The problems with Comcast have pushed back the conclusion of my Philadelphia photos and blog entry. I will try and get it done tonight.
Don’t cry.
Tag: Philadelphia
The Trouble With Comcast
There was no blog entry yesterday. Grrrrr.
We got home from Philadelphia only to find no high speed Internet access. OK, I thought. We’ve had these sporadic, intermittent problems before. Wait a while and it will return.
Meanwhile, I got on the phone and gave Comcast a call. The guy on the other end was nice, but couldn’t help me. He wanted to arrange a Tuesday appointment for service, but I pled my case, asking him to look at the myriad times I had complained about lost service earlier.
The repairman came around 11:00 this morning.
My little home office is a pig sty and I wasn’t thrilled to invite him up, but Internet service is Internet service. It’s not what it was nearly 20 years ago when I started logging onto Compuserve… at 300 baud.
Having Internet access is as important as having a phone or television set. Without it, in this day and age, you’re cut off from the world’s information.
The technician removed the coax connector from the back of my cable modem. He took the tiny bare wire that usually makes the internal connection and touched it to another bare wire. He frowned.
He went to the splitter. Another touch. Our signal was down by a lot. He’d go outside, where the cable service entered the house, and if that didn’t work he’d go to the basement.
About ten minutes later he was back at my door. He had found a corroded connector on the side of my house. It was a Comcast installed piece of equipment, so I didn’t have to feel guilty.
By the time we got back to my room, the modem lights were on. What had been a 0 db signal was now an 8.5 db signal¹. He did a little more checking and tightened a few not too loose connections before going.
Hopefully my connection problems are solved. However, I am surprised the ‘innards’ of my cable modem doesn’t report its signal strength back to Comcast so they can head these problems off before failure occurs.
It would seem to me my modem is already capable of this trick. Maybe Comcast is just not asking.
¹ – db, or decibels, measure power on a logarithmic scale. A 8.5 db loss (which is what seems to have been happening) means about 90% of the cable signal was being lost to corrosion before it got inside my house!
We’re In Philadelphia
The trip to Philadelphia wasn’t terribly bad… for a Friday afternoon… in the summer… on I-95. There is a place, about halfway through New Jersey, where the four roadway Turnpike becomes the two roadway Turnpike. At the point (or actually a few miles before it) the traffic slows to a crawl.
We made Philadelphia by mid-afternoon. The hotel was easy to find (considering Helaine had grown up here and I lived here for five years, we should know where things are) and nicely located.
We’re on the Delaware River. When I was here, this area was industrial and well into an era of hard times. It’s been reclaimed now as an entertainment area with restaurants and hotels.
Just across the way, and over an expressway, is the main body of the city. The streets in Philadelphia are numbered – so we’re ‘below’ First Street.
After we checked in, we decided to walk north, along the river, and ended up at Dave and Buster’s. D&B is a national chain of arcades on steroids… with a bar!
I found a flight simulator and attempted to takeoff and land without killing any of my passengers. No sweat. Next it was a boxing simulator. I’ve never played an arcade game that took so much out of me. There was even a readout with the number of calories you burned!
While I was playing games, Steffie and Helaine were working the ticket dispensing machines. What were they looking to get? Who knows? They were acquiring tickets as its own end.
I settled in next to them on a machine that tosses a coin onto platform. Small ‘sweepers’ push the coins forward. Hopefully, if your coin ends up in the right place, it will dislodge other coins causing them to fall in a tray, getting you tickets.
By the time we were done, Steffie had a dragon. It’s actually quite cute.
We went back to the hotel to wash up and get ready for dinner. Then, we headed to Society Hill and Old City. The latter name comes from the fact that this was the colonial center of Philadelphia. This is where Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross lived… though not together.
It was in Society Hill where the beginning of Philadelphia’s in-town gentrification began with the Society Hill Towers, two luxury apartment buildings. As I remember, they’re condos now.
We walked past Bookbinders and up Chestnut Street. This part of Philadelphia is an amazing mix of old and new. There are glass box office buildings and historical sites. Some streets are paved with cobblestones.
Philadelphia has a system of streets and alleyways. In some ways, that makes its downtown similar to Boston’s. Some of these alleys are just wide enough for a car – barely.
We went hunting for a restaurant to have dinner. Steffie and Helaine read the menus posted near the doors. We finally settled on an Italian place, Amici Noi, at 3rd and Market.
