Even though I was raised by two overly religious women, I just never bought into the religion program. I have no idea why, I’m just not very big on believing. Even as a kid, I remember learning of all the miracles attributed to the big J.C. and thinking only one thing: Yeah, right. I dunno. I dunno why that is, it simply is. Look at it this way. Even though I didn’t know him and therefore was not influenced by him, my dad was about as eccentric as they come. So, if I’m somehow riddled with shortcomings, I like to chalk it up to heredity. Or, in keeping with the latest trends in societal de-evolution, it ain’t my fault.

Anyways, the kids and all of their kids visited the Willie Bee on Easter Sunday and we had ourselves quite the feast. And we learned that boiling a roast is not really boiling it. Rather, it’s braising it. (?) Or some such sh*t. Don’t much matter to me, I stuck with the veggies and whatnot, although I did manage to sneak some white horseradish onto an unsuspecting Taylor’s plate. Unlike your average 3-year-old, she did not scream, cry or spit it out. She calmly stated “I don’t like that.” Still and all, that’s a frickin’ first. We found something that she won’t eat. This is the toddler that consumes raw onions. Yuk.

If for no other reason, I look forward to religious holidays because wifey expects all of the kids to gather here and that’s enough for me. Unlike some people, we like having our kids around. Oh, and we love spoiling their kids despite their constant protests. At our adobe, the Easter Bunny even unloads on kids barely 4-months-old. And, no, I didn’t snatch any of his goodies for myself. Although…

Whatever. The most recent edition of Easter was good for me and I hope y’all can say the same thing or somewhere thereabouts.

I was collating with a customer this morning and not quite sure how it came up, but Sue Henry made mention of this site on her WILK radio show today.

Now, iffin’ you’re truly worried about what’s gonna come about after we nuke Iran’s hardened nuclear bunkers, there’s always this site to consider. Or, if you’re thinking of commuting to work by way of water, you might want to take a glance at this steal. I’d buy it, but wifey would likely get arrested right afterwards. With a basement filled with bicycles, this is the very last thing I need to come home with. Besides, getting stabbed during REM sleep does not appeal to me in the least. Sorry, K.D.

I was checking out what the local yokels had to say only to find the following which came from a local blogger.

I have added some new sites to the blog links: Wilkes-Barre Online even though the guy hates me because I'm a high faluten, egotistical, young prick. Is he right? But He's added for being a cynical, yet thorough writer and he has strong opinions.

Let’s cover this. Dude, I do not hate you. I do not like your political view that includes no shades of gray at all, but I’ll get over it. Admittedly, I blew a fuse when you got all Steve Corbett on us and practically blamed us for something, the Hugo verdict, which we had absolutely nothing to do with. Maybe I was lashing out at him as much as I was at you, but he had a habit of making me crazy whenever he sat before a word processor or a WILK microphone. He once blamed all of NEPA for Charlie Weiss’s (Wilkes-Barre’s bag man extraordinaire) self-inflicted plight, and I responded in no uncertain terms with a post titled “The Hopper King.” They tell me many of his co-workers at the Times Leader were chuckling after reading my take on Wilkes-Barre’s #1 flim-flam man.

Look at it this way. If you had no opinion at all, you’d be a dullard and I’d never have a problem with you. So, don’t worry about what anybody thinks of your efforts and do what you feel compelled to do. Plus, you are one of the few bloggers that attaches his real name to his internet ramblings, and that counts for a lot in my mostly tattered book. I sure hate to come off sounding like one of those pansexual anti-everything rent-a-mob weirdoes, but peace out.

And thanks for the link.

I have been somewhat dismayed that you never commented, or added, anything about the note I sent you (from the TL) about the letter from lady who complained over the City allowing a tattoo parlor to be opened by a person she claims to have had to do with the death of her daughter.

If you’re referring to the letter to the editor, I think that did come up here, but I don’t remember in which post it‘s buried. Then again, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say, or how it might affect the tattooing industry.

I don’t understand why anyone feels the need to mutilate themselves in any way, but that’s just me and we’ve already established the fact that I’m an oddball. I happen to visit a local store in which there is an otherwise attractive forty-something woman who works behind the counter. Thing is, she’s got tattoos up one side and down the entire other, plus body piercing all over the frickin’ place. If we could do a system restore on her body, she’d be a cutie. Being that we can’t, she more closely resembles some kind of loose-looking, used up Harley mama. I don’t understand why she felt the need to do that to herself.

As for myself, I only once considered a tattoo back when the Dallas Cowboys were roughing up on the Jints twice a year like clockwork, and even then--it was more of a twisted fantasy than anything else. I figured I could get a Giants helmet tattooed onto the very end of my you-know-what and when those sickening Cowboy fans got to bragging away and such--I’d whip it out.

