The LuLac Edition #285, August 16th, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: THE DYNAMIC DUO OF RICHARD
MILHOUS NIXON AND ELVIS AARON PRESLEY,
CONGRESSMAN PAUL KANJORSKI, DEM. OF
NANTICOKE. AND THE BABE, GEORGE HERMAN
RUTH WHO DIED 59 YEARS AGO TODAY.

KANJO ON THE MOVE

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke,
hasscheduled three town meetings.
The only scheduled forLuzerne County
will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug.
28 at Ashley Firemen's Memorial Park,
160 Ashley St.Ashley. The others will be
held: Aug. 23, 7-9 p.m.,Columbia
County Conservation  District Ag
Service Center, 702 Sawmill Road, Bloomsburg;
and Agu. 30,7-9 p.m., East Stroudsburg
University campus,Lower Loung, Danbury
Commons, Normal and Green streets.
For more information, call Kanjorski's offices at
825-2200 or 496-1011.


ELVIS' DEATH AT 30



It was a hot, muggy overcast day in
Northeastern Pa. I was working the 2pm to
10pm shift at WVIA FM and WVIA TV.
My job was to do hourly news updates on the
radio and thencohost a terrible classical
music show at4pm called "Mostly Pops". It was
known uncharitably as "Mostly Pits"
I was wearing a green pair of platform shoes
(it was the 70s) and I was getting ready to
prepare a newscast. The huge UPI machine was
in the hallway that separated the FM Studios
from the TV station. Approaching the wire,
I saw the word PRESLEY come up on the top of the
teletype sheet. I shrugged, thinking it was no
big deal. A divorce, paternity suit, something
like that. Then the bells started to ring and
I knew that this was a full fledged bulletin.
I opened the box up and read the news, 
"PRESLEY DEAD AT 42". Just then, Bill Kelly,
(now the GM of WVIA TV and FM) was strolling
through the hallway to get to the Control Room.
"Anything new?" he asked. "Elvis Presley
just died" I responded. Kelly was stunned
and we both stood there reading the
details.  That night, all three
networks ran TV specials on the King. I
watched. We all watched. I became a Presley
fan after I was a Beatles/4 Seasons
/Temptations fan. Working backwards
on Presley's career, I
discovered his early stuff
later than the "Suspicious Minds",
"Kentucky Rain" genre. It was still
fascinating. As the years
passed, Presley became a combination icon,
cartoon character and profile of pity.
I had always thought that if Elvis had
donned a tux rather than a jumpsuit,
(like Bobby Darin did) like Wayne
Newton wanted him to, perhaps he might
have saved his life. Elvis was a mirror
image of America, exciting, pioneering,
talented, excessive and in the end,
enduring. No one knows for sure why
he was the "one", why he
touched so many people and became the King.
But he did and thirty years later, the legacy
continues, with the magic, the blemishes and
the unfilled promise. Elvis is our constant,
our touchstone for the 20th century.
The fact that he's being remembered into the
next is not surprising at all.
It's how Kings are remembered,
for years after their reign has ended.  



THE BABE!!



We cannot forget Babe Ruth either.
He died 59 years ago
on this day and will forever
be remembered as the greatest
baseball player of his era. Ruth's wake
was held at Yankee Stadium, the house
that he built. With the death of
Presley on the same day, Ruth's demise
sometimes gets overshadowed. Not here!




THE WB CHAMBER



So they say the Wilkes Barre Chamber has
caah flow problems. I wish the new director
Todd Vonderheid luck with this mess.
The shortfall came because of the Chamber's
investment in properties in the downtown.
The new director justified this by saying
that Wilkes Barre drew an additional
500,000 people to the downtown with the
investments.Fine, but the job of the
Chamber is not to prop up a downtown and
be a tourism office, there's one
of those already, the job of the Chamber
is to bring indecent paying jobs for its
residents. We hope Vonderheid's
restructuring will focus more on that
than helping developers get rich and
then have empty buildings sit.




YEAH TOM!!!



Kudos to Mayor Tom Leighton for not
jumping on landlord Pat Gildea's "offer"
to donate some of his run down
properties to the city. The Mayor
showed a great deal of foresight in not
jumping at the ploy. He bought them,
let him fix them. If Mrs. LuLac and I want
to fix something at the house, we don't
ask council for a tax break.It's time for
this "welfare plan" for landlords who
can't keep up with their over
consumption to stop. 




YOU'RE TO BLAME


And how about those mortgage companies
now going under because people can't make
the bloated payments of interest rates.
A few have had the nerve to blame
the consumer. Yeah, blame the poor
homeowner who only wanted a little bit
of the American dream while you were
bleeding them like first class shylocks.
The next group
I want to see get their comeuppance
are the credit card companies who soak
consumers with obscene interest rates
and then are shocked when people default.
True story, an acquaintance went
bankrupt in May of '06. In October
of '06, Capitol One offers him a 
credit card with a limit of $11,000.
Shameful.