September 28, 2007
It's a Gas
From The Associated Press via the York Daily Record (hat tip: Alert Reader Jeff):
VERSAILLES, Pa. --- A highly toxic gas is lurking under a small western Pennsylvania town, yet the federal agency that found the danger never told local officials the poison had permeated its soil, The Associated Press has learned.
The U.S. Department of Energy found high levels of hydrogen sulfide during a survey conducted over the past two years in the Pittsburgh suburb of Versailles, where they were searching for the source of --- and solution to --- a persistent methane problem, according to documents obtained by the AP.
Versailles, a town of about 1,700 people, sits on hundreds of poorly sealed gas wells from the early 20th century and on an abandoned coal mine. Experts believe the methane that has seeped into people's property over the years originates from one or both of these sources.
Experts, some directly connected to the Versailles study, say the discovery of hydrogen sulfide in the town should have immediately been reported to borough officials and led to testing in residents' homes. They say it was unlikely the hydrogen sulfide was isolated to one area.
Town officials said they have yet to be informed of the recent findings. And although residents signed waivers allowing federal officials onto their property, no testing was done inside homes, they said. (MORE)
. . .
(To the
tune of "Rhythm of the Rain," 1963, peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's "Hot 100")
Listen to the hissin' of escapin' gas,
That fills Versailles with methane.
It's leakin' from the gas wells far beneath our town,
Drivin' everyone insane.
The people we pay taxes to have gone away,
The D-O-E and E-P-A.
All we're asking for them is to cap those wells,
Before we get Versailles Flambe.
God, please tell us: Did we make you mad?
For you to fill our town with gas and make us sad?
We can't even sell our houses,
Because the air smells so bad.
Listen to the hissin' of escapin' gas,
It's got a rotten-egg bouquet.
I wish the wind would blow it down to Coulter Town,
'Cause in Versailles I'd like to stay.
Oh, listen to the hissin' gas,
As it bubbles, causin' troubles,
Who-o-o-a listen, listen to the hissin' gas,
We can't breathe, got to leave,
Who-o-o-a ... (fade)
. . .
Editorial Comment: I see the people who assisted in the hurricane relief effort in New Orleans are now working in Pennsylvania.
Heckuva job, fellas! Congressional medals of freedom for everyone!
. . .
Your State Government In Action Inaction: If you still doubt that Pennsylvania State Government needs a complete overhaul, from the Governor's Office on down,
read what happened when my old cow-orker, Scott Beveridge of the
Observer-Reporter, asked for a simple copy of a public document ... a feasibility study (paid for by tax money, and compiled by state employees) on a proposed power plant to be powered by waste coal.
The local Conservation District officer told him the report was "too complicated" for him to understand, and refused to release it. After a county commissioner complained that it wasn't for government employees to decide who can and can't read public documents, they agreed to give the newspaper a copy ... for $219.23! (
PDF)
According to an
editorial that ran this week:
Most of the pages would be printed on "Williamsburg white" paper, but some others would be printed on "Mohawk color" or "Engineer white." There are charges for "special drilling, "hand fold," "tab typesetting" and "hand insert tabs."
For Heaven's sake, doesn't the county own a copier it would let the Conservation District use? We asked for a copy of a public document, not a customized printing job. But this is an old story: Make access to public records as expensive and difficult as possible. Maybe the public will go away and leave the public agencies in peace.
Tell your state representatives and senators that unless they get behind a movement for a
Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, you're going to vote them all out. And let's keep voting them out until they learn.
. . .
Web-Swinging: Not everything is bad news. South Allegheny School District has a very handsome new website at
southallegheny.org. Check it out! Lots of great information is available, and it's attractively presented.
Our Fair City has given its website a new look, too.
. . .
To Do This Weekend: Caketown comes to the Tube City tonight for a tiger-maulin' ... it's the Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils vs. your McKeesport Tigers at Weigle-Schaeffer Stadium on the high school campus, 1960 Eden Park Blvd. Both teams are 3-and-1, and both are in the Great Southern Conference. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. McKeesport-licensed WPTT (1360) will carry the game live with commentary by my old cow-orker Paul Paterra.
- East Allegheny High School and South Allegheny High School celebrate homecoming this weekend. Events get underway in North Versailles Township at 5 p.m., and local businesses and booster groups will have displays and items for sale. The Alumni "Wall of Fame" induction ceremony is at 7 p.m., and then the Wildcats play Southmoreland at 7:30 p.m.
