A Picture of Intercourse (PA)

This is one of my favorite pictures from my trip. Enjoy!

Greg Maddux for President

Enough said. He rules. He's the rulingest ruler.

Puzzling

I just saw Wordplay, which rocks tremendously. It is about crossword puzzles and the crossword puzzle tournament and Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle and the Puzzlemaster on NPR. Most of my readers not only have already seen this movie, they know exactly who Will is. What the non-my-family people may not know is the level of obsession we have for Will Shortz. Speaking during the Puzzle on Sunday on NPR is strictly verboten. So I was a little disturbed that I had never known until seeing this movie that Will Shortz sports a full moustache. Who knew?

Petco Park

We added one final ballpark to our trip by convincing our parents we should go to Petco Park in San Diego to watch our streaking (both losing and winning, depending on the month) Dodgers visit the Padres. Petco is another in the new school of park with an old school feel but thoroughly modern amenities. It's very nice. But the Padres killed the Dodgers with some very fishy officiating involved. Also, San Diego needs some help in the 'direct traffic on gameday' department. Enjoy the photos!

Truly Terrible

I might have mentioned to some of you that one of my professors last year was a pedophile. Well, he was just arrested (again). Truly a horrifying story. He was supposed to be teaching again this fall (read: in two weeks). One of my friends was supposed to be his TA, so it will be interesting to see what Wharton does with this one. How this guy was able to keep a teaching position at Wharton despite his record is beyond me, although at least I guess we are all of age. The fact that he was a visiting professor at a Thai business school surprised no one.

Sorry for the bummer story, but it was too horrifying not to share.

Escalump

One final note from the road trip (dedicated to Ruthie), I am officially in love with DC's metro system. Not because of how infrequently they run the trains or how slow they go. I am obsessed with a small ad inside one of the trains I took. It was made to look like a dictionary entry. It read something like this:

Escalump: A person who stands at the top or the bottom of a metro escalator, blocking the path of the people behind him or her and causing a general mess.

Love it!

Camden Yards

above: Our last shot inside a park, and Ross enjoys his last hot dog.

Camden Yards was beautiful. Probably my second favorite park (sorry, but I'm obsessed with Jacobs Field, GO INDIANS). It's probably most noteworthy as being the grandaddy of all these new improved parks, including Jacobs, PNC, and Citizens Bank, not to mention Pac Bell Park (I refuse to acknowledge its new names). So it deserves credit as creating these improved baseball experiences around the country. The fans are also great. My favorite tradition is that the entire ballpark yells "O's!" during the Star Spangled Banner over the "Oh" in "Oh say does that..." line. While we're on anthems, I thought it was nice that they also sang "Oh Canada" since they were facing the Blue Jays of Toronto that night. I don't know if it was out of respect to our neighbors to the north or the uncertainty with how to deal with an extra anthem in the mix, but they did not take advantage of that "Oh" to yell "O's!" any additional times.

Salty Balty, as I'm told it's called, was not that pretty of a city. Anyhow, I'm in California now which is so pretty and I can see the ocean and sunsets and wide open spaces and it's just lovely.

By the way, this is my 200th post. Thanks to all 15 of you who are still reading!

More RFK Pictures

At RFK they race presidents, by far the best 'race' we saw. And just as in Pittsburgh, the race starts out animated but then the world gets turned upside down as live versions of the animated characters burst into the stadium and complete the race live-action style. It's awesome.

And the Prize for Most Sarcastic License Plate Goes To...

This is from the side of RFK Stadium, but the DC license plate 'motto' is for real. I love that a region of people is sarcastic and bitter enough to institutionalize that attitude into a government-issued license plate.

If you don't have anything nice to say...

OK, the Nationals. RFK stadium. That's right, 'stadium' not 'park.' That's really most of what needs to be said. It's a dismal park, and we were glad it was pre-Camden rather than post-. It needs to be dismantled.

RFK Stadium was the location of our only home team loss of the whole trip. It was also the first time we became aware there was any controversy about the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". "Let me" vs. "For it's" "root root root for the Dodgers". Why "Let me"? Is there some possibility of mind control within the stadium such that you would not be allowed to root for your team? In DC and Baltimore (Salty Balty, coming soon) this alteration was made to the lyrics. It was strange.

We got very near a foul ball but did not come up with it once more. The game was dull. The Nationals looked really bad. The only nice thing I have to say about RFK is their hot dog wins best hot dog of the trip. More and pictures soon!

