As much as sports fans are talking about Shohei Ohtani, we’re not talking about him enough. He’s having an unprecedented year. An awesome water balloon fight in NYC makes me jealous. And hang on to your George Jetson action figures, flying cars might really be here soon.

ddd

I went to a major league baseball game Sunday, to help celebrate my Dad’s 80th birthday. It was a game between the Mets and the Nationals, two teams going nowhere this season, but still, it was an MLB game and lots of fun.

And yet, I kept thinking about a different baseball player, who competes for a team 3,000 miles away. I heard a few people on the way into the stadium talking about him, too, and it occurs to me that every baseball fan in America should be talking about this guy. 

Heck, every sports fan in America should be talking about this guy.

Shohei Ohtani is in the middle of the most incredible season any baseball player has ever had. The Los Angeles Angels superstar was already pretty amazing coming into 2023, as the first modern day ballplayer to be a pitcher and a hitter, at the same time.

But what he’s doing this season, I mean, just listen some of the crazy stuff he’s doing:

— Last week, in a doubleheader against the Royals, Ohtani threw a complete game shutout in the first contest, then blasted two home runs in the next. Then in his first at bat the next day, in Toronto, he crushed another homer.

— It’s possible he could win the Triple Crown in BOTH pitching and hitting. As of July 29th, he was first in the American League in homers, second in RBIs, and seventh in batting average. And he was in the Top 11 in pitcher strikeouts, wins and ERA.

This is … not human. He’s got 39 home runs and 81 RBIs, and he’s 9-5 on the mound with a 3.43 ERA, and not even Babe Ruth back in his day was this good at both, simultaneously.

Ohtani is a joy to watch, and it’s a crying shame that so many of his games start after those of us on the East Coast have gone to bed. I really, really want to see the Angels in the playoffs this October, so all of America can get to see this once-in-a-lifetime athlete at his peak (the Angels are currently four games out of a postseason spot).

He’s making me care about baseball again, and making some amazing memories for young baseball fans. I am in awe of this incredible athlete. 

NYC met up for a water balloon fight 😍 pic.twitter.com/S3QreEWWjw

— SixBrownChicks (@SixBrownChicks) July 29, 2023

**Next up, it was another broiling-hot Saturday here in New York, and across America, so I very much enjoyed this video of a whole bunch of New Yorkers having a water balloon/super soaker fight in Central Park on Saturday.

Wish I could’ve been there!

**Finally today, it was at least 40 years ago when I sat in my den watching TV and seeing George Jetson and his lovely family hurtling through the air in a vehicle in the sky.

Since then, as 7-year-old me ate his Cinnamon Toast Crunch and drank his Minute Maid orange juice, flying cars have been something me and millions of other Americans have dreamed of.

Well, it may be getting a lot closer to reality, finally. But I’m no longer sure that’s a good thing.

From this CNN story a few weeks ago: “The Federal Aviation Administration has certified for testing a vehicle that a California startup describes as a flying car — the first fully electric vehicle that can both fly and travel on roads to receive US government approval.1

Alef Automotive said that its vehicle/aircraft, dubbed the “Model A,” is the first flying vehicle that is drivable on public roads and able to park like a normal car. It also has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. It apparently will be able to carry one or two occupants and will have a road-range of 200 miles and a flying range of 110 miles.

The company expects to sell the vehicle for $300,000 each with the first delivery by projected for the end of 2025.”

I mean … I can’t possibly imagine this causing any problems. With airplanes, for example. And can you imagine being stuck behind this car in traffic and then poof, it just takes off and flies over the heads of all the other cars on the Long Island Expressway?

Very cool in theory. In practice? It’s a little terrifying.

 

Good News Friday: Dwayne Johnson does another great thing, giving a huge check to striking Hollywood actors. A schoolteacher retires and gets a wonderful sendoff. And NYC libraries are giving away 15,000 books for free.

Happy Friday, my people! It’s late July, it’s hotter than Bruce Springsteen was in 1984 out there in just about every part of America, and we’ve made it through another week. I’m excited about a lot of things today, especially a big 80th birthday shindig for my Dad on Sunday, and getting to see the sensational and incredible Pink in concert next Thursday at Citi Field. It will be, I believe, my 6th time seeing her in person and she always, always puts on a fantastic show. Can’t wait.

