IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 3 Comments

by John Walters

*Before you read this, why not read something funny? Go to “A Message From Katie” (it’s just over there to the right…See it?….Look at you owning the internet) and click. Thanks!

Starting Five

Tragic Mike

The Florida Klanhandle transformed into Desolation Row yesterday as Hurricane Michael came ashore with its 155 m.p.h. winds laying waste to a 200-mile swath of the Gulf Coast. The loss of life was minimal (two souls) but countless pairs of air-brushed sleeveless T-shirts have been lost or irreparably soiled.

Climate change isn’t God reaching His hand through the clouds like an animated Monty Python bumper. No, it’s a storm like Michael so soon after Florence, it’s Connecticut experiencing a record number of 80-plus degree days (such as yesterday). Here in the northeast, seasons are fast becoming Summer, Indian Summer, Winter, Rain, repeat.

But, you know, it’s too soon to talk about climate change right after such a devastating storm…

Michael did pose an inconvenience of sorts for our 45th president, who wanted to express concern and all but wasn’t about to pass on the ego boost that a White Power Rally provides him. So here’s what he did. First, he tweeted this (which, okay, no one expects him to fly to Panama City and use a T-shirt cannon to shoot paper towels into people’s homes, but the fact is he literally was NOT with them)


and then of course he boards Air Force One and flies to Erie to feed off the hostility of his followers toward those who have nothing to do with the fact that they’re losers….

2. Seeing Red

The stock market took a precipitous plunge yesterday, more than 832 points (or 3.2%), its greatest one-day loss since February 8…which no one really remembers because the DOW has been so upwardly trending since then. Is it a blip or is it a trend?

Well, when we began typing this morning the DOW’s implied open was -300 or so and now it’s at -138. We think it’s a correction and President Donald “The Fed has gone crazy” Trump blames it on the Federal Reserve and its raising of interest rates.

To all our clients at Walker Capital and to my colleagues at the Cookoutateria who texted in a panic last night, read these words of wisdom from the NYT.

3. The Butler Did It

Of trades and tirades…

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler, who has been requesting a trade the past three weeks, went full mic drop on his team yesterday after showing up for the first time this preseason. Butler rounded up a supporting cast of third-stringers and whipped, repeatedly, the first-string squad that included former overall first picks Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

During the scrimmages, Butler cussed out the team’s GM and coach and told them how badly they need him (they already knew this, which is why they don’t want to trade him). Then he just walked out of the gym, leaving everyone’s jaws agape.

Okay, so Butler has gone from 30th overall pick in 2011 to one of the league’s most dynamic players. And now he’s a diva. We get it. We just don’t understand the logic. How do you go from “You need to trade me” to “You need me?” Or is it just that he’s pissed that he’s not paid as much as Towns and Wiggins?

Here’s what we like about Butler, who as you can see even looks a little bit like Michael Jordan (and started out with the Bulls): He’s honest. He’s also a competitor, as opposed to just an AAU stud. For all their young talent, the T-Wolves don’t have an Alpha Wolf if he’s not there.

4. Katie’s Boner

If everyone believes the sun revolves around the earth, there’s not much upside to being Galileo. If you live long enough, you’ll learn that it’s not necessarily a good thing to have more experience and knowledge than a millennial if all the other millennials are as ignorant as he or she. Now I’m not trying to pick on millennials…okay, maybe I am to a degree.

Here’s Bill Simmons appearing on his friend Katie Nolan’s ESPN show recently, and being a good sport about going back to defend himself in terms of past TV clips (Why didn’t they show the Sage Steele clip from the 2013 NBA Finals, we wonder?). Anyway, at one point (the 2-minute mark) she chides him about using the word “boner” on PTI and he tells her that while it gave him a vicarious thrill to use that double entendre on TV, also reminds her that it is a famous sports term dating back a century.

“Wait, people say ‘boner’ to just mean mistakes?” Nolan asks. “I’d never heard that.”

“You know, Merkle’s Boner?” Simmons asks, and then provides vague and not exactly historically accurate details about Fred Merkle (it was the 1908 World Series, not 1912, but   probably only Bob Costas and Keith Olbermann would know that off the top of their heads).

As we think about it, we’re trying to imagine Merkle’s Boner (a baserunning blunder in which he got himself forced out at 2nd as a teammate was scoring what could’ve been the game-winning run) in replay-review world.

