Sunday, January 29, 2017
Weekly Mail January 29, 2017
Hi There:
Last week, Tim made reconciliation for the first time. I probably should have written about it last week, but I had my reservations. Obviously I'm proud as hell of my big guy, but I'm not a fan of this particular ritual.
Reconciliation, for my non Catholic subscribers, is a sacrament (a gift from the Almighty) in which one goes and tells a priest their sins. The priest counsels you a bit, then gives you a penance, (usually a couple of prayers) and then sends you on your way with a clean soul, and maybe a fresh conscience. I guess that depends on what you did.
Before Tara and I got married, we had to do pre cana, a series of chats about marriage in the eyes of the church. Most people knock it out in one sitting on a Saturday afternoon, but Tara and I spread it out over three Wednesday nights. I could probably write a whole book about the "sex talk" we had on the third week.(but I won't). I remember the second week was the talk given by a priest. One of the things I remember him saying was "Make sure you go and have a good confession, before you get married." Unfortunately, I had just gotten done reading the Jimmy Breslin book The Church That Forgot Christ, about the sex scandals in the Catholic Church, and I decided Jesus would have to take my word for it that I was sorry for all the crap I've done.
In a sign of the times, all the kids who made confession last week, did so where us parents could see them. No confessionals (or sin bins as we used to call them) for these kids. There were two priests on the altar and two in the back of the church, all in plain sight. We couldn't hear what the kids were saying obviously, and I didn't want to. Besides what the hell could an 8 year old possibly have to confess?
TELEVISION-RIP The Sports Reporters?
According to several reports this week, ESPN has decided to get rid of my favorite Sunday morning talk show The Sports Reporters, with the last show set to air in May. I shouldn't be that upset about it, after all, I've got a million problems with the show, namely that they didn't take my advice and hire a new host after the untimely death of John Saunders. Instead they did exactly what I told them NOT to do, and made Mike Lupica the host.
I've been reading Lupica's Sunday column, Shooting from the Lip, since I was Timmy's age. It used to be hysterical, and Lupica used to be relevant. Now it's neither. And Lupica is considered by almost everyone in the biz as an obnoxious out of touch a$$hole.
Another complaint with the Sports Reporters is that they used much of their own talent instead of what the show was originally supposed to be, which was a panel of sports columnists from around the country. And also, they only cover the sports that ESPN/ABC televise. Baseball/Football/Basketball, mostly, tennis and golf occasionally. Hockey? Maybe a blurb during the playoffs.
Still, it was a good way to kick off my Sunday, both back in my hangover days and now trying to wrestle control of the TV from Timmy and Nickelodeon. If it's true that it's going bye bye, it's going to put a cramp in my Sunday TV Viewing. I'll have to do something grownup and watch Face the Nation or Meet the Press. With all the $h-t going on in the world now, who wants to do that?
**BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**
Lucky Bastard:My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm not Allowed to Say on Television
By: Joe Buck
A few years ago, I read Al Michaels autobiography, and I told someone that if you thought Al Michaels was an d-ck before you read his book (which I did), the book wouldn't change your mind.
A lot of people I know think of FOX's Joe Buck the way I think of Al Michaels. And if you feel that way, I can tell you that you will still feel that way after reading his autobiography.
I in fact don't hate Buck the way a lot of people do. Sure, I think he hates the Mets, because he and I are close in age, and I grew up hating the St. Louis Cardinals, the team who his legendary father was the play by play man for. But can I say I ever heard him say anything disparagingly about the Mets? Not really.
And Yankee fans bitch and moan about him, but I call bollocks on that, because no announcer outside of the YES Network gave Derek Jeter more verbal love than did Buck. He even admits that in his book. I once heard him sing Happy Birthday to Jeter during FOX's Game of the Week.
Buck spends most of the book defending himself from the charges that he only got his job because of his famous father. He was broadcasting Cardinals games when he was 20 years old, so one could definitely draw that conclusion. But I always thought he had a great voice. I still do. And if he sounded like Gilbert Gottfried it wouldn't have mattered who his old man was, he wouldn't be calling sporting events.
Amongst the other things Buck talks about is his addiction to hair replacement surgery which almost cost him his voice (ergo his career) the crumbling of his first marriage (in which he suggests that had he been more of a cad than he already was-he may have gotten to hook up with Christina Applegate and Kate Hudson-do with that what you will)
He's not as funny as he thinks he is, but he still pretty funny. He tells some good stories. The evolution of his relationship with Tim McCarver was very interesting and to me quite enlightening.
Overall, not a bad read.
4 Auggies.
I felt awful when I heard about the passing of American Icon Mary Tyler Moore this week. I guess I'm hoping if I stop writing obituaries, people will stop freakin dying. I realize how warped that logic is, but well, that's where I'm at.
