To Absent Friends - Ed Asner

Ed Asner 

1929-2021

Actor Edward Asner died yesterday at the age of 92.  He is being hailed, and rightly so, for his role as Lou Grant in both the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the spinoff eponymous "Lou Grant" series that followed.  Between both of those shows, he was nominated for Emmy Awards seventeen times and won seven times in that role.   He became well known as an actor when the Moore show debuted in 1970 - who can forget him looking at Mary in that first show and saying "I HATE spunk"? -  but he had been around a long time before that.  His 397 (!!) acting credits in IMDB stretch back to 1957.  In addition to playing Lou Grant, his obits laud his role as the voice of Carl Frederickson in the absolutely wonderful Pixar animated feature "Up" from 2009.  However, in this Absent Friends tribute allow me to dwell on one of the favorites of both Marilyn and me, the 1977 television Christmas movie, "The Gathering."

This movie was filmed in Chagrin Falls, Ohio at the time that we were living in Cleveland, so the movie received quite a bit - a whole lot, actually - of attention in the Cleveland media at the time.  It was, and is, the quintessential schmaltzy Christmas movie. 

Asner player Adam Thornton, an extremely driven and highly successful business man in charge of his own engineering firm, Thornton Industries. However, his single-mindedness has caused him to become separated from his wife, Kate (Maureen Stapleton), and alienated from his children, each of whom fit a 1970's stereotype to a T....

• Tom (Lawrence Pressman), the company attorney who fancies himself as a mover and shaker in New York City.  He must put up with the old man at company board meetings, but he hates him.  His wife is played by Veronica Hamel, years before "Hill Street Blues."
• Peggy (Gail Strictland), the daughter on a fast track career as a high powered bureaucrat in some unnamed, but highly significant, department in Washington, DC
• Julie (Rebecca Balding), married and a mother of two kids, Adam's only grandchildren, whose husband, played in an incredibly wimpy performance by Bruce Davison, is struggling career-wise, but is just too goddamned proud to go to his father-in-law and ask for a job.
• Bud (Gregory Harrison), Adam Thornton Jr., who fled to Canada rather than fight in an immoral war in Viet Nam, and whose father told him to  GET THE HELL OUT.  Unbeknownst to any of the Thorntons, Bud is married and now has son.   Bud's wife is played by Stephanie Zimbalist, years before "Remington Steele."

Anyway, shortly before Christmas, Adam is diagnosed with a terrible, yet unnamed, disease, and he has sixty, ninety days tops, to live.   Adam, finally seeing the errors of his ways, goes to Kate and proposes a gathering of the Thorntons for an old fashioned Christmas at the gorgeous Thornton home. It will be a way for Adam to see everyone one last time and attempt to make things right with his children, especially Bud.  One thing though: under no circumstances are the children to be made aware that the Old Man is dying.  Otherwise, the thing will turn out to be as "phony as plastic Christmas trees and piped in Christmas carols."

Will Adam and Kate be able to pull it off?  Will the kids actually show up, and what about draft-dodging Bud?  Will he make it in from Canada, or will Adam never see him again?

Well, this being a Movie-of-the-Week, you can probably guess how it all turns out.  We have a copy of this on DVD, and we watch it every year.  We make fun of the cornball nature of the movie, and we tear up and special moments (Stapleton: "It's BUD!!!) that we know are coming.  We can recite the dialog as it goes along.  It's as cornball as it can possibly be, but we love it.  And Ed Asner, who spends much of the movie wearing a skin tight turtleneck sweater about four sizes too small (and old pro Stapleton) are terrific.

It is how Mrs. Grandstander and I will forever remember Ed Asner.

RIP Ed Asner.

 

To Absent Friends - Charlie Watts

 

Charlie Watts

1941-2021

The news came with a simple announcement:

As a young boy in England, Charlie Watts loved music and showed a propensity for playing the drums.  Educated as a graphic designer, he worked in a London ad agency, and messed around playing drums in various blues and jazz bands.  In 1963, singer Mick Jagger asked him to join in a band that he was forming with Keith Richards and Brian Jones.  Thus, the Rolling Stones as the world came to know them were born, and Watts was a part of it for over fifty years.

