Review: Lakemont Park in Altoona PA

Capture from Lakemont Park’s website – click it to go there. Going through bad economic times, like everyone else SWB was looking for a great place to take his family for the 4th Of July.

We had know about Lakemont Park for a while, but never visited. This year we went. The 4th Of July deal is $5 ride-all-day. It was well worth it.

If you are not familiar, or never noticed Lakemont on one of WQED’s specials, it is a traditional family picnic park. Don’t go running there thinking you are getting a miniature Kennywood – your aren’t. Think over-sized carnival. It does hold one of the original and longest running wooden roller coasters in the world (click here for the park’s history), and a nice traditional wooden roller coaster – along with a great collection of rides the whole family can enjoy. The promotions in the park are truly amazing.

Although small, Lakemont is really worth the drive due to the perks below:

• It’s Clean ….. it’s REALLY clean. I would eat off their sidewalks, even at the end of the day.
• It’s extremely family oriented – there are even several model railway train displays to view.
• People bring in their own chairs, tents, and grills (I even spotted a few people bringing in smokers) – no kidding.
• Paddle Boats are included in the ride-all-day ticket. You have to wait a long while, but then again you don’t have to pay an hourly fee.
• Everything is very accessible in the park for large, small, and handicapped.
• The promotions and pricing and geared to bringing you back more than once per summer.
• You can easily enjoy this park for under $50 for a family of four.

In our opinion, Lakemont Park made our 4th Of July, and we will keep supporting them so others can experience the same.

Lakemont will be listed on SWB Recommends.

-SWB

PS – you gotta get the jumbo corn dogs … really!

Pittsburgh 4th Of July Fireworks 2009

Very simple post here.

Notice to Mayor and EQT …

Pittsburgh does the Pittsburgh 4th Of July *Zambelli* Fireworks show, a tradition we are internationally known for and the residents of Pittsburgh Expect.

Thanks for ruining one of the biggest traditions in Pittsburgh.

-SWB

PS – We used to support Mayor Opie … no more.

BTW – we usually like to add a little quick witted humor, but that’s not possible here.

Review: The 4th and Family Fun – Four Great Parks

It’s that time of the year for the summer memories to start – and that may be a little harder this year. It’s getting closer to the 4th weekend and with the economy, everyone is going back to the family parks and avoiding the big-box parks like Disney. even Kennywood is going past the ticket price for most Pittsburghers.

There are a few cool parks out there, three in PA (one struggling and could use the business) and one up in New York that I’d like to mention.

• The first one is Waldameer Park in Erie, PA – There are many perks to this park: Free Parking, Free Entry, Very Reasonable ride all day tickets, separate ride tickets, good prices on food …. and it’s right next to the Lake Erie beaches and Sarah’s and Sally’s. It’s a very cool, traditional, family picnic park with a great new wooden rollercoaster.
• The second one is Lakemont Park (where I’ll probably end up for the 4th of July). Lakemont is another park opened in 1894 with a a great trolley park history. The deals here are amazing ($9.95 ride and slide all day ticket), on the 4th, I believe is $5 all day, etc. The other promotions they do make it well worth the 2.5 hour drive from Pittsburgh.
• The third one in PA is Conneaut Lake Park - Conneaut was once the place I spend every weekend at. Now, and since 1992 it has been struggling hard. That doesn’t mean don’t go there – but go there, volunteer to get some work done, and tell the management you want it the way it was. You can be park of reviving a park that can give families years of great vacations. The town of Conneaut is a wonderful visit also with a well established winery, great antiques store (say ‘Hi” to Bernie if you go there), and of course food and and abundance of weekend yard sales.
• The last one, not in PA, but in Grand Island, NY is Martin’s Fantasy Island. Martin’s isn’t the only attraction. If you don’t know, Grand Island, NY sits right in the middle of the Niagara river … 15 minutes from the American side of Niagara falls. You are on an island with some very scenic bike trails, boating, fishing spots, riverside hotels (many pet friendly), and a short distance from the falls. It’s easy to make a week vacation on Grand Island. The four hour drive is well worth it. You’ll spend half the price here for a week family vacation, and still be able to make everyone in the family happy.

-SWB

PS – Big box is great ….. but ma and pa have the hot sausage sandwiches everyone loves (along with grandmas sitting on benchs with extra ride tickets).

You know you are old when …..

….. one of the first things you see when you open up the newest edition of The Pittsburgh City Paper is an ad for an Abba Tribute Band …..