- In Glassport, events begin with the crowning of the homecoming king and queen at 6:30 p.m. and a parade; then the South Allegheny Gladiators take on Charleroi at Glassport Memorial Stadium.
- On the road: Serra, Elizabeth Forward, Thomas Jefferson, Norwin and West Mifflin.
- McKeesport Little Theater's production of "Grease" wraps up this weekend, with performances at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $15 or $7 for students (with a valid school ID card). The Little Theater is located at 1614 Coursin St., near the Carnegie Library. Call (412) 673-1100 or visit the website.
Posted at 07:26 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Good Government On The March, Mon Valley Miscellany | four comments | Link To This Entry
September 27, 2007
Back to Hermann Hesse!
If you remember that headline, then you're probably as big a fan of "Peanuts" as I am. "Peanuts" was an important part of my childhood. I learned to read from the paperback collections of the comic strip.
In my life, I've written fan letters to exactly two people. One was Charles Schulz, and the other was Art Buchwald, when he was dying.
And I will admit that when I heard Charles Schulz died (the same morning that his final new comic strip was appearing in newspapers), I choked up. It was like someone had killed Snoopy. A few months later, I heard his widow, Jeannie, being interviewed on the radio (I think by Jim Bohannon) and I choked up again.
When the Post-Gazette and other newspapers began reprinting the classic late 1950s and early '60s version of "Peanuts," I was really tickled. Many of them were strips I remembered seeing in those paperback books from the 1970s. And when some people --- like Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post --- argued that "Peanuts" should have been retired, to make way for newer comic strips, I got mad.
But lately I'm starting to conclude that "Peanuts" time has passed. Last week a funny sequence about Snoopy's doghouse being demolished for a freeway (no, not the Mon-Fayette Expressway) ended with Linus telling him, "Don't worry, the highway's not being built until 1967!"
When that particular strip was new, 1967 was seven years away. Now, the punchline lands with a resounding clang.
Yesterday, "Peanuts" made a Mort Sahl joke:
Yeah, that's a reference that'll really get kids reading newspapers again.
If you have to explain a joke, it doesn't work, but I'll explain this one. Mort Sahl was a notorious curmudgeonly comedian who was among the first stand-ups to base his act primarily on events in the news. Sometimes he'd actually bring the day's newspaper up on stage and improvise his act based on the stories. Think of him as the Bill Maher or Lewis Black of the 1950s and '60s.
Though Sahl is
still working, he faded from public view 30 years ago. About every five years or so,
someone does a
story: "Whatever became of Mort Sahl?" Otherwise, no one under the age of 45 will get the reference, and it truly looked bizarre coming out of Lucy Van Pelt's mouth.
It's as out of place in a 2007 newspaper as an ad for DeSoto-Plymouth dealers, or stories about Sputnik. The comics pages of American newspapers ossified years ago, but this is the first case of them actually going backwards.
I touched off a raging discussion yesterday on a
Usenet group (yes, I spend time on
Usenet) by suggesting that "Classic Peanuts" should be gently retired. Several people who I respect argued that there are so many unfunny comic strips in the average newspaper that "Classic Peanuts" should be forgiven the occasional dated reference.
One poster wrote if "Classic Peanuts" is the first strip I'd want dropped from the newspaper.
No. "Spider-Man" would be gone in a heartbeat. But every newspaper that runs "Classic Peanuts" is a paper that isn't taking a chance on "Lio" or "
Watch Your Head" or a dozen other new strips.
And there are other established strips that are left out to make room for "Classic Peanuts." We don't get Bill Holbrook's computer-themed strip "
On The Fastrack" any more since the
Daily News dropped it several years ago. "Luann" doesn't run anywhere in Western Pennsylvania, as far as I know.
Meanwhile, I can read "Classic Peanuts" any time I want, thanks to the copious and abundant reprints.
Someone else noted that "Peanuts" is as consistently funny as any new strip, and far funnier than most of the "edgy" or "modern" strips that could be added. I agree. There is some real dross on the average "funny" page.
So let's bring "
Pogo" back, too. And "
Toonerville Folks." Who doesn't think that "Pogo" was better than "Mallard Fillmore," or that "Toonerville Folks" was better than "Drabble"?
I don't mean to be dismissive. But I think, maybe, that "Peanuts'" time has passed. CBS isn't showing "Dick Van Dyke" in prime-time, either, and it's 10 times funnier than "How I Met Your Mother."
