Category Archives: rantings of a suburban housewife

“once they get their roots in our soil” or east whiteland and the blasted data center.

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The data center. At this point, people are saying “which data center” because every time you turn around another municipality in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and all across the state are being faced with data centers.

And with few exceptions like our wonderful State Senator Katie Muth, so many elected officials are walking lock step with Josh Shapiro ruining areas one day to center at a time, aren’t they?

This post is primarily focused on the East Whiteland data center. But it’s an insidious problem. I’m going to share a video I found on Instagram from Missouri’s JeffCoHousewife on Instagram- she proved my point about this is just a real estate deal/development meaning data centers.

It’s the new warehouse, it’s the new condo development, it’s the new apartment building. It’s nothing about the good of the community, etc. etc. She also poses an interesting thing about how there the data center operators or want to be developers are packaging their scheme to the Republican majority that is this county in Missouri. That’s exactly what’s being done across the state of Pennsylvania only it’s being packaged for the Democrats, primarily. These data centers are just being packaged to sell, period. You could belong to the purple people eater political party and they would tell you why it was so fabulous for your political party and your constituents.

Let’s get real: they’re bad. Data centers aren’t good for anyone except the developers making money and then the data center operators making money. They suck our resources dry, they pollute our water, our land, our air. And if you want to tell me that it won’t affect real estate values in a community, maybe they should offer the Brooklyn Bridge for sale while they’re at it.

Now I have tons of questions about the data center in East Whiteland, but my voice isn’t the most important one. It’s the thousands of other people.

I will mention, however, that when this first started, I couldn’t understand why people in Malvern Hunt didn’t seem more concerned? I think that’s a question that I would ask board members of the homeowners association at the initial time this surfaced a few years ago, wouldn’t you? Which board members were on the board at the time this was initially proposed? Did the developer at the time a.k.a. Green Fig before Sentinel go meet with them? What was said?

Now, I’ve said before that the Green Fig developer is a glad-hander. His personal career roots are in sales and retail brokerage, correct? He described himself as a stock picker. See here:

https://www.wealthmanagement.com/wealth-management-industry-trends/acting-on-his-own

Here’s a quote:

Some brokers almost cringe at the term “stock-picker.” It can conjure up visions of reps with frayed nerves and churned accounts.

Not Charlie Lyddane.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I pick stocks,” says Lyddane, a soloist at Legg Mason in West Chester, Pa. “It’s what a broker is supposed to do. My clients like that kind of help.”

Apparently so. Lyddane reports $1 million in production and $120 million under management. He’s been a broker for 19 years and has never been part of a team….With 400 clients and 1,000 accounts, Lyddane uses discretionary account management as a time-saving technique. “I can’t call everybody when I move stuff around. So I pick investments as I see fit.” 

He also wants to tell you he’s a son of the environmentally, friendly, but is he really and remember when he ran for school board as an endorsed Republican?

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/malvern/bp–charles-lyddane-endorsed-for-school-board

Here’s an interesting quote from that Patch article years ago when he ran for school board:

Mr. Lyddane has lived in Great Valley School District for 15 years and has graduated two children from the District. A graduate of Union College in Schenectady, NY, Mr. Lyddane has a BA in History and also attended the Business School at Union. He started his career at Xerox. He was Vice President of Merrill Lynch and Legg Mason in West Chester for 23 years. As a real estate developer and investor in Chester County for the past 9 years, Mr. Lyddane has significant experience in budget development and implementation, as well as achieving strategic goals in a timely and cost efficient manner. He also has significant experience in Property Management….According to Mr. Lyddane, “When you are managing shareholder’s money, you must produce a product that is beneficial to those shareholders. 

Then there is Sentinel.

https://youtu.be/ujLQM5S_9aU?si=9EV-BhLCUP6kTjSi

They can color it however they want. They are just out of town developers who want to destroy where we live for their profit, yes?

This is them ⬇️

https://www.rabina.com/team

This is also them ⬇️

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/03/10/rabina-reels-in-540m-in-construction-financing-for-fifth-ave-skyscraper/

https://520fifth.com/residences/press

They are not us. They don’t get us and don’t care about us, do they?

Why not simply admit who they are and what they are about except they kind of did that at the meeting last week didn’t they? They were like if you don’t comply, we will make you comply, and if you’re bad, we’ll build a Walmart wasn’t that kind of the gist of it?

Then again, one of these East Whiteland Supervisors also told us who he was last week didn’t he? ⬇️

Nothing about this since at first began has felt normal has it?

Why should we have to deal with this and can we deal with this on an EPA super fund site that was polluted with lithium and more? And what good will the EPA prove in this given the fact that they have been gutted by the Trump administration? And then there is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection our good old PA DEP? (Somebody explain to me what they do exactly that is substantive because as an adult I’m still wondering.)

https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=5388

I know, I know. The eternal conversation of what do you do with old super fund sites, but is a data center really it?

And neighbors have really worked hard to bring up valid points. And I’m going to turn it over to residents.

Listen to these people who I excerpted out of the whole meeting:

East Whiteland should say no to this giant expansion but will they? I think Peter Fixler the data center apologist will vote yes, I’m not sure about the other two votes just now, and it pains me to say that, but they have to decide whether they’re going to have the balls to say no to something or just capitulate?

And then there are the people that work at the township. My biggest area of concern lies with the assistant township manager. Her name is Catherine Ricardo. I haven’t interacted with her personally, but she always has concerned me. She came to East Whiteland from East Vincent Township where she was the township manager. I’ve always wondered why someone would leave a manager’s job for the underling’s job of assistant manager?

I found something interesting when I was looking through East Vincent’s website. Planning commission minutes from 2022.

Note what I highlighted. Note her comment as a manager, saying once the zoning hearing board approved something they are locked in to that amount and nothing more. Yes, I’m paraphrasing, but you can read it yourself in the screenshot or the hyperlink by clicking on it. It makes you wonder why she could say that there yet they couldn’t say something similar in East Whiteland when Green Fig kept coming back to the pot for more porridge before even getting a shovel in the ground?

There’s also something about data centers being mentioned in 2022 if you read the same minutes.

