Let’s check in on Philadelphia’s longest tenured news anchor.

Jim Gardner is spending his holiday break in Israel, where he bumped into… Alex Trebek?

Wait, what? And why is he wearing a Detroit baseball hat? Does he secretly like the Tigers and actually hate the Phillies?

Some of the reaction:

 


He explained himself in a follow-up tweet, after the jump:

“So I posted this pic of me and Alex yesterday. We met on Mesada (sic) in Israel. All everybody is reacting to is the fact I’m wearing a Detroit Tigers hat. my son and I like to hit ballparks in other cities, and we get the hats. I’m a huge Phillies fan, but it’s fun to go rogue!”

No problem.

Jim, real name James Goldman, has been at Action News since 1976, so he can pretty much say, do, or wear anything he wants. He’s a New Yorker by birth, so I don’t know if he’s actually a Yankees or Mets fan, but it no longer matters. He’s been on Philly television longer than a lot of us have been alive.

Anyway, Masada is a fortress in eastern Israel, near the Jordan border.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site:

“Masada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel, its violent destruction and the last stand of Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman army, in 73 A.D. It was built as a palace complex, in the classic style of the early Roman Empire, by Herod the Great, King of Judaea, (reigned 37 – 4 B.C.). The camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle the monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present day.”

Sounds exotic. I hope to see Masada one day, but right now the only vacation I have planned for 2019 is Sea Isle City, New Jersey.