Around the Horn, brought to you by Rainbow Brite

–A guy from Gridskipper tries 10 cheesesteaks and ranks them. He ranks the standards 1,2,3,4 (Luke’s, Jim’s, Pat’s, Geno’s.) What? Did he really even go, or did he just base this on some 1980 newspaper article? He does get a good dig in at Vento though. (via Foobooz)

-My editor (Dorothy) is hosting a debate tonight at 6 p.m. over whether Starbucks is evil. (I think you know where I come down on this debate). Anyways, in an effort to score brownie points, I am mentioning the details here:
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-The Major sports leagues just get more and more evil with each passing day. First of all, former Eagles coordinator Brad Childress has decided to dock receiver Troy Williamson a week’s pay because he missed Sunday’s game to attend the funeral of the grandmother who raised him. Meanwhile, in Seattle, Sonics ownership is holding the citizens of the city hostage, saying that if they don’t pay corporate welfare for a new arena, he’s moving. Of course, Darth Stern has blasted city officials for not anteing up.

-But let’s end with some good sports news. The Phils are close to re-signing JC Romero. Now we just gotta get Rowand, and it’s time to start counting down the days to pitchers and catchers reporting.

Morning News and Notes

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-Vote for which movie I should watch this weekend. Thus far, it looks like we’ve got our first blowout in this little experiment.

-I am not married or engaged. Apparently that rumor was making it’s way around some circles. Don’t worry ladies, I am still flying Hans Solo.

-Working on a Punkin’ Chunkin’ music video. Should have it up by Monday.

JGT: Credible News Source?

Remember a few weeks ago I did a Metro column on Canada? Well, one of the jokes I made went as follows: The World Famous Toronto Cheesesteak shops have signs in their windows that read, “This is Canada. When ordering, speak Canadian.”

Apparently “The Snooper” from the Philadelphia Record took this as truth, reporting recently: It seems everyone agrees with Joe Vento, of Geno’s Steaks, regarding his sign. Check this out. In Canada, TORONTO’S world famous cheesesteak shops have signs that read, “This is Canada. When ordering, SPEAK CANADIAN”. So why is Joe Vento in the wrong? This whole sign business is all ridiculous, because he is merely expressing his rights to “free speech”. Remember, THIS IS AMERICA!

Yes, Snoop, you’d be amazed at how many of those damn migrants Up North have learned to speak Canadian since those signs went up. (Thanks to Steve for sending this in.)

The Most Comprehensive article on quizzo written yet

I don’t know how it took me this long to notice it, but one of Denver’s Weeklies did a huge write up on quizzo a few months ago, in the process even talking to Philly quizzo legend Pat Hines. It’s a pretty good article. You’d think the local media would someday cover quizzo, seeing as how it’s now a national phenomenon that got it’s start right here in our fair city. Hmmmm, if only we were good friends with a writer at one of the local weeklies…

Tonight Let’s see what they did at the Good Dog

The Good Dog was closed for renovations last week, and just reopened. Check out what they did tonight and play some quizzo at 8 p.m. At 10 p.m., JGT heads over to the Bards for a little late night quizzo action. Hope to see you tonight. All new questions tonight, so if you played earlier this week, you can play again.

Sweet!

Yesterday was one of those rare good days to be a Philadelphia sports fan. The Flyers and Sixers both won big, but more importantly, Ed Wade finally helped the Phillies, giving us Brad Lidge for Michale Bourn. I like Bourn, and we’ll miss his speed, but we’ve still got plenty of speed with Vic and Rollins. This means that Myers will move back into the rotation. Now, I’m just praying that the team re-signs Romero and Rowand. Then this will be a squad worth getting excited about. The fantasy: our terrible ownership realizes that this may be the best team in Phils history, opens up the purse strings a bit, and goes after Dontrelle Willis. A rotation of Hamels, Myers, Willis, Kendrick, Moyer would make this the best team in the NL. Send Eaton to middle relief or the Afghani League or something. (Of course, the above scenario will never happen because we got rid of our best trade bait in Bourn, so we’ve got nothing to offer for Willis.)
RELATED: Read Beerleaguers take.
RELATED: Salisbury writes about it in the Inky.

What great movie should I watch for the first time

So far, this has been great. Spent the last two fridays on my couch watching terrific films. Thanks for your help in picking them out. Here’s a few more that I still haven’t seen. Which one should I watch this weekend? Voting ends friday at 5 p.m.

Review for North By Northwest

Ok, ok, so Blue Velvet actually beat North by Northwest by a single vote. But my video store didn’t have a DVD copy of Blue Velvet somehow, so I went with North by Northwest. If anyone has a copy of Blue Velvet I could borrow, I’ll watch it this weekend.

This film was an absolute blast. The scenery was almost as much fun as the film, from the colorful hotel rooms to the obviously staged woods to house at the end, the sets were amazing. Cary Grant was the definition of cool. As a friend of mine said the other night, “George Clooney has built an entire career out of being Cary Grant.” And Eva Marie Saint is stunningly beautiful, with that certain edge that makes women ten times sexier. Smart, powerful, and sexy, I have a hard time thinking of an actress in Hollywood today that could have pulled that character off. The other character I really liked was the super creepy villain played by Martin Landau. What was up with that dude? What a psycho.

I loved the classic scene on the prairie. “That’s funny, that plane’s dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops.” And of course Cary Grant runs from a plane without ever breaking a sweat or running out of breath. I also enjoyed the scene at the art gallery, where he made an ass of himself to avoid being killed, though I wasn’t sure why he didn’t try to get away from the cops as well.

No real negatives to talk about. Thought the movie coulda been about 15 minutes shorter, but I still enjoyed all of it. I thought the Mount Rushmore scene was a little hokey. Apparently, they were really gonna shoot at Rushmore, but got found out and the Park Service wouldn’t let them, so they had to build a fake Rushmore and promise to not walk on the faces. In any event, that scene was a bit silly, though I’m really just nitpicking here.

All in all, a great film. I even watched the 30 minute extra about the filming of it, which I rarely do, because I wanted to learn more about the film. I’m sure I missed some vague nuances, and will at some point treat myself to watching it again to try to pick them up. Great film. B+.

Around the horn, brought to you by Berzerk

–This rapping groundhog makes me wanna be a nurse.

–Trivia Art’s latest in the Metro.

-It was on this date in 1940 that the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge began waving wildly in the wind. In this video, the only thing as good as the trippy bridge waving is the news reel announcer.

–An economist tries to figure out why we date who we date. Pretty interesting: In a survey we did before the speed dating began, participants rated their own intelligence levels, and it turns out that men avoided women whom they perceived to be smarter than themselves. If there are any dumb girls out there reading this, call me. We can get together and make fun of smart girls.

Around the Horn, political edition

-Do you know about the Socialist candidate for Mayor, John Staggs? Darth Ern says the socialist run this town, so this guy’s probably gonna win in a landslide.

-The rumor that could alter the future of America: Is Hillary Clinton a lesbian? And if so, is she really hooking up with a woman this hot?

-The Metro checks in with Sam Katz on election day.

–“For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.” -in today’s USA TODAY.

-Waterboarding got a soldier kicked out of the army in 1968. Today, it is encouraged by the Bush administration, putting America in some pretty dubious company when it comes to promoting torture.