And so, here we are. Our 100th blog post on Weekly Mail on Facebook.
It's not actually our 100th Weekly Mail. Of the 100 posts I've created since we rebooted...
7 were written about the 2015 World Series (and 1 about the 2015 NLCS)
4 were our year in review
3 were 2016 election specials
2 were 9/11 reflections
2 were about my 2015 heart scare
1 was our Christmas Eve Special
And I wrote 1 each about the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion and about the poor woman whose kid jumped into the gorillia pit at the Cincinatti Zoo.. the one in which I admitted maybe I wasn't the greatest parent in the world.
But these 23 posts plus the 77 Weekly Mails total 100 posts. So that's why we're celebrating today.
For those of you who have only started reading these since September 2015 as well as those who have been with me since the beginning, here is how we got here
One Friday night in late September 1996, right before the Yankees run to the World Series, Karl (the Ace) Ludwig came over with a phone wire and an AOL floppy disc. With my unsuspecting mom and dad upstairs, the Ace ran the telephone wire from my basement phone to the back of the computer my dad had bought the previous March, then installed AOL on said computer, and PRESTO, I joined the information superhighway.
I discovered the wonderful world of the internet chatroom. In September 1995, Karl had finally gotten around to seeing Forrest Gump, and he said "I know why you liked that movie so much. It had three things you are obsessed with.. former Presidents, Vietnam and John Lennon."
Yes! And now I could find chatrooms with people who had the same obsessions (as well as some others that well, let's not go there) I couldn't believe I could have a real time conversation with someone in California (berryanne429-I kept asking her what time it was where she was)
In one chatroom, I debated with a guy from Toronto who should win that year's AL Cy Young Award, Pat Hentgen or Andy Pettite. (The fact that I was debating hard on behalf of Pettite was a definite sign of the times.. I believe I won the debate, but lost the war-Hentgen won the award)
And then there was e-mail.
From 1992-1996, I took care of a church on Saturdays. I was there all day, from 8 AM till after the 5 PM Mass, setting up the services, cleaning around the grounds etc. When I had down time (which was often) I would take paper and start writing my 25 cent opinions on topics of the day. Most of the time, I tossed them out before anyone got to see them. But now, with e-mail, Whoa! the damage I could do!
So every Sunday night, it seemed, I would write to the three people who I knew also had e-mail. The Ace of course, then Razor Ray McGarvey, and his sister (and also one of my closest friends) Mary. I thought that e-mail was only something very smart people had. Ray and Mary were geniuses a budding chemical engineer and lawyer respectively. I knew why they had e-mail. Ace and I? Well, we were geniuses in our own right, but not in a academic way per se. The internet was just something else for us to goof off on.
So I used e-mail to catch up with them and to spout my opinions on the world at large. When another friend would get e-mail, I'd write to them on Sunday night, same thing. More people started getting on-line, more e-mails. Once a week.
By 2000, I had a ton of friends on line, so I just started writing one big e-mail to everyone. The first part was a summary of the events of that Friday and/or Saturday night. I was either getting in trouble with the Karl/Ray/Mary crew (and significant others) or the Patti-Ann, Joann, Mary Keaveney team and assorted others. Oh yeah, I wrote about all of it. Once outside of Madison's, I watched crazy Lorraine get into a shouting match with a friend of mine who will go nameless. (He's a neighbor of mine now.) I sat on a bench outside the bodega across the street and watched the whole thing. Wrote it up the next night.
If someone hooked up that night, it gotten written about. If that someone was ME, there were details. Lots of details. Then I'd spend other e-mails lamenting the fact that I couldn't meet anyone. Why not? Who wouldn't want to date a guy who chronicled the whole thing on-line?
But I also mixed in politics as well. More than one person on my e-mail list said that the only time they read anything about the 2000 Bush/Gore election debacle was when I wrote about it. Probably because until the election became disputed, I was the only one who cared about it.
Of course come 9/11, Weekly Mail became my outlet. Several of you would probably never speak to me again if you read some of the stuff I wrote. As much as I hate to offend anybody who is kind enough to read my writing, I don't regret anything I wrote at that time.
None of it.
As bad of a time as that was, of course the good times would continue to roll, and the list of people that would get the e-mail grew. But then there were issues. I'd have guys and girls who were no longer dating each getting a copy and one or the other of them asking me to stop sending it. (not to them, but to the former flame) some people didn't like having their drunken shenanigans repeated. (but loved reading about somebody else's) and it started to become more of a pain in the a$$. I started separating the e-mail into groups, sending out different editions, stupid stuff like that.
Two things happened in 2004 that would forever alter Weekly Mail. One was that I started working at the Post. Although I started there in November 2003, things didn't start to roll there till 2004. Having a front row seat to how news was gathered and written had a big effect on how I went about writing. And then in August, I met Tara. Now the hookup stories were a thing of the past.
