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Hi,

Well, the big thing tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, the start of the Mardi Gras.  The Washington Monument was dedicated (1885-I had no idea it was that old), Paczki Day a Polish Shrove Tuesday tradition where sugar coated fruit filled pastries are consumed in mass quantities 🙂 , the assassination of Malcolm X (1965) in Harlem and Richard Nixon started his historic trip to China (1972-the first time a sitting president visited a country not diplomatically recognized by the U.S.

Well, I’m back in da ‘burg.  Two years ago when I was last in West Palm, they had the coldest snap they’d had in fifty years.  This year they had a drought until the day I arrived.  It rained every day I was there, but at least I was in short sleeved shirts and shorts.  And in Florida it can rain and twenty minutes later the sun’s out.  Saw friends I haven’t seen in awhile (planned and just bumped into), had some nice shopping and I’m not a beach person anyway, all was good.  I then went hang to with Jeff from The Inn on the Mexican War Streets, they own a condo in Tampa.  I did a map quest between West Palm and Tampa and a large segment of the trip was through the center of the state was on a two lane road, Route 60.  Well, it’s citrus harvesting time down there and there was all these huge trucks hauling oranges and grapefruits from the orchards.  I had to pass these lumbering beasts quickly and get back in my lane, in my new Prius hybrid.  The little guy did great.  It has a pwr button that gives it a turbo boost kind of thing that really does work.   The Prius does have a good amount of spunk, but that pwr button really does a nice job.  This Prius is rated 51 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway, if I’m reading the gauge correctly, I averaged 50 mpg for the entire trip.  I read a disturbing article on hybrids, they peaked in sales in 2010, sales of hybrids actually dropped in 2011.  Hey, if you’re not worried about the climate and earth, gas supposedly is going up to $4.50 – $5.00 a gallon this summer!  One final note on the trip, I got as far as the North Carolina/Virginia border and it was around 9 at night and I could continue to PGH and arrive around 2 in the morning and have a fitful night sleep and be out of sorts the next day.  Or I could pull over and find a cheap motel room.  Which I did, for being a boring little motel, The Surry Inn in Dobson, NC was actually a well run little place.  The amenities were pretty small (soaps, shampoo-not that I need that) :), but their towels were of a nice quality, the room was clean and had everything expected in a motel and in good working order. I digress, so I head off to bed and get up around 4 in the morning.  I take a shower and am on the road and it’s dark with just the truck drivers and myself cruising along.  I admit, I was doing 80 in a 70 zone, but it was five in the morning!  You know where this is going, yeps I now have my first moving vehicle violation in almost 15 years.  I’m a criminal.  🙂

There’s a famous painting of Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, that has hung in the Illinois governor’s mansion for years.  The story behind the painting is that Francis Carpenter painted it for Mary as a gift to Abraham.  Unfortunately he was assassinated before it was finished.  The painting was sold to the Lincoln family in the 1920’s for about $2,500, apparently in a scam.  One of the descendants gave the painting to the state historical society in 1976 and it was then hung in the mansion.  The mansion is undergoing renovations and so they sent the painting out for maintenance and this is how the deception was discovered.  Apparently there’s an anonymous woman that was painted over to resemble Mary and the signature of Carpenter was added at a later date.

Frankferd Farms in Saxonburg recently received an award from The Association for Sustainable Agriculture for their work in providing sustainable and renewable farming practices.  The Association, out of Centre County, is one of the largest such organizations in the country.  T. Lyle and Betty Ferderber wanted to do sustainable farming long before it became a trend (like thirty some years ago) and developed their farming business into $4M business with over 4,000 items.  Not only do they farm, they also produce a variety of ground flours and pancake mixes at the flour mill as well as a myriad of items.  More info at their web site or by visiting their store at 717 Saxonburg Blvd, Saxonburg, PA 16056.  724.352.9500.

OK, I hope any of you that know me are sitting down.  I am going to endorse a candidate in the Republican campaign.  I officially support the nomination of Rick Santorum, the weasel.  🙂  Seriously, I hope he wins their nomination.  He’s the anti-Christ to me, he is everything I don’t believe in or support.  But he seems to be tailor fit for the Tea Party right wingers.  Let’s let America go to the polls this fall and announce who we are.  Are we a republic that supports corporate greed and wealthy entitlements at the expense of educating and feeding our children, or are we a nation that maintains safety nets for our less fortunate.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out for a welfare state.  There’s a lot of waste, bloated agencies, redundancies and undeserving people getting aid they shouldn’t.  But to take an axe and eliminate programs that take care of basic necessities is just wrong.  The weak (and that includes a lot of definitions) deserve the support of the strong.  And the strong owe the weak this support.  “Christians” like the intolerant Santorum and the Catholic church in Italy sneaking chapels in their “bed and breakfasts” so they don’t have to pay taxes on the income the generate in their lodging establishments is the reason I am no longer a Catholic or a “christian”.  l pride myself in being a “human”.

