Rantings Diversified

Eagles vs. New York at the Meadowlands.

Donovan McNabb (the worlds greatest QB) vs. Eli Manning (the little brother)

It guarantees to be a great game .

UPDATE:
Giants 16
Eagles 3
The good news is that yesterday the Phillies won their first NL East title since 1993!!
Go Phillies!!

Everybody needs to go check out the new podcast KILOS OF CRAIC

It is now time for all to rejoice. Sam is back! Yea!

Go read this article. Finally a voice of reason.

A tale of two restaurants.

While working in Jim Thorpe, PA a bunch of the folk I was working with told me to have dinner at Platz’s restaurant. Not only was it about 1200 yards down the road from my hotel but everyone raved about how good the food was. It wasn’t!
I was seated and my waitress, Melody, felt the need to stand about 16 inches too close to me while she was at my table. I was seated she was standing. Get the picture?

I wisely asked how much a Stoli on the rocks was. When she returned she informed me it would set me back $7.50. I told her I would have a glass of water.

Ok, so I ordered a SMALL appetizer of potato skins, a 14oz. BBQ’d Angus steak and a salad. I received 4 entire potatoes halved, burned and smothered in Cheez Whiz and Bacon-Bits. I’m a big guy but I do not remember telling her I was carbo-stuffing for some competition the next day. I also got a horribly fore-shortened plate of greens completely drowned in a cream-based-disgusto-sauce she referred to as Italian dressing. Then after about 30 minutes my so-called rare steak arrived at my table. Again Melody needed to stand there 3.6 millimeters from my face to make sure all was well. Boy, was I tempted to simply turn my head and bite one of them. My steak was of a good size but I would have cooked it for about another half hour to bring it rare!

I was hungry.

While either waiting for my food or maybe it was while eating I glanced around the dining room and realized that everyone in there was at least 300lbs. I felt downright svelte! I mean every single person in that room was well and on their way to morbid obesity. I’m pretty sure I shuddered.

I ate two of the eight burnt spud halves, a few pieces of spinach I saved from the disgusto sauce and my extremely rare steak, asked for my check and bolted as fast as I could get out of there.

On the other hand.

Tonight, just outside of Hazleton, PA, I check into this seriously flash hotel and ask the young girl at the front desk to recommend a restaurant. She tells me to go to The Stage Coach just up the road. Then she tells me her Uncle owns it. Well, shite! After last night all I wanted to do was order a pizza. About 6ish I decide to go sit alone in yet another shitty restaurant and have yet another shitty meal. It started just as I expected. The little blond bobble-head seats me and I hand her the ash tray and said to her, “You shouldn’t put ashtrays in the no- smoking section!”. She said something along the line of, “Hehehehe, I didn’t ask you where you wanted to be seated, hehehe.”. No, no you didn’t!, I responded. After reseating me my early 20-something waiter, Mike, comes over and immediately starts into the specials. I didn’t hear a word he said. I turned to him and asked for a Stoli on the rocks. While he was gone I was given a glass of water by the bimbo-blonde, no ice. At least Mike didn’t feel the need to stand too close to me. Mike returned with a glass of Russian vodka on the rocks just the size I was looking for! Things are staring to look up.

So, I told him I didn’t hear a word he said about the specials and he repeated them. Thank you, no. I’ll have the 14oz Filet Mignon with a salad and a baked potato.

The, ‘If I giggle no one will yell at me’, bobble-head blonde showed up once more and preceded to put a bit of pesto on a small plate and pour some olive oil over it. Then she put the basket of bread on the table. Cripes(!) I could have just eaten that for dinner.

First, the salad was a wonderful mixture of spinach and at least three different lettuces, lightly drizzled with a spiced oil and vinegar dressing. Yum! Things are really starting to look up! Then my filet emerged from whatever heavenly kitchen it came from. It was huge! The size of a 1966 VW beetle, it was. Well, it wasn’t but it was the largest filet I have ever seen and it was cooked just right and lightly seasoned with sea salt and some very light pepper I couldn’t figure out quite what it was. To steal a term from Grandad, JAYZUS it was good! Even the lowly baked spud was done to perfection and served with clarified butter.

After dinner my waiter, Mike, came to my table with another small jug, er’ I mean glass of Stoli on the rocks and all he said was, “This one’s on the house.”. Then he walked away.

It was an epicurean near-heaven.

So there ya’ have it. The next time you’re convinced that dinner is going to suck again just remember you may be walking into another Stage Coach restaurant.

