This Friday, feel free to drop in here at NWOW as we will celebrate our 1 year anniversary of the blog with a special 75th column. You can even get it automatically delivered the minute it is posted through rss syndication.. And based on the quickness of some of the comments I know we have some subscribers out there.. Just type in http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/msNl at the rss prompt.
Here are a few entertaining things I have done over the last week… basically 2 movies and an international sporting event that many Americans outside of the New York Metropolitan Area seem to ignore… no it’s not soccer…
THE NY CITY MARATHON - This is the most puzzling sporting event that takes place in the United States. The Marathon is huge all across the world but mostly ignored here in the good ol’ U S of A.. EXCEPT for New York. .. It’s like soccer. .except the marathon is fun to watch..
The NYC Marathon was started in 1970 by Fred Lebow.. arguably one of the most important people in NY City history. He started the race as a few laps around Central Park and turned it into a multi million dollar operation that brings in tons and tons of money to the city’s economy. The race has come a long way since its humble beginnings.. The race goes through all 5 boros and has so many applicants that participants need to enter a lottery to draw a number to run the race.. Some of the elite runners are paid thousands of dollars in appearance fees, plus very generous prize money that comes from very generous corporate sponsors. Incidentally, Lebow whose original name was Fishel Lebowitz was raised in an observant Jewish household and changed the race to the first Sunday in November so it would never conflict with any of the Jewish holidays.
The marathon is now officially called the “ING NY City Marathon”… that’s the company with the nifty commercials (that apparently weren’t shown this year) where a person is sitting on a bench with an ING ad, and approached by a passerby asking “what is that?”… and as they explain what the company does, don’t realize that the passerby is speaking of some bizarre act going on behind the bench. For example one could ask .. “What is that”… and then says.. “Oh, ING yadda yadda yadda…” and then looking behind them says…”Oh that… that’s a homoerotic naked wrestling match between Borat and his giant producer sticking their tuchises in each other’s faces…” The scene did have a gay subtext, right?
My connection to the marathon - many years back I worked for a radio station that was affiliated with NBC Radio. I was able to hook up as a network freelancer covering NJ stories that might have a national interest… One Friday I called the network news desk to ask what kind of coverage would be available on Sunday night about the upcoming week’s marathon and was told.. “Uh we have nobody going.. You wanna go?”….. For the next few years, I was the man at the race. The network was able to hook me up with some press credentials, which involved my obtaining a press book outlining all kinds of interesting race related tidbits, including a tentative schedule of where lead runners would be at any given time during the race.
The race starts in Staten Island at the last exit before the Verrazano Bridge… I would park a few blocks away right near the payphone and make my way to the starting lane.. Keep in mind this was in the early 1990s pre cell phones.. although in ‘94 a friend kindly loaned me her cell phone for Marathon Weekend. You then walk through this enormous field filled with runners prepping for the race. The runners only do 2 things…. leave most of their clothes behind except for their racing outfits,….. and pish. Thanks to technology, their stuff left in Staten Island is now bar coded and retrieved by UPS and delivered to the finish line; other discarded clothing is donated to charity. There were tons of porta johns.. and a huge urinal that looked like a giant water slide! After leaving their clothes and taking care of the pre race pish, the runners would head to the bridge to await the start of the race.
After the race would start, it was a race for me to file my reports and get to the finish line to see the winners. As the runners ran through Hasidic Williamsburg.. (“Hey gib a kick Moishey… the goyishe women’s tuchises are sticking out of their shorts, like the tzitzis from Chaim Yankel… “), I went back to the payphone and filed 2 reports.. 1 of ‘em, about what just happened,… and a 2nd report that would air an hour later as a “live report” that according to the pr info would inform viewers.. “We are now a little more than an hour into the race and the lead runners are now crossing the 59th Street Bridge”… This gave me enough time to get to the finish line and not worry about finding a payphone.
I then jumped in the car and went to Manhattan taking the quickest possible route on Marathon Sunday… I drove through Staten Island back to NJ…. and then took the Turnpike to the Lincoln Tunnel. Once I was out of the Tunnel, I had to zip to the parking garage closest to the entrance to Central Park near Tavern on the Green. This was the only time I would ever park in a garage, but I was in a hurry, plus the network was reimbursing my expenses. The whole time I would be listening to the all news station so I could at least hear what was going on at the Marathon. After parking, it was off to the finish line where I would see my first part of the race…the wild scene at the finish line.
This week, I noticed a lot of runners had their names on their shirts… Usually they have a number. Back then a spotter would jot down the numbers as the runners entered the park and when enough time had elapsed, the PA announcer knew to announce the names of the probable finishers and congratulate them on their incredible feat. There is also a lot of post race puking going on at the Finish Line too. I would find a pay phone and do a report.. usually getting a phone line either at the Park or at the PR headquarters which back then was and still may be at the Jewish Guild for the Blind.. After my report was done.. I would feed some tape over the phone to the news desk and spend some time strolling around watching the foil jacketed finishers and there were masses of them board buses and subways as they went back to their everyday life. Then I would go home and watch ABC’s coverage which I had recorded on my VCR. The race is no longer carried live nationally, but is aired locally on Channel 4, and I have watched it every year except in 2004 when I was in Florida and couldn’t find ANY coverage.
There are some other interesting tidbits about the race.. In the first race in the post-Lebow era, 1994 winner German Silva almost blew it as he was about to enter Central Park, because he got distracted and ran in the wrong direction only to realize his error and get back on the right track. And you have to be 18 to run the race.. That rule was instituted after what I believe was the 1979 race when 9 year old Scott Black ran the race in 4:24... My recollection is so clear because we went to the same K-12 school; he was five grades behind me….. And now he even gets a mention in Wikipedia! And you should make it a point to be in NYC for Marathon weekend.. Just walking around Friday night through the City when all these people from all over the world are in town for the event is always a fun experience, and the people are always so friendly.
While everybody made a big deal about Lance Armstrong’s race last Sunday, and it was amazing how he hit his 3 hour goal… the most incredible performance by any runner was on November 1, 1992 when Fred Lebow ran his first NY City Marathon while suffering from brain cancer. Lebow ran the race with Grete Weitz at his side along with a multitude of other cancer victims in a major fundraising event. It took him 5 hours and 32 minutes, but Lebow finished that race and that was the year at the Guild for the Blind that every member of the press from every country would not leave the press room, listening to constant updates on how Fred was doing. Fred finished the race… and raised a ton of money. To this day a lot of people conduct their runs in conjunction with charity fund raisers… another tribute to one of the most incredible sporting events put together by possibly the most underrated person in New York City history.
Here is a radio report that I filed that day…
MOVIE NUMBER ONE - THE PRESTIGE - As Doug Henning used to say… “Magic… it’s an illusion”. This film directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento fame is definitely going to be considered for quite a few Oscars next year. It is hard to write about this movie without giving too much away since the film has a number of unexpected twists and turns. And I have decided not to include any spoilers in this column so I am very limited to what I can write. Basically, the film takes place in England in the early 1900s and tells the story of 2 magicians who were onetime best buds but end up developing a very very nasty rivalry. One of the magicians creates a trick where he puts 2 doors on opposite ends of a stage and is able to “teleport” himself in order to catch a ball thrown as he walks in one door and instantly walks out of the other door. The other magician figures out a way how to do the trick but becomes incredibly obsessed with how his rival does it. He actually kidnaps his rival’s assistant and offers a deal.. He releases his hostage in exchange for the secret behind the trick. His rival gives him a clue leading to a trip to the good ol’ US of A and introduces us to a very ambitious character who supposedly will spill the beans. You probably wont get it the first time you watch it.. But its always a good idea to pay a visit to IMDB afterwards to help understand it better. But wait till after you see it to go that site since there are so many spoilers there… it might take away from your enjoyment of an incredibly fantastic movie.
MOVIE NUMBER 2 - BORAT - Speaking of illusions… Borat is being pitched as documentary about a man from Kazakstan who travels across the country and meets “real people”. The young whippersnappers know the shtick from the Ali G Show, since Borat is actually Sacha Baron Cohen, an observant Jew just like Fishel Lebowitz. .Older fans will realize Cohen’s Borat shtick as the same stuff Tom Green used to do… and people in their 30s will know that this is all the same ambush interviewing that Stuttering John used to do on the Howard Stern show. IN reality this Candid Camera stuff was started by Allen Funt and Steve Allen back in the 1950s.
Mr. Cohen has done all of his publicity in character and you rarely even see the real Mr. Cohen. A former co worker of mine spent time on an Israel trip with him when they were in college, and didn’t even know he was funny. Cohen is now eliciting comparisons to Andy Kaufman… who also did a lot of appearances “in character” such as Tony Clifton, a man with bushy hair and a thick moustache who it turned out was not only Kaufman in disguise, but sometimes was actually one of Kaufman’s friends playing the same role. It’s cool to see that Kaufman is still inspiring a movie in 2006.
The illusion about the Borat movie is how many of these people he encounters are “real people“. The publicity surrounding the movie makes you think that this is “Coming to America” (this is beautiful - what is it? Velvet?) combined with a reality show. I started to wonder if some of this was staged when Borat was interviewed on an ABC affiliate’s morning show by a newscaster who looks exactly like the actor who played a dirty cop on a previous night’s USA Network rerun of “Law and Order SVU”. There have been press interviews with some of his “victims”… although one could speculate that those “victims” are actually actors in on the hoax and are part Cohen’s Kaufman-esque shtick.. The producer of the ABC affiliate’s news segment claims she was fired for booking Borat on the news show. On the other hand Alan Keyes makes a memorable appearance that just had to be spontaneous! Another terrific scene tales place at a rodeo shows how Borat walks the fine line of butchering the Star Spangled Banner without being offensive! You’ll want to hold on to your seat as you wait to see what happens… Equally brilliant was a scene at an evangelical revival church, although the participants were hilarious in their own right.. And Borat was just icing on the cake! The cool thing is you think you know what is going to happen, but then there is the unexpected twist…. As evidenced by a scene with a bear that looks like it’s a spoof of the shooting cow scene in Napoleon Dynamite; he also does a quick parody of the Blair Witch Project.
The movie is the funniest thing I have seen since Airplane! Borat has one incredibly abusrd encounter as he comes out of the shower in his hotel room and catches his chubby producer pleasuring himself to a picture of a woman Borat is madly in love with. (His encounter with this woman later in the movie is just plain jaw dropping) The two men get into a fight, and then chase each other naked through the hotel where they end up pummeling each other during a session of the Annual Mortgage Broker’s Convention! The fact that Cohen’s face gets so close to this guys naked tuchis… there’s more tuchis shown here than the goyishe wedgie women in Williamsburg - makes you wonder about how far a straight actor will go for his art…
Trophy Wife by the way called it a 4 bladder movie, and these 2 films might be up for some serious awards on Oscar Night.. Assuming the Academy has a sense of humor!
See ya Friday with our special one year anniversary column!!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
2006 Election Preview
This past weekend, Trophy Wife and I went to a film festival where they were showing the classic movie "Goodbye Columbus".. After the movie we headed off to a diner where we struck up a conversation with some people at another table who had just come back from the Devils game where they had just blanked the Columbus Blue Jackets 1-0,... This made me wonder if at the end of the game they started to chant.... "Goodbye Columbus"
That was not the only Devil that night…before the movie started, the local Democrat Mayor dropped by en route to a Halloween party dressed in a devil costume, prompting one weisenheimer in the back row to yell out.. "Hey.. she's dressed as a Republican". Another more politically astute wiseacre would have guessed she was dressed as her mayoral opponent in the ‘99 Democratic Primary.. According to a local blogger‘s blog, after all these years, the mayor and her cohorts dislike this guy so much that they encourage Democrats to NOT vote for him in party races so that he ends up with the lowest vote total amongst all the Democrats.
It was good timing to see Goodbye Columbus the week before Election Day.. Even though the movie based on the Phillip Roth book is about 2 Jewish families, it really is about the Haves and The Have Nots… Richard Benjamin plays Neil Klugman.. (no relation to Jack who plays his girlfriend’s dad!) your typical Democrat struggling working class guy who is more concerned with stuff like his era’s rudeness and disrespect towards blacks. He also spends time listening to a wedding guest complain about how hard he works and makes virtually no money, while his less smart brother is so rich even though he is a self proclaimed “gonniff”.. literally meaning thief but in context… “not the most ethical businessman”…. Neil’s girlfriend Brenda Patimkin is played by Ali McGraw, and her whole family is more concerned with protecting their wealth, hiding their "furniture from when we were poor" , and making sure that the country club pool is properly chlorinated. The movie gets its title from Brenda’s incredibly shallow brother who always listens to his “Goodbye Columbus” record.
These party differences continue today… The GOP is shivering in their boots as the Democrats make their big moves in Congress. Hopefully Alberich and his liberal friends will keep a low profile over the next week to keep the "l" work out of the political rhetoric. But there are some interesting election notes coming down the stretch.
THE DEMOCRAT I WON’T VOTE FOR - I am breaking with one tradition this year.. I will not be voting for one of the Democrats who is running for a county seat. I had a little verbal exchange with him in 2004, and wrongly assumed he was a Republican until I was speaking with a local big macher Democrat about what a shmuck this guy is.. and was informed that he is actually.. gasp…. a fellow Democrat!
The guy owns a company that "managed" the condo complex I used to live in. The moral of the story is, there were some board members who were just absolutely horrible people... and it is the job of a condo management company to look out for the best interests of the condo community first , and to work around sleazy board members when the situation arises. Heck, the board tampered with election results while the management company just sat and watched… so I am sure some laws were broken too.
In my situation, due to his poor leadership, this condo management company made numerous billing mistakes.. .. and these evil condo board members took advantage of these mistakes by fining residents and booting cars and all kinds of other insanity. As I mentioned in a previous column I filed a complaint against those board members at the state capitol, and have spoken with lawmakers about legislation to put an end to this madness. . For more info… see the Feb. 27th column in the archives. I also found out that one of those idiot board members recently sold his condo - hopefully he bought a house so he won’t annoy other condo residents.
I admit that the management company was not 100 percent at fault here.. however, there is a point where a condo mgmt company has to step in and just say "enough!". For example, my current condo complex has a good board, but at a meeting some residents were going off on a tangent about a silly issue that was beyond the scope of the board and management company.. (It had to do with owners who rent their units not paying fines). At one point, as residents tried to loudly find a scapegoat, the person from the condo management company just got up and said... "enough!" …………..and then calmly explained how residents, boards, and management companies have to work together and outlined that rules spell out exactly what boards and management companies‘ responsibilities are..
The errors of the old condo’s management company finally reached their peak and I had enough. Not only was this corrupt board breaking rules in the bylaws, but I was getting fines for sloppy billing mistakes, so I went to the company's office and this politician came outside to speak with me where I asked him in no uncertain terms. "How do you allow your company to be run so poorly?" He had no satisfying answer.. Whereas my follow up question was “If people vote for you, will you run the county and/or state into the ground as badly as your company?”…
Next Tuesday when it is time to vote.. I will keep my word… Unfortunately there are no independents on the ballots so I will vote for a Republican. This Republican is a huge underdog and won't win.. but he will get that one extra vote from me. Hopefully if this person ever decides to run in a future election, enough of us who know the real story, will step forward to volunteer for his primary opponent.
THE DIRTY NJ SENATE RACE - Menendez vs Kean - What exactly has Tom Kean Jr. accomplished? And, did you know the seats he held in the state government were jobs he "earned" by appointment.. Kind of like Gerald Ford. The only election he ran.. he lost.. and how can he possibly win if his entire advertising campaign is based on negative Menendez ads? Kean also busted Menendez’s chops when Menendez stepped into a quagmire at a Jewish forum at a Livingston synagogue when he said he would be supporting Joe Lieberman’s independent Connecticut Senate bid.. He later back pedaled when the Dem bigshots told him it’s a no no to speak out against the Democrat candidate Ned Lamont. Some Jewish voters got annoyed, and Kean had a field day with that one..
One thing to Kean's credit.. he has separated himself from Bush and criticized this useless war.. and if he were to win.. which he won't.. it would be amusing to see how ostracized he would be by the other Senate Republicans.
THE FILTHY TENNESEE RACE - This one is getting national attention with the cheap shot ads produced by the Republicans supporting Bob Corker in his race against Democrat Harold Ford. The ads imply that Ford was involved with porn and loose babes. Corker claims he had nothing to do with the ads… and the Republican National Committee which paid for the commercial claims it “had no control” over it. That’s a bunch of bull… if the commercial they “control” had shown a little boy sharing his Coke with Mean Joe Greene.. they would have pulled that off the air in a Tennessee minute! Just further evidence that the RNC is a disgraceful dishonest cowardly organization!
THE KERRY COMMENTS - I actually agree with Kerry’s point - he in no way implied that only dumb kids join the military. Actually, a lot of people who need to make a livelihood enroll in the military as a way to support their families. And of course it is very admirable for people to serve our country, and they deserve to be saluted. However, one would think that military enrollment is currently down, since people don’t want to fight in a war that we have no business being involved in! Kerry’s point was you might want to find another vocation.. otherwise you might end up in Iraq and eventually dead like our other heroic soldiers who are only dead due to the incompetence of our current President. Then your heartbroken mom can be ridiculed by Bush’s media cronies just like Cindy Sheehan…
THE O’REILLY AND LIMBAUGH FACTOR - Rush Limbaugh made an ass out of himself making fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson related shaking and his inability to stand up straight.. remember the painkiller addicted Limbaugh was caught with an illegal supply of Viagra... he should be lucky if he could get his limp biscuit to stand up straight!
Then you have the Bill O'Reilly appearance on Letterman. I cant believe O’Reilly used to be a vanilla Channel 2 news anchor in the 80s! Despite what the right wingers were spinning.. Letterman was quite humorous... but the fact is Dave sees O’Reilly for what he is - a big mouth loser. Letterman asked him what is the big deal if we take our troops out of Iraq, and we ended the unnecessary deaths of our military heroes, To which O"Reilly chimed in that Iran would then invade a weakened Iraq and then oil prices would shoot up....
"Oil prices" chimed in Letterman... "our boys are dying because oil prices might go up?..."
If O'Reilly wasn’t such a buffoon he would have said there are grave dangers to other countries if Iran gets more powerful... but instead he took the evil Bush party line about oil prices and how they hurt the Bush pocket book.
And if this conversation took place at the Patinkin house in Goodbye Columbus... Neil's character would have been more concerned with the lives lost there, while Brenda’s family would have worried about oil. And her brother would go into his room to listen to his Goodbye Columbus record.
This is why on Election day... we should get our priorities straight and send a message to Bush that we don’t want our boys dying for his family's oil money... Last week, Columbus couldn’t beat the Devils.. But Tuesday is the day for us to beat the Republican Devils. It‘s time to say “Goodbye Columbus“….. and Goodbye Republicans!.
Now time for the pro picks...
Last week we went a disgraceful 4-10 while the season to date record is a lowly 12 games under .500 at 48-60-6. Amazingly, we predicted The Cardinals would win the World Series back in March, and that Dave Price would be a candidate to replace Bob Barker back on February 17th! Pumpstradamus has his pick of the week below...
GIANTS 13 faves over Houston – I am back on the Giants bandwagon. Leave a lot of time to get to the game if you are coming from NY since Sunday is also the NY City Marathon.
Atlanta 5 faves over DETROIT – The Falcons seem to have righted the ship after the Giant metldown.
Cincinnati 3 doggies over BALTIMORE – One would think that this would be the Bengals year due to the Steeler swoon, but if they don’t put away the Ravens, they will be 2 games back in the division.
