November 21, 1964: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Opens

November 21, 1964, 60 years ago: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opens, connecting the New York City Boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, via Interstate 278. It is the last great road project of New York's "master builder," Robert Moses. And, for the next 17 years, it is the longest suspension bridge in the world. In 2024, it remains the longest in the Americas.

On April 17, 1524, 500 years ago, Italian (Florentine) explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano became the 1st European to sight the land that would become New York City, and its bodies of water, including the Hudson River (named for the later English explorer Henry Hudson) and "The Narrows," the strip of water between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Up until the 1920s, Staten Island was isolated: Its only connections with any other land were by the Staten Island Ferry system, connecting it with Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the New Jersey cities of Bayonne, Elizabeth and Perth Amboy. In 1928, the Outerbridge Crossing was built, connecting it with Perth Amboy, and the original Goethals Bridge (replaced by the current bridge in 2017) connected it with Elizabeth. In 1931, the Bayonne Bridge opened. But this didn't help people trying to get to and from the rest of New York City.

A "Liberty Bridge" and tunnel connecting the Subway system to Staten Island were proposed around this time, but federal funding for these projects was blocked by a Congressman from The Bronx -- Fiorello La Guardia, who was elected Mayor in 1933. He believed that a public necessity should not be provided by private interests. (The controversy over the Ambassador Bridge, built around that time between Detroit and the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario, shows that he was right.)

In 1947, Moses was ready to try again, and got the federal government to approve a plan for a bridge, despite angry opposition from the people of Bay Ridge, the neighborhood where its Brooklyn anchorage would be. Considerably more people would be displaced on Staten Island, but, overall, the people of that Borough understood the benefits of having the bridge, and supported the idea. The Bay Ridge opposition led to the decision to put it, instead, at the uninhabited Fort Lafayette, so no houses would have to be demolished.

Still, it took years for the construction to be approved, and it did not begin until August 14, 1959. About 10,000 men worked on the construction. Three died: Paul Bessett, 58, who fell off the deck and struck a tower in 1962; Irving Rubin, 58, who fell off the bridge approach in 1963; and Gerard McKee, considerably younger at 19, who slipped off a catwalk in 1963. His death led to a strike by workers, demanding safety nets under the deck. After 5 days, they got the nets, and resumed work.

The opening ceremony was held on November 21, 1964, with a gold ribbon being cut by Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and Borough Presidents Abe Stark of Brooklyn and Albert Maniscalo of Staten Island. (Stark had been a clothing store owner, who advertised on the right field wall at the Dodgers' Ebbets Field: "HIT SIGN WIN SUIT.")

The towers are 693 feet high, making each of them, easily, the tallest structures in their respective Boroughs at the time. Since 2019, 2 buildings higher than the bridge's towers have been constructed in Brooklyn. 

The towers are are 4,290 feet apart. In 1981, this world record was broken by the Humber Bridge in Hull, Yorkshire, England. In 2022, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, in the city of the same name in Turkey, opened, and set a new record of 6,637 feet.

There is no direct passenger rail connection between Staten Island and the rest of the City. The Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) rail line goes from the St. George Ferry Terminal (St. George to South Ferry in Manhattan has long been the last remaining Staten Island Ferry) down the east and southern coast of the island to Tottenville, and is technically part of the City's Subway system. But the only way to get from it to the Subway proper is via the Ferry.

A bus line on Staten Island's Victory Boulevard was extended over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the 95th Street terminal of what's now the R Train in Brooklyn, but, unlike most Subway-to-bus (or vice versa) transfers in the City, this one is not free if done within 2 hours.

The Verrazzano -- the full name is rarely used -- is best known for 2 things: The highest tolls of any bridge or tunnel in the New York Tri-State Area, and being the starting point for the New York City Marathon. Since part of the idea for the Marathon was that it would use all Five Boroughs, the closest point between Staten Island and any other Borough was an easy choice, made even easier by the toll plaza being wide enough to accommodate thousands of runners. 

November 21, 1934: The "Business Plot" Is Exposed

Smedley Butler 

November 21, 1934: The New York Post and the Philadelphia Record break the story of what came to be known as "The Business Plot," a rich men's plan to launch a military coup and take over the American government.

