Weekly Mail July 30, 2017

Hello All:


Last Tuesday night, I took Timmy to see our first Long Island Ducks baseball game. I've been a Long Island resident now for 8 years. I will always consider myself a city kid, and Queens kid, but I'm enjoying the perks of living on the Island. This was one thing I had always been curious about.

So we drove out to Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip. Now I'm used to taking the LIRR/7 Train to Citi Field, or the 4 train to Yankee Stadium and haven't driven to a ballgame in years. I remembered why the other night. Traffic out the wazoo. Parking was free, but we had a hike from our spot to the ballpark, and then we had a long wait to get inside.

Once inside though, it's a beautiful place to see a game, and there is not a bad seat in the house.  I would tell you the quality of baseball isn't that great, but that would be rich coming from a Met fan like myself.  It was entertaining enough, and I would definitely do it again.

But one more beef I have with the place was the prices of the food. They were pretty much Citi Field/Yankee Stadium prices! The game tickets themselves were more than reasonably priced, but next time, we eat before the game.

I couldn't even tell you who won.



POLITICS: Mccainiac!!!

I can't remember the last time I saw a politician have such a roller coaster week as the one Senator John McCain just had. He was diagnosed with brain cancer (bad) came back to a raucous ovation on the Senate Floor (good) gave a fiery speech about bipartisanship (good) voted along party lines to reopen the process to repeal Obamacare (bad) then topped it off by being one of only 3 GOP senators to vote against the so called skinny bill that would only repeal certain parts of Obamacare. But those 3 defectors were enough to kill the Republicans latest attempt to repeal and replace.

McCain now of course is getting clobbered in conservative arenas, but shoot, this is what I liked about him in the first place. I'm not going to rehash the Obamacare debate, you all know that I think it has its good points and bad, but the stuff that can be fixed can probably be fixed without burning the whole thing to the ground.

I'd like to think that John McCain, in what may be the last we see of him, thought the exact same thing.


BREAKING NEWS (Kind of)

Because I was lazy in getting out this edition on time, I can report that President Trump's new mouthpiece is now his old mouthpiece. Anthony (the Mooch) Scaramucci, whose appointment as Trump's head of communications forced the untimely end of the Sean Spicer era, himself stepped down after 10 tumultuous days on the job. Amongst his highlights or lowlights as it were was a obscenity laced tirade he gave in an interview with the New Yorker. When even a foul-mouthed lout like Donald Trump thinks you went over the line, that's something to ponder.

that's all i got folks.

have a great week

Weekly Mail July 23, 2017

Hey:

So last week, I encountered some writers block, but I think that was because there just wasn't that much to write about. This week, we had a plethora of things going on. So let's get to it shall we...



CRIME: The Parole Hearing of the Century


One of the many gifts that the OJ Simpson saga has given to us is that because everything with him happened out west, it all fits into a nice afternoon of programming for us here in the east*. As my Mom said this week, "I followed the whole thing back in 95, so I figured I'd watch this part of it too."

She was referring to OJ's parole hearing regarding the prison sentence he was serving for armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel in 2007. A quick recap, he claims he was just retrieving things that belonged to him that were stolen from him. Family pictures, mementos, things of that nature. But if you are going to retrieve stuff that is yours, maybe bringing in some random guys with guns isn't the way to go. The folks of Las Vegas saw it that way, and did what they couldn't do in Los Angeles; put OJ Simpson behind bars. He was sentenced to a 9-33 year prison sentence.

For those of us who thought he got away with murder (and I will fully disclose that I was probably one of the last people to come around to that conclusion**) this was justice finally being served. Many compared it to busting Al Capone on tax evasion instead of murder and racketeering. I think most of us were hoping that Simpson would do closer to the 33 years than to the 9.

But alas, it was no to be. And being that they scheduled the proceedings for 1 PM EDT aka my lunch hour, I got to watch a good chunk of it.

I came away with the following observations...