What’s funny is the blank stare that Nolan gives Simmons. Like, “Whatevs, Bill.” But he’s not in the wrong here. She is, for being the host of a sports show and having no idea what Merkle’s Boner is. And okay, we can forgive that, but it’s the look she gives him as if to say, “You’re nuts” instead of being humble enough to appreciate that Bill Simmons probably has a better historical sports mind than she does. Maybe she could actually learn something here.

Now, the typical millennial response to this might be, “What do you expect? I wasn’t alive back then.” But guess what? Neither was Bill Simmons. Neither was I, but I know what Merkle’s Boner is.

So, yeah, millennials are awful. And they don’t read enough because they’re too busy posting selfies on Instagram. And I’m joking but I’m also not.

5. Olivia’s Odyssey

Dollars to doughnuts that Nuzzi’s looks probably enticed Trump to call her into the office. But she’s also a very smart cookie.

This story from Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine about her bizarre visit to the Oval Office a few days ago is just wild. She’s called in to meet with President Trump about a story she’s working on that Chief of Staff General John Kelly’s job is in jeopardy and next thing you know she’s being full-court pressed by Trump, Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence among others.

Reserves

Before we forget, this performance from Flight of the Conchords on Late Show recently. It’s good to have the band back together.

***

Also, if you want to read an excellent celebrity un-profile, this piece from Taffy Brodesser-Akner on Bradley Cooper in The New York Times is wonderful.

Music 101

Girlfriend

1991, Matthew Sweet, and one of the earliest uses of anime in a rock video. The Nebraska native had moved to Athens, Georgia, in the early Eighties to attend college and be part of that burgeoning music scene that included B-52s and REM. His success came later and lesser than theirs, but this breakout hit still went to No. 10 on the charts.

Remote Patrol

His Girl Friday 

8 p.m. TCM

This 1940 comedy marks the second time in as many years that Cary Grant played a character who successfully woos his ex-wife back (The other film? The Philadelphia Story). Was that a thing back then?

 

A MESSAGE FROM KATIE!

by John Walters | 4 Comments

by Katie McCollow

Hello friends! Isn’t it exciting that Medium Happy is turning 50? Where have the years gone?

Obviously I’m joking- we all know Medium Happy has yet to complete a trip around the sun (or publish any actual recipes, which I think we can all agree is highly confusing)-I’m the one who turned 50, and what better way to commemorate this milestone than share with you the dread I feel at having lived half a century, yet am still no closer to meeting Zac Efron?

I know what you’re thinking; “She couldn’t possibly be 50, she doesn’t write a day over 32!” and that is so sweet of you, really. Turning 50 is such a relief, to be honest- I’m totally going to embrace hearing “You write great for your age.”

My actual birthday was a few days ago. I asked my mother, “Can you believe you have a child who’s 50?!” and she reminded me that I’m the eighth of her nine children. I only tell you that so you know that compared to all of my siblings except one, I’m actually very, very young.

I’m not one of those people who feels melancholy about getting older, especially now, when there’s so much other stuff to feel melancholy about. Is it cognitive dissonance or menopause keeping me in a constant state of emotional whiplash? One calls for hormone therapy, the other, hardcore pharmaceuticals. Either way, these days I get a disturbing thrill from chewing stale Gummi Bears and then counting my teeth.

So how did I spend the big day, you ask? Well it was beautiful outside, and beautiful days have been in short supply this year where I live- I feel like I can count on one hand the days the sun has shone this fall, so I went for a run. As I was leaving, my husband, wracked with bronchitis, was attempting to use the last of his limited oxygen supply to blow up a giant, gold number 50, making me wonder if my birthday surprise would be widowhood. He lived, the balloons still festoon my front windows, and all is well.

He rallied enough to take me to do one of my favorite things later that night, sing karaoke. I have no explanation why it’s one of my favorite things, since it never goes well. I’m about as good at karaoke as I am at ordering off a menu. Hmm, steak, chicken, pork…oooh what’s that you say, tonight’s special is duck tartare? Sounds repulsive! Make it a double!

If I were to stick to my wheelhouse at karaoke, I’d choose something like, say, Happy Birthday. That’s not even true- my real wheelhouse, singing-wise, would be to not participate, but if Instagram has taught me anything, it’s that we’re supposed to do things that scare us.

