a peaceful place, or so it looks from space

 a closer look reveals the Human race (Barlow-Weir)

kathy hochul and the manhattan DA (bragg) think that bail is prejudice....that bail is racist...that it hurts minorities and people of color. Jose Alba is a 51 year old Dominican immigrant and bodega worker on 139th street in NYC. On Friday a woman tried to buy a bag of chips with a credit card that was declined.....Jose took the chips back and so the woman stormed out, knocking items off the counter in peaceful protest.......she came back with stymie simon , her 32 yr old boyfriend....a convicted felon and all around good egg no doubt....Simon attacked the older man and started pushing and punching him while the woman stabbed Alba in the shoulder with a pen knife........Alba retrieved a knife that was under the counter and stabbed his attacker to death...........sb a happy ending to a typical NYC story.....self defense no ? man at work is attacked, punched and stabbed and fights back defending his life ? NO.....braggs' office arrested Aba for murder and asked for 500K Bail ? the judge reduced it to 250K.....no charges were filed against the chip lady with the pen knife.....so while Jose Alba sits in Rikers with the scum of the world for the crime of defending his life,  mrs chips gets to find a new baby daddy to replace simon says (i'm dead) ..that's america today.

guns, background checks and mental health......this freak of nature in north chicago looks like one of the transgendered fruit cakes our school system wants 5 years olds to know about and emulate.....with tattoos on his face , a suicidal history, a knife collection and threats of killing his whole family.....he bought 4 firearms over the past 2 years ....why ? because Daddy signed off on his applications and he lied on the background check.........after two years of lockdowns and video game playing and no in person classrooms...we have a whole generation of twisted loners ready to attack....buckle up.

Border Patrol agents on horse were accused by the left of whipping haitan migrants illegaly crossing into texas back in January.....President Biden (in a rare press conference) wagged his finger and said THEY WILL PAY.....launched an investigation.......and everyone was exonerated......turns out you use reigns when riding horses to control their movements.....and the reigns are ropes.....similar to whips......who knew ?  probably everyone in the world knew, except the liberal left and cowboy joe.....6 months later they still can't admit they were wrong...so the border agents will be punished for ....no joke....using foul language......i wish i was kidding.

i watched a documentary on Netflix earlier this week......4 part series on 3 mile island.....i remember it well....or at least i thought i did.......i remember the first 6 days really well....but i had no idea what went on in the coming years in Middletown PA.......i won't spoil it....but i strongly suggest watching it if you get a chance.........i also remember the skit SNL did back in 77 where they had the black janitor ( Garret Morris) go into the reactor to mop up the radioactive spill........good, clean late 70's fun.

remember how they said the greatest threat to our Democracy was Trump....how his refusal to accept the legitimacy of the election was the equivalent of tearing down the institutions that support this country ?  funny those same people have no problems with dementia joe lying about and misrepresenting the recent SCOTUS decisions, and accusing the Supreme court of being politically motivated and an instrument of the Republican party......when in reality they didn't make anything legal or illegal .....all they did was decide that the matters in question....vaccine mandates, roe v wade , the power of the EPA are not covered in the Consitution...and it is up to the States or Congress to write/pass the laws........and clueless joe and the WH are still encouraging protests at the homes of SCOTUS (which is of course a federal crime)...it's obvious they want someone to kill Kavanaugh so they can replace him with a liberal........but remember, Trump was the problem.

bad month for organized crime.....first it was Ray Liotta....then James Caan on Thursday...and now Paulie Walnuts has passed away.........who would of thought that whitey herzog would outlive them all .

the US Army suspended a retired 3 star General from a mentorship program that he was participating in because he sent a sarcastic tweet to Jill biden.........et tu west point ? you would think they would be busier sniffing out cocaine and fentanyl on campus....guess not.

let's end this rant on a happier note.......the Mets held a first class ceremony to bestow a long overdue honor on one of their greatest all time players.......Keith Hernandez saw his #17 retired by the Metropolitans....those highlights from 86 never fail to stir the same emotions all these years later, the hair on my neck stands up, i get chills and shake my head with a laugh, what an incredible run that was.........as i sat in the yard enjoying a cool refreshing glass of beer, i realized that the 86 team was my last Met team.......they might win the world series this year, but i'm too cynical to enjoy it....too many bad eggs on the current team....i don't hate them, but i certainly don't love them....and honestly i doubt i will ever love another team......i'll like teams and root for teams but i really don't think i will ever love another team....and that goes for every sport.....but i lived to see Hernandez & Carter, Messier & Richter, Debuscherre and Clyde.....and LT, Simms & Eli win titles for my teams.....and quite frankly i can't ask for much more.....

Now watch as the ball revolves and the night-time falls
And again the hunt begins and again the blood wind calls
By and by, again, the morning sun will rise
But the darkness never goes from some men's eyes

oh, keep your eyes on the road

and your hands upon the wheel (James Douglas Morrison)

“We’re blessed with the opportunity to stand for something—for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.” - Ronald Reagan

is this the most tumultuous Independence in the past 246 years ?   certainly possible........is the country more divided than ever ? hard to argue against that. personally i do not feel a kinship or brotherhood to  most on the progressive left. I feel they are at best misguided...and at worst a bunch a treasonous scum that solely seek to tear down and destroy everything, EVERY FUCKIN THING that my country stands for.

Freedom to worship, Independence from any and all, Opportunity to grow, prosper, and succeed. The chance to accumulate a little wealth and pass it on to your next generation, so that they may breath a little easier and walk a more comfortable path through this life.....

i'm positing this on July 3rd because tomorrow i intend to leave the TV off, crank the stereo and listen to the Doors, Allmans and the Dead (americana) and sit in the bool and drink iced cold beer from sun up till sumdown......i will slave at the grill like Toby (Kunta Kinta) cooking all American hot dogs, Burgers and Chicken....i will listen to the fireworks in the distance (hopefully far off) and i will thank the higher powers that i was Born in Brooklyn at the precise time that i was........i wouldn't change any of it..... to anyone and everyone that stumbles upon this page this day....Drink Up, Celebrate your Freedom, waste not a moment....time is precious.....God Bless.

Well, I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer

Well, I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer

The future's uncertain and the end is always near

what goes up

 must come down,

spinning wheel got to go around ( Blood, Sweat & Tears)

in case you missed it , 46 people were found dead in a tracker trailer in San Antonio.....ho hum, where's the wall to wall coverage , where's  the outrage ?

SCOTUS rules a High School football coach is allowed to kneel in prayer on the field before games...it was refreshing to see all the people that supported Kappernick also come out and support this coach...spolier alert, they didn't.

Imagine if every time a team lost a game, they immediately tried to change the rules.....that's what the demonrats are doing when they talk about packing the court and eliminating the filibuster.......it's tiring.

Bob Weir and Dead &Co unfurled Giant banners on stage supporting abortion Saturday in Chicago       ( and i'm sure for the rest of the tour). how tone deaf are these guys....to presume that there is only one side to an issue and everyone in the audience is in lockstep with their gestapo opinion? And even if 99% agreed with them, why alienate that 1% that paid money to be entertained. Concerts used to be a place to escape the horrors of the real world.....a 3 hour respite from miserable realities around us.....Jerry would never have signed off on this.........I saw Jerry &  the Dead when i had a crew cut and was in the Navy and felt welcome.....i saw Jerry & the Dead when i worked on Wall Street and felt welcome.....i am so glad i passed on the Citifield shows thanks to Steve Mac.....who the hell wants to spend an evening dealing with:

tickets = $150.00

Beer = $16 a Can of Beer (x 9,10,11 or so)

Transit = taking your life in your hands for a 6 hour round trip through hell

Having the band attack your personal beliefs throughout the show = insanity

I am not going to penn an obituary just yet for some of the Great Bars around MSG that are facing demolition if the Cuomo-Hochul redevelopment of Penn Station goes through....they already stole the original Tracks....but let's hope these latest plans are defeated. 

I haven't been to midtown in 2 1/2 years.....longest stretch of my adult life for sure...but this constant erasing and cleansing of our past is just one more reason to pickup anchor and sail away.

