Weekly Mail July 25, 2021

Photo Credit: Newsday
 

Hey:

I ran into a good friend of mine the other night. His daughter goes to the same camp as Timmy does. He was lamenting how we are coming up on halfway through the summer. Some of the kids at camp only go for 1/2 the time, and their last day was Friday. 

My friend and I are about the same age and we usually work throughout the summer. Technically, the Tuesday after Labor Day is just the first day back after a 3 day weekend for us. Yet, he was saying he gets that same rotten feeling that day that I get; that "the summer's over, it's back to school" feeling that I just hate so much. 

I know we have another month to go, and I'm happy about that. It just seems every year the summer goes by faster and faster. 

Anyway, let's enjoy it while we can. Onto the week that was...

GREAT ESCAPES- The Running of the Bull..

A 1,500 pound bull escaped from a farm in Moriches on Tuesday and as of this writing is still at large. 

According to Newsday, it is widely believed that the missing bull is in the area of Shirley/Mastic, NY. 

It's hard to believe in this day and age, and in this part of the country for crying out loud, that nobody can find this thing, much less reign it in. Searchers are pulling out all the stops, from the hi-tech (helicopters, drones, thermal cameras) to what would probably work for most of us dudes if they were trying to haul us in, good old fashioned sex. Indeed, they sent a cow in heat out to see if she could appeal to the bull's libido. 

But so far, no dice. 

This has got to be the smartest bull known to man, if he can survive out in Suffolk County by hiding out. While it's more open out there than even in Nassau or Westchester, (much less NY City) it's also not Little House on the Prairie either. 1,500 pound bulls aren't roaming the streets. He would stick out if you saw him. I really can't believe they are having these many issues finding him.

The folks tracking him down have named him Barney. A Newsday poll gave him the name Bully Joel, named after another famous Suffolk County resident. (My late grandmother also pronounced my name closer to Bully than Billy-so this also touched the heart a bit too) 

Barney or Bully Joel should really count his blessings that he's up here in NY and not down below the Mason-Dixon line. If this $h-t was happening down South, he'd be long captured by now. Someone down there with an arsenal of weapons would have hunted this big boy down by early Wednesday morning at the latest, and would be preparing the feast of all feast BBQ for Sunday dinner. There would be steak for the whole family, and they'd be thanking the Father, Son, Holy Ghost and Donald Trump for the feast they were about to partake of. 

In all seriousness, if/when the bull is captured, he'll be taken to a sanctuary, so it will be a feel good story. Nobody here in NY wants Bully Joel on a bun. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Games of the 32nd Olympiad 

The 2020 Summer Olympics, being held now in 2021 and taking place in Tokyo, Japan, kicked off last week. There were a slew of events that took place even before the Opening ceremonies that took place Friday morning, or if you waiting for the tape delay, Friday evening. I did neither, as I had to work Friday morning and chose to watch the Mets Friday night. Separate commentary on the Opening Ceremonies from my friends Ed Robinson and Keri-Ann Hart kept be both in the loop and highly entertained. 

I can't really get into these Olympics, though I'm sure if I happen on a track and field event, or a basketball game I'll probably watch. The 13 hour time difference, the lack of fannies in the seats (due to COVID protocols) and really just a general lack of enthusiasm on my part is why I can't get to up for any of these events. The US Women's soccer team lost to Sweden in their opening match, I don't know if they were fed a slice of humble pie or if they simply decided to mail it in. They bounced back to beat New Zealand on Saturday. 

To me the most interesting story coming out of Tokyo is this story about the cardboard beds in the athletes dorms in the Olympic Village.

Cardboard beds? 

This of course led to speculation that the organizers of the Games were looking to prevent any hanky-panky between the athletes and/or the groupies that love them. Indeed, according to Yahoo News, officials came up with a "playbook" that outlines safety measures and advises athletes to "avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact such as hugs, high-fives and handshakes." 