I won't pretend to offer critical commentary about Watts' ability as a drummer.  Jagger and Richards swore by him, so that's good enough for me, and I loved this quote that I saw in his obituary that appears in  Variety online today.  This is from a 2019 review in that publication of the Stones' tour that was taking place at the time:

“Sitting at a minimalist kit and moving even more minimally with his casual jazz grip, [Watts looks] like the mild-mannered banker who no one in the heist movie realizes is the guy actually blowing up the vault.”

RIP Charlie Watts

"The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" 

Watts, Richards, Jagger, and Ronnie Wood 

The Rolling Stones

"A Rainy Day in New York"

If you know me, and if you have been a regular reader over the years, you know that I have always been a fan of Woody Allen and his movies.  And if you are even the least bit aware of what has been happening with Allen over the last several years, you also know that any discussions of Woody Allen anymore have become, shall we say, "complicated."  

These complications became very much a part of the release of his most recent film, "A Rainy Day in New York", which was scheduled to be released in 2019, and, to be honest, I don't even know if the movie ever was released theatrically in the United States.  You can read all about those details here.  Regardless of all of that, I finally got around to watching this movie over the weekend via streaming, so the question is, How was it, as a movie?

Answer:  It was good, it was funny, my wife and I both laughed a lot at it.  It was absolutely gorgeous to look at.  It was also familiar.  It was, in short, a "Woody Allen movie."

Timothee Chalamet plays the "Woody Allen Character" in this one, including serving as the voice over narrator at times.  He's a college student at a niche New York liberal arts college.  He's not sure what he wants to do in life, other than playing in high stakes poker games (at which he is quite good) and not following the path that his socialite parents wish for him.  Elle Fanning plays his ditzy girlfriend, who somehow manages to land an interview with a famous movie director for the college newspaper.  The director is in New York City, and Gatsby (Chalamet, yes, his name in the movie is actually "Gatsby") then plans a romantic weekend trip to his favorite city in the world, New York, after Fanning gets her one hour interview with the auteur.

Well, as you can imagine, complications and hijinks ensue.  Fanning gets caught up in an artistic crisis between the director, played by Liev Schreiber and his screenwriter, played by Jude Law, and is romantically lured by a handsome international movie star.     Gatsby, meanwhile, runs into some old friends of his from prep school, the younger sister (Selena Gomez) of an old girl friend, and, much to his dismay, a confrontation with his mother, who springs an amazing surprise upon him.

Oh, and it's raining most of the time. Hence, the title of the movie.

I have to highlight one really funny bit.  Early on, he meets up with his brother and his fiancé at their apartment.  In a private moment, the brother says that he doesn't want to marry this woman he loves, because "he can't stand how she laughs."  With the wedding a mere few weeks away, Gatsby tries to convince him how ridiculous this is, and then he, and we, hear her laugh. Trust me, this is funny.

As it often does in Allen comedies, the situations resolve themselves, and you come away feeling good about it.  Still, like I said, the Woodman has taken us down this path before.  

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Oh, and getting back to those complications.   We all have to make up our own minds as to how we deal with these Art-versus-the-Artist situations.  As you will see in the article that I linked to this story, Chalamet, Gomez, and Rebecca Hall, who also appeared in the movie, made some decisions about this.   I'll judge no one for whatever decision that they may make in regard to these situations, and I would ask the same from anyone else.

Chalamet, Fanning, and Allen

To Absent Friends - Don Everly

Phil and Don Everly

Back in January of 2014, the first absent Friends post of that year was for Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers singing duo, one of the great rock & roll acts of the late 1950's and early 1960's.  Phil was 74 when he died seven years ago.  Yesterday, older brother Don Everly died at the age of 84.

The words below are the exact words I used back in 2014.  No need to change a word......

In 2004, when Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunited for their Old Friends Tour, they included The Everly Brothers as a part of their concert program, and in his introduction of them to the audience, Paul Simon cited them as their heroes and a "major influence" on the young Simon and Garfunkel.  Pretty strong praise, and acts such as The Beatles and the Beach Boys also include the Everly Brothers as major influences on their music as well.

Marilyn and I consider us very fortunate to be at the Civic Arena in June, 2004 to see The Everly Brothers performing with Simon and Garfunkel during that tour.

The Brothers hits are many (and they are great) - Cathy's Clown, Wake Up Little Susie, Bye Bye Love, All I Have to Do Is Dream, Cryin' In the Rain, and I could go on and on.  In fact, they still hold the record for most Billboard Top 100 singles charted by a singing duo.  Here is one of my favorites, performed by the Brothers in 1983

Listen to The Everly Brothers today.  They are easy enough to find in iTunes and YouTube.   You won't regret it.