That's all from here kids
Have a Great Week!
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Weekly Mail January 22, 2017
Hey:
So I got to watch some of the inauguration on Friday, we were able to catch President Trump's swearing in, and some of his speech. There were parts of the speech I liked and parts I thought he could have avoided.
But more importantly, I always feel like Inauguration Day is one of the great days in America. I know there are plenty of Trump haters out there who thought this was the worst day of their lives, and his administration may turn out to be. But I'm always fascinated by the transfer of power, the graciousness of both parties (I know Michelle Obama grimaced and Trump took shots at Washington DC in his speech, but he also said the Obamas were "magnificent") and just the pageantry of it all. The music, the parades, I find it amazing. I know other countries have bloodless transfer of power, I still think we do it better than anyone.
NEWS ITEM: Evil in the Cabinet
My general rule of thumb when it comes to Presidential appointees is that to the victor goes the spoils. It annoyed me when Republicans would vote against Obama's nominees for his cabinet and the Supreme Court. As the opposition party, you are not going to agree with the philosophy of the person being appointed. Well that's too damn bad, next time win the election. (And this is coming from someone who voted against Obama in 2008)
My feeling is that the job of the nominating committee is to weed out someone who is egregiously unqualified for the position. I didn't like that Sonia Sotomoyor said A wise Hispanic woman is better than a white man", but one quote should not have disqualified her from SCOTUS. Same thing with Obama's cabinet picks. Lord knows I couldn't stand Hillary Clinton, but if that's who Obama wanted to be his Secretary of State, than I had no issue with that.
But man, the blowback I've been seeing about President Trump's pick for education Secretary has been something else. I mean he's gotten some well deserved grief about most of his choices, but this one has people going nuts! Probably because so many of my family and friends are educators.
Another general rule of thumb is that someone going for a cabinet position should have some experience in that field, or else be super successful in another field that you can show an ability to learn on the fly. This lady seems to have neither of these qualities. Therefore if I was voting in the Senate, I'd have to give her the gas face.
**BOOK REVIEW **BOOK REVIEW **BOOK REVIEW **BOOK REVIEW**
Altamont-The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day
By: Joel Slevin
I kept seeing this book at my local library and was reluctant to take it out. I had seen Gimme Shelter several times and thought I was fairly knowledgeable about what had happened.
But I didn't know the half of it.
To review: After the success of Woodstock in August 1969, people wanted to put together another free concert on the West Coast. A number of great bands had come out of the San Francisco area, and the idea was to put those bands together along with the Rolling Stones. With the Beatles falling apart, the Stones were poised to become the World's biggest band, and Mick Jagger saw this as a huge opportunity to do so.
The lineup for the show was to be Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Grateful Dead and the Stones. It was to be at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on December 6, 1969. When the promoters were unable to get a permit for Golden Gate Park, they were forced to move the concert to Altamont Speedway, a failing race track on the outskirts of the city.
The Stones had given a free concert at London's Hyde Park a month before Woodstock, and they had employed the Hells Angels as security. They had no idea of knowing that the Angels in England weren't the bad a$$es the ones in America were.
Larger than expected crowds, lack of adequate facilities, bad drugs, poor sound quality, no space between the stage and the crowds, and the Angels, drunk and high, kicking the crap out of everybody, led this concert to be an unmitigated disaster. Slevin sets up the San Francisco music scene in the late 60's, details the planning and some of the shady characters that were part of that, the disastrous idea of having the Angels serve as security, and the concert itself.
When I was younger and someone would be reading a Steven King novel, they would say, "The Book is so much scarier than the movie." I don't watch horror movies and I don't read horror novels, so I didn't know what the hell they could possibly be talking about. Now I know.
Because no matter how many times I've seen Gimme Shelter, nothing made me feel like I was there, in front of the stage watching the Hells Angels clobbering people like this book did. I couldn't believe how sucked into the story I got.
One of the concert goers, an 18 year old African American kid named Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by a Hells Angels member named Alan Passaro. The book goes into his murder trial, and the rest of the aftermath. It's a horrible story about a horrible day in rock and roll history. But Slevin did a masterful job telling it.
4.5 Auggies
**MOVIE REVIEW **MOVIE REVIEW **MOVIE REVIEW **MOVIE REVIEW
MOVIE: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
STARRING: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Forest Whittaker
SAW IT AT: AMC Fantasy 5; Rockville Centre
SAW IT WITH: Timmy
I hate reviewing anything that has to do with Star Wars because someone inevitably didn't see it and all hell breaks loose with spoilers and $h-t. So if you hadn't seen it yet, don't read between the stars.
