"The Perfect Couple"

This post contains no spoilers.

Last night Linda and I decided to eschew the Pirates-Yankees game, a game, inconceivably, won by the Pirates, and have a Movie Night instead.  The movie we chose was "The Perfect Couple", based upon the best selling beach read book by Elin Hilderbrand, and a movie about which we had heard good things.  When we tuned into our Netflix app, we found out that it wasn't a movie, but, rather, a six part mini-series.  

Okay, we said, we'll watch two episodes and see where it takes us.  We started at 7:00, and after two episodes, we said let's watch another one, and, well, you can guess where we went from there.  Five hours later, shortly after midnight, we wrapped up Episode Six and the entire series.  That alone should tell you that we liked this one and found it to be quite entertaining.

The story takes place in Nantucket Island.  A wedding is about to take place among the monied beautiful people of the Island.  The groom-to-be is Benji Winbury, the middle of three sons of Tag and Greer Winbury.  Tag is the heir to a family fortune that had been largely squandered and is now tied up in a trust fund that will fall to and be split among the three sons when the youngest reaches age 18.  Tag doesn't do much of anything except smoke weed, drink a lot, cheat on Greer, and hit golf balls into the Nantucket Sound.  Greer is a best selling mystery novelist who churns out a book a year, the proceeds of which is what keeps the Winbury family fortune humming.  The bride-to-be is Amelia Sachs, a lovely young woman, who is from the mid-west and does not come from a family with generational wealth.  She clearly does not fit in with the Winburys and their entitled circle.

On the night before the wedding, after an extremely ostentatious rehearsal dinner on the Winbury Estate, a death is discovered.  Was it an accident?  Well, of course it wasn't. It turns out to have been a murder, otherwise, we wouldn't have a six part mini-series.  The story unfolds and is told in flashbacks throughout as the local police chief and a state police detective wend their way through all of the hinky doings that have led up to and surround the death of maid-of-honor Meredith.   There are sexual betrayals galore, and, of course, money and entitlement play a huge part of the story.

The cast is terrific, but standing out among the ensemble are Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber as  Greer and Tag, 

and Dakota Fanning, who plays Abby, the pregnant wife of the eldest Winbury son and whom I just finished watching in "Ripley", and Eve Hewson, daughter of U2 lead singer Bono, who plays bride-to-be Amelia.

Hewson's Amelia is sympathetic and likable; Fanning's Abby, not so much.  In fact, most of the characters are not very likable.  As I said at one point as we watched,  this is the kind of a show where you sort of hope that everyone in it either gets arrested or dies.  Chief among them is Jack Reynor who plays Tom Winbury, the eldest son and Abby's husband.  THAT character is a jagoff supreme.

Anyway, we really liked the series and highly recommend it.  Maybe you won't do it all in one sitting as we did, but if you like seeing a a good murder mystery, with beautiful scenery and beautiful costumes on beautiful people, this show is for you. 

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Oh, I promised no spoilers, and I didn't give any, but I did drop one big clue in this write-up.  Maybe you'll pick up on it once you start watching.

What I've Been Watching

Movie podcaster and raconteur Arch Campbell always asks the question "What are you watching these days?", so let me tell him - and you.

"Ripley" (Netflix)

This is an eight part series that is based upon the 1999 feature film, "The talented Mr. Ripley", which I have never seen.  Set in the 1950's, Andrew Scott, with whom I was not familiar, plays Tom Ripley, small time con artist in New York City.  For reasons I won't spell out, a wealthy businessman and his wife asks him to travel to Italy and try to convince their wastrel so to return home to them.

What follows is a case of stolen identity, a missing persons investigation, and murder. More importantly, the story is told in such beautiful cinematic detail: artfully shot and filmed in beautiful black and white.  It is also a suspense story that would have made Alfred Hitchcock himself proud to have made.

It should also be noted that "Ripley" was written by Steve Zailian, who has written a few other films of which you may have heard:  Moneybag, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Irishman, and Schindler's List.  Not a bad resume.

