One of the interesting things I find about being exposed to Republicans is how they are so eager to force their right wing conservative living lifestyle on other people without even taking the time to comprehend what kind of life these people really lead. Mitt Romney told us with a straight face during the CNN You Tube debate that 2 parent households will solve black on black crime! The other day in a conversation about the shooting at that drug den in Roselle, a Republican implied that his limited exposure to the poor black community is watching Good Times on TV Land. The thing that always struck me odd about that show was the studio audience would sit there in such eager anticipation just waiting to hear Jimmie Walker yell out Dyn-o-mite! We were so wild and crazy back in the 70s, weren't we?
That's why today I want to talk about Israel.
This week in Annapolis MD they have had their little peace treaty talks, and as a right winger I really have a hard time feeling sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.... almost like the Republicans look at issues that affect the poor. Nonetheless, I always get turned off by the liberal Jews (not DAS though.. he claims to be a liberal, but despite what he says... he really isn't!). In 2002, shortly after the last summit where Arafat was chased down a parking lot by a high heeled Madeline Albright after he yet again totally sold the Palestinians down the river, a liberal was meowing to me about how rough it is for the Palestinians.. and I pointed out that Arafat ruined it for them because they were starting to get more economic power and were building casinos and becoming entrepeneurs yet their own people screwed them over.. He kept going on and on and on, and frankly his Jewish guilt bored me and I started daydreaming about Janet Jackson and how she came a long way since she played Penny on Good Times. I could never understand why these self hating Jews have so much compassion for people who elected Ismail Haniyeh the Hamas leader whose exact quote about Annapolis was that his people "will reject any concessions to The Zionist enemy". Now that's a great soundbite during peace talks.
Keep in mind that in 1948 after Israel took over from British rule, all these arabs got little text messages on their cell phones to vacate the premises because of an imminent attack. Then when Israel successfully defended themselves against the attack, all the Arabs wanted to come home. Not necessarily because they wanted to live in Israel, but because they can get a better lifestyle living there than they would get living anywhere else in the Middle East. Just check out the Palestinian elections.. they live in poverty while these Arafat clones show off how rich they are. A government run by a comatose Ariel Sharon would give these people a better lifestyle than they get right now. But when they plot against the government and commit treason... then you have a major problem; yet the liberals feel that Israel should do more.
One troubling aspect of this is the notion of freeing Palestinian terrorists who are in Prison. This has created an odd reaction among some right wingers who have compared the value of the lives of those prisoners' victims to Former Prime Minister Rabin with the call that if those prisoners should be freed... Rabin assassin Yigal Amir should be freed too. As much as I couldnt stand Rabin, there was no reason to kill the guy, and freeing Amir would send a very dangerous lesson to other nutjobs.
And one other thing, after Rabin was assassinated, they held a memorial service for him at Madison Square Garden. At that service Shimon Peres issued a very troubling quote triggering a "Watcha talking about Willis" moment just like when Arnold caught Willis in the middle of doing it with his girlfriend Charlene who was played by Janet Jackson. The quote was "There is an old saying To the Victor Go the Spoils.. but in Israel we give back the Spoils". My question is why and why is that not good enough for those wacky liberals? A peace treaty would be nice.. other Israel neighbors have signed them because they know they can't defeat the Israeli military so if you can't beat 'em.... why not get a good photo op?
Another guy I can't stand is Al Sharpton. And don't get my last week comments wrong, I feel bad for that teenage kid who was shot in that Roselle drug den recently. I also think that the cops that patrol there are heroes... and I am willing to give his mom's emotionally charged anti Roselle cop comments carte blanche since it must be excruciating to see her kid in a hospital injured from a gunshot wound. But what bothers me is The Sharptons who twist her raw emotions and start marching through Roselle trying to get a hero cop fired. And let's see these cop protestors walk a mile in a cop's shoes putting their lives on the line every day they go to work. The cop's Chief witnessed the incident and said the shooting was accidental... so whose word are we going to take? The cops or a kid caught red handed in a place he shouldn't have been. And I don't doubt his mom who says he has never done drugs.. that is likely to be true... but every drug consumer always has his first time. And it is the hero cops who patrol there on a daily basis who try to keep these kids from breaking their proverbial drug cherry.
Whatever the case may be, the Good Times Guy and his fellow Republicans are probably more upset that Janet Jackson flashed a nipple at the Super Bowl to fully realize how bad the drug trade affects crime against minorities in our cities. I lived in Roselle for 30 years and that neighborhood where the shooting happened has gone down the tubes over the years. If it wasn't for hero cops who fight the drug dealers, the place would be even worse. But instead of making the cops the bad guys, The Sharpton crew should focus on the drug dealers who are the real villians here, dangling promises of fast cars and fancy bling in front of young poor black kids. Every time Sharpton marches against Hero cops... he scores more points for the drug dealers.
By the way, as much as I hate him.. .like Rabin he doesn't deserve to be physically harmed, but unfortunately there are too many wackos out there causing Sharpton to travel with a strong security entourage. Why doesn't Sharpton just stay home........ .. and send his security detail to Roselle so they can patrol the drug dens instead?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
Last week our friend Barry who is a fan of all things Boston laughed at Pumpie's picking against the Patriots. They didn't cover, so Pumpie's record improved to 10-2. This week, in honor of the Broadway strike coming to an end... its the New York Giants-Chicago Bears game for The Wise One. The Giants are 1 1/2 point faves. Sayeth The Pump: "I just saw the story in Sudan about the nutjobs who want to behead the teacher who allowed her students to name a Teddy Bear Mohammed. Therefore to show my support for the teacher AND the bear.... I pick the Bears!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK: We went 1-2 last week after the Giants let us down and we dared to pick against Pumpstradamus to get back to .500 at 17-17-2.
Giants 1 1/2 faves over THE BEARS - Wow... that's disrespecting the Bears... and it's time for The Giants to seperate themsevles from the pack. This could be a huge step to securing a Wild Card if the Giants can pull it off.
Bills 5 1/2 doggies over WASHINGTON - Continuing our trend of picking road teams... this is a tough pick since the Redskins have been through a very difficult week. But that is a pretty big spread and the AFC teams are pretty good.
MINNESOTA 3 1/2 faves over Detroit - A Detroit loss combined with a Giant win would give The Giants a 2 game lead over the other Wild Card teams with 4 weeks to go.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Year End Award Predictions -and Great Topics for Turkey Day Small Talk!
Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!
It seems like each year the Time Life Empire announces its yearly awards earlier and earlier.. that means we have to bump up our annual predictions. Each year Time announces its Person of the Year.... Sports Illustrated has its Sportsman of the Year, and Entertainment Weekly has its Entertainer of the Year.
Today, we present our annual picks so let's start with Entertainer of the Year....
TMZ and Harvey Levin.
The wacky website/TV show has brought Big Brother into the 21st century. Thanks to the new technology allowing stuff to be shot on cell phones and immediately uploaded to the web, all kinds of crazy stuff has been popping up on YouTube. Just go to their home page and check out "videos being watched right now".. I never knew how weird women can be, and the stuff they put online. Jeepers!! But anyway, the crazy TMZ camera crews follow celebrities around so often, they are often cited on CNN and other news channels as the source of breaking news video. Where the Smoking Gun.com was the website for legal breaking news.. TMZ is the place to go for all things Hollywood. The site was founded by Harvey Levin, a nice Jewish lawyer who was the OJ Simpson reporter on Channel 2 in the 90's, and still has that easy gig as the "man on the street" reporter for The People's Court. Here in the NY Metropolitan Area, the TMZ Nightly News Show airs at 6:30 opposite the network evening newscasts; I wouldn't be surprised if it has taken a major bite out of their ratings.
Sportsman of the Year... is a little tougher... 2 immediately come to mind.
Coach Stringer and the Rutgers Women's Team - They made it all the way to the NCAA Women's Championship before losing. Unfortunately for them, Don Imus took note of the fact that the players weren't hot babes and the next thing you know a fundraiser for kids with cancer got ruined by the evil Al Sharpton. Nonetheless, Stringer and the team handled the situation with class and that class is more important than athletic ability when SI makes its pick, so you would think that the Ladies down the street at Rutgers would definitelty be frontrunners. The best thing to come of all this - WABC hired the I-Man and canned that shmuck Ron Kuby. Kuby and Sharpton are two of my least favorite people - along with Louis Farrakhan who still hasn't died yet...(he's been in my death pool for the last few years)... Sharpton will be back in the headlines again since Tawana Brawley's family inexplicably wants to reopen the case involving her daughter's rape accusation hoax that catapulted Sharpton into the headlines as an absolute fraud who embraces a case before knowing the facts.
Speaking of which... did you see what happened to the teenager in Roselle who was shot when a cop's gun went off. The cop was investigating a drug den when this kid pops out from out of nowhere in an alley, started to run, and refused to surrender. The cop drew his weapon and it accidentally fired and hit the kid. Now the mother of the kid comes out and says the kid didn't break the law by running from police, since he was scared his mother would yell at him for being out late at night! No, it's not ok to run from a cop! Brave cops have a tough enough job as it is, and when a cop tells you to stop... you do it immediately! I am so sick and tired of all these people who constantly criticize police... when all cops do is put their lives at risk every single day. Now the kid's mom comes out, holds a press conference criticizing the Roselle Police and shows off all the kid's sports medals. Why don't we hold a press conference for all the medals this brave cop has won during his years of service? One thing I am thankful for today... besides Trophy Wife.. is the Cops who make our streets safe! Thank you! Also kudos to the Hoboken SWAT Team who should be reinstated! Next time there's a hostage situation, all they need to do is toss in some Hooters Babes and everybody can go home happy.