Newspapers are dying. Taking up space for Mort Sahl jokes isn't a strategy for saving them.
I hope "Sparky" Schulz will forgive me.
Some newspapers --- the
Valley Independent in Monessen and the
Observer-Reporter in Washington among them --- are running more recent "Classic Peanuts" strips from the early 1980s. It doesn't change the basic argument.
Charlie Brown and his friends will live in our memories (and in books and animated specials) for years to come. Let's give them a break from the comics pages.
September 26, 2007
We Acted Better in '59
My grandfather was made of stern stuff.
For 20 years he fired the boilers of steam engines for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but the arrival of diesel locomotives in the 1950s left him unemployed, and he took a job at PennDOT.
Though "Pap" worked on many projects around the state, one of his fondest memories was of Sept. 24, 1959. That's the day when Pap helped block roads around Pittsburgh for the arrival of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who toured Mesta Machine's plant in West Homestead and spoke at the University of Pittsburgh.
I think about Pap often, but I thought in particular about that story as I listened to talk-show hosts and callers go into apoplexy over the visit to Columbia University by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Maybe I'm naive, but Khrushchev in 1959 represented a bigger threat to the United States than Ahmadinejad does in 2007. And we behaved ourselves a lot better.
From the conversations on KDKA, WPGB-FM and McKeesport-licensed WPTT, you would have thought Satan himself had arrived in the Big Apple.
. . .
Smile When You Say That: The New York press was worse, of course. Rupert Murdoch's conservative
New York Post called him a "kook," a "madman," a "thug," a "lunatic," and a "guest of dishonor." "The axis of evil wacko" is "polluting our airwaves," said one story.
Even the usually somewhat-saner
New York Daily News was driven around the bend, printing covers two days in a row that showed Ahmadinejad's face crossed out with a giant slash and telling him to "GO TO HELL!"
An editorial called Columbia's invitation to Ahmadinejad "monstrous idiocy" and called for the resignations or firings of the university officials who invited him. I can only imagine what New York talk radio sounded like.
. . .
'K' and 'A': Let's compare Khrushchev with Ahmadinejad:
- Ahmadinejad wants nuclear weapons. Khrushchev had them, and they were pointed at the Mon Valley.
- Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map. By 1959, Khrushchev had already wiped several countries off the map and had brutally crushed an independence movement in Hungary.
- Ahmadinejad has allegedly been funding terrorists in Iraq. Khrushchev was openly funding terrorists in Laos.
- Iran has about 70 million people, a 15 percent inflation rate and 11 percent unemployment, and is considered "semi-developed" because so many people work on subsistence farms. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union covered one-sixth of the earth's land, had 209 million people, and controlled 20 percent of the world's industrial production, and that's not counting the "Eastern Bloc" nations.
Was the Soviet Union in 1959 less dangerous than Iran is today? I sure don't think so.
. . .
48 Years Ago: Earlier this week, I went to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and pulled microfilm of the Pittsburgh
Sun-Telegraph to read the coverage of Khrushchev's two-day visit.
The
Tele, which closed less than a year later, was an afternoon paper that competed directly with the
Pittsburgh Press. It was the closest thing to a lurid New York-style tabloid newspaper that Pittsburgh ever had, and it was owned by the arch-conservative Hearst chain, which was arguably the Fox News of the 1940s and '50s.
Populist and colorful, the
Sun-Telegraph carried two pages of comics and lots of sports and crime news. It was extremely popular with Mon Valley steelworkers; many households got the
Daily News or Homestead
Daily Messenger during the week and the
Tele on Sundays.
You might expect the
Tele received a lot of angry letters to the editor about Khrushchev's visit, and you'd be right:
"Khrushchev's presence in our country is the biggest hoax of this century," wrote Muriel Martin of Aspinwall. "We are simply breaking bread with Judas ... The peace which Khrushchev wants is the peace to use his tanks on countries that reject his 'friendship.'"
"Why should a Christian nation be asked to welcome an ungodly despot like Khrushchev?" asked John E. Sutlare of Pittsburgh. "We resent him and all he stands for."
. . .
Protests, Patriotism: And the
Tele didn't hesitate to promote the American way as superior to life under Communism.
On the day of Khrushchev's speech, a full-page story profiled the "typical working class household" of Bill and Ruth Anne Connor in Wexford, comparing their living conditions with those of Russians. "Does this family look downtrodden to you?" it asked.