Talkin' 'bout your troubles

It's a cryin' sin

Ride a painted pony

Let the Spinning Wheel spin

I thought i heard a baby cry this morning

 I thought i heard a baby cry today (Bonnie Dobson / Tim Rose)

I must admit when i turned on the TV and saw widespread rioting and protests, i just assumed that the Canucks or Maple Leafs had lost another game 7......but no....today's outrage was in reaction to the Supreme court ruling on Roe v Wade.....honestly i do not have strong opinions on this one.....on one hand most of the kids that are being aborted would probably suffer a miserable existence being born into an unloving family or broken home.........BUT......and this part bothers me......late term abortion after a heartbeat has been discovered is MURDER.....plain and simple.....there has to be a middle ground......in 2022 with contraception readily available and even the morning after pill ( for cases of rape or incest) abortion should not be considered another form of birth control. The demonrats had 50 years to codify Roe V Wade and they did nothing.....why ?  same reason they have done Nothing for the Dreamers.......why solve a problem and risk losing the support at the polls from the people you helped....when you can keep them hanging on a string and living in fear of the opposing party..........the first thing Pelosi said ( after downing a few wines) after the SCOTUS ruling was that this issue will be on the ballot in November (it's not) she just meant that everyone should get out and vote demonrat this fall.....she didn't call for Congress to convene and get started on some legislation to protect abortion "rights".....she just called for her constituents to contribute to the DNC and vote.........it will be interesting to see if this is the spark the demonrats needed headed into the mid terms......i don't think it will be....the people outraged by the SCOTUS decision were voting liberal anyway........last thing i will say on this subject because, lets face it; it's a brutal subject and i do empathize with women (or birthing people) that have to make a sometimes agonizing decision.......but if some people want to live in state where you can walk down the block and into a clinic at 8 months pregnant and terminate a fetus....then they should also respect the fact that somebody want to live in a state where the rights of the most vulnerable fetus are protected equally with the mother..........and what's wrong with that ? hell if we had more states rights on every issue it could actually save the Union someday......The Central Govt should be seen and not heard ....they should represent our best intentions on an international front, steal oil and other resources from undeveloped nations and get us into a good old fashioned war every 20 years to keep the population down.......but what i do know.

I'll walk you out in the morning dew my honey

I guess it doesn't really matter anyway

I guess it doesn't matter anyway

wave that Flag

 wave it high and wide (Hunter-Garcia)

28 years ago today i stood at the statue of George Washington outside Federal Hall and sipped a pint of Budweiser as i watched the annual Flag Day parade go by.( i don't think they do that anymore)

As the Bagpipers piped and the majorettes twirled their batons i contemplated what awaited my later that evening.......another date that would live forever in my memory....for the rest of my life i would either cherish FLAG DAY ....OR....it would be a painful reminder of what could have been.

Thankfully the Blueshirts would win the Stanley Cup on this day in 1994...and as i smiled down from Row F , seat 18, section 419....i knew i would forever celebrate FLAG Day........2 years later on this date i became engaged to wife......and i now have 3 strong reasons to raise a glass this evening........who am i kidding....i am blessed with hundreds of reasons to enjoy a beer.....

You're a grand old flag

You're a high-flying flag

And forever in peace may you wave

You're the emblem of

The land I love

The home of the free and the brave

Ev'ry heart beats true

Under red, white and blue

Where there's never a boast or brag

But should old acquaintance be forgot

Keep your eye on the grand old flag

sittin in the corner of a crowded bar room

 People all around me and I still feel alone

Just when I know I'm gonna break down and cry
Someone played a tune that dried the tear from my eye ( Hughie Thommason)

either you get it or you don't......either those lyrics are etched in your forever memory and the music comes pouring over you or it doesn't...that familiar twang of Hughie Thommason lives in a happy part of my brain still.

The first track on the debut Album of the OUTLAWS back in 1975...."there goes another love song"....and it has been their concert opener since forever.......no sense having a dollar opener pool tonight at the Basie for it's a guaranteed lock that this is their opener ( Think Whiskey River & Willie Nelson).

sadly Hughie left us in 2005 , and tonight only Henry Paul and Monte Yoho remain from the original gang, but i have seen them 3 or 4 times in the past 10 years (20-25 times in my life....from the Convention Hall in Asbury in 1980 as a 15 yr old kid on a family vacation....to a bar in Jacksonville in 86 as a squid...we had a table next to the stage and hung out with their sound guy go before and after....only 200 people in the bar )  and the songs still resonate...the guitar work is still unmatched ....and the emotions are raw........this is a band i take very personally.....their unique sound never fails to stir deep, deep emotions for me........i could fill a novel with what exactly this music means to me, but somethings are better left inside.....just know that as i gulp my beer on the balcony of the Basie and they open with this song.....it too will dry the tear from my eye. and we will raise a glass for those that can't be there tonight........as a side note, 33 years ago today i walked off the base in Pensacola a free man.....my 4 years of Naval service completed; i was about to begin the rest of my life......and i will raise a glass of beer to myself tonight as well.

Lonesome and lonely and far from my home
Tryin' to get back to where I know I belong
Wishin' and a-hopin' I was already there
I just heard a voice it whispered in my ear, singin'

There goes another love song
Someone singin' about me again
There goes another love song
Now I need it more than a friend

Jesus just left Chicago

 and he's bound for New Orleans

Well now, Jesus just left Chicago

And he's bound for New Orleans

Yeah, yeah

Workin' from one end to the other and all points in between ( Gibbons, Hill , Beard  aka ZZ TOP)

so the media is up in arms over this new Golf League being bank rolled by Saudi Arabia......they are loosing their minds and attacking the Shark Greg Norman for serving as CEO and guys like Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas for participating.......the media says Saudi Arabis is a murderous Regime and these golfers should not be doing business with them.....what will they say when dementia Joe visits the Kingdom and begs for more oil production ?  what have they ever said about the NBA ? the league that is in Bed with the Communist Red Chinese Govt ?  What did they say when lebron james had a meltdown when the GM Garyl Morey of the Rockets had the audacity to Tweet support for a Free Hong Kong ?

Boomer Esiason had a great point this morning ......the city of Denver ponied up hundreds of Millions (possibly a Billion) to build a new stadium for the Broncos to keep the team in the Mile High City..they gave tax breaks and incentives as well ..now ten years later or less the owners are selling the team for an estimated 4.5 BILLION.....part of the reason the Team is selling for so much is because of their new state of the art Stadium and sweetheart tax deals...........surely the city should be able to recoup some $$ from the sale proceeds..........maybe not...........but the State of NY is currently in negotiations to do the same thing for Kim & Terry Pegula and the Buffalo Bills........to Boomers point they should absolutely put in certain clauses for the state to get repaid if the team is sold in the next 25 years or so........if the Pegulas balk , then we know what their real intentions are........if they plan to live happily ever after in Buffalo they would not have a problem with this clause........silly side note that i heard during the debates for NY Gov last night....it seems Gov Hochuls' husband is a Senior VP for the Bills  concessioner Delaware North...... conflict of interest much ?

Joe Biden and his college interns refused to acknowledge the D Day anniversary in 2021......and this year after being called out on Twitter and social media they begrudgingly tweeted a solemn remembrance at 8:45 PM  ( already June 7th in Normandy).....i really hope the evil White Male sits out the next global conflict......no more fuckin european or middle eastern wars......fuk that noise.....this world is not worth dying for........arm yourself, protect your land and family and let the LMNOPGBTQ's fight the next world war.