Another Sportsman contender is Alex Rodridguez. ARod had a fantastic year at the plate and won the MVP despite being a constant target of tabloid fodder.. between being caught hanging out on the road with a go go dancer and his wife's incredibly vulgar shirt at a Yankee game... By the way, security at a sporting event should ban anyone who has an obscenity on their t shirt from enterting an event that contains little eyes that can read messages involving the seven words not allowed on TV. A Rod almost singlehandedly carried the Yankees from early season mediocrity to a wild card spot, and this was during a season that the true pre 2007 Yankee MVP Mariano Rivera had somewhat of an off year. Once ARod opted out of his Yankee deal....during the final game of the World Series, it stole the spotlight away from the Red Sox run to the championship. It also reinforced the belief that an ARod less Yankee team would fall farther away from the Red Sox in the American Leagues pecking order. Now that ARod is coming back for a run to the homerun record, he singlehandedly makes things look to be ok in Yankee land once again.
But the Sportsman of the Year really oughta be...
The University of Florida Athletic Department - They won the NCAA Basketball and Football Championships. What more can a team do?? Heck, the basketball team has won 2 consecutive championships! Kudos to Athletic Director Jeremy Foley for doing an absolutely fantastic job!
Person of the Year....
Offhand, I think Steve Jobs did a remarkable job playing the hype game by introducing the Iphone to the marketplace,. I was actually bummed when a co-worker got one, because I wanted to be the first one in the office to have the gadget. And once they come out with an Iphone that has a video camera, I will buy one myself so I too can shoot video for TMZ. Well, maybe not, but the notion of having all your gadgets in one works for me.. until of course the battery dies or the device breaks, and then you are left with nothing. My cell phone I bought in Summer of '06, the Samsung SGH-d9807 (see the July 6, 2006 column) has an mp3 player, but it is a royal pain in the neck to load the music. It seems that the I-phone resolved that issue. The commericals are quite catchy too, and it's always good to see Bill Gates not getting all the attention since he is so rich because every idea he ever came up with was stolen from Apple.. but that's besides the point.
However, when all is said and done... I predict that the TIme Magazine Person of the Year will be...
Hillary Clinton.
As much as I don't like her, America might be on the verge of history with our first Female President. Or we might have our first Black President. I wasn't too thrilled with Obama's defense of Eliot Spitzer's illegal alien license plan at the CNN debate after Hillary wisely came to her senses about how absurd it is that our tax money provide services to them. Unfortunately a lot of backwards voters wouldn't vote for a black man even if he pulled them out of a burning building. Nonetheless, Hillary has been the front runner.. she has a great political coach, being married to the Best President since the Pre Nixon era (that's as far back as I can remember) And being the rabbit in the pack has brought her a lot of attention.... Geraldine Ferraro would have been one heartbeat away had things gone differently back in 1984.. but Hillary has shown us that you may not need a shmeckle to hold down the office as President of the USA. The White House intern thong marketing might radically change (or might not according to some).. but face it... America might be in for a big change in terms of Women in Power. Therefore. Hillary's domination of the headlines makes her my pick for Person of the Year.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, Pocahantosdamus goes to New England for the big Patriots Eagles showdown... with the Patriots favored by 22! Last week he lost for just the 2nd time when the Bears let him down dropping to a still incredible 9-2. Sayeth the Pump: "On this Thanksgiving Yom Tov (or Yum Tov), I'm reminded that Benjamin Franklin once proposed that the turkey be made the national bird of the United States....: but the bald eagle won, and so, i'm going with the Eagles!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK
Last week we went 2-0-1 to get a winning record at 16-15-2! Here are this week's picks: This week's games feature 2 rather unusual, almost historic point spreads
GIANTS 7 faves over Minnesota - Are the gate D hijinks going on at Giants games too? This is a good chance for the Giants not to fall into a lull since they have a good shot at the Wild Card.. but there are a few teams 2 games back who are licking their chops.
San Fransisco 10 1/2 doggies over ARIZONA - The Cards go into Week 11 just one game out of a wild card spot and they are double digit favorites! When was the last time that happened?? Too much to cover.. Take the Niners,
NEW ENGLAND 22 over Philly - When was the last time an NFL team was favored by 22? I thought this was a lock, but now that I see Pumpy is going with Philly, I am just a tad nervous!
CLIP OF THE WEEK:
Last week we mentioned Box in a Box. Here it is:
It seems like each year the Time Life Empire announces its yearly awards earlier and earlier.. that means we have to bump up our annual predictions. Each year Time announces its Person of the Year.... Sports Illustrated has its Sportsman of the Year, and Entertainment Weekly has its Entertainer of the Year.
Today, we present our annual picks so let's start with Entertainer of the Year....
TMZ and Harvey Levin.
The wacky website/TV show has brought Big Brother into the 21st century. Thanks to the new technology allowing stuff to be shot on cell phones and immediately uploaded to the web, all kinds of crazy stuff has been popping up on YouTube. Just go to their home page and check out "videos being watched right now".. I never knew how weird women can be, and the stuff they put online. Jeepers!! But anyway, the crazy TMZ camera crews follow celebrities around so often, they are often cited on CNN and other news channels as the source of breaking news video. Where the Smoking Gun.com was the website for legal breaking news.. TMZ is the place to go for all things Hollywood. The site was founded by Harvey Levin, a nice Jewish lawyer who was the OJ Simpson reporter on Channel 2 in the 90's, and still has that easy gig as the "man on the street" reporter for The People's Court. Here in the NY Metropolitan Area, the TMZ Nightly News Show airs at 6:30 opposite the network evening newscasts; I wouldn't be surprised if it has taken a major bite out of their ratings.
Sportsman of the Year... is a little tougher... 2 immediately come to mind.
Coach Stringer and the Rutgers Women's Team - They made it all the way to the NCAA Women's Championship before losing. Unfortunately for them, Don Imus took note of the fact that the players weren't hot babes and the next thing you know a fundraiser for kids with cancer got ruined by the evil Al Sharpton. Nonetheless, Stringer and the team handled the situation with class and that class is more important than athletic ability when SI makes its pick, so you would think that the Ladies down the street at Rutgers would definitelty be frontrunners. The best thing to come of all this - WABC hired the I-Man and canned that shmuck Ron Kuby. Kuby and Sharpton are two of my least favorite people - along with Louis Farrakhan who still hasn't died yet...(he's been in my death pool for the last few years)... Sharpton will be back in the headlines again since Tawana Brawley's family inexplicably wants to reopen the case involving her daughter's rape accusation hoax that catapulted Sharpton into the headlines as an absolute fraud who embraces a case before knowing the facts.
Speaking of which... did you see what happened to the teenager in Roselle who was shot when a cop's gun went off. The cop was investigating a drug den when this kid pops out from out of nowhere in an alley, started to run, and refused to surrender. The cop drew his weapon and it accidentally fired and hit the kid. Now the mother of the kid comes out and says the kid didn't break the law by running from police, since he was scared his mother would yell at him for being out late at night! No, it's not ok to run from a cop! Brave cops have a tough enough job as it is, and when a cop tells you to stop... you do it immediately! I am so sick and tired of all these people who constantly criticize police... when all cops do is put their lives at risk every single day. Now the kid's mom comes out, holds a press conference criticizing the Roselle Police and shows off all the kid's sports medals. Why don't we hold a press conference for all the medals this brave cop has won during his years of service? One thing I am thankful for today... besides Trophy Wife.. is the Cops who make our streets safe! Thank you! Also kudos to the Hoboken SWAT Team who should be reinstated! Next time there's a hostage situation, all they need to do is toss in some Hooters Babes and everybody can go home happy.
Another Sportsman contender is Alex Rodridguez. ARod had a fantastic year at the plate and won the MVP despite being a constant target of tabloid fodder.. between being caught hanging out on the road with a go go dancer and his wife's incredibly vulgar shirt at a Yankee game... By the way, security at a sporting event should ban anyone who has an obscenity on their t shirt from enterting an event that contains little eyes that can read messages involving the seven words not allowed on TV. A Rod almost singlehandedly carried the Yankees from early season mediocrity to a wild card spot, and this was during a season that the true pre 2007 Yankee MVP Mariano Rivera had somewhat of an off year. Once ARod opted out of his Yankee deal....during the final game of the World Series, it stole the spotlight away from the Red Sox run to the championship. It also reinforced the belief that an ARod less Yankee team would fall farther away from the Red Sox in the American Leagues pecking order. Now that ARod is coming back for a run to the homerun record, he singlehandedly makes things look to be ok in Yankee land once again.
But the Sportsman of the Year really oughta be...
The University of Florida Athletic Department - They won the NCAA Basketball and Football Championships. What more can a team do?? Heck, the basketball team has won 2 consecutive championships! Kudos to Athletic Director Jeremy Foley for doing an absolutely fantastic job!
Person of the Year....
Offhand, I think Steve Jobs did a remarkable job playing the hype game by introducing the Iphone to the marketplace,. I was actually bummed when a co-worker got one, because I wanted to be the first one in the office to have the gadget. And once they come out with an Iphone that has a video camera, I will buy one myself so I too can shoot video for TMZ. Well, maybe not, but the notion of having all your gadgets in one works for me.. until of course the battery dies or the device breaks, and then you are left with nothing. My cell phone I bought in Summer of '06, the Samsung SGH-d9807 (see the July 6, 2006 column) has an mp3 player, but it is a royal pain in the neck to load the music. It seems that the I-phone resolved that issue. The commericals are quite catchy too, and it's always good to see Bill Gates not getting all the attention since he is so rich because every idea he ever came up with was stolen from Apple.. but that's besides the point.
