People really must have been raising hell with the media
and Congress for the loss of their "health" insurance. I put the word
health in quotation marks because your health is already messed up
when you have to use the insurance. It is hospital and medical care
insurance, not "health" insurance. Not only were their premiums and
deductibles jacked up horrendously, but many of those threatened with
loss of insurance after the end of 2013 couldn't make the Obamacare
Web site work in order to find new "health" insurance. The way things
were going, they might suffer being uninsured when Obamacare was
supposed to eliminate the problem of uninsured and underinsured
individuals. With a 2014 election of several Senate seats and all
seats in the House of Representatives, the Democrats in Congress were
starting to revolt. They did not dare run a campaign loaded down with
voter hostility over Obamacare. The President had to attempt to roll
back the mandated coverages until after the 2014 elections. This
would mean that, after the 2014 elections, we would be right back
where we are now, with tens of millions having to purchase high
premium insurance. The question now is whether or not the President,
acting unilaterally, can delay implementation of the Obamacare
insurance policy standards, with the redistributive taxes disguised
as premiums, until December 31, 2014. At present, consumers were to
have purchased medical insurance policies that are compliant with
Obamacare standards by 2014.
It is also doubtful that the people will ever get their
old policies reinstated, or that the old policies will not still have
some level of premium increase imposed on the old policy. The whole
idea behind Obamacare was to bring in all the uninsured to increase
the pool of premiums paid, and then to make the premiums soar upward
(the hidden redistributive tax) to make sure that the uninsured
people, particularly those with pre-existing conditions, will have
their policies and claims paid for. It only made it harder for even
more people to afford the insurance. So, will Obamacare be any better
when it finally gets implemented after the 2014 elections? I think
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is the clue to the answer. During the
debate over whether or not to defund Obamacare, McCain attacked
members of his own party, like Ted Cruz (R-Florida), for attempting
to bring defunding forward in Congress a few weeks ago. Now, McCain
is applying the verb "repeal" to the Obamacare law. McCain and the
rest of the GOP leadership in the Senate did not want Obamacare
challenged back then as they were afraid of how the media would
attack the Republican Party just before the 2014 elections. The fact
that McCain now not only wants to challenge the law, but get rid of
it, is a good indication that Obamacare will not get any easier to
swallow in December 2014. Add to McCain's flip-flop the Congressional
Democrat defections that forced President Obama to attempt to delay
implementation of the law until after the 2014 elections. Yes, both
the establishment Republicans and the Congressional Democrats are too
afraid to run for re-election with Obamacare on their records. Being
that Congress made sure they kept their own liberal "health"
insurance protection rather than imposing Obamacare on themselves,
that is all we need to know about how all of them, both Democrats and
Republicans, thought of the whole plan.
SO WHAT IS UP WITH THE RISING COSTS OF MEDICAL INSURANCE
UNDER OBAMACARE?
Entry Date: November 10, 2013
Through clever packaging, which revealed as few facts as
possible, Obamacare became whatever any given individual or group
thought it was. One man remarked that he thought Obamacare would
bring cheaper insurance to him. "I felt it was like Christmas," he
remarked, until he received his new premium and deductible
information. They increased over 100%. "I wanted people who couldn't
afford insurance to be able to get it, but I didn't think I would be
paying for it," a twentysomething woman declared. Some people thought
Obamacare meant free medical services. Others thought it was cut-rate
medical insurance. Still more thought Obamacare was not relevant to
their lives as they already had insurance. With the people ignorant
of the program, and acting based only on their own subjective
conclusions, Obamacare was put in place and started mestastasizing
into the likely agency of our total bankruptcy. The confusion was
built into the law ("We have to pass it in order to find out what is
in it."--Nancy Pelosi) deliberately for this purpose. The only
alternative is to stop giving politicians and the media the benefit
of the doubt by constantly declaring them as incompetent. Why keep
re-electing incumbents if they are incompetent? Why keep tuning into
the same newscasts delivered by incompetents? We would all have to be
totally incompetent and stupid ourselves to keep listening to people
we think can't do anything right. I think these people are highly
competent. They just don't like us very much, so they keep
pulling this crap on us all the time.
