Author: Frank LaManna

Hello! My name is Francis Joseph LaManna, Author of Smorgasbord A Collection of Thoughts, Experiences, and Stories, Smorgasbord 2 Catch Up and Relish, and Administrator of https://noozbuffet.com. Nooz Buffet is my piece of the web, and I write about things I like, things I dislike, and things I think people should know about.

Alright, Making Progress

Friends, readers, and supporters, how are you doing?

Thank you so so much, I noticed several of you responded to my post about purchasing my book, Smorgasbord A Collection of Thoughts Experiences and Stories. I’m beyond appreciative! The paperback version of the book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and wherever else books are sold. You can also purchase the e-book on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

Thank you for your support! Smorgasbord 2 Catch Up and Relish should be on the shelves before this winter ends.

And of course, there will be a Smorgasbord 3; Smorgasbord 3 The Final Platter.

About COVID. I was allowed to return to work today, the 22nd, but I took this last day off deciding to return to my normal shift next week. I’m still a little hazy-brained and slow, but all that is clearing up. I’m excited to return to work, and I can’t wait to get back into the flow of society. Quarantine sucks. I still don’t have my sense of smell or taste, but I anticipate they’ll both return in time. Thank you to those people who emailed me tips on how to speed up the recovery process with that. You guys and gals are great! ❤

🤼‍♂️ The high school wrestling season has begun. I know I always mention my glory days of playing football, but I also wrestled, I was good too. That’s me on the right wrestling in the county tournament, winter of 1997. The Beast of the East tournament at the University of Delaware turned out to be a huge success, as it usually does, and the Gauntlet Duels were successful as well. Congratulations to all the place winners at the BOTE, if you can place there, you’re on your way to a good season.

😲 I’m shocked. I don’t know if you guys watch Bob’s Burgers the adult cartoon? Well apparently, the guy who does the voice over for Jimmy Pesto, Jay Johnston, will no longer be able to participate in the show because of his participation at the Capital on January 6th. Is the government saying he cannot work? This is strange, the original article was published on Decider-the link is below.

https://decider.com/2021/12/19/bobs-burgers-actor-jay-johnston-will-no-longer-voice-jimmy-pesto-after-participating-in-capitol-riot/?utm_source=email_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

🎋Yesterday, December 21st, was the Yule Sabbat. Different traditions celebrate the beginning of the new year at different times and in different ways. The arrival of the Oak King, or today it’s, The Sun King, Jesus, and the New Year’s Baby that kicks of the turning of the wheel as we say goodbye to Father Time and the Dark Lord. December 21st is also the first day of winter or the Winter Solstice. Either way, have fun celebrating whatever you celebrate. Enjoy yourself, and appreciate the love, family, and warmth around you.

There are a lot of people who can explain this better than I can, but..I heard, astronomically speaking, not astrology, that the sun as we know, rotates around the earth. It eventually reaches a point where it sits below or just about even with the horizon for a period of three days. That’s 3 days and no movement. Then, it begins again. They say the story about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead in three days is a symbolic translation of the sun in it’s orbit around the earth. If you understand that whole thing better, write in. Thanks.

Have a wonderful Wednesday (Hump Day) LOL.

Battling COVID

So I left work on the evening of the 8th, and I really didn’t feel like myself. The next day I felt full-blown sick, and when I checked my temperature it was 101.0. I knew I was sick, but the question was, was it COVID-19, or was it a normal winter flu?

I tested myself, and I tested positive for COVID-19 on the 9th, and I’ve been in quarantine since. I was a little shocked because I haven’t been sick in long time, and this is the first time I tested positive for COVID.

At this point today I feel much better. It’s been about 12 days and my fever was gone days ago. Every day I feel a little better.

I did however, lose my taste and sense of smell. I just read today that people who lose their sense of taste and smell because of COVID-19 usually have to wait for it to return. It takes time.

They said Hot Tamales and Sour Patch Kids help retrain your taste buds and bring flavor back. Citrus fruits are said to help as well. I’ve been drinking as much water as I can, I’m trying for a gallon-a-day, but that’s not happening. I’m also taking vitamins; I take a multi-vitamin, D3, Magnesium, Saw Palmetto, Milk Thistle, and B12.