Let’s get to Good News Friday and yet another example of a famous person doing the right thing, as he seems to always do. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a major movie star, after being the most famous wrestler in the world, and makes more money per film than most of us will see in her lifetimes.

But with the actor’s strike continuing with no end in sight, Johnson decided to do something very special. He donated a seven-figure amount of money to the fund supporting struggling actors.

From this story in USA Today: “While we cannot disclose the amount, as it is a private donation, we can confirm that it is seven figures, and it is historic for our nonprofit organization,” SAG-AFTRA director of communications Caroline O’Connor tells USA TODAY in a statement Tuesday.

Johnson’s donation is the largest total contribution received from an individual donor in the union’s nearly 40-year history.

The wrestler-turned-actor’s donation “will help thousands in urgent need who have been impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike, and will receive emergency assistance for basic needs,” O’Connor added.

What a fabulous move by a guy who absolutely gets it.

After almost 40 years of teaching, this elementary school teacher retires and receives a beautiful surprise tribute from students and co-workers as she exits the building. Congratulations and Happy Retirement Paqui!

pic.twitter.com/mv3ASqLCd5

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) July 26, 2023

**Next up, another one of these videos that gets me every time. A teacher at a school in Colombia named Paqui was retiring after 40 years, and on her final day, the entire student body and faculty came out to see her off.

Just so beautiful.

**And finally, there is nothing as important to a child’s brain development as reading, and yet of course millions of kids don’t have access to wonderful books that we take for granted.

My city of New York is doing something fabulous this summer;

New York City’s three library systems—Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), New York Public Library (NYPL) and Queens Public Library (QPL)—are partnering up with the New York Life Foundation to give away 15,000 books for free to New York families across the city. 

The books are being given away this weekend; according to the story, throughout the weekend, and while supplies last, young readers can pick up books (in English and Spanish, and Chinese in some locations) to keep and also sign up for library cards.

This giveaway is meant to support New Yorkers in need and includes locations near Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers or shelters.”

This is fantastic. Books are the gateway to knowledge, and so many kids don’t have access to them. Bravo, NY Public library.

Have a great weekend.

 

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/nyc-libraries-are-giving-away-15-000-books-for-free-this-summer-071923?fbclid=IwAR3HnxvRMWh1ehr7ZuQ26GJMySWy9kZoRSuxC4sZEise8aC4UUnvkHNRqiI

Bibi Netanyahu’s Israel slides closer and closer to a dictatorship, and the U.S. government just watches. Lizzo is all sorts of amazing on the recorder. And emojis now count as legal signatures in Canada

It is so, so depressing thinking about what’s happening in Israel these days.

I’ve been so angry for so many years at the actions, attitudes, and unbelievable ability to never quite go away of Bibi Netanyahu, the current and apparently, forever leader of Israel. We American Jews have watched as this man has done and said so many destructive, irresponsible and cruel things as he’s consolidated his power, inflamed relations with Palestinians, and wreaked havoc on the world stage (and oh yeah, currying favor with Donald Trump for a while, too).

I’m not even angry anymore, just depressed about what’s happening to the country of Israel. If you haven’t been following the latest developments, the Israeli Parliament on Monday narrowly approved exactly what Netanyahu has been threatening to do for months.

From NPR: “Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved controversial changes to the judiciary, part of a package of proposed actions that’s roiled the country in protests in recent months and sparked opposition from broad swaths of Israeli society.

The vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, capped a monthslong campaign by Israel’s far-right government to weaken the judiciary, a move critics say pushes the country toward authoritarianism.

The measure passed uncontested after opposition lawmakers shouted “Shame!” at their colleagues before walking out in protest.”

There have been, of course, massive protests in Israel about this, as a corrupt, reckless man tries to take the Middle East’s true democracy and make it a Trump-style authoritarian state. But the protests didn’t work, except for getting even more people to hate Bibi.

What galls me as much as what Bibi is doing, is how weak and mealy-mouthed U.S. politicians are. Myself and many others have said for decades how ridiculous it is that every politician on both sides of the aisle is only ever allowed to praise and pay tribute to Israel, lest these “powerful American Jewish leaders” (translation: ones who fund campaigns, like Sheldon Adelson) turn off their faucets of money).

And so of course now, the Biden administration gently rebukes Israel, and no one of course would ever think of cutting aid to Israel as punishment.

Sigh. It’s just so, so depressing to think about, as Israel slowly but surely bends to the will of a madman.