We already covered how some pundits have pointed out how
Obamacare forces coverage of things like maternity costs on single
men and women who can't have children, and claim this is the reason
for the increased costs of the insurance. In fact, real insurance
does not operate this way. A single man with maternity coverage on
his insurance policy has no chance of ever filing a maternity claim
on the insurance company, so the insurance company incurs NO RISK of
ever paying a claim. Such coverage should not result in huge
increases in premiums. So, what is causing the higher premiums?
Obamacare is a backdoor tax program, that's how. The
insurance companies have been given carte blanche to TAX the insureds
for covering the higher risk people and those who cannot pay, such as
people with pre-existing conditions and those too poor to afford
insurance. Consider all of those premium increases as a
tax to pool more money to redistribute among the insured
population by applying the excess premiums to pay for those who
cannot afford to pay. By having the insurance companies impose the
Obamacare taxes, the politicans do not have to take the blame for
raising taxes, but can blame the insurance companies for all of it.
Obamacare is a "public-private partnership" between the federal
government and the insurance companies, so the taxes to raise the
money to redistribute to the uninsured and underinsured is being
handled by the private side of the partnership, the insurance
companies who then become the unpopular scapegoats. Don't be fooled.
The politicans and insurance companies cooked this puppy up together,
and the insurance companies don't care how many of us hate them as
long as their profits continue to soar as they are now.
Eventually, the insurance companies want out of the
"health" insurance business. There isn't an institution in this
country that could pay the massive bills coming for the Baby Boomers,
who fall upon all goods and services in the society like a
combination of the world's worst locust plague and an army of Huns
descending on the economy. When they are done, nothing is left,
something like the skeleton of a cow after pirhanas are done feasting
on it. Keep in mind, all the insurance companies care about are
numbers concerning future projections. Their actuarial people have
already told them that, between the greed of the medical
establishment, Big Pharma, and the declining health of the Baby
Boomers (not to mention ten-year-olds with bodies worse than mine)
selling "health" insurance is a prescription for a trip to skid row.
Big Insurance wants out of the "health" insurance business.
Obamacare is the transition out of the "health" insurance business
for big insurance.Big Insurance wants the government
to take it over with single payer, but the government is bankrupt, so
don't look for single payer to solve the problem.
THE RISING MEDICAL INSURANCE PREMIUMS AND DEDUCTIBLES
UNDER OBAMACARE
Entry Date: November 8, 2013
With some people having their individual medical insurance
premiums and deductibles increase two or three times as a result of
the Affordable Care Act entering into its enactment stage, some
interesting facts came to light. The increases in the premiums and
deductibles were attibuted to people having to choose a policy with
additional mandated covered medical procedures. The additional
procedures added by the insurance companies to meet Obamacare's
mandated standards were blamed for most of the increases to the
individuals' costs for their policies. The problem with this
explanation is that many of the mandated procedures do not increase
the risk to the insurance companies in many cases. There were stories
of women past the childbearing ages being charged for maternity,
contraceptive, and abortion services. Single men have to accept the
same coverages, such as maternity coverage. No menopausal women or
single men are ever going to need maternity, contraceptive, or
abortion services. This means the insurance company has no risk
whatsoever of having to pay any claims for maternity, contraceptive,
or abortion services. These covered contingencies should be provided
free of cost by the insurance companies to reflect the absence of any
kind of risk of having to pay any claims for those covered events.
This is the way insurance is supposed to operate, with higher
risks paying more, and lower risks paying less. In our example, there
is no risk of a menopausal woman getting pregnant, so her risk level
for filing such claims is ZERO; therefore she should not be charged
for the maternity coverage as she will never use it. Why this is
being overlooked, I do not know, but such insurance policies should
be reviewed on a case-by-case basis as coverage an insured is never
going to use, but is only there to reflect a government mandate,
should not cost the insured any premium increase. On the contract the
coverages would be considered null sections of the policy, not
applicable to the insured.
A MINOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND
Entry Date: October 26, 2013
The Saltzmann Brothers Brewery circa 1904 from the Beer
History Web site.
After getting up this morning I found that my strategy of
using fitness walks of between 6 and 10 miles six days each week
since late April/early May failed to get my legs ready for running
four miles on the YMCA indoor track this winter. My heels and ankles
were fried by early that evening, and walking was difficult until
they loosened up. It was probably the result of being almost 61 as
opposed to my 30s and 40s that caused it. I will have to gradually
work up to four miles and higher, while working on stair climbers and
stationary bikes for most of the aerobic work outs for the first
month or two. Since it helped to keep moving, I decided to take a
walk since the weather was not too bad, just very windy and only
about 40 degrees, but I put on a few layers, topping off with an old
Desert Storm parka to seal in the heat from the lower layers. This
parka is actually thin, but uses a tight weave of cloth, which makes
it a good wind breaker and enabled the warmth of a heavy wool sweater
to be kept sealed inside. The parka has slashes in the sides that
permit the wearer to reach inside the parka to pull out any gear from
the pockets of the inner garments, or attached to a belt. I took my
digital camera since I had noticed an old defunct oil well's remains
up on the steep side of the ridge to the west of the McClintock
Trail, right behind the Merisol Refinery on PA Route 8 North. The
small GE camera was zipped into a nylon case and tucked into the
pocket of a jacket I wore over the sweater and under the parka. I
just wanted to get some pictures of the remains of the pump, some of
the old pipeline that ran along the ridge, and two storage tanks
below. One of the tanks was like a big wooden barrel with a coating
of black over it, and a more modern steel storage tank, and these
were spotted back in September when the McClintock Trail was
completed.
The climb up the "Hog Back" as the ridge is called, was
more treacherous than I thought. It is almost straight up. Some of
the trees still in the ground are actually rotted, including one I
grabbed, snapping off the trunk. The tree tangled in the one behind
it, keeping me from getting dumped over the side. I found a sturdy
fallen branch and used it as a climbing stick to finally get up to
the pump, taking several photos. I started down the remnants of a
path from the pump down to the storage tanks when I noticed something
sticking out of the soft ground. It was a piece of brown glass. I
pulled from the ground a glass bottle with the neck broken off. It
looked old mostly because the brand name was raised from the surface
glass and announced in script format that the contents were made by:
Saltzmann Brothers Brewers, Oil City, PA. Some old time oil
well worker decided to top off work with a bottle or two of suds, but
when?
I took the broken bottle back with me and Googled the name
of the brewery, coming up with a link to a "beer history" site that
included a picture of the old brewery. Another link claimed the
brewery was at 4 Union Street, while another stated it was at the
corner of Plummer and Bissell Streets. I think it was at 4 Union
Street as some of the buildings there, across from RK Virgile's Scrap
Metals at 3 Union Street, look like sections of the building
reproduced by drawing on the Beer History Web site. I will have to
ask the people now using some of the buildings if their buildings
were parts of the old brewery. I'll post whatever I find out.
Saltzmann Brothers brewed beer and ale in Oil City during the
following dates, which tell us that the bottle could be as old as
1890, but no more recent than 1920:
John J. Saltzmann 1881-1882
Palace Hill Brewery, John J. Saltzmann & Sons
1882-1888
John J. Saltzman, Jr. 1888-1890
Saltzman Bros, (Palace Hill) 1890-1920
Brewery operations shut down by National Prohibition in
1920-1933
The abandoned oil well pump with a view of how
steep the ridge is. Note the trail and train tracks below.
This is the barrel-like storage tank.
This is the steel storage tank.
The larger building in the background is what remains of
the 4 Union Street, Oil City location for Saltzmann Brothers
Brewers. The tall chimney in the drawing does not appear in
the photo, but part of it is still there.
