There was probably more to it than just me jinxing them, but my childhood NBA team (that would be the New York Knicks) have once again disappointed me. Make that 43 seasons I’ve now witnessed at less than a championship.
Their buildingmates, the New York Rangers, have fared better, and are now set up for what I’m going to call the O’Connell childhood hockey double. Binghamton Black Bears? Check. New York Rangers? Still holding out hope.
Franklin and I class things up a bit today on Math and Musings, describing a recent trip to the famed cafe Yellow in Georgetown. Living the Phil Rosenthal life as we do, this one was in fact featured on Somebody Feed Phil.
Classy, of course, but more importantly… delicious.
Still riding high from minor hockey victories, we’re also back on track for the MSG double so tantalizingly close a mere three decades ago.
How did I miss this one before?
Add a little Binghamton magic to the mix and we’re now calling this one the trifecta of my youth.
You heard it here first.
With their 4-3 victory over the visiting Thunderbirds of Carolina, the boys from my ol’ hometown of Binghamton, New York, claimed the Commissioner’s Cup Friday night, champions of the Federal Prospects Hockey League for the first time. Only in their third year of play, the Black Bears have brought Binghamton its first hockey title since 2011 when the Binghamton Senators hoisted the AHL’s Calder Cup.
I still lived in Binghamton then and I cared about it a lot more than I do now, but it’s still a pretty nice thought, no? I’m happy that my family and I were able to attend a game last year at “the Arena,” the hockey venue of my youth whose rafters will now contain one more banner. Unlike the 2011 championship (which the B-Sens won on the road in Houston), this one was secured on home ice, and, well, I imagine it’s been pretty sloppy on State Street for a couple days.
Congrats, Black Bears; you made this Binghamtonian proud.
And they say Binghamton’s never in the news for anything good.
If Monday’s post didn’t entice you to watch Jerry Seinfeld’s new movie, Unfrosted, perhaps hearing me and my son on today’s episode of Math and Musings will.
We talk movies, we talk Pop-Tarts, we eat Pop-Tarts. It’s basically just 15 minutes out of our lives.
I suppose that’s every episode, but they’re all worth your 15 minutes.
With their overtime win last night the NHL team of my youth (that would be the New York Rangers) moved one step closer to fulfilling my goal and prophecy of reliving some 30-year-old magic, duplicating their Stanley Cup victory in 1994.
Their buildingmates, NBA team of my youth (that would be the New York Knicks), can take that same step this evening with a win over the Indiana Pacers.
God speed.
But the recreation of that 1994 season ender is going to go a little bit differently.
I’ve been waiting 30 years or so for Jerry Seinfeld to make a full-length movie. He famously said he never would, then about three years ago rumors began that he was making a film (his directorial debut) about the history of the Pop-Tart.
Yeah, that sounded pretty ridiculous, but hey, this is a guy who made a billion dollars on “a show about nothing.”
This past Friday the wait was over, as Netflix released Unfrosted, Jerry’s sort-of true origin story of the Pop-Tart and the folks who made it happen.
Nearly every review I’ve read of this movie has called it one of the worst movies of all time.
They’re wrong.
Unfrosted is deliciously good. Most of all it’s hilarious, but also tells a pretty interesting story, and incorporates just about everything in mid-’60s America and the world at large. The Cold War, the Space Race, Khrushchev, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK… it’s all there. (Bill Burr doing JFK, by the way, is one of the finest performances I’ve ever see.)
There’s “pop” history too, from Walter Cronkite and Jack Lalanne to Schwinn bikes and Silly Putty. Period food items? In addition to Pop-Tarts, Jerry and company are able to work in Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Chef Boyardee, Carvel ice cream, Tang, Rice Krispie Treats, and everything wholesome about pre-Vietnam/pre-Watergate America.
And every A-lister in Hollywood showed up to play.
Nobody tries too hard, nobody’s going to win an Oscar, but that’s kind of the point. The movie is just meant to be funny, and it is. It’s a bit like a summer camp variety show. It’s the end of the week and the kids are going to put together a skit to remind themselves of the fun they had the past few days. Except this summer camp isn’t made up of kids–it’s Hollywood actors.
Dear every reviewer who panned this movie: get over yourself. Yes, I get it, it’s “cooler” to say you didn’t like something than to gush over it. I’ll gush over it. Saying you didn’t like it doesn’t make you cool and doesn’t make you smarter than the people who made the movie (Jerry and his usual team of Seinfeldians, by the way).
I loved Unfrosted as much as I love its delicious subject matter (which starts pretty much every day for me). And the many Seinfeldian nods, subtle and otherwise, just make it that much better if you’re familiar with the Seinfeld oeuvre. (And if you’re not you should be.) The movie is very Jerry.
Yeah, I had to wait a long time to see this one, but it was worth the wait. I’m not sure whether Jerry’s got anything else in the works these days, but if he does, I’ll see it the day it comes out.
Like a public clamoring for packageable breakfast, I’m all in.
Today on Math and Musings I’ve got a professional food critic offering up a few notes on one of my favorite restaurants in the world.
I’m always worried when speaking to an expert, even more so when that expert is judging something I’ve placed in such high regard.
The restaurant is the Peekamoose Restaurant and Tap Room, and the expert…
is my son. He got a free meal out of going to there with me a couple weeks ago, so in our review he wasn’t going to say anything too harsh.
All I can say is, Bon appetite!
A week ago I called them the best team in hockey, and having swept my hometown Capitals I still hold that particular distinction for the Broadway Blueshirts, the team of my youth… the New York Rangers.
I referenced their championship 1994, noting among other things it hasn’t happened since.
You think that’s a drought?
How about the team with whom they share a building?
That would be another team of my youth, the New York Knickerbockers of the NBA, who last won a title in 1973.
The Knicks have won exactly one playoff series the past decade though they’re poised to win another this week (minor setback last night).
And they’ve been to only one NBA Finals since…
1994.
Caps out, Wizards long out… New Yorker Mike comin’ out again.