Three and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Wicked Little Letters" (Netflix)

This is a 2023 feature film set in Britain in the years shortly following World War I.  A spinster lady, played by Olivia Colman, begins to receive anonymous letters that make horrid - and, I might add, positively filthy - accusations about her.  No one knows who sent them, but suspicion soon falls upon a young single mother, recently immigrated from Ireland, who lives next door.  She, of course, denies it, but is arrested anyway.  Soon more and even filthier letters begin arriving in the mailboxes of other village residents.  Calamity ensues.

It doesn't take much to figure out what is really going on here but the efforts of a spunky young Woman Police Officer (a new phenomenon at the time) soon gets to the bottom of things and justice prevails.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander, but worth watching if only to see Oscar winner Colman, whom many of us know only as the middle aged Queen Elizabeth from The Crown, spewing out such incredible strings of profanity.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Things you I when researching the writing of these monographs.  "Wicked Little Letters" was based on a true story.  HERE are the details.

And special thanks to the aforementioned Arch Campbell for tipping me off to both Ripley and Wicked Little Letters on his podcast.

"Only Murders In The Building" (Hulu)

The amateur crime solving podcasters Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back for a fourth season of this great series.   We are five episodes in as the gang tries to figure out who killed Sazz Pataki, why was she killed, and was she really the intended victim.  All of this is going on while a crew from Hollywood is planning on making a movie based on the first season of the OMITB podcast.  The actors cast to play our heroes, Eugene Levy, Zach Galifinakis, and Eve Longoria play themselves and are great as they assimilate themselves into the Martin, Short, and Gomez characters.  Much of the humor is subtle, much of it is outright hilarious.  For example, a cameo appearance by tennis star John McEnroe in episode five was terrific.  And as in the first three seasons, Martin Short steals the show.

I'm not sure that a fourth season of this show was really necessary, but who wants to kill a cash cow, and the show is still fun to watch.  Word is that it has already been renewed for a fifth season as well.  How many people can get killed at the Arconia before the City just condemns the place?

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Monsters (Netflix)

This one is a nine part series on Netflix based on the story of Lyle and Eric Menendez, brothers convicted of and now serving life sentences for brutally murdering their parents in 1989.  If you were around back in the early 1990's you surely remember this sensational crime and subsequent trial.

Anyway, I hadn't had a lot of interest in this until I heard an item on The Today Show earlier in the week that stated that Eric Menendez, from his prison cell, was objecting to how the brothers were being portrayed the series.  Really?  Is there a good way to portray two guys who killed their parents in cold blood?

So, in a weak moment, I watched the first two episodes earlier this week.  It was about what you would expect....sensational, overwrought, cheesy, but also strangely compelling as well.   I'll check in on episode three, but not sure if I'll be up for all nine episodes.

No Star rating unless and until I see the entire series.

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We have also seen two theatrical productions here in Pittsburgh this month.

Of course, I don't really need to spell out "Hamilton", do I?  This touring production is the initial offering of the 2024-25 Broadway In Pittsburgh series.  It was the sixth time I've seen it, the second time for Linda.  It was terrific.  Again.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.  Again.

Most people remember the 1954 Hitchcock movie that starred Ray Milland and Grace Kelly.  That movie was based on a play by Frederick Knott, and a production of that play is now being presented by the Pittsburgh Public Theater at the O'Reilly Theater.  It was a very good production, as are all PPT shows, of a good mystery, and there is no better place in The Burgh to see a stage play than the O'Reilly. 

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Sheltie's Future - What Should It Be?

As we all anxiously await the start of an NFL Sunday, let me take a few paragraphs to contemplate the fate of the woeful (is there any other word for them?) Pittsburgh Pirates and, more specifically, their field manager, Derek Shelton, aka, "Sheltie".

"What, me worry?"

A season that held such hope for a post season berth - right up until a dreadful ten game losing streak in at the beginning of August and has spiraled down ever since - will end one week from today with the twenty-eighth losing season over the last thirty-two years.  The management team of GM Ben Cherington and his hand-picked manager has yet to put together anything even resembling a winning season, and one could argue that this five year rebuild has resulted in nothing but the team running in place and with little hope for turning things around come 2025.

