Philly's Sweat Suits: Fit, Fashion, or Fun?

I got a kick out of Daniel Rubin's article about the prevalence of sweat suits in Philly. The sum of the story is that a visiting friend of his noticed that so many people in Philadelphia wear sweat pants and tops, and Rubin confirmed it by discovering that "people bought more sweats last year in (the Philadelphia) metropolitan area, per capita, than in any other place in the country." There's a quirky party conversation for you!

At any rate, this brings up the question: Why is Philly the sweat suit capital of the country (and possibly the world)? There are several possible answers to this quandary:

1. Philadelphians are a low-key, casual bunch that aren't about to spend a small fortune on hoity-toity clothes like our neighbors to the north in New York. "Keep it simple, stupid."

2. Philadelphians are physically active. Having one of the largest park systems in the world and a very walkable Center City, people are out and about, getting, well, sweaty.

3. Philadelphians like to have fun and don't want to mess up their "good clothes".

4. Philadelphians have hit on a new fashion... sweat suit suave. Perhaps it's the next in thing that the rest of the country hasn't caught on to yet.

5. Philadelphians just don't give a flying frock. You know what I'm sayin.

Whatever the reason, sweats in Philly are always in season...

This Column is Free for All to View; No Paying Customers Permitted

I know I rant and reflect about money every so often, but lately I've gotten really annoyed with the fact that people have to pay for literally everything anymore. Of course there's no such thing as a free lunch, but I find it distressing that we now find ourselves having to pay for things that we never would have before. For instance...

-Kids don't play baseball in an empty lot anymore. They have to pay for Little League. Granted I loved my Little League days, but I NEVER see a game of sandlot baseball. It's free! Go play!
-Listening to the radio has become an expense. With XM and Sirius now in the mix, people are opting to pay monthly subscription fees to avoid commercials. I haven't gotten to this point yet, but I can understand why people don't mind coughing up some dollar bills for these services. The radio is really brutal sometimes, playing the same songs repeatedly, not much variety, and running terrible commercials. Isn't there a way we can have more tolerable commercials AND better music?
-Cable TV has made a killing on monthly payments, and yet still offers lame programming. I just read somewhere that the number of channels people watch is declining while the number of channels people receive is increasing, along with monthly bills. Talk about inefficiency there.
-Financial matters are now a pay to play ballgame. Used to be that people worked hard and loyally for companies and received a comfortable pension to support them in the Golden Years. Now mostly everybody is on their own fending for themselves to pay for mutual fund costs, trading commissions, hourly rates from financial planners, and so on. I feel bad for the people who can't afford to pay for figuring out how to make and save money for retirement.
-Exercise is no longer free. Used to be that people took a walk around the block or got a pickup game of basketball every week for exercise. Now, we feel obligated to pay to join a gym and use the facilities less than we hope to when we sign up.
-Want a higher paying job? Time to go into major debt by going back to school for a degree. Granted, I enjoy learning very much, but I think we're starting to suffer by not having as much on-the-job training. Compared to gaining experience by performing hands-on applications, burying your nose in a book is a much less straightforward and powerful way of learning, in my eyes.

I could go on, but I think you get my point. And you can thank me later for not charging you to read this post! ;-)

Domestic Problems

Can somebody please reveal to me the secret behind folding a fitted sheet properly?

Impossible, I say.

Money Does Grow on Trees

I recently became a first-time homebuyer of a house with a cozy little townhouse complete with a mini-backyard. The innards of the house are coming along and shaping up nicely. A few odds and ends need doing, but overall, everything is settled.

The backyard, however, is a bit of a disaster. I've got some overgrown bushes and trees that take up too much space for the small area and other than that, just a spread of patchy grass covers the rest of the ground. Pretty basic and uninspiring, really.

As a nature lover, I relish the idea of planting a more engaging yard, but I have no real experience of ever doing this. It's somewhat intimidating when I go on different sites and/or listen to pros tell me the steps and upkeep of planting a garden.

But just when I start to think about ditching my goal of planting a garden, I start getting bombarded with catalogs in the mail. Gardening catalogs with bright, exciting flowers, luscious green plants, and eye-pleasing formations just so happen to find their way into my hands. And my brain.

All of a sudden I'm looking at these catalogs thinking-- yeah, I can do this. And the prices are reasonable, only a few bucks for a packet of seeds, a few more bucks for a delivered plant, and a few more bucks for the tools of maintaining a garden. These catalogs are marketing miracles! I'd be a fool not to start a garden, right?

Well, whether or not I forge ahead and build this backyard bonanza remains to be seen. But it's plain to see that money really does grow on trees... if you happen to be a plant catalog producer...

Men's Restroom Etiquette

I don't really have much else to say other than if you've got 10 minutes and need a good laugh, watch this little video...

Men's Restroom Etiquette

(Note: best viewed by males.)

Marketing vs. Car Accidents

Marketers spend millions (billions? trillions?) of dollars every year to essentially get your attention. I know this because I am personally responsible for a very tiny fraction of that amount spent.

And yet really all you need is a traffic accident to grab somebody's attention.

Every time I pass by an accident while on the road, people slow down to a crawl and gawk at what's going on on the side of the road. It's a "must-see" moment.

But put a fake accident in commercials like VW has tried doing recently, and people are totally repulsed. I don't know anybody who likes those ads... or most ads for that matter.

So how does a marketer get that traffic accident moment?

Sometimes it just happens by accident, I reckon.

All that planning and strategizing and money-spending goes completely ignored, while a quick, unplanned, violent mistake gets all the attention.

Drive safely.

A Sign of the Times: Video Game Injuries

I can still recall having small callouses on my thumbs from playing Sega too extensively for a couple of hours at a time back in the early 90s. No big deal, I could still function and move on with my life.

Now, reports are coming out that injuries and accidents are occurring due to the aggressive actions used to play Nintendo Wii games. Indeed, doctors are even making the news by providing warm-up tips in preparation of playing an intense game of bowling on your home TV. So what does all this mean? It means our health insurance rates will be going up again! Duh!

Kidding (or maybe I'm not!), but seriously, I think if kids are going to play video games, playing active games like the ones Wii provides is probably better than the sedentary games that I played in the days of yore. However, I still think this hurts the outdoor playing that kids miss these days. For instance, I frequently see kids of all ages roaming about the neighborhood. It's great that they're outside... but these kids just do not know how to play! They just wander around, occasionally wrestle, or bang a Wiffle Ball bat against a pole, or engage in something equally non-productive. I have not seen any kids
playing catch, organizing a game, or being creative in any way. And
this is similar behavior in kids all over.

Unfortunately, parents will look at the Wii as an exercise event for their children and be content with it. Until the Wii games are incorporated in a lifestyle of playing in a variety of different ways, indoors and outdoors, this should not be considered acceptable!

Put in another way, I'd rather my children skin their knee in a game of capture the flag than by straining their arm in Wii tennis.

Well, soon enough kids will be playing capture the flag on a Wii set, no doubt!

Sigh.