Scrapple Dog

2010-05-02T14:45:00.003-04:00

Pop-Pop and Patrick after Patrick's first cast with his new fishing rod.

Patrick caught a fish on his first cast!

Patrick with his fish.

Fiona caught a fish using Pop-Pop's fishing rod.

Hiking along Lyman Run.

We didn't see any wild life all weekend long... until we were about 5 miles from the camp. We saw a deer and then these Turkeys. If you look really close you can see two turkeys in the woods.

2009-11-04T18:51:00.001-05:00

Super Bowl Predictions

2009-02-01T17:32:00.002-05:00

Here are my Super Bowl Predictions:

Bruce will play the following songs in this order:
1. My Lucky Day
2. Blinded By The Light
3. Born to Run

I wanted to put this in now so that when he plays them I will have proof that i got my picks in before the game.

And the Steelers will win.

MPH

video proof

2009-01-21T15:59:00.004-05:00

yeah, I was tooling around on the interweb today looking for videos of Bruce at the Obama concert thing and I came across another video from our Front Row Show. Here is concrete Video Evidence of me and Amy rocking it with the Boss from the Front Row.
Look for us about a 1:20 in when the lighting goes from red to white.
HOLLA!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2btKx0pDWB0

Apple Cider Time

2008-10-05T17:21:00.004-04:00

Today was our annual Cider Pressing day at Larry's house.

Fiona cleaning the cider press.

Fiona grinding the apples.

Fiona gathering the first cup of cider.

Mmmmm.... tasty tasty fresh apple cider.

Fiona was involved in every step of the cider pressing process with the exception of cutting the apples.

And, of course, she was the official taste-tester.

Zeppelin Rules!

2008-09-04T06:28:00.003-04:00

I took Fiona swimming last night. She did really good. I tie a noodle around her and she swims around like she owns the place. She "jumped" off the wall into the pool. More like she slowly allowed herself to slip into the water, but in her mind it was like jumping off the high dive. Anyway, she jumped in and went WAY under the water and popped right back up, she coughed a little, wiped her eyes and blew water out of her nose. I told her what a great job she did and how awesome she is and she seemed pretty happy with herself, even though she was visibly scared and shocked by the experience.

When we got home, she told Amy all about it and was really really proud of herself. It was neat.

When we were at the pool, the lifeguard was a high school girl. The music on the loudspeakers was the Classic Rock station on satellite radio. Highlights of our swimming soundtrack were "Born to Run," and "Pretty Woman." Lowlights were "L.A. Woman." The Doors suck, and Jim Morrison was a pompous ass who wrote shitty poems and declared himself a genius. There, I said it. While we were drying off, Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" came on. "Going to California" is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. It is a song I always use in my Led-Zeppelin-is-not-heavy-metal argument. Right when they were getting to the "Throw me a line, if I reach it in time..." part, the music changes to The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't usually complain when the Chili Peppers come on the radio, but when they come on in place of Led Zeppelin, it kind of bothers me. About 3 seconds after RHCP comes on, it changes again to some sort of dance music... and that is where it stayed until we left.

Needless to say I plan on writing a strongly-worded letter to the Lititz Record Express about the impertinence of youth and how Led Zeppelin rules. Seriously, though, I am not planning on writing a letter of that nature.

And seriously, Led Zeppelin does rule.

BRUUUUUCE!!!

2008-08-29T20:15:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while something happens that feels like a climatic moment in one's life. A moment when you can say "my whole life has been leading up to this moment." I have been very fortunate to have felt that way a few times in my life. The first time was when Amy and I sat in the front row of the Bruce Springsteen concert in Boston. The second time (which eclipsed the first) was when I was standing on the alter watching Amy come down the aisle. I am willing to bet you know what is coming next: The birth of Fiona and the birth of Patrick.

On July 27 I was at a pinnacle of my life. I took Fiona to see Bruce Springsteen. To be able to share something I truly love with my kid was something I had been looking forward since way before I was married.

I remember when Amy first got pregnant, I thought of all the cool things I was going to do with my kid... I'm gonna take my kid to baseball games and up to the cabin and hiking. And I'm gonna watch Cool Hand Luke and Star Wars and So I Married an Ax-Murderer with my kid. But above all, I thought: I am going to take my kid to see Bruce Springsteen.

I got to live that dream, and even though it was a lot louder than I had expected and Bruce did no play the five songs Fiona wanted to hear, it was the fourth greatest moments of my life. Yeah, top four. (Here's the top five in order: (there's a tie for first) 1. Fiona's Birth, 1. Patrick's Birth, 3. Marrying Amy, 4. Taking Fiona to see Bruce., 5. Front-Row Bruce Show.)

I only hope that Bruce will put out another rock-n-roll album and tour with the E Street band again in about 4 years so I can take Patrick to a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Concert.

Aunt Louise, Fiona, Me and Amy

rocking our Springsteen Uniforms for the Giant's Stadium

Bruce Sprinsgteen Concert on July 27, 2008.

Fiona and Me getting ready to rock with the Boss.

Fiona and Me listening to Bruce Rock "Radio Nowhere."

AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, Bruce also played a concert at HersheyPark Stadium 23 days later! I took my mom with me to that one. It was The Best Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Concert I have seen.*

Bruce playing with the roller coaster in Hershey Park lit up.
Mom said it was like we were getting to see a Bruce Springsteen concert on the Boardwalk.

Me at the HersheyPark Stadium Bruce Springsteen Concert on August 19, 2008.

Mom was super stoked to hear "Thunder Road."
It was one of the higher highlights of the evening .

Me and Mom while Bruce rocked "Rosalita."

The sea of Bruce Fans.
I always feel at home when I am surrounded by 30,000 fellow Bruce Springsteen fans.

*The Solo, accoustic concert I saw on the Devil's and Dust tour was the best Springsteen Concert I have ever been to. It was just freaking amazing. And, of course, the concert where we sat in the front row was the best over-all Bruce Concert Experience. But as far as just pure musical enjoyment and awesomeness of the band, the HersheyPark Stadium show was the best.

updates

2008-07-31T07:48:00.002-04:00

after numerous complaints that i haven't updated my blog in a while (and by 'numerous' i mean 'one'), i will bring you up to speed on the life of michael p. holland.

we went to the shore - it was awesome.
we went to the cabin - also awesome.
dad helped me fix a leaky pipe - awesome
i fixed the leaky toilet... actual work - not awesome... not having a leaky toilet - awesome.
i fixed the other leaky pipe - awesome
on saturday i got stung by a bee - not awesome
sunday amy, fiona, aunt louise and i went to see bruce springsteen - awesome.
tuesday - bought a new washer - neither awesone nor not awesome
wednesday - new washer was delivered - awesome.

other awesome things that don't really have a date attached to them:

1.) apparently one of the pumpkin seeds i threw in the compost last october has taken root and it appears as though i will have my own jaco-o-lanterns to harvest this year. TAKE THAT, PUMPKIN FARMERS!!!

2.) my mommy and i are going to see Bruce Springsteen in hershey.

3.) i started saying "peace out brussel sprout"

that is all for now, BUT i will be updating my listville site, also, so check that out.

peace.

Philly Phanatic

2008-06-10T08:19:00.003-04:00

YO!

I don't usually post on here just to link to a website, but this should be checked out for 2 reasons:

1. It is kind of about the Philly Phanatic.

2. It was written by Dritsas.

Good Stuff.

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/11/15/spitting-image

VERMONT/MASSACHUSETTS TRIP

2008-06-05T21:12:00.020-04:00

We had a great trip to vermont and massachusetts (hereafter refered to only as "mass").

In Vermont I did get to do a miniature version of my Gastronomic Tour of Vermont. I will first list where we ate in order:

SATURDAY

Al's French Fries - Pizzaburger, Fried Clams, French Fries, and a Coke.

VT Pub & Brewery - Reuben, Chips and something they called "Grand Slam Baseball Beer"

SUNDAY

Breakfast at Joe & Tammy's

Apple Turnovers at Sam Mazza's Farm Stand

Lunch and Dinner barbeque at Tim & Nicole's

MONDAY

Breakfast at Joe and Tammy's

Snacks at Ben & Jerry's, Cabot Cheese, and the Cold Hollow Cider Mill (donuts and cider)

Patrick has his first taste of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. The free sample was Mint Chocolate Chip (or as I call it, Chocolate Chip Mint) which you may or may not know is my favorite flavor of ice cream. I had never had Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chip, and I will tell you this - it was pretty darn tasty.

Fiona took this picture of a German tourist.

"Guten Tag!" Wohen geht diese Youth Hostel? Ich bin sehr hungrig. Haben sie zwei oder drei Dollar fur eine Ben und Jerry's Eis Sahne, bitte? UBER!!!Veile Dank!! Tschuss!!"

Family Photo in front of the Ben & Jerry's bus. (The little girl on the left is Marnie Russo.)

Fiona having a sample of cider at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. She said it was good, but not nearly as good as the cider we press out up at Uncle Larry's house.

Me, Nona and Patrick at Cold Hollow Cider Mill.

Me and Nona two years ago.

This apple thing was the highlight of the day for the kids. Several kids in our group went into hysterics when some other kid wanted to play with it. An Ice Cream factory, mountains and mountains of free cheese at Cabot, and literally thousands of gallons of fresh apple cider were trumped by this thing. Bizarre.

Fiona and Owen

Fiona and Ava

Marnie, Patrick, Fiona, Owen and Ava.

The Shed - Shed Burger, french fries, and a Mountain Ale. Sweet merciful Crap that is a good beer! (at this point in the tour, I started photographing my meals)

My Shed Burger, Fries and beer.

My burger was good, but not as good as I have had in the past. The mountain ale, however, was so good that it made up for the sub-par burger.

NOTE: Joe bought a beer that had an 8% alcohol content, so they said they could not serve him a 22-oz glass. They did, however, have no problem giving him a second pint serving of it when he finished the first.

Pizza Dinner at Joe and Tammy's with a Mazza's Apple Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream Desert.

TUESDAY

Breakfast at Libby's Blue Line Diner - I had eggs. potatoes, toast & coffee. Amy had buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup, cornbeef hash and coffee.

My Breakfast at Libby's.

Amy's fan-freaking-tastic breakfast.

Due to a bad Maple harvest this year, Maple syrup is over $40 per gallon. So quit complaining about gas.

Family portrait at Libby's Blue Line Diner.

Lunch at Al's French Fries - Pizzaburger, fried clams, french fries, and a Coke

MMMMM.... Al's French Fries.

Beer Snack at Magic Hat - not nearly as good as it used to be. I had samples of Lucky Kat, Circus Boy and something else that was forgettable. I hate to sound like a crazy old man, when clearly I am just a crazy early-middle-aged man, but Magic Hat isn't as neat as it used to be. When we lived up there and I'd go there to get samples and fill up a growler, it was a really inviting place where they were happy to give you 4 or 5 decent samples in a glass glass. Now it is served in tiny paper cups, the kind mental hospitals put medicine in. Also, when I asked for a second sample of Circus Boy, the girl looked at me as if I had just asked her if I could borrow a couple pints of her blood. AND, if all that wasn't enough.... they stopped brewing Fat Angel - one of my top-five favorite beers. Yeah, well... Yuengling is still brewing Lager, Sam Adams is still brewing Boston Lager, Summer Ale, Old Fezziwig's Ale, Winter Ale. (Wow, I guess I really like Sam Adams.) And Makers Mark is still making outstanding Whisky, so I guess I will survive.

Komrads in the back seat.

Fiona and Patrick getting a little sick of sitting in the car for hours and hours and hours.

Dinner - Trattoria Delia - Spaghetti alla Pescatora. (AKA Spaghetti with clams, calamari, scallops, shrimp.) Fiona tried the calamari but did not care much for it.

Wednesday morning we woke up early and hit the road for Mass. Breakfast was Dunkin Donuts in New Hampshire some where.

In Mass, Amy painted a picture of Peter Rabbit on the wall of Andrew's new room. Amy is wicked wicked talented. She went in there, sketched it on the wall, and then painted it. And it looks really good. She amazes me. And she does it with such confidence - no dilly dallying - she gets the idea and executes - she takes no prisioners.

You look at that and you know it is Peter Rabbit

It's not like you look at it and Amy sez: "It's supposed to be Peter Rabbit"and you say "Oh yeah, I can see that. Yeah, that looks like Peter Rabbit."

Bumble Bees.

Andrew meets his new rabbit friend.

I suggested a painting of Pop-Pop in his hunting gear aiming his 12-guage at Peter Rabbit. It was vetoed.

I also suggested a couple of B-12 Bombers, you know, just for fun.

On Friday, we went to Fenway to tour the stadium. It was a lot of fun. Even though I don't care much for the Red Sox, it was neat to be inside that stadium. It is such a huge part of Baseball History. Every great player the game has ever seen has played on that field. All the way back to before Babe Ruth. I don't want to make more of it than it is, but those truly are hallowed grounds when it comes to baseball.

Fiona at the Fisk Pole.

Really cool mural inside the stadium.

Patrick and I inside the press box. This wasn't as exciting for me as sitting in Harry Kalas' chair in the Phillies Press Box, but it was still pretty cool.

Patrick really is a cute kid, isn't he?

This is the same photo before I manually removed that lady in the background.

Seriously, I don't mean to brag about my kids and all, but Fiona is just so cute.

Andrew noshing on some breakfast.

Dinner at the Lobster Trap. Again - Pretty darn tasty.

Fiona standing next to a gigantic wooden fish.

Reen Makes dinner on the grill.

About an hour away from home Fiona started asking "are we home yet? are we home yet? are we home yet? are we home yet?" At that time we called in the re-enforcements - the Muppets DVD's on the portable DVD player.

After we did get home, Dad, Chris, Samantha, Sara, Fiona and I went to the Reading Phillies. Fiona at a hot dog, cotton candy, french fries, dippin' dots ice cream, a soft pretzel and a sodey pop. By the time we went back to Mom & Dad's house, picked up Cisco and got home, it was 11:15. With the exception of a few cat-naps in the car, Fiona had been up since 4:30.

Check it out!!! Behind us at the Reading Phillies was Amy Winehouse!!!

No! Wait, it is Jane's Addiction singer, Perry Farrell!

Peace

MPH

Very Very Funny Comic

2008-04-18T07:56:00.000-04:00

Good Friday

2008-03-21T17:28:00.002-04:00

My 2 Princesses

Fiona in her Cinderella dress and Mama in her wedding dress. Both wearing Fairy Wings and McDonald's Happy Meal Cinderella crowns.

Fiona and Lisa Loeb: Seperated at birth?

KOTO JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE

2008-03-14T21:31:00.005-04:00

So in my Gastronomic Tour of Vermont Post I mentioned going to Koto Japanese Steak House.

Here is something I wrote in Smokin' Dog back in 2001 about going there one time with Maureen.

ME, REEN, ARNOLD & JIM

Last year, Maureen came to visit and she and I went to one of thos Japanese restaurants where they cook the food right in front of you. There was another family sitting with us. (We were trying to avoid talking to them, but it was no use.)
ARNOLD: So, where are you from.
ME: We're from Reading PA, but I leve here and my sister lives in Virginia.
REEN: So anyway, we get to the movies and this lady...
ARNOLD: What do you do for work?
ME: I work for Bell Atlantic.
REEN: And I work for an engineering firm.... so this lady sits right in front of us and she has this huge hat on her huge head...
ARNOLD: Are you an engineer?
REEN: No, I am in human resources.... so she's got on this hat and I asked....
Then the chef, Jim, comes to the table.
JIM: Hello everyone, my name is Jim and I'll be your chef this evening.
ARNOLD: HELLO JIM. MY NAME IS ARNOLD.
JIM: Hi.
ARNOLD: WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
JIM: I'm from Ohio.
ARNOLD: WHAT PART OF JAPAN ARE YOU FROM ORIGINALLY?
JIM: Actually, I'm Chinese.
ARNOLD: YOU SPEAK VERY GOOD ENGLISH.
JIM: Well, I should, I've lived here my whole life.
This banter went on for some time. When we left the restaurant we get in my car and Reen starts imitating the guy in the restaurant, only louder.
REEN: WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I AM FROM BURLINGTON VERMONT. DO YOU KNOW WHERE BURLINGTON VERMONT IS?
I was laughing so hard that I started to cry.
REEN: EVEN THOUGH YOU SAID YOU WERE NOT FROM JAPAN AND ALSO STATED THAT YOU DO NOT SPEAK ANY JAPANESE I AM GOING TO ASK YOU THE JAPANESE WORD FOR EVERYTHING. WHAT IS THE JAPANESE WORD FOR FORK? WHAT IS THE JAPANESE WORD FOR PLATE? HOW DO YOU SAY SODA IN JAPAN? I AM A JACKASS. HOW DO YOU SAY JACKASS IN JAPANESE?
And then Arnold came out of the restaurant and looked over at us and we drove away laughing.

2 Comix (Good ones this time)

2008-03-14T21:00:00.003-04:00

Amy: so so mean to me.

Fiona is wicked funny:

Vermont Food

2008-03-07T20:36:00.009-05:00

So Joe told me he went to Vermont Pub and Brewery the other day and had a Reuben. It made my mouth water. I consider myself something of a Reuben Connisuer and the VT Pub and Brewery has very very good Reubens.

So I added VT Pub and Brewery to the list of restaurants I want to visit the next time we go to Vermont. Then I made lists of all the other restaurants I want to go to next time we visit Vermont.

It took me about an hour and a half to plan out

My Gastronomic Tour of Vermont.

It will be 3 meals a day for 6 days. My 6 favorite breakfast places, my 6 favorite lunch places, and my 6 favorite dinner places.

Of course, we will be enjoying Green Mountain Coffee as often as possible and drinking Magic Hat beers unless otherwise noted. And desserts will be: Mazza's Apple pies with Ben and Jerry's Vanilla Ice Cream, or a waffle cone of one of the following Ben & Jerry's Ice Creams: Chubby Hubby, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, or Phish Food.

DAY 1 - BURLINGTON

Breakfast at Leunigs -

Eggs Benedict (Leunigs is really snooty and aloof, like they are better than everyone else, and normally I don't like places like that, but their Eggs Benedict are so so good that I am willing to put up with the jackassery. Even the description of the Eggs Benedict sounds snobby. Everyone knows what is in Eggs Benedict. And they say "Wolferman's English muffins" as if Wolferman's are the greatest English muffins in the world. Like it would be an affront to the delicate palates of the French-Canadian snobs who eat there to eat a Thomas' English muffin. BUT I must reiterate... these truly are the best Eggs Benedict in the world. I think the ingredient they didn't mention is ground up crack cocaine.)

Lunch at Vermont Pub and Brewery - Reuben Sandwich.

Dinner at Koto Japansese Steak house

DAY 2 - BURLINGTON

Breakfast at the Oasis Diner (from what I've read, the people who owned when Amy used to go there a lot have sold the place. Hopefully it is still as good.)

Lunch at Ri-Ra's - Beef and Guiness Stew and a Harp Lager.

Dinner at Kwan's, my favorite Chinese restaurant for General Tso's Chicken. (Amy CLAIMS there was a bug in her Pork Fried Rice one time... I am pretty sure it was just some burnt rice. Either way, that was the last time she ordered from there. I did not let it stop me, though.)

Day 3 - AMERICAN-STYLE FOOD STARTING IN BURLINGTON AND MOVING NORTHEAST TO STOWE

Breakfast at the Libby's Blue Line Diner for pancakes and sausage.

Lunch at Al's French Frys for a sausage sandwich and a pizza burger and a pint of fries.

Dinner at Gracie's for "The Boxer" - Half-pound cheddar bacon burger (yeah, it's $9 but really well worth it.)

Day 4 - JOHNSON, MORRISVILLE, STOWE

Breakfast at Plum & Main in Johnson.

Lunch at Munchies for a couple of greasy burgers and fries.

Dinner at The Shed. I'm going to go with the Shed Burger - Ground Beef marinated in Beer and spices. At the Shed, I will get a Ski of beer - it is a miniature ski with 6 - 6oz glasses of beer. We went there on Christmas Eve 2001 with our friend Tracey Jackson and they had the best Holiday beer I've ever had. It was so light and crisp. I am not a beer connisuer, but I know what I like and I really really liked that beer.

Day 5 - STOWE

Breakfast at the Troll Trail Bed and Breakfast. (I couldn't find a web site for it - maybe it is no longer in operation. They used to have the freaky troll come out and handed out wooden coins. One snuck up on my dad and nearly scared him to death. I am pretty sure my dad still has his troll coin.)

Lunch at Depot Street Malt Shop - Grilled Cheese and Tomato, and a malted milk shake.

Dinner at Von Trapp Family Lodge. They actually have a real dress code - this is a real classy place!!!

Appetizer

Wild Mushroom Cake with Chanterelles on Asparagus Salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette $10.50 (Being married to Amy, I don't get to eat mushrooms very often, let alone a mushroom CAKE!)