Phillies Recaplet

I'm getting behind (two games back, with the potential to go three later today), so I'll quickly talk about the Phillies game. I've been to a few Phillies games before. Their fans are nice but engaged. It's a very good park (Jacobs is winning our 'favorite park' contest at the moment). The grass is a little worn in left field. This was our best game in terms of level of play, and there were a lot of Mets fans (since it's so close), which made it very fun to watch. We also had our first (and last) 'outsider' guest at a game. Ross's friend Jeff came with us, which prompted us to drink more beer and to chat a bit more than game watch for once. We got to see one of our favorite former Dodgers, Paul LoDuca. The hot dogs were good but not great (Pittsburgh's were the worst so far). Then we went out drinking with some of the new first years, who need to get out of my school because I liked it the way it was, and I ran into some second years I knew, please save me from these new people let's pretend it's last year again.

Then we drove to DC, which took forever. Traffic through Delaware and into 'the district' made it a huge pain.

The Nationals Support the Analog Clock

Yes, I'm two days behind. Sue me. This cracked me up for some reason. Nationals will probably win best hot dog, by the way, but worst everything else.

Falling Water: A Snippet

The following exchange happened on our tour:

Ross: Why are the beams supporting the concrete pillars shaped like that? Do the notches have any significance?

Most Annoying Tour Guide in the World Who Should Really Consider a Thong if Wearing a Skirt Made Out of That Fabric: That's an excellent question. Does anyone have a theory on that?

Scary Tall Woman In Her 50's From Montana Who Can't Stop Making Out With Her Shorter Bearded Husband Despite the Presence of Two Daughters in Their Teens: Could it be his way of copying the foliage that's all around?

MATGITWWSRCATIWASMAOTF: Interesting! Yes! That's a really good theory! Another thing people have guessed is that it's because of the leaves on the trees which are all around.

STWIH5FMWCSMOWHSBHDTPOTDITT: (angrily, twisting the hemp bracelet she wears instead of a wedding ring) That's what I just said.

Falling Water and the Appalachian Trail

Falling Water is pretty. It is also in the middle of nowhere. And the ceilings are really low. And our tour guide was really annoying. But it is quite spectacular. The design really feels timeless.

On our drive to Gettysburg, we realized we were going to cross the Appalachian Trail. We pulled over on the side of the road and snapped photos standing under the sign (note the "Foot traffic only" bit on the bottom). If you have not read A Walk in the Woods, please do so now.

We ate dinner in Gettysburg, which is way cuter and more charming than you would expect, and at the same time very touristy. I could not (and still cannot) wrap my head around the fact that it's in Pennsylvania and not Virginia. It just feels like Virginia to me. We toured the battlefield and the cemetery and stood where Lincoln did to deliver his address. We then drove through Pennsylvania Dutch Country (tourist trap with buggies) to get to Philadelphia. Words cannot describe my joy at returning to my old city. I've missed it. It's been four months since Juliedelphia has been in Philadelphia.

Visiting the Family Tree

We left Pittsburgh early Tuesday morning to head to Clarksburg, West Virginia. Why? Well the above photo should give you some indication why. There was no baseball game yesterday, so we had two days to get from Pittsburgh to Philly. We realized our ancestral home, visited some 33 years ago by my parents and grandparents, was just two hours from Pittsburgh.

In addition to an assortment of plaques around town, there is a Davisson Family Cemetery on a farm that used to belong to the family and now belongs to some distant relatives belonging to a branch of the family who long ago ceased to be Davisson and now are the Stouts. My parents met the current owners of the farm when they were back there, and suggested we call ahead to make sure it was OK to see the cemetery. It was sad timing that Mr. Stout passed away last week and his funeral was on Sunday. But his widow was lovely and his grandson (my fourth cousin, we determined), in town for the funeral, was a big family history buff and insisted we come by and gave us the tour.

We first went into town and were directed to a house next to the library where the resident local history and geneaology expert lived. We'll call him Sir Talks-a-Lot. He did give us listings of everyone buried in the Davisson and Faris (more relations) family cemeteries, an old map, and showed us the vast quantities of information available on our family. Our grandfather was listed in one of his books, but our great-grandfather didn't even exist in one of the others. Strange. We finally made our escape (this was after listening to him ramble on for an hour-- also, he needed to trim his fingernails), and then made our escape. The town of Clarksburg is half charming, half depressing. It has the feel of an old fashioned town, and has the county courthouse and some other charming buildings. But there were a lot of empty storefronts and the people walking around did not look like they were having easy lives. It made me wonder what my life would have been like if the family had stayed there (moot, since Roger never would've met Marji in WVa, not to mention the few generations prior).