Anyway, l’chaim.

Lizzo stuns in new recorder video 🥴🥴 pic.twitter.com/IfTtkQBEy4

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) July 23, 2023

**And now, a palate cleanser: International music superstar Lizzo, who I’ve done a total 180 on from when I first heard/heard about her, playing the “Titanic” theme on a recorder.

Yes, a recorder, what we all learned to play, badly, in third grade.

**Finally, I’m pretty sure this is either one of the signs of the apocalypse, or just the way the world is going and us older folks are going to have to get used it.

A judge in a court case in Canada ruled recently that a thumbs-up emoji is as legally binding as a person’s signature.

From this story: The issue arose when a flax seed farmer was signing a deal with a grain buyer. The buyer sent a thumbs-up emoji to confirm the contract, but became upset when the farmer never sent him the seed.

The judge ruled that the emoji served as an agreement to the contract, adding that while an emoji is a non-traditional means to “sign” a document, it was valid.

The farmer was ordered to pay the buyer more than $60,000.

“This court readily acknowledges that [thumbs-up emoji] is a non-traditional means to “sign” a document but nevertheless under these circumstances this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a “signature”….and Achter’s acceptance of the flax contract,” Judge T.J. Keene ruled in June.”

I mean… seriously?? This seems completely ridiculous to me. A picture of a thumb pointing upward does not in any way, shape or form seem to me the same as actually writing your name.

I guess following this logic, a thumbs-down emoji means you don’t agree to a contract, and a “throw up” emoji means you’d like to renegotiate and also that you had some bad fish at the last meeting.

The sleepaway camp kid returns, a little sunburned, a lot tired but basically happy. Lionel Messi writes a storybook ending to his first MLS game. And R.I.P. Tony Bennett, an American music legend

Saturday morning, in the small, sleepy town of Beach Lake, PA, I got one of the best hugs of my life.

As I stood there among the dozens and dozens of giant black duffel bags with different kids’ names on them, trying to find the one that belonged to a blonde kid who’d been living in this strange place for the past four weeks, I turned around to look in a different pile.

Moments later, a boy who looked vaguely familiar came racing over and jumped into my arms. He then hugged his mother and his little brother, as happy tears leaked from his eyes.

After a month away, Nate was back where he had always been, in the embrace of his family.

Whew. This sleepaway camp adventure, his first, was all we could have hoped for and more. For the past four weeks we had gotten lots of glimpses of what was going on with him, with photos (the Campanion app is kind of amazing) and a few letters home to us, and two phone calls. We had talked to Nate twice on the phone over the past month, for a total of 10 minutes each, which is all the direct communication we were allowed (a friend compared it to “prison,” which I think was a little harsh).

We were pretty sure he was having a great time at Chestnut Lake, a lovely-named camp in the Pocono Mountains, but until you see him in the flesh, and can pepper him with questions, you’re not 100 percent sure.

Turns out, he had a fantastic time. He giddily told us on the long car ride home how the counselors were great, which friends in the bunk were his favorite, how proud he was of himself for leaping off 15-foot raft into the lake, and more tales.

The stories just spilled and spilled, which we expected since when he goes to school or day camp, he’s always got a ton of stories each day. Now a full month of stories? That’s going to take a while to download; as of Monday morning we were still buffering.

We were pretty sure he’d have a great time, but still, your first-born’s first weeks away without family around is nerve-wracking. How would he handle sleeping in a bunk with 12 other kids? (He wasn’t such a fan, it was hard to sleep most nights because it was loud, he reported). How would he do with the food, and the different activities? Great and great.
I can’t say enough good things about this first sleepaway camp experience; the owners/directors of Chestnut Lake camp, Aaron and Ann Selkow, are warm, caring, menschy people who we immediately felt comfortable with the moment we met them last fall. I’ve met all kinds of people in my life, both professionally as a journalist and personally as a person who talks to everyone he meets. I’ve gotten pretty good about judging character and sizing people up, and within 30 minutes of meeting Aaron and Ann I could tell they were outstanding, upstanding folks.

Our boy is home, tired and a little sunburned, but also a little more mature, we can tell already.

He’s already excited about going back next summer. And one big item on the “growing up” checklist has been cleared.

**Next up today, you may have heard a thing or two about international soccer superstar (and fellow vertically-challenged dude) Lionel Messi coming to America and signing with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami team.

