First off, let us dispense with the perfunctory mention of the holiday, shall we? Ready?
Happy Easter!
Yes, I’ll admit to going through the motions of piling chocolates and the like on top of Easter hay for the kiddies, and then the grand kiddies. But Easter was never a holiday I could get too excited about, save for the religious significance of the day when I was much, much younger and led off to church by the ear.
Is that child abuse? You know, having your domineering grandmother trying to rip off an ear?
Anyway, you have been served.
Did anyone notice this one: Police: Cameras catch Illegal immigrant's drug activity
This is the first reported arrest that stemmed from the monitoring of the new surveillance system in Wilkes-Barre. Or should I say, the first time someone was caught in the act of committing a crime by way of the camera network.
The excerpt:
When police approached, Sampson was uncooperative and tried to reach into his waistband. He gave police the name Solomon Gaymon, which they knew was false. When he was arrested, police found a small container in Sampson's waistband that held suspected cocaine packaged for resale. Police also found on Sampson a false Pennsylvania ACCESS card under the name Solomon Gaymon, documents showing he had applied for a Social Security card under that name, and a birth certificate from South Carolina with the name Solomon Gaymon.
When he was live-scanned at the Kingston police department, his fingerprints proved his identity as Sampson.
So the illegal guy had a PA Access card as well as a Social Security Card and a fake birth certificate. And yet, Congress is telling us that they are going to legislatively exert downward pressure on health care costs? Really? Ya think?
Meanwhile, half of the civilized world is jumping our borders, seeking out and receiving benefits they have absolutely no rights to.
And the guy from Guyana will probably be deported with a satchel of cookies, so that he can learn from his mistakes and effect his return to America and start the fraud all over again.
Don’t worry, though. Congress will save us oodles and oodles of money while turning a blind eye to the illegal invasion of benefit usurping criminals. It’s not a melting pot anymore as much as it is a pot of gold at the end of the border trail.
And I see that Interpol and the Department of Homeland Bureaucracy are now concerned about suicidal “implant” bombers.
Yeah, you got it, boobie bombers. Instead of having implants inserted where god forgot to insert larger than average mammalian protuberances, surgeons (?) sympathetic to the demented cause will instead insert explosives. Insidious.
So consider that the next time you’re taxiing up the tarmac while enjoying some woman’s unusually proportioned bosom one row back.
I’m not sure as to how you go about defending against these sorts of top-heavy girls, but if they decide to adopt a hands-on approach, I will step up, do my patriotic duty and volunteer.
I’m not afraid of these boobs.
I actually agree with County Commissioner Steve Urban (Henny Boon will faint) that we should be disassociating ourselves from Lackawanted County’s favorite plaything, it’s Triple AAA baseball franchise. Divest, baby. Divest.
Since day one, since the construction of the multi-purpose stadium and the Phillies’ arrival at Montage, we’ve had no control over the day-to-day operation of any aspect of any of it. We’ve been allowed to make no impact on the financial decisions that were made. And we had no discernible input while the Stadium Authority was systematically losing the Phillies’ affiliate.
And now that the Yankees’ are demanding that significant enhancements be made to the playing surface--$15 million worth--now, now the neighbors from up north are allowing us to play, provided that we cough up $7.5 million in advance.
NOT!!! Not this county, not this county trying to stave off financial insolvency.
I say we vote with our feet.
And what’s up with this constant drumbeat, this constant noise about connecting Scranton and possibly even Wilkes-Barre by rail to points yet to be determined?
Trains? Passenger service? Really?
This is straight out of La La Land, much like that Wall Street West gibberish before it. Gee, if we could just tap into New York City, all would be fine in NEPA, and it would be a model of success to be copied the world over. A great example of politicos talking for fear of not having something important-sounding to say rather than actually thinking.
Meanwhile, the locals are bitching and moaning about having the big city types arriving by the carloads, which means also bringing with them the very worst aspects of big city living--drugs, gangs, crime and worst yet…people with permanent tans.
People in this area want economic progress far less than they want to return to the days when every neighborhood looked like Donna Reed’s black-and-white suburban, whites-only utopia.
And I’ll end with a quote from Barack Oblahblah that I stumbled upon over the weekend. This is as utterly clueless as it is stark in revealing the anti-free market, anti-capitalist mindset of this charlatan.
What drives the economy is certainty. And every time he gets to flapping his oft-flapping gums, he adds nothing but uncertainty.
And after spending my entire life in the private sector, and working for some companies with the customers as well as the employees in mind, his comment is not only certifiably untrue, it is patently absurd.
Without further adieu…
“No company is gonna make investments for a public good.”
At least he's consistent, all government all of the time.
Now who was it again that sent me that particularly smarmy email when I said the purpose of the bureaucracy is to meet the needs of the ever expanding bureaucracy?
Later
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Daniels & Henry?
Right from the get-go, I want to address a couple of issues sent my way via the reader’s comments and email.
I know the “Darnell” segments were syndicated, or whatever they called it back in the day when the shock jocks were paid to shock.
And I was in no way suggesting that John Webster is, or was, a racist. My point was, with Webster headed to the talk radio format, it would not shock me in the least if the subject of racism came up on WILK, and a caller then tried to paint Webster as a racist by hanging that Darnell bit around his neck.
With that said, I turned my radio on this morning to find Cathy Donnelly filling in for Sue Henry. And according to two of my imaginary sources, we might expect it to be announced very soon that Rock 107 will be soon unveiling the Daniels & Henry Show.
Or the Daniels & Lynn Show?
I dunno.
Even though I doubt he’d remember me, I once spent an entire day with John Webster, as well as his sidekick Jay Daniels, many moons ago, during one of those ARC-sponsored “Taste of the Valley” events that used to be held at the Kingston Armory.
I was representing my company, Franklin’s Family Restaurants, and handing out free samples of our signature dessert, freshly-made strawberry pie. And he and Daniels were situated right next door at the Rock 107 booth, handing out free beers supplied by an NEPA-based beer distributorship. And my three kids were also there, ranging far and wide collecting goodies and pigging out. This had to be circa 1988 or so.
The way the things shook down, the Rock 107 booth was very popular with the guys, while handing out free beers and all. And our booth was immensely popular with the women, dishing out the best pies ever produced in these here demented parts of ours.
And I remember three incidents in particular. One lady approached us and went on and on and on at length about how she absolutely adored, absolutely lived for our strawberry pie. She was excitedly gushing. It was that good, the pie.
So Webster leaned on over towards our booth and told the overly excited woman, “Lady, get a freaking grip.”
I cracked up, big time.
And when my first-born, Peace, arrived back at our booth proudly showing off that a face-painter had delivered to her face the Paul Stanley star-around-the-eye and the rest of the trademark greasepaint look, John Webster said something to Jay Daniels about how they may be permanently scarring the youth of the area by playing so much KISS on Rock 107.