Good Lord Man....Walmart has dropped a brand of Coconut Milk from it's stores at the request of PETA.....this is not a joke.....seems they were using chained Monkeys to climb trees and collect coconuts.......PETA said the Monkeys in question were not being properly cared for...were under nourished and had little time off to spend with families and friends......and NO, this was not in Detroit.

how about our great Pope......Sunday 50 Catholic Worshippers in Nigeria were murdered at Church  services by gunmen......i didn't see Norah O'Donnel talking about this either.....but the Pope ? remember him ? he's the guy that has a problem with Georgia's voting bill....but not  America's politicians supporting abortion....he's the leader of the Catholic Church......he sent a telegram to Nigeria saying he was praying for the victims ........no sermon from the Vatican ? no visiting the UN and demanding the slaughter of Catholics in Africa stop ? not even an official press release or Tweet ? 

meanwhile in Syria.....Erdogan and his Turkish band of murderers are holding up the addition of Sweeden and Finland to NATO.........Erdogan has long been suspected of being too friendly with Putin , his moves are seen as a gift to the Russian strong man.....but he is also angry with Sweeden and Finland for "stopping"  weapon sales to Turkey over his attacks on the Kurds......remember the Kurds ? they are the allies we used in Iraq and then abandoned ......similar to our treatment of the Afghanistan translators.... so we can fully expect that the US will again turn a blind eye to the Turkish slaughter of the Kurdish people ...just to get Erdogans blessing on Sweeden......hmmm , when is a friend NOT a friend.

sounds like a tangled web we are weaving.....so much trouble in the world this day....and with all this going it's nice to know the White House invited actor Matthew Mcconaughey to address the nation on gun control...AND....scheduled the President to appear on Jimmy Kimmel live ........backwards much?

i blog in hopes that this will somehow escape the government censorship and rewrite that's coming....they will edit everything that paints them in a poor light.....i hope someday in the future someone stumbles upon this blog and gets a true glimpse of life in the year 2022....how fucked up we are....and how much we all could use an ice cold refreshing glass of Beer for Breakfast.....mmmm.....beeeer.

**editors Note......don't believe any truth that this blog is being ghost written by a pack on Monkeys in chains.....it's just not true.

You might not see him in person
But he'll see you just the same
You might not see him in person
But he'll see you just the same
Yeah, yeah
You don't have to worry 'cause takin' care of business is his name

if you chew tobacco, and wish upon a star

 

You'll find out where the scarecrows sit
Just like punchlines between the cars
I know a place where a royal flush
Can never beat a pair
And even Thomas Jefferson
Is On The Nickel over there  ( Tom Waits)

Mr Waits cautionary tale ? or paying homage to the homeless encampments on 5th street in Los Angeles....like most of his songs they draw you in and scare the shit out of you if you dare pay attention.

all the news that's fit to ignore....i cant wait until the White House press secretary ( the first black female Lesbian press secretary) takes questions on Monday.....i have a few good ones that Peter Ducey should ask.

A retired judge was zip tied to a chair in his home and murdered by a gunman that had a hit list on him, with names of politicians and other elected officials.....(unfortunately for the demonrats Mitch Mcconnel was on the liast , so they can't blame it entirely on the right)

So my first question is does the President take any responsibility for this since less than 30 days ago he thought it was perfectly fine for protestors to visit the homes of Surpreme Court Justices they disagreed with on Roe v Wade ?........we have a mental health crisis in this country.....millions of unhinged wackos....maybe the POTUS should not be encouraging them to take matters into their own hands and visit the personal residences of a Judge.

14 people shot last night on South Street in Philadelphia.(3 dead so far)...details still emerging, but initial reports said multiple shooters fired randomly into crowds and Police had a license plate for a car with Jersey plates......South Street is a popular spot, i have spent many an afternoon in O'Neals drinking Guiness.....i'm sure the street were filled with mostly white College kids and tourists.......what if the shooters are black ? 

My next question Mr President is what are the % for Federal Hate Crimes charges being brought against Whites and Blacks ? when was thew last time a Black assailant was charged with a Hate crime ? (spoiler alert in 2020 alone:  55% of the offenders charged with Hate crimes were white......22% were black). 

The WH knew of the coming baby formula shortage as early as November when the FDA visited the Abbot plant....the President said in April he needed a crystal ball to see it coming  but his aides admitted they were aware of this in February......he still waited an additional 3 weeks before enacting the Emergency acts that allowed for the Baby formula to be imported......but the White House holds on to the formula and does not allow the stores and retailers to replenish supply....instead they gave it to the WIC program which services low income women and infant children.......so here'es my latest conspiracy theory.

Mr President , we know the Demonrats suffered a blow and lost support from Many Suburban Soccer Moms with the school board disasters last year.....how much of this baby formula shortage was orchestrated to subliminally influence these Moms to  restore their faith in BIG Govt and fear capitalism ? 

we know the old adage....don't bite the hand that feeds ya. or your baby

A pane flew into restricted air space on Saturday afternoon at the Delaware beaches...forcing the Secret Service to usher the first family into a bunker for safety.

Two Questions Mr President......did the Secret Service tell you there was a Magician performing tricks and a clown making animal balloons to get you go willingly into that Bunker ?  And is it true that you pooped your pants "BEFORE" learning about that plane breech ?

Happy Sunday everyone.....put on your seatbelt and get ready for a roller coaster ride in Tampa this afternoon...........and hopefully we get a heat wave in Denver and those Avalanche loose some punch, but they look tough at the moment.

So what becomes of all the little boys

Who run away from home?

The world just keeps gettin' bigger

Once you get out on your own

So what becomes of all the little boys

The sandman takes you where

You'll be sleepin' with a pillowman

On the Nickel over there

the Judge he smiled

 as he picked up his pen,

99 years in the San Quentin pen. ( Rev Gary Davis - rewrite G. Thorogood)

well not exactly.....not if you are a double minority moslem female.

not if you are accused of fire bombing a police car in the cop hating state of NY.

not if you were upset about old amphetamine head "Sleepy Floyd" .

nope....the disgraced , barred lawyer (former officer of the court) Urooj Rahman Noodles....is getting a slap on the wrist from dementia Joe's DOJ ......she originally faced 45 years for terrorism under President Trump....but Federal prosecutors immediately lowered the charges under Merrit Garland to 10 years max....they accepted a plea in October......waited for the attention to quiet down and then last week....just a few days before sentencing they again lowered the charges and accepted a new plea deal.....she now faces 18-24 months........and we all know what's coming next.....she will get credit for the last two years she spent under quasi house arrest in her comfy Bayridge apartment and will never serve a day in real prison..

yep...our Federal Govt hard at work......but we are supposed to "Trust" Joe with gun control.....he doesn't want to take your guns , he just wants to make kids safer in schools......let's put up some more GUN FREE ZONE signs......but no hardening of schools by hiring armed guards.........Banks have armed guards....sports stadiums, hospitals and politicians all have security details...........but in NY they even took away the metal detectors from High schools under Comrade bill deblasio.......we have a corrupt, hypocritical system....and we are dooomed to repeat every bad decision.

 In about five minutes then walked a man

Holding the verdict in his right hand

The verdict read in the first degree 

ain't it funny how you feel

 when you're finding out it's real (N.Young)

funny story....don't think i have shared this one before.....but i was just watching Boomer & Gio and they had the Stanley Cup in the studio.........reminded me of a visit i made to Toronto a while back. I was in town with Navy Ace Admiral Jack Duffy and we were going to see the Maple Leafs play in the historic Maple Leaf Gardens before it went away. After spending the morning drinking Labatts in the great One's bar and enjoying Grandma Gretzky's pierogi's for lunch....we walked over to the Hockey Hall of Fame...which was housed in the old  Bank of Canada building....a building that was known to be haunted by ghosts , appropriately enough.

anyway they had just recently removed a band of names off the Stanley Cup to make room for more, including the 1940 NY Rangers.......and so i approached the 90 year old security guard and asked him where they kept the names that had been removed....he pointed to a vault on the other side of the Cup Room....and i told him that since "My Team" was going to win the Cup this season i wanted to see /pay homage to the last time my squad had won......he smiled and asked me " oh yeah, you're going to win the cup this year eh ? , and who;s your team".......i confidently responded "THE NEW YORK RANGERS"............to which he began to belly laugh at me.....old geezer thought it was the funniest thing he ever heard.......i just smiled and said "You'll see" and walked to the vault to see Bryan Hextall & Co........

the date was October 19th 1993 .........we saw the Leafs beat the Hartford Whalers and go to 7-0 on the season......the reason i know the exact date was because the next night....we watched the Blue Jays beat the Phillies 15-14 in game 4 of the World series from a Toronto Strip Club....possibly the craziest WS game ever down in Philadelphia....

the Rangers ?? yes of course they went on to win the Stanley Cup and the Leafs are still holding their breath.

Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon
You're leaving there too soon

feel like a stRANGER

 we survived the march of the penguins and a hurricane warning....now it's time to dodge some lightning strikes and maybe an Avalanche in the finals......sure is fun watching a young team like this come of age.....however far they go, this experience that they are getting will serve them well in the years to come....

you know it's gonna get stranger, so let's get on with the show.

