by John Walters

Starting Five

In-And-Out Like Flynn*

*The judges will also accept “Flynn and Out,” “Flynngazi,” “Fin de Flynn,” but not “Flynn Gate”

“President Trump, if you gave the order that Russia was not supposed to be conversed with on the topic of sanctions, and your orders are always followed, then why would Santiago be in danger?”

In other words, did National Security Adviser appointee Michael Flynn really speak to Russia off-the-cuff about something as above-his-paygrade as sanctions in December having not cleared that with his boss, President-elect Donald Trump? Or had Flynn and Trump and the rest of them been in bed with Putin for so long that they forgot that they had to start being careful about what they said when they spoke with Russia?

The next National Security Adviser should advice the nuclear football toter not to pose with Mar-A-Lago guests who post to Facebook

Flynn resigned last night. Keep in mind that Trump fired acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates ostensibly for not supporting the Muslim ban, but that she had already warned the White House back on January 22nd that Flynn was a likely blackmail target for the Russian government based on those phone calls (or maybe they thought Sally was blackmailing them?).

Trump and his minions did not investigate this. The Washington Post and The New York Times did. They’re the reason Flynn quit last night; not a Congressional task force.

Sally Yaes: Got the ball rolling on first weekend of presidency

The scenarios: 1) Flynn spoke to Russians on his own, lied to Pence and Trump about it. 2) Flynn spoke to Russians about sanctions on own, told Pence and Trump, they covered for him, and so Pence lied, too. 3) Flynn spoke to Russians about sanctions on orders from Trump/Bannon/Kushner/Pence (and/or there), they all knew about it, Pence lied (Seth Meyers: “to Mike Pence, a lie is just the truth that hasn’t gone through conversion therapy yet“) and when the lid was blown, he had to be the fall guy.

Per normal Trump International, Inc., rules Miss Venezuela will now succeed Flynn as National Security Adviser….

I can’t take the credit. Seth Meyers said, “He’s already two-thirds of the way to Montgomery Burns.” Of course Seth can’t take the credit, either. One of his writers thought of that most likely.

We’ll eventually find out. This White House is leakier than the Bimini crib on The Bachelor.

“You’re the opposition party,” Steve Bannon told The New York Times a couple Fridays ago. Damn straight. If you are an incompetent or unscrupulous institution, be certain that we are the opposition party.

Marty Baron: Rock star

Finally, Marty Baron is the executive editor at The Washington Post. Same guy was in charge of The Boston Globe and pushed for the Spotlight investigation that led to a Pulitzer and Best Picture Oscar. Well done, Marty.

Flynn’s full resignation letter...

2. 

It was not a complete yawner in Storrs, but Connecticut won its 100th consecutive game, 66-55, against South Carolina. The Cocks led by three early and were within three, 40-37, with 3:43 to play in the third quarter, but then the Huskies, as is their wont, pulled away with brilliant tactical offense.

We can talk about high scorers blah blah blah but the player of the game is head coach Geno Auriemma and his from-day-one associate head coach, Chris Dailey. Here’s how dominant UConn has been: since March 4, 2013, the Huskies are 150-2. Both losses were by two points. The first was to Notre Dame in the Big East Championship game in Hartford and the second was at Stanford, in overtime.

The craziest thing to me about this season (25-0) is that this is far from Geno’s most dominant team. It’s one of his more pedestrian teams. Katie Lou Samuelson may be POY and Gabby Williams, Kia Nurse and Crystal Dangerfield are fantastic, but this is a machine whose CEO has instilled it with so much confidence and an unbelievable degree of consistency out of a group of teenagers and early twenty-somethings.

2. Hell And High Water*

Speaking of high-water marks….

*The judges will also accept “Reservoir Dogged,” and “Hot Dam!”

When filled to the brim, Lake Oroville, north of Sacramento, is 901 feet deep. So, yeah, three football fields laid end to end. It was full over the weekend (Yay! No drought), but its main spillway, a concrete ramp, had a football field-sized chunk eroded out, which created a 40-foot hole below, which, Rule No. 1 (“Gravity always wins”) caused it to fill with water, which was only going to lead to more of a mess.

