BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID. Because I'm beginning to believe that this Phillies team is going to win it all. And that's usually the first step in having my heart seared flat inside a waffle iron. I have believed before. And except for that one time in 1980 believing has always hurt.

But look at this team. Name a Phillies team that matched this crew. Find the gaps. Excuse me, name the infield better suited to succeed Tinkers to Evers to Chance than Rollins to Utley to Howard. When was the last time the Phillies had a closer with a perfect save record. We've got the real deal here, my friends. This may be our time.

But then I get afraid all over again because I remember when thought it was our time, back when it wasn't our time. And I suffered. And I felt that same way many times before. And sometimes I wonder what makes me care so much. And then I salute myself for reminding me of the obvious. How else could I feel about the city I love so much without being actually gay or a mummer?

You want to see a parade? Those of us who danced down Broad Street will check your license if you claim to have been there that glorious October day in 1980 when the Phillies won it all for the first time. Ever. My favorite story about the Phillies only championship always begins with Tug McGraw at the victory rally telling New York to "STICK IT!" when in fact the Phillies had defeated Kansas City.

I had anticipated the words "stick it" to be used earlier in the speeches when Mike Schmidt told Philadelphia fans what they could do with their victory. Even during that MVP championship season Schmitty had been worked over pretty good by fans and the media who always seemed dissatisfied with the all-star third baseman. But instead Schmidt said "Savor this" without irony, sounding more in memory like Capt. Miller telling Private Ryan to "Earn this." Little did we imagine that we would be savoring that lone World Series triumph for upwards of three decades. We had a taste in 1983 and in 1993, but all that did was remind us of how satisfying and elusive was that feeling of winning it all.

So here we are. Twenty-eight years later. Anybody got any ideas? I say we stick it. Stick it good.

.

Continue reading "This Time We Stick It. Stick It Good!" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 02:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID. Because I'm beginning to believe that this Phillies team is going to win it all. And that's usually the first step in having my heart seared flat inside a waffle iron. I have believed before. And except for that one time in 1980 believing has always hurt. But look at this team.

Name a Phillies team that matched this crew. Find the gaps. Excuse me, name the infield better suited to succeed Tinkers to Evers to Chance than Rollins to Utley to Howard. When was the last time the Phillies had a closer with a perfect save record. We've got the real deal here, my friends. This may be our time.

But then I get afraid all over again because I remember when thought it was our time, back when it wasn't our time. And I suffered. And I felt that same way many times before. And sometimes I wonder what makes me care so much. And then I salute myself for reminding me of the obvious. How else could I feel about the city I love so much without being actually gay or a mummer?

You want to see a parade? Those of us who danced down Broad Street will check your license if you claim to have been there that glorious October day in 1980 when the Phillies won it all for the first time. Ever. My favorite story about the Phillies only championship always begins with Tug McGraw at the victory rally telling New York to "STICK IT!" when in fact the Phillies had defeated Kansas City.

I had anticipated the words "stick it" to be used earlier in the speeches when Mike Schmidt told Philadelphia fans what they could do with their victory. Even during that MVP championship season Schmitty had been worked over pretty good by fans and the media who always seemed dissatisfied with the all-star third baseman. But instead Schmidt said "Savor this" without irony, sounding more in memory like Capt. Miller telling Private Ryan to "Earn this." Little did we imagine that we would be savoring that lone World Series triumph for upwards of three decades. We had a taste in 1983 and in 1993, but all that did was remind us of how satisfying and elusive was that feeling of winning it all.

So here we are. Twenty-eight years later. Anybody got any ideas? I say we stick it. Stick it good.

.

Continue reading "This Time We Stick It. Stick It Good!" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 02:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

FIRST OF ALL my apologies for being AWOL these last two weeks. My home computer had more viruses than the U.S. economy and I sent it out to be deloused. So I was offline for a fortnight or so. Not that there's been anything happening in the world worth commenting upon.

Unless the collapse of the capitalist system as we know it is worth comment. Or if watching the black hole of greed that is devouring Wall Street before our very eyes is a suitable topic. Or if a major party nominee "suspending" his campaign in order to avoid debating the other major party nominee is stuff of interest to you, my loyal readers and fellow Americans.

What the hell is going on in this country? Are we out of our freakin' minds? The toxic Superfund wasteland that is our economic system is morphing into a bizarre mutant form of socialism under a Republican president and the man who would be the next Republican president in an election five weeks from now is saying this is not the time to talk politics face-to-face with his Democratic rival for the highest office in the land.