Good choice. The food was excellent and the portions large.
Surprisingly, all the restaurants we look at were fairly empty. Maybe Philadelphia isn’t the tourist city it should be. Certainly, on a hot Friday night, plenty of locals would be headed to the Jersey Shore.
It’s a shame, because this is such a beautiful and livable city.
After dinner I decided to head to South Street, knowing Steffie especially would like it. First, a detour. I wanted to see Independence Hall.
I remember, back when I lived here, how cool I thought it was to just drive by the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall. It’s no different now. There’s something very impressive knowing these icons of American history are right in the middle of modern life.
We walked down 4th Street past some beautiful neighborhoods of very expensive, very small homes. I can only shudder to think how these places have appreciated since I left 25 years ago this month.
How to describe South Street? Eclectic. Bohemian. Over the top. Very much like Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
South Street is where you find stores… like Condom Kingdom!
We walked and Steffie darted into some stores looking at clothing. We also stopped at Rita’s so Steffie and Helaine could get ‘water ice’ and I could get some custard. Perfect.
Meanwhile, South Street was packed with cars and cops and parking enforcement officers. I have never seen tow trucks move as quickly and deftly to get cars off the street! Something tells me this is a very expensive way to get unwanted valet parking.
We headed back to our hotel. We were, to understate it, tired. In fact, I went to bed a good seven hours before my normal bedtime!
Today, we head to the Vet¹ for the Phillies versus San Diego Padres. I’m psyched.
¹ – The Phillies play in Citizens Bank Park. I know that. I still want to say they play at the Vet… and it is, after all, my blog.
Destination Revealed
I woke up today waiting to go on my mystery birthday trip. Helaine held the secret.
We headed south down I-91 to I-95 and then turned toward New York City. I asked if we were taking the Cross Bronx Expressway? We were. We headed onto the George Washington Bridge. We weren’t going to New York.
I turned to Helaine and asked, “Are we going to Philadelphia?” She said, “Yes.” So, here we are.
We’re in a very nice hotel on the Delaware River, across from Camden, NJ. Camden looks very nice from this distance.
There’s a lot to tell, but I am totally bushed. There will be lots of photos. That much is already established. And, tomorrow we’re seeing the Phillies play San Diego.
How cool is that?
How I Met My Wife
Helaine and I have known each other for twenty five years. I wish I remembered the exact date. I don’t. I know it was around this time of year, sometime in mid-July.
I was working at WIFI – a horrendous top-40 station in Philadelphia. Though owned by the movie chain, “General Cinema,” it seemed more like a mom and pop operation. The equipment was tired and in a semi-constant state of disrepair.
On the air, we used every gimmick possible to try and magnify what meager ratings we had. We even ‘kited’ time checks to try and inflate the amount of time people said they were listening!
Though a true blue radio fanatic, I was getting burned out by my time at WIFI. The final straw was getting calls from nine and ten year olds asking me to play, “We don’t need no education.”
I felt, single handedly, I was leading American society into some sort of social abyss. I made the decision to leave radio and get into television.
Though thirty, I was very young looking. I had only begun to shave on a regular basis. Here’s my 1980 driver’s license. You make the call.
I took everything I’d ever done in front of a camera (and this included telethon appearances, an Evening Magazine audition in Philadelphia, even “Popeye’s 50th Birthday Party”) and started searching for a TV job. On this particular July day the call came in¹.
I was incredibly excited. Not only would I be leaving WIFI, I’d also be starting a new life a television… albeit in Buffalo.
My air shift ended at 10:00 AM. I ran out of the studio, toward the parking lot² where I’d meet some friends and tell them the good news.
To exit the WIFI studio, you opened the door, turned right, walked down a hallway and then around the edge of another studio, making a full 180° turn! As I rounded that corner I ran into a woman who had just started working in the promotion department.
When I say “ran into,” I am being literal. I ran into her and knocked her to the ground! That was my first contact with Helaine!
We saw each other a few times, but I was exiting Philadelphia in a few weeks. I was a guy who tried to avoid commitment during normal times… much less now, as I packed my stuff.
OK – I’m a jerk. I’m a fool. For all intents and purposes, I should have lost her to someone smarter and more mature. But, I didn’t.
I left Philly and didn’t see Helaine for another year and a half. I’ll tell how we got together some other time. It’s an interesting story with me, again, playing the part of the jerk!
The story you’ve read has been told a zillion times. It needs no embellishment, because it’s totally true.
