A letter to my son Theo, on his 4th birthday: My challenging, incredible son has had quite a year

Dear Theo,

Hi! It’s Daddy! You know, Daddy, the one who gives you lollipops every day in the car at preschool pickup, and the one to whom you swear you really, really won’t push your brother Nate ever again. Promise.

Your birthday is here again: On Sunday you’ll turn 4, and we’ll celebrate and go trick-or-treating for Halloween as always (You’re going as Yoshi from Super Mario Brothers this year, and you slept in your costume tonight because, of course you did.)

It’s been 12 months since my last letter to you, Theo, and oh what a year it has been.

Theo, Theo, Theo, where to begin? One year ago at this time you had barely just started your first year at school, you had just gotten through crying every day at dropoff, and you were acting out so much that your brother agreed we might want to sell you.

We don’t want to sell you anymore, Theo. Lease you out to someone for a few weeks so we can get some peace and quiet? Maybe.

Noooo. We would never. OK, so where to begin to tell you about your life this year, as you turn 4? Well, the first thing I must say, because it’s something that’s inescapable, is that this year, Theo, you’ve turned into a human jukebox. You are radio station WTHL, Theo Henry Lewis FM, constantly singing and humming away happily, at all hours of the waking day.

Sometimes you’re singing the songs from “Sing,” othertimes it’s nursery rhymes, or songs you learned at preschool (you went through a short but intense “Rise and Shine, and Give God your Glory Glory” phase recently). Your favorite songs these days are “Ghostbusters” and the Chumbawumba song that starts with “I get knocked down, but I get up again.”

When you’re not sleeping or talking, you are belting out tunes to your heart’s content.

Your camp teacher this summer asked me if you ever stop singing, and I said, nope, he’s pretty much like this all the time. It’s delightful and joyous.

What has NOT been delightful and joyous, my wonderful child, has been your complete obsession with clinging to Daddy the last few months. It’s been Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, all the time. Daddy has to give me the bath. I need to be with Daddy. Daddy, don’t leave me. You are, as Mommy and I say to each other all the time, a lot.

Theo, trust me, I can give you the names and numbers of several people who will tell you: Daddy ain’t that great. One of them is a woman I used to be married to before Mommy. And some others, too!
But nope, you think Daddy is amazing and I know one day I’ll miss the days when you wanted me around 24/7. Right now, it’s a mixture of loving it and wanting to grab you and say “Hey, Mommy is pretty amazing! Go spend some time with her! She knows how to bathe you!”

I know this is a phase, and eventually your desire to be with Mommy will increase and your dryer-level clinging to Daddy will decrease. And I do enjoy it, most of the time. But it can be exhausting.

What else can I tell you about your life at age 3, as you transition into age 4? At school this year you are flourishing. You adjusted so beautifully last year in your first attempt at a structured education program.

Your teacher, Miss Randi, loved you so much and called you her “Most Improved Boy,” which at first I took as a backhanded compliment but then realized it was completely meant as praiseworthy: You showed the capacity to improve your behavior and become a terrific member of the class, and your verbal skills and brainpower seem to be off the charts. A grown-up this summer told Mommy and me that we should “save up for the Ivy League” with you. I guess I’ll go check on your 529 now, huh?

Your personality has grown so much this year, in small and big ways. You love using the “thumbs up, thumbs down” method of telling us how a food tastes, or how your day was, and you love to make silly faces at people. You’ve handled another year of being masked indoors like a champ, and you have even started eating pizza again this year, to go along with your favorites of hot dogs and bacon (somewhere, your future cardiologist weeps).

And now, Theo, let’s talk about your relationship with your big brother. When Mommy asked you recently, while discussing a boy in your class who had hit another classmate, if you hit any of your friends, you calmly replied, “I don’t hit anyone. Only my brother.”

That elicited a big chuckle, and a knowing nod from both of us, since oh boy, do you hit your brother. You love Nate so much, want to play with him always, but boy do you pound on him. You two wrestle and rough-house after school, after dinner, and usually it’s all in good fun but often you push or smack him pretty hard, and he cries.

You know your reputation with us, though, as often when Nate gets hurt you run in to Mommy and me and calmly say “Nate got hurt but I DIDN’T do anything to him.” Usually you’re telling the truth.

Usually.

