Weekly Mail March 30,2025

 

Hey There:

As I was running my Saturday morning errands, I could feel it getting warmer and warmer. By 12 noon it had gone from sweater weather to t-shirt and shorts weather. I was watching a softball game at Oceanside HS while waiting for Tim to finish up track practice and it felt like the middle of June. Of course it was so warm as I made my way into the city, that I ignored/forgot the advice to at least carry a light jacket with me as the temps were going to be dropping through the evening. 

In any event….

POLITICS: National Intelligence? 

 

The movie Airplane came out in 1980..

• Ted Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar.
• Elaine Dickinson: When will you be back?
• Ted Striker: I can't tell you that. It's classified.
• 
  
• (VIA IMDB) 

45 years later, what was once the plot to a slapstick comedy movie, is now what passes for our nation's National Security team. 

The Atlantic published excerpts of a Signal chat between top officials in Convicted Felon Captain Orange's administration. Amongst those in the chat were Vice President JD Vance, Defense Sec Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Little Marco rubio, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller.  

But the creator of the Signal Chat, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, also included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffery Goldberg. What was supposed to be internal discussions about a highly sensitive matter, a strike against Houthi targets in Yemen, were inadvertently given to the EIC of a national political magazine. 

As Goldberg explained in the magazine...

The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.

I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.

This is going to require some explaining.

Ya think?

Per Politico.com...

According to The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg received a request to connect on the encrypted messaging app Signal from a user named “Mike Waltz” on March 11 (presumably the Trump administration national security adviser). He was later added to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” with several other members who appeared to be top administration officials, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Brian Hughes, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, told the publication that the chat “appears to be an authentic message chain.” The NSC did not respond to a request for further comment from POLITICO.

When CFCO was asked about the leak he said "I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic." 

Why would he be? They hold him accountable. I mean, what has to gall him most of all was that of all the publications in the country to leak this to, Mike Waltz leaked it to the Atlantic? 

And of course, the question I'm tempted to ask is "What if President Biden or VP Harris or someone high up in that administration did something so damaging, something so blatantly stupid as what Waltz/Hegseth did? But I won't. 

Instead, I'll ask it this way...

What if George W. Bush/Dick Cheney did this? What if Donald Rumsfeld did this? Or Condoleezza Rice?

Think back to the lead up of the Iraq war in 2003 and all that went wrong. The faulty intelligence, the lack of proper equipment, all the miscalculations in regard to how the conquering troops would be treated. 

And these questions are being asked by a guy who spent a tremendous amount of time on this broadcast defending the above referenced officials back in the golden days of yesteryear. I had many a heated discussion with friends, family, co-workers, etc. about all of this. Shoot, in many ways I still say a world without Saddam Hussien and especially his sons is a better, safer world. 

But I also have to acknowledge that we went into that war with (at best) faulty intelligence and (to be kind) a faulty plan to restore the nation after overthrowing its government. 

And with all that, one thing Bush/Cheney and crew did not do, was leak any of these plans to the media. 

The guy who hates the media more than anybody, who has convinced his minions that the free press is the true enemy of the state, had to watch as his administration's plans to take out a terrorist group was not merely leaked out, but handed to the editor of a publication highly critical of the administration on a silver platter. The fact that Orange and his gang of idiots has to defend this does give me some joy. 

On the other hand, who knows whose lives were put in danger because of this slop? And if you want to pin some of this on the Atlantic, well I say get lost. Whose idea was to put highly classified battle plans on an app anybody can download? That alone was playing with fire. 

Back in CFCO's first term, he at least had some folks in his cabinet and administration who knew what they were doing. Now his got a bunch of unqualified yes-people doing his bidding. Unqualified yes-people make stupid decisions like this. 

I mean FFS, JD Vance is over in Greenland this weekend telling people, "We cannot just ignore President Trump's desires"

Why would he say anything else? The last Vice President he had who refused to consider CFCO's desire to stay in as president after he clearly lost the election, almost got himself killed for his trouble. 

