All the things she doesn't need anymore

Newspaper text imaged with phone magnifier app

When I worked in the entertainment manufacturing business, it seemed I was constantly noticing news about music, movies, manufacturing, and the latest developments in ways of getting music and movies to consumers. When I was in the travel business every other commercial seemed to be for a travel website, every news report about this major weather event or that failure of an airline's computer system. When I moved on to work at a cable/telephone/internet provider, every commercial seemed to be trying to get me to switch to another provider. In my current job, almost every commercial and news story seems to be directly related to what I'm doing.

My mom had many physical issues in her final years. She hadn't driven in nearly ten years, since an accident that landed her in the hospital overnight and did minor damage sufficient to total her previous car. (Except one time she apparently snuck out of the house and used the car she had bought as a replacement without anyone knowing. I noticed it later when I found that the seat and steering wheel had been adjusted for someone much smaller than me, her assigned chauffeur.) She was losing dexterity and strength in her hands; she couldn't hold things without dropping them, had difficulty writing, and couldn't raise her hands above her shoulders. Her chronic joint pain caused her to slather her knees with pain-killing ointments. The posts on the caps on her teeth lost purchase in her jawbone, requiring removal of all of her upper teeth and replacement with an upper denture plate. Her blood chemistry was problematic, requiring regular blood tests and frequent tweaks to her medications. Her breast cancer, once dealt with, never returned; her heart valve replacement served her well; her knee joint replacements were problem-free, until the day her one leg snapped just above the knee joint.  

After my mom died, every commercial seemed to be for something targeted towards her. Some were things she already had, or was already using. Others were for things she could have used, things that would have made her life better. Things she doesn't need anymore.

She was losing her eyesight thanks to macular degeneration, a condition we dealt with through frequent trips to a specialist for treatments and the purchase of a great many magnifiers of all sorts. She loved to read the obituary pages every day, and regularly read Reader's Digest and the weekly checkout magazine Women's World. For the last few years I had subscribed her to the large print edition of Reader's Digest, but there was no such option for the daily newspaper of Women's World. Most magnifiers top out at 1.5x, a rare few at 3x. We experimented with many different styles and types of magnifiers, and had settled on a lighted rectangular 3x magnifier for the kitchen table, and a slightly less powerful handheld magnifying glass for the bathroom. Even with these, she still had difficulty reading.

Today during a meeting it occurred to me that I would like to get a USB-connected microscope for my Chromebook. No special reason, I would just like to get one to look at stuff. Later, while doing a search (on my break), I came across mentions of a magnifier app for your phone. I had considered full-page magnifiers for the newspaper for my mom, or something that could connect to a Chromebook. My mom was never interested in computers, which is why we never considered simply having her read the online edition of the newspaper with the text set to Large. Nor did she care much about the smartphone she had to trade up to when her old flip phone became obsolete and unsupported. (Her lack of finger dexterity made the new phone virtually unusable.) So I never even thought about the possibility of using the camera on her phone to magnify the text in the newspaper.

Seven and a half months after her stroke, I can report that the magnifier app would have worked just fine to address her reading issues.

Newspapers

I'm fortunate enough to live in an area that has not one, but two local newspapers. The Times Leader is the older of the two. The Citizens' Voice was born out of a strike in 1978 against the Times Leader in the wake of its purchase by a national newspaper conglomerate and subsequent anti-union activity.

I subscribe to both of them. I get the Citizens' Voice seven days a week, while I have a Friday-Saturday-Sunday subscription to the Times Leader. I pay for these subscriptions on a month-to-month basis. A charge is placed on my credit card on the same day each month to cover the next month's papers.

And every once in a while the papers don't show up. I'm sure there are reasons. Delivery people come and go. Delivering newspapers is a low-paying pain in the ass. Weather and other factors interfere with regular delivery.

Still, I'm paying for these papers. This is a dying industry. I'm supporting it. In exchange for my money, I'd like to get the product I've paid for. Sometimes when I call I am told a replacement paper will be on its way. Other times I am told I will get a "credit."

This weekend the Times Leader was delivered on Friday, but not on Saturday, and not today. Yesterday I called the "missed paper" number and spoke to a human who told me that re-deliveries are not done on weekends and I would get a "credit." I asked her what this "credit" meant and she told me that it meant that it would push out the expiration date of my subscription by a day. I pointed out that my subscription renews each month and my renewal date has never changed. This can therefore only mean that all the "credits" I've earned will pay off at the end of my subscription - that is, after I have said I no longer wish to receive the newspaper, I will continue to receive the newspaper until the "credits" are all used up.

I wonder if there's a tally of how many "credits" I've earned over the years? It must be several dozen, at least. I should be able to cancel my subscription and continue to get the paper for several months, assuming it is still delivered on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday basis. But I really don't think there is any such tally being kept. I really don't think if I cancel my subscription I will continue to receive a newspaper. And eventually, this paper will fold, and all my accumulated credits will fold with it.

Same name, different life status

For as long as I can remember, the first thing my mom has done every morning is check the obituaries "to see who is no longer with us." Forty years ago this was somewhat morbid, but as the decades wore on it became a more sensible thing to do, as more and more of her friends, co-workers, and classmates passed away.

A second reason she always gave was that she looking to see if her own name was in the obituaries. But all this watching and waiting finally paid off. A few weeks ago, my mom discovered her own name in the obituaries.

Well, almost her own name.

The deceased had a different middle name, was a year older than my mom, and lived in a different part of the area. It was a heck of a coincidence, and we got a few laughs out of it, but we didn't think of it  much beyond that.

Today my brother pointed out that my mom's longtime dentist had posted to the memorial page.

Heartfelt condolences to the entire family on the loss of Eleanor. She was quite the gal and kept me on my toes for many years. God rest her soul. Sincerely Dr Len M_____

Posted by: A friend   Aug 20, 2018

So, this is...disconcerting. I actually just met this dentist for the first time about a month ago while taking my mom to an appointment with another doctor. My mom keeps in touch with many of her friends over the phone, and makes weekly social appearances in church. But there are still other friends who don't speak to her on the phone or see her in church. How can we let them know she's still alive? I'm not sure. I located Dr. M____ on Facebook and sent him a message letting him know - though since we are not Facebook friends, I have reason to believe Facebook may keep him from seeing these.

So I'll just put it out here: as of this writing, my mom is still alive. Thank you for your concern!

Nominate NEPA Blogs as Best Local Blog!

