"Veteran's Day"

This Tuesday is holiday. Yeah it really is despite most people still having to go to work. Amongst all the Christmas maddness that for some reason has to started several weeks before thanksgiving this year we get a hoilday before its even time to carve up the old bird.

This Tuesday is Veteran's Day a day that is ment to honor people who faught and died for this country. People might get this holiday mixed up with other patrotic hoildays. Memorial Day is to honor the fallen heros, 4th of July is mainly to celeberate our freedom and celebrate the birth of the nation, and Labor Day has nothing to do with veterans what so ever. Although it is now undestandable to see flags waving since it is so close to Sept. 11th.

Anyway I think its just a shame a hoilday to honor people living and dead who fought for this country is prettty much glossed over my society. Do yourself a favor and ask people what hoilday it is on Tuesday I doubt more than half of them will even know its a holiday.

At beast the day to honor citzens of this country has been reduced to an excuse for retail stores to throw a big sale. Just because it is too cold out for the few of us that are off for the holiday to go swiming and grill stuff makes the day get lost in the shuffle. Sadly hoildays like that are more of an excuse to get drunk for most people.

I suggest for my readers who do read this that they call up just on person that they know is a war veteran (who doesnt have a friend, uncle or neighbor) and either thank them for their service or at the very least wish them a happy veteran's day. Then you can bgo back to Christmas Shopping.

"Black Eye Network"


A few weeks ago Matt Drudge revealed on this news site THE DRUDGE REPORT scenes of the upcoming CBS miniseries “The Reagans” that got friends and allies of the former President pretty upset. Scenes included Reagan showing signs of Alzheimer’s years before he was diagnosed with the disease, Nancy being a pill popping, Reagan fearing that he was the anti-Christ before breaking down and crying, and a scene when Reagan saw a news report on AIDs saying “People who live in sin shall die in sin”. Reagan was often criticized about not doing anything about AIDs in the 1980s when it hit.

Now as I reported on here earlier the networks are in the middle of sweeps. CBS may have at first thought the “buzz” would be good for ratings. However when more and more scenes were revealed the pressure started to mount on the network. CBS started to fear potential sponsors bailing on the program. They also feared a boycott of some of the sponsors of the mini-series and perhaps feared the network itself would suffer a decline in ratings during the November Sweeps. Sweeps is a time when the networks kiss the butts of their advertisers.

A few days ago the mini-series that was supposedly pitched as a love story was coming across as more of a politically slanted version of the former president’s life. Another reason people thought perhaps things were being blown out of proportion was that fact that Barbara Streisand ( an high profile liberal loud mouth) was one of the key figures in the creative team behind the project. CBS finally blinked and made broadcast television history and pulled the plug on the mini-series. It was the first time that a network canned a program for political reasons. The miniseries will air (more likely as just long film) on SHOWTIME which is also owned by VICAOM. The film was edited and certain controversial scenes were cut for the CBS airing before it was canned. However everyone of those scenes are going to be restored when it airs on SHOWTIME sometime in 2004.

The liberals are calling CBS spineless for giving into political pressure. Streisand claims the network’s move was politically motivated and it is a “sad day for artistic freedom”. She went on to claim Shakespeare was horrible historian but wrote entertaining plays despite falsifying facts and the kings of England. Apparently Liberals can reference past people and events and claim that is the way it always was and always should be when it benefits them to illustrate a point. I haven’t seen the movie which has her husband James Brolin starring as Reagan but I doubt it Shakespeare.

She has a good point that such artistic freedom should not be squashed. However there is a thin line between that and just wanting to make public figure look like a jerk for political game. Where do you the draw the line? Claiming he said stuff that was never mentioned. Couldn’t they have consulted people closer to the family like they did for the Amy Smart and Sniper films? Unfortunately a vast majority of viewers would gobble up everything they saw as fact not artistic freedom. There is a responsibility that wasn’t there 10 years ago for tv movies to try to stick to the facts. This film itself was political not artistic. Do not believe for a second that this movie was made for anything other then to give the Ronny a black eye.


Now people who were against this thing (at posting time they are already taking aim at Showtime) make some points I don’t agree with either. They think a movie shouldn’t be made about Reagan because he is senile and can’t defend himself. Okay it is in bad taste I would admit, and one wonder why they couldn’t wait for him to buy the farm (there isn’t an election coming up is there?) before telling his story. What if he was dying of cancer or AIDs would that be in worse taste? However many a film has been made about the dead who last time I checked couldn’t defend themselves. JFK has come off as a jerk many times.


Matt Drudge thinks the bizarre anti-christ scene was the turning point that got people thinking it was strange. The CEO of CBS claimed it was “unfairly harsh” towards the Ronald and his wife. Honestly I think he was just looking out for the wallet of his network. For some reason television (puzzling everyone people just don’t seem to be watching tv) viewers have being MIA the last thing he wants to do is alienate his viewers. So his move is more motivated by money than anything else.

Showtime will air the movie, because they don’t have to worry about sponsors. VICACOM might even get more people to shell out money for it and all the scenes will be in place. I honestly think CBS can win the sweeps month easily without the mini-series (predicted order top=CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX= bottom) maybe it was just to hot for network television although thanks to BONO apparently the F-bomb isn’t. It is funny because it was delivered as a satire I wouldn’t be blogging about this right now. Are conservatives being too protective of their icon? Perhaps they are being to blind to his flaws. I don’t know if he said any of these things really. I know has heard he never talked about AIDS once the whole time he was in office although I could never really prove that.

I don’t know it is a sad day for artistic freedom. Matt Drudge simply put out transcripts from the movie and people got upset. A LOT of people got upset by this film. Their voices were just too loud. Maybe if the movie showed Reagan’s famous TEAR DOWN THIS WALL moment or put some more good to balance out the negative stuff it wouldn’t have seen as such a blow, making him more of a tragic figure. I don’t see this opening the door to bowing to political pressure on a regular basis however I don’t see network TV existing in 10 years they way that we know it now. Did CBS make the right choice? I honestly think I would have to see the movie to make a fair statement on that. Maybe I will get it off NETFLIX when it come on DVD. Perhaps I will maybe I can get on of those old Reagan chimp movies to come the same week and have a double feature.

"Losers"

Street beat Katz (KICKED HIS ASS)and Tommy lost in Haddonfield at least I think so because his name didn't appear anywhere on the offical results that I found on the internet. I can imagine he didnt get ANY votes though. If I find his final totals I will post them here.

Keep it hear at Tucker's World for the the final numbers on that race. If you get your news from this blog then well thats just sad.

Well it might be intresting if the FBI finds anyhting on Street. Oh well Philly made their bed.

Oh and for the record I didn't vote for anything, felt mildly guilty.

“Message to Readers”

Well it is SWEEPS months for the major networks the time when all the networks (and FOX) bring out their big guns so they can justify how much the charge for commercials for their shows. So look for big TV Movies, important plot related stories and shameless gimmicks on your favorite shows. In honor of that I usually have a SWEEPS month of my own. I have no idea who reads this blog and I don’t have a traffic reporter like Drew does for TERMINUS (Drew can you help me out with that man?), but still when they have SWEEPS I try pull out all the stops to get people clicking back to this link and procrastinating during their workday. I want to try to update more this month. So sit back and get ready for some hopefully memorable articles in the next 4 weeks, and then it is back to the same old mundane crap with random and frequent days upon days with no updates.

Dan K emailed me and told me that the SUV headlights are not any brighter it is just the fact that they are at the right height to blind me. He knows a lot more about cars than I do so I guess he is right. He went on to wish death upon anyone who drives an SUV anyway.


TUCKERS WORLD ENDORSES CANDIDATE IN THE PHILLY MAYOR RACE!



“Indecision 2003”


Tomorrow is Election Day. Sadly that might actually be news to most my readers. Not that I can talk I don’t have any interest in the election of the mayor of my own town. However I have written about two mayor races that I can’t vote in. The Philadelphia election and the Haddon Heights election only because there is 21 year-old local filmmaker running for mayor.

Okay first the Philly election. The campaign trail is in the homestretch and judging by the latest polls Mayor John Street might as well make his victory speech on Good Day Philadelphia tomorrow before the polls even open. Katz has been resorted to referencing the DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN debacle. Usually a sign that you are desperate for a miracle and the election will be a landslide for the opposition.

The last few hours we have seen Sam Katz bellow out some tunes in Italian and John Street brought out former Vice President AL GORE which was enough to make local liberals harder than getting south bound on 295 during rush hour. Streets gain in the polls leaped again last night the polls results are strikingly different than before the BUG SCANDAL at the time Katz had a slight lead. Don’t worry though if it looks to be close you can rest assure that Ed Randall will be driving around with a van picking up homeless people and paying them to vote for Street. A Democratic tradition in the city of brotherly love. Not that the Katz campaign has halos around their heads.

Katz supposedly has some unions behind him, but Street has far more. Basically a core of the voters are Union leaders who intimidate union members into voting for a particular candidate. Unions are key. I would also imagine that Katz’s wife will vote for him along with the most of the remaining white people that live in the city.

Well the night before I TUCKERS WORLD is giving an endorsement to Sam Katz. Unfortunately for Katz none of my readers live in Philly hell very few of them are even registered to vote. However even the recent tactics by the Street’s cronies and the fact the many Philly businesses are hoping the Delware to South Jersey than are jumping to Philly (just ask CHUCK) I think Katz is the better candidate. I think Katz is more business savy and the Philly economy needs that.

