May 12, 2008

Condo Destroying Earth One Trip At A Time

There's a story in today's Inquirer about the residents at the new condos at Liberty Two. The cheapest place in the skyscraper is $1 million, but you do get perhaps the best view of the city. There are only about 20 residents in the building, but they already have four concierges doting on them 24/7, a complimentary driver and Mercedes from 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. and probably anything else you could imagine.

Then there's the story of Michael Beautyman, who used the driver to help him find a couch.

A health-care attorney, world-class athlete and divorced father of two from Flourtown, Beautyman is still decorating. Last week, he asked the Residences' driver to take him around the city in search of a sofa. No hunting through Macy's for a floor model. No flipping through Pottery Barn catalogs, or testing the springs on a garage-sale special. The driver took him from store to store. [...]

So, did he find the couch? "No. I found three possibilities. More important, I found an interior decorator at Mitchell Gold who's helping me."

Liberty Two: 16th and Chestnut streets. Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams: 13th and Chestnut streets. I would always suggest driving when attempting to hire an interior designer from down the block. Fortunately for Beautyman, even if all the ice caps melt he'll be about 700 stories up, sitting on his comfy oatmeal-colored couch in peace.

Tip-Top Service [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:27 AM | Comments (1)

May 08, 2008

Two Rich People Collide In Phils' Win

The Phillies rallied last night in Arizona to remain just percentage points behind Florida in the NL East, and they couldn't have done it without Shane Victorino.

Vic raced for first after a dropped third strike and crashed headfirst into Conor Jackson, leaving both of them down for a couple minutes. More importantly, it got Victorino to first; he'd score on an Eric Bruntlett double. Utley eventually singled home Bruntlett in the top of the eighth to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead. Video of Vic's crash after the jump.

Continue reading "Two Rich People Collide In Phils' Win"

Posted by D-Mac at 08:21 AM | Comments (1)

March 02, 2008

Hamels: $500K Salary Is A 'Low Blow'

Phillies ace Cole Hamels (at right), who despite not being the opening day starter is clearly set up as the Phillies #1 pitcher, is poised for a big year. Well, ha ha, too bad, now he's pissed about his contract.

Hamels called the one-year, $500,000 deal a "low blow" but also hoped that Phillies fans won't think he's greedy.

"They do want to keep you happy, and that will affect down the line with certain things that come up because you can’t just all of a sudden throw everything out at (a player) at the last second and think that’s really going to make him happy, because he’s still got check marks for what they didn’t do in the years before." Hamels told the Daily News' David Murphy, who I know because his name is on my bedroom wall on some plaque.

This is a boom for all the fans, of course, who were worrying about being able to complain about the Phillies being cheap when they've actually had a respectable payroll recently. Also, if Cole Hamels doesn't want Phillies fans to think he's a greedy athlete, maybe he should pitch the Phillies to the World Series. After that, some fans might be willing to donate a couple thousand to Hamels himself.

Posted by D-Mac at 06:03 PM | Comments (400)

February 14, 2008

Snider: Somebody Please Go To The 76ers

The 76ers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies last night for their fifth straight win, moving the team to 23-30 (and the eighth playoff spot) right before the All-Star break. Only problem is, despite it being Mr. Potato Head Night, fans showing up 10 minutes before gametime were still getting a Potato Head, meaning they were among the first 5,000. Officially, 12,026 people showed up at the Wachovia Center last night, which is a bit of a generous figure.

Sixers Prez Ed Snider is not happy about this. The 76ers are 27th out of 30 NBA teams in attendance. One might think Snider should just be happy his baby, the Flyers, played to 99 percent of capacity last year despite winning only 22 games. But, no, he'd rather complain that you're too dumb to realize how exciting the 76ers are:

"Our kids play hard every single game, every single minute," Snider said. "You can see them getting better right before your eyes. I would hope they deserve more recognition and support from our fans. I think those fans who come to the games are enjoying immensely what they are seeing."

Snider said he had a better feeling about the Sixers at the start of the season than reporters who almost universally picked them to finish last in the Eastern Conference.... "I feel the prognosticators wrote us off before the season began," Snider said. "And that's why people have taken a show-me attitude."

You're right, Ed! It's the media's fault. It's not that Comcast charges over a 50 percent surcharge on the cheapest ticket. It's not that the team is headed into the All-Star Break without any all-stars. It's not that the team has been run into the ground since the 2001 Finals on your watch. (Aaron McKie is being paid $7 million by the Sixers this year, the last year of his contract. Who the hell thought McKie would be contributing to the team in 2008?) It's not that, uh, attendance is down around the NBA and the Sixers are still one of the NBA's lesser teams. It's the media predicting the 76ers wouldn't be very good.

