A letter to my son Theo, on his 3rd birthday: So many changes, so many smiles, but oh, the work with you!

Dear Theo,

Hi! It’s Daddy! You know, Daddy, the guy chasing you around the house every night trying to get you to brush your teeth, and the guy who is supposed to somehow remember the exact location of 343 toy cars in our house because at any random moment you’re going to ask me to get one for you.

It’s time for my annual letter to you on your birthday. Saturday is Halloween and also, of course, the day you turn 3! Yep, you’ve made it to the Big 3, and boy oh boy, there were lots of times in the past 12 months when I wasn’t sure any of us would live to see this day.

I have so many things I want to tell you today, Theo, about the incredible changes we’ve seen in you since you last blew out candles. Many of those changes have been good. Many of those changes have been … less good.

Bad, even.

I joked to Mommy the other night that one letter wouldn’t be enough to sum up your year; I’d need a four-volume set of letters.

But before we get to all that’s happened in your life, let me first remind you that Mommy and I love you so much, and that you have brought indescribable joy into our family these last three years.

Your laugh, your smile, your silliness, your love of so many things, lights up our world and makes us so happy that out of all the millions of men in the universe, I’m the one you call Daddy.

Theo, this last year has been a challenging one for the world, and of course for you. The scourge of Covid-19 has meant we couldn’t go play with friends, or to the playground for a while, and a lot of the classes you enjoyed so much were stopped.

I can’t say for sure if this led to an immediate downturn in your behavior, but it sure didn’t help.

Overall, though, you handled the coronavirus stuff pretty well for a 2-year-old, and you’ve even started wearing your mask at preschool, a move I thought we’d never get you to make.

There are so many elements of your personality that have come out this year, Theo, to show us just how very different you are from Nate.

You are way more adventurous than he is, from climbing on the playground, to trying new foods (you love sausage and hot dogs, something that horrifies me and Grandma Sandy) to having new experiences.

You entertain us so much, Theo, with your sayings. They’ve ranged from your several-week period this summer where Mommy or I would say something and you’d exclaim “That’s a GREAT idea, Daddy!”, to when you ask for something like grapes and then say “I want ALL the grapes!”

You have so much love for teasing and playing with your brother; one of your favorite things to do is take one of Nate’s toys, walk to him with it behind your back, grinning, and say “Nate, I’ve got a surprise for you!” and then thrusting the toy in his face.

Your love of music has exploded this year, from the “Sing” soundtrack which I’ve now committed to permanent memory, to your two hilariously old-school new favorite songs, “Who Let the Dogs Out” by the Baha Men, and “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba (that’s the “I get knocked down, but I get up again” song).

 

Your personality has gone through wild swings this year, Theo, but that’s normal for a 2-year-old.

Some nights you’re in the best mood ever, as you love asking me and Nate to lie down and make a human sandwich, so you can scream “I want to be the meat!” and get in the middle. Every single time, you giggle with glee as I shake you and Nate up and down in our sandwich.

Other nights, you’re impossible, and even the smallest requests like having you get out of the bath, can lead to screaming that could wake the dead.

Some other big changes this year, Theo, have been you becoming potty-trained! We are so proud of how well you’ve taken to it since we started in May; some small regressions lately aside, you’ve really become a champ at rushing over to your potty and doing your business. You’ve even started going to the big-boy bathrooms on your own, surprising the hell out of us when you do it.

You also started preschool in September, which thrilled us all to no end, because we felt your behavior would improve with socialization.

Still waiting on that behavior improvement, but man do you love school. Mommy and I were elated when you got sad after your first full week of school when we informed you there was no school today, it was Saturday.

Your face dropped, as if to say “whaddaya mean, no school? I go every day!”

You’ve had so much fun getting to know other kids, listening to your teachers, and picking up new skills, like sitting criss-cross applesauce, and painting.

So, much of the time, Theo, you’ve been a delight. But I want to be totally honest in these letters, so I can accurately portray exactly what your life was like at the time I wrote. 

So in that spirit, I want to tell you this: You have been a very, very difficult toddler. You throw constant tantrums, your listening skills border on non-existent, and no matter how many times Mommy and I (and Nate, who sort of thinks of himself as your third parent) tell you something, you never, ever remember it for next time.

You’ve gone through so many disastrous phases of acting out, Theo, from throwing food all over the place, to destroying toys (yours and Nate’s), to being violent and aggressive with your brother, to smacking Mommy and me … it’s been really, really hard. Trying to get you to sleep was awful for a few months, as you screamed and cried for this or that.

Then there was the phase where you wouldn’t get IN the car. Then for a while we couldn’t get you OUT of the car. We keep thinking eventually you’re going to get it, that months and months of us telling you the rules, correcting your behavior, or trying any of the methods we’ve tried to modify it (ignore the behavior, be calm about it, scream about it) have failed.

In the last month, Theo, thanks partially to school, things have gotten a little better.

But man, there have been more than a few times when, during one of your classic tantrums, Nate has looked at me and said “Daddy, you’re right. We should just sell him.” (I tell him it’s a buyer’s market for cute kids right now, we’ll wait a little bit.)

But we know this is all a part of the process; we were just spoiled by Nate’s angel-like behavior at this age. Theo, you are your own wonderful, free spirit, and I can’t wait to see what this year will bring.

Your hugs are still the best thing ever, and your beaming face when I come to pick you up from preschool every day is so special to see.

We love you to infinity and beyond, Theo, and hope you have the best birthday ever.

Love always,

Daddy

P.S. One day soon you’ll be able to hug your grandparents again. I promise.

The Dodgers win the World Series, helped by an all-time stupid move by Rays manager. “Saved by the Bell” reunion trailer is out, and it’s delightfully cheesy. And a restaurant in Budapest with an awesome way to social distance.

