Chase Utley Discusses His Butt

Earlier today on "Daily News Live" on Comcast Sportsnet, host Michael Barkann was interviewing Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. Utley and his wife Jennifer are hosting their 3rd annual "All Star Animals Casino Night" at the Electric Factory tonight, raising money for the Pennsylvania SPCA's Etana Fund to Stop Cruelty to Animals.

At the end of the interview Barkann referenced a recent Philadelphia Magazine interview with some of the Phillies' wives...

I ask Jennifer Utley to name the best thing about being married to Chase Utley, Major League All-Star. She doesn’t mention the money, or the home in L.A., or the stylish condo in Washington Square West, or even the thrill, as a result of being the slugger’s wife, of being able to help so many of her beloved animals. No. Instead, Jen Utley takes a minute and then comes up with the real benefit of being wed to a guy who has a job that requires him to swing a bat, throw a ball, and run around bases all day long.

“He’s got a nice ass,” she says.

Barkann asked Utley for his reaction, and Chase replied with a smile: "Michael, have you been in the locker room lately?"

This picture from the 2008 Home Run Derby (from this blog) would indicate that Utley's backside has more than one admirer. Any comment, Florida Marlin Dan Uggla?

Amazing Race: Brotherly Love

The episode descriptions displayed on my DVR, which (I believe) are the same as those you find in TV Guide, kind of spoiled my viewing of this week's "Amazing Race." For the episode coming up on Sunday, it starts out with, "The four remaining teams..." Since I looked at it before watching this past Sunday's show, I knew that we'd be having a non-elimination leg.

What was a bit surprising was that it was detectives Louie and Michael who were the beneficiary of the non-elimination. The cops had a rough outing. It started after all the teams flew from Singapore to Shanghai and were instructed to take a cab to "the Venice of China," Zhujiajiaou, their taxi driver (along with that of brothers Dan and Jordan) got lost. The drivers consulted each other and then had to get help from passersby.

But first, a brief digression. At the airport, the brothers got caught up on the previous leg's U-turn of Carol and Brandy. They had no idea it occurred since they got the Fast Forward treatment directly to the pit stop. Team Moron bragged and the cops looked on, knowing that they egged the morons on. Caite was overly thrilled that she was the only girl left in the race. But in an interview, Jordan called it a poor decision, knowing that it would have been wiser to take out a stronger team such as cowboys Jet and Cord: "We’re all gonna look back on that and question that decision."

Random 3 a.m. Stuff

Because it's late at night and that seems to be when I finally push myself to post something...

• The Phillies are 3-5 on their road trip with one game left. Not a lot of hitting, and the pitching is inconsistent. Even Roy Halladay finally lost a game. But it's still way too early to panic. Meanwhile, they signed Ryan Howard to a 5-year, $125 million extension that will keep him a Phil through 2016. There's a fair amount of naysaying about it for various reasons. A lot of it comes from those obnoxious stat geeks who are trying to ruin the game. Ignore them. This is a risky deal, but better than letting Howard walk after 2011. Still, as much as I hate the rule, I really think the Phils should push to get the National League to adapt the designated hitter.
• The state of Arizona has gone nuts, with recent days bringing an anti-immigrant law, a law placating the birthers, and the governor's  removing domestic partnership rights from state employees. Perhaps we should have seen it coming when John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Clearly there's something in the water out there. I feel for the people I know who live there, although one or two don't hold the same viewpoints as I do.
• I gave "Glee" yet another chance. I am still ambivalent. Tonight's episode started slow but improved as it went on. Maybe I'll watch again next week. I just don't know if I will ever become a "Gleek." I am becoming a fan of Kurt (Chris Colfer), though. Maybe that will be the hook that gets me to keep watching.
• And finally, the following is from former Eagle Dhani Jones of "Dhani Tackles The Globe" fame, on his Twitter feed: "What's wrong with chest hair. It wasn't to (sic) long ago that men wore beards, had chest hair and were warriors. I will continue the tradition!"
  
  Amen, Dhani, Amen!

The "Mikey" Blog: Reality vs. Internet "Reality"

You may be surprised to learn that this post isn't about TV shows such as "The Real World" or "Survivor" or, God help us, "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." This is about reality as found, or not found, on the Internet.

Back in December, an item was posted on the Outsports.com Jock Talk Blog about a blog written by a closeted 17-year old guy who was a high school hockey player in the Minneapolis area. "Mikey" wrote about his life, being closeted to all except his younger brother and his best friend, and about hockey.

