For a fleeting nanosecond, he had the knack

There's a 'Lil Birdie that keeps dropping home-burned musical discs in my snail mailbox.

So far, two discs by The Hold Steady have appeared, "Stay Positive" and "Boys and Girls in America."

Funny thing, as I was marveling over the latter of the two somehow dropping out of thin air, I got to figuring that I'll never grow out of it. I'll never grow out of this never ending search for the next new band to get overly excited about.

Far as I can recall, the last thing that got me to jumpin' around the room and buying a new set of light gauge Silver Bullets was Nirvana. More accurately put, I was all agog over Kurt Cobain. Never was there a more honest songwriter.

When I was doing my level best to mimic the Hansen brothers of "Slap Shot" fame back in high school, I couldn't help but identifying with KISS and their stripped down sound. Lead, rhythm, bass, drums, and gnarly loud. Totally stripped down. No arsty fartsy bullspit. No Moogs. No mellotrons. And most importantly, no strings. Just straight ahead, pin-your-ears-back rock 'n' roll.

After initially conquering the world, even KISS succumbed to the glitzy production techniques of one Bob Ezrin, a producer extraordinaire. And with the passage of even more time, KISS did the previously unthinkable by releasing a disco-tinged song. Argh!

But in 1979, out of nowhere came this band called the Knack, who's first offering "Get the Knack" shot right to the top of the charts. And the first single from that LP, "My Sharona," topped the charts for six weeks. In addition, Get the Knack was the top-selling album of 1979.

While their sound has been dubbed "power pop," what they were was the latest outfit to reject the excessives of the recording studio, the wizardry, the strings and what have you by stripping it down to it's basics all over again. And you couldn't help but to be hooked by the choppy, start-stop-start-stop intro of My Sharona.

I played the grooves off of that album, neccessitating the purchase of a second copy, which I still have today. And to this day, after having packaged and carted off thousands upon thousands of CDs to events I have either DJed or simply provided the music for, Get the Knack was the only CD to have ever been stolen from me. It was immediately replaced.

Anyway, I was saddened to read this morning that Doug Fieger, 57, had passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer. Without Doug Feiger, there was no The Knack. In a nutshell, Doug Feiger was The Knack. And like KISS before them, The Knack reminded me that roll 'n' roll ought not include boys choirs, orchestras or the Bob Ezrins of the music world.

Just plug it in and play it flat out in 3 minutes or less. If it ain't loud, it ain't worth a fu>k. Sad to say, but I'll never grow out of it.

R.I.P.

G'nite

Mayor Tom Leighton to "announce" tomorrow

I got a call this morning from a woman inviting me to Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton's 5:15 p.m. announcement tomorrow at Rodano's on the square. Interesting.

So I asked of her, "He's really going to do it? I didn't think he would." She responded with, "Come on down to Rodano's and find out. Okay, so we're going to play it like that, are we?

So I called and got Hizzoner on the cell phone. And I asked of him, "What are you going to announce? Are you going to do it, run for the state senate?" He said, "Come on down and find out." Okay, so we're going to play it like that, are we?

Being that he wouldn't tip his hand either way, I switched tactics.

I said, "If a mayor were to run for a state senate spot, and if that mayor were to win, how would we replace that mayor--by a special election?"

He said he believed that a replacement mayor would be chosen by the city council, to which I blurted, "We're going to let those kooks pick the next mayor?"

"No comment" was his predictable reply. That cracked me up. I've had his ear for many a year, but more often than not, my ears were treated to a steady stream of "no comment" or "off the record." And patting myself on the back, I've never once made him regret the "off the record" conversations.

By the way, before anybody gets their panties all bunched up, I was kidding when I made that crack about the council being a bunch of kooks. Kidding. Go easy, man.

Anyway, I told him that the thought of city council picking the next mayor made me instantly recollect the old Ted Nugent song "Free for all." But I quickly corrected myself by saying that I'm sure a deal would be in the works before council was even seated for that vote.

