#Wyomissing Restaurant

[womanexile]

Wow, TS may be about the age that Faith (33) was when she watched the special that was the catalyst for TS (11) to go to Nashville.

Lol- she was called Fearless- pre-2007 tour w/ Tim & Faith youtube.com/watch?v=cl5q5NttH4Q

Jay-Z was in the house at Sixers game (she was 12 in '02 for anthem) youtube.com/watch?v=6E63AeaHczE

gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/hip-hop-superstar-jay-z-takes-in-the-game-between-the-news-photo/1456395

Age 1 1 karaoke practice- patgarrett.com/html/swift.html

patgarrett.com

Success Comes Quickly for Taylor Swift

By MORNING CALL | Staff Report

PUBLISHED: February 10, 2008 at 5:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 5, 2021 at 3:42 p.m.

When Taylor Swift was 11 years old, she practiced her signature diligently. She experimented with curly letters and bold, determined strokes. She filled notebooks with her autograph in the hopes that one day, it would be scribbled on thousands of T-shirts, album jackets and posters.

But don’t mistake the Grammy nominee’s daydreams for arrogance.

“I was never that kid that walked around saying, “I’m going to be famous.’ ‘Cause that kid is annoying,” Swift says, laughing, during a phone interview from her home in Hendersonville, Tenn., near Nashville.

Swift got her wish and then some. At 18, the Berks County native and new darling of the country music industry is up for a Grammy Award — music’s top honor — tonight for Best New Artist.

Her 2006 debut album, “Taylor Swift,” has hit double platinum in stores and platinum in Web downloads. She’s the subject of one magazine article after another, including a four-page spread in the Feb. 8 issue of Entertainment Weekly. And she tours with the biggest names in country, including Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Rascal Flatts.

Despite her youth, Swift has long been on the path to fame. It began in Wyomissing, a Reading suburb, with a very tiny Taylor singing for anyone who’d listen. She dragged her parents to fairs, to festivals, to karaoke contests, to sporting events — if there were a “Star-Spangled Banner” circuit, she’d be on it.

Afternoons, after homework, were spent writing songs and learning to play the guitar.

Pat Garrett, a Strausstown musician and owner of a sheepskin clothing shop, first met the wannabe starlet when she sang in the weekly karaoke contest at his former restaurant, the Pat Garrett Roadhouse in Strausstown. She was determined to win, Garrett recalls.

“When she introduced herself, she said, “I’m Taylor Swift. I’m 11. I want to be a country singer.’ I told her, “I couldn’t even find my shoes when I was 11. Get out of here.”‘ Garrett laughs at the memory. He glances up at the platinum record that now hangs in his sheepskin store. It’s signed, “To Pat. Love, Taylor.”

Garrett says Swift’s success is a surprise. And it isn’t.

Of all Swift’s extraordinary characteristics — poise and charm, beauty and intelligence — her voice wasn’t one of them, he says. She’d often sing a little off key and lost more karaoke contests than she won. But “she had the spark; she had the drive,” Garrett says. And she had a family who supported her.

Scott Swift’s enthusiasm, in particular, nearly rivaled his daughter’s, Garrett says. The financial adviser from Merrill Lynch often solicited advice from Garrett, who had his own Nashville record deal back in the ’80s. He wanted to know how to make his little girl’s dreams happen. “I told him, “In Detroit, they make cars. In Hershey, they make bars. And in Nashville, they make stars,”‘ Garrett said.

Soon afterward, the Swifts — Scott and his wife, Andrea, Taylor, and her younger brother, Austin — packed up and moved South.

It wasn’t long before Sony Publishing hired 14-year-old Swift as a songwriter. By day, she was just another high schooler, attending homecoming and completing English projects, but after school let out, she was at the studio, scribbling lyrics intended for signed singers.

And it drove her crazy.

“I ended up begging them to hold my best ones,” she says. She couldn’t stand the thought of someone else singing about her own heart’s joys and aches. “I told them, “Trust me, some day, they’ll be worth something.”

No one ever sang her songs. They all ended up on her self-titled debut with Big Machine Records, a Nashville label that represents weighty artists such as Trisha Yearwood and Jack Ingram.

Swift says writing songs isn’t a choice but “something I have to do.” The melody for her breakout hit, “Tim McGraw,” for example, came to her while in ninth-grade math class. She excused herself, went to the bathroom and recorded it onto her phone, lest she forget by the time she could reach a guitar.

Most of her songs revolve around love. The barefoot-by-the-lake, roses-on-the-doorstep, slow-moonlit-dance kind of love.

“I like to write about personal experiences. … I like to write about guys and not change their names in songs,” she says, referring to her second single, “Teardrops on my Guitar,” about a Tennessee classmate named Drew that she had a crush on.

And Swift sells it well. With a heap of blonde ringlets and shiny blue eyes, she has a freshly scrubbed, girl-next-door appeal. She wears sundresses paired with a silver heart necklace and a charm bracelet Tim McGraw and Faith Hill gave her while on their 2007 tour.

Swift says it’s the honesty of her songwriting that hits a chord with her millions of fans. And the critics agree.

In 2007, the Nashville Songwriters Association International named Swift Songwriter/Artist of the Year. The Country Music Association honored her with the “Horizon Award,” bestowed on country’s rising stars. Past winners include Randy Travis, Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks. Swift sang her latest single, “Our Song” at the 2007 awards show.

Swift’s former choral director at Wyomissing Area Junior-Senior High School, Sharon Luyben, watched that show nervously. Luyben remembers thinking Swift’s legs looked “a little too skinny” and was worried she’d trip in her very high heels. “That’s the way I saw it,” she says — with “a mother’s eye.”

Luyben still sees the country star as the sweet, effusive sixth-grader who played Louisa in the school’s production of “The Sound of Music” and who unanimously won the junior high chorus’s “Wyo Idol” contest by rocking out on her 12-string guitar.

Among all of her old friends, Cara Wojciechowski may be her most loyal. The 14-year-old Wyomissing eighth-grader met Swift at age 9, when Cara played Marta in “The Sound of Music.”

Swift, who was four years her senior, took Cara under her wing. She’d sing for Cara, let her play with her guitar and console her when playground jests turned cruel. The Swifts and Wojciechowskis spent weeks at the shore together..

Cara has mapped her path to resemble her role model’s.

“It’s kind of scary, but I’ve based my whole life on what she’s done. I love country because of Taylor, obviously,” she says. “I play the guitar because of Taylor. I write music because of Taylor.”

