News: November 2009 Archives

Quick hit picks for Week 11.

Remember that time when that cute little girl threw the foul ball away during that one Phillies game? Awwwww. Remember when Bruntlett had that amazing unassisted triple play and everyone forget how much he kind of sucked? Yesssss. The season may be over, but the voting and awards aren't yet! The 2009 This Year in Baseball Awards nominees have been announced and quite a few Phils are in the running. Take a gander and vote your brains out, Philly. It's what Jimmy's walk-off double would want you to do. Voting ends December 11th.

Avenging pizza delivery cops; an alleged murderer's apology; a farewell to a Philly TV icon; and more.

The NFL is unquestionably the "No Fun League." This week, the league fined Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco for being an entertainer—which is what he is. Ochocinco was fined $20,000 for flashing a dollar bill at an official during the review of a play where he was not able to get both feet on the ground in bounds. Basically, the league said, "We take ourselves very seriously, probably too seriously. We realize we're an entertainment provider, but we will not let our employees provide entertainment to their fans. In fact, we forbid it. We also realize that tickets are impossible to buy and that serious fans often cannot even watch their team's games because of our ridiculous blackout rules. We turn a blind eye to gambling on NFL games and refuse to acknowledge it even exists."

Today's featured Twitter user is, well, us! Okay, it's not really us. Instead, it's all of the people who have included us in their Twitter lists. Right now, we're listed over 70 times, and we wanted use this space today to say thanks for all the listings. We're hoping to get around to making a few of our own sometime soon, so don't be surprised if you notice that we're returning the list-love.

Local 234 management seems to have finally gotten what they wanted. The union's rank-and-file is expected to approve the agreement today. But with unemployment at over 10% nationally, and most people's raises and bonuses being reduced or cut entirely, how will the citizens of Philadelphia react to the new TWU contract? Leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts.

As we mentioned last week, we went ahead about bought a November SEPTA transpass on the basis of reports that the SEPTA-Local 234 dispute would be resolved without a strike. Ummm, oops! So we forked over $78 for a pass that we couldn't use for a full week; ain't that a bitch? If you're in the same boat as us, fret not: SEPTA has posted the refund & exchange information for last week's weekly transpass and the November monthly transpass. If you have an unused November 2 weekly transpass, you can exchange it for another weekly transpass until the end of the year. If you have a November monthly pass, once this month is over, you can exchange that for $20 towards your next SEPTA purchase until February 10, 2010.

Listen, MSNBC. We know you were in a bit of shock about the whole Democrats-losing-elections thing (we're equal opportunity pundit haters around here), but don't you think you still could have maybe proofread your screen titles?

This: At 8:42 this morning, an otherwise unidentified male who may have been a track inspector was struck and killed by an inbound R3 train near Melrose Park. The R2 (Warminster), R3 (West Trenton) and R5 (Lansdale/Doylestown) lines going beyond Fern Rock are all suspended at the moment due to the accident, which SEPTA is politely calling "police activity" on its website.

[Ed. note: We originally ran this post last week, before the SEPTA strike was, as we reported this morning, officially upon us. Now that the strike is in effect, we are running this post again to clarify, for those of you who may have missed it the first time, some of the inevitable questions about which services cease during the strike, and which don't.]

Despite all signs—and threats by Governor Rendell to really put the screws to both SEPTA and TWU Local 234—pointing to a SEPTA contract resolution without a work stoppage, the drivers' and mechanics' union has called a strike.

Saturday played host to many things: Halloween, Phillies game, last show at the Spectrum, and even a Making Time/R5 Productions Halloween party sponsored, in part, by Philebrity.