| |
Jul
9
|
 |
You know, maybe it’s time to re-think this Pennsylvania government shutdown. First off, there’s that weird cartoon at right I found online. And how many times have I wished on this blog the Pennsylvania government would just shut down? I’m too lazy to check, but I know I’ve at least thought about it while writing about this lieutenant governor’s singing parrot.
Anyway, think about a Pennsylvania without government. Mark B. Cohen would have 100,000 posts on Phillyblog, Ed Rendell would just be a football analyst and Philadelphia could limit residents to one gun a month, which would end all murder. Libertopia!
But the Pennsylvania government will eventually go back to work, which means the above is will just have to remain a fantasy. It’s time to look at actual problems with the current shutdown — I’m sorry, a “furlough,” whatever that is. How will this person get her learner’s permit?
Outside one driver’s licensing station, University of Pittsburgh student Dandan Hong, 21, found out from security guards that she would have to wait to get her permit — the office was closed. She had been cramming for the test and leaves on vacation in two days. “I didn’t know about it until I got here,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get my permit.”
Clearly, she was planning on spending her vacation… uh… driving? In Pennsylvania with a licensed driver over 21? I don’t know. I don’t remember what it was like “cramming” for the permit test, but I do remember one of my questions had a photo of a stop sign and asked me to say what it was.
But it turns out the real losers here aren’t people who want to go to parks or people who are losing their paychecks. No, shed a tear for the casinos and racetracks, who are just really on hard times right now.
Bobby Soper, chief executive of Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, worried that his patrons — there are usually about 5,000 on a typical Monday — might not know the casinos were open. “The fact that it occurred at the 11th hour made it somewhat difficult to get the message out,” Soper said.
This is the worst thing to happen to Indians since the Trail of Tears.
Pennsylvania government partially shuts down [AP/CNN.com]
|
|
dmac | 1:39 PM | 3 Comments
|
Dec
19
|
|
• Remember Doylestown’s Justin Guarini, the guy with the ‘fro, the runner-up in Season 1 of American Idol? That’s him at right. Yeesh. [Go Fug Yourself]
• The Inquirer asks in a headline: Can city protect art treasures? (And in the subhead: “With the “Gross Clinic” affair nearing a conclusion, what other public or quasi-public works are at risk? What can - or should - be done about it?”) The answer: Uh, no. [Inquirer]
• The first casino, at Pocono Downs, is raking in the dough, about $400 per machine, almost double what was expected. Hurrah, hurrah. [Bucks County Courier Times]
• The Phillies signed Jayson Werth to a one-year deal today. Yeah, I don’t really think this means much, if anything. [Beerleaguer]
• Sara Sherr on Tower Records: “One woman came in over the weekend, and I felt sorry for her. She asked, oh so sweetly, ‘Do you have any nice music?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m sorry, we’ll never have nice music again.’” [Phawker]
|
|
dmac | 4:00 PM | 0 Comments
|
Dec
18
|
|
Sometime this week, the board overseeing casinos in the state of Pennsylvania will vote on which two proposals will get licenses in Philadelphia. And tomorrow, Philadelphia Park’s casino will open in Bensalem.
People, then, are paying attention to the Pocono Downs casino — the one with Blinky the Clown, who offers to come to your room and to balloon tricks — in hopes to learn some lessons from the Luzerne County attraction.
The Bucks County Courier Times‘ James McGinnis (who also introduced us to Blinky) writes about the popularity of the casino, calling it “one of the most exciting attractions ever to hit rural Pennsylvania.”
In addition to clowns, the casino features, uh, well, food-court style restaurants, two bars that seat up to 20 people and a rewards center where players can “cash in points for air purifiers, fleece jackets and kitchenware.”
And all of this is drawing 10,000 people a day. There really is not much to do up there in Luzerne County, is there? Well, except talk about Poland, since Luzerne County is the only one in the U.S. where a plurality of residents reporting Polish as their primary ancestry. (It’s true!)
Poconos casino attracts crowds [BCCT]
Dec. 14: Hopefully Philly’s Casinos Will Have Such Amenities
|
|
dmac | 12:07 PM | 3 Comments
|
Dec
14
|
|
Philly EDGE, whose streak of consecutive cute-girl covers is now at ∞, has a cover package on Philadelphia Park’s coming slots parlor and the already-open casino at Pocono Downs.
Bensalem’s Philadelphia Park — the former home of a horse who was way better than Barbaro, Smarty Jones — opens its casino on Tuesday, the 19th. (Or possibly the 21st.) The casino will offer “unlimited” free drinks from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week and will have a steakhouse that will only serve the “finest Prime meats,” according to the article by Sarah Baicker.
The accompanying article, by Bucks County Courier Times writer James McGinnis, details a trip to the Luzerne County casino, which has virtually nobody under 50, waitresses in Denny’s lookalike uniforms and features an exchange by a couple in their 20s/30s who said the casino isn’t what they expected, i.e. not dressy, no young people, etc. But, of course, one of them said they’d be back, since, well: “There are not a lot of other things to do around here.”
Well put. Although the old-people vibe of the Pocono Downs casino is a drawback for the younger folk, there still is reason to go. McGinnis describes the “entertainment kiosk,” which, well… read for yourself:
A kiosk offered six local attractions, including a clown named Blinky who “does hotels.” I called Blinky. Blinky offered to come to my hotel room and do balloon tricks. I considered hiring him.
Blinky the clown! My God, these casinos have it all.
Coining a phase [Philly EDGE]
|
|
dmac | 12:35 PM | 9 Comments
|
Nov
15
|
|
The wait is over! After 4.6 billion years without gambling in Pennsylvania (during must of that time, admittedly, Pennsylvania did not “exist” per se), our fine Keystone State finally has legalized slot machines!
Yes, the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs opened its doors at 10 a.m. yesterday, prompting a crowd of thousands to walk in its doors. Click past the jump to read just what went down with legalized Pennsylvania gambling, day one.
More »
|
|
dmac | 12:37 PM | 2 Comments
|
|
|
