socialdistancing

Last Call

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Several years ago responsible breweries changed their messaging.  “I’ll have another” was replaced by “please drink responsibly.”  Suddenly you needed to “know when to say when.”  Party poopers.

A couple of months ago a virus, with ironically a beer brand given name, shut down the bars altogether.  It shut down a globe actually.

Governments here, near, and far quickly became experts on the enemy that we cannot see.  They continue to tell and told us when and why we could or could not do what, and for how long we could not what.  Did you get the idea that for the most part they meant well but were clueless?  Do you get the idea that, for the most part, they mean well but are still clueless?

Medial experts have attempted to help our leaders understand what happens if we behave in certain ways.  Medical experts have historical, learned, trialed, and anecdotal ideas and possible remedies.  Apparently, none are definitive.  Meanwhile, we needed to flatten the curve through social distancing they said.  Most say we still need to do so.

But now our president has turned the keys over to the governors of our united 50 and encouraged them to turn the economic engines back on as they seem fit.  He really didn’t have the keys to begin with, but was attempting to be a good designated driver for a while.  After all, the states either shut the engine down or kept driving all along.

Today, in very round numbers, a third of the states are past their expected peak in cases, a third are at their peak, and a third will reach theirs next week.

So the very same people who shut down our party are now the same ones charged with making a decision about throwing the next one.  That should make us all confident, or not at all confident.

The need to get back to work and get back to a “new normal” has begun to pull at our purse strings.  You can’t afford beer and pretzels if you can’t work.  The government is doing it’s best Bernie Sanders impersonation.   It’s giving out free money like the last call drinker gives out advice.  And, like Bernie, we need a hair cut too.  But, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.”  The government printer has to be running low on ink soon.

So, isn’t it time?  One governor who’s state makes a lot of cars even reprised the role of Mother Hen.  She knows best and the answer is “hell no.”  One governor opened up the beaches and a party broke out.  He knows best and the answer is “hell yes.”   Offices, parks, retailers, eventually restaurants, and finally bars will reopen coast to coast.  Like any good office party, it might not be a good idea to be the first one there, nor the last one to leave.

When will we see you again?  Do you know when to say when?  Does anyone?

Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL

Posted on by boom booms room staff

We miss sports.  A week from tonight the NFL gives us a respite from the drudgery as their annual draft begins.  It’ll be different for sure in a virtual sort of way.  If you’ve kept your social distance from the NFL recently we have Ten Piece NFL Nuggets for you.  We are running low on vegetable oil at the virtual world headquarters, so we oven-fried them instead.

  1.  No one has cleaned their house more this offseason than the Carolina Panthers.  Incoming head coach Matt Ruhle, OC Joe Brady, and QB Teddy Bridgewater are a change to the look and culture of the franchise.  BBR expects them to be bold and active in the draft as well.
  2. Yesterday they tore up the old and wrote the new contract for Christian McCaffery.  It’s now an eye-popping 4 years for a total of 64 million Panther bucks.  Joe Brady will get him isolated on a linebacker much the same way he did with Clyde Edwards Hellaire at LSU and how Sean Payton does with Alvin Kamara at New Orleans.  Good luck stopping that.
  3. Last year the Panthers went 5-11 in Ron Rivera’s last year.  It was also Cam Newton’s last year.  In the upside-down NFL they could reverse that W-L record if the ball even gets snapped in 2020.
  4.  Who knew a QB that started 25 games in college, threw 30 TD’s against 17 interceptions would become the greatest QB in NFL history? Bill Belichick, we guess. That was Tom Brady’s resume coming out of Michigan in 1999.   Though even clairvoyant Bill B. would only invest a 6th round pick on him at the time.  What did Mel Kiper think then?  Kiper wrote, “He’s a straight dropback passer who stands tall in the pocket, doesn’t show nervous feet, and does a nice job working through his progressions.”  That was pretty accurate, just like the QB himself.  He had a fifth-round grade on him then.  His complete writeup from 1999 is here.
  5.  The Patriots likely will be looking around the draft for a QB.  Jalen Hurts anyone?  Belichick is great at using the best of what someone has and building around them as opposed to the opposite.  No doubt he has looked around the league and seen what Westbrook, Mahomes, and Jackson have done.  If the shoe fits?
  6.  The annual head faking is going on as teams jockey for position in the draft to get to the QB they may really covet.  Rumors abound and one has Justin Hebert (Oregon) now considered ahead of Tua Tagovailoa.  Doubtful, but you never know.  Miami has more draft pick capital than anyone in the draft and sits at #5.  They could move the board or move around the board if they so chose.
  7. If/when Tua starts for the team that makes him their choice he’ll be the first lefty to do so since 2014.  The last one?  Michael Vick.  Who was he playing for then?  If you guessed the J-E-T-S you’re in midseason form in the offseason.
  8.  Tom Brady’s new address in Tampa makes him an NFC South Division resident as well.   Vegas has the win total for the Bucs season at nine.  If New Orleans is the favorite to win the division again, and if the Panthers are poised to rebound it’ll be a tough division for sure.  Could the Atlanta Falcons be in for a long season?  There are only so many wins to go around when you play everyone twice inside the division.
  9.  The Dirty Birds are but one of seven teams with new uniforms or tweaks of old ones for 2020.  It’s always a good day to obsolete old unis and sell new ones if you are in the apparel biz.  You can see a good bit of the changes or the hints at the yet to be revealed ones here.
  10.  The draft will be very different this year for many reasons.  Scouts haven’t had the pro workout days they covet.  Individual interviews were kiboshed.  Team management will not huddle in the war rooms.  And, most of all, when Roger Goodell gets ready to announce the first pick of the entire draft he won’t be drowned out by the annual booing.  Too bad.

