PSoTD

When I was a little kid, I received on my birthday a cheap hard plastic all-in-one General Electric portable record player, the kind that I had to tape a nickel on the arm so it wouldn't skip on records. I thought it was WAY cool, nobody else in the neighborhood had their own record player, as because it was portable, I could take it over to friends and we could listen to music outside as long as there was an outlet.

Apparently it was so cheap that none survived to the digital photo age, I can't find a photo of one online anywhere. And mine is long, long gone.

Anyways, after I received the record player, the word got out to relatives that for gifts, 45 records were the thing to get me. Imagine the fun of receiving 45 records in 1969 from family members that have lived their whole lives in Indiana, and are in their 40s at the time. Was it possible that any of them could give me something timely, current, of the times?

Not really. But a relative (who shall go nameless) actually gave me this 45, which at least was from the time.

Of course, I hated it. I was not then, and not now, "into country". And it was 1969/1970. What was I listening to at the time? At 10, I was tuned to the top 100 played on WERK AM radio in Muncie. The Archies, Tommy Roe (Dizzy was a favorite 45 of mine in the neighborhood), Creedence Clearwater Revival, Zager and Evans...

Remember those Archie records you could cut off the back of cereal boxes? Oh yeah, those sounded great...

Anyways, I probably hadn't listened to that Henson Cargill's "Skip a Rope" for almost 40 years before I did this morning. And after listening to it, I gotta wonder - what kind of gift is that to give to a 10 year old?

Wow, Noam Scheiber can't think beyond the shiny.

Another thought: a tax credit for people who live in small towns and work over 30 miles away. A "preserve small-town small-town America" tax credit. You argue that high gas prices threaten the viability of small-town life for many commuters, and that we have an interest in preserving these communities. Of course, you do risk the pandering problem here...

What Scheiber is really pointing out is the lack of good jobs in small towns. Seriously, do we want a tax policy that pays for commuting over 30 miles? Does he really think that gas prices are the big threat on small towns?

Scheiber's right that Obama should put some tax credit specifics out for consumers who pursue transportation efficiency. How about credits for using mass transit? How about a bicycle purchase credit? Let's not think of ways to provide incentives to USE gasoline, but think of incentives to save it.

Time to give Friedman a cheer. The idea is the stupidest kind of pandering - and implies that voters are pretty damn stupid. Supporters of both McCain and Clinton should be both disappointed and insulted.

Do you welcome any contact from Public Relations (PR) firms or any corporation to provide information, offer comment or suggest people you might be interested in talking to?

Woden's happy.

Probably.

"CSI" co-star Gary Dourdan was arrested Monday for possession of narcotics and dangerous drugs, police said. The 41-year-old actor was found asleep in his car by the Palm Springs Police Department, authorities said.

An officer saw Dourdan's car parked on the wrong side of the street with the interior light on and someone sleeping in the driver's seat at approximately 5:12 a.m. Monday, according to Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

The officer described Dourdan as disoriented and possibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The officer arrested Dourdan after locating suspected cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia. Dourdan was released on $5,000 bail at 10:30 a.m. Monday. A court date was not immediately scheduled.

Get back to me when Chris Matthews feeds hungry people for three decades.

Not a shocker.

And anyone who's a Countrywide client - we have a "regular" mortgage through them, and have for a dozen years - has probably noticed an onslaught from Countrywide in an effort to get people to refinance and/or restructure their mortgage, or borrow additional money. Every piece of crap we've gotten from the company makes absolutely no sense for us to pursue as a loan recipient, but makes sense for Countrywide to pursue, particularly in the style and volume of the advertising, only if they are truly desperate to generate revenue.

In some ways it makes me uncomfortable to have Countrywide as our mortgage company. I'm wondering when I'll see a counterattack by another mortgage company along the lines of - "Feeling nervous about Countrywide? Looking for a mortgage company you can trust?" - that will be custom delivered to those who have Countrywide mortgages.

My earlier post was obviously not serious. My honest opinion is that there is too much debate that is deferred to a "superior judgment" and that adding more religious figures into the fray will just exacerbate that.

On the other hand, I'm all for public debate which reveals religious leaders to be just, well, people. Thoughts convert into acts, and those actions may show a person to be good to the point of being worth the individual choice of following that person's example - but that doesn't give that original person a pass on every thought they have, nor should it give the follower a pass to not think about separate issues about the "leader".

Americans, in general, seem too docile in their thinking about religious leaders, and grant them status based on their visibility as opposed to their activities. If events such as the Reverend Wright episode lead Americans to have a bit of self-realization about that possibility, I would see that as a good thing.

Apparently balloon sales are already taken. Maybe pest control!

Whoever are the leaders of the local religious institution that the following people choose to attend, I would like to see the RWSL* applied to them.

Chris Matthews
Nedra Pickler
Tim Russert
Wolf Blitzer
Charlie Gibson

Oh, and of course, John McCain.

Apparently this is the new cool thing in political reporting. So spread it around!

*Reverend Wright Scrutiny Level

Obama addresses his former pastor's comments.

“I think certainly what the last three days indicate is that we’re not coordinating with him, right?” Mr. Obama said. “He’s obviously free to speak his mind, but I just want to emphasize that this is my former pastor. Many of the statements that he has made both to trigger this initial controversy and that he’s made over the last several days are not statements that I’ve heard him make previously. They don’t represent my views and they don’t represent what this campaign is about.”

“Some of the comments that Reverend Wright has made offended me and I understand why they offend the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign.”

Obama has said enough about this for me. Hell, I wouldn't want to be held accountable for that Delltones youtube just because I blog here!

Moving on...

Kinda seems like Subway Restaurants have squeezed Jared Fogle out of their marketing theme. Now it's all about FIVE DOLLAR FOOTLONG, who, I guess, used to be a cheap porn star.

Hey, there's a dozen Subway stores for sale in Pennsylvania according to this.

Apparently Reverend Jeremiah Wright has announced his candidacy for President or something like that.

Pat Robertson didn't get this much attention when he arose from the dead. He did, didn't he?

This time, the U.S. Postal Service Kiosk. I wonder what will happen with this space - it has a slab for something more than parking.

Pasties for Progress?

There seems to be a regular news drum beat about saving money - stop going to coffee shops.

yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip

Whack-a-Mole must bring out the worst in people.

Generally thought of as a kid's paradise -- with its trays of pizza, abundance of video games and rides -- Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant on Union Deposit Road is increasingly frequented by Susquehanna Twp. police.

And they're not there for the pizza.

This year, officers have been to the restaurant eight times for calls about disorderly conduct, assault and theft. Last year, officers responded to 18 calls there.

"We at the police department are disturbed at the amount of calls and arrests at a location that's designed for kids to have fun and eat pizza," Chief Robert A. Martin said. "And we're going to continue to arrest anyone who is disorderly and engages in fights at that location."

The number of calls at Chuck E. Cheese's has increased from 11 in 2005 and nine in 2006, Martin said. Many of the incidents stem from parents acting inappropriately and not respecting each other, he said.

Two weeks ago, police broke up a fight involving 20 people.

When I was a teenager - back in the 1970s - jobs were hard to come by, besides working as a busboy or dishwasher in a restaurant. Old times have returned.

Dan Mills wanted to spend his summer working construction and learning how to build timber-frame structures.

Instead, the Maple City teen expects to bus tables at a local restaurant while hoping that at least some of the 20 job applications he's fanned out will come through. But he's not overly optimistic.

"I think for people around here, it's kind of difficult," Mills, 19, said of the region's job market for teens. "Every place I went was a 'no'. It was absolutely impossible."

Mills isn't alone. Teenagers across Michigan face an increasingly tight job market this summer, according to labor analysts from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

The state's unemployment rate for youths ages 16-19 hovered around 21 percent for the past two summers, and conditions aren't expected to improve for 2008. The state's teen summer job outlook will be released in early May.

