Happy Friday, world! We are on the cusp, the ledge, the veritable doorstep of October, which is a great month for many reasons, including fall colors, the start of hockey season (Let’s go Rangers!) and warm apple cider season, which is a beverage I truly enjoy.
Hope all is well and healthy in your world today; let’s start Good News Friday with the Muppets, because there is NEVER a bad time to talk about or listen to the Muppets.
From the Twitter feed of the always-positive Good News Correspondent, here’s an autistic man named Gregory, who absolutely worships the Muppets, singing “Rainbow Connection” as a tribute to the late great Jim Henson, who would’ve turned 87 this week.
This is so, so great:
Gregory has autism. The Muppets are Gregory’s entire life. Listen to his incredible rendition of 'Rainbow Connection’ a song he’s has been singing everyday the last few years. He dedicated this song to Jim Henson who would’ve turned 87 earlier this week pic.twitter.com/QHMhjwjVfC
**Next up, you may have heard this week of the death of Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson, maybe the greatest defensive third baseman of all time. Robinson was universally beloved, always considered one of the nicest guys in the sport, and the tributes to him have poured in over the last few days.
But this story, by ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt, was pretty fantastic. Enjoy:
When the Orioles played in Memorial Stadium, the PA announcer was named Rex Barney. When a fan made a great catch of a foul ball, he’d say, “Give that fan a contract.”
At a game with my dad and Brooks fouls off a pitch. Dad makes a leaping catch, everyone cheers, Rex does his thing. I’m over the moon. I got a Brooks Robinson foul ball. Can’t believe it.
Next day at school, I tell everyone. Obviously. After school we have to play catch with this ball. Obviously. I figure I can throw a major league curve ball with it. I can’t. I throw it low, my friend can’t catch it. Now is when I mention we lived at the top of a hill. Ball rolls down the street and into a sewer. The Brooks ball is gone. I never told my dad when he was alive. I always look up to the sky at this point and say, “Sorry ’bout that, Pop.”
I tell this story decades later at a charity event in Baltimore. Turns out a man at our table did some work with Brooks. A week later a box arrives at my house with this and a note: Hope this makes up for the one that got away, Brooks. Indeed it did, Brooks. What a man.
Joe Biden at UAW picket line: "Wall Street didn’t build this country, the middle class built this country. The unions built the middle class. That’s a fact. Let’s keep going, you deserve what you’ve earned. And you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now." pic.twitter.com/OMcIEuZxjn
There is a lot of stuff politicians do that strike me as empty gestures.
Like, a LOT of what our government leaders do is simply paying lip service to this cause or that one. One day they go to a ribbon-cutting of a new business, or “march” for a certain cause, then a few weeks or months later pass or support legislation that goes against what they just celebrated.
So I try not to read too much into grandiose gestures by politicians, because, eternal optimist that I am, there does often appear to be ulterior motives at work, and their show of loyalty to a cause doesn’t turn out to be much.
But still, what happened Tuesday in Michigan felt like a big, big deal. President Joe Biden, who has in the last several years moved along with his party toward progressivism and lefty causes, actually went to Michigan and became the first sitting President to join a picket line. He spoke at a rally for striking auto workers, members of the UAW, who have been off of work for weeks protesting the Big 3 auto manufacturers.
Labor unions have been hurting and in decline for a long while in this country. From their peak fifty years ago to now, union membership has declined, corporations like Wal-Mart and Starbucks have fought tooth and nail to block their employees from forming/joining unions, and national politicians have been steadily ignoring labor union’s grievances for years.
But here was the President of the United States, going to Detroit and standing up for striking auto workers. Grabbing a bullhorn and walking the picket line, he said, among other things: “The unions built the middle class. You deserve what you’ve earned. And you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than what you’re getting paid now.”
Is Biden’s gesture and words on Tuesday going to immediately bring the Big 3 into a negotiating position that changes? Who knows. But I do know that this felt like a very big deal, as Biden continues to show he’s not quite the centrist he had been all his life until recently.
Labor, and union workers, are still going to be hugely important, even as AI and robots infiltrate our world. And it’s good to see the leader of the free world acknowledge that and join the fight.
**Next up today, one of the things I still love about baseball is when a longtime, hometown hero gets a wonderful sendoff from fans who’ve literally watched him grow up.
Joey Votto has been a Cincinnati Red for 17 years, and the fans there have watched him emerge as a young prospect, to a perennial MVP candidate, to a grizzled vet trying to help a young squad make the postseason.
Sunday, with the Reds playoff hopes still alive but looking bleak, Votto played what may be his last home game at Great American Ball Park. And the Cincy fans knew it could be his last game, and when he came up to bat for the first time, this happened (above):
Just beautiful. Such love shown. I also love Votto mouthing “I gotta go hit!” when the cheers didn’t subside.
I’m so pulling for the Reds to get into the postseason. Votto deserves one more shot on the national stage.