In almost any business, this would call for some significant, if not drastic, changes.  In sports, the obvious fall guy would be the manager or head coach.  We are looking at you, Sheltie.   One could make a case that in the analytics driven sport that MLB has become, the field manager makes very little difference.  His roster, his starting line-ups, and pitching rotation are dictated mainly by the Suits that sit at their laptops and tell the manager what the algorithms decree.  So, some say, Derek Shelton has very little to do with how the team is run, and even John McGraw, Miller Huggins, Leo Durocher, and Danny Murtaugh put together wouldn't be able to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that the Pirates have put in uniforms over these past five seasons.  

I would agree with this up to a point.  Once the game starts, it is the manager who makes the in-game decisions, even though many may come from the binders that the analytics guys have given him.  It is on this point where I believe that Shelton has come up short.  Woefully short, in some instances.  Also, and I really think that this is the critical factor, at some point players just plain tune out and STOP LISTENING to whatever the manager (or head coach) is saying night after night.   That is what I believe has happened to the Pirates in 2024, and that is why a change needs to be made.  A fresh voce needs to be installed in the manager's office at PNC Park.

Of course, GMBC has already stated that Shelton will be the guy to manage the Pirates in 2025, so it would seem that the only way for Sheltie to go would be for Cherington to go as well.  Cherington's failures as a GM are also many, but that would require more paragraphs than I am willing to write as Steelers kickoff time nears.  The guy who would make that decision would be team owner Bob Nutting, aka, the worst owner in all of Pittsburgh Sports Franchises History.  Both Cherington and Shelton are in the midst of multi-year contracts, and the thought of Nutting firing them both and paying them multi-millions of dollars to not work  for him is, well, that just ain't gonna happen.

So we wait to see if the Pirates can go 4-3 over their last seven games (1 with the Reds, 3 with the Brewers, and 3 with the Yankees) just to see if that can EQUAL last season's dismal 76-86 record.  Then the season will end and we Buccos fans will have no real positive things to look forward to in 2025, other than the games that Paul Skenes starts.

The Katzenjammer Kids

 

To Absent Friends - Joe Schmidt

While out of town last week, the news arrived of the death of Pitt, College Football, and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Joe Schmidt at the age of 92.  A graduate of Brentwood High School in Pittsburgh, Schmidt became an All-American linebacker at Pitt.  In 1953, he was drafted by the Detroit Lions where he played for thirteen seasons,  During that time, the Lions were NFL champions twice, 1953 and 1957, and Schmidt played in 10 Pro Bowls and was a First Team all-pro eight times.  He was a member of the NFL's 1950's all-decade team, and was chosen a member of the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.  He was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.  Joe Schmidt also was the head coach of the Lions from 1967-73.

Interestingly enough, as I was researching this post, I went through the back editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the days following Schmidt's death of September 11, and could find no mention of his death, never mind a full scale obituary.  I admit that it was a cursory look on my iPhone, so perhaps I missed it, but if true, shame on the Post-Gazette for ignoring one of Pittsburgh's legendary athletes.

I have to say that Schmidt's salad days as one of the NFL's greatest middle linebackers, pretty much pre-date my days as a serious football fan.  He was mostly just a guy on a football card to me in my youth, but a couple of quotes of Joe Schmidt ring in my memory.

One tells of Schmidt's senior year at Pitt where he gave a pre-game talk prior to the Panthers game with Notre Dame.  "If you guys don't go out there and beat Notre Dame" Schmidt allegedly said, "so hep me, I'll come in here after the game and beat all of you."   Pitt won the game.

If that story isn't true, it should be.

In 1971, sportswriter Larry Merchant wrote a book about pro football called  "....And Every Day You Take Another Bite."  (I wrote about this book in this space back in 2011. Here is that write up.)  Schmidt was the HC for the Lions at the time and was quoted frequently throughout, and it can be said that Joe's use of the language could be described as both colorful and earthy.  In fact, the odd title of Merchant's book came from this philosophical tidbit from Joe Schmidt:

"Life is a shit sandwich, and every day you take another bite."

Even Mike Tomlin can't top that one.

RIP Joe Schmidt.

