Weekly Mail February 1, 2016

 We didn't publish last week because of the snow. This isn't the Post Office, snow, rain, wind or the dark of night will stop me from writing.You wouldn't think so would you. I mean with a blizzard outside, that would be a perfect opportunity to sit and write wouldn't it?  Instead I did the most moronic thing anyone can do during a bad snowstorm. I sat in front of my TV like a zombie and watched the news coverage.


NEWS ITEM: The BLIZZARD of 2016

        I don't get it. What the hell is the point of sending TV reporters out in the middle of a blizzard to talk about how bad it is out? One just had to look out their window to see the mounds of snow piling up outside their door. They need to have someone standing in Bryant Park trying to interview people (most of which BTW didn't want to talk to any reporter)? Like I said I don't get it.

         And then there were the poor reporters who obviously drew the short straw and had to go to the Jersey Shore to cover the coastal flooding. That brought back some bad memories, but thankfully we had none of that here. Still, there was one reporter on Ch 2, who I swore was going to get washed out to sea. You could see the swells rising up behind her as she was reporting. I guess it was kind of cool, but I'm not sure you couldn't have gotten some good video from a distance, instead of having a reporter there looking as if Noah had left without her.

           There was some pertinent info that I needed from the newscasts, specifically, when was Governor Cuomo going to shut down the LIRR so that I could call the Post and tell them "Sorry, can't make it in!!" That finally happened at 1 PM. Then I went out and played with Tim for a bit in the snow, and hung out at my neighbors house for a bit, before heading in for dinner and more mindless TV news watching.

         The next days the cews were out plowing our condo out. They did a really good job. And I heard a news conference with Mayor DeBlasio, saying that  he had some concerns that Woodside, Sunnyside, Middle Village etc were not properly plowed out. And you know, for a brief time there, I thought to myself, for all the things this guy has botched up in his 2 years as mayor, it looks like he's about to make up for a lot of it here. Unlike Bloomberg, Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch, Beame and Lindsay before him, this sounded a lot like a guy who cared about Queens. Bloomberg for all the good he did, couldn't find Queens on a map. Guiliani would come when he needed campaign money. I just got done reading a book about NY in the late 60's where John Lindsay left most of Queens under snow for weeks. He had the old ladies in Forest Hills screaming at him. At least diBlasio, acknowledged there was a problem in my hometown.

But did he do anything about it? Nooooooooooooooo!

In Oceanside, you could tell it snowed, but by Wednesday it looked like we had gotten maybe a foot. That much had been plowed away or melted that it looked like a minor inconvenice. There are still cars buried in Queens, and we are a week past the storm. Once again, the mayor of New York City took care of Manhattan and Brooklyn and gave Queens the shaft.

The names change. The game remains the same.


Glenn Frey 1948-2016.

       I'm not a huge Eagles fan, but during cardiac rehab, one of the guys brought an Eagles CD and I have to admit it made the workout go quicker. Thing is,  I've heard Hotel California probably as much as I've heard any song in my lifetime. You just hear their songs all the time. They're good, but they're everywhere.

          I have to admit, I liked Glen Frey as a solo act. The Heat is On was a great song. You Belong to the City reminds me of my 1986 Mets. he had a song in 1989 call True Love that I'm not ashamed to admit (well maybe a little ashamed) that I really liked. He also did a commercial for Jack LaLane where he said "I do curls for the girls" Classic.

             On a side note to Frey's passing, Daily News columnist Gersh Kuntzman wrote an article that was placed next to the main story about Frey telling the world how much he despised the Eagles. I happened to be listening to Scott Shannon on CBS-FM talk about it, and apparently, Boomer and Carton were giving out on the FAN about it as well. Kuntzman wrote another column the next day referring to himself as 'the most hated man in America."

           Full disclosure here: Back in 2004-2005, I worked the 6:30 PM-2 AM  shift at the Post on Sunday Night/Monday Morning. It was the best shift ever, pre marriage. I could sleep late on Sunday, especially after a few Saturday night libations, and I didn't have to get up early on Monday morning.
One of the other perks was that I got to watch The Odd Couple on Channel 11 at 1;30 AM Monday morning with Post Reporters Ed Robinson, and Gersh. Watching Ed and Gersh argue over who was the bigger Odd Couple fan was as entertaining as the show itself. I liked Gersh a lot. Still do.