Through everything this year, Theo, you have become a little boy, no longer a toddler. And as you suck down those yogurt pouches you love so much, and still work on going in the big-boy potty while watching your beloved Pododo cartoons, I want you to remember how much we love you.
You are a fun-loving, special young man who loves dressing in costumes any chance you get. You challenge us, entertain us, and keep us on your toes.

You’re a wonderful brother and son, we can’t wait to see what the next 12 months has in store for you (hopefully a Covid vaccine!)

Happy 4th birthday Theo, and keep shining on, you crazy diamond.

Love, Daddy
P.S. Oh, one more thing: Can you please stop leaning back SO far in your chair at dinner? Mommy has a near-heart attack every time you do it. Thanks.

 

Huge news for kids, as the FDA approves the Covid vaccine for kids 5-11 years old. “SNL” with a great spoof of the Ellen show. and a frightening new food concoction involving bratwurst and candy corn

As a parent of two young children, Tuesday was a day I’d been waiting 21 months for.
Even though the vast majority of people who got hospitalized from Covid-19 were adults, and even though the kids who did get the disease were, again by a vast majority, turned out OK, there has still always been that fear.
Maybe my kid will be the one who gets seriously ill. Maybe my kid will spread this disease to others.

It has been an awful, nagging feeling, and Tuesday was a huge day in the lives of parents who have wanted that feeling to go away.

In a long-anticipated move, the FDA announced that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use for children ages 5-11.

Whew. This is another huge step in eradicating this awful disease. Now, my first-born, along with 28 million other elementary school-aged children, can get vaccinated and stop worrying.

While my 7-year-old’s initial reaction, a few weeks ago, when I told him he’d probably be able to get vaccinated by Thanksgiving, was “Ugh, I have to get more shots?”, I’ve explained that if all of his friends at school get the shots, and all their friends get the shots, you’d be able to stop having to wear masks at school. That, he really liked.

We’re not at the end of the pandemic, just yet. But Tuesday was a glorious day in the fight, and there’s every expectation that the Pfizer shot will be authorized for 1-4 year olds in a few weeks as well.

For once, I’m not dreading taking my kids for shots. A glorious day, indeed.

 

** Next up today, Jason Sudeikis, who has become a huge star in America thanks to his fantastic show “Ted Lasso,” hosted “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, and as usual it’s taken me a few days to catch up to the good stuff.

His opening monologue was short and sweet, but this sketch (above), about a new “Ellen” TV show but for men, was fantastic. Come for the phenomenal Jake Paul and Louis C.K. impressions, and stay for Sudeikis’ facial expressions and dancing.

This is classic.

**Lastly today, we are nearing the end of Halloween season, which blissfully should bring about the end of Candy Corn season as well, a scourge on our society the likes of which seems to never go away. (Much like with olives and the actress Andie MacDowell, there seem to be an equal number of people in America who both love candy corn, and hate it. I hate it.)

Before we bid adieu to the disgusting faux-candy, though, I thought this story was alternately delightful and disgusting. A restaurant in Wisconsin has decided to combine bratwurst, beer and candy corn to make a new “delicacy.”

From this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story:

“The brat was created by Jenifer Street Market meat manager Justin Strassman. 

“It all started with the beer we make our brats in, the Lake Louie Oktoberfest beer. It has a sweet caramel flavor to it, so we tried something different,” Strassman said. 

He decided to add candy corn to the meat, and somehow the flavor plays well with the Oktoberfest beer, Strassman said. 

“You really only notice it when you bite into the candy corn, but it’s not overbearing. It pairs well together,” he said. “It’s something I wouldn’t eat with ketchup and mustard, but maybe with pretzels and eat it hors d’oeuvre style.”

Slightly sweet & not scary at all!” said the restaurant in announcing the Candy Corn Brat.

Ugh. I know people in Wisconsin will eat anything bratwurst-related, but come on people, isn’t there a line anywhere here?

And of course the first 125 brats the restaurant made sold out instantly.

Because, you know, America.

This Alec Baldwin/movie set tragedy is such a monumentally stupid accident that ended in death. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is back! And I celebrate with one of my all-time favorite scenes. And in the NFL, the Bengals make a huge statement and the Chiefs look shockingly feeble.

I try not to get too infuriated about current events that aren’t politics-related, but there are certain “accidents” that absolutely should never, ever happen.
Like, there’s NO possible way on God’s green Earth that this should happen. And somewhere near the very top of that list should be an actor accidentally firing real bullets on a movie set and killing another human being.