RIP Don Everly.

"The White Lotus" Concludes

Both the linked article in this post and my own comments contain spoilers about the HBO limited series, "The White Lotus."  If you have been watching the series and have not  yet seen the finale, you may want to come back to this post after you have watched that episode. 

I will say this.  HBO's recently concluded limited series was interesting.  Filmed in Maui, it was amazingly beautiful to look at, and it offered some pretty good performances by the actors (I will be addressing one in particular a bit later), and it offered a view of a slice of life and human nature that was absolutely abhorrent to watch.  One of the best comments about it that I saw came in a Facebook thread when someone said "I continue to watch in the hopes that everybody in it will die."  Yep, the characters in this one, almost every single one of them, were awful.  

I am not going to try a summarize this story of wealthy, privileged, white American one percenters as they griped and moaned about their lot in life  while condescending to those that they considered beneath them.  Instead, I will recommend that you read this analysis and summary of the series  by the Washington Post's Emily Yahr.   It is the best article that I read on the show since the series ended on Sunday.

As I said, all of the characters, some to more degrees that others, exhibited terrible traits and personalities.  The worst of all was the character Shane Patton, played by actor Jake Lacy.

Shane was a 30 year old, self-centered, silver spoon, spoiled brat millionaire who was at the White Lous resort on his honeymoon with his new wife Rachel, an aspiring journalist who still has to worry about her college loans.  The only time that Shane shows any interest at all in Rachel is when he talks about how beautiful and "hot" she is, or when he is having honeymoon sex with her.  Early on, Shane realizes that the gorgeous suite that they are in is NOT the suite that he - or rather his mother (who later shows up on their honeymoon) - had booked for them.  He spends the rest of his honeymoon week obsessing about getting into the right room, which was occupied by others, and making life miserable for Armand, the resort manager, and Rachel.   There may have been portrayals of bigger jerks in the history of movies and television, but right now, I am having a hard time thinking of who it might be.

Although he has a number of acting credits to his name, I was totally unfamiliar with any previous work of Jake Lacy, but I will say this:  He must be a pretty good actor because I will have a hard time ever watching him in anything that he may ever do in the future without intently disliking him as I think of the detestable Shane Patton.  If he plays Jesus Christ in a movie some day, I'll probably end up hating Jesus.  That's how convincing he was.   

Perhaps the best summary of him came in the final episode when Rachel finally had enough and told him that "he spent his honeymoon throwing a week long tantrum and ran to his Mommy to fix it when she showed up on his honeymoon."  I wanted to stand up and cheer.  But did Rachel actually follow through on her feelings?  You'll have to watch and find out.

My friend Elena made the following observation about the series:  "I watched, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend out to anyone."  That sums it up pretty well.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

And, oh yeah, there are already plans for a Season Two of "The White Lotus, and yes, I will no doubt watch it.

The Pirates After 120 Games

The Pirates played their 120th game of the season last night.  It was a loss to the Dodgers, and it dropped their season record to 42-78 (.350).  a terrible record, but not, amazingly enough, the worst in MLB.  Two other teams, Arizona and Baltimore have worse records, and Texas is only 1/2 game ahead of the Buccos.

Anyway, a nice round number like 120 represents a milestone of sorts (Def: Milestone - any excuse to write a Grandstander post.), so let's have some fun with numbers.

First, the good news:

• The 2021 Pirates will not exceed the 1962 Mets record total of 120 losses in a season.  To even tie for that ignominious record, the Pirates will have to go 0-42, and not even this bunch can be that bad. Right? Oops, I mean, RIGHT.  So take THAT, Dan Bonk!
• The 1952 Pirates are conceded to be the worst Pirate team of the modern era (post-1900).  That team went 42-112 (.273).  For the '21 squad to reach the depths of that team, percentage-wise, they will have to go 2-40 the rest of the way.  Again, I think that even this team is capable of scrapping together at least three more W's along the way.

Now, the not-so-good news:

• To avoid a 100 loss season, the Pirates will need to go 21-21 the rest of the season.  Maybe they can do that,  and maybe I can win the power ball lottery this week.  In other words, it ain't gonna happen.
• The Pirate will  have to go 9-33 between now and the end of the season to finish at 51-111 and avoid equaling that 112 loss record of the 1952 Rickeydinks.   I believe that they can do better than 9-33, but I also think that this one may not be decided until deep into September.

