Monthly Archives: October 2018

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 1 Comment

by John Walters

A personal note up top: Yesterday we staged our penultimate private party of the season at the Cookoutateria and I don’t mind sharing with you the name of the company who rented out our space: Component Assembly. I tell you this because it’s a contractor company—they worked on the Freedom Tower—privately owned, that specializes in carpentry.

Almost all of the 250 guests on a bright, sunny autumn afternoon were carpenters, men (and a few women) in well-work construction boots and bright orange or lime green hooded sweatshirts. More African-American or Hispanic than white, overall. And I mention this because we host dozens of parties in the summer, working with private equity firms, law firms, major banks, advertising agencies and accounting firms. 

And this, from a bartender’s perspective, is what I can share with you: nobody but nobody even comes within a mile of tipping as well as these blue-collar laborers do. No one. One dude pulled out a $20, momentarily asked for change, then just said, “Keep it.” 

At the end of the party the owner of the company gathered us around and sprayed anywhere from a $50 to a benjamin to each of us who worked the party. That just doesn’t happen at our place. Ever. So a shout-out to Component Assembly but also to people who work with their hands, who are part of the real labor force. The only other party we worked this summer where guests were as generous and also generally seemed to be having as much fun was when we hosted the NYPD. 

Make of these observations what you will….

Tweet Me Right


Matt, we need this as our bedroom wall. Also, it’s fall break at ND so this is the only way any students are going to see this…

Starting Five

The Price, Finally, Is Right (Even Though He’s A Lefty)

Lanky lefty David Price, whose $250 million deal has long dwarfed his postseason stature—his teams were 0-11 in postseason games he’d started before Game 5 of the ALCS last night—at long last came through. Six innings, no runs, no walks and nine strikeouts as the Red Sox shushed the Astros and once again celebrated a series win on another team’s mound.

Final score: 4-1, and Mookie Betts made a catch near the very same spot where he’d failed to make a catch (but did record the out, thanks to Cowboy Joe) the night before.

The Sawx will host Games 1 and 2 of the Fall Classic in Fenway beginning Tuesday.

2. From The Land to La La Land

First of all, why are the Lakers wearing their home yellows on the road? How long has this been going on?….Second, if Josh Hart can come off the bench and score 20, how much longer is Lonzo Ball going to be in the rotation?….The LeBrakers lost 128-119 at Portland last night. Sweet Pea had 26 and 12 but the team shot only 7 of 30 from beyond the arc, which is why the Warriors are guffawing at this morning’s shoot around in Utah…meanwhile, we did not know this but maybe you did: it was Portland’s 18th consecutive win in their home opener and their 16th consecutive defeat of the Lakers. Wow.

3. Well, They’re Comin’ (Yes, They’re Comin’) To Your Ci-TAY!!!!

No, this is NOT the starting line of the Tegucigalpa Marathon.

 

College GameDay to Pullman? That’s kinda big news, but what about caravan of 2,000 to 4,000 Hondurans making their way to the U.S. border? No, this blog has not been hijacked by Dinesh D’Souza, it’s really happening.

The reasons these immigrants/refugees provide as to why they are making this 1,000 to 1,700-mile trek (without even being awarded a T-shirt or medal) are not surprising: 1) A better life for their families, 2) To find work, 3) To escape gangs and 4) To scare the crap out of Mitch Mconnell.

No shoes, no shirt, but cell phone service

This is going to be interesting. Remember when it was just a swarm of killer bees that Americans feared would be heading our way from Mexico? Any president, from Obama to Trump, would be compelled to take drastic action to curb this.

I’ll repeat our MH solution to this entire conundrum: The U.S. should just “invade” these Central American nations economically. Forget NAFTA. Forget the U.N. If this many people from your country want to live in our country, then we’re taking over your country. Oh, you have lovely beaches on both the Caribbean and Pacific? Even better.

4. When You Leave Even Pat Kiernan Speechless


New Yorkers know Pat Kiernan as the mild-mannered morning host of New York 1, the city’s go-to all-day news channel that we all inevitably find because it’s literally Channel 1 (no such channel ever appeared on our TVs when we were kids, an eternal source of confusion). If you watch Kiernan enough, you know that his greatest skill is being universally palatable, that he is inoffensive to the nth degree as he spends the mornings usually poring over our local papers and synthesizing the stories for the viewer.