Funny stuff, for sure.
And then there was this lady wide enough to block the Straight of Gibraltar doing much the same thing--gushing over the thought of yet another slice of strawberry pie--when in swooped John Webster with a verbal jab about how maybe she had had enough of our legendary slices of pie.
I giggled at first, but I quickly caught myself being that I was standing there eye-to-eye with one of my semi-regular customers who was just insulted by what used to be called a “shock jock.”
Anyway, reign in those email attacks, will you? I have nothing against John Webster, nor did I call him a racist. And much unlike the anonymous folks sending incendiary and inflammatory comments all over the Internet, I have actually met John Webster and found him to be quick-witted, engaging, funny as all hell and quite amiable.
If you ask me, John Webster and WILK will turn out to be the perfect marriage. And truth be told, I am looking forward to his April 12th debut.
It’ll sure beat the sophomoric, one-sided, close-minded efforts of that other short-tempered, name-calling guy…old what’s his name.
Later
I know the “Darnell” segments were syndicated, or whatever they called it back in the day when the shock jocks were paid to shock.
And I was in no way suggesting that John Webster is, or was, a racist. My point was, with Webster headed to the talk radio format, it would not shock me in the least if the subject of racism came up on WILK, and a caller then tried to paint Webster as a racist by hanging that Darnell bit around his neck.
With that said, I turned my radio on this morning to find Cathy Donnelly filling in for Sue Henry. And according to two of my imaginary sources, we might expect it to be announced very soon that Rock 107 will be soon unveiling the Daniels & Henry Show.
Or the Daniels & Lynn Show?
I dunno.
Even though I doubt he’d remember me, I once spent an entire day with John Webster, as well as his sidekick Jay Daniels, many moons ago, during one of those ARC-sponsored “Taste of the Valley” events that used to be held at the Kingston Armory.
I was representing my company, Franklin’s Family Restaurants, and handing out free samples of our signature dessert, freshly-made strawberry pie. And he and Daniels were situated right next door at the Rock 107 booth, handing out free beers supplied by an NEPA-based beer distributorship. And my three kids were also there, ranging far and wide collecting goodies and pigging out. This had to be circa 1988 or so.
The way the things shook down, the Rock 107 booth was very popular with the guys, while handing out free beers and all. And our booth was immensely popular with the women, dishing out the best pies ever produced in these here demented parts of ours.
And I remember three incidents in particular. One lady approached us and went on and on and on at length about how she absolutely adored, absolutely lived for our strawberry pie. She was excitedly gushing. It was that good, the pie.
So Webster leaned on over towards our booth and told the overly excited woman, “Lady, get a freaking grip.”
I cracked up, big time.
And when my first-born, Peace, arrived back at our booth proudly showing off that a face-painter had delivered to her face the Paul Stanley star-around-the-eye and the rest of the trademark greasepaint look, John Webster said something to Jay Daniels about how they may be permanently scarring the youth of the area by playing so much KISS on Rock 107.
Funny stuff, for sure.
And then there was this lady wide enough to block the Straight of Gibraltar doing much the same thing--gushing over the thought of yet another slice of strawberry pie--when in swooped John Webster with a verbal jab about how maybe she had had enough of our legendary slices of pie.
I giggled at first, but I quickly caught myself being that I was standing there eye-to-eye with one of my semi-regular customers who was just insulted by what used to be called a “shock jock.”
Anyway, reign in those email attacks, will you? I have nothing against John Webster, nor did I call him a racist. And much unlike the anonymous folks sending incendiary and inflammatory comments all over the Internet, I have actually met John Webster and found him to be quick-witted, engaging, funny as all hell and quite amiable.
If you ask me, John Webster and WILK will turn out to be the perfect marriage. And truth be told, I am looking forward to his April 12th debut.
It’ll sure beat the sophomoric, one-sided, close-minded efforts of that other short-tempered, name-calling guy…old what’s his name.
Later
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Split Estate
Split Estate…The Documentary
Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door....
Trailer (3:15)
Community Action (4:43)
Drill baby, drill!
Later
Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door....
Trailer (3:15)
Community Action (4:43)
Drill baby, drill!
Later
From the desk of Renita...
Luzerne County Republican Party
41 S. Main St. Ste. 14
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701
570-208-GOP1 or lcgop@luzernegop.org
http://www.luzernegop.org/
For more information, contact:
Renita Fennick 570-208-4671 or 239-8851
Jim Schule 267-825-2889
WILKES-BARRE – Voters in Luzerne County and surrounding areas will have a chance to meet their Republican candidates and find out how they stand on the issues at a unique forum on April 9 at Genetti Hotel & Conference Center.
“Issues & Eggs” hosted by the Luzerne County Republican Party, will feature local candidates who are running for federal and state offices along with the endorsed candidates for statewide offices.
A panel of local journalists will ask candidates questions on federal and state issues. Those in attendance may submit questions to be posed to the candidates.
Congressional candidates who will attend include Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional seat; and three candidates who are vying for the nomination in the 10th District -- Dave Madeira of Luzerne County; Tom Marino of Lycoming County; and Malcolm Derk, Snyder County.
State candidates who will attend include Steve Urban, 14th Senatorial District; Frank Scavo, 22nd Senatorial District; State Rep. Karen Boback, 117th Legislative District; Tarah Toohil, 116th; Terrence O’Connor, 118th; Rick Arnold, 119th; Bill Goldsworthy, 120th; and James O’Meara, 121st. State Sen. Lisa Baker has a prior commitment in Harrisburg.
Jim Cawley, the Pennsylvania Republican Party-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, also will attend.
“This is unique because it’s more than your typical meet-the-candidates event that political parties hold,” County GOP Chairman Terry Casey said. “It’s not just a handshake and a meet-and-greet. People who attend will be able to ask tough questions and our candidates are ready for it.”
The only contested primary race among the local races for Congress and state office is in the 10th where three candidates are vying for the opportunity to challenge incumbent Democrat Chris Carney in the fall.
“This could be the only chance for voters in the 10th to see all three candidates in person, answering the same questions,” Casey said.
Even though most of the candidates are unopposed in the primary, Casey said it is important for most voters to get to know the men and women who are seeking to represent them in Harrisburg and Washington.
“Republicans are discerning voters who don’t just give candidates a pass because they are seeking the party’s nomination,” he said. “They often feel very strongly about certain issues and they want to at least know something about a person before they cast that ballot. They often want to look them in the eye or shake their hand. This is their chance.”
The forum begins with a breakfast buffet at 7:45 a.m. with the program starting at 8:15 and running to 10:30 a.m. The event is designed to attract retirees, one of the biggest voting blocs, and to give people a chance to attend before heading to their workplace.