This is by way of Michelle, my co-administrator at NEPA Blogs. The local weekly The Weekender is taking nominations for its annual "Best Of..." lists. In the past we've missed out on the nomination process, but this time Michelle caught it in time.

From her post:

We Want to Win!

The Weekender is holding their annual "Weekender Readers' Choice" nomination and awards.  We'd really love it if you'd take a moment to nominate NEPA Blogs for the honor of Best Local Blog.  The link to vote is located here:  http://www.theweekender.com/readerschoice/weekender-readers-choice-2013.

You must vote for at least 25 categories and only once to be counted.  You have until Tuesday, April 12th to cast your ballot.

We completely missed the nomination process last year while focusing on other things (mainly Spring BlogFest).  We want to win the whole kit caboodle this year, baybee!  

Please share with anyone who is casting a ballot.  A vote for us can help them make their quota of 25 entries!

If you live in NEPA, we'd love to have you nominate NEPA Blogs as best local blog! We do our darnedest to publicize blogs and blogging throughout Northeastern PA, and it's nice to get some recognition in return!

UGI's safety record: "downright alarming" and "patently unacceptable"

UGI is Pennsylvania's largest gas utility. After Hurricane Irene knocked out electric service to tens of thousands of residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania in August 2011, the slow response and lack of preparedness by UGI's electric division meant that UGI's electricity customers found themselves without power long after customers of other utilities had rejoined the modern world.

UGI was featured in two articles in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice this past Friday, January 25. The first appeared on page 10, and had to do with UGI deciding to go ahead with plans to construct a pipeline, despite a denial of a "special exception" that would allow them to construct a gas compressor station that would be tied in to the pipeline.


UGI pushes ahead with pipeline plans
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: January 25, 2013

Although plans for a natural gas compressor station in West Wyoming are temporarily on hold, UGI Energy Services still plans to construct a pipeline that will provide UGI Penn Natural Gas customers with gas from Northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale.

"We're moving forward with the pipeline regardless," said Kevin Kelleher, manager of producer services for UGI Energy Services Inc. in Wyomissing.

The company plans to run approximately 28 miles of 24-inch diameter pipeline from an existing facility in Washington Township, Wyoming County, to connect to a UGI utility line and the Transco interstate pipeline in West Wyoming.

UGI is obtaining required state permits, including from the Department of Environmental Protection. The company hopes to begin clearing the right-of-way in the spring, with the bulk of pipeline construction to take place during summer and early fall, Kelleher said.


...The route, as drawn up by Quad3 Group, starts at UGI's Washington Township facility and runs through Eaton and Northmoreland townships in Wyoming County.

In Luzerne County, the route goes through Franklin Township, under Cummings, Brace, Village, Sutton and Ridge roads, then crosses West Eighth Street and Coon Road. It then goes into Kingston Township beneath Mount Olivet Road, skirts Frances Slocum State Park and goes under Carverton Road and then into West Wyoming.

(full article)

Meanwhile, three pages later, we see this article from the AP about what people living in the vicinity of this pipeline can expect in the future:


Pa. fines utility $500K over blast that killed 5
By PETER JACKSON, Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Utility regulators voted on Thursday to fine Pennsylvania's largest gas utility $500,000 for a 2011 natural gas explosion that killed five people in Allentown and called the company's safety record "downright alarming."

The Public Utility Commission unanimously approved modifications to a settlement with UGI Corp. that boosted the civil fine from $386,000 to the maximum allowed by law at the time of the explosion.

The settlement also requires the Reading, Pa.-based company to replace all its cast iron pipelines within 14 years and to expand and enhance its testing and monitoring programs.

The thunderous blast, which was traced to a crack in a cast iron gas main, killed five people, flattened a pair of rowhouses and set fire to a block of homes late one night in February 2011. Utility workers toiled for five hours to punch through ice, asphalt and concrete and seal the 12-inch main with foam to stop the flow of gas.

In their joint motion to modify the settlement, PUC Chairman Robert Powelson and Vice Chairman John Coleman said UGI's record of safety compliance is "patently unacceptable."

"This is the eighth time in slightly more than four years that this commission has adjudicated a matter containing allegations of gas safety violations by a UGI-owned gas distribution utility," they said. "This goes beyond cause for concern; it is downright alarming."


(full article)

Do you think anyone living near this new pipeline has any cause for concern? Living here in coal country, we know firsthand how concerned utilities are about cleaning up their messes after the boom goes bust. Will the gas industry be any different from the coal industry?

Three Blogtastic Days, Day 1: Best Blogs of the Lehigh Valley

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2012:

A while ago Michelle Davies, co-administrator at NEPA Blogs, told me about a "Best Blogs of the Lehigh Valley" contest being run by the Allentown Morning Call. Now, I've soured on these popularity contests that are run by local papers after seeing how a few of them operate. The paper throws open the floor for nominations, and a handful of the most-frequently-nominated entries get put up for a vote. Maybe three, maybe five. In one "best blogger" contest, there weren't even links to the nominated blogs - you had to go searching for the blogs yourself. Or not. Because ultimately, these aren't contests based on merit, or even on popularity; they're contests to see who can have their friends stuff the ballot box as quickly as possible.

The Morning Call's contest was different. It listed and linked to every nominee right from the beginning - and didn't take down the list once winners were announced.

http://www.mcallcommunity.com/mychoicevoice/end.php
(We've duplicated the list on NEPA Blogs for safe keeping.)

After we added Shane Burcaw's Laughing At My Nightmare to NEPA Blogs, we talked about how it would be good if someone were to take the initiative to create a Lehigh Valley Blogs linking network - same idea, different location. After all, Shane wasn't technically in Northeastern Pennsylvania...

...just like NEPA Blogs isn't technically in Lehigh Valley. Which didn't prevent us from getting nominated as one of the "best blogs" - and invited to the awards ceremony.

I didn't want to go, at first. I felt like we would be party crashers, horning in on an event where we didn't belong. Then I saw that Shane was also on the distribution list, and realized that this might be our best chance to meet him in person! So this past Thursday afternoon I met with Michelle after she got out of work and we headed down to Allentown together.

We noticed two things about Allentown pretty quickly:

1. Almost every car in Allentown has tinted windows. Blacked-out windows, really.
2. Allentown has a White Castle.

A scene from the movie "Harold and Michelle go to White Castle." Because sometimes filling up on Brie just isn't enough.