The story is broken by Paul Comly French, a reporter who had once been the private secretary of Smedley Butler, a retired Major General (2 stars) in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Smedley Darlington Butler was born on July 30, 1881, in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas Stalker Butler, was a Republican Congressman. His maternal grandfather, Smedley Darlington, had previously held the same seat in Congress. Three earlier Darlingtons had served in Congress. Smedley's aunt, Isabel Darlington, was the 1st woman to practice law in Chester County.

He enlisted in the Marines, and served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign and the Boxer Rebellion. His participation in the so-called "Banana Wars" in Central America caused him to look at war and its conduct differently.

He received his 1st Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. He offered to return it, saying he had done nothing to earn it. He was ordered to keep it. He received a 2nd Medal of Honor for his role in repelling an ambush during the American occupation of Haiti in 1915.

He received his General's stars during World War I, and was appointed commanding officer of the Marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia, now the "home base" of the Corps (and of the FBI). In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge gave him leave from active duty so that he could become Director of Public Safety for Philadelphia.

He said, "Cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in." He brought crime down significantly, but his tactics were a bit heavy-handed. Still, there were many people who liked that, and they remembered it, thinking that Butler was their kind of man. He held the job for 2 years, returned to the Corps, and retired from the service in 1931.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 1932, but, with the tide turning against Prohibition, which he supported, he lost the Republican Primary. He opposed the Bonus Army in a public statement that year, and there were many people who liked that.

That year, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, a Democrat, was elected President of the United States. His "New Deal" lifted millions out of poverty, increasing taxes on rich people in order to do it. America's wealthiest men were furious, and some were not willing to wait until November 3, 1936, the next election, to do something about it.

In November 1934, Butler testified before a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He told them that he was visited by Gerald P. MacGuire, a prominent Connecticut businessman. MacGuire had visited Germany and Italy, and saw how veterans' groups had aided the Fascist movements there, movements that had stopped Communist uprisings. He told Butler that he viewed FDR and his advisors, the so-called "Brain Trust," as Communists, and said they had to be stopped.

He told Butler that a group of businessmen had $50 million to spend, and a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers, many of them members of the American Legion, ready to march on Washington, to remove Roosevelt from power, and establish a Fascist dictatorship. MacGuire told Butler that the group wanted him to be the dictator.

Butler said that he later met with Robert Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Clark told him about some of the other men backing the plan:

* Irénée du Pont, head of the DuPont Corporation, which had recently bought the Remington Arms company, which would produce the weapons and the ammunition for the coup.

* Thomas W. Lamont, running J.P. Morgan & Company on behalf of J.P. Morgan Jr., son of the company's founder, and an adviser to every President since Woodrow Wilson, including FDR, thus giving the group an "inside man." 

* Grayson Murphy, a director of Goodyear Tire, Anaconda Copper, and Bethlehem Steel, all companies capable of supplying the coup effort with necessary materiel.

* And the last 2 Democratic Party nominees for President before FDR: John W. Davis, a former Congressman from West Virginia and U.S. Ambassador to Britain, who was always more conservative than the mainstream of the Party; and Alfred E. Smith, who was also FDR's predecessor as Governor of New York, had lost very badly to Herbert Hoover in 1928, saw FDR beat Hoover even worse in 1932, and was intensely jealous of FDR's early success and popularity as President.

About all of this, Butler told French, whom he trusted due to his service. French did some digging, and found evidence that the plot was real, not just MacGuire and Clark blowing off steam at a President they hated. Armed with this knowledge, Butler met with MacGuire again, and said, "If you get 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more, and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home." And then he went to Congress, and spilled the beans.

French broke the story in the New York Post and the Philadelphia Record on November 21. On November 22, The New York Times wrote about it, calling it a "gigantic hoax." All the parties alleged to be involved publicly said there was no truth in the story, calling it a joke and a fantasy. Roosevelt's reaction to it is not known to have been recorded.