Cincinnati you’re on the clock.

It’s a Fine Line

Posted on by boom booms room staff

There’s a fine line between civility and incivility in this U.S. of A.  Have you ever been stuck on a crowded plane for an extended period of time?  If so, you know.

And, the line seems to blur by the day these days.   It was there in the White House Press Room for all to see again on Sunday.

Reporters at the briefing repeatedly asked President Donald Trump why he chose not to wear a medical mask after he and his task force recommended that America start doing so just last Friday.  Nevermind that the reporter was not wearing a mask at the time he asked the question.  At least they don’t mask their disdain of the president that ended daily press briefings well over a year ago.

Trump used the backdrop of the loud whirling blades of his Marine One helicopter to “control” these scribes, especially the ones who are “fake news.”  But, the enemy that we cannot see forced Trump to confront the enemy that he can see all over again.

Another reporter, who also was not wearing a mask, noted that former Vice President Joe Biden said he would start wearing a mask outdoors.  That’s going to be difficult for Biden though.  The mask-wearing won’t be difficult, it’s the verification part.  No one has seen Biden outdoors or indoors in quite some time.  The #WhereIsJoe continues to trend on Twitter.

When we do see old school Joe indoors on his disastrous live feeds, he coughs straight into his hand old school style.  By hiding is he attempting to mask his rapidly declining cognitive/communicative skills?  Here is his latest.  If you can decipher the message, please share it in the BBR comment section today.

Could a Cuomo write-in nomination happen?  The NY mayor is getting plenty of airtime from the non-Fox channels.  His leadership during this existential crisis (far greater than climate change right now) is lauded daily.  He’s asked, begged, and demanded more masks, like the ones that no one in the briefing room wears, for New Yorkers.  Ventilators are in short supply as well.  New York didn’t put many of the above away for a rainy day.

Then he asked all hospitals in NY to share their equipment and supplies.  In other words, late to the social distancing need, NY got federal help and now he wants upstate to bail out the boroughs as well.  Have you ever been stuck on a crowded subway train for an extended period of time?  Too many Yanks were until not too long ago.

CNN doesn’t mask its affection for Cuomo.  They haven’t been this enamored with a possible candidate to take down Trump since Michael Avenatti appeared nearly nightly prior to his multiple run-ins with the law. We forget.  Who (er, how many) exploited Stormy?

And then there’s a not-funny irony to all of this.  In the City That Care Forgot, no one forgot to put on their masks for Mardi Gras.  And the result of putting on a costume and a mask and partying in the streets in NOLA has been a disaster.  Latoya Cantrell who has masqueraded as a mayor there for one year said that she received no federal warning not to “laissez less on temps roulet” (let the good times roll).

Do Cantrell and Cuomo play the federal help card, or bash the intervention of same for their political gain as necessary?

It’s the civil thing to do.

Another reporter asked Dr. Anthony Fauci why he was not wearing a mask.  Trump grinned as Fauci responded that the main reason to wear a mask was to protect sick individuals from spreading the virus.

Nevermind that the CDC Saturday advised us all to wear masks.  It’s the civil thing to do.

Heck, if President Trump was wearing one we would have been spared from seeing the grin.

It’s a fine line.

 

 

I Have Yet Another Story and A Moral Therof

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The PGA Tour Championship from Pointe Vedra, FL started normally yesterday.  By mid-round, it was announced that today’s round and the next few week’s rounds on tour would be played sans fans.  By end of the round, the PGA announced that the tour was stopping the event and the next three events on the schedule.

Four years ago next month the third round of The Insperity Open, a senior tour event that passes right by the backyard of BBR’s World Headquarters, was almost played sans one fan.  That fan would be this writer.

A bright sunny Saturday was the perfect opportunity to mingle with friends and family quite near the seventh green.   Quiet for the players turned into more than a stir as six carts, two of them bright, shiny red ones, made their way from hole #8 past the green at #7 and continued down the fairway in the opposite direction of the norm.

And, there they were!  In one of the red carts were the former FLOTUS, Mrs. Barbara Bush, and her driver.  In the other were the former POTUS, George Herbert Walker Bush, and his driver.  They were on a unique meet and greet the pro players mission.  In the other four were a cadre of men, some riding fireman style on back, all wearing dark sunglasses.  Hmm.  Secret Service?

I was on a mission as well.  It’s but a 200-yard walk from there back to the “office.”  Mother Nature called and so did another cold beer (Corona? Nah! Too soon?). As I walked that way the six-pack of carts pulled to the side deep into the rough as tee shots were “fixin to fly.”  Unless you are a resident, it’s a dead side of the course-it has no path to the next or previous hole.

Their rest stop wasn’t but a mere 15 feet from my back gate.  And quite suddenly, there we were. It was a bunch of former and current government workers and me.  The Bush’s were seated in their carts and about six of my new sunglass-wearing best friends were rapidly approaching me.  “Put your hands up!”  And I did, quickly.  “I mean no harm, I live right there, and am just trying to get into my gate.”

A VERY long two seconds passed.  “Ok, go ahead.”  Relieved and a bit emboldened I inquired, “Could I please shake (today we would have to elbow bump, social distancing being what it is.) President Bush’s hand?”    “No!”  That was all.  It was a flat out  “No!”

Hmm.  I decided to wave instead.  Only George’s smile was wider than Barbara’s.  I also decided that entering the gate was now past due.  And, I figured an invite inside for a round of cold ones was out of the question.

By the time I got back outside they were down the fairway shaking hands with the pros.  Hmm.

The moral of the story, you ask?  I guess it’s who you know, or who the Secret Service says you get to know.

Still, it was great to inadvertently get that close to them, and even better that I remained a free man.