The farm was lovely and our distant relations were so sweet, especially considering what they had just been through. Our cousin showed us around, and he knew a ton about what was up there which was really neat. We got a lot of photos of the cemetery, and got a tour of the house which is beautiful. They raise cows and have a wholesale meat business. They also own a ton of land in the county, as do a few other branches of the family. Strangely, there aren't really Davissons left that he knew of, but the existence of the Davisson Brothers Band indicates that we are still be found elsewhere in West Virginia.

We then found the Faris family cemetery, and toured Bridgeport, the town directly next to Clarksburg (and where our relatives went to school, etc.). Bridgeport lacked the charm of Clarksburg, but is clearly a successful little town. So there you are.

More pictures and an account of our visit to Falling Water, complete with the world's most annoying tour guide (since Acoma)!

PNC PS

I hate blogger. I've been trying to upload multiple pictures for an hour. My PS is PNC has cupholders, and we got to see pitchers hit. These two facts push my PNC love higher.

Arrr

I'm currently in Gettysburg, PA and had an incredible morning in West Virginia, but first up to catch you up will be my experience at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

I love PNC Park. My love of Pittsburgh definitely quintupled at what had to be both my best and strangest ballpark experience of the trip.

First, the best: PNC Park is as beautiful as described, and the city closes off one of its stunning downtown bridges to cars to you can walk right in. It's one of the lovely new parks, all beautiful curves, open walkways, and focused on providing a great view of the city, and in this case the rivers, from wherever you are. It rained but only briefly. The people were charming and excited about the team despite their dismal weather. And the guy in front of us caught a foul ball, putting me closer to a foul ball by about 200 yards than I've ever been before. And they have guys walking around selling beer, which Cleveland was sorely lacking. It was the only park I've been to all summer does not force you to sing God Bless America as part of the 7th inning stretch. Also, a girl's prize for losing the trivia contest (which was entertainment, rather than sports, trivia) was a copy of the DVD of "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo". Some of you (RUTHIE) know I have a penchant for calling the second version of anything "Electric Boogaloo", for instance, "Wharton 2nd Year: Electric Boogaloo".

The strange: The pregame entertainment included a digitally animated pirate onscreen talking some smack about Davy Jones's locker and reciting most of the speech you hear on Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland before you go down the first drop. Then we pan to an absurdly elaborate animated scene of all the NL Central teams represented as old-fashioned boats, with the Pittsburgh boat as the pirate ship among them. We were then treated to a full three minutes of a naval battle, with the Pittsburgh Pirate ship (unlike the team this season) dispatching effecively with each of them. The Brewers ship, and this was perhaps tailored because this was their opponent for the evening, was dealt with last. Instead of the usual triple cannonballs of doom, this pirate ship suddenly had underwater missiles which the ship previously did not have and which seem anachronistic given the structure of all vessels involved.

Also, the piarte came back to talk about other stuff. He was generally weird.

Also, they did a stock report during the game. That was strange.

All told, it was also our worst hot dog.

Oh, another weird thing was that the players had done some fundraiser where they created original paintings to be sold for charity. When they'd announce the batter, instead of the usual 'badass' photos or images of the player swinging a bat superimposed in front of some pretty image of the park, we got video of them painting and then sometimes closeups of the paintings would stay onscreen while they hit. These paintings all look like fifth graders did them. Sometimes they were their names in pretty colors; other times, it would be a salute to their countries of origin and "I love you Mom" in Spanish. It was hard to fear any of these hitters, but they did win pretty convincingly.

OK, I'm exhausted. West Virginia will wait.

Some Pictures

(sic) Note this is a REVISED code

Cleaveland

More from Cleveland (currently, we're chilling in the shockingly charming town of Pittsburgh):

The people being the nicest people on the planet continued. My depression over the fact that downtown Cleveland is a ghost town also continued.