If the coup ever got beyond the talking stage, it was doomed without a leader -- or, more likely, a figurehead. It has been alleged that Hugh S. Johnson, a retired Army Brigadier General who had been running the National Recovery Administration for FDR, and had been named Man of the Year for 1933 by Time magazine, had also turned the plotters down.

In 1935, Butler published a book titled War Is a Racket, comparing what Dwight D. Eisenhower would later call "the military-industrial complex" to organized crime. He wrote, "I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business... a gangster for capitalism" who "might have given Al Capone a few hints." That book, all by itself, showed that the big business boys were looking to the wrong man for their goal.

Plaque honoring Butler, Philadelphia City Hall:

"He enforced the law impartially,

he defended it courageously, he proved incorruptible."

MacGuire died of pneumonia shortly before Butler published his book. Grayson Murphy died in 1937, Smedley Butler in 1940, Hugh Johnson in 1942, Al Smith in 1944, Thomas Lamont in 1948, John W. Davis in 1955, Robert S. Clark in 1956, Paul French in 1960, and Irénée du Pont in 1963.

In 2018 and 2022, Thomas Lamont's great-grandson, Edward Miner Lamont Jr., a.k.a. Ned Lamont, was elected Governor of Connecticut -- as a liberal Democrat. He has conducted the office very differently from what his ancestor would have hoped.

This month, Donald Trump won -- or, perhaps, "won" -- the Presidential election, needing only business lords like Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk to re-shape public opinion for him. He won't need a respected General to be a figurehead for him. After all, he still believes what he said in 2015: "I know more than the generals do."

November 19, 2004: The Malice at The Palace

November 19, 2004, 20 years ago: The most notorious brawl in the history of North American sports breaks out. In the tradition of giving rhyming names to big prizefights, it quickly became known as "The Malice at the Palace." 

The Detroit Pistons were playing the Indiana Pacers, at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Auburn Hills is in the suburbs of Detroit, 33 miles northwest of Cadillac Square, and far from the city's notorious ghettos. The Pistons had been playing there since 1988, after playing the previous 10 seasons at the Silverdome, 4 miles to the south in Pontiac.

They were the defending NBA Champions, and had previously won back-to-back titles in 1989 and '90, when they were the roughest team of their generation, "the Motor City Bad Boys." A member of that team, Joe Dumars, was now the general manager, and he had assembled a strong team, coached by Larry Brown. Having coached the University of Kansas to the National Championship in 1988, Brown became the 1st coach to win both NCAA and NBA Championships. Through 2022, he remains the only one.

The Pistons' starting center and Captain was Ben Wallace. Forward Rasheed Wallace (no relation) was considered the most aggressive member of the team. He had been acquired from the Portland Trail Blazers, who, at the time, were not only very aggressive on the court, but got into legal trouble off it, leading to the nickname "the Jail Blazers."

The team also included guards Chauncey Billups, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Lindsey Hunter; forwards Antonio McDyess and Tayshaun Prince; and newly-acquired center Derrick Coleman, once on the verge of superstardom with the New Jersey Nets, but had worn out his welcome with 4 different teams, and was trying a comeback with his hometown team.

The Pacers were coached by Rick Carlisle, the coach that Dumars fired in order to get Brown. Their general manager was Larry Bird, an Indiana native who led the Boston Celtics to 3 NBA titles, including in 1986 with Carlisle as a bench player. They were led by guard Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, but he was injured, and did not play in this game. Their next-most-notable player was a forward known for his bad behavior, Ronald William Artest Jr., then using the name Ron Artest.

There wasn't much history between the Pistons and the Pacers. They were in the same Division, in adjoining States, but the Pistons had always considered the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers to be their biggest rivals. The Pacers also considered the Bulls to be their rivals, and, to a lesser extent, due to a pair of difficult Playoff series between them, the New York Knicks.

They had played each other in the 1st Round in 1990, and, although this was the height of the Pistons' Bad Boys era, there were no incidents. In 2004, they played each other in the Conference Finals, so they were very familiar with each other by the following November; but in that May series, there were no incidents.