Tickets cost $20 each and include a breakfast buffet. Tickets may be purchased at Luzerne County Republican Headquarters, 41 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, or online at http://www.luzernegop.org/
The Viking was sacked
WNEP reported this morning that Kevin Viking Lynn at WILK was “let go.” And during it’s noon news segment, WILK announced that as of “April the 12th,” John Webster of Rock 107 “Daniels & Webster” fame will be joining WILK.
As soon as I caught wind of this still developing news, I called WILK and asked the producer of the Sue Henry Show, Bosco, if this meant that WILK would be resurrecting Webster’s long-mothballed “Learning to spell with Darnell” blatant racism as comedy bit. Bosco said he had no idea what I was talking about. So I apologized and hung up.
If you’re unfamiliar with that old Daniels & Webster mainstay, Darnell would have to pronounce, spell and then use a chosen word in a sentence. It went something like this…
Anus: The cops were looking for a couple of guys who robbed the liquor store, and I told them--anus.
So, I’m thinking when Webster dons a pair of headphones at WILK and sits behind that zircon-encrusted microphone, he ought not level any charges of racism at anyone.
So my old buddy Kevin is unemployed once again. I’m not going to beat on him here today, since I got tired of beating on him long, long ago. But the guy was interesting in that he absolutely despised all things uniquely American. And you couldn’t ask for a more hard core Democrat apologist. His entire shtick was Democrats excellent/Republicans evil. The worst kind of intellectual dishonesty.
Kevin and I had a perfect record. Every time I called his on-air shows over the years, it always devolved into a screaming match that would end when he would abruptly hang up on me. Boy, could I get under his skin and fast. Something I’m very, very proud of to this day.
During a show many years ago, he claimed that all of the area bloggers were blogging anonymously. And he called the lot of us (back then it was a few of us) cowards right over the airwaves.
So I called him and told him he didn’t have his facts straight, something that would always get him to showing his fangs in an instant. He argued the point with me and demanded that I identify even a single local site that was not written anonymously. I told him, not only was my name affixed to my site, but so was my much-adored glossy, my kids pictures, my grandkids pictures, as well as my mailing address.
Stupidly, he couldn’t concede defeat. He told me with a skeptical and scowling tone that if I was so completely brave, I should identify myself right there on the radio. Not a problem, I told him, and spelled out my first and last names by shouting at the top of my lungs each and every letter. And he took exception to my shouting and started shouting back at me, which made me shout even louder. It was beautiful.
M-A-R-K-C-O-U-R!!!
My goal was always the same, to get him so riled up that he’d deliver the F-bomb he was so enamored with right there on live radio. And I’m sure he came close a few times. Knowing his love of the F-word, he had to have come dangerously close.
And after he hung up on me, he mumbled about how nobody looks at blogs anyway, and something else about how bloggers hide in their basements with their computers.
So, just to be even more annoying to the aged and flailing broker of Peace, Love & Drugs, Drugs and more Drugs, I sent him an email to make him aware that my site at the time had generated well over 500,000 hits in less than two years.
And I also invited him to meet me over a bagel and a coffee.
Predictably, he never replied.
In conclusion, I never liked him. I never respected him. And I will not miss him.
On the brighter side, now he’ll have plenty of time to go golfing with all of his buddies currently under federal indictment.
And since Kevin always offered up a warm and prehensile mouth for his messiah, Barak Oblahblah, I will conclude with a quote from none other than the all-knowing one.
“One job lost is one job too many.”
Later
As soon as I caught wind of this still developing news, I called WILK and asked the producer of the Sue Henry Show, Bosco, if this meant that WILK would be resurrecting Webster’s long-mothballed “Learning to spell with Darnell” blatant racism as comedy bit. Bosco said he had no idea what I was talking about. So I apologized and hung up.
If you’re unfamiliar with that old Daniels & Webster mainstay, Darnell would have to pronounce, spell and then use a chosen word in a sentence. It went something like this…
Anus: The cops were looking for a couple of guys who robbed the liquor store, and I told them--anus.
So, I’m thinking when Webster dons a pair of headphones at WILK and sits behind that zircon-encrusted microphone, he ought not level any charges of racism at anyone.
So my old buddy Kevin is unemployed once again. I’m not going to beat on him here today, since I got tired of beating on him long, long ago. But the guy was interesting in that he absolutely despised all things uniquely American. And you couldn’t ask for a more hard core Democrat apologist. His entire shtick was Democrats excellent/Republicans evil. The worst kind of intellectual dishonesty.
Kevin and I had a perfect record. Every time I called his on-air shows over the years, it always devolved into a screaming match that would end when he would abruptly hang up on me. Boy, could I get under his skin and fast. Something I’m very, very proud of to this day.
During a show many years ago, he claimed that all of the area bloggers were blogging anonymously. And he called the lot of us (back then it was a few of us) cowards right over the airwaves.
So I called him and told him he didn’t have his facts straight, something that would always get him to showing his fangs in an instant. He argued the point with me and demanded that I identify even a single local site that was not written anonymously. I told him, not only was my name affixed to my site, but so was my much-adored glossy, my kids pictures, my grandkids pictures, as well as my mailing address.
Stupidly, he couldn’t concede defeat. He told me with a skeptical and scowling tone that if I was so completely brave, I should identify myself right there on the radio. Not a problem, I told him, and spelled out my first and last names by shouting at the top of my lungs each and every letter. And he took exception to my shouting and started shouting back at me, which made me shout even louder. It was beautiful.
M-A-R-K-C-O-U-R!!!
My goal was always the same, to get him so riled up that he’d deliver the F-bomb he was so enamored with right there on live radio. And I’m sure he came close a few times. Knowing his love of the F-word, he had to have come dangerously close.
And after he hung up on me, he mumbled about how nobody looks at blogs anyway, and something else about how bloggers hide in their basements with their computers.
So, just to be even more annoying to the aged and flailing broker of Peace, Love & Drugs, Drugs and more Drugs, I sent him an email to make him aware that my site at the time had generated well over 500,000 hits in less than two years.
And I also invited him to meet me over a bagel and a coffee.
Predictably, he never replied.
In conclusion, I never liked him. I never respected him. And I will not miss him.
On the brighter side, now he’ll have plenty of time to go golfing with all of his buddies currently under federal indictment.
And since Kevin always offered up a warm and prehensile mouth for his messiah, Barak Oblahblah, I will conclude with a quote from none other than the all-knowing one.
“One job lost is one job too many.”
Later
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Let the Primary games begin
Things are definately heating up out there, kiddies.
Bill Goldsworthy
For State Representative, 120th District
PRESS RELEASE
For more information: 570-237-1810
On March 23, 2010 the State House of Representatives passed HB2279, the General Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010-2011. The price tag: $29 billion, a $1.2 billion increase over the current year. At the same time, Gov. Rendell is projecting a $525 million shortfall this year.
