28043877
So tell me again, how hot is it? It’s so hot that people resumed saying, “Hot enough for you?”
I want to know who is it that invented the heat index? When the temperature hits 100, do we need Kathy Orr to tell us the heat index is 110? Kathy is telling her viewers that folks should check to see whether seniors are OK in this heat.
Do I need my kids calling me every half-hour to make sure I have the air conditioner turned on? Meanwhile, PECO informs us we should be careful about running our air conditioners because it places stress on their power grid. Memo to PECO: This is when I need to run my air conditioners — all of them!
I just corresponded with U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. I wrote to Pat that he ought to consider voting for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA as it is known. DOMA essentially prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even if that marriage is legal in the state in which it was performed. For example, a gay couple could be married in the state of New York, but if they move to Pennsylvania their marriage is not recognized. The law prohibits gay married couples from receiving benefits otherwise accorded to heterosexual married couples.
Toomey responded by thanking me for sharing my views with him and I can be sure that if and when he gets the opportunity to vote on repeal of DOMA, he will be certain to consider my views. Toomey goes on to write that he believes marriage is “sacred” and is “best” defined as being between a man and a woman. This last line in his response caused me to doubt just a little bit whether my views would really be considered at all. I wrote back.
I mentioned to Toomey that I hoped he wasn’t implying that gay couples don’t view marriage as a “sacred” institution. (Dear reader, we both know straight couples who view marriage as being so sacred they keep divorcing and marrying repeatedly just so they can obtain the sacrament of matrimony as often as they receive communion). I also pointed out the South once had miscegenation laws that prohibited marriage between races. The South probably felt marriage between people of the same race best defined marriage. Progress being what it is, those laws were struck from the books and the South has moved on. Hopefully Toomey will get the connection (I’m making the leap of faith that he doesn’t consider miscegenation a state’s rights issue).
It does not pay to be insolent when you are trying to get someone to change their mind, particularly a U.S. senator. I decided against adding that there is really no reason in 2011 that anyone should have to ask the permission of Toomey in order to get married, except maybe his offspring.
I signed the letter “Thomas and Frances Cardella, a happily married straight couple of 47 years.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little tired of restaurants that use the slogan “farm to table.” With seemingly almost every bite, the waitstaff is compelled to tell you the local farm of origin.
“Sir, those string beans were grown organically at Ed’s Farm in Lancaster and are topped with bits of Kennett Square button mushrooms, chopped tomatoes from Alice Perriwinkle’s garden. Oh, did I mention that the cream in the sauce was produced from a cow raised in a South Jersey meadow?” The next course was poultry, which was from a hysterically happy free-range chicken that was allowed to watch HBO before its head was chopped off.
Last year, I had the misfortune to eat in a South Jersey restaurant (I could actually end the sentence right there). It was Farm to Fork week. The mixed vegetables looked as if they were raised on farms run by Birds Eye. Question: If the craze continues, will we never enjoy imported food in a restaurant again?
I have a way to solve “runaway” government spending in the future. Voters will be required to list three government programs that directly benefit them and they will be significantly cut or eliminated to balance the budget. If voters are unwilling to have their favorite programs cut, they will have to agree to pay higher taxes. This requirement will effectively end the Tea Party forever and probably give Michele Bachmann a migraine.
I just came back from a week in Ocean City, N.J., where they proved that the best things in life are no longer free. Beach tags are to this generation what pay toilets were to my generation. If you bill yourself as a family resort, don’t you have an obligation to avoid charging families to spend time at the beach? I don’t buy the argument that resorts need revenue from beach tags for maintenance of the beaches.
It is obvious the beach fees aren’t going toward providing more lifeguards. They’re posted blocks apart so that if you want to swim in the ocean you are herded into small areas. You think that beach fees are primarily designed to keep out day-trippers?
Whatever happened to the saying, “It’s not the heat; it’s the humidity?” SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
28043877