Well, after weeks of hype, Messi finally made his debut for Miami Friday night, and the screenwriters currently on strike in Hollywood couldn’t have written this script any better.

With the score tied at 1, and in the 93rd minute, deep into extra time, Messi stepped up and took a free kick from about 25 yards away.

And this magical moment happened.

Pretty incredible. Separately, am I the only one who finds those uniforms a little odd? Pink polo shirts to play soccer in?

**Finally today, we lost a legend of music on Friday. The great Tony Bennett, whose silky voice and songwriting enraptured fans for decades, died at age 96. Bennett had struggled with memory loss due to Alzheimer’s for the past seven years, but he had one amazing career, with hits like “I Left my heart in San Francisco” and a version of “That Lady Is a Tramp.”

In 2021, “60 Minutes” did a beautiful, heart-rending piece on Bennett’s final concerts, at Radio City Music Hall, with Lady Gaga by his side. The whole piece is beautiful (annoyingly I can’t find the full thing online anymore), but the clip above is my favorite: Lady Gaga wasn’t sure Bennett remembered her name in the weeks leading up to rehearsals, but on show night, magic happened.

Rest in peace to one of the great voices in American history.

Good News Friday: Another new Alzheimer’s drug shows wonderful potential to slow the disease. An 18-year-old buys the restaurant she worked at during high school, and is very happy she did. And because I haven’t seen it in a while, my all-time favorite proposal video.

Happy Friday, y’all! Yeah, still got a little of the Texan in me after getting back last week, what can I tell you. We are knee-deep in July, as you read this I am probably on my way up to my son’s sleepaway camp in Pennsylvania to retrieve him after a four-week stay that seems like it was glorious. Meanwhile, here in N.Y. the Mets stink, the Yankees stink, and I’m a little sad because Wimbledon is over.

What’s the cure for temporary blues? Good news about one of the worst diseases out there, Alzheimer’s. As longtime readers of this space know, the search for drugs that can slow or eventually cure this plague is near and dear to my heart, as both my grandmother and beloved great-aunt suffered mightily from Alzheimer’s.

Every new positive development in the fight brings me joy, and this week we got some possibly major great news from Eli Lilly.

From The Washington Post:
“An experimental Alzheimer’s drug made by Eli Lilly slowed cognitive decline in early-stage patients, data confirmed Monday, putting it on course to be the second treatment approved within months that alters the course of the disease.

Donanemab, a once-a-month treatment administered intravenously, slowed cognitive and functional decline by about 35 percent, compared with a placebo, over 18 months, according to data published in JAMA, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association. Company officials said the results showed the benefits of treating Alzheimer’s as early as possible.

The late-phase clinical trial enrolled about 1,700 people with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia — the earliest stages of symptomatic disease — who had a buildup of the toxic protein amyloid beta in their brains.”

This is fantastic news. Let’s hope the FDA gives this drug fast approval and we can get into the hands of millions of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s, today.

**Next up, I thought this was a very cool story. A girl who was once a dishwasher at a restaurant in her hometown decided to use her college savings to buy the restaurant.

Hey, college is not for everyone. good on her.

 

** Finally today, I like to run this wonderful I video at least once a year, because it makes me happy and it’s my all-time favorite proposal video.

Back in 2012, a guy in Oregon named Isaac wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Amy, in a unique way, and boy did he ever.

I love her facial expressions throughout but my favorite is when she sees the jugglers and the marching band guys.

Just pure awesomeness. It’s been viewed 35 million times on YouTube.

A Lionel Messi soccer fan makes a huge effort to see him debut in Miami, but forgot one thing. The World Snail Racing Championships is strangely mesmerizing to watch. And a new political ad from Ohio is very effective

As we all know, sports fans can be nuts. We live and die with our team’s most recent game, we let the results of sports contests that have nothing to do with us affect our regular lives, and we spend WAY too much time worrying, celebrating, or stressing about those results.

Also, we tend to neglect and also lash out at our families during said sports games (“Why did you move from that spot on the couch??? They scored 10 straight points when you sat there, now you moved, and they just gave up a touchdown! I don’t care if you have to pee, get back over there!”)

So, yeah, most of us sports addicts are a little bit nuts. But for sheer sports lunacy, you have to hand it to this soccer fan I read about recently. As you may have heard, the great Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi is coming to America to play in our pro league, Major League Soccer. He’s signed to play with Inter Miami, and excitement is incredibly high to watch the superhuman goal scorer work his magic.

