To Troy or not to Troy

So, according to the Citizens' Voice, our state legislators have been playing even more "per diem" hanky panky at our expense. It's always fast and loose with these people. Fast and loose, but just under the reach of the radar.

The link: Legislators collect housing stipend while owning homes

The excerpt: State Rep. Jim Wansacz routinely collects up to $163 a day for meals and lodging when he's in Harrisburg, even though he owns a house in the state capital where he stays when conducting legislative business.

And he's not the only member of the area's legislative delegation collecting full per diems, while staying at properties they own.

Four others - House Democratic leader Todd A. Eachus and Reps. John Yudichak, Michael Peifer and Mario Scavello - also own buildings in Harrisburg, where they stay while on business, and also collect per diems, often for the full amount.

Mayor Tom, make a mental note of that one. Yeah, that one. As in, the taxpayers are on the hook for Yudichak's mortgage.

Is this getting ridiculous or what?

First we had the emergence of the right-leaning Tea Party, which caused the lefties to go all spastic and whatnot. Apoplectic at times. And now, I see that Gort has run across a fledgling Facebook opposition group--The Coffee Party?

If you ask me, the whole lot of these people have been slamming back way too much caffeine, so I am requesting that some of us band together to form The Decaf Party. (???)

Seriously, people...get a freaking grip already.

Wednesday morning I got a phone call from an employee of the television show Troy the Locator. If you've never seen the show, it's on one of those 5,000 cable networks we get, a network that draws a mostly female audience--WE.tv--The Women's Entertainment Network.

Anyway, what these people do is reunite lost family members and the like, and they do it on camera. Some months ago, I sent an email request to these people explaining that I wanted to meet, or at least speak to my long-reclusive father before I pass on to wherever it is that we pass on to. And in the months since, I got no reply at all. Until Wednesday, that is.

The lady from the television show asked me a litany of very pointed questions about the strange circumstances surrounding my father and my decades-old estrangement. She was interested in names, dates and whether or not we had any supporting documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and stuff such as that.

In a nutshell, she said the producers of the show were very interested in this somewhat bizarre case or mine. Instantly, my heart raced. Surprising as it was, I felt myself filling with nervous excitement. Holy frig!

And then she announced that I would have to pay them $695 and sign a contract obligating me to appear on the tv show in the event that they find my father, and if he chose to be reunited on camera. As I had said to my daughter some weeks back, if they want me to cry on television, I'll do it. So long as I get to meet the man.

Honestly, I was highly surprised to hear that I would have to pay any stipend at all before they would turn their "investigators" loose on my father's whereabouts. I mean, this is a television show that generates income and attracts advertisers and all of that. She also advised me that we would have to turn over to them any and all documentation that we've been able to unearth, yet another surprise. And that got me to wondering what the investigators would be doing, since my daughter has already done the bulk of the sleuthing.

So, as of this moment, I'm still up in the air as to whether I'm going to go for it. She told me no matter the results of their investigation, the case would remain open for six months and six months only. So I'm thinking I might plunk down 700 bucks only to be disappointed all over again. Still, part of me says I have to go for it no matter what.

Stay tuned.

Literally, stay tuned.

Bye