Hey, Chattanooga's mayor is against hate.
Cool. So am I.
In fact, I hate hate. Wait, is that hypocritical?
Jay GreesonIf you are supposed to embrace hate with love, should we love hate or hate love? Now my head hurts.
Well, somehow I am sure it's my fault. After all, I'm a white guy who is older than 40.
Monster TV monsters
"Game of Thrones" returns to HBO on Sunday. I am a fan. You may not be.
But know this: The hit TV show about dragons and the race for control of the Iron Throne has become the biggest hit in forever.
These numbers were tweeted from the Game of Thrones account: Per episode average viewership in U.S. (in millions): season one - 9.3; season two - 11.6; season three - 14.4; season four - 19.1; season five - 20.2; season six - 25.7; season seven - 32.8.
So we are looking at an average of 22 million viewers per episode, which is staggering for any series on a pay-channel like HBO.
Can you remember a TV return with this type of anticipation and expectation? Who shot JR on "Dallas" set the all-time bar for that, but GoT's final season may be second on that list.
The top-watched, non-live event TV broadcasts of 2018 were "Roseanne" and "Big Bang Theory" at 20 million and 18.3 million average viewers respectively. Only four events topped 40 million viewers in 2018: Super Bowl (103.4 million), State of the Union (45.6 million), AFC title game (44.1 million), NFC title game (42.3 million).
Speaking of TV
OK, this would be aces.
Alec Baldwin, the Hollywood actor who has returned to prominence recently in large part because of his impersonation of President Donald Trump, tweeted that "beating Trump would be so easy" if he ran for president.
Hmmmmm. You think so, Alec? Hey, loved your work in "Boss Baby" and I even thought you were a better Jack Ryan than Harrison Ford.
But, c'mon.
That said, can you imagine how much fun a prime-time debate would be with Trump being Trump and Baldwin comes out in his Trump get-up?
Forget the earlier thought. C'mon in Alec. Heck, be Democratic candidate No. 1,206.
An example to follow
The whole winning-it-all, White House invite for sports champions should never have been this difficult.
Here's hoping every champion from now on - whether it's Trump or his political opposite in office down the road - follows the almost-perfect example set by Baylor coach Kim Mulkey after her team won the NCAA women's basketball title a week ago.
Here's her comment when asked about a possible invite to D.C. "I've been every time for every president," she told the AP earlier this week. "It's not a political issue for me. It's an honor to go to the White House. I want everyone to say they went to the White House. Not many people can say that.
"I hope [the] Virginia men go and I can meet [coach] Tony Bennett. We were honored when President Bush was in the office. We were honored when Barack Obama was in the office. We'd be honored if Donald Trump invited us. With politics aside, we should go to say we went to the White House."
Well-played Coach.
Obit observations
The dateline was Kingsport, Tenn. His name was James Spurgeon McCartt.
He was 96. He served in the Navy in World War II. He loved his wife Jan for all of their 71 years of marriage. He loved his Lord, who he served for 70 years as a leader in the United Methodist Church.
Imagine the circle Mr. McCartt's life touched. Imagine the impact.
Thank you sir, and rest easy.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.