Mile Posts and Memories

June is halfway through the calendar year and marks the semester end for most local schools. For high school seniors it also marks a rite of passage as they move out into the world.

My granddaughter's high school graduating class this year numbered almost 300 students. The stage was packed with students in caps and gowns, shoulder to shoulder and aching to get through the hour. Parents and family members in the audience could see rubber bands and spitballs soaring into the air among the back rows behind the speakers.

Never mind.

The messages delivered to graduates were punctuated by toots from a horn somewhere off in the distance.

No problem.

The highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of diplomas. Each student went through a receiving line to get the coveted award. Suddenly one chap pretended to trip over the Superintendent's feet crossing the stage and fell to the floor.

Splat!

There were shocked gasps in the audience. He clambered to his feet and continued on to accept his diploma and shake hands. Later we heard that there was a bet riding on the dare.

Ahh. Too much reality TV. Wait until these bright and talented youngsters get out into today's barren economic climate. We should applaud their spirit and shenanigans while we can.

Finishing up the week, I attended my fiftieth alumni gathering.

Truly, it does not feel like so many years have passed. Teetering now at the precipice of old age, the hard part is realizing how the present holds up that memory of yourself at the brink of adulthood. Passages. I sense canyon walls and buttressing arches looming over me, halfway to my goals, still struggling to climb up out into that clear blue sky.

I had planned for months to polish myself for those pals I hadn't seen in years...to lose twenty pounds, get a knock-out outfit, prep a resume like applying for a job.

What am I? Nuts?

I stopped to think. I came to the conclusion that since we had been a very small class, and spent our school years in an intimate context that just was not competitive, there should be no pressure to stand out because it would probably be enough just to show up. Thus relieved of guilt and inhibition, I sallied off in high spirits.

Possibly the best part of this weekend was the pre-banquet picnic we had in the middle of the day. It gave us time to mingle, show pictures and cover some of the intervening years. Our hostess and her husband did a great job providing a spread to keep things lively. Fifty years is a long time. People come with baggage and it takes a while to shed shyness. This was a great chance to let the old personalities shine through. The picnic definitely was a successful ice breaker and, by the time we went to dinner, we were relating like back in the 60's again.

As I headed to my car, one of my classmates asked,

"Hey, Barb. Would you like to see live fish in the back of my car?"

It was a blazing ninety degree day and I looked over at his wife who nodded. Everyone else was headed for hotel rooms and a shower and I could not imagine fish surviving for long in this weather.

"You have got to be kidding. I bet you have gold fish, like an aquarium?"

I followed my classmate and his spouse back to their car which was parked on the lawn under a shady tree. He moved to the rear of the car and opened the trunk. I did not know what to expect but my mind was searching possibilities trying to create a rational situation. I was expecting to see maybe plastic bags of gold fish from a pet store or the stuffed bass mounted on a plaque that sings a song when he is wound up. At any rate, I was in for a surprise.

He did indeed have live fish. Swimming in his trunk. Yep.

I looked down at a very large cooler filled with killies, minnows, bait fish that I was used to seeing in the shallows of White Lake or along tidal marshes of the Jersey shore. I couldn't get over it.

"We thought we might go fishing tomorrow before we headed home. This is a pretty good way to keep the bait, don't you think?" he said with a proud grin.

As he spoke, he lifted a small battery pump pack about the size of a Boy Scout canteen in the palm of his hand. Eight inches long, it fit nicely into the beverage side of the cooler and had plastic lines running through it that kept the killies' water aerated and cool. Neat.

As I changed my clothes for the banquet, I was already chuckling. I was enjoying myself.

Well, our gathering of alumni was warm and we were singled out for corsages because of our fifty year status. The air conditioning had been turned on the day before so the hall was thankfully cool. The food was better than last year and the cash bar reasonable. Everyone mingled with the classes that were represented without regard to specific years and the feeling of returning home, to home base, was the best of all. There was an air and uplift of good old fashioned optimism.

It was bittersweet to see alumni attending who were obviously dealing with infirmities, some greeted with glimmers of recall, some who were just pleased to be included...but realizing that the years take their toll and that our numbers are diminishing is just so sad. Our townships have moved on to a regional school system and our alumni organization is fading as members die off. It was like we are tacked to a bulletin board and, one by one, we come down until the board is bare.