Sick. I know. I’m all better now. Well, sort of.

As things currently stand, there are tattoo parlors all over the urban landscape and not just in Wilkes-Barre. With that said, if you’re fixin’ to run all of the tattoo artists clear out of Wilkes-Barre, the folks looking to deface themselves need drive no further than the next municipality to do as much. So, if they are all run out of town, I fear all that would be accomplished is the lowering of Wilkes-Barre mercantile tax revenues and such.

But, if a person of obvious ill-repute is allowed to set up shop in Wilkes-Barre, that’s a whole other subject entirely. In that case, make the police department aware of it and let them do what they do best. Sylvia’s Restaurant didn’t stay open very long, did it?

Tattoos? I’ll never understand the attraction. Or the affliction. Or is it a mental deficiency manifesting itself? Got me.

But I am even more dismayed over your supporting the "new" cutting up of the City by the apportionment committee.

In all honesty, coming from you, I’m surprised to hear as much. When compared against those silly striped districts, I see the new districts as a significant improvement. And I fail to see how any proposed redistricting plan would please everyone in the city. You of all people should know that. Besides, hasn’t this issue dragged on long enough while the ‘07 elections get closer and closer?

And to pit three Councilmen against one another in one district (East End, Parsons and Miners Mills) doesn't make sense in any way shape or form.

Huh? Are we supposed to take care so as to assure the incumbents that they’ll all be reelected? Should we gerrymander so as to keep them on council and risk the ire from the politically aware that would be sure to follow? If two incumbents lived right next door to each other, should the borderline be the fence that separates their properties?

If those proposed districts stand, three incumbents are toast come election time. The way I see it, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “Serving” on council was never supposed to be a career, and if health care benefits and retirement packages had never been included in the mix, being a council person would be just that: “serving” the public. Whether we like the idea or not, the council is in for a reworking when we vote for council members again, and that’s not a negative unless we elect ourselves a curmudgeon up here in the Nord End. I dunno, but I fail to see a bit of turnover as a happening fraught with danger. Am I not thinking things through?

It's going to make for some interesting debate at the next Council session I assure you.

I hear that. Let’s get ready to rumble!!!

Who knows? Maybe we can find another creative way to put off the redistricting to say…2020? As for me, I say let’s get on with it already. If that sounds even remotely dimwitted, then there it is.

Sez me.

Um, actually, that’s not entirely accurate. About two months ago I posted what I thought of not only the eventual candidates, but some others who had thrown their names into the political hat. And I still maintain that this gaggle of hopefuls is far less than exciting from top to bottom.

Ed Pashinski is a quality individual. As far as his union days are concerned, show me a teacher’s union that doesn’t come close to crippling it’s school district and I’ll show you the diamonds I fished out of the wreck of the Titanic. His paycheck was always written by the taxpayers? I guess that’s accurate, but y’all need to make up your minds whereas teachers are concerned. One day they are members of the noblest of professions and the next they are but scoundrels leaching off of the downtrodden taxpayers. Which is it? I imagine it depends on which way the political winds are blowing. Or which candidate you’d like to call your own.

We covered Jim Hayward’s neck-deep involvement with the previous administration, and I wouldn’t vote for him if some sort of newfangled high-velocity gun was trained on my gonads. But with that said, you’re not suggesting that Tom McGroarty could have been dissuaded from doing whatever he wanted by any of his immediate underlings, are you? No, Hayward had no choice but to do what the micro-manager told him to do, unlike the then-members of the Redevelopment Authority.

Bob Reilly? We already covered this. I’ve been told he would be a good fit for Wilkes-Barre by many who see him working closely with our current mayor, but I can’t get past the near brawl at the polls incident. If I got to trying to whoop up on folks at the nearest voting precinct, would anyone see me as a viable candidate later on? I sure hope not.

Although, like you, I can’t imagine how a beer distributor could be run into the ground in this particular area, but I’m not so daft as to equate the damage done to Wilkes-Barre by the Brain O’Donnell-led redevelopment authority to a small business being mismanaged. That’s assuming that the small business was even mismanaged. I know nothing about that.

Last time I checked eBay, Brian O’Donnell still owns a business. That he does. That’s not enough for me. And his pedigree, his family name is not enough either. Name me another candidate that had a hand in just about bankrupting Wilkes-Barre, and I’ll gladly point it out. Name me another candidate that has ties to a group that has gone to war with South Park, and I’ll be all over it.

Fact is, I’m supposed to vote for one of these people, but I’m still up in the air as to who it might be. Come election day, I might be sporting a clothespin on my nose. Don’t tell wifey. She’s weird about her damn clothespins.

We shall see.

I’m gonna go watch the Phillies.

Buh-bye