Pat literally reads you the morning news, like a better-looking version of your own spouse sitting across the breakfast nook table as you’re drinking coffee. So the fact that even he was bothered by this, in the same week that the news of the Jamal Khashoggi murder got nastier, tells you something.

 

5. Roma Conquers

Okay, so Hurricane Cooper-Ga Ga came and passed, leaving in its path of celluloid destruction a Best Original Song Oscar fave and definitely a Best Actor nomination for the star/director/writer, but most of us agree that it’s a good, not transcendent, film.

And now here comes Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien) with a film, set in Mexico City in the 1970s and shot in black and white, that critics are rushing to see as if they were northward-bound Hondurans.

It’s the perfect critical backlash flick for A Star Is Born, and critics are tossing around the word “masterpiece,” which almost definitely means it won’t be playing at the Chattanooga multiplex any time soon. But in select cities, and with select critics, this will be a fave. And the question will become whether it belongs on the Best Picture or Best Foreign Picture list.

Tell me something, girl.

Music 101

Peg

Liner Notes: Released as a single in 1978 off the band’s Aja album, this Steely Dan song spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 11…the band went through six studio musicians before finally finding a seventh, Jay Graydon, who played the guitar solo to their satisfaction…the song has long been surmised to be about Peg Entwhistle, a Broadway star who leapt to her death from the Hollywood sign shortly before her first talkie film was released in 1932…the surviving member of the band, Donald Fagen, is playing as Steely Dan for the next two weeks not far from MH headquarters (5 blocks)

Entwhistle was only 24 when she took her own life. For the curious, she jumped from the “H”

Remote Patrol

Dodgers at Brewers

NLCS Game 6

8 p.m. FS1

Joe Buck does not have many days off this time of year. From the NFL booth on Sundays to four Dodger-Brewer games this week, and possibly a fifth on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Brew Crew is waiting for Christian Yelich (.150 batting average in the postseason) to hit like the MVP that he is.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 1 Comment

by John Walters

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Starting Five

Betts, Bens and Bradley, Jr.

The Red Sox are the best team in baseball because they have the best outfield in baseball, and last night’s Game 4 in Houston demonstrated why. Jackie Bradley, Jr., one day after smoking a grand slam, hit a three-run jack. Presumptive MVP Mookie Betts (already the Mookie of the Year) pegged Tony Kemp on what should have been a leadoff double in the eighth inning, and then left fielder Andrew Benentendi, with the bases loaded of Astros and only up 8-6, made a diving catch to end the game.

If Benentendi misses, the Astros at least tie it up, have a great shot of tying the series, and won’t have Craig Kimbrel for today’s Game 5. They won’t now, but it doesn’t matter as much.

It’s the second Game 4 in as many series in which Kimbrel loaded the bases in the ninth and he Red Sox escaped by the narrowest of margins. They’re charmed, but they’re also really good.

The ball is just above his glove. Note how the three closest fans have their eyes closed.

About that Jose Altuve two-run homer that became an out in the first inning, three points: 1) What exactly are the fans supposed to do in that situation? It’s not as if they reached their hands far past the wall, if at all? 2) It seems cruel, in that situation, to call Altuve out. The catch by Betts there is hardly a presumed certainty, it would have have to be a fabulous play, and 3) on the TBS postgame show, a great point: it’s Joe West who immediately called interference; back at the the review center in Chelsea, might the anonymous replay ump feel a little intimidated about the prospect of overturning a Joe West call, i.e., are umps just as worried about their own jobs as the rest of us?

2. This Seems Rather Incriminating

As the White House gives Saudi Arabia a few more days to put a digestible lie together conduct its investigation, the free press is way out in front of both, as expected. Here’s a photo of Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an aide to Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), walking into the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul. Not the time stamp: Tuesday, October 2, the day Jamal Khoshaggi also walked in and was never seen again.

And above is a triptych of MAM traveling the world with MBS just this year. Note how he stays out of photo op range but within keeping-an-eye-on-him distance. He’s one of his more trusted, if not most trusted, security men.

