My Sick Mind

The Phillies lost tonight, extending their playoff series at least one more game into Sunday afternoon. For the most part, I don't watch local news, but I admit to being fascinated when it comes to things like sports. Generally, it's relegated to the last 15 minutes. When a team is closing in on a championship their perspective changes and the story becomes the lead. It's sad to watch people who, 11 months out of the year couldn't tell you who the left fielder was all of a sudden make the baseball team the most important part of their lives. On Fox 29, someone named Nefertiti Jaquez (that's right, her name is Nefertiti) proclaimed that the fans are looking forward to game 4 of the Division series because if they win, it will mean that they go to the League Championship Series. That's right. It's nice to tune into local news to hear the bloody obvious. Stick to the neighborhood house fires and leave sports to the people who follow it year-round. NBC10 sent Mo...

CNN conducted a national poll and found that Senator Biden won the vice presidential debate, but that Governor Palin "exceeded expectations." CNN also found that Palin topped Biden on likability, but Biden was viewed to be more qualified for the job . Exceeded expectations? What does that mean? If the people they surveyed thought she was going to stammer and fall down or crap her pants and she doesn't, she exceeded their expectations. I can only presume that most Americans think she's a boob (pun) and watched the debate to see her implode. Sorry that didn't happen, but it would have made great TV. Clearly, voters want to know. After the debate, searches spiked on " who won the vice presidential debate " and " who is the vp debate winner ." The Buzz contains a slew of analysis pieces on who came out on top, but like everything else in politics, the answer depends on who you ask . Why would someone who watched the debate do a web search to see w...

We don't get many chances to gloat around here, so forgive me while I gloat. Our Phillies have a two games to none lead over the heretofore pathetic Milwaukee Brewers in a best-of-five series that appears to be all over but the shouting. Last night we were doing the shouting as the heretofore hailed Ace of Baseball CC Sabathia (the CC stands for Can't Compete) was supposed to come in and shut down the Phillies because - well - he's CC Sabathia. What we found out, to the chagrin of the Brewers, was that Sabathia is not only human but worn out and rag-armed. One of the many good things about being in a playoff series against the Brewers is that there are precious little Brewers fans in the ballpark to ruin the fun. In this case however, it would have been nice to run into a few. It took a chance encounter in a local pub after the game to find two of them. "It isn't over," they told me. To which I replied, "Please - stop. It's over." They're...

You have no idea (or little idea) how interesting this blogging thing is. Not only did I receive a page hit (or three) over yesterday's post , I also received a hit from my buddies at Widener University - even though I'm not paying them anymore - over the mere fact that I earned a big-time degree at their fine institution. The sad part is that I probably won't be around to witness the excitement when the A'hole commenter returns to see the fruit of his labor. Shame. However, the reason I won't be around is good . The Phillies are in the National League divisional playoffs and yours truly (me) will be at the game on Thursday night. What gives me pause is the fact that I will not be around to watch the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah (ahem) Palin. I happen to be in the Rachel Maddow camp when I say that I believe that Sarah is in a no-lose situation, much the same as a kid in T-Ball. Anything in fair territory is going to be viewed as a succes...

There is a Comcast Internet customer in or near Toms River, NJ who thinks I resemble a generally unseen portion of the human body. It could be an animal's body, but I think, as it is usually applied, it refers to a portion of human anatomy. I was puzzled at first, because I usually forget what I write (which makes reading my own blog more enjoyable) and because the reference was to a post I ran on June 25, 2006. So, I can be excused for not remembering it until I clicked on the link and re-read it. I was highly entertained. Here is an opportunity for you to be entertained, so click on this sentence to be transported back in time . Strangely, I get several page hits over the name of Sherry McGoldrick, presumably from trial lawyers who would like to represent her in her odd little incident at a Phillies game two years ago. The anonymous respondent, who refers to me in the third orifice, believes that my chastising Ms. McGoldrick was slightly out of line, or so I assume. (pun) Howe...

The chart above shows the value of the Standard & Poor's 500 from 1980 to today * As a frame of reference, I'll tell you that I have a bachelor's degree in accounting from Widener University. Just so you know. Over the past couple of days much hand wringing and teeth gnashing has been going on over the wild fluctuations in the U.S. stock market, brought about by the collapse of several banks and brokerages. The chart above shows the value of the S & P 500 from January 1, 2008 until today . When viewed on the short term, the thing looks like a train wreck, and your money is worth about 24% less than it was at the beginning of the year. Starting in 1994 however, you have an entirely different viewpoint. The Standard & Poor's index has a wild history. From 1994 to 1999, the S & P gained an average of 24.1% per year. In 2001 it lost 11.9% and in 2002 it lost 22.1%. The following two years would see it gain 28.9% and 10.8%, and 5%, 16% and 5% the next th...

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders and the White House agreed Sunday to a $700 billion rescue of the ailing financial industry after lawmakers insisted on sharing spending controls with the Bush administration. The biggest U.S. bailout in history won the tentative support of both presidential candidates and goes to the House for a vote Monday . So let me see if I have this straight - because I think I do. A while ago, Congress debated ad nauseam over a stimulus payment to taxpayers that amounted to anywhere from $300 per person to $600, plus $300 for each dependent child. Eventually, they gave it to us, but some had to wait much longer than what was scheduled, and some payments were sent to the wrong people. Over the past couple of weeks , Congress debated (over a much shorter period) over a much larger amount of money - roughly $2,000 for each man, woman and child alive in the United States and $6,500 per family . None of the candidates for president suspended their campaign to deb...