   1) I think of the 4 people on the parole board who asked questions, Tony Corda, the bald guy who looked like California Governor Jerry Brown, really wanted to keep OJ locked up.  The questions he asked and some of the faces he made, gave me the impression that were it up to him, they'd lock the Juice up and throw away the key. But the poor bastard knew he was fighting a losing battle and just wanted to get home for dinner, so he voted for parole.

2) Conversely, the schmuck who thought it would be a good idea to wear a Kansas City Chiefs tie while questioning OJ should be locked up for tastelessness.

3) It's a sad state of affairs when the most intelligent voice coming out of this whole mess belonged to one Brian Gerard "Kato" Kaelin, but it was his observation that OJ's oldest daughter Arnelle, did more to convince the parole board that OJ should go free than OJ himself or that crackpot lawyer he had with him. I've worked with lawyers, and count some of my closest friends as lawyers, but some of these guys on TV, you have to wonder how they graduated from kindergarten, never mind passed the bar.

4) The Parole Board Chairperson Connie Bisbee, reminded me of Mrs. Hunsaker the woman who announced that Charlie Simms was not guilty after Al Pacino's speech in Scent of a Woman.


Watching all this unfold brought me back to that Tuesday in October, 1995 when I tried to rush home from the subway at 61st Street so I could watch the verdict in the Trial of the Century. I got as far as Charlie's Sports Pub, which was packed as if it was a Saturday night, rather than a Tuesday afternoon. Once the verdict was read, the place emptied out like it was on fire.

Look, as I'm as disappointed as anyone that OJ got parole, but I'm also fairly certain he's going to f-ck up again and end up back in the slammer. Karma is a vindictive bi-ch.

POLITICS (LOCAL) Dissin' DeBlasio

It was supposed to be an easy day for Mayor DeBlasio aka The Dope from Park Slope.  The DFPS was doing a photo op in Whitestone regarding funding to fix tree root damage on neighborhood sidewalks, when Vickie Paladino, a 63 year old Whitestone resident, began peppering him with words.

"I want to know why you let your police officers down and our country down by going to Germany and protesting against our country."

Hearing that line of questioning, de Blasio turned and ran to his official car, reportedly telling his security detail to "get her away from me."

Paladino must be a WM reader. She pretty much echoed the sentiments expressed here a couple of weeks ago.

And its nice to know that the mayor of NY has a pair of stones to stand up and defend his actions, isn't it?  Wow!


POLITICS (National)- A lot less Spice

Sean Spicer, President Trump's loud, fact challenged mouthpiece resigned this week in a huff because he didn't like the changes being made on the President's communication team.
Not surprisingly, one of his beefs was that Melissa Mccarthy's classic impersonation of him on SNL was "over the top". Of course it was, that what made it so funny. That and that there was a grain of truth to it, and that he can't deny. It's good to know that Spicy was as thin skinned as his former boss is. That's a comfort to the nation.

On a more serious note, I was sad to learn the news of John McCain's brain tumor. McCain, for all you WM die hards was at one time, my favorite politician. I first became a fan of his during his 2000 run in the GOP Primary against Texas Governor George W. Bush. I felt he would have made a fine President then, and even when he ran again in 2008. After he lost to Obama, he seemed to change, becoming more partisan. Maybe that's just a figment of my imagination, but I always felt he would be more of a consensus maker. Regardless, I hate the fact that he is sick with a horrible disease. I'm hoping for a miracle because he could sure use it right now.


AVIATION: A water landing

What exactly constitutes, a water landing?  Is it just me, or does a water landing sound an awful lot like CRASHING INTO THE OCEAN?!- George Carlin

Wednesday morning, a helicopter with Shane McMahon the son of WWE chief Vince McMahon and Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon crashed into the water near Gilgo Beach. Neither Shane-o-Matic or the pilot were hurt. The helicopter was equipped with a pontoon device that allowed the chopper to float long enough so that help could arrive.

I couldn't believe how old looking Shane has gotten. I haven't watch wrestling in years, but I remember watching Vince's kid try his hand at it a few years back. I really shouldn't talk, my hair has pretty much gone gray, especially at the sides. Every time I go to the barber, I wonder whose hair is falling into my smock. But Shane's hair really went white. I wonder if his hair was still dark when he left Westchester County airport and went white when he thought he was going to die in a watery grave.

