I guess I’m not surprised that the British, who’re OK with rugby welts and snaggleteeth and green eggs and ham, would chase each other down the steepest hill in England for an 8-pound hunk of cheese. (If it were a triple-creme I would probably be right there with them.)

boston.com

wtf, england

According to boston.com’s “The Big Picture” blog, the annual event draws a huge crowd and ends in lots of broken bones. But also pride! In winning a wheel of Double Glouster Cheese! Sez the site:

Last Monday, May 25th, the annual Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake was held near Gloucester, England. In a tradition that dates back at least 200 years, possibly much longer, groups of fearless competitors chase an 8 pound (3.5 kg) round of Double Gloucester Cheese down an extremely steep and uneven hill, with a 1:1 gradient in some parts. Thousands of spectators gather to watch the five downhill and four uphill races, and to celebrate the winners and console the losers afterward. Injuries such as broken bones and concussions are commonplace, but the event continues to grow in popularity. The winner of each race is awarded the delicious round of cheese they were chasing.

Click the link for more photos, and in the meantime, why doesn’t Philly do anything this dangerous/fun? Is there a human pretzel contest we don’t know about? A Rocky ironman or something?

James Moody (left) and Frank Iacovino (right): inventors of the quarter game.

It started by accident, say guests James (Jay) Moody and Frank Iacovino on this episode of Philly From Scratch: The Podcast. Frank accidentally dropped a quarter in the urinal at the Khyber, he says, and returned to find that someone had taken it.

So Frank and Jay tried again. And again, and again — checking periodically to see how long their quarters could last in the Khyber’s urinals before vanishing into the pocket of … well, who knows?

I find what they call “The Game” fascinating. For one thing, it paints a rather dark — or at least desperate — portrait of our fellow man (the experiment hasn’t been tried in the ladies’ room, mostly due to lack of urinals). And it’s so mysterious. Playing the game, you’re likely looking at the culprit — yet Jay and Frank have found it impossible to tell who actually removed the quarters (with the exception of one acquaintance, who admitted to removing them with his Leatherman; but they swear it still works when he’s not around).

It’s so fascinating, in fact, that I’d like to invite you, reader/listener, to try it yourself, at another bar, and e-mail me with the results (please include your best estimate as to how long the quarter lasted).

If we get data, we’ll post it.

If you like Philly From Scratch: The Podcast, you can subscribe via iTunes and have it delivered straight to your listening device — for free!

thecoldfront.org

This Friday at 4 p.m., Coors Light promises to “bring refreshment ‘as cold as the Rockies’ to life in a memorable way” by dropping a “30-foot snow mass” into the river off Penn’s Landing. This is all to promote the cans with the mountains that turn blue when they’re cold enough to drink. We’re guessing it’ll look something like the image above, taken from thecoldfront.org.

Regardless of its physical properties, I don’t know if dropping something that large into the Delaware is a good idea. I mean, what if some of the water splashes back onto their hands? Eek!

A surprising Gayborhood lawsuit has just come to light, pitting one gay bar against another. As  the Inky’s Michael Klein reported, the owners of Tavern on Camac (at 243 S. Camac St.) have accused newcomer Camac (two blocks away) of “sowing confusion with the name and sending employees into Tavern on Camac to dispense drink coupons to divert customers.”

That second bit sounds a little dicey, sure, but — while it’s rare that I would take a stand against a gay piano bar — I’m going to point out the obvious here: Camac is a street name! (OK, OK, Camac is only a half street — in the company of other absolutely-no-parking alleys like Smedley and Waverly — but still.)

Imagine the chaos that could ensue if business owners who happened to use a street name first could sue the pants off of every Johnny-come-lately with the gall to name their new spot based on its location.