However, when all is said and done... I predict that the TIme Magazine Person of the Year will be...
Hillary Clinton.
As much as I don't like her, America might be on the verge of history with our first Female President. Or we might have our first Black President. I wasn't too thrilled with Obama's defense of Eliot Spitzer's illegal alien license plan at the CNN debate after Hillary wisely came to her senses about how absurd it is that our tax money provide services to them. Unfortunately a lot of backwards voters wouldn't vote for a black man even if he pulled them out of a burning building. Nonetheless, Hillary has been the front runner.. she has a great political coach, being married to the Best President since the Pre Nixon era (that's as far back as I can remember) And being the rabbit in the pack has brought her a lot of attention.... Geraldine Ferraro would have been one heartbeat away had things gone differently back in 1984.. but Hillary has shown us that you may not need a shmeckle to hold down the office as President of the USA. The White House intern thong marketing might radically change (or might not according to some).. but face it... America might be in for a big change in terms of Women in Power. Therefore. Hillary's domination of the headlines makes her my pick for Person of the Year.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK
This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, Pocahantosdamus goes to New England for the big Patriots Eagles showdown... with the Patriots favored by 22! Last week he lost for just the 2nd time when the Bears let him down dropping to a still incredible 9-2. Sayeth the Pump: "On this Thanksgiving Yom Tov (or Yum Tov), I'm reminded that Benjamin Franklin once proposed that the turkey be made the national bird of the United States....: but the bald eagle won, and so, i'm going with the Eagles!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK
Last week we went 2-0-1 to get a winning record at 16-15-2! Here are this week's picks: This week's games feature 2 rather unusual, almost historic point spreads
GIANTS 7 faves over Minnesota - Are the gate D hijinks going on at Giants games too? This is a good chance for the Giants not to fall into a lull since they have a good shot at the Wild Card.. but there are a few teams 2 games back who are licking their chops.
San Fransisco 10 1/2 doggies over ARIZONA - The Cards go into Week 11 just one game out of a wild card spot and they are double digit favorites! When was the last time that happened?? Too much to cover.. Take the Niners,
NEW ENGLAND 22 over Philly - When was the last time an NFL team was favored by 22? I thought this was a lock, but now that I see Pumpy is going with Philly, I am just a tad nervous!
CLIP OF THE WEEK:
Last week we mentioned Box in a Box. Here it is:
Friday, November 16, 2007
I Still Love My Fellow Democrats, But...
Well here we go... Year Number 3 of NWOW.
There's a lot going on besides the fact that Greta Van Susteren's fascination 2 weeks ago with the newly missing Laci Peterson rhyming Stacy Peterson has now evolved into a huge national story! I don't know if this would have caught as much attention from Day One unless her name was Simpson. Let's hope she just ran away and is alive and well somewhere. This reminds me of my Radio Days in the early 1990s when a local woman disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I bet my belching news director that the woman had met with some foul play, but amazingly enough she had just run off to take some time away from her family and returned some time later. About a week after her return, my eyeballs popped out of my head while on the air with onetime Blogging Superstar DangerSpouse when the winner of a live call in trivia contest was none other than the woman who had just disappeared! She must have been brushing up on her Moops edition of Trivial Pursuit.
The other big news this week is NY Governor Eliot Spitzer smartly did a 180 and decided against that silly idea to give illegal immigrants Drivers Licenses. And just in time too apparently, as Hillary Clinton's front runner status is causing her opponents to put a big fat bullseye on her back with her original support of Spitzer being the arrows. Obama is still hedging on what should be a non issue, but on the Wolf Blitzer CNN debate Hillary spoke out against it. (Speaking of the CNN debate - Suzanne Malveuax - va va voom!) I don't know what Spitzer was thinking.. the only driving the illegals should be doing is back to the border on a Greyhound bus with a one way ticket. My dad was an immigrant... a legal one... and he did an almost unheard of thing when he moved here.. He learned English! I used to do seminars for job hunters back in 2003 and one thing I discovered was that some people are discriminated in the workplace because they can't speak Spanish. Why is our work force catering to these people who steadfastly refuse to learn the language?? Incidentally I suggested doing exactly the opposite in my 12/18/05 column.. but that was just for one specific type of situation.
NY is also apparently strike headquarters as the Broadway stagehands and TV Writers continue to picket on. I am not too sympathetic to the crew people who want contracts stating that a minimum number of stagehands be hired for each show regardless of whether those stagehands are necessary for that particular production. And TV Writers want more shekels in a long term deal involving new media such as the internet. DVD profit sharing? I am all for that.. but how can you predict money making opportunities on web platforms over a long period of time. I watch some shows online... are they making any money on those 30 second spots when most of us usually just go to another tab to check email, or fantasy teams, etc. I just hope they get back to work soon.. Those rumors that Family Guy will continue without genius Seth McFarlane make my tummy hurt.
This week's column marks a historical first for NWOW. I had to scrap my original column and start from scratch at the last moment! I had already written a whole article about an upcoming report I was preparing at The Mortgage Podcast concerning a new bill being proposed by Congressman Barney Frank. The Mortgage Reform and Anti Predatory Lending Act of 2007 has some good ideas but one particularly troubling aspect of it was just removed on Wednesday. That part of the bill was basically going to mean the end of mortgage brokers as we know it since it would require that loans could only be offered if the closing costs are not financed into the loan. Yep that means you would have to bring cold hard cash to your closing to pay all the fees if you refinance a loan. Luckily, a lot of mortgage brokers are able to get clients lower closing costs since Banks pay us a fee called yield spread. However, for some reason the original version of the bill barred brokers from collecting Yield Spread too! Wisely enough, cooler heads prevailed and future changes to the current laws will allow us to charge lower closing costs by getting paid by the lender and you won't have to bring money to the closing to pay your fees!
However, I don't know if even Superman could solve this problem since the whole mortgage mess really needs to be looked at on a case by case basis. But as much as Frank might seem to think that mortgage brokers created this crisis, there is blame to spread among all parties. A lot of people buy houses that they can't afford when in reality they should have bought something smaller. I'm in the trenches every day and I see these credit reports, and frankly I have seen a number of cases where people bought homes with no money down, and they were late with their payments, yet had enough money to pay Best Buy for a big screen TV, or for a major landscaping project or some other frivolity when the money should have gone to a mortgage payment. And since a lot of these people bought houses with no money down.. no harm no foul.. they just walk away and lose nothing. You would think it would make sense to eliminate programs for people to buy a house with no money down.
I find it odd that mortgage brokers almost ended up out of work if Frank's bill had gone through unchanged. Let's say Gordon Ramsey the Kitchen Nightmares restarateur has a 4 star establishment that is rather pricey. A customer comes in, orders a nice dinner, and when the check comes, says he can't pay his check because he can't afford it. You would think that this customer should have gone to a less expensive restaurant that he could afford. Well lets say this situation becomes very commonplace. Assuming the prices are clearly disclosed on the menu, would Congressman Frank want to propose legislation that would create federal regulations for how the 4 star restaurant makes its money?
For awhile there, I almost thought I would have get out there and find a different job. And by the way prospective employers - Yo hablo espanol!
PUMPSTRADAMUS NFL PICK OF THE WEEK: Pumpy rolls on with his incredible hot streak with his Bird Flu pick from last week, improving to an improbable 9-1 and clinching a winning record. This week we go to Chicago where all the media has been camped out following the Peterson story. The Bears travel to Seattle where they are 6 point doggies to the Seahawks. Sayeth the Reading Challenged Pump: "Take the Bears... As the old song goes.. Bears Bears They're Good for Your Heart... The More You Eat...."
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK; Last week we went 2-1 to get to 14-15-1. The run on mediocrity continues - there has never been a winless or undefeated week.
Giants 3 faves over DETROIT - Very gutsy to make the Giants a road fave against a team doing so well at home. Face it - The Giants are 2 behind Dallas with 7 to play and the Cowboys own the tiebreaker. It's a good week for the Giants to send a message to the other 6-3 wild card contender.
Washington 10 1/2 doggies over DALLAS - The Cowboys will drop the wild card contending Redskins down a notch. I think the Skins will cover.
Miami 10 faves over PHILADELPHIA - Just like the London game, the Dolphins will find a way to cover late.. although it would be cool if they got their first win at the Eagle's expense.
CLIP OF THE WEEK - After a week of being critical towards the Democrats, let's not forget how evil Republicans can be. Here is a song about that skank Anne Coulters repulsive anti semitic remarks. It's sung by a woman named Leah Kauffman. This song called "My Box in a Box" is a spoof of the SNL song parody Shmeckle in a Box. By the way, I saw a You Tube clip of Kauffman doing a light hearted chat with Keith Olbermann and she looked more uncomfortable than Drew Peterson when he chatted with Matt Lauer. Smile, lighten up... contact my Media Coaching Pal Jacquie Jordan! Obviously, a slick writer snuck the title past a Jewish News editor who didn't quite catch on what the crass song title meant.
There's a lot going on besides the fact that Greta Van Susteren's fascination 2 weeks ago with the newly missing Laci Peterson rhyming Stacy Peterson has now evolved into a huge national story! I don't know if this would have caught as much attention from Day One unless her name was Simpson. Let's hope she just ran away and is alive and well somewhere. This reminds me of my Radio Days in the early 1990s when a local woman disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I bet my belching news director that the woman had met with some foul play, but amazingly enough she had just run off to take some time away from her family and returned some time later. About a week after her return, my eyeballs popped out of my head while on the air with onetime Blogging Superstar DangerSpouse when the winner of a live call in trivia contest was none other than the woman who had just disappeared! She must have been brushing up on her Moops edition of Trivial Pursuit.
