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Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Back again with some poetic thoughts about Atlantic City is Joseph P. Martino of Millburn, New Jersey. Some people might consider the poem below a bit of a sales pitch for Atlantic City and, you know what? That’s just what it is! So, take a minute and read Mr. Martino’s poem about Atlantic City – Unconventional.
“ATLANTIC CITY UNCONVENTIONAL”
DEF: BEING OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Atlantic City new jersey by the sea,….the ideal place to see and be.
a great resort to spend your vacation or visit for a day, easy to reach and only a short trip, away.
come by auto,bus, rail or sea, centrally located between New York and Pa.
Make Atlantic city deluxe hotels and casinos your second home and destination don’t think twice before you book your hotel reservation. You will love the luxurious accommodations.
enjoy the casinos, shopping, restaurants and all other attractions and activities you will find along the board walk, beach, marina or the bay. Welcoming hotel staffs will help make your day.
Enjoy the home of first generation shopping malls and outlets, golf, water sports events and world class entertainment and activities so, let luck be your lady tonight
Come roll the dice, to add some spice. Forget all your woes, worries And troubles,….as your champagne flows and bubbles.
Dine tonight at a world class restaurant, later, attend a show, Where famous stars perform nightly, while stage lights glow and Shine brightly.
catch the nightlife and entertainment at our caberets, clubs, lounges and casinos and don’t forget that championship fight.
allow atlantic city, the jewel of the new jersey shore to be your perfect host 24/7 for all your entertainment,leisure, enjoyment, business, pleasure and conventions needs.
Atlantic city, new jersey by the sea.
copyright revised 2009 joseph p.martino american writer, poet (1937~) millburn, n.j.
Have a great day!
Posted in The State of New Jersey | No Comments »
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
At some point last year I began doing some preliminary analysis of election results, specifically looking at third parties and how they perform through the scope of small town election results. In other words, if you start the “Bob’s Political Party” and you put yourself on the statewide or national ballet, how many votes might you receive in a small town? Hey, it interests me, okay?!
In any event, last year I put myself on the mailing list for the Constitution Party. This party, as I understand it, supports a strict interpretation of the United States Constitution. Frankly, as an Adjunct Professor of Political Science I can certainly appreciate the fact that not many people in our society understand the basics of the Constitution nor the powers or limitations of our federal style of government.
Back up for a moment – I’ve also spent some time considering the words that politicians use in their campaigns and what the reality of their campaign promises mean through the vernacular of their campaign rhetoric. For example, then-Senator Barack Obama campaigned to be the President of the United States by making a lot of promises – some of which he simply could not fulfill. Obama promised that taxes would not go up “one dime” for anyone making less than $250,000 per year. Well, that’s not something that Obama can promise because in our system of government the President does not unilaterally make tax policy. More properly stated, Obama should have said, “I pledge to work with Congress and push a policy of not raising taxes on anyone making under $250,000.” However, who wants to hear a promise of “trying” to push a certain policy once elected? Exactly…
But words are interesting in politics and as someone who has been tangentially monitoring the Constitution Party over the last year, I find the survey on their site to be worthy of an entry on this blog. By the way, you can read (and take) the survey by clicking here. What do I find so interesting about it? Well, click on that link and take the survey.
Notice anything? How about the style in which the questions are written? Look at this question:
The undercutting of our free market system, begun by Republicans and accelerated by President Obama, has resulted in near government ownership of too many banks and industries. Do you agree that the Constitution Party (CP) should remain steadfast in opposing both parties’ push for more federal control over our financial sectors and businesses?
For those of you who study this type of stuff (i.e. communication), I’m sure you’re loving this question right now! How about that first sentence? Why not say, “This is what the Constitution Party believes about this particular issue and we’re going to ask you to agree with us in the next sentence, okay?” Honestly, this is a little bit disappointing from a third party that I think has some potential at the local and regional level of politics.