Michigan's teen labor force totals more than 300,000.

Mills, who will be a junior at Grand Valley State University in the fall, still hopes to gain some work in the construction business, but expects it would only be through an unpaid internship, due to a significant slowdown in regional building activity.

"If I want to get experience in construction, I'm not going to get paid for it," Mills said. "It's a pretty big blow."

I wonder if we'll see an increase in teen-related "boredom" problems, such as vandalism.

Teenagers across the country already are struggling with higher prices for gasoline. Now it could be harder for them to find summer jobs, although the outlook around Houston appears much brighter.

Nearly half of U.S. companies that typically hire a lot of teens, such as retailers and restaurants, report that they don't plan to take on any seasonal workers this year, according to a recent survey of 1,100 hiring managers by SnagAJob.com.

And of those that do plan to hire, 64 percent of them plan to just take back the teens who worked last year, said Cathy McCarthy, senior vice president of marketing at SnagAJob in Richmond, Va.

A handy link in case anyone else out there will need to do this someday.

Did you ever wonder if Michael "Gap Tooth" Strahan or Peyton "Peanut Head" Manning could sing country music? Here's the answer ....

I'd love to see a debate like this. Cut the bozo talking heads out of the deal. The candidates take responsibility for both the questions and the answers. We should get better topics than Rev. Wright and the Weatherman Underground. And if we don't, we'll know exactly who to point the finger at.

Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up the rhetoric Saturday in their increasingly heated primary battle as she issued a new debate challenge and he complained of a race that's largely been reduced to trivia while working families feel economic pain.

Clinton took the debate dispute to a new level, challenging Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator, Lincoln-Douglas style.

"Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions, we'll set whatever rules seem fair," Clinton said while campaigning in South Bend.

Do it!

Can we please end it now, for the Reds? I was ready to pull the plug before it started.

I did not know this... we should be swimming in butter.

The Land O'Lakes Carlisle Butter Plant, located in Mt. Holly Springs, PA, is the largest butter plant on the eastern seaboard, producing more than 400 thousand pounds of butter a day. The plant also manufactures powder and condensed milk products. Opened in 1978, the plant serves as a balancing plant for milk produced in the Mid-Atlantic region, capable of handling six million pounds of milk per day. The plant began processing butter for Land O'Lakes in 1980 and formally became part of the Land O'Lakes system when Atlantic Dairy Cooperative merged with the cooperative in 1997.

Do you remember this one from those crazy Eighties?

Hard times in Central PA, I guess.

A thief with a green thumb dug up and stole three bushes that had been planted in the first block of Terri Drive in South Middleton Twp., Cumberland County, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday, state police said.

It isn't wise to damn your own candidate with faint praise by claiming he/she is better than Dick Cheney. Example: Clinton's new campaign strategist:

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, held a conference call with reporters and called Hillary "one of the most secretive politicians in America today" — a striking personal charge in the era of Dick Cheney.

I hope these trees thrive in our yard.

Airlines? Real Estate companies? Retailers? NOPE.

Since January, the most-represented industry for public companies filing for Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection might surprise you. While the recent spat of airline and retail filings has generated a lot of press, these are not the most frequent filers in the public company bankruptcy arena. Instead, telecommunications is the current winning industry--with five public company petitioners, according to BankruptcyData.com--a Boston-based website that tracks business bankruptcies.

Interestingly, there are several well-represented industries among the 2008 public filings. Most notably, there have been a total of four manufacturing and three each of automotive and oil & gas bankruptcies thus far. The two industries receiving the greatest press--retail and aviation--list only one public Chapter 11 filing each.

When sorted by total pre-petition assets, the industry reporting the highest figure is construction: home building goliath TOUSA, Inc. (TOUS) listed $2.8 billion. Manufacturing filings came in second with $1.7 billion, and the bronze goes to the restaurant industry with $1.4 billion.

Your spouse may discover you've been reading this blog.

I don't know about EVERYTHING, but I think there's a lot of merit in this post by The Cynic:

I have always felt that you can tell everything about a person by playing basketball with them.

How much do they shoot?
Do they set screens?
Do they rebound?
Do they box out?
Do they help on defense?
How fast do they get down on defense?
Does their man beat them down the floor?
Do they make the extra pass?
How do they react when they miss or make a bad play?
Do they play hard when they are losing or winning?

Not many sports show a lack of effort like basketball. If one player is not doing their job, the other four suffer greatly.

I sense that three word description in my biography someday soon.

Too hot hot tub!

photo by chrismurrayyy

Era of cheap food ends as prices surge

I hope nobody took this advice seriously. It's ridiculous to include blogging as one of the "10 hottest emerging careers that you might not know about" - people need to be serious about how they make their living.

Bloggers: Just 10 years ago, blogging would have sounded to most like a verb relegated to video games. But now, freelance writers, marketers, Web designers, finance professionals--even tea-drinkers--can draw people from around the world to read what they're thinking. Businesses are catching on, which is why they'll often hire people to blog about their products, and some bloggers can actually sell ads on their personal blogs. Are your personal thoughts worth paying for? They are, especially if you have education and a unique voice. Top bloggers can make six figures, and a handful are said to make millions.

Or maybe I'm just saying this so there's less competition for my millions...

Got a sample Quattro four blade disposable razor from Schick in the mail the other day. I'd always wanted to try one but never felt like blowing five bucks on a throwaway. After using it for a week, I have to say it was nothing special. The Quattro gave a slightly smoother shave but not worth the extra dough. Sorry Schick, I gotta save my money for gas!

Sadly, I only became aware of Sean Costello upon his death at age 28 a couple weeks ago.

Here's your top blues record of 2008. You can close that category out now.

The Hess Gas station wasn't very busy, but it's becoming quite universal, the end of pumping sound of signs, groans, and grumbling. The lady next to me was pumping up her Expedition, and I could have swore I heard her mutter "just don't look" when she finished.

Until the next votes, for the next two weeks the most important voices belong to superdelegates and contributors. We can expect the campaigning to get more nasty now. Both candidates are in somewhat of a death-spiral for the party now, looking to taint the other enough to win enough delegates to fulfill their current plans. Indiana and North Carolina are about to enjoy for two weeks the depressing emptiness of it all that Pennsylvania got to endure for six weeks.

There are two groups that can decide to step in and say that enough is enough, and that damage is occurring to the party, if they feel the time is right - superdelegates and contributors. Superdelegates can do so by coming out for Obama in droves in the next two weeks, making the math for Hillary so unlikely that she recognizes she has to rein it in. Or contributors can simply not give to the Clinton campaign for the next couple of weeks, drying up her resources and giving a clear signal to the voters that they see it as over. But it would take a significant action - or inaction - to prevent this from continuing to impair the Party's chances in November.

Failure of either of things to happen is a green light to even dirtier campaigning.

I hope to achieve it tonight.

Jay Newton-Small at Swamplands likens the Obama-Clinton primary battle to "Groundhog Day".

Whatever the reason a lot of Democrats are getting nervous that the race is dragging too long and it could start to hurt the party. Like Bill Murray, they want out of the time loop, and maybe, like Murray (and I realize I'm probably pushing this analogy past its limits here) they just need to fall in love.

My analogy is "Jane, stop this crazy thing!"

BTW, do you have any idea what Republican received the most votes yesterday in Pennsylvania?

It looks like it was Tom Corbett. Nearly 150K more than McCain.

Now that the primary is over, I have two suggestions for Obama's campaign:

Get rid of those youth radio ads. I voted for Obama, but they actually creeped me out. Too much cult of personality feel to them.

