Just Got Home From Illinois, Looking For Parking...

The Schloss-Blog is thankful for a great holiday weekend, for John Fogerty and for Joe Biden handling the diplomacy in the hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas that Donald Trump would have no doubt undiplomatically blown up.

***

John Fogerty has still got it.

The Creedence Clearwater Revival front man put on a dynamic show at Talking Stick Resort's poolside concert venue.

He did all of his old CCR hits and his two sons, part of the accompanying band, were magnificent.

Fogerty is 78; put on quite a show.

***

Joe Biden should take notes at a Fogerty show. The energy is abundant.

Biden did a magnificent job helping to orchestrate the Israel-Hamas prisoner-hostage exchange.

You can only imagine the number of ways Donald Trump would have undiplomatically screwed that up, leaving behind a trail of dead hostages in Gaza and burned alliances in the Middle East in general.

Remember, it's Trump who wants to stop all those Muslims from coming to the United States.

Mr. Not Diplomatic, although he is considering Susan Sarandon for a Cabinet position.

He cares a lot more about delaying his court cases beyond the election.

Which, if he loses, is fixed, y'know.

***

Speaking of ageless performers, here come the Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds tour, 2024.

Mick is 80. Keith is 79. Ronnie is 76.

If only they could transfuse some energy to Biden.

And help him separate Brittney from Taylor.

***  

I park all over Phoenix.

Health club. Starbucks. Grocery store. High schools where I'm covering a game.

Too many two-way aisles, gives rise to other drivers making awkward turns into spots angled away from them and taking the risk of hitting you or some poor pedestrian.

Too many narrow spots. Open door, chip paint on car next to you, or have yours chipped.

At the airport, drive in circles looking for a spot. Spinning in oval patterns, up and up. Everything on lower floors reserved from the privileged or the compact-car drivers. Or emergency vehicles.

At the golf course, barely enough room to swing open your tailgate or trunk and get your clubs out and change your shoes.

At least they don't charge to park at the high schools.

***

Looking for a house?

Home prices are up 40 percent over the last three years.

Listings are down 20 percent over the same period.

And interest rates, they're at a 20-year high.

Just peachy, huh?

On top of all that, existing home sales are down 15 percent over the past year.

Happy house hunting.

***

A Thanksgiving meal for 10 was $61.15 this year, down from $64.05 in 2022. But this year's was still 25 percent higher than pre-pandemic.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Yafa Hadar.

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

Doctors, Death and Dying Broke

The Schloss-Blog is examining why Dr. Ruth is back and the Washington Post's decision to publish death photos.

***

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is back as New York's loneliness ambassador.

Yeah, you heard right, loneliness ambassador. In that role, she will combat what Surgeon General Vivek Murthy calls an epidemic.

Who else is better suited for the role than the famed sex counselor?

First patient is this Donald Trump guy, whose trial in New York has left him financially abandoned.

***

According to the New York Times, women looking for marriage partners are striking out all over.

They keep running into men who are afraid of commitment (sound familiar?). Or else they can't find men who, per the Times, "meet their expectations."

That is defined as “limited in their ability and willingness to be fully emotionally present and available," according to conclusions from an American Enterprise Institute study of 5,000 guys.

In other words, committed.

What's a poor girl to do?

The Times article even cites a Yale anthropologist's study that concluded that "alpha males," and there are a lot of them, "want to be challenged by work, not by their partners."

Hey guys, do you live up to marriage-eligible women's expectations?

Apparently, a lot of ladies are settling for whatever it is you can offer, or they're freezing their eggs because they can't find someone who measures up.

High school was so much easier.

***

The Washington Post has published photos you supposedly never want to see - from mass shooting scenes.

Terror on Repeat is a compilation of photos from killings done with AR-15s, the weapon of choice these days for mass shooters.

The study includes photos from: Uvalde, Texas; Newtown, Connecticut; and Parkland, Florida. 

It will turn your stomach.

The Post says it did this because it wanted to provide "a better understanding of what actually happens in these shootings."

These photos are extremely graphic, in the name of "what actually happens."

If your senator or congressman or state assemblyman opposes deep background checks, mandatory delays in vetting before purchases are approved or limitations on purchases known as red-flag laws, send him or her the link to that Post report.