SOME RANDOM EVENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
Entry Date: October 25, 2013
With winter coming on soon, I had planned for some weeks
now to move from the 6 days of walking each week to running on the
YMCA's indoor track. Part of the reason for the walking was to get
the legs in shape to take miles of running several days each week.
Running will enable me to spend less time while obtaining the same
results, or better. The last time I joined the local YMCA was in
1997. I ran the track this afternoon and surprised myself completing
88 laps which was 4 miles.
I had to go to the local Rite Aide to get some more of my
favorite Beta -Sitosterol tablets to ensure that my prostate gland
stays healthy. They cost a little over $20, but there were other
brands charging $30 or more. As I checked out, I remarked to the
cashier, "You should be thankful that you do not have a prostate
gland. They cost a fortune."
FX ran Green Lantern again tonight. FX has run
Green Lantern several times this month....I wish they would
stop.
HITLER REINCARNATED AS A WEIRD OIL CITY CAT?
Entry Date: October 24, 2013
"Sieg Heil?"
I decided to change my return route from walking the
length of the new McClintock Trail by going up the embankment below
the Roman Catholic Church founded by Polish Immigrants to Oil City,
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As I took a sidewalk
toward the North Side downtown, I spotted another Holstein Cat on the
front porch of one of the homes. The cat sported a "Hitler Mustache"
under its nose, a lot like the one above. If you Google "Hitler Cats"
you'll find that the name for these cats is quite common.
MUSIC IN THE LIBRARY
Entry Date: October 15, 2013
Another daring (and analogus) act.
Now that I am not on the road constantly, I will have to
file music entries under another title. Since I downloaded some of
these today from YouTube while at the library, on channels where
advertising pays for the right to broadcast the songs, I decided on
this new title. I was reminded of a song by Debarge from January
1984, a month when I did something very daring that was also foolish,
I looked it up on You Tube. After that I decided to chase down three
songs from the incomparable George Benson, and a few from the Bee
Gees from the same mid-to-late 70s era as the George Benson
selections. I have the titles and the links below rather than the
Embed codes as I can't be sure that the advertisements will play on
an Embed and the ads apparently help to pay for the rights. Just
click on the link and hit the back button on your computer to come
back here.
THE NEW ADDITION TO THE "ERIE TO PITTSBURGH TRAIL" IS
READY FOR BIKERS/HIKERS
THIS NEW SECTION OF THE TRAIL ENDS AT THE OLDEST
PRODUCING OIL WELL IN THE WORLD, THE MCCLINTOCK WELL
Entry Date: September 7, 2013
The JC Lee Construction Company of Petrolia, Pennsylvania
did all of the construction work on The McClintock Trail, which has
been going on since June/early July. I noticed some of the work while
walking the course I clocked on my car odometer at different points
on PA Route 8 North. Lee Construction was working along the railroad
tracks on the west side of Route 8, behind places like Casey's Lounge
and Restaurant. I thought they were repairing the little-used tracks,
not laying out and paving a bike trail parallel to the tracks. It is
easier taking the trail than walking the shoulder of Route 8. I have
seen some deer on the trail and an Osprey, but by the looks of some
of the woods on the west side of the trail, it might be possible to
run into a bear as well as a deer.
It is still interesting to walk through the streets of Oil
City on the way to the trail, as I was never around the town enough
to get to know it. The latest interesting thing I've seen is what I
call "The Holstein Cat." This is a cat with black on white markings
exactly like those on a Holstein cow. I have since found out most
people call these cats "Holsteins," although it is probably not the
scientific name for the felines. The two yellow cats and the gray cat
down on Lee's Lane have found something different to do when I walk
by their house. They sit in the yard, looking one direction, and do
not move as long as I look at them. It is like they are playing at
being garden gnomes or something.
"Moo?"
