Weekly Mail March 28,2016

I hope you had a Happy Easter

Sorry I didn't write last week, let's see what's been happening.

Tim received an award on March 16 for creative writing. He wrote a short story about a group of super heroes that he totally created on his own.  It was submitted in a regional contest and received an honorable mention. David Letterman used to refer to bragging about ones kids as pulling a Kathie-Lee. So I'm pulling a Kathie-Lee here.

Also on the same day, I got to go in and read a book to his class because he was Star of the Week. I read the book King Puck, complete with Irish brogue to the kiddies.  Fun stuff.

NEWS ITEM: 2016 ELECTION

And then, there was one.

When Marco Rubio dropped out of the race after getting trounced by Donald Trump in Florida on March 15, it left me with one candidate to vote for,providing he stays in the race when  we vote here in NY on April 19.

Ohio governor John Kasich managed to win his home state enabling him to stay in the fight, albeit still trailing Trump and Texas senator Ted Cruz by a wide margin. I still can't bring myself to vote for Trump or Cruz, so if Kasich bows out, it may come down to who gets my protest vote.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton had a huge night on March 15, winning all the big States and increasing her already big lead.

But look at who has a 5 state winning streak going for himself. None other than Bernie Sanders. Hillary won Arizona big on March 22, but Bernie took Idaho and Utah the same night and then Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state this past Saturday. Again, he's going to need a miracle to catch her, but the more States he wins, the harder it's going to be for the Establishment to coronate her like they are determined to do.

OBITUARIES:

Folks continue to drop like flies around here. In a two day span last week, three celebs passed.

Joe Garagiola: For years, I only knew Garagiola as Vin Scully's color commentator on NBC's Saturday Game of the Week. The former catcher grew up on the same block as Yogi Berra in St.Louis and would tell everyone he wasn't even the best catcher on his block, never mind his neighborhood.

But Garagiola also was a two time host of NBC's Today Show, once in the 60's and again in the early 90's, to help clean up the Jane Pauley / Deborah Norville hand-off fiasco. He hosted several game shows, most notably To Tell the Truth, and he even guest hosted the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson a few times.

On the Beatles Anthology Documentary series, Beatle manager Neil Aspinall recalled that John Lennon and Paul McCartney appeared on the Tonight Show in 1968 to promote Apple Records, "but Johnny wasn't there, instead it was, I think Joe Dimmagio " 

Right sport, right first name, but wrong person. 

TV lost a versatile pioneer.

Ken Howard- For all the basketball I played growing up, I felt a connection to the White Shadow. Coach Ken Reeves, as portrayed by Ken Howard, was the epitome of all the good coaches I ever had. Tough, but fair. There were episodes of the show where I felt the same sort of anger and frustration that I would feel when one of my coaches got on me. Ultimately I knew it was for my own good, but at the time, it stung. That a TV coach could make me feel that way shows how good Howard was at his role. 

Howard also played Thomas Jefferson in the movie 1776, and Jill Hennessy's father in Crossing Jordan, among other roles, but count me as among the many who will remember him as the coach from the White Shadow. 

Garry Shandling- Have to admit, I never saw one episode of the Larry Sanders show, but I did watch It's Garry Shandling 's Show when I was a kid. And it was one of those shows that grew on you. I don't remember Shandling ever making my sides split with laughter, but you really couldn't help but like the guy. The outpouring over his death was testament to that. On a personal note, reading the story of how he collapsed while on the phone with 911 was especially harrowing. 

NEWS ITEM: Terror in Brussels and Obama visits Cuba

After the shooting in San Bernardino, the Daily News ran a headine reading God Isn't Fixing This. It was their way of attacking those who offered thoughts and prayers to the victims without offering much else in terms of solutions. 

I kind of wish they had been so bold with their headlines after the latest ISIS attacks in Brussels. Plenty of people including myself prayed for the victims. But very little was offered in terms of practical solutions. ISIS is still a major threat, and they are fully capable of doing here in the US what they've done overseas. This really needs to be fought aggressively. 

Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, President Obama was making the first official state visit to Cuba in almost 100 years. Specifically he was criticized in some circles for attending a baseball game instead of heading back to Washington to address the crisis in Brussels. 

I don't have much issue with his going to the game, there wasn't much to be gained by coming back right away, the fight with ISIS is ongoing. I question whether the President should have been there in the first place. 

Once again, this was probably a case of Obama 's heart and intentions being in the right place. Making amends with an enemy right at our doorstep seems like a great idea . The economic opportunities that come from a nation that has a warm climate are plentiful. Pictures of Cuba that we've seen show a land that is almost locked in a time warp thanks in part to US sanctions. 

But the reasons for those sanctions are still existing, namely the human rights violations still in place under the rule of Raul Castro. Also, there are many fugitives from US justice on the loose in Cuba, most notably Joanne Chesmard, convicted of killing a NJ State trooper in the 70's, only to escape prison and steal away to Cuba. If I were President I wouldn't have agreed to go unless the Cubans had her ass in custody and prepared for extradition back to NJ.  And I would have had made sure that procedures were in place to promote personal liberty down there.

Sorry for the delay on this

Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail March 13, 2016

Hey There:

******WEEKLY MAIL INTERACTIVE  WEEKLY MAIL INTERACTIVE*****************

        Every once in a while, Timmy gets an assignment sent home from school about a feeling word. He's given a word, like Joyful, Sad, Scared, Embarrased etc, and the assignment is that either Tara or I (usually me) has to write a short story about a time we were any of the above words, and it has to be a story we wouldn't mind having shared with the class.

I hate it.

Because what the hell am I going to tell these poor kids? I was scared that time I got pulled over by the cops for speeding on Sunrise Highway, I was embarrassed the night I passed out on the bar at Shelley's, I was sad when the chick I was buying drinks for all night went off with another guy at the Circle?  Tell a story you wouldn't mind sharing with the kids? The teachers would have me arrested if I told some of these stories!

I usually end up making up a story that while maybe not 100% true, at least won't get me a visit from Child Protective Services. I usually draw the assignment because of my creative writing skills. (Har har)

Now we've got another one that was sent home this week, and the feeling word is FURIOUS. Talk about a time you felt FURIOUS. Furious being defined as "full of extreme or wild anger".

And this is where y'all come in.

Because for your assignment this week, I will give you a couple of times I was FURIOUS the past couple of years, and you will get a vote as to what story Timmy is going to tell the class about.

The nominees are.

1) November 2, 2015- The Mets, leading by one run in the top of the 9th inning with one out and a runner on third, induce the Royals into a ground ball to third that should have ended the game when the Royals tried to score from third. But Lucas Duda, threw the ball away, the Royals scored the tying run, then won the World Series in the 12th. After swearing I wouldn't go bat$h-t crazy if they lost, I went bat$h-t crazy.

2) May 29, 2015- The Rangers, having won the President's trophy as the NHL's best regular season team, are in a  scoreless tie going into the third period of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals AT HOME against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Henrik Lundqvist did everything but stand on his head, but he lets in 2 measly goals. That's two more measly goals than my allegedly high powered Rangers managed. For the second time in the series, they were shut out AT HOME. The team with the best record in the league, didn't make even make it to the Finals. That one burned me so much, I ended up in the hospital three nights later.

3) February 2, 2015- The Seahawks, trailing the Patriots by 4 with 26 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIX, and the ball on the Patriots 1 yard line, elect to throw a pass, instead of handing the ball off to pro bowl fullback Marshawn Lynch. The pass is picked off and the Patriots win the Super Bowl.
That's not what made me furious.
That took place the next day, when I found out that had Seahawks coach Pete Carroll run the ball into the end zone as any Pop Warner football coach would have done, I would have won the $350.00 Super Bowl pool I was in. Instead I got squat, and the privilege of hearing the Giants fans among me saying that Eli Manning was the only QB capable of beating Tom Brady in a Super Bowl.

