The Accidental Blogist

We've Moved!

2005-01-20T18:00:00.000-05:00

The Accidental Blogist has become The Long Cut and moved here.

Come on over!

Moving On Up

2005-01-20T06:43:00.000-05:00

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A couple of weeks ago I complained about being stuck using the free Blogger service for my blog. Submitting posts is often slow, changing sidebar items is tedious, and photo uploading is unnecessarily complicated. The gold standard for blogging now seems to be TypePad. TypePad, unfortunately, is a pay service. In my post I lamented that paying for blogging was not something I could justify right now.

Shortly after that post a very kind Accidental Blogist reader contacted me. It seems that TypePad was offering a Buy One / Get One Free deal to renewing members. This wonderful person offered me their free one-year account. Giving it about, oh, a second of thought, I accepted. I am now the owner of a TypePad Plus account, which comes with three weblogs. The Accidental Blogist, Ipso Photo (my photoblog) and I Have a Headache (the missus’ blog) will all be making the big move.

I cannot express the incredible amount of gratitude I have for the wonderful benefactor who is making all of this possible. As most blog authors (or at least the ones that don’t get 10,000 daily hits) will tell you, some days you wonder, “why bother?” That’s why getting feedback and comments can make a bloggers day. Somebody is out there reading your stuff. I see this gift of TypePad as one person’s belief that my writings and photos have some value. I now feel that it is my job, at least for the next year, to continue to try to improve my writing and my photography, if only to justify this gift I have been given.

New Address, New Name

I’m going to use my move to TypePad as an opportunity to change the Accidental Blogist name. While I originally stumbled onto Blogger (and blogging) by accident, I think I’ve kind of outgrown the word accidental. It gives the impression of a bumbling novice. And the word blogist (which isn’t really a word) might be better than “blogger,” but it still was starting to grate on me. So my new blog will be The Long Cut, as in not the short cut, as in taking your time and looking around. The Long Cut is a song off of Uncle Tupelo’s last album, Anodyne and my seven-year-old says it describes the routes I take while driving. I also think it describes my writing. As the song says, If you wanna take the long cut, We'll get there eventually.

So please follow me over to TypePad and bookmark the new site. Ipso Photo will remain on Blogger a little longer until I get it to look how I want it to look, but The Long Cut is ready to go. It’s not perfect, but as I learn more of the TypePad way of doing things I hope to continue improving the site.

See you there!

Never at a Loss for Words

2005-01-19T06:56:00.000-05:00

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Last weekend the whole family packed into the minivan and took a trip to Barnes & Noble in an attempt to stave off cabin fever. While there we picked up Scrabble. It has been so long since I’ve played Scrabble. Since the last time my vocabulary must have improved greatly, because I was on fire last night. I knew it was going to be a good night when I started off the game with sundry. Sundry, people. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word in my life, and yet my brain looked at the jumbled letters on my rack and came up with sundry. Granted, it wasn’t a rack-clearer, but still. Sundry! I went on to lay down plenty more five and six letter words. Later on, in desperation time (I carried three i’s for most of the game) I came out with vim. Vim!

It amazes me that my brain has been storing words that I never use. Just how big of a change this is cannot be understated. I finished off grade school with nine straight trimesters (three year's worth) of F’s in Spelling. That’s F F F F F F F F F. The only reason I got accepted into Holy Cross High School was that they combined my Spelling grades (F’s) and my Grammar grades (A’s & B’s) for an “English” grade of C. In my Freshmen year of high school, where Vocab was taught one quarter and English the next then Vocab then English, here’s what my report card looked like: F B F B. So you could say that Vocab was never really a strong point for me.

I think my spelling ability is even picking up, which is weird because I've been assuming that using Spellchecker as a crutch has made it worse. Some of this might come from my seven-year-old constantly asking me how you spell things. He's like a walking pop quiz.

So bring on Ms. Anne Marie Byrnes and her Vocab tests. I’m ready.

[I’ve left out the fact that I whooped the missus’ butt in the above Scrabble match since she was in an drug-induced pre-bedtime trance for the game and wasn’t really in the mood to play, especially against someone who was getting a little too excited about the word vim. And if I've spelled anything wrong in this post, please be gentle.]

No Tell, No Sell

2005-01-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

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Monica Yant Kinney has a piece in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about former New Jersey governor (and former Dubya environmental beard) Christie Whitman's new "tell-all" book, It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America.

It's been a few years since Christie got the boot from Bush for not exactly following the administration line on the environment (who knew they had one!) as the EPA Chair. That's a big no-no in the Bush cabinet, especially when your job is to be an ~~important~~ impotent figurehead for the dismantling of decades of environmental progress.

So Whitman must still be mad, right? Juicy book, right? She's had a couple of years to let stew her anger at the Republican Party and their "social fundamentalist" (her words). And what has she been doing since being evicted from Washington? According to Kinney,

She cochaired Bush's reelection campaign in New Jersey, knowing her man could never win her state. She bopped around the country stumping for Bush.

and

In November, just before the election, Whitman gave Bush another Scottish terrier puppy.

Oh.

Huh.

That might explain why, according to Kinney, the book reads less like a tell-all and more "like a pitch to get elected again."

It might also explain why the book was ranked at #6526 this morning on Amazon.

The Evening, It's What It Was Late In

2005-01-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

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After spending half my Martin Luther King, Jr. day off in a seemingly never-ending trip to BJ's and the other half waiting to get my truck towed (which, I think, is how the good Reverend would have wanted his birthday commemorated), I realized that I was at risk of not posting anything today. I'm too tired to think of anything original (or anything inspiring for MLK Day) so I'll give you some of my favorites from a recent McSweeneys list:

Popular Songs Renamed Along the Lines of the Cattlemen's Beef Board Ad Campaign "Beef, It's What's for Dinner."

Me, It's What's for Leaning On

Back, It's What Baby Got

The House, It's What's Burning Down

Alles, It's What California's Über

The Street, It's What's for Dancing In

The Dust, It's What Another One Bites

U, It's What I Would Die 4

London, It's What's Calling

Brooklyn, It's What There's No Sleep Till

The Volume, It's What's Pumped Up

Sorry, that's all I've got today. Please find a blog that actually put some thought into a post for today, like this one or this one.

Nellie Whoa-ed

2005-01-16T12:51:00.000-05:00

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What is this, high school?

Sen. Ben Nelson finally has succeeded in getting President Bush to stop calling him by the nickname "Nellie." Bush had been referring to the Nebraska Democrat as "Nellie" since 2001. Nelson disliked the nickname and had asked the president to stop using it. The president likes to give people nicknames. He has called Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, "Pootie-Poot," while aide Karen Hughes gets "High Prophet." But Bush heeded Nelson's request to scrap his moniker, and at the recent White House Christmas party, the president referred to Nelson as "Benny."

The "Presidential Wedgies," however, will continue.

I hope that acting like a pompous quarterback and doling-out stupid nicknames to other world leaders becomes part of Dubya's ignominious legacy.

Pithy Playoff Prognostications 2

2005-01-15T03:30:00.000-05:00

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Last Week: 2-2 (Overall: 2-2)

STL-ATL: ATL

MIN-PHI: PHI

NYJ-PIT: PIT

IND-NE: IND

Photo Friday - 01.14.05

2005-01-14T06:36:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Signs

Click on photo to enlarge.

Strange Neighbors.

17th & Walnut, Philadelphia, PA.

Keyboard Confessional

2005-01-13T06:38:00.000-05:00

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After going months without copying someone else's idea, I'm going for two in one week. This is a little different since Amanda at MouseWords hoped her Confessions post would start a meme (which, for you non-blogging normal people out there, is an idea that you take from another blog and put your own - from the French for I can't think of a single thing to write today). I learned of it from eRobin over at the award-winning Fact-esque.

The whole idea of answering these questions is to "de-snob." Now take a look at the words under my title banner. Go ahead, I'll wait. There's no way I'm going to de-snob, it's my bread and butter. But I will answer these questions to prove that, while I remain better than you, I'm not a total jerk.

CD I have in my car that I roll up the windows to listen to

While I don't have a CD player in the truck, there is one in the Kia minivan. If you're not embarrassed being seen driving around in a Kia minivan, then you aren't going to be embarrassed by listening to any kind of music. Never mind that, as the missus will tell you, it's a miracle any time the window-up button on the Kia actually works. Right now the power locks keep trying to trick us into locking our keys in the van. No lie, the van hates us more than we hate it - and that's a lot.

Anyway, I have a very low tolerance for bad music but I will say that I'll leave 10cc's "I'm Not in Love" on (and sing along to it - loudly) if WXPN plays it.

Book I read flat so no one could see the title

Some of the books I read last year had some real touchy-feely titles, even thought their content wasn't. I admit I tried to hide the cover of Anna Quindlen's Blessings while on the train.

Crappiest song ever sung at karaoke

I've only ever sung one song on karaoke, on the system that we got our seven-year-old for Christmas. Of the three crappy songs that came with the system I chose Say My Name by Destiny's Child. As a joke. Honest.

Bad movie I watch repeatedly

Robby Benson's One On One. It plays on CMT every once in a while. And if it were on TV more I probably wouldn't turn off Benson's Ice Castles either. This is what happens when you grow up with five older sisters controling the remote.

Article of clothing I love though I know it's wrong

Without a doubt my running tights. The two-year-old even laughs at me for wearing them. Coming in a close second would be my High Performance Underware. That's right, High Performance.

What I order at the bar when no one is listening

Manhattan. If people are around I'll just get a 7 & 7 so I don't look so pretentious. If I'm ordering beer, it will always be something pretentious.

Fast food item I adore

I don't even know if Roy Rogers still makes them (since the only surviving RR in South Jersey is at a turnpike rest stop), but they used to make Strawberry Shortcakes with a warm biscuit at the bottom. Mmmm-mmm. And I miss their Double-R Bar burgers, too.

A TV show that is a good example of the downfall of civilization that I love anyway

Around the Horn on ESPN. Four sportswriters yelling and insulting each other. Makes Crossfire look civil, I can't stand anyone on it, and yet I can't stop watching.

eRobin added two of her own questions to the list:

Advice I Give My Kids Even Though It Makes Baby Jesus Cry

Both boys have been raised knowing this: We don't hate anyone... except the Yankees. (It used to be "...except the Yankees and the French," but then all the war-mongers started hating the French and since they were one of the few countries who dared question Dubya I'm pretty cool with them now.)

Good Cause I Just Can't Support

I used to boycott oil companies that screwed people over, but that's getting harder and harder to do. First it was Shell, for profiting off of apartheid and civil wars, than it was Exxon for telling us they were done cleaning up the Valdez mess long before the cleanup was anywhere near done. But now Shell's got some weird partnership going with Texaco (which is now merged with Chevron) stations and Exxon merged with Mobil. I guess I could just go to the Hess, but I'm sure if they haven't already done something evil they will soon. And, frankly, the world's fascination with their toy trucks scares me. For the time being I go to Texaco, since I can't figure out exactly what their agreement with Shell Oil is. Plus the guys at my station are pretty cool.

Shephen, Ehh

2005-01-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

You've given Stephen A. Smith the title of "General Sports Commentator" at the Philadelphia Inquirer even though he knows little but basketball and you've used him as the basketball go-to guy on SportsCenter, where he starts most of his answers with "I don't know, but..."

What else could you do to pump Stephen A.'s ego? I know, give him his very own "opinion/personality" television show on ESPN2 (the network responsible for me unnecessarily having to know who Jim Rome is). Oh, and make sure you make it "much like the Bill O'Reilly Show".

Great.

State of Mind

2005-01-12T06:04:00.000-05:00

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Saturday night the missus and I watched Garden State, the first DVD in my quest to watch 52 interesting films this year. Garden State was directed and written by Zach Braff, who also stars in it. Pretty impressive for the young star of Scrubs, a show that I would watch if I remembered to watch something other than sports and the Food Network.

Braff plays Andrew “Large” Largeman, a b-list Hollywood actor who has spent most of his life medically sedated by his psychiatrist father. The death of his mother brings him back home, sans-meds, to the Garden State (my home state, though the movie takes place in North - not my South - Jersey). While home he quickly meets up with some of the unmotivated friends he left behind in Jersey, least ambitious of them being the gravedigger Mark, played by Peter Sarsgaard. While looking for non-paternal psychiatric help Large meets up with Natalie Portman, another patient who quickly becomes a romantic interest to a guy who’s been too sedated to be interested in anything. Braff rides around with Portman and Sarsgaard in his sidecar motorcycle, trying to figure out what it’s all about.

I’m a big fan of Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, and the first half of Garden State has a very Graduate-like feel to it. Early on Braff’s Large is seen from above, lying in his bed, seemingly oblivious to his father’s voice on the answering machine. This made me think on the scene in the Graduate with Dustin Hoffman floating in his parent’s pool while his father tries to talk sense into young Benjamin.

The second half of Garden State gives up its Graduate-like oddball-ness for (somewhat) touchy-feely conversations and a romantic happy (somewhat) resolution. That’s not to say that it doesn’t give up all of its peculiar ways. The writing was still a breath of fresh air and included some great acting from Braff, Portman and Sarsgaard. The film moved quickly and had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, many dealing with a childhood friend who’s set for life because of his one invention: Silent Velcro. It’s definitely a great debut of both writing and directing from Braff. Everybody knows that young actors in Hollywood “really want to direct” but this guy has shown he has what it takes on his first try.

Two other things: the Garden State soundtrack is really, really good, and Zack Braff has a pretty interesting Garden State blog.

Next up for me is Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, a movie I should have seen a long time ago but somehow never did.

Yankee Rebellion

2005-01-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

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(Maybe) You heard it here first:

Randy Johnson won't get the Yankees to the World Series (it will be the BoSox again) and Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran won't even win the Mets the NL East division (looks to me like the Braves are once again the team to beat). I'm still not convinced that the Mets will finish ahead of the Phillies. The Pedro signing looks about as good as the deal the Phillies got when they signed Kevin Millwood and Beltran, who was on fire the second half of 2004, still only hit .267 last year. For that he gets a seven-year $119 million contract.

Meanwhile it looks like the Big Unit (pictured above) is having some trouble adjusting to the Big Apple.

[If my predictions (which may change as more players switch teams) prove incorrect, this post will mysteriously disappear from my archives.]

Chow Line

2005-01-10T06:05:00.000-05:00

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It's been a while since I ~~stole~~ borrowed another blogger's idea, but Karen over at Verbatim had an interesting post last week about a BBC poll that asked the top 50 foods everyone should try a bite of in their lifetime. Karen listed them and color-coded them based on whether or not she had tried them.

This is my kind of post so I'm going to give my take on these 50 items. I tweaked her color-coding to also show what things I really, really like and what I can't try because of my nerdish shellfish allergy.

If you really like food talk (among other things) I would definitely recommend Verbatim. Karen's Dinner and a Movie post is a typical entry from her; a movie review that comes with the recipe for her movietime dinner.

bold green text: tried, really, really like
plain black text: tried, liked
bold black text: tried, wouldn't miss if I never had again
plain red text: never tried, might try
bold red text: never tried, never will
bold blue text: never tried, allergic

1. Fresh fish
2. Lobster (tried only once, followed by whole-body rash)
3. Steak
4. Thai food
5. Chinese food
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry
10. Prawns (same as shrimp, right?)
11. Moreton Bay Bugs (Australian lobster-like crustacean)
12. Clam chowder
13. Barbecues
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta
16. Mussels
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator
21. Oysters
22. Kangaroo
23. Chocolate
24. Sandwiches
25. Greek food
26. Burgers
27. Mexican food
28. Squid
29. American diner breakfast
30. Salmon
31. Venison
32. Guinea pig
33. Shark
34. Sushi
35. Paella (a saffron-flavored dish)
36. Barramundi (Australian fish)
37. Reindeer
38. Kebab
39. Scallops
40. Australian meat pie (similar to Cornish pasty?)
41. Mango
42. Durian fruit (stenchiest fruit imaginable)
43. Octopus
44. Ribs
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas
47. Jerk chicken/pork
48. Haggis
49. Caviar
50. Cornish pasty (meat chunks, onion, potato and herbs wrapped up in a baked crust)

I can't really say that I hated anything on the list that I've tried. I'm impressed with how much of the list I have tried (amost half, which isn't bad when you rule out shellfish). I spent too much of my life being picky, so I'm still catching up. As for my favorites from the list, I would put them in this order:

Pancakes (which I would have at an American diner)
Barbeque (which would be ribs - wet)
Mexican food (probably a couple enchiladas)
Ice Cream
Pizza

My list of what people should eat in their lifetime would include:

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Falafel
Wasabi Soy Nuts
Bananas (on the verge of over-ripeness)
Banana Bread
Blueberry Pie
Granola
Chili (hot or sweet)
PB & J
Yogurt
Rice Pudding (w\ raisins and nutmeg)

Nothing too scary.

Use Your Delusion

2005-01-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

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I really should contact Yahoo News about this story. They have it under Political News, when it really should be under Oddball News:

Newt Gingrich Open to Presidential Run

And the Right said John Kerry was full of himself?!?

Pithy Playoff Prognostications

2005-01-08T09:43:00.000-05:00

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STL-SEA: SEA

NYJ-SD: NYJ

MIN-GB: GB

DEN-IND: IND

Unenlightening

2005-01-07T07:05:00.000-05:00

The Philadelphia Inquirer gave its Architecture Critic, the almost-always cranky (and usually justifiably so) Inga Saffron, a primo spot on the front page today (below the fold, but still) – and she blew it.

It seems that the Fairmount Park Commission has turned off the lights that adorn Boathouse Row. They hope by pulling the plug they will inspire locals to match Peco’s contribution and donate $150,000 so the current incandescent lights can be replaced by a state-of-the-art LED system. The Park Commission says that the incandescent bulbs blow out too often and drains $8000 a year in electricity, compared to $1000 for the new system. And hey, they can color the new lights any of 16 million gaudy colors like pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month or green for the Eagles or a vomit-esque brown for the Wing Bowl.

What bugs me about the Saffron piece is that she really has no opinion on the new lights. She repeats a lot of what is stated in an article by Thomas Fitzgerald (which could have easily been the front page piece), tells us that the project could come in over the projected $300K (you think?), gets assurances from the higher ups that the LED lights will look as “warm” as the current lights, tells us that she doesn’t want Boathouse Row lit up “like a Christmas display,” and then admits that “colored architectural lights have a long history” (without giving any examples).

The conclusion of her piece is: we need to discuss this. It would seem to me that a. it’s a little too late for that, and b. critics make their money telling us their opinion, not asking for ours. I don’t recall her (or any Inky critic) ever asking for public input to help make up his or her mind. That’s what she went to college for and it’s what the Inky pays her to do. I might not always like her opinion, but I want to hear it. And if you have a critic who doesn’t really have an opinion, it makes for a poor front-page article.

As for me, I’m not so attached to the old lights to not give the new ones a try. There’s so much architectural and historical destruction going on in Philly that I really don’t have a problem with someone trying to better a landmark rather than just tearing it down. To tell you the truth, when I’m passing Boathouse Row going down the Schuylkill Expressway at night what catches my eye aren’t the lights that work but the one’s that are out. I wish they could do all this without the stupid special-event colored lights (leave that to the skyscrapers), but if that’s what it takes to get the public into it, fine.