*******************************************************************************
You remember in Episode IV A New Hope (or as I call it the Original Star Wars) when the Rebellion said they had found a fatal flaw in the Death Star? Well, this is the story of how the fatal flaw was designed and the effort to go and recover the plans.
Felicity Jones is the daughter of the man who designed the Death Star against his wishes. The Rebellion came looking for her in order to track him down. Since he had been taken by the empire when she was a child, she honestly told them she didn't know where he was. And it goes from there.
It took me a while to figure everything out, and I kept asking Tim if he knew what was going on. Thank goodness he said he did cuz dammed if I could explain it to him. Once I got it straight, it was pretty entertaining.
4.5 aces.
******************************************************************************
I hope everyone who marched on Saturday stayed safe, and were able to get some satisfaction. The numbers from what I saw were staggering. Millions of people from across the country and around the world. I know this: Saturday's march will be talked about for years. And since there was little to no violence, it will be talked about for all the right reasons. I could have done without Madonna threatening to burn down the White House, but one idiot out of millions of marchers should not ruin the strong and positive message that came out of the march.
As always hang in there
and Have a Great Week
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Weekly Mail January 15,2017
And we're back!!!!
So Happy New Year and I hope all of you have been able to avoid the post holiday blahs for the most part. It's tough, January, for my money is the most depressing moth of the year. Well, that and September, but at least in September you get decent weather. In January, it's cold, it either rains or snows a lot, and it's back to the grind, and not seeing the folks that you reconnected with during December. Just a tough time of year.
And for many, it will be even tougher this year because this coming Friday, we will say bon voyage to President Obama.
I've decided to end the embargo on political talk here. At least for this week. This week, we'll take a hard and honest look at President Obama's legacy.
So Happy New Year and I hope all of you have been able to avoid the post holiday blahs for the most part. It's tough, January, for my money is the most depressing moth of the year. Well, that and September, but at least in September you get decent weather. In January, it's cold, it either rains or snows a lot, and it's back to the grind, and not seeing the folks that you reconnected with during December. Just a tough time of year.
And for many, it will be even tougher this year because this coming Friday, we will say bon voyage to President Obama.
I've decided to end the embargo on political talk here. At least for this week. This week, we'll take a hard and honest look at President Obama's legacy.
*********************************************************************************
A friend of mine recently said to me that Barack Obama would go down as one of the greatest Presidents of all time. He laughed as he said it, not because he didn't believe it, (he does) but because he figured I wouldn't believe it.
A friend of mine recently said to me that Barack Obama would go down as one of the greatest Presidents of all time. He laughed as he said it, not because he didn't believe it, (he does) but because he figured I wouldn't believe it.
But he is right. Barack Obama will most definitely be considered one of the all time greats. It's already happening. Go into any magazine shop, there are a whole bunch of commemorative editions of different magazines celebrating the Obama's. There have been TV specials, interviews, the whole 9 yards. I don't remember any of this stuff when George W. Bush was leaving office.
So the question to me isn't whether or not Obama will be considered one of the G.O.A.T Presidents. The question is , does he deserve to be.
Certainly, what is helping his cause is that is administration looks like it's going to be sandwiched between two disastrous ones.
Lots of bad stuff happened when Bush 43 was President, and while I don't blame him for all of it (much to many of your chagrins) he certainly didn't help. He economy was in the toilet, gas prices were sky high, unemployment was up, and there was no end in sight for the two wars we were in, and a whole lot of folks not wanting us to be in either one of those wars to begin with.
That progress has been made is undeniable. The economy has improved, gas prices are reasonable. Unemployment has gone down, and al-Qaeda has been mostly put out of business.
But many feel the economy still hasn't fully recovered, the unemployment numbers don't reflect those who have given up looking for work, not to mention that wages have been stagnant. And we now have ISIS to deal with.
What's aggravating to me is that while you have many who believe he is the second coming, there are others who claim he is the worst President to ever occupy the Oval Office.
I think both positions are ridiculous.
Obama wasn't perfect, far from it. Too often in the beginning of his administration, it was apparent that his game plan was to do everything the opposite of his predecessor, and let the sheer force of his personality do the rest. And while that seems like a good idea, what with all that went wrong and it would fire up his base of supporters, the reality ended up being different.
Some of his early ideas were good, like cash for clunkers, and the auto bailout But he also took down a missile defense shield in Poland without gaining any other concessions from Russia. He in fact sent the secretary of state with some stupid reset button, thinking that just because he wasn't named Bush, that the Russians would be willing to work with him. It's why I have to laugh when people act as if he is the jock who is going to slap around that bully Vladimir Putin. Mitt Romney called Russia our number one geopolitical enemy. People laughed at him, including the President.
No one is laughing now.
