On The Road Again

The sun has set on my month in Florida. Presently I'm busy packing up and cleaning the condo myself (to avoid a $150 *cleaning fee*!).  This computer will be in a box in a minute.

We'll leave tomorrow morning for Bradenton - about 2 hours north - to spend two days with my aunt and uncle. I'll see my godfather as well and potentially another distant cousin.  Oh yeah, my dervish father is down here with us and will be tagging along to the next stop.

Then it's off to Orlando to see friends. We'll be skipping Disney but may do something else before racing back to the snow and my first wife - who we won't have seen for two full weeks by the time we get home.

Here's what the packed car looked like on the way down:

Can you read the stupid bumper sticker on the back of my car?  Click to enlarge the image.

We inherited it and I don't like it at all. People these days are always beeping their horn at me and giving me *thumbs up*.

Of course my kids are most certainly not *in school* so it's patently false, plus I give them C's.  And Congress together with Big Government are truly what ails this nation more than any convenient, contemporary bogeyman.

Just to be obtuse I holler back at these simpleton dittoheads, "It's from the Bush years!"

Look What I Caught!

I told y'all I would not be denied!

I hooked that ladyfish(?) on a live shrimp this afternoon off our condo's dock. Pretty big, eh?

Well, the pic exaggerates the actual size.  Was a nice little fight anyway.

Was out all night, by myself, at a *singles* bar - Pelican Larry's.

My father flew in, albeit delayed a day on account of SNOW, to watch my brood. He spoils them and they take complete and absolute advantage of him....so it's fair.

Not for nuthing, but there'a a lot of fun blonde girls out in Florida...

Wow! - Edified By A Child

The kid is only 11 years old.

Surpassed By The Son!

Sometime this week, my 6.19 year old homeschooled son's blog - The Youngest Blogger - passed my little golf blog in terms of total hits! (around 6,700)

Of course Marginalizing Hackers has been a casualty of priorities. Believe me, I'd love to be able to spend more time on developing that - I love golf that much and there aren't ANY good golf blogs out there - that I know of.

Unfortunately I think in the not too distant future this blog might suffer a similar fate. There are just too many people out there making money online for me to not give it a real go. I foresee soon becoming totally consumed by my incipient commercial, educational website.

And, of course, the Prince (and the Princess!) will be a focal point of that endeavor. Hopefully I can even put his butt to work on it!

Bridging The Cultural Divide

Check out this cool wedding video of a South Philly jabroni - it picks up after the 2:00 mark:



While not exactly the stereotypical *South Philly* wedding....it looked like a whole lot of fun nonetheless. Instead of the Mummers' Strut they did the Indian Mummy Strut or something and had a blast. Why wasn't I invited?!

And yeah, that fat groom, he is the 6th ranked pool player in Pennsylvania whose butt I whipped two years ago.

Get this...

Earlier this month I sicked him on the 4-Hour Body and he gleefully reported to me that in only 2 weeks on Tim Ferriss' diet, he's already shed 17 lbs!

Not for anything, but I should really pimp myself out as one of those high-priced *life coaches*...

Water-Fetching Kids

A couple of weeks ago I got home (back to the condo rental) with a carload of groceries.

I actually got my kids to help me carry stuff up the flight of stairs, multiple trips of *help* at that.

I can't tell y'all how great that felt. For years (6=!) I've been responsible for EVERY SINGLE ITEM THAT NEEDED TO BE TOTED TO AND FROM: the diaper bag, cooler, library books, wet paint artwork, half-consumed drinks, wet towels, sleeping kids, baby carriers, shopping bags, etc. I only have 5 freakin' arms!

They're still kinda small - they can't open the heavy, sticky doors yet. They aren't aware or obedient enough to avoid puddles, ice, and mud before walking into my immaculate house. They aren't trustworthy enough to open car doors (my son, on his Mom's watch, dinged a BMW or something!)....and heck, my daughter can't even unbuckle her car-seat belt completely yet.

Most of y'all have *corporate* BS to deal with (diversity training, boss a$$-kissing, dress standards, contemptible colleagues...), well, this type domestic tedium has been my personal analogue.

Henceforth I'm very much looking forward to only carrying a *fraction* of the groceries in.

And I can't wait until they can make their own beds, do their own laundry, and prepare their own meals!

I know the kids' road to self-sufficiency is brutally long and slow...

BUT I started them early. The following clip of the Prince is from 4.25 years ago:

Why Was I Riding The Bus?