In 1980 it was a comedy movie

In 2025, it's our federal government. 

Scary

*********************************************************************************

BASEBALL- Opening Week Thoughts

We'll start with the aptly named Bronx Bombers.

My phone was lighting up on Saturday afternoon with the news that the Yankees were basically using the Brewers pitching staff for their own home run derby. 

Former Yank Nestor Cortes saw his first three pitches deposited over the Yankee Stadium outfield fence, apparently the first time in baseball history that a team homered on the first three pitches it saw in a game. Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, both off-season acquisitions, hit shots to right and right center field, then Aaron Judge hit a no-doubt about it dinger into the left field upper seats. For good measure Cortes gave up one more shot to Austin Wells in the first inning. 

All in all the Yanks smacked 9 home runs on Saturday afternoon. Judge hit two more and came damn close to hitting a 4th, which would have been amazing. Three homers in three at bats is pretty awesome in and of itself. 

And two of the Yankees key off season pickups are paying immediate dividends.

Which leads me to my Mets. 

Juan Soto homered on Friday night to help give us our first W of the season. It was what happened on Thursday evening that got some of our knickers in a twist, though. 

Soto came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the Mets trailing 3-1. There were two men on base, including LuisAngel Acuna, who Howie Rose had pointed out wasn't exactly being praised for his plate discipline. Somehow after getting behind in the count 0-2 to Astros closer Josh Hader, he worked out a walk for himself. Howie and Keith Raad heaped praise on the young hopeful.

Soto came up after Hayden Singer struck out and Francisco Lindor hit a run scoring sacrifice fly.  one swing of the bat would have given the Mets an improbable 4-3 lead after they had been pretty listless for the previous 8 innings. 

But alas, after himself working the count full, he struck out to end the game. And of course, this really should be nothing more than a mere footnote. The man is going to be here, if he fulfills his contract till 2039. And the fact that some of us were up in arms about this is why bob Riassman refers to people who call into sports talk radio here as the Valley of the Stupid. 

But here's the thing. (and I realize I went over this last year too)

The Mets have been the best Opening Day team in baseball history. While the Yankees can point to their 41 pennants and 27 world titles, we can point to our awesome record on Opening Day. 

Problem is, we have lost the last two and 3 of our last 5. The last time we lost 2 openers in a row was 1999-2000. Now you might say, well now, something happened in both 1999 and 2000 and 2024 that should give you pause. yes, those teams made the post-season. So maybe I should chill? 

If we get to the post-season this year, maybe I will. (but I probably won't.) 

They lost again on Saturday, then, strangely enough, were off on Sunday. Makes no sense whatsoever. 

NCAA Tournament 

All four number one seeds advanced to the Final Four. That is only the second time that’s happened in the modern history of the tournament. My bracket bit the dust because I only picked one number 1 seed to make the Final Four. Auburn will take on Houston and Florida will play Duke. 

 Last week, UCONN head coach Dan Hurley was caught on camera telling Baylor that he hoped the refs didn’t fuck them over as he had felt they had fucked him and the Huskies over in their loss to Florida. 

And I realize that the right answer here is to take Hurley to task for boorish behavior. He needs to keep thoughts like those to himself and if he really feels that the officiating was the reason his team lost, there are proper channels to go through.

But on a visceral level, I felt his pain and anger. And I can’t sit here and say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. Again I’m not saying that’s right, I’m saying I can’t say 100% that I would have never done something so dastardly. 

Just remember, if you are going to text top secret plans to bomb another country out, check and see who is on the thread. It’s easy to get high level government officials mixed up with the guys in your fantasy baseball league. 

Other than that 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

. 