The evening finished up with a disk jockey playing a nostalgic medley of do-wop and rock swing tunes. Watching those dancers swaying in the soft lighting was like the old sock hops all over again. It was the second time I heard Tennesee Waltz this week...the other at my Mom's nursing home. And that thought brought me full circle to thinking about going home. My present home.

Reflecting on the weekend, we had the usual work updates, retirement stories, yearbook albums, family pictures, but I have to say that the fish in the trunk beat everything.

Here's to the class of 2010. May they have the blessings and good fortune to get as far as we have.

People rock!

Trenton Loses Director Bradley

Tomorrow is Wednesday. Tomorrow is also the last day that Trenton Police Director Irving Bradley, Jr. is on the job. I wonder what kind of thinking has led to this good man being cast aside like a usual political appointee.

What are you thinking, Tony Mack?

In the last discussion I had with candidate Mack just before the election, I tried in vain to assert how vital Director Bradley was to the present great morale in the Trenton Police Department. I tried in vain to let him know that Irv Bradley is one of the best things to happen to Trenton in years.

Because Mayor Palmer hired Director Bradley, Mayor Mack is going to let him go. What kind of logic is this? I suspect that computer friendly Bradley just may be too qualified for the lumbering candidates that are presently on the radar. Trentonian reporter LA Parker tried to get Mayor Mack to let us know just how much trouble we are going to be in if Bradley is sent off, but Tony reverted to his defensive boxer stance and did not come up with the answer.

What are you thinking, Mayor Mack?

Here we are, sitting on the Water Company because you guys thought that there was a golden goose out there and the city wasn't going to be ripped off if you could help it....well guess what? Almost a thirty percent rise in taxes just happened. And the thirteen pages or so of tax sale candidates is just the beginning of your goose egg.

I sit here tonight hoping that one of the Director candidates you are considering may be at least computer literate. I am hoping that somewhere out there is a man or woman who will lead the Trenton Police and inspire them to flourish and be productive like Irv Bradley managed to do. I am hoping that this new candidate will have the moxie and imagination to reach out to the community and follow in his footsteps. If the newbie is going to be like Santiago or even before him, I have to say that I was really turned off by their attitudes and personalities.

Director Irv Bradley had finesse. He had an empirical view of city problems, based on practical observation, and the networking skills to implement and coordinate operations that have led to the lowest murder rate in this city in years.

I think that the smartest thing Mayor Palmer did in recent years was to reach out to this unassuming man who turned out to be a real diamond in the rough. Kudos.

Why in Heaven's name are we letting him ride off into the sunset?

Dumb.

Dumb.

Dumb.

Have a nice day.

Have You Been Googled?

Google is part of our life style.

Google has become a noun, a verb, an adjective and even an adverb. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that Google has become so powerful that it does pretty much what it pleases...sort of a cybernet version of Governor Christie.

This blog has been down for some time this week because Google advised me that it was noting "suspicious activity". I practically stood on my head to try to get the darn thing settled.

The crux of their solution was to ask for a mobile phone number, to send a text message to, so they could send me the security password that would unlock the account.

I figured it was a marketing ploy to get a cellphone number to spam. I called the Google New York number to speak to a real person and was told by the answering machine that the "mailbox is full".

Yep. Figures.

I told the Google site online that I had no phone. No response from the Google people. That was days ago.

I tried again, noting that I wanted to speak to a human and was sent to a site that asked me what I wanted to pay per hour to talk to a real person. What is this? Extortion... or... Google porn?

I called my stepson who gave me a phone number to use. Lo and behold, when I put it in today, a text message appeared on the phone.

Yep.

Figures.

Google sent me a text message that encouraged a reply.

Yep.

Figures.

Yep.

There was a perky message that advised me of their services and now I can receive, on the mobile phone, all sorts of stuff... for a fee because "all applicable charges will apply".

Yep. Figures.

Now if I can only get this stuff stopped.....yep. Figures. A week ago they tried to change my Google page to a huge distracting desktop and I spent a long time trying to tell it to go white. I understand that they finally took that down.

Based on my experiences, Google is not people friendly.

Can't blame this one on the Governor.

I wonder if this post will stay up or if they will freeze me again for "suspicious activity".

Love ya,

Have a nice day.

Governor Christie: "Mother, May I?"

I was going to write about Art All Night because it was such a hit and I loved being part of this phenomenal home-grown success story. As I signed on, Fox News was covering Governor Christie's remarks after the NJ Assembly's feeble attempt to override his veto of the "Millionaires' Tax". I got mad all over again.

