Category: default || By jt3y

It's late, so this will be a short entry. Like most other people, I stayed up watching TV Thursday night.

The debate? No, I didn't watch that. I was watching "The Streets of San Francisco" on Channel 59. Boy, that Karl Malden sure can act up a storm, can't he? Almost lifelike. And those car chases! So realistic! What a coincidence that every cop car is a Ford LTD, and every bad guy also drives a Ford LTD. It's almost as if promotional consideration had been paid by, say, Ford!

But seriously, folks, you're a great crowd. Yes, I watched it.

So, quick analysis: One candidate looked presidential, confident, in command and relaxed. The other one looked like a used-car salesman trying to sell a rusty Pinto to a guy who's drowning.

While one guy nodded, took notes, and listened with a thoughtful look, the other guy gripped the podium and pleaded with the crowd in frustration like a Baptist preacher in a room full of Catholics.

Substance-wise, there wasn't a whole lot of difference between what either one of them said. Terrorism? Bad. Nuclear proliferation? Bad. Iraq situation? Either bad and getting worse, or bad and getting better. Saddam Hussein? Bad. Osama Bin Laden? Bad.

Either one of them, frankly, is screwed come Nov. 3. One guy goes home, and the other one gets to clean up the mess in Iraq.

Luckily, as the President pointed out, we have Poland on our side. The President pounced on Kerry when he failed to include Poland's 2,500 peacekeepers who are fighting alongside U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq. I think that should solidly swing to the President's side the vote of many of the undecided members of the Polish War Veterans and Polish Falcons.

Personally, the debate convinced me of whom I'm going to vote for. My money is on the man who appeared calm, forceful and in command of the facts. This November, I'm voting for Jim Lehrer.

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It looks like a Propel Charter School will be opening Downtown in the Executive Building after all, reports Jennifer Eisel in The Daily News. The state Charter School Appeal Board this week overturned the McKeesport Area School Board's rejection of Propel's application:

Many of the charter school students figure to come from McKeesport, since Propel allows parents in the school district in which it is located to have first choice of sending their child to the facility. If there are spots available, enrollment would then by open to students in nearby school districts such as Duquesne, East Allegheny, Clairton, South Allegheny and Elizabeth Forward.

Eisel reports that Propel will cost those districts up to $6,000 for each student that attends the charter school; according to her story, McKeesport Area school district will set aside up to $1.4 million to cover potential losses. MASD expects to lose two to three students in every classroom through sixth-grade.

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There's no joy in Saintsville as the Expos slink out of town. The Montreal Gazette's editorial brings up several points that should resonate with Pirates fans (an endangered species these days if there ever was one):

For baseball is a numbers game outside the white lines, too: The payroll disparity between the Expos and New York Yankees was just $6 million U.S. in 1991, when the Yankees had a payroll of $27 million and the Expos $21 million and majority owner Charles Bronfman looked out onto the horizon of baseball's future and decided to sell his ownership stake. This year, the payroll gap is $142 million --- $183 million for the Yanks, just $41 million here. ...

Let's be frank. Making baseball work in Montreal was never easy from Day 1; the new economics just made things all that much more difficult. But Montreal is not unique. Other franchises are nearing the burnout stage, too.

Yeah, we're looking at you, McClatchy. Wait ... I know how to fix the Pirates! We need to build a new baseball stadium! Oh, wait, we already tried that.

I think the nation's capital is a fitting home for the Expos, which was cast off by its former owner so that he could scoop up the Florida Marlins, and then run into the ground by a consortium of other baseball team owners who had absolutely no interest in making the Expos competitive with their own franchises. What better metaphor is there for Washington, D.C., than importing a failed sports team that has spent the past three years operating in bad faith?

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In a similar Pirates-mourning vein, the always entertaining Eric Heyl had some great rhetorical questions of his own in a recent Tribune-Review column. He called it a "Jeopardy" style format, but I was thinking more about Carnac the Magnificent as I read it:

Answer: A local sixth-grader on the cusp of adolescence who probably doesn't follow baseball.

Question: Who is someone born in 1992, when the Pirates last had a winning season?

Answer: A base fare of $9 and a 12-seat minivan operating 90 minutes each weekday between Downtown and Oakland.

Question: What will the financially struggling Port Authority of Allegheny County's bus system soon consist of?

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To Do This Weekend: St. Elias Church, 4200 Homestead-Duquesne Road, Munhall, hosts a "vocal tribute to Frank Sinatra" Saturday evening. Tickets are $25 and include the show, food, beer and pop, and there will be casino-style games, including poker, slot machines and blackjack. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; for more information, give a ring-a-ding-ding to (412) 461-5847.

Resurrection Church, Church Street off of Greensprings Avenue, West Mifflin, hosts a chicken Parmesan dinner from 12 noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Dinner is $7 for adults and $3 for children.