Aaaaand it's finally over.

In a year that took our country by the scruff of it's neck and wrastled it around like a wolf would to a fattened up squirrel, we have somehow managed to escape the predators vice-like jaws and hide behind an old tree stump of temporary safety.

While I don't know who or what the predator and the tree stump symbolize, I do know that this year was an absolute @*&/ing doozy. The greed and corruption reared it's ugly face from Cony Island to Venice Beach and while a band-aid has been applied, even Johnson & Johnson may not be able to heal this one. We may have to break out the Robitussin.

Anyway, my slightly harsh east coast surroundings have directed my thinking a bit more negatively it seems. I considered kicking off the year with the "Top Ten Places to Hide when the US collapses" or the "Top One Political Parties to Blame for this Mess", but really what good is that?

So in the midst of national and international pessimism and uncertainty, I'll try to muster enough optimism to continue the January tradition of the Top Ten Things to be Happy About - in 2009 of course.

10. We elected a new President! Before Obama even takes office, he does a couple of very important things - he shows underprivileged minorities that you can do anything, even become president of the USA. Also, his election shows the World that we are not in acceptance of what has gone on the past eight years. Hopefully anti-Americanism will lessen.

9. The stock market crashed. And why is this a good thing? Well, I don't think it is other than the fact that if it did not, we may be awaiting an inauguration of Mr. McBush. It'll come back - don't worry.

8. Everybody and their Mother (literally) has a Facebook profile. Is verbal communication even necessary anymore?

7. Jurassic Park IV, Friday the 13th, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Transformers 2, G.I. Joe, He-Man, and you guessed it, the A-Team are all slated to hit the big screen in 2009. A-Team features a cast of Woody Harrelson, Daniel Morton, Bruce Willis, and none other than Ice Cube as Mr. T.

6. Ponzi schemes will move toward extinction. They were cool freshman year of college, but at some point you have to grow up - certainly at 65 years old.

5. You can play a full three piece band on guitar hero including vocals, drums and bass. I shudder at the thought of what may be next.

4. It's a great time to buy a house. Prices and interest rates are both low and there is more property on the market than a post gold rush mountain town.

3. Tiger Woods will return to the PGA tour after knee surgery and almost a year off to continue his quest of breaking the major win record of 18. I wouldn't be surprised if he chalked up four more in '09.

2. The Philadelphia Phillies will start the 2009 season as defending World Champions for the first time since 1981. I wonder what people were blogging about then.

1. While skepticism of global climate change still exists, an overwhelming majority of scientific organizations are in agreement that not only is our planet getting warmer, but it is in fact caused by human industrialization. The UN's annual Climate Change Conference will be in Denmark this year with intentions of entering into a binding global climate agreement applying to the period after 2012. And yes, the US is slated for attendance.


Have a great year, and tune in for a posting during the first week of every month.

Save December

Have you ever wondered why December is the twelfth month but has origins from the Latin word decem for "ten" (you know kind of like decade)? I have. Somehow two months got slammed in there. There's monkey business going on I tell you - monkey business!

Apparently there were only ten months in the Roman calender and the winter period was "monthless" before some influential Roman decided to divide this winter period into January and February. Sounds believable enough I guess, who's going to dispute that one?

While December is in fact the twelfth month, it also brings some very long nights (in the northern hemisphere of course), bitter cold weather (in Delaware at least), huge company bonuses (to CEOs), and a yearly discussion about the inadequacy of the college football bowl system.

I swear this is the last time I will ever even think about college football until they institute a playoff system. I bitched about this two years ago (see Is the BCS a bunch of BS) and this will certainly be the last time. So I will take all my frustration and forever leave it on the hallowed gridiron of cyberspace.

This year hits particularly hard because my girlfriend, Jessica, went to Penn State and after spending four years in a drinking town with a football problem, she became a die-hard fan (of Penn State football). While Joe Paterno should probably be running a bingo club instead of a powerhouse college football team, Penn State should be playing for the 2008 National Championship. They had one hiccup against Iowa and their season is lost - it's a joke. But think about it, football coaches are some of the highest paid faculty members at a university and getting into the Viagra Bowl or Facebook Bowl is at least a little ammo with which they can fire back at folks that think they should be canned for having a mediocre year.

Anyway, I decided to write a song about it in an effort to persuade whoever the hell it is that could initiate a playoff system (Mr. Obama perhaps). Wanna hear it - here it go. Sung to the tune of Hokey Pokey.

You put the top eight in,
The rest are out.
You put the top eight in,
And you calculate them about.

You have a playoff system
And you've turned the whole damn thing around
Now, that's what it's all about!

Everybody now.....