My friends, I know baseball has changed since I was a kid.

There is way more reliance on statistics, data, and looking at all the numbers than there used to be.

There are way more strikeouts and way more home runs than there used to be, the game drags on and on with pitching change after pitching change, and for many of those reasons I no longer watch the sport much.

But you know, I’ve gotten sucked into the World Series, I love the Rays’ underdog story and the fact that the Dodgers haven’t won a Series in 32 years, and the games have mostly been good and entertaining.

So here I was, watching Tampa’s Blake Snell throwing an absolute gem in Game 6 against the Dodgers. Snell is the Rays’ ace, his team was down 3-2 in the series, meaning if Tampa didn’t win Tuesday night, the season was over and there would be another world champion in Los Angeles this year.

But Snell was, and I believe this is the technical baseball term, throwing some serious shit on the mound, completely overwhelming L.A. and had given up only one hit into the sixth inning. And then with one out in the sixth, the Dodgers got a single and … Snell was pulled from the game by manager Kevin Cash.

WHAT???????????????????

Absolutely ridiculous, a brutal decision that of course immediately came back to haunt Tampa. The Dodgers scored two runs off Tampa’s relievers, and won the game and the Series.

It just made absolutely NO sense at the time, so it’s not a second-guess. These managers are SO programmed to do what they’ve always done, what the stats and data tell them to do, that there’s no FEEL left anymore.

Sigh. I just needed to rant a little tonight. Great to have sports back so I can get things like this off my chest.

Congrats to the Dodgers, who have been the best team in baseball for several years now, and finally overcame the managing of their manager, Dave Roberts, to win it all.

Oh and if this isn’t 2020 sports in a complete nutshell: One of the Dodgers’ top players, Justin Turner, was pulled from the game in the eighth inning when a Covid-19 test he’d taken Monday was confirmed positive.

Seems just about appropriate.

**OK, next up today, I am super-excited to watch this, and also terrified at how excited I am: You may have heard that the ultimate cheesy-1990s Saturday morning TV show beloved and mocked by my generation, “Saved By the Bell,” is getting a re-boot on NBC’s Peacock Network.

And they’ve released the trailer for the new series, and I’m sorry, it looks incredibly cheesy AND yet I’m completely going to watch at least the first episode.

A few thoughts on this wonderful 100 seconds of video: A, has Mario Lopez gone to the Rob Lowe school of Dealing with the Devil to stay looking young? B, The years have been friendly to Elizabeth Berkeley since “Showgirls,” C, The kid who’s supposed to Zack’s son looks a hell of a lot like him, and D, I was desperate for a Richie Belding scene.

It comes out on Nov. 25 and I predict huge viewership numbers. At least in my house.

**Finally today, I heard about this on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and knew immediately I wanted to blog about it, because it sounds so goofy.

A restaurant in Budapest, Hungary has tried to find a new way to keep customers safe during this coronavirus plague the world is undergoing. So the Budapest eatery Costes has decided to have dining events on the giant Ferris Wheel in the city. There were four-course dining events held on the Budapest Eye recently, with more to come.

Costes owner Karoly Gerendai said that turnover at one of his reopened restaurants is down to about a tenth of pre-lockdown levels, forcing him to look for new ways to do business.

“Now that there are not many people either on the wheel or in the restaurant because there are no tourists, the opportunity arose that we could do this,” he said of the event at the landmark attraction in central Budapest.

This sounds so goofy. Do I want to be moving up and down while enjoying my entree? Is that really good for digestion? But hey, you gotta make do with what you’ve got, so I applaud the creativity of Costes. But I don’t think I’ll be eating any meals on the Coney Island Cyclone anytime soon.

A beautiful story of how very personal this election is, from Jimmy Kimmel. A very cool video on an unusual way to get to the voting booth. And in the NFL, some wild finishes as the Steelers and Browns survive, and the Patriots, happily, stink.

So we’re eight days out now from (all together now) the most important Presidential election of our lifetimes, which we all thought was going to be 2016 and actually, in many ways, it was.

And it can all seem terrifying and exhilarating at the same time; that’s how I felt when I early-voted, in person on Saturday here in New York, waiting on line for a reasonable 45 minutes before thrillingly filling in the oval next to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It can all seem overwhelming and so large, but the decisions that are made hundreds of millions of voters affect so many individual people in a personal way.

The winner of the election will have enormous impact on lives, big and small, which is why I was so moved by this three-minute video I saw over the weekend, from Jimmy Kimmel.

As you may know, Kimmel’s son Billy was born with congenital heart defects, and has had numerous operations and battles in his short few years of life.

Kimmel and his wife, Molly, put together this beautiful video on the importance of health care, and insurance covering pre-existing conditions, starring their son Billy.

Just watch, and realize how many individual lives are at stake in this election.

**Next up today, this is one of the strangest but also, most interesting videos of Election early-voting that I’ve seen.

Check out what’s going on in Nevada, as a bunch of Biden supporters gallop to the voting booths on horseback.

Nevada:

Biden voters. Latinos. On horseback. In style.

This is my America… https://t.co/8ri9Ur7SyH

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 25, 2020

Pretty damn cool. Me? I’d crawl through broken-glass to vote in this election. But the way these guys are doing it seems much more fun.

**And finally today, it was a typically-wacky Sunday in the National Football League, finished off by the Seattle Seahawks, who only play thrilling games, going to overtime before losing to the Arizona Cardinals (by the way, can I remind my fellow Jets fans that we could’ve had Matt Rhule (now doing awesome with the Panthers) AND Kliff Kingsbury, who is shockingly turning out to be a good pro coach, as Jets coach and yet we ended up with Adam Gase?).