Because of last year’s budget debacle, lawmakers are trying to avoid the embarrassment of going 101 days without a budget by this early passage of a spending plan.
From the email inbox:
Bill Goldsworthy
For State Representative, 120th District
PRESS RELEASE
For more information: 570-237-1810
On March 23, 2010 the State House of Representatives passed HB2279, the General Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010-2011. The price tag: $29 billion, a $1.2 billion increase over the current year. At the same time, Gov. Rendell is projecting a $525 million shortfall this year.
Because of last year’s budget debacle, lawmakers are trying to avoid the embarrassment of going 101 days without a budget by this early passage of a spending plan.
But doing it early is not the same as doing it responsibly. This is more of a spending plan than a budget. A budget requires a serious calculation of revenues and the common-sense approach of spending within one’s means – just like Pennsylvanians must do when they work on their own household and business budgets.
This $29 billion spending plan includes federal stimulus revenues of $2.76 billion. That’s a one-time gift. What happens next year? And the year after that? Relying on stimulus money to support future state budgets sets up Pennsylvanians for some serious financial problems. Once these funds are depleted, the state will be forced to deal with a multi-billion-dollar funding gap.
We all are aware of the looming state pension fiasco. Any responsible budget should address this problem by creating a reserve fund. It does not address the problem at all; lawmakers are just delaying the inevitable. Putting this issue on the backburner means an even bigger financial burden down the line for taxpayers.
So why did Phyllis Mundy vote for this $29 billion disaster? Does she think voting on a budget early makes up for doing so irresponsibly and without regard for the future?
Now more than ever, we need a responsible spending plan. We need lawmakers who are committed to representing the taxpayers and looking out for Pennsylvania citizens now and in the future. We need to bring spending under control and stop ignoring the looming pension crisis. It’s not going to go away just because we refuse to address it.
We need to avoid duplication of services and we need to eliminate per diems. We need elected officials who will work to lower taxes.
We need better than what we have right now. But most of all, we deserve better than what we are getting.
Is this fun or what?
Later
811
I hesitate to use this word, but I find this underground explosion that injured 2 PPL workers and a responding Wilkes-Barre police officer intriguing.
The link: Probe of underground W-B blast goes on
I find it intriguing because in my chosen profession, while it may fade into the background more often than it should, the safety component of the job never does go away.
Those PPL guys who were injured had probably lowered themselves into underground vaults a thousand times. They probably were doing what they had done correctly a hundred times over. Yet, something went horribly wrong on that job.
I imagine that, for most people, safety is something they never have to think about once they arrive at work for another mundane day. Integrity and honesty and professionalism and experience are all important, but not many people who get paid to sit in a cubicle have to keep the safety aspect of things tucked neatly into their minds all day long.
Recently, at a regional training meeting, we were treated to pictures of another job gone horribly wrong.
Somebody went and augered through a high-pressure natural gas line. And the resulting explosion destroyed numerous homes, garages, barns and ancillary buildings, and the blast radius was something like a quarter mile by a half mile. Burned black, it was. A state route was shut down as was a major highway. And not a single trace of that somebody was ever found.
With that said, some years ago I had spun a gas-powered auger right through a natural gas line that was connected to a private residence. Right after the soil stopped smacking me in the face, the smell hit me. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but this newly augered hole in the ground was in very close proximity to a well-traveled thoroughfare. So if one passing motorist had flipped a lit cigarette out of a vehicle…a major explosion would have quickly followed.
Before the home owner ran up the street, she called 911. And then the parade started. The fire department rolled on up. And a technician from the local gas company was on scene within 8 minutes, excavated the ruptured line and tamped out the leak. Then an entire crew of gas company workers arrived. Then a supervisor of theirs got there. Then one of my nervous supervisors. And then another of my nervous supervisors.
In my defense, the gas line was less than ten inches from the surface of the soil. And natural gas lines are not supposed to be sitting so shallow. As a result, the utility did not try to hold my company accountable for this most unwanted of events.
But it’s good example of why you should never take anything for granted, why you should never eschew safety because of your vast level of experience, and why you should call Pennsylvania One Call before you disrupt any amount of soil, even 10 inches worth. 
And it needs to be noted that they guy who was vaporized in the high-pressure gas line incident was the property owner, and he simply sought to auger some holes for a new fence he planned to erect. But he failed to have the utilities identify the location of the subterranean and sub-slab utility lines, and it cost him his life.
So, if you’ve dropped a bundle on some building materials from Home Depot, and plan to press on with any do-it-yourself projects that involve any soil disruptions at all, do the smart thing, do the safe thing, and have the utilities mark the lines beforehand.
Or as they used to put it in their radio ads on WILK, before you bore, auger, drill or dig, call 811. Do it.
That’s all I got.
Later
The link: Probe of underground W-B blast goes on
I find it intriguing because in my chosen profession, while it may fade into the background more often than it should, the safety component of the job never does go away.
Those PPL guys who were injured had probably lowered themselves into underground vaults a thousand times. They probably were doing what they had done correctly a hundred times over. Yet, something went horribly wrong on that job.
I imagine that, for most people, safety is something they never have to think about once they arrive at work for another mundane day. Integrity and honesty and professionalism and experience are all important, but not many people who get paid to sit in a cubicle have to keep the safety aspect of things tucked neatly into their minds all day long.
Recently, at a regional training meeting, we were treated to pictures of another job gone horribly wrong.
Somebody went and augered through a high-pressure natural gas line. And the resulting explosion destroyed numerous homes, garages, barns and ancillary buildings, and the blast radius was something like a quarter mile by a half mile. Burned black, it was. A state route was shut down as was a major highway. And not a single trace of that somebody was ever found.
With that said, some years ago I had spun a gas-powered auger right through a natural gas line that was connected to a private residence. Right after the soil stopped smacking me in the face, the smell hit me. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but this newly augered hole in the ground was in very close proximity to a well-traveled thoroughfare. So if one passing motorist had flipped a lit cigarette out of a vehicle…a major explosion would have quickly followed.
Before the home owner ran up the street, she called 911. And then the parade started. The fire department rolled on up. And a technician from the local gas company was on scene within 8 minutes, excavated the ruptured line and tamped out the leak. Then an entire crew of gas company workers arrived. Then a supervisor of theirs got there. Then one of my nervous supervisors. And then another of my nervous supervisors.
In my defense, the gas line was less than ten inches from the surface of the soil. And natural gas lines are not supposed to be sitting so shallow. As a result, the utility did not try to hold my company accountable for this most unwanted of events.
But it’s good example of why you should never take anything for granted, why you should never eschew safety because of your vast level of experience, and why you should call Pennsylvania One Call before you disrupt any amount of soil, even 10 inches worth.
And it needs to be noted that they guy who was vaporized in the high-pressure gas line incident was the property owner, and he simply sought to auger some holes for a new fence he planned to erect. But he failed to have the utilities identify the location of the subterranean and sub-slab utility lines, and it cost him his life.
