Ho Ho Ho
So I'm sorry we didn't publish last week, as we celebrated my best buddy Karl (the Ace) Ludwig's 50th birthday. We celebrated much like we celebrated my own 50th soiree back in August. That's to say like we celebrated like we had just turned 21. I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I was quite useless last Sunday.
For old times sake Karl's wife Trish organized brunch for us at a restaurant in the West Village called Jane. I thought I was being smart and responsible by having water with my grilled cheese and tomato soup. On the menu, many of the dishes included "local greens." Being we were in downtown Manhattan, Ed (Auggie) DePuy wondered aloud where exactly these local greens were being grown. Ace surmised they were grown on the divider separating East and West Houston Street.
From Jane, we headed to Off the Wagon on McDougal Street, where for the first time in about 20 years or so, the guy at the door asked to see our ID's. If that wasn't ridiculous enough, because my driver's license has a rip in it, the bouncer took a second look at mine because he wanted to "Make sure it wasn't fake" Either he thought I had dyed my hair gray and had a second chin surgically attached to my face, or maybe he thought I had been put on a bus by Ron Desantis. In any event, we got that clarified, and we went in for cans of Miller High Life (The Champaign of beers)
Off the Wagon was just half time of what was going to be the main event, an open bar for 5 hours at the legendary Peculiar Pub. (Razor) Ray McGarvey is a Cooper Union alumni and Mary McGarvey Depuy is a graduate of NYU, so we spent many a night in that neck of the woods back in the 90's. Peculiar Pub was a favorite of ours, as was Phoebe's in the Bowery. (That was the home of the $4.50 pitcher of draught- and the greasiest most delicious hamburgers) Most of Ace's family made it to Peculiar Pub so it was great to catch up with them.
But also, the beers were going down smooth. And by the time Tara and I decided to head back out to LI, I was waving the white flag.
I've come to a couple of conclusions.. 1) The bouncer at Off the Wagon's suspicions notwithstanding, I am officially too old to be hanging out in the Village. I mean don't get me wrong, there were a few folks at Off the Wagon that looked old enough to be our parents, but the overwhelming majority of the people hanging out there and in all the other places down there were young enough to be our kids. I head into midtown almost every Saturday, and as difficult as it is to dodge the tourists (especially at this time of the year) I kind of have that down to a science. I can either get around those folks, or in rare cases, they get to see my impression of Jerome Bettis.
But the narrow streets of the Village combined with the younger faster moving crowd made me feel like I was a lot older than 50.
2) They say that when you turn 30, it takes longer to bounce back after a night out. Same thing at 40. I have to be honest, as true as that may have been, bouncing back since I've turned 50 has been a real chore. I don't want you to read this and think I'm like Dean Martin tying one on every weekend. Most weekends I'm like Will Farrell's character in Old School, out shopping for the week with Tara, before heading into the city in the afternoon to the Post. (Where these masterpieces mostly originate from) I'm just saying on the rare weekend where I do have a couple or 6, the bounce back is getting a bit more difficult.
All that being said, I wouldn't have traded celebrating with Ace and the rest of the crew for anything. Him and I as well as Razor Ray, have been causing trouble since we were in kindergarten. He is one of the best people there is and he deserved the shindig he had last week.
Now speaking of all day drinking sessions in the city, one of the reasons Trish decided to have the celebration last week (the big guy's birthday is later on this month) was to avoid this weekend's annual Santa-Con, which once again was held on an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in NYC. Last year, I think it was pretty chilly for Santa-Con (I wasn't in the city though, I was up in da Bronx for Patti-Ann's birthday) but two year's ago I stayed in the city the night of Santa Con and the temps were in the 50's. The combination of warm weather, booze, and those heavy Santa jackets can make for some ugliness on the subways, Metro-North and my LIRR. On my way into the city on Saturday afternoon, I met a couple at the RVC train station who work for CHS (the people who run Mercy where I work during the week) and they asked if I was doing Santa-Con. (They must have thought my costume was in my backpack.) I'm flattered someone thinks I'm young enough to pull off Santa-Con.
And yes, if they had Santa-Con 20-25 years ago, as Ace likes to point out, I would have been the first one into Manhattan off the 7 train in my Santa hat and coat. Back then, I was young, single and in better shape. Now I am none of those things and all I want on Saturday night is my own gawd damn seat on the train.
Mick Jagger said it best. What a drag it is getting old.
