Reflections, Thoughts and Musings

In Honor and Remembrance Howard William Osterkamp from Dent, Ohio, was a Korean War veteran and Purple Heart recipient who is attributed with the phrase: "All gave some, some gave all." "All gave some" acknowledges that every man and woman who serve or have served in the military contributed in some way, whether through time, effort, or personal sacrifice. "Some gave all" honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives in service to their country. Memorial D

You asked for more trivia and true facts so happy to continue this series. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. Without further ado: Gate Tower Building in Osaka Japan is a 16-story building with a unique characteristic. It has a highway that runs through the middle of it! Bart Simpson was not named after anyone that Matt Groening knew. It's an anagram of the word "BRAT". Doh! Message in a Bottle. The world's oldest message in a bottle was discovered on the shore of

Penn State College of Medicine held its 56th commencement ceremony this past weekend at Hersey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania. If you follow our posts regularly, you may remember that our daughter-in-law, Ali, was a med student at Penn State College of Medicine. Ali went through the Match Day process back in March and was accepted into the Plastic Surgery residency program at University of Illinois Chicago, her first choice! She will be beginning her surgical residency progr

What do Vera Wang, Eddie Money, Jerry Orbach, Julia Child, Martha Stewart, Samuel L. Jackson, Grandma Moses, J.K. Rowling, Ray Kroc, Stan Lee, Harrison Ford, Michael Bloomberg, Terry Crews, John Glenn, Jeff Bezos, Colonel Sanders, Tom Clancy, Ronald Reagan, Laura Ingallis Wilder and Taikichiro Mori have in common? If you guessed a love for sushi or a handlebar mustache, I'd seriously recommend changing your meds and calling an analyst for therapy. All of the abovementioned i

What's bugging you, snookie? Life was simpler in the old days. Running from dinosaurs, making fires, hunting and gathering - you pretty much knew what was expected to survive. Modern life has made things easier in some ways, but we seem to have a new crop of inconveniences and things to whine, complain and basically grouse about. You would think with all the brain power and smart people in the world today, we'd FIX stuff that seems to universally annoy us. I'm sure each of

In 1968, Director Stanely Kubrick released a film called 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie outlined the story of a spacecraft called Discovery One and its journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft's operations were controlled by HAL 9000, which was an onboard computer with a human-like personality. At some point, HAL 9000 makes a judgement about a problem it found with the ship and the astronauts aboard disagree with HAL's assessment. The resulting conflict between man and machine

Life's a lot There's a lot going on lately. Among my small circle of friends, I see a lot of suffering. In the last year or two, I've had friends lose a parent, a spouse, a child, a sister or brother that were their best friend and deepest confidant. I've commiserated with friends that lost a pet they loved as much as a member of their immediate family. I've had friends diagnosed with cancer, or struggling to recover from debilitating surgeries or illnesses. I've got frie

To my readers.... I've hit a couple of milestones - it was one year ago on Tuesday that I decided to retire. I wasn't sure if I was ready, but because of changes with the merger at my work as well as completing a communications conversion project, it seemed fitting. There have been fits and starts since that time, but I've managed to find a bit of a groove where I don't feel the need to fill my entire day with activities. I've been able to stay in touch with friends from wor

Nothing like a cool cover song Continuing the series of songs covered by other artists. Some you'll love, some you'll hate, that's what makes the world go around! Crazy by Gnaris Barkey redone by Ray Laontagne Changes by Black Sabbath redone by Charles Bradley Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden redone by Norah Jones Shakedown Street by The Grateful Dead redone by Poolside You Keep Me Hanging On by the Supremes redone by Vanilla Fudge Rocket Man by Elton John redone by Kate Bush

Albert Einstein on his 72nd birthday It's a rainy Hump Day here in PA...! Here's a list of great quotes from some of history's greatest thinkers, celebrities and that guy named "anonymous" compiled, edited, reassembled and polished up from various websites and sources, including Medium, Discover Walks, ThatOneRule and the Awesome Daily. "The old believe everything. The middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything." Oscar Wilde "To succeed in life, you need tw