I don’t like the way that they just switched off the lights with little or no warning. It looks like they’re trying to hold the city hostage (and they’re asking for money when a lot of people are sending it to the Indian Ocean area) but it’s probably the most affective way. I would almost guarantee that it would go over budget, just like most of these projects do. They need to do what the organizers of the Ben Franklin lighting project did – get the lights up and worry about creditors later. They also run the risk of looking like fools if they have to can the project and turn the old lights back on, but I don’t see that happening. I think this project is perfect for showy corporate sponsorship and I assume a lot of the citizens who belong to the private rowing clubs down there have some Benjamins to spare.

There you have it, my opinion. Front-page stuff.

Photo Friday - 01.07.05

2005-01-07T06:10:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Silhouette

Click on photo to enlarge.

Philadelphia is the city of murals. This one is smaller but it fits this week's challenge.

Silhouette Mural.

Chinatown, Philadelphia, PA.

Futures Market

2005-01-06T06:35:00.000-05:00

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The Food section of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer lists their predictions for the top 20 food trends of 2005. And I know you’re just dying to see what I think of them.

1. Chocolate, the gourmet health food. It's about time something that tastes so good is actually good for you. Dark chocolate, which is at least 70 percent cocoa, is a source of polyphenols, the antioxidants in red wine and green tea that help keep plaque from forming in arteries. It also contains flavonoids, which make blood platelets less sticky and are thought to lower blood pressure and LDL, or bad cholesterol. Look for artisanal and varietal chocolates touted for their subtle taste distinctions (as are single-estate wines and coffees) and for candies laced with offbeat flavors such as green tea, black pepper and beer. And yes, there is also chocolate-flavored beer.

Liz Applegate, Runner’s World magazine’s resident nutritionist has been saying “chocolate is good for you” for a long time. But it’s only good for you in moderation, and I have never ever in my life eaten chocolate in moderation. Plus these “healthy” chocolates are being sold to an American audience (like me) who think that if something is healthy (like low-fat ice cream), you can eat twice as much.

As for chocolate-flavored beer, no thanks. I’ll stick with the subtle chocolate taste of my stouts.

2. Fast food with style. Fast-food chains are lightening their menus, proving that fast needn't mean overprocessed, oversalted, and full of fat and empty calories. Decor is being upgraded, too. A McDonald's opening in Chicago this year will offer wireless Internet access and a hangout atmosphere. The resurgence of neighborhood restaurants with character, regional foods, and casual fare that is fresh, well-executed, and familiar enough not to be threatening also continues.

Please don’t tell me that fast-food joints are lightening their menus when 2004 saw McDonalds introduce the deadly McGriddles and places like Hardee’s start selling half-pound burgers with 73 grams of fat.

I have noticed a rise in neighborhood restaurants around me, but most are still not family friendly. It is nice to have more options on date-night.

3. Affordable luxuries. Starbucks is often credited with starting the "small indulgence" trend. Other small food splurges are vintage wines, premium vinegar, a catered meal, or the Kobe beef and foie gras found these days on more restaurant menus.

A catered meal would be nice, but if I were paying for it I’d rather get out of the house. You can keep the rest of that “luxury” stuff. If I’m going to spurge, I’ll take premium olive oil over vinegar and a good high-priced ale over vintage wine.

4. Ethnic regions. Upscale Spanish and Mexican dishes lead the current ethnic taste trek. But foods of distinct regions are getting more attention, too. We've feasted on the foods of Provence, Hunan and Sicily. Next up? Recipes unique to Galicia, Barcelona and Oaxaca.

I’ve got a BA in Geography and I still had to look up where Galicia (Spain) and Oaxaca (Mexico) were. Since I’ve been on my Mexican/Cuban kick for a while now, I’m willing to try some other Chicano/Latino/Hispanic flavors.

5. Small plates. From Spanish tapas to Chinese dim sum and Greek meze, small portions are becoming a big deal. With their presence on menus increasing, small plates also feed into the quick-dining trend. The lounge at Tangerine in Old City has introduced an all-meze menu and, at Brasserie Perrier, executive chef-partner Chris Scarduzio says he is concentrating more on flavor and less on portion size because customers are eating less. "Small plates are great for young professionals on the move who don't have time to sit at a table for two hours," Scarduzio says. Along with mini meals come cupcakes and other mini cakes, the hot option for wedding receptions as well as for everyday snacking.

This is great. I just hope that these restaurants give smaller prices to these smaller plates. Otherwise it’s just Nouveau Cuisine all over again.

6. Carb comeback. "Good" carbs, including fruits and vegetables, are back in the good graces of dieters. Carbs are the body's most efficient fuel. The good ones break down slowly for steady energy. Sugar carbs quickly turn to glucose, with the excess stored as fat.

As a runner I never left carbs. I hope that 2005 is the year that the whole carb-diet thing finally dies. Just watch what you eat folks, you’ll lose weight. The low-carb thing has bastardized so many foods, just like what happened when low-fat labels ruined everything.

7. Whole grains. These nutrient-rich carbs were surely missed by many low-carb dieters deprived of their morning Cheerios. Now they're back and will take center stage when the U.S. Department of Agriculture lists them as a key element in a healthful diet in its revised Food Guide Pyramid, to be released this month. Look for more whole grains in processed foods, from cereals to prepared meals. Average adult consumption is just one serving a day, well under the government's recommendation of three a day.

I’m very good about eating my whole grains, but if they start putting it in my kids’ cereal that would be great. Just don’t put Splenda or any of that other crap in there with it, like General Mills has been doing with their low-sugar cereals. I don’t want that stuff in my kids system.

8. Convenience. When Gourmet magazine touts dishes to make ahead on Sunday for a week's worth of heat-and-eat meals, you know times have changed. Everyone wants more convenience in the kitchen. The NPD Group, a market research firm, reports that half of American cooks are putting dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less, often by eliminating side dishes and even desserts, which are now served after only 14 percent of at-home suppers.

We’re real guilty of not serving side dishes, but we make up for it with dessert. The Inquirer could make it easier on working parents by making the recipes in their “Rush Hour Gourmet” column a little simpler and more kid-friendly.

9. Organics. Sales have risen more than 20 percent annually for a dozen years, reaching an estimated $15 billion in 2004, with more than $32 billion projected by 2009. The fastest-growing segments are meats and poultry (sales jumped 78 percent in 2003) and snack foods (up 30 percent). There's even organically farmed fish. If you blinked, you may have missed organics also slipping into the mainstream of packaged goods, canned foods, meal kits, and baking mixes.

I try to buy organic, but they’re killing me with the prices. Thank God for Trader Joe's. Affordable organic food, go figure. Now if they would just open one a little closer to me.

10. Functional foods. Food has become the new wonder drug as researchers unlock the secrets of phytochemicals, omega-3 fats, and other substances that promise to help forestall ailments ranging from aggression and attention-deficit disorder to macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease and stroke. Penny Kris-Etherton, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University, cites nuts and salmon as nutritional powerhouses, along with fruits and vegetables. Also, look for cultured beverages - yogurtlike drinks infused with "friendly bacteria" - marketed for digestive health.

I’d rather see people eat “functional foods” then just take a vitamin supplement, but I have a feeling this could go overboard. If you want the benefits of yogurt, than just eat a yogurt for Christ’s sake.

11. Of the moment. Wild blueberries (available as juice or whole berries, canned and frozen), fresh figs, beets (in salads), yams, Honeycrisp apples (a new cross between a Macoun and a Honeygold), and microgreens are hot. Among meats, duck and bison have new cachet. And sweep up the sawdust: Steak houses are suddenly chic with the 20-something set.

I love trying new apples, so I’ve gotta find this new Honeycrisp. Blueberries, figs, yams – mmm... bring them on. I like bison but the missus won’t let it in the house. Duck’s fine when I eat out, but I’m not going to learn how to prepare it anytime soon.

12. Cooking with kids. Children's cooking classes are burgeoning, as are cookbooks for the younger set from cooks as prominent as Rick Bayless, who wrote Rick & Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $29.95) with his teenage daughter, and Rachael Ray (Cooking Rocks! 30 Minute Meals for Kids, published by Lake Isle Press, $16.95).

Where have they been? I love when the seven-year-old bakes with me. Now the two-year-old has started wanting in.

13. Dining etiquette 101. There was little early training at the table for many young professionals who now find themselves dining out nervously with clients (and bosses). Hence, the raft of "practice banquets" and classes offering much-needed instruction in polite public dining rituals. Classes are held at fine restaurants, on college campuses (including Philadelphia University), at career seminars, in cooking schools, and online. One elementary-dining class for children at Eleven Madison Park, Danny Meyer's deco-detailed restaurant in New York's Flatiron District, sold out within hours and filled the waiting list for a second session.

I don’t care what fork you use for your salad, just keep your elbows off the table and don’t chew with your mouth open, okay?

14. Bottled water. Sales rose 20 percent in 2004, making this the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. beverage market. In addition to funky flavors, new-age waters are "enhanced" with vitamins, minerals and/or electrolytes and are being pitched to a market beyond health club addicts and joggers.

I know people that pay for bottled water look like saps for being over-charged, but if people are choosing it over soda I say go for it. I’d rather overpay for water than overpay for sugar water. And Inquirer, bottled water was a new food trend for maybe 1995, not 2005.

15. Trans-American wines. Think past France and California. Wine consumption is on the upswing, and local wineries are blossoming in all 50 states. (Yes, there is wine produced in Alaska.) Look to microwineries - sometimes clustered, like Chaddsford and others in Chester County - as a source of varietal wines, filling a niche market much like that of microbrewed beers.

I’ll stick with my microbrews.

16. No-cal sugar. Little yellow packets of Splenda have joined, and increasingly are replacing, the pink Sweet'N Low and blue Equal packets on restaurant tables. The natural-tasting sucralose also is being used in almost every food category - cereals to sodas, pickles to beef jerky.

Like I said in item 7, keep this crap away from my kids and me. Sugar is only 16 calories a teaspoon, folks.

17. Specialty salts are going mainstream, thanks to celebrity chefs talking up the taste profiles of sea salts from around the world. More food companies are adding less sodium to processed foods and many consumers are cooking from scratch (or semi-scratch), giving at-home diners more chances to sample the unique flavors of gourmet salts.

I’m still trying to work up the nerve to buy kosher salt (it comes in a mighty big box). I might be the only Alton Brown fan who doesn’t own a box.

18. Technique. Look for more variety in the way foods are prepared. Grilling's popularity is booming, thanks to the growing obsession for must-have outdoor "trophy" kitchens among the upper-income set. Brined meats and poultry are timesavers coming to supermarkets. And other cooking methods are surfacing, not just in restaurants and home kitchens but also for prepared foods. "'Fire-roasted' and 'charcoal-grilled' are already on the labels of canned goods and frozen vegetables," Philadelphia cookbook author Andrew Schloss says. "Look for frozen dinners identified as 'braised' and canned fruits labeled 'poached.'"

I’ve been curious to try brining (it’s supposed to lock in the juices), but if someone wants to do it for me that’s even better.

19. Flavors in favor. Lemongrass has gone mainstream. Now sumac (a fruity-astringent spice) and yuzu (a sour citrus fruit) are showing up.Expect more exotic and highly flavored foods, from olive oils (Meyer lemon and blood orange are popular) to adult-friendly snacks (wasabi-ginger pecans). Pique timid taste buds with a dash of chile powder in your hot cocoa.

We don’t buy many exotic seasonings, but I’m willing to try anything that livens things up a bit. And I love my wasabi soy beans and peanuts, so bring on those wasabi-ginger pecans.

20. Food entitlement. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. More and more, consumers expect their dietary needs and special requests to be met, whether motivated by allergies, a special diet, or personal preference. Most restaurants and grocery stores try to meet any reasonable demand. At the South Street BYOB Next, chef Terry Owens gets a couple of special orders a week, most often allergy-related. And a diner's recent request to substitute chicken for the scallops in one dish was not unusual, nor was it a problem.

As someone who suffers from a shellfish allergy this would seem like great news. But I also have to watch out that my meal isn’t being prepared near the seafood and I don’t know how to check that.

Dang, that was a long post.

Urge for Going

2005-01-05T06:08:00.000-05:00

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In addition to posting a daily photo at my photoblog, you might have noticed that I am posting more of my photos on my Accidental Blogist posts (like this one, with a photo from Old City Philadelphia). The program that I use to upload and host my pictures is Hello!, which, like Blogger, is owned by Google and is a free service. And just like Blogger, it's not great but boy is the price right.

So last week, with a camera full of shots from the City Hall/Rittenhouse Square area (Dragonballyee's domain), Hello! decides it doesn't want to upload my pictures. I spend hours trying to figure out if I can fix it before giving up and emailing the Hello! support staff.

After receiving no response from the Hello! people, I start thinking about Plan B, which would be to actually pay to blog. I talked to the missus about switching over to TypePad if Hello! doesn't start working. She's very cool about it, but I'm still a little skittish about spending money on this right now. I'm afraid that after signing on for a year I'll suddenly come down with blog fatigue. Or I'll get a job I actually enjoy and my priorities will change. Plus, after being told that our basic cable bill will top fifty bucks starting next month (Note to Comcast: There best be a brick with my name engraved on it at your new skyscraper), I'm not too crazy about having another monthly bill.

By yesterday morning Hello! still isn't working and I start doing a lot of research on TypePad and start getting excited and telling the missus all the things we'll be able to do. I go on the computer when I get home from work and there it is: a response from Hello! support. Some of their servers had problems, I should try again now. I try and it's the same thing. All right! I'm going to TypePad World! Just to be sure, I reboot and try again. Damn. Worked. But you knew that already, 'cause I'm still here.

I still plan on switching us over to TypePad one day, but I'd like to make sure I stick with this for about a year before writing that check. Unless I somehow become the Accidentally Rich Blogist before then.

Running Back

2005-01-04T06:05:00.000-05:00

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Every year since 2000 I have used the outstanding running log devised by fellow running geek David Hays. It’s available free for download at his website. Not only has this digital log provided me with the instant gratification of seeing my running miles pile up, it has allowed me to calculate any statistic I can think of (even some that I don’t have any use for). I think the calculations that I do understand provide a good yardstick for how my running year went last year and what my goals for the next year should be.

In 2003 I made running 1000 miles my goal. The closest I had previously come to that mark was 826 miles in 2000, when I spent much of the year training for the Philadelphia Marathon. On December 30, 2003 a three-mile run gave me 1001 miles for the year. On December 31, 2003 I realized that I had mentally burned myself out.

For 2004 I made the somewhat humbler distance goal of 800 miles. My intention was to do shorter runs at a faster pace in the hopes of bettering my 5K times. It didn’t quite work out that way - first from the burnout, then from nagging injuries. So mid-spring I switched plans and decided to concentrate on October’s Long Beach Island 18 miler. In 2002 and 2003 I had trouble finishing this race, walking quite a bit at the end. I decided for 2004 to try to train with fewer miles, hoping to have the fresh legs needed to finish the race running. This plan had the added benefit of giving me more time at home with the family. Thus, I dubbed it the Considerate Training Program™.

Unfortunately, the Considerate Training Program™ didn’t get me through the LBI 18 without some walking, but I did have my best race and fastest finish of my three LBI runs. Due to an unshakable autumn cold I finished the year with 719 miles – 81 miles short of my goal. I’m pretty happy with that. I’m more upset with the weight I’ve put on. I think that keeping my weight in check would help improve my race times just as much as miles run.

For 2005 I am once again setting 800 miles as my distance goal. I want to use the spring and summer to work on speed for shorter races, than switch gears and work up endurance for the LBI 18. That means sticking with the Considerate Training Program™ again, which should make the missus happy. It also means that watching what I eat will play a big part in my training this year. That won’t please the missus since it means tracking calories and fat grams in a notebook, and I tend to get a little anal around numbers. You may have noticed that. And if you haven’t noticed that, here are my numbers from 2004, with 2003’s numbers in parentheses:

Total miles run: 719.5 (1001.1)
Number of runs: 137 (172)
Number of races: 12 (12)
Median of runs: 5.25 miles (5.29)
Mode of runs: 5.46 (5.09)
Mean of runs: 5.25 (5.82)
Standard Deviation of runs: 2.0 (2.35)
Average miles per day: 1.97 (2.74)
Average miles per week: 13.76 (19.2)
Average miles per month: 59.96 (83.42)
Total time spent running: 4 days, 4 hours, 28 minutes, 21 seconds (5d, 19h, 29m, 7s)

That's Odd...

2005-01-03T06:42:00.000-05:00

Today's date is 01/03/05. The next time three odd numbers will appear in a row like that will be 03/05/07, 793 days from now.

I promise not to get this geeked-up about a date again until 02/04/06 (only 397 days to go!).

The Final Countdown

2005-01-03T06:09:00.000-05:00

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WXPN, the AAA Format radio station here in Philadelphia, finished their countdown of the 50 Greatest Albums of 2004 (as voted by you the listeners!) by playing the top 10 CDs in their entirety on New Years Day. Since I had posted about my ballot, I thought I'd revisit the topic.

First, here is my top 10 (and how they did on the countdown):

1. Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn.
WXPN rank: 7

2. A Ghost is Born - Wilco.
WXPN rank: 5

3. Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse.
WXPN rank: 12

4. Around the Sun - R.E.M.
WXPN rank: 21

5. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2.
WXPN rank: 1

6. The Ride - Los Lobos.
WXPN rank: 24

7. The Revolution Starts Now - Steve Earle.
WXPN rank: 32

8. Drag It Up - Old 97's.
WXPN rank: 15

9. Lonely Runs Both Ways - Alison Krauss and Union Station.
WXPN rank: 33

10. Silence Is Easy - Starsailor.
WXPN rank: Did not make it!

Now here is 'XPN's top ten:

1. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2. I can't complain about this one getting the top spot, especially after finally hearing the whole thing. I do disagree with the critics that call this album the band's best. I don't know which of their great albums is their best, but this ain't it.

2. Twentysomething - Jamie Cullum. A little surprised this came in so high. I think there is always a shocker like this near the top of the 'XPN list because the album was plenty of listeners ninth or tenth-best pick, so it made a lot of ballots. I think Cullum is almost as good as Harry Connick Jr. was good at his age (Connick put out an album called 20 from when he was twentysomething - I' ll take that over this). The 'XPN website compares Cullum to Steely Dan. Ummm, no.

3. The Battle For Everything - Five For Fighting. For the love of God, will someone please please please explain the popularity of this band among the (usually) intelligent 'XPN audience. Syrupy sweet songs sung in a sustained screech. (That poor alliteration was better than anything Five for Fighting frontman John Ondrasik has ever written.)

4. Feels Like Home - Norah Jones. Jones making it this high is not surprising, but neither was her album this year. Should have been called Feels Like Come Away with Me.

5. A Ghost is Born - Wilco. Happy to see this CD make it so high. Not what you would call an accessible album. I loved the fact that 'XPN was forced to play the joke song "Less Than You Think," with its eighteen minutes of feedback, on Saturday.

6. The Clarence Greenwood Recordings - Citizen Cope. I thought about putting this on my top ten, but to be honest by year's end I was pretty sick of hearing even his best songs. I'll still take G. Love's early stuff over this. Funny thing is that every time 'XPN plays Citizen Cope my seven-year-old thinks it's Eminem (is my son the only kid in his class not allowed to listen to Eminem?).

7. Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn. Should have been higher. What album is going to be talked about more in ten years, this or Five for Fighting's?

8. Hymns Of The 49th Parallel - kd lang. An alright album. It's pretty hard for a CD of covers to be so good that it's one of the years best (Shawn Colvin's 1994 album Cover Girl is the exception - by far her best work). I still long for cowgirl k.d. - circa 1989's Absolute Torch and Twang.

