On his ride back from soccer practice, our son heard the news that Phillies were not picking up the option on slaphitting utility infielder Abraham Nunez. (Thank heaven for that, by the way.) Here’s our conversation:

Lad: Abraham Nunez! Is he fired?
Dad: Basically, yeah. But his time that he was supposed to be in Philly was done, so they’re just not going to bring him back.
Lad: Wasn’t he good?
Dad: Not very good.
Lad: What about Charlie Manual? Will he still be a Phillie?
Dad: Yep, they just re-signed him, so he’ll be back next year.
Lad: But wasn’t he bad too?
Dad: Well, they made the playoffs, so they must have thought he did a good job after all.
[Pause.]
Lad: I think I’m going to be an owner. What do I have to do to be an owner?
Dad: Kid, I like the way you think. First get millions of dollars, then buy a team.

A couple weeks ago, Delaware County filed a lawsuit against the FAA challenging the FAA’s flight path redesign plan. In Swarthmore, the Republican mayor and a Democratic borough councilman joined as plaintiffs to the suit. The Swarthmorean carried an item on the topic that should be useful for anybody who would like more of an insider’s view of the suit. Unfortunately, the Swarthmorean  doesn’t produce an on-line edition, so I’m reprinting the article here with the permission of the author:

Last Friday Swarthmore Mayor Eck Gerner and Swarthmore Council member Geoff Semenuk became plaintiffs in the Delaware County lawsuit seeking to halt the FAA air-space redesign plan that seeks to redirect an open-ended number of departing flights over the center of the county. The suit, which Semenuk says is “currently the best chance to stop the FAA” seeks to show that the FAA failed to fully comply with the legal requirements of the plan’s Environmental Impact Study.

Among other points, the suit contends that the FAA failed to properly study noise levels by looking at averaged noise of a 24-hour period rather than the specific noise associated with an actual plane flying overhead or nearby. Another target of the suit is that the FAA failed to properly factor in the positive airline traffic effects of its own approved and under-contruction 17-35 runway extension. “The FAA predicated their plan on conditions they knew they were improving with this other project ,” Semenuk added.

Although Gerner and Semenuk were happy to lend support to the hard work of County Council Chair Andrew Reilly, who has spear-headed this bi-partisan effort and was kind enough to speak to Borough Council on this matter last year, they admit that the issue is bigger than just this particular lawsuit. “No one wants the airport to fall on hard times, most of us use it and depend on it in varying degrees,” said Gerner. “The shame of this is that delays could be ended tomorrow if the FAA forced the airlines to spread their schedules more evenly during the day instead of over-booking those popular rush hours.”

“So when the FAA says that because of flight delays it has to fly fully-fueled and sold-out passenger planes at full throttle and only a few hundred feet above the center of the second most densely populated county in Pennsylvania, they are clearly being disingenuous,” said Semenuk.

Last week in one of her final public speeches before leaving her post as head of the FAA in order to become the president and CEO of a company that lobbies the FAA to adopt automated air traffic control technology of the sort she has been publically promoting for a number of years, Marion Blakey made this admission: “To be clear, the airlines need to take a step back on the scheduling practices that are at times out of line with reality. Passengers are growing weary . . . And if the airlines don’t address this voluntarily, don’t be surprised when the government steps in. Drawing down the schedule at Chicago was not my happiest hour, but it could come to that on the East Coast as well.”

In Chicago in 2004, the FAA stepped in and forced the airline industry to reduce the number of takeoffs and landings between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 88 per hour, down from over 130 or more, reducing delays by 24.5 percent in 2005.

Why the FAA doesn’t simply make airlines comply with common sense isn’t a mystery though, the FAA charter is to promote the airline industry as well as ensure its safe operation. Semenuk adds, “It is a shame that our federal government can only seem to respond to a crisis instead of guiding an industry to adopt safe and reasonable practices. The airlines wouldn’t lose any money, people would still buy tickets to get from point A to point B. If I was forced to fly at 10 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. I’m not going to cancel the trip. I’d much rather have a reliable off-peak travel time than risk turning my trip into some delay-ridden day long saga.”

When asked what the public could do, Gerner and Semenuk agreed that citizens should contact both the FAA and even individual airlines with comments. “The airlines want to make profits, and the FAA want to help them do that. If they think that real people in real numbers are noticing that their industry is undertaking poor practices, perhaps then they will voluntarily make more sensible schedules,” said Semenuk.

Gerner and Semenuk also noted that Swarthmore’s elected representatives Congressman Sestak, State Senator Erickson, and State Representative Lentz were also standing shoulder to shoulder with the County Council and the citizen plaintiffs in support of Council’s efforts. Reilly, Sestak, Erickson, and Lentz acknowledged gratitude for everyone in our area that has already written letters and attended local forums addressing this issue.

For those who missed the August 5th program, the NBC10 Live @ Issue program is available online. Both Congressman Joe Sestak and State Representative Bryan Lentz are interviewed.