Senior citizens in New Jersey have just had a $1,300.00 increase in their real estate taxes this year. The Millionaires' Tax proceeds were supposed to cover the expense of senior programs not covered in the upcoming budget. Some items were tax rebates, Senior Gold, PAAD, senior tax relief...now scuttled because of this bill's demise. The Governor huffed and puffed and exclaimed that he was running the state and basically we had to get used to it. He does not think that he has ask anyone's permission, he does not have to say, in his words,

"Mother, may I?"

I think his own mother, who was a school teacher and waged a gallant battle with breast cancer, would not have been pleased at his arrogance.

The point is that this Governor does not share our pain. This Governor has not spread the pain over every citizen in this state. This Governor has taken a stand that he does not care for the elderly and the disabled and even has gone so far as to put it into words.

There is no point in asking him to walk in our Dr. Scholls. There is no point in asking him to share our "Peanut butter and jelly Thursdays". There is no point in asking this galloot to put his Colt back into the holster.

Save your breath.

Ask him if he wants to adopt a senior.

He is making hundreds of thousands a year, maybe more. (Governor Corzine did not take a cent.) Betcha he could afford to adopt a senior.

I know of elderly homeowners who had to give up their prized cars because the tax man came before the car insurance. I know of diabetic seniors who, nontheless, eat pasta because it is cheap. and because this year's tax bill in Trenton went up beyond belief.

This Governor seems to be rather self serving. His share of our pain, as he insists we are all sharing the same hardships, is certainly not obvious to me.

His words are alien to us. His "eloquence" is lost on us. We have links to decades of hardship that we would express in dramatically different terms.

I remember when you mixed margarine with flavor and color packets because butter was rationed. I remember when my folks could not drive ten miles without being challenged because you needed a permit for using the gas. I remember making rugs out of short pieces of cotton underwear and shirts. I remember panties and nighties that my grandmother sewed out of parachute cloth after the war was over.

The seniors in my acquaintance are not cast-offs. They are mothers and fathers who worked hard all their lives and Roosevelt's Social Security was a welcome safety net. They knew hard work, like drawing steel in the Roebling Mills or building the streets that make up this Capital. They were mothers who used to watch the neighborhood. They made sure that the kids still talked Italian in the home but learned the new language because the homework was in English. They were mothers who made sure that the kids went to school because they were just as sure that college was the guarantee of the future. The unexpected problem was that the college kids left the city...and parents are left trying to keep up the house or ended up in "Affordable Housing".

There is a senior shift going on right now. I have heard rumors that the senior centers are to be consolidated...not the end of the world if transportation is adequate for the change. Many elders would sure appreciate a warm meal to carry them over the hump because they are short of cash thanks to Christie's shenannigans. However the range of activites is not attractive to many seniors who think the centers are boring.

The activities at most senior centers include TV and reading. Sometimes there are "programs" where community reps come in and discuss items that they think should be of interest to the elderly. There are occasional games, but prevailing throughout most of the centers is bingo. Since the Catholic Church started Church Bingo, the locals forgot that the Church had special permits. Now they have become conditioned to gambling. They will bet on lottery tickets, lotto, fifty-fifty,but the original fund raising intent has been obscured.

Hey, Governor, are you going to raid these illegal senior bingo parlors?

If... you want to make exceptions for Senior Bingo...then you could make exceptions for those seniors going bankrupt and waive these obscene real estate taxes. It is not "sharing the pain" to let a millionaire enjoy his farmland tax-exempt property on the flimsy pretext of harvesting hay or cloning herefords while Chambersburg residents have to eat macaroni.

Seniors should be treasured. Seniors deserve respect. Governor Christie, maybe you should have asked "Mother, may I?"

Have a good day.

Art All Night Is Here

Grab your painting, tote that T-shirt...the one that says "STAFF" on it....yeah!

ART ALL NIGHT is here!

It only takes nine months to have a baby but it takes a full year to pull Art All Night together.

Artists: You have from 6:00pm to 9:00pm tonight to bring your art work to the show. Of course if tonight doesn't work, bring your sculpture, your kid's refrigerator art,(TrentonKat, tell Matty he can make something), craft items, even needlepoint, to the show tomorrow before 2:00pm. This gives the staff a chance to hang everything before the show starts at 3:00pm.

Every year presents challenges and, somehow, every year produces a champion event.