That makes sense. In a demented Bush-warped nation that lost its center of balance when it invaded Iraq based on a lie that even the president admits, why shouldn't his Republican successor play the race card. "Race" as in run as fast as you can in the other direction. John McCain, who is running for president, now wants to be a senator in Washington. He's needed there to straighten out this mess in a Capitol building where he hasn't cast a vote since April.

Talk about a "bridge to nowhere." How can McCain pull off this bluff? Already it looks like he's got to back down from his "just say no to debates during a national crisis" position because it is patently stupid for a man running for president to act like he's too preoccupied with legislative matters to show up at a gun fight. "Instead Sen. Obama and I are going to sing Kumbaya in the nation's capital."

Puh-LEESE! You'll notice that it's been Obama who has been coming off as "presidential" in this barnyard chickens-coming-home-to-roost debacle on Wall Street that may make the Treasury Secretary of the United States the most powerful trillionaire in the world. And McCain decides he's too busy to talk face-to-face with his opponant in front of the American people about how the hell we got into this mess and how we're gonna get out of it.

When McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate, my wife (Sara without the "H"), and I agreed, "It looks like he's throwing the election." Little did we imagine that this dopiest of choices would be embraced and heralded by a suddenly energized conservative electorate that apparently doesn't know Shiite from Shineola. When women in Alaska announced a "Palin doen't speak for us" rally (photo above) , a right wing radio talk show host announced the rally organizers' phone numbers on the air and urged listeners to express their feelings to women, and fellow Alaskans, he called "socialist baby-killing maggots."

And then he said it again, just to make sure you heard him say socialist baby-killing maggots.

The best theory I've heard about why McCain cried "no mas" to his title shot debate with Obama is because he's buying time for his running mate's debate with Joe Biden, a man who speaks his mind despite the shoe in his mouth. A Palin-Biden Debate may become the next hot DVD titled America's Funniest Vice Presidential Nominee Blooper Reels..

It would all be so funny if it weren't so very, very sad.

Continue reading "The Great White Hype" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 01:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I LIKED IT BETTER i back in the days when when Barack Obama's head was being attached to turbans. At least people could sort of believe the smear-mongering lies spread by people about someone they didn't know so much about.

And that's why I decry this photo and whoever it was who sent it to me because this must be a Photoshop special. No vice president would be caught dead in a photo like this. Let the madness stop.

You know.

After you send me another one like that.

Continue reading "I'm sorry, this is just wrong, wrong, wrong" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 01:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I saw these guys in the photo a half a block away as I walked toward them with camera in hand and every intention of taking their picure. What you see is what attracted me to the picture. Five cool slacker guys working on Labor Day and framed by the architecture of the Quad at Penn. I finally took their picture after I walked past, turned around, held up my camera and said, "You guys look like a rock group."

And they smiled.

Continue reading "Five Cool Guys" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 01:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS John McCain's transparently desperate, shocking, ridiculous and futile attempt to one-up Barack Obama the day after his historic presidential nomination acceptance speech will either appear like uncommon wisdom from a sage elder or about the dumbest thing a Republican presidential nominee has done since naming Dan Quayle as his running mate. Might I add, there was a President Bush involved in that decision.

What scares me is that the best diabolical minds of the Republican party have presumably signed off on this electoral strategy based on other-worldly logic. What do they know about the American people that you and I don't? What yearning have they identified from deep within the electorate that would validate such a cockamaimie choice for veepee. An overachieving middle-aged mom from Alaska elected governor of a state that doesn't even have a full time (or at least annual) legislature. Imagine if Barack Obama had pulled such a stunt.

What's-Her-Name is undoubtedly a worthy candidate for back-up president of the United States of America. What's-Her-Name represents the experience Americans have grown to associate with any vice president. He/She is qualified because he/she hails from one of the United States, albeit the 49th and largest state, that didn't even exist when I was born. As Ronald Reagan might have put it, "If not Alaska, where? If not now, when.?"

What's-Her-Name is a fun story that happens to be a heart beat from the presidency. Who is this woman? And why are we electing her vice president of the United States of America? This is a question that is going to haunt the John McCain campaign every time someone in it opens his or her mouth to attack Barack Obama for being an "untested" leader. What's-Her-Name is a dream come true for the Democrats. A hot Republican who's not only a pretty face and not a man, but she also reminds voters how old he is everytime she stands next to the shoes she can't fill.

Continue reading "What's Your Name? Who's Your Daddy?" »

Posted by clarkdeleon at 07:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)