Hello Everyone!
So we are back for our 8th year since our 2015 re-launch. When I started doing this again, I just took it one week at a time, not even imagining that I'd still writing this all these years later. Originally, I started e-mailing this from my AOL e-mail in 1996, and pretty much went till Timmy was born. A couple of attempts to start it up again went nowhere, but on September 12, 2015 I posted one to Facebook and we went from there. And now, here we are.
I hope you are all well and that you are still enjoying this.
***********************************************************************************
I mentioned in my last blogpost before our hiatus that Tim would be starting high school. The first day of school was August 31 here in Oceanside, which I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, I believe to be utter bullspit. It's one thing if you are starting college and you get all that time off between semesters, but to be starting grammar or high school before Labor Day here in NY is just wrong. I know in other parts of the country they go back in early August, but they are also out by Memorial Day.
And as I've also mentioned before, Tim doesn't mind going back to school before Labor Day. Actually, he had tryouts for his cross-country team on his birthday August 30, which was the day before school started. He didn't mind that either. This is just his old man kvetching.
And to be honest, the Sunday before Labor Day, I was in 7-11 and I witnessed a kid paying two dollars for something that cost $1.77 and asking the cashier why he was only getting back 23 cents. He thought he should be getting back a buck twenty three. The cashier said if he gave him back that amount he'd be losing a whole dollar. I honestly don't think the kid was trying to pull a fast one either. "I don't say this often, Lord knows I don't think I've ever said it, " I told the cashier, "but these kids need to get back to math class". He laughed and agreed with me.
Sigh.
Anyway
SINCE WE'VE BEEN GONE
We've have a couple of major obituaries. One is getting all the hype you would expect it to, the other didn't get nearly the coverage I thought it should.
Mikhail Gorbachev- When Ronald Reagan died in 2004, and George HW Bush died in 2018, they were both given credit for leading America out of the Cold War. And rightly so, especially in Reagan's case.
But none of it happens if there wasn't someone on the other side willing to listen, willing to embrace change, someone who believed in personal freedoms and human dignity. Someone who was willing to fly in the face of convention and take a huge risk. That someone was Mikhail Gorbachev.
When he came to power in 1985, the Soviet economy was a mess, about the only thing they seemed capable of producing was nuclear weapons. Gorbachev encouraged his people to speak more freely, to think more freely in the hopes that these thoughts and ideas would lead to more productivity.
He also knew that you could catch more flies with honey than vinegar, so he promoted and encouraged discussions with the west, specifically the United States. Together, with Reagan and later Bush 41, they were able to make several pacts that drew down each of their nuclear arsenals.
Unfortunately, the reforms he proposed didn't bear the immediate results he wanted for the Russian people and in the summer of 1991 a coup was attempted by Communist hardliners. Though the coup failed, Gorbachev's time as leader was over. Sadly, much of what he was able to accomplish had been laid to waste by Vladimir Putin, not the least of which is the normalization of relations between America and Russia.
Maybe that's why there wasn't as much made of his passing as one may have thought. Maybe it was one of those things you had to be there for. To see the Berlin Wall fall, to see Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia break free, to see how things had changed, just from the late 70's to the early 90's. Maybe it's that the hopes and expectations many of us had back then have gone away, and thinking about what could have been is too much.
All I know is there have been few people in my lifetime who was able to effect a positive a change then Mikhail Gorbachev. he wasn't perfect and not every decision was wise, but his heart and his soul at least from where I was sitting, always seemed to be in the right place.
Queen Elizabeth II- Now, you can't turn on any newscast since the Queen died last week and not see wall to wall coverage. All the major networks descended upon London and will be there at least until the Queen is laid to rest on Monday after her funeral at Westminster Abbey.