The soaring Roebling Wire Works, just off South Clinton Avenue, is the perfect setting for the hundreds of volunteers and artists who make this "happening" happen. The action begins at 3pm on Saturday afternoon and ends officially at 3pm Sunday but in between....

Bands ranging from gospel to jazz, with some folk and reggae thrown in for spice, perform non-stop on both indoor and outdoor stages. There are vocalists, bands from soloist to orchestra...jazz ranging from sexy to raucous improv until the wee hours. Sunday morning from 3am to 7am, the action moves indoors and a succession of DJ's keep the energy flowing. This gives neighbors thankfully a chance to sleep.

Saturday night includes an "iron pour"... which is as dramatic as it sounds. Molten iron will be poured into molds while in front of the evening crowd. This is scheduled for after dark, so you get the full effect of glowing like hot lava. Some of the older residents of Trenton might remember this part of our "Trenton Makes" heritage. It is fitting that we watch from what was formerly grounds of the Roebling Wire Works.

There will be food. We had a sampling of some of the vendors at our first volunteer session and it was delicious. There will be beer and wine tasting, barbecue, snacks of every kind, but personally I have to think about something else besides food or I will pay for it for a week.

And of course there is art. Live Art Fusion---by Timeless Tattoo...a number of artists working on a canvas that rotates slowly...I have no idea what this is going to be so I sure don't want to miss it.

There is glass blowing, live T-shirt printing where you can design your own shirt and they print Art All Night limited editions right in front of you... "Graffiti Demo" by local Trentonian Leon Rainbow...(really, and can he tell stories), "Graf on Girls" features Leon and other artists who will work on the human body....oh, my goodness.

I am looking at the lineup that includes "Fire Tiki's". Not your usual poolside torch, Glenn Moore makes his out of steel and you can barbecue on them.

There is plenty of room for social commentary while you rest on the "Up Cycled Lounge" or observe the "Streets As Living Space", an artistic effort to describe the parameters of the homeless as you picture living without walls, on the street.

And of course, there is yoga, master classes on night photography, video screenings on Saturday from 3 to 10pm, a local music roundtable on Sunday, and an opportunity to expound on any subject in a forum called "Ignite". You have a 5 minute chance to tell the crowd why your idea might change the world. Or not.

It is going to be hot so be prepared. It is going to be a heck of a good time.

Trenton rocks!

Marketing Trenton: Are You Nuts?

Welcome everyone to the day after the day before.

I just finished watching L.A.Parker's video of the mob scene on Hamilton Avenue as the polls closed. If anyone outside Trenton reads the Trentonian today they will see what I viewed! Is this what we want a potential market prospect to see? What kind of opinion are they going to get of this city?

Tony Mack won the election for Mayor with a significant sixty two percent of the vote. But even before the polls had closed, Trenton police were setting up metal barricades on Hamilton Avenue to contain an angry mob of Tony Mack workers as they converged on one local store. Many of them had worked for over ten hours and had been issued food vouchers instead of cash. In what has become Trenton tradition, they chose to "act out" their frustrations.

I have only lived in this city since the late 1990's. I hesitated to come here because my car insurance and other costs would be higher. I decided to take a chance because I was alone, trying to support myself, and became one of the first residents in my new senior affordable-housing apartment building.

Some of my hesitation to move to Trenton was the result of what I read and been told of the city's crime and racial unrest. I liked my job, which was close to Trenton, and I liked the people I met.

I thought that the city had turned a positive corner. I applauded the election of Doug Palmer and watched the city hold its head high for the first time in years. There was hope. Everyone wanted to see the city rise above obvious limitations and be true to its historical significance.

Here we are a decade later. Has this city learned anything? When someone who is considering this area for investment, business or personal, they will conclude that this is a city that has not been able to haul itself out of its own sewage...so how in heaven's name, can you expect to make a case for Governor Christie to support new efforts?

Mayor Tony Mack has got his work cut out for him. Running a campaign and getting elected is not even the half of it. I do think Tony is gritty and street-wise enough to communicate with the elements who are in his way. I hope he has the foresight and flexibility to go after the new goals that have to be set.

Our new Mayor Mack must work on a marketing strategy with a much broader appeal. This city was founded and grounded in history. It grew out of its industry. We must put special interests in their own special little boxes and reach out to the rest of the world.

Whew.

Trenton rocks!

ps: Good video, L.A.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

The lyrics from "Annie" keep running through my mind. "Tomorrow, tomorrow, the sun'll come out tomorrow". Tuesday is Election Day and personally, I have a headache.