Hey, we can laugh because it all turned out OK. Right?


BASEBALL: say WHAT?

I had to read this quote a couple of times just to make sure I got it right.. Yoenis Cenpedes told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wanted to play his last year in the big leauges in Oakland and that Bob Melvin was his favorite manager. He later clarified that he was happy as a Met and liked playing for Terry Collins.

And here's the thing.. I can maybe stomach that sentiment if he was thumping it the way he was in August of 2015, and the beginning of 2016. But to be talking that kind of crap when he's got 9 homers and 40 ribbies more than halfway through the season, for the low price of 27 million dollars is just aggravating beyond belief. In a season that has been nothing but dissappointment, this is just another kick to the groin that goes with being a Met fan.


July has one more week left. Here;s hoping to good days ahead

Have a Great Week!


* I know someone out there is going to accuse me of making light of an event that resulted in the murder of two innocent people, but let's face it.. This was the original reality program, and as far as I'm concerned, launched the careers of several people and may have indirectly led to the creation of Fox News and MSNBC. 

**And I have to be honest, I'm still not sure that if I was sitting on that jury for 9 months, and heard all that testimony, that I would have voted to convict. No, I don't think the LAPD set him up, or that it was a drug deal gone awry, but Marcia Clark and Chris Darden left a lot of questions unanswered, like how all of the events could fit into that narrrow a time line, how one middle aged man could commit that kind of slaughter against two people including a man half his age, and how if he was careful enough to bring a hat and gloves on a hot June night, how could he leave those things behind on his getaway. I'm sure he did it, I'm not sure he acted alone and I'm pretty positive it didn't go down the way the prosecution said it did. 

Weekly Mail July 16, 2017

Hey:

Man I came in here with the worst case of writers block I've had in a long time. I had nothing to write about. I even thought about dipping my foot in the swamp that is the Trump administration. And how ironic is that? The man who said he's drain the swamp has made it more swampy than ever (is swampy even a word?) I just wish that they would hold hearings on this whole Trump-Russia election thing already so that it gets resolved one way or another. And that's all I have to say about that.


I watched the HR Derby at the All Star Game in Miami the other night and my only real complaint was that they didn't set it up so that Giancarlo Stanton faced off with Aaron Judge in the finals. But that was a small complaint in comparison to what we ended up seeing, which was an awesome display of power by the Judge. They used to say Dan Marino could flick his wrist and throw a football 50 yards. Judge it seems like can flick his wrists and hit a ball 500 feet. There may come a time I get sick of hearing about this guy the way I got sick of hearing about Derek Jeter so much. But like Jeter, I think I'll always respect the man's talent.


Also caught ESPN's 30 for 30 about Mike and the Mad Dog. I had said that once the Sports Reporters went off the air, that ESPN would be virtually unwatchable. And to be honest, besides an occasional baseball game and these 30 for 30's, I rarely watch. But the Mike and the Mad Dog documentary was very well done. My only beef with it was that they kind of gave Francessa and Russo more credit than they deserved for saving WFAN. The one person who saved the station was Imus. When the FAN debuted 30 years ago this month, I ate it up, listening to Greg Gumbel, Jim Lampley and Pete Franklin. But I understand now in hindsight why that didn't work. Lampley moved to Los Angeles a few weeks after FAN went live, and would simulcast his show from out there. He had no idea what was going on in NY. Gumbel wasn't as bad as they made him out to be, but yes, he was more of a national guy than a NY guy. Franklin was a disaster, he would yell at people and not be funny about it. As much of an a$$hole as Francessa can be to his callers, Franklin was 10 times worse.
I remember exactly where I was on September 5, 1989 when Mike and the Mad Dog had their first show together. I was walking home from the dentist on Grand Avenue. I remember the first call they took, Russo went to answer the caller, but because he always had to wind up before he said anything, Mike answered the guys question and went to the next caller. That pretty much went on for the next few weeks. Anybody I talked to said the same thing. 1) They hate each other and 2) This will never last. Somehow they did, for the next 19 years.