Weekly Mail March 23, 2025

 

Hey:

Rockville Centre has their St. Patrick's Day parade the Saturday after the big one in Manhattan every year. For a few years, Tara, Tim and I marched with Mercy and it was always a great day. The pandemic cost us 2020 and 2021, bad weather cost us 2022 and 2023, and then last year Mercy decided not to participate. Even still, I had taken that Saturday off and had our own little extra St. Patrick's Day party. 

This year, I didn't bother taking the day since I assumed Mercy wasn't marching. (if they did, they did a lousy job advertising that they were) Of course, I completely forgot all of this as I drove to RVC Train Station and the parking lot was closed. I ended up going to Baldwin to catch the train, because I would have had to wait a whole hour for the next train to the city out of Oceanside. 

Then I got to the city and watched my college basketball team go down in flames. That's where we will start. 

NCAA TOURNAMENT-RIP SJU

So, I had a dilemma filling out my bracket... Do I hedge, have St. John's lose in the first round and hope they burn me that way, or pick them to go far and hope they don't burn me. Well, you can pretty much write the story yourselves from here.

I picked the Johnnies to the Final Four. And they thanked me by doing the one thing I prayed they wouldn't do*, and that was lose to that loudmouthed, overrated scumbag John Calipari and his Tyson Foods subsidiary Arkansas Razorbacks. 

If you look at this loss objectively and if you follow basketball at all, this result should not have come as a shock. St. Johns all year couldn't shoot, and it was really a matter of time where that was going to catch up to their asses. 

But they hooked us in, didn't they? They hooked us in with their in-your-shorts defense, their Rick Pitino patented full cross press, and their offensive rebounding. As much as I kept telling myself that a team that shoots as bad as they do could not possibly make a run, I watched them breeze to the regular season Big East title, waltz through the Big East tournament and blow Omaha out on Thursday night. 

It really felt like they were something special.

And I suppose that in some ways they were. It's been years since there was any sort of buzz around St. John's in particular and college basketball in general around these parts. I felt bad for Timmy and other kids of my friends who were either too young or weren't born even back in the early part of the century, the last time St. John's was any good. Shoot, it was exactly 40 years ago when they made it to the Final Four, and you want to talk about NY becoming a college basketball town? Especially that year, 1985, where the Knicks were awful, the Rangers pretty much as bad, and the Islanders dynasty coming to an end the previous spring. St. John's was the only game in town that year. And the city fell hard for them. 

You could feel that coming this year too. The Knicks and Rangers aren't as bad as their 1985 versions are, but let's face it, neither one of them are winning their respective league's championships. Shit, the Rangers probably won't make the playoffs, and the Knicks are destined for a second round exit.

The Johnnies were our only hope.

And they blew it. 

Now, there is of course, a thought that getting on college kids for not winning is wrong. They are after all, college kids, not professional athletes. And I can dig that, except..

NIL Money has changed the equation on that. A few paragraphs back I called coach Cal a few choice names. And while I stand by those comments, I also realize my team's coach isn't exactly Father Flannigan either. He has admittedly relied on the transfer portal to build the Red Storm roster. He also relied on 1991 SJU graduate and self made billionaire Mike Repole, who has been the programs biggest booster. Per Kirsten Fleming in the Post...

His money made it possible for Coach Rick Pitino to recruit athletes like Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis. Few have been as pivotal — or visible — as Repole, 55, in this wild new era of college sports, where student athletes are able to be compensated under NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) rules and move freely to other schools through the transfer portal.

St. John’s reportedly has an NIL payroll of around $4 million, believed to be No. 1 in the Big East.

$4 million? Mr. Repole is my favorite team owner, him and Steve Cohen!

Do I feel guilty about this? No way.

 Look I told you all a few weeks ago that we took Tim to see St. John's, and the basketball team was no small part of the sales pitch. Nobody on the tour with us were looking to go there to play basketball, but a couple of them were asking about going into MSG to watch them or how many people could fit into Carnesecca Arena.  If they had made a deep run into the tournament, you don't think that would have been worth a whole bunch of new matriculants? 