From what I’ve gathered, the Constitution Party is trying to present a real alternative to those in the Republican and Democratic parties who expect this country to be operated as the Constitution dictates that it must. That’s an honorable goal – especially in today’s hyper-partisan political climate where both the Republicans and the Democrats use interpretations of interpretations of interpretations of clauses in the Constitution as the base of their domestic and foreign policies. But where the Constitution Party does itself no good is to put up a “survey” that is packed with leading questions. Not a good strategy.
A better strategy for the Constitution Party would be to go to the 23rd District of New York and set-up camp. This is a district that provided 45.2% of the vote to a Conservative Party candidate. Imagine if the Constitution Party could legitimize itself to the voters in the 23rd District and make a real showing in future elections? Better yet, a good strategy for this party might be to recruit well-known candidates to run for office at the local level and build on local success. It’s almost like building a new business – you don’t just open up 50 Wal-Mart-sized stores in 50 states and expect them to be successful tomorrow. You need to build a brand.
But building that brand should not include time wasted on self-aggrandizing surveys.
Posted in United States Politics | No Comments »
Friday, August 21st, 2009
For the first time in way too long (over a decade), I visited the dentist today. What could have been a gigantic disaster actually turned out to be not half bad. The dentist commented that I have beautiful teeth and that I must have impeccable home care…which I do. I brush my teeth in the morning and the evening and gargle at both times. Plus, I floss once or twice per week (when I remember).
The dentist also commented that my gums look very healthy. Part of that has to be the fluoride from the water that I used to drink when I was young growing up in New York and part of it has to be genetics (my Father had strong teeth).
However, even with my awesome teeth, the dentist recommended that I get some fillings for my molars and that I get two cavities filled in. Again – not really that bad of a diagnosis considering that I haven’t been to the dentist in ages. I’m pretty content. Anyway, that’s the start of my weekend so far – a generally great report from my dentist!
Posted in Random Entries | No Comments »
Monday, August 10th, 2009
More than 36 million Americans go to bed hungry every night – 12 million of them are children. They could be your neighbors, people you know in the community or maybe somebody you said “hello” to this morning. ShopRite is committed to making a difference in the lives of its neighbors. That’s why ShopRite Partners In Caring dollars ultimately service a variety of organizations with feeding capabilities including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, child care centers, battered women’s shelters, senior programs, drug rehab centers, programs for the mentally and physically disabled, after school programs and other organizations that support those in need in ShopRite communities.
Every time a customer purchases products with the ShopRite Partners In Caring shelf tag, they support the brands that support the fight against hunger. At ShopRite, customers are not just filling a grocery bag; they are helping to fill empty bowls for thousands of hungry families in your community.
ShopRite Partners In Caring is the Recipient of the Following Awards – among others:
- Good Neighbor Award – Food Marketing Institute (FMI)
- Retailer of the Year Award – America’s Second Harvest/Feeding America
- Outstanding Achievement Award – Hudson Valley Food Bank
- Crystal Toque Award – Philadelphia and South Jersey
- Outstanding Spirit Award – Monmouth and Ocean County Food Bank
- Connecticut Food Bank – Bill Liddell Award
- Corporate Excellence Award – Food Bank for New York City
Companies that have joined ShopRite in the fight against hunger are marked in stores with the ShopRite Partners In Caring shelf label. By choosing these products, ShopRite customers support manufacturers who contribute to the program.
Each of the 217 ShopRite stores in the six states that ShopRite serves (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland) selects qualified local organizations to benefit from the program. These local food charities use their designated funds to acquire supplies at a food bank.
Today, the ShopRite Partners In Caring program supports 23 regional food banks and more than 1,400 charitable agencies with food or meal components. With a $2 million annual donation, more than $20 million has been donated since 1999 in the fight against hunger.
For more on the program, visit www.ShopRitePartnersInCaring.org.
Posted in The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Only a few months ago I was blogging about some of my random thoughts on the NBC show Kings. Since that time, NBC has played all of the remaining episodes that it was holding and has officially canceled the show. This was confirmed in a statement from the creator of the show which was posted online last week.
