Weekly Mail February 5, 2023

 

Hey Everyone:

So today marks the 6 month countdown to 50 years of Wild Bill. I feel like I just turned 49 last week, hell I feel like I just turned 21 last month. Actually, the way I ache after working out, I know that 21 was a loong time ago. 

We are also out of the dog days of January thank goodness. I really do consider January to be the roughest month. After New Year's Day there's not much going on besides the NFL Playoffs. It's cold, it's dark and we're all getting back to normal after the holidays. 

February, at least we have Valentine's Day and President's Day and the kids get a week off from school. Also pitchers and catchers report. 

This weekend was frrrrreeeezzzing here in NY. It was also the first time I got to take the LIRR into the new station in Grand Central Terminal.

TRAVEL: Grand Central Madison

I was off from the Post last week, so Saturday was the first time I got to venture into Grand Central Madison, the $11 billon long overdue project that allows LIRR riders the option of going to Grand Central. 

Living in Woodside and working in Midtown back in the day, I got to walk through Grand Central Terminal every day. I wouldn't call it a treat, but I had to admit it was a hell of a lot nicer than dumpy Penn Station, where the Long Islanders had to go to get their train from the city to points east. 

I never envied my Nassau/Suffolk friends having to spend any quality time in Penn Station. As a kid going to Ranger games with my father, I thought Penn was kinda cool, but waiting there to get my train on Saturday nights after work was a drag. I missed the walks through the huge waiting room in Grand Central Terminal. My friends from Westchester/Connecticut still got to wait in GCT. 

So I was excited to try out this new way in, if for nothing us to mix up the monotony of the trip. The problem was, as I mentioned above, it was freezing out, and there was a 23 minute wait at Jamaica for the train to GCT. 

I thought maybe I had a solution to that issue.... At Jamaica, I went upstairs to the waiting room for the Jamaica-JFK Airtrain, and at first I have to admit I was kind of stoked. I had no idea that they had a deli, a Tim Horton's Donuts, and a bar. Pre-gaming in Jamaica perhaps. 

Well, I believe that the original purpose of the bar was for folks who were flying to have a quick beer or vino before they go to the airport, where they can have another beer or vino before they get on their flight. Problem was the clientele at this bar didn't look like they were heading anywhere out of Jamaica, much less out of New York or the US. They looked like regulars, and the bartender was talking to them like she hung out with them all the time. Hey look, I'm spoiled, my home bars are some of the best in the world. Like they used to say on Cheers, "Sometimes you gotta go where everybody knows your name". Like I said, I don't think that was the idea behind this place. But what do I know?

I got a cookie and a bottle of water at Tim Horton's and decided to head back out into the cold. Luckily, by the time I had scoped out the AirTrain terminal, and got my Scooby snack, I had cut more than half of the 23 minute wait for the shuttle. Plus the train was there, so I could go get a seat and wait. 

We headed out as advertised and stopped at Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Woodside. My usual train to Penn skips my hometown and goes from Forest Hills right into Penn, so that was annoying too,. 

But once we got into the tunnel to go under the East River, you could tell the difference. While the tunnel to Penn is dark, the one to Grand Central was well lit, And when we pulled into the station, it was all bright and clean.

"Some difference right? a fellow passenger said to me, obviously noticing my facial expression. It really was, and when I stepped off the train, it didn't smell like a sewer either. THAT was weird too. 

Arriving at Grand Central Madison

So then I took the elevator up to the mezzanine to try to figure out how to get the hell out of there. 

My former Post colleague Bill Sanderson had written an article for that other NY tabloid about the new station and he said that the escalator was amongst the tallest. Apparently, the trains are 17 floors down, and the escalator ride is 1 minute and 40 seconds. 

Stairway to Heaven? 

The woman on the other side coming down was actually an MTA employee and she said she could tell who was on this escalator for the first time because everyone on their maiden voyage was taking pictures/videos on their phones. You had time to shoot the $hit with folks on the escalators because it was such a long trip. I'm not complaining, but if you're running late for work during the week, that could be an issue. 

But it was Saturday and I had the place almost to myself. Until I saw this creepy thing when I got to the top of the escalator...

I supposed it was designed to give you the feeling that you are walking on the red carpet and getting gawked at. To me it was just weird, especially since as I said, I was really the only one there. 

I followed the signs to 48th Street, which I thought was cool since the Post is between 47th and 48th. I found another elevator that would take me to the street. It really is amazing how deep that train station is.

