Mike O'Connell

In the first half century of hockey in Binghamton, New York (a.k.a. Hockeytown), the various teams involved collected exactly one championship trophy. That was the 2011 Binghamton Senators.

In the past two years the Binghamton Black Bears have won twice as many, their second Commission’s Cup title coming last Friday night with a victory over the Carolina Thunderbirds. The scene was nearly identical to that of one year ago, as the BBB again made short work of its playoff opponents. Binghamton is 14-1 in the postseason the past two years, and hasn’t lost at home, playoffs or otherwise, since December of 2024. That’s a winning formula.

Sure, Franklin and I will talk about this Friday on Math and Musings but might as well start the party early, eh?

Most times when someone says I wrote the book on that it’s just an expression. Me? I’ve got a few. But this one isn’t what you’re thinking.

It was more than 20 years ago, I wrote what I guess was my first book, a published version of my senior honors thesis at Binghamton University. Like a young John F. Kennedy I turned my school project into something a little more, perhaps not gaining the traction of JFK’s Why England Slept but it made its mark in Binghamton in 2003.

I called the book While Federalism Slept, I thought a clever play on Kennedy’s book and a description of my own theses: that the federal Community Development Block Grant program begun in the 1970s was in fact harmful to the communities it supposedly helped and should be eliminated.

Fell on deaf ears at the local and national level.

Fast-forward 22 years, and imagine my surprise that one Donald J. Trump, president of this fine nation, is proposing elimination of the CDBG program.

A part of me is a little disappointed I’m not getting any recognition in this, but like most school projects, I’m not in it for the glory or the money, just happy to help.

And getting to say I told’ja so.

Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I are in the old country (Binghamton, New York), talking about, among other things, horserace gamblin’.

What do these things have in common?

Tune in to find out.

I’m hardly the first person ever to note this, but Game Four in a seven-game series is by far the most decisive. Sure, each game counts the same, but the difference between a 2-2 series and a 3-1 series is the difference between apples and baby wolverines.

With their Game Four come-from-behind victory last night in Montreal, my hometown NHL team (that would be the Washington Capitals) has taken a commanding 3-1 lead in its first round playoff series. Red sweaters are coming out of the closets all over the DMV, and the sound you hear is wingtips, sneakers, and sandals of all varieties stepping onto the bandwagon.

A few miles up the road (or down the road if you’re coming from Montreal), my actual hometown hockey team (that would be the Binghamton Black Bears of the Federal Prospects Hockey League), is also engaged in a postseason tournament. After a dominating regular season, the defending champion BBB have sailed through their first two rounds of playoffs, poised to take on the Carolina Thunderbirds in the league finals starting this Friday.

It wasn’t the only reason I was in Binghamton this weekend, but yeah, I was at the game two nights ago.

Yup, I’m on this bandwagon too. (I’m the one wearing Skechers.)

One of the more ridiculous shows on “TV” these days is Hulu’s Mid-Century Modern. Sort of a gay version of The Golden Girls, MCM follows the lives of three fabulous gentlemen, friends for years but never paired in any ways, living together and leaning on one another after the unexpected death of a fourth. Starring Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee Graham, Matt Bomer and a host of high-profile guests, this is where you find hilarity in the streaming universe: gays making easy gay jokes about each other. Perhaps with lesser actors it would just be silly or mean, but damn it’s hilarious with these three. They make in-group humor like the best of old-school Jewish comedians, again sort of channeling The Golden Girls, getting in gratuitous digs against those outside the group as well. All low-lying fruit and all hilarious. Today’s the day I come out… as a Mid-Century Modern fan.

I’ll admit that one episode wasn’t enough to get beyond the silliness. Watch the first one and it just seems childish. But give it a chance, be part of the fabulousness for 24 minutes a shot, and keep in mind you’re not watching Citizen Kane. The jazzy score is an added bonus, as are the stylish sets, way more conservative than one would expect. Of course the men have money, and of course they spend it, and it’s fun to live vicariously for a bit, even as, well, someone outside the group. I’m exactly the person that should be made fun of in these scenarios, and yeah, they get us normies good… but the real laughs are when they do it to themselves. There was a time in which this was standard in comedy: Jews making fun of each other, Blacks making fun of each other, and then we all got too sensitive for any of it.

Mid-Century Modern has no such issues.

Do yourself a favor and invest a few nights in watching Season One of Mid-Century Modern. It’s beyond “guilty pleasure”; it’s just plain good.