If this were an actual court of law, the defense would already be plea-bargaining to simply get life imprisonment. But this is Donald Trump’s White House, where the only things that matter or are treated with respect are money and authoritarianism. The Saudis have as much of both as they have oil stockpiled.

Khashoggi, with Apple watch that may have recorded his murder in sharper focus

At the end of the day, this is going to be Trump using his powers of Implausible Deniability to say that they buy the Saudis’ alibi, then some poor Saudi sucker will be hanged or beheaded, the $110 billion arms deal will remain intact, and as a world power the United States is now on the same ethical plane as Russia or China. And you may argue, But we always were and that may be true, but at least in the past when we were caught with our pants around our ankles we hustled to pull them back up.

Not under this White House. Truly sad, particularly when journalist, abetted by Turkish officials, paint such a vivid and gruesome picture of what took place in the Saudi consulate that afternoon.

3. Some 41

A 41 year-old starting at guard in the NBA?!? That’s Vinsanity!

After the NBA’s widespread opening night, no number was more relevant than 41: that’s the number of points Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets scored in a one-point loss to Milwaukee and it’s also the age of Vincent Carter, who started in the Atlanta Hawks’ backcourt along with 20 year-old Trae Young (we still can’t believe Atlanta took him).

Elsewhere, Devin Booker scored 19 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter as the Suns ran away from the Mavericks. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton looked terrific with 18 points in his debut and this Suns fan of 40 years has no idea how to deal with a team that has a potentially dominant center.

4. Making A Murderer, Season 2

In the northwest Wisconsin town of Barron, 13 year-old Jayme Closs‘ parents are shot dead in their home on Monday morning and then their tween goes missing. Steven Avery, serving a life sentence hundreds of miles down state, says, “Don’t look at me.”

James Closs, 56, and his wife Denise, 46, were murdered some time after midnight Monday morning. Police received a cryptic 911 cell phone call  from the house at 1 a.m. in which no one spoke, but a disturbance was heard (was that Jayme or a parent surreptitiously dialing?). Deputies arrived at the home 4 minutes later but no living beings were there and no vehicles were in the immediate area.

A neighbor said he heard two shots shortly after 12:30 a.m. Police are not saying from whom the call came but are saying that they are “100% certain” that Jayme is still alive.

There is no known motive.

5. Rainbow Warrior

Why are there so many songs by this Rainbow/And what’s on the other side?
We don’t know Randy Rainbow‘s backstory, his real name or if he’s ever sung on Broadway (or inside Marie’s Crisis Cafe in the West Village). All we know is that he’s uber-sassy, his lyrics are hot fire and that he must be the demon spawn of Liza Minelli and Pee Wee Herman.

UPDATE: Here, you can do the work on Randy’s backstory.

Reserves

Jail? No, this man deserves his own ad campaign. Dilly Dilly!


*****

Meanwhile, during the Mavs-Suns game last night, ESPN’s Dave Pasch casually dropped that Klay Thompson will be the College GameDay celebrity picker for the show’s relatively historic visit to Pullman on Saturday. That info had not yet been released and College GameDay often likes to keep that a secret. Particularly this weekend. Wheels Up, head down, Dave.

Music 101

While You See A Chance

Not unlike Jefferson Airplane/Starship, Steve Winwood went from late Sixties rock icon to early Eighties pop star. For anyone who was alive and into music in 1981, the instrumental opening of this tune is an eight-foot wave of nostalgia. This was one of the former Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith vocalist’s biggest solo hits, peaking at No. 8 that spring. Yes, the video is god-awful.

Remote Patrol

Red Sox at Astros

ALCS Game 5

8 p.m. TBS

Every time we hear “Jackie Bradley, Jr.,” we think “Jackie Rogers, Jr.” And the latter is more photogenic.

Joe Buck and John Smoltz are the better booth duo (don’t mistake us, I like Brian Anderson and Ron Darling, too), but this is the better series. It’s the de facto World Series (now watch the Dodgers go ahead and win it all).

