Weekly Mail November 25, 2018

    There is a large strip mall right across the street from my condo complex. Usually, when I am heading out for work, it's dark and empty. There's a Children's Place and a Mandee's that I can see from my stoop. They just opened an Old Navy there.

But when I came out my door early Friday morning, all the lights were on and the lot was half filled. Black Friday had struck Oceanside.

When I was growing up, Black Friday (which it wasn't called back then) was just an offshoot of Thanksgiving. Now, it's the other way around. Rocky Balboa once said, "To you (it's Thanksgiving), to me it's Thursday." Pretty soon, it's going to be known as Black Friday Eve. I'm surprised it's not already.

Sad.


The first (and to be honest only) story I heard about Black Friday violence was a shooting at a mall in Hoover, Alabama, and this one is all sorts of horrible.

Two men were involved in a brawl and one of them pulled a gun. One of the brawlers, an 18 year old male, and a 12 year old innocent bystander, were hit. What's worse, the cops believed they shot down the gunman, only to find out the man they killed was not the shooter, but an active duty army engineer home on leave from Sri Lanka.

And this wasn't even early Friday morning. It was 9:30 Thursday night.

Happy Thanksgiving America!





HOCKEY: To Lose for Hughes?

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Rangers, but after finally beating those bums from Brooklyn (by way of Long Island) Wednesday night, they found themselves tied for first place in their division.

They then proceeded to play two stinkers in a row, getting shutout by the Flyers and blowing a two goal lead to the defending champion Caps.

So are the Rangers contenders or pretenders? That is the question.

It's hard to sit there and watch your team and root for them to lose. It's one of the reasons I try (and usually fail) to avoid watching the Jets at all costs. Losing so they would be in a position to draft a potential franchise QB was probably in their best interests, but who wants to sit through a Sunday afternoon in November thinking about that?

Same thing applies here. The consensus top rated prospect in next years NHL draft is a kid named Jack Hughes. As a 16 year old last year, he put up some unbelievable numbers. They are comparing him with Oilers star Connor McDavid, who led the league in scoring last year as a 20 year old.

I know the inherent dangers of tanking so that you get a shot at a phenom, and does Madison Square Garden really need both it's winter franchises mailing it in?

Rangers coach, David Quinn, for one isn't tolerating it. He's got no issues nailing someone's a$$ to the bench if they aren't playing well.

I guess what I really hope is either they straighten out after these two losses and make a strong playoff run, or they fall apart and take a shot at this kid. The worst case scenario is they barely make the playoffs and get knocked out in the first round, or worse, they get eliminated from playoff contention right as the season ends and end up with the 10 or 11th pick in the draft.


VERMIN: Grilled Rat: (warning: maybe skip this if you are planning on eating anytime soon)

State Health Inspectors in Hawaii closed down a Teddy's Bigger Burger in Honolulu after video emerged on two workers frying a rat on the grill.

At least one worker has already been fired and another is being investigated.

As disgusting as this sounds, perhaps we can think outside the box on this one.

If you are a rat, and you see one of your own being fried to death, might you think twice about heading into that particular burger joint?  If it were me, I'd go try to find a McDonald's or Burger King, some place where they have good old fashioned traps.

Maybe these workers were thinking long term. Sending the rest of Hawaii's rat population a message, "Come in to Teddy's Big Burger, face a horrifyingly painful death!"

I don't blame folks for not wanting to eat there, but then again, who the hell goes to Hawaii for a hamburger?


That's all I got folks

Have a Great Week