Weekly Mail March 28, 2021

 Hey Everyone:

Sorry I didn't publish last week. Had my own personal St. Patrick's Day celebration, which to be honest consisted of having a few beers and watching hockey and college basketball. 

We'll get to this wacky NCAA Tournament later on, but unfortunately for now, we need to start off with something that's all too common in our country nowadays.... two more mass shootings

TERRORISM: Boulder, CO and Atlanta, GA

10 people, including a police officer, were gunned down in a Boulder, CO supermarket last week. This comes a week after 8 more people were killed in Atlanta where one person shot up three different spas. Which naturally kicked off yet another round of debating and finger pointing over gun control. 

There were some folks that were up in arms because it had been reported that the gun used in Boulder was not an AR-15, which is the usual weapon of choice in these matters. In fact the gun used is actually classified as a pistol. 

According to a USA Today article I read, the Rugar AR 556 pistol is what the gunman used in Boulder. Yes, it's a pistol, but may as well me an AR-15, it has the same capabilities. 

The USA Today article quotes former NYPD officer and current John Jay College of Criminal Justice assistant professor Christopher Herrmann saying 

"You’ve taken this deadly AR-15 weapon and now you’ve made it concealable."

Like the AR-15, the gun is semiautomatic. It's a portable "weapon of mass destruction, all the comforts of a limousine but in a smaller car."

In other words, this guy didn't come in picking off one person at a time. He shot many many rounds. 

The aggravating thing of it is, that shouldn't even be the point. The point is What are we going to do about this? Columbine was 22 years ago already. Sandy Hook was 8.5 years ago. Both of these tragedies took place while Democrats were in the White House, so on the surface, it's an issue that should transcend politics. 

But when you have Republicans like Lauren Boebert giving Zoom calls with a AR-15 behind her just to let everyone know she is a gun nut, or Ted Cruz accusing Democrats of "ridiculous theater" for even the mild regulations they proposed in the wake of the shootings, it becomes more clear who is responsible for nothing getting done about this. 

The conservative in me doesn't want to futz with the Bill of Rights too much, I get that. I'm all for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion and Freedom of the Press. But one can't speak, or go to church, or pontificate on a blog (like I do) if one is dead because some nutjob with an automatic rifle pumped a dozen bullets into them. 

And whatever the plan is now, it's not working. 

Conservatives screaming about protecting the 2nd amendment, is not working. Thoughts and prayers, as much as I hate to admit it, is not working. (and again this is coming from a man who does his fair share of praying...and occasionally thinking) 

It's not working. I'm not so smug as to sit here and say I know the answer, I just know what the answer is not. And the answer is not sitting and doing nothing about this. Because it's not going away. 

BTW: If you were one of my friends on the other side of the aisle who mocked President Biden for his press conference the other day, I guess you must have been in the john when President Trump was answering questions about China, Russia and North Korea by talking about his poll numbers. Just sayin..

All right let's get to the NCAA Tournament...

MARCH BADNESS;

Weekly Mail co-editor Karl (The Ace) Ludwig suggested that I fill out a bracket and post in on-line every March, and then charge folks to take my picks and bet the opposite. 

That would have worked out swell for everybody. One of the teams I picked for the Final Four didn't even make it out of the games that were going on while I was at work on the first day of the dance. Another one bit the dust the next day. All told, I was a pathetic 20-12 in the first round. There was a time where anything less than 25 wins in the first round was a disappointment. 

But it was the Round of 32 that did me in. 

My goal in life is to for once get all the Final Four teams right. A couple of times I got three, most of the time it's one or two. This year, I barely got 4 teams into the Sweet 16. That's just pathetic. My sister, who has been known to pick Purdue to win the whole thing even in years that they didn't make it to the dance, is wiping the floor with me. 

I'm really considering doing what Ace suggested, filing out a bracket, but not participating in any pools. But hear me out because it's not sour grapes like it usually is. 

