What I did, or didn’t do on this July 4^th holiday:

I did have family over for a cookout and enjoyed the company, while all feasted on the wife’s typically lavish spread.

I did not try to hit up Sheetz for their cheap gas promotion, despite passing two Sheetz outlets on the way to pick up and take home my brother. Just not worth the bother for me.

I did watch the broadcast of the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, which of all things had a weather/lightning delay.

I didn’t bother to stick around for post-gorge interviews.

I did – as did my brother – correctly take the under pre-event regarding whether Joey Chestnut could put down more than his record 76 hot dogs in the allotted 10-minute time frame. Chestnut won easily, despite eating JUST 62 hot dogs (and buns!)

I didn’t, and will not, send fireworks streaking into the sky to land randomly on the homes and property of others.

I did wonder, if 16-time winner Chestnut begins to slow down as he ages, whether he can decide to identify as a woman and move to that category in order to dominate more easily. Miki Sudo won her ninth consecutive crown, with a relatively paltry total of 39 ½ dogs and buns.

I did not find it all that surprising that the suspect arrested in regard to the Philadelphia mass-shooting Monday that killed five, has been identified as a male supporter of Black Lives Matter, and in a picture appears to be black and wearing a bra, earrings and bracelets. Get that pronoun right on the charging papers!

I did ponder the waning greatness of this country, from political types on the left being demonstrably above the law, to transgender and climate change being the prime emphasis in our military, above, say, being in position to win an eventual war with Russia and/or China that chickenhawks are pushing so hard to have transpire.

I did not make plans to see any commercial-level fireworks displays, since there seem to be none nearby.

I did make sure my American Flag was flying, as it is on most days.

I did not bother to check how few others on my street display the Flag. Too depressing.

I did take a moment to ponder how disgusted our Founding Fathers would be with the selfish, often gutless, mostly weak-minded populace of the moment.

Enjoy your independence while you still can.

NASCAR raced through the streets of Chicago over the weekend, which NBC turned into a multi-day lovefest for Chicago and NASCAR, not necessarily in that order.

Perhaps you have heard that Chicago has a reputation for shooting violence? Obviously not from watching the broadcasts. But, I wondered if the magic of NASCAR had cured that violence problem, at least for one weekend. The early answer is a resounding no.

The New York Post reported, in an online story last updated at 6:13 p.m. Sunday, three killed and 27 wounded in shootings already in Chicago this past weekend.

But didn’t those race cars look impressive spraying water on the wet streets as they raced along Lake Michigan?

Meanwhile, in other parts of town, it was lead being sprayed.

I’ve been to Chicago numerous times in the past to cover sporting events. The Big Ten used to hold its preseason football media days there, too, so I’m a bit familiar with the city layout.

But, in reality, all one needs is some Jim Croce song references about avoiding the South Side, “the baddest part of town.”

NASCAR took a cue from that and stayed against the lake and well north of the worst areas of Chicago.

The fact that rain wiped out more than one-half of the Xfinity race, and forced the Cup race to be delayed and then shortened due to darkness, was not considered to be a downer.

This was NASCAR’s first attempt at racing in city streets, something long familiar to fans of Formula One (Monaco) and IndyCar (Long Beach, Detroit, Nashville and St. Petersburg, among others).

The history aspect was played up large. As was the fact that a New Zealand driver, making his first NASCAR start, won.

It got me thinking about how we could lure NASCAR here, since we are a leading tourist destination with our trails and rivers. We also have the crime and rain associated with Chicago, at least this past weekend.

Alas, the James Mayer Walking Trail, while only slightly more narrow than some parts of the Chicago track, borders the baddest part of our town, Moxham. Our race would need to be staged in Richland or Geistown for safety reasons.

But this would be a great opportunity for the tourist types to oil up their economic impact estimate machines. The Chicago counterparts are mere pikers by comparison.

Imagine, Chicago hosted a national event, over a holiday weekend, with several races and accompanying big-time concerts on the slate, national television coverage, not to forget huge crowds of visitors with inflated hotel prices, yet predictions were for a relatively modest $113 million impact.

We bring some bikers to town for a few days and our economic impact estimate predictably comes out at $20 million give or take.

Obviously, Chicago is doing something wrong. Besides tolerating the shooting violence, that is.

Confrontations, from neighborhood squabbles all the way up through international wars, often become battles of economic attrition.

Let’s look at history. Our American War of Independence with Great Britain, whose success we are in the midst of celebrating, was decided in part because of the long supply lines the British faced and the fact that European countries, most notably France, as well as rich European individuals, fed money to the U.S. effort because they hated Great Britain. The French navy made those long supply lines even more tenuous and costly.