Some 'old coot' I know via golf proudly told me recently how many *broads he used to get*.

He informed me that he rode a bike (Harley?) and was in a *gang*.

Yeah, so what?

He told me that he used to ride down the streets of Philadelphia and women would flag him down, and jump on back.

Really?

OldCootBiker - Because girls love guys who ride motorcycles...

CaptiousNut - Why???

He was looking at me now - like I was a Moron!

OldCootBiker - I don't know but they always have. Not for anything I was a good looking guy back then too. (Then he mentioned something forgettable about how his *hair* used to be way back when)....Heck our gang found an abandoned building over by the Museum....we threw a bunch of old mattresses in it and used to bring the girls there.

Now when I was younger and more Captious I used to mock and call BS on these types of chest-thumping 'old coot' reminiscences all the time.

But as I'm getting less new myself I've developed a more understanding, a more sympathetic attitude.

As my wife and I love to say, "Let them remember it they way they want to remember it!"

Marginalize The Watermarkers, Too!

This week Google was in the news with a headline about them beginning to crack down on content farms.

I had thought they were already doing that?

Anyways, I have some advice for Google's search algorithm tweakers:

GET RID OF THE WATERMARKED, FOR-SALE IMAGES ATOP THE IMAGE SEARCH RESULTS.

iStockPhoto, Corbis, et al....these image-renters have no business showing up in generic search results.

Rightfully they ought to be placed in a separate category.

NO ONE, no individual, is going to pay $129 or $300 or $400 for that pic above. Perhaps some media company will, so let them transact with each other directly, no?

They definitely ought to boot these *content farms* from the top pages of Google search results.

Screed, over.

Who's Homeschooling Whom?

My buddy, the one who traffics in Naples Real Estate, came over the other night and taught me how to play backgammon - at least the basics.

It was one of these things that came up because, in the course of homeschooling my children I'm continually on the prowl for new games (of skill) for them to enjoy and learn from. We've already been all over a bunch of good ones: Bananagrams, Chess, Boggle,..., and the latest I bought was Qwirkle.

I had never really thought that the 5,000 year old game of backgammon was a *game of skill* - even though I hadn't played it more than once or twice as a child. It struck me as a poker-like game where superior skill manifested itself only *in the long run*. Yawn! For the record, I'm not at all a fan of poker. The game just moves too slowly for me.

But after my night of backgammon instruction, I became sort of intrigued by the game. I'm definitely going to introduce it to my kids. Heck, they've been pleading with me all week to teach them how to play - ever since I bought a $4 board from Toys R'Us.

Oh, how much I've already learned from learning them!

See also - Homeschooling - Collateral Education.

McNugget De-Boner

Reading the ingredients on a frozen pizza last night I came across, for the first time, *mechanically separated chicken*.

Say what? That has to be disclosed?

I had already presumed the entire process of processing meat was done by non-humans, didn't you?

Pretty gross, eh - seeing how the sausage is made, so to speak?

That's Why It's Called Fishing, And Not "Catching"!

The condo we rented this month down in Naples is actually on the water - on Vanderbilt Lagoon to be precise.

The owner left a fishing rod in the unit and told me I was welcome to use it. (Someone gave it to him and he's not a fisherman.)

Now I fished a lot as a kid - but only on lakes, ponds, and streams up in the Northeast. I basically had, and have, no idea how to fish in the ocean least of all down in Florida.

Anyways I started asking around here how I should fish off the dock that's only 50 paces away and was told to get live shrimp, hook them through the tail, and cast out a weighted line. Allegedly there're snook and sheppardfish(?) in the lagoon alongside the occasional manatee, occasional alligator, stingrays, dolphins, and sharks.

Busy all month, I finally got around to getting some bait yesterday.

On my first cast, it felt like some small fish stole my bait.

On my second go around, eventually my line got hit by something BIG - so I thought - because the line snapped instantly. I'd never felt anything like that before on the end of my rod (fishing).

I put another hook on and continued for another hour without any luck whatsoever. In fact it got annoying because the birds were fearlessly and doggedly attacking my line when the bait hit the water. I once hooked a duckling back when I was a kid and the mayhem that ensued (the mother was there with about 8 other baby ducks) all but traumatized me. Let me just say that these sea gulls and whatever the other birds are down in Naples are as aggressive as sh*t. I've seen them pull a half-dozen sandwiches RIGHT OUT OF PEOPLE'S HANDS on the beach this month already.