And keep your head on a swivel in grocery stores. Or theaters. Or remind your kids and grandkids to do the same at school.

***

One more time, according to the NY Times, you will likely die broke if you need elder care and have somewhere between $171,000 and $1.8 million dollars in savings.

See you at McDonald's.

***

Whatever else you think about the Israel-Hamas War, Hamas will always keep coming for Jews, cease-fire notwithstanding. Hamas uses hospitals for battlegrounds and weapons storage, let alone command posts. 

They don't care about the patients. Or the doctors. They steal the relief supplies.

They always will.

***

Two Golden State Warriors and one Minnesota Timberwolves player were ejected from an NBA game just 2 minutes into the contest for fighting.

Who do they think they are, the Republic party?

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Dr. Ruth.

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

Memories Light The Corners Of My Mind...

The Schloss-Blog is writing this post in honor of fellow Brooklynite Barbra Streisand and her new memoir, all nearly 1,000 pages of it.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world...

...Why is everyone jumping on Biden's supposed mental alertness when Trump keeps forgetting...

• ...If he's in Sioux Falls or Sioux City
• ...If he ran against Barack Obama in 2016 or Barack Obama in 2020
• ...If Obama is yet going to get us into ... wait for it ... World War II
• ...and that he was serving as president and keeping us safe in the world in 2021 ... when he wasn't president

Can't wait to see what he forgets next. His children sure forgot everything at the Trump Organization trial in New York City.

***

Never forget - Hamas attacked Israel and still wants to kill all Jews, ceasefire notwithstanding.

***

Anyone watching the NBA In-Season Tournament games? The off-color, multi-color courts being used are U-G-L-Y!

Also, having trouble generating interest in these games, or about as much as I have for regular-season NBA games, in which no one plays defense.

They don't in these games either

***

I was a little behind in my reading, so I still had a many months-old edition of GQ (yes, I read that, fashion plate that I am), the one that had an in-depth profile of Matthew Perry. Because he only just passed away, picking it up and reading it put a lot about him into a little better perspective.

He was enigmatic, to say the least.

His descriptions of his days and nights on prescription drug-infused highs are enough to make you as sick as he was, literally rolling around in his own excretions and not knowing where he was. His reflections on the celebrities he dated are penetrating, as are the reasons he broke up with so many of them: he was afraid they'd break up with him first as soon as they discovered the truth about him. He was in and out of rehab - wait for it - 65 times.

The cast and crew of "Friends" never deserted him, always supported him and stood by him.

To the bitter end.

***

Spending as much time as I do in Phoenix now, I 've been peeking in on Phoenix Suns games (literally, just peeking in - I cannot watch an NBA game, start to finish until the playoffs).

The Suns have an almost completely redone roster and have added star guard Bradley Beal.

But since they're all still getting to know each other, their games look like average schoolyard shootouts and they don't have Devin Booker, who's been hurt.

And it shows.

***

Does anyone think Hamas would grant a ceasefire if Israel asked for it?

Yeah, me neither.

***

Ohio has enshrined abortion into its state constitution.

Virginia voted to ensure that its legislature doesn't propose any kind of abortion ban.

Republicans are not getting the message that abortion is a loser.

Just like they are. Just like Trump is.

***

Had the pleasure of covering Arizona's first Class 6A (big schools) Girls Flag Football championship game last week for the Arizona Republic.

What a blast. Refreshingly original. Extremely competitive attitudes from these star athletes. On the sidelines, they were as into it as their male football counterparts, but without the F bombs.

Worth watching. Worth covering.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mountain View girls flag football.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. And thanks for all the anniversary and birthday wishes.

No World Series Watchers, Culture Problems in Chicago and Let's Energize Joe

The Schloss-Blog, like so many others, noticed that no one watched the World Series this past week. It was between Arizona and, uh - oh yeah, Texas.

Before the World Series, could you name three players on either team? The managers? The cities in which their home stadiums are located?

Yeah, I could, but I'm a lifetime sports reporter and sports journalism educator.

Plus, as Deadspin noted, the Series, for the first time, started on a Friday-Saturday for the first two games, on the weekend preceding Halloween, when a lot of people who might otherwise be hanging at sports bars watching the games were at - well - Halloween parties.

That huge degree of unfamiliarity with the players and the inconvenient starting days added up to record-low TV ratings.