ESPN televised the game nationally, which helped embed the incident in fans' minds more than ESPN just replaying it endlessly on SportsCenter and its other shows could have done. By the 2nd quarter, the Pacers had jumped out to a 20-point lead, and the game never got close. Artest ended up scoring 20 points for the Pacers, and Jermaine O'Neal had 20. Hamilton scored 20 to lead the Pistons.

With 46 seconds left in regulation, the Pacers were up 97-82. Ben Wallace attempted a layup, but Artest slapped him on the back of the head. (Note: As Rasheed, despite his reputation, was not one of the principals in the brawl, hereafter, when I say, "Wallace," I mean, Ben.) Wallace shoved Artest in the face. Both benches emptied, with Prince being the only player not to get up.

The officials separated them, and, at first, that looked like the end of it. If it had been, the incident would have been chalked up as just another end-of-game scuffle involving a frustrated player on a losing team and a player on a winning team who should have left well enough alone.

Donnie Walsh, president of the Pacers organization, had told Artest that, to calm down and avoid trouble in a volatile situation, he should walk off the court, and lay down on the scorer's table. Whether the people at that table, or the Pistons, or the officials knew about this, I don't know. If that had been the end of it, it might have been chalked up as the kind of weird thing that some athletes did, such as Artest's contemporaries, baseball star Manny Ramirez and football star Terrell Owens.

But Wallace escalated the situation, throwing a towel at Artest. Artest got up to retaliate, but was held back by Pacer coaches. Then, a spectator, later identified as John Green, threw a plastic cup with soda in it at Artest, hitting him in the chest. Artest went into the stands, and grabbed the man he thought responsible, yelling, "Did you do it?" But it was the wrong fan, identified as Michael Ryan, who said, "No, man, no!"

Pacers broadcaster Mark Boyle tried to hold Artest back, but Artest knocked him backwards and stepped on him, resulting in 5 fractured vertebrae. Boyle was the only person Artest ever apologized to over the incident.

Another fan, William Paulson, threw another drink in Artest's face, while Artest was restrained. The Pacers' Stephen Jackson went into the stands and punched Paulson in the face. Players on both sides, including Miller and Rasheed Wallace, and even Pistons broadcaster Rick Mahorn, known in his playing days as the "baddest" of the Bad Boys, went into the stands to get their own players out. When the situation is so bad that Rick Mahorn is trying to ply peacemaker, that's historically bad.

Somehow, Green, the initial drink-thrower, got to Artest, and twice punched him in the back of the head. Artest was finally led out. But 2 fans who had gotten onto the court, Alvin Shackleford and Charlie Haddad, got in Artest's face, and Artest punched Shackleford in the face. Anthony Johnson of the Pacers punched Haddad. O'Neal did the same. Coleman, in a mature act that would have surprised Nets fans 10 years earlier, stood by Larry Brown and the Pistons' ball boy to protect them.

NBA Commissioner David Stern remembered watching all of this on television, and saying, "Holy shit." O'Neal later said, "As bad as it looked on TV, it was at least 20 times worse in person."

The referees and the Auburn Hills police cleared the court. With the Pacers leading by 15 with 45.9 seconds on the clock, the referees declared the game over. The Piston fans threw more objects at the Pacers as they left the court for their locker room, including a steel folding chair that nearly hit O'Neal. Brown took the public address announcer's microphone, and told the fans to stop. They didn't. He threw the microphone down. Nine fans were injured, 2 seriously enough to be taken to a hospital.

It still wasn't over. O'Neal yelled at Carlisle for making the coaches restrain players who were only trying to defend themselves, and was ready to fight him.

The next day, the NBA suspended Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Ben Wallace indefinitely. When the punishments were finalized, Artest was suspended without pay for the rest of the season, which, counting the Pacers' Playoff games, amounted to 86 games. It remains the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history. He lost almost $5 million in pay.

For the Pacers: Jackson was suspended 30 games, O'Neal 15, Johnson 5, Miller 1. For the Pistons: Ben Wallace was suspended 6 games, and Billups, Coleman and Elden Campbell were each suspended 1. A 1-game suspension is standard for a player who leaves the bench during a brawl, but is usually not applied if it can be shown that the player was trying to break the fight up.

