Sunday Observations, Sports Edition

It's the sports edition because I don't feel like getting into all the ways the world seems to be falling apart at the moment. Another reason is the time of year, this was always the time of year I obsessed about the coming hockey season.

Before I get to the sports one non-sports related item I think I'll pass on. The Penn State class of 2017 met for the first time today and includes students from 41 states and 71 countries. Classes begin tomorrow.

Penn State's field hockey and women's soccer teams start their season on Friday. The football team begins it's season Saturday in a game that will mark my first ever trip to MetLife Stadium. Penn State opens with a game against Syracuse at the Meadowlands Saturday afternoon and I shall be there along with my brother and a few others. Don't expect any photos from the game due to the new NFL and NCAA regulations which allow nothing into a stadium not resembling a large zip-lock bag. The days of sneaking beverages into a game are gone forever, just another way the terrorists have won.

Have I ever mentioned what a most awesome brother I have? For my birthday he gave me a HartnellDown t-shirt autographed by Scott Hartnell himself. For the uninformed HartnellDown is a charity started by Flyers' forward Scott Hartnell. Why is it called Hartnell Down? A few years ago a group of Flyers fans on twitter started posting with the hashtag #hartnelldown whenever Hartnell fell on the ice, mostly mocking him because he sometimes isn't the best skater in the rink. Instead of getting mad Hartnell commandeered the tag and made it his own. His foundation sells apparel and other things with the tag and donates all the proceeds to various youth sports related charities.

Admittedly it hasn't been the best of summers for the Phillies but last night they played in a rather historic game. The 7 hour 6 minute 18 inning marathon was the longest game in the Phillies storied history. It was also the longest game in Major League baseball in 25 years and tied the record for most pitchers used by both teams in a game, 20. The Phillies' final two pitchers weren't pitchers at all but a center fielder and a third basemen which may explain why the Phillies lost.

Tonight it was announced that former Penn State and NBA player John Amaechi will be Penn State's Homecoming Grand Marshall this year. Normally I wouldn't care who the Grand Marshall was but Amaechi has a bit of history I personally find important. In 2007, in his book Man In The Middle, Amaechi became the first former NBA player to come out of the closet.

Sunday Observations 1.20

The NHL returned from its extended hiatus yesterday as the Penguins defeated the Flyers 3-1 in the first game for both teams. It wasn't quite as bad as the score indicates as the Flyers didn't start their season until the second period so we shall see how the Flyers look today in Buffalo. It will be their second of seven games in eleven days.

In one of those funny quirks of sports there are times that Philadelphia is truly the capitol of North American hockey. I'm not saying that because I'm a Flyers fan or because they played in front of a sold out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center, it's always sold out. I say that because after the Flyers game Penn State played Vermont in college hockey in front of another sold out WFC crowd, Penn State won 4-2. That means in a span of six hours about 40,000 people watched ice hockey in south Philly. I don't have to remind you what big field hockey fans Pennsylvanians are.

I could write a whole post about this next item but I don't feel like writing another gun post right now and I really don't want to take seriously at all. I'm only mentioning it because I once again want to show you what total nutjobs some of these gun people are. There are some out there who honestly believe the Newtown slaughter was orchestrated by the government to make the climate better for gun control legislation. One of the things they say proves this is that the parents of the dead children weren't suitably grief stricken.

Now conspiracy theories are nothing new to America. A few of the lasting ones are that Kennedy was killed by Johnson or the CIA, that there are aliens at Area 51, or that the moon landings never happened. Lately though the conspiracy theories are bordering on the macabre. This Newtown one is right there with Israel being behind the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 to draw the U.S. into war with Islam. Nutjobs.

So while I'm on guns I should also mention that yesterday was the first annual Gun Appreciation Day. During the celebration of this grand day five people were injured, shot, at three separate gun shows.

I've found I'm turning into my grandfather of all people. I blame my kindle because at breakfast and dinner I've started to read out loud items of profound importance just as grandfather always sat and read the paper to everybody. As usually happened with him everybody in turn just ignores me. I find it irritating when they ignore me.

Finally, I was reading a magazine when I saw a pic of a model wearing some cool striped underwear, yes underwear. When I looked to see what they were I saw Marc Jacobs briefs $525 and that is today's sign of the apocalypse.