Matteau Matteau Matteau

 Matteau Matteau Matteau

It was the Friday Night of Memorial day weekend,  the City was electric and pensive,  nerves were on end….. I was scared out of my boots as I walked out of 44 Wall street and  rode the subway up to Mustang Sallys, our traditional pregame watering hole in the spring of 1994…for 5 or 6 weeks we had been coming here before and after the games for burgers and a few beers….but on this night I couldn't even eat…..just stood by the door with Donn and Craig , washing down Budweiser beer like it was going out of style (as if that would ever happen)...Penn Station was abuzz with Commuters getting out of town... happy , smiling travelers with their weekend bags had no idea what kind of sh*t was about to go down, while upstairs in the World’s Most famous Arena the Broadway Blueshirts were about to take the ice for a critical game 7 of the Eastern Conf Finals against the hated, HATED  NJ devils……..I settled into my seat in section 419, row f ,  put two full buckets of said Budweiser Beer under my aisle seat,  rose for Mr Ammorante and the singing of our National Anthem…..and I remember thinking to myself, for the rest of my life, whatever happens tonight, will come flooding back to me every Friday of Memorial Day weekend …pain or glory, we will never forget this game…we will never celebrate this holiday weekend the same way..a small part of me was convinced of pending doom, fearful I would never again enjoy a memorial day bbq, ..we have to win……….first period was a scoreless draw…..more buckets of  Budweiser beer…….getting more nervous as the night wears on, which of course leads to faster drinking…….out to the rotunda between periods…scoreless………staring at the Post office…….please God……House lights come back on, crowd roars, back to our seats…nerves...…..midway through the deuce…….Brian leetch skates in from the circle……broduer defending 7th ave…….Leetchie pulls a spin-o-rama----lets go with a bullet….the light goes on……….the Garden erupts……YES !!!!!................the period ends…….more beer….not celebratory beers, but definitely happy ones….can actually breathe now..back to the rotunda……20 minutes from the finals…..the City knows it…….people are now gathering on the Post Office stairs across the street…….people without tickets are coming to the garden area to share in the celebration, the streets are filling up….I had chills on my neck……I ran into Kenny Coco (the CFO for Waterhouse Securities)…….the last thing he says to me is that when we hold on to win 1-0 , Richter will tie the record for most shutouts in the postseason……..Richter……The Rock of Gibraltar…our MVP....he was going to single-handedly win this thing…….very nervous to start the 3rd period…..it only gets worse….every shift….every dump in…..every whistle…..the crowd is bezerk……watching the clock….praying for an insurance goal…no such luck…gotta sweat it out, ranger style..….10 minutes…get a few more buckets of beer before last call…I will drink these beers during the post game ceremony I tell myself with a silent chuckle, would never say that out loud …for the hockey Gods to hear and strike me down with justifiable lightning…....8 minutes…6 and a half minutes ..5 minutesto play…I start allowing myself to dream…we are soo close……..2 minutes……the place is on its feet……..can't hear the whistle….can't hear yourself think……high fives all around……"THIS IS THE LAST MINUTE TO PLAY IN THE PERIOD"…….BEDLAM…sheer total BEDLAM…the upper tier of MSG is literally shaking…Christmas like  joy on the faces of so many…...goosebumps….chills…..sweating……nervous………30 seconds………broduer to the bench……they dump in…..one last push…….i'm squinting toward the 7th ave net from my 8th avenue seats, glancing at the clock…slowly tick, slower  tock…. tick……tock……..10 seconds……loose puck…mad scramble…..can’t follow the puck……the devils are jumping up and down….why?....the light is on…WTF ?....7 seconds….tie game……..

It was like being kicked in the stomach……..stunned silence……from the summit of Mount Everest to the depths of hell in a single moment..…I left my seat and walked to the rotunda before they had the faceoff……..stood starring at the post office………watching TV Crews with live reporters waiting on 8th ave for the delighted faithful to exit the building…..word spreads that they tied the game….the lights for the cameras start getting turned off…it really just happened.....we are going to OT……..a sad sickness and eerie silence hovers in the building……we are never going to win this damn cup….i said not a word…but I made a promise to myself….if they loose this game, I will never set foot in this building again…..never…for any reason…NEVER.


Me , Donn and Craig barely said a word to each other during intermission……it was like Clavins Funeral home up there……somebody must have died…somebody popular..…we retook our seats…..I could not concentrate…..the first ot was a blur……..I watched the red light behind richter fully expecting to see it go on, kinda wishin it would, so it would end my misery…….everytime they came into our zone I was sure the game would end……….midway through the period , the faithful woke up………”Lets Go Rangers” chants were back……we were exhausted and angry…….but we could not score…….back to the rotunda…..back to the window….this could go on all night..

House lights on...Back to our seats…….double OT …….wornout….feel like I went 10 rounds with Tyson….not sure how much more of this I can take…nerves are shot…..my eyes are tired..…Devils are shooting at 7th ave…….blueshirts are attacking our 8th ave net…..we get a chance, they get a chance…..back and forth and back and forth……3 minutes in.. the puck dances through our crease….it's going in ……..out of nowhere comes leetch……he swats it away…it hits a devil and is heading back towards the empty net….where is Richter?.......I am still not sure what really happened….to this day I think it hit the post….but somehow the light did not go on……somehow the puck did not go in…I can't take this…I really can't…..someone please end this game……..we dump in….they dump out….BUT NO …..we keep in and redirect around the net……not sure who is chasing the puck, watching Tikanen sneak in from the point for a pass……someone is emerging from the boards behind the net with the puck….a devil is hounding him……pass it to TIK I scream inside my head……..NO…..he attempts to stuff it in ……YES !!!!!!!!... YES….YES...

MATTEAU MATTEAU MATTEAU………..STEPHANE MATTEAU…………..and the Rangers have one more hill to climb baby..and it's Mount Vancouver……the Rangers are going to the finals………..the rest is beautiful history……..at 4 minutes and 24 seconds of Double overtime, the Rangers ended the greatest playoff Hockey Series in NY City history……emotionally and physically DRAINED…

As for me……we stayed and watched the trophy presentation without beer…….the Garden was electric again….like New years eve…strangers shaking hands….7th ave outside the garden was a crazy, crazy scene..the busiest streets on the planet were closed to traffic by a Mob of Hockey Fans…Chaos…back to Mustang Sally's….Met half of Bayridge there....a cab back to Brooklyn..…..cars honking horns on the Brooklyn Bridge…….went to PJ's Pub……was still there at 4:00 a.m. …bought beers in the bagel store for the walk home…….people walking up and down 5th ave with beers, stopping traffic..chanting lets go rangers…we want the cup...…..it was crazy…I walked all the way to my apartment on 95th & Shore rd……took a long time….seemed like the whole neighborhood came out to celebrate.

NOPE…..I will never ever allow the Friday of memorial day weekend to pass without reflection on that night….

NYPD

 still many unanswered questions from texas, i want to be careful not to judge or condemn anyone until the facts are known. We do know that the shooter was inside the school and the first responders were outside for over an hour before entering the classroom. Perhaps they were assessing if this was a hostage situation, but the initial explanations seem to center around confusion as to who was in charge, and they were waiting for backup.

I grew up in a colorful neighborhood with hundreds of thousands of funny, crazy characters. (just like so many neighborhoods in the 5 boroughs) some of them have been celebrated on these pages. I try to share funny stories and then get on my soapbox and complain about the government. On a very serious note though , i am grateful to the men and women of the NYPD. I have always felt safer when i saw a Police car or an officer on patrol....and on those rare occasions they were coming to arrest or ticket me, i always knew i would be treated fairly.(most of the time)

I am convinced that if this school was located in the 5 boroughs that this shooter would have been engaged and stopped within minutes......some Police Officers might even have to die to stop him....but stop him they would. It IS what the NYPD does....they take pride in their duty to serve and just like the FDNY they go willingly into danger because they believe it is what is expected of them.

In Parkland the armed security officer stayed in his golf cart and refused to enter the building.

In Vegas the Cops stood in the hallway of the hotel while the shooter mowed down concert goers below for an agonizing amount of time.

