When real life inspires art (WKRP in Cincinnati, 1980)

 Yesterday, I had mistakenly thought Howard Hesseman, aka Don Sturdy, had appeared in the Dragnet episode we featured, but correspondent Mike Doran set the record straight.

So, with news of Hesseman's passing at 81 still fresh in the headlines, we will pull up a ripped-from-the-headlines (sort of) episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. In the context of the series, the fictional station is doing a ticket giveaway for what was a real-life concert by British legends The Who. Most of you might remember that the concert, on December 3, 1979, was marred by a tragedy similar to one that happened late last year in Houston, when fans rushed the stage in a mad scramble, leaving several people crushed to death.

This episode looks at the days leading up to the concert, and the aftermath of the tragedy.

No rating.

Maybe they should call it the Subway Bowl

 Subway used to have a hip slogan, "Eat fresh". This year's Super Bowl is as fresh a matchup as it gets.

The Kansas City Chiefs were denied a 3rd consecutive trip to the big dance, as this year's Cinderella, the Cincinnati Bengals, continued a string of upsets. The AFC North champions needed to go to overtime before defeating the AFC West champs on a field goal by Evan McPherson after a Patrick Mahomes interception.

The game was marred by the fact that the officials, despite letting the teams play out without throwing penalty flags in the 1st half, missed a bunch of obvious calls against both teams in the 2nd half, the most blatant of which came in overtime, when the Bengals overloaded the offensive line, and were not called for illegal formation, a play that, for now, cannot be reviewed.

For fans of the Buffalo Bills, whose offense never saw the field in overtime a week earlier, it was karma. Both teams had at least one possession this time, and it came down to who really had the hottest hand.

The Bengals hadn't been to the big dance since 1989, the 2nd of their 2 appearances, both against San Francisco and Joe Montana. This time, "Joe Cool" wears orange, black, & white, in the form of 2nd year QB Joe Burrow. Hmmmmm.

So the Bengals, like everyone else, waited to see if there would be a shot at total redemption, should this generation's 49ers continue their dominance over the Los Angeles Rams.

Simple answer: Nope.

The Rams traded Jared Goff to Detroit to get Matthew Stafford, and the trade revitalized Stafford's career, while Goff fell to the losing culture in Motown. Los Angeles made a couple more moves in-season, getting Von Miller from Denver and Odell Beckham, Jr. from Cleveland in separate deals. Both played key roles as the Rams snapped a six game losing streak---3 consecutive regular season series---against the Niners.

Photo courtesy Yahoo!.

Perhaps it is only fitting that Stafford, a month after his alma mater, Georgia, won the NCAA title in the College Football Playoff, ends the season taking the Rams to a title. However, Burrow, who won the national championship with LSU in 2020, will have something to say about that, especially now that he has been reunited with receiver JaMarr Chase, who was part of that 2019-20 LSU team.

The game, to be sure, will be more entertaining than the commercials, and it seems we're going to get an overdose of a certain retired QB who will be shilling beer and snacks, and probably, too, a certain online betting site........

Weasel of The Week: Kanye West

 We've heard all the rumors that rapper and fashion mogul Kanye West, aka Ye, may in fact be bi-polar. That does not excuse this self serving, and obviously jealous, Weasel's behavior of late.

You may have heard that after he was divorced from Kim Kardashian, West, who shares custody of their children, has had an axe to grind with Kim's new beau, actor-comedian Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live, "The Suicide Squad"). He went so far as to cut a diss on Davidson on his new album, but it's now gone further down the rabbit hole.

Reports are that West, according to mutual acquaintances of both him & Davidson, has been spreading rumors that Davidson has AIDS. It's not enough that West has a new steady of his own. He wants to make life miserable for his ex and her new man, just because he thinks he can get away with it.

Let me digress here. Back in the 80's, ye scribe had gotten out of a relationship that went south after 9 1/2 months. My ex had moved on, and there was a chance meeting between us and her then-beau on a bus ride one day. She made introductions, but the dude wasn't interested, so I walked away. She ditched the fella after less than a year, then dated a mutual friend of ours for a few years before dumping him, and reconnecting with me. We split again nearly five years later. Life and human nature are like that.

The way I've read this story, it portrays West as a control freak who thinks he can dictate his ex's personal life.

But, that ain't all.

The latest word is that West, who may or may not be vaccinated against COVID, could be barred from entering Australia on his concert tour, which is set to go Down Under in March. Maybe he should talk to Novak Dojokovic about that.

As you can already tell, West is this week's Weasel, largely because he can't handle a breakup very well.

Is there a Super Bowl rematch looming? Conference championship preview

 At the end of business on Sunday night, we'll know who will play in the Super Bowl on February 13. What isn't sure is who will be in the big game, because there are variables in play.

AFC title game: Cincinnati @ Kansas City (CBS, 3 pm ET): It has been 33 years since the Bengals were last in the Super Bowl. They're 0-2 lifetime in the big game, losing both times to San Francisco. Joe Burrow and the Bengals defeated Kansas City at home four weeks ago, but this time, the Chiefs have the home field

One of the storylines heading into the game would be if there was a chance of a 3rd meeting in the Super Bowl between Cincinnati and San Francisco. It's also another case of oddsmakers not thinking this through, assigning the Chiefs as a 7 point favorite, despite the earlier loss. Cincinnati won the earlier meeting on January 2 with a late Evan McPherson field goal, so a 7 point spread is asking for trouble.