Sunday Observations 1.6

So I woke up to a perfect storm of hockey this morning. After a 113 day lockout and a 16 hour negotiating secession came this from The New York Times, "Breaking News: NHL and Players Union Reach Tentative Agreement to End Lockout." As I was reading the headline it was snowing slightly in the Village, a documentary on the Philadelphia Flyers was on HBO, and today just happens to be Flyers owner Ed Snyder's 80^th birthday. No details on when the season will start or how long it will last but this is critical information as my brother owes me a trip to a Flyers game which was last year's birthday present and I have every intention of collecting it.

I really don't watch a lot of TV other than sports and the usual Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Alex Wagner MSNBC lineup but suddenly I find myself swamped with things I want to see. I had been watching Revolution from the start but I never got back to it after a storm named Sandy took out our cable. I always thought Falling Skies looked good so when it showed up free on Amazon Prime I started watching that and burned through season one in a week. Now Bo is coming back in season three of Lost Girl and I haven't seen any of season two yet. But Lost Girl just appeared free on Netflix so I'm torn between watching the second seasons of Falling Skies and Lost Girl. Netflix also has all the seasons of Nikita for free so if I can't make up my mind I can always watch that. Than again soon I can just watch hockey.

While I'm on entertainment, I mentioned before I was reading Salman Rushdie's "Joseph Anton" which is actually a memoir of Rushdie's after he wrote "The Satanic Verses." If you like memoirs or history it really is very good but it's a hard book to start. Joseph Anton is the name Rushdie came up with at the request of his guards from the Special Branch of the British Metropolitan Police. What you have is Rushdie writing a biography of Anton who is actually Rushdie and sometimes reads like Anton writing a memoir of Rushdie who is at the same time Anton. Once you get past all that it's an easy read and sometimes reads more like a spy novel than anything else. Just take my word for it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Snyder, somewhere Reggie Dunlop is smiling.

You can look that one up.

update - I'm not sure if this is an update to this post or yesterday's on Penn State and the way stories twist around each other. No NHL schedule has been announced yet but it will either be a 48 or a 50 game season. If it is a 48 game season the Flyers will open with an early afternoon game against the hated Penguins on January 19^th in Philadelphia. Early afternoon because that night the new Terry Pagula financed Penn State ice hockey team plays Vermont at the Wells Fargo Center.

Sunday Observations 11.18

Thanksgiving is Thursday so I suppose it is officially the holiday season now. It's cold enough in the Village and I went ice skating last night but something still seems to be missing. Oh yes, the NHL is still pretending to be a league on the level of the NFL and there is still no major league hockey. Some Philadelphia Flyers players are going to play some of the hated Rangers in Atlantic City Saturday night to raise money for Sandy victims and my brother has tickets. This now makes my Thanksgiving dinner goal talking him into taking his loving older sister to the game instead of his girlfriend, something that could be interesting with her sitting there. We shall see, I'll just have to keep their wine glasses full.

Another sign of the season is that I have turned on my iTunes playlist of 500 Christmas tunes. Yeah I know, so not me and I sometimes really don't like the season at all. It's just that same old love/hate thing I have going with Christmas.

There was another bit of election news, this time from Oregon. Democrat Tina Kotek was elected state House Speaker by the state's Democrats on Thursday. She will be the first open lesbian to lead a state legislature. Openly gay people will lead the legislatures of five states now, up from two before the election.

Not much news on the secessionist front but there is this very important petition on the White House website now that I will post below. It has been there for a couple days now and the White House doesn't seem in any rush to remove it. Must be something about the Hostess CEO raising his yearly salary to $2.25 million than filing for bankruptcy and putting 18,000 out of work.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Nationalize the Twinkie industry
"We the undersigned, hereby request Barack Obama to immediately Nationalize the Twinkie industry and prevent our nation from losing her sweet creamy center."
Created: Nov 16, 2012
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY DECEMBER 16, 2012
TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000: 22,125

I would scream "save the Twinkie" to finish but to be quite honest I hate the damn things. It would make a good sign for the Walmart Black Friday strikes though so I better get that copyrighted quick.

Observations from the Window 9.29

A beautifully dreary fall morning in the Village, beautiful because the air is clear, dreary because it's cloudy and not supposed to get above 70° today. Maybe also a little dreary because the Flyers' should be hosting Boston next week in the season opener but instead the NHL players remained locked out in what Yahoo Sports today called Day 14 of dumb. Nothing like the spectacle of millionaires fighting millionaires over millions of dollars, but wait, this is the NHL so I doubt millions of dollars are involved which makes it all the more laughable. Laughable if you aren't a peanut vendor or parking attendant or just a hockey fan stuck in a fall without hockey. At least the NFL refs are back, there is that.

