Commercial Ad Hawking My Booklet

The other week I set up a table at a local flea market. I was there early in the morning for a couple of hours, and managed to pay the rent by selling a well respected history of Allentown. It's a slick book, a well done production featuring photos of places mostly before my time, and Allentown postcards from yesteryear.

My booklet is not a slick production, and consists of 36 posts from growing up in Allentown in the 1950's.  All the posts are from this blog, so you could assemble it yourself with a printer and stapler. If you're a fellow baby boomer, I think it might bring you a smile or two. I suppose it might be somewhat male orientated, with several posts about the long freight trains that we had to wait for in several areas of Allentown.

In addition to force feeding my blog audience with this advertisement, I will also post it on Allentown Chronicles, a local Facebook group. Those interested in purchase can CLICK HERE to the Amazon bookstore.

New Square For Old Problems

I spent a couple hours last week on Hamilton Street. With the square at 7th and Hamilton being reconfigured, both driving and walking were burdensome and dangerous. Of course the real danger is a couple blocks away, in either direction.*

The denizens don't care about the new square. The prized citizens farther west, the ones we're trying lure into center city, also don't care about the new square. They aren't coming, regardless of what building you move where.

On Sunday night I was in Bethlehem. I had to drive blocks beyond my destination to find a parking space. At no time did I feel intimidated by denizens or surroundings. No new construction there, just history and quaintness. Allentown traded its history for the NIZ, and it doubles down with nonsense plans like the new square and moving the art museum.

*Allentown experienced two fatal shootings Tuesday evening. In both cases the suspect was apprehended.

shown above one block beyond the NIZ

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE....  36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG.

Shapiro Rules Pennsylvania, Or Name That Woman

I'm not a Josh Shapiro fan, but according to polls, 25% of voters don't know who his opponent is for the upcoming election. With those statistics, far be it from me to even mention her name. But I will take the Republican Party to task for poor job they're doing, or perhaps better said, the job they're not doing.

Perpetual candidate Mark Pinsley is running head and head with Jarrett Coleman, a state senator doing an excellent job. Bob Brooks is running ahead of incumbent Ryan Mackenzie.

Readers of this blog know that I believe that they can credit Donald Trump with the Democratic prospects for a good November. Those like the Republican candidate for governor who promotes herself with MAGA will lose bigly.

Vance Learning To Dance

Right leaning pundits and their followers are trying to portray Vance as polishing Trump's statements, to help both the party in the midterms, and himself for 2028. Trump's rants, becoming more unglued day by day, make repairs difficult.

It is one thing to be a press secretary and justify babble, it is another if you want to remain a potential candidate viable for a political future. While J.D. can jittererbug for another five weeks, expect another song and dance starting on November 4th.

If the blue wave is as high as many predict, the survivors will have to change their tune drastically for 2028. For Vance, just being Trump's VP will be a stain enough. His polishing will no longer due, and he'll have to respectfully disagree.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE.... 36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

The Expense Of Trump's Rants

Trump's slush fund will spend hundreds of $millions on what he calls fake media sites to try and compensate for his ramblings.  With the midterms only five weeks away, and Trump's rating the lowest of a sitting president in thirty five years, it should be a banner years for political ads.

The list of Republican candidates disagreeing with Trump, especially in regard to the war with Iran, grows as I type. Locally, so far Mackenzie is still going down with the ship, but we'll see if his tune changes.

On the topic of change, although I'm still printing anonymous comments if they contribute enough to the dialogue, more and more of them are being rejected.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN AT AMAZON BOOKSTORE....   36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG

Rumble At Fairview Cemetery

Wednesday morning as Tyler Fatzinger and I met WFMZ deep inside Fairview Cemetery, the cemetery operator came racing up to inform us that we were all trespassing and needed to leave. I credit the reporter, Kalista Mitrisin, with persuading the operator, David Boyko, with allowing the WFMZ segment to be filmed. 

While Tyler may have been influenced by early posts on this blog about Fairview, his Facebook group, Revive Fairview Cemetery Allentown, attracted the reporter and current interest.

Boyko describes himself as a savior of the cemetery, battling distractors like Fatzinger. In reality, without the early efforts of myself and the current attention by Fatzinger, the cemetery would be much more neglected. While Boyko claims that he welcomes volunteers, in reality he has been an obstacle to such efforts. The location of current burials is an issue beyond my pay grade, but warrants scrutiny by appropriate officials. Questions and comments can also be placed at the Revive Fairview page.

Trump Buys CNN

Now that the Paramount/Warner deal has gone through, expect CNN to start being Trump friendlier. The CEO of the combined company, David Ellison, supposedly has an understanding with Trump that if the feds didn't oppose the merger, CNN & CBS would become nicer to the administration.

I suspect that CNN's recent ouster from the White House was actually more theater, and a distraction from Trump's successful taming of the media.

With such dominant information channels as CNN and CBS successfully being potty trained by Trump, speaking out will be left to the smaller fries. Complete freedom of expression might only be practiced by us smallest fries.

ADDENDUM: Trump continued to block CNN and others on Thursday, despite a judge ruling that the ban was unconstitutional.

ADDENDUM: The White House relented at 12:07PM following a renewed reprimand by the judge, and allowed the banned press access.

CLICK HERE FOR MY BABY BOOMER MEMORIES OF ALLENTOWN....   36 SELECTED POSTS FROM THIS BLOG