Back In The Saddle Again
The strangest reporter's notebook I've seen in a long time comes from NBC10's Teresa Masterson. She wrangles an invite to the home of back-from-LA singer/songwriter Phil Roy - the musician who throws $100 home concerts and dinner parties for fans. She brings her sister. Then, for reasons unclear, is expected to serve dinner, do the dishes - the whole Cinderella thing, with no prince. It's very funny. And bizarre. She gets spilled on. Knocked in the head. Generally disrespected. And she's got pictures to prove it. Headline: Local Reporter's Celeb Nightmare.
Masterson, who blogs, for NBC10, earlier got notice for an account of her reporting at a Trenton Thunder game. (Philadelphia Will Do spotted that one.) She wrote, memorably:
Here's the thing: I was promised a chance to meet the players, and had visions a la Carrie Bradshaw using her press pass to get into the Yankee locker room.
Boys. I'm not going to lie -- I stayed for the boys. What I forgot is just that. They're boys.
I followed my fellow pressmen into the locker room post loss only to find a group of angry, silent boys eating chicken fingers, who forbid the lone female reporter from taking pictures of angry, silent boys eating chicken fingers.
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How could we not even dent a list of cities with the rudest drivers? They didn't consider double-parking. Miami wins the race, which was judged according to lead-footers, tail-gaters and cutter-offers. I am proud to have learned to drive in Boston, which rated rudely, as did Phoenix, New York and L.A. Phoenix? If you want nice, go to Minneapolis, St. Louis, Seattle and Nashville. Of the 20 cities ranked by AutoVantage's "In the Driver's Seat Road Rage Survey," Philly was No. 10, middle of the road. List here.
* I go away for a day, and Kiko's House wants to throw out Tastykakes? He writes this like a homeboy who's had enough:
Tastykakes, along with hoagies, cheese steaks, soft pretzels wid (with) mustard, corrupt politicians and underachieving sports teams, are longtime Philadelphia staples.
Five generations of Philadelphians have snacked on Tastykake pies, cupcakes, donuts and other sweets. My mother would mail me care packages with Tastykakes when I was banging around the Far East and later when I lived in San Francisco. Indeed, Tastykake does a brisk trade mailing its products to Philadelphia area ex-pats.
But times have changed and Tastykake has not kept up. Although you can now buy Tastykakes far from Philadelphia, its business has been declining for years because of stiff competition from national bakeries and perhaps for another reason that I'll get to in a moment. Now word comes that the Tasty Baking Co. may close its original bakery in the Nicetown neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. The 84-year-old multi-story building is not configured for efficient modern baking operations and Tastykake says it may move its operations to a new bakery or its second, more modern bakery in the far suburbs. I have a better idea. Tastykake ought to just give up.
Then he does a taste test. Tastykake was my first whiff of Philadelphia. We played softball in Virginia with a Tastykake driver named Bill who would pull up the truck after the game and deliver freshly stale treats for our team. I'm guessing the driver's got these free. We appreciated them, even if they were seconds, and they soaked up the beer nicely. Nothing like Butterscotch Krimpets and a cold Bud.
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Gone a day and Philebrity says the reason the Inquirer is losing circulation is that it is among the most left-wing big dailies in the country. The top 5 biggest losers on that list, made by our friends at The Council of Conservative Citizens, ARE ALL LIBERAL PAPERS. See? The L.A. Times, The San Francisco Chronicle. The Boston Globe. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Us. Say no more. Of course lots of not-so-conservative papers lost circulation during the six months that ended March 31, so there might be something else going on here. Just mentioning it.
Teresa Masterson has struck again! You might remember her from when she wanted to take photos of the half-naked baseball players in the locker room, but they wouldn't let her because they were eating chicken or something, and also...