Anyways, eventually I got another hit. Again the line broke and I was getting close to my last hook.

The next time I got a hit, I didn't try to hook the thing at all. My kids were right next to me and we watched the line get taken out hard. A beautiful fish about 20 inches long jumped straight out of the water and snapped the line yet again, loudly to boot.

After some more research I'm convinced that it was a ladyfish I had on there.

It must have been old fishing line or something. I had no idea that fishing line got brittle like that over time. Does it?

Hit Wal-Mart last night for some more hooks and new 20 lb. test fishing line ($2.50!)....and I'm all geeked up to reel one of those suckers in before I have to leave on Monday. Freshwater fishermen in Central Massachusetts RARELY catch anything that big.

No luck today. The guy at the local bait shop didn't have live shrimp ("they die....I get too many complaints") and he convinced me to try a lure with a piece of frozen shrimp on the end. It was incredibly windy out there today AND I was having major *snag* issues. Despite fishing my entire youth, I discovered today (via Google) that I actually had no idea how to properly spool a spinning reel.

Two days ago, on Vanderbilt Beach, I watched some guy fishing hook something LARGE. His rod was bent into a U-shape and it kept taking out line. I ran over and grabbed my camera only to watch him struggle for 30 minutes, along with a good-sized crowd, before having his line snapped!

The dude said it had to be a stingray, the way it was able to keep from surfacing.

Masterful, laser-targeted marketing in that clip above, no?

I'm Shocked! - One Of These Guys *Lied*

An online marketer/affiliate skimmer just came clean about his professed income and *4-Hour Workweek*. See - I'm Sorry I Lied.

For sure it'd be easy to rip this guy - after all he still has all sorts of *commercial intent* on his website.

But he should probably instead be praised for at least righting his wrong.

I actually just came across him for the first time the other day and via this *apology*. Some of the stuff he does I actually found rather interesting.

HOWEVER the last thing I was going to do was subscribe to his feed, not now....maybe in a year or so. Admire his gumption to come clean so publicly, yes. But he has to at least be put on *time out* for a year or so, no?

As a rule I don't completely believe ANY of these clowns - not even my boy Tim Ferriss. They ALL lie....polish the truth.

It's quite frankly naive to expect earthlings - who've been programmed to lie TO THEMSELVES - to always be completely honest.

Rush Limbaugh - Fat & Lazy?

So Rush Limbaugh is on Golf Channel these days. He's world class instructor Hank Haney's latest *project*. Watch the preview clip.

I caught about 10 seconds of it the other night...

Hank said he was having trouble trying to get Rush to do some *exercise*. Hank wanted Rush to spend some time at the driving range beating balls but it was wearing Limbaugh out.

Rush not only asserted that he never goes to the driving range, EVER, but also that supposedly *never exercises*.

Say what?!

NEVER EXERCISES?

I don't care what anyone else might think - in my book only a complete Moron would *never exercise*.

Years ago I once heard Limbaugh pontificating on the radio about weight loss. He, fresh off (temporarily) losing a few lbs. was asserting that *diet* was the only way to lose weight; that one couldn't exercise enough to burn the necessary calories.

Over the years I'd say he's hardly the first overweight person I've heard promulgate that BS.

Fat AND lazy....a lethal, self-perpetuating combo!

Chew On This!

From TextsFromLastNight.com:

Hah!

You know, some years ago, back when I was an incorrigible, fun-as-all-heck bachelor I was involved in a similar situation.

You see back in college I developed the habit of *nasal mining* while sitting on the toilet - for a lot of solid reasons. For one thing, after leaving my all-male high school I was now among women it wouldn't profit me to be seen cleaning out my nostrils in public.

For another thing, my roommate and I started sort of a contest - if memory serves me. I used the third stall and he used the fourth one....and we vied for the mantle of the *most boogies stuck to the wall* by the end of the semester or something. I dominated but that was beside the point.

This (arguably gross) habit of mine followed me to my off-campus apartment and lasted beyond my Ivy League graduation. In my abode on 20th and South Street (Philadelphia), I continued the practice of picking and wiping on the wall right in front of my toilet. After being in that bachelor pad for 3+ years I had amassed quite a collection on my bathroom wall. And, not for anything, you'd need a chisel to scrape them off, seriously.

It was at this time that my future first wife came into the picture.

