Best Headline I've seen in a while: JURY HUNG IN MURDER TRIAL

Did the Morning Paper really put that on the front of the Local section? You Bet! I know we have crime issues in Center City Allentown, but is hanging the Jury going to make it easier for prosecutors to get a conviction. I know if I get jury duty, and they are looking to hang somebody, I'm choosing the defendant over me!

Freeman's Jewelers looks like a very nice store. I've never been in it. Last night my girlfriend and I took a long walk after dinner at the Brew Works down Hamilton and we talked about how sad it was that the stores weren't open very late at all. I'm sure that if it were open we might have gone in and browsed, but it wasn't, not at 9 PM. I've lived in Allentown less than a year, I think it has great potential, but I have to go outside the area, to the suburban malls, if I want to see a movie, or shop after 7 PM. I like the Brew Works, but I don't want, and can't afford, to eat all my meals there. My Girlfriend doesn't live that far away, but we have the same problem, availability of diverse market choices. Walking to the Farmer's Market from Walnut Street is a hike. I don't mind it during the day, but once the sun is down, I get nervous walking that far.

I don't blame the mayor for that. I don't have an answer for what to do, but shopping is more interesting when you do it with someone else, as I have learned.

Wizard of Id Goes "Poof!"

Oh Happy Day!
The local shredded tree has gone greener, by printing fewer pages. The Comics have shrunk, but that's okay!
The Comics is the most important part of any newspaper. They edited their staff, and they had to edit their syndicated cartoons as well.

Goodbye editorial writers, Goodbye Wizard of ID!

I was miffed they dumped JumpStart, and kept BLANDIE. They could also ditch Born Loser, but instead kept BEETLE BORING BAILEY, which anybody who's ever lived in a barracks can tell you is out of date by eons. I'm glad Girls and Sports is gone, it was stupid. Deleting CATHY was smart, but GET FUZZY had a dog, he was dumb, but I like Dogs, and I'd rather have him than MARMADUNCE, the one joke wonder.

WIZARD OF ID and BC were by the same people, and were both tired and unoriginal. NO great loss there. Maybe the Paper should have kept someone around to draw a Cartoon based on Life in Center City. Has anybody Trademarked "POLISHING THE TURD?" LOL

I'm having a laugh people, I love the neighborhood, it is what we make it, and we can make it better. I stopped at the corner Market and bought a Philly Inky this morning. I'm going to let the local subscription run out. I'll read it online for now on.

"POOF!"

Hey they Kept Mark Trail! Hooray! Maybe Cherry will shoot Kelly Welly yet!

Allentown has new TV Ads!

Last night I'm watching 69 News at 5PM, and a commercial pops on that has the Mayor and his family in front of Johnny M's saying something nice about A-Town.

Whoa! Dude, is that really a good idea? Your Critics are going to go bonkers!

I only saw a quick piece of it, and if they showed it again at 10 PM, I missed it, so I can't give too many details about it. Last night I talked about it with my group, and it was pointed out that some will see it as a commercial to re-elect Pawsy, paid for by us. I hate thinking that, but all of the politicals do it. Every commercial for Pennsylvania ends with "Ed Rendell, Guv."

Do they really need to say that? I'll pretend I'm Daily Kos today, and ask that you discuss it in the thread. Guess we will see if anybody cares, Hunh?

On another note: I sent her flowers. She will get them at her job. Adviser dude said that his wife told him that sending flowers to a woman at her job is worth double points. He says he wrote about this in his novel, that I will see. Today's her Birthday. We've been dating for a month. She can't browse blogs at her job, but she does work at a desk, so she will have a place to keep them. I ordered them from Phoebe Home on Hamilton. I've never sent a woman Flowers before. I hope she likes them. Any thoughts guys? (or gals?) I'm really worried about this. I don't do romantic like stuff at all. I could use a guidebook.

Hundreds of Dead penguins at Allentown's Cedar Beach, Bloggers Blame Mayor, and Maybe candidate for Congress Siobhan Bennett.

The National Press is reporting today that several hundred Penguins have been found dead on the shore at Allentown's scenic Cedar Beach, much as they have at Beaches in Brazil.
Authorities from the National to local levels have no explanation, but of course, you know the local Blog world does.
"It's a result of the deal to drill for oil" said one blogger. Even though they haven't started drilling yet, The Penguins heard about it and flew here, dying from exhaustion upon arrival.
When it was pointed out that Penguins don't actually fly, the Blogger was undeterred. "It's also a result of Siobhan Bennett's failed Energy plan." he claimed. "Here, watch this video of a concession speech she once gave. See? If I were a penguin and had to watch that, I'd kill myself too!"

The lesson here is don't believe anything the professional journalist people write in the real media, you should only read and listen to what Bloggers have to say. You know you can trust them! They wouldn't lie, or have an agenda!!!!

"Dark Knight" Rocks!

This was way better than "Hancock." I liked Hancock, but Batman DK takes your breathe away. Heath Ledger as Joker looks like the Walking Dead. I won't give any plot away, but I give it 5 stars out of 5. that's the movie I saw Friday night.