9. Shangri-La - Mark Knopfler. I'm so glad I got to listen to most of this Saturday. If I had heard more from this album it might have made my list. Knopfler's writing lately has been matching his best Dire Straits stuff (Love Over Gold, Making Movies).

10. Hopes And Fears - Keane. Another CD that suffered from limited play on 'XPN. It took a lot of faith from the listeners since "Somewhere Only We Know" was the only song from this album that made it onto 'XPN.

I'm a little surprised that Starsailor's Silence Is Easy and Air's Talkie Walkie (my eleventh pick) didn't make the top 50 at all, but I'm floored that Elliot Smith's posthumous From a Basement on the Hill didn't either. It topped a lot of year-end lists and got a lot of airplay. It's really not that bad an album - I burned it from a friend and while I'm not a big Smith fan, I'd say it's probably his best stuff. And, as you might have guessed, it's a hell of a lot better than Five For Fighting.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 16

2005-01-02T14:44:00.000-05:00

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Week 15:
The Lucky Bastards 86, Three And Out 48

After finishing the regular fantasy season a respectable 8-6, Three and Out, my Fantasy Football team, lost both fantasy playoff games to finish last. I'm tired of talking about them and chances are you never wanted to read about them anyway, so I'll just reprint the last post I left on our fantasy league message board:

If anyone is counting (and I am), Three and Out has been involved in 5 postseason games over the last two years and hasn't won a single one of them.

I hate this stupid fantasy football. It's for losers.

When do we sign up for next year?

Reeling in the Years

2005-01-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

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Three resolutions and one goal for 2005:

Resolution #1: Try to stay around my fighting weight of 160. Every year I attempt this and every year I creep back to 172 (or worse). At almost 5' 10", 172 gives me a Body Weight Index (BWI) of 24.7, which is just a little too close to the overweight mark of 25. I also do better at my races when I'm not dragging an extra 12 pounds around.

Resolution #2: Try to have a little more patience with my boys. It's easy to be patient with a baby, but as my two-year-old does more rebelling, I'm doing more yelling. Everything asked of the seven-year-old is met with a foot stomp and a whine - which is what seven-year-olds do - and yelling isn't going to change that.

Resolution #3: This is a selfish resolution, but I've got to get at least an hour of photo-taking time a week. It was easier when it was warm out and the camera was my new toy. But now that it's cold and I've taken a picture of everything within a ten-block radius of my urban workplace, I've going to have to be more resolute to getting out there and being more creative in finding new ideas. This includes realizing that the suburbs must have something interesting to shoot. I'm also considering taking an adult-education class in digital photography. Hopefully that will help me with this resolution.

THE 2005 GOAL: 52 New (to me) DVDs in 2005.

To take full advantage of our new Blockbuster DVD-by-mail service, my goal will be to watch 52 of the type of movies that I mean to see but never get around to seeing. No doubt this will include a lot of Paul Newman stuff (I considered making my goal watching 52 Newman movies but that might have been too much of a good thing) but other stuff, both old and new, as well. There's no excuse for never seeing films like Citizen Kane and North by Northwest. At the same time, there are too many newer movies like The Station Agent or Maria Full of Grace that get critical acclaim but I never get around to renting. Last year's goal of reading 52 novels wasn't as hard to complete as I thought it would be (I finished in October), but it did leave me burned out. I have a feeling that this year's goal may be the opposite. I'm pretty sure I'll still want to watch movies at the end of this but I think it's going to be hard to find time for a movie a week this year. Unlike my books I can't watch movies on the train. And a lot of these films are ones that the missus isn't interested in seeing, so I'll have to find time to watch them alone. I plan to use my new DVD drive at work and split movies over two lunchtimes. I've already done this last month, and while I get some funny looks my bosses don't seem to have a problem with it.

That's it. Wish me luck!

Here are the movies I've watched so far (clicking on the link will bring up my post about the film):

01.08.05: Garden State

Photo Friday 12.31.04

2004-12-31T08:34:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Best of 2004

Click on photo to enlarge.

I don't like using a photo that I've already posted, but that the idea for this week's challenge, the year's best. I liked my pictures from the Philadelphia Kerry Rally and I really liked my abandoned toilet shot, but this was probably my best.

Stairwell behind the Benjamin Franklin Printing Office and Bindery.
Franklin Court, 4th & Market, Philadelphia PA.

Catholic Protection Limits

2004-12-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

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Just to further cheese-off all those touchy Christian Conservatives out there who believed that their religion was being persecuted by the cashier at Macy's who wished customers a "Happy Holiday" instead of the "Merry Christmas" that our great country was founded on (or something like that), I vow to not wish anyone a "Happy New Year" this weekend.

To be sensitive to the many other faiths and cultures that do not mark their new year on January 1 (like the really old-school Christians, who celebrated it around March 25th until 1582), I will offer, "Have a Good One" to my fellow Christians and everyone else this weekend.

Boy, I can't wait for February, when the red-staters start up their whole "Put the Saint back in St. Valentine's Day" campaign.

Have a Good One.

Tomorrow: My ~~New's Year's~~ Goal(s).

[Note: The above picture was taken on my ill-fated photo shooting-spree of the Ben Franklin Bridge in November. From what I can find on the subject, cathodic protection is a system for protecting against rust. As you can see from the picture, it's working real well on the bridge.]

Hehe... you said Booty

2004-12-29T06:59:00.000-05:00

As requested, the missus finally posted her booty. Her Christmas booty. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Another Year On the Books

2004-12-29T06:40:00.000-05:00

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This morning I did something I haven’t done since finishing my 52 novels in 2004 goal in late October – I requested a book from the Philadelphia Library. Reading the obituary of Susan Sontag (pictured above) has made me curious to read some of her work. Since it’s a subject that I’m very interested in now, I chose her 1978 non-fiction On Photography.

I really have not had the urge to become involved in any book since finishing that fifty-second novel. I have enjoyed having the time to read the Philadelphia Inquirer from cover to cover, especially since there isn’t that obligation to finish what I have started. I thought that getting The Best American Short Stories 2004 would be a good way to ease back into longer works but the book has sat on my bedside table, unread except for the introduction, since the missus picked it up for me in October. For Christmas I received The Wilco Book and though I really wanted this for its bonus CD, I have been thumbing through it and reading a few things here and there.

While the goal I set for 2005 will have nothing to do with reading (I’m still trying to determine exactly what it will deal with), I do hope to continue reading – just not at the same rate, and not limited only to novels. The New York Times Notable Books year-end feature for 2003 and 2002 proved to be an excellent resource for selecting most of what I read last year, so the 2004 edition was the first place I went to for ideas for next year's reading. Here are the entries that caught my eye:

The Amateur Marriage. By Anne Tyler. Discovering Tyler was one of the highlights of completing my 2004 goal.

Men and Cartoons: Stories. By Jonathan Lethem. Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn was one of the better books I read this year. I’m curious to see his short story work.

Runaway. By Alice Munro. One of the bad things about limiting myself to novels this year was missing out on short stories. Munro is a constant on “Best of” lists and a favorite of mine.

Alexander Hamilton. By Ron Chernow. Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers was an interesting book about the guys who don’t have monuments in Washington, and I wouldn’t mind reading a little more about them.

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. By Gordon S. Wood. It’s kind of hard to walk around Old City Philadelphia like I do and not become interested in Franklin.

John James Audubon: The Making of an American. By Richard Rhodes. One of the novels I read this year was Katherine Govier’s Creation, a fictionalized account of Audubon’s long trip into the Canadian wilderness. I’d love to see how his real life compares to Govier's excellent fiction.

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. By Kevin Boyle. I hope by not limiting myself to just fiction I can discover new (to me) non-fiction writers. The Inquirer review of this book, about the trial of a black doctor who went after the crowd that burned his house down in the 30’s, caught my attention.

That's it for now. Nothing too ambitious, I hope. Leave a comment if you have any other good suggestions. Just keep in mind that in addition to being a beer snob, music snob, etc., I'm also somewhat of a book snob (hint: I refuse to read The DiVinci Code).

Santa Claus is Going from Town

2004-12-28T06:11:00.000-05:00

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When I was growing up, the youngest of nine children, the days after Christmas was the time to show off. Each kid had his or her pile of gifts, each carefully orchestrated to best display what Santa brought. That meant that boxes with clothing in them were used simply to prop up your new favorite toy.

Things are different now. As much as she likes following both of our childhood Christmas traditions - the boy’s get both a reindeer gift for leaving out carrots (her tradition) and a gift for leaving out cookie’s for Santa (my tradition), the missus does not like clutter. Freshly unwrapped gifts are put away by Boxing Day. But now, thanks to the wonder that is the internets, I can show off my gifts forever.

1. Old Navy Painter’s Jacket. I hate getting clothes as a gift. The missus knows that whenever she attempts to appease my pickiness about clothes she’s risking disappointment. She also knows that if she didn’t replace my worn out clothes – like the Gap jacket I’ve been wearing for the last eighteen autumns – nobody would. I know she agonizes every time she goes clothes shopping for me, so I’m sure she was happy to see how much I liked this jacket. It’s going to be great to wear while making snowmen with the boys this winter.

2. The Wilco Book. The only item that came from my wish list, but that’s one more than I usually get. The main reason I wanted this is for the bonus CD of outtakes that came with it (I’m kind of a Wilco completist). From what I’ve heard of the CD so far it’s pretty out there, but the book is very cool. It’s half writings from the band members and half photo book from their photographer. The missus also picked up This Must be the Place, a book about the Talking Heads (a band who, like Wilco, were never afraid to experiment with their sound).

3. Jevon Kearse Eagles jersey. A jersey of a defensive lineman (and a guy nicknamed “the Freak”) is so much cooler than one of T.O. or McNabb. The missus lucked out here, because she tried to get those two jerseys first.

4. Alton Brown T-Shirt. This one was the missus most inventive gift. I never ever even thought of getting a shirt from my favorite TV chef, but she surprises me with this. Things like this show that she really does listen to me when I babble on and on.

5. Trivial Pursuit SNL Edition. This was from my goddaughter and I think I could probably talk my neighbors into getting together for this game (we do corny things like game nights). The only problem is that I really haven’t regularly watched Saturday Night Live since Phil Hartman left.

6. The Beer Lover’s Rating Guide and a six-pack of beer. From my godson. Isn’t that what the whole godparent thing is all about, getting beer from your religious ward? And he did his research (or more likely his mom did) because he got me a six of Lancaster Brewing Milk Stout, a favorite that’s not easy to track down.

7. A framed 8x10 of one of my photos. From the boys. I knew that the missus had been thinking of getting one of my pictures framed, but I never expected it to be an 8x10. I was floored by this gift. She let the seven-year-old pick which photo and he ended up selecting one I shot at the farmers market that I take the boys to every Saturday. That made it even more special.

So as you can see, I made out quite all right. Even without the gifts I would have know I have a wonderful family. Of course, they would have been even more wonderful if they could have come up with that $10,000 lawnmower.

Sinister Minister?

2004-12-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

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The sudden death of Reggie White yesterday got me thinking about my entry into the world of football fan-dom.

Baseball has always been, and will always be, my sport of choice. I was never any good at it as a kid, but that hasn't stopped me from following the game day-in and day-out, year-in and year-out. Before my teenage years Sports meant baseball and nothing else. There was no secondary sport worth watching. This means that while I was idolizing Mike Schmidt, Gary Maddox and Rod Carew, I was missing out on Dr. J, Bobby Clark and Harold Carmichael.

In 1982 I was a nerdy eight-grader whose best friend was a Portuguese sixth-grader named Rui. We both loved watching baseball and playing it the way baseball geeks were meant to play it - on a computer. We were so far behind the curve on football that it wouldn’t have made sense for us to try to watch a game.

Then came the formation of a spring-summer league, the United State Football League. The USFL was our chance to get in on the ground floor of football. We would know as much about the Philadelphia Stars as anyone else. Plus the USFL teams had names and symbols that looked a lot like the juvenile ones we made up for our Atari 2600 baseball league. Not only could we finally be football fans, we could be rebel football fans of a cool new league!

The players I most remember from the USFL weren’t from the Stars (though I have always had a soft spot their coach, Jim Mora, who took the Stars to both USFL championships). The two players I remember most are Hershel Walker (of the New Jersey Generals) and Reggie White (of the Memphis Showboats). I still remember being upset when I saw a Starting Lineup figure with a “rookie” Reggie White of the Philadelphia Eagles. Did his USFL years mean nothing? [Just like today, where the Philadelphia Inquirer failed to list Memphis as one of White’s “pro” teams.]

But the USFL wasn’t around long and their players ended up being dispersed in a NFL supplemental draft. Since Reggie went to the hometown Eagles, it made sense to start following them. The USFL had taught me the fundamentals of football, and Reggie was my introduction to the “Gang Green” defense, then to Randall Cunningham, then to Mike Quick, and then to every Eagles team since.

I met White during the Buddy Ryan era when the Eagles still had open Saturday practices at JFK Stadium. I recall him being one of the more accessible players that day (especially when compared to the extremely vain Jim McMahon) and writing a bible verse alongside his autograph (which I have since misplaced). You couldn’t separate the player from the minister.

While the death of White has allowed me to think back to my childhood and being a rebel USFL fan, I’m having a hard time reconciling White on the field (as the Minister of Defense) and White off the field (as the minister of the Offensive). Of all the Inquirer coverage of White’s death, only Bob Ford writes at length on the contradiction between White as a football roll model and his homophobic and racist off-field speeches. In it he writes that White wanted to have an impact off the field but his inappropriate words betrayed his ambition. He marginalized himself with his outdated ideas. Ford finishes his column with how he thinks White should be remembered:

It is tragic that Reggie White is gone at 43. Time might have mellowed him and allowed statesmanship to overtake his stridency. We'll never know.

He should be celebrated and remembered as the great husband and father he was. Celebrated as the great football player he certainly was. And he should be mourned as the great leader he very nearly was.

It's hard to imagine anyone will bothering to mourn one of today’s defensive stars (like Ray Lewis, Warren Sapp and Michael Strahan) quite like that.

The Kids Are Alright

2004-12-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

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Here's hoping everybody had a great Christmas and is enjoying their Boxing Day. We had a great day here yesterday, with the seven-year-old still very much a believer and the two-year-old really getting into it for the first time (though he was slowed down later in the day with a slight fever). Any Christmas that starts with Santa's milk being replaced by EggNog is a good one.

Today the two-year-old and I are taking it easy while the missus and the seven-year-old try to spend all their gift cards at early-bird post-Christmas sales.

[Above cookies (from left to right): Sugar, Oatmeal Raisin, Ricotta, Sugar]

Cry of a Tiny Babe

2004-12-25T06:24:00.000-05:00

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Mary grows a child without the help of a man
Joseph get upset because he doesn't understand
Angel comes to Joseph in a powerful dream
Says "God did this and you're part of his scheme"
Joseph comes to Mary with his hat in his hand
Says "forgive me I thought you'd been with some other man"
She says "what if I had been - but I wasn't anyway
and guess what, I felt the baby kick today"

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

The child is born in the fullness of time
Three wise astrologers take note of the signs
Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king
Get pretty close to wrecking everything
'Cause the governing body of the whole land
Is that of Herod, a paranoid man
Who when he hears there's a baby born King of the Jews
Sends death squads to kill all male children under two
But that same bright angel warns the parents in a dream
And they head out for the border and get away clean

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

There are others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums
And the message is clear if you've got ears to hear
That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear
It's a Christmas gift you don't have to buy
There's a future shining in a baby's eyes

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

- Bruce Cockburn, "Cry of a Tiny Babe" from Nothing But a Burning Light

Mow Mow Mow

2004-12-24T10:05:00.000-05:00

For those who have waited until the last minute to get The Accidental Blogist a Christmas gift, here’s a suggestion:

The Dixie Chopper Xtreme Mowchine! A 32-horsepower mowing monster capable of going 15 M.P.H. and cutting eight acres in an hour. At that rate it would take me about two minutes to do my whole yard! As the Dixie Chopper website says, “This mower will make you the envy of your competition.” I didn't even know I had lawn-mowing competition, but I like the idea of them being envious of me.

For those not willing to spend $10,200 on me, you could just head over to The American Street and cast a vote for Ipso Photo as best Photo Blog. eRobin over at Fact-esque was kind enough to nominate my Photo Blog for a Perranoski Prize. I’m trying not to whore for votes, but if you feel so inclined to vote (after checking out Ipso Photo, of course), I won’t stop you.

Merry Christmas from Blogger

2004-12-24T08:43:00.000-05:00

My Christmas gift from Blogger seems to be the corruption of my layout template (including my whole sidebar). Until I get time to fix it things are going to look pretty plain around here.

Arrgggggg!

Update (8:59): Getting there.

Update (9:16): I think I'm back.

A Christmas Wish

2004-12-24T06:43:00.000-05:00

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If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.

If I had two wishes that I could wish for this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace.. and the second would be for $30 million a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.

You know, if I had three wishes that I could make this holiday season, first, of course, would be for all the children to get together and sing.. the second would be for the $30 million every month to me.. and the third would be for all encompassing power over every living being thing in the entire universe.

And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, first would be the crap about the kids.. second would be for the $30 million.. the third would be for all the power.. and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year for an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought about slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina somebody, I can't think of her name, of course my lovely wife could come, too. She's behind me 100% on this, I guarantee you.

Wait a minute, maybe that sex thing should be the first wish! So, if I made that the first wish, because, you know, it could all go boom tomorrow, and then what have you got? No, no.. the kids singing would be great, that would be nice. No, no, who am I kidding! I mean, they're not gonna be able to get all those kids together! I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible! It's more trouble than it's worth! So, we reorganize: here we go. First, the sex - we go with that; second, the money. No! We go with the power second, then the money, and then the kids. Oh, wait, oh geez! I forgot about revenge against my enemies! Okay.. revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in Hell! That would be the fourth wish! And of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of peace and harmony. Thank you, everybody.

- Steve Martin, Saturday Night Live December 6, 1986

Photo Friday Holiday Hiatus

2004-12-23T06:44:00.000-05:00

According to their website, there will be no Photo Friday challenge tomorrow. But there is a Thursday Challenge from Thursday Theme for today. While I don’t post my Thursday Theme photos on The Accidental Blogist like I do for Photo Friday, I have been participating each week. Today’s theme is “Vehicle” and my entry is posted on my photo blog, Ipso Photo, as my Daily Photo.

While Photo Friday seems to have more prestige and many more entries (almost 250 so far for last Friday’s “Tacky”), one thing about the Thursday Theme site I like is that they tell you a week in advance what the next theme will be. I think this results in better pictures from me since I get seven days to contemplate and take the photo. Photo Friday announces their theme on the day it’s posted, and I’m sure many people go with a photo they already have in their files. In fact many people seem to post soon after the new theme goes up, which makes me wonder how much thought goes into their selection.

Don’t get me wrong, both sites are great and are full of fantastic shots. I just wish that Photo Friday would give us a little more warning.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 15

2004-12-23T06:05:00.000-05:00

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Week 15:
Speed Merchants 64, Three And Out 41

To quote Fred Willard in A Mighty Wind: "Wha' Happened?" My Fantasy Football team was coasting along for the last three weeks on cruise control, with me only having to make one roster move. Then last weekend it fell asleep at the wheel and ran off the road a slammed into a tree (how about a grisly little metaphor for your holiday weekend travels?). Both Terrell Owens and Willis McGahee go down with injuries. Brandon Stokley and Jermaine Wiggins combine for 1 measly fantasy point. Brian Westbrook gets the Eagles to the red zone and Andy Reid lets Dorsey Levens take it in for the big fantasy payoff. Putting Ben Roethlisberger in for Jake Plummer didn't change anything; both had a lackluster eight fantasy points. Even the Baltimore defense let me down. All of this resulted in a first round 64-41 loss to the same Speed Merchants team I beat last week.