But alas it wasn't to be. At it sucks.

Mike Vaccaro did a column the other day listing 6 St.John's teams that were a 1, 2 or 3 seed. The 1985 team made the Final Four, and the 1999 team made the Elite Eight. Here are the teams that followed those seasons. Both bit the dust in the second round like they did this year.

 

March 16, 1986

Auburn (8) 81, St. John’s (1) 65

The 30-4 Johnnies had scuffled to a nine-point win over No. 16 Montana State in the first round of the West region, where for the second straight year they were the 1 seed. That proved to be something of a harbinger for their second-round pairing with Auburn, which jumped to a 12-point halftime lead at Long Beach Arena and cruised home behind Chuck Person’s 27.

Montana State had two brothers, Kral and Shan Firch** who gave Walter Berry, Mark Jackson et al all they could handle. I should have known if they had that much trouble with the Firch brothers, there was no way they could stop Chuck (the Rifleman) Person. But I was a mere 12 years old and had just seen the Johnnies get to the Final Four the year before. What the hell did I know? 

March 18, 2000

Gonzaga (10) 82, St. John’s (2) 76

Nobody in the country was playing better than St. John’s, which knocked off defending champ UConn in the Big East final, but after sneaking by No. 15 Northern Arizona in the first round in Tucson, Ariz., the Johnnies fell to the Bulldogs — in Year 2 of a rise to prominence that remains ongoing. The Johnnies led by three at the half but had no answers for Matt Santangelo (26 points, six 3s).

The year before, the Johnnies had made it to the Elite 8 and was a missed Erick Barkley three pointer at the buzzer from having a chance to go to the Final 4.*** In fairness, Gonzaga would become a power in the following years (albeit one that always ends up a dime short), but this was a SJU team I thought would get at least back to the Elite 8. Instead, they bought it in the second round. 

There was also the 1992 team who I could have sworn was a top 3 seed. (They weren't-they were a 7 seed) lost in the first round to Tulane. I picked them to go to the Championship Game that year. I picked them only to the Final Four this year. In both cases they screwed me 9 ways to Sunday. 

They who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (Aw shaddup!) 

FWIW- (and it aint worth much) I went 28-4 in the first round.  I picked McNeese State and Drake Business School correctly in upsets.

George Foreman-1949-2025

A man who boxed for a living and bragged about eating cheeseburgers while training may not have struck anyone as a guy who could live well into his 70's, but you put anything past big George Foreman at your peril. If ever a man re-invented himself many times over, it was George Edward Foreman. 

He was the heavyweight champion the day I was born, having upset Joe Fraizer the previous January in Kingston, Jamaica. (Down goes Frazuh! Down goes Frazuh!) 

He was also the heavyweight champion the night I had a legal drink with my family for the first time. On November 5, 1994, I was at my Uncle Will's 75th birthday party, and after one of my grandmother's friends told me I was getting fat****, I decided being that I had turned 21 exactly 3 months before, that would be a good time for me to start slugging down some Rum and Cokes. 

Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer in Las Vegas that night, 21 years, 9 months, and 2 weeks after he had knocked out Joe Fraizer. 

He lost the title he had won from Fraizer to Mohammad Ali at the Rumble in the Jungle, October 30, 1974 in Kinshasha, Zaire. Ali rope-a-doped his way back to the belt. 

Foreman took time off after his loss to Ali, but then came back for a series of fights, including another win over Fraizer at the Nassau Coliseum in June of 1976 that to be honest I had never heard of before. But then he fought Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico in March of 1977 and lost a unanimous 15 round decision. After the fight, he suffered from exhaustion and heat stroke and thought he was going to die. He retired from boxing at that point and became an ordained minister.

