The Last

Tom Kaczmarek died last week, one of my high school math teachers. 

Math wasn't one of my favorite subjects, and I wasn't one of his favorite students.  That's okay.

Being a curious fellow, I scanned the school district's faculty e-mail list to see if I could ask someone what happened.  Mr. Kaczmarek was a very nice man, and 59 is too young to die. 

After checking the list, I discovered that Mr. Kaczmarek was the last one of my teachers on the payroll.  The others have retired, or passed on, or both.

There were a couple remaining from my era, but I wasn't in their classes.

High school seems like it was yesterday.

My sympathy to Mr. Kaczmarek's family, friends, co-workers, and students.

The Popeye Report

"That's all I can stands, cuz I can't stands n'more!"

I've tried to avoid sounding off on the whole pierced kitten controversy, but Popeye and I "can't stands n'more!"


Putting ten holes in a kitten and cutting off the flow of blood to the tail, until the tail dies, is animal abuse.  Case closed.


Let's take a quick look at some of the opposing arguments.


I've heard people say piercing the ears of children is okay. Therefore, piercing cats is permissible.  Ear piercing involves a tiny needle, not the 14 gauge mother that was used on the cats.  Perhaps we should stop piercing children until they're old enough to make the choice for themselves, and old enough to realize it hurts.  There's no need to decorate our kids.


Another person said we pierce wild animals for tagging purposes.  True, and it's something we should do to learn more about them, and how to protect them.  Wild animal piercing has a reason.  Piercing kittens serves no purpose.  No one was trying to sell a pierced bear on E-Bay, as the kitten piercer was.  The woman accused was not an experienced piercer. She told authorities she did it because she thought it was "neat."  Brilliant!  At least she had a good excuse.


Some breeds of dogs regularly have their tails and ears altered.  It's time we stop doing that, as well.


The next step has to come from Harrisburg.  Animal abuse laws need to be toughened.  The penalties need to be more severe.  Perhaps it would cause some people to think twice before they pick up a needle.


This was a disgusting case from the word "go."  The rationalization for the abuse is just as horrible.

Guest Photography Monday

It's another submission from regular contributor Phil Yacuboski.

It was taken after the storm that hit Baltimore a couple weeks ago.

Phil has sent a lot of photos my way over the past couple years.  This has to be one of my favorites.

By the way, I was severely wrong about last night's Super Bowl, and I've never been happier.

Oldies

Today, it's WQFM, or Oldies 92.

I can speak volumes on this, so I'll try to be brief.

The owner dumped "Oldies" a couple years ago, and went with a contemporary format, called "The Q" or something like that.  It never gained traction, possibly because management didn't give it enough time.  Anyway, the oldies returned last year, only the station is now called "Cool 92."

Oldies is one of the toughest formats to do well.  The biggest reason is there's no new product coming in.  You have to make old songs sound fresh, even though you play them over and over and over again.  It's not easy.

I always hated it when stations call themselves "oldies."  That just sounds so stale.  Cool is good.  So is something like "solid gold."  "Classics" also works.

While the music on 92.1 is good, I'm not thrilled with the presentation.  There are no local announcers.  The format is piped in via satellite, and the jocks are disgustingly milquetoast.  They say nothing, and take too long to do it.

I'm not sure my radio brethren feel the same way, but it feels funny when I hear songs on the oldies stations that I played on the radio when they were new.

The Big One

Super Bowl 44 is Sunday evening in Miami, as if you didn't know.

Here's my pick:  take the Colts, and they'll even cover the spread.  The Colts have been there before, and Peyton Manning knows how to get it done.  The Jets did their best to pressure Manning a couple weeks ago, in the AFC title game, and it didn't work.  The Colts will get the big trophy late Sunday night.

I bleed Steelers' black and gold, and I've been pulling for the black and gold Saints throughout the playoffs.  I'm sorry to say I don't think it will be their night.

The Colts have been on my you-know-what list since the thieving owners snuck the team out of Baltimore in March of 1984.  I'm one of the best at holding a grudge.

I'll be asleep during the game.  I don't think I've seen a Super Bowl in 12 years, and I'm okay with that.  There have been 43 Super Bowls, and most have been lackluster.  I'll find out what happened when my alarm goes off at 2:00 AM Monday.  The networks will have more than enough highlights to keep me happy, and I'll find a place with the NFL Network for a mid-week replay, minus the commercials.

That launches me into my yearly "anti-commercial" rant.  Now matter how much money they spend on production, no matter how cute and clever they are, they're still commercials.  Thank heaven for the TV remote control.

Enjoy the game.

FDBD

I was watching an old documentary on one of the WVIA digital channels the other day, "The Once and Future City."  It dealt with Scranton in the early 80's, a decaying city, and that's being kind. 

We had Mayor Jim McNulty back then, probably the best promoter I've ever seen.  Scranton was falling apart, but there were signs of a turn-a-round.  The old Erie Lackawanna train station became a luxury hotel.  We imported Steamtown USA, a pile of rusting, rotting junk with no significance to Scranton, from Bellows Falls, Vermont.  Talk of a downtown mall began.  I remember Jim McNulty's inaugural ball in the vacant Oppenheim's department store.  The city had its share of problems, but at least it looked like we were trying to make things better.

I will concede the point that McNulty could have handled the city's finances better, and the guy was never at city hall.

On the other hand, he knew how to think big.  He knew how to draw a crowd, and he knew how to get people talking.

Fast forward to February 1, 2010.  An $11 million dollar parking garage opened on North Washington Avenue.  Just before 7:00 AM, a construction worker came by to remove a couple wooden horses from the entrance, and the garage was open.  Talk about thinking big! 

In the McNulty days, we would have had a high school band, and hot dogs, and balloons, and free parking, and a big party.  It would have been hokey, but gloriously and unashamedly so.  I likely would have made fun of it here.

Instead, there was an "official" parking garage ribbon cutting at 12:30 PM.  FDBD:  For Dullards, By Dullards.

We have more press people and public relations geniuses on government payrolls and ever before-- and their job is to keep their bosses away from the media.  The Scranton Parking Authority web site is a joke.

We've given up on trying to get people to feel good about themselves and their city.  If the locals don't do it, sure as heck, the outsiders aren't going to do it.

We've lost our ability to promote ourselves.  We've lost the ability to think big.  The dullards have taken over.  Let's think small.

There was a big party when the new airport building opened.  Common folk not invited.

Wilkes-Barre has "I Believe."  It's a slogan with no meaning  You have to back up, and after the initial flourish, "I Believe" fell on its face.

And, by the way, why is the P for parking bigger and more important than the S for Scranton?

Return to Hershey

The body that oversees high school sports in Pennsylvania, the PIAA, last week, decided to keep the state high school football championships in Hershey through the 2013 season. 

The championships have been in Hershey since 1998.

Before that, it was Altoona-- a city that's hard to reach, and there's nothing to do when you get there.  It's also plagued by bad weather, right around championship time.

Keeping the games in Hershey makes sense. 

The PIAA often has trouble doing the right thing, but this was an easy and smart decision.  The reason?  There was no competing offer.