Bob Joe This is a story about an underground newspaper. It's also about a friendship that has survived over fifty years. For the unacquainted, an underground newspaper is defined as a small-scale, alternative publication that operates outside official approval or mainstream media control, often produced and distributed without government or institutional oversight. Historically, the term has been used in two main contexts: Clandestine or resistance publications Countercultur

Here's some more songs that were covered by other artists and some feel are better than the original - Let me know what you think: Sweet Jane done by the Velvet Underground redone by Cowboy Junkies Cocaine by J.J. Cale redone by Eric Clapton Dancing in the Moonlight by Boffalongo redone by King Harvest Everybody's Talkin by Fred Neil redone by Harry Nilsson Hound Dog by Big Mamma Thorton redone by Elvis Presley Make you Feel My Love by Bob Dylan redone by Adele Some Kind of W

More True Facts and Trivia adapted from various sources including Readers Digest, That's a Fact, Jack! and True Facts that Sound Like Bull$#*t You asked for more trivia and true facts so happy to continue this series. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. Without further ado: A New York City Restaurant sells a $2,700.00 pizza! Industry Kitchens in NYC South Street Seaport holds the Guinness record for the world's most expensive pizza. It must be ordered two days in adv

A humorous weekend in the City of Brotherly Love From the rooftop of the Logan Hotel - Philadelphia My wife and I celebrated our anniversary by staying at a very nice hotel in center city, Philadelphia for an extended weekend. We're both music lovers and came to see a show on Saturday night at South Jazz Club on Broad Street in Philly. She also made arrangements for a couples massage at the hotel where we were staying. Before going, I practiced my best Philly accent, ate s

Nothing like a cool cover song From the feedback I've received so far, this is going to be a popular series! Here's some more songs that were covered by other artists and some feel are better than the original - Let me know what you think: Nothing Compares to 2 U by Prince, redone by Sinead O'Connor. I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton redone by Whitney Houston. Blinded by the Light by Bruce Springsteen redone by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Dazed and Confused by Jake Holmes

In our beloved Pittsburgh! Imagine 32 different billion-dollar companies lining up to pick the best new employees that are graduating college but instead of them looking at resumes, these potential employees bring highlight reels, 40-yard dash times and the ability to bench press a refrigerator. Each spring since 1936, the NFL holds a giant event called the Draft. The Draft allows NFL teams the opportunity to take turns selecting college players to join their teams. The wor

Our daughter in Capetown recently sent me an article by Omar Najjarine published on Substack called, Of course you can't focus. You live a life of permanent interruption with a subheading of Why we can't think clearly anymore. If you subscribe to Substack, I urge you to check out the entire article because I won't be able to do it justice in a short blog post. The original article is over 3,800 words. It has been said that the average attention span of a person today is abo

More True Facts and Trivia adapted from various sources including That's a Fact, Jack! and True Facts that Sound Like Bull$#*t You asked for more trivia and true facts so happy to continue this series. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. One reader in particular asked for some historical trivia, so some is included here. Without further ado: Bran Castle in Transylvania is called Dracula's Castle. In Romania, a storybook castle once held Vlad III, better known as Vlad

Cool Cover Songs Part 2 Here's some more songs that were covered by other artists and some feel are better than the original - Let me know what you think: Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen redone by Jeff Buckley All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan redone by Jimi Hendrix Hurt by Nine Inch Nails redone by Johnny Cash Africa by Toto redone by Weezer Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits redone by Leo Moracchioli and featuring Mary Spender. (Leo is a personal favorite of mine and does a L

Nothing like a cool cover song Several years ago, we had a few friends over and played our version of "Name that Tune" where you'd play a few seconds of a song and have them guess the name of the song and the artist. One guy at the party was incredibly talented at it and could often name the song in like 5 seconds of hearing the intro. It started a second discussion about bands that do cover versions of other people's songs and that some of the remakes are better than the or