She claims, albeit with ZERO corroborating testimony or evidence(!), that one day she was using my bathroom, saw my petrified boogie wall, bolted out of my place as fast as she could, and agonized over why she should or could EVER have ANYTHING to do with such an allegedly sick individual again.

And look, in the end it worked out great for me and my first wife, no?

All I'm saying is that guy shouldn't shouldn't make any rash decisions about the toenail chewing chick.

And you ladies...

Y'all shouldn't rule out this guy either

Sorry.

Click the link above. He says he actually gets *hate mail* because of his nail collection/chewing!

Wintertime Levity Dose

4-Hour Body Chronicles - Popeye

So far, this is what I've begun to incorporate from The 4-Hour Body:

• I've bought a kettlebell - although I didn't bring it down to Florida.
• I've started doing those *cat vomit* ab exercises.
• I've started doing the *supine progressive groin stretch* regularly.
• I've procured the Total Immersion book and swimming video.
• Spinach.

That's right, I've starting eating piles of spinach.

Ferriss raves about it in his book for specific reasons I can't exactly remember. It's a good, if not the best, *leafy green* or whatever. His wording was *Popeye had it right*...

Now when I normally buy spinach, I buy that prewashed bag that is $4 and shrivels down to about 5 mouthfuls. So there was no way I would ever eat the piles of spinach that he recommends.

EXCEPT he said to try *frozen spinach*.

Aha!

Huge (1 lb) bags here at Publix are only $1.78.

I have been eating them a half a bag at a time for the past couple of weeks. All I do is put it in a bowl with a spoonful or two of water and microwave it for 4 minutes and 44 seconds and it's done - albeit in need of some salt and pepper. It actually tastes pretty good!

Importantly, the frozen spinach tack has impressed my wife too. So I've probably paid for the book already in spinach savings!

Oh yeah, Ferriss is also big on *eggs*, often but not necessarily hard-boiled. He's adamantly unafraid of *cholesterol*.

See also - Book Summary - The 4-Hour Body.

Homeschooling - Enabling Concentrated Study

Even though we're having a blast down in Florida....the kids are still doing their daily *work*.

I would say that for the first 1.5 years (age 3 5/8 to 5 1/8) my son was primarily focused on math and reading.

But since we hit algebra so fast I've really cooled it with the math - almost to the point of doing nothing. So for just about the past 12 months the Prince has been primarily reading.

Let's just say I think it paid off.

Recall that four months ago I co-read the first Harry Potter book with him. Actually, I did essentially all of the reading (and explaining). See - Marginalizing A Gay Wizard Kid.

Well I wasn't going to read another one of those inane books. So we took the *audiobook* route instead. The Prince listened to Harry Potter books 2-6 while he played with his LEGOS, before he went to bed at night, and often when he got up in the morning. After he finished each audiobook I usually went out and borrowed the DVD from the library and let him watch the motion picture. Note he did not *read along* with these audiobooks as he did with many other ones - particularly when he was learning to read.

Ten days ago we were at Walmart down here in Naples and he grabbed the 7th and final Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - off the shelf. So for a mere $8.95 we bought it.

Guess what, this one he read, all on his own, all 749 pages, in 1.5 weeks!

They say the *read alone* age of that one is around 12 so the 6.17 year old is roughly 5-6 years/grade levels advanced on the reading front. And, BTW, that's just on pure ability level, in terms of volume or prolificacy our son is probably in a whole other league. (Since we left for Florida 20 days ago, he's probably read 1300 pages in other books additional to this one!)

So 1 year plus of focusing on math launched him 6-7 grade levels...

And it looks like 1 year of furious reading also launched him about as many *grade levels*.

What does this mean? Or what does this show?

I submit that if anything it demonstrates the sheer, unmatched power of concentrated study.

Here he is one recent morning, with a cleaner nose:

It was probably 7:30am or so and he did, well, just what he does on many mornings these days.

He stumbled out of bed, blanket in tow, and cracked open his book.

For his father (and mother) this is such an unbelievable sight to behold - there's no hunger complaints, crankiness, or pleas to watch the color TV. And there's no parental yelling, hurrying or scurrying to catch a jail bus...

I was moved, as I so often am on our glorious homeschooling journey, to capture the moment with a picture.

Swimming With Sharks?

I met a contractor guy the other day down here in Naples, Florida.

He told me that he'd never go swimming in the ocean around these parts.

Why is that?

Because when he does jobs on these oceanfront high rises...

He said he can see the sharks in the water. He said countless times he's seen them (and stingrays) approach people in *knee deep* water, bearing down on them very fast, before turning away right when they get near.