Bryan Lentz also has posted video of the July 23rd hearing on HB1182 held by the PA House Transportation Committee in Ridley Township. HB1182 is the Lentz’s bill proposing to create a regional airport authority.

Instead of dropping a couple hundred bucks to take your family to see the hyped King Tut exhibit, I’d recommend the Amarna exhibit at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a less expensive and, in many respects, superior way to get your Egyptology fix.

The artifacts in the exhibit illuminate the story of the religious and political upheaval triggered by Tutankhamun’s father, Akhenaten, when he installed a new monotheistic religion in Egypt. Akhenaten may not be quite the celebrity that Tut is–Steve Martin never wrote a song about him. But he’s a more interesting historical figure. The curation of the exhibit at the Penn Museum is informative and well-paced.

The regular Egypt exhibit at the Penn Museum is the real deal-clincher. They have a 12-ton sphinx–the third largest in the world. The stately entryway to Merenptah ’s palace in Memphis was excavated and placed on display here. There’s a fantastic head from a statue of Ramesses II.

And yes, horror fans, there are actual mummies. You won’t be seeing any mummies at the Franklin institute.

This doesn’t even take into account the other excellent galleries and exhibits. Even the cafeteria food is (much) better at the Penn Museum.

Admission to the Penn Museum, including the Amarna exhibit, is $8 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors. Here are a few tips if you decide to go:

1. There are plenty of convenient parking garages, but the Penn Museum is just a block from the University City SEPTA station.
2. Sunday afternoon admission is free during the academic year, but the museum is usually closed on Sundays in the summer. This year, though, the Amarna exhibit and lower Egyptian gallery is open on Sundays for a reduced admission.
3. The gift shop sells inexpensive workbooks related to the exhibits for kids of elementary school age. They turn the museum exhibits into fun scavenger hunts for information. Might not be a bad idea to help keep your young archaeologist occupied.
4. An annual household membership costs less than three admission tickets to the Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It comes with all sorts of perks, including special preview and lecture events. There’s an exciting Pre-columbian exhibit on its way in the fall, so if you think you might want to come back a few times, consider a membership.

We took Pop Beard (my dad) to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute yesterday. While the artifacts on display are undeniably gorgeous, I got hit hard by the hype curve and walked away feeling disappointed. (It should be noticed that the rest of the party did not feel this way. Your mileage may vary.)

The exhibit is paced so that you feel like you’re drawing closer and closer to a spectacular revelation of a final punctuating display of Tut himself. First you see artifacts from his ancestry, then items from the period of Akhentaten, who preceded Tutankhamun and is believed to be his father. Then we see an ornate coffinete, which had contained the mummified liver of Tutankhamun. The next hall contains artifacts found in Tut’s tomb: jewelry, shabti statues, a fan, a mace, etc. Finally, you come to a room which shows you items found inside his sarcophagus– a diadem, a dagger, a pectoral (necklace).

At the back of the room, there’s a sign that warns you that there will be no re-entry beyond this point. There was palpable anticipation. Surely this is the spot where we will see the famous death mask from the 1970’s exhibit, or an ornate coffin, something on a large scale to cap off the exhibit! There had been all these larger-than life images promoting the ornate gold visage of the young king.

Nope. It was the gift shop. There you can buy authentic treasures, like Tutankhamun baseballs.

Wish I’d read Jason Coyne’s review of the Tut exhibit before I went. I’m sure we still would have gone, but I would have calibrated my expectations accordingly.

If you’re not dissuaded, I have a few recommendations for those who follow in our footsteps:

1. The Golden Ticket promotion is a much better value than the regular admission. If you agree to go into the exhibit in off-peak hours, you will save a lot of money with the added bonus of being able to move about the exhibit with much less crowding. Regular exhibit entry costs $32.50 per person (plus Ticketmaster fees). For $25 a person, the Golden Ticket allows entry anytime after 4:00, plus a ticket to the IMAX presentation, Mummies, Secrets of the Pharaohs.
2. Admission to the Franklin Institute’s regular exhibits is also included in the package, but note that the rest of the museum closes at 5:00 PM. If you’re taking the kids, go to the museum early in the afternoon to enjoy the fun science exhibits before your movie and tour of the Tut galleries.
3. The Franklin Institute lot is always *&@#! full. There are a number of public lots along 23rd Street between Race and Arch.

Quoth the lad this evening, “I’ll bet the Phillies will finally win a World Series when I’m an old man.”

Taking note of the date: February 15, 2007.

Barak Obama’s campaign just became the first to request a donation from me for the 2008 elections.

While I have a very high opinion of Senator Obama, and may decide to endorse him, I am not going to make my final decision to support any presidential candidate, financially or otherwise until after November 2007. In November 2007, we will have an election for township commissioners, district justices, county council, and other important offices.

My recommendation to fellow Dems is to not buy in to the prez-o-centric view of the world. Instead of making a donation of time or money to a presidential candidate this year, why not see what you can do for a good candidate or organization in your community?

UPDATE (2/16): Heeding my clarion call, Philadelphians donated upwards of $200,000 to the Obama campaign at a fundraiser last night.