In a case of history repeating itself, we have a modern day equivalent with the proxy war the U.S. and NATO are fighting with Russia by sending money and arms to Ukraine.

Our American Civil War began with the South, possessor of superior generals and fighting forces, winning early battles. But the industrial and economic might of the North eventually turned the tide.

Both World Wars I and II were decided in large part because of the U.S. industrial production capacity, which escaped war damage and was a ready supplier of fresh war material to our side in each conflict.

Even the so-called cold war between the U.S. and western allies vs. the USSR-led communist bloc countries, ended for economic reasons, that being the superiority of the U.S. economy and our government’s willingness to dedicate virtually limitless dollars to defense spending.

With neighborhood squabbles, the scofflaws also tend, eventually, to cry Uncle! economically.

This concept has been captured through the years in popular song lyrics, from the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I fought the law and the law won,” through John Mellencamp’s “I fight authority, authority always wins.”

Continue to violate zoning ordinances, court decisions and the like, and the cost can be extreme. Fines can mount quickly and, should that not make an impression, incarceration, some would say the ultimate cost, can follow.

To be sure, idle threats still can be made, as can rebel-without-a-cause stands. Eventually, economic reality prevails.

Authority, as defined by the police, the laws and the courts, have unlimited resources once they identify a problem as worthy of addressing. In an ironic twist, they could, in effect, use fines paid by scofflaws to prosecute those same individuals.

The issue of dollars and cents has a way of bringing sense back into the picture.

It’s easy, and fair, to criticize Pirates management for being cheap and dooming the franchise to futility.

But, in the sense of fair play, this current three-game series with the San Diego Padres is in-your-face evidence that simply spending more money doesn’t guarantee success in baseball.

Consider that the Padres already have lost two games to the Pirates, by a cumulative score of 16-5, as they try to salvage one win in a Thursday afternoon series finale. Now, factor in that, according to USA Today’s opening-day figures, the Padres had a payroll of just a tick under $249 million to begin the season, third highest in Major League Baseball.

Meanwhile, the Pirates’ opening day payroll was a mere $73.3 million, 27^th among 30 MLB teams.

A look at the season picture makes it even worse for the Padres, who with that Wednesday night loss had a record of 37-43. The Pirates were a tick better at 37-42.

Imagine ownership and management of the Padres, not to mention the fans, wondering where all the money went. In that way, they are not that much different than the average inquiring citizen marveling at how their state and federal governments can spend vast sums of tax money unwisely.

But, let’s get back to baseball. The Padres are not alone in having huge salaries producing relatively tiny results.

The highest team salary to begin the 2023 season belonged to the New York Mets, at a whopping $353.5 million. As of Thursday morning, that money had bought a 36-44 record and fourth place in the NL East Division standings.

The New York Yankees, who have been in the top three of team salaries every season but one since 2013, were second to begin 2023 at a payroll of nearly $277 million. The Yankees begin play Thursday with a 44-36 record, third best in the AL East.

On the flip side, the runaway leaders in getting big results with a modest payroll are the Tampa Bay Rays. They have the most wins in MLB with 55, are tied for the best winning percentage with Atlanta at .663, and lead the AL East by five full games over Baltimore. More on the Orioles later.

Tampa Bay has accomplished all this with a payroll of roughly $73.2 million, a bit less than that of the Pirates and 28^th overall in MLB.

In that same AL East, Baltimore has a record of 48-31, good for second place, with a payroll figure of $60.7 million, 29th in MLB.

To recap, the Rays and Orioles have combined to spend about one-half of what the Yankees have spent, and have produced more than twice as many wins.

Now, can either of these payroll overachievers turn it into a World Series win? That would be historic by recent standards.

There have been five times in the past 10 seasons, including the past two running, that the eventual winner of the World Series had a payroll outside baseball’s Top 10. The lowest was Houston in 2017, with a payroll rated 18^th in MLB.

The Astros also won it all last year with a payroll rated 11^th and the Atlanta Braves won the World Series in 2021 with a payroll 13^th among MLB.

The Tampa Bay Rays with a payroll ranking of No. 28, are proving yet again that they can be successful on an even more modest budget. That, combined with the failure of the big spenders in this and other recent years, is evidence that the Pirates could and should be doing better, even without spending the big money.

The other day we ended a week-long hiatus by writing of delusion and denial holding sway locally, using Thunder in the Valley as an example.

Today, we spread the focus to the national and international.