The awards ceremony was in the Rodale Room of the Allentown Symphony Hall. It's a beautiful room in a  beautiful building. The room had seating for probably close to a hundred, and had a buffet table full of fruit, various cheeses, crackers, cookies, bottled water, sodas - all for an awards ceremony for bloggers being hosted by a newspaper.

The view of downtown Allentown from the Rodale Room

Close-up of one of the creeptastic birds that decorated the next building over

The room never really filled up, but several dozen people attended, bloggers and their entourages. After a while I saw a motorized wheelchair coming through the door, and I knew Shane was in the house.  He was barely through the door before I was introducing myself to him, and his father, and his cousin Sarah. After a few minutes of chatting, I had the presence of mind to ask his father to get a photo of us.

Me, Shane, Michelle, Cousin Sarah

Shane writes one of the funniest and occasionally most gut-wrenching blogs out there. This post is an excellent index of his stories. I only became aware of him when Monica Madeja from WBRE's PA Live! told me about him, after she read an article about him in the Morning Call. Again we see a special relationship that exists between the Morning Call and the bloggers of the Lehigh Valley.

The awards ceremony itself was a fun event, starting off with opening remarks by the Editor-in-Chief of the Morning Call. Cheers went up as each nominee was announced, and winners were feted with music as they approached the podium to receive their awards. A complete list of winners can be found here, and an article on the ceremony here. NEPA Blogs didn't win anything, though we were torn between what we might do if we won: either turn down the award on the grounds we weren't really eligible, or attach a chain to the plaque and wear it around our necks at the next evening's Blog Fest like an oversized rapper's clock.

Too many people on both sides of the issue believe there should be an antagonistic relationship between the "old media" of newspapers, radio, and television, and the "new media" of blogs, with various individuals being openly hostile towards or contemptuous of the other side. The Morning Call has gotten this relationship right: by providing no-strings-attached publicity to the dozens of bloggers nominated in this contest, they have generated vast amounts of goodwill towards the Morning Call within the Lehigh Valley blogging community. Northeastern Pennsylvania isn't entirely in the dark with this. WBRE's PA Live! has included the "Blog of the Week" segment from the beginning. Various newspapers and TV stations have given some coverage to blogging events like Blog Fest, including the front cover and a multiple page article in this past weekend's edition of The Weekender. But it would be wonderful if more people on both sides of the old media/new media divide realized the mutual benefits that come from doing the sort of thing that the Allentown Morning Call has done.

Wall Street Journal on Fracking

I'm not a huge fan of the Wall Street Journal. I don't go out of my way to read it. So it was pretty odd that on Tuesday, March 13, as I was taking my mom grocery shopping, I spotted this above-the-fold headline in the supermarket's display rack:

Faulty Wells, Not Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution

Yes, of course, I thought. Blame the water wells for letting themselves get contaminated. I decided I would look the article up when I got home.

I found was wrong in my original assumption.

(The article can be found here. If it's behind a paywall, Google the terms wall street journal fracking wells and open up the cached copy of the article.)

A. Scott Anderson, a senior policy adviser with the Environmental Defense Fund who is working with Mr. Boling, agreed. "The groundwater pollution incidents that have come to light to date have all been caused by well construction problems," he said.

Both men are calling for a stronger set of standards for well construction, including better cementing and more testing to ensure that wells and cement have no leaks.

Cement failures have long plagued the industry. Mr. Anderson estimates that cement in about one in 10 wells fails to work properly and requires remedial work. 

The wells being referred to in this article are not drinking water wells, but the natural gas wells themselves. To massively simplify the process, fracking works like this: a deep shaft is drilled into levels of shale far belowground, deep beneath water tables. The shaft turns horizontally to get between shale layers, and a proprietary mixture of water and chemicals is injected into the shaft to shatter the shale and displace the natural gas trapped within. The gas, along with prehistoric water and some residual chemicals from the fracking process, is pumped to the surface through the well, where the gas is extracted and the chemically-contaminated water is put in evaporation ponds.

The problem, according to the Wall Street Journal article, is not from contamination that happens when the mixture of water and chemicals is pumped into the shale layer, since (the industry maintains) this is well below the level of the water table and is isolated from it. (This position is widely disputed, as the article points out.) The problem occurs when the gas/water/chemical mixture is being pumped to the surface. As it goes there it is transported through all of the higher levels of rock, including the water table itself. Cracks in poorly-constructed well casings allow the gas  and chemicals to migrate out of the well and into the layers above, contaminating the soil and the water table around the well and creating the effects that residents around gas drilling sites have experienced.

So, see? Fracking isn't to blame. It's totally innocent.

This seems to me to be a distinction without a difference. A Ford Pinto, for example, is a totally safe car. Crash into it from behind and it won't burn - provided there's no gasoline in it. If you add gasoline, that's a whole other matter. The gasoline is to blame, not the Pinto. Don't be hating on the Pinto for something it didn't do!

The Army Corps of Engineers, in the weeks following the September 2011 floods, declared that Northeastern Pennsylvania has some of the most complex and bewildering geology they had ever encountered. So to accept that companies that have studied fracking in Oklahoma and Texas can declare that fracking in Pennsylvania is completely safe, despite the lack of long-term studies, is naive at best. But even if we accept that assertion, we are faced with the reality that the Wall Street Journal, hardly a mouthpiece for environmentalism, has declared that many natural gas wells themselves are poorly constructed and are leaking toxic chemicals into the environment and poisoning the groundwater supplies for nearby residents. With thousands of natural gas wells in Pennsylvania alone, the industry has its work cut out for it if it is serious about protecting the environment.

The Scraper's Thesaurus

I just got a link to an article about Governor Christie's plans for rolling back renewable energy targets in New Jersey.  Sort of.  Here's the actual text from the first few paragraphs of the linked article.

Christie rolls out appetite plan, rolls behind renewable appetite goals


TRENTON – Gov. Christie οn Tuesday summarized a thουght fοr Nеw Sweater’s appetite probability wіth thе goal οf focuses οn nuclear, healthy gas, аnԁ blurb solar power, аnԁ retreats frοm desirous renewable appetite goals.

Thе director introduced a lingering-awaited appetite master credentials аt a scuttle-butt discussion some-more thаn a time аftеr hіѕ administration accepted іt wουƖԁ correct thе request civic next thе before administration tο simulate thе mercantile downturn.

Thе recover follows thе administrator’s argumentative proclamation final week tο change Nеw Sweater out οf a multistate cap-аnԁ-trade agreement fοr conservatory gas emissions, a pivotal раrt οf Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s appetite preparation.

