Taste The Ooze

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Bar In A Shell
Cherry Flavored Water Ice - Merritt Foods (1990)
I bought this sticker for a buck at a flea market.  It's a decal that was used on the freezer door at grocery stores to promote a TMNT branded frozen dessert back in 1990 at the height of the Ninja Turtle craze.

I've had plenty of Turtle-branded snacks when I was a kid (the Hostess Pies were my favorite), but I don't think I ever had this one.  I'm sure I would have enjoyed it, but if my family let me pick a frozen treat at the grocery store, I was going for ice cream, not Italian Ice.

Source: The Sewer Den

These frozen desserts were a cherry red Italian Ice product with a thin green shell.  I don't see a mention of any other flavor on the box, so I can only assume that the shell is also cherry flavored.  In addition to the turtle green shell, the product had a lot of other fun goodies going for it.  The back of the box had a sign that could be cut out and hung onto a doorknob, and each stick was embossed with an "autograph" from either Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo or Raphael.

Autographed collectible sticks must have been a trend in the ice cream industry in 1990.  The TMNT Bar In A Shell products were manufactured by Merritt Foods - the makers of the Bomb Pop.  In the same year, rival frozen dessert producer Good Humor sold a line of Big League Baseball Ice Cream Bars, which featured a series of 26 bat shaped sticks that featured the embossed autograph of a player.  The main difference between the two is the placement of the autograph. The TMNT bars feature the autograph at the bottom of the stick whereas the autograph on the baseball sticks were hidden by the ice cream, so you didn't know which player you got until you finished eating.

Big League Baseball Stick #12 - the Phillies own "5 for 1" - Von Hayes

I'm not sure how long these were produced, but I would guess that they were available for about two years.  Instagram user TMNTOhio84 has several photos from this product, including a different cooler decal than the one I found.  This variation has a "Taste The Ooze" bubble added to the center, which leads me to believe that it may have been produced in 1991 in conjunction with the theatrical release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze.

Source: Instagram - TMNTOhio84 - Check out their page for hundreds of photos of TMNT packaging and collectibles.

Source: The Tennessean (June 27th, 1990)

Living In The Mall

Westminster Arcade
Providence, Rhode Island
If you've ever watched Dawn Of The Dead or Night Of The Comet, you might have thought about what it would be like to live in a mall.  If that sounds like your kind of thing and you don't feel like going through a troublesome zombie apocalypse to get there, all you need is to take a road trip to Rhode Island with about $800.  That's the cost of the cheapest apartment at Westminster Arcade.

This is the oldest indoor shopping mall in the United States.  It was built in 1828 and has been a retail outlet for over 150 years.  It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and underwent renovations in 2008 to turn the top two floors into micro apartments.  According to Business Insider, they range from 225 to 775 square feet, and they cost between $800 to $1,800 a month to rent.

The apartments are very small and are designed with single, active people in mind.  Their kitchens don't have an oven, but the first floor is still a fully functioning mall complete with stores, coffee shops and restaurants, so dinner is never far from your front door.

I've been to a lot of malls that have had a beautiful atmosphere with skylights, lamps, benches, plants, fountains, and a very relaxed and pleasant vibe.  Even the faint background music is enjoyable if you can set aside the Muzak cynicism.  However, in the modern world with online shopping squeezing out the brick and mortar stores, most of them have a hard time keeping their doors open and filling their storefronts with tenants.

Instead of tearing these places down, it would be awesome if they could be turned into little communities, where you could take a walk down even during a snowstorm.  It could be a place where you could leave your apartment and walk down to the corner to meet with friends at a coffee shop, or to a movie at an anchor store without ever really leaving home.  With the size of some of these dying malls and the empty stores inside, it wouldn't be too hard to convert them into nice homes with a shared private "main street" that was once the hallways of a shopping mall.  Businesses like restaurants, pizza parlors, laundromats, arcades, drug stores, theaters, and even doctors offices could remain open to the general public through external entrances, but also have a steady source of income from residents for whom these businesses would be very convenient and a part of their neighborhood.  They could even remodel the external areas of the mall to give the homes a front porch and plant some grass to make a yard, with a back porch inside the mall.  The parking lots are pretty big, so it wouldn't take much to build a playground and a park with plenty of room remaining for cars.

