GRIPE SHOTS

I am overwhelmed with anger this morning because there are so many things ticking me off right now! Every time I pick up the newspaper or turn on the local yocal news I go ballistic! As you all know, when there are several things flipping my anger switch its time to pull up a stool, slide in close to the bar and slam down some GRIPE SHOTS! Boy, do I have plenty to GRIPE about. Sit down right here and let's tie one on with a bottle of our best GRIPE.

I want to know if our good pal Thom "The Tick" Greco has done his time at the soup kitchen? I have made several calls and no one can tell me if "The Tick" has been dishing out some slop over on Jackson Street. Every time I think about this no good parasite I want to explode. My guess is he has not spent one single second of his sentence over there. If it were you or I, we would be locked up in the crow bar hotel for not showing up. Can anybody tell me if this blood sucking monger has spent any time over there? I have to know!

Speaking of "The Tick", every time I drive past the old Market Street Square I want to throw up. That was the showplace of downtown Wilkes-Barre for so many years and now it is a dump! I remember the great times along with the up scale atmosphere that the place provided. Once "The Tick" got his hands on it he miked it dry and tossed the place aside like a whore on Friday night. This is what this guy does. Of course, the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority bought the place from him for a few million and now it sits vacant and rotting away. This makes me want to puke! Let's get this thing back to its original state as a train station so we can open rail service in and out of town. Wouldn't it be nice to jump on a train and ride it to New York or Philadelphia? YOU BET IT WOULD! Instead, we let the place deteriorate until it is so bad and it has to be demolished. Doesn't that sound familiar? Can you say HOTEL STERLING? Say it....HOTEL STERLING!

Another two thumbs up goes out to the idiots over at the county Taj Mahal on River Street. Luzerne County lost out on thousands of dollars in state reimbursements because an attorney who represented children in abuse cases did not get the proper training required by the state. YOU FREAKIN' IDIOTS! Attorney John Bellino who was paid a flat salary of $50,230 was permitted to remain employed even though he had not gotten the correct training. WHAT! WHAT! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME! The bozo's knew he didn't have the required training but they let him remain employed? They let this guy on the payroll even though they knew they would not get the thousands of dollars from the state. It's time to shut the courthouse down and gut it from the inside out.

While I am on the topic of the courthouse, has anyone seen anybody actually working on the repairs lately? I have gone by the place many times over the past few weeks and have seen no one working. My question is are they ahead of schedule and are now getting paid for not showing up? I think we can all answer that one with a profound YES! I have not seen anyone actually working on the Taj Mahal on River for a few weeks now. Maybe they are only working between the hours of 10:00 am and 3:00 pm with a two hour lunch in between.

Finally, Major League Baseball announced yesterday that they will expand their post season from 8 teams to 10 starting this year. Holy shit! The season now goes into November with teams playing in the cold and snow if they make it to the World Series. MLB will add two more wild card teams that will play a one game playoff against the other two wild card teams. In my opinion MLB thinks they need to put this change in to effect because teams with 500 records are winning their divisions while others with much better records are going home early. Why don't they do away with all of these divisions, keep the National and American Leagues and have the top 8 in each league play a bracket type of playoff to see who gets to the World Series. Wouldn't that be much easier? Of course that would make sense so why would it happen?

Well, that's it for now. If I go any further I may blow my lunch from all of the GRIPE SHOTS I have just thrown down. It's time to stagger out into the screwed up real world to gather up some more outrage.