Rich Wilkins at 500 Posts

Today, "No Cream, No Sugar" turns 500... posts old. If you read me regularly, you know what I write about and what I like, but maybe not much about me. I'm 32. I live in Palmer Township. I went to Easton Area High School and Moravian College. I've done a tiny bit of graduate work at Penn State too. I'm a Democratic State Committeeman from Northampton County, an elected township auditor in Palmer, and a political consultant by day. I have a partial season ticket plan to the Phillies and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, their AAA affiliate. I went to 40 professional baseball games last year, and plan to go to more this year. Since I write about that stuff a lot though, maybe it's not a surprise to you. So today, we'll try to give you some new stuff.

Great-Grandma's old house

As I said, i'm 32- born on May 11th, 1983, around 7:30 am, at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, NJ. I'm Richard Thomas Wilkins III, officially, but you can call me Rich. My background is European mutt- 25% Slovak, 25% German, 12.5% Polish, 12.5% Hungarian, 12.5% British, and 12.5% Italian. Exactly zero of those have anything to do with the name Wilkins though, which was a creation at Ellis Island. Joseph Wilczynski and his brother came over to Ellis Island and were admitted to America, but his brother's last name seems to have been changed to Wilkins once there. Joseph was naturalized as Wilczynski in Belvidere, but seems to have later changed his name to Wilkins too. So no, it's not British.

The house above was the home of Julia Kravchak, my great-grandmother, also an off-the-boat immigrant from then-Czechoslovakia. Her and her husband John (who died long before I came around) came over and settled down in Brainards, a tiny village in Harmony Township, NJ. She was a poor immigrant who spoke broken English her whole life, but she worked hard, raised a family, tended to her farming, and lived alright. She is a huge part of my personal politics today, and why I identify with the Democratic Party- not so much because of her, but because the Democrats represent people like her in 2016.

But enough about background....

I hate suits and ties. I don't drink craft beer really. I like fried food. I think my hometown is the best place ever. I'm suspicious, if not downright antagonistic towards people who were born with a silver-spoon in their mouth, and intellectuals who live off in a pie-in-the-sky world. Yet, I went to a private college, can blowout any standardized test I wish to take, and love spending my time in Manhattan. I'm super-suspicious of anyone living in Washington, DC. No, I don't hunt. I have gone fishing, but i'm not all that good at it, and generally believe in throwing the fish back. Country music ain't my thing, and i'm a big fan of pop culture- but not of Beyonce. I got into politics in no small part because of the Iraq War, but i'm not 100% anti-war. I'm complex. Like any other person is. It just took me a long time to realize other people were too.

I take my coffee black, and I love an Italian hoagie from Wawa- though I also realize now that I like Quickchek and Sheetz a lot too. I drink both Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, and though I can taste the difference, have no preference between them. I love Italian food, but I love all the Mediterranean foods. I love Chinese food too, and just about anything with seafood in it. Indian and Middle-Eastern food is also great to me. Oh, and fry me anything, I'll try it.

Yes, obviously i'm a huge Phillies fan- 26 years a season-ticket holder now. I'm also a huge IronPigs, Fightin' Phils, Threshers, BlueClaws, and CrossCutters fan, because they're Phillies teams. After the Phillies and baseball though, i'm a Sixers fan next. I love the Sixers. Sure, they last won a title when I was a month old, but that beats everyone but the Phillies. I like the Eagles, I really do, but I'm sick of the over-hyping of Philadelphia fans. I basically just hate the other 31 NFL teams a little more than the Eagles, and so I stick by my team. I hate the NFL though, other than 60 or so game days a year- I wish they'd actually take an off-season. As for the Flyers, I remain a fan, though having Sarah Palin drop the puck Opening Night made me reconsider for a bit. Like the Eagles, the Flyers just always strike me as overrated in Philadelphia.

What about college sports though? I grew up a Notre Dame football fan and a Syracuse basketball fan. I picked up Penn State along the way, and Lehigh's wrestling team. I went to a D-3 school, so I like the teams I like, but i'm not as rabid as others about it.

