by John Walters

*Also worth noting: Andrew Lloyd Webber turns 68 today and Stephen Sondheim turns 86. Let’s salute these two great composers, who are not yet decomposing.

Starting Five

1.Warren Report*

I like Elizabeth Warren. A few years ago she came out attempting to get Glass-Steagall reinstated (need to regulate big banks before we have to film “The Big Short II: Sub-Prime Boogaloo”). When a CNBC anchor chided her that such a bill would have little chance of passing in the U.S. Senate (not mentioning that the reason is too many Senators are bought and paid for by Goldman, Deutsche, Morgan Stanley, etc.), Warren hit back, “It has zero chance if no one’s fighting for it.”

Yesterday, on Twitter’s 10th birthday, Senator Warren used the format to call Donald Trump “a loser.” Characters were not minced.

Let’s be honest – @realDonaldTrump is a loser. Count all his failed businesses. See how he cheated people w/ scams like Trump U.

— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) March 21, 2016

She was just getting started. You can read her entire timeline here.

*The judges will also accept ‘Warren, G. Hardass”

2. Hamilot

I like this. Contrast the first time Lin-Manuel Miranda performed the title song for his hit musical, Hamilton, at the White House seven years ago with him and the cast performing it there earlier this month. At the time, in 2010, he was introducing the concept to the world. You can see that he is visibly nervous attempting to convince the Leader of the Free World that the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury may have also been its first hip-hop brutha.

And then here, below, is the version from earlier this month. I liked what that same LotFW  had to say in his opening remarks. Maybe you will, too.

3. Hulk’s Denton Nick’s Bank Account

Pending appeal, as someone noted on Twitter last night, Hulk Hogan is now the highest-paid porn star of all time. A jury piled on $25 million in punitive damages in his suit against Gawker, adding to the original $115 million in compensatory damages. That’s $140 million in damages for nine minutes of exposure.

Oh, for the quaint old days of Erin Andrews and the mere pittance of $55 million.

Of course, to me at least, there is a difference here. The Marriott Hotel, which is on the hook for roughly half that $55 million, committed a sin of negligence, whereas Gawker, Denton and his lackey, A.J. Daulerio, fully intended to humiliate Hogan for profit. Daulerio probably didn’t help Gawker’s case when, on the stand and asked what age he considers too young to show a sex tape, he answered, “Four.” Daulerio is personally responsible for $100,000 in restitution. I hope he feels that he got his money’s worth from that answer.

4. “And You Will Atone!”

If you also like love Better Call Saul, you’ll remember the scene from the series premiere in which Jimmy McGill storms into the conference room at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill and proclaims, “You have meddled with the primal forces of nature….and YOU WILL ATONE!”  Well, here’s the closest I could come to finding it on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOpteM8D66E

…and here’s the original, Ned Beatty in Network, which Jimmy cites as he departs the office at the end of his tirade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKkRDMil0bw

5. Twitter at Ten

Now that Twitter is 10 years old, let’s talk vernacular:

“Twitter” is a noun. “I am on Twitter.”

“Tweet” is a verb. “He tweeted a Sad Jordan meme.”

You don’t “twit.” You are not twittering. It is not a Tweeter.

Meanwhile, to mark the app’s 10th anniversary/birthday, LeBron James (29 million followers) was asked after last night’s game why he has stopped following the Cleveland Cavaliers team site and he ended the presser.* That’s kind of a nice way to celebrate the anniversary.

*Wondering if Sweet Pea stopped following the Cavs about the same time Susie B. stopped writing comments….

Reserves

I just had to add this photo. Big fan of SFA and Thomas Walkup and coach Brad Underwood, but this is a classic March Madness pic. And remember, Mike Brey subbed out Matt Farrell (No. 5 here) for Rex Pflueger, for defensive purposes, at the final dead ball. It frontfired for him (the opposite of backfired, of course). Unintentionally, Brey saved his own bacon by having a taller player who was able to tip in the winning basket. Pflueger is at the center of this photo.

Music 101

Somebody To Love

That’s Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane performing, i.e. lip-synching this classic on American Bandstand. The tune was released on April Fool’s Day, 1967. It’s hard to believe this is the same band that gave us “Marconi plays the mamba/listen to the radio” 16 years later. They also performed this song to open their set at Woodstock two years later, a set that began at 8 a.m. on the third day, Sunday, I believe.

Remote Patrol

All Cuba, All day

Rays vs Cuba

1:30 p.m. ESPN

The People Vs O.J. Simpson

10 p.m. FX

The first MLB exhibition game staged in Cuba since before Fidel Castro came to power in the afternoon. And the aftermath of the bloody glove (“If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”) fiasco later this evening, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.