When voters go to the polls to vote on the referendum concerning the sale of Trenton Water Company outlying pipelines and they vote no, there is not going to be a dramatic difference in the state of the city by the end of the week.

Tony Mack is on record as hoping you vote no. I talked to him for about twenty minutes on this subject and, although he finally admitted that unpleasant steps would have to be taken, he thought that there was "millions" of income that would be there if we kept the present business intact. I told him that "if your trucking business lost thirty percent of your income and you had to cut back what would you do..." I admit that I almost put words in his mouth but he admitted, "sell trucks." Yeah. Tony. You would sell assets just like Mayor Palmer tried to do and reorganize.

Now Manny Segura on the other hand, and I thought he would be in favor of the proposed sale of assets because he originally voted yes in Council, is now vehemently opposed to the sale. Several of the original sale opponents are now on his wagon.

I think both candidates have knuckled under to the outcry and protests of the activists who were incensed that Mayor Palmer was selling something without full disclosure.

I want to point out that the opponents insisted the "Trenton Water Company was going to be sold". Well that was not exactly the case either. In fact, we did not find out that the only items for sale were the aging outlying pipelines of Ewing and Hamilton until we visited with Mayoral Candidate Paul Pintella at the Pellettieri Meet and Greet in April. So both sides were fibbing for the sake of making their point.

So right now I have a lack of confidence in both candidates ability to make their points. Is the sale of the outlying pipelines to raise cash a good thing? Or is the sale of the outlying pipelines a scheme to gut the city of a significant source of profit?

This city is on the brink of bankruptcy. I have told both candidates that I fear a takeover by the Governor because we just do not have a handle on our own affairs. I also fear that if the Governor comes in, a Federal Trustee will decide to bless the American Water Company with our whole shebang and we will kiss off The Trenton Water Company, water rights to the Delaware, and any future hope of expansion in a positive way. The Governor has appointed the hopeful purchaser of our water company assets to one of his pet projects, "Choose New Jersey". I feel, pardon me, Governor, that we have to acknowledge that there may be an elephant in the room.

It may be that we just can't get anything right.

Don't forget to vote.

Trenton rocks.

Baby Needs Booties

I was only trying to stretch out expenses...but after the third flat tire, my mechanic over at Mercer Automotive pointed out that my problems were not going to go away. My tires, although replaced within the past three years, had evidence of dry rot.

That was when I first heard that tire retailers were not required to disclose the age of supposedly "new" tires they were selling to consumers. The prevailing attitude in the industry was that tires did not "go bad".

Maybe tires don't spoil like potato salad on a summer day, but they do age and respond to the way they are stored. Tires are subject to weathering influences like heat and sunshine.

In recent times consumers have raised the issue about the quality of the product at the eventual time of purchase. Since the year 2000, the US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires that tires be branded in a code that identifies the manufacturing location, tire size, manufacturer's code, and most importantly...the week and year the tire was manufacturered.

The last four digits of the tire identification number are two digits identifying the week the tire was made, the next two digits are the year. Therefore: 1406 would be code for the fourteenth week of the year 2006. A tire made Valentine week of this year would be branded 0810 because February 14 falls on the eighth week of 2010.

Armed with this trivia, I gathered my tire ads and finally called about the Memorial Day sale at one of our local retailers. The chap who answered the phone told me the sale would carry into June. Wonderful. That meant that I could spread the costs over two months of Social Security income.

I presented myself this week to the BF Goodrich dealer and asked if the sale was still on. I was fascinated by the personable redheaded young man who was taking my order and I commented on his extravagant tattoos. My grandson has a huge EMT tattoo on his forearm, but it still takes me aback because, jeepers guys, it is permanent. The tech waiting on the person next to me commented to my clerk,

"Careful, George, or those tattoos might chase her off!" We all had a chuckle at George's expense and then I sat down to wait for the car.

I read a couple of articles in ESPN and then picked up the trusty Trentonian. I had only gotten to the comics when they told me my car was finished. Wow, was that fast. So I picked up my keys and headed out the door.

You know when you leave your car at valet parking, sometimes it seems as though it was visited by an alien. Your seat is moved, the mirrors are different, once a coffee cup I left in the holder was spilled all over my carpet because the valet parking it did not know how to drive a stick shift and he jerked the clutch all over the place. Well this time...my change was even left in the coin holder at the base of my shifter.

