Hey:
While I was working at this, the news about Matthew Perry broke. We'll discuss that in a few minutes.
So after 7 straight of rain, we finally had a beautiful weather day on Saturday. It actually felt like late August or early September, never mind the last weekend in October, three days shy of Halloween. Have to admit it felt good walking around Saturday afternoon.
Sunday was a washout, which affected what passes for football around these parts. We’ll deal with that mess shortly.
We’ll start with another mass shooting Happened Wednesday night, this time in Lewiston, Maine.
MASS SHOOTINING IN MAINE.- A couple weeks ago, when the Farmingdale High School band's bus crashed upstate, killing two faculty members and injuring dozens of students, I spoke of that being one of my worst nightmares. The number one nightmare, of course, is a school shooting, which happens way too often in our country.
It didn't happen this week either.
Instead we had it happen at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, ME. 18 people dead, 13 more wounded. So yeah, now you have to worry about getting shot while bowling a few frames.
And in what should come as no surprise to anyone, the shooter purchased his gun legally, no background checks, no waiting periods. Maine doesn't require either.
Would that have even made a difference? Maybe, maybe not, but to me the overall point is that we had another mass shooting, another 18 lives lost, 13 more very easily could have joined them, and what's going to be done about it?
Nothing.
Oh, they'll be a lot of yelling and screaming and finger pointing, we've had plenty of that already. People will point out that the man was obviously mentally ill, and isn't that the problem after all? He could have done this with a car (which you need a license and insurance to drive) or a knife (seriously?).
It's everything else, anything else, but that this creep had an automatic rifle.
I tried hard not to read too much social media on this because that just causes my stomach to turn, but somehow on my Twitter/X feed I saw that Lauren Bloebert's big problem (well her other big problem. Her main big problem is that she gives hand releases in public theaters) is that people think that the AR in AR-15 stands for Automatic Rifle. (It stands for Armalite, the name of the company that created the rifle.) That's what she's worried about. And as much as I wish I could just dismiss Bloebert as the hand release idiot that she clearly is, the unfortunate truth is that more of her fellow House members think like she does than the opposite. And that kind of thinking is what led us to have finally gotten a Speaker of the House elected this week.
POLITICS- The New Speaker of the House
So real quick- the GOP had earlier in the week put up Tom Emmer of Minnesota for nomination to be Speaker. Seemed like he had a decent chance of winning the gavel. That was until Captain Orange weighed in on social media and said he didn't want Emmer to be Speaker. That essentially killed any chance he had and he withdrew his name from consideration. A quick look at Emmer's record showed that he was anti-abortion, anti same-sex marriage and that he signed an amicus brief supporting Texas vs Pennsylvania, the lawsuit that contested the 2020 election. Emmer did go on to vote to certify the election which made him a non-starter for Trump as Speaker.
So instead it was the guy who led the effort to have the house sign the amicus brief, who also voted to not certify the election who became the "compromise choice."
And I really thought I missed something here. Especially upon winning the vote he seemed gracious and polite. Thanking Hakeem Jeffries and promising to work across the aisle.
Then I read HIS record.
He seems to love Jesus and hate everybody else. Love thy neighbor, unless your neighbor is LBGT, then they can go to hell and take it up with the devil. He might not be the unhinged psycho Jim Jordan is, he may not be the slimeball Matt Gaetz is, he may not be fornicating in public like Bloebert, or threatening to kill fellow congresspeople like Paul Gosar. And her certainly isn't the attention whore that the one representing Georgia's 14th district clearly is.
But he's as radical as they all are. He's just more polished. And that might make him more dangerous.
Maybe having the gavel and the big chair will lead him to be somewhat more reasonable. Maybe having to deal with both sides of the aisle will make him more accepting of folks who are different than he is. Maybe I'll win the Powerball this week and retire. More likely he'll just be another empty suits offering thoughts and prayers to those who were affected by the shooting in Maine, without actually doing anything to fix it.
I hope for the former, I strongly suspect the latter.
