Wednesday, November 18, 2009

SEPTA's at It Again Links

I'm sure the SEPTA strike negatively affected thousands upon thousands of people here in Philadelphia. I am not one of them. In the two weeks or so that SEPTA was on strike, I made the short drive from my house to work, parked a few blocks away and walked in. I never had to worry about waiting around for trains, people jumping in front of trains and delaying everyone, weather delays, general ineptitude of the SEPTA workers, other passengers, overcrowded cars, etc. It was a nice break. So nice, in fact, that all last week, despite the end of the strike, I still drove in to work.

Well, this week I've decided to save on gas and return to SEPTA. It didn't take long for me to remember why I hate it so. Today, on my ride in to work, the car was crowded beyond belief when it came to the stop where I get on. I crammed in, and then, when we hit 2nd Street, the car stopped … and sat and sat and sat with the doors open. After about 8 minutes, an announcement came on that everyone must get off the train — there was a huge delay. So everyone got off, people were told to head upstairs to catch a bus, and everyone was pissed off. Apparently, someone got sick on one of the cars and SEPTA was waiting for emergency relief to come and take care of said person. I have no idea the severity.

Getting out of the platform was taking forever because an entire train, which was packed to the gils, was attempting to squeeze through and up the stairs. Then, after most people made their way upstairs, the conductor came out and started waving people back on and announcing that the train was open. Luckily I had not exited and made it back on the train. In the mad scramble, people were running back and holding open the train doors. This made the conductor angry, because he wanted to close them and get moving, after he was the one who made everyone get off. Then, for the remainder of the stops, he made obnoxious announcements warning everyone to let people off, don't hold open the doors, stand behind the yellow line, effectively yelling at everyone that was simply trying to get to work or school in an agitated voice. He was giving off an awful lot of attitude for a guy who caused this whole mess and was making everyone late. What an asshole. And when he got to each stop, he waited to open the doors for a full minute each time, scolding the people waiting to get on to get behind the yellow line and let people off. The guy was a real jerkoff. It took my over a half hour to get to the Broad Street Line, a 7-minute trip. Fuck SEPTA and fuck that conductor. I hope he gets hit by a SEPTA bus. And dies. For real.

Let's link …

-Jason Williams, from retired last season to starting point guard of the defending Eastern Conference champs:



-Great, hilarious, sarcastic article by Bob Ford that's making the rounds, suggesting the Eagles sign Allen Iverson as a wildcat quarterback, mocking Andy Reid and the Eagles. Read it.

-The best of Bo Jackson, via the jerks:





-Penn State is jacking up ticket prices and instituting seat lease fees, and expensive ones at that. Good chance my days as a season ticket holder are over, at least in the immediate future.

-Allen Iverson to the Lakers? Just shoot me now. Seriously.

-Kobe is not human:



-I'm not nearly as high on Monta Ellis as the majority of people are, but I'd have to say, this potential trade would be fantastic … maybe, because it would hamstring the Sixers even more cap-wise:

1. Philadelphia: Monta Ellis for Samuel Dalembert
Like any trade, both teams needs to be willing to part with something. And that’s definitely the case here. The Sixers are in desperate need of another guard, and one that can score, while the Warriors could use an athletic big man in Dalembert.


-Jason Maxiell is frightening:



-Meet Tarik Black, who is officially headed to Memphis:



-On second thought, Kobe is just a copy cat:



-Bad news for Nova fans: Scottie Reynolds is on the cover of SI, meaning an injury or terrible season is imminent:





-New Jersey native and Penn guy Mark DeRosa may become a Phillie sooner or later. I say do it, preferably as a super utility guy.

-The best thing you'll read about Brendan Shanahan's retirement all day, with a video tribute to boot:



-I don't know much about D.C. sports radio and the Washington Post, but apparently some guy named Mike Wise and Tony Kornheiser are in a pissing match. The interesting part, LaVar Arrington, a partner of Mike Wise, put in his two cents, and I have to say, LaVar comes across as a guy you'd love to go to war with:

Anyhow, LaVar Arrington came on air after the break, and attempted to burn some of that earth himself.

"Now I know Tony, I'm cool with Tony Kornheiser, but when you come at us, you're coming at all of us, and I just want to give a quick translation for Mike Wise, all right?" LaVar began. "Mike Wise put it in such a great way, and very gentle and very delicate, but what he really wanted to say was, Tony, you were intimidated from the time Mike got here. Mike has that killer charm and sly, dry, very cunning, very deliberate wit about him, almost like what they say about you. And he's younger, he's probably better looker than you, he's taller than you, people listen to what he has to say, he's doing all these TV spots, he's doing all these radio spots, and oh yes, he's still writing for The Post. And he's blowing up.

"Look, all the ratings are coming here, all the ratings are going from there and coming here. And he's a very decent man, he's a good man, and yeah we pick on each other, but we'll be darned if we let anybody else pick on us. So what I'm saying to you is, don't be so jealous where the jealousy kind of spills over into what you say and what you do....

"And last time I checked, you're not from Washington, D.C., either. And you know what, it doesn't take you being here for five years to be able to be a reporter of things that you see....

"I'd be remiss if I moved forward to our show and I didn't jump out there and just put my two cents in there. Because you know what, Mike didn't have to say anything to you. Mike is a better person than that, but maybe I'm not. I'll jump in there and I'll be the one that jumps out at you, because that was inappropriate....For you to be a role model and attack somebody that you've been a role model to, that kind of speaks volumes of where you are. And I'll leave it alone at that."




I really want that guy to become Penn State's lead recruiter.

On the docket tonight, we have the Sixers hosting Larry Brown's new-look Bobcats, with Stephen Jackson in town, at 7, and the Flyers take on the Kings out in L.A. at 10:30, if you can stay up that late. And fuck SEPTA. Seriously.

BallHype: hype it up!

1 comment:

  1. Dude I read the comments on that post you linked from the BSD, and I don't think I would ever consider attending a PSU game again if I would have to sit next to all those whiny douches.

    The way they treat the experience of watching college kids play football is pretty sad.

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