The other big news this week is NY Governor Eliot Spitzer smartly did a 180 and decided against that silly idea to give illegal immigrants Drivers Licenses. And just in time too apparently, as Hillary Clinton's front runner status is causing her opponents to put a big fat bullseye on her back with her original support of Spitzer being the arrows. Obama is still hedging on what should be a non issue, but on the Wolf Blitzer CNN debate Hillary spoke out against it. (Speaking of the CNN debate - Suzanne Malveuax - va va voom!) I don't know what Spitzer was thinking.. the only driving the illegals should be doing is back to the border on a Greyhound bus with a one way ticket. My dad was an immigrant... a legal one... and he did an almost unheard of thing when he moved here.. He learned English! I used to do seminars for job hunters back in 2003 and one thing I discovered was that some people are discriminated in the workplace because they can't speak Spanish. Why is our work force catering to these people who steadfastly refuse to learn the language?? Incidentally I suggested doing exactly the opposite in my 12/18/05 column.. but that was just for one specific type of situation.
NY is also apparently strike headquarters as the Broadway stagehands and TV Writers continue to picket on. I am not too sympathetic to the crew people who want contracts stating that a minimum number of stagehands be hired for each show regardless of whether those stagehands are necessary for that particular production. And TV Writers want more shekels in a long term deal involving new media such as the internet. DVD profit sharing? I am all for that.. but how can you predict money making opportunities on web platforms over a long period of time. I watch some shows online... are they making any money on those 30 second spots when most of us usually just go to another tab to check email, or fantasy teams, etc. I just hope they get back to work soon.. Those rumors that Family Guy will continue without genius Seth McFarlane make my tummy hurt.
This week's column marks a historical first for NWOW. I had to scrap my original column and start from scratch at the last moment! I had already written a whole article about an upcoming report I was preparing at The Mortgage Podcast concerning a new bill being proposed by Congressman Barney Frank. The Mortgage Reform and Anti Predatory Lending Act of 2007 has some good ideas but one particularly troubling aspect of it was just removed on Wednesday. That part of the bill was basically going to mean the end of mortgage brokers as we know it since it would require that loans could only be offered if the closing costs are not financed into the loan. Yep that means you would have to bring cold hard cash to your closing to pay all the fees if you refinance a loan. Luckily, a lot of mortgage brokers are able to get clients lower closing costs since Banks pay us a fee called yield spread. However, for some reason the original version of the bill barred brokers from collecting Yield Spread too! Wisely enough, cooler heads prevailed and future changes to the current laws will allow us to charge lower closing costs by getting paid by the lender and you won't have to bring money to the closing to pay your fees!
However, I don't know if even Superman could solve this problem since the whole mortgage mess really needs to be looked at on a case by case basis. But as much as Frank might seem to think that mortgage brokers created this crisis, there is blame to spread among all parties. A lot of people buy houses that they can't afford when in reality they should have bought something smaller. I'm in the trenches every day and I see these credit reports, and frankly I have seen a number of cases where people bought homes with no money down, and they were late with their payments, yet had enough money to pay Best Buy for a big screen TV, or for a major landscaping project or some other frivolity when the money should have gone to a mortgage payment. And since a lot of these people bought houses with no money down.. no harm no foul.. they just walk away and lose nothing. You would think it would make sense to eliminate programs for people to buy a house with no money down.
I find it odd that mortgage brokers almost ended up out of work if Frank's bill had gone through unchanged. Let's say Gordon Ramsey the Kitchen Nightmares restarateur has a 4 star establishment that is rather pricey. A customer comes in, orders a nice dinner, and when the check comes, says he can't pay his check because he can't afford it. You would think that this customer should have gone to a less expensive restaurant that he could afford. Well lets say this situation becomes very commonplace. Assuming the prices are clearly disclosed on the menu, would Congressman Frank want to propose legislation that would create federal regulations for how the 4 star restaurant makes its money?
For awhile there, I almost thought I would have get out there and find a different job. And by the way prospective employers - Yo hablo espanol!
PUMPSTRADAMUS NFL PICK OF THE WEEK: Pumpy rolls on with his incredible hot streak with his Bird Flu pick from last week, improving to an improbable 9-1 and clinching a winning record. This week we go to Chicago where all the media has been camped out following the Peterson story. The Bears travel to Seattle where they are 6 point doggies to the Seahawks. Sayeth the Reading Challenged Pump: "Take the Bears... As the old song goes.. Bears Bears They're Good for Your Heart... The More You Eat...."
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICK OF THE WEEK; Last week we went 2-1 to get to 14-15-1. The run on mediocrity continues - there has never been a winless or undefeated week.
Giants 3 faves over DETROIT - Very gutsy to make the Giants a road fave against a team doing so well at home. Face it - The Giants are 2 behind Dallas with 7 to play and the Cowboys own the tiebreaker. It's a good week for the Giants to send a message to the other 6-3 wild card contender.
Washington 10 1/2 doggies over DALLAS - The Cowboys will drop the wild card contending Redskins down a notch. I think the Skins will cover.
Miami 10 faves over PHILADELPHIA - Just like the London game, the Dolphins will find a way to cover late.. although it would be cool if they got their first win at the Eagle's expense.
CLIP OF THE WEEK - After a week of being critical towards the Democrats, let's not forget how evil Republicans can be. Here is a song about that skank Anne Coulters repulsive anti semitic remarks. It's sung by a woman named Leah Kauffman. This song called "My Box in a Box" is a spoof of the SNL song parody Shmeckle in a Box. By the way, I saw a You Tube clip of Kauffman doing a light hearted chat with Keith Olbermann and she looked more uncomfortable than Drew Peterson when he chatted with Matt Lauer. Smile, lighten up... contact my Media Coaching Pal Jacquie Jordan! Obviously, a slick writer snuck the title past a Jewish News editor who didn't quite catch on what the crass song title meant.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
The 2 Year Bloggiversary - Politics, Podcasts, and Pontificating
Well folks.. this weekend we celebrate our 2nd bloggiversary! This blog was born right here on these very internets on November 10, 2005. and wouldn't it be great if every blogger used their bloggiversary to look back and give a state of the blog address? I look back and say... "What the hell have I put on the Internet?" Back in November 2005, I had thought about starting a blog and I also had thought about watching all six Star Wars movies for the first time, so somewhere along the line I thought.. hey let's do both. And thus the blog was born with "The Grand Premiere" that fateful November 10th.
So 2 years later.. where are we? Well, we started a little movie club... this is my crazy old Channel 5 movie club button (!), and so far we have done 14 movie reviews. After Star Wars, it was on to The Godfather Trilogy, a Robert Altman 4-pack and our current 6 James Bonds with 6 different lead actors. A list of all 14 movie reviews with their dates is posted at the end of today's column for your reading enjoyment.
The movie reviews with the bladder scale appear to be the most popular columns -they were a popular radio feature back in the early 90s...while last year's decision to pick ALL the NFL games was the least popular feature. In one of our early columns on November 24, 2005, we did a column "Psychic Matters or Do Psychics Matter?" which introduced us to The Amazing Pumpstradamus. That rather uncharacteristically short column was written tongue in cheek and blasted the whole concept of psychics. It also triggered the first appearance by Pumpstradamus who posted a comment with his opinion about the next column which I hadn't even written yet! Pumpy then became an annual visitor with a Yearly Preview podcast appearance and his weekly NFL picks are both succesful and popular.
In January we launched the Clip of the Week, a little add on feature at the end of each column that was to be replaced again in September by revamped shorter NFL picks.. plus the oh so popular Pumpstradamus NFL pick of the week. However, video on the internet has become so popular that I seem to always find a cool new video on You Tube each week that falls into "must share" status. Recently we did Havana Gilapalooza. We also embarked on a musical career collaborating with musical genius Neil Fein on "The Ballad of Melanie McGuire" - today we are posting it here for the first time as an mp3. The song was a parody of Creeque Alley, maybe giving us a chance to be edgy Al Yankovicites. We will also be releasing a new song soon about Jim McGreevey which will sort of be another parody from The Mamas and Papas..
So 2 years later... what exactly is this blog? Basically, on any given week it has been about TV, (assuming the writer's strike ends) Movies, Baseball, Judaism, and the political landscape in no particular order. I really haven't made it too personal with one or two exceptions... it's more like a column about stuff that interests myself and my readers.. and I am not sure people care about a blog covering my day to day activities... hey today my shower caddy fell off the wall and then I spilled water in my laptop keyboard and Danny at Compusave figured out in 2 seconds why my t and y keys don't work..... I don't think that type of stuff is really going to excite the masses who congregate here.
POLITICS
Politics hasn't really been a big thing here, but as we are now 1 year away from choosing a new President, it will probably become more topical. On January 29, 2006, I disclosed my political beliefs.. a conservative Democrat who is pro-choice... maddeningly frustrating to Republicans who want to tag all Democrats as liberals and annoying to liberals like DAS who have this notion that the party is moving to the left.... which ain't happenin'. It's going to be a tough pick next year since I am not a fan of Hillary, and if by some miracle The GOP selects pro choice Rudy Guliani. (which I don't see happening despite the shocking Pat Robertson endorsement), a Rudy - Hillary ticket will be a tough choice... and according to Pumpstradamus the topic for the 3rd bloggiversary column!