 

The Frozen Tundra

While we were planning the trip to Wisconsin described in THIS SPACE yesterday, the thought struck me that I was probably never going to be in Milwaukee ever again, and if I'm going to be there in September, then by God, I'm going to fulfill a lifelong wish and I'm going to go to Green Bay and see Lambeau Field.  Actually, the "lifelong wish" was to see a game played at Lambeau Field.  I knew that that wouldn't be possible, so a little bit of research on the interwebs revealed that the Packers offer tours of their stadium, as well as their Packers Hall of Fame, on a daily basis, so back in July we booked such a tour for Tuesday, September 10.  Obviously, on a gorgeous September day with temps in the eighties, the famed Tundra of Lambeau Field wasn't so frozen, but that took nothing away from the experience.

This post will be mainly just pictures from our tour, but a few fun facts before that.  As the 21st century dawned, the Packers found themselves in the bottom five of the NFL in terms of revenues, and they knew that something had to be done.  In 2004, Ron Wolf was hired as head of football operations, and his realization was that drastic changes had to be made to their Stadium Operations, or they might soon become the Oklahoma City or Las Vegas Packers.  So drastic renovations were undertaken, that included expanded seating with luxury suites, and a stadium atrium with dining facilities and a Packers Hall of Fame that could be open seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year.

In the picture you see above, the lower bowl of the stadium are all bleacher type seats, and they have a capacity of 60,000.  With the renovations that Wolf effected, the stadium now seats 81,000.  The newer seats are all chairback seats and luxury suite seating.  The bleachers remain with each "seat" being eighteen inches wide.  To replace those with chairback seats (23 or 24 inches), the capacity would have been decreased by about 8,000 seats, all of them held by season ticket holders, so the bleachers were not going to go away.

So what the Packers now have in Lambeau Field is a facility that is open year round for tours, weddings, high school proms, business meetings etc, and the Packers revenues now rank in the Top Ten in the NFL.  Speaking of the tours, several millions of people have taken them over the years, from all fifty states and from over 140 foreign countries.  In our group on Tuesday, there was a gentleman from England and young couple from Switzerland who said the sole purpose of their trip to the USA was to come to Green Bay!  And ours was not the only tour group of the day. Two others were taking place simultaneously to ours, and we saw at least three others beginning by the time we left the stadium.

Also, you notice that there are no lines or markings on the field.  When the grass gets cut, and they cut it every two days, all painted lines and markings disappear.  The field is then repainted on the day before a Game Day.

So some vacation pics for your viewing pleasure.

These pics were taken from the "roof level" beneath the scoreboard in the one end zone.  People in the Suites can come out there to watch the game and pose for photos.  Not sure I'd want to stand out there on a really cold day.  As you can see, we wore the Steelers' road white jerseys.

When they take you onto the field, you go through the tunnel that the Packers go through, and they play recorded music of crowd noise.  Pretty cool.

Various photos from field level.....

(To be read in a Howard Cosell voice)

Surveying the very goal line where Jerry Kramer blocked Jethro Pugh, enabling Bart Starr to score the winning touchdown in the famous "Ice Bowl" game.

These walls are eight feet high.  

It ain't easy to do a Lambeau Leap.

Now on the the Packers Hall of Fame.....

There are Lombardi quotes throughout the place.

Yep, I am sitting at Lombardi's desk.  Probably the very phone 

he used when he told Art Rooney that Bill Austin 

would make a perfect Head Coach for the Steelers.

The "Lombardi Packers"

Taylor, Kramer, Gregg, Hornung, Starr.

Lombardi, Davis, Nitschke, Adderley, Wood

The 13 Below Theater shows about a 12 minute

film on the famed Ice Bowl game.

The statue you see has steam coming out of his mouth!

Yet another quote.  I told you that they were all over the place.

I wonder how many people coming through the place would "get" this cartoon.

The Packers four Super Bowl trophies.  

Only two of them are "Vince Lombardi Trophies"

I wonder how many Wisconsin 

TV rooms have this picture hanging in them?

A giant replica graces the Lambeau Atrium.

The only part of the tour that I did not like.

Finally, these statues of Vince and Curly grace the main entrance to the Stadium on Vince Lombardi Drive.

As all tours of just about any place you go do, this one ended at the entrance to the Packers gift shop, and we did our share to boost the Green Bay economy while there, although we took a pass on this item:

This full size Packers helmut in Swarovski crystal could have been ours for a mere $10,000.

