Shortest Vacation Ever

I flew down to Tampa Florida yesterday and I'm already back home tonight, for my shortest vacation ever. It wasn't a vacation at all of course, I just flew down to help my dad and stepmother transport their two cats and dog to Florida for the winter. We were taken by surprise when we had to open the animal's crates at the airport so security could check them out. I was worried I'd be chasing cats all over Logan airport at that point, but the cats were traumatized enough to just cower instead of trying to flee. Once in Tampa, the journey became a bad episode of The Amazing Race as we got lost four different times trying to get from the airport to their house in Clearwater. Despite living there last winter, their memory of the roads isn't as strong as they believe it to be. My folks have become the elderly people they used to make fun of, but they haven't realized it yet. We also got lost when they tried to bring me to the airport this morning for the flight back to Boston - thankfully the whole trip is already fading away from memory. That is the one benefit of the shortest vacation ever - it wasn't even long enough to leave permanent scars.

Borat Rules!

We saw "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" last night and it really lives up to its hype as being flat out hilarious. I'd seen plenty of Borat on Da Ali G show, and caught plenty of clips or read about most of the things in the movie and I was still laughing hard at every moment. I like it very much.

It is amazing to me that this movie is #1 in the country. I think it makes far more fun of the US than it does Kazakhstan; not to mention the fact that it includes one of the most disturbing, offensive, gut-busting scenes ever - the nude wrestling match between Borat and his producer that continues through the lobby and convention room of a hotel. I was also surprised by how much heart the film had, it is really just a love story. Well, at least a story about a guy looking for "sexy time."

Can't believe the drunken redneck frat boys who pick Borat up while hitchhiking are now suing the filmmakers. They claim that if they'd known this was going to be shown in US theaters they wouldn't have acted like such drunken redneck frat boys. I'm not buying that. Long live Borat!

Damn That Peyton!

Being at last night's Patriots - Colts football game was a very strange experience. Strange to see New England football hero Adam Vinatieri in an Indy uniform and even stranger to see him miss two field goals. Yet it sure was fun cheering after those misses - another thing I never would have predicted I'd do in my lifetime. It was great to see the Patriots' Troy Brown become the Pats all-time leading receiver, but strange to (not) see the phantom taunting penalty called on him. There were lots of strange calls and non-calls last night. I don't know if it made it into the television coverage, but I've never seen Coach Belichick so irate. He was running all over the field to scream at the refs all night it seemed. It was actually the Coach who showed the first sign of a strange night - giving up on his traditional gray sweatshirt and sporting a bright red hoodie instead. The hyped matchup between the NFL's best two quarterbacks never quite materialized as Tom Brady had one of his worst games ever, throwing four interceptions (and garnering me negative 3.33 points in fantasy football!). Despite the loss, it was still a great game to be at. There was a highly charged atmosphere in the stadium and the crowd was loud and lively all night. It was pretty amazing that with how bad our offense played we were still in the game, and down to the last minute I believed in our inevitable comeback. But I've finally got to give some credit to Peyton Manning, he looked fantastic last night. Every time it seemed the Patriots defense had Manning trapped he pulled off an amazing pass. He's certainly proven he can win in Foxboro - we'll just have to wait for the playoffs to see if he can win when it really matters.

The Dynasty Continues

The New England Patriots headed into Minnesota last night for a Monday Night Football matchup against the Vikings. This was supposed to be a tough battle and plenty of people were even picking the surprising Vikings to topple the Pats. But Tom Brady and company picked apart the Viking defense for one of his best games ever, while the Patriots defense just smothered the Vikings, whose only score came on a punt return. The Pats totally dominated this game and looked as good as they ever have. The final score was 31 to 7 and it didn't feel that close. This group of "no-name" receivers is suddenly looking good enough to go all the way to another Super Bowl. I'm already drooling over the next game, Sunday night against Peyton Manning and the Colts - hope we get some early snow at Gillette Stadium this year.

Whalom Park: Rest In Peace

Whalom Park, a small 100 year old amusement park in Lunenburg Ma had its greatest monument, The Flying Comet roller coaster, torn down this week. Though the park has been closed for a few years already, this is finally the closing chapter.

Here's a good story in the Boston Globe on it.

I grew up just a few blocks from Whalom Park in a little section of Leominster called Whalom District and spent many weekends playing skeeball with my dad and going on the roller coaster and Pirates Den over and over as a kid. Each year I looked forward to opening day, that was always Easter weekend and featured hidden egg hunts throughout the park. As I got older, me and my friends had huge collections of string and metal tags that served as the all-day entrance to the park. We would scour the parking lots for discarded tags and ask people leaving the park each day for their bracelets for our collections. If a week went by without me running around Whalom, we must have been out of town. As I got older still it became the site of my first job too. Because it was a service industry you could work the concessions and weekend picnic area at age 13 or 14. That's when I learned never to eat at parks.
The park was the locale of my first adventures being drunk, meeting girls, getting in fights... all the low-end traditions of growing up in central mass. Combined with the nearby Video World arcade and the drive-in --- all the best trappings of a misspent youth were available.
I finally grew out of the place before I was old enough to be a ride operator - one of my dream jobs while a tyke. I also remember seeing the flames in the sky when a big fire hit the outing and storage area in the early 80s. Though I was in high school then and now cynical about what a lame boring park it was, that fire was a very sad thing to see.
From the roller rink, miniature golf, bumper cars, fun house (which seemed to always be blasting Boston or Van Halen), giant slide, turnpike, girls, arcade, beers... man I forgot how much fun I had at Whalom Park.