Bell Takes Its Toll on Townsfolk

To ice cream parlor owner Sophia Theodore, it was music to her ears. To residents of Ada, Mich., it was obnoxious. “It” was the ringing of a bell every time a child bought a sundae at the Schoolhouse ice cream parlor. The 19th-Century bell in a belfry atop an old one-room schoolhouse, once used to summon children to the school, has created so much disharmony that Theodore, 24, who bought the shop in 1984, faces a possible jail term because township officials believe it violates a noise ordinance. “In effect, what we’re doing is asking the court what the definition of obnoxious is,” township Trustee Jordan Sheperd said. “The people of Ada have a right to ring this bell,” Theodore said. “All the little kids who come want to ring the bell, and now they can’t.” She faces an Oct. 27 trial and could be sentenced to 90 days in jail and fined $500. Meanwhile, Theodore, armed with a petition signed by 1,500 supporters, has silenced the bell, temporarily, while she fights her battle.

--Nine-foot-tall steel sculptures of a red bull and blue cow were not exactly what the State Building Commission had in mind when it sought appropriate artwork for the plaza of a government building in Madison, Wis. Which is why commission members agreed with a State Arts Board panel that the offerings by artist Lloyd Hamrol of Venice, Calif., should be, well, put out to pasture. “I’d like to know why we would want cows outside buildings that house education, labor and natural resources,” said state Sen. Daniel Theno. “Cows should be outside the agriculture building.” Most of the proposals considered for other sites were abstract rather than traditional. State Sen. Jerome Van Sistine said: “I look at most of that stuff and think that we’ve gone totally off the deep end. I don’t mean to be offensive, but I didn’t see anything that I would put in my backyard.” “It’s what’s out there,” said Regina Flanagan, an Arts Board staff employee. “Modern art has been around since the turn of the century, like it or not.”

--William Fielding rolled to victory in a race for state representative in New Hampshire--literally. Fielding had tied Julie Brown, both of Rochester, in the Republican primary, 247 to 247, earlier this month. To break the deadlock, Secretary of State William Gardner honored a 50-year-old state tradition and picked the winner with a game of Kelly pool. The candidates picked numbers and then put two numbered dice in a leather bottle. After the bottle was shaken, Fielding’s number--3--rolled out first. “It’s a rather unique method,” Fielding said. “But it’s appropriate.” A natural, New Hampshire style.