Stanford at Arizona State

9 p.m. ESPN

And this is why October is the greatest sports month, and that was before the NBA moved up opening night two weeks. The Cardinal under David Shaw, in his eighth season in Palo Alto, have never lost three consecutive games. That mark is on the line tonight in Tempe, as week night Pac-12 After Dark mayhem awaits. Bryce Love, who last played on September 29 and has already missed two full games this season, should start.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 3 Comments

by John Walters

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What always fascinates me about GOP leaders is how they get all the little things wrong. It’s how you treat people in the trivial, every day moments that provides the window to your political soul, or lack thereof.

Starting Five

Bollinger laid out to rob Lo Cain of a leadoff base hit in the 10th or 11th inning (frankly, we forget)

Feat of Clay’s Son

We’re old enough to remember Clay Bellinger (as is FS1’s Tom Verducci, who covered him on those Yankee teams), the backup Yankee shortstop who in four Major League seasons won two World Series rings (and nearly a third in 2001). Last night in extra innings his son Cody—a proud alum of Chandler (Ariz.) Hamilton High, as is Ryan Fitzpatrick, as are a number of other solid jocks—, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, made a tremendous catch in right field and later knocked in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning at Dodger Stadium.

Clay. His son now plays with a Clay who’ll pitch tonight.

We stayed up for the entire extra innings, which went past 2 a.m. here, which is why there may be more than the usual number of typos here today.

2. Spoiler Alert

In his just-published tome, Brief Answers To the Big Questions, the late internationally acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking writes, “There is no God. No one directs the universe (Didn’t Don Draper say pretty much the exact same thing  in Season 1 of Mad Men?).”

The MH staff has not seen a copy of Hawking’s book yet, but we imagine other sentences in the tome read, “Of course O.J. did it. Duh!” and “The Sopranos went home and ate f*cking ziti because it was taking too long for their meals to arrive.”

Hawking died last March and is either feeling pretty sheepish about what he wrote or is not feeling a thing because he no longer exists in any form.

3. Pompeo and Circumstances

So the White House dispatches Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia post haste for this photo op with Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Behind the scenes, I imagine Pompeo giving MBS the business: “Dude, why did you have to be so sloppy? We have people who do this sort of thing all the time (in fact, some of them are in Yemen right now) and make it look like an accident.

“Now CNN and MSNBC are going to spend the next three weeks on this and we only just wrapped our latest ‘Implausible Deniability’ Tour two weeks ago with Brett Kavanaugh. How often do you think we can play the same tunes before the audience becomes restless?”

Meanwhile, MBS is going to designate a ‘rogue general’ as its scapegoat, and you know what happens to goats in that part of the world? It’s the small-letters “goat” not the Michael Jordan “GOAT” of the USA.

Just wondering: When the entire world is aware  that you are formulating your alibi in real time and just waiting for you to release it as you go over and over again whether or not it will pass the bullsh*t test (it won’t), isn’t that alibi compromised from the git go?

And yes, it’s more than a little ridiculous that the murder of one Washington Post journalist is receiving this much attention when the Saudis have been responsible for at least 50,000 deaths in Yemen this year (maybe that’s why MBS thought he could do this with impunity), but that’s just the way the world works. You put a face on something (hello, Cecil the Lion) and suddenly it’s a lot easier for the masses to care.

4. Jackpot-o-Lantern

Yes, we succumbed and purchased $10 worth of Mega Millions tickets last night, to no avail. The good news is that nobody won, which means that by Friday night’s drawing the amount will certainly have set a new record. Estimates have it at $868 million, or a cash lump sum of nearly $500 million (if we win, we’re investing it all in cannabis companies).

There’s also a Powerball drawing tonight, which is up to $345 million.

We read one good analogy that will help you get your head around how slim your chances are of winning: Try to pick a single second in the span of 10 years. Correctly picking that one second is like holding the winning ticket.

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

Message to our employer: If we win either drawing, we’ll still write The Bubble Screen this weekend. Promise.

5. Hold Your Fire*

*The judges are still mulling “Mass of Weapons Destruction”

While the misadventures of the Proud Boys may have cast New York City in an unfavorable light last weekend, it was also a weekend without a single recorded shooting. Not one. Not bad for a metropolitan area of 8.6 million people. That’s the first time in at least 25 years Gotham has gone an entire weekend without a single shooting.*

As we told our parents for decades, we feel far safer in New York City than we do back home in Arizona. One reason: young people here do not drive.

