Kids? You're gonna have to share your rooms tonight
with some guests...there's a storm coming...suck it up kids!
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Monday, December 28, 2020
My Himiway ebike has not yet arrived, but I have been wondering...
Can an electric bike handle snow?
It does well in warm weather, but how about in Canada?
Sunday, December 27, 2020
JP Sears is back and he has some things to say about the Internet & Big Tech...
JP does use some colorful language in his post.
Saturday, December 26, 2020
With this covid thing...I'm actually thinking of "adopting" a cat!
To watch movies with me...
Years ago Keelan found this kitten in an alley
in downtown Lancaster, Keelan heard the purring.
So Keelan delivered it to me!
I liked it...
I had it for a few weeks, then Keelan gave it to somebody else...!
Friday, December 25, 2020
A Christmas Day tribute to Courtney & her sister Alyson...
They are both RN's, Courtney in Phila, her twin sister in NYC.
They both deal with covid patients. Courtney & her daughter have tested positive.
Courtney had headaches & lost smell & taste senses.
And ten days of work, which they paid her for...
Her daughter showed no effects & is fine.
But. Since around April, Courtney arrives home about 8PM.
Jason meets her in the garage with a robe.
They put her work clothes in a plastic bag.
And Courtney goes inside for a shower.
And sometimes has a glass of wine or two...
That's Hero stuff.
Grandkids walking around Disneyland in Anaheim, Ca a couple of years ago.
Luke, Brynn, Amada & Justin...
Disneyland in 1963
Looks rather small to me. It's gotten bigger.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
JP Sears asked me if he could appear on my Blog
To wish you all a Merry Christmas...I said ok, but no politics JP!
So JP did what he does. I knew he would...
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Why some people get angry about certain things.
They just look into the camera and lie to us with a straight face...
they knew Hunter was a sleaze bag!
This is CNN...
Monday, December 21, 2020
What does a kid from Australia know about Massachusetts?
The HBO Special on The Bee Gees is great!
Make sure you watch it 'til the end & if you don't hear too well,
click on the closed caption feature...There are lyrics I've never heard before.
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Friday, December 18, 2020
If you are wondering why your package hasn't arrived...
during the recent snow storm...
Shocking photos show what happened when a dozen tractor-trailers skidded out of control on snow-covered Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania during Wednesday night’s winter storm — killing one person and injuring a number of others.
The 66-vehicle pileup, including 55 trucks and 11 passenger vehicles, over a mile span on the westbound side of the highway happened around 3 p.m. Wednesday in Clinton County, State Police said Thursday.
The stretch remained closed Thursday afternoon with contractors trying to clear the vehicles, according to cops.
Truckers are badasses...
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Doctor's Lynne & Jill
I don’t recall Lynne Cheney
being called “Dr. Cheney” very often. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature. Her dissertation was titled “Matthew Arnold’s Possible Perfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold’s Poetry.” That sounds at least as worthy of respect as Jill Biden’s dissertation...
“Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students’ Needs.”
P.S. I gather that within academia there are even more rules and competing snobberies on such matters. Physicists think they deserve the honorific but maybe English professors don’t? I’ll leave all that for the commenters below.
***Kyle Smith & Jonah Goldberg contributed to this post. Thought you should know that.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Saturday, December 12, 2020
At the ARMY/NAVY Game today...
it appears that President Trump was cheered. Who allowed that to happen?
Friday, December 11, 2020
This is why every person in America turning 19 should be issued a dog!
It has long been said that people do not truly grow up until they have a kid.
I'm suggesting they be given a dog before they have a kid to see if they can "Handle IT"
Let's go for a ride on a Himiway ebike
Oh yea, and somebody handed me this today...
...so if you need a drum...
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Jason & Brynn are in the process of converting their basement
into a Studio. Inspired by the Allentown Blue Step Studio setup!
Brynn & jason both like to draw
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
A spider in your bathroom is not necessarily a bad thing.
I saw a spider hanging around some decorative bottles I have on my bathroom sink.
First instinct is to crush the spider. Then I said to myself, "Self, leave it alone and let it do what spiders do" and my spider did what spiders do! It was a tiny spider, but it did do some nasty...
The spider also got two bees that I swept away
before I took a photo...
No idea where the spider is currently
spinning it's web.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
You sang it to your kids...
your kids sing it to their kids. But do you know the words?
And do you know who wrote it?
1) Paul Rice wrote it in 1937, inspired by a letter from a fan, and sold his rights to Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell in 1940. Some time later, Mitchell sold his share to Davis. This story is the most trustworthy.
2) Jimmie Davis wrote it in the early twenties. This version is unprovable.
3) An unknown lady singer from South Carolina wrote the song and offered it to the Pine Ridge Boys. Another unconfirmed story, but at least it would explain why they were the first to record it.
4) According to Prof. Toru Mitsui (Kanazawa University), the song was written in 1933 by Oliver Hood. Although the source is very authoritative, also this theory cannot be proven for certain.
Currently, Davis is registered as the sole author of the song.
PEER INTERNATIONAL CORP
Jimmie Davis
One other thing...
Remember that guy from France?
Here's a little about him...
To start the puzzle, Norman Braman was a local kid – born in West Chester in 1932. When he was a youngster, the Eagles held training camp in West Chester and his aunt’s house was next door to their training facilities. One summer, he kept going to their practices and wound up being a water-boy.
His family eventually moved to the Cobbs Creek section of the city. There, his father, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, owned a barbershop. His mother, born in Russia, was a seamstress who also worked. So, as you can see, Norman Braman’s roots were not embedded in opulence.