Fanciest Data Room I've ever seen Nerd Alert - Yes, it's going to be one of those posts - run away if you don't like technology blogs. But I'm going to make this one seem interesting even if you're a total technophobe. You pick up your phone to look for a photo, turn on your computer to search the web, surf Netflix to pick a movie, or perhaps check your email. Does the Internet Fairy bring you this information? While there's always that possibility, your request is probably

The crew of Artemis II Friday was a proud day for America. The crew of Artemis II, Reid Wiseman : Commander, Victor Glover : Pilot, Christina Koch : Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen : Mission Specialist successfully returned to earth on Friday April 10th, 2026, at 8:07PM. The Artemis II mission was our first foray into space with a crewed flight around the Moon in over 50 years. The trip's nearly ten-day mission started on April 1st at Kennedy Space Center and concluded whe

Michael Jackson released a song in January 1988 called Man in the Mirror that appeared on his "Bad" album. Part of the lyrics are: I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways And no message could have been any clearer If you want to make the world a better place Take a look at yourself, and then make a change This past winter, I was going through photo albums and came across a photograph of my oldest son as a toddler sitting in the bathroom with

More True Facts and Trivia adapted from various sources including That's a Fact, Jack! and True Facts that Sound Like Bull$#*t You asked for more trivia and true facts so happy to continue this series. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. Without further ado: Despite not existing, the Unicorn is the "National Animal" of Scotland. Venus spins clock forward and no one knows why. The rest of the planets in our solar system spin counterclockwise. We almost nuked the moon.

Thinking about cutting the cord? My grandfather had a little Zenith 10-inch television on his back patio where we used to watch Phillies games during the summer. It was my job to adjust the rabbit ear antenna to get the clearest picture possible. Somewhere along the way, we added aluminum foil to the top of the little antenna ears to make it better. Eventually, he got a house antenna mounted on the roof and we ran coax cable down to the back porch. Despite my grandmother c

Resurrection Sunday Wishing all my readers a Happy Easter Sunday on this holiest of days.

Artemis 2 - We have liftoff! For the first time since 1972, the United States of America has launched a crewed space journey to go around the moon. At 1835 hours (6:35 p.m.) on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a crew of three American and one Canadian astronaut lifted off from 39B launch site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orion spacecraft sitting atop the SLS (Space Launch System). This rocket system stands 322 feet tall and generates 8.8 MILLION pounds of t

Rock-Ola Bubbler Harley-Davidson Digital Music Center Jukebox Some people collect stamps. Other people like old coins. My wife and I have always been fans of music and have transitioned over the years from albums, cassettes and 8-tracks to hundreds of CDs and now MP3 and streaming services. Several years ago, we commissioned Rock-ola in California to build the Bubbler Harley-Davidson Digital Music Center jukebox pictured above. Each jukebox is built by hand and if you were

Cranberry anyone? Left to right, Jeff Aulich, Jimmy Dormire, Randy Threet, Henry Paul IV, Henry Paul. Not pictured, Mike Bailey and Dave Robbins Penns Peak hosted the American Southern rock band, the Outlaws this past Friday night. The Outlaws are from Tampa, Florida and have been around for more than 50 years with various band members coming and going during their tours. I saw them in 1976 at the Scope in Norfolk Virginia and again in 1979 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

What has 8 legs and looks like Mr. Potato Head? You're probably wondering why a post on Octopuses? Part of the creative nonfiction class that I'm taking at LCCC is required reading of a book by Sy Montgomery entitled The Soul of an Octopus. I read quite a variety of different genres but have never come across this New York Times bestseller before and quite frankly, I'm intrigued by the content. Montgomery's book explores how surprisingly intelligent octopuses are and goes int

