25th year Hgh School Reunion BHS

I just started a new Blog to help organize and get the word out that next year (2009) will mark the 25th year High School Reunion for the Bloomsburg Area High School CLASS of 1984. That's Bloomsburg, PA, zip =17815 for all my overseas readers. (?)

http://bhsclassof1984.blogspot.com/

The Power of the Letter and John Adams

HBO and the U.S. Postal Service Celebrate the Power of the Letter... February 12, 2008

A written note can be enduring, poignant, personal and timeless. Too often today, it's easy to forget the value of a heartfelt, handwritten note or card. HBO and the U.S. Postal Service have joined forces for a retail and online campaign that encourages consumers to send a handwritten card to someone they care about.

The "Power of the Letter" campaign promotes HBO's epic miniseries John Adams, which explores American history through one of its greatest founding fathers, a fiercely independent spirit whose unwavering vision steered America through a tumultuous period. Starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, and executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, John Adams premieres on March 16.

Adams was a prolific letter-writer: He and his wife Abigail exchanged over 1,100 letters over the course of their courtship and marriage. The Adams Family Papers, held by the Massachusetts Historical Society, were a crucial resource for historian David McCullough, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams is the basis for HBO's miniseries.

Now HBO and the Postal Service invite consumers to send their own cards – for free. Visitors to http://www.poweroftheletter.com/ can create and customize greeting cards with quotes from John Adams and his wife Abigail. Consumers will be able to choose from six different designs featuring poignant quotes from John and Abigail. The cards, created by the Postal Service's online retail partner Cardstore, are available immediately through March 30, while supplies last. Consumers customize the card, which is then mailed to them to write a personal note and send it off in the accompanying pre-paid envelope.

The "Power of the Letter" campaign also uses two very modern tools to spread Adams' historic words. For the first time in Postal Service history, post office receipts will carry a promotional message. A quote – "Let us dare to read, think, speak and write" – will be printed on about 3.75 million receipts per day, directing postal customers to http://www.poweroftheletter.com/. The quote also will appear as a national cancellation on 3 billion pieces of mail during February and March.
The Postal Service will promote "Power of the Letter" nationally in 12,765 post offices, serving 6.9 million customers per day. Dramatic 4 ft.-by-6 ft. standees and 2 ft.-by-3ft. window clings promote the campaign and the miniseries. "Power of the Letter" takes over the homepage at USPS.com... March 10-17, the week leading up to the March 16 premiere of the miniseries. Banners will also appear on the site for the full run of campaign.

"We've been delivering the power of the written word ─ including those letters written by Adams ─ for more than 230 years," said Joanne Giordano, vice president of Public Affairs and Communications for the Postal Service. "We cherish the letters of great Americans because they help us understand our common history and today letters still play a role in connecting us."
HBO will also promote "Power of the Letter" on HBO.com and in John Adams education materials reaching over 1 million high school students.

Tulsi Lancaster PA

Sweet t and I tried the new Indian restaurant in Lancaster, Pa last night. Loved it! Great food, Great service, Good wine/beer and good prices. Check out some of their reviews here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/tulsi-lancaster

Tulsi is located in the travelodge motel...on Columbia Ave...2101 Columbia Ave, Lancaster, PA 17603...717.509.7771

http://www.tulsicuisine.com/

The Wire's last days

As HBO's The Wire ends this Sunday, 03/09/08, new Major of Philly, Michael Nutter, who is such a huge fan of the show, is opening City Hall and showing the last episode as part of a community gathering. Last weeks episode called Late Editions had a scene in which Gus Haynes from the Baltimore Sun is doing some check finding on the fake writing of Templeton whom he questions briefly, and then tries to get admission into Walter Reed Army Medical Center so he can investigate Templeton's writing regarding Terry Hanning, the homeless Iraq War veteran. At the hospital, Gus watches in amazement as Hanning's military buddy shows off his state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs. The vet verifies Hanning's story. He reiterates that while many bad things happened in Iraq, nothing in the way of a firefight happened on that particular day.

While Haynes is at Walter Reed, I believe I notice Sgt. Bryan Anderson in the Background scene! Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who has received treatment in Walter Reed (in real life) as he was injured during his second tour of duty in Iraq, losing two legs and a hand. Bryan was a member of a MP Company, which was my occupational speciality. He has been profiled on more than one occasion and made the cover of Esquire Magazine along with being profiled by the HBO film: Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq. I have yet to find Anderson credited or listed as uncredited for this background scene but I do believe it was really him.

This Sunday will be the last episode of the Greatest Show on TV, EVER. I remember watching the last MASH Show and even the last Seinfeld show and to me THE WIRE does not compare to these great TV shows in the history of popular cultere as THE WIRE is so far deeper and more complex. It will be a sad goodbye and I cannot wait till the box set comes out.

This One's for Ann

Ann Richards is one of my hero's and one of the reason's I fell in love Austin, Texas.... besides the fact that good friends live there, good beer (SHINER BOCK), good music and art.