So if they don't even want you shaking hands, it stands to reason they don't want you getting laid either. But apparently that's got nothing to do with the cardboard beds. 

They were brought because they are lighter, but considered more durable than regular beds, plus they are made from recycled materials. Rhys McClenaghan, an Irish gymnast, jumped on his bed to show that athletes could do the nasty on them if they were so inclined. 

Let's face it, if two people want to tango, they'll find a way, either on the cardboard bed, or the floor or the shower or wherever. That's been going on since the Garden of Eden. Maybe, if they really wanted to play it safe, they could have held off the Games for another year, get more vaccines into people. But in this case, as in most cases, money talks. 

BASEBALL: Mets and Yankees Observations

Saturday marked the 17th anniversary of the Yankees-Red Sox game at Fenway Park where Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Sawx catcher Jason Varitek started a bench clearing brawl. As a runner for the Post, I got to interview fans from both teams who were getting kicked out of Fenway for various infractions. 

Here is a link to our Bar Room B.S. report on July 24, 2004

Interestingly the Bronx Bombers are once again up in Boston, this weekend, though this time they are 9 games out of first as opposed to 2004 when they were 9 games up at this time. Plus it was a two horse race back then, this year, they also have the Rays to contend with, who just traded for big bopper Nelson Cruz. 

Speaking of trades, the Mets pulled off a minor but significant deal on Friday, bringing in journeyman 41 year old Rich Hill from Tampa for two minor leaguers. Hill's not going to get anyone's juices flowing like let's say Jose Berrios of the Twins might, but at least we have a 4th or 5th starter till we get Jacob deGrom and Carlos Carrasco back. Carrasco pitched for AAA Syracuse last week and got shelled, but I didn't care about that. His arm didn't fall off, I'll take that as a victory. 

BTW: There was a bit of an uproar this week during the Mets games vs the Reds in Cincinnati. They showed the Skyline Chili concession stand at Great American Ballpark and Gary Cohen described it in somewhat unflattering terms. It's essentially chili, grated cheese, sugar, cinnamon and onions over spaghetti. My wife as many of you know went to college in Ohio and spent some time in Cincinnati. She assured me that Skyline Chili tastes just as disgusting as it looks. 

CARTOONS: Peppa Pig Syndrome

COVID-19 has had many life altering effects, so here's one more.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, kids during the pandemic watched Peppa Pig so much, that they began speaking in British accents and using decidedly British terms such as Water Closet (for the bathroom) Holiday (for Vacation) and Mummy instead of Mommy. 

When Timmy was younger I loved watching Peppa Pig with him. I even more enjoyed watching it with Timmy and Becky at my parents house and watching my sister Katie go crazy over it. 

"Do they have to snort every time they speak?" She would ask incredulously. 

Peppa is the oldest of Daddy and Mommy Pig's 2 kids, the youngest is Peppa's baby brother George, who throws a sh-tfit whenever he doesn't get his way.  

According to the WSJ, Peppa Pig was the second most in demand cartoon after Spongebob Squarepants during the pandemic. Who knows, maybe some of our younger kids will grow up to sound like Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench. 

The family a couple doors down from us has a little daughter about 3 years old and the mom is pregnant with a boy. We asked the little girl what she wanted to name her brother, and she said George. 

LOL. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

 

Weekly Mail July 18, 2021

 

Hey Everyone:

We have reached the dog days of summer. It's July and it's supposed to be hot, but Friday and Saturday mornings were just brutal. Then of course when I got to the city on Saturday afternoon the heavens opened up. The humidity here in NY was really tough this week. 

Anyway, on we go.. 

TRAGIC ANNIVERSARY

Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the crash of TWA Flight 800. The flight that was bound for Paris and Rome, exploded over the Atlantic and crashed off the shore of East Moriches, out near the Hamptons. All 230 people on board perished. 