So, after a bit of small talk, that phone call did end. And I seriously doubt that Tom Leighton would hold a press conference and invite people to said event if he was going to announce that he was not interested in jumping into that state senatorial fray. A fray, by the way, that is so far limited to John Yudichak and John Yudichak only. But I'm of the firm opinion that he'll have himself an opponent come late day tomorrow.

And there you have it. Tomorrow, at 5:15, at Rodano's, Mayor Tom Leighton has something to announce.

And, no, I don't think it's about a return engagement to Wilkes-Barre for the Beach Boys.

Later

GOP updates

From the email inbox:

FIRST DISTRICT GOP BREAKFAST

With Special Guest, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta

Sunday, Feb. 21, 10:45 a.m.

$20 if paid by Feb. 15; $25 at the door

Genetti’s, Hazleton

Info: stormpolitics@gmail.com

**********************

FOURTH DISTRICT BREAKFAST & PETITION-SIGNING

Saturday, Feb. 27, 9 a.m.

Lee Park American Legion, Lee Park Avenue, Hanover Township

Info: lorriv@msn.com

Tickets: $12 for adults; $8 for children under 10

*************************

Check our Web site for updates

http://www.luzernegop.org/

Renita Fennick
Executive Director
Luzerne County Republican Party
570-208-4671

Editor's note: Don't forget to register to vote.

Bye

Luzerne County Govt: A public-sector dependency

"The wisest of men follow their own direction."--Euripides

I think what the Times Leader published today was proof positive that our two majority commissioners lacked the intestinal fortitude and the political will to avert the recently enacted 15% property tax increase.


The link: Luzerne County staffed far above average (The county has 1,698 full-time employees, more than its similarly-sized counterparts)

The excerpt: The size of Luzerne County’s workforce has been a heated topic at commissioner meetings in recent months.

Taxpayers demanded staff cuts to avoid a tax increase this year, bolstered by a suggestion from the county’s financial recovery consultant to eliminate 150 positions.

Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Thomas Cooney ended up voting to furlough just 15 workers and to raise taxes 15 percent, arguing that they couldn’t identify further job eliminations.

15. That's it. 15 furloughs and then the tax increase was approved. And in hindsight, I'm sure the majority commissioners, if pressed, would attempt to prevaricate by saying that the numbers are skewed by differing demographics. You know, we've got more seniors drawing services. Far more children & youth cases. A billion more miles of road to upkeep, or dozens more bridges to maintain (er, sleep under). Bunk such as that.

The highly-paid (taxpayer-supported) consultants recommended the elimination of 150 positions, so the commissioners, in all their, ahem, wisdom, cut just 10% of those positions. All of which makes one wonder if those hefty fees for the bean-counting consultants could have been better spent at Patte's Sports Bar.

Oh, and there was that dishonest claptrap about shuttering Moon Lake Park and furloughing the park's handful of employees for a lack of funds. Remember that bit about trying to find an outside outfit to take over management of the park? Turns out, what the commissioners were really hoping for was for some outside outfit to come in and turn the picturesque park into a sprawling waste water pond for fracking fluids.

You know the rub. The only way to hide the gross mismanagement and the financial irresponsibility is to find new revenue streams and stick with the status quo, i.e., protect the unionized employees who vote predictably democrat. Therefore, in an effort to save the unneeded jobs of those unionized employees, Moon Lake Park would have to be converted into a vast drilling wasteland. Out goes the swimming pool, in come the pollution pools and the over-weight trucks.

And whatever happened to all of this experience as a town manager that Maryanne Petrilla was purported to have when first she sought a county-wide elected position? Where was it again? In Sugarloaf, or Drums or Incest Creek or some such glorified corn field with one traffic signal? Is that how she ran the show there, by deficit-spending and raising taxes year-in and year-out? Gee, that's not the way I remember the campaign pitch.