Meanwhile right up the White Horse Pike Tommy Avallone who I know by association is running for mayor. Tommy who at one time worked at the Cinemark movie theater got together with some friends and made some local movies. I stumbled upon this films because a friend of mine Mike Hadfield has minor roles in them.

“Wasted Apples” was followed by “Small Kid Tank Top” neither film indicated that Tommy has any future in film making but he is under the impression he would be a good mayor. His story made national news (long after I broke the story) appearing on both CNN.com and the DRUDGE REPORT. Here is the latest statement made by Tommy released on his website.

“Everyone from Haddon Heights VOTE FOR ME!, Everyone that isn't from Haddon Heights tell everyone you know in Haddon Heights to VOTE FOR ME!, Everyone that isn't from Haddon Heights that doesn't no anyone from Haddon Heights, make a friend with someone in Haddon Heights and tell them to VOTE FOR ME!, if you are to young to vote get your brother, sister, mother, father, uncle, aunt, grandparents, and neighbors to VOTE FOR ME!, Everyone should get more involved, everyone should get into poltics, everyone should VOTE FOR ME! I may be a bad speller, I may have bad grammer, I may not use spell check, But I will make one hell of a mayor. So inclusion, VOTE FOR ME!!!!!!!”

“Blinded By the Light”

It doesn’t bother me so much that SUVs guzzle gas, but their insanely BRIGHT head lights irk me.
So the other night I was driving to my girlfriend’s who lives roughly 20 minutes from my house. It was dark out being nighttime and all and a fairly raining night. Then behind me comes an SUV.

The head lights on this sucker are so bright that I can actually see the glare off the puddles on the street behind in my mirror. Now I know it is supposed to be a “utility” vehicle and all but is it necessary for them to illuminate the car of the motorist in front of them. Christ what they want me to do put on shadow puppet show on for them or something?

I recall when I first started driving one of the worst things you could do as a driver is pass a car, or be behind a car with your high beams on. Now what difference does it make when if the normal headlight of an SUV severely blinds me and has on occasion actually given me a headache. Now I know that I can turn my mirror so that is blocks out the insanely ridiculous headlights, but I never like to that that because it messes up my reference to how much a distance that this soccer mom as on me. Nor does it stop my car from looking like the Clark Griswold’s home.

Now I really don’t know the practical reason for such bright headlights. Where the hell are this SUVs going? I mean this light is so bright that sometimes on a dark road I am checking for little green men and missing time when it first comes up behind me.


I know I am supposed to be impressed by the power of their vehicles but is it necessary for them blind me to the point that my retinas are detached by the time I get to my girlfriends house? I was lucky I could tell the difference between Liza and her dog Denver by the time I get to her home, because I could see was a bright light in front of me.

So my advice is to drive about 25 MPH if an SUV is behind you in two lane road. You will likely irate them and perhaps they will pass you. If any of my readers have people in their lives with SUVs get them headlight covers for approaching holiday season get them “head light” covers. If anyone doesn’t know what they are they look really cool but pretty much render your headlights useless.

"Weasel of the Week"

Sharpton is a jack ass. I don't know why or how we started caring about what he said enough to print it in the papers each day. Please. I guess this time he is seeking a seat in the White House (doesnt he always), but still no matter what happens the media feel obligated to have us listen to his twisted views on life. His latest doozy is against Howard Dean who is one of the few that are standing out in the Democratic debates.

Here is his quote:

"Howard Dean's opposition to affirmative action, his current support for the death penalty and historic support of the NRA's [National Rifle Association's] agenda amounts to an anti-black agenda that will not sell in communities of color in this country," Sharpton said in a statement."

WOW. Maybe I SHOULD vote for Dean. Heck I argreed with almost everything there. Color me a bigot I guess. DAMN. I had no idea.

Okay people debate about the Afirmative Action all the time, and I would have to see what he has to say about it. The big problem that I have with it is I think it should be based on more of how much someone makes. For example a lot of white people I know make "too much money" to get help to pay for college.


I recall a friend of mine in Rowan who happened to black telling me how he had no idea what he was going to do with all the extra money they gave him. Not only was he from what he told me as well of as many of my white friends who make too much money, but they gave him almost 2 grand more than he even needed. He was almost embarressed I guess he knew that the money could have gone to someone else. I have heard other minorities offer similar stories. Meanwhile there are white people who are told time and time again their hard working but underpaid parents are too rich. I have a problem with that.

Sharpton would never debate anything like this. He just tells everyone they are bigots or want to bring down all the African Americans everywhere. He never backs up his claims I don't even no what the NRA has to do with being black. What is he saying more white people have guns? Al Sharpton is a true weasel.

TUCKER'S WORLD RINKSIDE

“Behind Waviers”

The NHL wavier draft is usually confusing or often over looked by the casual hockey fan. Even I have trouble with some of the “rules” but that’s the NHL for you. The Waiver Draft has been affected by the pending NHL lockout next season. Some unique stuff has happened.


To set up the recent events lets try to establish the point of the draft and how it works. It isn’t like the entry draft it deals with players already on NHL & AHL teams. The Waiver draft starts right around the start of the season and its main purpose is mainly to spread the wealth so to speak. If a player is played on waviers he can be picked up by another NHL team. You can only protect so many people at one time. Now not everyone has to be protected rookies are off the hook.

Also off the hook are players who don’t have an NHL contract but actually have a two way contract. The two way contracts are for players on the brink of breaking into the NHL like Jimmy Vandermeer or fring players like Mark Grieg. He can be sent to the Phantoms ( Vandermeer likely will be soon) and he doesn’t have to clear waivers. Although this can be only done X amount of times in one season, so they can’t jerk the poor guy around I guess, Peter White had to clear waivers one time after being called up too many times. Anyone else that is sent to the Phantoms like Chris Therien recently has to clear waivers.

In years past other teams would have loved to gotten their hands on certain semi big name players (and did players like Straka were picked up in the past) who were put on waivers like Curtis Joseph did this past weekend. He was sent to the minors, and since no one wants to pay him his huge salary he cleared and is in the AHL. Since Hasek came back he is number 1 goalie. Number 2 is Many Legace who they think will be # 1 right now. As a seldom used back up he makes very little money by NHL standards and would be snatched up. So they sent CUJO down knowing he would clear.

So the draft that’s purpose for the struggling teams to be able to get talented players who weren’t being used is negated. A team that NEEDS Joseph can’t afford him, and could lose out if there is no hockey next season.

This past week the Flyers inked tough guy Steve Webb (who the hell knows why) and the sneaky little GM that Bob Clarke is he didn’t let it publicly known. The media didn’t even know. Webb was signed to an NHL contract I guess they figured the had a spot for him. Now in order to sign him they would have to put someone else on waivers. The Flyers didn’t want to risk losing anyone else so they kept the signing hush, hush. They actually put Webb on waivers andhoped no on would notice their new player chilling on Waivers. However the Pittsburgh Penguins did and they scopped him right up. Webb thought he was going to play in Philly had no choice but to go west. Since the Penguins didn’t sign him they don’t have to put anyone on waivers. So basically they could have waited for him to come out of the Skate zone one day threw a bag over his head and thrown him into a SUV heading for Pittsburgh.

"Closings & Movings"


For all my local readers here is the DISH on the local businesses in the area. Some places closing their doors. Others moving around.

Well some of my readers might know that I have a “ban” on Sharkey’s on nights that they have a DJ. Sharkey’s a place ideal for cheap beer and some good wings is a good spot to go if you actually want to hear what your friends are saying. However recently they decided to have a DJ there on the weekends and it might even have spread to Thursday nights. I had hoped it would flop, but I drove past there a few times on those nights and it was pretty busy. Another indication is the rival bar the Warwick Tavern now supposedly has a DJ on Thursday nights. The plague is spreading. If I wanted to hear club music and stay local I would go to Vallaries. I dunno, maybe I will just have to lift a ban.

Meanwhile the obscenely named Cuccis Pizza has closed down after only a year or so under the new management. It was run by a Sterling Alumni for the past year that I couldn’t picture successfully running a business well. Not to mention the food went downhill big time. I will miss their unique bread. It always made me pick them over Nuncios. There is now a place to rent on what Ryan and I nicked named the “Statford Boardwalk”. Although it might be a tough sell since its next to a porn shop.

The Burger King in Voorhees is going to pack their bags and move into the former home of Ponderosa in Stratford on the White Horse Pike.

Meanwhile Starview Diner might be feeling some heat from their arch enemy the Stratford Diner, because they have been running coupons in the Courier-Post for almost a month now in Friday’s South Jersey Beat section. Keep it here for more useless information about what is going on in your backyard.

"SpaceSTORM!"


Uh-oh. Looks like the PERFECT Space Storm is heading to Earth this weekend. It is going to cause a "Solar" burst which supposedly will mess with our cell phones and powerlines. My readers will have to tell me if something happened because poor service is par for the course for my phone.

It should hit at 3pm on Friday which would be roughly around 2 hours from when this post makes it to the internet. Perhaps it will supercharge the machines and they will rise to destroy us. Perhaps the story is just to fill time on the cable news network untill the next time J. Lo and Ben Affleck go shopping.

"Of Bugs & Men"

Well the bid for the Mayor of Philly has taken an ugly veer. Mayor John Street is up for reelection against Sam Katz (who looks like a former professor of mine) Katz had a very slim chance to win. Before the controversy hit (I will get to that later) I spoke to Duke’s girlfriend who is a South Philly native and wanted to see if she followed the election or had anything to say about it. She basically told me that it didn’t make a difference because Street was going to be elected by the African-American communities in Philly based solely on the color of his skin. That is a shame if works either way.