As you have already surmised, I’m talking about the awful tragedy that happened on a New Mexico film set last Thursday, when Alec Baldwin fired what was supposed to be a prop gun and killed the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the director, Joel Souza.

There is one question, and only one question, that should be asked in the immediate aftermath of this disgusting and deplorable accident: What were LIVE BULLETS doing in ANY gun on this movie set???

That’s it, that’s the absolute number one thing that I want to know. Why would a live round, which is what media reports have said the prop gun Baldwin fired contained, ever, ever, EVER be in a gun on a movie set?

I understand why security guards on the perimeter of the set, or walking around the set, might have real guns with real bullets. But what possible explanation could there be for a fake gun, used as a set piece, having bullets in it?

There have been lots of stories about the case so far, about Baldwin being understandably distraught, about Hutchins and her life being tragically snuffed out, etc. But I’ve yet to see one story, not one, explain, in this day and age of technological wizardry, why a bullet, or even a blank which contains powder that can be deadly, needs to be on a set.

Just completely inexplicable to me. Computers and technology can create whatever effect a live round can. And because of stupidity, a woman in New Mexico died last week.

**Next up today, Sunday night brought the season 11 premiere of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which is one of the funniest TV shows of all time, in my book. I have loved so much of it, have bashed it at times when I feel like it just wasn’t funny anymore (the Season 9 “fatwa” season was terrible), but overall it has brought me so much joy.

I can’t possibly choose one clip to illustrate my excitement that it’s back, but I’ll go with this one from the episode called “Grand Opening,” when Larry and friends open a new restaurant, and hire a chef with Tourette’s Syndrome, and his disease manifests itself with the chef screaming curse words in a stream, out loud. And of course the chef has an outburst with a restaurant full of people and, well, it’s just hilarious what happens next. (WARNING: Definitely Not Safe For Work to listen to this around other co-workers.)

So glad to have this show back.

**Finally today, it was surprisingly another hugely one-sided week of games in the NFL, highlighted (ahem) by the green and white team that plays in New Jersey getting nipped by 41 points Sunday up in New England. I cannot express in words how pathetic my football team is, and I am actually starting to think that Robert Saleh is just as woefully unqualified to be an NFL head coach as was Adam Gase.

Moving on to other NFL thoughts, some that don’t make me want to hurl…

— The biggest statement of the day was made by the Cincinnati Bengals, who went into Baltimore and tattooed the Ravens, 41-17 to move to 5-2 and a first-place division tie with Baltimore. Joe Burrow looks very much like a franchise QB, the Bengal defense contained Lamar Jackson, and Jamar Chase looks like a future All-Pro receiver.

I like it when teams that are chronically bad finally get good, and the Bengals look like a very good team. I’d hate to be the team that plays them next (checks notes), oh it’s the Jets, perfect!

— Hey, all those people ready to call Sam Darnold “reborn” and a “whole new QB” after a few weeks, anybody hear them now? My former Jets franchise QB was awful in a loss to the Giants Sunday, getting benched as the G-Men actually showed a pulse and improved to 2-5.

Maybe the Jets were right to move on from Darnold, huh?

— I’m pretty sure this sentence has never been uttered since the abomination that is Thursday night football was invented by the NFL, but by far the best game of next week happens in just three days! The undefeated Arizona Cardinals against the one-loss Green Bay Packers. A rare weeknight tilt that’s actually going to be a great game!

— Finally, I think we can officially admit the Chiefs stink. Not saying their run as a great team is over, but this year they’re not going anywhere. They were dog-poop awful against the Titans Sunday, losing 27-3. What the hell happened to this amazing offense?

Good News Friday: Shaq dances with Kelly Clarkson onstage, and it’s delightful. A former top FBI man becomes a postal worker, and has never been happier. And a little sister waits for big bro at the bus stop, excitedly.

And a Happy Friday, humans of Earth! I hope you are doing super fantastic wherever you are reading this, we here at WWOS central are getting ready for a Halloween parade on Sunday, some fun activities in town Saturday, and super-pumped for the “any day now, right?” FDA approval of vaccines for my little guys.

Lots of good stuff as always this week (not even going to put in here about my Rangers having won three in a row, but I am pumped about that), but I’ve got to start with the great Shaquille O’Neal, who has more fun on Earth than just about anyone.

