51 Uses For WD-40
It was news to me that it could be used to relieve arthritis symptoms.
When Did We Become British?
I have great admiration for our British cousins, so I was sincerely flattered when asked to speak at Oxford University. I of course accepted, and look forward with great anticipation to this fall, when I’ll visit England for the first time.
The seminar will concentrate on higher education and how it is evolving, but I’ll also be interested in doing a little snooping while I’m over there.
I’m going to see if I can find some clues as to why we here in America seem to be reverting to being a part of Britain once again.
Perhaps I’m overreacting, but notice, if you will, that at Wal-Mart stores (at least the ones around south Jersey) you are directed to enter and exit to your left, sort of like driving on the left side of the road as they do in England. But we keep to the right in this country and pass on the left. Don’t we?
I’m starting to notice this tendency in many other places, particularly at Wawa and my local post office, where people increasingly enter and exit using the left side of the double-door. It’s even happening in my church, where the right hand door is often left closed—that is, until I reach the exit. That’s when I go through the right side, which, in this country, is the right side.
I’ve even had (many) people hold the left hand door open for me as I enter a Wawa. Imagine how disappointed they are when I ignore their misguided courtesy and pull the right-hand door open for myself. (Well, somebody’s got to take a stand for American Independence!)
This disturbing, bogus/foreign trend has now reached the entertainment and news media—the two wannabe national style-setters. Movie and television scripts are now peppered with the British police phrases, “He went missing,” or “The child has gone missing.”
As a long-time devotee of British TV, I’m familiar with this syntax. As a long-time American police officer, I can tell you indisputably that that phraseology was never used in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvanians Want Private Liquor Stores
Pennsylvanians Want Private Liquor Stores — The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association reports that the latest results from Susquehanna Polling and Research, show that 55 percent of Pennsylvanians want the state out of the liquor business while just 41 percent are against.
Those
who would be more likely to support liquor privatization, however, grew to 69 percent if penalties for selling to minors became stricter and to 68 percent if displaced workers could find jobs in the private sector.
Now, Republicans control the governor’s office, and both houses of the legislature. Who do you think is going to get the blame if this rather popular — and simple — thing goes undone?
Hmmm, Sen Erickson?
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.
Pennsylvanians Want Private Liquor Stores
Manufacturing Sharpest Drop In 4 Years
Manufacturing Sharpest Drop In 4 Years — The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 49 from last month’s 50.7, the Tempe, Arizona-based group reported today.
It was the fastest manufacturing drop in four years shocking analysts.
Hip, hip hooray to Philadelphia’s Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, whose fixed income strategist Guy LeBas was the only one to call it right.
This news is also likely to shock those at The Philadelphia Inquirer for those few still reading it.
Manufacturing Sharpest Drop In 4 Years
Cinematic Hotbed Delaware County
Last years, Delaware County, Pa. was featured in all its beauty in the brilliant and Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook.
Last weekend, Will Smith’s After Earth, filmed largely at Sun Center Studious in Chester Township, opened on 3,000 plus screens.
Look at it this way: We are batting .500.
Cinematic Hotbed Delaware County
Elizabeth O Margerum (1929-2013)
Elizabeth Osterhout Margerum died May 30. She was 83.
Mrs. Margerum worked at the County Press and associated newspapers in Delaware County, Pa. for 31 years, much of that time as society editor.
She also edited the Bits and Pieces and Health Briefs columns and wrote occasional articles. She was also the prime designer of many of the newspaper’s prize-winning floats in the Marple Newtown Fourth of July Parade.
She worked full-time until last year.
“She battled esophageal cancer for over three years,” her daughter Patricia said. “She did not let chemo or radiation stop her from anything. Even her doctors were amazed at how resilient she was at 81.”
She made her own jewelry and was a long-time member of the Tuscarora Lapidary Society.
She loved travel and the outdoors. She and her family camped up and down the East Coast for many years. She also visited many islands and even made it to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal just a few years ago. Her favorite place to spend time was in Plevna, Ontario, Canada, where she owned land, hiked, and fished. As she would say, it felt like an untouched part of the world.
“She looked at life through a 20 year old’s eyes and was always excited and interested in trying anything new,” Patricia said. “She never considered herself old.”
Mrs. Margerum was graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1947 and studied art at Lock Haven State.College. She lived in the Media area for 50 years, most recently in Upper Providence Township.
She was a long-time member of the Media Presbyterian Church.
She was married for 46 years to William B. Margerum IV of the Margerum family that long had a meat market in Reading Terminal.
She was predeceased by her husband; son David; daughter Tamara Lee; brother Donald P. Osterhout, Jr.,; sister Anne E. Chandler; and brother-in-law Bud Chandler.
Besides Patricia, she is survived by nephew Keith Chandler, niece Lee Anne Chandler, sister-in-law Trudi Osterhout and Osterhout nieces and nephew; Susan, Patty, and Peter.
Services will be held at Media Presbyterian Church on Wednesday, June 12, with visiting at 10 a.m. and Memorial Service at 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Juvenile Diabetes Association or American Cancer Society.
Elizabeth O Margerum (1929-2013)
Hipster Billionaire Has $9m wedding
Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook and co-founder of Napster who has a net worth estimated at $2 billion, married his singer girlfriend and mother of his child, Saturday at a ceremony in Big Sur, California that cost $9 million.
Landscapers spent weeks building fake waterfalls, ruins and a $600,000 stone gate. The couple and guests were garbed by Oscar-winning designer Ngila Dickson.
Wow. How many poor children could he have fed with that money? How many illegal immigrants could he have supplied with health care?
OTOH, one supposes it beats giving it to Democrats as he had been doing.
Hipster Billionaire Has $9m wedding
Toomey Wants Embassy Moved To Jerusalem
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) has announced that he is a co-sponsor of Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act (S.604 that will move our embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.
The law would make it official U.S. policy to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy should be located there.
Sebelius Won’t Save Sarah
The 10-year-old Newtown Square girl suffering from cystic fibrosis who desperately needs a lung transplant has apparently been consigned to death by Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration.
Bureaucratic rules require those under 12 to wait their turn for adult organ transplants, which can be modified for children, and prohibit medical necessity as a consideration. The family of the girl, Sarah Murnaghan, has petitioned Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius to waive the rule as it is in her power to do so.
They were joined by Sen. Pat Toomey and people from around the world.
Well, the Secretary has spoken. She has called for a review of the policy. It will take about two years. It is not going to do Sarah any good.
The allocation of organs is obviously a difficult subject but it is horrifically callous to hide behind a rule rather than be guided by conscience. It is the bureaucrats that worship these rules as they allow them to make problems disappear while they consider the menu for their next catered lunch. This decision should not be in their hands. The only criteria should be is it necessary and can it be done. The determination is best left to doctors with proven track records.
We must make that the case and fight to save Sarah.
Sebelius Won’t Save Sarah
New Patent Law; Little Guy Loses Again
New Patent Law; Little Guy Loses Again — The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, signed into law on Sept. 16, 2011, went into effect on March 16.
The act changes American patent law from “first to invent”, as it was since 1952, to “first to file”. Under the old, and more just, system if you could prove using lab notes and witness testimony that you were first the first to invent a product you would win the patent.
Now, the cards are all held by those with the best legal staff.
“It’s great news – if ytou have an in-house patent department,” writes Issie Lapowksy of Inc. magazine.
The bill’s co-sponsors Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX21) have a reputation for being in the pocket of corporate high tech.
New Patent Law; Little Guy Loses Again