SOMEONE AT THE BOSTON GLOBE HAS SOME 'SPLAININ' TO DO
Entry Date: August 26, 2013
The Boston Globe tweeted on the early afternoon of
the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing that the bomb squad of
that city was conducting a "controlled explosion" within one minute
of the twitter message. The "controlled explosion" would be across
Boylston Street from the Public Library. Let this video explain the
meaning of the tweet, which is no longer available through the usual
channels on the Internet. The reported backpack bomb contained black
powder as well as nails and ballbearings for shrapnel; however, black
powder is not considered a high explosive, which detonates at above
the speed of sound like dynamite or C-4. Black powder ignites, it
does not detonate, which does not produce the kind of supersonic
shockwave that causes traumatic amputations or disrupts internal
organs.
THE ADVENTURE OF SURVIVING A COLONOSCOPY
Entry Date: August 23, 2013
I had to get a case of pink eye which made me go to the
Emergency Room on a Sunday afternoon. The place was almost empty, and
I was provided with a prescription for an antibiotic ointment for my
eyes. The nurse also gave me a form instructing me to finally replace
my retired, and now deceased, doctor by making an appointment with a
doctor who was accepting new patients. This was back in June. At my
first appointment, everyone asked me a lot of questions and entered
them into laptop computers. They weighed me (I was overweight then,
too, but not as bad now) and had high blood pressure, which has since
gone down. I was screened for prostate cancer and did not have it
after all the blood and other lab work was done. All that was left
was a colonoscopy, as the doctor wanted me screened for colon cancer.
That took from early July until yesterday to get done. I had nothing
to eat all day Wednesday and that is all I will say about the "prep"
work. I was called on the 21st and told my appointment was moved up
to 7:20 in the morning on the 22nd. I lost my cab appointment, so I
walked the two miles. The cab company promised to pick me up when one
of the surgical center staff called. No one is allowed to drive home
on their own.
I got there early, filled out my papers, and found a
Web MD magazine with Hilary Swank on the cover discussing her
project to reduce and eliminate malaria in the world. I decided to
read that article, because maybe I might have a dream with Hilary
Swank in it while unconscious during the procedure of exploring my
nether regions with a TV camera. When I was taken back to prepare for
the procedure, three nurses all asked me the same questions all three
times. I began to wonder if I was being tested for Alzheimers as well
as colon cancer. About the third time, I was asked if I understood
the procedure. I answered: "You are going to stick a camera up my
butt." The interview was over.
Now, I was "Number 4," which meant three were ahead of me
at this hour. All I could do was worry about whether or not the
Supprep "purge juice" got everything. My colon felt like Lindsay
Lohan mistook it for a paparazzi after yesterday's torture, so I
couldn't be sure if everything in there was gone. Whatever they gave
me in the procedure room worked fast and it seemed like no time at
all when I woke up. Unfortunately, reading the magazine before going
in didn't work. There was no dream that included Hilary Swank in the
cast. Instead, there was some strange, barely remembered appearance
of Mister Peabody, a character from the Rocky and Bullwinkle
Show. At least I found out that I did not have colon cancer, and
there were no polyps to be bothered with, either.
Everyone wanted to know what I would have for breakfast,
but since I couldn't drive, at least not early in the morning, I
could only have some egg whites and Southern Style biscuits. They
gave me what looked like a laminated document, as I sat up on the
bed. I read it and tried to return it, since the lamination made me
think other patients would get to read it after their procedures. The
nurse told me to keep it, so I did, but really didn't want a
souvenir. After eating breakfast, I followed the Mass on EWTN in
thanks for a clean colonscopy, and settled down to rest until later
in the afternoon when I would be up for driving. I hadn't eaten in
over 24 hours and wanted some Italian food from Villa Italia as I had
not been there in months as I had to lose some weight. Late that
afternoon, I had a chicken breast, penne pasta, garlic bread, a salad
with Italian dressing, and took a slice of peanut butter pie home. In
the evening, I settled down to eat the pie, and picked up that
laminated document, only to find the the top of the "lamination" was
open. There were three more documents inside. One of them advised:
"Return to eating your regular diet gradually." That
caused some concern, but I finished the pie anyway. After all,
everyone at the surgical center told me to go enjoy breakfast, so I
did. The same page also warned about not driving for 24 hours, and it
was too late for that one, too.
