"Echelon Mall News"

Supposedly there will be a big announcement about the mall Weds morning at some point. So, keep your ears peels and id suggest checking WPVI or the COurier-post during the day while you are at work. If its a big story I am sure they will have it. I will report back after work (I cant blog at work).

"Flyers Rant"

So, they Flyers tie the game at the last minute against the best hockey team in the league the Carolina Hurricanes. Actually it was the last two tenths of a second. They forced overtime, and won in a shootout. Making it back to back shoot out wins, and I thought that would be the game that pulled their heads out of their asses.

However, come Saturday (a game I was on hand for) they totally lost any momentum they got from the last second heroics from rookie Freddy Meyer. The Flyers not only gave up 6 goals, but they lost with less than 30 seconds left in the third period.

They spent most of the 3rd period on their heels, taking dumb pentaly again and just letting Buffalo take over the game. It was ugly.

Over the last 15 games, the Flyers can only beat teams who have no shot at a playoff spot anymore, and fall like a deck of cards against most of the playoff bound teams. The defense once a bright spot with this team has been a disgrace. They keep leaving the goalie (no matter who is in net) left high and dry. Letting players skate all over the place. Leaving star players uncovered, making dumb passes in front of the net, throwing the puck out the center in stead of actually using the boards, and losing the battles in the corners.

The offense has been just as bad. They players seem to just quit if they have a one goal lead as if that is enough to win a game. In stead of going in for the kill they just sit back and let the team hang around and hang around before they know it the game is tied.

The pentaly killing is ranked 29th of the 30 in the league. They can't win any important face-offs anymore, and their powerplay looks as bad as it did years ago when all the players blamed the coach.

Awful, just awful.


This team is going to be out on the greens early this spring if they don't wake up soon!

As I type this they are losing to the Penguins 1-0. Letting Sidney Crosby do whatever the hell he wants on the ice, and acting like they are drugged everytime they get the puck into the offensive zone.


WAKEUP!

UGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Angry Tom Hanks"

I didnt watch the Oscars (although I like movies I find the Oscars a waste of time) however, apperently Tom Hanks was caught on live tv mouthing cuss words to someone. From what I can see it looks like he says F---ing Douchbag or something to that effect.

Two theories are out there on why he said this. First that it was a play on some joke host John Stewart said during the oscars. Which even though I didn't see the joke, it didn't look good natured.

The other theory is that they promised him they would not play the forrest gump music when he came out to present the award for best director. However, obviously they did.

Check the video out: www.defamer.com/hollywood/oscars/oscar-mysteries-tom-hanks-potty-mouth-158694.php


Supposedly, Hanks said he is "past" Forrest Gump and it was too far in the past. I really had when actors bash their older movies as if they are all high and mighty now. The movie bridged his carrer from comedy and sometimes drama guy, one of the biggest lead actors in the 90s.

I think it was likely Hanks things he is better than that movie, because I once saw him bash Turner and Hooch once on Conan. Not like joke bash, but bitter that anyone would ever tell him they liked him in that movie. That movie did him good too at the time, it being a hit around the time Joe Versus the Volcano and The Bonfire of the Vanities came out which were both dogs at the box office and with audiences.

Don't get me wrong, I love Tom Hanks, but if thats really why he was cursing he really needs to get a grip. Millions of struggling actors would kill to have just one of the roles he has had. I mean he did when an oscar for it, and it was the er..oscars. So, it's not really far out there to play that music.

One more thing, now that Crash won best picture. Tony Danza can hold his head proud and say he was in an Oscar winning film.

"Spring Starts"

The snow storm I blogged about before was called off. Not only that its going to be getting close to hot weather on Sunday. We should have no trouble breaking 70 degrees. March and April are supposed to be pretty warm and April should be borderline hot.

Check it out.

Crazy global warming...

"One Foot in the Grave"

The last thing the Echelon Mall had going for it, was that one of the two remaining anchor stores was Boscov's a somewhat popular store that you couldn't get a deptford.

That will come to an end this coming fall now that Boscov's plans to move into the Deptford Mall. I assume they will take up the empty Strawbridges store. I highly doubt that that Echelon Boscov's will update themselves at all. So, shoppers will just go to the NEW Boscov's not the OLD one.

Months ago it was annoucned the mall would be scaled down and part of the land would be used for a super market, and a strip of stores (huh?) in addition to over priced town houses.

You would think if everything was going to be revamped new blood would have gone into the mall. Instead the opposite has happened. The remaining rats are leaping from the ship. The Mildly popular Ritz Camera Shop closed a few months ago. In addition CVS and Gap Kids are pulling out at the end of the month and Radioshack is rumored to be not far behind.