**And finally, writers of the world, rejoice! Well, writers of television and movies, rejoice! After five months, the Writers Guild of America announced Tuesday that they finally have a deal with the greedy suits who run major studios.
The writers have been on strike for 146 days, but in announcing a deal Tuesday, it sounds like they’ve won some major concessions. According to this story, they’ve gotten pay raises, more money for shows that do well on streaming services, and other concessions from the studios.
Hallelujah, because writers had been severely taken advantage of for a long time, and now thankfully we can again get new episodes of “Bob Hearts Abishola!” Or, OK, more episodes of “Severance!”
Now we just need the actor’s strike to be over soon too and then finally there’ll be something new to watch.
Look, I gotta be honest: I’m still not over the Aaron Rodgers injury.
It’s been a few weeks, but it still makes me so bleeping upset that the greatest QB ever to wear a Jets uniform suited up two weeks ago and played FOUR PLAYS before getting a career-threatening, and season-ending, injury.
So, yeah, I’m not over it. But putting all that aside, I’m fairly enraged at my New York Jets tonight. They lost to the Patriots, 15-10 on Sunday, but I’m used to that; New England has now beaten the green and white 15 consecutive times, which is mind-boggling but not surprising.
What enrages me is that once again, for the third year in a row, the Jets seem perfectly happy to let a season get sabotaged by Zach freaking Wilson.
In 2021, his rookie year, OK fine, you want the kid to play all year, take his lumps, lose some games but gain experience, OK, fine, you used a very high draft pick on him, you chalk up one year as learning experience.
Then last year, you’re 5-2 despite him, and then he implodes your season with such awful play, and you lose the final seven games of the season, and you finally agree, that’s it, he can’t be your QB this year in 2023.
But then catastrophe strikes, Rodgers gets hurt, and Wilson has to play. Except it’s been three weeks now and he’s HORRIBLE, and yet your coach Robert Saleh stands up there and says “Zach’s our guy,” he gives us the best chance to win, and spews so much nonsense that you question the man’s sanity.
Zach Wilson is horrendous. He’s slow to get rid of the ball, he makes poor decisions, he’s inaccurate, and he seems to have zero pocket presence when it comes to pass rush (“But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?”).
The Jets defense is stellar. The running game can be very good. The offensive line is shaky, but a good, decisive QB can help overcome that. THERE IS TALENT ON THIS TEAM! And yet GM Joe Douglas and Saleh seem perfectly fine letting Wilson ruin yet another season. Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, any of a handful of backups currently carrying clipboards could be had in trade or by signing them, and yet for some inexplicable reason, Douglas and Saleh are prepared to say to the other 52 players on the Jets roster: Nah, we’ll stick with Zach. Maybe he’ll get better.
I just don’t get it. It makes no sense why Douglas and Saleh would allow their season and maybe their careers to go down in flames because they couldn’t move on from Zach Wilson.
Sigh. Just makes me mad. OK let’s move on to some other NFL thoughts after Week 3…
— So yeah, the Miami Dolphins look incredible right now. They just put up SEVENTY points in a game Sunday, with 700-plus yards of offense, crushing Denver 70-20. Tua looks amazing, their wide receivers are unstoppable, Raheem Mostert scored four TD’s, and wow, are the Broncos a tire fire.
I am very scared of Miami.
— Upset of the day, and yet another reason not to bet on football: The 0-2 Arizona Cardinals beat the undefeated Dallas Cowboys, and it wasn’t that close. Maybe Dallas was thinking this would be a cakewalk, but yeah, they got smacked by Joshua Dobbs (hey Jets, look, a backup QB who’s doing well!) and ate some humble pie.
— The Los Angeles Chargers finally won a game, despite the best efforts of their coach, Brandon Staley, to blow it for them, because Justin Herbert is a beast and so is Keenan Allen, who had 18 catches and threw a TD himself! Minnesota is now 0-3 and much like the Giants, the charmed season of 2022 seems like a very long time ago.
— The Chicago Bears are the worst team in football. Full stop.
— Finally, the Lions and Browns both appear to be decent this season, both moving to 2-1 on the year, and since they’re the two franchises I most associate with the losing history of my Jets, I’m not sure how to feel about it. I’m thrilled for the Lions, less so for the Browns because of who their QB is.
**Next up, today is Yom Kippur, an annual holy day for my fellow Members of the Tribe. For 24 hours, we’re supposed to refrain from eating, go to synagogue, and think about our sins (I’m doing 2 of 3 this year; I do fast most years but we’re hosting a house full of people today and I need the strength and energy food provides, sorry God).
It’s a lovely holiday, and Jon Stewart, a Jewish fella himself, had a great bit in the 1990s about why it’s better than anything Christians have. This makes me laugh every time (above).
**And finally, this is one of the strangest stories I’ve heard in a very long time.
In 1951, Mary Foss Starn did something while working at an egg packing factory in Forest City, Iowa. She scribbled her name and address on an egg, slipped it into a carton and hoped she’d hear back from someone. She also included a note that said “whoever gets this egg, please write me.”
