Good News Friday: Billy Joel makes a college kid’s dream come true. A Corgi who’s an awesome goalie. And the best video Bar Mitzvah invite ever

**Was all set to write about my excitement that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played Thursday night in California, their first match in a year. But Fed’s injured back barely let him move, and Nadal, not really healthy himself, drubbed him. Made me sad to see Fed so not like himself. Get better soon, Fed.

Meanwhile, watching 5 minutes of Jerry Seinfeld doing stand-up from Wednesday night cheered me up a little. The man’s still got it.

Billy Joel may not be what he used to be; his voice isn’t the same, his reputation has been ruptured by his several drunk driving incidents (hey, when “Saturday Night Live” parodies you multiple times, that’s not good), and he hasn’t made any new music in quite a while.

But for people like me who great up in the 1980s with his music, he’ll always be a legend. So it was nice to see a kid who was born WAY after “Piano Man” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” came out feel the same way about Billy as millions of us do.

At a college student lecture/concert recently at Vanderbilt University, Billy was asked a question by 20-year-old Michael Pollack, a Vandy student and aspiring songwriter who asked if he could come up and play “New York State of Mind” with Joel.

Billy said “Sure,” and the above video ensued. Just beautiful. I’ve talked about this with my friend Pearlman a bunch, as both of us have been around celebrities a lot and have seen how big of a jerk they can be to fans.

It takes so little for a superstar to make the day of a fan, so little to give someone a lasting memory. I don’t know why more celebrities don’t just take the five seconds to be nice.

Anyway, the Vandy kid does a hell of a job here, don’t you think? Here’s a little background on how he got to play with Billy.

**And now, the most excited Corgi in the world, playing goalie with a ball tossed by his owner.

The anticipation of the dog is my favorite part; he just cannot wait for that ball to be thrown.

**Finally today, saying something is “the coolest Bar Mitzvah invitation ever” isn’t exactly clearing a high bar, I know. But this kid Jorel totally nailed this video invite, with an assist from the music of Queen;

I wish I could go, I bet it’ll be a killer party.

R.I.P. Sally Ride, a true American pioneer. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, just hanging out, hilariously. And a big day for the Rangers: Rick Nash is coming to NYC

The thing that surprised me most when I read that the first American woman in space, Sally Ride had died Monday night? Her age.
For a person who accomplished as much as Ride did, and to be only 61 when she passed away due to cancer, was eye-opening.
This was a woman who was a true pioneer, becoming the first woman accepted at NASA as an astronaut in 1978, and who then flew two missions.

As discriminatory barrier after barrier falls away as society becomes more enlightened and less beholden to the past, you sometimes forget how big a deal it was when certain blockades fell. In the middle of the feminism wave of the 1970s, Ride literally proved women could go anywhere men could go, all the way to outer space.

She was a wonderful role model for girls who loved science, and a terrific representative for all who had the imagination to go where few had gone before.

Hers was a life cut short too soon, and she will be missed. But as long as the tales of traveling in orbit are told, Sally Ride will be remembered.

**Jerry Seinfeld, whose post-”Seinfeld” career hasn’t been all that, you know, funny, may finally have something worth watching again. He’s got a new Web-only show on Crackle.com called “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Which is exactly what it is.

For episode one he had his old partner Larry David on, and it was fantastic. These two are just so clearly, perfectly in tune, that it’s like watching jazz, seeing them riff off each other. A definite good use of 13 minutes of your time; watch the clip above (and enjoy the real spit-take around the 8-minute mark).

**Finally, on a day when the New York Yankees acquired the great outfielder Ichiro (who may or may not be washed up, we’ll see), I was much more excited by another trade one of my favorite teams made Monday.
After months of negotiating, and trade talks stalling, the deal was finally cinched: Star goal-scorer Rick Nash is coming to the Rangers. My Blueshirts had to give up a few good players, but nobody anywhere close the quality of Nash, who scored 30 goals every year on a terrible team in Columbus. Imagine what he’ll do playing with Ryan Callahan and Brad Richards every night!

This trade makes the Rangers a lot better. If there’s a hockey season this fall (and that’s a big if, with an owners’ lockout looming), I’m very pumped for the Rangers’ chances.
Rick Nash, welcome to Broadway. Now don’t screw up.
 

Stewart and Seinfeld kill on “The Daily Show.” “Rescue Me” is back for one more fire. And the cheesiest yet most awesome city promo video ever.

I was practically in tears laughing while watching this on “The Daily Show” Wednesday night.

