Everyone's Hero

Saw that flick Everyone's Hero last night. Surprisingly good movie. Can't believe I'd never heard of it before. It was either that or Bad News Bears, as I had promised my eight-year-old, whose in the middle of Little League season. I'm quite glad we chose Everyone's Hero as a last minute replacement. My neighbor had recommended it, and I had forgotten about it until we saw it on the shelf at Blockbuster.

It's an animated flick that Christopher Reeve's directed. It's got some great actors doing voices like William Macy and Rob Reiner, and Joe Torre even makes a cameo. Fairly entertaining story about a 10-year-old that helps recover Babe Ruth's stolen bat. It's got some good family value stuff as well as baseball stuff in it. So, it made it a perfect movie to watch with my son, who loved it. I've been putting off letting him watch Bad News Bears for awhile, as that's really an adult movie about kids, and it looks like I've succeeded for one more week at least. Of course, personally, I love Bad News Bears, and I even think I saw it in the theatres when it first came out, and I was about nine or 10.

One more note: We finallycaught the vole that has been haunting us for the past few nights. Since last week, he has been sneaking into our bedroom and burrowing down into a plant pot there to get at some roots. Last week, we discovered dirt from the plant had mysteriously been spilled on the floor and none of us could recall bumping the plant. Then, a few nights ago, we heard footsteps that sounded like a ghost near the plant. We flipped on the light and saw the little guy scurrying out of the room. That night, we began setting mouse traps. But this vole was tricky. He was able to clean the peanut butter, which had historically been so effective on mice, right off of the trap without triggering it. The war was clearly on. My wife began comparing me to Bill Murray in Caddyshack. Finally, last night, I laid like five traps. I felt like one of those old French trappers setting his lines. I used an apple in one and strategically placed the peanut butter on a couple others. About 12:30 a.m., the vole's usual feeding time, we heard the snap and found him lying in a trap with his back broken. A sad end for Mr. Vole, who has been like a playmate for me this past week, as we've matched wits in a game of cat and mouse. Well, the cat has prevailed and I uncerimoniously dumped Mr. Vole into the garbage last night. What will I do to keep myself entertained now?

This may explain some of my difficulty in catching the vole. It appears they are not your average rodent...

Cheers.

Ralph

Nickel Back-Rock Star

This song continues to kill me every time I hear it:

I'm through with standing in line to the clubs i'll never get in
It's like the bottom of the ninth and I'm never gonna win
This life hasn't turned out quite the way I want it to be
(tell me what you want)

I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs
And a bathroom I can play baseball in
And a king size tub big enough for ten plus me

(yeah,so what you need)

I'll need a, a credit card that's got no limit
And a big black jet with a bedroom in it
Gonna join the mile high club
At thirty-seven thousand feet

(Been there done that)

I want a new tour bus full of old guitars
And my own star on Hollywood Boulevard
Somewhere between cher and James Dean is fine for me

(So how ya gonna do it?)

I'm gonna trade this life for fortune and fame
I'd even cut my hair and change my name
[CHORUS]'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
Live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat
And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's
Gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny with her bleach blond hairand well..

Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar

I wanna be great like Elvis without the tassels
Hire eight body guards that love to beat up assholes
Sign a couple autographs
So I can eat my meals for free

(I have a quesadilla, ha ha)

I'm gonna dress my ass with the latest fashion
Get a front door key to the Playboy mansion
Gonna date a centerfold that loves to blow my money for me

(So how ya gonna do it?)
I'm gonna trade this life
For fortune and fame
I'd even cut my hair
And change my name
'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
Live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat
And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's Gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny with her bleach blond hair

And we'll hide out in the private rooms
With the latest dictionary in today's who's who
We'll get you anythingwith that evil smile
Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial well..
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar

I'm gonna sing those songs that offend the censors
Gonna pop my pills from a pez dispenser
Get washed-up singers writing all my songs
Lip sync 'em every night so I don't get 'em wrong
Well we all just wanna be big rockstars
Live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat
And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's Gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny with her bleach blond hair
And we'll hide out in the private rooms
With the latest dictionary in today's who's who
We'll get you anything with that evil smile
Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial well..
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar

When worlds collide

This is the best.