At this point, her stock has to be dropping about as fast as that know-it-all spending us into oblivion in Washington. Being irrefutably overstaffed coupled with being either too completely incompetent or totally unwilling to enact the long overdue austerity program has to lead a thinking voter to a vote of no confidence for Maryanne Petrilla.

After reviewing her spotty performance as the county controller, and then later on as a majority commissioner feigning concern, one could only conclude that her track record suggests a clear abnegation of responsibility on her part. The overriding responsibility of any manager is to protect the assets and investments of the owners. And in this case, with the residents being being the owners, could she even attempt to make the case that she has protected our assets and investments? Methinks not.

Check this excerpted swill:

Petrilla, who endured criticism for the recent decision to cut staff at the now-closed Moon Lake Park, said she will continue to study ways to reduce the workforce.

The county eliminated a switchboard operator position, opting to rely on an automated phone system to direct callers. The county also is exploring the possibility of outsourcing security and processing of back taxes, which could lead to more staff reductions.

“We’re trying to trim and do more with less. We’ve made a commitment that we’re going to try to streamline government and operate as lean as we possibly can,” said Petrilla, the board chairwoman.

We're going to try? We're trying?

That'll only cut it for so long before the underachieving manager in the private sector gets his or herself unceremoniously canned. Fired. Box up the pictures of the brats, take your clock radio and leave your keys on the desk. Canned!

Therefore, since Maryanne Petrilla tried (really?) but couldn't or wouldn't do it, obviously she needs to be sent packing by the owners--the voters. Canned, I say.

And since this county has recently been documented to be a one-party thiefdom of epic proportions, it's fair to suggest that the local democrats have broken the public's bank as well as lost the confidence of the public.

Much like the bloated and ever-expanding federal and state governments that are currently ignoring our needs over their own, the government of Luzerne County has become a public-sector dependency. And I'm saying from my electronic soapbox that the local welfare reform initiative starts with the firing of the (mis) managers.

Send Maryanne Petrilla packing. Tell Thomas Cooney, thanks, but no thanks for nothing. And encourage Steve "Dr. No" Urban to run for that state office he has his oft-covered eyes on.

Enough is enough.

It's time for the public-sector dependency to end.

Sez me.

Later

Patte's gone patty-cake

Part deux of...what the hell is going on around here?

Jesus H. Allah!

Feds serve subpoena on W-B sports bar, charge worker

BY DAVE JANOSKI, PROJECTS EDITOR Published: February 12, 2010

Federal agents conducting a corruption probe served a subpoena on Patte's Sports Bar in Wilkes-Barre Thursday night, sources familiar with the case said today.

The visit by FBI agents followed gambling-related charges filed Wednesday against an employee of the bar/restaurant on Hollenback Avenue. Owner Patrick Patte did not immediately return a phone message left at the bar today. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment.

On Wednesday, the FBI filed a single count of conspiracy to transmit wagering information through use of wire communication against Patte's employee Mark G. Fino, of Wilkes-Barre. Documents in the case were sealed by U.S. Magistrate Malachy Mannion.

Fino could not immediately be reached for comment.

More than 20 people have been charged in the wide-ranging federal probe since January.

Holy muck, man!

A couple of summers ago, Wifey and I were bored to death one night and we decided to take a slow walk over to Patte's and order some good food, and suck back a few drafts. The food was barely above average, the drafts were plenty cold, but the atmosphere was such that we never bothered to return.

To be blunt, we were seriously put off by the loud, boorish and sometimes rowdy exploits of the self-absorbed Who's Who of Luzerne County, who seemed to think they were the Golly Green Giants of the entire place.

During the walk home, I explained to Wifey why each of these slothed individuals seemed to think they were the cat's ultimate meow. One by one, I filled her in on the worst that Luzerne County had to offer at that time, many of which are now indicted, or who have already copped a plea agreement.

And I'll never forget what she said in response. She said, "So they had to pay off, hire, or blow somebody?"