Click to access 6.21.22.pdf

They are fighting a data center at Pennhurst.

There’s this old Parch article from way before then 2011 actually. About Pennhurst before it was sold I guess to the current owners? Read it and tell me if a familiar name shows up, or should I be more specific, a more familiar name sitting on the East Whiteland bench?

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/limerick/bp–pennhurst-zoning-appeal-hearing

More recent vintage Pennhurst article:

https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/commercial/pennhurst-asylum-chester-county-halloween-attraction-data-center-20251013.html

Here is the Preserve Pennhurst website:

http://www.preservepennhurst.org/

I will freely admit I think the Pennhurst site should be cleared of all of those buildings because it was literally a campus of horrors, but that’s not for me to say. What I don’t think should happen there is a giant data center. What I’m eternally curious about is if that land was supposed to be cleaned up because there are toxic issues there as well why hasn’t it been cleaned up and they’re talking about building a data center on top of it?

And whether we like it or not the whole data center issue in East Vincent is something East Whiteland needs to pay attention to in my opinion because East Vincent’s old manager became East Whiteland’s current assistant manager. Actually in the overall scheme of things it might be helpful if East Vincent data center fighters and East Whiteland data center fighters joined forces and then there’s Upper Merion and Limerick also facing giant data centers. And then we move upstate don’t we?

So everyone who says this is a NIMBY issue to people in each community facing this horror show needs to buy a clue. Data centers are being shoved into everyone’s backyard and isn’t that the truth? It’s not NIMBY. It’s everywhere and it doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are if you live in one of these affected areas, we’re all affected.

My final thoughts include still trying to figure out why it is that Green Fig got approved and never did anything except try to change everything after the initial approvals? I will also note that last meeting, Charlie Lyddane was uncharacteristically quiet and why was that?

Above is their proposed Valhalla, but that’s not the residents Valhalla is it? I mean it was former Supervisor Sue Drummond’s idea of Valhalla was it not? Did we ever send her a thank you note?

Aren’t we tired of these discussions of do the opinions of residents matter yet? When do our voices matter here? Do our voices matter?

I think because no one knows enough about data centers, they shouldn’t just be plugged into our communities. Why do we have to have them? But who am I but a mere mortal and a female?

Along that vein, I will never understand as a plain old ordinary person a site that was a superfund site got approved for a nursing home or whatever that once proposed senior facility was could have the same zoning for a monster data center? Like many other things in involving this topic in East Whiteland, it does not compute.

Here are some links to recent media about the East Whiteland data center issue and other communities somewhat close by and a website that seems to be pure propaganda about data centers in East Whiteland:

https://projectforgepa.com/ (propaganda)

https://6abc.com/amp/post/developers-looking-expand-site-proposed-data-center-chester/18890610/

https://philadelphia.today/2026/04/east-whiteland-data-center-zoning/

Limerick data center hearings start with ‘party status’ debate

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-controversial-1-6m-square-foot-data-center-in-chesco-could-shrink-after-fierce-pushback-this-is-not-an-act-of-goodwill/ar-AA20XDyj

Builder cuts plans for size of proposed East Whiteland data center in half

when is it enough in tredyffrin?

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Back to Villa Blue Tarp in Mt. Pleasant (Tredyffrin.)

When is enough enough out of off campus student party houses?

I have been keeping tabs on Villanova off campus student housing for probably 20 years or better in Mount Pleasant. I discovered the issues years ago completely by accident when I was in Mount Pleasant photographing the history of the place because it is a very historic black area in Chester County. It was the home of Miss Mazie Hall, for example. (As a related aside, I watch them tear down her house for predatory development years ago.)

You can read about Miss Hall here:

Civil-rights activist and educator Mazie Hall dies at 103

This area for those not from Chester County or familiar with the history is in what is known as the “panhandle of Tredyffrin.” In recent years, it has been truly plagued by off-campus student rentals and wanton development from both the Upper Merion side of this area and the Tredyffrin side. It’s just far enough away from campus and the Tredyffrin township building etc. that they think no one ever pays attention, so if they have not been paying attention, maybe they all should be?

Not all off-campus student rentals are bad. And that can be said of any student rental in any location, but you never hear about the nice kids, it’s these others who stand out.

When I lived in Lower Merion Township for a bunch of years I lived next to one of these animal houses until it burnt to the ground two days before Thanksgiving one year. That was the early 2000s. November 22, 2000 to be precise, and the fire was covered in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Main Line Life (now Main Line Media News) at the time.

This house on Booth Lane was gorgeous at one time. I was in it when friends of mine and I snuck into a party when it was the rugby house around 1981. I actually didn’t stay very long because it literally was like animal house inside (I was like 16 or 17 and had never quite ever at that point seen a party like that so it was more than a little intimidating), but I will never forget what the inside of that house looked like even with a bunch of college students destroying it more and more every day.

10:04 PM 4/12/26

At that point, it was still a single-family home. It had this magnificent staircase with a carved dark wood newel post. the fireplaces were still intact although I think long since boarded up, but the surrounds were this amazing tile and there were stained glass windows and pocket doors. There were also a couple of really old chandeliers and lights that survived in the ceilings somehow and sconces on the walls.

This house had been the home of a banker or financier type of person named Henry B. Reinhart until he died in 1948. He had a son who died in World War II, who was remembered in local papers as being one of the victims of World War II, who died with the fifth army in Italy on Anzio Beach. When it went up for sale in 1954 you could have bought it for $19,500. And eventually it became this off-campus party house.

I knew from a very elderly neighbor when I first moved to the neighborhood that at one point in time, it had wonderful gardens, a beautiful lawn, which was planted with crocuses that still came up every spring, even when I was there. At one point in time, there was actually a small orchard behind it. The crocuses in the lawn, actually survived the fire and when it became an empty lot, we used to dig some of them up for our own gardens.

After that fire it was an empty lot for gosh, easily almost 15 years after that fire. I always wondered if they built on the old foundation because the foundation wasn’t dug up when they demolished the house after the fire it was just covered over. We didn’t mind it as an empty lot. It gave us some open space for a while.

