Brandy, you were a fine girl...so we buried you in a parking lot

You know you are special when you get tributes like this on Youtube...



Maybe that is not a fitting tribute to a 'great' rock band like Looking Glass who produced such hits as 'Brandy' and... So maybe in comparison to other musicians from New Jersey like Bon Jovi and Springstein, Looking Glass comes up a little short. However, they still had more hit singles than I ever will. Though hard to believe, there is one thing interesting about Looking Glass. 'Brandy,' the song butchered by the blonde in the video above was based on the existence of a grave in a parking lot of the AMC Loews Theater found in New Brunswick, NJ.

The grave belongs to Mary Ellis.

She was a spinster and is currently dead and that essentially is what I uncovered about her life via my internet research. In depth research like that is what makes picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com standout from the other blogs currently populating the internet. Mary Ellis may or may not have been waiting for a sea captain return to her for most of her life. According to Looking Glass, Brandy would have made a fine wife so I assume Mary Ellis would have as well. The most interesting fact I found about the poor, unbetrothed woman was the location of her grave, 7 feet above the parking lot of the New Brunswick Loew's Theater where I have seen multiple movies starring Daniel Craig including The Golden Compass and Quantum of Solace. I am pretty sure these facts are not related unless the missing sea captain was named Daniel or Craig or maybe had a first name as a last name.

Considering my propensity for travelling to see random crap, especially graves, how could anyone expect a pic of me in front of this stuff not appear on picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com?

Well, here it is...

Picture with a pseudo-quasi-celebrity...

Celebrity is a bit of a stretch for this photo-op...


Holli the K-Rock Girl pictured below between Gabe, me, and a looming Andreas, is featured on 92.3 K-Rock's website. There are pictures featuring her in a bathing suit and you can learn that her favorite drink is coffee and her she has leftover Chinese in her refrigerator.


But then again, if you look hard enough you can find photos of me in a bathing suit on the internet and I can tell you right now that my favorite drink is beer.


What I really mean to say is, it was a busy weekend and I did not find an interesting place nearby to be featured in picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com so this will have to do. This photo comes from the Waiting Room in Rahway, NJ which can be a very interesting place after a Grilled Chicken Deluxe (think delicious chicken sandwich) and some Sierra Nevada IPA.


I am sure Holli is much more interesting than any old historic landmark anyway.

What's the deal with...

...picsofmefrontinstuff.blogspot.com being on the Upper West Side?

As my stepdad likes to say 'What's up wit dat?'

I never once remember hearing Jerry Seinfeld say that line, but as its my stepdad's impression of him, I'll allow it. Fortunately, Seinfeld fits neatly into this random rant as he lived and set his television show on the Upper West Side and the restaurant Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer frequented is there. I was there too recently, to visit Grant's Tomb which may or may not be more well knwon than Seinfeld. Regardless of the TV shows relative popularity to a memorial to our 18th President, I found myself near the exterior of the restaurant seen in almost every episode of Seinfeld. Called Monk's on the show but Tom's in real life, the eatery can be found near the corner of 112th and Broadway.

View Larger Map

Not long ago, you could find me in the same place.

What's up with that?!

Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?

The answer is no one. No one is buried in Grant's Tomb. US Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are interred in matching sarcophagi in the center of the memorial, but those sarcophagi are on display for anyone near the intersection of 122nd St and Riverside Dr to pop in and see. Here's the view you get of the happy couple not too far from the entrance of their memorial.

Seeing the grand spectcle that is Grant's tomb struck me as odd considering how poor Grant's performance as president was considered by many historians. Despite his poor ranking as a president, due mostly to his willingness to overlook corruption in his administration, Grant was an America hero for his performance during the Civil War. According to Wikipedia, picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com's only source for blog-related historical 'facts', an apocryphal story about Grant's drinking has the general's critics going to President Lincoln, charging the military man with being a drunk. Lincoln is supposed to have replied, "I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals." As a Civil War General, Grant was a badass and he likely deserved Grant also appears on the $50 bill, so maybe those historians were just full of crap.