Sorry, you know me, sometimes I just can’t help myself.

One final note tonight, I found this to be pretty ingenious.  The Apollo-Ridge School District built a new media center, that seems to have been brought in on budget.  Now the problem is to fill it.  They created a “bridal registry” kind of thing on Amazon.com and are looking for people buy anything from an iMac desk top computer for $1,133 to a 24 count single-serve hot cocoa cups for the Keuring K Cups brewer (one of their goals is to teach the high schoolers to open and run a coffee shop) for $10.50.  Somebody at the Apollo-Ridge School District deserves a gold star for creativity and thinking outside the box.  If you are so inclined, go to Amazon.com and click on the “Find a Wish List or Registry” and enter Apollo-Ridge Education Foundation.

Have a great tomorrow,

ed

Hi,

Well, Friday was a busy day.  Started by going to Shell World (used to be Shell Man years ago) in Key Largo.  They have the best collection of shells and other beachy things around.  The drive down was quite the challenge, torrential rains half the way down and I was lucky.  While down in the Keys, Palm Beach Island got three inches of rain.  And typical of Florida, the rain came and left and then the sun came out.  Shell World didn’t have what I was looking for (a bag of the same size, type of shells), but that was OK.  I can always spend money.  I traveled down to the Keys on I95.  The stretch of I95 between Palm Beach County and Miami is one of the most dangerous roads in the country right up there with the Schuylkill Expressway.  It’s not the road itself that causes it to be dangerous as much as the drivers.  Also, they have taken the HOV lane and made it an HOV/tolled Express Lane.  They have also taken one of the normal traveling lanes and added that lane to the HOV/Express Lane.  And it only accepts Sun Pass.  I don’t know how they were able to do this and Pennsylvania can’t toll I80 (not that I think they should be able to toll I80.  If they want a toll road, they shouldn’t be able to take a road I already paid to be built and restrict it.)  The worst part is they also took part of the regular traveling lanes and made them narrower to make room for the barrier.  Coming back up to Palm Beach County, I decided to use the Florida Turnpike.  It used to be annoying with these toll booths every so often that you had to plunk fifty cents into.  Now they have these overhead sensors that read Sun Pass, if you have it.  If you don’t have Sun Pass, they take your license plate number and bill you.  Not sure how this is going to work, but it was a lot easier than slowing down periodically.

Then I went to David Culpepper’s marine salvage on the corner of 16th Street and Dixie Highway in West Palm.  David has the most extensive collection of nautical items I’ve seen anywhere.  Mostly vintage as well as a bunch of the touristy kind of new stuff like hand carved pelicans and funny signs.  The picture below is just one of his rooms with old ship lights.

And finally, they have the parts you can build yourself a boat.  Complete with cannon.  🙂

I then went to Adam and Eve Architectural Salvage.  I love architectural salvage yards, Adam and Eve is like Construction Junction gone wild.  What’s funny is they have some really cool vintage Florida planters, building pieces made from coral rock, etc which if you could find in Pittsburgh, they would be very expensive.  But a hot water radiator for my house in their place was $400 ($60 at Construction Junction).  Florida is so busy tearing down old hotels and classic buildings that they have a plethora of old iron railings, marble balusters, and so much more.  I could load a semi with stuff, but I think my neighbors would have a problem with Ed’s Architectural Salvage.  🙂

Well, I’m now in Tampa visiting Jeff that owns The Inn on the Mexican War Streets and my curse continues.  HIm and Karl own a condo on the water here.  If it doesn’t get warmer soon, I may as well just head back up north and start shoveling snow.  🙂  It’s going down into the 30’s tonight.  I’m wearing the one pair of jeans I was wearing when I left Pittsburgh last Sunday and a flannel shirt.  Not very tropical attire.  One of the best parts of visiting Jeff is he’s a chef.  He taught culinary all his life and that is definitely a fringe benefit visiting him.  Meals are always a treat.

Take care and keep warm,

ed

Hi,

Well, I’m in Florida.  The last time I was in West Palm they had the coldest snap in 50 years.  This year, they’ve had a drought the past few months.  The day I arrived, the drought broke and it’s supposed to rain every day I’m here.  At least here it rains and then the sun comes out and it may rain again and then the sun comes out again.  Also no coat and I’m in shorts.  I’m happy.  🙂  Also I don’t have my copy of Chase’s Almanac, so no anniversaries to list until I get home.  Sorry.