Arguably the largest source of delusion, denial and a third D – distortion — is our own federal government. Not only elected officials, but often career bureaucrats also do their best to spew disinformation and gaslight the populace.

Their purpose would be to keep the population confused and consumed with infighting, thereby keeping them from questioning the pap they’re being fed by these self-proclaimed masters.

Also, there is a bit of inadvertent distortion to government actions as the matter of unintended consequences looms large.

Consider the whole COVID-19 example. It was a magnificent opportunity for elites to see just how far they could infringe on individual liberties of the population (sheep) before the people pushed back. I dare to say it went even better than they could have hoped. But, eventually, the masses tired of the hypocrisy and rebelled, thereby ending things such as stay-at-home dictates and maskhole mandates.

Shutting down the economy as part of this grand experiment required stimulus money be handed out freely along the way, the financial equivalent of a defibrillator’s shock that restarts a stopped heart.

Even those concerned about federal deficits gladly took the money and spent it rapidly. But that created a bulge in demand at a time when supply was constrained, producing the large unintended consequence of rising price inflation.

This has forced the Federal Reserve to act to rein in that inflation, by raising interest rates precipitously. The largest borrower on Earth is the U.S. government, which saw its interest costs to finance that mammoth debt skyrocket and bring us to the debt ceiling more quickly than anticipated.

Now the economy teeters, while stock markets skyrocket upwards, a strange contradiction, especially when the inverted yield curve is factored into the calculus. Traditionally, short-term interest rates are lower than long-term rates. That condition is reversed, historically an indication of bad times on the horizon.

By most measures, debt has ballooned in this country, despite all the free money. Credit card balances are at or near all-time highs, and delinquencies on such things as car loans and credit card payments are high.

Student loan borrowers will have their three-year freedom from the responsibility of having to pay on those loans end in September. I’ve seen reports that the average repayment amount is $300 to $500 monthly and, predictably, borrowers are screaming for relief.

As an aside, someone going to college who didn’t realize that a loan, by definition, meant the money must be repaid, probably wasn’t legitimate college material in the first place.

But I digress.

More intended consequences from the distortion, denial and delusion. People got used to not needing to report to a work place. I have several continuing examples on my street.

This has caused office buildings in major cities to sit partly, to mostly unoccupied. But the rents or mortgages still must be paid, often at higher costs as debts are rolled over at higher interest rates.

Already in cities such as San Francisco, there is a commercial property crisis as jingle mail – the practice of debtors simply mailing in the keys to the property to the lien holders due to their inability to pay – has become a common practice.

Walgreens, a national drugstore chain, reported bad earnings Tuesday due to the end of yet more government distortion, delusion and denial. The government has backed off on its maniacal demand that all accept the jab and so not nearly as many COVID vaccines or booster shots are being administered by Walgreens, leading to a massive drop in revenue.

Generally speaking, distortion, delusion and denial are being applied to the consumer, generally calculated as being 70 percent of the economy. On one hand, we have maxxed out borrowers and goods sellers to people in the lower socio-economic strata such as Dollar General reporting that their clientele is downgrading from buying at Dollar General, to looking for free stuff from food pantries and other charitable outlets.

Yet Delta Airlines on Tuesday reported mammoth demand and predicted the highest second quarter earnings in company history.

People are spending all they have plus some, in part trapped in the delusion that all is well and will be even better tomorrow.

Reality argues against that. But living in the real world is such a drag when it’s so easy to join the crowd living in delusion.

Denial and delusion, in any order, pretty much explain much of what is happening in Greater Johnstown, around the USA, and even around the world.

To focus on a local example, lets us ponder Thunder in the Valley, which the Daily Bugle seemed to be proclaiming a success Monday with its front-page spread. Buried deep in one story, though, was a paragraph noting neither attendance, nor economic impact figures were available.

Let me anticipate, neither will be good on an historical basis, at least they won’t be good unless denial and delusion are factored into the calculations to buff up the report.

In the sports world, there is something known as the eye test. Yes, sports these days are neck-deep in analytics and the deification of statistics, but if you have a little bit of background you can make some pertinent observations without crunching numbers.

Here’s an example: A few years back, on opening night of the AAABA Tournament, the team playing Johnstown had a pitcher whose mechanics were, in a word, “terrible.” I told my son this guy was an arm injury waiting to happen and it was hard to believe he’d made it through an entire season in whatever league he played in, without ending up hurt.

Within a few innings, said pitcher was out of the game, having hurt his arm. Does this make me a genius? Far from it.

But, to cite a broader example, what the COVID hysteria, among other recent events has proven, is that experts often are wrong, statistics often are massaged to provide the desired message, and people such as me who relied on reality and common sense, came out fine without multiple vaccines or living in a hermetically sealed bubble.