Lot of great stuff happened Sunday, including…

— Three down-to-the-wire thrillers: Browns-Bengals, Falcons-Lions, and Titans-Steelers. The Browns and Baker Mayfield went shot-for-shot with the Bengals, who are suddenly looking pretty frisky, and with a bright future, thanks to rookie stud QB Joe Burrow. The kid looks like the real deal, and so did Mayfield, who doesn’t have the best arm or the best accuracy but makes just enough plays to help his team win. Brownies eked out a 37-34 victory, and suddenly this Cincy-Cleveland rivalry looks like it might be great for years.

— Then Atlanta pulled an Atlanta and gagged away a victory, losing on literally the last play of the game to Detroit, and Pittsburgh became the last unbeaten team by squeaking past previously-unbeaten (and Covid-19 cheaters) Tennessee. The Steelers, the best-run franchise in the NFL, are 6-0 and as always seem to have a great shot at the Super Bowl. Always makes me laugh when Steelers fans complain. Come over to the Jets, then you’ll really have something to complain about.

— Speaking of my beloved Green and White, the Jets didn’t get blown out Sunday, so that’s something. The Bills, who I thought were really good a few weeks ago, scraped by, 18-10, thanks to a bunch of field goals. Somehow the Jets gained FOUR yards in the second half. In my best Norman Dale from “Hoosiers,” I scream to you, “FOUR!” Pathetic. 
Jets play the Super Bowl champion Chiefs next week, and the spread is already 22 points. It’s not going to be that close.

— The Patriots got crushed, fell to 2-4, and are looking like a miserable football team, for the first time in 20 years. Man does it feel good for the rest of us. I have no doubt by next season Bill Belichick will figure out how to make them good again, but I’m going to enjoy this year’s woes very much.

— The NFC East is the worst division in the history of the NFL. Truly. The Eagles are 2-4-1, and in first place!

— Finally, Antonio Brown is getting another chance in the NFL, about to sign with the Bucs. Proving once again that if you have talent, there is literally nothing that can make you stop getting chance after chance in the NFL. Brown is … well, you KNOW how awful a human being, teammate and guy he is. Just the absolute worst. And yet, because he can run fast and catch the pigskin, he’s getting another shot.

America, what a country.

Good News Friday: A teacher in Michigan saves a student’s grandma’s life over Zoom. A mom dresses her kids up as “Schitts Creek” characters for Halloween and it’s beyond awesome. And a Mister Rogers clip makes me feel good all over

Saw that sign while driving in my town on Thursday, and loved it so much I backed up and took a picture. Beautiful.

Happy Friday, people! It’s still in the 60s here in New York, which means my toddler can still wear shorts to preschool and I don’t get strange “what kind of parent lets their kid wear shorts in late October?” looks from the teacher. Which is nice, because I’m sure I’ll be getting them in November.

Not going to talk about last night’s debate, I’m still kind of amazed Trump showed up. Let’s get right to the good news.

This first story kind of blew me away. A Michigan teacher was doing a Zoom lesson with her class when one of her students was having a technical issue. Julia Koch, at Edgewood Elementary School in Michigan, got a call from the student’s Grandmother, Cynthia Phillips.

 Koch noticed Phillips was a bit off when she called; Phillips’s voice was off and Koch knew that she had to call emergency services.

“It was clear there was something very wrong. Her words were so jumbled, and I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say,” the teacher told CNN, “She didn’t sound like herself.”

Turns out Phillips was in the beginnings of suffering a stroke.

Koch then sprung into action and called the principal of the school who had a staff member call for help. Julia stayed on the phone with her until the ambulance got to Phillips’s house.

“I noticed her speech was impaired, and I asked her if she was alright, and she was stumbling over her words and it was getting worse by the minute, Charlie Lovelady, the principal of the school said, “I knew the symptoms of a stroke because I lost my father from a stroke so I told her hold on and immediately got her help.”

Phillips was rushed to a local hospital and is now recovering.

“I would have died if it weren’t for the teacher being so quick and fast about getting me help,” Phillips said, “It made me so close to the staff and the principal, even the secretary who hurried to get me on the phone with the principal. They showed up at my house to make sure I’m okay. I thank God I didn’t die in front of my kids.”

Amazing stuff. Of all the things teachers have to worry about these days, in this awful environment for learning, how about a teacher having the wherewithal to help save a woman’s life.

I hope Julia Koch gets a raise and all kinds of awards after this. Here’s more on the story from tanksgoodnews.com.

**Next up today, it’s Halloween costume season and as usual, some parents are going way above and beyond the call of duty to make entertaining outfits for the kiddos, outfits that entertain the grownups, of course.

A mom named Lauren Mancke decided to dress her three kids in “Schitts Creek” costumes this year, honoring the show that swept the recent Emmy Awards. Mancke has three kids, so through editing magic, she’s got David Rose and Johnny Rose both dressed on her son Fox.

According to this story, Lauren used her DIY skills to bring the Rose family’s wardrobe to life — she used vinyl to add the lightning bolts to David’s sweater, a garbage bag to create Moira’s dress, and some felt to really emphasize Eugene Levy/Johnny’s iconic eyebrows. Fox is dressed up as David and Johnny in the photo, thanks to a little editing magic; Marigold is dressed as Moira; and Lera is a floppy-hat-clad Alexis

“We’ve decided to do our month of costumes again this year, like in years past, to bring joy to people, which I know our family needs this year more than ever. After losing my grandmother earlier in May to this virus, we want others to know Halloween isn’t canceled and we can still find fun in new creative ways,” Lauren told POPSUGAR. “We chose to kick things off with a Schitt’s Creek costume because it is one of our favorite shows, and also to congratulate them on an unbelievable and well-deserved sweep of the Emmys. Such talent!”

This is so awesome. I totally want a Johnny Rose costume, too. And I really hope Alexis said “Ewww, David!” to her brother during the photo shoot.

