Bob Ciminel lives in Roswell, Georgia and has been employed in the commercial nuclear industry for the past 35 years.  Although a native Californian, Bob considers Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania his home.  Bob became a Southerner while serving with the Navy in Charleston, South Carolina, where he met and married Alice, his "Carolina Girl," in 1971. Contact Bob at: ciminel@sitnews.us

Fixitupus Interruptus - Here I am ensconced in a new apartment in Lynchburg, Virginia, only 900 yards from a brand new Home Depot with nothing to fix. - More...
Sunday - October 07, 2007

Goofing Off - It has been over a month since my last article appeared in Sitnews. I know many of you probably appreciate that, but there are one or two readers who actually look forward to my articles. I offer the lame excuse that I've been living out of a suitcase since mid-April. The wife and I took a long awaited vacation to Switzerland in April, and I came back to spend two weeks in Kansas on business. The trip to Kansas did have fringe benefits as I was able to spend a weekend with our newest grandchild in Council Bluffs, IA. - More...
Monday - May 28, 2007

Things I Don't Care About - I don't care how Anna Nicole Smith died or who fathered her daughter. I don't care what Sean Penn thinks about George Bush. I don't care that the Justice Department fired eight Federal prosecutors, just like I didn't care that Bill Clinton fired 92 of them. Heaven knows we can always find more lawyers! - More...
Wednesday AM - April 11, 2007

One Thing About Trains . . - I received an email recently from one of my two loyal readers asking when I was going to write another article about the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, which used to be my home away from home before my company put me on the road. Case in point, I just came back from three wonderful days in Minnesota where I had the opportunity to experience a blizzard. You know, I'm almost positive that when I hired on with my company I distinctly told them that I did not want to go north Interstate 40 in any month with an "R" in it. They must have forgotten. - More...
Wednesday - March 28, 2007

Give Me That Old Time Religion - Please! - A couple of weeks ago I attended a christening at a Presbyterian church near downtown Atlanta. From the size of its parking lot, this church had a large congregation. Of course size is relative, and this house of worship was small compared to the Southern Baptist church out where I live. It has a parking lot that would put some shopping malls to shame. - More...
Sunday AM - February 25, 2007

An Honest Mistake - When I proposed to my wife in December of 1970, she had just stepped off a plane from Germany. I know she was suffering from jet lag because she said, "Yes." I thought I'd have to get her drunk first. - More...
Thursday PM - January 04, 2007

The Best Defense . . . . Following the Atlanta Falcons' 31 to 13 loss to the New Orleans Saints last Sunday, quarterback Michael Vick was fined $10,000 by the Nation Football League for making an obscene gesture (one half of a peace sign, both hands) to the home team crowd. Michael was given the option of donating half of the fine to the charity of his choice. - More...
Tuesday PM - December 05, 2006

Giving Thanks - As we drove south from Atlanta this past Thursday, traffic on I-75 was heavy. The right lane was filled with 18-wheelers, so my wife, who was driving, tended to stay in the far left lane. We took an exit and she bought a cup of coffee to help shake off the late afternoon drowsiness; I bought a bottle of soda because I planned on napping while she drove the 60 miles to Macon where I would take over. - More...
Monday AM - November 20, 2006

The Wrath of Alice - My first clue was when she fired our lawn crew. It made no sense; for the past year she's been saying how nice the yard looks. Why did she fire them? She said she wasn't sure the Hispanic workers were in this country legally. They didn't speak English; the lawn service company would not confirm or deny their status. So Alice fired them. I told her she could start mowing, edging, and trimming because I didn't care if they snorkeled across the Rio Grande with a broken Tequila bottle in their mouths as long the yard looked good and I didn't have to do it! - More...
Wednesday - November 15, 2006

The Broken Circle - After two weeks in Colorado, it was refreshing to return to Atlanta and look at unspectacular scenery for a change. The Piedmont Plateau is decidedly less impressive than the Front Range, and the North Georgia Mountains are mere bumps on life's scenic highway when compared with the San Juan Mountains. - More...
Monday AM - October 16, 2006

North Korea Enters the "Nuclear Club." Now, They Must Pay Their Dues - Having spent a good portion of my early post-adolescent adulthood pushing 16 nuclear-tipped, submarine-launched ballistic missiles around the Mediterranean Sea, I can attest to the fact that, if it already wasn't, Pyongyang, North Korea now has a plethora of computer-calculated crosshairs squarely over Kim Jong Il's presidential palace and any other building where he and his government may choose to park their sorry asses. Why any country would envy being in that position is beyond me. - More...
Monday - October 09, 2006

Another Nail in the Coffin - Would The Last Corporation Leaving California Please Turn Out the Lights? No. Wait. They're Already Off. - More...
Tuesday - September 05, 2006