What bothers me the most about the cancellation of Kings is that it appears NBC is taking the easy way out of a show that could have really had some legs to it. NBC owns the USA Network, Bravo, SyFy, some Spanish channels, and any other number of channels that could have successfully aired this show. If any of you are Kings fans out there, would you have had a problem watching this show on SyFy or USA Network or Bravo? I think not.
In any event, when the DVD set is released on September 29, 2009, you can bet that I’ll be purchasing it. Although I was a little freaked out by the fact that there were too many “perfect” people on the show (not enough “regular” folks), I really did enjoy watching Kings and I believe that NBC could have found another platform on which to display this asset. If you’ve already clicked over and read the note from the creator of the show, then you can skip ahead. However, if you haven’t yet read that note, let me share a portion of it that I found very interesting:
– Some have speculated that the cost of the show was prohibitive. While it is true that the episode budget was high for a first season show, that number was reduced by the outstanding aggregate 30% tax benefit New York provided (which we all hope will remain in effect), thus bringing the cost down to rates comparable to other prime time dramas. And, of course, plans were already made to bring the costs down to whatever number the studio required of us in the future.
Isn’t that something? Kings was allowed to film in New York City and they even were given a 30% tax benefit for doing so. Sounds like some pretty good economic conditions if you ask me! Another piece of the note that I found interesting:
Your interest in show here is, to me, evidence enough of this. (As an interesting aside, Kings was #1 on iTunes on the day we were cancelled.)
How about that? On the day that NBC tossed this show, Kings was the top downloaded show on iTunes. That’s great! And yet…NBC cancels the show.
It would be great if Kings achieved the type of post-cancellation success that Family Guy or Futurama have both achieved (did you hear that Futurama was uncanceled a week or so ago?). That’s what I’m hoping for at least.
Posted in Entertainment | 8 Comments »
Monday, July 23rd, 2007
Not that this has a major impact on me since I’m a happy Sirius Satellite radio subscriber, but WCBS-FM in New York City is back to playing the oldies! This is really a great story of the people “voting with their feet” as the station changed its format over 2 years ago to a new “hip” style. The people voted by walking away from the station in droves – and they took the lucrative advertising revenue with them.
The new format was called Jack-FM and their slogan was, “Playing what we want.” Well, it seems that absolutely no one gave a shit about what music they were playing as they went from 8th in the New York market to 16th. This just shows you, again, how out of touch the powers-that-be at CBS are with the contemporary marketplace. Idiots.
I distinctly remember family members telling me how upset they were when 101.1 switched from oldies with Cousin Brucie (who can be heard on Sirius XM , by the way) to playing whatever some idiot marketing genius thought Generation X wanted to hear. This was just a horrible, dumb, stupid business move and whoever thought of it and put the “ok” on it should be fired immediately. Not only was the oldies format in 8th place in New York, it was the #1 rated oldies station in America. Why would anyone want to change that?!?
But stupidity with radio decisions isn’t anything new in New York. Let’s not forget that K-Rock switched from the #1 rock channel in the city while it had Howard Stern to some bullshit called FREE-FM after they lost him. Since the ratings for that style went straight to the shitter, in May CBS Radio brought K-Rock back and dumped their sub-par at best talk show format. Again, if I was at CBS Radio at a higher level and I knew who originated the idea to switch to an all-talk format in the wake of Howard Stern’s departure, I’d fire the person on the spot. How do you take the #1 rock station in both New York City and Northern New Jersey and just change it to an all-talk format? Idiots! But then again, this is the station that is keeping Opie and Anthony on the air when they routinely score 0.0 in the ratings for the New York market. Actually, their ratings may have gone up, but they’ve been a dismal failure since they entered New York.
I digress…
It’s good to have the oldies back on in New York City. The fans of 101.1 didn’t deserve to have their station snatched away from them and I’m glad that the stupid, iPod format of Jack-FM was a miserable failure.
Posted in Entertainment, Idiots, Morons, & Fools | 1 Comment »
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