Category: default || By jt3y

If you get today's headline, you're older than you look. Unlike me, who looks older than I am. Feh! It's just the receding hairline. And the plaid pants and horn-rimmed glasses, along with my propensity to get the "Early Bird Special" at Denny's, and to yell at the neighbor kids.

You want your ball back? Well, you're not getting it back! Ha!

Ahem. But it is a "potpourri" Almanac today, with a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

. . .

Tell Us What You Really Think: One of my old bosses, Park Burroughs, the managing editor of the Washington Observer-Reporter, recently teed off on a local woman.

You may have heard, but a group called the Interfaith Hospitality Network is trying to open an office in Pleasant Hills. IHN has a similar center in "Little Worshington." Although it doesn't offer shelter to homeless families itself, it does connect families and individuals with resources for people who have lost their houses.

The woman, who Park identifies as Bonnie Veraldi of Pleasant Hills, emailed Park looking for information on the IHN home in Washington. I'll let Park pick up the story from there:

She was looking for information about the IHN here, the trouble it's caused, the declining property values, the hobos and derelicts urinating out the windows, I dunno.

I got angry. I wrote her back about the facts of Interfaith Hospitality Network: that is is NOT a homeless shelter rather an organization that assists families who are in economic trouble and have lost their homes. The IHN house on Beau Street is not a shelter but a resource center for these people, a place where they can get assistance in finding jobs and places to live, and where their kids can be looked after while they're at job interviews. Local churches host these families --- feed them and bed them down for the night, and when that's not possible, IHN puts them up in motels with donations from its supporters.

The writer was looking for some fuel for the group that she's forming to keep this organization out of her neighborhood. I told her that Washington --- and all the participating churches --- are proud to have such an organization here.

I hope this woman never finds herself in a situation where, after a couple of bad breaks, she finds herself and her family out on the street with no one to offer them help.

According to Park, she didn't appreciate his response:

"Mr. Burroughs, while I appreciate your explanation for the GLOWING opinion of IHN, unfortunately, we can't use it, we need something more unbiased. But again, thank you for responding, Bonnie Veraldi

Park says she has "concrete between (her) ears," adding, "obviously, she's not interested in the facts, just some more fuel for her prejudice."

One of my enduring problems with Park was that he was so shy about saying what he thought.

. . .

Trust Him, He Knows What He's Doing: Over at KGB, the leading online chronicle for the Library-Snowden-Bruceton Metroplex, Kevin Barkes excerpted a lengthy article from the Wall Street Journal about James Horner, the man who was asked to write the theme song for the new "CBS Evening News With Chipper Chipmunk" ... er, I mean, Katie Couric.

Among other theme songs, Horner composed the scores for Titanic and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "which, along with his previous score for Battle Beyond the Stars, contains virtually all the themes and signature phrases he's used in his career," Barnes says.

Barnes says he was "voting for the theme from Sledge Hammer, which is actually a pre-Batman/Beetlejuice/Simpsons Danny Elfman piece. Might as well start the show off with a bang."

Heck, why not go all the way and make David Rasche the co-anchor? He's been in everything else lately.

. . .

I Can Almost Smell The Floor Wax: Inspired by our recent exhaustive (exhausting?) discussion of local supermarkets at the Almanac, reader Bob Schneider scanned in a page from an old Thorofare Markets annual report showing the store at Eastland Shopping Center in North Versailles as it appeared for its grand opening on July 30, 1963.

I've taken the photos and put them on the Eastland Mall, 1964 page of the History section.

. . .

Wasting Time: Well, I took a look through the rest of the History section, and it was a mess --- some pages didn't have any photos, others weren't showing up in the main navigation, and some were still in the circa 1999 old design of Tube City Online. One thing led to another, and I ended up updating all of the pages of the History section.

It's still ugly as a mud fence (I'm using frames and "font" tags in 2006!), but at least it's consistently ugly. Feel free to let your mouse do the clicking; there are now 16 different articles of varying quality available, plus U.S. Census figures for McKeesport from 1910 to 2000 and other ephemera.

Aren't I supposed to be writing a damned book instead of doing that? Yes. I am. I know, mom! Get off my back!

. . .

In Memoriam: I didn't know this, but old colleague and cow-orker Dave Copeland worked as a part-time consultant on the late Bob O'Connor's election campaign last year. His remembrances of O'Connor are well worth reading.

. . .

(P.S. Still stumped by the name "Art," are you? "Who is the original host of 'Jeopardy'?")