"Mikey" wrote his posts as if he were texting, often abbreviating and being very...casual...about punctuation, spelling, etc. For example: "ive pretty much known i was gay for awhile but tried to ignore it for a long time but its just hard to do it. i told [a friend] and my lil bro this summer and there the first to know bout me, i wish i could tell everyone but im chicken and scared that bein out would screw up chances to play hockey after hs. it toly sucks cause like everyday i lie to everyone i know and love and that just sucks bigtime."

Then there was his comment on Sidney Crosby when he wrote about his favorite hockey players: "someone asked about other guys, like sid the kid. hes amazing but a lil bit too whiny for me." Of course, when I read that I was hooked. ;-)

My Week In Comics 4-21-10

My softball games were rained out today, so I figure there's no sense in letting this wait until after midnight tonight...or tomorrow...or Tuesday. Besides, since "The Amazing Race" is back tonight I'll have that to write about at 2 am or so.

Supergirl 52: We are tantalizingly close to "War of the Supermen" but before that, we have to get the whole Brainiac/New Krypton saga out of the way. So here, Supergirl and Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes make their way through Brainiac's ship to take out its core -- bickering all the way, because they have a history from when she traveled into the future; he remembers it, she doesn't, and it complicates things. Ah, romance.

Superman/Batman 71: As I mentioned before, I tend to be a completist, so I did end up buying this book for the conclusion of the current storyline. Other than a throwaway line that (in this story set in the recent past) refers to the coming "War of the Supermen," just an average story. Meh.

Simpsons Comics 165: The unlikely combination of Marge's painting, Homer's usual doofishness and Professor Frink's formula for romance may lead to the end of the Simpsons marriage in a tale titled "Love Potion Numbs Her Mind."

Jughead Is A Bitch!

The news broke today that Archie Comics is introducing its first openly gay character in an issue to be in stores in September. It seems that Kevin's new in town and becomes friends with Jughead and the gang, but in particular attracts the attention of Veronica. Kevin wants to tell Veronica that he's gay but Jughead has other ideas... (click on the picture for the largest version)

Damn! Who knew Jughead was so cruel? I like it!

The Chronicles Of Birthday: The Glee, The Flyers And The Phillies

As Fox was kind enough to air the special "The Power of Madonna" episode of "Glee" on my birthday, I decided to a) watch it and b) drink. I watched the show at Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar, a new hotspot in the Gayborhood (but one where everyone is welcome), in their lounge on their second-floor, while missing the end of the Phillies and Flyers games (which were playing on the TVs on the first floor). At the time I went upstairs for the show, the Phillies had just scored a run in the 5th to take a 2-0 lead over Atlanta, and the Flyers were trailing the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

So how did things turn out?

"Glee" was fabulous. It was a love letter to Madonna, at times so much as to make me wonder if she had script approval. Besides the musical numbers, the rest of the show was enjoyable as well. However, I find myself wondering if I am truly finally getting into the spirit of "Glee" or if I was swayed by the Madonna influence and/or the alcohol.

My Week In Comics 4-14-10

As I was born at 1:56 in the morning, this is officially my first blog post as a 48-year-old. I don't know if this is good or bad.

Brightest Day 0: I'm not sure why there are such things as "zero issues." The first issue of a series ought to be issue number 1. So this is the issue before the first issue of the biweekly series that's running with the developments in "Blackest Night." Boston Brand, a.k.a. Deadman, was one of twelve heroes and villians brought back to life, and in this book he is whisked around the globe by a white power ring and we see scenes involving the other 11 resurrected people. Why did these twelve specifically come back? Why is Boston Brand the only one with a white ring? It's interesting enough but I'm not sure I'll keep buying. I'm not particularly invested in any of these characters.

Adventure Comics 10: Two Superman-related books this week. This one picks up on New Krypton, where Brainiac has re-bottled the city of Kandor, Mon-El has been subdued and Superboy runs into Lex Luthor again. Meanwhile, in the other feature, the secret mission of Car-Vex, the Kryptonian masquerading as human to infiltrate General Lane's operation, comes to an end.

Action Comics 888: Also on Earth, Wonder Woman and the JSA join the Flamebird/Jax-Ur/Rao smackdown in the Middle East, while Nightwing meets Nightwing in the Phantom Zone.