*NYC’s data base for shootings only dates back to 1993, so the streak may extend longer back than that. As you may know, the city was a far more dangerous place before 1993 than it’s been since. We like to think our soothing presence has mollified the Apple’s more hostile elements.

Music 101

All Mixed Up

Do the fans at this 1978 show by The Cars have any idea how lucky they are? (No, how could they?). Is the late Benjamin Orr the most under-appreciated lead vocalist of the rock era? (Yes) How talented is Greg Hawkes, playing not just the sax and organ on the same song, but at a few junctures (4:00 mark) at the same time? (Very)

Remote Patrol

The Walking Dead

8:30 p.m. TCM

The description of this 1936 film rom the listing: A wrongfully executed ex-con comes back to life as a white-haired, monster-faced zombie who haunts graveyards while seeking revenge on the conspirators who framed him.

Mavericks at Suns

10:30 p.m. ESPN

Luka Doncic and DeAndre Ayton make their NBA debuts. Kind of excited for both.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 7 Comments

by John Walters

Happy Birthday to PHYLLIS, the site’s most loyal reader! We wouldn’t be here without her. Lasagna culinary artist, die-hard Notre Dame fan, laundry aficionado and 4 a.m. internet surfer. She’s the best. If you see her today, wish her a Happy Birthday (or simply do so in the comments section below).

Starting Five

What Happens When You Bring a Coroner AND A Bonesaw To An “Interrogation?”*

**

*The judges will haltingly accept “The Turkish Bonesaw Massacre”

**The judges will belatedly accept “Jive. Turkey”

This latest Trump operetta played out in a single day. In the morning the president was telling us that he’d been on the phone with the Saudi king who “strongly denied” any involvement with the death/disappearance of U.S. resident and Saudi dissident Jamal Kashoggi, the journalist gadfly (and if Brett Kavanaugh taught us anything, it’s that a Strong Denial is more important than a plausible one). Trump himself proposed the “rogue killers” defense without ever bothering to explain how they’d be able to walk in and then out of the Saudi consulate undetected.

Not long after a cleaning crew—seriously— entered the Saudi consulate just a few hours before Turkish investigators were allowed inside to comb the scene. Mr. Wolf operates a multinational?

By day’s end here the Saudis were working on the “interrogation gone wrong” alibi without explaining why anyone would need to bring a bonesaw to a questioning much less why you’d want to dismember someone who died during an interrogation.


But, as Donald Trump told Leslie Stahl during that 60 Minutes interview, “Boeing….Lockheed….that’s a lot of jobs.” Justice is one thing, unemployed American workers who wear red baseball caps is another.

2. Crown Prince, Crown Prince

Jared Kushner may be the only person whom sharks look at and think, “Man, those eyes. There’s no soul behind them.”

So how’s this going to go down? Apparently, the White House woke up yesterday morning and realized Khashoggi’s murder was an actual problem, so they decided to do what they always do: send heart-attack-waiting-to-happen Mike Pompeo overseas to save the day.

The plan will work this way: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man who in just the past year is fomenting a blockade against Yemen that may result in the greatest famine of the past century (and millions dead) and who has jailed billionaires in his own land, basically holding them for ransom until they pay for their freedom, is only going to cop to Khashoggi’s death if 1) it is sold as accidental and 2) it is made to appear that he was unaware of what was taking place.

Saudi Arabia was the first nation Trump visited as president

No one with a lucid mind or who’s never fantasized about attending a Trump rally will buy this crap, but it won’t matter. Trump will sell it, will use the old “he’s a great man, one of the greatest, people say” b.s. and it will provide him cover to keep the $110 billion in arms contracts alive.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner—you know, the dude worth $324 million who hasn’t paid taxes the past eight years, that guy—and the the Saudi prince are very chummy.

None of this is a John LeCarre novel. I wish it were.

I do think it’s time, however, that we all go back and watch Syriana again and appreciate just how insightful and prophetic a film it was.