The elevator let me out on 48th between Park and Madison. So now I just had to walk three blocks west. A big difference from walking from 33 Street. 

It was really cool to see a train station that was brand new and didn't smell like a combination of urine, poop, pepperoni pizza and BBQ sauce. How long that will last is anyone's guess, but for now it is a treat. NYC and NYS gets a lot of well deserved criticism, they deserve credit for seeing this through. 

SPYING: The Chinese Spy Balloon

This is what we've waited for

This is it boys. This is war

The President is on the line.

As 99 Red Balloons go by. 

-Nena 99 Red Balloons.

A balloon widely suspected to be a Chinese spy mechanism entered US airspace earlier this week. On Saturday, on orders of President Biden, it was shot down over the Atlantic near Myrtle Beach, SC. 

When it was first reported on Thursday that the balloon had been spotted, the usual gang of idiots in Congress started blaming the President and insisting that Captain Orange would have never let such a thing happen on his watch. 

Of course he wouldn't, they don't need to send balloons to get information from  P-45, they can just let him build a golf course or a skyscraper in Beijing and they can get all the dirt they want. 

Biden had our military track the balloon, then shot it down in an area where there would be no damage to life or property. And also in a way that we could gather the most intelligence off of it. 

The best part of this whole situation was that we were able to watch it in real time on Saturday afternoon, with absolutely nothing else on.* Here in NY, where nobody wanted to venture outside and freeze their buns off, they could cozy up with a cup of their favorite beverage and catch all the action. 

FOOTBALL: Is this really the end for Tom Brady?

Last year when he announced he was retiring from the Buccaneers, I called it almost straight away that Tom Brady wasn't done. Now, I'll admit I was a bit surprised he reversed his decision so quickly, I thought maybe he'd sit out a year, or maybe closer to training camp, but either way I wasn't shocked or even mildly surprised he ended his retirement. 

This time though, I think he means it. This time, if he reverses his decision again, I will be shocked. 

I'm still convinced he could play till he's 50 and still compete at a high, if not elite level.  This was an off year for him, and he still got the Bucs into the playoffs. Much as I can't stand him, I have to give him his due. To play like that at 45 is beyond amazing. 

He has tortured me for 22 years now. But I'm glad he won a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick. The other way around would have been too much to bear. So there's that. 

As for last week's Conference Championship games, all I can say is that I hope that next week's Super Bowl isn't a repeat of those two stinkers. 

The Eagles-Niners game was non-competitive and unless you lived in Philadelphia, non-entertaining. Mainly due to the Niners wunderkind QB not being able to throw after getting his arm hurt. 

And the Chiefs-Bengals game, while a close down to the wire affair, was ruined by a combination of sloppy officiating, bad luck and head scratching plays. 

The late hit on Patrick Mahomes was clear, nobody can dispute that, and while I do have sympathy for Joseph Ossai who was clearly distraught after the game, that was really unacceptable. 

The whole mess with not stopping the clock after the incomplete pass which ended up giving KC an extra down, again, how does that happen in a game as big as this? That's not on the refs, it's on the stadium officials, but again un acceptable. 

The pass interference call on Mike Hilton seems to be the one that has convinced Bengals fans that the NFL was in the tank for the Chiefs. And while it's easy for me to sit here and suggest those fans get themselves fitted for tin-foil hats, I've been guilty of those kinds of theories myself. I'm still convinced for example, that Gary Bettman saw to it that Sidney Crosby ended up in Pittsburgh because he knew the league owed Mario Lemieux a ton of $$$, so they essentially gave him the franchise and a franchise player to go along with it. There are those who will swear up and down that David Stern did the same thing in 1985 with the Knick and Patrick Ewing, and I'm not sure if I don't believe it or I don't want to believe it. 

But I have a hard time thinking that the refs were advised to see to it that the Chiefs got to the Super Bowl, mainly because I think Joe Burrow looking for redemption after last year's game is every bit as compelling as Mahomes going for another win. 

In any event, like I said here’s hoping next week’s Super Bowl is less controversial and more competitive.

Weekly Mail next week at halftime 

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As we were going to press tonight, Kylie Irving was traded to the Mavericks as per his request from earlier in the week. I’m not sure this makes the Nets a better team on the court, but off of it, it is what is commonly known as addition by subtraction. 

Stay Warm

Stay Safe 

and Have a Great Week

*The NHL All Star Game was going on, and as much as I love hockey, even I would have tuned into the balloon 🎈 coverage over that.