….. and it’s not even at someplace cool like the “new” Station Square Amphitheater, or Mr. Smalls. It’s at the Benedum. Not that the Bededum isn’t a great place, but at least at the amphitheater or Mr. Small’s, you can go to the concert wearing a Pink Floyd shirt and lie about seeing a Pink Floyd tribute band instead. Nobody would believe that an ABBA tribute band was even allowed within 500 feet of a cool concert venue.

-SWB

PS – I’m counting the grey whiskers now …..

Rendell, the anti-education man

I’m not trying to slander Mr. Rendell (even though I’d rather lick up pond scum from the side of a radio-active river than shake his hand), but merely point out one thing:

We’ve all heard time and time again how Rendell wants loves eduction and wants to do the bet for Pennsylvania … yet he totally drops funding for things like WQED. Now, WQED is not only for hippies and intellectuals as some believe. It’s a mainstay of many Pennsylvania households (along with Dave and Dave, and coleslaw on sandwiches). It’s also probably accounts for educating more people than all of the schools in Pennsylvania combined. If it wasn’t for Mr Rogers, some of us wouldn’t know how to treat people nice. If it wasn’t for Sesame Street, some of us wouldn’t know how to spell or count.

So, even with WQED’s amazing education value to the area and the potential for it to help produce highly educated people in Pittsburgh, Mr Rendell sees fit to drop the ball on it and pull the already measly 1.1 million it gets in state help.

Therefore, we are giving Mr Rendell the honor of being the first PA “anti-education man”. We hope you enjoy it. It come with (I believe) your second “clueless award”. SWB assumes you will do your best to collect a full shelf full of these.

To the PA’ins out there ….. even if it’s 1.1 million kids sending in one dollar each to WQED, or bunch of us sending in twenty dollars each … let’s show Mr Rendell we don’t needs his funding anymore. Although, I’m sure if a few of his buddies looked under their couch pillows they would find enough loose chump change to more than cover the 1.1 million that was pulled out of WQED’s reach …

Click Here to support WQED and your kid’s education.

-SWB

PS – s’much for PA government supporting PA. Aren’t there some political positions in deep Siberia that we can recommend Ed for????

SWB Off Hiatus, PittGirl is Back, and all is well in the city ..

We’re back from an unintended hiatus, which included jobs loss, combating flooding from the last potential downpour, and keeping the newest tad-frog alive.

Hopefully that won’t happen again …. the flooding, at least.

Well, if you haven’t heard, The Burgh Blog in some way has been revived via Pittsburgh Magazine.  PittGirl is back. It’s nice to see an established publication like Pittsburgh Magazine acknowledge where the city’s readership is at, along with adding an educational writer to the mix.  Now, if they can just become desperate enough to notice me ……

Anyway, congrats to PittGirl, glad to see you in a new home.

This brings us back to all being well in the city.  The Steelers have the Super Bowl, the Pens brought the cup back home, and the Pirates ….. ok, well let’s skip the negative.

Even with the economy the way it has been, Pittsburgh is already starting it’s recovery without hitting rock bottom like so many other cities.  We can still see a light at the end of the tunnel – although everyone still slows to a crawl before entering (some things are just the way they are even during a bad economy).

-SWB

PS – River rats never leave … we just hunker down a bit.

Elections in Iran – history in the making

Elections for a new president in Iran may prove to be as historically significant and “times changing” as the U.S.’s recent presidential elections. Everything from stand-offishness to the general tone in the Middle-East could do an about-face due to the outcome.

According to this article by The Associated Press as it appears in USA Today a heavy turnout of residents wanting to decide on the ways their country should go and who sets them on the paths for those ways is expected.

Click on the above link to check out the story, and keep up on it. This is one that also may affect the way or country goes on decision making pertaining to that region.

-SWB

WHO declares Swine Flu pandemic

… and will probably damage the economy further with the panic is will create.

Now, the main excuse of WHO is to increase the production of treatments available, increase funds, and kick governments into high gear to contain the virus.  The are declaring it as “unstoppable” ….. along with saying “oh, it’s just of moderate danger”.

OK … When people think of something being called a “global pandemic”, they totally ignore the part of the WHO stating “it’s just of moderate danger”.  People will freak, closing schools, camps, businesses, etc hurting the economy. SWB thinks that Dr. Margaret Chan needs to use brain before declaring a global pandemic possibly hurting the economy when it’s just getting ready to recover.  SWB thinks Chan is thinking more about Chan staying in the news than helping people deal with the virus.