He also vowed to close down Guantanamo Bay and hold any terror hearings just mere blocks from where the towers were knocked down. Gitmo remains open and he thought the better of having those scumbags tried here in NY.
And Obama was not totally honest with his signature domestic legislation, the Affordable Heathcare Act (and yes, I know Obamacare and AHA are synonymous, I'm not THAT idiotic) While I don't agree that it should be repealed and replaced, I do understand the frustration with it. I work in healthcare, and I know plenty of folks who had to change their insurance, or change their doctor, or pay much higher premiums than they had. The President is too smart of a man to have not seen that coming. He probably figured that the benefits would far outweigh and negativity that was caused by the changes he insisted wouldn't happen. But even the Clintons acknowledged that the premiums were too high. Factor all that in, and it's hard to paint everyone who opposes Obamacare as a heartless a$$hole. Again, maybe it needs a wrench and a hammer as opposed to a demolition, but I know where some of these people are coming from.
The minute Donald Trump is sworn is as the President, he will automatically become the most thin skinned commander in chief our nation has ever had. It won't even be close. But at times, Obama came off very thin skinned as well. He complained a bit too much about Fox News for my liking, given that every other network rolled out the red carpet for him. I understand that pea brained goobers like Mitch McConnell (for my money, he's more evil than Trump or Pence) made Obama's life miserable, but hey, the truly great ones found a way. Shoot, Bill Clinton was able to get things done with a Congress that was trying to impeach his a$$.
Obama bragged that he feels he could have won a third term. Part of me shakes my head at his braggado, part of me knows he's right.
And part of me acknowledges that I probably would have been one of the ones who voted for him.
Because even as I wrote above how much I disagreed with him, I always got the feeling that his decisions came from the heart. He took this job to help people. And he did his office proud.
I ask the folks who wanted Hillary Clinton to win so badly solely based on her gender this question.. Is this really the person you wanted to break the glass ceiling? People say they have been lied to my old white men for over 200 years, so why not get lied to by an old white lady.
Why not? Because you can do better.
Barrack Obama proved you can do better. If the next African American President can do the job as well, carry himself with the class that the first one did, then I'll gladly vote for that person, male or female. Republicans talk about family values, President Obama and his family lived them.
One of the all time greats? Maybe, maybe not. But definitely better than what we had, and probably what we are getting. I wouldn't start re carving Mt. Rushmore, but I can't say I'm not sorry to see him go.
Thank you Mr. President
******************************************************************************
RIP to a true hero.
I was 13 years old when Officer Steven McDonald was paralyzed by a criminals bullet in 1986. The older I got, the more I appreciated just how special a man Detective McDonald was.
If he and I had met at a bar, we probably would have gotten along famously. An Irish Catholic, Queens born and a die-hard Ranger fan, he was my kind of guy anyway.
But then you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate his remarkable ability to forgive. And you don't have to be a Ranger fan (or a sports fan for that matter) to understand why several of the Rangers who won the Steven McDonald extra effort award counted that as amongst the highlights of their careers, and I'm talking about guys who won Stanley Cups.
If you didn't live in the NY area, you might wonder why a cop could have such a huge turnout for his funeral, that he was able to fill St. Patrick's Cathedral. Read his story and his inspiring words, and then you'll appreciate how tough he had to be to push on and be not only an incredible husband and father, but an asset to the NYPD. Hell, just getting through a normal day required fortitude that most of us wouldn't dream of having.
The fact that he had what happened to him and was able to forgive his attacker, to the point where the attackers mother said she felt that McDonald and her son would have worked together to help end street violence (her son died in an accident within days of his release from jail) is all you need to know about this remarkable man.
Detective Steven McDonald was everything we all wished we were. And that's why a city mourned his loss last week.
*********************************************************************************
***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***
Bulletins from Dallas-Reporting the JFK Assassination
Author: Bill Sanderson
Bill is a fellow Postie, a long time reporter and an all around good man. So no, I'm not unbiased here.
The JFK assassination has been covered so often that coming at it from a new angle seemed impossible.
But Bill pulled it off by recounting the life and times of UPI White House Beat Reporter Merriman Smith, and how he was able to fire off the first reports of what went down in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Having done some reporting myself, I got a real kick out of the challenges that reporters had in the pre internet era. Bill tells the story of how Smitty, as he was known used his news sense and street smarts to beat all the other news outlets and wire services to get the first dispatches about what was going down in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Amongst other things, Smitty was able to bogart the radiophone in the press car with the AP reporter literally smacking him to try to get him off the phone.
That's just one of many fascinating stories that Sanderson tells in this incredibly well written book. I'm a news junkie and a history buff, so this was right up my alley. But even if you're not, I think you'll get a kick out of this book.
