The week started out with an uptick--the naming of a new Milwaukee archbishop and Democrats finally finding a candidate for Wisconsin governor. Plus, the Packers beat the Cowboys to end a two-game slide.
By the time we got to Friday, we found out about a murder-for-hire plot in Oconomowoc that left a young mother dead. It was the day that Cody Reetz would be buried--the middle schooler from Washington County who supposedly died at the hands of his step-father in an act of revenge.
And, there was the Bucher/McBride/Flynn scandal which re-ignited amid allegations that the affair between the former Waukesha County DA's wife and the current Milwaukee Police Chief never really died out. Those claims came from Paul Bucher himself as he filed fresh divorce papers while calling on Flynn to step down on page one of the "Waukesha Freeman".
As "Frasier's" dad once put it on the old NBC sitcom, "News like this calls for hard liquor and tall glasses."
How angry does a man have to be to wrap a tie around a 14 year old boy's neck and strangle him in a van? How desperate can a guy be that he would scheme with two others to kill his son's mother, just so he could get custody of the child? And, what motivated Bucher to go so thoroughly public with the most personal of news? Only the men involved can answer these questions, while the rest of us are left to wonder why.
As sad as the two murder stories are, they will play out as these stories always do: arrests have been made, and justice will hopefully be served. The Bucher/McBride/Flynn imbroglio could have legs well beyond this week, especially if Mayor Tom Barrett's backing of Flynn gets used against him by Scott Walker in the race for governor. Barrett says Flynn's personal life doesn't change the fact that Milwaukee crime is down during the Chief's watch. The Police and Fire Commission agrees. Does Walker leave it at that? We'll have to see.
The week ends with a mom mourning the death of her 14 year old son, a four year old boy who'll live out his life without his mom, and the story of a private affair between very public people that has both personal and perhaps political ramifications.
The world was a much simpler place Monday morning. It's a lot sadder around here as we head into the weekend.
Hope you had a better week than these folks. It would be hard to have had a rougher one.
Fall means many things to different people. Early on, it's the start of school and the changing of colors. Later on, it's Thanksgiving and holiday preparations.
For cable TV history channels, it's time to crack open a new round of Kennedy assassination documentaries, just in case anyone forgot that JFK was murdered (insert number here) years ago this November.
Discovery does a pair of new offerings early next week, one that supposedly pins the murder on the mob and another that links Jack Ruby, the accused killer of the suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, to other unsavory Mafia interests.
It makes for fascinating television--who among us doesn't love "CSI" or "Cold Case"? It's even more compelling because this is about REAL people.
Don't buy it, folks, at least not anyone who tries pitching you on Oswald being a patsy and the victim of some sort of elaborate frame-up.
After years of reading about JFK, watching every documentary imaginable and going full circle on who did what, I'm firmly convinced that the weaselly little book warehouse clerk pulled off one of the great crimes of the 20th century.
We can argue ballistics, motives, botched autopsies, and conspiracies all you want. The bottom line: Oswald killed Kennedy.
Forgetting everything else, remember this: Oswald had already tried to kill conservative General Edwin Walker months before JFK came to Dallas. Using the same cheap Italian rifle, he squeezed off a round into Walker's living room as the General worked at a desk. The slug hit a window frame and did no harm. Authorities wouldn't figure out who pulled the trigger until after the Kennedy murder.
Oswald owned guns. He bought both the rifle and a pistol that he would use to execute a Dallas police officer as he was trying to make a run for it after doing in JFK. And, let's not forget: he tried using that same sidearm on the officers who arrested him in a movie theater after the patrolman's slaying. After screaming, "This is it!", he brandished the weapon and pulled the trigger as cops pounced on him in the seats. The only thing that kept him from taking out another officer was the fact that the weapon jammed--a detective's hand got in the way of the firing mechanism, keeping the gun from going off.
Oswald had no explanation for his whereabouts at the time of the Kennedy murder, no firm escape plan after he committed the deed. He couldn't explain away how his alias wound up on the purchase order for the guns. And, he couldn't tell anyone what happened to the bundle he brought to work the day of the assassination--"curtain rods", is what he told a co-worker who'd given him a ride in that day. Officers found lots inside the Texas School Book Depository as they turned it inside-out following the killing, but they never came up with "curtain rods".
JFK's assassination is a cottage industry. It's generated books, documentaries, even a feature length movie or two. It gives cable history channels several nights of programming every fall. I've done my part in contributing to the empire. I have shelves packed with the latest blockbuster expose that claims to crack the caper by blaming everyone from Jimmy Hoffa to Fidel Castro to Jack Parr. Take it in, as much as you want. Question, challenge and be skeptical.
