by John Walters
A Medium Happy 35th to Rory Gilmore herself, Alexis Bledel. She’s STILL not going to ride your motorcycle, Dean. See you for Friday Night Dinner!
Today is also the 52nd birthday of Molly Shannon. She’s 52! And she likes to kick, stretch, aaaaand kick!
Starting Five
If there is a mightier Yankee Killer than Big Papi, he was before my time
David Is Goliath
The Yanks led comfortably, 5-1, heading into the bottom of the 8th at Fenway Park last night. Masahiro Tanaka had pitched seven brilliant innings, allowing just one run and escaping David Ortiz and the bases loaded earlier in the game by inducing a relatively harmless sacrifice fly (Boston’s lone run).
Tanaka, the A.L. ERA leader (2.97), pitched a gem and it was all for naught.
The Bombers were about to be 10 games over .500 , which would keep them two games out of a wildcard spot. Then Ortiz, facing a Yankee reliever, hit a solo shot in the eighth. In the ninth, with two outs, he singled to keep a drive alive. Hanley Ramirez hit the game-winning three-run walk-off home run to dead center field, but make no mistake: Big Papi smote the Yankees.
New York is now looking up at three teams (Toronto/Baltimore, who are tied, Detroit and Seattle) for the second wild card spot. I’m emoting. Bear with me. Thanks.
2. 30 Rock of Ages
Fallon, and his staff, are very smart. They knew this moment would go viral. It also helped cover up the toe-sucking interview that had preceded it.
Was this coordinated? Jimmy Fallon’s guest last night was Donald Trump, while Seth Meyers’s was Bernie Sanders. Fallon did a great job of holding Trump’s feet to the pillow, and I had to agree with this tweep afterward.
Jimmy Fallon does a lot of great impressions but his Sean Hannity tonight was one of his best.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 16, 2016
Meyers, far more politically astute than Fallon (here’s something I wrote about Jimmy more than a year ago), got Bernie to mince not a word, on the other hand:
Bernie Sanders: “(Donald Trump) has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign.”
— Medium Happy (@jdubs88) September 16, 2016
3. Where Everybody Knows Your Name Watering Down Drinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iRM1iN-3a4
A couple of friends had both told me to give Louis C.K.‘s latest series, Horace and Pete, a try. It’s basically a very, very dark, nearly obsidian, Cheers. Louis C.K. and Steve Buscemi play cousins (?) in the title roles who run a bar. Co-stars include Alan Alda (who only improves with age), Jessica Lange and Edie Falco (that cast is a credit to Louis C.K.’s writing and just his overall personality).
It’s fantastic. I’ve only seen the premiere episode, but it’s like a Walter Miller play (judging from the two I read in high school). I’ve embedded a clip from that first episode that includes none of the cast members I’ve mentioned but is still worth watching.
4. Back to the Salt Mines
This will be Kansas in 40 years
Amidst news that the Ice Age is ending (“America First!”, even if it is under water), here’s a story on the hottest place on earth. And we don’t mean trendy. It’s Ethiopia. Pack light.
5. College Football Explodes
TOO. MANY. SICK. GAMES!!!!!
USC LB Cameron Smith—I refer to him as Cameron JuJu-Smith—is a manster
Noon (ABC): No. 2 Florida State at No. 10 Louisville. Seminoles, without Derwin James, either stand up for status quo or Lamar Jackson is your Heisman front-runner
Noon (ESPN2): North Dakota State at No. 13 Iowa. The Bison have won FIVE consecutive FCS national championships. What were the Hawkeyes thinking?
Noon (ESPN): No. 25 Miami at Appalachian State: Gonna be fun watching App. State take down another UM (that Notre Dame fans can’t stand) in Boone, N.C.
J.T. Barrett, this is your close-up
3:30 (CBS): No. 1 Alabama at No. 19 Ole Miss: Can the Rebels really beat Nick Saban and Alabama three years in a row (No)?
