Weekly Mail November 13, 2016

Hey There:


Now that the election is over, it's going to be a scramble to find interesting things to write about. Sports and elections make up so much of what I write about. You know how I feel about the NFL, I know how most of you feel about the NHL. The NBA? I'll watch an occasional Knick game, but not too much.

Timmy started playing CYO basketball, which should be very interesting. Lord knows he can get up and down the court with ease.

I wrote an election wrap up, but I didn't post it. I really tried to play it
down the middle. I didn't post it because things are very raw right now. Here is the link if you are interested.

http://weeklymailfb.blogspot.com/2016/11/election-wrap-up.html?m=1

As I say in the article, I really don't want to lose any friends over this. Nobody is worth that. Especially not any political figures.


FLASHBACK:


With all the hoopla regarding the election happening, an anniversary passed last week that I really didn't see much mention about. But it's something that I remember clear as day, and I think, anyone who saw it would remember too. But time and medical advances have rendered the story, well if not irrelevant, not nearly what we thought it was going to be.

25 years ago, November 7, 1991. I was driving somewhere with my mom and dad, and Mike and the Mad Dog were reporting that Magic Johnson was announcing his retirement from the NBA. They had no idea why. He had missed the Lakers first couple of games, and if I recall correctly, Francessa and Russo speculated on a leg injury. (According to the great Jeff Pearlman's book Showtime, the press announced that Magic was out with the flu). On the radio, they kept saying how they couldn't believe Magic was hanging it up at the age of 32, coming off a trip to the Finals. They kept saying how they couldn't believe it, and they were driving my poor mother crazy. "These guys retire all the time, what's the big surprise?"

That came a couple of minutes later..

Stan Martyn, was the sports director at WFAN. He also did the updates for Mike and the Mad Dog every half hour. This time he broke in and once again announced that Magic Johnson was retiring from the Lakers, because he tested positive for the AIDS virus.

Silence on the radio.

OK, now that's a surprise my mom said.

Wow! Said the Mad Dog.

We were on 51st Avenue, right near where IS 5 is now.  Shock ran through me.

My first thought went back to May 9 earlier that year. Johnny Carson had Michael Landon on the Tonight Show that night. Landon had recently announced he was battling pancreatic cancer. He came out that night and joked that he had his hair, makeup and blood transfusion done back stage before the show. He looked like nothing was wrong. He said he would beat it.

2 months later, he was dead. But watching him with Johnny that night, I had no idea I was watching a dead man walking.

And now, four months after Landon died, I felt like I was watching another dead man walking.

There wasn't a TV Station in America, if not the world, that didn't carry the presser.

Magic came out and said "Um because of the HIV virus which I have attained, I'm going to have to retire from the Lakers."  Throughout the press conference, he was calm and smiling and confident, much the same way Landon had been with Carson. But at that point AIDS was undefeated. If you had it, you weren't going to live very long. Now, of course I have to mention that Magic had tested HIV positive, he didn't have AIDS, but at that point they generally went hand in hand.

When I was younger, adults all the time would say "You couldn't possibly understand, unless you were there." This was about big events, tragedies like the Kennedy assassination, or triumphs like the moon landing. I didn't understand why they would say that, of course I understood.

But I didn't, and as good as a writer as I like to think I am, I can't put into words what this announcement was like.

I now work with people who weren't even alive that day. They don't understand that HIV meant eventually full blown AIDS which meant a horrible painful death. To them, HIV means you can control the disease, that you can keep it from becoming full blown AIDS. That you can live a long time after you first get infected.

They don't understand that nobody watching that press conference or reading about it in the papers and magazines the next several days thought that Magic Johnson would live another 10 years, never mind the fact that 25 years later, he is still alive and strong, a part owner of the Dodgers.

I was by no means, a Lakers fan, but for a long time, I considered Magic to be the greatest player of all time. A 6'9 natural point guard who could play all 5 positions on the floor, Magic made passes that had to be seen to be believed. But you didn't have to be Jack Nicholson or Dyan Cannon to feel sick about what Magic announced that day. 25 years ago.


NEWS ITEM: McSorley's Closes Down

In a week where we all could have used a few glasses of personality, McSorley's Old Ale House, a Greenwich Village Haunt founded in 1854, was shut down by the DOH.  The health concerns that were raised include "Rats, food held at the wrong temperature, and conditions conducive to "vermin and pest activity" Sounds gross.

But in defense of the joint, what do you expect of a place that's been around since before the Civil War started? Now that they gentrified downtown, the rats need a place to go.

And who goes there to eat? That place is a pure booze bar, and the idea is to get nice and drunk on those pale and dark beers, then maybe you won't notice the rats and mice.

In any event, here's hoping they can get rid of the rats and mice and re-open sooner than later.


On that note, Bon Appetit

Hang in there.

Have a Great Week.