He said he witnessed this the most from atop the Biltmore which is a stone's throw from here and right on Vanderbilt Beach - where me and the kids go swimming!

Attacked By Dumb, Yet Confident, Children

A bunch of dumb kids are descending on an old blog post of mine - Manhasset, NY - Bloated, Underperfoming Schools.

Check out the comments. It almost seems the toddlers, with their well-articulated illiteracy, are intent on proving my point!

Marginalized Miami Gringos

I hate to generalize off so small a sample set...

But after 3 days here in Miami I can't help but agree with Big Mack's *Miami is a toilet* declaration at least on one level.

The Hispanics here can be rude as *$hit*.

At first I thought that it may have just been a *poor customer service* situation. After all, outside of my haunts of NYC and Philly my wife and I consider just about every place we've ever been to to be have terrible (rude!) customer service. Heck, no place has more ornery or more ungrateful servers and cashiers than Boston.

EXCEPT, at least those SOBs are rude to you in English!

Our last night at the otherwise beautiful Bayside Marketplace was the capper.

My wife waited at the counter of some EMPTY burger joint for FIVE FULL MINUTES without any acknowledgement by the staff - before walking away.

I sat down at some Latin American place and was greeted with about the rudest waitress imaginable. She didn't say a single word to me; didn't make eye contact or smile; didn't acknowledge what I ordered; in fact she didn't even turn her body toward me.

Yet I tried not to take it personally. I sat there, eating a sandwich DIFFERENT from the one I actually ordered and waxed philosophical. I thought perhaps she's just rude to everyone. ¿No?

Not a second later four people sat down next to me. This same wench went over and greeted them with a warm *HOLA* and proceeded to tick off the list of today's specials IN SPANISH. They had specials? I had no idea.

Aha! A gringo-phobe!

A few minutes later my wife came over, grumbling about the burger joint. I told her I too was suffering from poor service. Then the waitress wench came by - no not to my table - to the adjacent one. She asked her amigos how their food was, if everything was bueno, etc.

My wife, with a sheepish grin, asked me if the wench had come by and asked me the same questions. She most certainly did not!

So I ordered a Cuban sandwich ($8.50) and a Coke Classic ($2.55)...

Eager to get out of there and unburden my haters, I threw a $20 bill at the wench.

She came back with a little over $4 in change.

Say what?

My food tab was $11.05 so to get a total over $15 my rapid math skills told me that 36% (4/11ths) had to be added to it. I don't know what the taxes are in Miami and I do know that they often *include the tip* in la cuenta but no combination (both 18%?) could have jacked the bill up that much - I didn't think.

Miffed, I complained. The wench brought over the bill. She had upgraded me from the Cuban Sandwich to the *Cuban Sandwich Especial*. And she had charged me $2.95 for a Coke Classic that was advertised as $2.50 on the menu. (The included tip was 15%.)

I couldn't take it any longer (especially over $2) and bolted right out of there.

On our way out we stopped at one of those tourist attraction booths and inquired about possibly going on a family boat trip the next day. But this guy was a jerk too. He couldn't get rid of us fast enough, apparently so he could continue his bilingual conversation with someone else nearby - someone who didn't exactly looked poised to spend $80 the next day on an overpriced sightseeing tour either.

Except for perhaps the band playing, we hadn't heard more than 2 or 3 people all night there speaking English!

At the last stop before we mercifully left the hostile environment, I hit a newsstand to buy some bottled water and a candy bar before we got back to the *minibar ripoff* at our hotel.

I stood there, completely ignored, probably the only customer this guy had had in the last hour. Eventually he looked at me, took one step in my direction....before turning away to answer his cell teléfono!

At this point I was about to throw the Twix in my hand right at his bleepin' cabeza!!!

So what does a gringo have to do here? Stay home and cook? Limit themselves to the Olive Garden?

I don't know.

It's beautiful enough that there has to be a way avoid these tontos feos...

Tim Ferriss-Mania!

Sitting at the pool yesterday afternoon, topless, atop the beautiful Icon At Brickell here in Miami, I espied some dude (also topless) reading a coverless tome. Was he merely preserving the cover of his book?  Or perhaps was he hiding his reading material?

Anyways I instantly recognized the book. It was Tim Ferriss' - 4-Hour Body. (For my summary - click here.)

I mean the book is already a juggernaut. Personally I've incorporated a few things from it with tremendous success - stuff I'll discuss in a separate post.