1)  How long did the Hundred Years’ War last?
2)  Which country makes Panama  hats?
3)  From which animal do we get cat gut?
4)  In which month do Russians celebrate the October  Revolution?
5)  What is a camel’s hair brush made of?
6)  The Canary  Islands  in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7)  What was King George VI’s first name?
8)  What color is a purple finch?
9)  Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10)  What is the color of the black box in a commercial  airplane?
Leave your answers in the comments……and quit googling it.
Just answer the questions.
I’ll post the correct answers in a day or two.

1:00pm EDT

Eagles vs. Lions at The Linc

Will it be another loss? Will I be cursing Andy Reid later today?

or

Will I be jumping up and down yelling EAGLES!!! ?

UPDATE:
Philadelphia Eagles  56
Detroit Lions             21

Click on the pic to embiggialize it.
I SWEAR TO GOD that this photo is NOT photoshopped!
This afternoon I was driving from Punxsutawney, PA back to DuBois, PA on Route 119 north when I saw this road sign. I laughed so hard I almost crashed my car. I pulled a 180 and drove back past it to make sure it was for real. I then pulled over and got my camera out.
I don’t understand why you have to drive through Paradise to get to Desire and then Panic. I would have thought that one drives through Desire then Panic to get to Paradise but hey, Im just the photographer.

Well at least I use to before they started logging it 200 years ago.
This week I’m driving around the north central part of this beautiful state. My God! This is a beautiful state. I have had the luxury of making my town to town drive in the early mornings as well as the afternoons and I have been taking the back roads. My jaunts have taken me from small towns and little villages to the depths of the hardwood trees in the Moshannon forest. I have watched the sun rise from the top of a mountain in Elk county to watching it set while driving through Clearfield county.
Pennsylvania really is a beautiful place. My recent travels have taken me from the highways of suburban Philly to the tranquil downtown of Oil City and so many places inbetween. I have always known that PA is beautiful but this past week has really driven that knowledge home.
You see, my dear reader, I have been taking my time this week. There’s no rushing around this week. I decided this week that the journey is as important as the destination and it seems to be paying off in spades. I have seen absolutely gorgeous seemingly endless tracts of forest land and sleepy little towns so far from any thing else I had to wonder why folks lived there except of course for the natural beauty of their surroundings. I have had the chance to stay in as well as pass through bustling little towns full of history and charm and truely nice people. You know the kind of folk who hold the door for you and say good morning to you though in either case they don’t know you from Adam.
The natual beauty of this area simply has me in awe.
I’m going to blow off everything else this weekend and go for a hike up in Tioga county this weekend. I haven’t gone walking in the woods for quite awhile. It’s overdue.

The Eagles play the Redskins tonight at 8:30pm EDT.
Are you ready for some Monday Night Football?

It’s their Home Opener.

My prediction is at the end of the game the Eagles will be 1-1 on the season

Fly Eagles Fly !!!

UPDATE: Eagles 12  Washington 20

there were others there
I watched as they walked through the
life they thought they had
as if they were just passer-bys
I looked at their boots and their pickups and thought
that maybe this is the shit
thank God someone slapped me
back
to reality
she smiled at me
and
I walked there
it was a long walk
down that asile
an asile that brought forth
a question
a question
of life and reality

I know most look away when confronted
kick his ass I say
take it by the ear and throw it
outside
people tend to listen when you have them by the ear

when one is done
get over it

I find things are easier

in a
form that works
in the staggered world of
not well structured sentences

for me
when it’s all over
I move like a dancer
Well
shitpissfuckCAN’Tcocksuckermotherfuckertits
it’s been that kind of…
Let’s dance like it’s
today

better idea….

let’s go for a walk
the trails and woods
of PA have an allure
that died           in me
but
Ha!
they’re still there and I
still find them
a peace and pleasure
a quiet thing full of game

bang bang
full tummy
dead bird…Hey!  One of us has to win
I give thanks every
time
By the way, I don’t drink their blood
but I have

the revolution that will overturn
the urban skank
shall not be televised
The revolution shall not be televised
He says this with a
Tomahawk in hand
in his hand is a symbol
of the history of the land
one wonders if as he uses this tool
he knows
it’s use
a bloody neck hanging from it’s spine
by a thread
was the
original thought
but he chops wood
hard wood

a passing thought
has to do with whether or not
he uses the Katana
in defense
in defense of what?
she’s there
and he is here
and all this crap can be replaced

Now you know what happens on a Saturday Night
Special

I have get up 2
soon
We were speaking of animals
but then again
weren’t we speaking
of
damn there I go again
looking for and attempting to explain
something I believe in

she thought Tom Waits was weird
‘cause
he sang about body parts and fluids
she could never hear his music
or
orchestration
or genius

in a translucent lifestyle
we spoke about animals
weren’t we speaking
of
damn there I go again
looking for and attempting to explain
something I believe
that days go on a gentle breeze
and windless faces look
out from the hall