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