Another page included a photo of my colon. It didn't ruin
my appetite, but I wondered about why they gave me a DMV-type photo
of my colon? Why not give me four prints to review, so I could pick
the one I liked the best, something like wedding pictures, or
something? "Well, Doctor, I prefer the more serious pose over the
more frivolous one. My colon has no time for jocularity."
WALTER WHITE OF BREAKING BAD AND HIT GIRL OF
KICK-ASS AND KICK-ASS 2--
WHICH CHARACTER MOST HORRIFIES THEIR SIDE-KICK?
Entry Date: August 11, 2013
Bryan Cranston (left) as chemistry teacher turned meth king
pin Walter White. Chloe Grace Moretz as the wildly kinetic slayer of
bad guys Hit Girl in the Kick-Ass movies.
As Breaking Bad nears the end of its run and the
Kick-Ass 2 sequel is nearing its premier, I am reminded how
many times Walter White caused his buddy and meth cooking partner,
Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, to react with a face contorted
by horror. Whether it was watching White run someone down with a
Pontiac Aztec ("I hit a deer," White lied to his body man), or blow
up a Mexican king pin in a nursing home after rigging an elderly
paraplegic's wheel chair into a bomb, White never fails to shock and
awe his partner who slowly comes to fear the once mild-mannered high
school teacher.
Hit Girl, played with aplomb by Chloe Grace Mortez,
rescues the inept Kick-Ass character from being killed by the
henchmen of the drug dealer he had just tasered, by slashing and
stabbing them with a strange combination of sword and spear.
Kick-Ass, a high school student who was playing super hero in a green
wet suit, has his face frozen in shock as a 12-year-old girl makes
short work of the drug gang and makes it look easy. After it is over,
Hit Girl quips about Kick-Ass' useless taser: "That is one gay
looking taser."
People who have watched both Breaking Bad and
Kick-Ass might have their own idea about which character most
often shocks and horrifies their sidekicks, but I have to go with Hit
Girl, who almost scares Kick-Ass out of the super hero business. "I'm
in way over my head,"Kick-Ass groaned after the fight was over.
"I'm the most horrible! I'm the most horrible!"
CAN'T HARDLY WAIT---UNTIL ONLY THE POLICE HAVE GUNS
Entry Date: July 31, 2013
Yep, afer reading these, I know we will all be safer when
only the police have guns.
1. CIGARETTES CAN KILL: FLORIDA DEPUTIES SHOOT MAN
LOOKING FOR SMOKE IN HIS OWN CAR
Jacob Sullum
reason.com
July 29, 2013
Early Saturday morning, Roy Middleton was rummaging
through his mother's car in the driveway of his Warrington, Florida,
home, looking for a cigarette, when he heard someone bark, "Get your
hands where I can see them!" Middleton initially thought it was a
neighbor playing a joke on him, but when he turned his head he saw
Escambia County sheriff's deputies standing in his driveway. The next
thing he knew, he says, they were shooting at him. "It was like
a firing squad," Middleton told the Pensacola News Journal.
"Bullets were flying everywhere." Middleton was lucky the
deputies were terrible shots. His injuries were limited to a
leg wound. "My mother's car is full of bullet holes though," he
said. "My wife had to go and get a rental."
The deputies came to Middleton's house around 2:42 a.m.
after a neighbor saw him reaching into the car and called 911. What
happened after that, from the cops' perspective, is unclear. But
let's say they were unnerved by Middleton's slowness in obeying the
command to show his hands and feared that he was armed. Maybe he even
moved in a way that suggested to the deputies that he might be
reaching for a weapon. That scenario is in some ways similar to the
one confronting Merritt Landry the previous night, when he shot a
teenager who had hopped the fence in front of his New Orleans home.