As it turns out, it might be the best day of my life. The day my career changed and, more importantly, the day I met the woman I’d love for the rest of my life.
Maybe this is why I love the summer and why July is my favorite month. I bet Helaine knows the exact date.
¹ – The call came from WGR-TV’s program director, Farrell Meisel. I can never thank Farrell enough for that first opportunity. He took a great chance, considering I had no experience in TV at all. Farrell and I are still really good friends, though I can no longer work for his TV station as I don’t speak Arabic!
² – WIFI’s studio were in a mid-rise office complex in Bala Cynwyd, PA (yes, that’s how it’s spelled). In that pre consolidation era, we were in the same building as four other radio stations.
London Lee
When I was a kid, there was a ‘young’ comedian named London Lee. Considering I’m in my mid-50s, he’s probably in his mid-60s… maybe 70
When I was a kid, there was a ‘young’ comedian named London Lee. Considering I’m in my mid-50s, he’s probably in his mid-60s… maybe 70s.
Alas, he has disappeared off the face of the earth. Well, he has as far as the Internet is concerned – he’s virtually a non entity.
There is one reference to him I can find and one London Lee story quoted:
“I step off the elevated train and I see two cops with German Shepard’s and said, ‘What do you know, Philadelphia the only city with blind cops!’
That’s comedy!
Because of the consistent traffic to this page, it’s reopened for comments.
Post Atlanta Random Thoughts
I can’t believe how exhausted I was coming home from Atlanta. I’m a firm believer that travel is just as exhausting as work – and this is more living proof. From the time I left the hotel until I got home was nearly 8 hours. That includes driving, flying, waiting and even taking the Atlanta Airport subway.
I’m starting to get bugged by the TSA screening at some airports. I’ll use Atlanta as an example. Usually I would take photos to illustrate my points, but the TSA has never shown a warm and fuzzy side to me. To their mind: photo equals full body cavity search.
In order to get to the screening apparatus it is necessary to move through a long circuitous line. I was thinking ‘cattle’ as I walked it, only to hear the woman behind me blurt out just that word!
I never take off my shoes for screening, but was told if I didn’t, I would be searched. My shoes have now been x-rayed and I’ve walked through an airport barefoot. The world’s a safer place.
Exactly what is accomplished by screening everyone? Isn’t it possible to build a system that provides trustworthy people with a modicum of trust? I’ll vouch for my mom.
Why do US Senators need to be hand screened at an airport, as recently occurred? Are we really worried about them? Are we really worried about me or the elderly white haired woman with breathing apparatus and a wheelchair I recently saw being screened at Bradley International?
Maybe it’s just the attitude. There is never a doubt when you deal with some of these screeners that they know they have limitless power over you. Tick them off, pay the price.
I brought a digital camera, laptop computer, cell phone and other wired devices. Do they really know the electronic makeup of these items? Aren’t they better off knowing me – or whomever is being screened?
After arriving in Philadelphia and before boarding my New Haven bound plane, there was a problem. The plane had been ‘overbooked’ and volunteers would be needed.
Each volunteer would receive one round trip ticket for anywhere in USAir’s system plus a ticket on the next available flight – 8:15 tomorrow night, or approximately 27 hours wait.
As we got ready to leave, I noticed the seat next to me and a few others in the plane were empty. What was going on? The flight attendant told me there were weight restrictions.
That seemed very odd. Sometimes in the summer when the air isn’t quite as dense, planes don’t have enough power for takeoff. It was cool today. The wind, which had been gusty earlier, had slacked off. I just don’t get it.
I know a few pilots read my blog. Maybe one of you will explain this to me… better still, explain it to the ‘bumpees.’
On Friday I wrote about being forced to park in a more expensive lot when the long term lot was full. I mentioned this to the cashier tonight and he immediately adjusted the price down to the long term rate. My guess is this had nothing to do with me being on TV (making it an even better find, since it represents a real policy – a smart policy at an airport trying to build a customer base).
Flying from Tweed is a pleasure, and I’m glad that’s how I booked this trip.
Finally, as I left the airport I noted the Sun setting over New Haven Harbor. I drove into a nearby park, but soggy ground prevented me from getting a shot which was totally in the clear. As it turns out, I think the trees in the foreground add nice contrast.
The Trip Continues
Getting to Philadelphia was no problem. It was leaving that seemed to be the sticking point.