This type of sentiment is echoed again and again by fans on Swift’s MySpace Web page, which has 29,293,872 hits and counting.

Swift says knowing how many people love her and look up to her keeps her grounded. “You can’t sell 2.5 million records without 2.5 million people helping you. The fans are the only reason I’m here.”

[email protected]

610-820-6530

TAYLOR SWIFT

Age: 18

Hometown: Wyomissing, Berks County

Records broken: Youngest person in country music history to singlehandedly craft a No. 1 single (“Our Song”). First female solo artist in country music history to write every song on a double-platinum debute record.

Nominated: Grammy, Best New Artist

She had so much determination. Especially for such a young age.

I don’t see how gaylors think TS and her father have a bad relationship. He clearly loves her & would do anything to make her happy.

[phillygrub]

honeygrow Opening in Wyomissing (Berks County)

Great news for my Berks Countian friends. @honeygrow's Wyomissing location opens this Friday, May 5th. Enjoy!

honeygrow has announced the opening of a new location at 2715 N Meridian Blvd, Wyomissing, PA 19610. The new Berks County honeygrow will open in Broadcasting Square (a former M&T Bank) on May 5th. Now in its 11th year, the healthy fast casual restaurant founded in Philadelphia, PA is expanding into new markets and expects to have more than 40 locations by the end of 2023. honeygrow specializes…

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#honeygrow #honeygrow Berks County #honeygrow Wyomissing

[don-lichterman]

Business booms for Berks restaurants getting Phillies fans | Berks Regional News

Business booms for Berks restaurants getting Phillies fans | Berks Regional News

BERKS COUNTY, Pa. – Bars and restaurants in Berks County said the World Series is driving in business from Phillies fans across the area. It is even prompting one establishment to make some adjustments. Building 24 at The Works in Wyomissing. WFMZ-TV | Jack Reinhard “When they do well down there, I mean, everyone is pumped about it,” said Chip White, owner and chief operating officer of The…

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[hotelcrownhyd-blog]

Luxurious Hotel Crown Hotel

An wonderful joy trip starts having an unforgettable location. When we stayed at Crowne Plaza Lodge at 300 Third Block, Niagara Comes, NY, USA, we were minutes far from most of the thrills on the both parties of the frontier. Using their sociable company and well come up with amenities, it's simple to realize why vacationers prefer their place.

Let's discover why the Crowne Plaza is named "the Destination for a Match" at 300 Third Road, Niagara Falls, NY, USA. The hotel's services comprise of around 24,000 sq ft of supple event area hotel crown hyd. For greater activities, guests will take advantageous asset of the adjacent to the resort Meeting Center. The hotel is situated just five minutes from Niagara School and businesses close to it such as for example Norampac Inds. and Teletech Holdings. By taking the advantage of great incentives like Business Center and free Wi-Fi entry, you are able to attain a plenty of one's work.

Crowne Plaza renovated in 2007, comprising 6 Floors, 391 Guest Rooms, 24 Fits, 220 Double-Bedded Areas, 167 Single-Bedded Rooms, 335 Non-Smoking Rooms, Interior Corridor. They also provide storage service of USD 3 only.

Positioned in one's heart of the downtown, Crowne Plaza is close to all probably the most exceptional attractions. Cave of the Winds tour, house to the Maid of the Mist, Niagara Comes State Park is merely a 10 minutes go away. The hotel can be across the road from Seneca Niagara Casino & Lodge and short while from the Aquarium of Niagara and Style Store Mall.

They proffer amenities you cannot discover at other Niagara Comes, NY hotels, including the just Starbucks Espresso around and their just among its kind Crowne Plaza Sleep Gain Program. Different hotel features comprise of a full-service restaurant, 24-hour Exercise Middle and an indoor pool.

Parking Offered by the resort contains 400 Spaces. Self Parking Daily Charge is USD 5.00. As well as that parking nearby to hotel owned by town of Niagara Comes, costs you USD 5/day with hotel validation, which include in and out privileges. There also accessible a limited handicapped parking facility. Parking area includes Managed Entry Gates and equipped with lights.

We actually recommend staying at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Niagara Falls, 300 Third Road Niagara Comes, NY 14303 United States That author had the possibility to stay in among their more costly accommodations right in Situations Sq in Ny, and he is pleased this time again for the chance in which to stay yet another of their resorts in Reading, Pennsylvania (PA). He followed his friend that's attending a continuous training course used in the'largest conference room in Examining, PA hotels ', that the resort website mentions, and he needed time to work on his jobs while remaining in the hotel. Through the quick stay, he proceeded to organize and share an evaluation relating to this lodge, which will be found along Papermill Path, Wyomissing, PA, a three-hour travel from his place in Staten Area, New York.

Upon their arrival in the area at around 3pm, that author noticed that the resort entrance is very standard in style and looks really company like, without much publicity spent on designing and sprucing up leading place that you expect to see in landscaped gardens. It might have been converted into a mini-garden but nothing of the type could be found here. But parking room is extremely ample and positioned right facing the 5-storey contemporary fashion creating, and music is blasting noisy from a hidden speaker, the noise of that you simply won't crash to know as you get measures on the steps resulting in the reception that beckons you as opportunities open automatically.

Change left following the intelligent doors and you will end up led to the elevator that is accessible simply to critical cases (or those who find themselves guests of the hotel). Team are usually pleasant and helpful. One who's assigned in one of the eateries didn't brain offering that writer and his friend a quick visit on the facilities of the hotel which includes an indoor swimming share, a gym, a club and a lounge, a business center for those who need support and place for transactions they have to go to to while being in the hotel.

This author pointed out that during the late days when he could be finding its way back from discovering fascinating nightspots in Reading, people were coming and going to the Crowne Plaza. They appeared as if they have busy weekday days because of their local patrons and not merely for anyone from afar who pick in which to stay the hotel. All place including the reception that conveniently leads to the front table, cafe, the lounge, the nightclub, and the ballroom available to an extremely broad area, with a clear attract the feelings, and will help make you imagine that lots of big and essential events take place here. Also, particular facilities are only accessible to visitors, which include the share and the gym.

The space this author and his friend had was a lot more than 300 sq legs in proportions and with a king measurement bed. In the area, flatscreen TV with cable, access to the internet, wireless company, a console for the iPod.

