I just joined a new book club. My brother’s girlfriend’s book club actually. My old book club involved much discussion of bird watching while sharing a bottle of wine. That’s one bottle. Six women. Do the math. Not nearly enough wine to be regaled with tales of rare birds hiding in tall grass. My brother’s girlfriend, Deidre, promised me that her book club would be much more exciting. More of a wine & gossip club with an occasional book and no bird watching. The book for my first meeting? Whip Smart: A Memoir. A memoir, to be precise, of a college student turned professional dominatrix. Wow, Deidre wasn’t kidding, her book club was exciting!

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August 28th and 29th brought the 11th Annual Baltimore Comic Con to Charm City and Angie and I made some time to drive down and check it out. We were only able to attend on Saturday, but in the short time we were there it was clear that this is the show for true comics fans.

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AP Photo/Gregory Bull

How could anyone not love baseball’s balk? It’s fun to say, I don’t fully understand it (I’ve never seen one and said “that’s clearly a balk”), and there have been three in the past two weeks of Phillies games. Sure, Phillies pitchers have committed all of them, but the balk is still my favorite crazy baseball rule.

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Took the summer off mostly. Sorry about that, MLD. I return to tell you of a culinary adventure embarked upon by yours truly and Mrs Lydonwrites, namely our anniversary dinner at the Victor Cafe in South Philly.

The Victor Cafe is situated at 1301 Dickinson St and is a converted row house (like many fine eateries) in this fair city. The food is Italian cuisine, mostly southern Italian, featuring some usual suspects in chicken, veal and fish dishes, with specials made daily by the chef. You don’t see what you like, chances are you can order up something special from the kitchen. Mrs Lydonwrites had a tortelloni in a cream sauce with asparagus and prosciutto, while I had the Linguine Calamari Faust, which was a fancy way of saying linguine fra diavolo. Why do it that way? Well…

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