Around the Horn, brought to you by Wanamakers Organ

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-You think that Ron Paul fanatics are the only commenting crazies online? Think again. Olivia Newton John fans will get physical if you disrespect their girl. (Scroll down to comment section)

-Some guy threw coffee on a foie gras protester outside the Standard Tap on Saturday. Something tells me Cassidy had something to do with this.

-Is Carly Simon talking about my native state in that “You’re So Vain” song? Apparently.

-Has America become a fascist state? Birthday girl Naomi Wolf thinks so.

-Exciting quizzo news and (hopefully) my punkin chunkin video coming manana.

Around the Horn, brought to you by Rainbow Brite

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–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:
Harmelin Media Stage
2111 Sansom St.
$10
www.firstpersonarts.org

-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.

JGT: Credible News Source?

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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.)

Sweet!

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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.

Review for North By Northwest

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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+.