Somehow, that egg survived for 70 years, and a New Yorker who’d purchased the carton saw the egg and decided to save it. Years later, a friend found the old egg and posted a picture of it on Facebook recently, and Mary Foss Starn saw the post. And then Mary talked to the guy who posted it!
I have SO many questions about this bizarre story. How did that egg survive seven decades?? Was it made out of some incredible eggshell that they use to make the Presidential limo or something? Also, who saves egg cartons, with eggs actually IN them? And was Mary sitting in her house all these years waiting for someone to write her, forsaking friends, family and an exciting life?
I’ve said this before, but I think one of the greatest pieces of media content for the past 25 years in America is “This American Life,” the many-times award winning radio show/podcast from NPR.
There are so many things I love about TAL: the storytelling, the heart, the narrative journalism it does so well. But my favorite episodes of the more than 800 they’ve done are the shows that take me places I’ve never been, and never even knew existed, and get me to care so deeply about those places and people in just 50 minutes or so.
I could honestly highlight TAL every week, but for Good News Friday today I want to showcase an amazing episode they aired last week, titled “The Call.” It’s about a fairly-new crisis hotline called Never Use Alone, and its purpose is this: So many drug users overdose and die because there’s no one there to call for help, or to revive them, when they OD. So Never Use Alone is a hotline that tells users to call an 800 number and speak to operators standing by, who will be with them as they use.
Operators are trained and tell users to unlock their front doors, get their Narcan out if they have it, and speak to them and try their best to keep them alert. And the operator stays on the line with them, and often times when the other person is unresponsive, the operator calls 911 and gets help for the user.
It’s a simple premise, but has saved countless lives, and on this episode TAL introduces us to three people whose lives intertwine on one call: Jessie (above), a Georgia mom who is extremely dedicated to her work on Never Use Alone, for reasons that will become clear as the episode rolls along; Kimber, a drug user who gets Jessie when she calls for the first time, and Steven, a paramedic in the Massachusetts town where Kimber lives. There’s a fourth character, Jessie’s daughter, but the less I say about her the better, because I don’t want to give away too much, except to say this magnificent quote about her from Jessie:
“She’s the most magnificent creature I’ve ever met in my life. She’s also the raggediestbitch I’ve ever met in my life.”
The narrator of the piece, Mary Harris, does such a wonderful job bringing us into these people’s lives, and I defy you not to fall in love with Jessie, a true angel.
The entire episode is on this one call and how it affected the three people involved, and it’s so, so good. I don’t want to give anything more away, except it makes me really happy, and is such good news, and that great storytelling journalism like this still exists.
**Next up today, you know I’m a sucker for stories involving wonderful, life-changing teachers getting honored, and “Good Morning America” recently honored a true gem: Erica Yonks, a teacher in New York City, with this lovely piece.
Good on ya, Erica!
**Finally today, future Presidential candidate, and current Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro continues to do awesome things in the Keystone State. His latest terrific maneuver was helping get automatic voter registration passed in his state.
Basically, as soon as you get a driver’s license, or renew a driver’s license in PA, you are now registered to vote, unless you opt out.
This will add tens of thousands of eligible voters to the rolls, and of course it’s opposed by Republicans because as we all know: WHEN MORE PEOPLE VOTE, DEMOCRATS WIN. Sorry to go all caps on you there.
Read more about the new PA law here. Good on ya, Josh Shapiro, and might I say, to my fellow Member of the Tribe, L’Shana Tova and may you have an easy fast on Monday.
I am a newspaper dinosaur, no doubt about it. I miss the days of getting ink all over my fingers, of reading a newspaper, an actual print newspaper, cover to cover.
I miss spending hours at the old Newark Newsstand on my college campus at the University of Delaware, going through the sports sections of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Daily News, the Baltimore Sun, and whatever else they had there. The nice man working the counter in 1993 and ’94 never chased me out of there, as long as I eventually bought something.
I think I’ve told this story on here before but one of the absolute coolest days of my life was my first day as an intern at the Tennessean in Nashville in 1996, when I was given a tour of the newsroom by an editor and I walked past this huge glass window. Down below, we could see the massive printing presses running, and anytime you wanted throughout the day you could walk by those windows and see the paper actually being put together.
That was so incredibly cool to me.
Anyway, I’m a newspaper zealot, and absolutely do mourn major milestones in the long, slow obituary of print. So you won’t be surprised to know I was sad on Monday, as the last day of the actual New York Times sports department was held. The Times sports writers are all being reassigned, as the venerable Gray Lady prepares to run all sports copy from its sister website, The Athletic.
The Athletic is a wonderful place, with great sportswriters, many of whom I know and respect. But the Times… man, you’re talking about a place that for 150 years has had some of the best sports journalism in the country. Dave Anderson, Ira Berkow, George Vecsey, Buster Olney, the list could go on and on, and in recent years that incredible talent level has not dropped, with greats like John Branch, Kurt Streeter, Tyler Kepner and others.
