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Showing posts from August, 2016
Books by Rob J. Quinn
Cover for Reach Past Your Limits Cover of The Birth of Super Crip Cover for Reach Past Your Limits

Rob’s Rants: Eagles Hard to Analyze; Phillies Say Goodbye to Ruiz; Soul Win ArenaBowl

It’s a strange week when a fake sports talk caller is probably the biggest story in Philly sports, but I decided to keep my attention on the field. I really planned to write most of this post about the Eagles “dress rehearsal,” a.k.a. the third preseason in which the starters play into the third quarter. But with the Colts resting most of their defensive starters, there was little to take from the game. The Colts did play starting quarterback Andrew Luck for the first half, and the Birds defense held Indianapolis to a field goal in the first two quarters. Overall, I continue to think Sam Bradford is underrated even though not much has changed in my expectations of a mediocre team. The long goodbye to the 2008 Phillies World Series championship team—can’t believe it’s almost 8 years since they won it—continued as Carlos Ruiz was traded to the Dodgers. I’m surprised the Dodgers are reportedly looking for Ruiz to bolster their offense , as most people thought he would be dealt to a

My Goodreads.com Review of The O’Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life by Bill O’Reilly

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I have been thinking for a while that I needed something to read other than the pop fiction that we have at the house. We have other types of books, too, but I’ve either read them or they don’t quite interest me. I’ve also been saying for a while that I’d like to read up on our presidents. So, I went to this building where they actually give away books—although you do have to return them—called a library. I hadn’t done my research, and nothing on George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, or the like, was jumping out at me. I know myself as a reader, and I need to ease into new areas. But I didn’t want to go home empty handed. Read my review on Goodreads.com or right here: The O’Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life by Bill O’Reilly When I came across Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor, I decided to give it a shot. The book wasn’t that long, and O’Reilly talks about politics on his show of the same name. I thought maybe I’d get

Rob’s Rants on Sports: Cheering Chase vs. the Phillies; Eagles Preseason Continues; Overestimating Saric

I went to the Phillies game Tuesday night to see Chase Utley. I helped give him the standing “O” when he leadoff for the Dodgers. And I was happy he struck out. I was done honoring Utley’s time as a Phillies player (for the night), and, though I didn’t expect it, I wanted the Phillies to win. Utley signed a bunch of autographs before the game and accepted the ovation well. I thought the Phillies handled his return with class, showing a short video tribute (in between an early half inning), and I thought Cameron Rupp stood out by stepping away from the plate when Utley first came up to bat. Then things got a little awkward. In his next at-bat, Utley got another standing ovation from a significant portion of the crowd. His home run in his third at-bat that gave the Dodgers a lead was met with more cheers. I gave a polite clap to both, feeling like I’d gone to see Utley and didn’t necessarily want to see him stink it up. Why people continued to cheer each time he came to bat was bey

Rob’s Rants on A Story You Should Have Heard; Journalism from John Oliver; Winning the Olympics; A Comedian You May Know

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Did you hear about the mass murder in Japan? See all the Facebook profile pictures change colors? Endless media coverage? No? A former employee of a residential complex killed 19 people, stabbing a total of 45, according to an article I found about the July murders. I forgot to mention—not really—that the complex was for people with disabilities. Could that be why the story didn’t get much attention? I only found out about it because one Facebook friend mentioned it. At the time, I expected it to be breaking news on CNN. Instead, I couldn’t even find it on their website until I used google. Today, searching “Sagamihara Japan knife attack” brings up a number of stories. Yet, I still haven’t heard a word about it without specifically looking for it online. I call these posts “Rob’s Rants” because I think it sounds good, but I really don’t want to rant and rave about everything. I’m not going to feign emotion about this story. I don’t know if the amount of violence we’ve all heard abou

Rob’s Rants on Sports: First Glimpse of the Eagles and Wentz; Thome on the Phillies Wall of Fame?; Flashes of old Ryan Howard; more

It was a busy weekend for Philadelphia sports, including the Eagles playing their first game Thursday against Tampa Bay. I guess if I’m calling Thursday part of the “weekend,” I can call the glorified practice that is preseason football a “game.” Since the Birds will dominate my sports Rants, I thought I’d shift gears and start  posting it on Mondays (or Tuesdays when they play on Monday night) after the game. I don’t know what to make of Sam Bradford’s 3-play appearance in the preseason opener, which included his one pass for 3 yards. The drive started in the red zone after the Bucs fumbled the opening kickoff, and ended with a Ryan Matthews rushing touchdown. If Bradford was an established veteran starter, I’d assume head coach Doug Pederson was happy to get the quarterback’s feet wet and get him out on a positive note. But playing his first season last year after missing a season-and-a-half due to injuries, and having his team trade up to the second pick in the draft to select qu