In all fairness ALMOST LITTERALLY all the white people are voting for Katz, in the 90 percent and about 90 percent of the black people will vote for Street. There is no denying that the city is easily one of the most racially divided cities in the US. When it comes to the voting anyway, but one can assume that these feelings could easily run deeper in every day life.

Well the election took an unexpected turn this past week when it John Street found out his office was being bugged. At first no one knew who was doing it, but it was later turned it was the FBI and he was under investigation. This investigation has been going back for quite awhile apparently. I don’t know that Street regularly sweeps his office for bugs but we later learned that some of his electronic information devices were taken by authorities before he made public that his office was bugged. So he knew something was up, and his speech the day off was bit of an act.

Now I don’t know if the FBI wanted him to find it or if they were just stupid and didn’t expect him to comb his office after sending up flags that he is under investigation. He claims that nothing racists, illegal or curse words are ever said in his office and they must only have really boring tapes. The FBI said that he is not exactly the “target” but has “something” to do with the investigation. Meaning it could be someone or several people in his administration are subject of the investigation. It didn’t take long before Street questioned the timing of the investigation. He cries racism and that the investigation is politically motivated.

This was a great move. He makes himself look like the victim and it worked! He is running away with the election and more African Americans are going to vote now just because of they think he is getting a raw deal. One man (suppoedly a Republician) admitted in the Inquirer that he is pretty much going to vote for Street out of spite at this point. Race isn’t important according to Street. He just works well with everyone. Well here is an often forgotten quote from awhile back. It took me awhile to even find the exact quote on the internet.

“LET ME TELL YOU: The brothers and sisters are running the city. Oh, yes. The brothers and sisters are running this city. Running it! Don't you let nobody fool you; we are in charge of the City of Brotherly Love. We are in charge! We are in charge!"”


Um. Okay now replace Brothers and Sisters with Whites and give it to a white politician and you have a ruined career. I mean that quote is full of gloating and anger it appears. I don’t recall him having to attend “diversity” or “sensitivity” classes. I am still waiting for the article on TEMRINUS titled “Street is a Total Bastard” but I have a better chance of seeing the Flyers win the cup before I die. In all fairness he did admit to me once out at the bar that he thought it was pretty racist. I just think its sad people are buying this BS. If he really thinks its being done to get rid of a black mayor than he at best is a hypocrite. I hate the fact that comments like that are allowed buy African Americans. Am I offended by the comments? Not really he was merely stating a fact about who he surrounds himself around I guess. I just hate that there was very little outcry about it, if he was white he would have had to resign.

I am not down for spreading intolerance and hate no matter who does it. Lots of debates were made after that Rush comment about ending racism. Letting people Like Street have license to make comments like that because of year of mistakes in the past of the treatment of their ancestors is just plain wrong. It breeds MORE racism from whites. Just fuel for the fire.


So back to current events; the investigation will go well after the election. I don’t know how bad timing it was for this to be revealed. Wouldn’t the people of Philly want to know that their mayor was under investigation? I guess not. It MIGHT have some baring on if someone casts his vote. I know if I would have voted for Street and found out a month later he had done some dirty deeds I would be a bit miffed thinking It was unfair not knowing that potential problem. Recalls could become a common trend. It isn’t out of right field either some people have accused Street of helping his buddies and brother ( an incompetent) out by giving them city jobs. Of course it like that a lot in politics, but still. Its thought at this point that it is realated to giving contracts to people.

I think a low point in mind for Street was when he decided to give a business loan to a drug dealer. He claimed he had entrepreneur spirit and just disliked working that why he had to turn to selling drugs. Poor guy couldn’t take orders and that’s why he sold drugs out of necessity. He claimed at the time he was former drug dealer and one could argue he was giving him a 2nd shot. However people immediately wrote into the Daily News and said he was still pretty much still in the business. Meanwhile a couple who lived in Philly for years, and did everything by the law wrote in and were trying for years to get a loan to start kick start their dream. A deli in the City. They didn’t get it. Maybe they should have been selling crack to school children until their ship came in. It might have helped if they were “brothers” or “sisters”.

Thinks have gotten hotter than Pat's Cheesesteak bettween the two. The campaigns have gotten ugly. Street is bringing up a lawsuit of against Katz from one of his business partners. Katz downplayed it making it a dead issue.

Without a miracle for Katz you might as well put a fork in him. He is as done as the vet. As for Street to be fair and balanced nothing has been proven yet. So he has that going for him, which is nice. It could get interesting.

"Elimidude"


I watch Elimidate in the mornings sometimes before work. It is a shameless "reality" show where usually a guy (although once in awhile its a girl) has to choice bettween 4 dates. Before each commerical break on is "Elimidated".

The show is supposed to match up the people and all 4 potential mates vie for the attention of the guy. This usually results in girls calling each other sluts, bitches and other mean words. Lots of times they just rip each others clothes and bodies. It shows you how shallow and callous girls can be. Certainly the type that have to go on a syndicated tv show are anyway.

Rarely do they tell the guy about themsleves they just bash the others. Its kind of like watching a public debate for office only the candidates are a lot more pleasing to the eye in this case.

My idea for a spinoff would be "Elimidude". It will just be a bunch of dudes trying to figure out who the best person to be friends with is. One dude would go and hang out with four other dudes. The dudes would do stuff that dudes do like play video games, go out for some beers, shoot pool, talk about sports and girls. Before each commerical break the dude would "elimdude" on of the guys. Trying to figure out who would be his most ideal candaite to become a dude he would hang out with on a regular basis.

The show will go with out a hint of homosexuality. It won't be about sex or anything. Just dudes. Dudes meeting dudes and hanging out with them and doing stuff that dudes do.

"WAY TO GO!"

So I am still at the Sears Outlet much to my chagrin (the dungeon) and the sales at the store have been horribly down at our location. Mostly in part because of our Philly location catering to our Philly customers, but mainly because the competition like Home Depot and Lowes offer similar products for almost the same price. However are service agreement sales are threw the roof.

When I first started there they didnt push the Protection Agreements (extended warranty how can I go wrong?) but now they are all about them. Back in the day our store constantly came in last place. No one cared really we just joked about it. The regional mangers kept coming by on a regular basis cared though. They would rip the boss of the store to pieces which would result in her passing the anger on to the sales people. It was a almost regular part of life there.

Anyway all that has changed and we have people that actually strive to make the store above standard. We have been number one in the region for months now with the service agreemetns. Making Sears lots of money to pretty much do nothing. If someone buys a protection argument its money in the bank for Sears especially if it doesn't break.

Now we are at the top you think we would be rewarded some how. Bonuses perhaps? Free dinner for the sales team (its a really small team making the company lots of money) ? Gift Cards to use at the real Sears at least? No we get emails to the mangers once in a while that say in small print at the end of them WAY TO GO! We don't even see the VIP of Sears anymore which I guess means your doing a good job, but shouldn't they be treating us like gold for carrying the region?

I am sure some of my readers who sit in the dark basements are gleefully hoping that 332 Burnt Mill Road is darkened by years end and judging by our overall sales the last few months it wouldn't be out of left field. Reason # 232 why I hate my job.


Sears Alert: Orange

"Buy the Rights"

I hate most movies based on Old Shows. I think the creative team behind Charlies Angels should die. Yeah you get flicks like the Fugiative come along. However most movies based on sitcoms are bad. Does anyone actually remember Car 54 Where ARe You the movie? Awful. The Brady Bunch Movies were okay, but they were parodies. I am usually not a big fan of that which is why I hated the Scooby Movie.

However I saw one of the greatest shows ever on the DISH at my work the other day. Mr. ED. In the one scene I saw Mr. ED was wearing over sized glasses and made a phone call. Horses just aren't supposed to do that! It was funny.

When someone finally comes to their senses and puts Mr. Ed on the big screen I will be there opening night with a ticket in my hand. Thats all I am saying.

"Drew's Remarks"


If you haven't ready my article "Creepy American" than you should before you read this because it won't make all that much sense. Drew the author of TERMINUS has released the following statement. Since I don't have a comments sections (although another feble attempt was made this past weekend) I figured I would let him speak his mind. Here is what I feel was the most important part of the eamil.


"As you don't have comments on your blog, I would
appreciate it if you would make clear to your readers
that I took no part in the burning of the Bible, and
our family, at that time, regularly and lawfully
burned all of our combustible trash as a way of
heating our home, and that this particular Bible was
useless. It couldn't be read. The pages were so
brittle that you couldn't even open it, from what I
remember. You should also mention that this was done
when we were moving out of the house, and trying to
throw away as much stuff as we could, to avoid having
to move it. And, despite his fact, my dad, a
Bible-burning atheist, brought about six Bibles from
the old house to the new house, along with a quite a
few Christian books."

He went on to say.

"You make it sound like my Dad and I get off on burning
Bibles, which is just SLIGHT misrepresentation of the
facts. "

I used that story to make my point that people are going to disagree with you sometimes in masses no matter what. So now that story is more clear to both of my readers.

"Creepy American"

My longtime friend Drew and I don’t always see eye to eye on things. I actually grew up with Drew for the most part and first met him through my family church. Drew has obviously veered from that ideology drastically. Not that this is really news to anyone who knows him. I don’t fault him for that its important for each person to form their own values so if anything he deserves props. It isn’t easy to challenge your own beliefs to end up at a polar opposite must have been a scary journey. I have flipped on some beliefs in my life time granted not as drastic as Drew who is now an Avid Atheist.