We decided to hit a sports bar to watch the DODGERS battle the icky Giants on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Our two options were "Scorchers", in the Embassy Suites building, or the Winking Lizard just a few blocks away. Everything else in downtown Cleveland seemed to be closed. The Winking Lizard was perfect, as they had lots of TVs and a tremendous beer list (we had a pitcher of Shiner). Every other TV in the place was showing the baseball game, with the alternating showing the Bengals pre-season game. We expressed to the hostess our desire to sit in a non-smoking section where we could both see the game. This proved difficult, and she reached a level of comical despair. We quickly assessed that we'd have to sit in the smoking section and were fine with it, especially since not that many people appeared to be smoking. But she was walking all over the restaurant showing us options, all of which required one of us to rotate his or her head around 180 degrees to see the screen.

We ate our decent food, drank our delicious beer, and watched what can only be described as an epic battle of great pitching and strong fielding with a dramatic and exciting ending. Then I went to use the ladies room, and found that one stall had been vomited in (cleanly missing the toilet and instead forming a nice pile in front of it), and the other two reeked of marijuana. This must be Cleveland's dark underbelly.

Today we spent the morning wandering around downtown Cleveland. There are some very pretty buildings and monuments to see. There is one commemorating the founder of that fair city, a Mr. Cleaveland. Now I either assume the monument was misspelled (seems unlikely) or the name of the city is (unlikelier). I did some research for my fair readers, and Wikipedia assures me, "The spelling of the city's name was later changed to "Cleveland" when, in 1831, an "a" was dropped so the name could fit a newspaper's masthead." Who knew?

We then drove to Pittsburgh which is lovely! Who knew? The people here are still midwestern nice, but this downtown is gorgeous. We visited the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt's campus, which is this massive tower of an academic building with classrooms 'themed' after different nationalities. The Austrian room has silk upholstered chairs and crystal chandeliers, while the Ukrainian room is all carved wood paneling and a large tile chimney. It's very pretty, though it verges a bit on it's a small world.

We have a Pirates game tonight, and I hope the rain they've been alluding to on the radio does not happen.

Question: Which of the nicknames appropriating an ethnic name for a home team player is more offensive, "Hip Hip, Jorge!" for Jorge "Give me a magic feather and I can fly!" Posada, or "Choo Choo" (complete with train animation on the scoreboard) for Shin-Soo Choo

Pictures next.

Feathers, not dots

I'm in Indian teritory, and I don't mean back at Wharton. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, where we attended today's humiliation of the Kansas City Royals.

To back up a bit, we left joshua's apartment at 6 am to stand in a no liquids allowed bag drop line which defied imagination. Once inside, jet blue's screens decided to share departure gate information for flights which had taken their leave an hour before, but not for ours. We bought breakfast and were advised (incorrectly) by our sales clerk which of our beakfast purchases were legal to carry on board. Then it was a two hour drive to Cleveland, during which we encountered a hilarious rest stop sign which will be posted later. Oh, did I mention it was 250 bucks cheaper each to fly into Pittsburgh instead of Cleveland? Hence the two hour drive.

The Indians park, Jacobs field, is awesome. Each successive person we meet here is the nicest person I've ever met. The game was low on suspense, but it was fun to watch the home team do so well.

We are now watching the dodgers at a sports bar in downtown cleveland, which is a sadly dead downtown, typical of cities which have sprawled in a suburban way but not invested in renewing downtowns.

By the way, 2 hot dogs and 2 massive beers will set you back 19 bucks at a Cleveland game. That's way cheaper than at crappy old Yankee stadium.

6 ballparks, 7 days, 2 Davissons

Eat your heart out, Sugawa. The junior Davissons have started a six ballpark in seven days trip at dreaded Yankee Stadium, where the Yanks beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (the contradiction in that name still kills me) 5-2. Yankee Stadium is not my favorite ballpark, though you can get a Hebrew National frank which almost beats a Dodger Dog as my favorite ballpark dogs.

Some Yankee game observations:

1. The guys in the yellow polo shirts threw a guy out a few rows in front of us after he was using profanities and generally making a mother and her four kids pretty miserable over several innings. One half inning later, he was back. Another half inning later, the NYPD came and threw him out for good. What is the point of the partial throw-out by the yellow shirt guys if they don't actually escort people out of the park? If they think someone is being evil enough to deserve ejection, do they actually believe that they will leave the park on an honor system?

2. The Yankees are cheaters, and/or the Umps are blind. There was a really bad call when Izturis was safe at first (though I supported the call because it gave me my only glimpse of my favorite Angel, Mike Scioscia, when he came out to yell at the umpire). And when A-Rod reached second on a double, the umpire standing there clapped. He then seemed aware that he had revealed a bias and started doing-- no joke-- some version of the hand jive.