I had a long layover in Philadelphia – over an hour and a half. The Embraer Regional Jet to Atlanta was in on time. We boarded on time. And then the announcement.
The pilot came on from the cockpit to tell us thunderstorms around Atlanta were going hold us up. It would be an hour until he found out when we’d be!” And, since the gate was needed for another plane, he’d drive to a quiet spot for us to wait.
I’d like to tell you the passengers protested, or the wait was interminable or some other tragic story of passenger pain, but it wasn’t that bad. We left Philadelphia about an hour and a half late.
I actually found the plane, an ERJ170, reasonably comfortable. Just like the Dash-8 I took from New Haven to Philadelphia, this plane had plenty of legroom in narrow seats. The interior was spartan and somehow European. The interior actually reminded me of a Fokker-100.¹
Is it just me or is it weird to be on an airplane designed and built in Brazil?
The trip to Atlanta was bumpy, but uneventful. Getting off in Atlanta was another story. The terminal looked like a mall on the weekend before Christmas. It was jammed – as busy as any airline terminal I had ever visited.
Helaine had found a great deal for a medium size car from Avis. That ended up being a Chevy Malibu. It is possible there is a car that has less style, but I doubt it. It looks like it was designed and built with absolutely no anticipation anyone would actually want to own one. They were right.
My hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn – Perimeter in one of the many exurbs that ring Atlanta. This is actually a fairly nice hotel and a good value. And, along with everything else, there’s free high speed Internet service (though not enough signal at the desk in this room to use it from there).
This evening (a late evening) I joined Mark and Annie, both of whom I worked with at Channel 8, for dinner. I left it up to them and we went to Ted’s… owned by Ted Turner and featuring Bison meat!
We all had Bison burgers, which were very good. I also had New England clam chowder (could have been warmer and larger, but it was very tasty). This being Atlanta, Coca Cola’s world headquarters, I broke down and had a Coke, which was served from the glass bottle.
Next stop was CNN, where Mark and Annie now work. This is interesting because there are familiar views in the CNN Center that I’ve seen for years.
Visiting CNN at night, there were no on-air types to be seen. Most of their nighttime programming is from New York or Los Angeles (Larry King).
Actually, that gave me more of an opportunity to look around. Their newsroom, directly behind the news set, may be the most photogenic TV space I’ve ever been in.
Busy day. I’m going to bed.
¹ – The Fokker 100 is a small, though older, regional jet. USAir used to fly them to Buffalo. They were quite comfortable, except for the low ceilings. They were low enough that I once asked a flight attendant if her assignment in this particular model was penance for something she had done?
On My Way to Atlanta
I’m writing from seat 2F onboard my flight from New Haven to Philadelphia. This laptop’s battery isn’t what it once was, and that will limit my writing time.
The trip to the airport was quick… quick enough to be there an hour early. I was by no means the earliest. Most of the passengers look to be leisure, rather than business flyers.
Tweed-New Haven Airport has changed a little since my last trip through. Delta now flies there, with jet service to Cincinnati. The TSA has moved their gear in, limiting the space in the terminal area and the parking lots have been reconfigured.
Let’s talk parking first, because I went to park in the much smaller long term lot only to face cones and a sign saying “Full.” I’m going to have to pay about $3 more a day because I was forced into the hourly lot. The good parking news is I parked amazingly close. It was literally a 20 second walk from my car to the terminal building.
I’m trying to think about the real cost of passenger screening at an airport like Tweed. There are few flights, each with a limited number of seats. There is no economy of scale here. I’m not sure how the costs are allocated but it can’t really be figured on an actual cost per passenger basis.
The plane pulled up to the terminal right on time. This dark blue USAirways Express plane is a DeHavilland Dash 8. It’s four across seating with a flight attendant. This is a great improvement over the day when 18 seaters flew here. On the other hand, we used to have service using Dorniers to Pittsburgh, a much nice prop plane.
The interior of the plane looks tired. It’s the difference between someone’s home and a summer cabin. Maybe shabby is the right word. I’m hoping USAirways is saving the money it might spend on refurbishing the cabin and using it on… oh, maybe engine maintenance. That would be nice.
If you’ve never flown a smaller plane like this, you might be surprised by the legroom. There’s plenty of it! The seats are narrow, but you’re not bumping into the person ahead of you.
We’re in the clouds now and the flight is a little bumpy. Not terrible, but noticeable. Jets fly above this. It’s also noisy. On the inside, small prop planes are much noisier than jets.
