Fort Lee Suburbanite from Fort Lee, New Jersey • A7

i-1 Maybe there is oil on Mars? AFTER THOUGHTS ED FLYNN -1 The invasion of earth from Mars had begun. Police stations were flooded with phone calls and there were reports of panic in some cities. Some people hid in cellars, others actually took to the streets carrying guns, still others wrapped their heads in wet towels to protect against Martian poison gas. It was, of course, all intended as something of a Halloween prank, a practical joke. What people were hearing was really an imaginative hour long adaptation of H.

G.Wells' "War of the Worlds" over the Mercury Radio Theater and despite the fact that there were occasional disclaimers by Orson Welles, the show's host, to reveal that it was really all make-believe, many listeners didn't hear them. Was there really a panic? Dorothy Thompson summed it up in the New York Herald Tribune when she wrote: "Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air have proved that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic proposition and create a nationwide panic. Today, when I tell people about that night, most of them find it hard to believe that Americans were ever that naive. "Didn't people just turn to another station to make sure it was happening?" most of them logically ask.

The answer is that back in 1938 radio was still relatively new and listeners weren't that sophisticated. An announcer "breaking in" with a "news bulletin" was something of a novelty in itself. But to get back to that Rover on Mars. I read where President Bush, now that he has things under control in Iraq, would like to send men back to the moon and then on to explore Mars. It would cost as much as $750-bil-lion.

Personally, I'm all for space exploration. I think it's man's mission to explore space. I just don't see how, with everything that needs doing right here on earth, we can afford it right now. Hey, here's an idea; let's spread the rumor that there's oil up there and sign over the rights to Dick Chaney and his friends at Halliburton. They'll figure out how to make the trip profitable.

Olga M. Naudet Olga M. Naudet, 96, of Fort Lee, died Jan. 11 at Oceanview Nursing Home in Lubec, Maine. She was a long-time resident of Fort Lee.

She moved to Lubec to be with her daughter. She was a registered nurse at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck in the pediatrics department. She then became the school nurse for the Palisades Park School System. She retired from there in 1978. She was predeceased by her husband Cecil P.

Naudet. She is survived by her daughter Judith and son-in-law Robert Corker, daughter Cecile and son-in-law Robert Gardner; eight grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; five nieces and nephew. Funeral arrangements were made by Hunt Stellato Funeral Home in Fort Lee. Florence Prall Florence Prall, 85, of Palisade Park, formerly of Fort Lee, died Jan. 14, 2004 at St.

Clare's Hospital in Denville. She worked as a receptionist for a medical office. She was a member of A.A.R.P. She is survived by her sister Constance Beckner, and several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband Henry E.

Prall, her brother James Kent and her sister Mildred Carlino. Memorial donations can be sent to Feed the Children's Foundation, 1111 Corporate Road, North Brunswick, NJ 08902. Funeral arrangements were made by Hunt Stellato Funeral Home in Fort Lee. To submit obituary information, contact Joseph Donat at (201) 568-6090 or donatnorthjersey.com. SHEPHERD FROM PAGE 6 animals spend their lives on cement floors in barns, where they are milked automatically.

At about the age of five, they begin to break down with leg and foot problems. Other cows begin to fail from the stress of carrying an udder that can weigh as much as a man. At that point, they are 1938? Okay, maybe that does sound like the Dark Ages to you but I was already 16 years old by then. On that evening, if you just happened to be fiddling with the dial on your radio, you might have tuned in to some appealing dance music coming from WABC in New York City. If you left the dial there and settled back to relax, you would have been startled when an announcer interrupted the music with a news bulletin to report that a "huge flaming object" had just been reported dropping from the sky onto a farm near Graver's Mill, New Jersey.

He promised "more details" as soon as they became available and the music resumed briefly only to be interruptedd again by additional reports of the landing. Eventually the station switched to a newscaster who was "on the scene in Graver's Mill" and he began to provide an eyewitness account of the event. "Good heavens," the newscaster gasped, "something's wriggling out of the shadows like a gray snake. Now it's another one, and another. They look like tentacles to me.

There, I can see the thing's body. It's large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver." Death Notices are now being accepted by Fort Lee SUBURBANITE from funeral directors Family members should contact their funeral director to request that this paid notice be included in their final arrangements plan.

questions please call 201646-4401 or 973569-7415 I've always enjoyed a good practical joke. Like back in the service when we would "short sheet" the other guy's bunk by folding his sheet back underneath so that when he crawled in he thought either the laundry had shrunk his sheet or he had suddenly grown taller. Sounds kind of juvenile now. Okay, how about this one? You know that Rover NASA has just landed on Mars, the one that's sending back those pictures of the planet's surface? Well, suppose we could somehow manage to short circuit those transmissions and splice in a photo of a Martian peeking out from behind one of the rocks a green creature with an oversized lumpy head, bulging frog-like eyes and antennas for ears. That should shake up those scientists and engineers at NASA.

Of course, it wouldn't take them long to catch on to the joke. They already know that there is no life on Mars, at least not in any readily visible form. Water is an essential ingredient and what water there is on our neighboring planet is either perpetually frozen or immediately vaporizes into the thin atmosphere if it liquefies. What the scientists are hoping to determine is whether there may have ever been a time in the distant past when conditions were different and life, at least in some microscopic form, may have existed. And, more importantly, whether there may ever be a possibility that Mars could be colonized by man in the future.

Mars, named for the Roman god of War, may not be presently inhabited by a hostile race that is a threat to the survival of earth but given half a chance we could probably correct that. It seems hard to believe now that there was a time when intelligent human beings here on earth actually believed in the existence of Martians and feared that they might be planning an invasion of our planet. That must have been back in the Dark Ages, right? Well, not quite. How about the day before Halloween, Oct. 30, And shockingly, they become either hamburger or the cheaper land of steak.

I'll never again be able to pass a herd on a bright green field and smile as I imagine their worry-free lives. With great sadness, I realize that our greedy insistence on cheap food has, once again, taken a great toll on the helpless animals that provide it. An American Bald Eagle or a Cheetah? At least it would be hard to catch me. Want to increase your sales? Reach over 17,000 Fort Lee households of potential customers for your business or service when you advertise in Fort Lee SUBURBANITE Fort Lee Suburbanite is mailed to 11,100 homes and delivered by carrier to another 6,449 homes each Friday. SUBURBANITE i.KMiub!i Jilnvl For advertising information, please call Donald Koh at 973569-7293..