All I have now is the runner-up game against The Lucky Bastards, who lost to Deep Threat last weekend. Since it's the last game, and since two of my players are out, I'm making big moves. T.O. and McGahee are out, replaced by Joey Galloway and Levens. Since my regular QBs are both playing tough defenses, I dropped Plummer and picked up Drew Bledsoe, who will start.

God help me, I hope that's enough to salvage third place.

Sugar Mountain

2004-12-22T06:14:00.000-05:00

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I wanted to write a nice little post about my Christmas cookies yesterday and ended up so ticked off about Dubya that I forgot completely about it. So anyway, as you can see from the above picture, I made cookies. A lot of cookies. And that doesn’t include the Raspberry Squares I made two weeks ago or the Thumbprint Cookies I made with (read: for) my seven-year-old last week.

I started with two batches of my old standby, Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and got to use my Pampered Chef Medium Scoop for the first time. The scoop made things go a lot quicker. While it made cookies a little bigger than I usually make no one seemed to be complaining.

Next up was a batch of the missus' favorite, Choc-Oat-Chip Celebration Cookies. I’ve always had a problem with these things spreading out too much, and I still do. Putting the cookie trays into the freezer to cool before re-using them seemed to help a little but not completely.

Then I moved on to the cookie-cutter cookies. I always make sugar cookies but this year I tried a new recipe from Good Eats guru Alton Brown. Mine have always come out dry and uneven. Alton’s tip is to use confectioners (10X) sugar instead of flour when dusting the rolling pin and work surface. Flour removes moisture from the dough, while the sugar just makes the cookies sweeter. I took another tip from Alton and bought quarter-inch trim from Home Depot and made “rails” for the rolling pin to ride on. That way everything was exactly a quarter-inch. The result was my best sugar cookies ever, if I do say so myself.

The last cookie I attempted wasn’t as big of a success. Using a recipe I had from a Philadelphia Inquirer Food section from last December, I tried to make Austrian Linzer cookies. I don't know if there was something wrong with the recipe or what, but I had to adjust the size of the cookies (they were the size of hockey pucks) and the baking time. I still wasn't happy with the results. The missus took them into work with her and said they were a hit, but the missus also works with Learning Disabled kids, so there you go. The recipe went right into the recycle pile.

And I'm still not sure if this is going to be enough cookies to get us through the holidays. I would appreciate any suggestions (other than eat fewer cookies).

Negotiating With Myself In Public

2004-12-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

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"Now, the temptation is going to be, by well-meaning people such as yourself, John, and others here, as we run up to the issue to get me to negotiate with myself in public; to say, you know, what's this mean, Mr. President, what's that mean. I'm not going to do that." – G.W. Bush 12/21/04.

My thoughts on how to fix the press so that Bush doesn't get away with another “Press Conference” like yesterday's [Warning - rant follows]:

FoxNews is blatantly conservative and gets huge ratings. CNN and MSNBC try to be everything to everybody and don't get any ratings (how many Keith Olbermann fans do you think stick around to watch Joe Scarsborough?).

So what one of these networks should do is fight the president at every step. Become known as the Woodward & Bernstein of the 21st Century. Be the station responsible for Rummy leaving. Be the network that forces Bush into the corner until he admits that he doesn’t have a real Social Security plan. Look harder at his appointees (or at least past the White House press releases). Don’t let up. Yes, 51% of the country will hate you, but 49% will love you and that's a lot larger audience than you have now.

FoxNews got to the top by stepping on Clinton's throat and never letting up. When people complained about this, they said it was their job as the press to stay on the story. Of course Fox is evil and there was a lot more going on than just the "press" at Fox doing its duty, but their reasoning is valid and pretty much un-debatable. It could just as easily be used for good rather than evil.

Right now, as eRobin over at Fact-esque rightly points out, the President is getting one big free ride while the press cries, "don't blame us." They're busier writing stories about how much Dubya gets away with than writing stories about what he's getting away with. Gee, he didn't answer that question at all! Well, gee, you think maybe you should do your job, go around him (maybe even sneak around behind his back, tee hee) and find out for us! Stop relying on the White House for your story! As with the whole WMD mess, we seem to always get the story too late.

Arrrggggg! Get backbones, people!

That's it for me. I'll leave the press to eRobin and the rants to the missus.

Drink Your Effing Oatmeal

2004-12-21T06:13:00.000-05:00

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[A note about the post title: Oatmeal is big at our house. We all eat it, especially on frigid mornings like yesterday. My love of oatmeal is so great that it borders on the unhealthy. So imagine our shock when the missus and I watched The Firm eleven years ago and saw Wilford "Eat Your Oatmeal" Brimley as the f-bomb-dropping bad guy trying to kill Tom Cruise. While Brimley chasing Cruise around was one of the sillier parts of a completely ridiculous movie, I tried to made it even sillier by coming up with a snappy Hasta La Vista-type line for Wilford if he did catch and finish off Cruise. And thus, "Eat Your Effing Oatmeal" became a lifelong catchphrase between the missus and me.]

It’s been a while since I talked beer. Truth is, between fighting off colds and me and the missus being too busy with the holidays to have many real dinners, I haven’t been drinking a whole lot of my beer. Not that I haven’t been drinking, I just haven't been drinking my beer. I’ve been drinking Coors Light over neighbor’s houses at Christmas get-togethers, or $2 Buds at a bar during the Eagle's Monday Night Football games or paying seven bucks for a 7 & 7 at my work’s holiday party (Seven Bucks!?!).

So that explains why Wolavers Organic Oatmeal Stout had survived so long on the “Drinking…” section of my sidebar. Last night I finally had the last of my Wolavers six-pack and I wanted to comment on it before I forgot.

I have to admit that the “organic” on the label was what caught my eye when I was searching for something different at Oaklyn Discount Liquors. I had never tried an Oatmeal Stout, so that was attractive too. It was a bit of a risky buy since I had never heard of the brewery and it cost a few more bucks than most of the craftbrews. My seven-year-old (who often advises me on my beer purchases) decided it for me when he said, “hey, you like oatmeal, right?”

Well, I’m glad I took the risk. Wolavers, out of Vermont, has made a smooth and tasty stout. I’m no expert, but it was a very flavorful beer. Along with a strong coffee/chocolate taste were other flavors I didn’t recognize. I can only assume some of that unique taste came from the oatmeal. Very good stuff.

Right now in my fridge, in addition to my usual Yuengling Traditional Lager, I have a half-case each of Guinness Extra Stout and Flying Fish ESB Ale. While these cost about twice as much as my Yuengling, the missus really couldn’t complain. She bartered with my brother: a case of beer for his old MP3 player (he was moving up to a iPod). I called him from BJ’s and finished the negotiations. According to my brother a case of Yuengling didn’t cost enough to make a fair trade, but he didn’t want a full case of either the Guinness or Flying Fish. So I offered to buy a case of each and split them with him. He was happy, the missus was happy, and I was happy. I consider the high-priced beer my commission for closing the deal.

The Guinness is the Extra Stout, not the “brilliant” Guinness Draft. The Extra Stout is dark as night, smooth as silk, and oh-so-good. I’m usually a Pale Ale/Lager kind of guy, but now – with Guinness and Wolavers – I’ve had two great stouts in a row. The ESB of the ESB ale stands for Extra Special Bitter, pretty much a 180 from the stouts, and another style I rarely buy. But Flying Fish seldom disappoints so I’m anxious to dip into that.

Wicked (Reindeer) Game

2004-12-20T06:29:00.000-05:00

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The missus and I finally picked out our Christmas CD for this year (well really I picked it out, but she was cool with it). We went with the retro-cool sounds of Chris Isaak and his newest CD, Chris Isaak Christmas. I had my sights set on a Beach Boys Christmas CD, but the California sounds on Isaak’s CD are close enough.

Isaak runs through plenty of the new classics like “Rudolph”, an earnestly Elvis-like “Blue Christmas”, “Let It Snow”, and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (with help from Stevie Nicks). Sometimes, like on “The Christmas Song”, he doesn’t have much to add (who could top Nat "King" Cole anyway?) but the laidback yet inventive sound of his band makes the song worth a listen. Other times, like on “Mele Kalikimaka”, Isaak and his band nail it better than the original. Bing Crosby’s version of this song may be the most famous, but the song should really be sung by someone who owns a surfboard. Just like Fats Domino on Christmas Gumbo, Isaak brings new enjoyment singing these songs we’ve heard a million times without becoming too goofy.

As great as Isaak handles the classics, what really makes this CD worth owning are the five new original songs on it. Isaak somehow has written Christmas-y songs that wouldn’t feel out of place on his non-Christmas CDs. Well, except for “Gotta Be Good” which, if the world would be willing give a new non-novelty Christmas song a chance, would quickly become a classic of it’s own.

A Bunch of Marys

2004-12-19T15:39:00.000-05:00

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On this weekend full of football (now that the NFL plays on Saturday and Sunday) I thought I would wrap up the Accidental Blogist’s Division III football coverage that's been soooo popular.

Yesterday at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl the Linfield Wildcats (the team that crushed my beloved Rowan Profs in the semifinals last week) beat the Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders 28-21 for the Division III Championship. It’s little consolation that Rowan lost to the eventual champs. From what I caught of the game on ESPN2, the Stagg Bowl looked like a good game. The score stayed close throughout and the game was well played, but it was difficult to watch without thinking of what the Profs could have done to a school named Mary.

I had my own sports outing this morning. The Haddon Heart Holiday 5K Run has long been a Christmastime tradition of mine. Each December I must go out to Westmont, NJ and get my quality long-sleeved race shirt (which often gets “borrowed” by the missus) and see two of Philly’s favorites, Santa Claus and Bernie Parent. I doubt Parent, goalie of the Flyer’s only Stanley Cup teams, has had to pay for a beer since the 1973-74 season. Every real Flyers fan knows that “only Jesus saved more than Bernie.”

Philadelphia's love for Santa, on the other hand, hasn’t always been as strong.

A Little Less Conversation

2004-12-18T06:27:00.000-05:00

From Pearls Before Swine, what a converation between the missus and our seven-year-old son looks like (click strip to enlarge):

Welcome to my world.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 14

2004-12-18T06:04:00.000-05:00

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Week 14:
Three And Out 83, Speed Merchants 60

Drew Bennett came up big and led my Fantasy Football team to a 83-60 win over Speed Merchants. That third straight win allowed Three and Out to end the regular fantasy season with a very respectable 8-6 record.

Today marks the beginning of the fantasy playoffs with yet another game against the 10-4 Speed Merchants. The playoffs are typically the time that I, like all good coaches, overanalyze and change everything that got me to the playoffs. This postseason should be no different. After three weeks of not touching my roster (and those three straight wins) I think it's time to shake things up.

Even though my QB Jake Plummer is playing against the porous defense of Kansas City he's become too erratic, both physically and mentally (after flipping hometown fans the bird last week). This weekend I'm going with Ben Roethlisberger. Even though Big Ben hasn't been a big fantasy point-getter he's facing the sad Giants. Playing him should make it even more fun to watch the Steelers cream New York today.

Actually, that's it for this week. The rest of my guys are playing soft defenses this weekend and even I'm not so incompetent a GM to mess with that. So here's my roster this weekend:

QB B. Roethlisberger (Den - QB)
WR T. Owens (Phi - WR)
WR B. Stokley (Ind - WR)
WR D. Bennett (Ten - WR)
RB W. McGahee (Buf - RB)
RB B. Westbrook (Phi - RB)
TE J. Wiggins (Min - TE)
D Baltimore (Bal - D)
BN D. Graham (NE - TE)
BN J. Plummer (Pit - QB)
BN I. Bruce (StL - WR)
BN W. Dunn (Atl - RB)
BN L. Suggs (Cle - RB)
BN D. Staley (Pit - RB)

America's Team vs. America's Funniest Home Video

2004-12-17T06:44:00.000-05:00

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Let's play "One of These Things is Not Like the Other" - NL East edition:

Headline story on Braves.com [as of 6:00 this morning]:

Braves acquire Hudson from Athletics.

Headline story on Mets.com [as of 6:00 this morning]:

Welcome to NY: Mets unveil Pedro.

Headline story on Phillies.com [as of 6:00 this morning]:

Michaels' play voted Blooper of the Year.

I hate to admit it, but I got the idea for this post from watching last night's Lou Tilley's Sports Connection. Honest, I was only flipping through. The above photo, however, is mine.

I'm taking the boys into work today for our ~~Christmas~~ Holiday Party at Philadelphia's Down Town Club. The missus has to work, so I'll have to keep these two entertained all day by myself. Wish me luck.

Photo Friday - 12.17.04

2004-12-17T06:03:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Tacky

Click on photo to enlarge.

I'm going with tacky as "not having or exhibiting good taste".

My Home Owners Insurance Provider.
Audubon, NJ.

Scoreless In (Okay, Near) Seattle

2004-12-16T06:42:00.000-05:00

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Week 13:

The good news, and big news, in the Division III Playoff Semi-Finals last weekend was that the perennial champion Mount Union had been taken down (at home!) by lowly eighth-seed Mary Hardin-Baylor (which is a university, not a woman). It was the Purple Raiders first home loss since 1999 and marks their first back-to-back years without the D3 championship since 1994-95. While the Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders may see this as their year, most D3 teams would agree that nothing could be worse than the prospect of facing the mighty Mount Union in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, of which the Purple Raiders have won seven of the last eleven. For getting rid of the 800-pound gorilla from Ohio, the team that faces Mary Hardin-Baylor next weekend in the Stagg Bowl owes the Crusaders a big thank you.

The bad news from last weekend is that Rowan isn’t that team. After blowing out teams in their first two playoff games by a combined score of 101-21, my Profs traveled all the way out to McMinnville, Oregon just to be shut out by Linfield College, 52-0. Linfield's offense has earned a reputation this season as a scoring machine but Rowan, no strangers to the end zone themselves this season, had just as much trouble trying to overcome the Wildcats defense. Rowan's usually flawless quarterback Mike Orihel had three interceptions and was sacked twice in the Profs first shutout in nine years.

Rowan fans can feel good about this season and the near future. The Profs exceeded pre-season predictions while being guided by the sophomore Orihel. Orihel has proven he’s the real deal and will no doubt come back next fall wanting that Gagliardi Trophy that he led his team so closely to this year.

As for my high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, I’m happy to report that three Lancers (QB Rob Curley, OL Dennis Landolt, and OL Phil Costa - all seniors) made the Philadelphia Inquirer’s All-South Jersey Offense first team.

Reindeer Tracks

2004-12-15T13:54:00.000-05:00

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I took a personal day today for my annual Christmas Cookie Baking Blowout. So far it’s twelve dozen down, about six dozen to go. So real quick, off the top of my flour-dusted head, here are the best Christmas songs to originate on non-Christmas albums:

1. "Fairytale of New York" – The Pogues (with Kirsty MacColl), from If I Should Fall From Grace With God

2. "Cry of a Tiny Babe" – Bruce Cockburn, from Nothing But a Burning Light

3. "River" – Joni Mitchell, from Blue

4. "Merry Christmas from the Family" – Robert Earl Keen, from Gringo Honeymoon

5. "Santa’s Beard" – They Might Be Giants, from Lincoln

6. "2000 Miles" – The Pretenders, from Learning To Crawl

Honorable Mention to the Waitresses’ "Christmas Wrapping", originally released on the I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts EP (which was little more than an excuse to put that song and the theme song to Square Pegs on vinyl).

Above picture is of the front door of St. Peter's Church in Society Hill.

Back to the kitchen.

Update (12.16.04): I cannot believe I forgot "Jesus Christ" by Big Star, from Third/Sister Lovers, only one of my all-time favorite albums. I would rank the song third on this list. I also forgot "Merry Christmas, Emily" by Cracker, from Forever. I can be forgiven for not remembering that, it's really not that memorable. Let's put that last on this list.

The Soft Glow of Electric Sex

2004-12-14T06:54:00.000-05:00

The Governor of Vermont would like the above lamp, a replica of 1847's The Greek Slave by noted Vermont artist Hiram Powers, removed from his desk. He's afraid that it might get broken but he also admits, a la John Ashcroft, that he fears that kids might see a nakkid woman. I suggest the governor replace the lamp with a more dignified one:

Of course, he'd have to win a major award to get it.

God is a Real Estate Developer

2004-12-14T06:33:00.000-05:00

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After 10 years of working in Philly and riding PATCO past Olde St. Augustine Church, I'm still waiting for them to put up the sign saying how much the parish is costing the taxpayers by not having to pay property taxes on a pretty valuable piece of real estate.

While I don't really believe that places of worship should have to pay property taxes, I also don't believe in vouchers for parochial school students (which I assume this sign is advocating). And I didn't believe in them while I was paying my way through Holy Cross High either. So quit ye olde complaining Olde St. Augustine.

I think I might still be a bit cranky from my tummy-ache. I'm picking on a church.

[Post title comes from an old song by the great Michelle Shocked.]

Accountability Unpayable

2004-12-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

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I'm still getting over a 24-hour (I hope!) stomach virus. I'm up to Gatorade and toast with a light spread of lingonberry preserves (how pretentious is that?). I don't feel much like thinking up a post today, so once again I'll hand it over to Harry Shearer, from his le Blast newsletter. This goes out to the missus and all the other teachers caught up in NCLB:

We now know what George W. Bush means by "accountability": we'll be stern as hell if teachers don't get their kids to pass a bunch of tests, but if a secretary of defense advocates a war of choice, and further advocates fighting it on the cheap with too few troops and too few supplies ("we go to war with the Army we have", he said this week), and further totally miscalculates the post-war situation, we ask him to re-up for another four years. To revive a question Republicans used to ask about a certain Clintonian imbroglio: what kind of signal does this send to our children?

I took the above picture November 3rd (a very sad day in Philly) just off Washington Square.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 13

2004-12-12T06:42:00.000-05:00

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Week 13:
Three And Out 94, The Sharks 55

Strong outings from Brian Westbrook and Drew Bennett propelled my Fantasy Football team into the fantasy playoffs. With the 94-55 win over the Sharks, Three and Out not only made the playoffs, but also locked up the third seed (in a four-team playoff system).

This weekend we play the Speed Merchants, who have locked up the second seed, meaning that our two teams will play back-to-back games. While that makes this game statistically meaningless, I happen to work in the same office as the Speed Merchants' GM and would love to notch back-to-back wins against him (or at least win this weekend and have him enter the playoffs a little worried). I'm still pretty happy with how my roster looks, and for the third week in a row will not touch my line-up.

QB J. Plummer (Den - QB)
WR T. Owens (Phi - WR)
WR B. Stokley (Ind - WR)
WR D. Bennett (Ten - WR)
RB W. McGahee (Buf - RB)
RB B. Westbrook (Phi - RB)
TE J. Wiggins (Min - TE)
D Baltimore (Bal - D)
BN D. Graham (NE - TE)
BN B. Roethlisberger (Pit - QB)
BN I. Bruce (StL - WR)
BN W. Dunn (Atl - RB)
BN L. Suggs (Cle - RB)
BN D. Staley (Pit - RB)

The Lucky Bastards (5-6-2), Slackers (5-8), and the Sharks (4-9) all still have a chance to get the fourth seed and face the 12-1 Deep Threat. I'm not sure what kind of chance any of them has against Deep's Peyton Manning-lead team, but Three and Out was the top seed last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs, so I know better than anyone that anything can happen.