Talk economy, but bring Iraq into it, and how the judgment of going into Iraq is hurting our economy today. The notion that voters rank Iraq 4th on issues in this election at this point is based on two things, in my view:

Fatigue about Iraq news in general.
Fear about the economy - the personal sense of how I may get hurt.

Iraq has been a disaster for the United States in so many ways, including economic. Regardless of the fatigue, there needs to be a point drawn about America needs to spend its human resources and borrowed dollars in more effective ways when the economy is at risk. Obama needs to do a better job of framing this.

I like the Smithereens a lot, and Graham Parker's a long-time favorite. Nice combo on Behind the Wall of Sleep.

Cancer drugs sticker shock.

Drug prices are a growing issue for every disease, especially for people who are uninsured. But cancer sticker shock is hitting hard now, as a list of more advanced biotech drugs have made treatment rounds costing $100,000, or even more, no longer a rarity. Also, patients are living longer, good news but meaning they need treatment for longer periods. The cost of cancer care is rising 15 percent a year, Lichter notes.

Note to states with primaries remaining - the past seven weeks were not uplifting campaigns. They weren't particularly nasty, either. Mostly, they were just vacuous, specious, and eventually mind-numbing. I'm less happy with both Clinton and Obama as candidates now than I was in early March.

Not good.

Even less happy with the national news media, which I guess shouldn't surprise me. If there's an institution that needs reform - that needs term limits - it is the national news media. About the only good thing to come out of the entire coverage by the news media on the campaigns the past 7 weeks was the loud and omnipresent bashing that ABC took for their pathetic effort at a debate last week. Of course, the news media took aim at the two front men and didn't realize that those men were merely brinksmanship examples of the media's activity for years in campaigns, but perhaps it's a start.

Note to Democratic Party - the past 7 weeks of campaigning have not been uplifting or illuminating. They have been a turnoff.

Has anyone been able to believably explain the long-term benefits of leasing the toll collection and management processes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a 75 year period?

Whatever happens, there's absolutely no way that this should be approved in June, with so little sunlight so far being spread on the proposal.

Will there be a "Rock of Love 3"?

Hillary and Ed Rendell called me last night.

I'm going to miss all this personal attention after tomorrow. Boy, did Florida and Michigan screw up!

I like the idea of a basketball lover being in the White House.

Our house received two different Hillary Clinton for President mailers on Monday. My wife and I are both registered Democrats, but for some reason, both mailers were addressed to her. Funny.

Fill in the blank: I would rather _________________________ than be subjected to another half-thought from John Fund.

and worth a read...

The early kin to elephants were amphibious.

The Harrisburg Brewers Fest is June 21st. I've never been, and this sure sounds like a softball tournament weekend date for our daughter to me, but it sounds like fun.

What if the Presidential Statues of Washington came alive!

Starvation is going to get worse. It's not like we all don't know this - there's pressure on the cost of food for a variety of reasons, and change has to occur on the individual level in order to stop the trend. Somehow, we have to go to the grocery and keep this in mind, and consume accordingly. I'm as bad as anyone on this, and articles like this are important for me to recognize how wasteful I am in consumption. Must change.

I am not anonymous. I am pseudonymous. There's a difference.

DCup is spreading the word of Utz.

This kind of looks like one of our contributing bloggers.

I use inkJETS Printing for various business and other printing projects, and am very happy with their work. They've opened up a shirt printing business as well, and I wanted to give them a plug. They're in the Carlisle Pike in the strip mall behind the Five Guys.

Anyone that has gone to CSU Sacramento knows the Guy West Bridge. I don't know why I thought of it yesterday, but I did. Maybe because I've probably walked across it a couple of thousand times in my life, when I lived in an apartment across the river from Sac State... good ole' University Gardens.

And there's a nice Flickr photostream here of the bridge.

I know, I'm not Catholic, but what possible "news" reasoning could there be for both CNN and MSNBC to televise the Yankee Stadium Mass today?

I wonder if Benny Hinn, Thomas Monson, Frank Page and others are curious how they could get such coverage, also...

Thanks to Atrios.

I reject the idea that one should pick a candidate based on some imagined preferences of other voters.

I wonder how the newspapers are being impacted by the downturn in the real estate market. Today's Patriot-News had an 8 page real-estate section, with very few of the large panel realtor company ads that are bought to highlight multiple properties by the realtor. Now we're in April, and in Central Pennsylvania this is supposed to be the prime time for marketplace activity.

Back on January 6th of this year - mind you, still in the downturn, but earlier, and at what is usually a very SLOW time for real estate activity, coming off the holidays and during a time where bad weather is expected - there was an 10 page real estate section in the Patriot-News. And there was twice as many of the big panel ads.

I haven't seen anything on the impact on newspapers yet from the real estate marketplace downturn, but I'm sure it's happening.

This batting stance isn't for everyone.

(No, not anyone from our league, even)

Could not have asked for a more beautiful day to begin our son's baseball season yesterday. Sunny. 83 degrees! Slight breeze to keep everyone from getting TOO hot.

Mothers posing naked for calendars appears to be fading in popularity...

Women in a Spanish village who posed almost naked for a calendar they hoped would fund a leisure centre for their children have been left with huge debts after they failed to sell enough copies.

"It was an erotic calendar by the firemen of Bilbao that gave us the idea," one of the women, Rosa Garin, told AFP Thursday by telephone from the village of Serradilla del Arroyo in western Spain.

The seven mothers took the photographs themselves, posing virtually nude in the local swimming pool, the tourist office and the bakery last November.

But only 1,500 of the 7,000 copies of the 2008 calendar were sold, at five euros each, and they are now in debt to the printer, who is threatening to take them to court claiming 18,000 euros (29,000 dollars) in damages and interest.

Save it for later.

Not really.

For those of you that will be pushing, shoveling and raking mulch on this fine spring weekend, here's an idea that will look appealing halfway through your job...

I didn't even think there was such a thing as a mulch blower.

The Ninth Annual Country Classic, with events for runners, joggers, walkers, and cyclists, takes place on May 3, 2008, in Washington Borough.

We had dinner at Carley's in Harrisburg last night to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Very good, we really enjoyed the asparagus in brandy and cream sauce, we'll return. But they do need to fill out the details on their web site.

Weather-wise we couldn't have asked for a nice evening to be walking around downtown Harrisburg...

The last Don and Mike Show aired last Friday. I guess you'd call them B-Team shock jocks. Syndicated out of WJFK in Washington they were broadcast on fifty-or-so mostly mid-market stations. I'd been listening here in Harrisburg since around 1990. I believe I heard them the first time on 93.5 FM but most of the last twenty years they've spent on AM talkers, ultimately finding a drive-time home on 1350 out of York. No signal up here after dark.

Don's wife was killed in a nightmare car crash outside of Ocean City in 2005. She was an integral part of the show. Incredibly, Don went back on the radio in less than a month. His first show back was simply heart-wrenching. He was always willing to bare every emotion on radio. That's a large part of what made the show great.

But he never really made it back emotionally and has now decided to hang it up for a while. Mike continues on. His solo show is different but has been unexpectedly good in the first week. (1350 AM 3-7 PM)

Here's the song Don chose to open their last show. Perfect as usual.

5:15 PM - Forster and Front Street, Harrisburg.

It's likely to become a popular topic of discussion for the near future.

An accident this morning in Cumberland County is causing headaches along the Carlisle Pike. Around 9:15am a dump truck and a tanker truck carrying fuel collided in front of the Cumberland Valley School District Complex. As a precaution, the district's administration building was evacuated, but students at the high school are not in any danger. Classes are going on as scheduled, but there will be no outdoor activity.

According to John Bruetsch, the Cumberland County Public Information Officer, the tanker was carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel. At this time they are not sure how much of it spilled into a nearby storm drain. Both hazmat crews and members of the Department of Environmental Protection are at the scene to do soil samples and water testing.

