Hey!
Thursday I completed my 48th trip around the sun. I was looking forward to this birthday more than usual, not because I had anything big planned, but because I really wanted to get away from that ugly number with the 4 and the 7 in it. Something about that number I just don’t like. It wasn’t a horrible year, considering we were still in the pandemic and all the various crap going on around the world, but here’s hoping the coming year will bring good things, for all of us.
I was trying to lay off politics till next week’s season finale, but we have to address what went down this week with the governor of NY.
POLITICS: Cuomo Crisis
I watched some of the press conference held by NY Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday, as she and her team laid out the accusations against Governor Andrew Cuomo. I trust that the AG had no hidden agenda, that she conducted a through and unbiased investigation, and that what they came up with was very disturbing. And yes, I believe Andrew Cuomo should not be the governor of NY anymore. Let me make that loud and clear.
But should he resign?
Yes in a perfect world he absolutely should. But so far, he has indicated that he won’t.
People are going to say it doesn’t matter and maybe it doesn’t, but it matters to me.. How many people are celebrating the impending removal of Andrew Cuomo as governor of NY, but can’t wait to give Captain (Grab em by the p-ssy) Orange another 4 years in office? Either by waiting till 2024 to vote him in again, hoping upon hope that Mike (My Pillow) Lindell has the information he says he has to overturn the 2020 election (Spoiler alert…..he doesn’t) or by overrunning the US Capitol and putting him back in office in a coup d’etat? There have been dozens of women who have accused Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior. Do we care more about groping, or who is doing the groping?
Do you really want Cuomo gone because he touched these women inappropriately, or do you want him gone because he made you wear a mask?
I want him gone because I believe the Attorney General’s report. There is no circumstance where a man should ever reach under a woman’s shirt to touch her breasts. At the very least you should lose your job, if not get prosecuted. I’ll never vote for him again, if he ever runs again.
But you better be consistent. If Andrew Cuomo has to go, then Donald Trump doesn’t get to run again. Al Franken resigned from Congress after pictures of him groping a female became public. If Matt Gaetz, who is being investigated by the Justice Department for sex trafficking, is found guilty then he needs to go too. This isn’t about Democrat or Republican, it’s about right or wrong.
Too many times, we lose sight of that.
Not to make too much light of a serious situation, but one of Cuomo’s alleged inappropriate behaviors was singing the Contour’s 1962 hit Do You Love Me to his then health policy advisor Charlotte Bennett. Bennett told Cuomo that the song was “before her time”
I don’t know how old Ms. Bennett is, but folks my age remember that Do You Love Me was re-released as a single in 1988, to coincide with it’s inclusion on the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. I remember this clearly for two reasons. 1) You couldn’t turn on the radio during the summer of 1988 and not hear this song. It was on every damn station. 2) I had a friend in Rockaway, who no matter what she was doing, would get up and dance on the beach every time this song came on. She could be right in the middle of a conversation, or she could be passed out, but no matter what, as soon as the singer finished saying “And now I’m back. To let you know I can really shake ‘em down..” she was up and dancing.
Good times.
BOOK REVIEW:
Two Sides of Glory: The 1986 Red Sox in Their Own Words
By: Erik Sherman
Erik Sherman has written some good books about the Mets, including one where he interviews many of the 1986 World Champions.
In this book, as the title pretty clearly explains, he speaks to the runners up in 1986, the Boston Red Sox, who were twice one strike away from winning the whole thing.
As my loyal readers know, I have only gotten to celebrate two of my teams winning championships. The 1994 Rangers and the 1986 Mets. That’s not much to hang your hat on for all the years I’ve been watching sports.
But reading this book, and some of the stories these Red Sox players tell, of the hardships and heartbreaks, you almost feel bad they didn’t win. I had to remind myself a couple of times that their losing that series was a good thing for me.
I won’t give away the stories because they are worth your while to read them, but there are two things I’d like to point out that I took away from the book:
1) The 1986 Red Sox are treated in Boston like they won that Series. Bill Buckner, before he passed away a couple years back, was as beloved a figure in Boston as anybody. Much of that came from the grace and humility he showed in the years following 1986. People also remembered how much of a warrior he was, how bad his ankles were by that fateful night in 1986. He isn’t remembered for that one lousy play in Game 6, that quite frankly wasn’t entirely his fault anyway.