Landry said he shot the intruder, Marshall Coulter, because he seemed
to be reaching for a weapon. Coulter was in fact unarmed, although
there is little doubt, given his history of burglary arrests (his
brother called him "a professional thief"), what he was planning to
do after climbing the fence.
2. POLICE SHOOT AND KILL SPOKANE PREACHER
13 Fox Seattle
August 27, 2010
Spokane Valley - A Spokane Valley Baptist preacher has
been shot and killed by a police officer.
Police say Pastor Wayne Scott Creach, was shot sometime
late Wednesday night during a confrontation with an officer in an
unmarked patrol car. Police say the officer had parked near the plant
nursery Creach operated in response to concerns over late night car
prowls. Creach, who lived next door to his nursery approached the
officer and sometime during the confrontation the officer fired his
duty weapon.
FINALLY--I GET TO SEE TOP OF THE LAKE
Entry Date: July 28, 2013
"I am the help."
Elisabeth Moss as Detective Robin Griffin in Top of the
Lake
Robert Redford's SUNDANCE CHANNEL has produced enough Emmy
nominated productions that Top of the Lake that the channel
has arranged "binge viewing" one day marathons of the Emmy nominated
mini-series. I saw two episodes of Top of the Lake last week
when they were run before dawn, and finished with today's SUNDANCE
CHANNEL marathon. Elisabeth Moss was outstanding as Detective Robin
Griffin, investigating the disappearance of a shady citizen's
daughter. If followers of The Killing think Detective Linden
has a lot of things happen to her, Detective Griffin gets to run a
gauntlet of personal disasters as well having to solve a case that
many do not want solved. Top of the Lake has been nominated
for an Emmy for best mini-series and best actress, Elisabeth Moss.
JERRY SEINFELD'S COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE
Entry Date: July 28, 2013
Jerry Seinfeld at the wheel with David Letterman on their
way for coffee. Usually, Seinfeld shares a meal with his guest, but
Letterman only wanted coffee.
Jerry Seinfeld's Web show, Comedians in Cars Getting
Coffee, has received some attention in magazines like
Entertainment Weekly. This is one of the best shows on the
Internet and well worth a look as Seinfeld chooses a vintage car to
pick up a colleague for some coffee, maybe breakfast or lunch, and
some conversation about their careers as comedians. I have seen the
episodes with Letterman, Don Rickles, Sarah Silverman, and Carl
Reiner, who appeared with Mel Brooks. Brooks shared a story about
being somewhere in a public place when an instrumental version of
Brooks' Springtime for Hitler came over the sound system. The
Michael Richards episode had Jerry show up in a battered Volkswagen
done up as a kind of pick-up truck, complete with rust and duct tape.
Letterman arranged for a Volvo for Seinfeld to drive that Paul Newman
had retooled with a racing engine. Most of the episodes run less than
30 minutes and are great viewing. Stream a couple when you get a
chance.
IN THE OUTDOORS--JULY 2013
Entry Date: July 20, 2013
I've logged a lot of time outdoors, but not as much
fishing as I hoped because of the "unsettled weather." My last outing
was Sunday, July 14th. I attended Mass the night before so I could
get up early and drive to French Creek in Franklin. French Creek was
still swollen, muddy, and running fast, so I drove back to Oil City
and tried Oil Creek and the Allegheny River. I thought fly casting
would be out in the river, but there were two guys already flycasting
the river, so I gave it a try, using mostly muddlers and stoneflies.
I got a couple of hits on the stonefly, but missed both of them. It
was good casting practice. When I caught up with the other fly
fishermen, they had been using the kind of streamer flies typically
used on salmon and caught several smallmouth bass on them. I'll try
the streamers next time. It was good to see someone flycasting a wide
section of the Allegheny. I usually use spin casting gear in the
river, casting crank baits or spinners.
The population of Great Blue Herons is really growing.
