Vince and Nancy Clark, in a photo their wedding shutterbug did NOT take.

Thursday, Dec.18th is D-Day for Vince and Nancy Clark: The day they hope a sherrif's sale will generate enough cash to make up the $4,000 they lost to a wedding photographer who never delivered on the photo package they hired him to produce, over two years ago.

I promised them I'd publicize the sale, in hopes they'd recoup what they lost. So read this prior blog post about their woes. Then, if you're in the mood to bargain-shop, head over to the sale in the Northeast and see if there's anything you'd like to buy.

You might get a better deal than the raw one they got. 

Date of the sale: Thursday, December 18th.

Time: Noon.

Location: 2220 Unruh St.

All sales are cash only, and merchandise must be removed that day.

Goodyear Gemini Crew Chief Rick Hunter, center, shows Betsy Betancourt, right, the new engine in her car, while taping the show Nascar Angels in Philadelphia, August 13, 2008. Jessica Griffin / Philadelphia Daily News

Back in June, I wrote about a 24-year-old single mom named Betsy Betancourt who feared she’d have to drop out of nursing school in order to raise the teenage children of her sister, who died unexpectedly of a catastrophic infection.

Response to the column was compassionate and overwhelming, though not without some measured words for the decisions Betsy’s sister had made while alive that were now impacting Betsy in such a tough way.

One of the coolest responses to Betsy’s plight came from the producers of NASCAR Angels, a do-gooder reality-TV show that focuses on Good Samaritans in need of car rehab. Here’s the column I wrote about that

And – ta da! – here’s the show that resulted, which is now airing around the country (it has a has a brief, short ad up front). It also contains some brief footage of Yours Truly, where you’ll see that my hair needed combing that day. Other than that, it’s a great piece about a lovely young woman.

Go, Betsy! And thank you, NASCAR Angels, forbringing Christmas a little early to Betsy and her family.

(from the "Happy Bunny" series)

Here's the depressing announcement from Opinion Research about a new poll showing that more than one in four teenagers think that violent behavior is acceptable - even when it's merely to settle a score:

"While today's teens are learning the Three 'Rs' of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in school, new research shows that many are justifying violence to practice a fourth - Revenge.

"In a youth culture where violence is often believed to be acceptable, these and other findings not only present disturbing implications for school safety, but for the workplace as well, say experts."

That's because the kids who believe this nonsense regard themselves as ethically ready to enter the workplace.

I know - way to harsh our holiday buzz, right?

Here's a link to the press release and to the research that generated the bad news.

Waddya think? Did researchers people poll too many of the wrong kind of kids? Or are there just more of the wrong kind of kids out there?  

Philadelphia police officer Sharon Sullivan, her husband Mike Quinn and their pug Murphy at their northesast Philadelphia home, a week before their son was born. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

Philadelphia Police Ofc. Sharon Sullivan is a new mom.

She and her husband, Mike Quinn, welcomed Baby Cameron Michael into the world at 2am last Friday at Lower Bucks Hospital. Cameron was a week overdue but healthy and robust: 9.2 pounds and 22 inches long. Sharon is doing well, too, despite labor that, says Mike, "got pretty rough there toward the end."

Cameron's birth is a bright spot in a tough patch for Sharon, whom I wrote about last Thursday.  In 2003, she survived catastrophic injuries in an on-the-job car wreck similar to the one that took the life of Police Sgt. Tim Simpson last month.

The Civil Service Commission recommended to the city's Pension Board that Sharon be granted a disability pension, but the city is appealing the commission's finding. The stumbling block is just the latest from a city that has fought Sharon on just about every step of her recovery. 

What a Christmas it would be if, in addition to the birth of her son, Sharon finally received the disability pension she earned in service to the city.

Shown in this 1967 copy photograph is Eagles fan Frank Olivo, center, wearing his Santa suit in the stands of an Eagles game at Franklin Field in 1967. Olivo was the Santa who was booed and dodged snowballs during halftime at a 1968 Eagles game. (AP Photo)

Frank Olivo would like to set a few things straight about the Santa Claus outfit he wore to Franklin Field on Dec. 15th, 1968 - the day that pissed-off Eagles fans booed young Olivo and pelted him with snowballs.

I wrote a column about the infamous incident in the paper today, since it was the 40th anniversary of the ridiculous event. I wasn't able to track down Olivo before the column ran, so I relied on several eyewitnesses who who were there that day and eager to share their memories. (Including singer/songwriter Chuck Brodsky, whose song about the event you can listen to on my earleir blog post.)

Their memories, apparently, are flawed. So says the amiable Olivo, whom I was finally able to speak with a few moments ago, as he prepared to leave his Glenolden home for tonight's Eagles game against the Browns.

So here are Five Fun Facts From Frank about that Booed Santa Incident:

1. His Santa suit, owned by his uncle, wasn't grubby and threadbare, as disgruntled fans claim. It was only two years old, a high-quality get-up made of sturdy courduroy, and it cost $100 - "that was a lot of money back then," says Frank. However, the Eagles had given him a crumpled Eagles sack to carry the candy that he tossed to fans, so maybe that's what people remmber - the ratty bag.