The Unreality of Reality - I hate to admit it, but I have not watched a single episode of "Survivor," nor any other reality-based program. I guess that's what happens when you live in the eddy and not the mainstream of life. Truth be told, I don't watch any of the major network prime time shows. Lately however, and much to my wife's displeasure, I have been watching reruns of "CSI - Las Vegas." The computer graphics showing bullets and blunt objects destroying brains and vital organs has got to be the ultimate in voyeurism. CSI is not reality television. - More...
Monday - August 28, 2006

Flake on a Plane - The latest airline scare, not counting the bomb threat on a British airliner, involves a 59-year-old ex-Hippie from Vermont. (I swear the acid rain must be doing something to the maple syrup up there in New England because we are getting more and more crazies coming out of those states.) Virginia Mayo (I know that's not her name, but this is my article, so deal with it) kind of went a little crazy on a United flight from London to Washington, D.C. I'm not sure why someone from Vermont would fly to DC to go to Vermont. Maybe she needed the frequent flyer points? In the end, it worked out well because the plane landed in Boston, which is closer to Vermont than Washington. (I wonder if she knew that?) - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

SPEAKING IN TONGUES - Let's face it; I'm not a religious person. Oh, I started out on the right path, but I forgot my GPS and lost my way - over and over again. Now don't get me wrong; I am not a bad person. I've never been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, and I've never seen the inside of a jail - you can't do that and have a 35-year career in the nuclear industry, thank God! Fortunately, I married a fine Christian lady, who regularly attends church and prays for me. It must be working; I'm still here. - More...
Sunday - August 13, 2006

Ah, Sweet Humidity! - I've just returned from a road trip to my old stomping grounds along the Mississippi north of New Orleans. I haven't been there since 1996. I wasn't expecting to see a lot of changes. The beauty of southern Louisiana is that change rarely occurs. It is, as one pundit put it, "200 years of history unmarred by progress." If you look at a map, you can see why; southern Louisiana is not attached to the continental United States. At least nothing south of Baton Rouge! - More...
Sunday - July 23, 2006

Lug Nuts - Today's story is about lug nuts. You know, they're those little things that hold the wheels on your car. If you've got wheel covers, you've probably not seen your lug nuts, but they're still there. - More...
Sunday - June 11, 2006

Maturation - I can't put it off any longer; I finally have to admit I'm getting old. It's tough because most people who know me don't believe I'm going to be 61. I didn't believe it either, so I looked at my birth certificate just to be sure. Yep, it was right there on that officially sealed piece of paper. I was born on May 29, 1945 at the Muroc Army Air Force Base hospital (now Edwards AFB), off of Route 66 in the Mohave Desert of California, home of "Twenty Mule Team Borax." - More...
Friday - May 19, 2006

Sometimes, We Get It Right - What do an abandoned coal mine and a nuclear power plant 75 miles away have in common? The answer is water. - More...
Tuesday AM - May 09, 2006

Brakeman's Weather - Wednesday, February 20, 2002, dawned cold and rainy in north Georgia. I was up at 5 a.m. for the one-and-a-half hour drive north to Blue Ridge where I would meet Carl, the Georgia Northeastern Railroad engineer I would be working with that day. I had taken a day off from my full-time job in Atlanta to work on the weekly "log train" the GNRR sent from Blue Ridge to Tate, 42 miles south. - More...
Monday - May 01, 2006

What Happened to Quality? - When I was a youngster, my mother used an old Maytag wringer washer to do the family laundry. If you don't remember wringer washers, or have never seen one, here's a picture. And, no, that's not my mother; she was prettier. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Drivers' Test - The traffic problems around Atlanta are monumental. I've been driving through Atlanta for over 30 years and have lived in the metro Atlanta area for 12 years, and it has only gotten worse with every passing year. Atlanta's roads and streets are in much better condition than most cities, and particularly cities in the northeast, because it is a young city, relatively speaking. Many of our most heavily populated areas only recently transitioned from dirt roads to paved roads, but not so much because of progress. It's difficult to sell land for $350,000 and acre and homes for $500,000 and expect people to drive around on gravel-topped red clay roads, particularly people who routinely drive through residential areas at 55 mph. - More...
Sunday - April 09, 2006

Don't Mess with Texas - I visited the charming town of Bay City, Texas earlier last month. Located on the eastern shore of the Colorado River, about 45 minutes southwest of Houston, Bay City is noted for its beautiful horses and fast women. - More...
Monday - April 03, 2006

Memories - As we age, we often spend more time reminiscing about the "good old days," which weren't that good, just different. I find the one thing today's environment lacks are the smells I remember from my days growing up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. They weren't all good smells, particularly the odors wafting from the stockyards and meat processing plants on Herr's Island on the west bank of the Allegheny River just upstream from downtown Pittsburgh. Today, Herr's Island is prime real estate, but when we drove past it on the way to visit family, Herr's Island emitted a sickeningly sweet smell of burnt pork. I still remember that smell. - More...
Saturday - March 25, 2006

Here's Looking at You Kid - Longtime readers of this column know that I am a big fan of the Allman Brothers Band as it existed in the early Seventies. Two albums, "Filmore East" and "Eat a Peach," to me, mark the band's highpoint. Once the band lost Duane Allman, after a tragic motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, it was never the same. True, Dicky Betts made a passable substitute on the slide guitar, but Duane was a virtuoso. - More...
Saturday - March 11, 2006