Speaking of liberals, there was one piece of news this past week that made my day... the firing of Ron Kuby from WABC Radio. I addressed my feelings about Kuby back on March 9, 2006 when he bit the hand that fed him by testifying for the defense in the Gotti trial concerning the attempted killing of Curtis Sliwa. As I said then, I don't know much about the case, but I thought it was odd that Kuby testified against Curtis. Kuby whose legal talents are quite minimal wouldn't have made any money in radio if it wasn't for Sliwa's taking him under his wing. Now that the I-man is going to WABC, Kuby was told by station management to stay home, while Sliwa might be moved to a different slot. If WOR were smart, they would bring that show to their station. They already have vastly improved themselves by adding the new syndicated show hosted by the immensely talented Dennis Miller. One interesting quote out of Kuby's mouth..."Imus makes racist comments, yet I lose my job!" It couldn't happen to a bigger jerk.
And maybe somebody could explain to me where our priorities are? That Dog guy gets into a ton of trouble for using the n word in an illegally taped private phone conversation, yet those so called leaders Jackson and Sharpton march for the Jena 6 that beat a white kid unconscious because they think these thugs should not be punished! Dog has spent the week on his "I am so sorry and I still love my son" tour... His son might have gottten 15k for that little tape he leaked to the Enquirer,but he is losing a lot more because you know that the minute this well orchestrated apology tour comes to end, he will march right up to his lawyers office and change his will so that son gets nothing. And if he is really vindictive, he will use his detective skills to watch this kid who is apparently using up his three strikes so that the moment that kid lights up a marijuana cigarette.. cops will swarm in while Dog stands outside hitting his strike counter with as much glee as a home plate umpire working a Nolan Ryan game.
PODCASTS
I have discovered one surprise over the last 2 years of doing this blog --- podcasting just doesn't seem to be as popular as I thought it would be. Blogspot appears to be the most popular blogging website, but they don't have an easy podcasting program. Clickcaster on the other hand is less popular, yet they make it quite simple. I had learned how to html code embedded audio and video clips a few years ago when I wanted to snazzy up some eBay ads. We did a few podcast interviews during the first year of this blog, and in the summer of 2006 I launched The Mortgage Podcast. So far I have gotten some responses, mostly from other podcasters, and former colleagues who googled my name, found the podcasts and made prank calls to me!
As the old song goes, Video killed the Radio Star, and while I thought that telephone modems being replaced by cable and hi speed connections would popularize podcasts, it is actually the videos that have gained the most popularity. This past summer, we started doing video versions of my Mortgage Podcasts that are now getting a decent number of hits on You Tube. This summer also marked the migration of my files away from hosting site Streamload/Media Max which mysteriously never seems to work when I need it. Files stored there continously show up as dead links. The Roselle House Video from The Home Sweet Home column in April seems to also be a dead link. For this week's Clip of The Week, we will once again present The Roselle House Video this time via YouTube! By the way, the movie referred to in that column is Steam which opens next Thursday in LA!
PONTIFICATING
We also do some Jewish columns every once in awhile. I characterize myself as being between Conservative and Orthodox... or Orthoservative. In that Klein - King article, I criticized a letter writer to the local Jewish State newspaper who wrote a nasty letter because they were upset that an Edison Rabbi commented during a Menorah Lighting ceremony to pray for the death of Iranian President Ahmedinijad. The State is an otherwise good newspaper but made a huge misstep with another letter to the editor this week that again disrepectfully criticizes the same Rabbi with an incredible cheap shot directed towards him and his wife. By the way, I took one of the pictures that appears on Page 19 - eagle eyed viewers may realize that those are the same chairs from today's Clip of The Week !
Being less observant makes me more religious.. to me the most important thing is to be respectful to other people. It nauseates me that a different newspaper published by the ultra orthodox recently published an editorial about the hate crime bill (although I think the editorial writer was referring to the anti discrimination bill) that allows a loophole for a clergyman to make nasty speeches against homosexuality as long as it doesn't incite a riot. How disgusting is it that this editorial was probably written by a person whose relatives were in the Holocaust. Yet the editorial says that people should be allowed to speak publicly about a lifestyle that is not religiously acceptable. And if you saw the movie "Trembling Before G-d", you will have seen that the ultras (excluding for the most part the more open minded Lubavitch sect) are NOT preaching to "punish the sin, not the sinner". The documentary showed quite clearly that these ultras have totally ostracized the homosexuals and tossed them out of their community.
The irony of that editorial is that Jews have always been persecuted for being different... because we do not observe a Christian lfestyle as prescribed in the New Testament. How is this different from preaching against gays who they claim violate laws in the Old Testament? Personally, I am against gay marriage but that is for semantic reasons. I do think that gay partners should get as many benefits as married couples do. If these ultras wouldn't shun science education, they would realize that the homosexual tendency is biological and these people can't control it. It isn't easy for them to be gay in our society and I doubt that it is the Godly thing to do to preach against what the newspaper called their "immoral deviant lifestyle"! Religious persecution is religious persecution whether its wearing a star pinned to your shirt or being treated like garbage for being gay!.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought God wants us to be nicer to our fellow man and that is how we should conduct ourselves....
I also went back through all the columns... here are the 14 Movie Club Reviews we posted here. Remember the Star Wars were in chronological order!
November 21, 2005 - One Down Five to Go (Star Wars I)
December 8, 2005 - Obscene Clone Falls (Star Wars II)
January 16, 2006 - Halfway There -Oh Oh Livin' on a Prayer (Star Wars III)
March 3, 2006 - 1977 Part II - The Summer of Sam (Star Wars IV - The Original)
May 2, 2006 - Who's Your Daddy? (Star Wars V)
June 1, 2006 - Star Wars Part 6 of 6 Yippee (Star Wars VI)
July 29, 2006 - From Yoda to Vigoda - An Offer You Can't Refuse (The Godfather)
October 12, 2006 - Name Clearing Part II (Godfather II)
December 5, 2006 - (Corle)One is the Loneliest Number (Godfather III)
January 18, 2007 - How Does a Cixelsyd Spell Radar? (Robert Altman Part I M*A*S*H)
February 28, 2007 - Nashville (Altman Part II)
July 25, 2007 - The Player (Altman Part III after a hiatus when we moved to our house in April)
September 6, 2007 - Short Cuts - How Can a 3 Hour Movie Have the Word Short In Its Title?? (Altman Part IV)
October 19, 2007 - Sean Connery's Goldfinger - (James Bond I)
Top 14 Lists List
November 2, 2007 - TV Quarterly Report - The NWOW Fall Preview
March 25, 2007 The 14 Most Relevant Baseball Teams of 2007
Feb 23, 2007 The Top 14 Movies to Start a DVD Collection
Jan. 25, 2007 The Top 14 Game Show Hosts of All Time
Dec. 14, 21 2006 - 14 TV Shows That Entertained Me in 2006
May 12, 27 2006 Top 14 Talk Show Hosts
March 27, 30 2006 The 14 Most Relevant Baseball Teams of 2006
Feb. 10, 14, 17 2006 Top 14 Game Shows
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: Pumpy improved to 8-1 last week when the Colts covered the spread. One more win he clinches a winning record. Last year for the Bloggiversary we went to San Fran in honor of Nancy Pelosi's big 2006 Election Day performance. Once again, for this year's bloggiversary we head back there as the 49ers play in Seattle on Monday Night. The Niners are 10 point doggies. Sayeth the Pump: "My Bronco-itis doesn't seem to go away... maybe it's bird flu? Therefore in honor of Bird Flu I take the Seahwawks!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK; Last week the Jets barely covered to get us to 1-2 for the week for a season record of 12-14-1.
GIANTS 1 1/2 doggies over Dallas - This is the battle for first place in the NFC East. Anybody else notice in the London game how the ref's audio didnt synch with the video?
Eagles 3 doggies over WASHINGTON - The Skins think they are in a wild card race. The Eagles will teach them a lesson.
ARIZONA 1 fave over Detroit - C'mon The Lions win a road game?? Get outta here.
CLASSIC CLIP OF THE WEEK - The Roselle House Video - the first part was shot in '88, the rest was done 10 years ago.
So 2 years later.. where are we? Well, we started a little movie club... this is my crazy old Channel 5 movie club button (!), and so far we have done 14 movie reviews. After Star Wars, it was on to The Godfather Trilogy, a Robert Altman 4-pack and our current 6 James Bonds with 6 different lead actors. A list of all 14 movie reviews with their dates is posted at the end of today's column for your reading enjoyment.
The movie reviews with the bladder scale appear to be the most popular columns -they were a popular radio feature back in the early 90s...while last year's decision to pick ALL the NFL games was the least popular feature. In one of our early columns on November 24, 2005, we did a column "Psychic Matters or Do Psychics Matter?" which introduced us to The Amazing Pumpstradamus. That rather uncharacteristically short column was written tongue in cheek and blasted the whole concept of psychics. It also triggered the first appearance by Pumpstradamus who posted a comment with his opinion about the next column which I hadn't even written yet! Pumpy then became an annual visitor with a Yearly Preview podcast appearance and his weekly NFL picks are both succesful and popular.
In January we launched the Clip of the Week, a little add on feature at the end of each column that was to be replaced again in September by revamped shorter NFL picks.. plus the oh so popular Pumpstradamus NFL pick of the week. However, video on the internet has become so popular that I seem to always find a cool new video on You Tube each week that falls into "must share" status. Recently we did Havana Gilapalooza. We also embarked on a musical career collaborating with musical genius Neil Fein on "The Ballad of Melanie McGuire" - today we are posting it here for the first time as an mp3. The song was a parody of Creeque Alley, maybe giving us a chance to be edgy Al Yankovicites. We will also be releasing a new song soon about Jim McGreevey which will sort of be another parody from The Mamas and Papas..