The house made quite an impression because it had been a party house since I had been of high school age. It had been this huge yellow Victorian and up until the time of the fire had these great stained glass windows still intact in parts of the house, and this amazing wraparound porch.

This house, which was once located at 20 Booth Lane in Lower Merion, was just one of the wonderful houses that used to exist in a row from Old Lancaster Road to Lancaster Avenue.

At that time of the fire (November 22, 2000 and reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer as being started by a roofer’s torch doing repairs), the house had been split into two duplexes (previously, I believe it had served I think as the rugby house when I was of high school and college age and was not split in to more than one unit until 1985.)

Until the fire which made us all fear for our own roof lines because it was a windy day as the firefighters were trying to fight the fire in a small neighborhood, we had been held hostage by this house.

It didn’t matter how many times we called the police or the township, or Villanova. No one was interested at all in the plight of the neighbors trying to coexist with off campus students who were horrible. And for years, the neighbors did try to ask the students who were renting to just please keep it to a dull roar but no, every weekend it was party central complete with more cars than you want to know parked on their lawn and some of ours sometimes, kids vomiting in the street, peeing on neighbors properties, and so on. I remember at the time neighbors who complained about the house woke up one morning to find their cars keyed. I remember they were just a young married couple or maybe they weren’t even married yet but we’re saving for their wedding and the car repairs were expensive to fix the paint.

At that time, I believed the university official we were dealing with was a Father John Stack. As a matter of fact, it was his office we phoned as the fire was happening then so the university could find these kids places to live, etc. These off campus students (girls at this point) never did the right thing by any of us but we knew they were losing all of their college memories and school work, and also practically speaking needed a safe place to land after a day like that fire created. We also knew how scary that fire was for us watching it and those students were living it watching everything they owned from college burn.

Because of this experience in my past, I completely understand how the residents of Mount Pleasant in Tredyffrin feel today and have felt for years as my (then) neighborhood lived it until the house burned to the ground . As a blogger, I have written about this topic over the years in Mount Pleasant because it is that bad. This is why Villanova had so many people from this area of Tredyffrin Township and even folks from bordering Radnor Township show up at their community meeting after they acquired Cabrini. These people fear that it will only get worse.

For some reason this year, the students seem more aggressive than before, which I didn’t think was possible. They think they are invincible and untouchable, and the lack of consistent attention to this on the part of Tredyffrin and Villanova University officials does make you wonder if this is the case, doesn’t it? I mean, if even the rental housing inspector/zoning officer did her job half of the time in that township would there be so many people all of the time in that house or other student rentals back there? I remember it came up not that long ago that another student rental has occurred and by Tredyffrin’s student rental housing ordinance should that even be allowed?

Click to access decision-2025-15-brown-927-mt-pleasant-ave.pdf

(And don’t even get me started on how long it took residence of that township to get such an ordinance.)

https://ttdems.com/historic-mt-pleasant-neighborhood-faces-development-pressure/

Tredyffrin board hears college-housing concerns
Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood. . . How Can We Help?

https://pattyebenson.org/2010/03/25/need-for-college-student-rental-ordinance-not-just-a-mt-pleasant-issue-this-is-a-township-issue/

Housing issue resolved in Tredyffrin
(only the issues have never been resolved in Mount Pleasant)
Tredyffrin planners against subdivision

And I have to ask in the video I’m sharing from this weekend, are they referring to me because I’ve written about this problem house before or are they referring to a supervisor of Tredyffrin Township whose first name is Carlotta?

That’s not the name of any resident in Mount Pleasant that I know of, but I think you will agree that constitutes harassment of the neighbors and others and is that the message that Villanova University wants to send to the public at large out here?

Why should any full time resident be subjected to this behavior constantly in Mount Pleasant? Why does Villanova and Tredyffrin turn a blind eye?

This is wrong, and they all know it’s wrong. And again, I don’t live in that area, but if that’s my name in their mouth because I write occasionally on this topic, that is also harassing me personally.  I will note I have been harassed before. A couple of years ago give or take, I was able to track messages back to I believe a computer at Bartley Hall.

These kids are young and dumb, but life is not without consequences, and they just need to behave better. Their behavior is something I doubt would be allowed at home in their parents’ houses and where they grew up and where they live when they’re not at school, correct?

Again, students living off campus in other areas don’t all act this way. But I don’t know what it is about this house year in and year out that it attracts the same type of off campus student. And in my mind, they are not representative of the university community as an entirety. 

This problem is not unique to this university. As we’ve heard the spring, there are also problems currently in West Chester Borough with students there.

West Chester Borough grapples with WCU student partying

These people who are full-time residents of this neighborhood, deserve respect, and a good night’s sleep once in a while. They accept that kids are going to be kids, but do they have to be so awful and does this have to be the continuing pattern of behavior?

Properties with same P.O. Box and business entities:

political aspirations and data centers? are they perfect together?

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Here in Chester County we have reached the non-answers to questions phase of life, making it feel like we’re in the City of Philadelphia. It seems when people ask them questions these days they don’t even remotely answer the question and then there’s the whole thing over data centers. Are they really that obtuse deliberately ?

You’ll notice whomever does the socials for the county gave that lady a link to Chester County Planning Commission. Has anyone else realized that all the questionable planners from Montgomery County seemed to end up in Chester County not to be a conspiracy theorist but like are they trying to populate the region with their shall we say interesting or maybe Stepford trained planners? It’s something to consider.

And look at the link they posted and who’s on it. That bad ordinance model from Penn Futures is on it. Penn Futures went from annoying door-to-door solicitation to basically being sellouts didn’t they?

And there is supposedly some model ordinance they’re looking at from Montgomery County (shocker do you see a pattern yet?) but it’s not there and would you really trust anything coming out of Montgomery County given the total sheit show of Limerick and that other location near Conshohocken for a data center?

Our county needs to get off of Josh Shapiro‘s data center bus. So do other counties basically residents can’t depend on anyone when it comes to data centers and protect protecting us. And it affects our water. It affects our power. It affects our cost of power which PS PECO has said in a press release that they’re raising rates and it has to do with that – data centers.

