by John Walters
Starting Five
Houston’s Woke-Up Call
The Astros lost the first two games of the World Series last week, at home, starting the top two Cy Young contenders in the American League. Then they fired their assistant GM, flew to the nation’s capitol, and took three straight from the Nationals.
In fact, Houston never trailed all weekend while limiting the Nats to one run in each game at their own park. Snoozers of games were these, but now the Astros return home needing one game to win their second Fall Classic in two years. Maybe a closed-door locker room celebration will be a good idea?
Fail Classic
(Who ever knew back in the day that Kentucky sharp-shooter Rex Chapman would have an even more deadly social media game?)
President Trump decided to attend Game 5 (where’s Barron?) of the World Series. He was met with a loud chorus of boos, a “Lock him up!” chant and and a giant sign out in right field that read “IMPEACH TRUMP” (those are the best seats Dems can get, apparently).
Understood that the Nationals Park is a mere block or two from the White House, but if POTUS wanted to hear cheers at a sporting event he’d have a better chance attending a game at the Texas team’s ball park.
The Good and Baghdadi
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So the good news is that self-proclaimed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also known in caliphate circles as “Who’s Your Baghdadi!” (sources), was killed by a joint U.S./allies special ops mission over the weekend.
The strange news, of course, is how our president handled it.
–First, on Saturday evening the President tweeted out “Something big has happened” before Baghdadi’s body had been identified.
–Second, the photo of Trump and the Joint Chiefs of Staff watching the raid was apparently posed and taken 12 hours after the actual raid (at the time, President Trump was apparently golfing.
–Third, President Trump seemed to take a vindictive “Make them fly!” GOT character’s delight in seeing the ISIS leader’s demise. He said that Baghdadi had died as a “coward” and “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.” The man who never served a day in the actual military seemed preoccupied with calling his adversary a coward.
–Fourth, because it always comes back to Obama with this president and his followers, Trump proclaimed that “this is the biggest one perhaps that we’ve ever captured. This is the biggest there is. This is the worst ever. Osama bin Laden was big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the World Trade Center.”
Riigggght.
Taking A Chance
We admittedly didn’t know much about Chance the Rapper when he first appeared on SNL for the pre-Christmas episode in 2017 (we think; maybe it was last year), but we absolutely loved his two musical performances and we haven’t said that often in the past decade (Gotye’s performance also stands out).
Chance hosted SNL over the weekend and he was terrific. He’s got all that Justin Timberlake energy and like JT, he could easily be a cast member if he ever wished to take the enormous pay cut. And like JT, he’s impossible not to like (even your mom will like him). We only watched a small part of the show, but the opening monologue was clever and timeless. Judge for yourself.
You Debt Your Life
I will never forget walking down Broadway a couple summers ago and listening to this college-aged Trumper boy argue with his liberal dad about conservatives and fiscal responsibility (it was a scene out of Family Ties three decades later). Then pop dropped the hammer on his son, informing him that the only president who’d managed to eliminate the federal budget deficit in the past 40 years was a Democrat, Bill Clinton. And the kid flat-out did not believe his dad. It sucks when facts destroy your paradigm, right?
Why is this timely information? Burying the lede here, but the U.S. Treasury on Friday said that the federal deficit for fiscal 2019 was $984 billion, a 26% increase from 2018. I guess we should be thankful that they’re still releasing honest information (or at least I assume).
Also, the gap between revenues and spending was the widest in seven years. Most of the reason for the ballooning of the budget was military spending, medicare and interest payments. Those goddamned teachers and their demands.
It’s funny how conservatives are not conservative about spending once they’re in office.
Film Five: 1942
- Casablanca Humor, romance, suspense, wit, unfinished champagne cocktails and Nazis. There’s a reason people consider this the standard by which all films should be measured: it is. 2. Mrs. Miniver The Brits put out a war film of their own that involved no battle scenes and it, too, is a classic. Greer Garson was the Myrna Loy of the UK and that’s Teresa Wright as the bird-next-door, who would also have a major supporting role in The Best Years Of Our Lives. 3. Now, Voyager So many classic films used an ocean cruise as a part of the plot (this, An Affair To Remember, Sabrina, Holiday, The Lady Eve) and yet none of them sunk. Bette Davis and Paul Friedrich from Casablanca and perhaps the most famous cigarette-lighting scene in history. 4. Woman Of The Year The essential Hepburn and Tracy film 5. Holiday Inn A crooner (Bing Crosby) inherits a small estate in Connecticut, so he has a most pragmatic idea of turning it into an inn that only opens for the holidays and puts on lavish song-and-dance numbers. Sounds like you’re just printing money, no? With Fred Astaire in an unforgettable dance scene in which he plays it drunk, an original performance of the song “White Christmas,” and Bing doing a song in blackface to get your woke kids upset.
Remote Patrol
The Kominsky Method
Netflix
America’s favorite geriatic platonic male couple returns for Season 2. Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin are joined this season by Jane Seymour (as Arkin’s rekindled-after-half-a-century love interest) and a very out-of-shape looking Paul Reiser (as Douglas’ daughter’s December-to-her-May love interest). We’re halfway through and while it’s not quite as good as Season 1, it’s still a treat to watch these two old pros and Oscar winners bat the ball back and forth.
Your 1942 film list is prettee dang perfect! I would like to add 2 child-teenhood faves of mine : For Me & My Gal, starring Judy Garland & Gene Kelly, & Random Harvest – Greer’s 2nd great 1942 flick, which co-starred Ronald Coleman.
And in case you’re wondering – I’m NOT to blame for the Nats losing 3 straight games! I didn’t watch any of them! I had planned to watch at least the pre-show stuff for Game# 3 (Friday night) but then heard the Sociopath would be there & I’d felt sick enough all day as it was, so I passed.
What are the odds the Nats could still win the series? Less than 30%? Well, I’m still thrilled the Nats just got there. And they did win (at least) 2 games! 🙂
I have 3 CFB questions for you jdubs : 1) is there any team currently OUT of the AP Top 8 that you could see making the Playoff?; 2) will the loser of LSU-Bama STILL get in the Playoff?; & 3) what about the loser of Ohio State-Penn St?
Sure, shocking upsets in the final few weeks of the season usually throw in some chaos, but I’m guessing unless Clemson shockingly loses to one of its remaining unseeded opponents, they are in (even though I wasn’t that impressed with the bits of their games I saw early in the season). And the winners of AL-LSU & OSU-PS will be there UNLESS they shockingly lose to someone else (er, Michigan), right? So, who gets the ‘remaining chair’?
My favorite Alan Arkin movie is the original The In-Laws with the late Peter Falk. I saw it during my college years & laughed so hard at parts (SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!), I almost peed on my seat. Funnily enough, Michael Douglas was in the REMAKE, although he played Peter Faulk’s character.
Big fan of The In-Laws as well.
Although Arkin is terrific in Argo.
Without any upsets (by Auburn) the loser of LSU-Bama will slide out of Top 4 until the loser of the PSU—OSU game does, and then they’ll slide back in. Georgia will have to wreak havoc by beating Florida (not a sure thing) and then winning SEC CG. Although Florida could do same.
It would get funky if Michigan beats OSU or if the west school wins B1G CG. If all goes chalk, it’ll be Clemson, OSU, Bama and LSU