Weekly World News 4 (of 4?): Can I just say how ridiculously fun this whole thing was? I don't know if there will be more issues but I sure hope so. More Bat Boy, that's what I say!

They Say It's My Birthday!

It's after midnight, so...happy birthday to me!



And don't forget this, for those in the Philadelphia area...or wanting to take a last-second trip. ;-)

Farewell, Ugly Betty

Now that a few days has passed and I've had some time to ponder it, I have to say that the end of "Ugly Betty" hit a lot of right notes, but also felt rushed. When ABC canceled the show (after first killing its audience with the move to Friday nights) they also cut two episodes from their order for the season, from 22 to 20. So in tying up some storylines they had less time to tell those stories. There was almost a "connect the dots" quality to it. It was like they said "We have to do this, this and this for this character" and did them, without enough bridging between them to make them more believable. I think it would have helped had the last two episodes been aired together as a two-hour finale.

As far as the storylines themselves, essentially everyone got some sort of happy ending, and I'm okay with that. I'm also pleased that they didn't put Betty and Daniel together. Fans debated about which guy Betty should end up with -- Henry, Gio, Matt, Daniel, someone else, no one. (That last one is especially valid -- why should she have to have a man to have a happy, fulfilling life?) I would have been most happy with Henry (I think I'm in the minority here), but hated the idea of Betty and Daniel. They developed a great friendship over the course of the series, and to suddenly throw them together romantically would've been awful. Over the last couple of episodes they seemed like that's where they were headed, but instead it was left open. Betty moved to London to help run a new magazine, ran into Daniel there, they had a nice chat and he asked her to dinner. If there's an "Ugly Betty" movie in our future, I'm sure they'll pick up on it.

Softball Sunday Means...

...I have to get to bed early enough to get a few hours' sleep before the morning. First game is at 9:50 a.m., meaning I'll have to be at the field to warm up about a half-hour earlier. So no long late-night blog post tonight! I hope to get to one tomorrow night -- I'm due to write about the comics I bought this week and the Ugly Betty finale. And hey, the Flyers are still in the playoffs. (Fortunately, with "The Amazing Race" preempted this week I'll have a little more time.) Plus, I hope to see the movie "Kick-Ass" on Monday, which will give me another post topic. I would've gone today but softball practice got in the way.

I hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

Some TV Stuff: Glee, American Idol

I've got some thoughts on programs I watched this week for the first time in a while. I was going to also write about the finale of "Ugly Betty" but I'm going to save that for its own separate post, so stay tuned. ;-)

After what seems like years of hype, "Glee" returned to Fox this week with a new episode. You may recall that I tried to get into it back in the fall. It didn't take. With the confirmation that an episode devoted entirely to the music of Madonna was in the works, I figured I'd be watching it again at some point. Since they decided to start the Madonna party a week early, with the premiere of "Vogue" as sung by Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), I decided to watch it this week.

I loved the video -- a virtual remake of the original. The rest of the show? I still don't get it. I didn't dislike it. I'm glad the storyline revolving Will's wife and her fake pregnancy is over. Jane Lynch still delivers some delicious lines. But I'm still just as lukewarm as I was before. I wish I knew why. I did watch parts of the episode where Kurt became the football team's kicker and then came out to his dad. The coming-out scene at the end was very nice. The football game scene just before it (the team dancing to "Single Ladies" to distract the other team) was way too ridiculous.

Phils: Great Start, But...Phanatic: Great. Period.

It occurs to me that I haven't discussed my baseball team since the season started. There are lots of good things happening with the Phillies...and some things that are bad not so good.

Good: The Phillies are off to a 7-1 start, their best start since 1993. After the last few years of poor starts, this is a refreshing change.
Not So Good: All of their games have been against woeful Washington and hideous Houston (who still hasn't won a game).

Good: The Phillies are scoring runs in bunches. In their 8 games they've scored 11, 8, 5, 8, 9, 2, 7 and 14.
Not So Good: Again, all of this is against Washington and Houston.

Good: In the only game they didn't score 5 or more, the Phils still won 2-1 thanks to Roy Halladay, who pitched a complete game. He's won both of his starts, allowing just one earned run in 16 innings, walking 2 and striking out 17. Halladay has completely lived up to his reputation so far. J.A. Happ won his first start as well without allowing a run...
Not So Good: ...but Happ was in and out of trouble. He only lasted 5-plus innings, throwing 104 pitches. And the rest of the rotation has fallen far short of Halladay's excellence.

