Monthly Archives: October 2012
halloween morning 2012
The light was beautiful in a creepy Halloweenish sort of way this morning…Happy Halloween all!
the epicurious cookbook is out!!!
As of October 30, epicurious.com released their first cookbook, and one of my recipes is in it!
You can order cookbook direct from epucurious.com or Amazon. I am thrilled to be included, and they even feature a blurb about my recipe inside the back cover, which I also think is very cool.
I received my advance copy from the publishers about a week ago, and it is a terrific cookbook. Truthfully, if my recipe wasn’t in the book, I would still buy it!
post sandy: downed wires in glenmoore, upper uwchland
I promised that I would post Sandy photos if they were sent to sandysnaps @ spamex . com
Here are a couple from Glenmoore. They come from Dawn and Ed Mourar with the following message:
“As of 2 pm on 10/31, these lines remain untouched and on the ground.”
Now I know PECO is slammed, but I sent the photos to a contact anyway (and of course out that way, it might not be PECO, it might be PPL). What I don’t understand is why Upper Uwchland has not at least hazard taped this area off? They could be live wires, right?
Glenmoore isn’t that big, so hopefully someone knows where this is. The one drawback for me is a location other than Glenmoore did not come with the photos. If anyone knows the exact location, please post a comment.
Remember – PLEASE DON’T TOUCH DOWNED WIRES. Leave it to the professionals.
today
Image
yesterday
Image
sayonara, sandy
Indian River Bridge in DE
Mind you I think the other shoe has yet to fall on many trees around here – the ground is so saturated and those winds yesterday were fierce. I thought at times the wind sounded like a freight train.
PHOTO: ROAD TO TOWNSENDS INLET BRIDGE FROM AVALON TO SEA ISLE CITY DESTROYED.
The mandatory evacuation remains in effect. No entry to Avalon is permitted until further notice.
Photo taken Tuesday by Avalon Public Information Officer Scott Wahl.
Dewey Beach DE
We are very fortunate that we are not in DE, NJ or NY (Long Island and NY especially).
I have friends and family in all of those places and I am glad they are safe, although many have no power.
The photos I have found here and there.
Cars swimming in the financial district of NYC post Sandy
Atlantic City, NJ
Outside my friend’s apartment in Jersey City, NJ
From Main Line Media News – death of a Penn Oak :<(
sandy storm photos – send them in for posting!
Hi there gentle readers. I hope everyone has battened down the hatches for however Hurricane Sandy turns out?
I have a proposition for all of my readers: send me storm photos for posting. I 
learned a long time ago that if you want to enact change, photos help. The photos you are CURRENTLY looking at are photos I took where I used to live in Lower Merion Township and one from Conshohocken. The snapped tree was courtesy of Irene last year.
So if you have flooding photos and you want them out there, send them to me via sandysnaps <at> spamex <dot> com
That is sandysnaps @ spamex . com – Sorry due to spammers, I will not have this as just a hyperlink to click and go.
Alternately you can tweet me at @gossipgirl19380 
I am happy to attribute photos, tell me who gets credit, and *MOST* importantly give me precise locations. Or I will post photos anonymously if you live in a municipality that has shall we say, issues?
I am particulalrly interested in photos where development may be occuring or is currently occuring or has just been completed. I am also interested in areas that chronically flood and often wait until the bitter end for help to arrive.
One spot of particular curiousity which should not be overlooked by anyone is where the Borough of Phoenixville is building their over-priced new municipal hall. I passed it last night while in Phoenixville and thought I should defininately put that location out there as a site for good storm photos because it always floods, doesn’t it? And correct me if I am wrong, but the plans for that needlessly overpriced new borough hall doesn’t really have proper flood remediation built in, does it? Wasn’t that the plan where the plan is put the garage underneath so everyone’s cars drown and there is lots of potential litigation from that? Anyway, I figure a way to preserve the taxpayer investment and future costs here is to have irrefutable proof that they need a real plan or they should stop and move sites.
Phoenixville has a fun downtown at night. They need better parking and I notice they have the parking authority people out chalking tires on a Saturday night, and truthfully, most municipalities don’t do that. They leave it as the police can tow people from certain zones and are done with it. But then again, people tend to question how Phoenixville spends money – they spend way too much on a manager, they spend way too much on a school superintendant – seriously for a borough barely squeaking by in any economy they pay Main Line prices.
But enough picking on Phoenixville which always floods so badly, from Tredyffrin through to West Vincent and Oxford and wherever, if you have storm photos, or storm info, send it in. Also feel free to leave comments about where the power is out and if roads are blocked.
Hopefully Sandy will be a non-event for Chester County.
My final note is DO NOT PUT YOURSELVES IN HARM’S WAY TO SEND ME PHOTOS.
But do document flooding and damage. It is helpful for getting things corrected so situations do not repeat themselves. I will also take Main Line storm photos if it will help any of you out there near where I used to live.
