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Professional Athletics and Marijuana in America

The Governator Smoking The Stinky Green
The Governator Smoking The Stinky Green

Bob McFlurry with Sports

So maybe you’ve heard that Jaqua Parker was arrested for possession of marijuana during training camp a day or so ago.  Apparently Todd Herreman’s was driving and there was two young ladies were also in tow when the car was stopped by police.

Now I won’t get into how I think Pot should be decriminalized (which it is in some areas of the U.S) or legalized, but would like to talk about two issues that this situation brings to mind.

1) Juqa Parker made a mistake and probably the only mistake he made was getting caught.  I’ve listened to a lot of 610 WIP over the last couple days with people calling in to bitch and complain about why these professional athletes think they are above the law or don’t have to follow the rules or because they make millions of dollars they should be more responsible.  You know what, I don’t buy that.  The guy smoked some pot, took the edge off of what was probably a tough day at camp.  How many people go to Happy Hour after work to take the edge off every day? Millions? I don’t see Parker’s actions any different than what goes on every day in America other than the fact that marijuana relaxes you and you wake up the next day without a hangover.

And you can claim that these athletes make millions of dollars and with more money comes more responsibility and they should behave better or whatever but I’m really not buying that either.  I remember football camp, it sucked.  You’re out in the heat all day with 20 pounds of equipment on running around doing drill’s, sprint’s, long distance runs, begging for a water break and the coaches are on your ass the whole time. Waking up every day with your muscles sore as shit, dragging your ass to film and meetings, expected to know where you’re supposed to be at all times on every conceivable formation as well as the guy next to you.

Now imagine that it’s not High School anymore and you’re expected to do pretty much super human things everyday, fighting for roster position with all the other Alpha Males and the weight of a championship hungry city on your back.  Like I said some people need to take the edge off and football players are no exception.  Alcohol is pretty much out of the question at training camp unless you’re Maurice Clarrett so what do you do?  Play Madden?

2) Football players are not idiots.  There’s a bigger issue than Juqa Parker getting caught with weed by the police here. It’s the fact that he had weed on him at all.  Why would a player, being apprised of all the rules knowingly and willingly be (allegedly) smoking pot if the league is drug testing.  Now I’m not talking about being Ricky Williams stupid about the mary jane but by most medical accounts marijuana stays in your system for about a month. So I’m going to guess players get tested at the beginning of training camp and I’m not sure what happens after that.  But i know Corell Buckhalter and other Eagles players got detained for allegedly smoking weed on South Street back in 2001 during the season but no one ever tested positive. And there’s been countless other players I’ve seen or heard been vilified on ESPN or wherever for partaking in something that 90% of people have at least tried in their lives.

This leads me to believe that it’s probably pretty naive to think that the Ganja isn’t prevalent in the NFL and probably most other Major sports. Either the players that get caught are just plain stupid for failing a drug test or they are caught by the police with Pot, suggesting they were smoking pot, however, smart enough to avoid testing positive for it.

Whatever the case, it’s not the end of the world. I think that marijuana should  be legal and taxed the shit out of by the government instead of spending Billions of dollars futilely trying to stop it. Of course that’s not up to me and neither is the suspension Juqa Parker could be facing but gimme a break, is it so bad?  Did he kill anyone? Did he have dogs fight each other to the death?

The same people calling into 610 WIP bitching about this are the same people who are going to go in half wasted tomorrow to work. Anyone see the irony here?  Double Standard much? No matter what your job is or how much money you make a job can be stressful. Apples to Apples, what’s the difference?
Internet. Download Managers

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An Apple A Day

apple_logo_640x480Aaron Steinberg with Finance

Whether sales are coming from MACs, iphones, AppleTV, etc Apple Inc. posted 65 million more in revenues from this quarter a year ago. “The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.”

Apple has not showed any signs of declining revenues, profit or gross margin in light of the current economic condition. On the other hand Microsoft did. “Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.94 billion, $4.17 billion and $0.47, declines of 8%, 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with the prior year.”

They are down in operating income, net income and earnings per share, all major numbers that illustrate financial performance and effect overall stock price.

Apple is not just a “good” company but a great one. They are thriving in a down economy, while its competitors post declining profits. Apple is about to come out with yet another new product in a month which shows its high level of innovation. I have an investment with Apple and I am betting that they make me more money in the coming years.

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The Post Office

Will Cliff Claven lose his Job?
Will Cliff Claven lose his Job?

By: Billy BeerSlugger

You know I’ve had a beef with the post office for a long time, whether it’s checks in the mail that never get there or arrive a week later than they should, it never seems like these people have their shit together.  To me it is just another vital service for the United States which the government controls, fucks up and annually loses millions of dollars.  I can’t even get a check delivered to me within a week and a half even though it was mailed from less than 20 miles away.  If the government can’t get my mail to me in a timely fashion how am I supposed to expect it will be any better at providing Health Care to the masses? The Government Accountability Office recently commented that, “without major change, the day will soon come when the Postal Service will be unable to pay its bills.”

