Monthly Archives: May 2023

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 3 Comments

by John Walters

Icon Tina Turner

One life, two acts. There was Tina Turner before Thunderdome, and then there was Tina Turner after it.

When those of my generation were introduced to Tina Turner via the variety show circuit in the late 1960s/early 1970s, she was a phenomenon that family-viewing America was not yet ready for. Yes, there were black female singers/front “men,” such as Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald.

But none of them, not even Ms. Ross, possessed the unabashed and in-your-face sexual energy of Tina Turner. I imagine as a husband watching Tina Turner on TV with your whole family was tantamount to going to a strip club with them. She was not hiding it. At all.

Jan. 11, 1970. Baby, it’s cold outside in midtown Manhattan, but not inside this studio.

Some people made fun of her and the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Others got it. When Dick Cavett asked Janis Joplin who was the one performer she’d pay to see, she replied, “Tina Turner.” And when Cavett asked if she’d be surprised if he said he did not know who that was, Joplin demurely hid any contempt she might have (after all, wasn’t he the host of America’s second-most popular talk show? Shouldn’t he be up on this stuff?). You have to love Joplin’s reply. “She sings with the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Ike is her husband, and… the bandleader. She’s the show.”

She’s the show. Indeed.

And then Turner seemed to disappear for most of the Seventies (I have not watched the documentary; imagine they explain where she was) and the early Eighties. Then Ms. Turner, a proto-cougar now in her early 40s, resurrected her career with a massive one-two punch: the album Private Dancer, which spawned three top-10 hits (including a No. 1) and earned four Grammy awards; and the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, where she played the sexy and sadistic Aunty Entity, ruler of Bartertown (“Two men enter, one man leaves”).

Go to 2:58… and yes, many female-fronted bands had a dude who looked exactly like this in the ’80s. The dirty Billy Zabka look.

Turner is a pioneer. I don’t wanna go so far as to say there wouldn’t be a Beyonce or even a Lizzo without her, but I don’t know of any women (this side of Ann Margret, who could get away with it because she looked like apple pie and Independence Day) who were doing what Turner did before she did.

My favorite Turner moments: 1) her performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, working up a sweat while making America feel a little hot under the collar and 2) that climactic moment in “Better Be Good To Me,” where she just goes for it. You know it.

Jim Brown

Of course, Jim Brown, also in his ’80s, and also an absolute icon, passed in the past week.

Arguably the greatest NFL player AND greatest American lacrosse player EVER. E-V-E-R.

NFL: Three-time MVP and led the league in rushing eight of his nine seasons. Never missed a game. This stat will wow you: there’s one running back in NFL history to average more than 100 yards per game and more than 5 yards per carry. Jim Brown.

When your name outshines the name of the franchise for which you played, and it’s the same word, that’s saying something.

Brown played before my time, and before the Super Bowl era, so perhaps he’s not quite as appreciated as he might be. Also, he only played nine seasons. But he was the first BEAST black running back in the helmet-and-facemask era of pro football. He was big and powerful, like Earl Campbell. He ran angry, like Marshawn Lynch, and he leveraged his NFL fame into a film career, like O.J. Simpson. Unlike O.J., he also was an activist for social justice (and he never murdered his wife, so there’s that).

There were black performers and thinkers before the 1960s, but that decade put them in bold relief. And maybe it produced some all-time greats: Turner, Brown, Bill Russell, Cassius Clay, Lew Alcindor, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix, Wilt Chamberlain, Sly and the Family Stone, Willie Mays, Sidney Poitier, Bob Gibson, etc. No wonder white people got so scared. These people were better at the sports and the performing than anyone they’d ever seen. Throw in a few brilliant thinkers such as James Baldwin, MLK and Malcolm X, and now we’re talkin ’bout a revolution.

In every class I taught at ASU-Cronkite, I showed the video directly above. It pits Brown, freshly retired from pro football, against Georgia governor Lester Maddox. One played a savage sport, the other governed a state. Notice which one keeps his cool throughout (I think the picking at his pant leg was a stress reducer), while the other throws a hissy fit. It tells you so much.

The Premier League May No Longer Be Luton-Free

Manchester City has already wrapped up the Premier League title heading into the season’s final weekend (remember, Ted Lasso is only a TV show). So where is the drama? It’s playing out in Coventry on Saturday, where FC Luton Town visits Conventry City in what is basically a play-in game to be the third and final squad promoted to the Premier League next season (it’s the match for third place in the Championship League, the second-tier league of English football).