Burrow, a 2nd year QB out of LSU, who'd transferred to Bayou Country from Ohio State, is rolling right now. He has a former college teammate in JaMarr Chase to throw to, but you can count on the Chiefs blanketing Chase all day. For Kansas City, it is their 4th straight AFC title game with Patrick Mahomes at QB., and their bag of tricks should be familiar to the Cincinnati defense. If the weather is as bad in KC as it is here, this will be a low scoring game, favoring the defenses.

The pick: Kansas City makes it 3 years in a row in the Super Bowl.

NFC title game: San Francisco @ Los Angeles (Fox, 6:30 pm): The 49ers have won the last three season series between these two NFC West rivals, and the last time the teams met for a Super Bowl berth, the quarterbacks were Joe Montana and Jim Everett. This time, it's Jimmy Garoppolo and Matthew Stafford.

For the Rams, the mission is two-fold. End the losing streak vs. the Niners, and become the 2nd team in as many years to be the true home team in the big game, after Tampa Bay last year. The Bucs exposed the flaws in LA's running game. Cam Akers is vulnerable to fumbling. So is receiver Cooper Kupp, who redeemed himself on the game's final drive vs. Tampa. Stafford, in his first season in LA after beginning his career in Detroit, could be looking at his first Super Bowl, laughing all the way to the bank.

Defensively, Von Miller only has to flash the ring he won with Denver to add more motivation for Aaron Donald and the rest of the Rams' D. This will be a fun game, but history is not on the Rams' side.

The pick: San Francisco continues its dominance of the Rams.

Of course, I could be wrong.

A little of this and a little of that

 With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, President Biden intends to nominate an African-American female judge to fill the vacancy. Unsurprisingly, right wing media is having a collective cow. What they won't admit is that Biden is, you know, fulfilling a campaign promise. How many of those did Donald Trump actually fulfill in his four years?

At least Biden gets it. Fox Shmooze, Newsnax, and the rest are just looking for something to complain about. And this was after Fox Shmooze's Jesse "Dirty" Watters and guest Candace Owens whined about Disney's decision to repackage Minnie Mouse for the 30th anniversary of Disneyland Paris by changing her outfit. Owens got slammed for her hypocrisy on social media, since she usually wears a pantsuit not unlike the type Minnie is getting pro tempore.

What bothers Candace more, I think, is that Minnie's outfit was designed by Stella McCartney, daughter of music icon Paul McCartney. To that, we say, jealous much?

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A Tennessee school board decided that Art Spiegelman's award winning graphic novel, Maus, would be banned from public schools because it is, to them, "not appropriate".

Maus was first released more than 40 years ago, and is Spiegelman's way of telling the story of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of mice (Jews) and cats (German Nazis). My brother actually owned some issues of Raw, the magazine that was home to the series back then. Spiegelman won a Pulitzer, an Eisner, and a Harvey Award for his work.

What brought this to my attention was the fact that a comics shop owner in California sent 100 copies to people in Tennessee that wanted to read the story. Bravo!!

What is wrong with school boards in the South these days? They think a college course, critical race theory, is taught in high schools (it isn't). While they respect Spiegelman's message, they don't think the imagery of cats vs. mice fits in with the curriculum. What's next? Banning Mighty Mouse?

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Speaking of people getting slammed on social media, Stupid-E (Eric Trump) was roasted for going on Fox Shmooze and trying to claim that his father worked harder in the White House than any president before or since, clearly taking aim at President Biden. Stupid-E was promptly fact-checked and reminded how much time daddy spent on the golf course while in office, and that he spent more time in the White House watching Fox Shmooze than, you know, doing his job.

As Queen Victoria famously declared years ago in England, we are not amused.

Celebrity Rock: Steam Heat (1976)

 Before joining the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Georgia Engel was an understudy on Broadway to no less than Ethel Merman. In this clip from season 7, Georgette (Engel) performs at the Teddy Awards, much to the surprise of her beau, Ted Baxter (Ted Knight).

Here's "Steam Heat":

Should be hot enough on a cold winter's night.

What has COVID misinformation wrought? A California clown hassling middle schoolers

 It's been said this has been going on for at least a month, and it needs to end yesterday.

"This" being some anti-mask jabroni hassling middle schoolers on their way home from school in the Los Angeles suburb of La Crescenta. He wears his ignorance on his chest like a badge of honor, wearing a shirt that reads, "Your mask makes you stupid".

First, let's listen to Farron Cousins' take on this, and then we'll be back.

Ok, so the officer on the scene gave the kids a lecture on free speech, basically giving this anti-mask troll a free pass. Bad move, because you have parents calling for this guy to be put in jail for harassment. There's been reports that Farron didn't talk about, where the troll has reportedly coughed or spat on children in a sick attempt to prove his "point".

It was a year ago that Fox Shmooze's Tabloid Carlson had called for people to go after masked children, claiming that protecting themselves from COVID was tantamount to child abuse, which it clearly is not. It figures that someone with the brain of a dead roach would try something like this.

Just wait. The troll will eventually end up in the headlines after he contracts COVID.........