Two Cups of Stories, and a Dash of Stupid
Friends, golfers, countrymen…and the rest of you. Yes, yes, yes, it’s been a while. How’ve you been? Me? Thanks for asking. I’m doing as well as can be expected. Really, Peter? Channeling Marc Antony AND Monty Hall, are we? Easy, Sancho…it’s just good to be typing and connecting with my millions of readers. Delusional, as well. So what’s going on in the world around us? To be honest with you, I’ve been trying to write something very close to the heart for a little while and am feeling a little unworthy of it. But I hope this little break will help. Hmmm…where to begin.
Well, the parental units are making their way back from Florida…in a car. They wanted to go to Florida for a whole month this time, so they decided that air-fare in peak season AND renting a car for 4 weeks would be, well, financially stupid. So instead of flying...they drove…in a car…all the way to Florida. And not to put too fine a point on it, they are a few years older than I am. So, I worry. On the other hand, the land speed record for a car is 763 miles per hour and my mother is always looking for a new challenge, so to paraphrase Bill Murray in Caddyshack…they have that going for them. I hope Scotty can keep those warp engines going! Ah, we kid because we love. Yahweh, help us…
What else…oh, yeah! Mike McCarthy, most recently known as head football coach of the Green Bay Packers (he got fired for not winning any Super Bowls recently with one of the best quarterbacks on the planet), was at his stepson’s basketball game the other day. Very cool. A stepfather is a tough thing to pull off successfully. I know; I have one who has done it with frightening success. And my stepfather, along with my mother, went to every one of my high school basketball games which is something that I can’t even begin to be properly thankful for. Anyway, it seems that Mike is catching up on missed games due to all those years as an NFL head coach, which obviously, takes up all fall and winter and then some. Unfortunately, it seems that Mike got a little caught up in the spirit of the thing at his stepson’s latest game. According to reports, Mike (and can I pause here to say that every time I type the name ‘Mike’, I think of that great GEICO commercial with the camel on Hump Day. “Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. Hump Daaaayyyyy”. But I digress.) was berating the officials for most of the game and then followed them down the hall after the game screaming and yelling at them. Really? Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike…Grow up. Can you imagine how this poor kid feels now? Anyway, if you’re a sports parent, do the world a favor. Sit down, enjoy, cheer a little, but for the most part…shut the hell up. Don’t embarrass your kid. And if you are obnoxious and it doesn’t bother your kid, both of you have bigger issues.
So we’ve got some humor, some obnoxious…here we go…stupid. Raise your hand if you remember the iconic Life magazine photo from the 1940s where the World War II sailor is giving that great kiss to a nurse in Times Square when they heard the news that the Japanese had surrendered. I mean, that’s just a great picture. The pure, unbridled joy captured in that moment is incredible. The photographer never released the names of the two people but because we can’t leave anything alone, the search was on. And even though a boatload of people over the years volunteered their names looking for their 15 minutes, it was finally discovered that the sailor was George Mendosa and the nurse, specifically a dental technician, was Greta Friedman. George has already survived heavy combat in the Pacific and was gearing up for a planned invasion of Japan that would have meant an incredible loss of life. Greta survived The Holocaust as a child. She died in 2016. George died a couple weeks ago. Heroes, both.
Well, that picture was turned into a statue. Upon George’s death, some jack-ass vandalized it. And because we live in an age of “victimization” compounded with monster amounts of stupid (not to mention historical amnesia), a city council member from the Upper West Side in Manhattan, one Helen Rosenthal, gave her blessing to this act of (I can’t even think of a proper word) sheer mindlessness by saying “I appreciate someone recognizing that a random man grabbing a random woman is completely inappropriate.” Wait, what? Really? Are you kidding me? This is your #MeToo moment? What an idiot. The death sentence of war had just been lifted. Tens of thousands of lives were literally saved in that instant. And an affirmation of life, an utter joy that we are going to see tomorrow...the blessing, "more life into a time without boundaries", was on display for all to see, and all of this was caught in one single moment in a picture. How warped is one's sense of history or for that matter, humanity, to somehow turn that moment into sexual assault? As I've said before, sometimes the mind loses its capacity for outrage.
Years later, in 2005, Greta said the following in an interview. "It wasn't that much of a kiss," recalled Friedman. "It was more of a jubilant act that he didn't have to go back to war. I found out later, the reason he grabbed someone dressed like a nurse was that he just felt very grateful to nurses who took care of the wounded." In 2012 she told the Navy Times, "I can't think of anybody who considered that as an assault. It was a happy event."
