Starting Five 

Seriously, Susie B? “Ya boy” misses both free throws with the Cavs trailing by a point in the dying seconds of overtime??? Let’s pump the brakes on the “LeBron for God’s Replacement” talk for a week or two, okay?

1. Say What U Wanna Say, SNL

Perhaps the cast at Saturday Night Live, and executive producer Lorne Michaels, took Louis C.K.’s words to heart about how the funnier bits are the taped bits. In their return episode after the 40th anniversary super-vaganza, the two best bits were pre-recorded: this Sara Bareilles-inspired salute to candor and this parody of the Toyota ad in which the dad drops off his daughter, who is joining the army, at the airport.

The tweak here: she’s joining ISIS.

Was the latter sketch funny? If you laughed, it was funny… to you. And that’s all that matters. If you did not, it wasn’t funny. Not to you.

My take: First, the acting by both Taran Killam and Dakota Johnson is terrific. That’s the first reason it works. Second, isn’t the fact that you live in a country where this parody can air on national TV and people can laugh at it what separates us from so many other countries? I mean, it’s not like we gun down dissidents a block away from our capitol.

Less than 25 years after the Nazis were stopped from mass-murdering the Jews, Mel Brooks wrote and produced a hit Broadway show that was about a fictitious Broadway musical whose theme was Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. This particular number stands out.

A plethora of news sites or cable channels produced “SNL ISIS Sketch Sparks Controversy” pieces. Good. Take a bow, SNL. You’re doing your job well. And every news anchor who bowed their head in that faux somber and disapproving tone? How many of you laughed when you watched it the first time? But you won’t “say what you wanna say” because you like your salaries far too much. We get it.

2. Curt vs The Cowards

Former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling might have exercised better judgment than to praise (i.e., draw attention to) his teenage daughter on Twitter. That’s what the dinner table is for, after all.

Still, he is correct to wonder aloud why people send out tweets such as those mentioned in Schilling’s blog entry.

Take a bow, Adam Nagel, alias “The Sports Guru” (@Nagels_Bagels) at Brookdale Community College.

And aren’t you proud, “Hollywood” alias @primetime227 , who is a student at Montclair State?

(Why do they always have to be from New Jersey?)

Both Twitter accounts have since been deleted. But the screen grabs that Curt grabbed and put on his blog will live forever. The internet is a two-way information superhighway, after all.

3. These Are Days…

…you’ll remember (p.s. That entire 10,000 Maniacs album is wildly underrated).

It’s good to be in your early twenties, as I recall (well, it was so long ago I barely remember, but I believe Rolling Rocks at the Raccoon Lodge were $3 apiece). Anyway…

BFFs Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss grace the cover of this month’s Vogue, an issue that runs 583 pages (ad sales guys will be happy hour’ing heavily). Inside you’ll find a good story on their welationship, and a quote from mutual pal Lena Dunham hailing Swift as “the Betty Crocker of friendships.”

Meanwhile, there may be only one cure for my current malady.

4. Father-Son Fast Break

On Saturday afternoon Tyler Harvey of Eastern Washington scored 27 points to maintain his status as the nation’s leading scorer in Division I at 22.8 points per game. But the game was not televised nationally. In fact, the closest the Eagles have come to big time all season was a two-point victory at Indiana in November in which they appeared on ESPN News and Tyler scored 27.

On Saturday night Tyler’s dad, Frank Harvey, did appear on ESPN2 because he was refereeing the BYU-Gonzaga game in which the Cougars ended the Zags’ 41-game home win streak. The leading scorer in the nation’s dad has gotten more on-court air time this season than he has.

My story on the two of them in Newsweek. Thanks for the kind words.

5. Things I Don’t Know (Cont.)

Remember last Friday when I revealed that I had no idea that Pete Campbell had married Rory Gilmore, or that Adam Levine had married a Namibian? Well, here’s what I also learned that night that I never knew…

The designer Kate Spade is David Spade’s sister-in-law (“Get! Out!”)….what a porte-cochere is….that there are creatures called crane flies that look just like mosquitoes but do not bite.

Definitely, “Things JW Does Not Know” could become a daily feature here.

Remote Patrol

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King

8 p.m. –> 6 a.m.  TCM

The first film was too expository, the second was phenomenal, and the third was okay up until the 45-minute Care Bears-style denouement. Where would this franchise have been without Andy Serkis’ Smeagol? He was “the Precious.”