My Week In Comics 4-7-10

Well, this was a somewhat quiet week. I bought three books, one of which I didn't plan on, but I took a peek inside and then decided to get it. I have a thing where I sometimes have trouble dropping a title, particularly if it's a mini-series and if it features Superman. If I get the first issue, I need to complete the story. That's where two of my three books this week are connected. But first...

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton 2 (of 3): Essentially things involving this whole crossover are broken down as follows: Supes himself is mainly in this book. "Action Comics" follows Nightwing and Flamebird; "Superman" still features Mon-El, although he and Superman have been fighting together at this point in the story; the Legion of Super-Heroes star in "Adventure Comics" along with Superboy and Supergirl, who of course also stars in her own series. Anyway, the battle doesn't seem to be going well for Superman and the rest, as Brainiac manages to add to his collection of bottled cities.

Superman: Secret Origin 5 (of 6): More rebooting of the beginning of Superman's career takes place. One such adjustment actually answers a question from the regular Super-books that I've wondered about for a while now: what happened to Lois Lane's mother while her father has been busy turning Earth against Kryptonians and trying to discredit Lois and her journalism in the process? I haven't been thrilled with some of this stuff, but this is one of those "I must complete the story" deals.

Red Robin 11: I know I said that the story going on here was kind of meh, but things picked up a lot more in this issue (the one I wasn't planning to buy until I perused it in the store). Ra's al Ghul has targeted for death just about everyone in Tim Drake's life, and has something going on involving Hush, still in Bruce Wayne impostor mode.

Amazing Race: Morons, Cops Get Their Wish

Our first episode without Steve Smith. Yep, I'm still watching even though the tenuous Phillies connection is gone. So, I'm just gonna start right off with this: Caite, the former Miss Teen Whatever and one-half of Team Moron, is the epitome of what RuPaul refers to on "RuPaul's Drag Race" as Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent.

Except for the "harisma," "niqueness," "erve" and "alent" portions.

The whining about Carol and Brandy continued almost nonstop. She sounds like Yosemite Sam, except she's not talking about Bugs Bunny: "Oooooooh, ah hates them lezzbeens!!!!!" As the teams made their way from Malaysia to Singapore via bus and train, the teams knew that a U-turn was ahead. Gee, I wonder what Brent and Caite would do if they got the chance? Let's ask Miss Teen Moron: "I’m a hundred percent U-turning the lesbians if we get there first." Similar phrases poured out of her mouth throughout, to the delight of the detectives, Louie and Michael, who've made nice with the Morons and fed their anti-Carol/Brandy hysteria. (So I sort of enjoyed seeing Caite trip and fall running out of the train station. Karma!)

Flyers: The Best/Worst Way To Make The Playoffs

I don't like the NHL's shootout rule for regular-season games. Besides the fact that most teams have higher point totals because of it (there are 11 teams with over 100 points this season -- 11!), I don't think it's particularly exciting, at least not on TV. And it's a horrible way to decide a winner. Imagine a home run-hitting contest deciding a baseball game. I've said many times that if the NHL ever implements the shootout in the Stanley Cup playoffs, I will never watch it again. I stand by that promise. I hope it never happens.

So how strange it was to see the Flyers get into the playoffs because they won a shootout. How awful must the New York Rangers and their fans feel? In a winner-take-all game, they missed out on the postseason because of something that, outside of international play such as the Olympics, used to be seen only during All-Star skills competitions.

But it's the Rangers' own fault they were in that position. I saw a lot of the game, and over the last two periods I felt the Flyers carried the play and earned the victory, something that couldn't be said often enough during this inconsistent slog of a season. They were down 1-0 until Matt Carle (really? Not Richards or Gagne or...) tied the game in the third period. When the five-minute overtime ended with the game still 1-1, I didn't hold out much hope. Yet Danny Briere and Claude Giroux scored shootout goals while Brian Boucher only allowed one Ranger to put the puck past him. The Flyers have been unbelievably awful in shootouts since the rule was put in place, so for them to win this one was just shocking.

Amazingly enough, the Flyers will now face the New Jersey Devils in the opening playoff round. The Flyers were 5-1-0 against the Devils this season. This is the one opponent that, despite their disparity in records and in goal, the Flyers actually have a puncher's chance of beating. Certainly this is much better and hopefully more entertaining than a series against the Washington Capitals.