Shaq, as I’ve written in this space many times before, is an athlete who gets it: He gets that he’s a role model, he understands how lucky he is, and he just has so much excitement in his life.

This video above is from a recent charity benefit Shaquille and one of his organizations threw, and it starred Kelly Clarkson, who came onstage to perform her big hit “Since You’ve Been Gone.” 

And around the 1:30 mark, Shaq comes out in his purple tux jacket and starts dueting with her, and yeah at first the size difference between the two of them made me chuckle, but then it becomes two people dancing and having fun and it’s just oozing delightfulness.

Appreciate and enjoy life as much as you can. Live like Shaq if at all possible.

 

**Next up today, Steve Hartman of CBS News with another gem last week, about the former No. 4-ranked person in the FBI retiring, getting bored, and responding to the needs of his rural community.

Mike Mason is now a bus driver in Midlothian, Va. school district, and he’s having a wonderful time doing it. Just a wonderful little story of a man doing what he can to help his town.

“We need to get used to the idea that there are no unimportant jobs,” Mason said.

A-freaking-men. Way to go, Mike.

Little sister waiting for her older brother to get off the bus is the cutest thing you'll see today. They are so happy to see eachother!!! 🤗❤🤗.(🎥:thenoirlotus)

pic.twitter.com/el1141iret

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) October 20, 2021

**And finally today, just a short video of a simple joy in life, and in parenting: Watching one sibling be excited at the bus stop, waiting for the other sibling to get off the big yellow vehicle so a warm embrace can be given.

I’ve watched it with my boys, hopefully you’ve watched it with your kids if you are fortunate enough to have them, and it’s a heart-melting moment almost every time.

Just look at this pure, pure joy!

The governor of Missouri threatens to prosecute a reporter for … helping the state government. The “SNL” cold open on the Gruden emails was pretty funny. A and a great idea for a comedy special: A comedian teaches senior citizens to perform.

My mind, it boggles. It really freaking does.
Some stories that I see make me more than angry. They make me shake my head in wonderment, while thinking “how could one human being, in this high a position of power, be this mounmentally stupid?

We all know that Republican leaders like to demonize and blame the media; it scores them cheap popularity points with their voters. But this… this takes things to a level my brain cannot comprehend.

Check this out: A reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was working on a story for the paper and during his research, he discovered on a state website that the social security numbers of thousands of Missouri teachers were vulnerable to public exposure, thanks to a flaw in the database searching system on one of the state’s websites.

The reporter, who has gone unnamed so far, alerted the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education of the problem, it was fixed, and the newspaper waited to publish any report on the subject until the sensitive information was removed from being able to be seen by the public.

So this should’ve been a simple thing, with the state saying “hey reporter! Good job and thank you for finding this flaw in the system, we appreciate you helping out and protecting teachers’ privacy! Thanks!”

Except … that’s not the world Mike Parson, the governor of Missouri lives in. Parson last Thursday, inexplicably, vowed a criminal prosecution of the reporter, and a full investigation, calling the reporter a “hacker” and accused the journalist of trying to steal personal information of Missuori teahcers.

“This administration is standing up against any and all perpetrators who attempt to steal personal information and harm Missourians,” he said.

“We will not let this crime against Missouri teachers go unpunished,” Parson continued.” And we refuse to let them be a pawn in the news outlet’s political vendetta. Not only are we going to hold this individual accountable, but we will also be holding accountable all those who aided this individual and the media corporation that employs them.”

I’m sorry, BUT ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????

This was public information easily found and searched on a state website, and the reporter is a hacker who they’re looking to prosecute??? Jesus H. Christ on a cracker, the reporter SAVED the state the embarrassment of a privacy scandal, and this numbnut governor thinks that, to score points with his base that hates all reporters not on Fox News, he should prosecute the reporter??

Like I said, the mind, it boggles. Absolutely reprehensible.

Here’s hoping someone in Missouri state government convinces Parson what a monumentally stupid idea this is. But my breath, as they say, is not held.

 

**Next up today, I didn’t see this over the weekend but very much enjoyed seeing it Monday. The Cold Open from “Saturday Night Live” featured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and disgraced coach Jon Gruden, and others, made me laugh out loud a few times.