Okay, I hope that I didn't go on too long and bore you with this.  I know that looking at other peoples' vacation pictures can be a drag, but if you are a pro football fan, I am hoping that you will forgive me.

Oh, one other question.  As you read this post, how many of you used a John Facenda voice in your head whenever you came upon the words "Lambeau Field"?  Be honest now.

On Wisconsin!

This past week, Linda and I returned from a wonderful week spent in the state of Wisconsin, a place that neither her nor I had ever visited.  The trip took us through six different states and covered over 2,000 miles, and it was a trip that exceeded all of our expectations in terms of joyful and fun experiences.

The main purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of my great-nephew, Patrick Sproule and his bride, Emma Holly.  The wedding took place in the town of Oconomowoc, WI, and the setting could not have been more beautiful.  We had a wonderful time celebrating the marriage of Pat and Emma (is there any occasion in life happier that a wedding?), spending some time with them and with other members of the extended Sproule Family, Pat's parents, Kevin and Carol, and Kevin's sister and brother, Karen and her husband Chris Pike, and Bill and his wife Stephanie, and all of their children, my great nieces and great nephews, nine in total.

Patrick and Emma made one terrific looking couple, but it is not my place to post photos of them on social media, I will leave that up to them.  Take my word for it, though, they are one handsome and beautiful couple.

I will, however, post this photo of Linda and I taken at the reception.

I will share this moment from the reception.  When it came time to introduce the wedding party at the reception, the DJ played "Renegade" as he made those introductions.  Those Pittsburgh people in attendance began to yell and cheer and wave their napkins over their heads.  The other two-thirds or so were no doubt wondering, "What the hell is this all about?"  Way to go, Pat, for hatching this idea.

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When we knew early in the year that we would be going to Wisconsin for this wedding, we decided that we would make a mini-vacation of the trip. So, without going into too great detail, here are some of the highlights.

To break up what would have been about a ten or eleven hour trip, we stopped on Thursday and stayed at the Four Winds Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan.

This is an absolutely gorgeous hotel resort and casino.  Our room was as nice a room as any hotel we've ever stayed.  I managed to win fifty bucks playing blackjack, so that paid for our dinner there.

From there we drove to Delafield, WI and the Delafield Hotel.  The hotel was located within a ten minute drive of all wedding venues (post rehearsal dinner get-together, the Church, and the reception), and it was beautiful and comfortable.

For dinner on Friday we went to a pizzeria/sports bar and watched some of the Packers-Eagles game....

....and we had breakfast in Delafield at an absolutely terrific place called the Lumber Inn, where we were told that T.J. Watt always comes to when he's back home in Wisconsin.  The town of Delafield, by the way was wonderful.  Looked like something out of a Hallmark movie, and we both wished that there was a similar place in proximity to Pittsburgh that we could frequent.

On Sunday, we left Delafield and made the thirty minute drive to Milwaukee where we spent Sunday and Monday.  On Sunday, we strolled the Milwaukee River Walk, visited with famed Milwaukee resident Arthur Fonzarelli, and had dinner at a great downtown restaurant called Onesto.

"The Bronze Fonz"

On Monday, we visited with our Littles pal Steve Ozbolt and his wife Laurie at his business, Emerald City Catering.

In case the term "Littles" is unfamiliar to you:

(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.

Steve, better know as "Oz", prepared a nice welcome for us....

As a happy coincidence, New York City Little Louis B. Crocco, better known as "Chuck" from the Chuck and Roxy team that hosts the Loyal Little Podcast, was in Milwaukee in his capacity as Stage Manager for the touring musical "Waitress" and was also able to join us for lunch at Emerald City as well.  It turned out to be a great meet-up of Littles in  the Wild from three different states.

That's Chuck in the blue shirt, and Oz on the right.

We spent late Monday afternoon and evening walking around the terrific Public Market in downtown Milwaukee, where we enjoyed a Wisconsin specialty, Beer and Cheese Curds:

Delicious!

All in all, we had a terrific time, and really enjoyed Milwaukee.  The people there were just terrific, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We were left with one more special day in Wisconsin, but that day deserves a Grandstander post all of its own, so watch for that one in the next day or so.  A hint as to what that day involved can be seen in the photo below.