I am sad for what we’ve lost, but wow did the Times go out with a bang. Juliet Macur, a truly gifted writer, did a kind of follow-up piece to her incredible story from last year, the best thing I read last year, on the women’s national soccer team in Afghanistan and their desperate attempt to escape the country before the Taliban took over again. Macur went back to that subject and profiled Khalida Popal, a hero of that story who is still fighting the good fight, despite attempts to silence and kill her.
It’s another magnificent piece, one that won’t run in the Times any longer. Sigh. Read the story here, as I pour one out for a fantastic sports section that’s been terminated.
**Next up today, an incredible volleyball rally that went sorta viral on Twitter, a point between University of Kentucky and University of Nebraska, which as we learned a few weeks ago from that game in a football stadium that drew 90,000 people, is a pretty big freaking deal.
Watch how many incredible digs there are on this point! I was exhausted just watching it.
**And finally today, under the category of “content you never knew you wanted, or were missing in your life, but are so happy it was made,” I give you from the NFL Network, ex-star running back Marshawn Lynch hanging out in the Amish country of Pennsylvania for a few hours.
I don’t know which is my favorite part, Lynch examining the wheels of the buggy, or his reaction to the cow-milking.
If you know the name Jann Wenner, you’re either a music fan over the age of 40, or a journalism junkie, or maybe both (ahem, that’s me).
Wenner is the legendary co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, a man whose publication helped glamorize rock and roll from the time of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Joni Mitchell, all the way through today, when it’s still around but, like all print magazines, not nearly as relevant as it was 20 years ago.
Wenner has been portrayed in movies (famously in “Almost Famous” and others), he helped create the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has many more accomplishments I won’t bore you with.
Wenner has a new book of interviews out called “The Masters” where he collects famous chats he had with rock and roll legends over the past 50 years. The interviews are all with men, and Marchese naturally asked about that.
What do you think is the deeper explanation for why you interviewed the subjects you interviewed and not other subjects?
Here’s Wenner’s answer: “When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate. The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level. ”
Marchese, rightly, is infuriated by this ridiculous answer. He brings up Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Carole King… none of these incredible female songwriters and performers were articulate enough for him??? Give me a break. What a sexist, disgusting response.
Marchese gives Wenner a chance to explain and, well, it doesn’t get any better.
“It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.
Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”
Wenner’s hideous answers to these questions gets to a problem I’ve been thinking about lately, people who did great things in their life yet refuse to evolve. It happens with athletes, journalists, politicians, all kinds of folks who have done remarkable achievements. They just stay the same, and think that the same kind of thinking that dazzled people 50 years ago, and that no one batted an eye about (“of course white men are the geniuses of music, and no one else measures up!”) is still perfectly acceptable.
Wenner is a dinosaur whose thinking, thankfully, is going extinct.
**
**Next up today, the great sportswriter Joe Posnanski shared this story in his Substack today, and it made me laugh and laugh. I have a feeling you’ll enjoy it:
“I want to share a funny story I heard from a friend of mine yesterday. I don’t know if he’d want me to share his name, so please excuse the slight awkwardness of the telling. But he has two young kids, including a 7-year-old son, let’s call him J, and yesterday J had two soccer games. My friend could only stay for the first because he had to get to the Royals game, so he took the older son, his wife took the younger son, and they went to the game.
When they got there, he noticed that his wife walked out of the car alone.
“Where’s J?” my friend asked.
“I thought he was with you,” his wife said.
My friend, obviously, freaked out Catherine O’Hara style, and raced home, which was like 20 or 25 minutes away. And you know what he found? J was perfectly fine and calm, playing a video game. “Oh, good, you’re back,” J said.
But here’s the best part: When my friend asked J why he was so calm, he said: “Well, when you were first gone, I was a little scared. But then I remembered that Kevin was a little bit nervous at first, but then he went to check out the stuff in his brother’s room, so I went to my brother’s room to look at his baseball cards and stuff. And then I remembered he ate some ice cream, so I ate some ice cream. And then I played video games.”
That’s right: “Home Alone” is an instructional video.”
I love it! When in doubt, look to Macaulay Culkin. That’s what I live my life by.
**And finally, our weekly look at the National Football League, where two games into the season, it’s clear nobody knows anything.
The Washington Commanders are 2-0. The Atlanta Falcons are 2-0. The Tampa Bay Bucs, with Baker Freaking Mayfield at quarterback, are similarly undefeated.
Who had that happening? Again, nobody knows anything. But go ahead, gamble on the NFL and think you’re going to make money.
— Quick word on Washington, who seem to be getting solid QB play from neophyte Sam Howell, thanks partly to new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy: It would be deeply funny and also a bit wonderful if Bieniemy couldn’t get a head coaching job after directing the amazing Patrick Mahomes for years, but after turning Sam Howell and Washington into a half-decent team, suddenly became a hot head coach commodity and got hired this offseason.