3. The announcer is incredibly annoying. This is how he introduces players, "At shortstop, number 2, Derek Jeter, number 2." Is he trying to create a palindrome? Why not end it with "at shortstop" then? Perhaps in that case it makes sense since Derek Jeter is only the second best shortstop on his own team and is therefore forever number 2.

We're headed to Cleveland tomorrow, and at least have five games in which we care little about the outcome. Watching my least favorite team beat a team I care about (though am annoyed with due to naming) was torture.

Email and a Reply

I received this email twice:

 

Please am sorry for the inconvinece
hi my name is Amin am  from
egypt, am presently on political assylum now.
l got your email contact from my research on the
net because am presently looking for honest person
who can help my client to invest his fund in Real Estate
Investment and commercial properties.
I will be very intresting to start a new life in your country
with your assistance and co-operation on this issue concerning
my client fund.
So please if your in good position to help me, please send me an
email at this email address ( amin03@o2.pl )
indicating your desire to help me invest this fund in your country
and beyond. l urgently wating for your reply by end of the day,
I hope to me you very soon.

Best Regards & God Bless

Amin

 

My response:

 

Dear Amin,

 

Thank you for thinking of me for this exciting investment opportunity.  However, I could never possibly entrust my hard-earned money to someone who misspells "asylum".

 

Warm regards,

 

Juliedelphia

'Tis Almost Done

I delivered my final presentation this morning. I feel like I have a ton left to do, but my manager is acting like I'm done. The presentation went well and I'm happy. And I dressed like Don Johnson from Miami Vice for it (turquoise shirt, white suit). Another intern overheard people in the elevator talking about my presentation and saying they couldn't believe how much work I had done and that they had heard my group was really impressed. So that feels really good.

Two days left in the working world, and then I'm unemployed once more. I've so far received one offer to be a nanny (it's going to be a boy for the Middlebrooks), and I'm pretty sure the job of beach house window washer is always available.

Important Update

It turns out that the cupcakes at Magnolia are better than the ones at Billy's.  So sorry if I've led any recent visitors to NYC astray.

Staying in Character

FYI, my third to last day at work will be spent at an offsite doing team-building activities. Our main activity is a murder mystery. We have been assigned characters. Here is the character I will be playing:

Name and Profession: Mary Smith - Housewife and part time stuntwoman

Gender: Female

Personality Characteristics: Mary excels at everything she does. Confident and outwardly happy, her zest for life is contagious. She is a good friend and neighbor and doesn't hide the fact that she is a bit of a daredevil. Whether she is reseeding the lawn, or driving a car over 10 tractors and a swamp, Mary always gets the job done right.

Background: Mary grew up watching her mother emulate Mrs. Cleaver and other perfect television moms. Meals were masterpieces and her mother was always dressed to the nines as she served them. Her father encouraged his only daughter to participate in sports and was the loudest fan at her games. Her mother rarely came to any of her sporting events. After graduation, she met her husband at a 4K and it was love at first sight. Twelve years her senior and employed as a stunt coordinator for a major film studio, he persuaded Mary to give it a shot. She was a natural from the beginning and worked steadily until the birth of their twins 7 years ago. She has been working part time since then, but only when the children are in school and she has no household commitments.

Playing this character: Search your energy reserves for playing Mary! Playful punches with your companions would be appropriate. Bring up small injuries due to your work. For instance, you might mention your aching ribs from the fall off a 2-story bank building and your broken toe from the vacuum cleaner the other day. If someone reaches toward you, jump back or duck as if they were going to throw a punch or karate kick and then mention your recipe for chocolate pot de crème.

Motive: While Mary is outwardly a tomboy, she yearns to be a glamorous lady. She has filled out the application for the Mrs. Orange Valley pageant, but needs the specialized wardrobe to ensure her place in the top 5. Gowns alone will run in the thousands of dollars. The pageant is next month and Mary knows what she must do to win. Her husband does not know about her secret so she cannot withdraw funds from their joint accounts.

Sage Advice

Below is an email I sent to a first year starting at Wharton today. That's right, pre-term starts today which means almost exactly a year ago today, I was getting started. Since I have no time to post, I thought I'd share this with you. Bold text (if my email-to-blog translator can handle bold text) was added by my co-head writer, who is unaware of this blog's existence but is now its second official guest blogger.

