Weekly Mail February 25, 2018

Hey Folks:

So February wraps up this week, and it looks as though the worst of the winter is over. I know, I know we may get a March blizzard, but nothing too debilitating I wouldn't think. Daylight Savings Time starts in a couple of weeks, and even though that throws me off for a few days, the late sunlight is a nice reminder that nicer weather and good times are coming our way.


In any event....



POLITICS: Teachers Packin' Heat?

"When I got into this war, I had a very clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns! 

I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to old Virginny. I'll even hari-kari if you show me how but I will not carry a gun!" -Hawkeye Pierce from the M*A*S*H episode Officer of the Day. 

In the wake of the latest mass shooting in America, there have been myriad of ideas.

Some of them have been good. The planned protest march of kids all over the country is brillant, sad that it is necessary, but brilliant nonetheless. Standing up for themselves, showing that they're not willing to sit and wait while the politicians dick around. If they can pull this off, the way American women have pulled off their marches and the #metoo movement, we may actually finally get somewhere with this.

Then there were the real stupid ideas. Including the one proposed by the NRA and endorsed by President Trump

Trump on Thursday enthusiastically embraced a National Rifle Association position to arm highly trained teachers to fortify schools against mass shootings He also said the armed teachers should receive extra pay as an incentive.....

I have a ton of friends, family and other associates who are teachers. NONE of them think this is a good idea. I don't blame them.

All the $h-t teachers have to put up with, now we are going to make them responsible for protecting their students from a nutcase with a semiautomatic rifle? This after reports emerged that the armed guard who was responsible for protecting the Florida school headed for the hills when the shooting was going down. But we are going to expect teachers to stand there and shoot their way out of trouble?

They'll be highly trained, Trump said. OK, so either you are going to have to hire teachers with military training* or what, making weapon training part of the curriculum for aspiring teachers?

There are solutions out there my friends. This aint one of them.


FLASHBACK: How Getting Smashed on a Saturday night saved my life..

I will always be a Postie, but the Daily News has these flashbacks that are pretty interesting. This one caught my eye last week...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/gunman-terrorizes-empire-state-building-1997-article-1.768588?utm_content=buffer184d9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer


So this happened on a Sunday afternoon. The night before I was out with my crew, Patti-Ann, Mary, Joann amongst others) and someone (either Patti-Ann or Maureen Monaghan) had cousins over from Ireland, and we decided that we'd all head back into the city on Sunday and go to the Empire State Building.

But as so often happened back then, great ideas on Saturday night turn into "What were we thinking?" on Sunday morning. We were all too banged up to head back into Manhattan.

I was probably watching either hockey or basketball with my dad when the story broke, and at first I was in normal shock when a story of this magnitude happens. But then I remembered that we had all talked about this and I frantically started calling everybody. Thankfully we were all in the same boat, the USS Hungover.

I went into work that Monday morning and told my co workers that I had cheated death the day before. It may not have been technically true, but it got their attention. 21 years later, I lived to tell the tale.


           **BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**BOOK REVIEW**

1968: Amid the crucible of war, revolt, and tragedy, sports helped soothe America’s psyche 

By: Sal Maiorana

OK, so I have a confession here: I saw this book pop up in my Nook. It was $5.99 and all I could see on the cover was 1968 and pictures of Mickey Mantle, Vietnam, Robert Kennedy and Tommie Lee and John Carlos (The Olympic athletes who raised black gloved fists at the 1968 Mexico City games) I didn't see the little fine print that said the book was a historical novel.

So as I was making my way through the book, I was racking my brain trying to remember who this Jack MacDonald fellow was, the famous national columnist for SportsWorld, a magazine I had never heard of. This author painted such a vivid picture of the characters in the book, that I was believing I was reading about an actual sportswriter and his family.

This fictional sportswriter lived in Garden City, with his wife Olivia. His son Patrick was off fighting in Vietnam and his daughter Kathleen was attending Columbia University. Jack's first assignment for 1968 was covering Super Bowl II in Miami, where his old teacher from St. Ceclia's in New Jersey, Vince Lombardi confided in him that he was going to retire from the Packers after the game. From there, Jack attends the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, the Masters, the Stanley Cup Finals between Montreal and St. Louis, and the US Open (both golf and tennis). He was in Los Angeles to cover Don Drysdale's scoreless inning streak on June 5, when a friend of his invited him to the Ambassador Hotel to meet Robert Kennedy. The friend, former NY Giant tackle Rosey Grier, would be the one to wrestle the gun out of Sirhan Sirhan's hand after he had shot RFK.

While all this is going on, Jack has to deal with the thought of Patrick deep in the $h-t, and Kathleen getting caught up in the student takeover at Columbia. It made for a solid read.

There are certain years that when ever something comes up about them, I am immediately hooked. I don't know if there is another year that captures my imagination quite like 1968. There's a part of me that wishes I was alive to have seen it, another part that is grateful that I wasn't. I don't know how people lived through the assassinations and the riots and the war. Every generation has their conflicts, Lord knows we're going to have some stories to tell after these past couple of years.

But 1968 really was something else. Maiorana had me fooled in this book. I have to give him extra credit for that.

3.5 Auggies


Thank God for the US Women's Hockey team which saved our 2018 Winter Olympic effort from being a total disaster. Congratulations and much love, our women are the best athletes. And they win without doping too.

Also I guess I should give our curling team props for bringing home a gold medal as well. So we can hang our hats on that one too,

Anyway here is some Winter Olympics Bar Room BS for you....


http://barroombs.blogspot.com/2018/02/winter-olympics.html


Have a Great Week

*please don't misconstrue this statement as my having a problem with men and women with military experience becoming teachers. On the contrary, I believe that anybody who serves our country has the right to pursue any career they choose, and that the government has an obligation to help them properly pursue their goals. I just don't think hiring military personnel as teachers solely based on their ability to handle a weapon is a smart solution to this issue.