— Comeback of the day belongs to the Giants, who looked positively putrid for the first game and a half this year, and fell behind 28-7 to godawful Arizona Sunday, before rallying for a 31-28 win. Saquan Barkley is worth every penny he gets, and Daniel Jones showed he’s actually pretty good. But wow, did the Giants save their season with that win, because they’re playing San Fran Thursday on a short week and were staring at 0-3 if they lost Sunday.
— My Jets played about as I expected Sunday, getting drilled by Dallas, 30-10. Zach Wilson looked bad but he had no help, the play-calling was atrocious, they had no running game and didn’t even try for one, and the defense gave up big play after big play.
I still can’t believe, a week later, that they got FOUR plays out this magical Aaron Rodgers season we were all expecting. FOUR plays! Sigh. Hoping for some improvement next week out of Zach, but ya know, not holding my breath.
— Teams that are in trouble: The Bengals looked bad, again, in losing to Baltimore and are now 0-2. The Bears, well, we knew they’d stink and they do. And the Vikings, man, I don’t understand why they’re 0-2. Oh wait, sure I do, their defense stinks.
— Finally, a non-NFL note: I cannot believe how gaga the sports media has gone over Deion Sanders. The man has won three games, two of them barely, and two of them over terrible opponents, in his debut season at the University of Colorado. And he is being treated like the second-coming of Vince Lombardi. “60 Minutes” did ANOTHER story on Deion, after doing one last year, Sunday night. Every other article is about Deion.
I just don’t get it. Yes, he’s flashy and exciting but good Lord, there’s such a thing as overkill, and the man hasn’t done anything yet!
Happy Friday! And a Happy New Year to my fellow Members of the Tribe! It’s Rosh Hashanah weekend, where many of us Jews will be sitting in temple for the first time in a while, trying not to check the time every five minutes while rabbis drone on about weighty topics like discipline, justice and equality.
It’s also almost fall, and schools are back in session everywhere now, so I saw this story about a remarkable new teacher and it made me happy.
From Upworthy.com comes the story of Isabel Navarro: “The longtime elementary school custodian started working to support her family at just 15 years old. But she never let anything stop her lifelong dream of becoming an educator. The 35-year-old woman from Waco, Texas, went back to school for her GED while working full-time as the head custodian at Spring Valley Elementary in the Midway ISD. She is now a paraprofessional, or teacher’s assistant, at the very same school.
“Navarro grew up in Mexico, but at the time, her family struggled to make ends meet. Unfortunately, she had to drop out of high school as a teenager so that she could work and start providing for her family. She moved to the United States in 2009 after meeting her husband. Navarro first began working in housekeeping for a while before eventually securing a job at Woodway Elementary in 2013 as a custodian. Since 2016, she worked to clean the classrooms at Spring Valley Elementary but always knew she loved interacting with the children and wanted to make a real impact in the classroom as an educator.
“When I was a child, I always wanted to be a teacher or a nurse,” she told KWTX. “And I started working at 15 years old to help my parents at home and now I can finish my education and follow my dream.” She worked really hard to achieve that dream because it was not easy. The working mom of three went to M-C-C to obtain her GED, which was extremely hard for her as English is her second language. But her hard work did not go unnoticed.
Seeing Navarro go to school was inspiring to Spring Valley Elementary School Principal Kappy Edwards. “I am immensely proud of Isabel’s determination and commitment to furthering her education, obtaining her GED and transitioning into a paraprofessional role within Spring Valley,” Edwards said. “This achievement, especially while working full-time as our head custodian and managing a family with three children, showcases her admirable dedication and serves as an inspiring example for others.”
I love stories like this. A woman who was determined to accomplish a goal, worked her butt off, and now has gone from custodian to teacher.
I’m sure the kids she works with are very lucky to have Ms. Navarro as a teacher.
**Next up, a beautiful moment between mother and child, captured on a Ring camera. An autistic non-verbal child speaks to his mother for the first time. Her expression is priceless.
**And finally today, from the great Steve Hartman, two strangers come together after a beautiful act of kindness from a man to a grieving widow, and a beautiful friendship is formed.
Calvin is one heck of a guy, doing such wonderful things for people. And for one woman, it was a hugely-important act.
So many more good people than bad out in the world. So many!
We’ve all known what it’s like to fly on an airplane with children. As my pal Jon Wertheim once Tweeted, the most frightening words in the English language for an adult might be “We have a full flight this morning to Orlando.”
But what if you could fly with no kids around you, anywhere? What if you were guaranteed a peaceful, restful, child-free existence?
That’s what some airlines are promising now, and it seems fantastic.
According to this story I first heard about on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” quite a few airlines are now offering passengers the chance to pay extra $$ to guarantee themselves a seat in a child-free zone.
From this article in Travel + Leisure magazine: “A Turkish airline just announced a unique policy on a specific route to the Caribbean — a no-kids zone on one of its long-haul routes.