So 2 years later... what exactly is this blog? Basically, on any given week it has been about TV, (assuming the writer's strike ends) Movies, Baseball, Judaism, and the political landscape in no particular order. I really haven't made it too personal with one or two exceptions... it's more like a column about stuff that interests myself and my readers.. and I am not sure people care about a blog covering my day to day activities... hey today my shower caddy fell off the wall and then I spilled water in my laptop keyboard and Danny at Compusave figured out in 2 seconds why my t and y keys don't work..... I don't think that type of stuff is really going to excite the masses who congregate here.
POLITICS
Politics hasn't really been a big thing here, but as we are now 1 year away from choosing a new President, it will probably become more topical. On January 29, 2006, I disclosed my political beliefs.. a conservative Democrat who is pro-choice... maddeningly frustrating to Republicans who want to tag all Democrats as liberals and annoying to liberals like DAS who have this notion that the party is moving to the left.... which ain't happenin'. It's going to be a tough pick next year since I am not a fan of Hillary, and if by some miracle The GOP selects pro choice Rudy Guliani. (which I don't see happening despite the shocking Pat Robertson endorsement), a Rudy - Hillary ticket will be a tough choice... and according to Pumpstradamus the topic for the 3rd bloggiversary column!
Speaking of liberals, there was one piece of news this past week that made my day... the firing of Ron Kuby from WABC Radio. I addressed my feelings about Kuby back on March 9, 2006 when he bit the hand that fed him by testifying for the defense in the Gotti trial concerning the attempted killing of Curtis Sliwa. As I said then, I don't know much about the case, but I thought it was odd that Kuby testified against Curtis. Kuby whose legal talents are quite minimal wouldn't have made any money in radio if it wasn't for Sliwa's taking him under his wing. Now that the I-man is going to WABC, Kuby was told by station management to stay home, while Sliwa might be moved to a different slot. If WOR were smart, they would bring that show to their station. They already have vastly improved themselves by adding the new syndicated show hosted by the immensely talented Dennis Miller. One interesting quote out of Kuby's mouth..."Imus makes racist comments, yet I lose my job!" It couldn't happen to a bigger jerk.
And maybe somebody could explain to me where our priorities are? That Dog guy gets into a ton of trouble for using the n word in an illegally taped private phone conversation, yet those so called leaders Jackson and Sharpton march for the Jena 6 that beat a white kid unconscious because they think these thugs should not be punished! Dog has spent the week on his "I am so sorry and I still love my son" tour... His son might have gottten 15k for that little tape he leaked to the Enquirer,but he is losing a lot more because you know that the minute this well orchestrated apology tour comes to end, he will march right up to his lawyers office and change his will so that son gets nothing. And if he is really vindictive, he will use his detective skills to watch this kid who is apparently using up his three strikes so that the moment that kid lights up a marijuana cigarette.. cops will swarm in while Dog stands outside hitting his strike counter with as much glee as a home plate umpire working a Nolan Ryan game.
PODCASTS
I have discovered one surprise over the last 2 years of doing this blog --- podcasting just doesn't seem to be as popular as I thought it would be. Blogspot appears to be the most popular blogging website, but they don't have an easy podcasting program. Clickcaster on the other hand is less popular, yet they make it quite simple. I had learned how to html code embedded audio and video clips a few years ago when I wanted to snazzy up some eBay ads. We did a few podcast interviews during the first year of this blog, and in the summer of 2006 I launched The Mortgage Podcast. So far I have gotten some responses, mostly from other podcasters, and former colleagues who googled my name, found the podcasts and made prank calls to me!
As the old song goes, Video killed the Radio Star, and while I thought that telephone modems being replaced by cable and hi speed connections would popularize podcasts, it is actually the videos that have gained the most popularity. This past summer, we started doing video versions of my Mortgage Podcasts that are now getting a decent number of hits on You Tube. This summer also marked the migration of my files away from hosting site Streamload/Media Max which mysteriously never seems to work when I need it. Files stored there continously show up as dead links. The Roselle House Video from The Home Sweet Home column in April seems to also be a dead link. For this week's Clip of The Week, we will once again present The Roselle House Video this time via YouTube! By the way, the movie referred to in that column is Steam which opens next Thursday in LA!
PONTIFICATING
We also do some Jewish columns every once in awhile. I characterize myself as being between Conservative and Orthodox... or Orthoservative. In that Klein - King article, I criticized a letter writer to the local Jewish State newspaper who wrote a nasty letter because they were upset that an Edison Rabbi commented during a Menorah Lighting ceremony to pray for the death of Iranian President Ahmedinijad. The State is an otherwise good newspaper but made a huge misstep with another letter to the editor this week that again disrepectfully criticizes the same Rabbi with an incredible cheap shot directed towards him and his wife. By the way, I took one of the pictures that appears on Page 19 - eagle eyed viewers may realize that those are the same chairs from today's Clip of The Week !
Being less observant makes me more religious.. to me the most important thing is to be respectful to other people. It nauseates me that a different newspaper published by the ultra orthodox recently published an editorial about the hate crime bill (although I think the editorial writer was referring to the anti discrimination bill) that allows a loophole for a clergyman to make nasty speeches against homosexuality as long as it doesn't incite a riot. How disgusting is it that this editorial was probably written by a person whose relatives were in the Holocaust. Yet the editorial says that people should be allowed to speak publicly about a lifestyle that is not religiously acceptable. And if you saw the movie "Trembling Before G-d", you will have seen that the ultras (excluding for the most part the more open minded Lubavitch sect) are NOT preaching to "punish the sin, not the sinner". The documentary showed quite clearly that these ultras have totally ostracized the homosexuals and tossed them out of their community.
The irony of that editorial is that Jews have always been persecuted for being different... because we do not observe a Christian lfestyle as prescribed in the New Testament. How is this different from preaching against gays who they claim violate laws in the Old Testament? Personally, I am against gay marriage but that is for semantic reasons. I do think that gay partners should get as many benefits as married couples do. If these ultras wouldn't shun science education, they would realize that the homosexual tendency is biological and these people can't control it. It isn't easy for them to be gay in our society and I doubt that it is the Godly thing to do to preach against what the newspaper called their "immoral deviant lifestyle"! Religious persecution is religious persecution whether its wearing a star pinned to your shirt or being treated like garbage for being gay!.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought God wants us to be nicer to our fellow man and that is how we should conduct ourselves....
I also went back through all the columns... here are the 14 Movie Club Reviews we posted here. Remember the Star Wars were in chronological order!
November 21, 2005 - One Down Five to Go (Star Wars I)
December 8, 2005 - Obscene Clone Falls (Star Wars II)
January 16, 2006 - Halfway There -Oh Oh Livin' on a Prayer (Star Wars III)
March 3, 2006 - 1977 Part II - The Summer of Sam (Star Wars IV - The Original)
May 2, 2006 - Who's Your Daddy? (Star Wars V)
June 1, 2006 - Star Wars Part 6 of 6 Yippee (Star Wars VI)
July 29, 2006 - From Yoda to Vigoda - An Offer You Can't Refuse (The Godfather)
October 12, 2006 - Name Clearing Part II (Godfather II)
December 5, 2006 - (Corle)One is the Loneliest Number (Godfather III)
January 18, 2007 - How Does a Cixelsyd Spell Radar? (Robert Altman Part I M*A*S*H)
February 28, 2007 - Nashville (Altman Part II)
July 25, 2007 - The Player (Altman Part III after a hiatus when we moved to our house in April)
September 6, 2007 - Short Cuts - How Can a 3 Hour Movie Have the Word Short In Its Title?? (Altman Part IV)
October 19, 2007 - Sean Connery's Goldfinger - (James Bond I)
Top 14 Lists List
November 2, 2007 - TV Quarterly Report - The NWOW Fall Preview
March 25, 2007 The 14 Most Relevant Baseball Teams of 2007
Feb 23, 2007 The Top 14 Movies to Start a DVD Collection
Jan. 25, 2007 The Top 14 Game Show Hosts of All Time
Dec. 14, 21 2006 - 14 TV Shows That Entertained Me in 2006
May 12, 27 2006 Top 14 Talk Show Hosts
March 27, 30 2006 The 14 Most Relevant Baseball Teams of 2006
Feb. 10, 14, 17 2006 Top 14 Game Shows
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: Pumpy improved to 8-1 last week when the Colts covered the spread. One more win he clinches a winning record. Last year for the Bloggiversary we went to San Fran in honor of Nancy Pelosi's big 2006 Election Day performance. Once again, for this year's bloggiversary we head back there as the 49ers play in Seattle on Monday Night. The Niners are 10 point doggies. Sayeth the Pump: "My Bronco-itis doesn't seem to go away... maybe it's bird flu? Therefore in honor of Bird Flu I take the Seahwawks!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK; Last week the Jets barely covered to get us to 1-2 for the week for a season record of 12-14-1.
GIANTS 1 1/2 doggies over Dallas - This is the battle for first place in the NFC East. Anybody else notice in the London game how the ref's audio didnt synch with the video?
Eagles 3 doggies over WASHINGTON - The Skins think they are in a wild card race. The Eagles will teach them a lesson.
ARIZONA 1 fave over Detroit - C'mon The Lions win a road game?? Get outta here.
CLASSIC CLIP OF THE WEEK - The Roselle House Video - the first part was shot in '88, the rest was done 10 years ago.
Friday, November 02, 2007
TV Quarterly Report: The NWOW Fall Preview
Well now that the 2007 baseball season has come to an end it is time for the TV Season to begin! Before we get to the NWOW Fall Preview of 14 shows to watch this season, a couple of things from the past few days...