Jon Stewart had just finished a piece mocking Marcus Bachmann, husband of Michele Bachmann, and a complete lunatic who compares gay people to barbarians and wants to “cure” them. Stewart and his special guest Jerry Seinfeld underwent some “comedy repression therapy” and it’s just too damn funny:

**I’m an enormous fan of the Denis Leary show “Rescue Me,” which I’ve written about a few times on here. If you have never watched it, man, you are missing some seriously awesome TV.
Its final season started Wednesday night, and of course it was awesome. The firemen of Ladder 62 in New York have one final chance to fight fires, save lives, and be incredibly, outrageously, inappropriately funny as well.

Can’t wait to see how this show ends. I have no idea if Tommy Gavin (Leary’s character) is going to die, if Lou will ever find true love, and whether Sheila will finally go completely nutso and blow away every man in her life.
But I know it’s going to be a fabulous ride. Seriously, I implore you, watch this show once and you’ll be hooked. Wednesday nights, 10 p.m. on FX.

**Man, I had totally forgotten all about this next clip until I saw it on grantland.com Wednesday night. And I gotta admit, it totally made me laugh and smile.
In the early 1990s, NBC made this incredibly detailed “I Love New York” style promo video for the city. It was cheesy, hilarious in its “over the top”-ness, but also all kinds of awesome.
If you’re a New Yorker, or were back then, you’ll probably appreciate this the most…

A great story written by a dockworker. South Dakota really doesn’t want to let you get an abortion. And Seinfeld’s cool new website

Great writing can be found anywhere. Not only in the New Yorker, or the Washington Post, or in books.
And there are so many great writers among us, who just don’t have a wide audience.
And I get so much joy out of reading something great by someone I’ve never heard of.
Take John Hyduk. He occasionally does some work for Cleveland magazine, but his regular job is on a loading dock, working the night shift and making sure the soda count is right for the bottling distributorship he works for.
He writes simply, in layman’s terms, but shows us a side of life we hardly ever get to see from a first-person perspective.
Start reading this story he wrote for Esquire. I bet it’s unlike anything you’ve read in a long time.

**Rachel Maddow, who does excellent work, had this eye-opening piece on the incredible restrictions placed on women who want to get abortions in South Dakota.
It’s disgusting that lawmakers are allowed to get away with what is, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, a LEGAL medical procedure.
Just awful.

**Finally, the great Jerry Seinfeld, who I’m proud to say I saw live in concert at Westbury Music Fair on Long Island in the 80s, LONG before he was famous, has created a new website.

It’s filled with all his old bits from every show he’s ever been on. He parcels them out three a time, every day, and it’s fabulous.
Even if I’ve heard almost all of the jokes already. Check it out here.

Why college students celebrated Osama’s death the most. A Doogie Howser thought. And Seinfeld and Rock brilliant in HBO special

Twenty-four hours after the news came that the U.S. had finally killed Osama bin Laden, I found myself thinking a lot about the college students we all saw pictures of during the wall-to-wall news coverage.
They were deliriously happy on campuses from Maine to California and all places in between; the incredible photo above is from Penn State.
And I got to thinking why above all others, these 18-to-21 year olds were so happy.
I mean of course, college kids want any excuse to party and blow off studying, but I think this goes deeper than that.
I have a theory. For these college kids today, Osama bin Laden ruined their childhoods. They were 8, 9, maybe 10 years old on 9/11, and they had to deal with something at a young age that was so different from anything we as Americans have ever had to deal with before (of course we’ve had wars that have cost more lives, but as far as one single day, with one attack on American soil, this was unprecedented.)
Those kids saw unfathomable pain and suffering, more than any kid should have to see. And for the last 10 years, Osama bin Laden has been their real-life Bogeyman.
He’s not the monster under the bed, or in the closet. He’s the real-life person who caused them such emotional trauma at a time in childhood when they were most vulnerable.
So Sunday night, when they found out he was dead, it was like the monster was finally killed. And they could finally turn the light off and go to sleep.

**On a related note (ha) … so it’s last Saturday night, 2 a.m., and I’m flipping around the dial and stop on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” (Don’t judge. That show ruled). And it struck me while I watched the last scene (it was the episode where the cute nurse picked Vinny Delpino over Doogie), while Doogie typed his two-sentence thought, that Doogie Howser was the world’s first-ever blogger.
Way back in 1991, we had our first blog.

That’s all. I always knew that show was ahead of its time.