To quote the Pottstown Mercury this morning:

📌On Monday, 15 months after receiving a nearly 12 percent rate increase for electricity and a 12.5 percent increase for natural gas, PECO Energy filed a request with the Public Utility Commission seeking an additional 12 percent increase in electric rates and another 11.4 percent increase in natural gas rates…. In its press release, PECO said providing power to data centers is one of the reasons the utility is seeking a rate hike.📌

And you’ll know they all dance around the topic of water usage of these things, and you can find videos from a county in Georgia who’ve literally had their water supply sucked dry by a data center.

And they don’t want to talk about the noise, or the fact that these data centers are muscling their way in to get approvals and before they even have a shovel in the ground, they want to make everything bigger like in East Whiteland and East Vincent.

It’s kind of like the pipelines except even worse. We as residents are being hung out to dry while they pander to a governor with political aspirations. I don’t mind political aspirations as long as it is not at the expense of all of us and even on a county level now you have to wonder?

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-center-water.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-center-water.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o

Data center discussion dominates Friel town hall in North Coventry

https://www.chescoplanning.org/UandI/DataCenters/

https://grist.org/energy/the-ai-boom-has-plunged-a-small-pennsylvania-town-into-chaos/

The impact data centers have on Georgia residents (and what can we do about it)

deflection from tredyffrin much??

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Murder suspect Steve Jahn

Tredyffrin Township at their recent supervisors’ meeting last week struck a hollow chord with me. Here listen:

Sorry, not sorry that was overly scripted deflection. People deserve answers. I have personal friends who all but for a weird twist of timing and fate would have gone through that exact same area at almost the same time so if it wasn’t Megan Nieberle who was murdered, it could have been one of my friends.

Or it could have been any number of people who live around there, right? For example, I won’t name the supervisor in Tredyffrin but there’s one that I know lives right in that neighborhood near where Megan Nieberle lived correct?

And let’s talk about Steve Jahn’s interactions with people and other police departments before shooting a nurse and MOM of three, ok?

There is a woman from Parksburg, who had a crazy interaction with this guy a couple days before this event. In Caln?

This lady Tiara could have been his victim just as easily as Megan became his victim. Tiara who was a victim of his erratic behavior wanted to press charges. That police department out there apparently just let it go and why? If somebody’s acting that erratically in a parking lot, don’t you even want to look into him for a hot minute?

https://6abc.com/post/chester-county-woman-details-encounter-suspect-days-before-killing-chop-nurse/18712460/

Here’s an excerpt from the written portion of the interview on 6abc‘s website:

“The officer didn’t want to pursue charges, they didn’t think it was going to go anywhere, and they kind of dissuaded me,” Tiara said.

She said police contacted her again Saturday morning and shared his insurance information, telling her he had also been hostile with officers.

“They wanted to let things lie, they said. So they’re the police, I agreed,” she added.

OK, then you add to that the fact that police encountered him at the PNC Bank and Paoli before he forever took a woman away from her friends, family, coworkers, neighbors? Before he devastated her husband and children?

I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have even have put him in a holding cell? And I get that to 302 someone is not as easy as it used to be, but it’s still possible isn’t it? Sorry if I am not particularly sympathetic about what came out of the mouth of Tredyffrin officials at their meeting. I thought they would at least be more real. (And yes I get that they can’t talk about an ongoing investigation but it could have been a little less CYA sounding.)

And people got up and spoke, and they remarked also upon the fact that residents received no notification of this and why wasn’t an emergency notification issued before they arrested Jahn telling people to stay in their houses and keep the doors locked or on the lookout? Because at that point in time who knew where he was? And it was family members who turned him in, correct?

I’m not playing hindsight is 20/20 but in my opinion I think several balls got dropped here and a woman lost her life as a result.

And then there is something else that I’ve heard multiple times now and is any reporter going to hunt this down? It has been said he stopped in at Radnor PD as in their township building/station at some point before this all happened? Did that actually happen and what did Radnor do? And then there were the reports that appeared in the media already about people concerned about this guy’s mental health calling the police?

https://nbcphiladelphia.app.link/Zx3MOy8IK1b

Tredyffrin needs to do better than what they have offered thus far.

Megan Nieberle’s husband and children deserve better. Everyone deserves better.

This didn’t have to happen. I still believe that how many days later after this happened.

But Tredyffrin’s response? It’s like they were issuing platitudes so if they’re sued, they can say they care or something? Come on Tredyffrin. Put on your big boy and big girl pants. You can’t unring this bell and how you act going forward may determine a lot of things in this municipality doesn’t it?

Disappointed is the most polite term I can apply to what I saw at that meeting and I dare say residents want action here not platitudes?

Also, Steve Jahn’s hearing was postponed and after looking at the docket, it seems like he still doesn’t have legal representation. He also might not be mentally capable of going to court right now and of course, if that’s the case, I think the public deserves to know what’s going on don’t you?

I’m actually sorry to sound critical but what the hell happened and what is going on?

If you look at the docket, it looks like May is his next court date.

https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/Report/MdjDocketSheet?docketNumber=MJ-15102-CR-0000044-2026&dnh=xkRQzsvXWPtSFWs8AqSk9A%3D%3D

random acts of unnecessary violence
say her name, she’s not just a random murder victim: please remember megan nieberle.

PS what happened with the case below?

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/42020760/Major_v_TREDYFFRIN_TOWNSHIP

sometimes a no thank you means no…

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So I am what you call a BloomBox OG. I have literally been their customer since they started, which off the top of my head was around 2016.

https://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/bloombox-launches-in-lancaster-with-subscription-based-plant-delivery-service/article_bf41f6fa-632b-11e6-b4f7-8fc67e2a9618.html

Chase and David the owners who are now friends literally started with a small hoop house that I am pretty sure they made themselves. They delivered all the plants themselves at first. That’s actually how I met their dogs.

I want to say up front I have been a devoted and regular customer. I am not ever compensated in any way, shape, or form. Quality plants- annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, herbs, fruit plants, vegetables and more.

