The King of the Pan Flute is turning 68 today, still blowing on that flute like there was no tomorrow. Alright, I’m off to the dentist so he can admonish me for not taking better care of my teeth. Be back this afternoon with pics of last weeks winners. Oh and thanks to everybody who came out to the Bards last night to the Phils game. It was a lot of fun, even though the Phils didn’t live up to their end of the bargain. And thanks to the Bards for having us. We’ll have to do it again sometime.

Think you guys will get a kick out of a thing I wrote today on isportacus: 40 Reasons Baseball is Better Than Football. Also, remember that we’re having a launch party/Phils party Sunday night at 6 p.m. We’re gonna show the final 4 innings of last years World Series, then watch Game One of the 2009 season. We’ve got $2 lagers and Bud Lights and Dollar Dogs. We’ll also have baseball trivia, prizes, and much more. It’s gonna be fun. Hope you can join us. Oh, and don’t forget to join us on Streak for the Cash. We just started a whole new game this month.

Last night I asked the question: “Lynard Skynard was named after a guy named Leonard Skinner. Who was Leonard Skinner?” Leonard Skinner (above, in black shirt) was their high school gym teacher in Jacksonville. And, rumor has it, he regularly suspended them for having long hair. Well, Leonard recently retired from teaching, and here’s a write up about him in the Jacksonville paper, including a bit of history of his relationship with the band.

The band named itself in a smart-aleck tribute to the basketball coach and gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, the tough guy who sent some of the musicians to the assistant principal’s office because their hair was too long – it touched their collars in the back.

It was apparently a big deal to them. To Skinner, though? Not so much. Even as the band was making it big in the ’70s, he admitted he didn’t recall their names or faces: He remembered the athletes he coached, not the longhairs.

It rankled him then, and it rankles him now, that some say he was too tough on them, or that it was he who kicked Skynyrd out of school. They were breaking the school dress code, after all. And he was just doing his job by sending them to the office – if they were expelled or suspended after they got to the office, it wasn’t his doing.

“It was against the school rules. I don’t particularly like long hair on men, but again, it wasn’t my rule,” he says…Ever since, Leonard Skinner has been tied to the band – and is forever having to take out his billfold to show his ID to people who don’t believe that that’s his real name.

So perhaps he’s warmed up to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s music after all these decades?

“No,” he says flatly, resisting a golden opportunity to play nice. “I don’t. I don’t like rock ‘n’ roll music.”

I was at Penndot today, and I’m glad I went. I’ve been drinking a lot of wine coolers lately, thinking I was completely free from harm. Well, I was wrong. According to this sign at PENNDOT, Wine coolers are a drug. Like heroin or crack. Or Zima.

Thanks to Hot Irish Slut for sending this in (seriously, that was the name on the email that sent this to me.) Dimitri appears at the 11:30 mark, but the whole thing is kind of interesting. If you are going to be in Toronto next weekend, I highly recommend attending Dimitri’s next seminar on April 8th. He is going to teach you where to go to seduce sluts, such as “Stunning Eastern European gold-digging whores that are manipulative, but in turn, easily manipulated themselves (Dimitri The Lover’s motto: “East of the curtain … sex is for certain!”)” And if you missed it the first time, here’s the phone call that made us fall in love with Dimitri. I am also quite proud of the fact that when you google image “Dimitri the Lover” a quizzo team by that name at the Bards shows up on page one.

Yes, the Nova game will be played during Quizzo Bowl V. I am shocked that the NCAA would do this to me. I guess this is payback for my harsh words in the past about the BCS. Anyways, here’s the deal. They do have a TV at the Palace, and I’m pretty sure it can get the game. However, I’m not gonna have the game running during the whole quiz. Too distracting. But the Nova game starts at 7:05 and I expect to be done with questions at around 8:30. So barring some sort of slowdown or problem, you should be able to catch crunch time of the game. I’m not making any promises, but I’ll see what I can do. Also, while you are welcome to check the game scores on your phone during breaks, you will not be allowed to have any electronic device during game play or your team will be eliminated.

George Anastasia has always been one of my favorite Philly writers, and he’s also really good in front of the camera. A look at the murder of Philly mob boss Angelo Bruno in 1980. Here’s the front page story in the Daily News the day after he died. Wiki has the best brief but comprehensive entry on the history of the Philly Mob I’ve seen.

An interesting article in today’s Metro about whether or not the city should consider legalizing marijuana to raise money. Here’s a little bit more on the proposal in California to legalize it, tax it, and make millions off of it in a depression. On a bit less liberal scale, New Jersey is considering the possibility of becoming the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana. Corzine said he would sign the bill if it passes assembly. So what do you think? Would you support the legalization of marijuana in Philadelphia for either medical or recreational use? Do you think that the revenue collected by the city would be worth it, or do you think it opens up a whole new can of worms? By the way, who thought to make Stephen Baldwin the “Voice of Reason” for the anti-pot troops (video, above)? What a bumbling idiot.

Ladies and Gentlemen, yooooooooooour 1988-1989 Broadwater Vikings JV squad. (Can you spot JGT?) Please notice how four guys on the team wore Reebok pumps. If memory serves, we were 7-20 that year. The year before was the worst team ever. We were 1-22, and lost to Central Middle School 72-7, in a game in which we trailed at halftime 34-0. We lost to Rock Academy 93-25 that year, and Arcadia beat us 57-4. I still remember our one win that year. It was over the Ryan Academy Griffins. God, that victory was sweet.

Will Johnny be upstaged by his lovely co-host this year at Quizzo Bowl? The lovely Ginger made an appearance on the 10! Show, and was interviewed by the lovely Lori “Shaving Off My Muff For You” Wilson.