So officials quickly evacuated the 188,000 residents who live below the dam and suddenly we had a Godzilla movie on our hands. The Oroville Dam did not break, but I wonder how that underground erosion is going to affect the overall integrity of the dam itself. Stay tuned, and have the car keys nearby.

4. Tragedy at the Oculus

You may have seen the story about the young woman who plunged to her death at the Oculus, the gleaming new lower Manhattan train station where PATH trains enter from New Jersey (its predecessor was located beneath the World Trade Center). It’s sadder than you think.

Jenny Santos, 29, of Kearney N.J., was coming home on Sunday morning from a night out in New York City. It was 5:30 a.m. and she and her twin sister were taking the escalator and I’d guess inebriation was involved because reportedly Jenny was “playing superhero,” laying flat on the railing of the escalator and pretending that she could fly. She then lost her balance and Rule No. 1 again, plunging more than 30 feet to her death. Her twin witnessed it all. That’s a nightmare.

5. Rock, Chalk, Comeback!

The Kansas Jayhawks, who had won 51 straight at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, were minutes away from losing their second straight. West Virginia, which has NEVER won there, was up by 14, 64-50, with 3:00 left and the Fighting Huggy Bears were feelin’ it.

Then five missed free throws, four turnovers and three KU threes and we had overtime. And the Jayhawks won going away, outscoring the Huggy Bears 34-16 over the final eight minutes. WVU, with a win, would’ve been a game out of the Big 12, but then JOY BEHAR “SO WHAT? WHO CARES?” because once you get past 1) the regular-season title 2) the conference tourney title and 3) the fact that they’ll both be pretty high seeds in the tourney, what’s the big deal, anyway? It’s not as if either of them has to play Geno and the Huskies in the Bridgeport Regional of Death.

Huggy: “No. No! NO!”

It was an entertaining exhibition, signifying very little. Unless you had money on the Mountaineers. Or needed to make an Atlanta Falcons comparison. They should have brought Brent out of retirement for this one.

Telling sign: Three KU starters played more than 40 minutes. That’s a shallow bench Bill Self has. Oh, and I like Frank Mason III, too, but he’s a 5’11” senior. Josh Jackson is a 6’8″ frosh and he’s a Top 5 pick, depending on how much you love Lonzo Ball and Malik Monk.

Reserves

–Remember that much-hyped Golden State-OKC game on Saturday night? They both played again last night (against different opponents), on the road, and both lost by 22 points. Hangover games.

–Stunned about the Josh Elliott news. My old SI colleague and friend was fired yesterday, apparently when CBS News president David Rhodes didn’t take kindly to his Friday sign-off on CBSN in which he informed viewers that he was moving on to the adult version CBS. Apparently that hadn’t been news he was supposed to disclose nor had he gotten that sign-off cleared up the chain of command. Just a bizarre three-plus years for Josh, who has gone from ESPN to ABC’s Good Morning, America to NBC to CBSN. He’ll find a landing spot—he keeps getting hired because he’s good—but that was a Buddy Hield shot from Mr. Rhodes.

Music 101

Pump Up The Jam

In 1990 Belgian act Technotronic introduced the world to a three-word command that still has some currency to this day: “Pump up the jam!” The tune from the unknown act was a worldwide hit, reaching No. 2 in the USA and UK and eventually reaching triple platinum in sales. Few songs from that awful era of music (post-New Wave, pre-Nirvana) have retained as much influence. I don’t want a place to stay/Get your booty on the floor tonight, make my day.

Remote Patrol

Paris-St. Germain vs. Barcelona

2:30 p.m. FS1

Suarez’s choppers are in game shape….

