Pippy's bill exits PA Senate and heads to House

... the highest ethical and professional standards are applied to slot machine gambling in Pennsylvania.
Yeah, right.
Keep pushing onward.

Want to help, get on line

Two guys of different generations and parts of the city came to me recently and asked about helping with the mayor's race in 2005. Simply put, get on line. Send me an email. The to-do lists and everything else for now is brewing on line. To be effective, we'll need to be efficient and utlize the web. No way around the net. So, plug in the computer. That's where the help is going to start. We'll have little time for phone conversations, personal hand-holding and the like. We'll need help, but it can't be an anchor either.

November Computer Learning Schedule for Goodwill is taking registration:

Mondays: Computer Basics from 3-5pm - No Cost!
Tuesdays: Internet Explorer from 1-3pm - $30
Tuesdays: Intermediate Excel from 3-5pm - $50
Wednesdays: Intro to Word from 1-3pm - $50
Wednesdays: Intro to PowerPoint from 3-5pm - $50
Tue and Wed Evenings: Intro to Excel from 5:30 to 7:30pm - $50

As always, job seekers pay half price for any workshop.

Soccer - group mandates youth protective headgear

Sports Illustrated N.Y. group "For the first time in the nation, a New York regional youth soccer association will require the mandatory use of protective headguards, affecting nearly 35,000 players 14-years-old and younger.

I'm in favor of this new twist for the sport of soccer. It was some time in the making.

Soccer is great. And, it's dangerous as hell.

The players put their heads on the ball. The grey matter in our hard outter shells gets a jolt. Too many and we get dolts.

We play sports to learn, grow, and better ourselves. When a sporting artifact takes us in the wrong direction, it isn't worthy of my time nor the participation of my kids.

I'd like to see the entire rule book text. I'm a stickler for rules and have poured over many rule books and crafted team handbooks as well as text books. Generally, the rules are written by officials, attorneys or coaches. Some are people people others are just techies in a specialization. Hence the NCAA Manual is bigger than the Pittsburgh phone book and it changes greatly each year.

Another reason to change the rules is that the rule-breakers are generally smarter than the rules. Criminals don't fear handgun laws before armed robbery. Things evolve.

So, it is time to get out your old Knute Rockney hat / helmet. I hope the shells are soft, like the older football helmets. Perhaps we'd blend the style with that of the soft bike helmets of Europe's pros.

Speaking of which, I'm missing Lance's visit to Pittsburgh. Oh well. For the record, I'm all in favor of fixing cancer too.

Pittsburgh is blessed to have a flock of experts in all matters of the brain, heads, bodies, and senses.

'Bounty' out on city official

PittsburghLIVE.com: "The finance director, Ellen McLean, began a vacation Wednesday, according to the mayor's office. She is said to be on a trip to Egypt."

If you ever go into a South Side shop on East Carson, The Bead Mine, ask the owner/manager there to tell you about her trip to Egypt. She spend a couple of weeks a boat on the Nile.

You know the locks and dams that are on our rivers. Well, they've got something similar, but different. When she was there, days were spent in one place, stationary. Canal and lock work halts river traffic. Dead in the water. Hot. No breeze. Deisel engine. Get the details from her if you can. You might need to be a customer too.

Denial, not the Nile, comes to mind when thinking about the budget director and an ill-timed vacation.

President Ricciardi, tell her, "Don't come back!" Heave Ho!

A city council president only hires and fires the staffers of four employees (or so) in his/her office. But, a council leader could tell her (and in turn show us you telling her) via the newspapers, newsreleases, (or blog even), that you WOULD fire her if you could.

It's okay when people move into other jobs, like in the private sector. She is an employee that works for us, the residents of the City of Pittsburgh. She has no right to assist in the devistation of our city. The proposal on the table that she can't address aims to save $1-million, give or take a few $100K. Take her $80K job and eliminate it. A professional wouldn't be absent in a crisis. Nor should the call for resignation, if not termination, be absent.

What is that, only Nixon can go to China?

Jerry Bowyer said on this radio show yesterday, "Only Nixon can go to China." I think it had to deal with Nixon be a Republican. Would a Dem just look too much like a pinko?