How good is that?! "It wasn't that much of a kiss." Poor George! It's a tough crowd! Well, thanks to George and Greta and thousands of others just like them...we survived. Hopefully, we will survive the Helen Rosenthal's of the world. I hope...
Well, the parental units are making their way back from Florida…in a car. They wanted to go to Florida for a whole month this time, so they decided that air-fare in peak season AND renting a car for 4 weeks would be, well, financially stupid. So instead of flying...they drove…in a car…all the way to Florida. And not to put too fine a point on it, they are a few years older than I am. So, I worry. On the other hand, the land speed record for a car is 763 miles per hour and my mother is always looking for a new challenge, so to paraphrase Bill Murray in Caddyshack…they have that going for them. I hope Scotty can keep those warp engines going! Ah, we kid because we love. Yahweh, help us…
What else…oh, yeah! Mike McCarthy, most recently known as head football coach of the Green Bay Packers (he got fired for not winning any Super Bowls recently with one of the best quarterbacks on the planet), was at his stepson’s basketball game the other day. Very cool. A stepfather is a tough thing to pull off successfully. I know; I have one who has done it with frightening success. And my stepfather, along with my mother, went to every one of my high school basketball games which is something that I can’t even begin to be properly thankful for. Anyway, it seems that Mike is catching up on missed games due to all those years as an NFL head coach, which obviously, takes up all fall and winter and then some. Unfortunately, it seems that Mike got a little caught up in the spirit of the thing at his stepson’s latest game. According to reports, Mike (and can I pause here to say that every time I type the name ‘Mike’, I think of that great GEICO commercial with the camel on Hump Day. “Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. Hump Daaaayyyyy”. But I digress.) was berating the officials for most of the game and then followed them down the hall after the game screaming and yelling at them. Really? Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike…Grow up. Can you imagine how this poor kid feels now? Anyway, if you’re a sports parent, do the world a favor. Sit down, enjoy, cheer a little, but for the most part…shut the hell up. Don’t embarrass your kid. And if you are obnoxious and it doesn’t bother your kid, both of you have bigger issues.
So we’ve got some humor, some obnoxious…here we go…stupid. Raise your hand if you remember the iconic Life magazine photo from the 1940s where the World War II sailor is giving that great kiss to a nurse in Times Square when they heard the news that the Japanese had surrendered. I mean, that’s just a great picture. The pure, unbridled joy captured in that moment is incredible. The photographer never released the names of the two people but because we can’t leave anything alone, the search was on. And even though a boatload of people over the years volunteered their names looking for their 15 minutes, it was finally discovered that the sailor was George Mendosa and the nurse, specifically a dental technician, was Greta Friedman. George has already survived heavy combat in the Pacific and was gearing up for a planned invasion of Japan that would have meant an incredible loss of life. Greta survived The Holocaust as a child. She died in 2016. George died a couple weeks ago. Heroes, both.
Well, that picture was turned into a statue. Upon George’s death, some jack-ass vandalized it. And because we live in an age of “victimization” compounded with monster amounts of stupid (not to mention historical amnesia), a city council member from the Upper West Side in Manhattan, one Helen Rosenthal, gave her blessing to this act of (I can’t even think of a proper word) sheer mindlessness by saying “I appreciate someone recognizing that a random man grabbing a random woman is completely inappropriate.” Wait, what? Really? Are you kidding me? This is your #MeToo moment? What an idiot. The death sentence of war had just been lifted. Tens of thousands of lives were literally saved in that instant. And an affirmation of life, an utter joy that we are going to see tomorrow...the blessing, "more life into a time without boundaries", was on display for all to see, and all of this was caught in one single moment in a picture. How warped is one's sense of history or for that matter, humanity, to somehow turn that moment into sexual assault? As I've said before, sometimes the mind loses its capacity for outrage.
Years later, in 2005, Greta said the following in an interview. "It wasn't that much of a kiss," recalled Friedman. "It was more of a jubilant act that he didn't have to go back to war. I found out later, the reason he grabbed someone dressed like a nurse was that he just felt very grateful to nurses who took care of the wounded." In 2012 she told the Navy Times, "I can't think of anybody who considered that as an assault. It was a happy event."
How good is that?! "It wasn't that much of a kiss." Poor George! It's a tough crowd! Well, thanks to George and Greta and thousands of others just like them...we survived. Hopefully, we will survive the Helen Rosenthal's of the world. I hope...
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