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From Wikipedia:

Marlex was used by Wham-O for their Hula Hoops in the 1950s, which helped create a market for this plastic. It is now used surgically as a reinforcing mesh in inguinal hernia repair.

Back in the early 70’s a few of us here at PSU got a great idea.  We decided we’d celebrate Groundhog Day with a party and a trip to Punxsutawney.  Feb 2nd fell on a Friday that year (which with a little quick internet research tells me that the year was 1973).  About 30 of us signed on.  One of the guys was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and he arranged for the use of the fraternity party room.  We also chartered a bus from the local bus company. 

One keg rental and we were good to go.  The party started about midnight and went until about 3:30 AM when the bus showed up.  We all piled onto the bus, dragging the keg with us and headed to Gobbler’s Knob.

Punxsy is about 80 miles from PSU but in those days it was all back roads and probably well over a two hour trip. Lo and behold disaster hit us about 45 minutes out when our bus broke down. We had to wait almost an hour before a backup bus was located to fill in for the disabled one (rounding up a bus and driver at 4:30 in the morning evidently isn’t the easiest thing to do). With that delay we knew it was going to be a close call as to whether we would make Phil’s appearance or not.

Sure enough we got to the Knob just in time to see everyone come pouring down the hill. Amazing no one seemed to mind (probably a result of the alcohol). On to phase three of the escapade – the Punxsutawney Country Club where we had reservations for the annual Groundhog Day Breakfast and where we got to meet the Groundhog Day Queen. We were treated like royalty by all the Punxsy folk – this was well before the movie and before it became a really huge deal to head to Punxsy – they thought it was great that a group would come all the way from State College.

Despite the amount of alcohol that we all had consumed, we were all on our best behavior and there were no incidents (I honestly don’t think we could do the same in this day and age – not to sound like an old fogey but every weekend here I see kids that just don’t know how to handle their alcohol). However, by 10:00 am or so, we were all pretty much exhausted. Word came that it was time to go and we all piled back onto the bus.

The ride back to State College was pretty quiet as the whole crowd tried to grab some shut eye. We pulled into State College and exited the bus in front of the fraternity house. I was at the back of the bus and was the last one off. Waiting at the bottom of the bus steps was my friend Chuck Gambone, who was basically the driving force behind the whole trip (Chuck was in grad school but worked part time for a travel agency during football bowl season so he knew all the ins and outs of making the trip arrangements).

Chuck’s first words to me were “Where’s GW?” (GW was Chuck’s roommate). I looked at him inquisitively. He repeated “GW. Wasn’t he in the back with you?” “Nope” was my answer. A little bit of panic spread across Chuck’s face at that moment as he realized that he had left his roommie in Punxsy.

We later found out that GW had gone to the bathroom just as we all piled onto the bus. When he came out he initially thought that we had just pulled the bus away for a bit to pull a joke on him. It wasn’t until 10-15 minutes passed that he realized that we really had left him behind. There weren’t any cell phones in those days so he had no way of alerting us to the problem.

Chuck was really upset but didn’t really know what to do. He figured he’d better hurry home guessing that GW would probably be calling often. Chuck raced home, walked into the apartment and was promptly greeted in a not so friendly manner by GW who was already home.

Fortunately for GW, his new Punxsy friends had taken good care of him. As soon as they realized that he’d been left behind they took him over to a table where the local Punxsy morning radio personality was doing his show. The host relayed the story about GW being stranded and asked his listeners if anyone was headed to State College that day. Within minutes someone had called in and offered GW a ride to SC. He actually wound up beating the bus home.

Chuck still lives in State College and whenever I run into him around this time of year, we have a good left about the failed Punxsy trip.

I use my lawn tractor to mulch leaves in the fall. This year Lex did most of it. Even tho he can’t yet reach the pedals, by using cruise control he’s able to cover almost all of the yard.

I know my 244.5 July a year ago put be atop the Fall Family weight chart but does the 178 that I weighed this morning now make me the lightest Fall brother?