Sοmе environmental advocates accepted thе preparation, entrance ѕο shortly аftеr thе withdrawal frοm thе Regional Conservatory Gas Initiative (RGGI), wουƖԁ drop thе disorder’s care οn immature energy, bυt a cover οf commerce asker called іt business-friendly.

Thе Board οf Public Utilities wіƖƖ reason hearings over thе summer οn thе preparation.

Ummm...what?

The "New Sweater" thing threw me for a loop.  What the hell was this about? Was that a nickname for something? Then I realized: that had to be a mangling of "New Jersey," if you accept that "sweater" = "jersey."

Scrapers are plagiarists; they exist by copying content from others. Sometimes they try to cover their tracks by altering the language of the copied text slightly. How? My guess is that they run it through a translator into another language, and then translate it back into English, and let the translation hijinks cover their tracks for them.

For reference, here are the corresponding paragraphs as they appeared in the original article in the Philadelphia Enquirer:

Christie rolls out energy plan, rolls back renewable energy goals

June 08, 2011
By Maya Rao, Inquirer Trenton Bureau

Gov. Christie on Tuesday outlined a vision for New Jersey's energy future that focuses on nuclear, natural gas, and commercial solar power, and retreats from ambitious renewable energy goals.

The governor introduced a long-awaited energy master plan at a news conference more than a year after his administration said it would revise the document developed under the previous administration to reflect the economic downturn.

The release follows the governor's controversial announcement last week to pull New Jersey out of a multistate cap-and-trade agreement for greenhouse gas emissions, a key part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's energy plan.

Some environmental advocates said the plan, coming so soon after the withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), would damage the state's leadership on green energy, but a chamber of commerce lobbyist called it business-friendly.

The Board of Public Utilities will hold hearings over the summer on the plan.

TITLE REFERENCE: The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Surprise! Marcellus Shale commission to meet Friday

An announcement came out of Harrisburg today that the first meeting of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission will be held tomorrow.

I only know about it because I get Facebook news alerts from both of the local newspapers, and one of them published the following article at 3:44 PM today:

Marcellus Shale commission to meet Friday The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre & Scranton PA

I followed the instructions for finding this information online on the official Pennsylvania government site, and they certainly didn't make it easy. After a few false trails I found the press announcement itself as a pdf file - with a notation that it was last modified at 3:46 PM, two minutes after the Times Leader story was published:

Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission to Hold Inaugural Meeting
Meeting Is Open to the Public

Harrisburg – The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, created to address the
needs and impacts of natural gas development on local communities, as well as
promote the efficient, environmentally sound and cost-effect development of
Marcellus shale and other natural gas resources, will hold its first meeting on
Friday, March 25.

The panel, chaired by Lt. Governor Jim Cawley, will meet from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30
p.m. in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market Street,
Harrisburg.

In announcing the commission’s creation on March 8, Governor Tom Corbett said
the panel’s purpose is “to oversee how we can build around this new industry and
how we can make certain we do this while protecting our lands, our drinking water,
our air – all the time growing our workforce.’’

The commission, comprised of state and local government leaders, industry, and
environmental experts, has been established to insure the successful development
of the natural gas industry and advise the governor on pertinent issues, including
possible legislative and regulatory changes.

The meeting agenda and related materials are available through the Public
Participation Center on the Department of Environmental Protection’s web site at
http://www.depweb.state.pa.us. Enter “Marcellus shale advisory” in the search bar
and the first result will be the commission’s page.

Seating in the conference room is limited, so individuals planning to attend are
requested to contact Christopher Gray at 717-783-8727 or chrgray@state.pa.us to
help organizers in planning. Reserved seating is not available.

In addition, public comment can be directed to the following:
Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission
Office of the Governor
225 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA

Note that the meeting begins at 10:30 in the morning, meaning that this announcement came out less than nineteen hours before the actual start of the meeting! Does this sound like a reasonable amount of time for participants, the public, or the press to prepare for such an important meeting? If I were the suspicious type, the sort who believes that Governor Tom Corbett is completely in bed with the Marcellus Shale drilling industry and completely opposed to any regulation of it for any reason, I would think that this announcement was timed to stymie both public participation and coverage of the event by the media. I'm hoping at least a few concerned citizens and a few representatives from local news outlets will be able to drop whatever plans they had for tomorrow and get down to Harrisburg. Just be sure to contact Christopher Gray at 717-783-8727 or chrgray@state.pa.us to "help organizers in planning."

One man's pork...

In the last Congressional election the term "earmark" was thrown around as a dirty word.  Pork-barrel spending - or, more simply, pork.  Money that is grabbed by one member of Congress to support some special project in his or her home district.  Those old-timers, the multi-term incumbents, were masters of pork-barrel spending.  The new generation that kicked them out of office pledged to do away with these earmarks.

Whoopsie.

Congress Slashes Funding for Critical River Gauges - PAHomePage.com

Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County - Local officials are warning of potentially dangerous cuts by Congress as lawmakers slash river gauge funding.

River gauge funding for the flood-prone Susquehanna was, for lack of a better term, sent down the river by Congress. River Basin Commission execs reported Thursday a couple million dollars earmarked for the maintenance of the gauges was sunk, with the Republican-controlled Congress pledging it’s done with pork barrel spending.

Luzerne County Emergency Management Director Steve Bekhanich says can the politics. “In my opinion, there should be no politics associated with this. It's a very important system,” he tells Eyewitness News.

The gauges are relied on heavily in accurately predicting the timing of river rises. Real-time data is used in planning the next move, whether it be to evacuate tens of thousands of people, or to wait it out.

In the Agnes flood of '72 there was no such thing. River gauges were years away. Almost 40 years ago, some fled only after a hearing the river had burst through the levee.

Does a fight in D.C., cut out a potentially life-saving program? “If we don't have that real-time data coming in to us, it is going to impact our ability to give as much advanced lead time,” asks Bekhanich.

In his first visit back to the district, Congressman Lou Barletta reacted to news this program had been chopped and what can be done about it.

Barletta says he believes funding for the river gauges could be available through other programs. He pledged to get to work on finding a solution to the problem from his new post in Washington, DC.

System of river gauges imperiled | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre PA

River and stream gauges along the river and its tributaries may be phased out if continued funding is not included in the federal 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, according to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

Gauges provide real-time information used to forecast river and stream depths and provide advance notice of impending floods.