But, for God's sake and for the memory of a murdered President, don't give Oswald a pass. There's guilty, and there's being toast beyond a shadow of a doubt. Don't waste time trying to absolve one of history's more pathetic fringe players. While it's hard to blame one of the great crimes of our era on such an insignificant character, one has to only remember that it's not always the greatest criminals who pull them off. For all that went wrong in Oswald's life up to the afternoon of November 22nd, 1963, he was, for that one tragic moment, finally capable of pulling off something he coldly set out to do.
Remember that as you take all of this November's JFK offerings in.
I knew it was going to be a different kind of a Friday when I realized the date--November 13th--as I pulled on my watch getting out of the shower.
To top it off, a black cat crossed in front of my car as I was eastbound on Capitol Drive, heading toward Radio City.
All I needed now was to crack my rear view mirror and I'd have a superstition trifecta.
I'd seen the story right after I'd gotten up and checked out JS Online--the one about a Lambeau Field maintenance worker getting fired after an encounter with Packers Coach Mike McCarthy. It had happened a few days before the Vikings game in Green Bay, with employee Mike Wood claiming he told McCarthy to have the boys ready to "kick some butt." The Packers say Wood cracked off something about not "laying an egg." Wood got fired just before kickoff, ending a 22 year run with the team.
One of our Friday morning features on "Wisconsin's Morning News" is a live chat with the Coach, so I knew there was no way we could do our spiel and NOT ask about such a touchy subject.
I also wished like hell that the story had broken Saturday.
So it goes in this business. With the glamor that comes with chatting up an NFL coach on a weekly basis comes the responsibility of asking tough questions. It hasn't been easy of late, what with the Packers playing the way they have. It's always fun when the team is on a roll. It's always a chore trying to strike the right note when the club is faltering.
So, when it became 6:25 a.m. and the Coach was on the line, we came up with our plan of attack--partner John Jagler would ask about McCarthy's birthday (November 10th) and I'd follow up with what I would call "a bit of unpleasantness."
The Coach didn't flinch, but stuck to a theme of "I didn't get anyone fired", maintaining that he has no sway over the maintenance crew. After two approaches, we moved on to other things, like football.
I don't know if McCarthy thought we were going to visit the subject, and there are some who think his answers were less than forthcoming. More than a few say he probably shouldn't have even tackled the issue. He would go into a little more detail later in the day, but really didn't change his story, other than to admit to an encounter with a worker while adding, "He made a comment to me, I made a comment to him; it's not the worst thing that's been said, but I would not say it to a fellow employee. So that's as far as I want to go with it."
Mike Wood is now the most reluctantly famous Lambeau maintenance employee in Packers history, while McCarthy and the team are probably seen as thin-skinned bullies who are worried about trivialities instead of the bigger issues at hand. No matter what Wood said (Jagler incisively wonders who uses the term "lay an egg" any more, and I wonder if what REALLY was said was a cruder phrase that rhymes with it) the team can't win in the court of public opinion. It never should have come to this.
I believe McCarthy when he says he didn't get Wood fired, although he does admit asking others who the worker was after the encounter. Once he did that, it was on--Wood's supervisor did what he thought he had to do to appease the Coach: offer up the head of the offending employee.
Now that it's happened, the best thing that could happen would be for the team to bring Wood back, have him and McCarthy hug it out and let Wood return to his job before Sunday's game against Dallas.
And, as tough as it might be for a proud organization like the Packers and an intense, no-nonsense guy like McCarthy, the team and the Coach should admit that they over-reacted. Out loud. Via press release. In fact, have McCarthy hand Wood his time card back and welcome him into the team's warm embrace once again with cameras rolling.
Story over. McCarthy is redeemed, and so is the franchise.
If not, you can bet there'll be stories all over local TV Sunday night, right after the sports anchors show the highlights of the Cowboys game. They'll be showing Wood, sitting somewhere other than Lambeau, watching his beloved team on t-v. He'll be sticking to his story that he loves the Packers and did nothing untoward. Wood will be portrayed as a reluctant victim of an unfeeling organization and an overly sensitive coach who, in the big picture, has larger things to worry about.
Think how that story is going to play before Wisconsin goes to bed Sunday night. And think how much worse it'll look if McCarthy and the Packers "lay an egg" against Dallas.
She says she could've raked in big money from the tabloids.