I'd almost rather sit there and root hard for the underdogs then get disappointed that an underdog win busts my bracket. I'd rather root for the nun from Loyola-Chicago, I rooted for Iona over Alabama, since my readerships contains several noted Iona Alumnus (Patti-Ann, Joann, Ellen, Mathis, and Dr Butler, to name but a few..) but I did pick the Crimson Tide (whose football team I detest).

The Cinderella team that has me cracking up is Oral Roberts University. Where the hell did they come from? They knocked off Ohio State (one of my Final 4 teams) then beat Florida, and damn near beat Arkansas Saturday night.  I wouldn't have rooted for them anyway, being that Oral Roberts himself was a rather shady character back in the day, but I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite Bill Parcells quotes "Sometimes God get bored and decided to participate in these games."  It's really the only explanation I can come up with. 

I'm also having a hard time getting used to the new schedule. I realize this is due to COVID and playing the entire tournament in Indianapolis, but the first round was Friday, Saturday,Sunday, Monday, and the Sweet 16/Elite 8 rounds will be Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I'm really hoping it goes back to the way it was. This is very awkward. 

NBA: Phil's Full of It

If you are wondering how Phil The Zen Master Jackson can achieve that feeling of total relaxation? It's easy, just blame others for your failures.

The 11 time NBA Champion as a coach, but total flop as Knicks president, literally blamed everyone except himself for his disastrous run as the Knicks head honcho. OK, maybe not everybody, but he did blame the following:

1) The Media was decidedly against the organization and they were looking for whatever they can do to throw aspersions.” He also compared himself to Donald Trump

2) The Fans There are long devoted Knick fans and I appreciate their desire but I think they get in the way of the team a lot of times.”

3) Carmelo Anthony Carmelo, I think, wanted to be a leader, but I don’t think he completely knew how to be a leader as a player,” Jackson said. “And I think that the strength of his personality was intimidating to some of the coaches that were asked to coach the team. And so there wasn’t this compliance that has to happen between players and coaches. And as much I tried to interject my own beliefs, I don’t think you’re close enough to the ground in that situation to really be effective in dictating how things are going to be done.”

I mean what the hell is he talking about?  Especially the line about the fans getting in the way. The fans weren't the ones trying to force the triangle, didn't hire a not ready for prime time Derek Fisher to coach. The fans didn't give Joakim Noah that awful contract. 

The Knicks are finally, seemingly turning it around, so hopefully the Phil Jackson era will fade like a bad dream. But he just comes off as another guy who can't own up to his f-ckups. 

POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS: 

The Asbury Park Press ran a photo of a nurse filling a syringe with the Moderna Vaccine. The issue was the caption underneath the photo which read: "A fucking hot nurse, a total JAP, loads a syringe with the Moderna Vaccine.." 

Fucking hot nurse was bad enough. Total JAP, well, now we are into racial slur territory. 

Photo captions can be fun. My proudest moment at the Post was when I suggested to one of the managing editors that a story about a judge who kept a penis pump under his podium should somehow work Flip Wilson's "Here Come da Judge" into the story. 

And if it's hot nurses they want, they should come see one in particular at South Nassau Hospital. 

But you can't put that in the paper. Especially not with an F-Bomb attached. And then to follow it up with an anti-Jewish insult, that's gonna get someone fired. As well it should. 

I'm sorry again for not publishing last week. We probably won't publish next week either due to Easter.

Speaking of which, Happy Passover to all who celebrate. And Happy Easter next week. 

https://www2.heart.org/site/TR/HeartWalk/FDA-FoundersAffiliate?px=17407286&pg=personal&fr_id=5680

Stay Safe. Wear a Mask

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail March 14, 2021

 

Hello:

This past Thursday, March 11, was the one year anniversary of when the WHO declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, which I suppose makes March 11, the day that everything came to a halt. 

I kind of believe that everyone has their day when it hit home. For someone who lost a loved one, it might have been the last time they saw that person, which could have been a couple weeks before or after. I know for Tara, it had to be that Friday the 13th, when she found out she was being moved from working Ambulatory Surgery during the day to working the ICU on the overnight shift. 

I will never forget Thursday, March 12 in the afternoon. 