WASHINGTON 3 doggies over Dallas – I’m not sold on Romo just yet.. and could the Skins really be this bad?
Green Bay 3 doggies over BUFFALO – The Pack looks better.. and they are actually 2-1 on the road.
Minnesota 5 faves over SAN FRANSISCO – A huge game for the Vikings if they want to contend for the Wild Card.
Indianapolis 3 doggies over NEW ENGLAND – Jeepers… I went against the Colts last wk in Denver and got burned… how do you pick against them? On the other hand the Patriots are looking damn good. Lets stick with the Colts.
Kansas City 2 doggies over ST. LOUIS – Those St. Louis fans are still celebrating the Cardinals lucky World Series win. Mediocre teams don’t win Super Bowls in the NFL and at the close of business Sunday, the rams will be 4-4.
CHICAGO 13 ½ faves over Miami – I’m not getting fooled again by the big spreads. Crummy teams have no chance against the Bears.. Let ‘em win this one.. then next wknd, Rutgers and The Giants can both defeat unbeaten teams.
TAMPA BAY 1 doggies over New Orleans – The Saints are America’s Team.. but only when they play at home. The Bucs are the only losing team in their division by the way.
JACKSONVILLE 9 ½ faves over Tennessee – Make sure the Titans get back in time for Tuesday so they can vote for Harold Ford.
SAN DIEGO 12 ½ over Cleveland – I am not a big Charger fan and Cleveland looked pretty good in their referee assisted win over The Jets. I think they will cover. See Pumpstradamus’s pick below
Denver 2 ½ doggies over PITTSBURGH – Last one still on the Steelers bandwagon should turn out the lights.
Oakland 7 ½ doggies over SEATTLE – Last week all the prognosticators (except me) went anti-Seattle because of their injuiries. Now everybody loves ‘em. I think the Raiders will cover this one.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK (so far 4-3-1 after last weeks Rams loss) – In honor of Goodbye Columbus… we go to the Buckeye State of Ohio for this week’s pick – and Pump says…. Let's go with the Browns, since Election Day is coming up and I have sudden horrific flashbacks of the 1992 campaign of California's "Governor Moonbeam" Jerry Brown. What's he up to these days??
That was not the only Devil that night…before the movie started, the local Democrat Mayor dropped by en route to a Halloween party dressed in a devil costume, prompting one weisenheimer in the back row to yell out.. "Hey.. she's dressed as a Republican". Another more politically astute wiseacre would have guessed she was dressed as her mayoral opponent in the ‘99 Democratic Primary.. According to a local blogger‘s blog, after all these years, the mayor and her cohorts dislike this guy so much that they encourage Democrats to NOT vote for him in party races so that he ends up with the lowest vote total amongst all the Democrats.
It was good timing to see Goodbye Columbus the week before Election Day.. Even though the movie based on the Phillip Roth book is about 2 Jewish families, it really is about the Haves and The Have Nots… Richard Benjamin plays Neil Klugman.. (no relation to Jack who plays his girlfriend’s dad!) your typical Democrat struggling working class guy who is more concerned with stuff like his era’s rudeness and disrespect towards blacks. He also spends time listening to a wedding guest complain about how hard he works and makes virtually no money, while his less smart brother is so rich even though he is a self proclaimed “gonniff”.. literally meaning thief but in context… “not the most ethical businessman”…. Neil’s girlfriend Brenda Patimkin is played by Ali McGraw, and her whole family is more concerned with protecting their wealth, hiding their "furniture from when we were poor" , and making sure that the country club pool is properly chlorinated. The movie gets its title from Brenda’s incredibly shallow brother who always listens to his “Goodbye Columbus” record.
These party differences continue today… The GOP is shivering in their boots as the Democrats make their big moves in Congress. Hopefully Alberich and his liberal friends will keep a low profile over the next week to keep the "l" work out of the political rhetoric. But there are some interesting election notes coming down the stretch.
THE DEMOCRAT I WON’T VOTE FOR - I am breaking with one tradition this year.. I will not be voting for one of the Democrats who is running for a county seat. I had a little verbal exchange with him in 2004, and wrongly assumed he was a Republican until I was speaking with a local big macher Democrat about what a shmuck this guy is.. and was informed that he is actually.. gasp…. a fellow Democrat!
The guy owns a company that "managed" the condo complex I used to live in. The moral of the story is, there were some board members who were just absolutely horrible people... and it is the job of a condo management company to look out for the best interests of the condo community first , and to work around sleazy board members when the situation arises. Heck, the board tampered with election results while the management company just sat and watched… so I am sure some laws were broken too.
In my situation, due to his poor leadership, this condo management company made numerous billing mistakes.. .. and these evil condo board members took advantage of these mistakes by fining residents and booting cars and all kinds of other insanity. As I mentioned in a previous column I filed a complaint against those board members at the state capitol, and have spoken with lawmakers about legislation to put an end to this madness. . For more info… see the Feb. 27th column in the archives. I also found out that one of those idiot board members recently sold his condo - hopefully he bought a house so he won’t annoy other condo residents.
I admit that the management company was not 100 percent at fault here.. however, there is a point where a condo mgmt company has to step in and just say "enough!". For example, my current condo complex has a good board, but at a meeting some residents were going off on a tangent about a silly issue that was beyond the scope of the board and management company.. (It had to do with owners who rent their units not paying fines). At one point, as residents tried to loudly find a scapegoat, the person from the condo management company just got up and said... "enough!" …………..and then calmly explained how residents, boards, and management companies have to work together and outlined that rules spell out exactly what boards and management companies‘ responsibilities are..
The errors of the old condo’s management company finally reached their peak and I had enough. Not only was this corrupt board breaking rules in the bylaws, but I was getting fines for sloppy billing mistakes, so I went to the company's office and this politician came outside to speak with me where I asked him in no uncertain terms. "How do you allow your company to be run so poorly?" He had no satisfying answer.. Whereas my follow up question was “If people vote for you, will you run the county and/or state into the ground as badly as your company?”…
Next Tuesday when it is time to vote.. I will keep my word… Unfortunately there are no independents on the ballots so I will vote for a Republican. This Republican is a huge underdog and won't win.. but he will get that one extra vote from me. Hopefully if this person ever decides to run in a future election, enough of us who know the real story, will step forward to volunteer for his primary opponent.
THE DIRTY NJ SENATE RACE - Menendez vs Kean - What exactly has Tom Kean Jr. accomplished? And, did you know the seats he held in the state government were jobs he "earned" by appointment.. Kind of like Gerald Ford. The only election he ran.. he lost.. and how can he possibly win if his entire advertising campaign is based on negative Menendez ads? Kean also busted Menendez’s chops when Menendez stepped into a quagmire at a Jewish forum at a Livingston synagogue when he said he would be supporting Joe Lieberman’s independent Connecticut Senate bid.. He later back pedaled when the Dem bigshots told him it’s a no no to speak out against the Democrat candidate Ned Lamont. Some Jewish voters got annoyed, and Kean had a field day with that one..
One thing to Kean's credit.. he has separated himself from Bush and criticized this useless war.. and if he were to win.. which he won't.. it would be amusing to see how ostracized he would be by the other Senate Republicans.
THE FILTHY TENNESEE RACE - This one is getting national attention with the cheap shot ads produced by the Republicans supporting Bob Corker in his race against Democrat Harold Ford. The ads imply that Ford was involved with porn and loose babes. Corker claims he had nothing to do with the ads… and the Republican National Committee which paid for the commercial claims it “had no control” over it. That’s a bunch of bull… if the commercial they “control” had shown a little boy sharing his Coke with Mean Joe Greene.. they would have pulled that off the air in a Tennessee minute! Just further evidence that the RNC is a disgraceful dishonest cowardly organization!
THE KERRY COMMENTS - I actually agree with Kerry’s point - he in no way implied that only dumb kids join the military. Actually, a lot of people who need to make a livelihood enroll in the military as a way to support their families. And of course it is very admirable for people to serve our country, and they deserve to be saluted. However, one would think that military enrollment is currently down, since people don’t want to fight in a war that we have no business being involved in! Kerry’s point was you might want to find another vocation.. otherwise you might end up in Iraq and eventually dead like our other heroic soldiers who are only dead due to the incompetence of our current President. Then your heartbroken mom can be ridiculed by Bush’s media cronies just like Cindy Sheehan…
THE O’REILLY AND LIMBAUGH FACTOR - Rush Limbaugh made an ass out of himself making fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson related shaking and his inability to stand up straight.. remember the painkiller addicted Limbaugh was caught with an illegal supply of Viagra... he should be lucky if he could get his limp biscuit to stand up straight!
Then you have the Bill O'Reilly appearance on Letterman. I cant believe O’Reilly used to be a vanilla Channel 2 news anchor in the 80s! Despite what the right wingers were spinning.. Letterman was quite humorous... but the fact is Dave sees O’Reilly for what he is - a big mouth loser. Letterman asked him what is the big deal if we take our troops out of Iraq, and we ended the unnecessary deaths of our military heroes, To which O"Reilly chimed in that Iran would then invade a weakened Iraq and then oil prices would shoot up....
"Oil prices" chimed in Letterman... "our boys are dying because oil prices might go up?..."
If O'Reilly wasn’t such a buffoon he would have said there are grave dangers to other countries if Iran gets more powerful... but instead he took the evil Bush party line about oil prices and how they hurt the Bush pocket book.
And if this conversation took place at the Patinkin house in Goodbye Columbus... Neil's character would have been more concerned with the lives lost there, while Brenda’s family would have worried about oil. And her brother would go into his room to listen to his Goodbye Columbus record.
This is why on Election day... we should get our priorities straight and send a message to Bush that we don’t want our boys dying for his family's oil money... Last week, Columbus couldn’t beat the Devils.. But Tuesday is the day for us to beat the Republican Devils. It‘s time to say “Goodbye Columbus“….. and Goodbye Republicans!.
Now time for the pro picks...
Last week we went a disgraceful 4-10 while the season to date record is a lowly 12 games under .500 at 48-60-6. Amazingly, we predicted The Cardinals would win the World Series back in March, and that Dave Price would be a candidate to replace Bob Barker back on February 17th! Pumpstradamus has his pick of the week below...
GIANTS 13 faves over Houston – I am back on the Giants bandwagon. Leave a lot of time to get to the game if you are coming from NY since Sunday is also the NY City Marathon.
Atlanta 5 faves over DETROIT – The Falcons seem to have righted the ship after the Giant metldown.
Cincinnati 3 doggies over BALTIMORE – One would think that this would be the Bengals year due to the Steeler swoon, but if they don’t put away the Ravens, they will be 2 games back in the division.
WASHINGTON 3 doggies over Dallas – I’m not sold on Romo just yet.. and could the Skins really be this bad?
Green Bay 3 doggies over BUFFALO – The Pack looks better.. and they are actually 2-1 on the road.
Minnesota 5 faves over SAN FRANSISCO – A huge game for the Vikings if they want to contend for the Wild Card.
Indianapolis 3 doggies over NEW ENGLAND – Jeepers… I went against the Colts last wk in Denver and got burned… how do you pick against them? On the other hand the Patriots are looking damn good. Lets stick with the Colts.
Kansas City 2 doggies over ST. LOUIS – Those St. Louis fans are still celebrating the Cardinals lucky World Series win. Mediocre teams don’t win Super Bowls in the NFL and at the close of business Sunday, the rams will be 4-4.
CHICAGO 13 ½ faves over Miami – I’m not getting fooled again by the big spreads. Crummy teams have no chance against the Bears.. Let ‘em win this one.. then next wknd, Rutgers and The Giants can both defeat unbeaten teams.
TAMPA BAY 1 doggies over New Orleans – The Saints are America’s Team.. but only when they play at home. The Bucs are the only losing team in their division by the way.
JACKSONVILLE 9 ½ faves over Tennessee – Make sure the Titans get back in time for Tuesday so they can vote for Harold Ford.
SAN DIEGO 12 ½ over Cleveland – I am not a big Charger fan and Cleveland looked pretty good in their referee assisted win over The Jets. I think they will cover. See Pumpstradamus’s pick below
Denver 2 ½ doggies over PITTSBURGH – Last one still on the Steelers bandwagon should turn out the lights.
Oakland 7 ½ doggies over SEATTLE – Last week all the prognosticators (except me) went anti-Seattle because of their injuiries. Now everybody loves ‘em. I think the Raiders will cover this one.
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK (so far 4-3-1 after last weeks Rams loss) – In honor of Goodbye Columbus… we go to the Buckeye State of Ohio for this week’s pick – and Pump says…. Let's go with the Browns, since Election Day is coming up and I have sudden horrific flashbacks of the 1992 campaign of California's "Governor Moonbeam" Jerry Brown. What's he up to these days??
Thursday, October 26, 2006
TV 3Q - Fall 2006: Have our Heroes on "Lost" Lost Viewers to "Heroes"?
Network TV has undergone a major transformation since the fall of 2004.. Looking back to that fateful fall, ABC was finding itself in a desperate situation.. No pun intended!. While CBS was making millions on the CSI franchise and NBC was loading up on Law and Orders, and FOX was counting shekels with American Idol, 24, and Sunday Night Cartoons.. ABC had turned into the network of irrelevance as their lineup consisted of shows with no buzz… except for the long running Monday Night Football which is only on for four months. (MNF is now airing on ESPN with monster ratings!)
Well along comes ABC with its 2004 fall line-up and lo and behold they had these 2 new hot shows... Desperate Housewives and Lost. (with a 3rd in the on deck circle - Grey’s Anatomy) DH was the first attempt at a prime time soap opera since the mid 1990s when Melrose Place ruled the roost at Fox... Two Melrose actors were hired to star in the new show, along with Teri Hatcher who had been in a notorious Seinfeld episode featuring the memorable quote… “They’re real and they’re fantastic!” ... DH was also seeking to become a humorous prime time soap.. something not seen since Dallas and Dynasty in the late 70s- early 80s.. although I’m not sure how much of that humor was actually intentional. DH also hired 2 Melrose actors plus vampy Nicolette Sheridan... who had been on the Dallas spin-off Knots Landing in the early 80s.. (The show actually premiered in the tail end of 1979)
Speaking of tail end.. Lost premiered with a premise of “a group of strangers brought together” when they survive a plane crash on some mysterious island.. and with a nod to Fox's popular X Files of the 90s... inspired conspiracies and theories and much water cooler talk and comments on the TV Blogs. Nonetheless, DH and Lost were going about it with a different tactic.. continuing storylines which means you pretty much need to follow the show on a weekly basis…or you can wait and buy the DVD... At the time of their premieres, 24 had been using that same playbook for 3 seasons and was increasing in popularity.
Usually baseball fans can just wait till the Post World Series November sweeps to get caught up with the new season. However, TV viewing has changed, the shows come out on DVD a season later.. and you can now watch most shows on-line the morning after they air. But then you have the dilemma of what to do if a show generates so much buzz that you want to start watching it from the first episode. For me, the baseball season basically ended with that Strike 3 looking on Carlos Beltran.. so now its time to catch up with what I have missed. So far I have only really seen 2 new shows.. One fantastic one and one ok one… and both have continuing storylines! This leads us to the TV quarterly report for the 4th quarter of 2006.. Aka the NWOW Fall Preview..
SUNDAY - For now, The Family Guy has been delegated to repeats on TBS and Cartoon Network.. I also try to see American Dad which has gotten a lot funnier but its hard to remember to watch it with NBC Sunday Night Football. Plus the Big East now has a Sunday Night! College Football game each week.. this week featuring the unbeaten Rutgers Scarlet Knights. A few weeks back I speculated if TV air hog Joe Buck would do an NFL game and World Series game on the same day… Its not possible since The Lions are off Sunday, but… will Chris Carlin do the Giants pre and post game show on WFAN and then scoot down to Piscataway in time to call the Rutgers game on WOR.. (Did you notice how many ads were in The Star Ledger hyping WOR's Arthur Frommer's appearance at the Travel Show in Westfield this weekend?)
DH has been very funny this season with more than a few laugh out loud knee slappers...Bree has 2 wacky kids with the goofy son pulling out a few funny lines.. especially when he makes fun of his ho of a sister who just spent the semester sleeping with her teacher. By the way, is it possible that maybe Mike is a bad guy and Orson is a good guy? Maybe Mike's phone number is on the dead girl because she left behind a clue as she was dying and Orson tried to kill him because he knows Mike was behind the dastardly crime. This question of who is good vs. who is bad leads us to Monday..
MONDAY - I’m kind of getting bored with Deal or No Deal and have started to wander back to How I Met Your Mother. I also try to catch CSI Miami at 10pm depending on who is on Monday Night Football. Of course once 24 comes back.. All bets are off. But the new must see show is on Mondays…. The incredibly original and fascinating “Heroes”… a show that takes the Lost idea… tossing a bunch of strangers into an odd situation and watching how they interact with each other. Heroes is a about several people who don’t know each other at first, but all possess - super powers, and are faced with the daunting task of saving the world from what looks to be a terrorist attack. All the superhero characters are quite fascinating, and tossed in the mix is a painter who has visions that create futuristic paintings that combined with time travel create a very entertaining show and a very confusing blog paragraph.
But this show also raises a lot of questions about which characters are good or. bad. Is the cheerleader’s dad a bad guy trying to fight good.. Or maybe he is a good guy who knows the truth…..that the super powers might actually be in the hands of some bad guys? It did have an amusing scene when a woman who does a sexy live cam web cast answers her door terrified that it might be her “criminal“ missing ex-husband… and finds a fan of hers who came to visit her from Japan!
TUESDAY - Jericho looks interesting.. But I only watched one episode.. Maybe I’ll catch it on CBS.com There is also the Law and Order twin bill.. Although I don’t think I have caught Criminal Intent yet this season. When SVU is a rerun I’ll catch Boston Legal… but that depends on if I catch CSI Miami on Monday.. I can’t handle back to back nights of David Caruso and William Shatner.. The two worst actors in all mankind!
WEDNESDAY - Lost is the first of 2 shows on the Wednesday schedule. I wrote about Lost last season and included my Lost theory last May 25 (see the archives) But, as they say in the NFL.. “Upon further review”. I am starting to believe that the writers are just making it up as they go along. So I have decided to just go along for the ride and not strain my brain to try to jump ahead of the writers. But one theme does stand out about “The Others”…. Is it possible that they really are the good guys?. Like the Cheerleaders dad on Heroes? Like Orson on DH? Like Senator Bob Menendez?
The other watchable show is the 2nd new show - The Nine.. But it might be just a matter of weeks before I go back to watching CSI NY which I have been catching on CBS.com. The Nine like Lost and Heroes takes characters who are total strangers and tosses them into an odd situation - this time they all survived a 52 hour hostage ordeal when they were held as captives during a bank robbery. Parts of the ordeal are shown each week in flashbacks.. But there are some interesting characters… including the teenage daughter of the bank manager who claims to have amnesia of the whole ordeal yet oddly visits the robber in prison. The other guy is Foote who seems to have a new lease on life….. yet I have a feeling that it will turn out he was the inside man on the bank job…(He left a gun in the bathroom after a failed suicide attempt. Or was it for Michael Corleone?). I think he has turned happy go lucky because he got away with a crime. But I could be wrong.. However I have heard that the writers scripted out the season in advance, so I may not be on a Lost wild goose chase..
THURSDAY - Haven’t seen anything yet.. Post baseball: Survivor and probably Grey’s Anatomy…. I just caught the 1st two episodes Thursday night…. I also like My Name is Earl,… but NBC has announced that it will soon turn over its 8pm hour to reality shows and game shows. GSN tried that out, and eventually phased out the reality.. But the idea of a game show hour sounds very intriguing to me.