Stop EPA Administrator Johnson Alert from Senator Boxer

This is from an email I received that I thought I should pass on...if any of the links are not working PLEASE check on Senator Boxer's Page:http://www.barbaraboxer.com/home

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Slowly but surely, we're getting to the truth behind Bush EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson's terrible decision to block an effort by California and 18 other states to fight global warming.
While carefully peeling back white tape on redacted documents -- and with EPA personnel peering over their shoulders -- staffers from the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee have been closely reviewing additional documents dribbled out from the EPA over the past few weeks.
And what have we learned? Administrator Stephen Johnson clearly overruled the unanimous recommendations of his legal and technical staff who advised him to grant California's waiver request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions -- putting partisan politics ahead of science, the law, and the health & safety of the American people.

Ultimately, I'm convinced that Administrator Johnson's decision will be overturned -- either by the next President or the courts. But we can't afford to wait that long.
That's why I recently introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to reverse Administrator Johnson's decision and give California and 18 other states -- representing more than half of our country's population -- the right to fight global warming. Will you help me get this critical bill passed?
Please forward an email to your Senators now, encouraging them to co-sponsor my bill to grant California's greenhouse gas emissions waiver and overturn Administrator Johnson's terrible decision!
On Wednesday, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson came back to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Once again, I confronted him with the facts and challenged him to explain how he could make a decision that ignored the science and the law, discarding the recommendations of his own experienced staff.

Here's what we learned in the latest documents that the EPA shared with us:
A senior aide to Administrator Johnson wrote that "it is obvious to me that there is no legal or technical justification for denying" California's request -- and that he "will face a pretty big personal decision about whether [he is] able to stay in the job" if he rejects California's waiver.
Another senior aide described the "compelling and extraordinary" conditions that make California particularly "vulnerable to climate change" -- including water resources, wildfires, long coastline, large population, and many others.

Administrator Johnson didn't just overrule his own staff: He also disregarded the advice of former EPA Administrator William Reilly -- appointed by President Bush's father -- who urged Johnson to approve California's waiver. !!!!!!

Unfortunately, Administrator Johnson still refuses to change his mind, even when confronted directly with the cold, hard facts at Wednesday's hearing -- and he still hasn't even turned over all of the documents we asked for, including information about contact he had with the White House, missing the original deadline he agreed to. I guess I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.

Well if Administrator Johnson won't do his job, then it's time for Congress to step up and do his job for him.
Please forward an email to your Senators now, encouraging them to co-sponsor my bill to grant California's greenhouse gas emissions waiver and overturn Administrator Johnson's terrible decision!
Thanks to the help of more than 70,000 friends and supporters who emailed Administrator Johnson to protest his decision and call on him to release all of the documents about his flawed decision-making process, we're getting to the truth -- and it's ugly.
Administrator Stephen Johnson's decision to overrule his staff and tarnish the reputation of the Environmental Protection Agency by standing in the way of the fight against global warming is unconscionable. It's politics at its worst.
Now it's up to Congress to fix his mess. Will you help me do it?
Please forward an email to your Senators now!
In Friendship,
Barbara Boxer U.S. Senator
P.S. We're going to need 60 votes to pass this bill and overcome a likely Republican filibuster, so every vote in the Senate will make a huge difference. Please forward an email to your Senators now, encouraging them to co-sponsor my bill to grant California's greenhouse gas emissions waiver and overturn Administrator Johnson's terrible decision!

Chester PA Lands Soccer Franchise ??

Governor Ed Rendell was in Chester, Pa. on Thursday afternoon, taking the wraps off a public-private development deal that could lead to a Major League Soccer franchise in the shadow of the Commodore Barry Bridge. ***$47 million will come from the state ($25 million of which is contingent on the MSL franchise being awarded), leveraged with $30 million more from Delaware County and another $10 million likely from the DRPA. All that will be matched 4-to-1 all told by private investment.

Bottom line: a $414-million project to include not just an 18,000-seat soccer stadium -- assuming the league expands here -- but retail and office space, housing, even a supermarket down the line.

The planned stadium and hoped-for franchise would be the latest boost for the struggling city of Chester. A slots casino opened in the city in January as part of a harness racing track. The governor says that along with the year-old Harrah’s casino just up the road...
"...this development will, I absolutely believe, guarantee that Chester will become one of the first class cities in Pennsylvania -- a great place to live, to work, and to play." And even if pro soccer doesn’t come here, developers say, the rest of the project is a "go." In the past, the league has expressed interest in the Philadelphia area. But the St. Louis suburb of Collinsville is also in the running for the expansion team. This article was written by by KYW's 1060: David Madden .

It has now been reported that Chester will now have a MLS new franchise! This is for a City that does not EVEN HAVE A SUPERMARKET.

Here is a little history on Chester: Chester began losing its mainstay shipyard and automobile manufacturing jobs as early as the 1960s, causing the population to be halved in fifty years from 65,000 in 1950 to under 37,000 in 2000. Poverty and crime rose as the city declined. In 1995, the state designated Chester as a financially distressed municipality. Soon thereafter, the city's schools ranked last among the state's 501 districts, leading Pennsylvania education officials in 2001 to hire the for-profit Edison Schools to run the local school district for three years.[1][citation needed] Even the site Penn's Landing, which marks William Penn's first landing in the Province, sold its naming rights to the waterfront maintenance corporation in Philadelphia, whose memorial now marks William Penn's first landing in that city.

I only spend time in Chester during the daylight hours and I have taken a few wrong turns taking me to some scary areas that should not exist in this country but they do. So it will be an interesting future watching the redevelopment of Chester, PA with it's racing casino and a soccer stadium but no supermarket.