Before we continue, here are some programming notes..... Next week I'd like to do our Fall Finale and then the following week do our 7th annual Christmas Eve special. The Fall Finale might be delayed as I won't be at the Post next week, so I'm going have to find some time to crank it out at home on Saturday and or Sunday afternoon. I'm also trying to come up with something fun for our Christmas Eve special. We'll update our music list of course, but I don't have anything else lined up yet. Last year we had our birthday/dying quiz which was fun. If anybody has any suggestions, feel free to share.
And with that we get to the news of the last couple weeks.
POLITICS- George Santos kicked out of Congress.
When someone is duly elected to an office, I think that removing them is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.
Back in 2003, the people of California held a recall election of then governor Gray Davis. Observing this from my soapbox in the Big Apple, I focused more on the fact that amongst those lining up to fill the seat in Sacra-tomato (as Steve Sommers used to call it), were Arnold Jackson himself Gary Coleman, porn star Mary Carey and the eventual "winner" of the gig, body-builder turned Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But I had it pointed out to me that Governor Davis had just been re-elected the previous November. What could he have done in the 11 months between his re-election and his October 2003 recall.
It was a fair question. But at least in Gray Davis case, the people of California had the chance to vote to keep him if they wanted him.
In the case of George Santos, he was expelled from Congress by a vote of the full House of Representatives. The 311-114 vote to expel met the 2/3 needed vote with room to spare. (2 members voted present and 8 didn't vote)
The reasons that those who voted to keep Santos in Congress stated were that he hadn't been convicted of a crime and also that again, he was duly elected and to go against the will of the people is a dangerous precedent. And while I respect both of those positions, it's really hard to look at both what has been proven and what he stands accused of and say "We should keep this guy around."
From an education and work experience standpoint, he is woefully unqualified to be anywhere near a seat in Congress. Dingbat that she is, at least Lauren (Hands) Boebert didn't tell anyone she had a high school diploma, much less went to college. Santos would tell folks he had more degrees than a thermometer. He also pretty much lied about his ancestry (and I'm sure some of the same folks who called Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" had no issue with this) and how much he was worth.
And that's before we even get to all the illegal things it looks like he did with the campaign money he raised and the money he allegedly stole from his donors. Really, I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, if you think this is all one big misunderstanding, you are either a complete dope or a liar. Or both.
He had to go.
And I'm hearing New Jersey senator Bob Menendez name being bandied about for expulsion from the Senate, as he has been charged with bribery by the DOJ. Trouble has always seemed to follow Menendez around and I don't think I have ever endorsed him or suggested to my friends in the Garden State that they should vote for him. Yeah, I'd hate to see that seat fall into the hands of the GOP, but I've never trusted Menendez, and if he is taking bribes, then by all means get him out.
That will play out on its own. For now, the important thing is Santos is gone. On his way out he said "To hell with place."
Yeah George, and to hell with you as well.
Since I last wrote several famous people have died. I don't want to turn this into an obituary dominated post, so I'll just mention some and go in depth on others.
Sandra Day O'Connor- The first female Justice of the Supreme Court was an obvious trailblazer, but she was also one of the Court's last true moderates. At a time where you don't have to be Carnac the Magnificent to know how a SCJ is going to rule on a particular case, it helps to remember how special someone like Justice O'Connor was.
Henry Kissinger- Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under President's Nixon and Ford. Discussing the good, bad and ugly of this controversial figure is a rabbit hole I just would rather not go down. So I won't.
Shane McGowan- We'll probably talk about him more on our Christmas Eve Special, but if you get a chance, Google up the video of his funeral in Ireland. His casket was carried by a horse drawn carriage through the streets, and then his funeral at Holy Mary of the Rosary in Nenagh, county Tipperary, Ireland, they sang Fairytale of New York, complete with all the shall we call them "inappropriate" lyrics. Merry Christmas yer ass, I pray it's our last" I'm fairly certain has never been sung in a church before. I'm not judging here, he was clearly loved over there and got a tremendous sendoff, but I'm just saying, I don't know too many priests around these parts who'd let you sing about "an old slut on junk."
Denny Laine- I had probably heard the song Go Now before then, but I'll never forget the first time I heard the DJ on WCBS-FM say that it was a Moody Blues song. I turned to my dad and asked, "Really?" My father, who led a campaign to get the Moodies into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that would make James Carville proud, told me that they had another lead singer before Justin Heyward. Heyward sang the songs I associated with the Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon, and more recently (circa 1986-88) Your Wildest Dreams and I Know You're Out There Somewhere.
No, Go Now was sung by one Brian Fredrick Hines, who went by the stage name Denny Laine.