Soup

Alpine Mushroom Onion Soup with an Emmenthaler Crostini and Scallions $6.50 (Again with the mushrooms.)

Entree

A Duet of Wild Game: Wild Boar Sausage and Venison Chop on Hunter’s Potatoes with Asparagus, Chestnuts and Lingonberry Demi Sauce $36.00 (Surcharge: $10.00) I am also going to ask for a side order of Spetzel.

Desert

Apfelstrudel: Layers of light flaky crust, rolledwith sliced apples, raisins, and cinnamon.

Day 6 - MORRISVILLE AND BACK TO BURLINGTON

Breakfast at my favorite "after church" restaurant - the Charlemont - I will have the Charlemont Breakfast Sandwich - Bacon, Eggs and Chese on an english muffin.

Lunch at Marco's in Burlington for a pepperoni Calzone and some Garlic Knots.

And then, for our last mean in Vermont: Dinner at Trattoria Delia.

Appetizers

Bruschetta: Wood-grilled country bread rubbed with garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh herbs and topped with vine-ripened tomatoes. $ 5.50

Scamorza alla Griglia: Wood-grilled handmade smoked mozzarella served on a bed of arugula with grilled tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. $ 8.50

Main Course
Spaghetti alla Pescatora: Fresh baby clams, mussels, shrimp and calamari sauteed with olive oil, white wine, garlic, herbs and tomatoes. $17.50

Dessert
Tiramisu:` Tiramisu means “pick me up,” and this traditional Venetian dessert will do just that! Lady fingers lightly soaked in rum and espresso, in a rich custard with mascarpone cheese, topped with shaved Belgian chocolate. $ 6.50 (There is usually enought rum in these things to get Amy nearly drunk.)

Thus concludes my 6-day gorging in the state of Vermont. I am now poor and in debt and I've put on about 25 pounds.

reacap of my day thus far.

2008-03-07T05:56:00.003-05:00

it is 5:58 and I've been awake for about an hour.

i've had my coffee, paid the bills, (diznee credit card, subaru payment PPL) read about last night's Bruce concert (apparently it was awesome and some kid had a sign that said "rosalita, please" and Bruce played it), watched video on youtube of andrew walking, listened to some music on myspace (SeaWolf, Vampire Weekend), looked at some stuff on ebay that I'd love to buy if I wasn't so poor (mostly old bruce posters and t-shirts, movies on dvd, baby einstein videos, diznee movies, star wars movies, and lp records), and made a list of music to buy (Shawn Colvin, Moldy Peaches, Vampire Weekend, The Pupinni Sisters, The Ramones, People Take Warning).

that is all.

Incidentally, i made a list concerning andrew's youtube video. you can find it at my listville site:
www.listville37.blogspot.com

peace.

The Beatles

2008-02-15T04:27:00.004-05:00

I was looking at my friend's facebook page and she had a question posted on it: What Beatles song describes your life right now?

I have recently come to the realization that I don't really like the beatles. I like Rubber Soul, Revolver, and parts of Sgt. Peppers, but for the most part, I can take them or leave them. Like today I heard 'A Day in the Life' on XPN and realized how good that song is. Later in the day I heard Yellow Submarine and realized how bad that song is.

I think I don't like them because I don't like 3 of the people in the group. I can't stand Paul McCartney. I think John Lennon was an ass. And I think Ringo is just some lucky douchebag who was fortunate enough to meet John and Paul. Ringo records albums like he has some kind of songwriting talent - he doesn't.

George was the best Beatle. He was in the top ten best songwriters of the 60's and 70's... unfortunately he was in a band with the top two songwriters.

Anyway, I don't like to ruffle feathers with my I-don't-like-the-Beatles talk, but I have to be honest.

Some things John said were interesting and thought-provoking, but most of what he said sounds like idiocy to me. Kind of like that "I'm famous so my opinions matter" mentality. But, I guess if you have the power to work for good, you should use it. He just seems so self-reighteous. I think if anyone did the things he did, like the bed-in or the bag-in or the starting of a country called Newtopia - if any Joe Schmoe would have done it, they'd have been thrown in a loony bin.

To be fair, Bruce does some of that stupid crap too, like writing editorials in the New York Times and campaigning for John Kerry. And it irks me when he does because I have willingly allowed myself to be so identified with him that people (i.e. my dad and my brother and other republicans I know) make fun of me when they see Bruce on tv criticising the president. That is the cross I bear for being a Bruce fan.

Summary:
Paul McCartney - something of a jerk
John Lennon - some sort of weirdo genius who if he wasn't rich and famous would have wound up ranting and raving on a street corner somewhere
Ringo Starr - by far and wide the luckiest talentless bastard in the history of mankind
George Harrison - awesome.
Bruce Springsteen - also awesome.
Michael P. Holland - some sort of weirdo genius who if he didn't have a good woman like Amy in his life would have wound ranting and raving on a street corner somewhere.

Pat and Nate Holland

2008-01-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I was watching the Winter X Games on ABC. In race one of Snowboarder X the winner was NATE HOLLAND. In race 2, his brother, PAT HOLLAND came in third.

Pat Holland (Pink Shirt) and Nate Holland (Yellow Shirt)

A much much cuter Pat Holland (green footie pajamas) and Nate Holland (white footie pajamas).

YET ANOTHER NEW BLOG FROM ME

2008-01-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

I have started yet another new blog.

All Lists All The Time

it can be found at

http://listville37.blogspot.com/

I would have liked to have used listville.blogspot.com, but some idiot is already using it... and he updated it 5 times in five days.... in september of 2006.

anyway, i encourage you to post comments of what you would have listed for the different lists.

Odds and Ends

2007-12-18T05:05:00.000-05:00

I finally have my folk duo parther!!

Amy's Christmas Present

1. Barry Manilow - Barry Manilow is Jewish and he released a Christmas album. Well, I guess it's okay since we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, who was also Jewish.

2. Father of the Year - I would like to formally nominate myself for Father of the Year. I know it sounds egotistical to claim to be such a great father, but you haven't heard why I deserve the award. I deserve the Father of the Year award because I am taking my child to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. Yes, indeed, Fiona and I will be rocking it with the Boss on July 27. Amy and Maureen will also be there to witness the finest fathering this country has ever seen. Before the nervous nellies out there get concerned for Fiona's eardrums, I want you to know I am taking care of that. I am getting (or borrowing) earmuffs that you wear when you go skeet shooting.
My only real concerns about the concert is that Fiona has some very specific favorite Bruce songs. They are Out In The Street, Candy's Room, and Bishop Danced. There is a chance he will sing OITS and CR, but there is almost zero chance he will sing Bishop Danced. I don't want her to be disappointed if Bruce doesn't play OITS or CR. What I am going to do in the next 7 months is play songs he is guaranteed to play like Badlands and Born To Run and Radio Nowhere. That way she will definitely hear songs she know and likes.

That is all for now
PEACE

Santa is a Phillies Phan!!

2007-11-16T23:10:00.000-05:00

We went to the Christmas Bazaar at our church tonight.

I was wearing my Phillies Hat.

Santa Claus was there and he was talking to Fiona. He said "I know you have a good daddy because he is a Phillies fan." Fiona then told Santa that she goes to Phillies games. I told Santa that every time Fiona goes to the Phillies they win.

Santa then looked at me and said "why didn't you take her to the playoffs?"

Veteran's Day

2007-11-12T11:14:00.000-05:00

As you all know, my dad was in Viet Nam. You probably also know that my buddy Joe was in the Gulf War and my buddy Kevin served in Iraq. Both of my Grandfathers served in the Army in World War II.
This past weekend was my annual small-game hunting trip with my dad and another Armed Services Veteran, Larry Schultz.
None of Veterans I know brag about their service and all of them were proud to have served their country. I am glad that our nation has a day to honor veterans and that most media outlets are on board with honoring veterans even if it is sometimes contrived and half hearted. It is nice to see feel-good stories about veterans, but should it only be once a year? Shouldn't veteran's be honored every single day? Yesterday during the Fox broadcast of football, a player ran out onto the field and shook the hands of the members of the color guard. Fox showed it over and over and over throughout the day. That was nice that that player honored the members of the armed service, but shouldn't that happen every single game. With the exception of the patronizing "let's remember the armed services" line before the national anthem on Veteran's Day, what does the NFL or Fox broadcasting really do for the advancement of our Armed Services?
This morining, while listening to WXPN, Penn's radio station, the listener request for Veteran's day was a trio of anti-war songs. Give Peace a Chance, Where Have all the Flowers Gone, and some song by Phil Ochs. I was incensed when Give Peace a Chance started to play and fired off an email to the DJ:
i am a new listener in lititz pa and i do love your station. HOWEVER, i am very offended that in honor of Veteran's Day you chose to play Give Peace A Chance. My father fought in Vietnam, friends of mine served in the Gulf War and more recently in Iraq, both of my grandfathers served in World War II. To play the music of an anti-war activist in honor of Veteran's day is an affront to all the brave men and women who served our country. While my father was in vietnam, John Lennon was smoking weed and staying in bed for 7 days straight. I have no problem with the song give peace a chance, i have a problem with your playing it on Veteran's Day. thank you.
I know that the target audience for WXPN is liberal college students, but show a little respect. If you can't find three songs to play that, at the very least do not degrade and debase the men and women who served our country, then don't play any songs at all.
3 Songs about VietNam that are by musicians that are played on XPN that could have been played:
Rooster by Alice in Chains
Good Night Saigon by Billy Joel
Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen
I was really pissed off, but realized that people like my dad and grandfathers fought so that liberals like WXPN can do and say whatever the hell they want, even if it is something that pisses off the people who protect them.

Raising Sand

2007-10-26T06:06:00.000-04:00

Bluegrass virtuoso Alison Krauss and Led Leppelin Frontman Robert Plant have teamed up to record an album called Raising Sand.
It is really good, it doesn't rock, but it is nice to listen to.
Mike Seeger is on it, as is Patrick Warren (michael Penn's recording partner and studio musician extrodinaire. he has appeared on albums including but not limited to: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aviril Lavigne, Neil Diamond, OK Go, Fiona Apple, Michael W. Smith, Macy Gray, Perry Farrell, Jewel, and is featured on the new Bruce Springsteen album.)
Is there a Springsteen connection? Why yes... yes there is. Bruce's Sister, Pamela, was the album photographer.

odds n ends

2007-08-31T08:31:00.000-04:00

yo!

i have a couple of things here, none of which would warrant their own blog post.

a couple of mediocre comix, a picture from the R Phillies, a Springsteeen update, other new music updates and a list I wrote about a year ago of what Joe could have named his child.

BRUUUUCE!!

Springsteen has a new album coming out on October 2. The first single, Radio Nowhere, is available for free from iTunes and it rocks. It is soo good that when describing it to a friend I used an expletive to describe how good it was.

Bruce is, of course, going on tour with the E Street Band, but he didn't see fit to call me when he was planning his tour dates. His Philly show is October 5 - Amy, Nona, and I will be singing Happy Birthday to Andrew Patrick in Mashpee, Massachusetts that day. His Washington DC show is on November 11 - Dad, Larry, Jackdog, and I will be chasing grouse around Potter County and then celebrating the kill with Buffalo Trace Whisky. My only real hope is for the Boston show on November 18. I know what you are thinking "Mike, you are handsome and slender... would you really drive to Boston Mass to see Bruce??? That sounds a little far." I would like to remind you that I once flew from Burlington VT to Philly and then drove with Dritsas to Washington DC to see The Kids in the Hall, and once flew from Burlington to Philly and drive to Hershey to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Also, I drove from Burlington to New Jersey to see Bruce. So, to answer your querry, yes... yes I would. Plus if I go to Mass to see Bruce, there is the bonus of getting to chill with Maureen, Mark, and Andrew. Duh.

IF I don't get to see Bruce this year, I will, of course, see him next summer when he goes on a stadium tour.

TWO GREAT TASTES THAT TASTE GREAT TOGETHER

Allison Kraus, the best bluegrass singer around today, and Robert Plant, the lead singer of the greatest band of all time, have recorded an album together of blues and bluegrass music. As you all probably know, Plant loves America blues music. BONUS: my close personal friend, Mike Seeger, who is argualby the greatest ethnomusicologist/musician alive today is on the album. And when I say "close personal friend" i mean i met him one time and asked him 3 questions, had my picture taken with him, got him to sign 2 albums, and then he took a picture of me and Amy.

READING PHILLIES

Mom, Dad, Fiona and I went to see the Reading Phillies last week because Chase Utley was there. Once again a photo was taken of a group of people next to us and we got in it. We are at the top middle. I am wearing a white shirt w/red sleeves. Mom and Nona are next to me and Dad is next to them.

LISTVILLE: NAMES FOR JOE'S KID

1. Jobi-Wan Kenobi

2. Jobacca

3. Qui-Gon Joe

4. Joe Joe Binks

5. Joda

6. Joba Fett

7. Joebba the Hutt

8. C-3PJoe

9. Queen Tammydala

COMIX

PEACE

MPH

Odds & Ends

2007-08-10T08:36:00.001-04:00

hey hey

i set up a seperate website for photos of Fiona and Patrick. I was starting to feel as though i was not doing them justice by posting their pictures on a blog that focuses on my unhealthy obsession with bruce springsteen, concerts i've been to, crappy comix, my thoughts on the letter "c," and my allergies.

so, to bypass the usual crap you find here at Scrapple Dog and to get right to the pictures of my adorable kids, please go to: fionapatrick.blogspot.com.

now, let's get back to the aforementioned crap you've come to expect from Scrapple Dog, like my new phillies hat and my new sandles.

Amy got me a new phillies hat for Father's Day. I needed a new phillies hat... my other 20 phillies hats were getting boring. This hat is, by far and wide, my favorite phillies hat.

here is a ranking of my phillies hats:
1. New Green Hat with red "P" and red shamrock.
2. Green Hat with white "P" and white
3. Retro maroon Hat with the old-style "P." This hat was a give-away at the first game of the last season at the Vet. My dad gave it to me and I wear it only on special occasions, like when the phillies win with a walk-off homer, or if someone hits a grand-slam, or when Aaron Rowand smashed his face catching a fly ball.
4. Regular red hat with white "P."
5. Black hat with white "P." I wear that one when the Phillies are slumping or when they lose the game in the 9th inning.

I also wanted to post a few images of my new sandals. for years I have thought about trying to turn a pair fo Chuck Taylors into a pair of sandals. I finally did it and i am happy with the results. They aren't much for looking at, but they are wicked comfortable. I probably will never wear them outside the yard, but i think they will be good for up at the cabin if i want to go walking in a stream or in a pond and don't want to get my expensive sandals wet.

there is only one thing to say about my Chuck Taylor sandals:
I RULE!!!!!!!

PEACE
mph

Patrick Kieran

2007-08-05T20:27:00.000-04:00

First Picture of Patrick Kieran

Me and My Boy

Nona and Mama and Patrick

Mama, Nona, and Patrick
MamMam and Patrick

Aunt Sissy and Patrick

Mom Mom and Patrick

Patrick Kieran

2007-08-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

Pat, Pat, and Pat Holland

A few fun facts about Patrick's Birthday:

Patrick shares his birthday with Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Michael Penn. Michael Penn's first album, March, is on my top-ten favorite albums list.

Other important people born on August 1: The greatest female labor organizer of all time, Mother Jones. (please note that in a lot of places her birthdate is listed as May 1, which is May Day which is a very important date in Union history. Her real birthdate is August 1.) Herman Melville - author, inventor of the name "Starbucks." Francis Scott Key - writer of the National Anthem. Publius Helvius Pertinax, Roman emperor.

Less important people born on August 1: son-of-a-Beatle Dhani Harrison, rapper/borderline felon Coolio, rapper/social activist Chuck D, Stupid Hippie Jerry Garcia, seven-pack-a-day smoker Yves Saint-Laurent, gigantic fatass alcoholic Dom DeLuise.

peace.

Patrick Kieran

2007-08-04T12:14:00.000-04:00

PATRICK KIERAN

August 1, 2007

2:45 p.m.

7 lbs. 12 oz.

20 inches

LISTVILLE: BABY NAMES

2007-07-31T08:49:00.000-04:00

We are getting down to crunch time here. We are locked in on a girl name but are a little wishy-washy on boy names.

So I submit to you:
LIST OF POTENTIAL BABY NAMES THE POTENTIAL MALE HEIR TO THE MICHAEL P. HOLLAND THRONE
1. Cool Hand Luke Holland
2. Mr. Lukas War Hero Holland
3. Lucas Jackson Holland
4. Jason Greg Joe Smith Manny Dritsas Holland
5. Jason (Z not Crazy J) Holland [and that would be the spelling of the name with the parenthesis and all]
6. Good Hank Holland
7. Hud Holland
8. Hombre Holland
9. Fast Eddie Felson Holland
10. Okemah Holland
11. Big Mac Filet-o-fish Holland
12. CHEWBACCA! [the name would be spelled in all caps and the exclaimation point at the end of the name would be part of the name and we would forego a middle or last name.]
13. Theodore Roosevelt Holland
14. Stupid Flanders Holland
15. Simon Sez Holland
16. Jungleland Holland
17. Ahab Holland
18. Led Zeppelin III Holland
19. Oliver Boliver Butt Holland
20. Cool Hand Luke Skywalker Holland [two great tastes that taste great together]

Twin Names
1. Luke and Dragline Holland
2. Bruce and Clarence Holland
3. Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton Holland
4. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard Holland
5. Robert Plant and James Patrick Page Holland
6. R2-D2 and C3PO Holland

Triplets
1. Luke, Dragline, and Coco Holland
2. Vini, Ernest, and Max Holland
3. Bruce, Clarence, and Little Steven Holland

Quadruplets
1. Luke, Dragline, Coco, and Bobalougats Holland

Quintuplets
1. Jason, Gregg, Joe Smith, Dritsas, and Manny Holland
2. Luke, Hud, Hombre, Fast Eddie Felson, and Sullivan Holland

Nontuplets
1. Bruce, Clarence, Steven, Nils, Gary, Roy, Danny, Max, and Pat Holland
2. Then Boss, The Big Man, Little Steven, Nils doesn't have a nickname, Neither does Gary, The Professor, The Phantom, Mighty Max, and Red Holland

That is all for now
MPH

"Ch"

2007-07-27T14:34:00.000-04:00

So Dritsas visited on Saturday and we were talking about the town he in which he grew up: Cheltenham.

He pronounced the 'ch' as if it was the same as the "ch" in church, or change.
I pronounced the 'ch" as if it was more like a "sh," Sheltenham.

He deemed himself correct on the pronunciation merely because he is from there, but I begged to differ and differ I did.

He threw out words such as church, chill, cheese, chap, cheeky, cherry, and challenge. As if he were challenging me to refute his claims of the correct pronunciation of Cheltenham.

I cheerfully came back with the following: Charlotte, Cheryl, Cherise, Chicago, and Champlain.

Please note that all the words I listed are proper nouns, implying that proper nouns of course, use the "sh" sound instead of the harsher "ch" sound.

Of course, I thought I had won the argument when I realized there are cities called Chester, Chattanooga, Charlestown, and Chickamauga. And of course there is a little country called China.

So I went on the internet and did some research and googled "Cheltenham Pronunciation." and that gave me a brief history of Cheltenham England. It also has an audio clip of how to pronounce "Cheltenham."

And so, as it turns out, Dritsas was correct.

But I am not done with the letter "c" just yet. I just want to say that I have always disliked the letter "c" because it is so wishy-washy. Not only can you use it as a "chuh" and "sh" sound, but it can also be used as a "k" sound as in Christopher, and chronology. It's like C is to much of a wimp to stand up for itself and say "this is how I sound."
I would like to add that all three of the sounds it makes can, in fact, be made by other letters.
Church could be respelled as jurj. Sound it out, it is practically the same.
Cheryl could be respelled as Sheryl.
And Christopher could be respelled as Kristopher.

Therefore, in the interest of simplisity, I move that all use of the letter "see" be halted immediately. Klearly, there is no further need for a kompletely usless konsonant in our vernakular. Wouldn't it be nise to have an alphabet with 25 letters. 25 is a square number, it is mathematikally pleasing to have 25 instead of 26 letters.

I am not asking you to throw away your keyboards in antisipation of the new 25-letter keyboards, obvioulsy it will take some time for the "Be Free of 'See'" movement to take off, but I am asking you to do your part. For example: if you send a Kristmas Kard to my brother and his family, write "Kristopher Holland and Family" on it.

That is all for now.
Pease.
Mikal Holland

P.S. I am not a krakpot.

three AWESOME things in one

2007-07-16T17:25:00.000-04:00

Three AWESOME things
1. Jason Zecchinelli
2. Banjos
3. Star Wars

after further review...