Traveling down I77, there were several signs warning about fog coming up.  It was bright and sunny and I was crossing the top of a mountain.  (For you familiar with I77, it’s that last hill in Virginia that has that dramatic view of the flat farm lands below).  I cressed the mountain and bam, it was a white out.  It reminds me of a trip I made to Philly two winters ago.  The warning on the signs just past Breezewood said to beware of snow and ice.  There were all these Penndot salt and plow trucks on the highway.  The road was dry, the sky was cloudy, but not overly threatening and the temperature was probably in the low forties.  So I though they were over reacting.  Again I cressed the mountain and there were cars off the road to my right in the median and left on the berm from the snow.

My friends that own the Hibiscus House up in Northwood didn’t open this year, so I stayed at the Palm Beach Hibiscus West Palm Beach.  Pat is doing such a nice job.  He’s very comfortable, welcoming and truly concerned that you have a great stay.  The accommodations are very comfortable, nicely appointed and clean.

This is not to say the last place I stayed.  I’ve written Comfort Suites corporate offices (two days later I’ve received three auto replies) and negative reviews on Yelp, Trip Adviser as well as Google Maps.  One of them (I think it was Yelp posted my review on Facebook and the common response I got from people was WOW).  Sunday, I got up at six as normal to make breakfast for my guests, after serving them and pretty much cleaning up (Dee was going to finish up) I loaded my stuff in the Prius and took off.  After ten plus hours later, I enter Georgia and pull off I95 and parked in a common lot between about four of those travel hotels.  I pulled out my iPhone and pulled up Google Places, the first hotel came up was Comfort Suites directly in front of me.  Comfort Suites is a three story hotel, generally meaning they had three hundred rooms, there were twelve cars in their lot.  So I called and a man answered the phone (it turns out to be the manager) and I asked “what the rate would be for a single, this evening.”  Considering it was after nine, his quote of $39 didn’t seem out of line-I had seen that rate on a number of electronic billboards on the highway.  I told him I was in his lot and would be right in.  I entered the lobby and presented him with my  ID and credit card.  He processed my information and put a computer generated form and told me to initial in two places and sign the bottom, which I did.  He ripped the form in half and wrapped my key around my half.  As I walked away, I noticed there was nothing about the charge on my half.  I turned and asked him about the receipt and he said I would get a  receipt under my door overnight.  When I got up at five, there it was and he had charge me $79.  I got cleaned up and gathered my things and stopped at the front desk to inquire about the charge.  The clerk pulled out the form I had initialled twice and signed.  She pointed out the top initial and asked if it was me and I said it was and there was the room rate of $79.  She said there was nothing she could do about it and I dropped the issue.  Shame on me for being tired and not paying attention to what I signed (I had just spoken with him).  Shame on him for being a thief.  This is the same as Enron, AIG, MF Global and the other dishonest organizations that have made headlines of late.  It doesn’t matter if you steal $40 or $40B, theft is theft.  If Comfort Suites ever contacts me to withdraw my three negative reviews, I don’t want the $40, I what proof that they have started an Ethics in Business course and are ensuring that all their managers get certified.

One of my favorite stores down here was Karin’s out on 45th Street.  The ceramic sun as well as high top table and chairs in the Sunroom, Oleander’s end tables, all the colorful ceramic pieces in Bougainvillea came from Karin’s.  I was so disappointed a couple of years ago when she closed.  I was driving down Dixie Highway (6405 South Dixie, Bay 103, WPB, FL 33405 to be precise) and saw a colorful Mexican furniture/accessories store and pulled over.

To my pleasure, she has reopened.  She doesn’t have a web site yet (she’s just reopened), Facebook or Google Places page, which I strongly encouraged her to do.  She says someone is working on a web page.  Look at the two adorable Dia de los Muertos dolls I found there:

Aren’t they cute for dead ladies?  Here’s a final picture of some furniture and accessories in her shop:

I was great seeing and talking to the owner of Karin’s, named after the owner’s daughter, again.  She’s so cool, has great taste and is very reasonably priced.

Also, another store I visited was Music, Movies & More to pick up several new Reggae CD’s.  One of my favorites is Sister Saw (there’s a song they’re playing on my DirecTV of her’s, so I picked one up and I found one of my old time favorites).  My other favorite is Collie Buddz.  Anytime I visit West Palm, I stop by to pick up a couple CD’s.  They don’t have a huge selection of Reggae, but it is nice and they can look for a CD and mail it to you.  They recently passed their 31st anniversary.

I frequently have the TV on when I’m working on my desk, usually I have the DirecTV Reggae on.  I’m obviously not at home, so I have the Ellen Degeneres Show on.  I used to listen to her a lot in the past before I got my Reggae station.   I don’t know if you follow the news, but JC Penney’s hired Ellen as a spokesperson for them.  The group, One Million Moms, who happens to have 40,000 members, says she is an inappropriate spokesperson because of her sexual orientation and have threatened a boycott last week.  JC Penney didn’t back down and has said they will continue to use Ellen as their spokesperson.  She is frequently the object of some far right’s tirade and I have never seen her acknowledge it.  Well, she’s struck back today, click on the link above it you’d like to see it.