How 'bout that. Not only was the car done in a very professional manner, speedy and clean, but it has been a long time since my Aldi quarters were safe in the hands of a stranger.

Way to go, R.W.Tire, Route 206 Bordentown! Way to go, George! I suggest, if you want to put them in your contact list, they have an email: rwtire@aol.com. and their phone is 609-298-1011. :)

People rock!

Follow Up on Derivatives

I have had requests from readers to follow up "Could Wall Street Derivatives Lead to Murder". For basic information on derivatives, you may refer to Wickipedia. This will give you the basic premise of these "futures" trading items. You can develop implications of the subject by reading some of the web sources I found.

I invite you to read the following:

The Wall Street Journal "Market Watch" article by Paul B. Farrell on March 10, 2008. The title is "Derivatives the new 'ticking time bomb'".

Also: Minerva School, MA & PhD in Critical Thinking Blog, article of September 6, 2009 titled Wall Street Now Creating "Death Scam" Derivatives.

Also: October 7, 2009 article by Moon Kil Woong's Instablog titled "Derivatives and Securitization: 'Is your life insurance about to become detrimental to your health?'"

Also: Time magazine article by Michael Scherrer, April 14,2010 titled "On Derivatives, The White House and Senate Dems Hold A Line Against The Bank Lobby".

Also: Seeking Alpha article by Avery Goodman "Jail Time for Wall Street's Derivatives Writers?" published April 25, 2010.

In "futures" the element of time is used to secure a price on a commodity at a point in time in the future, so a farmer could stabilize his costs before his harvest by fixing the contract rate. On Wall Street, this element of time has morphed into life insurance policies... where payout happens when the insured dies. "Time" here is hardly the original intent of "harvest".

I am amazed at the range of the readers who follow this blog. I hope this give you insight into my thinking.

Have a nice day.

People rock!

All PR Birth Certificates Expire July 1

A new law went into effect January 1 that affects persons born on the island of Puerto Rico even if you live in the US. As of July 1, 2010, all existing Puerto Rico Birth certificates are invalid. I don't think that many people picked up on the press releases but time is running out.

The following information is gathered from those press releases.

The new law was enacted to address the unlawful use of Puerto Rico issued certificates and affects some 4.1 million people. The US Department of States Bureau of Diplomatic Security found that 40 percent of some 8,000 cases of passport fraud involved identity fraud using Puerto Rican birth certificates.

Something had to be done. Our Homeland Security Department has not yet defined a policy or solution to deal with this, but Puerto Rico did take action and has come up with improved "state of the art" technology to produce new certificates which will be issued as of July 1, 2010.

After July 1, Puerto Rico will issue temporary 15 day certificates if you need one for an emergency, but the regular process is two fold: You can apply online at www.prfaa.com/birthcertificates and www.prfaa.com/certificadosdenacimiento. You can apply by mail using forms also available on line. The new certificates are issued from the PR Health Department's Vital Statistics Office for a charge of five dollars.

If you are a senior over 60 years of age or a veteran, the five dollar application fee is waived. If you were born before 1931, it is also acknowledged that there might be record difficulties and you may have to write to the Local Registrar (Registrador Demografico)in the municipality where the birth happened to get verification.

Forms of identification documents to back up your application could be a scanned copy of a driver's license, U.S. passport with your photo, or another form of acceptable photo identification. If you have a New Jersey driver's license, you have already been through those Homeland Security procedures so please do not be intimidated.

Because of the current climate of identity fraud, it would be a good idea to update your birth certificate to be on the safe side while the process is so easy. You need proof of birth for many senior assistance programs as well.

I will post updates as they become available. If you have questions, I will do my best to find the answers.

Have a nice day.

Art All Night Update: Volunteers Needed

Artworks is asking for more volunteers for Art All Night. This is the region's biggest free 24 hour event and they expect over 600 artists to participate. Come to think of it, probably 15,000 spectators. Music, bands, dancers, food and art. Wow!

The location in an old Roebling factory building is perfect for this gallery "happening". It is everything you used to associate with the New York/Philly art scene, painting/sculpture, layered with today's music and urban culture and even includes senior citizen needlepoint and kids' refrigerator art.

Something for everybody is an obvious understatement.

All volunteers get the thrill of being behind the scenes for all the activities and are awarded a t shirt that will bring back memories years later. Personally, this is going to be my third year. I can see how the venue has expanded.