Champions League play has advanced to the Round of 16, in which teams play home-and-home and the aggregate goals winner advance if they spilt the pair (away goals are the tie breaker, then it goes whose fans garnered fewer in-game arrests). Barcelona: Messi, Neymar, Suarez, etc.. The tie is in the City of Lights and PSG are the foure-time defending French league (Ligue 1) champs.

by John Walters

Starting Five

Miller Slime

When it’s time to relapse,

One fear stands clear, fear after fear,

If you’ve got the slime, we’ve got the fear,

Miller fear...

Miller is a slightly less charming Nathan Thurm….

Donald Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, is a 31 year-old Duke alum from Los Angeles whose major bona fides are that he worked as an aide for Michelle Bachmann (Turner Overdrive) and then Jeff Sessions. He is close with fellow former Dookie and punchable Nazi Richard Spencer.

Look at those dead eyes. That Hitler Youth glare. Yesterday Miller appeared on four Sunday morning news shows and at one point said this:

Sounds like a threat, Steve. When Miller squared off against a former White House wunderkind, George Stephanopoulos, the latter shut him down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wo9DAVtko

These are the types of people who stand in Cameron Indoor and root for Grayson Allen. And need to be punched.

2. Adele Goes Kanye On Herself

I’m the person who yawned through Beyonce‘s overwrought performance last night. Maybe I was the only one. Anyway, at the Grammy’s last night Adele won album of the year for 25 and perhaps because she did not want someone else to interrupt her speech, went ahead and told Beyonce that Lemonade deserved to win.

Adele and Bey are moms. Somewhere Taylor Swift is realizing that pregnancy is her next bold career move. “Shake It Off?” “Knock It Up”

Afterward the usual soft-news sites came out with “Grammy’s So White” think pieces. And they may have a point. The larger point, though, is that Adele appeared in “Carpool Karaoke” and Bey has not yet done so, and look who hosted. C’mon, Bey, you got to know how the game works.

3. Dolan Out Favors*

*The judges will also accept “Midday In The Garden of Good and Evil”

Never quite pictured Knotorious Knicks Larry Johnson and Latrell Sprewell as Stepin Fetchit types, but there they were courtside with owner James Dolan on Sunday (hope that appearance fee was sizable). These dudes were personae non grata at the Garden for more than a decade. And yet there they were on Sunday, Dolan’s human shields.

The Knicks beat the Spurs—they’ve beaten them two years in a row at the Garden, which is rather inconceivable— while Spike Lee spoke for more of the Garden faithful.

4.  Noah’s Arc of Success

A year ago Affolder, right, lost by .01

That above photo was from the finish at the Millrose Games High School Mile in 2016. Noah Affolder, then a junior, put his hands up too early to celebrate, and was passed in the final step by Isaac Cortes (yellow). He lost by .01

As my Newsweek story relates, Noah’s little brother spent much of the past year taunting him about the defeat, even changing big brother’s contact name in his phone to “.01.”

This year, wearing a singlet his dad bought at the Armory gift shop (he did not bring his), Affolder led wire to wire

On Saturday, on his 18th birthday, Noah found redemption. Not only did he lead the race wire-to-wire at the New York Armory, he set a new meet record with a 4:07.24.

5. Leicester On The Brink

Vardy has had a rough go of it this year, and he ought to know better than to carry the ball in his arm.

Remember last season in the Barclays Premier League, when Leicester City magically made a run to the top of the standings and remained there? Brits will tell you that what the Chicago Cubs did later in the year had nothing on Leicester’s 5,000-to-1 shot in the BPL.

Well, yesterday the reigning champs lost at Swansea City, which put them in 17th place in the 20-team league, just won point above Hull City. If Leicester (5-6-14, the middle number being draws) finishes the season 18th or lower, it will face relegation down to the next level, known as the Championship League. Jamie Vardy, the goal-scoring hero of the squad last season (24 goals) has but five this season.

The last time a club in the BPL won it all one year and then was relegated the next? Eighty years ago, in 1937, when it happened to Manchester City.

