Unreconstructed Curmudgeon
ems1944.bsky.social
Unreconstructed Curmudgeon
@ems1944.bsky.social
Husband, father and, really, nothing else matters. Retired publisher & consultant.
er....alte kacker. (Yiddish for old crap)
December 12, 2025 at 11:32 PM
3) saying anything. Collapses like that are the stuff of legends. We were like a team mimicking Steve Blass. Couldn't throw a strike ever again and no one knew why.
December 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
2) get Baseball and Mets crazed growing up (we raised him right) but '86 killed him. He figured it was going to be that every year. (sob)

I think Stearns is doing the right thing, but something bad happened in The Mets clubhouse last year, and no one's
December 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
1) Hard truth.

I'm an alter Kacker here. I was happier just being a fan. It's like politics. The more you know, the more you wanna kill yourself. I grew up with the 3 teams here, went to all the stadiums. Sat in the bleachers with my friends for 25¢ (I was all of 8 years old), watched my son
December 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
3) singer he was.

Monsters have always been among us, but their work exists outside of them. Basically, aesthetes are elitists, right?
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
2) owned a trade journal in the film business) I know far too much about Hollywood history and scandals. The stuff about Crosby's old hat, been known for years

Don't let Der Bingle's singularities spoil you from his film work, which was pretty first rate, not to mention how good a
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
1) Sinatra's a surprisingly good guy (leaving aside he fucked everything in sight). He got his heart handed to him by Ava Gardner. Broads in those days knew how to handle business.

Because I'm old (I mean OLD!!!), and because my family
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
I wish you the best of luck. Besides being racist to his core, Crosby was a child abuser of the first order. His two sons eventually killed themselves. (really). He was also a misogynist, but in Hollywood at that time, most folks were.
December 12, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Just re-watched for the hundredth time couple days ago with my son, who had maybe seen it before (he's 47), but didn't remember . He loved it as much as I did, and now shares my crush on Dorothy Malone.
December 12, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Doesn't fucking matter. Dead or alive is irrelevant. You figure if the guy's dead, being a pederast doesn't matter as long as there art's great, but if he's alive?

You're entitled to your opinions, but not to criticism of them.
December 12, 2025 at 8:45 PM
PS. Take a good, hard look at Bing Crosby.....
December 12, 2025 at 8:41 PM
2) If you want to throw out great art because you don't like the artist? Fine. You do you, but, personally, I don't think I'd go around proudly boasting you hate Clayton Kershaw.

I'll make an exception for Harrison Butler. Feel free.
December 12, 2025 at 8:38 PM
1) Ezra Pound was a fascist, T.S. Elliot a reactionary, Wagner an anti-semite of the worst sort, Benvenuto Cellini? OMFG! Shall we start on athletes? Actors? How about Jon Voight?

The list of artists who were bad actors (and worse) is legion.
December 12, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Exactly.
December 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
2) may differ about what they desire most, but power grants the chance to do what they never could have without it.

That's why we have judicial systems, and political accountability. Take those away? Take a look around you.
December 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
1) No, they haven't. All this navel-gazing to see what's apparent every day in Hollywood, for example.....or any corporate corridor...or how monarchs have often behaved.

What the hell do people think the 7 Sins are all about? People
December 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
2) to not win. It's the old Branch Rickey/Ralph Kiner story all over again, Rickey patiently explaining to Kiner he ain't gonna give him more money because the Pirates could lose with him or without him, so what was the point? (true story)
December 12, 2025 at 7:38 PM
1) Ask yourself if this group was ever going to win? I think Stearns has it right. They were great, gave us a great ride, but they were not and never would be WS participants.

There is no larger point. The only decision is when beginning rebuilding. No point of spending hundreds of millions
December 12, 2025 at 7:38 PM
3) Give this one a miss and watch The Big Sleep, or The Maltese Falcon...or Casablanca. There were great films in them thar years, but this one? Not so much.
December 12, 2025 at 7:20 PM
2) becomes almost fatuous in film. Bogart still great, Bacall weird as a young widow who mistakes morality for desire. Edward G. does what he can, but what a bunch of palookas in his gang! They're all surprisingly articulate, another remnant of stage origins. Today, they'd be almost sub-verbal.
December 12, 2025 at 7:20 PM