So, if you’ve dropped a bundle on some building materials from Home Depot, and plan to press on with any do-it-yourself projects that involve any soil disruptions at all, do the smart thing, do the safe thing, and have the utilities mark the lines beforehand.
Or as they used to put it in their radio ads on WILK, before you bore, auger, drill or dig, call 811. Do it.
That’s all I got.
Later
Monday, March 29, 2010
We shall see
What feels like many moons ago, I was standing on S. Washington Street while taking pictures of a few over sized footers that were being poured for the then-promised movie theater in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
And a couple of fingers gouged my left shoulder in borderline hostile fashion, while a familiar voice coming from behind me said, "What do you think, tough guy?” That voice was being emitted from the oft-flapping lips of our former mayor. So, in direct reference to the supposed construction of the theater complex, I asked, “How are we going to pay for this? We don’t have the money to pay for this.”
He shot back with, “It’s being built, isn’t it?” I repeated the former of my first two promptings of him. And he then repeated those same exact words, “It’s being built, isn’t it?”
As I holstered my camera and right before I turned my back on him for the final time, I muttered, “We shall see.”
And in no time at all, we did see what was what. Or what wasn't to be.
As we all know, that theater project never progressed past the pouring of those huge footers. Footers that ended up costing the taxpayers of this city $5.3 million dollars that went unpaid until the next administration of the city retired those overdue debts.
That mayor was big on ideas, but he was woefully short on the execution end of things. But more importantly for Wilkes-Barre and it’s then fast-fading fortunes, he was financially irresponsible. That’s being too kind…he was financially reckless, as evidenced by the record number of Tax Anticipation Notes he needed just to stay afloat during his regrettable eight-year term.
But he was doggedly consistent in one respect, in that he was demonstratively disdainful of anyone who dared to challenge his self-acclaimed utter and profound brilliance.
Enter Markie.
And a couple of fingers gouged my left shoulder in borderline hostile fashion, while a familiar voice coming from behind me said, "What do you think, tough guy?” That voice was being emitted from the oft-flapping lips of our former mayor. So, in direct reference to the supposed construction of the theater complex, I asked, “How are we going to pay for this? We don’t have the money to pay for this.”
He shot back with, “It’s being built, isn’t it?” I repeated the former of my first two promptings of him. And he then repeated those same exact words, “It’s being built, isn’t it?”
As I holstered my camera and right before I turned my back on him for the final time, I muttered, “We shall see.”
And in no time at all, we did see what was what. Or what wasn't to be.
As we all know, that theater project never progressed past the pouring of those huge footers. Footers that ended up costing the taxpayers of this city $5.3 million dollars that went unpaid until the next administration of the city retired those overdue debts.
That mayor was big on ideas, but he was woefully short on the execution end of things. But more importantly for Wilkes-Barre and it’s then fast-fading fortunes, he was financially irresponsible. That’s being too kind…he was financially reckless, as evidenced by the record number of Tax Anticipation Notes he needed just to stay afloat during his regrettable eight-year term.
But he was doggedly consistent in one respect, in that he was demonstratively disdainful of anyone who dared to challenge his self-acclaimed utter and profound brilliance.
Enter Markie.
All of which sparks this internal feeling of being eerily familiar when compared to the self-absorbed and equally self-indulgent Obama administration, whereas this coming health care boondoggle is concerned.
I would ask the same of him, how are we going to pay for it?
Well, the Congressional Budget Office said this and the Congressional Budget Office said that and on and on he’d likely wax smugly poetic with that trademark self-assuredness of his.
But I’d still have to press on, because those CBO guesstimates are based on a flourishing economy, and with the unemployment numbers being halved over the first five years of the ten years of the health care reform period. In essence, they were the best-case scenario numbers. So the best guess they’ve got is that, if all that currently ails us is fixed in very, very short order, it’ll cost us a trillion dollars during the first decade?
Yikes!
So, with the massive escalation in debt during his first two years coupled with the even faster escalating debts over the course of his legacy-building program, the debt service of the United States will approach that of a pre-Falklands War Argentina.
And for those of you not real familiar with that egregious miscalculation, Argentina had so crippled it’s own economy in such a similar fashion, it felt it needed a nationalistic war of appropriation so as to distract the populace from the all-encompassing futility of their own predicament.
And despite Obama’s obvious disdain for those that elected him but who cannot figure out why at this maddening juncture, I would still have to ask: How are we going to pay for this?
And the only honest answer would be that we’re not going to be able to afford this. Not without a rationing of health care at some level of the system. Not without higher taxes. Not without a hasty and destabilizing exit from Iraq, and possibly Afghanistan, too. And not without a serious scaling back of federal spending.
In the end, we’ll be forced to pay far more for far less, and we’ll have no one to thank for it save for the financially reckless false prophet-in-chief who is noticeably disdainful of those who are seriously taken aback by his foolhardy financial brinkmanship.
I say again, we shall see.
Exit Markie.
Bye
Pic: My grandson Zach putting on his Piranha Face. Don't ask.
Enjoy the wet side of the bed
Two days off in a row. Man, I could get used to this. And with eight more to go, I'm feeling kind of chipper right now. Upbeat, you could say. My daughter Peace and her better half are here. And my amazing grandkids, Gage and Taylor are here.
Sorry about my glum outlook immediately following the big blogger soiree. Well, not really. It's just that, I'm not completely stupid. I'm not stupid enough to believe that any of the hair cuts with suits would ever touch base with me again, or any local bloggers for that matter, if we were to deliver to them some consistently stinging rebukes of their stated positions. They'd drop us like a hot botato (Wifey's English).
Sure, they attended the event. Sure, the turnout was amazing. But I honestly feel they were there expecting most, some or all of us to be suddenly starstruck into writing glowing reviews about them and their platforms. With the country spinning it's way down the bowl and into the aged sewer systems we cannot afford to upgrade, you could say I'm becoming increasingly jaded. And not easily impressed by even the very best of the glad-handers.
And another thing. I've developed some measure of respect for the elected and the appointed I have publicly chastised in the past, but who still bothered to cordially approach me in public. Off the top of my pointy head, former Wilkes-Barre City Administrator J.J. Murphy, former City Council Person (gender neutral bullspit) Jim McCarthy and current County Controller Walter Griffith come to mind. I ripped 'em every now and again, but they shot right back at me. Good stuff.
And at this event on Friday night, there was one elected official who could have approached me, but chose not to. Actually, I made it a point to sit right in front of him for a half hour, making as much eye contact as I possibly could. This was his chance to tell me why I've been woefully wrong about his performance all along. And I would have been willing to listen to his pitch. But rather than touching base with me right there in person, I got a Facebook "friend" request from his wife over the weekend. Now, what am I supposed to make of that?