In NYC the first Irish, Italian, Asian, White, Black or Puerto Rican cop on the scene would have stormed that school, taken on gunfire and killed that motherfucker dead in his tracks or died trying....and then his or her partner would have been next person up.

just like in business......wall street firms often leave for the cheaper greener pastures of Florida and Texas.....but there is a special quality that New Yorkers have that you just can't get elsewhere...and these firms often find that it takes 2 normal southern or midwestern workers to do what 1 crazy bastard from Brooklyn or Queens does regularly....and they are not as funny.

obviously i am biased.......and obviously i am RIGHT.

the silicon chip inside her head

Gets switched to overload
And nobody's gonna go to school today
She's gonna make them stay at home ( Bob Gelfodd-Boomtown Rats)

 just some observations from the world this day....i'm exhausted just recapping

Mayor Eric Adams called out Jamie Dimon by name.....said we need him to ride the subway to work to set an example for everyone else.....on Sunday morning around 11:00 a.m. a Goldman Sachs employee boarded a Q train in Park slope on his way to brunch in Manhattan and was shot to death as the train crossed the Manhattan Bridge.........although the suspect has yet to be apprehended the media rushed to call him a "deranged" man.....because black on white crime is not racist.....it doesn't exist....it is either some poor african american trying to feed his family or the perp was mentally Ill and the system failed him......he is the victim, not the white corpse.

Monkey Pox is a real threat and all americans should be very concerned....so says the president

Gas prices are Exxons fault, inflation is on Putin, and the baby formula shortage is because only 4 plants produce over 95% of our supply.......the buck stops here.........the great unifier and chief....never mind that the demonrats drowned big business in a pool of government regulations and blame corporations for all of our ills.....never mind that they are constantly looking to punish and tax success and want to break up Amazon and everyone else that builds a profitable enterprise....why would anyone in this day and age in America take a risk a start a new business ? God Bless them for trying

Dementia Joe patted himself on the back for increasing the military budget by approx 3%......inflation is around 8% so that's actually a cut in real spending......if that's not bad enough this jackass is promising to defend Taiwan with force....really ? if his reason for not sending troops to Ukraine was because it was a costly escalation against a Nuclear power , then what is different with Taiwan and China ? we can discuss or argue about what our position should be, but however you feel; you have to scratch your head at the hypocrisy.......if this wasn't bad enough i saw a commercial the other day (actually a PSA) about kids jumping in to a lake even though they didn't know how to swim ( 61% do this, we really are a nation of morons) but the kicker was in the closing seconds....the speaker reminded everyone to learn how to swim BEFORE you get into the water.....this life saving advice brought to you by the United States Navy..................um, okay sure.......cut the defense budget and waste time and money making a PSA .....our military is being derailed from the top on down......they too are a victim of the Tee Ball nation (everyone gets a turn and nobody keeps score...we all win, yipee) If i was Tsai Ing-wen i would be very nervous.

Georgia.....last year MLB removed the All-Star from Atlanta because they didn't agree with their new voting policy....the called it racist and said it  would severely limit black participation in state elections because blacks could NOT be expected to have a photo ID........Coca-Cola jumped into the fray and condemned their home state,( they even shared a video with their employees on how to be less white) the same state that had given them the opportunity to bloom into a world wide soda conglomerate...thanks for nuthin....and dementia said it was equivalent to Jim Crow on Steroids...and it was Jim Eagle ( as if that stupid analogy makes sense to anyone but his fellow senile pant poopers) ....never mind the fact that the new law made it easier to vote and harder to cheat....the demonrats claimed this would be the end of elections in Georgia and were an assault on Democracy....fast forward to this week where Georgia's early voting totals shattered previous records and participation is at an all time high for "Primaries".      think old joe or the White House will walk by his comments ? think Rob Manfred will apologize to the people of Georgia for embarrassing them and labeling them racists ? Think coca- Cola will have anything at all to say ?

the world sucks and every time you try to drink outside it rains.....oh well....at least we still have the RANGERS. 

Sweet sixteen, ain't that peachy keen

Now it ain't so neat to admit defeat

it's not dark yet

 but it's getting there ( Dylan)

society is both collectively numb and equally nonplussed ......it is a race to the bottom and the stock market is following suit . 

an 11 year old girl was shot in the stomach  on a Bronx street corner on Monday afternoon.....she lay crying on the pavement , saying over and over..."it hurts".....her last words.......she died right there in the street....

the other  night an EMT was shot by a patient in the ambulance on the way to the hospital on Staten Island.

last month a 15 year old girl was at a Dallas Mavericks game with her father.....she went to the bathroom and never returned.......10 days later she was found in an oklahoma city motel room.....she was being used like a rag doll for prostitution and the filming of Porno movies...for 10 straight days.....does anyone think for a moment that her life, her basic right to exist on this planet mattered to anyone involved ...of the eight people arrested (white, black, latino and asian.....a regular UN of scum) 6 of them were women......hands off my body , but we'll do whatever we want to a 15 year old kid.

and Joe Biden went to Buffalo to condemn white supremacy.....still hasn't uttered a word about that evil red van that mowed down all those white grandmothers at the Christmas parade.

Joe Biden says he needed a crystal ball to see the baby formula shortage coming.....but his Press Secretary says they have been monitoring the situation for months....months mind you............and just the other day they announced 1 plane load of baby formula was on the way from europe...cause for celebration they say...guess who is getting priority ?

today on the hallowed grounds atop Bliss Park in Bayridge....the gay alphabet will hold a festival and try to rename the high point of the park  "Pride Hill"......they are referring to the neighborhood as Gay Ridge....they are having Tranny Performers and promising fun for kids of all ages....it's a celebration of all things LGBTQIA..LMNOP........maybe the PLO will show up and both sides will suffer mass casualties...

and today they will run the Preakness.....my pick.....perhaps my sentimental feelings and nostalgia are clouding my judgement, but i don't think so.......i was very impressed watching Secret Oath win the Kentucky Oaks and so i am going with the Philly trained by Mr D Wayne Lukas........we shall see

Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

i went back to Ohio

 but my city was gone,

there was no train station,

there was no downtown. ( Chrissie Hynde)

it hurts to share this story..........but i just heard some disturbing details from what transpired in my beloved Bayridge on what used to be a wonderful Norwegian Day of celebration. I wasn't there but spoke to one or two of the 11209 holdouts.

.seems the PLO was staging their monthly protest against Isreal, Trump, Covid  or fill in the blank, on 5th ave between 71st & 72nd........there were Police there so we can assume they had a permit.....but maybe not...because  the Norwegian Parade was slated to start at 80th street and 3rd...and cross from 3rd ave to 5th ave at Bayridge Pkway and continue along 5th ave to Lief Eirikson Park....obviously both things can not occur at the same time..........so apparently the Parade changed their route and decided to stay exclusively on 3rd ave.....disgraceful but understandable.......5th ave was once the Glorious road for this Viking Stroll....but just like the St Patricks Parade before them, the organizers decided to move it to 3rd ave.

not good enough for the PLO......desperately seeking attention and or altercation they left their barricades and decided to march up 5th ave towards the bridge.......no permits , no police barricades and NOBODY to stop them..........they just marched down the middle of the ave and traffic was forced to divert.......they then apparently turned onto 86th street......once a throughfare of business anchored by Century 21 but now sadly a wasteland of fast food franchises and storefronts for rent.........still seeking that attention they turned onto 3rd ave and marched back towards to the 70's......the same stretched that housed the Norwegian Parade a few hours earlier........until they came to the Salty Dog and a post parade celebration of Civilized America......they had the bullhorns with them and they stopped and demonstrated in front of the Bar........obviously hoping for a fight that they could tape, edit and deliver to the evening news....the Dog Closed their Front doors and urged their customers to stay inside.

apparently this is a pretty common occurrence in my old hometown...... i saw it coming in the 90's......i clearly remember the local police telling my friends to cross 5th ave and NOT walk on the public sidewalk past the Mosque at 68th st because it was their holy day and my friends were possibly inebriated........i knew it was time to go and i am grateful that i did........but it still stings to think these miscreant slobs and cockroaches have devoured the corpse.......after Sweater Nite 25 i may be done with Brooklyn for life.