Music 101

Bullet Proof…I Wish I Was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf2Vm5jCEIs

Thom Yorke’s falsetto with the Greenwood brothers’ (and Ed O’Brien’s) churning guitars has always been an unbeatable combo for Radiohead, which has generated as much respect as any band from the U.K. or Ireland since the dawn of U2. The boys from Oxford’s best work, in this uncool fan’s opinion, is The Bends (1995), from which this tune comes.

Remote Patrol

South Carolina at UConn

9 p.m. ESPN2

All they do is win, win, win….

Geno and the ladies will be Keepin’ It 100…..

by John Walters

Starting Five

Sociopath To Impeachment?

Author, editor and blogger Andrew Sullivan (sounds like someone we know) suggests that it’s time we publicly question President Donald Trump’s “mental stability” (again, sounds like someone we know).

10 Signs of a Sociopath

Sociopaths are charming

Sociopaths are more spontaneous and intense than other people.

Sociopaths are incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse (remember how he corrected the Obama birth certificate record last October).

Sociopaths invent outrageous lies about their experiences.

Sociopaths seek to dominate others and “win” at all costs.

Sociopaths tend to be highly intelligent (like, able to comprehend things better than….anybody).

Sociopaths are incapable of love.

Sociopaths speak poetically (bigly).

Sociopaths never apologize (DING! DING! DING! DING!).

Sociopaths are delusional and literally believe that what they say becomes truth (Double DING! DING! DING! DING!).

2. Kevin Can Hate

The Warriors made their first visit to OKC with the Thunder’s former MVP and won 130-114. Kevin Durant scored 34 while his old teammate, MH’s midseason MVP Russell Westbrook, put up 47. Thunder fans trolled the Dubs with cupcake T-shirts, which the Dubs exchanged their own gear for after the win.

We get the OKC fans’ ire. We wonder if they get Seattle fans’ ire. If they don’t, they make wonderful Deplorables.

3. Zags Remain Perfect

Gonzaga moves to 26-0 by defeating No. 20 St. Mary’s in Moraga. The Zags should be 29-0 when they host their lone meager competition, BYU, two Saturdays from now. Unless they lose in the conference tourney, expect Mark Few’s team to be the No. 1 seed out west and to start the tourney in Salt Lake City before moving on to San Jose. Sacramento is also an opening weekend possibility. We’ll see.

4. Salty Spice

Not a surprise this week, but Melissa McCarthy is just as funny (and yes, Kate McKinnon playing Jeff Sessions was a distinct tactical maneuver by Lorne Michaels).

5. Long Talk, Short Piers*

*The judges apologize and will try harder next time….

This escalated quickly.

Everyone on line is talking about that above video, but I really hope you watch the one from the end of the show, “Love Factually.”

x

by Michael DePaoli

WHERE IS ANN COULTER?

Back in 2003 Ann Coulter wrote a book titled: Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. In the coherent parts of the book where Ms. Coulter is not rambling, she says (or implies or wildly asserts, and I am paraphrasing here) that liberals are committing treason because they allegedly love the Russian communists, and the communists are just as bad as the Nazis, and the liberals constantly attack their own country, blah, blah, ugh.

This week The Washington Post reported that Michael Flynn (the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump) did discuss sanctions with the Russian Ambassador in late December 2016. Previously, Flynn and the Trump Administration had flatly denied that any issue of sanctions had been discussed with the Russian Ambassador. What this means is that Flynn and the Trump administration probably lied, and probably had something to hide about Flynn’s telephone calls with the Russian government.

Thus, there is more evidence that Flynn and Trump are committing treason than there ever was any evidence that the average liberal was committing treason. Where is Ann Coulter? Why is she not screaming at Comrade Trump and calling Trump a traitor like she declared the liberals to be traitors?