The most interesting "race" for the Pirates, though will involve their raw wins total.  At the beginning of the season, depending on what casino/gambling app you used, the OVER/UNDER number for the Pirates was either 57.5, 58, or 58.5 wins on the season.  For the sake of this post, let's use 58 as the number.  To equal that number, and produce a "push", the Pirates will have to go 16-26 over the course of the last 42 games.  This is a winning percentage of .381, ever so slightly better than they have played to date.  This is a "race" that I do believe will not be decided until the final week of the season, and if you have a few bucks riding on the outcome, it will keep you interested in the Pirates right down to the wire.

  

You Should Be Watching the WNBA

 

Right off the bat, I will admit that I only started watching WNBA games with any degree of regularity because I had placed some just-for-fun bets on some of the games.  As I was tracking my five dollar bets, though, I found myself really and truly enjoying the games themselves and the brand of basketball that these women are playing.   The cliche is that the women play a game "below the rim" so there are no monster dunks, and a there is a greater reliance on speed, passing, defense, and shooting.  Often times, cliches become cliches because they state an obvious truth.   When you watch a WNBA game, you will see all of those qualities and skills come into play.  Also, the games are fast paced and lively.  Somehow, a game played in four ten minute quarters, seems to go much faster than a college basketball game played in two 20 minute halves.

I am not saying that these games are "better" than NBA games or high level college games.  It would be foolish and stupid to suggest that the games played by Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo are inferior.  No one is saying that the Seattle Storm could beat the Milwaukee Bucks.  The women's game is different, to be sure, but the skills of the players are no less impressive than those exhibited by their male counterparts relative to the competition on the floor.  I mean, did you watch Brittney Griner dominate the Japanese women in that Gold Medal game in the Olympics?  That was a remarkable performance.

The WNBA games are on TV, but they are not easy to find there.  For example, tonight, August 17, there are five games on the schedule. Two are on the CBS Sports Network, one is on NBATV, one is on Prime, and one is on Facebook (?).  Two top teams, the Seattle Storm and the New York Liberty face each other on Wednesday and Friday nights this week. One game is on CBSSN and the other is on Prime.  

I would highly recommend that you seek out at least one of the Seattle games.  They are the defending League Champs, they feature perhaps the best player in the league, if not the world, in Breanna Stewart, and feature two other players who were on the Olympic team, Jewell Loyd and the great Sue Bird.

Stewart, Bird, and Loyd of the Storm

So give the WNBA a try.  I'm pretty sure that you will enjoy the basketball that you will be watching, even if you don't have a wager on the outcome!

Personal Thoughts on The Tokyo Olympics

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrived a year late and finished up a week ago amid questions as to whether or not they ever should have been staged in the first place.  We all know that the Games were postponed a year due to the COVID pandemic, and that they were staged a year later even though that country of Japan was experiencing rising COVID numbers and was in a state of public health emergency.  The fact that they took place anyway showed us, as if we needed any further proof, of what the "Olympic Movement" has become - an outrageous money grab by perhaps the most corrupt and uncaring sporting organization in the world, the International Olympic Committee.  And in a world where both FIFA and the NCAA exist, that is really saying something.  The Games went on, despite the will of the people and even the government of the host nation, and without any fans in attendance.  It was television show played out in empty studios, but the IOC oligarchs got their cash from NBC, and that's what really counts.

However, I still watched and that makes me part of the problem, I guess, if not an abject hypocrite.  Still, the competition itself was fun to watch, and here are some of the memories that I will take away from these games.

• Seventeen year old Lydia Jacoby from Seward, Alaska winning a Gold Medal for the USA in the 100m Breaststroke event, and the celebration at the watch party in her hometown (population: less than 3,000) of Seward.   If any one thing in these games defined "Olympic Moment", this was it.

• The American Women's Silver Medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.  Out of medal position after the third leg, the great Katie Ledecky swam an amazing anchor leg to secure the silver for the USA, and had the race been five meters longer, she'd have passed the winner and the USA would have won gold, that's how strong she was.  This race was all the more memorable for us because the opening leg of the race was swum by Allison Schmitt, that's her on the right below, who is the niece of one of our neighbors.  Schmitt has represented the USA in four Olympiads and has now won ten Olympic medals overall.

