Hi,
Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of the electrical pioneer Andre Ampere (1775), the father of “the scientific method” Francis Bacon (1561), famed American architect Richard Upjohn (1802) and the death of Queen Victoria (1901). It is also the anniversary of the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling, the Allied landing at Anzio (1944) and the Allies winning New Guinea from the Japanese.
Huntington Bank took over Union Commerce Bank in 1983 and acquired boxes of old records. Guess what they found in those boxes? A check from Abraham Lincoln on April 13, 1865 for $800 ($11,260 in today’s money) to pay for Mary’s bills. A check from Ernest Hemingway written in 1932 for $3.50, one from Teddy Roosevelt for $185.80 and one from Susan B Anthony for $5.63. Who forgot to tell them that these checks were in storage? Huntington, headquartered out of Cleveland has them on display at their Grant Street branch and are available for viewing during normal banking hours.
I’m sorry, I can’t let Port Authority’s Steve Bland’s latest tirade go unmentioned. If we don’t give him $64M, he’s going to cut service to 100 communities (including the 28X airport flyer making us the only major city in America without public transit service to our airport), he will raise fares and slash ACESS (a transportation service for the handicapped and elderly). The attack on ACCESS is a new one for him. I guess he’s counting of the sympathy vote on this one to help him pull this one off. IN STEAD OF FIXING PORT AUTHORITY’S OPERATING MESS. Sorry for shouting, I was hoping he might hear me.
Volkswagen is again advertising at the Superbowl with a Star Wars theme. This year, they are doing the Imperial March with a chorus of dogs barking out the theme. It’s pretty cute way to go to The Bark Side. 🙂 Last year’s version with the little kid trying to be Darth Vader was equally cute, click on Darth for a reminder of last year’s ad.
Well, I’ve shoveled my parking lot three times in the past two days. GIVE ME FLORIDA. 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, I very much believe in a strong defense. Being a vet, I watch the miliary and pay particular attention to both wars we are involved with and strongly believe our soldiers deserve the best. When I hear that we’ve lost a service member because they didn’t have approrpriate equipment, I go nuts. But the Pentagon is pursuing th F-35 fighter jet. The initial cost was supposed to be $223B, it has jumped to $385B. In case you didn’t notice, that’s a B as in Billions of dollars. They are now talking about the cost to exceed a TRILLION dollars. We’re cutting food assistance for the less fortunate, we’re arguing over health care for all, we’re cutting spending on education and we’re going to invest over a TRILLION for a new fleet of fighter jets. It just doesn’t seem right to me. It’s like ethanol. We’re diverting crop yeilds from food to fuel for our vehicles. (Yes, I know they quit using corn and now use a less desirable soy for the biofuel. It’s still acreage we could use to feed the billions of people on this planet that are staving). As a nation, we really need to get our priorities straight.
Business is slow, revenue’s way down from last year. But considering there was no hockey Winter Classic and no Steeler’s play off games, I’m doing pretty good. Those three events gave me 48 room nights alone last January. I’m going to end the month with close to the same number of rooms sold, without the added draw of sporting events. Unfortuneately for me, many of my room sales are at the heavily discounted Tropical Breezes Special, hense the lower revenue. But with my room sales similiar without the big draw, I’d say my room sales are continuing to increase. A great trend and I appreciate all my wonderful guests that have taken the time to do a review on Trip Advisor and BedandBreakfast.com. It’s huge, you don’t have any idea how many potential guests look there first before booking. Thank you.
Have a great weekend and keep warm,
ed