Beer

My wife just went out the door and is heading to the beer distributor to re-load. Before leaving, she shouted to me through my office door, "Ralph, do you like Molson?" Well, the answer to that is a resounding "yes, I do," especially as the summer breeze caresses my neck through the open window behind me.

God Bless Erie in the summertime.

Cheers.

Daughters and Sons

My son and daughter came into my office earlier this morning. My son had a question about the golf program I brought back from the U. S. Open. Mistaking the total par for the side as the par for a hole, he asked if there was a par 35 at Oakmont. My daughter immediately followed by showing the braid her mom had put in her hair.

Cheers.

Kutztown and Mineo

Wow. I've been really busy preparing for my move to Kutztown.

Moving sucks, let me tell you, but I keep telling myself: "Short term pain; long term gain."

I'll be out of the house on July 31...moving into an apartment in Allentown. If anyone has any hot tips for food or things to do in Allentown, please let me know.

Also: My house is on the market. It's a big, beautiful house in Millcreek. Four bedrooms, central air, French doors, and a gym in the basement. The outside is beautifully landscaped. I'm asking $149,900. It's guaranteed to gain value over the years. If you know of any house-hunters out there, please steer them to me. I can be reached at 868-9719.

One of the biggest selling points of the house is the fact that so many aspects are up to date. I moved in five years ago, and during that time, I've painted almost the entire interior, hung the French doors, installed sliding glass doors, insulated the den, built the gym, replaced nearly all of the electrical outlets, installed ceiling fans, and planted all kinds of trees and shrubs.

I hate to leave it, but it's time for me to go to that tenured teaching position at a state university.

I've also been making progress on my August Wilson book. I have 165 pages completed. I'm now in the process of editing and tightening. I hope to shop the manuscript with a publisher by the end of August.

That's it for now.

DDDDDDDDDD

Some words

This is from a recent flight back from Miami:

Disconnect
Discoteque
Good Guy
Die
Cobaine
Coltraine
In the rain
pain

Biting, taking
chunks of my skin
blood mixes with rain
the train races
buy this
you consumer man.

The buzzing of a fly
nearby
puzzles the yogi
sitting on the ground

RasX

'Nawlins

New Orleans still rocks.
Interesting, though, it apparently is not as busy as it was before the 2005 Hurricane.
Had a conversation with the guy who drove me back to the airport.
He said his business is about 40% of what it used to be.
“Just the weekends now are busy, you know what I’m saying,” he talked in kind of a rhythmic sing-song thing that a lot of Nawlins people seem to have going. He had worked in the French Quarter for like 40 years, so who knows how that has affected him.
I was down there on a Monday, so it was pretty dead.
But it’s a beautiful city. You can still see that, even amongst some of the ruins.
And I think its nickname, the Big Easy, is pretty well deserved.
Everybody certainly seemed pretty laid back, you know.

On Monday afternoon, it was raining and even though it was like 70 degrees and not raining that hard, you could see people just didn’t want to get wet. Being from the snow belt, I ploughed right through it. But again, I was hungry as Hades (I’ve starting using Hades in lieu of “hell” for some unknown reason, except that I think it sounds slightly better) after flying all morning and was looking for a Po’ Boy, which is what they call their version of a sub down there. The doorman recommended Johnny’s, which was about three blocks away from the hotel, but by the time I got there, it was five after three, and they were closing—at 3 p.m. So I wandered a bit more, I was on Royal Street, a block down from Bourbon I guess, which I never made it to for some reason, I just kept turning the wrong way. But I finally found a suitable with a Po’ Boy menu and ordered blackened/Cajun catfish Po’ Boy, which I munched down with a couple local brews. The whole bill was about $18, which seemed reasonable, and the waitress was friendly and laid back, and I heard her telling the recently married middle-aged couple a few tables down that she got so depressed after Katrina, she went to live in California for a few months with friends. She also said it had been a slow day for her, but didn’t seem overly upset—as it is the Big Easy. I sat there and watched the rain come down through an open archway and made some phone calls.

Back to my driver who somehow recognized me as Italian-American and recommended a try and meatball Po’ Boy with red gravy – does that mean sauce?