Immigrants - The sign shown in the photo is located in the Chattahoochee River Park, administered by Fulton County and the City of Roswell, Georgia. The park is located on the west bank of the "Hooch" about four river miles above the Morgan Falls Dam. The park is home to a huge flock of Canadian Geese. - More...
Monday - February 27, 2006

Been There; Done That; Didn't Get the T-Shirt - Back in the mid-Sixties when I was a twenty-year-old submarine sailor, the Navy Submarine Service had a tradition similar to those practiced by many fraternal organizations in those days. When a sailor qualified in submarines and was awarded his "dolphins," the metal insignia worn on the chest, he was expected to undergo a rite of passage known as "drinking your dolphins" the next time the ship entered port. - More...
Friday PM - February 17, 2006

Song of the South (with Apologies to Uncle Remus) - Longtime readers of this column know that my wife was raised in the South; her father's family once owned two large plantations, South Hampton and North Hampton, along the Sampit River near Georgetown, South Carolina in the heart of the Low Country. Alice and I have had a good life together, although we are complete opposites. Had my life taken a different turn and I instead married a steelworker's daughter from Pittsburgh, I would have never acquired a taste for cold beets, sliced cucumbers in vinegar, grits, boiled peanuts, and Moon Pies, although I have not lost my fondness for kielbasa, sauerkraut and Iron City beer. - More...
Monday PM - February 13, 2006

Where the Rain Never Falls and the Sun Never Shines - The recent coal mine tragedies in West Virginia reminded me of the dangers that my grandfathers faced shortly after the turn of the century when they entered the coal mines. Both of my grandfathers came over with the wave of immigrants from southern Europe in the early 1900's. The larger coal companies wanted immigrants because they provided a large, inexpensive labor force. The enticements included free transportation to the mine site, the opportunity for steady work, and company-provided housing that allowed immigrants to send for their families. All that was needed was youth, a strong back, and a willingness to accept the hazards and working conditions that existed underground. - More...
Wednesday - February 08, 2006

Exxon Made a Profit; Shame on Them! - Exxon, the company we love to hate, raked in $36 billion in profits last year with over 30% of that coming in the fourth quarter. As one economist said, "It's not difficult to make a profit when oil is $68 a barrel." Liberals and Democrats are screaming for Congress to impose a windfall profits tax. The last time Congress did that was in 1980 when oil prices skyrocketed to $30 a barrel. By 1986 oil was back down to $10 a barrel and the windfall profit tax looked like another failed attempt by the government to take money from profitable businesses and give it to people who won't work for it. - More...
Wednesday - February 01, 2006

Snow Day - Atlanta has been lucky so far this winter; we've not had any snow or sleet, and only one day with freezing rain, and that was cleared up by mid-morning. You don't want to be in Atlanta when it snows. - More...
Saturday - January 28, 2006

Just a Coincidence? - Nothing ever happens to me.

I was in the second grade the last time my name appeared in a newspaper, and that was only because a friend of mine who was playing Captain Marvel broke both arms after jumping from a second-story fire escape while wearing a blanket for a cape and then ratted on me and gave my name to a newspaper reporter and told him it was my idea and we'd been doing it every day for a couple of weeks. Of course, I lied and said I'd only mentioned it in passing, and I wasn't stupid enough to jump off a fire escape while yelling, Shazam! Look, it was either him or me, and that little prevarication saved me from a big old can of "Whoop-Ass," which one or both of my parents would have opened up if they thought I was trying to fly. - More...
Monday - January 23, 2006

Imminent Eminent Domain - With the media and conservative talk radio hosts going ballistic over the recent Supreme Court decision reaffirming the right of local governments to condemn private property for development, I thought eminent domain would be a good topic for the New Year. - More...
Tuesday - January 17, 2006

I'm Sad to Say, I'm On My Way - With respect to Harry Belafonte's comments about George Bush, and the great pluralistic (read socialist) state Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is trying to create, I can only repeat the words of that great Negro "spiritual" we've heard a thousand times on United Negro College Fund commercials, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." - More...
Thursday - January 12, 2006

At The Closing Of The Year - I have the soundtrack from the movie "Toys," starring Robin Williams. It is one of the two or three soundtracks I own. I'm not into movies in a big way, but I have watched "Toys" several times. The movie was only so-so, but the song "At the Closing of the Year," sung by Wendy and Lisa, is one of my favorites. - More...
Thursday - January 12, 2006

Things We Learn From Movies - I was cleaning out my email files today after receiving one of those "Your mailbox is full" messages and came across one I received back in 1998. Yes, I have files that are seven years old, and, no, I don't know why I keep them. Anyway, given the bad news I've had to deal with last month, I thought I'd share some humor with you. I don't know who to attribute these to, but whoever he or she is, we share the same wit. - More...
Thursday - January 12, 2006