In honor of Mercedes Sclapp comparing Joe Biden to Mr. Rogers, watch this moment from 1969 where Rogers let his feet soak in a kiddie pool alongside "Officer Clemmons," a Black man.

Black people were still being segregated from swimming pools, so this was a very powerful moment. pic.twitter.com/AjvUcLe5nG

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) October 16, 2020

**Finally today, one of Donald Trump’s advisors/lackeys, a woman named Mercedes Schlapp, made some news last week when she mocked Joe Biden’s town hall on ABC, comparing it derogatorily to “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” (She also spelled Rogers wrong, which is pretty incredible given how famous Fred Rogers was.)

Schlapp, correctly, got a ton of crap and mockery for this on Twitter, but it also led to many people posting great clips of the legendary program, which led me to watch this.

It’s a wonderful, famous piece of an episode from 1969, when America’s racial tension was high after so many violent clashes in the 1960s. Mister Rogers invited his African-American friend, “Officer Clemmons” to come sit next to him in the backyard on a hot summer day.

And then, he asked Officer Clemmons if he wanted to soak his feet in the same small pool Rogers was using. This was at a time when “whites only” pools were in effect all over many parts of America, and here was the most-watched children’s TV host doing a very simple, very powerful thing.

Really made me smile to watch this. Fred Rogers, a wonderful man, setting an example all of us should follow.

The new movie about The Chicago 7, directed by Aaron Sorkin, is predictably brilliant and moving. The greatest hockey announcer ever, Doc Emrick, calls it a career. And a man who was desperate to live long enough to vote, actually does.

There was zero chance I wasn’t going to love the new Aaron Sorkin movie on Netflix, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

First of all, it’s written and directed by Sorkin, who has written some of my favorite popular culture in the past 20-30 years. Second, it’s about a major event in American history, and I love history stories. Third, it’s about the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention, a year in history, and an event, I’ve always been fascinated by, since so many elements of what made the 60’s such a thrilling and interesting decade were present there. 

And fourth, it’s a courtroom drama, and we all know Sorkin knows how to do those (“You can’t handle the truth!”)

After seeing the trailer (above), I couldn’t wait for the flick to come out last weekend. We devoured it Sunday night and yeah, it was fabulous.

For the un-itiated: “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is about a federal trial in Illinois in 1969 when eight defendants, including 60s radicals Abbie Hoffman (played brilliantly by Sascha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin, and Black Panthers leader Bobby Seale, were charged with inciting riots and violence at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

The fact that the eight men were even brought up on charges, by new Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell (he of Watergate infamy), was clearly politically motivated, and Sorkin’s script gives us all dimensions of the characters, including a reluctant prosecutor (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a justifiably-angry Bobby Seale, whose attorney was sick and wasn’t even allowed to represent himself (he was eventually given a separate trial, which is why they’re not called the Chicago 8), and a brilliant performance by Frank Langella, a brutally unfair and acidic judge, Julius Hoffman.

The movie takes us through flashbacks and present-day 1969 to show all the cards stacked against the defendants at trial, despite the heroic efforts of their attorneys. We see Abbie Hoffman as a wisecracking genius who was a lot deeper than his image; Tom Hayden as a lefty firebrand but a voice of reason and moderation during the trial, and Rubin, who we’re never quite sure where we stands.

The movie is riveting, with typically-crackling Sorkin dialogue and outstanding acting, particularly from Eddie Redmayne as Hayden. Oh, there are some historical inaccuracies, as there always are with historical movies that need also be entertaining. Some scenes never happened that are shown, some characters didn’t act they way do in the movie, etc.

But none of that gets in the way of the movie’s message: That this was a sham of a trial, orchestrated by the Nixon White House to send a message of “restoring law and order” to these long-haired hippie freaks they didn’t like.

And yes, the echoes of this movie to the current year we’re living in are very, very obvious.

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” is a fantastic film, about a too-often forgotten piece of American history. It’s on Netflix now, and well, well worth your time.

**Next up today, the hits of 2020 just keep on coming: Mike “Doc” Emrick, one of the greatest sports announcers ever and the top hockey play by play man who ever lived, announced on Monday he was retiring at age 74.

Emrick, universally beloved as a human being and as a broadcaster, had been calling games on ice for more than four decades, and was still at the top of his game.

It’s not an exaggeration to say my love for hockey was deepened by listening to him as a kid, and he made every single game he called fun, educational, and exciting.

So many favorite Doc-isms that I love, from “waffleboarded” when a goalie knocks the pick away with his pad on his hand, to a player getting “freight-trained to the boards” after a hard check.

For some reason one Doc line I’ve always remembered that makes me guffaw was one time he was describing a team’s disconnected offense at one point, and he said something like “they go forward and then back, forward and then back, then get fouled up in the middle. I’ve been in meetings like that, but not at this network.”

Doc was the best, handling the fastest sport there is with grace, humor, and so much heart. He and NBC put together this fabulous tribute/farewell video, and it gave me chills.

Enjoy the ride off into the sunset, Doc. You will be so, so missed.

**And finally today, I thought I’d be writing a little preview of what’s sure to be a verbal smackdown tomorrow night at the second Presidential Debate (and now that the Debate Commission has said they’ll mute both candidates’ mics for two minutes while the other is speaking, I fully expect Trump to rant and rave and pull out of the debate), but instead I read this fantastic story in the Washington Post Monday that I wanted to share with you.

A 77-year-old Michigan man named Jim Williams was dying of colon cancer, the second time the deadly disease had struck him. As his health was failing in recent months, he was bound and determined to live long enough to vote in the Presidential election.

He kept telling his family he was able to go drop off his ballot, that it was important to him.

