The way things are going, I could devote every single Friday to another mass shooting story. And every single Friday would be filled with stories of the dead and promises by our elected officials to dishonor their memories by sticking with the status quo. So this week, no snarky intro and no superhero images leading us into the next episode and no tune to send us into the weekend. The void seems an apt one, all things considered.

And so it goes . . .

I’ve got a double dose of knuckleheadedness (Merriam Webster won’t accept this word, so I tucked it into my Fridays). This one is made possible by NBA superstar Kevin Durant and actor Michael Rappaport. The Brooklyn Nets small forward has a penchant for being overly sensitive to criticism, which is a seriously weak trait for a high profile athlete. Enter Rapaport, who tossed some trash in KD’s direction which resulted in an unfortunate return on this wasted investment. So the actor decided to dish up Durant’s reply for public consumption and yeah, these are grown ass men we’re talking about here. They’re a double play combination of dumb meeting dumber. Grow up fellas!

If I was providing a title to this next story, it would be Brother Can You Spare A Diamond?. Because that’s what Shaquille O’ Neal did recently for a young man in a jewelry store in McDonough, Georgia. The customer was inquiring as to how much he still owed on a ring purchase and when O’Neal overheard the conversation, he pulled out his credit card and settled up. Shaq’s take is he’s just looking to help people out in any way he can. All he really cares about is making people smile, and the big guy does it on a regular basis. The dude brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘World Champion’.

Speaking of growing up, Matt Gaetz doesn’t get the nod this week either. Fuck that guy . . let him stew in our green room for at least another week. After the last story, three would most definitely be a clown. I mean, a crowd. Both!

Instead, Imma turn this ride around and hit the Up button. Tom Cornish, a 96 year old WWII veteran, has never stopped giving back to the country he loves. The former Navy man and native Minnesotan has devoted his life to volunteerism, which is something he shared with his wife Marvel until her passing. Last year, Tom’s daughter gifted him a hat knitting kit and it might as well have been a light bulb sent courtesy of the universe. Because Cornish, he hatched a plan right from the get. Knitting has been a long time hobby, and so he took the kit and re-gifted it . . in the very best way. Last year he donated 400 handmade hats, and he’s still going.  Cornish says he takes pride in the fact “other people are getting something out of my labor. It’s better than playing cards or looking out the window.”

His window is open, to the whole wide world.

I’ve already made it known LaVar Burton is my answer to the question as to who should replace Alex Trebek as host of Jeopardy!. That said, I gotta admit, Green Bay Packer QB Aaron Rodgers is a natural in his own right. But this is ALL about the response a contestant gave in the final round last week. Scott Shewfelt was at a loss for the answer so he decided to troll Rodgers by writing “Who wanted to kick that field goal?”, which referred to the Packers ill fated decision to put Rodgers on the sideline and settle for three points in a season ending loss. The quarterback has been openly critical of the decision ever since, but he took the jab in stride on this night. It was fun to watch.

This understated episode finds its way home by way of Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Community Healing Garden was grown on the site of one of the worst mass shootings in the history of this country. On October 1st, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concert goers during the Route 91 Harvest Festival, killing 58 and injuring 489 more.

The next day, a sketch on a cocktail napkin became the blueprint for an idea. To make a garden out of the site in honor of the lost. By late afternoon, the plan was set in place and by the end of the week, the project was completed. So the next time someone tells you nothing can be done about the gun crisis in this country, take note of what was accomplished inside of basically four days time.

Community organizations, small business owners and volunteers of all ages came together and brought life back to a place that had lost so much of it. A “Tree of Life” was donated by Siegfried and Roy. 58 more trees were donated in honor of each life that had been stolen on that October night. There is a Remembrance Wall, painted rocks with the names of the lost, flowers, pictures and other mementoes placed on the grounds in their memory.

There’s a garden in Las Vegas where the lost have a name, and it’s testament to what can be done when people come together for the greater good. Because nothing will change until we recognize that so much has to change. We owe it to the countless thousands of souls whose voices have been lost to the madness and we owe it to our children.

We have to give tomorrow a chance.

 

 

 

 

Another week and another slew of forgettable and worse stories making headlines From the 100 fully vaccinated peeps getting COVID in Washington State to Florida Representative Matt Gaetz being investigated for sex trafficking to yet another mass shooting, this one in Southern California.

This week’s episode isn’t perfect, but hey . . I learned it from watching news. So what do you say we get to it? . . .

Raja could be here for his latest money grab, in the form of a 17th game. But the NFLPA and the owners were more than happy to go along with it as they move towards an eventual 18 game season so whatever. But no more PSA’s about injuries and early retirements after this, fellas, because y’all signed off on it.