There seems to be some opportunity down there in Nawlins, as the city’s drawing potential still seems to be there. At least, it was compelling enough that I’d love to go back down there again with a few days to hang out and party. But business seems to be off for some reason, at least according to my driver. Maybe it’s just a matter of time before it returns, which would be where the opportunity comes in.

The guy who manages the Superdome talked at the conference I was at, and the Superdome seems to have really bounced back – I think the Saints sold out every game last year. Granted, it sounds like the Superdome was like priority one when rebuilding the city, but the rest of the city has to follow, right? Well, that is unless it runs out of funding—which the Superdome seems to have had plenty of. But, once again, maybe that’s where the opportunity lies, in the potential to invest in something down there at a reduced rate, and if enough of these types of private investments are made, they could potentially help speed up the city’s recovery and bring it back to its former vibrant self, instead of just a weekend party town. Then again, maybe it’s a city whose time and culture have past—but then again, sometimes it’s not so bad living in the past.

RasX

Foreman drugged

How much seedier can boxing get? Even its golden era is now being tarnished, or perhaps it's always been tarnished, I mean Don King has been involved with this "sport" for a long time now. Professional boxing, cycling, or baseball, take your pick on which is the seediest. Oh yeah, then there's that whole criminal element to the NFL.... No wonder poker is doing so well these days. Professional, televised poker is actually much cleaner than the amateur game that has been played for years in dark corners across the America. Based on that theory, I wonder what the next big "sports" craze will be? (Help me out here, I can't think of one, but is there some other sport where amateurs cheat like hell, but if you were to clean it up and put it on TV, you could reduce the cheating? Thanks.)

Ralph

Greg Lemond

Has anyone been reading about this Greg Lemond thing? "I'm your uncle, and I'll be there tomorrow." Landis is hangin' out with people like this? I guess that tells you something about how competitive the cycling world is. These guys are sick. Landis, of course, is the former Amish guy who was apparently shunned for purusing a career in professional cycling, and then came back from a huge deficit to pull out the Tour a couple years ago (maybe it was last year) Anyhow, testing found this huge comeback was fueled by unusually high levels of testosterone, which makes sense, but, he's denying it.


Lemond is one of my favorite athletes of all-time; he also had an incredible cycling comeback. After becoming the first American to win the Tour, he was shot in a hunting accident, and came back and was so sucky, it seemed like his career was over and no top flight team would give him a job. He ends up with some rag-tag bunch, and proceeds to shock everyone by winning the Tour, capping it off with a record-setting time trial on the race's last day. His French rival at the time described him as "playing the chicken, when he is really a lion," as Lemond kept playing like he was shocked to be near the leaders and was just waiting for an inevitable falter, which never happened. Then, he came back and won the thing the following year as well, in a little more conventional fashion.

Anyhow, that was back when cycling wasn't quite as fucked up as it is now, or at least we didn't know as much. Now, it seems half the top riders are in trouble for doping and Lemond is being blackmailed regarding being sexually molested as a child. I would have to say cycling has now passed baseball as the most "fucked-up sport." Or, it's the European version of baseball -neither of which is a sport of course, as baseball is officially our national "pastime" and cycling's top race is actually known as a "Tour." That's what happens I guess when you get too deep into these things....

Cheers.



Ralph

Doral

This place is kind of nuts. They seem to play reggae 24/7 in the lobby. It's actually kind of nice. Right now, they're playing some version of Bob Marley's "Chase Those Crazy Baldheads out of Town." It's hot as hell down here, so it's probably appropriate I guess. Doral is located a few miles inland and you don't get that fresh breeze off the ocean that you typically get nearer to the coast in Miami. But the palm trees are nice, and as long as you don't move too fast, just kind of sway with the reggae, it's kind of relaxing.

Cheers.

Ralph

1973 continued

In 1973,

The A's won the World Series
Secretariat won the Triple Crown
The Dolphins beat the Redskins 14-7 in the Super Bowl in January....

Did anything else happen?
Yes, I was in kintergarten, Richard Nixon was president...hmmmm

George Will on China

Another great George Will column, this one on the economic awakening in China and its evolving interest in free trade. Will makes some great points, but as is typical of his columns, kind of leaves you hanging with a vague ending. Maybe that's part of his charm...

