Sale of last iconic Catskills resort signals the end of an era

Movies such as Dirty Dancing, gave us everlasting memories of the once affluent getaway spot.

Now, the last of the iconic Catskills resorts has been sold to a company that plans to turn the property into a healthy living resort. 

Sullivan County economic development officials said the sale of Kutscher's Country Club was finalized Wednesday.

The Catskills used to be the 'place to be' in the summers and winters for generations of vacationers.

Through-out the decades, major performers would flock to the tourist destination which was known for it's lavish hotels and getaways.

In the winter, The Concord, The Pines, Kutschers, Browns and many more hotels in the area is where families would stay to go skiing in the close-by mountain ranges or to watch famous acts such as Neil Diamond and Frankie Avalon, before the area's once unimaginable decline.

In the summer the area had great hiking, mountain climbing, camping and much more.

Families looking to get away for the summer would head there in the thousands each year; and parents would send their kids to the area's many sleep away camps like Kutscher's Sports Academy and Camp Anawana, made famous by the popular Nickelodeon show of the same name. 

Stars such as Sammy Davis jr. Jackie Mason, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and many more graced the billboards of the now dilapidated area.

Efforts to bring gambling to the area, notably to revive the Concord hotel with a casino, have so far not been successful.

The most recent attempt to revitalize the area, a casino called Monticello raceway, has met with only limited success, and the area still remains vastly neglected. 

No Pain No Gain is a Thing of the Past, Now its No Burn, No Earn

No Pain No Gain is a Thing of the Past

Now its No Burn, No Earn

Working out at the gym and hitting those reps until it burns like crazy seems to be the oldest way to get the most out of your muscles. Its an old adage that has been repeated time and again since that huge gym craze from the 80s, popularized by Olivia Newton John's famous anthem "Physical". NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!

The biggest problem with that saying is it is very right, but very wrong.

People have the misconception you need to do reps until you feel pain and that any pain is good. Many do not realize that you could be doing some heavy duty damage to your body. Its time to look at he pain you are feeling when you do your reps. If you feel a sharp pain, STOP WORKING OUT THAT BODY PART! If you feel burning, you are doing it right.

So in closing just remember, it is indeed correct, NO PAIN NO GAIN, but just replace it with NO BURN, NO EARN and youll be solid before you know it and seeing good results :)

The Myth About the Unemployment Rate being at 10 percent (its really close to 24 percent)

It is amazing that the government, the media and most of the people are buying into the supposed fact that the unemployment rate is at an "astonishing and tragic" 10.7 percent.

Actually everyone, its more like 24 percent. Yes, you read it correctly, 24 percent.

One must wonder how it is possible that I came to that conclusion. Well it is certainly not just me, but a steady stream of intellectuals, politicians and bloggers who are realizing that the governments' current guidelines for determining the unemployment rate is horrendously flawed.

'After a year, if you haven't found a job, they assume you gave up and dont count you anymore!'

According to Jason Termin a jobs analyst who works for the Department of Labor, the unemployment figures are skewed to give a much better picture and its been this way for decades. "Basically the unemployment rate is figured by guessing how many people have been looking for a job for a year or less" Termin says.

"If you have been looking for a job longer than a year, than the government assumes you gave up and doesn't count you in the tally of unemployed, even though in this recession, according to MOST job sites it can take almost 1 to 2 years in this climate to find the ideal job."

He went on to point at the latest jobless figures. "If you figure in the people who STILL havent found work after a year, its certainly close to, if not more than 20 percent unemployment, and most job statisticians would agree with that figure".

So what is the solution? Termin says we should really "press the media to stop buying into the goverments flawed way of calculating the unemployment rate and demand that the government give accurate figures"

The bottom line is, both sides of the government are at fault for promoting this lie. People deserve the truth. Unfortunatley the truth may be too sobering for both sides of the media and goverment to admit to, especially when the truth points to that grim fact that this recession has a jobless rate almost equal to that of the Great Depression.

Summer Movie Review...first up, Transformers 2

So far I have managed to see every movie this year by continuing a tradition of doing nothing else on Friday but going to the movies. So here is my first review, ill have Bruno and Hangover reviewed within the next week.

Transformers 2: A- or 3 stars

I know a lot of critics have a problem with this one, but let me tell you, as a fan of the old transformers cartoon, and as someone who saw the movie with others who had no clue what an optimus prime was, I have to tell you, despite what the critics said, in my book, it scored an A- or 3 stars.

Ok so they never exactly explain how they drive from Egypt to Jordan without going through Israel, or how exactly the Pyramids ended up on the Sinai Peninsula.. So the geography is a bit off and the movie should have been a half hour shorter, but otherwise, the character develoment went well... the collagen in Megan Fox's lips only seemed to have made her hotter and the battle scenes arent as close up as in the previous one. So you can actually tell who is fighting who.

I saw no reason for it to get anything less than 3 stars but the critics really pounded this one. At first I wanted to say its because they probably werent fans of the series, but I saw it with people who never saw the Transformers cartoon and they all loved it. Personally I think the critics just got upset at the fact that it was a half hour too long, a point I agree with, but I do not agree with the half a star alot of papers are giving it.

The fight scenes were done well, the character development was superior to the first one and the computer animation was perfect. This movie is one of those things you will have to see for yourself because the critics are way off when it comes to this one.

A-, 3 stars..