Saturday Night I had another date. This time we saw "Mamma Mia".
If Friday night was a Testosterone rush, Saturday night was an Estrogen attack. CHICK FLICK!

But it wasn't bad. I couldn't help thinking it was a remake of an old Australian film I saw on cable called "Muriel's Wedding." I can sit through these things when there are attractive women in them. There's no shortage in Mamma Mia, and the girl from Allen High is a HOTTIE!

My Date asked me who was more attractive, her or the Movie star. Why do women do that?
She asks me this at Perkins after the movie, and I have endured two hours of disco music from "ABBA." I thought being honest would be cool, but the look I got said different.

I have Stone Temple Pilot tickets for Musikfest, and she's agreed to go. I suck at dating. really, I do. Okay, we've had 4 dates now, if I send her flowers for her Birthday Thursday, is that too much? Help me guys! Please!

Last night during the meeting of my Vets support group, we started talking about the most violent and realistic movie scenes of all time. There is something we say at the beginning, and repeat at the end of each meeting, that goes like this:

"What you do here, what you say here,

When you leave here, it will stay here."

We say this to reaffirm to each other that we won't talk about each other's issues outside the group. Our Moderator stresses that we need to trust one another and that all of the men and women who attend can believe that their privacy will be kept. There's 5 people who write blogs in the group. There used to be another, but he wrote about some of the member's personal issues in the group discussion on his blog, and we kicked him out.
After we had our meeting last night, I asked if I could write about our list, but not our group, and the consensus was sure, as long as no one was named, and no issues put out there.

We had a good discussion last night, everybody left feeling better, and that is the objective. So we had this separate discussion, for more than an hour, about the most violent sequences in Movies, and we cut it down to a top three, no top ten like Mr White at the NewsPaper, but our top three most realistic, violent Movie Sequences are:

3. The First 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. There was debate that the final 20 minute battle in the town was worse, when the squad get's wiped to the last man, but we agreed the D-day carnage was pretty much like what some of us have scene for real after a car bombing.

2, The Valkyrie Music Air Assault by Helicopter in Apocalypse Now. "I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning, and the overhead shot of civilians being shot, and the grenade being thrown into the chopper, with the commander screaming "Kill that bitch" is right out of real life in Iraq.

1. This is a tie. But both sequences are from the Sam Peckinpaugh classic "The Wild Bunch."
The opening scene in the town, where the band marching for the Woman's Temperance Union gets slaughtered in the Crossfire between the gang and the hired guns could easily be between Marines and Insurgents, with civilians caught in the middle.
The scene at the end, where Borgnine and Holden lead their group into the Mexican leader's HQ and start a close range fire fight involving a Gatling Gun is equally brutal, and we couldn't decide.

So which is worse, the movies, or real life in Allentown. I say the movies. How about you?

Don't think we didn't discuss Full Metal Jacket or Platoon, and Outlaw Josey Wales, but the women made a good point that "the Miniseries "Band of Brother's" on HBO was overall incredibly realistic, more than anything else, and thought the episode where the nurse was killed in shelling in Bastogne the most emotionally painful to them. That's all I got today. There's been violence in the City this week, and I'm not in the mood to joke as much. The garbage truck driver was a good guy.

China to drill for Oil in Lehigh County

Yesterday, in a secret meeting, Governor Rendell, County Executive Don Cunningham, and Mayor Ed Pawlowski cut a secret deal with the Chinese Government to allow exploratory oil drilling in downtown Allentown, and the surrounding county.
"This could be a great boon for Pennsylvania citizens," exclaimed the governor. "Don and Ed are getting a couple of million bucks each in their campaign funds, and all the illegal immigrants running around center city procreating will have jobs!"
No word yet on when the drilling will start, but rumor has it the first derrick will be going up at the site of the former Colonial theater! Can't wait! That will bring the price of a gallon of gas down, right?!

"Polishing of the Turds" comes to my Universe

I started to write about my date this past weekend, but decided that would be a serious mistake.
I have a second date, and this isn't a "my date review" blog. I am finally nurturing a social life outside of male bonding, and I don't want to screw it up.
The Running of the Bulls started today in Pamplona, Spain, and Yahoo news says 9 people were injured.
In the spirit of all the happy participants in the universe of blogs, I think we should all take the most awful news we can and make it nice and shiny! Lets have some happy Spin!

Below I have a basic sample of Turd Polishing for your consideration.

40 civilians did not perish violently from a suicide bombing outside the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, that would be a big smelly turd! Lets shine that turd up, and spray it with some cartoon world feel good polish. A couple of coats of Turd Polisher lacquer, and voila, we have a headline that says: At least 40 take express lane through gates of Heaven!


Now that is what I call Turd Polishing! I'm telling you, I could get a job at Fox news!

I read every post on Lehigh Valley Somebody last weekend, and that's where I got the "turd Polishing" idea, It wasn't theft of intellectual property, but inspiration for me! thanks Mrs Dottie! Something else that got me thinking this morning was when I try to read something and I get the headline scrambled in my brain.
Somehow, between John McCain Supports Housing Bill, and China wants Dog meat off menus during Beijing Olympics, I read:

John McCain Supports Dog meat on menus!