As his son David, recalled: “He could get out of bed on his own and walk on his own, but it was very difficult,” recounted David. But “when the day came, he said, ‘I can get out of bed, I can get in the car, and we can go up there.’ 

Well, Jim Williams was able to finally get to the ballot box and vote but, well, things weren’t quite that simple for having his vote count. I don’t want to spoil the story by Jose A. Del Real, but it’s a fabulous tale. Voting is SO important at all times, but this year you’re really seeing people go above and beyond to make their voices heard.

Really terrific little story here.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/one-last-vote/2020/10/16/785419e4-0fd4-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html

An NYT story about sexism in the 2016 election, and a great Lincoln Project ad got me thinking. An awesome home run rob by a Taiwan outfielder is unlike any you’ve seen. And in the NFL, Tom Brady’s new team makes a statement, and the Jets are now primed for the No.1 pick!

You know how sometimes you have a thought somewhere in the back of your head for a little while, and then on the same weekend two stories or videos cross in front of your cerebral cortex on the same topic and push that thought to the front of your mind?

Sure you do. Happens to me all the time. And it happened to me on Sunday. I’d been thinking for a while about the 2016 election, and all the problems I and many others had with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. She was a very flawed candidate, but still should have won against a lightweight, blowhard racist like Donald Trump.

Of the reasons she lost (and let’s not forget she got three million more votes than the guy who was inaugurated), sexism was absolutely a big one. Somehow, despite all the progress we’ve made as a society, on many different fronts, there are still scores of men out there who refuse to vote for a woman candidate for a position as powerful as President.

It’s infuriating, it’s disgusting, and it’s why for as much as I love them both, I would’ve had some doubts that Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris could’ve ultimately been elected this year. I think both would’ve still been elected, because both are MUCH better candidates than Hillary (so much less baggage they could fly on the airlines without any luggage fees) but it would have been damn difficult.

So I was thinking about all that when I saw this remarkably great Lincoln Project ad, which deals with all the ways Donald Trump has insulted and belittled women in public over the past five years, and just what a sexist pig he is. But it reminded me, listening to the cheers of those who laugh at Trump’s takedown of the opposite sex, just how many people agree with him. How pernicious sexism really is.

This ad drives home how crucial it is to show girls and women of all ages that this isn’t right, and shouldn’t be put up with.

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1317195767036186625

So there was that ad, and then I read this N.Y. Times story about why so many voters who couldn’t, wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton have no problem voting for Biden this time. Here’s one man in rural Pennsylvania.

“The Republicans did a fantastic job of making Hillary Clinton seem like the devil for the last 20-plus years, so she was a hard sell,” said Aaron Stearns, the Democratic chairman in Warren County in northwestern Pennsylvania. “It’s just a lot easier with Joe Biden because he’s a guy and he’s an old white guy. I hate saying that, but it’s the truth.”

He’s a guy, and he’s an old white guy. That’s cold, harsh reality for thousands of voters: I don’t want to vote for a woman, I’d rather vote for an old white guy.

It’s not the only reason Hillary Clinton lost, and (please God) Joe Biden is doing much better and seems likely to win. But that sexism is still alive and well is one more bitter pill to swallow in a 2020 that has been thoroughly undigestible for many reasons.

THAT ONE IS GOOOOOONNN….

NOPE!!!! THAT ONE CAUGHT BY Lin Che-Hsuan!!!

The @FubonGuardians CF Lin Che-Hsuan (林哲瑄) robs a HR away from the Lions and keeps the score at 2-2!#CPBL #CPBLwithFans #TaiwanBaseball #富邦悍將 #ItsTime pic.twitter.com/XJLVzeC0Jg

— CPBL 中華職棒 (@CPBL) October 16, 2020

**Next up today, I’ve seen a lot of baseball deception in my life, but not sure I’ve ever seen anything like this. In a pro game in Taiwan last week, a game between the Guardians and the Lions featured what looked like a home run to center field that just eluded the glove of Guardians center fielder Lin Che-Hsuan.

The batter rounded the bases, Che-Hsuan walked back from the outfield wall to his position looking dejected, and then… he pulled the ball out of his glove.

Just nuts. Watch the reaction of the other players, just priceless. And the replays show just how it happened.

I love it.

**Finally today, my weekly Monday look at the action in the National Football League, where once again this week Covid-19 wreaked havoc with the schedule, and the New York Jets proudly became the worst Jets team of my lifetime.

As I texted my Jets fan friends Sunday, during another desultory loss: Do you know how HARD it is to be the worst Jets team I’ve ever seen? I mean, the competition for that title is incredibly fierce. I’ve seen dozens of awful Jets teams in 40 years of being a fan, so to be the worst? That’s impressive.

— Looks like Tom Brady has a little bit left, huh? He and Tampa Bay (still sounds weird to say that) walked into Lambeau Field Sunday and obliterated the previously-unbeaten Packers, 38-10. Hell of a statement by the Bucs.

— A couple of wild endings Sunday: The Texans and Titans couldn’t stop each other from scoring, and when Houston went ahead 36-29 with two minutes left, it looked like, with the extra point, they’d make Tennessee need a TD and two-point conversion. But Houston went for two when leading by seven, hoping to put the game out of reach and go up nine, but failed. 
So of course the Titans came down and scored a touchdown, kicked the almost-automatic extra point, and won in OT. 
I thought about it and I think I like the strategy. Sure, you’re taking a risk, but you should be able to score on a 2-point try if you’ve been scoring on them all game.

— The other crazy finish gave the Giants their first win, when the Washington Football Team scored to bring its deficit to 20-19 in the final minute, then decided to go for two points and the win. Because they’re the WFT, it failed, and the Giants got a win. And hey, so did the Falcons, which means the Jets are the only winless team left! Whoo-hoo, No.1 pick, here we come!

