'Herkimer' welcomes you to Hermann Hearsay, a place where you can discuss news, rumors and hearsay of local interest with other Hermannites. Your comments are always welcome, and will be published in their entirety. We ask that you refrain from using profane language, that you respect the opinions and viewpoints of others and that you report plausible hearsay only. Hermann Hearsay ... FREE, FUNNY, FLIPPANT and FARCICAL.
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On the fourth day of my walking survey (Monday, 6/7), I found the following street and sidewalk conditions:
3rd Street heading west from Gutenberg Street to Schiller Street - Sidewalks non-existent for first 1/3 of street. Sidewalks on both sides of street are cracked and broken in several spots. Asphaltic street surface is currently in terrible condition. Center of the street has been dug up for the better part of the block (presumably to repair a water line or a sewer line). It has been backfilled with white rock, but the surface has not been sealed with asphalt. Other portions of the street have been patched and alligatoring is evident up and down the street.
3rd Street heading west from Schiller Street to Market Street - Sidewalk is in fair condition on the south side, but there are several uneven spots (trip hazards) on the north side. Asphaltic street surface is patched, cracked and alligatored.
3rd Street walking west from Market Street to Mozart Street - Sidewalk on the north side of street is very uneven, dirty, broken and cracked in several spots. There are some extreme trip hazards existing on the north side. The sidewalk on the south side of the street is in better condition, but it also has some bad spots. Asphaltic street surface is patched, cracked and alligatored. There are some small potholes currently and the concrete curbs and gutters are cracked very badly.
3rd Street walking west from Mozart Street to Washington Street - Sidewalks on both sides of the street are old but they are in fair condition. The asphaltic street surface is patched and alligatored.
More street and sidewalk survey results to follow.
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"CNN found that Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America. Women admire her because she's strong and successful. Men admire her because she allows her husband to cheat and get away with it." ~ Jay Leno
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In a taped interview for NBC's "Today" show with Matt Lauer, the President of the United States of America said this about his meetings with independent scientists and Gulf Coast fishermen to discuss the Gulf oil spill:
"I talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers -- so I know whose ass to kick." ~ President Barack Hussein Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Monday he's been talking closely to Gulf Coast fishermen and various experts on BP's catastrophic oil spill not for lofty academic reasons but "so I know whose ass to kick."
The salty words, part of Obama's recent efforts to telegraph to Americans his engagement with the crisis, came in an interview in Michigan with NBC's "Today" show.
He strongly defended his role in dealing with the crisis that began with the April 20 explosion on a BP-leased oil rig in the Gulf, killing 11 workers and starting the nation's largest-ever oil spill.
"I was down there a month ago before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer. "I was meeting with fishermen in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be."
WATCH:
Some have criticized the president for not engaging passionately enough on the spill, even though he's been to the Gulf coast three times since the disaster, his most recent visit on Friday.
Obama said he has talked to a variety of "experts" on the oil spill in addition to the fishermen.
"I talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers -- so I know whose ass to kick," the president said.
Obama was in Kalamazoo, Mich., to speak to graduating high school students. NBC aired a portion of the interview on Monday evening in advance of Tuesday's "Today" program.
Obama also launched a salvo at Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, over some of his past comments, including saying at one point that "I want my life back" and that the Gulf was "a big ocean" and that "the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest."
"He wouldn't be working for me after any of those statements," Obama said, according to excerpts released by NBC.
Earlier, Obama sought to reassure the nation that the Gulf Coast would "bounce back" from the worst oil spill in the nation's history, but not without time, effort and reimbursement from BP.
Surrounded by Cabinet members, Obama said that not only is he confident that the crisis will pass but also that the affected area "comes back even stronger than ever."
The president and top federal officials were briefed on the government's battle against the spill by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government's efforts in dealing with the tragedy.
Allen earlier Monday told reporters that a cap on the damaged oil well is now keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the Gulf. That's up from about 441,000 gallons on Saturday and about 250,000 on Friday.
BP in a statement put the amount being captured at 466,200 gallons. Allen said the government was using its own flow-rate calculations and not relying on those from BP. He put the amount being captured at 11,000 42-gallon barrels, or 462,000 gallons.