In criminal court, Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Harrison were sentenced to 1 year on probation, 60 hours of community service, $250 fines, and anger management counseling. Johnson was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Green, Haddad and Shackleford were banned for life from attending any future events at The Palace. So were Bryant Jackson, identified as the fan who threw the folding chair at O'Neal; and David Wallace, no relation to Ben or Rasheed, who was sentenced to one year of probation and community service for punching Pacer player Fred Jones.

Green and Haddad had season tickets, which were revoked, with refunds for the cost of the remainder of the season. Green had a rap sheet longer than a 3-point shot, and was already on probation from a DUI conviction. He was acquitted of the assault charge for throwing the cup, but convicted for punching Artest in the stands. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 2 years' probation. Jackson pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation.

The brawl had no long-term effect on the Pistons, as they returned to the NBA Finals in 2005, but lost in 7 games to the San Antonio Spurs. They have not been back since. In 2017, the Pistons and the NHL's Detroit Red Wings moved into the Little Caesars Arena, at the northern edge of downtown, a short walk from Comerica Park, the new home of MLB's Detroit Tigers, and Ford Field, the new home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. And so, for the 1st time since the Lions last played at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day 1974, 43 years earlier, all 4 of Detroit's major league sports teams were playing in the city.

Rick Carlisle remained the Pistons' coach until 2007. He coached the Dallas Mavericks for 13 seasons, winning the NBA Championship in 2011. The Pacers have not been a serious NBA title contender since 2004.

The Palace was also the site of a brawl between the WNBA's Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks on July 22, 2008. This fight was dubbed "The Malice at the Palace II." The Sparks won the game, 84-81. Despite winning WNBA Championships in 2003, '06  and '08 -- hence the mailing address of The Palace was "Six Championship Drive," having previously been "One... " and counting upward -- the Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2010. The Shock moved again in 2016, becoming the Dallas Wings.

Without a tenant, The Palace became most useful for the suburban land on which it stood. It was demolished in 2020, after only 32 years. General Motors bought the land, and is planning to build an electric-car assembly plant on the site.

After bouncing around the league, in 2010, Ron Artest won an NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2011, to help improve his image, he legally changed his name to Metta World Peace. He explained that "Metta" is a Buddhist word that means "loving kindness and friendliness towards all." In 2020, having married Maya Sandiford, he changed his name again, to Metta Sandiford-Artest. He now runs The Artest Management Group, which helps athletes with real-life issues, including tax preparation. He seems to have found peace, if not world peace.

His son, who goes by Ron Artest III, has also played pro basketball, for two teams in the National Basketball League of Canada.

Winners of the Popular Vote in Presidential Elections

Bigger than anyone ever has.

But he felt he couldn't run again.

Note: Up until 1824 or so, popular vote totals are pretty much unreliable, and didn't matter much, anyway. But with the Adams-Jackson race being the 1st true divergence, from that point onward, it matters:

1964 Lyndon Johnson 61.1 (no one has topped this)

1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt 60.8

1972 Richard Nixon 60.7 (no one has topped this since)

1920 Warren G. Harding 60.4

1984 Ronald Reagan 58.8 (no one has topped this since)

1928 Herbert Hoover 58.1

1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt 57.4

1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower 57.4

1904 Theodore Roosevelt 56.4

1872 Ulysses S. Grant 55.6

1828 Andrew Jackson 55.5

1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower 55.2

1864 Abraham Lincoln 55.1

1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt 54.7

1832 Andrew Jackson 54.2

1924 Calvin Coolidge 54.0

1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt 53.4

1988 George H.W. Bush 53.4 (no one has topped this since)

2008 Barack Obama 52.9 (no one has topped this since)

1840 William Henry Harrison 52.9

1868 Ulysses S. Grant 52.7

1900 William McKinley 51.6

1908 William Howard Taft 51.6

2012 Barack Obama 51.1 (no one has topped this since)

1896 William McKinley 51.0

1876 Samuel Tilden 50.9 (lost Electoral Vote)

2020 Joe Biden 50.8

1836 Martin Van Buren 50.8

1852 Franklin Pierce 50.8

1980 Ronald Reagan 50.7 (3-man race)

2004 George W. Bush 50.7

1976 Jimmy Carter 50.1

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2024 Donald Trump 49.9 (several minor-party candidates)

