Results tagged “hankbaskett”

Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? Bringing you the best of the 215 blogosphere this week...

Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? Bringing you the best of the 215...

Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? The best of the 215 blogs from the past week.

If you're looking for a fun yet complex novel to read in Rittenhouse on upcoming crisp fall days, look no further than local author Matthew Quick's debut novel The Silver Linings Playbook. At once comically dark (think Coen Brothers) and touching, this is a book that will have you cringing at the actions of the main character Pat Peoples while also whole-heartedly rooting for him as he attempts to assimilate himself back into society. Told as a narrative from Pat's point of view, the novel unfolds as he reenters society after living in a neural health facility for years, though his brain has blocked out memory of most of the time spent there and the past events leading up to his stay. We meet him as he is being sprung from the institution by his mother—a woman whose actions might very well remind you of the self-imposed martyrdom of your own mother—and follow along as he endeavours to improve himself in order to win back his estranged wife after their "apart time." He thinks that pounding his body with exercise, hydrating by doing shots of water, and reading the classics of literature will enable him to acheive this goal. Even though it seems clear to the reader that his behavior is foolish, Pat Peoples plods forth each day with the utmost optimism, a childlike vision that things will work out for the best. Even through dark times, his optimism is reinforced as he uses his own special form of augury by reading the clouds in the sky. Hope continues to abound for Pat Peoples, even though his life is quite messy. It would be virtually impossible for the blindly hopeful attitude of the character not to seep into the psyche of the reader. And certainly not to be forgotten, woven through all of this madness, Pat and the characters around him share the embattled love/hate relationship that many Philadelphians have with their beloved Eagles. The book takes place in and around the city of Philadelphia, and it's a special treat for Philadelphians to read a novel with such familiar settings.

It is against my journalistic morals to report on a game that I did not watch in its entirety, so I’m not going to do a huge story on the Eagles today. I’ll keep it real: I went to bed with ten minutes left. Someone told me that a guy named Hank Baskett scored a touchdown before the game was over? Good for him. I was already in Dreamland, sickened by the prospect of watching another minute of the horrid, masturbatory exercise that the Eagles call football these days. The fact that I missed Dexter AND Curb Your Enthusiasm to watch T.O. get his dance on in the Linc end zone made me want to put a five-iron through my 56-inch plasma (Full disclosure: It’s really just a tiny thing I got at Target). But like the immortal Oran “Juice” Jones did in his classic hit “The Rain”…I chill. And put together this lovely ditty to commemorate the Eagles 38-17 suckfest loss to Tony Romo and the far superior Dallas Cowboys. Take the jump for a very beautiful poetic dedication to our boys in green.

There are several questions that will rattle around in our heads for a while, tormenting us while seeing highlights of the remainder of the playoffs, particularly while at whatever dispirited Super Bowl party we attend, telling ourselves it's about being with friends instead of "the game." The 2.5 million dollar commercials will be funny at times, there’ll be lots of beer, some disgusting nacho dip that defies ocular sense by tasting good, and maybe it’ll actually be a good game, though we think a rematch of Super Bowl XX would only see a boring landslide victory in favor of the Pats. Yes, Brady versus Manning - with the Colts revamped D - will be the real Super Bowl.

They did it. The Eagles came, they played hard and well on defense and offense, and then, most importantly, they finished the game, winning a huge, hard-fought victory over division rivals the Dallas Cowboys. Perhaps even more satisfying, they completely defeated ex-teammate Terrell Owens, making him a non-factor in the game. The Eagles might not have been the only ones involved in removing him from the game; there might also have been some bad juju working against him, thanks to a couple of recent promotions by local radio stations, wherein piles of T.O. jerseys were burned in a gigantic bonfire, and a car with "81" spray-painted on it was attacked by fans armed with sledgehammers and other implements of destruction. But regardless of what did it, T.O.'s stats in the game speak for themselves: three catches for only 45 yards and zero touchdowns. T.O.'s main contribution to the game was whining and complaining on the sidelines. The fans treated him to some brutal "O.D." chanting, while he dropped passes, or waited for throws that never came.