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 4-11-10

I think the next week to 10 days is going to be a bit hectic for me, between things I'm doing outside of blogging and things I want to blog about (plus one for the Outsports blog that I need to get done by Wednesday). My music always helps, though!

Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Wildwood Vacation - Joe Conklin
Imma Be - Black Eyed Peas
Squares - The Beta Band
Astrud - Basia
Future Lovers/I Feel Love (Live) - Madonna
It's Bad You Know - R.L. Burnside
God - Tori Amos
Hella Good - No Doubt
Bits And Pieces - Dusty Springfield
Jimmy Jimmy - Madonna
One Step Closer - Paul Lekakis
Emit Remmus - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Quick Review: Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are anchors of NBC's Thursday night lineup...let's rephrase that. After all, when it comes to NBC, anchors are what their lousy ratings must be attached to. So let's just say they're key components of NBC's lineup, and they star in "Date Night" as Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple from New Jersey with two kids and a pretty dull life. After they find out that their friends, a similarly bored couple, plan to divorce, Phil and Claire decide to put some excitement back into their relationship. Instead of the local run-of-the-mill place they normally eat at on their nights out, they head for Manhattan and a hot new seafood restaurant. Without reservations and having no hope of getting seated, Phil claims the reservation of a couple who didn't show up, the Tripplehorns. They get more than they bargained for when a pair of hoods shows up looking for the Tripplehorns. The ensuing action is mostly fast-paced and the comedy flows throughout, including a fun turn by Mark Wahlberg as an acquaintance of Claire's who provides some help to the couple while remaining shirtless throughout. Carell and Fey are excellent together. "Date Night" is a great date movie, and is still great even if you don't have a date and have to go to a morning show for the matinee ticket price to save money...not that I ever have to do that...why are you looking at me with that quizzical look? My grade: A-minus.

Another Ugly Betty Gem

This is a live version of the song used in the scene at Hilda and Bobby's wedding reception where Justin Suarez took to the dance floor with his boyfriend Austin, one of the most subtle and sweet coming-out moments ever. (Sigh...a show this amazing, and only one more episode left...) "A Love That Will Last" by Renee Olstead...

My Week In Comics 3-31-10

(Insert random opening paragraph here)

Okay, now that that's out of the way... ;-)

Blackest Night 8 (of 8): It's over! But as the series went on, the tone really shifted. At the start it focused so much on the dead heroes and villains returning (the pseudo-zombie stage) and then, as the explanation for who was behind it and why came around, it became a musing on a grand scale of Life and Death and their meaning and purpose. And, of course, lots of action and some humor. The series on a whole, and all of its tie-ins, was quite entertaining. Plus, as a result, some dead heroes and a few villains are alive again -- actually living and breathing, and not just pseudo-zombies because of black power rings -- and, naturally, that development sets up a new series: "Brightest Day."

Adventure Comics 9: Meanwhile, there's another little event, the "Last Stand of New Krypton." If Brainiac's successful in the present, the future will cease to exist. The main focus in this book is the Legion of Super-Heroes, including those who have time-traveled to the present day and those back in the 31st century.

Detective Comics 863: The third and final part of the "Cutter" storyline, still switching back and forth between Batman vs. Cutter in the past and Batwoman vs. Cutter in the present. Nicely played out, with a little twist at the end...except it seems that the next few issues won't feature Batwoman, so I won't be buying them.

Gotham City Sirens 10: This finishes a two-part story that, again, wasn't as sharply funny or light-hearted the way the series started out. Well, as light-hearted as a series can be when it stars criminals...

Teen Titans 81: I hate when a scene depicted on the cover doesn't occur at all in the book, and especially when the character involved doesn't even appear until the last two pages. I was interested in this because of the Static storyline, but it hasn't held up.

Amazing Race: Thank You, Steve Smith

There's a function through Google AdSense where I can get reports on how many "page impressions" my blog gets. A page impression is a view on a page of my blog where one of the Google ads appears. I don't get millions of hits. Let's face it, I'm not exactly famous. The count generally runs from the teens to, on a decent day, upwards of 40.

I happened to look at it today. A week ago Sunday (March 28) I had 75 hits, and this past Sunday and Monday I had 160 and 98, respectively. To say I was shocked is an understatement! So I did a little checking.