Especially Colin Jost as Goodell’s line about “kneeling.”

Great stuff.

https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/1449059264228700164

**And finally today, I’ve never heard of comedian Jo Firestone, but this new idea for a special she had is phenomenal, and I can’t wait to watch it.
In March, 2020, she decided she wanted to teach stand-up comedy to senior citizens. Then the pandemic hit, and she continued to teach the seniors but over Zoom. And week by week, as they improved, she got the idea to make a comedy special out of watching her students learn and improve, and challenged them to all work up some jokes and perform in a live show.

The special is on Peacock TV and it’s called “Good Timing,” and I saw the trailer on Twitter this week and was instantly hooked. It looks fantastic.

Sports gambling, and sports gambling ads, have overtaken and suffocated sports on TV, and I’m sick of it. The Balloon World Cup is the greatest thing you’ll see today. And in the NFL, is Kirk Cousins actually … good now? And a pretty miserable week of games, competitiveness-wise

Good News Friday: The great Tony Bennett, at 95, still singing his heart out. “The Golden Girls” as superheroes is brilliant and hilarious. And an L.A. organization helps ex-gang members turn their lives around.

Happy Friday! Somehow we’re already in the middle of October, my wife’s yearly obsession with candy corn this time of year is in full swing (I don’t think there’s any single thing we are further apart on as a married couple; I think candy corn is absolutely disgusting, and she will eat bags of it, happily) and I am very excited about this week’s Good News Friday entries. Also, hockey season has started, yay!!!!!!! (Seriously, check out this pregame opening to the Vegas Golden Knights game against the Seattle Kraken the other night, and tell me you don’t want to go see a game in Vegas.)

I’m even more excited than usual about this week’s Good News Friday stories, and I want to lead off with a remarkable, chill-inducing story from last week’s “60 Minutes” on the amazing Tony Bennett.

Did you know Tony Bennett was about to turn 95 years old, and he still has got an amazing voice? Anderson Cooper followed him for a few weeks over the summer as the great crooner prepared for a couple of “farewell” concerts at Radio City Music Hall, and the story moved me much more than I expected.

We see Bennett’s doting wife helping him along as he battles Alzheimer’s, and we see his friend Lady Gaga (who I have done a complete 180 on, I now think she’s sensational) helping him, and there’s a moment on stage at Radio City, and I won’t give it away, that absolutely had me near-tears.

Here is a man, who all his life has lived in front of big crowds and entertained millions, in his final act, and he barely remembers anything, but he remembers the classic songs that he’s been belting out for seven or eight decades now.

Just a really warm, special piece of television, and I almost guarantee it’ll put a smile on your face.

**Next up, this is just why the Internet, for all its flaws, is such a treasure.

A designer named Kevin Bapp came up with the idea of putting the SuperFriends superheroes into the theme song/opening credits sequence of “The Golden Girls,” and it’s absolutely fantastic and I’ve watched it six or seven times and laugh hard every time. It apparently was done in 2012, but I just saw it for the first time this week on Twitter.

So many fantastic moments, but Batman eating his fist at the kitchen table is just perfect. Enjoy.

**And finally today, checking in with the wonderful organization based in Los Angeles named Homeboy Industries, which takes former gang members and rehabilitates them and helps them find jobs and training in a productive field.

Led by pastor Gregory Boyle, Homeboy has been around for 33 years, and recently they held a fundraising 5K that raised $325,000, and announced a grant of $15 million from the state of California.

This group, like the organization Cure Violence I’ve written about several times, is so important toward helping men and women turn their lives around, and giving them a chance, and some hope, at a bright future.

Love what they’re doing. Love it!

Have a great weekend.

Some thoughts on “Ted Lasso” Season 2, now that it’s over: It was still awesome at times, but a little uneven and strange this year. A new sport taking over Japan: Adult pillow-fighting! And William Shatner going into space reminds of his most awful, hilarious moment.

I’ve been waiting until all of “Ted Lasso” Season 2 aired before saying anything about it, and now that the season finale was released last Friday, boy oh boy, do I have thoughts.

Ask bartender May to get you a cold one, tell the Diamond Dogs to mount up, and settle in, because “Ted Lasso” is such a fantastic show, was amazing in Season 1, and was pretty damn good in Season 2.