I remember reading in the paper in 1987 that he was attempting a comeback at age 38. A comeback in boxing at that age was unusual enough, having not fought in 10 years was even more unusual. But what was most unusual was where he once had an afro and was built like a Mack truck, now he was bald and had a huge belly. Where once he was described as brooding and moody, now he was smiling and laughing with the press and the fans. After he won his first four fights, he told the media he was "interested in fighting this Mike Tyson fellow."  Tyson would shortly thereafter unite the heavyweight title by disposing of Michael Spinks in a minute and a half and at that point looked unbeatable. Foreman, meanwhile, was basically running a tomato can of the month club. 

In February of 1990, Tyson was knocked out by Buster Douglas in Tokyo, still as far as I'm concerned, the biggest upset in sports history. Douglas became even more fat and out of shape than Foreman, and lost his first title defense to Evander Holyfield. 

Holyfield's first title defense would be against ... well, George Foreman. Foreman had managed to beat a couple guys who at one time been contenders, including Gerry Cooney. The Foreman-Cooney fight was dubbed Two Geezers at Ceasars. Foreman knocked Cooney out in two rounds. That gave Foreman 19 wins since he started his comeback. He would win 4 more before he got his shot at the belt. 

Foreman and Holyfield would meet on April 19, 1991, and Foreman went the distance, but Holyfield won a unanimous decision. And I thought that was the end of Foreman's boxing career. 

But he kept going. 

A couple years later, he fought Tommy Morrison of Rocky V fame. Mike Lupica was hosting the midday show on WFAN at the time and someone called and asked him who he thought would win. After hanging up on the guy, Lupica cracked. "Tommy Morrison couldn't beat Rocky Balboa in a street fight. What makes you think he can beat the big guy?" Well, Morrison not only beat him, he beat him up badly. It went the distance, but Foreman looked like a truck ran over him. The fight again went the distance, but Morrison won it in a rout. And again, I thought that was the last we'd seen of Big George. 

Until November 5, 1994. 

He was 45 years old at the time, by far the oldest person to win the heavyweight title. The 20 years and 1 week between title reigns I have to imagine is still the record. 

And that was just the stuff in the ring.

Outside, as I said he was an ordained minister and also an entrepreneur. Who amongst us didn't have a George Foreman Grill at one time or another?  

More recently, we got a kick out of Big George globetrotting with Willam Shatner, Henry Winkler, Terry Bradshaw and comedian Jeff Dye (the sidekick) on NBC's Better Late than Ever. That show ran for two seasons 2016-17 and 2017-18. The four old times (and young sidekick Dye) traveled first through Asia, and then through Europe. 

In the third episode of the second season, the guys were in Lithuania. Shatner's family was originally from Lithuania, and they were looking to trace his roots. At one point they were judging a goat contest. After George had judged the winning goat, they told him they had a surprise for him. The family of Jonas Cepulis was there to meet him. Cepulis was the Soviet fighter that Foreman defeated at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City for the gold medal. He told the family that they spoke often and had made plans to get together, but Cepulis had passed before they could make it happen. On the show, he met Cepulis widow, his two daughters two of his grandkids, and his brother.  He was brought to tears as he hugged each of them. 

That will be my last memory of George Foreman. Big man, big heart, larger than life. RIP. 

**********************************************************************************

Most of the baseball season kicks off this Thursday. The Mets open in Houston and the Yanks host the Brewers at the Stadium. I say most of the baseball season because two teams have actually played regular season games already. That be the Dodgers and Cubs who played last Monday and Tuesday in Tokyo.

I think March 27 is too early to start the baseball season, starting it the day after St.Patrick's Day is an abomination. Shoot, I had a rule for years that I didn't tune into any spring training game before March 17th, since usually before that you still had lots of guys who weren't going to make the team still playing. 

And playing these games in Japan? I get it, MLB makes a truckload of $$$ off these games, I read somewhere that tickets for the games cost as much as Super Bowl tickets, and the sports biggest star is Japanese. But the games started 3 AM in LA and 5 AM in Chicago. Who the hell wants to do that on a Monday morning if you got a 9-5 job you got to get to? 