1960 John F. Kennedy 49.7 (several minor-party candidates)

1948 Harry Truman 49.6 (4-man race)

1844 James K. Polk, 49.5 (3-man race)

1996 Bill Clinton 49.2 (3-man race)

1916 Woodrow Wilson 49.2 (several minor-party candidates)

1884 Grover Cleveland 48.8 (several minor-party candidates)

1888 Grover Cleveland 48.6 (several minor-party candidates, lost Electoral Vote)

2000 Al Gore 48.4 (3-man race, lost Electoral Vote)

1880 James Garfield 48.3 (3-man race)

2016 Hillary Clinton 48.2 (4-candidate race, lost Electoral Vote)

1848 Zachary Taylor 47.3 (3-man race)

1892 Grover Cleveland 45.9 (3-man race)

1856 James Buchanan 45.3 (3-man race)

1968 Richard Nixon 43.4 (3-man race)

1992 Bill Clinton 43.0 (3-man race)

1912 Woodrow Wilson 41.8 (3-man race)

1824 Andrew Jackson 40.5 (4-man race, lost Electoral Vote)

1860 Abraham Lincoln 39.7 (4-man race)

Lost Youth, the Wrong Parts Regained

Somebody once said that Nostalgia was a longing for a time that you didn't think was so great the first time around.

We're going to have an elderly, insane Republican as President, filling his administration with corrupt religious zealots who are completely unqualified for their positions.

The music and the cars are horrible.

And the Yankees can't win the World Series.

They say you can't regain your lost youth. Well, it sounds like my youth, or at least my adolescence of the 1980s, is back in full force, just without so many of the stores I liked, and with higher prices (which, of course, are not the Democrats' fault).

*

I haven't done a countdown in over 6 months. Here goes:

Hours until the next Rutgers University football game: 6, today, at 6:00 PM, away to the University of Maryland. If the Big Ten Conference and the TV networks were as smart as they think they are, they would have these 2 Northeastern outposts/newcomers in the league become big rivals.

Days until the next game of the U.S. National Soccer Team: 2, this Monday, 8:00 PM, vs. Jamaica, at Citypark, home of new MLS team St. Louis City. This past Thursday night, they beat Jamaica, 1-0 in Kingston. It was the 1st game under their new manager, former Tottenham and Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Days until the next Arsenal match: 7, a week from today, Saturday, at 10:00 AM New York Eastern Time, home to East Midlands team Nottingham Forest.

Days until the next New York Red Bulls match: 7, a week from today, Saturday, at 5:30 PM, vs. New York City FC, at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, in the MLS Cup Eastern Conference Semifinal. This is the 1st Hudson River Derby match to be a Playoff match.

Days until the Red Bulls again play a nearby rival: See the previous answer.

Days until the New Jersey Devils again play a local rival: 37, at 1:00 PM on December 23, against the New York Rangers, a 2-days-before-Christmas Monday matinee at Madison Square Garden.

Days until the next North London Derby: 60, on January 15, 2025, at 3:00 PM, at the Emirates Stadium. Exactly 2 months. This past September 15, Arsenal won, 1-0 at Tottenham. It is unusual that the game at Tottenham comes first, but, this time, it did.

Days until the Yankees open the 2025 regular season: 131, on Thursday, March 27, at 3:05 PM, home to the Milwaukee Brewers. A little over 4 months.

Days until the Yankees' next series against the Boston Red Sox begins: 195, on Friday night, June 6, 2025, at Yankee Stadium. Under 7 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick High School football game: Unknown. The 2024 season began earlier, and ended earlier, than ever before, as we went 2-8. If the schedule works out the same way as this season, then the opener will be on Friday night, August 28, 2025. That's 285 days, or a little over 9 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Game: Unknown. If the 2025 schedule is a reverse of the 2024 edition, with the teams flipping to the other's home field, it will be at home on September 26, 2025. That's 314 days, or a little over 10 months.