UPDATE- Jamaal Bowman pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor offense for pulling the fire alarm at the Capitol. He was placed on probation, fined $1,000 and will write a formal apology to the Capitol police.
I maintain that he deserves to be punished for what he did, and the punishment is appropriate for what he did.
Some Republicans are saying that Bowman should be treated the same as the January 6th rioters, including Nicole Malliotakis who represents Staten Island. Had I been living in the city at the time, I might have voted this pea-brain for mayor when she ran against DeBlasio. If she's not smart enough to see that breaking into the Capitol with the intention of harming members of Congress is different than pulling a fire alarm, she shouldn't be serving anybody.
AIRLINE TERROR- Last Sunday, an off duty pilot on an Alaskan Airlines flight from Everett, Washington to San Francisco attempted to pull levers that would have cut off fuel to the aircraft's engines.
According to ABC News...
Emerson engaged with the pilots in "casual conversation" before allegedly trying "to grab and pull two red fire handles that would have activated the plane's emergency fire suppression system and cut off fuel to its engines," prosecutors said.
He allegedly said, "I'm not OK," and reached up to grab the red fire handles, according to the criminal complaint.
He was scheduled to pilot another Alaskan Airlines plane out of San Francisco. He told prosecutors that he hadn't slept in 40 hours and had consumed "magic mushrooms." He also said he felt like he was dreaming and thought pulling the fire handles would "wake him up".
Yes, that this almost happened is terrifying. The 80 or so people on that flight have every reason to have sleepless nights the next few months. Yes, this guy obviously has mental illness issues. No question about it.
But here's the thing. Everyone lived, including the perp.
If he had an automatic rifle, at least half those people would have been cut down, and the other half would have died after the plane crashed.
Nobody's disputing that there is a mental health crisis in America, the dispute seems to be is there a gun crisis. From where I'm sitting there definitely is.
Back to this off duty pilot for a second... pardon my ignorance and I'm not making light of this, but I didn't know magic mushrooms were still a thing. Honest to goodness I hadn't heard of anyone taking shrooms in years. I think I believe the "no sleep for a day and a half" more than I believe the "took magic mushrooms" explanation. I know a blood and urine test will give the definitive answer on that one, but I'll be curious to hear about those results.
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THIS JUST IN- Except for the Giants/Jets game recap, all of this has been written on Saturday night, as I have just gotten word that Matthew Perry has apparently drowned in a jacuzzi in his Los Angeles home at the age of 54.
This is heartbreaking.
The first time I watched Friends, it had to be either the second of third episode, someone walked in and said "Guess what?" and Chandler said "The fifth dentist caved and now they all chew Trident?"
I was hooked. And it was mainly because of him.
Yeah I thought Rachel was hot (still do) thought Phoebe was funny in her ditzy way, I could take or leave Monica. Joey got progressively more stupid and less funny as the show went on, and Ross was for a guy who was an expert on dinosaurs, pretty dopey at everything else.
But Chandler was the one I could relate to. On a show where three of the six people were either un or underemployed, yet they could afford those huge a$$ apartments in the Village, he was the most real out of all of them.
And every time I saw that Matthew Perry was struggling, with addiction or weight gain/loss I just felt awful for him. He had such talent. Sure someone else was writing those lines, but he had the delivery down pat. Just a terrific talent.
When you are in a series that's as successful and iconic as Friends was, it's always going to be tough to duplicate that. Jennifer Anniston has become a box office star, but the rest have struggled to make it on TV. David Schwimmer did a great job as Robert Kardashian a few years ago, and Courtney Cox had a moderately successful sitcom called Cougar Town.
Perry had a couple of decent movies and was in a reboot of the Odd Couple that while I enjoyed, I could never see him as Oscar Madison, (much the same way I can't look at Jay Hernandez and see Thomas Sullivan Magnum)
Matthew Perry will always be Chandler Muriel Bing to me. And Chandler is right up there with Hawkeye Pierce, George Louis Costanza, Sheldon Cooper and Barney Stinson as the funniest TV Characters I have ever seen.