Drew often speaks his mind and one of his pet peeves is when he is labeled “a trader” or “communist”. This reached its peak I think a week after 9/11 at the time Drew had a message board and while people were still frantically looking for loved ones Drew stopped short of saying that we had it coming. He sort of listed an incident that he witnessed on CNN with someone of Arabic decent showing a part of a missile (sent by Israel I believe) that said made in the USA. This got Drew pretty choked up from what I understand. Drew even went as far as to debate if the events of 9/11 were "evil" or not. Lets just say he was called a lot more than “a trader” by various message board posters.

Check out TEMINUS and read the article “Oh Boy Here It Comes” Drew is blogging today about his disgust for the pledge of allegiance. Sure its surrounding by a few facts and valid points, but it’s a fine example of how he rubs many people the wrong way. First off I do recall how almost no one in high school actually said the Pledge they just stood there and mumbled at best. People in the music homeroom didn’t even have the pledge on the intercom, but that is not surprising since Music people are usually not interested in politics or current events. I would hope to God (sorry for offending anyone) that has changed a bit since 9/11 but given the attention span of a student I doubt it.

Anyway in TERMINUS fashion I am going to put parts of what he said and try to over analyze it to the point that you wonder if I have too much free time on my hands. First off I can see where people can debate the UNDER GOD part of the pledge which wasn’t added until the mid 1950s. I actually always took it as representing “the supreme being” when I was young, using God as generic term saying that the country is blessed under God (Christianity) Allah (Islam which pretty much means GOD), Buddha etc. However since I am older now I do know it was added by Christians. I would think that some people would just take a different impetration of “God” to mean what they want, since many Christians themselves debate the true sense of the word. However that would exclude people like Drew who think that we just formed out of no where. However I don’t quite see what is so bad about asking children to recite the pledge. I don’t even see why they cant’ require them since they are in a public school which is pretty much a product of the government.

Making kids pledge allegiance to this country is really f---ing creepy. It's a loyalty oath, for f--'s sake… So, my gut feeling is that in any dispute, I'm anti-Pledge, because it's creepy, and non-conformists get hit by a load of shitstorm.

SO basically since you don’t like it when you people disagree with what you say “aka shitstorm” is unleashed among these non-conformists (he might refer to as the “real patriots”.)

Well first off it is more TEACHING about our country than FORCING THEM to become mindless slaves. It making them know damn right well what this country stands for by the time they finnish their higher education. I honestly wish I learned more about our country during my time in highschool. We never really got past the Industrial Revolution once the next year we would start all over again or study world history. It’s a shame. But at least we were taught the pledge and hopefully had an idea what the country was based on. Maybe he can shed some light on the subject about the whole oaths thing since he is a law student. Don’t we take “oaths” (a declaration or promise) in the courts? What if people just decided to start lying because they didn’t believe in the “oaths” they had to take?

Anyway Drew goes on to stumble upon his own irony in this article.

“Their was a college basketball player in the Philly area a year ago, I think, and she got hit with the load of shitstorm big time. That's not right. Everyone says "She has the right not to salute the flag( actually she turned her back to the flag), but we have the right to hit her with a load of shitstorm," which is perfectly true, but it kinda sends the wrong message about freedom and American values, don't you think?”


Now the message that should be sent is everyone is allowed to speak their mind in this country. People got angry because they were legitimately pissed that she would do something like that. Maybe some of those people were war veterans that lost friends in war or were hurt protecting our country that don’t quite understand why it is such a “burden” to take 30 seconds out of your day to honor your country. So everyone should revoke their freedom of speech in regards to this matter in fear of hurting someone’s feelings. Maybe they want to make her realize what the country means to them, or that the pledge isn’t as “Creepy” as people say it is. So all the children that want to recite the pledge should be silenced if they wanted to voice their opinion in class? Last time I checked America wasn’t about not being able to give let us say Drew Vogel “a shitstorm” about what he has to say.

Drew seems to be under the impression that only he gets slammed for his views. Please. Most of my friends are either “Athists” totally apathetic or even as minority of a religion as Wiccan. I honestly get hit by “shitstorms” by Drew and Lima Beanz about Christianity some fall under blanket statements and usually come off as “hateful”. Drew once practically bragged to me about the time his father and him burned up a Bible. I imagine he said something like this to get a ride out of me or something and to be honest I did get pissed at time. However I distanced myself from it and said he can do what he wants even if he is an asshole about it. Inretrospect perhaps he did mean to "offend" me he was just stating something he felt, that was totally against something I belive in. This results in an uneasy feeling. But that is life.

Even the most generic statement about my religion will result in Drew rolling his eyes. It seems that most my generation doesn’t really believe in God, so I take a lot of flack about my religious beliefs which I don’t feel the need to slam down peoples throats.

Let us say hypothetically Drew and I were at the first Atlanta Thrashers game after the death of Dan Snyder, and one of the players asked the people in the stands to pray for the Heatly and Snyder family I can almost guarantee Drew would have been “”offended” and maybe even gripped about all the people whose feelings might have been hurt that don’t think that we are a creation from God. It perfectly okay for him to say "offenseive" about Christans (he often makes them quite cartoonish on this blog and thinks they all agree with Pat Robertson). The same guy that doesnt like to sterotype any collection of people. But thats Drew for you.

Maybe the Philly girl was taught the lesson that people aren’t always going to agree with you deal with it than it was a good lesson. Should she have been suspended ? I guess not? Suspended by the team? Only if there is a rule in the league about it but if the coach wanted to bench her I wouldn’t blame him. BUT THE POINT IS THAT IS WHAT AMERICA IS ALL ABOUT WHEN YOU SPEAK YOUR MIND OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE FREE TO SPEAK THEIR MIND WILL DO SO. WRONG MESSAGE MY HAIRY BUTT.


I don’t mean to make this more about Drew than the pledge, but Drew has the tendency to come off very condescending when making his voice heard. This particular rant has an uncomfortable amount of bitterness or anger underlining in it. Drew hates Rush Limbaugh but at the same time he comes across as slamming people who don’t agree with him on regular basis. Do I let it bother me ? Not really it doesn’t “offend” me all that much. I know he manages to turn off the majority of the people I send his blog link to because of the tone of his writing. I actually think they should require the students to recite the pledge so that makes me “creepy” but if I differ on something Drew says “It is a shitstorm" that he undeserving of but when he tells me his opinion it is “The Way Things Ought to BE”
Now lets take a look at the pledge


I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under (God),
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay omit the God part and what is so offensive? It just a reminder of what this country was based on when it was formed really. Allegiance is really just love and devotion. Drew tells me what a better American than he is on the blog than people who don’t question everything our government does. It could be argued that his campaign to get Bush out of the White House is out of his “love and devotion” to this “great nation”. Our country is actually a Republic not a Democracy if you want to split hairs, and I don’t see anything wrong with having some pride in our country with saying we are “indivisible” maybe Drew sees that as little imperialistic to other countries and could hurt their feelings. Liberty and Justice? That is what Drew fights for with every fiber of his bearded being even if it means some fat slob getting rich because he was too dumb to realize Big Macs are not healthy.

I think the Pledge is just a reminder about the country and how great it is and by having students recite it they come to realize it. I guess maybe they should stop because it hasn’t seemed to work. Too much of an inconvenience to come together and remember what this country was founded on I guess. Too much of hassle while people like Price put their lives on the line. Such a pain to get up at a sporting event and stand of the national anthem! A waste of time for a country, where millions get to express their views on blogs like this? I am sure Drew will slam me for this one and tell me how a better American would not want to say the pledge and that I am a sheep. He will list all these things he hates about this country in the following weeks. In the mean time I will be writing about my views and learning and reading about his and perhaps discussing various topics back and forth. Because that is what America is all about.

“24 Years and What Do You Get ?”

Well today I turn one year shy of a quarter of century old. Although 24 is not old by any sense of the imagination I certainly couldn’t wrap my mind around this age as child. It is certainly by many that year that is a watermark for the first year of being an actual adult. In today’s society 21-23 is still giving you a pass as being “college age” especially since people take far more than 4 years now to complete and education. So what is an adult anyway? Depends on the person I guess.

24 usually is the point where nights out looking for a good time are more a novelty than central point of your week and you have to start lining up all your ducks in a row to become more “stable” and “responsible”. Birthdays when you were young were a celebration that of reaching another milestone. You wanted to have a fun party so the kids at school would like you, you wanted to get a bike so you could ride around town, and as you got older you looked forward to freedoms like a driver’s license or being able to legally drink. However I think now that I can be considered by most people in my “mid” 20’s it’s a day of more reflection than anything. Trying to look back at what I have done with my life so far, also trying to measure myself up with expectations of myself and where I wanted to be at this point in the journey in life. Not that I didn’t have an awesome time on Saturday with Liza at the casinos (despite not becoming a millionaire).

The more you think of it though the more you realize something. That life isn’t done in scenes similar to a play or film. One part of your life ending certainly doesn’t necessarily open the next stage door. It is also true what they say that the years go by quicker as you get older. It makes me sound old to even agree with the adage. However I was talking to Dan K (on AIM Dan and I rarely have face to face conversations but a handful of times a year he hates daylight) and we couldn’t quite figure out how I got to 24. He seemed taken back when I told him I was 24 even though he will hit that mark in a few months too. We talked about schoolyard incidents that at times seem like they happened a few months ago.

My life has certainly changed in the past year. Being out of school is certainly a dose of reality and I am learning a lot of hard lessons about making your way in life. I don’t really expect to draw any sympathy by writing this article by any means. In the past year though I have learned how hard it is to cut your niche in the world. I saw many of my friends go through the same thing after college, and thought for some reason I could avoid this fate.