Explain.

Should we go or should we stay?

We'll be staying in the city. That isn't the question we face. Some have been bailing on their city homes, i.e., John Pierce and Jim Roddey.

This weekend we're pondering a trip to China, again. Last year the whole family went to China for five weeks, mostly in the southwestern city, Chengdu. Catherine, my wife, has been invited back to teach a more advanced course.

So, should we go, again, or should we stay?

As we go, we'll be able to skip over the tourist places in Beijing. And, perhaps we'd stop off in Thailand were there are only three seasons: hot, hotter and hottest. And, we'd not need to be gone for five weeks. But, I'd expect it would be four.

I've not even gotten all the photos from the last trip organized and online.

Advice welcomed. And, the trip to New Zealand isn't going to happen this year. So, that's not a factor.

Despite all of his faults, ...

PG's Anderson: Harris deserves better: "There's growing and passionate sentiment for Pitt to fire football coach Walt Harris."

I'd prefer we focus all of our anguish on ousting Tom Murphy first. Then we can start the ball rolling for others to follow, i.e., Walt, Sala, and more to remain nameless today.

Perhaps we can make a "package deal." We'd be able to trade a good football coach with excellent QB mentoring skills and a multi-term Mayor with a propensity for retail to any willing city for, say, their municipal bond rating status.

I'm with the collumnist, Shelly Anderson, too in that I'm not so angry that I revel in berating and belittling. Not Murphy nor Harris. Not anyone. We're civil. We're grown-ups.

Not only does Tom Murphy deserve a warm handshake and thank you, but I've said before that I will be the first to start a petition and try to rename the Liberty Bridge and Liberty Tunnels in Murphy's honor. I want a vital landmark named after him, and I want to do it soon. That would be a fitting tribute to his departure.

Final question: Shelley are you bragging or complaining when you say you were the only reporter at every practice? For me, I'm the one 'naysayer' who was at most of Tom Murphy's political events as a candidate among other candidates. I've heard it all from Bob and Tom in the last go-around. And, that's nothing for me to brag about. I'm complaining.

Red Sox -- Friday night win in first series

We're home, not Fenway, but our odd-shaped cozy confines, to watch the Sox tonight. The Sox are in Fenway. We enjoyed a game there last season with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Pat.

I love the series games when the starting time is at a decent hour. Today's game begins at 4 pm EST. Major League Baseball is foolish when it plays most, if not all of the World Series games at such late hours. Our bed time for the kids is 8 pm. Baseball needs the kids to get into the games. Baseball is lagging as baseball is past the kid's bedtime.

Greece braces for Olympic-sized bill

SI.com - More Sports - Greece braces for Olympic-sized bill - Thursday October 7, 2004 8:29PM Figures as high as $9.9 billion and $12.4 billion have been suggested. We are talking about a serious overrun, since the initial budget was about $5.7 billion.

Meanwhile, LA's city council wants to host the games again.

Heather Whitestone & DePaul School for Hearing and Speech

Heather was Miss America, 1995. She gave a great talk. A wonderful time was had by all. Photos and details to come soon.

Culture on the cheap

Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts offers a free performance, Carnegie Mellon Night at the Pops, Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Senior Showcase Benefit Performance

A FREE performance by Germany's Theatre Titanick as Part of the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, North Shore Riverfront Park. Go October 8 at 10:30 p.m., October 9 at Midnight, October 10 at 8 p.m.

NO TICKETS REQUIRED.

Fixing the Parking Mess

Here is a blast from the past rant from January, 2004. Fixing the Parking Mess

The parking issue resurfaces as the mayor's phony 2005 budget makes substantial changes. Plus, the thinkers at the Allegeheny Institute have a new policy brief on the topic. See the comment.

Glitch here, glitch there, everywhere a glitch, glitch...

October 7, 2004

Trib coverage 'Nobody ever intended for this to happen,' he said.

From Sept. 29, 2004

City Council and Act 47: "the city's oversight board itself is nearly broke after lawmakers forgot to fund it in the 2004-05 state budget. Board Chairman William Lieberman called the oversight a 'glitch' and said the state's budget department would issue the board its $585,000 in yearly funding by the end of this week.

