Isaac Charles Mishler, Altoona, Blair County

I'm back from Zenkaikon and feeling very good about the whole thing! Also a bit melancholy, but that's nothing unusual - con weekend is one of the highlights of my year. All three of my historical presentations were very well attended and my jokes landed well, which always helps; the Celtic mythology presentation is the only one that's going to be available to watch online, though, and it'll take a little time because they have a lot to upload and YouTube only allows so much at once. So hopefully I'll have a link to share within a few weeks. But it was a wonderful experience and I honestly don't think I could be more pleased with how it all went.

For this week's quest, we're heading back out to Blair County, where a magnificent theater stands as a monument to one man's civic-minded spirit.

Bellefonte Air Mail Field, Bellefonte, Centre County

It's crunch time for Zenkaikon. We leave tomorrow and spend three and a quarter lovely days in beautiful downtown Lancaster, hobnobbing with other weirdos (most of them in costume). I'll be doing two presentations about Lancaster history and one about Celtic mythology. I'm not sure which ones will be available to watch via Zenkaikon Online, but they did make it free for everyone this year - so if and when I have links to share, I'll provide them for anyone who might care to watch me babble about history. I'll also return to uploading podcast episodes next week when it's over, I want to do a little fine-tuning.

For today, you just get to read my babbling. We're going to skip back in time just a little over a century, back to when air mail was a relatively new thing and somewhat dangerous to boot. A little community in central Pennsylvania was key to the success of the endeavor.

James Lick, Fredericksburg, Lebanon County

About this time next week I expect to be in my usual pre-convention frenzy. All the things in the world to do, no time in the world to do them. It happens every year.

But for today, I'm bringing you a blog post that turned out to be much more complex and intriguing than I initially expected. It's my first post from Lebanon County in well over a year, and it's a bit longer than usual because there was just so much to tell you. I can honestly say that it's the first time I've ever started a blog post by saying that almost everything you're about to read was the result of a young man's quest to be able to marry the woman he loved.

Union Church, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County

Again, I really want to say how much I appreciate all the support I've received for the podcast. I haven't gotten a ton of feedback, but every single scrap I've been given has been very positive. Some of it even came from people I don't know personally! If you haven't checked it out already, please investigate this page for all the details. I posted a new episode yesterday featuring a surprise cameo by one of my cats; he's taking his newfound fame in stride.

We're coming down to the wire for Zenkaikon, at which I'll be doing three history-related presentations - two about Lancaster, where the con takes place, and one about Celtic mythology and its relationship with modern media. It's crunch time and the panic is starting to set in, because my to-do list for the two weeks remaining is out of control. I think I picked a bad year to give up soda for Lent, because I desperately need some caffeine!

Well, in the interest of getting at least one thing checked off of that list, let's have a blog post, shall we? This week I'm taking you back to beautiful Cumberland County to learn about the oldest public building in Mechanicsburg, and the many ways it has served the community for nearly two hundred years. Please note that the images in this post turned out inexplicably large, so I had to shrink them in order to make the page readable; just click on them if you'd like to see bigger versions.