They put their helmets on today.

"They put their helmets on today." That's what I told my friend while watching the Giants upset the Packers Sunday night. I was referring to how well the Giants were playing and how they came to Green Bay to win. I'm fairly confident that it will be the next great sports catch phrase. I think that within ten years it will be on par with "That's why they play the game" and "Any given Sunday".

What do you think? Oh, does anybody know John Madden? Al Michaels? Joe Buck? Anybody?

Never My Love

So I really like the song, Never My Love, by the Association. I heard it on the 60's station at work today. It's just a great love song with some of the best harmonies to be recorded from that era. While not a sad song, I always feel melancholy after hearing it. This wasn't always the case.

A couple years back I was drinking in this dive with my wife. We had just moved to Philly and were urgently seeking out the best dive bars in our area. The one we kept going back to was just a few blocks from our apartment and had a good mix of old timers, hipsters, and union guys who were doing construction in the area.

The place was kind of quiet that night. While drinking our $6 pitchers of Lager, we spotted this big union guy putting some money in the jukebox. You know the kind of guy I'm talking about. Big and broad with that red face that comes from a lifetime of working outdoors and heavy drinking. The kind of guy that eats cheese steaks from the carts for breakfast. Sometimes two of them.

After searching for a while, Big Union Guy found something to his liking and sat back down at the bar. He was alone that night and was drinking like it. The song that Big Union Guy selected was of course, Never My Love. As the song began, he just stared straight ahead not doing a thing. Occasionally, he would take a healthy swig of his beer or take a pull from his cigarette. But mostly, during that sweet song, he sat there motionless staring at something really far away.

My wife, being the professional people watcher that she is, was the first one to notice the sorrow in this man. We sat there in our booth watching him drink and listen so intently to the song, and though I can't speak for her, pitying the man for his lost love.

Who was this girl that he played the song for? An ex-girlfriend from his younger days? His first wife? His second? What had happened to the two of them? A small part of me wanted to buy the guy a drink and, with a little luck, hear the story about this girl. But people don't do that. Not in real life anyway.

So when I hear, Never My Love, I always think of Big Union Guy. Is he still pining for this lost love? Does he play that song only on their old anniversary? Does he ever think of calling her up one night after ten beers? I'm rooting for him and he doesn't even know it.

Dreams part 2 - It's a girl!

So last night I dreamed my wife and I had a baby girl. The strange thing was that we didn't name the baby. In my dream, the baby had clearly been around for a few weeks and we kept calling her "baby girl". I think I remember that we were waiting for her to do something before giving her a name. This reminds me of how some Native Americans named their children and how Italian mobsters gave each other nicknames. So maybe we were going to call her Screams like Bobcat or Fat Joey.

Disclaimer: The only research I did for this post was previous watchings of Dances with Wolves and Goodfellas.

Dreams part 1

So I can't remember many of my dreams last night. The one I do remember is cryptic at best. I dreamed that I was in a Chinese takeout restaurant. I ordered Pork Lo Mein and General Tso's. I think I asked the lady behind the counter to mix the two together. When the lady rang me up my total came to be $30. My dream-self was outraged by the price and explained to the lady that in Philly that I could get the same thing for much less. That's all I can really remember.

I think my dream was inspired by Stephen Colbert eating Lo Mein on his show the other night. It was very funny. Perhaps the high price for the Chinese food represents China's rising economic power in the world. Who knows?

Too much time on my hands?

So I listen to a lot of NPR. I would say on a daily basis I average 2-3 hours. This is not including the time I spend listening to various podcasts as well. Today I took the step from passive listener to active listener by calling in to Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane!

I was laying in my bed listening to her introduce the topic of how Pennsylvania will soon outlaw the labeling of rbst free(growth hormone free) on milk. I work at a grocery store that sells rbst free milk so I was mildly interested. Then one of her guests, a one Dr. Terry Effner from Penn State, decreed that if consumers wanted rbst free milk they could purchase organic. I immediately shot up from bed and raced to my computer to find the number so I could call in to the show. The problem with Dr. Effner's statement is that there is a considerable price difference between rbst free milk and organic milk. I would estimate that a gallon on regular rbst free milk is about $2.50-3.00 cheaper than organic milk. For many families, milk is a staple item that is purchased on a weekly basis and so the costs can add up by purchasing organic milk. I thought this price difference should be shared with the world. To my surprise, I got through the screening process and found myself on the air.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give myself a 6.5 for my performance(?). I stammered a bit, used the wrong words a couple of times, said that Dr. Effner's statement was ridiculous, and hung up before the guests could ask me where I work. Still, it was exciting.

first post

Hello everyone. My initial idea for this blog was to each day document my dreams from the previous night. The title comes from my obsession with zombies and my reoccurring nightmares about them. I'm still planning on doing that but I may post about other topics as well. I mean let's face it, it's difficult to remember your dreams sometimes.