In football Penn State (2-2) travels to Illinois (2-2) in an interesting Big Ten opener for both teams. Penn State will try to give Bill O'Brien his first Big Ten win as head coach and also his first winning record. But what makes this game so intriguing is something that happened over the past summer. The day after the NCAA announced its sanctions seven schools had coaches waiting outside after State's football practice to try and entice players to their schools. Legal? Technically yes because the NCAA had not, and still hasn't, come up with any rules regarding teams "recruiting" Penn State players. In bad taste? According to O'Brien very much so. Only one Big Ten school was among the seven, Illinois.

Also this weekend is the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, I know I'll totally spend too much there but I'm looking forward to going. I do love my books so what could be better than art books? What I found to be fun last time is that everybody is pretty much the same, art fans there because they love art or love books. There aren't any big-ticket auctions, no lounges to schmooze in, and no ulterior reasons to be seen, just lots of awesome books. I'll update this later with anything exciting.

From the MoMa PS1 website; "Free and open to the public, the NY Art Book Fair is the world's premier event for artists’ books, catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines presented by more than 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers from over twenty countries."

So maybe not such a dreary day at all. Football and books, I just have to cram beer and food into it sometime. And, speaking of beer, did you happen to see Krystal Ball drinking a bottle of Sam Adams on The Cycle yesterday afternoon? Sadly it wasn't a Corona.

update - Penn State defeated Illinois 35-7 in a game that wasn't at all that close, it's a cliche I know but also true.  There was no coaches handshake before the game and very perfunctory one after. More like Coach O'Brien wanted Tim Beckman to personally know he had just had his ass kicked. Maybe Beckman should have spent more time coaching the players he had over the summer and less at PSU recruiting.

Observations on Sports 6.11

Tonight at 8 game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals will be played in Los Angeles. Unbelievably, after taking an almost unbeaten record into the finals and having a three games to none lead in the series, the Flyers West (aka the Kings) have lost two games in a row.  If the Devils keep playing the way they did in game 5 they could still find themselves hoisting Lord Stanley's cup over their heads.

While good players Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, and Jeff Carter were never the toughest of Flyers. This was probably a contributing factor in all of them being traded. That and their inability to lead the Flyers to the promised land. In game 5 by luck or design the Devils used this weakness to beat the Kings both on the scoreboard and physically.

The Kings went into game 5, which was played at New Jersey,  with a 10-0 road record in the playoffs. They had outscored their opponents
35-15 during those ten games but when the game ended the Devils had won 2-1. ESPN anchor Cindy Brunson said it all when she tweeted with the hashtag ....

#NoCup4U

6/12 update - So what do I know? The Kings won last night's game by a score of 6-1 as the veteran Devils seemed to lose all their composure and gave the Kings one major power play after another. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter are now Stanley Cup champions. Can you believe an 8^th seed won it all? A Los Angeles hockey team?

Observations from the Road 5.28

Memorial Day weekend brings the unofficial start of summer along with a very large side of sports. That is if you consider auto racing a sport, something that is the subject of endless debate in my family. Summer doesn't officially start for a few weeks but at times it has felt like summer for months. As always I'll leave the science to my brother but damnit whatever happened to spring?

The weekend also became one of a few reasons to make a semi-planned trip home. I semi because I had planned on a day or two at my dad's but i hadn't planned on the whole weekend. Sometimes plans change. Life has a way of throwing unexpected events in the road, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and if you are lucky some of each all at the same time. It is what it is.

But all that is for another time, possibly.

I was driving through rural Pennsylvania on a Saturday morning and I was struck with a thought. Is there any other local in this country with so many damn yard sales? I know it's a holiday weekend all but still they are everywhere. Even my sis was having one when I left. She seems to have joined 'Light The Night' and is going to donate any money she makes to cancer research. My mini me all grown up.

But back to my sports update. I may be almost six feet tall but I was never the biggest basketball fan. I get into it when one of my teams is doing good but other than that it falls to one of the lower rungs of my sports ladder. That being said what an awesome season the Sixers had and I can't think of one bad thing to say about it. A good young team that got everything it could out of itself. You can't ask for anything more than that. They took the Boston Celtics to the last minutes of a game 7 before inexperience took its toll and the Celtics said it ends now. What an awesome season and an awesome future that team has. Unreal that those two teams have played eight game 7s in their history.