Down in the Valley

2004-12-11T06:43:00.000-05:00

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Week 12:

With five touchdown passes from sophomore star quarterback Mike Orihel, Rowan cruised to a 56-7 rout of Delaware Valley College to advance to the semifinals of the Division III Championships. By halftime, the Profs had outscored Aggies 42-0 and no doubt began eagerly awaiting the results of the Linfield-Occidental quarterfinal game to see if they would get to play another home game (with a Occidental win) or have to travel to Oregon (to face Linfield). Not long after their win the Profs found out they would have to start packing their bags for the left coast. With Linfield beating Occidental 56-27, Rowan will travel 2,926.4 miles to play the Wildcats Saturday at noon in McMinnville, Oregon.

I’m not saying that McMinnville is small, but according to the Linfield website’s “Top 15 Quirks and Perks of McMinnville,” #11 is a corn maze, #9 is the Goodwill store, and #7 is the 7-Eleven on Baker Street (you know the one). #15 is the soon-to-open Cold Stone Creamery, which is pretty cool (no pun intended). Of course, all Glassboro/Rowan had to offer when I was there was Butch’s Barber Shop - where for five bucks Butchy would give you any hair style you wanted (as long as it existed in 1948) in about five minutes, and a Wawa you just had to cross South Jersey’s most dangerous train tracks to get to.

My high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, whose season was over November 26, ended-up ranked number 7 in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s final South Jersey Football Top 10. While I’m sure the Lancers would rather have the State Parochial 3 State Championship trophy (that went to St. Joseph-Montvale), there’s worse things than being called one of the best teams in South Jersey.

A Guy Walks Into a Salad Bar…

2004-12-10T06:52:00.000-05:00

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A quick post with an old joke and a new link, since I have to be in Bala Cynwyd soon and don’t have much time:

Rich Hall told this joke years and years ago on WMMR when 'MMR was still the station in Philly:

Two guys are driving down City Line Ave and arguing over how to pronounce Bala Cynwyd. One guy says it Bal-a Sin-Wid, the other guy says it Ba-la Kin-wood. After arguing for a while they decide to pull into a fast food joint and ask a local. So they go in and asks the guy behind the counter, “How do you pronounce the name of where we are right now?” And the counter guy slowly says:

Burr-Gerr King.

Anyway, if you’re like me, you don’t want to reward any companies that spent big bucks to get BushCo reelected. So before you go out shopping this weekend, check out this site, and make it a Blue (state) Christmas. It provides a list of all the companies that were naughty (gave primarily to the GOP) and nice (gave to the Dems).

Photo Friday - 12.10.04

2004-12-10T06:40:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Abandoned

Click on photo to enlarge.

Abandoned LPs (remember those?).
5th & South, Philadelphia, PA.

Seeing the Lights

2004-12-09T06:20:00.000-05:00

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I met a German girl in England who was goin’ to school in France – Chuck Berry, "It Wasn’t Me"

The missus was unpacking my two-year-old son’s backpack that he uses for nursery school and pulled out a picture of a menorah that he colored. She asked him if he was learning about Hanukkah at school. Umm… yeah! (Yeah is always preceded by umm). So the missus next asks if he knows what Hanukkah is. Umm...Yeah, eight days.

Cute story, but what’s really cool is that a local Lutheran church runs my son’s nursery school. In this age where religion is such a politicized topic that major networks won’t run an ad by the United Church of Christ, who just wants to make it clear that - like Jesus said - all should be welcome at church (because it’s message is too controversial), my 32-month-old Roman Catholic son is learning Jewish traditions from a Lutheran teacher. Just another reason why we love our son’s nursery school.

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2004-12-08T06:18:00.000-05:00

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I took this picture of carolers on the steps of the rehabbed Zane School Building during the Collingswood Christmas tree lighting. One of the best things about Christmas is the music. I love Christmas music, both modern and traditional. In my book (missal?), Christmas music is second only to May Crowning songs for cool church music. Oh, like you don't think about these things.

As for the modern music, the missus and I have a tradition of picking up a Christmas CD each year and through the years we have compiled quite an eclectic collection. While I’m not sure exactly what order we picked these albums up in, I can tell you that this tradition goes back so far that the first two are on cassette!

A Charlie Brown Christmas - The Vince Guaraldi Trio. A must have. One of the few Christmas specials to put some serious thought into its soundtrack.

A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector – Phil Spector & Various Artists. You know you’re making a musical impact on your kids when your son recognizes Darlene Love’s voice at age four. The Wall of Sound hasn’t held up well on cassette, I need to get this on CD.

The Alligator Records Christmas Collection – Various Artists. A great mix of old-time blues and Creole country. Includes Saffire – the Uppidity Blues Women’s take on modern day holiday blues, "One Parent Christmas."

White Christmas – Al Green. Picked this up because the Reverend Green sings some of my favorite R&B songs. The CD isn’t quite in the same league as “Let’s Stay Together,” but there’s no denying that the guy’s having a ball singing carols.

A Different Kind of Christmas – Various Artists. My favorite Christmas CD, with only one low point (Fishbone’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”). Lots of great obscure stuff (Syd Straw, the db’s, Poi Dog Pondering) and beautiful songs from Bruce Cockburn and T-Bone Burnett.

Merry Christmas from Motown – Various Artists. Old School Motown, not the new stuff. Not as good as Phil Spector’s Wall of Christmas Sound, but pretty close. Worth it just for the baritone of the Temptations "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." Also the only way Michael Jackson (as part of the Jackson 5) gets played in our house.

Cool Christmas Blues – Charles Brown. – The coolest Christmas vibe this side of the Charlie (no relation) Brown Soundtrack. Includes "Merry Christmas Baby" and "Please Come Home For Christmas" straight from the original source.

A New Wave Christmas: Just Can't Get Enough – Various Artists. 80’s pop Christmas music with very few clunkers. A good mix of obscure and favorites. Includes perhaps the greatest Christmas love song of all time, the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl doing "Fairytale of New York". I’m pretty sure it’s the only Christmas song with the line “You’re an old slut on junk” in it, and it’s still one of the most beautiful love songs of all time.

Maybe this Christmas – Various Artists. – The Maybe series all seem to have a 50/50 good/bad mix of music, but the good make them worth having. This one is worth it for Ron Sexsmith’s title song and great takes on some classics by Coldplay and Bright Eyes.

Nick at Nite: A Classic Cartoon Christmas - Various Artists. You know, for the kids. Includes great tunes from the Muppets, who weren’t cartoons, but then again neither was Rudolph.

Christmas Gumbo – Fats Domino. Original bought from the remainder bin as a bit of a joke, but has become a favorite. A great N’Awlins take on the standards.

When My Heart Finds Christmas – Harry Connick Jr. You know, for the missus. Oh, all right, I admit that when Sinatra’s not available Harry’s just fine. The guy really does have talent and it’s displayed here on a couple of his originals, which sound like they came straight from the 40’s.

Maybe This Christmas Too – Various Artists. Once you get past Avril Lavigne’s fingernails on chalkboard take on "O Holy Night", this is a pretty good CD. Good mix of the beautiful and the goofy.

We still haven’t picked up this year’s CD yet. The obvious choice would be Maybe This Christmas Tree (that’s a pun, not a misspelling) but it doesn’t have a lot of recognizable names for me. Plus it has Pilate, another band I never heard of, doing "Fairytale of New York," which I believe was done perfect the first time and shouldn’t be touched. I’ve long wanted to get a Beach Boys Christmas album, but the missus has always overruled me.

Maybe this Christmas…

Up All Night

2004-12-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

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Blockbuster’s DVD-by-mail finally got around to sending me Before Sunrise this week. As I mentioned last week, the missus and I had seen this Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy movie in the theatre when it came out, but seeing the sequel, Before Sunset, this year made us want to see the original again.

In comparison to the sequel, the original suffers two big disadvantages. Where 2004's Before Sunset takes place in real-time – chronicling ninety minutes of conversation in Paris, 1995's Before Sunrise takes place over several hours in Vienna. The other disadvantage is that Before Sunrise transpires overnight, so much of the film is darker and leans too heavily on encounters with the sideshow-like people who come out at night. Before Sunset benefits from the brightness of its sunny afternoon and the interaction with others has been reduced.

Of course, the most important aspect of the movie has very little to do with the setting or other characters. It’s all about the conversation between Hawke and Delpy. (It’s my generation’s My Dinner With Andre, with more kissing and without that “it’s inconceivable” guy from the Princess Bride.) Their dialogue is sometimes pretentious, awkward or just plain silly, but coming out of the mouths of two twenty-three year olds, that’s totally believable (I can say that now that I’m a mature – but still pretentious – thirty-six).

That’s the biggest thing this movie and its sequel have going for it, believability. They make it seem effortless, but if these two actors didn’t carry these movies as well as they did not only wouldn’t you believe in their characters, you wouldn’t even care about them. Instead you end up hoping they connect again, and make another great movie (Before Middle-Age?).

R.I.P. Jasmine

2004-12-06T06:40:00.000-05:00

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I took this picture of my jasmine plant (which I had so cleverly named "Jasmine") at work last week, just before I attempted life-saving measures (like remembering to water it). No luck. Jasmine is dead, dead, dead. This plant had a shorter life span of any plant I've had at work and took way too much care. I'll never buy this kind again. That's right, I'm not longer a jasmine guy.

Photo Friday - 12.03.04

2004-12-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Reflection

Click on photo to enlarge.

Photo Friday always seems to post a theme that I either have no ideas for or one I have a perfect photo for, but I already posted it to my Photo Blog (I like Photo Friday to be an unposted shot). That's the case this week, I had just posted a really good "refection shot" 2 weeks ago. So now I'm stuck with this shot of my bathroom lights reflected in the mirror. The missus thinks it looks Christmas-y.

Bathroom lights in mirror.
Home, South Jersey, USA

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 12

2004-12-05T06:31:00.000-05:00

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Week 12:
Three And Out 91, Slackers 69

Brian Westbrook and Brandon Stokley made up for low points from the usually dependable Jake Plummer and Terrell Owens, but it was a huge game from Willis McGahee that put my Fantasy Football team over the top, beating Slackers 91-69. Slackers suffered a bit by having left Rudi Johnson on their bench, but even if he played Three and Out still would have prevailed.

Once again, I'm sticking with my current roster for this week:

QB J. Plummer (Den - QB)
WR T. Owens (Phi - WR)
WR B. Stokley (Ind - WR)
WR D. Bennett (Ten - WR)
RB W. McGahee (Buf - RB)
RB B. Westbrook (Phi - RB)
TE J. Wiggins (Min - TE)
D Baltimore (Bal - D)
BN D. Graham (NE - TE)
BN B. Roethlisberger (Pit - QB)
BN I. Bruce (StL - WR)
BN W. Dunn (Atl - RB)
BN L. Suggs (Cle - RB)
BN D. Staley (Pit - RB)

With two fantasy weekends before the fantasy playoffs, Three and Out (6-6) is feeling pretty good, but still needs one more win to guarantee a playoff spot. Even though Slackers (5-7) and the Sharks (4-8-0) both lost and the Lucky Bastards (4-6-2) had yet another tie, all three teams are still in the hunt with me for those two last playoff spots.

Addled Statesmen

2004-12-04T06:33:00.000-05:00

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Week 12:

Rowan has gotten off on the right foot as they begin their march towards Stagg Bowl XXXII. After spending the first week of the playoffs relaxing with a bye, the Profs pounded Hobart College last Saturday, 45-14. Fans of the Statesmen must have been sick of hearing DE Keith Heimerl's name as he racked up six tackles, five sacks, and a fumble recovery. As expected, sophomore QB Mike Orihel had another great game, going 21 for 29 with three touchdowns. RB Pat Thompson ran in two TD's before leaving with a knee injury.

Rowan's next opponent, Delaware Valley College, had a much tougher time advancing. DelVal continued their first ever NCAA playoff run (in any sport) by beating St. John Fisher College 26-20. The Aggies scored fourteen points in the final minute to earn a date with the Profs in Glassboro today at noon. The small (2000 students) Doylestown college blew away their division this year, going 9-0 in conference games and 11-0 overall.

True to their agricultural - forgive the pun - roots (the college was formerly known as the National Farm School and Junior College and later Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture), DelVal has an Apiary Society, an Agronomy Club, an Equine Club, a Floral Society, a Horticulture Society, a Landscape Nursery Club, a Turf Club (I'm assuming this isn't related to the off-track betting clubs in Pennsylvania), a Collegiate 4-H, and a Dairy Society that brags that their dairy judging team is one of the best in the country. Those of you who don't care for the Accidental Blogist's college football coverage should be thankful that Rowan doesn't have a dairy judging team for me write about. Especially with DelVal's Dairy Society talking smack like that.

My high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, finished their season on a high by beating their Thanksgiving-weekend rivals Moorestown High in overtime, 34-28. Holy Cross now leads the not-so-longstanding Thanksgiving series between the two schools 11-4. More importantly (at least this year), Holy Cross (#5) bypassed Moorestown (#9) in the Inquirer's South Jersey Football Top 10. They'll have to wait until the playoffs are over to see if that ranking stands. Here's part of the Philadelphia Inquirer's piece on their Top 10 as the postseason comes to an end:

If the top three teams [Shawnee, West Deptford and Deptford] lost, Holy Cross, currently 9-2 and ranked No. 5, could become part of the "Who's No. 1?" debate.

But I'm not getting my hopes up.

Race Case

2004-12-03T06:34:00.000-05:00

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These two must be stopped. And don't try to defend Victoria as less annoying than Jonathan, she was dumb enough to marry him so she's just as bad as him. I still haven't decided who's bio is more laughable - Jonathan calling himself an "entrepreneur" or Victoria calling herself a "pop artist painter / model." I can't help but think that they're destined to end up in the final four. Ugh.

And I was so perfect for that IKEA furniture-building challenge!

The missus' Amazing Race thoughts are here.

Bar Excellence

2004-12-02T06:50:00.000-05:00

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Every family has a dirty little secret, one that they think they are keeping from their neighbors, that really isn't a secret anymore. Ours is this: for the (ladies-only) annual neighborhood Holiday Cookie Exchange, I do the baking for the missus. I'm pretty sure everyone knows the real deal. Comments like "Your wife sure makes great cookies, Mark" and "That wife of yours sure can bake" and "What kind of cookies are you making for the exchange this year, Mark?" have tipped me off. Since it's common knowledge, I thought I'd share the cookie that I chose to make this year. It's from Cook's Illustrated and was featured on their PBS show America's Test Kitchen. I think the link to it requires registration, so I'll just post the recipe here.

Raspberry Squares

Makes 25 Squares
Lining the pan with foil makes removal of the squares for cutting very easy (just lift out the entire block and place it on a cutting board to cut). For a nice presentation, trim 1/4 inch off the outer rim of the uncut baked block. The outside edges of all cut squares will then be neat.

11/2 cups (7.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
11/4 cups quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup (2.3 ounces) granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or almonds, or a combination
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened but still cool
1 cup raspberry preserves

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9-inch-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Fold two 16-inch pieces of foil lengthwise to measure 8 inches wide. Fit one sheet in bottom of greased pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan (overhang will help in removal of baked squares). Fit second sheet in pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In bowl of standing mixer, mix flour, oats, sugars, baking soda, salt, and nuts at low speed until combined, about 30 seconds. With mixer running at low speed, add butter pieces; continue to beat until mixture is well-blended and resembles wet sand, about 2 minutes.

3. Transfer 2⁄3 of mixture to prepared pan and use hands to press crumbs evenly into bottom. Bake until starting to brown, about 20 minutes. Using rubber spatula, spread preserves evenly over hot bottom crust; sprinkle remaining oat/nut mixture evenly over preserves. Bake until preserves bubble around edges and top is golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 11⁄2 hours, then remove from pan using foil handles. Cut into 11⁄4- to 11⁄2-inch squares and serve.

Now excuse me while I go out and get 5 cups of raspberry preserves (I gotta make 8 dozen of these things!).

Good Music for People Who Love Bad Music

2004-12-01T06:27:00.001-05:00

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Every year WXPN, the AAA Format radio station here in Philadelphia, asks its listeners to list their favorite albums of the past year. Then they play back the top fifty vote-getters, a cool year-end tradition. I still remember sending in a postcard (pre-internet connection) with my favorites sometime in the early ‘90’s (it must have been 1992 because I recall Los Lobos’ Kiko being on it). While I don’t think I have missed a year since that postcard, ‘XPN has made this task harder and harder each year.

Since those earlier days ‘XPN has moved from wildly eclectic (I recall an hour of Spanish music followed by Johnny Meister doing two hours of R&B every weekday afternoon), to album-oriented (under genius Programming Director Mike Morrison), to their current single-oriented format (the World Café era). We are now asked to pick the ten best albums of the year while only hearing one or two tracks from them. ‘XPN does have a featured album of the week where they do go deeper into a new release, but once that week is over they go right back to playing only the label-approved released single from it. It always amazes me when they refer to a single as a “new song” when the album it came from is over six months old. The song’s not new, you just haven’t been playing it.

I don’t want to make this a rant on ‘XPN or I could go on for hours (just ask the missus). ‘XPN is still the best station in Philly and for good music it's the only game in town anyway (at least until I get satellite radio). I just want everyone to understand that many of my picks were made on limited samples or my previous familiarity with the artists. So here goes:

Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn. If you told me this would be on my top ten back in January I think would have laughed. Now not only is it on my list, I think it is hands down the best album of the year. Some of this is due to production from Jack White (of the White Stripes - a band that has never really impressed me), but Lynn deserves most of the credit. All the songs are new compositions by Lynn and they’re all great - whether they're all-out rockers or quiet autobiographical ballads. People compared this album to Rick Rubin’s work with Johnny Cash, but much of Cash’s later stuff was comprised of cover songs.

A Ghost is Born - Wilco. Nowhere near as good as its predecessor, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but still a great album. The experimental spirit of YHF is there, but the lyrics aren’t as strong and the music has a little too much electric drone. Still, songs like "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", "I’m a Wheel", and "Theologians" alone make this worthy of my top ten.

Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse. I know I come off as square for not knowing about this band earlier, but what a wakeup call. It took ‘XPN too long to go deeper into this album, but I didn’t ever mind hearing "Float On" again (although when my two-year-old son starts singing “All right, already, we all float on”, it may have hit its saturation point).

Around the Sun - R.E.M. I know I trashed this album when it first came out, but even sub-par R.E.M. is better than most of the stuff out there. This is one that definitely took a long time to grow on me and though I’d like to see the band move in a different direction, I’m satisfied listening to this.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2. This album may suffer from ‘XPN’s single-oriented format more than any other. While critics are raving about this release, ‘XPN listeners are still stuck listening to "Vertigo" (an excellent song, but come on already!). The few times they’ve played something else I’ve liked it.

The Ride - Los Lobos. Twelve years after my first ‘XPN list and Los Lobos is still list-worthy. This CD is mix of new and old songs, special guests and just the band. Los Lobos asked their favorite artists to sing with them and ended up with gems like Elvis Costello’s great take on "Matter of Time" and Richard Thompson contributing his unique sound to the "Wreck of the Carlos Rey."

