It's Really Quite Simple

 All I want is a guy exactly like George Clooney.

Is that too much to ask?

And They Say Women Are Hard to Figure Out ...

 I was going to post about how great it was to spend some time with The Best Friend. 

But he ruined it.

The lunch and dinner and drinks and saying goodnight were all good.

But four days later, I'm pissed.

Our class reunion is coming up and he's in charge of the DJ. He told us to pick 5 songs and he would pass them on. My choices were 1) September - Earth Wind & Fire 2) Piano Man - Billy Joel 3) Paradise by the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf  4) Anything by Elton John because I couldn't possibly pick just one 5) Any song that makes you want to slow dance with me.

His response was along the lines of he wasn't sure I wanted to dance with him because he hasn't danced in a long time and he may have forgotten how. 

Translation: We're not dancing together at the class reunion, Anne.

Well, we're not doing anything else either, bucko.

Desiderium

 

I assume just plain California Bloggin' was v1.

V3 was non compos mentis.

V4 was excited utterances.

Can't, for the life of me, remember what v2 was.

Alex-isms Part II

 As I was going through this blog looking for something I found this post about my nephew's Captain Obvious-like tendencies. I shared this post: "http://annesutterances.blogspot.com/2007/08/airplane-like-alex-isms-my-nephews-is-6.html"> with my sister and she sent me yet another Alexism.

He came home from school one day and told her he lost his jacket. She asked, "How could you lose y our jacket?" He said, "I put it somewhere that I don't remember."

He's one semester away from getting his degree in education. His future students are in for a treat.

Judith and Birthdays

 Yesterday was my co-worker Judith's birthday. At some point during the day we were talking about the day she was born and some things her mom told her. That reminded me of a story my mom told me about my Aunt Mary:

Early in her nursing career Aunt Mary worked in the maternity ward of a big-city hospital. At that time there were a lot of abandoned babies. She loved the name Judith so that's what she called all the girl babies. She never had any kids of her own but there are a lot of Judiths out there who have her to thank for their name.

Speaking of birthday's that were yesterday:

One of my besties turned 60. I always think of her as so much younger than I am, but it's actually only 2 1/2 years. *shrug*

GSG's son, who also happens to have a great smile. 

This is my Year in Review from 2006. Don't know why it was in "drafts," but I figured I might as well publish it now.

On April 2, when we ran a three-sentence story about a man who escaped from jail and could possibly be heading toward an Indian reservation, we didn't know that story would dominate the rest of the year.

In fact, the story of Ralph “Bucky” Phillips that started in the spring just ended, for all intents and purposes, last week.

Between the time of Phillips' escape from the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden and June 9, people throughout the Twin Tiers reported seeing the fugitive. He was reportedly in a Bradford restaurant and stole a pickup truck from Limestone. But on June 10, the search heated up when Phillips shot New York State Trooper Sean Brown during a traffic stop near Elmira.

Phillips sightings became more frequent and, several times, law enforcement officials thought they had him cornered. The fact that he seemed to be staying one step ahead of police turned him into a somewhat of a folk hero in some circles. T-shirts and blogs in support of Phillips popped up. One Chautauqua County restaurant even introduced the Bucky Burger -- but it could only be ordered “to go.”

But as if shooting one state trooper wasn't enough to make people realize there shouldn't be anything funny about the search for an armed and dangerous fugitive, on August 31 two more state troopers were shot while doing surveillance near the Chautauqua County home of Phillips' former girlfriend, Kasey Crowe.

That's when New York State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett entered the picture.

sound

Trooper Jospeh Longobardo died three days after the shooting.

funeral sound

Baker spent nearly three months at Hamot Medical Center in Erie before being transferred to Albany Medical Center, closer to his home, where he is still continuing his recovery.

In a story you heard here first, we learned that guns stolen along with the weapon used to shoot the troopers were found in the Ludlow home of Todd Nelson, and that Phillips had been at Nelson's home for several days.