Speaking of which, I do have a job to get to Monday morning, so I'll wrap this up here. 

Thanks everyone for reading this. 

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

*well, that and not lose to Omaha in the first round

**One of the newspapers ran an NCAA Trivia Quiz that year, and the first question was who held the record for highest mpg average in NCAA history. The choices were Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich or Kral Firch

***feel free to fact check me on that. That's how I remember it, but I could be wrong. 

**** rude, but not inaccurate

Weekly Mail March 16, 2025

 

Slainte! 

Pig and Whistle NYC: March 15, 2025

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone:

The parade is on Monday, and since I'm working I won't be able to watch the big parade down 5th Avenue. If you are attending or even watching on TV, you'll get to see something pretty cool.

I spent every summer between age 2 and age 23 on 112 Street in Rockaway. The stories I can tell about those days, the stories I HAVE told, I mean some of the best memories I've got took place on that crazy block. 

Two doors down from me lived the Benn family. Mike was the oldest and while I was good friends with him, two of my best friends were Richie and Billy Benn, Rich was a year older and Billy and I the same age. (We were two of the many Billys on that block. Billy Perrone and Billy Deitrich also lived on 112.)

I had many adventures with Richie and Billy Benn, either playing on the beach, in the streets, in the park on 109th Street or later on in one of the many watering holes Rockaway has to offer. Those were good times. 

And now, their dad, Michael Benn, is going to be the Grand Marshal of the parade on Monday, the granddaddy of them all.

Mr. Benn has been in charge of the parade in Rockaway since 1998. If you've ever been there for it, you know how much fun that is. For his work in producing that parade, and for his service to the Rockaway community, Mr. B has been given the honor of leading the most famous St. Patrick's Day parade in the world. 

Here is Kate McFadden's story in the Rockaway Times

and here is News 4 New York's write up. Channel 4 is where you can watch the parade here in NYC. 

And congrats to Mr. Benn and his family for this honor. 

Last year, I reported on the 10 best cities for St. Patrick's Day according to WalletHub.com, a list I found somewhat dubious, being that it included such hot tourist destinations such as Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Worcester, MA. 

This year's list came out last week, and I'm sorry, it's even more baffling than last year's list. (Last year's rankings are in parenthesis) 

1) Boston  (1)

2) Reno  (4)

3) Savannah (3)

4) Santa Rosa, CA (10)

5) Worcester, MA (7)

6) Chicago (2)

7) NYC (6)

8) Henderson, NV

9) Buffalo (8)

10) Pittsburgh  (5) 

Again, Boston has a huge Irish population, so I get that. Chicago is a big city, and they dye the river green, I can dig that. Tara and I went to Savannah in 2005, and we did a pub crawl while we were there. Some of the bar patrons we met told us about the Savannah St. Patrick's Day parade and it does sound like fun. I'll give you those three. 

But Reno? Johnny Cash once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, he should have sang, I did shots with a man in Reno because it was St. Patrick's Day.*  

And the folks who put this list together must live in Santa Rosa, CA, because I have never heard of it, much less heard what makes it the 4th most popular St. Patrick's Day destination. Worcester is Boston, so they shouldn't be on the list. Henderson, NV is right outside, Las Vegas so I can see where that could work. 

But Pittsburgh and Buffalo again? Look man, no offence to anyone who may live or have relatives in those cities, but to me, they have the cold weather of NY, BOS, and CHI with none of the charm. I can't imagine those cities being St. Patrick's Day hotspots.

So, since I have neither the time or $$$ to go check it out on my own, I'm going to ask my readers who travel a lot, either for business or pleasure.. if you are even in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Santa Rosa or Reno at or around St. Patrick's Day, can you let the rest of the class here know what the big deal is? Because I am genuinely curious to know why these cities make this list. Like I said last year, if it's affordability, that's a weak argument because naturally it's cheaper to go to places where there aren't any travelers. I need to know what these cities have every March 17 that the folks that put this list together think is so desirable. 