The Carlisle Pike is closed from Rich Valley Road to Locust Point. Cleanup is expected to last several hours.

Here's the deal - the election is on the 22nd. By that night, we're going to know the results. At that point, there will be a major effort to either establish the result as a big surprise for the candidates, or as expected.

We all know what both Obama and Clinton will want to do with the results. We also know that the polls have been all over the map this campaign season, and the idea that one reporter thinks she can establish the goalposts is laughable. I suspect the result will be an eye-of-the-beholder result, especially if it's in the high single digit advantage for Clinton. Both candidates will have polls that will allow them to spin it their way, and the electorate will still be unsure what it all means.

I think there's a more interesting question - will there be another big negative "news" triviality bomb dropped this weekend on one or both of the candidates? What are the odds?

This seems alien to me.

Ali Riaz has 126 friends on his Facebook account. Ten of them are his employees.

Riaz does not mind befriending his staff members online - as long as they initiate the process. "I don't want to impose," said Riaz, chief executive of Attivio, a software company in Newton, Massachusetts. "Everyone has a different definition of what is personal and private. There is a line there, but it's a wiggly line. Whenever you are in a power position, you have to be careful."

Networking sites like MySpace and Facebook introduce people to new friends and expand their cybercircles of pals. But they are also introducing people to a sticky etiquette issue that is becoming more common: What if your boss wants to be your buddy?

That can be an awkward intersection for people who try to keep their personal spaces and their workplaces separate. But as professional and personal worlds increasingly collide online, it is becoming harder to escape the boss's reach after hours.

Here's why this is sticky - Facebook asks for the employer. If a participant enters that information online, it makes it easy for the employer to find such employees on their service. If the employee is actually using the employer as a way to define themselves on Facebook, they are displaying their behavior on Facebook as one of a company's employee, and opening themselves up for contact by other employees of the company, including the boss.

Facebook doesn't give users the option of putting in their profession WITHOUT their employer. If Facebook would do this, it would help out in this arena. As a former boss, I think the rule is pretty easy to figure out - no initiated contact of employees through Facebook that do not list their employer. Employees need to have their space away from the office. So give it. Employees should figure out that if they display their employer's name on their profile, the employer may be interested in what is being posted. It's that simple.

Sounds like it's hard to get ahead with this job in the Postal Service:

Rural Carrier Associate

Work Site of Job: Clark County, Forest County, Langlade County, Lincoln County, Marathon County, Oneida County, Portage County, Taylor County, Vilas County, Waupaca County, Wood County - Marshfield Area, Wood County - Wisconsin Rapids Area

Pay: $17.51 Per Hour

Duration/Hours Per Week: Full-Time/Part-Time, 0.1 to 40 Hours Per Week

Shift/Work Days: Mornings, Afternoons and Weekend Shift. As scheduled.

Monday through Saturday.

Number of Openings: 5

Minimum Requirements of Employer:

Education: High School Diploma/GED Equivalent Required

Professional Licenses/Certifications: No Licenses or Certifications Requested

Vehicle: Required, Mileage reimbursement available.

Drivers License: Type: Class D - Regular (Auto, Light Truck, Moped) Required Endorsements: No Endorsement Requested

Age: 18 or older Required

Experience/Qualifications: Experience: Applicants must have a valid state drivers's license, a safe driving record and at least two years of documented driving experience.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Job: Rural carrier associates are non-career employees who service on a rural route. They sort, deliver, and collect all classes of mail up to 70 pounds, along a rural route using a vehicle. Rural carrier associates provide customers on the route with a variety of services, including selling stamp supplies and moneys orders. They must generally provide and maintain their own vehicle, but are given an equipment maintenance allowance.

I guess I just found it curious that the United States Postal Service is requiring that mail delivery employees actually use their own vehicles.

Hey, I don't write it. I just cut and paste this stuff!

In perhaps the hardest hitting news story of the day, Kanye West has ‘fessed up to being obsessed with big breasted women.

The mammary-fixated hip-hop star even proposes a theory for his penchant for ladies of the buxom variety.

He tells New York magazine: "I have liked big tits ever since I was a kid. I was breastfed for too long I think. It messed me up."

I've heard that when people are bitter, they often cling to big tits. They can mess you up.

Good grief, haven't heard this song in decades.

Atrios points out that a lot of bloggers seem to be saying that Obama had a rough night last night. Frankly, I don't think the debate is going to play out that way. I think the audience, in general, is going to weigh the Symbiotic Dipshittery coming from the news media and how it impacted the questions last night, and walk away with a general sense that regardless of how the candidates responded, there was almost nothing right in how that debate was run.

I say now that the debate was at worst a wash for Obama. Clinton may have a slightly better performance on some of the questions, but it's hidden in the glare of the craven moderators of ABC, who long to be seen important in the context of Washington's Hollywood Expose crowd.

Just what is needed after watching ABC news "debates".

First of all, why would any Democrat really care about Bobo's review of the debate? He's going to support McCain in the general editorially anyways, so of course he's going to find ways to trash the candidates.

But his review of how to moderate a debate? I disagree with this premise:

I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent. The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities.

I don't think that's it at all. I think the journalist's job is to dig for information that will be of use to the public, and in a political debate, of use to the public for their participation in civic decision-making. That could be what Brooks is describing, but only if the areas of exploration are of value.

Brooks is stressing technique over everything else in the debate, and I guess I just don't think that's the top priority for most Americans. Most Americans want content - technique is secondary to the delivery of the goods. To the degree of delivering content, ABC failed in an appalling way. ABC deserves an F, but a very special F, the kind where you have to go back and take the class over again in order to participate in the final project, because they not only ran a debate where they didn't understand the most important premise, but they did it on perhaps the final debate before the nomination is determined. ABC could not have picked a worse time to be this horrible.

Search as I may, I don't see either of these two men wearing flag pins! TRAITORS!!!!!

Clearly the worst this year, maybe of all of them. Why? Because of the moderators, and their questions. Last night revealed one obvious item: Charlie Gibson is a horrible, horrible hack.

And here's a framing subject I think should be pushed back on - this notion that the middle class earns up to $250K per year. Please. According to the 2006 U.S. Census, only the top 1.5% of households made $250K or more per year. Only the top 5% made $167,000 or more. What is so middle about that? A tax increase on somebody making $200,000 or more is NOT a middle class tax increase.

Predictions.

Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets.
Dallas Mavericks beat the New Orleans Hornets.
San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns.
Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz.

Lakers beat the Mavericks.
Spurs beat the Rockets.

Lakers beat the Spurs.

As opposed to the East, I'm not very confident about these picks. The Mavericks are a hunch. In the first round, the predicted loser could end up winning the series and I wouldn't be surprised - except for the Nuggets. Denver is not going to beat Los Angeles. If Rafer Alston doesn't come back quick, I think Utah will end up beating Houston.

Some music from The Angels...

Another shot of a mall, slowly losing stores...

It's bad when the parking lot has plenty of room for trucks.

You see these signs all over the Pike...

Not sure how I missed this, but worth posting:

Some state legislators don't like all the TV commercials from Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans. State Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, complains Highmark Inc. runs TV spots "relentlessly" in his western Pennsylvania district.

He wonders why, given Highmark already dominates the health insurance market in that part of the state. He also wondered if the cost of the commercials, which include health-related public service messages, are counted as part of the Blues' social missions.

Blues plans -- Pennsylvania has four -- are nonprofits, and must fulfill a social mission in return for non-profit status.

The subject of the ads came up this week as legislators questioned Anita Smith, CEO of Susquehanna Twp.-based Capital Blue Cross. Smith said the commercials aren't counted as part of the social mission.

She also defended the need for the Blues, who compete against major for-profit insurers including Aetna and HealthAmerica, to promote their brand. And the public service spots, such as those encouraging kids to eat healthy and exercise, can eventually lower health care costs by reducing obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses, she said.