Funding for gauges has been threatened in prior years but persistence by former U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, kept the money in the federal budget.

This time around, there appears to be a worried concern by Jim Brozena, executive director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, and Steve Bekanich, county emergency management coordinator.

“This year seems a little more critical than in prior years,” Brozena said. “Money has always been earmarked in the past. All of a sudden, Washington (D.C.) is making a stance that there wasn’t going to be any earmarks at all.”

Congress Eliminates Funding For Susquehanna Flood Warning System - PA Environment Digest

...The System provides the National Weather Service the critically important data necessary to issue flood warnings. The System is extremely cost-effective, providing a 20-to-1 benefit-cost ratio; for every dollar invested by the federal government, the System saves $20 through reduced flood damages and reduced payouts through the federal flood insurance program.

Of particular concern is the potential loss of data critical for providing timely and accurate flood forecasts. The System uses radar and a network of stream and rain gages to provide the data that are used to forecast river levels and issue more accurate early flood warnings.

...It is not a question of whether flooding will again occur in the Susquehanna River Basin, but rather when it will occur and how severe it will be. I pray it will not take the devastation of another flood event for us to once again learn the wisdom of the adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

In 1972 Tropical Storm Agnes wreaked devastation along the Susquehanna River, particularly in Luzerne County, in Wilkes-Barre and Kingston and Forty Fort and Shickshinny.  It did this in a very sneaky way:  it sat over upstate New York and dumped rain into the headwaters of the Susquehanna.  So the flooding event was not the result of local rainfall, but rather the result of rainfall a hundred miles to the north.  The flooding rolled down the river and smashed through the sandbags that had been so carefully placed to raise flood protection by a few feet at least.  The Wyoming Valley became a broad river basin, with the river stretching from mountain to mountain with little regard for the cities and townships between.  Longtime Congressman Dan Flood proved his worth as the master of porkbarrel spending, bringing in federal funds to rebuild the region and raise the levees to provide protection from another Agnes-level disaster.  The levee-raising project was not completed until during the Clinton administration, when Congressman Paul Kanjorski was already establishing himself as Flood's successor in many things, including the ability to bring home the pork.

But now, thanks to a wave of anti-incumbency, Paul Kanjorski is out and Lou Barletta is in.  Will freshman Congressman Barletta be able to stand against his fellow Republicans who staunchly oppose any earmarks of any kind?  Or will the Susquehanna river gauges fall victim to a lame-brained application of idiotic ideology?

Quick and easy Bagna Cauda

Like, I suspect, a lot of people, I had never heard of bagna cauda until November of 1994, when it figured as a plot point in the Babylon 5 episode "A Distant Star."  Back then I didn't have home access to the Internet, but what research I could do showed me that this was, in fact, a real thing, a fondue of sorts. 

I didn't think much more of it until fairly recently when I got on an anchovy kick.  I mentally combined the ingredients I could remember:  garlic, olive oil, anchovies,...cream?...and it was good.  Even though the cream seemed a bit excessive.  I wanted to learn more.

I did the minimum research required for any such question - I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Bagna càuda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The strength of Wikipedia isn't in the information it gives you, which is usually freely editable and can be modified by anyone, regardless of how little they know about the subject.  (Wikipedia actually discourages anyone who is a subject matter expert from contributing to a topic.)  The real strength lies in the references.  Wikipedia can be very useful as a jumping-off point to other sources of information, sources that are professionally edited and reflect the trustworthiness of the groups with which they are associated.  A footnote on the Wikipedia entry led me to this article from the New York Times Magazine:

Food - Bagna Cauda, 1960 - NYTimes.com

This was originally nothing fancy, a simple sauce or fondue used to feed vineyard workers in the Winter.  Olive oil, garlic, and anchovies, slowly heated together, used as a dip or sauce for vegetables - or, as Michael Garibaldi had it on Babylon 5, even with bread.  (It's great with bread.)  The cream and butter are regional additions and probably change the taste and character substantially  Walnut oil, salt-dried anchovies, fermented black garlic - make it as plain or fancy as you like.  It's your kitchen, and you (and your friends and family) will be the one eating it.

For me, the recipe is simple, and involves just three ingredients.

In a small saucepan I place however much extra-virgin olive oil as I feel like - maybe half a cup, if this is going to make multiple servings.  I turn the heat to medium and add some garlic:  a few large cloves chopped up, or many long, thin ones with the ends removed.  (These can be broken up further.)  I then add one tin of King Oscar flat anchovies in olive oil, pouring the residual oil in for added anchovy goodness (and, of course, the dissolved salt.)  Soon the oil will begin to bubble around the garlic cloves and the anchovies, and this is the sign that you should reduce the heat to its lowest setting and go surf the Internet for a while.

After about ten or fifteen minutes you can check to see that - ta-daaa!  Your anchovies are gone!  They haven't dissolved, but they have disintegrated into a powder that is mostly congregated at the bottom of the saucepan.  Your olive oil will also no longer be yellow-green but will have taken on a brownish tinge from the anchovies. At this point try to squish the garlic with a fork.  If it's soft and squishy, you're good.  But if it's still hard, it needs some more time to simmer.

In either case, you can get your vegetables and/or bread ready now.  I like my bagna cauda with steamed broccoli, but you can have whatever you like.  Traditionally the vegetables should be dipped in the sauce as it simmers, but I drizzle it over the vegetables and enjoy it like that.  Then I take slices of Maier's Italian Bread, sometimes cut into triangles, and sop up the residual sauce.

As this is made with olive oil and fish, it qualifies as a health food and will cause you to live forever.*

*Preceding statement has not been tested or verified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

It's called Snopes, people

Once again a local newspaper has published an e-mail hoax as a letter to the editor.  From the August 18 Citizens' Voice:

Protect your privacy from hotel room magnetic key

Editor:

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card when you stay in a hotel?

Answer:

A. Customer's name
B. Customer's partial home address
C. Hotel room number
D. Check-in date and out dates
E. Customer's credit card number and expiration date.

When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.

Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically overwritten on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.

But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with your information on it.

The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. Never leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and never turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip.

Information courtesy of the Metropolitan Police Service.

(name deleted)

It takes five seconds to Google a line of text from these letters. And didn't the line "Information courtesy of the Metropolitan Police Service" set off any warning bells? Obviously not.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp

It's bad enough when gullible people pass along these emails to their friends. But it's much worse when a newspaper publishes letters like this, and the Fort Hood "Obama photo op," and the "twelve year old girl kills intruders with daddy's shotgun", and the rest, in its pages. Do a little fact-checking before you publish!