Enjoy your evening,

ed

Hi,

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.  Tomorrow is Bob Marley’s birth anniversary (1945), Babe Ruth’s birth anniversary (1895), Aaron Burr’s birth anniversary (1756), Eva Braun’s birth anniversary (1912) and Ronald Regan’s birth anniversary (1911)-lots of famous people born on the sixth.  It is also the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth (1952) and the crash of the British air crash outside Munich that killed 21 people including 8 Manchester football players (1958).

I have been having problems posting pictures.  My hosting company, Beenanza finally got if fixed.  I assume most/all of you saw this picture last week, but just in case you didn’t, here’s the picture of the Delta Mariner that took out a bridge in Tennessee last week.  This happened in the middle of the night and some guy was going to work and luckily stopped in time.

Phipps‘ new green house that opened in 2006 has it’s third theme, Tropical Forest India.  The first one was Thailand, the next one was the headwaters of the Amazon.  Ben Dunigan assistant curator of horticulture and program specialist Jordyn Melino spent three weeks researching in India to be sure they would create an authentic recreation of India’s tropical rain forest.  Most of the plants they installed they were able to acquire from tropical growers in Florida and Arizona.  The plants they removed, they recycled to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium and the National Aviary.  The big palm trees and many of the common plants between both the Amazon and India were left.  They took pictures of all the plants they wanted to use in their natural settings so they could present them as true to their natural habitat as possible.  The India exhibit will be here for at least two years, if past precedence is any guide.  It is included in the regular price of admission ($12, $11 for seniors and $9 for kids 2 – 18).  Hours are 9:30 until 5 daily and until 10 on Fridays.  More info at Phipps web site or by calling 412.622.6914.

Champis, the five year old Swedish rabbit has been watching his fellow pet, a sheep herding dog too much.  Champis is now herding sheep.  Check out the You Tube clip, it’s pretty funny.

Sarris Chocolate and Candies in Canonsburg caught fire Friday night.  This family owned chocolatier has been in business for fifty-two years.  Bill Sarris. president vows to reopen early next week and be in full production in time for Valentine’s Day.

I don’t understand why people drink unpasteurized milk.  There’s another outbreak that seems to be winding down of milk infested with Campylobacter jejuni bacteria.  I really like local, small farms and fresh foods.  But we need to temper this with common sense.  It’s legal for inspected farms to sell unpasteurized milk to the public as long as there’s no middle man.  Of the 8,500 dairy farms, there’s 153 with permits to sell raw milk.  That means the farm has been initially inspected and then pop inspections four times a year.  When they inspect, they check for any bacteria in the milk or facilities.  There’s a lot of time in between where the cows are out foraging out in the mud that has had birds flying over doing what birds do and other sources bacteria infection.  I don’t eat raw meat, poultry, fish or dairy products.

James Cargnoni, of the family owned Collier Development LP company is the name on the deed for the old Iron City Brewery in Lawrenceville.  Collier Development is best know for Trader Jack’s flea market right of I79 south.  Surely he’s not planning on putting a big flea market there.  🙂  Actually, it’s kind of cool what’s happening in Pittsburgh.  A couple of our biggest development challenges have been addressed by Pittsburgh developers.  We have the Piatt family doing all that work Downtown and now the Cargnoni family takling this jumble of 22 buildings in the middle of the Strip, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and Polish Hill.  Some of these buildings date as far back as 1868 on this 9.5 acre site.  Then there’s Collaborative Ventures of Mt Lebanon that partnered with Zukin of Philadelphia to start redeveloping the Garden Theater Block over here on the Northside.

I bought a Prius last week.  The 2011 Prius is rated at 51 miles per gallon, the 2012 is rated at 45, go figure.  I’ve been thinking about getting a new vehicle for some time now.  I’ve been interested in the Prius all along.  But while shopping, I ran into some real “used car sales men.  They are truly annoying.  They never listen to what you have to say.  They take part of what you say and then twist it around for their benefit.  I bought this at Rohrich Toyota.  Paul, the new guy there was easy to deal with and other than a few minor mis-communications, offered the best deal.  Not to mention corporate Toyota was offering a 0% financing for five years.

Well, that’s about it for today, enjoy the game,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first Social Security check being issued (1940) to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow,VT, dentist and prolific author Zane Grey’s birth anniversary (1872), Robert Morris’ birth anniversary (1734) one of the only two men that signed The Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, athlete and business person Jackie Robinson’s birth anniversary (1919), composer Franz Schubert (1797) and the execution of Eddie Slovik (1945), the first Service Member to stand before a firing squad for desertion since the Civil War, he was buried in France and his wife Antoinette fought until her death in 1979 to clear his name and have his body brought back to the US (which it was).

