Toole, David and my smart-ass grandson

Another one bites the coal dust.

From the Citizens’ Voice:

Toole resigns from bench

Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Toole has submitted his resignation, the governor's office said.
Toole, who pleaded guilty last week to a corruption charge, sent a one-sentence resignation letter stating: "I resign effective today."

Toole was required to formally resign within 10 days of the guilty plea. His pay and benefits had already been suspended by the state Supreme Court.

"I resign effective today."

Short but sweet. Much like his judicial career, sans the unforeseen ending. Whatever.

Greed did in yet another Luzerne County scoundrel.

This one came as a surprise. As he said, belated.

From the Lu Lac Political Letter:

THANKS MARKIE

This is a belated thank you to my fellow blogger Mark Cour. In early 2008 Mark helped me with the intricacies of posting YOU TUBE videos. We worked on one of my first video productions on the closing of my boyhood church St. John the Baptist in Pittston. Well not only have they closed the thing, they tore it down. With Mr. Cour’s help I was able to make some sort of historical record to what it meant to members of that community. His help and patience gave me the guidance to have a record for history. A belated thank you.

Dave, being that the church meant so much to you, and being that it has recently met the wrecking ball, I’m glad I could help to preserve what memories we could.

I wish more people would consider archiving history as you chose to do. As we all know, once it’s gone--it’s gone. And once it’s gone, we’re reduced to the recollection of history through the fading memories of the people who were once involved.

Unlike yourself, I couldn’t wait to escape the control of my parents--my mother and my grandmother--because I knew that once I had made my escape, my participation with the church would come to a screeching halt. And it did.

But when I read that the diocese was going to close St. Johns on North Main Street here in Wilkes-Barre, I couldn’t help but to be saddened. The baptisms. The weddings. The funerals. The Boy Scouts. The acoustic guitar-dominated folk masses. My two incarcerations in the church’s elementary school. The lengthy dissection of Jesus Christ Superstar during CDC classes. The church-sponsored field trips.

What I realized was that so, so many noteworthy events in my family’s history were held in that church, or in the church basement. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. But once it was gone, I couldn’t believe it. Weird, huh?

Anywho, glad I could help. As for future projects and any technological speed bumps you may encounter, as always, give me a buzz.

I recently pointed out to my grandson Zach that he is a big fraidy cat only because he needs the upstairs hall light on at night so as to visit the bathroom. And I cited as the reason his unnatural obsession with horror and science fiction movies. Or as a kid might say…monster movies.

Defiantly, almost cockily, he assured me that monster movies do not scare him in the least. The Alien series, the Predator and Predator vs. Alien series, the Terminator movies, the JUrassic trilogy, John Carpenter’s The Thing, you name it and he laughed at it. He dismissed them all.

Oh, really? A 6-year-old tough guy, heh?

Well, Zach and his two littler brothers are sleeping over tonight, and Zach has absolutely no clue that an unopened copy of Stephen King’s Cujuo awaits him.

So it’s already dark outside. And after a later than normal supper, we’ll just see if man’s best friend gone totally apesh*t puts him off his supper. I’m betting it will. I’m betting he never even considered that a complete afterthought such as his own loyal 80-pound puppy could be such an instrument of terror. Whether he admits to being scared or not is a whole other issue.

But I’ll bet if you drive by this modest adobe later tonight, you’ll probably notice that the upstairs hall light is on. I’ll betcha.

Later