Bill-Ravens MaGahee

Haven't posted in awhile because I've been busy with other things and whatnot... a lot of whatnot, of course. Anyhow, I came across this paragraph in scholar Greg Easterbook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column this week. As a Bills fan, it is both funny and sad, which to me makes it some kind of literature:

"Discounting to Present Value the McGahee Trade: TMQ is underwhelmed by Willis McGahee, who's a legend-in-his-own-mind type. Football pundits speak of him as a star; McGahee speaks of himself as if he were Franco Harris, but McGahee's career stats are run-of-the-mill and defenses don't fear him. Still, he's a decent back, which makes me wonder why the same sorts of pundits who praise McGahee also said Baltimore gave up too much for him. The price was the Nevermores' third-round picks in 2007 and 2008, plus a seventh-round choice this week. Because Baltimore's seventh-rounder is choice No. 239, whoever is chosen there will be a long shot to make an NFL roster. If I were the Bills, I'd offer the pick to Denver for $3 million. Because this year's third-rounder is near the end of the round, it is only slightly better than a fourth-round choice; meanwhile, the 2008 third-rounder discounts to a fourth-rounder. (Future choices discount by one round per year: That is, you'd need to trade your first-round selection in 2008 to get someone's second-round selection in 2007.) In effect, Baltimore gave two fourth-round draft picks for a starting-quality tailback; the Ravens got McGahee for significantly less than the Patriots surrendered for Wes Welker. Anyway, whose front office has done a better job on player decisions in this decade, Buffalo's or Baltimore's?"

I could read absolutely no more after that touche at the end.

Regards,

Ralph

1973

Does anyone remember 1973?

Erie Pizza

So, last night we had one of those recurring debates about who has the best pizza in Erie. We were down at Skeeter's watching the Pitt game. At halftime, with Skeeter's kitchen being closed, we decided we needed order out for a pie. Being the guy who came up with the idea, I was put in charge of making this happen, and being down the street from Dominick's, I made my call. Mind you, it was a bit of an expensive proposition, $14.25 or something for a large with cheese, pep, and sausage, but I think it was worth it. Dominick's has changed hands since I frequented it 15-20 years ago in college, and their pie recipe has also changed. One thing that has not changed is their sausage, which is still very plump, juicy, tasty, and plentiful. I would say the sausage alone saved the pizza, and actually made it very filling, so the large, which was actually pretty good size, was able to take care of 5-6 hungry drunks.

Anyways, Dominick's does not have the best pizza in Erie, but it was convenient and alright. After the pizza came in, the bartender told us that, believe it or not, The Cellblock has some of the best pie in town. "I'll stand by their pizza," was her exact quote, which led to some obvious jokes. J.B. insisted that Skeeter made a killer pie, and I have heard before he is a good cook. And then someone said their wife had been raving about a pizza shop downtown, but we weren't sure of the name. Someone said it may be Howie's, which is actually a chain, but that doesn't mean they have bad pizza...except that ordering from a chain, in a town like Erie that used to have a local shop on every other block, is a bit of shame. For a while though, I'll admit, I was hard-pressed to find good local pizza and took to going to Papa John's and Pizza Hut, which are both convenient, make decent pies, and always have coupons available. However, recently, we've turned back to Mr. Pizza, which has good solid pie and wings and is run by a really nice couple, which counts for something. Steel City has some good pie too, especially their cheese, and their crust receives high reviews.

Finally, my wife's friend highly recommends Mama Mia's, which of course, suffered the tragic loss of one of its delivery men in a notorious bank robbery a few years back. As bad as that whole situation was/is, it did put Erie's local pizza shops back on the map and I think we are seeing a bit of a resurgance in this area. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

Ralph

Smoking ban

Let's give some props to Judge Bozza for proving he is indeed no Bozo and striking down the county-wide smoking ban. Now, I'm not a smoker, so I really shouldn't care about this, but I am a big freedom and rights guy. I mean if you want to run a restaurant or bar where people are allowed to smoke, why shouldn't you be able to do it? Cigarettes were still legal, last I checked. If there is really tons of public support to ban smoking in public places, wouldn't that mean there is a huge opportunity for non-smoking establishments to open up, and these droves of people who destest smoking could just go to those?

