Posts from — March 2010

A dear friend of mine who loves to skateboard, has given up his beloved hobby
Because he can’t afford health insurance.

“Dude I’m 42 and I can’t even afford basic health insurance, if something happens to me when I skate, I’m screwed! Even a broken arm can run ten thousand bucks!”

Another dear friend of mine, has to keep the same over-inflated insurance, insurance that runs maybe twice the norm because as an HIV positive person, he may well run up against the pre-existing condition clause should he try to switch.

I myself, after being abused by the system into paying 700 bucks a month for a lousy HMO, was sent a letter informing me that my rate would now be $869 a month for no reason other then the fact the my insurance company wanted more money, BLOOD, out of me!

So don’t try and sit there and tell me that passing healthcare reform that will get health insurance for my skateboarder friend, prevent companies from denying coverage to my HIV positive friend and prevent companies from gi-normous moolah hikes to me, is a bad thing!?

I watched the debates going well towards midnight last night, and felt disgusted with the Republican party. There is no way all the house repubs felt NO in their hearts, but they all voted NO to stop something that was good for the democrats.

Well it was also good for America!

And even though some of the democrats, a minority voted against it, and I wanted to shit on their heads, I also felt proud that the democrats had members, who unlike the republicans were morally strong enough to vote from their heart, not just their party.

This is a good thing.

Could it be better? YES
did I want more? Y ES
Do I want more? YES

Is it better than what we had, YES< YES< 32 million yeses to be exact

Oh my god I must be on mars
This is a good thing for crying out loud!
SHEESH!

Hi kids just spent the weekend in sunny (NOT) Pittsburgh
And here is what I have learned

Pittsburgh is an excellent place to visit if you say, have a big problem choosing between your two fave foods and said foods happen to be Pierogies and Pizza
Yes in Polish meets, Irish meets Italy Pittsburgh one simply orders a pierogie pizza with a pint of beer of course!

Now let’s say you really don’t have the hands or the plates to tackle a cheese-steak style sandwich with coleslaw and a side of fries, again Pittsburgh your dream town
offers a sandwich by the Primanti brothers that has all of the above inside the bread and oh, do ask for extra cheese whiz.

“It’s gross but delicious” said Nancy our lovely tour guide

Folks who know me, know I happen to love a nice salad with an order of fries, well in the land of the potato, I had it all; a Pittsburgh salad. This is a huge salad, covered in fries, topped with chicken, then topped with cheese and ranch dressing. It was the most sinful salad I’ve ever eaten.
And speaking of sin, there are so many ex-churches in this city that they often wind up being used for other things. One huge Cathedral was turned into the joint that served me the humongo French fry salad and where the altar was, now sits a giant brewery. Well honeys if you can’t worship god, you might as well worship a great micro-brew!

Beer is clearly an important part of Pittsburgh so much so that they held their St Patty’s day five days early on a Saturday so folks had a chance to recuperate before work on Monday. A good portion of the parade watchers were blitzed by 10Am thanks to another Pittsburgh tradition “KEGS N EGGS”!

When I asked Nancy what her fave part of Pittsburgh was, she responded the quirky quaint old town things like a place you can go to watch them make candy canes. Well we had a good dose of this when we passed what I thought was an animal clinic. It was in fact THE TEDDY BEAR HOSPITAL!

Yes if your little stuffed bear is feeling tattered it can be revitalized here.

We also had the delight of dining at a wacko little joint at which the proprietor decided that rather then put the place mats at our tables he would simply staple them to the walls!
He also served us a soup that I would not care to try again which was mostly mushy rice, cheese and tomatoes but hey it’s all an adventure.

The accent in Pitts is also fun. Like the phrase “Yinzers” which I think means something like “you guys.”

I had a little trouble adjusting to the cab drivers. The one who picked us up was friendly, clean, did not talk on his cell phone, let other drivers pass him and did not speed. It was downright irritating!

We adored the Andy Warhol museum and after having checked out the place-mat malls, teddy bear hospital and Yinzers bar, I figured out where some of Andy’s eccentricities might have come from. Did you know Andy had such a thing for taxidermy that he kept a giant stuffed Great Dane and a Lion in his collection.

Here’s a OH MY GOD part of the weekend. At the Warhol museum, you check your coats and nobody watches them and get this, NOBODY STEALS THEM!! My Gf J left her wallet in her coat and it was GASP still there, hours later!?

Just unreal.

Oh and three cheers for C, Nancy’s gal and a fantastic tour guide. My fave part was, “Oh yeah and there’s the park and the fountain. You can’t see them right now, they’re under water!”

So all in all Pittsburgh a great little city with a touch of New York edge and a lot of down-home cooking by way of Poland, Italy and Ireland and certainly, most definitely, a supremely excellent place to down a pint before noon.

Oh I forgot to mention the hot cakes- sorta like if a pancake and a crepe had a baby, covered in blueberries or filled with chocolate chips, Yinzers would love it!

Well I must say I sure did enjoy watching the hurt locker
And more notably Kathryn Bigelow kick the ass of Avatar
And more notably Kathryn’s ex husband James Cameron last night

Hey nothing against avatar I just have not been able to digest Cameron since his KING OF THE WORLD speech
Plus anyone who dumps Linda (terminator) Hamilton
Is an ID YAT!

I do really have I say I guessed all but 2 of the picks
Even best foreign film ..shocking the hell out of my GF who was highly impressed with me
Not so nearly impressed as I was with myself

Loved, jeff bridges winning after such a long great career
Loved Sandra bullock who I never liked before blind side and now adore

Loved Mo’ Nique who I never liked until I listened to her Barbara walters interview and found out she doesn’t shave her legs

So to James EGO Cameron I have this to say
Honey last night your ex wife was the QUEEN OF THE WORLD!
SUCK IT !!