Breaking News...
Fortune has it that there is still a club in McKeeport. Linking to the AP Press article about the club: some excerpts.
"Today, this two-story brick haven in Hazelwood -- a spartan, smoke-filled forerunner of modern man caves -- passes into the hands of Pittsburgh Firefighters Local No. 1. The union, which paid $75,000, will use it for offices and a social hall after renovating the building at 120 Flowers Ave.
The last one remaining in the city limits, this Hungarian club was chartered in 1918, said Mike Kerekgyarto, a 37-year-old plumber who lives in Lincoln Place and is the organization's youngest member and its president. (The oldest member is Zoltan Palfy, age 92.)
"It was a place where everybody could sit down and talk about certain issues, political problems, family problems. You could always get advice," he said, adding that members included doctors, lawyers and judges, as well as the late Joe Chiodo, who owned Chiodo's Tavern in Homestead and whose wife was Hungarian.
Members said the causes for the closing included a 10 percent drink tax that took effect in 2008 and the club's dwindling membership, which has dropped from an all-time high of 1,500 to 35.
By the 1940s, more than 1,000 people belonged to the Hungarian club. On Friday nights, "In the 1960s, they used to have two bands, one downstairs and one upstairs. If you were not there by 5 p.m., you weren't getting a chair or a table," Kerekgyarto added. Now, the small Hazelwood-based fraternity will move southeast to McKeesport's Hungarian Social Club on Walnut Street which has about 65 members."
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
ARE YOU ADDICTED TO YOUR CELL PHONE?
Pestering Google prompts to link this blog to a cell phone, which I will not and cannot do, have me wondering if soon Google will make it mandatory to have an operational cell phone in order to link to their services. I hope not. While I tend to march with technology at the back of the parade, that is way too Big Brother for me.
Over the last few years I've gone from a plan with very few minutes that I was so happy to be out of, to a prepaid phone I'm more satisfied with. Within my city both carriers have significant areas where there is no reception and there are times when messages come in hours later after they were left, floating around in space I guess. I found myself waiting until the day before my unused minutes expired to make dozens of phone calls to use those minutes, and found that the limited day minutes didn't work for business and the free after 7 pm and before 7 am calls didn't work for my personal life, especially not long distance, which had been my primary motivation for signing up in the first place, to kill the long distance land line bill.
I left that phone in a restaurant a month before the plan expired and decided to try life without a phone. I went 4 1/2 months before I got a prepaid plan with another carrier, and so far I've paid on time, without getting any benefit to my credit rating. I don't care. I like the idea that I can walk away without any penalty. For ten dollars more than I was playing on the previous plan I have texting and internet. I'm presently really irritated with two friends who want to text instead of speak, and who don't know that 9:30 PM is a little late to keep up the conversation about nothing important.
Once in a while I forget my cell phone at home and get to experience what life was like just a few years ago before I felt insecure without a cell on me. The way I feel as though I'm missing something really concerns me. When I get really radical I wonder when exactly is it going to be manditory for us humans to be chipped the way they do dogs and cats these days.
REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE PRETTY SURE THAT IF THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO SUMMON HELP? REMEMBER WHEN YOU WORKED YOUR WHOLE DAY AT WORK FOR YOUR BOSS, making a limited number of personal calls on your break or lunch hour? REMEMBER WHEN YOU GOT HOME and GOT CALLS FROM FRIENDS IN THE EVENING TO MAKE PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND? REMEMBER WHEN YOU COULD GO TO A MOVIE, PLAY, or THE LIBRARY and not hear buzzing and ringing? REMEMBER WHEN YOU GOT ON A BUS AND YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S PERSONAL CONVERSATIONS? REMEMBER WHEN YOU KNEW PRIVATE WAS PRIVATE AND YOU DIDN'T MAKE OR TAKE PERSONAL CALLS WHILE SHOPPING AT THE GROCERY STORE? I've made the mistake of forgetting and found myself followed down the sidewalk by a person or two who were listening and wanted more information : this is no way to make friends.
THE TRUTH IS, most of the time your phone should be OFF.
I'm thinking of going without a cell phone for a few months to see if I can even live the way I've lived most of my life till I got one.
Over the last few years I've gone from a plan with very few minutes that I was so happy to be out of, to a prepaid phone I'm more satisfied with. Within my city both carriers have significant areas where there is no reception and there are times when messages come in hours later after they were left, floating around in space I guess. I found myself waiting until the day before my unused minutes expired to make dozens of phone calls to use those minutes, and found that the limited day minutes didn't work for business and the free after 7 pm and before 7 am calls didn't work for my personal life, especially not long distance, which had been my primary motivation for signing up in the first place, to kill the long distance land line bill.