[usnewsrank]

Job growth likely rebounded in January, but the extent of the recovery depends on hotels and restaurants

Job growth likely rebounded in January, but the extent of the recovery depends on hotels and restaurants

Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery Food Specialist Megan Catarious, bakes a pancake at the pancake bar at Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery on Penn Ave in Wyomissing, Pa. On January 22, 2021. Ben Hasty | MediaNews Group | Read Eagle via Getty Images The employment situation in January appears to have improved compared to December, but much […] The post Job growth likely rebounded in January, but the…

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[ffuckthesepeople]

Rail cars carrying trash derail in Pennsylvania

... off the tracks dumping garbage behind a restaurant in Wyomissing around 9:15 p.m. Tuesday. Heavy equipment was brought in the clear the debris. from Google Alert - Heavy Equipment http://bit.ly/2GwAJsL

#Heavy Equipment Rental #Google Alert - Heavy Equipment

[blickcalleviewfromthestreet]

Colorful Pallet Racks by Blick Calle Via Flickr: Buca di Beppo Wyomissing, Pennsylvania

#All Rights Reserved #Blick #Blick Calle #Blick Calle VFTS #Buca di Beppo #Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant #Calle #Colorful Pallet Racks #Copyright 2020 #Italian Restaurant #Pallet #Pallet Racks #Pennsylvania #Photography #Racks #StPhotographia #Street Photo #Street Photography #ViewFromTheStreet #Wyomissing #WyomissingPA #amazing #candid #classic #colorful #pattern #street #vftsViewFromTheStreet #©Blick Calle VFTS #©Copyright 2020 Blick Calle

[jculture-en]

Learn how to make your own sushi at Mikura restaurant in Wyomissing

#Washoku #Sushi [Reading Eagle]In big cities across the U.S., sushi holds major sway over the dining scene, from simple fish-and-rice presentations to fusion-inspired, photo-worthy experiments. The dishes are often so perfect, …

#JCulture

[guaripetemagazine]

Park Road Cafe opens in Wyomissing

Park Road Cafe opens in Wyomissing

The new owner aims to make the breakfast and lunch spot a success.

Written by Karen L. Chandler

Wyomissing, PA —

The third time may be the charm for a Wyomissing restaurant venue – previously known as the Green Bean Caf� and the Meat Up Delicatessen – just in the last two years.

The new owner of the Park Road Caf�, Reading native Melynda Wagner, brings a background in corporate marketing and…

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#Coffee Articles #Coffee Secrets

[iqvts]

2914 STATE HILL RD #D4, READING, PA 19610 from iQ Visual Tours on Vimeo.

For more information: cbhre.com/listing/181-141603/2914-state-hill-rd-d4-reading-pa-19610

Spacious 1 bedroom condo in Wyomissing. Close to shopping, major highways and restaurants. Washer/Dryer, Refrigerator, Microwave, Dishwasher included in addition to other small appliances supplied. Long term lease preferable.

Contact: Karen Kean [phone] [email protected]

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Investigating the Career of a Full-Time Reality TV Star

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/investigating-the-career-of-a-full-time-reality-tv-star/

Investigating the Career of a Full-Time Reality TV Star

CBS; NBC; E! Illustration

Some turn to reality TV to revitalize a sagging career. Others to finally get their big break. And then there are those who cling to the medium, turning appearances on show after show after show into a full-time job.

With tonight’s premiere of the first U.S. edition of Celebrity Big Brother on CBS bringing a pair of full-time reality stars back to our TV screens for even more exposure, we thought the time was right to take a look at the stars who’ve managed to make a living solely out of reality TV. With no side gigs or part-time hustles that we know of, these are the reality TV repeat offenders who’ve proven that, for some, the only work you need is simply being yourself in front of a camera.

NBC

Omarosa Manigault-Newman

When We First Met Them: Omarosa first burst onto the reality TV scene way back in 2004 in the first season of NBC’s The Apprentice, forming an alliance with host Donald Trump that would eventually take her all the way to the White House. Finishing in eighth place, her cunning and alienating game play would brand her one of reality TV’s most infamous villains.

What They’ve Done Since: She immediately began parlaying her infamy to more and more TV gigs, with an appearance in season four of Chelsea Handler‘s prank show Women Behaving Badly the same year she competed on The Apprentice. In 2005, she would compete in an episode of NBC’s Fear Factor and join the season five cast of VH1’s The Surreal Life. Three years later, she was considered famous enough for Trump to include her in the inaugural cast of The Celebrity Apprentice, where she came in sixth place. In 2010, she and Trump teamed up for The Ultimate Merger, a dating competition on TV One wherein 12 men selected by Trump himself vied for Omarosa’s affections. (Yes, really.) Three years later, Trump would bring her back for the cast of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, where she would finish in 10th place. Her consolation prize? He named her the Director of African-American Outreach for his 2016 presidential campaign, earning herself a gig on his transition team and White House staff. She would depart her role in December of 2017, just in time to join the cast of CBS’ first-ever Celebrity Big Brother. 

Robin L Marshall/Getty Images

Brandi Glanville

When We First Met Them: In season two of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Bravoholics were introduced to Brandi Glanville as she came bounding in on crutches, ready to spar with just about everybody. During her three-season tenure, Eddie Cibrian‘s ex-wife made enemies of Adrienne Maloof, Lisa Vanderpump, Kyle Richards and Lisa Rinna. Impressive, no?

What They’ve Done Since: Immediately out of RHOBH, Glanville competed in the seventh season of The Celebrity Apprentice, making an enemy out of fellow Bravloebrity Kenya Moore and coming in fourth place. In 2016, she attempted to solve her romantic problems on the first season of E!’s Famously Single. The next year, she competed alongside Dean Sheremet, the ex-husband of her ex-husband’s new wife Leann Rimes, on Fox’s My Kitchen Rules, appeared as a panelist on Logo’s Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul, and was a housemate on season 20 of Celebrity Big Brother in the U.K. Not content with being evicted fourth across the pond, Glanville has joined Omarosa as a housemate on CBS’ Celebrity Big Brother.

Karwai Tang/WireImage

Heidi Montag & Spencer Pratt

When We First Met Them: In 2005, the world got their first taste of Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, albeit on two different shows. Pratt made his debut on Brody Jenner‘s short-lived Fox reality show, The Princes of Malibu, which he also helped create, while Montag recurred in season two of MTV’s Laguna Beach. A year later, she and BFF Lauren Conrad hit the big time when The Hills debuted. Pratt and his crystals joined the MTV hit in season two, giving birth to Speidi and destroying Montag’s friendship with LC in the process.

