Weekly Mail October 8, 2017

Well, what a $hitty week THAT was huh?


I woke up around 4 AM Monday and saw the CNN notification on my phone saying that 50 people had been killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas. I somehow got back to sleep, most likely because it didn't really register in my half asleep brain. I don't even want to allow for the possibility that I've become desensitized to all of it.

When I woke up for good a couple hours later, I found out that Steve (Pally) McFadden the former owner of the legendary Ryan McFadden's bar on 42nd Street, died. Tara worked at McFadden's back in it's heyday, and it was my overhearing Tara talking about working at McFadden's with mutual friends of ours, that got us talking the night we met. So I consider Pally partially responsible for the past 13 years of my life.

And to wrap Monday up, Tom Petty, one of my favorites died of a heart attack just shy of his 67th birthday. How on earth do you slog through the rest of the week when in starts off like that?



LAS VEGAS MASSACRE:  I hate conspiracy theories.

As a kid I loved them. Even as a young adult I still enjoyed them a bit. But after 9/11, I tried to stay away from them. It burned my a$$, listening to jerks like Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell talk about 9/11 being an inside job, when millions of people saw those planes fly into the World Trade Center. There's a cottage industry created by people who think JFK was killed any other way besides the way the Warren Commission says he was. It's gotten to a point where people have turned the slaying of a sitting US President into a joke. And I'm not even going to get into discussing a slug like Alex Jones, and his heartless, clueless theories on Sandy Hook.

So, I tend to tread lightly when I feel like the story I'm hearing about a tragedy like the one that took place in Las Vegas last week doesn't quite add up. But that's where I'm at with some of this.

Obviously, my heart breaks for the victims, people who were just having fun at a country music concert. A beautiful early autumn Sunday evening, rocking out to Jason Aldean. And if the President won't say it, I will;  it was terrorism, in it's purest most evil form.

What I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is how a 64 year old man could lug all that equipment undetected to the 32nd floor, and more to the point, fire off all that firepower, in that short amount of time and cause all that carnage. The sick f-ck had no previous military training, and some experts have said that even a well trained military sniper could have been that accurate.

I realize we are early in the investigation, and at this point we commoners should focus more on what we can do to help and comfort the victims families. I also know the authorities are insisting that only one person carried out this attack. I'm not there and my criminal investigation experience consists of some CSI reruns, But some of the people there in the early hours after the massacre swore that shots were coming from different directions. I realize in the heat of battle that testimony is unreliable, but as much as I hate to go there, I can't help but believe that there is more to this than meets the eye.

Of course this also led to another round of name calling between the anti gun people and the NRA and fans thereof. At the risk of sounding like President Trump saying that some skinheads are not bad guys, there are valid arguments on both sides. Yes guns rights people, you can kill people without guns, cars and airplanes can be weapons too, and banning all guns isn't going to stop mass killings. But why hand the car keys to a drunk, let the guys with knives and masks on the plane?  There is common sense gun regulations, ones proposed by President Obama for example, that no right headed person should have a problem with.

I'm a conservative, I don't think we should mess with the Bill of Rights too much, but I also don't think the 2nd amendment gives you the right to stockpile enough weapons to arm a small nation. Apparently, the NRA and the Republican Party are considering regulations on bump stocks (devices that turn semi automatics into full automatics). It's a very small step. But a step nonetheless. The only way this problem has a chance of being solved is if both sides can find common ground and go from there. The mudslinging isn't going to do anything and this whole mess is going to happen again.

RIP: Tom Petty (1950-2017)

It was bad enough that as we were still coming to grips with the horror in Las Vegas, reports started coming in that rock legend Tom Petty was near the end of the line. He was in cardiac arrest and on life support. Soon thereafter, the first reports that he had died came over, along with tributes and accolades. From the time I left my office at 4:30, till I picked Timmy up from after-school and came home about 5, the reports had changed. CBS News had jumped the gun. They had cited a LAPD report seemingly confirming that Petty had died. But the LAPD was backtracking, saying it couldn't confirm Petty had passed. TMZ also said that Petty was unresponsive and off life support, but couldn't confirm he died.  This was awful, sitting around for a confirmation that he was dead. The waiting was the hardest part.

By the time the 6:30 PM national newscasts began, Petty's death was confirmed by his manager.

Much like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty was a guy whose deep tracks I'm not that familiar with, but his more popular stuff was good enough for me. Free Fallin I could do without hearing again as I've heard that song 10 billion times, but the rest of Full Moon Fever is fantastic, I Won't Back Down, Runnin Down a Dream, Yer So Bad, all classics. His work with the Travelling Wilbury's speaks for itself, and Learning to Fly and Into the Great Wide Open are two of my favorite all time songs. I haven't even mentioned his early classics with the Heartbreakers and his duet with Stevie Nicks.

