It’s been four years since my father, the legendary Denny Colello, passed away.  My brother sent this email, which I’m posting here with his permission:

Took the family to Atlantic City yesterday. Last night I shot craps (normally don’t do anymore) because it was exactly the four year mark for Dad and that is all he ever played.  Twice I threw down a fiver on the hard four, Dad’s favorite bet……………lost both of those bets………..where was Dad?  Not at the craps table.

This morning…….Kristi, me and the kids are walking the boardwalk.  Anthony talks me into buying something to feed the sea-gulls with.  I go get two hotdogs for $1.99, throw the disgusting meat away (okay, I ate one) and we sit down to feed the sea-gulls with the hot dog buns.

In a millisecond, there are a million birds around us and we are laughing hysterically. I cannot believe none of us get hit with a dropping.  Anthony puts a piece of bread on his shoe, a bird pecked him hard, and we laughed like crazy. People walking by are stopping to watch us …..really fun stuff.

I look up and see the huge RESORTS sign.  No b/s, I didn’t even notice we were near RESORTS, since we never gamble there, I don’t think I have even noticed the sign for RESORTS in 5 or 6 years. I can’t remember Dad (or us) staying anywhere else.  I haven’t even been in there since.

100 yards to my right is the exact picnic table that sat me, DAD, and Frank Fischer 15 years ago one Saturday afternoon.  Dad had won thousands of dollars that day; and was feeling giddy.  We sat at that picnic table and Dad fed the birds, we laughed hard; and people eating near us were very angry that so many birds were around. He was feeding them underneath the table and no one could figure out why the birds were everywhere…….he had the dumb grin on his face the whole time.

Don’t know why he didn’t help me on the hard four though.

Tonight I was proud to take my son to see the new Friday the 13th.  I am a fan, so I admit bias in reviewing the movie.  Overall it was really pretty great, they made some changes that brought the legend up to date.  Jason no longer lumbers around as if he’s half-drunk, in this new version he moves fast and does not toy with his victims.  The body count was high, and the nudity was frequent.

I have been watching the Friday the 13th movies since I was about 12 years old, and it was great to be able to take my boy to see this new one.  As cheesy as they were, these movies really represented my generation in the slasher genre.  This movie closely followed the time-tested formula:  A bunch of annoying teenagers trapped in the woods who get picked off one by one, how can you beat that?

I was most impressed by the fact that the movie theater was packed full of teenagers, it gives me hope that America might be on the right track after all.  They left the ending wide open for a sequel, of course, and I’ll be the first in line when the next one comes out.

Thanks to Rick and Krispix for the pics!

While my mother was visiting Tyler and the Sharks completed their undefeated football season.  Congrats to the Sharks!

What can I say?  Best superbowl I’ve ever seen.  Congrats to the Cards for an amazing post-season.  Congrats to Holmes for making the clutch catch of the year.