Dear Friend … I am writing to you as a reliable and trustworthy person who has received many, MANY pleas to secure million-of-dollars in found money, at the e-mail request of someone in a foreign land, and unusual circumstances.
“The utopian schemes of leveling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. They are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.”
Samuel Adams, Founding Father, on Redistribution of Wealth and Communism
Three cheers for the death of Big-Government!
Make no mistake about it: This is the beginning of the end for Big-Government.
There is NO way The Federal Government can pay for Obamacare. It’s going to bankrupt the country, just like socialized medicine has bankrupted every other country where it has been tried. The end result of Obamacare is to accelerate the coming debt tsunami that is going to swamp this country, NOT to decelerate it. [Read more →]
I just read an interesting piece in the London Times about Captain Graf, the Navy captain who was relieved of her command of a warship due to her cursing and other mistreatment of her crew.
In “Recon,” James Ford learns a life-changing lesson from a TV show just as we are learning from Lost. The metaphor is clear: there are messages in the media that are meant to help guide us on our journey. All you have to do is let yourself see through to their true meaning in order to uncover the wisdom.
I was saddened to read that one of my childhood heroes, Fess Parker, passed away. He was 85.
I just read a nice piece by Leonard Maltin on Fess Parker, which reminded me of how much the man in the coonskin hat meant to me as a kid.
I am currently digging Chocolate Cheerios. In the 1980’s, when crack cocaine was tearing apart our nation’s inner cities, Coco Puffs were having a similar effect on the O’Connor household. They became a banned substance after my mom caught my siblings and I doing lines of the stuff you found on the bottom of the cereal bag that we called “Coco Dust.” After rehab — we were confined to boring, healthy cereals like Kix, Rice Krispies, and Chex. But now I’m an adult (kind of) — I have a mortgage, I pay bills, and I do the shopping. And I can buy Chocalate Cheerios — which are allegedly sort of good for you (at least that’s what I keep telling my girlfriend). They are delicious and I just hope my mom doesn’t catch me relapsing on my Coco Dust addiction. [Read more →]
There is a type of music that holds much appeal to the rural working person, also known as the people of the soil. It is called “country” music, exemplified by the likes of such classic performers as those who appeared on the television program “Hee Haw,” and of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. To be honest, this type of music is not my forte; my tastes tend toward whatever is being played in Starbucks, although I did purchase the Taylor Swift CD after Ken Tucker gave it a positive review on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross.
The first time I popped that CD into the player, I was surprised at the reaction it received from my poodle bitch. She is a quite refined and at times aloof dog, yet she seemed enchanted by the melodies. She listens to it quite often now. [Read more →]
I watched the first season of Wiseguy on DVD this past week.
I enjoyed the TV crime drama during its original run from 1987 to 1990. Produced by television veterans Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, the program was about an undercover FBI agent, Vinnie Terranova, played by actor Ken Wahl.
Houston Chronicle – The choice facing Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joe Dubois and FBI agent Daniel Fuentes was simple: Hold their ground to be riddled with machine-gun fire, or be captured by drug-cartel henchmen who would diabolically interrogate them using pliers, blowtorches or worse.
DEA agent Joe Dubois, in an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle, finally shares his story of a hostile showdown with Mexican drug kingpin Osiel Cardenas in 1999. While gathering intelligence just across the border, Dubois and FBI agent Daniel Fuentes refused to surrender after their car was surrounded by three vehicles and a dozen or so gunman with assault rifles. Cardenas himself pounded on the glass of the car and demanded surrender. He even smiled at the FBI badges, and raised an AK-47 to the window. But Dubois stood firm, teaching us a few lessons that transcend the War on Drugs. [Read more →]
Yup. You read it correctly. Some wasted asshole actually put his baby in an oven and left him there overnight. Talk about giving new meaning to the phrase “bun in the oven.” Congratulations, Larry Long — you are officially our daddy douche of the week. [Read more →]
Women are fickle mistresses, especially when it comes to our tolerance for other women, and in particular, celebrities. Men may have their own issues with celebrity men, or pseudo-celebrity men, like Guy Fieri. Guy is annoying, like a fly you want to swat, but honestly, we’re not too concerned about him, or any other man, for that matter. It’s the women to whom we’re paying the most attention. [Read more →]
It went down like buddah… with the Atlantic Ten championship game on the line Sunday in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, with Temple clinging to a one-point lead over the University of Richmond with 22 seconds left, a young man from my high school alma mater (Lower Merion) and my childhood hometown (Narberth, PA) stepped to the foul line. Temple senior Ryan Brooks drove a stake through the heart of Richmond’s desperate and scary final minutes comeback from ten points down by swishing two of the sweetest free throws any Narb has ever launched. Mr. Draper would have been proud.
