Les Nessman as news anchor?

It took awhile, but WKRP is back on the air in Cincinnati -- but this time as a TV station.

According to an Associated Press story, the station, which formerly was known as WBQC-TV, changed its call letters to promote its new digital TV signal.

General Manager Elliott Block says the new call letters give the station recognition because so many people remember the television sit-com.

"WKRP in Cincinnati" revolved around the antics of employees of a fictional radio station. The classic sit-com ran on CBS from 1978-1982 and made stars of Howard Hesseman as Johnny "Dr. Johnny Fever" Caravella and Loni Anderson as secretary Jennifer Marlowe. Other cast members were Gordon Jump, Tim Reid, Gary Sandy, Jan Smithers and Frank Bonner. Richard Sanders played clueless newsman Les Nessman.

Check out the new television station.

Wal-Mart worker dies from Black Friday stampede

A worker at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, N.Y., died Friday from injuries he sustained after being trampled by unruly Black Friday shoppers at the opening of the store at 5 a.m. Friday.

According to the Associated Press, Nassau County police said the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., an hour after the store opened. The cause of death was not immediately known.

A police statement said shortly after 5 a.m., a throng of shoppers "physically broke down the doors, knocking (the worker) to the ground." Police also said a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation and three other shoppers suffered minor injuries and were also taken to hospitals.

To read more, click here.

Football turkeys on Thanksgiving

Part of the Thanksgiving tradition is watching NFL football on television. But this year, the NFL has provided us with a few turkeys in their daylong extravaganza.

The biggest turkey is the first game at 12:30, when the 0-11 Detroit Lions host the 10-1 Tennessee Titans. Hopefully the Lions can keep the game interesting until most people sit down for dinner. The National Dog Show is on opposite this game. The Lions may qualify as Best of Show.

The second game pits the 2-9 Seattle Seahawks at the 7-4 Dallas Cowboys. At the start of the season this looked like a pretty good game, but the Seahawks are having their worst season in coach Mike Holmgren's last season. But it's always nice to root against the Cowboys no matter whom they are playing.

The third game, for those who still care, has our 5-5-1 Eagles hosting the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals are just 7-4, but lead the NFC West by 4 games. The Eagles, well, stink right now after a tie with the Cincinnati Bengals and a loss to the Baltimore Ravens in which quarterback Donovan McNabb was pulled at halftime. McNabb will start Thursday's game, but who knows what to expect from him. The Eagles' playoff hopes are slim right now; a loss to the Cardinals will likely put an end to those aspirations.

Whatever you do, enjoy the day. And remember to give thanks for what is truly important.

Gifts for the sports fan

With the holiday season upon us, here are a few ideas for the sports fan in your life.

All I've asked for this Christmas is anything that has to do with the Phillies' World Series title. T-shirts, hoodies or caps that say "World Series Champions" or anything celebrating the crown is all any Phillies' fan could want under the tree on Dec. 25. If you can't find it at your favorite retailer, all this stuff is available at mlb.com. You can even get a Philadelphia Phillies 2008 World Champions Collectors Edition of Monopoly.

A set of golf clubs is always a good idea. If you want to do something a little less expensive for your favorite golfer, golf accessories or a gift certificate to their favorite course would do the trick.

How about some tickets to see their favorite professional team in person? You can't go wrong there. Unless you are thinking of buying Eagles' playoff tickets.

If your sports fan likes to read, get him or her a book or two. A great selection can be found at Amazon.com.

Another good gift is a sports-related day-by-day desk calendar. Your sports fan could quiz his friends and co-workersr with the trivia items for each day of the year .

Or buy your fan a jersey of their favorite athlete. That's a good idea --unless it's an athlete who hasn't run into trouble with the law, that is.

Those are just a few ideas to get for the sports fan in your life. Happy holidays!

Eagles bashing

Now that the Eagles have followed up their awful tie with the Cincinnati Bengals with a brutal loss to the Baltimore Ravens that included the halftime benching of Donovan McNabb, it's time to put any thoughts of a playoff run to rest. This season, and perhaps the McNabb/Andy Reid, era is over.

