SfanGoch

This ruling takes the air out of the Cheatriots' season. Gino Smith might be available, though.

Well, that's how Harvey Keitel dressed whenever he strolled down to Tribeca Wine Merchants to pick up some wine. He'd stroll the four blocks to the wine shop wearing pajamas, a beat up robe and old man slippers. With his money, he doesn't need to convince anybody about anything. Pajamas were also preferred professional attire for Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, former head of the Genovese crime family. Nobody questioned his self-respect because he wore PJs. If you did, you'd end up under four feet of concrete as part of an office building foundation. Vinnie appreciated a good gag.

Boy, if you and your friends had a couple of Super Chargers, you could've had one fantastic setup running back to your house.

I'm glad that the Comcast-TWC merger didn't happen. TWC service sucks as it is; a Comcast-TWC combo would just compound the misery. My neighborhood in Brooklyn didn't get cable until 1989, btw. Remember before cable, you could always find something to watch (at least, on any one of the seven VHF stations in NYC) on regular TV? Now, I have 500+ channels available and even less to watch. I also wonder why TWC offers music channels. None of the genres are to my tastes; and, besides, if I want to listen to music, why would I want to listen to it via my TV? I have a stereo for that.

Well, that explains the condition. Never hire old dead guys as contractors.

The subject of toys we had as kids definitely deserves a thread of its own. Does anyone remember the Crusader 101? This was one of the best toys, in my opinion, that I ever had as a four year old. It was about three feet long and had an opening trunk with a spare tire, jack and lug wrench to actually change the tires. Plus, the turn signal lever, steering wheel and gear selector all moved.

Sizzlers were friiggin' fast little mofos, Bill. That high pitched whine meant business. There was a really smooth and level asphalt topped softball field, along the East River, down the block from my house. My friends and I would race ours there. Half of us would hang out in the outfield in order to snag them. Otherwise, they'd run through the cyclone fencing and end up getting run over by the gantry trucks (those weird looking chain drive vehicles with spindly wheel extensions on each corner and carried lumber stacks slung underneath and between the wheels) in the lumberyard.

Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations. After all, it is art:

Anybody remember Sizzlers? I dumped a sizable chunk of my allowance over three years to buy all 22 cars. Not only did they work on the regular Hot Wheels tracks, they were even more fun letting them loose on the street. They ran great on asphalt. Unfortunately, most of mine were casualties of falling through the holes on manhole covers and getting flattened by unexpected cars driven down the block.

That looks like an interesting kit. I'll have to pick one up.

Hey, if Led Zeppelin can steal other people's material, why should the common man be held to a different standard?

That's the ticket, Carl. Sometimes, it's the personal satisfaction and enjoyment that collecting anything brings you; and, that, in itself, is invaluable. You can always pass it on to your kids, grandkids and so on. By the time your grandkids have grandkids, they might have something which will, indeed, be worth oodles of do-re-mi.

Here's the rub. Just about everybody today buys stuff (comics, figures, etc.) hoping to get a leg up on the collectibles market. They bag the comics, keep diecasts, figures and other things in hermetically sealed containers in order to maintain that "brand new" look in the hope that they'll be able to retire on what these tchotchkes will sell for in the future. The problem is that these items are massed produced today in large numbers and there are at least 100,000 people doing this. What made items like the old Red Lines so valuable is that most were bought by kids and were played with until they fell apart or their mothers decided to throw them out, along with all those now priceless comics and baseball cards, when they cleaned up their kids' bedrooms. You might want to think this over.

Sorry. I was looking at some Stones photos and they sort of looked like they were dead.

Don't forget Charlie Watts and Keith Richards.

How was he able to perform in Atlanta, where it was noted he was fine, allegedly develop "flu-like" symptoms ninety minutes into his flight back to Minnesota that same day which required emergency medical treatment in Illinois, then appear in good health at a party at Paisley Park on Saturday? One's physical condition doesn't fluctuate from feeling well to feeling bad and back to feeling well in such a short period of time when one has the flu. Out of the two theories as to the cause of death, you can safely scratch "flu" as the cause.

Aw, go on. You know perfectly well that the really entertaining topics (religion and politics) are off the table.

They offer a Chicago Bearodynamics course during the fall semester.

Are you wearing a wristwatch? Can I have it?

Fox referenced a TMZ report that he was treated for an opiate overdose six days ago. That's why he was taken off his private jet and hospitalized.

Some sentimental developer will buy the property and construct high end apartment towers resembling Prince's platform boots with national chain flagship stores in the five level shopping atrium to be built in the heels..

Probably as much as "Hogan's Heroes" does with a real POW camp.

That wasn't the cause of the breakdown in education. "Welcome Back, Kotter" was based on Gabe Kaplan's high school experiences as a remedial class student in the late '50s and early '60s. The character types in the show have been around in NYC schools since the early days of this city. "Blackboard Jungle", from 1955, was one of the first films to highlight the growing problem of juvenile delinquency and gangs. Irving Shulman's "The Amboy Dukes", which I mentioned in another thread, was novel written about street gangs in 1947. Shulman also wrote a novelization of "West Side Story", which was about gangs and was published in 1961. Place proper credit where it belongs, in the laps of teachers. The problem started when teachers unionized and were more concerned with their own self-interests at the expense of their obligations and duties as educators. Political activism to further a self-serving agenda is literally far more rewarding.

With the exception of first and second grades, my son has attended parochial school since Pre-K. Why? Because the curriculum in NYC public schools is substandard. Through eighth grade, public school students are two years behind academically students who attend private/parochial schools. When he was in first grade in public school, his teacher thought it was more important to write their thoughts explaining why Obama was a great president instead of teaching them arithmetic and vocabulary. BTW, that assignment was given to the class the day after Election Day in 2008. I went to the school and told the teacher, parent coordinator and principal that my kid is going to school to get an education, not to be politically indoctrinated. I also informed these stooges that under no circumstance will he complete that nonsense. As a student, one can only work with what you are given. The school didn't have money in its budget to purchase textbooks for the students; yet, had $21,740 to pay for pilates instructors so the teachers could unwind after an arduous 5 hour 30 minute day in the trenches. Also, no amount of parental participation can overcome the ineptitude of the teacher(s) and sub-standard curricula. If a teacher doesn't teach, students can't learn. You are generalizing. Not all school systems are equal. That analogy isn't apropos regarding NYC public schools. The Dept. of Education is virtually run by the United Federation of Teachers. The UFT has more control than one would expect from a union. The union is in the bag with Mayor Bill de Blasio. The union contributed $4.7 million in 2014 to political activities, most of which was to support de Blasio's agenda against charter schools and to block a plan to provide tax benefits to aid parochial schools. The only things that public school teachers are concerned with are protecting their turf, getting tenured and collecting that pension cheese. If a teacher is charged with misconduct, he/she isn't fired. It's impossible to fire a tenured teacher in NYC. They are placed into reassignment centers, aka "rubber rooms", where they spend 6 hours 20 minutes a day sleeping, listening to music, doing crossword puzzles and collect full salary, sometimes for years. All this goof off time is counted toward their pensions. So, save that sob story about the overworked and underpaid teachers. The bums in my city aren't earning a thin dime of what they get paid.

Neither did Prince.