— So yeah, maybe the Browns aren’t quite ready to be called “good” yet. Got throttled, as always, in Pittsburgh, 38-7. Humbling, to be sure.

— Finally, the Baltimore Ravens just don’t look right this year. Last season’s most dominant team scraped out another win Sunday, 30-28, but nearly let a bad Eagles team come back from a huge deficit in the fourth quarter. I don’t know what it is, maybe playoff loss hangover, or something, but the Ravens are not that good right now.

 

Good News Friday: The McDonald’s worker who showed kindness to a customer, and then got a huge surprise. A paralyzed ex-football player in South Dakota gets a thrill of a lifetime. And Irish teens create an amazing app to help with dementia

And a Happy Friday to all of you humanoids out there (I feel like WWF announcer Bobby “the Brain” Heenan used to call people “humanoids,” not sure why it just popped in my head just there but I did love me some Bobby Heenan). Hope you are safe, healthy and wearing a mask in public, wherever you are.

As we crawl toward the end of this election cycle, I’ve got three stories for you this week that hopefully will make you smile and forget your troubles for a minute.

First, it’s pretty rare that something special happens at a McDonald’s drive-thru, but hey, crazy things happen sometimes (hat tip to my sister for pointing me to this story).

A woman in Waynesville, Ohio named Brittany Reed arrived there recently after a hard day, and with her 4-year-old and 7-year-old crying up a storm in protest over something or other.

As Reed got to the drive-up window to pay for the food, well, I’ll let her tell it, as she said in a Facebook post that went viral:

“Welp now I wanted to cry,” Reed wrote in her post, which has since been shared over 560,000 times. “I look at the young man [the cashier] with tears in my eyes just from being stressed and annoyed and say ‘hun I am so sorry but I have to cancel that order I left my purse at home when we went to football tonight.’ WITHOUT HESITATION he takes out his wallet and swipes his card before I could even say ‘no I will be right back!’”

When Reed told the cashier, whom she identified as Wyatt Jones, that she would come back to the fast food chain to pay for the meal, Jones reportedly told her not to worry about it.

“I just want his parents to know how KIND & COMPASSIONATE your son was tonight!” Reed continued on Facebook. “He made this stressed out momma pause for a moment and realize this is exactly what we parents are trying to do, raise great humans. Well Wyatt sir, you are an amazing human!!!”

In an interview with In The Know, Reed elaborated on how appreciative she was of Jones’ kind gesture.

“With the emotions of the moment, I just about cried, to be honest, but Wyatt was so incredibly kind,” she said. “He didn’t skip a beat at all. He pulled his wallet out like [it was] no big deal.”

Reed decided she wanted to help Jones, and after speaking with him learned he was saving up to buy a car. She decided to go the extra mile by creating a GoFundMe for him. As of Oct. 15, she has raised more than $48,000 from more than 2,700 donors.

“I was able to connect with his mom and made sure they were okay that we were going to start a GoFundMe,” she told In The Know. “She said she was okay with it and did let Wyatt know, and he was so shocked.”

“Honestly didn’t expect this to travel like it has at all!” she said. “I honestly posted in our local [community’s] ‘Let’s Talk’ page because I was hoping it got to his parents so that they could hear how awesome their kiddo was because, at the end of the day, that’s all we truly want as parents: to raise good humans.”

That’s exactly it. We are all trying to raise good humans, and Wyatt Jones’ parents most certainly did. Bravo, Wyatt. Hope you get a sweet car with the money raised from the kindness of strangers.

South Dakota:

In the 4th qtr of last night's Platte-Geddes vs Gregory football game this happened:

Senior Brady Sprik, who was injured in a car accident his freshman year, got on the field with his teammates. And scored a touchdown.

Humanity. Sports.🌎❤️pic.twitter.com/l1CCYM8LS4

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 10, 2020

**Next up today, with fewer scholastic sports going on this fall due to coronavirus, we’ve seen fewer of these wonderful human interest stories that I love, but there are still a few great ones out there.

In a high school football game in Platte, S.D. last week, a senior named Brady Sprik got to score a touchdown no one there will ever forget. Brady was a freshman football player three years ago when he was seriously hurt in a car accident, and was paralyzed from the mid-chest down.

His coach, Bruce Hanson, had been wanting to get Brady a touchdown in a game this season, and in the final moments of a 42-6 win over rival Gregory High School, Sprik got his chance. The two coaches had discussed before the game that this might happen, and Gregory’s coach told his players to back away.

Check out this story on the moment :

“Ecstatic,” Sprik said later about his emotions on the play. “I was just really happy. It’s been three years since I put pads on and it feels good.”

Just a wonderful, heartwarming moment for a kid who’s been through a hell of a lot.

**And finally today, check out these amazing teenage girls from Ireland, who helped create an app that can help people with dementia.

According to this NPR story: The Nigerian-Irish teens are the champions of Technovation Girls, an international competition that challenges young women to develop an app that can solve a problem in their community. The annual competition is hosted by Technovation, a nonprofit organization that empowers girls to become leaders in tech.

Memory Haven can be used by both patients and caregivers. Its six features target three problems faced by those with dementia: memory loss and difficulty with recognition and speech. A reminder feature, for example, alerts both the patient and caregiver that it’s time for medication, while photo albums allow users to flip through tagged photos identifying who is in the image.

The girls were guided by project mentor Evelyn Nomayo, an Afro-Irish developer and the founder of Phase Innovate, an organization that trains and mentors underrepresented minorities and women in tech. Nomayo told them about her mother, who experienced dementia, and that inspired the teens, who live in Drogheda, Ireland, to create an app that could help with the disorder. The 12-week challenge resulted in Memory Haven, which beat out more than 1,500 submissions from 62 countries.

