My Favorite Assist

My all-time favorite assist highlight is #3 on this countdown.





And yes, even though I'm 32, I still search for basketball highlights on Youtube when I'm bored.

The New Guy at the Gym

My local gym has a basketball court where a nice group of guys, aged about 20 - 55, show up at regular times during the week for pick-up basketball. It's nice to know that during any given week, up to 4 times a week, you can go and get a decent pick-up game. I've lived down here (South Jersey) for 3.5 years now, and during that time everybody gets to know each other, at least by name, and there are regulars at the gym. Most places, I'd imagine, work that way.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a regular guy brought his buddy "Al". Al was tall (maybe about 6'4" or 6'5"), skinny, and dressed from head to toe in official Villanova gear. He looked athletic, and was clowning around when guys were warming up waiting for the game to start. I figured one of two things must be true. Either this guy is really good, or he is just a goofy guy who happens to be a decent athlete.

Anyway, the game starts and I wind up guarding Al. As the game goes on, Al isn't doing anything. Passing the ball mainly, and not scoring. He also had a little bit of hobble to his kneeThe game gets tight. It is up to 11 baskets and it's like 9-8 us. Suddenly, Al wakes up. He hits a long three with my hand in his face. Then, he comes off a screen and hits a fade-away 18 foot jumper. Finally, with the score 10-10, he jukes me and pulls up from about 15 feet and hits a jumper all-net to win the game.

Our team goes and waits to get back on. A teammate of mine goes,
"Hey, [Walt], you did a good job on that guy." (not sarcastically).
I said, "Are you serious? He hit like the last three shots on me to win the game!" He goes, "Yeah, but he didn't score aside from that."
I shrug.
He goes, "You knew who that was, right?"
"Who?"
"Alvin Williams."





I immediately remember Alvin Williams from my many hours spent playing NBA Live 2003 for XBox, where he was the starting point guard from the Toronto Raptors. Turns out, he's not much older than me, but had a bunch of knee issues. He's a Philadelphia-area guy and is just playing at the gym to stay in shape.

Anyway, I wound up guarding him about 3 or 4 times as teams rotated on to face his team. He only played hard when he had to, and occasionally he would do something so athletic that it was incredible. He was "just trying to stay in shape". He was a nice guy and it was cool to say that I played against an NBA player. I did play well against him though I'm sure it was someone of a downgrade for him to go from playing against guys like Allen Iverson and Paul Pierce to somebody like me.

I have found my new crack

Holy shit... if you remotely like ginger ale... these are delicious. I literally eat them like candy. Highly recommended from Walt Clyde.

Wawa's Irish Cream

Anybody who has had coffee at any convenience store knows the cream selection they have. I am an Irish Cream guy. Especially since I moved to South Jersey and have had the ability to stop at glorious, beautiful Wawa, I have fallen more in love with the Irish Cream coffee. I even buy the take-home creamers for use with my morning coffee.

However, recently I'd been finding the Irish Cream harder and harder to locate at whatever Wawa I was in, either in the store's coffee section or in the refrigerated, take-home size. Needless to say, I was concerned. So did I just ponder nostalgically about it? Hell no! I emailed the company. And, lo and behold, I got an answer!

Here was my question:

Comment or Question: Are you phasing out Irish Cream? I used to buy the little containers of them to bring home for my coffee and have not seen them at any local Wawa in the past month or so. Additionally, only sometimes are there large Wawa Irish Cream containers available when I fix my coffee in the store, where they used to be available all the time.



And here is their response:

Dear [Walt],

Thank you for contacting Wawa Consumer Relations regarding the discontinuation of Irish Cream creamer. We truly appreciate it when our customers contact us with comments, suggestions or concerns.

Wawa strives to keep our product offer fresh and interesting. This involves a continual search for additions to our product line that will satisfy our customers' high standards as well as the ongoing reassessment of existing items. From time to time, we must discontinue products. We recognize that these decisions will disappoint some customers and we hope that we can fill the gap with new or existing alternatives.

I apologize that the discontinuation of Irish Cream creamer has disappointed you and I will pass your comments on to the Marketing team. It is our sincere hope that we can offer you an acceptable alternative within our current or future product line.

Thank you,

Sarah V.
Wawa Customer Relations
1-800-444-9292
Incident 1900412

Ok, so... what are the odds that my comments will passed on to the Marketing team and/or that their "sincere hope" that an acceptable alternative in their product line will come to fruition? Still, I suppose it was nice to get an (albeit generic response) letter...

Random Stuff 12.6.2008

- The first post I made on this blog was over a year ago, in October 2007. Of course, you remember every word of it anyway, but here's the link to it. At that time, Side Bar (of Where's Luke superstardom, of course) predicted that Teaneck's Five-Star Cafe would go out of business quickly with a Dunkin Donuts across the street. Well, lo and behold, Five Star is fully operational. Infact, Sunday 11/30 I enjoyed a Hobo Con Queso to go. Of course, arriving home an hour and a half later, I had to pay the price on the toilet for a few minutes, but it was well worth it. Delicious breakfast and a laxative in one, can't beat it.