I still wrote about current events and other personal stuff, but it wasn't the same. When I started working at the Post only on the weekends, I didn't feel like writing quite as much. And when Timmy came along in 2008, there really wasn't that much time. So Weekly Mail slowly faded away.
But after I got sick in 2015, part of my cardiac rehab was meeting with someone to see where I was psychologically. This person suggested that I try to find something I enjoy and do that as a part of making sure I don't burn out. So it seemed like as good a time to start up writing on a weekly basis again. And thanks to Facebook, and this blog site. I can just write and post. Nobody has to worry about it ending up in their e-mail box. Now you can click and read at your leisure.
The drunken escapades have been replaced by stories about family life. I'm going to get back into politics slowly but surely, as the 2016 election knocked me for a loop. But everyone else is venting on-line so, why should I be any different?
But when all is said and done, I have two goals when I write, 1) is to have fun and 2) is to make sure the reader is having fun. Yes, I was a head case after the Mets blew the 2015 World Series, so there will be times I'll still be venting. But really I want to make you smile.
So as we roll onto the next 100 of these crazy little pearls of alleged wisdom, I want to thank all of you, who are reading. I'd probably still do it if nobody read it, but it's awesome to know that people are. Please, if you do read it off Facebook, don't hesitate to comment (good bad or ugly) feel free to like or laugh or even hit the angry emoji if I pissed you off. Feedback helps.
**NEW FEATURE **NEW FEATURE **NEW FEATURE **NEW FEATURE **
IN honor of Weekly Mail on Facebook's 100th post, I've decided to start a new blog called Bar Room B.S. I had experimented with this a few years ago. Now I'm bringing it back.
Hanging out at Shelley's all those years ago, the best nights were the ones where we sat around asking trivia questions (Mickey Harris was notorious for asking questions he didn't have the answers to) Brian Anderson had a copy of the baseball encyclopedia behind the bar (along with the stripper, it made an appearance at my bachelor party).
I'm trying to capture that spirit hear at Bar Room BS. Trivia, opinion polls that we can discuss and/or debate. I'm going to lead off with a poll WFAN did to honor it's 30th anniversary, the top 10 teams of the last 30 years.
This probably won't be a weekly thing, but it should be a lot of fun. And please feel free to contribute, either ideas for it, or to the ideas I've already put on here.
Either way, ENJOY!! http://barroombs.blogspot.com/2017/09/wfans-10-greatest-teams.html
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Since we've been gone....
CHARLOTTESVILLE
The protests and riots that took place in Charlotteville VA happened right before we went on hiatus. There were so many different angles that came out of this and tons of debate.
I posed a couple of questions to people I respect who also knew me well enough to know that I am not any sort of racist. One question I asked was is it possible that someone could want the statue of Robert E. Lee to stay and NOT be a redneck racist? I realize that the people who organized the protest were skinheads and white supremacists, but could you find those people deplorable, but also not want to see the statue taken down. For whatever reason. Maybe that's where you used to meet up with your friends as a kid, or something innocuous like that. Maybe you are a Civil War buff (like Keith Hernandez).
Well an explanation I received from a lady who teaches history down there set me straight. The answer is yes it's possible, but highly unlikely that a right minded non bigot would have any objections to seeing the statue taken down.
She sent me an entire article on the history of the statues (There is one of Stonewall Jackson as well) and to sum it up, they were put up at the height of Jim Crow with the sole purpose of intimidating the black community. More disturbingly, the government of Charlottesville invoked eminent domain to demolish housing that were primarily for African Americans to put the statues up.
Part of why I was so curious about this arose from the first time Tara and I went to Savannah in 2005. As we went into the different little shops around the Savannah river, I couldn't help but notice all the Civil Way Memorabilia they had. I said to Tara, "We won the Civil War right? Or am I making that up?" I equated it to going to Shea Stadium and buying Yankee 2000 World Series memorabilia.
But I never felt that I was in a backwards racist city when I was in Savannah. All the people there were super friendly and the population was diverse. Often times I thought, is it possible to have Southern Pride and still denounce racism? In Savannah, I thought it was pretty clear that it was possible.
Personally, if I lived in the South, I'd get rid of all the Civil Way $h-t. I'd stop selling the memorabilia, put the statues in a museum and I'd encourage the Civil War buffs to take George Carlin's advice and use real ammunition if they feel the need to recreate the battles. The only things I feel worth taking away from the Civil War is that slavery is evil and seceding from the Union is a bad idea. But as I said, there are other things to come out of this that I feel are worth discussing. And we will. Just not now.
MOTHER NATURE- Heartbreak in Houston and Florida
When I was younger, I remember scientists in debating the changing climate, would argue whether it was Global Warming or Global Cooling that was causing all the trouble. It seemed to me that the bottom line to these guys was 1) Something is happening and 2) Human's are causing it. So while I wouldn't call myself a "climate change denier" I found myself somewhat cynical of some of the explanations given.