Instead, Charla Nash decided to reveal herself on Oprah, saying it was "on her own terms."
Nash is the woman left horifically disfigured after being attacked by a friend's chimp earlier this year in Connecticut. She's been hospitallized ever since, and had yet to reveal the extent of her injuries in public.
Until Wednesday.
Here's the story, but be forwarned: it's tough stuff.
The only thing harder on the eyes than those throwback Buccaneers jerseys Sunday was the Packers play in all phases of the game.
Tampa Bay's 38-28 win marks the low ebb of the McCarthy/Thompson era, and unless the brain trust starts using what it has in the toolbox properly, it's only going to get worse.
Think there's help coming in the offensive line? Expecting someone to roll into town to shore up the sorely lacking special teams? Holding out hope that a super-stud pass rusher is looking to buy a home in Green Bay between now and the end of the season?
Hope in one hand. Spit in the other. See which fills up first.
These, as now constructed, are your 2009 Green Bay Packers. Coach Mike McCarthy needs to use the assets he has, lest he face the cruelest of NFL fates.
That means running the ball as needed--the Journal/Sentinel's Greg Beddard says the Packers could've won Sunday's game without ever throwing a pass, what with the way they were pushing Tampa Bay around with the rush. To avert the incessant number of sacks, the Packers need to put Aaron Rodgers in position to succeed: that means short drops, play-actions, and maybe the odd roll-out or three. Remember the screen pass? Rodgers obviously has no inclination to hurry up his check-downs, a decision that will hamper both his success and his personal well-being.
Aaron Kampman wanders around the secondary like a drunk vagrant, being asked to do something (cover) that he's just not built to do. He is a pass-rusher, through and through, who is being a good teammate by sucking it up and adapting to a new role but proving week after week that, as a linebacker, he makes a fine defensive end. Moving him out of his natural position might be the biggest personnel blunder since Dan Devine tried turning All-Pro offensive lineman Gale Gillingham into a defensive pass rusher. He blew out a knee two weeks into the regular season, effectively ending his Green Bay stay.
The 3-4 defense still hasn't jelled--there was no pass rush to speak of again Sunday, as was the case in two brushes with Brett Favre and the Vikings. Or, in the loss to the Bengals. Dom Capers comes with big cred but most of us are waiting anxiously to see results.
There are eight games left to turn a faltering season around. If the Packers play as they did in Tampa Bay, I don't see them winning more than two--the Lions game on Thanksgiving, and perhaps the Chicago rematch since the Bears are about as bollixed up as Green Bay is. Anything can happen, and maybe McCarthy can right the ship. It comes down to using what you have to your advantage, instead of trying to put square pegs in round holes.
Let's see how McCarthy uses his toolbox. If he doesn't do it up right, we may soon see how he performs as a luggage handler.
...there's "60 Minutes" and Steve Kroft making sure that sleeping would be no easy chore Sunday night.
Kroft's piece on cyber-terror and potential attacks on the US power grid, banking system and national defense centers makes your blood run cold...see it here--and good luck catching 40 winks.
One of the beauties of the multi-channel cable/satellite world we now enjoy is the chance to go back to see the shows that we remember as kids.
Classics like "All In The Family" still hold up. Others don't.
I tried injesting an episode of "Route 66" on a Friday night a few months ago on "Me TV". Despite the classic theme song and the premise of two jobless guys going rogue in a hot car along a stretch of American highway in the early 60's, the show turned out to be...well, really boring. The dialogue went on forever. Shots lingered way too long for our modern tastes (count how long the camera lingers on ANYTHING these days in a modern television drama--our short attention spans can't deal with visual loitering). The storyline wasn't all that compelling, and I found myself flipping channels about halfway in.
Maybe I just didn't see the right episode. In fact, there's one that I'm now dying to see. It's the one that was supposed to air the night of November 22nd, 1963 but never made it to air for reasons both obvious and subtle.
The networks suspended regular programming that afternoon as word of President Kennedy's shooting and eventual death dominated the day. CBS, which aired "Route 66", went non-stop news right in the middle of my mom's favorite soap opera, "As The World Turns". Walter Cronkite read wire copy over the "CBS News/Bulletin" slide until the newsroom studio camera could be warmed up (they weren't plugged in and on-air ready when the first word hit New York--an oversight that would never be duplicated again). As the situation grew more tragic, the obvious decision was made: CBS and other networks stayed with the story until sign-off that night. It stayed that way right through the Kennedy funeral Monday afternoon.