2. He wasn't a skinny Santa, as people have claimed. "I was stuffed with pillows," he says. "I'm not a big guy" - 5-foot-6 - "so I don't cut an impressive figure. But I was definitely padded. I wasn't big. But I was jolly."

3. He was sober. "People say I was drunk. That's absolutely false! I was at the game with my uncles; when you were with them  you had to be on your best behavior."

4. He understands why fans pelted him with snowballs. "The team was horrible. They wanted to express their displeasure. So they booed and threw snowballs. I'd have done exactly the same thing, if I weren't on the field."

5. He loves being known as the Santa who got booed. "Every few years, I get interviewed. I've been written about in a book. I've been on an ESPN movie. It's been a blast. I think people will be talking about this for another 50 years."

Singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky has memorialized the Santa Snowball incident in song.

So today marks the 40th anniversary of the day Eagles fans booed Santa Claus and pelted him with snowballs at Franklin Field, during the last game of that god-awful 1968 season.

And how are you going to observe this most blessed event?

Allow me to suggest you give a listen to singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky’s hilarious “Great Santa Snowball Debacle of 1968" (click on the Mp3 file, below),  his musical account of what happened. Because - yes - he was at Franklin Field on that infamous day.

He was eight years old, a frequent attendee of Eagles games with his dad, and he remembers well those catcalls and snowballs.

“I was under the impression they did that all the time,” he told me last week by phone from Asheville, North Carolina, where he relocated years ago from Bala Cynwyd, where he grew up. “The games were always loud and wild. So booing Santa didn’t stand out as an anomaly to me.”

Snort.

Brodsky’s written a number of terrific sports-themed songs – more than a handful of them about seminal moments in Philadelphia sports history – but the Santa one is my favorite.

 I’m delighted to share the Mp3 file here. Click, enjoy and revel in the wussy safety of being an armchair badass. And if you care to sing along, here are the lyrics:

The Great Santa Snowball Debacle of 1968

It was the 15th of December
1968
Franklin Field in Philly
The subject of debate:
Did the Eagles' fans boo Santa
Beause they thought that he was drunk?
Because his costume was in tatters?
Or because the team just stunk?

The coach was Joe Kuharich
He clearly had to go
The homemade banners hanging up
They all were saying so
They hung him from the flagpole
In effigy that day
An airplane pulled a sign
That told him where to go away

It was the last game of the season
The team would finish 2 and 12
The snow was really falling
The cheerleaders dressed like elves
Norm Snead threw interceptions
The runners gained no ground
If it wasn't for the booing
There wouldn't have been a sound

The gun went off at halftime
But the field had too much snow
To go on with the regularly
Scheduled halftime show
The guy who would play Santa
Never even left his house
He'd phoned a little earlier
To say that he could not get out

And there was Frank Olivo
A 19 year old fan
In his Uncle Charlie's Santa suit
With a fake beard in the stands
Did someone from the Eagles
Come & promise him applause?
If he'd just run out on the field
While the band played "Here Comes Santa Claus."

There probably was some drinking
If you measured the whole scene
There were the usual bare chested guys
With faces painted green
By the time our Frank Olivo
Had hit the end zone running
The first of what would be a couple hundred
Snowballs started coming

One knocked off his glasses
One knocked of his beard
A couple of them made his
Phony eyebrows disappear
He gave the crowd the finger
And stood there like a giant
“You'll all get nothing for Christmas”
He yelled out in defiance

In the safety of the tunnel
He scooped snow out of his ears
The Eagles marketing director
Asked if he'd come back the next year
Frank Olivo answered,
“No, I don't think so
Because next year it might be bottles
If there isn't any snow.”

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Leave it to someone in the City of Brotherly Love to come up with a holiday decoration that combines the exuberance of Christmas with a Philadelphian's love of suds.
     
These hilarious - and oddly gorgeous - wreaths were made from beer bottles by the staff at South Philadelphia Taproom, 15th and Mifflin.
     
“We were trying to come up with something to give the people at Philadelphia Brewing Company  for their Christmas party,” says Kelly Longacre, who co-owns the taproom with her husband John; PBC is one of their most loyal suppliers. “John thought it would be funny to make them a Christmas wreath out of their own beer bottles.”
     
The bottles are wired together at their necks, then pulled into a circle and adorned with a bow at the base.
     
They weigh a ton. Can you imagine how much heavier they'd be if they weren't empty?

One wreath is comprised by only blue, Newbold bottles - a brand the brewery created in honor of the South Philly's  “Newbold”  section - a name that John Longacre newly christened the the taproom's neighborhood, which is having a bit of a renaissance.
     
A second, multicolored wreath uses bottles from PBC and other creators of yummy beers.
     
