Dunno if you caught it, but a few weeks ago Bill Moyers absolutely crushed the mainstream media and the pathetic job it did leading up to the War in Iraq. No tough questions for Bush, no coverage of huge antiwar demostrations, and sheer laziness abounded in the lead up to the war. This wasn’t surprising from the TV news, since explosions make for great ratings, and we’ve long since established that they are not in the “news business” but in the “ratings business”. But the Washington Post and New York Times also dropped the ball. The beauty of being in the media is that they can constantly attack Bush and friends for what they did before the war without having to judge their own performance leading up to the war. Anyways, I highly encourage you to take the time to watch this. Just click here and then click watch video. This is the best thing I’ve seen on TV in a while.
Yeah, it was fun
Darren from Devil’s Alley, Ginger and I all had a damn fine day at the ballpark. Got a couple of funny stories to share, but will have to wait till manana so I can come up with these questions for tonight.
As for City vs. City Smackdown, tonight is the last night to earn an automatic invite. You gotta win at Good Dog or Bards. Here are the teams that are in for Smackdown so far:
Young Old and Restles
Satan’s MIinions
MAGMA
Sofa Kingdom
Top team from Rembrandt’s
Jams
Champs
Steve O.’s team
Team that won Tuesday at O’Neals
And a couple of question marks:
Trivia Art’s team
River of Rocks
Trust Us We Know
The Team that Aways Changes it’s Name
Dork Sided
The Narkotyzing Dysfunktion is the only team that has declined their invite. Speaking of them, I do still have some tix for sale for the $10 all you can bowl all you can drink bowling party that a few of their members are putting on tommorrow night. See me at quizzo tonight if ou wanna buy tix.
Playin Hookie
I’m headed over the river to lovely Camden to see some baseball. Will get back to you this afternoon with some pics and reaction. Also, as soon as Metro posts my column I’ll have some pics from Goat Fest (hold out for online version of this weeks story. They had to chop up the paper version pretty bad to create space.)
Darth Ern Gives his two cents on Primaries
Part 1 – Rankings
1. Dwight Evans-No one has said a bad thing about Evans (Maybe because he’s so far down in the Polls) but I find nothing objectionable about him.
2. Tom Knox – I know. I know. Backstabber! Nasty! Worst dye job in the History of Mankind. He’s not the second best candidate. He’s (alas) the fourth least objectionable.
3. Tie Bob Brady & Chaka Fattah-One says he will. The other ain’t saying. But they’ll both raise taxes. Brady to pay for patronage; Fattah to pay for votes.
5. Last and least-Michael Nutter. The Drive-By Media endorsed him. STRKE ONE! The Business Killing Smoking Ban.
STRIKE TWO! He’ll raise Taxes too. These people can’t help themselves. STRIKE THREE! You’re Out!
Part 2 – Handicapping
The Socialists will vote for Nutter.
The Unions will vote for Brady
The others:
Whites – Knox
Blacks – Fattah and Evans
Part 3 – Prediction
18% to 24% of living voters will vote.
100% of dead voters will vote.
Brady’s in charge of the Vote Counters Hence he’ll get all the dead votes ergo he will win the Primary!
Part 4 – Other
The four Republicans still living in Philly will vote for What’s-His-Face AKA The Other Guy
I never thought I’d say this, but: Bring Back Ed Wade!!!
Food for thought: Utley, Howard, Rollins, Hamels, and Myers are all Wade guys. Ryan Franklin, Rod Barajas, Adam Eaton, and Arthur Rhodes are all Pat Gillick guys. Oh, and Gillick traded Bobby Abreu for Matt Smith and a bag of baseballs. That one is working out well.
And I hate to complain after a win but the intricacies of the double switch once again confounded bonehead Charlie. Brett Myers batted 2nd in the 9th inning (when the game was still 6-3). That being said, I am more than happy to have the starters go 7 every game and Myers pitch the last two. Screw the middle relievers. Seriously, Myers has a strong arm.. Let him pitch the final two innings of every close game.
Quick notes
-Slight correction: I know I said that the winner of city vs. city smackdown would get $950. Actually, I forgot we’re giving away $150 prize for 2nd. Winner can win $800. Still not a bad day at the races.
-A couple of people are heading with me to ballpark tomorrow, including the lovely Ginger. The Riversharks are currently 3-1. That’s right, this is your chance to see a local team above .500!!! Weather forecast is 80 degrees with a slight breeze,and the stadium is widely considered one of the best in minor league baseball. Just call out of work and watch some 11 a.m. baseball. Don’t be a jerk. Holla at me if you wanna go.