The Revolution Starts Now - Steve Earle. Not Earle’s best stuff, but you have to give him credit for releasing a political album during a campaign year loaded with songs that get their message across without being annoying, boring or overly earnest. Instead he lets the characters in his stories get his message across (except on "Condi, Condi", a great love song to a certain National Security Adviser).

Drag It Up - Old 97's. After practically wearing out my copy of his solo CD, I was ready for anything from Rhett Miller. Drag It Up picks up right where the Instigator left off, with the same clever songwriting plus a stronger sound now that the band is back with him.

Lonely Runs Both Ways - Alison Krauss and Union Station. This is a latecomer to the list, having been released on November 23, but come on - this is Alison Krauss. She could sing the proverbial phone book and sound great. I listened closely when 'XPN made this the featured album of the week, and it went right onto both my top ten list and my Christmas wish list.

Silence Is Easy - Starsailor. Another band I knew nothing about before this year. I’m a little surprised this ended up on this list, but every time I heard one of these songs I dug it. They’re songs that stay in your head all day (in a good way). Talkie Walkie by Air was another great discovery for me this year, but Starsailor just beat them out to get on the list.

There were a lot of artists whose albums I was interested in hearing (like Paul Westerberg's Folker) but it never got airplay. Then there were albums where I only heard one great song, but didn’t feel comfortable putting on the list because I didn’t know the rest of the album (like Camper Van Beethoven’s “51/7” from New Roman Times). Maybe I’ll do a list of the best songs of the year later on. I’ll need something to write about once Rowan wins the Stagg Bowl.

A Deadline Is Born

2004-11-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

If you were planning on voting in WXPN's Top Ten Favorite Albums of 2004 you have until midnight tonight. I'm working on my list today and I'll try to post about it tomorrow.

Man, this really snuck up on me. A November deadline for best albums of the year? According to their website, 'XPN is going to stretch out the playback of albums 11-50 by playing a few "selected" songs from each album between December 13 and Dec 31. Then on January 1 they will play the top ten albums in their entirety.

Get voting! You could win a copy of every CD that ends up on the top 50.

Yule Time

2004-11-30T06:59:00.000-05:00

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On a related note to yesterday’s post, my Christmas wish list entered the hardware department Sunday, thanks to a couple Black & Decker ads during the Eagles game.

The Black & Decker BULLSEYE Crosshair 90-Degree Auto Leveling Laser is a lot like the Bullet Laser Level that I’ve wanted for a while, except it shoots a laser both horizontally and vertically. As the missus knows, asking me to hang a picture brings about procrastination on an epic scale. That’s because very few things can ruin my day more than hanging a picture crooked. This isn’t just a tool; it’s a marriage saver.

The Black & Decker ATM100 25' Auto Tape Measure is more of a toy than a necessity, but what a jaw-dropping toy. A tape measure that retracts and extends at the touch of a button? Pinch me. I consider myself a connoisseur of tape measures, and while I’ll never give up my Stanley PowerLock, the ATM100 would instantly gain a spot of honor on my workbench.

If you’re keeping track, here are the other Christmas wishes I have made. I’ve also listed them on my sidebar, under “Wishing for…” (I don’t even pretend to think that many people care, but the missus keeps bugging me about making a list).

This Old Host

2004-11-29T06:19:00.000-05:00

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Alan J. Heavens, perhaps the only person who cares about This Old House as much as I do, had a column in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer about one-time TOH host Bob Vila. In between remarkable articles on home ownership, home repair and tools, Heavens will sometimes slip in a piece about the state of home repair shows. Earlier this year he had an article about the 25th season of TOH. He has been just as disappointed in what TOH has become as I have, but he saw promise in this season’s house and was willing to give them another chance. I have tuned in a bit, but I still hate the fact that they are building yet another 5000-square-foot mansion.

After his ten years with TOH, Vila created (along with his sponsor Sears) Home Again, which he has hosted for the fifteen years since he left TOH. Home Again is done in the style of the old TOH that I enjoyed long ago, though with less-knowledgeable Bob Riley filling in at carpenter for Godlike Super-Genius (and I say that with absolutely no sarcasm – just ask the missus) Norm Abram.

The only other downside to Home Again is Vila’s enormous ego. While TOH often allows host Kevin O’Connor’s sidekicks to handle a scene by themselves, Bob is always on the screen during Home Again. But where O’Connor was a VP at Fleet Bank before joining TOH, Vila’s been doing this his whole life and obviously knows his stuff. Vila’s ego, along with his insistence on being allowed to shill for Sears on his own time, seems to have been the cause of the split between him and PBS. Nonetheless, the projects that Vila now works on are interesting and informative enough to allow looking past his personality flaws. TOH has better personalities, but their projects are geared towards those in the market for million dollar homes.

Rather than use his column to critique Home Again, the Inky’s Heavens lets Vila give his opinion of TOH and the other home improvement shows that litter the airwaves. Though the erstwhile TOH host claims that he doesn’t like to criticize his old show, it’s obvious that he does not like what it has become. He says that after he left, “the show became scripted, like a sitcom.” I totally agree with him here, especially with the TOH spin-off, Ask This Old House. Ask TOH deals with the kind of projects that Vila has always done, but the scripted banter between O’Connor and his co-hosts is cringe-worthy to the point of being unwatchable.

Vila saves most of his venom for the newer “home improvement” (if you can call it that) shows that he sees as more entertainment than information; those with carpenters who are celebrities first and craftsmen second, or shows that are just updates of Queen for a Day (ironically, Extreme Makeover Home Edition host/carpenter Ty Pennington is also a Sears spokesman). Like me, Vila wonders how sturdy the results are when the workers rush through them to meet some arbitrary deadline. (I've always wondered how these shows get their permits so fast).

Obviously this is a subject near and dear to my heart and I wish I could catch Vila’s Home Again more often, but it airs at 4 a.m. here in Philly. I’ve been stuck watching it whenever I happen to catch a rerun on cable, but I think I will start taping it so I can watch it once the weather turns frigid and I start running on the treadmill again.

Just like I use to do with This Old House.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 11

2004-11-28T06:23:00.000-05:00

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Week 11:
The Lucky Bastards 88, Three And Out 77

Strong outings by Brian Westbrook and Jake Plummer could not rescue my Fantasy Football team from a lackluster fantasy weekend by Terrell Owens and zero points from Brandon Stokley as Three and Out fell to the Lucky Bastards, 88-77.

We go into this weekend already up 20-0 against the Slackers thanks to a strong Thanksgiving game by Stokley. I will take this as a sign from above and not touch my roster this weekend. Here's what my roster looks like going into Week 12:

QB J. Plummer (Den - QB)
WR T. Owens (Phi - WR)
WR B. Stokley (Ind - WR)
WR D. Bennett (Ten - WR)
RB W. McGahee (Buf - RB)
RB B. Westbrook (Phi - RB)
TE J. Wiggins (Min - TE)
D Baltimore (Bal - D)
BN D. Graham (NE - TE)
BN B. Roethlisberger (Pit - QB)
BN I. Bruce (StL - WR)
BN W. Dunn (Atl - RB)
BN L. Suggs (Cle - RB)
BN D. Staley (Pit - RB)

With three fantasy weekends before the fantasy playoffs, Three and Out (5-6), Slackers (5-6), the Lucky Bastards (4-6-1), and the Sharks (4-7) are all battling for the two remaining playoff spots. This weekend should start the separation of the contenders from the pretenders.

Photo Friday - 11.26.04

2004-11-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Prosperity

Click on photo to enlarge.

Prosperity is an unsmashed piggybank.
Home, South Jersey, USA

Going Stagg

2004-11-26T06:57:00.000-05:00

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Week 11:

Rowan spent week 11 taking a top-seed bye and waiting to find out their opponent in the second round of the Stagg Bowl XXXII playoffs. By beating Curry College, Hobart College moved on to face Rowan. This Saturday the Statesmen make the trip from Geneva, NY to Glassboro, NJ to take on the fourth-seed Profs.

Hobart established the first Men's Studies minor in the US, "an intellectually rigorous and coherent explanation of men’s lives." They also offer a major in Woman's Studies, the goal of which is to "give students the broadest possible context in which to realize and interpret the multidimensional roles of women in societies around the world." I won't go into how unfair it is that Men's Studies is a minor and Woman's Studies is a major, but it seems to me that the point of the Woman's program is to study women's accomplishments through time while the Men's program just hopes to figure out what the hell makes guys act the way they do.

The march toward the NJ Parochial 3 championship by my high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, was ended by Pope John XXIII last Saturday, 34-16. Tonight in Moorestown the Lancers take on the Quakers of Moorestown High. In addition to winning in front of a Thanksgiving weekend full house, Holy Cross (#8) has a chance to overtake Moorestown (#6) in the Inquirer's South Jersey Football Top 10. It's not much, but it's the only thing they have left to fight for.

500 Miles Standish

2004-11-25T06:49:00.000-05:00

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Peanut's Linus is such an obvious self-rightous bleeding-heart liberal that he could be the patron saint of the Accidental Blogist. Since we're going over the river and through the woods (well, lower Bucks County) I'll hand my Thanksgiving post over to him:

"In the year 1621, the Pilgrims had their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian Chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captian Miles Standish were honored quests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice!"

Amen. Let's Eat!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Accidental Vanilla Sunset

2004-11-24T06:30:00.000-05:00

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Keeping with the movie theme, here are some quick thoughts on the last few movies I saw before joining the Blockbuster DVD-by-mail program.

Before Sunset – I was going to wait until I saw Before Sunrise again before saying anything about its sequel, but Blockbuster says that I have a “very long wait” for that one. The missus and I saw Before Sunrise in the theatre back when it originally came out in 1995 (that also makes it Before Sons for us). I don’t remember much from the first movie other than that it was an obvious art-house film. I liked it, but it definitely didn’t make a lasting impression on me. I think that was the point. It was just a quiet little movie about a couple of strangers walking around Vienna waiting for the dawn and the trains that would split them apart. Before Sunset takes place nine years later as they reconnect in Paris. It’s the same concept, this time walking around waiting for a plane to take Ethan Hawke back to his wife-and-child life. The film happens in real time and both Hawke and Julie Delpy are so relaxed and are so obviously having fun, which adds depth to the simple story. It also makes you really like these guys, not an easy task when dealing with Ethan Hawke. Nothing really earth-shattering and no deep revelations but I found myself smiling throughout, and not all of that had to do with the beautiful Ms. Delpy and her wonderful singing voice.

The Accidental Tourist – I took this video out from the same library that I borrowed the Anne Tyler novel from this year. Another quiet movie, technically I guess it’s a chick flick but William Hurt never lets it get mushy (okay, maybe in the very last scene). I’m a big fan of Tyler and thankfully her story does not suffer in the move to the big screen. Geena Davis plays an eccentric without chewing up the scenery, earning herself an Oscar (though for Best Supporting Actress when Best Actress would have been more appropriate). The only bit of criticism would be that William Hurt’s wife isn’t as fleshed out or as sympathetic a character as she is in the book. I think some of this has to do with the time restraints of the movie but is mostly due to a miscast Kathleen Turner. If you want to know what I thought of the story, go back to my post on the novel.

Vanilla Sky – 120 minutes of WTF? followed by 15 minutes of that’s it? Like an overlong Twilight Zone episode, one of those few episodes you forgot about as soon as it was over. Cameron Crowe uses the “what’s a dream and what’s real?” hook to cover up the fact that there really isn’t an interesting story behind it. It didn’t take long for me to stop caring about the characters and just hang on to see how everything is explained. The explanation is so rushed at the end and so unspectacular that it left me unimpressed. Crowe adds some Sixth Sense-like “did you catch that clue?” stuff at the end, but nothing that makes it worthwhile to actually go back and watch various characters say “open your eyes” about a kabillion times. As it often happens in his movies you never get past the fact that Tom Cruise is playing The Smile (as he’s called in the biz), even though he spends most of this movie behind a mask (and after the awful Eyes Wide Shut you would think Tom would stop making movies involving masks, but I guess not).

Flop Like a Fish

2004-11-23T06:50:00.000-05:00

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The classic woe-is-me line that parents of young kids use is “I can’t even remember the last movie we went out to see.” (I really can’t remember the last movie the missus and I went out to see). But this, of course, ignores the fact that parents often goes out to see films, it’s just that they’re all kids movies. That’s because we’re usually trying to forget these movies.

So when the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie came out I jumped at the chance to fulfill my parenting duty before getting stuck seeing to see some Disney holiday-related piece of mush. SpongeBob is the only Nickelodeon show that I haven’t gotten sick of. Jimmy Neutron and Rocket Power may have been all right at first, but they couldn’t hold up to the ten million replayings that Nickelodeon subjects every show to quite like SpongeBob could. SpongeBob's the only show you want them to play 10 million times. It’s also a source of bonding each time the men of the house can recite whole episodes and drive the woman of the house bonkers.

So perhaps I went into the SpongeBob movie with my expectations too high. I anticipated something akin to an animated Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Or maybe a Blazing Saddles for kids. Something that was wall-to-wall non-stop wackiness. Sad to say, SpongeBob was nowhere near that much fun. The writers stuck to one never-deviated-from story for the whole eighty-minute movie, rather than take the wild tangents I hoped for. While one story works for an eight minute episode, it falls short in a movie ten times as long.

Right from the start the mood was wrong. While the pirate-related opening was wacky, having the pirates sing the SpongeBob theme in the style of a 40’s musical was the film’s first missed opportunity. The TV show starts with the theme song as call and response, and if the movie followed that style they would have had the kids in my audience going nuts. Imagine a theatre full of kids screaming a theme song they know by heart. Instead most of the kids tried to do a sing alone, but quickly gave up. So instead of a charged audience, you had an audience that sounded like it had the wind knocked out of it. Five minutes into the movie and the audience’s enthusiasm is being snuffed.

Another problem was that, while I understand that the movie is about SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick, the other players from the TV show hardly ever seen. Instead, SpongeBob and Patrick are surrounded mostly by new characters created just for the movie (and David Hasselhoff, playing his Baywatch uber-lifeguard – a joke lost on every kid in the theatre and not that funny to those adults who did get it). These new characters all seem to be stolen straight from the Disney playbook. Some of them, like Jeffrey Tambor’s King Neptune, are somewhat off-kilter, but no more than recent Disney characters like Shrek’s Donkey or the Lion King’s Timon. The SpongeBob creators had a chance to ridicule these quasi-hip-but-really-white-bread Disney smart-alects (who all seem to me to be voiced by either Eddie Murphy or Nathan Lane), but instead they just lazily copy them.

Even worse is King Neptune’s daughter Mindy, played by the beautiful Scarlett Johansson (pictured above) of Lost in Translation fame. She is the textbook Disney earnest new friend who teaches the lead characters that they have the power to do whatever they are willing to work toward. Here is an element of childrens' movies that is ripe for ridicule, but again the SpongeBob guys just go with the flow and do little with Johansson’s character. After her one funny scene she just becomes annoying.

The final letdown was that there was no surprise after the credits ran. My son and I (and half the crowd) waited and could not believe that they wouldn’t add something – anything – here. Even the lamest of kids’ movies do that these days. Luckily the kids who were waiting could make finger shadows over the credits to keep themselves entertained.

I know that I may be taking all of this too seriously, but I was disappointed for both my son and me, never mind the fact that a night at the movies is twenty bucks for the two of us. The film moved along quickly enough but it didn’t produce a lot of laughs for anyone at our showing. I really expected it to be a raucous scene in the theatre but many times there was complete silence. I don't even expect silence in the theatre during an adult drama these days, much less at a cartoon.

Did I like it? Yeah. Could it have been much funnier? Absolutely. Am I glad I took my son to this and got out of taking him to the next Murphy/Lane Disney movie? No doubt about it. Is it annoying when a reviewer asks questions like this? Positively. But I can’t help thinking that the most fun my son had was making those finger shadows during the credits. For that I paid $20.

Everyone's Gone to the Movies

2004-11-22T06:41:00.000-05:00

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Even though the Accidental Blogist’s subtitle describes me as a “Movie Snob,” I rarely post anything about movies. Truth is, like most parents of small children, the missus and I don’t get out to see movies very often. And because I am such a movie snob I usually can’t even find a film I would want to go see or even rent. Ads that attract most people out to the movies don't work on me. Hearing that deep-voiced “movie-trailer guy” (you know him, the one who always starts with “In a world where…”) is enough to turn me off. The missus and I are lucky if we get to go out once a month, and we don’t want to waste that night on a bad movie. It’s too dangerous to go into Blockbuster without knowing exactly what you want, you’re more likely than not to come out with garbage.

Recently, however, we have been determined to have on-the-cheap “at-home” dates where we eat a late dinner alone and watch a DVD. We pay our seven-year-old 5 bucks to stay upstairs with our 2 ½-year-old and we keep the baby monitor on (the boys are in bed for most of our "date" and we do go up and check on them every so often. Please don't call DYFS). As much as we have tried to keep this up, our dislike of going to the video store, along with the fact that we almost always forget to return movies on time, was working against us.

So I crunched the numbers and realized that it would be worth it to join a DVD by mail rental service. It’s about $20 a month, but if we rent two movies a month that’s about what we would be spending at Blockbuster. We could research the movies better and rent some of the older movies we’ve wanted to see that Blockbuster no longer stock. Plus, if we joined Blockbuster’s program (instead of Netflix) we would get two coupons a month for free in-store movie or game rentals. The 7-year-old has agreed to accept these coupons as payment for babysitting (have we gone into the child-labor violation area yet?). It’s a win-win for everyone.

So hopefully we will be seeing many more quality movies in the near future. In addition to our date-night flicks, I hope to watch at least one movie a week that the missus might not want to watch. Right now I’ve loaded our queue up with a lot of Paul Newman, early Coen brothers, and some music DVDs (the Clash, Wilco, Alison Krauss). We’ve also put some cool older things on there for the kids. I’m thinking of putting films that are on the top of our queue somewhere on my sidebar, but for now here are the first three movies being sent to us: Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (my pick), Catch That Kid (for the kids), and SNL Best of Phil Hartman (the wife’s pick).

Stay tuned for my first attempt at a movie review tomorrow.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 10

2004-11-21T06:54:00.000-05:00

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Week 10:
Three And Out 73, Woolwich Eagles 67

Thank God for Terrell Owens and Brian Westbrook. Going into the Monday night game my Fantasy Football team was down by 30 points, partly due to a 10-point mistake by me. I forgot to bench Daniel Graham for Jermaine Wiggins. But T.O. and Westbrook came through with 35 points combined and gave me a 73-67 win over the sad but trying Woolwich Eagles. The win puts me at 5-5 and moves me up to fourth place (a playoff spot) with only four fantasy weekends to go.

This weekend Jake Plummer goes back in against the porous Saints defense and Ben Roethlisberger takes the bench. Big Ben's a great QB, but he doesn't rack up many fantasy points. Last weekend he gave me 1 whole point. To paraphrase Buddy Ryan, he just wins games. Hopefully I got some much needed WR help by picking Drew Bennett off of waivers and dropping bench-warmer Darius Watts. I'll play Bennett this week and let Isaac Bruce ride the pine. And I made sure that I made the Wiggins for Graham move, but I'm going to double check right now just to be sure... Yup, I did.

My opponent this weekend is the lackluster Lucky Bastards, who are 3-6-1 and have made so few moves that they should be checked for a pulse.