My parents and sisters were out in Montauk for the week. I was down in Rockaway, but when I heard about what happened, and once I had made contact with my family, I headed back to Woodside so I could watch all the coverage. (We didn't have cable in the bungalow) 

Earlier that year, I had gone on the Cooper Union ski trip with Ray, Karl and all of Ray's frat brothers, one of them, Shahar Harel was out roommate on the trip. For some reason, I had it in my head that he was heading to Paris that summer.*  I also wondered about my cousins Philippe and Perrine who's grandparents lived in France. Thankfully, I didn't lose anybody I knew.

But many New Yorker's did. Before I started writing this I read Newsday's Oral History of TWA Flight 800. To read the words of the family members left behind after the tragedy is nothing less than heart-breaking. 

Which is the main reason I'm hesitant to go into the official cause of the explosion and the doubts I have about it.

In my younger days, I was more into conspiracy theories. I've read a whole bunch about the JFK assassination, which I guess is the biggest one out there. For a few years there, when it was coming up on a milestone anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, there were a whole bunch of stories out there that the King of Rock and Roll faked his death. I realize comparing Elvis to JFK is ridiculous, but it's just another example.

But after 9/11 I became less inclined to go into conspiracy theories. Hearing dopes like Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell talk about how the World Trade Center was blown up from the inside when we all saw the planes hit the Towers, made me feel worse for the families of those who died that day. 

And don't get me started about those who think that over half a million Americans dead of COVID-19 is also a conspiracy to get Captain Orange out of the Oval Office. 

But I'm sorry, I have never been able to totally accept the FBI's explanation that the explosion that destroyed TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996 was a mechanical failure. 

Too many eyewitnesses that night say they saw something going up in the sky before the plane exploded and came down. There were reports that the US Navy was conducting exercises that night. Pierre Salinger, JFK's former Press Secretary, pushed the "Friendly Fire" theory, which at first lent it much credence. But this was also the early days of the Internet, and it turned out Salinger's "sources" were articles easily accessed by anyone who had an AOL account. 

One of the other theories was that someone planted something on the plane when it was in Athens, Greece, which would also dismiss those who saw light shooting up into the sky. 

Former FBI Director James Kallestrom passed away earlier this month. I remember watching many of his press conferences in the aftermath of the crash and there was just something about the way he was speaking that made it hard for me to trust what he was saying. Can I sit here and tell you what he said that gave me pause? No I can't, so you can't go by me. 

There was just something in my gut that was telling me that we weren't getting the full story back then. I'm sorry to say, I still don't think we are all these years later. I have no idea what happened that night, but I don't believe it was mechanical failure that brought down TWA Flight 800, 25 years ago. 

BASEBALL: Polar Bear wins HR Derby. 

I am still holding out hope that my Mets can hang on to 1st place in the NL East and qualify for the playoffs. As I said last week, their just above .500 record would put them in 4th place in the NL West and out of the money in the NL Central. 

The Yankees seem to make the playoffs every year, so for us Mets fans, we have to take the victories where we can get them. And for the 2nd year in a row, Pete Alonso won the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All Star Game in Denver. 

He looked damn good doing it too. He ripped 35 homers in the first round, most of them were no doubt about it shots. In the 2nd round, he almost beat Juan Soto without having to use his time-out. Everyone had expected an Alonso-Shohei Ohtani showdown in the 2nd round, but Ohtani got knocked out in triple OT by Soto. 

Alonso then faced Trey Mancini in the finals, and the more I heard about Mancini's story, the more of a cad I felt like for not rooting for him. Mancini is a stage 3 colon cancer survivor. Having lost two long time friends to that disease recently, and seeing another friend currently battling it, part of me knew I should have been pulling for him. 

But alas, it was the Polar Bear taking the 2021 HR Derby crown. And yes I was a proud Met fan last Monday night, after being an embarrassed Met fan most of Sunday night and Monday morning. 