Some hypothetical lawsuits that are really no more absurd than this one:

• Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church v. Pine Street Pizza
• Walnut Street Theater v. The Walnut Room
• Savory on Spruce v. Spruce Street Espresso
• 12th Street Gym v. 12th Street Cantina
• SEPTA v. 8th Street Music, The Broad Street Review, Girard Avenue Cleaners, etc. (SEPTA could be rich, imagine!)
• City of Baltimore v. City of Philadelphia, for daring to name an avenue after their fine city

Let’s hope that the Camac folks start playing nice, and that the Tavern on Camac people realize that Follies are great around a piano — but not so great cluttering a courtroom docket.

Standing outside the ol’ 123 Chestnut, I caught a huge group of green-clad runners jogging to the Plough and the Stars. They are part of the NJ Shore Run’s 10th annual St. Patty’s Day pub marathon, where they jog from bar to bar. This year, they had 55 runners in tow. Unfortunately, my phone didn’t work when it came to their sprint, but here are some runners after they made it to their destination:

Sláinte, guys. Just be careful.

Have you guys caught any other hilariously-dressed St. Pat’s Day revelers? Tell us about them the comments and send pictures our way if you have them!

That is, if I have anything to do with it.

Via PBJ:

Tasty Baking Co. said Friday that an increase in pension costs contributed to a fourth-quarter loss of $4.6 million.

The deficit, equal to 57 cents a share, compared to a year-earlier profit of $100,000, or a penny a share.a

Tasty Baking (NASDAQ:TSTY), the maker of Tastykake baked products, said fourth quarter results included a charge of $7.8 million related to after-tax pension expenses. The company also recorded an after-tax gain of $4.8 million related to changes in the retiree medical plan.

I vow to gorge myself on Cream-Filled Koffee Kakes to ensure that you stay financially solvent.

BOO THIS PASS!

phillyskyline.com

On Monday, R. Bradley Maule put us on to the sad fact that SEPTA had placed NEW YORK’S SKYLINE on its special Philly Beer Week passes. (Good for one day of unlimited bus, trolley and rail rides, the $9 passes are being offered to discourage people from getting behind the wheel during Beer Week, which runs March 6-15.)

Brad:

But seriously. New York? No one noticed this. Not the graphic designer who put the pass together in Quark or InDesign. Not the supervisor who approved the job. Not anyone in the office who they showed the pass to: “hey, come check out the Philly Beer Week pass we made.”

Not a good look.

Thank God SEPTA has updated the pass. Here’s the new one, this time featuring the correct sprawling East Coast metropolis (loving the filename — “beer-week-revised-sample.jpg”):

septa.org

OK, but we’re still gonna be a little sore about this until we get a couple high-gravity beers in us.

Lately I’ve found myself running into out-of-towners and newcomers, and the whole Geno’s/Pat’s thing tends to come up. Which is better, why, etc. It’s tired and tiring but what can you do. I tell e’em both are probably fine choices, only Geno’s is the one with Joey Vento and the xenophobic “This is America, When Ordering Speak English” sign, so that’s a factor you may want to consider. Anyway, I found myself walking by Ninth and Federal late Saturday night when I noticed this sign:

photo by Patrick Rapa

“Free English Lesson With Purchase of a Cheesesteak.” I’m not sure what the message is there. Are we talking “wit = with onions” or something else? It’s right around the corner from a flier paying tribute to fallen police officers. You might call it more classic Joey Vento activist steaking … except this sign was at Pat’s.

another subpar photo by Patrick Rapa

So, chances are this is old, because I rarely partake of the steak — though I do find myself humming the insane Steak ’em Up jingle — but I was wondering, what do you, Clog readers, make of the sign?

Ben’s Chili Bowl

Photo | Isaiah Thompson

CP staff writer Isaiah Thompson is in Washington, D.C. Follow his inauguration Tweets on the City Paper’s Twitter page. Look for the “#inaug09″ tag.

The line at the Bill Cosby-approved Ben’s Chili Bowl is, at this point, permanent. Obama himself visited last week, somewhat controversially. I wonder if they’ll just run out of chili at some point. Will keep you posted.