Well, one international fan of Messi just couldn’t wait to see him play. That fan checked Inter Miami’s schedule in late June, saw they were playing the Philadelphia Union, and apparently flew 1,200 miles to watch Messi live.

Except, well, he doesn’t debut until late July.

Big yikes. Safe flight back! pic.twitter.com/t4oRMW4fBr

— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) June 25, 2023

Here’s a clip of the fan shared by the Union’s Twitter. The fan, with a discernable disappointed face, held up a sign reading: “I travelled 1,200 miles to see the football goat.” The last two words were represented with emojis.

LOL. Ummm, dude, you gotta check the schedule before that kind of trip! I’m just imagining everything that went into this fan’s planning, the buying plane tickets, booking a hotel, buying tickets to the game, making that sign, and yet he apparently couldn’t be bothered to find out when Messi was actually, you know, gonna PLAY.

Too funny.

**Next up today, I thought I’d heard of all the different weird animal competitions in the world, but this is a new one for me. May I present to you, from last week, in Grimston, in the United Kingdom, I give you the World Snail Racing Championships!

Seriously, this is a thing. I’m mesmerized by this video. Stare really closely and you can see them move. I have a feeling these videos would be really popular in college dorm rooms on weekends when the kids were, ahem, using some substances that may or may not be legal.

**And finally today, I saw this political ad from Ohio recently and it struck me as really really smart. With so many GOP legislatures and governors absolutely determined to be in people’s bedrooms, making laws banning abortions, birth control and the like, a group called Progress Action Fund made this ad ahead of an upcoming Ohio election. The Aug. 8 vote in that state is basically an attempt to restrict the will of voters to make changes to the state constitution.

It’s much racier than a typical political ad, but very, very good.

All hail King Carlos! Alcaraz beats Djokovic in an epic Wimbledon final, snapping an incredible streak. A crowd in Poland sings “Bohemian Rhapsody” in an awesome way. And a woman being harassed on TikTok gets revenge with some detective work.

There was no torch passed on Sunday at the All England Club in London. No changing of the guard, as they do so often at Buckingham Palace, no end of one era and the beginning of another.

One epic men’s tennis match was played, and the reigning king of Wimbledon, a man who hadn’t lost a match on Center Court in TEN years, was beaten by a brash, wonderful, thrilling upstart 20-year-old.

Carlos Alcaraz, who is the most exciting player I’ve ever watched in my 40 years of being a tennis fan, shocked the world Sunday, beating four-time defending Wimbledon champ Novak Djokovic, 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the final.

It sounds ridiculous to say the No.1 player in the world, and the reigning U.S. Open champ, scored a huge upset and shocked the world by winning. But it’s true: Djokovic has been so overwhelmingly great at Wimbledon, and so great in five-set matches, that it seemed it would take a titanic effort to beat him.

And it did. So much I could discuss about this epic 4 hour, 43 minute match I had the pleasure of watching Sunday. There was Alcaraz’s incredible speed, where every single time Djokovic managed to get one by him, I was surprised. There was Djokovic’s brilliant shot-making in the first two sets, when it looked like he might run away with the match.

There was the incredible, “I want to watch a documentary about this” 27-minute game that featured 13 deuces, at 3-1 in the second set, that Alcaraz finally won, and the remarkable moment when Djokovic early in the fifth set smashed his racket to smithereens, which is something he hadn’t done in ages.

But mostly, I’m just feeling happy and blessed tonight, as a tennis fan, that we continue to see such amazing brilliance from players old and young, and get matches like this at Grand Slams on the regular.

I’m nowhere near ready to declare this the Age of Alcaraz, and the Fall of the House of Novak. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Djokovic win the Open. We have no idea how Alcaraz will handle the pressure of being “The new Man,” though by all accounts he seems to be a humble, wonderful young man who won’t get a massive head over all this.

All I know is, that was one hell of a tennis match Sunday. More, please. 

 

**Next up, I’m always a sucker for these kind of crowd sing-a-long videos, and this one is great. From Upworthy.com, I was alerted to this performance of Queen’s classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” by a crowd in Warsaw, Poland awaiting a Harry Styles concert.

Just something about that song, its worldwide appeal, and how joyful it is to sing. I loved this.