On Corendon Airlines’ 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Curacao, passengers will have to be at least 16 years old to sit in the front of the aircraft, the carrier announced this week. The policy will go into effect on Nov. 3.
The section will comprise of nine seats with extra legroom and 93 standard economy seats, with curtains and walls separating it from the family zone in the rear of the aircraft. The larger seats in the child-free zone will cost €100 each way, while standard economy seats in the section will cost an extra €45 each way.
Corendon isn’t actually the first airline to test out a child-free seating arrangement. Singapore-based low-cost carrier ScootinSilence has a section for passengers 12 years and older on its Boeing 787 aircraft, while Malaysia-based low-cost airline AirAsia X offers the same age cutoff in a section on its Airbus A330 aircraft when it’s flying long-haul routes.”
So on the one hand, this is awesome. When I’m not traveling with my own small humans, I would definitely pay extra to not sit near anyone else’s.
But my question is, how much can I pay to not sit near my OWN children on a flight? Because whatever that costs, I would totally pay it. A few hours of bliss, nobody asking me to fix their iPad, or open their snacks? I’ll give you a blank check, United or American!
The intersection of Ludlow and Rivington in NYC is now officially known as "Beastie Boys Square" in honor of the hip-hop group. pic.twitter.com/gRU68MMyKM
**Next today, this was pretty awesome: The legendary hip hop group the Beastie Boys were honored in New York City last week by having the corner of Ludlow and Rivington Streets in the Lower East Side named “Beastie Boys Square.”
No word yet if when driving past it, you’re not allowed to fall asleep until you get to Brooklyn. (Yeah, I had to go a long way for that joke. It was worth it.)
**Finally today, I don’t have anything particularly insightful or witty to say about the latest crushing, devastating blow to my New York Jets, the fact that Aaron Rodgers played four snaps (FOUR!) in Monday night’s season opener before crumpling to the turf after suffering a season-ending torn Achilles.
It’s just par for the course for my franchise. All summer, my Jets fans friends and I giddily exchanged messages, after watching practice film:
“Did you SEE that throw? No Jets QB in our lifetimes makes that throw!”
“Can you believe he plays for us? He plays for the Jets?”
“The best Jets QB of our lives is actually, truly going to play for them!”
That’s the thing about us Jets fans: No matter how much misery we’ve seen, no matter how much we feel the franchise is cursed, no matter how many times we’re kicked in the teeth, we’re still capable of hope. We still think maybe, maybe things can be different.
And so when Aaron Rodgers ran out of the tunnel Monday night carrying a Jets flag, and the 80,000 fans roared, we felt hope.
Of course it would be crushed soon because, we’re Jets fans and we’re not allowed to have nice things. But even for the Jets, this was unreasonably cruel. FOUR plays??? Four plays we get with the greatest QB we’ve ever had???
I was stunned, I was crestfallen, but I was not surprised.
NFL Insider Adam Schefter Tweeted this Tuesday: “Aaron Rodgers’ torn Achilles might be the most devastating injury to a team and fan base in NFL history. There never has been a player who received more off-season hype, who raised another team’s expectations more, who had his season end 4 plays in without ever completing a pass.”
That pretty much sums it up. Life as a Jets fan, it’s never fun. I blame my parents. If they hadn’t let me become a Jets fan 40 years ago, none of this would’ve happened.
Hi there. Remember me? Oh yeah, I’m the guy who writes a thrice-weekly blog here, except for late August and early September, when I kinda sorta disappear for awhile. Anyway, I’m back, baby, and as always after the U.S. Open, I have lots and lots of thoughts. Grab your favorite beverage and settle in, this is gonna be a long one…
She is still only 19 years old.
NINETEEN.
She can barely vote, can’t drink alcohol, and isn’t able to rent a motorized vehicle for another six years. But Cori Gauff, known to the world as “Coco,” is one hell of a fully-formed human being. She’s the new U.S. Open champion, fulfilling the promise many of us saw when, at 13, she came to the U.S. Open juniors and was so charming, so wide-eyed, so damn smart for someone her age, that it was easy to see greatness was in her destiny.
Saturday night, in front of 23,000 screaming fans (and journalists like me) Coco fulfilled a life ambition, and the ambitions of so many of her backers: She won the U.S. Open, her first Grand Slam title.
She beat Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, not with incredible shotmaking or clutch serving, though she did both of those. She won with defense, and hustle, and tenacity. Her defense was as good as the 1985 Chicago Bears, as Sabalenka grew so frustrated she began making huge numbers of errors.
I don’t even want to talk so much about Coco the tennis player today, though she is sensational. I want to talk for a second, as I do every time I write about her here, about Coco the person.
I have never, in the six years she’s been in the public eye, seen her make a public misstep. Not a wrong statement, not a wrong action, nothing. Between her social activism (her speaking out during the 2020 George Floyd protests), talking about climate change, her own stardom, being so honest and humble, this young lady never, ever, EVER makes a wrong move in public.