A once promising year of Stanley Cup playoffs begins its final chapter this week with the Los Angeles Kings playing the New Jersey Devils for the title. Not exactly a ratings bonanza for NBC but a good series for fans the series features wide open hockey against the supposedly illegal neutral zone trap. The Kings roster includes both former Flyer Jeff Carter and former Flyers' captain Mike Richards so I'll be drinking for them. Both were traded after last years dismal playoff performance in moves that added some of the six rookies that were on the Flyers' playoff roster this year. Whoever wins it wont be the hated New York Rangers and this is a good thing.

As the Phillies begin to age, and possibly look to rebuild, the Flyers and Sixers seem to have some exciting years ahead. Now I have to get back to the French Open.

One last funny story, one of those small town America things that just makes you smile. Now my hometown is small, only a couple thousand people, but every year it holds a Memorial Day parade. I was driving through town to get a paper and coffee and sitting at the curb in the middle of town were two old fashioned folding lawn chairs. Now this is hours before the parade and there isn't a soul in sight but apparently someone was staking out the prime parade watching spot. Just like the Rose Bowl.

Happy Memorial Day people.

Observations from the Window 4.23

Spring, the time of tulips and warm weather, when thoughts begin to return to the beach, and most importantly it's the time of playoff hockey. Some thoughts on the Stanley Cup playoffs and the just ended Flyers/Penguins series.

One thing that irritated me during NBC's national telecast of the clinching Game 6 was how the announcers acted like it was such an upset for the Flyers to eliminate The Penguins. During the regular season the Flyers finished only 5 points behind the Penguins and could have just as easily been the home team for this series. However the vaunted Vegas sports machine picked the Penguins to  win the Cup so far be it for a cocky young (6 rookies on the roster) Flyers team to knock them out.

Youth does have it problems tho as the 10-3 loss in Game 4 showed. After that game Sarah Baicker, the Flyers editor for Comcast SportsNet Philly, wrote "There's a fine line between swagger (good) and arrogance (bad)." There is a lot of truth in that but something many of us never learn. What? You don't think I was talking about me do you?

As for the rest of the NHL, it seems it's wide open and Lord Stanley's Cup could be won by almost anybody. The Los Angeles Kings eliminated the Vancouver Canucks last night and with them the league's best record. In the east the Ottawa Senators had a 3-2 lead over the New York Rangers but the Rangers won tonight. Had they lost the two best records would have been out in less than 24 hours. A gem of a series is the Coyote/Blackhawk one. Phoenix leads the series 3-2 but all five games have gone into overtime, something that has never happened before.

Finally Flyers forward Claude Giroux who had a record setting 14 point series against the Penguins. What is there to say? After game 6 coach Peter Laviolette said, "His game tonight was monstrous, it really was. When the best player in the world comes up to you and tells you, 'I don't know who you're planning on starting tonight, but I want that first shift,' that says everything you need to know about Claude Giroux right there."

Welcome to elite status.

Go Flyers !!!!

Last year I gave you the gorgeous Lauren Hart. This year I give you .... I'm so sorry.


link

Some background. The whole thing with Hulk Hogan began when a Hulkster look alike Penguins fan was dancing around Scott Hartnell behind the Flyers’ bench during a game a couple weeks ago. Hartnell gave Corbin the “I can’t hear you” salute. A photo of Hartnell mocking said fan was than featured on the back page of the April 2^nd edition of the Philadelphia Daily News. The Flyers saved this video till today's game was almost over than played it to, yes, thunderous applause.

The Flyers are up three games to none in their best of seven series with the Penguins.

4/17 update - The Flyers-Penguins game on Sunday afternoon pulled a 2.3 overnight rating, making it the most watched non-Stanley Cup finals playoff game in more than a decade.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.16

Some random thoughts with no connection whatsoever. Life, art, sports, and than a quote ....

Over the past weekend I spent a few days at my dad's and heard a beautiful sound. I laid in my bed and listened to the sound of rain falling on the porch roof outside my old bedroom uninterrupted by anything but the far-off clap of thunder. No cat horns, squealing tires, or sirens so I spent most of the night awake, not tossing and turning but listening. It's a sound I didn't even realize I loved so much or missed at all until that moment but it suddenly became one of the great joys of my life.

I'm still in contact with my old boss and department head at PSU which is good because he also happens to be the guardian of my paintings. We traded a couple emails this week which tie into my post about the art market. In one note he mentioned how much he was struggling with the department's share of the state funding cutbacks and wasn't yet sure how it would play out. There aren't any good options that I can see and for now the front runner is a smaller course selection. I know this is only art but the cuts are everywhere in the system, repeated across the state, and across the nation. I don't see how we catch up with world leaders in science, math, and the like if we continue to cut back on education. Meanwhile the wars wage on, fully funded.

