Ok, so this is unbelievable. There is a 110 year old man living in St. Petersburg who used to play Negro League baseball. And the coolest part (well, for me, anyway)? He grew up on 17th and Bainbridge, two blocks from my house! He played for a team called the Germantown Blue Ribbons, and though his memory of those past teams is a little hazy (those 110 year olds can’t seem to remember anything these days), he remembers having a good curveball and a good fastball. To put in perspective how old he is: Simmons, known as Si, was born on Oct. 14, 1895 — the same year as Babe Ruth and Rudolph Valentino, and before F. Scott Fitzgerald and Amelia Earhart. Thanks to James for sending this in. If you see any crazy news stories that would be fun for the site, please send them to me.
Month: September 2006
Rough night, rough night
Yeah, so the Big Lebowski was packed last night. Maybe even too packed. The Wheel of Terrific was, well, I dunno. It seemed to me to be one of our funniest yet. There was a game called “This is what happens Larry! This is what happens when you f*** a stranger in the ass!”*** in which the contestant beat the crap out of a toy car with a golf club. We also had three contestants in a row from New Jersey come to the stage, at which point I said, “What, is the Bleu Martini closed on Mondays?” But the crowd was only half into it, and at the end all I heard someone in the crowd utter was, “That was weird.” Come on, I need some of my quizzo peeps to come support the Wheel, because I do think it’s hilarious and I really think you will too. And the best part is, it’s even more hilarious when it fails, because then it’s just me and Chip up on stage acting like idiots. So it’s a win-win situation. Your next chance will be next Monday night for the Monday night football game. A’ight, I’ll be back to talk some Phils in the afternoon.
***Relax, mom, it’s just a line from the movie.
Fun Big Lebowski Facts
The Big Sleep.
Fun facts courtesy of imdb.com and wikipedia.
Question of the Week
Vernon Dalhart is sometimes credited with having the first ever million selling record. What disaster did he sing about that drove those record sales and is still considered a classic?
This is the greatest thing I’ve seen since Average Homeboy
OK, first off, this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK! This guy never stops cussing. But you must watch it when you get home, because it is absolutely unbelievable.
Here’s some more info on the good Reverend X.
The Big Lebowski and the Wheel of Terrific Tonight!!!
Yep, we’re back at the Troc tonight, with one of the top 10 bowling films of all time! Tonight is your chance to see the Big Lebowski on the big screen. It is also your chance to see the most insane game show ever, the Wheel of Terrific. The action begins at the Trocadero (1003 Arch Street) at 7:30 p.m. Hope to see you there!
It’s Scamtastic!
I was watching TV yesterday, and an extremely unusual ad came on, saying that Verizon was lobbying Harrisburg to only provide cable to rich people in Pennsylvania. “Now, this is really strange,” I thought to myself, so I decided to go to the website that was shown on the commercial, keepitlocalpa.com. Sounds kind of grassroots, doesn’t it? The website has a very quaint, non-corporate look to it. (It also has, I kid you not, a photo of an Amish buggy at the top of the page. Apparently Verizon is so cruel that they are going to refuse cable to the Amish!) Well, guess who’s one of the “coalition members” of this little grassroots organization? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a company that currently has a total monopoly on an enormous service here in Philadelphia, and that I suspect would hate to have another cable provider offer prices cheaper than $45 a month. Something smells rotten in the state of Denmark.
Um yeah
So I had a big day planned for today. Gym, pay bills, post winners from Quizzo on website. Big day, big day. Then Trivia Art was like, “Hey ya wanna go to Amada, they have a $12 lunch?” I was like, “Sure, $12 sounds great.” Well, a couple of other friends joined us, and two pitchers of sangria and $150 later, it’s 4:30 p.m., and I’m leaving for the ballgame in an hour and a half. There will be no bills paid, no gym, and no pics from quizzo. But if it’s any consolation, I feel freaking great. Let’s go Phils!
Around the horn
*We just saw that our good friend over at Blinq, Dan Rubin, thinks that Paris Hilton is a genius. In other news, we just lost all respect for one of our favorite bloggers.
*A couple of days ago, Philebrity broke the beatdown offered by Philly’s finest in Old City. Am I the only one who hopes that police start beating down random clubgoers in Old City every weekend?
*Johnny ain’t the only one reviewing local pizza.
*If you haven’t already, read the lively debate about the casinos in the comments section under my Big Bopper interview.
*And finally, I got a text message on my cell phone last night, moments after asking Trivia Art for a favor. Apparently Trivia Art tried to send it to someone else, but accidentally sent it to me: “Just got a text from Goodtimes, ‘Can you tivo Grey’s Anatomy?’ What a chick.”
Weird, wild stuff
*It’s a YouTube video about, uh, You Tube that I found on Liz Spikol’s blog. It is eerily compelling. She also has a couple of videos on her blog where she describes getting shock therapy to relieve her depression.
*Today is the date, in 1827, that Moroni gave Joseph Smith those golden plates that he turned into the Book of Mormon. This led, indirectly, to Johnny Goodtimes partying with Salt Lake City hipsters in a kiddie pool in August of this year.
*And happy birthday, Nicole Richie and Dave Coulier!