I was stunned and amazed

My childhood memories

Slowly swirled past

Like the wind through the trees

Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio

we might hit the board

 those were the words of Eric Reed , he was speaking to his father as they watched their Horse "Rich Strike" make a bold move around one of the derby favorites (Messier) on the home stretch......well, unless you just crawled out from under a rock you know the rest of the story.....he did more than hit the board, he blew past the leaders and WON....the longest shot to win the derby in over 100 years.....the superfecta paid 321K...i always play my birthday in a superfecta 3-2-6-5-....sometimes i put $5 straight on the big races.......can you imagine winning 1.6 million on a $5 bet ? ......even though i did not have so much as a half penny on him, it was still a feel good story...oh, but there's more.

in 2016 a lightning strike ignited a massive fire at Mr. Reeds horse farm in Lexington , KY. He scrambled in the middle of the night to get his horses to safety.....sadly 24 of the 36 horses in his care were lost in that fire. For a man and his wife that both come from a long line of horse trainers, the impact of the fire was almost too much to bare.....he thought seriously about walking away from the sport and his profession.

I had the good fortune to catch an interview he did this morning around 6:00 on Fox News.....humbled before God he was....a modest gentleman.....no speeches about nobody believed in me....or me against the world, or any of the nonsense we hear spewed by athletes after pedestrian accomplishments.....no sir....this guy said when he got home last night his neighbors and friends wanted to celebrate with him....and they stayed up till 2:00 drinking wine .....he said he laid in bed for a few hours but couldn't fall asleep , so he got up and brewed the coffee and sat in his kitchen.....until it was time to drive to the barn for his interview with Fox.......he said he's still haunted by the fire , but he thanked God that his Father was still alive and was at the derby with him yesterday.

I joked yesterday about that horse being jacked up on something , but now i regret even joking about that....this guy restored a small slice of faith in humanity.....a decent man in a horribly corrupt sport. I think about the years i spent riding on Bob Bafferts coatails and all the tickets i cashed....and i do feel bad.....the sport is dangerous enough without trainers injecting horses with anything they get their hands on, just to shave a few seconds off their time....

anyway, i dodn't win a penny yesterday.....and knowing what i know NOW.......i'm glad.

i went back to see the gypsy

 It was nearly early dawn

The gypsy’s door was open wide

But the gypsy was gone

And that pretty dancing girl

She could not be found

So I watched that sun come rising

From that little Minnesota town    (Dylan)

now, we all know that Bob was talking about a chance encounter with the KING, Elvis Presley; but it still resonated with me when i read the New York Post the other day. The Post did a nice job of explaining a seemingly senseless murder and shedding some reasonable light on the trigger man.

a 51 year old woman was gunned down inside her Ozone Park home at 2:30 wednesday afternoon as she answered the front door.....seemingly random attack...but NO.

the shooter claimed that the deceased put a curse on him and he was marked for death by the Tarot Cards....."she was a witch" the shooter calmly told Police and she put a death spell on me. It seems the deceased did work as a tarot card reader and the shooter was indeed one of her clients....i'll sleep better knowing it wasn't a purely random attack........ahhhh yes.....NYC in 2020's..it all makes sense to me now.

Outside the lights were shining
On the river of tears
I watched them from the distance
With music in my ears

derby rant 2022

 when i awoke this morning i was freezing my ZOZOS off, it felt mo like MO DONEGAL than the EPICENTER it's supposed to be, but i can still SMILE HAPPY because i know that SUMMER IS TOMORROW and soon we'll be drinking tall glasses of TAWNY PORT and carrying on like a HAPPY JACK. I was running low on TAIBA  tequila and jumped into my new electric vehicle...the ZANDON will get me where i need to go as soon as i CHARGE IT....I was surprised to see the ETHEREAL ROAD was scratched from my directions and google maps suggested i take BARBER ROAD and then get on the CLASSIC CAUSEWAY.....yep google maps TIZ THE BOMB , it's a SIMPLIFICATION to an otherwise thorny dilemma..it navigates like a PIONEER OF MEDINA guiding the CROWN PRIDE to boooze....like MESSIER always says , if you have to go under the CYBERKNIFE , you better first go to the WHITE ABARRIO for some quality tequila.

and that's how i am going to play it.....White Abarrio up top........coupled equally with Messier & Cyberknife in exactas and triple boxes......kudos to Mr Cangilosi fm the Poat for directing my eyes towards cyberknife.....the more i read, the more i agreed that he may very well be peaking at the right time.....ah, but it is still gambling, so play those birthdays and anniversary combos......theres a lot of money out there.........side note, don't be fooled by the fact that Tim Yakteen is listed as the trainer for Messier.....this is a Baffert Horse ....Bullet Bob is serving a suspension, but we all know he is still calling the shots.(no pun intended)

Good Luck, drink up, stay dry.

i saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand

 Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain

He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fooks
For to get a big dish of beef chow mein (Warren Zevon)

at first i heard the story about the chinamen delivery guy in queens that was shot dead on his moped...it sounded like another senseless killing in our beloved NY.....but thankfully the NY Post has shed some light on the matter and it turns out it was quite justified.......you see the shooter knew the deceased...in fact they had been arguing for months.....turns out the dead guy was shorting the shooter on Duck Sauce when he delivered his food from the Great Wall restaurant.....i can empathize...seriously; who amongst us can say they never wanted to kill a delivery guy who skimped on a condiment or napkins or untensils....whatever....kudos to this guy for acting on his anger....maybe now the next delivery guy will put extra noodles and Duck Sauce in every bag......at least we can hope.......of course i jest, the deceased sounds like a really decent human being, it's not surprising in 2022 that he was murdered over something so trivial....makes you wonder if there really is a higher power....can you imagine standing at the pearly gates and telling the guy next to you in line that you were killed over a beef about Duck sauce ?

my new favorite hobby is answering all these spam calls that come to the house......i let them go through their opening speil and then i start demanding to know "what they know about Hunters laptop"....i start getting louder and louder....i tell them  " you called me, what do you know about the friggin laptop"? i want answers God dammit.......they usually hang up right about then.....so much fun.....i get 3 or 4 calls a day.....never gets old.

Hockey playoffs started with a bang.....i almost forgot how intense , fast and furious this sport is when you get into the elimination stages......the first 20 minutes of Rangers action had my blood pressure up about twenty points......i was pacing my bar and talking to myself by 7:30 .......Thank God it settled down for 2 more periods and triple overtime...........honestly...a long playoff run really takes a toll on the human body......and i'm talking about the fans, can't imagine what the players are going through.

i was a big winner Monday night...........I LOVED the Oilers and Tampa Bay ........but thankfully i put my phone back in my pocket and bet Nothing.......addition by subtraction...i'm getting wiser in my old age.

derby saturday......i may shy away from Mo Donegal after he drew the #1 slot......starting to lean towards MESSIER......hmm....no surprises there.......i also like White Abarrio...but it's still too soon whippersnapper.

and of course Shadoobie is playing the Redrock this Saturday right after the big race, but it is an outdoor show, so it's weather permitting.

I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's

His hair was perfect

Ah-hoo, werewolves of London

don't you know the crime rates going up, up, up, up, up

 to live in this town,

you must be tough, tough, tough , tough, tough (Jagger/Richards)

Mick Jagger may have said it first, but this Saturday JC Cadotte, Steve Mac  and SHADOOBIE will add the exclamation Point. The lads make their debut performance in Redbank NJ at the Redrock Tap & Grill , showtime right after the derby at 6:45.

You got rats on the West Side

Bed bugs uptown

What a mess this town's in tatters, I've been shattered

My brain's been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

going where the winds don't blow so strange

 

4 years later i still reach for the phone to give him a call when i see something funny on the news or have a good story to share.

Where have all the flowers gone ?

 Long time passing.

Where have all the flowers gone ?

Long time ago (Pete Seeger)

i had the good fortune of seeing the great Guy Lafleur fly up and down the ice at Madison Square Garden many a times.....blond hair flowing behind him as he accelerated up the ice, that intoxicating Red Sweater...he was a step ahead and level above everyone else on the ice.....he was hated, but not by me......even when he beat the Rangers in the 1979 finals....my admiration and respect for him and the rest of the Habs just grew.