I love to garden, they have great plants at fair prices. And they deliver. I do know some of the wholesale nurseries in multiple states that they use, so I know what I am buying and it’s quality plant material not all juiced up with Miracle Gro. Have I lost a few plants over the years? Yes, due to deer, not them!

I have bought so many wonderful things from them. I have introduced friends and family in multiple states now to them. I have watched them grow from a one hoop house and a couple of vans operation to a multi-state business where they have a hub up in Lancaster County and another in Maryland. They are even growing some of their own plants now.

Last year they added a new arm of their business called Second Chance Plants. It’s an overstock and discount concept put into pop-up locations. They tried it out last year and it was such an enormous hit that this year. They have the regular Bloombox business and like a dozen of these seasonal pop-ups stretching through PA and MD.

I went to the one in Exton on Saturday because I was jonesing to look for plants. Gardening is a definite passion of mine, and I put a lot into my garden every year. So the Exton location is that the Exton Square, Mall in one of the parking lot. And since it’s essentially a dead ghost mall, there’s plenty of space. Of course if those developers would actually pay attention it shows you what people want and it’s not more condos townhouses and apartments is it? It’s things like this and a hospital isn’t it? (But I digress.)

This additional arm of their business is freaking amazing and the prices are amazing and the plant quality is literally like Terrain, but not the Molly Markup. I bought three trees and they had so much stuff and it was just the soft opening. They even had a tremendous selection of beautiful ceramic planters. They have the grand opening next weekend. I think it starts on March 20. You have to look on the website or their social media.

I never had the time to visit any of the pop-ups last year. And I’m really glad they moved them into so many areas this year.

One of the things that we are lacking around here now with the constant march no stampede of big box stores and the cost of renting space and what not is there aren’t as many plant nurseries. There used to be so many gorgeous plant nurseries around so to me this is welcome. I’m not saying there aren’t any nurseries, but they aren’t nearly as many as there used to be.

The guys from Bloombox have worked hard and they have done this on their own. They drive all their own social media. They have wonderful people who work for them I and all of their other happy customers celebrate their success. Their success means our gardens look better and better every year.

However, their success means people want to make a buck off of it, doesn’t it?

Enter my favorite fauxblicist and some shall we say rather pushy or interesting unsolicited now not so private messages to the BloomBox guys:

Good lord. Does this woman not understand not being freaking rapid fire pushy? Yes fauxblicist, no thank you after trying to ignore the ping ping ping of unsolicited messages is a no means no situation is it not? Or does she think that is a maybe?

Welp….it’s a no. I spoke with them.

You see they don’t need her mailing list.

They don’t need whoever she thinks are her followers.

They do their own work. And trust me when I tell you, they work hard.

Social media also isn’t something a small business needs to necessarily hire someone for. A lot of this can be done by yourself for your business or for yourself personally with just a little effort. And that doesn’t mean buying followers. It means connecting with your audience. It means posting about your business. It starts with baby steps.

And if your business needs more, then you hire a real professional, which in my humble opinion which I am allowed to have it isn’t someone who only shares on their own channels.

I would also like everyone to look at the timestamp. It’s really not polite to message strangers later in an evening is it, or do people simply not have boundaries anymore as far as social norms? Just like it’s rude to message too late (especially someone you don’t know), it’s also equally rude to message them so early isn’t it?

And all of this goes into the context of if she wanted a shot at their business and this is what she’s doing? Would you also message someone early in the morning as they’re getting ready to launch a soft opening of multiple pop-up locations over a couple of different states?

A more prudent person might’ve sent an initial message to say hi but then you let it sit and maybe follow up with another brief message a few days later, right? Kind of the wrong situation to lack impulse control wouldn’t you say?

But then again this is the woman who even made a write up and Bitchy Waiter once upon a time:

Worlds’s Most Desperate Blogger (and It’s Not Me)

And Philadelphia Magazine:

https://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2013/12/10/heres-get-restaurant-publicity-aroundmainline-com/

https://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2014/01/14/gawker-five-pr-tragedies-sarah-lockard/

Eater:

https://www.eater.com/2013/12/11/6315909/philly-blog-publisher-asks-restaurants-for-a-free-dinner

And Crossing Broad:

The Worst Blogger in Philly

I’m surprised she didn’t offer Bloombox boudoir?

And then there was the time when she went a little Rambo on a restaurant:

And another restaurant:

And then, of course she does this Easter bunny thing with this creepy costume. And she’s a made herself a public figure so I can have an opinion about the creepy, flat faced rabbit outfit. And no she’s not a furry, just seasonally a bunny. But then she post this recently about that jam:

Yeah….ummm… if somebody’s possibly bringing you somewhere to possibly be around their small children to entertain, they want to know you’re OK, right?

And when we’re talking about the email, I never signed up for her emails and I’ve been trying for I don’t know how many years to not get her emails yet there she is along with the other junk mail that covers nice topics like erectile dysfunction etc.

She’s a peach. A frenetic one….and that is being kind.

say her name, she’s not just a random murder victim: please remember megan nieberle.

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RIP Megan Morrison Nieberle

Her name was Megan Nieberle. CBS News released at first, so I am not breaking any confidences or being insensitive. She knew people that I’m friends with. I have known her name since this happened and I kept it to myself but now it’s out there along with an obituary.

She was a nurse at Children’s Hospital. she was a mom, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend. I could go on, but you get the picture.

https://www.murrayfuneralhome.com/obituaries/megan-nieberle

She was a victim of random violence.

And she was a nurse, a natural caregiver. I have so much respect for nurses and she was a children’s nurse. She was a local Chester County girl through and through, having also been a proud graduate of Henderson High School in West Chester.

I have no pity or empathy for Steve Jahn who shot her. Random acts like this make me quite run out of the milk of human kindness.

And while I also understand per the other media reports about how it’s hard to 302 someone. I really feel Tredyffrin should’ve tried harder and I really hate anything that sounds critical of law-enforcement because they have such a tough job and we’ve already lost someone in law-enforcement at the same time in Chester County….at the same hospital.