Next week, ESPN's 30 for 30 is going to be about George Best, a Belfast born soccer superstar who played for Manchester United. I'm more excited about that documentary than I was about Mike and the Mad Dog.


Oh, here's something that caught my eye this week....

AIRPLANE DEATH: A 57 year old New Zealand woman was killed this week when air blast from a jet taking off blew her down.

How could something like this even happen you ask? Well, so did I, till I saw video of planes landing at Princess Juliana Airport on the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten. The airport is built only yards away from the beach. You can practically touch the plane as it comes in for a landing while you are soaking up some rays.

What kind of urban planning is that?

As a kid I thought it was bad enough having to hear the Concorde flying over the beach and rattling our house. But at least that plane was high in the air. And hey, I love watching planes take off and land, but not while I'm at the beach. I can't believe that this has;t happened more often. I wouldn't mind visiting St. Maarten one of these days, but I'll be laying my blanket down a bit further away than the runway at the airport.

Sorry this was so lame this week. Even Aaron judge strikes out every once in a while

Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail July 9,2017

Hi Everyone:

Hope everyone was able to enjoy this beautiful weekend.

Just want to give you all a programming update.... According to my Blogger.com account, this will be the 93rd post I've made since I brought Weekly Mail out of mothballs 2 years ago. So, the gameplan here is to do 5 more of these this summer to get us to 98, then we'll take a couple of weeks off, 99 will be our annual September 11th special, then the season premiere will be our 100th post. Of course the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, but that's what we are shooting for.


Onto the week that was


POLITICS: The Dope from Park Slope invades Germany...

So Mayor DeBlasio accepted an invitation to address protesters at the G20 Summit taking place in Hamburg, Germany. I'm not sure what I find more mind boggling... That this idiot would go over there, or that someone thought inviting him was a good idea in the first place.

The group Hamburg Zeigt Haltung (Hamburg Shows Attitude) invited NY's fearless leader to be the keynote speaker for their rally against the G20 on Saturday. Poor folks. Of all the loudmouthed liberals in the world, why in the world would they choose him? Is he really the standard bearer for their movement? These people must really be hard up for speakers. Even the most die-hard liberals I know here in NY can't stand this joker. It kind of reminds me of how the French consider Jerry Lewis to be like Sir Laurence Olivier.

And if DeBlasio thinks that going over to Germany is going to make him some sort of hero around here he's even more delusional that I thought. If this is some ploy to sow the seeds for a run for higher office, he needs to have his head examined. To think that he skipped the swearing in ceremony for new NYPD recruits in a week where a cop was brutally slain..it's mind-blowing.

And the truly tragic thing about it all is that the sonofabi-ch is probably going to get re-elected. I love Bo Dietl, but he's said too many things that will come back to haunt him. I'm not familiar with anyone else whose running, the presumptive Republican candidate, Nicole Malliotakis, I've never even heard of. Hopefully she has some game, and will give DeBlasio a run for his money.

New York City doesn't deserve another 4 years of this crapola, that's for sure.


LOST AND FOUND..Amelia Earhart?

For 80 years, the conventional wisdom surrounding Amelia Earhart was that her plane crashed during her attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world, killing herself and her navigator Fred Noonan.

However, this week a very spooky photo was unearthed from the national archives that appears to show Earhart and Noonan alive on a dock in the Marshall Islands. NBC first reported this and the History Channel is planning on airing a documentary on Sunday about it.

According to NPR.com, a former U.S. Treasury agent named Les Kinney found the undated photo in a box of papers from the Office of Naval Intelligence. The photo shows a Caucasian woman with short hair and pants sitting on the edge of the dock with her back to the camera, and a man who bears a striking resemblance to Noonan standing off to the side. The theory holds that Earhart and Noonan crashed off the Marshall Islands and were rescued, only to be taken hostage by the Japanese on suspicion of spying.

Obviously, I would need to watch the documentary to get more info, but the whole thing seems a bit peculiar to me. If the government had this photo, how does something like that just slip through the cracks for all this time? Earhart's disappearance is one of the great mysteries of the 20th century, wouldn't someone have released this photo before?