Regardless of the crap levels filling historians, here is the true star of picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com...

...the stuff in front of which my adoring readers get to see me stand.

I may never get my own impressive memorial or face on a denomination of US Currency, but when will US Grant get his own blog?

One, whiz, with!

That's how you order a cheesesteak. That is the only appropriate way to do it. Suck it up, eat the Cheese Whiz and the onions, and enjoy the greasy deliciousness of it. You are only alive once.



I went to Pat's and Geno's in Philly the night before my birthday. This was the night before I visited the Linc but after I watched the miserable Eagles-Ravens' game. I worked some of this grease off with a quick jaunt up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. In case you are confused, I decided to forego chronological order and just post events from life willy-nilly. In a few weeks, I will be describing my high school graduation followed by my birth. Stay tuned!



My utter disregard for chronological order aside, below are some pics of me in front of the Philly Cheesesteak landmarks. I am not sure if I look more stupid or goofy in these pictures. Maybe it's mysterious, if you squint enough.

Who is this mystery man?

It's me, I just told you earlier! You should read the whole blog, not just look at the awesome pictures.

In case you're concerned I like Geno's better.

I am positive this will not be the last time I mention Philadelphia, this will likely be the last mention of my most recent trip. Fortunately, I am allowed to visit again as no digital cameras or landmarks were harmed in the creation of this blog. In contrast, cow's were slaughtered and then deliciously fried for us to eat.

Geocaching in Hamburg

I enjoy finding the occasional geocache.

Here's me finding a multi-cache near the Kernsville Damn just outside of Hamburg, PA. A multi-cache, as defined by geocaching.com, involves muliple caches at two or more locations, the final location being a physical container. There are many variations, but most multi-caches have a hint to find the second cache, and the second cache has hints to the third, and so on. An offset cache (where you go to a location and get hints to the actual cache) is considered a multi-cache. On this particular Fall afternoon, I ended up searching for the Blue Mountain Wildlife Multicache.

Considering it was a lovely afternoon for late November, I was not alone as I searched for my 'prey'. There were a few locals, dare I say 'Hamburgers', also outside enjoying the pleasant weather. They passed me multiple times as I searched for and eventually found the first part of the multi-cache.



Though probably confused by my actions, the Hamburgers offered greetings and some advice - Don't run by dogs, because they might bite you. In return, I considered some counter advice - Keep control of your dog because if it bites me I will kick you and your dog in the nuts.


With or without the helpful talk with my fellow Hamburgers, I was able to eventually to find the second half of the cache. After much searching as well as swearing and crashing through the underbrush I found the thermos that was hidden inside a tree not too far off the trail.


Here's me in front of the tree to prove it...



Thankfully, no one was bitten by dog nor was anyone kicked in the nuts during the location of this cache.

Remember the Maine!

Before there was 9/11...

Before there was Pearl Harbor...

Before there was the Zimmerman Telegram...

Way before WMDs but after the Alamo, there was the U.S.S. Maine!

According to Wikipedia, the USS Maine was a pre-dreadnaught battleship that operated along the East Coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. The day after Valentine's Day in 1898, the Maine was sank due to an unexplained explosion and took 266 of America's sailors with her to the bottom of Havana Bay. Though the explosion remains unexplained after 110 years, it resulted in the entry of U.S. into war with Spain aka the Spanish-American War. The unfortunate incident and ensuing conflict resulted in the clever catchphrase 'Remember the Maine!. To Hell with Spain!'

There are various memoirals dedicated to the Maine and the unfortunate sailors who died during its sinking. One such memorial is located in Reading, PA; mere minutes (like 30) from my childhood home in Hamburg, PA.

How could I resist a chance to park my ass in front of history and snap some digital photos with the self timer on my camera? It is pretty clear from the url, it is damn near impossible for me not to narcisstically block the view of historical objects whilst snapping photos.

And here is one more opportunity...

