The Schloss-Blog has a
lot of answers today. Now, if we only had a question for each...
***
For instance, did you know that "...France would not put up a fight if Russia invaded, as it did in Ukraine.
“A lot
of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of
adversity.”
The
question is, why did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say that last month about
France in the first place.
This
man wants to be president.
He can't
even keep buildings upright in his state and in the ones he can, he can't keep
COVID out of.
***
Did you
know that in a world of media "plusses" (Paramount+, Disney +, ESPN+,
Discovery+...), there is also CNN+?
Media-obsessed
retired journalism professor that I am, I checked it out. They want $6 a month
for it.
It's
full of "after hours-type" reporting from Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper,
Dr. Sanjay Gupta and nattily, off the set-attired network anchors
Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon.
Plus
reruns of the well-done historical documentaries they've produced over the
years.
And
they want $6 a month for them.
Really?
I formerly got them all for free on demand, before there was a CNN+. There's
even Kate Bolduan waking you up at some ungodly hour to tell you the "5 Things
You Need to Know" to start your day.
First
of all, there are not 5 things I need to know from CNN or CNN+ to start my day.
I need to know my blood pressure. I need to know the weather and how to dress
for my 3-mile hike every morning and my afternoon round of golf. I already get the
five things in my email every morning, with relevant links in each item (about Ukraine, about Ketanji
Brown Jackson, about #COVIDiot Republicans and about a mass shooting in my
native Brooklyn).
And if
Kate Bolduan is going to start my day with "5 Things I need..." at
some ungodly hour, it better be because she nudged me.
***
Postscript: CNN+ is off to a slow start, with just 10,000
subscriptions since inception at the end of March. Maybe it'll pick up, maybe
it won't. But I'm thinking that America is thinking the same thing I'm
thinking: Why pay CNN for something you already pretty much get on CNN and/or
cnn.com - for free.
Some of
these "plus" channels are worthwhile, but I get all the reruns of my
favorites already, courtesy of "ion TV," USA Network, Peacock and
HBOMAX, which comes with my HBO subscription, or just plain old on-demand.
CNN is
already talking about cutting back promotion, pricing and budgeting.
Me, I
prefer a nice evening watching the FBI shows on CBS, the Chicago "Med,
Fire and P.D." shows on NBC and/or whatever sporting event catches my eye.
There's always Guy Fieri and "Triple D."
And
doing the NY Times seven-letter word puzzle, snuggled on the couch with my
sweetheart.
Don't
tell Kate Bolduan.
***
Guys, do you cook breakfast in your trunk
underwear?
Y'know like in the Jimmy Dean Sausage commercial, where Jimmy's
voice is magically (technologically) retrofitted to ask, "Yknow those
mornings when it takes just a little bit extra to get ya' out of bed?"
I don't make breakfast that way. My dad never
made breakfast that way. I think my Uncle Moe might have, but that's another
story.
Anyway, if you know someone who makes - or
made - breakfast attired that way, please let me know.
Well, actually, I used to do that.
But only for Kate Bolduan. (OK, OK, enough
with the Kate Bolduan references.)
***
More seriously, did you know CBS is reporting
that Everytown for Gun Safety, whose mission is their
name, says that road-rage incidents resulted in 131 deaths last year and 728
incidents involving a gun, or phrased a little more realistically, 62 percent
of all road-rage injuries or deaths.
In other words, next time you consider
flipping the bird to that guy who cut you off or moved in front of you without
signaling, think again.
He just might flip back. With a .22 caliber.
***
The Dodgers pulled Clayton Kershaw after 80
pitches and 7 innings of a PERFECT GAME. Only 23 in baseball history. Pulled
him. World Series concerns, says Manager Dave Roberts.
Pull him in a no-hitter, maybe. But a
perfecto! Kershaw has an injury history, "soreness." He's been on
Injured Reserve four times: twice with lower back strains and twice with left
bicep tendinitis.
In other words, he was sore. Hall-of-Famer
Greg Maddux always said get accustomed to soreness if you're a starting pitcher
in Major League Baseball. But today's starters get babied.
To just short of perfect.
***
The 3-point after-touchdown conversion. The
first down-measuring chip in the football. Convert 4th-and-12 at the 33-yard
line instead kicking onside.
These are just some of the innovations of the
Fox-owned USFL which debuted this weekend. On both Fox and NBC, at the same
time (first time since the first Super Bowl a game was on two major networks
simultaneously - Curt Gowdy just rolled over).
Did you watch? Will you watch? It's the best
of college players who never got drafted and the worst of NFL players who never
got to play, with some Arena Leaguers thrown in.
Plus, it'll conflict with SNL time in Pacific
time zones.
***
COVID isn't done with us. Philadelphia is
reinstating its indoor mask policy, as have Georgetown and Johns Hopkins
universities with the positivity rates ticking up. The U,.S. Government is also
extending mask mandates on public transportation.
***
Real quick:
- Schools aren't teaching cursive anymore. If you had to
ask, "What's cursive?" that proves the point.
- That's OK though; Brooklyn Tech grads, like me, only
print in block caps, eighth-inch high. It also takes us 3 weeks to print a
1-page memo, but is it the most-legible, hand-written, 1-page memo ever.
- Bagdad (Arizona) High's Connor Watson pitched four consecutive no-hitters this
spring. This is not a belated April Fool's prank. The streak was broken by
a scholarship-to-be shortstop from Benjamin Franklin High in Queen Creek,
who is headed to Arizona State.
- Too bizarre to be true: the Arizona Diamondbacks Seth
Beer hit a walk-off home run to win the
team's season-opener on - believe it - National Beer Day. Can't make this
up.
- Of the top 50 most-watched TV shows this calendar year
through March, 48 were sporting events. FORTY-EIGHT. Live sports ain't
going away anytime soon, no matter how much of it migrates to streaming.
- And finally, 20-year-old Roki Sasaki struck out 19 and threw a
perfect game in Japan's Nippon Baseball League (he didn't get pulled). Sasaki hurls for the Chiba
Lotte Marines, but will likely be an Angel soon, I'm thinking.
***
Happy Easter, Mrs. Calabash. Happy Passover, Mrs. Robinson.
More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock
'n' roll show, and Sunday morning, when I sit in for Joe Catanzaro.
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