Philly Today

There are two car sharing companies in the city of Philadelphia, and on Wednesday they both went before City Council asking about more parking spaces. Philly Car Share is a non-profit organization that currently has 67 parking spaces in the city and went before City Council asking for 5 more spaces. The other company is a for-profit called ZipCar. They came to City Hall to complain that their company does not have any spaces, which puts them at a disadvantage. They are looking for a law change to allow them to have some spaces, but it does not look like that will happen at this time. ZipCar only came onto the scene earlier this year, long after Philly Car Share was established, and it might be a case of ZipCar realizing the opportunity for profit in city car sharing too little, too late.

We knew this day would eventually come. Rick’s Steaks has officially closed up shop and left Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. They’ve been there since 1982, but due to a well-publicized battle with the “landlord”, Rick Olivieri has been evicted from his sandwich stand. The ordeal has cost Olivieri over $310,000 in legal fees, which started when the terminal market was required to change some of the conditions of the lease in order to be more competitive. Initially, it was announced that Tony Luke’s would take the vacant spot, but the future is now not so clear. Rick’s leaves behind hundreds of loyal customers who will have to find another place to go for their cheesesteaks.

I am blogging now about 5 minutes after the Phillies won the first sports championship that I can remember, literally. Technically it was the Sixers in 1983 but I was 3 years old and don’t remember it. I became a sports fan shortly after and lived through 100 seasons with no championships in any sport. But the Phillies did it! It was a strange game that finished two days after it started, but I will take it.

Word is that there will be a parade in downtown Philly on Friday. You can bet that I will be there. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go now and call everyone I know.

Every once in a while, you read a story about road rage that goes too far. I usually don’t yell at other drivers very much because you always have in the back of your mind, “What if they have a gun in their car?” You don’t ever ask yourself, “What if they throw a cup of hot coffee at me?” That is what happened in August in Fort Washington, at Virginia and Office Center Drives.

It all started when James Roban didn’t turn at a green light and was honked at by Scott Peirce, who later passed him and yelled to Roban, “Are you driving or are you talking on the phone?” It turned out that Roban was driving slowly because he did not want to spill the five cups of coffee he had bought for his wife and her co-workers. He also didn’t hear what Peirce had said, yet he was compelled to take one of the cups of hot coffee and toss it through Peirce’s car window into his lap, causing second degree burns to his inner thigh and scrotum. Now Roban will stand trial for aggravated assault, which if convicted could get him a maximum of 10-20 years in prison. Bizarre story, but again, that’s why I don’t mess with other drivers.

On Saturday night, Philadelphia Police found a young woman wedged between the exterior wall of a Catholic school and the wall of a adjacent trailer. She was reported to have been heard screaming by the nuns there. She had been on the roof and fell off of it, landing between the school and the temporary classroom building. Of course, the question is: what the heck was she doing on the roof? Police are investigating it, but it was noted that the school has been burglarized in the last month. There was nothing found stolen in this case, but it kind of makes you wonder. I’ve never been wedged between two walls but I’m guessing it didn’t tickle.

Unless you live in Philly or Tampa Bay, I’m not sure a lot of people are watching the World Series. After all, it is not the matchup everyone wanted. Sorry Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers, but I finally get what I want for a change . So I was on the phone with Kristin when the game (finally) started last night, but when I heard the pre-game introductions for Tampa Bay I started cracking up. The whole time, the stadium sound system was playing this song that went something like this: “Fish fish fish fish fishy fishy fish”. I was confused and so were the Rays players, I think. From what I’ve read, the reason they did that was just to get an annoying kid’s song into the visiting players’ heads. This song certainly qualifies. The link is here, in case you have no idea what I’m talking about:

Fishy Fishy Fishy

Go Phils!

With baseball getting a day off in Philly and some people actually paying attention to hockey in October, the Flyers won a game last night. The 6-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils was just their first of the season out of seven. The Rangers already have seven wins. Of course, they have overtime losses, and you can use that to spin the statistics however you want. After their second straight overtime loss, the story was that the Flyers are winless in six games. Now that they won, they suddenly have points in three straight games. I know that it’s a long season and the Flyers’ slow start is nothing to worry about. Of course, that’s what I thought two years ago when they started off badly and it never got better.

You may remember a group of bottlenose dolphins that took a wrong turn and ended up in New Jersey back in June. They found themselves in the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, which are near Brigantine. They are still there, and haven’t found their way out yet. Of the original 14 dolphins, 12 have survived so far. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been monitoring the pod and have not found any signs of distress. Their plan is not to move them, rather, to continue to monitor and hope that they make their way back out to sea. Officials from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center feel that the dolphins should be moved to save others from perishing, the agency disagrees and have found in some cases the move proves to be even more of a distress and a danger. So they are staying put for now.

It happened last night. Another one of Jimmy Rollins’ bold predictions came true. Besides the Phillies taking a one game to none lead over the Rays in the World Series, the Phillies have reached 100 wins for the season. That’s 92 in the regular season and 8 in the playoffs. When Rollins said the Phillies would get 100 wins before the season started, I’m sure everyone assumed he meant 100 in the regular season. Well, technically, that’s not what he said. That makes him a genius. It all started in 2007 when Rollins proclaimed the Phillies the “team to beat” in the East. Well it looks like he has outdone himself with this prediction. I am not sure what he could do next year for an encore.

It was a chilly day in the Philadelphia region today. It was also very windy. This was not good news in New Jersey because of the massive wildfires that are burning for the second straight day. In the Wharton State Forest, about 2000 acres have already been burned and there is the potential for further damage. The fire started at about 3:3o PM on Tuesday in Camden County. Because it is a remote area it is suspected to be a suspicious fire. Parts of Route 206 remain shut down. If it is not contained by the weekend, firefighters hope that rain in the forecast for Saturday will help to contain the blaze.