4.5 Auggies
***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW**
SING
STARRING: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson
SAW IT AT: Long Beach Cinema 4
SAW IT WITH: Tara, Timmy and Timmy's friends Joanna and Johnny
McConaughey plays Buster Moon a koala bear who owns the run down Moon Theater. Looking to return the theater to past glory, he decides to hold an open singing competition. A printing snafu by his eldery administrative assistant posts the grand prize as 10 Grand as opposed to his intended 1 grand.
After hundereds tryout, including my personal favorite, a snail who sings christopher Cross' Ride Like the Wind, the field is narrowed down to a housewife Rosita Pig (Witherspoon) teen headbanger Ash porcupine (Johannson) bank robbing Johnny Gorilla (Tyler Eggerton) street hustler Mike Mouse (MacFarlane). Buster hires Meena the Elephant as a stage hand, because stage fright is preventing her from singing to her potential.
All these kids cartoon movies follow the same arc and this one was no different. I don't know if it was the time of year, with everything going on, but at the point of the movie where the chips were down, I was really down in the dumps. I knew how it would turn out and I still felt bad.
A cookie cutter kids flick. But I have to admit the singing was good. A Great Week
3 Aces.
Some of his early ideas were good, like cash for clunkers, and the auto bailout But he also took down a missile defense shield in Poland without gaining any other concessions from Russia. He in fact sent the secretary of state with some stupid reset button, thinking that just because he wasn't named Bush, that the Russians would be willing to work with him. It's why I have to laugh when people act as if he is the jock who is going to slap around that bully Vladimir Putin. Mitt Romney called Russia our number one geopolitical enemy. People laughed at him, including the President.
No one is laughing now.
He also vowed to close down Guantanamo Bay and hold any terror hearings just mere blocks from where the towers were knocked down. Gitmo remains open and he thought the better of having those scumbags tried here in NY.
And Obama was not totally honest with his signature domestic legislation, the Affordable Heathcare Act (and yes, I know Obamacare and AHA are synonymous, I'm not THAT idiotic) While I don't agree that it should be repealed and replaced, I do understand the frustration with it. I work in healthcare, and I know plenty of folks who had to change their insurance, or change their doctor, or pay much higher premiums than they had. The President is too smart of a man to have not seen that coming. He probably figured that the benefits would far outweigh and negativity that was caused by the changes he insisted wouldn't happen. But even the Clintons acknowledged that the premiums were too high. Factor all that in, and it's hard to paint everyone who opposes Obamacare as a heartless a$$hole. Again, maybe it needs a wrench and a hammer as opposed to a demolition, but I know where some of these people are coming from.
The minute Donald Trump is sworn is as the President, he will automatically become the most thin skinned commander in chief our nation has ever had. It won't even be close. But at times, Obama came off very thin skinned as well. He complained a bit too much about Fox News for my liking, given that every other network rolled out the red carpet for him. I understand that pea brained goobers like Mitch McConnell (for my money, he's more evil than Trump or Pence) made Obama's life miserable, but hey, the truly great ones found a way. Shoot, Bill Clinton was able to get things done with a Congress that was trying to impeach his a$$.
Obama bragged that he feels he could have won a third term. Part of me shakes my head at his braggado, part of me knows he's right.
And part of me acknowledges that I probably would have been one of the ones who voted for him.
Because even as I wrote above how much I disagreed with him, I always got the feeling that his decisions came from the heart. He took this job to help people. And he did his office proud.
I ask the folks who wanted Hillary Clinton to win so badly solely based on her gender this question.. Is this really the person you wanted to break the glass ceiling? People say they have been lied to my old white men for over 200 years, so why not get lied to by an old white lady.
Why not? Because you can do better.
Barrack Obama proved you can do better. If the next African American President can do the job as well, carry himself with the class that the first one did, then I'll gladly vote for that person, male or female. Republicans talk about family values, President Obama and his family lived them.
One of the all time greats? Maybe, maybe not. But definitely better than what we had, and probably what we are getting. I wouldn't start re carving Mt. Rushmore, but I can't say I'm not sorry to see him go.
Thank you Mr. President
******************************************************************************
RIP to a true hero.
I was 13 years old when Officer Steven McDonald was paralyzed by a criminals bullet in 1986. The older I got, the more I appreciated just how special a man Detective McDonald was.
If he and I had met at a bar, we probably would have gotten along famously. An Irish Catholic, Queens born and a die-hard Ranger fan, he was my kind of guy anyway.
But then you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate his remarkable ability to forgive. And you don't have to be a Ranger fan (or a sports fan for that matter) to understand why several of the Rangers who won the Steven McDonald extra effort award counted that as amongst the highlights of their careers, and I'm talking about guys who won Stanley Cups.
