Weekly Mail July 31, 2022

 

Hi There:

So we have come to the end of July, another summer flying by us. 

I once read someone described August as “the Sunday of the summer.” Makes sense. But I like to use the term Sunday Funday. So hopefully we’ll all have a great August and enjoy the rest of the summer of 22. 

Onto the week that was…

BASEBALL: THE SUBWAY SERIES (PART I)

There have been several seasons over these past 25 years that as a Met fan, I have essentially considered our two annual series vs the Yankees as our own World Series. Too many times, more than I care to admit, the Mets were going nowhere fast, while the Yankees are in perpetual pennant contention. So, knocking off the crosstown rivals and making a dent, albeit a small one, in their postseason hopes and dreams was all I was left to hope for. 

2003 is one season that particularly sticks in my craw. We lost all 6 games to the Yanks, the last one, a blown save by Armando Benetiez, who after that game became the only Met I have ever booed upon the announcement of his name*. I did that till they traded to useless turd to (of all teams) the Yankees a few weeks later. 

But this year is different. Actually, (and I have to admit I was surprised to read this) this is the first time in the quarter century history of interleague play, that both the Mets and the Yankees are in first place at the time of the series.

The Mets are having an incredible year, and the Yankees are having and even more incredible year. And in a lot of ways, that took the edge off of it for me. I'm hoping that we're playing for more than bragging rights this year. This year is shaping up to be something special. I'm more concerned about holding off the Braves and the Phillies. Don't get me wrong, losing to the Yankees at Citi Field would have stung, would have hurt, but I believe I could have shaken it off more quickly than I would have un years past. Especially those years where, like I said, this was the highlight of our season. 

Fortunately, we'll never know. because the Mets took both games this week. 

Game one looked like it was going to be a long night. With one out Tijuan Walker gave up a no doubt about it home run to Aaron Judge. I realize there's no shame in giving up a homer to Judge, who is on pace to catch a couple former Yanks names Ruth and Maris, but then Walker gave up another dinger to Anthony Rizzo, and before you could settle down, the Bombers were up 2-0. 

But then Starling Marte matched Judge with a home run of his own. Back to back doubles by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso tied it up. That was followed by a two run homer by Eduardo Escobar. We gave up two, we got 4 back. 

Thankfully, Walker settled down because I'm not sure any team in the league, including my Mets can match the Yankees in a run scoring jamboree. The final on Tuesday was 6-3.

Wednesday night the Mets jumped out to the early lead. a solo shot from Pete Alonso in the second and a run scoring single from Lindor in the 3rd, and we had a 2-0 for most of the game. I knew though, even with Max Scherzer dealing as he was, that two runs was probably not going to be enough to win.

It wasn't.

David Peterson has been invaluable for us this year. He has filled in admirably while Scherzer and Chris Bassitt were out with injuries or illness, not to mention Jacob deGrom's myriad of issues. But coming out of the pen on Wednesday, Peterson didn't have it.  He walked Rizzo on 4 pitches, then gave up a homer to Gleyber Torres. People on social media were all over Peterson, but again, I can't get on him too much, he's been really good for us.

Seth Lugo on the other hand has been very up and down this year, and lately more down than up. Thankfully though, he came through on Wednesday, bailing out Peterson and holding the Yanks at bay until the 9th, when Escobar led off with a double, was bunted over by Tomas (positively) Nido, and scored on walk off single by Marte. 

So yeah, it was a damn good week to be a Met fan around these parts. There's two more games in the Bronx coming up August 22 and 23. And then, who knows? I realize the Astros, Dodgers and Braves may have something to say about it, but right now both of our baseball teams are looking real good. There's a chance we may not be done with this rivalry for 2022 after August 23, that's all I'm saying. 

Couple of random thoughts before we move on..

1) WFAN's Evan Roberts tweeted on Tuesday that when they announced Yankee third base coach Luis Rojas, he was roundly and soundly booed. I get it, but I thought that was a tad unfair. I mean I wouldn't have given him a standing o, but booing him? 