David Lewis: Old Friends, New Horizons’ is in the Mendelson Gallery at 5874 Ellsworth Avenue through February 28.  Hours are a simple noon until 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, admission’s free.  The recently turned 80 year old Mr Lewis has been an architect, urban designer, teacher, writer, artist and South African Navy submarine chaser.  His art endeavors has recently turned to metal sculpture that adds to his other mediums.  This show highlights his new metal sculptures and colorful art on Kraft paper and colorful gouache (gouache is a water based medium that is heavier,more opaque and reflective than your traditional watercolor).  Both forms of his whimsical creations have a heavy influence of animals, particularly dogs, birds and lizards.  I couldn’t fine a web site for him (there’s a ton of famous David Lewis’), but more info at the Mendelson’s gallery or by calling 412.361.8664.

Northside’s adding another quality restaurant to our list.  Bob Gones second Nakama Pittsburgh Restaurant (the extremely popular and successful first is on Carson Street)  is set to open in the Masonic Temple building on North Avenue next to the Garden Theater.  (Mr. Gones has a Nakama in New York City).  They are planning on creating ten loft apartments above Nakama in the brick and limestone Masonic building.  The developers have already started renovating two large duplexes just around the corner on Federal.  They are looking for retail, professional types for the first floor and apartments above).  There’s talk that Strip District lounge owner Spencer Warren has signed a letter of intent on space in the development.  With the new town homes up on Federal selling before they are finished (they are getting ready to start phase three), the new library, Crazy Mocha on the corner and the AGH medical center, that is becoming one bustling corridor.

Did you notice the 36 foot bus that passed us Friday.  The comet 2012 BX34 passed within 36,750 miles of earth.  The scientists said we shouldn’t be concerned, but just hearing on Sunday that a comet that large was a fifth closer than the moon makes me a bit skittish.  They say we should worry if the comet’s 460 feet across.  I don’t know, if a bus sized comet is hurtling down at me, I’m going to be quite nervous.  🙂

The USS Requin, docked at The Carnegie Science Center that arrived in 1990 is in need up some hefty repairs, to the tune of $2M.  Having survived World War II and salt water oceans, it seems the might Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio River waters are taking their toll.    Some fairly serious rust that’s actually allowing water to leak into it.  The Science Center says it’s perfectly safe, just in need of some serious repairs.  Approximately 160,000 people visit it annually.   This submarine, launched New Years Day, 1945 is 311 feet and 7 inches long.

Bill Powers of Export based PixController Inc has installed web cams in three Minnesota bear dens that you can watch 24/7 on “Den Cams.”  Lily & Faith as well as Jewel and her two cubs are in actual cave kind of dens; Honey and Lucky are in some kind of a man made enclosure.  The first two were sleeping and it was kind of hard to make a whole lot out, other than Lily & Faith snoring very loudly.  🙂  As I was watching Honey and Lucky were waking up and were pretty funny being all groggy and stuff.  Check them out when you get a chance.  I’ve Favorites them to go back now and then.  You can watch Jewel giving birth to her two cubs on January 22 at 7:20 and 8:40 in the morning on YouTube.  They don’t know the sex of Jewel’s cubs, and I’m not going in there to find out, so don’t ask me.

Dormont’s Hollywood Theater is hosting a special fund raiser for repair of “The Living Dead” chapel from the movie in Evans City Cemetery in Butler County.  So far Fix the Chapel has raised $13,000 of the $50,000 needed for the repairs.  On Saturday, the doors open at 2:30 for a silent auction and other merchandise sale.  Tickets for the 4 p.m. screening of Night of the Living Dead are $6 and all proceeds go to the group of George Romero fans.  Don’t you love unconventional small theaters and what they can do?

Have a  great day,

ed

Hi,

Tomorrow is the anniversary of Auschwitz being liberated (1945), Apollow I fire where Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee all perished in the fire (1967), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart birth anniversary (1756), Vietnam Peace Agreement (1973) and Thomas Crapper’s death anniversary (1910) although indoor plumbing had been around for a hundred years, he perfected it to the point that he had patents placed on different parts.

