Hey There:
Hope everyone is hanging in there through these crazy times. Not much to report here on the home front, so I guess we’ll get right to it…
ESPIONOGE: Flirtin with Putin...
The Russian State Media last week had a beef with CNBC reporter Hadley Gamble, namely that she was sent by the US to distract Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a Russian Energy Week Panel in Moscow.
On Vesti Nedeli, a Russian Propaganda Show (Aren't they all?) host Dmitry Kiselyov breathlessly described Gamble's outfits and gestures..
"Hadley squeezed into a tight black dress, fluffed up her flowing hair, and put on a pair of nude leg-lengthening Louboutin high-heel pumps,” he said, saying her legs were “covered in shimmering body oil, as though this wasn’t a work assignment.”
she also “worked her body language to the fullest, moving her legs, constantly playing with her hair, licking her lips, and rolling out her tongue.”
she “behaved boldly, openly positioning herself as a sexual object"
Well I don't know about you, but I need a cold shower after reading all that. Another Russian media member compared Gamble to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. High praise indeed!
And I hate to admit it, but the pictures did kind of back him up. I mean could you sit and answer questions if your interrogator was sitting like this?
But let's face it folks, this isn't some ordinary man we're dealing with here, this is Iron-Nuts Vlad, you think he's going to let a pretty face and a pair of legs distract him from his goal of world domination?
To her credit, Gamble handled all this nonsense with a sense of humor. She could have gone all "How Dare They Objectify Me" especially in this day and age.
Of course the Russians tried to pull the same stunt on Captain Orange back in 2019, at the G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. Putin and his people denied that's what they were up to, and the only reason I might believe them is that you really didn't need to roll out your All-Stars to distract our 45th President, someone in the front row eating a Big Mac would have had the same effect.
BASKETBALL: I Need a One Dunce...
The Knicks opened their season at a raucous Madison Square Garden the other night against the Celtics. Of course I tuned in just as our heroes were in the middle of blowing a 9 point lead, culminating in a buzzer beater three pointer by Celtic Marcus Smart to send the game to overtime. I was long asleep by the time the Knicks won it in double OT 138-134.
But my favorite story coming out of the NBA this week took place north of the border in Toronto, where Montrezl Harrell of the Washington Wizards exchanged words with Hip Hop star and Raptors super fan Drake, and got a technical foul for his efforts.
Now Harrell later said the smack talk was actually between one of the Raptors coaches and not Drake. That would make this story a lot less entertaining, and TBH, I'm not sure I'm buying it. Listening to Harrell's mea-culpa afterwards, I almost get the feeling sometime between the 2nd quarter, when this incident took place, and the end of the game, it may have dawned on Harrell being in the doghouse of one of music hottest stars*, is not in the best interest of his career. One of the stories I read about this pointed out that the $9.8 million that Harrell is making this year is couch cushion change to Drake, who made a cool $43 million in 2020. These figures came up because in addition to looking like a dope on Sportscenter, and costing his team a point, Harrell was fined $2,000. He is looking to appeal the fine, since as he claims, the beef wasn't with Drake.
Seeing this whole thing reminded me of the time the Knicks were playing the Heat on a Sunday afternoon NBC Game in Miami back in 2001. One of the refs tossed a fan out of the arena because he was giving out too much to the officials. Pat Riley, of all people, tried to intervene on the fan's behalf. One would have thought that having been sent packing by the Knicks the previous two years, Riles wouldn't have been so preoccupied with the fans, but the fan happened to be Heat season ticket holder Jimmy Buffett.
Riley asked the ref "You've never heard of the Parrot-heads?", which nearly got Riley a tech, till he explained what a Parrot-Head was.
Back to what happened in Toronto, I mean whether Harrell was beefing with the coach or with Drake, this was still not smart. I'm glad he patched things up with Drake, but can you imagine had the Wizards lost by a point? (They won 98-93). That would have been hard to swallow.
RADIO: A Legend Says Goodbye
Last week in discussing William Shatner's voyage to space, I mentioned a classic quote from WFAN's Steve Sommers. I had wanted to save that story for when the Schmoozer decided to hang up his microphone, but I figured it worked for this situation too.
Turns out I only had to sit on it a couple more weeks, as Sommers announced this week that he'd be leaving "sooner than later". True to form, he will do so without the pomp and circumstance that preceded the departures of Mike Francesca and Joe Beningo.
It's sad. He really is the last of the originals still at the station. Remember, the original line-up was Greg Gumbel, Jim Lampley, Art Shamsky, Pete Franklin, Howie Rose, and Sommers. Gumbel, Lampley and Shamsky were gone within the year, Franklin never quite fit either and he was booted for what became Mike and the Mad Dog. Howie, of course is still around, doing Mets radio play by play.
But Sommers has lasted, all these 34 years, he'll be mostly remembered for the overnight, but he also hosted middays with Russ Salzberg (The Sweater and the Schmoozer) which ended in 2000. Sommers considered leaving the FAN at that point, but came back to host evenings where there were no live sports.
I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about him. Even Craig Carton, who bad-mouthed everyone at the station in his autobiography, (including his current partner Evan Roberts) praised Sommers as a good man.
He is. He's great with the callers, and the people he pissed off on occasion, (including the putz a few years ago who didn't vote for Jacob deGrom to win the Cy Young Award) definitely deserved it.
Besides the Shanter story, my other favorite story was one time Sommers was talking to a Jet fan who didn't like the low win total prediction the Schmoozer had made for that year's Jets team. He asked the caller how many games did he think the Jets would win that year, When the caller said 10, Steve played this.
LOL- He'll definitely be missed.
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Can you believe the Braves made it to the World Series? The one thing you could almost always count on is the Braves making the playoffs and then promptly pooping the bed. Oh well, what’s the saying “even a blind nut finds the squirrel?” What makes it even worse is that their opponents are going to be the lying cheating Houston Astros. There are few things I find more annoying than a championship game/series where both teams are repugnant. (Think Duke-North Carolina or Patriots vs Buccaneers)
I don’t want to talk about the Jets today, so we won’t. They were more fun to watch last week when they weren’t playing.
Next week is Halloween, that should be fun, till then
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
* I mean he’s not my cup of tea, but he’s got a bunch of hits on the charts so..
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