FRIDAY - 1 vs. 100 - the new Bob Saget game show. Rumor has it that my old radio coworker “Young Chuck” (he looks like Mr. Scarborough) who appeared some years back on Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis will also be on this show. I like it.. It involves some brains unlike Deal or No Deal which is a game of chance played by people who don’t understand numbers and statistics. The 1 vs. 100 has potential.. Its 1 contestant trying to beat out 100 panelists playing for a progressive jackpot…… but if the contestant gets a wrong answer.. the money goes to the surviving panelists. This show could have some potential, if they make the questions tougher.
SATURDAY - Nothing except The Super Password Hour on GSN at 6pm. Graphite - Pencil… Aristophanes - Ridiculous!
CABLE - The only new show I have really noticed is MTV’s Parental Control an oddball show where parents who hate the person their son or daughter is dating and try to break them up by sending their beloved kid off on a date with one person they each choose. The audition process is amusing - and the dates are watched “live” by the parents at “home”.. In reality the dates are recorded, and the parents watch a taped version with the offensive boyfriend/girlfriend sitting with them on the couch making nasty comments at each other. It amazes me how disrespectful these young men and women are towards their boyfriend/girlfriend’s parents!
Aside from Larry King on CNN, the only other stuff I watch are the old game shows on GSN, Family Guy reruns, and movies on HBO. I also caught my first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm which I found to be quite entertaining.
One final TV thought: Did the premiere of Heroes cause the frustrating Lost to jump the shark? A lot of Lost fans feel jerked around because every answer leads to two more questions, while Heroes seems to have a sense that we know that inevitably all the people with "special powers" will ultimately unite. Lost will only be on a few more wks, go on hiatus for a few months and then return in Feb for four months without a rerun. ER was supposed to do the same, but NBC cancelled the hiatus after its ratings shot up this season.. maybe a spillover from hospital fans flipping over from the 9pm Grey‘s Anatomy on ABC? . Now, Lost is losing viewers to "Criminal Minds" with Mandy Patinkin, and watercooler buzz to Heroes.. Will ABC decide not to send it away for a few months? And doesn’t it face a tough task in early '07 against American Idol? And with a lot of bloggers kvetching about DH, and Grey's Anatomy getting a run for its money from CSI - could ABC end up back where it was in 2004?
Time for the picks.. I was all set to jump on the Washington bandwagon this week… this week the George Washington Bridge turned 75… my dad, also a George would have been 75 today, AND he married a woman from… Washington! As it turns out. The Skins are off this week… Oh well.. here are the picks for the teams that are playing…. Spreads are from Friday’s Star Ledger. Last week we went 6-7.. Year to date we are an embarrassing 44-50-6.
Tampa Bay 9 point doggies over NY GIANTS – Calm down… the Giants will win,… but NOT cover.
NY Jets 2 doggies over CLEVELAND – J-E-T-S… They have a better record than the Steelers!
San Fran 15 doggies over CHICAGO – Road doggies on a roll or are these spreads too big? And since Joe Buck is at the World Series.. Pat Sumerall is doing this game! Is it possible the rainouts could extend the World Series for a few extra weeks?
BENGALS 4 faves over Atlanta – Cincy has a shot as top dog in the division with the Ravens facing a tough road game.
GREEN BAY 4 faves over Arizona – Ron Pitts drew the short straw to get this game.. At least Gus Johnson doesn’t have to sit through this one..
TITANS 3 faves over Houston – This is the one Gus Johnson has to sit through…. And 82 Knick games too… (He still does the Knick games right?)
DENVER 2 ½ faves over Indiana – When was the last time the Colts were doggies? And is this an AFC Title Game Preview?
NEW ORLEANS 2 faves over Atlanta – I’ve learned my lesson to never go against the Saints at home!
Jacksonville 7 doggies over PHILADELPHIA – I like the Eagles to win but not cover.
St. Louis 9 ½ doggies over SAN DIEGO – Another odd spread… See Pumpstradamus’s comments below.
Pittsburgh 9 faves over OAKLAND – If the Steelers lose this one they are 2-5, and those Penguins are starting to look like they have a good young team.
Seattle 6 doggies over KANSAS CITY – I’m not as down on the injury plagued Seahawks as the other prognosticators… They just might win this game.
Dallas 5 doggies over CAROLINA – This may be the 1st time ever that I pick Dallas and not the Giants in the same week. Parcells will not let himself be embarrassed on national TV 2 wks in a row. And this just in from the set of Grey’s Anatomy: Isiah Washington is a big Cowboy fan and yelled “Romo” during his fight with the guy who plays George. Hey theres that George – Washington connection again.
MINNESOTA 2 doggies over New England – Home Doggies on Monday Night.
Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week – This week Pumpstradamus tries to improve on 4-2-1.. by going to Missouri the home of the big Senate race where Michael J Fox did that much talked about political spot for Claire McCaskill. St. Louis also might be home to the World Series Champs. Therefore for the Rams-Chargers game Pump predicts: “St. Louis because I was listening to Louie Armstrong this week.”
Well along comes ABC with its 2004 fall line-up and lo and behold they had these 2 new hot shows... Desperate Housewives and Lost. (with a 3rd in the on deck circle - Grey’s Anatomy) DH was the first attempt at a prime time soap opera since the mid 1990s when Melrose Place ruled the roost at Fox... Two Melrose actors were hired to star in the new show, along with Teri Hatcher who had been in a notorious Seinfeld episode featuring the memorable quote… “They’re real and they’re fantastic!” ... DH was also seeking to become a humorous prime time soap.. something not seen since Dallas and Dynasty in the late 70s- early 80s.. although I’m not sure how much of that humor was actually intentional. DH also hired 2 Melrose actors plus vampy Nicolette Sheridan... who had been on the Dallas spin-off Knots Landing in the early 80s.. (The show actually premiered in the tail end of 1979)
Speaking of tail end.. Lost premiered with a premise of “a group of strangers brought together” when they survive a plane crash on some mysterious island.. and with a nod to Fox's popular X Files of the 90s... inspired conspiracies and theories and much water cooler talk and comments on the TV Blogs. Nonetheless, DH and Lost were going about it with a different tactic.. continuing storylines which means you pretty much need to follow the show on a weekly basis…or you can wait and buy the DVD... At the time of their premieres, 24 had been using that same playbook for 3 seasons and was increasing in popularity.
Usually baseball fans can just wait till the Post World Series November sweeps to get caught up with the new season. However, TV viewing has changed, the shows come out on DVD a season later.. and you can now watch most shows on-line the morning after they air. But then you have the dilemma of what to do if a show generates so much buzz that you want to start watching it from the first episode. For me, the baseball season basically ended with that Strike 3 looking on Carlos Beltran.. so now its time to catch up with what I have missed. So far I have only really seen 2 new shows.. One fantastic one and one ok one… and both have continuing storylines! This leads us to the TV quarterly report for the 4th quarter of 2006.. Aka the NWOW Fall Preview..
SUNDAY - For now, The Family Guy has been delegated to repeats on TBS and Cartoon Network.. I also try to see American Dad which has gotten a lot funnier but its hard to remember to watch it with NBC Sunday Night Football. Plus the Big East now has a Sunday Night! College Football game each week.. this week featuring the unbeaten Rutgers Scarlet Knights. A few weeks back I speculated if TV air hog Joe Buck would do an NFL game and World Series game on the same day… Its not possible since The Lions are off Sunday, but… will Chris Carlin do the Giants pre and post game show on WFAN and then scoot down to Piscataway in time to call the Rutgers game on WOR.. (Did you notice how many ads were in The Star Ledger hyping WOR's Arthur Frommer's appearance at the Travel Show in Westfield this weekend?)
DH has been very funny this season with more than a few laugh out loud knee slappers...Bree has 2 wacky kids with the goofy son pulling out a few funny lines.. especially when he makes fun of his ho of a sister who just spent the semester sleeping with her teacher. By the way, is it possible that maybe Mike is a bad guy and Orson is a good guy? Maybe Mike's phone number is on the dead girl because she left behind a clue as she was dying and Orson tried to kill him because he knows Mike was behind the dastardly crime. This question of who is good vs. who is bad leads us to Monday..
MONDAY - I’m kind of getting bored with Deal or No Deal and have started to wander back to How I Met Your Mother. I also try to catch CSI Miami at 10pm depending on who is on Monday Night Football. Of course once 24 comes back.. All bets are off. But the new must see show is on Mondays…. The incredibly original and fascinating “Heroes”… a show that takes the Lost idea… tossing a bunch of strangers into an odd situation and watching how they interact with each other. Heroes is a about several people who don’t know each other at first, but all possess - super powers, and are faced with the daunting task of saving the world from what looks to be a terrorist attack. All the superhero characters are quite fascinating, and tossed in the mix is a painter who has visions that create futuristic paintings that combined with time travel create a very entertaining show and a very confusing blog paragraph.
But this show also raises a lot of questions about which characters are good or. bad. Is the cheerleader’s dad a bad guy trying to fight good.. Or maybe he is a good guy who knows the truth…..that the super powers might actually be in the hands of some bad guys? It did have an amusing scene when a woman who does a sexy live cam web cast answers her door terrified that it might be her “criminal“ missing ex-husband… and finds a fan of hers who came to visit her from Japan!
TUESDAY - Jericho looks interesting.. But I only watched one episode.. Maybe I’ll catch it on CBS.com There is also the Law and Order twin bill.. Although I don’t think I have caught Criminal Intent yet this season. When SVU is a rerun I’ll catch Boston Legal… but that depends on if I catch CSI Miami on Monday.. I can’t handle back to back nights of David Caruso and William Shatner.. The two worst actors in all mankind!
WEDNESDAY - Lost is the first of 2 shows on the Wednesday schedule. I wrote about Lost last season and included my Lost theory last May 25 (see the archives) But, as they say in the NFL.. “Upon further review”. I am starting to believe that the writers are just making it up as they go along. So I have decided to just go along for the ride and not strain my brain to try to jump ahead of the writers. But one theme does stand out about “The Others”…. Is it possible that they really are the good guys?. Like the Cheerleaders dad on Heroes? Like Orson on DH? Like Senator Bob Menendez?
The other watchable show is the 2nd new show - The Nine.. But it might be just a matter of weeks before I go back to watching CSI NY which I have been catching on CBS.com. The Nine like Lost and Heroes takes characters who are total strangers and tosses them into an odd situation - this time they all survived a 52 hour hostage ordeal when they were held as captives during a bank robbery. Parts of the ordeal are shown each week in flashbacks.. But there are some interesting characters… including the teenage daughter of the bank manager who claims to have amnesia of the whole ordeal yet oddly visits the robber in prison. The other guy is Foote who seems to have a new lease on life….. yet I have a feeling that it will turn out he was the inside man on the bank job…(He left a gun in the bathroom after a failed suicide attempt. Or was it for Michael Corleone?). I think he has turned happy go lucky because he got away with a crime. But I could be wrong.. However I have heard that the writers scripted out the season in advance, so I may not be on a Lost wild goose chase..
THURSDAY - Haven’t seen anything yet.. Post baseball: Survivor and probably Grey’s Anatomy…. I just caught the 1st two episodes Thursday night…. I also like My Name is Earl,… but NBC has announced that it will soon turn over its 8pm hour to reality shows and game shows. GSN tried that out, and eventually phased out the reality.. But the idea of a game show hour sounds very intriguing to me.
FRIDAY - 1 vs. 100 - the new Bob Saget game show. Rumor has it that my old radio coworker “Young Chuck” (he looks like Mr. Scarborough) who appeared some years back on Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis will also be on this show. I like it.. It involves some brains unlike Deal or No Deal which is a game of chance played by people who don’t understand numbers and statistics. The 1 vs. 100 has potential.. Its 1 contestant trying to beat out 100 panelists playing for a progressive jackpot…… but if the contestant gets a wrong answer.. the money goes to the surviving panelists. This show could have some potential, if they make the questions tougher.
SATURDAY - Nothing except The Super Password Hour on GSN at 6pm. Graphite - Pencil… Aristophanes - Ridiculous!
CABLE - The only new show I have really noticed is MTV’s Parental Control an oddball show where parents who hate the person their son or daughter is dating and try to break them up by sending their beloved kid off on a date with one person they each choose. The audition process is amusing - and the dates are watched “live” by the parents at “home”.. In reality the dates are recorded, and the parents watch a taped version with the offensive boyfriend/girlfriend sitting with them on the couch making nasty comments at each other. It amazes me how disrespectful these young men and women are towards their boyfriend/girlfriend’s parents!
Aside from Larry King on CNN, the only other stuff I watch are the old game shows on GSN, Family Guy reruns, and movies on HBO. I also caught my first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm which I found to be quite entertaining.
One final TV thought: Did the premiere of Heroes cause the frustrating Lost to jump the shark? A lot of Lost fans feel jerked around because every answer leads to two more questions, while Heroes seems to have a sense that we know that inevitably all the people with "special powers" will ultimately unite. Lost will only be on a few more wks, go on hiatus for a few months and then return in Feb for four months without a rerun. ER was supposed to do the same, but NBC cancelled the hiatus after its ratings shot up this season.. maybe a spillover from hospital fans flipping over from the 9pm Grey‘s Anatomy on ABC? . Now, Lost is losing viewers to "Criminal Minds" with Mandy Patinkin, and watercooler buzz to Heroes.. Will ABC decide not to send it away for a few months? And doesn’t it face a tough task in early '07 against American Idol? And with a lot of bloggers kvetching about DH, and Grey's Anatomy getting a run for its money from CSI - could ABC end up back where it was in 2004?
Time for the picks.. I was all set to jump on the Washington bandwagon this week… this week the George Washington Bridge turned 75… my dad, also a George would have been 75 today, AND he married a woman from… Washington! As it turns out. The Skins are off this week… Oh well.. here are the picks for the teams that are playing…. Spreads are from Friday’s Star Ledger. Last week we went 6-7.. Year to date we are an embarrassing 44-50-6.
Tampa Bay 9 point doggies over NY GIANTS – Calm down… the Giants will win,… but NOT cover.
NY Jets 2 doggies over CLEVELAND – J-E-T-S… They have a better record than the Steelers!
San Fran 15 doggies over CHICAGO – Road doggies on a roll or are these spreads too big? And since Joe Buck is at the World Series.. Pat Sumerall is doing this game! Is it possible the rainouts could extend the World Series for a few extra weeks?
BENGALS 4 faves over Atlanta – Cincy has a shot as top dog in the division with the Ravens facing a tough road game.
GREEN BAY 4 faves over Arizona – Ron Pitts drew the short straw to get this game.. At least Gus Johnson doesn’t have to sit through this one..
TITANS 3 faves over Houston – This is the one Gus Johnson has to sit through…. And 82 Knick games too… (He still does the Knick games right?)
DENVER 2 ½ faves over Indiana – When was the last time the Colts were doggies? And is this an AFC Title Game Preview?
NEW ORLEANS 2 faves over Atlanta – I’ve learned my lesson to never go against the Saints at home!
Jacksonville 7 doggies over PHILADELPHIA – I like the Eagles to win but not cover.
St. Louis 9 ½ doggies over SAN DIEGO – Another odd spread… See Pumpstradamus’s comments below.
Pittsburgh 9 faves over OAKLAND – If the Steelers lose this one they are 2-5, and those Penguins are starting to look like they have a good young team.
Seattle 6 doggies over KANSAS CITY – I’m not as down on the injury plagued Seahawks as the other prognosticators… They just might win this game.
Dallas 5 doggies over CAROLINA – This may be the 1st time ever that I pick Dallas and not the Giants in the same week. Parcells will not let himself be embarrassed on national TV 2 wks in a row. And this just in from the set of Grey’s Anatomy: Isiah Washington is a big Cowboy fan and yelled “Romo” during his fight with the guy who plays George. Hey theres that George – Washington connection again.
MINNESOTA 2 doggies over New England – Home Doggies on Monday Night.
Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week – This week Pumpstradamus tries to improve on 4-2-1.. by going to Missouri the home of the big Senate race where Michael J Fox did that much talked about political spot for Claire McCaskill. St. Louis also might be home to the World Series Champs. Therefore for the Rams-Chargers game Pump predicts: “St. Louis because I was listening to Louie Armstrong this week.”
Friday, October 20, 2006
Sleazy Karr Salesman
Before we get to today's regularly scheduled column and NFL picks... I just wanted to briefly address the gut wrenching Mets loss in the NLCS to St. Louis. My buddy Paul in L.I. text messaged me after the game last night and said this was the worst Met loss ever... Maybe it's because it was fresh in his mind but frankly the Kenny Rogers bases loaded walk in '99 and the loss to the Yankees in 2000 were much more bitter than this one.
Frankly, it reached a point where the Mets were playing with house money. Considering 2 of their 4 scheduled playoff starters were injured, and we got only one inning out of Steve Trachsel, I am actually quite impressed that the series went this far. Amazingly had they won Game 7 its likely the unheralded Oliver Perez would have won the MVP.. a player the Mets only traded for because reliever Duaner Sanchez was injured in a car crash. Nonetheless, no matter how you twist and turn there really is nothing Willie could have done differently... Aaron Heilman was the man I wanted out there in a tie game in the 9th inning of Game 7.
Which leads me to my turning point of the Series.. and you might find this strange.. but I think it was the 2 run double So Taguchi hit off Billy Wagner in the 9th inning of Game 6 which turned a 4-0 lead into 4-2. Wagner's inability to get out of that inning without giving up the runs caused Willie and the Met fans to question his intestinal fortitude. I'm not overly concerned about the Game 2 meltdown.. Wagner was due to have a bad game, and frankly if he kept the game tied and that game went extra innings, the Met bullpen would not have been as rested as it needed to be for the subsequent games. But the book says, the stopper pitches the 9th in a tied home game since there is no way he can get the save. Yet, here were all the Met fans praying that Heilman's batting spot would not come up in the 8th so he and not Wagner would be out there in the 9th. That speaks volumes about how much the team relies on its stopper. And who knows.. maybe Wagner might not have given up that 2 run dinger to light hitting Yadier Molina.
By the way, it should have been 5-1.. but Endy Chavez's gravity defying catch behind the AIG sign stole 2 runs from the Cards. Too bad it wasn't ING with the commercial with the person sitting on the park bench that has ING on it. I could just see the endorsements now.. hey what's that? Oh ING... its an investment firm.. yadda yadda yadda... No.. I mean behind that... Oh that? Thats Endy Chavez reaching over the fence stealing a 2 run homer from Scott Rolen!
Here is something in the news this week that just grinds my gears!
John Mark Karr - is he a pedophile or a master media manipulator?
Here is a guy nobody ever heard of teaching little kiddies in Thailand. Next thing you know, he is arrested as the long awaited suspect in the murder of poor little Jon-Benet Ramsey... after his apparent "confession" to a college professor in a series of emails. The guy is flown here first class.. but the case falls apart since his DNA was not found on the poor little girl and he is cut loose. Subsequent kiddie porn charges are also dropped after the computer that holds the evidence - was lost. Are we all caught up now?
So Monday night I was watching Larry King Live and 2 things stood out about that hour long interview. First, Karr doesn’t deny that he is thinking of having a sex change. Folks, if you don't deny it.. that means you’re having one.. I mean c'mon... any guy who is asked if he is thinking of being deshmeckelized... the technical term for the procedure,.... and doesn’t strongly deny it immediately.. is thinking about it!
Mr. Karr also showed great enthusiasm to selling his story as a book and/or movie.
Here is my question....
Did Mr. Karr make the whole Jon Benet thing up so he could write a book to make a million dollars? Is Karr selling himself and his story to pay for his expensive sex change operation?