Red Hawk Down

2004-11-20T06:24:00.000-05:00

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Week 10:

With yet another strong game from their sophomore quarterback, Rowan finished their regular season on a high note. Mike Orihel's four touchdowns helped lead the Profs to a 42-14 win over the Red Hawks of Montclair State. Orihel's performance allows him to hang onto the NJAC Player of the Week title he earned last week for another seven days. Rowan ends the season 8-2 with a perfect 6-0 NJAC record. Their only two losses came against Division II teams. Pretty impressive. The bracket-makers were obviously impressed, giving the Profs the top spot in their playoff bracket and the fourth seed overall. That seeding gives them a bye this weekend as they march towards Stagg Bowl XXXII.

The Stagg Bowl, the Division III championship game, is named after Amos Alonzo Stagg. Stagg coached for seventy years, most notably at the University of Chicago. According to the Stagg Bowl site he is credited with inventing the man in motion, the backfield shift, the quick kick, the reverse, the end around, and the lateral. He is in no way related to Chicago Hope's Hector Elizondo, Good Times' John Amos, or Stand and Deliver's Edward James Olmos, but he did play himself in Knute Rockne All American.

My high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, scored twenty unanswered forth-quarter points to beat Immaculata 34-14 in the first round of the NJ Parochial 3 playoffs. This weekend the third-seed Lancers face second-seed Pope John XXIII in Sparta. A team of lancers battling a pope who died 30 years ago? I like our odds (the Philadelphia Inquirer, on the other hand, predicts the old guy beating my Lancers, 32-30).

Short Shrift

2004-11-19T12:38:00.000-05:00

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Think of all the dumb things I write about. Now think of all the dumb things that I don't write about. Where do they go?

Throughout the week I bookmark interesting items that I might want to write about. At the end of the week I end up with the leftovers. Not substantial enough for its own post, too good (at least at one time) to let go. Here goes this week's:

1. Food Network keeps airing All Star Thanksgiving and I keep missing it. It's on this Saturday and again Sunday, both at 4:00pm. What's so special about it? Picture all the Food Network cooks together in one room. Rachael Ray. Emeril Lagasse. Alton Brown (pictured above). Sara Moulton. Tyler Florence. Paula Deen. Giada DeLaurentiis. I'm not crazy about most of these guys (except Alton and Rachael and maybe Tyler) but it's worth watching just to see the vibe between Alton and Emeril. Until they have a steel-cage fight between these two, this will have to do.

2. Congrats to Mark Winegardner who, after winning a contest, has written the first post-Mario Puzo Godfather sequel. Winegardner is the author of one of my favorite novels, Crooked River Burning. Here's hoping he doesn't get pigeon-holed into writing just Godfather books or get his kneecaps broken by angry Puzo fans. I'm hoping readers use the Godfather Returns as an entry point to all of Winegardner's writing.

3. I hope everyone noticed my new improved header banner and revised and detailed list of sites I hit ("Hitting..." on the sidebar).

4. And lastly, from McSweeney's, Cruel Nicknames for Overweight Vampires:

Snackula
Undead Weight
Count Chocoholic
Vampire the Buffet Slayer
Cholesteratu
The Vampurgler
The Vampire Lestop For Some Tacos
Vlad the Inhaler
Child Of Candy Cain
Quiche Lilith
Ghoulash
Queen of the Hammed
Taco Bela
Bela Obesi
Transylvania 6-5000 Calories
Dick Cheney
Das Vhoppyr

Have a great weekend!

Photo Friday - 11.19.04

2004-11-19T06:16:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Patterns

Click on photo to enlarge.

Society Hill Towers.
I.M. Pei, Architect.
2nd & Locust, Philadelphia, PA.

Hot Stove Burn Baby

2004-11-18T01:03:00.000-05:00

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Hot-stove Season (n) - the winter season, when baseball is not played but only discussed.

While looking at ESPN's list of 2004's top free agents I noticed that David Wells, at number 33 (which coincidentally is also his jersey number), is the only top free agent projected to sign with the Phillies. This bugged me for two reasons. One, ESPN must still think that the Phillies still can't attract free agents, and two, I really don't want David Wells to sign with the Phillies.

Hoping that they're wrong, I decided to look at last year's list of top free agents and see how well ESPN did with their predictions. Here they are:

1. Vladimir Guerrero Prediction: Orioles. Signed with: Angels
2. Bartolo Colon Prediction: Yankees. Signed with: Angels
3. Miguel Tejada Prediction: Dodgers. Signed with: Orioles
4. Gary Sheffield Prediction: Yankees. Signed with: Yankees
5. Ivan Rodriguez Prediction: Cubs. Signed with: Tigers
6. Kevin Millwood Prediction: Red Sox. Signed with: Phillies
7. Keith Foulke Prediction: Braves. Signed with: Red Sox
8. Andy Pettitte Prediction: Astros. Signed with: Astros
9. Kazuo Matsui Prediction: Angels. Signed with: Mets
10. Javy Lopez Prediction: Dodgers. Signed with: Orioles
11. Greg Maddox Prediction: Cardinals. Signed with: Cubs
12. Shannon Stewart Prediction: Twins. Signed with: Twins
13. Rafael Palmeiro Prediction: Angels. Signed with: Orioles
14. Ugueth Urbina Prediction: Cubs. Signed with: Tigers
15. Sidney Ponson Prediction: Orioles. Signed with: Orioles
16. Luis Castillo Prediction: Red Sox. Signed with: Marlins
17. Eddie Guardado Prediction: Twins. Signed with: Mariners
18. Mike Cameron Prediction: Mets. Signed with: Mets
19. Tim Worrell Prediction: Blue Jays. Signed with: Phillies
20. Kelvim Escobar Prediction: Rangers. Signed with: Angels
21. LaTroy Hawkins Prediction: Yankees. Signed with: Cubs
22. Shigetoshi Hasegawa Prediction: Mariners. Signed with: Mariners
23. Rich Aurilia Prediction: Giants. Signed with: Mariners
24. Raul Ibanez Prediction: A's. Signed with: Mariners
25. Juan Gonzalez Prediction: Expos. Signed with: Royals
26. Miguel Bastista Prediction: Cardinals. Signed with: Blue Jays
27. Tom Gordon Prediction: A's. Signed with: Yankees.
28. Maels Rodriguez Prediction: Devil Rays. Signed with: ????
29. Carl Everett Prediction: Rockies. Signed with: Expos
30. Todd Walker Prediction: Padres. Signed with: Cubs
31. Jose Cruz, Jr. Prediction: Pirates. Signed with: Devil Rays
32. Raul Mondesi Prediction: Giants. Signed with: Pirates
33. Rod Beck Prediction: Mets. Signed with: Padres
34. Reggie Sanders Prediction: Royals. Signed with: Cardinals
35. Wilson Alvarez Prediction: Dodgers. Signed with: Dodgers
36. Fernando Vina Prediction: White Sox. Signed with: Tigers
37. David Wells Prediction: Yankees. Signed with: Padres
38. Jose Guillen Prediction: Braves. Signed with: Angels
39. Curt Leskanic Prediction: Cubs. Signed with: Royals
40. Kenny Lofton Prediction: Cubs. Signed with: Yankees
41. Joe Randa Prediction: Royals. Signed with: Royals
42. Benito Santiago Prediction: Padres. Signed with: Royals
43. Roberto Alomar Prediction: Cardinals. Signed with: Diamondbacks
44. Jeromy Burnitz Prediction: Diamondbacks. Signed with: Rockies
45. Rondell White Prediction: Pirates. Signed with: Tigers
46. Vinny Castilla Prediction: Rockies. Signed with: Rockies
47. Arthur Rhodes Prediction: Yankees. Signed with: Athletics
48. Mark Grudzielanek Prediction: Cubs. Signed with: Cubs
49. Brian Jordan Prediction: Mariners. Signed with: Rangers
50. Jose Mesa Prediction: Astros. Signed with: Pirates.

So they got 10 out of 50 predictions (or 20%) right. While that's way better than draft-day goldenboy Mel Kiper Jr. does with his football forecasts, it's nothing to write Bristol about. Amazingly, ESPN predicted that none of last year's top fifty would sign with Philadelphia. We ended up with two (both in the top 20), which is better than average when you spread 50 players among 30 teams.

So if you're worried about the Phillies signing Wells, or not signing someone else on ESPN's list, find something else to worry about. Like what ever happened to Maels Rodriguez? (Or better yet, stop worrying and take a look at my daily photo, I'm kind of extra proud of today's.)

Update: I originally didn't give ESPN enough credit. I initially had said that they got 9 predictions right, but missed that they correctly predicted Vinny Castilla signing with the Rockies in 2003. But how tough of a prediction was that? Other than the Rockies, who in their right mind would sign a Coors Field hothouse flower like Castilla? The guy can't hit at sea level. What? Washington just signed him for two years? Oh. Well, it's good to see les ~~Expos~~ Ressortissants are getting off on the right foot.

Geek Alert

2004-11-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot, today is GIS Day! Woo Hoo!

Don't Come Around Here No More

2004-11-17T06:01:00.000-05:00

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Yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer had an interesting little article about Petty's Island, a very large piece of land that sits in the Jersey side of the Delaware River. Most of the island has been home to an oil refinery (currently run by Citgo) while the rest of the island has been left undeveloped and has even attracted a pair of nesting bald eagles.

Citgo tried last year to donate the island to the state, perhaps to get an environmental mess off its hands while looking like the good neighbor. The state refused the donation, citing cost of cleanup and maintenance. Pennsauken, where the island is located, is eager to condemn the land and build a golf course and some ritzy homes on the island. Environmentalist would like the island to be cleaned up and be allowed to return to nature.

I admit that I haven't been following this story very closely. My brain has lumped it together with the plans for developing Burlington Island, a similarly sized island off the coast of Burlington City, which isn't the environmental mess Petty's Island is but still comes with its own headaches. But yesterday's article caught my attention because it focused on a new player in the saga of Petty's Island - Christie Whitman.

Yes, that esteemed sentinel of both New Jersey and the environment is on the case. And who's side has President Bush's first head of the EPA taken? Why, Citgo's of course. Like I said, this is a tricky case and I'm not very read up on it, but I know if Whitman is going one way the State and environmentalists should run the other.

One reason not to trust her? She's playing naive:

"I agreed to pick up the phone and call [U.S. Secretary of the Interior] Gale Norton and realized I became a lobbyist."

Don't get me started on what a joke it's been having Gale Norton run Interior, but Whitman must be smart enough to know that making calls for an oil company to the government is lobbying. Maybe she should have at least realized this when Citgo handed her the check for making the calls.

Another reason not to trust her? While Whitman can take credit for some environmental improvements as governor, she has rarely chosen the environment over big business. Before she was Governor she sat on the state Public Utility Board and often sided with the utility companies. While Governor she was responsible for forcing the anti-development Terry Moore out as head of the Pinelands Commission, where he helped protect about a quarter of the state for twenty years, in favor of an obviously pro-development appointee. As the head of the EPA she was a Bush lapdog before being a Bush lapdog was cool. She could teach all these new cabinet appointees a thing or two about selling your soul and becoming yes-men (and yes-women).

What's scariest about this is that the environmentalists don't see any other choice but to support her on Petty's island. The article quoted the director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club:

"It shows you how environmentally bad New Jersey has become when we're looking at Gov. Whitman and the Bush administration to be our environmental champions."

They say politics make strange bedfellows. With Whitman and Bush, the Sierra Club should sleep with one eye open.

Maybe I'm Amazed

2004-11-16T06:52:00.000-05:00

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Today is a big day at our house. Tonight at 9:00 the Amazing Race returns.

While the missus, my 7-year-old son, and I only really started watching this show last season, it's quickly become a favorite. It’s cool that we can include our son in this almost-completely-swear-free show. That's not a common reality show trait, but neither are non-stop action and a lack of whining, both of which AR offers. I truly think that the superior AR has soured me on ever watching the whiny Survivor again (unless, of course, they have another All-Star version, I'm a sucker for those).

The only bad thing about AR’s ratings success last season is that it won’t be repeated on Saturdays at 8:00 anymore. That means that we’ll have tape it so my son can catch it.

I tried coming up with some pre-show favorites, just from the CBS bios. Here are the couples I have to choose from:

The Formerly-Dating Couple, both of them personal trainers.
The High School Buddies, Brooklyn-born, now-bicoastal.
The Old Couple.
The Engaged Models.
The Dating Actors (although really it’s just another couple of dating models).
The Father-Daughter Team, him a former CIA agent, her a special-ed teacher.
The Married Entrepreneurs who fight all the time.
The Long Distance Dating Couple. She’s a former go-go dancer who’s now studying Geography, my kind of dame.
The Mormon Sisters. One is a single mom; the other is a former striptease aerobics instructor who is returning to college after the Race. I’ll hold judgment until I find out whether or not her major is Geography.
The Married Professional Wrestlers. I don’t like them already.
The Roommates and Best Friends. From NYC.

I’m leaning towards either the Roommates or the Father-Daughter Team (pictured above) before tonight’s show. I have a better grasp on who I think I won’t like: the High School Buddies (Mets fans), the Old Couple (why get attached to them? Chances are: a. they’re extremely nice and b. they’ll be gone once the stupid people are eliminated), the Dating Models/Actors (if they’re anything like last season’s models), and the ‘Rasslers.

Of course, all of that could change after I watch the first episode. Well, everything but the part about the ‘Rasslers. I’m pretty sure of that one.

Whit or Whitout You

2004-11-15T06:14:00.000-05:00

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In a move that has probably pushed my interest in my alma mater, Rowan University, from simply worrisome to outright pathetic, fourteen years after graduating I have subscribed to the email version of the school paper, the Whit.

While it's always fun reading the words of would-be journalists (just like it's fun to listen to would-be DJs' trying to sound cool doing college station IDs), I am impressed with what the paper has done with the Crime Log since I left what was then Glassboro State College.

The Crime Log, once a dry listing of almost word-for-word police reports, now includes snarky comments. An example:

An officer on bike patrol noticed two males walking on the sidewalk in the area of Rowan Hall. According to the police report, "As I arrived to check their well-being I noticed an odor consistent with what is commonly referred to as marijuana."

The officer also noticed one of the subjects had a cigarette-like object in his left hand. He asked what it was, and the subject handed the officer what looked like a homemade cigarette without a filter. Upon close inspection "it appeared to be what is commonly referred to as a joint." The subject continued to claim that the two were just sharing a cigarette.

There was too much thinking to be done for one officer to handle, and backup was requested. Another officer arrived in short time and with their combined brain capacity they were quickly able to determine that the item in question was marijuana. Both subjects were detained and brought back to Public Safety headquarters.

I'm not trying to slam campus police officers - or police officers in general, and believe me I'm glad my work isn't under scrutiny like theirs is, but when you put "...what is commonly referred to as marijuana" in your police report, it's not too hard to ridicule it. It's like shooting fish in what is commonly referred to as a barrel.

While the Crime Log gets some of its laughs at the campus police's expense, many entries show just how smart some students are:

In yet another testament to how intelligent potheads are, an officer on routine patrol noticed a subject smoking a glass pipe in plain view in a public place. There was smoke emanating from the pipe and the officer recalled detecting the smell as marijuana from the past. As the subject was approached he attempted to place the pipe between his body and a bench. The subject was asked what he was smoking in the glass pipe and he responded "marijuana." The subject was then identified and asked if he had anything else on him. At this point, the subject pulled out medical bottle containing a leafy green vegetation and placed it on the bench beside the glass pipe.

Some are just funny at no one's expense:

Unknown suspect(s) have pilfered the "Welcome Back Alumni" sign which was hanging from the porch area in front of the Alumni House. "Both the zip ties and nylon strap were found at the scene and appeared to be cut by a cutting device". The sign is valued at approximately $180.00. Officers are on the lookout for anyone cordially welcoming back alumni.

By the way, the name the Whit follows a fine Glassboro tradition of naming things for some obscure reason. The school nickname is the Profs because Glassboro/Rowan was once a "teacher's college" - just like every other state university in New Jersey! How many of them are named after that fiercely intimidating occupation? Zero. The Whit takes its name from the Whitney family, who as you surely know owned the glass factory that gave the town its name - about a billion years ago. Of course everyone just assumes that Rowan journalism majors can't spell Wit.

Gone Cheney?

2004-11-14T08:59:00.000-05:00

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While I don't doubt that Dick Cheney was really sick the other day (he's looked a little sick to me all along), I think the plan for the GOP is for him to step down before the next term starts. I can't believe that this is an original political thought, but I haven't seen this discussed anywhere else (granted I stay away from political shows these days).

Let's face it, his health would be a valid reason for stepping down. I would have sworn the GOP was going to use it as an excuse to drop him before the last campaign started (for fear that Haliburton would blow up on them), but I think they knew that people voted for Bush because he had Cheney to do his thinking for him. Bush's personality only takes him so far. And changing VP candidates would go against the GOP's CHANGE = WUSS tactic (although they often change their mind, but that's a whole 'nother post).

Anyway, in the RNC's mind Cheney's taking up valuable real estate. The VP spot offers a political upstart national name recognition and use of the term "our administration" while campaigning for president. Cheney's not running in four years, and the RNC surely doesn't want a catfight in the primaries like the DNC had, so why not crown their candidate now? Have Dick step down now citing "health reasons," which sounds better than the usual "spend more time with the family" that most politicians use when forced out, and start getting to work on 2008.

So, who would replace him? Anyone Bush picks would have to be approved by the House, but that shouldn't be a problem. The Dem's would look bad if they held up the important post of VPOTUS, especially seeing what a chowderhead the POTUS is. I don't know if the RNC would be happy with someone from the radical right like Santorum. No matter what they say, I think the RNC knows that the country isn't really moving to the right. That's why they had closet liberals Ah-nold and Giuliani speak at the GOP convention. I don't know if the RNC would be happy with Giuliani, though. They can't slam the Northeast liberals with him leading their ticket. As much as Schwarzenegger wants to be the Prez-i-nator, there's no way the wingers are going to let some foreigner become president. And they're too busy coming up with other important ways to destroy our constitution anyway. I think they have to go with a moderate from a red state who already has some success.

That's why I think Bush may keep it in the family. I think Dubba will try getting Jeb as his replacement VP. He'll say that right now, after Dick's (not so) surprising decision to step down, he needs a man he knows. And he doesn't know anyone better than his brother. And the House of Bush would continue its evil reign.

Just my thoughts. But you heard them here first.

Update: Now that I think about it, Tom Ridge would work too. We all know Pennsylvania minus Philadelphia equals Red State. Ridge could bring PA to the GOP.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 9

2004-11-13T06:24:00.000-05:00

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Week 9:
Deep Threat 114, Three And Out 52

As expected, my Fantasy Football team got spanked last weekend. As Deep Threat got to enjoy not just the outstanding as usual Peyton Manning, but also surprisingly strong performances from Michael Pittman and Antonio Gates. Meanwhile, I had to endure feeling like a traitor for putting in Ben Roethlisberger against the Eagles while keeping the stronger-performing Jake Plummer on my bench. A horrible week as I dropped to 4-5. The only good news is that the two other 4-4 teams also lost. With five fantasy weekends to go, Three and Out remains fifth in a league that sends four teams to the postseason.