In another piece, the news director of Channel 11 (then WIIC) discussed his recent visit behind the Iron Curtain: "When the wheels of our plane touched down in Frankfurt, Germany, I said, 'Thank God I'm back in a free country. It's a sensation you can't explain.'"
Average Pittsburghers voiced their opinions, too. Protesters picketed the Carlton House in downtown Pittsburgh, where Khrushchev was staying. Some carried signs calling him a "butcher" and reading "Communism Means Death."
One story notes that steelworkers "grilled" a Russian magazine editor who tried to interview them. "The trouble with you is you're brainwashed," one of them told her. "See, we're really the capitalists in this country."
. . .
Respect, Dignity: But Pittsburghers also comported themselves with dignity. Mayor Thomas Gallagher presented Khrushchev with a "key to the city" and 100,000 people lined his motorcade route through the Golden Triangle.
In one of the most
famous incidents in Steel Valley history, a worker at Mesta Machine, William Jackey, handed Khrushchev a cigar as he passed by his workstation. Khrushchev, delighted, took off his wristwatch and gave it to Jackey in thanks.
That day at the University of Pittsburgh, Khrushchev shared the dais with Governor David Lawrence, the chairman of Pitt's board of trustees, and University Chancellor Edward Litchfield. His speech was carried live in McKeesport by WEDO radio, which pre-empted the CBS soap opera "Ma Perkins."
Across the street from Pitt, Mrs. Khrushchev toured Children's Hospital, where employees spontaneously rushed up to kiss her and thrust presents in her hands to take back for her grandchildren.
. . .
Hearst's Editorial: Though conservative and fiercely patriotic, the
Sun-Telegraph itself treated Khrushchev with respect, too. A signed editorial by publisher William Randolph Hearst Jr. called on Pittsburghers to neither "cheer nor jeer":
There are sound historical reasons why feelings of hatred and hostility should exist, as Khrushchev has never hesitated to use ruthless methods if it suited Russian policy ...
The memory of Hungary, Poland and Korea is still strong. It is well that we do not forget these examples of Communist aggression.
Nevertheless, the twin causes of peace and freedom will be improperly served by any violent demonstrations of these understandable feelings ...
Let's have no fawning over him, nor any hostile gesture toward him.
. . .
Generation Gap: When a powerful dictator like Nikita Khrushchev visited, we responded with confidence and demonstrated that the American principle of freedom of speech --- even of speech we disliked --- was alive and well. Even
Pravda was impressed, reporting that Pittsburghers had "opened their hearts" to him.
Something has gone terribly wrong with the American psyche if we're now too weak to withstand a visit by a tinpot terrorist like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Like I said, my grandfather was made of stern stuff. So were your grandparents, I'll bet.
They knew that the United States of America was the world's greatest nation. They proved it by acting graciously to a sworn enemy.
We'd be a lot better off in the future by copying their example instead of continuing the jingoistic, immature behavior that many of us demonstrated this week.
It was downright ... if you'll pardon the phrase ... un-American.
September 25, 2007
West Mifflin: GM Strike Hits Home
September 24, 2007
Please, Mr. Postman
Reader mail: Saving brain-dead writers from having to come up with ideas for more than 200 years!
Our first lengthy missive comes from Alert Reader Arden, who has a lot on his mind and seems to be channeling either Larry King in USA Today or Earle Wittpenn in The Valley Mirror:
- So, do you think there will ever be a Pulitzer Prize for Blogs?
- Why, oh why, are there so many freaking cars on the road? It was never this busy 10 years ago.
- The troops are never leaving Iraq.
- I keep thinking of "Thank you, sir! May I have another?" when I hear the remaining Republican Congresscritters back any crackpot idea from G.W.
- President Huckabee. Think about that for a moment....nah scratch that...but seriously how is this guy even relevant anymore? Are the GOP candidates that bad? Yeah...but geez!
- If the Steelers make it to the playoffs this year or (gasp) make it to the Super Bowl, what does that say about the legacy of Bill Cowher? Did he call it quits after he won his last Super Bowl?
- The Pirates will never have a winning season. Face it they suck, the owners suck, and no matter what the fans will still keep going. Please reference "Thank you sir! May I have another?"
- So who was the better governor, Tom Ridge or Ed Rendell? Tough choice ... since I don't think either did anything spectacular.
- Pittsburgh may have problems, but Philadelphia is really screwed up. They are having "citizen patrols" to control the neighborhoods. I don't know if that is the best idea ...because I just see a lot of people getting hurt for no good reason.