4) Will be whatever write in votes you want to put in there. Lawd knows I've provided many throughout the years.

The assignment is due at the end of the week, so please vote early and vote often. Polls close on Thursday.

Speaking of the polls...

2016 ELECTION:

Tuesday night was a big night for Bernie Sanders, pulling off a major upset in Michigan over Hillary Clinton. Yes, Hillary took the Mississippi primary by a huge margin, and yes she still holds a commanding lead in delegates, but Bernie wasn't expected to come close in Michigan. He's going to need a couple more of those upsets to stay alive, but to me, just the fact that he is still hanging around is a good thing for the country. The DNC wanted to anoint  Hillary as it's candidate..they certainly didn't expect her to be in a slugfest.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump picked up three more states on Tuesday, big delegate state Michigan, not quite as big Mississippi, and Hawaii. Ted Cruz won Idaho.

This coming Tuesday may be the finish line for both parties. 5 states total (and one territory) 4 big delegate states, . two of which are the home states of two of the remaining GOP candidates. My two guys, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Ohio governor John Kasich. If Trump wins both states, Rubio and Kasich should call it a campaign. If he wins all 5, so should Ted Cruz.

Of course nobody wants to hear that. Many Republicans want to take this fight all the way to the convention and have (as I told you they would say) a brokered convention. Usually when they talk about having a brokered convention, it's because more than one candidate is collecting delegates and none of them will have a majority to clinch the nomination.

Here they are afraid that Trump will have more than enough to clinch the nomination, but the party wants to have anybody but Trump as its nominee, so they will push to have the delegates vote for a candidate they are not pledged to. How they can even consider that is mind boggling, but apparently its a possibility.

And that can't happen. You can't mess with the will of the people. Look, Trump is not my choice either, but neither was Obama in 2008, or George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. If Trump gets the most delegates, he should be the nominee. Period end of story.

SPORTS: RANGER DANGER.

Tara and I have a girl who watches Timmy for a couple of hours while I go do my exercising. She's a big Islander fan, used to go to a buch of games at the Coliseum, now goes a little less frequently to Barclay's Center. Perhaps my best friend at the Post, reporter Kathianne Bonniello, is the biggest fan of any team that I know of. As much as I live and die with the Rangers, Mets, Jets and Knicks, she pours all of that devotion and then some into her Islanders. And that takes guts man, because let's face it, as much heartache as my four aforementioned teams give, the Islanders have given much worse. The last time they won a playoff series, Bill Clinton was in his first months as President. That was almost three 8 term administrations ago. I'm not trying to pick on them, they are also the last North American franchise to win 4 straight championships, they are the only franchise to win 19 straight playoff series (and only an Edmonton Oilers team 7 deep in  Hall of Famers kept it from 5 straight titles and 20 straight playoff series) Their former dominance and their recent incompetence are equally unfathomable.

If the season ended today, the Rangers and the Islanders would meet in round one of the playoffs. And to be honest with you,if that's how it goes, you'd have to lay your money on the Islanders long national nightmare coming to an end.

The Isles have had the Rangers number all season. Last Sunday's game was a particularly hard kick to the groin. The Islanders scored three quick goals within the first five minutes of the game. The Rangers stormed back with two goals of their own in a span of 38 seconds. The teams exchanged goals to end the first period at 4-3 Isles.

The second period was scoreless, and then the Rangers tied it at 11:39 of the third. And it looked like we were heading to overtime. But with a minute and a half left, the Rangers lost a faceoff deep in their zone, and Cal Clusterf-ck (sorry Clutterbuck) blasted one past Antti Raanta to give the Isles the lead. An empty netter gave them a 6-4 win.

They've played 3 times this season, and the boys from Brooklyn have taken all three games. What's more, I feel like the Isles not only win, they push the Rangers around. getting beat by a talent like John Tavares is no shame, he's one of the best in the league. But when you get pushed around by the likes of Clutterbuck and Boomer Esiason future son in law Matt Martin, that's where I lose my lunch. The Rangers have very few guys who just play with grit.