You put Penn State in,
You take Ohio State out,
Alabama makes it,
And you'll never have a rout.

You wonder why the BCS
Even was around
Now, that's what it's all about!


See, all it take is an argument set to a lovely tune to make December the best sports month of the year. It's all about the presentation - I can't wait until next year.

Phillies make Tugger Proud

My earliest memories of life on this planet involve a golden retriever about five times the size of my three year old body. This guy had a big nasty mouth with a jagged gum-line covered with drool and slobber that often made it's way to the carpet and couch pillows unbeknownst to the authoritative figures at 6 Constitution Drive. I certainly didn't tell.

Tugger was named after the late Philadelphia Phillies closer, Tug McGraw, who threw the final pitch in the 1980 World Series that crowned his team champions for the last time - until now. Until Brad Lidge threw a whiffed upon slider rendering the Phillies World Champions.

Now I'm not saying that this is in proportion to the Red Sox win of 2004, because that was the greatest moment ever in sports, but this is a big deal. Not only because the Phillies haven't won in 28 years, but Philly also hasn't held a championship in any major sport since 1983. So it was up there with Cleveland as the country's most deprived sports town. And plus - its Philly.

Philly has forever sat in the shadows of New York and DC like that awkward middle child that never reached full potential or met expectations. In my opinion, sports became an avenue to get back at NYC, DC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and for some reason Dallas for becoming more recognized and successful cities (ok, not Dallas).

So all the booing of Santa Claus and cheering when Micheal Irvin was carried off the field with a career ending injury was really just a release of pent up insecurity.

But I'm predicting a Philadelphia renaissance aided by a World Series win, but driven by economic fundamentals like low cost of living, a strong job market that is less "juiced" than NYC but pays almost as well, and fantastic accessibility to New York, DC, the Jersey and Delaware shores, and the Pocono Mountains. Plus there are some unbelievable BYOBs. Philly is also heavily involved in a growing movement in green building, sustainable development, and an overall balance of profit and social responsibility.

All of this makes a high city wage tax and homicide rate much more tolerable. Ok, the homicides are not that tolerable, but much of the crime and violence in Philly is clustered in specific areas that, of course, you'd rather not visit.

People are actually moving to Philly. That's correct, and I'm one of them. Of course I'm a bit biased having grown up in the area with friends and family still around, but the said advantages are really what did it for me. I'm planning on buying a house soon and seeing where the city goes.

So come to Philly, check it out - Tugger and Tug McGraw are no longer with us but a city rich with potential certainly is.

Wait. It's 2008!

I can't believe that a blog posting is actually flowing from my fingers at the moment. I know, I know, it's been a rough few months. I could claim that I've been too busy with work (we opened the Arrabelle), or travel (I just spent the holidays in PA), but really I've just been lazy. Good ol' fashioned laziness never hurt anybody.

But with the onset of a new year I felt very compelled to maintain the annual tradition of a top ten list. Feel free to check out "Kickin' it - yet again" and "Kickin' it in '06" for gut-busting commentary about upcoming years that have already passed.

So let's just say I have a good feeling about '08. The reason for this lies somewhere between strategically placed irons in the fire with carefully calculated probabilities of success and downright irrational optimism - a good feeling nonetheless. So why don't we begin with the top ten things to be happy about in 2008.

10. This year will bring the election of a new president of the US of A, and it's about damn time. I think a Democrat will win (who doesn't) bringing us an unprecedented member of office and this is a good thing - but let's keep campaign tears to a minimum.

9. The housing bubble didn't burst, but it shriveled into something resembling a raisin. So it makes this a good time to buy - right? They say you should sell high and buy low. When was the last time you had a raisin?

8. The New England Patriots have won 18 straight games, the first sixteen of which making up the first undefeated 16 game NFL season. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind seeing a certain pretty boy get roughed up in his 19th game of the season.

7. Everybody has GPS in their cars so we never have to give directions again. Since I get lost more than anybody I know, this will undoubtedly bring less frustration to myself and others with similar tendencies toward disorientation. Maybe one day we'll have the "GPS of life guidance" so any and all decision making will be unnecessary.

6. Though fears are flying about a potential economic recession in 2008, some think that it may be a very shallow dip. Does this mean that if we're thinking about switching jobs we should do it now rather than wait? If yes, could that be a good thing?

5. That "10,000 B.C." movie looks pretty bad-ass.

4. Alaska Airlines will launch the first Wi-Fi enabled airplane. You should take a vacation to Juneau!

3. The Arrabelle Hotel is open for business in Vail, Colorado after years of grueling work by talented architects, engineers, construction managers, and trades-people. It's really a beautiful place.