The media just loves to jump on certain bandwagons. Jon Benet Ramsey is one of them. Does this mean that others wanting expensive sex change operations will falsely confess to a crime and then write a book about their brush with fame? How about a seriously ill person who can't afford a kidney, heart and/or liver transplant? Will they confess to killing OJ Simpson's wife so they can raise the money for their surgery?
And one other aspect that is also disturbing.. there is a new talk show hosted by this guy named Keith Ablow. He also interviewed Mr. Karr and then chatted with him "off camera" and would you believe.. Mr. Karr exhibits a totally different personality "off camera"? The only exception was he was being recorded on a hidden cam and we got to hear Mr. Karr discuss such nuggets about acceptable scenarios involving physical contact with children. Was this part of Mr. Karr's manipulation of the media? And is Abelow being ethical about the "hidden camera" even though he says it helped expose a person he says is a pedophile?
And why doesn’t Mr. Karr just go away? And an even scarier thought... if he is a pedophile, will he be able to disappear into the woodwork under his new female identity? Or will this creep re-emerge one day as a woman who calls himself.... Jon Benet Ramsey?
Now on to the picks... Last week we went 8-5... 2 straight winning weeks folks.. and the season to date record is 38-43-6. The ever popular Pumpstradamus lost his game and his record is 3-2-1.. (He was telling people it was 3-1-2 until we told him the tie goes last!)
JETS 3 ½ faves over Detroit – Unlike the Yankees, this NY team can beat a team from Detroit.. See Pumpstradamus’s pick below.
San Diego 5 faves over KC – This game could seriously damage the Chiefs wild card hopes
Jacksonville 10 faves over HOUSTON – The Texans have their first half win.. see ya in Nov or Dec for win #2.
New England 5 faves over BUFFALO – Wow.. another 1pm road favorite. The fans can leave early to get home for the 4 o’clock games
Pittsburgh 2 ½ faves over ATLANTA – Did both of these teams make a statement last wk? If so, 2 and a half may be a very generous spread.
CINCINATI 3 ½ faves over Carolina – Tough game for the Bengals, but I cant see them as a .500 team if they lose this game.
PHILADELPHIA 5 over Tampa Bay – Bucs fans are looking at those playoff years as a thing of the past.
Green Bay 5 doggies over MIAMI – Ladies and Gentlemen.. a 1 o’clock doggie. The only one for this wk! I don’t respect the Dolphins enough to cover and I have been so busy watching the Mets this week, I didn’t see if GB traded Favre….
Denver 4 ½ faves over CLEVELAND – Did you take my advice and take the Raiders to cover last wk? The Broncs don’t score a lot, but this spread looks very do-able.
INDIANAPOLIS 10 faves over Washington – A very deceptive 5-0… should become 6-0 thanks to the Skins who are in must-win situation in a very tough division.
SEATTLE 6 ½ faves over Minnesota – Lotsa bad blood between these 2 teams… they like each other like Scott Rolen and Tony LaRussa.. That phony hug after Game 7 was as good as an acting job as Tom Kean Jrs. concession call to Senator Menendez will be on Election Night.
Arizona 3 faves over OAKLAND – Shouldn’t this be the first win for Oakland? CBS is putting Tony Siragusa in the booth as the color man for this game by the way. Should be a fun game for the die hards who have the NFL package.
Giants 3 ½ doggies over DALLAS – Only the second doggie pick of the wknd. Disclaimer: This pick comes from a Giants fan Cowboys hater. Take this pick with a grain of salt.
PUMPSTERDAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK; 3-2-1 so far.. This wk the Great Pumpsterdamus picks NY over Detroit in both the NFL and The World Series. Note from Nate: Maybe Pumpie should NOT send me his picks on Thursday afternoons.
OK Mets fans.. lets all sing together from The Life of Brian….. “Always look at the bright side of life.. doo doo … doo doo doo doo doo doo…
Frankly, it reached a point where the Mets were playing with house money. Considering 2 of their 4 scheduled playoff starters were injured, and we got only one inning out of Steve Trachsel, I am actually quite impressed that the series went this far. Amazingly had they won Game 7 its likely the unheralded Oliver Perez would have won the MVP.. a player the Mets only traded for because reliever Duaner Sanchez was injured in a car crash. Nonetheless, no matter how you twist and turn there really is nothing Willie could have done differently... Aaron Heilman was the man I wanted out there in a tie game in the 9th inning of Game 7.
Which leads me to my turning point of the Series.. and you might find this strange.. but I think it was the 2 run double So Taguchi hit off Billy Wagner in the 9th inning of Game 6 which turned a 4-0 lead into 4-2. Wagner's inability to get out of that inning without giving up the runs caused Willie and the Met fans to question his intestinal fortitude. I'm not overly concerned about the Game 2 meltdown.. Wagner was due to have a bad game, and frankly if he kept the game tied and that game went extra innings, the Met bullpen would not have been as rested as it needed to be for the subsequent games. But the book says, the stopper pitches the 9th in a tied home game since there is no way he can get the save. Yet, here were all the Met fans praying that Heilman's batting spot would not come up in the 8th so he and not Wagner would be out there in the 9th. That speaks volumes about how much the team relies on its stopper. And who knows.. maybe Wagner might not have given up that 2 run dinger to light hitting Yadier Molina.
By the way, it should have been 5-1.. but Endy Chavez's gravity defying catch behind the AIG sign stole 2 runs from the Cards. Too bad it wasn't ING with the commercial with the person sitting on the park bench that has ING on it. I could just see the endorsements now.. hey what's that? Oh ING... its an investment firm.. yadda yadda yadda... No.. I mean behind that... Oh that? Thats Endy Chavez reaching over the fence stealing a 2 run homer from Scott Rolen!
Here is something in the news this week that just grinds my gears!
John Mark Karr - is he a pedophile or a master media manipulator?
Here is a guy nobody ever heard of teaching little kiddies in Thailand. Next thing you know, he is arrested as the long awaited suspect in the murder of poor little Jon-Benet Ramsey... after his apparent "confession" to a college professor in a series of emails. The guy is flown here first class.. but the case falls apart since his DNA was not found on the poor little girl and he is cut loose. Subsequent kiddie porn charges are also dropped after the computer that holds the evidence - was lost. Are we all caught up now?
So Monday night I was watching Larry King Live and 2 things stood out about that hour long interview. First, Karr doesn’t deny that he is thinking of having a sex change. Folks, if you don't deny it.. that means you’re having one.. I mean c'mon... any guy who is asked if he is thinking of being deshmeckelized... the technical term for the procedure,.... and doesn’t strongly deny it immediately.. is thinking about it!
Mr. Karr also showed great enthusiasm to selling his story as a book and/or movie.
Here is my question....
Did Mr. Karr make the whole Jon Benet thing up so he could write a book to make a million dollars? Is Karr selling himself and his story to pay for his expensive sex change operation?
The media just loves to jump on certain bandwagons. Jon Benet Ramsey is one of them. Does this mean that others wanting expensive sex change operations will falsely confess to a crime and then write a book about their brush with fame? How about a seriously ill person who can't afford a kidney, heart and/or liver transplant? Will they confess to killing OJ Simpson's wife so they can raise the money for their surgery?
And one other aspect that is also disturbing.. there is a new talk show hosted by this guy named Keith Ablow. He also interviewed Mr. Karr and then chatted with him "off camera" and would you believe.. Mr. Karr exhibits a totally different personality "off camera"? The only exception was he was being recorded on a hidden cam and we got to hear Mr. Karr discuss such nuggets about acceptable scenarios involving physical contact with children. Was this part of Mr. Karr's manipulation of the media? And is Abelow being ethical about the "hidden camera" even though he says it helped expose a person he says is a pedophile?
And why doesn’t Mr. Karr just go away? And an even scarier thought... if he is a pedophile, will he be able to disappear into the woodwork under his new female identity? Or will this creep re-emerge one day as a woman who calls himself.... Jon Benet Ramsey?
Now on to the picks... Last week we went 8-5... 2 straight winning weeks folks.. and the season to date record is 38-43-6. The ever popular Pumpstradamus lost his game and his record is 3-2-1.. (He was telling people it was 3-1-2 until we told him the tie goes last!)
JETS 3 ½ faves over Detroit – Unlike the Yankees, this NY team can beat a team from Detroit.. See Pumpstradamus’s pick below.
San Diego 5 faves over KC – This game could seriously damage the Chiefs wild card hopes
Jacksonville 10 faves over HOUSTON – The Texans have their first half win.. see ya in Nov or Dec for win #2.
New England 5 faves over BUFFALO – Wow.. another 1pm road favorite. The fans can leave early to get home for the 4 o’clock games
Pittsburgh 2 ½ faves over ATLANTA – Did both of these teams make a statement last wk? If so, 2 and a half may be a very generous spread.
CINCINATI 3 ½ faves over Carolina – Tough game for the Bengals, but I cant see them as a .500 team if they lose this game.
PHILADELPHIA 5 over Tampa Bay – Bucs fans are looking at those playoff years as a thing of the past.
Green Bay 5 doggies over MIAMI – Ladies and Gentlemen.. a 1 o’clock doggie. The only one for this wk! I don’t respect the Dolphins enough to cover and I have been so busy watching the Mets this week, I didn’t see if GB traded Favre….
Denver 4 ½ faves over CLEVELAND – Did you take my advice and take the Raiders to cover last wk? The Broncs don’t score a lot, but this spread looks very do-able.
INDIANAPOLIS 10 faves over Washington – A very deceptive 5-0… should become 6-0 thanks to the Skins who are in must-win situation in a very tough division.
SEATTLE 6 ½ faves over Minnesota – Lotsa bad blood between these 2 teams… they like each other like Scott Rolen and Tony LaRussa.. That phony hug after Game 7 was as good as an acting job as Tom Kean Jrs. concession call to Senator Menendez will be on Election Night.
Arizona 3 faves over OAKLAND – Shouldn’t this be the first win for Oakland? CBS is putting Tony Siragusa in the booth as the color man for this game by the way. Should be a fun game for the die hards who have the NFL package.
Giants 3 ½ doggies over DALLAS – Only the second doggie pick of the wknd. Disclaimer: This pick comes from a Giants fan Cowboys hater. Take this pick with a grain of salt.
PUMPSTERDAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK; 3-2-1 so far.. This wk the Great Pumpsterdamus picks NY over Detroit in both the NFL and The World Series. Note from Nate: Maybe Pumpie should NOT send me his picks on Thursday afternoons.
OK Mets fans.. lets all sing together from The Life of Brian….. “Always look at the bright side of life.. doo doo … doo doo doo doo doo doo…
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Name Clearing Part II - A Movie Club Column
This blog started on Nov 10, 2005 with a Movie Club column where I announced that I would be watching the 6 Star Wars movies in chronological order... We're planning something special to celebrate the blog's 1 yr anniversary this Nov. 10th and on that day Cinemax will run all 6 Star Wars movies in chronological order. Coincidence? I‘ll leave it to my fellow conspiracy theorists to decide.
In last week's column we talked about the importance of a good name...This week, in honor of Columbus Day, we continue that theme with a Movie Club column about the Corleone Family in the Godfather and how one man built up the family's name, while another destroyed it. The Columbus Day tie-in is not because the movie is about an Italian family per se.. but because Columbus was the ultimate immigrant, and a large part of G2 is the story of how an immigrant came to America with nothing, and makes something out of his life... just like many of our ancestors.
The movie is not exactly a sequel to the Original Godfather - It is actually a half new story and half back story that was actually part of the original Godfather book -The producers smartly left the flashbacks out of the first movie because it would have been waaaaaay too long. Therefore part of the movie is the Robert DeNiro show as flashbacks tell the story of how Vito Corleone built his family and the rest is the Al Pacino Show as we see Michael Corleone destroy his family.. You will leave the movie saying the opposite of the old Nike campaign - I don’t like Mike!
Speaking of Mikes that I am not too happy with… I can’t believe the sheer audacity of Mike Francesa and Chris Russo of WFAN in their ambush interview with Corey Lidle on Monday afternoon. (Incidentally, Lidle and Thurman Munson are 2 Yankees to die in plane crashes on Jewish Holidays.. Lidle on Sukkot.. and Munson died on Tisha B’Av.) Lidle had been quoted in a tabloid paper saying the Yankee players were “unprepared” for the Detroit series… Mike and the Mad Dog ranted and raved that Lidle’s comments were dissing the beloved sacred Mother Teresa-esque manager Joe Torre.. Lidle called in to defend himself, and repeatedly told Mike and the Mad Dog that he was referring to the players not being prepared and that the comments were no reflection on Torre. However, the two co-hosts in full Bill O’Reilly/Nancy Grace attack mode claimed he was criticizing Torre. (Torre by the way was the first person to confirm to CNN Wed. afternoon the plane belonged to Cory Lidle - Mayor Bloomberg wouldn’t give out names pending notification of family members-And Lidle’s wife was in a plane from NY to CA the whole afternoon apparently unaware of what was going on.) The ultimate insult came when Lidle remarked how he was just enjoying the day in NY City when a friend text messaged him about the content of the radio show... so he called in. To which Mad Dog retorted… “How can you be enjoying the day so soon after the Yankees lost?”…. Now who the heck are these two guys to question Lidle for enjoying himself during his last 48 hours on Earth?
In the flashback portion of the movie, Vito comes off as being rather likeable.. As a young kid he watches his family slaughtered by a ruthless gangster in Corleone, Italy; He is then smuggled away to avoid getting killed, and ends up on a ship bound for New York. Once he arrives in Ellis Island, an overworked staffer just stamps his name as Corleone when it reality that was not his name but the town from which he emigrated. This kind of hits home for me because when my father and his parents came over here in 1948, they decided to “Americanize” their name to Kean.. but the worker at Ellis Island just wrote Kean for my dad, and "Keane" for my grandparents. From then on, they always had different spellings.
Vito advanced through the ranks purely by chance. He was in his apt minding his own business one day when his neighbor throws him a bag and asks him to hide it... and would you believe it was loaded with guns? Later the neighbor, played by a very young Bruno Kirby decides to repay him with an expensive rug... which he then steals from a rich neighbor. Ultimately, Vito ends up stealing clothes and re-selling them, and when the local gangster - Don Fannucci adds Vito to the list of people he terrifies with demands for "protection money", Vito decides to just kill him - and from then on, we see Vito as the man about town who goes around helping ladies who have issues with mean landlords. Sounds very sweet and sugary… almost like The Waltons.
The ultimate last flashback - is Pearl Harbor Day - Vito's birthday... the kids are grown up and are in their 20s and they all gather around the kitchen table preparing to surprise him with a cake. James Caan is there (At that time he was a big star post “Brian’s Song” and was credited as a "special appearance") plus there is a cameo by Abe Vigoda. You can see how well they all get along - except for Michael. He is the outsider not involved with the camraderie with his siblings, and when its time to surprise his dad with the cake, he just sits alone in the kitchen... moments after informing his family that he joined the Marines, as did many other people who signed up when the Japanese attacked us. His family is upset with him, but he doesn't care... but oddly enough later in life he would bellow to his siblings how they "disappoint" him. yet you wonder with his lousy husband and parenting skills whether they really cared too much for him, or just liked him because he is their brother.
The plot in the non-flashback part of the movie consists of Michael Corleone's battle with Florida Jewish gangster Hyman Roth. The 2 team up while simultaneously attempting to double cross each other. Roth, played by legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg lives in a small house in Florida and while watching a college football game tells Michael what a big sports fan he is, while at the same time admitting how much he admires Arnold Rothstein for fixing the 1919 World Series.
There are other interesting trends to note in this film… the movie starts at the Christening of Michael’s son and the law enforcement milling around the parking lot are enjoying hors deuvres and drinks… a contrast to the first movie where the cops were treated rather unfriendly during Vito’s daughter Connie’s wedding. That scene also introduces us to the fascinating Nevada Senator Geary whose mispronunciation of the name “Vito Corleone” makes one think the good Senator is an outsider to the hijinks of the Corleone family. Indeed it turns out that he is very aware of the names and pronunciations when he tells Michael in no uncertain terms that his kind of people are not welcome in his state. How interesting to see the tables turn when Senator Geary “blacks out” and wakes up to find his favorite hooker dead and bloodied… in a Corleone hotel… only to be reassured by Tom Hagen that everything is gonna be ok because it’s a Corleone hotel!
There is another smooth segue scene when Michael travels to Cuba to see Roth. This is the pre-Castro Cuba before the Revolution and Roth speaks lovingly of the Cuban government which does not regulate him as much as his nearby home base of Florida. During the New Year’s Eve visit, Michael notices the Cuban rebels and admires their ability to rise up against the establishment.. (which was a well placed dig at Roth and his old school way of doing things.) We then go to a flashback scene of Young Vito Corleone rebelling against gangster Don Fannucci by refusing to pay him the requested “protection money”.
There is also the character Pentangeli..portrayed in an Oscar winning performance by Michael V. Gazzo, another old school gangster who survives a choking by the Rosato brothers. In the beginning of the movie at the Christening he drunkenly starts leading the band in “Italian Music” only to see them perform “Pop Goes The Weasel”.. Later on in the movie he prepares to testify as a Gravano-esque snitch before Senator Leary’s committee investigating organized crime, only to back down when his brother flies in from Italy and sits in the audience to hear his testimony..
It was cool to see how young some of the actors are in this movie.. Bruno Kirby looks like a kid.. Danny Aiello who plays a Rosato brother looks exactly the same. And the character of Johnny Ola (who ultimately led to the demise of Fredo Corleone) is unrecognizable as he looks today as Uncle Junior on “The Sopranos”
The theme that ultimately sticks out in my mind is how Michael Corleone can’t hold his family together while conducting his business affairs while his dad was able to maintain the balance. Michael achieves shmuck status for killing his brother… and also for denying his kids time with their mom who leaves him after she gets tired of his shenanigans.. Michael doesn’t even go home for Christmas because he is too busy hanging out with Roth in Cuba. Instead he dispatches Tom Hagen to get his son a gift. The first movie ends with Michael closing a door to keep his wife out of business… in the 2nd movie she visits her children, and as she waits for her little son to give her a good bye kiss at the doorway Michael silently walks over and closes the door leaving her out in the cold. Now we see why his family did not like him.
Even though Michael disintegrates in this film… The Godfather Part II is a total masterpeace… with 2 legends DeNiro and Pacino.. who of course never share a scene… I may have to rent Heat to see that colossal acting duo work together.,…The screenplay is flawless as we go from flashback to “present time“. . and the characters are well fleshed out and very fascinating.. specifically Senator Leary, Hyman Roth and Pentageli. On a scale of 1 to 4 bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom.. Godfather Part II is a 4 bladder movie!
Ok now on to the picks… Last week we were 7-4-3; our record now is 30-38-6. Pumpstradamus is 3-1-1. Remember team in caps is at home… And this week for the 1pm games were taking all Road games except for 1!
Giants 3 point doggies over ATLANTA – Now that the NY Baseball team has shown Atlanta who is boss.. the Giants have a chance to throw around some muscle.
Miami 2 doggies over NY JETS – The Jets do well against the Dolphins.. but they are coming off such a horrendous loss.. do they deserve to be favorites?
Bengals 6 faves over TAMPA BAY – I get nervous after 5 or 6 weeks with these winless teams…but the Bengals are for superior.. For more logic see Pumpstradamus below.
Titans 10 doggies over WASHINGTON – See above and I’m not too impressed with the Skins..
Texans 13 doggies over DALLAS – Huh? Has Nate lost his marbles.. I don’t think the evil Cowboys will cover against Houston… (also remember I love the Giants and hate the Cowboys.. if youre betting shekels, keep that in mind!)
