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Midway, North Carolina Meth Lab and Fentanyl Cleanup | ASSURED

Midway, North Carolina Meth Lab and Fentanyl Cleanup | ASSURED

Meth Lab, Fentanyl Cleanup at Midway, NC

Telephone us to get just about any fentanyl cleanup, meth laboratory cleanup, offense scene cleaning( fingerprint dust cleanup or fentanyl cleanup at Midway, NC c 1-612-300-7061

With almost any poisonous cleanup it’s vital to be sure that you are dealing with an organization that safety is number 1. Our meth laboratory cleaning and cleanup pros in Midway, NC are trained to manage extreme circumstances. The majority are current or former fire fighters that have extensive training. By the beginning to the final our offense scene and meth laboratory cleanup pros in Midway, NC desire want your own home to be more safe for the return.

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Though we cope with meth laboratory cleanup we additionally conduct offense scene cleanup at Midway, NC. When you’ve had a suicide, then unnatended passing, or some other type of unattended departure. . Please feel free to call us to the offense scene cleanup Midway, NC for 24 hour scheduling

grounds for caliber meth laboratory cleanup at Midway, NC

meth lab fentanyl cleanup -

Many people today call us and ask whether we could possibly find the meth laboratory clean up done in less than per day. That can be a house on the market in Midway, NC, and on occasion perhaps a hotel. To begin with, we’ll never qualify a specific moment. Our objective is to take out the tace elements of a meth lab to ensure the prospective testing proves that your residence remains still safe. When we appraise a meth laboratory for decontamination, then we will need to ensure each room effected is analyzed and the appropriate surfac areas are washed.

That isn’t achieved because of our sake, that is for yours! ) Surviving in or allowing somebody else to dwell at a meth laboratory before proper clean up is done, is excessively dangerous. The horror stories seen in forums on the web may make you sick to your gut. The fumes manufactured from a meth lab tend to be somewhat more dangerous in several ways then your result product.

Fentanyl Cleanup at Midway, NC

Though we started doing meth laboratory cleanup Midway, NC area, we were among those very first to ever start out fentanyl cleanup and decontamination. With fentanyl cleanup at Midway, NC individuals have been dealing with a much more mortal chemical subsequently methamphetamine. It’s amazing to even our offense scen and medication laboratory decontamination technicians, the way dangerous clean-up fentanyl is. You require professional meth laboratory and fentanyl cleaning services from Midway, NC.

Just how much is meth laboratory cleanup and fentanyl cleanup at Midway, NC

The assortment of costs is extreme with meth labs. We’ve experienced mini-mansions have just 1 room effected and we now have seen rooms in hotels contaminate the full hotel or floor. The technicians may continue to work together with you every stage of this to establish a reasonable price.

Meth Lab Testing in Midway, NC

With almost any cleaning special testing needs to be performed also. Generally in the majority of municipalities there can be legislation requiring meth laboratory testing earlier and after the cleanup. To address these things we’ve a tech consult with exactly what meth laboratory testing is necessary Midway, NC

Phone 1-612-300-7061

Meth Lab Decontamination and Cleaning

Expert meth laboratory cleaning isn’t something many businesses do some more. We supply high quality of the very best services for homeowners needing meth laboratory remediation and clean up done. You have to realize that living or having a home which was a meth laboratory, without proper cleanup done might be quite poisonous in addition to most legalities surround this particular subject. This really is a developing problem from the mid way, NC, however together with this meth laboratory specialists in the side we will help with meth laboratory analyzing and meth lab decontamination on your mid way, NC.

We’re available anyplace from the U.S. and will just supply you access to authorized practitioners that meet with the Midway, NC requirements of at which the meth laboratory live. Please get with the cleaning pros . 888. 477. 0015 for direct responses to your own questions.

NOTE: We usually do not complete meth laboratory remediation at Midway, NC, you’ll be put in contact a number of our reputable partners

You are able to imagine the kinds of accidents that need bloodstream cleanup to some type of specialist frighten. Technically there at almost no quantity of blood flow to small you ought to attempt to cleanup your self. Blood is currently an extremely significant transmitter of disorder and bacteria, and most folks in United Midway, NC drops sick by accepting the dangers of tackling bloodstream without proper coverage and know of blood borne germs. Because of this people must consistently comprise oncall offense scene cleanup to be accountable for any bloodstream cleanup at an hazard security guide on the job or whether you’re a house owner working with a passing. Legislation scene cleanup companies comprehend O.S.H.A security rules and regulations for tackling bloodstream in addition to how to dump their bloodstream within the tips of classes such as the EPA. If you’d like to have the very best assistance you can be when controling and knowhow exactly to cleanup bloodvessels, subsequently contact with our offense scene cleanup managers AT1 -612-300-7061

Meth Lab Cleaning North Carolina

Destroying own lives and families, morals…and possessions. Meth houses, medication manufacturing and use contributes to a variety of dangers, while others are definitely observable, the others can be imperceptible at first . When you’ve been told that the land that you ’re accountable for, residing or inhabiting for just about any reason had been one moment that the meth lab, then you ought to know what this way. Most mid-way, NCs require legal testing of a place that’s been used to cook meth or other medication as medical problems continue to be recent years after the ingestion operation has been absent. ASSURED Meth Lab Cleaners’therefore pros provide professional meth laboratory testing & assessment and meth lab decontamination services in most 50 States. Meth laboratory cleaning is important to the protection of one’s loved ones if you will find out your house once placed a Meth Lab.

Certified Builders Decontaminate & Restore Meth Manufacturing Sites

the danger are acute, that will be just one reason that all Midway, NC has their own group of strict regulations which will need to be followed when preforming meth laboratory remediation. ASSURED Meth Lab Cleaners is advised regarding the Midway, NC regulations of each mid way, NC we service and their business procedures of analyzing and remediating the prior methamphetamine manufacturing land. There could be observable signs, like wounds, stains and residue and evident scents nevertheless the risks extend further than that. Toxins from the meth manufacturing process has complete the whole propertyfrom ceiling to floors and the whole venting system. That includes turned into the positioning in to a major hazardous waste website. Our meth lab decontamination procedure begins with set types of the complete location so we can ascertain the amount of radicals found and that the ideal way of remediating.

Methamphetamine & Illegal Drug Lab Risks:

  • Respiratory Problems
  • Substance Poisonings
  • Increased probability of Explosions and Fire
  • Skin Reactions
  • Migraines
  • vulnerability often leads to Death

Meth Lab Decontamination Agency

The toxins discharged when ingesting meth and other hard drugs might be vaporized in, absorbed via skin and even eradicated. The risks of meth even stretch out the arrangement, once the medication waste is fast and subtly thrown out, burnt or pumped down the drain often it leads to dirt, septic and filter pollution. Each one these areas will need to be analyzed and coped with to guarantee a restored feeling. There’s not any safe physical touch using a meth manufacturer location, until once our company may decontaminate the full area, either indoors and out. Safety is important.

Meth Lab Remediation Procedure

Our North Carolina meth laboratory provider supplies a detailed process for analyzing the bio hazard affects and damage due to a laboratory and performing the decontamination job to replace a property to a socioeconomic state.

in-door Assessment:

Visual Inspection–a comprehensive walk through of this home by a number of our pros imagining any strange odors, stains, harm, threading, etc.. ) Air-testing –assess for volatile compounds with a photoionization dectector (PID). The ambient atmosphere in most room and every disposal drain is going to likely be sampled. Corrosive Testing–assess for the existence of soapy residues left . Are as checked on average consist of counter-top prep spots, sewer drains and any visual spots. Methamphetamine Issues and its own Testing–assess for the existence of meth by collecting wipe samples. Samples are submitted to a certified lab for investigation. Psychotherapy — photos of sampling activities and lab data is accumulated in a short report. Conclusions and tips are given.

Out Door Assessment:

Visual Inspection–a walk round the immediate land searching for indications of burial, burning or burning of waste. Field Screening–that the selection of ashes or soil samples and screening to the presence of volatile substances via PID headspace procedure and corrosive properties predicated up on pH. Documentation–photographs of all sampling activities and lab data gathered in a summary report. Conclusions and tips are given.

For homes served with a drinking water well, the selection of some normal water sample in case it’s thought that the bottom water are in danger of contamination. The tap sample is tested for volatile organic contaminants depending to the EPA system 8260. The selection of dirt or septic tank samples have to be examined by a lab for volatile organic substances depending on EPA system 8260 and corrosive properties predicated up on pH.

Methamphetamine Decontamination Services:

North Carolina ASSURED Meth Lab Cleaners provides the labour and equipment, and technical security experience to make sure all decontamination tasks are performed properly. At the end of almost any decontamination endeavor your customer is going to get a comprehensive report documenting all of completed tasks. This record is normally offered to the management agency for the release of their property.

Make sure that the security of everybody, perhaps your land is being leased, owned, recently bought, or is industrial, commercial or another kind of atmosphere; touch ASSURED Meth Lab Cleaners for professional Midway, NC Meth Lab Cleaning Services in 1-612-300-7061

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ASSURED Meth Lab Cleanup Services North Carolina
Midway, NC,USA
24/7 help line: +1-612-300-7061

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in the event that you’re searching to get a discreet and private offense scene cleanup company then Contact our offices at Midway, NC or neighboring.

Midway, NC Law assistance

ASSURED was providing meth laboratory, fentanyl cleaning services for more 20 years. We’re regarded as 2nd responders working closely with North Carolina Law Enforcement and additional bureaus.

Midway, NC State Police

With not exactly 20+ years of cleanup meth laboratory, fentanyl, dealing with all an North Carolina Police Department and fire sections, and helping public leaders. It’s no surprise why people have been America’therefore choice to meth laboratory cleanup.

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Britain's Got Talent's Mind2Mind show off their engagement ring after romatic proposal
James adopted Marina’s pug Muffin as a sign of commitment to her – and then proposed (Picture: Rex/Instagram)

Britain’s Got Talent’s Mind2Mind have more than one reason to celebrate this weekend – after announcing that they got engaged shortly after their audition.

