Category: default || By jt3y

I keep hearing commercials that say that Memorial Day is "the official start of summer."

No, consarn it, it isn't. It may be the "unofficial" start of summer, but the official start of summer is, was, and always will be June 20 (the first complete day of summer is June 21).

No wonder children are getting such poor educations --- they're being made functionally illiterate by boneheaded advertising copywriters. (And rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?)

Memorial Day, of course, commemorates the sacrifices of our brave men and women to defend our right to a three-day holiday and zero percent financing on a Chevrolet. Or at least that's what you'd think the holiday means. It's not just "the official start of summer" (he said, grinding his teeth).

In fact, you can read about the history of Memorial Day, which was originally called "Decoration Day."

Believe it or not, legend has it that the holiday was created not far from here --- in Boalsburg, Centre County, near present-day State College. The story goes that in October 1864, the mother of a soldier who had been killed at Gettysburg went to the cemetery to decorate her son's grave. There, she met another mother who was doing the same thing.

They resolved to hold a community-wide observance the following year on July 4, and response was overwhelming. According to the legend, the custom spread from there.

Most others credit Gen. John A. Logan, commander of the Union Army, with creating the holiday in 1868 when he issued an order directing soldiers' graves to be decorated at Arlington National Cemetery every May 30.

The custom spread across the country during the 1870s, and by 1890, all of the Northern states were commemorating the deaths of soldiers, sailors and marines on Decoration Day --- the South, naturally, refused to participate in a holiday to honor Yankee scoundrels.

So, that's what Memorial Day is supposed to mean. It's not just a day off, nor is it rightly a holiday for all veterans (that's what Nov. 11 is for), or even a holiday for all people who have died.

I could write more, but as with so many things, Johnny Cash said it better, and certainly with more eloquence and power than I could ever muster.

So now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go clobber the guy in my neighborhood who keeps shooting off fireworks. The "official start of summer" stuff is bad enough, but fireworks?

For crying out loud, that's Independence Day, you blockhead. Next he'll be hanging Christmas lights and trick-or-treating.

. . .

In other business, huzzah, huzzah, huzzah, to the Angry Drunk Bureaucrat for telling it like it is about the Mon-Fayette Expressway (or as he calls it, the "Mo-Fo Excessway").

I've written about this before. The Mo-Fo is too much, too late, and it's already wrecking communities like Braddock, where property owners refuse to repair or develop their real estate --- they're waiting for the magical Turnpike money to come through.

Some money quotes from the ADB:

I'm not interested in creating a "Cranberry South" that will detract much needed revenue and resources from communities that need them more. I do not believe that the State and Local Governments should be active participants in facilitating sprawl or unsustainable development.

OK, the primary reason, or so I've been told, that the Mon-Fayette has to be built is that so many of the old, disused mill sites could be more readily used if they had better access to transportation, i.e., tractor trailers are necessary to access any light industrial sites that could be developed. That's a fair assessment, and it could have been much more useful in, say, 1970 ... however, that does not preclude an expansion or reengineering of existing roads and highways to better accommodate these transportation and shipping needs.

If your big concern is the flow of commuters from the Steel Valley to Downtown Pittsburgh, you could always regulate the flow by installing some sort of Light Rail or mass transportation system along the existing CSX lines... although, I suppose that that would pose problems of its own... but it beats the hell out of the North Shore Connector!

The problem remains that the Turnpike Commission is in charge of this project. All they know how to do, naturally, is build turnpikes.

And as previously stated here: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.