-I do have tix on sale for the bowling party. They are going quick. I think this thing is gonna sell out before Friday, b/c you couldn’t get into an all you can drink bowling party with 2 DJs for $10 in the midst of the Great Depression. Anyway, you can buy your tix from me at quizzo or get them here.
–Alcohol makes your brain smaller, which makes quizzo kind of ironic. Let’s shrink our brains tonight!
Tower Pizza
After Bards quizzo last night, me and my man DJ headed over to a prime pizza late night spot in CC West, Tower Pizza. Tower is famous for one reason: it is open until 4 am. I don’t know of any other pizza places that can make that claim (What time does Lorenzo’s close? 3 or 4?) Anyways, here was DJs take:
One of the most predominant items visible on Tower Style Pizza’s hanging menu is a cornucopia – and fittingly so. The pizza shop, located on 20th street between Walnut and Sansom, is packed to the gills with a variety of pizza flavors, mixed decor, and a drink selection that rivals that of your local food mart. To top it off they keep their doors open until just about sunrise, allowing the masses to reap the benefits of greasy pizza goodness until 4am.
Tower’s setup is a little bit all over the place. Greek posters, nostalgic World Trade Center photos, and two rabbit-ear laden televisions are crammed into a smallish 20 foot wide sit-down joint pumping middle-eastern music. I’m still a little bit intrigued by their illuminated advertisement for a cheese and pineapple platter, but I’ll dare to sample that when Johnny goes on a city-wide dairy and fruit review.
Despite a menu boasting a dozen or more pizzas, late night selection was slim between sausage, pepperoni, and buffalo chicken. I grabbed a slice of pepperoni (@ ~$2.35) and wasn’t blown away. The thin crust was solid, but the general flavor wasn’t overwhelmingly notable. Service was quick, polite, and friendly, but hardly made up for a relatively mediocre slice. Table napkins were sparse despite the slight greasiness, but garlic and parmesan were plentiful throughout. The latter I encourage to help get through the pizza.
Far more impressive than the pizza was the supplementing beverage collection. Seldom do you find two cases filled with regular and diet sodas, root and birch beers, flavored teas, and energy waters in such a small shop. With the overstock of drink racks stacked literally to the ceiling, locals should keep Tower Style Pizza in their sights should the need arise for a downtown nuclear fallout shelter
Tower Style Pizza’s most defining attribute is not their pizza, decor, or their barricade of beverages, but their accessibility. Average pizza can taste like a 4-roni award winner when you’re stumbling home loaded from the bar at two in the morning. The fact that Tower gives you two more hours to wander around downtown before they close up shop is pure gold. Just remember you’ll need to be mildly drunk to shell out almost 3 bucks for a slice. 2.5 roni’s for dinner, 4 roni’s if you’re destroyed at 3am.
Yeah, my thoughts were similar. The place is kind of weird. Definitely set up for a late night crowd. The pizza was decent. I had a pepperoni slice and a buffalo chicken slice ($3). They were not at all greasy,and neither were they too dry, which was good. Neither blew me away, but they would have been perfect had I been plastered. If you desperately need a slice at 3 am, this place is more than suitable, but I wouldn’t get a dinner slice here. And if you need 325 bottles of Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer in a jiffy, this is definitely your spot.
Bounty on Jams Tonight
I’m throwing an extra $20 in the pot to anyone who can beat the Jams at the Rendezvous tonight. Kickoff is at 6:15 p.m.
Would you throw #756 back?
Barry Bonds is just 11 homers away from the record, and guess where he’s playing in about three weeks? That’s right, the Illadelph. So the question must be asked, “What would you do if you caught Bonds 755th or 756th home run?” Of course the easy answer is keep it and sell it. You’d make a couple hundred thousand, and that would great. But this is baseball, and here is your chance to become a part of baseball lore. If you were the guy who hated Bonds so much that you didn’t want the filthy money that came from that ball and threw it back onto the field, your name would live in baseball infamy forever, and certainly Philadelphia infamy forever. You would go from being some schmuck who was in the right place in the right time to being a national hero. Would anyone give that a thought, or is it all about the Benjamins?
Rumors
There are rumors that Chip Chantry and I will be reuniting in a couple of weeks for a one time only Wheel of Terrific reunion. These rumors are absurd. Chip and I had a huge falling out after the Wheel of Terrific was taken off the air. I blamed us getting fired on him (he was repeatedly showing up for performances high on glue) and he blamed it on me (I spoke in broken Japanese throughout every show). So no, we will certainly not be reuniting for a one time only performance of the Wheel of Terrific. That’s just stupid.
RELATED: Chip reviews album covers in this weeks Philadelphia Weekly.