Then, on September 8, we learned that after Phillips had stolen two cars in Warren County, police had him cornered on the state line between Chautauqua and Warren counties. Reporters from all over New York State, Pennsylvania and as far away as Massachusetts converged on the village of Carroll, New York. Even CNN showed up. W-E-S-B was the only local media outlet on the scene when Superintendent Bennett gave his first press conference of the day.

anne sound



About 8 hours later, Phillips surrendered to Pennsylvania State Police in a Warren County field. In November, he pleaded guilty to shooting all three state troopers as well as the prison break that started the ordeal.

But, about a week before his scheduled sentencings, Phillips said he wanted to withdraw the guilty pleas, claiming that he only entered them so charges would be dropped against Crowe and their daughter, Patrina Wright, who helped him elude police during his 5 months on the run.

Judges would not allow him to withdraw the guilty pleas and, on December 19 and 20, he was sentenced to -- all together -- life plus 105 years in prison. He was taken from Chemung County to an undisclosed correctional facility, in shackles, escorted by nine state troopers.


Although Bucky Phillips dominated the news for most of the year, much more happened.

In fact, Trooper Longobardo was not the only person in uniform who died this year.

Master Sergeant Thomas Maholic died in the line of duty while serving in Iraq. His memorial service drew national attention when, as you heard here first, the Westboro Baptist Church made plans to disrupt the service. Members of the church travel around the country protesting at military funerals saying that God is punishing America for its views on homosexuality by killing military personnel.

In the end, however, the six members of the church who did travel to Bradford for Maholic's memorial service were merely an annoyance, and soon forgotten. Hundreds of community members, as well as the Patriot Riders motorcycle group, shielded Maholic's family and friends from the protestors.

funeral sound

Another veteran passed away this year. To many in Bradford and surrounding communities, Vince Goodrich personified the word “patriotism.”

Dr. Edward Konwinski had this to say about his friend.

konwinski sound

Bradford lost two more prominent veterans -- who were also Bradford City Police officers.

Both Tim Davis and Dan Close died of cancer.

either roger or carl sound




And, speaking of veterans, the Vietnam Moving Wall made a stop in Smethport this summer. David Peterson filed this report.

NWC1630



As in most years, politics made news, too.

We could definitely tell this was an election year as politicians vying for state and national positions swarmed into the area.

Senator-elect Bob Casey didn't make it to Bradford, but he did visit Smethport. The man he defeated in the general election, Rick Santorum, did visit Bradford, making a stop at Beacon Light Behavorial Health Systems.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann challenged Ed Rendell for the governor's seat. Swann toured the Zippo factory and stopped at the Zippo/Case Visitors Center.

swann sound

Rendell stopped at Werzalit -- with a big check.

rendell sound

As election day drew near, people were concerned about how the first general election using new electronic voting machines would go. While other parts of the state had problems, everything went smoothly in McKean County.

Senator Joe Scarnati wasn't up for re-election this year, but the fall-out from the legislative pay raise controversy, along with the voters' call for reform in the Legislature, got him a new position in the senate when longtime President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer was not re-elected.

scarnati swearing in

Scarnati is now third in the line of succession for governor, behind Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll. We were the first local media outlet Scarnati spoke with following his election.

scarnati

He says his new position in the Senate means only good things for his district and his constituents.







Locally, Bradford City Council saw some changes. Tom Riel officially took his seat as a councilman. Tom Shay, who was re-elected, resigned to take a full-time position with the city. Ross Neidich, who was defeated in last year's general election, was named to replace Shay.

And, because 2007 is an election year for two council members, the game of musical chairs may not be over yet.

But council members themselves weren't the only news coming out of city hall. One of the biggest issues they dealt with, and are still dealing with, is feral cats.

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Hearings on the issue are spilling into the new year.



Something else that will continue into the new year is clean-up of hazardous material spill into the Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek.

In another story you heard here first, 16 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed near Gardeau, spilling more than 40 thousand gallons of sodium hydroxide.

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The Department of Environmental Protection has ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the area.


Bradford Regional Medical Center brought us good news and bad news this year.

Earlier this month, hospital officials announced that staff hours would be cut because of budgetary concerns.

On a more positive note, B-R-M-C entered into an agreement with Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

the expansion project is moving ahead.


In other construction news, work on the Route 219 Bradford Bypass got underway.













In education news, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford set new attendance records this year.

Here's university president Dr. Livingston Alexander.