OK, first of all, the show overall was excellent this season. It’s hard for any show’s second season to live up to its first, because as a viewer, all the characters and storylines are fresh and new in the first season, and clearly season 1 was excellent otherwise it wouldn’t have even gotten a season 2.

“Ted Lasso” was still incredibly funny, and the writers took many of the side characters we barely got to know in Season 1, like Sam, Nate, and Higgins, and developed them. The humor and heart that were so obvious in Season 1 were again there in the second season, but a lot of the fun this year was getting to know the ensemble.

— Speaking of bit players who I want more of, give me more Sassy, please! Rebecca’s best friend is 11 kinds of awesome.

— By far my favorite part of the season was the developing of the Roy and Keeley relationship. They are so perfect for each other; her winning charm and adorableness contrasted with his gruff but hysterical exterior. I hate the way the writers threw roadblocks in their way and implied, at season’s end, that they were going to break up.

Don’t you dare break them up, Bill Lawrence and Jason Sudeikis! My favorite scene, among many great ones this season, was this one (below) with poor niece Phoebe and her stinky breath. Roy’s face when she breathes on him … just epic. And his face when Keeley tells him he can’t go beat up a kid, so perfect.

— I thought the best episodes this season were the Christmas episode, which gave everyone something to do, and the funeral one, which had the exact right amount of sadness, humor and heart. It was such a joy to watch.

— The worst episode was definitely the “Coach Beard wanders through London after a tough loss” one. I don’t know what the writers were trying to do there, but I didn’t get it.

— The Ted/Dr. Sharon stuff was excellent, but I feel like we needed more of it. Once we established that Ted’s panic attacks were directly related to what happened to his father in Ted’s childhood, it seemed like we were going to go deep into why Ted is the way he is. But I feel like the show was afraid to go really deep on it.

— OK, the Nate thing … way, way too fast of a transition for him to go from “plucky equipment manager/nice guy who is a benefit to the team once Ted saw his value and championed him” to “obnoxious a-hole who thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, and alienates everyone.” I know there were only 12 episodes but come on, that was a lightning-fast conversion, and very hard to take. When Nate finally unloaded on Ted in the final episode, it felt like most of his points were ridiculous and hard to believe.

— I found it very, very weird and silly how they never discussed how the Rebecca/Sam relationship was SUCH a horrible idea because of the power dynamic involved. She owns the team, he’s the star player, and the two of them in bed together was creepy and odd, nevermind the huge age difference.
Still, I couldn’t help rooting for them to work because Sam is such an appealing character but with warmth and humor.

I also loved how much “Cheers” is in “Ted Lasso” DNA (Jason Sudeikis is George Wendt, Norm from “Cheers” nephew), and so loved the “Cheers” callback to a Sam/Rebecca relationship. 

— Finally, I hope the show goes beyond the original planned three years. It’s too good to end after one more season.
Now all of you go out there and be goldfish today!

**Next up today, under the heading of “Japanese people are competition-crazy and will make a sport out of anything,” I give you the annual All-Japan Pillow Fighting Championship.

Yes, that’s really a thing. No words I can use can accurately describe this insanity, so just watch the above video, and realize your kid’s next slumber party would be SO awesome if they did this.

**Finally today, news came last week that the great William Shatner, star of “Star Trek” and so many other things, is going to be a passenger on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin quasi-spaceship this week. Shatner is scheduled to go into orbit today, and when the idea was made official that the 90-year-old Captain Kirk was going to be headed into space, Shatner referenced that he was going to really be a “rocket man.”

So of course, there’s no way I couldn’t greet this news by bringing you maybe the most unintentionally-hilarious piece of video of all time.

Ladies and gentlemen, William Shatner singing the Elton John song, “Rocket Man.” Oh. My. Goodness.

An investigation into a Tennessee judge shows, horrifyingly, the jailing of black children for crimes that didn’t exist. The heavyweight boxing champ wins again, and sings again, joyously. And in the NFL, the Browns and Chargers play a crazy wild one, kickers couldn’t hit a thing Sunday, and God hates the Detroit Lions.

There are so many examples of African-Americans being treated poorly in our society, by government, by the business world, by any group in a position of authority, that it’s easy to sometimes become numb to it.

But this story, wow, did this story enrage me. ProPublica, the fantastic investigative journalism company, published a story a few days ago that made my blood boil. It’s about a county in Tennessee, Rutherford County, and a judge, Donna Scott Davenport, who oversees a juvenile justice system with a staggering history of jailing small children (yes, you read that right.) Sometimes kids are locked up for crimes that don’t exist.