I had finally made an appointment to see the eye doctor after my eyesight had been getting progressively worse over the years. I was sure he was going to tell me I needed glasses. I walked into the office with a mask on, there was plastic all over the place. It didn't take him too long to figure out how bad my eyes had gotten. 

He also said he wasn't going to dilate my pupils, but he did so anyway. So as I left his office, I knew that my life was about to change no matter what. But now, with everything a blur, I heard the following news...

The NHL season was being suspended as was Spring Training. In the most shocking news out of sports, the NCAA was canceling the Men's Basketball tournament. That was easily $1 Billion down the drain. Schools were going to be closed and remote learning was going to be somehow implemented. 

I realize now that with 530,000 dead Americans that this seems so trivial, but it really was when they canceled March Madness that it really hit home. I had heard the night before that they were suspending the NBA season, but I figured 3 weeks? A Month? Same thing with hockey and baseball.

But knowing how much money the NCAA tournament generated, knowing what a blow to the economy that was going to be, that's really when I knew this thing was no joke. Not that I ever thought it was mind you, but this just nailed it. *

The economy began to crash. The stock market twice had to stop trading because the Dow was dropping so fast.  The combination of all this $h-t happening while my vision was still blurred made it one of the most bizarre days in my life. When anyone ever asks me when I felt the pandemic began, I will always answer March 12, 2020. For me, that's the day the day the world came to a halt. 

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POLITICS: Cuomo in Trouble. (Part II)

Exactly one month ago, I wrote the very same words : "Cuomo in trouble". This was regarding Governor Andrew Cuomo and the mis-reporting of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19. So much has happened since then, that it can make your head spin.

Fist of all, multiple women have come out and accused the Governor of inappropriate behavior. Either unwanted touching and kissing, or uncomfortable comments. Several staffers, both male and female have accused him of being a hot-head with a bad temper who said vile and hurtful things to subordinates. 

I was going to write about this last week, but I held off for a few reasons. First of all, this is a fast moving story. As I am writing this on Saturday afternoon, he is still the Governor of New York. By the time I post this Sunday night, or Monday morning, he could be gone. 

Secondly. I know there are going to be people out there who accuse me of a double-standard. And while I will readily admit that I have a lot more respect for Cuomo than I did for Donald Trump, I also want to make it clear that I never demanded any punishment of Trump until everything was properly investigated. Same deal with Brett Kavanaugh. It pissed me off when I heard Chuck Schumer say that he believed Christine Blasey Ford even before he spoke to her. Do I believe Kavanaugh assaulted her? Yes I do. Did I say that before I heard her testify before Congress? Go back and look it up. 

If a through investigation by Letitia James, the State's Attorney General, proves these women out, or at the very least doesn't discredit them, then Cuomo has to go. 

The third reason I'm hesitant to get into this is because of all the friends I have in the service industry. I've told the story a million times. I was sitting in a bar listening to Tara talk about mutual friends of our she met while working in a bar. If not for all that, no marriage for me, no Timmy. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of you met your significant others in a bar or restaurant. I think of all my friends who either own, run or manage bars and restaurants, all my friends who bartend and or wait on tables, and my heart breaks for them, for anybody, who has struggled financially because of this pandemic. 

And many of those people are blaming Cuomo and his decisions for their plight. And maybe they are right?

But I also know that many of the decisions he made when things were really bad here in New York, saved lives. The numbers don't lie, we were in dire straits here in NY starting around this time last year. Hospitals were filling body bags in unprecedented numbers. 

He may have come off as an a$$hole, but I will always believe it was his decisiveness and his grasp of what was going on that got our numbers down. You want to tell me he should have opened restaurants sooner? I will listen to and respect your arguments, but I will also never take away his handling of this in the beginning. 

Now having said that, let me be clear... If this investigation turns up that he harassed these women, and if the other investigations show that he deliberately hid data that showed that he mishandled the nursing home situation, than yes he needs to go. And I will support that decision as well. 