Anyways …. Click Here for the Associated Press article by Maria Cheng and Frank Jordans as it appears on Yahoo!

-SWB

PS – Somehow I can see a Steven King movie coming out of this …

Robo-World … Cool Stuff

Looking for something to to with your kids since they are home now from school … or at least something to keep them from continually saying “I’m boooooooooored ….”?

Take your kids (small and big) to Robo-World at The Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh starting June 13th.

Exhibits range from a robotic air hockey game to a basketball shooting robotic arm to Andy.  This is definitely the stuff that makes kids of all ages jaws drop and go “oh …. ahhh, neat!”  It also give you a little “new reality” of what is to come.

Click Here to check out the article by Michael Machosky of The Tribune-Review, which also contains a very informative list of Robot Hall Of Fame inductees.

Kudos to the science center for creating one of the world’s biggest robotic exhibit.

-SWB

PS – SkyNet and Terminator ….. here we come

Review: Popeye’s Chicken

Caught off guard with a review having a “Rant Files” pic on it?  Read on, you’ll get it.

Update: As requested by a reader from New Orleans we would like to clarify this is dealing with mostly the Pittsburgh site (SouthSide) and the Waterfront.  Primarily Pittsburgh.

Products – decent.  The food is decent, etc. etc.  That’s where it all ends.  Search up Popeye’s Chicken Complaints – you’ll find sites and sites about issues ranging from major customer service issues to stories about racism (I consider reverse-racism straight-out racism also simply because not matter what color against what color ….. RACISM IS WRONG!!)

Before I rant … here is where I come from:  I lived in an area which had what I call allot of hidden “racism”.  If you were white, it was a great place to raise a family.  If you were a black family coming in in the late 80s (when I lived there), there was a good chance of a cross burning.  No, I’m not kidding.  This place was near Pittsburgh also.

Fortunately I was brought up with enough influences to not care what skin color a person had.  The proper skin color is definitely not a requirement to become someone’s friend, or simply be treated like a human being. Therefore since I was friends with and knew black people in the area I lived in in the lat 80s, and surrounding areas I was called a “n***** lover” and took the occasional beating for it.  Needless to say I find any racism (white against black, or black against white) extremely offensive.  All it does it breed hatred.

Well, when I went in to a certain Popeye’s with my family with a coupon that had no start date and an ending date of 07/09/09 I would told very rudely that they would not accept it because it was sent out to early – do indication of when it stared at all.  Fast food establishments all have provisions to work with these issues, that was customers are never refused service.  So I know it could be sold regardless of the issue.  Keep in mind the cashier treated the people in front of me nicely, but immediately changed her tone when we stepped up.  The people in front of us and behind us where black.  The manager took the same attitude when he told me to either order something else fairly rudely and addressed the customer behind me nicely. If I would have done this as a white business owner I would have had the NAACP down my throat, not to mention the news and every lawyer in town at my business.

Also … as a supposedly EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer) the site clearly was not supporting that either.

When I looked on the web for other complaints (to make sure I wasn’t judging wrongly) I found an amazing amount of complaints similar, and an overwhelming amount of customer service complaints.  This is sad as Popeye’s is a business that is seen as representing the black community, and due to the very poor customer service (I have yet to be at a Popeye’s that had anything that resembled customer service at all) and apparent support of hatred towards others by the company, it’s making that community look very bad. I have been in and supported (and still support) many black owned (or non-white owned … if you want to be P.C.) businesses because they are run extremely well.  I will support any business that is run well – Popeye’s is not one of them.

Final Decsion – Don’t ever eat at Popeye’s again …. oh, and good luck finding or getting contact information for them online.  It’s there, but you’ll have to search hard – they obviously don’t want to hear it.

Reference site examples:

• Complaint Board
• My 3 Cents 1
• My 3 Cents 2
• Measured Up
• Rip-Off Report

-SWB

Final Word – racism is racism, humans are humans ….. your skin color isn’t the deciding factor on whether you should be treated as a human being or not.  Don’t support this chain … it supports the hatred everyone is trying so hard to get rid of.

Last but not least …. Popeye’s gets  a clueless trophy for two things:

• The poorest possible customer service in any fast food chain.
• The continued breeding of racism and teaching the wrong way to treat human beings.

The Job Market Hits SWB

Well, on Tuesday I was told I was no longer necessary,  I’ll no longer be in a cube. I’m tying to see the bad side in this, but being out of a cube definitely offsets the lack of food and possible starvation that may be ahead of me (yes, I’m exaggerating – but if you were released from  cube, wouldn’t you be elated too??)