There were two watching the humans fish while hanging around the spot
where Oil Creek joins the Allegheny. I've seen the herons several
more times further upstream along Route 8 North. They must nest on
one of the larger islands in Oil Creek. The family of wood ducks that
live in and around Oil Creek had at least 8 ducklings this year, and
there are many goslings among the Candian geese. I haven't seen any
young herons yet.
My longest walk to reduce weight, lower blood pressure,
and cut cholestrol took my up Route 8 North all the way to
Rouseville, which is a round trip of about 12 miles. I have knocked
off about 12 pounds and my blood pressure is significantly reduced. I
also eliminated caffeine in an effort to shave numbers off the blood
pressure, and it is averaging near normal numbers now. My new doctor
is not overly concerned now, anyway. About August or September I will
start running again, which is more efficient exercise.
You see different and strange things while walking
sometimes, like the preserved skeleton of deer killed along the road,
someone's past due bill from the long defunct Brody's Department
Store in Oil City, and an abandoned 20 pound sack of Agway's top soil
that someone tried to boost for some odd reason. On Lee's Lane, the
cats like to lie on the pavement during the night and are still there
in dawn twilight. There is a black one with white stockings that
usually runs away when it sees me, but further down the street there
is a gray cat and a yellow one that just lie there watching me walk
by them while looking bored. The pavement must be cool at night for
the cats. The rabbits are acting strange as it has been unusually
easy to get close to them before they hop away. Maybe some of the
rabbits that are older are having vision problems. South Side Oil
City still has a large number of black squirrels, the black fur being
a recessive genetic trait of the squirrel that is typically gray. The
many stands of trees throughout South Side block a lot of sunlight,
making black better camouflage for the squirrels than gray, so that
gene must "turn on" when the canopy is heavy making gray squirrels
black again. One woman saw a black panther or mountain lion near
Mong's Ice Cream Stand on Route 257. Panthers were once common in
this part of Pennsylvania, as the word "Erie" comes from the Iroquois
Indiana language, which means "long tail," or "panther."
There is one lawn on Lee's Lane that is so well decorated
with flowers, pin wheels, lights, a fountain, a rock garden, lawn
furniture, and much more, that I will have to take photos and put
them up. I should have photographed the mountain laurels and azaleas
when they were in full bloom, but kept forgetting the camera and did
not want to stop too long on the walks. You have to work your legs
for a long time to get the benefits, but I will get pictures of that
yard and some other sites before summer is over.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: DRAKE AND JOSH
Entry Date: June 30, 2013
Dish TV is offering TeenNick along with a few other
channels as temporary previews for subscribers to see if they want to
add any of the channels to their present Dish TV service. I stumbled
on to TeenNick while checking out some of these stations and watched
Drake and Josh for the first time. The old Nickelodeon show
was created by Dan Schneider, the same writer and producer who
created iCarly, an extremely popular Nick show that attracted
adults as well as teens and tweens. I wasn't disappointed when one of
the first scenes was in the living room of Drake and Josh when
Drake's gym teacher shows up. When the teacher sees that Drake's
mother is actually alive, and not "lost at sea" as Drake once told
him, Drake responds by throwing his arms around his mother, yelling,
"Mom! They told me you were dead!" The gym coach, dressed still in
his gym uniform, a t-shirt and shorts, with a whistle around his
neck, gives Drake the real reason for his visit. Drake was failing
gym.
A younger Miranda Cosgrove, who went on to star in
iCarly, was taking all of this in from the living room sofa as
little sister Megan. "How could you fail gym?" Megan taunts Drake.
"All you have to do is show up." In most of her scenes, Megan acts
like she is the only sane, and amused, spectator in this asylum of
dazed and confused teen age boys. Drake's gym coach explains,
"Therein lies the rub." The coach shows that Drake failed to attend
any of the gym classes and would fail, forcing him to repeat his
junior year. Drake eventually gets out of this predicament, but only
after freely volunteering the information to Josh while Josh's
prospective partner in a dance contest listens. "I'm flunking gym,"
Drake announces without embarrassment. This whole episode was
hilarious. How I missed this show years ago, I have no idea.