What They’ve Done Since: A year before The Hills came to an end, the couple competed on NBC’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, where they quit on day two, then returned, only to quit again when Montag fell ill. In 2011, in a rare solo effort, Montag took part in VH1’s Famous Food, which saw seven celebs work to open a restaurant (which closed after five months). Two years later, they entered the U.K. Celebrity Big Brother house as a single entity, eventually being named runner-up. The next year, they took part in an episode of Celebrity Wife Swap, followed by a stint on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 2 in 2015. In 2016, Montag and her mother, Danielle Egelhoff, joined the cast of Lifetime’s The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition. A year later, she and Pratt would re-enter the U.K. Celebrity Big Brother house, eventually being evicted on Day 25.

VH1

Tiffany “New York” Pollard

When We First Met Them: Tiffany Pollard made her reality TV debut in 2006 as a contestant on VH1’s Flavor of Love, competing for the affection of rapper Flavor Flav. It was then that she earned her lasting nickname “New York,” which was given to her by the rapper. (He gave all the women nicknames because learning their actual monikers was too hard, apparently.) After being infamously spat on by ousted contestant Brooke “Pumpkin” Thompson, Pollard made it to the final two, where Flav chose Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander over her. The rapper may not have chosen her, but America had sure fallen in love.

What They’ve Done Since: Pollard was invited back the next year for Flavor of Love 2, first to help the rapper eliminate contestants halfway through the season, then to vie, yet again, for his love. History repeated itself in the finale and Pollard was passed over for another woman. Her consolation prize? Two seasons of her own dating competition on VH1, I Love New York. In 2008, New York Goes to Hollywood debuted on the cable network, chronicling her attempts to establish herself as an actress. The next year, New York Goes to Work premiered, following her attempt to find a real job. I Love New York 3 was set to go into production in 2010 before VH1 canceled their whole “celebreality” programming block, shelving plans indefinitely. She tentatively returned to reality TV in 2015 on an episode of Botched, before exploding all over the place the following year. In 2016, she competed in Celebrity Big Brother U.K., coming in fourth place, participated in TV One’s The Next :15 (which featured six former reality stars whose celeb status had faded), and returned to VH1 for Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, alongside her mother, Michelle “Sister” Patterson. A year later, she competed in VH1’s Scared Famous, once again solidifying her place as one of the network’s go-to reality figures.

MTV

Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio

When We First Met Them: America first met Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio in 2006 as a 22-year-old graduate of Penn State when he appeared on The Real World: Key West, where he and his housemates were forced to evacuate not once, but twice, due to Hurricanes Rita and Wilma. 

What They’ve Done Since: In the same year, Devenanzio would make his debut on spin-off competition series The Challenge, competing in The Duel. Here he would find his new career, competing in a series record 16 seasons, including the currently airing Vendettas season. He’s won the most Challenges, six, and taken home a total of $685,043 in winnings. 

Mike Pont/NBC

Kate Gosselin

When We First Met Them: A registered nurse, Kate Gosselin and her then-husband Jon were introduced to the world in the 2004 NBC reality show Home Delivery, which documented the renovation of their Wyomissing, Penn. home after the delivery of their sextuplets. A pair of specials on Discovery Health in 2005 and 2006 led to a series, Jon & Kate Plus 8, which began airing in 2007. 

What They’ve Done Since: In 2009, following her divorce from Jon, TLC made Kate the face of the show, renaming it Kate Plus 8. The next year, she competed in the 10th season of Dancing With the Stars, where she was eliminated fourth. In 2013, Kate participated in an episode of Celebrity Wife Swap, switching places with Kendra Wilkinson. In 2014, she competed in season seven of The Celebrity Apprentice, finishing in 8th place. That same year, Kate Plus 8 returned to TLC after three years off the air.

Art Streiber/NBC

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi

When We First Met Them: MTV first unleashed Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi on the world in 2009 in an episode of a dating series called Is She Really Going Out With Him? That same year, she was tapped to join the cast of a little something called Jersey Shore. Six seasons and one on-camera arrest later, she and her fellow co-stars were reality TV royalty.

What They’ve Done Since: Following the end of Jersey Shore, Polizzi and co-star Jennifer “Jwoww” Farley began starring in spinoff Snooki & Jwoww, which premiered on MTV in 2012 and ran for four seasons. In 2013, she competed in the 17th season of Dancing With the Stars, coming in 8th place. She and husband Jionni LaValle landed a show on fyi, entitled Nicole & Jionni’s Shore Flip. Premiering in 2016, it lasted one season. She then joined the cast of The New Celebrity Apprentice in 2017, where she was eliminated fourth. Later that year, she and most of her Jersey Shore co-stars teamed up for Jersey Shore: Reunion Road Trip on E! before re-teaming with MTV for the currently filming Jersey Shore Family Vacation, due later this year.

ABC

Chad Johnson

When We First Met Them: America first got a taste of Chad Johnson when he competed for the affections of Joelle “JoJo” Fletcher in 2016 in the 12th season of The Bachelorette.

What They’ve Done Since: That summer, Chad joined the cast of Bachelor in Paradise, though he was ejected in the first episode by none other than host Chris Harrison thanks to his belligerent behavior. The following year, he made a cameo in an episode of Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After? before joining the season two cast of E!’s Famously Single. Later that year, he competed in the U.K. version of Celebrity Big Brother, making his way to the final and ultimately coming in fifth place.

YouTube

Mama June Shannon

When We First Met Them: Mama June Shannon and the whole Honey Boo Boo brood were first introduced to the world in the season five premiere of Toddlers & Tiaras, where young Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson became a fan-favorite and was quickly spun off into a TLC series of her own, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which starred her entire family. The show was canceled in 2014 after four seasons due to reports that Mama June was dating a man convicted of the aggravated child molestation of her oldest daughter when she was eight years old.

What They’ve Done Since: In 2015, Mama June and ex-husband Mike “Sugar Bear” Thompson joined the cast of Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 4. Two years later, the family returned to TV with WE tv’s Mama June: From Not to Hot, which chronicled her weight loss transformation as she lost 300 pounds. A second season is currently airing.

Whose career impresses you the most? Sound off in the comments below!

Celebrity Big Brother premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. on CBS.

(E!, Bravo and NBC are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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[karingudino]

Barstool Sports Is Betting Big on Philly. But Is It the City They Think It Is?

Longform

Crude, lewd Barstool founder Dave Portnoy thought this was the proper metropolis from which to launch his new sports activities playing app. Perhaps as soon as upon a time, it was.

Get a compelling lengthy learn and must-have life-style ideas in your inbox each Sunday morning — nice with espresso!