Seattle 3 faves over ST. LOUIS – Poor St. Louis fans.. looking ahead to Game 4 against the Mets and losing to Seattle on the same day. I don’t think the Mets are gonna sweep ‘em though… I like the Mets in 5.. but if they beat Carpenter Fri. night.. hmmmm.
Eagles 3 faves over NEW ORLEANS – How sacrilegious.. the Saints are at home and are America’s team.. but the Eagles look pretty good so far this year..
Panthers 3 doggies at BALTIMORE – Hey how many road teams are going to cover the 1pm games? I’m taking 8.. in honor of Shmini Atzeret… (which is the 8th day of Sukkot)
DETROIT 1 doggies over Buffalo – Hey a Detroit – NY matchup.. sounds like The World Series. The only difference is Detroit is going to win this one.. the only 1pm home team I am picking..
San Diego 10 OVER SAN FRANSISCO – The 49ers have been a halfway decent home team.. but despite not being a fan of double digit spreads.. this one is reasonable.
STEELERS 6 ½ faves over The Chiefs – I’m thisclose to jumping off the Steeler bandwagon – If KC plays like they did last week.. it could be a long season for Steeler fans. They always have the Penguins who looked good on Thurs night.. (By the way The Star Ledger again doesn’t have a Ranger beat writer!)
Oakland 15 doggies over DENVER – The Broncos will win.. but so far they have only averaged 12 points a game.. so that spread might be a bit too large.
ARIZONA 10 ½ doggies over Chicago – Probably a dopey pick but you gotta go with Home Dogs on Monday Night.. By the way.. isn’t MNF getting higher ratings on ESPN than the regular Bachelor – What About Brian garbage on ABC?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: This week in honor of Hyman Roth… we pick a game from his home state of Florida.. and since George Steinbrenner is home in Tampa watching the Mets in the playoffs while his Yankee season is done… we’re picking the Tampa Bay – Cincinatti game. The pick is Cincy because they are in Ohio, the home state of the Hamilton Ohio prosecutor who got caught on a courthouse closed circuit camera walking around butt naked.
In last week's column we talked about the importance of a good name...This week, in honor of Columbus Day, we continue that theme with a Movie Club column about the Corleone Family in the Godfather and how one man built up the family's name, while another destroyed it. The Columbus Day tie-in is not because the movie is about an Italian family per se.. but because Columbus was the ultimate immigrant, and a large part of G2 is the story of how an immigrant came to America with nothing, and makes something out of his life... just like many of our ancestors.
The movie is not exactly a sequel to the Original Godfather - It is actually a half new story and half back story that was actually part of the original Godfather book -The producers smartly left the flashbacks out of the first movie because it would have been waaaaaay too long. Therefore part of the movie is the Robert DeNiro show as flashbacks tell the story of how Vito Corleone built his family and the rest is the Al Pacino Show as we see Michael Corleone destroy his family.. You will leave the movie saying the opposite of the old Nike campaign - I don’t like Mike!
Speaking of Mikes that I am not too happy with… I can’t believe the sheer audacity of Mike Francesa and Chris Russo of WFAN in their ambush interview with Corey Lidle on Monday afternoon. (Incidentally, Lidle and Thurman Munson are 2 Yankees to die in plane crashes on Jewish Holidays.. Lidle on Sukkot.. and Munson died on Tisha B’Av.) Lidle had been quoted in a tabloid paper saying the Yankee players were “unprepared” for the Detroit series… Mike and the Mad Dog ranted and raved that Lidle’s comments were dissing the beloved sacred Mother Teresa-esque manager Joe Torre.. Lidle called in to defend himself, and repeatedly told Mike and the Mad Dog that he was referring to the players not being prepared and that the comments were no reflection on Torre. However, the two co-hosts in full Bill O’Reilly/Nancy Grace attack mode claimed he was criticizing Torre. (Torre by the way was the first person to confirm to CNN Wed. afternoon the plane belonged to Cory Lidle - Mayor Bloomberg wouldn’t give out names pending notification of family members-And Lidle’s wife was in a plane from NY to CA the whole afternoon apparently unaware of what was going on.) The ultimate insult came when Lidle remarked how he was just enjoying the day in NY City when a friend text messaged him about the content of the radio show... so he called in. To which Mad Dog retorted… “How can you be enjoying the day so soon after the Yankees lost?”…. Now who the heck are these two guys to question Lidle for enjoying himself during his last 48 hours on Earth?
In the flashback portion of the movie, Vito comes off as being rather likeable.. As a young kid he watches his family slaughtered by a ruthless gangster in Corleone, Italy; He is then smuggled away to avoid getting killed, and ends up on a ship bound for New York. Once he arrives in Ellis Island, an overworked staffer just stamps his name as Corleone when it reality that was not his name but the town from which he emigrated. This kind of hits home for me because when my father and his parents came over here in 1948, they decided to “Americanize” their name to Kean.. but the worker at Ellis Island just wrote Kean for my dad, and "Keane" for my grandparents. From then on, they always had different spellings.
Vito advanced through the ranks purely by chance. He was in his apt minding his own business one day when his neighbor throws him a bag and asks him to hide it... and would you believe it was loaded with guns? Later the neighbor, played by a very young Bruno Kirby decides to repay him with an expensive rug... which he then steals from a rich neighbor. Ultimately, Vito ends up stealing clothes and re-selling them, and when the local gangster - Don Fannucci adds Vito to the list of people he terrifies with demands for "protection money", Vito decides to just kill him - and from then on, we see Vito as the man about town who goes around helping ladies who have issues with mean landlords. Sounds very sweet and sugary… almost like The Waltons.
The ultimate last flashback - is Pearl Harbor Day - Vito's birthday... the kids are grown up and are in their 20s and they all gather around the kitchen table preparing to surprise him with a cake. James Caan is there (At that time he was a big star post “Brian’s Song” and was credited as a "special appearance") plus there is a cameo by Abe Vigoda. You can see how well they all get along - except for Michael. He is the outsider not involved with the camraderie with his siblings, and when its time to surprise his dad with the cake, he just sits alone in the kitchen... moments after informing his family that he joined the Marines, as did many other people who signed up when the Japanese attacked us. His family is upset with him, but he doesn't care... but oddly enough later in life he would bellow to his siblings how they "disappoint" him. yet you wonder with his lousy husband and parenting skills whether they really cared too much for him, or just liked him because he is their brother.
The plot in the non-flashback part of the movie consists of Michael Corleone's battle with Florida Jewish gangster Hyman Roth. The 2 team up while simultaneously attempting to double cross each other. Roth, played by legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg lives in a small house in Florida and while watching a college football game tells Michael what a big sports fan he is, while at the same time admitting how much he admires Arnold Rothstein for fixing the 1919 World Series.
There are other interesting trends to note in this film… the movie starts at the Christening of Michael’s son and the law enforcement milling around the parking lot are enjoying hors deuvres and drinks… a contrast to the first movie where the cops were treated rather unfriendly during Vito’s daughter Connie’s wedding. That scene also introduces us to the fascinating Nevada Senator Geary whose mispronunciation of the name “Vito Corleone” makes one think the good Senator is an outsider to the hijinks of the Corleone family. Indeed it turns out that he is very aware of the names and pronunciations when he tells Michael in no uncertain terms that his kind of people are not welcome in his state. How interesting to see the tables turn when Senator Geary “blacks out” and wakes up to find his favorite hooker dead and bloodied… in a Corleone hotel… only to be reassured by Tom Hagen that everything is gonna be ok because it’s a Corleone hotel!
There is another smooth segue scene when Michael travels to Cuba to see Roth. This is the pre-Castro Cuba before the Revolution and Roth speaks lovingly of the Cuban government which does not regulate him as much as his nearby home base of Florida. During the New Year’s Eve visit, Michael notices the Cuban rebels and admires their ability to rise up against the establishment.. (which was a well placed dig at Roth and his old school way of doing things.) We then go to a flashback scene of Young Vito Corleone rebelling against gangster Don Fannucci by refusing to pay him the requested “protection money”.
There is also the character Pentangeli..portrayed in an Oscar winning performance by Michael V. Gazzo, another old school gangster who survives a choking by the Rosato brothers. In the beginning of the movie at the Christening he drunkenly starts leading the band in “Italian Music” only to see them perform “Pop Goes The Weasel”.. Later on in the movie he prepares to testify as a Gravano-esque snitch before Senator Leary’s committee investigating organized crime, only to back down when his brother flies in from Italy and sits in the audience to hear his testimony..
It was cool to see how young some of the actors are in this movie.. Bruno Kirby looks like a kid.. Danny Aiello who plays a Rosato brother looks exactly the same. And the character of Johnny Ola (who ultimately led to the demise of Fredo Corleone) is unrecognizable as he looks today as Uncle Junior on “The Sopranos”
The theme that ultimately sticks out in my mind is how Michael Corleone can’t hold his family together while conducting his business affairs while his dad was able to maintain the balance. Michael achieves shmuck status for killing his brother… and also for denying his kids time with their mom who leaves him after she gets tired of his shenanigans.. Michael doesn’t even go home for Christmas because he is too busy hanging out with Roth in Cuba. Instead he dispatches Tom Hagen to get his son a gift. The first movie ends with Michael closing a door to keep his wife out of business… in the 2nd movie she visits her children, and as she waits for her little son to give her a good bye kiss at the doorway Michael silently walks over and closes the door leaving her out in the cold. Now we see why his family did not like him.
Even though Michael disintegrates in this film… The Godfather Part II is a total masterpeace… with 2 legends DeNiro and Pacino.. who of course never share a scene… I may have to rent Heat to see that colossal acting duo work together.,…The screenplay is flawless as we go from flashback to “present time“. . and the characters are well fleshed out and very fascinating.. specifically Senator Leary, Hyman Roth and Pentageli. On a scale of 1 to 4 bladders meaning how less likely you would be to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom.. Godfather Part II is a 4 bladder movie!
Ok now on to the picks… Last week we were 7-4-3; our record now is 30-38-6. Pumpstradamus is 3-1-1. Remember team in caps is at home… And this week for the 1pm games were taking all Road games except for 1!
Giants 3 point doggies over ATLANTA – Now that the NY Baseball team has shown Atlanta who is boss.. the Giants have a chance to throw around some muscle.
Miami 2 doggies over NY JETS – The Jets do well against the Dolphins.. but they are coming off such a horrendous loss.. do they deserve to be favorites?
Bengals 6 faves over TAMPA BAY – I get nervous after 5 or 6 weeks with these winless teams…but the Bengals are for superior.. For more logic see Pumpstradamus below.
Titans 10 doggies over WASHINGTON – See above and I’m not too impressed with the Skins..
Texans 13 doggies over DALLAS – Huh? Has Nate lost his marbles.. I don’t think the evil Cowboys will cover against Houston… (also remember I love the Giants and hate the Cowboys.. if youre betting shekels, keep that in mind!)
Seattle 3 faves over ST. LOUIS – Poor St. Louis fans.. looking ahead to Game 4 against the Mets and losing to Seattle on the same day. I don’t think the Mets are gonna sweep ‘em though… I like the Mets in 5.. but if they beat Carpenter Fri. night.. hmmmm.
Eagles 3 faves over NEW ORLEANS – How sacrilegious.. the Saints are at home and are America’s team.. but the Eagles look pretty good so far this year..
Panthers 3 doggies at BALTIMORE – Hey how many road teams are going to cover the 1pm games? I’m taking 8.. in honor of Shmini Atzeret… (which is the 8th day of Sukkot)
DETROIT 1 doggies over Buffalo – Hey a Detroit – NY matchup.. sounds like The World Series. The only difference is Detroit is going to win this one.. the only 1pm home team I am picking..
San Diego 10 OVER SAN FRANSISCO – The 49ers have been a halfway decent home team.. but despite not being a fan of double digit spreads.. this one is reasonable.
STEELERS 6 ½ faves over The Chiefs – I’m thisclose to jumping off the Steeler bandwagon – If KC plays like they did last week.. it could be a long season for Steeler fans. They always have the Penguins who looked good on Thurs night.. (By the way The Star Ledger again doesn’t have a Ranger beat writer!)
Oakland 15 doggies over DENVER – The Broncos will win.. but so far they have only averaged 12 points a game.. so that spread might be a bit too large.
ARIZONA 10 ½ doggies over Chicago – Probably a dopey pick but you gotta go with Home Dogs on Monday Night.. By the way.. isn’t MNF getting higher ratings on ESPN than the regular Bachelor – What About Brian garbage on ABC?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: This week in honor of Hyman Roth… we pick a game from his home state of Florida.. and since George Steinbrenner is home in Tampa watching the Mets in the playoffs while his Yankee season is done… we’re picking the Tampa Bay – Cincinatti game. The pick is Cincy because they are in Ohio, the home state of the Hamilton Ohio prosecutor who got caught on a courthouse closed circuit camera walking around butt naked.
Friday, October 06, 2006
A Week of Name Clearing Accurate NFL Picks
Well folks… it looks like the old football picking ain’t going as well as expected. So far after the 1st four wks, the only reliable pick has been the one provided by renowned psychic Pumpstradamus. He is 3-1. Our picks? An incredibly embarrassing 23-34-3….. a lowly 11 games under .500 this after last weeks 4-9-1 debacle. It appears that I have brought shame to my good name.
Speaking of bringing shame to a name…
Is there any human being more disgraceful than that punk Tom Kean, Jr. who is running for Senate against Robert Menendez. Kean has no record to speak of..yet he is threatening to pull out of a League of Women's Voters debate if Menendez doesn't debate him on NBC's Meet the Press. Little Tommy's only legacy is being the son of former NJ Governor Tom Kean.. arguably the worst NJ governor in my lifetime. Jim McGreavy gave him a run for the money but thankfully quit and rode out of Dodge in his Brokeback Mountain horsey before he could inflict too much damage. Governor Kean did a good job with the 9/11 Commission and is actually a nice man. His son is not.
Listen to what The Star Ledger says sleazy Little Tommy did. There was this political bigshot in NJ named Robert Janiskewski who now spends his time in prison for corruption charges. Tommy Jr. has decided his campaign will consist of attacks on Menendez’s character and through an intermediary has established a pen pal relationship with Robert J. and has been exchanging mail where Robert J. has been providing “insider sleaze” about Menendez that Little Tommy is then using for his campaign propaganda. According to Ledger Columnist Tom Moran, Little Tommy Kean has hired a political consultant who was shown the door by the New Hampshire Attorney General after his tactics were deemed too sleazy for that fine fine state. According to Moran, this goofball went around spreading rumors that the wife of a political candidate had joined a cult that – worships orgasms.
Here is an orgasmic concept… Election Night at Kean Headquarters when Little Tommy loses to Senator Menendez and has to disappear into the woodwork with his tail between his legs. Former Governor Tom Kean was a man of class – it’s too bad his son brings such shame to the name.
Now time for the picks…
Remember we take ‘em from the Friday Star Ledger.. Home teams are in CAPS… And this week since fantasy baseball is over… I dedicated more time to researching these freakin’ games!
JAGUARS 6 ½ point faves over the Jets – The Jets have shown an ability to cover big spreads though.. but a TD isn’t so big.
COLTS 18 ½ faves over Tennesee – that is a huge spread.. but the Colts are that good and the Titans fans always have the Grand Ole Opry.
VIKINGS 6 ½ faves over Detroit – Two very disappointed baseball towns.. but the Tigers look like they have some life!
Tampa 6 ½ doggies over NEW ORLEANS – Time for the Bucs to show some life.. they may lose.. but they should cover.
Rams 3 faves over GREEN BAY – Did someone say the Rams were gonna stink this year?
GIANTS 5 faves over Washington – Let’s see what Jeremy Shockey says during the Post Game Show this week.
PHILADELPHIA 2 faves over Dallas – Only 2 point favorites? Huh? Y’think the sweet Philly fans are gonna pick on TO?
NEW ENGLAND 10 faves over Miami – I thought Miami was better this year? It is a big spread.. have you noticed I’m avoiding the doggies this wk?
BEARS 10 faves over Buffalo – First Rex Grossman played on Yom Kippur; now on Sukkot – Is he Jewish by the way?
CAROLINA 8 faves over Cleveland – Another big spread that Nate is not questioning…
Chiefs 3 ½ faves over ARIZONA – Looks like the Chiefs have bounced back from Trent Green’s injury.
Raiders 3 ½ doggies over SAN FRANSISCO – I gotta take the doggie here.. what a dreadful game? This is a Gus Johnson game.. poor Gus.. he’s got this game and The Knicks to look forward to!
Pittsburgh 3 doggies over SAN DIEGO – The Padres aren’t the only disappointment in San Diego this weekend.
DENVER 4 point faves over Baltimore – The Ravens keep burning me.. because I pick against them.. Maybe next wk?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK – Current Record 3-1; Last week was a victory in the Bears game. Since FL Congressman Foley has been in the news all week, let’s pick the Dolphins game. This week we are picking The Patriots over Miami because team owner Robert Kraft’s wife is an alumnus of Brandeis just like The Great Pumpstradamus!
Speaking of bringing shame to a name…
Is there any human being more disgraceful than that punk Tom Kean, Jr. who is running for Senate against Robert Menendez. Kean has no record to speak of..yet he is threatening to pull out of a League of Women's Voters debate if Menendez doesn't debate him on NBC's Meet the Press. Little Tommy's only legacy is being the son of former NJ Governor Tom Kean.. arguably the worst NJ governor in my lifetime. Jim McGreavy gave him a run for the money but thankfully quit and rode out of Dodge in his Brokeback Mountain horsey before he could inflict too much damage. Governor Kean did a good job with the 9/11 Commission and is actually a nice man. His son is not.
Listen to what The Star Ledger says sleazy Little Tommy did. There was this political bigshot in NJ named Robert Janiskewski who now spends his time in prison for corruption charges. Tommy Jr. has decided his campaign will consist of attacks on Menendez’s character and through an intermediary has established a pen pal relationship with Robert J. and has been exchanging mail where Robert J. has been providing “insider sleaze” about Menendez that Little Tommy is then using for his campaign propaganda. According to Ledger Columnist Tom Moran, Little Tommy Kean has hired a political consultant who was shown the door by the New Hampshire Attorney General after his tactics were deemed too sleazy for that fine fine state. According to Moran, this goofball went around spreading rumors that the wife of a political candidate had joined a cult that – worships orgasms.
Here is an orgasmic concept… Election Night at Kean Headquarters when Little Tommy loses to Senator Menendez and has to disappear into the woodwork with his tail between his legs. Former Governor Tom Kean was a man of class – it’s too bad his son brings such shame to the name.
Now time for the picks…
Remember we take ‘em from the Friday Star Ledger.. Home teams are in CAPS… And this week since fantasy baseball is over… I dedicated more time to researching these freakin’ games!
JAGUARS 6 ½ point faves over the Jets – The Jets have shown an ability to cover big spreads though.. but a TD isn’t so big.
COLTS 18 ½ faves over Tennesee – that is a huge spread.. but the Colts are that good and the Titans fans always have the Grand Ole Opry.
VIKINGS 6 ½ faves over Detroit – Two very disappointed baseball towns.. but the Tigers look like they have some life!
Tampa 6 ½ doggies over NEW ORLEANS – Time for the Bucs to show some life.. they may lose.. but they should cover.
Rams 3 faves over GREEN BAY – Did someone say the Rams were gonna stink this year?
GIANTS 5 faves over Washington – Let’s see what Jeremy Shockey says during the Post Game Show this week.