This is the greatest TikTok I’ve seen this year … I would watch this as a series on Netflix pic.twitter.com/i9bUEzMWUD

— marty.com (@martymadrid) July 13, 2023

***And finally today, my good friend Joe Manniello sent this out to a Twitter email group I’m in, and I thought it was brilliant. A woman who has been constantly harassed by an online commenter named Beef Bailey decided to do a little detective work and track down this cyber bully, and she put together a two-minute video detailing her efforts.

I applaud you, user Rx0rcist, for doing this and exposing these online goons, who are so brave and tough insulting women and slinging insults. These keyboard warriors are almost always pathetic men who think they can say anything and get away with it.

Glad to see them exposed once in a while. 

Good News Friday: A kid comes back to school after a long recovery, and gets a beautiful reception. The incredible story of American Chris Eubanks at Wimbledon, from out of nowhere to the quarterfinals. And Buffalo Bills’ player Damar Hamlin has an emotional reunion with the trainers who saved his life.

Happy Friday! After a week off from GNF posts we are back and ready to roll. It’s mid-July, Wimbledon championship weekend is here (go Ons Jabeur! More on Wimbledon below), I’m not enduring the 100-plus degree Texas heat anymore (85 degrees never felt so good), and hey, the world hasn’t melted yet, though it’s certainly headed that direction.

We start Good News Friday with a simple video from the great Good News Correspondent Twitter feed. I don’t know what school this is from or any of the kids’ names, but it doesn’t matter. This is a short clip of a boy overcome with emotion when he walks back into his classroom for the first time, after recovering from a serious operation.

Just joy all around. Kids, man.

Boy moved to tears when his classmates welcome him back to school after a serious operation.

pic.twitter.com/FYTa3O0UW9

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) July 3, 2023

**Next up, I don’t normally write about Wimbledon during Good News Friday but I absolutely must write about the amazing run we’ve just seen by American Chris Eubanks.

If you’ve never heard of Eubanks before this week, you’re like 95 percent of American sports fans. We tennis diehards have known Eubanks for years as a very likable, easy-going kid who just wasn’t able to break into the Top 100. He’d be in qualifying round of Grand Slams, and be playing on the minor league tennis circuit, playing in Columbia, S.C. and Montgomery, Ala., and cities all over the world, far, far from the spotlight.

After five years on the pro tour, it seemed like that’s what Eubanks would be, a player with a triple digit ranking always trying to scrape up enough prize money to keep his dreams alive.

But all of a sudden, something clicked. Eubanks has been playing great tennis in 2023, finally breaking into the Top 100, which meant he’d get entry directly into Wimbledon, playing it for the first time.

And then the dude just WENT OFF! Eubanks went on a remarkable run at Wimbledon, beating two Top 15 players and advancing all the way to Wednesday’s quarterfinals, where he led world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev before falling in five sets.

Just an incredible story. Get to know a little about Eubanks with the above charming interview he did Thursday, using words like “surreal” and admitting he still kinda can’t believe this all happened.

So happy for this guy.

Damar Hamlin presents the Pat Tillman Award For Service to the Buffalo Bills training staff at the #ESPYS pic.twitter.com/kBZLFEjsg8

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 13, 2023

** And finally today, ESPN held its ESPY Awards show this week, and while it’s mostly an exercise in self-congratulation and nonsense, there’s always one or two beautiful moments. And this year we got this fabulous, goosebump-inducing presentation, as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who nearly died on the field last season, awards the Pat Tillman Award for Service to the team medical staff that saved his life.

Just remarkable that he’s alive and back to being healthy and on the field again, thanks to the fast acting of these talented men and women.

I’m back from a much-needed vacation: Tales of learning to line-dance and getting real good barbecue after a week in Austin. And a stand-up comedian with a hilarious and weird meeting with a U.S. Senator

Hello all! I’m back after a week away with my beautiful and talented wife. To celebrate our 10th anniversary in May, we took our first kid-free vacation in seven years in the past week. We wanted to go somewhere neither of us had ever been, and since my love is an enormous fan of live music, we decided to visit one of the live-music capitals of these here United States: Austin, Texas!

Now you might rationally ask yourself, what sane people go to Texas in July, when it’s hotter than Hades? These sane people do when one kid is away at sleepaway camp, meaning the grandparents only have to watch one for seven days, that’s who!

I’m not going to waste your time talking about how freaking hot it was in Austin over the past seven days, but suffice to say, it was over 100 every day and your bathing suit dried in five minutes after getting out of the pool.