I take back everything nice I said about Scott Boras last week when I praised his attempts to get baseball to refocus on the World Series. He tossed that goodwill out the window as the Red Sox were getting ready for the knockout punch Sunday night when he announced that his client Alex Rodriguez would not take his option to return to The Yankees. Boras did apologize for upstaging the World Series, but the damage was done. And why do the Yankee fans attack ARod after his spectacular 2007 MVP season? ARod wants as much as he can get.... anyone else would do the same thing. Yet the Yankees are being cheapskates by refusing to negotiate with him as a Free Agent since it means that The Texas Rangers won't be picking up the bill for part of ARod's salary. It's going to be a long next few years in the post ARod era as the Yankees will now be looking up to Red Sox Nation which is now a far superior team.
In 1997 I finished 3rd in my fantasy baseball league and thanks to the terrific '97 seasons of my Dodger trio of Raul Mondesi, Todd Zeile and Eric Karros, I plunked down my winnings for my very large for 1997 27 inch TV! Now 10 years later thanks to the draft day psychic predictions of Pumpstradamus, my 2nd place winnings went to a 42 inch HD TV which looks fantastic! The quality is remarkable, yet I was surprised to see how odd Fox's Jeannie Zelasko looks close-up.. but on the other hand, Carol Ann Ridell on Channel 4? Homina Homina Homina!!
Therefore because of the new TV. we are temporarily coming to you from my laptop on the coffee table instead of the usual spot at the Bunkey room. In case you missed why we call it that, in our old condo, my office was in the monkey room which had a bizarre pattern of wall paper of monkeys doing strange things. Here at our house, the prior owners left the bunk bed behind in the spare bedroom that is my office.. which is why we call it The Bunkey Room!
Anyway, now that I have this new TV, what are the 14 shows worth watching on it this season? I find that I am watching no shows on Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays! Thursday has some good stuff.. it just seems that I have been out somewhere or watching baseball over the last several Thursdays. But, Sunday through Wednesday is quite action packed!
1. The Family Guy and 2 American Dad - One producer - 2 hysterical cartoons.... but what happens if American Dad lasts longer than Family Guy? Will they start using flashbacks on American Dad too? Every week these 2 shows hit a home run... the crazy AD where the daughter poses nude, and her brother unknowingly buys a painting of her? Amazing,... And I am ready for The Family Guy Star Wars spoof to work its way into the 1130 Cartoon Network reruns so I can actually remember more of the hysterics from that incredible episode.
3. Desperate Housewives - Relegated to next day viewing on abc.com due to the Fox competition. The show just isnt that good anymore... yet oddly I watch it. What's the scoop with the new neighbor kid who can't remember her past? And isn't it odd that her mom, a new member of the block would be so freaking annoying to her neighbors?
4. Curb Your Enthusiasm - The perfect antidote for Seinfeld withdrawal. The show is hysterical and the ad libs give it an odd dialogue pattern that you just dont see in your typical unnaturally written sitcoms. Susie Essman is so funny when she is so nasty to Larry... Last week's episode where she threw Larry under the bus when he got caught using the "n" word while quoting someone else was priceless. And Funkhouser is another great character!! Bob Einstein aka Super Dave Osborne is probably one of the funniest people on Earth! Great cast, hysterical show.
5. Tell Me You Love Me - I catch the west coast HBO feed at midnight and like DH.. i have no idea why I watch this show. Except for the older woman whose husband won't sleep with her, I can't stand these characters. The one woman who was obssessed with getting pregnant (Penny from Lost) took so many pregnancy tests, I'm amazed that one human being could pish so much. I think most of us are hanging on to see if Ally Walker is gonna get neckid! I think couples should watch this show together because once you see how wacked out these characters are, you appreciate your spouse even more!
6. Big Bang Theory - As you might have read here before, Trophy Wife is a distant relative of Sheldon Leonard who was in "It's A Wonderful Life" and produced "The Dick Van Dyke Show". As a salute to him, the main characters in this show are named Sheldon and Leonard! They hang out with 2 other geeks including one guy who has the most bizarre haircut (Simon Helberg who once did a pilot for a show called "The Funkhausers") and mingle with a hot blonde who lives on the same floor as their apartment building. I think the scenario could get a little stale, and it's time for these guys to use their science expertise and get jobs with CSI. Then, the trekkies can have debates with David Caruso about whether he or William Shatner is a worse actor!
7. Heroes - Jump the Shark or Time Travel to the 1600s? Whats the difference? The show has slid considerably but 2 weeks ago it started showing signs of rebounding. It looks like our heroes need something to do... The storyline with the girl in New Orleans looks promising, but this whole Hiro storyline is absurd and now he is madly in love with this woman from the 17th century.... The only way they can salvage this story is if Hiro has sex with her and gives her a venereal disease that wasn't around in the 1600's.
8. Journeyman - I think this may be one the best 2 new shows of the season. The guy has to travel back in time to solve other people's trsuris... its kind of like Quantum Leap with a little more style. The premise is quirky... our main character's time traveling guide is his late wife (!) which ticks off the current wife... who was once engaged to her husband's brother! Its actually a pretty cool show.. maybe he can zip back to 1600 and bring Hiro back and save his high rated lead in on NBC before 24 comes back in January!
9. Law and Order SVU - Consistently intense... it keeps chugging along with great stories and an easy paycheck for Richard Belzer who gets one or two wisecracks per episode.. kind of like the guy in "Airplane" who grabbed the newspaper and proclaimed.. "There's a sale at Mays!" Regular Law and Order has yet to return in the post Fred Thompson era and Criminal Intent has moved to USA, although I never know when it is on.
10. The Singing Bee - I want Trophy Wife to go on this show since she knows the words to every song ever written. Then she can win a million dollars!
11. Deal or No Deal - I just love watching people lose. It's much simpler than the heart stopping Press Your Luck when a whammy could appear at any time... Here its just amusing to see people not understand the law of averages and not have the brains to quit when they're ahead.
12. Kitchen Nightmares - This is another choice for best new show of the season! Chef Gordon Ramsey shows up at a slumping restaurant and whips it back into shape. It's interesting to see some of these people who own restaurants who just sit on their laurels and count their shekels and just dont give a crap about quality. One restaurant owner in particular who was in a popular tourist area let his restaurant rot away knowing full well that he would never get repeat business, but the constant flow of new tourists would keep his pockets full. This show has the excitement that The Apprentice needs. Who cringes more when Gordon puts a bullseye on some hapless restaurant employee and gets him fired at the end of the show? I'm surprised those fired employees sign release forms allowing them to be shown on TV - How does that not ruin their chances of ever getting a new job in the industry? And they showed the kitchen in one of Gordon's restaurants... it was so incredibly spotless you could eat off the floor!! This guy is obsessed with cleanliness to Felix Unger-ian proportions.
13. Phenomenon - I thought this would be a show for Pumpstradamus... but its really an American Idol for magicians who use mind games to do their tricks. It's kind of entertaining and the live element provides plenty of drama. The guy who made his heart stop was pretty creepy, but some of the other tricks are older than the hills.
14. CSI NY - I havent been watching the other CSIs this season, but I like the NY show. Some of the storylines this season have been on other shows.. The avatar storyline was done on Law and Order SVU; and this past week's episode of the injection that caused a person to appear dead while very much alive, but frozen like a rock was the same story mechanism that got rid of the much maligned Nikki and Paolo on Lost last season... Ausellio in TV Guide recently amusingly nicknamed those annoying Heroes twins Nikki and Paolo.
NEXT WEEK - The Big Bloggiversary!
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK; Last week Pumpie tasted his first loss, as the Broncos were inches away from a big Monday Night Win. Nonetheless, the Pack won dropping Pumpies record to a still impressive 7-1. This week we go to New England in honor of the Red Sox World Series win. The Patriots are 5 point road favorites over the Colts... this must be the first time that a 7-0 home team is an underdog. This week Pumpie channels the ghost of Nipsey Russel with this nugget....
"Last week I chose the Broncos
I was crowned the king of dolts.
This week, I shall redeem myself
and back the team of Colts!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK: Last week we went 1-2 to drop to 11-12-1. That late Dolphin TD kept us from our first 0-3 week. The Giants have a bye this week.
PHILADELPHIA 3 doggies over Dallas - This sets up an epic battle for next week's Giant game!
Broncos 3 doggies over DETROIT - You think the Bronco and Rockies fans have recovered from last week? Detroit is currently battling the Giants for a wild card slot and they are due for a loss.
JETS 3 1/2 doggies over Washington - What's the difference between The Jets and The Yankees? The Jets will get a 2nd half contribution from Clemens. This game is sandwiched between The New York City Marathon and the 6pm Knick home opener - creating a very long day for Al Trautwig! Speaking of the Knicks, Let's hope Al Sharpton keeps his word and is out there protesting against Isiah Thomas as fervently as he fought to get Imus fired from his radio show. There is no reason that Thomas, a phony failure has not been disciplined for being found guilty in court for sexually harrassing and subsequently firing a female coworker. NBA Commissioner David Stern is right when he criticizes the way the Dolans run that organization. The Knicks are a disgrace, and the horrible things that Thomas has been convicted of doing to this poor woman is far worse and purposefully more damaging than what Imus said about the Rutgers women. Let's hope the door to the Garden slams shut on Isiah as Imus triumphantly returns to the ABC studio directly across the street from MSG!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Last week we introduced you to Nate Kizerian and his odd rendition of Hava Nagila. Continuing the Hava Nagila theme... here is a version of that classic song that is incredibly bizarre!!