Maybe this all sounds like a lame idea, but I think it could be pretty great.  I'm glad to see that something like that is keeping the oldest mall in America alive (photo sources: Business Insider, Bored Panda and Pop Sugar).

What If The Power Pellets Are Really Smurfberries?

If you ever want to feel like you've fallen into a time warp on the Wildwood boardwalk, scroll through the old stock of t-shirt transfer sheets for sale at eBay.

Mount Schweitzer

Schweitzer Mountain Resort
Sandpoint, ID
On the bucket list of places that I'd like to visit.

Fievel Goes To Hollywood

Universal Studios: Hollywood Movie Magic game piece
West Coast Video (1992)
This game piece was discovered in a box of random ephemera that was being sold at the flea market.  I think I paid a dime for it.  It was part of a contest that was being held by West Coast Video in the early 90's.  If you collected all five game pieces, you would win a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood in California.  This game piece features Fievel and represents the park attraction that's themed around An American Tail.  Evidently, this game piece was also an instant winner of a Level #5 prize.  I haven't been able to find any information on about this contest, so I guess it could have been anything from a free movie rental to a trip to Hollywood.  These days, it's not good for much other than a small piece of video rental nostalgia from the 90's.  The West Coast Video chain went out of business in 2009.

I don't remember this particular game, and although I enjoyed the first American Tail film, it's not among my favorites.  I still haven't seen any of the sequels.  I mostly picked this up because it was from West Coast Video.  These days, there's a lot of nostalgia for Blockbuster Video, but they weren't the only game in town back in the 80's and 90's.  Hazleton is not a big city and there were at least 20 different places to rent movies within a few miles of my house.  When you count all of the mini marts and grocery stores that rented tapes, it's was probably closer to 30.  Among these were two or three West Coast Video locations.  They were less expensive than Blockbuster, and they frequently had coupons in the paper, so Grandpa naturally wanted to go there any time we went out to rent a movie.  I remember when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles move came out on VHS, I was insistent that Blockbuster was the only place in town that would have it.  Grandpa said that we should check out West Coast Video first.  I protested for the whole drive there that I was sure they wouldn't have it.  I have no idea why - maybe I saw a commercial or something.  When we walked into the West Coast Video at the Church Hill Mall, there was a display right near the door with at least 20 copies of TMNT available to rent.  Grandpa laughed his butt off and spent the next few weeks busting my chops about how sure I was that they'd never, ever have it in stock.

Good Thing They Put Up A Sign

Country Junction
Mundy Street - Wilkes-Barre, PA
Last month, an EF2 tornado tore through Mundy Street in Wilkes-Barre.  This was one of the businesses that were destroyed.

All The Super Heroes Is Come

Super Heroes Action Figures
Hometown Farmers Market - Tamaqua, PA
My favorite part of this bootleg set is the smug expression on Superman's face.

Keystone Cannonball

Keystone Kapers 2 prototype
by Garry Kitchen (Activision)
One of my earliest memories from childhood was of a time that I threw a minor temper tantrum in the Boscov's department store at the Laurel Mall.  I couldn't have been older than five years old at the time,  We were shopping and I saw Keysone Kapers on the shelf.  It was one of my favorite games for the 2600, but the one at the store was in a shiny new 5200 box and it showed different graphics that weren't in the game that I had back home.  Dad patiently explained to an inconsolable young gamer that I already had this game, and that we didn't own a 5200.  This may have been the first time I wanted the latest port of one of my favorite games, but it wouldn't be the last.

AtariAge and the National Video Game Museum announced earlier today that the unfinished sequel to Keysone Kapers 2 has been discovered.  Activision programmer Dan Kitchen donated his brother's work to the museum, and some of the footage and facts about this lost game have been shared.  It was to be called Keysone Cannonball, and the video above shows Keystone Kelly presumably chasing Harry Hooligan to prevent a train heist.

If this news isn't cool enough, Dan shared on AtariAge that he is rewriting this game from scratch, and that a physical cartridge of this long lost game will be released by Tiki Vision Games.  He has a long history of fun games dating back to the dawn of the industry, including another of my Activision favorites, Crackpots.  I'm looking forward to playing this!

