CHEERS: to pharmacies that offer regular snap-on caps for prescription bottles instead of child-proof caps that are often senior-citizen-proof and occasionally even younger-adult-proof. Some pharmacies, we're told, give customers the option without any problem. Others require that a form be filled out before substituting the regular caps for the child-proof ones. Child-proof caps are a great innovation for families in which it's critical to make sure kids don't get into potentially dangerous medications. For some, though, they are a nightmare. Some people simply can't manage these knuckle-busters. Pharmacies that make it easy to obtain the regular caps are performing a service they may not even appreciate, but their customers do.

JEERS: to pedestrians, often college students, who nonchalantly cross the streets, interrupting the flow of traffic, without benefit of a crosswalk. We've mentioned this before, but we hear the complaint practically non-stop. It's a timely reminder, now that school is back in session. Crossing legally may be done only at crosswalks. And, where there are crosswalks, if there is a traffic light, it overrides the crosswalks privilege. Crossing against the light is illegal, whether a crosswalk is there or not.

CHEERS: to John W. Conroy and people like him. Conroy has traveled to Iraq or Afghanistan at least half a dozen times, at his own expense, to keep Press-Republican readers informed of what's going on over there. He used to go annually to Vietnam just to see for himself the progress the country had made since he was stationed there during the war decades ago. When the invasion of Iraq was undertaken, he began going there, instead, to report on that war. He'd asked this newspaper to consider publishing his stories, which was a requisite for receiving permission to go, and we gladly consented. Each time he has gone over, he has sent objective and interesting dispatches, sometimes compiled in the midst of active warfare. Upon his return from one trip, he spoke once at the Plattsburgh Noon Rotary Club of his experiences. His talk was informative, and he took some probing questions from audience members, some of whom favored the U.S. role in Iraq and others of whom apparently didn't. He was forthright in all of his responses. It takes a rare kind of individual to keep confronting the kinds of risk faced in that part of the world to shed light on whatever is taking place there. We tip our hats to John Conroy for embodying this relentless spirit.