But when you have had 4 storms labeled The Storm of the Century, and said Century is only 17 years old, even the most pig headed amongst us has to acknowledge something is going on. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which caused massive flooding and damage in Houston and the Florida Keys respectively, were two Storms of the Century that happened back to back. They join Hurricane Katrina, which laid New Orleans to waste in 2005 and Superstorm Sandy, which knocked us New Yorkers down (but not out) in 2012. I'm sure I'm missing a few.
Watching the coverage of the storm and recovery brought back some bad memories, but also gave my faith in the American people a boost. After watching those a-hole protesters in Charlottesville, it was nice to see all the people helping each other out in Houston and Florida the past few weeks. And am I imaginging things, or is FEMA finally starting to get the hang of this recovery thing? Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but I haven't heard of too many huge blunders coming out of the Federal Government. Sure, President Trump has made some of his usual ill timed comments, but (knock on wood) I haven't heard of any massive f-ck ups from FEMA.
Now 8 elderly people died in a nursing home in Hollywood Florida due to heat exhaustion, that preventable tragedy appears to have been negligence on the part of the nursing home staff, not the government. It doesn't make it less tragic.
In any event, please donate if you can to a reputable charity to help out our fellow Americans, and if you are so inclined say a prayer and keep a good thought for those who were affected.
PONZI SCHEMES-Carton in the Can
My first reaction upon hearing that WFAN morning mouth Craig Carton had been arrested for wire and securities fraud was that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Carton made his living in radio as a guy who had no problem bad mouthing people, making fun of people, just generally acting like a dick. That the FAN hired Carton to replace a man who was fired for insensitive remarks seemed the ultimate in irony. Whats worse, the minute someone took a shot at him, perceived or otherwise, Carton turned into a whine-bag. In his autobiography, he admitted that he remembered every slight against him in his career and would hit back on everyone he thought was against him. That sounds a lot like the man in the White House.
One of Carton's targets was Sid Rosenberg. Back in 2000-01, Sid and Carton hosted a show on WNEW called Sports Guys. It was on in the morning when NEW was an all talk format (the Opie and Anthony era) When Imus was getting into stuff I wasn't interested in, I'd switch over. They were both nuts and pretty entertaining. Both were Mets fans and took the loss to the Yanks in that year's World Series as hard as I did (almost)
The show was canceled and Sid ended up on the FAN and Carton ended up in Jersey. Carton replaced Imus after the Nappy Headed Ho's incident that cost Imus, producer Bernard McGirk and Sid their jobs at the FAN. Carton bashed away at Sid, who by his own admission had substance abuse and gambling issues.
And now it ends up Carton has gambling issues of his own. Millions of dollars in the hole. It would be sad if he wasn't such a jerk to people.
But the part of this story that is being under reported (IMHO) is that the people that Carton stole the money from, were big shot hedge fund types, who were looking to invest in what was essentially ticket scalping. From what I understand, Carton convinced these dopes if they gave him money, he could buy up thousands of concert tickets at face value and then resell them at a huge markup. It's because of these scumbag hedge funds that you are paying hundreds of dollars to see Taylor Swift instead of $30 or $40.
Carton, instead of purchasing concert tickets, paid off some of his huge gambling debt, according to the court papers. I'm sorry but part of me thinks the hedge fund got what it deserved. Some news outlets called the hedge funds victims. Bull$hit! The victims are the ordinary families who have to shell out hard earned money for concerts at prices outrageously over face value.
I'm not defending Carton, to have rang up that kind of gambling debt when you have a wife and four kids is unconscionable. But those are the people Carton hurt. Not the people who gave him the money. As I said when this first broke. There are no good guys in this story. Just one set of greedy pigs fighting with another.
Couple of more thoughts on this...
1) Mike Francessa suggested this week that he would postpone his exit from the FAN if they needed him to stay on in the wake of Carton's arrest and subsequent resignation. What a guy! He'll have all his going away parties and shows and then decide to stay on a couple more years. His ego is as big as his stomach, and he's the kind of guy who would fake his own death to see who shows up at his funeral. Please. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. The FAN survived Imus and the Mad Dog leaving, they can survive without you and Carton.
2) Who might not survive Francessa and Carton's departure is my fellow Postie, Phil Mushnick. A good part of Mushnick's thrice weekly sports media column in the Post centers on potshots taken at the aforementioned pair, as well as Carton's former partner, retired Jet QB Boomer Esiason. With Carton possibly going up the river, and Francessa hopefully riding into the sunset, Mushnick won't have two of his three favorite targets to kick around anymore.
One of the luxuries of being a Jet fan this year is that we can sit back and watch as the Giants fans go bat$h-t whenever Big Blue loses, like they did to the Cowboys last week. I'm as hysterical as the next guy, but the bridge jumping after that game last Sunday night was something else. If the Giants end up 6-10 and the Jets 1-15, the Jets will have theoretically had the better season.
Thats why I try not to watch too much football..
OK, so I hope you all enjoyed this. It's good to be back
and Have a Great Week
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