by John Walters
Tweet du Jour
I really don’t care. Do u? https://t.co/ZDcFO5JgNe
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 23, 2018
Starting Five
1. Day Tripper
Not just the best thing we saw this weekend, but the best thing we’ve seen this year. Sir Paul is impossibly gracious, humble, warm, funny, sweet, insightful and altruistic. Also, the execution of this idea was imaginative and inspired. We’ll say no more other than to suggest that the long and winding road is a glorious one, for all of us.. Simply watch and remember that these are the final lyrics from the final recorded Beatles song….
And in the end,
The love you take,
Is equal to the love you make….
2. Plucked From The Red Hen
We wouldn’t have refused to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her party, but we would have definitely separated the younger patrons from the older and not told either side where the other was seated. Then, as someone suggested on Twitter, we would have never brought out the meal and every time Sanders inquired about it, would have told our waiter to say, “I’ll have to get back to you on that” or “I”ll have to refer you to the kitchen.”
German officials heckled out of restaurant by rowdy mob pic.twitter.com/wTNUOdcykF
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) June 24, 2018
MH has obtained Sanders’ rescinded order: “bull-your-base and a Coke with no ICE.”
The restaurant’s owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, explained her actions and how the incident unfolded to The Washington Post. It is a little ironic, no, that MAGA types feel it is their right to refuse service to people based on their sexual orientation but are outraged when service is refused to them because they have a policy that directly contradicts Jesus’ most fundamental rule: Love one another.
3. Now THIS Is A Royal Wedding
Everyone’s favorite Game Of Thrones couple (unless yours is Jamie and Cersei Lannister—ew, you’re creepy!), Jon Snow and Ygritte, got married for reals this weekend in Scotland. The King of the North getting hitched to a dead Wilding…hey, if Melisandre can give birth to a phantom demon, anything is possible.
Kit Harrington and Rose Leslie, both 31, wed near Inverurie and then, because of course Leslie’s clan owns a 900 year-old castle, the party retreated there for the royal bedding. The guest list included a number of GoT stars but, wisely, not Walder Frey.
There are a few folks out there, not nice folks, who are claiming this is the second royal marriage in the U.K. this summer with a bastard groom.
4. Senegal-Ease-y Feeling
MOOD FOR SENEGAL: pic.twitter.com/WdmGYqQY7U
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 24, 2018
Sure, we were gobsmacked by Germany’s stoppage time goal versus Sweden that halted the “From bad to Norse” path they defending champs were traveling. But it’s been impossible to ignore the pure joy that Senegal, which played to a draw versus Japan yesterday, brings to each match. The above was from a practice session. It’s almost as if these player don’t realize that they live in a sh*thole country.
5. Super Steeplers
Jager…meister
At this weekend’s USA Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Evan Jager (men) and Emma Coburn (women) each won their seventh national championship in the event. Jager’s are consecutive, while Coburn has won hers over an eight-year period. Jager’s race was delayed nearly three hours by thunderstorms on Sunday but he said he’d have been willing to wait until 2 a.m. to run it.
We see the steeple, but where are the people?
The star the meet was Arizona State alum Shelby Houlihan, 25, who doubled up by winning both the women’s 1,500 and 5,000. The last woman to do that was proven drug cheat Regina Jacobs in 2000. Also, how can we get through this item without noting that Notre Dame alum Molly Huddle won the women’s 10,000? We cannot. We did not.
Houlihan upset Jenny Simpson in the women’s 1500
Note: The Western States, the granddaddy of 100-mile races, also took place this weekend. We’ll get to that tomorrow.
Music 101
Go All The Way
If you were a child in the early Seventies, you occasionally found yourself (on afternoons when it was too cold to go outside and play) sitting in front of the tube watching the Mike Douglas Show, a PG-rated afternoon talk show originating from Philadelphia. Somehow Douglas, the most gracious and polite of hosts (and a decent crooner himself) would book hot artists who’d then (almost always) lip-synch their hit tunes. Working in Mike’s favor: American Bandstand was also based in Philly. For bands, it was a two-fer.
Here are the Raspberries, whose lead singer Eric Carmen would have a hit solo career, singing about a girl asking a guy to, as the title bluntly states, “go all the way.” It was in the afternoon and I was probably eight years old, so I had no idea what he was talking about.
Remote Patrol
World Cup
Iran vs Portugal
2 p.m. FOX
The two earlier Group A matches won’t change the final standings: Russia and Uruguay are onto the knockout round of 16…their match is simply for seeding. This one is a win-or-go-home (and it’s a lot different returning to Tehran than it is to Lisbon) affair in Group B. A draw sends Portugal and Ronaldo on to face either Russia or Uruguay.
By the way, Iranian fans are already doing everything in their power to help their side….
Thanks for pointing out the McCartney video. It was so great to see the pure joy on everyone’s face as they got a chance to see him. I don’t know what’s more amazing, that people who are old enough to remember when the Beatles first started are still fascinated by him or that people who are in their 20s feel the same way. It would be like if in the 1980s some musician from the 1930s showed up and a bunch of 20 year olds started freaking out.
I think about this often, your point of the decade span. Like, when I was a kid in the Seventies we were only 30 years removed from D-Day, but when you’re 8 years old that feels like forever. Now, we’re only 30 years removed from Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine,” which continues to haunt us as a nation.
Anyway, I think the difference is that rock music was born (as a popularly accepted art form) right before the Beatles were formed and they were the Abraham of the genre. Like, yeah, there was Cain and Abel and Adam before, but they got the ball rolling that has since never stopped. But it is greatly losing momentum and Paul’s still around. He’s the greatest living ambassador to the most popular form of music of our lifetimes. There’d be no musical equivalent in the 1930s to that. What do you think?
I think you’re right. I’m no music expert but the fact that whatever kind of music that was popular in the 30s was not popular in the 80s has something to do with it. So the fact that rock/pop music is still popular (even if it’s declining), and still owes a lot to the Beatles, means Paul is, as you say, like Abraham. No matter the reason, seeing the joy he spreads is really amazing.
And yes, the time span always freaks me out. I graduated HS 30 years ago. When I think of the biggest baseball stars from that time, Gooden, Clemens, Ozzie Smith, I think, “Oh yeah, those guys didn’t play that long ago.” But when I was in HS and thought about guys from the 50s it seemed like a long ago time lost in the mist. Similarly, I’m 48 and was born in 1969. If you go back 48 years from when I was born you’re talking about Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson. Crazy. I wonder if that will be different for kids now. With the prevalence of video the guys who played before they were born may not seem as ancient as they did to us.
What I loved the most about the Sir Paul thing was that his childhood home had a place dedicated to him and the Beatles. It didn’t appear that is was a relative.
I watched it thinking, what if some celebrity knocked on my door…how cool would that be?
Paul McCartney’s entire life must be like the old Chris Farley Show interview, where people just stammer in his presence, if not break down and cry and mention what he has meant to them and their loved ones. And he seems forever gracious.
Watching McCartney look around a small room in a modest house and tell how he and John Lennon sat together there as teenagers and wrote songs — wow. The world literally had about 4 billion fewer people then that it does now, but the Beatles have been a constant influence. If you are still on your West Wing rewatch, you may have come to the episode where Bartlet quotes Margaret Mead to Will Bailey — “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”