What makes this story so compelling is that only 14 years ago Luton Town was down in the FIFTH division of English football. Long ago, in the early ’90s, it had been in the top tier (it was not known as Premier League then but rather the First Division… we prefer the new name), but hard times emerged and the club foundered. Now, after a long and arduous climb up the ranks, the Hatters are one victory away from returning to the top of the pops… they’d be playing agains Man City and Arsenal and Liverpool and all the rest beginning in August.

A more inspiring story than either Wrexham or FC Richmond. SportsBrain informed me and I thought you ought to know about it.

You Must Be Jokic-ing

True story: Back in the pre-Internet age, I wrote a weekly column for Sports Illustrated called SI View. I wrote that for four very long years. Unlike today, we only had one page per week and there was very little space for commentary. I couldn’t react to the previous night’s events or go long on different facts in the industry. I couldn’t go Richard Deitsch, in short, and major props to him for taking the baton into the internet age and doing wonderful things with the column that I never did.

The truth, though, of it all, is that I never sought a job at SI (or in sportswriting) so that I could sit on the couch and watch sports on TV (I know… what is wrong with me?). I recall some time in my third or fourth year at SI finding a cartoon in The New Yorker. It’s a grave in a cemetery and the epitaph reads, “I watched sports.” That cartoon hit me and I posted it on my door.

And so it was that in my final year on the gig I simply opted not to watch the Super Bowl. I’d had enough. Again, this was not in the age of an internet column. I had not actually been derelict in my duties, but it definitely told me that I had no passion for doing the job they’d given me.

All of which is to say that I understand why Lisa Salters said what she did recently, but given the money she earns annually, I’m still shocked. Salters appeared on a podcast and candidly confessed that she’d never seen Nikola Jokic play. Not, never seen in person, but simply had never seen him play.

WUT?!?

Nikola Jokic is a two-time NBA MVP (and probably should be a three-timer). There are millions of NBA fans out there, globally, who are familiar with Jokic’s game. You are the featured sideline reporter for ESPN/ABC and you’ve never seen him play? Sure, part of this is an indictment of Disney for not putting the Denver Nuggets on TV more often (they did finish with the No. 1 record in the West), but part of this also is on Salters.

This was also not great from a supposed expert…

This is your job. And you are paid a lot of money to do it. No one’s asking you to tell us the starting five of the Charlotte Hornets (I’m not even sure their own announcers could do that). But to have never seen a two-time NBA MVP play on TV or in person? That’s blatant neglect of duties. And yeah, you cannot help but feel that just a little of this dismissal of Jokic’s sublime gifts (13 triple-doubles in the postseason, already a career mark that toppled Chamberlain’s) from the folks at ESPN isn’t just a weeeeee bit of reverse racism (which is, let’s call it bluntly, simply racism) at work here. White Men Can’t Hoop. Except that this one just took out ESPN’s GOAT in a four-game sweep (and LBJ, to his credit, acknowledged Jokic’s greatness).

Susie B. Is Happy

Nvidia (NVDA) popped more than 25% on Wednesday’s after hours earnings report. The tech monster is now up 163% this year alone and more than 500% over the past five years. It reminds me that I should listen to my own advice more often.

And still today on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” there were Wall Street experts explaining why they were smart to not invest in it and why they won’t be doing so now. The facts are wrong; we weren’t. How Nate Silver of them.

Dollar Quiz

  1. Which one of these cities did NOT have an entry in the 1876 National League (inaugural year): Hartford, Louisville, Rochester?
  2. On whose side of the Trojan War was Paris?
  3. What number below 200 has the most other numbers that factor into it as whole numbers (no fractions)?
  4. Name a country that begins with an “O.”
  5. Who holds the record for most hits in an MLB game, or how many hits did he have (I doubt anyone will get this, but we will all learn something).

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 5 Comments

by John Walters

We’ve got a new LinkedIn photo. We understand this is not the highlight of your day, but just though we’d share.