I’m not an attorney or elected official, but I like to think I have common sense.  Senator Jane Orie’s corruption case has been the best thing in the news for close to two years now.  It’s one thing after another.  The latest is she sent letters to her constituents seeking volunteers to speak as character witnesses.  If I was going to trial and needed character witnesses, I think I would know who likes me and would say something nice about me.  I may even think this out a little further and seek people that know me professionally vs personally vs intellectually vs whatever.  But a blanket letter asking for volunteers I fine hysterical (and a bit sad).  I wonder if she had state paid employees work on this.  🙂

We are on another list.  US News and World Reports listed Pittsburgh in the top ten places to retire (#7 by the way).  Criteria listed as affordable housing, health care, higher education, arts and entertainment as well as free transportation, if your over 65 and Port Authority’s still operating.  🙂

Did you know that Ron Johnson is a fan of my blog?  Whose Ron Johnson?  Hey, hey, hey.  He’s the former Apple executive that now runs JC Penney’s.  He’s streamlining their pricing structure and over all reducing prices by 40%.  Instead of having inflated daily prices to cover deep discounts at their never ending THE BEST SALE EVER, they are going to have decent prices on a regular basis with targeted sales like for closeouts, seasonals, etc.  They may actually get me to go in there.  If I’m going to an event and need a shirt, I go out and buy a shirt.  I don’t watch for months for who’s having this sale or that.

Bottom Dollar’s hitting da ‘burg in a big way.  Six opened today and three more next month.  I hear they are considering up to fifteen more within the next year.  Watch out you nasty Giant Eagle.  They are somewhat of a no frills place, they don’t have a pharmacy, dry cleaners, bakery and some other specialty functions.  But supposedly they have some of the best prices on brand name items and their personal label’s are 10% – 50% below brand names.  Supposedly they will carry the brand names as well as their named items.  I don’t know how many times I’ve gone into Giant Eagle and the only item available is their private label.  I will never forget those sleazy SOB’s threatening Schweppes that if they didn’t with draw their bid for Le Nature’s bottling plant, Giant Eagle would never carry their beverages.  AND they got caught.  🙂  They do carry a few items I can’t find elsewhere, but that list is now down to just one, poppy seeds.

Starting today, the airlines can no longer do that bait and switch kind of pricing.  Oh, you wanted a seat with the $9 air fare?  That will be $200 more.  🙂  When they advertise prices, they have to show the total cost.  Now be careful here, the new rules regulate mandatory fees like airfare, taxes, etc.  Not included are things like charges for infants, pets, baggage, etc.  But I find it a good start so that now we can easily compare apples to apples when planning a flight.  Other new rules that have taken effect are the airlines can not increase the price once you bought the ticket (I didn’t know they could do that), let you hold a reservation for twenty-four hours and still let you cancel it within that twenty-four with no charge (not so for short term bookings, which is fair), require airlines to disclose baggage fees when you book and airlines are now required to give prompt notifications of flight cancellations and delays.  Overall, I think we did pretty good today.

Fresh Market, and upscale grocery store headquartered out of North Carolina got the preliminary approval from Mt Lebo to tear down the old Roth Carpet on Connor Road right of Washington Road across from the Mt Lebanon Galleria.  Because Washington Road is a state road, PennDOT has to approve the entrances.  Once that is OK’d, they take the final plans to Mt Lebanon and hope to start construction early 2013.  This will add to the Uncommon Market on the top of the hill by the Village, the new Trader Joe’s in Upper Saint Claire and the proposed Whole Foods across from the Village where Consol Energy used to have their headquarters.

A huge item this past holiday season was e-book readers.  All toll, Pew Research estimates that 29% of Americans have an e-reader of some sort.  That’s a lot of novices out there and e-books can be for a totally untechnoligically savvy group (me included).  So where to we floundering e-book novices go for help?  Did you notice a key clue in the past couple of sentences?  Book!  Where do you go for book knowledge?  A library.  Mt Lebanon, a year ago started classes to assist patrons get the mastery of their e-readers with instructions as simple as “Here’s the on switch”, to how to download books and the actual functions of the e-reader.  They started with two or three a week and now seem to have classes most days.  Not be left in the wake, the Carnegies are starting similar assistance programs.  The Carnegies currently have 30,000 e-books available and hope to add an additional 13,000 this year.

Inside scope here guys, they’re starting a new exhibit at The Warhol next week.  It’s focus is on cars and did you know Andy hand painted a BMW?  Yeps, he did and it’s going to be on display in the lobby.  But the problem is it won’t fit through the normal loading doors.  They have to take one of those huge plate class windows out next week and bring the BMW in through there.  I don’t know which day they are planning on doing this, Judy if you read this and want to make a comment, feel free.  🙂  I love Judy, she’s in charge of corporate memberships and she is absolutely the best thing the Carnegies got since the dinosaurs.  🙂

The Convention Center is hosting the World of Wheels starting tomorrow.  Friday from 3 – 10 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.  Appropriate entertainment will feature BMX Extreme Stunt Shows throughout the weekend, appearances by WWE wrestler Rey Mysterio, Deena Nicole from Jersey Shore and TV reality show host Billy the Exterminator (I don’t know any of them).  🙂  Two award winning Pittsburgh car enthusiasts will have their vehicles on display.  Gerry Lerma woth her 1962 Chevy II “Runt” and Michael Tarquinion’s 1932 Ford “Second Wind”.  More info at their web site.