Brooks’ silky foul shots under testicle-clamping pressure (I’m talking about mine) proved the difference in the 56-52 final score that gave Temple its threepeat in the A-Ten tourney championship and set up the showdown Friday afternoon against Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. [Read more →]
When Falls the Coliseum is all up in the Twitter and the Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter to get tweeted every time we have a new post. We’ll tweet the hell out of you. Then you can re-tweet us. Yes, it sounds dirty. Don’t keep us all to yourself. Share the love.
And join our fan page on Facebook. We try to highlight a couple of posts a day. Just another way for you to know what’s going on at WFTC. And if you “like” a post or “share” it, you can help introduce your friends to this site. Do it already. You know you want to.
You can also sign up to receive e-mail announcements for every new post. It’s free. And good for you.
I enjoyed the first episode of HBO’s The Pacific, but my enjoyment was somewhat marred by hearing Tom Hanks, one of the miniseries’ producers, state that the war with Japan was based on racism, which he then compared to the current war on terrorism.
When Falls contributor Judi Cutrone has just been informed by a reputable source (aka her sister) that because of yesterday’s inflammatory post against Jerry Seinfeld, she has been banned from several establishments and landmarks in Massapequa, NY, which is hometown to both the controversial blogger and Seinfeld, who is arguably the hamlet’s most famous onetime resident (unless you’re a big Police Academy fan).
August 8, 2009
I dream Deborah has just arrived for a visit with me and Gail. When I am alone for a few moments with Deborah, I see there are specks of blood on her face. I ask her what the hell happened. She says she had to rescue a cat who had hung himself from her shower rod. She couldn’t untie him, so she had to find a pair of scissors and cut him down. I tell her to clean up, but she insists she doesn’t look that bad. Later on, I see that the cat has a collar and I impulsively cut the collar off with a pair of scissors. The cat suddenly has a burst of energy because he is finally free.
Dear When Falls the Coliseum,
I am 8 years old and a cute, innocent little girl. My friends told me that there is no such thing as St. Patrick, and that St. Patrick’s Day was just an excuse to let grownups get drunk. Are my friends right?
Sincerely,
Dear Virginia,
As I sit here at my computer savoring my fourth Irish coffee of the morning (top o’ the morning to you!), I can’t help but to feel melancholic about your question. [Read more →]
In the exciting opening scene of Brooklyn’s Finest, bad guy Carlo (Vincent D’Onofrio, in an effective but too brief performance) explains to Sal (Ethan Hawke) his philosophy about “righter and wronger.” Issues of moral relativism drive this taut cop thriller, and it is sometimes hard to tell the cops from the criminals. Crisp direction from Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), compelling characters and a trio of excellent lead performances kept me completely engaged in a film from a genre I usually avoid. The film is a bit of a downer but it is exciting and enjoyable. [Read more →]
Now that spring is upon us, and the trees are beginning to leaf out and grow, my life has become a lot more hectic. Such is the row a forester has to hoe, but I’m busy planting trees, measuring trees, I’ve got three logging operations running at the moment, so on and so forth. I’ve been reading my usual three or four books a week. I’ve been keeping up-to-date on political movements, health care reform, cap-n-tax, the TEA Parties, you know, all the headlines that fill our days.
However, I find that I want to write about something and I can’t think up a topic. [Read more →]