One of the Friday night prime-time casualties was this episode of "Route 66". And, because of it's storyline, it never saw the light of day, even after the President's murder. That's because the show was about an attempt on the life of a visiting Arabian dignitary who was paying a visit to Niagra Falls, a man targeted for death by a gunman using a rifle. Apparently, there was even a scene involving a motorcade.
CBS, according to the link above, apparently thought it was a little too much, too soon. The series got cancelled at the end of the season, and the episode stayed in the closet.
You may already know the back-story on "The Manchurian Candidate"--the 1962 classic about a miltiary man programmed to kill a presidential candidate. Frank Sinatra starred in it, and legend has it that he had the clout to have it pulled from distribution after Kennedy's death. The myth was that he was so shaken by the similarities between the movie's plot and what had happened to JFK that he didn't want it shown anymore. That's what I thought, too, until I did a Snopes check and found out otherwise. "The Manchurian Candidate" did, indeed, fall off the face of the Earth after the assassination, but the murder had nothing to do with it. It was timing, combined with Sinatra's personal business interests.
The "Route 66" coincidence is eery--what are the odds of a show with such a plot line being on a network's prime-time schedule the very night of one that a political assassination would happen earlier that very day? That pegs the creepy-meter. There were only three networks back then, so the viewer's plate was hardly as full as it is today with it's satellite and cable options.
Maybe, some Friday night, this very episode will pop up on Me-TV or on one of the other nostalgia networks. And, even if the shots linger too long and the dialogue seems a bit wooden, I'll stick with the show the whole way, knowing the compelling backstory and incredible coincidence that no Hollywood writer could've imagined.
It's no surprise that the Milwaukee Brewers traded away J.J. Hardy.
It's mildly beyond the pale that they got a center fielder for him, instead of a pitcher. This means that Mike Cameron will be free to go wherever the free agent trail takes him. It also says that Hardy wasn't going to get G-M Doug Melvin the kind of starter he craves. Light-hitting shortstops don't draw big name arms in return, especially when it's a seller's market for those blessed with spare hurlers.
What jumped off the page when I read Tom Haudricourt's blog on the deal was the use of the word "speedster" in describing newly acquired Carlos Gomez, late of the Minnesota Twins. "Speedster", in baseball parlance, means "one who steals bases" which is something his new team was reluctant to do in 2009.
Reluctant, meaning "deathly afraid".
Gomez pilfered 33 sacks in '08 before playing his way into reserve status last season because, no matter how fast you are, you can't steal first base. He was hitting just .199 the first month of last season before grabbing pine.
Hardy's heir apparent, Alcides Escobar, stole 42 bases at Nashville before his call-up last summer. Corey Hart is one of the fastest, smartest base runners on the club. Rickey Weeks can pick 'em up and put 'em down, too. One could assume that, with the addition of Gomez to the line-up, the Brewers are finally going to turn on the after-burners and start putting the pressure on the defense by running more.
I don't think that's going to happen, unless someone totally rewires Manager Ken Macha's head this winter. Macha adores the long ball and always has. I can't see him changing his ways, no matter what.
Unless, of course, Melvin and owner Mark Attanasio make it a condition of employment. Attanasio isn't afraid to manage via the phone, and maybe he got sick of sitting Miller Park all those warm summer nights watching runners die on the bases. Scoring runs wasn't a Brewer problem in '09, but I've always maintained that the issue was WHEN they scored. Yovani Gallardo was on the wrong end of four shutouts last season, some of the 1-0 variety. That shouldn't happen to your staff ace, not with this kind of lineup.
Maybe Melvin likes Gomez for what his speed will mean to the Milwaukee defense--you need a burner in center, and it wasn't Gomez' glove that paved his way to the bench in the Twin Cities. He was deemed good enough to take Torii Hunter's place, and that's quite a compliment.
The same-old/same-old no longer applies with the Brewers. When a matinee idol and 2007 All Star can be peddled after a bad season, you know Melvin's dealing digits are twitchy. I'd be happy to see if the changes include a switch in Macha's offensive approach--I don't think the longball and on-base aggressiveness are mutually exclusive--but I have my doubts.
We won't know until April. And, by then, who knows what this team is going to look like?
Could there be a more docile game than a women's college soccer match?
Au Contra ire.
If you weren't watching closely, it's the same player pulling ALL of this crap, including the hair of her opponent. That would be number 15, New Mexico's Elizabeth Lambert who I definitely don't want to irritate but DO want on my side in my next bar fight.
No word yet from the NCAA about dicipline, if any.
