When my father and I stood in the right field nosebleed seats at the old Vet Stadium in 1980, watching closer Tug McGraw strike out the Royals’ Willie Wilson to capture the Phillies first and, until last night, only World Series title, we had no idea it would be 28 years before the team would taste such victory again.

But last night it happened, finally, after the historic suspended game-five resumed in the bottom of the 6th inning. Here are 5 cool coincidences worth noting between the only two World Series the Phillies have ever won.

1) Let’s start off easy: ’80 flipped is ‘08

2) Tug McGraw, who insisted ”You Gotta Believe” (never mind that he said it first with the Mets), wore the number 45 on his jersey. Brad Lidge, the present Phillies’ closer who didn’t blow a save all season, and who recorded the final out in last night’s game by striking out Eric Hinske, wears the number 54 on his jersey – 45 flipped.

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Having recently bought a 103-year-old house with some scary stories of its own, I approached this subject with some trepidation. After doing the research, I probably won’t sleep for days.

The Ghost of Nyack

What do you do when you’ve just bought a haunted house? The people of Nyack, New York knew that the 5,000 square foot Victorian house was haunted, but Helen and George Ackley were only informed when they moved in. Strange things happened to them over the next 20 years.

One ghost would wake my wife up every morning for school by shaking her bed. When spring break came, my wife made a loud announcement before going to sleep that it was spring break, there was no school and she wanted to sleep in. Her bed did NOT shake the next morning.

While painting the living room Helen saw one of the ghost looking in approval of the color. She always got the feeling that the ghost liked the renovation they had done on the house.

When the Ackleys sold the house in 1990, Jeffrey and Patrice Stambovsky put $32,000 in escrow, then backed out of the deal when they learned the house was haunted. Helen Ackley refused to refund the deposit, and the Stambovskys sued. In what has been called the Ghostbusters ruling, the New York Appellate court ruled that the haunting should have been disclosed to potential buyers, since it is unlikely that a normal home inspection would uncover such a condition.

The Clutter House

Herb Clutter of Holcomb, Kansas designed his two story brick home with five bedrooms and three bathrooms for his growing family in 1948. In November of 1959, Herb and wife Bonnie and their two teenagers were found bound and shot to death. In addition, Herb Clutter appeared to have been tortured. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were convicted of the crime. They had heard the Clutters were wealthy, but they only found $50 cash for all their trouble. Smith and Hickock were hanged in 1965. The crime was documented in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood. Some say the ghost of Nancy Clutter, Herb Clutter’s popular teenage daughter walks the halls of the home at night. The house was up for auction in 2006 but was withdrawn when no bids were sufficient.

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I remember when digital watches first became affordable in the early 1980s. My dad grumbled that it wouldn’t be long before kids wouldn’t have to learn to tell time, and that day may come sooner than he imagined.

Over a single 24-hour day, how
many times do an analog clock’s
hour and minute hands point
to the exact same spot?

HERE is the solution.

October is Polish American Heritage Month, and this one is especially important. This year marks the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the first Polish immigrants in America. In honor of those first brave Poles—don’t ever call us Polacks; that’s a mangling of the Polish word Polak, which means a Polish male person, and is considered an ethnic slur—my family and Polish Americans everywhere, here are eight things you should know about us.

1. We got to the party early, and brought a lot of friends.

In 1608, the first Polish immigrants arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, and were quickly recruited by the colony as craftsmen in the colony’s glassmaking and woodworking industries. (They also dug the colony’s first well.) After a decade in Jamestown, the Poles still did not have the right to vote in the elections of the colonial government, and in 1619, they held the first labor strike in America. By walking off the job, they affected the local industry enough that voting rights were granted to them.

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Jen Singer thinks candy companies should help out beleaguered families in popular trick-or-treat areas. I live in one of those now, and figure on running out of candy within half an hour.
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A List of Halloween Horror Movies and TV Show Marathons. My kids will be on sugar overload, fighting over the Travel Channel vs. Cartoon Network.
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Stephen Hawking writes about life with ALS. His main complaint is that his speech synthesizer speaks with an American accent.
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A guy gets revenge on a cat who always sleeps on his car. I laughed, then felt terribly guilty, then I laughed again.
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20 Wonders of the Microscopic World. These photographs are the winners of the Nikon Small World Competition.
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Black market real estate? Is that even possible? Yes, and it’s the most efficient way to buy land in Bangalore, India.
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What can you possibly do with a dozen pumpkins? Lots more than just carve a jack-o-lantern!

Back in September, fellow blogger Ransom asked how to stop unwanted phone books. I have long wondered this myself, as I use the internet for all my phone number lookups. Now, I don’t think the phone book is a bad thing — it’s just something that I don’t need, and it gets old picking up the new phone book and dumping it right in the recycling bin. So after a little research, today I’ll offer the long-sought answer to this problem. Yes folks, you can finally stop the delivery of phone books you don’t want, effectively short-circuiting the recent routine of phone book delivery and immediate recycling.