Davenport says kids must face consequences, which rarely seem to apply to her or other adults.

Under Davenport, Rutherford County locked up a staggering 48% of children whose cases were referred to juvenile court. The statewide average was 5%.

Here’s the excellent lede of this ProPublica story:

“Three police officers were crowded into the assistant principal’s office at Hobgood Elementary School, and Tammy Garrett, the school’s principal, had no idea what to do. One officer, wearing a tactical vest, was telling her: Go get the kids. A second officer was telling her: Don’t go get the kids. The third officer wasn’t saying anything.

Garrett knew the police had been sent to arrest some children, although exactly which children, it would turn out, was unclear to everyone, even to these officers. The names police had given the principal included four girls, now sitting in classrooms throughout the school. All four girls were Black. There was a sixth grader, two fourth graders and a third grader. The youngest was 8. On this sunny Friday afternoon in spring, she wore her hair in pigtails.

A few weeks before, a video had appeared on YouTube. It showed two small boys, 5 and 6 years old, throwing feeble punches at a larger boy as he walked away, while other kids tagged along, some yelling. The scuffle took place off school grounds, after a game of pickup basketball. One kid insulted another kid’s mother, is what started it all.

The police were at Hobgood because of that video. But they hadn’t come for the boys who threw punches. They were here for the children who looked on. The police in Murfreesboro, a fast-growing city about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, had secured juvenile petitions for 10 children in all who were accused of failing to stop the fight. Officers were now rounding up kids, even though the department couldn’t identify a single one in the video, which was posted with a filter that made faces fuzzy. What was clear were the voices, including that of one girl trying to break up the fight, saying: “Stop, Tay-Tay. Stop, Tay-Tay. Stop, Tay-Tay.” She was a fourth grader at Hobgood. Her initials were E.J.”

The whole story is just amazing to read, how one judge could get away with so much.

**Next up today, you may remember one of the last great sporting moments before the pandemic was heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury (which is, let’s face it, a PHENOMENAL name for a boxing champion) defeating rival Deontay Wilder and then, because why not, belting out a damn good rendition of “American Pie” to the crowd in the arena.

Well, Fury and Wilder fought another thriller Saturday night, Fury won again, and gosh dang it I love this fella, he decided to croon yet again.

This time it was his own take on the Marc Cohn classic “Walking in Memphis,” with the words changed slightly because Fury was in Las Vegas for the fight.

I honestly don’t know why Fury hasn’t gotten into a recording studio and cut an album. He can REALLY sing!

I love this guy.

**And finally today, it was another nutso day in the NFL, where nothing was predictable except the Giants and Jets both crashing back to Earth with bad, bad losses. My Jets, let’s face it, are not improving, and the offense looked hopeless in the first half once again.

But there was so much good other stuff in the NFL Sunday, including…

— What a wild, crazy pair of games in Cincinnati and Los Angeles Sunday. First in Hollywood, the Chargers and Browns played a game where the defenses took the day off, as Baker Mayfield and Co. traded blows with Justin Herbert and the Chargers all game, going back and forth scoring touchdowns.

The fourth quarter was bananas, with 41 total points scored just in that frame alone! The Chargers won, 47-42, and wow do they look like a dangerous team this year. The Browns, so explosive, but that defense needs some work.

— And in Cincinnati, Packers kicker Mason Crosby, who’s usually one of the top 2-3 at his position, and had made 25 in a row this season, missed 3 field goal tries in regulation and overtime before converting in OT. The Bengals kicker, Evan McPherson, missed two FG’s in the fourth quarter and overtime as well. For the love of God, can someone get Adam Vinatieri out of retirement?

— Tom Brady threw five touchdown passes Sunday. Tom Brady is 44 years old. Just ridiculous.

— The Detroit Lions, I mean, yeah. God hates them. I think my Jets are cursed, and they are, but the Lions, they’ve got it worse. For the second time in the last three weeks, the men from Michigan looked to have a game won, only to see the opponent kick a crazy-long field goal in the final seconds.

Sunday the Lions scored a touchdown with :37 left, to get within 16-15 of the Vikings, and then coach Matt Campbell, bless him, decided, what the hell we’re 0-4, let’s go for the win, and went for two and got it, so they were up 17-16.

