Mike O'Connell

Last week “our senator” Tom Libous was sentenced by a U.S. District Judge to six months of house arrest, two years probation, and a $50,000 fine for, among other things, lying to the FBI about the circumstances of his son’s employment at a downstate law firm. This was the you’ll-have-to-put-on-a-new-wing-to-handle-all-the-business-I-can-steer-your-way law firm for which his son no longer works. Actually, I’m not sure whether his son still works there. Kind of hard to work from prison.

Speaking of prison… that’s the only thing that disappoints me from the Libous verdict: no jail time. (Frowny face emoji.) Apparently among Libous’s other problems is that he does have cancer and the judge in the case took some leniency as a result. Still, though, pretty shameful way to walk away.

Libous had held his seat in the New York State Senate since 1989 before stepping down in July following his indictment. Amazingly everyone in my old hometown still loves the guy, though I see him now as the Barry Bonds of Binghamton. Fans are still fans. But those who have their heads on this side of the sand know the guy’s a cheater and therefore give him no respect. I knew 15 years ago and am glad others are starting to come around.

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again in his obituary: Tom Libous was a blight on the Southern Tier for 30 years and did irreparable harm to the community he professed to care so much about. His fall from grace is no stain on his legacy: it is a perfect illustration of a career of malfeasance.

’Twas the day before Thanksgiving and I was tempted to make my usual too-cool-for-this post about not going out on the stupidest night of the year. So first let me say: not going out on the stupidest night of the year.

But let me add this.

Here’s something for those of you not headed out, those of you with the Spotify, as referenced on Monday.

Instead of bemoaning the fact that Adele, Taylor Swift, etc. have decided not to have their music on “free” streaming services, check out a young man who has: the ageless and incomparable Tony Bennett.

Yup, Tony’s got a new album out and it’s another gem. Called The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, it features Bill Charlap and his trio and more than a dozen songs composed by the great Jerome Kern. You’ve heard all these songs before (some, in fact, by Mr. Bennett previously), but somehow Tony Bennett at 89 puts a fresh stamp on a song like no other jazz singer today. No other singer period.

So do yourself a favor, shut yourself in the next three days and hear some music, watch a parade, watch some football…

And maybe see your friends and family if you have time.

I generally don’t think of mandatory auto insurance as one of the worst things about the American republic, but it has long bothered me that owning such is a requirement of law when I most certainly would never buy it otherwise. I’ve never been in an accident, I’ve never made a claim, and it does sort of gall me to simply pour money into some mystical bad driver fund.

Several days ago I received via e-mail a description of the way in which I’d be supporting that fund in 2016. It was several dollars higher per month than that to which I’d become accustomed. Again, I never make a claim, and my wife and I really don’t drive that much anyway. It was time to be “that guy” and make a call.

To be fair my customer service representative was polite and understanding on the phone. But I still wanted to wring his neck. He explained that it really had nothing to do with me, just unusually high number of claims in my neighborhood.

Hmm.

I thought for a moment about the way people drive around here.

And I shook my head and hung up the phone, knowing I’d been beat.

The toughest part about a really good weekend, obviously, is that it does end, and one must go back to the realities of life and work and home improvement projects.

All I can say is thank God for Fargo, making Mondays bearable since 2015.

If the Wizards are going to make a habit of getting blown out every night I think I’m going to start to disrespect the home team and root for Kevin Durant too.

Then again, if the Wizards continue playing as they have been I don’t think Durant’s going to want to come here anyway.

Ah, crappy Bullets of my youth… good to see you guys again!