These wreaths are so ingenious, so unquestionably hometown, they got me thinking that there must be many more, only-in-Philly Christmas decorations that deserve inclusion in this blog.

Like what, you ask?
     
Oh, I don't know - maybe someone has made a life-size sleigh carved out of Scrapple? Or a Philly cream-cheese, front-porch Frosty?
     
Share your Philly-inpsired Christmas decorating ideas and anecdotes, or e-mail me your photos (polaner@phillynews.com), and I'll post them here.

Food, by the way, doesn't have to inform the décor. It's just where my brain usually heads, all by itself.

Note: Crossposted at Earth to Philly.

So the 109th Army-Navy FootBall Game kicks off tomorrow at noon.

I'd never taken much notice of the annual pigksin throwdown between West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy (I only have enough brain space to keep track of the Eagles).

But that changed when I got chance to experience the game in an entirely different way: Through the eyes of soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, who were recovering form their injuries at Walter Reed U.S. Army Medical Center and the Bethesda Naval Hosptial.

And through the generosity of Bennett and Vivian Levin, a local couple whose regard for those who serve the country moved them to do something extraordinary to show their appreciation.

In 2005, they assembled a line of luxe, vintage train cars, which they dubbed The Liberty Limited, to transport the soldiers to the Army-Navy Game from D.C. and Bethesda, Md. This was no ordinary train - it's showcase car was The Pennsylvania, the very car that transported Bobby Kennedy's body, after his assassination, to Virginia for burial.

You can get chills, standing on the back platform of The Pennsylvania, recalling images of those who, in tears, lined the tracks in tribute to Kennedy as the car rumbled slowly through their towns.

I wrote about the Liberty Limited's first ride, after the fact, and I invite you to read it via this link, because the world needs to hear, again, about the wonderful thing Bennet and Viv did for the troops.

The Levins repeated their efforts the following year, and invited me along - but only if I donned a white waiter's jacket and helped served the troops the extraordinary meals prepared in the train's kichens.

I've waited tables before, but never before did the experience put a lump in my throat the way it did that day.

"Ronnie, get ready for some hard work," Bennett told me, as I boarded the Liberty Limited.

Hard? Hardly. I've never had so much fun asking, "Corporal, can I refill your coffee cup? "

The 102 soldiers I met were courteous and excited to be aboard such a magnificent train.

Their injuries ranged from mangled limbs and blindness to spinal injuries and facial disfigurement. Not that they spoke much of their conditions.

Mostly, they reveled in the ride.

Some played raucous poker; others lounged in front of one of the train's plasma TVs.

One Army captain, a father of five from Missouri whose knee had been destroyed in an explosion, mostly just grinned.

"What a great break from rehab," he said, as the train rolled majestically over a trestle, headed toward Philly. "I really needed this. "

Another young Marine removed his leg prosthesis and settled comfortably into one of the Liberty Limited 's plush recliners and sighed, "This is the life. "

But it took almost the entire trip for the mother of another soldier - troops could bring a guest - to accept that the trip had no strings attached: It was all for her son.

"This makes me think that maybe people do care, after all," she told Vivian, gripping her in a teary hug.

Unlike the men and women on that train, I've never worn a uniform in the act of serving my country. But that weekend, I was proud to wear my porter's jacket, sporting the red-and-gold insignia of the Liberty Limited, so I could thank those who serve.

It was a pride shared by the 37 porters, 15 railcar owners, 24 medical staff and 30 guests of the 1,780-foot rail caravan.

In a day of wonderful moments, one of the sweetest occurred as the Liberty Limited II pulled away from Philly, heading back to D.C.

In a spontaneous gesture, volunteers in the CSX rail yard fanned out along the length of the train as it gathered speed, and held their arms in salute.

"Look at that!" said Vivian, excitedly pointing out the tableau to the soldiers settling down for dinner. "That's for you! "

I think it was for Bennett and Vivian, too.

Here's my vote for Cute Kid Pic Of the Day, courtesy of the good folks at ASAP - the After School Activities Partnership - which sponsors young dancers like these in its after-schools clubs.

ASAP showcased its dance programs yesterday by transporting audiences, via bus, to six participating schools to see firsthand the hoofwork the kids have mastered. Sort of like a progressive dinner, without the food!

Dubbed "Philly Dance: Don't Miss The Bus," the tour kicked off at the Penrose School in Southwest Philly and then moved along to the Jackson School, Harrington School, Philadelphia Montessori Charter, Mastery Charter and Shaw Beacon.

The kids demonstrated tap, hip hop, ballroom and modern dance, learned in programs sponsored by The Annenberg Foundation and The Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust.

My hat's off to ASAP, a non-profit that aims to keep kids safe and active in the dangerous after-school hours. The organization serves more than 5,500 Philadelphia kids annually in a variety of activities including dance, chess, Scrabble, skateboarding and yoga.

If you're interested in volunteein g for ASAP or learning more about its programs, check out ASAP's website. These are good folks doing very good things.