And my response?

"Pretty much."

Fu>k Patte's and fu>k it's regular clientele.

Sez me.

Bye

Think it through

Data Dude, you know I love and respect you, but I have to respond to this one. Don't go getting all enraged on us over it.

D.B. Echo said...

"Miss me yet?" Do we get to throw three balls for a dollar? And if we hit the target, does he fall in water?

Employers just have to lay off existing employees and replace them with new hires. Lower pay, no grandfathered benefits, and a $5000 tax credit! And after six months, the old employees fall off the unemployment rolls, so it's like they never existed.

At some point I'm going to write about the one lesson Obama should have learned from Bush, but did't.

February 11, 2010 10:04

First of all, the '3 balls for a buck" bit cracked me up. With that said, if Dubya were to fall into the water after a ball or two, the left would surely assail him for having done so. Then again, if all three balls were to miss the mark and Dubya didn't hit the bottom of the dunk tank, that would be pointed to as proof of some conspiracy against the common man.

Admit it, repetition is reputation. And we both know how that one was perpetrated by the democrats and a willing press. There was no love him or hate him, it was eight tiring years of hate, hate, hate and hate him some more. In the end, proof that far too many of us are easily manipulated.

No biggie, but I don't want this to devolve into being the four billionth referendum on George W. Bush. Oh, god no!

Rather, I'd like to address that second part, that part that smacks of an innate and irrational hatred and distrust of all things Big Business in Amerika, yet another constant target of the repetition/reputation thing.

Some years ago, as a general manager, I was hit with a triple whammy. In very short order, I was stung by the opening of both Red Lobster and Chi-Chi's (both unique to this area at the time and both but hundreds of yards away), as well as PENNDOT's decision to remove Kidder Street and start over from the ancient base up. No exaggeration, for an entire summer, I had an oft-flooded moat out front where the busy street used to be. The end result was a 9% drop in sales versus the previous fiscal year.

Needless to say, everyone involved was directly affected, and basically, peeved with me. My district manager worked to get to the root of the problem, rather than admit that I was an incident bystander at the time. The employees, faced with less hours, less overtime and less tip income dropped hints about visiting greener pastures. And personally, my quarterly bonus took a major hit, as well as my previously unscathed record as a general manager.

Anyway, at 9% down, we were working with a skeleton staff during the lesser of the day parts, and with reduced staffing levels otherwise. And with less employee hours scheduled per day parts, I was leaving myself vulnerable whereas trying to ensure good service was concerned. So long story short, the first to be cut, the first to be let go and the first to be scheduled far less hours than they wanted were the very weakest of the employees.

My key employees, my strong employees, my department heads and my trainers suffered far less of an income loss than did the weaker employees. So, in effect, at 9% down, I surrounded myself with only the best of the best, and bid the rest a heartfelt 'hang in there.' And many of those employees did not hang in there.

Now, as for your assertion that Corporate Amerika will cut capable employees for trainees just to cash in on the suggested tax incentives, that's hogwash.

That might work on an assembly line, where yet another monkey can be taught to affix an imported hub cap to a wheel just in from Canada. But, we must also consider that manufacturing jobs have also become about as scarce as Democrats big on morals.

At 20% down, or 25% down, no company worth it's weight in rubber dog sh*t would cut into a skeleton staff of proven employees, replace them with inexperienced trainees, and all for a tax incentive. And at 25% down, what would there be a need to produce?

No, big business realizes that the current administration imported from Chicago is clueless, and as a matter of fact, has been outwardly hostile to big business as well as small. And that's exactly why big business is prepared to hunker down and wait 'til next we vote. Because big business is hoping that the next administration is comprised, at least in part, by people who understand what drives and motivates a free market, capitalist country.

Bush may have been too cozy with big business interests, as you democrats have howled about all along. But the necessary correction to that is not to elect people who openly despise big business, people who openly chide big business and people who openly promise to punish big business.