EPA moves Marcellus Shale meeting from Binghamton to Syracuse

UPDATE, Wednesday, August 11 (The day before the scheduled hearing):

Hearing on fracking study postponed - News - Citizens Voice

Just a day after the Environmental Protection Agency moved a regional, stadium-style hearing on a landmark study of hydraulic fracturing from Binghamton to Syracuse, N.Y., the agency announced Tuesday the meeting is now postponed.

EPA officials said the event, which was expected to draw thousands on Thursday, will be held in upstate New York in September and the agency is looking for a new location.

(read the rest of the article here)

So, now people who changed their reservations from Binghamton to Syracuse now have to change them again to some unknown future location. Stay tuned for further developments. I expect that all future announcements will also be made at the last minute.

Everything that follows is now obsolete:


Here's a story I first read about yesterday on the Susquehanna River Sentinel. (That post is no longer available for some reason.)

EPA swaps drilling hearing to Syracuse from Binghamton - News - Citizens Voice
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: August 10, 2010

A regional hearing to be held Thursday on a landmark Environmental Protection Agency study of hydraulic fracturing has been moved from Binghamton to Syracuse, N.Y., the agency announced Monday.

The hearings on the controversial natural gas drilling process, which are expected to draw as many as 8,000 participants and protestors including many from Northeast Pennsylvania, will be held in the Exhibit Hall of the Oncenter Complex Convention Center in Syracuse, after the EPA and Binghamton University, the initial host site, disagreed on a venue.

(read the rest of the article here)

For those of you not familiar with this area, Syracuse is about seventy-five miles north of Binghamton, occupying a latitude farther north than even Buffalo. It is also on, or possibly outside, the border of the region considered to be Marcellus Shale territory. Here's a helpful map taken from syracuse.com:


For reference, I do not believe Nanticoke would even appear on this map. Note that, despite what the map implies, Marcellus Shale territory does not end at the southern border of New York State. Which is the problem: the long-announced meeting slated for Binghamton on Thursday was expected to attract thousands of interested people from across the broad swath of Pennsylvania that will be affected by Marcellus Shale drilling. Many of those people booked accommodations in the Binghamton area. And now, with days to go, they have been informed that the hearings have been moved an hour north of where they will be staying. Would they like to do a last minute reservation change, with all the costs and hassles associated with that? Or perhaps they might prefer to keep their current accommodations and commute from Binghamton to Syracuse and back again, a round trip of about one hundred and fifty miles?

And what about the folks who were planning to commute from throughout Marcellus Shale territory to Bighamton? Will they be willing and able to make that extra seventy-five mile hike up to Syracuse?

Someone more conspiracy-minded than I am might see this as an attempt by the EPA (or whoever is calling the shots) to thwart public participation in this hearing. Other venues were surely available, even throughout the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area. Why shift this meeting to the very edge of the region affected by Marcellus Shale drilling?

I won't be going. I wasn't planning to go, and I am technically scheduled to work that day, even though I will almost certainly be laid off. By the rules of Unemployment, I must be "able and available" to work - not sick, not on vacation - or actively seeking out work in order to receive unemployment compensation. I do know someone who is a Marcellus Shale insider, who, if I were to simply flip a bit from "opposed to" to "supportive of," could possibly get me a job in the industry. Anyone who knows me knows how likely that is. So I could not in good conscience claim to be attending this conference looking for employment opportunities. (With the EPA? Maybe. But my stated opposition to the extraction methods being used, and the reckless disregard for both the environment and the safety of locals exhibited by too many of the companies involved in this industry, may disqualify me from any future employment there.)

If anyone reading this does go, I look forward to ground reports.

Come to Wilkes-Barre, home of the famous Giant Cow!

I was flipping through the Sunday supplement PARADE magazine today while getting ready for work and I came across a map on page 5. This is item five - "Visit an American Original" - on their list of "15 Ways to Enjoy Your Summer." I scanned the map for points of interest close to me and noticed one directly over Northeastern Pennsylvania. This was #37 - "Wilkes-Barre, Pa. - Giant Cow."

Three-O-Nina made the list!

Another Monkey: Three-O-Nina


If you are in or passing through Northeastern Pennsylvania, it is worth driving East along Business Route 309 off the Blackman Street exit (exit 165) on Interstate 81, about a quarter of a mile past Kmart. This is one of the few survivors of the cows made by the FAST fiberglass sculpture company in the 1950's and 1960's. At Christmastime, you may get to see the giant cow (nicknamed "Three-O-Nina" because of her location on route 309) enlisted into the culture wars by the local Knights of Columbus!



For more information, see parade.com and roadsideamerica.com .

Roadside America - Wilkes Barre, PA - Giant Cow



P.S. - Don't climb on the cow. You might damage it, and you will be arrested and/or fined heavily.

Paul Kanjorski and solar energy

For years I have been calling on Representative Paul Kanjorski and departing Senator Arlen Specter to act to embrace the industries that will support the new energy economy - specifically, solar cell manufacturing, wind turbine manufacturing, and lithium-ion battery production. But it seemed that Senator Specter had no interest in this, at least not in any way that would benefit Northeastern Pennsylvania, and Representative Kanjorski saw fit to tie this area's future - and his legacy - to natural gas drilling.

But it turns out that at least some Kanjorskis see a future in solar energy.

Solar panel producer tied to Kanjorski receives $400M federal loan - News - Citizens Voice

A Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer for which the nephew of U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is vice president of marketing has received a $400 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The loan commitment to Abound Solar Manufacturing - announced by President Barack Obama during his July 3 weekly radio address - is to increase solar panel production at an existing plant in Colorado and build a second plant in Indiana that will create more than 1,200 jobs, a company statement said.

Part of the management team of Abound Solar is the Nanticoke Democrat's nephew, Russell Kanjorski. But a campaign spokesman denied the congressman had any part in the awarding of the loan commitment.

"His nephew works for the company, but is an executive and has nothing to do with securing federal projects, I don't believe," said spokesman Ed Mitchell. "The congressman doesn't know any of the executives of the company and has had no contact with them.

"The congressman has also had no contact with anyone in the administration to get the (loan commitment) and that's what it comes down to," he added.

Kanjo nephew works at firm that gets loan The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA

The company that employs the nephew of U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski has received a $400 million guaranteed federal loan.