Here is my problem … ambitious, so I’m one of those folks that never gets to enjoy true unemployment – getting up late and complaining to everyone that nobody is reading my resume’.  Every time I’ve been unemployed I’ve either had enough side business that I rarely see a check from the state … nor get time to sleep.   So, does anyone out there have any suggestions to keep me lazy enough to at least see a FEW unemployment checks like so many others?  The pride of working is very important, but geez … a few freebies now and then would be nice too.

-SWB

PS – If you heard someone three states away scream “woooooooohoooooooo”, that was me realizing I didn’t have to go back to a cube on Wednesday.

BTW – SWB will ramp up again on Monday as we are a little busy with roof replacement on our house, you know the fun things in life

School Doesn’t Want Blacks

Don’t you just love it when you put on some oldies orsee a vintage car ion the summer and it transports you back to a simpler time in the 50s and 60s that just makes you feel happy?

Then there are claims like this (Click Here to read the article by The Associated Press as appearing on WPXI.com) that happen around the summer time transporting you back to a bitter time in the 50s and 60s … and make you say “What the heck were they thinking???”. It also let’s you know racism is still around.   The deal is that Kiski School let go it’s basketball coach because a black basketball team was not “within it’s mission”.  Slightly embarrassing for the coach, don’t you think?  Now, even more embarrassing for the school.  Keep in mind these are still “alleged” claims, but even at that can destroy an establishments reputation quickly.

Temporarily, we’ll award The Kiski School a tentative “Clueless Award” until the rest of the story comes out in the wash.

-SWB

PS – As a preparatory school, you’d thunk they’d be able to think before they speak.

Summertime Gas Prices upon us

The sun is out, the flowers are in full bloom, the sap is starting to fall on your car from the trees ….. and we are all waiting for that one last sign that signifies the start of summer – skyrocketing gas prices.

It has showed already, even faster than expected, but … in articles like the one seen in USA Today (Click Here to read) by Julie Schmit, it is being reported that prices will level off because consumer confidence may not be as high as expected and global economic recovery is not happening as quickly as expected.

HOW DARE THEY!!!!

There are three things the summer is known for:

• Outdoor cookouts of burgers and hot dogs
• Outdoor drinking of beer and margaritas
• Complaining about gasoline prices

If you take away complaining about gasoline prices in the summer, the only thing your are going to have by process of elimination is a bunch of fat drunks. How do you thinks this will help the economy ?!?!?!

Think about it – if we become a bunch of overweight carnivorous eating slobs that can’t fit out the front door – who’s going to buy gasoline? … our pets??? How dare the oil companies stop raising gasoline prices in the summer … it’s our God-given right to be gouged when the sun comes out!

-SWB

PS – For the clueless … we were being sarcastic in this post. If you still don’t get it, have a friend explain.

The Naked Grape – Sewickley Joining SWB

Capture from nakedgrape.net – click it to go to their site. You’ve read our reviews for The Naked Grape wine bistro in Sewickley (and hopefully visited).  Well, to further the treat, TNG will be contributing a monthly wine column to SWB.

SWB would like to thank Ryta and David in advance for contributing to this blog for our reader’s enjoyment.

You will see  few short articles sentt in via e-mail at first, then eventually you will see The Naked Grape added on as a freely contributing user.  We hope you enjoy the articles.

Moe SWB postings coming later today.

You can find The Naked Grape in SWB Recommends.

-SWB

Windmills a Turnin’ and Innovation a Burnin’

Definitely cool stuff here.

In a contest funded by The Heinz Endowment and sponsored by Pitt, a student from the university created what you could consider a portable wind turbine generator. Not complex, but simple. The cost to build – anywhere from $60 to $300.

He is planning on selling the plans for others to build their own.

The unit creates enough power to run a about 300 watts of lights or a small appliance. Couple that with energy storage from batteries – you could easliy find a fairly inexpensive way to get off the grid.

Click Here for the article ….. it’s really is one of those really cool things you probably won’t have to wait years for. So, if you see Micah Toll – thank him for making your life allot easier in the future. A full “KuDoS!!” to Micah for keeping innovation simple.

——————–

- SWB

PS – I have a feeling Micah was probably that kid that the “in” kids made fun of if high school for playing with science projects. While Micah will probably raking in millions in the future – those “in” kids most likely will enjoy their careers at a high class establishment like Wendy’s.