HERE'S YOUR HAT, WHAT'S YOUR HURRY?

Pro Sports teams are forever looking for way to create new revenue streams, or as legendary Post sports editor Hondo used to say, to separate us from our disposable dead presidents (DDP's). One of the more annoying ways they do this is by creating alternate jerseys, or in baseball's case, alternate baseball caps. 

New Era, a company that produces caps for all sports, came up with the idea for a new hat. The hat would have either the team name or city on the front with the capital letter of the city or team name enlarged and put in the middle of the cap. 

For example, here is the Mariners hat

Harmless enough, right? Not my cup of tea, but then again, I'm a traditionalist. Here is the Marlins hat.

Again, I wouldn't buy it, but that's a matter of taste.

Here is where the trouble starts. Let's check out to two teams representing the Lone Star State, starting in Arlington...

Putting a huge T where the X is supposed to be in Texas spells out a whole different word. Apparently a Spanish slang word for 

And then there was Houston, where someone thought it would be a good idea to put a giant H over the T in between the AS and OS. 

Houston AS H OS

Needless to say, these were pulled off the market and are now collectors items. 

Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one!

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Red Storm Rising

St. John's won the Big East Tournament on Saturday night, beating Creighton much the same way they beat Marquette on Friday night, they were down early, not making any shots, sloppy turnovers etc. Then all of the sudden, everything clicking at once. They are just a fun, crazy team to watch. 

And now they are in the dance for the first time in 10 years. They’ll play Omaha Thursday in Providence. Again, we really need the Johnnies to make a nice run. They have already given us an amazing winter. Here hoping they keep the good times rolling.

FOOTBALL: Jets New QB

The Jets signed former Bear and Steeler QB Justin Fields to a 2 year contract early last week. I was kind of surprised how positive the reaction was from Jet fans. Lots of people calling into the FAN and talking about how excited they were about this.

Fields is young and athletic, I'll give him that. He'll at least be more mobile than was Aaron Rodgers, so hopefully he won't get clobbered, especially if the Jets can beef up their offensive line. (they lost one of their decent o-linemen to free agency around the same time they were signing Fields) 

But there was a reason Fields was available. If he was a Pro Bowler, he wouldn't be on his third team already. 

Look I realize one of these days, the Jets will figure it out and turn it around, the law of averages and all that crap. But they have been so bad for so long, it's impossible for me to get excited about anything they do. What would get me excited would be if the Johnson brothers announced they were selling the team. Till then, all I can do is hope one of these shot in the dark moves works out for them. Maybe Fields will be like a reverse Sam Darnold or Geno Smith and come here and figure it out instead of the other way around. 

Again, a Happy St. Patrick’s Day on Monday and Happy St.Joseph Day on Wednesday.

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week

*I know that joke wasn't funny when I said it last year either, but I had nothing else so. 

Weekly Mail March 9, 2025

 

Hi Everyone

Daylight savings started this weekend. The late sunsets are nice, waking up in the middle of the night to go to work will be a drag the next couple weeks,  but we shall press on because that’s what we do, right? 

Anyway, onto the week that was….

POLITICS- The (not) State of the Union Address 

So I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch Convicted Felon Captain Orange's Address to the Joint Session of Congress the other night. I figured if I wanted to be lied to for an hour and half, I could watch WWE Smackdown on Friday night. Plus, I figured I could tune into my social media accounts and get updates from both sides of the aisle. And so, I thank you, whether you are MAGA or correct, none of you let me down. I can make the following observations...

1) Al Green (D-TX)* was ejected from the chamber by the Sgt at Arms at the direction of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for heckling CFCO. Cool! I'm all for decorum and civility in Congress. 

