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.

Ja Morant is a cautionary tale regarding social media and possible fallout for keyboard warriors who think they can do or say anything in those digital spaces and not need to face consequences in the real world.

Morant is the troubled NBA player who can’t seem to stop “brandishing” or “flashing” weapons on social media posts.

The NBA, in desperate need of polishing its image, frowns upon such things. Morant does not appear to be getting the message.

According to a report on ESPN.com, Morant is no stranger to poor judgment in general, having been involved in numerous off-court incidents. These include being sued by a high school prospect for an alleged punch to the head and fight during a pickup game at Morant’s. Later, according to the report, a gun was to be seen in the waistband of Morant’s pants. Morant also is said to have had behavior problems with others, most notably with another NBA team’s traveling party.

Morant was suspended for eight games in March by the NBA, after this team had sat him following the initial gun post on social media.

It took only until May for Morant to show up again on social media with a gun. And this time the NBA has decided to sit Morant for 25 games to start next season. That will cost Morant about $7.5 million in salary.

It is not clear whether Morant’s gun or guns were legally owned and he was licensed to carry them. What is clear is that his employer does not want him flaunting weaponry on social media. If Morant wants to exercise his Second Amendment rights and walk away from his career, then no problem. If he wants to keep cashing checks for playing basketball, he’d be wise to keep his guns to himself.

This is where too many ill-informed types go wrong, always stressing rights without acknowledging accompanying responsibilities.

Morant and fellow social media exhibitionists of bad behavior would do well to consider the words Shakespeare penned for the character Macbeth, who spoke them while reflecting on the death of his wife and the crumbling of his life on other fronts.

The description also could be applied to an abundance of social media posts: “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

For the less literary-inclined, we also might offer up The Ballad of Ja Morant, to be sung to the tune of The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the theme of The Beverly Hillbillies TV show of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Ja

Rich hoopster guy with a gun or so we saw

Never used the gun to go huntin’ for some food

Just pulled it out for the show when he was in the mood

(Social media you see, foolish stuff, idiocy)

Now the first thing you know old Ja was losing dough

His NBA boss said that the guns would have to go

While Ja had the right to keep and bear his arms

He had to be aware of his postings causing harms

(Bad image, role model, impressionable types)

Ja’s come to the time when he needs to get it right

To keep all his guns away from social media light

But if Ja keeps on going with his social media tales

The price to be paid will be measured in fails

(Time to grow up, gain perspective, maturity. Y’all keep readin’, ya hear?)

Even addled Joe Biden gets it right sometimes, if unintentionally.

The Clueless One is in the hot seat for taking to Twitter (or more likely having his handlers do it) to jump on the celebratory bandwagon for the Las Vegas Golden Knights, winners of the NHL’s Stanley Cup.

The tweet referred to the Knights as “the first major professional franchise” in the great city of Las Vegas.

Predictably, an aggrieved member of the WNBA’s Las Vegas team took to social media to gripe. Us, too!

But Biden, or whomever, got it right on Twitter because the WNBA, despite all the feel-good efforts to promote it, is not a “major professional” league with its minuscule number of 12 franchises.

Let’s look at the telling arbiter of TV ratings. WNBA types currently are crowing about higher TV numbers, fueled largely by the drama surrounding the return of anti-American former Russian hostage Brittney Griner.

And what is the ratings track record? Glad you asked. According to Forbes magazine, WNBA TV ratings “pale” in comparison to other sports. The NFL averages 17 million a broadcast. NASCAR is at 2.2 million viewers on average; Major League Baseball, 1.4 million; and the NBA, 1.6 million.

The WNBA has averaged about 321,000 viewers. That’s thousands, not millions.

Average WNBA game attendance in 2022 was 5,679, about what Johnstown High School used to draw for football games at old Point Stadium when I was young.

By way of comparison, the NHL just had its lowest TV ratings for a clinching game in a Stanley Cup final in more than 30 years. But even that was 2.72 million viewers on average. The WNBA would kill for that level of disappointment.

Speaking of small TV footprints, you likely missed the U.S. Men’s National Team in soccer romping past rival Mexico, 3-0, Thursday night in a CONCACAF Nations League semifinal.

I was reduced to watching a Spanish-language broadcast because the soccer hierarchy, in all its infinite wisdom, offered the broadcasts in English only via something called Paramount-plus.

Worse, there were TWO offerings on my Dish Network packaging of the broadcast in Spanish. And just to add insult to injury, the other semifinal game played last night, between Canada and Panama, was offered in English on CBS Sports Network.

