Pointing Fingers

First off, this is our 600th post.

Woot!

We already know we're awesome,
but feel free to tell us again.




Okay, back to the Newk...

It turns out, the New Ken/Arnold school district has been flagged
for possible test cheating.

We are not happy about these allegations at all.

The Dept of Education lists 35 schools in Pa., that they say showed
answer patterns and erasures that make the results suspicious.

The tests they speak of were conducted in 2009.

Fort Crawford was named one of 13 schools in 09 as a national
Blue Ribbon school, based on the increase in average of the previous
scores.

Now those results are in question.

As well as many other things.

Jobs and salaries were determined by these scores, as well as additional
funding for the districts.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

But we are hopeful that everything comes back kosher.



Seriously... if we did that well, of course many answers will be the same.

Because the kids got them correct.






Meh.

We're tired.

Have a great Thursday.

Smoke Em If Ya Got Em

Being former smokers, we took an interest to the recent
trend of "loose tobacco" shops.

No, these shops aren't promiscuous.

They sell loose tobacco and rolling papers, and the taxes are
significantly less than a pack off the shelf.

From what we hear, a carton of name brand smokes costs nearly
$70 in our region.

A carton of self rolled snags?

That'll only cost you about $27.

And some of these places even have a big ol' rolling machine that
spits out your squares like you just hit the jackpot at the Rivers Casino.

The fine people at these shops will even blend different tobaccos
to get close to the normal brand you smoke.

Not bad.

And not only are they cheaper, they just might be better for you.

Healthy cigarettes?

Not quite.

But they do have none of the over 600 additives put in store
bought smokes.



Now, lawmakers are getting pissy, because they don't want to
lose out on tax money.

God knows they can't afford a salary cut.

(Did you sense the sarcasm in that last sentence?)

So who knows how long these shops will remain in business.

But, for now, you can head up to Natrona Heights Plaza and smoke
to your heart's (er... lung's) content.

Back Back Back...

We are baseball fans, here at theNewk.

Last night was the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.

After we got done cleaning up branches and crap in our yard,
thanks to the storm, we cracked a cold beer and watched
some long-ball hitters.

We tried like hell to find a story to write about, but nothing
interesting jumped out at us.

So here is a story about one of our little league games from
many moons ago...



The score was 5-7.

We were on the losing side of that score.

It was the bottom of the 5th, and the bases were jacked full of Eagles.

Our fearless leader, who was already 3-3 for the day, with 2 dingers
already under his belt was at bat.

The pitcher had a look of fear in his eyes, the likes of which had never
been seen at the Valley 4-fields.

And the catcher had bubble guts, something fierce.

Not only could he hear the rumbles of the catchers belly, he caught
a whiff or two of some nerve ridden stinkers.

Knowing they didn't want to walk a run in, they decided to pitch
to the NK All-Star.

That was not a good idea.

The first pitch he saw got smoked over the right field fence and
into the creek.

As #21 trotted the bases, the catcher's stench was blown off along
the base paths.

As he crossed home plate, he got a smile and a wink from his
proud father.

The final score was 9-7.

And the team got taken to dairy queen on Freeport Rd.


Now that... was a good day.





We love baseball.

Random Picture Monday (07-11-11)

Biff Never Dies.

Have A Great Weekend

Rough night + Long day = This post.

Nobody said we were perfect...



Actually, we may have said that a bunch of times.

Is It Worth It?

We saw some numbers from local municipalities, talking
about how many fireworks citations were given out
over the 4th.

Leading the way was Harrison (Natrona/Heights) with 20.

Their number was likely higher due to a house catching on
fire last year due to fireworks.

Coming in second was Tarentum with a solid 7.

Well done to them.

Oakmont had 3 complaints, but the suspects fled the scene
before the police arrived.

Brick roads make for slow driving.

Washington Township had no complaints, and no citations.

Boring. Pfffftttt.


Arnold, New Ken and Lower Burrell have not released any figures
as of yet.

But if the Newk cops were citing people, it wasn't hard to find em.

Rockets were whizzing by our windows till well in the morning.

Not that we're grumpy old codgers.

We liked them actually.

We're just saying.


We were safe though, cause we had our sparklers going.

Yeah, we're badasses.


Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weed And See... Ya

It looks as if the money for the Weed and Seed program
has dried up like some old chronic.

The program that was helping clean up violent crime and
drug sales in the Newk started back in 2002.

It has resulted in thousands of arrests, and taken many drugs
and guns off of our fair streets.

But the fight to get funding back is long from over.

Mayor Guzzo is planning on fighting for those funds to be restored.

And we are in his corner, if he were to need a little extra muscle.

And we mean little, cause we aren't nearly as
powerful as we'd like to think we are.

We hear State Rep. Evankovich is also on the case.


We fully believe this program has help the city.

We would like it to continue.

Maybe we should all write the governor?

Whirlwind Weekend

Seriously, it's Tuesday already?

What the hell happened to the weekend?

We remember having fun.

But that's about it.

We also remember our neighbors blasting off fireworks
until about 2:13am this morning.

But we didn't mind at all.

We don't mind at all that our neighbor's son rides a beat up
girls bicycle, but they have enough disposable income
to light up the sky like the, well... Fourth of July.

Maybe you'll get that new bike next year, Tommy Jr?


We really aren't feeling all that great today, so we're gonna
wrap this thing up for today.

We hope you had a great holiday.

Email us some pictures of your party.

We'll post em for everyone to enjoy.








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HB, A!
29 ain't so bad.



GL, C.

Random Picture Monday (07-04-11)

Happy 4th!

Long Weekend

We are taking a long holiday weekend.

We have tons to do.

Most of it involves drinking of some sort.

We got started last night.

We don't feel great at the moment.

We'll talk to you soon.

Be safe.
Have fun.
Don't blow off any of your fingers.




Happy 4th!





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Those of you waiting for your Biff shirts, they should be
there today.

Thanks again!