This is the long way of getting around to my take on this year’s Thunder, which I saw as a pale shadow of the event in its heyday. Thursday, the wife and I took two granddaughters, ages 4 and 5, to Central Park to catch Krazy Kat Daddies.

Kudos to the band, which played its entire two-hour window without a break. The girls, despite their age, like to dance to oldies music. They had a great time.

After the band was done, we strolled around downtown, to the Bikers’ Mall and beyond. My take was vendor count was down, motorcycle count was low and spectator attendance was limited, admittedly early in the going.

Weather was a problem, with rain, or the threat of same, dampening things, literally and figuratively, all weekend.

I got a report from a trusted source that the lighted motorcycles parade, which last year ran about an hour, with many extravagantly illuminated vehicles crossing the Napoleon Street bridge near the War Memorial Arena, lasted less than 10 minutes this year and some bikes merely had their four-way flashers going.

I have no first-hand observations or anecdotal reports from Saturday, a day with lots of rain, but I did break out my convertible during a weather break Sunday and drove through downtown. Same thing: Few bikes, or spectators, compared with past years.

And then there is the noise indicator. Bikers fall into a couple of divisions – those whose first priority is to make the exhaust as jarring as possible, and those who ride the full-dress bikes, keeping exhaust notes low but blaring away their stereos on kill volume. Either way, you can hear them from the next municipality.

In past years, the days and nights were punctuated with virtually nonstop motorcycle noise, from both near and far. This year, it was more like an average weekend.

But I’m sure the organizers will be able to put a shine on all this.

My wife spent all of $1.50 for two cookies downtown Thursday for the girls. The kids wanted to eat, but even they didn’t find $5 hot dogs all that attractive.

In a remarkable display of maturity, they first wanted to go to McDonalds, but as I headed for the Rt. 56 bypass to hit the Richland location (bad reports abound on Westwood and downtown), the girls opted instead for Hoss’s.

Perhaps our money spent at Hoss’s will be factored into the Thunder success calculus, with the typical multiplier applied to such things, but should it count? We would have taken the girls out for lunch, Thunder or not, just as I’m sure many citizens who avoided Thunder like the plague, still patronized area gas stations, bars and restaurants during Thunder’s run.

This begs the question, one I’ve asked before, of exactly how these people calculate those economic impact figures, which often seem to be $20 million?

If they try running $20 million up the flagpole this year to see who salutes it/them, I’m going to issue a large Bronx cheer.

While the appeal meeting got the ax Monday, the Dahlia Street junkyard discussion took center stage in the regular Southmont Borough Council meeting that was held.

I arrived early with my son, who tagged along because he thought it all might be entertaining. He wasn’t disappointed, nor was I.

Charlie Brown arrived early, too. Offered the chance by me to say all the harsh things in person that he’d promised in a since-deleted Facebook post that he would say/do if only I would ignore his no trespassing signs and pound on his door, Charlie passed. He did compliment me on my writing ability. What a guy.

Charlie was videoing the whole thing. I hope he posts his profane tirade that had the council member running the meeting at that point pounding her gavel like Buddy Rich’s snare drum. The attending police at one point urged Charlie to tone it down and First Amendment rights were cited, plus Charlie offering up both wrists as to be handcuffed.

Familiar?

Another council member noted that there is a certain decorum that must be maintained in public meetings. Charlie disagreed.

It was a nice turnout and those who came only to have their individual concerns addressed, left wide-eyed.

The guy next to me, who attended in search of a handicapped parking spot, and to lament neighbors constantly having “bonfires,” at one point during a Charlie Brown rant rolled his eyes. Maybe his neighborhood is not so bad after all.

Those familiar with the story can skip this paragraph. Journalists used to be trained to recap background just to get first-timers up to speed. Along that line, a “paper alley” was being claimed as a driveway by one property owner. Another property owner wanted access using it. The dispute moved to court and it was ruled that no one can annex one of these alleys that exist on road plans, but have not been finished. And the alley must be opened. This led to a derelict car (more on this later) and a growing number of trailers being parked on Dahlia Street in protest.

There was plenty of testimony on both sides of the issue during open-comment sessions, which deteriorated into back-and-forth instances of charge and countercharge.

A man who was identified as the husband, then the ex-husband by Charlie’s mother, proposed all could be fine again if the paper alley was just given to his family. So, just give me everything I want and I will be happy.

Join the crowd.

I’d like a million dollars or so, if anyone wants to make me happy. No takers? Oh, well. Doesn’t hurt to ask.