The mind-reading pair, James Harrington and Marina Liani, managed to blow the minds of Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell in this week’s episode, and are now set to marry after James got down on one knee – and proposed with an adoption certificate of Marina’s beloved dog, Muffin.

Speaking exclusively to about the romantic moment, the newly-engaged mystic said: ‘It was just a home engagement but it was really geared towards Marina, and knowing what she would like and what actually made her burst into tears.

‘I’d known that Marina’s baby, her pug Muffin, was the love of her life, and I always refused to say that I loved him because I wanted to wait until I proposed,’ he continued.

‘So right before I actually proposed I got on one knee and gave her a certificate of adoption to adopt Muffin as my own and promised that I would love him.

‘I proposed after that.’

Britain's Got Talent's Mind2Mind show off their engagement ring after romatic proposal
James and Marina have revealed all about the romantic moment (Picture: Instagram)

An emotional Marina was more than happy to accept, and told us: ‘I was just crying because I couldn’t find any words.

‘It was the most incredible thing ever it was so simple but at the same time it was everything that I had wished for.’

And the Ukranian performer, who is currently living in Dubai, had already been given the seal of approval by her soon-to-be in-laws before the engagement happened – with a touching symbol welcoming her to the family.

James and Marina - Mind2Mind Britain's Got Talent 2019
The mind-reading pair left the judges impressed with their unique act (Picture: Rex)

James revealed: ‘My mum has come to visit me a few weeks before nouns and I told her my plans to propose and she insisted she give me my grandma’s ring who died a year and a half ago.

‘She’d been waiting and wanted me to have it but wanted me to decide to propose first. Once I had that I couldn’t wait.’

So now that their little magical family is complete, the pair are now thinking of bringing their beloved Muffin on stage with them in the near future.

‘We’re hoping in later acts that we can bring Muffin in,’ said James. ‘Marina’s been trying to convince me that he would be good in our show!’

Let’s hope the Second Sight pair’s abilities stretches to the animal kingdom too!

Britain’s Got Talent airs Saturdays at 8pm on ITV.

Got a showbiz story?

If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you.

MORE: Britain’s Got Talent winner Lost Voice Guy Lee Ridley opens up about his love life: ‘I get female attention’

MORE: Britain’s Got Talent’s David Walliams calls out Simon Cowell’s diva behaviour: ‘I wish he got out of bed earlier’

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Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garcons: Art of the in-Between

Author(s): Andrew Bolton

fashion designers

A revelatory look at the influential and enigmatic designer behind Comme des Garcons The great pantheon of fashion designers produces only a handful of creators who are masters of their metier. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons is one of them. Widely recognized among her contemporaries as the most important and influential designer of the past forty years, she has, since her Paris debut in 1981, defined and transformed the aesthetics of our time. This lavishly illustrated publication examines Kawakubo's fascination with interstitiality, or the space between boundaries. Existing within and between dualities-whether self/other, object/subject, art/fashion-Kawakubo's work challenges the rigid divisions that have come to define received notions of identity and fashionability, inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, re-creation, and, ultimately, hybridity. Featuring brilliant new photography, and thought-provoking texts by Andrew Bolton, this book expresses the conceptual and challenging aesthetic of this visionary designer. An insightful interview and illustrated chronology of Kawakubo's career provide additional context.

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Product Information

Andrew Bolton is curator in charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

General Fields

  • : 9781588396204
  • : Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • : Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • : July 2017
  • : July 2017
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Andrew Bolton
  • : Hardback
  • : 284


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Now You See Me 2 (2016)

now you see me 2I can sum up Now You See Me 2 with one word – disappointment. Disappointment that I didn’t like the movie, and that it’s such an unsuccessful attempt to recreate the appeal of the first movie. Most importantly, it’s that disappointment towards the writers, who clearly think I’m stupid.

Alright, let’s get the bad things out before they rub me sore. The end-game, the final act, the big reveal – what a load of crap! Clearly, the people behind the movie didn’t think very highly of the audience, if they thought that big magic trick in the end would make us oooh and aaah. It didn’t. We all saw it coming a mile away. And you know what, that’s alright, it happens, so what if the trick was a little predictable, I would accept it, if it weren’t for the explanations! Because, for me, there’s only one thing more disappointing than a predictable magic trick, and that’s the play by play description of it.

And that’s how Now You See Me 2 felt like, an explanation for all things predictable. The fun of the first movie was gone, the elements of unbelievable magic tricks was overshadowed by the descriptions of predictable tricks, which was completely unnecessary. If you’re going to do things that make sense, don’t take time to explain them, because the not knowing how is part of the magic! But Now You See Me 2 killed that magic, despite the promise and the possibilities that were there, considering the surprising appeal of the first movie and the possible enthusiasm of the cast.

Apparently only Isla Fisher knew that a sequel couldn’t work, because she was the only one who didn’t come back for round two. So for me it was exciting to see Mark Ruffalo and Dave Franco again, because they are both precious! And even though the plot was lame, and I wasn’t impressed by the endgame, Ruffalo was nice and Franco as well, so at least I have that to remember on a more positive note. But the positive doesn’t really end there because well, there is some fun in the movie. It’s hidden, but it’s there, and if you just stop thinking, and just watch, then you might even get some laughs out of it. But it’s just hard not to think, especially as weeks have  gone by and I have had time to think about it, and to think about its lack of memorability. I would say this, after walking out of the cinema, I had much better feelings about it, than I have right now. It was mindless fun, and I guess it worked, in that situation, because sometimes I love mindless stuff. And during the screening, I was enjoying the parts that were meant to be enjoyed. But thinking back, there was just so many things wrong. For instance, the need to drag out great scenes for no apparent reason, Asian characters, who start speaking English when it’s necessary, falling into the ground and disappearing, and what was Morgan Freeman doing there anyway?

Not to mention the fact that for the second time, when we get a female lead, she is somehow romantically involved with the male lead. Now, I had nothing against it in the first movie, because it was referenced to, and not thrown into our faces, but as Lizzy Caplan appears, I had so much hope for her character, that I was bummed out to see her eagerly go after Franco’s character. It’s just.. why? Why does a woman always have to have a romantic story line, stop it, I just wanted a strong minded, funny, independent, badass, magic skilled, cool woman, that I think Lizzy Caplan is.

Anyway, enough of this negativity, I’m just going to end this review here, otherwise I will get too wrapped up in all those stupid things that Now You See Me 2 managed to put on the table. And if I ever need some magic in my life, I will return to Now You See Me because that will remain my favorite, and I’ll forget that Now You See Me 2 ever happened.

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  • Reply
    The Vern
    July 7, 2016 at 6:09 PM

    I hated the first movie so I have zero interest in seeing this one, I agree with your thoughts on Lizzy Caplan having a romantic subplot was a dumb idea.

    • Reply
      July 13, 2016 at 3:36 PM

      I liked the first one, it was fun without taking itself too seriously. Which is exactly what the second one did wrong.And Caplan would have been great without it indeed.

  • Reply
    July 7, 2016 at 6:51 PM

    I legitimately disliked the first film and haven’t convinced myself to go see this one. Maybe on DVD

    • Reply
      July 8, 2016 at 6:12 PM

      I liked the first one, which I didn’t expect at all.

  • Reply
    July 15, 2016 at 9:30 PM

    Oh man, I really loved NYSM2 and I even thought — dare I say it — that the sequel was BETTER than the original! Really enjoyed reading your review, though. Louisa

  • Leave a Reply


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Explore More! Family Days at the MFA

Join us the third Saturday of the month for a special day of family fun! With arts and crafts, family tours, and other special programming, there is so much to do at the MFA. Each month will feature a different theme so your family can explore with us again and again!

This Month’s Theme: All About Insects

11 am – 2 pm in the Conservatory (interactive table stations)
• Observation Bee Hive with Noble Nectar Apiaries
• Protect Against Mosquitoes with Pinellas County Public Works
• Insect Stamp Art with the Museum of Fine Arts

12 pm – 1 pm in the Galleries
The Grasshopper and the Ant Story Time and Family Tour

1 pm – 2 pm in the Galleries
• Cabinet of Curiosities Drawer Demonstrations

Free for members, or with the cost of admission.

No reservation required.

Event Details

November 16, 2019

11 am–2 pm

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The 2019 Dandelion Wishes Gala

Thank you to everybody involved in this year’s Dandelion Wishes Gala, which raised approximately $800,000 for the Monash Children’s Hospital.

It’s the fourth year we’ve received generous support from the Dandelion Wishes Foundation, who have raised more than $2 million, and this year’s event raised funds to support our Paediatric Emergency Department.

You can continue to show your support by visiting:

View all the images from the night here:


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Monthly Archives: July 2009

The most depressing team in sports, and Lochte sets another record

So I’m home in New York this week on vacation, and while  I was at a Brooklyn Cyclones game minor league baseball game Thursday night (great time, by the way) I got to thinking about the most depressing team in sports.

I’m talking about the team that, year after year, absolutely pulverizes its fans hopes and dreams, the team that you constantly ask yourself why you bother rooting for. The team that doesn’t even seem to care about you at all, and cares about getting better even less.

For a long time, there were a lot of contenders. You had the Tampa Bay Bucs, who were horrendous for 20 years, but then they got better. You had the L.A. Clippers, who were run by the stupidest executives in sports, but managed to make the playoffs a few times at least.

You had the Arizona Cardinals, who draped themselves in fuility but managed to get to the Super Bowl last season, pleasing its sun-baked fans in Phoenix.

But I think it’s fair to say now, without equivocation, that there’s only one true deserving choice as, by far, the most depressing team in pro sports:

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up and meet your Pittsburgh Pirates! Seriously, meet them. Because I’m pretty damn sure you couldn’t pick them out of a lineup.

I’m not a Pirates fan, and never really followed them that closely. But I have to believe that to be a Pirates die-hard, circa 2009, has to be a soul-crushing experience. Your team is currently undergoing its 17th consecutive losing season. Seventeen! That, my friends, would be a record for consecutive crappiness in any major team sport.

The Pirates built a beautiful new ballpark in 2001, but decided to buck the trend started by the Orioles and Indians, and continue to stink right on from the old park to the new one.