It was a very much-needed, relaxing stay in a wonderful city we only saw at nighttime, because during the day we slept late and lounged by the pool, then went out for dinners and live music in the night. It was exactly what I hoped it would be.

Some highlights and thoughts from the parts of my brain that didn’t melt over the past seven days…

— Austin is known for many things: Being home to the University of Texas, being the capital of the state of Texas, and of course, having amazing live music. We ended up going to seven clubs/venues in six nights, and easily could’ve hit a few more if we weren’t enjoying ourselves where we were. It really is like Nashville, where you can’t go more than a block or two without hitting a venue. Our favorite of those we visited was the Saxon Pub, a quaint listening room/bar with room for maybe 100 people.

That’s where we saw the best musician during our stay: A singer named Andrea Magee: She’s from Northern Ireland, has only been in the States for about seven years, but has a beautiful voice and plays many instruments. She was energetic, incredibly grateful to the crowd that showed up, and really blew us away with her performance. Here’s a clip of her singing one of her songs, really beautiful stuff.

— The other thing we were required to indulge in in Austin was, of course, barbecue. We did our best to hit as many as the “famous” spots as we could, we ate more BBQ in one week than I think I did the past year. Our two favorite spots were one we knew would be great, and one “discovery.” Terry Black’s is an Austin institution, and it was really, really good. But our favorite spot was a little cafeteria-style lunch place called Cooper’s, which locals know about but we were gobsmacked by. Seriously, if you go to Austin, check this place out. The ribs, the brisket, the cornbread, mmmm it was so darn good.

— Honestly though? Maybe the best thing I ate on vacation was a chicken taco from a truck outside of a club we went to. So freaking great, just the perfect combo of meat, tomatoes, cheese, and soft taco shell.

— Our hotel was fabulous, highly recommend the Fairmont Austin if you ever go there. I’ve stayed in some amazing hotels and some awful hotels in my life, but I saw something this week that I’ve never seen in four decades of traveling.

When I asked the front desk on the second day if they had any pillows that were not ginormous and super-fluffy (I’m a simple man who likes a nice, flat, slightly hard rectangular pillow, nothing fancy), I was excitedly handed a “pillow menu.”

What’s a pillow menu, you ask? I had no idea either! But it was this card that listed and described six different types of pillows, from firmer to softer, with descriptions of each pillow.

My friends, I was so damn excited, like a kid being handed the ice cream list at Friendly’s for the first time.

After much deliberation, I chose two from the menu and eventually found a perfect one.

A pillow menu. Who knew?

— So this was definitely a trip highlight: Check out what I found in a gift shop in Austin, a poster featuring quotes from my all-time favorite movie, “The Princess Bride.” I have never made a faster decision to buy something in my life.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my wedding to plan, my wife to murder, and Guilder to blame for it. I’m swamped!

— There were no print newspapers for sale, anywhere, in the Austin airport. A major American city’s airport, and you couldn’t buy a newspaper. That made me very sad.

— Two more cool things we did in Austin: One night while walking to dinner we saw something called the Karaoke Cab Company sitting outside. It was a regular 4-door car, with speakers on the outside and a whole sound system with video monitors and microphones in the back seat.

After examining it and talking to the nice dude named Bill who owned the company, I took his card and ordered a ride from him the next night. It was a blast! Of course we got looks from people on the street as my wife and I belted out “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Leather and Lace” (the Don Henley-Stevie Nicks classic was our wedding song) but it was so damn fun.

— And then of course because I love trying new things, we took a free line-dancing class offered at the White Horse Saloon. Technically we didn’t learn to “line dance,” we learned to Texas Two-Step, and along with about 20 other people we had a hell of a time getting the steps down, despite the best efforts of our blonde, boots-wearing sassy teacher named Beth.

But after about 40 minutes, I’ll be darned if Shelley and I didn’t at least pull off the basic moves. A ton of fun.

— And finally, this is not an Austin thing, but we spent a lot of time at the hotel pool and this drove me nuts: I saw at least 10 people in the water, using their phones, Kindles and iPads. While standing in a pool of water! And I’m like, dude, if you want to swim, swim. If you want to read or text or whatever, get out of the water! You’re just tempting fate and being crazy reckless.

Not sure why it bothered me so much but it really did.

All in all, highly recommend Austin as a vacation spot. Just maybe don’t go in July.