And what's this utter nonsense about needing a bodyguard to fend off the likes of Frank Scavo just because he's a Tea Party stalwart? That's patently absurd. Last we checked, Frank had no criminal record to speak of, much unlike the folks who have influenced or who have advised our president over the years. Christ! I could bench press Frank Scavo. Ease up with the cheap attempts to marginalize those who do not agree with you. Ease up with that laziness.
And as a seasoned veteran of these various and sundry blogging pursuits in question, I say with some certainty that if you really feel you need a bodyguard to hang out with the minuscule NEPA blogosphere, you're probably in the wrong business. But I will say this, your chosen bodyguard was easily approachable and quite likable. Seems like a really smart kid.
I'm really torn on the coming Leighton/Yudichak election scrum. I think they're both likable and commendable in many respects. I think Yudichak has given a good showing of himself. But I believe that what Tom Leighton has done here in Wilkes-Barre has been remarkable when directly compared to any of his recent predecessors. Remarkable. So I'm left to wonder how I, as a resident of Wilkes-Barre, would benefit more by the eventual result of this race. Do I vote to send Leighton up the political ladder, or do I vote to keep him right here in Wilkes-Barre?
As for the attention and the press looking to interview us local bloggers, I suppose that those of us that have been typing away for years and years on end do deserve some accreditation of sorts for being so tireless in these pursuits. Some of us have been doing our necessary homework, attending the events, taking the pictures, delivering the occasional "exclusive" and providing a differing perspective than that of the press for a long, long time.
No matter why we bothered, now matter why we still bother, we bothered to bring plenty of local issues to the forefront, some before even the local press caught wind of them. I don't know that all of that should command respect. But it does get you a free hat pin every once in a while. Oh, and a brief mention in the newspapers.
Wait, I did get the VIP passes to see the Beach Boys at Kirby Park right up in front of the stage. And the accompanying free food and drink, too. And the taunts, the attempts at intimidation, the middle fingers, the SUV/bicycle chases, the profanity-laced exchanges, the chest bumps and all of that good, good stuff. Yes, blogging all these years has had plenty of stuff coming my way. Not all accolades, of course.
Funny thing, though. While the place filled to it's limits with Democrats looking to rub elbows with a blogosphere heavily-laden with Democrat apologists, there was the Luzerne County GOP honcho, Renita Fennick, leaving the place with a handful of voter registration cards of Democrats looking to change their party affiliations. A precursor, I suppose, to the coming electoral sh*t storm that promises to be a political Katrina-like event for plenty of elected Democrats on November the 2nd.
The Democrat super majority thought it was smart and necessary to be antagonistic towards the voters. And soon, it'll be the voters turn to get all antagonistic on their soon-to-be expelled asses. That's assuming that more and more of them won't simply walk away from the oligarchy that is Washington, D.C. in 2010.
Anyway, even though I was initially put off just a tad by the entire event, it was a good time despite that god-awful band making me want to implode right on the spot. (Jeez, and we thought Tim Grier seizing control of the jukebox at Mark's Pub was about as bad as it could get.) It's a matter of a degree of separation for me. If we're going to party with the politicos, then are we going to feel free to beat them unmercifully over the head by way of our keyboards when the need arises? I'm still collating with myself on that question, but I seriously doubt it.
So, do we in the local blogosphere really have some power in these fingers of ours? Have we finally arrived? Have we finally been recognized and afforded some long overdue measure of respect?
Or are we getting a bit too cozy with the enemy?
Whatever. Don't much matter to me on most days. But the way I see it, you're either a part of the problem, or you're a part of the solution. And for those of you seriously considering sleeping with the enemy, enjoy the wet side of the bed.
G'nite
Sorry about my glum outlook immediately following the big blogger soiree. Well, not really. It's just that, I'm not completely stupid. I'm not stupid enough to believe that any of the hair cuts with suits would ever touch base with me again, or any local bloggers for that matter, if we were to deliver to them some consistently stinging rebukes of their stated positions. They'd drop us like a hot botato (Wifey's English).
Sure, they attended the event. Sure, the turnout was amazing. But I honestly feel they were there expecting most, some or all of us to be suddenly starstruck into writing glowing reviews about them and their platforms. With the country spinning it's way down the bowl and into the aged sewer systems we cannot afford to upgrade, you could say I'm becoming increasingly jaded. And not easily impressed by even the very best of the glad-handers.
And another thing. I've developed some measure of respect for the elected and the appointed I have publicly chastised in the past, but who still bothered to cordially approach me in public. Off the top of my pointy head, former Wilkes-Barre City Administrator J.J. Murphy, former City Council Person (gender neutral bullspit) Jim McCarthy and current County Controller Walter Griffith come to mind. I ripped 'em every now and again, but they shot right back at me. Good stuff.
And at this event on Friday night, there was one elected official who could have approached me, but chose not to. Actually, I made it a point to sit right in front of him for a half hour, making as much eye contact as I possibly could. This was his chance to tell me why I've been woefully wrong about his performance all along. And I would have been willing to listen to his pitch. But rather than touching base with me right there in person, I got a Facebook "friend" request from his wife over the weekend. Now, what am I supposed to make of that?
And what's this utter nonsense about needing a bodyguard to fend off the likes of Frank Scavo just because he's a Tea Party stalwart? That's patently absurd. Last we checked, Frank had no criminal record to speak of, much unlike the folks who have influenced or who have advised our president over the years. Christ! I could bench press Frank Scavo. Ease up with the cheap attempts to marginalize those who do not agree with you. Ease up with that laziness.
And as a seasoned veteran of these various and sundry blogging pursuits in question, I say with some certainty that if you really feel you need a bodyguard to hang out with the minuscule NEPA blogosphere, you're probably in the wrong business. But I will say this, your chosen bodyguard was easily approachable and quite likable. Seems like a really smart kid.
I'm really torn on the coming Leighton/Yudichak election scrum. I think they're both likable and commendable in many respects. I think Yudichak has given a good showing of himself. But I believe that what Tom Leighton has done here in Wilkes-Barre has been remarkable when directly compared to any of his recent predecessors. Remarkable. So I'm left to wonder how I, as a resident of Wilkes-Barre, would benefit more by the eventual result of this race. Do I vote to send Leighton up the political ladder, or do I vote to keep him right here in Wilkes-Barre?
As for the attention and the press looking to interview us local bloggers, I suppose that those of us that have been typing away for years and years on end do deserve some accreditation of sorts for being so tireless in these pursuits. Some of us have been doing our necessary homework, attending the events, taking the pictures, delivering the occasional "exclusive" and providing a differing perspective than that of the press for a long, long time.
No matter why we bothered, now matter why we still bother, we bothered to bring plenty of local issues to the forefront, some before even the local press caught wind of them. I don't know that all of that should command respect. But it does get you a free hat pin every once in a while. Oh, and a brief mention in the newspapers.
