November 22, 2004

Hey

Saturday, Karl and Trish, Ray and Maureen, Mary and Ed, and me and Tara had lunch at Otto Enoteca
Pizzeria on 5th Avenue and 8th Street.
Restaurant Review

This was one of those fancy downtown pizzerias. The service was great, our waiter was really cool. The
food was very good, though I wasn't all that hungry. It served it's purpose, which was for the gang to
meet Tara and for the rest of us to catch up.

4 Patties.

       Ed split after lunch, but the rest of us headed down to Swifts on 3rd Street for beers. I could have
stayed there all night, except I had to get to work. Swift's is a bar right off the Bowery that has a dark
interior even on a sunny day, and Saturday was pouring rain. Ray Karl and I stuck to our promise to keep
the political debate to 15 minutes (while Tara told Trish Mary and Maureen famous bar room stories) It
was a great Saturday afternoon.

NBA Brawl

    Sunday afternoon, NBA Commissioner David Stern handed down the penalties for the Pacers-Pistons
brawl in Auburn Hills Michigan Friday night. First a review of what happened.
    The whole thing started when Pacer Ron Artest committed a hard foul on Piston Ben Wallace. Wallace
went after Artest and the 8 other players on the floor rushed over to break it up. Things were starting to
calm down when Artest, who was laying on the scorer's table was hit by a full cup of beer. Artest, along
with teammate Steven Jackson, went into the stands after the fan.
    When security was able to get Artest back on the floor, another fan came on the court and tried to hit
Artest. Artest and Jermaine O'Neal knocked the fan out. As the Pacers were trying to leave the court,
they were showered with beer, soda, popcorn and anything else the Piston fans could throw.
    Stern suspended Artest for the rest of the season, Jackson for 30 games, and Williams for 25. He
also suspended Wallace for 6 games, and several others for 5 games or less. Some observations.....

1) Artest got what he deserved. Going into the stands is wrong, no matter how terrible the fans are.
Artest should have left the floor as soon as the refs escorted him to the bench after the initial fight was
broken up. What was he doing laying on the scorer's table? And how lying on his back, could he see
who threw the cup? A Detroit TV station is reporting that Artest went after the wrong fan. Not that it really
matters, but it does kind of make it worse.

2) Any fan that goes on the court/field, especially to pick a fight with an athlete, deserves whatever they
get. That fan who confronted Artest deserved to get his a$$ kicked. It would have been justified if all 12
Pacers got to take a swing. A couple of years ago, two fans charged out of the stands and attacked the
Kansas City Royals first base coach. Players from both benches came out and went after the two idiots.
If they had beaten them into comas, it would have been justified. I'm dead serious about that too.

3) Ben Wallace only getting 6 games is a travesty. He started all this. The foul was hard but clean. He
should have gotten at least 15 games, if not more.

      Finally, the fans in Detroit have got to be the worst. I've never seen anything like that in my life, and I
sat in the blue seats at Madison Square Garden during Ranger/Islander games. I don't know what I'm
going to do when football season ends. With no hockey anytime soon, and basketball in this state, its
going to be a long winter.

Sheffield sex tape?
    Derrick Mosley, a Chicago based ex-con, has been accused of trying to extort money from Yankee
outfielder Gary Sheffield by telling him that he had a tape of his wife, gospel singer DeLeon Richards,
having sex with R. Kelly before she met Sheffield.
     While I hope this scumbag gets tossed in the slammer, I had to laugh. I remember reading an article in
Sports Illustrated back in 2000 about Sheffield and Richards. In it, Sheffield said that Richards had
changed him and made him a better man. He also said that he tried several times to get Richards to
sleep with him, but she was saving herself for marriage.
       Well, I didn't believe either one of them then, and it turns out I was right. After the 2000 season, new
man Sheff demanded either more money from the Dodgers or a trade and forced himself a trade to the
Braves. Then, last winter, he nearly blew his deal with the Yankees when he demanded more money after
he made a handshake deal with George Steinbrenner. And it looks like DeLeon was no virgin when she
married Sheffield.

   News Item:
    This week, a House Panel determined that Saddam Hussein bilked the UN's "Oil for Food" program
for over $20 billion, money that was supposed to go towards food and medicine for Iraqi people.
You don't say?
     The panel also found that the 3 biggest contributors to Saddam were (get this) France, Russia and
Syria. France was involved in getting oil from Iraq when the UN had sanctions against them?
Well, I'll be f-cked!
      The Post has been running editorials for over a year about all the corruption in the UN Oil for Food
program. But now even the US House of Representatives is getting involved, so there can be no right
wing conspiracy theory behind it.

Are you ready for some foot... WHOA!
     I just happened to be watching the beginning of Monday Night Football last week, and I saw the
whole Terrell Owens-Nicolette Sheridan skit. For those who need a refresher. Owens was getting ready at
his locker when Sheridan, star of ABC's Desperate Housewives,stepped out of the shower clad only in a
towel. She wanted to know if Owens wanted to get it on, but noble warrior that he is, he said he had a
game to play. At that moment she dropped the towel to her feet. Owens figured they could win without
him and the two of them went off to presumably bump uglies.
     Meanwhile, Sheridan's co-stars, the equally washed up Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman are whetting
the whole thing on TV. After a couple of minutes of feigning disgust, they look into the camera and ask
"Are you ready for some football?" Apparently some people were ready for a cold shower.
     It did nothing for me. All you saw was her back, no a$$, no boobs, nothing, so I think everyone is
overreacting.
     I can sort of understand the people on the West Coast, who may have been watching this at 6 PM
with their kids. But still I didn't think it was that bad.
     What bothers me is that Monday Night Football refuses to stand on its own as a football game. They
are still looking to capture the buzz that they had back in the 70's, when it was the water cooler talk of the
week, back in the days of Gifford, Meredith and Cosell.
Those days are over, and they are not coming back.
     I figured that when ABC replaced Dennis Miller with John Madden, they'd finally understood. But they
still fill halftime with stupid gimmicks and now they have to have a nekked Nicolette Sheridan to create a
buzz. And just us discussing it, makes this a win for ABC.
    Since Janet Jackson and her titty malfunction, the FCC has had a huge crackdown on supposed TV
indecency. This includes not showing an old woman's breast on an episode of ER (which on the surface
I'm not complaining about, but the scene was supposed to be during surgery) and some stations too
afraid to show Saving Private Ryan    on Veterans Day nonetheless. Its ridiculous.
     I normally have no use for Howard Stern, but the other night, he was on with David Letterman. Since
the whole Super Bowl fiasco, Stern has been more of a target as usual, and for once I actually agree with
the guy. The FCC is totally over reacting. Some TV stations refused to air Saving Private Ryan    on
Veterans Day! They were worried about accruing fines. That is sad, and pathetic.

Happy Birthdays this week to Anne-Marie and Zaharah.
And a Happy Thanksgiving to all
Wild Bill