Also this week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that it was plausible (not a ruling on the merits, but plausible) that Donald Trump violated the Constitution with his Executive Order that banned immigration from seven Muslim countries. The Court of Appeals upheld a stay on the Executive Order. So, with one District Court Judge and three Judges from the Court of Appeals all agreeing that Trump might have violated the Constitution, where is Ann Coulter screaming that Trump hates American and Trump is committing treason against our system of government? I am going to walk out on a limb and assert that the typical liberal never violates the Constitution. Yet, Trump violated our sacred form of government (the First Amendment, no less) after one week in office. Where is Ann Coulter when we need her to protect the Constitution?

“Oooooh, oooooh/Witchy woman….”

This past weekend, Trump was on a Fox News show and he tried to take the position that the USA is the moral equivalent to Russia. During the campaign, Trump praised the Russian Dictator Putin all too often. Again, where is Ann Coulter to stop Trump from hating on America? It is not enough for Ms. Coulter to simply say that she disagrees with Trump. She must be consistent and call Trump a traitor, under her own standards!

In his personal life, it is just a fact (not a judgment, just the way it turned out) that two of Trump’s wives were raised in communist countries. Under Ann Coulter’s logic, marrying two women from over there in communist land (Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia) would make Trump guilty of treason. Obviously, the rest of us might ignore this issue, but Ann Coulter is apparently an expert on treason and liberals and communists, and she needs to apply the same standards to Trump that she applied to the rest of us. If someone could be committing treason simply by holding liberal beliefs, then clearly someone would be committing treason by marrying someone who was born and grew up in a communist country.

All I am asking is for Ann Coulter to be consistent and start her fight against Comrade Trump. Based upon her treatise on treason, it is a no brainer that Trump is a traitor.

ABSOLUTELY NO OVERTIME

I was at Walmart yesterday in Scottsdale and there was a sign posted at the manager’s stand that read “ABSOLUTELY NO OVERTIME.” And, I thought to myself that apparently there are people at Walmart who want to work overtime, but Walmart does not want the work to get done by the people who are willing to work overtime to do it. All of which might explain why none of the Walmart employees had the appearance of being happy while at work. The message is clear: We do not want you to work long hours because we want to stifle your career.

This brings me to the immigration issue, which has befuddled me since the 1980’s, back when the Reagan Administration was granting amnesty to immigrants, selling weapons to Iran, increasing the debt and raising taxes. Why would anyone in a capitalist system want to criminalize the desire to work for a living? Seriously, when the immigrants want to work, we should hire them! We should not prosecute the people who are willing to get stuff done.

This week, the USA deported a longtime resident of Arizona and mother of two, named Guadalupe Garcia De Ramos. As reported by The Guardian, the deported woman’s fourteen year-old daughter had this to say: “Her only crime was to work here so she could support us.”

Chew on that. Her only crime was to use a fake social security number so that she could work. Why is that a crime? When a Mexican citizen wants to work here we label them criminals, but when you commit fraud, cheat contractors, and lie on a daily basis you are elected President. (Ed Note: Please return to that Walmart and inquire about the sign. Then ask if they are TCOB and if they like BTO; also, next time take a picture of the damn sign so we can post it; oh, and ask if “absolutely” was absolutely necessary).

ADELE (or No Deal)

The 59th Annual Grammy Awards are Sunday Night.

I vote for Adele. Nobody else, just Adele.

Michael DePaoli does not have musical talent, which explains why all of his YouTube videos to date are silent movies (ED NOTE: Michael DePaoli does not look like what you probably picture someone named ‘Michael DePaoli’ looking like).

by John Walters

Starting Five

SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

1. Court Storming

*The judges will also accept “Robe Dissed” ( <– See what they did there?) or “From Taliban To Travel Ban”

A week that began with Sean Spicer claiming that his boss may not even own a robe ends with his boss being dissed by three men in robes.

A trio of federal appeals court judges in San Francisco voted 3-0 to smote Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. They also basically told he and his staff that they need to improve on this entire making Executive Orders deal. They may also have recommended someone there procure a copy of the U.S. Constitution (if I were Nordstrom’s, I’d begin selling them).

Meanwhile, of course one of the seven countries on Trump’s ban list, Yemen, is a country in which since that ban was instituted has seen Americans enter it and kill women and children there. Ain’t irony grand?

