Weekly Mail September 15, 2024 (Season Premiere)

 

Hi Everyone:

This marks our 10th year since we re-launched Weekly Mail.

I started this as an e-mail sent out every Sunday night to a select few people, that expanded whenever another friend of mine joined the information superhighway. In 2000, I just started sending one e-mail to a large group of people. The e-mail was half a wrap-up of weekend activity followed by commentary on news, sports and entertainment. 

After Timmy was born, I kind of got away from it, but after a health scare in 2015, I decided to bring it back, this time in blog form and post it on Facebook. (And also on Substack if I think of it) So I started 9 years ago, but this is the 10th edition. I hope you enjoy it, even if you don't agree with some of the things I write. 

Speaking of disagreeing with things I write, we'll start off with the Presidential Debate from this past Tuesday night. 

POLITICS: Trump vs. Harris Debate:

So admittedly, the other night when the debate was over, my emotions got the best of me. After what had happened in June, it was good to see Kamala Harris be able to spar with Trump, to give as good as she got, and to call out his constant lies. I went on Facebook and said that the Vice President "wiped the floor with him tonight." Again, it was an emotional response to a serious part of the election process. And now that I've had a few days to reflect, and to rationally access and evaluate both of the candidate's performances, I can give you a more nuanced assessment of the debate..

She wiped the floor with him.

There's no getting around it, Captain Orange had his ass handed to him. 

Just like back in June, he stood up there for 90 minutes and lied like a rug, the granddaddy of them all being the one about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH eating people's pets. Even I, who have been watching this act now for more years than I care to admit, couldn't believe he went there. That was a rewind the DVR moment.

Our when he claimed that they were emptying the prisons in Venezuela and sending the prisoners here. Once again, I think he's watching Al Pacino's Scarface before these debates. 

But mostly, when he attacked her personally, or attacked President Biden personally with his name calling, she laughed him off and hit him back, reminding everyone that he got most of his money from his old man, and pointing out that he is a convicted felon. 

Now do I think anybody who has already decided to vote for Trump is going to turn around and vote for Harris off of this debate? Of course not. Already a few of them were complaining that ABC was biased against Trump, some (though to be fair-none of the Trump supporter friends of mine who commented on my feed suggested this)  said that Harris got the questions in advance or was wearing earrings that were actually comms with people giving her the answers. Like this was the SAT's or the bar exam.

No, say what you want about Kamala Harris, but she won this debate because she prepared for it like a prosecutor would. I mean FFS, I could have told you what the f-cking questions were going to be, as could anybody who has watched a Presidential Debate once in their lives. It's not rocket science. Had Orange prepped with his advisors, he’d might of faired better. But since there's nobody smarter or tougher than he is, he figured he'd just go out there and do what he does best, lie and call people names.

Maybe it worked in June, didn't work last Tuesday.

She wiped the floor with him. 

BASEBALL: Down the stretch they come..

The Mets suffered a pair of heartbreaking losses this weekend. In the first one, they blew a 4-0 lead to the Phillies on Saturday afternoon and losing 6-4,  and on Sunday they lost on a walk off single by JT Realmuto which had a 1987 Terry Pendelton home run feel to it. (Look it up if you are too young to remember.) So I'm a tad pissed off at them right now.

But shoot, what a ride they have given us this year.

The organization did everything but come out and say that this was going to be a rebuilding year. I was at a wedding back in May, actually the day the Knicks got bounced from the playoffs by the Pacers, and the father of the bride and I were talking. When I told him the Knicks had lost that day, he said "You better hope the Rangers win the Cup, otherwise it's going to be a long summer with the Mets. (he's a Yankee fan). 

And at the time, I knew he was right. 

But at the same time the Rangers were mailing it in against the Panthers (and yeah I'm still pissed off about that) the Mets began to turn their season around. After an awful May, they had an awesome June and July. They muddled their way through August, and then since we've been on hiatus, have been playing great ball. I didn't think in the beginning of the season or certainly not when they were 11 games under.500 that they would be in position to make the playoffs. 