At one point, there was an argument about whether or not that decrepit Corvette moored on Dahlia could start and be driven around the block. My son offered Charlie $50 if it could.

Charlie responded with a couple of single-finger salutes, punctuated with an offer to have sex with my son.

Maybe that will be on the video? The offer. Charlie’s not my son’s type.

At one point of a heated harangue, a guy (Charlie’s dad?) tried to tug him back to his seat from behind, with Charlie swatting away the guy’s hand.

A member of council demanded that the police begin an investigation of an e-mail he alleged that Charlie Brown had sent to numerous borough officials, invoking the name of Marvin Heemeyer.

It was Heemeyer, unhappy with city health ordinances in Granby, Colo., who armored a bulldozer and destroyed several buildings in 2004. Heemeyer committed suicide when his bulldozer became stuck in a hardware store he was attempting to raze.

The council member saw this email as a threat and demanded it be on the record and be investigated.

Eventually, regular business was addressed and then the audience was invited to leave so that an executive session could be held.

Bottom line: Southmont Borough council did nothing regarding the matter that had brought so many people to the room. Maybe next month?

This just in, the highly anticipated appeal meeting today at Southmont Borough Building has been postponed.

Why? Just a vague excuse about new information having come to light. But the regular council meeting is to be held.

Stay tuned.

Cue the basso profundo announcer: Today. Today. Today.

Southmont. Southmont. Southmont.

Be there. Be there. Be there.

It’s appeal day in Southmont, when elected officials get to weigh in on an appeal regarding the ability of one disaffected citizen to continue to use Dahlia Street as his personal storage lot, the better to protest his neighbors.

It should be enlightening on several levels.

Will the appeal get a thumbs-up or thumbs-down?

Will the aggrieved citizens, a list not limited to immediate neighbors, show up?

Will anonymous backers of the irritating one appear, ostensibly wearing masks or bags on their heads to protect their identities?

Will people with skeletons packed in their closets show up sounding righteous?

Will the Charlie Brown defense be invoked?

Will more threats and insults be offered in person, rather than via numerous posts, since deleted from social media?

Will 814PredHunters be there?

Will you be there?

It should be an entertaining slice of life. I can’t wait.

First, cheers to all the dads out there doing the right things, like hanging around after the sex to raise the child, providing support both monetary and emotional, helping mom with the duties around the house, setting a good example and generally being there whenever or wherever needed.

The rest of you, the fathers only in the biological sense, need to spend some serious time today in front of a mirror, vowing to do better going forward. Maybe by this time next year, you’ll deserve to be praised on Father’s Day, and all the other days in between.

That simple step would go a long way toward curing many of society’s ills.

Before beginning my Father’s Day celebration, I want to clean up some loose ends from the past week:

• The next time I hear Penn State zealots chanting “We are Penn State” at a football game, it’s going to be hard not to think about that Penn State professor who got caught allegedly molesting the collie in a state park and being quoted by the police as explaining afterward, “I do it to blow off steam.” What? No “We are Penn State”? There also was no report on his plans for Father’s Day. The professor’s plans, that is.

• Joe Biden’s “God save the queen, man” signoff at a gun control event in Connecticut was curious, even by his strange standards. This statement of British patriotism seems a bit late, maybe 247 years or so. Plus, it’s a king these days due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. But, after all, it’s just Joe being Joe.

• Not long ago, we questioned on this blog why it would take “months” to get I-95 reopened after the fire and bridge collapse. Now, Gov. Shapiro seems to have mustered some of the resolve he previously showed in counting Democratic votes and vows it will reopen within the next two weeks. Wags suggest this massive shortening of the timeframe indicates the job has been taken away from PennDOT.

• Still on the subject of I-95, Biden clone John Fetterman was offered the chance to weigh in on the matter during a Senate hearing the past week. As quoted by the New York Post, Fetterman replied, “Uh no, I – uh, would just, um, really like to, you know — the 95, 95, 95. You know?” I listened to the clip myself and some of what he said was tough to get so I’ll accept the Post transcript (translation?). Eventually, Fetterman made a bit of sense. And he didn’t conclude with “God save the queen, man” so that was a positive.

• Your former first-place Pittsburgh Pirates, who have gone 2-8 over their past 10 games, slipping to third place in the mediocre NL Central, might want to recall the words of former baseball great Satchel Paige: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

• The word of the day is screenshot. This is a way for viewers to capture for posterity computer screens displaying things such as social media rants both threatening and disparaging that the poster later tries to erase from the record by deleting them, likely on the good advice of others. An additional two words: Too late.