- You can see that Republican marketing has worked on the general populace, like the comment about the Democratic party from your blog, about redistributing wealth. But seriously don't these local jokers understand that what they do has a reflection on the party and just enforces these crazy ideas? I don't understand why Braddock couldn't work out an agreement with that company. What a waste.
Whew! OK, responses, in no particular order:
- Actually, starting this year, blog entries and other "online-only" content can be submitted to the Pulitzer committee in a variety of categories, but it has to be submitted by a traditional daily or Sunday newspaper to "keep faith with the historic mandate of the Pulitzer Prizes."
(I'm worried that the Pulitzer committee may be painting the deck chairs on the Titanic.)
It's inevitable that as readers and resources continue to move toward the Web, some online-only publication is going to produce Pulitzer-caliber work. I don't know if it's happened yet, but some of the investigations done by Talking Points Memo, among other Web sites, sure come close.
- I think Ridge was marginally more fiscally responsible and seemed to work better with both Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly. Rendell can't seem to get anything passed without a struggle; he does have several years left on his term, so it's possible he can salvage something. Otherwise, he leaves almost no legacy.
- The "local jokers" in any borough or township are so disconnected from the national party apparatus, in many cases, that they are Democrats or Republicans by accident of birth. I doubt that the Republican councilors in Sewickley or Edgewood are concerned about the national party's policies any more than the Democrats in North Charleroi or Pitcairn.
- Finally, "President Huckabee" fills me with marginally less dread than "President Giuliani" or "President Paul" (which, barring divine intervention, is not going to happen anyway). "President Clinton" doesn't thrill me, either. And "President Thompson" might be the first president who takes the oath from an armchair.
Frankly, mister, we could use a man
like Herbert Hoover again ... and gee, our old
LaSalle ran great.
. . .
Speaking of defunct automobiles,
Alert Reader Vince plowed through my
long screed on the Edsel a few weeks ago, and went out to get the book
Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel, which I recommended:
Read it. Loved it.
It never ceases to amaze me how completely shortsighted we as a people can be, be it in the realm of automotive innovation or foreign policy.
Yeah, I went there.
Oooh, you in trouble now, boy!
You're probably in favor of the redistribution of wealth, too. Or as a editorialist,
writing about a health insurance program for poor children, said in Sunday's editions of a newspaper that now owns the McKeesport
Daily News, "the 'S' in 'S-CHIP' stands for 'Socialist.'"
They say economics is a "dismal science," and that was sure the most dismal column I read this weekend.
. . .
Alert Reader Jeff says he's been catching up on back issues of the
Almanac (apparently the prune juice is paying off, but I hope he prints it out on two-ply paper):
Enjoyed the shoe item. I have had great luck with Dexters.
I also read with interest the St. Paulinus item/link. My brother-in-law lives about 100 yards behind the church on the old Bosses Row in Wilson. I think that is the coolest church. I love the use of stone for the church and rectory. I know it's very well built as I have been inside and the walls didn't come tumblin' down. (RIMSHOT!)
Regarding the Sliders game: I'm glad to hear the kid caught the foul ball. He probably saved you from getting hurt.
I had my car broken into while parked on one of the lots along Forbes below the Arena (Lot Motto: "We only have security until the lot is full of paying customers.") The thieving little f---s broke a back window and ransacked the car, taking a few items. But I had 10 to 15 cassettes (this was the late '80s) - mostly oldies-blues-soul from the '50s, '60s and '70s. The little bastards didn't steal one.
I was glad, but a bit insulted --- they didn't deem my music worthy of stealing.
Good to see they're still playing nice in McKeesport government. I saw two or three potential lawsuits. And from one meeting.
. . .
Finally,
Alert Reader Andy sends along a link to the "
All-American Clothing Co." of Arcanum, Ohio, which promises that all of its products are made in the U.S.A.
"All-American" used to be known as "Union Jean Co.," and believe it or not, I ordered a few items from them before this email came in. A pair of black chinos has arrived already; the jeans haven't been shipped yet.
Honestly, the chinos are a disappointment. The workmanship is fine, but the fabric is awfully thin, and they're almost shapeless. Even ironing them didn't give them much of a crease.
I'll wait and see how they stand up after several washings --- the fabric may be tougher than it looks --- and report back. Also, the jeans may be a lot sturdier than the chinos. But for now, I'm underwhelmed.
48 Years Ago: Earlier this week, I went to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and pulled microfilm of the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph to read the coverage of Khrushchev's two-day visit.
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