The fact is, right now, Obama and his cast of commies need big business more than big business needs Obama and crew. So if the anti-business creeps keep it up, big business will not expand on their troubled watch, millions upon millions of angered Americans will remain jobless and big business and the jobless combined will work to defeat them at the polls.

Uncertainty coupled with cluelessness will not make this economy hum any time soon. And therein lies Obama's rapid undoing.

And as far as job creation goes, if big business doesn't create jobs, who will? Obama? Obama and his bumbling cast of lashing-out Marxists?

Yeah, that'll happen right after Cuba and Mars sign a defense pact.

Dude, you cannot be that far gone. No insult intended, but think it through.

Later

Fess up

It's beyond obvious that the NEPA blogging community consists of a ragtag collection of closet neo-Bolsheviks and me. Yup, I'm the oddball. They've all got their various reasons for praying at the cracked altar of the democrats, most of which they will never admit to while using their pseudonyms. I'll not go into details.

But, while they all wax poetic about this, that and everything local, state and otherwise, they adeptly sidestep one subject in particular--the performance of our would-be, know-it-all trainee, Barack Oblahblah. First of all, spare me the "Bush's fault" nonsense in the reader's comments. That's an intellectually incontinent argument already.

You wanted him gone in the very worst of ways, he's long gone, but as your one-time messiah continually stumbles and bumbles his way through his one-term run as the Trainee-in-Chief, you suddenly want to keep bad ole Bush around a while longer for the purposes of assigning, er, reassigning blame.

Now, I want all of you Pravda fans to answer me this: As part of his pretend "jobs bill," Obama is proposing a $5,000 tax credit for businesses that hire new employees. That's $5,000 per new hire. Here comes the really hard part where you have to answer the question. Ready?

If your sales are down 15, 20, even 25% as are those of most of our few remaining major league employers, why in the funk would you be interested in hiring new employees?

In case you've never done the private sector in any meaningful or appreciable sense (I mean, you people are hard-left, right?), when sales drop noticeably, employee hours must also show a corresponding decline. That's how you maintain a comfortable profit level. And if our sales are down significantly, we would hire new employees why? Why?

Repeat after me, comrades...plenty of new hires plus a precipitous drop in incoming revenue equals...Chapter...11.

One...More...Time!

Out of business.

I really hate to be snarky about it, but your Boy Wonder of a president hasn't a clue, and neither do any of those from within his inner circle of advisors.

When are you people going to admit that you feverishly supported the biggest huckster ever to travel with a teleprompter in tow? When will you admit to your egregious mistake? Seriously. Enough with the Palin bashing. And one a more local note, enough with the Barletta bashing. In general, enough with the purposeful deflection of your gullibility. When you gonna fess up?

Whatever.

As the lone non-socialist among the NEPA blogging community, a veritable needle in the politically left haystack, I guess I'll post the following billboard pic since everyone else choose to sidestep it as if by rote. As if by template.

I never thought I'd admit it, but, yeah, a little bit.

Buh-bye

Snow day

Well, we finally caught a whiff of that wayward jet stream, and the crunchy water is coming down by the pound. Cool.

I got up early as always, copped a quick glance outside and realized the roads were in good condition. Really good condition. And since I had a stop here in Wilkes-Barre that was of the public health/public safety variety, I decided to gear up and head on out.

After a quick stop at the shop, I arrived at my job site by 8 am and got to it. At that point, I figured I'd keep working up until the roads were putting my safety in danger. And since I rarely fear much of anything, I also figured putting in a full work day might be a possibility.

But upon exiting the building I was working in little more than an hour later, the realization that my work day was over was immediate. You see, an S-10 with anti-lock-brakes in a serious snowstorm usually means a motor vehicle accident of some sort is a high probability. So back to the shop I slogged, uploaded my info, and back into the mix I went.

