by John Walters

It’s Medium Happy’s FIFTH anniversary week! There’s cake and nachos in the break room.

Starting Five

1. Marvin’s Room

Last night Marvin Bagley III, who experts tout as the No. 1 pick in next summer’s draft, announced on the 11 p.m. LA SportsCenter that he will attend Duke this autumn. Bagley, who grew up in the Phoenix area but spent the last year playing in southern California, graduated high school in three years and reclassified himself as a 2017 grad.

In order to snare Bagley, who also considered UCLA and USC, the Blue Devils unretired Danny Ferry’s No. 35 and will allow Bagley to wear it. Thoughts: 1) Does Ferry get an second retirement ceremony? 2) What if Bagley winds up playing so well for Duke that they hope to retire his number, too? 3) Is the world ready for Grayson Allen and the most hyped freshman of the past few years on the same team?

Fall classes begin August 28.

2. Mooch: “If It Was Up To Me, (Bannon) Would Be Gone”

Props to Anthony Scaramucci (“Mooch!”) for having the stones to appear on Stephen Colbert’s show last night. Mooch opened with a “joke” about killing Colbert’s writing staff, but then settled in and admitted that his former boss should have called out white nationalists on Saturday (this after Colbert quipped: “Two days (to condemn Nazis)? Does the President order his spine on Amazon Prime?”). Mooch also said that if it were up to him, Steve Bannon would be gone from The Worst Wing.

Also, on the same day that Donald Trump disavowed white supremacists (talk about an oxymoron), he RT’ed a white supremacist who was doing that kindergarten move of asking   what about the other guy?

 

Meanwhile: 39 shootings in Chicago this weekend, 9 deaths. No national media outrage. Why is that? https://t.co/9Crutnnrp8

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 14, 2017

David Gergen, who worked for four presidents, appeared on CNN today, and addressed the issue of why Donald Trump has such a difficult time blasting hate groups or Vladimir Putin, but not, say, Meryl Streep or Jim Acosta: “(Trump) cannot address the hatred in this country until he addresses the hatred in his own heart.”

Brilliantly put.

3. Cruise In For A Bruisin’

Mission Impossible? Guess so. Tom Cruise came up…a little short in an attempt to leap between two London buildings during filming of MI 6. The super-duper movie star appeared to have suffered some type of hobbling injury. To Cruise’s credit, he performs his own stunts (granted, he did not fly the F-16 or make out with Kelly McGillis in Top Gun).

This footage of Cruise’s leap will…take your breath away.

4. The 40-40 Club

The New York Yankees, who A) hit a ton of SOLO home runs and B) lose too many games by one run,     beat the Mets last night, 4-2 (on three solo homers). What made the night momentous, to a degree, is that both Aaron Judge and Filthy Sanchez hit their 40th career homers (both solo) in their 140th and 139th games, respectively. The only two men who hit 40 homers sooner in their careers are Mark McGwire (110 games) and Rudy York (129). By the way, if Judge whiffs tonight versus Jacob deGrom (book it), he will have struck out at least once in 32 consecutive games, tying a Major League record (Adam Dunn).

York is a name with which you may not be familiar. A seven-time All-Star with the Detroit Tigers, he played between 1937-1948. York retired with 277 homers and is NOT in the Hall of Fame.

And yes, because you were wondering, Cody Bellinger has hit 34 home runs in just 97 games. So he’s on track to hit 40 quicker than either Yankee.

Speaking of rookies/youngsters and home runs…(put me down as a Rhys Hopkins fan)

 

Rhys Hoskins getting the silent treatment in the Phillies’ dugout after his first career homer. pic.twitter.com/41j35zwB0E

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) August 15, 2017

5. Today In Incomprehensibly Large Numbers of Deaths

 

In Sierra Leone (which is not far from Benin in Africa, at least not relatively), more than 300 perish due to landslides. Imagine that.

Meanwhile, gunmen, believed to be Islamist extremists  killed 18 at a restaurant in Burkina Faso, which actually borders Benin. Does it even matter why?

Lest we forget, more than 240 people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh have also died due to landslides this week:

 

Music 101

Take A Chance On Me

Is this the greatest a cappella song of the Seventies? Sure, it’s not purely a cappella, but ABBA‘s 1978 smash hit may as well be. The No. 1 hit in the UK (and No. 3 in the U.S.) originated from male member Bjorn Ulvaeus being a runner. During runs he’d sing a little rhythm to himself (“tick-a-ch”) that evolved into the title of the tune. How does anyone with a heartbeat not like this song?

A Word, Please

acrimonious (adj)

angry and bitter, usually pertaining to debate or speech