**Finally, sometimes an HBO special is so brilliant you wish it could be a regular series. Someone had the great idea to put Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K., Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais in a room together for an hour, and let them talk about comedy, and tell some hilarious jokes.

C.K. in particular comes off as brilliant here (he gets the one-liner in the clip below), but all four of them are awesome. The show is called “Talking Funny,” and it’s on HBO on Demand, and throughout the week airing on HBO’s regular channels.
I’m telling you, it’s laugh after laugh.
And you’ll never be able to hear Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” the same way again.

ESPN makes a great Iverson movie. And Larry King. Another divorce? Oy.

The last few ESPN “30 for 30″ documentaries haven’t been as good as the earlier ones.

But coming into “No Crossover,” the new one detailing the incredible story of the 1993 bowling alley brawl in Hampton, Va. that ended up with high schooler Allen Iverson in prison, I knew it would be dynamite.

I remember how fascinating this case was at the time, with all the racial overtones and hysteria that surrounded the nation’s top high school athlete, being involved in a scuffle between black kids and white kids in the South.

It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, this case, except that the judge gave Iverson a five-year prison sentence, considered ridiculously harsh at the time and now. Eventually, then-Governor of Virginia Douglas Wilder freed Iverson after four months.

Steve James, also the director of “Hoop Dreams,” did a fantastic job with this movie. It’s very even-handed, as the white people of Hampton who thought Iverson’s sentence was justified, are well represented, as are the African-Americans who were outraged, and made their feelings well known.

So much to chew on in this movie, such as “How might Iverson’s career and life have been different if he wasn’t freed after four months? Did Douglas Wilder, the first black governor of Virginia, feel pressure to let Iverson go?

What amazed me is how raw some of the feelings still are for the people involved, 17 years later.

“No Crossover” is on again Friday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU, and Sunday at 1o p.m. on ESPNU. Definitely check it out if you can.

**Just terrible news Wednesday. Larry King, apparently trying to field an entire baseball team full of ex-wives, announced he’s getting divorced for the seventh time. His partnership with Shawn Southwick (who I always loved on those late-night infomercials she used to do; am I the only one in the world who remembers those?) are ending after 13 years.

Oh Larry, bubeleh, maybe you should stop getting married. I’m just saying. The red suspenders will always, always, be a babe magnet. And what girls aren’t attracted to a man who gets phone calls on television from both Minsk and Minneapolis; from Stuttgart and Sacramento?

Larry, I know you’ve got the divorce attorney on speed dial. I know you think it’s going to work out each time. But at some point, don’t you have to just quit? You know, stay a bachelor for a while, go hang out with your buddy Bill Maher at Hef’s place, and have a good time.

Seriously, part of me admires Larry, because you know, he just keeps trying to get this marriage thing right. He’s a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn who wants the perfect wife.

Meanwhile, here’s a great clip of Jerry Seinfeld on with the King. I love this clip, because I legitimately can’t tell if Seinfeld is truly angry, or just putting King on. Maybe you can figure it out

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Ah, the Jets, making all of New England feel better. More NFL thoughts, and the finale of “Curb”

Voicemail message from my father, approximately 5 p.m., as New England took a 21-0 lead:

“Why don’t you leave the bar, go home, talk to your wife, have a nice dinner, anything else but watching this.”

The man is a fountain of wisdom. I was sitting at Houligan’s, having just finished off a nice pulled pork sandwich (Mmm, pulled pork), and I was watching the Patriots systematically take apart the New York Jets.

The Pats ran on the Jets. They threw on the Jets. They stuffed everything the Jets tried to do on offense. They completely befuddled and confused Mark Sanchez (more on him in a minute).

So, I left. It’s not the first time I left a Jets game, and it won’t be the last.

Course, I get home, and I check the score, and it’s 24-14, so I start watching again, and of course they never got any closer and lost, 31-14.

Very few positives to talk about in this game, so let’s deal with the negatives, shall we?

– This defense is not only not good, not only can’t they tackle well, but they can’t cover a bedspread right now. What happened to Kerry Rhodes? Guy used to be great. Bart Scott, anytime you want to earn that contract, go right ahead. The pass rush was OK, but never there when it was needed.

– How does the Jets coaching staff come out SO woefully unprepared for the first half? They got outgained 273-34. That’s insane.

– I know Mark Sanchez is a rookie. And I do have faith that he’ll be a good quarterback one day. But man oh man, the kid keeps making the SAME mistakes over and over. Trying to throw into triple coverage. Throwing off the wrong foot. I just get worried that he doesn’t seem to be making any progress here. But I don’t want to bench him. Look, Peyton Manning was awful as a rookie, too.