Well, have a great night,

ed

Newspaper reporter Nellie Blie wanted to beat the fictional Jules Verne’s Phileas Foggs air balloon trip around the world in 80 days (she did in 72 days) landed on 1890 in New Jersey, Apple’s Macintosh premiered in 1984, Pan Am had the first scheduled trans-continental flight from California to New York (1959) and the first modern winter Olympic Games was held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

The Cleveland Aquarium opened Saturday, January 21.  It’s part of the city’s effort to rebuild the riverfront district on Lake Erie.  It was built around a powerhouse that used to power Cleveland’s streetcar and railroad lines.  The powerhouse was built in 1926 and because it is a historic structure, the developers were not permitted to alter the structure.  Which makes the layout quite interesting with the saved brick walls, smoke stacks and other architectural as a back drop.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia really scared me.  I have always had a lot of respect for the Judiciary thinking that judges in general are fair and unbiased humans that are beyond politics.  Some make poor decisions (in my opinion), but the decision was based on a logical thought process based on facts.  And I’m fine with someone having an opinion different than mine.  When asked about his decision two years ago that approved the Super PACs.  He said, and I quote, “People are not stupid.  If they don’t like it, they’ll shut it off.”  Does this mean children should be entrusted to turn the television off when they approve porn being shown during prime time?  Does this mean when a criminal shoves a gun in  our face we should close our eyes?  Maybe if your house is on fire, you should go to another room?

Cliff Wilson, started at 16 at his father’s Ritchie Industries livestock equipment business in Conrad, Iowa, a town of 1,110 people.  At 76 years old, he was ready to retire.  The only buyers interested were those stripping companies the remove any equipment they can salvage and leave a vacant building.  Loosing this employer of 65 persons would be devastating to Conrad.  Mr. Wilson grew up and lived his life in Conrad and didn’t want that to happen to the town, but there wasn’t many options.  He agreed to let his employees do an ESOPs.  That stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan.  Actually, there’s quite a lot of ESOPs in the country, 10,900 in 2011.  ESOPs aren’t easy to get off the ground, usually the employees don’t have enough cash to talk a bank into lending the balance.  Frequently the previous owner has to carry at least a significant portion of the amount.  Banks are very wary of start up businesses, even ones that are already operating because this would be a new management team.  Mr. Wilson took a down payment in 2004 and the ESOP made the last installment in 2011.  He financed the entire transaction.  Sales have increased 50%.  “Workers are much more engaged in the business-from safety to work habits, to new innovative ideas, right down the line.”

Artist Keith Haring originally from Reading/Kutztown, after graduating high school went to the now closed Ivy School of Professional Art here in Pittsburgh.  He also took classes at Pitt before moving to New York City and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts.  His first solo exhibit was at the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center (now the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts).  He famous for his vivid colors and primitive shapes, reminds me of Peter Max.  He did several short films for Sesame Street, the first of which was Exit, which features live kids dancing to the music Exit with his animation finalizing the short.  His art work is on show at Toonseum at 945 Liberty Avenue, Downtown through February 26.  Hours are from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturdays.  More info at Toonseum web site or by calling 412.232.0199.  Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for kids, great family entertainment.

Valley of Decision, written by Marcia Davenport that lived in Allegheny West was published in 1943.  The story was adapted to a movie in 1945 staring Gregory Peck, Greer Garson and Lionel Barrymore.  The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards (one for best actress and the other for musical score).  The story is Pittsburgh based on a the son (Gregory Peck) of a steel mill magnate that gets involved with an Irish immigrant housekeeper (Greer Garson).  This classic movie is being presented by the Allegheny City Society at the Unitarian Church on North Avenue on April 4 at 7 p.m.  I don’t know the price, but I’m sure it will be affordable.

That’s about it for today, keep happy,

ed

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

Hi,

December’s over and we’re half way through January.  I may survive this winter yet.  🙂  And I checked the two week extended forecast and we have a lot days coming up in the upper forties.  🙂

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the founding of the Civil Service (1883), Dian Fossey’s birth anniversary (1932), the beginning of the Gulf War (1991), the anniversary of Nebraska passing the Prohibition Amendment giving the majority needed for it to become law (1919) and the observance of Martin Luther King’s birth (January 15, 1929).

Bait and Switch.  That seems to be the mentality of many of our elected officials.  John Weinstein our long time County Treasurer has passed up his cost of living raises since 1999.  That doesn’t mean he’s given them up, they’ve been laying in wait for him to cash in this year for a 35% pay raise.  Oh, and that goes of Chelsey Wagner, our new County Controller.  She’s been in office just over a week and “didn’t know about this coming”.  But did I mention that she did have time to check comparable salaries and she says she’s in line with her peers?  A $24,000 a year raise would be a decent paycheck for one of our city residents that can’t put food on their tables.  Personally I think this $50,000 could be better spent on city services.  As a side note, Sheriff Mullen declined the raise.  He had no comment on this, I would say it speaks for itself.  One out of three concerned about the city.