Don't get me wrong, he made his fair share of head scratching moves, but I also think he was a victim of circumstance. He was only hired after the teams first choice was embroiled in a cheating scandal. One of his GM's were fired for sexual misconduct and another fired because he decided to take a siesta while driving in White Plains. I love Buck Showalter and the job he has done, but Buck's also had a much more stable front office and an owner with a full year under his belt. I still think Rojas has what it takes to be a good big league manager. Not many could have succeeded with what he had to work with last year. 

2) A lot of my fellow Met fans were crowing about Scherzer striking out Judge 3 times the other night..(even I referenced that perhaps Judge should have worn the sombrero that Marte was sporting after the game Wednesday night) But I have to admit, he is something else to watch. Most of his home runs are highlight reel worthy, and he's a real good fielder too. Plus he just seems like a good guy, easy to root for.  I might be singing a different tune if he hits a bunch of homers against us in a  couple of weeks. In any event, the Yanks should get his name on the line that is dotted ASAP. 

BOBCAT BOP- Caught in West Islip 

Authorities on Friday morning captured a wild cat that had been on the loose in Suffolk County. 

Earlier in the week, pictures had been posted of what animal experts thought was either a lynx or a bobcat walking around west Islip. Residents were advised to keep small pets and children indoors, and the wild cat, most likely frightened and hungry was considered dangerous. 

The Strong Island Animal League (seewhattheydidthere?) were out looking for the cat, and had decided to call it a night when according to  PIX 11, it darted in front of a car at 3:30 AM. And all I can say to that is thank God I wasn't driving out there 3:30 in the morning on Friday. Can you imagine driving at night and having a large cat like that jumping out in front of you? I'd probably head to the DMV and turn in my drivers license. 

The Strong Island animal League is taking care of the cat (who they believe is more of a lynx than a bobcat) and the authorities are looking for whoever owned this as a pet. Cats like these aren't meant to be kept as pets, especially here in NY. The people who had the cat and lost it could be fined and or thrown in jail. Why anyone thinks it's a good idea to keep wild animals as pets is one of those things I will never be able to understand. But they do, and this $h-t happens way too much. 

OBITUARIES: Tony Dow

The actor who played Wally Cleaver, the older brother of the Beaver on the TV Classic Leave it to Beaver died after a prolonged battle with cancer at the age of 77. 

I first saw the news on Tuesday that Dow had passed while I was at work. As I was driving home, I heard on Sirius/XM that Dow had in fact not passed away. I got home and saw all the corrections and unfortunately I made a crack that Dow's condition had been upgraded. That was probably in poor taste, but I was more mocking the reporting than the illness. His family confirmed his passing the next day. 

And for this I blame the internet. I really believe that the speed in which information travels now, the focus is more on getting it first than getting it right. But what's the rush to have an obituary first? It's not like it's a scoop, especially when it's someone who has been ill for a while.

This happened with Tom Petty, it happened with David Cassidy, and it happened with actress Tanya Roberts.  I realize 4 out of millions is a pretty good percentage, but I fear this is going to happen more and more in the future. 

Paul Sorvino: These past few weeks haven’t been kind to Hollywood gangsters, by my count, Sorvino’s passing is the 4th, joining James Caan, Tony Sirico and Sorvino’s fellow Goodfella, Ray Liotta. 

Reflecting back on Sorvino’s career, two of his roles came to mind besides the aforementioned Goodfellas. Both of them Showtime movies. The first was a movie called Curveballs Along the Way in which he portrayed Yankee manager Joe Torre. The movie was about the 1996 season and all that Torre went through including the death of one brother and another brother’s kidney transplant. The movie got mixed reviews, but I thought Sorvino played a very good Torre. (Much better than Phillip Seymour Hoffmann as Art Howe-but I digress.)

The other Showtime movie I thought he was great in was the 1999 remake of That Championship Season. He was also in the 1978 original as one of the ex-players. In the remake he was the coach. I thought he was hysterically over the top playing a serious role, but I loved it anyway. 