If you didn't live in the NY area, you might wonder why a cop could have such a huge turnout for his funeral, that he was able to fill St. Patrick's Cathedral. Read his story and his inspiring words, and then you'll appreciate how tough he had to be to push on and be not only an incredible husband and father, but an asset to the NYPD. Hell, just getting through a normal day required fortitude that most of us wouldn't dream of having.
The fact that he had what happened to him and was able to forgive his attacker, to the point where the attackers mother said she felt that McDonald and her son would have worked together to help end street violence (her son died in an accident within days of his release from jail) is all you need to know about this remarkable man.
Detective Steven McDonald was everything we all wished we were. And that's why a city mourned his loss last week.
*********************************************************************************
***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***BOOK REVIEW***
Bulletins from Dallas-Reporting the JFK Assassination
Author: Bill Sanderson
Bill is a fellow Postie, a long time reporter and an all around good man. So no, I'm not unbiased here.
The JFK assassination has been covered so often that coming at it from a new angle seemed impossible.
But Bill pulled it off by recounting the life and times of UPI White House Beat Reporter Merriman Smith, and how he was able to fire off the first reports of what went down in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Having done some reporting myself, I got a real kick out of the challenges that reporters had in the pre internet era. Bill tells the story of how Smitty, as he was known used his news sense and street smarts to beat all the other news outlets and wire services to get the first dispatches about what was going down in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Amongst other things, Smitty was able to bogart the radiophone in the press car with the AP reporter literally smacking him to try to get him off the phone.
That's just one of many fascinating stories that Sanderson tells in this incredibly well written book. I'm a news junkie and a history buff, so this was right up my alley. But even if you're not, I think you'll get a kick out of this book.
4.5 Auggies
***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW***MOVIE REVIEW**
SING
STARRING: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson
SAW IT AT: Long Beach Cinema 4
SAW IT WITH: Tara, Timmy and Timmy's friends Joanna and Johnny
McConaughey plays Buster Moon a koala bear who owns the run down Moon Theater. Looking to return the theater to past glory, he decides to hold an open singing competition. A printing snafu by his eldery administrative assistant posts the grand prize as 10 Grand as opposed to his intended 1 grand.
After hundereds tryout, including my personal favorite, a snail who sings christopher Cross' Ride Like the Wind, the field is narrowed down to a housewife Rosita Pig (Witherspoon) teen headbanger Ash porcupine (Johannson) bank robbing Johnny Gorilla (Tyler Eggerton) street hustler Mike Mouse (MacFarlane). Buster hires Meena the Elephant as a stage hand, because stage fright is preventing her from singing to her potential.
All these kids cartoon movies follow the same arc and this one was no different. I don't know if it was the time of year, with everything going on, but at the point of the movie where the chips were down, I was really down in the dumps. I knew how it would turn out and I still felt bad.
A cookie cutter kids flick. But I have to admit the singing was good. A Great Week
3 Aces.
Sorry I was late on this one.
Have a Great Week
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Weekly Mail Year in Review. Part Two
JULY
July 7-Let's Go Mets! With Dad Bill Gallagher
Great time. Great game
July 12- And there ends another insomnia curing All Star Game.
They tried to make the baseball game more interesting by making it count towards home field adavnatge for the World Series. It's still the most dull thing to watch. At least I thought it was going to be the most dull thing to watch....
July 21- Keri-Ann Hart: This is why I don't watch these things. It's excruciating.
Keri was referring to Donald Trump's GOP acceptance speech, which in contrast to his debate performances, was ridiculously dull. I fell asleep about halfway through it. It made the All Star game seem exciting.
July 25-Damn, Cory Booker can give a speech huh?
Get a good look at him folks. If the Democrats are smart, they'd run him in 2020. Young, talented and smart. I think he wipes the floor with the GOP candidate in 4 years.
July 25- 27 dollahs! LOL!
Bernie Sanders asked the crowd at the DNC what the average contribution to his campaign was. They shouted back the answer at him and he repeated it.
July 26- Woodside in da house at the DNC
Congressman Joe Crowley gave a speech at the DNC. My very first CYO basketball coach, Joe is one of my favorite people, never mind politician. Even though he was hyping up Hillary, I didn't even hold that against him. Joe Crowley is good people.
July 28- I blame the lineup, without question. All Familia did was save 50 games in a row. The lineup (especially Curtis Granderson) are the ones who left the bases loaded and couldn't score
The question was Who do you blame for the Mets loss to the Rockies in a Thursday afternoon game. It was La Familia's first blown save all year, and the Mets left a truckload of runners on base.
AUGUST
August 10-Sad news. One of my favorites. RIP.
