Nothing really interesting in the news today, so I found myself flipping thru phillyhistory.org (via Phawker). Found some great stuff. First saw a pic of the Horn and Hardart Automat, where you bought your lunch from a vending machine. It was the original fast food, and it began in Philadelphia. For some more pics and info on Horn and Hardart, click here. Then I came upon the phillyhistory.org blog. This is awesome. Stories about how bad Philly’s drinking water was, the Divine Lorraine, and about the legendary Man Full of Trouble Tavern. Here’s the best part from the drinking water story:
Schuylkill water was so bad by the late 19th century that “…a physician offered $50 to anyone who would drink a quart of it ten nights in a row. Each evening, the doomed man comes on stage, the stipulated amount of water is brought out and he takes the draught to slow music before a sympathetic audience. It is the agreement that if he vomits or dies, he will lose the prize.”

Doctors were so much more fun back then, offering prizes for not dying, then forcing people to drink typhoid water. Now it almost seems like they’re trying to saaaave lives. BORRRR-RING. I may not be a doctor (at least not officially licensed as such), but I am carrying on this proud tradition nonetheless. I will pay $50 to anyone who will drink water from the Schuylkill 10 nights in a row. If you vomit or die, you will lose the prize.

–Scrapplefest is being held this weekend at Reading Terminal. They will actually be showing how scrapple is made. It’s a fascinating process which involves sweeping hot dog leftovers off the floor of the slaughterhouse.

-This is incredible. A guy bought a hamburger from McDonalds 18 years ago, and it hasn’t decomposed at all! He says that flies won’t even touch it.

-How do strawberry milkshakes get their red coloring? Ground up beetles, of course.

…and they’re spectacular. If you see Trivia Art or I crying today, worry not: they are tears of joy.

A happy birthday to Rowdy Roddy Piper and Michael Sembello, who both turn 53 today. Are they twins? I mean, Rowdy Roddy certainly was a Maniac. Oh, and in case you didn’t know it, Sembello is from Philly.

Yeah, my ringer didn’t make it, but we still made a pretty good showing at Dark Horse, finishing 2nd. Palestra Jon goes for three straight next Monday. If I’m there, he won’t get it. And no, I do not consider Smackdown “B-team” material. Just Trivia Art and D-Mac. And, to be honest, me. It’s just that I’m trying to get an A-team that I can tag along with and talk smack as they answer questions.

Couple of fun things going on this evening, both of which I highly recommend
–Die Actor Die at the Khyber. 8 p.m. I performed in it last month, and it was a heck of a lot of fun. Really funny show hosted by couple of guys from ComedySportz.

-I’ll probably make it out to quizzo at Dark Horse tonight, if anyone is up for the challenge. I will crush you like an ant. 9 p.m.

-Oh by the way, if you missed the Mr. Belding/Tony Romo/Journey Don’t Stop Believin’ video, click here. I assure you this will be a question this week.

On May 14th, quizzo players from Philadelphia will be competing with quizzo players from Denver and Seattle (and possibly DC). We will all ask the same 50 questions, using the same scoring method, and see who emerges victorious. We’ll see what team takes the cake, and for bragging rights, what city’s top 5 teams average the highest scores. I need to know where we should do this. Somewhere I can fit 75-100 people. Also, should I charge a small fee (maybe $5) and get a band? Drop your ideas below.

Bowling party. Coming soon. Details in the coming week.

I hosted a post wedding quizzo at the Dark Horse on Saturday night. (Congratulations Phil and Tessa!) The winners of the quizzo might be familiar to some of you old schoolers. They called themselves Holy Matrimony Batman, but you might recognize them as the former members of the Missing Heads. And they spoke of a possible reunion tour at the Black Sheep at some point in the future.

It’s no secret how much we here at JGT headquarters love Journey. The two albums that you will find constantly on the office stereo are Enter the 36 Chambers by Wu and Escape by Journey. But there was still something missing when we listened to the Journey album. We thought to ourselves, “Sure, Don’t Stop Believin’ is a great freakin’ song, but would it be even better if it was covered by Mr. Belding and Tony Romo? Alas, we’ll never know.” At least that’s what we thought until we saw this (Unfortunately the language is not safe for work, but you have to see this when you go home. It will make your weekend.) Now, if we can just get Kotter and Ben Rothliesburger to perform Cash Rules Everything Around Me… (Thanks, Steve for sending this in.)