Barstool Sports activities founder Dave Portnoy. {Photograph} by Tom Briglia/Getty Pictures

It’s a wet Friday afternoon in Havertown, and a man from Boston is about to strive a slice of pizza.

Dave Portnoy, founder, president and face of Barstool Sports activities, emerges from Sam’s Boardwalk Fashion Pizza with a big pie in hand, carrying a Barstool cap and a black hoodie bearing what appears to be like just like the Eagles brand however upon nearer inspection truly says “Scumbags.” Portnoy delivers his catchphrase — “One chew, everybody is aware of the principles” — and stuffs a chunk in his yapper. He did the same thing a half hour in the past at Pica’s Restaurant in Higher Darby. Nobody paid a lot consideration to him there, in all probability as a result of most people in its queue seemed to be north of 40 years outdated.

Sam’s is a unique scene utterly. “They’re very excited to see me,” Portnoy says right into a digicam, and seconds later, the Sam’s crew emerges to look at his critique, which is a component meals evaluate and half Friars Membership roast. One teen staffer appears so starstruck that he gained’t look instantly at El Presidente, because the 43-year-old is understood to his followers. Portnoy sarcastically notes the “super-romantic outside seating” alongside the curb in entrance of Sam’s and glances on the bar subsequent door. “I wager individuals get fucked up on the Jug’s Inn,” he says in what’s nonetheless a remarkably thick Boston accent. After noting that Delco is barely the second locality that’s threatened him with bodily hurt if his scores aren’t excessive sufficient (by no means change, Delco), Portnoy provides Sam’s a fine-but-don’t-go-out-of-your-way-to-try-this 7.3.

After he leaves for the subsequent pizza store, a younger redheaded lady who works the counter at Sam’s stays breathless. “Oh my God,” she says. “I’m nonetheless shaking. I can’t imagine that simply occurred. He walked in and I used to be like, That’s Dave Portnoy.”

For those who’re questioning what pizza-tasting has to do with Barstool Sports activities, it’s a good query that deserves a solution. Barstool, born in Boston and now based mostly in New York, started as a four-page newspaper; since then, it’s grown from a one-man weblog to a full-blown media empire. Right this moment, the Barstool universe consists of greater than 100 million whole followers throughout its social media platforms (amongst them “I Can’t Even,” an Instagram for cute pet movies), 40 podcasts (together with a business-themed present co-hosted by Alex Rodriguez, with a J-Lo cameo), Barstool protection individually tailor-made to just about each main faculty, a SiriusXM channel, merchandise, a vodka model, and, together with Portnoy’s day-trading channel, his “One Chew” pizza evaluations, which have a devoted app and greater than 330,000 YouTube subscribers. Just like Vice in its scope and outside-the-mainstream angle, Barstool can also be a way of life model — one which’s squarely aimed on the promoting grail of 18-to-34-year-old males. With income in 2019 simply south of $100 million, it’s an plain success. “We make charismatic content material,” Barstool’s CEO, Erika Nardini, says with typical Barstool swagger. “We’re the fastest-growing on the fastest-growing, not on dying platforms like cable.”

Now, within the realization of Portnoy’s longtime enterprise fantasy, Barstool Sports activities has entered the playing area with assist from an uncommon accomplice: Wyomissing-based on line casino and racetrack operator Penn National Gaming, Inc. Barstool and Penn Nationwide launched their gambling app, Barstool Sportsbook, in Pennsylvania in September. Since by regulation you may solely use the app in case you’re bodily within the state, Portnoy and a solid of Barstool characters moved into an Outdated Metropolis townhouse to livestream video games, place wagers and bust balls. At first look, it was an ironic second for Portnoy: Die-hard Bah-ston fan and Patriots lover wants Philly to get even richer and make his dream of working a sports activities playing empire come true.

However the full story isn’t so neat and tidy. There’s Portnoy the businessman, who’s constructed an organization valued at $450 million from nothing and was as soon as named by the Ahead as one of many “Internet’s Biggest Jewish Stars.” And there’s El Presidente, who’s like a poor man’s Howard Stern within the ’90s, which isn’t an ideal match for 2020. He’s, although, a person for our time. There’s one thing eerily Trumpian about Portnoy and, in flip, about what Barstool Sports activities represents. For those who’re conversant in the model in any respect, it’s in all probability for its aggregation of chuckle-­worthy movies just like the PornHub brand showing on CNN’s election protection or a FedEx man’s flatulence caught on a Nest cam. The flip facet of that content material coin, nevertheless, has drawn the ire of everybody from ESPN to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Barstool goes far past funny-dumb in interesting to the male id. It traffics in every thing from misogyny to racism to outright violent, abusive language directed at ladies. It additionally speaks to a rising divide amongst Philly sports activities followers — one which, in flip, displays the larger chasm in America proper now.

Barstool goes far past funny-dumb in interesting to the male id. It additionally speaks to a rising divide amongst Philly sports activities followers — one which, in flip, displays the larger chasm in America proper now.

As Portnoy tells me, “Philadelphia is a really Barstool metropolis.” Seeing as Barstool is much more than sports activities, that assertion means that we as a metropolis settle for, even embrace, Barstool’s ugly facet — that we’re cool with an N-word right here and a rape joke there and a historical past of on-line assaults aimed toward ladies. However Philadelphia removed Donald Trump. We trashed the Frank Rizzo statue. Wing Bowl is lengthy gone. Are we actually a Barstool city? And in that case, can we need to be anymore?

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Are you a Stoolie?” That’s the primary query I used to be requested by a PR particular person after I took my preliminary peek into the deep rabbit gap of every thing Barstool encompasses. I’d solely casually adopted it on social media and knew of Portnoy’s extra infamous stunts — making t-shirts that includes NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s face adorned with a clown nostril, getting bodily faraway from Tremendous Bowl LIII in 2019 for utilizing a faux media credential, being denied his prize after casting a profitable $250,000 bid for a charity night with Goodell. (He actually hates Goodell.)

I began to get a greater sense of what Stoolie life means on the Barstool Sportsbook home on Arch Road. Earlier than I joined Portnoy for his pizza evaluations in Delco, he gave me a tour of the three-story pad. Whereas nobody truly lives right here — Portnoy himself bounces from a resort close to Rittenhouse Sq. to his house in New York — within the fall it got here alive on weekends for soccer. The ­second-floor den is the point of interest, with three black couches accented by a Hooters pillow beneath Barstool indicators with slogans like “It’s Solely Cash” and a wall of six large flat-screen TVs.

