April 26, 2004

     One of the things that sucks about working till 2 AM on Saturday night is that in order to maximize
your drinking time, you have to minimize your travel to the bar time. Metro 53 is always a possibility but
that's a 15 minute walk from 47th and 6th. The Saloon is too far uptown. Cody's is too far downtown. I
had gone to Social, which was perfect, but I tried a couple of other places too. Most of the places
around Times Square suck.
    I went to the Playwright Tavern on Saturday and it wasn't too bad. They had good songs on the
jukebox, and it wasn't too crowded. No hot chicks though.
    I spent Friday night down at 100 Centre Street waiting for those two weirdoes who were giving each
other hummers on a tree in Central Park to be arraigned. Even though I count lawyers amongst my
closest friends in the world, (along with nurses, electricians and soda fizz perfectors) I rarely find myself
feeling bad for them. I felt bad for the poor suckers who have to work Night Court on a Friday night at
11:30 PM. As I sat there like an idiot waiting for two people who I had been told were not going to be
arraigned, I saw the dregs of society going before the judge. Some of these people had rap sheets that
could fill the Manhattan yellow pages. And these poor lawyers had to cook up defenses for them.
One female attorney took her Spanish speaking client into what was supposed to be a private interview
booth, only that I no habla espanol, did I not know what his lame-ass defense was going to be before
the judge did.
    Night Court ended at 1 AM and it wasn't a minute too soon. It beat the hell out of waiting outside a
hospital, but not by that much. Those two homos didn't get arraigned till the next night. Another week,
another non-story for Wild Bill    

NEWS ITEM: A hero dies in the Middle East  

    I was home Friday afternoon when I heard the news about Pat Tillman dying in Afghanistan. It was like
a kick in the stomach. And I was just waiting for the first person to wonder aloud why his death was
"more important than anyone else who died in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Of course is wasn't
But here's why it was newsworthy.
    Forget for a moment the fact that he left all that money and fame from the NFL on the tale to go serve
his country, that's a story in and of itself.
    The fact is that despite the fact that there are thousands of young men and women fighting for our
freedom in the Middle East, we don't know too many personally do we? Speaking for myself, my sister
Katie has a friend whose brother is over there, and apparently a girl across the street from me just got
back from Iraq. Damned if I knew she was there in the first place.
     None of us knew Pat Tillman personally, but we knew of him, we knew his story. As awful as we feel
when we hear about someone who died in combat, it's usually just a name, an age and a birthplace.We
feel for the family while thanking God it wasn't someone we knew.
We just didn't have that luxury on Friday.

Sports: The NFL Draft

     I don't like it too much when college kids dictate where they end up being drafted. Bo Jackson
ducking Tampa by playing baseball, John Elway threatening a holdout, Danny Ferry going to Italy. I'm a
firm believer in sucking it up and going where you are drafted.
    But I have to say I can't really blame Eli Manning for wanting to avoid the San Diego Chargers at all
costs. San Diego is where quarterbacks go to die. I mean, even though it seems like a lifetime ago, Ryan
Leaf was drafted only 5 years ago. Drew Brees? He was drafted in 2001. How many franchise QB's does
one team have to draft before they get it right?
    So now Manning gets his shot with the Giants. This means that Kerry Collins days could be numbered.
Hopefully the Giants will ease Manning into the job and let Collins leave with some grace.
    I'm very happy with the Jets picks. This guy from Miami seems like the real deal and the their third
round pick was several awards. If Dewayne Robertson gets himself straightened out, the defense may
be a force to be reckoned with.
    The Mets have once again driven me to drink, but I can't say I'm shocked. What is shocking is that the
Yankees have gone 1-6 against the Red Sox. The Sawx are minus Trot Nixon and Nomah Garciapara. I
know it's only April, but I'm wondering if Joe Torre is wishin he hadn't signed that extension.
That's all from here folks. Have a great week
Bill