Frequent trips down Route 10

I was going through the stack of back issues of the Tri County the other day, and I noticed a pattern. Almost every issue had a front page story on Honey Brook. Whether it was the borough or the township, for the past three months there has always been something going on in Honey Brook.

Now, I guess this really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Honey Brook is in our coverage area, and it makes sense that there would be a lot of stories coming out of that area. However, I would’ve never suspected the frequency with which these stories appear.

We at the paper try to cover as much of the region as we can. We try to hit Elverson and New Holland as often as possible, and I have been out to Warwick several times to cover the fire department’s battle with the Township for funding. What I am getting at is that the extensive coverage of Honey Brook is not intentional. I did not come into this job aiming to cater exclusively to the ins and outs of Honey Brook. It just happened. So the obvious question is why?

There are two simple answers: first, they seem to have the most stuff going on, and second, they call me. This is not meant as an insult to the other townships and boroughs, but just a simple fact. The majority of the people who call me and let me know there is something I should cover are from Honey Brook. Again, it’s no agenda on my part, these are just the people filling my mailbox with things they want covered.

However, I think there is a more complex reason why so much happens in Honey Brook, and it stems from involvement. The people there really seem to be involved. For example, the past borough council meeting had to be moved to a bigger building because there were too many citizens in attendance. Also there are several community action committees in the township. These are average citizens who have banded together to affect change. So, the members of the community are more involved, but it still begs the question why.

I think the reason has to do with the simple fact of where Honey Brook is located. For all intensive purposes, it is isolated from everywhere else. It’s an island unto itself. Up in Morgantown and Elverson they are close enough to the Turnpike that they can consider themselves connected to the surrounding municipalities. Likewise, New Holland is close enough to Lancaster that they can feel like a part of the city and county. However, Honey Brook isn’t really close to anything.

It’s at least a 15 minute drive in all directions to get someplace new, and another 20 minutes if you want to go anywhere more than a “small town.” Because of this isolation I believe the people of Honey Brook have started to band together to make the community entirely their own. That is why there have been so many news stories coming out of the town. These people have taken stock in what they have, and realized that no one will make it better but them.

E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!

I went to the Twin Valley Middle School Friday night to watch members of the Philadelphia Eagles play basketball against members of the faculty as well as people from the community. Besides being one of the loudest things I have ever attended, it was also one of the most unintentionally hilarious.
I’ll start with A.J. Feeley’s mustache. I don’t know what it is about backup quarterback’s but they always have horrendously bad facial hair (the all-time title goes to Kyle Orton’s neck-beard). I guess they think that since they aren’t going to play they have to look ridiculous to get noticed. You may not know them for their play, but you do know them for their mustache, and I guess that’s good enough.
Also there that night was Eagles wide-receiver DeSean Jackson. This is the same DeSean Jackson that spiked the ball for scoring a touchdown before he actually crossed the goal line. So, he’s kind of a knucklehead. He was pretty mild-mannered when the game started, but as it went on he got more and more intense. During three successive trips down the floor he missed an easy layup, got a shot blocked and took a hard foul. After that, his body language completely changed. He went it to “screw this, I am a professional athlete, and I will dominate you” mode almost instantaneously. He made three three-point shots in a row and had two steals to end the quarter. He had a Jordan-esque quality about him, if Jordan had ever played pickup basketball, against teachers.
I also thought during half time that someone was going to die. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to have “Swoop” the Eagles mascot throw souvenirs into the crowd. I generally support the merchandise into crowd dynamic, especially when air-powered cannons are involved, however, I no longer support throwing green footballs into crowds of elementary students.
The fact is that most elementary students can’t catch. This creates a controversy over who actually owns the piece of merchandise. The kid who touched it first believes he has a right to the ball, but once it hits the ground, so does every other kid in the area. What follows is an unholy dog-pile with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I saw several punches being thrown, and one kid, emerging from the pile victorious with the ball in hand, was chased and tackled by another student.
However, the funniest event of the night involved an Amish man on Twin Valley’s team and A.J. Feeley. This Amish guy was Bruce Bowen to Feeley’s Kobe Bryant. Wherever Feeley went this Amish guy was there, pestering him. He had at least three steals on Feeley, and each time Feeley would have this look on his face like, “I can’t believe that just happened.” And Jason Avant or DeSean Jackson would look at Feeley like, “Come on, A.J., pick it up, or we’re going to throw you in a locker with John Runyan’s ‘lucky socks’ from the 2005 Super Bowl run.”
Either way, it was a fun night, and I am glad I went.

The phenomenon of “That Guy”

Whenever one of my roommates was about to do something that was stupid, rude or annoying, one of us would invariably say, “come on, don’t be that guy.” There was no specific action that would warrant this admonishment, but we said it a lot to one another. It came to be a household warning, a signal from someone that an action you were about to take would result in annoyance and possibly anger. Here is a list of things that may make you “that guy.”

• Popped collars
• Sporting a faux hawk
• Not tipping the waiter/waitress/bartender because you’re “running low on funds”
• Ironic consumption of Pabst Blue Ribbon
• Use of the phrase “ironic consumption”
• Insistence that “The Boondock Saints” is the greatest movie ever made
• Pervasive use of “dude,” “bro” or “dude bro”
• An affinity for the Dave Mathews Band, O.A.R. or John Mayer
• Wearing sunglasses indoors, at night, in a bar
• Manscaping
• Having your cell phone ring in a movie theater when your ring tone is “Baby Got Back”
• A complete lack of self-awareness

Baseball's cloudy opening day

As baseball’s opening day comes and goes there is still the cloud of steroids towering over every swing of the bat. I know a lot has been written about steroids in baseball, especially on blogs, so I won’t bore you with the in ands outs of what it exactly means for the sport.

However, what I will say is that it has had a direct effect on how I became a fan of the game.

I was a late comer to the sport. Most people who consider themselves baseball fans are following a family tradition. My family was not a baseball family. It was slow; it was boring. I caught on to the sport a little bit just after the strike in 1994. I was living in L.A. at the time and the Dodgers went on a streak of five rookies of the year in years. Mike Piazza was a star in the city, but then Fox bought the team, let Piazza go and signed Kevin Brown. I lost faith in the team almost as soon as I started following them.

Then, around my junior year of high school Eric Gagne broke on the scene. I had known about Gagne when he was struggling as a starter, but all of the sudden he was this lights out closer. To top it off, the Dodgers got another catcher I could support in Paul Lo Duca. As sad is it may sound, Gagne and Lo Duca are the main two reasons I started watching baseball again.

Fast forward a couple of years, Gagne’s elbow exploded several times; Lo Duca had been traded to the Marlins and then the Mets, and while the Dodgers were still my favorite team. I missed those two players.

Then, the Mitchell Report came out and both of those players were on that list. The two players that were responsible for re-igniting my interest in baseball were both known steroid users.

I think this experience mirrors a lot of fans. A lot of people got out of the game after the strike, and then, whether it was McGwire, Sosa or Bonds, people came back. But now, it’s all but clear that these people came back under false pretenses.

That’s the real issue with steroids in baseball. Not whether or not the players have corrupted the game, it’s the fact that they have corrupted the fans.