No, the Boss of all Sports Bosses is here because of his silence on the Deshaun Watson front. The Houston Texans star currently faces twenty-one sexual assault allegations. Not that long ago, Watson trade talk was all the rage, and while it has been muted since these charges went public, it’s incumbent on Goodell to freeze any trade talk. Immediately. The idea that teams called Houston after the allegations began multiplying is sickening, and I hope those teams are identified so their people are called to answer for it.

A new first on Heroes and it’s happening because I don’t feel like talking about Matt Gaetz this week. But a coming attraction for when I break out a can of whoop-ass on this friend of Trump? Oh hell yeah. Stay tuned . . .

Alright, enough of that nonsense. Next up, I have a double dose of delightful served up by Dale. You dig?

First up is an 11 year old by the name of Max Woosey who went on a 365 day (or in this case, night) winning streak when the lockdown began last March. His team? The North Devon Hospice in England. It all began when little Max was gifted a sleeping bag by his neighbor, who later died of cancer. The kid decided to camp out in his backyard with the sleeping bag when he learned all hospice fund raising events had been canceled due to COVID-19. Thanks to his sponsors, one year later, Max had collected more than half a million pounds. He went through several tents as a result of the weather; one gifted to him by the family of a soldier who died while serving in Afghanistan. Thanks to Max’s efforts, the hospice has been able to provide care for the people who need it most. Gives a whole new meaning to good night’s sleep, doesn’t it?

Speaking of people in need, the homeless population has been overlooked in too many cities as the mad rush for vaccinations continues. Colorado Springs ain’t one of those places, thanks to the Peak Vista Community Health Centers and Springs Rescue Mission. This dynamic duo got together to provide two hundred doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the homeless in Colorado Springs.

“This is a turning point for the community,” says Jack Briggs, president and CEO of Springs Rescue Mission. “If you think about homelessness, there are three things you’re trying to address: The first is health, the second is their housing, and the third is work. You can’t get to housing or work if they’re not healthy. The COVID virus has had impact in a lot of communities, but particularly in the homeless community — it’s isolated them even more than before. By getting them vaccinated and prepared to re-enter society, whether it’s in housing or work, having this in their portfolio of health is going to be very important.”

This is how a civilized society conducts its business. Bravo to these good people.

To say I’m not a fan of kids is an understatement. I mean, it’s not like I’m the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That guy went looking for the little buggers, after all. So it’s entirely the fault of the peeps at CNN that I watched an entire two minute video where little kids offered up solutions on how to extricate the cargo ship Ever Given from the Suez Canal. And I probably ain’t gonna have to dare you to watch it either.

Imma put a bow-tie on this week’s episode with a story that puts Grubhub and DoorDash to shame . . . .

Editor’s Note: The author of this post made light of your online businesses, but he wants you to know he truly appreciates your services. So concerning any future orders he might place, no hard feelings . . . coo? 

While Chef Steve Chu is familiar with take-out orders at his Asian-Fusion restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, he probably never envisioned fulfilling one like this. But when the owner/operator of Ekiben learned that one of his long time patrons was losing her battle with cancer, he decided to cook up her favorite meal for her one last time. Personally.

Chu, along with his business partner and a restaurant worker loaded up his pickup truck and made way for the parking lot of her condominium where they fired up the grill and cooked up some tempura broccoli. Oh yeah . . did I forget to mention that his long time patron lives in Vermont now? Yeah . . . six hours . . . over five hundred miles . . . and the best damn dish of tempura broccoli. Ever.

The offer to stay for dinner was politely refused, and no payment was taken for the good deed. For Chu, it was about doing right by a customer who had become so much more than a number. It was his way of saying thank you to her for all the times she chose his place to visit. It was his way of giving back to the people who kept him afloat through some pretty tough times. Because sometimes it’s about the journey and sometimes it’s about the destination and sometimes, well . . yeah.

It’s about both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the grab every loose dollar symmetry of the ass hats at WordPress, I’m writing this post from a bookmarked version of the old school classic editor. They’re intent on cockering their spaniels with new toys whilst making us pay for the old news  Come on people, y’all don’t have to chase those of us who prefer the classic version into a bunker, do you?

Now let’s get to the roster . . .

What? You thought I was gonna forget? Nope, it’s not my style to let someone off the hook when they put themselves there in the first place. The above image is what I would pay for the privilege of keeping my classic editor . . if I had a hole in my fucking head. I did some investigating into what a plug-in would cost, with the idea that I’d pluck down a bill if need be to keep it classic. But $300 bucks? (Sorry, I mean $268 bucks?) . . . Nah thank you.