And for someone as famous as she’s been the last few years, that’s pretty astonishing. Corey and Candi Gauff did one hell of a job raising her.
So happy for Coco winning. The first of many, many titles, I’m sure.
— And oh yeah, that Djokovic guy, he’s pretty good too. For one person to have 24 major singles titles in this day and age, when competition is so fierce, when he had to beat Rafa and Roger for so many of those titles, is amazing. Novak Djokovic won three majors this year, and the one he lost was an all-time classic final at Wimbledon.
Carlos Alcaraz had a great two weeks, but he ran up against Daniil Medvedev playing the match of his life. And then Sunday, Medvedev just didn’t have any gas left in the tank, and Djokovic pounced.
He honestly may win 30 majors.
— So this was by far the busiest U.S. Open for me, as a writer. Since I started getting the privilege of covering this event in 2013, I’ve usually written about 12-16 stories per tournament, a healthy amount.
Sunday evening I filed my 37th and final story from this Open. Thirty-seven stories, in 18 days, counting all the stories I wrote during Qualifying week. That’s … too many. I’m proud of myself for busting my butt, but I’ve also had a cough for about two weeks that won’t go away, and spent about three days last week with a voice that sounded like Darth Vader.
Next year, I shall pace myself a bit better.
— One of the reasons this event was so busy for me was I covered wheelchair tennis for the first time, for ITFTennis.com, which has hired me the past two years to cover Juniors. Wheelchair tennis is amazing; the strength, the coordination, and the speed with which these world-class athletes move around the court is so, so inspirational. If you’re ever in a place to see it, I highly recommend it. And talking to these players, my goodness, the stories they have! If you have a chance, please read about Andrew Bogdanov, whose story and whose family moved me.
— Oh yeah, this was very cool: A freelance writer named Pete Croatto heard me on a podcast with Jeff Pearlman a few years ago, talking about how I hustle and scrape and write stories all over the country for very little money, and asked if I’d cooperate on a piece about me for Poynter.org, a journalism think tank. I was flattered, and told him repeatedly I didn’t think anyone would care about a writer doing tennis stories, but he disagreed. Here’s the piece, he did a great job with it, and it has really resonated in my small corner of the writing world.
Many thanks to Pete (and he spelled my wife and kids’ names right, which was the most important thing).
— So many great little moments I’m so lucky to see, having a press pass at the Open: Randomly walking past legend Kim Clijsters outside the Media Garden one day. Walking outside the interview room when Tommy Paul finished answering our questions after a match, and as soon as the door opened and Paul stepped out, his next opponent, good friend Ben Shelton, was walking by after just finishing his match.
“Oh, shit!” Shelton yelled with a big smile on his face, grabbing Paul in a hug.
And my absolute favorite moment like that: Standing in a hallway next to Billie Jean King is never not awesome. One day, while waiting for a player to show up for an interview, I watched her counsel a young German player named Tamara Korpatsch, who told us reporters she was waiting 45 minutes in that hallway, expecting Billie Jean to come walking by any second. And then, miraculously, there the icon appeared, and she spoke to Korpatsch for a few minutes, and then she was gone, and the smile on Korpatsch’s face stretched from Queens to the Hamptons. This is the effect BJK has on everyone in tennis: slack-jawed awe and excitement.
What a great tournament. I’m so lucky to see it every year.
**Next, today is, of course, September 11, a day that will as long as I live be among the worst days in American history.
It’s now been 22 years since the planes hit the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon, and for the families who lost loved ones, it never gets any easier. In addition to this video (above) I post every year, that always moves me to my core, I want to again recommend this incredible Jennifer Senior piece in The Atlantic from two years ago, among the best pieces of writing I’ve ever read: “What Bobby McIlvaine left behind.”
**And finally today, NFL football is back, hooray! As always, Week 1 brought lots of surprises, since as I always tell you, people spend six months telling you what they think will happen in the season this year, and then the opening games occur and then we all remember that nobody knows anything, ever.
Some quickie thoughts on the first week of games…
— How ’bout them Giants? Wow. Wow. Also? Wow. The Dallas Cowboys came into Jet Life Stadium (yeah, I said it) Sunday night and kicked the ever-loving crap out of the Giants. The score was 40-0, but might as well have been 400-0. Dallas scored almost every way possible, the Giants looked positively inept, and the game was basically over midway through the second quarter. Hope the stench clears over the Meadowlands by tonight’s Jets game. (Narrator: It won’t. New Jersey always smells like that.)
— Game of the day was the Chargers and Dolphins, re-enacting their 1982 playoff game that was a classic (Yes, I’m old). Tua and Co. finally won 36-34, and once again it appears the Chargers are going to be the most exciting team that never wins anything.
— Biggest overreaction fan bases today will probably be the Bengals and Steelers. Cincinnati looked awful, with Joe Burrow not looking healthy at all, in a 24-3 loss to the Browns.