What else is there to know about me? I used to play the drums, I'm getting started again. I used to lift weights every day, and my lifetime high max bench was 325. I should get back into that. I wrestled from 1st to 11th grade. I ran track and cross-country in high school, and my best mile time in a race was 4:52. I won seven varsity letters at Easton High School but basically quit all sports cold-turkey in 2002, when I got mono. I'm a brother of Omicron Gamma Omega at Moravian, and I served as the Vice-President of the Class of 2006.

I take the most awkward pictures with politicians, ever. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a decade ago or two weeks ago. I just do. I guess I do better with World Series trophies, thank God.

....Aaaaaaannnnnddddd cardboard cutouts of politicians.

I'm a pretty happy guy though. I'm in good health, in fact I haven't been this light since I was in high school. I see the people I want to see, I enjoy my work. I write here. You get to see this everyday. Hopefully this gives you a better look at me. There's actually a person writing here. I try to mix in some personal posts, but frankly they come off to me as just another opinion piece. I give you enough opinions. Here's a very different look today.

And there's a dog- three of them. Three very happy animals. Shout out to all the good dogs out there. May your days be filled with happiness, may you find these posts either entertaining or enlightening- or both. Oh, and go adopt a dog. They're great.

In closing, the reasons to blog have changed a lot over the years. When I started blogging, it was to have a voice, to "stand out" in a very "top-down" political culture where we are expected to "wait in line," and I wasn't doing it. Today, I don't care about any of that. I write to hopefully inform people, and to formulate my own thoughts into an organized manner. It's my outlet, and I hope it's helpful. I'm looking for ways to spice it up and change it a bit, but i'm not looking to stop anytime soon. Thanks for reading.

100th Post

A couple of random notes for my 100th post-

1. The Evander Holyfield 30-for-30 on ESPN, "Chasing Tyson," is really awesome. If you haven't seen it, watch it next time. I watched it last night, and I'm glad I did.
2. I watched about five minutes of the Republican Debate, and I wish I hadn't watched it. While child-like Marco Rubio calls them the "party of the future," he and his opponents stood up there pushing for more wars in the Middle East, tax cuts for the rich, a return to the gold standard and more market de-regulation, all the same ideas they've been pushing for 50 years. It's all window-dressing.
3. Jeb Bush really should just drop out, even if it goes against his better instincts. The "Daily Show" part parodying "Blackfish" with "BushFish" was just brutal. He's becoming a punchline.
4. I'm also glad I didn't watch the Flyers last night. They are a punchline right now too. What a bad squad.
5. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction to MLB trade rumors this week. Yes, Ken Giles draws a lot of interest on the trade market. Yes, the Phillies should at least field the calls. No, that doesn't mean he's gone. That means they are being a responsible team. That's what you want.
6. Maybe the Sixers experiment really is that bad. This team looks worse than last year so far. Sure, they have some key injuries, but is it supposed to be like this?
7. "Morning Joe" is really obnoxious punditry. They literally just spout off DC group-think opinion about events in the world. DC group-think is so far from the reality that most of us live in that it has no baring on actual reality. They, like so many other pundits, actually treat that pile of garbage the Republican Party put on last night as though it's a serious event. Nothing of value came of that, or of this punditry.
8. My three dogs really love sitting with me on the couch. I don't like sitting in for the night, but the pure joy sitting in with them seems to give them makes me do it sometimes. Last night was sometimes. 
9. Sometimes I miss my time living in Washington though. Yes, I hated Washington. Yes, I found that city particularly to rub me the wrong way. With that said, it does have it's charm. It's never really quiet, and you are at the center of so many things there. I don't think I'll ever go back, but I can't say never anymore. I could do one more stint working there for a short period of time, maybe a couple years.
10. I've had some really good weeks before, but my sister is having one of the best I've seen. She was slated to be the President of Delta Zeta at Temple on Sunday night, and would begin that job in January. Then yesterday she turned 21. That's a lot in a three day period. Congratulations to her.