2. Though scheduled to debut in 2007, 2008 will bring the fourth installment of Indian Jones, starring a 66 year old Harrison Ford!

1. 2007 was fortunately a year of tremendous strides against global warming and the stage is set for a national climate bill to pass in '08. Through the help of government incentives, high fuel costs, clear economic benefit, and old fashioned environmental concern, politicians, business leaders, and average citizens are dead serious about putting a halt to global warming. We can certainly do this.


Happy 2008.

Homework is in

So as far as I can tell, Barry Bonds broke the home run record (call me Nostradamus on that one), Tiger Woods won his thirteenth major (shocking), a bridge in this country collapsed in horrific fashion (this actually is shocking), and I haven't posted a blog in a month and a half (not really that surprising). Sometimes it feels good to miss deadlines that you set for yourself. It's like a not turning in the homework and not giving a shit at all. When does that ever happen?

The bridge collapse was absolutely unbelievable. As usually the case with structural failures, everybody is very hush-hush about how or why it happened. The off the record explanation is that the bridge was fatigued by the fifty or so years of traffic and the effects of this stress were recognized but not corrected. I'm pretty sure that when they put this and any other bridge up in the US, they are intending for it to last more than fifty years. What about all the steel structures that were built in the 20s and 30s? I bet there is going to be a massive re-building of bridges in this country because of this. If we had any guts we'd all start businesses focusing on this market. Somebody else will do it I guess.

Bonds finally hit 756 and all the hype is over. It's a shame that his team is in last place. It would be a whole lot more fun if he was playing for a contender. Shouldn't the Yankees buy him pretty soon?

Tiger won his thirteenth major at the age of thirty one. Jack Nicklaus was 35 when he hit thirteen. Jack also won his last major at forty-six. I think Tiger will have a tough time competing at 46, but I’m certainly not going to put anything past him. He said today that he's not going to win six more majors in one year, alluding to the fact that he has a long way to go. It may take him two. At 35 Tiger will own every record and might as well run for President. Hillary would have no shot.

For fear of not turning in the homework on time, I’m not going to make any commitments on when I’m going to post, but I’ll make sure that it won’t always take an engineering catastrophe, once in a lifetime record, or ho-hum major win by Tiger.

Back in the Saddle

So summer's here, the remarkably overpriced iPhone is on the market, Barry Bonds is about to get branded with an indelible asterisk, I haven't posted a blog in a month, and I just completed an Olympic triathlon. Lot's to think about huh? I might as well forget about sleeping.

I will have to take credit for predicting the iPhone about four years ago. There have actually been MP3 player cell phones on the market for years, but nobody really used them. People are so damn loyal to Apple with MP3 players. I bought an MP3 player cell phone about a year and a half ago and most folks thought it was a pretty dumb idea. Go figure that one.

Bonds will in fact break the home run record, and yes, he used steroids. Bid deal. Do you think the improved pitching and longer ballparks doesn't negate the increased performance from steroids? Well, you may be right. It was hilarious when Mark McGuire shattered the yearly home run record that stood for 40 years and then Bonds broke it two years later. They must have figured out how to connect on the knuckle-change.

The triathlon went well - actually better than expected. I was anticipating a time of around 3:30, and I did it in 2:58. As of right now, I'm showing no symptoms of hepatitis, and the Schuylkill river was surprisingly free of floating dead bodies.

I was experimenting with how life would be without the blog for a while. It's not bad, but I think I'll try to update this thing about once a week. Enjoy your summer...

A culture of racers

Who's your race car?

I was a Jeff Gordon fan just because he's the only one I ever knew, until last weekend while attending the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC I learned that Gordon is the pretty boy pansy of the NASCAR circuit. What did Gordon ever do wrong?

Wait stop! I'll answer that for you. The only thing Jeff Gordon ever did wrong was being born beautiful. Is that his fault?

Sure, he's from California and his family was at no loss for funding for their son's racing career, but when he's behind the wheel he might as well have been born on a strung together raft while charging down the Mississippi.

And in the Coca-C0la 600, he was knocked out of the race in a wreck that sent his pretty little rear air born. Don't worry, he was OK.

I was secretly pulling for the guy. He doesn't deserve all this bullshit. He gets tee-boned in a borderline cheap shot and still booed. And answer me this - what school of hard knocks did Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever go through to avoid the torment of growing up in privilege?

So last weekend, I hung with about 150,000 folks that would have beat my ass silly if I told them I drove an Audi. It's an amazing culture of racing fans in Charlotte and it's not a surprise that they boo Gordon for no reason other than being a "Yankee". I apparently got off scott free - whew.

So now, in the safety and comfort of a seat behind the shield of cyberspace, I can say it - Go 24!