The LuLac Edition #1670, July 8th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: "MAYBE I'M AMAZED" LOGO.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Maybe I’m Amazed………that Tom Greco got millions of dollars from the County for that broken down train station. It doesn’t look like a multi-million dollar property to me. The land, yes. The disrepair, sure. I always wondered how you could get rich. Now I know, you buy a piece of property, ignore it, let it get shot to hell, and then have government buy it from you. Cat ladies, take note! By the way, that chunk of change will buy you a lot of alarm clocks, radios and uh flat screens.
Maybe I’m Amazed……that the same person who was so vociferously against the room tax in Luzerne County and all of Northeastern Pennsylvania from the mid 80s on is still saying his hotel doesn’t get anything out of it. This, and I use the term laughingly, “hotelier” has never changed his stubbornly focus and refuses to admit that the tax was a success and actually built the economy around here. And by the way, the hotel is not taxed, you’d think that big chunks of money were coming out of the property. Hotel guests are taxed. They pay it on their bill. They don’t miss it. Only the most moronic traveler would not accept a room because of a the tax on it. That said, I’m not a “hotelier” but I’m also not a narrow minded selfish reactionary when it comes to any type of progress in the county.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that the common garden worms has 5 hearts.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that the people in the Casey Anthony case waiting outside the courthouse want to be part of the story. These little nimrods make their signs, scream their opinions and just hope to be part of the story. Did you know this girl? Did you know the baby? Go home, have a cold drink, get out of the hot sun, the story is not about you.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that we heard all about Casey Anthony’s mom, dad, child and ex fiancé. Granted I never paid attention to this trial until the very end but where was the kid’s father? Who was the kid’s father? Does he exist or was the pregnancy part of a random encounter?
Maybe I’m Amazed……that no one ever got 3,000 hits at Yankee Stadium. Not a Yankee, not a visiting player, only Derek Jeter. I’m also amazed that some Yankee fans are calling for Jeter’s head because he is not as productive as he used to be. Jeter embodies everything that is Yankee. Personally I hope he swallows his pride a little and moves down in the order to quiet the naysayers. And one more point about Jeter, if you are of a certain age, you saw him play as a minor leaguer right here in LuLac land at the old ballpark on the mountain.
Maybe I’m Amazed…….that I’m just realizing the NFL might not play in the fall. When they talk about a work stoppage in May or June, it is in the abstract. When it is past the fourth of July and you know that training camps are supposed to begin, and the Hall of Fame Game is just three weeks ago, I think, hey this is pretty serious stuff. Let’s hope the billionaires can get along with the millionaires and settle this thing.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that Senator Bob Casey doesn’t seem to have any serious opposition in his re-election bid for 2012. The state GOP bench apparently is depleted.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that a lot of these reality shows that feature restaurants are pretty much organized mayhem. And when it’s a husband and wife team, Katie bar the door.
Maybe I’m Amazed……..that prisoners in a California jail are on a hunger strike. Let’s see Gandhi had a hunger strike for social justice. Martin Luther King tried one for civil rights. These guys? The Pelican Bay hunger strikers are protesting conditions in the prison's Security Housing Unit, where inmates are kept in isolation for 22½ hours a day in windowless cells that are soundproofed to discourage communication.
Unit inmates are demanding an end to long-term solitary confinement and forced interrogations about gang activity. You’re in jail, you are separated from the population for a specific reason, you are gang thug. You weren’t jaywalking. Now either shut up and eat or…………………(you fill in the blank).
Maybe I'm Amazed………….that I seem to be reverting to my summertime youth, checking out the Major League Baseball standings. But I have to check them on line instead of the newspapers because one of our local gazettes has the standings but they are a day old.
Maybe I'm Amazed……that both ABC and NBC have shows on their fall schedule this year that smack of the 1960s. ABC has a thing called “Pan Am” (about the airline industry) and NBC has “The Key” based on the Playboy clubs of the 1960s. Obviously the networks have lifted from the idea from the wildly successful “Madmen” franchise on A&E. That show will return next summer.