Does Instagram really know what it’s talking about? Why should I do things that scare me? Why am I supposed to ‘breathe through it and let it go’? Is everyone I meet really fighting a battle I know nothing about? Insty insists I ‘Don’t sit on my ideas, stand by them’- what about that duck tartare idea that made me throw up for two days? But then my jeans fit for 10 minutes on the third say, so I guess it did make sense. Fine, Instagram, you win. For now.

Where was I? Oh yes, karaoke. My logical mind says just say no, but the part of me that loves it when you look screams Bohemian Rhapsody!! Impossible to sing, and cripplingly long! Why should I be the only one suffering? As Ellen Griswold says, “It’s Christmas, and we’re all in misery.” OK FINE. We all know the part of me that loves when you look is the whole part, and none of my mind is logical. Must you rub it in??

Enough with the birthday talk. I’m sure it’s obvious to all you smart people that it is but a red herring to keep from talking about the latest elephant in the room that’s stampeding through this country and tearing (what’s left of it) apart.

I’ll warn you right now- I hold an unpopular opinion on this latest shriek-fest, and every time anyone, even a supposed “loved one”, asks me about it and I speak my truth, they look at me like I’ve morphed into an Orc, take me out of their contact list and block me off their social media before I’ve even had a chance to swallow my muffin. And that was not a euphemism, although you will find a reference to it in my high school year book.

I’m talking of course, about the new A Star is Born.

It was OK.

I didn’t hate it! But let’s get real, there was not an easier mark in that theater than me, me who loves nothing more than a doomed love story with a great soundtrack. I sat down, settled in with my Kleenex and waited in giddy anticipation for the waterworks to start.

Still waiting.

The good news: Bradley Cooper does a spectacular Sam Elliot impersonation. Also good news: the insomnia that’s plagued me since April is cured.

If you don’t know the story, stop reading (although I’m pretty sure most of you clicked off at the mention of menopause) because I’m going to reveal the whole plot right now. And if you don’t know the story, why don’t you? This is like the 47th iteration of this thing, and it’s a classic. Not knowing the story is like not knowing Darth Vader is Luke’s dad at this point. (Aaaaand there go the rest of you.)

Spoiler Alert: In the pool scene, Jackson Maine is actually in the shallow end. I mean…

So Bradley Cooper plays this grizzled old musician who’s super famous. He’s an unkempt drunk and looks like he smells awful. One night after a show, he goes to a bar and falls hard for Lady Gaga, a chanteuse with eyebrows made of hockey tape. Possibly duct tape, but I’m from Minnesota.

Bradley Cooper: Mraw mraw mrawwww mmmble

Lady Gaga: You’ve earned my trust so I’ll sing in this parking lot late at night! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH (her voice causes a hurricane, but everyone lives because of paper towels)

Bradley Cooper: Mrawwww mraww mrawwwww braaaap less make out slurp slurp ima make you famuzz brrrhhhh

Lady Gaga: This stage is so big and scary I’ll cover my eyes and hopefully my voice can shake the foundation WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH (it does)

Bradley Cooper: Mraw mraw mraw bppppphttttt

Lady Gaga: I’m famous now so my hair is light orange!

Bradley Cooper: mrah mrah less ge murried yer n ugly sellout ahmm deaf

Lady Gaga: Drunkard!

Bradley Cooper: psssssssssssssssssss

He cleans up his act and swims in a pool, she cancels a tour and then there’s a sad part and a big number at the end. There’s also lots of dull shots inside the seventies-era dental office they call home, and Sam Elliot (oh- he plays Bradley Cooper’s brother) says the F word about a million times. And about halfway through it you say way louder than you meant to, “Omigod is that Andrew Dice Clay?”

B-. It’s this year’s Dunkirk or the year before’s La La Land. It’ll probably win a boatload of awards, and I’ll remain the cheese standing alone. But life is not all mediocre movies, friends, so here’s a list of-

Five Books that are fun to read in October

5. Dracula– I have a really cool version, with super creepy illustrations. Now, when I say I ‘read’ this, what I mean is, I crank “Before the Summer Ends” on an hours long loop and sing along at top volume until my vocal cords bleed. I don’t listen to the rest of the soundtrack because it’s garbage.

4. The Haunting of Hill House– The best kind of scary- the psychological kind. I’m looking forward to watching the Netflix version of this, mostly so I can marvel at how great Carla Gugino looks.