2007-07-10T19:23:00.000-04:00

yeah, you actually can see me and amy in that bruce clip.
i am the one in the front row pumping my fist in the air. and as it zooms in on Bruce when he is saying "Baby if you wanna be wild..." you can see me lean over and say something to amy.
Dude, i don't mean to brag, but I FREAKING RULE.

i can't sleep

2007-07-10T04:51:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wake up at 2 in the morning and I just can not get back to sleep. Right now is one of those times. I try to make good use of the time - working on non-essential projects like my proposed weekly calendar of my favorite comics, cleaning up my email folders, going to websites I visit only periodically (http://www.rachealdavis.com/) catching up on stupid videos on youtube (Len's Steal My Sunshine, Iverson "We talking 'bout practice" rant, freezing a bottle of corona) and filling out rebate forms for Verizon wireless and Ace hardware stores and updating the Buck Hollow Hunting Club blog with pictures and videos from our trip there this past weekend.

Usually my amnesiatic sojourns on the internet are just a way to pass the time and rarely mete out any kind of real enjoyment or produce anything of any real use to me. But today was different.

AS YOU MAY or may not know, I once sat in the front row at a Springsteen concert. YouTube has a video clip of Bruce singing "Candy's Room" from that concert. If you look really really close you can't really see me at all.

So my time spent on line today was not a total waste.

Peace

mph

Nona Comic

2007-07-06T06:42:00.000-04:00

Weight Loss

2007-06-23T19:43:00.000-04:00

As you may or may not remember, I often use the phrase "handsome and slender" to describe myself. Half of that, of course, is in jest. While I am (and have always been) devilishly handsome, I am not, in fact, slender.

But I did make a New Year's Resolution this year to drop a few (dozen) pounds. On January 1, 2007 I weighed 223 lbs. I think that is the most I have ever weighed, and If it wasn't, it was pretty close. With my wife, sister and father encouraging me I set a goal to get down to 195 by the time we went to the shore.

December 29, 2006

I joined the gym and Amy began to prepare healthier meals for me. She served me smaller portions and I made a rule for myself of no eating after 7:30 p.m. I also cut out alot of that crap that I shouldn't eat anyway - like doughnuts and Doritos.

I went to the gym and abused the treadmill, blasted my abs, and rocked my quads and tried to burn a billion calories before 7 am each day.

So the good news is that I did meet my goal. I weighed myself the day we left for the beach and am happy to report that I weighed 192.6 lbs. The bad news is that when I weighed myself today when we got home from the beach and I weigh 195.8. I suppose adding 3 lbs during vacation is nothing to complain about.

June 22, 2007

So now I have a new goal - 175 by Thanksgiving. Actually I should make that 172 by Thanksgiving and 175 by the day after Thanksgiving.

Reading Phillies

2007-06-06T06:56:00.000-04:00

Last night Mom, Dad, Maureen, Andrew, Amy, Fiona and I went to see the Reading Phillies. It was a beautiful night for baseball.

The Phillie Phanatic was there. (For some reason Fiona calls him "Mickey.") Fiona loves watching him drive around on his four-wheeler.

Before the game began, Andrew was sitting on my lap and Fiona was sitting on Amy's lap and we were on the Fan-o-vision. In my 30 years of going to Phillies games, both Reading and Philadelphia, and the various other pro games I have been to (Montreal, Boston, Baltimore) I have never been on the Fan-o-vision. I guess having two adorable little kids with you helps your odds.

And, the piece-de-resistance, we got our picture on the Reading Phillies Fan Photo Gallery. The people in front of us were there for a birthday party and their photo was taken. As you can see in this photo Dad, Amy, Fiona, Me, Mom, Maureen and a very obscured Andrew are sitting behind the people who are supposed to be in the photo.

Weekend at the Cabin

2007-06-03T16:00:00.000-04:00

Fiona, Dad, Larry, and I went to the Cabin this weekend. Dad finally caught Mr. Big, the Brown Trout that has been his nemisis for 3 years.

Click here for a link to the Buck Hollow Hunting Club blog for more pictures and video of the dramatic catch.

Dad, Me, and Fiona with the Tigger Rod and Mr. Big

We also visited Fiona's Christmas tree. She had been hoping that there would be gifts under it.

Fiona did really great all weekend, she didn't seem the least big homesick and was a little angel the whole time.

I am looking forward to our next trip to the cabin.

Phillies

2007-05-27T19:39:00.000-04:00

Fiona, My Dad, Joe and I went to see the Phillies last week. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, the food was great and the Phillies won.

Here are some pictures Fiona took:

Self Portrait
Fiona's Dad Pop-Pop

Another Self PortraitI just love this picture for some reason.

We had a great day!

one more reason why i love Fiona

2007-05-16T19:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got home from work and I was carrying my mp3 player. Fiona asked me if she could listen to it. I turned the volume down and put it on her ears. I had been listening to Synchronicity by the Police. She listened to it for a minute and then looked at me and said, "Can I listen to Bruce?"

Unfortunately, there is currently no Bruce in my mp3 player, so I said to her "I'm sorry, there's no Bruce in there right now... but thank you so much for asking."

Fiona has a unique way of making my day.

catching up on a couple of things

2007-04-30T17:12:00.000-04:00

Not much exciting going on lately, just looking forward to summer. Joe and Tammy and Ava are coming in 17 days and we are looking forward to that. Joe and I are planning a day trip to Gettysburg and Dad, Fiona, Joe and I are giong to see the Phillies. Then we have memorial day weekend. Two short weeks later, we go to the beach. A couple of weeks after that, Chris and I are going to see the Police. Then the baby comes to town. Then football season starts. Then the Phillies win the World Series.

Also, I am looking forward to Shrek the Third, and the new Pirates of the Carribean movie.

Here is a video of Fiona performing her latest trick:

Fiona at ChocolateWorld.

Fiona with Samantha and Sara

Beatles Pictures

2007-04-11T18:47:00.000-04:00

So i read that a bunch of beatles pictures were accidentally thrown away. Apparently over 450 pictures were thrown out.

how will our children know what the beatles looked like since there will now only be tens of thousands of pictures of the beatles left.

Fiona's New Tricycle

2007-04-04T19:33:00.000-04:00

About 2 months ago, we made a deal with Fiona. We told her that if she started going to the potty, we would buy her a tricycle. She really really worked hard and in the past 2 months she has only had two or three accidents.

So on Monday, we went on line to search for a tricycle for her and today it was delivered. After dinner Fiona and I put it together and took it for a spin around the block.

another great comic from Michael P. Holland

2007-03-29T21:01:00.000-04:00

State Quarters or Mike's Lamest Blog Topic to Date

2007-03-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

I am not collecting the US Mint's state quarters, but I do enjoy seeing the designs when they come out. And for a long time I thought Vermont's design was the best because of it's simplicity. Other quarters have come along that are neat, but none matches Vermont.

Because I am obsessed with ranking things, I will here rank the five worst quarters and then rank the five best quarters.

Five Worst Quarters:

5. ALABAMA

Alabama has a picture of Helen Keller on theirs. Alabama became a state in 1819 and in the 184 years between their statehood and the release of thier quarter the only decent thing to come from their state was a deaf, blind woman?? I have nothing against Helen Keller, but is she the only thing Alabama has to be proud of? Well, maybe I just answered my own question.

4. NEW HAMPSHIRE

New Hampshire has a picture of the old man of the mountain natural rock formation. Natural rock formations that look like things never really do it for me because it is just a fluke. Now if it was a natural rock formation that actually looked like someone, like Abe Lincoln or Stevie Wonder, then that would be cool, but just a random outcropping of rock that looks kind of like a man's face - eh, not that impressive. Further more, it looks more like the rock 'em-sock 'em robots guy than a real person. Incidentally, this rock formation was destroyed in a rock slide in May of 2003. To their credit, New Hampshire did put their state logo, which is arguable the best state logo ever, on their coin: Live Free of Die. That sounds like it should be the name of a Metallica song, but in reality, it is the name of a song by Sun Volt.

3. FLORIDA

Florida went with a "three iconic images from our state" approach, but left off the most iconic images of thier state: Mickey Mouse, Retirees, and Cocaine Smugglers.

2. TEXAS

An out line of the state with a star? This was the best you could come up with. For all of Texas' "We're the biggest state in the lower 48" and "Don't Mess with Texas" talk, they sure did come up one steaming pile of buffalo dung for their quarter. 159 years of history including, but not limited to: the home of Sam Houston, birthplace of Jack Johnson, Stephen Austin, Buddy Holly, Richard Petty, Willie Nelson, Scott and Janis Joplin, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, home of Bonnie and Clyde, 5-time Super Bowl Champ Dallas Cowboys. And of course, you have THE ALAMO!!!! Only one of the most iconic forts not just in American History, but in the History of all time. You have all that stuff and you go with and you settle on an outline of the state and a star?? If Texans are dumb enough to overlook all that history and put out this crappy quarter, it is easy to see how they the Bush family has been able to stay in power there so long. Yeah, you heard me.

THE WORST QUARTER OF ALL:
OHIO

Ohio has the worst quarter to date. What is so wrong with their quarter? They did not put anything on their quarter that has anything to do with their state. They put the Wright Brother's plane on it. Everyone in the world associates the Wright Brothers with North Carolina, and in fact, North Carolina put the Wright Brother's plane on their quarter a full 2 years before Ohio's quarter was issued. And they put a picture of an astronaut on their coin. Again, when you think of America's space program, you think of Florida where the space ships launch from, and you think of Houston. When there is a snafu occuring, people don't mockingly state "Cleveland, we have a problem," they say "Houston, we have a problem." Furthermore, the even state on their coin that nothing ever happened there, but people who did make things happen were born there. Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers... big freaking deal. The wright brothers and John Glenn were born there. Yeah; Who cares? It doesn't matter where someone is born, it is where they are raised and nurtured that matters. Maybe if Ohio didn't suck so much the Wright Brothers and john Glenn would have stayed.

FIVE BEST QUARTERS

5. WISCONSIN
Wisconsin went with the "Three iconic images from our state" motif and, unlike Florida, I think it works. Here is why: Wisconsin isn't a real flashy and or showy state. They do what they do and they are good at it. They don't rely on a lot of razz-a-matazz like Florida to get the job done. So when you think of Wisconsin, you generally think of cows and cheese, with the obvious exception of the Green Bay Packers. And as much as I like Brett Favre, I really don't think he should be on a coin.

4.TENNESEE

Tennesee really did a great job of simplfying. Much like Wisconsin, one specific thing comes to mind when you thing of Tennesee: music. So they played on that and kept it simple and put out a really nice looking coin. Only thing I would have changed: get rid of the trumpet and add a banjo.

3. CONNECTICUT

No flash for Connecticut, just a picture of a beautiful White Oak which was known as the Charter Oak because that particular tree played an important role in the state's history. The White Oak, incidentally, is connecticut's state tree.

2. SOUTH DAKOTA

South Dakota's quarter is awesome for several reasons. First, there is not a lot that comes to mind when thinking of South Dakota other than Mt. Rushmore. They could have put out a Mt. Rushmore-only quarter and been completly lame, but they decided to add the piece de resistance and put on their coin the coolest bird in the world, the ring-necked pheasant. And because they went with their state icon, Mt. Rushmore, they were able to put a picture of Theodore Roosevelt on their coin. Kudos to you, South Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt and a ring-necked pheasant. Take off Thomas Jefferson and you would have had the best coin ever in the history of mankind.

1. VERMONT

Just a nice looking quarter, wouldn't you say? A crusty old Vermonter tapping a couple of trees on a cold Frebruary morning in the shadow of Camel's Hump. I think it states the simplicity with which a lot of Vermonters live their lives. Again, Vermont didn't need to go with flash and gusto to show the attributs of the state. They didn't put skiiers or images of the naval history of Lake Champlain on their quarter... just a regular fellow tapping his trees to make some syrup. Vermont rules.

That is all for me today.
Take care.

St. Patrick's Day t-shirt

2007-03-17T15:37:00.000-04:00

ahoy ahoy.

As you may or may not know, every year Old Navy puts out a St. Patrick's Day t-shirt.

Here you see the t-shirt they put out this year.

I am not a huge fan of Old Navy, but I am a huge fan of St. Patrick and Old Navy sells these cool t-shirts each year for only $5.00. And so I buy one each year.

So last year, a few days before St. Patrick's Day, was was rockin' my Old Navy St. Patrick's Day t-shirt and I went to get my morning coffee.

There is this girl who worked at the coffee shop that I go to who never once said "hello" or "good morning" or "have a good day" to me. She used to be all chatty Cathy with her young, cool-looking young male friends, but not with me. Maybe he never said anything more than "what can i get for you?" and "that's a dollar, forty-eight" to me because I am old and square and have a real job and am married. I don't really care if she doesn't want to have a conversation with me, but a little common courtesy when I am paying way too much for coffee would be nice. "Hi, how are you today?" or "Take it easy," is all I am asking for. All the other people who work there say hello to and exchange pleasantries with me, but not this girl. She always seemed to have this attitude of "I am young and cool and I am only going to talk to young cool people."

So I have established that with the exception of coffee-related queries, she has never said anything to me at all, ever.

So I go walking into the coffee shop with my St. Patrick's day t-shirt on and she is behind the counter and is chatting with some of the aforementioned young, cool friends. I walk up to the counter and ask for a small coffee. She looks at my shirt and says to me "did you know that St. Patrick was actually Roman and not Irish?"

She says it loud enough for her friends to hear and her tone seemed to me to imply that:

1.) She was telling me something that I obviously didn't know.

2.) I was a mindless drone who thinks St. Patrick's day is a made-up holiday fueled by Guinness and is just an excuse to go out and get loaded.

3.) I was into kitschy, holiday-related crap and I should have also been wearing a button that said "Kiss Me I'm Irish."

I looked up at her and considered telling her that I had fairly recently finished reading the second of 2 biographies of St. Patrick. And that I read those "Lives of Saints" books all good Catholic kids get for First Communion and Confirmation. I also considered telling her that he feared that a sin he committed when he was young was so horrible that he would be sent to Hell. I was going to tell her that he once calmed a pack of hungry, barking dogs that threatened to expose him as a runaway slave. I also thought that it might be appropriate to mention that the reason he was so successful in bringing Christianity to Ireland was because he had found a way to integrate Catholic religious ceremonies with the Pagan traditions without compromising the teachings of Jesus or offending the Pagan priests.

I also considered saying "Yes, I actually did know that." But i decided I wanted her and her friends to know what an idiot I thought she was.

So after she said, "Did you know that St. Patrick was actually Roman and not Irish" I said:

"Yeah, no crap." as if to imply that everyone in the whole wide world knew it and that she wasn't actually teaching me anything.

I know that not everyone knows that he was Roman, but that didn't matter.

She always made me feel like she was doing me some gigantic favor by pouring 12 oz of hot liquid into a cup. And she always made me feel like i should feel priviledged that she took the 30 seconds out of her work day to give me her coffee.

And I always really hated the fact that she was the only person who has ever worked there that never once said anything nice to me, but did not hesitate for a second to say "good morning" and "how are you" to the young college-aged people that came in.

And for that matter, it felt really good to kind of say something that had a "why don't you shut the hell up and give me my freaking coffee" feel to it.

But it is not my place to put someone else down mo matter how they may make me feel, so in retrosepct, I feel bad for having said that to her and subsequently feeling good about saying it.

St. Patrick did not become a saint by putting people down, he became a saint by helping people. Therefore I should have instead prayed for her and asked God to help give me the strength to not mind that this person wasn't nice to me.

After the St. Partick's Day t-shirt incident, she went back to never speaking to me at all and a few months later she quit working there.

Crayola

2007-03-10T08:54:00.000-05:00

Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street used to show a video of the Crayola factory that was really neat. Everytime I saw that video I thought it would be really cool to go to the factory and see it for real.

Yesterday, Fiona, Amy and I went to the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA. It was a lot of fun. There was a ton of cool stuff to see there and Fiona loved all of it.

Nona with the world's Largest Crayon.

Nona all plumb-tuckered out!!

The only downer on the day: The only place to eat there was a McDonalds. Since it was a Friday in Lent, I was actually looking forward to a Filet o Fish sandwich, but when we got to the counter and asked for one, the lady said to me, "we don't sell fish here." D'oh. I ate half of Amy's french fries, a chewy granola bar, and a gigantic Root Beer.

Fiona Comic

2007-03-10T08:42:00.000-05:00

So wise at such a young age!!

ADDENDUM AND APOLOGIES

2007-03-09T19:37:00.000-05:00

In my last blog entry, I chronicled all the concerts I have seen with my family. And apparently I forgot a few concerts I have seen with loved ones.

***IN MY DEFENSE: I did say "There is a fairly concise list of the concerts I have been to with family members."

Here are the comments I received:

Mark said: Hello? Rolling Stone in Philly y'all!
Maureen then said: Yeah, what he said!!! You obviously don't remember we were at The Rolling Stones concert at the Vet..also known as your wedding present to us!!! OR our double-date with you & your Mommy!
And then Aunt Louise said: what am I tinsel?Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in NJ.Did you think that your family does not read your blog?!?I still love you! xo W

Holy Crap I feel bad. I can't remember the last time I ruffled so many feathers in such a short time.

So, just as an update:

I saw The Rolling Stones in Philly not only with my Mommy, but also with Maureen and Mark.

And I saw the Boss in New Jersey not only with my Mommy and Amy, but also with Aunt Louise. AND, Louise and I both failed to remember her graduation gift to me: She took me to see Michael Penn at the Mann Music Center in Philly. Holla that!

Here is a picture of my mom and Louise rockin' with the Boss.

And it had been well documented in Smokin' Dog that Aunt Louise has been very important to my musical development. She got me tickets to see Billy Joel (the first concert I ever went to.) She also got me tickets to see Tin Machine at the Tower (12th row). She took me to see Michael Penn and she got me Bruce Springsteen's autograph. Louise also saw the Rolling Stones when they were only in their 40's. I think she saw Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour, and I know for a fact that she saw Bruce before I was even a fan.

It should also be noted that while I was at Penn State, my buddies and I had an insatiable thirst for Ballantine Ale. It was somthing that my buddies and I thought was the coolest not only for it's purity, body, and flavor, but also because no one else drank it and no one else seemed to know what it was EXCEPT for old guys... and that was old school and that was super cool. Ballantine became something of a icon for us and to this day it holds a special place in my heart.

I know what you are thinking "Mke, you are handsome and slender, where are you going with this Ballantine line of dialog?" Well, it was my Aunt Louise who introduced us to Ballantine one fateful evening in the fall of 1993.

To surmise: Aunt Louise is the coolest.
Therefore... I offer my heartfelt apologies to Aunt Louise.

Peace.
MPH

Police Part 2

2007-03-08T06:32:00.000-05:00

Chris and I did get tickets to see the Police.

The concert is on July 20, so I have 4 months to learn the words to their songs so I can sing along and won't get bored... and so I don't look like a poseur only singing along to the songs off of Synchronicity.

I borrowed The Police's box set, Message in a Box, from Chris which has all of their songs. I put them all on my MP3 player and will rock that exclusively for the next couple of weeks/months.

I wanted to add a few things to the lists from my previous post, stuff that i forgot or didn't mention at the time:

"Bands I am not crazy about that I would like to see in concert" I need to add to that list:
Metallica

"Musicians/Bands I am glad I saw even though I am not crazy about them" I need to add to that list:
Ani DiFranco

And something intersting about all the great live music events i have seen at Hershey Park Stadium: Every concert I have ever been to there has been with family members. I have never seen a concert there with a friend. AND, the only concert I have been to with my dad was at Hershey Park Stadium... That was the Bob Dylan concert where it rained the whole show and Bob skipped a verse in Tangled Up In Blue. BUT he did sing Hard Rain Gonna Fall which was pretty neat.

Concerts I have seen with Mom:
Bob Dylan in Hershey
Rolling Stones in Philly
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in New Jersey
Rolling Stones in Hershey

Concerts I have seen with Chris:
Dread Zeppelin in Philly
Red Hot Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters in Hershey

Concerts I have seen with Maureen:
Stone Temple Pilots/Flaming Lips/Butthole Surfers in Philly
Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band in New Jersey

Concerts I have seen with Amy
4 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts (E. Rutherford N.J., Boston, E. Rutherford again, Philly)
Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band in Camden N.J.
Red Hot Chili Peppers/Fishbone in Montreal
2 Joan Baez concerts in Burlington
2 Ani DiFranco concerts in Burlington
Bob Dylan in Lake Placid
Sun Volt in Burlington
Tenacious D in Burlington
James McMurtry in Burlington
The Zambonis in Burlington
Shawn Colvin in Burlington
Karan Casey in Burlington

Concert I have seen with Dad:
Bob Dylan in Hershey

Concert I saw with Mark:
Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band in Camden N.J.

Concert I saw with Seamus:
Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band in Camden N.J.

There is a fairly concise list of the concerts I have been to with family members.

