damn....

this is some bad timing! rip to what always seemed like a class act.

one more time

one more time to pack up the old family cruiser and head toward central pennsylvania.

one more time to drink beer in a cow field...voluntarily.

one more time for paul p (who lets face it, is not only the best linebacker (sorry lavar), but best defensive player in all my time watching the nits) to take the field and lead the defense.

one more time to watch old granpap himself, joepa, defy his critics and make get back to coaching his team (presumably until he kicks it on the damn sideline).

one more time to watch john l "get slapped" with sparty.

one more time for mother nature to give us some nice weather for a psu home game.

and finally, one more time to....get it right this season.

this years edition of the nits has been maddening in the level of frustration they have produced. the defensive has been stout, but the offense is a minor fraction of what it was believed it would be. with that in mind, psu will be playing on new year's day and they should have a chance to knock off a team who spent a good portion of the season around the top 10. however, before we start planning our party in tampa, the nits have to get this damn thing rolling...starting this week with sparty. michigan state is horrendous, but they have enough to cause fits for the lions if they don't come out and take care of business. no turnovers and an open playbook should be enough to get 'er done.

[pardon the interruption...but i'm pissed: why did bobby have to beat joe again? first in the record books and now in getting rid of the plague that is his son as offensive coordinator. damn bobby. damn jay.]

there are some damn good football players playing their last game in the beav this weekend (big shout t hunt, alford, levi, poz, etc) and they deserve nothing more than to go out winners (not to mention the spring board effect that is needed to transition from '06 to '07). a fired-up nits squad comes out and lays the lumber to sparty. nits 31, sparty 13.

go state...beat sparty!

autumn in new york

the thought of autumn in new york conjures up a number of hallmark images in my head, among them: brilliant fall foliage decorating the sidewalks and parks, even more black clothing than usual, and winona ryder and richard gere making cinematic magic in the prestige vehicle, autumn in new york.

well, add to the list a new seminal moment that i will associate with fall for some time to come: eating a dogmatic sausage in bleeker street park with the lovely and talented passion manion. i know that eating sausage in a park is nothing to write home (or in this case, on a blog) about, but dogmatic is no normal sausage, as their wonderful packaging states for all to see it is "possibly the single most important sausage invention". who am i to argue with that?



so if you are ever in the mood for a savory sausage tucked inside a fine french bun...this is all sounding a little randy and for that i blame passion and her influence...then give passion and i a call and we will meet you in the park under the baby blue umbrella.

oh, the humility

i have always enjoyed kurt andersen's work in new york magazine, but this week's article was thought-provoking enough that i though i would share it with anyone interested. the article is a look at a few of the national challenges that face president bush and the country. when you consider the tabla rosa that is america in '06 with the dems win last week, it is a very interesting read.

oh, the humility by kurt andersen

our next president?

what the hell?


i suppose that it might be better than him.

in the building

suepa says ol' joe will be back this saturday!

go state...beat sparty!

pennsylvania polka

step 1: take a large, progressive step forward and free yourself from the reprehensible shadow that is former representative rick santorum

step 2: open a floodgate of ills upon your state with the legalization and implementation of gambling

it appears as though my home state has been relegated to performing a "pennsylvania polka" of sorts, where by they take a step forward, followed shortly by a large step back. the economic windfall that comes with the implementation of these types of measures is significant, but nowhere near the costs associated with dealing with the fallout. if you are going to legalize state sanctioned gambling, you might as well go all the way and try to compete with atlantic city.

i always felt that the pa lottery system was a bad use of governmental power and that it set a very bad example. that being said, this is a much larger mistake in my estimation.

feeling blue

not unlike penn state's octogenarian leader, i am feeling a little battered and bruised heading into this weekend's tilt with temple. my spirit and enthusiasm have been broken and my palette full of the taste of disappointment and underachievement. with no chance to salvage any sort of meaningful definition to the season until bowl season, the nits will have to lace 'em up and play with a business like approach, so as to avoid late december at the alamo or even sunny detroit.

for the longest time i had rationalized that psu would be better off when old joe packed it in and rode off into the sunset, but after last weekend's unmitigated disaster (see the 4th & 1 that resulted in a loss of 5 yards), i am not so sure. best case scenario, no injuries (coaching staff included, unless it is jaypa) and nothing embarrassing (i.e. letting temple score more than 3 points or faltering in the red zone...even once).

somehow this is a new low for me. back in 2003/04 the losing seemed like an anomaly that would eventually straighten itself out, but now all the hallmarks of those lean years are cropping up again, plain as day, and it is the winning season of '05-06 that seems like the anomaly.

it has long been said that 'a leopard can't change it's spots' or in my case that a lion can't get the gd blue and white out of his system, and that being said, i'll be rooting hard for the nits and thinking good thoughts about their prospects for turning the ship around. that is the blessing and the curse of being a college football fan. dear old state overwhelm the owls in talent and eventually on the scoreboard. nits 31, owls 6.

go state...beat the owls

crazy train

headline reads:

'christopher walken to play ozzy osbourne in motley crue movie'

i am not sure what this means...but how can this not be awesome with a capital awesome!

double buddha happiness

when i woke up this morning, i thought that i only had one election day result to buoy my spirits, having bob casey, jr. rid pennsylvania of the political dark cloud that had been hanging overhead for twelve years that was rick santorum. like an ill-named, msg laden entree at your local chinese eatery, i experienced double buddha happiness, when i found out that donald rumsfeld decided to step down. the downside to this announcement is that he spared himself from being fired and that this all should have gone down years ago. i agree with barack obama that the options in iraq are "bad and worse", but at least now we can hopefully approach this situation from a fresh perspective. the same should be said for the great commonwealth of pennsy, no more draconian initiatives emanating from our great state and the desk of santorum.