"This will be contained," Obama asserted. "It may take some time, and it's going to take a whole lot of effort. There is going to be damage done to the Gulf Coast, and there is going to be economic damages that we've got to make sure BP is responsible for and compensates people for."
Obama said that government scientists and other experts confirmed that the capping device "is beginning to capture some of the oil. We are still trying to make a better determination as to how much it is capturing."
But, Obama added, "even if we are successful in containing some or much of the oil" the problem wouldn't be solved until relief wells reach the area of the damaged well in several months.
"What is clear is that the economic impact of this disaster is going to be substantial and it is going to be ongoing," Obama said.
"We also know that there's already a lot of oil that's been released, and that there's going to be more oil released no matter how successful this containment effort is," he added.
The president has been speaking out on the disaster almost daily and has visited the Louisiana coast three times since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the oil gusher.
He reiterated an appeal he made on Friday in the region that BP not "nickel and dime" Gulf coast residents and businesses that have filed claims against the London-based oil giant.
"We are going to insist that money flow quickly and in a timely basis," Obama said.
Allen acknowledged at Monday's White House briefing that the company has struggled with handling claims.
He said we'd "like them to get better" at processing the claims and that a system for paying them should be "routinized" as soon as possible.
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I am regularly appalled to observe the extent to which so-called "journalists" and "publishers" will go in order to get a headline or pump up their readership numbers. In times past, it was called "yellow journalism". I call what I am witnessing all too often these days "pump, puff and spin" journalism.
You can see it every night on the cable "news" shows. You can see it on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News. More and more you see it in the op-ed pages of respected national newspapers such as 'The New York Times'. It is obvious in some of the widely read blogs like 'The Huffington Post'.
"Pump, puff and spin" journalism has become all too common. And because it so widely prevalent, it has become an accepted and almost expected journalism practice. Hell, for all I know, the journalism schools in Anerica may be teaching such methods! I am sad to observe that the Walter Cronkites, Roger Mudds and Jim Lehrers of journalism are being replaced by the loose-with-the-facts, controversy-stirring, highly-partisan Arianna Huffingtons, Chris Mathews, Ed Schultzes, Sean Hannitys and Keith Olbermanns.
And now, with the advent of daily online "news reporting" here in Hermann, we see it cropping up within some corners of our local news media community. We see it prominently displayed, on at least one of our local online "news" sites. And it disgusts me! I am especially disgusted by some of the voyeuristic reporting I have seen recently.
I object to sensationalism over substance. I object to reporters playing loose-with-the-facts. I object to one-sided, biased, political agenda-driven reporting. I object to self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. I object to ambulance, police car and fire truck chasing. I object to intrusions into the private lives of grieving families. Give me hard-hitting, fair and balanced interviews of public officials concerning matters of public interest rather than inappropriate voyeuristic interviews of grieving family members! I object to the publication of photos of homes on fire, mangled, over-turned vehicles, caskets being born down the steps of churches and funeral homes. What will be next? Photos of badly mangled, bleeding bodies? Photos of corpses in caskets at funeral homes? Interviews of sick and dieing people in their hospital beds? Videos of grieving family members as they ride in the funeral procession to the grave site for the bural service of a loved one? Where does this all end? Do the so-called "journalists" who engage in this type of sick sensationalism even know where the boundary line of common decency is? Judging from the types of stories I've already seen "reported" by one particular "news" website in the local area, I have to say that I doubt that they have the foggiest idea where the boundary line of common decency lies.
I urge that this kind of "pump, puff and spin" journalism be soundly rejected in Hermann. I urge anyone who has a paid annual subscription to any online "news" website which employs "yellow journalism" tactics and methods to cancel their subscription and demand a pro-rata refund of subscriber fees already paid. I urge all consumers of local news to demand the highest journalistic standards from those who seek to provide news reports in exchange for subscription fees and as a vehicle for charging advertisers for ad space.
But that's just my opinion! What's yours?
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Left to right: Jean Stapleton (Edith Bunker), Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker), Sally Struthers (Gloria Bunker-Stivic) and Rob Reiner (Michael 'Meathead' Stivic)
Archie Bunker: Go ahead, ask your mother; she believes in capital punishment. Gloria Stivic: Do you Ma? Edith Bunker: Well, sure. Gloria Stivic: MA? Edith Bunker: Well, as long as it ain't too severe.