There will be a test on this at a later date.

Peace,
MPH

Funny Nona Comic

2007-03-02T19:40:00.000-05:00

The Police

2007-02-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

The Police are going to be playing at HersheyPark Stadium and Christo and I are going to try and get tickets. I don't suppose it will be that hard to get tickets - The Rolling Stones played there and it was quite easy to get those tickets. And they are the most famous band in the WORLD.

I know what a lot of you are thinking - "Mike, you are handsome and slender, but I never knew you were a Police fan." Well, you are right, I am not much of a Police fan. I've always liked them, but never really went nuts for them. They are, however, an iconic band who were very very talented. And I think I want to see them just for that reason. Kind of like the Stones - the first time I saw the Stones, I didn't even own an album of theirs, but I wanted to see them. (And after seeing them live, I wanted to see them again... and if they tour again, I will want to see them again.)

For that same reason, I always wanted to see the Grateful Dead and Ramones. I can not stand the Dead, but they were legends and it would have been cool to have just seen them. Same deal with the Ramones - they started punk rock, you gotta go see a band like that. But, despite the oppurtunity to see both of those bands on several occasions, I never did.

And for that same reason, I am glad that I can say that I saw the following musicians/bands that I like but am not entirely crazy about:
Pearl Jam
Smashing Pumpkins (worst live band ever)
Arlo Guthrie
The Rolling Stones
Marilyn Manson

Here is the list of bands I've had the chance to see, but didn't, and will never get to see:
Nirvana
Grateful Dead

Band I wish I'd at least have been given the chance to see:
Led Zeppelin

Band I need to see at some point in my life:
U2

Bands who I could have seen and are considered 'great' but I think blow:
The Who

So, I will hopefully get to see The Police even though I don't particularly care that much for Sting himself... he seems like kind of a jerk and when he was on the 1988 Amnesty International Tour with Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Yousou N'Dour, and Tracey Chapman, he always had this look on his face like he was better than everyone else on the tour.
Item 1: Musically speaking, he wasn't the most best person on the tour, that was Peter Gabriel.
Item 2: Sales-wise, he wasn't the most popular person on the tour, that was Bruce.
Item 3: Connection-to-the-suffering-of-people-in-the-third-world-wise, he wasn't even close to Yousou N'dour despite his trips to save the rain forest, etc etc.
Item 4: Popularity-wise, he wasn't the most most famous person on the tour - that would have been Yousou N'Dour. Yousou N'Dour couldn't walk down the street in any city in all of Africa without being mobbed. He is like Muhammed Ali over there.

One last list:
Musicians I have seen at the HersheyPark Stadium
Bob Dylan
Red Hot Chili Peppers with the Foo Fighters
Rolling Stones

I find it hard to believe that I have see this many great musicians in Hershey PA.

Peace

President's Day Weekend

2007-02-19T08:57:00.000-05:00

So far we are having a great president's day weekend.

On Saturday we went to Bombergers and got a new battery for the Subaru. The old battery just was not cold-cranking like all the advertisements on TV say it should be. I took it out and threw it in the creek. Let nature take care of it, I say.

Then we went sledding at the park. Nona LOVED it.

click here to see a video of nona on her sled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLjUFpJDitU

Amy & Nona took naps and we went up to Reading to see Maureen and Andrew before they left for Massachusetts.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We mostly hung out at home. We did go to Target and then to Lancaster Breweing Company for lunch. You may remember from previous posts on this blog that I once asked for the beer sampler and got like 12 5-oz glasses of beer. I'm not as dumb as I was on Saturday July 14, 2005. I got one pint of Litening Lager and I enjoyed it a great deal.

We got home and Nona and Amy took a loooong nap as I worked on some projects. After they woke up, Nona and I watched the Daytona 500. She really seemed to like it.

I went to bed around 10:00 and slept great knowing that I did not have to be at work the next day. That felt great.

Here is a comic I 'wrote.' Maureen and Erin say I shouldn't be allowed to say that I 'wrote' a comic if all I did was draw some pictures with other people saying funny things. Perhaps I will say this: here is a poorly drawn representation of Me and Amy chronicling something funny that Amy said.

Peace
(Jesus Peace, Not Hippie Peace)
MPH

Morro Castle Maritime Disaster

2007-02-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

I saw a book at the library called When The Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and its Deadly Wake. It is a piece of non-fiction about a shipwreck and something drew me to it. As I always do with a new book, I look at the pictures first. After a few ho-hum photos of the principal characters of the book, I came across this picture:

clearly that is the Asbury Park Convention Hall. As you all probably know, I saw Bruce Springsteen there in April. I thought it was pretty cool, and I was further intrigued by the book so checked it out.

Back at work, before actually getting to read anything more than the jacket of the book, I was flipping through the pages and came across the title of Chapter Ten: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. That, of course, is the title of Bruce's first album. I figured the author was throwing it out there kind of as a joke, like 'this would be a funny name for a chapter in the book and maybe some Bruce fans will get a kick out of it.' well, I certainly did get a kick out of it.

On my afternoon break, I started to read the prologue of the book... I won't relate to you the details of the prologue, as it has nothing to do with this blog entry, other than to say that there is a man on trial awaiting the jury's verdict in his murder case. At one point the defendant is thinking back to his days when he was nationally known as the hero of the Morro Castle disaster and enjoyed a brief speaking engagment recounting his heroics. What struck me was that on pabe xvi, author Brian Hicks, uses the phrase "he thought back to better days..." as opposed to "he thought back to a better time in his life" or "he thought back to his prime." He uses the words "Better Days." Better Days is a Bruce song. Of course, I thought that it was no coincidence.

I am way past my days of relating every blessed thing to Bruce, or every use of the number 37 to Cool Hand Luke, but this book was begging me to tally the Bruce Springsteen references... and there were a lot!

I counted 17. Some are a stretch, but I am taking them anyway and I will offer an explaination of each.

1. Page xvi - Better Days

2. Page 20 - "in the summer" as in "in the summer all the lights would shine..." from Mansion on the Hill

3. Page 51 - St. Mary's - Hicks speaks of a priest onboard the Morro Castle and specifically mentions he is from St. Mary's Church. In "independance day" Bruce says "We're leaving this morning from St. Mary's Gate..." and in "linda let me be the one" he says "in the basement of St. Mary's" I know - you are thinking that this is a little bit of a stretch, but I don't think it was necessary to mention the name of his home parish other than to make a Bruce reference.

4. Page 131 - he uses the word "darkness", as in "Darkness on the Edge of Town." again, one word does not a reference make, but when it is an iconic word of the Bruce lexicon, I gotta throw it in there.

5. Page 131 - chapter title "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J." Nuf said.

6. Page 161 - Fourth of July - as in the song "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" again, a popular holiday as a Bruce reference? Yes, I am going to take it.

7. Page 161 - Calliope - as in "The calliope crashes to the ground" from "Blinded by the Light."

8 Page 161 - the palace amusement hall - as in "beyond the palace, hemi-powered drones stream down the boulevard" from Born To Run.

9. Page 162 - Madame Marie - as in "did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for telling fortunes better than they do?" from Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy). (It should be noted that when the Morro Castle was shipwrecked in Asbury Park, Madame Marie would have been there for less than 2 years and would have hardly been the icon of the boardwalk that she has become." Here is a picture of Me, Noel, & Nathaniel at Madame Marie's "Temple of Knowledge."

10 - Page 163 - now here is the quote that made me realize I was right all along. Concerning the scene on the deck of the Morro Castle after the fire, Hicks makes reference to "the skeletal frames of burned-out deck chairs." In Bruce's song "Thunder Road" he sings of "the skeletal frames of burned-out Cheverolets." Now, if that is not a direct reference to Bruce, I don't know what is.

11. Page 164 - Hicks refers to the 1930's Asbury Park as a "city of ruins." Bruce referred to Asbury Park as a 'city of ruins' in his song about Asbury Park called "My City of Ruins."

12. Page 232 - ambulance pulled away - as in "no one watches as an ambulance pulls away..." from Bruce's best song - Jungleland. (Jungleland was the first song Fiona ever heard. I played it for her when she was like 10 minutes old.)

13. Page 256 - Jersey Girl - technically, this is a Tom Waits reference, but Bruce kind of made the song his own on his live album.

The rest are just scattered words that bring Bruce to mind:

14. Page 176 - Rumble "There's gonna be a rumble out on the promenade..." - Atlantic City (and the title of Bruce's wife's first album - Rumble Doll)

15. Page 176 - Thunder - Thunder Road

16. Page 181 - Midway - "He carrys him off down the midway..." - Wild Billy's Circus Story

17. Page 281 - Deserted - 4 songs - Independence Day, Wreck on the Highway, Waitin' on a Sunny Day, Sinola Cowboys.

I know that some of them, like the places in and around Asbury Park, might just be coincidence, but he only mentioned 6 or 7 specific place, and 5 of them were mentioned in Bruce songs. He talked about the a ride called the Calliope... were there not 20 other rides that he could have mentioned?

ALSO - he mentioned the Asbury Park Casino (which was torn down 2 weeks ago). Bruce filmed a couple of videos in there. And he mentioned the intersection of Ocean Ave & First Ave - There is a somewhat famous picture of Bruce taken at that corner - he is leaning against the street sign that says "ocean ave/first ave" with a ferris wheel behind him.

So, if you think I am crazy and am still hyper-obsessed with Bruce (as opposed to just being regular-obsessed) please read this:

After finishing the book, in the afterword, Hicks says when he first saw the picture of the Morrow Castle that is at the top of the page, he felt like he knew where it was without knowing where it was. He knew where it was because he remembered the Asbury Park Convention Hall from a trip he and a friend took to Asbury Park... a trip to see what Bruce was singing about. ALSO, in his thank yous as the end of the book, he thanks Bruce Springsteen and says that Bruce provided the soundtrack for all his travels while researching the book.

IN CONCLUSION: This book was really good - with or without the Bruce references. I only enjoy non-fiction, and I generally only enjoy that when it is a decent story. And this book certainly was a good story. Intrigue, suspense, heroics, psychopaths, commies, unions, and a lot of interesting characters - some weirdos, some very endearing.

peace

mph

Stylish New Glasses

2007-02-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I put up a comic I wrote about my stylish new glasses and Chris' reaction to my stylish new glasses. Maureen asked to see a picture of my stylish new glasses, so here is a picture of me celebrating my 35th birthday with Fiona while wearing my stylish new glasses. Under which, I have included a picture of Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of Weezer and half of the inspiration for the comic about Chris' reaction to my stylish new glasses.

Me and Nona

Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of Weezer.

Peace

MPH

My New MP3 Player and a very funny comic

2007-01-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

With the money I got for my birthday, I bought myself a new MP3 player on eBay. I got it for less than it is sold for in the stores, so I am stoked.

Here is what I put on it to start off: Bruce Springsteen's Devils and Dust and Darkness on the Edge of Town. And a new Irish band called "U2." I put an album of theirs called "The Joshua Tree" and a new recording of theirs calls "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." This band is really talented and mark my words, they will be a big success. Seriously, though, I only just recently started listening to The Joshua Tree. I always loved Rattle and Hum and Zooropa, but never got into Joshua Tree. Let me say this now: that album is really really good and it as a song on it about a coal mining town called "Red Hill Mining Town." which led me to think of good songs about coal mining (or in some cases, just mining in general):

North Country Blues by Bob Dylan
North Country Blues by Joan Baez
Fare Thee Well Old Ely Branch by Aunt Molly Jackson
The L&M Don't Stop Here Any More By Michelle Shocked
The L&M Don't Stop Here Any More By Johnny Cash
Red Hill Mining Town by U2
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
Blood On The Coal by The Folksmen
Youngstown by Bruce Springsteen
Working in a Coal Mine by DEVO
1913 Massacre by Woody Guthrie

Shall I put them in order of best to worst? I shall.
1. North Country Blues by Joan Baez... (oh yeah, you heard me Dylan, I put Joan Baez's ahead of yours. I think her voice in the song, the narrator being a woman is more powerful than a man singing... when a woman tells the tale, it is of woe and helplessness... when a man sings the song it is of anger and emasculation.)
2. The L&M Don't stop here any more by Michelle Shocked
3. 1913 Massacre by Woody
4. Youngstown by Bruce Springsteen (When I die i don't want no part of Heaven, I would not to heaven's work well, I pray the devil comes and takes me to work in the fiery furnaces of Hell."
5. North Country Blues by Bob Dylan
6. Red Hill Mining Town by U2
7 Fare Thee Well of Ely Branch by Aunt Molly
8 L&M by Johnny Cash
9 Blood on the Coal by the Folksmen - that is the band in The Mighty Wind
10. Bad John by Jimmy Dean - my dad used to sing this song to me when i was a kid.
11 Working in a Coal Mine by DEVO

Other songs I remember my dad singing to me when I was a kid:
Rockin' Robin

peace,
mph

My Birthday

2007-01-17T19:08:00.000-05:00

So I had a birthday yesterday. I am now 35 and I only have to work for like 28 more years. Niiiiice.

When I got home from work yesterday, Fiona was standing at the back door waiting for me. When I opened the door she yelled "Haaappy BIRthday, Daaaaddy!!!!" that was really awesome.

We had my favorite, Cream of Broccoli Soup. Along with it, we had Baked Brie and crackers, and then some Ice Cream Cake. You can not go wrong with ice cream cake.

Amy, Fiona, and Mom Z gave me a gift certificate to the local hobby shop to help me start building my model railroad layout. Here is what i am hoping it will look like:

Seriously, though, Larry has a really cool layout and I am thinking of setting something up in the basement. Fiona really likes Larry's layout and I am thinking it will be something she and I can do together.

Here is a comic that I think is kind of funny. It is a true story of something that Amy said a few months ago. I don't know why, but lately I have been coming up with decent comic ideas, I write them down, and then, like 3 months later, I draw them. I'd like to start drawing comics a lot more, like I used to.

Amy is concerned that you can't tell that the woman in the comic is Amy. I think it goes without saying. She says it is easy to pick me out because I am wearing a Phillies hat. She said "maybe when you draw me, you can draw something at people associate with me" So I think that all future Amy comics will be of her doing pottery. I don't know how that will play out, but I suppose we will see. Or perhaps, I will just start drawing her with a flower on her shirt or something like that.

Peace
mph

Couple of Things and an outdated comic

2007-01-15T19:21:00.000-05:00

The Eagles season is over. It was a fun season. My favorite thing about the Eagles season was that Fiona and I (and sometimes Amy) would go up to Mom and Dad's to watch the game every sunday. So I will miss that. Mom asked me if I'd want to come up and watch all the Phillies games this year. That would be a monumental endeavor, but I think it would be fun. I don't suppose it will happen, though.

My favorite part of the Eagles game on saturday was when they showed that woman in the crowd with an offensive t-shirt . Mom missed it and i said "that will be on YouTube by halftime."
YouTube proved me wrong, but it was up there by Noon on sunday.

Here is a comic I wrote around Halloween:

I think it would have been funnier if Amy would have said "makerel" or "walleye" but then i could not have written "a true story" behind it.

this and that and 3 crappy comix

2006-12-29T19:19:00.000-05:00

the work year is over and i managed to do something i have never done before - i actually carried over some vacation time from this year to next year. Somehow I managed to not use 1 hour of vacation and will have the pleasure of 3 weeks and one hour of vacation time in 2007, instead of merely 3 weeks.

Andrew Patrick now has his own blog and it is a lot of fun to look at. if you look closely, you may see some of the familiar faces you see here at scrapple dog.

Christmas Day at Mom & Dad's house was awesome. Instead of giving a detailed description of everything that went on, i have decided to just throw out the following words:

Cheesy Potatoes.

Tigger Fishing Rod.

Le Cruset Pot

Swiss Army Watch.

Dad's Home-made Hot Sauce.

The Eagles Rule.

The new beck cd rules. It is reminiscent of Odelay and I find it more enjoyable than Midnight Vultures and Guero (i never really was all that nuts for Guero). I think Mutations and Odelay are still his best two "popular" albums. And One Foot In The Grave is still his best album. Stereopathetic SoulMaure still has the best name but is not his best album.

And to anyone who confuses Beck with Jeff Beck, let me say this - Jeff Beck sucks. I don't care if he was in the Yardbirds... the only decent member of the Yardbirds was Jimmy Page... you all know that Eric Clapton never did anything original - NEVER. He made millions ripping off the poor black musicians of the deep-south and then ripped off George Harrison. Screw Clapton.

We hung out with the Zecchinellis and Steiners on Dec 26 and a good time was had by all. It was great to see Jason and Fiona was super excited about seeing Kellen.

somthing funny that was put into the Michael P. Holland lexicon a few days before Christmas was saying "nothing says 'blessed be the Christ child like ..... "

Examples: Amy said "I'm hungry." Then I said "How about Burger King... Nothing says 'blessed be the Christ child like a Bacon-Double Cheeseburger."

or: Mom Z says: "What's on tv?" And I say "Nothing says 'blessed be the Christ Child' like a little Law and Order:SVU."

Also, you don't actually have to say it out loud... you can just think it. Like when I went outside to have a ciggie on Christmas Eve. I thought, "Nothing says "blessed be the Christ Child' like a nice Camel Light."

now: 3 unfunny comix. All three are TRUE STORIES!!

Zonenbrilla involves a young woman i work with.

Teamwork involves two women i work with and Blythe's response to their 'comversaion.'

Beach is just not funny.

this comic is also reminiscent of when Dritsas came to visit me in Vermont and was wearing a black leather jacket and i asked him if he got it at Donny Brosco's Garage Sale.

all right.

peace. see you in 2007.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2006-12-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

So far we are having a wonderful Christmas Day. We got up around 7:00 and went downstairs to see what Santa Claus brought for Fiona.

Fiona was very happy with all the loot under the tree.

Santa brought her an Easel and art supplies.

He brought her an Easy-bake oven, cooking utensils, an apron and a chef's hat.

He brought her a train.

Santa brought Fiona a backpack.

Santa brought her a Greetings From Asbury Park t-shirt.

And he he got her a sled... now if it would only snow a little.

I guess I avoided the naughty list, because I received a few gifts myself. Fiona gave me the Onion's Page a day calendar, Amy gave me the new Beck CD. And Mom Z gave me the most awesome Christmas any son-in-law could possibly ask for: A bottle of Woodford Reserve Whisky!

Santa was very good to Amy also, she got a Yoga DVD and she got Amy Sedaris' "I like you: Hospitality under the Influence" book.

Mom Z also got a visit from St. Nick. He brought her a crucifix for her new home.

We had a wonderful Christmas Morning and we are looking forward to spending the rest of the day relaxing with our family in Reading, Celebrating Aunt Louise's birthday, and of course, watching the Eagles play the Cowboys. I do hope that the icing on the Christmas Cake is a big win for the Eagles.

Peace be with you all.

Merry Christmas!

Rudolph

2006-12-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

Last week, I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I remembered why I hate it so much. The only good thing is that Burl Ives sings in it, but even that is countered by the fact that he holds a banjo, but there is no banjo music. Whatever.

Any way, I decided to re-release the interview I did with Rudolph a few years ago.

This was originally published in Smokin' Dog, Volume III, Issue 5, November/December 2000. I hope you enjoy.

INTERVIEW WITH RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
Last week, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came over for dinner and to be interviewed.
During the interview I found out some thingst that I later wished I hadn't (he's been to the Betty Ford Clinic several times, he's thrice divorced) and some things which, quite frankly, shocked the hell out of me (graduated Suma Cul Laude from Yale and he once had his name legally changed to Rudolph X). All in all it as been a roller-caster ride for one of Christmas' most popular icons.
So here it is, the interview with the Red-Nosed Reindeer. (I have taken te liberty to remove all expletives.)

SMOKIN' DOG: There has been a lot of specuation about yor childhood not being a happy one. Tell me about it.
RUDOLPH: Well, it wasn't a happy one at all. My parents, especially my father, were very ashamed of me. He made that abundantly clear. He would cover my nose with coal so that people couldn't see it. I was his only son and he was ashamed of me. And then he'd yell at my mother telling her it was her fault... because she drank when she was pregnant with me. But that was his fault as well. he was a speed freak. He was on coke all the time, I mean, he was the lead puller and all.

SD: How about the infamous flying tryouts?
R: Well it's all right there on tape. I flew further than anyone else, and I got cut because of my nose. I mean, what the hell is up with that? My nose has nothing to do with my ability to fly.

SD: But you did lead the sleigh later. Was that a bittersweet victory?
R: Hell no. The only reason I lead the sleigh was because they could exploit my freakish quality. I mean do y ou honestly think they would have let me lead the sleigh if I didn't have the nose? And when I did lead the sleigh, you hear my dad singing a different tune. He was all "That's my son!! That's MY son!" Two days earlier he verbally abused me to the point that I decided to run away and now he's proud of me?