But Alonso said something in the post Derby interview on ESPN that raised my antennae a bit. He said he considered himself "the best power hitter in the game"

Dude I love your confidence, but the numbers aint backing you up. You're not in the top 10 in HR's, RBI's or Slugging pct. I know you missed some games earlier in the season, and I'm not saying you're having a bad year. But the best power hitter in the game should at least be somewhere near the top of the leader boards, no? 

I'm just saying, if you wanna be considered one of the best power hitters in the game, now would be a great time to go on a tear, and show the world that you can hit 'em out even when Dave Jauss isn't serving you up meatballs. 

 BTW: The Mets came back from a 6-0 deficit on Sunday to beat the Pirates. Bad news is they coughed up a 6-0 lead on Saturday to the same Pirates that they blew a 5-0 lead to last Sunday. That they lost 4 out of the 7 games they played against the Pirates, two of them in excruciating fashion and have now lost both Francisco Lindor and Jacob deGrom, it’s very disconcerting.

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It should really go without saying, but unfortunately it has to be said: The racist taunts hurled at the 3 British soccer players that missed those penalty kicks last week were disgusting and unacceptable. You can criticize them without attacking them. I stand by my assertion that Marcus Rashford hesitation on his penalty shot was the beginning of the end for England. But to threaten them with harm or to attack their race was shameful. Good on Prince William for calling those lowlifes out. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

*In my defense I was pretty schnockered that week

Weekly Mail July 11, 2021

 

Hello All:

One of the worst parts of the pandemic was not being able to give those we love the proper goodbyes. In May, we got to finally give Kevin (Buck) Ludwig the farewell he deserved. On Saturday, my brother in law, Steve and his family had a luncheon at Donovan’s in honor of his dad Rick Eller, on what would have been his birthday. I always say my family hit the jackpot when Steve joined it, so I’m glad we were able to pay tribute to Rick. 

On Friday, Timmy and I along with Ray, Karl, my dad and my sister, went to Citifield to watch as the Mets blew out the Pirates. I’ll have more on the Mets later on in this broadcast. 

WEATHER: Tropical Storm Elsa

July 8 would have been my grandmother’s 108 birthday. It’s normally one of the hottest, stickiest days of the year. Grandma wasn’t big on blasting the AC, and even when we took her out, there was no getting around the heat. Even when I was in shape, I still sweated it out.

But this was the first year I can remember that we had to worry about a tropical storm heading our way on July 8.  

The pictures from the subway station in Washington Heights on Thursday were mind boggling. The subway steps looked like Niagara Falls, and there were people wading through it! What? I’ve done some crazy stuff trying to catch a subway train, body surfing was never one of them. 

I see that much water, I’m taking the bus, or walking. Or (and I’ve done this more times than I care to admit) find the nearest watering hole and wait it out with a beverage or six. 

First of all, if the stairwell has that much water, I have no idea how the tracks didn’t get flooded, rendering the subway useless. But forget that for a minute, if you are in waist high water in a subway station, do you have any idea what else is floating around in there? Gawd, I’m just losing my mind even thinking about that. I’d rather swim in the East River than wade through a subway flood. Trust me, they haven’t invented a vaccine for that yet. 

Tropical Storms here in July, temperatures over 100 degrees in Portland, OR, fires in the Gulf of Mexico. At this point, I really don’t know how anyone can look at all that and deny that there is such thing as climate change. 

BOOK REVIEW: 

Rock Me on the Water: 1974 The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics

By: Ronald Brownstein

As the title suggests, the author was trying to make the case that 1974 was a watershed year in Hollywood. 

His argument is compelling. With movies, he talks about two of Hollywood’s all time greats, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty and discusses the classic movies the two hall of famers made that year (Chinatown for Nicholson, Shampoo for Beatty) 

In music he delves into the careers of Jackson Browne, Linda Rondstadt and Rondstadt’s backing group after she left the Stone Ponies. Couple of guys named Don Henley and Glen Frey who went on to form Gersh Kuntzman’s favorite band. 

