Reese’s new “ultimate peanut butter lovers” variety of peanut butter cup is not for the allergy inflicted.
Picture a traditional Reese’s cup, but instead of chocolate and peanut butter it’s peanut butter and peanut butter. Yeah, PB on the outside too.
Is this an insult to chocolate?
Or just brilliant?
I say it’s… delicious.
And like most of their “improvements,”… almost as good as a regular Reese’s cup.
I’ve enjoyed watching the Olympics, of course, the past few days (which again is kind of like saying you enjoy breathing or are a fan of food and shelter). Less good has been watching the annoying interviews after each event.
So, Olympic athlete, you spent your entire life preparing for an event and then you lost by a tenth of a second… how does that feel?
The restraint shown by the competitors in this moment is of Olympic proportions.
Yeah, it looks like you’re getting two posts today because for some reason Friday’s never actually posted. (I’d blame my staff and editors but they’re on summer break.)
I’ve greatly enjoyed telling everyone I’ve seen the past week about all the great “television” offerings available these days (see last few posts). Of course everyone has already seen these things and just nods in agreement. Saying you like Ted Lasso, for example, is like saying you like breathing, or are a big fan of food and shelter.
It’s kind of like rooting for General Motors, or USA Basketball.
Oh, wait.
This is it. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.
Olympics.
Yankees-Red Sox.
And the coup de grace of the sports world…
Season Two of Ted Lasso.
Heaven. Can. Wait.
Two musical offerings now available on Hulu, totally worth your investment of a few hours. First, no surprise, McCartney 3, 2, 1. Had my eye on this one for a while and knew it would be at least okay because, well, anything Sir Paul McCartney does is at least okay and most are brilliant. What I like best about this series, which is basically a My Dinner with Andre conversation between Sir Paul and legendary producer Rick Rubin, is that it assumes the viewer already knows the usual Beatles stories. This is not an introduction to the Fab Four, as most Beatles documentaries are, recycling the same stories even casual Beatles fans have heard a thousand times. This one really focuses on the music. (When George Martin gets mentioned more often than Ed Sullivan… that’s a good documentary.)
Second and more unexpected is Summer of Soul. Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the film showcases the Harlem Cultural Festival held during the summer of 1969. Yup, same summer as Woodstock and the moon landing, but this one you haven’t heard of. Until now.
Much has been made about the racial and political angle of the festival and its aftermath, and why it didn’t receive the attention it deserved half a century ago. Forget all of that. (Or fret about it if you want to–doesn’t bother me.) Listen… to… the… music. Wow. Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone. It’s basically the non-boxing version of When We Were Kings. Which, yeah, that’s one of my favorite documentaries of all time.
Questlove has done us a favor unearthing this one. Do yourself a favor and watch it.
Loud.
The original Space Jam, to me, was a movie that certainly did not need to be remade. Still, though, when I heard it was being remade with LeBron James I was intrigued. Knowing I could see it, basically for free, from the comfort of my own home? Even better.
Space Jam: A New Legacy has been panned by a number of critics but won’t be here. It’s not Citizen Kane, but then again, it’s a silly kids’ movie. Nobody’s trying that hard and the plot I think actually has more meat than that of the original. (This one has themes of being yourself and not living out your own fantasies through your kids; the original has… bush-league baseball.)
I’m not prepared to say that LeBron James is a better player than Michael Jordan. (I grew up in the ’90s so I just can’t.) I couldn’t say he’s a better actor either, but you know, for a guy who’s actually an athlete (an amazing one at that), he’s not a bad actor. (Tough to share the screen with legends like Bugs Bunny and other folks who’ve been at it for decades.)
Space Jam: A New Legacy? It’s worth your investment. Even if through some bizarre circumstance you have to pay for it.
Yesterday at school my regular classroom was undergoing a scheduled deep-cleaning, so I was stationed temporarily in an alternate room. It had four walls and a floor and everything so I didn’t really mind the switch, but I found myself somewhat thrown off during the morning announcements. When we began to recite the Pledge of Allegiance I realized the classroom had no American flag.
Some quick thinking led me to Google, where I could easily find an electronic image of a flag to display.
First thing that came up when I googled “American flag”?
An advertisement to buy one.
There is nothing more American than that.
With its bounce-back win last night over Argentina, the U.S. Men’s National basketball team avoided a three-game losing streak… something akin to missing three times in a row trying to brush your teeth.
With losses to Nigeria and Australia this week the U.S. team showed its vulnerability, or perhaps the fact that the rest of the world is, you know, actually good. It’s not like the Dream Team days in which we weren’t really sure whether any of those other countries actually had basketball courts or not.
I realize these were only exhibition matches, but you still try to win, right? This is like the Harlem Globetrotters losing two in a row to the Generals. (Those were only exhibition games too.)
This is one of those times where rooting for Goliath is fun.
And lest we forget… winning is fun.
Commenting on the vagaries of the game of baseball is a little bit like pointing out things like the sun’s rising or wind blowing from time to time. After more than 150 years of professional seasons in the books we’ve pretty much seen it all, right?
I’m sure there have been consecutive days, previously, in which one game ends 1-0 and the next game ends 8-7. Maybe even one occurrence where the former was a dramatic three-hit shutout pitched by a star against his old team. Maybe another star hits a home run for the game’s only run. Maybe the games are between teams that have been consistent winners the past few seasons, and indeed have built up a rivalry in recent years.
Maybe one team takes a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning in that second game.
And ends with a guy losing his shirt.
Literally.
Yeah, it’s probably happened before.
Champa Bay.
Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.
But yeah, I’m totally stealing it.
And add one more to the record books for said Bay with the NHL’s Lightning hoisting the Stanley Cup for the second time in two COVID-shortened seasons. With its cup-clinching victory Wednesday night the Lightning secured an unusual (hat) trick… a night, btw, in which five Tampa Bay Rays hurlers combined on a 7-inning no-hitter down the road in St. Pete.
So this is what we look for: a “big four” pro team repeats as champions while another team from the same city gets its own championship sandwiched in between. Scowering through a few almanacs today I think I’ve determined that the most recent time such an unusual occurrence, um, occurred was when the New England Patriots won back-to-back Super Bowls in February 2004 and February 2005 while the Red Sox squeezed one in there in October ’04. (Less said about that one the better.)
Can the Rays be far behind?
With Tom Brady coming back for season seven hundred can the Bucs do it again?
After all, this is Champa Bay.