You may have noticed a Feedjit box on my page -- the box that shows the live traffic feed. It shows the location of people arriving on my page and what site they came from, and if they go to a specific post of mine. If you click on this link you can see an expanded version of that box, with a little more information, including the search terms entered into Google that led to my site. For example: "Fullerton, California arrived from google.com on "The Joe In Philly Experience!: My Trip To Southland" by searching for tnt southland."

I looked down the list. Apparently many people have been doing searches on Steve Smith, the former Phillies third-base coach who, with his daughter Allie, was just eliminated from "The Amazing Race."

My Trip To Southland

Last night, after leaving the Campaign for Working Families tax preparation site where I volunteer, I walked down the street to a gas station mini-mart, bought a soda, and went back outside to wait for my bus. As I stood there, I noticed a man at the corner. He was just standing there, as far as I could tell, although at one point a passing car stopped briefly and he talked to someone inside. A moment after that, I heard a brief "woop" from a siren, and suddenly a police wagon turns at the intersection and pulls right up onto the sidewalk. See the photo below that I managed to copy from Bing maps, with the approximate positions of the wagon, the man and myself crudely marked with text boxes. (I tried to get the street view through Google maps but it was wonky -- the images were all blurred and unrecognizable.)

Two officers -- one male, one female -- got out of the wagon and walked up to the man, asking for his identification. He handed a driver's license to the female officer and she went into the wagon (to look him up on the computer, I assume). The male cop began searching him, and then had him stand up facing the side of the wagon, arms and legs spread, hands up against the van. The other officer came out of the van and I heard her say, "It's suspended." She then began to search along the ground, and then asked me, "Did you notice if he dropped anything?" I replied, "No, but he was over that way a couple minutes ago," and pointed towards the corner, a little behind where she was looking.

A patrol car then pulled up and she went to talk to the driver. Unfortunately, the bus arrived so I don't know what happened after that. But it was interesting. As I Tweeted via text message from my phone after I got on the bus, "I think I just went to Southland without leaving Philly!" It was very much like a scene from the police drama "Southland." Not one of those big, intense scenes where there's a chase or a shootout or whatever, just a stop for routine police work...although I guess nothing is completely routine, as something very quiet can turn dangerous at the drop of a hat.

By the way, the Season 2 finale of "Southland" is tonight at 10 pm on TNT. Preceding it is a marathon of all the Season 2 episodes, starting at 5 pm.

Amazing Race: Better Than A World Series Ring?

The worst part of the show last night: the local CBS station ran commercials in full, then cut in with a "Breaking News" update on the Donovan McNabb trade. Bastards! They could have run a crawl! I only missed one or two minutes, though.

Once again, a long flight -- this time from the Seychelles to Malaysia -- put the six remaining "Amazing Race" teams on equal footing beginning the next leg of the race, but it didn't lead to Team Moron (Brent and Caite) taking the lead as it did on last week's show. At one point, though, they passed Carol and Brandy, to Caite's extreme delight. Her continued harping on "getting rid of the lesbians" is getting ridiculous. And their new buddies, detectives Louie and Michael (or, as Caite called them, "the Daddies") are encouraging it. The EW.com recap seems to think L&M are using the morons strategically to try and get C&B eliminated. I can definitely see that.

Adventures with taxis caused upheavals at various points. At first, headed from the airport to their first clue box, Dan and Jordan's cab zoomed ahead of the other teams' rides. But when the brothers got their clue and returned to the street to head for their Detour, the driver had left.

Quick Reviews: Hot Tub Time Machine/She's Out Of My League

Time to discuss a pair of R-rated comedies. "Hot Tub Time Machine" came with all the hype, thanks to the trailers and the outlandish title itself. Its premise: middle-aged friends Adam, Lou and Nick (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson), having issues with the way their lives have gone, head for a weekend at a ski resort where they partied in their younger years. Tagging along is Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), a video game geek. The ski resort has, like the friends, fallen on some hard times. The hot tub works, though, and through the magic of Hollywood and a spilled beverage, somehow whisks them all back to a particular weekend in 1986. To everyone else, the three older men look like their 1986 selves while Jacob still looks his normal age. That tells you about the logic. You're just supposed to roll with the raunchiness while the guys re-live that weekend and try to change things to improve their lives in the present day. The 80s nostalgia works to an extent, with the music and clothing of the era, but throughout there was a string of gay jokes that, frankly, turned me off. I think I'm pretty liberal when it comes to using such jokes in comedies, but this film had a bit of a mean streak. My grade: B-minus.