I will also note to everyone again that there is an official obituary at this point. This is it:

https://www.murrayfuneralhome.com/obituaries/megan-nieberle

There is also very rando stuff floating across social media. That is literally Clickbait that will probably infect your phone or your tablet or your computer. Please don’t click on them, but please do report those because they’re not being put out by the family. They’re being put out by ghouls.

Steven Jahn mugshot

So NBC10 and Deanna Durante said yesterday I think it was that Jahn’s friends were trying to contact police along with his own call Saturday a couple of hours before the murder of Megan Nieberle? NBC10 interviewed a couple different lawyers about it when I was a little confused about because I thought he was like education related law?

SteveChristianJahn-_Redacted.pdfDownload

Megan’s life mattered. This also could be any of us. I spoke to a couple of people who are my friends who are in and around Berwyn. Both of these friends of mine had been out around a similar time frame and almost went down that road close to that time when the murder was committed.

Life is a fleeting and fragile thing, indeed.

Now let’s go back to what people told police about this guy was being like, and was he not known to the police for past behavior?

Online there have been many people commenting about situations even from within their own families where the police took someone’s weapon, etc.

I don’t know what else to even say at this point. I didn’t know Megan, but this could’ve been any woman on a dark and often too quiet road. and my opinion remains that this maybe could have been prevented.

My heart goes out to her friends and family. I will remember her in my prayers. Heaven gained another angel, who is there way before she should be.

RIP Megan Nieberle.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home,
And may the land of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

random acts of unnecessary violence

https://6abc.com/amp/post/woman-killed-random-tredyffrin-twp-shooting-was-nurse-childrens-hospital-philadelphia/18705724/

https://people.com/man-allegedly-shot-nurse-after-telling-cops-people-following-him-11924583

https://www.chop.edu/clinical-staff/nieberle-megan-k

join residents and like minded souls to say NO to data centers monday, march 9 at 6 PM penn state great valley!

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#NoDataCenters

East Whiteland Township residents are ENERGIZED!

Join them Monday at Penn State Great Valley at 6 PM Monday March 9th for the planning commission meeting! Auditorium of the Conference Center at Penn State Great Valley, located at 30 East Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA 19355.

In addition to in-person attendance, the Township has arranged for the meeting to be livestreamed via the Township website. https://www.eastwhiteland.org/

Public comment for those unable to attend in-person may be submitted via email to bcarosello@eastwhiteland.org. Please submit comments by 12:00pm on Monday, March 9, 2026.

chester county is eternally curious isn’t it?

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Screenshot of a screenshot I
received yesterday,

Politics is often very interesting. And I’m not talking about what political persuasion someone is, but literally the political history of an area.

So like a year ago, we were all herded with the news that David Berman was the new CEO of Chester County. If anyone recalls my comments at the time, it was most simply put “why does Chester County need a CEO?”

So now I have another question based on curiosity research about a man I didn’t know anything much about. And the newspaper archives? They tele fascinating tale. This guy is literally a political survivor and has had quite a long career in the political spectrum starting in Chester County. In the late 90s, and according to an article on June 13, 1997 as the start date, he was the head of the Chester County Democrats for a while.

Yeah, for real. Why did nobody talk about this when he came to Chester County?

According to an archive article found that was written by Nancy Petersen for The Philadelphia Inquirer Chester County Neighbors Section when they had their wonderful Chester County Bureau on June 13, 1997 Byerman was elected head of the Chester County Democrats, defeating at that time a woman named Barbara Cooper. He was apparently elected to complete an unexpired term of someone named Shawn March. March was described at the time then as a single dad who had a new business who realized he didn’t have the proper amount of time to devote to being leader of the Chester County Democrats.

I will further note that the Inquirer article refers to the woman he defeated by the diminutive of “Bunny.” Yes, that of course means each major political party in Chester county has had a Bunny at one point in time. Bunny Cooper for the Democrats and former Sheriff Bunny Welsh for the Republicans. That has nothing to do with this, it’s just a Segway and the way my mind works about things. I just find interesting/amusing about politics in this county.

Anyway, given the historic shift in democratic politics for Chester County between the time Byerman was here last and recent past, why wouldn’t they say he was once ahead of the Democratic Party for Chester County? I mean when he left Democrats had little toehold basically, and when he came back, they’re running county row, right?

Chester County restructures administrative government, appoints first-ever CEO and COO

Seriously here’s the press release from the county in late 2024:

https://www.chesco.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1599&ARC=2315

Here are the screenshots of said press release in case it disappears off the county website like any information pertaining to him did yesterday:

I’m sorry I have a weird mind maybe but I don’t understand why they didn’t disclose to the public what he did in Chester County in the 1990s? Isn’t it important and isn’t it perhaps politically germane?

And yesterday they couldn’t get his information off the government website fast enough. One person I know remarked well you know this is interesting because you know how slow government works and they had him off the website lickety split, so what really happened?

Screenshot

And oh by the way, thank goodness for Internet archives because here’s his old bio page thing from the Chester County website:

So seriously, what happened? Speculation is running rampant across the county and neither the county, nor Mr. Byerman, would really comment to the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday- I think the phrase they used in the paper was that Mr. Byerman didn’t return a phone call for comment or something like that?

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/chester-county-ceo-david-byerman-20260302.html

Now what I said specifically, when he was first appointed is as follows (and I am quoting myself as of April, 2025):

So this David Byerman is the Chief Executive Officer of Chester County. Honestly, I’m still waiting for the explanation as to why a county government needs a CEO? I think it’s kind of silly and wasteful. There I said it out loud and NOW in addition to this they want to hire a CXO somebody told me that and I said what the F is a CXO so they sent me to Byerman‘s LinkedIn page. It’s a Chief Experience Officer. I mean talk about WTF. I have to ask is that an updated job title for Julie McCoy the Cruise Director from the love boat? is Disney opening a theme park in Chester County?

Doesn’t Chester County already have someone that does marketing and tourism etc.?

I have to be honest I think we need more money to go into certain services not fluff positions.

~ April 25, 2025

So I’m still waiting. And how did he come to be chosen by Chester County? and again if he was head of the Chester County Democrats, why didn’t they say so when he was hired? Sorry not sorry I’m just a little bit stuck on that because among other things it would’ve shown people a year ago that he had some experience here and he didn’t just merely live here for a while and go to grad school at Penn, right? Or, would that have raised other questions?

this is where I wish the Daily Local’s Michael Rellehan was still alive. He was obviously covering Chester County back then and he might’ve had answers to some of these questions, right?