In addition the Mall must have totally thrown in the towel on the food court, because a jewerly store from the empty part of the mall will soon take up long vacant food establishments.

Things have gotten so bad, that my friend Rick works in the mall tells me that the McCdonalds opens up basically whenever the person with the key to the fast food place rolls out of bed. Leaving customers facing a pulled down gate most days well into the lunch hours.


Most stores have cut their work force to the bare bones and have two or as few as one person working. A common sight is a gate pulled down and a message saying "Be Back Soon" on the store.

"Primeau's Fate"

Keith Primeau who has not played since early fall,because of a concussion will address the media Tuesday morning. If he doesn't play the rest of the year it will open up salary cap room for the Flyers. Which would likely result in Clarkie making a move at the trade deadline. Perhaps getting someone that can actually win faceoffs.

Primeau played like a bat out of hell in the 2004 playoffs, despite still feeling the effects of his previous concussion.

To be honest, I would not be shocked at all. In fact I am half expecting Primeau to not only say he is not returning this season, but not at all. He is just too messed up to return to the game of hockey and play at the level he used to play at.

So, internet surfers at work, check to the Flyers webpage around lunch time.



http://www.philadelphiaflyers.com/pressbox/archive/2460.asp

"Old Man Winter's Last Stand"

If we are going to get any more big snow storms, or snow at all for that matter it will likely be the start of next week.

Here is the thoughts on what could happen next week

http://www.fox29.com/_ezpost/data/31615.shtml


Maybe Jay won't have to go to many weeks having to work all 5 days.

"Darren McGavin dies at 83"

Actor Darren McGavin passed away at 83 this weekend. McGavin was best known playing "The Old Man" in the classic holiday comedy "A Christmas Story"

In addition to numerous TV appearances including having the lead in 70's sci-fi series Night Stalker, although short lived the show was inspiration for the long running X-files. In fact the X-files creator was so influenced by the series and a fan of McGavin he was cast in two episodes of the X-files playing the original head of the X-files.

In addition to the X-files McGavin was nominated for an emmy for playing Murphy's father on Murphy Brown.

Other notable film roles included the Natural, and the Adam Sandler's father in Billy Madson.

To read more about McGavin check this link out. He died of natural causes, and he lived a long life, but even still I always liked his work. Bit of a bummer.

In addition to reading about the passing of Don Knotts from 3's company and Andy Griffith Fame. Not to mention his guest shot on Scooby Doo.

"Sopranos Season 6 Trailer"

If you havent seen it yet. Here it is. The trailer for the season 6 opener.

"Port of Problems"

Over the weekend it became public that a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based company control of ports of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Miami, and New Orleans. Bush says that UAE is big partner on the war on terror.

The big stink that two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers were from the UAE. To make matters worse, according to the Justice Department and the 9/11 Commissionmost of the hijackers received money channeled through various sources based in the UAE.

Was Bush just a sleep at the wheel when this happened? Or will he prevent it from happening?

I doubt either. Since I doubt such a huge move that would effect the country would not be brought to the president's attention. Also, the White House went on the defensive by the middle of Sunday.


Related CNN article
I can only hope they come to their senses and prevent this from happening. Maybe I am just being paranoid and my general concern of this company running our ports is offensive to people. However, I think we should really in this day in age of terrorism letting a company based in an area of the world where its confusing enough trying to figure out who wants to blow us up and who doesn't have access to where all our food comes in and access to an easy way to destroy most the major cities on the east coast just might be a bad idea.

For someone who ran his election campaign on keeping America safer Bush at the very least has a lot more explaining to do here. This is a fairly large contradiciton to anything he has stood for if you think about it.

"Port of Problems"

Over the weekend it became public that a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based company control of ports of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Miami, and New Orleans. Bush says that UAE is big partner on the war on terror.

The big stink that two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers were from the UAE. To make matters worse, according to the Justice Department and the 9/11 Commissionmost of the hijackers received money channeled through various sources based in the UAE.

Was Bush just a sleep at the wheel when this happened? Or will he prevent it from happening?

I doubt either. Since I doubt such a huge move that would effect the country would not be brought to the president's attention. Also, the White House went on the defensive by the middle of Sunday.

I can only hope they come to their senses and prevent this from happening. Maybe I am just being paranoid and my general concern of this company running our ports is offensive to people. However, I think we should really in this day in age of terrorism letting a company based in an area of the world where its confusing enough trying to figure out who wants to blow us up and who doesn't have access to where all our food comes in and access to an easy way to destroy most the major cities on the east coast just might be a bad idea.

For someone who ran his election campaign on keeping America safer Bush at the very least has a lot more explaining to do here. This is a fairly large contradiciton to anything he has stood for if you think about it.