Rob’s Rants on Sports: Is it really better if Lane Johnson didn’t know? Mackanin and his young pitchers; Eflin’s knees; more

I don’t want to be another guy saying, “How stupid is Lane Johnson?” who reportedly faces a second suspension for using performance enhancing drugs. The Eagles lineman supposedly has a familiar excuse—he was using a substance approved by the league. If that’s true—though a guy whose already been suspended doesn’t have much credibility—it’s hard to comprehend how this keeps happening. Players can supposedly call the league to make sure they’re taking approved supplements. Johnson’s appeal of the suspension will likely be based on the supplement being “ wrongly labeled .” Maybe the league needs a hotline for players to find out where they can buy supplements. Is it really that hard for a billion dollar industry to regulate, or maybe organize is a better word, how players get their supplements? Again, with Johnson’s previous suspension, most people aren’t buying his apparent excuse. But I really think it brings up a bigger, or at least another, issue. We’ve all heard the stories about

My Goodreads.com Review of James Patterson’s The Beach House

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After reading James Patterson’s The Beach House, I admit I need to diversify my reading. In the meantime, check out my thoughts on the book at Goodreads.com or right here: The Beach House by James Patterson My rating: 2 of 5 stars I committed the sin of judging a book by its cover—or at least picking a book to read by its cover. The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge looked like it might offer a little taste of being at the shore inside one of his typical “thrillers.” No such luck, but it was a fairly decent story, easy enough to read (mostly) when we went to the pool. Jack Mullen sets out to prove that his brother didn’t drown, but, in fact, was murdered. The book kind of sets up a battle between the middle class and the rich. It’s not until fairly late that the reader gets a sense—at least I did—that the novel is somewhat of a comment on the sensationalized trials of celebrities like O.J. Simpson, which didn’t quite work. And I was slightly confused by what

Rob’s Rants on Sports: Trade Deadline, Talk Shows, Former Eagles Coaches, Ejecting Fans, and a Note on Pete Rose

Sports is just starting to rev up again as we crawl through the dog days of the sports calendar. But there were a few things I found worth ranting about. Though I seem to be alone in my opinion, I was happy the Phillies didn’t make a move at the deadline. All I heard for two weeks before the deadline when a Phillies pitcher had a good performance was that the guy was increasing his trade value. How about increasing the value of the product on the field? Jeremy Hellickson is 29 years old. Vince Velasquez is 24. Both guys were rumored in trades. Along with Jerad Eickhoff and Zac Eflin, the Phillies have a fairly young pitching staff with potential. Yes, it’s only potential. But this is what everybody wanted—the Phillies to get young. Why not play it out? Unless the Phillies were getting back players they could plug-in right away who were going to be here for years, there’s no way they should have traded either Hellickson or Velasquez. I understand Hellickson will probably become a f

Rob’s Rants on Two Weeks of Conventions—Part II: Democrats

Here’s Part II of Rob’s Rants on the last two weeks of political conventions. The Democrats were up close, having their party right in my area of Philadelphia. Hillary Clinton gave a great speech to close out the Democratic National Convention, and pushed me toward voting in the presidential election in November. I didn’t say voting for her, because the only choice for me is to vote for Clinton or not at all. She crushed Trump, putting him in his place, especially in respect to his suggestion that he knows more than our military leaders, saying, “No, Donald, you don’t.” And she succinctly summed up the problem with his temperament, saying, “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man you can trust with nuclear weapons.” I thought there was genuineness in the way she talked about all of his prejudice. Finally, it didn’t feel like piling on—not that Trump’s nonsense doesn’t deserve some piling on—but she really put it on a non-political level. She laid out her history of working for

Rob’s Rants on Two Weeks of Conventions—Part I: Republicans

This will be a rare political Rob’s Rants. After two weeks of conventions, I couldn’t resist. I don’t claim any political expertise. I’m just some guy who watches the shows. But, hey, that’s good enough for the Republican nominee, here are my thoughts: I didn’t hate Donald Trump’s speech. I agree with some of his basic concepts—put America first, strengthen the borders, and create better policing. I kept thinking, “How?” “How?” “How?” But I think either candidate will have to deal with a Congress where the other party simply refuses to work with them. (That needs to stop—now.) I wondered about some of his facts, and I wasn’t surprised to read that he was often off-base. I also felt like the real Donald kept slipping out when he would stop and strut for a couple steps, or clap, or join the “USA” chant. His self-aggrandizement is never far away. And, as much as I don’t want to be that guy, I didn’t like the fact that in an hour-plus speech he didn’t mention issues of people with dis