Donnie: “We have a situation where the security of our country is at stake. And it’s a very, very serious situation.” As opposed to the previous 15-plus years since 9/11?

2. Oh, My

@jdubs88 @notthefakeSVP pic.twitter.com/sB4L6olGnT

— TM (@TheIrishWon) February 10, 2017

Thanks to @TheIrishWon for the assist!

A restaurant-quality (some might suggest “Final Four-quality” ) doubleheader last night as UCLA overcame a 19-point deficit to topple Oregon on Dick Enberg Night at Pauley Pavilion and Duke took down North Carolina at Cameron Indoor.

At least one of those squads, probably more, will be in Glendale in April.

When it was over, Scott Van Pelt was smart enough to open his SportsCenter with Bill Walton, who answered a question about the “Conference of Champions” by noting how the buffalo had just been reintroduced to Banff National Park in Canada, which elicited that reaction. Brilliant of the producer (Stanford Steve?) to cut to that wide shot.

You think Bill was making that sh*t up?

(Early on in the UCLA game, Dave Pasch reminded viewers of a much-seen Dillon Brooks flop in an earlier game, and Walton protested, “Dillon Brooks is NOT a flopper!” Pasch reminded him he did not say that, he just pointed a flop that had gone viral. Walton reiterated his point, then quipped, “I just report the facts and then go shopping at Nordstrom’s.”

Pasch, of course, the Felix to Bill’s Oscar, did not take the bait.

In Cameron, it was the Grayson and Jayson show, as  Grayson Allen scored 25 while freshman Jayson Tatum scored all of his 19 points after halftime. Luke Kennard overcame a “hair line fracture” to 20.

When Allen plays the way he did last night, when he doesn’t cross the “Grayson-Trips-‘Em  Line,” Duke can beat most anyone. They have three legitimate scoring options.

3. From Miss Universe to Misinformation*

*a.k.a  Another Day of Trump

Maybe the clues are hiding in plain sight.

The first three letters of Steve Bannon’s surname: “Ban.”

The first three letters of Kellyanne Conway’s surname: “Con.”

The first three letters of Donald Trump’s sur—never mind.

Still, it’s sort of ironic how on a daily basis our president attempts to ghost-story us to death about how the security of our great land is at stake while he and his minions undermine the very ideals for which it has stood for 240 years (“liberty and justice for all yada yada yada….”). Possibly Wednesday’s worst transgression was Conway appearing on Fox and openly urging viewers to buy Ivanka Trump clothing and accessories. She broke federal ethics rules and it was SO BAD that even Spice Girl didn’t dare to defend the indefensible (for once): “Kelly has been counseled and that’s all we’re going to say.”

Of course, why blame Con-woman? She’s only parroting the thoughts and intent of her boss from one day earlier.

I’d really like to see Nordstrom’s offer a “20% Off If You’re Muslim” sale.

4. Oh, Bob

Costas passes the torch to Tirico

The list keeps growing: Dick Enberg, Vin Scully, Verne Lundquist, Brent Musburger and now, though he’s only still in his sixties, Bob Costas. Yesterday NBC’s sterling voice of the Olympics announced that he’s passing the torch ( <– Ooh! Ooh! I get it!) of his hosting duties to Mike Tirico, who was getting antsy waiting in the wings. If your money was on Billy Bush to succeed Costas, too bad.

“I’ve done a dozen of them, and that seems like a good, round number,” said Costas, 64. “It’s always better when they leave the decision to you. It’s better to leave before they start to drop hints, like, ‘Do you think it might be a good idea’ or, ‘Are you getting tired yet’ or, ‘Can we help you up the steps’ or, ‘Do you need another cup of Ovaltine, sir?’

Costas and Marv Albert were just a couple of years apart at Syracuse. They forged the path so many have followed.