After his fourth NBA title, another appreciation of LeBron James and his greatness, on and off the court. “The West Wing” reunion special is here, whoo-hoo! And a beautiful, devastating account by a widow trying to understand why her husband took his own life.

All right, I’m all set for tonight’s second scheduled Presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It has to be better than last time, which was the worst debate in history, and let’s see if Biden can continue to get his message across amid all the shouting, and … wait, I’m sorry, what’s that? (Checks notes) There’s NO debate tonight, because the Covid-positive moron-in-chief refuses to participate in the forum virtually, and threw a temper tantrum at the committee? So the President of the United States, trailing badly in the polls, is throwing away one of his last chances at a comeback?  And he’s going to have a rally to show his sheep fans his “greatest hits?” Got it.

Oh-kayyy, well, there’s a few hours of my life I have back.

OK, so since I don’t have to write about a debate that’s not happening, I want to talk for a few minutes about LeBron James. If you don’t follow the NBA, you may not know he and the Los Angeles Lakers won the championship Sunday night, beating the Miami Heat in Game 6.

It’s LeBron’s fourth championship, just two behind Michael Jordan now, and it came at the end of another transcendent season for the greatest player ever to lace on sneakers.

This was LeBron’s 17th NBA season; 17 years of competing at the highest level of pro hoops, and in his last game on Sunday, at age 35,  he scored 28 points (13 of 20 field goals), 14 rebounds and 10 assists plus one steal.

He has been the best player in the sport for more than a decade, and he has now led three franchises to ultimate glory. He’s a great team player, often passing up a good shot for himself. He hustles, he plays defense, and he makes the players around him better.

But none of that is why I admire Gloria James’ son so much. It’s everything he does off the court that is so wonderful. His charitable causes, his school he built in Akron for underprivileged kids, his promise to pay for college for every single student in his program there … it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

He speaks out more than any other basketball superstar has in decades on social issues, criminal justice issues, and social issues. He warmly embraces the “role model” tag that so many athletes abhor, and he never makes headlines for doing the wrong thing.

I’ve written a lot about LeBron before, but after this latest championship, it feels like a good time to stand back and appreciate him. He is everything a basketball player, an athlete, and a role model should be.

I am very grateful we have him around.

**Next up today, I am BEYOND excited for the release tomorrow night of the reunion special episode of “The West Wing,” airing on HBO Max at 9 p.m. Eastern (it’s a little confusing but if you are an HBO subscriber in any way, you have access to HBO Max, you just need to download the app.)

The whole gang is going to be doing a re-enactment on a stage of “The West Wing” episode called “Hartsfield Landing,” which is the one where Bartlet plays concurrent chess games against Sam and Toby, while managing a world crisis, sparring with Toby over Bartlet’s psychological demons, and oh yeah Donna keeps going outside in the January cold to convince people in a tiny town in New Hampshire to vote for Bartlet in the primary.

They’ve gotten almost the entire original cast back together, save for, of course, John Spencer as Leo, who was re-cast in the puzzling person of Sterling K. Brown (hey, I LOVE Brown, he’s a fabulous actor, but having him play Boston Irish-Catholic Leo McGarry is, well, it’s a choice!)

Anyway, here’s the trailer to tomorrow night’s reunion special, and yeah, the music alone has got me having all the feels. I can’t wait!

**Finally today, it’s been far too long since I’ve blogged about an extraordinary piece of writing, but this is one extraordinary piece of writing.

A woman named Jennifer Calder suffered the tragedy no spouse ever wants to imagine two years ago: her 46-year-old husband Matt committed suicide. In this piece on Medium.com, Calder, a writer, speaks with beautiful words and heartbreak about her life, and how what happened, came to be.

Here’s just an excerpt, but I encourage you to read this entire, powerful essay:

Over the years, his inability to walk away from an argument, his inflexibility — although he was often right — was tempered by my more level-headed outlook, and I advised him to better pick his battles (not that he listened much). Still, he could make me laugh at myself and vice versa.

And we laughed a lot.

We joked and teased and made incredible memories together, creating a family shorthand only we understood: random words referencing an entire vacation the summer before, “Choo Choo byeeeeeeee,” and so on. We were an affectionate family, hugging and kissing and sharing “I love you’s.”

Although life at the moment muddied the waters, I believed the detritus would eventually settle. I thought we would return to clearer waters.

Divorce was my worst-case scenario. Our endgame. Not this.

He broke the deal.

There’s so much more to read, so much to absorb, in this piece. It’s raw, beautiful emotional writing at its finest. Please take a few minutes today to read it, then go hug someone you love.

 

 

Mandy Patinkin and his wife do an amazing routine/commercial about the election. A superdog jumps 31 feet in the air, and the video is awesome. And in the NFL, the Chiefs finally lose, and Alex Smith returns in a heartwarming story.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for election season to be over. I’ve gotten so many texts, emails, phone calls, you name it. I am beyond sick of the orange grifter in the Oval Office, and Mitch McConnell, and the whole lot of them.

Mandy Patinkin, the sensational actor from “The Princess Bride,” “Homeland” and a million other projects, is too. And he and his wife made this pretty hilarious commercial last week that starts off sounding like a regular election ad, but turns into something a little different.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it put a smile on my face each time I watched it.

Spitfire jumps a distance of over 31 feet to create a new world record for the farthest leap by a dog pic.twitter.com/QX14pLDspP

— Domenico (@AvatarDomy) October 5, 2020

**Next up, here’s a video of a dog jumping 31 feet through the air. And I’ve been told this is real, this is a dog named Spitfire, and it’s pretty freaking amazing.

**And now to the NFL, where we wonder if the Tennessee Titans, who’ve had more than 20 players test positive for Coronavirus in the past two weeks, will ever play again…

— The biggest surprise of the day was that the Kansas City Chiefs lost. The Las Vegas Raiders, who look alternately terrible and great depending on the week, outlasted the Fighting Mahomes’ 40-32. Great game, back-and-forth action, and glad to see the Chiefs aren’t perfect. But man they are fun to watch.

