After putting in some time at the Arlington Public Library, I’m now sitting at a Starbucks located in Arlington Center, and I’m debating taking a crap in their men’s room, but every homeless person and suspected vagrant uses this bathroom. I’ll hold off my bowel movement until I get home, but I’d like to declare to the world that I am no longer afraid to take a crap nearly anywhere. Well, maybe I’m a little intimidated by this Starbucks, but if I really felt the urge, I would storm into this bathroom with the wanton recklessness recently exhibited by Vladmir Putin’s Russian stormtroopers.   more »

Friday night, I again ventured across the street to enjoy a single beer at the bar that is nearly directly across from my office, to watch the Pac-12 Conference championship game between UCLA and Oregon. By the time I sat down a little after 10:00 pm, the Oregon Ducks had a comfortable lead, and UCLA’s coach, Rick Neuheisel, was counting the minutes until his coaching tenure ended in Brentwood. When he was interviewed at the end of his gutty Bruins team’s ass-kicking, Neuheisel seemed on the verge of tears, but there is always another job for a college football head coach.   more »

When Barney Frank held on to retain his Congressional seat versus Sean Bielat, in November of 2010, his victory speech signaled the end of his run. Frank went out of his way to attack everyone. In many ways, Frank should be admired for his courage to take on anyone and everything, but his 2010 victory speech exposed a candidate who was unable to read the changing political topography. When Massachusetts lost a Congressional seat, state Democrats seized on the opportunity to nudge Frank out the door. Frank was vulnerable, and Democrats could not afford to lose his seat in Congress.   more »

The theatre of the absurd continues at Family Friendly Fenway Park. After Terry Francona witnessed his character attacked by an unnamed person in the Red Sox organization, Theo Epstein left his hometown to take over baseball’s Mistake by a Great Lake, and now Red Sox Nation is introduced to the new sheriff in the clubhouse: Bobby Valentine.   more »

I mentioned in a previous piece that I’ve been reading Craig McDonald’s Rogue Males: Conversations and Confrontations about the Writing Life, and I was struck by his interview with James Crumley. I had never heard of James Crumley, but McDonald put forth that Crumley had written perhaps the single best sentence to open a noir/crime novel.   more »

From Jay-Z’s Decoded: Elizabeth Mendez Berry wrote in her essay: “Squint and you see a revolutionary. But open your eyes to the platinum chain around his neck: Jay-Z is a hustler.” No doubt. It’s a simple truth, but complex, too. Identity isn’t a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow. - Footnote 15 of Public Service Announcement (page 31)   more »

On Monday night, I go over to Matty Ha! Ha!’s place to watch the New York Football Giants travel down to the Crescent City to take on the New Orleans Saints. Matty Ha! Ha! had made some grub, which I appreciated, but the tone deaf motherfucker had made red beans and rice – a New Orleans staple. Hey, why are we eating Who Dat Food? How about some linguine and clam sauce or an Italian sausage sandwich coated with onions and peppers? Now, that’s Gotham City food and not red beans and rice. Talk about going native and forgetting your roots.   more »

Based on what has already been reported in various media outlets, I’m not sure who is more loathsome former Syracuse assistant basketball coach, Bernie Fine, or his wife, Laurie. In a taped conversation with one of the alleged victims, Bobby Davis, Laurie Fine admits to knowing of her husband’s alleged sexual abuse. Laurie Fine is obviously crazier than a Kardashian, and she admits to having sex with an eighteen-year-old Davis, but how does a person stay in a marriage that is a sham and where she seems to understand that her husband has committed sexual abuse?   more »

Why is it that every supermarket chain has to outdo the other with the size of the receipt provided to its less than satisfied shopper? On a recent foray to Stop & Shop, I purchased:   more »

Again, I ventured out to the bar located across the street, from my office, to watch the Patriots kill the Chiefs in the second half, and now I know why I never enter a Boston area bar when the Patriots are playing. People become idiots. This douche, sits down next to me, and asks the bartender for a pitcher of Coors Light.   more »

Watching the Giants lose to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, 17-10, in a bar where the back of the toilet is littered with the remnant of a cheap nip of vodka, I was reminded that I still possessed the honesty and self-respect not to smuggle nips into a bar. If things get that bad, I would proudly slug down gulps of mouthwash sitting on a barstool.   more »

I’ve been writing this blog since 2007, and Lord knows that I have taken some lengthy sabbaticals, but I have long ago stopped being surprised by my capacity to piss off people. I have a personality, where either a person really likes me or someone may hate me like Idi Amin, and I discovered that years before I started writing this blog.   more »

Buster Olney’s Initial Tweet: Buster_ESPN@: Assuming that it gets done, the one-game playoff in the WC round was the right decision for MLB, for a whole bunch of reasons   more »

Rogue Male – “An uncontrolled animal that lives apart from the group, acting independently and using unorthodox methods that are unpredictable. His reasons for challenging the status quo are often excellent. [He is] a dark horse and unknown quantity. I stole this, from Craig McDonald’s Rogue Males: Conversations and Confrontations about the Writing Life, and I could have used this description to answer my two-year-old niece and six-year-old nephew, who were questioning why I didn’t have any children and why I wasn’t married.   more »

This is Andy Martino’s lead from Thursday’s New York Daily News: Fred Wilpon had nearly completed his brisk and silent glide through the lobby of the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee late Thursday morning. As the Mets' owner pushed open glass doors leading to the sidewalk, trailed by a pack of reporters, he fielded one inquiry: Is it important for his team to re-sign Jose Reyes? Wilpon laughed, said, "What kind of question is that?" and left the Pfister.   more »

I need a respite from my series of Joe Paterno Under Siege pieces, because frankly, it’s really depressing. Jerry Sandusky has not created the feel good moment of the fall with his alleged conduct. To change it up, I am going to turn to Trombone Shorty and his anthemic, “Hurricane Season” off of his 2010 release, Backatown. “Hurricane Season” sort of reminds me of Naughty by Nature’s hip hop classic, “O.P.P.” (Yeah, you know me.) Trombone Shorty has been receiving heavy play on Sheridan Radio.   more »

I wrote in a previous piece, Joe Paterno Under Siege III, where I cautioned that as a society we should allow the legal process to perform its constitutional function, and not rush to lynch every person who is indicted of a sex crime. I realize that child sexual abuse is a heinous act, perpetrated by individuals who are truly loathsome creatures, but to believe, that we should allow Jerry Sandusky or any other person charged with a sex crime to be summarily executed or immediately hung from a tree by his genitals makes us a weaker society.   more »

After reading the grand jury indictment of Jerry Sandusky and watching Bob Costas’s phone interview of the former Penn St. defensive coordinator, I believe that Jerry Sandusky is in a lot of trouble, but the man is innocent until proven guilty. That is one of the bedrocks of our nation – the presumption of innocence – and we have seen that trampled in the last week.   more »

I wrote a piece on Tuesday, where I cautioned people to wait before condemning Penn St. head football coach Joe Paterno, for his moral failure, regarding young boys who were allegedly sexually abused by former Penn St. defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. It was a more nuanced piece than that, but that was the essence of it. A few of my friends posted some insightful comments on my Facebook page. And you’re more than welcome to check them out at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1378316026   more »

I sort of despise college football, because of the hypocrisy that permeates big-time college sports, but my heart goes out to Joe Paterno. This is an elderly man, who has done a great deal of good, for not only a university but the young men who have come through his college football program, and now we are equating Joe Paterno with behavior that was displayed by the Catholic church hierarchy to protect sexual predators within their midst.   more »