Posts Tagged ‘damagnificent seven’

The Big Apple

Posted: June 20, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

For the first time in about a decade, I visited New York City. It’s a mess!

Although the city still has many sterling attractions, including museums, music, and sporting events, the Big Apple has hit hard times.

It reminds me of the 1990s when crime soared, racial tensions affected daily life, and the subways became a haven for crime and chaos.

Just before I arrived in town last weekend, a 34-year-old man was murdered on a subway near Union Square. That’s where I used to teach in the 1990s. Just after I left, a man slashed the legs of people on an East Side subway. I had difficulty sleeping because of the constant peel of police sirens, even in a relatively quiet neighborhood.

I spent about a dozen years in New York living and working on the West Side, which is generally considered a bit hipper and younger than the stolid East Side, where I stayed this past week to meet an old friend near the United Nations.

What surprised me on the East Side, which is generally considered older and wealthier, is how many restaurants had died from COVID. Many eateries closed, including McNally’s, a hangout for fans of the Mets and Buffalo Bills. Ironically, the locale is being turned into a healthcare facility.

Homeless people slept in the middle of the day on sidewalks across from the United Nations. I don’t remember the homeless situation being that bad when I lived in the city. However, a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that homelessness had soared in recent months because of massive increases in rent throughout the country during COVID.

What really surprised me was the amount of dog poop on the sidewalks. Back in the day, I remember loud arguments if people left poop behind.

New York was never particularly friendly, but it seems even less friendly now than I recall. Almost no one makes eye contact or offers a hello or good morning. In a diner where my friend and I had breakfast, the waiter wore a face mask and seemed more interested in our finishing our food to seat another party than serving us.

When Rudy Giuliani became mayor in 1994, he faced many of the same problems that exist today in the city. He focused much of his time on the “broken window” theory of fighting crime. This theory states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods target minor offenses such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and subway fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness. Giuliani’s adoption of the strategy made New York a better and safer place to live.

It may be too late for such an approach.

I realize many New Yorkers will find this post offensive, but I now understand why thousands of people have left the city to find kinder and quieter climates.

And that’s the way it was

Posted: May 2, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

When Fox settled its lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems and then ousted Tucker Carlson, my former colleagues in journalism recalled the “glory days” of Walter Cronkite at CBS News.

But were those days so good?

In a recent biography of Cronkite, Douglas Brinkley investigates some of the anchor’s antics on and off the television screen.

Following are some of the revelations in the biography:

–Cronkite cut a deal with Pan Am to fly his family to worldwide vacation spots. Together with a handful of friends, they traveled across the globe with Cronkite snorkeling, swimming, and drinking, thanks to a friend at the airline. CBS News President Richard Salant was upset at what he deemed a blatant conflict of interest but took no action against his star anchor.

–Cronkite secretly bugged a committee room at the 1952 GOP convention.

–Cronkite misled viewers about 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. On the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Cronkite nodded in thinly veiled contempt when handed a note on air that the Arizona senator had said “no comment.” Goldwater was attending his mother-in-law’s funeral that day.

“Whether or not Senator Goldwater wins the nomination,” Cronkite told viewers another day, “he is going places, the first place being Germany.” Although Goldwater had merely accepted an invitation to visit a U.S. Army facility there, correspondent Daniel Schorr said he was launching his campaign in “the center of Germany’s right wing.” 

–Although Cronkite and his fans maintained that the anchor kept his liberal views off the air, he met privately with Robert Kennedy in 1968 to urge him to run for president.

–After covering Nixon’s historic visit to China, Cronkite let loose with a night of partying in San Francisco. Cronkite and a colleague went to an infamous topless bar, and he was later spotted dining with a go-go dancer in a miniskirt and plunging neckline.

In reviewing the book, Howard Kurtz wrote: “Brinkley’s book will undoubtedly tarnish the Cronkite legacy. But my admiration for the man is only partly diminished. Perhaps it is too easy to judge him by today’s standards, any more than we should condemn Thomas Jefferson for owning slaves. Perhaps he simply reflected his times, when some journalists and politicians quietly collaborated, when conflicts of interest were routinely tolerated when a powerful media establishment could sweep its embarrassments under the rug.”

And that’s the way it was.

The battle lines in Pennsylvania

Posted: April 11, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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Amanda Oakley never thought she’d find the love of her life at her local Wawa. Still, there she was three years after meeting Bobby on a late-night hoagie run in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, after slipping away from her wedding reception.

As he planted a kiss, the wedding photographer captured the moment in the fluorescent glow of the couple’s favorite convenience store: Wawa.