This Dave Portnoy isn’t the high-­quantity man within the movies and on the podcasts. As he sinks into the middle of a sofa, he vaguely resembles a bearded Mark Zuckerberg in case you dialed the Fb founder’s coding skill right down to zero and amped the bro issue means up — that “Scumbags” hoodie, skinny-ish denims, lime inexperienced socks, white kicks. (No masks, in fact.) Portnoy explains that the sweatshirt and his Pats-loving grudge in opposition to Philadelphia is shtick, which his Stoolies perceive. “Our followers, they get that it’s a give-and-take,” he says, acknowledging his standing as a “Masshole.” “I like town quite a bit … it’s an East Coast vibe, sarcastic, reducing. I feel individuals are excited that we’re right here. If we stroll outdoors, each time, I get, ‘Welcome to Philly.’”

Dave Portnoy at a Barstool pizza-tasting. {Photograph} by Tom Briglia/Getty Pictures

Portnoy’s intention wasn’t to change into a star when he launched Barstool in Boston again in 2003. He appreciated sports activities, playing, and the concept of working for himself, so he began printing a broadsheet paper and taking adverts from offshore betting websites. After a pair years of handing out copies at T stations each morning, Portnoy noticed Barstool take off when he leaned into low-hanging humor and put images of scantily clad fashions on his covers. A lot because the 700 Degree on the Vet was shorthand for rabid Philly fandom, Barstool grew to become Boston’s insiders’ sports activities membership.

Credit score Portnoy for 2 qualities that led to Barstool’s wild progress — a willingness to strive something, and an urge for food for threat. Barstool expanded to regional protection in New York and Philly and stretched past sports activities, with options like “Smokeshow of the Day” babe pics, a “Barstool Blackout Tour” that barnstormed faculty cities with all-night EDM dance bacchanals, and catchphrases like “Saturdays are for the boys,” which grew to become so ubiquitous that the official Flyers Twitter and athletes from Rob Gronkowski to Michael Phelps used it on social media.

Barstool noticed its majority stake bought in 2016 for a reported $10 million by a enterprise capital agency and moved its workplaces to New York’s Flatiron district. With an achieved CEO in Nardini to deal with the enterprise facet — and supply a decent feminine face for the corporate — Portnoy saved cranking out content material. Right this moment, Barstool has some 250 workers, and among the many many professional athletes who’re followers is Phillies star Bryce Harper, who’s on the official “Team Portnoy” roster of El Presidente’s movie star friends.

Portnoy noticed his subsequent massive play in 2018, when the Supreme Courtroom paved the best way for legalized sports activities playing outdoors Nevada. Quite than staff up with a longtime on-line chief like FanDuel or DraftKings, Portnoy discovered the proper foam-party dance accomplice in Penn Nationwide Gaming. Penn CEO Jay Snowden says of his first sit-down with Portnoy and Nardini, “We knew what we would have liked to go after with this app, they usually had it — the model and the viewers. What they wanted was a accomplice who understood the gaming trade.”

Most significantly for Portnoy, Penn wished to let Barstool take the lead; the playing firm operates the app, however the consumer expertise is all Barstool branding. Portnoy pushed to launch in Pennsylvania to capitalize on the state’s $463 million-and-growing on-line wager market and Barstool’s strong following in Philadelphia. In a win-win for Sportsbook and Portnoy’s short-term adopted city, he initiated a promo to lift cash for the struggling Studying Terminal Market that ultimately scored $250,000 in donations for the market and roughly 1,500 new clients for the app.

The opposite spotlight of Sportsbook’s temporary historical past is a video of Portnoy watching because the Chicago Bears bench their beginning quarterback in favor of Nick Foles. “Every thing I’ve bought on fuckin’ Large Dick Nick,” he says as he drops $20,000 on the Bears. Up to now, that video has been seen greater than 277,000 occasions; it was adopted by considered one of Portnoy rejoicing within the face of a really dejected dude when Chicago took the lead. Like a sure president, El Pres loves nothing greater than profitable and values the time-honored American custom of reveling in another person’s defeat. “Individuals like watching individuals die on the sofa,” Portnoy tells me. “They like heartbreak. In case your staff loses ultimately, individuals like watching the followers of these groups die in actual time.”

Barstool counts a couple of born-and-bred Philly guys among the many personalities who frequent the Sportsbook home. “Dave has created this atmosphere the place the faculty lounge is a viable workspace,” says Adam Ferrone, a.okay.a. Rone, who seems within the first Bears video. The 32-year-old Penn State grad and Delco native is considered one of Barstool’s artistic fireplace hoses, producing a seemingly countless stream of fabric like man-on-the-street interviews performed with an exaggerated Philly accent below the nom de mic of “Angelo Paolantonio.” He describes working for Barstool as the perfect job he’s ever had, because of the liberty Portnoy provides him: “I simply need to maintain churning out content material. It’s sensory overload, a 24-hour-a-day job.” As for why Barstool feels so at house in Philly, Ferrone says, “There’s some grit about Barstool. Somebody from Philly doesn’t essentially give a fuck about what you suppose. And there’s quite a lot of that in Dave as nicely.”

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In Barstool circles, the joke is that articles like this one all the time point out the controversies. Most of these controversies contain Dave Portnoy, who was a blogger and now’s a multi-channel content material creator and web persona. He’s all the time seen himself as a comic, and the location, and particularly Portnoy, has lengthy trafficked within the form of humor that was as soon as referred to as “locker room” and extra lately “presidential.” In a nod to Ben Roethlisberger, who’d been accused of rape, a Barstool t-shirt within the late aughts featured the QB’s jersey quantity and the motto “Throwing picks, assaulting chicks.” (Roethlisberger was by no means criminally charged.) When requested about an article from 2010 suggesting size-six ladies “form of need to be raped” for carrying skinny denims, Portnoy told the Huffington Submit his intent was to mock skinny denims, and that rape jokes are “such a small fraction of what we do.” (Portnoy additionally defended posting a unadorned pic of Tom Brady’s then-two-year-old son by saying critics who feared it could change into fodder for pedophiles “have by no means been on the web.”)

The person has a historical past of turning his Sauron-like gaze on critics of Barstool. A protracted-standing beef with ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown host Sam Ponder started when she took offense to a Barstool weblog opining that her major job was to “make males laborious.” He doubled down in a podcast, saying nobody wished to see Ponder’s little one on digicam and calling her a “fucking slut.” Just like the denims remark, he later mentioned it was all sarcastic — After all a mother isn’t a slut, individuals! Ponder didn’t purchase it. She complained publicly when ESPN signed Barstool for a TV present, and different ESPN staffers did so in non-public, in accordance with reviews. The present was canceled after one episode as a result of the community couldn’t separate this system from “the Barstool web site and its content material,” ESPN’s then-president said.