I had forgotten till I came across it on IMDB, that he played Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s Nixon. He had that accent down to a T.  

I know he had plenty of credits but those are the 4 I enjoyed the most. No question he was a tremendous talent. 

As we were going to press, we saw that Boston Celtic great Bill Russell and Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols died on Sunday. We’ll discuss them in detail next week. 

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The Mega Millions was $1 billion and only one winning ticket was sold?  I’m sorry you can’t convince me that’s not by design. I’m not buying this random numbers crap. 

Two more after this one.

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

*As I’ve said before, I’ve booed performances, but not players. Benitez was the only time I ever booed a player on my team.  

Weekly Mail July 24, 2022

 

Hey:

Sorry again for the delay in last week's post. I really don't want to miss any posts in July because we'll probably take most of August off. The game plan is to post up until August 14, then come back with our 9/11 special and then starter up again on September 18. So that's three more after this one. 

Tara and I started doing Orange Theory last month. I have to say it's been a lot of fun and I do feel like I'm starting to get in shape. We usually go Monday and Wednesday nights, but this week we went Wednesday night and Saturday morning. The studio is right across the street from our house, so we walked over and walked back. Walking home in that heat was bad enough. The walk to the Post from Penn Station was simply brutal. I looked like I had stepped in front of an open fire hydrant when I got to the desk. 

I don't mean to complain, it's July in New York City, there would be something wrong if it wasn't hot. I do miss those Saturdays of going to the beach, but I'm not even sure I could handle the beach at this point in my life in this kind of heat. I hope all of you are handling the heat as best you can. 

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I was going to write about my thoughts from Thursday Night's prime time session of the January 6th hearings. Once again, there was testimony there that if you really stop and think about it, makes your head spin. And maybe next week, we'll discuss it.

But all of you who know me know that this past week, the third week of July is always going to be a tough one for my family and I. So instead I wanted to share a couple of stories I saw this week that should help restore your faith in humanity. I'm not ashamed to say that both of these stories brought tears to my eyes, but they also showed me that people, you know what, despite everything going on, they're still pretty f-cking good. 

CLAYTON KERSHAW- The Dodgers ace was the starting pitcher for the National League in last Tuesday night's All-Star Game, played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. 

After he was done pitching, he went to the media interview room to answer a few questions. As he was getting up to leave, he was alerted to the presence of Blake Grice, a 10 year old from Denver. Kershaw came back to his seat and said  "Sorry dude. Watcha got?" 

What Blake had was a story and a request. His grandfather was a lifelong Dodger fan who had put together a bucket list. Amongst his BL items were going to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park and meeting Vin Scully and Clayton Kershaw. 

I'm not sure if Grandpa Grice got to meet the legendary Dodger broadcaster, or get to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone park, but he definitely did not get to meet Kershaw. Mr. Grice died from brain cancer 7 years ago. 

Blake told Kershaw that he was there to fulfill the wish that his grandad could not. He was fighting back tears as he was telling his story. Kershaw at first and for a brief moment seemed to be taken aback, but very quickly he became a hero.

"Come here dude, great to meet you." he said as he came around the table to give Blake a hug. Your grandad sounded like an awesome guy. Thanks for coming up."

When you are surfing the web and you come across a video that says NSFW (not suitable for work) it's usually a video of someone using a whole bunch of George Carlin's 7 words you can't say on TV, or a bunch of people walking around nekked. They should also put that warning on videos that will make grown men blubber like a baby. Knowing that Timmy's grandad died of the same disease and watching the video this third week of July was almost too much. 

Clayton Kershaw

JJ WATT-Got to give a hat tip to the great Howie Rose for bringing this to me and everyone else who follows him on Twitter's attention. 

A woman named Jennifer Simpson posted on Twitter that she was selling her JJ Watt edition Reebok sneakers, and her JJ Watt Texans jersey. She said she was selling them because she was trying to raise money to have a funeral for her recently deceased grandfather. 