Congratulations Jim Thome

Jim Thome Mosaic

Jonathan Mandell (2004)

This piece of art is hanging near the elevators at Citizen's Bank Park in honor of one of the finest ballplayers to ever put on a Phillies uniform.  Mr. Thome received over 89% of the vote in his first ballot to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and I can think of no one more deserving.

Ode To The Fans

Ode To The Fans
Harry Kalas - July 28th, 2002
This is the poem that Harry Kalas wrote and shared with the public during his acceptance speech for the Ford C. Frick Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.  His words of appreciation and love for the fans hang on the wall at Citizens Bank Park where I have no doubt they'll remain for as long as professional baseball is played in Philadelphia.

A Little Snack

Chicken Little sandwiches
Kentucky Fried Chicken - Hazleton, PA
My grandfather used to take me up to Kentucky Fried Chicken for Chicken Littles when I was a kid.  Back then, they were 39 cents each, so we could get a big bag of them to bring home.  Today, they're nearly six times as expensive and they come in four flavors: original, Georgia Gold, Smoky Mountain Barbecue and Nashville Hot.  My favorite of the four is the Georgia Gold, which is made with a honey mustard sauce and pickles.  It sounds odd, but it's very good.

This is a concept that could make millions for many years to come if they capitalize on it.  They could come out with dozens of different regional and seasonal flavors to add to the menu.  Some could be available nationwide while others are like the Shamrock Shake and drive traffic into the store for a limited time at a certain time of year.  There's so many different ways to serve chicken that they could keep this going for years if they wanted to, and with a creative ad campaign, it would be almost guaranteed to be a hit.

One last bit of KFC news.  They recently remodeled the dining room at the restaurant in Hazleton.  They played up the red and white color scheme, and they've redone the main lighting fixture on the ceiling.  I'm not sure if they were going for this, but it looks like a UFO is abducting the world's largest bucket of KFC straight off of the dinner table.  Hmm.. I wonder if the Colonel is an alien.

Statues At The Ballpark

Play At Second Base

Joe Brown (1974)
This sculpture that once stood at Veterans Stadium was created in 1970 by an artist named Joe Brown.  Mr. Brown was a Philadelphia native who had gone to Temple University and had been a professional boxer before starting a seven year apprenticeship to become a sculptor.  He began teaching a sculpting course at Princeton University in 1939 and was a full professor of art at the Ivy League school when he was commissioned to create four sculptures that were placed around The Vet in 1974.  Play At Second Base is one of those sculptures.  It, as well as the other three statues, were removed from the area when Veterans Stadium was demolished in 2004, but they were put back up on the grounds surrounding Citizens Bank Park the following year. 

Joe Brown passed away in 1985 at the age of 75.  Just to be clear, the man in the jean shorts smoking a cigarette in front of the statue is most definitely not Joe Brown... that's my dad.  I didn't take pictures of Mr. Brown's other three sculptures, but I did take a few of some of the other statues in the area that we happened to walk past before the game on Sunday.

This eight foot tall sculpture of Connie Mack was created by Harry Rosin shortly after the legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager passed away.  It was unveiled to the public in a ceremony at the statue's original location in Reyburn Park (just across from Connie Mack Stadium) on Opening Day of the Phillies 1957 season.  It was moved two times since then, first on August 21, 1971 to Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in front of Veteran's Stadium, and finally to its current location on Citizens Bank Way in front of Citizens Bank Park before Opening Day of the Phillies 2004 season.

The base of the statue is engraved with the Code Of Conduct that Connie Mack wrote and shared with his team after the Philadelphia Athletics 1916 season.  It stands the test of time over 100 years later as a solid set of principles.

This statue of the great Smokin' Joe Frazier stands in front of the Xfinity Live building (where those Cheesesteak Egg Rolls came from) across the street from Citizens Bank Park.  Mr. Frazier won the gold medal for the heavyweight boxing division at the 1964 Olympics and was the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973, during which time he became the first man to defeat Muhammad Ali in The Fight Of The Century at Madison Square Garden.

