Taste Test

The Schloss-Blog wants to ... pay tribute to Jay Bird Gaynor today, a true and reliable friend. A Buffalo Grove High School athlete who never met anyone he didn't like or get along with. Always showed up when a friend needed a friend.

The last two times I saw him were at memorial celebrations of life for his championship youth softball coach, Bob 'BC' Campbell, and for Jay's softball teammate and Bob's son, Scott, that one earlier this year.

He died the next day.

But at both of those memorials, his presence and that of so many of his former teammates reminded me why it was so gratifying for me to be the one who told the stories of those teams' efforts. so many years ago. Oh, the stories ... a teammate out with the mayor of Sheboygan's daughter deep into one evening and the local law on the lookout ... yikes!

But Jay was humble. He was so excited to see everyone. He was never the team's star player, just the team's star emotional backbone. 

I couldn't be at the memorial for him this weekend at Dock's in Wauconda, Illinois, where nearly 100 gathered to pay tribute at his frequent hangout, so I'll let the words of so many of his friends speak loudly here.

His friend Lolly said on Facebook, "I will miss my friend for the rest of my life. He was true and genuine unlike no other human around."

His friend Lauren, also on Facebook, said, "Sadly, we lost Jay a couple weeks ago. He was a great neighbor, always had jokes and a smile, and was an all-around good and caring guy. Miss you Jay! Gone too soon. "

Finally, his friend Linda, also on Facebook, said of Jay: "My heart is aching and my brain still hasn’t accepted the fact that my friend Jay Bird Gaynor is flying with the angels now. keep picking up my phone to text him a funny thought and I keep thinking I see him when I walk into Docks Bar and Grill. Jay was a great friend to me and loved me unconditionally. I will never be able to have an Old Style, Watch the Cubs, play Yahtzee or quote phrases from Slapshot without smiling and seeing his smiling face."

I might be a writer, but I can't write anything to match those feelings or emotions. Or memories.

R.I.P., Jay Bird. Save me a seat at the bar.

***

Ron DeSantis is officially running for president. He wants to make the U.S. just like he's shaped Florida.

Run for your lives!

***

It's been one year since the shooting at Uvalde that took 21 lives, 19 of them children, and what has the state of Texas done since?

It has expanded access to gun ownership.

Wonderful.

***

@CNN will host a Town Hall with Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on June 4 from Iowa with Jake Tapper moderating.

This is strictly a CYA move by @CNN after the Donald Trump-town hall fiasco, trying to make themselves look balanced and fair. Hah!

Jake Tapper, unlike Kaitlan Collins, would have pushed back if Trump called him "nasty" or tried to trample all over everything he said.

More importantly, who cares about Nikki Haley?

***

I watch a lot of @FoodNetwork. Guy Fieri is full of himself a lot of the time, but is still pretty entertaining.

Every time he visits a restaurant for "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" (there's never a "Dive," btw), he always mingles with customers, who always tell him it's the "best" food ever in that particular restaurant's genre.

That's fine. Now, I want to see "Guy Fieri's Taste Test," where he serves those same people unmarked food from those and competitor restaurants to see if the food they purported to be the "best," really is.

Something tells me, the "best" will be exposed.

***

I don't watch the NBA or the NHL in the regular season. Too boring and no one plays defense.

Until the playoffs and then it gets intense.

NHL players are great athletes who can do on skates more than what most of us can do on two feet.

But they are also goons, too quick to drop the gloves and fight. I'm sorry, but they're thugs. Well-paid, athletic, undisciplined thugs.

No wonder I don't watch during the regular season. It's bad enough in the playoffs.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jay Bird Gaynor.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.