His strongest argument comes from TV. This was CBS Saturday night lineup for the 1973-74 season:

8:00-All in the Family

8:30- M*A*S*H

9:00- The Mary Tyler Moore Show

9:30 The Bob Newhart Show

10:00 The Carol Burnett Show 

That’s like having a starting rotation of Gibson, McLain, Drysdale, Marichal and Seaver circa 1968. I mean the closest 2nd I can think of is NBC’s Thursday Night 1980’s line-up:

8:00 Cosby Show

8:30 Family Ties

9:00 Cheers

9:30 Night Court

10:00 Hill Street Blues. 

He also discusses Jane Fonda* and Tom Hayden and what they were up to, as well as one of Rondstadt’s future boyfriends, who ran for and won the governorship of California in 1974, one Jerry Brown. 

It’s a really good book, whether or not you believe he made his case or not. I’m not sure he did. Trying to prove one year is more pivotal than another is very often in the eyes of the beholder. But looking back on that time period was fun. I would absolutely recommend this book.

4.5 Auggies 

BASEBALL: At the All-Star Break…

I was all set to discuss one Met and one Yankee in this essay, but I’m so pissed off at the Mets right now, I can’t really write with a clear head.

On Sunday, the Mets jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the Pirates. Francisco Lindor smashed a no doubt about it two run homer, and Michael Conforto added a 3 run blast in the first inning. The Pirates are one of the worst teams in the league. 

Little by little the Mets let the Pirates get back into the game. That lethal combination of leaving guys on base, and a leaky bullpen proved to be the Mets downfall. The result was an inexcusable 6-5 loss, which I proceeded to go and rant on Facebook about. Of course that was a mistake. Half the fans in the group agreed with me. The other half said I a) Don’t know anything about baseball and b) am not a real Met fan. One punk a$$ keyboard warrior called me a “boomer,”  and I’m consulting my legal team to see if I can bring him up on age discrimination charges.  (I didn’t bother telling the wisea$$ that I’m from Generation X-but I digress)

Again what these morons don’t understand is that the only reason the Mets are in first place is that the rest of the division is a disaster. They are only 7 games over .500. The Phillies are at exactly .500, everyone else is below. If they were playing the NL West with their record, they would be in 4th place.  

Maybe I am being rough on them, but I believe in my heart they are capable of doing better. Losing to the Pirates in that fashion is unacceptable. 

Someone came on and told me that the Yankees loss to the Astros was even worse. It wasn’t. Yes, the Bombers also blew a 5 run lead, and yes it was all in the bottom of the 9th (the Pirates picked us apart little by little) but the Astros are in first place in the AL West. We lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. THAT’s my issue. 

SOCCER: Viva Italia! 

I watched the end of the Euro 2020 between Italy and England. I had a hard time deciding who to root for. As an Irishman, I know I shouldn’t root for England. Also, when I was in Italy a couple years ago, they were very hospitable. I’m sure some of the friends I made over there are ecstatic tonight. Not to mention all my friends here in the States. 

But I also thought of my dad’s friend Manny who came over here back in 2019. He’s as big an Arsenal fan as I am a Mets fan. I thought about Timmy’s friend here in Oceanside, one of the nicest kids in the world, whose Mom is British and was rooting hard. I tried not to think about the Italian women I dated who cut me loose, but well, that really wasn’t a factor, I just found myself pulling for the Brits. Which of course is why they lost on penalty kicks. 

Actually why they lost in my humble and admittedly limited soccer knowledge opinion, is that third penalty kick, the first one England missed, the one taken by Marcus Rashford. 

Again all these idiots who told me I know nothing about baseball can pound sand, I forgot more baseball than most of them will ever know. But you can fit on a postage stamp what I know about soccer. 

Having said that, if you are kicking a penalty shot, dude, I think you just gotta go up there and just let ‘er rip, right? The last two kicks England had, the Italian goalie made really nice saves on them. You just have to tip your hat to the man at that point.