This statue of Bernie Parent and Bobby Clarke is outside of the Broad Street Bullies Pub entrance of the Xfinity Live building.  This commemorates the Flyers back-to-back Stanley Cup championship seasons of  1973-74 and 1974-75.

Finally, this statue of the late, great Harry Kalas stands just a few feet from the entrance of his namesake restaurant in the ballpark, Harry The K's.  It has been standing at this location since August 14th, 2011.  This photo was taken this season at my birthday game.

There are dozens of other statues and sculptures in and around the South Philly Sports Complex, so this is just a small sample.

Cheesesteak Egg Rolls

Cheesesteak Egg Rolls
NBC Sports Arena at Xfinity Live - Philadelphia, PA

Dad and I stopped across the street from Citizens Bank Park for a few beers and a bite to eat before the game on Sunday.

My only complaint about these is that I couldn't order a giant bucket full of them.  They're made from shaved beef, cheese, onions, and peppers stuffed inside of egg roll wraps before being deep fried and served with a side of sriracha ketchup dipping sauce.  I tried the ketchup and it's pretty good, but it'd be better on a burger because these egg rolls are perfect by themselves.

Tasty Spicy Chicken

Wasabi Chicken
Top Of The 80's - Hazleton, PA
Served with broccoli, zucchini and a baked potato.  Very tasty!

A Nightmare In South Philly: Freddy's Revenge

The Philadelphia Inquirer  (July 23, 2018)

Sunday, July 22, 2018
San Diego Padres @ Philadelphia Phillies

Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

Pitching: Tyson Ross vs Nick Pivetta

Results: Padres defeated Phillies, 10-2

Dad and I had pretty good seats in the fourth row behind the Phillies dugout for Sunday afternoon's game against the Padres.  Not only does this section have a pleasant view of the ballpark from the first base side, but it's also home to a few interesting beer vendors.

My favorite is this guy who comes down with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder and growls like a pirate, but there's also an older man who shouts "ice...  cold... Stellaaaaaaaa!" at the top of his lungs, and the younger who walks looking bored while saying "buy one of these" in a tone that suggests that he was just woken up from a long nap.

First pitch: Nick Pivetta to Travis Jankowski

Nick Pivetta started for the Phillies, and it didn't go well.  Carlos Asuaje was the second batter of the game.  He doubled and Eric Hosmer hit an RBI single with two ours to put the Padres on the board in the top of the 1st.  This was followed by a Hunter Renfroe double, which put runners on second and third to bring our old friend Freddy Galvis up to the plate.

Freddy has been one of my favorite players since he was playing in Reading and I was bummed to see the Phillies trade him over the winter.  If anybody in the Padres lineup had to beat us, at least it was him.  He hit an RBI single that scored Hosmer and Renfroe to put San Diego up 3-0 before the Fightins came up to bat.

This wouldn't be the only damage that Galvis or the Padres did, but it was enough since the Phillies were only able to score two runs in the game.

One of the Phillies two runs came in the bottom of the first.  Rhys Hoskins hit his 15th home run of the season off of Tyson Ross.  Our only other run also involved Hoskins, and it came in the bottom of the 5th.  He doubled to lead off the inning.  Odubel Herrera was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.  Carlos Santana grounded out to advance Hoskins to third, and he scored on a Nick Williams groundout.

Freddy Galvis and Carlos Santana

Nick Pivetta pitched into the 6th inning and struck out nine batters, but he gave up six runs (four earned) on eight hits.  Edubray Ramos came on in relief in the top of the sixth with runners on first and second with Christian Villanueva at the plate.  The Padres third baseman reached base on an error which scored Eric Hosmer from third.  Ramos managed to record just one out before walking pinch hitter Franmil Reyes, after which he was pulled for Austin Davis.  Unfortunately, he gave up a two run double to Travis Jankowski which put the Phillies down 7-2.

The Phillies has a chance to make this a ballgame in the bottom of the 7th.  Rhys Hoskins reached on an error and Odubel Herrera singled off of Padres reliever Matt Strahm.  Carlos Santana popped out, but Nick Williams was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.  Unfortunately, Strahm struck out Aaron Altherr and got Scott Kingery to pop out to end the inning without the Phillies scoring a run.