SD: Why did you run away?
R: Well, I got to the point where i just wanted to kill. I mean I wanted them dead, but I am not a violent person, so I removed myself from the situation.

SD: Ket's talke about Santa a little. Do you have issues with him?
R: Yes I do. For starters, he doesn't pay his people what they are worth. He works them elves ten hours a day six days a week at starvation wages. He owns the company store and all the houses that the elves are required to rent. All the wages he pays them, he takes right back. And if they miss one day of work, he docks them a week's wages... Santa is a very greedy bastard, he's aobut one thing and one thing only: money, money, and more money. And that guy is worth well over $100 Billion. He's got that sweet deal with Coca-Cola, he's got deals with every single company, and he's got a contract with every mall and department store in America.

SD: But he does good works, right? I mean he gives to the rich and poor alike.
R: Yeah, but it's all about image. Image is everything to that jerk. He ain't out there giving the poor kids the PlayStations and the rich kids the misfit toys. He gives the poor kids the crappy toys.

SD: How about the working conditions?
R: Horrible. I tried like mad to unionize that place, but I couldn't get enough people to stand together. I mean, a strike on December 24 would have shut that place down, man. Do you know how much potential for power there is for the elves on Christmas Eve? They could cancel Christmas if they wanted, but any time there is a Union talk around the shop, Santa comes in and throws them a couple of bucks and that quells the uprising...And it's even worse for the Reindeer. We're expendable. There are literally tens of thousands of deer out there...The reindeer fly around the world, the entire world, in one night. Santa goes home and has a nice meal and goes to sleep for ten days in his huge bed. Do you know what the reindeer get? An apple, some carrots and wool blanket in the stable. Do you know how incredibly cold it gets at the North Pole in the middle of winter?

There isn't anything eles to really report. He went off about the pressures of being the only reindeer in the world with his own song adn how the other deer can't handle the pressure, etc. etc. That part of the interview was so laden with foul language that I couldn't even put it into a coherent sentence.

He did have one parting thing to say: He does hope that everone in the world has a very Merry Christmas.

Nona's Big Girl Bed

2006-11-18T15:21:00.000-05:00

God Bless Ikea.

Amy and My Mom went down to Ikea a few weeks ago and picked up a bed for Fiona. Today Fiona and I put it together. She loves it already.

Fiona showing WHY she needed a big girl bed!

Me trying got figure out which 2 of the 837 pieces I needed to put together first.

Nona helps me put some of the bolts in place.

Nona in her New Big Girl Bed!!

After putting her bed together, Fiona and I went up to town to celebrate with some pizza at Nino's, we went to Lititz Springs Park to feed the ducks, stopped by the Lititz Welcome Center to see if there was a Christmas Parade (there is not), we stopped by the Manger Scene to look at Baby Jesus, we got some Chocolate Milk, and then we went to Bombergers to get something to fix our leaky pipe.

Then we came home and Fiona went right up to her bedroom to lay in her big girl bed... She seems too excited about it to sleep though. She is down there right now climbing in her bed then climbing out of her bed. Climbing in, climbing out.

It makes me happy that she is so excited about her new bed.

Before it was even close to being done, she started putting stickers on it. She is already personalizing it and I am thinking it will only be a matter of time before it is completely covered in stars, hearts, bird, and hello kitty stickers.

Peace,

MPH

Trip to the Hunting Camp

2006-11-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

Veteran's Day weekend is my favorite weekend of the year.

I go up to the cabin with Dad and Larry and we hunt grouse. My dad and Larry are both Veterans of the Armed Services, so I am glad to be able to spend the weekend with them.

I rode up to the camp with Larry on Thursday evening. We stopped at Mom Zimmerman's house to pick up a recliner for the camp. Amy's Mom no longer needs the chair, and it is still in great condition, so it will make an excellent addition to the camp.

Dad tests out the new recliner

We got to the camp around 10. Dad was already there with jackdog.

On Friday morning, we got up and hunted. Jackdog sniffed out a few grouse and the tried to make a break for it. I shot one, but the other three got away. I thought I shot another one, but apparently I did not. As the second bird was flying I was already hoping to revel in the glory of having two dead birds in the air without Dad and/or Larry even taking a shot. After I shot the bird, Jackdog sprung into action. He ran directly to the bird, pinned it down, picked it up and retrieved it to Dad and handed it to him. It was really neat to see.
Me and Jackdog with my first grouse.

We then hunted on Larry's property along the old logging road. Jackdog flushed one bird that Dad shot. Dad and I both saw the bird on the ground and Jack went right to the bird but it was no where to be found. Dad and I both swear we saw Jackdog pick up the bird, but apparently we were mistaken. We looked and looked and could not find that bird.

We then hunted down along where the old electric fence was. We always get birds out there. One took off but none of us got a shot at it. We had a few more flushes, a few more shots, but no more dead birds.

After hunting, Dad went down to Long Pond to try to catch Mr. Big, the gigantic brown trout that has been taunting him for 3 years. On Thursday, dad got him to take the bait, but was unable to set the hook and Mr. Big swam away. Friday was no better. Dad fished for about an hour and a half with no bites at all. That fish is the bane of my old man's existence.

On Friday evening we had some stew I made and we watched Patton on AMC.

Saturday was dreary, so we got out early to hunt Larry's property again. As we walked the old logging road it started to really pour. We had no luck. So we went back down to the electric fence and hunted that. One bird took off, Larry fired and got it. Again, Jackdog went to the bird, pinned it down and retrieved it.

We got back to the camp, made a fire and relaxed for the evening.

I had brought a bottle of Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Bourbon and we put a hurting on it and on a bottle of Woodford Reserve that Larry had brought with.

It was a great weekend and I am already looking forward to next year's trip.

Acorns - horrible horrible acorns

2006-11-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

The oak tree out back has blessed us this year with literally thousands of acorns.

Today i raked almost all of the acorns out into the street. It was a gignatic pain in the neck.

I also got 5 blisters from it.

I was thinking of making an acorn pie for thanksgiving, but have been unable to come up with a recipe for it. i did, however, find a bunch of recipes for other acorn stuff. Like acorn bread, acorn stew, and acron griddle cakes. The more i think about it, the more i think it is a crappy idea.

when i oribinally went to google to search for recipes for acorn pie, it came back with a ton of sites. However all of the recipes for "acorn pie" were actually for pecan pies. ??? that don't make no sense. I have never heard of a pecan pie called an acorn pie.

My sister makes the best pecan pies. I was never a big fan of pecans, other than when my mom would make Pecan Puffs at Christmastime, but two or three years ago, Reen brought a couple of pecan pies for thanksgiving and they were delicious.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and here is why: It has all of the best parts of Christmas - the family togetherness and the gigantic meal - without all of the expense of buying gifts. There is no pressure with Thanksgiving - I don't have to worry about someone not liking what I got them. All i have to do is show up with a Pumpkin Pie, hang out with my family, listen to dad and snook talk about their folks, listen to Christo and Maureen make fun of me, and eat a ton of food. Then i get to sleep on the couch and watch football. What on earth could possibly be better??? oh yeah... and I have off from work the next day.

peace.

Trip to Massachusetts

2006-10-30T15:33:00.000-05:00

As you all probably know, My sister had a baby 3 weeks ago, Andrew Patrick. This past weekend was Andrew's baptism. Amy is Andrew's Godmother. Saturday morning at 4:23 Amy, Fiona, Dad and I loaded up the Trailblazer and got on the road. It was windy and rainy the entire drive. It was possibly the 7 worst hours of driving i have ever done. But we arrived all safe and sound in Mashpee, MA and were very happy to see Maureen, Mark, Mom, and of course, Andrew Patrick.

About an hour after we arrived, Christo, Becky, Sara & Samantha arrived. We then spent the afternoon hanging out with Maureen, Mark and Andrew. It was very nice.

For Dinner, we went to Mark's parent's house. Amy and Fiona and I stayed at the Osler's house overnight. On Sudnay morning, we went to the church for the batism service which was very nice. (The baby that Rev. Showalter is holding in the picture on the website is not Andrew.)

We then adjoined to Mark & Maureen's house for lunch. Mark grilled some home-made sausage. He had pepper sausage and mole sausage. (It is pronounced moe-lay and has nothing to do with the annoying critters that make tunnels in your backyard.)

We then watched the Eagles get demolished by the Jaguars. And then watche the New England Revolution beat the Chicago Fire to advance in the MLS playoffs.

Then the real fun began. At around 7:30, Chris called Taylor to see how her weekend was. She said that Mom & Dad's neighbor, Joe, left a message on Chris' answering machine saying that there was a loud noise coming from Mom & Dad's basement. We tried to figure out how to get Joe into my folk's house to figure out what the problem is. To no avail. so the next thing you know, it is 8:23 and Amy, Fiona, Mom, Dad and I are loaded up in the Trailblazer heading south. Needless to say we were not planning on driving home to pennsylvania at 8:30, and I can not for the life of me remember the last time I stayed up past 3:00 a.m., let alone driving at that hour. ALSO, let me remind you that sunday morning, we turned the clocks back, so not only was it 3:48 when we got home, but my mind and body was thinking it was 4:48. But we got home just fine. Fiona and Amy slept from Mashpee to Maiden Creek, and Mom and Dad stayed up with me the entire ride. I was glad that Amy slept because I knew that if I needed her to drive, it would be best if she had some rest. I was concerned that we would get to new Jersey and I would start getting really sleepy and I might need Amy to step in and take over.

We stoped once for gas and some Newman's Own coffee at McDonalds. The coffee kept me wide awake from Connecticut straight through to M0m & Dad's house. God Bless Paul Newman... is there anything he can't do?? Anyway, we got home and everything was fine... the sump pump was stuck in the "on" position. About 10 minutes after we realized everything was okay, i crashed out and went to sleep. I got up this morning and had some dunkin donuts, relaxed and then cam home to Lititz.

What an exciting weekend. We had a great time seeing everyone. I thought it was great that Andrew Patrick got to see all of his grand parents, aunts, uncles, and all but one of his cousins.

Maureen and Mark look really good and Andrew is just a little angel. Throughout the entire church service, and during the baptism itself, he did not make a peep.

Fun fact: He was the 30th baby to wear the McDevitt family baptismal gown. The baptismal gown is over 60 years old.

I am looking forward to our next trip to Massachusetts... I only hope that the drive to and fro are considerably less memorable.

It's CIDER TIME!!!

2006-10-09T20:34:00.000-04:00

On a beautiful crisp fall day there is nothing more fun than pressing out some apple cider.

Larry called me on Thursday to tell me that he had picked a bunch of apples to make some cider, so on Sunday, Fiona and I met up with Dad up at Larry's house to make apple cider.

We got to Larry's house around 10:00 and 4 hours later we had 6 and a half gallons of fresh apple cider.

Fiona helped every step of the way. She would take the apples out of the wheelbarrow and into the kitchen where they were washed and cut by Larry. Then the quartered apples were brought out to the press. Fiona helped put the apples into the grinding mechanism and tried to turn the grinding wheel. (She usually got help from her dad or from her Pop-pop. As we were pressing the cider, she was very instrumental as the qualty-control department. Larry gave her a little plastic cup that she must have filled 4 or 5 times to drink the freshest possible apple cider there is. After we would press a couple of pecks, we would put the pomus into a bucket that Fiona helped carry to the compost pile.

She also helped as we bottled the cider holding the strainer so that no apple chunks or seeds got into the bottles.

It was a perfect day. Spending time with Fiona, Dad, and Larry making apple cider.

Here are some photos from the day.

peace

oh yeah, after the cider operations, we went back to mom & dad's house and watched the Eagles beat up the Cowboys. Awesome.

Reen and Mark and Andrew

2006-10-07T21:13:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Maureen and Mark on the birth of their son, Andrew.

I love Maureen and I love Mark.

I know that their family love will only grow with the birth of Andrew.

I love the name Andrew. There are about 30 Saints named Andrew, so I will focus only on St. Andrew the Apostle. He is the patron saint of fishermen. I think that is very appropriate considering Little Andrew will probably be a fisherman if he follows in his father and grandfathers' footsteps.

BRUUUUUUCE!!!!!!!!

2006-09-23T09:06:00.000-04:00

Today, as you all know, is Bruce Springsteen's Birthday.

I will spare you the "why Bruce is so important to me" speech, i think everyone who reads this blog has already heard that little speech and also, i don't think many of the care. Therefore, I will go straight to Listville.

Number of Times I have seen Bruce with a state-by-state breakdown
9 - 4 times in New Jersey, 3 times in Pennsylvania, once in Massachusetts and once in New York.

Ranking of the concerts by best OVERALL BRUCE experience
1. 8-27-99 - Boston Mass (Front Row Show)
2. 11-8-05 - Philadelphia, PA - Bruce Solo on the Devils and Dust Tour
3. 8-9-03 - Philadelphia, PA - The Rising Stadium Tour

Ranking of the concerts by MOST MEMORABLE for me
1. 8-27-99 - Boston Mass - I sat in the front row.
2. 6-20-06 - Camden, New Jersey - I went with Seamus, Maureen, Mark, and Amy
3. 11-8-05 - Spectrum, Philadelphila PA - Devils and Dust tour. I went by myself and really enjoyed it. It was, by far and wide, the best Bruce concert I have seen.
4. 7-27-03 - Giant Stadium, New Jersey - I went with my Mom and Aunt Louise, Amy, and Jason & Kristin.
5. 4-26-06 - Asbury Park New Jersey - Dude, it was Bruce IN Asbury Park playing the 4th show with his new band... AND i met his banjo player before the show.
6. 6-26-93 - Madison Square Garden, NY - Dude, Matthews called me with free tickets 2 days before the show. He sang Atlantic City.
7. 8-9-06 - Lincoln Financial Field - Phila PA - I went with Amy, Matthews, and Jamie. Two Words: Trapped and For You played back to back.
8. 8-7-99 - Continental Airlines Arena New Jersey - We drove down from Vermont with Joe and Tammy - It was Amy's first Bruce show and my first show seeing the E Street Band. We had really bad seats, but dude, it was the boss.
9. 8-29-02 - My First Bruce show. It was awesome and he sang Atlantic City and it was at the end of a really shitty summer for me, so I was stoked.

Ranking of concerts by SETLIST
1. 08-09-03 - The Linc in Philly - He opened with Adam Raised a Cain, and played Trapped, For You, She's the One, Spirit in the Night, Badlands, and Thunder Road. THEN he played Hungry Heart, Glory Days and Born to Run back-to-back-to-back. THEN Rosalita and Dancin' in the Dark.

*I am not even going to have a second place because first place was so freaking awesome. Dude, he played Trapped. TRAPPED!!! Can you believe that???? How great is that? When it started, I grabbed Amy's arm and yelled "IT'S TRAPPED... HE'S PLAYING TRAPPED." I then looked at Jamie and yelled "DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE? HE'S PLAYING TRAPPED!!!." It was like that zen moment when you just thinking "man, this is awesome, I am seeing Bruce with Amy and Matthews and it's cool... the sound it this place isn't the best, but hey it's cool, I'm seeing the boss and he's rocking The Ties that Bind..." and then the moment you've been waiting for at every single Bruce Concert you've ever been to actually happens. The organ starts... by the 3rd note, all the knowledgable Bruce fans in the crowd know what is happening and simultaneously roar their collective approval of what they will know will possibly be the best 5 minutes and 30 seconds of all the Bruce concerts they have ever seen combined. And it is true, it was the best song I have ever heard live. Of all the bands and all the concerts I have ever seen, hearing that song was the pinacle of all songs ever.

Bruce played that songs in the United States only 3 times that summer. He has like 500 songs in his arsenal and I was lucky enough to get to hear Trapped.

3. 08-27-99 - Front Row Show - He opened with Candy's Room, The Ties that Bind and Adam Raised a Cain. He then played a five-song string of Mansion on the Hill, Point Blank, Youngstown, Murder Inc. & Badlands. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out, New York City Serenade, Jungleland, and Raise Your Hand.

Kind of like Trapped, New York City Serenade was just so awesome... it was just bizarre that he would play it. It was almost surreal and I looked at the Bruce Geek sitting next to me and said "Is this New York City Serenade?" And he said "I think it is..." And we just kind of had this puzzled look on our faces. I remember thinking "at what point did Bruce say 'Tonight I am going to play what is possibly the weirdest, arguably the most audience-unfriendly song of my entire catalog.'" It is a song that is almost impossible to sing along to and would seem best suited to be played at a tiny theater with just a group of hard-core fans in the crowd. But who cares... I got to hear it and it was awesome. (again only played 4 times on the whole tour.)

4. 11-08-06 - The Spectrum, Philly on the Devils and Dust Tour - A handful of my favorite bruce songs played accoustic - you really can't go wrong. Atlantic City, Incident on 57th Street, Be True (on piano), Highway Patrolman, Devils and Dust, Johnny 99 sung through this thing that distorted his voice... it was really cool.

5. 08-07-99 - Continental Airlines Areana, NJ - Meeting Across the River and Jungleland back-to-back. Factory, Point Blank, Youngstown, Murder Inc, Badlands, Out in the Street, and Tenth Avenue Freeze-out in a row! Don't Look Back. Awesome.

Ranking of Concerts by PEOPLE I WENT WITH
1. 06-20-06 - Camden N.J. - Seamus, Amy, Maureen & Mark
2. 07-27-03 - Giant Stadium - Mom, Louise, Amy, Jason & Kristin
3. 08-27-99 - Front Row Show - Amy
4. 06-28-93 - MSG NYC - Matthews
5. 09-07-03 - Linc - Amy, Matthews, Jamie
6. 08-07-06 - Continental Airlines - Amy, Joe & Tammy
7. 08-29-92 - Manny, Choniere

SINGLE BEST BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT MOMENTS
1. Bruce slapped my hand - i think everyone knows that would be number 1.
2. Trapped
3. Candy's Room to open the Front Row Show
5. Seamus singing along to "Pay me my money down."
6. Seamus singing along to "Oklahoma Home."
4. Seamus asking me "What's for dinner?" while Bruce was singing Maria's Bed for the first time on the entire tour.
5. Be True on the Devils and Dust tour - he played it on the piano and screwed up really bad and had to start over... it was really neat to see.
6. Seeing my mom and aunt Louise rock with the boss.
7. Badlands at the Front Row Show - the crowd was really really into the whooaaoh - whooaoh- whooaoh part so after the song was over, bruce started playing the riff on his guitar again and the crowd picked up on it right away even though the band didn't know exactly what Bruce was doing... then Max picked up the beat and then the rest of the band... that was freaking awesome.
8. Amy rocking with the boss in the front row and pumping her fist in the air and singing the words all wrong.
9. Jungleland at the New Jersey show.
10. Atlantic City on the Devils & Dust show.

Peace.

p.s.
when bruce sings Atlantic City, he says "Now there's trouble busing in from out of state."
A few weeks ago at Fiona's birthda party, seamus was playing my banjo and started to sing Atlantic City, and he said: "Now there's trouble coming in from outerspace."
seamus is part of the folk process. I hope someday seamus records an album and uses his alternate lyrics for Atlantic City.

I drew this picture of Seamus singing his version of Atlantic City:

Birdhouse

2006-09-16T08:17:00.000-04:00

My dad made a bluebird house for us. Amy painted the bird on it. We have a couple of sparrows who are interested in renting it, but none have signed the lease yet.

Another Unfunny Comix

2006-09-16T08:11:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I like this one, but it is really not that funny and is a fairly obvious joke.... but I suppose that is why I am so easy to please - obvious jokes make me laugh.

Unfunny Comix

2006-09-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

Addendum to my allergy math problem

2006-09-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

1 - the equation i wrote should have said A + B > C. But I suppose there was a typo in there.

2 - after a long conversation with Jason, I came to realize that is should have actually been more like A x B > C.

Jason and I went to the Reading Phillies last night with My Dad and Christo. It was a good time. We had seats right behind home plate right down in front. It was the last home game of the season and there was a tribute to Scott Wertz, a Police Officer who died in the line of duty about 3 weeks ago. It was sad and very uplifting. Before the game, for the singing of the national anthem, about 40 kids ran out onto the field... they were all kids that Officer Wertz had coached in Little League. I thought that was very special and really neat to see. The Phillies wore these really cool jerseys that said Police with the first letter in the style of the Phillies Trademark "P."

peace

Amy and Nona are away so Mike will play

2006-08-30T07:10:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Amy and Fiona are in Shamokin for a few days, (i am sure fiona will blog all about it), so i had two whole interrupted nights to play Risk on the computer.

I am practicing. Some day Zecchinelli and Dewey will be up for a game and I need to be prepared.

Here is a list of things I didn't do while Amy and Fiona were in Shamokin:
1. The laundry
2. The dishes
3. Cook for myself
4. Clean the car
5. Make the bed
6. Take out the trash
7. Take out the compost

I hate when I am home alone. I am wicked unproductive and I just feel like a lump on a log. I sit at work and make a list of things I need to do when I get home, like work on my calendar and get stuff ready for Fiona's b-day party. But instead, I get home, eat too much food, watch some tv, play Risk, eat some ice cream, and go to bed at like 11:30.