But Rashford tapped danced around that ball like he was Gregory Hines or something. He ran up, stopped did a little stutter step, then kicked the ball off the post. What the fudge man? To me that was the Budweiser turning point of the game. 

Megan Rapinoe is a showboat and a bigmouth, but she backs it up. That penalty kick she buried to beat the Netherlands in 2019 was a no doubt about it goal. The Brits could use a lesson from her. 

Anyway Congratulations Italy. And I hope they are partying like it’s 1999 in Cefalu tonight. 

All right folks that’s enough kvetching for one night. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

*I’ve tried to give Fonda a break recently, but the author (who I’m guessing was sympathetic to Fonda and Hayden, quoted her saying some nasty things about the guys fighting in Vietnam, not merely the people in charge of running it. That I can’t and won’t forgive

Weekly Mail July 4, 2021

 

Happy Birthday America!!!

So we celebrated our nation's 245th birthday this weekend. As divided as we are (and I feel like we get more divided by the day) as bad as things seem to be (and they have been pretty bad), it's a good time to take stock in what is good. I will always believe that the overwhelming majority of our people are kind, caring and fundamentally decent. That when all is said and done, we just want happiness for our families and ourselves. 

With that, onto the news…

SPORTS: Bobby Bonilla Day

July 1st is usually a fun day in sports. In normal non-pandemic years, it's usually the first day of free agency in both the NBA and NHL. Some years see lots of players on the move that day. This year, both leagues are still having their playoffs. The Stanley Cup looks like it might be wrapping up soon as the Lightning have made quick work of the suddenly coming back to earth Montreal Canadiens*. And the NBA Finals are pitting the Milwaukee Bucks against the Phoenix Suns. That should rival the M*A*S*H series finale in terms of TV ratings right? Especially if Bucks PF Giannis Anteokounmpo is out for an extended period of time. 

So all that was left to discuss this past Thursday was Bobby Bonilla and the payout he gets every July 1st. This has become ridiculous. This year you couldn't get away from it if you tried. 

So let me recap in case you don't know what I'm talking about. 

The Mets had reacquired Bonilla before the 1999 season. They traded Mel Rojas, a relief pitcher who made Armando Benítez look like Mariano Rivera, to get him. It was basically trading one bum for another. 

Bonilla was injured for most of the season and when he did play, it was not pretty. So they decided to release him after the 1999 season. They still owed him almost $6 million. The Mets and Bonilla's agent Dennis Gilbert agreed to defer the money for 10 years, then starting in 2011, pay him $1.9 million a year over 25 years. That would cover the principal and the interest. 

This whole thing is actually beautifully explained in Devon Gordon's book So Many Ways to Lose. Now I'm no financial expert, but according to Gordon, this was actually a shrewd deal for the Mets.**

The money they saved by not paying Bonilla his $6 Million in 2000, went towards the contract of Mike Hampton, a 22 game winner for the Astros in 1999 who the Mets acquired for Roger Cedeno and Octavio Dotel. Hampton turned out to be an a$$hole, but he did win the NLCS MVP in 2000 and helped the Mets get to the World Series, where he and the rest of the team choked against the Yankees. 

Hampton was a free agent and he signed with the Rockies, saying amongst other things, that Denver had a better school system than NY. Talking about public schools is a pretty stupid thing to do when you just signed an 8 year/$121 million contract.  Like I said, total a-hole.

However with the compensatory pick the Mets got for losing Hampton, they drafted David Wright, arguably their greatest everyday homegrown player. 

And as Gordon also points out Bonilla got a similar annual arrangement from the Orioles that has been paying him $500,000 a year (till 2023).  A few people also pointed out this week that Bruce Sutter has been getting an annual payment from the Atlanta Braves that rivals the deal Bonilla has. Sutter hasn't pitched since 1986. 