The Japanese for their part are denying they ever had Earhart in custody, and why after all these years would they keep that charade up? The excuse there is that many Japanese records were wiped out during World War II but surely someone would have come forward sometime in the past 80 years wouldn't you think?

I guess you'll have to judge for yourself, Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence airs Sunday night at 9 PM on the History Channel. I'm setting up the DVR for it.



BASEBALL: At The Half

What continues to be one of the most disappointing baseball seasons that I remember has reached it's halfway point. The Yankees who were on fire for the first quarter of the season have come back to earth, with the exception of Aaron Judge, who just broke Joe DiMaggio's record for home runs by a Yankee rookie, and if he keeps this pace up, may be challenging a couple of dudes named Ruth and Maris for the Yanks all time record (some like myself, still consider the Rajah to be the all time record holder for a season) But let's see how he does after the Home Run Derby on Tuesday, I've seen that drain young players before in the second half (see Wright, David 2006). Still, as a Met fan, I have to admit, watching this kid hit is a treat. Even if the Yanks continue to play mediocre ball, at least they'll have Judge to keep them entertained.

Speaking of my Mets, well, like I said, they have been nothing but a huge disappointment all year, and there shows no signs of that really changing. Who knows when they will get Noah Syndergaard back, if that even matters at this point. Watching them get kicked around by Washington again this week was especially disheartening. Even though I stick to my assertion that Daniel Murphy wouldn't be doing here what he is doing in Washington, I still wish either he was here or somewhere in the AL West. It's just a shame that we are at the All-Star Break and baseball has become irrelevant around here. It sucks when you expect that to happen, doubly so when you don't.



Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezenski. Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna. The category is Couples I don't Give a $h-t About, But Who Keep Popping Up in my News Feed.


I hope summer has been good to you so far

Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail July 2, 2017

Happy July!!

The year is half over. Summer is here! All is right in the world. Well, not really, but I find it's easier to deal with when the days are longer.

So let's see what we got here....



POLITICS: A Better Comparison:

I love New York Magazine. It may be more left of center than my politics would allow, but it's very well written and many of the stories suck me in.

Frank Rich sometimes drives me nuts with some of his right wing bashing, but I have found him to be honest when it comes to dealing with the likes of President Trump. Although he was one of many who compared Trump to Adolf Hitler, he also pointed out the fallacy in that, pointing out that the score on killing people was several million to 0 in favor of the fuehrer.

In last week's NY Magazine, Rich made a more apt comparison, putting our 45th President up against our 37th.

And even in that, Rich, certainly no fan of either pointed out that Richard Nixon had several attributes. Ones that the Donald couldn't even dream of.

Rich points out that Nixon, for all his faults and demons, was a brilliant man. Nixon rose from dust bowl poverty, while Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nixon was an officer who saw combat in WWII, Trump dodged Vietnam. Nixon had a firm grasp of American History, was extremely well read, and a loyal husband and father. Trump? None of the above.

Of all the things Nixon had over Trump, the most impressive was his landslide victory. Trump as, everyone loves to point out lost the popular vote. Nixon, running for his second term, won in the biggest rout in history to that point.

But the press paranoia, the lies and the cover ups are all too similar between the two men. Nixon had G. Gordon Liddy, Trump has Steve Bannon.

The gist of the piece is that for everybody whose afraid that because of a GOP led Congress Trump has no chance of being impeached, there is hope. Rich says that Trump is still fully capable of imploding to the point where even skunks like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will have no choice but to show him the door.


NBA: Knicks have their Phil of Jackson:


I don't know what was celebrated more..the announcement in March, 2014 that Phil Jackson was coming here to run the Knicks, or the news this week that he was being run out of town.

Some people were apprehensive about letting a 68 year old with no front office experience take over a franchise for the first time in his life. I kind of took the Donald Trump approach to it, you know when Trump would say on the campaign trail, "Vote for me, what the hell do you have to lose?"

What indeed?

