When You Wish Upon A Star

As a little boy in the early 1950's, I would watch Jiminy Cricket sing When You Wish Upon a Star. I thought of Jiminy the other day, when I watched Johnny Callahan swoon about the new Sands Casino Hotel. It occurred to me that Johnny should be careful about what he wishes. I'm concerned that Bethlehem cannot support two large center city hotels. My fear, is that the success of the new Sands Hotel will be at the expense of the classic Hotel Bethlehem. Just as the Hotel Bethlehem's van currently takes guests to the casino, a new modern hotel could shuttle guests to and from historic Main Street. How sad to watch a talking suit clamor about some temporary construction jobs. I wouldn't bet on how many permanent jobs Sands Corporation provides, the casino always has the winning hand. Well, Donny Cunningham rode to Harrisburg and back on empty press conferences on empty steel land, so why shouldn't Johnny try chirping a little?

Transportation in the Valley

Two of my fellow bloggers currently have posts on subjects near and dear to me. Andrew Kleiner, from Remember, documents cars driving on the new Cedar Park Drive. Who would have guessed? Only the naysayers.


The blog known as Lehigh Valley Clancularius, examines what Easton's Sal Panto can't accept; Perhaps New Yorkers won't take a train to come see the Al Bundy Museum.

photo of Pawlowski/Weitzel Drive courtesy of Remember
photo of the Panto Express courtesy of Clancularius

On The Waterfront

Many consider the 1954 classic, On The Waterfront, the best picture ever made. The history of the film is interwoven with the realities of that era. The screenplay, by Budd Schulberg, was loosely based on a Pulitzer Prize winning expose about organized crime on the docks. The film's director, Elia Kazan, had testified at the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming a few associates who had attended meetings with him years earlier.





In the film, Marlon Brando, is slowly convinced to testify against the crime boss who employed him. Kazan and Schulberg insisted on realism for the production. The movie was shot in black and white on the docks of Hoboken. Bodyguards of the crime boss, played by Lee Cobb, were actual former heavyweight fighters.
Tami Mauriello ---------------- Tony Galento --------------Abe Simon

Timber, Again

In an incredible act of fiscal desperation, the Pawlowski Administration is preparing to justify harvesting timber on the South Mountain Reservoir. It is being filtered through the Park Department as woodland management, blah, blah, blah, but make no mistake, they're selling the tree's because they need money. Currently the timber is being surveyed. I must have missed the public announcement for the meeting on that plan. Our heritage, our parks, are being threatened by the perfect storm. The Parks and Recreation departments have been administratively combined. The director's background and training is in recreation. The administration has created no less than two cover groups; The Environmental Advisory Council and Friends of the Parks. Both groups have unwittingly failed in their own mission, as stewards of the parks. In the first phrase of the Cedar Park Plan, the structural integrity of the Mirror Ponds has been compromised by under digging the stone walls. A contractor now will apply gunite in an attempt to stabilize the walls. The Administration and Parks Department is using surveys and studies to justify the pre-determined master plan; for example a survey taken on the east side of Cedar Parkway of young people at the basketball courts may be used to justify extending recreational venues into the traditionally passive Rose Garden side of the park. Press conferences will be held, awards will be won, resumes will be enhanced, but what kind of park system will our grandchildren inherit?

above reprinted from July 2, 2009

Although there is an article in today's Morning Call, what has been lost in the forest, is that the newspaper learned of the contract FROM THIS BLOG.
related posts:
from this blog; Timber, Blogs and MSM
from Morning Call; South Mountain Forestry Study

The Jew Card

Yesterday, an esteemed fellow blogger suggested I was playing the Jew Card in regard to my post entitled Damn Jews, which dealt with the ship intervention. I know that the last thing Israel wanted was the operation to result in deaths, and world controversy. Books will be written about the incident, but this post concerns the Jew Card. To me, playing a card refers to bringing up a topic, as an excuse or distraction from the more relevant issue. There is no Jew Card, only one excuse after another for anti-semitic acts throughout history and geography. The current excuse is Israeli oppression. There was no Israel to explain why my paternal grandparents fled the pogroms of Russia in the 1890's. There was no Israeli occupation to explain why all my maternal relatives from Hungary died in the concentration camps in the 1940's. Yesterday, a former U.S. diplomat aboard one of the ships said that the Israeli's were armed to their teeth, even though they were carrying paint ball rifles. The Turks didn't riot in 2003 when the two main synagogues were bombed in Istanbul.

There was no world outrage when the Jewish Community Center was bombed in Buenos Aires. The internet is full of allegations that 9/11 was an Israeli plot. If the Jews have a card, it is called survival. My fellow blogger should drive by a synagogue on a Jewish holiday. He may wonder how the Jews feel needing a police officer outside, to be safe praying inside, even in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

ADDENDUM: THE DOUBLE STANDARD. THE WORLD WAS QUICK TO BLAME ISRAEL. A LOCAL ESTEEMED BLOGGER CALLED THE DEATHS MURDER, HE WENT ON TO SAY; The proof of Israel's guilt lies in its feeble attempts to control what messages are going out concerning this atrocity. NOW THAT TAPES HAVE SURFACED SHOWING THE "PEACE ACTIVISTS" PREPARING WEAPONS TO BEAT THE ISRAELI'S TO DEATH, AND HOPING TO PROVOKE A RESPONSE, AND EVEN THEIR OWN DEATH, SHOULD NOT THE CONDEMNERS CONCEDE THEIR ERROR?  IS POINTING OUT THAT DOUBLE STANDARD PLAYING THE JEW CARD?
DELETIONS: THIS BLOG IS THE "EARLY MORNING EDITION" OF THE LOCAL BLOGOSPHERE. I TEND TO POST VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING. THREE VIDEO'S WHICH HAVE APPEARED IN THE LAST SEVERAL DAYS AS ADDENDUMS, HAVE BEEN DELETED TO RESTORE CONCISENESS TO THE ORIGINAL POSTS. IT IS MY INTENTION TO CONTINUE WITH TEMPORARY EARLY MORNING VIDEO'S AND LINKS WHICH ELABORATE ON THE POSTS.

Damn Jews

Just because you're running a naval blockade, and you beat them with metal bars, they're outnumbered 100 to one, they think they have the right to shoot to save their life, those damn Jews.