If you’re a Pirates fan, there’s no sense getting attached to any good players on your team, because by the team they’re decent, they’ll be traded before they can make any real money. Nate McLouth, Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez are this year’s examples, but look into the past and you can find plenty of ex-Pirates stars (Jason Bay, Jason Kendall) who were dealt as they were in their prime.

Their drafting and scouting would have to improve to be called putrid. Do you realize this franchise has had a Top 12 pick in the MLB draft for the past 10 years, and has NO solid major league players in that mix to show for it? Let me know when you see Andrew McCutcheon, Paul Maholm, or Bryan Bullington tearing it up in the majors.

They can’t attract any quality free agents because, really, who the hell would want to play there? And they’ve got a cheapskate owner who is making a profit but won’t invest in the team.

Add it up, and I have to think rooting for Pittsbugh is like hoping Commack High School could beat the Yankees. Maybe Barry Bonds cursed them when he left as a free agent. Maybe the success of the Steelers (2 Super Bowls this decade) and Penguins (three Stanley Cups in the last 18 years) has forced the sports gods to at least give Pittsburgh one terrible team.

Whatever it is, I can’t imagine how sad it is to be a Pirates fan. My heart goes out to you poor souls. And the next time I bitch about my pathetic New York Jets, I’ll try to remember: It could be worse.

**On a much more uplifting note, my man Ryan Lochte had a fantastic performance and set a new world record Thursday in the 200 intermediate medley, swimming it in 1:54.10. Lochte, the pride of Port Orange, Fla., didn’t get to beat Michael Phelps in the race at the FINA World Championships in Rome, but he did avoid the upset plague this week: both Phelps and Aaron Peirsol, who NEVER lose, got beat in their races Tuesday and Wednesday. (Totally off the subject, everytime I write “FINA” I think of the world soccer organization FIFA, and I start giggling when I remember that their chief has the single worst name I’ve ever heard: Sepp Blatter. Seriously, that’s worse than Stubby Clapp.)

Lochte broke out his diamond-encrusted grill for the post-race press conference; he wore a similar one a few years ago at the Worlds. Guy’s just different, but he loves to have fun.

Anyway, Lochte’s got two events Friday, including the 200 meter backstroke, which might see he or Peirsol break another world record.

With Lochte, I’m thinking if he sets another world mark, he’ll break out the M.C. Hammer pants and a Carrot Top wig.

My new hero

So my heroes used to be Don Mattingly, John McEnroe, Wesley Walker and Mark Messier.

I’d say with the exception of McEnroe, I chose pretty wisely as a kid. I thought Johnny Mac was so cool for the way he blew up at umpires and humiliated them, until I grew up and learned that for all his remarkable talent, he was just a big baby and remarkably immature. I outgrew McEnroe and was sort of ashamed that I used to love him.

But I’ve got a new hero now, and he’s kinda different from any other role model I’ve ever liked.

His name is Lance Allred, and he’s a 6-foot-11, deaf, OCD sufferer who’s a former Fundamentalist Mormon and grew up on polygamous compounds in Montana and Utah. He’s been battling in basketball his whole life, and for three shining games in 2008, finally made the NBA.

He just wrote an astonishingly honest, hilarious, forthcoming and tragic book about his life called “Longshot,” and I finished reading it last night.

To say it’s one of the best sports books I’ve ever read would be an insult, like calling Rembrandt just one of the 17th century’s best painters. Allred’s book is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in my life.

Unlikely, you say? Wait till you hear his story. He was an awkward, gangly child who was seen as a bit of an outcast since his father “only” had one wife. He became deaf immediately after being born but was undiagnosed for years.  He was told by a Sunday School teacher that he couldn’t hear because of sins he’d committed in a previous life (I hope that teacher got fired immediately, but I’m sure he didn’t.)

Eventually, his parents broke away from the compound and moved to Utah, before another family split made them homeless for a short while.

As a kid, Allred struggled to find his place (you know how kind kids can be to children who are different), and he finally did on the basketball court. Of course, that only brought more suffering. A much-beloved coach at the University of Utah named Rick Majerus treated Allred unconscionably while he was there, humiliating and destroying Allred’s confidence and once telling him he “was a disgrace to cripples.” (Majerus was eventually investigated for his behavior, and resigned from Utah shortly after Allred transferred).

Allred became a star at a smaller school, but then found himself battling through the bizarre and highly unpredictable world of minor league basketball in Turkey, France, and the United States (if for no other reason, buy the book to hear Allred’s wickedly funny description of travel life in the NBA Developmental League).

There were so many times Allred wanted to quit, and so many times coaches and others gave up on him. But he finally made it to the NBA, if only for a few days, and when you get to that point in the book, you almost feel like cheering.

In his beautiful writing style, Allred weaves metaphors about life and basketball together with meditations on religion, the monotony of practice, and too many other topics to count. He refused to blame others for his failures, and is quick to credit others for his success. He’s funny, smart and had me looking at some things in a whole new light.

I got to meet Allred last month at an NBA summer league camp, after having heard about him on this NPR podcast, “Only A Game“. I wrote this column about him for my newspaper, and I was so impressed with his intelligence and humility that I knew I had to read his book. It blew me away.

Lance Allred will not become a major superstar, of  that I’m pretty certain. But he’s why I love sports; proof that beyond the reprehensible reputations of Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress and Barry Bonds there are good guys with amazing stories to tell of will and determination.

I defy you to read this book and not become a fan of Lance Allred. If money’s tight and you’re not able to buy “Longshot,” you can probably find it at your local library.

“I do not care about the money, or the fame,” Allred writes in a letter to God in the book. “I just want to say that I set an “unreachable” goal and I made it.”

He certainly did.

Michael Vick has paid his debt. Let him play.

My mother-in-law is pretty far from what you’d call a sports fan.

Wonderful woman that she is, she couldn’t tell you the difference between John Elway, Dan Marino or Wayne Gretzky if you put them in a police lineup.

She doesn’t watch sports, follow sports, or care about sports; one time while on a car trip I asked her over the phone to “check the score” of some game, and it was as if I’d asked her to explain quantum physics. She was completely flummoxed.

Anyway, I relate all this because about two or three times a year, she gets really angry about something that happens in the world of sports. I feel like if she’s fired up about it, plenty of other non-sports fans are, and Monday evening she was all kinds of fired up about the Michael Vick reinstatement to the NFL.

Before I go into why I think Roger Goodell did the right thing by conditionally allowing the felonious Vick back into the league in October, pending certain conditions, I want to stipulate the following, before I get tons of angry comments (actually, I’d be happy for ANY comments at this point, but that’s another story).

Michael Vick has been a disgusting excuse for a human being. His pathetic abuse of defenseless dogs, his blatant lying to everyone about his involvement, and the frightening and methodical way he ran a dogfighting ring puts him just below bat excrement on my list of favorite things.

He deserved to be punished severely, and he was. He absolutely, positively should live in shame for a long time in the public eye for what he did.

But I’m having a hard time agreeing with people, like my mother-in-law, who think he should never be allowed to play pro football again. They argue his deeds were so heinous that he should never be allowed the right to resume his profession.

I don’t get that. Let’s think about what has happened to Vick in the last two years: He lost his NFL career and his major contract with the Atlanta Falcons, costing himself more than a hundred million dollars.  He lost all of his endorsers. He was convicted of a felony. He spent nearly two years in prison, and for the rest of his life he will have to live with the memory of what he did (and, I’m sure, he’ll have to live with the animal-loving masses who no doubt will stalk him wherever he ends up.)

Now that he has paid his debt, is he not entitled to go back to work? If he was a banker or a lawyer or a gravedigger, would he not be allowed to try to pick up the pieces of his life and resume his career?

This is America, where getting a second chance is practically written into the Constitution. Was Vick’s crime more disgusting than most? Sure. Is it worse than athletes who beat their wives or get charged with DUI manslaughter like Donte Stallworth and Leonard Little, NFL players who aren’t suffering 1/10th the penalty that Vick has gotten?

One other thing that people who are railing against the NFL seem to be forgetting is that no team has to sign him. There are no guns to anyone’ s head.

It would take a coach and general manager who are awfully secure in their jobs, and in their team’s popularity with its fan base, to risk the backlash of a Vick signing. I fully expect huge PETA and/or ASPCA protests at any NFL stadium Vick would play in this year, or any year. Who could gamble on him? I’d say New England, because Bill Belichick is pretty bulletproof up there, or maybe Pittsburgh, coming off a Super Bowl win. And then there’s the Detroit Lions, who are so pathetic that perhaps their fans wouldn’t care about Vick’s transgressions if he helped them win.

Look, I think Vick should absolutely be scrutinized and banned permanently from the NFL if he even does anything remotely outside of the law.

But how long do we as a society need to punish a person? I’m not saying forgive Michael Vick, because he doesn’t deserve that yet.

But by allowing him to attempt to pick up  the pieces of his shattered life, the NFL is simply giving Michael Vick a second chance.

A chance that all of us in this country deserve.

“Rescue Me” and Rickey’s induction speech

So I’m one of those people who gets really mad when my friends and family don’t watch a TV show I recommend heavily.

I think I have a secret fear that if I don’t zealously spread the word, it’ll get canceled.

I told everyone I knew to watch “Freaks and Geeks,” still the best show about high school ever. Few did. It got canceled after 18 episodes.

I raved about an old Jay Mohr show called “Action,” which was hilarious but criminally unloved. I loved “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” which lasted a whole season.

After the pilot, I spread the gospel of “Dirty Sexy Money.” “It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s well acted, and it’s probably way too smart for most of America!” I exclaimed. It too got canceled.

With that track record, friends and family have grown skeptical. But dammit, sometimes I’m right. And from the first episode in 2004, my favorite show on television has been FX’s “Rescue Me.

If you are not familiar with it, a brief primer: It’s about life in a New York City firehouse post 9/11. The adventures of Ladder 62 make for the most hilarious yet heartbreaking show I’ve ever seen. In one minute, you’ll be busting out laughing at the wildly inappropriate humor. A few minutes later you’ll be devastated by the drama.

If you haven’t seen it, I beg you to give this hilarious clip a try. Or this unbelievably heart-wrenching one.