• The great Allyson Felix competing in her fifth Olympics and winning her tenth and eleventh Olympic Medals.  She is now the most decorated American track athlete in Olympics history, man or woman.

• The mental courage of gymnast Simone Biles.

• When they lost in the soccer semi-final game, instead of pissing and moaning, the US Women's Soccer Team issued a statement to the effect of...."disappointed, but still one more game to play and a chance to win a medal", and that is exactly what they did.  A 4-3 win over Australia with two goals apiece from veterans Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapine, who were probably playing in the last significant game of their careers.

• Gold Medal wins for the USA Men's and Women's Basketball teams....

• ....which culminated the careers of these two greats:

There were other moments to be sure, and we did enjoy the competions that we saw, despite searching for the right NBC platform to view and trying to overcome that thirteen hour time differential.  For sure, it wasn't the same without fans on site for the competition, but it managed to be a pretty good television show after all.

To Absent Friends - Joe Walton

Joe Walton died yesterday at the age of 85.  He lived a rich and full life, and by any measure he is one of the more distinguished football personages to ever come out of Western Pennsylvania.

A high school football star out of Beaver Falls, he was a two time All-American at Pitt, played eight years in the NFL with the Giants and the Washington Football Team, had a long coaching career that included seven years as a head coach with the Jets, and ended, seemingly, after a two year stint as the Steelers Offensive Coordinator under Chuck Noll.  His tenure with the Steelers was a controversial one, and was highlighted by frequent clashes with his quarterback, one Walter "Bubby" Brister.  It didn't end well for Walton.

After that, and seemingly out of nowhere, Robert Morris College came calling and asked if Walton would be willing to become head coach of the Colonials brand new starting-from-scratch Division I-AA football program.  Walton said yes and the rest was history.  As a football program, Robert Morris College, later to become Robert Morris University, was relevant from the start.  Walton coached the Colonials for 20 seasons, had a 114-92-1 record, including one undefeated season, and his teams won outright or shared six conference championships in his tenure.  So it was with some measure of pride that this RMU alum saw that the lead in the obituary for this football lifer focused on his impact at Robert Morris.  Such impact was expressed much better in this 2013 Ron Cook column that was written when Walton retired from RMU in 2013.

Head Coach at RMU

Oh, and, yes, I do have one personal Joe Walton story to share.  Many years ago, I played in a golf outing sponsored by the Colonial Athletic Club.  In the post round festivities at Blackhawk Golf Course - right near Beaver Falls! - Joe Walton and all of the other various RMU coaches were there.  It was announced that one of the gift baskets to be raffled off was a "Steelers Basket" that was donated by the NFL team.  I was standing near Walton at the time, and I said that I think the centerpiece for the basket was an autographed photo of Bubby Brister.  The Coach looked at me and offered a wry chuckle at my comment.

Oh, and one other Fun Fact about Joe Walton.  His father, Frank "Tiger" Walton, a Beaver Falls legend himself,  also played in the NFL, and when Joe made his debut with the Washington, he became the first son of a former NFL player to play in the league.  How's that for a good trivia question?

RIP Coach Joe Walton

The All-American

Head Coach of the NY Jets

His stint there included 

two trips to the Playoffs

The OC with his QB

A Colonial Hall of Famer

Forever immortalized on campus

"The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig

In the years that I have known her, my friend, Wendy, has recommended many books for me to read.  Her recommendations usually run to non-fiction, usually to somewhat weighty topics.  So her recommendation of a novel, the current New York Times  Number One Fiction Bestseller, no less, "The Midnight Library" was a departure for her, and one that I was eager to check out.  So, thanks to my local library, one that keeps normal hours, I was able to borrow, and just finished reading "The Midnight Library."

Nora Seed is a single, 35 year old woman living in a small nowhere town sixty miles outside of London.   All of her dreams - being a competitive swimmer, a songwriter, a singer in a rock band, of formally studying philosophy, marrying her boyfriend and opening a pub - have all for one reason or another been scuttled.  She is estranged from her only living relative, a brother, her cat has just died, she's been fired from her crummy job, and her girlfriend won't even return her text messages.  Is it any wonder that Nora decides to take her own life by overdosing on her anti-depressant meds.  All of this by page 35!  Depressing, huh?