So, here are some Eagles jokes to get you through the rest of the season:

The Philadelphia Police are cracking down on speeders heading into Philadelphia. For the first offense, they give you two Eagle tickets. If you get stopped a second time, they make you use them.

Q. What do you call 47 millionaires around a TV watching the Super Bowl?A. The Philadelphia Eagles.

Q. What do the Philadelphia Eagles and Billy Graham have in common?

A. They both can make 70,000 people stand up and yell 'Jesus Christ'.

Q. How do you keep the Philadelphia Eagles out of your yard?

A. Put up a goal post.

Q. Where do you go in Philadelphia in case of a tornado?

A: To the Eagles Stadium — they never have a touchdown there.

Q. What do you call a Philadelphia EAGLE with a Super Bowl ring?

A. A thief.

Q:What's the difference between the Philadelphia Eagles and a dollar bill?

A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

Q. How many Philadelphia Eagles does it take to win a Super Bowl?

A. Nobody knows and we may never find out.

Q. What do the Philadelphia Eagles and a possums have in common?

A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.

Mark your calendars

On Saturday, Dec. 6, the Boyertown Alumni Band and Marching Unit will present its 5th annual holiday concert at 7 p.m. at Morningstar Fellowship Church on Limekiln Road in Bechtelsville.


Among the selections are "Sleigh Ride," "A Christmas Festival," "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "March of the Toys," and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

A free will offering will be taken, with the money donated to an area charity.

Don't leave your cell phone at McDonald's

An Arkansas couple is suing McDonald's Corp., a franchise owner and store manager after a man left his cell phone at the restaurant and nude pictures of his wife that he had on the phone appeared online.

According to the Associated Press, the suit was filed Friday and seeks a jury trial and $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment and the cost of having to move to a new home.

The suit says that Phillip Sherman left the phone in the Fayetteville store in July and that employees promised to secure it until he returned.

Manager Aaron Brummley declined to comment, and other company officials didn't return messages.

I thought only Eagles' fans threw snow balls?

Notre Dame football fans, frustrated with their team's 24-23 loss to 3-8 Syracuse Saturday afternoon, threw snowballs at the Fighting Irish players during the game.

If you listen to sportscasters from around the country, I thought only Philly sports fans threw snowballs at their teams. I wonder if the Fighting Irish faithful will be vilified like fans are in Philly.

Bad start to Phillies offseason

The World Champion Phillies (wow, it's great to write that!) have barely recovered from their World Series parade when they were dealt a blow Thursday.

All-Star second baseman Chase Utley will have surgery on an injured hip and will be unable to participate in baseball activities for 3 to 4 months. Spring training starts in 3 months, on Feb. 14, and Utley may not be fully recovered until May.

Third baseman Pedro Feliz will have surgery on his back and will go through an 8-to-12 week rehabilitation.

Where's your raise?

In this struggling economic time, it's nice to know someone's getting some extra cash.

According to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Pennsylvania lawmakers and state judges are in line for 2.8 percent cost-of-living raises.

Rank and file members of the state House and Senate will see their base pay increase to just over $78,000 starting next month. Members of leadership will get even more.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille's salary is going up to nearly $192,000. The pay for county judges will be about $162,000.

The increases are tied to the regional consumer price index.

The same increases are due for Gov. Ed Rendell and his Cabinet secretaries. The governor says he might suspend them as part of budgetary belt-tightening.

As a taxpayer, are you getting your money's worth from the costliest state legislature in the country?

Tool box lost in space

I always have trouble finding tools throughout the house, but at least they aren't lost in space.

A tool bag drifted away from an astronaut working on the International Space Station and floated out into space.

To read more, click here.

Happy World Toilet Day!

In case you didn't know, a nonprofit organization in Singapore has declared today as World Toilet Day. The group wants to promote sanitation issues around the world.

Can't believe I didn't win

Actor Hugh Jackman was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive."