The Changing of the Guard - We buried my father on Monday, December 12th. At age 86, and beset with heart problems and prostate cancer, Dad held on as long as he could. He went peacefully, early in the morning, while sitting in a recliner at his new home in the Asbury Heights assisted living center. He had just moved in on December 5th and passed away on December 8th. Perhaps he relaxed too much. - More...
Friday - December 30, 2005

It's In the Bag - While in the kitchen preparing my morning cup of coffee today, I happened to notice a brown paper shopping bag lying on one of the kitchen chairs. Normally I would not pay much attention to something as mundane as a shopping bag, but lately we seem to be bringing home more and more plastic bags. That is intentional; we need something to put the kitty litter in after we've "mined" the litter box in the garage. - More...
Friday - December 02, 2005

And the Winner is: Alaska! - A month or so ago, I wrote a letter-to-the-editor taking a tongue-in-cheek poke at Alaska Airlines' "Flying Salmon" Boeing 737. I was rightly admonished for not having my facts straight, so I really can't disagree with those who challenged my position. - More...
Wednesday - November 23, 2005

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? - As I was running around setting the clocks back one hour when we changed to standard time, which is no mean feat when you consider there are 27 clocks in our house, a thought occurred to me. I couldn't help it; I have thoughts all the time. Sometimes they just pop in there like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man in the first "Ghost Busters" movie. At work, my co-workers accuse me of "thinking off." I tell them I'm an intellectual and thinking is what intellectuals do, so leave me alone and let me think. It's a lie. I'm not an intellectual by any stretch of the imagination. I was lucky to graduate from high school. However, the folks at work haven't figured that out yet, so they think I'm an intellectual and they leave me alone. Most of my co-workers are engineers, and that explains a lot, if you know what I mean. - More...
Monday - November 14, 2005

Support Wildlife: Use Metal Barbeque Spits - With the huge number of cars and trucks traveling metro Atlanta roads these days, one is exposed to a lot of specialized license plates, not to mention bumper stickers that run the gamut of everything currently going on in our society. Add to that the stick-on Support Our Troops ribbons and a lot of cars are moving advertisements that can tell you more than you probably want to know about the driver in front of you. - More...
Saturday - November 05, 2005

Expressly Yours - Although I avoid grocery shopping like the plague, I occasionally will stop at the local supermarket to pick up a few things for the wife. I try to keep the number of items at a minimum so I can use the express lane. - More...
Thursday - November 03, 2005

Vindication of the "Robber Barons" - Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many organizations failed New Orleans. FEMA failed New Orleans. The State of Louisiana failed New Orleans. New Orleans' city government failed New Orleans. The railroads did not fail New Orleans. - More...
Monday - October 31, 2005

Drivers Ed - I've only been driving about 45 years, so I don't consider myself an expert; experienced, yes, but an expert, no. I've driven the Los Angeles freeways at rush hour, Highway One in the fog, the Mohave Desert in the heat, and the West Virginia turnpike when it was only a three-lane road. I've passed snowplows in winter storms, done Three-Sixties on ice-covered two-lane roads in Pennsylvania, dealt with black ice in the high desert of Idaho, and dodged oak trees driving under the influence on the back roads of coastal South Carolina. But I've never driven "from Tucson to Tucumcari, or Tehachapi to Tonopah." So I'm not an expert. - More...
Friday - October 21, 2005

Weighty Questions - Do you start out with negative calories if you walk up eight flights of stairs to buy a package of Pop Tarts from the vending machine? - More...
Thursday - October 13, 2005

"Over the River and Through the Woods . . . ." - It seems a bit early to be talking about Christmas songs, but this one is appropriate to my story. - More...
Thursday - September 29, 2005

Ultimate Job Security - In case you've never heard of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, it is the proposed location of a national repository for spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and high level waste from government production facilities.  - More...
Thursday - August 18, 2005

Thanks, Carl! - As an amateur photographer, I've always been impressed by the Carl Thompson's photos that grace the homepage on sitnews.us. And now that I think of it, Lisa Thompson's photographs aren't bad either. Living in such a beautiful part of the country helps, but as most photographers know, the camera only takes the picture; it's the photographer who composes it. - More...
Wednesday - August 03, 2005

Recycling for Profit and Preservation - Given my fondness for railroads, I was pleased to learn that two railroads with which I am intimately familiar are now associated with major recycling projects. One project will resurrect a recently abandoned rail line that connects with the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad tourist operation in the North Georgia Mountains, where I've volunteered as brakeman and conductor since 1998. Another project involves an abandoned railroad that operated in the southern suburbs of my former hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the project will not resurrect the railroad because the right-f-way was converted into a Rails-to-Trails project soon after abandonment. - More...
Wednesday - June 29, 2005

Next Door Neighbors - My wife puts a flowery wreath on our back door every spring to celebrate winter's end. And every spring the birds pull apart the wreath as they gather material for their nests. They particularly like the Spanish moss. - More...
June 13, 2005