REMEMBER THE MAINE, TO HELL WITH SPAIN!!

Lincoln Financial Field

If you have been following along with the past few posts and not worried about the big issues like the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg, you might remember that I recently spent a weekend in Philadelphia. You may have also heard that the Eagles lost the Sunday while I was there. You may also have heard that it was my birthday. You would not have heard that I got to tour Lincoln Financial Field, home of the last place Philadelphia Eagles. Or maybe you did hear and forgot. Or maybe I told you but you wanted photographic evidence as proof and looked at my blog. Regardless of whether you knew or not, I am telling you right now that I was there on my 27th birthday!


Here's the view from the visiting team's tunnel when noone is in the Linc to boo or throw batteries at them.





Here are Melissa and I on the grass we were not allowed to walk on.


Apparently, us walking on the grass can damage the turf the way 300 lb behemoths running on it cannot.


Finally, here's me delivering a press conference in the Eagle's media room.


So maybe the only members of the 'media' there was Melissa taking my picture, since I define member of the 'media' as someone who writes or takes pictures that someone else may read and/or look at. (She actually has most, if not all of the photocredits for the past few posts.) During my press conference, I tried to explain why I continue watching the Philadelphia Eagles even though all they ever do is disappoint me. My explanation sounded as incoherent as Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. Sadly, I am a Democrat and Pro-Choice, so social conservatives will not be touting me as a possible presidential candidate...Maverick!

But in case you had not heard, I visited the Linc and saw its insides.

If you don't know, now you know...

Ben Franklin's Grave Instead of a Cave

Even with my favorite football team performing dismally the afternoon before, I found myself in Philadelphia yet another morning awaiting a Melissa-inspired birthday. It was my 27th birthday, why wouldn't I expect a surprise? Never one to shy away from odd 'trips' initially viewed on the internet I found myself recalling a post on O.T.I.S. that described a unique monument in Fairmount Pak, Cave of Kelpius. Melissa never one to shy away from going on these random outtings with me drove. Unfortunately, the directions I obtained from Google Maps and/or O.T.I.S. proved if not inaccurate at least difficult to follow.

We never made it to the Cave of Kelpius. :-(

Never one to shy away from finding an alternate destination, Melissa drove me from Fairmount Park to 5th and Arch Street to complete another of my odd blog documented compulsions - visiting the graves of famous people as seen here and here. Rather than visit a founding father of football, I visited the grave of a real Founding Father - Ben Franklin.

Here's me pointing out a young B. Franklin calling his future corpse Food for Worms.

Everyone knows, Ben Franklin said 'A Penny is Saved is a Penny Earned'. However, many people seem to think throwing a penny onto Ben's grave is good luck, action done in disregard to Ben's imperative.

Here's me ignoring Ben's advice (as well as the Law of Gravity by hovering horizontally) not once, not twice, but three times. Hopefully, that gets me 3x as much luck which I can then distribute to my friends and family.

Running up the steps at the Art Museum

You may have thought the day before my birthday in Philadelphia would be filled with me yelling at the Philadelphia Eagles as they faced some opponent in Lincoln Finnancial Field. That is a fair guess, except the Eagles faced the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore rather than Philadelphia. Since I was at McFadden’s, the sports bar attached to Citizens Bank Park, I toned down the yelling. I tried to tone down the negative attitude as well since I have been called a miserable person with which to watch football games. So really, what I did was sit relatively calmly watching the Eagles game will drinking overpriced beers and eating overpriced nachos. McFadden’s is attached to a ballpark, would you expect normally priced food?

I bottled up all my negativity as the Eagles, and at least 30 minutes of Donovan McNabb, managed to perform miserably and get dominated by the Ravens. Following the tie versus the Cincinnati Bengals this embarrassing loss to Baltimore raised the bile in the back of my throat. Fortunately, this is not my blog about the Philadelphia sports teams, this is my blog about getting my picture with interesting artifacts behind me.

