Summertime

The SEVEN 2 October 2012 I. Not Pretty As A Peacock Wherever you happen to live, you can almost be certain that each and every week someone gets fired from his or her job - which means that a firing in and of itself is no rarity. But to be left twisting in the media wind and subsequently unceremoniously thrown under the bus (google Al Roker's comments) and dismissed from the Today show anchor chair was most certainly not what Ann Curry deserved. Not that I feel the same way about Ms. Curry as I did about my all-time favorite athlete, Darryl Strawberry, but my initial thought was to take a break from NBC News for a minute. The only problem with that is that this is a presidential election year…and even without the departed Keith Olbermann on board, I need my MSNBC coverage. So I haven't boycotted NBC networks…but what you guys - whoever is responsible - did was totally not cool. Best of luck to Ann wherever she lands (after the NBC suits finish paying off her contract). II. Pretty Good Year Regular season MVP, Finals MVP, NBA championship, Olympic Gold Medal…that's just about a year for the ages by LeBron James. Of course, there are always people who feel they must trash King James, the latest instance being those who took issue with him working out with Kevin Durant in Ohio. Who says people on different teams can't be friends? Oh yeah…Kevin Garnett…who claims to have lost Ray Allen's number after Ray jumped ship to join the Heat. By the way, Ray - speaking of "pretty good year" - you shot your highest percentage ever from three-point land last season…and I bet that most of those threes were courtesy of Rajon Rondo. Couldn't you have patched up whatever differences you had? III. Bye Bye As enjoyable as so many of the Olympic events are, I found nothing as enjoyable as watching Usain Bolt leave the field in the dust in each event. And a shout out to his countryman and silver medalist Yohan Blake, who would have beaten anyone else in the world with his times but had to settle for the silver. See, rivals can train together! IV. Marathon Man Shortly after the marathoners finished in London, newly-named Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan claimed to have run a marathon in under three hours, but then had to walk it back after Runners World magazine questioned that fact. Rep. Ryan blames his faulty memory on the twenty-two years that have passed since the race, which he completed in over four hours. First of all, as one who has never run more than six miles at any one time, I congratulate Rep. Ryan on his accomplishment; finishing a marathon is a great feat that most people cannot do. But with that said, if I had run a sub-3:00 marathon, I would be able to tell you date, exact time, location, the weather, number of participants, and anything else you might want to know about that day. Ryan obviously wanted to pump himself up in a setting where no one would be likely to know the true facts - such as when he told all of his untruths in his convention speech. If we can't trust him to tell the truth about his marathon time, why should we believe him on anything else? V. NY/LA Should be interesting to watch the re-branded Brooklyn Nets on the east coast and the re-booted Los Angeles Lakers in the west. (Props to Jay-Z; Must be great to open the Barclay's Center with 8 shows just minutes from where you grew up!) I have a feeling, though, that the New York Knicks and L.A. Clippers might not be among those enjoying the view. VI. Baltimore-Washington While giving out props, let's not forget the Orioles and Nationals, the baseball teams in the Baltimore-Washington corridor that will both be in the playoffs this year for the first time in forever. Prediction: despite what has been said about care for the arm and innings limits, we may not have seen the last of the Nationals' Steven Strasburg. If they need a win to get to the World Series - or win it, for that matter - I expect to see him warming up. VII. Don't Think We Forgot So we have enjoyed our summer, the Olympics, and now the NFL is back…but we haven't really forgotten, especially after your 47% comments were released, Governor Romney. You'll never be able to convince 47 per cent of us to take personal responsibility for our lives…and it seems we'll never be able to convince you to release those other years worth of tax returns. We'll see what happens on November 6th.