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It has come to this with the Mets. The only reason to watch them is the commercial being played virtually every other inning on the local channel SNY in New York.
Of course, it’s also on Youtube (above) and all over the web. But for all the dreadful events happening with the Mets, there is the consolation that when the inning ends there could be a visit from four weary monsters heading home for a well-earned weekend. But work never ends for these four harried guys (what, no female monsters?) They grumble about working conditions, particularly the werewolf who needs to howl on the weekend. (“A bit of me time.”) I have seen that guy on the Port Washington line. Same whiskers. Same suit. Same weary grimace. The Mets are not nearly as entertaining. They’re hurt or old or both, except for Michael Conforto (who is starting to go for that high pitch again) and Weepin’ Wilmer Flores, who in the eyes of the Faithful can do no wrong, even when he does. Jacob DeGrom, a good athlete and seemingly a nice guy, is inconsistent. It’s awful. But at least there is the commercial, by a group called Something Different. Impervious to advertising, I couldn’t remember the product being hawked. Turns out, it is Spectrum. Okay. Here is some stuff on the web about the commercial: http://creativity-online.com/work/spectrum-train/51537 http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/monsters-and-villains-are-shocked-by-how-evil-satellite-tv-companies-are-in-fun-ad-for-cable/ Somebody writing about the commercial mistook a commuter train (which are hideous enough) for the subway. http://www.fiercecable.com/cable/charter-hires-subway-commuting-monsters-riding-for-latest-ad-campaign-taking-down-satellite Most of the time, the commercial is shortened to a 30-second version, which downplays the werewolf and obliterates the last line (“He’s not waking up.”) The good news? All four of these guys apparently will be back in three followup commercials. That is nice. I’m watching Harvey, Reyes, Granderson and Cabrera all deteriorating in front of my eyes, but at least I can look forward to the four commuters. It gives me hope.
Richard Taylor
6/5/2017 11:11:02 am
Ok. Now we've hit rock bottom! Early June and it's a riff on TV commercials. Sadly, I agree with you. The Mets offer no redeeming qualities at this time. The salt in the wound is I have breakfast every Wednesday morning with three Yankee fans. Thanks, George. As they sing the praises of their young Bronx Bombers, I have the best retort in lauding Spectrum commercials. They shouldn't have fired the poor schmuck in the Mr. Met costume. They should have given him a bobble head day with that gesture symbolizing the season.
Joshua Rubin
6/6/2017 11:13:44 am
Oy. It is one thing when you know going into the season that your team is lousy. You set your expectations and root for the glimmers of hope. it is quite another to see a good team disintegrate. Where are those seven potential starters who belong in any team's top three? Why so many injuries, every year? Why are all the .280 hitters hitting .240? I have quibbles about how the team is constructed (those HR hitters won't drive anyone in if no one gets on base) but on paper this should be a good team. Instead, it is a year of misery for the ages with a team that has had many of them.
Brian Savin
6/6/2017 12:32:45 pm
At the risk of getting grief from cognescenti, I found something as boring to watch as the Mets. Finding no game last night, I turned to TCM and found an iconic movie I had never seen, Roman Holiday. If Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Pack can be boring, I guess even the Mets' young stars can have off days. Hepburn gets a little better after the scene in which she gets her hair cut. Do you think deGrom should see it.......?
George Vecsey
6/6/2017 03:43:24 pm
Reactions to 3 comments:
Brian Savin
6/6/2017 10:02:02 pm
DeGrom: Oh sweet Jesus, no! 8 earned runs in four innings!
George
6/6/2017 10:49:50 pm
Did you see the sad look on his face?
bruce
6/7/2017 02:06:40 am
george, 6/7/2017 07:14:16 am
It seems that the Yankees are catching what the Mets have minus the injuries. They are on a short losing streak and are down to a 1 game lead. Comments are closed.
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Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html Categories
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