Thoughts on Turning 60 - I celebrated my 60th birthday over Memorial Day weekend. It might be appropriate to give my thoughts on reaching this milestone. - More...
June 01, 2005

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses - I must apologize to all of my loyal readers out there in cyberspace - at last count, that would be two, June Allen and Gigi Pilcher - for my few and far between articles. The week after we returned from Germany, I was off to Council Bluffs, Iowa for my grandson's third birthday. I spent a week out there with the Children of the Corn. In the process, I managed to acquire a virus that affected only my left eye and did not manifest itself until the day I left, and specifically as my plane climbed to cruising altitude on the flight back to Atlanta. - More...
Tuesday - May 10, 2005

GPS, Who Needs It? - I was working in Germany last week and the company provided me with a rental car equipped with one of those onboard GPS navigation systems that talks to you. It was a neat little feature considering the car was just a VW. Well, to be more exact, it was a VW Phaeton, a $67,000, two-and-a-half ton monster made for 210 kilometers per hour on the Autobahn. Of course, I had to verify that claim, and, yes, it could do 130 miles per hour with ease. I didn't ask why they rented such an expensive car for someone who usually sits in Atlanta traffic and rarely goes faster than 80 mph. I thoroughly enjoyed the car. - More..
Monday - April 18, 2005

I Do Not Feel Guilty - Okay, I'll admit it. I drive one of those gas-guzzling SUVs. I don't carpool either. Add that to the fact that I work in the commercial nuclear industry, and I feel certain my name is not on the Greenpeace or the Sierra Club mailing lists. Even National Geographic has stopped sending me invitations to join their Society. The SUV gets 21 miles to the gallon and sits in a parking lot all day. I think that qualifies as helping to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. I imagine the people driving Hummers and Ford Excursions think they are helping if they switch from 89-octane to 87-octane gasoline. - More...
Thursday - March 31, 2005

The South Defined - So I said to the girl with the wooden leg, "Peg, where is the South?"

Peg looked at me with her one good eye and said, "Why, Bob, it is the land where kudzu grows." - More...
Sunday - March 27, 2005

Blowin' in the Wind - With Germany set to phase out its nuclear power plants by 2020 (although there are rumors they may be changing their minds about that ill-advised decision), the Social Democrats and their partners, the Green Party, are still trying to push through a plan to have 20% of the country's electrical power generated by wind no later than 2015. - More...
Tuesday - March 08, 2005

Global Warming: Is it really such a bad idea? - The "Kyoto Protocol" (Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) went into effect in February. Fortunately, the United States did not ratify, despite the best efforts of Al Gore and his ilk (I will not refer to them as "tree huggers" because the true supporters of the Kyoto Protocol are more anti-technology than they are pro-environment.). ... More...
Thursday - March 03, 2005

Bubba's Law - As spring approaches, tornado season begins in the southeastern United States. Although we normally don't experience tornados as frequently as the folks in the Midwest, ours are very sneaky.... More...
Saturday - February 26, 2005

Canadian Geese - I got a laugh when I saw Carl Thompson's photo of the Canadian Geese in Ketchikan. Oh, don't get me wrong; it was a great photograph, as Carl's photos always are. But, gee whiz, seven geese? That hardly qualifies as a gaggle in my book. Let me explain. - More...
Monday - February 14, 2005

No Free Lunch - Proponents of hydrogen-fueled automobiles encountered a setback last week when scientists announced that, although hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel, the process of making hydrogen could introduce nearly the same amount of pollutants into the environment as today's gasoline-fueled engines. - More...
Friday - February 04, 2005

Post-Election Depression - I hate to admit it, but I am suffering from depression because of the outcome of last November's elections. If the Kerry supporters think they are upset, they need to consider my feelings too. I am a conservative who voted for George W. Bush. - More...
Monday - January 24, 2005

What is the Big Deal? - "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered." - More...
Thursday - January 20, 2005

A Mighty Wind - With the world focused on the catastrophe that befell Southeast Asia, we tend to forget that people in this country are also dealing with the lingering effects of a natural disaster. Of course, there is absolutely no comparison in the number of lives lost, the economic cost, or the effect on the people by that terrible tsunami. However, for a few days last week I was able to tear away from the events in Southeast Asia and hop on Delta Flight 1491 for a trip down to south Florida to the St. Lucie nuclear plant. - More...
Tuesday - January 11, 2005

Another Hostage Situation - California utility, Pacific Electric and Gas Company (PG&E), owns and operates the 2,100-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant located on the coast near San Luis Obispo, an area often referred to as the "Middle Kingdom," with apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien. As part of the plant's owner-controlled area, that area where the owner can control access to the property, PG&E owns 12,000 acres, which includes 11 miles of pristine coastline. None of this coastline is accessible to the public, and for good reason. - More...
Saturday - January 08, 2005

Thrill of a Lifetime - The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway's 2004 season ended on Thursday, December 30. This was the 13-mile tourist line's seventh year carrying passengers between Blue Ridge, Georgia and Copperhill, Tennessee, along the banks of the Toccoa River in northwest Georgia. It was a record year passenger-wise, but it remains to be seen if it was a profitable year. - More...
Monday - January 03, 2005