The same company, formerly called AVA Solar and now known as Abound Solar Manufacturing, received a $3 million federal grant in 2008.

The two federal awards and the Kanjorskis’ relationship have been called “coincidental” by the company. The Kanjorski campaign said the congressman played no role.

Lou Barletta, the Republican challenger to Kanjorski in the 11th Congressional District race, said, “I guess the Kanjorskis are just lucky.”

(It should be noted that Lou Barletta worked very closely with Senator Specter to secure the Hazleton Creek Project, which imports Delaware River dredge so toxically contaminated with heavy metals that no other municipality will touch it to be used as landfill in Hazleton. This is a major reason why I voted to end Specter's career, and why it will be a cold day in Hell before I vote for Barletta. The federal agents who have been assigned to this area have taken an interest in the particulars of this project.)

According to the Times Leader story, the company denies any involvement by either Kanjorski in securing these awards:

Mark Chen, spokesman for Abound Solar, said Congressman Kanjorski had no role in the process.

“He was not involved with the securing of the initial commitment of the loan guarantee,” Chen said. “The company has received DOE grants in the past – including the $3 million in 2008 – but the decision on that was made before Russ Kanjorski worked here or even applied for a job. It was purely coincidental.”

So, hooray for the Colorado-based solar manufacturer. Good for them for getting this award, and good for Russ - my former Speech and Model U.N. teammate from high school - for having entered this field. It's just too damned bad that his uncle didn't have the foresight to try to bring companies like this - and all those jobs - to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

A brief note on Fracking coverage

Heading for bed soon, so I'll be brief.

Over the past few months and especially the last few weeks I have been very heartened by the expanded coverage being given to issues related to the extraction of gas deposits under the Marcellus Shale Formation. Until this expanded coverage came along, much of the general public had no idea what the concerns were with this, or even that concerns existed at all. Several local bloggers have been going on about this for years, but for the large segment of the local public still out of touch with the blogosphere this expanded coverage is the first they're hearing about the situation.

One thing concerns me, though. Is the news coverage reaching the point of attention saturation? Will the public eventually get bored with this issue, one which directly affects every resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and move on to other concerns?

I don't know. If that happens, I think it will just take one contaminated well, one uncontrolled leak of fracking fluids, one tragic accident involving the heavy trucks used throughout the gas extraction process, to pull people's attention back to this issue.

Tragically, I expect that there will be plenty of these to keep people focused.

If only I knew someone who could do something about this

I was at a party at a friend's house today. His kids are getting older, and there were fewer other kids at the party than in previous years, so my services as a Catcher in the Rye / lifeguard were not really needed, or at least not needed as badly. So I was able to actually relax, dim my hypersenses a bit, amp down, and just hang out. It was nice.

My friend likes to talk. He likes to tell stories. He knows lots of things, some of which are not known to the general public, most of which are things people are happier not knowing. Things I'd be happier not knowing. And in fact, I was able to detune my hearing enough that I came out of some of his monologues not knowing what he had really just said, not the details of it, anyway.

But maybe I should care. Maybe my election as a member of the Luzerne County Democratic Committee representing Nanticoke City Ward 04 was a bit of a joke. But years ago, when I bought my grandmother's house, I decided that this was the place where I would be for a while - "Here I am, and here I remain". If I'm going to be sticking around here, maybe I should get involved in making this place into something better than it is. Maybe, despite my documented loathing of local politics, getting involved in local politics might be one way of making this happen.

Still. What the hell can I do about the stuff my friend was talking about? He might just be talking out his ass, or he might truly have information that will blow the roof off this sucker. If only I knew someone who could take this information and run with it...

Oh, wait. I do. My blogging has brought me in touch with several people from the local television and newspaper industries. Maybe next time I am going to one of these parties, I should arrange for one of these people to come along with me. Maybe they can judge whether my friend is just talking moonshine, or whether he has information that could lead to one or more Pulitzer-worthy exposés. Though I'll have to warn them: my friend likes to talk, and they might want to bring a few extra notebooks...and pens...and batteries...and whatever is being used as recording media these days...

Marcellus Shale news: Times Leader redeems itself

After putting a puff piece on the front page the same day that their competitor newspaper the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice ran an article about Marcellus Shale preliminary drill work being done in close proximity to regional reservoirs and watersheds, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader has made up for it a bit with an excellent article detailing how, quietly, without any fanfare, Whitmar Exploration Co. of Denver, Colorado, in conjunction with EnCana Oil & Gas, has been signing leases with property owners throughout the Back Mountain area of Northeastern Pennsylvania - amounting to more than 25,000 acres of leased land bordering the regional reservoirs, as described in the Citizens' Voice article.

Much of Back Mt. leased The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA

These leases are binding legal agreements. Have the people who have leased their lands read all the fine print and understood all of the legal ramifications? If they haven't - well, it's too late now. They will have to live with their decisions - as will their neighbors, and everyone else in the region.

In an economically distressed region like Northeastern Pennsylvania, where neither politicians nor private individuals seem to be particularly interested in bringing in industry or employment, it is very tempting to say "yes" to someone promising quick, ready cash with no real effort on your part. But the consequences of that "yes" will linger long after that money has been spent.

Meanwhile, in today's Citizens' Voice, more on the residents of Dimock and their fight for a real solution to their methane-contaminated wellwater. The drilling company in Dimock, Cabot Oil & Gas, "maintains that the methane in the water is naturally occurring and was present in Susquehanna County water wells long before any drilling began. " Let's hope those folks in the Back Mountain are getting their wellwater tested to establish pre-drilling levels of methane and other contaminants - if their leases allow for such a thing.

DEP secretary, Dimock Twp. families discuss water solution - News - Citizens Voice

And don't think it's just here, or just a Marcellus Shale thing. There are other shale formations that may contain trapped natural gas that companies are eager to extract using the environmentally destructive fracking process. From a comment on the Facebook version of my "Front-page news: Marcellus Shale vs. Farmville" post:

"We're in the Barnett shale so we've seen this before. In this area the best bet for effective regulation seems to be local ordinance since petro lobbyists tend to 'help' write the state laws. You should be seeing lots of advertising touting the good citizenship of the drilling companies. You might regulate them but you probably can't stop them. If you own property , don't let them screw you on your mineral rights."

(FYI, here in the former coal regions of Northeastern PA, a lot of people already don't own mineral rights. Some of us have been through this before, but with coal mining.)