Then the Vikings came down and drilled a 54-yard field goal as time expired to win. The Lions are the first team in NFL history to lose on a GW FG of 50+ yards with no time left on the clock twice in a single season.

I mean… what did they do to anger God? Waste Barry Sanders’ prime?

— Finally, the Buffalo Bills laid a whupping on the Chiefs Sunday night, 38-20, and Kansas City looked nothing like its former self. They also lost two key offensive players to injury, their defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed (thank you, Bart Scott) and the Bills look very much like a Super Bowl favorite.

Remember when everyone said the Chiefs couldn’t be stopped? Nothing lasts too long in the NFL.

Good News Friday: A best friend cheers up his buddy who had a miserable day at school. A malaria vaccine is approved, which is enormous world news. And a beloved hospital chef receives a great honor.

It’s Fri-yay, people! And yes, that’s the first and hopefully last time I ever use the word “Fri-yay.” I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.

It’s fall and we’re going Halloween costume-shopping but the temperature is in the 70s here in New York so we’re all a little confused.
It’s been a week full of exciting sports games (Boo Red Sox beating Yankees, yay Dodgers winning and setting up a great SF-L.A. series) and a ton of good news to share.

Let me start with the joy one can only know when one has had a truly miserable day: And that’s the joy of a surprise visit from your best friend.

From Upworthy.com: “Eleven-year-old best friends Stevie and Owen hadn’t seen each other since 2019, after Owen’s family moved from Chicago to Missouri. Despite several phone calls and FaceTime video game sessions, COVID-19 had made keeping in touch difficult.

But their luck was destined to change last Friday. Stevie Stroud had no idea that after being picked up early from a bad day at school, his friend Owen would be waiting in the car to pay him a special visit.

And Owen had a really bad day, and he gets in the car and … this happens. So, so wonderful.

3 yrs ago, best friends Stevie & Owen where separated when Owen moved to Missouri

Recently, Stevie had a bad day at school & asked to be picked up early. He had no idea Owen had traveled to Chicago & was waiting in the car to surprise him.🎥:Dianemstroudhttps://t.co/In1Uh5Q20U

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) October 3, 2021

Just beautiful. There’s nothing like having a best friend, someone who just gets you completely, and someone who when you see them, everything gets instantly better.

I have a feeling Stevie and Owen will be friends for a lifetime.

**Next up, with all the talk about Covid vaccines lately, and anti-vaxxer nonsense (Hey Kyrie Irving? on behalf of all Brooklyn fans, just get the damn shot please!), I thought this story shouldn’t be ignored.

Malaria, a disease who has killed millions and millions of people throughout history, now finally has an approved vaccine.

The World Health Organization announced this week that it has approved the first malaria vaccine.

Malaria kills about 500,000 people each year, about half of them children in Africa., according to this New York Times story.

“The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the vaccine, the first step in a process that should lead to wide distribution in poor countries. To have a malaria vaccine that is safe, moderately effective and ready for distribution is “a historic event,” said Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the W.H.O.’s global malaria program.

Malaria is rare in the developed world. There are just 2,000 cases in the United States each year, mostly among travelers returning from countries in which the disease is endemic.

The new vaccine isn’t perfect, but it will help turn the tide, experts said.”

To quote the great Jesse Pinkman from “Breaking Bad,” “Yay Science!”

After 45 years of service at @MercyHospMIA, the hospital’s beloved chef Danny was surprised with news that hospital was renaming the grill "Danny's Grill" after him. A huge Miami Dolphins fan, he was also presented with tickets to the Dolphins NFL game!

pic.twitter.com/9mgJM4JVUH

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) October 1, 2021

**And finally today, these are always my favorite kinds of stories, when a person who’s gone about their job anonymously for decades, doing a terrific job, finally gets some recognition.
Meet Danny, who for the past 45 years has been a chef in the kitchen of Miami’s Mercy Hospital.

Danny is a huge Dolphins fan (poor guy, they’ve stunk for decades) and upon his retirement, the hospital had a ceremony renaming the cafeteria “Danny’s Grill” and giving him free tickets to a Dolphins game.

Just look at the joy in his face here. It’s 100 percent correct what has been said: The one feeling everyone in the working world wants most is to feel appreciated.

Have a great weekend.