Meanwhile, "She's Out of My League," which promised to be equally raunchy, also had a surprising amount of sweetness to it. Kirk (Jay Baruchel), a skinny, nerdy, not particularly attractive TSA employee at the Pittsburgh airport, is still trying to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend, who wants no part of him. One day a complete bombshell, Molly (Alice Eve) -- who also is out of a bad relationship -- leaves her iPhone in the security area, not realizing it until she's on the plane. Kirk returns the phone and hits it off with Molly, so they begin dating. His friends can't believe she's really into him, her friend insists she's only seeing him because he's safe. Not completely formulaic, and as I said, surprisingly sweet. Funny, without the gay jokes. My grade: B-plus.

Phillies: Here They Come To Save The Day

It's been a long, tough winter. Budget crises at every level of government, not to mention in millions of households. The absurd path to something resembling health-care reform. The Pope and his church continuing to minimize the importance of doing something about the child molesters in their ranks. The earthquake in Haiti. The horror that is this season's American Idol. A slut named Tiger Woods. "From Paris With Love."

And in more "important" areas locally, a pro football team that ended the 2009 season in heinous fashion and looks to spend 2010 falling fast into mediocrity, a pro basketball team that fell fast from mediocrity into incompetence (but no one cares anyway) and a pro hockey team that was touted as a championship contender, only to fall into a desperate fight to barely make the playoffs so they can be first-round cannon fodder. Speaking of stuff falling, let's not forget Snowpocaplypse, Snowmageddon and Snowverkill.

Enough bad news. Winter, like Donovan McNabb, is gone. Spring has sprung. You can tell because the Phanatic (as you can tell by the photo above, taken on Wednesday) has gone red for a week. The Phillies are back! The 2010 season starts Monday at 1 pm in Washington, with Roy Halladay making his Phils debut. Halladay! Celebrate! Now we've got Roy Halladay...and it's time to celebrate...okay, no more channeling my inner Madonna.

What Are The Eagles Thinking?

The Eagles finally traded Donovan McNabb, and still managed to screw it up. After an offseason of speculation that came to a full boil in recent weeks, McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins for the Redskins' 2nd-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft (37th overall) and a conditional (either 3rd- or 4th-round) 2011 pick.

As I've previously said, the combo of McNabb and Andy Reid was never going to win the Super Bowl. Reid has never put together an offense that completely maximized McNabb's abilities. Whether it was the lack of a running game, a meager receiver corps, lousy playcalling or absymal clock management, something was usually missing at critical times -- the Tampa Bay and Carolina NFC title games, the Super Bowl against the Patriots -- and that was never going to change with Reid still in charge and McNabb at quarterback.

And with the Eagles not only not making efforts to sign quality free agents but, in fact, releasing or trading players and stockpiling draft picks, leaving the team right now in even worse shape than it was after the  season-ending double debacles at Dallas, it was clear that keeping McNabb with an Eagles team that is obviously rebuilding (though they refuse to say so) would be unfair to him.

Flyers' Season Down To This Week

The team that The Hockey News predicted would win the Stanley Cup is fighting just to get into the playoffs. The Flyers haven't won two in a row since early March. They lost yet another goaltender to injury -- Johan Backlund, making his first NHL start, left the 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh on March 27th after two periods when he aggravated a groin injury. Brian Boucher has been so inconsistent that they signed a guy playing in Switzerland for the last 5 games of the season, but that guy -- Sebastien Caron -- is ineligible for the playoffs. The Flyers followed that Pittsburgh loss with a resounding 5-1 win over New Jersey. The Devils, having lost 5 of 6 to the Flyers this year, are the one team they might have a chance against in the playoffs.

Of course, the Flyers first have to get into the postseason, and that win over the Devils and three whole days off (an anomaly in the Olympic-compressed schedule) led to a hideous loss to the New York Islanders. The Flyers had beaten the Islanders 15 times in a row before Thursday night. Although their effort was much better the next night, they lost 1-0 to Montreal, a team they're in direct competition with for the final Eastern Conference playoff slots.