Work gave me a return date on the 20th, that’s tomorrow, but I still haven’t produced a negative test yet. Tomorrow I’ll retest-its been four days.

Alright everyone, stay safe and stay healthy!

Who’s the Beast of the East

The Beast of the East is a high school wrestling tournament that took place this weekend, starting yesterday, Saturday, December 18th, and finished up today, Sunday December 19th. All of the matches were wrestled on the campus of the University of Delaware.

2021 Champions

106 Pounds- Nate Desmond (Bethlehem Catholic)

113 Pounds- Leo Deluca (Blair Academy)

120 Pounds- Mark-Anthony McGowen (Blair Academy)

132 Pounds- Tyler Vazquez (Delbarton)

138 Pounds- Tyler Kasak (Bethlehem Catholic)

145 Pounds- Ethan Mojena (Lake Highland Prep)

152 Pounds- Joe Sealey (Wyoming Seminary)

160 Pounds- Jonathan Ley (Lake Highland Prep)

170 Pounds- Daniel Wask (Blair Academy)

195 Pounds- Sonny Sasso (Nazareth)

220 Pounds- TJ Stewart (Blair Academy)

285 Pounds- Nick Feldman (Malvern Prep)

Beast of the East

The Beast of the East High School Wrestling Tournament began yesterday, Saturday, December 18th on the campus of the University of Delaware. The first 3 rounds were wrestled yesterday, and the quarterfinal round was set to begin this morning, Sunday, December 19th.

Bethlehem Catholic and Nazareth have a number of wrestlers in good position to start the day.

106 pounds- 1 Nate Desmond (Bethlehem Catholic) vs. 8 Colin Martin (Staunton River)

113 pounds- Tahir Parkins (Nazareth) vs. 2 Daniel Jones (Delbarton)

120 pounds- 3 Jack Consiglio (Malvern Prep) vs. 6 Cael Mcintyre (Bethlehem Catholic)

132 pounds- Ashton Campbell (Bethlehem Catholic) vs. 2 Tyler Vazquez (Delbarton)

138 pounds- 1 Tyler Kusak (Bethlehem Catholic) vs. Max Stein (Faith Christian Academy)

145 pounds- 1 Cross Wasilewski (Delbarton) vs. Nicholas Foster (Nazareth)

152 pounds- 1 Ty Whalen (Clearview Regional) vs. 8 Dominic Wheatley (Nazareth)

195 pounds- 1 Sonny Sasso (Nazareth) vs. 8 Hudson Skove (Rumson-Fair Haven Regional)

220 pounds- 1 TJ Stewart (Blair Academy) vs. 8 Chase Levey (Nazareth)

285 pounds- 3 Aiden Lacoma (Christiansburg) vs. 6 Sean Kinney (Nazareth)

7 Cooper Rudolph (JW Robinson) vs. 2 Noah Tusin (Waynesburg)

GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE WRESTLERS!

High School Wrestling in the Valley

Tis The Season!

High school wrestling in starting back up again in Lehigh County. Yesterday, Friday December 17th, 6 teams participated in the Gauntlet Duels at Blue Mountain High School in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania.

There were five rounds, the first beginning at 4:30 PM and the last concluding at 9:30 PM.

Teams- Allentown Allen, Blue Mountain, Pleasant Valley, Southern Lehigh, Stroudsburg, and Tri Valley.

RESULTS

Round 1– Stroudsburg 35 Pleasant Valley 25

Tri Valley 54 Allentown Allen 24

Southern Lehigh 40 Blue Mountain 27

Round 2– Southern Lehigh 42 Pleasant Valley 33

Blue Mountain 46 Allentown Allen 24

Stroudsburg 37 Tri Valley 36

Round 3- Pleasant Valley 54 Allentown Allen 24

Tri Valley 41 Blue Mountain 29

Stroudsburg 44 Southern Lehigh 25

Round 4- Tri Valley 35 Pleasant Valley 30

Southern Lehigh 72 Allentown Allen 0

Stroudsburg 37 Blue Mountain 31

Round 5– Pleasant Valley 48 Blue Mountain 15

Stroudsburg 67 Allentown Allen 6

Tri Valley 43 Southern Lehigh 27

FINAL TEAM RANKINGS

  1. Stroudsburg 5-0
  2. Tri Valley 4-1
  3. Southern Lehigh 3-2
  4. Pleasant Valley 2-3
  5. Blue Mountain 1-4
  6. Allentown Allen 0-5

World Nooz

Right now in Antarctica there’s a Florida-sized glacier known as the “doomsday” glacier. Many sources are reporting about it, and no one is downplaying the seriousness of the possibility of its collapse. They say if it breaks off and slides into the ocean the sea levels will rise almost a foot during the next ten years.