In some aspects its who you know to get you in with a good company. Part of me blames myself for not having a distinct “dream” like our society seemingly dedicates who should have. Sometimes I figure it to mean I am a bad person or am full of short comings. Than again who isn’t? I also think more “prestigious” colleges just mean you went to school for rich people supported by rich people so when you get out you get a job based only on the rich people that your rich family knows in good companies. That’s a bit overly simplified I am sure, but it seems to be a way lots of people get their break in a job. I certainly don’t want to come across as someone who has nothing but excuses for my situation.

Part of me gets sick at the prospect of spending my life working in a cubical. At the same time my current job seems to such more of the life out of me everyday single day. I know I deserve better than Sears. Sears makes me feel like I am in a deep pool with a brick tied to my foot. I am almost out of patience. People who have landed their ideal jobs ( I know very few of them) try to offer me all kinds of advice some of it is applicable and some of it seems too simplified at times even condescending. Of course I know that wasn’t the intention.

Looking back at the 23 year of my life will likely be thought of a year of transition. A year where things and other people went in different paths. I guess that makes me the center of everyone’s universe. Heck two of my friends have started a family together. Meanwhile Duke’s apartment thanks to his new gf is no longer a health hazard. Another close friend of mine ended a long lasting serious relationship, Steve started teaching, Price went to war and Dan decided to tie the knot.

To be honest I would still consider Ryan to be my closest friend. That might seem odd, and unfortunately relations with his girlfriend and me and friends of mine boiled over into quite an ugly situation this past summer. Most parties at this point agree that it just water under the bridge anymore though. Although Ryan is extremely busy with music obligations these days he seems to be with drawn a lot from everyone this past year. Do I expect to hear from him on my b-day or him to even read this? Not really. His withdrawal is some what particular and one has to wonder what really goes on in his head these days. I guess this stuff is goes hand in hand with an increased amount of b-days.

If you asked me on my 23 b-day if I would have met the right girl for me I doubt I would have said I would been lucky enough to find her. Well it was last November that I met Liza, and I certainly thought she was out of me league the first time I laid eyes on her. I always knew if a girl would have given me a chance I could prove that I was capable of managing a serious relationship. I met her at a time where she gives me seemingly endless source of strength to keep me from putting myself down too much and helps me through the frustrations of my current job situation. I am my own worst critic and she lets me know when I am simply being unreasonable about it. She has made me certainly a stronger person and had a positive impact on my life. I have better self esteem than I did a year ago. I no longer have to look at the bottom of a beer mug when I am soul searching not that I was ever a raging drunk or anything. It wasn’t like I got smashed every time I had a bad day she somehow (maybe without trying) made me realize how unimportant in order to be happy. The feeling of knowing that I can talk to her about anything in my life far exceeds being drunk in the back of someone’s car after a night out. It isn’t like she even cares if I get drunk as skunk, but I never thought I would be so content and happy with someone that I would not notice or care that I rarely get smashed anymore. I just have less of a need to get drunk. This being my first long term relationship I learned a lot about realationships.


I look around the world and read the papers. I certainly have it a lot better than a good part of the world’s population and I certainly have a lot of time to figure things out in my life. I am fortunate to have good friends and a good family and a great girl. So what this day will pass without tons of fanfare like when I was a kid. What I learned about myself and life since my b-day could fill a book. I guess that’s the perk that comes with b-days after you reach all the cool milestones. I still have tons to learn and plan to get out on my own before my next b-day so I am sure this year wil seem like peanuts to that. Is it too late for anyone to get apartment shopping for dummies or cooking for dummies for a present?

"Heatley's Fate"


I found a really good article about Danny Heatly. I am going to cut and paste it..the URL might not work so just cut and paste if it doesnt.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=usatoday-jailwontbeheatleysworst&prov=usatoday&type=lgns

"The Legend of Heat Lightning"


Right after Hurricane Isabel went through a co-worker and I talked about different elements of storms. She told me that she heard on NBC 10 that Heat Lightning was actually a myth. Now I have always been told that in the summer time since there is so much enery in the air "heat ligtning" is produced and bolts jump from cloud to could, and no thunder is produced. I whitnessed this one time for hours at my aunts house in Avalon. My cousin and I sat out and watched it over the ocean and it was quite dazzlying over the ocean. Well since I am a huge dork I decided to e-mail Fox 29 (WTXF) weatherman Rob Guarino who recently got back to me and he had this to say:


"Heat lightning is an urban legend so to
speak. Heat lighting is just lightining in the
distance with no thunder. People think it's because of
the heat and yeah it is, it's summer afterall when they
hit.

You cannot hear thunder if a storm is more than 15
miles away and sometimes in urban areas as little as 3
miles away. I hope this answers your question."

-Rob

"Life Sucks Vote for Me!"

Well Arnold won the election. You would think that would tick off the liberal democrats. However I think this is very good for them. This election proved you can basically dodge the issues and just harp about how bad a job your opponent did. You just list obvious faults of the administration but offer nothing as far as solutions to the problems. Just remind people that things suck right now.

Maybe its just me, but I think all Arnold did was make puns about his movies, and told us Gray Davis sucked really bad and he made a mess of things. He got pretty cool sound bites out of this and imagine how much more effective the democrat’s sound bytes can be when its time to fight for the white house.


They will say stuff like about Bush’s missteps, but have no actual solutions. They will talk about the controversial war in Iraq. They will talk about the economy and blast the tax cut, but have no actual suggestions of their own. I just don’t think they really have any ideas (unless they plan to reveal them later but I doubt it) mainly because fixing the economy is a lot more difficult than people think. Do my liberal readers actually think Clinton in office would have kept the economy a float after the events of 9/11? Please. The market was changing just as Clinton was leaving office, and the terrorist attacks facilitated the process.

So my point is that is seems to me the general public will just rally behind whoever the democrats run for office just because he will shout about the jobless, and such. Bush a weak debater will have a lot harder time running from questions that his opponent will ask him. Like why did we go to Iraq? Where are the WMD? Think about it, when those debates come its going to be it for Bush. Bush stammered during this type of public address imagines such loaded acquisitions flying out him.


So basically this election shows that you don’t have to have good ideas or ways to fix problems just talk about what is wrong. Than after that you get 4 years in the White House to make it up as you go along

"JR & Hitch"

We all waited for it last year for JR and coach Hitchcock to have huge fight. Everyone sensed tension bettween the two since Hitch had reportedly sent Darren Hatcher to break JR's jaw in retaliation to a hit JR laid on Mike Modano. Last year came and went with out anything major happening between the two at least not in the open.

However there has been tensiion lately. Hitch slammed JR for being inconsistant in the preseason. He also said he needs to be a better leader. I guess it was a ploy to light a fire under him. Could have JR's been better last season? Sure. He did lead the team in points. However he certainly possesed good leadership skills. He sets a good example to the younger players on how to be fan friendly. I just dont get that. He is usually the last one off the ice and always talks to the media no matter how much they suck, and how much grilling they do to the players. What does he want?

Jr fired back that players that have been around as long as he has just aren't mentally there in the preseason. He clearly knows the difference. Hell he is the only one that gets excited it seems at times.

I usually side with the coach, but for Hitch to make a public comment no reason and with little to back up it seemed out of place. This came a week after JR grumbled Hitch dragging his feet trying to find a linemate, and refusing to let Recchi play on his line because of his plan to use the veterans less. If he plays well with Rex than what's the deal?

Its going to be a long season. Sadly the locker room stories might be more memorable than what happens on the ice.

"My B-day"


Don't forget readers my b-day is a week from today don't forget to buy me stuff.

"You Didn't Get the Memo?"

So long time Flyer d-man Chris Therein has been in Philly longer than any other current athelete. Think that would mean something right? Apperently not. Poor Chris was put on waivers this past Friday which means any team in the NHL can just call up the Flyers and claim him for nothing. Okay its cool they put him on waviers to make room for younger players, but they didn't bother calling him to tell him he was unprotected. He found out from the media.


Poor guy. He wasn't picked up by anyone which sucks, because now he is on a team that wants to use him as 7th D-man. I honestly would like to see him go the last few seasons have been pretty much a waste keeping him around. However wouldn't it be the right thing to do for Clarkie to call up Chris and inform him he might be moving to another city soon, instead of him hearing about it on 6 10 WIP? No class on the Flyers part. Guess Clarkie was either to busy throwing dars at a picture of 88, or kissing Ed Snider's ass.

I wish someone would have claimed him, and made a roster spot free. I guess he will have wear out his welcome with John Leclair.

Too make matters worse the Flyers just got their butts handed to them by their farm team the Phantoms. It is going to be a long season.

Oh I am sure your sick of it, but read my dear readers I have a different take on the whole thing, and have a good twist at the end of this one. Again before you read this I don't agree with what he said.

“Rush to Judgment”


Well Rush Limbaugh left ESPN and that is not a surprise since the story mushroomed to an enormous story line. All talk radio, newspapers, and news cable outlets have been going wall to wall with this story. If you were under a rock recently you might not have heard that Limbaugh made a comment on ESPN before the NFL Pregame show. Here is the quote about our own Donovan McNabb that finished Limbaugh’s career in sports where he got his start.


“The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well; I think there is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”


When he said that I think every white person in the country looked at each other and said, “Is he allowed to say that?”. I stand by my earlier claim that ESPN was the wrong place to bring up this point. Especially since he has his own talk show syndicated in almost every market. With in 24 hours many sports writers ripped Rush on this “racially sensitive comment” and liberal bloogers have had seemingly 24 hour erections.