And speaking of our local paper, there is no mention of this momentous thing that happened yesterday in our county as of yet. I imagine it’s probably because of the county is probably trying to figure out how they’re going to talk about this? And in my humble opinion, it’s always easier to stonewall the local paper versus a regional paper.

The last county centric article actually appeared yesterday morning:

Commissioner Josh Maxwell: Chester County is in a state of ‘transition’

Well, considering the date on this article was like 7 AM March 2 meaning yesterday, indeed Chester County is in a state of transition, yes?

So does that mean Chester county employees are going to get cost of living increases? Does that mean we will see money again for things like open space because have you heard it mentioned this year yet? Does this mean that voter services is going to get a new department head and Karen Barsoum will go back from once she came?

I will also point out an editorial that Byerman wrote for the Daily Local in August 2025:

Guest commentary: Chester County’s executive leadership team – built to ensure effective local government

An excerpt:

Taxpayers deserve a government that minimizes costs and maximizes efficiency. The surest way to achieve that is through strong, capable leadership. This week, as we welcome our new Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Megan Moser, Chester County has a fully staffed executive leadership team ready to deliver results.

Some have questioned whether adding a second deputy is necessary. In truth, Chester County is a $730 million organization with 2,600 employees. For an operation of this size, a CEO and two deputies is not a luxury, it is a responsible structure that ensures the job gets done.

When I was hired as a result of the county administrator recruitment last year, my application was for the same job title held by my predecessor. At the commissioners’ direction, my title was modernized upon my hire to chief executive officer, and the former deputy administrator title became chief operating officer….The title “CEO” may sound corporate, but in a government context I believe it simply means accountability. In business, CEOs maximize profits. In government, our “profits” are measured in impact: better services, more effective operations, and stronger communities. If we define success by the outcomes we deliver for residents, the analogy fits.

As CEO, I will lead with discipline, integrity, and a steadfast commitment to responsible stewardship of public funds. We all know that Chester County faces real challenges, fiscal and otherwise. Meeting them will require professionalism, expertise, and the ability to work across political lines. Whether we lean conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between, we should agree on this: a well-run county government, led by skilled professionals, benefits everyone.  As a nonpartisan CEO, I will work every day to realize this vision.

Found on Newspapers.com

It’s a pretty big editorial, but those are the things that stuck out to me. And yes, those are screenshots from a Nevada paper when he headed back there for work after being the leader of the Chester County Democrats. but I think context is important here, because I didn’t know he was ahead of the Chester County Democrats until I decided to look in newspaper archives to see if he was mentioned anywhere in the 1990s. and that was solely out of my own curiosity because it had said when he came back here that he and his wife had lived here in the 90s, but what did he do besides go to grad school? And that’s when I discovered what he had done… and more. He had also worked for a nonprofit. It looks like. Something called the Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities Program.

Found on Newspapers.com

Then I found some things he must’ve done while he was doing the whole Chester County Democrats thing :

Found on Newspapers.com

The Lancaster New Era doesn’t really exist today. It was one of two papers that merged to become the current paper out of Lancaster, PA. This paper operated in Lancaster, PA between 1923 and 2009.

Anyway, that article is about a Republican becoming a Democrat to challenge now retired Congressman Joe Pitts who was extremely popular and a Congressman between 1997 and 2017. When he retired, he was succeeded by Lloyd Smuckler who is sort of Trumpy.

Anyway, I just found that an interesting footnote in Byerman’s career and what once was part of Chester County politics. That congressional seat got redistricted. It was once known as the 16th I believe and it covered part of Chester County and now it’s the 11th and it has nothing to do with Chester County but back then it did. The other reason I found that interesting is another mention of someone who was a Republican, who didn’t necessarily want to become a Democrat, but did for political expediency if that makes any sense? That Robert Yorczyk, who is described as owning a printing business in Exton PA had been an unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate back when GOP was boss in the county, yes? Robert Yorczyk served as a member of the Downingtown Area School Board for 14 years until 2017 according to The Daily Local. He also served on the Uwchlan Planning Commission between 1993 and 2003, and around 2011 ran for Supervisor in Uwchlan. It appears that he was a Republican school board member, I don’t know that he was elected supervisor or not. These days he has Chester county in his rearview mirror and is enjoying. I hope a happy retirement in Georgia. Honestly, he seemed quite interesting so maybe he would have made a really interesting congressman back then?

Sorry, didn’t mean to go on the giant segue and down a rabbit hole. It’s just political history is very interesting and it forms a community at large.

So I guess my whole point is Mr. Byerman was part of that political history why wasn’t it brought up when he came back to Chester County?

After being ahead of the Democrats for Chester county, Byerman seems to have been in Nevada again for a bunch of years, which is apparently his home state. Then he seemed to pop up in Kentucky for a bunch of years. His tenure with his work in Kentucky ended when whatever contract he had wasn’t renewed.

Found on Newspapers.com

Then there was really nothing for a couple of years and then he popped up here in Chester County?

And now I mean, I think people naturally want to know why he and the county parted ways after a relatively brief tenure and kind of removed his whole presence from the county website save for some press releases so fast?

Will we ever know ? Will he ever give that interview? it’s all very curious. But then again a lot of things in Chester county these days are curious like why is Karen Barsoum still employed as the head of voter services? And who will be replacing the county solicitor everyone has heard is leaving? And I don’t recall the county saying why she was leaving do you?

Anyway, it’s a right regular Nancy Drew mystery once again, isn’t it?

it’s like project runway in chester county, right?

funeral dirge for an old house. r.i.p. breeze hill

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I was sent photos this morning. Look at that claw reach into the house? She’ll be dust in no time. Or it might take them a while, because these historic stone houses were so well built.

I remember standing there with tears running down my face in front of the gates of La Ronda in Bryn Mawr as that was torn down years ago taking photos. Through the tears that day I had some amusement because her stone walls were so well built, it took time to tear them down.