Christmas Traditions 2 - What began as friendly rivalry over the local tradition of lighting Christmas Eve bonfires along the Mississippi River above New Orleans erupted into a verbal brawl last weekend as opposing sides challenged each other to prove who really started the bonfire tradition. - More...
Saturday - December 25, 2004

Christmas Traditions 1 - People were stunned today to learn that the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir may have lip-synched during their traditional Christmas Eve performance of Handel's "The Messiah." - More...
Saturday - December 25, 2004

Trashing Christmas - We have finally finished decorating the house for the holidays, and not a moment too soon. There have been years when we did not finish until Christmas Eve. Our outdoor decorations are not nearly as impressive as the Ketchikan homes featured in Carl Thompson's photographs on Sitnews, but we manage to brighten up the neighborhood a little bit. - More...
Tuesday - December 21, 2004

Pittsburgh's Inverted Mine Shaft - On September 27, 1926, the University of Pittsburgh broke ground for a new 42-story gothic skyscraper called the Cathedral of Learning. Locals referred to the building as the Inverted Mine Shaft. Today, the Cathedral houses a unique collection of classrooms known as the Nationality Rooms. Many Pittsburghers don't know the classrooms exist, and I was part of that group until my wife began teaching at the Cathedral in the early Seventies. - More...
Tuesday - December 14, 2004

Hank, I Can't Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow. - Although I was born in the California desert, my earliest memories are of steam locomotives struggling up the hill behind our house near Pittsburgh. The sound of whistles and staccato exhaust were foreign and frightening to me, especially at three o'clock in the morning. The railroad behind our house was a great mystery, a place of strange noises made by strange beasts at all hours of the day and night. - More...
Tuesday - December 07, 2004

Pie in the Sky - Having spent a good part of my life moving around the U.S. as an Air Force dependent, a sailor, and a nuclear professional, I have had many opportunities to learn about the regional foods in the areas where I have lived. - More...
Wednesday - November 24, 2004

My Position on Gun Control - I prefer a two-handed stance, with my feet spread about a yard apart, sighting with both eyes open. I like to use armor piercing, incendiary ammunition because it is good for a variety of situations. I use small-capacity magazines because you shouldn't need more than one shot to hit your target. If there are more than eight targets, you probably couldn't hit them all, even with a 30-round clip. - More...
Saturday - November 13, 2004

No Gloating Allowed - Okay, I'll admit it, I voted for George W. Bush. I tried quite hard to keep politics out of my articles, and you'll never know how many I started, finished, and then deleted. Most of them were vents over something the Kerry campaign said about Bush's intelligence quotient or the Vice President's family. It's one thing to criticize a man's decisions, but to equate bad decisions with his intellectual capacity is wrong. After all, Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar and look at the bonehead choices he made while in office. I've always told my children, education doesn't make you more intelligent, it just makes you more educated. - More...
Monday - November 08, 2004

The New War Between the States - The city of Augusta, Georgia, is located on the west bank of the Savannah River, directly across from North Augusta, which is in South Carolina. The state line is located approximately mid-river. Clark's Hill Reservoir is a large lake located north of Augusta. The Army Corps of Engineers created the lake by building a dam across the Savannah River to reduce flooding in Augusta. Although the Clark's Hill Reservoir is a very large lake, the state line remains in the middle of the old river channel. - More...
Wednesday - November 03, 2004

Boo Daddies: Low Country Ghostbusters - I cannot think of a better way to celebrate Halloween than an article about ghosts, goblins, and witches. These creatures live In the South Carolina Low Country too, but we call them haints, plat-eyes, and hags. - More...
Friday - October 29, 2004

My Left-handed Friend - My very good friend, Maralyn Lois Polak, writes a weekly column for the Commentary section of the World Net Daily online newspaper. Maralyn recently polled her friends on why we should not vote for George W. Bush. Okay, that's cool. It's a free country. The Constitution and Bill of Rights protect pollsters too. - More...
Thursday - October 21, 2004

Does it Really Matter? - I'm one of those weird persons who like buttermilk. I acquired a taste for it in Fifth Grade. As a class project, we took whole milk that had not been homogenized - I assume it was pasteurized - put it in a butter churn and all took turns mixing it until we ended up with buttermilk and butter. We ate the butter with Saltine crackers and drank the buttermilk in little paper cups. It was delicious. - More...
Tuesday - October 19, 2004

And Then a Hero Comes Along - On March 12, 1904, Andrew Carnegie, founder of the United States Steel Corporation, established the Carnegie Hero Fund, endowing it with $5 million in US Steel bonds bearing 5 percent interest. That initial investment has allowed the Fund to award over 8,800 medals and more than $24 million in grants and scholarships over its 100-year history. Recipients of the Carnegie Hero Award are people like you and I who suddenly find themselves in situations where someone needs help. Often, these awards are given posthumously, as was the case for the award's first two recipients. Carnegie's intent in establishing the Hero Fund was not to reward heroism. In describing the Fund, Carnegie said, "I do not expect to stimulate or create heroism by this fund, knowing well that heroic action is impulsive; but I do believe that, if the hero is injured in his bold attempt to serve or save his fellows, he and those dependent upon him should not suffer pecuniarily." - More...
Monday - October 18, 2004