And I have to say, the city, from one end to the other was a virtual demilitarized zone completely devoid of vehicles and pedestrians. So, we finally got ourselves a taste of winter, and I'm beaming proud to say I was not among the hordes of easily-led sheep who flocked to the supermarket last night in a clear display of media-induced mass hysteria. No milk, no bread, no nothing.

Although, I did have a gnawing hankering to stop at Musical Energi and blow a considerable wad of money on used CDs. Seriously kiddies, addictions are terrible, terrible things. Thankfully, the convulsions and the tremors have passed.

Sue, please burn me some of that Hold Steady stuff before I go and do something rash with a bed sheet. Please, please help me.

Anywho, if you don't absolutely have to go out, don't. And if you're dangerously low on milk or bread, please call Help Line at 829-1341.

And with that, I'm off to the CD-Rom version of Civilization IV. I have a score to settle with the Chinese. I'm going to arm up, expand my empire rapidly, and then rumble thee forth over the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side. 'Cause they don't go for what's in the book and that makes them bad.*

What better way is there to spend a snow day than by a starting a 1,000-year religious war?

Later

*Excerpted from Frank Zappa's "Dumb all Over."

Yellow Mellow

What the hell is going on around here?

First it was Ray Musto's sudden and unexpected exit from politics, and now State Senator Robert J. Mellow, D-Peckville, has also suddenly and unexpectantly opted out of the electoral rat race.

So who's next?

And then there's this, from the Citizens' Voice:

Rendell nominates attorneys for Luzerne County bench

Gov. Edward Rendell has nominated two local attorneys to serve as judges on the Luzerne County bench, Lewis Wood Wetzel and Joseph Van Jura. He has also nominated John F. Gilligan, former police chief of Wyoming Borough, to serve as sheriff. All three nominations must be approved by the state Senate.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wetzel, of Dallas, and Van Jura, of Kingston, would fill vacancies created by the corruption-related resignation of former judge Michael T. Toole and the election defeat of former judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., who was rejected by voters in a retention bid last November.

So, two more new judges, and a new sheriff even though it feels like we just elected a new sheriff. In actuality, we did.

If we had to sum up Northeastern Pennsylvania's politics of late in one word, that word would have to be upheaval. Or perhaps, incarcerated. I dunno.

Now we wait to see who's going to be interested in seeking 's Mellow's still warm seat, even though the field is not yet set on the fledgling battle to succeed Musto. This is close to becoming downright confusing.

And to that persistent rumor that Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton might seek to replace Ray Musto, I'd say he should wait another week and a half and see if Paul Kanjorski's seat is about to be vacated. At this dizzying rate, who knows what might be right around the corner?

Stay tuned, kiddies.

Later

Note: Let the rock salt games begin!

A late afternoon update from the National Weather Service predicts 4 to 8 inches of crunchy water for NEPA.

T.T. Party

From the email inbox:

FOR MEDIA PLANNING PURPOSES Contact: 570-788-2479 or mailto:vince@loubarletta.com

Tarah Toohil to Take on Eachus in the 116th District

Hazleton, PA – Local attorney and candidate for Pennsylvania State Representative will kickoff her campaign on Tuesday night by issuing an official announcement of her candidacy.

Tarah Toohil said, “When you look around our community, you see the hard times that people are facing. You also see the lack of leadership and support coming from Harrisburg. It is time to stand up and say we deserve better.”

The public is welcome to join Tarah and her supporters as she outlines the issues that she intends to tackle as State Representative. Refreshments will be provided. Tarah will also be available for questions following the program.

WHO: Tarah Toohil
WHAT: Official Campaign Announcement Kickoff
WHEN: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 @ 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Elks Lodge #200
635 E. Broad Street
Hazleton, PA 18201

PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT TARAH TOOHIL

You know, if we voted based on looks, here's your next president. Come to think of it, if we went by the candidate's appearance alone, Todd Eachus would be ruled ineligible to run for elected office.

Sez me, Markie.

Later