Photo from thereviewgeek.com What do Yellowstone, 1923, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Lioness, Landman, The Road, U.S. Marshalls, The Madison, Wind River, Sicario, Hell or High Water among others have in common? They're all created, produced or written by Taylor Sheridan. I've been accused of being a fanboy for a few things in my life - Apple products, Harley Davidson, Veteran's rights, live music, Buddhism, Fender Guitars, Blues Music, Grateful D

What are you looking at? Chuck Norris passed away suddenly on Thursday at the age of 86. He was surrounded by family and was in a Hawaiian hospital for days prior to his passing due to an undisclosed medical emergency. No cause of death has been released at the families' request, but they did say he was at peace. Carlos Ray Norris was an American martial artist, military veteran, actor, screenwriter, and author. He held black belts in karate, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Brazi

I worked for 18+ years at Lehigh Valley Health Network and would hear about the new batch of resident doctors that would be coming to our network each year without really understanding the process of how they got there. It became "real" to us when our daughter-in-law, Ali, who will be graduating in May from med school and went through the Match Day process. Ali and our son, Rob, have given us permission to tell their story. Ali has been a med student at Penn State College of

Excerpts from That's a Fact Jack! Here's some more fun facts and trivia for you: If you put a mirror one light year away from Earth and looked at it through a telescope, you would see two years into the past. (This one confused me a little, I'll admit) Potatoes have more chromosomes than humans do - 48 verses 46! The steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amount of antioxidants as three oranges! The largest human cell is the female ovum. The smallest is the male

Green Beer Our family is Irish and German, and we take our Saint Patrick's Day celebration seriously! Let's get one thing out of the way - It's ALWAYS Saint Patrick's Day and NEVER Saint PATTY'S day! Our uncle Pat would be rolling in the grave to hear it called anything other than Saint Patrick's Day... Like most good traditions, Saint Patrick's Day origins come from our ancestors and the old country. Compiled from a Copilot search on the subject: Saint Patrick's Day, celeb

What??? Another article on Drones? Didn't he just do one? For those of you that have been reading my posts since Roberts Reader started last fall, you may know that I write all the articles myself but research a ton of websites before sitting down to pen a story. I initially started writing a general article on drone technology a few weeks ago but because of the operations in Iran, I kept running into news cycles that talked about how drones were being used in battle. I made

3.14 is Pi Day Today is 3-14, internationally known as Pi Day! Pi Day originated in 1988 as a playful celebration of a math theme by Larry Shaw. Larry is a physicist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco who started the tradition to mark the date 3/14 as Pi Day because it matches the first three digits of Pi (3.14). Here's LARRY! Originally, the activities involved: Marching around in a circular space Eating fruit pies Reciting digits of Pi Celebrating Albert Einstein's Bir

$500 Backpack sized Kamikaze Shahed Drone VS $4,000,000 Patriot Missile The geek in me has become fascinated by drones over the past few years. I'm researching another post about drones in more general terms but wanted to talk about an issue that's been dominating the news lately. We've been hearing a lot about drones being utilized in Operation Epic Storm. While the United States has been dominating against Iran, it comes at a real financial cost when the enemy uses chea

Sugar Mountain, a Neil Young Tribute band played at Penn's Peak on Friday night with a new leader singer and guitarist, Geoff Doubleday, replacing John Hathaway. This was only Geoff's second performance since joining the band. They were tight, authentic and true to the magic of Neil Young's music. Geoff is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and song writer from Sparta, New Jersey. He has been playing guitar since he was three years old and professionally since he was thirteen.

