November 2004 Archives

How 'bout them Birds?

We are 10-1 and we mind as well be 6-5 when you talk to Eagles fans about our record. Its sad, really. Philly fans have been let down so many times over the years, and most people are happy but not overly excited.

We have a team that hasn't let up a TD in 2 games, against two of our dreaded NFC rivals. We have a team that outscored both of those teams with double digit wins. Go to the Eagles message board and see what the posts talk about. Here are a few common ones:

"Pinkston Sucks" - Pinky will always suck in the minds of fans until the day comes that he makes a clutch play. That "aligator arm" catch he shied away from against the Giants isn't going to endear him to anyone anytime soon. Oh, for the record, Pinky and I have nearly the same height (6'4) and weight (200) - I knew I could have started for the Eagles.

"Our Run Defense Sucks" - Welcome back, Trotter. I think we all know our linebacker situation will be addressed in the 2005 NFL Draft. Simoneau was a weakside linebacker thrust into the role of middle linebacker and everyone in Philly villified him for not being a MLB. Give the guy a break - I think he did the best he could. I don't think he sucks, but Trotter is a huge upgrade to our run defense in the middle. I'm still unhappy that he left us for the Redskins - I want Trotter and Corey Simon locked into a room with each other and let Jerimiah knock some sense into him.

"Donovan sucks" - I happen to have some thoughts here that you may not like.

Sure, I could have done "love" but isn't hating much more fun?

1. "The Inland Empire" -
Many of you may not know, but the residents of the area of Southern California, away from the coast, refers to themselves as "The Inland Empire". They have a magazine, its on craigslist, http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/, and even watching the news weather they say, "On the coast it will be 67 degrees and the Inland Empire will be 64...". What the hell? Inland Empire? "Hello? Insecurity: Line 1. Its Southern California calling."

2. Disneyland - I was there for 6 hours and got to see 6 attractions. It cost $60 to get in per person (It was very nice of my sister and brother-in-law to pay for the entry fee), lunch was ridiculous, and the lines were enormous. By the end of the day I wanted to get a Valium drip. On a side note, I wanted to rename Disneyland into "The Pedophile Kingdom" because of all the 15 year old girls who were dressed up like they were 18. It was ridiculous. I know i'm sounding old when I say this - but what the fuck happened to kids in the last 10 years? I want to say more, but I don't want to get sued by lawyers from Disney. After seeing what I saw that day I hope that when I have children they are all boys.

Forgot to mention that I was going to Temecula, CA from November 22 until November 27.

Yea, my sister Steph and brother-in-law David invited me out to her new house in Temecula. Quite simply, its incredible and I should be putting up some pictures of it this week. After visiting their house I realize how I should have studied a bit more and that getting an MBA from U Penn is a good way to live a very comfortable lifestyle.

Temecula is a very nice community in between San Diego and Los Angeles (about 1 hour from either city). I visited some vineyards, relaxed with family and also stopped by Disneyland. It was a vacation that was more about decompressing from the Hoboken work-life and getting back to a very simple suburban existence.

Every day was about 65 degrees and sunny. If given the chance, I think I could get used to the Left Coast. Not Temecula, per se, because its a very FAMILY oriented town, and its not for a single guy like myself - but if I were to raise a family that town seemed very nice.

What I really enjoyed about the vacation, and I know this is going to sound strange, but were their dogs.

In 1992, I was very fortunate to travel to Italy to study abroad for 3 months with a program through Syracuse University.

It was a bit bitter sweet, since the majority of students were with Syracuse and already knew each other, I was kind of an outsider. Each student was set up to live with an Italian family, and this would allow the student to practice the language, get to know the culture and immerse themselves in Italian life.

I was expecting the a-typical Italian family with Mama Mia and Padre Papa, with a few kids and a lot of food. Of course, this was my life, so everything had to go horribly wrong.

This was meant for Monday, but I was busy!!

After Halloween all the new holiday commercials start. Is it me or is every other commercial a diamond commercial?

Kay Jewelers has: "Every kiss begins with Kay!"
or
DeBeers advertises: "Diamonds are forever."
or
Zales "The Diamond Store" exclaims: "Buy a Zales diamonds and you will get laid."

Fine. Zales doesn't REALLY advertise that, but come on isn't that what all these commercials are really saying? They are simply eluding to what the rest of our shallow and materialistic country already knows - you don't express love through actions but on how many gifts you shower your special other with.

With that in mind, these would be the commercials that I would promote for the next series of diamonds ads that we are getting slammed with ad nauseum during the holiday season.