No show I’ve ever seen does comedy and dark humor better. Denis Leary is the star and is a genius. He plays Tommy Gavin, who has so many terrible qualities but so many great ones. Leary has been on other shows before and I’ve always watched them, because the dude is flat-out funny. When I was 14 I wore out his “No Cure for Cancer” comedy cassette, I played it so much. (The joke about the guy with the voice-box pulling up to the drive-through at McDonald’s still kills me).

Turns out Leary, who is one of the writers, is also a great actor, and the rest of the cast is fantastic, too. There’s Franco, the Puerto Rican tough guy who gets all the ladies and was revealed this season to have some interesting 9/11 theories. There’s Mike the probie, who is just so stupid but so endearingly earnest. There’s Ken (aka Lou), a great foil to Leary’s Tommy, who’s unlucky with women but has a great heart. There’s Sean, a great partner for Mike who has great comic timing and facial expressions.

There are lots more terrific, well-drawn characters, too, including a pair of crazy women Tommy’s constantly ping-ponging between. (For fans of the show, yes, I know that’s an old picture of the cast I’ve got up top, but I’m still mad they killed off Jerry the Chief a few years ago. I loved him.)

I don’t know why the Emmy Awards people keep snubbing this show, but it’s in the middle of Season 6 now and it’s still fantastic.

OK, end of arm-twist. It’s on tonight at 10 on FX, and it’s well worth your time.

**On another note, I was wildly disappointed in Rickey Henderson’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech. Not only was Rickey one of my favorite players growing up (at least when he was a Yankee), but the dude was 100 percent unintentionally funny. He spoke in the third person constantly; one of my favorite Henderson stories was when, disgruntled with the team he was on, he called every GM in baseball and said “This is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey, letting you know that Rickey is available in a trade.”

Then there’s the story, which may be apocryphal, when he went up to John Olerud and said he played with a guy in New York who also wore a batting helmet in the field.

“Um, Rickey, that was me,” Olerud allegedly said.

Anyway, Henderson’s speech was anticipated since he was elected in January; what would such a strange dude say on the biggest day of his life?
Sadly for us, it was a straight, emotional, speech. Rickey didn’t even call himself “Rickey” during the 14-minute talk.

I’d say it was a pretty big letdown. Oh well. We still have the great Phil Rizzuto speech from1994 to appreciate.

The Teddys of New England

I’m not sure if HBO planned it this way (it’d have been very smart if it did), but in the past three weeks the channel premiered two brand-new and extremely good documentaries on men called “Ted” who both are inextricably linked with New England.

Ted Williams, the greatest baseball hitter who ever lived, and Ted Kennedy, who’s been serving in the U.S. Senate for 46 years (I admit, that number astounded me, even though I knew he’d been there forever. Let me use a sports metaphor to put that into perspective: Ted Kennedy has been running for, or been in the Senate for the entire history of the New York Mets franchise. Amazing.)

I watched both movies this weekend, and thought both were terrific. You wouldn’t think there would be that much in common between them other than Massachusetts: Teddy Ballgame was a San Diego kid who grew up and could do something better than anyone else in the world: hit a baseball between two fielders.

And Teddy Kennedy, well, he’s an indestructible force of nature, for good and bad, who’s been a part of the American political scene longer than anyone else.

A couple of things I think connect the two men, which came into focus after watching the two movies:

**Both of them gave people plenty of reason to dislike them, yet have ended up being mostly beloved. Williams was a jerk to a lot of people: teammates, the media, his own family, sometimes.

**They both had difficult childhoods, though for very different reasons. Williams was neglected by his parents and forced to grow up fast, while Kennedy suffered tragedy after tragedy. Two siblings died before he was even 15 years old, which I don’t think most people remember about him.

** You want your flawed heroes, here are two very flawed men. Williams was a jerk a lot of the time, an absent father to his kids, and he seemed to resent how much Joe Dimaggio won, and yet “The Splendid Splinter” could get to only one World Series.

(Still think that might be the best baseball nickname ever. Although it’s hard to argue against “The Human Rain Delay,” which was what they called ex-Indians slugger Mike Hargrove. He got the name because he took so damn long between pitches, stepping out of the box and what not. See, the things you learn on this blog!)

And as for Kennedy, well, where do you start with his flaws? He was a heavy drinker for most of his adult life, an accidental murderer of a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne on the island of Chappaquiddick 40 years ago, and an egotist who commanded the spotlight everywhere he went.

But both men were so human, with their foibles so out in the open, that I think perhaps they became larger than life when they succeeded.

A few other thoughts on each movie, both of which are showing on HBO all month and on HBO On Demand:

** I knew Williams had a love-hate relationship with Red Sox fans, but I was honestly shocked to learn that as early as 1940, after his amazing rookie season, he was getting booed at Fenway. The guy had just hit .327, drove in 145 runs, and finished fourth in the MVP voting, and he’s getting yelled at by his home fans? Crazy.

**His temper was legendary, but I thought the best example in the movie was the anecdote told by one of his former wives, who said he once ripped the phone out of the wall in their house, then demanded she call the phone company to have them come fix it. Funny if it wasn’t so scary.

**Robert Redford chose No. 9 for the Roy Hobbs character in “The Natural” because he idolized Ted Williams. Didn’t know that.

** I know the “Ted Kennedy has endured so much tragedy” angle is as cliched as it gets, but when you see it all put together at once, it’s still breathtaking in its sadness. Brother Joe and sister Kathleen die early in his life. Brother John murdered while President. Then Teddy nearly dies in a plane crash. Four years later, other brother Robert shot while running for President. Then Ted’s son gets bone cancer and has to have leg amputated. It’s just staggering.

The man is truly indestructible, like the knight in the famous Monty Python sketch who gets his legs and arms cut off in a fight then screams, “Come back, it’s only a flesh wound!”

** I find it sad that Chappaquiddick has almost become an afterthought in the Kennedy legacy. A woman died. Kennedy drove off a bridge, escaped, tried to save her, then went back to his room and never reported that she was down there. Truly horrible, despicable behavior. I like so much of what Kennedy has done as a senator, but it’s really hard to respect him as a man after what happened in July of 1969.

**Also found it interesting that during the 1970s busing crisis in Boston, Kennedy was a pariah. He was booed and pelted with debris because he actually supported interracial school busing.

I came away with more admiration and respect for both 20th century giants after seeing this. Check them out if you have the chance.

P.S. The link on the Ted Williams reference above is to an Esquire story by Richard Ben Cramer, and it’s one of the single greatest pieces of sportswriting ever. If you have 20 minutes, it’s definitely worth your time.

The world’s greatest swimmer (not named Phelps)

So three years ago, my sports editor in Daytona Beach asked me something about Ryan Lochte.

“Who?” I replied innocently. He rolled his eyes, muttered something, and went back into his office.

To be fair, I don’t think most people had heard of Ryan Lochte in 2006. He was an international swimmer, sure, but he’d been out of college only a year, had swam at one Olympics (he got a relay gold and an individual silver in Athens in 2004), and wasn’t really known for much.

Now, I can tell you more than you’d ever want to know, since at my newspaper I’ve been on the “Lochte beat” for two years. In threatening to eclipse Vince Carter as the MFAFDB (or as you might call it, Most Famous Athlete From Daytona Beach), Lochte has become a major star.

The dude is 24 now, and has six Olympic medals to his credit. In the past two years he has emerged as the biggest rival in the pool to Michael Phelps. Lochte has beaten Phelps a couple of of times (of course, Phelps has beaten Lochte much more often), and last year at the U.S. Olympic swim trials the two staged a couple of epic duels.

At the Beijing Olympics, Lochte nabbed two golds and two bronzes, and set another world record, in the 200 backstroke.

Now if you follow swimming or the Olympics, you may know all that already. But being that I pretty much ate, slept, swam and breathed this guy last summer, (and wrote yet another story on him in today’s News-Journal) I thought I’d share a few things you might not know, because, hey, it’s my blog.

— Lochte’s a different kind of cat, in more ways than one. He didn’t really get serious about swimming until he was about 16; until then he just drove his dad, Steve, a respected national swim coach, nuts. Even for the first couple years at the University of Florida he wasn’t considered a star. Then he blew up and the rest is history.

— He’s also well … different. He’s got the “Spicoli” from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” thing down to a science. When he looks at you, his eyes are kind of vacant, and you’re never quite sure if he’s really paying attention. He’s terrible at returning phone calls, which isn’t atypical for athletes, except his own Mom (a sweetheart of a woman named Ike) often can’t get him on the horn.

— He’s turned into a gay icon, for some reason (well, probably because he looks good in a swimsuit); he’s been on the cover of several gay magazines and judging by the message boards I’ve seen, has thousands of gay fans.

–He eats candy all the time. I mean, ALL THE TIME. His mother still sends him bags of candy each week.

— He’s not exactly known for his timing; he got a stomach virus in Beijing, two days before he was about to race, because he brushed his teeth with water from the tap even though, like, 5,000 people had warned him not to do that.

— Because of his laid-back personality, he’s become in some ways a bigger fan favorite with the swimming community’s fans and media than Phelps. Phelps is pretty rigid and scripted; you never know what Lochte will say or do.

It’s funny, sportswriters like to say that we don’t really know these athletes, even when we cover them for years. In Lochte’s case, it’s completely, and literally, true.

I’d say I’ve interviewed him in person 6-8 times, and maybe over the phone another dozen, and I’m honestly not sure he’d remember my name if I didn’t remind him of it each time we meet. He’s basically a good guy, though.

Like I said, he’s just a different dude. But he’s an amazing athlete and a fantastic swimmer. The World Championships start today in Rome, and NBC is televising it at noon. Something called the Universal Sports network will have coverage throughout the week, and then NBC will televise the finals next weekend. Lochte isn’t going head-t0-head with Phelps this meet, so he’ll probably come home with a world record or two. (Though the way swimming is going right now, it’s a shock when a world record isn’t broken. So much controversy over the different kinds of suits; I say, let ’em all swim naked, and we’ll have a fair race.)

If you get a chance, check out my story on Lochte in today’s News-Journal, and on the tube today.

Look for the guy who looks slightly confused, but is going faster than everyone else, and you’ll see him.