As it turns out, Nora doesn't end up completely dead.  She gets another chance.  She's not in Heaven, not in Hell, but rather in a strange sort of existential Limbo, a library of sorts, where it is perpetually midnight (Midnight Library, get it?), where her guide is the one adult in her life that showed her any love, affection, and respect, Mrs. Elm, her school librarian when she was a child.  The infinite number of books in the Midnight Library each represent a different life that Nora could have had  had she only made different choices in her life.  Mrs. Elm thus becomes an amalgamation of Dickens' Ghosts of Christmas Past/Future, and Clarence, George Bailey's guardian angel from "It's A Wonderful Life", and throws in some elements of "Groundhog Day" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."

Nora gets to experience what would have happened had she married her boyfriend, had she not given up swimming, had she accepted certain invitations rather than rejected them, and, well, you get the idea.  When Nora gets to experience these parallel lives, she sees that things would have turned out differently alright, but not necessarily as she might have hoped.  That guy she left at the altar, but ends up marrying in this alternate life?  He turned out to be a bit of lout, as it happens.  Nora experiences many other lives, some last for months, some for days, some for only a few minutes.  Nora learns something from each of them, and you can pretty much see how things are going to end up.

The themes of "The Midnight Library" aren't new, as I've alluded to above, but they certainly make you think of your own life and the paths you've chosen.  For example, what would have happened had I gone back to Slippery Rock State after my freshman year and became that high school history teacher I set out to be?  Or, what would have happened if I had accepted that job transfer to Dayton, Ohio back in 1977?  Or, if I had accepted that bit part as Jodie Foster's lover in "Silence of the Lambs" when it was being filmed in Pittsburgh back in the late eighties?  Okay, I made that last one up, but you get my drift.

We are all a product of the decisions that we make and are made for us or forced upon us.  It is up to us to react to them and deal with the circumstances that flow from them.  You can learn to appreciate what you've got.  In this book, I think that author Haig serves up perhaps a few too many lives for Nora, and I could have used less of Mrs. Elm's existential babblings, but, all in all, I liked it.  

Two and Three-Quarters Stars from The Grandstander, and sincere thanks to Wendy for the recommendation.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Inductions

The Induction classes of 2020 and 2021 for the Pro Football Hall of Fame were held over two nights this past weekend, and they made for some good television viewing. Me, I recorded the ceremonies, and then watched them later, fast forwarding through much of it and watching only those speehes that I wished to see.   I mean no disrespect to guys like Edgerin James or Drew Pearson or Steve Hutchinson, but I just didn't care to listen to what they had to say.  This also had the additional benefit of keeping my exposure to Chris Berman to an absolute minimum.

In addition to the speeches ot the incoming Steelers - Bill Cowher, Donnie Schell, Troy Polamalu, and Alan Faneca - I also wanted to see the speeches of Pitt's Jimbo Covert and Peyton Manning.

Let's get the two non-Steelers out of the way.  Enjoyed Covert's speech.  Loved all his references to Pitt and his teammates and coaches there, although I never would have recognized Jackie Sherrill, and I loved that Jimbo has retained that Pittsburgh accent!

As for Manning, well, his speech was everything you would expect from Payton Manning.  Smart and funny, but mostly smart and a ringing endorsement for football.  For all of its problems, we all love to watch it, and those men on stage sure loved to play it and coach it.  It was constant theme through all of the speeches.   On PTI tonight, Tony Kornheiser made the statement that Peyton Manning should one day be the Commissioner of the NFL.  Not sure if it's a job he wants, but he would probably be perfect for it.

Now for the Steelers.

Certainly, the most popular of the speeches - and how about the way those Terrible Towels took over Canton those two nights? - was Polamalu's.   If there remains any rancor between him and the Steelers organization, as has been reported, it was certainly not evident during that speech.

However, perhaps the best speech from all of the Steelers inductees came from Alan Faneca.  It was humble and grateful, and fully expressed the emotions of every inductee those two nights.  There is no way that I could capture the essence of it here, but it is surely out there in cyberspace for you to see, and I would recommend highly that you do so.

And, of course, the Coach was the Coach.  He lives in New York now and is a TV star  and a Hall of Famer, but Bill Cowher has never left Crafton.   A great speech, accent and all!

As for the guy that waited the longest, how could you not have loved Donnie Shell and his daughter?  Another great speech.