The Oakleys are among those who favor Wawa over Sheetz, which has as many devoted fans.

Simply put, the debate over Wawa vs. Sheetz is one of the most heated among Pennsylvania fans and detractors—a debate that has just gotten fiercer since Wawa plans to take on Sheetz head-to-head here in central Pennsylvania.  

Both Wawa and Sheetz have roots as dairy farms dating back to the late 19th century. Wawa started as a small dairy-processing operation (in Wawa, Pennsylvania, outside of Philly), and the first Sheetz sprung from a family-owned dairy store in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles away northeast of Johnstown and three and a half hours from Philadelphia.

Wawa operates over 950 convenience stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Washington, D.C.

Sheetz has dominated most Wawa-free areas of Pennsylvania over the past few decades. According to its website, the chain operates approximately 650 locations across the Keystone State, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland.

Wawa brought in approximately $14.9 billion in 2022; Sheetz followed with $11.7 billion.

Sheetz and Wawa share many similarities. While Wawa places a focus on coffee and hoagies to pair with a more limited menu, both establishments offer made-to-order sandwiches on top of other convenience store goods, like snack foods and fountain drinks. Sheetz once stood out for its more traditional fried foods, but Wawa has recently introduced chicken sandwiches, quesadillas, and burgers. Many of the outlets offer gasoline and propane tanks.

“Wawa and Sheetz represent the best of the best in the convenience store world, and they’re a notch above the rest of the pack. Several notches, really,”  Donald Longo, editorial director of Convenience Store News told director Thrilllist.com. “Everyone else is playing catch-up.”

Wawa recently said it plans to build more than a dozen locations on Sheetz’s turf in central Pennsylvania.

Supporters on both sides are lining up.

“Sheetz is really just disgusting food, and it’s like fried garbage. You know Wawa has some good, fresh hoagies and genuinely good food,” said Aaron Out, a Philadelphia-based rapper who recently found local fame with his hazy ode to Wawa and its hoagies.

Rozwell Kid, a band from West Virginia where “the hills are peppered with Sheetz locations,” according to frontman Jordan Hudkins, wrote their own jingle for Sheetz, “I Pledge Allegiance to Sheetz.” A cheery, cheeky single, many adopted it as a battle cry for late-night Sheetz runs and served as a remembrance of the band’s own late-night stops.

Although I spent more than a decade in Philadelphia’s Wawaland, I admit that Sheetz serves up some tantalizing treats here in Muncy. Whatever the case, direct competition should also be good for operations and their customers.

Musings on Medicare

Posted: March 21, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

As the debate over the future of Medicare hits its stride during the upcoming presidential campaign, policymakers should look at the cost of Medicare Advantage plans as one way to save money.

Advantage plans are those run by private insurers rather than the government providing government payments for hospital care and physician costs. My plan also includes drugs, dental, and eye care.

Private plans have been an option in Medicare since the 1970s, but enrollment in private plans remained relatively low through the 1990s. Aside from changing the name of Medicare private plans from Medicare+Choice to Medicare Advantage (also referred to as Medicare Part C), the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 made significant changes that propelled enrollment growth. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 also made many changes that enhanced plan enrollment. As a result, about half of all seniors have a Medicare Advantage plan, or 30 million people, up from 11.5 million in 2010.

Unlike the government plan for Medicare, which costs me $170 a month, whether in the program or an Advantage plan, the private insurer puts money in my pocket to join.

The coverage costs me nothing other than the fee for Medicare. But there’s a lot more. My Advantage plan gives me a $25 monthly reduction in my Medicare payment or $300 yearly. The plan pays my YMCA membership of $43.10 monthly or about $500 annually. The program gives me a $500 debit card to use mainly for dental work and eyeglasses, and I get a credit of $25 a month, or $300 a year, for over-the-counter drugs and items like throat lozenges. All told, that’s $1,600 a year for just signing up.

I’m not exactly willing to give up these perks, but it seems the government has been awfully generous to the private insurers if they can entice me with all these goodies.

The government pays private insurers about $12,000 a year for people who sign up for Advantage plans—a number that has risen significantly in recent years. That allowance is where I think the government should reassess whether that’s too much money.

Although I realize my health is better than many seniors, I cost my insurer about $1,200 last year. I’ll bet there are more people like me in my county, which is the geographical area upon which the government payouts are based.

According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Lycoming County, where I live in central Pennsylvania, has seen better health since the 1980s. However, lung cancer and diabetes have increased somewhat.

I think various changes must be made to save Medicare, but I think a good hard look at Advantage programs and how they operate may be a good start without causing significant hardships to seniors.

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