Hi Folks:
We had Spirit week at my hospital last week. It's kind of amazing how little things at work can make such a difference. We had a continental breakfast on Monday and pizza for lunch on Friday. You know me, I never turn down free food, so this was right up my alley. Wednesday was jersey day. I was going between my Pete Alonso Met jersey or my generic road Ranger jersey. I let Tuesday night's games determine which one I'd wear.
The Rangers beat the Devils 3-1.
The Mets lost an exhibition game to the Nationals 14-0*
The Ranger jersey it was for Wednesday.
We did puzzles and riddles on Thursday. (what has branches but is not a tree?**)
Tuesday was hat day. This to me was the most interesting day. As I was approaching the hospital from the employee parking lot, I found myself resisting the urge to take my hat off. This was no doubt the result of my Catholic School education, specifically high school.
On this blog I've mentioned the name Brother Robert Connolly a few times. He was one of the Brothers that taught me in high school. To refer to him as a teacher wouldn't begin to do him justice.
He was at different times Msgr. McClancy's principal, president, athletic director, baseball, basketball and track coach. He also taught pretty much every subject, from Physics to Phys Ed. When I was in 8th grade I took a co-op prep course at McClancy and he was the Math teacher. He blew me away with how much he taught us in those 6 weeks. I happened to take the co-op there at McClancy, and he was proctoring in the room across from where I was taking the test. "Go get 'em William" he yelled across to me. I wasn't sure where I was going to go for high school that day, but I knew if I ended up going there, I'd be in good hands with him.
I was right
Because that's where I ended up going. And the more I got to know him, the more I grew to admire him. He was unquestionably the most brilliant person I'd met up till then. And I'll be honest, I've met very very few brighter since.
And as I was walking towards the door at Mercy the other day, I kept hearing Brother Robert's voice going "hat hat hat hat hat hat" He used to stand at the doorway of the cafeteria and not let you in till your hat was off. On the rare days I wore a hat to school, it was well off my head before I got near the door. If Brother Robert didn't get you before the cafeteria, it was because another teacher got you before.
Once I got in and saw other workers wearing hats and caps, it was easy. But man, did my mind race back on that walk to the parking lot.
There was another reason I was struggling with keeping my cap on Tuesday though. It wasn't just because of my high school years, which ended about 31 years ago, but I also had something happen this past year that I wanted to wait till I was done with it to tell you all about it.
Back in October, I got an e-mail from our Parish saying that Timmy's 8th grade class needed a catechist. I don't know what came over me that morning, but I wrote back and volunteered to do it. 10 minutes later, I was hired!
Can you imagine?
Believe it or not, I had actually done this before. My junior year of high school, in lieu of taking a religion class, I took a training course at McClancy then taught 4 kids to prepare them for communion.
But that was (again) over 30 years ago and that was 4 kids. This was going to be 12.
12 thirteen year-olds preparing for Confirmation, including Timmy.
The first night I was there the principal came in and wouldn't you know the first thing she did was ask one of the boys to take off his Mets cap. HA! I let the Brothers of the Sacred Heart down that night.
But after that, I never let it happen again. Usually I gestured to anyone wearing a hat by pantomiming taking a hat off.
But you know something? That was the extent of the trouble any of these kids gave me. There were 7 boys and 5 girls, and they were phenomenal.
In one class we were going over the 7 deadly sins and when we got to greed, I asked if any of them knew who Michael Douglas was. One girl (correctly) said he was in the Avengers movies specifically Ant-Man and Endgame. (I saw them both and didn't remember that-#whatadragitisgettingold) As they sat there, I got up and did my Gordon Gekko impression..
greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.
It was perfect, held my pen like a microphone, did the strut around the classroom, had the voice going. Not to brag, but I rocked it that night.
And I asked them if they knew what became of the man who gave that speech?
(SPOILER ALERT-He went to prison-END SPOILER ALERT)
On Saturday afternoon I was on the train coming into Manhattan. I made the mistake of wearing my Mets cap, because the only other person on the train was a guy who started telling me that he went to all 3 games of the 1973 NLCS between the Mets and the Reds. He decided to test my knowledge of the Mets by asking me what 3 Mets on that team ended up in the Hall of Fame. I should have played Dopey Dicky and said I didn't know, instead I said Tom Seaver, Willie Mays and Yogi Berra. I was stuck with him all the way into Penn Station.
+If I really wanted to shut this guy up, I could have tossed out a 1973 Mets trivia question of my own.. On the day the Mets beat the Reds to advance to the World Series, there was a much bigger story breaking in the country that day. What was it??
But at one point he started complaining about today's youth. "They're stuck on their machines" he said. I turned into the world's biggest bobblehead doll at that point.
I'm sorry I'm not buying that. This "we played outside all day and came home for dinner" crap. None of us have ever had to live through a pandemic. These kids are on their "machines" because they had nothing else to do for over a year. The last class we had, I put away the books and the notes and we just talked about all this. They had a retreat one night in the parish cafeteria and one of the coordinators told the kids he felt sorry for them, "because everything you do ends up on Snapchat" When I asked the kids what they thought of that statement, one of the girls said "Just don't do anything stupid and you have nothing to worry about".
I don't know if it's that simple, but she made me believe it was.***
I guess I'm sounding a bit like Whitney Houston here, but I'd rather sound like her than the principal from the Breakfast Club. These kids are going to be all right. All my friends kids too. Kids are resilient and they are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. And all the ones who lived through this pandemic the last two years..if they can handle that, they can handle anything. I really believe that.
BASEBALL: Opening Day Victories!
The Mets opened in DC against the Nationals and behind 2nd year pitcher Tylor Megill won on Opening Day for the 40th time in the last 50 years. It’s the one think you have to admit they do well.
The Yanks home opener was pushed back to Friday, but they sent the fans home happy with a walk off hit from off season pickup Josh Donaldson. I know in the grand scheme they don’t mean much, but psychologically it’s always nice to win on Opening Day.
Back to the Mets for a sec, there was much angst on Friday night over the Apple TV broadcast, specifically the announcers. I don’t want to woof on them anymore than I already have, but it really did sound like Amateur Hour. They sounded like they won one of those “be an announcer for a day” contest. I know Joe Buck isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s got a great big game voice. Not everyone does, but this sounded like it was being recorded on an old camcorder. They better figure this out, especially if they are going to charge extra for this. Which you know they will.
Can you believe I actually won some $$$ in my NCAA bracket pool after all my kevetching, I ended up in 4th place after I was 4th from the bottom for most of the tournament. I only picked 29 games correctly though. But as Steve Miller once sang, Take the Money and Run.
I just read that Brooklyn Beckham got married over the weekend. I was in London when I found out that Victoria “Posh” Beckham was pregnant with him. That was August 22, 1998. Now he’s married. Yeah, I’m feeling old.
We probably won’t publish next Sunday being that it is Easter. May have a special though mid Easter week. Stay tuned.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*I know it was spring training but really? 14-0?
**I said the Federal Government, but the correct answer was a bank. Technically I was right too, no?
***Maybe it is when you are 13, but when you're 22 and you've put away a dozen Budweiser's and you think the woman of your dreams just strolled into the Irish Circle at 2AM....well, those are the days you're grateful there was no Snapchat
+Answer-Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion. He also submitted his resignation from the Vice Presidency. He was replaced by then House Minority leader Gerald Ford, who would later succeed Richard Nixon when he too resigned from office in August 1974.
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