3:30 (BTN): Colorado at No. 4 Michigan. Can Michael Westbrook suit up?
3:30 (ABC): No. 22 Oregon at Nebraska. Mike Riley has a little history with the Ducks.
7:30 (NBC): No. 12 Michigan State at No. 18 Notre Dame. Irish are 0-7 in last seven games versus Top 12 teams, but are these Spartans a Top 12 team? Time for DeShone Kizer to win a big game against a good team (he did this at Stanford last November, but then his defense let him down).
Equanimeous St. Brown. I’ll keep posting this pic until you ceased to be amazed by it.
7:30 (FOX): No. 3 Ohio State at No. 14 Oklahoma. The game of the day. Props to both schools for scheduling it.
8:00 (ABC): USC at No. 7 Stanford. Will USC show up for a top opponent? Trojans have lost 3 of 4 to Top 12 opponents, and all by at least 18 points (the win? Do you remember Troy beat No. 3 Utah in Coliseum last October?). Christian McCaffrey versus USC LB Cameron Smith a matchup of future first-round (top 10?) picks.
10:30 (ESPN): No. 11 Texas at Cal. Are the Horns for real? They beat UTEP 41-7 after the emotional ND win.
Music 101
Dark Horse
I’m guessing you’ve already seen this video, since it has gotten five BILLION WITH A “B” views on YouTube. That Katy Perry knows how to find a song with a good hook, does she not? The song hit No. 1 in 2014 and was the best-selling song of the year, and the best-selling song that included the lyrics, “She’ll eat your heart like Jeffrey Dahmer.” Yes, you must have a hip-hop interlude in any pop song nowadays (I know: I sound old; guess what? I AM old) and the artist here is Juicy J. (Did I get that right, kids?).
Remote Patrol
Emmy Awards
Sunday
ABC 8 p.m.
Those upstarts from Pied Piper are also TV’s best ensemble at the moment
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. I don’t have a fireplace, but I’ve already got the pokers hot and ready to stick in my eyes for when Modern Family wins yet another award it doesn’t deserve. My picks (Who I want to, not who I think will, win): Drama, Game of Thrones; Comedy: Silicon Valley (though Veep is right there with it and will likely win).
Perhaps I have no life. Perhaps I have a great memory. I’ll side with the former.
Molly Shannon’s birthday has been mentioned in IAH! in 2014 (http://mediumhappy.com/?p=5817) and in 2015 (http://mediumhappy.com/?p=6271).
I’m unsure if the MH staff can confirm or deny this, but I think that is the only three-peat birthday announcement to date.
Seriously, you actually remember who gets jdubs b’day photo shout-outs? YEARS later? Guess that means you have a “photographic memory”. 😉 Really, I’m impressed. Does this mean you remember EVERYTHING written here or just the photos?
I USED to have an excellent memory but not so much anymore (getting older is a bitch). I just saw something this morning I’d written on FB 6 years ago. I have no memory of writing it but agree with myself anyway – I wrote that my favorite line in any cycling article in the past 3 years was by BikeSnob about a Time Trial in the Vuelta , where when describing the race leader’s less than spectacular effort he wrote the guy was “losing time like an alien abductee”. OMG, that was perfect.
I occasionally read previous IAH! on the site. Like, for example: I never watched Breaking Bad while it ran on AMC, so I’d just skip it when JW would write a review of that week’s show. However, after shamelessly binge watching it during its final season on television, I was always curious to hear JW’s take on certain aspects of the show. He seems to do a really good job of tying in things that are not exactly observable, if you are just watching for entertainment purposes. In that sense, he has an eye of a director, as opposed to just a glorified fan.
Outside of sports, I watch very little televised things. Youtube has afforded me the opportunity to view things when I see fit. Again, JW commentary propels me to see if there are any anecdotes in the archive.
