Philly Today

Good news for shore swimmers: you can go back into the water and continue your holiday weekend. Officials did more inspections of New Jersey beaches and did not find any more medical waste. Syringes and other debris had been found earlier in the weekend on beaches between Avalon and Ocean City. The Attorney General is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of whoever dumped the waste.

It is too bad that the holiday weekend was disrupted because I love the New Jersey beaches, especially this time of year. After Labor Day, the water is warm, the beaches are less crowded, and the boardwalks remain open. And, of course, no beach tags.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson has pulled off some crazy stunts over the years, but this one might top all of them. Chad has legally changed his name to Chad Javon Ocho Cinco. Ocho Cinco is Spanish for Eight Five, which is his jersey number. Two years ago, he tried to put that nickname on the back of his jersey. But now, it is no longer a nickname.

I can’t wait to see what his teammates and coaches think. And imagine Greg Gumbel or some other broadcaster having to constantly call him by his new name. I am guessing that some might call him “the player formerly known as Chad Johnson”. He had been quiet for a while, but you knew it was a matter of time before Chad Javon Ocho Cinco did something crazy.

My post today has nothing to do with anything, but hey, it’s a holiday weekend. Now I might qualify this by saying that I might be the only person that finds this funny. But since I am a geek and a stickler for punctuation it’s funny to me. Christine and I were driving yesterday and I saw a handmade sign that said:

Recycling aluminum “only”: No plastic

I noted that there was no reason for those quotation marks to be there and it made the whole thing funnier somehow. If you don’t understand how it’s funny, try reading it out loud and making air quotes with your hand when you see the quotation marks (Please don’t get me started on people using air quotes).

So this morning, I’m messing around on the computer and I stumble across the funniest website! Guess what it’s called? The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks!! I couldn’t believe it, I was just talking about that. Now I will be checking that site often, and I might have to send in a picture of the sign I saw. Check it out.

In Manayunk, they have a hill that is so steep they call it “The Wall”. It is best known for being part of the annual cycling race where spectators gather to drink, cheer, and ring cowbells. Now, instead of going up the Manayunk Wall, racers will be going down it. The Red Bull Soapbox Race will take place on September 6, and will feature 35 finalists who will compete in teams. The field has already been narrowed down, and I’m guessing this might be part of a larger national contest. It should be a fun time. I have never built a soapbox racer or attended one of these races, but I’m guessing it’s going to take a lot more than a couple of bales of hay to slow these cars down.

Surprising predictions out of this week’s Sports Illustrated. If you look at the cover, you will see none other than Donovan McNabb. Not only that, on the NFL predictions inside, the writers have picked the Eagles to finish the regular season with a 12-4 record, good enough to win the NFC East. In the playoffs, they are predicted to knock off the Cowboys and the Vikings to make it to — get this — Super Bowl XLIII. They will then lose to the New England Patriots.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about the Madden Curse . I am pretty sure a similar curse exists with being on the cover of SI. Granted, the cover is “regional”, meaning there are 6 different people on the cover depending on where in the country you are. I did mention a few days ago that the excitement for the Eagles is starting to build despite a so-so last season and off-season. The cover story will only further fuel the hype. I hope that this prediction comes true and does not have the opposite effect.

Police apprehended a man on Friday after he fled his prison’s work release program. He had been working as a dishwasher in Strathmere, Cape May County, NJ in a program from the state’s Department of Transportation. Where did he go when he ditched work? Straight to the Sea Isle City beach. He told them he was going to visit his sick mother, but he apparently wanted fun in the sun.

The cops were tipped off when the guy refused to buy a $5 beach tag. That left an impression on the tag collector and when police inquired she was able to describe him. I hate buying beach tags in Jersey as much as the next person. However, if the guy would have thought a little harder about his beach options he might not have been caught. If he had stayed in Strathmere, they don’t require beach tags there.  Or he could have gone to Sea Isle on a Wednesday, when tags are free. And of course, he could have just wait about a week when most beaches stop checking tags after Labor Day.

The kids in the school district where I live start school Wednesday of this week. And the neighboring district started today. Now I know that starting school in August is actually pretty common in some parts of the U.S., but it never used to be that way in the Philly area. In my youth, my district always started school the Wednesday after Labor Day and I’m pretty sure that is still the case. In my opinion, school should not be starting before Labor Day. When it does, the holiday only disrupts the beginning of the school year, and schools should just let the kids enjoy summer while it lasts. It certainly did go quickly, didn’t it?

Sunday night will be the closing ceremonies. With that, the 2008 Summer Olympics will come to an end. It seems like ages ago that I was watching the opening ceremonies. I am forgetting what it was like before round-the-clock coverage of Michael Phelps, women’s beach volleyball, badminton and handball. I have heard the American and Chinese national anthems playing nonstop. The end of the Olympics means things get back to normal on TV. Back to 11:00 news, Jay Leno and The Office. But it also signals the unofficial end of the summer (well, actually Labor Day does but that’s only a week away). While it’s always fun to watch, I am ready to move on after a couple weeks of it. See you in 4 years, Summer Games.

Well, sports fans in Philadelphia might be “front-runners”. But they are also very, very obsessed with Eagles football. You can hear people talking about the Eagles year-round. It usually intensifies starting in July when training camp takes place. This year, there was no real buzz at training camp. This might have a lot to do with the fact that the Eagles did not have a very eventful offseason. No big free agent signings, and they traded away their first-round draft pick. Also, Phillies baseball was exciting, with the Phils in first place for most of the summer.

But I sense that a shift is taking place with fans, or will very soon. The Phillies are no longer in first place. September is getting closer, and the Eagles looked very solid last night in a victory against the Patriots. Granted, it is a preseason victory, but I think that that is going to be enough for many fans, and inflatable Swoop (pictured above), to go into full-time crazy Eagles fan mode. By the time the first regular season game is here, expectations will be high and everyone will forget about last year’s mediocre season and the boring offseason. It happens every year.

Larry Mendte, the CBS-3 anchor who was let go a few months ago amid charges that he hacked into co-anchor Alycia Lane’s personal e-mail, pleaded guilty to those charges. Attorneys say that Mendte accessed Lane’s account more than 500 times from January through May 2008 from both his home and work computers. It is also alleged that by reading Lane’s e-mail, Mendte leaked stories about Lane that made the tabloids and contributed to Lane getting fired from the station in January.

In my opinion, Mendte will not spend any time behind bars. However, it is unlikely that he will be getting a job anytime soon, at least in Philly. Before this happened, I had a favorable opinion of Mendte, but this looks like a combination of obsession and jealousy on Mendte’s part that has gotten him into some hot water.