And I've got a pair just about that old

Friday is the 50th birthday of Doc Martens boots.



Go ahead. Treat yourself - buy some new cherry reds!

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss

He would have been 105 today. He is the source of many fond memories from my childhood!

If you're of certain age, like me, and...

...grew up around Philadelphia you will probably watch this video and think Horn & Hardart. And you would be right.

Today in infamy

Thirty two years ago today I was pardoned by Jimmy Carter; an act for which I am forever grateful.

Inconsolable

At the age of thirteen I snuck off, with my mate John and his older sister Sarah into Philly to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience. My parents thought I was bowling. Now the last member of the Experience, drummer Mitch Mitchell, is dead.

How am I supposed to deal with this?

So, which history will repeat itself?

Having clinically finished off Milwaukee the Phighting Phils have made it to the National League Championship Series to meet their nemesis of the 1970's, the LA Dodgers. We lost to them twice in '77 and '78 only to get our revenge a quarter of a century ago in that glorious year of 1983. The back to back losses in the seventies were made worse by the fact that I often used to drink in a bar run by Tommy Lasorda's brothers; who were not bashful about gloating.

Today in infamy

On this day, 56 years ago, Vice President Richard Nixon gave his infamous Checkers speech and got to keep his job; and his wife's respectable Republican cloth coat; and the dog. When I was at university one of my mates had a copy of the speech on Super 8; we used to watch it whilst smoking bongs of Afghani hash - endless hours of entertainment.





After eight years of Captain Codpiece I am suddenly nostalgic for the good old Nixon years.

A message for Shelley Maggitti

I understand your pain. I am a 1973 graduate of Unionville High School and it's lonely out there, isn't it? I did the dishonourable thing and ran away.

I'd recommend you put the signs up anyway and let the sons of bitches sue you (but that's just me).

Obama locks up Delaware's 3 electoral votes

As a native Delawarean (I was born in Wilmington and lived there in a hospital incubator for about ten days before moving to southern Pennsylvania) I am proud to announce that Barack Obama has chosen the First State's own Joseph Biden as his Vice Presidential nominee. Biden is clearly not on the ticket to help swing a state or two but rather there for his experience and to patch holes in Obama's CV. Let's hope that this unusual strategy works, eh?

Today in infamy

On this day in 1972, when I was still in high school, a bunch of Republican criminals broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington DC and the rest is history.

The saddest thing of all is that, after nearly 8 years of Captain Codpiece and his evil minions, the Nixon Republicans are looking better and better (and not nearly as criminal)!

What's wrong with kids these days?

They're having less sex, doing less drugs and, worst of all, using condoms. I fear that all of the hard work of my generation paving the way forward might now be in vain!

Twisted knickers in West Chester

West Chester PA isn't exactly my home town but I did live in RD4 West Chester for seventeen years. How things (haven't) changed. Apparently a woman has opened a shop on Church Street that sells (Shock! Horror!) lingerie and sex toys. The usual assemblage of ring wing Christian nuts is horrified!

You have to remember that West Chester (previously Turk's Head) is a town where you can "come in High and go out Gay", or the reverse if you prefer.

Just like the good old days

Those of you from the Philadelphia area who are, like me, of a certain age, will remember the days, fondly or not, when the City of Brotherly Love was the only bit of the US East coast where Interstate 95 was not completed. Now, for a few days at least, it will be like that once again. Have fun!

Sixties flashback?

Somehow this story about the vault full of plant seeds now carefully hidden away in Norway's Arctic North so that they will be available after humanity destroys the planet and itself harks back to the bad old days of the Cold War (and my childhood).

Unhappy memories

This new research into the social dynamics of yellow jackets comes far too late for me. As a child of seven or eight, living in the Pennsylvania country side, I happened to sit down in the grass at the side of our house one day. Unfortunately I did not yet realise that these savage critters often nest in the ground and as my small, flag free buttocks were blocking the entrance to a nest I suffered some hundred or hundred and fifty stings in what is generally a rather tender area of the human anatomy. I shall spare you the gory details but you should understand that the next week to ten days I do not recall amongst the happiest of my life!