Is that disturbing or what? I wonder what ol' Sigmund Freud would have to say about that one?

Speaking of wicked plot twists in Movies...

I saw "Hancock" last night with a date. Ladies dig Will Smith. I dig Charlize Theron. I didn't see the whole Charlize Theron as Isis thing coming. Though she's a lot hotter than Uma Thurman was in my " My Super Ex- Girlfriend."
I liked the movie, it had some pretty good moments, but I thought the whole sex thing in the camper was too sick. It ended with Will Smith on a skyscraper in NYC, as far from Charlize as he could get. That gave me an idea for a sequel, "I am Hancock the legend in Cloverfield"
Let the dude fight the "Omega Man Mutants" at the same time he deals with the intergalactic Godzilla. That smacks of action. They could shoot parts of it at the Bethlehem Blast Furnaces in the nude. This is why I shouldn't drink after work.

The truth about Lower Macungie and bus trips for old people

If I disappear, you will probably find me in can somewhere. I have received top secret information that the real reason the Commissioners in Lower Macungie approved the bus trips for senior citizens was because of pressure from a certain food manufacturer. It's easier to make them go this way.
The horrible truth is, those are one way bus trips.... and the old people on them are being processed out of the community, and into the food chain. That's right, they making them into....
Soylent Green!

Save yourselves!

Everybody is taking a summer break

The nice lady at the Somebody blog has announced a vacation, and the P.O.V. is no longer on the radar. I think everyone is tired of all the nastiness. Thank you Soccer Mom, for being eloquent in my defense. I'm glad I got to meet you in person.
"what we do here, what we say here, when we leave here, it will stay here."
You have my vow to keep the faith. I don't know if I will continue here, I know other members of our group decided to take a sabbatical until after Labor Day, and it might be for the best. I don't know what I will do, but I have my own observation that some bloggers are nutz. Is this really what it is all about, hurling insults and accusations without any accountability? Makes me wonder.
So much for laughing at ourselves.

I have aTour de Brew Date!

Well, I have a date for the Tour de brew, as in when it is, but no date, per se, as in womanly accompaniment, but I got a call after the 6:30 PM news that the Tour de Brew is scheduled for either the 23rd or 24th of August. the source said the The Fegeley brothers at the Brew Works told him that.
No word on whether anyone will go au Natural, but it would make it interesting if they did. Sarina, would you and your husband, aka Batman, pass out helmets? and for what?!

Family Feud: Who's who? I don't think I'm related to any of you

This morning I open my email, and I have been asked to consider removing any "inflammatory remarks concerning other people who blog".

Hatfields and McCoy's got nothing on you guys!
I guess that means my sock puppet post is what is being referred to, huh?

I've been thinking about this, and I am willing to consider doing that, but I want the guy calling me a sock puppet to quit condemning me without even knowing me. He is assuming a whole lot, and I'm a novice at this. You guys want to put wanted posters up and go at it that's fine, but can I have my little corner of irreverence? I get that some of you don't like the mayor, or you do, but I'm not saying you can't think that, or condemning you for it, I think y'all should be a little more Rodney King, as in "why can't we all just get along?

I don't want to get all uppity and say you can't disagree with me, I'm having a hard time with enough crap right now, without starting any imaginary fights.
I'm going to try and refrain from getting all indignant when I get called crap, but I'd appreciate some reciprocal treatment okay dudes? (or dudettes)

I've only got a couple of friends okay, not even friends, but people who actually comment to me, in blogland, I wouldn't mind a few more to communicate with, but I'm leery of it. I have to point out that some of you are a little off kilter, but in a good way, I think.
I want to leave my comments open to everybody, I don't go along with the "control freak" ideal, but I don't care for being hit with accusations that are unfounded. Please let us try this once again. Be nice to me, and I'll be nice to you. I laugh at stuff I see downtown everyday. It isn't the greatest city on earth, but I like it. So let me have my view, I won't sit in front of you at the movies and block yours.

To Promote Tourism, Allentown to Hold "Tour De NUDE Brew"

This Morning Mayor Pawlowski announced an exciting new event to take place in Allentown on Sunday, June 13th!
In the spirit of last year's "Tour DE Brew" and in the interest of encouraging artistic expression, and allowing free spirited members of the community to express themselves, this year all bike riders will be required to participate in the nude.
This is expected to draw more entrants, and bigger crowds into the center city area to observe the festivities. The Mayor also hinted that if this goes as well as hoped Allentown might put on their own "running of the Bulls" and have a festival the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
It would be a public service affair where lower income residents can chase after aherd of Turkey let loose from the Soldiers and Sailors monument. I got a hint for you mayor: "W....... K...... R....... P".
I'm going down and signing up for the Tour DE NUDE Brew today! look out Ladies!

I'm a Sock Puppet! But I'll live with the accusation

I removed my post that expressed my indignation with another blogworld participant at the request of a acquantaince. But don't think I'm a pushover, I'm only doing it as a favor, and I do those few and far between.