3. The Liner Notes of the special edition of The Greatest Showman. Always the right choice, no matter the month. And again, the thought of never meeting Zac Efron terrifies.

2. Wuthering Heights– OK, you caught me- I bucked tradition and didn’t read it this year, opting instead for Agnes Grey, which I’d never read because I didn’t even know it existed until I went to the library to check out Wuthering Heights. Have I been italicizing too much? It feels like maybe too much. Anyway I’m not going to read two Bronte sister books back to back. It’s gloomy outside but c’mon.

That’s the whole list. Five books in a month? I don’t have that kind of time, you sillies. Until we meet again, I hope you all have a very Happy Halloween!

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 3 Comments

by John Walters

Starting Five

“I pledge allegiance/To the pu**y grabber…”

1. In Haley, Ex-Haley

Yet another cabinet member, United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, submits her resignation. But in the West Wing it’s all peaches and cream and how-’bout-a photo op? What gives?

Theories: 1) She got tired of Jon Bolton‘s creepy mustache and Mike Pompeo‘s perpetually I’ve-had-too-much-for-lunch girth. Plus, they’re serious hardliners where she is more of an eyeliner. 2) She and her husband wanna make a little more bread. They’ve never earned more than $270,000 a year combined (I’m sure Donald has a few thoughts about that, spouse-wise) or 3) Haley is positioning herself to take Lindsay Graham‘s vacant South Carolina senate seat when Donald appoints him attorney general to replace Jeff Sessions.

We’ll see.

Whatever, Haley only informed her staff of the exodus a few hours before meeting Trump later Tuesday morning (just after he finished watching Fox & Friends and cartoons). So it was an either abrupt or carefully guarded decision.

2. Stanton Stinks (Don’t Talk To Us, We’re Grieving)!

Another walk of shame for G-Rod

Is it too soon to dub him G-Rod? The Yankees trailed 4-1 to the Red Sox in an elimination game heading to the bottom of the ninth in the Bronx last night. The leadoff hitter, Aaron Judge, walked. The next batter, Didi Gregorius, singled. No outs and the tying run, Giancarlo Stanton, comes to the plate.

To that point Stanton had four singles in the series (two during a 16-1 rout on Monday) and five strikeouts in 17 at-bats. No extra-base hits, no RBI. The man whom the Yankees have invested an MLB-record $325 million through 2028 predictably struck out, but it wasn’t the K itself, it’s how he did it. The last two strikes Stanton swung out were low and away, far outside the zone.

It says a lot that the next batter, Luke Voit, who’s in his second season, was able to work a walk against the Sox’ Craig Kimbrel, one of the game’s premier closers (while Stanton was not). Then Neil Walker, another batter more clutch than Stanton, was hit by the first pitch, forcing in a run.

Gary Sanchez, who wouldn’t shorten his swing to save his mother’s life, flied out to the warning track, bringing in one more run. Then Gleyber Torres hit a two-strike slow roller to third and was thrown out by inches, ending the game and the Yankees’ season.

We say this as longtime Yankee fans: it’s a cheap thrill watching a team set a Major League home run record (267) during the season but utterly unable to put wood on the ball when it matters. In two games in the Bronx the Yankees failed to hit a home run (we don’t know how often that happened during the season, but it was rare for a team that averaged more than 1.5 per game).

Only Angel Hernandez (three overturned calls in Game 3) had a worse series than Stanton. The Cuban native has filed a discrimination grievance with MLB; is that why he keeps getting to work playoff games?

Also, mock the “clutch gene” theory all you want, but in his first season in New York it’s clear that Stanton wants no part of big moments. Like Jason Giambi and A-Rod before him, he’s great at hitting 450-foot blasts when the Yanks are up or down five runs, but in key moments? New York sent seven men to the plate in the ninth inning and only their most expensive player whiffed…again, on two obvious balls.

Players such as George Springer of the Astros or Christian Yelich of the Brewers, here are guys who make contact and also have power. In the offseason we hope Stanton either visits an optometrist or learns how to lay off high heat and low in-the-dirt sliders. For now, though, he’s what our dad would call “a stiff.” I can’t stomach another 10 seasons of this; I’m too old for that. It’s almost enough (almost) to make me a Mets fan.

Thank you for letting me vent. Sports therapists’ hourly rates are too expensive.