Smith appears in many of Capital's ads. "The talent comes cheap. They don't pay me for it, and they don't pay the little blue guy," she said, referring to her "Blue Man" co-star.

That seems misleading. Is Smith trying to say that she isn't being paid for being the public face of Capital Blue Cross? If not, why does she do it?

As for the blue guy, doesn't somebody get paid to create him?

Will predict the West when the seedings for the first round are set.

Boston beats Atlanta
Detroit beats Philadelphia
Orlando beats Toronto
Washington beats Cleveland

Boston beats Washington
Detroit beats Orlando

Detroit beats Boston

My Mom liked her a lot. Me too.

I never understood it, anyways - it just prevented advertising purchases for higher risk keywords. Do they want to sell inventory or not?

Yahoo Search Marketing has announced that it will eliminate its 10 cent minimum keyword bid for text-based ads in the United States. The change is set to go into effect this week, according to a Yahoo spokesman.

The pricing change “is simply the next step in Yahoo's ultimate goal of offering the most efficient pricing for high quality advertisers and continually improving the ad quality for our end users,” said Kristen Wareham, director of corporate communications for Yahoo, when reached by e-mail.

Quinnipiac Poll Results:

April 15: Clinton 50 - Obama 44

April 8: Clinton 50 - Obama 44

April 2: Clinton 50 - Obama 41

March 18: Clinton 53 - Obama 41

It seems somewhat stable to me, Clinton can't put the big number up in Pennsylvania, and Obama can't catch her. There's a week to go, and short of any mind-numbing gaffes, the sort we haven't really seen in the past month (I don't care what people say about Tuzla or bitter, they aren't the kinds of mistakes that scare big numbers of supporters off), we're going to go into Election Day with the same kinds of numbers. I figure that 4% of the unknowns will go with Hillary, and 2% will go with Obama, leaving it at 54-46.

I suspect it's a sign that the candidates agree if they don't spend the entire next week in Pennsylvania.

Weird. He's running radio ads in Pennsylvania. Why? Is there a chance he's going to run for President outside of the Republican Party? The news reports things like this:

"...Republican candidate Ron Paul, who hasn’t officially dropped out of the race but isn’t active on the campaign trail... "

but he's running ads and he's speaking in the state, maybe it's not HEAVILY active, but it sure still appears active to me.

Man, it's getting hard to find interesting non-campaign blog posts these days. So much primary reactionary blather. Blah blah blah.

I haven't eaten at an Olive Garden in at least a decade. Why? I won't wait around like they require by their table policy.

Wherever Larry Ellison goes, he should ask, was this the right thing to do? Not that it was legal - was it right?

Seriously, that Rock of Love show is one of the worst programs - and programming ideas - ever.

The Pennsylvania Progressive is hanging it up.

Is bulk text messaging right around the corner?

Hope and pray for good news for Andante.

Does anybody think 2004 would have played out significantly differently if John Kerry's Democratic primary opponents had challenged his Viet Nam experience? Not necessarily as aggressively or dishonestly as the Swift Boaters but maybe played the "Winter Soldier" episode against him or brought up some conflicting details of his service.

Would there have been a different nominee? Would Kerry have been better prepared for the same attacks in the general election? Or would Kerry have been weakened and lost by a larger margin?

Much of my support for Kerry was based on "electability". If I had been aware of his vulnerability to attacks on his military record, I'm sure I would have rethought that support.

My gut feeling is that Kerry would have been a stronger candidate had he survived that vetting - and the Swift Boaters would have been mostly defanged. And if the line of attack resulted in a different nominee, who knows how the election turns out?

This spring gauntlet run will hopefully produce a better equipped-and-prepared 2008 Democratic nominee for the fall.

I'm sorry, I just got caught up in oneblogmanship with lyzurgyk.

But if you're curious...

I couldn't stand looking at Barclay and Rove anymore.

The actress is said to have agreed to strip down for just £40,000 for the indie film Florence to prove herself as a "mature actress".

The 21-year-old, who previously played a pole dancer in the box-office flop I Know Who Killed Me, has reportedly agreed to "full frontal" nudity in her role as a nymphomaniac waitress in the drama.

An insider told The Sun: “Lindsay doesn't care she's getting paid peanuts. She wants to remind people she can act and that she is worth hiring.”

Another source added: “She is fully aware of the potential of her body. Lindsay wants to build up an image as a mature, responsible actress.”

Local guy makes the blogs! What's next for Bruce Barclay? Courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

Yeah, seriously, I thought Ron Paul's campaign was over, but I am seeing a LOT of signs for him on the West Shore.

What is the normal reaction of someone who is bitter when they are described as bitter? What is the normal reaction of someone who is not bitter when they are described as bitter?

What is the normal reaction of someone who is bitter about the asininity of our political media coverage on said political media coverage about the word "bitter"?

Did I say bitter? Bitter? Bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter bitter?

Listen to this morning’s “Meet the Press” if you want an example. Tim Russert, one of the smartest guys on television...

Ouch.

Well ...it was worth a try.

Beantown-loving construction worker Gino Castignoli, who lives in The Bronx, confessed to The Post last week that he buried a Red Sox slugger David Ortiz jersey at the site last summer while working at the stadium.

After reading about the traitorous act in The Post, the two workers approached a construction manager and said they remembered Castignoli, who only worked at the Stadium one day, and thought they knew where he must have placed the shirt.

They led the manager to a service corridor near the site of the planned Legends Club restaurant, behind home plate and toward the third base side.

After the hardhats pointed to the spot, workers brought out jackhammers and dug furiously for five hours, creating a 2-foot- by-3-foot, gravel-filled pit in their search for the tainted threads.

They spotted the jersey at 3:25 p.m. and called Yankee brass. The cursed shirt was about two feet deep in cement.

...

"I hope his coworkers kick the shit out of him," said George's boy, who now runs the team with his brother Hal.

Hank put no stock in talk of curses or in Castignoli's cruel bid to hex the Yankees' new $1.3 billion home.

A buried jersey, he reassured worried fans, means nothing.

"It's a bunch of bullshit," Hank said.

But Castignoli scoffed at the top Yankee honcho's ready dismissal.

"So, then, why is he making such a big stink about it?" asked the would-be hexer. "If it's no big deal, why not let it lay? Apparently, it's bothering him.

"Tell Hank he can come meet me if he wants to try - and tell him to bring [catcher Jorge] Posada, because he's the one Yankee I can't stand."

All class, that Steinbrenner kid!

If pizza lasts two whole days in our refrigerator at our house, that's bad pizza. We've now had several pieces saved in our refrigerator for three days from a store-bought pizza - I can't say what kind it is because I didn't cook it, and we don't remember what we bought - and nobody wants to touch it. Unheard of around these parts.

I do remember that it cost $3 on sale at Giant, so I guess I won't be buying any more $3 frozen pizzas.

I'm a cold pizza fan. I think Christine Lavin was on the right track. Our son would eat pizza for all three meals each day if we let him. There's no way it should still be in our fridge - it's gonna get tossed.

I'm going to be planting 3-4 small trees in our yard this spring, mostly to help out with absorbing water and assisting the drainage in our side yard. I really like The Arbor Day Foundation web site, it's been very useful as I research the kinds of trees I might use. Kudos.

Makes sense to me. Give this a read, Cumberland County Library System...

Didn't Tom Vilsack support Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus? Didn't Hillary Clinton come in THIRD in that event? If Iowans don't care what Tom Vilsack has to say, why would anyone drag him out to talk to Pennsylvanians? Could there be a less significant former government official that could be pushed out for comments?

Seriously, to the Clinton Campaign - if you have a story that you think has legs, don't bring the Vilsack.