PHILADELPHIA 2 faves over Dallas – Only 2 point favorites? Huh? Y’think the sweet Philly fans are gonna pick on TO?
NEW ENGLAND 10 faves over Miami – I thought Miami was better this year? It is a big spread.. have you noticed I’m avoiding the doggies this wk?
BEARS 10 faves over Buffalo – First Rex Grossman played on Yom Kippur; now on Sukkot – Is he Jewish by the way?
CAROLINA 8 faves over Cleveland – Another big spread that Nate is not questioning…
Chiefs 3 ½ faves over ARIZONA – Looks like the Chiefs have bounced back from Trent Green’s injury.
Raiders 3 ½ doggies over SAN FRANSISCO – I gotta take the doggie here.. what a dreadful game? This is a Gus Johnson game.. poor Gus.. he’s got this game and The Knicks to look forward to!
Pittsburgh 3 doggies over SAN DIEGO – The Padres aren’t the only disappointment in San Diego this weekend.
DENVER 4 point faves over Baltimore – The Ravens keep burning me.. because I pick against them.. Maybe next wk?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK – Current Record 3-1; Last week was a victory in the Bears game. Since FL Congressman Foley has been in the news all week, let’s pick the Dolphins game. This week we are picking The Patriots over Miami because team owner Robert Kraft’s wife is an alumnus of Brandeis just like The Great Pumpstradamus!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Baseball '06 4Q: Fair and Balanced Coverage From The Eyes of a Met Fan
Well folks, the 2006 regular season has come to an end.. Time to stop checking those fantasy league standings and get ready for the playoffs. Today we will look back at the ‘06 season, make some playoff and award predictions, and look back at some of the lame-o predictions made here back in March. And yes, these predictions are coming after the start of the playoffs.. Did you expect me to post a witty column Monday Night after fasting all day on Yom Kippur? And what a day it was! My fellow congregants kept losing the place in their prayer books.. I was finding more pages than Congressman Foley.
First, baseball needs to make some changes. Why not push the start of the playoffs to Wednesday or Thursday? They wait 2 weeks for the Super Bowl, surely they can wait a couple of days to start the playoffs. The season makes no allowances for late season rainouts, and the possibility of the Cardinals playing a make-up game on Monday against the Giants and then a possible tie-breaker game Tuesday against the surging Astros would have been absurd under the current post season schedule. Same thing for the Phillies… they had to wait out a rain delay in Washington Thursday night so the game started after 11pm… didn’t end till 2 in the morning, and the team didn’t get to their Florida hotel rooms for their Friday night game until after 8 in the morning because they were caught in Friday morning rush hour traffic! If they had a couple of extra days for make up games, they could have just gone back to Washington to play the game on Monday, and not endure that wacky all night marathon.
I also have some issues with TV Coverage too. This may be a Cablevision issue and not ESPN‘s fault….. but during the 15 inning game on Wednesday night.. It was a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded. 2 out and a 3-2 pitch…. And ESPN goes to a commercial. The same thing happened a couple of days later.. ESPN was showing a documentary about Ernie Banks.. And right in the middle.. ESPN drops out for a Malouf Car Dealer commercial!! Again, it’s probably a foul up on Cablevision’s part.. But they gotta fix that. FOX Sports is also guilty.,.. Geoff Jenkins was in the middle of an at bat during the Saturday Brewers-Cardinals game.. And poof.. There is Jeannie Zelasko breaking in to tell us that the rain delay is over in Florida so they’re switching to the Phillies-Marlins game.. Whereas we then got to see Kenny Albert and Tim McCarver announce proudly that it had stopped raining and then we got to see about 3 minutes of commercials!! Don’t you think it’s a bit disrespectful to Geoff Jenkins to cut away in the middle of his at-bat? He doubled by the way.
I made preseason picks right here in March.. (Look to the left at the March archives) and some of the trends I predicted were actually accurate. I mentioned that former Mets Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza would combine for more than 40 homers, and I also questioned how it would be possible for the Braves to finish higher than 3rd.. (although I respectfully picked them for 1st place.) I also said the Astros would finish 2nd to St. Louis due to Tony LaRussa’s managerial brilliance, but it was really the bat of Albert Pujols that catapulted the Cardinals to the top spot. I also accurately predicted the end of the Red Sox playoff streak and didn’t buy into the hype that trading Bronson Arroyo for Willie Mo Pena was a smart deal. I pointed out to a fellow congregant who is a Red Sox fan on Yom Kippur afternoon during the reading of the story of Jonah and the Whale that that legendary story is similar to the Yankees and Red Sox of '06 - The Yankees were the whale.. they chewed up The Red Sox (Jonah) and then spit him out.
The Column addressed the 14 Most Relevant Teams of ‘06 and included such lovable losers like The Cubbies, The Braves, The Giants, and The Indians who I had winning the Pennant and losing to St. Louis in The World Series! I also only correctly picked 3 playoff teams… St. Louis, The Mets and The Yankees. As you can see my incompetence is not limited to just the weekly NFL picks! Then, to add insult to injury, I did a mid season column and again made some mulligan picks and used this brilliant logic why the Braves would be in the post season.. But not the Yankees! Here is the exact quote:
“So I’m picking the White Sox to move into first, paced by Cy Young contender Jose Contreras. Im sure the Yankees wish they had him now since they will finish THIRD to the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. What? The Yankees are just as far from the Wild Card as the Braves! Why the Braves and not the Yankees?? That’s because the teams in the AL are much better than the NL wild card wannabes. And the Yankees really need to address the loss of Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield”
Now time for the Post Season Awards and then the Post Season Series Picks….
NL MVP - Albert Pujols.. Ryan Howard had a great season.. but who is in the playoffs? If Pujols wasn't on the Cards.. the Astros would be getting ready for the post season.... therefore since the award is based on value you gotta give it to Pujols for single handedly muscling his team into the post season..
NL CY YOUNG - Chris Carpenter - another Cardinal- just ekeing it out over Brandon Webb. Zambrano also deserves consideration, but Carpenter's games were more pressurized since he was pitching for a team playing for its post season life, and Carpey knew he had to go deeper into games because his bullpen is such a disaster.
NL ROOKIE - Hanley Ramirez - 17 homers, 51 steals.. The Marlins version of Jose Reyes.. he is definitely the real thing..
AL MVP - Justin Morneau - monster numbers for just his 2nd year.. Do you think the Twins would be in the playoffs if it weren't for Morneau?
AL CY YOUNG - Johan Santana - slam dunk.
AL ROOKIE - How about Jonathan Papelbon? Notice how unhittable he was before the Yankee massacre in August, and how the team went down the tubes once he was injured? You gotta give credit to a rookie who saves 35 games, has an ERA less than 1 and whose team sank after he got hurt.
SERIES PICKS - Padres over the Cards - Cards limped into the post season.. No Mulder, No Isringhausen, Jim Edmonds is platooning and has post concussion issues. This is not a typical Cards team and they might have a hard time winning games not started by Carpenter.
Mets over LA - May not be as easy.. since LA has some decent starters.. And the Mets lose at least a start from El Duque, but the Mets offense is so much better than everyone else.. and those pitchers who feasted on those other NL offensively challenged teams may be in for a rude awakening. Perez in Game 4? How's Zambrano's rehab going? Any chance he can pitch?
Yankees over Detroit - Again.. not the cakewalk the Yankees expect.. the season is a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t get too excited over the Tigers late season swoon, and they have a very well rounded, well managed team. This could go late into the 5th game before its decided.
Oakland over Minnesota - You get the feeling that the Tigers and Twins wanted to face the Yankees and not the amazing A’s pitching staff? The Twins can only go so far with one great starter and the other drek in their rotation. The A's have no hitters besides Frank Thomas, Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher but their pitching is superb with Zito, Haren, Harden and Blanton. They always say pitching goes far in baseball!
League Championship Series Predictions
Mets over Padres- Reunion time with Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza. without the standing ovations! The Pods have those 2 hitters.. And Chris Young is their only reliable starter… although David Wells may be able to crank it up a bit. Jake Peavy doesn’t seem to have it this year… That means the Mets go to the World Series.. Which begs the question.. Will it be a rematch of the ‘73 World Series against Oakland.. Or that hideous 2000 Subway Series…
2000 revisited
Yankees over Oakland - A’s great pitchers will have their hands full with this killer Yankee line-up.
Mets over the Yankees in the World Series - Picked with the heart AND the brain!
First, baseball needs to make some changes. Why not push the start of the playoffs to Wednesday or Thursday? They wait 2 weeks for the Super Bowl, surely they can wait a couple of days to start the playoffs. The season makes no allowances for late season rainouts, and the possibility of the Cardinals playing a make-up game on Monday against the Giants and then a possible tie-breaker game Tuesday against the surging Astros would have been absurd under the current post season schedule. Same thing for the Phillies… they had to wait out a rain delay in Washington Thursday night so the game started after 11pm… didn’t end till 2 in the morning, and the team didn’t get to their Florida hotel rooms for their Friday night game until after 8 in the morning because they were caught in Friday morning rush hour traffic! If they had a couple of extra days for make up games, they could have just gone back to Washington to play the game on Monday, and not endure that wacky all night marathon.
I also have some issues with TV Coverage too. This may be a Cablevision issue and not ESPN‘s fault….. but during the 15 inning game on Wednesday night.. It was a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded. 2 out and a 3-2 pitch…. And ESPN goes to a commercial. The same thing happened a couple of days later.. ESPN was showing a documentary about Ernie Banks.. And right in the middle.. ESPN drops out for a Malouf Car Dealer commercial!! Again, it’s probably a foul up on Cablevision’s part.. But they gotta fix that. FOX Sports is also guilty.,.. Geoff Jenkins was in the middle of an at bat during the Saturday Brewers-Cardinals game.. And poof.. There is Jeannie Zelasko breaking in to tell us that the rain delay is over in Florida so they’re switching to the Phillies-Marlins game.. Whereas we then got to see Kenny Albert and Tim McCarver announce proudly that it had stopped raining and then we got to see about 3 minutes of commercials!! Don’t you think it’s a bit disrespectful to Geoff Jenkins to cut away in the middle of his at-bat? He doubled by the way.
I made preseason picks right here in March.. (Look to the left at the March archives) and some of the trends I predicted were actually accurate. I mentioned that former Mets Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza would combine for more than 40 homers, and I also questioned how it would be possible for the Braves to finish higher than 3rd.. (although I respectfully picked them for 1st place.) I also said the Astros would finish 2nd to St. Louis due to Tony LaRussa’s managerial brilliance, but it was really the bat of Albert Pujols that catapulted the Cardinals to the top spot. I also accurately predicted the end of the Red Sox playoff streak and didn’t buy into the hype that trading Bronson Arroyo for Willie Mo Pena was a smart deal. I pointed out to a fellow congregant who is a Red Sox fan on Yom Kippur afternoon during the reading of the story of Jonah and the Whale that that legendary story is similar to the Yankees and Red Sox of '06 - The Yankees were the whale.. they chewed up The Red Sox (Jonah) and then spit him out.
The Column addressed the 14 Most Relevant Teams of ‘06 and included such lovable losers like The Cubbies, The Braves, The Giants, and The Indians who I had winning the Pennant and losing to St. Louis in The World Series! I also only correctly picked 3 playoff teams… St. Louis, The Mets and The Yankees. As you can see my incompetence is not limited to just the weekly NFL picks! Then, to add insult to injury, I did a mid season column and again made some mulligan picks and used this brilliant logic why the Braves would be in the post season.. But not the Yankees! Here is the exact quote:
“So I’m picking the White Sox to move into first, paced by Cy Young contender Jose Contreras. Im sure the Yankees wish they had him now since they will finish THIRD to the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. What? The Yankees are just as far from the Wild Card as the Braves! Why the Braves and not the Yankees?? That’s because the teams in the AL are much better than the NL wild card wannabes. And the Yankees really need to address the loss of Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield”
Now time for the Post Season Awards and then the Post Season Series Picks….
NL MVP - Albert Pujols.. Ryan Howard had a great season.. but who is in the playoffs? If Pujols wasn't on the Cards.. the Astros would be getting ready for the post season.... therefore since the award is based on value you gotta give it to Pujols for single handedly muscling his team into the post season..
NL CY YOUNG - Chris Carpenter - another Cardinal- just ekeing it out over Brandon Webb. Zambrano also deserves consideration, but Carpenter's games were more pressurized since he was pitching for a team playing for its post season life, and Carpey knew he had to go deeper into games because his bullpen is such a disaster.
NL ROOKIE - Hanley Ramirez - 17 homers, 51 steals.. The Marlins version of Jose Reyes.. he is definitely the real thing..
AL MVP - Justin Morneau - monster numbers for just his 2nd year.. Do you think the Twins would be in the playoffs if it weren't for Morneau?
AL CY YOUNG - Johan Santana - slam dunk.
AL ROOKIE - How about Jonathan Papelbon? Notice how unhittable he was before the Yankee massacre in August, and how the team went down the tubes once he was injured? You gotta give credit to a rookie who saves 35 games, has an ERA less than 1 and whose team sank after he got hurt.
SERIES PICKS - Padres over the Cards - Cards limped into the post season.. No Mulder, No Isringhausen, Jim Edmonds is platooning and has post concussion issues. This is not a typical Cards team and they might have a hard time winning games not started by Carpenter.
Mets over LA - May not be as easy.. since LA has some decent starters.. And the Mets lose at least a start from El Duque, but the Mets offense is so much better than everyone else.. and those pitchers who feasted on those other NL offensively challenged teams may be in for a rude awakening. Perez in Game 4? How's Zambrano's rehab going? Any chance he can pitch?
Yankees over Detroit - Again.. not the cakewalk the Yankees expect.. the season is a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t get too excited over the Tigers late season swoon, and they have a very well rounded, well managed team. This could go late into the 5th game before its decided.
Oakland over Minnesota - You get the feeling that the Tigers and Twins wanted to face the Yankees and not the amazing A’s pitching staff? The Twins can only go so far with one great starter and the other drek in their rotation. The A's have no hitters besides Frank Thomas, Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher but their pitching is superb with Zito, Haren, Harden and Blanton. They always say pitching goes far in baseball!
League Championship Series Predictions
Mets over Padres- Reunion time with Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza. without the standing ovations! The Pods have those 2 hitters.. And Chris Young is their only reliable starter… although David Wells may be able to crank it up a bit. Jake Peavy doesn’t seem to have it this year… That means the Mets go to the World Series.. Which begs the question.. Will it be a rematch of the ‘73 World Series against Oakland.. Or that hideous 2000 Subway Series…
2000 revisited
Yankees over Oakland - A’s great pitchers will have their hands full with this killer Yankee line-up.
Mets over the Yankees in the World Series - Picked with the heart AND the brain!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Oprah: "People Love Nate"
Well, actually the quote does not refer to moi.. but instead to a guy named Nate Berkus who is doing a home design show on the new Oprah Radio Network. I took that quote out of context… kind of like Chris Wallace did on Sunday in that absurd Fox “News” interview with former President Clinton where those crackpot Republicans still try to blame Clinton for 9-11.
Just in case you haven’t heard about it… and with all the media blitz how could you miss it?.… Oprah started a new radio network on XM Radio this week… featuring shows hosted by frequent guests on her show such as financial writer Jean Chatzky and this doctor who did a bizarrely fascinating show last year about “being regular”.. with just a bit more detail than one would want to see at 4 in the afternoon…
Two things to note about this new venture: First, Oprah’s bestest bestest pal Gayle King does a weekly show with Oprah about… gasp… their personal phone calls. That’s right folks, the best buds sit and chat for hours on end on the phone at night, and “highlights” of these chats will be edited down for this show. There have been rumors that the two are more than friends and that Steadman.. Oprah’s longtime boyfriend/fiance is just a decoy. Yet why do we assume that 2 women who are bestest buds are automatic lesbians? Is that because we’re a bunch of horny yentas who like to imagine 2 women getting it on? I have always said that men like lesbians because they imagine how far a hot woman will go to seduce an avowed equally hot heterosexual woman. It’s the fantasy of the seduction that gets these dudes all horned up.. Oh bummer here we go with the lustful thoughts before Yom Kippur!
However even though its not nice to out straight people.. Or gay people who want to remain in the closet.… how does Oprah have all this time to spend yakking with Gayle? After all she runs a multi-bazillion dollar empire.. She’s gotta work a good 12 hours a day… don’t you think when she comes home at night that she would want to spend some “quality time” with Steadman? And how do hourlong chats with Gayle fit into that oh so busy schedule? And who fills in when they go on vacation? Janine Piro and Bernard Kerik?
My other point - for now, all the Oprah Radio Network shows are not live - they are prerecorded.. Yet people pay money for this? Now that dial-up is a thing of the past like beta players, The WB and Pedro Martinez‘s pitching skills… pod casts continue to explode in popularity. Why pay to hear a show when they can be put on a website and listened to on-line or on an ipod or mp3 player? I really think pod casts are going to make a big dent into radio’s audience, and yes folks I am now doing one too. By the way getting back to Pedro.. I wouldn‘t get too upset about losing a pitcher who won only 4 games since May 1st considering how dominant his team has been for the last 5 months... We’ll do ok with a rotation of Glavine, El Duque, Steve Trachsel and John Maine. And if the starters are bad.. They can always get a quick hook and bring in the talented relievers.
If you look to the left you will see a link to a new pod cast I started doing in August. I also do occasional pod casts here on this blog.. The new pod cast consists of 2-3 minute commentaries about finance and I update it every couple of weeks. I started thinking about embedding files on line about a year and a half ago when I decided to snazzy up my eBay sales by embedding commercials on my ads. By doing this I learned the HTML codes to embed media players and that leads to today‘s topic… .. The easiest seminar you will ever see about how to build a pod cast. It’s kind of Nate’s World of Words Build a Bear Workshop. By the way, my word processor program breaks the word podcast into 2 words for some bizarre reason.
1. Repeat after me - This is not easy. Ok. Lotsa people make it seem simple - it’s not. And once your done, brag to your friends how you got your pod cast going. Feel free to credit me if you would like.
2. Pick a topic - You’re on your own for that one.
3. Record it - It’s easy. Almost every comp has a program called Windows Movie Maker.. And you can use it to record audio tracks. The program is pretty self explanatory to record audio and them save the file to your computer. To record your voice, you can buy a computer microphone really cheap.. I got a gooseneck for about 10 bucks on ebay that folds in my laptop bag so I can take it on the road with me.
4. Upload it - Originally I subscribed to a site called Streamload which is now called Media Max. It gives me a place to “host” my audio and video files. The site has a prompt to upload files.. which gives you the option to check off the audio file on your computer that you would like to store on-line for listeners to download.
I then type in a code on Blogspot which includes a link to the hosted audio or video clip. The reader doesn’t see the HTML code - just the embedded player or the link to play the clip. Incidentally, I purposely don’t embed clips on the new pod cast; I want listeners to play it on their Windows Media Player since I programmed the file to display marketing information for potential future clients. Isn’t that clever?
When I started doing pod casts here on blogspot, I found out that a website called click caster had picked it up. (That is part of Step 5 - Syndicating it so people can get it automatically). Clickcaster has a way of searching the web for sites that have audio and video files and then they start to carry those pod casts on their website. Therefore the NWOW pod casts automatically show up there. When I decided to do my new pod cast I housed it at Clickcaster. They make the whole process very easy. I just upload it to them.. And it’s there. No html code to type in. However I have that pod cast’s audio files based on 2 websites.. Clickcaster and Blogspot, so I also upload the clips to Streamload too.