Talk about a kick in the teeth. Or, perhaps we should say, una patada en los dientes.

By the way, Las Vegas just missed out on landing the 30^th Major League Soccer franchise when that addition went to San Diego.

The U.S. men dominated last night – in a game ironically played in Las Vegas — looking technically superior to Mexico and showing creativity not usually associated with our national men’s team.

Christian Pulisic, already arguably our greatest men’s player ever, scored twice and was brilliant.

Frustrated Mexican players resorted to cheap fouls. The combination of those, and retaliation by American players, led to four red cards, soccer code for players being thrown out and their teams playing shorthanded going forward.

Two key U.S. players will miss the championship game vs. Canada due to those red cards.

The fights were mostly comical. It’s a soccer tradition to embellish contact hoping to draw fouls. Get close enough to an opponent that he can feel your breath and he’s likely as not going to collapse as if shot by a .44-magnum from point-blank range.

The fights last night were mostly slap battles and shoves, with the odd grab of a neck or jersey.

Soccer players ought to sign up for lessons in toughness and fighting from hockey players. Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk played part of Game 3 and all of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a fractured sternum!

As is typically the case with soccer, there seemed to be more Mexican fans in the Las Vegas crowd. They continued a tradition of chanting what soccer hierarchy considers a “gay slur,” “puta.”

This got play halted, and eventually ended the game short of playing out the entire allotment of second-half stoppage time.

The U.S. will meet Canada Sunday night in the title game and, you guessed it, if I want English commentary I need to pay to sign up for Paramount-plus streaming.

No, gracias.

Just by chance, I happened onto yet another My ‘Hood moment Thursday afternoon along — wait for it — Dahlia Street.

Returning home from a shakedown cruise with the orange ’04 Mustang GT, I attempted to turn onto Dahlia in order to reach my house’s rear parking area (a car was driving in the alley behind my house, denying me the easiest route). I was going to check my car’s coolant level and wanted to be parked off the street. Imagine that!

But, upon turning onto Dahlia, I was met with a police vehicle blocking the roadway, largely owing to there being only one lane and change due to an assortment of trailers and a decrepit vehicle having been moored there for months and months.

I surveyed the situation briefly, backed out again onto Harshberger Road and went around the block. But, I was curious about the goings-on, so after parking the Mustang, I walked around the block to see what all the excitement was about.

As I approached the scene, the policeman began to move, drove past me, turned around, re-passed me and then left the area. I continued walking and heard the loud voices of a man and a woman. I haven’t heard F-bombs uttered like this guy was doing since I last was in a pro sports locker room.

The woman, undaunted by the F-bombs and other crude and insulting language, was returning fire by making points to support her case in an outside calling voice, but not using such foul language.

I was surprised the policeman had felt comfortable departing such a volatile scene.

Eventually, cooler heads prevailed, with an older woman escorting the younger woman into their house.

A quick check revealed some theories and opinions about what had happened. I never spoke with the individuals involved, nor bothered to check with the police for an official report. I am content to wait for a public airing of this ongoing parking tiff, which I’ve been told by a borough representative will happen Monday afternoon, before the regular monthly meeting of Southmont Borough Council.

Just thinking out loud here, but my crystal ball tells me something like appeal denied is coming Monday.

While we wait, let’s play a little Jeopardy, where the answer is given and contestants must respond in the form of a question.

Host: The answer is, Dahlia Street.

Contestant 1: What was the name of Perry Mason’s secretary?

Host: No, sorry. That was Della Street, a role most associated with actress Barbara Hale.

Contestant 2: What was the nickname given the famous unsolved 1947 Los Angeles murder victim Elizabeth Short?

Host: Again, no. That was the Black Dahlia. Anyone else? No? OK, the proper question is What is the formerly quiet Southmont Street now taking on appearances of Ukraine?

Host: The next answer is, Paper Alley

Contestant 3: What was the 1973 Oscar-winning comedy that starred the father-daughter team of Ryan and Tatum O’Neal?

Host: No, that was Paper Moon.

Contestant 1: What was the collective name given to the New York City music publishers and songwriters that dominated the domestic music scene in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries?

Host: Sorry, that was Tin Pan Alley.

Contestant 2: Hey, host, I think my buzzer stopped working.

Host: Do you have a guess Contestant 2? No? OK. Paper alley is a public right-of-way drawn on road grids that never was actually constructed, but cannot be claimed as one’s property.