***THIS CHANGE IS JUST FOR THE MONDAY NIGHT GAME!!! WE WILL BE BACK AT MCMAHON'S BROWNSTONE NOV 21 VS WASHINGTON AT 4:15PM!!!***

Hey guys! I hope you are all had a great weekend!

Just letting you know that *This Monday* for Monday Night Football, we will be having our gathering at The Farside Bar and Grill on 5th and Washington.

I spoke to the owner, he will have SOUND on all the TVs along with
drink special: $3 for all domestic beers (bottle or draft). The owners are also working on a food special for all Eagle fans tonight.

Its just for this Monday night. Farside has 7 TVs, a full service
kitchen, and a nice central location for all our fellow Eagle fans to
gather. The game starts at 9pm.

***THIS CHANGE IS JUST FOR THE MONDAY NIGHT GAME!!! WE WILL BE BACK AT MCMAHON'S BROWNSTONE NOV 21 VS WASHINGTON AT 4:15PM!!!***
Just something different for our mid-season game, since I know a lot of you have asked about a full service kitchen, and The Club will be back at McMahon's the following weekend.

The year was 1991, December, it was a very cold winter at Villanova and I was a new brother in Delta Tau Delta.

I was a sophomore, I moved from the South Campus to the Main Campus of Villanova and was living in an all-male dormitory called Sullivan Hall. Across from that hall was the all-female dormitory called Sheehan Hall. In between the two halls was the "Quad" which was a strip of paved walk way in between the dirt & grass yards of the respective dorms.

Normally there were a few days in between the last day of classes and the final exams. During those study nights the students traditionally would take a break at midnight from studying and let off some steam, it was called "The Rebel Yell". The most common practice everyone would scream, holler or make some noise to let out the pent up frustration of trying to study. There were other things that were done, like streaking ("Hey, Snoop-A-Loop, bring your green hat!") or egg throwing or toilet paper tossing.

I asked one of the older Delts that lived in Sullivan hall, his name was Kaz, for his wisdom for the most impressive thing that he saw during The Rebel Yell. He thought about it for a moment, and then chuckled a reply, "Well, I did see someone light their pants on fire and run through the Quad once, that was impressive."

I repled, "Wow, who did that?"

He turned to me and said, "Why, it was you!"

I was a bartender in town for two years, at a local pub.

Nothing glamorous, just a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood pub that is more about a good conversation and meeting your regular, rather than a meat market bar where you get blasted with your "homeboys" from North Bergen on Red Bull and Vodka.

One thing I knew even before becoming a bartender was the importance of tipping. Early in life my parents made all the kids have a job every summer. I used to be a busboy during my years in Ocean City, NJ when I was 13. When I turned 16 I each returning year I would be a waiter down the shore until I was 21. My "paycheck" was purely on the generousity of others. As a busboy, if my waiters did well - they were (usually) generous with me. As a waiter, I did everything I could to hustle a buck.

I figured that for some fun and some extra money in my pocket that I would try to bartend a few nights a week. It was a lot of fun, and if you ever get the chance to bartend you should certainly go for it. One of the hardest jobs in Hoboken (as a guy) to get is a bartender - you either have to work your way up or know someone who owns a bar to become a bartender. For women, its fairly easy to get a bartending job - as long as you are cute & have a nice body. Its sad, but true - this is a sexist industry.

Lets go over the my rules of tipping and bar etiquette, because it will make your bar experience much more fruitful (read: better tabs, more free drinks) in Hoboken. This is simply my advice, take it or leave it - i'm sure everyone has their own methods and thoughts on how they want to tip, but using this as a primer may help you the next time you are wondering why you weren't getting served as quickly from a friendly bartender...

So I have this problem.

It's called "sleeping".

I'm a walking sleep disorder. I do everything possible to mess up my sleep cycle, and its starting to annoy me. Lets go over a typical week:

I love reading personal ads, and critique them here. Most people need to be a bit more creative on personal ads, and get the attention of the readers as soon as they can. Here are the top 5 mistakes in personal ads written by women FOR men:

1. Men stopped mentally maturing at 16 years old. Oh, i'm sure some guys put up a strong front, but deep down they are all children. When writing, key in on those things that you think a 16 year old guy wants. Common mistakes & fixes:

Wow, that was a bad Eagles game on Sunday vs the Steelers.

Congrats to the Steeler fans, they won on both sides of the ball and really kicked our teams ass. We lost to a team that should have beat us and did.

But, then again, thanks to the Giants for losing to a team they should have beat - the lowly Bears! Good job Chi-town.

So what do we learn after all this?

I'm half Italian and half Irish.