5. Syndication - This is the magic step that enables people to get your pod cast. Since a lot of pod casts are garbage.. Let’s use garbage as an analogy… How does garbage get from your house to the dump? Simple - you put it outside and the garbage men pick it up and it ends up at its final resting place. Likewise, if you put your pod cast “on the curb” by syndicating it, pod catchers will be like garbage men and deliver them to your computer - the proverbial garbage dump.
I get my podcasts on I Tunes, My msn and My Yahoo. In order it to be “seen” by those websites, (they are programmed to seek out pod casts) you need to “burn a feed”.. which means “putting it to the curb” in computer-ese. I went to a site called “feed burner.com” and they create a new url for your podcast which is your address for what is called rss syndication. When listeners see the rss prompt, they just type in the feed burner created address and kaploo-ey.. Your homies can now automatically receive your pod cast! My RSS address for this blog is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/msNl and the url for the feed for the new pod cast is http://clickcaster.com/clickcast/rss/1906.
6. Make it user friendly - There is one last step - make sure its in mp3 format so all ipods and mp3 players can play it. Some of ‘em don’t play wma files, so you need to convert them. There is a free website I use called switch which copies your files to the desired mp3 format.
This might be the easiest tutorial you will ever find for pod casting.. Now maybe Oprah will get everybody to love me too! Or maybe Gayle King? Or Steadman?
Now time for the weekly football picks. Last week we went 6-6-2.. and the season to date record is a very embarrassing un-Nate-like 19-25-2. But now that the rotis season is wrapping up, I will have more time to devote to the Pigskin. x-is home team...
Colts 9 faves over x-Jets - Nice game last wk for the Manginis - now it's time to come back to Earth.
Vikings 1 doggies over x-Buffalo - Minny fans will be switching channels during the game to watch Joe Mauer win the batting title over Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano.
x-Titans 9 1/2 doggies over Dallas - The Cowboys had a pretty quiet week, don't you think? My reaction to TO's female publicist at his wacky press conference - Va Va Voom. Cowboys win but don't cover.
49ers 7 doggies over x-KC - Another spread that won't cover.
Saints 7 doggies over x-Carolina - How long will the feel good story Saints continue? It probably ends this wk.. but yet again, another big spread that won't cover. (I will probably eat my words on Monday - after Yom Kippur ends!)
Chargers 2 1/2 faves over x-Baltimore - Somebody leaves unbeaten. Won't be the Ravens.
Arizona 7 doggies over x-Atlanta - Cards are better than in the past; Atlanta got smoked in Orleans last Monday.. I like the Cards to cover.
Dolphins 3 1/2 point faves x-Houston - The Texans are due for a win..but not just yet.
x-Rams 5 1/2 faves over Detroit - The only Ram that concerns me is the one whose horn will be blown to signify the end of Yom Kippur.
Patriots 6 doggies over x-Bengals - Huh? No way.. Boy have the Bengals come a long way.. This week it's back to Earth.. (although that is what I mistakenly said about their last game against the Steelers!)
Jaguars 3 faves over x- Washington - 4:15 game? Fans attending this game should watch out for the traffic leaving the Nationals-Mets regular season finale, assuming they don't have a 4 and a half hour rain delay like they did on Thursday night.
x-Raiders 3 point doggies over Cleveland - The Raiders can't be that bad, can they? Look for a rebound win.
Seahawks 3 doggies over x-The Bears - The Kol Nidre Special. Sorry folks, I won't be catching this game. I saw enough of Seattle during last weeks Giants game! (See Pumpstradamus's pick below!)
x-Eagles 11 faves over Green Bay - I'm not a big fan of double digit spreads, especially on Monday Night, but how can you pick against the Eagles?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: Since this column is about Oprah lets pick The Chicago Bears over Seattle. Hey isn't Rex Grossman Jewish? And he is playing on Yom Kippur? Oy.
Just in case you haven’t heard about it… and with all the media blitz how could you miss it?.… Oprah started a new radio network on XM Radio this week… featuring shows hosted by frequent guests on her show such as financial writer Jean Chatzky and this doctor who did a bizarrely fascinating show last year about “being regular”.. with just a bit more detail than one would want to see at 4 in the afternoon…
Two things to note about this new venture: First, Oprah’s bestest bestest pal Gayle King does a weekly show with Oprah about… gasp… their personal phone calls. That’s right folks, the best buds sit and chat for hours on end on the phone at night, and “highlights” of these chats will be edited down for this show. There have been rumors that the two are more than friends and that Steadman.. Oprah’s longtime boyfriend/fiance is just a decoy. Yet why do we assume that 2 women who are bestest buds are automatic lesbians? Is that because we’re a bunch of horny yentas who like to imagine 2 women getting it on? I have always said that men like lesbians because they imagine how far a hot woman will go to seduce an avowed equally hot heterosexual woman. It’s the fantasy of the seduction that gets these dudes all horned up.. Oh bummer here we go with the lustful thoughts before Yom Kippur!
However even though its not nice to out straight people.. Or gay people who want to remain in the closet.… how does Oprah have all this time to spend yakking with Gayle? After all she runs a multi-bazillion dollar empire.. She’s gotta work a good 12 hours a day… don’t you think when she comes home at night that she would want to spend some “quality time” with Steadman? And how do hourlong chats with Gayle fit into that oh so busy schedule? And who fills in when they go on vacation? Janine Piro and Bernard Kerik?
My other point - for now, all the Oprah Radio Network shows are not live - they are prerecorded.. Yet people pay money for this? Now that dial-up is a thing of the past like beta players, The WB and Pedro Martinez‘s pitching skills… pod casts continue to explode in popularity. Why pay to hear a show when they can be put on a website and listened to on-line or on an ipod or mp3 player? I really think pod casts are going to make a big dent into radio’s audience, and yes folks I am now doing one too. By the way getting back to Pedro.. I wouldn‘t get too upset about losing a pitcher who won only 4 games since May 1st considering how dominant his team has been for the last 5 months... We’ll do ok with a rotation of Glavine, El Duque, Steve Trachsel and John Maine. And if the starters are bad.. They can always get a quick hook and bring in the talented relievers.
If you look to the left you will see a link to a new pod cast I started doing in August. I also do occasional pod casts here on this blog.. The new pod cast consists of 2-3 minute commentaries about finance and I update it every couple of weeks. I started thinking about embedding files on line about a year and a half ago when I decided to snazzy up my eBay sales by embedding commercials on my ads. By doing this I learned the HTML codes to embed media players and that leads to today‘s topic… .. The easiest seminar you will ever see about how to build a pod cast. It’s kind of Nate’s World of Words Build a Bear Workshop. By the way, my word processor program breaks the word podcast into 2 words for some bizarre reason.
1. Repeat after me - This is not easy. Ok. Lotsa people make it seem simple - it’s not. And once your done, brag to your friends how you got your pod cast going. Feel free to credit me if you would like.
2. Pick a topic - You’re on your own for that one.
3. Record it - It’s easy. Almost every comp has a program called Windows Movie Maker.. And you can use it to record audio tracks. The program is pretty self explanatory to record audio and them save the file to your computer. To record your voice, you can buy a computer microphone really cheap.. I got a gooseneck for about 10 bucks on ebay that folds in my laptop bag so I can take it on the road with me.
4. Upload it - Originally I subscribed to a site called Streamload which is now called Media Max. It gives me a place to “host” my audio and video files. The site has a prompt to upload files.. which gives you the option to check off the audio file on your computer that you would like to store on-line for listeners to download.
I then type in a code on Blogspot which includes a link to the hosted audio or video clip. The reader doesn’t see the HTML code - just the embedded player or the link to play the clip. Incidentally, I purposely don’t embed clips on the new pod cast; I want listeners to play it on their Windows Media Player since I programmed the file to display marketing information for potential future clients. Isn’t that clever?
When I started doing pod casts here on blogspot, I found out that a website called click caster had picked it up. (That is part of Step 5 - Syndicating it so people can get it automatically). Clickcaster has a way of searching the web for sites that have audio and video files and then they start to carry those pod casts on their website. Therefore the NWOW pod casts automatically show up there. When I decided to do my new pod cast I housed it at Clickcaster. They make the whole process very easy. I just upload it to them.. And it’s there. No html code to type in. However I have that pod cast’s audio files based on 2 websites.. Clickcaster and Blogspot, so I also upload the clips to Streamload too.
5. Syndication - This is the magic step that enables people to get your pod cast. Since a lot of pod casts are garbage.. Let’s use garbage as an analogy… How does garbage get from your house to the dump? Simple - you put it outside and the garbage men pick it up and it ends up at its final resting place. Likewise, if you put your pod cast “on the curb” by syndicating it, pod catchers will be like garbage men and deliver them to your computer - the proverbial garbage dump.
I get my podcasts on I Tunes, My msn and My Yahoo. In order it to be “seen” by those websites, (they are programmed to seek out pod casts) you need to “burn a feed”.. which means “putting it to the curb” in computer-ese. I went to a site called “feed burner.com” and they create a new url for your podcast which is your address for what is called rss syndication. When listeners see the rss prompt, they just type in the feed burner created address and kaploo-ey.. Your homies can now automatically receive your pod cast! My RSS address for this blog is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/msNl and the url for the feed for the new pod cast is http://clickcaster.com/clickcast/rss/1906.
6. Make it user friendly - There is one last step - make sure its in mp3 format so all ipods and mp3 players can play it. Some of ‘em don’t play wma files, so you need to convert them. There is a free website I use called switch which copies your files to the desired mp3 format.
This might be the easiest tutorial you will ever find for pod casting.. Now maybe Oprah will get everybody to love me too! Or maybe Gayle King? Or Steadman?
Now time for the weekly football picks. Last week we went 6-6-2.. and the season to date record is a very embarrassing un-Nate-like 19-25-2. But now that the rotis season is wrapping up, I will have more time to devote to the Pigskin. x-is home team...
Colts 9 faves over x-Jets - Nice game last wk for the Manginis - now it's time to come back to Earth.
Vikings 1 doggies over x-Buffalo - Minny fans will be switching channels during the game to watch Joe Mauer win the batting title over Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano.
x-Titans 9 1/2 doggies over Dallas - The Cowboys had a pretty quiet week, don't you think? My reaction to TO's female publicist at his wacky press conference - Va Va Voom. Cowboys win but don't cover.
49ers 7 doggies over x-KC - Another spread that won't cover.
Saints 7 doggies over x-Carolina - How long will the feel good story Saints continue? It probably ends this wk.. but yet again, another big spread that won't cover. (I will probably eat my words on Monday - after Yom Kippur ends!)
Chargers 2 1/2 faves over x-Baltimore - Somebody leaves unbeaten. Won't be the Ravens.
Arizona 7 doggies over x-Atlanta - Cards are better than in the past; Atlanta got smoked in Orleans last Monday.. I like the Cards to cover.
Dolphins 3 1/2 point faves x-Houston - The Texans are due for a win..but not just yet.
x-Rams 5 1/2 faves over Detroit - The only Ram that concerns me is the one whose horn will be blown to signify the end of Yom Kippur.
Patriots 6 doggies over x-Bengals - Huh? No way.. Boy have the Bengals come a long way.. This week it's back to Earth.. (although that is what I mistakenly said about their last game against the Steelers!)
Jaguars 3 faves over x- Washington - 4:15 game? Fans attending this game should watch out for the traffic leaving the Nationals-Mets regular season finale, assuming they don't have a 4 and a half hour rain delay like they did on Thursday night.
x-Raiders 3 point doggies over Cleveland - The Raiders can't be that bad, can they? Look for a rebound win.
Seahawks 3 doggies over x-The Bears - The Kol Nidre Special. Sorry folks, I won't be catching this game. I saw enough of Seattle during last weeks Giants game! (See Pumpstradamus's pick below!)
x-Eagles 11 faves over Green Bay - I'm not a big fan of double digit spreads, especially on Monday Night, but how can you pick against the Eagles?
PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK: Since this column is about Oprah lets pick The Chicago Bears over Seattle. Hey isn't Rex Grossman Jewish? And he is playing on Yom Kippur? Oy.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Iranian Porn, Game Shows, and Pirates: Thoughts for the Waning Moments of 5766.
Before we get to today’s stuff.. I just wanted to comment about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Ahmad in Ejad is the title of a porn movie by the way!) and his recent trip to the UN. It reminded me of the Rabbi at the Edison Hanukah candle-lighting ceremony last year who asked the participants to pray that Mahmoud drop dead.… yet amazingly a guy wrote a letter to the late and lamented Jewish State criticizing The Rabbi for doing that and saying that we should instead teach this Holocaust revisionist about what really happened in WW II.
After seeing Mahmoud's interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, it is obvious that this guy is pretty smart and he knows the Holocaust really happened… All this Genocide Minimalist wants to do is downplay its relevance so he can borrow from Hitler’s playbook and start another one. Every Cooper question about the Holocaust was deflected to comments about Post WW II Jews moving to Israel when it became Israel in 1948. It’s ironic that he goes on and on about the “horrible plight” of the Palestinians,.. I betcha these Palestinians, especially the women, would rather live in Israel than Iran! Heck, when they started paying tax money to Arafat and the Palestinian authority, notice how virtually nothing went to infra-structure and all of it went to Arafat’s pockets. The reason the terrorist groups did so well in the elections is they exploited the government’s corrupt embezzlement, and drove home to voters the images that the politicians were filthy rich while the Palestinians were dirt poor.
Cooper had the line of the night at the end of the chat… After basically giving up on the Holocaust questions, he said he was moving on to another topic.. The lowlife flashed him a sleazy smile and asked… “Did you hear the answer you wanted about the Holocaust?”… Cooper who seemed a bit surprised that Mahmoud would have even cared, told him he had a lot of other stuff to cover with only a limited amount of time allowed for the interview, and was about to start his next topic when Mahmoud cut in again with “Are you asking the questions on your mind, or the ones given to you by “others“?..
And without missing a beat, Cooper responded to the “others” implication with the line of the year… “In America…. WE have a free press…. unlike IRAN!”
I’ll take Anderson Cooper for the block!
Speaking of Hollywood Squares, I haven't watched a lot of non sports TV during baseball season, and I’m really not going to be into the new season until after the World Series.. But I did catch the much hyped “The Wire” on HBO. Trophy Wife and I also saw Alfred Hitchcock’s mid ’60’s rare off-movie “Marnie” a few weeks ago. (Sean Connery’s character’s reaction to catching Marnie stealing from him requires a huge suspension of disbelief.) The Baltimore rowhouse that the kids live in on “The Wire” is the exact same Baltimore rowhouse that was used for the house Marnie’s mother lived in! Still recycling soundstages 40 years later? Wow.
Over the summer, Game Show Network ran a series of specials about The Top 50 Game Shows. I wanted to address their rankings because I had also ranked the Top 14 in a series of columns earlier this year. (See the archives in Feb.) Interestingly enough we agree on 11 of the 14, of which only 2 finished in the same spots. We both have Match Game and The Price is Right at #1 and #4 respectively… but aside from that we didn't agree too much. The three NWOW shows that didn’t crack their Top 14 were my #3 Password - which they ranked 15th (!)… To Tell the Truth which I had at #10 and they ranked 19th; and The Bobby Van version of Make Me Laugh… which I ranked 14th but did not make their list. Their 3 which didn’t crack my list were #7 Lets Make a Deal… a show I never really got into… #9 The Newlywed Game which just missed the Top 14, and #14 What’s My Line which was before my time.
The Game Show Forum (and thanks to the Buzzer Blog for this info)… also ranked their Top 100... And Make Me Laugh made their list at 98. They also oddly ranked Match Game 5th and put The Price Is Right at #1. Three of their Top 14 also didn’t make my list…Concentration (9), Card Sharks (13) and What’s My Line (14). Card Sharks? Hmmm.. That’s a bit odd.
When GSN ran their Top 50 list, they showed episodes of all the ranked shows that they had legal rights to… (They are not allowed to show The Price is Right and Name That Tune due to licensing legalities.) It’s good to know we both agreed on Match Game as Number 1... But I’m surprised my 2nd rated Hollywood Squares didn’t make their list till the 11 slot. Likewise ranking Password (#3 for me) in the 15 slot was strange too. We both had the Gong Show on the list.. I had it 9th and they had it 12th.. We also went the Chuck Barris route with The Dating Game making both lists.. #13 for me,.. No. 10 for GSN. I thought they had Family Feud a bit overrated with #3... while I had it 11th.
Here are the Top 14s from my blog and GSN…
NWOW 1. Match Game; 2. Hollywood Squares; 3. Password; 4. The Price Is Right; 5. Jeopardy; 6. Pyramid (not the Donny Osmond version); 7. Press Your Luck; 8. Who Wants to be a Millionaire; 9. The Gong Show; 10. To Tell The Truth; 11. Family Feud; 12. Wheel of Fortune; 13. The Dating Game; 14. Make Me Laugh.
GSN 1. MG; 2. Jeopardy; 3. FF; 4. TPIR; 5. WWTBAM; 6. WOF; 7. Lets Make a Deal; 8. Pyramid; 9. The Newlywed Game; 10. The Dating Game; 11. HS; 12. The Gong Show; 13. PYL; 14. WML
Now on to the football picks… Last week we bounced back from the disastrous opening wknd with a 9-7 record to bring us to a rather lame 13-19. Here are the wkly predictions...The spread is from Friday's Star Ledger; home teams are noted with an "x".
x-Bills 5 faves over the Jets - Thanks NFL for making the Giants the late game on Rosh Hashanah!
Giants 3 1/2 doggies over x-Seattle - The Giants can take revenge on the Seahawks and then Andrew can take revenge on Bree on the Season Premiere of Desperate Housewives! (I will of course tape the family guy)
Packers 7 doggies over x-Detroit - The Lions will win.. but won't cover.
Redskins 4 faves over x-Texans - I hope Daniel Snyder does a little extra praying for the Skins to salvage the season this wknd.
x-Colts 7 faves over Jaguars - Can the Jags beat the Steelers and Colts back to back and belly to belly? I doubt it.
x-Steelers 2 faves over Cincy - The Bengals look great and Roethslisberger looked pretty lame on MNF... plus Cincy beat 'em in Pitt last wk...Despite that.. Ill take the Steelers.
Panthers 3 faves over x-Tampa Bay - Are the Bucs really that bad? See Pumpstradamus's prediction below.
Titans 11 doggies over x-Miami - Dolphins not good enough to deserve that many points. They will win but not cover.
Bears 3 faves over x-Minnesota - Vikings Shmikings... This is Twins country... (Take that Derek Jeter.. Joe Mauer's gonna win the batting title!)
Ravens 6 1/2 faves over x-Cleveland - Ravens 3-0? Hmmm
Rams 4 1/2 doggies over x-Arizona - St. Louis fans can boo the Cardinals this week in the NFL and next wk when they get swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Eagles 6 faves over x-49ers - Y'think the Eagles are a bit annoyed after last weeks collosal choke against the Giants? Or was that just a birthday present for me?
x-Patriots 7 faves over Denver - That's a big spread against a damn good Bronco team.
x-Saints 4 doggies over Atlanta - The first post Katrina game to be played at a sold out Superdome. And they're home dogs on Monday Night to boot! Huge win for the Saints!
And the Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week - Time to rebound from last weeks loss which dropped us to 1-1.… Since this past week, we celebrated “Talk Like a Pirate Day”… and spent it questioning why Jeromy Burnitz is still on the team… this weeks pick is the Buccaneers over Carolina!