So a big thank you to wine. All it took was a glass of Cabernet Merlot to chase away the meh feeling WordPress had gifted me. To think, for fifteen bucks all my concerns were swept away . . . just like that. Imma get Robert Mondavi to call the peeps at WordPress and teach them how to make money and keep the customer happy. Both . . .

Next up is a hero/zero combo for the side pocket and the win. In his latest non-basketball related move, LeBron James became a part owner of the Boston Red Sox. The Lakers forward will surpass $1 billion in career earnings this year, and he’s working his green in the hopes of one day scoring his very own club. LBJ’s career is a multi-verse tale of big wins, on and off the court. So why do I also have this story in my Zero File? Because it’s the fucking Red Sox, man. . . come on!

There’s an eight year old girl out there whose two little brothers are going to be paying for dinner, like all the time, when they grow up. That’s because big sister saved them from a fire with her quick thinking. As flames engulfed their third-floor apartment, the girl threw a mattress out the window in order to provide a soft landing. Investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, not to mention the whereabouts of the babysitter who was supposed to be tending to the kids while their mother was at work. Yanno, every time one of her little brothers tries pulling some shit, she’s gonna be like “Remember when I saved your little asses from that fire?”. I mean, can you blame her?

Aesop once said that no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. And as far as the peeps in Dauphin, Pennsylvania are concerned, it doesn’t go unnoticed either. They recently took up a collection for their UPS driver, Chad Turns. The goal was to raise $500 for him as their way of saying thank you for all that he does. Last year, while life seemed to come to a standstill for many, Chad never stopped rolling.

“The whole town has had personal experience with Chad,” Dauphin resident Adam Shickley says. “He once thought a package was a gift and there was a picture on the front. My kids were playing outside so he waited until his shift was done and came back to make sure they didn’t see it.”

It’s little things like this that add up on the old cosmic tote board, and Chad Turns has provided his share of them. And speaking of adding up, this fundraiser’s original goal was scaled with ease before settling in at a cool grand. Which the town presented to him, along with a big thank you card, delivered to the man in a much deserved turnabout. It’s yet another reminder that every act of kindness really is essential.

I’ve got a melancholy capper to this week’s episode, with the news of Dick Hoyt’s passing.

His was a life straight off the canvas of a Norman Rockwell painting. Hoyt was born in 1940 in Winchester, Massachusetts. The captain of his North Reading football team, he would end up marrying the head cheerleader, Judy Leighton. He served in the Army National Guard as well as the Air National Guard for almost forty years.

Hoyt also happened to be a part of one of the most beloved teams in New England sports history. It all began in 1977 when his son Rick asked his father if they could take part in a five mile benefit race for a lacrosse player who had been paralyzed. It was a revelation whose wake would cause ripples from Hopkinton to Malibu before all was said and done.

Rick Hoyt was born in 1962 without the ability to speak or use his limbs. A quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, he communicated via a computer keypad he tapped with his head. But it was the shared spirit of a father and his son that created a language all its own during that first run, as dad pushed them across the finish line. They would finish next to last, but the dream was just getting started.

Over the next thirty seven years, they would complete more than 1,000 races. Dad would finish first in his age group in the Marine Corps Marathon in 1992, with a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes and 47 seconds. They also completed six Ironman triathlons and later biked and ran across the country. A bronze statue of the father/son team stands near the starting line of the Boston Marathon with a plaque that reads “Yes, you can!”

Sadly, their final Boston Marathon was cut short by the deadly bombing at the finish line in 2013. Remarkably, it was to have been the thirty-second successful run for this father and son team.

They came back the next year to finish what they started.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s never a bad time to be saying Hello Dolly, so thank you to the lovely Dale for this latest get on the legendary mistress of all things melodic. The country music legend is headlining this week’s episode because she represents that light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been writing about for . . get this . . . almost a year now. Yeah.

This week, Dolly received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine she had been so instrumental in bringing to market. The money mama didn’t get preferential treatment for helping to fund research though, seeing as how she had been waiting on it since December. But no matter, because when it was her turn to go under the needle, she was there with bells on. And a song to boot. She sang a little rebooted ditty for the occasion, a down home take on her classic “Jolene”, subbing it with . . you guessed it, vaccine.

“I’ve been waiting a while,” Parton said. “I’m old enough to get it and I’m smart enough to get it.”

Bless her heart. No . . I mean it. Bless her heart.