I think it's a farce. I really don't think the majority of people in Erie County are in favor of a smoking ban. Rather, I think it's a vocal (and somewhat powerful) minority. I say we put the matter to the test. Put a proposed smoking ban on a public ballot, and if we get more than 50% of county-wide voters in favor of it, go for it. If not, then don't. We still live in a democracy, don't we? I mean if we can get stuff like gay marriage ammendments on the ballot, why not an anti-smoking ordinance? All those in favor, say, aye.

Cheers.

Ralph

What's the hang-up in Koehler project?

It has been recently reported in the Times that the project was stopped dead by some "paperwork" disagreements between Cornerstone (the acute health care guys) and the developers. Could we be more specific about this? Originally, it was reported that there was a problem specifically involving an "Estoppel Certificate" that the banks wanted Cornerstone to sign before they would finalize their loan to the Koehler developers. So, what's an Estoppel Certificate? Through some Googling, the best I could find is that it's some sort of agreement stating that terms in the lease have been agreed upon. So, was there a discrepency between the lease the Koehler developers showed the banks and the one Cornerstone agreed on? One story I heard was that the lending banks wanted Cornerstone to guarentee 20 years worth of lease payments, because that's how long the loan is for, but because Cornerstone only has a 10-year lease, they wouldn't do it. I would just like some more detail on this matter before we close the book on the project.

Cheers.

Ralph

Passan column on steroids

So, was it coincidence that a new steroid scandal broke right when I finished the compelling book about the last big sports steroid scandal. As my firend Dr. Dee likes to put it "there are no accidents." Anyways, I would be less interested in this current story if I hadn't read such an in depth and interesting account about the old one. And the title of one of the chapters in Game of Shadows rights truer than ever: "Cheat or Lose." After all, the Pittsburgh Steelers doctor is accused of spending $150,000 on Human Growth Hormone last year, which he claims was medicine for one of his patients. Yeah right. Didn't the Steelers win the Super Bowl last year?

Then there's this great Jeff Passan column. Passan is a former Kansas City Royals beat guy who now writes for Yahoo! and cranks out consistenly riveting copy. He pretty much calls Gary Matthews, Jr. and the California Angels onto the carpet for some sort of collusion in which Matthews got a $50 million contract because of one good year, which we find out was now was contributed to by some sort of "supplements." Let's see, great year out of nowhere by a mediocre player who appeared to be reaching the end of the line... haven't we seen this scenario before, like starting with Brady Anderson about 10-15 years ago, and down through the years. Anyways, Passan says if the Angels had bothered to look, they could have figured out for themselves that Matthews was juicing, but they chose instead to ignore it and pay sign him to a $50 million contract, that they're probably stuck with now, even though Matthews has been busted... Anyways, Passan's point is that if Matthews gets his $50 million, it's yet more evidence that the cheaters have won.... and just wait until Barry Bonds breaks Hammerin' Hank's home run record. Aye Carumbas!

Ralph

Honoring Fr. John "Tex" HIlbert

For many in the Erie community, the recent passing of Fr. John Hilbert was shocking and sad. "Tex" as he was known (as was his father before him) was active in the Erie Cursillo movement, the Erie CALL program, and was chaplain at Mercyhurst Erie for nearly 20 years. At the time of his death, he was chaplain to Mercyhurst North East.

Tex was a friend to my family since 1970 and I worked with him personally for the past five years. He was a great man with a great spiritual presence. His funeral at St. Peter's Cathedral on Tuesday was standing room only. Clearly, he touched many lives.

Tex and I used to have long conversations at MNE concerning politics (he did not care for the Bush administration and its rush to war) and spirituality (he believed that all of us are God's childrem, regardless of color or gender or belief system). I will miss those conversations and I will miss seeing him in the hallways of MNE.

If you have not yet see his obit on GoErie, you might want to take a look to see how many people loved Tex. It's very moving.

A great light has been taken from us, and he will be impossible to replace. We can only thank God that Tex was able to spend his entire life helping the people of Erie, PA. We need more people like him.

DDDDD