Blown call bad news for gamblers

A blown call by the referees at the end of the Pittsburgh-San Diego game had quite the effect on gamblers.

The Steelers won the game 11-10, but a late touchdown that would have made the final score 17-10 or 18-10 was nullified after an officiating mistake. The Steelers were favored by 4 points, so that blown call kept the Steelers from covering the spread and cost gamblers millions of dollars.

"Anyone who had a bet on the Pittsburgh side and thought they had won weren't too happy," said John Avello, director of the race and sports book at the Wynn resort.

Avello said there might have been $10 million bet on the game statewide, and many times more than that in illegal bets around the country and in offshore Internet betting sites. There was more money bet on Pittsburgh, he said, especially in parlay bets.

Click here to read more.

Rendell knows pathetic

In his part-time gig as an analyst on Comcast SportsNet's "Eagles Post-Game Live," Gov. Ed Rendell, at right, called the Eagles' performance in Sunday's 13-13 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals "Pathetic, with a capital P."

Well, if anyone would know pathetic, it would be Rendell. After all, he's the leader of one of the most pathetic states in the country regarding economic development, jobs, taxes, roads, etc.

Reid should be fired...NOW

After the Eagles' awful 13-13 tie with the now 1-8-1 Cincinnati Bengals, head coach and vice president of player personnel Andy Reid should be fired when the plane lands in Philly...if not over Pittsburgh!!!

It's obvious he is clueless as to what the problems are, let alone be able to fix them. He and quarterback Donovan McNabb have run their course with the Eagles. It's time for them both to go.

Columnist: Andy Reid worst coach in NFL

Jason Whitlock, a columnist for the Kansas City Star and contributor to foxsports.com, has ranked the best and worst coaches in the NFL.

His worst coach for 2008? None other than the Eagles' Andy Reid. And that's saying a lot since the Detroit Lions are 0-9 and the Cincinnati Bengals 1-8.

Here are the rankings.

Open mouth, insert foot

Lindsay Lohan has done it again.

In an interview with "Access Hollywood," the troubled 22-year-actress referred to President-elect Barack Obama as the country's "first colored president."

Yep, she said it.

According to the Associated Press story, in describing her experience on Election Day, Lohan said: "It was really exciting. It's an amazing feeling. It's our first colored president.

A spokesman for the syndicated entertainment news program said in a statement Wednesday: "We believe the word in question that Ms. Lohan used was unintelligible."

To read more, click here.

"Gee, really Wally"

Wally Cleaver has hit it big as a sculptor.

Tony Dow, at right, who played Beaver's older brother on "Leave It To Beaver," will have one of his sculptures on display at the Louvre in Paris.

To read more, click here.

Anyone else tired of Andy Reid?

How many Eagles fans reading this are tired of Andy Reid and the way he's running the team?

I don't know who ticks me off more: Andy Reid the football coach, or Andy Reid the executive vice president of football operations.

Reid's on-field decisions are just brutal. The offense starts the game so sluggishly, as a fan you wonder if that unit has evened practiced all week. And why Reid insists on running the ball in short-yardage plays in the fourth quarter when he hasn't given the running game a chance to work for the first 3 quarters is bizarre. An interesting stat from Sunday night's loss to the Giants: the Eagles are 5 out of 14 when running the ball on third or fourth down and a yard to go, yet they are 3 of 3 when passing in the same situation.

Of course, part of the problem may lie with Andy Reid the personnel guy. The last 2 years, the Eagles have traded out of the first round of the draft (in 2007, it was to the stinkin' Cowboys!!). This year, they lucked out by having DeSean Jackson fall into their laps in the second round. But trading a fourth-round pick for rarely-used running back Lorenzo Booker hasn't worked out. And using a 2007 third-round pick on recently cut running back Tony Hunt was a mistake.

Maybe if Reid went out and brought in a real fullback, it might help the running game.

