Weekly Mail February 10, 2019

Hey:

OK kids, the theme for the first part of this week's post is TV choices.


To watch or not to watch? That is the question.


We'll start with last Sunday...


SUPER BOWL LIII

Didn't watch any of it- Not one minute of it.

Didn't see Gladys Knight, or Maroon 5, and all the good commercials I caught on You Tube.  Sounds like I didn't miss anything either. The game was a snooze fest with no scoring featuring two despicable teams. I caught a couple episodes of Blue Bloods I had on the DVR, and Timmy and I watched The Super Bowl's Funniest Commercials hosted by Boomer Esiason and Daniela Ruah from NCIS Los Angeles. I was in bed by the time the 4th quarter started, and didn't know who won til I woke up Monday morning. 10 years ago, the thought of pulling something like that was unimaginable.


Onto Tuesday....

THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS


Didn't watch most of it.


I flipped over to it during commercials of the St. John's-Marquette NCAA basketball game that was much more entertaining than Captain Orange speaking to Congress.

Besides, why watch it when I could log onto Facebook for unbiased analysis. My Trumpster friends of course said it was the greatest speech since the Sermon on the Mount, and the not my president crowd said it was pure drivel.

I did manage to catch Trump as he talked about Grace Eline, the brave 10 year old girl who raised money for St. Jude's Children's Center, only to become a cancer patient herself there. After months of chemo she was declared cancer free in October. That was a nice moment.

The next time I changed the channel, Trump was saying if he hadn't been elected President, we'd be at war with North Korea right now. As Warner Wolf used to say, "Turn off your TV's right there"

More on Warner Wolf later in this broadcast.

St. John's BTW, managed to hold on in a really good game against Marquette in Milwaukee. Still drives me nuts watching all these teams bomb away from neverneverland. One kid on Marquette hit a shot that was closer to half court than the foul line. I realize part of the problem with the Johnnies is that they don't have much size, but it's everybody now.  And after the Red Storm pulled off the upset against Marquette, they proceeded to come home and spit the bit against Providence at the Garden Saturday afternoon. 1 step forward, two steps back.

then on Friday....

PREGAME TRIBUTE TO 1994 RANGERS....

Yeah I was torn on this... Was looking forward to seeing Messier, Graves, Leetch, Richter and the rest of the 1994 Stanley Cup Champs. But it started to bug me that not only are the Rangers just about halfway to another 54 year drought, but it reminded me that not one of my teams have won a championship in a quarter of a century. That's f-ck-ng depressing.

So I ended up recording the ceremony, but Tara and I were out at a liquor store Friday evening, and she was like, "Why don't you get yourself some red wine." So I ended up watching the game drinking red wine (Neil Diamond/UB40 style) and reminiscing as heroes of my youth came up to the broadcast booth to shoot the $h-t with Sam Rosen and Joe Michaletti. My favorite was John JD Davidson who used to be the Rangers color man. (He's now the GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets.) It was great hearing him on TV again.

June of 1994 might just be the most insane month I have ever lived through, both for personal reasons and because we had the Rangers winning, the Knicks almost winning, and of course OJ Simpson and the Bronco chase. There was a bar on 69th Street and 51st Avenue called Sessions which had a large screen TV and not a huge crowd, so I went there and watched the Cup Finals. My mind wandered back to those simpler times of yesteryear as I drank my vino.

I had it in my mind that any time one of my teams honors it's great players, my team usually goes on to lose. In this Bar Room BS, we look at some of these games and see if my memory served me correctly.

Friday night was no exception as the Rangers managed to get themselves shut out 3-0.


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CRIME: If you had Warner Wolf never getting arrested, YOU LOST!

Like many folks, legendary NY sportscaster Warner Wolf decided to retire to Florida a few years back. The place he moved to was called Classic Plantation Estates.

I can just hear his thoughts on this...

"Give me a break! I've interviewed and covered hundreds of African American athletes throughout my career. So change the rule! If the place you are living is known as a plantation, go out and deface the sign. Boom!"

The cops in Naples said Let's Go to the Videotape! and saw Warner removing the offending letters. He was arrested this past Thursday and charged with criminal mischief causing over $1000 in property damage.

He was released on $5,000 bail, but not before having his mug shot taken. It also looks like he's wearing orange prison garb, though I'm wondering if that's just an orange shirt he had on. He's due back in court next month according to TMZ.


POLITICS: Trouble in Virginia

I need to get this out of the way, just in case I ever decide to run for office*.

Halloween 1998 at Donovan's. I bought some clown makeup at the costume store in Long Island City, put the white base on, then took a red make up pencil and dotted my face. I took a black make-up pencil and darken my eyebrows, the put on a blue sweat shirt and deck shoes. My goal was to look like my best bud Razor Ray McGarvey. Whether I accomplished this or not is up for debate, but I don't want anyone to think I was trying to make some inappropriate racist statement.

This flashback came to mind as not one but two prominent Virginia pols were discovered to have worn blackface makeup back in the day. Governor Ralph Northam was discovered to have either worn blackface or at the very least had someone wearing blackface in a picture on his page in his medical school yearbook. Later in the week Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring also admitted at one time he donned blackface makeup for a party.

Herring is third in line if the governor is forced to resign. The second in line Lt. Gov Justin Fairfax is now facing two separate accusations of sexual assault. One of which took place in Boston during the 2004 DNC.

My $0.02 on all this? Well Northam also had someone dressed as a Klansman on his page, so I mean even if you wanted to give him a pass on the blackface, (which I wouldn't BTW) there's no ambiguity about the KKK, so I say give Northam the gas face and force him out.

But am I wrong for asking this question: The yearbook in question is from 1984. Why are we getting around to questioning this now? It took us 35 years to figure out this wasn't a good look for Northam? How did this not come up in his campaign, or in his earlier political career? I haven't seen that question explored, (it's possible I haven't really looked). I mean I could see if he graduated last June, but 1984?  Things that make you go hmmmm...

Obviously the sexual assault case against Fairfax needs to be investigated and addressed. That's a hell of a lot more serious than some idiots wearing blackface. At this rate, the guy who vacuums the carpet in the Virginia Capitol Building is going to be the state's next governor.


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Timmy had his Blue and Gold luncheon on Saturday for the Cub Scouts. I can't put into words how proud I am of him. As Letterman used to say when he talked about his son "I'm going to pull a Kathie-Lee (Gifford) on all of you."  He and the rest of the kids in his den are a really special group of kids.

Also, as much as I complain about life, one of the things I am truly lucky to have experienced is getting to know some of the folks who come up with the New York Post's legendary headlines. Friday's Bezos Exposes Pecker regarding Jeff Bezos fighting back against David Pecker and the National Enquirer was pure genius.

Incidentally, this past Thursday marked the 15th anniversary of the first story I ever worked on for the Post. I got sent out on a Friday night to cover an illegal cigarette bust in Jamaica, Queens. Showing my mom and dad my name on a story the next morning was one of the great thrills I've ever had.

Oh and in some breaking news check this out..

https://nypost.com/2019/02/10/snl-loves-pecker-and-the-ny-post/

Enjoy,

and Have a Great Week





*BTW there are about 99 billion reasons why I should never run for office. Many of you bore witness to some of these reasons and I'll thank you in advance for not bringing them up to the rest of the class.