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We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused our readers during the past 24 hours. Our website host has been experiencing technical difficulties. Had it not been for Frank Furter's involvement with Google's technical people, the problem could have continued for much, much longer. (A photo of Frank smoking one of his favorite cigars is shown here on the right.)
After further consideration, we have decided to match the salary Frank had been offered by Best Buy in Columbia. We are happy to report that Frank has decided to remain with Hermann Hearsay. He will not be leaving us next Friday as we had previously announced.
In addition to the salary increase, Frank will be getting a case of premium quality cigars every month. And we are promoting our resident geek to the new position of "Webmaster, Senior IT Engineer, Coffee Brewer and Custodian". In this position, Frank will have expanded responsibilities. You may even see a few articles on behind-the-scenes technical stuff written by Frank!
Welcome back Frankie ol' boy!
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John Wooden the legendary bascketball coach of the UCLA Bruins passed away this past week at the age of 99. John Wooden was truly one of the great coaches of all time. A great coach, a great teacher, a great motivator, a great leader, a great role model and a great man! A person who was admired by everyone who knew him as well as by many others like myself who felt they somehow knew him.. Coach Wooden was a remarkable man. He was truly "The Wizard of Westwood".
"Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters." ~ John Wooden
The following article about John Wooden appeared in the L. A. Times on Friday, 6/4:
John Wooden's Pyramid Stands Test of Time
Wooden borrowed from others to construct his Pyramid of Success, which has become his legacy almost as much as his coaching victories.
June 04, 2010
By Robyn Norwood
John Wooden was a young high school teacher and coach in the 1930s when he first wrote his personal definition of success, searching for a way to assure his students — and their parents — they could be successful without earning all A's.
"I wanted to give them something to aspire to beyond higher marks in English classes or more statistics in sports," he told The Times in 2004.
Wooden tied success not to achievement, wealth or fame, but to how close a person came to their potential.
He spent another 14 years completing his Pyramid of Success, tinkering with 15 building blocks such as "Industriousness" "Enthusiasm," "Skill," and "Poise," before finishing the diagram in 1948, shortly before he left Indiana State for UCLA.
More than half a century later, the 10 national championship banners won by Wooden's UCLA basketball teams hang from the rafters at Pauley Pavilion — and his old-fashioned but still resonant Pyramid of Success adorns everything from classroom walls at Mariners Elementary in Newport Beach to books, websites, mouse pads, even a wall in a Torrance collection agency.
Even well into his 90s, Wooden used to mail out some 1,500 copies of his pyramid a year, many of them to high school coaches who wanted to distribute them to their teams.
Though others urged him to copyright the pyramid, Wooden said in recent years he never had, prompting a friend to tell him he didn't have a marketing bone in his body.
"I hope not," Wooden said.
Completed during the Truman administration, the Pyramid of Success has improbably stood the test of time.
Stephen R. Covey, the bestselling author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is an admirer of Wooden's who has called the pyramid and Wooden's other maxims "classic wisdom."
It resonates not only with nostalgic mid-career workers in motivational seminars, but with 21st-century schoolchildren.
In January 2005, at 94, Wooden visited the Newport Beach elementary school where teacher Pat McLaughlin, a UCLA graduate, created a character-education program based on Wooden's pyramid and his 2003 children's book, "Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success."
"It was fun. He was a good man," Mariners Elementary student Brandy Joyce said later that year. "He said something funny I didn't understand — it was only for the grown-ups."
After Wooden's visit, essays graced the walls of McLaughlin's Room 13.
"Self-control sounds like not yelling the answer when it's not your turn," Cole Chapin wrote.
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From the long-running TV series "All In The Family" ......
Gloria: Do you know that sixty percent of all deaths in America are caused by guns? Archie Bunker: Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they was pushed out of windows?
("Gloria Bunker Stivic" was played by actress Sally Struthers, and "Archie Bunker" was played by actor Carroll O'Connor.)
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This old Peter, Paul and Mary song is dedicated to the "Puffer". The "Puffer" is a frequent visitor to our site but rarely leaves a comment. We think that's because he's too busy "puffing" to conceive of a reasonably cogent comment!
This song dedication is our very first, and it's going out to the "Puffer" .......