Anyhow, I will then get caught up in reading the day’s entire Starting Five and will start perusing the days before and/or after it as well. Therefore, over time I seem to just remember when certain things were written. FAR from a photographic memory. Just curiosity.
I don’t have the ability (or even energy; that’s a prized possession I only think you have, Susie B.!) to write mini passages like yourself in the comments, but I have read this site everyday since its founding.
When I first signed up for Twitter way back when, one of my first “follows” was Bruce Feldman. Shortly after, I devoured his “Meat Market” book on Ole Miss and became even more obsessive with college football (I was that kid that would tell my friends on Saturday morning that I have to go home early — if I stayed the night Friday night following high school football — because College Gameday).
While following Bruce, he tweeted out something alluding to the quality of follow @jdubs88 would be. John was at the now defunct The Daily (if I remember the site correctly). From then on, I annoyed the crap out of JW and just started reading all of his stuff. That was like 6 or 7 years ago. Social media has many faults and has created the so-called Kardashian Effect (which, by the way, is mentioned in JW’s Newsweek piece on Fallon. I know. Sorry.), but has granted me the opportunity to read the works of people I would have never read if I relied on traditional media outlets.
Anyhow, before I get off my soap box for the day, JW has taught me more about life than anything sports related. His official title may read “Sports Journalist”, but I’ve always viewed it differently. Probably all weird in the grand scheme of things.
All of this is related somehow, even if I did a good job jumping from tangent to tangent. Time for a nap.
Great comment, Jacob. I 1st started reading John at the NBC sports website – on his daily sports/pop-culture blog. I rarely commented then (I believe jdubs may refer to that golden time as “the good old days” 😉 ) only because I was new to “blogs” & a bit bashful. I missed his sojourn at The Daily as I could not access that site at work. (I surely read jdubs work in SI too, but rarely paid attention to WHO actually wrote the pieces back then).
Since you have reread certain posts, maybe YOU can inform/remind me if jdubs ever had music journalism aspirations in addition to sports & if that is why he seemingly knows every factoid about music of the past 40 years (at least). Whenever/if Jeopardy has a show where the categories are sports, music, TV (especially Gilmore Girls, Seinfeld, Breaking Bad), Notre Dame, Taylor Swift, & NYC, he needs to be a contestant & will become the all-time champ. No one else will even be able to click the buzzer.
Only he can answer that for you, Susie B.
Last one, though: When I saw JW wrote for The Daily, I thought he was a writer for The Daily Show. If random people read his Twitter timeline, I’d bet you more would believe the latter of the two.
I’ll admit, also: This is sorta quasi-Reddit. Unraveling a writer’s work history in his own blog’s comment sections, as if no one else is reading.
Typo alert : Mich “State” plays ND.
I’m a bit peeved that all 3 teams I want to watch play at the same dang time! BTW, who decides when a team gets a bye week? The coaches, school, their conference, NCAA? I can’t imagine a team wanting a bye in the 2nd or 3rd week, can you? Well, I look forward to seeing CMc back in action. Even if I drive myself batty clicking back & forth between the OSU, ND, & Stanford games. Humpfh.
I did not watch Fallon last night. If I’d know Satan was to be a guest, I may have tuned in, but I didn’t & thus a TV’s “life” was saved.
And really, little ‘Rory’ is 35?! No way, really?! Wow. Alexis was a few years older than her character, right? Which reminds me, for all us poor benighted souls who do not have nor can get Netflix, would YOU do recaps of the new 4 GG shows whenever they air? “Winter, spring, summer & Fall, all you gotta do is call”. Well, I’m calling. 🙂
Loved your Newsweek piece but I just saw something that made me laugh & be even more pissed at the same time – the IOC is allegedly going to “ASK” the Russian “authorities” for HELP in tracking down the WADA hackers. That’s like asking the Nazis for “help” in locating who burned down the synagogues.
Who is more disgusting – the IOC or FIFA? Trump would be their perfect next “president”.