And that I lay at the feet of the coach, Alain Vigneault.

Now to be fair, AV has done a really good job here. In his two seasons, they have reached the Stanley Cup Finals and the Eastern Conference Finals. Their style is up tempo, they push the puck. And unlike their former coach, John Tortarella, who always had a look on his face like he just caught his wife in bed with the mailman, AV seems like a really nice man.

But he got two things wrong with him. One, he has little patience for the younger players like JT Miller and Dylan McIllrath, and he doesn't dress enough guys who are willing to hit hard and stand up for their teammates. Tanner Glass is about the only Ranger who resembles that description. McIlrath would if he got the chance. Vigneault doesn't seem to get the fact that even the greatest scoring teams of all time had grinders and enforcers to protect the highly skilled players. It nearly cost them the series against Washington last year, it sure did cost them against Tampa Bay, and its going to cost them if they lose to the Islanders this year.

And he will end up in chateau bow-wow if that happens. (That's French for dog house)

Don't forget to cast your vote. Every vote is a vote in the name of education. Do it for the kids yo!

And have a great week!

Weekly Mail March 6, 2016

2016 ELECTION: Trump, Hillary Win Big on Super Tuesday, but....

Of the 11 states up for grabs for the Republicans on Super Tuesday, Donald Trump won 7 of them, Ted Cruz won 3 and Marco Rubio finally got on the board, winning Minnesota. A win is a win, but Minnesota also elected Jesse (The Body) Ventura as it's governor and Al Franken as one of its senators. Hard to put much stock in that.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won 7 states (and American Samoa) and Bernie Sanders won 4 states, and damn near pulled out a 5th, as  Massachusetts went to Hillary in a tight race. It probably wouldn't have made that big a difference in the long run, but I would have loved to see Bernie pull it off in Mass.

So unfortunately, it's starting to look like the worst case scenario from where I'm sitting. Trump is starting to pull away, with Cruz, the only one with any chance of catching him. Cruz had a good night on Saturday, picking up wins in Kansas and Maine. Dr. Ben (Venus Flytrap) Carson signed off (seewhatididthere?) on his campaign, leaving only Trump, Cruz and my two finalists, Rubio and Ohio gov John Kasich. Rubio and Kasich are staying in at least till their states vote on March 15. Apparently, Cruz is hoping either he or Trump win in Florida that day so that Rubio bows out.

Bernie won 2 of the 3 states that voted on Saturday. Hillary won the third state big. I know Bernie's got a tough road to hoe, but I'm enjoying watching him win these states. Hillary got the delegates, but at press time, she's only got 11 states to his 7. For a race that was supposed to be a cakewalk, and was designed by the DNC to be just that, he is hanging in there.

NEWS ITEM. The Smoking Gun (or Knife?)

In what can't be a coincidence, this week a former LAPD cop turned in a knife found by a construction worker who was working on OJ Simpson's property in 1998, four years after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The unidentified construction worker gave the knife to the LAPD cop who was working security detail on the property. Rather than turn the knife in as evidence, this yutz decided to keep it as a "souvenir".I don't know what was more stupid on this guys part, not turning it over in the first place or doing so 20 years after the fact.

The reason I say this can't be a coincidence is that with the release of the FX series The People vs OJ Simpson, interest in the case has once again come to the forefront.  This guy is obviously looking to cash in some chips.

Now some law enforcement sources are suggesting that the size of the blade indicates that it could not have been the knife used in the murders. And I'm certainly no expert on DNA, but can you really test an object that has been exposed to the elements for that long? It's not going to make a difference, They can't try OJ again, and I believe he is never going to see the light of day again anyway. He was convicted in 2008 of burglary and kidnapping after trying to recover some of his memorabilia at gunpoint. He is serving a 9-33 year prison sentence, and I believe the only way he doesn't serve every day of those 33 years is if he dies in the clink.