The board is currently down to about $5,000 to pay its legal expenses, executive director and consultants, Lieberman said."

Review this blog

Review the Mark Rauterkus and Running Mates blog at Blogarama.

GOP debate party on Friday on North Side

GOPers are gathering for a DEBATE PARTY on the North Side at Finnigans Wake at 7:30 pm on Friday, October 8, 2004.

Finnigans Wake is at 20 General Robinson Street, near the corner of Federal and General Robinson Streets, one block from PNC Park.

At the last debate, the Dems gathered at Hi Tops. Don't know if that is happening again.

Freeze for E-Rate Hits Schools

10-6-04 - Education Week: "The FCC told USAC to change its procedures by Oct. 1 in response to E-rate audits and congressional charges of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Citizen charges of waste, fraud and abuse has been put to the City and Comcast in terms of its City Cable Francise Agreement. In that agreement, the senior centers and recreation centers were to be wired with cable modems. We are still waiting. Nothing has been done.

agreement

With the federal program, it is great to see accountability and audits. More oversight of public funds is welcomed. Being a tech junkie of sorts, I strongly support the concepts of the e-rate program and the public financed investements. However, the money can't be wasted.

On the long-term, it is silly to say that classroom instruction has suffered due to this audit. Local and state funding of schools should carry the bulk of the efforts while Federal dollars provides programs, such as the e-rate.

The Pittsburgh Two-Step (washingtonpost.com)

This is where we live. Mable, we love ya.

The Pittsburgh Two-Step (washingtonpost.com) Follow the Staircases to South Side Slopes

But as I pass back over the railroad tracks, I find sustenance at Mabel Meyers's tiny grocery on Bradish Street.

Clad in a University of Pittsburgh sweatshirt and black sneakers, 84-year-old Meyers welcomes strangers as well as locals (evidently dogs are regulars too; a pair gets a big hello as they drag their young owner through the door). After 1,400 steps, I'd pay almost anything for a soda. But Meyers won't hear of it. "Let me treat you!" she says.

We compromise. I offer her 50 cents and she gives me a soda, a plastic chair next to the candy counter and her autobiography.
After World War II, when she and her husband bought the 1889-era shop, business was good. Their grocery was next to the lower station of the Knoxville Incline, one of the cable car lines that carried passengers and even horse-drawn wagons uphill till 11 at night. (Two, the Monongahela and Duquesne, survive). Incline passengers would wave to her children as the car rose uphill.

"My son Herbie always says, 'We lived history,' " she says. The incline shut in 1960; Meyers started closing shop earlier and earlier, but still spends her days selling soft pretzels and snacks.

"Even if I don't make money, I talk to people," she says with satisfaction. "I've got a very good life here. Where else could you live that's so convenient?"

To read the article, but you'll need to register with the site. Hope to see you around so you can travel the steps as well.

Trib's Mike S

South Side keeps churning - PittsburghLIVE.com

showdown for US Airways

US Airways coverage

Great to see the rank-in-file is getting a vote this go-around.

Need a tux for Thursday night

Heather Whitestone, welcome to Pittsburgh

Former Miss America visits for gala to benefit DePaul school for the deaf. We'll be there, Oct. 7, 2004.

From Sept. 20, 2004

Tips on getting a tux for a black-tie gig are welcomed. The tux is for me. The retirement isn't mine. I'm already retired.

A friend says one should go to Florida and shop in second-hand stores to uncover bargains and goodies like this. Furs too, if that's your cup of tea. The yankees (sorry Sox) go to Florida to retire and die. Then lots of their things end up in re-sale shops. That advice won't help for this week's function.

One upside, other than a date with my sweetheart who gets invited to such occasions, is that our photo could show up in the PG's seen column. Snicker. Or, I could take our photo and post it here and replace that copyleft illustration of digital guy.

Grandstanding at the table and in the halls of Grant Street

Grandstanding rant.

I went to City Council and spoke for three minutes in the public comment period of today's meeting. My comments are posted in an opinion web page.

Enjoy. React as you see fit.