This is so sad and heartbreaking. I am also told they are in that little field around back on this property and there’s a little spring house or something and there’s some kind of fencing there. Who knows if they’re putting the fencing up around the perimeter and who knows if the little springhouse will survive in the end, shall we start the odds on the tree out front?

RIP “Breeze Hill” at 400 Leopard Road. This house was constructed by Joseph W. Sharp for his younger sister, Rachel.

By 1857, Joseph was so successful in business that he had a imposing Victorian house built and thus the country estate “Hawthorne,” which has been restored and is located today at 521 Leopard Road in Berwyn, just down the street from Breeze Hill.

He was the first gentleman to commute from Berwyn into Philadelphia each day utilizing the newly-constructed “Main Line” train, and was a partner in what eventually became Hajoca Corporation, an early leader in the nascent indoor plumbing industry.

In 1865, Joseph married Sidney Serrill Bunting. Oral family history indicates that Sidney and Rachel did not get along well, so Joseph commenced the construction of Breeze Hill (so named for its location and the presence of a refreshing breeze during this non-air conditioned era) for Rachel some time before his wedding. As the home was on the Sharp family property, it didn’t receive its own separate deed when built, but was shown on Pennsylvania Railroad maps dating to 1873.

Rachel Sharp and other family members lived at Breeze Hill until 1888, when Joseph Sharp’s eldest daughter, Mary Bunting Sharp, married William Morris of Villanova in 1888, the young couple moved into Breeze Hill, where they lived until 1942.

Joseph Sharp and his wife subdivided Breeze Hill from their larger property and deeded it to their daughter for “$1 and her natural love and affection” in 1901, when it became legal for a married woman to own property in her own name in PA

To be fair, someone who has seen the plans for the new house I guess on Easttown’s website said that the little spring house will survive, but the garage which had been a stable will not. Now, if I was doing a new build on this site, I would actually see if an architect could incorporate the old stable section somehow into the new design- it could be accomplished.

I will also note again that I didn’t think the place was salvageable after the second fire. Especially with all of the time she stood open to the elements. Which couldn’t be helped because of the ensuing investigation. And that’s not pointing a finger at anyone. If you know anything about insurance work when it comes to arson, it takes a long time. If people add a public adjuster, it can take longer because that person is yet an additional layer.

I was a little surprised that the fencing came down yesterday and yet this started a little while ago. It’s a good thing no one tried to go in it while the fence was down overnight. I will also mention a certain wanna-be influencer posted about this house like they actually know from historic preservation with their McMansion mindset, which I found endlessly amusing, don’t you? But hey, for people like that it’s all about the clicks isn’t it? But oddly, I am told they did not allow comments on this post about an old house being torn down, which doesn’t even make any sense does it?

I hope the fire bug is happy. Yeah I know that’s a little obnoxious, but what happened here didn’t need to happen, did it? This was a historic asset and it was quirky and cool and it had lots of local history and now it’s just dust.

It didn’t have to become just dust.

400 leopard road in berwyn is becoming but a memory…with no court resolution yet.

will the lifetime movie version be called bad brit and her daddio?

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Yep, it is like a bad Lifetime TV movie, only it is real. I had heard about this at the beginning of the month at some point, only nothing came of it…until yesterday when NBC10’s Deanna Durante broke the story:

Dammmmmnnnn, it was fact, not fiction.

So let’s discuss: an elementary school age basketball team. 2nd grade I think? Like that is barely above pee wee. Were the bookies hot on these little people match ups or something? Do adults have so little control at kids’ games that it becomes this horrifying gaper delay watching scenario?

I am told the way this works for the Malvern Basketball League is you enter the league with an entire team. A lot of basketball recreation programs you enter just your child —pay the fee and then a coach is assigned to you. With Malvern, you pay the whole fee for a team of 10 and enter all the kids as one team. So are the “coaches” vetted like anyone else even volunteering in schools these days?

So this news has gone international:

https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/youth-basketball-coach-her-father-212937972.html

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/pennsylvania-basketball-coach-arrest-b2927682.html

It’s headed across the state:

https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2026/02/coach-dad-attacked-other-teams-coach-wife-after-pa-2nd-graders-game-police.html

Etc..

https://hoodline.com/2026/02/sideline-shock-in-rosemont-lower-merion-coach-dad-nabbed-after-second-grade-hoops-brawl

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/brynmawr/amp/33706053/fight-at-main-line-kids-basketball-game-leaves-3-hurt-2-charged-da

And they’ve gone tabloid:

https://nypost.com/2026/02/25/us-news/youth-basketball-coach-and-her-father-arrested-for-attacking-opposing-team

https://www.usmagazine.com/crime-news/news/kids-basketball-coach-and-dad-attacked-other-coach-and-wife-pa-police

Her mugshot is total Elvira face. Who taught her to do lip liner like the crazy babysitter of one of my sister’s elementary school friends years ago? (Yeah seriously, this woman would do lipliner when driving kids around and it went everywhere.) Someone on X formerly known as Twitter had this to say about pops who is a financial services professional – “toupee should be charged seperately” , making this all the more ludicrous meets Lifetime insane and where’s his chapstick???

Oh and better yet? Her sister was one of those “alternative” code for cuckoo school board candidates in Tredyffrin Easttown School District – she was the blondie “diversity” candidate because yeah that is so diverse, right?

Overall I just can’t with these people. This was a second grade basketball game. So that is what? 7 and 8 year olds?

When I was growing up it was the ice skating moms who I thought were the worst. I had friends who were competitive skaters so I used to watch the momzillas in action over at the Humane Society in Ardmore. They were vicious. To each other, to their own kids, to other people’s kids. Then as we aged and friends had kids playing baseball and soccer –wowza. Then of course there were the high school ice hockey parents in recent past. I remember being embarrassed how my friend’s son’s high school team (and parents) were treated in Great Valley a few years ago.

Amazingly this happens – see Staten Island recently:

People wonder why kids fight and bully in school? Look at the fine examples being set by the adults? Anger management, fines, long and humbling community service, and no more youth sports for the win.

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