The reason that the Bonilla deal gets so much press, is that unlike the Braves, who are a) almost always in the hunt and b) are flush with cash, the Mets, when the payments to Bonilla started in 2011 were a) awful and b) more importantly FLAT BROKE. Because of what happened with Bernie Madoff, they barely had enough money to pay the players that were suiting up for them, never mind a has been like Bonilla who hadn't played for them in over 10 years at that point. 

I was really hoping that when Steve Cohen took over the team, he would do us all a favor and just pay Bonilla the $29 million and be done with it. Instead, he's decided to make this a Mets promotion....

 

 Which allows a fan to book an Airbnb stay for four at Citi Field for $250 that includes use of the team gym and shower and includes throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Mets play the Braves on July 28. 

So thanks to the Wilpons, Bernie Madoff and quite frankly social media, we are stuck with Bobby Bonilla day till at least 2035. 

Great

POLITICS: NYC Mayor's Race Fiasco

On Tuesday, the NYC Board of Elections released the preliminary results of this crazy ranked choice mayoral primary. Eric Adams led Katryn Garcia and Maya Wiley. All the others had been eliminated. 

But later on that evening reports began to emerge about a voting discrepancy. Soon, it was reported that sample ballots had been counted as legitimate votes. In testing the voting software, these ballots were used and I guess they were never discarded. So 135,000 votes were counted that shouldn't have been.

Embarrassing. 

And naturally, it led many Trmpsters to say "Hey, look! What did we tell you?"

By Wednesday, the 135,000 sample votes were taken away and the results were still the same, Adams led both Garcia and Wiley, pending the outcome of 124,000 absentee ballots that need to be counted. 

So I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that heads have to roll here on the NYC Board of Elections. In a normal year, this would be unforgiveable. Now we are coming out of a pandemic that has us all on edge. Add to that, we have our idiot ex-President, still trying to convince people that he actually won a race that he got his ass handed to him in, and you have now handed him something he can use to justify his baseless claims. I've already seen it. Trumpster screaming "Hey if it can happen in NY, why couldn't it happen in Michigan or Gerogia or Arizona?"

Well, nobody's saying it couldn't happen, they are saying it didn't happen because well, it didn't happen! There were investigations, inquiries, lawsuits, etc. and they all came to the same conclusion. 

I give the NYC Board of Elections credit..they found the error and fixed it and were transparent about it. But it doesn't change the fact that it happened and it created a huge mess. 

Fasten your seatbelts NYC.

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I’m sorry I haven’t mentioned it before, mainly because it’s been a heartbreaking story, but what can you say about what happened to that apartment building in Surfside Florida? Just an absolute nightmare. Nobody really knows who’s fault it is, but I’m sure they’re going to find out because of course one thing that there’s never a shortage of is lawsuits. But now you just try to keep good thoughts for the victims and their families.

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To end this on a light note, I watched as much of the Nathan‘s Fourth of July hotdog eating contest as I could without tossing my cookies. At one point ESPN put up a graphic showing Joey Chestnut‘s 13 Nathan‘s hotdog eating titles, up against Bill Russell‘s 11 NBA championships, Henri Richard’s 11 Stanley Cups, Margaret Court’s 24 grand slam women’s tennis titles, and Rafael Nadal’s 20 grand slam men’s tennis titles. Interestingly enough they failed to mention Yogi Berra’s  10 World Series titles, which I personally took offense to. But not nearly as much offense as I took to the fact that America’s current greatest athlete, is a competitive eater. 

Happy Birthday USA!

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

*Islander fans must be going bat$hit right now. If the Isles had managed to get just a pair of goals past Andre Vasilevskiy on June 25, we'd be getting ready for a parade down Hempstead Turnpike sometime next week. 

**Gordon also talked to Cork Gaines of Business Insider who explained that if Bonilla had taken the $5.9 million in 2000 and invested it at 8% interest, he would have ended up with a little over $104 million by 2035.  I'm not even going to pretend to act like I know how the hell that was figured out. If I were that smart, I wouldn't be blogging every Saturday afternoon. LOL