Unfortunately, I missed whatever was doen to commemorate the late Bill Nunn's induction.  I will need to go back over the recording in an effort to find that one.

One thing that each of the four Steelers induction speeches had in common, two things actually, were the overriding gratitude and respect that they had for Dan and Art Rooney, and how special it was to play and coach as a part of "Steelers Nation."

Peyton and Archie

Father and Son Hall of Famers

Marilyn and I will be in Canton later this month as part of an overnight getaway with some friends, and it is in our plans to drop by the Hall of Fame - it has been many years since we've been there - and check out the new residents of the "Steelers Wing" there.  Very much looking forward to it.

Summer of Littles 3.1, Pittsburgh Venue

The "Official Portrait" 

Littles (definition) - A community of people from throughout the United States, and, indeed, all over the globe, bound together by their devotion, a devotion inexplicable to non-Littles, to a Washington DC based Podcast hosted by former sportswriter and Pardon The Interruption host Tony Kornheiser.  Also often referred to as Loyal Littles.

If the above definition does not apply to you, then you may want to stop reading now, or perhaps it will encourage you to find the Kornheiser Podcast and become a Little yourself.  Anyway, yesterday, August 7, over 300 Littles from across the globe gathered in close to forty different locations to get together to share in their TK Fandom and just get to know one another and have a great time.  These gatherings began in 2018.  What was to be the third annual Summer of Littles gatherings in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic, hence the "3.1" designation for the 2021 festivities.

This was also the first time that Pittsburgh held a SoL gathering, and Yours Truly hosted the event.  Honestly, "hosting" consisted of picking out a place to gather and attaching my name to the fabulous summeroflittles.com website put together by Connecticut Little Bob Walsh.  The place was the Southern Tier Brewing Co. on Pittsburgh's North Shore, in the shadows of both PNC Park and Heinz Field.  I honestly had no idea what to expect in terms of turnout, but ten Littles (Bob, Tom, Joe, Jeannie, Dennis, Trish, Joyce, Jim, Lisa, and John)  gathered for the event, which to my understanding is a good number for the first time at a venue.  None of us had ever met personally, although several of us were acquainted via participation of a couple of Facebook group pages devoted to Loyal Littles and the Podcast.  It really was a kick to get to know everyone.  

We were fortunate enough to get an outdoor table at Southern Tier.  The weather cooperated, the beer was cold, the food was good, and the conversation was lively.  We hung around for over three hours, and a good time, I believe, was had by all.  Just about everybody said, "see you next year" when the party finally broke up.

A special tip of the hat goes to Jeannie Byers who traveled all the way from Baltimore to attend.  As regular at Chatter and past Jinglefests over the years, Jeannie could almost be considered "Littles Royalty."  This was the third different Summer of Littles location that Jeannie has attended.  Now, she has a year to figure out what location will attend in 2022.  That is the magic of being a Little - you are welcomed by fellow Littles everywhere.

Jeannie and The Grandstander meet

After not knowing what to expect, I ended up having a ball, and I will look forward to doing it again come 2022.  Thanks go out to the previously mentioned Bob Walsh for being the SoL webmaster, and to "Chuck and Roxy" who heavily promoted Summer of Littles 3.1 on their Loyal Littles Podcast.  I doubt that the day would have been nearly as successful as it was without all of their efforts.

"August Finally Has A Holiday!"

"La Cheeserie" 

from the 

Pittsburgh Littles

Seeing James Taylor Once Again

 

James Taylor at PPG last night

The first time that Marilyn and I saw James Taylor perform was at the Blossom Music Center in Ohio.  That was in 1975 or '76.  That was FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO, folks.  Since then we have seen him at Star Lake Amphitheater,  Heinz Hall (with the Pittsburgh Symphony), twice at PPG Paints Arena, and one or two other times that at places I can't remember.  There is no other performer that we have seen live more often than James Taylor.  He has never disappointed, and that honey-smooth JT voice remains as pure as ever.  You know exactly what you are going to get from a James Taylor concert, and, as I said, you are never disappointed, and you can't wait to see him again.

Last night's concert with Jackson Browne as the opening act (not too shabby!) was originally scheduled for June of 2020.  It was postponed twice for reasons that we all know, but when it all came to pass last night...what a delight!