I don't know if she meant to tag JJ Watt in her tweet describing the items she was looking to sell. (The sneakers had only been worn twice according to Simpson), but she did. Watt tweeted back to her..

Don't sell your shoes or your jersey, we'll help with the funeral. Sorry for your loss. 

And then I read the comments. Actress Holly Robinson Peete also volunteered that she and her husband, former NFL QB Rodney Peete would chip in. Other people not as famous offered to chip in and others offered to help her set up a Go Fund Me page. 

There is so much name-calling and finger pointing going on nowadays, and yeah, I'm guilty of it too. We do that a lot here and I'm sure we'll do it again as we close out the season. But seeing these stories was a reminder of how people, I still believe, are really good. If there is a group I give out to more than politicians, its pro athletes, and here you saw two of them who really stepped up and showed some heart this week. I also got a bunch of notes and heart emojis this week, and that always does my spirit good.  If these stories made you smile or made you cry or maybe did both? Then I'm glad. Just know there are good folks doing good things for people. That's what it should be all about. 

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Back to the All-Star game for a minute. Pete Alonso was unable to repeat as Home Run Derby champ. Now, I don't want to take away anything from 2022 Champ Juan Soto (who could very well end up in Flushing, or the Bronx, but more likely LA) or the man who beat Alonso Julio Rodriguez (who hit a couple shots out of Dodger Stadium that looked like they might land in San Francisco),  but is it possible that the Polar Bear may have psyched himself out? I mean did anyone else catch his between at bats routine during the derby? He was either doing deadlifts in the weight room or he looked like he was practicing Transcendental Meditation in the locker room. All the other guys were out there goofing off and joking around with their fellow all-stars or in Albert Pujols case, his almost adult children. I admire Pete's dedication and I know it had to piss him off to no end that he didn't win it again, but next year maybe he should relax and enjoy the experience. 

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RANDOM NOTES

1) Vince McMahon on Friday announced he was retiring as CEO of the WWE. It wasn't clear if he was walking away all together or if he would still perform in the company as Mr. McMahon. It's hard to imagine the WWE without him at all, so I'm thinking he will still be around. That is of course if these allegations against him turn criminal, than we may have seen the last of him. 

2) The LIRR announced last week that they are bringing back those 1980's train cars, the ones with the wood paneling, the ones where the lights go out when they are going through the tunnel between Penn Station and Queens. The reason according to Newsday is that there has been a delay with the new M9 cars. Some of the M9 cars have made it onto the tracks and they are real nice. More legroom and outlets for phone charging at the end of every row. These older cars are for the birds. They smell awful and they look even worse. I know I promised I wouldn't complain this week. Well, that's just a small complaint. 

All right that’s all I got. Again, thank you all for everything. 

Stay Cool

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

Weekly Mail July 17, 2022

Hi Everyone:

Every year around Christmas time we have a get together with Tara‘s sisters and cousins. For whatever reason this Christmas we didn’t get to do it. So instead my sister-in-law rented out a tiki boat in Port Washington. My general rule when it comes to boozing is to not do it so early in the morning. But every once in a while you have to make an exception. 

I have to say though, this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It was so mellow, just Chillaxin on the water. 

Of course I had such a good time I completely forgot to post this on Sunday. I don’t know that wasn’t until I started making notes for this week‘s blog that I realized I hadn’t finished writing last week‘s blog. Ha! 

So anyway, here’s what happened last week….

SPACE- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy far Away

Photos from the James Webb telescope were released last week, and the images that were sent back were breath taking, considering that these pictures are billions of years old. 

How is that possible? I wondered that myself. 

The James Webb telescope, which has been in development since the beginning of the century at least, has the capacity to see 13.6 billion light years away. A light year is approximately 1 trillion miles. 

I saw on NBC News website this week a good way to explain this: When we look up at the moon, anything that we would see up there actually happened 1.3 seconds ago. Light travels fast but because the moon is so far away, there's that 1.3 second delay in it getting back to earth. With me so far?