- Back in the 90s, a guy named Darcy Frey went into Coney Island (apparently, very ghetto there) and followed around three basketball players and chronicled their struggles to make it to success after high school basketball in a book called The Last Shot. (Joey may have gotten this as a gift for me.) Anyway, the story also touches on a cocky freshman who was on the team with this group of seniors named Stephon Marbury. After recalling his background, I'm not that shocked that "Starbury" self-destructed eventually when he was not having his ass kissed from all angles. Consider an excerpt from this review that touches on Steph:

The book does contain a fourth player, less involved in the central events of the book than the other three, a tiny freshman phenom of a point guard and basketball savant, with blazing speed, a yo-yo handle, otherworldly court vision, and a deadly shot. He is the most cocky and the most jaded of the four, always flapping his mouth and even deriding Tchaka's abilities to his face. He had not one, not two, but three older brothers show promise in high school but ultimately fail to make their 700 and end up in some sort of juco purgatory, and the experience has clearly impacted his family; his father approaches Frey directly and asks him how much he's going to be paid for Frey's book, having seen too often how young players are chewed up and spit out by those looking to profit off them and left with nothing. Unlike the other three, the freshman is shameless about hitting up Frey for meals at McDonald's and soda money, and is clear about his intentions to get his from college recruiters, admonishing the other three for not asking for any illegal gifts; he dreams of getting hooked up with a white Nissan Sentra, which are, in his own words, "milk." But he also benefits from his loss of innocence -- he vows that he won't turn out like his brothers, and puts in hours with tutors every day so that he can live up to that vow. He turns out to be the book's lone success story, propelled out of Coney Island by immense talent and confidence and a drive forged by the crushing failure that had preceded him. His name? Stephon Marbury.

- Man, I can't stop (re-)listening to Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere album. My current song du jour off of it is Necromancer. Just weird, quirky, and clever music. Has anybody heard that song Big Brother on Kanye West's Graduation album? Interesting description of his feelings about Jay-Z. Any thoughts on that?

- Just rented the Muppet Movie. It was ahead of its time and a lot of fun.

More Videos and Links

1)



An oldie but a goodie.



2)


How To Shower: Men Vs Women - Watch more Entertainment

This is funny if you live with someone of the opposite sex.


3) If you've somehow never seen "Dick in a Box"... well, you must. Click here.


4) A somewhat contrived but yet thoughtful website about our political state here.



5) Finally, a classic if you've ever remotely loved the Howard Stern show: The Gary Tape. "I miss you, man."

Sleeptalking

This post is primarily for Daffy and my brother Evan.

This morning, Lisa (my wife) said, "You said the funniest thing last night in your sleep. I made a mental note of it so I can tell you this morning. You said, 'How are the vegetables growing today, Harold?' I asked you, 'The vegetables, honey?' You repeated it a couple of more times."

I laughed and laughed. Then, I explained where that came from, and how often Daffy, Evan and I listened to the Scary Stories tape, for whatever reason.

Click here for text or here for audio. Amazingly, a Google search for "scary stories vegetables Harold" turned up these two links.

Three Videos

Touching...





...hilarious.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

And, not as funny as Bowser's Minions, but still chuckleworthy.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Recent Images

Some images that have grabbed my attnetion recently...



Sorry, Mets fans. Yes, I'm across the Phila. bandwagon these days. Even the Sixers.




Lisa and I saw Joan Osborne perform at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. You remember Joan Osborne, don't you? Well, her voice is sexy and incredible live. She's one of those rare performers who are actually better live than on album. I would highly recommend seeing her if she's ever performing near you. She mainly sings rock / blues type of music. She also sang the song my wife and I danced to at our wedding.



Recognize this country? It is ours! This is something called a cartogram, and it's very interesting. The sizes of things are not actual land sizes but instead are drawn proportionately to statistics about the things. You can read more here.





And finally, here's us not more than a couple hundred feet away from our President-Elect when he was campaigning in Philadelphia. Obama!

November 4, 2008 - a series of moments

Glued to the TV from the couch with my wife, my best friend, by my side, both of us filled with nervous energy, ready to be uncorked like lightning before a storm.

The reflection of what this night truly was, for us: the months of waiting for the culmination for us of our hope, our donations, our trip to Philadelphia to call homes to get out and vote, both of us believing in Barack Obama's message, his vision which for once to me seemed more than a politician's rhetoric, the hope that this truly was, as I believed, the leader I've been waiting my whole life for.

Lisa and I watching the faces and listening to the voices that have been our guides for this election on MSNBC background for the past few months: Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, etc... (who have seemed admittedly biased in these past few months - but only because I think they're all intelligent and couldn't hold back their honest feelings anymore).

Our optimism tempered by MSNBC's early declarations that "so far, this is unfolding like 2000... Obama hasn't turned any red states yet...", not recognizing it for the building-the-suspense, stay-tuned ruse that it was.

The early eruptions, like twin claps of thunder, of Pennsylvania... followed later by Ohio... and a sense of the inevitable unfolding... the commentators admitting that the path for McCain winning was dwindling quickly.

The realization of what would happen at 11:00 Eastern, when the West Coast states' polls closed.

The return from commercial. The historic announcement at 11:00. The talking heads being quiet for several minutes and letting the images flood into our TV, the gravity of what has transpired just starting to pour onto on all of us, saturate us, fill us, watching ecstasy and jubilation in various places across our country, places chosen by MSNBC to illustrate the variety of places shown.

The overwhelming scene from Chicago. The unbelievably moving sight of Jesse Jackson unable to control his emotions throughout the evening. The culmination of the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and everybody in between who fought on the side of fairness, equality, and justice.

And finally, after an hour of this surreal feeling, Barack speaking and giving the most miraculous speech I've heard in my lifetime. Barack summarizing what has happened, and delivering the promise I've been waiting to hear, recognition of the task at hand with optimism that we truly will do it together. Barack saying things that I cannot hope to adequately capture with description, with adjectives, with any sense of eloquence.

Finally, for me, a sense of true *promise* and not just a promise... the sense of history being created in every sense of the word, the chance that everything about our country and our world may be different in a few short years.

I'll remember these snapshots, these moments of my life, forever. I feel baptized, renewed.