Rooker Of The Year

Ever since I began following baseball—the Bobby Murcer Yankees of 1973—I’ve been intrigued by bad players on awful teams. The nature of baseball is such that the game’s premier player (Hello, Mike Trout) can play year in and year out on a team that fails to make the playoffs. Unlike basketball and football, excellence is able to exist in a vacuum.

So hello, Mr. Trout and Rod Carew (never made playoffs with Twins) and Ken Griffey, Jr., and Ernie Banks and Ichiro Suzuki and Mike Piazza and (mostly) Tony Gwynn, the last of whom is sort of the Walter Payton of his sport: spent almost his entire career on bad teams, then finally made it to the showcase at the tail end.

I bring this all up because baseball’s worst team thus far in ’23, the Oakland A’s, has a standout player: leftfielder Brent Rooker leads the American League in slugging percentage (.605) and is first in the A.L. in OPS (which my Gen-Z students tell me is the most important batting stat, though I’ll still take OBP first, thank you very much). The dude leading the AL in OPS (barely) is Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz. The Rays have the most potent offense in baseball, so pitchers cannot pitch around Diaz as much as they are able to Rooker, whose A’s are near the bottom offensively. Back when making an All-Star team meant something, it would be cool to see Rooker play in the Summer Classic. This year, alas, it’ll be a yawn. But he’s still worthy of a little tribute.

Is three-time MVP and former ROY Mike Trout destined to become the best player to never appear in a Fall Classic?

Meanwhile, the A’s are not only awful, but they’re dumb. The first is excusable, the second is not. The other night Oakland trailed the Diamondbacks 5-2 in the 8th. Their leadoff hitter had just crushed a solo HR and the next two hitters walked and singled, chasing the D-Backs’ starter. First and second, down three runs, no outs, and Rooker is on deck.

What happens? The next Oakland batter hits a soft fly in between short and left, but it’s playable. The shortstop runs out to make the catch, but Oakland’s runner on 2nd had his head down on contact and is rounding third. There’s not two outs, there wasn’t even one out: There were NO OUTS. The D-Backs throw to 2nd, double him up, and now Rooker comes to the plate with two outs and one man on.

The A’s go on to lose 5-2. Physical incompetence is a product of baseball’s salary structure. Mental incompetence is unforgivable.

Autocrat Softball Batting Practice

In the past fortnight, two of the world’s leading autocrats, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, have been given one-hour interview platforms on cable news networks. Respectively, but not respectably, CNN and CNBC. The interviewers, Kaitlyn Collins and David Faber (again, –ively but not –ably), failed to perform their jobs up to the standards of an interviewer in such a prestige spot. Anyone can ask a decnt question, but you set yourself apart by asking probing follow-up questions. Learning to counterpunch.

Admittedly, I watched none of Trump’s “town hall” (like Melania, I avoid Donald as much as humanly possible) and only saw a few Twitter clips of Faber’s tongue-bath of Musk.

Would we ever see Jon Stewart or John Oliver or Jordan Klepper interview either of these figures? Probably not. Which is too bad.

By the way, this was buried in the never-ending avalanche of miscreant news associated with these types, but Deutsche Bank just paid out a $75 million settlement related to its ties with Trump’s pedophile party buddy Jeffrey Epstein. According to Fox Business.com (!), “The lawsuit asserted that the bank knowingly benefited from Epstein’s sex trafficking and ‘chose profit over following the law.'”

You know the other thing about Deutsche Bank? They’re the ones who put Trump in touch with Russian oligarchs looking to buy real estate in the U.S. (for sums far above market value… hmmm). They provided loans to Trump when no one else would.

Super Boulle*

*The judges have no idea if this pronunciation, for pun purposes, is accurate

I am consistently humbled to learn things I never knew. For example, who Pierre Boulle was. Last night’s “Final Jeopardy” asked about the author of a book who saw human traits in apes he watched at a zoo. I guessed that the book would be The Planet Of The Apes but had no idea who the author was. Then when I researched a bit, I learned that French writer Boulle also authored The Bridge On The River Kwai.

Suddenly I’m hard-pressed to name a single author who had two books turned into better movies than those. If you’ve never seen one or either of them, do so as soon as you can. The latter is an all-time favorite, while I’d only recommend the original version of the former.

You can even draw some parallels between the two stories. The loner U.S. military guy in a hostile captive situation who must escape, through wilderness, to survive. The moment of clarity at the end of the film. Etc.