Days until the next elections for Governor of New Jersey and Mayor of New York City: 353, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Just under a year.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: Unknown. With the expansion of the Big Ten Conference for this 2024 season, these 2 schools did not play each other. They are set to play each other in 2025, but a date has not been set. Since Rutgers entered the Big 10 in 2014, the Penn State game has usually been on the 3rd or 4th Saturday in November. If that holds true, then it will be on November 22, 2025, at 12:00 Noon, in Piscataway, at what's currently named SHI Stadium. (The naming rights could be sold to someone else by then.) If that turns out to be when it's played, that's 371 days, or a shade over 1 year.

Days until the next Winter Olympics open in Milan, Italy: 447, on Friday, February 6, 2026. Under a year and a half, or under 15 21 months.

Days until the next World Cup opens: 569, on Monday, June 8, 2026. A little over a year and a half, or a little over 18 months. I wonder what team Trump will be rooting for: Ours, or Russia's.

Days until the World Cup Final in New Jersey: 610, on Sunday, July 19, 2026. A little over a year and a half, or a little over 19 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympic Games: 1,336, on Friday, July 14, 2028, in Los Angeles. A little over 3 1/2 years. What shape America will be in at the time, God only knows.

Days until the next Presidential election: 1,452, on Tuesday, November 7, 2028. A little under 4 years. This, of course, presumes that the Trump Administration doesn't suspend the Constitution of the United States and cancel all future Presidential elections.

My Theory About Trump's Whackadoodle Cabinet Picks

Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense? Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health & Human Services?

Suddenly, Marco Rubio as Secretary of State doesn't sound so bad. Even though it is.

Remember: Nobody in the Trump cult is saying that Gaetz is innocent, they're only saying that he has to be supported, because he's Trump's choice.

Why is it that Republicans never do the thing -- or ask others to do the thing -- that will prove them innocent? Or, at the least, provide reasonable doubt as to their guilt? Why don't they ever act like innocent men?

I have a theory: Trump is appointing so many whackadoodles (if you don't mind me using a technical term) to high office that he figures we'll concentrate so much energy on stopping one of them (most likely, Gaetz) that we won't be able to stop the others.

 

Then, he gets the Attorney General he really wants.

Most likely, this was a Stephen Miller idea, or a Steve Bannon idea, or a Roger Stone idea. Dumb Donald is SO dumb (How dumb IS he?), he couldn't have come up with this on his own. 

George vs. Donald

 

Actor Sylvester Stallone, known for playing Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, has compared Donald Trump to George Washington.

All right. Let's do it:

* George Washington: Volunteered to be a solider. Donald Trump: Weaseled his way out of being one.

* George Washington: Very successful in real estate. Donald Trump: Failed at it.

* George Washington: Painful dentures. Donald Trump: Has that in common.

* Donald Trump: Betrayed his country. George Washington: Betrayed by his country, which, at the time, was Great Britain.

* George Washington: Had to flee New York. Donald Trump: Has that in common.

* George Washington: Won battles in New Jersey. Donald Trump: Not so much.

* George Washington: Victorious in Virginia. Donald Trump: No.

* George Washington: Asked to chair the Convention that wrote the Constitution. Donald Trump: Says the Constitution has been unfair to him, and says he wants to suspend it.

* George Washington: Spent a lot of his time as President on his estate, but working as a farmer. Donald Trump: Spent a lot of his time as President on his estate, playing golf.

* Donald Trump: Put his corrupt children and their corrupt significant others in his Administration. George Washington: Had no children.

* George Washington: Rich all his life, never went bankrupt. Donald Trump: Started out rich, now billions of dollars in debt.

* George Washington: His Cabinet included Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Donald Trump: His Cabinet turned on him, so he replaced them with psychopaths.

* George Washington: Believed in America, but knew there were issues, and was told only he could fix them. He did his best. Donald Trump: Says, "The American Dream is dead," and, "I, alone, can fix it," and then proved that he can't fix a damn thing.

I think Sly has taken too many blows to the head.