And hey, I get it. Let's face it, most of us weren't around the last time this happened and those of us who were had to be very young. Elizabeth II had this gig for almost 70 years. There aren't many jobs that you can even come close to approaching that kind of longevity. Pope maybe? Nope, most priests are ordained around 25 or 26, then you have to get promoted to bishop, cardinal and then Pope. Most Pope's are in their 60's and 70's when they get elected. John Paul II was 58 and he lasted 26 years.
Here in America, Supreme Court justice is a lifetime appointment. Also head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a pretty steady gig. But even the Steelers have had 8* head coaches since Her Majesty ascended to the throne upon the death of her father in 1952. By contrast, America has had 14** Presidents in that time.
Getting back to the point that most have us have never seen the crown be passed on, who the hell knows when or if we will ever see this again? King Charles III (man that's gonna take some getting used to) is 73. If he lives as long as his dear departed mum or even more insane, his crazy old man, he will have either 23 years as king or 26....remember Prince Phillip made it all the way to 99! Those British royals have some good genes, I think it also helps that they don't have much in the way of official responsibilities. (On a side note-I'm still waiting to hear back from Buckingham Palace on my application for either Prince Andrew's old gig or Prince Harry's. I know everyone's a bit busy over there this week, but maybe once King Charles III settles in he could give it a once-over)
The funeral is Monday morning and yes, I'm going to try to get up early and watch some of it. Like I said, it could be a while before we get a chance to see this again.
BASEBALL: Down the Stretch We Come!
We've got two weeks left in the regular season, and while both NY teams are shoe-in's for the playoffs, they have made things more interesting than perhaps we thought they would be.
The Yankees, through the first 3 months of the season, were drawing comparisons to the great Yankee teams of yore, specifically the 1998 version who won 114 regular season games and pretty much waltzed to World Series win number 24.
But they were 13-13 in July and 10-18 in August, and panic set in up in the Bronx. They seem to have straightened out, having taken 2 out of 3 last weekend against the Rays and sweeping a two game series at Fenway vs the Sawx.
Aaron Judge is 3 HR's away from breaking the Yankee (and as far as I'm concerned the all time) record for home runs in a season. That will be fun to watch.
As for my Mets, well they took two out of three from the MLB best Dodgers in early September, then lost two out of three to the lowly Nats and were swept by the almost as bad Cubs. Meanwhile the Braves absolutely refuse to lose. Even after sweeping the Pirates at home this weekend, the Mets weren’t able to put any more distance from the Braves, who swept the Phillies.
The Mets and Braves play one more series a week from Monday. That will most likely decide who wins the division and who plays in the wild card series.
FOOTBALL: Miracle in Cleveland
I was celebrating my nephew’s second birthday on Sunday during the Jets Browns game. The house where the party was mostly had Giants fans, so I was watching the Giants play the Panthers. I flipped it over to the Jets game just before we left, and the Browns had scored to take what looked like was going to be a 2 touchdown lead. It was coming up on the two minute warning, and I figured that was that.
Of course when I got home, Timmy informed me that somehow the Jets had squeezed out a one point victory. A quick touchdown, a successfully recovered onside kick, and another quick touchdown. Unreal! I really thought Timmy was pulling my leg when he told me that the Jets had won.
Could this be the beginning of something special here? Or at least something different? True, this was against the Deshaun Watson-less Browns, but hey you gotta start somewhere.
BTW-and H/T to my friend Colin McGarvey for this….Sunday was the first time since 9/27/2009 that the Mets, Jets, Yankees and Giants all won on the same day.
**************************************************
One more quick obit here…. My friends the Dietrich’s lost their mom Pat over Labor Day weekend. No matter what I wrote on this blog, she always took time to tell me how much she enjoyed reading it. I can’t tell you how much that meant for me to hear. RIP.
It’s good to be back.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*The Steelers have had 3 head coaches since 1969. The Giants by contrast have had 5 head coaches since 2016. The Jets? 4 since 2010.
**King George VI died on February 6, 1952, Elizabeth immediately became Queen, but her coronation was June 2, 1953.
No comments:
Post a Comment