This ain’t necessarily heroic or zeroic (a word I can only use on Fridays) but I feel it must be mentioned here, since it leans more to the latter. I’ve had the shits of this current trend among athletes who post vague messages on social media instead of just coming out with it. Two quick examples are Deshaun Watson tweeting “Loyalty is everything, don’t you EVER forget it” to the Texans when “Get me the fuck out of here or I will sit!” would have done just fine. And then there’s Drew Brees’ trainer posting a video of the quarterback pushing a weighted sled, hinting that maybe Brees ain’t done quite yet. Why not something like “I pretty much suck now but I’m coming back to make another thirty million . . somewhere, . . next year!” instead? Stop acting like mall girls, and just get to the point fellas!

Creighton basketball coach Greg McDermott is the latest smart guy to say a dumb thing. Following a recent loss, McDermott implored his kids to stay the course with a Knute Rockhead pep talk that went exactly like this.

“Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”

There are a million right ways to rally a team, and somehow coach still screwed the lesson plan up with this one. But credit his team for not asking him to resign, because the narrative would’ve been twisted into how the athletes have too much power in such matters. And then we’d have lost the chance to ask why the millionaires club of collegiate coaches has been given so much of it.

Dale is at it again, gifting us with this next story about the late Alex Trebek. When she asked if maybe it was too soon for another Trebek story, I told her “If Kyrie can go back to back on these pages, so can Alex”, because of course he can. And will.

The image above shows Trebek visiting a muskox farm in Palmer, Alaska. Trebek became involved with the non-profit organization more than thirty years ago after its former executive director reached out to the game show host upon learning that the muskox was his favorite animal. Thus began a relationship that would last more than thirty years, with Trebek visiting the farm on several occasions. Aside from financial donations, Trebek also made certain to sign every adoption certificate for the Friends of the Musk Ox program. He became known as the “herd godfather”, and for good reason.

To all God’s creatures great and small, Alex Trebek always provided. Tell you what, the Angels have one hell of a lineup with that guy batting cleanup.

We head to the Windy City for this capo de tutti capper of a story that got all tangled up in my feels when I read it. It’s the story of a man whose passion is coffee but whose purpose colors way outside those lines.

Pete Thomas runs Pilot Pete’s, a coffeehouse that has been voted Chicago’s best cuppa a few times over, which is impressive as hell considering how serious those peeps take their java. And that would be plenty ’nuff for most business owners, but not so much with this guy. Because to his way of thinking, success is a light meant to be shared.

So he gives his time to a homeless population whose concerns go far beyond masks and limited capacity seating and vaccines. Pete Thomas comes bearing gifts . . from coffee and water to pastries and blankets and coats. Anything they need, he’s got their backs. (I dare you to watch the above video without shedding a tear).

His mom says this is the same kid he’s always been. Inclusive and compassionate and yearning to make a positive difference in all the places that need it most. And for all the unfair things this world throws at us, here’s proof of God’s existence. I mean, he gave this magnificent mama a daily front row seat to the harmony of a soul she helped write into being.

Stories like this remind me that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the only light we have, not by a long shot. And maybe all the vicious haymakers the fates have been handing up to a great big world full of true believers doesn’t stand a chance after all. Not when we have people like Pete Thomas on our side.

It reminds me of a scene from a favorite show of mine from back in the day. It involved a band of misfit souls getting pinned into a corner in what looks to be their last stand. Left to the darkness of a wicked fate, with little chance of finding their way out, their fearless leader, Sheriff Rick, lets them know what he thinks of those wicked fates.

They messed with the wrong people.

Imma hit the ground running in this week’s episode by venturing into Gene Roddenberry’s backyard, a place no man has gone for at least the last half hour. The final frontier of space will achieve two positive outcomes for yours truly; it will keep the treads on my Nikes pristine whilst ensuring that my carbon footprint doesn’t get brought up on charges.

And you can blame the lovely Dale for dishing up an assist on this one. She sent me this article featuring NASA Engineer Farah Alibay, a little girl at heart whose wild side got saddled with a dream when she was still learning to drive . . a bike. “My earliest memory of falling in love with space is watching Apollo 13 when I was 8 years old. . . What fascinated me was not only the vast expanse and dangers of space, but that teams of engineers rallied together to solve what seemed to be insurmountable problems,”

This Montreal born chica studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where she earned her Masters before accepting an internship to the NASA Academy. That’s where she found her calling in robotic planetary exploration before moving back across the pond to MIT where she pursued a PhD in Systems Engineering. The rest is busy making history on Mars, as Farah is a part of the brilliant team of minds whose passion led to a rover named Perseverance going where no man . . or woman, had gone before.