Jackson Browne, as I said, was the opening act.  Much of his one hour set consisted of new material.  Honestly, given the demographics of the artists and the audience, nobody wants to hear these guys sing new material.  He looked good (he is now a look-alike for Jeff Bridges) and sounded great, and he did give us Doctor My Eyes, Running On Empty, and in a duet with Taylor, The Pretender during his 60 minute set.  Personally, I was bummed that he didn't do Somebody's Baby and Stay, but you can't have everything.

Taylor's set lasted an hour and fifty minutes, and as alluded to above, he gave the fans everything that they wanted.  How many times do you think that James Taylor has sung Fire and Rain over the course of the last fifty years?  It has to be tens of thousands of time.  You would think that he would get tired of it and either skip it or just plain phone it in some nights.  Nope.  Pours everything into it every single time.  

Can't say enough about the musicians and back up singers that accompanied each performer.  One of James' back-ups was his son Henry.  Funny story.  Taylor introduced each musician and singer throughout the course of his set.  One of then, Arnold McCullers, Taylor mentioned was from Cleveland, Ohio, which elicited the prerequisite boos from the crowd in Pittsburgh.  McCullers gave an expected good natured "what the heck", and Taylor reacted by saying "But he left Cleveland in disgust."  When the crowd cheered that comment, Taylor then said "I know how to pander to an audience."  Good stuff.

His encore set included a duet with Browne on Take It Easy that was terrific, and the show concluded with You've Got A Friend.  How appropriate.

So tell me, when will James Taylor be coming back to Pittsburgh again?

Steelers Training Camp 2021

There was a time in my life when a trip to St. Vincent College in Latrobe to observe Steelers Training Camp was a regular thing, but times change and the last time that I made that pilgrimage was in 1980 (a search of our photo albums confirms that date).  As we all know, in 2020 times REALLY changed, and last year the Steelers made Heinz field their site for Training Camp.  In 2021, they opened it to the public, so yesterday, I made my first visit to Steelers Training Camp in 41 years.

Admission was free, but you did need to get a ticket via the Steelers app or Ticketmaster, which was no big deal.  Also, unlike the Latrobe days, you had to stay in the stands, so there was no way to approach the players to get autographs or take photos.  Again, no big deal, and I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

I have to be honest, much of what you see is pretty mundane and boring.  Guys doing calisthenics, blocking drills with defenders holding blocking pads, guys playing catch, Chris Boswell kicking field goals.  Yawn.  Although at one point, when the players were doing their things, Boswell was playing catch with another player, probably the punter, and he was throwing perfect spirals that went about fifty yards in the air.  And he's a kicker! Honestly, professional athletes can do anything!

However, there were a couple of drills that were fun to watch:

• A coach would toss football to a RB or a WR while a defender would try to stop him.  On a couple of those, I must say that Najee Harris looked every bit the first rounder and future All-Pro everyone is hoping he will be.  Of course, he DID get stopped a few times.  Guys like Minkah Fitzpatrick are pretty good, too.
• They ran short yardage 11-on-11 goal line drills that were fun to watch.  Highlights of those included a Ben-to-Pat Freiermuth catch for a TD, and a Dwayne Haskins option keeper for a TD.  Again, the defense also made stops, too.
• They also ran 11-on-11 drills from midfield, which included a nifty Ben-to-Derek Watt (yeah, you read that correctly, Derek Watt!) pass  that would have gone all the way, and a spectacular catch and run by JuJu on a 15 yard slant from Mason Rudolph that also went the distance.

All in all, a fun and enjoyable afternoon.  A day that gets you juiced up for football season.  If only they would have played "Renegade" on the P.A. system.

Some photos from the day....

Before the workouts began, I spent about forty-five minutes wandering the Heinz Field Great Hall.  If you are a Steelers fan and have never done that, you really should try to do so.  It is really cool.

Cam and I say "Hi"

Recognize any of these guys?

Coach T

The Emperor Chaz

"Cahrr Pahwrr"

Great Exhibit!!

Getting my JuJu on!

HOF'er Mel Blount did a Q&A Session

He looks like he STILL could have gone out on 

that field and run a few reps with the guys

Sometimes, the FIRST time 

always remains the BEST time!

Did I mention that it was free to get in?  

Well, it's not free to get out, 

as the bag from the Steelers Shop that I am holding will attest.

Two more shots from the field.

All eyes on Najee...

Mike Tomlin walks the field....

First exhibition game in Canton is two days away.  

#herewego