3. Michael: Would You Like An Upgrade?

Yesterday Michael was an unassuming Category 1 storm with 90 m.p.h. winds just minding its business at Starbucks. This morning it’s a Category 4 hurricane that is about to hit the Florida panhandle with the potential to be the nastiest October hurricane since StatCast began tracking exit velocity and launch angles (sorry, we’re just not ready to let the Yankees’ season be over yet). Anyway, seriously, it could be the worst October hurricane in U.S. history.

Also, this just in from your favorite Super-Pac or GOP politician or email-forwarding relative: climate change is not real. But you do have to wonder, why does dear Baby Jesus keep taking aim at red states so often with His magnificent tempests?

4. The Rear Window-ing of Jamal Khashoggi

The last moments Jamal Khashoggi was seen alive

If you’ve ever seen the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window, you know that once you murder someone inside a building with only one exit, the hard part is removing the body. So where is Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who entered his nation’s consulate in Istanbul last week and never emerged? And was a 15-man assassination team really necessary? How many people do you need?

Also, will the Trump White House just dole out lame platitudes about wanting answers until hopefully a domestic mass shooting or kneeling NFL player wipes this story from the front page? After, you’ve got a Muslim journalist (two strikes) versus an evil, oil-producing monarchy (three pluses). Whose side do you think President Spray Tan is on?

5. Swift Voting >>>> Swift Boating*

*The judges will also accept “Pop Rock—But No Longer Country—The Vote”

Popette Taylor Swift won another Artist of the Year AMA last night and encouraged viewers and the audience to get out and vote (two days earlier she’d finally broken her political silence and said she’d be supporting two Tennessee Democrats; it’s a wonder someone didn’t hurl a copy of Republicans Buy Sneakers, Too at her).

Through serendipitous timing, Kanye West was too busy having lunch at the White House (really) to march onstage and interrupt T-Swizzle’s acceptance/suffrage speech.

Music 101

The Edge of Glory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XenLJLFP9IA

Just a couple of native New Yorkers in a studio grinding, trying to make a living. Lady Ga Ga appeared on Howard Stern 11 years ago and what comes across, undeniably, is her superlative talent (she’s only 21 years old here). MH had a staff outing last night to see A Star Is Born (why waste two nights in a row watching the Yanks lose at home to the Red Sox?) and this performance becomes more impactful. Why? Because not unlike Jackson Maine, we prefer the stripped-down Stephanie Germanotta, with that one in 100,000 million voice and the piano chops, to the platinum-haired, dancer-adorned Ga Ga.

Remote Patrol

Warriors at Lakers

10:30 p.m. ESPN

It’s only preseason, but this is the first time LeLakers will face the Warriors. We’re hoping Steve “I don’t want to be here, anyway” Kerr gets himself tossed in the first half.

 

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

Starting Five

A Mighty Brees

As a mighty breeze (Hurricane Michael) bears down on the Gulf Coast, New Olreans Drew Brees breaks the NFL all-time passing yardage record. The league office on Park Ave. and 52nd timed this one right, putting the game on Monday Night Football (you could extrapolate out back in the preseason when Brees would likely topple the mark), as Brees set the mark on a 62-yard touchdown throw to rookie Tre’Quan Smith in the first half.


For the record (and that’s what the night was all about), the 39 year-old, 6’0″ at best Purdue alum completed 26 of 29 passes (a career-best 89.7%) for 363 yards and 3 TDs as the Saints routed the Redskins 43-19.

The native Texan passed, via passing, Peyton Manning on the all-time list (72,103 to 71,940) and now has 499 TD passes. Tom Brady is the all-time leader in that department with 500.

2. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

On a day that recognizes Native Americans (October 8), the Indians and Braves were bounced from the  MLB postseason and the Redskins were exposed in prime-time. Also, the Chief Wahoo character was retired in Cleveland. The Great Spirit works in mysterious ways.

Hopefully our North-of-the-Border reader, Moose, will chime in if there were any ironic sports occurrences in Canada regarding it being their Thanksgiving yesterday.

3. 16-1 on 161st

Holt was fired up after his cycle-completing 9th-inning blast, and who can blame him?

Speaking of irony, the Yankees lost Game 3 of the ALDS to the Red Sox by the score of their subway stop. Historic firsts: in the ninth inning the Bombers put in a position player to pitch in the postseason (catcher Austin Romine) for the first time in their vaunted October history and Boston’s Brock Holt connects for a two-run homer, which gave him the cycle, which makes him the first player EVER to hit for the cycle in the playoffs (Rule No. 7). So if you stuck around in the Bronx for this massacre until the 9th inning, you at least got that payoff.