So here’s a video of me impersonating a certain iconic movie scene involving the city of Philadelphia.



It is not a pic of me in front of stuff, but it’s close enough.

The Mutter Muuseum - Philadelphia, PA

Everyone knows the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, the Mutter Museum does not allow photographs or else this entry would be approximately 1.000.000 words long, minus all the reading that would entail. Rather, I will try to describe the contents of the Mutter Museum in a whole lot less verbiage.

It is beyond my comprehension why certain museums do not allow photography. From athe perspective of medical museums or exhibits like the Mutter Museum or the Bodies Exhibit, I would assume it is a show of respect for the deceased and the deceased's family. However, most of these specimens belongs to people who died over a century ago. If my great-great-great grandfather's gigantic bowel obstruction is found somewhere in the Mutter Museum, I would not care if someone felt the need to document it with their cell phone or digital camera. Hell, I would encourage it if only to spread the dangers of gigantic bowel obstructions. A wonderful thought following the gluttony known as Thanksgiving.

Speaking of the dangers of gigantic bowel obstructions...

This photo of Kim Jong Ill, the North Korean Nuclear antagonist, shows up on google when searching images for 'gigantic bowel obstruction'. If that's the case, they might be more dangerous than I originally thought.

Obstructions of the bowel aside, imagine, since I can not show you any pictures, if medical specimens were baseball cards and kids still put baseball cards in their bicycle spokes. I have trouble with this mental imagery since my parents’ generation was the last to do this. My grandparents were not willing to pay for collectible nostalgia like the generations just previous to mine and those since. My theories on nostalgia purchase aside, this Mutter guy had enough medical specimens to fill all of the bike spokes on the East Coast. They would be disgusting, messy bicycles, but I think my point is clear. The Mutter Museum contains a whole lot of medical specimens, vintage medical equipment, and paraphernalia. It was a sight worth seeing, especially if you had a student ID to take $4 off the entrance fee.

And naturally, here is a picture of me in front of the museum to satisfy those you stuck on the url for this blog.

Geocaching - What nerds do when they want to go outside!

Maybe the title is a little harsh, but I did take a break from my chemist job to use my GPS and find a plastic container next to an abandoned lot...





Yeah, that's my nerd coat right there.


For those of you who don't know, geocaching is essentially treasure hunting with a GPS. On geocaching.com there are a plethora of lists of caches and their coordinates. A geocacher (usually a nerd like me) can download the coordinates to their GPS and then go look for the cache's hiding place. Once the cache is found, there is usually a log and often items to trade. In this instance, I left a Sponge Bob Cachepants pathtag and took a mini-teddy bear. The idea is the next cache I find or the next nerd who finds this particular cache will trade more items.



Essentially, it's a modern treasure hunt mixed with a swap meet. I like to compare it to real-life World of Warcraft. Though I do not play WoW, the idea of going on a quest to search for treasure seems pretty comparable between the two. That and the nerds...


Regardless of the nerdiness level, geocaching is a good excuse to go outside and see exotic locales like Rahway, NJ...

At least it was good excuse to get outside!

Veteran's Day Eve - Twin Lights State Historic Site

Ooooh, that's pretty isn't it?!

That's the view from the north tower of the Twin Lights State Historic Site in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Late Sunday morning, I did not intend on visiting this historic site, but ended up here because the New Jersey Veterans Memorial was crowded. In case you forgot, Veteran's Day is on Tuesday. Be sure to thank a veteran for the sacrifices s/he and her/his family have made for our country. Since the memorial was crowded, I headed north to return to my apartment. On the Garden State Parkway, I spied a sign for a historic site I had not yet visited. Being a sucker for random historic sites, I took a detour to the historic lighthouse that overlooks Sandy Hook National Recreation Area and New York Harbor.

It was a lovely November day and I climbed to the top of the north tower. In case you are concerned, Twin Lights is not a misnomer. There is a south tower which is not open to the public.

The lighthouse is situate high on a hill overlooking the harbor and with the beautiful weather, my fellow visitors and I were afforded a beautiful view.