The Philadelphia Flyers season might have ended in a disaster but a couple days ago I found out something totally awesome. The Flyers will host the NHL's 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Phillies. The Winter Classic is the outdoor NHL game that has been played on News Years Day since the first game in 2008. An official opponent has yet to be announced but rumors say it will be the hated New York Rangers which is just too damn perfect. I'm writing this now in the hopes my dad sees it and gets started on his x-mas shopping early this year because I so better be there. This year's game will be played in a baseball stadium and on January 2nd due to an Eagles' game scheduled for the Linc on January 1st.

Finally an H. G. Wells quote from the opening credits of the following video. "If we don't end war, war will end us." It might not end us but it will surely bankrupt us.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - This Is War

5/17 update - Just watched that video again and just have to say how much I love Jared Leto's videos. I shouldn't even call them videos because they are more short films. Just an awesome ending, the proverbial scrap heap of history.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 4.28

I was doing some work from home today when it suddenly got weird. Even considering this is my life I am writing about it was weird. The New York area was expecting thunderstorms all day so when it started getting dark outside I didn’t think anything of it. However the green tinted sky I saw over the Village was something I wasn’t expecting. I don’t think I have ever seen a green tinted sky and I had no idea what it meant. What I half expected to see were agents K and J pulling up in front of our building in their black Crown Vic. 

I quickly googled 'green tinted sky' and found this which was written by a storm chaser. "A green tinted sky is from the suns rays reflecting off moisture and hail stones up in the clouds. This means that the storms updraft is very strong. A very strong updraft is one of the key ingredients for forming a tornado." Now I'm not one to panic but given recent news from the south and west I wasn't at all thrilled to read that. I have seen the movie "Twister" and know how cows blow down the road in a tornado and my thought was the gods only know what would blow down a New York street in such a storm.

Still, in a situation like that there is only one thing to do, grab the camera and go for a walk. I got as far as Union Square when the heavens opened up and I dove in the nearest shop which as luck would have it was Trader Joe's Wine Shop. I guess there are worse ways to spend a thunderstorm than discussing something I know absolutely nothing about, wine, while my storm hair dripped on the floor. And damn the wine at Trader Joe's is cheap too. As the storm passed I claimed two bottles of Spanish Syrah for only $10 and was on my way home.

I know it sounds a little silly to go for a walk when the sky is green but how would we get all that good stuff for the Weather Channel if everybody did that? I just asked myself what Joe Cantore would do.

Flyers update - After last night's win the Flyers are now 9-6 in seventh games and 6-3 when they are played at home. Stanley Cup round two begins Saturday afternoon with the Flyers home against the Boston Bruins in a rematch of last year's series which the Flyers won after trailing 3 games to none. The puck drops at 3PM or shortly after “God Bless America" is song by that known hottie Lauren Hart.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 4.22

The internet gods truly are annoyed with me. Once again I was consigned to internet purgatory for sins real or imagined. I’m not sure what office of Verizon decides that point, I’m not even sure what side of the world the office is on. After yet another long phone conversation I’m beginning to think I have the answer to the last part.

It's not the modem, not the wiring, or my comps, and I don't buy the theory that rats are chewing on my wires because I feed the rats regularly to avoid just such an occurrence. I even stretched a 50' wire down the hall and plugged into Verizon directly only to find it was just as weak at the source. So I am out of theories of my own and I'm open to any opinions but I did accomplish one thing today. After threatening that my next call was going to be to Time Warner I was told a technician would be out sometime this weekend to check any of their equipment in the area. Sometimes it does pay to be a bitch.

Speaking of bitches; In an update to my last geek post I want to say that, contrary to a minor rumor on Twitter, Madonna and I are not at all close. Funny thing about Madonna and I though, our birthdays are the 15th and the 16th of August so I guess karmically speaking we are a lot closer than I thought.

Game 5 of the Flyers playoff series against the Sabres is about an hour away so I just have to forget my internet ills for now. After game 4 ended in a major fight this should just be awesome.

midnight update - The Flyers fell to the Sabres 4-3 in overtime and now find themselves facing elemination Sunday. This series goes a long way towards explaining why I love sports the way I do. Not that I enjoy watching my fav team lose but anything can happen. The thing is last year the Flyers made the playoffs on the last day of the season after a late season surge and they ended up making a run all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. This year they dominated the NHL for most of the year only to tire near the end and slip to second deed in the east. Still things still looked good going into the playoffs until they ran into Ryan Miller who is playing goal as well as the position can be played. Two of the Flyers' three losses in this series have been 1-0 shutouts and that is something that has never happened before in their storied history. You just never know.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 4.19

Yesterday was just a day of uber-geekness that was followed by a night of sports overload. These are just some random thoughts I typed on my netbook but I never got around to connecting.