Wait, I did get the VIP passes to see the Beach Boys at Kirby Park right up in front of the stage. And the accompanying free food and drink, too. And the taunts, the attempts at intimidation, the middle fingers, the SUV/bicycle chases, the profanity-laced exchanges, the chest bumps and all of that good, good stuff. Yes, blogging all these years has had plenty of stuff coming my way. Not all accolades, of course.
Funny thing, though. While the place filled to it's limits with Democrats looking to rub elbows with a blogosphere heavily-laden with Democrat apologists, there was the Luzerne County GOP honcho, Renita Fennick, leaving the place with a handful of voter registration cards of Democrats looking to change their party affiliations. A precursor, I suppose, to the coming electoral sh*t storm that promises to be a political Katrina-like event for plenty of elected Democrats on November the 2nd.
The Democrat super majority thought it was smart and necessary to be antagonistic towards the voters. And soon, it'll be the voters turn to get all antagonistic on their soon-to-be expelled asses. That's assuming that more and more of them won't simply walk away from the oligarchy that is Washington, D.C. in 2010.
Anyway, even though I was initially put off just a tad by the entire event, it was a good time despite that god-awful band making me want to implode right on the spot. (Jeez, and we thought Tim Grier seizing control of the jukebox at Mark's Pub was about as bad as it could get.) It's a matter of a degree of separation for me. If we're going to party with the politicos, then are we going to feel free to beat them unmercifully over the head by way of our keyboards when the need arises? I'm still collating with myself on that question, but I seriously doubt it.
So, do we in the local blogosphere really have some power in these fingers of ours? Have we finally arrived? Have we finally been recognized and afforded some long overdue measure of respect?
Or are we getting a bit too cozy with the enemy?
Whatever. Don't much matter to me on most days. But the way I see it, you're either a part of the problem, or you're a part of the solution. And for those of you seriously considering sleeping with the enemy, enjoy the wet side of the bed.
G'nite
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The "Beer Storm" gone wrong
Yes, I attended the previously unheard-of face-to-face encounter between the tireless, under-appreciated people that drive the local poliblogging scene and the multitude of folks that simultaneously love and hate them--the candidates, the elected and those paid quite handsomely to shamelessly promote them no matter what. And yes, I’m rightfully embarrassed to admit as much.
Here’s the link:
Candidates meet the faces behind the screen names
Gort deserves some major kudos for making this improbably gathering of oft-colliding political planets to happen at all. I know the Citizens’ Voice story lists Gort and Joe Valenti of Pittston Politics as equally guilty co-conspirators in this instance, but Gort reaches out statewide on a continual basis, while Joe seems to be limited to covering all things dominated by Italians, i.e., Pittston (a long-forgotten third-class city not frequented very often by the smarter folks) and the thoroughly forgettable boroughs on it’s nondescript periphery.
Gort, I think you either outdid yourself, or the large crowd in attendance last night serves as a testament to your growing Internet popularity.
Personally, while I did enjoy myself for the most part, there was much that I did not enjoy.
For instance, a county commissioner who stood eye-to-eye with me for damn near a half hour, but who did not have the testicular fortitude necessary to confront me about my many scathing comments written about his “See no evil, hear no evil” performance while “serving” under the rotunda dome, while the county has for, for lack of a getter term, gone insolvent.
And now he wants us to send him to Harrisburg to fulfill the duties of a do-nothing Lieutenant Governor? Do-nothing? Sounds eerily familar.
Fat chance.
And once again, as evidenced by the reporting, I was burned by the media.
Not that I have a problem with the Citizens’ Voice’s Elizabeth Skrapits. I talked to her at length out on the sidewalk while we enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) a cigarette. She’s smart, well-versed on the breaking issues of the day, totally likeable, and cute to boot. I could hang out with her without an invite. I mean that.
And, boy, is she well-versed on the still developing Marcellus Shale drilling boondoggle. I pointed her in the direction of one Kayak Dude, a self-avowed and tirelessly persistent tree-hugger she claimed to have already met.
But, as is always the case, when talking with the people that rush to print, expect them to use only your most provocative comments. This wasn’t my first brush with them. You’d think I’d know that by now, to not come off as being controversial, judgmental or skeptical belong all belief.
And I reiterate, I have nothing her, or with anything she reported. To be perfectly honest, she was someone I could share a few beers with. But I did say what she published: “Basically, they just want to use us.”
They, the candidates and their staffers, were looking for some cheap and adoring press.
And I’m still shaking my fattened head at West Pittston Mayor Bill Goldsworthy‘s mystifyingly weird attributed quote: “…he came ‘to meet the people behind the screen names‘."
Um, like Joe Valenti, Mark Cour, Steve Albert, David Yonki and Tom Borthwick? Those people hiding the behind the proverbial curtain?
What?
Are we still sticking with that long-misguided notion that political bloggers are too, too completely afraid to reveal their true identities?
Stick a fork in him…he’s done and permanently grounded in West Pittston. Right where he belongs.
I do have enhanced respect for Dr. Joe Leonardi, who made it a point to chit-chat with me, even though I had once severely rebuked, in print, his for-profit weight-loss program. You have to admire a guy who can suffer the sting of your very pointed arrows, and then glad-hand with you afterwards.
It’s an outright shame what the Republican party did to him by withholding any and all financing when he sought to the topple the most arrogant and self-serving congressman this side of California…Paul Kanjorski.
Thank you, Joe.
And to be perfectly blunt, I have to wonder, once again, about the now-questionable courage of upstart, bomb-throwing bloggers who openly fantasize about your physical and violent undoing in electronic print, but then shy away from you when the rubber meets the road.
Dude, you either have swollen gonads, or you do not.
Work on that.
I do feel bad about bugging out of there the way I did, but that live band, that was just too much to for me bare for very much longer. That was too much to ask of any self-respecting fan of music and the folks who craft such things.
Now, let’s cover the exploits of the reporter from the Times Leader who quizzed me at length about my blogging pursuits, past and present. He claimed that his newspaper is going to do some kind of in-depth story about the local blogosphere. Coming soon, I was told.
And that’s all well and good. And while he was cordial and all, he really struggled with the spelling of this site’s title, namely, the first word in that goofy, ill-advised title…”circumlocution.”
Now, allow me to get this perplexing development straight.
He’s the acclaimed journalist and I’m the trainee, the hopeful wannabe purported to be wallowing away in my pajamas? Whatever.
Cir-cum-loc-ution!
Sound it out, for Allah‘s sake.
And Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton awarded me with my third city-themed hat pin. And, true to my nature, I had to bust his stones by pointing out that, while I’ve unequivocally supported him for six or seven years on end, all that I‘ve received for my troubles is these 3 hat pins.
But I'm all good with that.