Thanks to Shelby Wood of The Oregonian, stopping the phone books is just a click (or call, or actually several calls) away. Wood writes:

GET FEWER PHONE BOOKS

Several Web sites claim to be able to remove you from phone book delivery lists, but there’s no guarantee publishers will honor any third-party request. For now, the best way to reduce or eliminate deliveries is to contact each publisher.

DEX/Qwest: Go to dexknows.com; select “directory options” at bottom of page; click through screens until you see “personalize your directory order.” Under “available directories in your area,” choose 0, 1, 2 or 3 from pull-down menus. Or call (800) 422-8793, press 2 to speak with a person

Yellow Book: (800) 929-3556, press 3 to speak with a person

Idearc/Verizon: (800) 888-8448, remain on line to speak to a person

Other phone books: Check for a phone number for customer service or “to order directories” on front cover or inside page

Recycling: Outdated or unwanted phone books can be included in curbside carts

More information:

• Yellow Pages Association

• Product Stewardship Institute’s Phone Book Project

And to the above I’ll add a bit from Common Craft:

AT&T/YellowPages (formerly SBC and Bell South): 1.800.792.2665

Read the rest of Wood’s article for an interesting analysis of phone book statistics — including this fact: “a whopping 80 percent [of phone books] will end up in a landfill.”

See also: do not call lists and The Trouble with Phone Books.

Mangesh very astutely pointed out the other day that Colin Powell is a guy you hear about a lot politically, but it seems like most of us don’t know much about him personally. Turns out he’s pretty fascinating, and he has a great sense of humor. If you’ve got a little time to kill, check out this interview with Larry King. It takes a while to get to the funny stuff, but near the bottom he swears that he TiVos Larry King every night and calls Larry a Luddite (Larry: “What’s a Luddite?”) in the same breath. He also talks about how he made Pottery Barn angry.

1. In the late ‘50s, Powell was posted in Gelnhausen, Germany. They now have a street named after him: “General-Colin-Powell-Straße”.
2. If you have ever noticed a red wagon pin on his lapel, it’s not just a whimsical style choice – it’s the logo of his organization, America’s Promise. It’s a charitable organization with the goal of helping children in the U.S. succeed in various fields.

3. When Powell was in Vietnam, he fell victim to a punji stick booby trap. He was leading his unit when his right leg fell into a shallow hole; his foot was pierced by the stick. The simple trap is a stick whittled razor-sharp, then smeared with animal feces (the intent was to cause infection and fever). The stick was so sharp it went right through his boot and into the bottom of his foot, which had swelled up by the time he got back to camp. It was infected, but he was treated and the wound healed effectively.

4. He served in Germany at the same time as Elvis and met him twice. (more…)

As a pro-toothpaste American (it’s so much better than tooth powder, let me tell you), I was thrilled to see this post on Boingboing about a guy who used all of his toothpaste samples and leftovers to create a giant, toothpaste suicide! Basically, he squeezed out all of his sample packs and nearly empty tubes into a bowl, and then mixed it up to create what should have been the most disgusting paste ever. Instead, it apparently ended up being pretty minty, with some spicy overtones. In any case, I just love the gooey, colorful photos.

I’m curious what’s the weirdest/most delicious toothpaste anyone in our audience has used. I’m nearing the end of my tube, so if you’ve got suggestions, list ‘em below. Link via the always fascinating Boingboing.

Mister Ed: Total Prima Donna

Bamboo Harvester was already something of an equine star before he landed the role of Mr. Ed. Born in 1949, he’d traveled across the United States many times winning top awards in various horse shows (including the prestigious Madison Square Garden show). The Palomino was 11 when he was tapped to play TV’s favorite talking horse. Ed (he quickly learned to answer to his character name) lived with his trainer, Les Hilton, on a large ranch in the San Fernando Valley, and was a quick study. He learned how to open and close doors, untie knots, wave a flag and hold an oversized pencil in his mouth while pretending to write. Like most stars, Ed had an understudy – a fellow Palomino named Pumpkin. Ed was a dedicated worker who craved the spotlight and the attention associated with it, so Pumpkin was only used on camera twice during the run of the series. Pumpkin occupied the stall adjacent to Ed at the Hilton ranch, and if a visitor spoke to or petted Pumpkin before acknowledging Ed, Ed would pull his stall door shut and sulk. In fact, when fans visited the set, Ed would refuse to perform if they dared to admire Pumpkin, so Les Hilton had to remove Pumpkin from the set when tour groups were scheduled.

Morris Head-butts his Way up the Corporate Ladder

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For as long as there have been elections, there have been advertisements for one candidate or another — and in countries like the U.S., where voter turnout in presidential elections has been as low as 50%, there are plenty of ads simply exhorting people to get to the polling place on the appointed day. We scoured the net for unusual ads of this ilk, past and present, and found a few doozies we’d love to share. And hey, if they should inspire you to get to the polling place next Tuesday, all the better!

Dig Down, Dig in and Vote!

This ad for the 1960 presidential election goes further than simply admonishing citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote — it implies that they should be donating money to campaigns and canvassing door-to-door as well.

Terry Tate Gets Out the Vote

Maybe the strangest voting commercial of all time. Terry Tate comes off as a total fascist … for voting.
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