Amici:
Tomorrow the eldest Stella (Nicole) brat will enter the more adult stage of her life (31). I have some great memories of the daughter ... her travels with Charlie (not Charles) when we and her mother visited my old college in Minot, North Dakota (when upon getting off the plane she ran right into the corner of a chair in the lobby and gave herself a huge shiner (her mother and I nearly died, but Chuck Kramer (the best linebacker I ever played with) picked her right up and calmed her within seconds). Our solo trip to Disneyland in California was also a treat (it was my guilt trip after leaving my wife and kids so I spared no expense) ... we watched the Mets beat Fernando Valenzuela and the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine Stadium, went to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm and visited Universal (where she had a panic attack when the shark on the Jaws exhibit popped up right alongside our tram) but what Nicole wanted to do more than anything else was swim in the hotel pool ... oy vey. Nicole’s 16th birthday was held at Josephine’s (now Christina’s) in Manhattan where the family enjoyed some of the best eye-talian food in the city and before I knew it, she graduated from Albany University Magna Cum Laude with an English degree and did the bulk of a Forensic Psychology Masters at John Jay College (she needs just an externship for her degree) and is now married to a great guy, Anthony Caliendo. Happy Birthday, kiddo ... from the Phat Dad.
Her brother, the marathon man, Charles (not Charlie) is running in the marathon today. He’s already finished the Delaware marathon (where he spotted no witches) and although he didn’t get to train much for this one (he’s working full-time at Goldman Sachs while working on his MBA), we’re hoping he doesn’t injure himself and recovers from the grueling run through New York.
The most clever of the Stella brats (see his Facebook posts), Dustin Stella, is contemplating that move to Toronto with Dad so we can ... welcome our Toronto Bills? Wait a minute, no way, Jose. The Bills remain the ONLY New York Football Team and until our moron management team currently running us into the ground ship our beloveds off to Canada, we remain true to our cause. North America’s team, the Buffalo Bills.For now, back to some ugly reality ...
When O.J. Simpson was found “not guilty” of the two murders he committed, most of white America shrieked while most of black America rejoiced. It was a divisive time; as divisive as any other I can remember. It was difficult for many whites (myself included) to understand the feelings of blacks who felt the system’s chickens had finally come home to roost (or at least in one high profile case). Last week in Oakland, a judge determined that the life of a black man murdered by a white police officer was worth two years. You can read about it here. The Youtube video isn’t very ambiguous to me, certainly less so than the beating Rodney King caught back in 1991 (and that wasn’t ambiguous either). While the recent murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland doesn’t justify O.J. Simpson’s not guilty verdict, it does help to understand some of the celebrating over the controversial verdict back then by black Americans.Some argue that Rodney King (no upstanding citizen by any standard) “lunged” at the police when he was subsequently beaten by a few officers while several other officers (all armed) watched. How anyone could determine that Rodney King was a threat to all those police officers, no matter how big, how drunk or drugged he was, is beyond reasonable thought.
Rodney King’s “lunge(s)” and subsequent beating(s):
The murder of Oscar Grant:
How anyone could determine that Oscar Grant wasn’t murdered is likewise beyond reasonable thought. That the officer who fired the fatal shot was given two years for his actions is yet another travesty of justice for all Americans.
Let's put it this way ... imagine it was your kid being held down on the ground (in that video) by a few police officers and then shot in the back by one of them . Think you’d be pissed off?
I’m just saying ...
—Knucks