From a speech in Indiana...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Barack Obama said anti-abortion Democrats are backing him because they feel he respects their opinion on the issue despite disagreement on it.

The Democratic presidential candidate favors abortion rights, but he noted his support from former Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania who are anti-abortion.

"It may be that those who have opposed abortion get a sense that I'm listening to them and respect their position even though where we finally come down may be different," he told reporters at a news conference.

"The mistake that pro-choice forces have sometimes made in the past, and this is a generalization so it has not always been the case, has been to not acknowledge the wrenching moral issues involved in it," he said.

"Most Americans recognize that what we want to do is avoid, or help people avoid, having to make this difficult choice. That nobody is pro-abortion, abortion is never a good thing."

This bugs me on several levels.

First off, I don't know any pro-choicers who don't consider abortion a wrenching moral issue. But they believe that wrenching moral issues should be decided by the individual not the government. I'm not buying into the "abortion as birth control" caricature and I don't believe Obama honestly does either.

Secondly, does Obama actually feel all it takes to satisfy pro-lifers is "listening to them and respecting their position"? That's ridiculously naive. Or is he really not firmly committed to choice?

This is the Obama that strikes me as the guy who thinks he can talk his way around anything. Hell, maybe he can.

I tend to chew gum, big dumb galoot that I am. Seems to me that the price of gum dropped a dime between two weeks ago and today at Giant. Temporary, local, or reflective of competing for dollars against the increasing prices of real food?

What is the deal with this property on the Carlisle Pike? It's been vacant for a long, long time - how come?

Love the show.

Yakuza - Black Market Liver

Their drugs are better than yours.

No, not for any sport - for Haar's Drive-In in Dillsburg.

We've become fans.

NBC Meet The Press

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT WEEKEND LISTINGS 4/13/08

JAMES CARVILLE Democratic Strategist

MARY MATALIN Republican Strategist

MIKE MURPHY Republican Strategist

BOB SHRUM Democratic Strategist

I wonder, if you morphed all four of these people together, would the result turn you to stone?

For those who like to have a little statistical analysis of NBA players, Basketball Monster seems like a cool stop.

And for adults, perhaps some trivia to drop eventfully on unsuspecting ears: the history of orgies.

Okay, I will admit to having a Facebook account, and from time to time I go there and do some of the goofy questions and apps they offer, but I guess I don't get it. I see Facebook as a silly little diversion, and there's no way in the world I would pay to use it, and I find the advertising there just as useless as I find most of the advertising anywhere else on the Internet. So why in the world would Microsoft value it at $15 billion dollars? How?

I know that some of people are buying into some sort of "referral" model of advertising that will somehow become more effective on Facebook, but I don't think so. I have found that the outside messages - advertising, news feeds, etc., - on Facebook are actually MORE ANNOYING there than they are in other places. Why? Because in other places, they're just competing with some other big company's noise, but on Facebook, they're competing with information about - and from - people I actually, or at least sorta, know. The advertising drops even more significantly on the "matters to me" scale by comparison.

So... once again, I just don't get it.

I dunno, I suspect American Airlines will be bought up on the cheap by the end of the year. This is just too public of a projectile diarrhea event in the marketplace.

I would have hoped that our nation was teaching people to be more responsible than to intentionally provide their underage kids with alcohol.

Apparently, I would have been wrong.

The overwhelming message from panelists at the Town Hall meeting on underage drinking Wednesday was that parents have proven to be the most common source for kids having access to alcohol.

The first speaker from the panel was a high school student who began drinking when she was 12 years old.

“I went with a friend to her parents cabin, and they let us have the alcohol. They didn’t have a problem with it, so I thought, ‘OK, it’s not that big of a deal.’ We went to parties and we mostly got the alcohol from parents,” said Jessie, whose last name is withheld.

Jessie went on to say, looking back, she couldn’t believe that so many of the parents didn’t try and prevent it.

This is just sad, and is just another reason why parents ought to know the parents of their kids' best friends.

Interesting.

Hackers hired by a News Corp (NWS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit stole and posted data that allowed free access to Dish Network's (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research) satellite television service, the company said, in a corporate spying trial against its rival that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Dubbed the "Black Hat Team," the computer whizzes flooded the market with smart cards that allowed free satellite TV access, a lawyer for Dish said on Wednesday. The suit was brought by EchoStar Communications which later split into two companies, Dish and EchoStar Corp.

A lawyer for News Corps's NDS Group (NNDS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) denied that the company engaged in spying, saying during opening statements in the trial that it was instead engaged in reverse engineering by obtaining the codes and were monitoring piracy.

"Because this is a competitive business, NDS also monitors competitors," NDS attorney Richard Stone told jurors. "NDS has done nothing to illegally harm or damage EchoStar. All NDS has done is compete hard and fair in the marketplace."

Dish is suing NDS and NDS Americas in a corporate espionage trial that U.S. District Judge David Carter said could bring an award of "hundreds of millions or perhaps billions."

Go Dish Network, go Dish Network, go Dish Network...

MY EYES!!!

I bet you didn't know that so many states are still in legislative session this year. Funny how a Presidential primary keeps the attention away from that...

Does anyone really make any money doing these kinds of affiliate programs? I mean, besides companies like Circuit City?

I'd like to know how much money and resources this waste of time, courtesy of the jackasses at the 2006 Lieberman campaign, cost America.

Something I don't understand about this policy...

The state House took steps yesterday to ease the financial crunch that has left thousands of families scrambling to avoid losing their homes.

Five bills that address how mortgages are sold were approved. The legislation would tighten oversight of real estate appraisers, let banking regulators disclose discipline taken against mortgage brokers and bankers more quickly, and make information about delinquent loans more readily available.

It also would ban prepayment penalties for loans of $197,000 or less, an amount that would be adjusted for inflation in the future, and create a single type of license for all mortgage originators.

What is magical about $197K? I understand that a lender might want to require a minimum amount of interest to be paid on a loan, to help the lender determine the most effective use of capital. However, I don't understand why it should be couched as a penalty, rather than a specific payment requirement. And I think legislators ought to explain in public what the magical reason for $197K would be for penalties - it seems arbitrary but we all know it isn't, so what's the reasoning?

Slowly emptying.

Robots!

At your local strip mall:

The vacancy rate at U.S. strip malls rose to the highest level since 1996 in the first quarter of 2008, while that for big malls reached levels unseen since 2002, research firm Reis said on Friday.

The amount of space occupied by retailers fell for the first time since Reis began tracking the sector in 1980.

"Retailers are grappling with the implications of the housing and job market downturns for consumer activity, with the result that retail sector fundamentals -- occupancy and rent levels -- are being strained by anemic demand for space," Reis chief economist Sam Chandan said in statement.

Strip mall vacancies rose 0.2 percentage points from the preceding quarter to 7.7 percent.

By the end of the year, the rate likely will reach or surpass 8 percent, Reis said.

Here's one you wouldn't expect... Insects by Oingo Boingo - whoda thunk? Someone brilliant at South Allegheny High School Band, that's who...

I don't know about you, but I just don't see how blueberry and coffee should go together, ever.

Nothing could motivate me more to vote for, send money to, knock on doors for, do whatever it takes to get the Democrat elected than John McCain selecting Condoleeza Rice as his running mate. She was there every step of the way through every foreign policy and national security blunder of the past eight years serving as Bush's chief enabler and "Yes" woman. Condi might be a nice lady but she's clearly been over her head since day one. Seems like Republicans never hesitate to encourage and reward incompetence.

Get thee back to academia, Dr. Rice!

From Republicans - such as how he doesn't get fundraising.

Could this catch on to the workplace?

Why does a winner-take-all delegate system make more sense than a proportional delegate system?

Or more importantly - for whom does it make more sense?

Apparently the rabble is messing this up. It's the rabble's fault!

