I am not adopted.

This is something I have always been sure of, and is something I am still reminded of everytime I return home to Philadelphia to visit my family.

There was the Thanksgiving Eagles cheer last November, and the sign my parents held up at my high school graduation which read GO FLYERS and had the word "Flyers" scribbled out and replaced with "Meredith," as the Flyers had been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Finals just days earlier. There have been dozens of situations where I've realized, all at once, that not only is my family legitimately insane, but that I've never been so proud of my familial relations.

Still, sometimes my family finds new ways to surprise me.

I grew up an only child. With no siblings around to play with, I ended up spending loads of time with my four first cousins who all lived within 2-10 miles of the house I grew up in. Three of those four cousins are boys who are all a few years younger than me; the fourth is a girl exactly 2 months my junior. The only girls in the family, we were like sisters. We had a joint Bat Mitzvah, countless sleepovers and games of Uno, and summers full of lazy days spent at the Jersey shore. We each went away to college, graduated from college, moved out on our own, fell in love, and got our first adult jobs, and with all of that movement, we spoke a little less frequently. But family is family, blood is blood, and those sisterly feelings have never completely gone away.

This past weekend I went to Philadelphia for my cousin's wedding. Her fiance and she are a perfect match, and I couldn't wait to see them enter into a new part of their lives together. The wedding was on the top floor of one of the nicest hotels in Philadelphia. The entire affair was super classy: black tie attire, sushi during the cocktail hour that occured between the ceremomny and reception, four course meal, the works. At around 9pm, after the traditional Jewish ceremony and cocktail hour, we made our way down to the reception. After the salad and lemon sorbet palate cleanser, my uncle (father of the bride) approached the microphone at the front of the room to make a short toast and recite the Hamotzi (Jewish prayer over bread). I followed by reciting the Kiddush (Jewish prayer over wine), and shortly after I finished, my uncle walked back to the microphone and announced that he wanted to introduce a special guest.

"Julie has looked up to this person since she was young. Sometimes she likes him, or, depending on the circumstance, sometimes those feelings might be a little bit more bitter. Either way, this person has played a big role in her life since she was a little girl."

As confused glances were traded across the room, the band picked up their instruments and began to play the first notes of a song everyone in the room instantly identified.

"Fly, Eagles, Fly...on the road to victory..."

With that, Super Swoop, the giant inflatable Eagles mascot, came bounding out of a hidden back room and escorted my cousin to the dancefloor. For a full five minutes, the entire wedding danced to the tune of "Fly Eagles Fly" as Super Swoop worked the crowd and danced his way across the floor. When it came time for the final verse, we all, in our tuxedos and black dresses, sang along, and raised our fists to the sky as we cheered "E-A-G-L-E-S---EAGLES!"

I don't know if it was the joyous mood of the event, the free-flowing wine I had already enjoyed more than my share of, or the amazing reminder of my family's sheer insanity, but that night, as I sat down to enjoy my dinner and watched a beautiful bride hug a giant inflatable bird, I have never loved my family more.

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Picture proof of my family's insanity:


Swoop coming over to greet the bride and groom


Swoop and the bride dancing the night away

I've always thought it was funny how people regard taste. When someone likes the same things we do, we say that they have "good taste." If someone likes things we dislike, he or she is said to have "bad taste." It's egotistical, sure, but we all do it. Everyone feels that they are blessed with exceptional taste, and life is just a mission to find people who feel the same way about those books, songs, and movies as we do.

Here's the part where you think how lucky you were to have found me. Here are some things you should like because I said so and, well, I have exceptional taste.

*40 Year Old Virgin - I know, the trailer and commercials were beyond awful. But here's the thing: those are the only parts of the movie that are appropriate for underage audiences. Steve Carell's delivery is brilliant and Paul Rudd is hot. Go see it. Twice.

*It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FX is like the youngest sister who endured years of teasing resulting from her bad perms, braces, and that unfortunate diving board incident at summer camp but grew up to be smoking hot. It's Always Sunny is the channel's newest comedy and it's clear that the show's creators, who are also the show's stars, were influenced by Fox's cult favorite, Arrested Development. Shot with a single camera, the show generates big laughs around such themes as abortion, homophobia, and racism. Only a handful of episodes into the season, it's already worth a spot on the TIVO Season Pass list.

*The trailer for The Baxter - Forgetting, for a moment, how truly unfunny Stella is, there is no way The Baxter can be bad. The guys who gave us Wet Hot American Summer and the State, plus Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Williams...the list goes on. Oh, and did I mention - Michael Ian Black in manties?

