by John Walters
Tweet Me Right
Starting Five
Sixers, Blazers, Force Game 7s: But How Will This Affect LeBron and The Lakers?!?!?!?
Had ample time to tune in to a pair of ESPN chat-fests yesterday: ATH and PTI (with Tony on one, Tony-free on the other). Then I tuned in to one segment of “NBA Countdown” (can no longer stomach Beadle). In the time I watched the ESPN hosts talked more about the L.A. Lakers, who did not make the playoffs, than any of the four teams who were playing last night.
And of course Tottenham’s incredible comeback versus Ajax never even was a topic on the first two shows.
Toodle-loo, Ty Lue
But as long as we’re here, the Lakers were blasted on the three ESPN shows for showing disrespect to Tyronn Lue (a former Laker player if I remember correctly) by not handing him a five-year deal. We get it, but on the other hand let’s not pretend Lue is anything more than LeBron’s coaching valet. When LeBron goes, L.A. will want nothing to do with Lue. And he won’t stay five years.
We advocated in this space three months ago that the best-case for the Lakers is to trade LeBron while he remains high value. They’re never getting out of the conference semis at this point, not with the emerging talent in Denver and Dallas (have you forgotten that Kristaps joins Luka next autumn) and the reigning talent in Golden State and Houston.
As they say in Hollywood, scrap the picture and let’s get a fresh script. I don’t actually know if they say that, but I do have two Hollywood friends who semi-regularly read this column and perhaps they can correct me.
For Womb The Bell Tolls
Alabama: The House passed a bill last week that would criminalize abortion and that doctors could face up to 99 years of jail time if convicted.
Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio: Pass “fetal heartbeat” bills, which prohibits abortions past the sixth week of pregnancy.
It’s really simple: Human life is sacrosanct from the moment of conception right up to the point where it’s a matter of that life versus my gun.
Philly Is Phor Phoodies
The James Beard Awards, the Oscars for restaurants, were announced earlier this week. Best Restaurant went to Zahav, a Phladelphia bistro not far from Penn’s Landing that specializes in Israeli cuisine. “Zahav” in Hebrew means gold, but I feel bad even insulting your intelligence by typing that. I’d call Zahav the mecca of Philly’s culinary scene, but that might be in poor taste.
For those of us in the real world (!), Best New Restaurant went to Frenchette in New York City (which, I presume, is not Israeli). But I still like my Chinese/Cuban joint on 78th and Broadway. It’s always crowded and the waiters have been there since Koch was mayor.
Milo Vs. Tyrone
Last week we noted that ’40s Hollywood leading man Walter Pidgeon bore a striking resemblance to 21st century TV star Jon Hamm. Well, we’ve got another pair of cross-century screen doppelgängers for you: Tyrone Power and Milo Ventimiglia.
We loved Milo as Jess from Gilmore Girls. You may know him better as Jack, the dad who survives Vietnam service only to die in a house fire in This Is Us.
Power is an actor you may know better as a name than for his films—start with Nightmare Alley or The Mark of Zorro—but you may be interested to learn that during World War II he was a pilot. Power had enlisted in the Marine Corps and during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa he flew cargo missions, dropping off supplies and picking up wounded.
Like Clark Gable, Power had an affair with Lana Turner and also like Gable, he had a son born shortly after he died. Power died suddenly, at the age of 44, on location in Spain.
Music 101
West End Girls
On this day in 1986 this song from London’s Pet Shop Boys went to No. 1 on the charts. The synth-pop duo took their cue about class pressure from T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, which we never quite appreciated in high school. But then it’s high school: there’s so much you won’t appreciate about it for decades.
Remote Patrol
Yankees at Rays
7 p.m. YES (or MLB Network)
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Whaat? It’s still just early May, but two of the most impressive young pitchers this season have been New York’s Domingo German and Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow. The lanky 6’2″ German, slotted as a reliever out of spring training until the injury to ace Luis Severino, shares the Major League Wins lead (6-1) and has a 2.35 ERA and an impressive 0.89 WHIP. Glasnow, a 6’8″ hurler who also has 6 wins (and no losses), entered the season with a 4-16 career mark. He leads all of baseball in ERA at 1.47.
Tampa Bay leads the Yanks by 1 1/2 games in the A.L. East race.
Well gee, jdubs, can it be that the TV RATINGS ARE DOWN in this year’s NBA Playoffs because the best player (yes, he still is!) & media (social & otherwise) magnet is NOT PLAYING? So of course those shows will talk about LBJ & his heinous current team, which is, you have to admit, a DAILY SH*T SHOW! And if we know anything about TV, it’s that a sh*t show can grab the ratings! (See all those inane “reality shows”).