No chance of putting Plummer in this week, since he's on a bye, so I'll stick with Big Ben at QB. While I haven't been too happy with Isaac Bruce this year I'll put him back in this week. My other WR, Darius Watts hasn't been doing all that much either and he's on a bye anyway. The only other roster change will be at TE. For some reason New England is not using Daniel Graham (damn you Corey Dillon!) so I'm going back to Jermaine Wiggins. Yesterday I picked up Duce Staley off waivers and finally gave up on Michael Vick. I'll keep Duce on the bench until he's playing at 100% but I can see him replacing Brian Westbrook pretty soon. I'm now carrying 5 RBs and 2 quality QBs. What I really need are strong WRs.

My opponent this week is the Woolwich Eagles, who have been making a mid-season push for the playoffs. They've made a lot of free agent pickups, but still don't have much beyond Tiki Barber and a now-injured Byron Leftwich. I feel pretty good this week.

Photo Friday - 11.12.04

2004-11-12T12:17:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Family

Click on photo to enlarge.

Cousins at the Jersey shore.
3rd & the Ocean, Ocean City, NJ.

Wouldn't You Like to Be a Lemming Too?

2004-11-12T06:59:00.000-05:00

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Way after all the cool people had already done it, I switched my browser at work to the free Firefly browser yesterday. It was a pretty seamless move from Microsoft Explorer and so far it does seem a lot quicker. I did have trouble downloading the Macromedia Flash Player extension, but that was solved by going right to the Macromedia website.

I am soooo hip.

Pat Down

2004-11-12T06:11:00.000-05:00

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Week 9:

William Paterson University was barely a speedbump on Rowan's road to their 14th NJAC Conference title, as the Profs pounded the Pioneers 61-6. Not much to talk about in such a rout, especially when you don't want to offend the missus, an alumna of the routee, so let me just add that Rowan sophomore quarterback Mike Orihel earned his third NJAC Player of the week with 252 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Tomorrow in Montclair the Profs play last year's NJAC champs, the Montclair State Red Hawks. MSU is home to the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, whose name is perhaps the biggest oxymoron in all of academia. A Yogi Berra Learning Center is like a Steven Seagal Film School. Since the Profs have already clinched the NJAC and Montclair, the pre-season favorites, have no chance at even making it to the playoffs, I'd say this is a case where Yogi was wrong: It is over before it's over.

My high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, had a bye last weekend, but they did find out whom they will play in the first round of the Parochial Group 3 playoffs. Tonight in Delran the third-seed Lancers will face the sixth-seed Immaculata Spartans of Sommerville. We're playing a team whose school name is in a dead language. I like our odds.

Trouble Over Bridged Water

2004-11-11T06:02:00.000-05:00

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When's Ashcroft leaving?

Here's the last shot I took on the Ben Franklin Bridge Wednesday before politely being asked to stop by a very cool Port Authority policeman. He didn't think I was doing anything sinister, but he said drivers get nervous when they see someone taking pictures of the bridge.

The picture is of the Chocolate Works condominiums, in what was once the Wilbur's Chocolate factory.

Update: I have sent an email to the Delaware River Port Authority asking for clarification of their stance on photo taking on their bridges. I couldn't find anything about "Homeland Security" measures on their website.

That's Me in the Corner

2004-11-10T06:58:00.000-05:00

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Always on the lookout for both interesting things to photograph and to blog about, I have stumbled upon the Mirror Project, a "growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed themselves in all manner of reflective surfaces".

Lucky for me, I came across this site shortly after taking a picture of the crowd behind the stage at the Philly Kerry rally, as seen reflected in a parking garage traffic mirror. I really liked that shot, so I submitted about a week ago. Since then I have taken the Mirror Project as a challenge to be on the lookout for interesting reflective surfaces to shoot. The fact that I'm not real crazy about putting my face out on the web (trust me, we're all better off without it out there) forces me to be a little more creative.

This week I sent in the above photo, and they posted it here. I'm more proud of the bumper sticker than I am of this photo (the Mirror Project actually hosts all the photos and require them to be under 30 meg, so the quality of the image isn't the greatest). If you can pull yourself away from my ears, I think the way my son's beach ball in the truck perfectly encircles the reflection of the camera is pretty cool (I didn't plan that). The fact that I still have a beach ball in my truck tells you how often I clean it out. For those keeping count, my truck has now made it on my blog twice in the last ten days.

Take a look around the site, for such a simple premise it's really pretty cool.

The New Best Christmas Hint

2004-11-09T06:33:00.000-05:00

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One little addition to my last Christmas hint post: Cook's Illustrated the New Best Recipe.

Last Thursday the Philadelphia Inquirer Food section reviewed both the New Best Recipe book and Gourmet magazine's the Gourmet Cookbook. Gourmet is everything I don't want, complicated haughty-taughty recipes that take a week to prepare. But Cook's Illustrated are the people behind America's Test Kitchen, perhaps the best show on PBS now that This Old House has become This Old Millionaire's House.

Much like the Food Network's Good Eats, but without Alton Brown's goofiness, ATK goes step-by-step through everyday dishes. It explains the science behind cooking so you can decide when it's safe to alter a recipe and when it's not. It reviews products and kitchen utensils and lets you know when costlier doesn't mean better (did you know that you can substitute imitation vanilla extract for the real stuff at half the price, with no discernable difference?). As I watch each episode I think, I could make that. (I think the same thing watching New Yankee Workshop but deep down I know that I can't really match Norm without my very own Porter-Cable Model 3700L 10" Compound Mitre Saw with Twinlaser, but I'll save that for another wishlist.)

The cookbook that I currently rely on when I need attempt a new recipe or refresh my memory on an old one is my copy of the Joy of Cooking. While Joy was updated a few years back to make it more user-friendly and practical, my copy is eleven years old and is definitely not user-friendly or practical. I pretty much only bring it out for it's french toast recipe and it's measurement conversion chart. There's just way too many recipes in Joy that I'll never use (I don't see me making Mountain Oysters anytime soon).

From the Inky review it sounds like New Best Recipes is just what I want: recipes of food my family actually would want to eat. We are desperate to add some new dishes to our menu. It's probably also full of cookie recipes and I would be willing to attempt every last one of them (just in case the missus made it down this far).

So that's pushes my wishlist to three items and I'm sure I'm not done. But nothing will match my 7-year-old's epic list (cribbed from the list emailed to Santa):

Beyblade and arena
Karaoke machine
a Jakks Pacific Ms. Pac Man game
a Driving Force steering wheel for Lego Racers 2
CD ROM games ( like the Incredibles, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, or whatever you think would be cool)
a remote control car
a Mario Golf Advance Tour (Gameboy)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny board traveler
Nick Tunes Freeze Frame Frenzy
Spongebob Square Pants (Gameboy)
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (Gameboy)
a rock polishing kit
a frog spoapstone carving kit
a radio controlled car kit
a camping lantern with remote control
a solar car kit
a bubblegum kit
Shrek 2 DVD
a Shrek 2 GBA Game
a seascope
a radio controlled rush plane
EZ balance stilts
Air powered rockets
pulley
baseball cards

And it won't be a merry Christmas unless he gets everything (not that he will).

Release the Hounds!

2004-11-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

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Long before Harry Shearer was known as a member of Spinal Tap and owner of several voices on the Simpsons, he had a long history as a political satirist. His public radio program Le Show has been a favorite of mine since I was in college (and that's a long time). Shearer has a newsletter that he sends out every so often. His latest had his thoughts on how Kerry's handlers mishandled him. I can't find anything wrong with what he says:

Somebody with the non-tin variety of ear should have told the Senator that you don't use the word "class"--as in "I'm fighting for the middle class"--in public, in America, in an election campaign. We believe in a classless society. Some of us are just richer than others, that's all. Bill Clinton figured this out; he talked about "those folks who work all day and play by the rules".

Somebody with an ear for coherence should have pushed the Senator into the Grand Canyon when he adlibbed that, knowing what he knows now, he'd still vote for the Iraq war resolution. He was then left for three months dangling on the platform of, "It's a stupid mistaken war, and I can win it better".

Somebody with a scintilla of knowledge of show business should have told the Senator to read the scripts as written. The adlibbing, when it didn't get him in trouble (see above), just buried fairly well-written speeches under a mountain of verbal styrofoam popcorn.

Oh, yes, and nobody now alive will ever see a sitting Senator run for President again. Especially one who couldn't be bothered to tell the country what it was he did in the Senate for 20 years--i.e., run valuable investigations into the Iran-Contra affair and BCCI, a bank that financed drug cartels and terrorism. When Bush taunted him for authoring only five laws in his Senate career, I certainly thought he was going to say, "So now the champion of less government wants more laws?"

Enough. I can't wait to see his beard.

It's pretty bad when the left's most common-sense advice comes from Mr. Burns.

Fantastic Planet of Football - Week 8

2004-11-07T06:47:00.000-05:00

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Week 8:
Three And Out 80, 4th And Inches 47

Even with a huge week from their QB Chad Pennington, 4th and Inches failed to beat my Fantasy Football team last weekend. Maybe because their RB Marshall Faulk was on a bye. Gotta check that roster. The good news for Three and Out was that RB Willis McGahee came up big and improved their record to 4-4 with six fantasy weekends to go.

Three and Out shuffles the roster a little this weekend. Since my RB Warrick Dunn is on a bye I have to choose between a gimpy Brian Westbrook or an overmatched Lee Suggs, who faces the Baltimore defense this week. I'm going with Westbrook and a prayer. Darius Watts will stay in for Isaac Bruce who faces New England this weekend. At QB Michael Vick is on a bye so my choices are between the unpredictable Jake Plummer or the red-hot Ben Roethlisberger who's playing the Iggles this weekend. As much as I hate testing my loyalty like this, Big Ben is just too hot not to put in. I'm putting Daniel Graham back in at TE to replace Jermaine Wiggins, just to keep Graham loose.

My opponent this week is the king of the league, the 7-1 Deep Threat with Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson, and David Akers. This showdown has been penciled in as a defeat since early in the season. A win would be huge.

Not so SUNY

2004-11-06T06:14:00.000-05:00

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Week 8:

Playing through torrential rain, Rowan overcame a late comeback from SUNY Brockport last week to improve to 7-2 this season. The Golden Eagles tied the score with 4:29 left in regulation and forced the Profs into overtime. Rowan won the toss but elected to give Brockport the ball first. Brockport's drive ended with a missed field goal and the Profs went on to end the game with a touchdown.

Today in Glassboro the Profs play the cellar-dwellers of the NJAC, William Paterson University, of which the missus is an alumna. While the Profs are still undefeated in their four intra-conference games, the Pioneers are 1-4 in the conference, 2-6 overall. William Paterson is located in beautiful Wayne, NJ, home of the Fountains of Wayne, the store on Rt. 46 from which the band took it's name.

The Wayne area is also home to George Weston Bakeries, makers of Thomas' English Muffins. I remember a series of commercials showing turn-of-the century Britons going to get their favorite breakfast item, only to find out that Mr. Thomas had upped and left for America. They seemed to take the news so bad that I always felt sorry for these poor people. All they ever wanted was some stinkin' nooks and crannies. Was that too much to ask? Was the lure of New Jersey so strong that Mr. "I'm bigger than the whole British Isles" Thomas had to pack up and leave his countrymen without warning, just a sign on his bakery window? Bastard!

Where was I? Football! Once again my high school alma mater, Holy Cross High, won last weekend. The Lancers beat the Chimeras 40-24, ruining Willingboro's Homecoming and improving their own record to 7-1. This weekend Holy Cross has a bye as they prepare for the Parochial Group 3 playoffs.

Web Clog

2004-11-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

Man, Blogger's been sucking. I couldn't post from 6am to 3 pm today.

Congrats to Shallow Center who has escaped Blogger hell and gone to the Promised Land called Type Pad. One day I hope to join him there, if I can convince the wife that blogging's actually worth paying for.

Manuel Transition

2004-11-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

I really do not know why there is such uproar over the hiring of Charlie Manuel as the next Phillies manager. Since last July, when it was rumored that Manuel would replace a hastily fired Larry Bowa, I have had no problem with the thought of Manuel leading the Phils. Nor was I surprised that he would be their first choice. He’s a known product for them and he’s already in great with their superstar. And oh yeah, he was a great manager in Cleveland.

I listened Thursday as callers on WIP supported the hiring of Jim Leyland, mostly because Howard Eskin told them to. But none of them gave a solid reason beyond the old sports cliché of being “a tough-talker who knows how to win.” It sounded a lot like their reason for bringing in Bowa before he was actually hired and everyone’s view of him changed.

Then today the Inquirer put Stephan A. Smith on the case. Stephen A., with his usual brilliant and well-considered thoughts, implies that Manuel’s hiring will be the final nail in Ed Wade’s coffin.

What’s Stephen A.’s problem with choosing Manuel? It’s a lazy pick by Wade because Manuel came from within. Manuel has never won a ring. Nobody else had interviewed Manuel. Okay, so whom does Stephen A. suggest? First off, Don Baylor. Sure, people have been beating down his door lately. And I wouldn’t call him a proven winner with his 627-689 record. The only World Series ring he has is from his playing days, and Bowa had that. Baylor is not the man to take you to the next level.

Who else? Stephen A. likes Terry Pendleton (interestingly, Stephen A. lists the two minority candidates first). Hmmm, a rookie manager named Terry. Been there, done that. Next, Leyland, that tough-talker. What has Leyland been doing for the last five years since he quit baseball? This tough-talker has been sounding like Mr. Wishy-Washy in the press since he first expressed interest in the position. What guarantee was there that he would stick around if the going got tough? He certainly didn’t do that in Colorado.

Then Stephen A. suggests Grady Little. Contrary to popular belief, Little isn’t a great manager who’s forever marked by the one bad decision of leaving Pedro in too long against the Yankees. He was a terrible manager who didn’t know how to stop fiddling with his lineup. In both Boston and Houston he was known for making some pretty bizarre moves. Plus his answers to the press, which everyone seems to think is so important for the Phillies’ pick, usually boiled down to “because I said so.” (Just like all the conversations between my 7-year-old and me.)

Stephen A. then goes into admitting that Wade did some good by bringing in Jim Thome, Eric Milton, and Billy Wagner. Then he blames Wade for losing Curt Schilling and Scott Rolen while admitting that it really wasn’t Wade’s fault. Huh? Which is it? Does Stephen A. really think that we could have afforded the first 3 players if we still had the other 2 players?

The Inquirer’s Jim Salisbury, who actually watched baseball before this year, also wrote an article in today’s paper. Like me, he thinks we should give Manuel a chance. He is a proven winner. He has proved that he can get a team to play up to their expectations and has proved that he can do this without hostility towards the players or the press. He has gotten a team to the World Series, which right now would be good enough for me.

So give him a chance. As I see it, any man who straightens out a young Thome’s swing by having him emulate Roy Hobbs is all right by me.

Photo Friday - 11.05.04

2004-11-05T06:17:00.000-05:00

Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week's theme. When you're done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.

Photo Friday is about challenging our participants to be original and creative within the constraints of the week's theme. It's not a competition. Anyone with a camera and a place on the internet to post pictures can participate.

This week's challenge: Radiant

Click on photo to enlarge.

It's radiant, but what is it? Click on the image to find out.
Home, South Jersey, USA.

He's Gotta Watch It

2004-11-04T08:11:00.000-05:00

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I'm feeling pretty good about my masculinity today, now that I found out that I've only seen 18 percent of Oprah's "50 Greatest Chick Flicks of All Time".

Here are the nine I've seen (with O's ranking):

Three I actually liked:

1. Thelma & Louise (15): Definitely a flick chick, but pretty action-packed for a flick chick. I wonder if they ever made it across that canyon?

Great Line: "Go."

2. Bull Durham (24): Is this a baseball movie that uses the romance to get girls to see it, or a chick flick that uses baseball to get guys to see it? I don't know, but the baseball side is strong enough for me to still like it.

Great Line: "You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry! (Lollygaggers!) Lollygaggers."

3. She's Gotta Have It (31): Spike Lee before his head grew to the size of all Manhattan. How can't you like Mars Blackmon?

Great Line: "Please baby, pleasebaby, please baby, baby baby please!"

Three that were okay:

1. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (13): Can't say I remember a lot from this movie, but I know I saw it and I know I'm not embarrassed to admit it, so it couldn't have been all that bad. Might have had something to do with it being directed by Scorsese.

Great Line: ??? (I can only think of "Pickup, Dingy!" but I'm pretty sure that was just on the TV show Alice)

2. Four Weddings and a Funeral (34): Not the greatest movie ever, but okay for what it is. Luckily it came out before Hugh Grant got really annoying. Unfortunately, Andie MacDowell is always annoying.

Great Line: "I was a lesbian once at school, but only for about fifteen minutes."

3. The Virgin Suicides (45): A very strange movie, but watchable (how's that for a rousing recommendation). Very Artsy-fartsy. Stars Kirsten Dunst, so it's got that goin' for it, which is nice.

Great Line: "Those girls have a bright future ahead of them. The other one was just going to end up a kook."

Three that seemed like good ideas at the time, now not so much:

1. Desperately Seeking Susan (8): I actually saw this in high school with my friends as a "guy's night out." As if there were girls lining up to see movies with us. I guess Madonna's looks at the time was what got us into the theatre, although I vaguely remember really liking "Into the Groove".

Great Line: None.

2. The Truth About Cats & Dogs (9): As funny as Janeane Garofalo was on the Ben Stiller Show and the Larry Sanders Show, she's just not made for the big screen.

Great Line: Absolutely none.

3. Pretty Woman (25): Definitely the worst of this batch. Horrible, horrible movie. Think of how many Richard Gere movies could be described that way.

Great line: Positively, absolutely none.

Movies on Oprah's list that I would admit to seeing (if I had actually seen them): Notorious (3), The French Lieutenant's Woman (4), High Society (38), Laurel Canyon (47), Rabbit-Proof Fence (48) .

The Day After

2004-11-03T06:39:00.000-05:00

Take a look at my Daily Photo

All right, let’s get this over with. Obviously, just like everyone else, I didn’t expect to wake up to four more years of this. I think the election came down to being a referendum on the Iraqi war, and the Democrats didn’t stand a chance in a country that overwhelmingly still thinks Iraq had more to do with 9/11 than Saudi Arabia did.

If there is any good that can be taken away from this, it’s that I still live in a progressive state and work in a progressive city. I’m also grateful that my sons are still too young to be called up to fight in the next contrived war. I’m proud that I helped organizations like MoveOn and Vote for Change show the world that not everyone here buys the president’s lies. And I’m proud that I participated in this election more than any other election. I plan on continuing to work to make sure America does not become what George Bush and Dick Cheney and Alan Keyes and Ollie North and the rest of them want it to become, an aristocratic theocracy.

I know that a lot of good people voted for Bush for no other reason than that they honestly believed that he was best for America. I sure as hell hope they’re right, but I really doubt it. More of the same is not what this country needs right now.

I’m not so bitter that I can’t congratulate the winners. So congratulations Big Business. Congratulations HMOs. Congratulations Teacher Haters. Congratulations Homophobes. Congratulations Enron Defendants. Congratulations Warmongers. Congratulations Offshore Companies. Congratulations Big Oil. Congratulations Standardized Test Makers. Congratulations Defense Industry. Congratulations Anti-environmentalist. Congratulations Pat Robertson. Congratulations Halliburton. Congratulations Drug Companies. Congratulations Polluters. Congratulations Body Bag Manufactures. Congratulations Civil Liberty Haters. Congratulations Energy Companies. Congratulations Bill O’Reilly. Congratulations Saudi Arabia. And big congratulations to Osama Bin Laden, you keep sending those tapes and we’ll keep creating you more recruits.