February 24, 2006

 Hello All:

        Two months in, I'm starting to get the hang of married life and living in Manhattan. The
living in Manhattan part has been interesting, to say the least.
         Don't get me wrong, its been great. It's just that I'm not used to walking on 1st Avenue and
calling it my neighborhood. Woodside Avenue? My neighborhood. Grand Avenue? My
neighborhood. The Boulevard of death itself: Queens Boulevard? (AKA: The B.O.D.) ? Home.
And yes, 173 Beach 112 Street. That feels like home.
York Avenue? 72nd Street? It still feels like I'm visiting.
         A couple of weeks ago,  Tara and I were on our way home, and we passed by American
Trash, a biker joint on the west side of 1st between 76th & 77th Street. Now right across the
street  there used to be a bar called The Beacon Street Ale House which was owned by a friend
of Patti-Ann's. That was back in 1998 or so. In 2000, it changed name and ownership (both of
which escape me now. The place is now empty)
         But after the 2000 World Series, I wanted to hide out and drown my sorrows, so I went
to the bar formerly known as the Beacon Street Ale House. As I sat there, I watched the
bartender argue with some guy then toss him out. I asked the bartender what happened, and he
said "I congratulated him on the Yanks winning the World Series, but I told him I didn't want to
hear any of his gloating. He was rubbing it in, so I threw his ass out." I wanted to hug this guy.
        The point was, that I would sometimes come into the city just by myself, to unwind, have
some drinks, watch some sports, and mostly mellow out. And it wouldn't always be McFaddens,
or Metro, or anyplace where everybody knew my name. Sometimes, I'd go somewhere that
nobody knew me and blend in.
          Now, I'm living here. I feel at home in the apartment, and even around the building.
There's a deli downstairs where I'm on a first name basis with some of the workers. The hot dog
man on 70th and York knows me pretty well. PJ and Dan, the bartenders at Murphy's Law, wave
to me as I walk by there on my way home from work.
          But once I get over to 1st Avenue, I may as well need a passport. Up on 1st and 2nd
Avenues, I don't feel like an Upper Eastsider. I feel like a Woodsider.
And that's not a bad thing either. .


News Item: Dick Cheney & The Shot Heard Round the world

        Vice President Cheney as you may have heard,  was quail hunting in Texas, when he
accidentally shot his friend, Texas attorney Harry Wittington in the face, neck and back. I was
asked why I didn't write about this last week, with some believing I was once again sticking up
for the administration.
     Actually what happened was that I had made a few comments along the way and came to
realize I knew very little about hunting.
      For one thing, I wondered how if it was an accident, did Cheney manage to hit Mr.
Wittington 3 times. I figured one shot is an accident, any more than that is attempted murder.
      However I had it pointed out to me that bird shot is actually a series of bullets that come out
in a cone shaped matter. Meaning that Cheney only pulled the trigger once. I also wondered (as
did John Stewart) how if he was hunting birds, how did he managed to shoot a 78 year old man
who was presumably on the ground.
       The New York Times, of all publications, provided me with that answer. Seems as though
quail fly in a swooping pattern, meaning that Cheney probably had his eye on the quail as it was
in a dive.
       So rather than go off without proper knowledge of hunting, I waited. And as usual both
sides of the aisle are acting like their usual obnoxious selves.
       Cheney told FOX news that he waited to talk because he wanted to make sure his friend
was OK. I can dig that. But make no mistake, Cheney thought he could get away with not
talking, because that's the way he has handled himself since he became VP. "I tell you want I
think you need to know." But what he doesn't understand is that the more he tried to keep things
quiet, the harder the press was going to come after him. After 6 years as Vice President, you
would think he would get the picture. There was a term I heard a lot when the whole Janet Jones
Gretzky Gambling thing broke out: It's not the crime, its the cover-up." Cheney most likely
was guilty of poor aim. But the longer he went without answering questions, the more it looked
like he had something to hide.
     Of course, while the media had a legitimate gripe, the Democrats who tried to pile on seemed
silly. Most Democrats wisely chose to stay out of it, but Chuck Schumer and Hillary
Clinton chose otherwise. Hillary actually went on TV and said something along the lines of "This
administration has been covering up information for years." Wow, that sounds familiar. The Bush
administration must be the first one to cover up trouble since, well since Hillary was the First
Lady.
Hillary Clinton is the last person on earth who should be accusing anyone of a cover-up.
The last person.