Is Roe vs Wade no longer in effect? How can these states do this? Basically, if a woman misses ONE period, it’d almost be too late to do anything about an unwanted pregnancy. (I guess the GOP WANTS to pay for all those unwanted kids for years & years; free food, free childcare, free education. No?) Once again, maybe Lincoln was wrong – we should have let all those states GO! Seriously, the way things are headed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the current United States no longer exist in 20-40 years. Do YOU want to live in a “country” where laws are decided by the likes of ‘SS officers’ McConnell & Graham & the assorted Bubbas of Bama & Georgia? And once again, let me state that our enemies need not lift a finger to bring on our demise. We are doing it ALL on our OWN…
Susie
I’ve never cared about TV ratings and I’ve never understood why the casual viewer does, either. I care about quality. Like any product line: make the best product you can and the profits will follow. Chase profits first and the quality will suffer. Not hurt in short term, but you are long-term.
Watch “Inside The NBA.” All they do is put on the best show they know how. They don’t care what you think, or what the ratings are. They have built brand loyalty. NBA Countdown is embarrassingly bad. It’s fun to watch ESPN keep betting on 2009 Michelle Beadle when she’s been exposed as a self-absorbed poser since the 2012 London Olympics. Oh, well.
LeBron is not the best player in the game. That guy resides in Oakland. But he’s still very, very good. It’s just that his enormous ego and self-righteousness makes him pretty much impossible to play with. And he’ll be 34 next winter. SELL!
p.s. I’m up > 100% on that February GBTC buy, Susie B. That’s a two-bagger, no?
Technically yes, but usually for ‘baggers” under 4, you just say “double” or “triple”. Congrats on your DOUBLE! 🙂 How long do you plan to own it? Or to state a different way – what will prompt you to sell?
And we’ll just disagree on the best player – when HEALTHY, Sweet Pea is STILL the best! 🙂 However, I’m not obtuse; the clock is ticking & every single day his body gets older & eventually, slower, so his time at the top may be nigh. (Excuse me while I cry into my Diet Pepsi). But, you DO understand why those shows may STILL be talking about him? Oh, & WHAT SHOW INVITED SWEET PEA TO BE A FELLOW TV COMMENTATOR, “anytime he wants”? That would be Chuck & the gang. 🙂
And I care about ratings because I know if my shows don’t get them high-enough, they’re GONE! Whether they were the best show in the history of TV!
I’d love for there to be a weekly stocks section.
And hey, Mr TCM – since you didn’t answer my question the other day about TCM possibly observing the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I looked it up & they are! It’s already started – they will show WWII movies every Thursday in May & June. SEVENTY-FIVE of them! I just printed out the schedule.
And speaking of stocks, did you buy any this week? Thanks to the “human garbage” SOCIOPATH in the WH, the market has sucked this week, BUT on the bright side, 4 of my long-standing limit orders were filled. Yeah. All were just small additions to some of my dividend stocks. This year, I’ll unfortunately have the smallest amount of new money I’ll be able to add to my stock account & over the next 3-4 years, my goal is to triple (or more) my yearly dividends. Which will be very difficult, not only because of the limited amount of money to invest, but also because I keep WANTING to invest in growth stuff. Sigh.
You probably don’t care much about dividends as you’re in & out so fast in stocks, but as you creep closer to one day LIVING on your investments, you’ll wish you did. I now realize my dad wasn’t so stubborn/oblivious in only investing in dividend stocks.
I did not buy any stocks this week, Susie B.
Also, yes, they’ve been doing intros the past few weeks from the WW2 Museum in New Orlean so I imagine they’ve got your D-Day anniversary down. What will they do to commemorate Apollo 11, Woodstock and Manson Family later this summer? All hit 50.
I have been a seller of stocks last week. Why? Trump’s BS tweets and the status of the negotiations are unreliable news cycle. Did it work out? Sort of. Bought ROKU a couple of weeks ago in my IRA. Sold it last week for a quick 5k+. Big mistake. Lost out on that huge daily run up. I blame me (and Trump!)….I would never have sold if it wasn’t for this trade war.
Held my TERP tho. Dividends and appreciation! Owned and not owned CSIQ. I will be jumping back in once the dust settles. My “Save the Earth Portfolio.” Looking for other ideas tho.
Stock tips. Please add to MH or continue here. There’s a huge run up coming is my 2 cents.
-Faithful reader.