But I really think of myself as Italian. Except on St. Patrick's day when I embrace my Irish heritage. Oh, and any time I meet a hot Irish girl - suddenly i'm Furey O'Paddy.

Come to think of it, techincally my stats are off. My father's mother was 50% Irish and 50% Italian. My father's father was 100% Italian. This made my father 75% Italian and 25% Irish (...And he could never be a "made man" if you watch enough mobster movies). My mother is 100% Irish ("black Irish" - she has dark, tanned skin and dark hair). So I guess that makes me 62.5% Irish and 37.5% Italian (Stats provided by Brad "The Brain" - hey I was a friggin English major, bite me...).

Ok, so we have that straight now.

Anyhow, my parents were extremely generous and giving. Not only did they provide me an excellent education in high school, but they also paid for my college education. Plus, on top of that they were happy to let me study in any foreign country I wished for a semester.

Tough life.

I chose Italy for a few reasons. One, I had family there. They were distant family, but I don't know any family from my Irish side that are in Ireland. Two, in the city that I was going to study, Florence, there were two foreign exchange students who lived there that lived with my family in 1988.

Leonardo Cappugi and Dino Ardino were strangers in a strange land with my family in 1988, they studied in America during the summer with a program for a few weeks.

The crisp autumn wind of Hoboken swept through the streets like an unleashed lion, growling in trees and roaring around newly constructed condominiums the last few nights, which signaled to me one thing: buy some port wine.

When it gets cold out, I love drinking my port. I have always been a bit of an oenophile, since my days of studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I was not introduced to port wine until I was at a company dinner, at The Post House a few years ago. We had our customary grand banquet of charred animal flesh and bottle after bottle of fermented red grapes. The only thing missing was for the group of men to run shirtless around the streets of New York in search of a mate. Men know what I am talking about, and women certainly must have some experience with that testosterone "Type A" rituals that happen with New York men.

But this one night was a bit different. Before running into the concrete jungle my boss ordered a bottle of port wine for the group. The wine was by a vinter called Taylor Fladgate, and it was a 20 year old tawny...

...and it was heaven.

I'm not sure how my life as a contributor for Hobokeni all started.

I was living in town for about five years, and after I got my full time job there was one thing that I learned I could do now that I was making a decent salary: I never had to cook again.

I ate out every night, and sampled many restaurants all over town. Don't get me wrong, its not like I was eating filet mignon and cracked crab every night - it was simple fare. I would eat at places like Cafe Michelina, or Oddfellows, or Ted & Jo's. Or, on more special occasions I would treat myself to a bit more expensive restaurants, along with friends to review them, like City Bistro or Amanda's.

I have always enjoyed reading literature and writing stories or bad poetry. I also enjoyed eating out. Eating out. Writing stories. Hmmmmm. Maybe I am on to something...

I emailed the webmaster, offered my services and asked if they were interested; I just wanted a creative outlet. They offered to pay me for every review, but I declined being paid for my contributions.

To the consternation of my friends.

"How could you not accept money?? Are you nuts, its free money!!", they would tell me. It wasn't about money for me, as it may be for other writers I know. I was going to eat at these places anyhow - because like I said I would eat out every night. To simply sit down and write a blurb on the restaurant and a story behind it was quite simple. My goal in writing any of the reviews was to be guy a regular guy off the street trying some of the different places in town.

Here are my top 5 things I hate about the PATH:

1. What's up with the 1960 decor? The Hoboken PATH station is very much in need of a makeover. It looks like something from Better Homes & Gardens: Bosnia. Can we get more concerete and pale flourescent lighting in there, please? The trains are older than me. I also love how it seems the pillars have about 46 coats of paint on them.

2. People who wait on the other side of the tracks should be beaten with rubber hoses. You know who you are. You are the people who wait on the side of the PATH train when it rolls into the station - the side where the doors open first to let the passengers off - so you can scurry inside the train and get a seat. This needs to be outlawed for two reasons.

The Halloween weekend in Hoboken. Basically the excuse for good girls to dress like bad girls and for men to admire them with their digital cameras.

As soon as I walked out of my apartment I see two naughty schoolgirls on the corner of my block. I ask to take their picture, and they oblige. If I remember correctly, my exact words were "You two are fucking hot let me take your picture." They giggle, and are really cool about it. More girls need to have this kind of laid back attitude.

Personally, I think Halloween should be every weekend, but that is just me.

I quickly scurry up to Dipper's to see some friends and to document some of the more "interesting" costumes I saw that night. Here are the rest of the pictures, along with two stories at the end of my semi-eventful night...