Hi,
Tomorrow is the first day of spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is also Henrik Ibsen’s birth anniversary (1828), Fred Rogers birth anniversary (1928) and BF Skinner’s birth anniversary (1904), he’s the psychologist from Susquehanna.
Before I start my whining, lets cover a couple of things. In January, they sold more E-books than paper for the first time. Which reminds me, a past guest, Amber Hunt has two books recently published (one she was working on while she was here). Dead but not Forgotten about a cheating husband and All American Murder about those college lacrosse players are both available through Amazon.
The Carnegie Art Museum is hosting their yearly Art in Bloom from April 14 through 16. They will be exhibiting exotic and imaginative flower displays by local professionals and garden clubs. A nice way to welcome spring in a couple of weeks. Something a little more current (this weekend) Phipps is having their annual Love of Orchids show. Both events are included in the general admission cost.
OK, now for my whining, twice none the less. This may come as a surprise to some of my loyal followers :), but times are tight. I’m one of those weird people that believe we should live within my means. If I’m having a bad week and can’t afford steak when I go out to dinner, I order pasta. I don’t know, the concept seems simple to me. Maybe I should offer free classes to idiots like that Steve Bland of the Port Authority and now to my list Graham Spanier the president of my Alma matter, Penn State. I’m a HUGE supporter of education and the need for it and to spend tax dollars for it. But don’t be a corporate greedy minded executive and just want more and more while your core is falling apart. Lets start with the debt we are saddling the young graduates with. The national average of debt in 2009 graduate face is $24,000. Pennsylvania it is $27,000-that’s a starter home! I still have friends with Penn State and am well aware of the waste the university grandiose capital programs incurs. Lets look at this from another angle, over half of their branch schools are bleeding students, one of them bled 24% of their student base in the past eight years. And I read an article recently about the huge amount of students that start college and drop out before graduating. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the huge % of drop outs because the schools lured unqualified TUITION payers or they don’t teach relevantly. OMG, we are straddling our young people with huge debt, we are throwing money away on projects that are for show, we are keeping branches open that kids don’t want to attend (one of the campuses has lost 24% in the past eight years). These are people running our institutions of higher learning and they don’t have a clue. They just want to threaten Gov Corbett (whom I’m not a big supporter of) with tuition increases. Spanier, lets earn the obscene salary you draw.
This one doesn’t upset me as much, so I won’t ramble for long. The Regional Enterprise Tower is going on the auction block because they haven’t paid their mortgage in a few months. The building was GIVEN to them ten years or so ago AND they were GIVEN $5M also from Alcoa as a maintenance endowment. They’ve racked up a $10.4M mortgage they can’t pay on a free building with a maintenance endowment. Once again, can I say OMG? I’m not privy to the inner workings of the Pittsburgh Regional Enterprise group, their mission was to encourage and spur local growth, and they can’t keep a free skyscraper.
My guests are coming down for b’fast real soon, I have to go. Have a great day, it’s supposed to be pretty nice today here in da burg,
ed