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Limestone residents joined together earlier this year to save their school -- and they did.

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The lack of snow at the end of December is just one sign that the weather was wacky this year.

Remember this?

compilation of mike sound

This is what News 4 Meteorologist Mike Cejka had to say about this year's weird weather.

new mike sound





And, Bradford celebrated a big anniversary this year. American Refining Group's Bradford Refinery has been in existence for 125 years.

C-E-O Harvey Golubock.

harvey sound

And, to end our News Year in Review, we have the Bradford Blues Brothers singing The Story of Brad Penn.


brad penn song

With Frank Willliams, Greg Pistner and David Peterson, I'm W-E-S-B News Director Anne Holliday.

Weird Dreams

 It's been 11 months since I posted. I cannot believe it's been that long. No, not that since I posted because I've gone longer than that. Eleven months since GSG passed away. Man, do I miss him! 

I've had a few dozen dreams about him since he died. Every one has been good, with some way better than others. They all bring me comfort. Maybe I'll blog about them someday. Maybe I'll catch up on how things developed between us, too.

Anyway, the GSG dreams are not the ones that are weird that I was planning on posting about today. This one was last night:

I was in Mass at my home church (which is not my regular church) and it was time for the "sign of peace." It lasted forever because people were going up and down and across the aisles to shake hands with everyone. They were smiling fake smiles and having a grand old time. At one point this guy from my transitional job (more on that some other time, too) was running up and down the aisles glad-handing people and grinning the whole time. I thought it would never end. But it eventually did and that's when the priest called this singing group up to the altar. One of my friends from high school was in the band and she was going to sing. I didn't even know she could sing. 

That's when my backup work alarm went off and I woke up. I don't remember turning the regular work alarm off. I must have been more tired than I thought. 

Great Smile Guy

 I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd posted here. 13 years! Appropriate number, I guess.

Well, there's no other way to say this: Great Smile Guy died yesterday. He was only 67. 

I didn't have words yesterday, only tears. Tears I tried to hold back at work, where I read his obituary for the first time. I was fairly successful. Tears that I tried to hold back on the drive home because I needed to see. Tears that wouldn't stop for hours after I got home. I had a hard time falling asleep. Couldn't stop thinking about him. More tears. But today I have words. Here's what I tweeted:

Happy Birthday
Shell!

Well, Well, Well

I really have nothing to say, believe it or not. I just kinda miss my blog, but I have nothing to blog about. Oh, I suppose I could vent about drivers around here getting worse. It seems that cars in this area don't come equipped with turn signals anymore. And, I guess if there's no "left turn lane," we just create one. I mean, if there's room for one, why not? Right? I think there's another new rule I don't know about yet. It's the one that says if I have a yellow light, the guy who has a red light is allowed to go. Makes sense. His light is going to turn green soon anyway. That reminds me of when I was sitting in the DMV waiting to get my new driver's license photo taken. A teenage girl had just finished taking her written test and as she was walking back to sit with her mother she said, "I didn't think you had to memorize the whole manual!" I gotta give her mother credit. Instead of making it the DMV's fault, like so many parents would do these days, the mother said, "I told you so." Yeah kid. What did you think? You only had to know the important traffic laws? Anyway, I'm not even going to get into people who forget how to drive when they see a snowflake.

I could write about weird dreams, too. I never realized being on an anti-depressant would make my dreams so wacky. Holy crap! But there's was this one I had about 10 days ago that freaked me out -- not when I woke up, but several hours later. This guy and I were talking about the new job he'd just gotten and, although we really didn't talk about it in the dream, I knew that the only way he could have gotten that job is if another person died. (The person was fighting cancer.) Well, when I woke up I wasn't really freaked out because it was actually a good dream, except for the unspoken part about the person dying (but this was a good person who's probably in Heaven, so maybe that's why I wasn't freaked.). I was going to tell my mom about the dream, but then I thought if I talked about it I'd be kinda tempting fate or something. But, apparently, it didn't matter because about 8 hours later this person died.

Good thing I couldn't think of anything to say, huh?

There's somebody I haven't seen in person for almost 2 months and I'm going through withdrawal. Thank goodness for TV and cell phones.