Apologies to Meal Ticket, but The Clog was within closer reach when I found this: then-senator Barack Obama’s 2001 appearance on the local Chicago dining program Check, Please! In the clip, he discusses Hyde Park’s Dixie Kitchen.

Does Obama’s informal restaurant review bode well for his fast-approaching presidency? Let’s listen:

“I ordered the Southern Sampler because I couldn’t make up my mind.”

Indecisiveness = bad. Then again, a willingness to try a little bit of everything is generally positive.

“It’s not gourmet cuisine, but that’s not why I go to Dixie Kitchen. I’m not looking for some fancy presentation or extraordinarily subtle flavors.”

The populist approach! “Table for two? Should be under ‘Sixpack’?”

“[The complimentary corn pancakes] are pretty dangerous, because you can fill up on those pretty quick.”

Very wise — all things in moderation. Except, of course, tax cuts for the lower middle class. I want some of them corn cakes too, B.

1. Type http://bacolicio.us/ into your browser bar followed by a full Web site URL. This is their inspired example.

2. Try: http://bacolicio.us/http://citypaper.net

3. Revel in the deliciousness.

4. Read their blog.

(Thanks Dennis)

UPDATE [2 p.m.] Sorry, couldn’t resist:

Yesterday, four Center City McDonald’s restaurants were visited by workers and supporters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who — armed with leaflets and video cameras — attempted to chat with the employees about their pay (usually at or near minimum wage) in comparison to the pay of McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, which SEIU estimates to be 770 times greater than that of a burger flipper.

According to Skinner’s profile on Forbes.com, the CEO receives $9.4 million in total annual compensation.

The action is part of the union’s larger campaign in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act, a piece of legislation that would make it easier for different kinds of workers to form unions. The legislation, for which President-elect Barack Obama has voiced support, will be hard-won if it passes. SEIU says that McDonald’s has been a particularly strong voice lobbying against the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

In the clip above, Chris White and SEIU Healthcare PA organizer Morgan Grass enter a McDOnald’s to talk to its workers, as well as a supervisor who looks like he might have needed a stiff one after work Thursday.

“Soooo … you come here often?”

planetware.com

Last night, at approximately 11 p.m. (I recreated the following events with the accurate help of my phone), I got a text message. It said: “Dahlak?“

I figured it was a friend of mine, whose number I just keep forgetting to save, inviting me to the West Philly Ethiopian bar/restaurant for a beer. 

I saved the number — or so it seemed. “Hey, not home yet,” I wrote back. “You be there a bit?”

No response. Twenty minutes later, I popped into the Dahlak, but didn’t see my friend.

“Shoot,” I texted. “Looks like I missed you.”

It wasn’t until about midnight that I realized I had saved the wrong number. I had been texting someone else all night.

“Crap,” I wrote the mystery number. “Sorry about the msgs. I got a number screwed up somewhere … very confusing!”

So whom had I been accosting all night? I stared at the number, mystified, until I recognized the first three digits: 686. City Hall.

I had been texting City Hall.

Specifically, I had been texting my late-night whereabouts to the office of Rob Dubow, Director of Finance for the City of Philadelphia. We had been talking that afternoon (more on that later).

I don’t think City Hall phone numbers get text messages. But if they do, sorry Rob. Don’t get the wrong idea.

The Fifth Annual Mustache Bash: A Celebration of the Mustache pops off, in a whiskerly way, at 10 p.m. tonight at the M Room.

Fifth annual? Yes. The Mustache Bash originated with City Paper accounting guru Ron Walsh and his boys Ryan Wachter and Leo Storniolo, better known as the Awesome Overload DJs. They’ve joined forces with PaperStreet to venue-fy the endeavor, which simply and gloriously consists of drinking while having a mustache. (Temporary ’staches for the ladies/the testosterone-challenged will be available.)

Joining AO on the decks: DJ Lindsay Maria out of New Zealand and PFUNKT.

“I hosted it at my house two years ago,” says Walsh. “Shit’s all grown up now. I hope I can get into my own party.”