Weekly Mail 2017 Year in Review Part One

Happy New Year!!!

JANUARY



January 10- A Sad Day for NY-RIP Steven MacDonald

And so it began.... An absolute inspiration, to fellow cops and regular folks alike, Stephen MacDonald passed away January 10.


January 20- Here Goes Nothin'

Pretty self explanatory. But he spent the first few days of his presidency arguing that they under reported the inauguration attendance.  The first of many things I can't believe I wrote.


January 28-With Everything going on tonight, I thought this song appropriate

The Song: Let 'em In, by Wings. The occasion, President Trump's ban on immigrants from certain Muslim countries. The strange thing is, I'm normally a hawk on illegal immigration, but something about this felt wrong. I still think there is a debate to be had about stricter immigration laws without all out bans on countries.
Mostly though, I just like this song.





FEBRUARY


February 3- Wojo from Barney Miller and Doc from The Love Boat on Hawaii Five-0 tonight. The things I find exciting on a Friday night. #getalife.

There was one Friday night many years ago when I went out for a few beers with my co-workers from 292 Madison Avenue, took a train downtown, got lost on my way to the Meatpacking district, ended up going into a Bulgarian Bar to pee (and a courtesy beer to boot) repeated that for about a mile till I got to Cody's before finishing up the night at Culture Club. How the mighty have fallen.


February 4- The state of basketball in this city, between the Knicks, the Nets and St. John's is an absolute disgrace.

Hopefully, it's getting better. The Knicks sans Phil Jackson have been fun to watch, St. John's is improving under Chris Mullin and the Nets, well honestly, I don't really give a $h-t about the Nets.


February 8- Am I hearing this right? Charles Oakley went after James Dolan at the Garden tonight?

I still think we should get him season tickets to the Mets next year. Especially now that he's banned from MSG.



February 27- I didn't see the Oscars last night, did I miss anything?

And I still think this was all a setup. How stupid can you possibly be? (Wait, don't answer that)



MARCH


March 11- Whose watching the Kid's Choice Awards?

When you are more familiar with who is on this show than you are with the Oscars, you are either a prepubescent teen, or the parent of one. Fact of the matter is, this show was 100x more entertaining than the Oscars.


March 17- Rangers+Dayton losing = a lousy end to an otherwise fun St. Patrick's Day.

There a few more fun activities than watching the NCAA Tournament with my wife when her alma mater is playing. A few years ago, we were out to dinner, when the the elite 8 game between Dayton and Syracuse came on, and damned if she didn't have the whole place pulling for Dayton by the time we left.


March 19- Jimmy Breslin's column from the day after John Lennon was killed

I posted this upon hearing the news of the great Daily News Columnist's death at age 84. The last line in this column, referring to the fallen ex-Beatle as "another person who died after being shot with a gun on the streets of New York." is both brilliant and chilling.


March 22- A diagram of Izzi's bedroom is shown below. Tell me the area of her room, win valuable prizes.

I was never good at Math. And in case I didn't mention it, I hate Common Core. I know, I know, Welcome to the Club right?


March 23- Why the f-ck did Michigan hoist a three when they were down by one? This is why college basketball is so hard to watch nowadays.

I notice a trend inn these posts is that I really sound like an angry old man don't I? Maybe because I am one. To quote the great Keri DeAngelo #getoffmylawn



APRIL


April 1- Well, that sux.

This was after the South Carolina Gamecocks lost their final four match to Gonzaga. A South Carolina win would have made my friend and SC alumnus Sean Lanigan and his family very happy. But more than  that, it would have clinched an improbable victory in our bracket pool for my sister Kris Eller.  I don't have the words to express this enough, how huge this would have been. Alas it was not to be, and I'm sure I took it harder than she did.

April 3- Right now we're undefeated- Jim Breuer

Gonna be a great season for us Mets fans right Jim?


April 5- In other news, the sun is expected to rise in the east tomorrow...

I wrote this as several news outlets breathlessly reported on the coming out of 70's pop icon Barry Manilow.  This was my reaction.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeXatpVSInA


April 20 You mean their chances of going 3-13? I like those chances a lot.

The question, posted by WFAN.com was How do you like the Jets chances this year. This was when the schedule came out. They already have beaten by prediction by two games. The Giants on the other hand....

April 22- WOOHOO!

This was truly a great night. I watched the Rangers put away the Montreal Canadiens while I was working at the Post, then while walking around MSG before my train came, I got to meet Noah Syndergaard outside a bar on 33rd Street. I'm posting a lot of stuff that makes me seem old, this night made me feel like a kid again.


MAY

May 6-D'oh!

Hold on, need to back up a bit here.....

May 6 was the day Timmy made First Holy Communion. It was an awesome day. He was so handsome walking down the aisle. One of the proudest moments in my life, watching him take the next step in his Catholic life. Then it was onto the party at Rocco Anthony's in East Rockaway, which went off without a hitch (for the most part), and a splendid time was had by all.

But when I got home, is when the trouble started. First I find out the Rangers gave up the tying goal to the Ottawa Senators with less than 2 minutes left to go in the game. (Scored by Derrick Brassard of all people) And now I'm with my in-laws (Islander fans BTW) getting ready to watch OT. About 4 minutes in, it appears we got the game winner from Michael Grabner, but a video review takes the goal away. I knew right then and there we were f-cked. And two minutes later we were.

But of course I can't flip my lid, after all my kid just made First Communion. Right? Somehow I held it together. Must have been my Catholic school education come back to haunt me.


May 9- Dear Rangers:Right now you are 20 minutes away from being eliminated by a team that quite frankly you should have put away already. On home ice nonetheless. So now would be a good time to show some heart and show some pride and take it to these guys. Let's get this to a Game 7 for crying out loud!

Do I even need to insert the spoiler alert here? They must not have gotten the memo.

May 20- He says it every time he plays the part. He also says he's leaving the country anytime a Republican gets elected President, and yet we are still stuck with him.

This of course is Alec Baldwin who is still here in the USA and still portraying (Poorly IMHO) President Trump.

JUNE


June 1 This is the last time we let you dress as Mr. Met, Keri-Ann Hart...

No, the mom of three from out east didn't dress as Mr. Met, but whoever did thought it was a good idea to flip off some fans at Citi Field. Pretty much symbolized our entire season, if you as me.

June 11- What a crappy end to the hockey season.

Pittsburgh beat Nashville to win the Cup. With the Patriots winning the Super Bowl in February and the Tar Heels winning the NCAA tournament, this was turning into one of those crap years in sports.


June 13- Marie Drexler- Wow, an old friend just reminded me that 30 years ago today, I graduated from St. Mary's. Wow! 

In honor of that amazing feat, here's some bar room BS

http://barroombs.blogspot.com/2017/12/1987-vs-2017.html


June 30- For most of the 90's and early 00's I held this title "NYC's most undateable man.".. but a new champ has emerged.

The dude's name was Billy Peck. He's an aspiring actor, 24 years old.  I had my own issues at 24, but this guy's big mistake was taking to the pages of Time Out New York, to embarrass a woman he met on a blind date. He blasted her for showing up 5 minutes late, said he "knew right away she didn't have the goods" and blasted her choices for dinner and dessert. (Steak and Ice Cream).  For all that, angry women all over the city attacked him on his Twitter. He used the old I was misquoted defense, but no one was buying that jive. I'm sure the Pecker will live to date again, but he certainly did himself no favors here.


Next Week- Part 2, July-December.