2) The first thing I said to my father as I saw that ball roll through the aforementioned Buckner’s legs was “we did it! We’re gonna win the World Series”! Dad cautioned me “We gotta win one more, Champ!”
I wasn’t concerned. For in Game 7, the Sawx were starting one Denis “Oil Can” Boyd.
Back in Game 3, whilst I was making Confirmation, the Mets were putting a 4-spot on the Can in the first inning. According to Jeff Pearlman in his book The Bad Guys Won and less graciously in Ron Darling’s book 108 Stiches, the Mets were riding Boyd from the bench. He was obviously rattled. Boyd could be lights out when he was focused, but more often than not in 1986, he was anything but.
The Can spent a good chunk of his chapter trying to convince Sherman that he would have won Game 7. A rainout the night after Game 6 moved Game 7 to Monday night. More importantly, it allowed Sox manager John McNamara to bring Bruce Hurst back on three days rest. Hurst, unlike the Can, had shut the Mets down in Games 1 and 5.
If it helps Oil Can Boyd sleep at night to think he would have pulled himself together in front of 56,000 maniacal Met fans at Shea Stadium and pitched his team to a World title, so be it. I sometimes convince myself that if my high school’s varsity basketball coach hadn’t brought in a 7ft 2in Dutch kid who went on to play for Dean Smith, onto our JV team in 1988-89, Mr. McGlone would have put me on the team. In reality, I wasn’t as good a player as the 15 guys that made it, and Oil Can Boyd would have gotten his doors blown off again.
Excellent book though. Highly recommended
4.5 Auggies
And don’t get me started about the Mets. Someone forgot to tell them my birthday was last week.
LAWSUITS-The People vs. Ronald McDonald
According to a story in the Post, a Russian Orthodox Christian Woman is suing McDonalds, because their advertising caused her to break her Lenten fast.
Ksenia Ovchinnikova in a court statement, said “When I saw an advertising banner-I could not help myself….I visited McDonalds and bought a cheeseburger” She went on to say that this was the first time in 16 years she was unable to successfully fast during Lent.
As Bill Clinton would say, I feel your pain.
The form of Christianity that Ksenia follows forbids all meat, meat-by products, poultry, eggs and dairy throughout Lent. Holy crap! All I’m supposed to do is not eat meat on Friday. And that’s hard enough! I can have a bagel, a tuna fish sandwich and all the pizza I can eat and I still get tempted to have a burger.
But I have been good. The only time I was really tempted to have meat on Friday during Lent (and I really believe the little baby Jesus would have been OK with it) was on my honeymoon in San Antonio back in 2006. I said to Tara “We only get one honeymoon, I think we can give ourselves a dispensation”
Fortunately it became a moot point, as the hotel we were staying in had the best Seafood Restaurant in San Antonio, if not the whole of Texas. And being that we were on the famed Riverwalk, it also didn’t violate Ed (Auggie) DePuy’s rule about not eating fish in a restaurant where you can’t see the water.
As I said I know how hard it is to abstain, but seriously we’re going to sue now every time we have a hankering for a Big Mac during Lent? That’s just opening up a huge can of worms. Besides, the point of fasting is to resist temptation isn’t it? There are 40 days of Lent because the Bible said Jesus walked through the desert and didn’t eat for 40 days and nights, despite the devil tempting Him by imploring Jesus to turn the stones into bread. Jesus responded “Away Satan, for man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”
He didn’t then turn around and have His attorney serve Satan with papers.
Ksenia is seeking 1,000 rubles for her troubles. That’s about $13.50 in USD. McDonalds could just give her a coupon for a Happy Meal and call it a day, but again, I think they need to fight this. It would set a horrible legal precedent. Just get the Fillet o Fish next time.
Sorry we got this out late. I’ll try to get the season finale out on time Sunday night.
Everyone Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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