Someone tweeted that the reason Petty's death wasn't confirmed right away was because he was standing up at the gates of hell and not backing down. I prefer to think he was knock knock knockin on heaven's door. I realize that last line was Bob Dylan's, but what the heck, I'd like to think it was all for one and one for all in the Wilburys. In either case, his talent will be missed.

PROTESTS: Columbus Day:

I've broached this subject before, but once again it kind of came to light during the Charlottesville mess over the summer.

Many people, including several of my readers, think Christopher Columbus was a real scumbag, and not deserving of a federal holiday. (If it makes these folks feel any better, I haven't had Columbus Day off since I was in college) There has been a movement to take down his statues and some cities have taken to calling the second Monday in October Indigenous People's Day

One of the questions that sent the people who wanted the statues of Robert E. Lee taken down into a tizzy was "Where do you draw the line?"  As I said, with those statues in Charlottesville, taking them down was probably a good idea.

But with Columbus?  Well once again I ask, "Where do you draw the line?"

You want to take his statues down? Fair enough. Indigenous People's Day? I won't call it that. Ever. But if that's what you want to call it, so be it.

But what about the city in Ohio, the one where the Blue Jackets play, the one that gave the world one James (Buster) Douglas? What about that university on the Upper West Side that several of my friends have graduated from? What about that coffee you had this morning? Or the country the beans came from?

What about our nations capital? Named for a slave owner and Christopher Columbus? What do we do about that?

I don't think it makes you heartless or a bad person to say it's time to let some of this stuff go. Maybe Christopher Columbus didn't really discover America and maybe he treated the natives like crap wherever he did end up. But we have somehow survived the 525 years since he crossed the Atlantic, and the 80 years or so since congress made it a Federal holiday. If you are lucky enough to have the day off (which to reiterate I don't) just enjoy it. We have too much other $h-t to worry about.

BASEBALL: Yanks make the playoffs!!

At press time, the Yankees will be taking the field for Game 3 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. Had they lost against the Twins on Tuesday night, their season would have been over and it would have been considered a failure. But they took care of business, overcoming a shaky start from Luis Severino to beat the Twins 8-4.

In Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, Sid Fernandez pitched 2-2/3 innings of scoreless relief, enabling the Mets to rebound from a poor Ron Darling start. David Robertson played the role of El Sid the other night, shutting down the Twins as they clawed their way back. Once Aaron Judge hit that 3 run homer to give the Yanks a 7-4 lead, I felt they had it in the bag. I just felt the Twins figured even if they scored, the Yanks would come right back. It had to me demoralizing.

Speaking of demoralizing, aside from Joe Girardi's boneheaded decision not to challenge the HBP call on Lonnie Chisenhall, the Yanks have to feel doubly aggravated to have knocked Indians ace Corey Kluber out of the box like they did, (a seemingly impossible task) only to lose Game 2 anyway. I will give the Yanks all the credit in the world if they can bounce back from that.

In any event, Yankee fans have a lot to be happy about, no matter how this all turns out.

FOOTBALL: The NFL's worst team is the New York....

Ask me to fill in that blank 6 weeks ago, and I would have penciled in my beloved Jets. But after Sunday's games, the Jets are in a 3 way tie for first place in the AFC East, with a showdown with the Patriots on tap. I have little to no doubt that order will be returned to the universe after that game.

But the answer to the above blank is Eli Manning and the Giants, who after losing to the woeful LA Chargers are now 0-5.  To my Giant fan friends I say welcome to my world, a world where your team is expecting big things only to go right down the proverbial crapper. (See-NY Mets 2017)

HOCKEY: The Rangers Return:

I always try to watch opening night for the Rangers, even if I can't really get into hockey till mid November. But I was probably better off not watching the game the other night, as they started right where they left off, aggravating me on home ice, losing to the worst in the league last year Colorado Avalanche 4-2. I am hoping like hell this isn't a harbinger of things to come. Saturday, they fell behind 5-1 to the Leafs, stormed back to tie it up, before losing 8-5. They didn't take my advice in the offseason and can coach Alain Vigneault, so we'll see what happens.


Some Bar Room B.S. to lighten things up... http://barroombs.blogspot.com/2017/10/wfans-10-greatest-moments.html


Let's all hope this week is better than last week. I'd say it can't get any worse, but the scary thing is that's not true.

Have a Great Week