Anyway, I know this is the wrong language/culture, but Jolly good show, Monsieur Boulle. Jolly good show!

Charlie Vs. JJ

Here are two contrasting views on the Ja Morant situation from two retired NBA players who are paid to opine on TV. We respect JJ Redick plenty, but on this one we think he’s dead wrong. And you can point out that Charles Barkley was no angel when he played (in a pre-social media era), but that does not make him wrong here.

Dollar Quiz

  1. Who was the original host of Jeopardy!?
  2. True-False: George Mikan won the first NBA MVP award.
  3. If you go due west of Manila, the first country (beyond the Philippines) you’ll hit is….?
  4. Name a 300-game winner who never threw a no-hitter (extra props if you name the winningest pitcher to never throw one).
  5. Name a film that takes place entirely in Oregon.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 7 Comments

by John Walters

This Week’s Sign Of The Apocalypse*

*The judges will also accept “Golden Girl”

Sitting here thinking how many times this Martha Stewart SI swimsuit cover has been shared on pickleball courts coast to coast already today. Stewart, 81, becomes the oldest swimsuit cover in SI history and also, let’s face it, lands right in the middle of the magazine’s target demographic these days.

Sad reality: Stewart is 81, which means she’s already survived longer than SI probably will.

Caught Looking

Last night in Toronto, in the midst of an at-bat and just before smoting (smiting?) his second home run of the game, Aaron Judge was caught by the camera stealing a glance toward… what, exactly? The Blue Jay broadcast duo went on a “I don’t want to make unsubstantiated allegations, BUT…” rant, but really, in the age of Pitch.com, what advantage might Judge have gained?

Perhaps the Blue Jay hurler was tipping his pitches beforehand and someone in the Yankee dugout was onto it and telling Judge to look at him for a signal, but if so, that’s all part of the game. It’s not as if anyone was banging on a trash can. Judge, meanwhile, said he was distracted by Yankee chatter in the dugout considering it was the 8th inning and the Bombers were ahead 6-0 (or was someone in the Yankee dugout holding up the latest issue of SI?)

By the way, Aaron Judge homered in his first plate appearance of the season, then had five home runs in his next 125 plate appearances (one every 20 PAs), and now has four homers in his past 15. Someone is heating up.


Dollar Quiz

  1. Name the three MLB teams on which Bo Jackson played.
  2. Name two Friends characters who never lived together (either in the course of the program or in the backstory).
  3. True-False: Italy and Croatia share a land border.
  4. For more than 30 years, two schools were members of what is now known as the Pac-12 (but was not at the time). Those two schools, neither of which are based in Los Angeles, are no longer part of the conference. Name them.
  5. What U.S. city has the most bridges?

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 5 Comments

by John Walters

Woe, Canada

The Edmonton Oilers lost Game 6 last night to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, 5-2. LVGK now advances to the Western Conference finals for the fourth time in the six-year history of the franchise. Edmonton, is the last Canadian club to bow out of this spring’s Stanley Cup chase, ensures that no Canadian franchise will hoist the Cup for what is now the 30th consecutive season.

Eh?

The Montreal Canadiens lifted the Cup in 1993. Since then, not one single franchise north of the border has won the championship in the sport Canada invented. To see how nutty this is, consider that in the 30 years before 1993 (1963-1992), four different Canadian franchises—Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and even Toronto—had won 20 Stanley Cups between them.

Factor in that this season’s Edmonton squad had Connor McDavid, who led the NHL in Goals (64) and Assists (89) and compiled the most Points (153) in a single season since Mario Lemieux in 1996, and the Oilers’ (and Canada’s) flameout so early is even more confounding.

Doyle Brunson Folds

Yesterday Doyle Brunson, the man who basically invented Texas Hold ‘Em, passed at the age of 89. A two-time Main Event champion at the WSOP, Brunson literally wrote the book, Super/System, on strategic (Is there any other kind?) poker.

Brunson was the undisputed Babe Ruth of poker. Phil Hellmuth may have gone on to win more WSOP bracelets (16 to Doyle’s 10), but no pro who’s ever bluffed his way to the pot holding 3-5 unsuited would ever claim anything other than that Brunson loomed largest in the game’s/sport’s history.

