My Sick Mind

I continue to hear about how rough "this economy" is, but I can't find too many examples to support the argument. Last week, the Philadelphia Eagles raised ticket prices $5 to $10 per seat. The Phillies raised their prices by $2 per seat (but remember there are 81 home games). Eagles season ticket holders squalked like eagles, but sent in their renewal notices. Likewise, Phillies season ticket holders (me) complained but keep going. In fact, season tickets are up from 20,000 last year to 24,000 this year. A spokesman for the Philadelphia Orchestra said that, in spite of the difficulties they are having in meeting their financial goals, they feel that they cannot further burden their subscribers by raising ticket prices. I'd like to go to a few orchestra concerts, but I can't add the $60 it costs to go to a concert to my already sapped entertainment budget. So, where does that put us in the sports versus culture argument? It merely proves that sports has us ...

Dark Was The Night will be released on February 16th, 2009. It’s comprised of 31 exclusive tracks and it will be available as a double cd/triple vinyl/download and will benefit the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture. They are the people responsible for albums including No Alternative, Red Hot and Blue and many more, and this is their 20th year, and this is the 20th release! To date, these efforts have donated nearly 7 million dollars for AIDS relief around the world. If you do nothing else, check out "Cello Song," a Nick Drake cover by The Books. Click on the little triangular thingy. Then click here to see more.

Remember Bernice Gallego? The lady who found an 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings card while thinning her antique collection. The actual final price of the card was $75,285.78, and Memory Lane Auctions says the price is a record for its house and that the last 1869 Red Stockings card sold for around $30,000. Stuff like this serves to remind me that nothing is absolute. Everywhere we go, we are treated to sentences that begin, "In this economy..." and prattle on about how tough it is in this economy. Then, some old lady sells a piece of 140 year old cardboard for more than most people make in 2 years and I am reminded that times are tough, but not for everyone. Good for Bernice, I guess. Truly, a sucker is born every minute, and there is no shortage of people with more money than brains. The fact that someone will pay over $75,000 for a baseball card is one thing, but there are still people paying $7 for coffee and that seems a little extreme, too - although not as many as u...

On the long list of things I do not understand is Valentine’s Day. I didn’t understand it when I was a kid in grammar school, running around from desk to desk handing out cards to all the girls in the class – including the ones I didn’t like – until now, when the childlike innocence of the day has been bought-out by big jewelry store chains and flower stores. The card said “Be My Valentine” or something to that effect. We were kids, so naturally none of us had girlfriends or even understood the concept (something else for the list) so it’s beyond me what was going through my pea brain while I was putting those little cards on their desks and (egad) signing my name. Was I now contractually obligated to have her as my Valentine? Sheesh. What does “be my Valentine” mean, anyway? If you have a girlfriend, isn’t she automatically your Valentine? And if you don’t, I have yet to see a card or gift that is made for someone to whom you wouldn’t have already asked out if you cared enough to g...

"three talented hotties." Why couldn't you just leave it at talented ladies? - Kimmyk ( comments earlier today) Take a guess Kimmy! That's Paula , Sandra Gal and Natalie Gulbis . I think even the Canadian would approve!

My shallow and meaningless life takes on a renewed sense of purpose starting Thursday. The girls are playing golf again. That means that (a) the Daytona 500 is also coming (b) pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training soon and (c) the air around here is getting warm enough for my pansy-ass to get outside and start moving around in the fresh air. When I mention either the LPGA or NASCAR (in capital letters) I usually get that eye-roll and the "you like NASCAR ?" questions, as though it's impossible to like watching cars racing in a circle really fast. For the record (if you care) my favorite NASCAR driver is Tony Stewart . I admire a lot about him, but mostly I admire the way he speaks his mind and the way he gets assed-up over stuff that happens on the track and isn't afraid to let the other drivers know it. It's also cool that many people who follow NASCAR hate his guts. That makes me a bigger fan, because I can annoy other people. Now that he...

By now, you've heard the latest in the ongoing story of baseball and steroids. Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids between 2000 and 2003 - after damning information was leaked to Sports Illustrated over the weekend. They always confess and say how stupid they were after the evidence is presented. Before that, we must have thought they were innocent and intelligent. The thing that confounds me about the steroids stories are the so-called purists who claim that the game is forever damaged and irreparably harmed by players who use drugs to enhance their performance. Poppycock. Let's go back to 1968. Bob Gibson led the majors with a 1.12 ERA, Denny McLain won 31 games and Carl Yazstremski led the American League in hitting with a .301 batting average. Why? Because prior to the 1968 season, they raised the pitchers mound an inch and a half. Was the game irreparably harmed? No. Some numbers changed, and it became more of a pitcher's game, but baseball was still basebal...

"Golf courses and cemetaries - biggest wastes of prime real estate." - Al Czervik ("Caddyshack") We humans have some strange customs. When someone dies, it's customary to dress them up and position their dead body in a box for the living to gaze at. Depending on where you're from, it's called a Viewing or a Wake. Whatever you call it, it's odd. I'm all for gathering with family and friends and recalling the life of the deceased (or even celebrating it, if necessary) but to have the body itself propped up and on display is in itself an idea that I could live quite comfortably without. I suppose that's the "viewing" part, and if it is, include me out. As we grow older, we go to more funerals than weddings, and even fewer birthday parties. Tomorrow night, I will be dragged by some people at work to a Viewing for a co-worker who passed away last week. I'll go because (a) someone else is driving and (b) I have to work with these ...

The Grammy awards are being given out tonight. I think I've expressed my opinion on this before, (see Grammys Schmammys ) but it bears repeating. The Grammy's are a sham of a fraud. I've managed to distance myself from popular music over the past few years, so I couldn't tell you the relevance of who is nominated this year, but I can tell you that I have no doubt that the nominees don't represent the best music of the past year. That's experience talking. Just like parking lots are never replaced by parks, so are the Grammy awards never going to be about the best music. One of the many things that bothers me about it is the way music is categorized. Alternative, pop, rap ... I hate categories. Doctors do not, however ... WASHINGTON – Two drugmakers spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year to raise awareness of a murky illness, helping boost sales of pills recently approved as treatments and drowning out unresolved questions — including whether it's ...