I thought if your going to roll the dice on a 68 year old rookie GM, rolling it on one with 13 rings (11 as a coach 2 as a player) is as safe a  bet as you're going to get. I figured he would be motivated to build a winner, if for no other reason, when they handed him the Larry O'Brien trophy, he could say, "There are only two men who led this godforsaken franchise to a title. Myself and my basketball father Red Holtzman."

When he was coaching the Bulls, and beating the Knicks a$$es, it was hard to remember how much being a Knick had meant to him. The first time I remember saying to myself, "He truly was a Knick" was when he had to cut short an NBA Finals pregame press conference, because he was overcome upon learning of the death of his former Knick teammate, Dave DeBusschere in 2003.

In 2013 he came to MSG as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the last Knicks NBA title, and he received the loudest ovation... even louder than Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier. At that moment, I thought he'd come here in a heartbeat if he got the chance.

And when he did, I'll admit I was excited. Not only that, I preached patience, even when people started calling for his head.

Yes, he signed some disastrous free agents. Yes, he probably should have given Mike Woodson a chance to work with him, instead of bringing in Derek Fisher.

Yes, he should have given up on the triangle offense. People try to diminish what he accomplished as a coach by saying he only coached the greatest players. I always say that his main talent was convincing Michael Jordan to utilize Scottie Pippen, getting Shaq and Kobe to work together, and convincing Michael and Scottie to tolerate Dennis Rodman. I don't dismiss any of that, I honestly don't think too many other people could pull that off. But that was his true genius, not some offensive system.

But he made a real nice draft pick in Kristaps Porzingis, a pick that was pretty much universally panned at the time. Another youngster he acquired from the Sixers, Wille Hernangomez, just made the all rookie team. If this point guard from France turns out to be a solid player, that's three good building blocks provided by Jackson. Isiah Thomas didn't even provide one.

Unfortunately, he signed Carmelo to a long term deal and then spent a good deal of time trying to trade that contract off the books. He also pulled another Trumpian trick and relied on tweets rather than face the NY Media, when he promised a transparent relationship with them. Finally, he tried to screw up one of the few things he got right by trading Porzingis because the young Latvian blew off an end of year meeting. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!

I think what ultimately sank the Zen Master was that he ended up treating this as a part time gig. He spent as much time in Los Angeles as he did at the Garden. Shoot if I had the choice of sitting on the beach or freezing my a$$ off here in the Big Apple, maybe I'd opt for the former. But if I'm getting paid big bucks to produce in NY, I'd stay in NY.  I have my beefs with Sandy Alderson, Scott Gordon and Mike Macagnan, (Mets Rangers Jets) but I know those guys pour their hearts into their jobs. I didn't get that feeling with Jackson.

I really felt like he wanted to put a cherry on the sundae that was his career. It's pretty hard to tarnish a resume that includes as many titles as he has, but he sure did try to do that didn't he?

TV: Hawaii Five-Oh No!

My dad used to bust my chops, because when I would hear of a star leaving a show, I would automatically predict said show's demise. The first time I pulled that was when Shelley Long left Cheers, (the show lasted 7 more seasons), then again when David Caruso left NYPD Blue (11 more seasons). If I was old enough at the time, I'm sure I would have made the same predictions after MacLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers left M*A*S*H, (8 more seasons).

So maybe I'm jumping the gun here (who ME?) but I really can't imagine Hawaii Five-0 lasting many more seasons now that two of it's core four are not coming back.

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, who played Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakuana respectively, are leaving the show due to a contract dispute, namely that they are not getting paid the same as stars Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett) and Scott Caan (Danny Williams). I believe they have a serious gripe. Yes McGarrett and Danno are the two main characters, but Chin and Kono are right there as well. Cutting them loose is a sure case of penny wise pound foolish. It's almost like paying George more than Kramer and Elaine. (Since Jerry created the show, I'm sure he got paid a ton more).

Maybe the show will survive, maybe they'll bring in some new blood. But I'm not sure. Chin and Kono lent a local flavor to the show set in Honolulu. I guarantee at the very least, they will be sorely missed.

On Tuesday, we wish America a very Happy 241st Birthday.

Have a Great Week