Brunson, born and bred in Texas, was also a fantastic athlete. An All-State basketball player, he also ran a 4:43 mile in the state meet before a knee injury put him behind a felt table. If you want to read an absolutely enthralling book about poker, Brunson, and the WSOP, we could not highly enough recommend Positively Fifth Street by James McManus.

Seinfeld Sagacity

I’d never seen this clip before. Part of the reason I love it is that because no matter how famous and wealthy Jerry Seinfeld has become, he’s still just a guy from Queens who’d love to do nothing more than his set at The Comic Strip or Stand Up NY.

Seinfeld and I were “neighbors” on the Upper West Side for many years. He lived in a penthouse on W. 81st and CPW (just a few doors down from his fictitious residence on the eponymous show) and I lived on W. 79th and Riverside (hunting grounds for The Lopper). One day I had just finished a run in Central Park and I spotted Jerry in his natural habitat: walking aimlessly on W. 81st, the museum side of the street, with fellow comic and good friend George Wallace. It warmed my heart. Two comics likely cracking wise about all that they were observing. As you probably know, this was the genesis of Seinfeld the TV show.

The Joker

Iconic Batman villain.

Title of a Steve Miller Band song.

NBA superstar.

Nikola Jokic has already won two NBA MVPs and deserved a third this season, but as the Denver Nuggets have not previously advanced this far in the postseason during his career, the seven-foot Serbian is still somewhat under the radar.

No longer. With a seven-game series versus the LeBron Lakers beginning tomorrow, the NBA’s two most talented players (okay, two of the three…sorry, Steph) will garner millions upon millions of viewers. Be awed by the sheer size of Jokic—so wide without being heavy— but be wowed by his unbelievably soft shooting touch, his footwork, and his superior passing skill.

Jokic has 11 triple doubles in the postseason over his career. Wilt Chamberlain had nine. In the last three seasons The Joker has averaged roughly 26 points, 12 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game. And in one of those seasons, he missed not a single game.

There is no one else in the NBA currently akin to Jokic. Historically, another eastern European, Arvydas Sabonis, was close, and for a brief period, so was Bill Walton. But Walton did not quite have Joker’s girth and Sabonis did not begin playing in the NBA until he was 29 years old. Jokic, currently in his eighth season, is only 28.

Lasso: The Last Roundup

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1656478117005869058?s=20

If you’ve never watched Ted Lasso, this tiny moment from the previous episode will not mean much to you. But if you have, it’s a gem. The team trails at halftime and should be in disarray—its captain received a red card for going after a fan in the stands at the end of the first half, while another player has finally just outed himself to the team in the locker room as being gay.

Now Sam (the black dude) has always been the sweetest, kindest player on FC Richmond. And Jamie Tartt (white dude) has long been its best player and, in the first season, its biggest d-bag. But Jamie has been the greatest beneficiary of Ted Lasso’s program of “being the best version of themselves” program, and so his evolution to humble team player has been a gradual but fun thing to witness. Meanwhile, his teammates have also observed this wonderful metamorphosis.

So, in this moment, Jamie is clinging to his past a little (Sam’s just been handed the captain’s band for the second half and, as the team’s best player, Jamie wonders if he shouldn’t be wearing it). But Sam’s feeling his own self worth and he also recognizes that, at long last, Jamie is behaving like a teammate. So, as close teammates do, Sam feels comfortable razzing him a little.

It’s a wonderful and telling moment, with not a word spoken. Brilliant writing, without having to waste a second of dialogue.

Dollar Quiz

  1. Where did the Hindenburg crash and burn (town and state)?
  2. Name a state west of the Rockies that does NOT have a National Park.
  3. True/False: Every NFL team name ends in “s.”
  4. What two Houses were at the center of The War of the Roses (15th century… both Pa. town names now)?
  5. What are the surnames of the families in Blue Bloods and Yellowstone (you may need to ask your parents).

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Sun Down

For the second year in a row, the Phoenix Suns trailed by 30 points at halftime of a closeout game at home.

This one felt more permanent, in terms of this current iteration of the squad. Mat Ishbia assumed ownership of the club last February and immediately took out a second mortgage on the Suns’ future by trading away up-and-comers Mikal Bridges (an All-Star) and Cam Johnson for legitimate legend but over-the-hill’er Kevin Durant. Plus, Ishbia gave up a slew of draft picks.

