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Jennifer D. Wade Journal

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Blog posts October 2008

Nightmares

I had to stop at K-Mart on my way home from work today.  It's not important why.  But, as I walked from the parking lot toward the store, I was reminded of another day when I stopped at this store.  It was exactly 7 months ago, on March 31.  The Phillies opening day.  Remember what happened?  HERE'S a reminder.  Yes, the Phillies' dream season certainly got off to a nightmarish start.  And, seeing as how it's Halloween, here's a scary classic from the 80s.

 

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World Champions!


(Photo courtesy:  Michael Kubel, The Morning Call)

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Joe the Phillie

JOE THE PITCHER


Joe Blanton on the mound for the Phils in Game 4 of the World Series vs. the Tampa Bay Rays:  6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7 K, 2 BB (Photo coutesy:  Rob Kandel/The Morning Call)

JOE THE BATTER


Joe Blanton belts a solo home run in the bottom of the 5th inning (Photo courtesy:  Rob Kandel/The Morning Call)

JOE THE MAN


Joe Blanton departs in the top of the 7th in Game 4 of the World Series vs. the Tampa Bay Rays (Photo courtesy:  Rob Kandel/The Morning Call)

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Diving Back Into the Pool

I, Lady Macbeth, have signed up for another season of morbid fun.  HERE is my list from the Death Pool season that's just ending.  For all you people who look down on the Death Pool, take comfort in the fact that only one person on my list actually died.  So, I'm actually preserving life by putting someone on my list.

Here now is Lady Macbeth's official Death Pool list for the 2008-09 season:

20. Billy Graham 10. George HW Bush
19. Nancy Reagan 9. Ernest Borgnine
18. Betty Ford 8. Olivia de Havilland
17. Kirk Douglas 7. Eli Wallach
16. Fidel Castro 6. Abe Vigoda
15. Ariel Sharon 5. Mickey Rooney
14. Ted Kennedy 4. Robert Byrd
13. Patrick Swayze 3. Phyllis Diller
12. Louis Farrakhan 2. John Wooden
11. Mark Felt 1. Jerry Lewis

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Three, Two, One

In THIS entry from last week, I gave you a little taste of the top 885 songs as voted by the listeners of my most favorite radio station, WXPN.  The songs I chose were from pretty far down on the list.  So, I think it only fair now that I finish the job by bringing you the top three.  (You can see the whole list HERE.  My favorite, BTW, is #4, which you can listen to HERE).

#3

#2

#1

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Bad Timing

It's been a busy week around here.  What with school and election preps and unscheduled work duties, it's been a lot of hurry up and wait.

Like waiting for the Phillies to get a two-out hit (or a hit of any kind) with a runner in scoring position.  I know the World Series is currently tied 1-1, but the Phillies could easily be up 2-0.  With a timely hit here or there, they could have blown the Rays out in Game 1 and scored enough runs to overcome errors in Game 2.

I mean, the Rays aren't exactly hitting the cover off the ball.  The Phillies, on the other hand, are actually hitting (Carlos Ruiz!  where was HE all season!).  But, once they get a guy on base, he better steal home because none of his teammates seems to want to drive him in.  How many times have the Phillies had a man on second with nobody out and failed to score?  Three?  Four?

The Phillies better improve their timing if 2008 is to be their time.

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Prediction

This is probably the KOD for the Phillies, but here's my prediction for the World Series:

Phillies in 6 (maybe 5) over the Rays.

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Friday Music Mix

My most favorite radio station, WXPN, is in the process of counting down the top 885 songs as voted by listeners.  They started on Wednesday and are currently up into the 500s.  Here are a few of the songs that have made the list thus far.

#818

#784

#621

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Seven down, four to go.


Geoff Jenkins and Brett Myers celebrate after closing out the Dodgers with a 5-1 victory in Game 5 of the NLCS  (Photo by Ron Cortes, Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)


Manager Charlie Manuel holds the NLCS trophy while ace lefty Cole Hamels shows off his hardware as the MVP of the NLCS  (Photo by Yong Kim, AP)

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Ya Gotta Believe!

OK.  Full disclosure here.  I suck as a Philles fan.  No, really.  I do.  I'm not a fair-weather fan by any means, but I'm also not willing to put myself through as much angst as I used to tolerate.  At least, I didn't think so.  That's why, last night, when the Phillies were down 5-3 in the bottom of the 6th and Ryan Howard had just thrown the ball god knows where, I went to bed.  Yep.  Given up hope.  All is lost.

But, proving that I am a Phillies fan and, therefore, a glutton for punishment, I got up about 30 minutes later and turned on the radio (sorry, I can't stand the guys on FOX) to see just how badly they were losing.  So, imagine my surprise when I heard that it was the top of the 8th and the Phillies were now ahead 7-5!  Wow!  Then, of course, I had to listen to the bottom of the 8th, in which Brad Lidge once again teetered on the brink of blowing his first save of the season.