I went to Montreal with the NY Ranger fan club in late January early February of 1985....I remember the feeling of awe that i felt walking inside the Forum for the first time. We had standing room only tickets and gravitated to the upper tier and stood behind the last row of seated patrons......conveniently the Molson Stand was right next to us......I sipped my beer and stared at the Banners of Champions and Retired Legends. I do not consciously remember thinking about Guy Lafleur that night , but i am sure the recently retired icon was on my mind and mentioned in my toasts.........Two things i do remember from that night.....St Johns & Chris Mullin had defeated #1 Georgetown earlier Saturday afternoon, thus becoming the Top team in the Nation, and the two thousand Ranger fan club members started the famous "We ARE.....St Johns" chant during the pregame.....and i am not sure how many of the frogs knew what it was in reference to.........also towards the end of pre game warmup the Pride of Staten Island....Nicky "Octogon Head" Fotiu grabbed all the leftover pucks after the rest of the Rangers headed back to the locker room and as he did at MSG he starting tossing them to the fans.....but almost all the Ranger fans were in the rafters.......and so of course Nicky Began firing pucks towards the roof.....us Rangers fans went wild , howling with delight....and of course most of the pucks fell short of the standing room rafters and came flying down towards the expensive seats as dangerous projectiles.... good clean fun......Rangers played well.....lost a close game....3-2....i had to look it up......i also was curious when exactly Guy retired......two months earlier he asked for trade and HC Jacques Lemairre and GM Serge Savard said No way...and so around Nov 24 1984 he hung up the skates.......it would have been nice to see him just once on forum ice in a white sweater.........of course he came out of retirement a few years later to join the Rangers and then Nordiques....but he looked like a fish out of water without his Montreal Sweater.

Guy Lafeur died on Friday at the age of 70.....he had 5 bypass surgeries in his late 50's and smoked like a chimney and suffered from Lung disease, but at one time he was the greatest hockey player on earth and he raised the Cup 5 times ( 4 straight at one stretch) He scored one of the most memorable goals in League history . In game 7 of the NHL Semifinals his Canadiens were trailing 3-1 in the 3rd period  at home against the hated Bruins......a trip to the finals and a date with the Rangers awaited the winners.... .....Montreal tied it 3-3...but Boston answered with just 4 minutes to go....taking the lead on a Rick Middleton goal.....and then while killing the clock,  Boston was called for too many men on the ice....the Habs power play went to work  ......with just over a minute to play Jacques lemairre streaked over the blue line and left a drop pass for GUY..........he one timed a bullet over Gille Gilberts' right shoulder.......and Gilbert fell backwards slowly with his goal stick extended ...as if he were shot with by a snipers rifle...and in some ways he was.....,,,Yvon Lambert scored in OT and the rest is history.....they would beat the Rangers in 5 tough games......Dryden and Lemairre retired after the season, and  the Habs have only won 1 cup since that season...43 years ago this May...........i'm glad i lived it, i am glad i saw it......and again, i wouldn't trade my time of the planet for any other era....

Soldiers have gone to graveyards, everyone

Oh, When will you ever learn?

Oh, When will you ever learn?

Good & Bad

 I define these terms

Quite clear, no doubt, somehow (Dylan)

I remember a forgotten time on the friendly streets of Bayridge Brooklyn.....a mere youth of 16(maybe 15 or 17 not sure) , strapped for cash and looking to double the little funds that i had........I withdrew precious sheckles from the Bayridge Savings bank and walked a brisk pace to 69th street and 4th avenue and the storefront next to Lobianco's Jeweler....for although i hated the Miami Dolphins, I knew they would absolutely crush their instate rivals in the silly creamsicle jerseys on MNF.......I walked through the smokefilled card game upfront, past the stogie smoking horse players  and proceeded to the back room where i placed my bet on the Fish and laid a few points on the road , put my little pink slip from the bookie in my wallet and proceeded to Teddy No Kegs deli on 73rd and 3rd.......i held back a $10 spot....chippped in for some weed with the usual suspects and bought a six pack of Knickerbocker Natural.......it being a Monday afternoon we didn't pack coolers....we had a nice arrangement with Teddy.....we would pay for a six....but leave the beers in the deli fridge and retrieve them one by one for the remainder of the afternoon.......Teddy was busy and didn't keep track, so that usually meant 8 or 9 beers for the price of six......and when it was time to smoke we would go into the schoolyard and stand behind the garbage dumpster next to the hockey court......simpler times.............i remember later that evening in the Liev with my former head linesmen Chaz, drinking $3 pitchers of beer; and i watched as Tampa Bay soundly defeated Miami....thus bringing the hammer down on the rest of my social schedule for the foreseeable future............but hey, it was still a pretty good Monday for a high school lad in the 80's..........today as we wake up both Gambling and Marijuana are Legal in the Garden State...and although that is convenient.....i can't help but think that some of the electricity that surrounded both activities is lost forever on the youth of today....i wouldn't change my time on this planet for any other era...

Ah, but I was so much older then

I’m younger than that now

Well the music's thundering

 reckless and hot,

You keep firin' glances across the room

And I can't stop wonderin' just what you got

I get the feeling I'm goin' to find out real soon   ( Barlow)

the NHL is heating up.....forget what  the schedule says...playoff hockey has begun.

I just finished watching On the Fly.......everyone jockeying for position and the races are getting tight. I usually root for upsets in the playoffs but out west i am really hoping that Calgary and Colorado meet in the Conference finals....no disrespect to Viva Las Vegas, but i want to see 7 rounds of a heavyweight bash between the Flames and the Lanche.

Back East i don't think there is a boring first round....all the potential matchups are good.....Caps came back to life and may pass the penguinis for 3rd......Rangers and Canes are neck and neck, but who knows who the div winner will play......and a Tampa-Toronto first round would be must see TV........October is exciting.....World Series-NFL- College Saturdays.......but May is my favorite sports month....hockey playoffs-the triple crown-and MLB........ice down those coolers and buckle up for a bumpy ride............back in October i predicted a Panthers-Flames final.......but that was before Mr Quinville was suspended.........i still think the Flames come out of the West, but the East is Up for Grabs.

Feel like a   stRANGER......long, long, crazy crazy night

it blows the mind most bitterly

 For them that think death’s honesty

Won’t fall upon them naturally

Life sometimes must get lonely (Dylan)

watching reruns of the sopranos...it struck me that Joe Biden is nothing more than Uncle Junior.

After Jackie Aprille died there was a vacuum at the top....and then Tony realized that the title of mob Boss was really a lightning rod for the authorities and that it would be better to have a fake figure head at the top taking all the heat, while he continued to run the family without all the Federal agents tracking, logging and recording his every move. Let the old Man Uncle Junior enjoy the pomp and circumstance in the neighborhood, let everyone pay their respects to him as if he were running the Family; but at the end of the day Tony and his crew enjoyed all the money and Junior had all the headaches.

Old man Joe Biden was dangled the title of President....for a lifelong loser.....3 or 4 failed attempts at the presidency and now suddenly the party says you can be our guy........BUT......we still call the shots....Joe took the bait....he goes to all the dinners....his son shakes down foreign businessmen, and when he walks in a room they play hail to the chief........and all the horrible socialist agenda items that are being implemented.....well, history books will record them as Joe Bidens' legacy......and obama and susan rice will never face the music......they get to play Punctus Pilot and was their hands of this administration.

but alas......all good things come to an end......i fully suspect that shortly after the mid-terms.....sleepy joe will be forced to step down and the left will get their First Black Female President ...the demonrats will pat themselves on the back and pander to the blacks......and kamala will know she only has 24 months to put her stamp on the country and without fear of having to run for a re-election she can not win....she will instead steer the ship further left.

i hope i'm wrong .

side note.....the youtube videos of the subway shooter ( Frank James) are very entertaining.....in one video he has photos of 8 or 9 psychiatrists that treated him , taped to the wall behind him....and in the middle of his rant he points to their pictures and says .."Look at them, their worse than me" .........i must admit, i love crazy people who know they are crazy.....it's the fabric of our nation......nothing better than a good old fashioned nut case that knows it.........when we were back in the office i always interacted with the mailroom.....for some reason the mailroom was like a breeding ground for Crazy in Brokerage Houses, and i was always there to stir the pot and watch the insanity boil over......i don't miss the train yet....but i do miss some of the wackos i worked with.