Dear First Year,

My first Wharton email was from a guy I knew who was a second year, and it was full of sage advice like "drink more" and "don't go to class," so I figured I'd continue the tradition and impart a tiny bit of wisdom for your first month of school. I had a smart ass friend of mine contribute (in bold). Congrats on getting started. I'm more jealous than you can imagine. When I run into my classmates this summer, all we talk about is wanting to do our first year over again:

1. Don't go to class during preterm. Seriously. The exceptions are if you're trying to waive anything and math test prep if you need it. It's worth preparing for any tests you're going to take. But if you aren't waiving MGEC, Stat, or Accounting, those pre-term classes are a total waste of time. I thought I had to go. I was wrong. They start over at the beginning again in September. If you feel you have to class, and you're assigned to an 8am section, go to the 10am section instead. There's no consequences to that. That said, waive everything you can. It is much less painful to sit through nine hours of something useless than it is to sit through a whole quarter of it.

2. Go out all the time (note I didn't say 'Drink More', which is your choice) You'll meet a lot of people during pre-term, and once you get into class and school you'll tend to see your cohort all the time. Pre-term is the big free-for-all where everyone is mixing with everyone, so it's worth going to everything. I didn't have any furniture the first month, so I adhered to this to a ridiculous degree.

3. If you go to the foam party, don't bring your cell phone. You think you'll stay out of the foam, but you won't. Also be sure to get all your vaccines and have your will notarized before going.

4. The lunch truck called Hanan on 38th at Walnut is phenomenal, but a little slow. Their chicken platter with grape leaf may be my favorite lunch in Philly. The Mexi Cali lunch truck on Spruce (over by Vance) is fantastic, as well.

5. The gym is really nice and worth it in my opinion. You will, however, go there 85% less than you think, so make sure you're okay with paying $115 per workout before signing up.

6. Try to get away for Labor Day. A bunch of us got a house on the shore for the weekend, and it was a blast. It's a good break before the break that is school. Julie didn't invite me to this. I still hate her for it.

7. Post-labor day, Case Day and Diversity Day may be the biggest wastes of time ever. Also, there was a day where they go over the academic program. Huge waste. They put up photos of the professors you're going to have and say, "So and so is really popular" and then say nothing about the next one. You have no control over your core professors, so it's pointless. Career Boot Camp day was also a waste, looking ahead to second semester. But you have many more months to think about ditching that. Diversity Day's only high points were two of the moderators who were supposed to be teaching us about tolerance making racially insensitive remarks. We do still talk about that.

8. I met one of my very best friends at Wharton on my first day scavenger hunt team [we were on the same team?]. So don't skip out on the cheesy things just because they're cheesy. Do, however, make fun of them incessantly while doing them.

9. Try to get your Cohort to do Karaoke at Bonners one of the first Thursdays of school (you'll have a mailing list). It's an incredible way to bond. My cohort still does it once a month, and others always beg to join us. Pay a late night visit to the Rite Aid at 23rd and Walnut afterwards. It's amazing what hot pockets and Gatorade can do.

10. Don't run for social chair. It's a totally thankless job. The only cool cohort officership is historian because you get to mock people weekly in the Journal. Agreed.

11. The Starbucks at 36th and Walnut is "The Starbucks of the Damned". It takes 10 minutes to get a drink. Hit Dunkin' instead, or grab Starbucks in Center City. The bus drivers don't care if you drink on the bus. You can also use your nice hot cup of coffee as a weapon to throw at the bus when it speeds by you half empty and it's hot as all hell outside.

12. The trolley is faster than the bus, so if you live north of Walnut, I'd take the trolley.

13. Little Pete's is open 24 hours for late night muchies . It's at 17th between Locust and Walnut. Also noteworthy is Midtown 4 on Chestnut around 22nd. Again, I reference the Rite Aid on 23rd and Walnut.

14. Anjani likes it when you rub his bald spot. Try doing that on the first day welcome BBQ.

15. Don't buy your text books until you absolutely have to. There will be at least 100 people that go on day one to buy everything (85% of them will not speak English). Buy all the bulkpacks, but hold off on text books.

16. If you show up late to a class and someone from the program office is there to stop people from getting in late, turn around and leave. Do not start arguing with them about how you paid for the class and have a right to do what you want. No upside to this kind of behavior.

Pat, King of Steaks

Some of you may remember my cheesesteak challenge back in February (or was it March?).  Well the creator of the cheesesteak is dead.  He ate at Pat's every day.  He died at age 90. 

 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/07/21/national/a061900D80.DTL

 

RIP, brother of Pat, King of Steaks