After tonight's games, Montreal is in 6th place with 86 points and 3 games left. Boston is 7th with 84 points and 4 games left. The Flyers and New York Rangers are tied with 82 points each and 4 games left, and Atlanta has 81 points but just 3 remaining games. Since the Flyers have 38 wins to the Rangers' 36, they currently own the tiebreaker for the final playoff slot. Conveniently, the Flyers and Rangers meet on Friday and Sunday, the last two games of the regular season. Most likely those games will decide which team gets in.

While I was skeptical that they could make a serious Cup run, the Flyers were supposed to be a lot better than they are now. Instead, they had to change coaches mid-season and they're still struggling to get into the playoffs, they have serious goaltending questions (both for now and next season), they're extremely hamstrung by the salary cap and their minor league talent is lacking -- no one they call up when they need a replacement seems to produce much. Oh, and in the 2010 entry draft they don't have any picks in the first two rounds. This is not an organization primed for success right now.

From Protest To Party

Last night the Temple University Student Government and their Queer Student Union put on a production of "The Laramie Project" on campus. In case you aren't aware, it tells the story of the reactions of people in Laramie, Wyoming to the 1998 torture and murder of Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student.

This did not please the Westboro Baptist Church, the extremist anti-gay organization led by Fred Phelps that holds protests at funerals of fallen soldiers and many other events, waving signs such as "God hates fags" and "Thank God for 9/11." The cult (let's face it, that's what they are) announced that they would hold a protest at Temple because of the production of "The Laramie Project" as well as a separate production of "Rent." A counter-protest was organized in response.

My friend Kurt (with whom I share a birthday, albeit 20 years apart) was in the cast of "The Laramie Project" so I went to see him in the first of two shows, at 4 pm, as did his friend Stacy from Virginia, and we then joined the counter-protest. The amount of people -- mostly students, but not entirely, and not all from Temple -- was impressive. The turnout was reported at over 1,100 at the locations where the two plays were being held, according to the report in the Temple News. (Neither the Inquirer nor the Daily News saw fit to cover this story, unfortunately.)

My Week In Comics 3-24-10

Okay, so I've fallen behind again so I'll be brief...

Batgirl 8/Red Robin 10: These were the two that were released a couple of weeks earlier, but I didn't pick them up right away. One of those little crossovers, I decided to buy them after all. I guess I can quote a certain American Idol judge:  for me, for you, it was just alright, dawg.

Superman 698: The third part of the "Last Stand of New Krypton" tale. This, on the other hand, is so much more than just alright, dawg.

Green Lantern 52: Racing towards the end of the "Blackest Night." And, as befitting a story that started with the premise that "the dead shall rise," someone is seemingly killed, only to return to life. It kind of seemed a bit like filler, though.

Superman/Batman 70: Somehow I thought the storyline of the last few issues was ending here, but it's not, and I'm not that interested in it anyhow. Do I bother to pick up the conclusion or not? Hmmmmm.

Futurama Comics 48: Zoidberg gives up his medical practice to become a lawyer, plus a sort of mash-up of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Meanwhile, new episodes of the show are supposed to debut on Comedy Central in June. Yay!

Victorian Undead 5 (of 6): Another story that's almost done. Things look bleak for England because of all the zombies. Sherlock Holmes has a plan to save the nation, but the prime minister doesn't like it. Ah, bureaucracy.

Crystal Pepsi

So I'm on Twitter and one of the people I follow, Jaison96, has retweeted a post from Wired, linking to this eBay listing. You can buy a 16-ounce bottle of Diet Crystal Pepsi for $15.99. I vaguely remember Crystal Pepsi, the clear cola that failed miserably in the marketplace in the early 90s. I think I tried it a time or two. Was it supposed to taste like regular Pepsi but without the coloring? Or was it supposed to be like Sprite or 7Up? Anyway, in this eBay listing here's my favorite selling point, presented unedited and without any corrections for punctuation (obviously):

ALSO THIS IS VERY RARE BECAUSE THIS IS MADE WITH NUTRA SWEET DIET PEPSI IS NO LONGER MADE WITH NUTRA SWEET IT USES ASPARTAME....

If I cared, I might tell this seller that Nutrasweet is the trademarked brand name for aspartame. They're one and the same.

It does bring up another thought, though. On a couple of occasions recently Pepsi has temporarily released "Pepsi Throwback," made with natural sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup (in use since 1984, according to Wikipedia) -- so why don't they come out with Diet Pepsi Throwback, with saccharin?