I am not faulting Amy and Fiona for going to Shamokin, I am actually happy that they go. Fiona loves seeing her MamMam and Aunt Sissy. It certainly is not their fault that I am lazy.

So Amy and Fiona will be home today. When I get home from work I will be back to normal. Hopefully I will be able to get some of my projects done.

peace

oh yeah... if anyone likes podcasts, i recommend The Monkey Box. It is wicked funny. Kind of reminds me of Dritsas's Bad Hair group. I feel like such a Gen-X loser when I recommend podcasts that I like. Like I am cool because I have an MP3 player and I don't think many of my friends do. So I am like that rich jackass from high school who always had the new gadgets 6 months before anyone else. That being said, i think MP3 players have been out for like 10 years, so instead of me feeling like a Gen-X loser for recommending a podcast, all you 24 - 38 somethings who are in the target market for electronic gizmos who DON'T have an MP3 player - perhaps it is you who is the losers.

Disclaimer: I don't actually mean that you are losers, I was just saying it to be sarcastic and/or funny. Please don't be insulted... unless you truly are a loser, in which case I might recommend some therapy or a Dr. Phil book.

Disclaimer 2 - i wrote this before work and didn't spell check.

Thank God For the Rain

2006-08-27T08:41:00.000-04:00

In Taxi Driver, psychopathic self-righteous cabbie Travis Bickle says: "Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks."

Here in ScrappleDog, handsome and slender self-righteous idiot Michael Holland says "Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the dust and pollen out of the air."

It is a beautiful Sunday Morning here in Lititz. It is beautiful because it is raining. As you know, we had a really really heavy storm at the end of June. Since then we have had extremely dry weather for about. The aforementioned storm gave all the plants and trees and flowers and other leaf, acorn, and pollen-producing entities all the juice it needed to do their best to agitate my allergies. And they are doing a great job at it. But they are not alone as the culprits in bothering my extraordinarily sensitive sinuses... I am as much to blame as they.

It's an algebra problem, really. A +B <> is the amount of pollen, dust, mold spores, dog hair, etc. B is how much time I voluntarily spend in the pollen, dust, etc. And C is an allergy reaction that will pretty much incapacitate me for the rest of the day.

The big thing here is NOT the amount of things in the air, it is how much time I spend out there. The things in the air are just doing their own thing. Their job is to create new life by spreading their spores all over the place. And the dust, it doesn't really have a job, it is a vacuous non-entity that just goes where it is told to go by the air currents that are it's masters. The big thing here is who on earth I think I can just go out there and work in the dust and pollen and get away with it. Let's look at the case studies, shall we:

The past 3 weekends have been marked by allergy attacks.

August 13: I spend the preceding 2 days and the morning of the 13th at the Buck Hollow Hunting Camp. There is a dirt road in front and near the camp and dump trucks working on the Lyman Run Dam project kick up an ass-load of dust all weekend long. Also, there are a lot of allergens in the air that my body is not used to, so I have very little immunity against those things. Result: After spending a day at Larry Land, riding in a covered wagon on a dirt road, sitting outside in the dusty air, and vacuuming the camp, the ride home was a very very long one with me sneezing and wiping my nose incessantly.

August 20: About 2,000,000 acorns have fallen off our oak tree. I decided it would be the perfect time to rake them. So I did. I over-exerted myself, did a fair amount of heavy breathing that brought in a lot of allergens and spent the next day at Charolotte's baptism and party sneezing and wiping my nose incessantly.

August 26: I replaced a few pieces of wood on the back porch. Again - outside, some physical exertion with heavy breathing, but more importantly: A whole lot of saw dust. I wore a bandana around my nose and mouth, but to no avail. My allergies started bothering me. Fiona and I then went to Mom and Dad's where Jackdog didn't help my allergy situation. I am not "allergic" to Jackdog, but because I am not around him too much, he does have the ability to assist in working my allergies. So I spent the balance of yesterday at my folks's place and up at Cabela's with dad sneezing and wiping my nose incessantly. The nice thing about yesterday was that it was a Saturday and I didn't have to work the next day... Therefore, I was able to treat my allergies not only with Fexofenodrine, but also with my favorite over-the-counter medicinal aide: Maker's Mark Whisky.

If I want to NOT have allergy attacks, then I need to stop over-doing it when I am outside. I can mow the lawn, but I shouldn't follow it by trimming the hedges and turning the compost. If I am going to fix the back porch, I need to subcontract the cutting of the wood to someone else, i.e. Dad, Christo, Jason, Amy, or Fiona. Doing projects is not the problem, the problem is that I am an idiot who needs to be doing projects in order to feel like I have accomplished something. Otherwise it is Monday morning and I get to work and Miranda says to me: "What did you do this weekend?" And I say "Nothing," and I feel like I wasted two days.

So the problem here is this: I do things that I shouldn't do that are going to bother me. But I can't spend the entire summer not mowing the lawn or getting chores done either. So what can I do? I can resign myself to fact that I have some problems that really bother me and I have to live with it. There are people in the world who have it a lot worse than me so I can't really complain too much about it. I think this attitude is the best thing to have because I can either sit around being incapacitate and being really pissed off about it, or I can say "hey, this is my body telling me to sit down and relax for a few hours. Have a tea-party with Fiona, watch Baby Einstein with Fiona, do the crosswords (which is kind of hard because I am sometimes out of it mentally and the crosswords are a lot harder that way), rent a movie, watch the Phillies on TV, play Risk on the computer, or take a nice long nap."

But, I can still be thankful that the rain is here and will hopefully keep some of the nasty allergens out of the air for a few days. And I can count down to November when the hard frost comes and kills off all the pollen producers.

Peace.

Not much going on

2006-08-22T19:32:00.000-04:00

Nothing exciting in the world of MPH the past few days.

Our windows are going to be installed in a few days. I am stoked about that. Hopefully our gas bill will go down significantly in the near future.

I put up the birdhouse that dad made for us. That was fun. I hope we soon have birdies living in it.

I raked the acorns in the yard. It didn't take as long as I expected, but it was a gigantic pain in the thumb. I got a really nasty blister. Here is the kicker: I raked a few thousand acorns and there are about 20,000 more to rake over the next few weeks. They rain down and they hurt quite a bit if you get hit on the head. I am concerned that Nona's b-day party will be somewhat dampened if there is a downpour of acorns while everyone is sitting under the oak tree.

Sunday we went to Charolette Huck's baptism. It was nice to see Bayard and Emelie and get to hang out with them for an afternoon.

Peace.

Sorry so boring.

Weekend at Buck Hollow Hunting Club

2006-08-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Amy, Fiona, Cisco and I went up to the cabin with Kevin, Kara, Megan and Nate Kearney.

As you may or may not know, in May Kevin returned home from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq, so it was nice to be able to spend some time with him and his family.

We had a great time and the weather was perfect from begining to end.

We took a long walking tour of Larry Land, stopping to let Cisco swim in Long Pond. We went over to the new Christmas Trees that Larry and I planted last spring. We found Fiona's Christmas Tree and it looks healthy. After looking at Nona's tree, we hiked over to Pine Pond and Spring Pond. Along the way, we stopped and picked a whole lot of wild raspberries. They were very very tasty. Up at Spring Pond was a gigantic pile of Bear Poop. At one point Fiona was running straight for it and, while Amy was frozen with fear, I swooped in and lifted Fiona out of harm's way just in the nick of time.

After we left Larry Land, we went back to the cabin. That evening we sat around a campfire out back and talked. We saw a Big Mama Bear with two cubs.

On Saturday morning, Kara made pancakes with the wild raspberries we had picked.

Later, we went on a covered wagon ride along Pine Creek in the Grand Canyon of PA. It was pretty neat and Fiona, Megan and Nate really seemed to enjoy it. We then went to the Leonard Harrison State Park on the east rim of the Grand Canyon. Back at camp, we had dinner and smores and sat around the campfire. We saw only one bear, but it was a big one.

On sunday, we packed up and headed home. It was a great weekend to be at the cabin and we were very happy to be able to spend time with the Kearney Family.

SPICE WORLD, the Spice Girls Movie

2006-08-06T10:33:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was Maureen's baby shower at my folks' house. Mark's sister, Erin was there and we were talking about movies that you wouldn't normally think were any good. For Instance: Maureen and mark, both of whom graduated from Lehigh and are generally considered pretty smart and to a certain degree "cultured," have an afinity for the movies Drumline and Bring It On, and Mean Girls.

I then said that one of my favorite movies that i am somewhat embarassed to admit i even watched was Spice World, the Spice Girls movie. Erin thought it was insane to even try to comprehend even thinking about even considering the feasibility of possibly watching such a movie.

THEREFORE, I want to try and make a case for Spice World. Here are a few facts I was unable to remember when I was telling Erin about the movie.
The Following People are in Spice World:

Elvis Costello (as himself)
Elton John
George 'Norm Peterson' Wendt*
Roger 'James Bond' Moore
Kevin McKinney of the Kids In The Hall
Meatloaf
Bob 'Boomtown Rats, Live Aid, Live 8' Geldolf **
Jools Holland
Bob Hoskins
Hugh 'House M.D.' Laurie
Richard O'Brien aka Riff Raff from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

How can a movie with this many AWESOME people in it be bad? It can't.
If you rent this movie and you are not 100% completely satisfied, I will send you a full refund for whatever you paid to rent it (up to $4.50 u.s.)***

IF you are still not sold on Spice World, I might direct you to www.spiceworld.uk.com, a web site about spices and how to use them for cooking and/or medicinal purposes.

*As some of you may know, I made a complete ass of myself when I met him at a Basshead concert in New York.

**who also played the role of Pink in Pink Floyd's epic "the Wall" which Erin considers a rock opera... i do not think of it as a rock opera, more of a long-term psychological study of the effects of the trauma of war and instutionalized education on a young child's mind as told through a scattering array of musical vignets that are linked only by a common character. It relates only vague, but yet severe, hypotheticals that could have happened to any one of a number of young British boys who lost their father to a war he did not understand and then went on to become a international rock superstar during and in the immediate aftermath of World War II and had their lives forever changed negatively and is still searching for the answers that he knows he will never find. God, that could have been anyone... literally anyone. You, me, anyone.
An opera, in my ignorant opinion, is a story that is specific to one person and tells his story. I.e. Tommy, Jesus Christ, and Joseph and his Amazing Technocolored Dreamcoat.

Also - - - AND THIS IS IMPORTANT - - - Opera's are entirely sung. The Wall has several lines in it which are spoken. I.e. the operator on the telephone when Pink calls his wife - those lines are not spoken. Also the infamous "you can't have pudding if you don't eat your meat" dialog of the schoolmaster is spoken, not sung. Therefore - NOT an opera.

Of the rock operas - i list them thusly:
1. Jesus Christ Superstar
2. Tommy
3. Joseph and the Amazing Technocolored Dreamcoat

IF The Wall must be included in the list - i list them thusly
1. The Wall
2, Jesus Christ Superstar
3. Tommy
4. Joseph and the Amazing Technocolor Dreamcoat.

***This offer applies to Erin only.

Red Hot Chili Peppers & The Boss

2006-07-13T19:12:00.000-04:00

So I've been listening to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. So far I like it. Usually when they have a new album out, I'm not so nuts about it, but then after listening to it a few times, I really get into it. This one I liked right off the bat. Chad Smith's drumming really snaps and Frusciante's guitar meanders seamlessly between delicate angelic grace and raging controlled pandemonium. Flea's bass is Flea's bass, always good. But not being a bass afficianado, I can not say if it is any better or more inventive that any other bass player out there. (The bass has always bored the crap out of me. I don't know why.)

There is one lyric on the album that really seemed to pop out at me. I still haven't figured out what the hell it means and if I should be happy or angry about it. Every time I hear it, I stunningly perplexed.

Here it is:
SHE'S GOT THAT MOOD RING
A LITTLE SISTER ROSE
THE SMELL OF SPRINGSTEEN
A PAIR OF PANTYHOSE

"The smell of Springsteen?"
Is that a shout-out?
Or an insult?
Is Keidis giving mad props to the boss, or is he deriding Bruce for what he might view as being something of a media whore?

On Californication, Keidis sez "Cobain can you hear the spheres/singing songs of off Station to Station." Now that is a clear cut example of how to praise both Kurt Cobain and David Bowie. Keidis's (and the RHCP in general) are more likely to be lined up with Nirvana and Bowie than with Bruce and I don't think a whole lot of RHCP's fans are also Bruce fans so maybe he thinks he is able to cut on Bruce.

But RHCP has never been about dissing people and Keidis certainly doesn't need any street-cred like a rapper who needs to put down his enemies to show that he is tough. RHCP and Bruce exist in mutually exclusive circles. Keidis doesn't need to rip on Bruce, unless, as I mentioned earlier, he thinks Bruce is selling out lately. (I.e. being on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, Sirius Satellite Radio, NPR's Fresh Air, BBC's Mastermind, BBC's Great Performances*, CMT, Conan O'Brien, etc. etc.) But I seriously doubt Keidis would openly dis Bruce like that, for two reasons: 1.) One of his good buddies, Eddie Vedder, freaking loves Bruce. And 2.) telling a group of stereotypical RHCP fans that Bruce Springsteen sucks would be like preaching to the choir.

And besides, RHCP has done their fair share of selling out:
1.) they have thier own Adidas Sneakers (I am not making fun of the RHPC for this... these shoes kick so much ass that I would go without lunch for ($209.99/$3.45**) days to get some of these.)
2.) they made a NIKE commercial with Andre Agasi in the early 90's.
3.) they are going to be in a NASCAR commercial.

While I think RHCP and Bruce are at opposite ends of the spectrum musically, i would have to say that with the exceptions of lots of tattoos, RHCP has very very very little in common with Nascar fans. (Oh yeah, maybe the fact that Keidis and Frusciante are recovering addicts... they might have that in common with some Nascar fans.)

Anyway, in writing this I have come to the conclusion that it is just a lyric. Nothing more. A word/name that fit the space. In the preceding verse he says "She doesn't like the Rolling Stones" as if that makes the girl a weirdo. I am not sure if i would be glad if he said "She doesn't like Springsteen." I guess I would... it would imply that he does like Springsteen.

I guess I might be thinking too much.

peace
mph

* what's up with the superlative titles of BBC shows? "Mastermind?" "Great Performances?" If you get invited to go on one of those shows, you better be prepared. You don't want to go on Mastermind and get the $100 question wrong. Or give a average-good performance on "Great Performances."

**the price of 2 Slices and a Coke at Nick's Pizzeria.

Movies

2006-07-07T20:12:00.000-04:00

Part of me is looking forward to winter.
Winter is when the days get short and I start to spend more time in front of the tv. I usually start up Netflix and veg out for about 3 months. Here is my current list of movies I will put in my Netflix queue. (Not in any particular order)

Nacho Libre
Wordplay
Superman Returns
Good Night, Good Luck
Click
Night Shift
A Prarie Home Companion
Keeping Up with the Steins
The Benchwarmers
Thank You for Smoking
Strangers with Candy
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie 4
Teen Movie 2
Teen Movie 3
Teen Movie 4
Friends with Money
Notorious Betty Paige
American Dreamz
Dave Chappelles Block Party
Madea's Family Reunion
The Pink Panther
Nanny McPhee
Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the WereRabbit
Around the World in 80 Days (The 1989 TV Miniseries version that featured Pierce Brosnin and Eric Idle.)
Talladega Nights: Ballad of Ricky Bobby

This list is banking on the hope that I will be seeing Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean in the theater.

Peace.

Shore Report 2k6

2006-06-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

We just got home from our trip to Ocean City, New Jersey and we had a wonderful time.

HIGHLIGHTS

Scrapple Sticks
seeing Lucy the Elephant
my dad and I playing with Fiona in the shallow water
walking on the boardwalk
Amy, Fiona, and I getting our pictures taken in one of those photo booths
playing mini golf with Amy, Maureen, Mark, Nathaniel, and Neil
Riding waves with Christo
Hearing Reen and Dad make fun of Bruce Springsteen
Watching Soccer with Mark
Food (including but not limited to the following things: the aforementioned Scrapple Sticks, Chicken & Waffles, Waffles & Ice Cream, T.T.'s cake, Aunt Holly's Red Velvet Cake, Pot Pies, mint ice cream, Uncle Bill's Pancakes (mmmmm... stuffed French Toast.) Mack & Manco's Pizza, dutch-oven jambalaya, $3 Coconut Macaroons, Browns Cinnamon, Honey, Plain, and Powdered donuts, French Fries.)
Hanging out with Dritsas on Sunday afternoon and dropping Mentos into a 2-litre bottle of Diet Coke
Wonderland Pier
digging in the sand
riding a surrey bike with Amy and Fiona
going to see Bruce Springsteen with Seamus
going to see Bruce Sprignsteen with Amy, Maureen, and Mark

A FEW RANDOM NOTES ON THE SHORE TRIP

Mark won the Miniature-Golf Tournament (If Reen would have had a three or less on the last hole of the last game, she would have won the tournament... she got a 6 on that hole.)
I did not get sunburned at all.
Amy, Fiona, and I sent a total of 18 post cards.
I lost my St. Patrick/St. Brigid medallion in the ocean. My mom and dad got that for me when they went to Ireland in 2000.
Mack & Manco's pizza is completely over-rated and over-priced.
The Bruce Concert was awesome, but I was actually more excited about being there with Seamus, and Maureen and Mark then I was about seeing Bruce. And that makes me very very happy. I love Bruce, but he wasn't even close to being the best part of that evening.

A FEW FUNNY THINGS THAT WERE SAID AT THE SHORE

While I was reading "Body Brokers," a book about the illegal sales of deceased human bodies for medical experiments, my cousin asked how much a human brain costs, and I responded "$600." My Dad then said: "Perhaps you (meaning me) should save up for a new one."
While Bruce Springsteen was singing 'Maria's Bed' for the first time on the entire tour and I was singing along enthusiastically, Seamus came over to me and said: "What's for dinner?"
While discussing Fiona's Strawberry Shortcake shoelaces and Amy's need for Fiona to like Strawberry Shortcake and my NEED for Fiona to like Scrapple, Mark and I both said some thing that ended with the words: "Scrapple Shoelaces." (I think if I ever have a band, it will be called "Scrapple Shoelaces.")
After telling Caitlin that she should try to never get old, she said to me: "You're not old." I then said, "Thank you... how old do you think I am?" Caitlin then said: "Ummm... 46?"

FUN FACTS

Mack and Manco's Pizza and my Uncle Tim are both 50 years old.
Samantha and Sara's first solid food was Mack and Manco's pizza.
The She Sharks beat the Sea Monkeys at Wiffle ball after Amy "Zimmy" Holland blasted a three-run homer over the head of her husband.
Amy and I got some Christmas Shopping done.
As for Ocean City license plates for bicycles, they did not have Fiona, Nona, Kellen, or Madison. They did, however, have Omar. (Incidentally, they did have SARA and SAMANTHA.)

If I remember more fun things, I will update them later.

OCNJ 2K6

2006-06-16T20:47:00.000-04:00

Yeah, we are heading out to Ocean City N.J. bright and early tomorrow morning.

I am all packed, thanks to Amy. She packed all my clothes and whatnot and I have been put in charge of remembering to bring the Bruce Springsteen tickets.

I have already placed them in the suitcase, but knowing myself as well as I do, I will probably check the suitcase again tonight... then tomorrow morning before I put the suitcase in the car... and then after I put the suitcase in the car because you know there is a chance that they could have fallen out between our front door and the curb... i will also probably check when we get to the Frank S. Farley rest stop... and then again when we get to the apartment.

And then i will check again on saturday night, sunday morning, sunday night, monday morning, monday night, tuesday morning, tuesday afternoon, and tuesday before we leave for the show. I will then check again when we are about a block from the apartment, perhaps again 10 minutes later, again 30 minutes later and then when we get to the parking lot of the Tweeter Center. I will then walk to the gate with the tickets in my pocket and my hand on the tickets while they are in my pocket and when we finally arrive at the gate and I give Amy, Maureen, Mark, and Seamus their tickets, and then hand MY ticket to the ticket-taker... then I will relax about the tickets.

Then I will be able to enjoy the rest of my week, knowing that I have absolutely nothing else to worry about for the next 5 days... except losing at minigolf.

peace
mph

New Movies

2006-06-13T10:58:00.000-04:00

MOVIES OUT NOW (OR COMING OUT SOON) THAT LOOK REALLY GOOD
1. Nacho Libre
2. Cars
3. Strangers With Candy
4. Superman Returns (I want to see this movie at an IMAX theater.)
5. The Break-Up

MOVIES OUT NOW THAT LOOK LIKE THEY TOTALLY SUCK
1. Garfield 2: The Tale of Two Kitties
2. The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift

Peace
MPH

SUMMER OF MPH V2.0?