Thanks and stay dry!
phoenixville school district bans halloween
In Phoenixville, Scrooge has a new name: Phoenixville Area School District Superintendent Alan Fegley. You see, Superintendent Alan Fegley is banning Halloween in Phoenixville schools, citing among other things “controversy surrounding the religious connotations of Halloween.”
Bull twaddle. What a dope. Guess Santa Claus is next, huh? Oh wait, that is why so many schools across the country celebrate Halloween because it saves them from attacks by the political correctness police who whitewash everything into Happy Holidays Hell, right?
Seriously, somewhere Charlie Brown is screaming as another attempt is made to dumb down a childhood and American tradition. We all are still Americans, right? Or has that become politically incorrect overnight too in Phoenixville?
Halloween is a universal kid loved time no matter the gender, ethnicity, religion. As a matter of fact Halloween is so religion neutral across the country it is partially why it gets so much attention.
The History of Halloween is actually interesting:
History of Halloween
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows Evening also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve.
Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and carving jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as of Australia and New Zealand.Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture.
We are as a country, and certainly as an area, an ethnic melting pot. So many cultures celebrate Halloween that I do not see what the big deal is? Now from the costumey end of it, it is a holiday in major metropolitan areas like New York City that is very attractive to those of alternative lifestyles, so I have to ask, is Phoenixville Area School District riding the discrimination bus on this?
Kids love Halloween, and these teachers and this school district needed to get creative, not kill the holiday.
Thrift stores this time of year are LOADED to the gills with gently used costumes, so why couldn’t the Phoenixville Area School District put out a plea to ask people to donate gently used costumes? And the kids would dress up IN school instead of coming to school in costume? That is one way to deal in a sensitive manner with the kids who can’t afford costumes. School districts all over the country do this for prom (as in they have little events with gently used prom dresses, so those who might not be able to afford to go CAN, so why not Halloween?
Another thing they could have done was make the costumes that were acceptable kid created only and put a price on say whomever could design the best costume for under $10 dollars. Again, the school district could have put it out there that they were accepting clean and gently used donations towards Halloween costumes.
Or they could limit the costumes to “best mask”, and they could make the masks in class. A parade of masks and pumpkin decorating (and again, they could put it out there to local farms and businesses to donate pumpkins and gourds to donate.)
Halloween is not only a fun childhood tradition, it is a way for children to express themselves artistically and creatively. Often the reality of life is difficult enough for small children, so who does it hurt to let them escape reality for a few hours and just be kids dressing up?
Phoenixville is all wet and wrong on this one.
If I had kids in this school district I would dress up and protest in front of the school district administration building on a public sidewalk and protest this decision. Or in front of the post office (or any place that is a public sidewalk where they can’t arrest you for demonstrating.)
If I was a farmer or business owner in the area I would be delivering mounds of pumpkins to the steps of the Phoenixville Area School District building and to the front steps of the home of Superintendent Alan Fegley.
The Phoenixville Area School District Building is located at 386 City Line Avenue, Phoenixville, PA 19460. Phone number: 484-927-5000. Dr. Alan Fegley, 484-927-5010, fegleya@pasd.k12.pa.us
Is Fegley worth the $205,000 per year another blogger reports he earns? Maybe if the school district paid more realistic salaries considering the econony, it might have a couple bucks to give elementary school kids Halloween back?
And Fegley? Dressing up for Halloween doesn’t cause sexting (you know that other issue you dealt so well with?)
Seriously, Phoenixville? You need Operation Pumpkin Drop. Prove this school district wrong and give the kids Halloween back. Kids deserve to just be kids once in a while.
By Frank Otto fotto@journalregister.com 10/23/12
PHOENIXVILLE — Elementary school students in the Phoenixville Area School District will be celebrating a fall theme day as opposed to Halloween-centric events this year and Superintendent Alan Fegley explained why at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
Fegley said the announcement was made in the elementary school student “package” from the district in August, but he explained the district’s decision to move away from Halloween fully at the meeting.
According to Fegley, a number of the elementary schools’ principals came to him with their concerns regarding Halloween celebrations for Oct. 31.
“I approved the change for a fall-themed activity for a number of reasons,” Fegley said…“There was unhealthy competition for the costumes and treats that were being provided,” Fegley said. “I’m a competitive person, don’t get me wrong. But when it’s sitting there and making other students not feel good because they can’t afford the costume or can’t have it made, that’s something that’s just something the district just thought was not worth having to go through.”
Additionally, with the costumes and despite warnings from the school, children continued to bring in costume weapons in violation of the school’s weapons policy.
Finally, the district wanted to “honor the diverse background” of its students and open up the celebration to fall-themed events rather than Halloween because of the “controversy surrounding the religious connotations of Halloween.”
morning ride
Snapped this in West Vincent. So perfectly peaceful and beautiful to watch riders go by in their full (and correct) attire. Except if development keeps on being the gift that keeps on giving, how long do you think we will have the privilege of seeing such things?
They used to ride like this in Gladwyne. They used to ride like this in a lot of places. And not too long ago. There is not room for cookie cutter development and horses and farms. Choices must be made. What is your choice where you live in Chester County?