Weekly Mail September 22, 2019

Hello:




So last week was a rough one in my new hometown. Even though I'll have lived in Oceanside for 10 years come December, I'm still used to calling Woodside/Rockaway my hometown.

But last week, Oceanside was in the news, and for nothing good.

A brawl, apparently over a girl, resulted in the stabbing death of an Oceanside High School student. The alleged killer is a 19 year old NCC student from Lido Beach.

What seems to have turned this into a national story is that much of the crowd that was in the strip mall that day chose to record the fight on their phones rather than help the victim or call the cops. It brings to mind the infamous Kitty Genovese  murder in 1964, which coined the term the "bystander effect."

So I'd like to make a few points here if I may...


1) The superintendent of the Oceanside School District sent a letter out on Friday. In that letter, she claimed that many students that were there during the fight, did in fact run into the stores and asked the store workers to call 911. She went on to say that many of the kids who were recording the brawl were doing so to help the police. She doesn't really provide any proof to back up her claims, and in fact she says that the media doesn't have all the facts. That sound familiar?

But here's the thing... I know a lot of kids in Oceanside, and like the superintendent I feel like the overwhelming majority of them are good, honest and honorable kids. A couple years ago, a young girl was hit by a car and suffered debilitating injuries, and several of our kids put together fund raisers to help her out. While I wonder where she's getting her intel, I tend to believe that there were more people there trying to help than we are being led to believe.


2) My question to those who say that the kids who were there should have done more to break up the brawl is..... Like what? I mean, I'd like to think if I was there and I saw this going on, that I would get in there and try to get the knife away from that punk. But in reality, I probably wouldn't have. And I got news for you, I wouldn't want Timmy or any of his friends to try either.

I mean if you were there, you have to wonder, do any of the other kids brawling have a knife? What if someone had a gun? In this day and age, is that really out of the realm of possibility? If that had happened, we'd be having a whole other conversation wouldn't we? I'm sorry that the young man died, I can't say how sorry I am, but $h-t, it could have been a lot worse.

3) And for all those who did record the fight as if they were watching a UFC match, with the sole purpose of posting to Snap chat or Instagram, and no intention of helping either the victim or the cops? Well, to me you are just as guilty as the stabber and should do time. And if the person in custody is convicted of this crime, they should lock him up and throw away the key. He destroyed a family and gave a great town a bad name.


COMEDY-Shortest SNL Career in history

I have a confession to make... When I first heard that Saturday Night Live fired Shane Gillis, I kind of shook my head. I thought back to some of the classic skits from yesteryear. A friend of mine brought up the legendary Frank Sinatra-Stevie Wonder singing Ebony and Ivory, and I thought back to the Richard Pryor-Chevy Chase job interview. You tried to do those today, and the show would be cancelled.

But that was before I actually saw the routine that Gillis did. And you know what? It wasn't funny. Not at all. It was angry and offensive and had entirely no imagination. Shame on me for rushing to judgment on this one.

I still think we get too offended too easily in this day and age. I still think we can make fun of each other and still care about each other. I still think we can laugh at ourselves and each other.

But that's not what happened here. This was just gratuitous, I don't want to see this guy's career end over this, but SNL did the right thing here.  He needs to get a lot more creative and not offensive for offensive's sake.


And now for some good news....

POLITICS-DeBlasio bows out.

I can't imagine why Bill DeBlasio would end his bid to be the Democrats nominee for President in 2020. Could it be his beyond tiny poll numbers, a war chest that couldn't buy him a Happy Meal, the crowds at his stump speeches that couldn't fill a broom closet, or all of the above?

Look folks, I'm not really someone who wants to kick a man when he's down, I'm really not. Lord knows I've had more than my share of screw ups in my time. But who, besides maybe his wife and kids, thought DeBlasio running for President was a good idea? I sound like a broken record here, but it just blows my mind.

Now I've heard theories that he did this just to raise his national profile, but to me all he did was make himself a laughingstock. Also, I still hold to me theory that he thought that by having Trump slinging mud at him all the time, the free publicity would boost his street cred, if not his poll numbers. And Trump bless his heart took the bait.

But to no avail for the Mayor of New York City. His run for the White House ended on Friday. Probably a good thing for America, not such a good thing for New Yorkers, and one less thing for me to write about.



RANDOM THOUGHTS-

Daniel Jones couldn't have asked for a better start to his NFL career, leading the Giants to a come from behind win against the Bucs. Still, I felt bad for Eli Manning. There was going to be no easy way to make the switch. But he will go down as an all time great Giant, and while I consider him a borderline Hall of Famer, (his non Super Bowl years were pretty mediocre if we are being honest) the two wins over Brady/Bellichick will probably be enough to get him a bust in Canton.


Speaking of those scumbags from Foxborough, I saw they released Antonio Brown this week. Apparently we now know what the line in the sand is for recidivist behaviour is. I'd like to know if they would have been so quick to drop Brown if they were playing a team that was any good this week, instead of a team starting their third string QB.

The highlight of the Jets game last Monday for me, was Joe Namath doing the introduction. When the face of your franchise is a man who hasn't thrown a pass for you since Gerald Ford was President, that is what we call a sad state of affairs. And hey, at least they covered the 23 point spread against the aforementioned Pats this week. Hey, sometimes you have to look real hard for the silver lining.

The Mets season will end next Sunday and for all the kvetching I did this year, I'm really going to miss them. I'll write more about that next week.


For this week, I think that's all we got.

Have a Great Week