But aside from that view, here is what this blog is really all about...

ME IN FRONT OF STUFF!

That's me in the north tower acting casual and soaking up the lovely day.

And I am glad that it was a lovely Veteran's Day weekend and the memorial was crowded or I might have missed out on such a great view on such a lovely day.

The Castle in north Jersey

Directions to the castle
I never seem to share how I end up at the random places I seem to wind up. A note on these directions - they're great if you can read Brian Sniatkowski's mind. Unfortunately, he blocked my attempts at the Vulcan Mind Meld. Therefore, the secret to avoid random wandering is when the directions say 'the road that skirts the lake', it is not the paved one. Essentially, 3 roads/paths converge near McEvoy Trailhead - follow the road that keeps Lake Ramapo on your left for approximately 500 yards instead of the 50 he describes. Otherwise, his directions are very useful and, aside fromn the weather, the hike described was enjoyable.

Now it's time for what everyone really wants to see...

Me blocking the view of some stuff!!!

In this instance, that is 240 pounds of Kyle in front of the ruins that put the castle in the Castle Point Trail in Ramapo State Forest. The ruins, also known as Van Slyke Castle, were once a mansion known as Foxcroft built around the turn of the century, abandoned, and eventually burnt down in 1959. Currently, the ruins of Van Slyke Castle stand on top of a mountain in Ramapo State Forest near Oakland, NJ. Sorry, Pirates fans, no direct relation to Andy Van Slyke.

Melissa and I wandered through the forest cursing both the directions we had as well as the wet weather and the gathering dark. The mist and clouds added mystique to the ruins and if we were living in a movie we would have been scared off by the ghosts of the Van Slykes. However, we do not live in a movie so we hiked past the ruins and through the rain with little incident aside from slipping on the wet, leaf covered trail.

BE DOUBLE-E DOUBLE ARE YOU IN, BEER RUN?!

Holy crap, this looks likes it hurt, doesn't it?

That is what happens to me when a 5K turns into 6K as the Beer Run at Rahway River Park did on Saturday. Just like Bugs Bunny making the wrong turn at Albequerque, the race volunteers had all of the participants make a wrong turn after the duck pond. Unfortunately, I did not realize the race was longer than intended and a feeling of disgust filled me after such a long, slow '5K'.

Fortunately, there were beer and hotdogs to help alleviate the pain.

Hooray Beer!

(...and hot dogs!)

World Champions...World Fucking Champions!!!

That's what Chase Utley said at the ceremony following the parade or as ESPN puts it 'Second baseman Chase Utley approached the microphone and proclaimed, "World champions!" Then he repeated the phrase, with a profanity between "world" and "champions," drawing cheers for minutes.'

I was there.

I had missed out on being present for the conclusion of Game 5 on a mere coin flip, but ever since the Eagles had made the Super Bowl almost 4 years ago I had promised myself I would see a championship parade in Philadelphia...if there ever was one. I found myself among the hundreds of thousands of people along the parade route in Philadelphia leading to the sports complex.

Unfortunately, those throngs of spectators also had to leave Philadelphia and I was stuck in city of Brotherly Love until well into the evening. SEPTA, you suck! Though I missed Halloween, it was well worth it because who knows when an event like this will ever happen again! Also, I sat in between the Joker and Minnie Mouse, both protrayed by dudes, at the 30th Street Station bar in Philly. That was enough Halloween for me!

Go Phils!

Not the smallest National Park

While it is located in the smallest state in the Union, the Roger Williams National Memorial is not the smallest national park. Upon learning this from the Park Ranger, I felt betrayed by the taxi driver from the night before.
If you can't trust a random cab driver in Providence, RI...who can you trust?

Vermont

As we near the end of year 27 of the age of Kyle, my burning ambition to visit all 50 states before I reach 3 decades continues to push the mileage on my odometer of the Kyle-mobile to new lengths. Following this past weekend's trip to Vermont I am closing in on 15,000 miles in approximately 6 months. Good thing I did not lease.