product shop nyc provides a nice, easy re-cap (assuming you were wearing your blue tie and not your red tie to work yesterday)

eff the pony

trust me it is not sour grapes...this guy is one of the biggest d-bags in college football. any man that chose to play for the generals of the usfl after playing for one of the most mediocre college teams that dirty money could buy, has no business even commenting (good or bad) on someone who has meant as much to the game that affords him the life he enjoys, as joe paterno.

email espn and let them know that they should kick that trash back to cbs

ohh yeah, while i am at it...f*ck brett belima and his bush-league tactics and the big ten officials that let him get away with it. totally classless.

what penn state team are you watching?

(click to enlarge)
this is the kind of bs that makes being a penn state fan so discouraging. how is there enough kool-aid to keep these people so optimistic or even apathetic. this sh*t kills me.

a couple of plays from 9-1? unbelievable.

nuff said

what the hell!

(special thanks go out to mfd detectives j&k for there recon mission to the beav)

robbery

having spent a great deal of time in the hostess bakery growing up in erie, pennsylvania, i know the difference between acceptable and unacceptable hostess products. last night, passion and i took in some of the annual music industry orgy that is cmj in williamsburg, brooklyn. after watching a couple of bands whose average age was approximately 18, we retired to a bodega to grab some "goodies" for our train ride home. my choice was a "bonus 3-pack" of twinkies, with their spongy goodness and ample, sweet cream. long story short, i ripped the package open and consumed my first bite of twinkie goodness, when i immediately noticed that something was missing. there was no filling in my twinkie! thats right, no filling, just sugary cake. that is laurel with no hardy, joe without the pa. i am not sure what the meaning of this anecdote is, but that is downright un-american!

this one is for apollo

with last weeks defensive domination in the past, it is time for the '06 nits to put their stamp on the season. psu has not beaten a ranked team on the road since 2002 when they beat this week's opponent, the badgers of wisconsin. although not as impressive as a win over osu, michganistan, or fat charlie & co., beatin' tha badgers would be a step in the right direction and should put the nits in the drivers seat for a new year's day bowl game.

with a trip to the siberia like environs of madison, psu faces the arduous task of overcoming adversity and fighting for respect against a more heralded opponent is wisky. like rocky 4's antagonist, ivan drago, wisconsin has been feasting on lower-tier competition, creating highlights that are not as impressive as they appear. however, psu has played the role of balboa rather convincingly, struggling to get their sh*t together while struggling against inferior teams. i am not too sure how apollo creed's (the magnificent carl weathers) death at the hands of drago fits into this analogy, but i suppose having two quarterbacks almost killed in our last trip to camp randell could fit the bill.

i would expect the lion's to be forced into playing the typical penn state road/big game strategy of über-conservative offense and a ridiculous reliance on their stout defense. this will likely not work with wisky being good up front on d and being extremely stingy in pass defense. basically what it comes down to is that like rocky balboa, the nits are going to have to get it done with heart and courage. i hope that paul p. has been running in the snow and lifting timber in the alleghany forest to prepare for the task ahead. levi and tony will have to control the clock to "break" (blatant dolph lundgren reference) the wisconsin defense and control the clock. the final element of this heavyweight bout is the chance that aj wallace provides a special team spark to put the nits over the top ala james brown's stirring rendition of 'living in america' set the tone for rock.

in the end, penn state is going to turn the tide of a close fight late. nits 20, russians...i mean badgers 17.

go state...beat the badgers!

they came down from the north

despite the fact that halloween was in the rear view mirror, the bizzaro swedes that are the knife, kept the spooky, surreal vibe going with their first ever stateside show last night at webster hall. ash and i took it all in and we are happy to report that the protracted wait to see the band live was well worth the wait. in addition to the ample entertainment that the knife provided throughout their set, we were treated to the histrionics of a posse of impossibly high nyu undergrads who would precede every song with something to the effect of "of, myyyyyy goooood!" or "i love you more than life!". normally i would be pissed at these kinds of antics detracting from my enjoyment of the show, but given the surreal atmosphere it seemed quite appropriate.

as the knife have never revealed their identities (the have taken to wearing masks for all public events) and the theatrical nature of their performance, i was unable to procure any video of last night's performance. however, the show was a total multimedia experience (at times projecting multiple running images at different depths (see multiple mesh screens in front and in back of them), holograms onstage, and japanese cartoon, seizure inducing amounts of bright, strobing light. the following video is one of the images that accompanied their song like a pen and it should give you some insight as to what went down. if you are in la or san fransisco and can get to one of their two remaining us shows, we would strongly recommend it. enjoy.


editor's note: please note that this post was written with a slight 'contact high', as last's show had one of the more drug-fueled crowds (think special k, x, and pot) that i have ever seen in nyc.

occupational hazards

what kind of place is my wife working at?

in light of this, i am extremely worried about all the 'late nights' that passion has been putting in at the office lately.

stopping to smell the roses...even if they are glass

thanks to a generous grant from the stewart/cherokee foundation, ash and i were able to attend a presentation of world-renowned glass artist, dale chihuly, at the new york botanical gardens. as this was a totally visual experience, we encourage you to check out our photos of our time. both the plant life and the glass works are beautiful by themselves, but in concert with one another, they go to a 'hole nuvva level'.

dale chihuly @ the new york botanical gardens