 An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged

It’s people’s games , that you got to dodge

downtown there's another disaster

 Pig’s head and a loaded gun

Day by day things are going faster

Get off the street the killing’s begun   ( Brewer & Shipley)

as i sat at my computer yesterday and watched the horror unfold at 36th street and 4th ave in my beloved Brooklyn....i couldn't help but think about the classic Brewer & Shipley song above......and before the blood dried on the platform the police rushed to put out a statement declaring this was NOT terrorism....without a suspect identified they were still ready to declare this was NOT terrorism.....why?

Because terrorism has lost it's meaning...it now apparently only defines attacks by Arabs against everyone else...and the media and Police are so concerned about these poor sandjigs that they rush to denounce terror ties for fear of upsetting our moslem inhabitants. the attack yesterday was terrorism, the victims did not know their attacker, were randomly selected and were most absolutely terrorized and traumatized by the events.....but society today is more concerned with the criminals than they are with the victims. 

case in point.....a 16 year old hispanic girl was shot and killed by a stray bullet on her way home from school friday in the Bronx.......Toni Yates of ABC news on saturday morning went to great lengths to tell us the shooter had NEVER been in trouble before ( tell that to the corpse ) and now he was facing murder and his live was over........seriously ?  why don't you interview the grieving Mother and see if she cares about the piece of shit that got high and murdered her daughter ?

dementia joe can give a million speeches about ghost guns and kathy hocul can stand on 36th street and say "this stops now" blah blah blah......we do not need new laws.....we need to enforce existing laws and send the criminals away for a long time....we need to prisons to be switched from modified country clubs to a place that nobody wants to visit....let alone be incarcerated for any length of time....we need to stop defending and excusing the criminals and start standing up for the victims........it sounds o simple, how did we loose our way ?

i hope when they catch the miscreant , that they keep him alive.....i want to hear what he has to say....and i want to see how they spin it.

Downtown it’s the first and last chapter

Ape man tearing limbs from the trees

oh the hours i spent

 inside the Coliseum,

Dodging lions and wastin’ time

Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see ’em

Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb (Dylan)

the world of sports....often a punching bag of mine, but still a source of humor , enjoyment and inspiration on occasion.

Brian Boyle.....i was watching highlights on the NHL network the other day and they showed a young boy....8 or 9....front row.....holding a sign proclaiming that he beat Cancer and asking for players in warmups to sign his poster.......Brian Boyle, an all around good guy and one of my all-time favorites did more than that ....he came over to the boards and had a private chat.....gave the boy a fist bump through the glass and posed for pictures.....Boyle himself is a Cancer survivor....a lukemia blood cancer threatened his life in 2017......and i will never forget his first night back in the league.....on Hockey Fights Cancer night, he scored the game winner.....for a guy who has been playing over 15 years for 7 or 8 teams and has a total of 140 goals...that was a big deal.

Seth Beer.....it was opening Day in Arizona.....it was National BEER day....and so it was fitting the Seth Beer came to the plate in the bottom on the 10th of a tied game....and well the rest is the stuff of which legends and funny tales are born....of course he went yard and won the game with a Homer.......the Dbacks play by play guy reacted as if it was Mazeroski's homer in game 7 to beat the Yanks...but why not, it is opening day.

the Masters.......wish it was a little warmer yesterday, but i managed to pack a cooler and sit in the yard and watch the final round....i had Sandgae IM in the infamous Br Murphy pool.....and although the little korean came up short, at least he gave me hope for 4 days........something very American about sitting in the yard on the Sunday evening of the Masters.....of course i reached into my golf bag and took a few swings with a 3 iron.

talking hockey playoffs......be careful what you ask for ....so i'm not asking for anything....just some observations.....the 4th place team in the Adams family will probably swing over to the Patrick Division and vice versa ...so personally i would rather finish 2nd and play the penguinis and or Caps.....let the Canes win the division and face either Boston or Tampa in the 1st round.......Boston will wear down and become easier to beat as they playoffs get to the 2nd or 3rd round......and although TB is beatable...i would never want to play a defending Cup Champion in the 1st round.

10 games to go and Kreider is sitting at 49 goals.......i mistakenly thought Adam Graves was the single season Goal leader for the Rangers when he netted 52 in 1993-94.......totally forgot that Jagr reset the mark at 54 in 2005-06......i can't even remember that now....but let's hope Kreids gets 55 or more.

can't really root for the mets until they get rid of the BLM cancer in the clubhouse , but i still love baseball and i'm glad its back....especially working remote and sitting in the yard watching wed and thurs matinees......also something very American about that.

sail around the world in a little gondola,

of to be back in the land of coca-cola

and then there's Hockey

 while the majority of professional athletes in the other 3 sports are collective bunch of arrogant, overpaid, drug saddled thugs.....who hate the country, the press, the National Anthem and the fans.....who struggle to feed their families while collecting 100 hundred million $$ contract and see themselves as the true victims in this cruel world........on the other end of the spectrum we find our Hockey players............good natured, fun loving lads from various countries who are genuinely excited to be playing professional sports, that still put winning a title as their main objective and still form a bond of brotherhood with their teammates...and they never lose that sense of humor.

last night after the Broadway Blueshirts dispatched of the penguinis w clam sauce.......Igor Sheterkin pitched a shutout and Artemi Panarin scored a big goal......(2 Russian born players that could have easily stopped talking to the media after the war in Ukraine began) instead they faced the local media like they always do..........Panarin made a joke that Shesterkin said he would share some of his contract if he started to score more goals.........and then the quiet Rookie Shesterkin quipped that he "would share , except Biden is squeezing me on taxes".   ya gotta love that......this is a team that is easy to watch and fun to root for...good natured banter and great Chemistry.....watch out is all i have to say to the rest of the NHL 

But when the world is busy

 And the way is hard to see;

When tomorrow comes,

Will you remember? (Jorma)

the winner and still champion....the world....it's undefeated really.......it doesn't matter who you are or what you do, this world will beat you down eventually.......it wears you out until you just can't fight back...until there is no peaceful place to hide, no respite from the harsh realities and constant bombardment of life and death......the never ending stories of stray bullets and street shootings in broad daylight.....the subway slashings and rapes....the hit and run drivers..the elderly pusched to the curb, punched in the face or thrown on the train tracks....the fires, famine and plagues.

and the knee jerk reactions, the talking head politicians with their talking points, they are soft on crime and criminals but real tough on punishing corporations, taxing the hard working and penalizing law abiding citizens because the bulk of our miscreant population ignores their laws......just take a look at old Smiley Martin....he was one the shines arrested in Sacramento for opening fire on a crowd of bar patrons with a machine gun Sunday night.......and our dear demented leader who says we need stronger gun laws.......California has the strongest gun laws in the nation...they don't work......Smiley is a convicted felon and under california law can not own a weapon....didn't matter......machine guns are not permitted to be owned by the general public....didn't matter.......but hey let's pass  new regulations to make it harder for law abiding citizens who live in the mountains or somewhere remote to own a rifle for their homeland protection......or anyone that lives in a lawless denizon of a city to perhaps protect themselves.

lets open our borders and let every sister raping, lowlife scumbag from the shithole countries to our south,  to just waltz across the border and apply for housing, welfare and food stamps.......who knows maybe they will smuggle some fentanyl in from china...fentanyl is synthetic man made opioid...it was responsible for 100,000 overdose deaths in the USA in 2021....last month in Florida 6 West Point Cadets overdosed  ( 2 of them football players) while snorting cocaine that was laced with Fentanyl.....they are poising and killing Americans ever fucking day......how many speeches has biden given on Fentanyl ? too bad Fentanyl wasn't a white Cop, it would be villified as the number 1 threat to America......and the official response is to classify fentanyl as a schedule 1 drug with no medical merits (like Heroin and LSD) and tougher sentences for those selling it.......they don't seem to understand.......nobody goes to a dealer and asks for an ounce of Fentanyl....it is being laced into street drugs to kill Americans.....and still Nero Fiddles........look over there, not over here......voting laws are Americas biggest threats and cross dressing athletes are hailed as winners.............maybe it's the rain, maybe it's all the horrific news that rolls in daily and never seems to end , but i feel today that we are collectively starring into abyss......i don't see the light today, despite Jorma's urging

Now don't you know the world don't care,
Just what we're livin' through?
It's spinnin'; just keeps takin' you for rides.
Don't you know you've gotta keep on fightin' through?
The last frontier is flying deep inside!