4. Tierney Time

That’s Tierney Wolfgram of Woodbury, Minnesota, and when this 15 year-old sophomore walks into classes at Woodbury Science and Math Academy this morning (assuming she had the day off yesterday because of Columbus Day), she’ll have quite a story to tell: She finished 6th in the women’s division of the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, where the finish line is just a few miles west of her front door.

Running her first marathon, the two-time Class I-A defending state cross-country champ clocked a 2:40:03. A Wolfgram is nearly as quick as a telegram. That’s the best junior marathon time in 34 years and the second-best overall after Cathy Schiro’s 2:24:34 in 1984.

5. The Pacific is Already Weird


Forget LeBron. The Phoenix Suns of Anarchy fired GM Ryan McDonough (Seans’ kid brother) this weekend, which is kinda weird since he just presided over the team’s top overall pick in the draft. Up the coast, Stephen Curry is receiving preseason technicals when not hitting no-look half court shots and Steve Kerr is smart enough to get himself booted from preseason games that no one has any interest in seeing, anyway.

As for McDonough, he’s made some good drafting decisions: Devin Booker, Josh Jackson and DeAndre Ayton are the Suns’ nucleus (of course, as the largest body of anything in our solar system, the sun has the largest nucleus of anything you really know about), but the franchise has had five coaches in his five seasons. Also, owner Robert Sarver is kind of a dunce. So there’s that.

Music 101

The Main Event

It was 1979 and Barbra Streisand still cared about being in the public eye. This is her last film + soundtrack that we can remember. This tune was technically categorized as disco and spent four weeks at No. 3 on the Billboard chart. Sure, it’s a cheesy tune, but the woman’s vocal talent is undeniable. If you’re scoring at home, yes, we’ve put ’70s Babs songs in the blog on consecutive days.

Remote Patrol

Red Sox-Yankees, Game 4

8 p.m. TBS

For the sixth time in seven years, baseball’s best player is nowhere to be found in October. Imagine LeBron doing that.

Because it’s all we have before both league championship series, as the other three divisional series  turned out to be total duds. Our “analysis”: Houston has the best team and the Brewers will be the favorite of all who don’t have a rooting interest. Meanwhile, Mike Trout remains the best player in baseball and in seven full seasons has played in three postseason games. Baseball is not basketball.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

Starting Five

Carnage In New York

Twenty people dead. Twenty. From one accident involving two vehicles (really just one was both moving and occupied). What the hell? The accident occurred around 2 p.m. Saturday in upstate New York in the town of Schoharie, at the junction of Routes 30 and 30A. An SUV-style limo carrying 17 passengers was traveling perhaps as fast as 6o mph as it roared down Route 30 toward the intersection with 30 A. The T-crossing is marked only with a Stop sign and the limo driver either failed to heed it or simply was going too fast to stop.

The limo struck an unoccupied Toyota truck and two pedestrians standing outside the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing them, then plowed into an embankment. The passengers, celebrating a 30th birthday and doing a winery tour, were all likely not in seatbelts. It was instant death for all but one person, who later died at the hospital.

It’s difficult to fathom, the sudden and massive loss of life from an accident really involving just one car. It’s the largest transportation loss of life in the U.S., planes included, since 2009 when 50 people perished in a plane crash in Buffalo, also upstate New York. “That limo was coming down that hill probably over 60 miles per hour,” said Jessica Kirby, 36, the manager of the Apple Barrel Country Store. “I don’t want to describe the scene. It’s not something I want to think about.”

Eerily, thirteen years and four days earlier in upstate New York, a tour boat, the Ethan Allen, capsized on Lake George, killing….20.

The Ethan Allen went down October 2, 2005

Most of the victims were around 30 years old and lived in Amsterdam, N.Y. They included two recently married couples and four sisters.

2. Konfirmation Daze

We’ll have more to say on this later this week, but for now…

and this from Jimmy Kimmel.