I left that phone in a restaurant a month before the plan expired and decided to try life without a phone. I went 4 1/2 months before I got a prepaid plan with another carrier, and so far I've paid on time, without getting any benefit to my credit rating. I don't care. I like the idea that I can walk away without any penalty. For ten dollars more than I was playing on the previous plan I have texting and internet. I'm presently really irritated with two friends who want to text instead of speak, and who don't know that 9:30 PM is a little late to keep up the conversation about nothing important.
Once in a while I forget my cell phone at home and get to experience what life was like just a few years ago before I felt insecure without a cell on me. The way I feel as though I'm missing something really concerns me. When I get really radical I wonder when exactly is it going to be manditory for us humans to be chipped the way they do dogs and cats these days.
REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE PRETTY SURE THAT IF THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO SUMMON HELP? REMEMBER WHEN YOU WORKED YOUR WHOLE DAY AT WORK FOR YOUR BOSS, making a limited number of personal calls on your break or lunch hour? REMEMBER WHEN YOU GOT HOME and GOT CALLS FROM FRIENDS IN THE EVENING TO MAKE PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND? REMEMBER WHEN YOU COULD GO TO A MOVIE, PLAY, or THE LIBRARY and not hear buzzing and ringing? REMEMBER WHEN YOU GOT ON A BUS AND YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S PERSONAL CONVERSATIONS? REMEMBER WHEN YOU KNEW PRIVATE WAS PRIVATE AND YOU DIDN'T MAKE OR TAKE PERSONAL CALLS WHILE SHOPPING AT THE GROCERY STORE? I've made the mistake of forgetting and found myself followed down the sidewalk by a person or two who were listening and wanted more information : this is no way to make friends.
THE TRUTH IS, most of the time your phone should be OFF.
I'm thinking of going without a cell phone for a few months to see if I can even live the way I've lived most of my life till I got one.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
CZISKO : HUNGARIAN COWBOYS
Hortobagy National Park is one scene of the traditional Hungarian cowboys of the great Hungarian plain - the Cziskos.
Here is the explaination this YouTube video poster wrote : In this video I proudly represent the CSIKÓS (Hungarian horse-herder) from the region of HORTOBÁGY and HAJDÚ county. We´ve been using the whip since ancient times to push the horse herd in the favoured direction. The animals react to the sound but aren´t touched by the whip. Due to the oppressive rule of the Habsburg dynasty, many herdsmen of the Hungarian lowlands became highwaymen or/and joined the freedom fight of 1848. The light cavalry evolving from the csikós used the whip as a weapon. The act of laying down the horse derives from ancient Hungarian warfare. It was a way of staying unseen by the enemy. The highwaymen also applied this technique to perform robberies on surprise.
Standing on the horse doesn´t cause pain, it simply demonstrates the close connection between man and animal.
In today´s time, there are still a few traditional horsemen left, who do the work. Cracking the whip during a demonstration like this is also an act of honoring the land and its people. The herdsman is a symbol for freedom and independence and carries the old spirit of the nation.
Here is the explaination this YouTube video poster wrote : In this video I proudly represent the CSIKÓS (Hungarian horse-herder) from the region of HORTOBÁGY and HAJDÚ county. We´ve been using the whip since ancient times to push the horse herd in the favoured direction. The animals react to the sound but aren´t touched by the whip. Due to the oppressive rule of the Habsburg dynasty, many herdsmen of the Hungarian lowlands became highwaymen or/and joined the freedom fight of 1848. The light cavalry evolving from the csikós used the whip as a weapon. The act of laying down the horse derives from ancient Hungarian warfare. It was a way of staying unseen by the enemy. The highwaymen also applied this technique to perform robberies on surprise.
Standing on the horse doesn´t cause pain, it simply demonstrates the close connection between man and animal.
In today´s time, there are still a few traditional horsemen left, who do the work. Cracking the whip during a demonstration like this is also an act of honoring the land and its people. The herdsman is a symbol for freedom and independence and carries the old spirit of the nation.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
WATER POLO : HUNGARY PLAYS THE UNITED STATES
I'm learning that water polo is a very serious sport in Hungary. The Hungarian Team has played Greece, Russia, Great Britian, Italy... I have to admit that I like the videos, such as this one, that I see on Youtube, because whatever team, these are some handsome men! Linking to the Hungarian National Water Polo team site,