His post-game and day-after press conferences are a waste of time. Everyone knows that after a loss, Reid will take the blame and say how he has to do a better job to get his players in a better position to make plays. I'M TIRED OF IT!!!!

Should the Eagles miss the playoffs this year, it will be the third time in four years that has happened. At some point, owner Jeffrey Lurie has to seriously consider letting Reid go as the team doesn't appear headed in the right direction.

A few years ago, though the Eagles had yet to win a Super Bowl, Lurie called the Eagles "the gold standard" of the NFL. After the Phillies' World Series win, the Eagles don't even carry "the gold standard" in their own city.

Waiting for cheaper gas

Gas prices in the Allentown and Quakertown areas have toppled to less than $2.10 a gallon. Other parts of the nation, like at this Ohio gas station in the AP photo at right, have seen gas drop below $2 a gallon. Yet when are we in the Pottstown area going to see even lower prices.

On my drive to work every day from Berks County, I pass at least 5 places selling gas, and no one is selling it for less than $2.30 a gallon. When the prices do drop, it's at 2 cents at a time.

One day last week, one convenience store's gas prices rose 2 cents overnight, and it dropped back 2 cents the next afternoon.

It's time motorists in the Pottstown area pay the same gas prices as others in the region!!!

Elderly woman found living with bodies of dead siblings

In a gruesome story, police said a 90-year-old woman in Illinois has been living in her house with the bodies of three dead siblings.

Two of the bodies were skeletons, and the third was badly decomposed. One of the siblings had been dead since the early 1980s, police said.

To read more, click here.

Say it ain't so, Joe

So much for Penn State's football team being unbeaten and not playing for the national championship.

The Nittany Lions dream season ended Saturday afternoon when they choked at Iowa, losing 24-23 on a field goal with 1 second remaining, to a team that was just 5-4 on the season.

More bad news for Pennsylvanians

Gov. Ed Rendell announced this morning that he plans to serve out the rest of his term that ends in January 2011, rather than pursue a Cabinet position in the Obama administration. That is sad news for taxpayers in the state.

Of course, Rendell, at right, probably called Obama's people to see what he could do, was told he wasn't being considered, and to save face announced he wasn't interested in joining the Cabinet -- at least until his term is over.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said the state's political factors played a role in the governor's decision. Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, next in line for governor, is battling cancer. If she couldn't serve, the line of command goes to Joseph Scarnati, the president Pro Tempore of the Republican-led state Senate.

Eagles wide receiver engaged to Playmate

Eagles wide receiver Hank Baskett made the greatest catch of his career last weekend, and it wasn't in the team's 26-7 win over Seattle.

Baskett became engaged to Kendra Wilkinson, at right, one of Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends and one of the stars of the E! network's "Girls Next Door."

Hefner has given his blessing and said the wedding will take place at the Playboy Mansion in June.

To read more, click here.

Mich. woman crosses the line with politics

A woman in Michigan took the presidential campaign a bit too far on Halloween -- she refused to give treats to children whose parents backed Barack Obama.

According to the Associated Press, Shirley Nagel of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., passed out candy, but only to those who shared her support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.

Television station WJBK says a sign posted outside Nagel's house, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Detroit, served this notice to trick-or-treaters: "No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters."

Nagel tells WJBK that "Obama's scary." When asked about children who were turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: "Oh well. Everybody has a choice."

I'm not an Obama fan, but denying children candy on Halloween because of their parents' political views is a bit extreme. What a witch she is.

Cheerleader booted off Patriots squad

An 18-year-old cheerleader with the New England Patriots was kicked off the squad after some questionable party photos of her appeared on her Facebook page.

To read the full story, click here.

World Series leftovers..

Just wondering....

• If the Red Sox or Yankees had gone 11-3 in the postseason like the Phillies did, would they be considered among the greatest teams of all-time?
• Why catcher Carlos Ruiz wasn't the MVP? He drove in the winning run in Games 1 and 3, homered in Game 3, and did a great job handling the pitching staff and defensively. Was he not picked because he's Hispanic?
• If the Phillies can repeat?