Benjamin Franklin (my favorite person of all time) is rolling over in his grave on 2nd and Market right now at the state of how bad things have gotten for the service he founded and reared through it’s infancy.

Now the USPS will close as many as 700 Post Offices in an effort to save money.

Here is a list of some of the Post offices in Philadelphia that will be possibly closing in the near future:

PHI-30th Street – MOD PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-ADAMS AVENUE POS – Frankford PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-BOULEVARD STA PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-CASTLE FSTA – Southwark PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-CASTOR AVE. FINA – BLVD PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-FRANKLIN MILLS – Torresdale PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-GIRARD AVE – Spring Garden PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-JOHN WANAMAKER F – WPA PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-MANAYUNK STA PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-MAYFAIR PSTL STO – Holmesburg PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-NICETOWN FSTA PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-OLNEY STA PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-SOMERTON – Bustleton PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-WADSWORTH AVE FS – Market Sq PHILADELPHIA PA
PHI-WISSINOMING STAT – Tacony PHILADELPHIA PA

For a full list of Post Offices around the Country here is the link to a PDF.

That’s 15 Post Offices which may close in the City.  I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad about this.  Is closing Post Offices going to make the mail more efficient and save money?  I guess only time will tell but I’m pretty sure things can’t get much worse than they already are, at least in Philadelphia.

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Pearl Jam: Are they Back?

pearl_jamkyRobby Ripchord with Music

You know I haven’t even considered buying an album in a long long time. I couldn’t even tell you the last album I actually bought instead of downloading, but if Pearl Jam’s latest single “The Fixer” is any indication of the way the forthcoming album “Backspacer” will turn out, I may just have to.

It brings Pearl Jam back to Vitalogy in my eyes though some will argue they never really went astray.

Pearl Jam, ever the rock band is famous for feuding with ticketmaster on ticket prices and to my recollection not playing a huge Philly gig until that situation was resolved.  Gotta give some cred to that.  Now Pearl Jam is operating without a label.  They have agreements with target as well as several other outlets and I believe even filmed a commercial for Target.  The Fixer also could be heard during the MLB All Star game and while this and the Target relationship may seem like “selling out”, given the current state of the music business and their lack of a label is exactly the right thing to do.

Pearl Jam also debuted a song called “Get Some” on the first Conan O’brien show as Late Night Host.  Great song and keeps in the mold of throwback PJ but The Fixer is still the winner.

I’m hoping Pearl Jam does not disappoint with the rest of the album but only time will tell.  Overall it’s nice to see PJ going back to it’s roots a little in terms of style.

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G.I. Joe

By: Billy BeerSlugger

If you’re like me, you grew up watching cartoons like G.I. Joe, Transformers, Thunder Cats and a host of others that were on Saturday mornings or after school.  It’s nice to see a sort of revival of 80’s nostalgia with Transformers and now G.I. Joe being turned into live action features.

I had a shit ton of G.I Joe figurines and vehicles as a child and usually found myself in frequent battles with the kids down the street. My favorite G.I. Joe probably being Sgt. Slaughter.  I never really understood why it seemed like Cobra Commander was such a pussy with his incessant bitching and ineptness in following through with a well laid plan.  I mean at any point Destro could have taken the reins and pretty much ran shit.

Anyway, the G.I. Joe movie comes out in a couple weeks but a while back I had an affinity for these Public Service announcements that someone did in the early part of the 2000’s; taking actual G.I. Joe PSA animation, manipulating it and dubbing the voices.  The result is some of the funniest shit I’ve ever seen on the inter web.

I’ll embed one of my favorites here and post links under it for your viewing pleasure.

GI Joe – Get Off My Ice
 GI Joe – Reggae
GI Joe – Shhiiiiiiiitttttttt!
GI Joe – Blanco Nino
GI Joe – Don’t Forget Your Sandwiches
GI Joe – Johnny, Do you Play Baseball?
GI Joe – Vest’s are for Pussies!

GI Joe – Wake up on Fire.

This should get you started, I think there’s upwards of 20 of these made by a guy named Fensler. Great productivity killer at work.

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Fathers of American Beer – Joseph Schlitz

The man actually looks like Ulysses S. Grant
The man actually looks like Ulysses S. Grant

By: Billy BeerSlugger

There is a common theme among our Fathers of American Beer so far and Joseph Schlitz is not likely to stray from that theme too much. Schlitz was a native of Mainz, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1850 settling in Milwaukee.  Schlitz was hired as a bookkeeper  by August Krug.  In 1856 he took over management of the brewery after Krug’s death and two years later married Krug’s widow, Anna Maria.  Eventually Schlitz changed the name of the company to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co.

So in keeping with the traditions of the Founding Fathers of American Beer, Schlitz was born in Germany, emigrated to the U.S. and married into the family of an established brewer.

The company began to succeed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when Schlitz donated thousands of barrels of beer to that city, which had lost most of its breweries.  Many of Chicago’s breweries that had burned were never to reopen; Schlitz established a distribution point there and acquired a large portion of the Chicago market.