I had a geek meltdown when I awoke to find I had internet loading speeds equivalent to a wretched dial-up connection. As my empire began to crumble around me I spent an hour on the phone with a friendly enough gentleman who finally informed me what I already knew, my modem was probably shot. He said in would send me a new one that should arrive in approximately six business days. Now I know the call center was in India but I didn’t know Verizon shipped their products from there. The one thing that did irritate a bit was when the automated system had an Indian accent, jesus I yell at them as it is. "Sorry I didn’t understand, sorry I didn’t understand." I just wanted to say I don’t effing understand you either but all I would have gotten back was "sorry I don’t understand!"

In one of my ultimate geek confessions I admitted to a friend that I owned possibly a dozen Madonna CDs. Previous to this it had been a very well kept secret but that no longer seems to be the case. To make it all the more pathetic I latter ripped all the CDs and now have a huge Madonna playlist on iTunes.

A Philadelphia Inquirer sports writer declared last night basketbockey night because the Flyers, Phillies, and Sixers were all playing at the same time. The Flyers won their playoff game against the Buffalo Sabres and now lead the series 2 games to 1. The Sabres have never won a series after falling behind 2 games to 1, this will be their 13th attempt. The Phillies lost in extra innings and the Sixers were totally crushed by LeBitch James and the Miami Heat in their playoff game.

After a bad outing in game two, a win in which he was replaced early, the Flyers didn’t even dress rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. I know the powers that run the Flyers are reading so I just want to say that I think it was a totally bad move. Goalies in any sport a flaky to start with, witness my brother, so it was a bad enough move not to start him. This was only magnified by not letting him backup Brian Bouchet. Time will tell what it does to his confidence. 

I really just wanted one of those mellow spring baths I wrote about.

Madonna - American Pie

Observations from the Bar 4.15

Sitting in my bar watching the Phillies game and reflecting on the Flyers rather inauspicious start to the playoffs. After having the best record in the NHL for most of the season the Flyers went into an end of season funk, losing 5 of their last 6 games, and slipped to just 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference. They lost their playoff opener at home 1-0 to the Buffalo Sabres. I only hope that hit them like a hard slap to the face and they hit back with a win Saturday.

What made the loss worse was a bad case of torn loyalties between the Flyers and Penn State. Penn State alumnus Terry Pegula purchased the Sabres in February for $189 million. Pegula is also the force behind the new Penn State men's and women's NCAA division 1 ice hockey programs. Along with his wife Pegula donated $88 million to the school to start the program and build a new multi-purpose arena, the Pegula Ice Arena.

Now I see nothing wrong with spending your money on a sport you love, there are far worse things to spend it on, but during the game I was reading tweets from PSU ice hockey and PSU sports and this is where I got irritated. It seems Pegula's box at the Wachovia Center was filled with Penn State alumni and hockey people all wildly cheering the Sabres victory. This is somehow just wrong and I plan on boycotting Penn State ice hockey for a few years, maybe till they begin Big 10 play in 2012.

For the record Terry Pegula is a 1973 graduate of Penn State with a  bachelor of science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. You can guess where he made all that hockey money.

And the Phillies lost too. Perfect.

Observations from the Bar 3.17, March Madness

Yes you read the header correctly, from the bar on a Thursday afternoon. So don't ask, just enjoy the green beer.

See my own version of 'March Madness' began today to coincide with the normal version. Penn State is playing Temple in Tucson, Arizona in what is the PSU men's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2001. Why two Pennsylvania teams aren't just playing in the East regional in DC is beyond me but I’m sure there has to be a good reason, airline lobbyist’s maybe. My only problem with this game is how far do I take PSU in my bracket picks? As I write this things are looking good, I'll update with a final score later.

Than Saturday morning the Penn State Lady Lions will make their first NCAA tournament appearance in six years when they play Dayton at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park. Penn State is hosting the first two rounds of the East Regional with the final rounds in Philadelphia. The added beauty of this is that I just found out last night that thanks to my brother I will be at the game.

I should add here that I'm more than a little pissed at Basketball Fan in Chief Barrack Obama who picked brackets for both the NCAA men's and women's tournaments. Two PSU teams to pick from and he only picks one total win. One? And they say the man knows basketball.