John Saunders was the host of my favorite Sunday Morning talk show, ESPN's Sports Reporters. The deaths of people I really dug continued to pile up as 2016 rolled along. And it would only get worse.
August 10-Steve El- Becky's happy to be with her buddy Timmy for his first Met game.
Tara, Timmy and I had the honor and privilege of attending the Mets-D-Backs game with Uncle Steve, Grandpa and Aunt Kate. We had to leave after 5 innings or so, and they ended up losing in 12, so I didn't feel so bad. The important thing was I got to take my son to his first ball game. And my Dad was there to boot! Hopefully next year, a Yankee game with Pop and Aunts Kerry and Megan. (and Uncle Brian)
Tara, Timmy and I had the honor and privilege of attending the Mets-D-Backs game with Uncle Steve, Grandpa and Aunt Kate. We had to leave after 5 innings or so, and they ended up losing in 12, so I didn't feel so bad. The important thing was I got to take my son to his first ball game. And my Dad was there to boot! Hopefully next year, a Yankee game with Pop and Aunts Kerry and Megan. (and Uncle Brian)
August 11- Put a fork in 'em folks. They're done.
And I vowed, if they made the playoffs, I'd eat crow. But I figured if they couldn't beat Arizona, how were they going to beat anybody good? Their pitching staff was tattered and their lineup was anemic. I know I wasn't the only one who thought they were toast.
August 12-Keri Ann Hart-I hope you are out having dinner with you wife. Keep the radio and tv off.
Ironically enough, I was out to dinner, but not with the Missus. I was out with Karl, Ray and Auggie, to JPaul's. The Met game was on every TV and they were getting destroyed by the Padres, another $h-tty team. Mericifully, they put all the TV's on the Yankee game, which also happened to be A-Rod's final game in Pinstripes.
August 17-Does anybody honestly think Ellen DeGeneres is a racist? I mean c'mon
Ellen DeGeneres posted a meme with her being photoshopped on the back of Usain Bolt as he was winning the 100 meter dash at the Rio Olympics. She added that this was how she was going to be running her errands from now on.
I could see how some people might construe this as racist, but lets put this in perspective. I don't know deGeneres personally of course, but I don't know of too many people who don't think she's a wonderful person. And I'd pretty much bet everything I own that she's not a racist. She can get away with jokes like that because she's an equal opportunity jokester, and she tends to talk people up rather than put them down. I have no doubt she was complementing him on his amazing achievement rather than making fun of the color of his skin.
SEPTEMBER
September 1-He goes back today. I stand by my statement from last year. I'm sure Mrs. D stands by hers. With Keri-Ann Hart
I graduated from grammar school 29 years ago and from high school 25 years ago. I still get depressed when the summer ends, and it's now worse since Timmy started school. In late August, as summer camp was ending, I was talking to a friend of mine whose daughter went to school with Timmy, and she was saying how sad she was to see her girl go back to school. Ironically, Timmy and my friend's daughter seem to handle back to school better than we do.
September 9-Our moms go to Savannah and this happens?
My mother had the right idea to beat the end of Summer blues, she took a trip with her friends from Rockaway to one of my favorite places in the USA. Savannah, GA. While she was there galavanting with her gal pals, The Lady Chablis, the transgender performer who put Savannah on the map with the book/movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, passed away at age 59. I guess the Lady couldn't handle the Rockaway crowd who can party with the best of them.
September 17-I take back all the bad stuff I said about Curtis Granderson
It was starting to look like I was going to be having a big plate of crow in October...mainly because the Grandyman was starting to hit again. Also because Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo were pitching like the guys they were filling in for had pitched in 2015.
September 17-It was intentional but not terrorism... What the fudge does THAT mean?
This was a quote from your fearless I mean clueless mayor Bill deBlasio (or as Razor Ray McGarvey called him The Dope from Park Slope) after an explosion rocked a Chelsea sidewalk, injuring 29 people. Maybe he meant to say it wasn't Islamic terrorism or international terrorism or most likely, he's just an idiot who doesn't know what the bleep he's talking about. I would go with choice C.
September 25-Oh don't take a knee KC, give Fitzpatrick the ball back so he can throw another pick!
I got stuck watching the Jets at my in-laws house this day.. Has it ever happened to you that you are watching a football game and you know the QB is going to throw an interception before he even releases the ball? That happened to me sevweral times in this game. I'm not clairvoyant, Ryan Fitzpatrick is just THAT bad.
OCTOBER
October 5 The answer is no
The question was, If your team loses the Wild Card game, does it still count as "making the playoffs? I say no dammit it doesn't. According to MLB, the Mets were a playoff team, according to me, they weren't. Still, I didn't even think they'd get THAT far, so hats off to them.
October 9 I don't know anything about Russia.
Right?
October 22-WTG Cubbies!
