Phillies fans thought they had the World Series in the bag… until Mother Nature stepped in.  Or was it “The Curse of Billy Penn?”

That’s what a lot of Philadelphians like myself are wondering after the World Series was washed out by rain in the 6th inning Monday Night.

You see, when I was growing up in Philly the statue of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn loomed large over the City of Brotherly Love.  The deal was: “No buildings taller than Billy’s hat.”

It was an unwritten rule that everyone respected…

Until 1987, when One Liberty Place was built. Billy found himself in a shadow and no Philadelphia sports teams have won a championship since: thus the Curse of Billy Penn.

There are now a few buildings dwarfing Billy. But the guys who built the latest, Philadelphia’s tallest, decided to see if they could “reverse the curse” by putting a miniature statue of William Penn at the very top.

Will it work? We’ll see.. Game 5 resumes tonight at Citizens Bank Park. Go Phillies!

The hotel threw lounge chairs in the pool so they wouldn

11:16pm
The winds are the strongest yet, but not yet the strongest expected. That lounge chair in the pool trick we mentioned earlier… Not working! They’re being blown out of the water. We’ve been doing hits every 5 to 10 minutes all night long. We’re running up to a hotel room whenever we can to drop our wet things in a dryer. Not sure why we’re bothering!

7:47pm

Lull over. We’re live on beach. The sand is whipping up and stinging my legs. I bought waterproof pants, but they have somehow disappeared. So I’m wearing shorts.

7:23pm
There’s a lull in the storm now. I can see the horizon again. There’s even a family walking the beach.

6:16
This is my first storm chasing experience. It’s interesting how the bands come and go with different wind speeds. I’m taking shelter inside a hotel for a few minutes. The wind was howling but the suddenly just stopped. A woman here yelped “ooh!”. It’s funny how sudden silence can shock people almost as much as loud noises.

5:56pm
The sky is now a grayish white, you can no longer see the horizon line. The rain is coming down hard. I’m already drenched. My fingers are pruned. And we haven’t seen the worst of Hanna yet.

5:36pm
The wind’s picking up and the surf’s pounding the sand in Myrtle Beach, SC as Tropical Storm Hanna is getting ready to come ashore. Rick’s doing his affiliate liveshots next to a message someone scratched in the sand: “Welcome to MB Hanna”. That pretty much sums up the mood here. Locals and even some tourists are riding out the storm.

Pretty much anyone at the Aroostook Valley Country Club in northern Maine will tell you: the golf course was built to get around the law.
During prohibition times, a bunch of American and Canadian businessmen figured out that if the clubhouse was *just* over the border, Americans could drink there legally. Of course back then people didn’t worry about border security like we do today, especially when it came to our neighbors to the north. 

But September 11th changed things, even in what would be considered the safest of places.
So, the Canadians who come to play a couple of holes at Aroostook Valley could soon be the latest victims of this unfortunate reality.

Most of these Canadians travel to the golf course via a road that runs from New Brunswick, Canada into Maine. There is no official port of entry there, just a sign telling visitors to report to the nearest port of entry some 6 miles away. Going there they pass right by the golf course. So would you go out of your way just to report to American customs?

Border Patrol sees this road as a huge gaping hole in our nation’s security. The local sector is considering putting up concrete barriers so that people would have to drive to Fort Fairfield, the nearest customs point. Others, including the country club and Maine Senator Susan Collins, have suggested putting a new port of entry on the road that operates only during golf season. That’s what Canada has at this very spot. But building one could cost American taxpayers millions.

So the situation is at a crossroads. Both sides agree they must arrive at a compromise that best protects national security. It’s just a question of getting there. What’s the best way to go?

I’ve been inside the Celebrity Divorce Court everybody’s talking about. But I had no time to blog. I was too busy typing up some 30 pages of courtroom notes and beaming them back to my colleagues via blackberry. I had my wrists and thumbs on ice all weekend.

But the testimony was so juicy I couldn’t stop typing. It was like watching a Lifetime movie.
A legendary Supermodel marries a handsome cad who turns out to be no Superdad… Christie told of how she thought their life in the idyllic Hamptons was perfect, until the day a stranger shattered her world forever.

Moments after Christie delivered a commencement speech at Southampton High School on Long Island, NY, a man tapped her on the shoulder and whispered “Your b—— of a husband is having an affair with my step daughter. He won’t knock it off. She’s just 19 years old.”

Peter originally tried to deny it all to Christie, but finally ‘fessed up in both public and private. He was the first to take the stand. He told of how he first met and bedded the young Diana Bianchi… How he gave her a job doing odds and ends around his office. He paid her 20 grand for a summer’s worth of work, but would also leave extra cash for her in hiding places. When Diana took the stand, there was much hubbub amongst the press when we realized one of the former lovers was lying.

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