This is a huge loss this weekend. RIP.
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FOOTBALL: Giants/Jets
At halftime of Sunday’s Jets-Giants debacle at Met Life Stadium, CBS’ Bill Cowher referred to Giants third string QB Tommy DeVito as Danny DeVito the diminutive actor and current sandwich shop pitchman. For the amount of times Giants head coach Brian Daboll allowed Tommy to throw the ball, he may as well had Danny in there under center.
And despite that, the Jets still needed OT and a couple of lucky breaks to win on Sunday.
Having not made the playoffs in a generation, and having played 7 straight losing seasons, there should be no such thing as a “trap” game for Gang Green. A trap game is a game in which you are either looking ahead to a more formidable opponent, or coming off a win against one. The Jets beat the defending NFC champions two weeks ago, so this kind of felt like a trap game, though again you have to actually be decent to be in one of those.
In defense of the Jets, they managed to lose two centers, which further depleted an already thin offensive line, but again the Giants are on their third string QB who they also decided was incapable of throwing a forward pass. He did manage to complete a few backward passes, leaving the Giants with a grand total of negative 9 yards passing. I didn’t even think that was humanly possible. When you have to do algebra to figure out a teams passing stats, it’s a bad day.
I love Saquon Barkley and he nearly carried the Giants to a victory by himself offensively.
And Zach Wilson gave all his critics plenty of material, what with his getting sacked for big losses and other head scratching decision making. But he also made two really nice throws at the end, and had the presence of mind to stop the clock to set up the game tying field goal. He screwed up with that two weeks ago. I take this as a sign of progress.
This is one of those games that hopefully if/when football gets better around here ( and I realize that’s a huge if) we can all look back and have a big old laugh. For now it was an embarrassment.
My team won. Sure didn’t feel like it.
BASEBALL: The World Series
Before we discuss the 2023 World Series, have to quickly discuss the all Texas ALCS and the huge upset in the NLCS.
In Game 7 between the Astros and Rangers, I kept saying to myself, it doesn't matter how many runs the Rangers score here in the top of the first, I'm sure Max Scherzer will give most if not all those runs back in the bottom of the inning. And damned if Jose Altuve didn't hit one of Scherzer's pitches so hard that it damage the scoreboard at Minute Maid Park.
But even Mad Max couldn't blow it for Texas as they blew Houston out to advance to the World Series. 11-4.
As for the NLCS, well, this was one of the biggest upsets in history. Like I said a couple weeks ago I couldn't name 5 Arizona players if you put a gun to my head. I still can't really.
I wasn't the only one not givng the D'Backs any love. Now I have to admit I'll always have a soft spot for Christopher Mad Dog Russo, idiot that he is.
I've told this story before.... back in 1989, right before he teamed up with Mike Francesa, he was doing the afternoon drive amid reports that an agreement had been reached between Pete Rose and baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti. Rose was being investigated for having bet on baseball in general and the Reds in particular. The evidence was becoming more damning by the day.
All that day Russo was saying that he was hearing that Rose would agree to be suspended 5 years.
Right before I headed to work that night, Russo announced the agreement. Rose had accepted a suspenion from baseball, but according to the Dog, it was a one year suspension. ONE STINKIN LOUSY YEAR he screamed into the radio.
All that night at work, when I came home and watched Johnny Carson with my mother and probably a Kojak rerun with my father, I thought Pete Rose was suspended for a year. It wasn't till the next morning that I realized the one year was when he could apply for reinstatement. He was actually banned for life.
Almost 35 years later, he's still banned from the game.
And the Mad Dog is still getting stuff wrong. He said if the D'Backs beat the Phillies in Philly he would retire on the spot. They did and he didn't. Instead he's going to wear clothes with something derogatory on them thanks to Howard Stern.
As for the World Series, I don't like Tommy Pham and some of the $hit he's bee n talking about the Mets, but I also don't want to see deGrom and Scherzer win a World Series so I'm pulling for the no-name D'Backs to pull off the ultimate upset.
I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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