So now, we are looking at pictures taken trillions of miles away, and because of that distance, it takes the light all that time to travel to us here in the Milky Way, so these pics are from billions of years ago. 

Unbelievable. 

The Carina Nebula is considered a birthplace for many of the stars in our galaxy. The Hubble Telescope, which is the one I heard about growing up, was able to send back images of this phenomenon back in the day. But this Webb telescope has sent back much clearer, more focused pictures. It's been able to show stars being born, stars that have died out long ago. Webb also captured Stephan's Quintet, a 5 galaxy cluster 240 million light years away. If you've seen "It's A Wonderful Life" Stephan's Quintet is shown when George Bailey is praying in the beginning. 

It's always a good thing when we put our brains and ingenuity into something positive like this. We can use the information we glean from this telescope to figure out things that happened in the beginning of our universe. I really can't wait to see what else these scientists are able to come up with.  On this we can all agree, right?

Here's where I'm sure we all won't agree

POLITICS: The January 6 Hearings:

Two people testified in person on Tuesday. One was a former Oath Keepers national spokesman Jason van Tatenhove. The other Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct for his actions oh January 6, 2021. 

While I found their testimony compelling and their remorse for their actions heartfelt, the testimony that had me shaking my head was regarding the meeting that took place one week before Christmas, December 18, 2020 in the Oval Office. 

There Captain Orange met with Michael Flynn, lawyer Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and for reasons known only onto them, the chairman of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne. 

Former White House council Pat Cipollone's videotaped deposition was played at the hearings. 

"I don't think any of these people were providing the President with good advice, so I did not understand how they had gotten in", Cipollone said. 

If that's not the understatement of the year.  

The meeting, became a mess of name calling and finger pointing, not to mention some of the crazy ideas that Powell and Flynn were coming up with. Flynn wanted to declare Martial law for crying out loud! 

Flynn may have been a great general at one point, but now he belongs in a padded room somewhere. I mean as bad as it is that Trump is being advised by the guys who run My Pillow and Overstock.com,  Flynn is at best a guy whose lost his mind and at worst a traitor to our nation. And you're not going to get an argument from me if you tell me he's both. 

(We’ll discuss last night’s hearings in our next blogpost) 

BASEBALL: At the All-Star Break

TRIVIA QUESTION: What genius said the following...

 I still find myself anxiously awaiting the start of the season later on this week, even though I'm not optimistic about either of NY's teams chances this year.

Good thing I save these posts right? 

Both teams are once again making me look silly. especially the Yankees. 

Their starting pitching has been great, with Nestor Cortes pitching to an under 3 ERA so far. Who saw that coming? Garrit Cole has been solid so far as well. I know Yankee fans want to see him do this in October, and I don't blame them, but so far so good. The rest of the rotation has been good too. 

Aaron Judge, who turned down a huge contract extension prior to the season, is making that look like an inspired decision. He is on pace to catch Roger Maris, and while officially that would be merely the Yankee record, count me amongst those who still consider the Rajah the all time champ. I don't want to jinx it, but Giancarlo Stanton has stayed relatively healthy this year, so he's been hitting homers along with 2021 trade deadline acquisition Anthony Rizzo. The other deadline day deal for Joey Gallo hasn't panned out, which is good, because Yankee fans always need something to call the FAN and complain about, and with a 64-28 record, and a 13 game lead in the AL East, that's about all they can complain about. 

As for the Mets, well, not much to complain about there either. All they have done is win almost every series they have played this year. They have been no huge winning streaks, but also no huge losing streaks either. Some of my fellow Met fans have complained that we had a 10.5 game lead over the Braves on June 1, that was down to 1.5 games going into their series vs in Atlanta last week. Some were calling it a "collapse" Not really, the Mets played well enough, the Braves just went nuts from June 1st on, they were 29-8 coming into the series with the Mets. I feared the worst, but sonofagun if they didn't take 2 out of 3 to leave Atlanta still in first place and 2.5 up. 