Well the coaches’ part might have some merit. Within the last few years lawyers have gone after the NFL because they don’t think that there are enough black coaches in the NFL. Does that mean the NFL coaches are being overrated? (Hmm). Lawyers using statistics from the past 15 years, the report said black coaches had been more successful than their white counterparts, but that they weren't hired commensurate with that success. So basically owners should feel obligated to check the NFL’s coaching list before hiring to make sure a good amount is on the payroll? This story was national news for months, but now seems to have been forgotten. Was it a stretch to say maybe the NFL is doing a PR type tactic to make average Joe see black man play good football. Average Joe thinks NFL Blackman good he plays football. No problem with lack of coaches.

So do I buy that in an underground headquarters of the NFL they plucked Philly’s quarter back to be an unwilling pawn in some sort of effort to persuade the general public that the NFL doesn’t give African-Americans a raw deal? NO! I honesty don’t buy that owners with huge amounts of money on the line don’t hire better coaches. Besides I don’t think he meant he didn’t earn his spot on the team, its just that he isn’t a big threat as people would have you think, and is very beatable.

Now I honestly think the comment blown out of proportion local newscasters started claiming that Rush personally attacked the Eagles Quarterback which was untrue. He attacked the NFL and media. Not him. I thought to myself one day a comment will be made that will be equal or worse by African American about “The White Man”. Well that day actually passed by over 15 years go.

Okay I promised I would take a different angle and make a point at the start of this article. Okay with all the out cry is pretty obvious that the general American public thinks that race relations shouldn’t be talked about with sports. Most people think Rush had very little evidence to back his claim. Just vaguely blaming the media wasn’t enough right without any evidence. I mean heck he was pro-bowler. What if I told you before the internet and blogging that a similar comment had been made in a different sport, but it was black person making a comment about a white person? Well here is an article cut and pasted.


“In 1987, after the Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons in the 7-game East finals due to Larry Bird’s fantastic performance, Isiah Thomas remarked that, sure, Bird was good, but, “If Bird was Black, he’d be just another good guy.” He said this to confirm his then-teammate Dennis Rodman’s racist comments. Never one to miss out on media publicity, Rodman whined that Bird was “overrated” and received media praise and attention only “because he is white.” (Not apparently because Bird—with several MVP seasons and the first NBA player to shoot better than 50 percent from the field and 90 percent from the foul line for consecutive seasons--had just spanked Thomas and Rodman on the court.)".

Well back than I guess you could get away with comments like that in sports since neither player was fined or suspended. As long as you don’t call anyone a Monkey (like hockey player Chris Simon did and got suspended for) than you are okay. Do you think anyone’s feelings were hurt by that? What about all those white boys who go down to the courts every morning and dreamed of making the NBA? Do you think in the late 80s they all threw their basketballs in the trashcans and went and shoot up heroine insead of free throws.

“My dream was ruined, some guy said that white players can’t become stars on merit alone!”


Funny when you think of 1980-90s basketball Bird is the only icon player that is white. Michael Jorden, Dr. J, and Magic Johnson come to mind. Do you really think they weren’t marketed at all? Bird certainly had the track record to be hyped up that much. So you could argue that his statement had equal factual support that Rush’s did. But that’s not racism right? Do you know what if figured happened instead of a media blitz after that? A bunch of white people looked at the floor.

If that’s not bad enough there is the infamous incident when Charles Barkley snapped at a room of mostly white reporters who were questioning him. (gasp). “That’s what I hate about White People…” Oh really? All White reporters are like that? What a blanket statement there Sir Charles. You would think that someone who had a least one element of hatred towards a particular race could have other bits of racism in them, right? Well you would imagine that if a white person said that’s what the hate about black people in any capacity their ass would have been fined, canned or they would be ripped apart by the dare I say it media. Last I heard he was thinking about running for office.


So if you think about it this whole “topic” isn’t shockingly brand new. It just gets swept under the rug every few years and comes with a pretty clean looking double standard.

"The Great Black Hype"


So Rush Limbaugh is in hotter water than ballpark frank over a comment he made on ESPN earlier this week in which he stated Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because he was black and the media wanted to hype him up for the NFL, because apperently there are not a lot of black quarterbacks in the NFL.

Although I am open minded enough (is that irony?) to consider the possiblity that the NFL would want to try to show how diverse they are by trumping up a minority player in wake of all the PC stuff that goes around the country these days I don't agree with the claim. First off there are enough black players in the NFL as it is and black fans. Although I am no NFL expert, and only skim Eagles coverage and watch fragments of games I never really saw any evidence of the media giving this guy a pass. The Philly media pans anyone that underperforms all the time. I don't know about the national media.

Since I am not a hard core fan I have no idea if he is even over-rated. Jenna recently said she wanted to write and Eagles a letter about how much he sucked. My mom likes that AJ guy better. Does that count as anything? Perhaps the NFL did over-hype him, but I don't think it had anything to do with his skin color. The NHL does that constantly, does anyone actually think Jamie Storr, Eric Lindros or Alexander Daigle are future hall of famers? You might have by reading PR the NHL spewed out a few years ago about these busts. I do think the league might tell commentors ("The Media in this case I guess) to hype up players to make stars out of them. Either the NHL did that with Lindros or Bill Clement has some sort of homoerotic relationship with the Big E, who he will hype even if he spends the entire game wipping sweat off his brow with a dazed look on his face. Perhaps its the same in the NFL I wouldn't know. The local media certainly doesn't give anyone a pass and in sports I think thats the best way to get our coverage on a certain team.

I wonder if ESPN got what they wished, everyone is talking about the NFL pregame show. I honestly wouldnt have a problem if Rush had mentioned this "black card" theory on his syndicated radio show. Let me just clear this up I am not a ditto head. I know people might not buy into that statement since I am still trying to convince people I am not in love with Jenna. However that is his soapbox, I would have no problem if he did that on his show. You don't have to listen to him. I think Howard Eskin is a ten times larger asshole than Rush, so I rarely listen to him. I admit I tune in on occassion and I do admit to agreeing on what he says about some political issues but I certainly am about as far away as a philly team winning a championship to him when it comes to social vaulues such as race and gay marraiges.


I feel bad for Donovan a bit, despite playing awful the first two weeks. I think he is a classy and well spoken guy who needs this like a new Mathew Perry Movie.

Man what a great week for liberal bloogers Drew's "traffic" is going off the chart. Speaking of the l would like to address my traffic today. I would like to thank both my readers who check this web blog every two weeks. I would also like appoligize to the reader who thought he was reading the life and time of Darcey Tucker. Oh yeah we have a back up on 295 south bound too, which means it must be ending in Y.

"The Vet"

Well the Vet is now just another abandoned building in Philly. This past Sunday the last Phillies game and last event EVER was there. This week the building will start being gutted.

A good deal was mentioned about the stadium recently. The place had a pretty bad rap, with the awful playing surface and the dirty sections of the stadium. I watched a news report when the guy said it might not have been a great stadium, but when you mention the VET everyone knows what you are talking about.

I think what he ment to say, was that despite the buildings short comings thousands and thousands of people in this area have a story about an experience they had there. If it was a father who brought their son, or a couple who met there, or a memorable game. A million memories are there.

For me it wasnt the games so much as sitting there in the environment. My most memorable game I went to was the game I went to just after 9/11 with Lima Beanz and Ryan. I will never forget that strange feeling that was in the air that night. It was the first night that Baseball had returned after the attacks. I can't even explain the feeling it was a once in a life time feeling.

I am not even sure if they won or not to be honest with you. The building will be imploded in Feb. so now it just sits waiting its demise.

"Clean Slate"

Well more details are coming into Tucker's World about the birth of Jay and Jenna's baby.

Here are some stats. cut and pasted from the proud pappy.


Hunter Steven Volosin born at 11:45 AM on Friday
September 26th 2003.
7 lbs 14 ozs, 21 inches

Jenna will stay in the hospital until Sunday. She released a statment earlier today saying that the experience was trying but she was happy to finally see what the kid looked liked. Much to her dissappointment the child has Jay's ears.

Well this birth has gotten a lot of coverage on my blog. Sometimes Lima Beanz has come under fire, and there have been some damaging reports. However things arent doomed just because the situation is a bit akward. There is still time to change the situation for the better which for the most part is the money aspect.

Luckily for Hunter I will no longer have to refer to him as "it" or "Baby Beanzie". You have to be a bit jealous of the child who has a clean slate. Nothing has been set in stone and he has his whole life ahead of him. Who wouldn't want a clean slate like that?

"The Arrivial"

Lima Beanz and Jenna are now parents. As of sometime this morning. I missed the call from Jay but the voice mail said that they are now proud parents of a bouncing baby boy. It is unconfirmed at this point wheather or not that Hunter is actually the boy's name.

Tucker's World has not yet learned the actual weight of their child, but there is no reason to think that the birth didn't go smoothly. It is also unclear at this point if Jenna was staying the night in the hospitial.

The contest has already started and already have one winner. Tucker's World plans interview Jenna on here, but it might be hard what with all the poop and screaming and all.

Congrats. the two of you welcome the wonderful world of parenthood. Now the real challenge has started which will last the rest of their lives.

Tucker's World will keep you up to date this weekend

developing.....