*My fantasy football team - No, you can't watch them play on Sundays, but just knowing a team like this is out there is enough. I mean, LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander, Randy Moss, Brian Westbrook, Anquan Boldin, Roy Williams, Jason Witten, Drew Brees...fantasy football teams everywhere shudder at the thought.

*The Decemberists - Picaresque. No, it's not new. Yes, it's still just as amazing as the first time I heard it.

*Tazo Iced Chai Tea Latte - It's like jumping into a cold pool on a 100 degree day. And eating pumpkin pie. At the same time. Only better.

*Cleveland Indians - Quite simply: If they win the Wild Card, the Yankees don't.

*This, from the newest Gammons article, which is sure to disappoint those who assumed that because his guilt was assumed on a random message board, it must have been true:
The McCarthy-esque rumor-mongering about players on the Internet -- and in some media outlets -- that speculates about positive steroids tests has gotten to a dangerous, insidious point. Johnny Damon actually addressed his rumors, which was the equivalent of him having to announce he is not a member of Al-Qaeda.

*Miami Ink - An hour a week that TLC has devoted to a behind the scenes look at the tattoo world's best artists. Just like tattoos, it's addicting.

*Dhani Jones, everyone's favorite bow-tie wearin' Eagle, who is apparently hosting a show called Timeless on ESPN 2. How did I not know this? (Thanks to Tom G. for the link)

*The 12 disc box set of 2004's ALCS and World Series. The Steal. Johnny's Grand Slam. A-Rod's Hamburger Helper Slap. Tom Gordon vs Trot Nixon in Game 5. Mariano Rivera vs Bill Mueller in Game 4. It's all there, and it's just as wonderful as it was the first time.

The blog has been fixed and is better than ever (or, at least, just as mediocre), and it couldn't have happened at a better time. The Sass-a-thon Sports World (on a map, that's somewhere between Philly and Boston) is as happy a place as it has ever been, and like a true Philly native, I'm enjoying it the only way I know how: with lots of beer, smiles, trashtalking, and the knowledge that it probably won't last long.

The Boston Red Sox are in first place in the middle of August with the third best record in baseball, the Yankees are 1.5 games behind Oakland for the Wild Card, and in the time it took me to write this sentence, David Ortiz hit another clutch homerun. Sure, our bullpen is in shambles and our starting pitching is far from as dominant as last season, but the fact remains: the Sox are in first and the Yankees' playoff hopes rest firmly on the back of their one healthy pitcher, Jared Wright.

Hockey, my true passion, is back and the Flyers are, on paper, the favorite to skate with the Cup. I know, I know...we've been there before. The Eric Lindros Era was supposed to being a series of parades to Broad Street, and the Legion of Doom and Crazy 8's lines were supposed to end the drought. But this time is different. The Flyers improved their blueline with the signings of Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje. A few days later they shocked the hockey world with the signing of Peter Forsberg, answering the question that has tortured Flyers fans for the last 13 years: "What would Peter Forsberg have looked like in a Flyers jersey?"

In 1992, the Flyers traded Forsberg, whom they had selected with the 6th pick in 1991, to the Quebec Nordiques for 19 year-old phenom Eric Lindros. The Nordiques moved to Denver, became the Avalanche, and won two Stanley Cups behind the leadership of Forsberg; the Flyers, on the other hand, made just one appearance in the Cup finals, only to be swept in 4 games by the Detroit Red Wings.

Now, as Forsberg speaks publicly about his excitement to finally join the Flyers, Philly's hockey fans (named #1 in the country by the Sporting News, by the way) can hardly contain their excitement. The team also had a large number of players in need of resigning after last year's lockout, the most significant being goaltender Robert Esche, who won the starting job convincingly last season and got the Flyers within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Esche would have earned a paltry $775,000 last season and because of the rollback, was only set to earn $647,900 this season. But in a show of respect and class, Clarke tore up Esche's old contract and gave him a new deal that would pay him $2 over 2 years.

It has been said many times that given the league's new CBA and salary cap, the team with the smartest GM will be the team to win it all. With Bob Clarke at the helm, the Flyers appear to be in good shape.

On August 11, the Sixers signed 23 year-old free agent Steven Hunter to a 5-year deal worth $16.5 million. Reports are that he will back up Samuel Dalembert at center and Chris Webber at power forward. Earlier this summer, they resigned Andre Igudala, Kyle Korver, and Dalembert, and they've already got Webber and Allen Iverson tied up. Unfortunately, free agent guard Willie Green received word that he will be out 6-9 months following his knee surgery last week. He was injured just days before signing a $20 million deal. Still, consider the fact that Mo Cheeks has finally been named the Sixers Head Coach after what seems like years of speculation and anticipation, and it's hard not to be excited about the upcoming basketball season.