Phillies reliever Mark Leiter Jr gave up singles to Cory Spangenberg and Travis Jankowski in the top of the 9th.  Carlos Asuaje hit a deep fly ball that scored Spangenberg, followed by a two run homer by Wil Myers that put the Padres up for what would be the final score of 10-2 after Colten Brewer shut us down in the bottom of the 9th.

The Philadelphia Inquirer  (July 23, 2018)

The good news is that this was the first game in a double header, and the Phillies pulled out a victory in the second game on the strength of seven innings of 2-hit shutout baseball by Vince Velasquez.  The bad news is that we only had tickets to the first half of the double header, so we didn't get to see it.  Oh well... we had a 50/50 shot.

Jurassic Jeff

This giant statue of Jeff Goldblum in his post-dinosaur attack pose from Jurassic Park has popped up near the Tower Bridge in London.  It was put up by Now TV in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the release of the film.

But I Have My Part In My Hand Now

Harry's U-Pull-It advertisement
Mohegan Sun Arena (2018)
Maybe this isn't the ideal spot to start pulling my part.  Thanks for the etiquette tip, Harry.

Polish Platter

Polish Platter
Transfiguration Picnic - West Hazleton, PA
You can always count on a church bazaar for the four basic food groups: halushki, halupki, potato pancakes and pierogies.

Mauna La'i

Mauna La'i
Ocean Spray
I used to love this stuff when I was a kid, but it was pretty expensive so we didn't get it too often.  I can't remember the last time that I saw it in stores.  An article from the New York Times from 2000 says that the product line was sold to Mott's, but their website makes no mention of it.

I Just Take As Much As You Can Throw

A Letter To Elise
The Cure (1992)

Elise it doesn't matter what you say

I just can't stay here every yesterday

Like keep on acting out the same the way we act out

Every way to smile forget and make-believe

We never needed any more than this

Any more than this

Elise it doesn't matter what you do

I know I'll never really get inside of you

To make your eyes catch fire the way they should

The way the blue could pull me in

If they only would

If they only would

At least I'd lose this sense of sensing

Something else that hides away

From me and you there're worlds to part

With aching looks and breaking hearts

And all the prayers your hands can make

Oh I just take as much as you can throw

And then throw it all away

Oh I throw it all away

Like throwing faces at the sky

Like throwing arms round

Yesterday, I stood and stared wide-eyed in front of you

And the face I saw looked back the way I wanted to

But I just can't hold my tears away the way you do

Elise believe I never wanted this

Thought this time I'd keep all of my promises

Thought you were the girl I always dreamed about

But I let the dream go

And the promises broke

And the make-believe ran out

So Elise it doesn't matter what you say

I just can't stay here every yesterday

Like keep on acting out the same the way we act out

Every way to smile forget and make-believe

We never needed any more than this

Any more than this

And every time I try to pick it up like falling sand

As fast as I pick it up

It runs away through my clutching hands

But there's nothing else I can really do

There's nothing else I can really do

There's nothing else I can really do at all

A Wilkes-Barre Smackdown

WWE Smackdown Live: July 17, 2018
Mohegan Sun Arena - Wilkes-Barre, PA

This was a pretty good show, but it was unfortunately not one that I was able to relax and enjoy it.  I'm not going to get into it here, but suffice to say that people can be exhausting.

Here are the results of the show:

Dark Match

• The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) defeated The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro)
  
  

WWE Smackdown Live

• AJ Styles defeated Andrade "Cien" Almas 
• Becky Lynch defeated Mandy Rose
• Samoa Joe defeated Tye Dillinger
• Eric Young defeated Kofi Kingston
• WWE United States Championship Match
  Jeff Hardy defeated Shinsuke Nakamura
  
  

WWE 205 Live Taping

• TJ Perkins defeated Noam Dar
• Drew Gulak defeated Danny Garcia
• Lio Rush defeated Akira Tozawa
  
  

Dark Match

• Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz

Sign Of The Times

Hosak Pontiac GMC
Route 309 - Tamaqua, PA
I pass this sign on the way to Reading.  It's across the street from All American Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, but it stands on a small empty lot with no other landmarks to suggest that cars were once sold here.  I'm not sure when it closed or what year the sign is from, but it's pretty old and it's still standing.