And they have done all of this without Jacob deGrom and without 7 weeks of Max Scherzer. Tijuan Walker, Carlos Carrasco and Chris Bassit have been a solid 1-2-3, and they have had solid pitching from David Peterson and before he got hurt Tylor Megill. 

Jeff McNeil is back to raking singles and doubles, Pete Alonso is once again one of the top power hitters in the game, as he told us all at the All-Star Game last year, and Francisco Lindor the $30 million man, has almost 70 RBI's. 

The best part with the Mets is that, they have many times hit away from the shift, been able to manufacture runs without home runs, and aren't striking out a million times a game. In other words, thanks to Buck Showalter, they are playing entertaining baseball as well as winning baseball. They have also had a bunch of come from behind wins to celebrate. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but their best player just might be (nah I'm not gonna jinx it...you know who I mean, the other guy we got in the Cano trade). 

And speaking of Cano, the highlight of the season might have been when the Mets released him and ate his salary. When Sandy Alderson said that Steve Cohen told the front office to "make the best baseball decision" and not worry about the money, that was EXACTLY what us Met fans have been waiting to hear for years. To me, anyway, that was an awesome and welcome development. 

Sorry again for the delay. Most of this was written before last Sunday. We’ll get the next one out Sunday night/Monday morning.

Maybe 😁

Stay Safe

and Have a Great (rest of the) Week

Weekly Mail July 10, 2022

 

Hi Everyone:

Hope all of you are having a fun summer so far. I know the news hasn't been great lately, but I hope that all is well by you and that you are enjoying the good things that summer brings...late sunsets, barbeques, days at the beach or the pool. I'll always get a kick out of seeing the sun still out after 8 PM. 

We're going to start off with some obituaries, in no paricular order...

1) James Caan- I mentioned this on FB the other after the news came out that James Caan had passed away in Los Angeles at age 82, that my first and favorite memory of him as an actor was in the TV movie Brian's Song.

I wasn't yet born when that movie first aired on ABC, I first saw it on Channel 9 in January of 1986. When Gayle Sayers and Brian Piccolo played for the Bears, they were not a good team, but at the time I was watching the movie, they were a few weeks away from winning the Super Bowl. 

In Brian's Song, Caan played the happy-go-lucky, practical joke playing, one line dropping Brian Piccolo, a full back drafted out of Wake Forest, opposite Billy Dee Williams Gayle Sayers, the quiet, serious all-American out of Kansas. Both drafted in 1965, they both made the team and were assigned to me roommates on the road, according to the movie that was going to be a first-having a white player room with an African-American. 

Since I was 12 years old when I saw Brian's Song and I had yet to see The Godfather, The Gambler or Rollerball, I just thought the guy playing Brian Piccolo was a comedic actor, that's how well he played the role. I had no idea that he was the prototypical tough guy. 

It turns out that Caan was reluctant to do Brian's Song because he wanted to focus on his film career, but came around and in multiple interviews said it was one of his favorite roles. The fact that he was able to make Brian's Song and then shoot The Godfather soon thereafter just shows how amazing a talent he was. 

2) Tony Sirico- A real life mobster turned actor, it really didn't seem like Sirico, as Soprano's Paul (Paulie Walnuts) Guitereri was doing much acting. I especially love watching old clips on YouTube where Paulie tells a joke and then repeats it. One time he was looking at Bobby Baccala and Vito Spatafore* and said "Hey it's like one of those weight loss ads. Before and waaay before" Then he found someone he didn't think heard it the first time and said it again. Maybe David Chase wrote it that way, or maybe Sirico improvised but either way it was hysterical. 

I think my all time favorite Paulie Walnuts line was when he and Chris Moltisanti were stranded in the Pine Barrens and Chris said "I knew we should have stopped at Roy Rogers" (to get something to eat) and Paulie told Chris what he would have liked to do with Dale Evans (Roger's wife). 

I know actors don't like to be typecast (see James Caan above) but it's really hard to imagine Tony Sirico playing anything besides a mobster. I'm guessing that really didn't bother him much. I was sorry to see that he passed. 