Since pictures speak 1000 words and I am putting 2 in this post, I will keep this brief. I visited Vermont thanks to my co-worker Kate (not pictured) along with another co-worker, Gabe (pictured). We were fortunate enough to have a free place to stay so long as we helped stack wood on Saturday morning.

That afternoon we hiked up to the top of Mt. Abraham.

Following our hike we enjoyed some beer and the next day we visited the source of the beer, Otter Creek Brewery
Then I drove us all back home. That was how I crossed Vermont, state # 26 of the list, and got myself past the halfway mark!

Hot time in the City

This picture is a few months old, but it reminds that though I have lived and worked in North/Central Jersey for the past year I do not often consider how close I am to the Big City aka The City aka New York, New York.

Here we are riding the ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty.

If you can not tell from the haze lying over the city, it was a hot, humid day in June and we walked ALL OVER the city. I probably lost 10 lbs wandering through the oppresive heat.

Heart of the Highlands 5K - West Milford, NJ

I am not much of a runner, but somehow I found myself doing a 5K on Saturday. Here is me when I am just about at the finish line.

That SUV you see behind me pulled out in front of me as I was coming down the homestretch. Like I needed an excuse to add a few more seconds to my time? Fortunately, my goal was less than 30 minutes and my goal was accomplished, 29:14.

Three of my co-workers beat me by at least 2 minutes, including

Kate

Gabe, who came in 3rd in his age group

and Christine, who won her age group.

The next one I do will have beer at the end...seriously, it's called the Beer Run and with that as a consideration I think my time will improve significantly!

ICEBERG, STRAIGHT AHEAD!!!

We were on the lookout to make sure no Titanic's ran into our iceberg.

It is not quite time for snow, but here we are on an iceberg in Petersburg, AK on May 28th 2008. I am not sure if we could see Russia from there, but if we could we might be ready to run for VP.

My trip to pain-town.

That's a picture of a pepper in front of someone who forgot just how hot Habanero peppers are. That young man certainly re-learned how hot those peppers are especially after he rubbed his nose following the handling of that little, orange pepper.

Summer of the Bearfight!

Now that the summer of 2008 is completely gone, it is time to reminisce and decipher what defined those fun-filled three months. There are really two things that are easiest to recall and neither of them relates to my momentous journey of the summer. Visiting the natural splendor of Alaska stands out among the 25 states I have visited so far and among the vacations of my entire life if due only to its scenic grandeur. I have over 400 pics from that week - you may be lucky enough to see them sometime. Regardless of my huge cache of Alaska pics, this summer can be summed up in two words: Phillies and bearfight!

I rant and rave and bitch and moan about the Fightin' Phils elsewhere so on picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com I will turn to the second option.

If you do not know what a bearfight is, you can go back and read my post about visiting St. Louis or read the following sentence. For those of you who continued, a bearfight is the explosiveness of a Jaegerbomb followed by the combustibility of a Car Bomb detonating in the close confined of ones stomach and quickly elevating to the brain.

Click here for a brief history and explanation.

Q: Why is this the summer of the bearfight?

A: This is the summer I was educated about the bearfight and its viciously destructive powers.

Plus when I started writing this I thought I had done bearfights in more places. Under further review, I was mistaken. Witnesses to Kyle battling the bear include the residents of:

St. Louis, MO.

Lewisburg, PA

Conshohocken, PA

Old City, Philadelphia, PA

Is there any wonder why the Phillies are the 2nd option?

Trump Plaza - Atlantic City, NJ

The Donald's voice saying 'Welcome to the Trump Plaza Casino, the best casino along the best boardwalk in the world' should be played via recording upon entering said casino. Not because it's true, but because that's how the Donald rolls.