Dad Jokes never get old The following Dad jokes are from various sources and are specifically designed to make you laugh, groan or shake your head. But I bet you repeat at least one of them to someone else! Enjoy! What do you call a cow that can play a musical instrument? A moo-sician. What is a UPS driver's favorite sport? Boxing. How do amoebas make calls? On a cell phone! What car always breaks the rules? A Nissan Rogue What kind of watch does Bigfoot have? A Sasquat

What, are you crazy? We come from a family of strong opinions, which I consider a good thing. We are well read, keep current on politics and world events and like to make our views known. Unfortunately, we don't agree on many things, and it's caused a lot of friction within the family. It's to the point where we have agreed NOT to discuss politics within the family. I will certainly take my share of the blame for things getting out of hand and over the years and while I W

Daylight Savings Time Good morning! This is your friendly reminder to turn your clocks ahead this coming Sunday March 8th at 0200 hours (2AM). That is unless you live in much of Arizona (Yes, talking to you, Bobby and Cindy) or Hawaii, because these states don't follow Daylight Savings Time. For those interested in a little history, Daylight Savings Time was first introduced in Port Arthur, Ontario Canada on July 1, 1908. As time went on, other locations in Canada followed

More excerpts from True Facts that Sound Like Bulls#*t Here's some more fun facts and trivia for you: Beavers butts taste like Vanilla -Beavers secrete a substance from their glands that's used in artificial flavoring - Yum! Although the earth is 70% water, just 1% of it is considered drinkable! Zebras and Tigers each have a unique stripe pattern - Much like a human fingerprint. Reindeer eyes change color throughout the year - In the winter, they turn blue to allow them to

If it's on the Internet, it must be true, right? How many times have we turned to the Internet to research something or just get basic information and come away with some new knowledge that makes us feel a certain way or believe some truth that we read? I used to be naive enough to believe that everything I read online was verified or fact checked by the Internet Gods somewhere before it was allowed to be published. Then, as time went on, I came to understand that ANYONE, AN

Some people are naturally mechanical, others a knack for numbers or cooking, some can write or have musical abilities. And some, like my friend, Curtis are artists. Curt Curran recently retired after a career in telecommunications as well as a stint in the Navy. Our paths ran parallel in that regard, and I've considered him a friend for several years. Curt Curt discovered his love and skills for drawing as a youngster. He drew ideas from wherever he saw; copying character

When it's cold and dreary out like this and everyone is getting cabin fever, it's easy to start wondering about friends and family you haven't seen or talked to in a while. I read an article recently in Medium that discussed the complexity of adult friendships and why it's so difficult for adults to make new friends. When I retired last year, I had 5,068 contacts in my outlook contact list. I made the mistake of not backing this database up to a personal file or drive and w

Agnes is M.A.D. Over the years, all of us have either heard or told ghost stories around the campfire or at parties, but there's a local legend right here in the Lehigh Valley about a REAL ghost story at one of the local sports bars in Emmaus that has survived the test of time and has enough credible witnesses to make it a worthy story to share. Volpe's Sports Bar at 501 Broad Street, Emmaus has a ghost by the name of Agnes living and lurking in the basement of the establishm

Lead Sinkers disguised as Pastries Today is Fasnacht Day The word is Hard It's just a Pastry Made with Lard Ah, February 17th, 2026. a lot is happening or happened today. We had the first solar eclipse of 2026 at 7:12 ET that created the famous "ring of fire" effect. For my Hindu friends, happy Bhaumvati Amavasya Thomas Jefferson was elected the 3rd U.S. President It's Michael Jordan, Paris Hilton, Billie Joe Armstrong and Ed Sheeran's birthday (as well as approximately 385

Not Bob - 3+3 = 6 - Rock on! One nice thing about living in this area is that there is always a lot of live music. Look to the PPL Center and Wind Creek Event Center for some of the larger shows, Penns Peak for a more intimate setting with a lot of excellent tribute bands and sometimes some headliners. Archer Hall is the new kid on the block and so far, appears to appeal to a more eclectic clientele base. Musikfest Cafe and the associated Levitt Pavillion offers up a mix of

From www: cspi.org I recently read a lengthy article on https://www.cspi.org titled Planetary health diet: Good for you and the Earth by Caitlin Dow, PhD. You can read the entire article from that website, but I found it interesting enough to summarize it a bit with my usual witty somewhat offbeat commentary: In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its PLANETARY HEALTH DIET which outlined how we can feed the expected 10 billion people by 2050 without causing undue harm