Where some see stars inside the blanket of night, Farah sees open roads.

There was a time when hockey was prize fighting on ice. Nowadays, it’s rare to see two players drop gloves. But this week Marcus Foligno of the Minnesota Wild faced off against San Jose Sharks Nikolai Knyzhov, with Foligno choosing common sense over caveman. Even in the homogenized version of the NHL, the dude has fixed his share of knuckle sammys, but when it became apparent that Knyzhov was never gonna be mistaken with Canelo Alvarez, Foligno waved the refs over to break things up before the kid got hurt. Heroic? Nah. Cool? As the sport he plays.

As proof that the real ballet on ice has its share of brutes, I give you Peter Oppegard. He’s a former Olympic bronze medalist who later won acclaim as a figure skating coach before 2020 happened. And the allegations of abuse being thrown his way are every bit as ugly as the year they came out of. He’s coached up ten national champions, while also scoring a “Choreographer of the Year” award as well as “Coach of the Year” honors. And then Lombardi turned into a great big lout as one story after another came to light regarding Oppegard’s coaching ‘methods’,  which included biting skaters as well as throwing hot drinks on them. It’s the latest reminder that competitive sports needs to continually upgrade the network of safeguards in place, seeing as how the heart and soul of its young athletes lay in the balance.

Speaking of cool sports, I move to the world of baseball card collecting with this next story. The woebegone hobby out of another time experienced a boom inside the age of COVID and Father John Ubel of St. Paul Minnesota could have cashed in, seeing as how he owns a sweet stash. Ubel’s impressive collection of vintage sports cards; with names like Terry Bradshaw, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson and Nolan Ryan comprise but a handful of the more than 2,000 cards he’s collected over the years. But instead of profiting for himself, he’s hoping to raise $25,000 by auctioning them off, with all the profits going to the Aim Higher Foundation– a scholarship program for low-income students, where Ubel serves on the board. On the website, the auction is referred to as “Hitting It Out Of The Park” and I gotta believe Babe Ruth just tipped his cap to that one.

Adolfo Melendez considers himself to be one of the lucky ones. The owner/operator of El Mezcal in Steven’s Point Wisconsin has navigated the myriad obstacles thrown his way over the last year while keeping his doors open and his clientele coming back for more. But many of his competitors haven’t been quite so fortunate, and so Melendez decided to help them out. Yeah, you read that right. He took $2,000 of his own money and bought gift cards to competing local restaurants that he will raffle off to his customers.

The lifeblood of every small business can be found in the people who open the doors for their community every single day. And so Melendez figures that the best way to go about achieving a healthy bottom line going forward is to look out for your neighbors when you have the chance. What a concept.

We began with space and we’re gonna finish things up in that very same place, with yet another hat tip to Dale for this keeper. This one ain’t about space exploration but rather, the space between. It’s where things like dimension, substance and humanity are replaced with a weeping void of hate and ignorance. And it’s the kind of history that gets planted in the darkness over hundreds of years and scores of generations to right here and now.

It’s estimated there are over 1,000 active hate groups in America today, causing musician Daryl Davis to lament that “Our ideology needs to catch up to our technology,”. But don’t take this statement to mean he’s giving up, because Davis doesn’t know that song. The pianist who’s played with luminaries such as Chuck Berry, BB King and Jerry Lee Lewis has been penning a different kind of song for almost forty years now.

This journey began in a bar in Frederick, Maryland back in 1983 when Davis got into a conversation with a man he would come to learn was a member of the KKK. That conversation changed his life, and ever since then, he’s made it his mission to change minds. With words, audaciously positive ones that seek light where the darkness has prevailed for far too long a time.

Davis has been meeting and befriending Klansmen ever since, and while he admits that some are beyond his reach, many have proven much more pliable than that. The point is, the courage behind his convictions possesses the kind of value that can span the canyons of separation that still exist in too many places. And he’s come to learn that there’s something much worse than losing, and it’s the idea that we don’t even try.

I just have to say, I read this story three times and I have it bookmarked so that I can go back and read it again whenever I feel, as SB likes to say, like I’m a quart low. Because for all the people, places and things that will try to steal your soul, I’d place a million dollar bet they’re vastly outnumbered by all the things that will replenish it. And so Melville, Martel, Twain, Wilde and Poe share the bookshelf that’s tucked inside a file on my computer, with Daryl Davis. A remarkable man whose spirit would give the Perseverance a run for its money. Because he’s not just imagining a better way, he’s doing something about it.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Davis hews out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.