Hi Folks:
I turned 47 this past Wednesday. That's the last time I'm going to mention that.
I don't like the number 47, I never have. Even as a kid I thought it was just an ugly number. I have nothing against the number 4 or the number 7. I don't even have anything against the number 74.
But Forty Seven is just -yeesh. And I'm not someone who believes in all that zodiac crap either. I'm a Leo and Tara is a Sagittarius, I'll let you horoscope people tell me if we're compatible. This coming Wednesday will be the 16th anniversary of the night we met. We must me doing something right.
Back to my age though, I'm going to do something I haven't done since I was trying to sneak into The Bridge back in the early 90's and lie about my age, at least until February. Anyone asks, I'm 46. In February, I'll start telling people I'll be 48 in August. We're gonna just make pretend that this year didn't happen. Which, the way this year has gone, I'm guessing not too many people will argue with me about.
BTW- Despite my stance against that number, I had to put Jesse Orosco's picture on my FB page. I mean, that was a no-brainer.
WEATHER- T.S. ISAIAS
First of all, a Memo to the National Weather Service: Can you do us all a favor and name these storms something we can all pronounce? I had more interpretation of this name than I could count. My best guess is that it's pronounced EE SY EECE. I heard some say it IS SY AS. Some even called it Hurricane or Tropical Storm ISIS, which all I could think of is how confusing the headlines would be if they said ISIS Terrorizes East Coast.
In all seriousness though, we had a storm this week that knocked out power for thousands of people, because, well, why not? Like I've said before, if it can happen, it will happen. I know this wasn't a week to not have air conditioning, but with the way things have been going, this could have been a lot worse. As it was, it was pretty bad. There were trees down all over the place, and there are still people without power. I really don't get how that can happen in this day and age, but it still does. It's mind boggling, really.
Hope everyone is OK.
HOCKEY- R.I.P Rangers
I shouldn't have gotten as pissed off as I did on Tuesday when the Rangers were swept out of the playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. (How ironic that as New York City was being pounded by a Tropical Storm, our hockey team was being eliminated by a team called the Hurricanes) They wouldn't have been in the playoffs if the regular rules were in place. They were the 11th ranked team in a 12 team bracket, and yes I should have been just grateful that they were able to play.
The problem is they announced this bracket and schedule almost a month ago, the season's been on hold since March, so there was all this hoping and waiting and anticipation for what ended up being three lousy games in four nights. After waiting all that time, my team couldn't give me a week's worth of games. That's embarrassing.
We were the only team of the 24 to not win one stinking game. Think about that for a second. What's worse, both 12 seeds advanced. The Canadiens beat the Penguins (which was a good thing IMHO) and out west, the Blackhawks beat the Oilers, which since Edmonton is one of the hub cities, had to be just as embarrassing for their fans as it was for me.
And many of my glass half full Ranger fans tried to take solace in the fact that now we have a shot at the number 1 pick in the draft. It's a 12.5% chance, so I'm not holding my breath on that either. And anyway, I'm sick and tired on the draft being the highlight of the season for my sports teams. The Rangers, at least have been able to stock up their farm team with young talent, but the Jets and the Knicks either draft poorly or draft guys that don't want to be here.
The Rangers may have a ways to go before they are legit Cup contenders, but I believe they are better than how they played last week. The next regular season probably won't start till December, so we're talking three games in 9 months.
Embarrassing
BASEBALL- Mets messes
As we went to press last Sunday, we had all the bull with Yoenis Cespedes. Turns out he opted out of playing for the rest of the year, and neglected to tell the team. At least that's the official word.
I found it a bit puzzling that they traded a pitching prospect for all defense/no offense OF Billy Hamilton around the same time they claimed they couldn't find Cespedes.
Maybe I've been watching too many conspiracy movies, or maybe I'm just used to being a Met fan, but that whole thing smells a bit fishy.
Either way, good riddance to Cespedes. I honestly don't know why they even bothered to bring him back. He's a waste of life.
And although I was happy that the Mets finally beat the Braves last Monday night and finally scored some runs for poor Jacob deGrom, I felt awful for Braves pitcher Mike Soroka, who tore his Achilles tendon while fielding a ground ball. That was hard to watch.
I'm not sure if this is a sign of maturity on my part, being that if something like that had happened to Braves John Rocker or Chipper Jones 20 years ago, I'd be the first one up cheering. Or maybe that Soroka seems like a genuinely good kid, while Rocker and Jones were morally reprehensible.
Either way, I felt really bad for him.
And as with the Rangers, I know I should take it easy on the Mets. Just enjoy what baseball they give me. But with the expanded playoffs, I feel like if they play the way they are capable of playing they can make a run. Too often though, they don't play like that. And that's aggravating.
TELEVISION-Ellen DeGeneral
A few years ago, comedienne and daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres caught some flak from people who found a skit she did where she had the World's Fastest Man, Usain Bolt carry her around on his back as she ran her daily errands offensive.
At the time I defended her. I wondered aloud if anybody in their right mind thought Ellen was a racist, after all she had done for the LGBT community, all the money she had raised for charitable causes, and just how genuinely nice she seemed.
And while nobody has accused Ellen of being a racist lately, she IS now being accused of having a toxic work environment on her show, and either 1) not knowing or worse 2)knowing and not doing anything about it.
Many employees of the show have accused producers of sexual misconduct, and racial insensitivity. And while they haven't accused Ellen of either, they have accused her of diva like behavior, no eye contact and stuff like that.
Also, while she gives cash and prizes out on a regular basis, according to reports, she didn't take care of her employees financially during the pandemic, drastically cutting their salaries and using non-union labor to produce the show from her home.
It shouldn't be any surprise that someone as rich and powerful as Ellen DeGeneres would have rubbed some people the wrong way. But some of the stuff that has come out about her and the culture around her talk show was in fact quite surprising.
Some of it I thought was a little silly. According to Vox.com, someone complained about her use of the term "spirit animal". There's nothing offensive about that at all. But if she's allowing some of this other more serious stuff to happen, then there has to be some consequences.
I'm usually at work when Ellen comes on, but I've seen some episodes when I'm off, and yes it's entertaining. I hope it doesn't get canceled, but I do hope that she goes back to her roots, when she was up and coming, even when she came out on her sit-com and faced backlash. Now her staff is feels like they are under attack. She needs to get a handle on it. If not, all the nice and cute and funny things she does won't matter, she'll just be another Hollywood phony.
AMAZON SLIME
An Amazon delivery driver in England was caught dropping a deuce on someone's lawn.
According to Kenny Garger in Thursday's Post, Sharon Smith followed the man into her yard because she was afraid he was going to steal her firewood. Instead he left a few logs of his own.
My favorite part of this story is this moneyquote
Despite asking what the man was doing, Smith said, “he remained pooing whilst asking me what my problem was.”
She asked him if he thought this was acceptable behaviour, and he just said he needed to go. So there's that.
He then delivered an Amazon package to her neighbor.
He wasn't charged with a crime, but was fired by Amazon who said in a statement "This does not reflect the high standards we have for our delivery partners."
I say it could have been worse.. he could have been working for DoorDash.
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Pete Hamill died this week at age 85. Perhaps the last of the truly great newspaper columnists this city has produced. And never would have gotten my job at the Post if he hadn't kept the paper going while Abe Hirschfeld tried to destroy it. If you ever get a chance, watch the HBO Documentary Deadline Artists. Also, while I'm on hiatus, I plan to finally read his memoir, A Drinking Life.
Stay safe
and Have a Great Week
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