And the Steelers also looked inept, getting their tushies kicked by the Niners at home. Fan bases, take a deep breath, it’s only one game!
— Very excited, and very nervous, about the Jets game tonight. After all the hype (hey, did you know Aaron Rodgers is on the Jets now? Really covered up by NFL media outlets) and the expectations, I have no idea what to expect. Buffalo is very good, as my 9-year-old keeps reminding me, and the Jets have a lot of new pieces. Truly wouldn’t be surprised by any outcome tonight.
— I still can’t believe the Jets have one of the best QB’s of all time, playing in their uniform. Best Jets QB of my lifetime, by far. Please, Aaron, don’t turn into Glenn Foley tonight.
Hi! It’s Daddy! You know, the guy you’re always beating unmercifully on NBA2K, and the guy who needs you and your great sense of direction to get places sometimes.
How are you?? You’re going to, impossibly, be 9 years old on Sunday, so it’s time for my annual letter telling you about all the changes we’ve seen in this year, and all the things that have happily remained the same.
You have just started fourth grade with your teacher, Mrs. Flynn, and so far you like her a lot, which is no surprise because you’ve loved ALL of your teachers since you started preschool at age 3. Your third-grade teacher, Ms. Schieck, raved about you to Mommy and me whenever we talked to her, and it made us so proud when she told us she often asked you to help other kids with their math, when you were done with yours.
Your curiosity about the world is so gratifying to see, and in school you seem to have an equal passion for math/science and sports, which I don’t quite understand. Before you came along I thought kids were either sports obsessed or science/math obsessed, and excelled at one or the other. But you are totally interested in both the Phoenix Suns and how the planets are aligned, and I am glad the two sides of your brain seem to thrive.
In the last 12 months, Nate, you’ve undergone changes big and small. You’ve gotten braces put on by our orthodontist, and you’ve adjusted pretty darn well. Mommy and me are still having nightmares about those few weeks when we had to figure out how to adjust your palate expander (seriously, high school biology was less complicated for me), but we got through it and you’ve been terrific about not complaining about the metal all over your teeth.
You also, of course, did something huge this summer and went to sleepaway camp for a month. I was very nervous about how you’d handle being gone for the first time, with no parents, grandparents or babysitters you know around to help.
But wow was I surprised at how smoothly it all went. The counselors at Chestnut Lake said you were a little overwhelmed for the first day, but after that you blended in perfectly. No homesickness, no fighting with kids you didn’t know, and you even tried some new foods (chicken parmigiana is tasty! Who knew???).
You tried new things like tubing and rope climbing and had so many happy stories when you came home, it took the entire drive back from the Poconos to hear them all.
What else has changed? Well, since you’ve been home we’ve noticed a newer maturity level. You’re not sleeping with “Twinkle Twinkle” on your noise machine anymore, which I must admit makes me a little sad, as it’s one more relic of childhood now thrown away. You’re a little less prone to tantrums when you’re upset, less likely to scream at your brother when he does, well, little brother things, and you are handling changes in plans much better.
We have started leaving you home alone this year, for short periods of time. I give you a landline phone, taught you how to dial 911, and for 30 minutes, sometimes an hour, while I’m shuttling Theo somewhere, you’re able to stay by yourself. It’s a big step, but you’re so responsible and so able to handle it, that I’m never worried. Everyone in the neighborhood sees how good you are with little ones, and we know you’ll be a great babysitter one day.
Basketball continues to be your obsession, as we’re right in the middle of tryouts for travel basketball, but I know even if you don’t make it, you’ll continue to work hard at dribbling, shooting and passing, and you’re always a good teammate.
What has not changed at all this year is your easygoing nature with other kids; you have more friends than anyone I know, and that’s because you always look to find the good in people. Boys, girls, grownups; you’re still aces with everyone, because you treat everyone with kindness and respect.
Let’s see, what else, what else … oh yeah you’re still into “American Ninja Warrior” on TV, and “LegoMasters” and you’ve loved the kids sports movies I’ve started showing you. “Like Mike” and “The Mighty Ducks” were big hits, and even though you listen to WAY too much Kids Bop for my taste, I’m proud that you now like Pink, Ed Sheeran and Adele as well.
Finally Nate, we continue to be so proud of how you look out for your brother. Theo can be frustrating to all of us sometimes, and boy does he know how to push your buttons (a particular favorite is when he goes into your room, lies down on your bed, puts his bare feet on your pillow, then yells “Nate, come see what I’m doing!”).
But you are always, always, always looking out for him, making sure he’s OK, whether it’s at school, camp, out in public in stores, anywhere. You two have such a special bond, and he is so lucky to have you.
Happy ninth birthday to the best kid in the world. Mommy and I love you so much, and may this next year bring you nothing but good things (and a few less bruises, because you still get hurt a lot.)
Love, Daddy
P.S. Sometimes it’s OK if you come up to dinner before the end of your Switch game. I promise, you’ll be able to play again.
Wide World of Stuff 