Veronica and Eric secretly purchased the two tickets to the Cubs game for our 20th anniversary a few weeks bag.  It ends up it looks like today is going to be the day the Cubbies clinch.  Even though I’m a Sox fan (can you tell which one of us gets more respect), I’m really looking forward to it.  We’re leaving in just a little bit. 

Hopefully, it’ll be as exciting as we anticipate.  We’ll keep you updated.

I found this site that will map out the prevalence of your surname in countries around the world.

Here’s the map for Fall and the legend that goes with it (a real Legend of the Falls – pun intended).

This came as a real surprise to me. I have seen lots of references to Falls from Somalia, so I expected something to pop up there. I also thought Fall was of German ancestry so I would have expected an appearance there. But not Canada and Sweden. Food for thought.

NOTE: I did a little digging and discovered Africa hasn’t been indexed yet so no Somalians is understandable. Also, the name is of Celtic (Irish) origin so the United Kingdom over Germany is now understandable.

Now, for an even bigger surprise, it turns out that Larry is the most popular Fall forename (with Lisa and Christopher 2nd and 3rd). Now that I never would have guessed. I am reasonably sure that Abdou and Papa belong to the branch of the Falls who have emigrated out of Somalia.

If you go to the site, you can actual drill down to the country and state level.

and this chart that I put up for a short while

Well they were made a little over a year ago (more like 14 months to be a little more specfic)

Unfortunately, my exercise campaign only lasted a couple of months until my “unretirement” in the Beer Mile last Labor Day.

The good news was that my weight didn’t balloon back up. I pretty much fluctuated around 220-225.

At the end of last spring, I decided to try to drop some more weight.. Things get pretty quiet around State College following spring graduation (mid May) up until the kids come back for the second summer session (end of June), so around Memorial Day I decided to go into one of my “no drinking” phases for the month of June. I also started watching what I ate a little more closely (nothing too health nut serious, mostly cutting back on the amount of red meat, eating a lot more chicken and sometimes fish).

I was very please with the results. By the end of June, without too much sacrifice my weight got down to 215. Rather than end my “fast” as originally planned, I started extrapolating and figured that I could quite possibly break 200 by Labor Day.

Since then, I’ve modified the plan a little, i,e, the complete teetotaling has gone by the wayside. As often as not, I’ll have a beer or two after my men’s league golf on Wednesday and I will drink during “special occasions”, maybe every second or third weekend.

While there were a couple of moment where I wonder if I could make it, I am proud to announce that my scale read 199.5 when I stepped on it this morning. Mission accomplished. I can now go out and celebrate for the Holiday Weekend and first football game of the season (and probably recoil in horror when I get on the scale Tuesday morning but that’s a problem for another day).

I honestly don’t remember that last time that I was under 200. Has to be about 15 years ago. I know when I was training for my marathon (sometime around 1987) I was about 188 but I started putting the weight on after it.

I’m not sure how much longer, if at all, I’ll try to keep losing weight but I am at least going to try to stay under 200.

Now I have to go back and see if I can reclaim at least some of my UncleLar party image that I lost over weight loss campaign. 🙂

Today, Lex roamed centerfield at Yankee Stadium. He’s in the bright yellow T-shirt, seen clearly in the 2nd shot.

The coaches were:
Mike Torrez – Pitching
Ron Blomberg – Hitting
Micky Rivers – Fielding

Very cool day. I hope Lex enjoyed it.

WordPress, the underlying blogging software that provides the basis for this blog, has introduced a new version of their software which I’ve installed today. At first you should see no change because the new features are all behind the scene administrative changes that should only be visible to Gary and I – with one major exception.

That one exception will be that, when you go to make a post, you will see an entirely new panel. Hopefully, the new changes won’t be that significant. I would expect that most of you will be able to figure out how to make a post without too much trouble. If you are confused about something, send me an email and I’ll give you a hand.