**Sunday afternoon update: Lochte got his first gold medal of the Worlds, teaming with Phelps, Matt Grevers and Nathan Adrian to win the 4×100 free relay. Lochte has four events left to swim.

My new favorite opening day, and a hilarious wedding video

So Opening Day to me used to mean only two things: The first day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training for the new baseball season, and the actual Opening Day, the first week of April.

But as I said before, baseball and me are pretty much broken up. I don’t have the passion for it anymore, and I don’t even think I noticed those two old landmarks last spring.

Now, the two best dates for me, this year, are today and Sept. 13. Because today, the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills players started reporting for NFL training camp. And Sept. 13 is the first Sunday of the NFL season.

I can smell it. I can taste it. Football is just around the corner.

After a long hiatus, the memories are all wafting back into the mind’s eye.

The blinding speed of the wide receivers breaking open past the defense. The lightning-quick feet of the running back, dancing through holes like a Baryshnikov in cleats. The bone-crunching hit by the middle linebacker on a tight end who has the temerity to come across the middle.

I miss it so much during the offseason. Even though I’m a New York Jets fan, and I know the upcoming season will bring misery and end without a championship, just like the last 40 have, I still am as excited for football’s return as a kid on the night before his birthday. (My family, knowing the insane  level of my Jets fan-dom, has often asked me how I would react if the Jets ever actually, you know, WON a Super Bowl. I tell them not to worry; it’s never going to happen, so that question will always be hypothetical)

I don’t know exactly when the NFL surpassed baseball as America’s No. 1 sport; it could’ve been in the late 1980s, when the San Francisco 49ers brought offensive beauty to a new level. Or maybe it was during the Dallas Cowboys’ heyday in the early 1990s, when the team everyone loved to hate (including me) was on top.

Whenever it was, the NFL is clearly No.1 right now. Check out the thousands of people who go to training camp just to watch practice for a few hours, or the people who will pay ridiculous amounts of money for personal seat licenses, just for the right to purchase tickets to a game.

I can’t wait for the sounds of the sport I love to come rippling into my ears. I love the roar of the crowd after a sack, and the dead silence when the visiting team scores.

Aah, I love it so much. Training camps are open. Preseason’s just around the corner. Everybody’s still undefeated. The Jets might still win it all this year …

Game on.

P.S. So I love it when people take an old tradition and completely invent something new. This was from a wedding in Minnesota recently; it’s maybe the best opening to a ceremony I’ve ever seen. It’s just people having fun and completely acting in a wonderfully happy way. It’s already been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube. Enjoy.

Ah, New Jersey, the land of kidney-selling

A few weeks ago, in the midst of the moronic and childish New York state senate standoff, I wrote on my friend Jeff Pearlman’s blog that after all those shenanigans, I almost wished I was from New Jersey.

Delightfully, New Jersey has fired back with some sleaze of its own.

I almost don’t know where to start on this whole New Jersey politician/rabbi/corruption story; it’s almost too easy to make fun of.

If you’re not aware of what happened, 44 people were arrested in New Jersey Thursday on corruption charges, involving money-laundering, bribery, and kidney-selling (yes, kidney-selling).

This baby has it all: dirty politicians, including some, like the mayor of Hoboken, who ran on “anti-corruption” platforms. Sleazy rabbis funneling money to Israel and elsewhere, and of course, body-part selling.

Now, disappointingly for writers like me, the rabbis themselves were not directly involved in the kidney-selling part, though a Jewish guy, Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, was.

The jokes are endless with an orthodox Jew being involved: Was he unable to touch dairy after handling the kidney?  Did he have to make sure no ham or pork products had been ingested by the person whose kidney he was taking?

And most excitingly, was the kidney stolen on the Sabbath?  Because, you know, I’m pretty sure it says somewhere in the Torah that along with electricity and traveling in a car, organ-harvesting is also forbidden on that holy day.

This scandal is so beautiful; even longtime New Jersey scandal-watchers are saying this is bad, “even for New Jersey.” My favorite parts so far have been the sheer brazenness of the Rabbis (I always love it when religious leaders who always preach about morality have their hand in the cookie jar), and the quote from the mayor of Hoboken, Peter J. Cammarano, to the FBI informant during one of the deals, just before he was elected:

“Right now, the Italians, the Hispanics, the seniors, are locked down. I could be, uh, indicted, and I’m still going to win 85 to 95 percent of those populations.”

Well Pete, that sounded like a hypothetical then, but now, you can get that chance! Lets’ s see what it takes to get rid of him.

See, there’s a reason these stereotypes exist about New Jersey, and Louisiana, and Illinois politicians. It’s BECAUSE THEY”RE TRUE!

New Jersey has always had an inferiority complex about New York, and rightfully so. New York has better everything than New Jersey, except, apparently, corrupt officials.

So congratulations, New Jersey. You’ve once again made me proud to be a New Yorker.

And believe me, the next time I stop at the Vince Lombardi rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, I’ll think twice before ordering the kidney bean salad.

The rush to claim racism

One of the things I hate about our society these days (besides Paris Hilton and those idiots at Fox News) is the incredible rush to judgement everyone makes.

Quick, a story has happened, don’t worry if you know all the facts, have a take, any take! Blast somebody, cry foul, demand immediate justice … the other side of the story be damned.

Our 3-year-old’s mentality (“I want it and I want it now!) flared up again over the last few days, when the story of the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has been chewed up and spit out by the media and the blogosphere.

If you’re not familiar with the story, Gates, a brilliant man who’s one of the foremost African-American historians alive, was arrested Thursday at his home for disorderly conduct. He had arrived at his home in Cambridge, Mass., from a trip to China. A white neighbor of his thought he was trying to break in, called the cops, and Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct.

This story has gotten an enormous amount of attention; even President Obama was asked about it.

And for the most part, the reaction was consistent: How could the Cambridge cop, Sgt. James Crowley, arrest such a prominent man, in his own home? What a racist officer he must be, and how disgraceful is it that in 2009, when we have an African-American president, that stuff like this can happen.

First of all, any white person who doesn’t think this goes on to black people on a regular basis is just delusional. I don’t care how far we’ve come, racist behavior by white police officers and other public officials happens all the time, still.

But look a little deeper at this situation, take a deep breath, and let’s look at what actually happened. Gates is a pretty famous guy, but he’s not someone you’d instantly recognize. So the idea that the white woman who didn’t know it was him, and just assumed he was an ordinary black person, is not lunacy.

Then, there’s this: Gates was having trouble getting into his house, all parties stipulate. So he asked the cabdriver who’d driven him there to help him get in the house.

Imagine you’re the neighbor, and you see two men trying to jimmy open the front door to a nice house. Is it so wrong for her to call the police?

Then let’s look at what happened inside the house. When the officer, Crowley, arrived, he told Gates there was a report of a break-in. Gates reportedly got angry and demanded the officer’s badge number. Crowley said he asked Gates for some identification, and that Gates initially refused.

Eventually, Gates started getting agitated and yelled at the officer, and Crowley then arrested the professor for disorderly conduct.

Put yourself in Crowley’s shoes for a moment: He’s got an angry man yelling at him, he’s been told there was a burglary in the house, and the man won’t identify himself.

I’m not saying Crowley acted totally correctly; you could make a strong argument that once he learned who Gates was, the arrest never should’ve been made.

But again, there is some nuance here; Crowley didn’t know who Gates was, according to the police report Gates was screaming at the officer, and I don’t think we should automatically brand Crowley “a racist cop” as so many have.

The charges were dropped a few hours later, and of course I understand why Gates is angry. But please, can everyone just take a step back and not try to make this into a Rodney King or Amadou Diallo-type incident?

This is not a black and white story, and if people would just learn a few of the facts, the knee-jerk cries of racism, that do no one any good when they’re unproven, might die down just a little bit.

The genius of the Harry Potter books

Back in 2004, my then-girlfriend, now wife, asked me if I wanted to go our local Barnes & Noble at midnight for a Harry Potter Book Release party.

I believe “Um, excuse me?”  was my reply. Of course I knew by that point about the Harry Potter phenomenon; four best-selling books had already come and gone, and you’d have to have been living in one of Osama bin Laden’s caves to have not heard about this boy wizard who could do magic.

But I’d never picked up one of the books, or read an excerpt. My wife is one of those people who locks themselves in a room for 12 hours when a new Potter book arrives, not resurfacing until she’s finished.

So I had no interest in Potter, but, because when you’re dating you’ll pretty much go anywhere a woman wants, I tagged along.

I was amazed at what I saw. Hundreds of kids dressed up like their favorite characters, roaming the store. People passing out stickers professing their love to Draco Malfoy or Ron Weasley. Kids comparing notes about what they thought the new book would be like.

Honestly, it looked like a “Star Trek” convention for little people. And so, after a little more prodding by other people I knew who were devout Potter-philes, I dived in.

So far I’ve read six of the seven masterpieces; I just finished “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” over the weekend. Yeah, I know I’m behind, but I started late, and I like to take six months to a year between books; it seems to make me appreciate them more.

And not that J.K. Rowling needs any help from me,  but I want to spend a few minutes telling you why, if you haven’t given them a try, you should.

For one thing, they’re wonderful adventure stories. The plots are complex, but not too complex that you’ll get confused.

Sure, it helps if you’ve read them in order, because you know the history of the characters, but you could easily pick up “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and enjoy it on its own.

The details are so clever and amusing, too; Rowling spent so much time crafting each story, and each character, that everything that the characters say and do rings true. Of course some mishap will happen to Neville Longbottom, and of course Hermione Granger will get frustrated at Ron’s antics, etc.

The writing itself, of course, also sets the books apart. Rowling is a master at the language, and she makes you feel so emotionally attached to the individuals in her stories that you truly do feel their hopes and dreams.

I’m awfully tired of people deriding the Potter books as “children’s literature.”  They’re way more than that. They are true works of art, able to be enjoyed as much by 13-year-olds and 63-year-olds.

I’ve got one book left, and I almost don’t want to start reading it, because I know it’s the last one.

Anyway, if you’ve been a Potter-phobe before, check out “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and just read a few pages.

You’ll get sucked in, whether you mean to or not.