How Low Can You Go? - A member of the Tennessee state legislature produced the poster included with this article. The man, who has been distributing the poster for the past couple of weeks, is the Democratic incumbent. He is running for reelection. His campaign office serves as the local headquarters for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. - More...
Friday - October 15, 2004

Notes from Slightly South of North Georgia - It was another beautiful autumn weekend on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway. We made history this weekend. Well, at least we made local history. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution might not find it that remarkable. We ran our train (two engines and six passenger cars) south from Blue Ridge, Georgia to the tiny community of Cherry Log. It was the first passenger train to stop at Cherry Log in over 60 years. Even back then, Cherry Log was only a flag stop. It had a passenger shelter, but trains would only stop if passengers needed to board or disembark. However, unlike those trains of old, we came to Cherry Log with 200 passengers and they were all getting off. - More...
Tuesday - October 12, 2004

A Prophet in Her Own Time - I first became aware of the religion of Islam in the mid-1950s while a fifth grade student at St. Alphonsus parochial school in the riverside community of Springdale, Pennsylvania. - More...
Monday - October 11, 2004

The Submariner's Worst Nightmare - Next to uncontrolled flooding, the worst thing that can happen to a submarine crew is an onboard fire. As I write this, the Royal Canadian Navy's HMCS Chicoutimi wallows in the Atlantic off the coast of Ireland, under tow by a British frigate. Yesterday, one of the sub's crewmembers died of injuries from smoke inhalation. It is small consolation to his family, but, unlike most submarine disasters, they will at least be able to lay their loved one to rest in a marked grave on his home soil. - More...
Saturday - October 09, 2004

The Boy's Toys - I received my first Lionel model train in 1954, the year my sister was born. The day Mom came home from the hospital, I arrived home from school to find a new baby sister, two diesel engines, several freight cars, and a caboose. I immediately suspected that something was up. - More...
Wednesday - October 06, 2004

Hitting Bill Gates Where It Hurts - It was a tough decision, turning my back on Bill Gates. In the end though, I really didn't have a choice. I had to dump Microsoft Network. - More...
Thursday - September 16, 2004

Historical Day at TVA - I was back in Chattanooga last week for another visit to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah nuclear power station. I spent Monday morning observing activities in the plant's control room.- More...
Wednesday - September 08, 2004

The Case of the Disappearing Bomber - January 31, 1956 drew to a close as most mid-winter days do in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was 27 degrees with a 10-knot wind out of the northwest creating a 10-degree wind chill. The steel mills stretched out along the banks of the Monongahela River began casting an orange glow into the sky, periodically punctuated by the brilliant white light of the Bessemer converters turning molten iron into molten steel. For the crew and passengers aboard U.S. Air Force bomber 44-29125, a B-25N twin-engine "Mitchell" winging its way eastward, the day would end in tragedy. - More...
Wednesday - August 19, 2004

Of Course, I'm An Environmentalist! - Those of you who have read my articles in Kanoe and Sitnews over the years have probably formed the opinion that I don't like "tree huggers" or "envirowhackos." Nothing could be farther from the truth. I view environmental activists as people who truly believe that man has been damaging the Earth ever since God granted Adam and Eve access to the Garden of Eden. - More...
Saturday - August 14, 2004

Still a Dangerous Business, But Not for the Reasons You Expect - An accident at the Mihama-3 nuclear power plant in Japan resulted in the deaths of four workers and severe injuries to seven others. The story only made the headlines because the accident happened at a nuclear power plant. Had the accident happened at a fossil power plant, we probably would not know about it. - Read more...
Tuesday - August 10, 2004

On the Road Again - I will be out of pocket next week doing some work in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga is my old stomping grounds from the early 1980s, so I will not be a stranger in town. If you have never been to Chattanooga, it is well worth the trip. - Read more...
Friday - July 30, 2004

Feet Dry - The Atlantic Blue Crab population is returning to normal in the salt marshes along the Grand Strand this week. The Ciminel family has returned from its annual vacation to Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Between the smelly fish heads and rotten chicken necks we used for bait, we were able to entice about two dozen crabs a day into our crab trap, or dally around in the shallows long enough to scoop up with our dip nets. A couple of rented boats from Murrells Inlet also gave us the opportunity to harvest a sizeable number of clams from the State shellfish reserve. We had to buy our shrimp because the state does not allow shrimp boats to work near shore during the tourist season. - Read more...
Wednesday - July 21, 2004