Host: And now we’re out of time. We will have to wait until Monday and the arrival of the studio audience for your Final Jeopardy questions, but here is the Final Jeopardy answer, Sweet Justice.

I am struck by news that the I-95 road collapse in Philadelphia “could take months to repair.”

This, despite our Governor Josh Shapiro declaring a disaster so as to dispense with customary governmental red tape.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Butt(whatever) rushed to social media if not to the scene to promise all needed federal aid to get the major highway up and running.

We’re supposing someone awoke Joe Biden to alert him, just for the record. But, since it was a weekend and all that, Joe would wait until his normal few weekday business hours to do anything substantial.

But months? Can we not rush the cleanup, the arrival of repair materials, and around-the-clock labor to reopen a road said to carry a reported 160,000 people per day according to state Department of Transportation data?

It’s not clear if that traffic data has had the Biden vote-multiplier applied to it.

Even if it had, that’s still likely 40,000 or so a day, which is a lot of traffic to be rerouted for “months.”

Even more questions abound.

Will this motivate an even greater number of migrants from Philadelphia to Johnstown public housing to avoid this daily inconvenience?

Will this make it tougher transit for them to our Friendly City?

Will road re-construction be done around-the-clock to speed the process instead of the customary daylight only construction with which Pennsylvania drivers are so familiar?

Will I-95 be restricted to one-lane travel 100 miles or so from the site in both directions, if only to enrich the provider of orange traffic cones?

Will anyone get around, after-the-fact, to quantifying how much this reconstruction cost and how much of that money went to construction firms who are large Democratic election contributors?

Just asking.

I intentionally chose to ruminate for several days before writing regarding Donald Trump’s ongoing legal problems, looking to distance myself from having no better than knee-jerk reactions. It didn’t help.

I can’t get past the glaring inconsistency of our legal system. Yes, Donald Trump is a crass guy. I’m not sure I’d like him personally if we ever met. I also voted for him – twice – because the Democratic alternatives were a do-nothing progressive continuing to bank largely on her husband’s name, or, in the latest instance, a man I wouldn’t trust to get my food order correct as a waiter — or not trip when carrying the food to the table!

To repeat, Trump seems to be far from likable on a personal level. But, the same can be said for Hunter Biden, and he continues to skate on various legal matters.

Hunter’s father, aka “The Big Guy,” fails to be held accountable for scandals ranging from his own mishandling of classified documents, to various doubts about he and his family.

Shillary Clinton had her own classified problem with home computer servers, but, typically, she received no more than a slap on her thick wrist.

Along that line, years-long investigations of Clinton-named foundations just ended quietly.

The list is lengthy of those on the left who never seem to get their date with justice, as long as they further the big lie about who truly runs our government. Some on the right also lack the guts to speak the truth.

Trump’s true offense – never mind what he’s charged with this time – is taking on the deep state in Washington, D.C. Those who wield the power, the same ones making the calls from behind the curtain for our animated cadaver current president, cannot stand up to scrutiny.

If the average Americans can take time from their various navel-gazing diversions and actually look at the big picture, they would/should be disgusted by how our government has been taken over by unelected bureaucrats and their behind-the-scenes puppetmasters.

Trump, for all his foibles real and imagined, shined the spotlight on these roaches. A man steeped in the sham of D.C., Trump political rival and Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer, noted early in 2017, that Trump would pay a price for this. “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Early, clumsy attempts by the FBI that included fudging reports, spying on the Trump campaign and feeding less-than-truthful information to judges to secure surveillance warrants, failed to put Trump’s head on a pike.

If only the FBI would put similar effort into the Bidens, or even providing documentation to Congress without having to be threatened with legal action.

Understand, the FBI and the CIA leadership past and present hates Trump to their core because he’s threatening their hold on power, one that transcends elections.

A legal scholar I have found to be quite insightful, Jonathan Turley, has opined in print that it’s almost as if Trump has invited these latest charges, that he might try his case in the court of public opinion.

Some have suggested that Trump could continue to run for president during any trial, or in its aftermath and, if elected, pardon himself should he be convicted.

If that is Trump’s thinking, he’s taking a huge gamble.

True, if only based on the proven anti-Trump bias of our justice department, this case could be won by Trump on technicalities. But that presumes no continuing interference and manufacturing of evidence, if necessary.

Haul a Biden or two into the courts for legal action and I will regain my faith in our legal system. Until then, not so much.