"Lesbian Roast"

So out of the blue Ryan and are invited to a former classmate’s surprise 24th b-day party by her girlfriend (not that there is anything wrong with that). It just seems a little strange mainly since Ryan has seen her very few times since we graduated highschool back in 1998. DAMN WE ARE OLD.

Anyway I wouldn’t know the girlfriend who is organizing the event if I ran her over with my 1991 Ford Tempo. So I take it she got my address from an old year book. Now I have seen the guest of honor some what recently. I see her maybe 4 times a year, but that is only because I happen to be at Starview or the same bar as her. I did see more of her since the end of Sterling since we both went to CCC. She didn’t change much still had all kinds of drama going on from what I gathered.

Anyway the party is a “roast” kind of like the things you see on Comedy Central. In addition it is a fundraiser. They are raising money so she gets a car for her 24th b-day. Now keep in mind she wasn’t in some sort of accident or anything. In fact just a week ago I saw her at Somerdale and the Pike at a red light. Her car was nicer than mine! It was kind of old, but I guess could use anew one. Yet the invitation suggests donations from 20-75 to the get her a car fund.

The invitation claims how proud we are all of her recent accomplishments. The last time I saw her was at the diner almost 4 months ago, and I at the time was only working one day a week so I thought I was going to need another job and she offered me a part time job for the summer chich was nice (that only lasted two weeks or so for those of you that still think I work one day a week) . She told me she was working for some movie company or owned some company that does props work for movies when they are shot here. Apparently its not going to well if she can not afford a car of her own. I havent talked to her since.

Now what I don’t get am I obligated to donate the 20 bucks to get in? I don’t spend that much on a friend let alone a casual acquaintance. I mean my car is older and has been around since I was still at Parkview Elementary for Gods sakes. When are people going to raise money for me? We are allowed to make jokes I think. The only one I could think of is that she got more girls in highschool than I did.

The only thing I can think is that they are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel when they got to me. I only hung out with the girl through other people. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against her or her lifestyle but I have not been invited to people’s wedding who I considered myself closer with at some point let alone some friend of mutual friends fundraising b-day.

I can’t figure out if this was a really ballsy unique move, or plan out weird.

Surprise Roast Fundraiser, eh? ((stroking chin))

::: picturing a fundraiser for baby beanzie::

Oh wait, Jenna hated all the girls in high school and broke too many of the guys hearts, and no one remembers who Jay is. Eh, ain’t my kid.

Although If Dan K decides to have a bachelor party(assuming I am invited to his wedding.) I better start making a mental guest list. Even though his party will likely be in a chatroom. Here is what I have so far.

Dan Pike
Jim Amlio
Ray Shawn “The Chief” Hall
Andrew “Vegal,Andy, Drew, Puma, Destro, Uncle Drew,”Vogel.
Lima Beanz
Ed
Matt Owens (perhaps a rematch of the famous St. Luke’s Showdown?)
Old Mantis
Jaun Rios
Jason Kennedy
Jon Shane
Steve Libby
Jason Good

So what did we learn from this article? Well I guess sometimes it is better for me to go up and make a bologna sandwich and go to bed instead of writing for Tucker's World.

For the record I don't see myself making the event.

“Baby Later”

Well unless victim of a prank Jenna didn’t not give birth to first born son of Jay tonight like I predicted. So it looks as though this contest results in no one winning again. So I am going to spice things up a bit, and expand the contest to the whole gender thing.

If LIMA BEANZ and JENNA give birth to a bouncing baby boy than the first two people to email me TUCKERS WORLD ROCKS! will get a prize from yours truly. I will post on here as soon as humanly possible after word of the birth of “Baby Beanzie” reaches me. Given the fact that my cell phone provider sucks big time I might not get the message until sometime around 2004.


Oh I would also like to propose that if the boy is born the same day that Conan O’brien’s kid is born that the kid is named after the Late Night talk show host.

My entry today was originally going to be valid points against the theory that my friends hold about Clinton being the best President ever, but my mind got side tracked. Enjoy these two little nuggets of joy insead.

“Killer Rats”


Okay if it isn’t bad enough that there are genetically altered featherless chickens out there, trolls lurking on the sides of the Garden State Park Way and Homosexual sheep out there now if you couldn’t tell by the title of this article you have a killer rats to look out for.

An unusual breed of rats is inflicting damage on Kyrgyzstan's Dzhalal-Abad region (apparently a place in Europe). These pesky little rats can climb trees ( a bit more nimble than their South Jersey/Philly distant cousins I presume) and are destroying produce.

If rats chomping on Apples doesn’t freak you out they seem more aggressive in nature. They have reportedly been attacking the good people of the Kyrgyzstan's Dzhalal-Abad region and their small children are feared to be a bigger risk of becoming a buffet for a swarm of killer rats. Maybe we can unleash some of these violent natured rodents at my work when the children misbehave.

Scientists and people who are smarter than me theorize that this mutant or killer rats are a cross between muskrats and city rats. Apparently this results in an evil hybrid of blood thirsty rodents. Who would have thought messing around with nature would result in this? I’d imagine that people are trying to shoot this little buggers, and theorize their dead bodies might be made into McDonalds Cheesesteaks.

"You Have Reached the United States of America Sorry We Didn't Get your Call"

So I keep hearing about this national deficit. Maybe I am stupid, but I don’t know how we owe this money to countries? Other people tell me its actually money we owe ourselves. If that is the case than who cares? What are we going to do kick our own asses if we don’t pay?

I learned anything the past few years it is you don’t HAVE to pay your bills. Lima Beanz left his car idle outside my house years ago and missed a few payments on it because he was out of work. Now he drives around a much nicer car than he did before. So who is the fool? Jokes on the collections office.

Why don’t we just pull an LB and not pay off the bills? If it’s the other countries that we owe money the solution is simple. Just don’t pay them back. They never pay us back for anything. In fact when we get other countries out of a jam we usually end up paying them or rebuilding their country.

Is Italy calling us up right now? ::Italian accent:: HEY AMERICA WHEN ARE GONNNA GET ME THE MONEY? I HAVE NO MONEY TO MAKE MY BIG A PIZZA PIES! GIME ME THE MONEY WE NEED A THE BIILLION DOLLARS.

What is even better if these countries are really calling us. Why not help the unemployment situation our country is suffering and hire people to make lame excuses when people start asking us if we are going to get around to paying them. Here are a few good ones. Have them tell the countries looking for their cash that the we are at the guy in charge of treasury fund is at the gym. Maybe we can just put them all on the national no call list .

“HurriaLAME Isabel”




Well the Hurricane is going deeper and deeper into the land. The storm has lost most of its form at this point and unless you live in North Carolina or Virginia which are being smacked down pretty hard. The lack of warm water to feed this little lady will downgrade her to just a huge bunch of rain and a occasional gusts of winds. These gusts could easily cause a nuisance if they knock down power lines, which will certainly happen at some point. Of course it won’t be as wide spread as in the more Southern Sates.

Despite being under a state of an emergency its likely that we have seen heavier rains during all the storms we were hit with this past summer at this point. The shore will suffer some beach erosion out for sure, and more high risk low level points such as Strathemere and the North Side of Sea Isle and center city Ocean City might get some flooding but nothing to worry about. Even more south Cape May might have a good deal of flooding. They have anticipated this and told everyone to slack off on Friday and not bother showing up to school or work. I hope you didn’t leave a boat in the waters down there!

The main area to be affected (In the Delware Valley) by this will be West of the City just after at the flooding of a few days ago. The ground simply won’t be able to absorb the moisture. This will result in us sitting in our nice warm dry homes laughing at people from the Keystone state standing on the tops of their cars. If for some reason your house starts to flood just roll up some Criminal Justice or Public Relation degrees and push them under your doorway in order to prevent your lower level turning into a waddling pool. Although I doubt any of my readers will have to worry about anymore than what DVD to pick out their COLLECTION this evening to pass the time of the miserable weather night.

Some people were fairly nonchalant towards Isabel and others thankful. The fighting Phillies might have been thankful that they got their game in earlier today, because the wind gusts made for some unpredictable fly balls that benefited them in their race for the wildcard. They are ½ games behind, with a final show down on the Marlins turf next week. Meanwhile Chris is going up to the big apple to live it up with Dave and paint the town a colorful shade of Arter.

The good news is usually over hyped storms result in giving employers an excuse to slack off. The bad news is its only 4 30 and the worse is yet to come in our area. People should at least be careful if they are driving around tonight, and make sure anything that could blow away is taken in tonight. With any luck the Eagles will be blown away in exchange for a team that actually has a clue. Hopefully all our illegal immigrants can go flying to California were they can drive legally.

New Jersey has been declared a state of emergency so this contest has been negated. I win. Although some areas could be in for some tricky weather I hate to break it to most people that business and schools in this immediate area are likely to be open tomorrow. If you guys are planning to stay in tonight come back to my blog because I will likely update again before the storm clears.

"Stealth!"


Go here but don't tell anyone. It is a top secret link only given to people in the circle of trust. This includes myself and both of my readers. Even the one who only reads my blog once a month who I sadly actually consider a "reader".


http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=notmosco305

How did I found out about this blog? STEALTH! That is all you need to know. THe author of it is also unknown.

“Hackett Racket”

So everyone keeps mocking the fact the Flyers decision to pick up Jeff Hackett in the off season. I honestly think it was a wise move by Bob Clarke. Sure he has never won a playoff round in his life but who is counting? Hackett quite the NHL journeyman has played for Montreal, Chicago, Boston, and San Jose to name a few. Sure Hackett was next to last in Goals-Against Average as to opposed to Roman Checkmanaek who was 2nd in the league. Who cares that Checkmanek was third in safe percentage and Hackett hovered around the average percent in the league.