3. A Star Was Born

With all the hype for A Star Is Born this past weekend (we have yet to see it, but Friend of MH Katie McCollow did and she have it three stars and a meh), we felt it our duty to remind you that there were three previous iterations of this film with the identical title: the original in 1937 with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, the previously acknowledged best with Judy Garland and James Mason in 1954, and the god-awful one with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand (too old for the role by then) in 1976.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7AIBlzCluc

As our sister said of the Lady Ga Ga-Bradley Cooper version, “Get out the Oscar wheelbarrow.” But you should know that while the previous three versions earned a collective 17 Oscar nominations, it only won two: Best Original Story in 1937 and Best Original Song (“Evergreen”) in 1976.

It’s also worth knowing that most Academy Awards nerds consider Judy Garland’s snub at the 1955 Oscars for Best Actress as the greatest injustice in the history of the award. Garland lost to Grace Kelly, who played a non-glamorous type-against-type in The Country  Girl (see: Charlize Theron, Monster). It’s bizarre: Garland, one of the greatest actresses and film icons ever, never won an Oscar. It is said that this defeat—she had just given birth and was unable to attend the ceremony—sent her into a downward spiral from which she never truly recovered (talk about life imitating art). If you’re wondering why people believe so strongly that Garland deserved the Oscar for this performance, watch this clip:

If you’re scoring at home, Garland begins her soliloquy at 1:04 and finishes at 3:35. That’s 2 1/2 minutes of uninterrupted speaking, emoting, etc., and she’s magnificent. Spell-binding. Damn, as soon as Grace Kelly saw this clip she snatched that Oscar, ran off the podium and married herself a damn prince and retired. She knew. Everybody knew. Judy wuz robbed.

We’ll see what happens next winter, but our gut tells us this film will have more Oscar success than its predecessors.

4. Khabib Khabobs

McGregor got beaten up twice

We don’t know if the mayhem following the UFC match between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov was orchestrated or not. We’re not UFC fans, mainly because it looks like human cock-fighting to us. Yes, it takes skilled fighters but where it differs from boxing or or even tae kwan do is that it involves either submission or literally being knocked out. There’s something dehumanizing about that; it’s not the same as, but it is, to us, not unlike cheering for rape or assault.

 

That’s our opinion. Your mileage may vary. Either way, what happened after the fight doesn’t surprise us much considering the types of folks who enjoy this as entertainment. Yes, we are being judgmental. No, that doesn’t bother us at all.

5. No Safe Harbor

Tragically, in the Age of Trump, the world is becoming a dangerous place for both women and people who speak or write the truth. And the people who hurt them are more brazen about it. In Bulgaria, television journalist Victoria Marinova was raped and murdered. Marinova’s last interview was with two journalists who were looking into corruption in the EU. Coincidence?

Meanwhile last week in Turkey, Washington Post global opinions columnist Jamal Khashoggi was likely murdered inside the consulate for his own country, Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi, 59 and a Saudi exile living in the U.S., had gone inside to obtain an official document for his wedding, leaving his fiancee outside. Inside the building, it has been reported, were 15 Saudis who had flown in that day expressly to detain him, torture him and murder him. Inside the building.

Khashoggi’s corpse was reportedly dismembered and the entire episode was taped.

I think you know how our Dear Leader will react to this event.

Music 101

Fantasy

Do yourself a favor and purchase Earth, Wind & Fire Greatest Hits as soon as you’re finished reading this. This song, composed by the band’s late co-lead singer, Maurice White, was inspired by his having seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Released in 1978, it only peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard chart. There was just a glut of great music then. We were spoiled. I may have made this point before.

Remote Patrol

Better Call Saul

9 p.m. AMC

The Season 4 finale, “Winner,” is already here. Werner has gone AWOL, simply to visit his wife in Germany. But Gus ain’t having any of that. Jimmy is going to appeal his law license being revoked. Kim is still Team Jimmy.

It’s been a disjointed season, a purgatory of sorts for most of our characters, and the main ones’ story lines (Jimmy and Mike, namely) have not overlapped or even collided occasionally in intriguing ways. More than anything, it has often felt, to us, as if the writers have painted themselves into a corner and have tried to get themselves out of it within one episode’s time by creating a contrived remedy. There have been no “A-Ha!” moments, as in Breaking Bad, no looming crises. Most of all, though, it has felt as if the writers don’t have any better clue as to how to advance the story than you or I do. It’s still a great show, because the characters are so charming, but this entire season, sans Chuck, has felt as if the show is idling, waiting to find a bewitching way to get us to the final descent of Jimmy to Saul.