Hello All:
I have a general rule about Brooklyn, I try to avoid it at all costs.
Some of you reading this are probably from Brooklyn, and will now never speak to me again, (hopefully not) Indeed, I have relatives and friends that call the Borough of Kings home.
So no offense, but Brooklyn is my least favorite part of the city to visit. I've lived, worked and played in Manhattan, and that's always fun. The Bronx? I've enjoyed my treks to Yankee Stadium, I spent many nights partying in Woodlawn, and even when I was working on stories for the Post in the not so nice sections of the Bronx, there was something about it. I just have a lot of respect for it.
Staten Island I don't know much about, but I've been there a few times to visit family and I don't mind it.
I'm a Queens kid born and raised, and will always be one at heart, no matter where life takes me.
So what's wrong with Brooklyn? Maybe it's just that I'm sick of hearing about how awesome it is. Hipsterville USA. Maybe it stems from when I worked at a law firm and most of my coworkers were from Brooklyn, and they treated Queens like it was another planet. Maybe it's because you are safer driver backwards during the Daytona 500 than you are driving in Brooklyn.
But mostly it's just the general arrogance of the place. They very clearly believe they have the best of everything... restaurants, museums, theaters, beaches, it's a world unto itself.
So having said all that, I took the family there for dinner on Saturday night.
***RESTAURANT REVIEW RESTAURANT REVIEW RESTAURANT REVIEW***
Colandrea New Corner Restuarant.
7201 8th Avenue Brooklyn, NY
You want to talk about a good old Italian Restaurant, this was it. It didn't look particularly charming or modern. The website said it was established in 1936, and I don't think too much has been updated since then, at least in the main dining room. But that wasn't a bad thing, in fact it offered a sense of nostalgia.
And of course that doesn't mean anything if the food is lousy. And this food was far from lousy it was delicious. And the size of the portions was incredible. I don't usually have to cry uncle at a restaurant, especially an Italian one, but I did here.
The wait staff couldn't have been nicer, they seated us right away even though we were early for our reservation.
I would definitely recommend this place, with some advice... come early, bring your appetite, but don't load up on apps, because dinner will more than fill you up.
4.5 Patties.
From there we did one of the coolest things, we went and looked at the Christmas lights in Dyker Heights.
I had seen some pictures on line of these houses, but pictures don't do it justice. They have blocks and blocks of houses that are done up in the most amazing ways possible. And I'm talking every single house, one more electric than the other.
And the crowds of people that were there to gawk was unbelievable. There were hundreds of fellow onlookers, taking family photos or just gazing at the wonder of it all. It felt a lot like Disney World, to be honest. I've honestly never seen anything like it before.
So have I softened up on Brooklyn at all? Not really. But what I saw on Saturday was really impressive. Those folks have earned their right to brag.
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2016 has seen much more than its fair share of celebreity deaths. To be honest, I'm kind of tired of writing them, as I feel like that's all I've been writing the past few weeks. But one death this wek hit me a bit harder than I would have thought.
Alan Thicke (1947-2016) Growing Pains wasn't one of those shows where I made sure I was home and in front of the TV when it came on, it just was one of those shows where that's exactly where I happened to be when it was on. Looking back, it was such a cookie cutter 1980's family sit-com. Two good looking successful parents, slacker older brother, nerd sister, and wise a$$ younger sibling. (see also Family Ties, the Cosby Show, etc).
And yet when I heard about Thicke's death on Tuesday night, I started You Tubing some old clips from Growing Pains, and I don't know, it really hit home. Maybe I got more of a kick out of the Seavers than I thought I did. More likely, it reminded me of a simpler time, when I could relate more to Mike, Carol and Ben, more than I could to Dr. Jason and Maggie. That show ran from 1985-1992, pretty much right through my teenage years, the times where my mom and dad had to worry about the things that Tara and I have to worry about now.
Yes, by all accounts, Thicke was a good guy, and he was great on Growing Pains, and in his cameos on How I Met Your Mother. He was one of many who tried (and failed) to go up against Johnny Carson. He produced shows, he hosted ceremonies, he wrote songs, very multitalented.
But to be honest, it was his representation of a simpler time that made me sad to hear that he died.
SPORTS-Rangers Goaltending "Controversy"
I want to make some things abundantly clear before I go into this rant.
In the past 11 seasons, the Rangers have made the playoffs 10 times. Of those 10 times, they were knocked out in the first round 4 times, the second round 3 times. They made it to the conference finals 3 times and to the Stanley Cup Finals once. The overwhelming majority of credit for their success should go to their goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Only a moron would think otherwise.
More often than not, over the past 11 years, King Henrik has grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat. He has figuratively stood on his head and kept the Rangers in games while our so called big guns scraped by on one or two goals a game. Before he got here, the team had missed the playoffs for an almost unfathomable 7 years in a row (8 if you count the lockout year). I'm not exaggerating when I say that Henrik Lundqvist saved this franchise.
So I don't want anybody thinking I'm ripping the man without some perspective, but for a while there, Lundqvist had shown some slippage in his game. Goals he would have stopped with his eyes closed were now going in. Every goalie has a bad night now and then, but he was having more than usual. There were some nights where he was bailed out by his scorers instead of the other way around.
Meanwhile, the King's backup, Antti Raanta, is having a stellar season. And two weeks ago, he had a shutout streak of over 180 minutes. (the equvalent of 3 games).
So according to some folks, this constitutes a goalie controversy. I'm not buying it. I had no problem with Alain Vingneaut playing Raanta for 4 straight games, shoot he have been nuts not too. Yes, Hank is still the man and maybe the extra time off did him some good, since he came back from his 4 games off, he's been lights out again.
Like Herm Edwards once famously said "You play to win the game. " Be it the King or the Prince.
We will have a special Christmas Eve edition of Weekly Mail, then the End of Year Review.
Have a Great Week!
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