4311 The House on Furnace Street Part 2

A work of fiction

By Francis J. LaManna

4311 Furnace Street remained vacant for the next 30 years. No members of the Ottenbury family showed up or called in to claim the property so it sat. Once or twice during the year employees from the Department of Public Works would show up and cut the lawn, that was in the beginning though. I don’t think anyone trimmed a bush or cut the lawn there in last ten years. People just avoided that place, it was like it didn’t exist. As a matter of fact, in all my years living in Scarlet, I’ve never even seen a For Sale sign on the lawn.

Old man Ottenbury died when I was in high school, I was a sophomore at Scarlet High, and I can remember walking past 4311 everyday on my way home from school. It felt strange-the whole area around his house was one big cold spot. It was eerie too like as if someone was watching me. Sometimes I would run home.

If you take Furnace Street all the way out until you come to the first cross street and cross over, Furnace became Gate Street. My parents and I lived at the end of Gate Street. Sometimes I would get that eerie feeling walking past Ottenbury’s and haul ass. A few years after I graduated Scarlet there was a series of stories in the local paper. Locals thought his house was haunted, and some people reported seeing the ghost of an old man standing in window. There’s a lot of people who think Ottenbury’s house was haunted at the time of his death, and that’s why he didn’t try to get help or leave. No one understood why he just sat there and bled out.

Well, I’m in my forties now, and I ended up buying a house of my own on Gate Street right across from where my parents lived. I don’t go near that house anymore, and here’s the weirdest thing. If I go out onto my front lawn at night when it’s dark and look in the direction of Furnace Street, the sky about that area looks like it’s on fire.

I wish there was a way of closing Gate Street-you know, completely separating our side from Furnace Street. In a sense it would be like closing the gate to the furnace; maybe make it a dead end or something.

Ceres

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and the asteroid belt is located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.

Since its discovery on January 1, 1801, by Italian Astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, Ceres has been referred to as a planet, then reclassified as an asteroid, and finally, a Dwarf Planet in 2006.

Piazzi was also a Catholic Priest. When he made the discovery of Ceres, he did so from the Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily.

The name for Ceres was originally Ceres Ferdinandea. Ceres after the Roman Goddess of Agriculture whose earthly home and oldest temple is in Sicily, and Ferdinandea after King Ferdinand III of Sicily.

The astronomical symbol for Ceres is the Sickle. In 1973, Ceres was resurrected for astrological use.

4311 The House on Furnace Street

A Work of Fiction In Progress

By Francis J. LaManna

It was pouring rain and old man Ottenbury was moving frantically around his house trying to get the windows closed. It’s a good thing, however, not all the windows were open because a house that big could’ve been soaked by the time a man as old as old man Ottenbury got around to closing them. There was no Mrs. Ottenbury, she passed naturally more than a decade ago, and his three kids were grown with lives of their own.

That last window, the one in the living room area was putting up a fight again as it always had. It was near impossible to close; for old man Ottenbury at least. As he pressured down on the small handle, he steadied himself with his left hand pressed against the glass. And then it happened, the glass shattered underneath the pressure of his hand. The sharp glass cut deep into his arm from his wrist all the way up to his elbow.

Ottenbury pulled his arm free and sat on the floor beneath the window. It was still pouring rain, but the sound of rain was soothing. The carpet around the old man was soaked. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts flow, occasionally grabbing onto the memories of his wife. He loved and missed her.

The body of old man Ottenbury was found several days later when the rain stopped. A woman walking past the house noticed the shattered window. Upon closer examination she saw a head and called the police.