**And finally, a video sent to me by my friend Dave M. that made me laugh very hard. A comedian named Tom Segura has a new Netflix special out, and in it he talks about moving into a very nice new neighborhood and encountering a very famous U.S. Senator, and the incredibly bizarre conversation they had upon first meeting.

This is wild and definitely worth four minutes of your time. When he says the name of who it is at the end, I was both completely surprised and then, completely not surprised.

“Primo” a funny, heartfelt TV show you should check out. A 4th of July fireworks salute in 4K. And a Jewish wedding staple has become a huge club dance hit!

Happy Fourth of July Eve! If that’s a thing. A reminder that your humble blogger will be out of pocket and not posting anything new until Wednesday, July 13. The wife and I are headed for our first child-free vacation in (gasp) seven years, and I can’t wait to do nothing but sleep, lounge by the pool, check out the spa, and listen to some live music every night. Enjoy and stay safe, my fellow humans!

It’s a familiar TV show and movie trope that every family has at least one crazy uncle. Maybe he dresses in weird, loud clothing. Or he’s a degenerate gambler who wagers on anything and everything. Or he’s been married five or six times. Or has some other quirk.

But the loony uncle plot point is always around when you need it. Except Shea Serrano, the creator of the very funny and smart new show “Primo” on Amazon Freevee, has made a program about a crazy uncle, times five.

He had five slightly off-center uncles growing up as a kid in San Antonio, and each one had their own quirks. Which is part of what makes “Primo” so funny: The show stars Rafa, a 16-year-old Texas kid who lives with a single mom (played beautifully by Christina Vidal) and sees a rotating cast of uncles constantly be in their house.

It takes a few episodes to learn all their names and quirks, but we have:
— Jay, who owns a landscaping company and is very mistrustful of authority, while also pretending to be an authority on everything;

— Rollie, the really crazy one who is often in jail or in trouble but has considerable charm;
— Ryan, a mustachioed banker who because he has a tiny bit of education more than the others, thinks he’s the smart and the one to give advice to Rafa;

— Mondo, a serene guru figure who doesn’t seem to do much except sit around;

— and Mike, a former Army soldier who gets himself into idiotic situations because of his stupidity.

All five of the uncles in “Primo” are well-drawn and get plenty of screen time to shine, as they rotate around Rafa’s world and advise him on women, education (Rafa could be the first in the family to go to college) and other aspects of life.

The show is warm and smart, with snappy one-liners as the brothers insult each other, and creative plot lines that keep the action moving. 

The sitcom is not dead. “Primo” is really funny and clever, and worth your time. It’s available for free on Amazon Freevee (which you can get to thru Amazon Prime’s app).

 

 

**Next up today, I always love a good fireworks show this time of year, and while searching for a cool one I found this, from Walt Disney World last year, with 4K quality video that actually translates onto the screen.

I miss live fireworks. Since my kids are still too little to stay up late enough to watch them, and are scared of loud noises, I haven’t been to a live fireworks show in years. Hopefully next year.

 

**And finally today, this is not a development anyone saw coming. If you’ve ever been to a Jewish wedding or bar mitzvah, you’ve surely danced the “Hava Nagila,” the upbeat, impossible not to clap to traditional Jewish dance, complete with singing and moving around in a circle and usually, the guest of honor being lifted up high into a chair during the hora.

I have literally never heard “Hava Nagila” outside of one of these events, and yet now, check this out: “Hava Nagila” has become a dance club hit!

From this story in the NYT:

“On a Monday afternoon in May, “Hava Nagila,” the infectious Jewish folk song, was reverberating through the Monte-Carlo Beach Club, a resort on the Mediterranean Sea in Monaco. The music was coming from a cliff-side, open-air venue, where revelers dressed in suits and dresses were dancing in circles and swirling cloth napkins in the air.

Some people passing by remarked how lovely it was that a Jewish wedding was taking place. But a server quickly corrected them. That was no Jewish wedding, he said. It was an after-party for the Formula 1 car race from the previous day.

“Hava Nagila,” a song traditionally played at Jewish life events including weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, is now making appearances at highly secular, non-Jewish gatherings. You can hear it at sporting events, trendy bars and clubs, music festivals and private parties.”

Who knew? Hey, it’s catchy, it’s got a good beat, on the old “American Bandstand” it would’ve gotten at least an 85, right?

Too funny.