After seeing Mahmoud's interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, it is obvious that this guy is pretty smart and he knows the Holocaust really happened… All this Genocide Minimalist wants to do is downplay its relevance so he can borrow from Hitler’s playbook and start another one. Every Cooper question about the Holocaust was deflected to comments about Post WW II Jews moving to Israel when it became Israel in 1948. It’s ironic that he goes on and on about the “horrible plight” of the Palestinians,.. I betcha these Palestinians, especially the women, would rather live in Israel than Iran! Heck, when they started paying tax money to Arafat and the Palestinian authority, notice how virtually nothing went to infra-structure and all of it went to Arafat’s pockets. The reason the terrorist groups did so well in the elections is they exploited the government’s corrupt embezzlement, and drove home to voters the images that the politicians were filthy rich while the Palestinians were dirt poor.
Cooper had the line of the night at the end of the chat… After basically giving up on the Holocaust questions, he said he was moving on to another topic.. The lowlife flashed him a sleazy smile and asked… “Did you hear the answer you wanted about the Holocaust?”… Cooper who seemed a bit surprised that Mahmoud would have even cared, told him he had a lot of other stuff to cover with only a limited amount of time allowed for the interview, and was about to start his next topic when Mahmoud cut in again with “Are you asking the questions on your mind, or the ones given to you by “others“?..
And without missing a beat, Cooper responded to the “others” implication with the line of the year… “In America…. WE have a free press…. unlike IRAN!”
I’ll take Anderson Cooper for the block!
Speaking of Hollywood Squares, I haven't watched a lot of non sports TV during baseball season, and I’m really not going to be into the new season until after the World Series.. But I did catch the much hyped “The Wire” on HBO. Trophy Wife and I also saw Alfred Hitchcock’s mid ’60’s rare off-movie “Marnie” a few weeks ago. (Sean Connery’s character’s reaction to catching Marnie stealing from him requires a huge suspension of disbelief.) The Baltimore rowhouse that the kids live in on “The Wire” is the exact same Baltimore rowhouse that was used for the house Marnie’s mother lived in! Still recycling soundstages 40 years later? Wow.
Over the summer, Game Show Network ran a series of specials about The Top 50 Game Shows. I wanted to address their rankings because I had also ranked the Top 14 in a series of columns earlier this year. (See the archives in Feb.) Interestingly enough we agree on 11 of the 14, of which only 2 finished in the same spots. We both have Match Game and The Price is Right at #1 and #4 respectively… but aside from that we didn't agree too much. The three NWOW shows that didn’t crack their Top 14 were my #3 Password - which they ranked 15th (!)… To Tell the Truth which I had at #10 and they ranked 19th; and The Bobby Van version of Make Me Laugh… which I ranked 14th but did not make their list. Their 3 which didn’t crack my list were #7 Lets Make a Deal… a show I never really got into… #9 The Newlywed Game which just missed the Top 14, and #14 What’s My Line which was before my time.
The Game Show Forum (and thanks to the Buzzer Blog for this info)… also ranked their Top 100... And Make Me Laugh made their list at 98. They also oddly ranked Match Game 5th and put The Price Is Right at #1. Three of their Top 14 also didn’t make my list…Concentration (9), Card Sharks (13) and What’s My Line (14). Card Sharks? Hmmm.. That’s a bit odd.
When GSN ran their Top 50 list, they showed episodes of all the ranked shows that they had legal rights to… (They are not allowed to show The Price is Right and Name That Tune due to licensing legalities.) It’s good to know we both agreed on Match Game as Number 1... But I’m surprised my 2nd rated Hollywood Squares didn’t make their list till the 11 slot. Likewise ranking Password (#3 for me) in the 15 slot was strange too. We both had the Gong Show on the list.. I had it 9th and they had it 12th.. We also went the Chuck Barris route with The Dating Game making both lists.. #13 for me,.. No. 10 for GSN. I thought they had Family Feud a bit overrated with #3... while I had it 11th.
Here are the Top 14s from my blog and GSN…
NWOW 1. Match Game; 2. Hollywood Squares; 3. Password; 4. The Price Is Right; 5. Jeopardy; 6. Pyramid (not the Donny Osmond version); 7. Press Your Luck; 8. Who Wants to be a Millionaire; 9. The Gong Show; 10. To Tell The Truth; 11. Family Feud; 12. Wheel of Fortune; 13. The Dating Game; 14. Make Me Laugh.
GSN 1. MG; 2. Jeopardy; 3. FF; 4. TPIR; 5. WWTBAM; 6. WOF; 7. Lets Make a Deal; 8. Pyramid; 9. The Newlywed Game; 10. The Dating Game; 11. HS; 12. The Gong Show; 13. PYL; 14. WML
Now on to the football picks… Last week we bounced back from the disastrous opening wknd with a 9-7 record to bring us to a rather lame 13-19. Here are the wkly predictions...The spread is from Friday's Star Ledger; home teams are noted with an "x".
x-Bills 5 faves over the Jets - Thanks NFL for making the Giants the late game on Rosh Hashanah!
Giants 3 1/2 doggies over x-Seattle - The Giants can take revenge on the Seahawks and then Andrew can take revenge on Bree on the Season Premiere of Desperate Housewives! (I will of course tape the family guy)
Packers 7 doggies over x-Detroit - The Lions will win.. but won't cover.
Redskins 4 faves over x-Texans - I hope Daniel Snyder does a little extra praying for the Skins to salvage the season this wknd.
x-Colts 7 faves over Jaguars - Can the Jags beat the Steelers and Colts back to back and belly to belly? I doubt it.
x-Steelers 2 faves over Cincy - The Bengals look great and Roethslisberger looked pretty lame on MNF... plus Cincy beat 'em in Pitt last wk...Despite that.. Ill take the Steelers.
Panthers 3 faves over x-Tampa Bay - Are the Bucs really that bad? See Pumpstradamus's prediction below.
Titans 11 doggies over x-Miami - Dolphins not good enough to deserve that many points. They will win but not cover.
Bears 3 faves over x-Minnesota - Vikings Shmikings... This is Twins country... (Take that Derek Jeter.. Joe Mauer's gonna win the batting title!)
Ravens 6 1/2 faves over x-Cleveland - Ravens 3-0? Hmmm
Rams 4 1/2 doggies over x-Arizona - St. Louis fans can boo the Cardinals this week in the NFL and next wk when they get swept in the first round of the playoffs.
Eagles 6 faves over x-49ers - Y'think the Eagles are a bit annoyed after last weeks collosal choke against the Giants? Or was that just a birthday present for me?
x-Patriots 7 faves over Denver - That's a big spread against a damn good Bronco team.
x-Saints 4 doggies over Atlanta - The first post Katrina game to be played at a sold out Superdome. And they're home dogs on Monday Night to boot! Huge win for the Saints!
And the Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week - Time to rebound from last weeks loss which dropped us to 1-1.… Since this past week, we celebrated “Talk Like a Pirate Day”… and spent it questioning why Jeromy Burnitz is still on the team… this weeks pick is the Buccaneers over Carolina!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Thoughts for 5767 - Lust!
If any Rabbi anywhere in the World is going to quote from a blog in his or her sermon during the High Holy Days… it sure as heck won’t be this one.
Today’s topic: Lust.
On Yom Kippur we symbolically pound our chest for each of a series of transgressions committed during the prior year. In past years, I have joked that I double up for the transgressions involving “lust”, yet now that I have been married for 2 years I wonder if it is ok to lust since no matter how hot any woman might be.. there is no way she could be as terrific as my wife! I am lucky in many ways, and one of those reasons is that Trophy Wife doesn’t care if I point out a good looking woman walking down the street.
For some reason a well meaning very orthodox relative hooked me up with a subscription to an ultra-orthodox newspaper. I have mentioned here in the past that I get a kick out of reading some of the letters to the editor on the editorial page. Hopefully the readers have enough savvy to see past some of their “news reporting” policies. A 9/11 insert had a “news” article about how the Left Undermined National Security Pre-9/11 that was written by David Horowitz - the same buffoon who hit all the talk shows this summer defending that disgraceful jackass Ann Coulter for her uncalled for attacks on the 9/11 widows from NJ. Their “news” is also heavily edited…a reprinted wire service article about a politician being treated for breast cancer edited out any reference to the word “breast”.
One other thing about this paper - they never ever show a picture of a female. I have seen on the Orthodox blogs that a book publisher had to alter a book cover in an ad because a Jewish book had a picture of a young girl on its cover!! I wonder what happens when they have an Amber Alert involving a female! These policies are due to strict rules concerning modesty.. .. also referred to as “tznius”. The ultras have strict rules about how women “present” themselves in public, ostensibly so Moshe Yankel doesn’t have to double down on the lust sins like I do. There is a strict dress code involving long sleeves and long skirts, and a married woman’s hair must be totally covered since a man should not see it. In addition, the voice of a woman also tends to be arousing.. (Do single guys still save answering machine messages from hot chics who return phone calls?) Therefore they do not listen to a woman sing… AND some go out of their way to avoid hearing a woman speak in public. This is actually written in the book of Berachot and I got this info from a website promoting nudism in Israel!.
Which makes me wonder about a thought provoking concept - Hasidic Nudists… and amazingly I am not the first blogger to bring up this concept. That’s right folks.. There is an Israeli based “naturists” aka nudist website that has a lengthy article presenting Talmudic arguments why nudism is permissible. (The guy who wrote it has since died). The nudists are entitled to their opinion, but I don’t know enough to debate this.. Keep in mind where the concept of clothing originated… and how the multibillion dollar fashion industry was born. When Adam was caught eating forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.. God wanted to have a chat with him. He called out to Adam but there was no response.. Then he tried a 2nd time and when God asked him where he was the 1st time.. Adam said he couldn’t come out to see him because he was naked and embarrassed… Is this why we wear clothes? Because of a lame-o excuse? What would have happened if he said the dog ate his homework… Would we starve dogs? Nonetheless, Adam later scolded the snake telling him “Listen Tough Guy, years from now you and your buddies on a plane will be the biggest overhyped summer movie flop of all time."
But here is why I think the concept is not so far out of Left Field.
Years ago when I was in college, I went on a beach trip with some buddies to Sandy Hook. One of the guys went for a walk with me and as we advanced from one beach to the next, a guy walks by with his shmeckle hanging out. It didn’t even register right away.. But a minute later I saw a tuchus and I started to wonder what the heck was going on. Well unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a nude beach! We decided to walk through it to get to the next beach and then we walked through it again on our way back to our original beach, And yes we kept our clothes on.
Here is what I found interesting.. Whereas guys drool over babes in bikinis on regular beaches.. there wasn’t really any of that going on at the nude beach. I also used to work with someone who went to nude beaches (Thank God I didn’t see him there that day!) and we discussed the atmosphere at these beaches.. I agreed with him… It seemed to be a very normal healthy environment… and people who look at the nude body there do not sexualize it. It is a very odd concept in a society where we drool over naked women and porn is so popular, but if you saw how those people interacted, once they were over the initial discomfort of their first trip there.. they all seemed very normal and it was quite a healthy approach. Incidentally I am sure the multi billion porn industry is against nude beaches because if nudity were to be more mainstream in society…. then their portfolio of publications, movies, and websites would seem less “forbidden”
I can’t imagine Nudist Chusids, but what is the deal with sexualizing women to such an extent? Is the goal to make any display of skin erotic? Incidentally many women have said they are not visually stimulated by naked men in magazines… to them the eroticism comes from the intimacy and closeness. Like the bikini beach… guys lust by using their imagination about what they cannot see. So what is the big deal if a woman wears a short skirt or a sleeveless shirt? Is glimpsing any part of a woman’s “forbidden” elbow or kneecap or hair going to really cause that much lust to stir in the heart? Or maybe just maybe does exposure to it on a regular basis make it very common and no big deal? Think about how many guys check out women’s breasts on a topless beach. There are so many of them there they all kind of get lost in the shuffle. That is why Scores has lap dances.. because after awhile the whole topless scene gets kind of dull.
Modesty rules are different if you are in the presence of members of your gender.. But what happens if there is a gasp homosexual in the midst? And as we know from “Trembling Before G-d” there are Jewish homosexuals although I don’t believe for a New Jersey minute that Golan Cipel is one of them. I think Governor McSleazy’s book should be filed in the fiction section and I wish he would just go away already. He didn’t resign because he is gay.. He resigned because of all the other shenanigans that were going on in Trenton and the gayness was just a decoy to divert attention from his other problems. I mean c’mon he was making comments about Golan “Heights of Passion” while his poor unknowing wife lay in a hospital bed preparing to give birth after a difficult pregnancy? I happen to know Cipel’s lawyer…and although I have not seen him in the 2 years since this story broke, there is no way he would look into TV Cameras and make false accusations that McSleazy was sexually harassing his client!
Here is a goal I set for the New Year.. Every time a beautiful non - tznius woman walks down the street and I point it out to my wife.. I will also make it very clear that no matter how hot that woman may be… even if she looks like Liz Cho… I would rather be with my wife!. Because these hot babes’ beauty is only skin deep… but all wives beauty transcends that.. Our wives put up with our crap, create a beautiful home for us.. cook for us…laugh at our bad jokes, and love us despite our shortcomings.. Who would want to spend time with some hot chic walking down the street in a miniskirt who might just be a psycho or a chain smoker, or who knows what? C’mon guys… let’s make 5767 the year that we let our wives know how much we appreciate them…
Now we will have to ask the Rabbi if lusting for your own wife is a chest beater. If so, we may have to fast an extra day this Yom Kippur!
Happy New Year!
Today’s topic: Lust.
On Yom Kippur we symbolically pound our chest for each of a series of transgressions committed during the prior year. In past years, I have joked that I double up for the transgressions involving “lust”, yet now that I have been married for 2 years I wonder if it is ok to lust since no matter how hot any woman might be.. there is no way she could be as terrific as my wife! I am lucky in many ways, and one of those reasons is that Trophy Wife doesn’t care if I point out a good looking woman walking down the street.
For some reason a well meaning very orthodox relative hooked me up with a subscription to an ultra-orthodox newspaper. I have mentioned here in the past that I get a kick out of reading some of the letters to the editor on the editorial page. Hopefully the readers have enough savvy to see past some of their “news reporting” policies. A 9/11 insert had a “news” article about how the Left Undermined National Security Pre-9/11 that was written by David Horowitz - the same buffoon who hit all the talk shows this summer defending that disgraceful jackass Ann Coulter for her uncalled for attacks on the 9/11 widows from NJ. Their “news” is also heavily edited…a reprinted wire service article about a politician being treated for breast cancer edited out any reference to the word “breast”.
One other thing about this paper - they never ever show a picture of a female. I have seen on the Orthodox blogs that a book publisher had to alter a book cover in an ad because a Jewish book had a picture of a young girl on its cover!! I wonder what happens when they have an Amber Alert involving a female! These policies are due to strict rules concerning modesty.. .. also referred to as “tznius”. The ultras have strict rules about how women “present” themselves in public, ostensibly so Moshe Yankel doesn’t have to double down on the lust sins like I do. There is a strict dress code involving long sleeves and long skirts, and a married woman’s hair must be totally covered since a man should not see it. In addition, the voice of a woman also tends to be arousing.. (Do single guys still save answering machine messages from hot chics who return phone calls?) Therefore they do not listen to a woman sing… AND some go out of their way to avoid hearing a woman speak in public. This is actually written in the book of Berachot and I got this info from a website promoting nudism in Israel!.
Which makes me wonder about a thought provoking concept - Hasidic Nudists… and amazingly I am not the first blogger to bring up this concept. That’s right folks.. There is an Israeli based “naturists” aka nudist website that has a lengthy article presenting Talmudic arguments why nudism is permissible. (The guy who wrote it has since died). The nudists are entitled to their opinion, but I don’t know enough to debate this.. Keep in mind where the concept of clothing originated… and how the multibillion dollar fashion industry was born. When Adam was caught eating forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.. God wanted to have a chat with him. He called out to Adam but there was no response.. Then he tried a 2nd time and when God asked him where he was the 1st time.. Adam said he couldn’t come out to see him because he was naked and embarrassed… Is this why we wear clothes? Because of a lame-o excuse? What would have happened if he said the dog ate his homework… Would we starve dogs? Nonetheless, Adam later scolded the snake telling him “Listen Tough Guy, years from now you and your buddies on a plane will be the biggest overhyped summer movie flop of all time."
But here is why I think the concept is not so far out of Left Field.
Years ago when I was in college, I went on a beach trip with some buddies to Sandy Hook. One of the guys went for a walk with me and as we advanced from one beach to the next, a guy walks by with his shmeckle hanging out. It didn’t even register right away.. But a minute later I saw a tuchus and I started to wonder what the heck was going on. Well unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a nude beach! We decided to walk through it to get to the next beach and then we walked through it again on our way back to our original beach, And yes we kept our clothes on.
Here is what I found interesting.. Whereas guys drool over babes in bikinis on regular beaches.. there wasn’t really any of that going on at the nude beach. I also used to work with someone who went to nude beaches (Thank God I didn’t see him there that day!) and we discussed the atmosphere at these beaches.. I agreed with him… It seemed to be a very normal healthy environment… and people who look at the nude body there do not sexualize it. It is a very odd concept in a society where we drool over naked women and porn is so popular, but if you saw how those people interacted, once they were over the initial discomfort of their first trip there.. they all seemed very normal and it was quite a healthy approach. Incidentally I am sure the multi billion porn industry is against nude beaches because if nudity were to be more mainstream in society…. then their portfolio of publications, movies, and websites would seem less “forbidden”
I can’t imagine Nudist Chusids, but what is the deal with sexualizing women to such an extent? Is the goal to make any display of skin erotic? Incidentally many women have said they are not visually stimulated by naked men in magazines… to them the eroticism comes from the intimacy and closeness. Like the bikini beach… guys lust by using their imagination about what they cannot see. So what is the big deal if a woman wears a short skirt or a sleeveless shirt? Is glimpsing any part of a woman’s “forbidden” elbow or kneecap or hair going to really cause that much lust to stir in the heart? Or maybe just maybe does exposure to it on a regular basis make it very common and no big deal? Think about how many guys check out women’s breasts on a topless beach. There are so many of them there they all kind of get lost in the shuffle. That is why Scores has lap dances.. because after awhile the whole topless scene gets kind of dull.
Modesty rules are different if you are in the presence of members of your gender.. But what happens if there is a gasp homosexual in the midst? And as we know from “Trembling Before G-d” there are Jewish homosexuals although I don’t believe for a New Jersey minute that Golan Cipel is one of them. I think Governor McSleazy’s book should be filed in the fiction section and I wish he would just go away already. He didn’t resign because he is gay.. He resigned because of all the other shenanigans that were going on in Trenton and the gayness was just a decoy to divert attention from his other problems. I mean c’mon he was making comments about Golan “Heights of Passion” while his poor unknowing wife lay in a hospital bed preparing to give birth after a difficult pregnancy? I happen to know Cipel’s lawyer…and although I have not seen him in the 2 years since this story broke, there is no way he would look into TV Cameras and make false accusations that McSleazy was sexually harassing his client!
Here is a goal I set for the New Year.. Every time a beautiful non - tznius woman walks down the street and I point it out to my wife.. I will also make it very clear that no matter how hot that woman may be… even if she looks like Liz Cho… I would rather be with my wife!. Because these hot babes’ beauty is only skin deep… but all wives beauty transcends that.. Our wives put up with our crap, create a beautiful home for us.. cook for us…laugh at our bad jokes, and love us despite our shortcomings.. Who would want to spend time with some hot chic walking down the street in a miniskirt who might just be a psycho or a chain smoker, or who knows what? C’mon guys… let’s make 5767 the year that we let our wives know how much we appreciate them…
Now we will have to ask the Rabbi if lusting for your own wife is a chest beater. If so, we may have to fast an extra day this Yom Kippur!
Happy New Year!
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