2006-06-12T20:24:00.000-04:00

Could this be the Summer of Michael P. Holland Version 2.0?

Let's look at the summer so far:

I had a few warm up days in late spring with a Springsteen Concert and a trip to the cabin with Dad and Larry.

And then a trip to see the Phillies with Dad and Fiona.

And then Memorial Day was upon us and with it, we went to Vermont and Mass.

The next weekend, Fiona spent her first night away from home by herself, hanging out with MomMom and Pop-Pop, while Amy and I went out to eat and bowling with friends.

And coming up: a trip to the shore that will be punctuated with minature golf, playing in the ocean with Fiona, perhaps going to see Cars, and of course, Going To See BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN with Amy, Maureen, Mark, and Seamus. Dude, how cool is Seamus? Going to rock with the boss when he is only 5 years old?BONUS: Dritsas might be going, too.

The week after that is fourth of July. And beyond that... who knows? All I can say is life is good for MPH.

peace

Trip to Massachusetts

2006-06-04T09:43:00.000-04:00

Well, we are home from our whirl-wind tour of New England. We arrived home last night and all slept really really well in our own beds.

Our three days in Massachusetts were great. We ate Lobster and went candle-pin bowling. We watched 4 episodes of The Office and went to a really cool garden that had a merry-go-round.

Amy painted a cow jumping over the moon on the wall of Maureen & Mark's nursery. Fiona got to play with her Auntie Maureen and Uncle Mark a whole lot.

We got to drive our new car a whole lot and it was fine.

Couple of Vermont/Massachusetts lists:
Number of Dunkin' Donuts we saw while we were there:
1.) Like a billion.

Number of DD's we ate at:
2.) Zero (we did have some at Joe & Tammy's house and we stopped at one in Rhode Island, but we did not actually eat at any in Vermont or Mass.)

Most annoying things about Massachusetts:
1.) The way people drive
2.) All those freaking Red Sox hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, bumper stickers (or as they say up there 'bumpah stickahs'), liscense plates, banners, flags, clocks, etc etc etc

Number of Rotaries we needed to negotiate:
1.) about 10

Number of times the guy behind me was aggitated enough with my inability to pull the trigger and merge into the rotary that he was forced to honk his horn:
1.) only once

Number of days while we were in Mass that it rained:
1.) Zero

How long it rained on the day we had to drive home
1.) Over 7 hours.
2.) From Maureen's house striaght through to Hamburg PA

Number of diapers we had left when we arrived at my folks' house at the end of our drive:
1.) 1... the one that Fiona was wearing.

Number of times Amy got Punk'd by me and/or Maureen
1.) 2
a.) I made her believe that she had forgot to tell me that Fiona's clothes were packed in a different bag from ours and that that bag was still at home. Hilarious.
b.) Reen got Amy to believe that Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts closed at 3:00 on Fridays so they could prepare for the Saturday rush.

What the guy at the candlepin bowling place entered into the automated scoring system when Maureen told him Amy's name
1.) Katie

How our names appeared on the automated scoring system thing:
1.) MIK
2.) KAT
3.) MAU
4.) MAR

Candlepin bowling results
1.) Mark
2.) Katie (Amy)
3.) Maureen
4.) Mike

Number of miles on our new car when we left Lititz:
1.) 84

Number of miles on our car when we arrived in Lititz:
1.) 1,446

Number of states Fiona was in for the first time:
1.) 6 (New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut.)

That is all for now.

Peace,
MPH

Vermont

2006-06-01T16:29:00.000-04:00

I am checking in here from Massachusetts. Amy and I arrived yesterday after a real good time in Vermont. We did almost all the stuff we wanted to do. And we did all the stuff we really wanted to do like hang out with Joe and Tammy, and Tim, Nicole, Owen, and Marnie. We also went to Trattoria Delia, our Favorite Vermont Restaurant.
Here is what I had:
Scamorza alla Griglia Wood-grilled handmade smoked mozzarella served on a bed of arugula with grilled tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.

Spaghetti alla Pescatora Fresh baby clams, mussels, shrimp and calamari sauteed with olive oil, white wine, garlic, herbs and tomatoes.

Semifreddo alle Mandorle Literally translated, a “semi-frozen” vanilla mousse with a “Torrone” almond nougat, drizzled with a warm caramel sauce.

And a Coke.

The next day we went to Al's French Fries for lunch. I had a pizza burger, a sausage sandwich, some french fries. And a Coke. Fiona had a Hot Dog, and Amy had a Cheeseburger and some french fries.

On Tuesday, we went up to Stowe and ate at The Shed. Mmmmmmm... Shed Burger. I had a Shed Bacon-cheeseburger and fries. And a Mountain Ale Brew. Man alive it was really good. I do not consider myself much of a beer conniseur, but this beer was very good. It was light and very crisp and refreshing. I enjoyed it a great deal, but as I don't drink so much anymore, I did not buy a growler of it to take home with me. (Joe got me a case of Magic Hat's Fat Angel Ale, which is my favorite Vermont Beer.)

We then went on the touristy tour of Stowe/Waterbury. We went to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where I worked when we first moved to Vermont. And we went to Cabot Cheese for some free cheese. My dad still holds the record for most free cheese eaten. His picture is on the wall. And we went to Ben & Jerry's. I bought some post cards and stamps. I asked for 9 stamps, but they accidentally gave me 11. I didn't realize the error until we were down the road a ways. Ha Ha, i got one over on Ben & Jerrys. I ripped them off for 48 cents!!! DOWN WITH THE CAPITALIST HIPPIES!!

Now we are here in Mass with Maureen and Mark and we are having fun. Amy is painting a mural on the nursery wall, Fiona is watching Sesame Street with her Auntie Reen, and I am relaxing! When Mark gets home we are going out for Lobster at the Lobster Trap. All is good!

Trip to Vermont/Massachusetts

2006-05-27T07:18:00.000-04:00

In honor of our trip to Vermont, I am putting up this comic that features me and Joe and Nicole.

You can click on the comic and it will appear bigger.

We will be taking our brand new Saturn Vue on our trip north. Our Fordy Ford did not pass inspection as it was "Uninspectable due to rusted frame and unsafe to drive." I look forward to getting a new car, because i will finally get to drive my Subaru which we have been for Fiona for the past 21 months.

here is my list of stuff to do/stuff not to forget in preparation for my trip to Vermont and Massachusetts:

1.) Make tapes to listen to in car:
a. King of the Hill
b. Pete& Pete
c. So I Married An Ax-Murderer
d. NewsRadio

2.) MP3 Players
3.) FM Transmitter *
4.) Directions
5.) Mow Lawn
6.) Pay Bills
7.) Update Blog
8.) Fill up Mp3 Players (I have 2 MP3 players. I put the Rolling Stones 40 Licks, Shawn Colvin's A Few Small Repairs, & Natalie Merchant's Tigerlilly on the MP3 player Amy gave me for Father's Day last year and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising, Devils and Dust, and the Seeger Sessions, and Dar Williams' My Better Self on the MP3 player i won at work last month.)
9.) Addresses for Postcards
a. Madison
b. Connor
c. Molly
d. Seamus
e. T.T.
10.) Cell Charger
11.) Allergy Medication
12.) Mail Netflix Movie back (The Movie is "Therese: The Story of St. Therese of Lisieux." I liked it a lot. I cancelled Netflix and if i don't get it back to them by thursday, i will have to purchase the movie.)
13.) Cell Phone & Charger
14.) Wallet

There is a second list as well with stuff to take up to Joe and Tammy:
1.) Yuengling
2.) Miller's Hot Sausage
3.) Devils & Dust
4.) The Rising
5.) Seeger Sessions

I was going to get Joe some real scrapple, but I think it would go bad by the time we got to Vermont.

Restaurants I want to go to in Vermont:
1.) Trattorial Delia
2.) The Shed
3.) Al's
4.) Munchies

We don't have a list of anything to take to Mark and Maureen.
Here is what I want to to in Massachusetts:
1.) Candlepin Bowling
2.) Eat Lobster
3.) Watch the Office Marathon on NBC on Thursday Night. (They are showing the episode where Michael hooks up with Jan. It is the only episode i haven't seen. I missed it because I was rockin with with Boss.)

*I actually don't need the FM Transmitter since our new car has an MP3 player input jack! Hot Diggety!

Peace

6 years ago today.....

2006-05-19T23:05:00.000-04:00

Today (May 20) is Amy and My 6th anniversary.
The traditional gift for 6 years is iron, so i was a bit limited in what i could give Amy for our anniversary. A frying pan and an iron. I am thinking she would probably hit me in the head with them and my head would take the shape of the object, like in the cartoons. The other option, i suppose, is a wraught-iron fence. Iron Chef on DVD. An Iron Maiden cd?

Thankfully, there is the "modern" anniversary list that makes it easy for me. The sixth anniversary gift is: candy.

Well, you all know me well enough to know that i didn't just get amy a box of chocolates.

I actually put some thought into it and made her a mixed cd of all candy and sugar songs.

The track list is as follows:
Sugar Sugar by The Archies
Candy Everybody Wants by 10000 Maniacs
Lips Like Sugar by Echo and the Bunnymen
Candy's Room by Bruce Springsteen
Candy Man by Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Candy by Morphine
Candy by Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson
Sugar Shack by Johnny Gilmare
Candy By the Pound by Elton John
Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow

Some of the songs are pure pop - like Sugar Sugar, Sugar Shack, and I Want Candy. Some are a little blue, like Candy, and Candy. And I am pretty sure Ramblin' Jack is singing about a cocaine dealer. But I like the songs.

Songs that I left off and why:
Candy Store Rock by Led Zeppelin: it doesn't have the words 'candy' or 'sugar' in it at all.
Big Rock Candy Mountain by Burl Ives - i only have it on lp.
Sugar Baby by Bob Dylan - it is 6 minutes long and boring and slow.
Candyland by James McMurtry - it is not about candy or love... candyland is more of a methaphorical idea of a suburban landscape where everyone has what they think are good lives...but ultimately they are empty inside. (Incidentally, Candyland (the album) is my least favorite James McMurtry album. I highly recommend 1995's "Where'd You Hide the Body.")
Candyman by Sammy Davis Jr. - Sammy Davis always kind of creeped me out.
Candyman by The Grateful Dead - Dude, I hate the Grateful Dead.
Candy Shop by 50 Cent - yeah, that was kind of a no-brainer.
Good Shop Lollipop by Shirely Temple - i was going to put this on there to be ironic because the way Shirely Temple sings it really aggrivates Maureen. But I decided to not put a song on the album that i don't think Amy would like just to have an mildly amusing story to tell Maureen. And then when we listened to the album we might think less about our anniversary and more about Maureen's intense hatred of a little white girl who used her increadible tapdancing abilities to help the poor negores in the antebellum south make the best of their lot in life. "Sure, Mr. Bojangles, you don't have food, clothes, money, clean drinking water, an education, or even your freedom, but this song about a ocean liner made out of candy should take away all of your problems." (Fun fact about Shirley Temple: She is on the Sgt. Peppers album cover 3 times.)

I thought Lips Like Sugar was by the Cure, but it is not. A friend of mine in college, Steve Foland, once met Robert Smith of the Cure who said to him, "I just want to be treated like a normal person." Steve said he wished he had had the balls to say "Well then stop acting like such a freak."

Since the 6th anniversary is the Candy Anniversary, my wish list is as follows:
The Kids In The Hall movie Brain Candy on DVD.

My favorite fun fact about my wedding day: The last thing I ate as a bachelor was a piece of scrapple the size of a liscense plate.

MMMMM..... scrapple.

peace.

BRUUUUUUUCE!!!

2006-05-18T20:21:00.000-04:00

T-minus 31 days until i see Bruce Springsteen with Amy, Maureen, and Mark.

2 Notes:
1.) Reen isn't fat, she's prego.
2.) It was actually a phone call, but I have a hard time drawing people talking on the phone.

Chewbacca Comic

2006-05-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

Is Big Pete a Phillies Phan?

2006-05-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Awww, yeah.... Big Pete is rockin' what appears to be a Philadelphia Phillies hat in an episode titled "On Golden Pete."

What do the Phillies and Spinal Tap have in common???

2006-05-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

A mullet and a kick-ass fu manchu.
Spinal Tap bassist, Derek Albion Smalls and Phillies catcher, Sal Fasano.

Weekend Plans

2006-01-27T20:36:00.000-05:00

This weekend, Jan 27 - 29, I plan to do the following things:

Here are my chores:
I am going to clean the garage. I want to get all our tax stuff together. I want to burn some of the fallen branches and wood in the back yard. I need to repair two small floor boards on the second floor. Go to gym.

Fun stuff:
Play with Fiona. Work on my cigarbox ukulele. Blow through a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. Watch some movies (Hotel Rwanda, National Treasure). Do a calendar drawing or two.

Holler.

Peace,
MPH

Springsteen & Alito

2006-01-11T19:34:00.000-05:00

Alito Likes Springsteen. I like Springsteen. Therefore, by the awe-inspiring power of the transitive property, I like Alito.

Actually, I am indifferent to Alito. I am pro-life and I think the president's powers should be kept in check. So I am split with Alito.

But you all know the real reason you check in with scrapple dog - you want to hear about Bruce.

Dick Durbin invoked Bruce's name during the confirmation hearing and then when Alito made a quick comment on the boss and the New Jersey senate's decision to try and make Born To Run the state song. I think the senate actually tried to make it the official "Youth Anthem" of New Jersey. I always found that amusing - trying to make Born To Run the anthem of the youth. Born To Run is about trying your hardest to escape where you are from. So the best New Jersey can do is let the rest of the U.S. know that it whole-heartedly supports is youth trying to escape.

Dick Durbin comes off as kind of a jerk. I can understand if he and his Democratic comrades don't like Alito and/or his views, but can't they have just a little bit of class when they ask questions?? Why is it all about berating and asking pointed questions and talking down to him? Why can't it be a civilized exchange of ideas?

I hate when they ask him to defend something he said 20 years ago. 20 years is a long long time. Has Dick Durbin changed his mind on anything in the last 20 years?

NOW- before you all point too fine a point on my words, I do know that we are talking about a sensitive issue like abortion here and people's opinions don't usually change on a topic such as that. So let me say this: 20 years ago I would have said that abortion is murder. 10 years ago I would have said that abortion should be a woman's right. Now I say that abortion is murder.

I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm not an idiot either. My world views are shaped and changed over time. Is it possible that something Alito wrote 20 years ago isn't exactly how he feels now??? Is it at all possible that he does, perhaps, have the ability to change.

This crap aggravates me.

20 yeas from now, Fiona is going to read old issues of smokin' dog and she is going to read in there a whole bunch of junk that a young mis-guided idiot wrote. That won't make her father a mis-guided idiot, will it?

I don't think anyone should ever be held accountable for things they said and wrote 20 years ago.

A lot of the left-wing groups who are makings sure that Alito's feet are held to the fire on the abortion thing he wrote 20 years ago fought like hell to try to keep Stan Tookie Williams alive. Tookie killed people. If the person who started the most notorious street gang in the world, a gang that is responsible for literally thousands of deaths, can change in less than 20 years, can't Samuel Alito? Oh hell no, Alito is pure evil and will be forever because 20 years ago he thought it was wrong to kill babies. What a freaking lunatic. What kind of screwed-up society do we live in where the convicted murder is the good guy and the Princeton-educated, father and husband, never been arrested or in trouble with the law for anything Supreme-Court nominee is the bad guy??

Anyway, I am not for or against Alito.

I am whole-heartedly against abortion. And I am whole-heartedly against the death penalty. And I do think people can change in 20 years.

peace
mph

Critmas 2k6

2005-12-31T20:18:00.000-05:00

Christmas this year was awesome. We had Christmas with the Hollands on December 18. And we celebrated Christmas day with the Zimmerman clan on Christmas Day.

I was slightly disappointed to learn that the gift from my folks had not arrived in time for the Christmas Celebration, but that is cool. I figured my folks have a pretty good track record when it comes to really good gifts, that I could wait a little while.

Christo, Becky, and Taylor gave me The Office season 1 on DVD. (the u.s. version of The Office.) They also gave me the Langhorne Slim CD, When the Sun's Gone Down. I truly love it and since putting it in my mp3 player 2 weeks ago, i think i have listened to it about 15 times. LOVE THAT CD. (My only gripe about the cd is that the songs are too short. every song on it could be at least a minute longer.) On the song Loretta Lee Jones, Langhorne Slim mentions Lucy the elephant, from Margate N.J. I thought that was pretty cool and it brought a smile to my face to hear that line.

Reen and Mark got us silverware which we desperately needed. Our old collection of silverware was a hodge podge collection of utentsils with few matching designs. Our utensil drawer looked like a knife/fork/spoon representation of the United Nations. Sure, they are all utensils, and they all want to acheive a common goal, but they just don't look the same. When Amy asked Maureen how she knew we needed utensils, Maureen replied "I've eaten at your house." Touche.

After round one of gift giving, I had to say that Christo was in the lead for best gift yet. But there were still a lot of contenders eyeing the prestegious title of "BEST GIFT OF THE YEAR" award.

Joe and Tammy sent a package that we opened on Christmas Eve before going up to Shamokin. They got me a totally kick-ass Hard Rock Cafe Bruce Springsteen t-shirt. Yeah... I'm digging that shirt.

After round two, i am thinking that Joe may have moved into the lead.

Before cruising to Shamokin, we went up to Reading to see my folks. Well, they had my gift for me. They got me a new book by Woody Guthrie called Artworks. 335 pages of art by Woody. And, the icing on the cake, the book is signed by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter and director of the Woody Guthrie Archives. This book was well worth the wait.

After round three, Christo and Joe have been KO'd. Only Amy, Mom Z, and Fiona have a chance to take home the prize now.

Christmas Eve in Shamokin was spent riding four-wheelers with my nephew Randy and my brother-in-law, Jeff. We had a lot of fun riding around the coal banks of Shamokin. When I got back from riding, I was HORIFIED to learn that Amy had left my Christmas gifts in Lititz. No big deal, she brought Fiona's gifts, and that is really all that mattered.

On Christmas morning, I recieved the one gift amy did bring along - a really warm fleece bathrobe.

After 4 rounds, Mom and Dad are still in the lead. But Amy has gifts waiting for me at home!

We had a wonderful day at Mom Z's. Fiona loved opening her gifts and she seemed to really enjoy handing out the gifts as well. Someone told me that Christmas is a thousand times better when you have a kid of your own to share it with, and i have to say that is absolutely true. Fiona was so happy all day Christmas. She got a play barn with some little horses and cows. She played with that all morning. Mom Z made a wonderful Christmas turkey with all the fixings. There was plenty of cookies and treats. It was a truly wonderful day.

We got home to Lititz around 7:30 and I was given the rest of my gifts. Amy got me MacGyver season 3 on DVD - awesome. 22 more episodes of my favorite show of all time... only now that I am older and not as willing to suspend my disbelief, i find the show to be increadibly cheesy and impossible to make sense of. Half of the crap he does would never ever work. Never. BUT, that is what I love about it also. It is just fun to watch. And Connor loves it, so I can watch it with him and remember how much I loved it when I was younger. Amy also got me the new Born To Run box set. The box set comes with a dvd of Bruce's first concert in England. I am really looking forward to clearing out a little patch of time and watching it.

Fiona got me a book called You are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love. I love it because it reminds me so much of me and Fiona. All of the pictures in it are of Christmas scenes, but i am thinking Fiona and I will be reading this book all year long. A lot of times when I am reading to her, she will try and flip the pages and turn ahead to the back of the book, but when I am reading You are my Miracle she just looks at the pictures.

Amy's generosity with the DVD and the Bruce Juice put her close to the top for the prize, but Fiona edged her out with the book. The book Fiona got for me was truly a gift that I will cherish forever. I am confident that for years to come I will be reading this book to Fiona.

At the end of 5 rounds, Mom & Dad and Fiona are both reaching for the brass ring. And when it comes down to it, I think I am going to give the prize to my precious darling angel. Fiona's book was the first gift I have received in years that brought a tear to my eye. Reading it with her for the first time on Christmas night was so special and is something I will remember for years to come.

Congratulations, Fiona, you are the Queen of Christmas. I hope you are able to also take home the Queen of Mike's Birthday prize as well.

King Kong - not my favorite movie of all time

2005-12-27T20:44:00.000-05:00

Jason and I went to see King Kong and I was grossly disappointed.

My main complaints will be directed at Peter Jackson and the managers of the Fox movie theater.

