Week in review Feb. 15

The grandchildren of Thomas Colucci, a fixture at Becky’s Diner who died last week, said Grampy slipped them money and doughnuts because they didn’t get junk food at home. Alan Eames, “The Beer King,” magic trick aficionado, and the founder of Three Dollar Dewey’s Ale House who also died last week, once tasted a rare beer in South Africa: ''My translator informed me that the beer wasn't made by grandfather, it was made with grandfather. They put his cremated bone fragments in with the rest of the ingredients.''

ConAgra told customer to dispose of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter products after a salmonella outbreak, and rural Mainers appeared to receive late diagnoses of colorectal cancer.

Hundreds idled in a Pearl Street parking lot, awaiting the opening of a 46,000 square foot Whole Foods Market. Next door, E. Perry Iron & Metal, where one woman said thousands of batteries once leaked acid, continued to do brisk business.

"When the food is there," a Windam polar bear expert said, "they'll eat."