Writing a book about himself and how great he was probably not the smartest thing he ever did either. That should have waited till the pandemic was over or he was out of office.

Unfortunately for him, the latter may be coming sooner than the former. 

CELEBRITY COUPLES: What a week!

I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch one second of Oprah's interview with (the artist formerly known as Prince) Harry and Meghan Markle. I really wasn't interested in what they had to say. But apparently millions of people did. 

I'm just going to repeat a few thoughts I've had in the past regarding the Royal family... 1) What is going to happen when 18 year old Archie finds out while working at Taco Bell one day that his grandfather is the King Of England (Presuming, of course, Queen Elizabeth finally departs) ? I mean he's going to be like, "What the hell am I doing here, then?

Now as Karl (the Ace) Ludwig points out, Harry and Meghan should have no trouble making money, so chances are Archie won't be asking anyone if they want fries with that. I still think Harry should put his name in there to be the next James Bond after Daniel Craig hangs it up. I think Meghan fancies herself another Meryl Streep, but her acting resume is awfully thin. Still she could get herself on another TV show and bring home some cash that way. I'm sure they will get by. 

And once again, I am offering to replace either Harry or Prince Andrew, who is still on the outs because of his involvement with deceased scuzzball Jeffery Epstein. My terms are half of what Andrew was making (about 150,000£), moving expenses from Oceanside to London, and the option to chronicle my new gig here on social media. And have all my mail forwarded to Buckingham Palace. 

Then there was A-Rod and J-Lo, who on Friday announced that their engagement was off. There were conflicting reports as to whether or not the attention starved duo had completely ended their relationship. 

I mean, they have to stay together right? Where would either one of them go from here? 

Yes, Jennifer Lopez is impossibly beautiful and in better shape than most women half her age, (she'll be 52 in July) but man, she's gotta be a handful. And Alex Rodriguez to me is just the most annoying man on the face of the earth. 

If they don't work this out, the only logical person I can see A-Rod hooking up with is Kim Kardashian. She has the money and the spotlight that he craves. Would J-Lo hook up with Kanye? Again, he might be crazy enough for her liking. But other than that, it only makes sense that they somehow find themselves back in each other's arms. The fate of the world depends on it. 

FAST FOOD- McDowell's for a Limited Time..

H/T to the great Professor Steve Butler for this tidbit.. New Jersey's Cherry Hill Mall will host a pop up McDowell's fast food burger joint to coincide with the movie Coming to America II release on Amazon. 

In his Facebook post (but not mentioned in the accompanying NJ.com article), Steve mentions that the original McDowell's was in Elmhurst right off the corner of Queens Boulevard and Broadway. 

They converted the Wendy's that was there for the movie. A number of us went to go checkout the new place when it went up in mid 1987, only to find out it was a mere movie set. It was almost as disappointing as when we found out when they were filming Kiss of Death in 1994 that the place across the street from the Pan-American Hotel wasn't actually a str..

I forgot we have kids reading this post.

But the McDowell's opening in Cherry Hill will actually serve food for a limited time. Amongst it's items are 

the Big Mick (all the fixings of a Big Mac without the sesame seeds on the bun), Chicken Chunks (not nuggets), the Meatless Mick with an Impossible Burger patty, and the Magnum Mick featuring eight patties and eight slices of cheese on a long (non-seeded) roll.

That Magnum Mick is something that when I was younger I probably would have made the trip all the way down the Jersey Turnpike for.  8 Patties with cheese on each?  $hit, I hope there's a cardiologist office in that mall. That burger is an MI waiting to happen.  

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Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the middleweight champion of the world back when the middleweight division was the most exciting division in boxing, died suddenly on Saturday at age 66. His fight against Thomas (Hit Man) Hearns on April 15, 1985 was the most exciting 3 round bouts in boxing history. Several of you posted it on Facebook.  Enjoy it here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ASe3GTXgC1o

Running for Rebecca Link: https://www2.heart.org/site/TR/HeartWalk/FDA-FoundersAffiliate?px=17407286&pg=personal&fr_id=5680

I know we're all a little groggy today. On the other hand, it's light until 7 PM now!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday and Happy St. Joseph’s Day on Friday. 