The games were for the most part close and entertaining, but only for those in the Dallas and Phoenix markets who bothered to watch.

Time for Major League Baseball to reexamine start dates, promotion, playoff seeding, et al.

***

The Chicago Bears dismissed their running backs coach this past week, without explanation.

They dismissed their defensive coordinator two weeks into the season.

They say the culture is just fine in their headquarters at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Bet Alan Williams and David Walker are not saying that.

***

Torey Lovullo, the Diamondbacks manager, says he'll die trying to win a World Series for the fans in Arizona.

After the "bullpen" game he managed, which they lost 11-7 (game 4) and trailed 10-0 in the third inning, he has one foot in the grave.

***

Just a quick word to Joe Biden: survey after survey shows that voters, including Democrats loyal to him and his policies, would rather have a younger version running for president.

He does carry himself in a somewhat feeble manner, including his speech delivery.

He is 80.

Trump is 77 but carries far less of a negative perception in that dimension.

So, Joe, I'll pop for you to get a hair coloring and a new doo, for a subscription to Balance of Nature Fruits & Veggies, for weight training to pump up the bod' and for anything else that will add some zip to your step.

You've got a year - do it. That seems to be your only negative, but it's a biggie - do it. Even if Trump's in jail by then, do it,

Send me the bill, because we can't have Trump in the White House again.

***

The National Association of Realtors is reeling in the wake of being found liable to inflate realtors' commissions and a sexual harassment charge against its CEO, who has stepped down.

A PR nightmare for the industry's backbone association.

I could've worked there in PR. Was offered a position there just before I accepted my position on the faculty at Columbia College Chicago.

And stayed there 23 years.

Whew!

***

R.I.P. Walter Davis (North Carolina, Phoenix Suns).

A true pro and a great one.

He was 69.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

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

 

Support for Israel and Practice, Practice, Practice

The Schloss-Blog is looking at Michigan State, the NFL, immunity pleas and please, everyone, support for Israel.

***

Do you know Hitler's birthplace?

Either do I, but Michigan State thought enough of it to put it on its stadium videoboard as a trivia question.

The question is, WTF is going on at Michigan State? As if they don't have enough problems and as if they haven't had enough things go wrong.

Congratulations, Michigan State, you're our school of the weak.

***

If you watch as much NFL play as I do, and you probably do, you've noticed an epidemic: nobody can tackle.

I mean nobody.

Missed tackles are a requirement for defensive players.

I remember revered high school coach, the late Grant Blaney, telling me after a playoff game against a team with a stud running back, that he stressed to his defensive players to tackle with their heads up, or else that stud back wouldn't be there when they went to wrap up.

And so I watch as NFL players tackle with their heads down and wrap up thin air regularly. 

That's only part of the problem. The rest is practice. Hitting in practice has practically been eliminated in the NFL, ostensibly to avoid injuries.

BS.

If you don't practice tackling you won't be good at tackling.

You keep hearing about players getting non-contact injuries in practice. The hell with that and they need to hit. And hit. And hit in practice or they won't be any good in the game.

They certainly can't be any worse.

***

Is it just me, or has the sensationalized, media-hyped Brock Purdy looked ordinary the last two weeks?

Yeah, he has.

***

Just wondering out loud: how long before Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman take plea deals in Georgia now that Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro have?

And then Trump?

***

The Arizona Diamondbacks post-season success tale has been storybook.

They had the worst record of any MLB playoff qualifier. They finished the regular season with a plop.

And dashed to the World Series.

Congrats.

Now though, how long before the World Series is over, regardless of outcome, before the Diamondbacks shake down Phoenix and Arizona for the $400 million to $700 million it's estimated they need to repair and upgrade Chase Field?

You can hear the cries now: 

• We need the stadium repairs to be able to sign free agents and win it all;
• We need the stadium upgrades to give our fans the ultimate experience they deserve;
• We need the stadium work or we'll be forced to move someplace that will make these financial considerations for us.

It'll happen. And with the winning streak they're on, they can do it.

And the fans will be behind them. Until they see ticket prices next year.

*** 

If you don't support Israel, then you support terrorism.

Period.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Golda Meir.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. And stay up following my show for John Kirk DeRitis, the Bohemian NightCat.