Our son had a buddy over yesterday and I was driving his buddy back to his house, and I asked both of them about their favorite teams. When we got to hockey, well, our son doesn't know much about it, we don't follow it at home. But he insisted that the Hershey Bears were his favorite team.

"Why?"

"Because they're really good at hockey fights" was the answer.

"Really? Is that important?"

"Yeah! They fight, and they knock the other team unconscious with their punches, and then it's easy to score!"

Oh, so that's hockey...

Hat tip to Suburban Guerrilla. Rotten Neighbor is sure to bring out the big uglies of the Internet.

In honor of Charlton Heston:

I knew there was a good reason I like it:

In recent years, the medicinal properties of cinnamon have been explored scientifically by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists in Maryland.

A recent study included 60 people with Type II diabetes. The participants ate a small amount (less than one-fourth teaspoon) of cinnamon twice per day. After 40 days, the participants showed a decrease in blood sugar, triglycerides and blood cholesterol (LDL and total cholesterol) levels.

The scientists reported that cinnamon may improve the efficiency of insulin, which is the hormone responsible for moving blood sugar (glucose) into cells. In fact, the effects of cinnamon lasted up to 20 days.

I wonder how much of a hit the blogosphere will take after November? The intensity of blogging - the emotional investment of bloggers into people and events - seems to be running high and likely to continue doing so up until the general election. What's the burnout factor here? Will we see a reduction in force of bloggers after the general election?

4 per cent of internet data traffic consists purely of junk.

but c'mon, this is embarrassing...

Home delivery of frozen meat products from an odd yellow truck frightens me but you'd be surprised whose house the Schwan guy stops at. I've had two friends who were big fans and the excitement in their homes upon his arrival was strangely similar.

"Honey, the meat man's here!"
"Good, we're all out of chicken nuggets."

In the past, there has been certain paperwork required at the bank, or at accountants, or other locales, that I've driven over to Camp Hill or New Cumberland because it was cost-effective/efficient. Too bulky to fax, etc.

But now... with the cost of gas, I'm mailing this stuff. It's actually cheaper when I include the time required to ferry it over. How long can that keep up? How long until the next postal increase, based on the cost of fuel?

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT
WEEKEND LISTINGS 4/06/08

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA)
Obama supporter

GOVERNOR ED RENDELL (D-PA)
Clinton supporter

I need to write a book. There's money in that!

Coming from Indiana, where both my mom's and dad's families lived for generations, it became a family requirement to root for Indiana-based colleges in various sports, and in no sport is that more important than in hoops. Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Evansville, Notre Dame, Indiana State, even lesser known schools like Ball State and junior colleges such as Vincennes University, have rich hoops history that demands the Hoosier-born to respect it.

Indiana University has had a less-than-spectacular basketball history for a long time now, dating back to the last few years of the Bobby Knight era. For the first time in a while, it appears they have hired a coach that might bring IU back to a dominance that Hoosiers expect and desire. Good luck, Tom Crean.

Hopefully this isn't a violation of our primary blackout but I thought this was a neat idea!

The Obama campaign's latest gimmick: a high school-outreach program that targets students who will turn 18 by the Nov. 4 general election, making them eligible as primary voters. Indiana students who register at least 20 of their peers by April 6 will be eligible to play three-on-three basketball with Obama, a big-time hoops fan and reputed aggressor on the court.

I work at home. There's a lot of upside to it - flexibility to be with the kids when they need me, a lot cheaper costs on commuting and office clothes, etc. There's some downside as well - it can get lonely working by yourself, and you have to set up routines that put you around people for conversation and comradery, even if that's the coffee shop or the YMCA. Like any other work environment, there are times when I strongly value the benefits, and times when I am unhappy with the limitations.

One of the things that comes from working out of your house is that some neighbors seem to think that since you're around, you're not doing anything, or much of importance, anyways. The importance part might be true, except this is how I make my living, so it's important to us.

True story from a few days ago - the doorbell rings, and I can see it's one of my neighbors as I come down the stairs. I answer the door.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Working," I answer.

"Do you have five minutes?" he asks.

This is a trick question. Interruptions are never for five minutes, and when I'm in the middle of a job, it's some work to come back after a lengthy break and figure out where I am on it.

"Not really, I'm kinda busy. What's up?" I replied.

And then I found out. Our neighborhood ordered a porta-potty for one of our neighborhood parks for the next six months, it makes it easier for neighbors to have events there with a bathroom facility. It was delivered yesterday, and apparently in the wrong place in the park. This neighbor wanted me to go help him move the porta-potty to the correct place. Like, now. Ha ha ha. It's not a big job, but it's not my job, and my job needs me to work at it at that time.

"C'mon, that's the company's job. Call them up and tell them to place it where we requested it, that was part of the deal. We don't need to do this, that's their job, that's what we're paying them for," I told him. He said okay, and went on his way.

Yeaaarrrgh. I don't know, it just struck me as funny, that somehow I'm the guy he thought of to move a porta-potty in the middle of a work day. I'm going to have to do some reputation building, I think.

Thank you, credit companies.

Consumers fell behind on car, credit- card and home-equity loans at the highest level in 15 years, another sign the U.S. economy is slowing, according to the American Bankers Association's quarterly survey.

Payments at least 30 days past due increased across all eight categories of loans tracked during the fourth quarter, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. Late loans in the quarter climbed 21 basis points to 2.65 percent of all accounts in a consumer-loan index created by the group.

Look, it's this simple - Michigan's primary was screwed up beyond repair the first time. Short of a revote, there's no way you can allow the delegate distribution as a result of that primary vote in the convention - it's not fair to the candidates, and it's not fair to Michigan's voters. Perhaps everyone can take some blame in this fact, but it is a fact.

It's also not fair for Michigan's voters to not be represented at all, but this is a choice between two equal failures. Is it better to have an unrealistic result based on various parties not following the rules of the primary election, or no result based on various parties not following the rules of the primary election? That is why supposedly responsible Democrats such as Jon Corzine need to quit suggesting that the Michigan results should be counted as is, either by delegates or by popular vote. Those results are tainted, we all know it, and responsible parties need to quit ignoring that fact. Corzine should be pressing for a revote in Michigan, period, as should all responsible Democrats. Revote or no vote are the options, period.

Apparently, that is the fate of the Isuzu.

The end of the line for Isuzu in North America: Isuzu Motors, which helped popularize sport utes in the 1980s, will exit the North American consumer market on Jan. 31, 2009. The Japanese company attributed the decision to General Motors ceasing production for Isuzu of the Ascender sport utility vehicle and I-290 and I-370 pickups. Ascender is a rebadged Chevrolet TrailBlazer, which GM is expected to discontinue. The I-series pickups are versions of the Chevy Colorado small pickup. "It has always been our intention to remain in the U.S. market," Terry Maloney of Isuzu Motors America, said in a statement. "However, we were unable to secure any commercially viable replacements for these vehicles." Isuzu's boxy Trooper sparked interest in truck-based sport utes in the late 1980s, helping push its U.S. sales to a peak of 103,629 in 1999. Since then, Isuzu has had the industry's steepest decline, selling just 7,098 vehicles last year.

Our neighborhood is over 40 years old in many parts (including the part where we live) and many of the trees in various yards were planted when the development was being built. We have a beautiful neighborhood of mature trees, plenty of summer shade, plenty of fall color, lots of raking...

And what seems to me to be a growing woodpecker population. I've always heard them around here, but as we wait at the bus stop, you can listen to their working signatures from various points in the neighborhood. At this time of year, most of the trees still appear dormant, so it may take a while to find the sickly oak or maple that is being worked upon, but there are a growing number of "feeding" trees for the woodpeckers. Tree cullers are going to be an even more common site in our neighborhood this summer...