3. Rodgers and Heart

He did it again. That’s the second Sunday- or Monday Night Football game in this young season in which the Packers, at Lambeau Field, trailed a garbage NFC squad (“But the Bears are in first place—” SHADDDUP!) in the fourth quarter and won, thanks to All-State marketing executive Aaron Rodgers. The Packer passer tossed for 425 yards and led Green Bay on a game-winning 90-yard drive for the winning field goal for Redemption Refugee Mason Crosby.

Not noted strongly enough by Joe Tess, Witten and Booger: that third down holding penalty on Richard Sherman that kept the drive alive. The Niners sacked Rodgers on third down and 15 or so, and the veteran committed a punk-ass hold, effectively blowing the game for the 1-5 Niners.

Booger: Craneman

And, yes, it’s beyond obvious that Booger is the No. 2 guy and Jason Witten, right now, is in way over his head. We know what you were thinking, Norby: Witten is a Cowboy, a future Hall of Famer, a red-state icon, the kind of guy who in real life resembles that dude in the baseball ads who takes his daughter to the game and then stands up when they ask for military vets to be recognized. He’s the package, outside, but he just isn’t charismatic as a voice.

ESPN knows it, too. They’re looking for a graceful way out of this. For now, though, Booger remains in the crane (which may be the best vantage point for him, as it’s a unique concept). But right now Witten is like having a a second back in the backfield on 3rd-and-16.

4. Paul Allen

Co-founder of Microsoft, former owner of the Trailblazers (and he certainly was one) and current owner of the Seahawks, erstwhile Washington State student, man who achieved a perfect 1600 on his SATs and Seattle native Paul Allen died of cancer at the age of 65. He was reportedly worth $20 billion and from all accounts, one of the good guys.

That’s too young to exit the stage, particularly when you have that much money to play with. Like his high school friend, Bill Gates, Allen dropped out of college. In 1975 they formed Microsoft and essentially changed the world. Trailblazer, indeed.

The weirdest thing: Allen, with all that wealth, never married and apparently was not gay. The less this writer says about that, the better.

5.  The Great Western Loop

If this map proves anything, it’s that Nevada is a vast wasteland. Southern Utah, on the other hand, we highly recommend.

As this article on OutsideOnline.com states, “Thank her or blame her, Cheryl Strayed and her mega-popular book Wild have turned thru-hiking into a mainstream national pastime…”As backpacking has become more popular, it became inevitable that hikers would seek a trail that had not yet been blazed by Reese Witherspoon and others.

Enter the Great Western Loop Trail, a 6,875-mile passage that is actually a combination of five other trails sewn together. The GWL encompasses nine states, 12 national parks and 75 wilderness areas and thus far only one human, Andrew Skurka, a professional backpacker (? Who pays him?), has completed the trek. It took him 208 days.

Looking at our calendar, we may have some down time coming up. Who wants to join us?

Music 101

Love In The First Degree

This October 1981 release from Alabama was the band’s fifth straight No. 1 country hit and its biggest crossover hit, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard chart. It was all over A.M. radio that autumn and I know because our carpool driver to my high school only listened to KOY.  I’m not sure the double-necked guitar was absolutely necessary on this tune, are you?

Remote Patrol

Red Sox-Astros

ALCS Game 3

5 p.m. TBS

Brewers-Dodgers

NLCS Game 4

9 p.m. FS1

Alex Bregman’s OBP this postseason is a ridonk .708

This may be our last doubleheader of the season. The corner-office TV execs are praying for Boston-L.A., while we’re hoping for an all-Central Time Zone World Series.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 5 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

Starting Five

This would be your SI cover because of the symbolism of the Georgia player falling flat on his face. Class dismissed.

Top Ten Tumult

It’s mid-October and top-ten ranked schools are falling like cabinet members leaves. Within a 45-minute span early Saturday night, the 0:00 struck in Baton Rouge, Ames and State College, ending the unbeaten seasons of No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 West Virginia and knocking No. 8 Penn State out of the playoff picture with its second defeat.

You think they were happy in Ames?

The culprits, respectively: LSU and Iowa State, who both were at home, and Michigan State, which got its biggest win in a few years on the road. Sparty has an opportunity to knock off its second Top 10 foe in as many weeks when Michigan visits East Lansing on Saturday.

