Last screening at 3:45pm Thurs
Starring Robert DuVall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray
For advance tickets visit www.movietickets.com
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First performance Live from Royal Opera House
Cosi Fan Tutte
Friday September 10th 2:00PM
Sunday September 12th 11:00AM prerecorded
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Sept 9th 8:30pm
See new release Leonard Cohen on our screen before the dvd is available for sale. SONGS FROM THE ROAD, a dozen of Cohen’s most famous songs from that world tour, the best of Cohen’s performances at auditoriums, arenas, and stadiums from Tel Aviv to London
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Special screenings of
BEHIND THE HEDGEROW
a look inside the private world of aristocratic Newport
September 7th-September 16th limited showtimes
HELD OVER FOR ANOTHER WEEK UNTIL SEPTEMBER 16TH. Filmmaker David Bettencourt will be at the theater for q and a on September 8th.
Admission $10, members $6
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JANE PICKENS COZY BLANKETS MAKE THE NEWS AGAIN
The Jane Pickens Theater, 48 Touro St., continues to offer its cozy fleece blankets for moviegoers to ward off any chills
Winter delivers deep freeze
By M. Catherine Callahan/Daily News staff
The shining sun brings little comfort to Dennis J. Dougherty, owner of Middletown-based Anchor Fuel, as he delivers oil to a home on Mitchell's Lane on Wednesday, when the temperature averaged 19 degrees. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Daily News staff)
Ice is coating local ponds, schoolchildren are staying inside during their lunch recess and home-heating fuel-delivery crews are working round the clock.
After a balmy December and a warmer-than-average January, winter has arrived.
Many area residents were unprepared for the change in temperature, which dropped from an average of 34.5 degrees in January to an average of 24.7 degrees the first full week of February. Local oil delivery companies and those providing heating repair and services have been bombarded with phone calls from frantic homeowners seeking ways to warm up.
"Our guys are working more hours and getting less sleep," said Robert A. Bartel, a manager with R.B. Queern & Co. at 850 Aquidneck Ave., Middletown. "We've had no-heat calls, not-enough-heat calls, you name it."
The company's most serious calls for service were to two area houses left unoccupied for the winter. The homeowners had made arrangements for someone to make periodic checks but the caretakers didn't discover that there was no heat until thousands of dollars of damage had been done, Bartel said.
In both cases, the cast-iron boiler, as well as cast-iron radiators located throughout the house, had frozen and split. Copper plumbing also froze and burst.
"The toilet bowl was like a miniature ice-skating rink," Bartel said.
January was unseasonably warm, with the mercury reaching the 50s on seven days and dipping below freezing just 17 nights. In contrast, in February the temperature was 31 degrees or less on four of the first seven days and every night in the first week, according to statistics kept by the National Weather Service.
January's unusually mild weather may have led some Aquidneck Islanders to become complacent about monitoring their home fuel levels, Bartel said. But the recent high winds and frigid nighttime temperatures - which Bartel said increase fuel consumption 30 percent to 35 percent - brought them back to reality.
"With the mild weather, the last thing on people's minds was oil," said Parrish E. Olsen, office manager at Lauder's Oil at 1698 East Main Road, Portsmouth. "They didn't watch their oil tank. When the cold spell first hit there was a lot of paranoia. Everybody needed oil that day."
For the past week, delivery trucks have been traveling throughout Aquidneck Island working to replenish depleted tanks.
"We have been busy," said Dennis Dougherty, owner of Anchor Fuel of Middletown. "It was just like a light switch. All of a sudden the demand just jumped up. There has been a lot of panic from some people."
Anchor Fuel's regular customers were ready for the cold snap, Dougherty said, but many homeowners who forgo automatic delivery to shop tank-by-tank for the best price were left out in the cold.
David A. Blackman, co-owner of Blue Wave Car Wash at 1379 West Main Road, Middletown, wants customers to know that they can continue to drive up and clean their vehicles despite the winter weather.
"We have a lot of equipment that allows us to work during cold weather," he said. "Because the way the car wash is set up, with proper heating, we're actually able to function in the cold weather."
And the Jane Pickens Theater, 48 Touro St., continues to offer its cozy fleece blankets for moviegoers to ward off any chills while watching "Volver," starring Academy Award nominee Penelope Cruz.
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