3) Larry Storch-Agarn from F-Troop was 99, and if his passing just short of 100 didn't cause the nationwide heartbreak that Betty White's passing did, it still sux to get that close to the century mark and fall short. I loved watching F Troop reruns as a kid. 

RIP

BASEBALL: Mets retire number 17

Saturday afternoon the Mets retired number 17 for Keith Hernandez. The ceremony was awesome. My favorite part was when they had the video tribute with different people reciting things about Hernandez life. When they got to the part where they mentioned all the gold gloves he won that part was red by Don Mattingly. Mattingly might’ve been the second greatest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen. Hernandez was the first. 

And despite the best efforts to do otherwise the Mets pulled out a miracle win on Saturday night. I read somewhere that it was the first time they had one on a walk off arrow since game six of the 1986 World Series which I find very hard to believe but nonetheless. It was very appropriate. 

I’m sorry this is so short this week. Hope all is well.

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail July 4, 2022

 

Happy 246th America! 

Sorry we didn't publish last week, as we took off to celebrate a couple of graduations. My buddy Liam McGarvey is done with high school and off to  SJU so we celebrated that on Saturday afternoon at Donovans.

Earlier last week my son Timmy graduated from 8th grade (or moved up as they now say it). I know it's cliché, but I can't believe how fast the time flies. Since Tara and I both work, we sent Tim to Oceanside's afterschool program, and I remember the first day I picked him up from there back in 2013. That just seems like yesterday, but that's going to be 9 years come September. And now he's starting high school. It's unbelievable

I'm so proud of the young man he is becoming. I'm so happy for all the kids in his class who are also moving on up as it were. I've said it before, I really believe with these kids, we are in good hands.

Providing the rest of us don't f-ck it up in the meantime. And on that note......

SURPEME COURT- Two Landmark Decisions

I've spoken about this many times before... I have an internal battle with this blog. The desire to be entertaining vs the desire to chronicle the happenings of the day. Trying not to offend anyone vs. calling it like I see it, damn the consequences. 

Last week presented an even bigger dilemma..

The Supreme Court in a 5-3 vote overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision. Regardless of what side you come down on, one thing we can all agree on was that this decision was historic and newsworthy. Something I don't feel like I can ignore. 

But I also made a decision when I started blogging again back in 2015 that under no circumstances would I discuss abortion in this forum. 

Several years ago, I was talking to a couple of co-workers. I don't know how it came up,  but one of them remarked that he had never met anyone who wasn't pro-choice. He then asked us where we stood on abortion. Our co-worker said "I'm going to say this as succinctly and as politely as I possibly can. It's none of your f-cking business"  

From that day on, that was my official position on abortion. 

There are only two people on earth who need to know where I stand..... My wife and my kid.  

Of all the countless issues that divide our fair nation, I feel the one that causes the most angst is abortion. If you are pro-choice and you get into it with someone who is not pro-choice, it's usually a very ugly confrontation. And nobody ever walks away from one of those debates saying, "Wow, maybe I need to rethink my position." No they just dig their heels in deeper. 

I will say this however, this decision I fear will have more far reaching effects other than abortion. Remember, it's at the very core of it, about the right to privacy. Now back in the day, when they passed the Patriot Act, I had many a debate over that. I felt it was necessary, a tool needed to help ensure that we would never have to deal with another 9/11.  Others felt that it went too far, that it risked ordinary people, you know, those not looking to take down skyscrapers, losing their right to privacy. I guess I always believed that common sense and pure intentions would win out, and that the Patriot Act would be used strictly for what what it's stated goal was-to keep us safe. 

It's hard to see what the SCOTUS did last week and feel like they want to do either, protect our privacy or keep us safe. Because in another decision that I damn well will discuss.

The day before the court overturned Roe, they also overturned a New York law that place limits on carrying guns outside the home. 

And I mean my question is, if you are looking to protect children, as the Right to Life movement is insisting, wouldn't regulating guns be a great place to start?  So that maybe we don't have anymore slaughters like they had in Uvalde, TX? 