Also, No. 5 (now No. 4) Notre Dame narrowly escaped from three-touchdown underdog Pitt at home.

2. Frost-bitten

Chicago issued a frost advisory last Thursday, and that was besides the looming arrival of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and coach Scott Frost to Evanston for a Saturday noon contest with Northwestern. You remember Frost, the coach who took UCF from 0-12 to 13-0 in just two seasons.

Well, in his first season back at his alma mater (refusing to heed the warnings of Steely Dan), Frost had been humbled with an 0-5 start. But Nebraska had never started 0-6 in any of its previous 128 seasons and after kicking a field goal to go up 31-21 with 5:41 to play, it didn’t look as if it would this season.

Long story short: The Purple Kitties scored 10 points to force overtime, then kicked a game-winning field goal to send Frost to an 0-6 start. No coach was a hotter commodity last December and deservedly so. And Frost will succeed in Lincoln. But this year the “N” on the helmet stands for nadir.

3. Boston Powers


(This man is paid millions annually for bloviating his opinions)

On Sunday evening in eastern Massachusetts, the Red Sox staved off (no one ever staves on, have you noticed?) the Houston Astros to square the ALCS at 1-1. Meanwhile, 25 miles south the Patriots won a tennis match with the Chiefs, 43-40, on a short field goal as time expired, knocking Kansas City from the ranks of the unbeaten (but I still see a path for them to get to the playoff).

The Sox and ‘stros are baseball’s two best teams. This is unofficially the World Series. The Pats and Chiefs are the AFC’s two best teams (the Rams are the NFL’s best). A pretty good night for Boston sports fans, but then it’s been a pretty decent millennium for them. And remember, now that LeBron has pulled his latest exodus (that’s three if you’re keeping score in Maryland, Susie B.), the Celtics will be favored in the East.


(This 75-yard TD catch tied the game 40-40 with just over 3 minutes to play, but that was too much time for the Pats. Note the Bud Light: Dilly Dilly!)

Question: Where will Tom Brady go down on the list of greatest Boston sports legends? Obviously in the top five, but is he number one? You figure it’s he, Larry Bird, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, David Ortiz and Bobby Orr. My guess is the ranking would go as follows: Brady, Russell, Williams, Bird, two-way tie. Your thoughts?

4. The Six Mistakes Of Man

Cicero: “SPQR or bust!”

We came across this last week and have been meaning to get it on the blog. So the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero (his greatness was such that they named a lower-middle class Chicago suburb after him), who lived in the century before Jesus was born, once spoke of the “six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century.”

They are:

            1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

           2.Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;

                        3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

               4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Again, this was more than 2,000 years ago. Still relevant today, though.

5. Donald, Mitch: THIS Is What A Mob Looks Like

So here’s the next step in Fascism: angry white males jumping liberals and violently attacking them. If you don’t live in New York City, understand: this is the Upper East Side, just off Park Avenue in the low 8o’s. This is a very, very nice neighborhood.

The backstory, as you may know, is that Gavin McInnis, the leader of a neo-Nazi group called The Proud Boys, was speaking at the Metropolitan Republican Club on Friday evening. Protesters showed up. And then the violence began. Police made no arrests at the scene.

Remember that Seinfeld episode where George was mistaken for a white supremacist? It was funny then. Now it’s real.

Reserves

By the way, while hunting down that previous video, we found this one. “NO SOUP FOR YOU!”

Music 101

Your Time Is Gonna Come

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

This Led Zeppelin track from 1969 leads off Side 2 of their eponymous debut album. It starts off with an organ solo that puts the listener in the third pew of 9 a.m. Sunday mass, and then it segues into Robert Plant’s vocals and the song’s title on refrain. Is that a a warning or a promise?

Remote Patrol

The Exorcist

8 p.m. AMC

I’m sorry, Michael Myers and Leatherface, but Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) was the scariest movie character of the 1970s. The Exorcist, or as we like to call it, The Linda Blair Witch Project, was responsible for our first sleepless night since after I stopped wearing a diaper.

Brewers-Dodgers

NLCS Game 3

7:30 p.m. FS1

Twilight baseball from Chavez Ravine….