Starting Five
1. Black Dog. No, not this Black Dog. This black dog, Banana Joe, a five year-old Affenpinscher (and if you’ve ever had your Affen pinsched, you know how painful it can be), won Best In Show at the Westminter Dog Show last night.
Banana Joe was doggin’ it in Madison Square Garden.
2. “Good, good, good, Good Hydrations/He’s takin’ some good hydration/Wants the GOP nomination/Good, bop-bop…” Florida senator Marco Rubio provides the Republican response to the POTUS SOTU (which, admittedly, sounds like a trendy new sushi kitchen) and all anyone can blather about is that he reached for an off-camera bottle of Poland Spring (which, as Elaine Benes will attest, is a far better brand name than Moland Spring). As someone on Twitter correctly quipped, “The hysteria over this underscores our ravenous appetite for any moment that is unscripted.”
Agua fria! Muy bueno!
3. Speaking of which, CNN held viewers spellbound yesterday with the last throes of the Christopher Dorner manhunt around Big Bear Lake yesterday afternoon. It was a tragic saga that left four people dead, excluding Dorner, and also leaves us wondering. At one point Dorner car-jacked a vehicle and as the victim, Rick Heltebrake, later described it, told him, “I don’t want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog with you.”
Less than an hour or so later, Dorner was in a shootout with two sheriff’s deputies that left one of the officers dead. So he wasn’t a madman bent on killing anyone who got on his path. He had an agenda, and he had a very focused idea of who his enemies were.
Details and facts will later emerge, and there is no good excuse for killing innocent people, which is where Dorner’s spree began. Still, when you see the photos of him in police and military gear, with that cherubic smile, you get a sense that somewhere along the way someone robbed him of something. Robbed him of more than just a job and a career.
In happier days
It’s easy for the media –not all media, mind you — to portray him as a madman, and for some on the far opposite end of the spectrum to portray him as a hero. The truth, I think, lies in between. Somewhere along the way, I bet, he was the victim. Somewhere along the way the system screwed him and his sense of what is fair and what is just was, well, raped. If you have ever been there professionally (raises hand), you understand the rage that wells up inside.
That said, that’s no excuse to take innocent lives. I’ll be curious to see where the LAPD’s internal investigation of Dorner’s dismissal leads.
4. The Olympics plans to cancel wrestling, while the X Games have definitely canceled Snowmobile Freestyle. The former event has been around since the dawn of the Olympics in Greece and the inaugural modern Games in 1896; the latter resulted in the death of Caleb Moore last month. The 2020 Olympics will be the first without wrestling. X Games Tignes, the second of six global X Games events planned this year, will be the first without Snowmobile Freestyle.
5. Dallas Grizzly? James Harden still has the NBA’s most famous beard in the state of Texas, but keep an eye on the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs, who are currently 22-29 and host Sacramento tonight, have vowed to don beards until they reach .500. That may take awhile. To be accurate, Mav stars such as Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and O.J. Mayo do plan on shaving, but they will simply trim their beards. Why not just refrain from shaving altogether? Wouldn’t that create a greater sense of urgency?
The Mavs hope to save face by sporting beards
Reserves
Yes, there is a high school baseball player in Florida named Fenway Parks.
Remember two days ago when The Big Lead suggested that Jadeveon Clowney sit out next years before making himself eligible for the NFL Draft (because a rule that should be eradicated compels football players to be three years removed from high school before being eligible for the draft)? Well, last night Kentucky frosh Nerlens Noel, sort of the Clowney of college hoops, suffered a gruesome season-ending knee injury in the Wildcats’ loss at Florida.
LeBron scores 30 and shoots above 60% for the sixth consecutive game last night in the Heat’s 117-104 defeat of Portland. Incredible. For what it’s worth, the game’s high scorer with 33 points was Trail Blazer rookie Damien Lillard.
By the way, Kobe Bryant scored four points in the Lakers’ 91-85 defeat of Phoenix last night. Kobe shot one for eight from the floor and committed eight turnovers.
The Golden State Warriors, who were 30-17 when their cross-bay brethren, the San Francisco 49ers, played Super Bowl XLVII, have lost five straight since. The San Jose Sharks are also 0-5 since Super Bowl Sunday.
You know what profession is in trouble somewhat? Banking. Barclays, whose gleaming post-9/11 headquarters are located on the corner of 50th Street and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, announced yesterday that it will lay off 3,700 staffers. Meanwhile, Dutch bank ING Groep announced that it will lay off 2,400 employees. That’s a lot of people who are used to earning six-figure salaries, and more. Reality bites.