Next up are my Phillies. With a lineup of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels the Phillies have arguably the best starting rotation in the history of baseball. They open their season April 1st at home against Houston and no I don't have a ticket, not yet. Honestly I'm not sure I like the idea of the most promising Phillies season ever opening on April Fools' Day.

Finally there are the Flyers. At one point they had the best record in the NHL but now they are in a fight just to finish with the best record in the Eastern Conference. Every year they go into a funk at some point and I’m more than a little worried that they picked the wrong time this year. The Stanley Cup playoffs begin April 13th.

So my March Madness began today at 2PM with green beer and basketball to be followed by the big road trip to Penn State Saturday. Than it's home after the game for Foxy's soft top and all will be right with the world, for now.

Happy State Patty's Day everybody! I love this time of year ....

AC/DC - Thunderstruck

17:50 update - So maybe President Obama knows more about basketball than I was willing to admit. Penn State fell to Temple 66-64 on a desperation shot with 0.4 seconds left in the game. Talor Battle finishes his carrer as Penn State's all time leading scorer and only the third NCAA Division I player ever to total 2,000 points, 600 rebounds and 500 assists.
Been trying to drown my sorrows in green beer but I'm finding it very hard with a damn giant leprechaun in the bar. I'm going to see if a big juicy bacon cheeseburger helps, one smothered in onions, and maybe some peppers too.

From GoPSUSports.com - Battle Tested Lions Leave Everything on the Floor at NCAA Tournament

Observations from the Bar 2.6

I stopped by my little bar after work to watch the Super Bowl and get reacquainted. I haven't been here in some time and with the Flyers going into the second half of the season with the best record in the NHL I soon might be spending more time here.

I really couldn't care less about the game because I don't like either team so I would be perfectly happy if neither one wins. I know the Steelers are from Pennsylvania but i don't care, I never liked them. After all they are from western PA and everybody knows that it's a strange breed of people that live west of the Susquehanna. On top of that there are no cheerleaders because neither team has them. There are only six teams in the NFL that don't have cheerleaders and it was just our luck to get two of them this year. Seriously, there should be a rule against that. There should also be a rule against halftime shows with bad sound, or maybe just against totally bad halftime shows.

That leaves the commercials and they don't seem to be anything special this year either. Maybe I missed something but I'm totally unexcited so far. The Chrysler ad with Eminem is probably my winner because it is very well made and "Imported from Detroit" is prob the only memorable line to come out of this game. My only other thought on the commercials is that Stella Artois and Miller Lite are clearly targeting different markets. Wait, GoDaddy just came on so things are looking up and it's followed by VW Bettle, win win.

It was nice to see George Bush could get a ticket to the game. One has to wonder if he and the old gang were discussing how things are going in Iraq and how the Middle East needs more strong countries like Egypt. That Georgie, he always was a little behind.

One final toast to the missing 400 who were denied seats even though they had tickets. Seems Jerry Jones forgot to install some 1200 seats in his new sports palace. Honestly you just can't make this shit up.

And so the final score was Green Bay 31 and Pittsburgh 25 with Penn State getting its 49th Super Bowl ring. There had to be a silver lining somewhere and damnit I found it.

Observations on The Morning After

The morning after, a dull aching pain in my head, the feeling of something lost. The Flyers lost game six last night, in overtime no less, ending a long storied run through the playoffs. Highlighted by being down three games to none against Boston and coming back to take the series. None of this was expected when the playoffs began, the orange and black just slipping into the playoffs on the final day of the season, beating the Rangers in a shootout.

After my final preparations I watched the game at a local corner bar where I watched most of the games, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. Funny thing is I enjoyed spending time with some of these crazy people even though none were Flyers fans when I first walked in. Not that any are now either but they did cheer with me and cry a little too. And when we took out the scorned Boston Bruins there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Last night, as I left, I even got a hug from a middle aged guy in a Rangers jersey who told me it was a playoff run he would never forget. Sweet but I could have done without the pat on the ass.

As always I traded texts with ‘the kid’ as the game progressed. He filled me in on his preparations for the game “They've never lost a game when i've worn this jersey or been at this particular bar. I've done all i can.” What he felt when the game was tied “Oh thank god”, overtime “I'm dyin”, and the liberal use of alcohol as a calming agent “I've had many drinks. It doesn't help! Ha ha.” And than his final thoughts as he faded away “I was pumped we beat the devils. And got further than the pens.” Poor kid stuck in an apartment with three Penguin fans for roommates.

I’ll always remember so many things from this season. Not the least of which is a new ‘tradition” that seemed, at one point, to help bring shutout after shutout. I’ll keep that one to myself as you never know when you are going to need that one again.