Go Now was a minor hit here in America, but a huge one in England. Laine left the Moodies at the end of 1966, and played in a couple of bands as well as releasing a few solo hits that failed to chart.
After the Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney released a couple of solo albums, McCartney (interestingly enough) and Ram (which was actually Paul and Linda McCartney). By the middle of 1971, Paul decided he wanted to start another band. He kept Denny Seiwell who had worked on Ram, and reached out to Laine, who had been friends with Paul since the Moody Blues days.
Other musicians would come and go from Wings, but Denny Laine stayed with Paul and Linda throughout Wings 10 years run. At times it was just the three of them. All told Wings topped the Billboard Hot 100 6 times before they split in 1981. Paul's arrest and 9 days in jail in Japan in early 1980, and then his reluctance to tour after John Lennon was murdered, led Laine to leave and the band to dissolve.
I've read a few books about Paul McCartney, the best being Phillip Norman's book, but one I read about 20 years ago, while it contained a shitload of factual errors, was relevant this week because much of the details about Wings came from the author's friendship with Denny and his first wife JoJo Laine. While Paul didn't credit Denny for many of Wings hits, most of the songwriting credits go to Paul and Linda, but one song Denny got songwriting credit for was Mull of Kintyre, a song that didn't do much here in the States, but was the one of the biggest selling singles in United Kingdom chart history.
Paul once said that Wings was "me and Linda and whoever else we want to work with." As great as Paul was (and is) it's not fair to dismiss Denny Laine's contributions. I was sorry to hear he had passed last week, and I'm glad he was remembered as fondly as he was.
Norman Lear- There really isn't too much I can add that hasn't been already said about this TV pioneer. The resume speaks for itself, groundbreaking series after groundbreaking series, pushing boundaries, making people think while making them laugh. If ever the term "water cooler talk" applied to anything, Normal Lear's 1970's TV shows were at the top.
In a 2012 interview with the NY Times, Lear explained his philosophy...
“You looked around television in those years,” Mr. Lear referring to the middle and late 1960s, “and the biggest problem any family faced was ‘Mother dented the car, and how do you keep Dad from finding out’; ‘the boss is coming to dinner, and the roast’s ruined.’ The message that was sending out was that we didn’t have any problems.”
His shows dealt with many of the issues that all families had to face, and they might not have been everybody's cup of tea. I'm sure there were protests and boycotts and the whole 9 yards. And yet even the ones who protested the loudest seemed to give the man his due.
He lived to be 101. And was still giving interviews and making appearances even after he reaching the century mark. Just a remarkable man.
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BASEBALL- Mega Contract
On Saturday, Shohei Ohtani signed a 10 year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the risk of sounding like Mike Francesa, his signing with the Dodgers wasn't a huge shock, I think most of us who follow baseball figured he'd either go to the Dodgers or stay with the Angels, as he didn't seem show any real desire to leave Southern California. I would have been shocked if he had headed to Toronto as had been rumored.
No, the shocker to me was the amount of money, and to be honest, I really didn't think any number would surprise me either. With his ability to both pitch and hit at such high standard, he is like nothing any of us have seen before. You have to go back to the early 20th century to find someone who could do this. He is an absolute freak of nature.
If anyone was going to earn that kind of coin, it would be Ohtani.
It just looks from here like the Dodgers were kind of bidding against themselves. The Angels were never going to pony up that much money, the Yankees and Mets, possibly the only other two teams who could match the Dodgers weren't factors because Ohtani never expressed any interest in playing in NY. And you know what, I give him credit for his honesty. Is it possible the Blue Jays have that kind of capital? Maybe, but I really can't see it. Nor could I see him wanting to leave the palm trees and sunshine of LA for the snow and ice of Canada.
Now it's a good thing I held off on publishing this, because on Monday evening it came to light that the actual contract calls for Ohtani to get paid $2 million a year for the next 10 years, and $68 million from 2034 till 2043. I wonder if they'll be woofing on the Dodgers for paying a guy $68 million for not playing the way the Mets get their balls broken for the whole Bobby Bonilla deal?
(That's of course assuming he is indeed not playing. After all, this is a guy who has the potential to win 20 games and hit 50 home runs. Who the hell am I to say he can't play till he's 48? Twenty years from now, $68 million might be a drop in the bucket.)
It's just crazy. I'm old enough to remember when Frank Cashen, the GM of the Mets back in the 80's said he didn't think there was such thing as a $5 million ball player.
Sorry for the delay. I will hopefully have the Fall Finale out on Sunday night, but it could be sometime Monday.
In any event. Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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