Even with the noise… even with the bumps… even with the shabby surroundings, this flight is worthwhile because of the ease and convenience of Tweed-New Haven. I wish there was more service there.
More later from Atlanta.
Heading South
Today, I started getting ready for a quick trip to Atlanta. My friend Jeff, who used to work here but is now at The Weather Channel, is marrying Lauren. I’m looking forward to this because I like them both.
Jeff is the first of my friends to have met his wife-to-be online. If Lauren represents potential spouses on the Internet, a lot of people are going to be running to find their mate on the net. She’s a knockout.
I haven’t been to Atlanta in about a zillion years. The first time I was there was in the early 70s. I was flying to Charlotte, NC from West Palm Beach, FL. Charlotte got snowed in! Eastern Airlines paid to put me up in a motel. I met a girl from my flight and spent most of the evening with her… though less of the evening than I anticipated.
There won’t be much time to poke around, but a friend at CNN will give me the 50¢ tour and the groom-to-be is taking me to The Weather Channel (though I still can’t figure out where he’ll find the time).
Part of the fun of this trip is the fact that I can leave and return through New Haven’s little airport. Though Atlanta’s dominant carrier, Delta, now flies to HVN, I’m going on USAir via Philadelphia. My first leg is on an 18 seat prop plane – something I don’t mind… though I know many do.
The advantage of Tweed-New Haven Airport is its tiny size. No crowds… or few crowds and easy access. The disadvantage is the number of flights and choice of non-stop destinations – two, Philadelphia and Cincinnati.
The Weird Donovan McNabb Rumor
After the Super Bowl, I sad the McNabb I saw was not the McNabb I had watched all season. Something was different – and it wasn’t something forced by the Pats.
Now there’s this:
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:32 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2005
PHILADELPHIA – Donovan McNabb was so ill in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl that a Philadelphia Eagles teammate called one play in the huddle, center Hank Fraley told a TV station.
advertisement
The Super Bowl
This is much too painful to talk about – much. I’m not sure if the season wouldn’t have been easier to take had the Eagles gone down in an earlier round.
As someone who has watched Philadelphia play all season, I can tell you the team out there last night was not indicative of what I had come to know. I’m not talking about forced errors by the Patriots. It’s really all about McNabb’s inability to accurately pass.
Maybe it was jitters. I would be nuts under a similar circumstance.
What was astounding for the Eagles was the performance of Terrell Owens. I can’t say enough about how much of a gamer he was, especially coming back with pins and a plate in his ankle.
On the other hand, I wonder if we’ll ever see Todd Pinkston as an Eagle again. He left last night injured, but how injured? This season, it seems he has avoided contact.
Why Do We Still Fax Things?
Why do we still fax things? It’s a reasonable question. Why do we still send and receive faxes? What is the advantage? As far as I can see this is old technology which is now outmoded and unneeded.
I remember my first run in with a fax machine. I was working at WPEN in Philadelphia, hosting the morning show from 2212 Walnut Street. Somehow, because I work in the newsroom now, people think I was in news or weather then. Nope, I was the morning DJ¹.
One of our sponsors was the Philadelphia Inquirer – an excellent morning newspaper. The Inky had a commercial we ran. It was what is called a ‘donut’ spot.
There was a catchy jingle (“Wake up Philadelphia. Wake up with the In-Quirer-Er”²) with an instrumental hole in the middle. I would read some copy over the music.
Since the Inky wanted fresh, topical copy every day, we were forced to set up a finicky, wet paper fax machine. Every morning the fax would start spinning and a few minutes later the paper would be full of words for me to read.
Email was out of the question. Back in 1977 there couldn’t have been more than a few hundred email addresses worldwide… if there were that many. I certainly had never heard of it or could have even conceived of it.
Today, faxes are everywhere, used when people want to send (mostly) images from paper back and forth. Things like contracts or proposals fly over phone lines as faxes.
Why?
There’s no difference in sending a fax or an email attachment. Here at home, I don’t even have the fax functionality of this computer hooked up. If someone wants a fax, I usually ask if it’s OK to send it via email. Then there’s silence. Why the disconnect?
A fax machine isn’t much more than a scanner and modem. I already have a scanner. Why not use email, which is so much more efficient and now carries imagery, like photos, all the time?
For the end user, a fax machine means a dedicated phone line or fax service bureau. That means money. And then there’s the fax equipment itself.