Schlitz died May 7, 1875, when on a return visit to Germany; his ship hit a rock near Land’s End, Cornwall, and sank though his body was never recovered.  After his wife died the company stayed in the hands of Krug’s heirs.

The Schlitz brewing company flourished for most of the 1900’s and in 1902 Schlitz surpassed the 1 million barrel mark and thus earning the title of World’s Largest Brewery taking it from fellow American brewery Pabst.  It would continually be one of America’s top breweries for the next 70 years until an alteration in production methods to meet demand while also cutting costs changed the taste of the beer.

A once proud bran was thereafter relegated to cheap beer status and eventually fell out of favor with the working class.  The company was sold in 1982 to Stroh’s after a brewery strike and continually falling sales left Schlitz in a financial mess.

“The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous” is now brewed in small quantities by Pabst Brewing Co. which effectively means that it is physically brewed by either Lion or Miller Brewing companies since Pabst does not actually brew any beer.

I particularly liked getting Schlitz-faced in my early years.  Always found the beer to be O.K. as far as value buys go and I’m glad to see it making somewhat of a resurgence.

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The Things We Leave Behind

200121291-001By: Billy BeerSlugger

You know everyone goes through breakups in their life, some are more amicable than others.  Sometimes you end up getting back together with that person but more often than not you broke up for a reason.

You may have went through the stage in the breakup where you are either asking for or returning stuff that your former significant other had possession of; Clothes, furniture etc.  What often gets overlooked is the more raunchy of items you may have left behind, more specifically for the guy: Condoms.

There’s nothing really worse than leaving a fresh box of condoms at your ex’s place pre-breakup.  With everything that is going on between you two at the time it’s easy to forget about those little guys in the drawer of the nightstand next to her bed.  When you do get around to remembering about them there’s usually a standard response…. “FUCK”.

I gotta say I’ve been subjected to this situation a couple of times in my travels and it never puts a smile on your face knowing you just paid $18 for the family pack of prophylactics just to make it convenient for the rebound guy to bang your ex.

Plus it’s not like you can ask for those condoms back.  I mean you can but you’re probably not getting them back and if you do there’s definitely going to be less condoms in the box then you left there even if it’s just her fucking with your head.  The best move is to pretend they don’t exist and quietly be pissed off about it.

What’s worse is if you get back with the girl (even if only for a brief period) and end up going to bed with her, those rubbers, the ones you bought are gone or severely depleted.  The good news is that the last guy may have left a couple for you to return the favor.

These are some things to think about after you’ve just went through a breakup or are just starting to see this new girl who magically has condoms by her bedside. Someone buys the condoms and i’d say 98% of the time it’s not the girl.

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Shakira seems fun!

By: Billy BeerSlugger

I’m not too sure what Shakira has been doing since her song where she shakes her ass a lot in the video back in like 2001 but her newest song (and apparently video which I was unaware they still made) “She Wolf” takes that sexy Shakira concept and turns up the volume up 1 notch past the maximum.

I’m not sure how exactly feel about the song itself but Shakira dancing around whilst scantily clad in a cage is pretty nice. What I found pretty amazing was the full on crotch shot she gives away 50 seconds into the video.  Beyonce wears the same kind of clothes but usually manages not to just gratuitously throw in crotch shots like free samples of the Crystal Light at the supermarket.

Listen, I’m not complaining or anything, I think most if not all hot girls should voluntarily flash some beav while wearing coochie cutters.  Kind of makes me miss the days when videos were the predominant force on MTV and there was a reason to like a song not just for it’s music for the visual experience too.

Not sure how long this video will remain active but here’s another link just in case it goes down.

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Soap – It’s necessary but what is it?

1151By: Billy BeerSlugger

So I’m taking a shower this morning and I’m in there just suds’n it up with my Irish Spring soap bar and it kind of dawns on me that I’m not really sure how soap works.  Yea I know it supposed to get you clean but how and why?

Hopefully you’re taking a shower at least once a day for hygiene purposes but maybe you have run into the same questions I have about soap.

I did some research and here goes my best explanation of the phenomenon known as soap:

Soap is made up of  sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids which are gotten when combining common oils or fats with a strong alkaline solution (usually lye) in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding alkali salts of fatty acids (crude soap) and glycerol.  Glycerol is a substance found in most bar soaps I’m guessing because it is in my Irish Spring.

Soap is an excellent cleanser because of its ability to act as an emulsifying agent. An emulsifier is capable of dispersing one liquid into another immiscible liquid. This means that while oil (which attracts dirt) doesn’t naturally mix with water, soap can suspend oil/dirt in such a way that it can be removed.

Grease and oil are nonpolar and insoluble in water. When soap and soiling oils are mixed, the nonpolar hydrocarbon portion of the micelles break up the nonpolar oil molecules. A different type of micelle then forms, with nonpolar soiling molecules in the center. Thus, grease and oil and the ‘dirt’ attached to them are caught inside the micelle and can be rinsed away. Basically you can get more ball sweat bacteria and facial grease off of you with soap than you can with regular water, which is a good thing.

The earliest users of soap date back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon.  There was a found that was recipe written on a clay tablet.

The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.