I never understood why everytime the olypimics fool around all the other networks that are not airing the winter games just roll over and die. They usually take place right in the middle of sweeps too, and traditionally networks will just throw reruns on of all their popular shows.

Anyway looks like some of the networks are finally saying the hell with it. Lets see what happens, and it is paying off. FOX is still running new American Idol, CBS is still running new Surivor and ABC is still running new Desperate Housewives and Lost. FOX won the night with American Idol and NBC is feeling the sting.

Read this article for more http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060216/ap/d8fqf40g0.html.

Oh yeah and I thought of this idea years ago. So, if I worked for a network I would be getting a huge bonus and could buy robots with lazers and lots of other cool stuff.

"Is Netflix Shafting Frequent Users?"

Apperently the more you rent the more you wait with Netflix. The internet movie rental company that has given Blockbuster a run for the money the last two years. Will loyal supporters jump ship? Will Drew ever want to be my Netflix buddy?


Check it out folks! http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/10/netflix.renters.ap/index.html

"Old Man Winter"

Finally Old Man Winter has arrived. He was about two months too late, but anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow is expected in much of south jersey tonight (saturday) through tomorrow. My final prediciton is that it will max out around 8pm. Just getting back from being away for a week, the timing of the storm couldnt be any better since I have little desire to do much.

"Sounds Like a Classic"

Now with no hockey for a month I have more time to watch movies off Netflix. I came across the new release Gingerdead man. Evil never tasted so good! When Sarah Leigh (Robin Sydney) testifies against three murderers in a death penalty case, she never expects them to return to life in the form of delicious desserts. But that's exactly what happens when their cremated ashes accidentally fall into a batch of batter and are baked into a trio of gingerbread men. Now, the adorable yet evil cookies will stop at nothing to find the woman who sent them to the electric chair. Sounds like a winner....the cover is classic.

"Leaving on a Jet PLane"

Gone on Business for a week. See you Saturday!

"superbowl Predictions"

Any last minute predicitons?

"Exxon Mobil Corp. , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Monday reported a quarterly profit of $10.7 billion, capping a year of record earnings dominated by surging oil and gas prices. The results pushed up Exxon's profit for the year to a staggering $36.13 billion -- bigger than the economies of 125 of the 184 countries ranked by the World Bank. Profit rose 42 percent from 2004."---From Ruters.com


Wow, the same company that charges almost every other gas station more money per gallon. They must really be hurting by the whole Katrina deal. You know its amazing how the minute the hurricane hit the prices sky rocketed. Yet, the even when all the transportation issues were fixed it took months to go back down.

Also for almost no reason at all prices have spiked again in the past 3 weeks. Its to the point that oil companies barely come up with a reason why they are up. I hear because of the winter oil prices were up. Its the warmest winter that I can remember in the entire north east. It barely gets cold at all except for at night. Besides, shouldnt they catch on by now that people run the heat in the winter and try to catch up with it.

The sad thing is, there is nothing we can do about it at all.

"The Whale"

We have talked about this many times at the bar. But here it is the official list on this site of all the players that have played for the defunct Hartford Whalers. I also breaks down all the netminders.

Duke and I were talking I couldn't recall the two goalies from the 90s that I that were going to be awesome, so I looked them up it was Mario Gosselin and who could forget Mike Lenarduzzi? Of course neither them were Sean Burke who not only still plays today but shut out a certain Philly hockey team this afternoon.

A quick count I came up with 14 players in the league still playing that were once Whalers. Glenn Wesley was the only player left on the hurricanes who played for the Whalers even though he was gone for awhile. Jeff O'Neil left this summer who at that point played his whole career with the team.

So, check the site out. I enjoyed it. How could I have forget the CVS line?

"My Secret Phone"

So Duke and I were at the Flyers game a few weeks ago. Afterwards we went to Chickie and Petes for a post game dinner/drinks.

93.3 WMMR was there, and they gave out cell phones for some contest. Of course it was too loud in there to hear what the rules were. ALso, no one seemed to be pay any attention. They handed phones out and I thought it would ring or something if I won.

Who knows.

All I know is the phone actually works, from downloads, to text message to making actually calls. I have no idea why, but its been weeks and it seems like I have a free phone with no bills of any sort. Perhaps the service will be cut off one day or something. But right now it works just fine. I can even play mrs. pacman.

From what I gavered from the contest is that you are supposed to pass the phone on or something so other people can enjoy it. That really dosent make sense if they cut off the service or you have people calling you from the previous friend.

As anyone heard of this promotion?

If a man commands me to do stuff on the phone one day should I do as he says?