What all the time follows any criticism of Portnoy’s misbehavior is the wrath of a passionate band of Stoolies who defend him and their beloved model through social media and on-line feedback. As detailed in an HBO Actual Sports activities with Bryant Gumbel piece by Soledad O’Brien, former Deadspin author Laura Wagner — a frequent goal of ­Barstool — was subjected to vicious tweets from Stoolies that included one calling her a “depressing cunt.” Portnoy penned a mock article below her byline for Barstool, and sexual feedback aimed toward Wagner are nonetheless seen on Barstool’s web site.

Simply earlier than the Every day Beast posted an in depth stock of the controversies, Portnoy posted the cell variety of the reporter, Robert Silverman, on Twitter — unintentionally, he claims, however the harm was finished, and the Barstool troll military mobilized. “That was a foul 4 days of getting textual content messages and FaceTime requests from the Stoolies,” says Silverman. “Nevertheless it pales compared to what a lady on the web who says one thing essential about Barstool Sports activities has to cope with.” HBO’s O’Brien reached out to fifteen ladies who’d been focused by Barstool and its followers, and none have been prepared to talk on digicam for concern of enraging the Stoolies once more.

Dave Portnoy yukking it up with President Trump final yr. {Photograph} by Mallory Blount

Portnoy — who considers himself apolitical and says he’s not registered to vote — earned nationwide buzz by interviewing Donald Trump on the White Home in July. It was a pure pairing, since each males comply with an equivalent playbook: Courtroom controversy, by no means apologize, and play sufferer to a politically right tradition run amok. Ponder confronted Portnoy lately in a New York restaurant, a gathering he gleefully recounted in a podcast. (“She got here out swinging,” he mentioned. “I respect that.”) Requested about Wagner, Portnoy says she began it by writing about his marriage — he’s separated from his spouse — and calling him “sociopathic.” He’s sure the variety of ladies Actual Sports activities claimed wouldn’t talk about him is a lie and says he believes O’Brien truly appreciated him however was pushed by host Bryant Gumbel to name him “vile.” (In response to a request for remark from O’Brien, an HBO spokesperson mentioned, “We stand by our reporter and our reporting.”) Requested to remark for this story, Wagner, who now writes for Vice, gave her inventory reply: “I can’t imagine this man continues to be speaking about me.”

Portnoy’s offensive discourse isn’t solely aimed toward ladies. In tweets and a since-deleted piece, he mentioned protesters in opposition to police brutality who blocked a Boston freeway in 2015 must be killed. Outdated Barstool movies surfaced final yr of him utilizing the N-word whereas reciting rap lyrics and musing that Colin Kaepernick appears to be like like “an ISIS man.” Such was the reckoning inside Barstool over Portnoy’s feedback that one persona stop, and its 2Biggs podcast devoted an 80-minute episode to giving seven minority Barstool abilities time to discover their conflicted emotions concerning the firm and Portnoy. (In true Barstool style, the episode’s title included each the phrase “Now It’s Going to Get Extraordinarily Actual” and its acronym, which set off extra social media outrage.)

Hoping to make sense of all of this with native individuals near Portnoy, I reached out to a well-liked former worker, Maurice “Tall Mo” Peebles, who as the primary Barstool Philly beat editor was considered one of its few Black staffers and is now the new editor in chief of Complex. He declined an interview. Via the Phillies, “Staff Portnoy” member Bryce Harper additionally mentioned no thanks. Barstool PR linked me with two vastly profitable Philly natives with a podcast on the Barstool community, cousins Wallace “Wallo” Peeples and Nasir “Gillie Da King” Fard, of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game present. Each mentioned Portnoy reached out and “spoke his piece” concerning the racially charged movies, however they wouldn’t go into particulars. “We handled issues personally,” Wallo mentioned. “We’re not excellent — I served time. However we wouldn’t cope with him if he wasn’t a strong particular person.”

One unlikely critic of Portnoy is Will Leitch, founding father of the trailblazing sports activities weblog Deadspin, which in its heyday was an uncomfortable thorn within the facet of firm sports activities journalism. In a 2018 piece for New York titled “What Recent Hell is Barstool Sports activities?,” Leitch took Portnoy to job for Barstool’s remedy of girls and for permitting the Stoolies to behave out. Leitch additionally drew a comparability between Portnoy and a co-founder of Vice who was finally pushed out of that firm, partly for his “virulently illiberal” views. That founder, Gavin McInnes, has change into higher recognized for a bunch he began — the Proud Boys.

Calling me from Georgia two days after the November election, Leitch pauses from vote-count-watching to place Barstool into context. “It’s not like every thing they do is diseased,” he says. “And never all of their readers are raging misogynist shitheads. However everytime you get within the Barstool crosshairs, it’s actual. They usually’ve by no means mentioned cease it or taken accountability for it.”

Now that Barstool, through Sportsbook, has entered an trade that’s extremely regulated, some observers marvel if we could be on the verge of a kinder, gentler Dave Portnoy period. Penn Nationwide CEO Snowden talks about sure “guardrails” they’ve established so Portnoy doesn’t break any legal guidelines whereas mouthing off. He could have come near hitting a type of guardrails in October, when he made feedback that appeared to counsel he runs the identical Sportsbook he’s additionally betting on, saying of Penn Nationwide, “They reply to [Snowden], they usually reply to me.”

One other off-limits subject is union-­busting. When Portnoy threatened to fireside any Barstool worker fascinated with organizing in a sequence of tweets in August 2019, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied to tell him he was “seemingly breaking the regulation & may be sued.” (She didn’t reply to his invitation to a debate and celebrated on Twitter when Barstool settled with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board over the incident.) “Dave has a mic and a digicam in entrance of him 24/7,” says Snowden. “Typically he’s in a superb temper. Typically he’s not. He’s studying. We’re all studying collectively. There are going to be some bumps within the highway.” Whereas ESPN couldn’t take the warmth stoked by Barstool’s ugly facet, Penn Nationwide appears assured there’s simply sufficient separation to make the partnership work.