Funny thing though, I don't remember Speaker Johnson being so quick on the draw when the whore representing Georgia's 14th district and the handjob queen representing Colorado's 4th district were heckling President Biden during his SOTU addresses. Those two skankasoureses were giving out to President Biden while he was talking about his son, who died of cancer from tar pits while serving in Iraq. 

Which leads me to the second thing I saw that got my MAGAts all up in arms..

2) No Democrat stood and clapped for a poor kid who had survived brain cancer when CFCO announced him during the speech. 

Now, in these situations, I often ask myself what I would do if I was sitting there. Would I have stood and clapped, would I have stayed seated and done nothing, stood and not clapped, clapped and not stood? 

I'm an old softie, I may have stood and clapped. But let's be honest here, CFCO only had that poor kid there for that reason, so that people would stand and clap. And he would have acted like everyone was clapping for him.

I also would have pointed out to the kid's father (who had a lot to say about the Democrats who didn't stand and clap), that Orange and his right hand man (or more correctly, the other way around) are looking to make massive cuts to Medicaid, making it much more difficult for other children who have life threatening diseases to get the care they need. I also would have told him that his poor young son was being used as a prop. 

3) I've also come to the conclusion that Mike Johnson is more deplorable than Orange, JD Vance and the two aforementioned loudmouths. He is smart enough to know better but is so afraid to lose his gig as Speaker, he allows himself to look like a buffoon. That's a rough way to live. To be smart enough to make a difference, but too much of a coward to do so.

The Washington Post came up with 26 statements that "were untrue, misleading or lacked context."

For never Trumpers like me, that number sounds awfully low, for the MAGA crowd, it's the Washington Post so they are full of beans like the rest of the mainstream media. 

If you are in the latter company, well, hey right now you're laughing because the joke's on us. Fair enough. Maybe one day you'll realize he is laughing at you, insulting you and robbing you just as much as he is laughing, insulting and robbing me. The question is, will you be honest enough to admit it? Even if only to yourself? 

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Gene Hackman- 1930-2025

On Friday authorities in New Mexico ruled that legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife of 30 years Betsey Arakawa both died of natural causes. Arakawa died of hantavirus, which can occur when one is expose to rodent excrement. Hackman it is believed lived up to a week longer than did his wife, and because of his advanced age and Alzheimer's disease may not have known his wife had died, and even if he had, would not have been able to do anything about it if he had. 

While this makes their deaths no less sad or tragic, at least there is some explanation of how they both died. And now Hackman will be remembered more for how he lived than how he died. 

 And how did he live? As arguably his generation's greatest actor. If not at the top of the list, damn close. 

And what always struck me about the way he played all his characters, either good guys like Norman Dale and Popeye Doyle, bad guys like Lex Luthor or Sherrif Bill Daggett, or anybody in between, there was an everyman quality about them. 

I'd like to think Hackman acted the same way he lived his life: simple, proud of his accomplishments but no real airs about him.  So many testimonials I read in the days after his passing in which ordinary people who met him said he was pleasant and down to earth. I remember his speech when he won Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven, when after thanking all his fellow actors and those who worked on the movie, he dedicated his award to his late uncle who he simply described as "a pretty wonderful guy" 

Gene Hackman was a pretty wonderful guy. And a hell of an actor. He'll be missed. RIP. 

The news in sports, besides at St.John's, is all bad. 

The Rangers had two brutal losses against teams that they need to pass to make the playoffs, the Islanders traded one of their best scorers for draft capital, meaning they are probably waving the proverbial white flag, the Devils lost Jack Hughes for the season which is heartbreaking. 

Jalen Brunson is hurt for nobody knows how long and the Knicks weren’t beating any good teams with him anyway. The Nets are the Nets, our football teams are deciding which first round busts they are going to draft, and to top it all off, Gerrit Cole may need Tommy John surgery and Francisco Alvarez is out till June. 

Go Johnnies! We need you more than you can imagine. 

On that note

Stay Safe

and Have a Great Week 

*Not the Al Green who sang Let’s Stay Together.