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Monthly Archives: November 2013

Newtown football, helping a town heal. My favorite “West Wing” Thanksgiving clip. And a homeless man honored for his ethics and generosity

And a Happy Good News Friday to you you all; hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving. Mine was stellar as always; family and friends gathered at my aunt’s in New Jersey, where once again I had the best meal I’ve had all year (that’s about 20 years consecutive for that streak). Man, I love everything about Thanksgiving; I have so much to be thankful for, this and every year.

Today I give you a couple of stories of goodness and hope, and a little leftover Thanksgiving humor.

First, a heartwarming little story from Atlanta. Joel Hartman is a homeless man living in Atlanta when he found a wallet while dumpster diving for food a few weeks ago.

Instead of taking all the money, he saw that it was a tourist’s wallet with a foreign ID card. He then took the remarkable step of visiting four hotels before finding out the tourist was staying at the Omni Center hotel.

He turned the wallet back in to hotel security and when they asked, he didn’t give his real name.

The hotel manager was so impressed with the gesture that he tracked Hartman down a few weeks later by canvassing the neighborhood, so to speak, to try to find the hero.

Hartman was then treated to a week-long stay at the Omni, a week’s worth of room service, and given $500.

Beautiful all around.

“When you’re looking through food in the garbage can, it’s probably one of the toughest times of his life. But when you find somebody’s wallet and you do the right thing, I think we’d like to do the right thing by this person,” the hotel manager, Scott Stuckey, said.

**Next up, since yesterday was Thanksgiving, I feel like you’d certainly enjoy this clip from the best turkey day episode of “The West Wing.” This is a compilation of scenes that are among the show’s funniest ever, when C.J. Cregg has to be in charge of which turkey gets pardoned by the President, and which gets eaten.

I laugh every single time, especially toward the end when Donna asks, “You can’t pardon a turkey?” And Bartlet’s line about the Oscars slays me too.

**Finally today, this is, of course, going to be an awful December for the people of Newtown, Conn., as the one-year anniversary of the horrific school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary dawns on us.

There’s not much good news to be found in the Newtown tragedy, but if you look hard enough, there are a few reasons for the townspeople to smile this year.

The Newtown High football team just completed an undefeated regular season. The Nighthawks have gone 12-0, while dedicating their season to those innocent children killed last year.

“Our players are hungry to win the championship to give everyone in town a great Christmas present and something to feel happy about a year after such a horrible tragedy,” said Newtown High’s head football coach, Steve George.

It’s a ridiculous oversimplification to say anything as trite as the football team bringing a whole town together, and of course a football team’s wins aren’t going to salve any wounds.

But you know what, sports really do help bring communities together sometimes. And maybe, just maybe, if Newtown High keeps winning and makes people in the city feel a little bit better for a few hours a week this December, it’ll be a wonderful thing.

A heartbreaking, hugely important book on soldiers returning from war. Dialects from across the U.S. in one video. And U.S. corporations act classlessly in Bangledesh

Quick housekeeping note: Probably no blog on Thursday, so Happy Thanksgiving! Will be back Friday with our regular Good News Friday post.

A few years ago I read a remarkable book by Washington Post reporter David Finkel called The Good Soldiers, in which Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion in the U.S. Army, following them to Iraq for a harrowing tour of death, fighting, and misery.

It was an incredible book, maybe one of the best on war I’ve ever read, and as I wrote back then, Finkel, a Pulitzer Prize winner, truly made you feel like you were there with the soldiers.

Two years later Finkel has written an even better book, about what happens when our soldiers come home, broken, battered, and severely psychologically damaged. Thank You For Your Service is shocking, like Finkel’s previous book was, but in two very different ways.
Here, the shock comes from just how mentally destroyed these men who saw such awfulness are, and how difficult it is to try to re-adjust to the real world. And the other sad shock is how incredibly disorganized and often hapless the U.S. government is in trying to help these men, from pushing them from one case manager and therapist to another, to offering inadequate answers to why so many soldiers have come home from this war and killed themselves.

The book goes deep into the lives of these men, like Adam Schumann (above), who still has nightmares and guilt about men in his command who died in battle (after not being on the scene when one of his men died, another comes back and says “This shit never would’ve happened if you’d been there.” That one comment haunts him for years.”)
There’s Tausolo Aieti, who wakes up screaming nearly every night after dreaming that another dead soldier is blaming him for his death.
Finkel also shows us the whole spectrum of recovery, from some success stories inside therapy programs the VA runs, to the awful toll the psychological damage takes on the soldiers’ wives and families, and he even takes us inside high-level Pentagon meetings, where the incredible rash of suicides is examined case by case, to try to see exactly what’s wrong.

This book is absorbing, and hard to put down. The details are extraordinary; Finkel lives with these men and their wives and families for months, and we get to see all the stops and starts, the fights and the successes, like we’re right there in the room.

One sample passage: Of one soldier, Finkel writes: “He began to take sleeping pills to fall asleep and another kind of pill to get back to sleep when he woke up. He took other pills, too, some for pain, others for anxiety. He began to drink so much vodka that his skin smelled of it, and then he started mentioning suicide.”

The true devastation of war isn’t always known when the tanks pull away and the helicopters leave; the tragedies continue at home.

This is a hugely important book, and not an easy one to read, because you’ll probably come away angry, like I did.

It’s also a book I wish every politician would read before blindly sending Americans into battle. Check it out on Amazon here, and here’s the NYT Review of the book.

**Remember a few weeks ago in this space when I wrote about a survey that reported which American regional accents were the best and worst? Well, time for something even cooler; this video, put together by the great folks at The Atlantic, is four minutes of all the different dialects of the U.S. spoken together.

We hear about grinders, subs, and hoagies; of Coke, pop, and sod-er, and all kinds of good stuff.

Part of the glory of America, don’t you think? But you people who say “grinders” are just strange to this New Yawker.

**Finally today, a really embarrassing story out of Bangladesh, that ought to shame the American corporations involved.

Surely you remember the awful factory collapse in that country last year, when awful working conditions resulted in the deaths of 1,200 workers.

Now, American companies whose products were being made there, companies like Walmart, Sears, and The Children’s Place, are refusing to offer ANY assistance toward victims compensation funds. Several European companies are helping out, but Walmart and the rest are showing a pathetic lack of concern.

From this N.Y. Times story: “Walmart is the one company that is showing an astonishing lack of responsibility, considering that so much of their product was being made at the Tazreen factory,” said Samantha Maher, a campaign coordinator for the British arm of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a European anti-sweatshop group.

Just awful. These people died making your products in an unsafe factory, and you don’t have the decency to offer their families compensation. Disgusting.

A bitter cold morning, and saying goodbye to Grandma for the last time. The great Barry Bremen, remembered. And a hockey commercial 1980s wrestling fans are sure to love.

Sunday morning, on a sunny, 20-degree day on Long Island, my family said goodbye to our beloved matriarch one last time.

It was my Grandmother’s unveiling, which is a Jewish tradition wherein, within the first year after someone’s death, the family gathers together to unveil her headstone, and pay final respects.

I’ve been to several unveilings, and as a non-religious person it’s always struck me as an odd little ceremony. You are of course still sad about the loss of a loved one, but most of the emotion from the funeral has gone, everyone has moved on, and it sometimes feels like an afterthought.

This unveiling was different, though. My grandmother, as I’ve written here several times before, was an incredible woman, the best person I’ve ever met. I still think about her often, and miss her terribly.
Something so mundane as scrolling through the contacts in my cell phone and reaching the “G’s” and not seeing her name in there can make me feel sad. We used to talk all the time before Alzheimer’s robbed us of the person she once was, and our phone calls were always a highlight.

But that’s been over for a long time now, and Sunday seemed like the final moments we’d have with her. She was on a headstone next to my grandfather, and I’m glad they’re together again. We said a few prayers, hugged and kissed each other, and placed small stones on both their monuments.

It wasn’t nearly as emotional as the funeral was, but it was still a very final feeling, and it was nice to have everyone together to celebrate her one last time.

Then, we all went and had a good meal, laughing and joking and talking about Thanksgiving.

Grandma would’ve been so happy to see us all there.

**When I was a kid, one of the strangest characters I’d ever seen in sports was Barry Bremen. Bremen was a Detroit sporting goods salesmen who, thanks to some creative ingenuity and incredibly lax security, came to be known as “The Great Imposter.” He snuck onto the field at an MLB All-Star Game, shot some warm-up hoops on an NBA court, became a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and an NFL referee.

ESPN’s “30 for 30 shorts” documentary series did a great little nine-minute video on Bremen’s life.

He was just such a bizarre character, who none of the athletes really minded (well, Tommy Lasorda, around the 6-minute mark of the video, kinda got mad).
You watch this video and realize that none of Bremen’s antics could’ve happened today, with the security in today’s stadium.

I always sort of envied Bremen; “all he ever did was bring a smile to your face,” one of his friends says in the video.
That’s a pretty good epitaph to have, if you ask me.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

**Finally today, this one made me laugh out loud. The Nashville Predators hockey team have a glut of American-born players doing well this season, so they decided to make a promo video highlighting their stars, juxtaposed with photos of great American landmarks.

To the soundtrack of Hulk Hogan’s old wrestling entrance music, “I am A Real American.” Old-school wrestling fans, enjoy.

And if you don’t have this song in your head the rest of the day, I haven’t done my job here. (Can’t you just hear Gorilla Monsoon hollering “And here comes teh Hulkster!”)

We get some new wheels, and I’m a bit overwhelmed. A wild day in the NFL, and the Jets officially stink. And what Kurt Cobain would look like today

Pretty big weekend for the Lewises; we got a new car.

I’d had my 2004 Toyota Corolla for about 10 years, and I loved that car, which got me through a whole bunch of long nights and days driving on different newspaper job assignments, drove me back and forth from New York to Florida twice, and basically did everything I needed it to do.

But the last nine months or so she really was falling apart, 140,000 miles after her life began (I don’t know why I’m calling her “she,” seems like boats are always females, aren’t cars, too?), and we were pouring more money into the car than it was worth.