The Yankees are going to make the playoffs, the only mystery is whether or not they will win the division or be one of the Wild Cards. It's a two-horse race between them and the Orioles. Neither one have been other to put the other away. Aaron Judge is having another unworldly season, it was looking like he might waltz to a new American League home run record, but he went 16 games without a homer, which is nothing to be ashamed of if you are a mere mortal. But for the Judge, its unheard of. 

Two weeks left in the season. Going to be fun. (I hope)

FOOTBALL: High Anxiety

Opening Day in any sports should be a day or night of celebration. Even in football, where there are only 17 games, a loss won't ruin your season. 

An injury is a different story.

And so that's why I watched Monday Night's Jets-Niners contest with the high anxiety that normally comes with a playoff elimination game. My mind continuously flashing back to one-year previous, same situation, the Jets opening up on Monday Night Football, and four plays in watching our new old quarterback Aaron Rodgers going down for the season with a torn achillies. 

I sat that, just like every other Jet fan who has been through all these years of misery and prayed that he'd make it till the 5th play, then till the end of the first quarter, then to the half. My goodness, might be make it to the end?

Well, he wasn't playing at the end, since the game was out of reach, but as annoyed as I was at the Jet defense, who apparently thought it was still pre-season, I just thanked the heavens and stars above that Rodgers got through it without getting hurt. As I said, hard to say how he played since every time I looked the 49ers had the ball. 

On Sunday the Jets were able to even up their record by hanging on to beat the Titans in Nashville 24-17. Rodgers looked more like the vintage Rodgers of his Green Bay days, but the defense still allowed an alarming number of big run plays, especially at the end there to QB Will Levis. I know beggars can’t be choosers, and believe me I’m grateful, but that was a lot more exciting than it needed to be.  

Hope you all had a good summer. Hope you are all back in the swing of things.

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

Weekly Mail September 11 Special 2024

 

September 11, 2024

23 years on, this is what comes to mind as we look back on that horrible day....

Resiliency.

I think that this is a word that all of us who live and work in New York can share, no matter your race, religion, or political affiliation. 

As we approach the quarter mark of the 21st Century, we here in NY have lived through so much. The 2020 pandemic, which affected the whole world of course, but hit NY in the beginning very hard. Before that, there was Super Storm Sandy, which put many of us out of our homes, at least for a short while. (Many others were out a lot longer). 

Of course, 9/11 was the first of these disasters. And while the pandemic killed more people, the terrorist attack in many ways hit harder. To be honest, by the time the pandemic hit, I can honestly say my attitude was "What's next?" 

But on September 10th, 2001, I was blissfully unaware that anything like what happened the next day was possible. It seems hard to believe that I could be so naive. 

They had tried to blow up the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. 6 people died and there was tons of damage, but the buildings still stood. We promised we'd be more alert. But the reality was, at least from where I stood, that was their best punch. 

We found out 8 years later that it wasn't.

And now because of what happened 23 years ago today, and everything else that has happened since, we have been forced to be resilient. We keep having to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and press forward. 

For those that lost someone on 9/11, and we lost almost 3,000 people in a matter of minutes, the struggle to pick up and move forward has been rough, on some days, especially around this time of year, it may have seemed impossible. But so many have done just that. 

This morning, they will read the names of everyone who perished that day. Many of the names will be read by kids who either weren't yet born or were very young when their relative was murdered. Whether it be a niece or nephew who was born after 9/11 and has only heard stories about thier aunt or uncle who they never got to meet, or even more heartbreaking a child who either has no memories or very faint ones of a parent they lost, there was someone left behind who had to raise these kids having lost someone close to them. As President Biden once said during the pandemic, empty chairs at the dinner table. 

For all those who have been able to do that, I hope they can find some comfort in the fact that despite so many times in these past 23 years where they wondered how they were going to do it, they did it. They pushed forward. They carried on. Amazing strength. 

Pure resiliency. 

God Bless those we lost that day, and those that were left behind.

God Bless all those who have died of sicknesses they developed while digging through the rubble.

May God continue to give strength and hope to all of us. 

And May God Bless America