Portnoy describes Barstool, sans irony, as “a comedic web site — in, like, a Seinfeld-esque means. Like, you understand, reducing observations of society.” The closest he involves a mea culpa in our conversations is in regard to the N-word. “Would I’ve sang that lyric now? No,” he tells me. “Instances are very totally different. … I wouldn’t do it once more. [But] I can’t return and apologize for that as a result of in that second, it was like, what I assumed a innocent — like, I used to be by no means making an attempt to trigger hurt. So is it a grey space? Is it semantics? Slightly bit. If sufficient individuals are actually incensed, whose opinion I respect … ”

The bad-boy governor in Portnoy’s head kicks in earlier than he says he’d ever atone for previous habits. Inflicting hurt, he claims, “is rarely the purpose. We’re making an attempt to make individuals giggle and entertain.” However just like the president he as soon as interviewed, Portnoy is aware of controversy is important to his identification; as lately as June, he declared himself “uncancellable.”

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Go away it to the Sixers to show a advertising and marketing layup alternative right into a culture-wars misfire that clangs off the rim. Upon unveiling new different jerseys that includes Boathouse Row, staff president and Villanova alum Chris Heck coined the time period “New Philadelphia” to outline what the Sixers see as a metropolis wealthy with “tradition … training … variety.” Which is nice, besides that in doing so, Heck concurrently took swipes at “blue-collar” identification, the Flyers, and the usage of the phrase “Philly” itself, deeming it “lazy.” After well-deserved mocking on-line, Heck issued the requisite apology.

There’s a kernel of fact in what he tried to specific, nevertheless. Our fandom comprises multitudes, and we’re seeing a fracturing within the fan base that runs deeper than the economics of who sits during which seats — ­company fats cats within the decrease bowl, salt of the earth within the nosebleeds — on the video games. With analytics seeping into each facet of all sports activities, and eggheads like present Eagles common supervisor Howie Roseman and former Sixer GM Sam “Belief the Course of” Hinkie, not the jocks, making franchise-altering choices, a rising variety of followers — largely the craft-beer-drinking hipster sorts — would slightly take deep dives into information and debate participant contracts than get shit-faced within the Jetro tailgate lot and begin fights with rival followers.

Dave Portnoy at a Buffalo Payments tailgate in 2019. {Photograph} by Brett Carlsen/Getty Pictures

However these followers don’t make up Barstool’s core viewers, which is basically younger white males who suppose like old-timers: I need my sports activities freed from crap like math, ladies with out pompoms, and athletes with agendas. (It’s becoming that Portnoy has embraced the outdated Michael Jordan anti-activist quote that’s lengthy haunted the Corridor of Famer: “Republicans purchase sneakers, too.”) Even the Sportsbook is an extension of a throwback mentality. You used to want to know a man in case you wished some motion on the Birds to beat Dallas. Now, Dave Portnoy is the man, and he’s in your pocket. You, too, is usually a degenerate gambler, child. Like Barstool says, it’s solely cash, proper?

In relation to Barstool’s future, Penn Nationwide could finally have extra to say about it than Portnoy. It bought 36 % of the corporate this yr and can personal 51 % in yr three, with an choice for full management by 2025. Early returns on the Sportsbook are trending up however combined: At its launching in September, it was fourth in market share in Pennsylvania, however it stayed within the crimson that month with minus $2.8 million in web gaming income (maybe not shocking, given the $2.2 million in promotional credit used to lure new customers to enroll. By late October, revenues have been as much as $3.1 million.). It deliberate to launch in Michigan in late December, and Snowden goals so as to add no less than 12 states in 2021, together with New Jersey. Penn Nationwide has mentioned its “guardrails” embrace “harassment or discrimination of girls or minorities,” however Portnoy insists the one content material restrictions he’s been given relate to playing laws and “tiffs with elected officers.”

Requested what’s forward, Portnoy embodies considered one of his alter egos, Davey Pageviews — a person sustained by the moment gratification of recent media. “I don’t suppose that far prematurely,” he says. “I’m not going anyplace anytime quickly. No less than for 5 years.” Which is a lifetime, contemplating that TikTok — the most popular platform for Barstool’s video content material, with 12.3 million followers and ­counting — is barely 4 years outdated. “The world modifications so quick,” he provides, “and we’ve been superb at adapting to vary, however I — we’re not good at predicting it. However we’re cellular, agile, and so long as we stay that means, I feel we can have a superb future.”

It’s seemingly the Sportsbook home will shut down after the Tremendous Bowl and Portnoy will return to New York, the place he’ll watch because the app creeps into new markets throughout the nation and suppose again fondly on his temporary time consuming pizza right here. Nonetheless, there’s one thing uncomfortable within the realization that Philly, vis-à-vis the Sportsbook, might assist catapult Barstool into one other decade of success. Being a sports activities fan right here means acknowledging each the elegant and the despicable of our historical past. Perhaps you’re nice with booing the house staff and climbing greased gentle poles on Broad Road. However the racism as soon as aimed on the late Dick Allen; the thuggery that necessitated a jail on the Vet and resurfaced as lately because the Eagles/Baltimore recreation in October; the leering legacy of Wing Bowl; and the sensation that you simply nonetheless must maintain your head on a swivel and possibly suppose twice about bringing your spouse or daughter or mother to sure video games — that’s not for the boys. It’s for precise scumbags. Like the vast majority of Philly followers, most Barstool followers are innocent. The distinction is that their chief tacitly engages in and condones habits that has a really tangible, damaging impression. Think about Jeff Lurie permitting morons to start out brawls or shout rape jokes on the cheerleaders.

The reality is that we’re each New Philadelphia and a Barstool metropolis. We stanned laborious for Joe Biden whilst giant swaths of Northeast and South Philly and the River Wards stayed solidly Trump. So memo to everybody hailing Portnoy as a hero on the streets of Outdated Metropolis: Keep in mind what you’re additionally supporting when you go online to Barstool for guy-takes-Wiffle-Ball-to-the-nuts movies or to put a couple of dollars on the Birds. And lest you child your self about whether or not Portnoy, chastened by justified criticism or raised stakes in a brand new area, can evolve, keep in mind when individuals thought Trump might change into presidential as soon as he was truly the president.

Meantime, on this second, simply because the nation wants therapeutic, let’s think about a way forward for our fandom during which the analytics crowd isn’t so elitist and the 700 Degree throwbacks are a bit extra open-minded. Let’s, you understand, attain throughout the aisle on the Linc and share an overpriced beer regardless of our variations. Positive, some individuals are incapable of progress. However let’s additionally keep in mind one of many classes of the 2018 Eagles championship — that generally this metropolis can exceed even our wildest imaginations.

Printed as “Can’t Anyone in Philly Take a *&%&%@&%$ Joke Anymore?” within the January/February 2021 concern of Philadelphia journal.

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