Jesus, Ed. Can't you just go back to doing non-destructive things, like supporting sending American troops to their death? Oh, crap. Maybe you just better stick to overpaying basketball players.

Snider unhappy Sixers aren't drawing more [Daily News]

Posted by D-Mac at 08:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 27, 2007

Knocking At Death's Door (In Center City, At Least)

Today's Inquirer has a story about empty nester couples moving back to Center City, because they're sick of living in suburbia and have enough money to afford to live in Center City, unlike you.

And, as such, the Inquirer profiles a couple who has moved from Elkins Park to an unnamed ritzy Center City condo. Oh, and the paper predicts the date of their deaths.

But three of their four children are in Center City. So is the theater. Ballet. Opera. Restaurants. So in the spring of 2005, they moved to Center City. One of the glam condos that are shooting up in Philadelphia like gold-leafed sunflowers. Just the right perch for a couple with another good 10 or 15 years left to get their urban groove on.

Well, at least the paper gave them a range. "You're going to die by the time you're 90, but you will live until at least 85!"

Second life as urban hipsters [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 01:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 26, 2007

Fumo Unable To Get Verizon To Just Give Him $15 Mil

Turns out Vince Fumo's "I'm being unfairly targeted by President Bush" letter to his constituents (which was also paid for by his constituents) was pretty timely after all. Currently, Fumo's lawyers are in court arguing for their right to represent Fumo in the most boring hearing in American history. The Inquirer is, of course, liveblogging it.

During yesterday's portion of the hearings, prosecutors alleged Fumo and Verizon struck a "gentlemen's agreement" that if Verizon gave the state senator a handjob (in this case, "handjob" means "millions of dollars to a law firm of his choosing") he wouldn't push to break up the company.

As talks proceeded, prosecutors say, Fumo offered to drop his fight and pushed Verizon to give $15 million to Citizens Alliance. Unlike Peco[, who gave $17 million], Verizon refused to do that. But according to the testimony yesterday, [ex-Verizon prez Dan] Whelan did agree to give an unspecified amount to the Philly Pops - orchestra conductor Peter Nero and Fumo are close friends - and to hire a law firm designated by Fumo.

Then everyone involved went to their vaults of gold coins and swum around a la Scrooge McDuck. Ha ha, rich people are awesome, aren't they?

Details emerge on Fumo, Verizon [Inquirer]
The Case Against Sen. Fumo [Philly.com]

Posted by D-Mac at 02:12 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

May 07, 2007

Rich People To Sell Giant Property

On Sunday, the Inquirer spent a majority of its front page on a story about Ardrossan, the mansion that inspired The Philadelphia Story, a movie you will remember if you are 70. (According to IMDB, the 1940 film's tagline is: "Uncle Leo's bedtime story for you older tots! The things they do among the playful rich - Oh, boy!")

The Montgomery-Scott-Wheeler family is putting the mansion's 360-acre grounds and the 50-room mansion on the market because they are renouncing capitalism and donating all the money to the poor. Well, okay, probably not. But the sale of the Radnor mansion has not only ruffled the feathers of the very rich, but also the feathers of the regular rich, who are concerned about preserving open space in the township.

For Elaine Schaefer, executive director of the nonprofit Radnor Conservancy, Ardrossan offers "a relief from the density and sprawl" all around it.

When The Inquirer told Schaefer of Ardrossan's prospective sale, her first reaction was stunned silence. When she found her voice, she vowed to work to protect as much of it as possible from development.

The further adventures of the soap opera about the mansion that inspired the movie you've probably heard of but never seen will continue to be chronicled on the front page of the Inquirer. Meanwhile, the boat that inspired The Philadelphia Experiment is still missing. Priorities, people!

End of a class act [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 27, 2007

Rich Person Amuses Self With $2.3M Baseball Card

Yesterday, the owner of the most famous and rare baseball card -- the Honus Wagner T206 from 1909 -- sold it for a record $2.3 million.

There were only a few cards produced, because Wagner asked the company to stop making them. But the T206 variant purchased yesterday (right) was extra rare because some jokester used Photoshop 0.1 to put in Teddy Roosevelt and the late Ed Delahanty into the card.

Mantle, President Bush Photoshopped Into Jeter's Baseball Card [Sports Collectors Daily]
Honus Wagner baseball card sells for record $2.3 million [AP/CNNSI.com]
T206 [Wikipedia]
Ed Delahanty [Wikipedia]

Posted by D-Mac at 01:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)