Checko has some bad blood with the fans and teammates. His post-season play was just awful where he would let up too many weak goals and kept the Flyers out of games they should have been in. Roman will likely put up less impressive numbers this season with the less effective defensive system in front of him. I don’t see him playing in the states anymore than two more years.

At the prime of his career I would certainly say Hackett was an underrated net minder however he is far from cup worthy. His last few years he seems to have been caught in some healthy competition situations with # 1 goalies in the league. Just look at some of the games he stood on his head in while in Montreal. Now I am not saying Hackett is going to hoist the cup anytime soon. The truth with Hasek in net this team couldn’t win the cup, not unless a major roster overhaul happens this season. The team is too old, too slow, and not creative enough offensively to even make it to the finals.


Last year JR lead the team in scoring yet was behind was 57th in the NHL in scoring. The team is a dud and goalie prospects Anetro Nittymaki, or Roman Malek are excepted to be the future of the team, however the future is not anytime soon it seems. Heck unless Malek impresses at training camp he may never make it into the league he is already 26 and Nittymaki looks to be the one that will be given a shot, but not for awhile.


Despite the fact that Jeff Hackett’s body is pretty torn up, he will certainly make a better mentor than CHECKO. CHECKO who has limited English would be more inclined to try to redeem himself than try to show Robert Esche the ropes. You see the Flyers are hoping Robert who is well liked by the team can be the next Giggy (the Ducks surprise goalie success story last season for you non-hockey fans). Its highly unlikely but since the franchise is in a transition stage to a younger crop of players Hacketts’ role is to basically baby sit the next until one of the prospect eggs hatch into NHL level goalies. Meanwhile what is the harm in seeing is Esche is the diamond in the rough? Maybe he was a steal.

I doubt he will be a Cup contender, but in all honestly he played better last season than expected and has yet to reach his full potential. Will he be the answer? Highly doubtful but we have a season that is pretty much a write off so now is a better time than any to find out if we don’t actually have to wait for these “prospects” to shake Snider down for million dollar contracts to stop some frozen rubber.

Oh yeah, in a somewhat related story Mark Recchi is going to be a victim on the Jamie Kennedy Experiment this season. The show is one of those celebrities play a prank on someone shows I checked it out a few times when WB had it before Off Centre (which shouldn’t not have been canceled.) Apprently Keith Jones, and John Leclair are in on this prank too so it should be funny. Oh yeah, there is another one when Leclair convinces Snider he pays him 9 million dollars to do nothing on the ice night after night. OH WAIT!

“A Storm, a Contest & a Baby!”

Well Lima Beanz and Jenna are expecting a kid as you all know. My sources say that if the child is a boy the name would be Hunter named after a drug addicted sports writer or Isabel ironically the same name of a Cat 5 Hurricane that is making a B-line for the US.

First off I know all my readers want to hear the latest about LB and Jenna. Well Jenna’s belly is bigger than the national deficit right now and that kids reading to pop on out.

I predict that they will give birth to a boy and he will weigh 8.3 lbs. I think he will be born on September 24th which would be week from this Wednesday. Oh and for the record for anyone who doesn’t already know LB’s parents finally know they are going to be first time grandparents but are likely to miss the birth of their grandchild since they are going to Cancun on vacation. One that was planned because they didn’t know their son had impregnated his girlfriend.

Actually getting out of town might not be such a bad idea. My readers and friends might know I am a bit of a weather buff, when I am not looking for a job, watching DVDs, hockey or crying myself to sleep at night I read up on the topic.

I have had my eye on Hurricane Isabel since early last week, and I had been keeping a close on the track of the storm. I thought it might actually come on here, and now it looks like that might actually happen.

Right now Irene is 900 miles or so from the coast and moving between a Category 4 and Cat. 5. Cat 5 is what would be considered devastating. Gusts during the storm’s most intense moments are estimated to be around 250 MPH. Luckily for us the combination of the storm having to travel North up the coast and colder waters in our region is likely to significantly weaken the storm. However given the size and strength of the storm it won’t be enough to make it something we can write off. I think it will hit land at Cat 3 at best, but likely closer to 2. If you think that makes a lame storm average winds for a cat 2 are 96- 110 MPH. I could easily be over-estimating the storms impact Cat rating but still. The earlier it hits landfall the weaker it will be when it hits us so if that is the case it could be as low as a Cat 1, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

All but one of the projected paths have it almost directly making land fall on New Jersey at one point. A few of them have us taking the direct hit, but most people think North Carolina or Virginia will be slammed first and the worse.

However I tend to think that the storms impact might be north of that point. I tend to think its going to hit directly in Delware. Which could cause major problems for us the shore is likely to get walloped with tidal flooding and high winds. Given the storms size we are likely to be engulfed by it if this is the case. Than again I am no weatherman and there is still a chance that the storm can just say screw his and double back out the ocean. However its more likely the Phillies will win the wild card race.

Mark my words this storm will affect us in one way or another. There is a certainly a good chance that my readers will be off from school and/or work later in this week. It clearly has the potential to be the worst storm any of my readers have ever witnessed in this area.

Now if a state of emergency is not declared as a result of this storm, than the first two readers to email me KEITH YOU SUCK will get a present. If LB & “The One’s” kid is born on the predicted date the first two readers to write me and email saying TUCKERS WORLD ROCKS will get something in return. On the second if I am wrong NOTHING HAPPENS I go to jail peacefully quietly.

Now if I am right about the storm. You better hold on to your butts! What I mean is Old Testament, dear readers, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fires and brimstone coming down from the sky, rivers and seas boiling-- years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes--The dead rising from the graves! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

"What? John Ritter?!?!"


Once and awhile there are celebrity deaths that hit closer to home to others. Ones that seem too unfair, to early to say goodbye. Of course there are beloved stars that have pasted in the past 10 years or so that you hate to see go, but knew the end was near. Like James Stewart who lived a good life, or even Francis Albert whose ailing health condition gave his fans amble time to prepare for his exiting this Earth. Once in awhile the death of a famous person gets me really thinking for more than a day, some times in disbelief. The list that I can think of on the top of my head that really effected me is a rather short list for 23 years, and granted I might be leaving out a few. John Candy, Phil Hartman, Roger Nelison, and Jim Henson come immediately to mind.

For some reason the shocking death of actor John Ritter really hit me on harder scale than some other famous people dying and I think he could be added to that list. If you didn’t hear by now (one of my co-workers didn’t as of today) Ritter collapsed and died of a heart aliment. He had a tear in his aorta, a rare condition that usually goes undetected. Not that I was a hard core fan of his, I honestly couldn’t tell you the difference between seasons of Three’s Company let alone claim that I have seen 50 % of the shows that he did. It’s been quite awhile since I watch the reruns that I barely remember specific plots of the sitcom just the basic premise.


When I heard on the news that he had passed away, I honestly thought there must have been some sort of grave mistake. I didn’t even really accept he was dead till I saw them repeat the story a couple of times. Who would have thought he would have died? He was in his early 50’s his return to television had just started a year ago. I honestly thought for before they put the picture up that it was a DIFFERENT John Ritter. I thought to myself NOT JOHN RITTER!.

In all honestly I didn’t watch 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter (what an awful title) regularly, but I would wager I caught maybe 5 episodes from the first season, and it was pretty funny( not to mention Katey Cuoco who plays his one daughter is hot). You could tell the show hadn’t quite hit its prime yet (who does in season 1), but what made the show so enjoyable was the comic performance of Ritter. He was a master at the comedic television craft. The way he played off other cast members showed his knowledge of great comic timing.

Watch some of his Three’s Company (the show that he will be always known for)highlights and you will see what a laugh out loud funny physical comedy bits he preformed over the years. This is one of those shows that was one I looked for in reruns if I was home sick or on a rainy day. What made Ritter so appealing was his coming across as a likeable buffoon. Sounds like a cliché, but the character of Jack Tripper could have been easily mishandled had a less talented actor playing the part.

Jack was a basic goofball who at heart was a good person, but inspired to a lady’s man. Some will argue that people tuned into see his female co-stars, but his pratfalls the and throwing his body around generated huge laughs. 8 Simple Rules, one of the one shows ABC has to offer that’s worth your time introduced Ritter to a new generation. Its funny because I remember thinking recently I should watch the show more since I actually laughed out loud when watching it before.

Ritter never made an enormous impact when he moved from Television to film, but his film resume is stronger than people give him credit for. Unfortunely he is known mainly for the dreadful Problem Child movies (although he did generate some laughs) and by people my age the now almost forgotten Stay Tuned a respectful guilty pleasure silly romp of a film. A majority of his films for awhile were made for television movies with the exception of Stephen King’s IT in which was mainly dramatic role for him. You usually can tell when Serious John Ritter is going to be there because he grows a beard.

Ritter was also in Sling Blade which I have never seen, but I understand its quite a departure from sitcom fare. Ritter dipped into the art house movie pool before returning TV. He actually had returned once to television in a series called Hearts Afire but I apparently am the only one the recalls that series that had aired in the early 90’s. Anyway he turned in a solid performance in Panic, and last year’s little seen but underrated Tadpole. Both movies I saw with in the last year and made me want to see him more in dramatic roles.

It just is strange thinking he is gone. Who honestly though Don Knotts would out live John Ritter? Kind of makes you think when someone can just go out like the flick of a light switch with no warning. He seemed like a genuinely good person, but I guess it was just his time. Something that is out of anyone’s control or understanding.