Dunce Cap Award: Care to guess?

 In their obsessive-compulsive quest to deport undocumented migrants, the Trump administration thought they'd try a little entrapment by pretending to set up a fake military base in New Mexico.

As Farron Cousins explains, this plot was virtually dead on arrival.

Team Trump just refuses to work by the book. Blame that, of course, on Trump's head troll, Stephen Miller, and, reportedly, he'd been getting some advice from former Florida Misrepresentative Matt Gaetz, who's not exactly a brain surgeon himself. 98 cases have already been dismissed, as Farron notes, and the rest likely will follow suit, and retried as misdemeanor cases, as they're meant to be.

We found someone in the New Mexico area with an expert opinion.

"Oh, it was doomed to fail. I'm not even that crazy."

Of course, we're sending a whole case of these to Washington, unless the president is willing to share his collection:

Just follow the law, and do it right, and we won't have this discussion again, though I suspect we probably will.........

Round 1 to the Yankees, but where's the narrative?

 The Yankees won 2 of 3 from the Mets in the first half of the 2025 Subway Series, clinching the series with a 6 run 8th inning outburst against the Mets bullpen, capped by a grand slam from Cody Bellinger.

If you followed the media's narrative over the past week, they made it sound like it was a referendum on Mets outfielder Juan Soto ankling the Yanks in the offseason to come to Flushing. It really wasn't the be all and end all of this series. Not even close.

In reality, this was about the city's two teams, both in first place in their respective divisions as the series began, with the Yankees seeking a little revenge for getting swept by the Mets in 4 games last year. Sure, the Yankees had the last laugh, as they reached the World Series, only to be dominated, like the Mets, by the eventual World Champion Dodgers, but the scandal crazy media in NYC needed a villain for the series, and Soto filled the bill for them.

[Of course, if you want the real villain, it'd be Soto's agent, Scott Boras Badenov, but that's another story.]

On Friday, the perpetually spoiled Yankees fans turned their backs on Soto in right field, even though he tried to be cordial and professional. However, on Sunday, Soto took additional heat for not even running full tilt on a ground out, one so obvious that he decided he'd at least make some effort, but he was out by about two strides.

Check the highlight reel:

Now, the Mets could do the Yanks a solid by beating Boston before returning to Citi Field to welcome Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers on Friday. The Subway Series, part 2, comes later this summer.

Insight Sundays: Fat Hands & Diamond Rings (1967)

 A lawyer (Barry Sullivan, ex-The Tall Man) faces one of his most challenging cases in this fable of moral & ethical ambiguities. Ted Cassidy (ex-The Addams Family), Howard Morris (ex-Your Show of Shows, The Andy Griffith Show), Harold Gould, Ned Glass, Martin Milner (ex-Route 66, one year away from Adam-12), and Celeste Holm round out the ensemble cast of this drama.

When Dawn detergent was introduced (1973)

 Procter & Gamble introduced Dawn dish detergent in 1973, initially as a complement to Joy and Ivory Liquid. Dawn has become the company's #1 dish detergent, due largely to the fact it can also be used for other purposes, such as removing oil from wildlife.

In this 1973 spot, an African-American couple welcome the husband's boss (Albert Reed, Chase) to dinner, and, well, it's about the after-dinner work.....

Janet MacLachlan played the wife doing the dishes. Reed also had supporting roles on Good Times & The Secrets of Isis.

What Might've Been: It (1984)

 It's believed that The Match Game-Hollywood Squares hour was still on the air when NBC asked Gene Rayburn to host this pilot for a word game that Columbia Pictures Television was producing with actor-turned-producer Larry Hovis (ex-Hogan's Heroes, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Liars Club) and his business partner, Gary Bernstein.

The fill-in-the-blank concept of the word game would fit right into Rayburn's wheel house, given the end game of Match Game. Unfortunately, NBC didn't buy the pilot, after all. Rod Roddy (Press Your Luck) is the announcer.

Had NBC bought the half hour pilot, they would've had a hard time finding a spot for it, and it would've been Rayburn's last NBC project. As we know, he'd return with the syndicated and rebooted Break The Bank a year later.

Rating: A.

What Might've Been: Eischied (1979)

 Eischeid was one of David Gerber's last projects for Columbia Pictures Television, along with the equally ill-fated David Cassidy: Man Undercover, the latter a spin-off from Police Story. Joe Don Baker ("Walking Tall") had the title role for his only series gig. 

Unfortunately, NBC fumbled by putting Eischeid opposite Dallas. Ballgame over.

In this sampler, Eischeid must clear Captain Finnerty (Alan Oppenheimer) of a murder charge. Jim Backus and Shelley Berman guest star.

In memory of Baker, 89, who has passed away. No rating out of respect.

How Pepsi brought a couple together (1981)

 One of the better ads in the "Pepsi Generation" ad campaign of the early 80's was this gem from 1981. It's a middle school dance, and a young boy is being encouraged to ask a girl to dance with him, especially seeing as how she doesn't have a date (or so it'd appear). Turns out she's a wee bit taller, so, she has to take her shoes off to dance with him.

This is the longer version.

Oh, this was SO adorable.