Weekly Mail December 10, 2017

Hey:

So on Saturday, I had to battle the weather, the tourists and SantaCon to get into the city. If there is one thing I don't need it's a snowstorm in December. Let Bing Crosby have his White Christmas, I'lltake mine snow free thank you very much.

Sorry to be a grouch. As Karl (the Ace) Ludwig pointed out to me last year, if they had SantaCon back in my day, I'd have been the first guy in the city with a Santa hat looking for fun. But at this point, I just want to get a seat on the train.

And the lousy weather didn't keep the gawkers off the streets of Manhattan either. Neither snow, or rain, or sleet stays these tourists from clogging up our sidewalks.

Tis the season.

Unto the week that was...



POLITICS: RIP John Anderson


So I mentioned earlier this week that I would write more about John Anderson, a third party Presidential Candidate who died last week at age 95.

Anderson ran against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in November 1980. A few days before the election, my second grade teacher, Miss Armstrong, gave out paper ballots. We were to check off who we wanted to be President.

It's 37 years later folks, and I can remember as if it was yesterday the results as Miss Armstrong wrote them on the board...

Reagan 17
Carter 15
Anderson 2.

And of course since I opened by big mouth and told everyone I voted for Anderson, I was the one who got his balls broken.

I wish I could sit here and tell you that I voted for him because I agreed with his platform or that like I did last year, I voted for him out of contempt for the other two candidates. The truth of the matter was, to me, he just LOOKED like what a President should look like. He had white hair and wore thick framed glasses, if you were casting for President, he'd be perfect.

Of course nowadays, that kind of thinking would get you labeled a close minded racist. But WTF, I was 7 years old, oh and BTW, I was probably the only one in that class who could name in order all 39 (at the time) Presidents, so maybe instead of laughing, y'all should have listened to me. (and you know who you are)

For the record, Anderson was a liberal leaning Republican who supported the Equal Rights Amendment, was pro choice and in 1968 played a large role in getting the Fair Housing Act passed in Congress.

Here's the Washington Post obit...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/john-b-anderson-fiery-third-party-candidate-in-1980-presidential-race-dies-at-95/2017/12/04/dd25dfda-d92a-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.8c3547a7c788


BASEBALL: Hey we can all go back to hating the Yankees now!

My first thought on hearing the rumors that the Yankees and Marlins were in the process of completing a deal that would send Giancarlo Stanton to the Bronx was something my father in law used to tell me.

Back in the 50's and 60's they used to joke that the Kansas City Athletics (now the Oakland A's) were like a Yankee farm team. Roger Maris, Clete Boyer, Ralph Terry, and Hector Lopez were amongst the stars the Yankees were able to acquire from Kansas City for either cash or washed up players.

And now with Derek Jeter in charge of the Marlins, it appears they have become the modern day Kansas City Athletics.

I mean are you kidding me with this $h-t? One of the best hitters in the game in exchange for Starlin Castro and some prospects?

I hate the way the Marlins do business. I understand having to tear it down every once in a while to rebuild, but the way they do it is just obnoxious. I understand that the Mets were the beneficiaries of previous Marlins fire sales, but it doesn't make it right.

I'm not one for contracting teams, but there are two franchises in sports I think should be either contracted or moved. One is the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL and the Marlins are the other. Two horribly run franchises in cities that don't support them. Hockey in the desert should speak for itself, but baseball in 95 degree heat was 100% humidity is equally dumb. I know the Marlins now play in a roofed stadium but still they don't draw.

They are a joke. They need to go away.



RELIGION: Pope messin with The Lord's Prayer?

In an interview with Italian television last week, Pope Francis said that the line in the Lord's Prayer "Lead us not into temptation" can be misconstrued to imply that God could or would lead us into temptation if we don't explicitly ask Him not too.

“It is not He that pushes me into temptation and then sees how I fall,” the Pope said late Wednesday. “A father does not do this. A father quickly helps those who are provoked into Satan's temptation.”

He has a point and far be it for me to argue with the head honcho, but I'm still having trouble with the changes the church made to the mass several years back. I still need the missalette for some of the prayers and responses. I really would rather not have to relearn a prayer I've been saying for close to 40 years now. I've got enough on my plate as it is. Let's leave this one alone, shall we?

One more post next week, then the Christmas Eve Special and then we do our year in review.

Have a Great Week