At 8:50 a.m. tomorrow (2-29-08) on my AM 1570 WVTL morning radio show, my personal coffee cup will get its first cleaning since the Joseph Emanuele administration left office nine weeks ago in Amsterdam. If you wonder what this has to do with local history, well, the cup is sort of old.

Some observers believe the cup has not been cleaned since George Pataki was Governor in 2006, although that is probably a stretch.

Thanks to a suggestion from regular listener Jerry from Amsterdam, WVTL now calls the Leap Day event The Crudmore Project.

The Fulmont Community Action Agency gave me the cup some time back. Dennis Wilson of that anti poverty organization will attend the cup cleaning festivities. My fellow WVTL talk host and retired Gazette columnist Sam Zurlo says I should provide Wilson with a Haz-Mat suit. In return for showing up at the event, Wilson will receive a brand new and clean Coffee with Cudmore cup from WVTL. A prominent news reporter I know is threatening to investigate to see if his giving me a cup and me giving him a cup has violated any federal anti-poverty guidelines.

Listeners have suggested using bathroom cleansers and denture cleaning tablets on the dirty cup. These ideas are under active consideration. A proposal to use a power wash device was rejected as likely causing the cup to disintegrate.

At least one caller urged me to abandon the cleaning project, saying old, dirty coffee cups provide unique flavors unknown to people who wash cups regularly. An email today did express concern for my health.

Whatever happens will happen at 8:50 a.m. on the radio band at 1570 AM—of course streamed online at www.1570wvtl.com