Ambulance NB is not free if you are from out-of-province
Before Christmas I was visiting in New Brunswick and needed an ambulance for a midnight trip to the hospital.
My heart almost did a flip when a $650 bill for ambulance services came a month later.
If I had been traveling in a province that didn’t have reciprocal medicare coverage, the bill could have been more than $10,000. Continue reading
Everyone was thrilled by the exploits of Newark Mayor Cory Booker when he saved his neighbor from a burning building.
Well perhaps his Republican opponents were less than enthused by the Super Hero Mayor.
Ellen did a video interview with Mayor Booker, posted it on her website and on YouTube then pulled it. Continue reading
NY Post
Newark Mayor Cory Booker appeared on Ellen today to talk about his adventure saving his neighbor from her burning home.
Update – for some reason the “Ellen” clip was removed from YouTube.
There are some men who are heroes and Cory Brooker is one. Continue reading
Noah Wyle is pictured in handcuffs at a protest by the disability rights group ADAPT in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2012. - (photo National ADAPT)
Hollywood stars are coming out for social activism and the ER cast is leading.
Noah Wyle, who played medical student John Carter in ER, was arrested and taken away in handcuffs at the ADAPT disability rally in Washington. DC.
George Clooney was recently arrested for civil disobedience at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC protesting the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan.
Continue reading
Levon Helm at Newport Folk Festival 2008 (photo credit WFUV Flickr Creative Commons non commercial)
Rock musician, actor and author Levon Helm is being remembered by many people since his death last week. Some are of those people famous and some like me, not. When I saw Levon Helm in The Last Waltz, it changed my live forever.
But the memories are strong. Share your remembrance of Levon if you like. Continue reading
Levon Helm (b. 1940 - d. 2012) famous rock musician Fredericton Harvest Blues Festival 2011 (photo Stephen Pate)
His family posted this brief message on Facebook
“Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.”
He had suffered from throat cancer which has been in remission, although his singing voice never fully recovered.
Update – Remembering Levon Helm
Holi Festival of Colors, Spanish Fork, UT (photograph Thomas Hawk)
If you thought Utah was just for Mormons and Mitt Romney, you missed the Hindi Holi Festival held at the Sri Sri Radha Krisha Temple, in Spanish Forks Utah on March 24-25th, 2012.
The Hindi Holi festival announces the coming of spring and the passing of winter.
Continue reading
Jim Marshall of Marshall amps - the sound of rock and roll (photo credit Damien Maguire)
James Charles “Jim” Marshall OBE (July 29, 1923 – April 5, 2012) was a man with poor health, a musician and business person.
In the 1960s he created the Marshall guitar amp and changed the volume of rock music forever.
He died on April 5, 2012 at a hospice in London, UK surrounded by his wife and four children. Continue reading
Earl Scruggs (photo credit - whittlz Flickr)
By Stephen Pate – Earl Scruggs, the man behind bluegrass banjo and The Beverley Hillbillies theme song “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” died in Nashville, TN at 88 on March 28, 2012.
Bill Monroe sang the high lonesome sound of bluegrass but it was the lightning 3-finger picking of Earl Scruggs’ banjo that propelled the music.
Scruggs left the claw hammer style of banjo, which is similar to thumb picking and strumming the guitar, and popularized the clever and fast 3-finger picking style.
Although other banjo players played 3-finger style, it was Earl Scruggs job with Bill Monroe in 1945 that catapulted the style to the forefront. Scruggs-style is the defacto standard for banjo players today. Continue reading
Photo credit: Pat Orr Photography | Long Island Lutheran's Anthony Pate goes up for the game winning shot. (March 24, 2012)
Updated with video of the winning shot- after the story break
With stories from AP and Newsday – Anthony Pate, who hails from Oakville, Ontario, salvaged the fourth quarter for Long Island Lutherans with a beat-the-clock 3-point shot to beat Harborfield Crusaders 62-61 in Albany NY Saturday, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Pate was named tournament MVP for his game saving 3 point clutch with 1.1 seconds left in the game.
“We actually talked about what would happen if I had the ball at the end of the game,” the Lutheran shooting guard told Newsday of a pregame chat with teammates. “I told them I’d make it. Wow. That’s a little foreshadowing.”
The Lutherans salvaged their second straight title in the Class A final of the New York State Boys Basketball Federation Tournament of Champions. Continue reading