by John Walters
Tweet Me Right
Starting Five
Mexit*
*The judges will also accept “PM Gone” or “Come What May”
Theresa May, the British Prime Minister who staked her entire leadership of parliament on the ideal of Great Britain departing the European Union, announces that she will now herself depart. Reason? She never could win support in parliament for Brexit, as it failed all three times it came up for vote.
Why didn’t she just declare it a military emergency and force Brexit through, the way we do here? Anyway, we’re not entirely sure how British succession works, but we think that the UK’s next PM will be Meghan Markle.
The North Star
Erstwhile San Antonio Spur Kawhi Leonard has played in two NBA Finals, being named Finals MVP once (in 2014, when he led SAS to the title). It’s beginning to look like the difference in the Bucks-Raptors series, as Kawhi scored 35 points and led The North to a Game 5 win over Milwaukee.
Here’s what would be intriguing, if Toronto wins: The last time Kawhi was on the court in a playoff contest versus Golden State was in May of 2017. The Dubs, fully loaded with KD and Co. at the time, trailed San Antonio by 22 at the half, at Oracle. Then Za Za slid into Kawhi, Leonard was lost for the rest of the series to an ankle injury, and the Dubs swept the series 4-0.
Leonard would sparingly play in nine games for SAS the following season before calling it over and trading the Riverwalk for Lake Ontario.
Tyree Commits To Irish
Yesterday afternoon Chris Tyree, a 5’10” running back from Chester, Va., who supposedly possesses sub-4.4. speed, verbally committed to Notre Dame (simmer down now, he’s still more than a year away from even suiting up for the Irish, and more likely two seasons).
Still, Brian Kelly is entering his 10th season in South Bend, a time by which many a Notre Dame football coach has either flunked out of the job or burned out of it (Lou Holtz left after 10 years). Instead, Kelly is surging and may be putting together his top recruiting class, for 2020, as the Irish have now landed verbals from three players in Rivals’ Top 60: Tyree, 60th; 6’8″, 275-pound lineman Tosh Baker (51), and wideout Jordan Johnson (59).
Look around and only Clemson, Alabama and Miami have landed as many 4-star products (while the Tigers, Tide and LSU have also reeled in at least one 5-star; Clemson has a ridiculous recruiting class with nine 4-stars and five 5-stars, which just isn’t fair). Notre Dame is going to likely finish with a Top 6 class (remember when national columnists were writing that the Irish were irrelevant?).
Here’s the point that Irish fans should take away: Beating Clemson or Alabama in the CFB Playoff remains a “What tho the odds be….small” prospect for the Irish, but Notre Dame has more than enough talent, and far superior talent, to continue kicking Trojan and Wolverine ass year in and year out. And don’t you remember a time when that’s all you wanted?
Brian Kelly may never get a statue outside Notre Dame Stadium, the way Knute, Leahy, Ara and Lou have (though he may), but he’s now worked his way into being the next name on the list after that quartet as far as the school’s greatest football coaches (with all due respect to Jesse Harper, who went 34-5-1 immediately before his protege, Rockne, took the gig).
Montauk Bummer
Just in time for a sunny Memorial Day weekend (our very favorite weekend of the year in NYC because of the HOPE it inspires), here’s a New York Times story about the faraway aspirational beach haven at land’s end that is Montauk, about a septic system that is unable to handle the flood of millennials, and how a lovely pond was polluted. It’s all about infrastructure, kids (and beer).
More Redactions
We missed All In The Family/The Jeffersons Live two nights ago, but it sounds as if they pulled it off. Bully for them and what a nice tribute to Norman Lear, 96, to illustrate how timeless his writing and insights were (meanwhile, there’s a stage version of Network starring Bryan Cranston playing on Broadway right now, too). I’d advise not to wait for live recreations of Welcome Back, Kotter or WKRP In Cincinnati, though I’d love to see the latter.
Anyway, the sole misstep of the other night, and this is not on the casts or Lear, is that ABC’s censor bleeped out the N-word when George Jefferson (Jamie Foxx) spoke it. In the original 1975 episode, the dry cleaning magnate had used it to illustrate that his biracial couple neighbors, if they ever got into a domestic spat, would resort to calling one another “honky” and “nigger.”
That aired in 1975. It did not air Wednesday. Which, I’m sorry, I think is kinda sad. It’s a play. It’s not a Starbucks. You should be able to say whatever you like. If the audience is offended, turn the channel.
By the way, you may already know this, but the actress who played Helen Willis in the original TheJeffersons, Roxie Roker, was the mother of Lenny Kravitz.