Need to catch up on a few things.

Was sad to see that Tom Batiuk ended his comic strip Funky Winkerbean after 50 years. I have enjoyed reading Funky Winkerbean for as long as I can remember, a staple of the weekday and weekend comics in the Newark Star Ledger. Loved following the adventures of Funky and his friends, especially Les Moore, who is one of the best comic characters ever created. Thanks for the memories

With the Super Bowl ending, its now time to stat thinking about baseball. Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training this week, and there will finally be something new to talk about on the sports radio stations.

The past two weeks of Super Bowl talk and hype have been painful to listen to. I actually tuned most of it out and used the time to listen and enjoy some music. It was actually very refreshing. As far as the coverage, I never have cared for the 2 weeks of Super Bowl week coverage leading up to the game (Especially on TV where I never have had any interest). On the radio side, looked like things opened up again after the past years due to the corvid pandemic, and radio stations sent multiple personal to the game. Radio stations should have saved their money — What ended up on the radio was 2 weeks of self promotion and worthless interviews. It was topped off with FOXs over the top coverage (seemed like they had a meeting and said “We need to fill 8 hours of TV with worthless sketched and interviews and puff pieces – Anybody have any ideas?). By the time the game started I had had enough.

I actually enjoyed the game, although it was a bit of a let down having the referee call a tick / tack penalty that basically decided the game. Was it a penalty?, probably. Can the referees call that same thing on most pass plays?, yes. Should they have called that penalty at the end? No. But it is what happened and how Super Bowl 57 will go into the record books.

Did like hearing some classic “Men Without Hats” and “Culture Club” in the Super Bowl Commercials

Tough week for Lehigh Basketball. Couple of tough losses as the season winds down. Hopefully they can beat Navy this week and hold on to the top 4 of the Patriot League and get a home play-off game.

And Seton Hall needs to pick up a few more wins going into the Big East Tournament. Hopefully they have a late season run in them.

Netflix needs to get some better writers. Both “You People” and “Your Place or Mine” wasted some good actors, characters, and ideas, and instead went for the cheap laughs had some of the dumbist dialog I have heard in a long time. And its not just Netflix. The Julia Roberts, George Clooney movie “Ticket to Paradise” was also horrible. No chemistry between characters and idiotic dialog made this a tough watch. I like a good slapstick comedy with over the top stupidity, if that’s what you going for. But it seems the movies I listed don’t really know if they want to be funny or serious, and what audience they are targeting. You expect certain things from certain actors in certain roles, and if your not aware of this, it ends up confusing everybody and falling flat.

Finished the latest Isaac Bell novel “The Sea Wolves”. Thought it was really well done and written and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next one. Switching things up a bit, and reading “The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey. Its a nice change of pace, and hopefully will learn some mindful techniques on tennis and life in general.

Two weeks until Survivor returns for another season. So far I have been good at tuning out anything that would be considered spoilers, and hopefully will be going into this season with no preconceived notions.

AverageAndy