Last night the Suns realized what Dallas also has in the wake of its blockbuster trade: your two superstars need to be complementary, not near copies of one another. The Suns, I’m sorry to say, are not going anywhere special with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. Chris Paul, sadly, is 38 years old and is going to be playing like it…when he’s healthy.

And who knows what really happened with Deandre Ayton? At least when he quit on the Suns in Game 7 last year he was in uniform.

And Al McCoy is gone. After 51 seasons and zero championships. Which is just too bad.

You keep Devin Booker, who left last night without speaking to the media. You’re stuck with Kevin Durant. Everyone else is expendable.

We should note that Cam Payne Supernova (31 points) had his best game of the year and Jock Landale showed up in ways Ayton just never does (Did you notice his first bucket of the game was a dunk? Deandre rarely dunks).

Gold Mine

Denver, meanwhile, looks like a championship team. The Nuggets scored 81 first-half points last night, playing a beautiful offense that did not rely on the three-ball as much as it did running the offense through Nikola Jokic. Those half-court sets would’ve brought tears to the eyes of John Wooden, and likely did to Dave Patsch’s partner, Bill Walton.

Meanwhile, did you see how many Phoenix pass routes the Nuggets jumped for steals? It was like Lester Hayes was in uniform for them. A couple of things: 1) Like the Lakers, and Boston, the Nuggets are a team of players who know their very different roles and yet also make beautiful music together. 2) Nikola Jokic was the 41st player taken in the 2014 NBA draft. Anyone could’ve had him. Also, if Nikola and Luka don’t tell you that teams need to be scouting eastern Europe harder, I don’t know what will. 3) Finally, if you watched both games last night—and granted, it’s just one day—there’s little doubt in your mind who should have won the MVP this season (and note that Philly had Embiid duck Jokic in their March game at 5,280). Jokic just put together his 11th career playoff triple double last night (two more than the next-best big man, Wilt), while Embiid mostly was absent in the fourth quarter of Philly’s squandered Game 6 at home. Mark Jackson, former NBA player and coach and now ESPN commentator, did not have Jokic on his Top 5 MVP ballot (the only voter not to do so). Last night Jackson went on social media to admit it was “an honest mistake.” Our suspicion is that Jackson had no idea the votes were made public. 4) How does one of the biggest men on the planet (7’0″, 280) have the NBA’s softest touch? Jokic’s shots whisper into the cylinder. Last night he finished with 32-12-10. Glorious.

Logo LOL-o

If you’ve ever walked down Broadway, you know it’s the Bourbon Street of Nashville. So major props to the Tennessee Titans social media department for this gem on the day that the NFL announced its schedule dates. What puts this over the top, besides the day drinking of the participants, is the Fox NFL theme music.

“Rock Star” Has Gone Too Far

Maybe Rock Star Energy Drink finally pushed this cliche over the precipice. Either way, credit to Workday, or its ad agency, for this ad that lampoons the cubicle-life encomium. Favorite line: “I’ve done my share of bad things… also your share of bad things.”

Boy Genius

Keeping with the rock star theme, meet Phoebe Bridgers (blonde), Julien Baker (petite) and Lucy Dacus (larger brunette), the band known as Boygenius. All three musicians had burgeoning solo careers and would run into one another at festivals, etc. Then they decided that instead of playing Mean Girls they’d be more like The Joy Luck Club… or a Jane Fonda/Diane Keaton/Lily Tomlin movie.

Anyway, their track “Not Strong Enough” has gotten them visibility on Jimmy Kimmel. Before you (or I) say something snarky such as, “They should be selling out stadiums, not Taylor Swift,” do know that Swifty is not only a huge fan, but she gave them the stage to themselves at her concert last Friday night in Nashville (her adopted home town). She’s a fangirl, too.

Bo Peeps

We are unabashed fans of Bo Burnham (you’re right, Mulaney), so here’s a gem from a few years ago that we just happened upon…. David Allen Coe deserves credit for lampooning country first, though. So we need to include that here as well…

Dollar Quiz

  1. Which of these creatures can be found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic: polar bear, walrus, penguin?
  2. What NBA player is listed, correctly, as having played 83 games this season?
  3. What is the largest city in Wales?
  4. Name a TV show or movie that has each of the following in its title: asterisk, exclamation point, question mark.
  5. What was the name of the physician in Caddyshack?