I have had just a small part in the success of Art All Night but success is a feeling that many people in Trenton do not get to experience. Give yourself that feeling too. Call Candice Frederick at candicefre@gmail.com to sign up. You can get more info at the website: www.artworkstrenton,org/artallnight/ and you can catch them at Facebook as well.

Volunteers are needed for Sunday June 20 for 3 hour shifts starting at 3 am. They go 3 to 6, 6 to 9, 9 to 12, and 12 to 3.

Also if you can help hang art on Saturday, Candace and her helpers could use your assistance from 8am to 2 pm. Also for take down on Sunday, June 20 from 3 to 6pm. They have a very organized system to account for artwork so most of the volunteer work is just carrying the art work from the display area to the artists at the intake area.

It looks like a heck of a good time.

Trenton rocks!

NJ Needs Peanut Butter and Jelly Thursdays

Coming back from my art workshop today, it hit me. Peanut butter and jelly. The perfect solution. Here I am, trying to stretch my fixed income over a month with an extra day in it, chomping on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I am thinking,

"Self", I said out loud to the car in front of me, " If it works for me, might it just be THE ANSWER for the Governor?"

Senior citizens have spent the last five months, since their Social Security benefits were frozen, coming up with inventive and affordable ways to continue to be able to eat. More and more, we have found that the time proven P & J sandwich is the "go-to" solution for that end-of-the-month shortfall.

In spite of escalating expenses, increases in utilitiy bills, increases in PAAD and Senior Gold deductibles, loss of homestead rebates, loss of the senior tax freezes, and cutbacks in many programs and transportation needs, seniors carry on with forebearance and patience, as they learned to do in the first Great Depression.

How many of today's legislators can remember tomato soup made up of ketchup and water...of sandwiches spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar to hold you til supper because you did not eat lunch...of gnawing on raw potato sprinkled with salt...of making the best chocolate cake out of flour and mayonnaise because eggs were hard to get? How many of today's sophisticates can remember the heartbreak when the hail beat down the corn rows... because they would not grow back and it was too late in the season to plant again?

The rural elderly now find themselves living in urban settings, in order to receive the services they require, where freezing their incomes has meant cutting back the very essentials they need to live.

Yesterday Governor Christie announced that a new non-profit, Choose New Jersey, was going to help in promoting new business throughout the state. Its intention is to market new business and also to help retain businesses presently in the state. There was no announcement of the location for the new corporation, but both Ewing and Trenton have complained about the amount of tax exempt assets in their cities, pleading for relief.

The wording of the announcement was eerily like that of previous Republican press releases in which the "Keep millionaires in New Jersey" mantra repeats, repeats, repeats. The purpose seems to be that if you hear something often enough it must be true. Since millionaires in New Jersey are not leaving the state in droves, (see my previous blog), because this is a falsehood...the purpose to "keep" business in New Jersey is unnecessary.

The directors of the new non-profit are: Joe Colalillo, president, Wakefern Food Corporation; Don Correll, CEO and president, American Water; Robert H. Doherty, state president, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Laurence M. Downes, chairman and CEO, New Jersey Resources; Bernard Flynn, president and CEO, NJM Insurance Group; Edward Graham, president and CEO, South Jersey Industries; the Rev. M. William Howard, pastor, Bethany Baptist Church; Robert J. Iacullo, president and COO, United Water; Bob Hugin, Celgene, president and COO (representing the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey); Ralph Izzo, chairman and CEO, Public Service Electric and Gas; Vincent Maione, president, Atlantic City Electric; William J. Marino, chairman and CEO, Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey; Raymond M. Pocino, vice president and Eastern Regional manager, Laborers International Union of North America; Kevin Rigby, vice president of public affairs, Novartis; and John R. Strangefeld, Jr., chairman and CEO, Prudential Financial Inc.

They are going to come up with incentive programs that would attract "job creators" which I take to mean new businesses. They are also going to provide "policy recommendations" that would make New Jersey a business friendly environment. Not bad when you consider that you have both the American Water Company and United Water represented, both NJM Insurance Group and Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NJ, both Public Service Electric and Gas and Atlantic City Electric, etc. It could be a heck of an opportunity to make "policy recommendations". Heaven help the little guy. Oh, yea, the Bethany Baptist Church is represented so I guess that means that heaven can help.