– Four and six wouldn’t feel so bad if they hadn’t started 3 and 0.

Some more Monday NFL thoughts:

– I know this will never happen, but let a sports fan dream for a minute: Indianapolis is 10-0. New Orleans is 10-0. Wouldn’t it be incredible if they met in the Super Bowl, after BOTH having gone 16-0? I think the Internet might explode if that happened.

– Two more reasons I never, ever wager on NFL games individually: Kansas City 27, Pittsburgh 24.  Oakland 20, Cincinnati 17.

– I think Jack Kent Cooke and Tom Landry were spinning wildly in their graves Sunday, as the Cowboys and Redskins combined to play one awful football game. I knew it was bad when the Cowboys fan sitting near me whooped at one point, really loudly. What happened, I asked.  Skins missed a field goal!, he exclaimed.

–Who’s that guy in the picture above, you ask? Daytona Beach’s own Eric Weems, now an Atlanta Falcon. He caught at TD pass Sunday against the Giants. He’s a great kid; I’ve interviewed him a few times and he just never put on the attitude some guys have. He’s a great story; 5-foot-9, undrafted out of Bethune-Cookman University, makes the Atlanta practice squad for a few years, and now finally is getting his shot. Good stuff.

Finally, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” season finale aired Sunday night. It was pretty funny, especially the stuff when Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were just riffing off each other. I also loved that they finally addressed the whole “George Costanza really is just Larry David” thing; that was always out there but never talked about.

Last week’s episode was still this season’s masterpiece, the equivalent of “Crazy Eyez Killah” and “The Producers” episodes from years past.

Anyway, good to see Cheryl back, and the still-pretty Elisabeth Shue, too.

For you “Curb” fans, here’s a little best of video I found on YouTube.

The hilarious Brian Williams, a big product endorsement, and a little Barry M.

When you think of great funny men of our time, we all can agree on the same basic list.

Jerry Seinfeld. Chris Rock. Billy Crystal. Brian Williams.

Yes, the same Brian Williams who hosts the “NBC Nightly News.” Seriously, dude is really funny. I’ve seen him on “The Tonight Show” a few times, and then this past weekend he was on my favorite NPR show, Wait Wait, Don’t Tell me.”

Guy just has great comic timing, is smart and self-deprecating, and just comes off in a funny way. Here, take a listen for yourself.

***My own tennis update! I maintained my undefeated record in the Greater Volusia Tennis League Men’s 4.0 division Monday night. My partner Keith and I, who I’ve only played with a handful of times, totally destroyed our doubles foes, 6-2, 6-2. I’m now 5-0 in doubles on the season, thank you very much. Tennis players out there, you know when you’re in the zone and you expect every shot to go in, and you’re genuinely surprised when they don’t?

I was there Monday night. One other thing: The guys we played seemed nice, but even though we repeatedly praised their good shots, they never once said “nice shot” or anything when Keith or I hit a winner. That’s just poor court manners.

**OK, you may be asking yourself why there’s a picture of Arnold’s Whole Grain bread up there. I’ll tell you why. Not only is this stuff fantastic to eat, but my own accidental little experiment over the last few weeks has proven one more thing: This stuff does NOT go bad.

I accidentally bought a loaf of this delicious bread a day after thinking I was out, only to discover that I had a whole full loaf already in the fridge. Well, let me tell you, I figured it’d be a race against mold (bread’s arch-enemy, like The Joker is to Batman) with my bread. I figured there’s no way both loaves would survive.

But let me tell you my friends, it’s been more than three weeks and this bread is still going strong! I’m nearly finished with it and not one drop of green stuff anywhere.

Arnold Bread people, I bow to your fresh greatness.

**OK, two things in this week’s Sports Illustrated I’m compelled to share. One, Joe Posnanski’s excellent profile of Joe Paterno. I’m biased because I think Joe Pos is the greatest thing since, well, since Arnold 12 Grain Bread, but this truly is a great story about an old lion of a football coach.

The second thing, and this completely cracked me up: Remember the clip of that 9-year-old hockey kid in Boston who scored that crazy goal? Anyway, his name is Oliver Wahlstrom, and he was asked if he’ll honor the sudden autograph requests he’s getting.

“I don’t know. I’m still printing.”

Classic.

Finally, I realize that I’ve been doing this blog for three months and have yet to share one my all-time musical favorites with you. I’ve been roundly mocked for loving this man, but dammit, listen to this and tell me he’s not incredibly talented!