As a teenager, he would go to Shibe Park to watch the Eagles play. Short on funds, he would sneak into the stadium to watch the games.
After attending West Philadelphia High, he matriculated at Temple and graduated in 1955 with a degree in business administration. His first job after college was with Seagram’s in the marketing and sales department. It wasn’t until two years later that he began to separate himself from the masses.
In 1957, working in partnership with his father-in-law, he founded Keystone Stores, a chain of self-service discount clothing stores in Philadelphia. That business led to a string of 46 drug stores – which led to manufacturing pharmaceuticals with Philadelphia Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics. In 1967, the company went public and Braman became a substantial shareholder.
In 1969, he was presented with an opportunity to sell for a huge profit – and he did. Considering himself retired at 36, he moved to Coral Gables, Florida, with a wife and two young daughters. He bought a home on a canal and found a houseboat docked behind his home.
The owner of the houseboat asked Braman if he could keep the houseboat parked there until Braman moved into his new home. Braman agreed. The owner of the houseboat told Braman to ask if he ever needed the favor returned.
By the way, the owner of the houseboat owned a Cadillac dealership.
In 1972, Braman went to him and mentioned that he was interested in getting into the automobile business. The Cadillac dealer recommended a Chevy dealership that was up for sale in Tampa. Braman purchased the dealership and started selling cars.
Three years later, he bought another automobile dealership, this one in Miami, which he called Braman Enterprises. He then parlayed that dealership into a total of 23 other dealerships in both Florida and Colorado – all of them selling luxury cars. By then, the former Eagles water-boy was close to becoming a billionaire.
In 1982, he started dabbling in football by helping renovate the Orange Bowl for Dolphins owner Joe Robbie.
In 1985, when Braman learned of Leonard Tose’s financial insolvency and his threats to move the Eagles to Phoenix, he stepped in to keep the Eagles in Philadelphia. Together with brother-in-law Ed Leibowitz, Braman bought the Eagles for $65-million.
In Leonard Tose’s final year of ownership of the Eagles, he lost $4-million.
In Norman Braman’s first six years of ownership, the Eagles made a profit of $48.5-million and he bought out his brother-in-law’s share in 1987. Braman was indeed a shrewd businessman, but that would soon become a common complaint among Eagles fans. To their way of thinking, Braman was treating the Eagles too much like a business – and not enough like fun and games.
Braman raised the season-ticket base from 40,000 to 55,000 – but he also tripled the price of season tickets. At the same time, while putting a good team on the field, Braman was pinching pennies when it came to dealing with his players. The Eagles led the league in holdouts and contract disputes.
But seven years later, Braman refused to even make an offer to keep Reggie White with the Eagles. Despite that facts that Reggie White collected 124 sacks and played in seven consecutive Pro Bowls – both club records – Norman Braman allowed the fan-favorite and still-productive Minister of Defense to walk out the door.
Reggie White signed with the Packers and played for another six years in Green Bay – winning the 1996 Super Bowl 35-21 over the Patriots – before finishing his career with a year in Carolina.
Another piece of the puzzle was Buddy Ryan.
Although Braman hired Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears defensive guru Buddy Ryan to coach the Eagles, he never got along with his head coach. By then, Norman Braman had evolved from his common-man beginnings to become a new-money aristocrat. He spent several months a year at his villa in the south of France and tended to Eagles business when it fit into his social schedule. He flew himself back and forth to Philadelphia in his private jet.
Buddy Ryan, on the other hand, was a Kentucky horse-farmer who Braman treated as if he could still smell the manure on Buddy’s boots. Buddy, refusing to treat his boss with respect, called Braman “the guy in France” whenever the press asked a question about Braman.
Ryan led the Eagles to three consecutive winning seasons from 1988 to 1990, but the Eagles were eliminated in the first round of the Playoffs all three years. Rather than deal with someone he neither liked nor respected, Braman replaced Buddy Ryan after the 1990 season concluded. Braman replaced Buddy with Rich Kotite – who in time would become a caricature of incompetence.
When the Eagles started to go downhill under Kotite, Norman Braman barely noticed. By then, he’d detached himself with the day-to-day operations of the team by putting GM Harry Gamble in charge of everything. By the way, Gamble was among the lowest-paid GMs in the league and Braman was among the highest-paid owners at $7.5-million per season.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Braman was extremely popular with the other NFL owners. Calling for an aggressive approach to marketing NFL properties, the owners put him in charge. The result was that club revenues from merchandise sales increased from $100,000 per year to more than $2-million under Braman’s direction.
But the romance between Norman Braman and the Eagles continued to erode.
By 1994, Norman Braman lost favor with the fans. The team was going downhill on the field while “the guy in France” was making money hand over fist. Fox had just signed up for a $1.6-billion TV contract with the NFL that funneled lots of money into owners’ pockets and new expansion teams in Jacksonville and Carolina added even more.
For Norman Braman, it was time to get out.
In 1994, he sold the Eagles to Jeffrey Lurie for a record $185-million.
Today, Norman Braman is one of the wealthiest men in South Florida and he’s known for his philanthropic contributions.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Sunday, December 6, 2020
So you think you want a bike riding adventure?
This is Not something I will be doing on my ebike step-thru...
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Friday, December 4, 2020
More sailing stuff
What else is there to do now-a-days than to watch a family having more fun than you & me?
Sailing, hiking, some history, an HVAC lesson, why you
may need a pro electrician, and some blueberry waffles!
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Remember the nights when we looked forward to Monday Night Football?
Not so much lately though...
More about Randall Cunningham
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How about if we have a major sporting event without Referees, Umpires, Judges or Stewards? I Love that a 65 to one shot did ...