BTW, we have 9 species of woodpeckers that either live year-round in Pennsylvania or visit the state in winter.

It sure seems like more than ten years since Michael Jordan scored in an NBA game.

Making direct mail green?

Let's not kid ourselves.

Let's use this as a starting point. Give All Spin Zone a read on this.

And now for my personal experience.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've really blogged anything here about the primary race, and here's what I've learned:

It's pretty easy to avoid blogging about it.

Of course, that is from my standpoint as a blogger. I still read about it, still go to blogs that post about it, but I will admit to feeling a bit better today while not blogging about it, as opposed to feeling a need to post about the day's relatively minor primary news. So much of the campaign news is blow, and blowback, of no longterm substance, but only by standing off, and watching from a further distance, was I able to accept that as a blogging choice.

I'm not saying that the primary race isn't important. I'm saying that most of the blogging that is going on about the primary race isn't that important. Probably, at least 80% is blogger opinion, reflecting personal preferences of one sort or another.

We've voluntarily joined the talking head realm in pixels, and are obliging to pontificate on every day's visible or imaginary slight or promotion for the candidate we support. We have surged in our own self-importance. Are we making a difference in the primary campaigns? Perhaps. Are we making a difference in the primary campaigns that we can be proud of later? Very questionable.

I really don't see the need to blog about the primary activity at this point - the benefit for you as a reader can't be great enough, and at this point, there is no ego boost for me. I don't mind being a repeater, but there are so many other interesting things in the world worth repeating, I don't see why I should focus this blog in the primary. Everyone else is doing it - why should I? So, unless I feel I have some sort of rare insight into an primary campaign issue - and that is ridiculously unlikely - this will NOT be a good place to go to if you're looking for primary news.

But, if you've been here much, you probably already knew that!

Great question of the day: What popular person, song, movie, fashion, or whatever else has failed utterly to capture your fancy, but you're pretty sure it was just you?

(by the way, a good answer for me is sushi)

Yes - once a government goes into generating revenue from a certain type of business, they are often stuck in the position of trying to maximize the revenue from that business. That is why Rendell's casinos plan didn't make sense to me in the first place.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture - if you haven't seen it online yet, give yourself 12 minutes. The last 30 seconds packs the big wallop.

Oliver, Oliver, Oliver... you need some NCAA hoops immersion.

Pennsylvania has the silliest six-pack beer laws in the land.

Today's kids will wonder what this was...

Number of Visa and MasterCard credit card and debit card accounts in the U.S. in 2006.

I guess that's kind of how I feel about golf rap videos. Some people like lima beans. Some people like sushi. I'm not any of those people.

Boy I hate Texas Roadhouse.

They have six beers on tap - 3 light beers (Coors Light, Miller Lite and Mich Ultra), two white beers (Sam Adams and Blue Moon) and one domestic, Yuengling - which they serve at ten degrees below zero so you can't taste it anyways. All for $5 a glass!

Then they make you wait thirty minutes for a table hoping you'll drink an extra beer. And don't get me started on the stupid music.

Finally got around to visiting our new casino up at Penn National last week and came away with mixed impressions.

The Good

Traffic was no problem and parking is free and easy. There's a parking garage attached to the casino with only a short walk to an entrance.

The horseracing experience has been upgraded. The set-up is similar to the old Penn National without the second and third floors and the grandstand seating. The Mountainview Terrace Restaurant occupies the lowest level, then box seats and finally an area at the top with concessions, tables and betting windows. I'm not sure but it appears you may need to go down through the casino to get trackside. They've also added a Simulcast Theater.

Tough for me to judge the slots. I'd find more entertainment value in tossing quarters off the Walnut Street bridge. But they have plenty of them - although I didn't see some of the most popular machines I've seen in Vegas like "Price is Right". They have an automated $10 Blackjack kiosk game that seats about 15 which was always full. There is also small section of video poker games in the back of the casino which I do like to play.

The entire facility was clean and well-lit.

The Not So Good

Their design consultant ripped them off. The Hollywood theme is cheesy and unimaginative. It basically consists of large movie poster billboards around the place - mostly for recent B movies - and some fancy lighting. The lounge showpiece is a large sky screen over the stage but it seemed kind of pointless to me. They are booking local acts but the music experience is antiseptic with recording music cutting off the bands if they play past their allotted time. Not a place to go for music.

The Bad

Hollywood Casino advertises six restaurants but only two offer table service. One of those is the expensive Mountainview Terrace Dining Room which serves a limited menu and is geared to horseplayers. The other is the Hollywood Skybox Sports Bar. Moderately priced pub menu but since it's the only sit-down restaurant, it fills up fast when the casino is busy. The other four are not much more than glorified concession stands. Place your order and take a number. Very disappointing.

Service in general was average to below. Tough to get a drink in the casino. The bartenders in the lounge were slow and I was never approached by a cocktail waitress in my limited slot time. Not as bad up in the race area but the beers are 4.00 there as opposed to 2.50 at the OTB's.

Also this is not an "Under 21"-friendly place. They can get into the horseracing area upstairs but they are not allowed on the casino floor. Unless your children are fascinated watching degenerates gamble on horses, I would advise against bringing the kids.

Conclusion

Even though it's far from what it could have been, you'll probably still have a good time at the Casino (especially if you are lucky enough to win some money) simply because it's a different kind of experience for the area.

Just remember... bet with your head not over it!

Seems like an interesting case.

James Krider has filed a lawsuit against banking giant Capital One Bank over post-bankruptcy false credit reporting. Mr. Krider alleges that Capital One has continued to credit report Capital One accounts as delinquent or charged off on his credit reports even though he discharged them in bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Krider is represented by prominent Southern California credit damage and identity theft attorney Robert F. Brennan, of La Crescenta, Ca. James Krider v. Capital One Bank, et al., Case No. CV 07-07707 ODW (AJWx), United States District Court, Central District (Los Angeles).

I don't know about you, but I expect my MSNBC personalities to be able to run a 15 second 100 yard dash. Anything less from a man is prissy.

I predict that the Lopez Twins will be the biggest sibling busts the NBA has ever experienced. I know, easy prediction, but still... They are surprisingly weak in the middle for 7-footers. They will get eaten alive in the NBA. They won't be there long. Dear Sacramento - do not draft one of these guys.

I haven't done this in a while, link to the blogs that are blogrolled at a site I regularly check out. As has been discussed here before, this is a good way to help other blogs out, as it helps their PageRank in search output at Google. So, here's the blogroll at TommyWonk for review and googling:

The Colossus of Rhodey -- The Delaware Curmudgeon -- Delaware Dem at Daily Kos -- Delaware Grapevine -- DelawareLiberal -- Delaware Libertarian -- DelawarePolitics.net -- Delaware Watch -- Delaware Way -- Down with Absolutes! -- Gazizza.net -- karmically speaking -- kavips -- Kilroy's Delaware -- Liberal Delight -- Meet Bob Archer -- Merit Bound Alley -- Mike's Musings -- Sneaking Suspicions -- WDEL Blog: Allan Loudell -- WGMD Blog -- Blue State Rising -- Ted Blunt -- John Carney -- Matt Denn -- Jack Markell -- The All Spin Zone -- Attytood -- Changing Skyline -- Corrente -- Eschaton -- MyDD -- Philly Future -- PSoTD -- Slacktivist -- A Smoke Filled Room -- Suburban Guerrilla -- Young Philly Politics -- Blog For America -- Blogging On Water -- Brad DeLong -- Coeruleus -- The Cunning Realist -- The Daily Howler -- Daily Kos -- Digby -- Echidne of the Snakes -- Economist's View -- Environmental Economics -- firedoglake -- Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory -- Gristmill -- How to Change the World -- Jesus Was Not a Republican -- New Democrat Network -- Talking Points Memo -- Think Progress -- The Washington Note