So it is over. Ill have to wait another year to see the Flyers hoist Lord Stanley’s cup. But this Flyers team never gave up, never quit, and they proved anything is possible. No more hockey for this year but it seems a bright future is ahead for this young team.

I guess it always seems that way the morning after.

tuneage, Indica - In Passing

Go Flyers !!!! 6.9

And it again comes down to a must win for my Flyers. Win tonight and force a game seven Friday night. Lose and it's all over. Another loss in the finals, their sixth time since they last won the cup in 1975.

I want to help all that I can so I made a check list ....

Draw a big circle around the TV a
Put out traps for any black cats in the neighborhood a
Dig out the dried four leaf clover a
Run across the street and get that flag off the sidewalk a
Be careful not to step on any cracks in said sidewalk a
Hang horseshoe over door a
Cross my heart over and over a
Water that dyeing ivy plant a
Stick rabbit's foot in pocket, be sure rabbit doesn't mind a
Get all shoes off of tables and hats off my bed a
Turn on Discovery Channel and wish upon a shooting star a
Chant all kinds of weird mantras, that mean god knows what, in a language i don't understand a
Shrug

Stop and take a deep breath ....

Open twenty packs of tarot cards and dig out the Sun cards a
Spread Suns liberally around room a
Hide all umbrellas a
Get out hockey stick and smack all four walls a
Spit on said hockey stick a
Put on grandmothers amber necklace a
Add a clove of garlic to said necklace .... you never know a
Toss any brooms out the window a
We have no crows in the Village but i refuse to count pigeons a
Ooops ! Hide the dead ladybug a
Pick up all pins a
Put Corona on ice and slice the limes a
Lay out Flyers jersey and pick out the perfect black hat a

OK I think I'm ready. Oh one last thing, the original ....



And finally a little geek chat. Depending what browser you are using you might see check marks or the letter a. Well it seems not all browsers read all fonts. Firefox doesn't read webdings which was the only way i could get the check marks (thanks for the help!) so i did this in Google Chrome. I don't pretend to understand.

Go Flyers !!!!

Chicago, Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks, game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, the series tied two games apiece with the home team wining every game. The puck drops in little over an hour. If the Flyers, who have not lost a game 4 or later in the playoffs, win tonight i think the win it all Wednesday night and hoist Lord Stanley's Cup in front of the home fans. All superstitions and traditions are in play, all of them. So I give you Kate Smith and Lauren Hart, daughter of the late Flyers' announcer Gene Hart, and "God Bless America". The Flyers' record when "God Bless America" is played or sung in person stands at 87 wins, 22 losses, and 4 ties.

Just doing my part ......



(sorry the sound sucks!)

Observations from the Roof 5.31

Memorial Day began, or Sunday night ended, with Ash on the roof smoking cigarettes and watching the sun rise above the rooftops and the last of the Corona chilled and lonely in a bucket of melting ice. A solitary pretzel vendor moving up the empty street with his cart decorated with tiny American flags.

It’s the beginning of the end of one of those strange periods of life. Those times you look back at later and just have to smile. A weekend of bartending, little sleep, and crawling into bed well after sunrise only to get up so few hours later. A Sunday dawn found us at Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty in front, the sun rising over the narrows, and the ships of ‘Fleet Week’ up the river to our right. I sat with my friends shivering in a tank top, yet drinking a cold beer, as the breeze came off the harbor. I was told this was a very good romantic vamp movie moment. I still have to smile thinking about that one.

Bartending in the middle of Fleet Week, which ends Tuesday, the club filled with sailors on leave and with money burning holes in the pockets. And how many times *can* a gay girl get hit on by guys? A bet made between Kirby and I to see who got hit on the most. Sadly I lost track and ended up buying breakfast.

Hot humid air give the city a feel of an early summer night. The sailors, dressed top to toe in bright white uniforms, couldn’t be more different from the people they mingle with. Actually rumor has it the pregnancy rate rises dramatically during Fleet Week. I have no idea myself nor was I going to find out. Also I was informed I should be riding a Harley, whether alone or hanging on to some hot biker babe I wasn’t told. Another smile.

More than one time this weekend I found myself alone with one friend or another sharing a special moment. Drinking beer, thinking, or chatting about nothing particular. Some of those moments that makes a life worth living. Three days that went by in such a blur I have to sit back and think about them and enjoy them all over again.

Now if my Flyers could win tonight, well, life is good but it could get even better.

tuneage, Skillet - Monster