Costas is, if not the best broadcaster ever, the most seamless one. He made it look so much easier than it is. If you don’t know the story, Costas was an undergrad at Syracuse when he made an audition tape for the fledgling ABA franchise, the St. Louis Spirits. To do so, he called a game that wasn’t actually taking place. They hired him and I think he was 19 or 20 at the time. He once famously arrived at a game midway through the first quarter but his station, I believe it was WMOX, had so few listeners for the game that no one even noticed.

Costas is also the author of the anecdote involving Marvin “Bad News” Barnes, in which the Spirits were scheduled to fly from I believe Kentucky to St. Louis, which, with the time change, had them arriving three minutes before they departed, technically. “I ain’t getting in no time machine,” Bob said.

Sochi: The Pink Eye Tuscadero Misadventure. Now we realize it was likely all Putin’s doing….

I have had the privilege to know Costas since 1996, when I first did a profile of him for Entertainment Weekly. We worked together at three Olympics (2004, 2006, 2008), though I never was big-league enough to write for him (I wrote for Mary Carillo, Jim Lampley and Bill MacAtee). In short, Bob’s the best. That job is like being the No. 1 Air Traffic Controller, and he brought all the planes in safely.

Plenty more Costas stories in my head, but I’ll save those for when he actually retires. My guess is that he’ll be doing what he truly loves, calling more baseball, for the MLB Network. So let’s leave with a baseball anecdote. Early in his career calling NBC’s “Game of the Week,” he was in the booth with Tony Kubek relating a story about how Tommy John (the pitcher, not the surgery) had rehabbed in the minors before returning to The Show. “This time last year he was pissing in Appleton,” Costas misspoke, a rare error. Kubek did not react, didn’t laugh, didn’t make a quip. So there was Costas hanging out there in the awkward silence. Finally he just said, “I meant ‘pitching in Appleton,’ though he was probably doing both.”

5. Mob: “Do Your Job!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDo-TLXwc54

At at town hall in red-state Utah, GOP congressman Jason Chaffetz attempted to interact with his constituents, who lit into him for supporting the Trump administration. Chaffetz left the town hall, which garnered 1,000 attendees (many more were waiting outside the auditorium), an hour before it was scheduled to end.

He actually told them at one point, “Donald Trump was BY FAR the better choice (last November 8), which drew a chorus of passionate boos.

Then everyone left and went shopping at Nordstrom….

Reserves

Flake News*

*Props to the Colbert writer who came up with that…

Here in the northeast, we got our first significant snowstorm of the winter yesterday. On the Upper East Side, no lie, a door man died when he slipped while shoveling snow and fell through a glass window, sustaining fatal cuts to his neck. If Six Feet Under were still on, that would sound like one of their openings.

From Lawrence O’Donnell To Rosie O’Donnell

That photo on the right is Rosie O’Donnell’s new Twitter avatar. Is there any celeb who has a more righteous beef with Donald Trump than she does? Nope. Could this be a preview of an upcoming SNL cold open? Is Rosie the next Melissa McCarthy? This week’s SNL is all new with Alec Baldwin as host (he’s earned yet another shot, no?).

Music 101

Hold Your Head Up

Now this is anthemic rock. As John Denver explains introducing the band, Argent took its name from leader and keyboard player Rod Argent, who had been with The Zombies (“Time of the Season”) in the Sixties. Where would this song be without that double-necked guitar, though??? The song peaked at No. 5 in 1972.

Remote Patrol

SATURDAY! SATURDAY! SATURDAY!

Warriors at Thunder 

8:30 p.m. ABC

Gonzaga at St. Mary’s

8:15 p.m. ESPN

At this point in the season, Russell Westbrook deserves the MVP not just on his performance but also via karma. The Thunder took down the Cavs last night, by the way.

Kevin Durant returns to Frackville with the NBA’s super team, while college basketball’s last unbeaten, the Zags, head to Moraga, just over the hills and east of Oakland, to face the one team that may provide a test for them before the NC-2A’s. Also, if you live in the Northeast or Midwest, you can hate-watch Pebble Beach golf and once again ask yourself why you haven’t moved there.