Stay Safe, Wear the Damn Mask...

and Have a Great Week

*Watching the Selection show today reminded me that the pandemic cost my Dayton Flyers a number one seed in the tournament last year. Again, in the grand scheme not important but still...

Weekly Mail March 7, 2021

 

We did it!

When I posted last Sunday night, we were oh so close, and by Monday morning, we blew past my $1,000 goal for Running for Rebecca.  Our overall team goal of $2,500 is only a few $$$ away. 

I can't thank you guys enough, I know that sounds cliché, but I mean it. 

I'm going to post the links again here, as we are going to see what we can raise between now and May 20th, but what we've done so far is fantastic. I can't even describe how grateful I am to have you all as family and friends. And to what your support means to my family and I. 

Running for Rebecca will meet on May 20th, 2021 @ 5:15 PM EDT, at Maurice Park in Maspeth. 

💗😍  Thank you all. 

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We here at Weekly Mail are committed to honoring and respecting the creeds and cultures of all. I promise that I make every effort to understand what is acceptable and what is considered insensitive. A few years back, I wondered aloud why some folks were giving Mike Francesca grief over his use of the word Oriental. Having had it then it explained to me, I duly noted it and made sure I never used it to describe anyone of the Asian persuasion. That's just one example that comes to mind, but my promise to you is that I will do everything on these pages to ensure that nobody will be insulted or made fun of because of their race, religion or orientation. 

Having said that.... Dr. Seuss? Seriously?

                                 Timmy-March 2, 2014 

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE- Cutting loose Dr. Seuss? 

There are some days where I miss living in the city, be in Woodside, Rockaway or Manhattan. But March 2, 2014 wasn't one of those days.

That was the first Dr. Seuss Day I went to at the Oceanside Public Library. Now I know they have this all over the country if not the world, but when I tell you that when I took Timmy to the library hat Sunday afternoon, we ran into so many people that we knew, practically the whole village was there. 

It was a fun day. The kids could dress up, do arts and crafts, have the books read to them and there were screenings of some of the stories made into movies. Just a wonderful amazing day.

But now, some towns and communities canceled their Dr. Seuss days because they now believe some of his work to be offensive. 

And maybe some of it is? 

But from where I'm sitting,  it's not enough to cancel out the positive messages, the joy that these books bring to kids, ever since many of us were kids. 

The company that runs the late author's estate and business interests, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced this week that 6 Dr. Seuss books will cease to be published. Including his first book And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street. 

From what I read, the offensive content in that book is an Asian Man, depicted with a yellowish color, lines for eyes with chopsticks in his hands. In the original, he was referred to as China Man.

Yes, I will grant you that was not in good taste. Even Seuss himself acknowledged that. By the 1970's the yellow was gone and he was referred to as a Chinese Man. I don't know, maybe instead of making the book a collectors item in line with the Beatles Yesterday and Today album, can we update it again? 

I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but to me there is so much actual racism going on today that needs to be addressed. It just reminds me of a few years ago, when they banned Kate Smith from Yankee Stadium and whatever they call the Philadelphia Spectrum now (I think the Spectrum is gone and the new place is the Wells Fargo Center)  Can we spend this energy going after the White Supremacists and the Proud Boys? Not to mention some of the shenanigans going on in Georgia and how they are trying to pass a boatload of new voting laws including one that would nearly eliminate early weekend voting, which takes direct aim at African American churches, the so called souls to the polls. 

I don't think Dr. Seuss was a racist, he was more likely a man of his time. It seems like as he got older he evolved and realized some of what he did could be construed as racist. Think back even 20 years ago, we all used words and terms that now we know are wrong. We have the technology now to take the offensive material either out completely, or change it to update it to modern sensibilities. 

I respect if you disagree, but I just believe in this case, banning Dr. Seuss is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To deny his positive messages for the sake of some outdated material is just over the top. 

Sorry, this is a short one this week.

Stay safe, wear a mask

and Have a Great Week