Regardless of its standing amongst casinos, I ended up visiting the Trump Plaza Casino Friday night with several of my fellow Merck employees and Melissa on a booze bus trip. The running joke throughout the week was that I was riding the bus with a bunch of blue-haired old ladies going to play the penny slots and drink free versions of whatever it is blue-haired old ladies drink - whiskey sours and white wine spritzers is what I imagine. While everyone but Melissa was older than me, I would not categorize any of them as old. There were even some other dudes.

Aside from being dudes, everyone drank and gambled way too much for me to imagine them as old ladies.

I joined in on the festivities with them, I was not about to let them show me up. I am no Olga, the Travelling Bra, but I try. Aside from a creepy bald dude hitting on every single one of the older women who rode the bus with me, as well as my lack of luck at the tables the night ended without mishap.

Angelo Bertelli

'Pennsylvania takes its football seriously.'
So says the link on ESPN to a story on the Manheim Central football team. One player from Manheim Central's 2003 state championship team told me that a teacher told him winning the state championship will go down as the greatest thing he ever did!

As a swing state in November, PA has gotten plenty of attention from the political parties but we Pennsylvanians do not get the constant prep football props that California, Texas, and Florida do. However, you need look no further than the Professional Football Hall of Fame to see that the gridiron glory is a Pennsylvania tradition. The Keystone State has 26 inductees, second to only Texas with 27. Moreover, PA just defeated Ohio in the first round of ESPN's competition for who has the best high school football to make it the final four with the 3 overpublicized heavyweights mentioned above. PA and OH were unfortunate to face one another in the first round because I feel both states may not have the vaunted speed of the above 3, but playing in the heat and humidity of preseason camp as well as the blustery cold of the late season games allows PA and OH to produce tougher players than the other 3 possibly could. Heat wears players out, but cold makes even the stoutest player shiver. Everything hurts more in the cold.

Right now, I bet you are asking, 'What does PA football have to do with http://www.picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com/?' I write it, I am from PA, I am obsessed with football and recently I have taken to seeing the final resting spots of my football forefathers. So I have mentioned one so far, but now you can increase that count by one as I have gone to visit the grave of the 1943 Heisman Trophy Winner, Angelo Bertelli. That is a 100% increase all for the sake of my faithful blog readers!


Legerdemain is not a word I use in my everyday vocabulary or ever really, but it was the first word in the first draft of this blog. That's right, I actually proof read this!!!! I will assume most of the people reading this do not know what legerdemain means, in fact if not for the downright necessity for literacy when using the internet I would assume most of the people looking at this can not even read. That is if I had friends, they would look at this blog, but if there were people dumb enough to want to hang out with me I would assume they could not read as well. Of course, if you look at the previous post you would note that there is clearly a picture of me with other people who appear to be having a wonderful time.

It is amazing what a few beers will do.

Getting back to the SAT word mentioned earlier in this posting, legerdemain, according to dictionary.com, is sleight of hand and/or someone who performs of sleight of hand.

Example: The accountants at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were excellent at accounting legerdemain.

Legerdemain is also the word used to describe the exploits of 1943 Heisman Trophy Winner Angelo Bertelli in the Notre Dame Football team's backfield.[1] Obviously, Bertelli was a damned good football player and since 1) I am obsessed with football 2) Bertelli's final resting place is in north Jersey[2] and 3) I am clearly weird enough to take pictures of me in front of graves wearing my college football jersey I decided to visit Mr. Bertelli's grave.

Unfortunately, saying a small prayer at the grave of Coach Lombardi did not guarantee gridiron victory for my favorite football teams, (PSU won, while both sets of Eagles – Philadelphia and Juniata – lost) it did give me something to do on a lovely Wednesday evening. With that in mind, a few weeks later I found myself following directions, despite the incredible cost of gasoline, to another Italian-American gridiron hero who had passed on. Once there I paid my respects to Mr. Bertelli, took the picture below, and returned home.

If you read all that you will see that after ~650 words I actually I described the trip in approximately 15. Who knew the trip would be so brief?

[1] Angelo Bertelli. Heisman.com
[2] Angelo Bertelli. Findagrave.com