The Log Train - It is uncanny how a minor topic of discussion in Ketchikan can segue so nicely into the article I planned for this week. I am speaking, of course, about the debate over the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. Now, being as I am a descendant of Pennsylvania coal miners, I am not the least bit qualified to offer an opinion on the credibility of the people who participate in the lumberjack show, or how they would stack up against "real" lumberjacks (no pun intended). One only has to watch the Discovery Channel or TLC to realize that today's lumberjacks no longer use many of the skills displayed at the lumberjack shows. - Read more...
Wednesday - July 07, 2004

The Little Church in the Valley - The Talona Valley in northern Georgia would not make anyone's Top 10 list of scenic wonders, nor would you expect to see a Travel Channel special about such an unremarked place. As for tourist amenities, the Fall Festival at nearby Talking Rock and the Talona Creek Campground are about all the valley has to offer. A lightly used rail line runs down the valley. The weekly, but unpredictable, log train from Blue Ridge raises the ambient noise level for a short time, but everything soon returns to normal, with Talona Creek bubbling over the rocks and an occasional mooing cow. - Read more...
Saturday - June 26, 2004

Constructive Criticism - When I'm not working on the tourist railroad, I am usually at my desk on the 9th floor of Building 700, in the "trendy and posh" Galleria Office Park. My office building is "inside the Perimeter," officially known as I-285, the six-lane racetrack that encircles Atlanta. I work in Cobb County, the last bastion of Republican conservatism in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Yes, the same Cobb County that lost the 1996 Olympics volleyball venue, which was no big deal as far as I'm concerned. - Read more...
Tuesday - June 22, 2004

Low Country Crabbing - Being raised in the environs of the formerly "Smokey City" of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I entered adulthood with a profound lack of knowledge about seafood. I thought "seafood" was a breaded and fried fillet of some generic fish served on a bun. For years, I thought I was eating Flounder, but later learned it was Whitefish or Turbot, those ubiquitous denizens of the deep hauled in by the millions off the Grand Banks. - Read more...
Saturday - June 12, 2004

What a Week! - The weekend of June 5 was auspicious for several reasons; all of them linked to current or former Presidents of the United States. President George Bush was in France celebrating the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Former President Jimmy Carter was in Groton, Connecticut launching the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter, the nation's newest fast attack nuclear submarine. Former President George H.W. Bush was in Maine vacationing at the Bush family's summer "cottage." Former President Ronald Reagan was in California taking his last breath. - Read more...
Saturday - June 12, 2004

Right on Red, Returning - One of the major causes of traffic accidents in the Atlanta area is violation of a law that allows you to make a right turn on a red light. The law is clear about what constitutes a legal right turn when facing a red light. "Vehicular traffic facing a steady CIRCULAR RED signal may cautiously enter the intersection to make a right turn after stopping . . . . Vehicular traffic shall yield the right of way to other traffic lawfully using the intersection." Unfortunately, most drivers in Atlanta treat a right on red as if it is a YIELD sign. Meaning, "If I can make it without you running into me I'm going for it because once I make that turn I own the road." - Read more...
Thursday - June 10, 2004

New Member of the Family - Last Friday, my son gave me a kitten for my birthday. We sent him to the store for bread and milk; he came back with a 6-week-old kitten. He found it at one of those "Free to Good Home" kiosks. I wonder if the kitten's owners would have wanted money if we were a "Bad Home". How does one define a "Good Home" kittenwise? Is it a home with no dogs, or with a backyard full of small birds? - Read more...
Thursday - June 03, 2004

A Southern Veteran - Memorial Day is a time to honor those Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country. I am going to take literary license today and write about a veteran who is still alive, but may not be for much longer. - Read more...
Tuesday - June 01, 2004

Remembering Flags and Friends - Memorial Day is a time when Americans pay tribute to the men and women who gave their lives in defense of our freedom. In my mind, that also includes the men in gray and butternut who fought for the Confederacy. - Read more...
Monday - May 31, 2004

Jump, for Crying Out Loud! - As I write this article, the 12 northbound and southbound lanes on Interstate 75 north of Atlanta are closed, two television helicopters are hovering over the highway like vultures, and all because some jerk is standing on the overpass at Windy Hill Road threatening to jump. - Read more...
Friday - May 28, 2004

Bob Rests His Case - The headline reads: "Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of . . . Spam luncheon meat, Thursday reported a 59 percent increase in quarterly earnings. . . ."

I knew it was a conspiracy. Oh, sure, the rest of the article says the profits came from increased sales of Hormel's refrigerated meat products. That's misleading; you can refrigerate Spam too, in or out of the can. - Read more...
Friday - May 21, 2004

Big City Cynicism - We have a traffic problem here in Atlanta; too many cars and not enough roads. Toss in several million transplanted Yankees, who didn't know how to drive when they got here, and a few million native Southerners, and you can see how it happened. - Read more...
Wednesday - May 12, 2004

Great To Be Back in Ketchikan! - Boy, it's great to be back in Ketchikan! It's been about three years since I wrote my last article for Kanoe, and I have literally felt like a fish out of water. Writing is like exercising; if you don't do it regularly, you quickly get out of shape. - Read more...
Friday - May 07, 2004