And then there are the Eagles. Donovan McNabb threw a number of solid passes in the team's first preseason game, Jevon Kearse looks even faster than last year, and Jon Runyun quietly took a pay cut to stay in Philly. Of course, those are all back page stories these days in Philly.

The Terrell Owens saga has given me a headache the size of Dhani Jones' bowtie collection, and I should be smart enough to know that no matter what, TO is always going to get the last word. So when I heard that he showed up at the NovaCare Center this morning and practiced with the Birds with a smile on his face, I should have been cautiously optimistic. Instead, my Eagles Fever got the best of me, and I started planning my February trip to Detroit. Forty minutes later, word out of Philly was that things were not be as jovial as they seemed, and that TO was planning to read a statement meant to "humiliate the Eagles organization." Things are now being called "calm" at practice, but that doesn't mean I'm taking my eye of the ESPN NEWS ticker. And so, it's with tired heads and battered hearts that Eagles fans head into football season, aware that the fate of our team is on the shoulders of a guy in desperate need of some Midol.

My mind is officially blown.

Forsberg is a Flyer once again


(Also, yes, my blog is currently on hiatus. The comments are disabled while the server that hosts my blog is being upgraded. All will return to normal shortly, I hope.)

As usual, Bill Simmons said it best. The Red Sox came through like champs at the trade deadline, trading unhappy Manny for happy manny. Turning point? You bet.

6'5", 235.

Those are the magic numbers.

With the NHL Free Agent season just one day old, the Flyers have called a press conference for 1pm (EST) to announce a handful of free agent signings sure to strengthen their blue line. Former Dallas Star and Detroit Red Wing Derian Hatcher and former San Jose Shark Mike Rathje have both been signed to multiyear deals. They also welcomed back longtime Flyer Chris Therien, who they had sent to Dallas during the 03-04 season.

All three defenders measure 6'5" and weigh in at 235 pounds. If Hatcher can stay healthy and avoid any serious knee injuries like the one that kept him out of all but 15 games in 03-04, the Flyers will find themselves with the hard-hitting blue line they have lacked in recent years.

However, one can't help but notice the absence of a name that has been high on the wishlists of Philly fans in recent weeks. According to Canada's TSN, Bob Clarke never seriously explored the option of bringing disgruntled Devil Scott Niedermayer to the Flyers.

Kevin Epp, the agent for free agent defenseman Scott Niedermayer, says he's disappointed the Flyers have not called. It's believed Niedermayer's reported $7-million asking price was just too high for Clarke.

The next paragraph in the same article:

Clarke has reportedly budgeted $6.5-million to try and shore up the Flyers glaring need for a big defenseman.

Half a million dollars is the difference between bringing in Scott Niedermayer and the Hatcher/Therien/Rathje combination? Until the Flyers hold their press conference, we won't know what the actual contract details are. Did Hatcher and Rathje really come that cheap?

Assuming they did, sure, three defenseman are better than one, especially given the Flyers' recent lack of depth at the blue line. But this is Scott Niedermayer we're talking about. He's a young defenseman at 31, he's healthy, and he's an unbelievable talent when it comes to taking the puck up the ice, something the Flyers have always lacked. Given the new style of play sure to result from the lack of a red line, Niedermayer becomes that much more valuable. And Clarke didn't even talk to his agent?

Perhaps the Flyers are confident in Kim Johnsson's growth over the last couple of years. Perhaps the sheer volume of injuries to the Flyers' defense corps during their 03-04 playoff run scared Clarke into signing as many guys as he could. But not making an effort to talk to the most impressive free agent defenseman on the market? Time will tell, but I sure hope that doesn't come to be one of Clarkie's biggest regrets.

Another interesting note is that Jeremy Roenick and Derian Hatcher have a bit of bad blood between them dating back to Roenick's time with the Phoenix Coyotes. The two have traded numerous vicious hits and in 1999, Hatcher served a 7-game suspension for breaking Roenick's jaw. As these things often do in sports, this will probably work itself out and the two will end up being close friends. Still, it's something to keep an eye on.

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In other Philly-related news, the Sixers have locked up Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver, and Willie Green with six-year deals. According to the Inky, "Dalembert's is thought to be worth $58 million, Korver's $27 million and Green's $20 million."

There is also word that GM Billy King is in talks with free agent Christian Laettner. However, I'm choosing to ignore said rumors in order to prevent my head from exploding.

I can see it now. "Allen, we'd like to introduce you to your newest, whitest, stiffest teammate, Christian Laettner. We're also thinking of making Shawn Bradley an assistant coach. What do you think?"

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As Eagles training camp gets underway, T.O. is present and Brian Westbrook is not. no one ever said being an Eagles fan was easy.