But if you go and read Tim's blog and check out the comments you'll see that, in the mere month since the book release, he's persuaded/motivated untold numbers of people to completely alter their diet and exercise regimens.

The results?

Well, some people are all geeked up about losing 8-10 lbs...

And some others are waxing ornery. There are several people who claim they've adhered to his brutally bland no carb, no fruit, no sugar diet and haven't lost a single pound!

Hahahhahhahaha!

Sorry, but it's funny.

One guy in particular said that both he and his life partner went on the diet; that NEITHER of them has lost weight; that both of them have lost their *libido*; and that, as to be expected, crankiness is in the air!

Anyways eventually I chatted up the dude at the pool to get his thoughts on the book. But get this - lo and behold, only 1 minute into our dialogue and another topless guy next to us held up what he was reading, Tim Ferriss' other book - The 4-Hour Workweek! (For my summary - click here.)

Like him or not, one has to admit that Tim Ferriss is a bit of a demigod at the moment.

You haters will appreciate this.

Money, Money, Money

This is pretty interesting...

...even though the dude COULD NOT be more annoying!

And even though, *wealth* can only be arbitrarily measured - at best.

Will Durant would also interject:

"The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations."

Finally In Miami

Drove across from Naples yesterday...

We're staying at the Viceroy Hotel in the downtown area.

That's the pool(s) atop the building.

It's pretty lavish here. Will update later.

Distance Breeds.....?

My first wife finally made it to Naples - she rented a car and drove over from Miami today.

I hadn't seen her in 12 full days - the longest stretch I'll bet in the 12.5 years since we started dating!

So it was her first real vacation from me in ages....I'm sure IT was enjoyable.

I believe the space has been very healthy for our marriage. If familiarity breeds contempt then the corollary must hold true, no?

Recall my MIL moved out of the house recently. I am strongly considering *separate bedrooms* for me and my beloved going forward. Everyone who's tried it tells me it's been a blessing to their marriage. As a night owl, I think most importantly it would amp up my productivity a couple notches. I'm doing my best to channel Tim Ferriss here. Don't think for a moment he'd *waste his nighttime* making small talk with a woman over Law & Order...

He most certainly would not!

Nor would Rush Limbaugh.

Of course Rush is well past his first wife...

And Tim Ferriss is still thoroughly single into his mid-30s!

Jake O'Donnell - My BET For The Worst Referee In NBA History

That's one Jake O'Donnell one of the most experienced NBA refs in league history.

Us Boston Celtic fans certainly know him well. He was outrageously biased against the *green and white*, for decades! If you don't believe me just ask Tommy Heinsohn.

Every time he'd show up in Boston the point spread would freakin' narrow. And fans all over Boston Garden would continually ask/beg him, "Jake, when are you going to retire?"

So I'm out at a restaurant tonight passing the 45 minutes we have to wait for a table.

And I start talking to an 'old coot' in Philly attire. No, it wasn't an outfit of denim shorts, Fila sneakers, and a black tee shirt with a 14k chain on top of it....the guy was decked out in old Philadelphia Eagles threads (from the Randall era!) - yeah, a week after their season ended so ignominiously.

Anyways the guy told me he knows Jake O'Donnell well...

AND that Jake, an NBA referee, used to consort with a huge, well-known bookie, ALL THE TIME.

The guy's name was Mike Darmeni (spelling?).

According to my source, Jake didn't just say hello to this guy on the corner stoop. No, he was so tight with this bookie that he even publicly played golf tournaments with him. (Some 2-man event at Llanerch CC was booked as evidence.)

Recall that the NBA endured more than a little bit of a *scandal* a few years ago over the gambling exploits of referee Tim Donaghy.

And in searching for *jake odonnell* I came across a recent article where he comes out of retirement and sanctimoniously criticizes other ref's for appearances of impropriety!

Do I think Jake was betting on NBA games?

No idea.

But I do know from experience that these Philly guys bet on everything, all the time. Heck, when I was in Philly I saw guys betting on how many blocks Mutombo would have in a game, what week of the NFL season Steve Young would suffer his first concussion, and even on the total annual snow accumulation at the Philadelphia International Airport (betting started in September!). And there's probably 11 year olds in South Philly government schools taking bets!

If Jake O'Donnell wasn't betting on the games he was refereeing I'll wager he was at least betting on other stuff.

And he was no doubt taking out the agony of his losses on the Boston Celtics!