I’m sure the fax machine won’t disappear overnight – but it should. It could be gone tomorrow, replaced by email attachments and no one would know the difference. That’s a much better way to go.
¹ – I find the term “DJ” to be distasteful. When forced to say it, I usually pronounce it ‘disk jerky,’ as in “I was a disk jerky.” Considering how much I enjoyed being one and that I made my living as one for 11 years, it’s a weird way to feel.
² – I wonder if my friend Peter Mokover has a copy of this jingle? It was really great – an all time favorite. If anyone reading this has a copy, I’ll host a digital version here for all to hear.
The Eagles Win Ugly
The Eagles played the Washington Redskins in this week’s Sunday night matchup. ESPN isn’t ABC, and Sunday night isn’t Monday night. In other words this is less special nationwide, but critical for us, a family of Eagles fans.
It started terribly as the Redskins returned the opening kickoff most of the way down the field and then quickly scored. Then, amazingly, the Eagles returned the favor, scoring seconds later on their first possession. It looked like this would be a wide open shout out.
Bad guess on my part.
Helaine, who scours the Internet for anything good about the Eagles or bad about their opponent, knew there was bad blood between these two teams after Philadelphia had been accused of running up the score the first time they met. Some rumors said the Redskins would play dirty.
Bad guess on her part.
What we ended up watching was an ugly game. Donovan McNabb, one of the top few quarterbacks in the league looked awful. He drilled he ball to the carpet and gave up a critical interception. Terrell Owens, the Eagles trash talking wide receiver, fumbled the ball trying to stretch out a play within spitting distance of the end zone.
I like the ESPN announcers, but by halftime they were starting to sound like ‘homers’ rooting for the Redskins. I find that annoying. At least I did tonight.
The game had heartbreak written all over it. I knew it was bad because Helaine turned down the sound on the TV. Though the Eagles led, the Redskins continued to threaten until an interception in the final seconds locked it up.
The final score: Eagles 17 – Washington 14. It could have easily been the reverse.
The Eagles are now 12-1, much better than anyone could have imagined or asked for. Tonight they were referred to as the only true Super Bowl contender in the NFC. Yet this game only went to reinforce our worry that one off night, one blown play, could end it all.
Watching The Eagles At A Bar
I don’t drink alcohol. OK, that’s not entirely correct. Once or twice a year I’ll get a Bailey’s Irish Cream (aka chocolate milk with booze) at a casino. When the waitress asks, “straight or rocks,” I won’t remember how I had it the last time or if I have a preference.
Helaine is right up there with me. If it were for the two of us, bars and the spirits industry in general would cease to exist. On the other hand, we’re fairly non-judgmental about this. We don’t mind if other people drink and have served alcohol in our home.
All this is leading to the fact that Helaine and I spent a good part of the afternoon at a local bar watching the Philadelphia Eagles humiliate the Green Bay Packers. For Eagles fans, this was a wonderful game. Our biggest concern was the coach leaving quarterback Donovan McNabb in too long, possibly subjecting him to injury.¹.
I’m not sure I had ever gone to a bar just to watch a football game. It was actually a lot of fun.
We went to Eli’s on Whitney, a bar and restaurant that also does catering. The bar itself is rectangular with the bartenders in the middle. On the outer walls are about a dozen TV sets. Inside, above the bartenders heads, are another 10 sets.
Each TV was tuned to a satellite feed of a game. Since there were fewer games than sets, many had the same game on.
We came in around 4:00 o’clock. The place was crowded with fans still watching the early games as the late shift moved in. A large proportion of the people there were wearing jerseys, sweatshirts or other team attire. Helaine and I were wearing Eagles sweatshirts.
Through the course of the afternoon we had appetizers, (soft) drinks and dessert. The tab came to about $30 and I gave our waitress a 35% tip based on both her good service and the long time we were there.
It is not like watching at home. On the other hand, it wasn’t bad at all. I enjoyed it, especially when it became obvious there were many more Philadelphia than Green Bay fans. There were cheers for each good Philly play – meaning a lot of cheers today.
As the season winds down, more and more games will be on free local TV, meaning there will be less reason to watch at Eli’s. If the opportunity presented itself again, I’d go in a second.
¹ – If you know Rush Limbaugh, would you please tell him an apology to McNabb for what he said last season is way overdue. There’s just no arguing with the numbers and Limbaugh must see that by now.