The Fox movie theater ruined the first 50 minutes of the movie by allowing an infant into the theater. I left the theater to get a manager to come in and kick the people out. Which they did after about 15 more minutes of hearing the kid periodically cry and whine and moan. Question: what kind of stupid idiot brings an infant to a 3-hour movie that you know is going to be super-freaking loud???? Follow up question: why does the theater allow infants into the theater??? Let me guess... $$$$$??

Here is what I thought about the movie:

First and foremost I will start with the positives.

Jack Black was really awesome as the filmmaker. I am hoping that this is his first step in taking his acting to a more serious role. JB is hilarious and his constant buffoonery is hilarious, but he also seems to have the ability to do dramatic roles. The naysayers will nay say and say nay to the idea that he will be anything but a jokester who can't tackle acting like an adult. To which I will reply, "Tom Hanks." Tom Hanks was the king of buffoons Bosom Buddies, Bachelor Party, and The Money Pit. Now he is king of the serious actors with two best actor Oscars.

The Girl in the movie was very pretty.

The special effects were stunning. And the computer-generated animation was really neat.

Now I will get to all the crap that bugged me.

TOO FREAKING LONG.
3 hours, most of which was close up shots of the aforementioned pretty girl. I love close up shots of pretty girls, but when literally 20 minutes of the movie is spent on her, and on her and Kong looking lovingly into each other's eyes, it gets a little tired. Peter Jackson could have edited about 45 minutes of this movie and still had the same end results.

THE FIGHT SCENES
The fight scenes were way too long and drawn out. I know that fight scenes are always drawn out in all kinds of movies, and I just can't stand it. Whether is it Obi-Wan vs. Anakin, or King Kong vs. 3 T-Rex's, I can not stand long drawn-out fight scenes. And here is why: YOU KNOW BEFORE HAND WHO IS GOING TO WIN. Obviously, there is no way in heck that the t-rexes are going to kill King Kong. That would make for a very short and anti-climatic movie. Furthermore, you know that the girl is not going to be killed for the same reason. Duh!

THE DINOSAURS
When all the dinosaurs were chasing them, and the velicioraptors came out, all I could think was "yeah, I hated this movie the first time I saw it when it was called 'Jurassic Park.'"

WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
I am willing to explore the coexistence of fantasy and reality. In this movie, we are expected to believe that there is an island and giant apes, and dinosaurs and human-sized yellow jackets. And we are expected to believe that mere humans, just like you and me, go to the island. The only things that exist outside the realm of reality are uncharted prehistoric island, the dinosaurs, King Kong and the other creatures that live on the island. Everything else is real, i.e. the depression, cars, humans, prohibition, etc etc etc. I am willing to suspend my disbelief IF some semblance of reality is maintained. Example: I am willing to accept for entertainment purposes that there is an uncharted island in the middle of the ocean. AND I am willing to believe that there are dinosaurs and 25' tall 2-ton gorillas living on the island. AND I am willing to believe that this gorilla is captured and brought back to New York City and subsequently goes on a rampage in the city etc. etc. etc.

I am not willing to accept that basic laws of nature including (1) the structural integrity of human bones and joints, (2) man's ability to run over uneven terrain in a rain forest environment, (3) a young woman's ability to run over uneven terrain in a rainforest environment WITH NO SHOES ON, (4) her ability to climb an out-side ladder to the top of the Empire State Building in a skirt and high heels and (5) her ability to stand unassited atop the Empire State Building because of the shear wind force at 1250'.

ITEM 1 - THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF HUMAN BONES AND JOINTS Fantasy - the giant ape carries the young woman through the jungle (I am okay with that.) and he RUNS through the jungle jostling her about like a rag doll and he fights 3 Tyrannosaurus Rexes tossing her from hand to hand and often holding and carrying her with his feet. (I am not okay with that). In reality her neck would have been snapped a dozen times, her arms would have been broken, her knees would have snapped and I am fairly positive dozens of her tendons would have ripped.

Giant Apes and dinosaurs clearly exist OUTSIDE the realm of reality, BUT the young woman in the movie is supposed to exist within the realm of reality. She is not a superhero or strong woman who can withstand the constant jarring and shaking of a 2-ton gorilla. I mean he shakes her like he’s a British nanny for twenty minutes and she has no neck pain?? There are plenty of lawyers who will tell you that a rear-end collision of less than 5 miles-per-hour would cause sustained neck damage.

ITEM 2 - MAN'S ABILITY TO RUN OVER UNEVEN TERRAIN IN A RAIN FOREST ENVRIONMENT
The adventurers in the movie are running from the dinosaurs and are able to run at all-out sprints over wet jagged rocks without slipping or falling. Anyone who has done any hiking or low-grade mounting climbing knows how hard it is to keep your footing on uneven terrain. The situation is further complicated when the ground is wet. Those guys would have been slipping and sliding falling all over the place like an octogenarian on a hockey rink.

ITEM 3 - A YOUNG WOMAN'S ABILITY TO RUN OVER UNEVEN TERRAIN IN A RAINFOREST ENVIRONMENT WITH NO SHOES ON
See above, but add the fact that she has no shoes on. Her feet would have been ripped to shreds like the accounting records at Enron and I am willing to bet her ankles would have been twisted and turned like dough at a pretzel-making convention.

ITEM 4 - HER ABILITY TO CLIMB AN OUT -SIDE LADDER TO THE TOP OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IN A DRESS AND HIGH HEELS
There is snow on the ground and it is cold outside when King Kong is going on his rampage, and the girl is wearing a flimsy dress. If it was 35 degrees on the ground the temperature at 1250 feet would have been 14 degrees. There is no way she could have climbed that ladder and stood up there. Not even with a prolonged adrenaline rush. NO FREAKING WAY.

ITEM 5 - SHEAR WIND FORCE
The top of the Empire State Building was originally going to be used as a docking and refueling station for Zeppelins, but the force of the wind atop the building was too strong and gusty for blimps to dock safely. That being said I find it a little hard to believe that a 11O-pound woman in high heels would be able to stand atop the great building. The wind would have pushed her around like she was a nerd in a high-school football team's locker room. The wind speeds at the top of the Empire State Building are in the neighbor hood of 30 mph with gusts up 50 mph. The metal-plated tower on top of the building was planned as a zeppelin port but it was used for only one zeppelin landing because the winds were too strong at such heights making mooring dangerous. It is too windy for a zeppelin to port, but not too windy for a scantily-clad woman in high heels to jump around waving off incoming sopwith camels. Total total crap.

Again, I am okay with Giant apes, but I am not okay with a young woman being able to just stand unassisted on top of the empire state building.

And my final complaint: CLOSURE

There was none! ! !! Monkey Dies - Film Ends ... that was it!! !

There was this father-son, mentor/apprentice relationship between a salty dog sailor and a young stowaway. The mentor guy, who did everything he could to protect the young guy, got killed. And then there was no mention of what became of the kid. Did he leave the sea and get married and settle down? Did he himself become a crusty old seafarer? They made such a big deal out of this relationship and then it just ended.

The sea captain, who was a central character for about 90 minutes of the movie, is forgotten when they got back to New York.

Did the girl and the play writer get together and have kids and whatnot? Peter Jackson just left them kissing at the top of the Empire State Building. What happened to them?

Was there any criminal charges placed against Jack Black's character? He brings this ape to NYC and it goes on a killing rampage. I don't think he would get off scot-free.

All in all, I really disliked this movie.

TreeHuggers vs Russian Oil

2005-11-01T19:54:00.000-05:00

History Lesson Part 1: The United States bought the 526,000 square miles that would later become Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867. We paid $7.2 million. The purchase was conducted by Secretary of State William Seward and the purchase became known as "Seward's Folly" and (my favorite) "Seward's Icebox." We bought Alaska for it's abundant natural resources.

History Lesson Part 2: TreeHuggers are cowards who chose to engage in battles with enemies whom they know will not fight back.

The TreeHuggers are pissed off yet again about the potential destruction of the interior of Alaska. The Bush Administration wants to drill in the interior, but the TreeHuggers want to make sure that the not a single animal is harmed in any way whatsoever.

We bought Alaska for cheap fuel and we spent $8,000,000,000 to build an 800-mile pipeline to get that fuel down here to the Continental United States. I don't see any reason not to exploit the hell out of a piece of land that we bought for the implicit reason of exploiting. You buy things to use them. You don't buy a car to not drive it. You don't buy a house to not live in it. You don't buy a 526,000 square-mile oil reserve to not drill it.

The Russians have reserves of 60,000,000,000 barrels. The area from which this oil is drilled is in a similar climate to the interior of Alaska and supports the same wildlife.

The TreeHuggers are concerned about the animals that might lose their way of life if the oil rigs move in. But the TreeHuggers do not seem to care about the Russian Polar Bears, only the American Polar Bears. The TreeHuggers are not going door-to-door in Moscow trying to get people to write to their elected officials to shut down the oil rigs.

The TreeHuggers know that if they tried to make a stand in Russia the chances are pretty good that they would, in fact, be arrested and jailed and perhaps sent to Siberia where they would have a pretty good view of the oil rigs that got them in their predicament in the first place. No, the jackass TreeHuggers go door-to-door here in the USA because they know that they can be as stupid and obnoxious as they want be because they aren't actually breaking any laws. (This comes from a story on NPR's Marketplace about TreeHuggers that went door-to-door on Halloween to raise awareness about drilling in Alaska.)

So here is my solution to this problem: let's sell Alaska back to Russia with the caveat that we get oil in the ground for half price. Let Russia exploit the hell out of that land and let the stupid TreeHuggers cry and moan. Then when they come a-calling about the destruction of the interior of Alaska, we can all just blame it on those evil Godless Russians. We win, Russia wins, the TreeHuggers lose. YIPPEE!!!

Recap: TreeHuggers only care about American Animals, therefore they are racist xenophobes.

SPRINGSTEEN IN T-MINUS 12 DAYS

2005-10-27T19:05:00.000-04:00

Here is a list of songs i want to hear.
I kept the list to 26 songs, because that is how many songs he has been performing per night on this tour.

Santa Ana
Zero and Blind Terry
Lost In The Flood
The Angel
For You
Incident on 57th Street
She's The One
The River
Point Blank
Atlantic City
Johnny 99
Be True
Reason To Believe
Used Cars
Nebraska
Highway Patrolman
Dancin' In The Dark
Human Touch
The Big Muddy
Youngstown
Lonesome Day
All The Way Home
Long Time Coming
The Hitter
Maria's Bed
All I'm Thinking About

alternates:

Wreck on the Highway
Stolen Car
ANY Woody Guthrie Song
ANY Bob Dylan Song
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Badlands!
Candy's Room!

Wish me luck.

Peace.

GWBush the Leader vs. GWBush the Christian

2005-10-27T18:37:00.000-04:00

PROLOGUE:
This rant came about a few weeks ago when I sent Jason this picture and he and I engaged in an e-mail argument about whether or not GWBush is a good leader or a good Christian, and whether or not Jesus has a sense of humor concerning GWBush and tragedies like Katrina.

The whole "GWBush is a good Christian" thing has been bugging me for a long time, so I am glad that something got me to purge it from my system.

"IS GWBUSH A GOOD CHRISTIAN?"

I believe in a forgiving God and no, I do not profess to be a perfect Christian and yes - I meant to say "allowing" capital punishment. George W. Bush, as governor of Texas, allowed 152 executions. A true Christian would not have allowed ANY executions. I am not saying that any of the people were innocent, and I am not saying that they should have been freed and I am not saying that they shouldn't have been put in prison for the rest of their lives, but I am saying that a true Christian, like Gandhi or St. Francis or Padre Pio, would have forgiven these people. Jesus Christ refused to hate and refused to hurt anyone, no matter how bad they hurt him. George Bush doles out vengeance like it his birthright. And many will say that as the governor, he does, in fact, have the right to sign execution papers. As a governor, yes he does, but as a true Christian, he does not.

Christian politicians need to make a choice: Either be a Christian or be a politician, you can't do both. (Matthew 6:24: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.) Because if you want to be a true Christian and use His name to get votes you must be prepared to accept the consequences of being a hypocrite. I just read Rick Santorum's book, "It Takes a Family." I liked a lot of his ideas and he is super-catholic. What I can't get, though, is the fact that he is such a freaking bigot against gays. [(Believe this or not) his book swayed me away from anything resembling a support of gay marriage... I am on the right side (pun intended) of the gay-marriage debate and I feel as though I have a moral high ground, and I kind of like it.] I don't mind that he doesn't endorse or even remotely support gays marriage, but his condemnation of gays themselves is what sends me over the edge... a Christian can not sit in judgment of anyone. (Yeah, that's easy for me to say as I write a diatribe about what a crummy Christian someone else is.) Jesus himself was friends with whores, adulterers, all the sinners you can name.

Also, a real tenant with true Christianity is the whole idea of helping those who have so much less than yourself - that is where the minimum wage argument comes in. [Minimum wage is a joke no matter how you look at it - even if Pennsylvania increases the minimum wage to something like 7.20 by 2007 that is a freaking joke - what the U.S. needs is a living wage. Besides most of the people working minimum-wage jobs are teenagers, summer workers, etc... I don't know anyone who works a real job job supporting their family on minimum wage. But all this is beside my real point here -] GWBush and his family are freaking rich rich. Like really really rich. AS Christians it is their duty and obligation to help the poor. I am not talking about a hand-out, more of a hand-up to use a tired cliché. St. Francis was just about as close as anyone will ever come to a second Jesus Christ... he gave away everything he owned and lived a life of poverty serving Jesus Christ. Padre Pio, who lived in Italy until 1968, was also a real Christian. He ate only a small meal every day, he felt that any more than he himself needed should be given to the less fortunate. One time, he had an appetite for Spaghetti, since it had been a long time since he had had it. He asked his friend to bring him some... he ate one bite and was overcome with guilt at being so gluttonous... he asked his friend to take the rest of the food to someone who needed it more than himself. I am not saying that GWBush should live the life of a cloistered monk or give away everything he owns or anything like that, I am saying this guy has piles of money sitting around and he could do a lot of good things with it. All of the people who worked in the ticket windows of Texas Ranger stadium - I bet they would have loved a small pay raise. Use some money to start after-school programs - inner-city rebuilding programs - habitat for humanity - peace corps - americorps - there are a billion things he could do to make the world a better place - not necessarily globally, but locally. Rick Santorum talks a lot about building "social capital," the idea that strong communities lead to better kids and that leads to a better future. Social Capital comes from people doing things together for the common good. I am not suggesting that GWBush (the private citizen) has the power to make social capital happen, but he does have the power $$$ to help start some programs to make it happen.

I would never profess to speak for God, of course, but I am pretty sure that he does not want GWBush or me or you or anyone to be unhappy. I don't think giving away everything I own is the answer. I like stuff. I think maybe God wants me to like my stuff. (I am not being sarcastic here: if He doesn't want us to like having stuff, why would so many things be available - like music and toys and the hunting camp and the Bruce Springsteen concert I am going to on November 8, 2005 (oooohhhh, yeaaaaah.)) But, the fire-and-brimstonites will say that that is the devil tempting you. Well, I will risk it. I am pretty sure that my luxuries (buying a moderate amount of cd's & dvd's, drinking too much coffee, going to 2 concerts a year, eating ben & jerry's every once in a while, and being a member of the camp) won't put me on the path to hell.

I also am not saying that I am a true Christian or that I know any true Christians. The number of TRUE TRUE Christians who ever lived is very small. I am thinking of Jesus himself, a very few saints, and as I mentioned before, Ghandi, who was not, in fact, Christian. (Some saints even, like Augustine and Joan of arc, while they loved God and Jesus very much, acted in anger and violence. Joan of Arc is a saint for acting for God... a suicide bomber is a murder for acting for his god. Joan of Arc was also condemned as a heretic later in her life because she refused to recant her stories of speaking with God. I never understood that - she is revered in battle because she is being led by the Holy Spirit and everyone loves her because she is kicking ass for France, but then when the war is over, she is put on trial for heresy because she allegedly spoke with God. And they would have let her go, too, if she would have said 'I didn't talk to God, I made it all up.' But because she stuck to her guns, they burned her at the stake. I never understood that "if you say you did it, we will lighten your sentence, but if you steadfastly deny you did it, then we will throw you in jail." If I didn't commit the crime and I am going to jail anyway, I might as well say I did it and get out early????? Don't Make No Sense.)

Anyway, my real beef here is with GWBush professing to be a super-Christian when I see so many things he does not being in line with the Christian faith.

Honestly, I do not think that all the things he does that bother me would bother me half as much if I didn't keep hearing about what a great Christian he is.

And don't get me wrong - I am not picking on GWBush - Washington is full of them - Clinton went to Church every Sunday and even prayed with Rev. Jesse Jackson who had a young woman knocked up in an adulterous affair WHILE he was praying for the soul of a man who was having an affair?????? Blind leading the blind. Strom Thurmond - Christian. And last but certainly not least - 1988 Presidential hopeful and leader of many thousands of blind sheep looking for the truth in the dark, 700 Club President and founder of the Christian Coalition - assination-promoter, Pat Robertson.

EPILOGUE
As I said a few times, there have been like 5 true Christians since the dawn of time. I am not one of them. I don't think you are either. And I don't think GWBush is either. Maybe we should all just try to be better people.

william bennet

2005-09-30T22:38:00.000-04:00

William Bennet, author of the book "The Book of Virtues," today said: "... if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."

What in the hell is wrong with this guy?

And to any naysayers who may try to nay say, let me say this: "THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT A COMMENT LIKE THAT CAN BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT."

This guy tried to be the moral compass of America.

peace
mph

BRUUUUUCE

2005-09-10T09:11:00.000-04:00

Bruce Springsteen tickets go on sale in 49 minutes.

Wish me luck.

If I get tickets, I am going to take my dad with me. I am not asking him if he wants to go, I am telling him that he is going. Period.

I am sitting here nervously watching the clock... my heart is pounding, my palms are sweaty, my fingers are all twitchy. I drank some coffee, but Amy suggested that i should probably drink a beer instead.

I remember the other times i got Bruce tickets:
Sleeping outside the mall with Manny in 1992.
Matthews calling me on the phone with FREE Bruce tickets in 1993.
Getting 4 tickets to a Meadowlands Arean show in 1999.
Going in to work to use the phones with the really really fast redial to call about 350 times to get tickets for the Boston Concert in 1999.
2003 - Jason and Kristin coming over and Jason and I looking on the internet to see what time tickets were going on sale and learning that there were tickets available already for the Giant Stadium concert- and then getting them.
A week later getting tickets for the Lincoln Financial Field concert.

By thunder those are some good memories... the minute i had the tickets in my hand, or at least knew that i was going to see Bruce, a sense of nervous calm fell over me... like all was going to be right with the world. No matter what hardships or problems would befall me in the next few days/weeks/months, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel - the light of Bruce.

I do not mean to tirvialize the religious experiences of pilgrims who travel to far away places in order to see sacred places or objects, but the six times i have seen Bruce were truly holy events that in some way changed my life either momentarly or permanently. After seeing Bruce from the front row and after he slapped my hand and after he looked at me and pointed at me, I felt as though that this truly was a sign that there is a God and that He wants me to be happy. I thought at that very moment when Bruce slapped my hand, that it was the pinnacle of my life. And, up to that moment, it was the apex of my 27 years. (That event has since been surpassed by my wedding day; and both of those events (concert and wedding) have been eclipsed by the birth of Fiona... indeed every single minute with Fiona far exceeds the front row concert.) I understand that Bruce is not a God or a Saint... he is just a man. But like God and religion, he is a constant in my life. When I look back over the last 20 years, the only things that have been there the entire time are: God, My Family, and Bruce. (Of course i now have amy and fiona to add to the list, but i am looking at a broad overview of my life from pre-adolescence to today.)

Anyway, my point is this: Bruce rules and he is awesome and I would love to see him again.

Wish me luck... i will post later.

peace
mph

UPDATE****************************

BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS

Bad news is that I will not be seeing Bruce Springsteen with my dad. I won't be seeing him with any of my family of friends for that matter, which leads me to my good news.

The good news is that I am going to see Bruce Springsteen on November 8 at the Spectrum. (The spectrum is, of course, where i first saw Bruce 13 years ago.) After failing to get a pair of tickets for the concert, i went back and tried to get one ticket... SUCCESS! I will be flying solo at a bruce springsteen concert. Some might see a person sitting by themselves at a concert and say "What a loser... he must not have any friends, and/or he is soooo increadibly obnoxious that no one would be seen in public with him." Or they might think - "Wow... that guy is super dedicated."

More good news - Because i ordered just one ticket, i got a pretty decent seat - i am in the front row of section 206... therefore i am in the front row behind the seats on the floor. literally 1 foot in front of me is the floor of the Spectrum.

I will add a post later with the songs I want to hear.

peace
mph

Pat Robertson

2005-08-23T20:49:00.000-04:00

Pat Robertson, leader of the Christian Coalition, says the United States should assisinate Hugo Chavez.

Where, exactly, in the New Testament does Jesus say we should kill people?