The Schloss-Blog wants to say ... Hey, Phoenix City Council, there was never a doubt you were going to approve an architectural misfit sore thumb for the Biltmore neighborhood ... and now Donald Trump wants to rename Penn Station after himself - so, he wants to call it "Asshole" Station? ... and the Washington Post is literally now a shadow of its Pulitzer Prize-winning self ... and, on a high note, congrats to Larry Fitzgerald on being a first-ballot entrant to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
A few questions though...
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...In exchange for releasing the funds for badly needed infrastructure repairs for New York/New Jersey commuter arteries, Donald Trump says he wants either Penn Station in New York or Dulles Airport in D.C. renamed - for him.
Odd, isn't it though, that he wants to rename a major airport or railway hub and have either called, "Asshole Station" or "Dementia Airport?"
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Congrats to Larry Fitzgerald on his first-ballot election into the prestigious NFL Hall of Fame. What an honor. He is second all-time in receptions and receiving yards (to you-know-who).
Gotta' wonder though: although he scored on a 64-yard skinny post from Kurt Warner to give the Cardinals a 23-20 lead over the Steelers with 2:37 left in Super Bowl XLIII, the Steelers used just about every bit of that 2:37 to drive for their winning score.
Cardinals radio announcers Dave Pasch and Ron Wolfley even wondered aloud after that score if there was too much time left for the Steelers to steal it, and they did, on a spectacular drive and subsequent TD play.
But what if ... Fitzgerald had gone down deliberately at the Pittsburgh 1, given himself up there, gave the Cardinals four plays to use up a lot of time and made the Steelers use up what timeouts they had left? The Steelers did have two timeouts left and the two-minute warning. They used 'em all on their subsequent game-winning drive, right down to the wire, so without all that, who knows?
As it was, the Cardinals had 38 second left and two timeouts after Pittsburgh's go-ahead TD, which put the Steelers ahead 27-23. The Cardinals needed a TD. Would've been difficult an it obviously was.
So, what if? Could the Cardinals have won? If Fitzgerald had gone down at the 1, could they have scored on four plays from there against the vaunted Steelers defense, run some time, killed the Steelers timeouts?
Would've been nice to see 'em try.
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Don't bother looking for the Washington Post Sports Section anymore. Its sports staff, its international staff, have been decimated by Trump friend and "Melania" documentary underwriter Jeff Bezos.
When you dump $75 million into that loser of a film, something else has to suffer and Bezos had just announced 16,000 layoffs at amazon. In all, 300 of the Post's 800 editorial employees were eliminated.
WaPo was just next in line for "Mr. Melania."
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... on a personal note ... the Phoenix City Council, which works hard under the direction of Mayor Kate Gallego, already had its minds made up last Wednesday when it unanimously approved developer JDM's SIX-STORY condo structure at the intersection of 24th Street and Arizona Biltmore Circle (ABC for short).
The six stories alone make it a misfit in the neighborhood, where the 17 various Biltmore subdivisions (and 1,800 units) that make up ABEVA (Arizona Biltmore Estates Village Association) have nary any three-story structures.
Yes, many of those 1,800 have been around since the '80s (like my townhouse along the Biltmore Links Golf Course's 12th hole), but they were reasonably priced upon construction and despite pandemic-and-inflation-driven increases, remain reasonably so.
JDM's self-described "luxury" units will be much more upscale and don't be surprised when institutional buyers gobble them up, rent them out. JDM has been sparse with pricing information for its prospective units, but with almost 200 and two cars per, it ain't going to be easy to make a left out of 'ABC' onto 24th Street.
The saddest part though was the testimony of the Millenials and even Gen X'ers who said these "affordable" units were needed. Most of them could very well have been JDM employees or employees' relatives and friends, from watching them give high fives and back slaps to each other outside the council chambers.
The median price for a condo, any condo, in the Biltmore area, meanwhile, is a reported $425K. These new units will likely be much more expensive.
Of those youngsters who testified in favor, wonder how many of them combined it would take to purchase just one unit in the new development.
There goes the neighborhood.
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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Andreas Bocelli, for that stirring Olympic Ceremony rendition of "Nessum Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot." The song's title translates to "None Shall Sleep" and closes with the line, "Vincero" (I shall win).
More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock'n' roll show.