Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 201 Editor's Choice: 38
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Die Hard in the Bronx ... 1977
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The summer of 1977 in NYC was like a Die Hard movie that ran 8 weeks. So much happened.
The Girl. My girlfriend, now wife, and I had just started dating. So the summer of '77 will always be the best of times to me.
The Heat. It was so freakin' hot. We set records in July topping out at 106 one day. There were nights when the temperature and humidity were still 90 at midnight. And this after a brutal winter when the temperature didn't crack 30 for a month. Like plants that only bloom after a forest fire, there are things on New York's sidewalks that come to life only when the temperature passes 100. We were still in the throes of the fiscal crisis and the Sanitation Department had been hit hard by budget cuts. There were stains and smells that I thought might be lifeforms.
Son of Sam. The Daily News and the NY Post had competing headlines every day when tabloid journalism was actually fun. I lived in the Bronx then (still do) and several people were shot about a mile from my building. Still, the girlfriend and I would park in my father's car outside her apartment.
The Blackout. 24 hours of darkness, heat and craziness. Looting, riots, and neighbors helping each other.
Baseball. The Yankees. The Bronx Zoo. I was and am a Mets fan so I hated the Yankees, still do, but that team was fun. Steinbrenner would fly up from Tampa to chew out the team. A reporter asked Greg Nettles, 3rd baseman, if Steinbrenner's trips north to nag bothered him. No, replied Nettles, if he keeps flying up here sooner or later the plane has to crash.
The Mets traded The Franchise, Tom Seaver, the first player whose entire career I witnessed. When he arrived in 1967, Seaver was a sign from God that the Mets would not be terrible forever. He was Rookie of the Year and won three Cy Young Awards. He was the best pitcher in baseball for several years, a drop-and-drive power pitcher compared most often to Robin Roberts. He had a great fastball and wicked slider. He was traded by the hated M. Donald Grant, a lawyer, not a "baseball man," who took over when the owner, Mrs. Joan Payson, died in 1975. If she had been alive, Tom Terrific would have been a Met for life. Seaver went 14-2 for the Reds in the strike-split 1981 season, but lost the Cy Young to Fernando-mania. Seaver returned to the Mets in 1983 when he was no longer a power pitcher but a crafty veteran throwing junk. A mistake by the team left him exposed in a draft and he was gone again. In 1986 he finished his career with the Red Sox but missed the World Series against the Mets with an injury. How great would it have been to have Seaver pitch at Shea against the Mets in the World Series? He's in the Hall of Fame with 311 wins, the only real Met in there.
What a summer. Every day was an adventure. It's impossible to convey how scary the city was, but how much fun it was. It was not the urban theme park it has become for tourists.
In the Bronx, tee-shirts appeared that read, "The Bronx: Only the Strong Survive."
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Wow
[Read the article: Rudy Giuliani, unscripted]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess the pot smoked by all the Republican kids in the 1960s really did fry their brains because this generation of Republicans seems incapable of uttering a coherent sentence. I guess it's not just W's imbecility.
Of course Rudy doesn't remember the Nazis attacking us, he was less than a year old when the war against Germany ended.
By the way Rudy, the Nazis did come here and kill us. They sank ships right off the coast of the city you used to run, New York, and New Jersey and Miami. Our freighters were easy targets silhouetted against the city lights before blackout restrictions were imposed.
The Communists killed us in Korea, Vietnam, etc. Joe Stalin had some of our OSS agents assassinated, too.
Rudy outlined the real Bush Doctrine. A nation with nuclear weapons and missiles is not considered as dangerous as guys making bombs in their basements.
Rudy, I would assign one of your staff members to always have the script with him.
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Where to start?
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Blood boiling. Must control fist of death.
So Bill Kristol thought Sunnis and Shia could get along. That tells you all you need to know about his clairvoyance. He can't even recognize a 600-year-old religious feud when he's looking right at it.
Why is that people who have nothing to lose always have the most to say? If Mr. Kristol had a child in Iraq or a seat in Congress he might feel differently.
Yes, Mr. Kristol, Iraq WAS secular but we got rid of that guy because you said he was an evil dictator with ties to Al Qaida, a group of religious fanatics. Remember?
I find it funny that the Republicans who have supported the Bush lunacy for 6+ years are now called Calamity Janes. Mr. Kristol must have missed the 2006 election results. Or maybe he got tired of calling Democrats cut and runners.
What's really sad is that ABC News still thinks he has something intelligent to contribute to their talk shows. How many times does someone have to be totally wrong before they get booted off a show? The end of their contract? You'd think after being proved wrong again and again you might want to just slink off and hide, but, no, just keep spewing falsehoods and clueless drivel.
As Joseph Welch said to Joe McCarthy, "At long last, sir, have you no decency?"