So about a month ago we started to go car-lease shopping (not sure we wanted to buy, a lease gives us more flexibility because we don’t know where we’ll be living in a few years, maybe out of NYC). We really like the Toyota RAV-4, but the safety ratings on it were terrible. We liked the Subaru Forester, but it just didn’t feel right.

Then we saw the Honda CR-V, and loved it. It felt good, it looked cool, and it was the best of the small SUV’s we looked at (I really, really don’t like driving big cars, but the wife likes “sitting high up” so I figured what the hell.)

And so, thanks to some really quick work and excellent service at a great Long Island Honda dealer, we picked up our metallic blue pearl CR-V on Saturday.

And I gotta say, not having driven a new car in 10 years, I was pretty overwhelmed. So many new features, so many damn dashboard buttons to deal with, a navigation system that’s more complicated than my first computer… it was a little dizzying.

But also, super cool. The SiriusXM satellite radio free trial definitely has the potential to get me hooked into a subscription, if only for the “80s on 8” channel alone. The car handles great, it has like 47 airbags, and so far we’re definitely in love.

**More craziness in the NFL on Sunday: The Rams beat the tar out of the Bears, the Lions get beat by the awful Buccaneers, and what in the name of Jack Trudeau (old-school Tecmo Bowl fans remember him?) is going on with the Colts, getting destroyed by a suddenly-awesome Arizona team?

The Sunday night game was at least blessedly predictable, with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady putting on another classic. The Broncos completely collapsed in the second half, rallied to send it to OT, and then lose on a fluke fumble on a punt at the end of OT? Ugh. Hate, hate, HATE seeing the Patriots win.

Well, at least one thing Sunday was predictable: The Jets and Geno Smith continued their downward slide to where we expected them to be. The boys in green and white were miserable Sunday, losing to the Ravens 19-3, and Smith has definitely regressed into Mark Sanchez territory.

Kid just looks lost. He was under heavy pressure most of the day, and the running game didn’t do much, but Geno just doesn’t seem to know what to do out there. Maybe a game or two on the bench would help; anything but more of the same.

As I said to my fellow Jets diehard David Sunday, I’m rooting for 5-11 now, so the Jets can at least get a Top 10 pick and have a shot at a top college QB. Because no matter what Geno does the rest of the way, he hasn’t won the job for next year.

Ah, the Jets. So nice there’s something predictable in the NFL world tonight.

**Finally today, I thought this was kind of creepy and weird but also fascinating.

The music website has paired with the Rock and Roll Heaven Project to show us what famous rock stars who died young would look like today. They’ve got Jim Morrison (above), Kurt Cobain, and what I think is the creepiest one of all, Elvis Presley.

Man, the John Lennon one (No. 3 in the gallery) really looks horrible, doesn’t it? I think he would’ve aged better than that.

Pretty fascinating stuff.

Good News Friday: Dayna Morales, a waitress with a great heart. Harry Reid grows some cojones (finally) in Congress. And a cool ad to get girls to become engineers

daynamoralesBy now you are probably familiar with the story of Dayna Morales, a former Marine and gay waitress who, a few weeks ago, was stiffed on a tip at the New Jersey restaurant where she works because she’s a lesbian.

Instead of leaving a tip on a $93.55 bill, a family of diners ridiculed Morales and scrawled an anti-gay note on the receipt, that read: “I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I don’t agree with your lifestyle & how you live your life.”

Morales publicized this on Facebook, and thankfully, support for her rolled in, in the form of several thousand dollars.

Morales could’ve kept this money, and no one would’ve raised a peep of objection. But she’s made my heart smile for donating a portion of the money to the Wounded Warriors Project, which aids injured soldiers.

A great gesture by a classy woman. As an aside, do you notice how every single obnoxious, bigoted act by people in America now seems to get loads of attention, and shouted down each time? It’s wonderful to see hatred treated with the 100 percent contempt it deserves.

**Next up, someone I never thought I’d be honoring on Good News Friday, but what the hell, miracles do happen every day. In this case, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat previously without a spine, actually grew one on Thursday.

After years of threatening to end the filibuster on judicial nominees and presidential appointments, thanks to near-constant Republican obstructionism, ole’ Harry Reid from Nevada finally did something about it Thursday. He put it to a vote, and by a 52-48 margin, the “nuclear option” was passed. Now, the filibuster isn’t totally dead; it can still be used by the minority party to block legislation and Supreme Court nominations.

But so many of the ridiculous delays in appointments and judgeships will now finally be over; from Elizabeth Warren’s blocked appointment a few years ago to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to these recent appeals court vacancies that the Republicans have refused to be allowed to be filled, it’s been obscene how much power the minority party has had.

Majority rule, finally, might actually be allowed to happen sometimes. And sure, in a few years if the GOP are in control of the Senate I’ll be pissed, but you know what? The price you have to pay for progress. And by getting rid of a filibuster that’s been used only because the Republicans can the last few years, is a welcome, wonderful change.

Here’s the great Ezra Klein in the Washington Post on why this is a big deal.

**And finally today, you may remember those awesome OK Go videos that had a Rube Goldberg feel to them: trippy and cool.

Well a company called GoldieBlox is out with an awesome new TV ad, set to music by the Beastie Boys, on encouraging girls to become engineers.

I can’t emphasize enough how important I think positive messages for young girls are; there’s so much crap and negative messaging in the media, from people like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, that reinforce so many negative stereotypes about women.

Commercials like this, showing girls they can do anything and making it look cool? Fabulous.

The new Bob Dylan video is spectacular. How close the NFL really came to having an active gay player. And I tip my hat to Dean Smith, always a legend

So there’s no way to sugar-coat this or oversell it: This new Bob Dylan video for “Like a Rolling Stone” is brilliant.

If you haven’t seen it by now, I’m surprised, because it’s been all over the Internet. But here it is, and it’s spectacular. It’s an interactive video; the whole video looks like a TV screen, and by using the up and down arrows on your keyboard, you can “watch” people singing the classic song in all different formats. There’s an old movie, a sports highlights show, a “The Price is Right” episode, and a whole bunch more people all singing the song perfectly in sync with each other.

I have no idea how it was done, but I keep watching it over and over. So cool. I really, really recommend clicking on it; it’s a dazzling example of the merger of a great old song and 21st century technology.

If you’re interested in how it was made, Rolling Stone interviewed the creators here.

**I’m sure you all remember the media attention garnered last spring by Jason Collins, who became the first active male pro athlete in a major team sport to admit he was gay.
Collins, a longtime NBA center, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and hailed for weeks as a hero, as he should’ve been.
Unfortunately, Collins isn’t an active player anymore; most distressingly, the free agent saw not one NBA team reach out to him for so much as a tryout in training camp this year, and as the season rolls on he remains unsigned.

(Now, I completely understand that he’s no LeBron; he’s an aging big man who was never that good in the first place, and teams are totally in their rights to ignore him because of his lack of ability. Still, I can’t believe a man as PR-conscious as NBA commissioner David Stern couldn’t find a way to get Collins in the league.)

Anyway, around the time Collins came out, there were also rumblings that several NFL players were going to come out of the closet together. How close did it really come to happening? Pretty damn close, as Mike Freeman, an excellent sportswriter (and fellow UD Blue Hen!) writes in this story. It was about to happen, and then one of the teams got gun-shy and it didn’t happen; they didn’t sign the player (My fellow Jets fans might recognize the profile and characteristics of one of the players mentioned; if it’s who I think it is, it’s not a surprise; he played with the Jets for several years about six years ago.)

Pretty sad that it’s late 2013 and NFL owners are general managers are still too afraid to actually have an out gay player on their roster. How much longer will it take?

**Finally today, a few words about Dean Smith, the legendary University of North Carolina men’s basketball coach, who Wednesday was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Now as you may know from reading this blog, I’m sort of a big Duke basketball fan (ha), which of course means I hate everything Carolina blue.

But I can never, ever, ever say anything bad about Dean Smith. Of course I admire all that he accomplished at UNC, from his victories, to his principled stand on civil rights (he was a leader in helping integrate the school in the 1960s, and recruited black players long before most others did) to his absolute grace and dignity on and off the court.

But personally, I was lucky to have interviewed him 1-on-1 a few times, and he could not have been more gracious. I’ll never forget asking him a question at a press conference once, the first time I’d gotten to do that, and then seeing him months later at a charity event. He walked up to me and said “Hey Michael, how’ve you been?” like we were old friends.

Dean was all class, and it’s heartbreaking to know that now he’s quite ill, with significant memory loss (no one has quite said what’s ailing him, trying to protect his privacy, but it sure sounds like Alzheimer’s or dementia).

He’s one of the greats, and I’m glad he continues to be recognized for the giant life he has led.

The XBox that can see you naked. A hilarious Foot Locker ad. And how the post office can read awful handwriting.

So I’m not much of a video-game player anymore, but I still like to keep up on the big trends (when I substitute teach in NYC the kids are always amazed when they learn I’ve heard of Grand Theft Auto. They really think all grown-ups are idiots. Then again, I probably did too when I was their age.)

Anyway, a new version of XBox is coming out, the XBox One (shouldn’t the first version have been called One? But I digress) and it’s got this cool whizbang infrared camera thingy built into it where it can capture the player’s image and motion, even when the lights are out.

Sounds great, except for one thing: Early testers of the game discovered that game can see you naked.
Seriously, right through your clothes and into your birthday suit.
Yep, it seems to project all of you onto the screen, which, let’s face it guys, we don’t really need to see at three o’clock in the afternoon.

**Next up, a truly brilliant commercial from Foot Locker. To celebrate what the shoe company is calling their Week of Greatness, they decided to see what could happen if they could right previous wrongs in the sports world. So we get Mike Tyson returning Evander Holyfield’s ear to its original owner, Brett Favre reversing his pattern, and other wonderful changes. Really great…

**As someone with truly horrendous penmanship (not proud of it, just something I’ve learned to live with since I was little), I appreciate how difficult it is for the post office to read handwriting of those like mine.

And now thanks to the great folks at Mental Floss, I know how they do it. It’s actually quite complicated, with three different layers of service based on how difficult the handwritten address is.

I found this article pretty fascinating. And to all the mailmen out there who have to look at my chicken scratch, my apologies. I’m trying my best.