I told John Yudichak flat-out that a vote for him coming from me would be a vote to keep my current mayor well-grounded right here in Wilkes-Barre. And after he chuckled, he said, “I can live with that.”
And I also asked him what happened to the persistent “heir apparent” rumor whereas his long-expected ascendancy would one day unseat Congressman Paul Kanjorski.
He said he has “3 beautiful daughters,” and he would rather serve the likes of us as well as his daughters from Harrisburg, rather than from the more distant Washington D.C.
I can respect that.
Anyway, in conclusion, this will probably the very last event of these sorts that I will ever attend. Hanging out with bloggers, like-minded and otherwise, sounds like a doable plan. Idiots all, no?
But openly courting the oft-meandering and always hollow affection of the political hopefuls, the well-entrenched hierarchy and the summoned, attending press is not something that makes me feel as if I have any last vestiges of credibility intact.
I mean that not as an indictment of any of the organizers of, or the folks who excitedly attended this well-attended event. More pointedly, I mean that more as a statement that immediately followed much introspection on my part.
If what they’re looking for is positive press, they should try earning it, rather than counting on it simply because they made a big fuss over me.
Ain’t no big thing.
Later
Here’s the link:
Candidates meet the faces behind the screen names
Gort deserves some major kudos for making this improbably gathering of oft-colliding political planets to happen at all. I know the Citizens’ Voice story lists Gort and Joe Valenti of Pittston Politics as equally guilty co-conspirators in this instance, but Gort reaches out statewide on a continual basis, while Joe seems to be limited to covering all things dominated by Italians, i.e., Pittston (a long-forgotten third-class city not frequented very often by the smarter folks) and the thoroughly forgettable boroughs on it’s nondescript periphery.
Gort, I think you either outdid yourself, or the large crowd in attendance last night serves as a testament to your growing Internet popularity.
Personally, while I did enjoy myself for the most part, there was much that I did not enjoy.
For instance, a county commissioner who stood eye-to-eye with me for damn near a half hour, but who did not have the testicular fortitude necessary to confront me about my many scathing comments written about his “See no evil, hear no evil” performance while “serving” under the rotunda dome, while the county has for, for lack of a getter term, gone insolvent.
And now he wants us to send him to Harrisburg to fulfill the duties of a do-nothing Lieutenant Governor? Do-nothing? Sounds eerily familar.
Fat chance.
And once again, as evidenced by the reporting, I was burned by the media.
Not that I have a problem with the Citizens’ Voice’s Elizabeth Skrapits. I talked to her at length out on the sidewalk while we enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) a cigarette. She’s smart, well-versed on the breaking issues of the day, totally likeable, and cute to boot. I could hang out with her without an invite. I mean that.
And, boy, is she well-versed on the still developing Marcellus Shale drilling boondoggle. I pointed her in the direction of one Kayak Dude, a self-avowed and tirelessly persistent tree-hugger she claimed to have already met.
But, as is always the case, when talking with the people that rush to print, expect them to use only your most provocative comments. This wasn’t my first brush with them. You’d think I’d know that by now, to not come off as being controversial, judgmental or skeptical belong all belief.
And I reiterate, I have nothing her, or with anything she reported. To be perfectly honest, she was someone I could share a few beers with. But I did say what she published: “Basically, they just want to use us.”
They, the candidates and their staffers, were looking for some cheap and adoring press.
And I’m still shaking my fattened head at West Pittston Mayor Bill Goldsworthy‘s mystifyingly weird attributed quote: “…he came ‘to meet the people behind the screen names‘."
Um, like Joe Valenti, Mark Cour, Steve Albert, David Yonki and Tom Borthwick? Those people hiding the behind the proverbial curtain?
What?
Are we still sticking with that long-misguided notion that political bloggers are too, too completely afraid to reveal their true identities?
Stick a fork in him…he’s done and permanently grounded in West Pittston. Right where he belongs.
I do have enhanced respect for Dr. Joe Leonardi, who made it a point to chit-chat with me, even though I had once severely rebuked, in print, his for-profit weight-loss program. You have to admire a guy who can suffer the sting of your very pointed arrows, and then glad-hand with you afterwards.
It’s an outright shame what the Republican party did to him by withholding any and all financing when he sought to the topple the most arrogant and self-serving congressman this side of California…Paul Kanjorski.
Thank you, Joe.
And to be perfectly blunt, I have to wonder, once again, about the now-questionable courage of upstart, bomb-throwing bloggers who openly fantasize about your physical and violent undoing in electronic print, but then shy away from you when the rubber meets the road.
Dude, you either have swollen gonads, or you do not.
Work on that.
I do feel bad about bugging out of there the way I did, but that live band, that was just too much to for me bare for very much longer. That was too much to ask of any self-respecting fan of music and the folks who craft such things.
Now, let’s cover the exploits of the reporter from the Times Leader who quizzed me at length about my blogging pursuits, past and present. He claimed that his newspaper is going to do some kind of in-depth story about the local blogosphere. Coming soon, I was told.
And that’s all well and good. And while he was cordial and all, he really struggled with the spelling of this site’s title, namely, the first word in that goofy, ill-advised title…”circumlocution.”
Now, allow me to get this perplexing development straight.
He’s the acclaimed journalist and I’m the trainee, the hopeful wannabe purported to be wallowing away in my pajamas? Whatever.
Cir-cum-loc-ution!
Sound it out, for Allah‘s sake.
And Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton awarded me with my third city-themed hat pin. And, true to my nature, I had to bust his stones by pointing out that, while I’ve unequivocally supported him for six or seven years on end, all that I‘ve received for my troubles is these 3 hat pins.
But I'm all good with that.
I told John Yudichak flat-out that a vote for him coming from me would be a vote to keep my current mayor well-grounded right here in Wilkes-Barre. And after he chuckled, he said, “I can live with that.”
And I also asked him what happened to the persistent “heir apparent” rumor whereas his long-expected ascendancy would one day unseat Congressman Paul Kanjorski.
He said he has “3 beautiful daughters,” and he would rather serve the likes of us as well as his daughters from Harrisburg, rather than from the more distant Washington D.C.
I can respect that.
Anyway, in conclusion, this will probably the very last event of these sorts that I will ever attend. Hanging out with bloggers, like-minded and otherwise, sounds like a doable plan. Idiots all, no?
But openly courting the oft-meandering and always hollow affection of the political hopefuls, the well-entrenched hierarchy and the summoned, attending press is not something that makes me feel as if I have any last vestiges of credibility intact.
I mean that not as an indictment of any of the organizers of, or the folks who excitedly attended this well-attended event. More pointedly, I mean that more as a statement that immediately followed much introspection on my part.
If what they’re looking for is positive press, they should try earning it, rather than counting on it simply because they made a big fuss over me.
Ain’t no big thing.
Later
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