         Just don't know if an article blasting the Eagles the day after Glenn Frey died was a good idea. As I said, I'm not the world's biggest Eagles fan either, but I give them their props. And I'd maybe wait till the body was cold before I'd rip away at the band.



POLITICS: The Raucous Iowa Caucus

Monday in case you didn't know, will be the first in the nation caucus taking place in Iowa. (See my previous blog for info on the Primary Schedule) It's time to try to break down how Weekly Mail stacks up the candidates. I'm going to hold off on an endorsement till the April 24 primaries. First the Republicans.


You all know that any time I see Ted Cruz on TV, I feel like I need to bathe. So he's out. Rand Paul is too far out there with a lot of his stuff and has no chance so, goodbye to him as well. Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum are has-beens who never were. Carly Fiorina has some interesting debates and is obviously very intelligent, but also ran Hewlett Packett into the ground. Jim Gillmore has never gotten himself into the big kids debate.

There are things I like about Chris Christie, mainly that he's a Rangers and Mets fan like myself, and also like myself, probably not qualified to be the President of the United States.  Jeb Bush hasn't polled well, as Donald Trump so eloquently likes to point out to him, but keep this in mind, many of the big money guys who backed his brother, are backing him as well. I'm not counting him out till I see him concede. I really don't think the country needs another Bush administration, but until he's out officially don't assume he can't win.  If I bang my head against the wall hard enough lamenting the lack of talent in this election, I wouldn't mind Dr Ben (Venus Flytrap*) Carson performing the surgery on my brain. That doesn't mean I think he should be President.

That leaves us with Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and John Kasich. Look, I realize many of you can't stand Trump. Some of you are reading this and wondering why I haven't put him in the above paragraph, weeding out the riff-raff. I've had more than one friend say they'd flee the country if he became President. Well, to be honest, and as I've said before, there are things about him that I like. I like that he wants to strengthen our military and take care of our veterans. I like that he wants to secure our borders and fix immigration. I love that he wants to promote American products and get us back to being the most productive nation on earth.

But I can't support a candidate who can't take any heat. Walking away from a Fox News Debate because the moderators are too tough? Barack Obama wouldn't do that, Hilary Clinton wouldn't do that and they would be grilled 100 times worse than Trump ever would. Too many times throughout this campaign, I've heard Trump say, "Well, he wasn't nice to me. or "He's being nice to me now, but that will change if the poll numbers change." What the hell?  Is he running for President or homecoming queen? Vladimir Putin is building up his military and taking land from his neighbors. Trump has criticized President Obama (rightly so) for being soft on Russia. But to hear Trump tell it, if Putin sends him a birthday card and a gift certificate to Applebee's, all will be forgiven. It's disappointing, because I do feel he has some talent to fix things, but this is just a reality show for him. Get out.

So I've narrowed it down to Kasich and Rubio. For now.  Maybe Christie can work his way back in to my good graces. (He talks a bit more smack than I'd like.) Maybe there's something about Dr. Carson I'm missing. Carly Fiorina may be worth a second look, I don't know. I just know that Trump, Cruz and Bush aren't the answer, and the others have no prayer.

On the Democratic side, I appreciate the enthusiasm and the passion that Bernie Sanders supporters show their man. I'm no liberal, but I like a lot of the message he has. Taking care of vets, making education affordable, funding social security etc., all things that are necessary to make our nation stronger. I have no idea what the man would do if ever we were attacked, ,,(more frightening, I don't think HE does either) and the man has no foreign policy chops to speak of. He would have to build a strong national security team, but it would be fascinating to see how he could pull off some of his more ambitious programs.

Hillary Clinton? Look, you all know what I think of her, it hasn't changed much. You take her, you take the baggage that comes with her. And I just feel like electing her just shows how little imagination this country has.

It all kicks off Monday in Iowa.

Have a Great Week

*I refer to Dr. Carson as Venus Flytrap because of his uncanny resemblance to Tim Reid, who played Trap on WKRP in Cincinnati back in the late 70's.