I take back everything nice I said about Scott Boras last week when I praised his attempts to get baseball to refocus on the World Series. He tossed that goodwill out the window as the Red Sox were getting ready for the knockout punch Sunday night when he announced that his client Alex Rodriguez would not take his option to return to The Yankees. Boras did apologize for upstaging the World Series, but the damage was done. And why do the Yankee fans attack ARod after his spectacular 2007 MVP season? ARod wants as much as he can get.... anyone else would do the same thing. Yet the Yankees are being cheapskates by refusing to negotiate with him as a Free Agent since it means that The Texas Rangers won't be picking up the bill for part of ARod's salary. It's going to be a long next few years in the post ARod era as the Yankees will now be looking up to Red Sox Nation which is now a far superior team.
In 1997 I finished 3rd in my fantasy baseball league and thanks to the terrific '97 seasons of my Dodger trio of Raul Mondesi, Todd Zeile and Eric Karros, I plunked down my winnings for my very large for 1997 27 inch TV! Now 10 years later thanks to the draft day psychic predictions of Pumpstradamus, my 2nd place winnings went to a 42 inch HD TV which looks fantastic! The quality is remarkable, yet I was surprised to see how odd Fox's Jeannie Zelasko looks close-up.. but on the other hand, Carol Ann Ridell on Channel 4? Homina Homina Homina!!
Therefore because of the new TV. we are temporarily coming to you from my laptop on the coffee table instead of the usual spot at the Bunkey room. In case you missed why we call it that, in our old condo, my office was in the monkey room which had a bizarre pattern of wall paper of monkeys doing strange things. Here at our house, the prior owners left the bunk bed behind in the spare bedroom that is my office.. which is why we call it The Bunkey Room!
Anyway, now that I have this new TV, what are the 14 shows worth watching on it this season? I find that I am watching no shows on Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays! Thursday has some good stuff.. it just seems that I have been out somewhere or watching baseball over the last several Thursdays. But, Sunday through Wednesday is quite action packed!
1. The Family Guy and 2 American Dad - One producer - 2 hysterical cartoons.... but what happens if American Dad lasts longer than Family Guy? Will they start using flashbacks on American Dad too? Every week these 2 shows hit a home run... the crazy AD where the daughter poses nude, and her brother unknowingly buys a painting of her? Amazing,... And I am ready for The Family Guy Star Wars spoof to work its way into the 1130 Cartoon Network reruns so I can actually remember more of the hysterics from that incredible episode.
3. Desperate Housewives - Relegated to next day viewing on abc.com due to the Fox competition. The show just isnt that good anymore... yet oddly I watch it. What's the scoop with the new neighbor kid who can't remember her past? And isn't it odd that her mom, a new member of the block would be so freaking annoying to her neighbors?
4. Curb Your Enthusiasm - The perfect antidote for Seinfeld withdrawal. The show is hysterical and the ad libs give it an odd dialogue pattern that you just dont see in your typical unnaturally written sitcoms. Susie Essman is so funny when she is so nasty to Larry... Last week's episode where she threw Larry under the bus when he got caught using the "n" word while quoting someone else was priceless. And Funkhouser is another great character!! Bob Einstein aka Super Dave Osborne is probably one of the funniest people on Earth! Great cast, hysterical show.
5. Tell Me You Love Me - I catch the west coast HBO feed at midnight and like DH.. i have no idea why I watch this show. Except for the older woman whose husband won't sleep with her, I can't stand these characters. The one woman who was obssessed with getting pregnant (Penny from Lost) took so many pregnancy tests, I'm amazed that one human being could pish so much. I think most of us are hanging on to see if Ally Walker is gonna get neckid! I think couples should watch this show together because once you see how wacked out these characters are, you appreciate your spouse even more!
6. Big Bang Theory - As you might have read here before, Trophy Wife is a distant relative of Sheldon Leonard who was in "It's A Wonderful Life" and produced "The Dick Van Dyke Show". As a salute to him, the main characters in this show are named Sheldon and Leonard! They hang out with 2 other geeks including one guy who has the most bizarre haircut (Simon Helberg who once did a pilot for a show called "The Funkhausers") and mingle with a hot blonde who lives on the same floor as their apartment building. I think the scenario could get a little stale, and it's time for these guys to use their science expertise and get jobs with CSI. Then, the trekkies can have debates with David Caruso about whether he or William Shatner is a worse actor!
7. Heroes - Jump the Shark or Time Travel to the 1600s? Whats the difference? The show has slid considerably but 2 weeks ago it started showing signs of rebounding. It looks like our heroes need something to do... The storyline with the girl in New Orleans looks promising, but this whole Hiro storyline is absurd and now he is madly in love with this woman from the 17th century.... The only way they can salvage this story is if Hiro has sex with her and gives her a venereal disease that wasn't around in the 1600's.
8. Journeyman - I think this may be one the best 2 new shows of the season. The guy has to travel back in time to solve other people's trsuris... its kind of like Quantum Leap with a little more style. The premise is quirky... our main character's time traveling guide is his late wife (!) which ticks off the current wife... who was once engaged to her husband's brother! Its actually a pretty cool show.. maybe he can zip back to 1600 and bring Hiro back and save his high rated lead in on NBC before 24 comes back in January!
9. Law and Order SVU - Consistently intense... it keeps chugging along with great stories and an easy paycheck for Richard Belzer who gets one or two wisecracks per episode.. kind of like the guy in "Airplane" who grabbed the newspaper and proclaimed.. "There's a sale at Mays!" Regular Law and Order has yet to return in the post Fred Thompson era and Criminal Intent has moved to USA, although I never know when it is on.
10. The Singing Bee - I want Trophy Wife to go on this show since she knows the words to every song ever written. Then she can win a million dollars!
11. Deal or No Deal - I just love watching people lose. It's much simpler than the heart stopping Press Your Luck when a whammy could appear at any time... Here its just amusing to see people not understand the law of averages and not have the brains to quit when they're ahead.
12. Kitchen Nightmares - This is another choice for best new show of the season! Chef Gordon Ramsey shows up at a slumping restaurant and whips it back into shape. It's interesting to see some of these people who own restaurants who just sit on their laurels and count their shekels and just dont give a crap about quality. One restaurant owner in particular who was in a popular tourist area let his restaurant rot away knowing full well that he would never get repeat business, but the constant flow of new tourists would keep his pockets full. This show has the excitement that The Apprentice needs. Who cringes more when Gordon puts a bullseye on some hapless restaurant employee and gets him fired at the end of the show? I'm surprised those fired employees sign release forms allowing them to be shown on TV - How does that not ruin their chances of ever getting a new job in the industry? And they showed the kitchen in one of Gordon's restaurants... it was so incredibly spotless you could eat off the floor!! This guy is obsessed with cleanliness to Felix Unger-ian proportions.
13. Phenomenon - I thought this would be a show for Pumpstradamus... but its really an American Idol for magicians who use mind games to do their tricks. It's kind of entertaining and the live element provides plenty of drama. The guy who made his heart stop was pretty creepy, but some of the other tricks are older than the hills.
14. CSI NY - I havent been watching the other CSIs this season, but I like the NY show. Some of the storylines this season have been on other shows.. The avatar storyline was done on Law and Order SVU; and this past week's episode of the injection that caused a person to appear dead while very much alive, but frozen like a rock was the same story mechanism that got rid of the much maligned Nikki and Paolo on Lost last season... Ausellio in TV Guide recently amusingly nicknamed those annoying Heroes twins Nikki and Paolo.
NEXT WEEK - The Big Bloggiversary!
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK; Last week Pumpie tasted his first loss, as the Broncos were inches away from a big Monday Night Win. Nonetheless, the Pack won dropping Pumpies record to a still impressive 7-1. This week we go to New England in honor of the Red Sox World Series win. The Patriots are 5 point road favorites over the Colts... this must be the first time that a 7-0 home team is an underdog. This week Pumpie channels the ghost of Nipsey Russel with this nugget....
"Last week I chose the Broncos
I was crowned the king of dolts.
This week, I shall redeem myself
and back the team of Colts!"
UNBIASED GIANTS FAN PICKS OF THE WEEK: Last week we went 1-2 to drop to 11-12-1. That late Dolphin TD kept us from our first 0-3 week. The Giants have a bye this week.
PHILADELPHIA 3 doggies over Dallas - This sets up an epic battle for next week's Giant game!
Broncos 3 doggies over DETROIT - You think the Bronco and Rockies fans have recovered from last week? Detroit is currently battling the Giants for a wild card slot and they are due for a loss.
JETS 3 1/2 doggies over Washington - What's the difference between The Jets and The Yankees? The Jets will get a 2nd half contribution from Clemens. This game is sandwiched between The New York City Marathon and the 6pm Knick home opener - creating a very long day for Al Trautwig! Speaking of the Knicks, Let's hope Al Sharpton keeps his word and is out there protesting against Isiah Thomas as fervently as he fought to get Imus fired from his radio show. There is no reason that Thomas, a phony failure has not been disciplined for being found guilty in court for sexually harrassing and subsequently firing a female coworker. NBA Commissioner David Stern is right when he criticizes the way the Dolans run that organization. The Knicks are a disgrace, and the horrible things that Thomas has been convicted of doing to this poor woman is far worse and purposefully more damaging than what Imus said about the Rutgers women. Let's hope the door to the Garden slams shut on Isiah as Imus triumphantly returns to the ABC studio directly across the street from MSG!
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Last week we introduced you to Nate Kizerian and his odd rendition of Hava Nagila. Continuing the Hava Nagila theme... here is a version of that classic song that is incredibly bizarre!!
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