The Fort Pitt Museum is reopening (I didn’t know it was closed).  🙂  Since the Heinz History Center took it over from state control, they’ve been evaluating the operation and needed to close down for a couple of weeks for some housekeeping and maintenance issues.  They did dig through The Carnegie’s extensive troves of articles in storage (there’s about 10,000 items on display compared to 22 million in storage) and found two pistols that were actually used there by Colonel George Morgan and Captain Isaac Craig when the  British took control from the French when it was Ft Duquesne.  The museum has basically doubled attendance since Heinz took it over from 11,000 to 22,000 last year.  It’s amazing what a little marketing like putting signs up and caring can do.  Good for you Andy Wasich, President of the Heinz History Center and Alan Gutchess, Director of the Fort Pitt Museum.  If Mr Wasich or Mr Gutchess happens to see my post, I recommend giving the Fort Pitt Museum it’s own web site instead of a subsidiary to the History Center’s.

What a smart man the Senior Judge Stanton Wettick is (yes, I’m being sarcastic).  He delayed implementing the assessment until 2013.  The county has been battling for ten years on creating a new and fair reassessment.  I’m OK with that.  Finally, under repeated court orders, they haven’t even completed the reassessment and are implementing it for this year.  (They have only completed Pittsburgh and Mt Oliver, the rest of Allegheny County isn’t even finished yet!)!!  Notices of the increased assessment were sent out and residents and businesses had less than two weeks to start the appeal process.  Is there anyone else out there that thinks ten years for the county to create new assessments and we only have twelve days for us to aborb and digest what this means to us is a little unfair?  “They” say most property taxes will remain the same or actually go down because “they” will have to adjust the millage.  I have to make a decision about contesting my new “property value” without knowing what the actual impact will be on my tax bill.  I understand Judge Wettick’s frustration with the City/County over this.  But I believe it is wise to let a year pass so we can see what it all means to each of us.

Why do we have a city at Nome, Alaska?  They had an early freeze and their traditional barge shipment of fuel oil couldn’t be delivered in November and Nome would run out of fuel before the ice breaks in May/June.  And at this point, the ice is only going to keep getting thicker and thicker.  So there’s a 370 foot tanker coming from Russia with 1.3 million gallons of fuel oil.  The Coast Guard sent an icebreaker to cut a path through the ice for it.  They are sitting a couple of miles from Nome’s harbor deciding on the final details on how to get within a mile of it.  Once they get within a mile, they will have to position and secure the ship so the ice can reform around it to keep it stable.  Then lay a mile of transfer hoses from the ship to the fuel depot.  I would imagine we are somewhat subsidizing this.  It’s like when I was in Florida and the federal government subsidized my hurricane insurance.  I personally apprciated it, but thought it was unjust for the rest of the country.  If you want to live somewhere, that’s fine.  But the bill should be on you.

Kevin Quigley, president of the Washington based Peace Corpse Association said they are trying to track down the approximately 100,000 past Peace Corpse volunteers they have lost track of (there’s an alumni of approximately 250,000 past Peace Copse volunteers).  If you are or know any past Peace Copse volunteers, your/their information can be updated by visiting http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/findthe250k/.

I have Google Alerts for The Parador and Ed Menzer.  Anytime someone types that in a search on the Internet, Google sends me an alert of this occurrence.  Ed Menzer doesn’t come up that often, but there’s almost a daily Alert on The Parador.  Unfortunately, it usually is not my Parador, there’s a lot of other paradors out there.  The reason I bring this up is there was an article in today’s Trib about the power of social media in today’s world.  They attribute Verizon dropping their new $2 service charge when customers pay by phone or over the Internet to pressure from social media.  It didn’t take long from when Verizon announced this new fee until they dropped the whole thing.  It was just a matter of days.  The article attributed it mainly to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to Verizon’s quick reversal.  I say it was my blog!  🙂  Seriously, I would imagine Verizon  has a much more sophisticated version of Google Alerts and I’m sure they didn’t say “Ed Menzer’s complaining about this new fee, we better stop it”.  But I do bet they have filters out there that saw me and probably hundreds or even thousands of other bloggers were complaining.  The same thing happened this fall with Bank of America’s planned increase in fees and NetFlix new two tiered pricing structure.  In addition to all the complaints they companies got, NetFlix in particular had a lot of cancelled services.  Power To The People.  🙂

Well, that’s about it for today, have a great night and better tomorrow,

ed