by John Walters
An Entirely Happy 69th birthday to the one and only David Letterman…
Starting Five
“If you like pina coladas/And getting caught in the rain/If you’re not into yoga/And you have half a brain…”
1. Chuck Roast
“A review of last night’s episode of Better Call Saul as soon as I shovel Fran’s driveway in Cedar Crest…as soon as I’m finished filming my Ruppert Holmes documentary (“Isn’t he British?”)….as soon as I watch ‘Diagnosis: Murder’ between 10:18 a.m. and 10:35 a.m.”….as soon as I hijack an ice cream truck on a two-lane highway to Socorro….”
What a great penultimate episode of the season, and as Sepinwall notes, both Jimmy and Mike head down the Walter White Trail of Unintended Dire Consequences. Mike’s hijacking of Hector Salamanca’s “ice cream truck” gets a Good Samaritan killed, while Jimmy’s valiant (but illegal) method of getting Mesa Verde back as Kim’s client (everyone knows it’s 1261 Rosella Drive) may have resulted in Chuck’s death or at least his slipping into a coma. One more week remains….
2. Round and Round
Richards breaks the tape….
We’ll have more in Newsweek later today, but on Saturday at the Armory at a 168th Street in upper Manhattan (i.e., Harlem), world records were set in the indoor marathon. Malcolm Richards of San Francisco ran the 211 laps of the 200-meter track in 2:21, while Allie Kieffer set a new women’s mark in 2:44. They both also broke unofficial world records for overcoming tedium.
3. The Other Curry
The 6’2″ Curry has had a breakout month….
The Sacramento Kings, a team based in northern California (unless they’ve moved Sacramento) defeated the Phoenix Suns last night, 105-101. The Kings leading scorer in the game with 20 points was Seth Curry, who just happens to be the younger brother of the world’s best basketball player (come at me, Susie B.!).
The younger Curry, after not having a single 20-point game this season (if not ever in his career), has scored 20 or more points four times in the past fortnight. What up with that?
4. Leicester Atop The Table
Believe it or not, this is the top scorer on the EPL’s top team
Arguably the year’s most amazing sports story is taking place across the pond: Leicester City is atop the English Premier League. The Foxes have lost just three of 33 matches (21-9-3) and have a seven-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur with five games remaining (three points for a win, 1 for a draw). Jamie Vardy, above, is second in the EPL with 21 goals but what is more impressive is that Leicester City has put together five consecutive clean sheets (shutouts).
The club, which has been around since 1884, has NEVER finished atop England’s top league. There are no playoffs in EPL, so it’s just a matter of holding off Tottenham. Tickets for Leicester’s final home game, May 7 versus Everton, are being sold on the secondary market for $21,300 per pair. See, everyone loses interest when there’s no playoff.
5. Watts Up!
If there is a magazine cover-to-film ratio meter, Naomi must have the highest score out there….
If you have travelled lately or just passed a magazine rack, this magazine cover featuring Aussie actress Naomi Watts may have caught your eye (not that it did mine….). Watts, 47, has a prolific IMDB page since co-starring in Mulholland Drive in 2001, but she may be even more prolific as a magazine cover girl. I counted no fewer than 70 magazine covers she’s graced in the past decade or so. She’s like the Michael Jordan of fashion/women’s magazines.
(This is easily my newsiest item of the week)
Kobe Watch
My bad yesterday: Last night was Bryant’s penultimate game, in Oklahoma City. Mamba scored 13 points. Career average is now 24.9687 points per game. Of course, if you only use three digits, that still rounds up to 25.0, as the good folks at Basketball-Reference.com reminded me yesterday.
Music 101
Brass In Pocket
The ’80s first female rock star? Chrissie Hynde, Ohio-born lead singer of the English band The Pretenders. She was as cool as Deborah Harry, and could play the guitar as well. This, the band’s breakout hit, reached No. 13 on the Billboard charts. She was already 28 when this tune hit.
Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson did a pretty fair job covering this song at a karaoke bar in Tokyo a couple of decades later.
Remote Patrol
Champions League: Paris St. Germain at Manchester City
2:30 p.m. FS 1
Fear the Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), Man City fans….
The English side will be without their top scorer, Vincent Kompany, a Belgian player whom autocorrect loathes. These two drew, 2-2, in the first leg of their quarterfinal match in Paris.
3. I humbly submit Curry Favor(ed) in the event the judges are feeling non-judgmental today.
As for Better Call Saul, Chuck’s malicious electromagnetic waves have drawn me in!
The judges do not concur-ry
Harumph – have you seen Sweet Pea’s numbers the past month or so? Actually, since I mentioned he was in a bit of a “shooting slump” a couple months ago, he’s completely busted out of that & is back to setting the kind of efficiency numbers of his Heat days. Honestly, if ANYONE else in the NBA was producing like this, the TV talkers would blabber on non-stop, but with LBJ, it’s just taken for granted!
I hadn’t watched any or paid much attention to the EPL this season until Grant Wahl’s article on Leicester City a few weeks ago. I ‘ve been pulling for them since & even watched a bit of one of their matches. What a story! And those long-suffering fans must be going out of their minds with joy (& worry until they lock it up). I also fervently wish I could step into a Time-Travel machine & put down $1000 on LC at the start of the season…5000 to 1! I’d swim in the cash like Scrooge McDuck!
If Chuck dies, do you think that’s what pushed Jimmy fully into the “dark side”? And I love how they handled the viewer’s question if Kim thought Jimmy did the doc switcheroo. She’s a born lawyer, that one.
Also, you don’t mention Mike much on your write-ups, but his story is as much a part of this series as Jimmy’s. Wonder if they set out to do that or it just evolved.
I wasn’t here yesterday so couldn’t mention then – I don’t think Spieth “choked” on Sunday. Heck, he wiped the course with everyone last year all the way through & was in a comfy lead coming round the “turn”. WHY did it happen? (HAND SHOOTS UP!) I think it’s MY fault! He was at 6 under & ahead of everyone else by 5 (I think) & they showed Danny Willet on the screen about to putt for an eagle & I said out loud to the TV “sorry Jordan, but I want you to bogie, bogie, bogie & this guy to make the eagle”. I only wanted it to be exciting down the stretch! I then switched channels to watch Paris-Roubaix & when I clicked back to check, Spieth was only at one under! WTF! I’m sorry, Jordan! Still, he did make 2 more birdies, so he was still functioning. And the look on his face when he stood up to put the green jacket on Willet, oh boy, you had to feel for him. And poor Danny Boy, the next day ALL anyone in America is talking about is how Spieth quad-bogeyed & “lost” the Masters & not that he won it. I guess with his lifetime yearly Masters invite & the money he just won, I guess he’s not too broken up but I do feel a bit sorry for him. “The pipes, the pipes, they’re plaaaayinnnn”.
That the Spurs did NOT defeat the Dubs, who had JUST squeaked past with a one point win over the lowly Grizzles the NIGHT BEFORE, well, the Spurs were a big fat disappointment!