More January Ramblin'

I should have written this yesterday, but I was in the midst of doing something (which will become evident), taped the end of the NFC championship game Sunday night, but neglected to account for it running long. The game had about two and a half minutes to go when the recording stopped I turned on ESPN's Sports Center and saw all the important remaining plays, including those in overtime.
GO, GIANTS!! I suggested three weeks ago that the Giants playing New England tough then, when it "didn't matter", was a good idea, and now they have the chance to play them again, when it does. I worry, though, that the transition that NYG coach Tom Coughlin's face will suffer going from -4F Green Bay - was he suffering frostbite? - to sunny Arizona will be a shock to his system.
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Johnny Podres died. I got totally into that Boys of Summer storyline. The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, with Jackie Robinson, finally beat the hated New York Yankees, finally beat the hated Yankees, with Podres winning Game 3 and the decisive Game 7, for the only time before they moved to Los Angeles.

Allan Melvin died. He's one of those guys who you would see on TV (I remember him from Phil Silvers, Dick van Dyke and All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place, plus a commercial) and you might say, "You know, THAT guy." (By Archie Bunker's Place, even I knew him by name. If you don't, see what ME had to say.

Suzanne Pleshette died. That last episode of Newhart, in which she reappears as Emily Hartley, probably THE best TV ending of all time, I was watching, and yet I missed it. From IMDB
The final episode ("The Last Newhart" Episode: #8.24 - 21 May 1990) ran for 30 seconds longer than the typical episode. WRGB Channel 6 in Schenectady, NY was the only CBS affiliate to not get the message, and halfway through the concluding joke in the entire series, the control room cut to a local newscaster. As was typical at the time, he was to read teasers for that night's 11 o'clock news but he was visibly surprised at his own face appearing on the monitor since he was watching the end of the episode as well. The station DID show it during the 11 pm news, but I didn't watch that program, and I never saw the end until it was reprised some months later. Most of the early obits missed the fact that she had been married to Tom Poston, another Newhart cohort, until he died last year.

Richard Knerr died. Who was Richard Knerr? He was only the co-founder of Wham-O, that made the hula hoop (I had one, never that good at it), Slip 'N Slide (I had one, loved it), and the Frisbee (STILL have one; most of the knockoffs aren't aerodynamically as sound as the original). Part of my childhood has passed as well.

ROG