“Dallas Buyers Club” a terrific look at AIDS in the 1980s. Padding in schools finally challenged by a principal. And a hilarious play-by-play of a car accident.

I saw that rarest of media creations over the weekend, something more rare than an 85-degree day in New York City in January.
More rare than a Cleveland Browns Super Bowl win.
More rare than Alec Baldwin acting like a sane human being when there’s a photographer around.

Last weekend I saw a good Matthew McConaughey movie.

Yep, the male Ken doll with the perfect teeth, great body and great hair has spent most of his career making one crappy film after another in my opinion, but looks like he’s finally got a winner and shown off his acting chops.

“Dallas Buyers Club” is a terrific, a real absorbing, brilliantly-acted and so well-written story of the life of Ron Woodroff, a Texas electrician who in 1985 was diagnosed with AIDS. A more unlikely AIDS champion you could not find, Woodruff manages to fight the FDA on their delay of life-saving AIDS drugs by going into business importing “alternative” medicines that end up doing a whole world of good for thousands of people.

McConaughey is really terrific as Woodroff, showing a man who changes from being only out for himself (his behavior the first 30 minutes of the flick is truly abhorrent) to making a ton of money while actually doing good. The FDA is an enormous government entity tangled in red tape, and especially when it came to the HIV virus moved incredibly slowly.

Jared Leto is Oscar-worthy as Woodroff’s partner in crime, a transsexual AIDS patient who initially is just a pawn in Woodroff’s game, but becomes much more. Jennifer Garner, usually pretty “blah” in movies, is good here, and the script is truly wonderful; you get to know these characters as human beings caught in a terrible situation, not knowing if they’re going to live or die.

The awful epidemic of AIDS in the ’80s has spawned a ton of great movies, plays and TV shows, like “The Normal Heart” and the great documentary “How To Survive a Plague.

“Dallas Buyers Club” deserves to be a part of that rich history. And hey, if Matthew McConaughey can make a great movie, there must be icicles forming in hell as we speak.

**Next up, this is another one of these videos that may or may not be fake, but it’s so funny I don’t care. A Dallas man was leaving a voicemail for his boss telling him he’d be late to work when he witnesses an accident between one man and a car-ful of old ladies. Listen to his hilarious play-by-play (it gets good about 30 seconds in); I think this proves that hearing someone laugh uncontrollably while describing it makes anything three times funnier.

grade inflation

**Finally today, this story made me say “Hallelujah!”

I’ve long believed that one of the problems in our society today is the “over-congratulating” of young people, giving everyone a trophy and a pat on the back for everything, and the syndrome is at its worst in some schools as well.

I may have told this story here before, but as a student teacher two years ago I was so dismayed when, after grading several students fairly (and poorly) for shoddy work on their essays, I was told by my mentor teacher that I “had to change their grades; you can’t give them scores that low.”

It’s insulting and wrong when we continue to publicize and highlight and praise everyone, because it takes away from the kids who truly excel.

Anyway, I’m rambling, but this story is a great example of some pushback. A mother in Florida was confused when her 7th-grade son brought home a report card telling him he made the honor roll, when he had a D and a C on it.

The mom brought it to the school principal’s attention, and Kim Anderson of Pasco Middle School agreed wholeheartedly, acknowledging that having 50 percent of her students make the honor roll isn’t exactly right.

The kid’s mom, Beth Tillack, said it perfectly:

“The bottom line is there’s nothing honorable about making a D,” said Tillack. “I was not happy, because how can I get my child to study for a test when he thinks he’s done enough?”

Senate may make long-overdue change in military rape cases. The Jets continue their schizophrenic pattern. And dogs doing funny stuff.

For the last several years, as I read more and more horrifying stories of what happens to female soldiers in all branches of our military, I’ve been more and more disgusted.

As we’ve seen in scandal after scandal, thousands of women have been sexually assaulted while serving our country, and rarely if ever are their attackers brought to justice (hell, sometimes they even get promoted).

The fantastic documentary movie “The Invisible War”, which I wrote about here, talked about how much the deck is stacked against women like Kori Cioca and others who have been violated.

One of the biggest obstacles is getting a fair shake judicially when a victim’s complaint is handled in the military chain of command, where sometimes the person handling the rape charge IS the person who did the assaulting. And even when the defendant is not the judge, it’s incredibly difficult for women’s complaints to be taken seriously.

In the Senate right now a cross-section of Democratic and Republican senators are taking up a proposal to remove the power to decide whether to try sexual assault cases from the military chain of command and put it in the hands of an independent military prosecutor.

This would be a vital step toward at least helping these victims get a fair shake. Why only 46 of 100 Senators are signing on to this so far is beyond me, but hey, it’s a start.

Read more about the proposal here, and check out “The Invisible War” on Netflix here.

**Well, can’t say I didn’t see that one coming.
Everything for the past two weeks that’s been said about the New York Jets ws positive. They’ve finally turned the corner, they’re 5-4, they’re in playoff contention, then they sign veteran safety and future Hall of Famer Ed Reed, they’re playing Buffalo Sunday who the Jets always beat … so of course, being a Jets fan, with all that positivity, I was frightened of Sunday’s game.

And I had reason to be. After three decades of being a fan, I’ve learned to see these things coming. Geno Smith was awful, as bad as he’s been all year, losing fumbles, throwing interceptions (including a Sanchez-ian Pick 6 in the third quarter).
The offensive line couldn’t block a mosquito. The secondary was awful, as it has been much of the year. And so the Jets became the first team in NFL history (whoo-hoo!) to alternate wins and losses for the first 10 games of the year.
Always nice to make history.

Couple more quick-hit NFL thoughts:

— Everyone who had the Eagles in first place in the NFC East a month ago, please raise your hand. What a wacky NFL season.

–So much for that Cleveland Browns resurgence, eh?

— I say it every time they wear them, but those Pittsburgh Steelers throwback uniforms (above) are the ugliest unis I’ve ever seen. I mean, did they all just break out of prison?

**And finally, for a little Monday pick-me-up, four minutes of puppies and big dogs escaping from situations they weren’t too thrilled to be in. The dog at :37 is my favorite, sign him up for the NBA!

Two stories of warm-hearted Grandmas. And a 5-year-old leukemia patient gets his Batman wish

And a happy Good News Friday to you all; I’m happy because I’m going to my first Rangers game at the “new” Madison Square Garden on Sunday, where I’m sure I’ll be depressed after what I suspect will be the Jets letting me down Sunday afternoon.

But that’s two days away, let’s focus on the good. And on two great stories involving Grandmas, who really never get the credit they’re due.

First, once again “CBS Sunday Morning” comes through with a heartwarming story. An 81-year-old grandmother named SuEllen Fried of Prairie Village, Kan.,who for the past three decades has been leading a support group and lending plenty of support herself, to prisoners at Lansing Correctional Facility.

Fried runs a program called “Reaching Out from Within,” helping prisoners learn to be kinder toward one another, and trying to change their outlook on life.

You may think it’s a hopeless task, but this stat from the story blew me away: While the normal prisoner recidivism rate is 50 percent, inmates who go through Sue’s program only return to prison 10 percent of the time.

It’s a beautiful story and yet more evidence that the neanderthal notion of “locking them up and throwing away the key,” without offering supports and a way out, is just so, so wrong.

You go, Grandma.

**The second Grandma story involves Florida Marlins rookie pitching sensation Jose Fernandez and his grandma (I actually saw Fernandez pitch in high school in Florida, and he was a man among boys).

Fernandez is from Cuba, and he hadn’t been able to see his grandmother for the past five years, since he left the country for Florida.

Well, with the help of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria (who rarely gets any praise, nor deserves any), Fernandez got to see his Grandma recently. Check out the video here; it gets really good around the 2:45 mark, but the whole thing is terrific.

**Finally today, this story is wonderful on a few different levels. A 5-year-old boy with leukemia named Miles loves Batman, and his Make-A-Wish Foundation wish was to become BatKid.

And now the entire city of San Francisco today is helping Miles’ wish come true. Check out these awesome details from this story:

“(Today) a breaking news story will appear on TV in San Francisco. The police chief will be asking if anyone knows where Batkid is because he needs his help to solve a crime and “bringing the bad guys to justice,” Make-a-Wish said in a statement.

“Miles’ day will then include rescuing a damsel in distress tied up across the Hyde Street cable car line and capturing the Puzzler in the act of robbing a downtown vault. As Batkid eats his lunch at Burger Bar, he’ll get a special message from the chief telling him to go to the window where he’ll look out over Union Square and see a huge group of volunteers jumping up and down and asking for his help.

A villain will be kidnapping a famous San Francisco mascot and Batkid will rush to the rescue. His last stop will be City Hall, where the mayor and police chief will thank him and present him with a key to the city and a crowd will be cheering him on.”

I mean, can you believe the lengths this city is going to? Thousands of people are coming out to help make one sick little boy’s dreams come true.

How could you not be an optimist about our world after reading that?


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Saturday, April 4, 2015

Huck Finn Jubilee Festival 2015 Lineup

Bluegrass fans should be pleased with the lineup for the 2015 Huck Finn Jubilee Festival, which includes Ralph Stanley, Ricky Scaggs, Railroad Earth, and Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn. The festival is going to be held June 12th to June 14th at the Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park in Ontario, California.

Tickets are available now, including three-day passes, single-day tickets, as well as RV and camping reservations, which can be purchased online. And for folks who aren’t into camping, there are also hotel packages.

Here is a list of artists for each day:

  • Dr. Ralph Stanley
  • Del McCoury Band
  • Hot Rize
  • Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
  • Sierra Hull
  • Driven
  • SWBA Bluegrass Kids

  • Railroad Earth
  • Jeff Austin Band
  • Ricky Scaggs and Kentucky Thunder
  • Steep Canyon Rangers
  • Lonesome River Band
  • Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen
  • Detour

  • Damascus Road
  • Leftover Salmon
  • Greensky Bluegrass
  • Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass
  • The Infamous Stringdusters
  • Russell Moore & Illyrd Tyme Out
  • Blue Highway
  • Tennessee Mafia Jug Band
The music starts at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, and at 9:15 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

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