Actually most of their mission is probably unnecessary because they are obviously successes in their respective fields. But, looking over the members of the new non-profit, I see where it is a heck of an opportunity to get together over lunch---at taxpayers' expense. (see my blogs on tax exempts) The worthy gentlemen in this new non-profit corporation are fine and upstanding members of the economic engine that runs the state. All of them look like they would enjoy getting together to discuss how to network and run the state, so I am thinking, that to save money,

"How about Peanut Butter and Jelly Thursdays?"

You could still have your meetings because, after all, the most important thing is just getting together and sharing testosterone...right? How about giving the taxpayers a break and sharing our joy with our end-of-the-month peanut butter and jelly? Honestly.

Just think of it: no more "Greek salad, hold the olives, hold the cheese, no onions and blue cheese dressing on the side"...no more "corned beef on rye, provolone, no lettuce, has to be Grey Poupon mustard"...."that's right, no peppers on the roll, just olive oil and balsamic"...How simple for everyone on Thursdays to get P & J.

I suggest tea with that.

Hear, hear!

I propose that Thursdays be proclaimed "Peanut Butter and Jelly Thursdays" throughout the fine State of New Jersey.


Trenton rocks!

Issues and Updates

Today is June 1st. Almost half of 2010 is already gone and I am taking stock. Governor Christie is still trumpeting that the legislators are wrong to try to continue (that's correct, continue) the "Millionaires Tax" for the year 2010.

Governor Corzine's original millionaire's tax was intended to be a boost for one year only but did not produce the anticipated revenue because many of the targeted group supposedly just filed elsewhere or deferred payment. Anticipated revenue was not forthcoming.

The lie here is that if Christie's Administration renewed the tax for 2010, we would see those 16,000 filers "leave the state".

The truth is that two states, California and New Jersey, did not lose millionaires due to higher rates of taxation. Quite inexplicably New Jersey has millionaires filing IRS returns in spite of the rates of taxation. Part of the reason just could be that adjoining states are higher, and this makes New Jersey look good, but I think it is favorable treatment and our ambiance that makes our state so popular.

What fun is money if you can't show off? New Jersey is dab smack between New York and Washington, DC. This is perfect for hobnobbing in the arts, music venues, recreation. Perfect for politics...so close to the Capitol. Perfect for business and financial interests who can commute to Wall Street but drive home weekends to their sprawling estates and farms...which have been greatly discounted taxwise because of New Jersey's farmland assessment. Get the picture?

Yep. I find it hard to believe that a millionaire would want to leave. Now on the other hand, if you have more than one home, and many wealthy folks do, you might want to have your accountants look into advantages of filing and paying taxes from an address of one of those states who do not provide New Jersey's services...like rural states who do not have to maintain the road networks of this corridor state, like rural western or southern states who do not have the school challenges that New Jersey faces, like states with fewer persons per square mile and as a result have demographics that do not require the medical or welfare services New Jersey supplies. You bet they would not have our taxes.

Susquehanna-Roseland tower project, proposed by the PSE&G and apparently boosted by the Christie administration because its President was part of the new governor's transition team, still has not gotten permits to proceed in the Highlands and Delaware Water Gap area. Activists have made their voices heard about environmental issues and PSE&G has not so far come up with a story that will change their minds. Everyone in this state will have to carry the bill on this one so it would pay to get involved.

The Mayoral and Council Run Off Election is scheduled for June 15. Hopefully there will be a larger turnout because the choices are easier now that there are fewer names on the ballot.

Also coming up on June 15, is the Referendum on the sale of Trenton Water Company assets. The affected outlying pipelines of Lawrence, Ewing and Hamilton are to be sold to the New Jersey division of the American Water Company. The Trenton Water Company is not for sale. For some time now, the leaks and inability to collect receivables have made administrating these lines a real headache. It looks like the Palmer administration thought to kill two birds with one stone. Namely: to cut down on the collections and at the same time to bring in monies that could keep a raise in taxes at bay. Well we see how that turned out. Because of the delay in the sale, the State stepped in and dictated a horrific tax increase on homeowners and small business folk in this city.

The tax exempt properties in Trenton are more than half of the total area of the city. Three quarters of all of Mercer County exempt properties has decided that "This is the place." If a Trenton address is so great, then maybe we should tax for the good will that implies. Anything.

When I was touring the city at the invitation of one of our candidates, we were amazed at the number of churches. This might be truly wonderful if it was not for the equally amazing lack of progress we should be seeing as a result of their efforts. Jeepers, guys,as the Bible directs, it is time to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". We all have to help out.

Have a good day.