If so, you may want to join forces with two local women who have set out to make the world a nicer place.

Lee Young, the former mayor of Auburn, and Linda Hertell, the head of Richardson Hollow Mental Health Services, ran into each other in the grocery store several weeks ago and started talking about a recent Auburn City Council meeting.

They commented on how some residents were “viciously and personally attacking” the city staff and the councilors. After the conversation, Lee asked Hertell, “Do you think people are meaner than they used to be?”

Hertell said yes. And the Anti-Mean Campaign was born.

“When was the last time you heard the words politeness, ladylike, or gentlemanly, or gentility?” Hertell wrote in a mass e-mail, asking people to join a movement to change the direction society is headed.

In the e-mail, Hertell pointed out some examples of why a campaign is needed: pedestrians who don’t say thank you when you let them cross, reality show contestants who scream at each other, co-workers who make jokes about others and women who make nasty jokes about men but refuse to recognize their own faults.

The campaign’s kick-off meeting was Thursday night. For more information, contact Hertell at [email protected].

– Lisa Chmelecki
Get the phone

The rumor that phones at Lewiston City Hall were out was making its way around town Wednesday afternoon, but a quick stroll through city offices proved otherwise.

“If they were, we might get some work done,” a library staffer said.

One woman phoned the City Clerk’s office to check on the rumor. Not deterred by the cheerful voice that answered her call, she asked her question.

“Are your phones out?”

– Scott Taylor
I want my D.C. TV

Adelphia Channel 9, the local cable company’s place for homegrown programs, will be going national Saturday.

The cable company plans to tie into a special satellite feed from Washington to give five hours of coverage to the dedication of the new World War II Memorial.

The program will begin at 10 a.m. with coverage of a ceremony at the National Cathedral. At noon, two hours of “preceremony entertainment” will be aired, said Adelphia officials. They will include music, newsreels and reminiscences. Armed forces bands will play.

The actual dedication ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m.

– Daniel Hartill