These guys are gonna give me a heart attack!  But, as long as they keep proving all the "experts" wrong, I'm OK with that.


Shane Victorino belts a 2-run HR in the top of the 8th to tie Game 4 of the NLCS vs the Dodgers (Photo by Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times)


Matt Stairs is congratulated after his 2-run pinch-hit HR in the top of the 8th put the Phillies ahead to stay (Photo by Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times)

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A Killer Song

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Brett the Bat

His pitching has been pretty solid since being called up from the minors.  But, this post-season, Brett Myers is an offensive juggernaut!  I don't know where he got the idea that he could hit but, suddenly, he can!  He battled Brewers pitching in the NLDS, stringing out 9 and 10-pitch at-bats.  Now, in the NLCS, he's jumping on the first pitch - getting hits, stumbling around the bases, and scoring runs.  It's not always pretty but, as my news director said, "You can't stop Brett Myers.  You can only hope to contain him."


Phillies' pitcher Brett Myers gets a hit and scores a run against the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS (Photos by:  Michael Kubel, The Morning Call)

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So.  You wanna be a doctor.  That's great.  But, here's a tip.  E-mailing a television station probably isn't the best way to start you career in medicine.  Especially when that e-mail reads something like this:  "Can you tell me how I can get ahold of the new medical school so I can apply?"  IMHO, that does not bode well for your chances of becoming an M.D.

The backstory here is that, next fall, a new medical school will open in Scranton.  The school will be called Commonwealth Medical College.  We have done several stories on this school over the past year or so, and we did a story yesterday when it was announced that the medical school had received accredidation and could begin enrolling students.  Hence the sending of aforementioned e-mail which was also undoutedly prompted by the fact that the med school will provide big scholarships to students who get accepted into the initial class.

Now, let's say that I wanted to apply to this new medical school in Scranton but couldn't remember the name of it.  What would I do?  Would I e-mail a television station?  No!  I would use my computer access to do a search.  What would I search for?  Oh, I don't know.  How about MEDICAL COLLEGE SCRANTON.  Or, MEDICAL SCHOOL SCRANTON.  Either search yields several results, one of which is the Web site scrantonmedicalcollege.com.  From there, you can follow the link to the official site, which will link you to the "new" official site, which includes information about how to apply.  The whole process took less than a minute which, I'm guessing, is a lot less time than you would spend e-mailing a TV station and waiting for a reply.

For the record, HERE is the actual Web site for the Commonwealth Medical College.  Good luck with your future plans.

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Pat the Bat

Jimmy Rollins set the tone when he smashed a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall to lead off the game.  That took the home crowd out of the game.  After that, Pat Burrell sealed the deal with a 3-run HR.  Jayson Werth followed with a solo shot, and Burrell smacked another homer later in the game to ice the win.

Phillies take the NLDS 3-1 over the Milwaukee Brewers.  Next up, the Dodgers.


Screen capture of Burrell's 3-run HR vs. Milwaukee (Courtesy: ESPN)


The view from above (Photo courtesy: AP)


Celebrating the big hit (Photo courtesy: David Richard, MLB.com)

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Two Down ...

... and one to go.  The Phightins have surprised some people, I think, by taking the first two games from the Milwaukee Brewers.  Cole Hamels owned game one on Thursday and the Phillies won despite Brad Lidge doing his best Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams impression in the ninth.  Yesterday, Brett Myers improbably outpitched the dreaded CC Sabathia.  I'm not quite sure how that happened, but it did and the Phillies are one game away from the NLCS. 

Assuming that they get there, it appears that their opponent will be the Dodgers.  Can anyone say "Flashback?"  It's like it's 1977, '78, or '83 ALL OVER again.  Let's hope it's more like '83 - at least until the World Series starts.

Here's the #1 song from October 1983.  For the record (no pun intended), it's also the official song of the LAHS Class of '84!  We were young, living in a powder keg and giving off sparks!  Say cheese!

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Road to ??

It seems that the proposal to lease the PA Turnpike to a Spanish-led consortium called PENNSYLVANIA TRANSPORTATION PARTNERS has come to the end of the road.  At least for now.  Yesterday, the group's offer to lease the toll road expired and PTP, tired of waiting for state lawmakers to get in the game, picked up it's $12.8 billion dollar ball and went home.  Of course, they say they're still willing to play if there's a chance that the game will actually be played.

So, where does this leave us?  Right now, we have no tolls on I-80, no plan to privatize the turnpike, and a big, big hole in the state budget.  Hmmmm.

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16 blog posts