Tara and I were in Connecticut when the Cubs beat the Dodgers to advance to their first World Series since the end of WWII. We were watching with a couple from Kansas City, who when they found out I was a Met fan, showed me pictures he took at the 2015 World Series Championship Parade. If they weren't such nice people, they'd be a$$holes.
November 2, 2016-....and now that the Cubs have battled back to force game 7, it just makes me ask again why we couldn't do the same thing?
November 2, 2015 was a rough day. Earlier that morning, the Mets had blown another lead and lost the World Series. I got about an hour's worth of sleep and then spent the morning at work seething. Then I started reading some of the responses to my venting after the loss and decided I was going to respond once and for all to the criticsm. It was a long day.
Fast forward to exactly one year later and the Cubbies had battled back from 3-1 down to force game 7 in Cleveland. I was happy, I wanted to see them win, but it got me to thinking about why or boys couldn't do the same thing last year.
November 3-2016 World Champion Chicago Cubs, words I never thought I'd type
And Cubs manger Joe Maddon and Mather Nature seemed determined to make sure I never would. Maddon went through his bullpen like sand off a beach, and a rain delay caused the game to stop for about a half hour. Stuill, in the wee hours of the morning, the North Side of Chicago got to celebrate like mad for the first time in over a century. Speaking of words I thought I'd never type......
November 9-2 AM. Speechless. Turning in.
Stunned.
DECEMBER
December 10- Should be a fun trip home tonight...
Santa Con. Dress up like Santa, tie one on. Fight, puke and make a general a-hole of yourself. Weekly Mail co-editor Karl (The Ace) Ludwig suggests I'm just mad because if they had Santa Con during my Halcyon Days of drinking and debauchery, I'd have been the first one in the Santa suit trying to pick up drunken chicks on 2nd Avenue. Maybe. Fact of the matter is I'm a married father now, and I need my seat on the LIRR on Saturday Night/Sunday Morning. Don't need to share it with someone like me from 15-20 years ago.
December 11-Who knew that Linus of all people invented the mic drop?
The mic-drop. When someone takes the microphone, says something profound to end an argument, and then drops the microphone to the floor to declare themselves the winner.
Linuis Van Pelt was the original mic dropper.
Way back in 1965, during the Peanuts Christmas special, when Charlie Brown asked if anybody knew the true meaning of Christmas, Linus stepped up to the mike and began quoting Luke 2:8-14
Specifically verse 10. Fear not.. when he says fear not, he drops his blanket, something he never does, He doesn't need his blanket when he talks about the birth of Christ. This was actually brought to light by radio airhead John Tesh.
That ABC is still allowed to show this clip in the days of avoiding any mention of the little baby Jesus at all costs is remarkable. But that Charles Schultz was able to sneak that in there was even more so.
And a couple of final RIP's
George Michael-December 25. He was one of the main voices in the greatest Christmas song of all time Do They Know it's Christmas Time. He also had an almost as famous (and 100 times more annoying) Christmas diddy Last Christmas You Gave me your heart. That he died on Christmas day is one of those sad ironies that happen in life. Next year both of those songs are going to take on a more solemn meaning.
Carrie Fisher- December 27. Steve Martin caught flak for tweeting out this upon hearing of Carrie Fisher's death. "When I was a young man, Carrie Fisher was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She turned out to be witty and bright as well." He was criticized for objectifying Fisher.
Well here's my take.
Carrie Fisher, when she first played Princess Leia in Star Wars, WAS stunningly beautiful. Looking back at pictures of her from that period, I almost forgot how pretty she was. Why pointing that out is a crime I have no idea.
And if you were pissed off about what Martin tweeted, you're probably going to be apoplectic about what I'm going to write about now.
That Fisher didn't age well. That by drinking and smoking and taking pills, she aged faster than she should have. Yes, she was brave to come out and admit she had some issues, and if by her doing that others were able to save themselves, then more power to her. And yes, she was sharp and funny and talented. But take it from someone who has heart issues, she didn't take care of herself. Not saying she had it easy because she didn't. But she also had a loving family and tons of friends. Count me amongst her admirers, but also as someone who thinks she could have accomplished a lot more.
Debbie Reynolds-December 28. The most heartbreaking aspect of Fisher's death was that it ultimately led to the death of her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds. I believe 110% that it's possible to die of a broken heart. I've seen it happen in my own life. We may not all be parents, but we are all somebody's kid. And no child should go before their parent does. Timmy has goten to watch Singing in the Rain in his music class, and he loves it. Sad to see that the last of it's living stars left us in a year where so many other stars did as well.
Thanks to my brother in law Steve Eller for providing this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD1mxPBHqc4
Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2017
Weekly Mail Returns January 15.
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