Instead it was made much easier to take a gun out of the house with you. With the way crime has been rising around here, I think a bunch of ordinary folks packing heat isn't a great idea. Just give everyone a gun and turn Times Square into the OK Corral. Because that's where we are heading from where I'm sitting. 

And we had another mass shooting in Chicago on Monday. During a 4th of July parade. 

Unbelievable. 

And speaking of Unbelievable. 

THE JANUARY 6 HEARINGS:

Last Monday afternoon, the January 6 Committee announced they were convening a hearing for the following day. They hadn't been planning another hearing for at least a week. Speculation began to spread about why the sudden change of plans. CNN finally broke the story that Cassidy Hutchison, an aide to former WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was going to testify. 

The hearing began at 1 PM when I go on my lunchbreak, so I hopped in the car and listened to it FDR Fireside Chat style on the radio. 

Amongst the things that Hutchison testified about...

1) That Captain Orange was so pissed that the Ellipse wasn't filled to capacity, that he demanded the magnetometers be taken down so that even those people carrying weapons would be allowed in. "They're not coming for me" was his explanation as to why letting a bunch of angry armed people into the ellipse was no biggie. 

2) That House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy texted her some nastygrams because he felt that Hutchison was reneging on her promise that the President would not go to the Capitol. Hutchison assured Mccarthy that she was not aware that this was being planned and while she felt he felt she was being honest, he was still livid that trump was insisting on going to the Capitol.

3) That upon learning that the secret service was returning Trump to the White House, that he grabbed at the steering wheel of the car he was in and also attacked another secret service member. 

Hutchison also testified that upon learning that Attorney General Bill Barr didn't find any evidence of voter fraud (surprise surprise) that Trump through his plate of food clear across the room. While the three issues mentioned above were admittedly second hand, Hutchison said that she had helped to clean up the mess he made. 

Now the Secret Service agent that Hutchison says told her all this stuff is apparently willing to testify that none of what she said is true. Fair enough. Let them come in and testify under oath that she made this all up. If someone else wants to come before the committee and swear under oath that Trump didn’t turn the Oval Office into the cafeteria at Faber College, that’s fine too. Till then I take her at her word.  

And the fact that any of these shenanigans are even remotely plausible, just blows my mind. 

All right let's move on here...

BASKETBALL: Land of Confusion (my favorite Genesis song and also the state of the NBA around these parts)

The second most exciting thing for Tim besides his graduation was that the NBA draft was later that night. He was anxious to see what the Knicks were going to do with the11th pick. I, having sat through the likes of Fredrick Weis over Metta World Peace, and Jarrod Mustaf over Toni Kucoc, couldn't really work up much of a lather over this.

But he was into it so we watched it together. And folks, I'll be able to explain the meaning of life before I  could explain what the Knicks did on draft night. 

They drafted some guy it seemed like nobody wanted then traded him immediately to the team drafting next. (OKC) Then it seemed like they were trading picks they didn't even have. Tim kept asking me what was going on, and for the life of me, I couldn't tell him. 

Turns out the goal was to trade out of the draft all together and also to clear cap space so they could sign former Mavericks PG Jalen Brunson, which they did on Thursday night. The Knicks have been woefully deficient in the PG dept, so hopefully this is the answer to our prayers. It better be, after all the crazy $h-t they did to get him here.  

The Nets didn't have any draft picks because they were the epitome of the win-now team. That seems to have taken a major hit as both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are now seeking to take their talents elsewhere. Now maybe I missed something here, but didn't Kyrie opt in to an extension with the Nets? Why would he do that just to demand a trade?

There are few things sadder in this city than the state of our pro basketball teams and even our college team, St. John's. Not that I really wanted the Nets to win, but it would bave given us all something to take our minds off of everything else. Now it seems like if they really are intent of dealing Durant and Kyrie, they are starting from scratch. Another team in NY as Mike Lupica likes to say, just selling you on a game plan. 

Hope everyone enjoyed their July 4th weekend. Can’t believe 2022 is halfway done. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week