First-time fair vendor Dean Margarites of Monmouth County said he likely will skip setting up his Greek-A-Licious stand here next year because of poor sales.
“If I have something else going on, I’ll probably stick to something closer,” Margarites said.
As far as I am concerned that will improve the fair. Greek-a-Licious served me the absolute worst gyro I have ever eaten . . . Several years ago I noticed that BlogNetNews.com had picked up eCache in its feeds. It’s an interesting site, although it never generated much traffic here. A couple years ago the url for eCache changed. I contacted them to update it several times. They never did and I stopped trying. Just now in one of my feeds, I stumbled across this site again. I too a quick look. Not only have they not updated my feed, they have me classified as liberal. Bahaaaawwww . . . “Terrell Owens says he’s concerned teams are swayed by the perception that he’s a troublemaker and that’s why none have signed the free-agent receiver.” You think? I will be sorry to see Terrell retire. Since we have the same surname, my students always feel a kindred spirit. I use T.O. as an example throughout the year whenever my students fall into “me first” mode. We pound our chests just like the clueless one. Who will I use when he is no longer relevant? . . . Newspapers employing paywalls is poor business, imo, but Lancaster Online has taken the cake. Their new model uses a paywall only for obituaries. After reading seven obits, one will have to pay for the eighth. Yeah, that will work . . . Scoble is a media whore. He’s been pimping his “secret” all week. We’re all impressed . . . The other evening the handle fell off my Weber Performer. The grill i eight years old. The handle had rusted. I e-mailed the company, forwarded photographs, etc. In the mail right now to me is a replacement lid and thermometer free of charge. Weber has outstanding customer service . . .
It appears Gypsy Smokehouse is out of business. I am not surprised, but it is sad. Their Southern Pride smoker is for sale . . . Michelle Malkin advertises an open thread, yet registration to her site has been closed for years . . . Racial discrimination in pricing of Barbies or inventory control? . . . Excellent videos on how to break down a chuck roll . . . How did my watch become three days out of date? . . . Driving through Buena the other day I saw a few children playing on the front lawn of a house. Three of them were kicking a ball while a fourth was taking a leak by the tree . . . Gert has the pet frog in the classroom, yet I am the one who buys the crickets each week . . . There is something about March. The weather is breaking and two days until the clocks change. This is when I used to see lots of Grateful Dead shows . . . According to YouTube, because I watched JB’s Smoked Chicken and Ribs video, it has recommended I watch Tiger Woods’ presser. What is the connection? . . . RIP Merlin Olsen . . . I watched my first baseball game earlier this week. Bring on the regular season . . . hankering for paella . . . big day tomorrow and I am wondering how I am going to procure food, not only when, but what since it will be a meatless Friday . . . Facebook is where different groups of friends should never meet . . . Hey, any locals want to get together for a friendly BBQ cookoff sometime? It would be a fun excuse for a party . . .
I’m a “classic rock” kind of a guy, but The Who sounded really old the other night at the Super Bowl. I recall listening and recording their “final” show 28 years ago. “Hope I die before I get old” . . . Congratulations to the Saints! It was an entertaining game. The first quarter sure had signs of a blowout against a green team. That they came back as soundly as they did is truly a credit . . . Here’s the obligatory comment about the commercials: I didn’t watch them. I think I am immune to these things. I watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s comments about the commercials, but not the commercials themselves. So much for those advertising dollars . . . I posted road conditions the other day for Millville. How would they have been better seen? Perhaps I will run my Twitter stream through the blog again . . . Millville Public Library didn’t answer telephones Monday morning. Left a message that has yet to be returned. Called the Vineland branch and got service immediately . . . Made some red beans and rice. This place has smelled great all day . . . We followed it up with a tasty heart-shaped cheesecake. It’s Gert’s grandmother’s recipe. Wonderfully delicious! . . . Time for a change . . . Signed up for pip.io today. I don’t understand the buzz. Help me out if you do . . . If you need to believe in miracles, a man was found alive in the wreckage in Haiti, four weeks after the earthquake . . . According to Millville’s superintendent, one-third of all Millville High School students are suspended each year. Yikes! . . . And at VPS, 46% are suspended . . . Gov. Christie finally declared a state of emergency for southern NJ three days after the blizzard hit. The timing probably doesn’t matter, but I am not encouraged by all the photo-ops last weekend. As I noted on Sunday, Christie should not be using snow plows as props . . . Christie stated he worked with the BUP to restore power to those without it. The BUP only doles out money and ensures Nick Asselta has a cushy job. It’s Atlantic City Electric that can actually do something to restore power . . . My classroom recently participated with Art Goes to School. I love this program. It’s one of those programs I look forward to yearly. Excellent job. This year we analyzed Velazquez’s Las Meninas, Picasso’s Las Meninas, and Dali’s Portrait of Juan de Pareja Fixing a String of His Mandolin and how they are all related. Very kewl! . . .
In truth, I’ve always had an affinity for the New Orleans Saints. They were so horrible for so long that I began liking them. The Aints had another Manning, Archie who is Peyton’s father. He was awesome, but surrounded by a bunch of nobodies. Early on the Saints had Tom Dempsey as their place kicker. He with half a foot booted a 63-yard field goal, and NFL record. Later he kicked for the Eagles. All this coupled with a liking for the town itself, I like the cajun team a little bit.
And that is all it takes to root against the Colts.
It should be a fun game with two powerhouse offenses. While the Colts may be slightly better, I suspect this will be a competitive game. And for Roger Goddell who is considering a cold-weather Super Bowl in New York, this weekend I will be watching the Big Game while snowed in . . . and I’m south of the Big Apple.
An interesting story of a small publisher who almost published a J.D. Salinger book was told in today’s Washington Post. Alas, he made a mistake. No book for you! . . . A telephone call Buddy Holly secretly recorded when he tried to get the rights to That’ll Be the Day from Decca is making the rounds. It’s interesting how different the music business was 50+ years ago . . . While it’s been a rough week for President Obama (no bump from the SOTU), I applaud him for targeting to eliminate the Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit. It would be even better if eliminated the entire earned income tax credit program . . . A long time ago our family visited Haiti. It wasn’t in good shape then either. As I recall, a boy was going to be publicly flogged for an accident. While the earthquake has been devastating, Haiti has long been in great need . . . There was a time when I would have been gearing up to watch the Olympics. Now it is just a blip. How many storylines will be crafted that break up the actual sporting events? Curling and luge are still two events I marvel at . . . the one-inch of snow we were expected to get turned out to be a few inches more. It’s pretty outside . . . There is plenty to rail against the NFL for, but its move of the Pro Bowl to the off Sunday between the championship and the Super Bowl is a good move. I still have no interest in this game, but I suspect it will garner higher ratings . . . Bob Ingle’s piece today tells just one side of agency packing. It’s a bad side. Political appointments only need to earn $7500 to be in the state pension system. Of course, as I have been discussing of late, they do the political dirty work of elected officials without being held accountable . . .