— The Cleveland Browns might not be a fluke, folks. The former losers of everything improved to 4-1 with an impressive win over the Colts. Baker Mayfield is playing smart football, the defense is pretty terrific, and the world has gone mad if I’m praising the Browns this much, this many weeks in a row.

— This is not NFL-related but I need to say somewhere how amazing it is that Rafael Nadal won a record 13th French Open championship Sunday, and he did it by absolutely destroying his biggest rival at present, Novak Djokovic. Nadal lost just seven games in the whole match, obliterating Djokovic, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 to tie Roger Federer for the all-time men’s lead in Grand Slam titles at 20.
It was an amazing display of greatness for Rafa, and a very poor showing for Nole. I was so pumped to watch an epic five-setter between these two, but Djokovic didn’t have it and Nadal was on another level. OK, back to football.

— Nothing sums up the 2020 New York Jets season, hell, their whole franchise’s existence, then this one situation from Sunday’s loss: The Jets make a first-half interception and return it to the Cardinals’ 10-yard line. Whoo-hoo, there’s some hope, there’s some life, there’s… a delay of game penalty on the VERY next play.

How the $*#*!!#?*#>? do you have a delay of game on the FIRST play of a drive????

Thank you, I feel better.

— On the other hand, at least I know the Jets are going to lose every week. Giants fans have gotten teased a few times this season that their squad might actually win. Sunday they were dominating the Cowboys early, led late, and still lost on a last-second field goal. And prayers up for Dak Prescott, who suffered a serious ankle injury in the game.

— Speaking of serious injuries, very inspirational return Sunday for Alex Smith, the Washington quarterback who suffered a gruesome leg injury two years ago and somehow returned to the team this year, and got into the game Sunday. Because he played, he was a winner.

Good News Friday: A man sings a ballad in a grocery store, and it leads to awesome Internet collaboration. An NHL team drafts a child with cystic fibrosis. And a 102-year-old woman casts her vote in full PPE, because voting matters

Happy Friday to all! Hope you’ve had a happy, healthy week, and that your week has brought you nowhere near the White House, where everything but the Lincoln Memorial seems to have come down with Covid-19. Scary, scary stuff, almost as scary as that fly that got stuck on Mike Pence’s head during the debate Wednesday night (as I saw almost immediately on the Interwebs, “Black Flies Matter!”)

Wanted to start Good News Friday with one of the greatest Internet collaborations I’ve ever seen. So this guy named Daniel J. Mertzlufft decided to do a musical theater parody of a song that had gone viral on TikTok, and called it “Grocery Store.” The original video is below, and it’s amusing.

This thread is evidence of the way TikTok’s duet feature can result in the most hilarious and creative collaborations.

Pretty much a guy wrote a musical number about a grocery store and everyone is adding onto it and I am deceased.

Part 1 pic.twitter.com/4z5Mqbscgp

— Emma Lynn (@emmaspacelynn) October 5, 2020

But then the wonder of TikTok is it allows people to take someone else’s work and add to it, which led to this…

Part 2 pic.twitter.com/8tdOd6LVTN

— Emma Lynn (@emmaspacelynn) October 5, 2020

And then this and this …

Part 4 pic.twitter.com/A2bDgS7PlU

— Emma Lynn (@emmaspacelynn) October 5, 2020

(The “we close at 9” kills me every time.)

And then because you’re in a grocery store you need cans of soup and a squeaky shopping cart…

Part 6 pic.twitter.com/ZR3GXgatGP

— Emma Lynn (@emmaspacelynn) October 5, 2020

And believe it or not there are NINE parts to this thing, all short and wonderful when combined and I just love the Internet sometimes. This whole thing made me smile, and yes, you’ll have the song stuck in your head all day but it’s so worth it.

 

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**Next up, the NHL Draft was held virtually this week, but there were still some awesome human interest stories, including the New Jersey Devils doing something pretty special for a young fan of theirs.

A 13-year-old boy from Toms River, N.J. named Reilly Hoagland is a huge Devils rooter, and he’s been fighting cystic fibrosis for several years. His dream was to become a member of the Devils, and this week the Devils front office announced they had “drafted” him. There was a whole ceremony, an announcement from Devils legend Ken Daneyko, and well, just watch the video.

I hate the Devils since I’m a Rangers fan, but this was very, very cool.

**And finally today, of course it’s election season, and many of us are going above and beyond to make sure our votes are heard, and that everyone has a chance to vote, fairly (I just got my assignment as a first-time poll worker and I am excited! Not so excited to be arriving at work at 5:15 a.m. on Election Day, but hey, that’s what caffeine is for.)

This week I read about the amazing 102-year-old woman named Beatrice Lumpkin, who lives in Chicago and has never missed voting since she first cast a ballot for Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in 1940.

This year Lumpkin got dressed in a full hazmat suit and got her mail-in ballot together and went over to the mailbox across the street from her apartment building to drop it off.

I love these quotes from her, from the story:

“It’s the most important election of my lifetime. The very future of democracy is on the line.”  

Lumpkin is very well-informed about the mail-in ballot process. “As soon as they get my ballot I’m going to get an email that’ll let me know they have the ballot,” she said, adding that she is confident in the security of the process since her ballot will be tracked electronically.

When asked what she would say to President Trump, who has repeatedly tried to cast doubt on mail-in voting, Lumpkin told WBBM, “Well, if I had the chance, there would be a whole lot I could say to President Trump.”

I have NO doubt Beatrice would give Trump  the riot act. One hundred and two, and still voting. I love it. Stay safe, Beatrice!