[PRCo] Re: SEL&BVT Book

[Fred Schneider]

What does busted mean?   Dismissed?   Days off without pay?   A  
simple infraction written in the personnel record as a warning not to  
do it again?

What amuses me is that romance novels for a woman are roughly  
analogous to a skin video magazine to a man.   But a woman will fly  
off the handle if she sees a man looking at what she considers porn.

John Swindler knows this story ... he once dumped a whole cache of  
old Playboy magazines in my desk at work when I was away on  
business.   Our secretary found them and raised hell.   So I left  
them there.   And she continued to raise hell at regular intervals.    
And every time she opened her mouth, I asked her why she was in my  
desk.   Did I have any right to be in her desk?   She said I had no  
right in her desk.   Well, the next week she would be back in my desk  
to see if they were still there and bitching again.   But she read  
romance novels at work when she had no work to keep her occupied.    
And woe to the guy who told her she could not do it.

Funny thing about it, now that Barb is retired, she is a wonderful  
person.   I actually stop and say hello once in a while!

On Nov 28, 2007, at 7:18 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:

> We had six admitting reps busted at work for reading romance novels  
> on line
> while at work....
>
> K.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:35 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: SEL&BVT Book
>
>
>> I suspect a lot of news spreads via the internet.   Books?   I  
>> doubt it.
>>
>> On Nov 19, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Bob Dietrich wrote:
>>
>>> Fred:
>>>
>>> Could some of the decline in book reading be caused by people
>>> getting their
>>> literature from the internet, thereby assuring a steady stream of
>>> customers
>>> for the Grateful Fred? (I'm not sure how detrimental to my eyes
>>> staring at
>>> this screen all my life has been)
>>>
>>> Bob
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Fred
>>> Schneider
>>> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 3:40 PM
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Subject: [PRCo] SEL&BVT Book
>>>
>>> I borrowed the book Ghost Rails III Electrics by Wayne A. Cole from
>>> the PTM library to study this week.
>>>
>>> This book is for sale in the PTM book store for something like $45
>>> (give or take) and covers the Steubenville, East Liverpool and  
>>> Beaver
>>> Valley Traction Company; the Newell Bridge Railway; the Youngstown
>>> and Ohio River Railroad, and the predecessors of those companies.
>>>
>>> It has a lot of nice then and now pictures in the upper Ohio
>>> Valley ... great for those who want to take a tour like we did in
>>> Washington and Fayette counties over the weekend.
>>>
>>> Ed Lybrger's comments were that the text and the pictures were
>>> separated rather than having the pictures used to illustrate points
>>> made in the text.   Ed did, however, comment that he was happy that
>>> Cole did acknowledge the help that PTM gave him.
>>>
>>> I cannot, being oblivious to the local history, comment on the
>>> research and thus far I have not read the book.  My initial comments
>>> only pertain to layout.    The use of double-spaced type for the  
>>> body
>>> text seems extravagant.   While it may be easier to read, single
>>> spaced, double-column text would have reduced the space requirements
>>> by 25 pages and the retail cost of the book by perhaps $3.00.     
>>> It's
>>> hard bound so the amount isn't a whole lot.   It would have allowed
>>> some larger pictures.
>>>
>>> There was an item in our local paper today indicating that money
>>> spent on books has declined by 14%, adjusted for inflation, from  
>>> 1985
>>> to 2005, simply because people have quit reading.   It also noted
>>> that between 1992 and 2002 those in the college age group who have
>>> read a book voluntarily dropped from 59% to 52%.   That does support
>>> a need for larger pictures, doesn't it?
>>>
>>> My second comment also regards layout.   Whether done by the
>>> publisher or the author, whoever did it should be aware that it is
>>> not customary to alter the proportion between the x and y axis of
>>> photographs and drawings of streetcars, people, buildings and maps
>>> but it was routinely done in this book apparently in order to
>>> eliminate white space.   It first because obvious to me when I  
>>> looked
>>> at a "scale drawing" of the 1926 SEL&BVT Kuhlman cars and discovered
>>> that the vertical distance, measuring 11'-4" was actually
>>> significantly shorter on the page than the car width which measures
>>> 8'-6".   As I paged through the book I found many additional  
>>> examples
>>> of fat people, fat streetcars, short streetcars, wide streetcars,
>>> Jack Sprats, Bridges so narrow that you wonder how the trolley would
>>> fit except that the car looks like it has been slimmed down to four
>>> feet wide ... well, you get the idea.  Computers are great.   If the
>>> picture didn't fit the available space, then we'll make it fit.
>>> Just push the top down and squeeze the ends out.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>