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Happy Thanksgiving! May we be thankful for all blessings, every day.

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Yes, maybe it will be online ... but it's hard to say how that will work, at this point, or how well the audience can stay with it. I really hope it works ... it would be start of a new way to entertain. Cheers to Prospect Park, the production company that bought the rights to All My Children and One Life to Live.   

Congressional respresentatives ... our elected officials ... are going back and forth as to whether the nation needs extended unemployment benefits to help individuals through this longterm economic crisis.  According to the Washington Post, some congressional leaders think people who receive jobless benefits ... half of what they were making before losing their jobs ... means these folks won't even look for jobs, period.

Yeah, OK, Sure. Hey, let's just coast off "the system."

Everybody is "studying" unemployment ... why the numbers are so high, how it affects the would-be worker, if said-worker is actually looking for work, whether work exists in a field that said-worker can actually perform, and so on and so on. Never mind if age discrimination plays a part in any of this but ... here's the bottom line.

You can quote all the "statistics" you want. People are out of work. When people are out of work, they cannot feed themselves, pay mortgages, pay taxes ... No work or supplemental income means no outgo. Period. And in the meantime, we suffer. Contrary to what our paid representatives think, many of us do not want to sit on our collective ass, we want to work for wages that pay the bills. We want to eliminate the stress, the debt and we want to feel useful. We want to be respected. We want to feed our families and prepare for the future. So before Congress tells us we're trying to scam the system by not working at jobs we're not qualified for anyway, let them walk a few miles in our shoes.

 I can go on here but the people who really need to listen ... do not.

Only a couple more weeks of All My Children on ABC. The network recently announced the longtime soap's demise; final airdate is September 23, 2011.  One Life To Live, also a longtime soap on ABC, is set to go off the air in January of 2012. Word has it that an Internet company has bought the rights and properties of both soaps and will air them online. I hope it happens but I'll believe it when I see it. The thing is, even if the shows do make their homes in cyberspace, many of the cast and crew have made plans to move on.

A little history ...

Beginning at 9-years-old, I've watched All My Children since its inception in 1970 and One Life to Live shortly after that.

Boss of ABC Daytime, Brian Frons, set out to destroy Daytime TV years ago. He's never been a Soap fan and was a major player in creating bad storylines, poor writing and production, replacing seasoned actors with no-talent-model-actor-wannabees and pushing Agnes Nixon, Soap Opera creator and GURU, out the door. I think we soap followers have seen this for years and it's no surprise. But what cracks me up is that ... why cut only two of the three? If soaps are truly dead, why not cut General Hospital too and do it right now? I think those of us who want Soap will head to Y & R or one of the others on a different network. If we were watching cooking shows, we wouldn't be a AMC or OLTL to begin with. Now, I would like to see AMC and OLTL end up on the Internet/Cable TV (even though I wouldn't be able to watch it as often) but those of us who want soap won't be watching cooking shows. Heck, I don't even know where the kitchen is in my house!

The "wrap up" of All My Children has, in my opinion, been one of the better storylines in years and not just because of the "return of the dead" and previous actors making their final bows but because the show actually strived to create a good product. Frons would not let that happen before.

Yes, today's entertainment choices have hit the Soap Opera genre but soaps are not dead. I bet we see higher numbers for The Young and the Restless, the Bold and the Beautiful and Days of Our Lives.

Something to remember on this Labor Day weekend (a holiday to celebrate the working man/woman) ... Many people are out of work. If you're not one of them, enjoy your holiday and be grateful! Show some compassion to those who are down on their luck.

"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

Not always easy.

Dear business owners, it is up to you. Teach your employees to say "you're welcome" when someone says "thank you."  You know the proper etiquette and you must teach it to your employees because, apparently, society has taught  kids-- and adults-- to respond to people in an annoying and disrespectful way. Employees... please just say "you're welcome" when someone thanks you for your time and service. "No problem" is not appropriate.  

All this fuss for some tattoos?  Really?  What really happened here that would prompt OSU to say "my bad" and give back its season, even before the NCAA can decide on action. Sorry, but I think that it just has to be bigger than this. What's the real reason OSU told Tressell the university supported him, and then asked him to resign. There has to be more than tattoos and a coverup by the coach about that. We've seen tougher weeds in the NCAA backyard, what kinds are growing in the Buckeye garden? The bigger question, why does Athletic Director Gene Smith still have a job? The athletic director and the compliance department should be held accountable for infractions; it is their job to make sure players abide by NCAA rules.  No head coach ... Jim Tressell included ... can be responsible for watching a team's players, staff members, cheerleaders, band members patrons and sponsors 24/7. 

Not saying that Jim Tressell didn't handle this whole thing wrong ... he did, absolutely. 

Teri Silver --- July 8, 2011

Independence day is one of my favorite holidays ... maybe my most favorite. All of us struggle with different issues, some heavier than others, but we Americans have a good life and God knows, you can't say that about a lot of other people. I am proud to be American and proud of our country, problems and all.

CHUTZPAH. My Great-Grandmother Beci had it. My Grandfather Hymie and Grandmother Mary had it. My Aunts Charlotte, Rosie and Becky have/had it. My father had it. My brothers have it. So do I. Happy to say my nephews have it too.