Doing some reading on the Barnett shale will give you a sense of things to come for this area. And looking at the devastation left by the coal mining industry will give you a longer-term sense of where things are going.


See also:
Susquehanna River Sentinel: EnCana: Serwquacksi
time to join the fight « FRACK MOUNTAIN

Educate yourself:
GDAC – Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition
un-naturalgas.org
un-natural-gas (blog)
Susquehanna River Sentinel
FRACK MOUNTAIN
SPLASHDOWN!

Treasure trove in the shed

I mowed the lawn at my house today. And today I decided to remove something from my shed and share it with you, and attempt to preserve it, and in preserving it, hasten its destruction.

Inside the shed are various items. Old tools. Old electrical projects that probably belonged to my uncle who tinkered with that sort of thing. An old DeSoto - missing, among other things, the engine. My garden tools and cement mixing stuff. And a few old papers serving as drop cloths for everything else.

One of those old papers was the New York Sunday News (20 cents, Country Edition) comics section from August 8, 1971.

The Sunday News was the Sunday version of the New York Daily News. Part of our Sunday ritual was for most of the members of the family who lived in Nanticoke - my mom, my brother and sister, me, my aunt and her six children, my uncle and his wife and (eventually) their two children - to gather at the house of my grandmother and grandfather after 9:00 Mass for a breakfast of sausage and bread and coffee. How we were able to fit so many people into what seems now like such a small kitchen is beyond me. My uncle, the organist at our church, would detour on his way from church and stop a McDonald's Newsstand to pick up copies of the Sunday News and the Wilkes-Barre Sunday Independent, and we would divvy up the various sections among the gathered family and read and eat and drink coffee and talk and talk. Eventually the kids would move into the next room to watch TV or play Lava Land (the floor is LAVA! Jump from chair to chair to couch, touching only the pillow boulders floating in the lava, or die!) while the adults discussed work or politics or the news or whatever it was that adults discussed.

Gradually things drifted apart. My grandfather died of a heart attack at the top of the steps to the second floor one morning while my grandmother was at church. The kids grew up. The weekly gatherings dwindled away and eventually stopped.

One of those Sunday funny papers found its way into the shed.

It's from August 8, 1971. I was about three and a half, probably not quite old enough to be reading the Sunday funnies, I'm not sure. Maybe I did look this one over. Maybe my grandfather put it in the shed, or maybe my uncle. I don't know, and I don't know what the purpose was - other than the effects of being printed on acidic newsprint, the paper is in good shape, free of grease or paint stains.

It has been in that shed for nearly thirty-nine years. I have debated for nearly four years whether I should leave it in place, or remove it and do what I have done today. By removing it from that environment and exposing it to levels of ultraviolet radiation it hasn't seen in nearly four decades, I'm afraid I have hastened its decomposition. Already it seems that there are more tears in the edges than there were a few hours ago.

I tried to do a simple photographic capture, placing the newspaper on a flat surface and taking photos of each page, with mixed results. As a test I tried to do a scan of one comic, Dick Tracy. The comics were so enormous back in those days that it took two separate scans to capture the whole thing.

Here is the list of the comics that appeared in this paper.

Page 1: Dick Tracy. Also, a promise of a Peter Max Gemini Zodiac Poster (in color), which appears to be missing.
Page 2: Little Orphan Annie
Page 3: Terry and the Pirates
Page 4: Brenda Starr - Reporter
Page 5: Louie (a pantomime strip), Junior Jumble, and a Wrigley's Spearmint Gum ad that doubles as "Fun Facts - Fun Things to Know and Tell"
Page 6: Broom-Hilda and Gasoline Alley
Page 7: Dark Shadows and Rex Morgan, M.D.
Page 8: Friday Foster and Coloring College, a color-by-numbers feature
Page 9: Li'l Abner
Page 10: Smokey Stover and "Super" Duper
Page 11: Laugh-In's Mod Mod World and Winnie Winkle
Page 12: Blondie
Page 13: Mary Perkins On Stage
Page 14: Moon Mullins and Teen-Wise!
Page 15: True Classroom Flubs & Fluffs and Beetle Bailey
Page 16: Dondi

Yep. Sixteen pages of comics. Twenty-four comics in all, counting Coloring College and Junior Jumble, not counting the "Fun Facts" - which was in fact the only ad, and occupied only about one-fourth of one page. Eight of these strips each covered most or all of the fifteen inch tall by eleven inch wide page. (Dick Tracy shared the cover with the masthead and the Zodiac poster announcement.) Fourteen others had half a page each, and two shared part of the page with an ad. Of those twenty-four, at least eight are still running.

I don't know how many more times I will be able to handle this paper before it crumbles into fibers. When that time comes, I may return it to the shed, where perhaps it will heal, drinking in the balance of temperature and humidity to which it has become accustomed.

And now I present to you Dick Tracy from Sunday, August 8, 1971. In this episode, a character has met a gruesome end at the hands of a grotesque, deformed villain. Some things never change.

Fields of Light coming to Luzerne County

Assuming this isn't all some big, typical Northeastern Pennsylvania political boondoggle, with graft and corruption and kickbacks and cost overruns and all the stuff that folks in these parts have come to expect, this is actually very good news:

Chamber seeks proposals for solar energy at industrial parks - News - Citizens Voice

From the article:

The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry is bringing solar power to two area industrial parks.

The chamber is seeking proposals to develop solar photovoltaic generation systems on vacant property in Hanover Industrial Estates and the Crestwood Industrial Park.

Tom Williams, director of real estate development, said the chamber wants to bring green energy technology to the industrial parks and find ways to make excess land productive. The chamber is searching for a vendor to engineer, design and maintain a grid-connected system maximizing the power generated at two sites totalling 250 acres, according to the request for proposals.

I see this as a creative solution to a distressing problem: what to do with excess space in local industrial parks that lack tenants? Tom Williams is quoted in the article describing the areas under consideration for this project "not viable for industrial development," though I'm not sure how that is determined.

How common is this practice? I have never heard of this being done before. Is this an original idea, or something that has been done before a hundred times?

And where will the solar panels that will be installed be constructed? From my discussions with various solar energy vendors a few months ago, I know that all of the solar panels currently being installed in this area are being manufactured in Delaware or in China. What would it take to get them manufactured in Northeastern Pennsylvania?

I look forward to seeing this product come to fruition. And I hope to one day be able to walk among Luzerne County's own fields of light.