The Cartoon Controversy.

This is another topic I've stayed away from, mainly because I don't know exactly how I feel
about it.
    Well, let me rephrase that, I think that burning embassies over a cartoon is reprehensible, and
that the people that are doing that are a bunch of animals.
     But I also understand how angry people can get when their faith is being attacked. A few
years ago, an "artist" made a picture of the Virgin Mary with cow crap. This exhibit was at the
Brooklyn Museum of Art. As a Catholic, I was offended. I was also offended when an artist had
an exhibit of a crucified Jesus Christ submerged in urine called "the Piss Christ." Besides being
disgusting, they were also in poor taste.
    And yes, there was some outrage. But nothing like what's going on in the Middle East.
I'm all for respecting religions, but these people can go screw themselves. I don't respect them or
their idea of religion. And I betcha that some of these people are like those yahoos that show up
at those World Trade organization protests, the ones that throw rocks at the police and have no
idea why they are protesting. It's just an excuse for them to act like the idiots that they are.

The Winter Olympics

        Sunday will bring to a close a very disappointing Winter Olympics. By the time its all said
and done, the US will have a lot less medals than was expected of us. Bode Miller, who was on
the covers of both Time & Newsweek as our alleged best hope, failed to medal in any of his
events. What's worse, he didn't much seem to care. In one event, he just gave up completely after
skiing off course. Made me really proud to be an American. When I suggested that Bode should
have to pay his own way back to the US, since he obviously got himself a free two weeks in
Italy, my good friend Bruce Furman said "Just like in touch football, losers walk." Right on!
         Lindsey Jacobellis was well on her way to winning a gold medal in a snowboarding race,
when she tried an unnecessary trick, fell on her butt and watched as the Tanja Frieden, a Swiss
snowboarder, breezed past her to take the gold medal. When asked why she did what she
did,  Jacobellis responded, "I was having fun.Snowboarding is fun. I was ahead. I wanted to
share my enthusiasm with the crowd. I messed up. Oh well, it happens." No regrets. Thank you
very little.
        The women's hockey team for the first time in like forever failed to advance to the Gold
Medal Game when they lost to Sweden. At least they put up some sort of effort. The men's side
was an absolute disgrace. Winning one out of six games, one of those non wins, a tie vs. Latvia, a
total of  13 goals in the 6 games. I know we weren't expected to medal and all the losses came by
one goal, but still, one win is shameful.
        Even Sasha Cohen, expected to win gold in figure skating, had to settle for silver. I'm not
going to kill Cohen or any other figure skater, at least I know they worked hard. But I don't
know of any event that we weren't expected to win that we did, and plenty that we were
expected to win and we didn't.
    To be quite honest, I really don't care. Honestly, four years ago, I was more into it because I
was hoping that after the shock and pain of 9/11, that a strong Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City
would prove somewhat of an elixir.
     But now if Bode Miller and Lindsey Jacobellis don't give a crap, why should I? I understand
when Miller says that competition sometimes takes the fun out of sports, believe me, I know
from some of those long days sitting at the end of the bench. But CYO basketball and the
Olympics are two different things, and if he was going to go over there just to goof off, he
should have let someone else go instead.


The next e-mail you get from me will hopefully be coming from somewhere in Texas.
Happy 2nd Birthday to future basketball star Liam McGarvey (Sunday)
Everyone Else Have a Great Weekend
Wild Bill