Richard Clemens, the man who posed for the famous “The Runaway” cover in 1958.

    The scene is a diner with the strapping policeman in uniform sitting on a diner stool next to a small young boy on the adjacent stool, with the boy’s knapsack on the floor beside him.

    The strong suggestion is that the boy is running away, and the viewer is left to believe that the policeman will take him under his wing and see that he returns home safely.

    Rockwell had an eye for depicting scenes that struck a chord with his viewers. Because he was considered an “illustrator,” not a “painter” in the sense of serious painting, he was generally not given the artistic credit he deserved by the artistic community.

    The same reaction typified much of the response to the Brandywine School of illustrators familiar to Delawareans — Howard Pyle and the Wyeths (N.C., Andrew and Jamie.)

    Perhaps the work of these men was not appreciated by the “serious painters” but there is no doubt that the public at large was delighted with what they produced.

    *****

    The state’s fiscal problems are now more severe since court action has lessened the prospect of accumulating the amount of funds expected from expanded betting venues. Perhaps a way will be found to get more money from wagering. Perhaps not.

    Gov. Jack Markell is on the right track, though, in emphasizing that sustainable increases in Delaware’s financial future are more likely to come from an emphasis on both new businesses and improved educational opportunities.

    There is no panacea for Delaware’s economic problems, or the nation’s, but the closest single category for achieving overall progress in the economy and varied other challenges is education.

    Crime? Better education choices would help control it.

    Health? We know that people who do not understand and who do not follow healthy ways of living are responsible for a larger percentage of health care costs.

    Illegal drugs? As in health, a better understanding of the pitfalls of dangerous drugs would help stem some of the abuse.

*****

    When you mention education you are involved with simply the question of information. And today information — some useful and much merely distracting — is not only available in huge quantities but comes from many more sources.

    It used to be that if you wanted to research some topic you went to a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Today the hunt for information is much more likely to prompt a Google or Wikipedia inquiry.

    Long-time friend Irv Levitt, who may have read more books than anyone I know, says flatly, as someone long associated with the Dover library, “we can’t even give encyclopedias away.”

    The library periodically puts up for sale, at low prices, volumes that exceed the library’s needs or space.

    This could also lead to a long discussion of the role of newspapers in today’s information world but I’ll save that for another day. Just briefly, though, community papers that are close to the community and the people they serve have a long future ahead of them, in my opinion.

*****

    From time to time I mention the deaths of people in the community who I have known personally or who are familiar to me for other reasons. I wish I knew more people. Everyone’s life is important and deserves recognition. I mention this in the hope that readers will understand that I realize that many other deaths in the community deserve to be noted in some fashion.

    This introduces my comment on the death of William Frank “Will” Sutton IV, who died Sept. 5 in Queen Anne’s County, Md., the county which includes Kent Island and the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

    He was born in Dover, the son of Phyllis D.J. Harrington Sutton and William Frank Sutton III. Phyllis worked for the Dover Post Company as the manager years ago of the job printing department. More recently, and currently, she is a valued member of the advertising staff. I had met her son Will when he was a young boy.

    We went to the viewing at Torbert Funeral Chapel on Lebanon Road last Friday night and there learned more about his life. For one thing, the chapel was crowded with young people who had known him well and appreciated his many talents, from music to painting. I heard later there was a crowd also for the graveside services at Lakeside Cemetery.

    It is well known that Will had problems with drugs later in his life but the outpouring of his friends says a lot about the kind of person he was.

    Another member of the Dover Post family has suffered the loss of a loved one. On Sept. 11, Patrick Dawson, who helps keep the Dover Post building functioning in so many ways, lost his father, Michael Robert Dawson, 60.

    Mr. Dawson served in the Delaware Army National Guard and after retirement taught at Holy Cross School in Dover.

    *****

    Moe: “If you could have a conversation with someone, living or dead, who would it be?”

    Joe: “I’d choose the one who’s living!”