Been a crazy week.
As Chris Golden shared on Twitter this week, Thursday was the anniversary of Randy Johnson destroying a pigeon with a fastball in a spring training game. (Side note: Think about the mourning and loss for that nameless bird - and let's face it, pigeons are the rats of the air - by the hand-wringers of today's politically correct society. There's a real chance some folks would have wanted Randy Johnson charged for aerial indifference or bird battery or some other made-up charge that falls into either alliteration or assonance and is completely asinine.)
We lost Ken Howard, Joe Garigiola, Garry Shandling and Phife Dawg. Twitter turned 10, and the best Tweet to celebrate it that we saw may have been no UT fan has ever been able to use Twitter to say we just beat Florida in football. Peyton Manning turned 40, and we learned about the Emory students who are scared of chalk drawings.
Thanks gang, great job by you.
From left, Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez, Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen pose at the premiere of Emilio's film, "The Way," as part of AARP's Festival For Grown Ups at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Martin Sheen admits to guilt about how his offspring were affected, in earlier years, by the alcoholism that bedeviled him and by his consuming career ambitions. If he had it to do over again he wouldn't have had four children, he says he would have had eight: "For how do we know ourselves but through our children?"From Phil
OK, I admit that I regularly read your morning column now. I love listening to Press Row so then started checking out the 5@10.
I am stunned Thursday came and went with zero mention that is was the anniversary of the Breakfast Club detention --3/24/1984 when they started the movie. If you had to say who of the cast had the best career, who are you going with and what do you have as your Rushmore of John Hughes films?
Thanks, and feel free to use this on the show if you want.
Phil -
Well, Phil, we let you down.
That's the epicenter movie from which the entire 1980s teen flicks spin. It's the Zeus, and everything else is a specific deity over a specific realm.
Breakfast Club blends them all, and spins a poetic collection of stereotypes into a majestic image.
It's easily on Hughes' Rushmore, both as a writer and a director. He directed eight films and wrote more than 20, and TBC was part of each list, as were Planes, Trains & Autombiles, Ferris Bueller, Weird Science, Uncle Buck, Curly Sue, She's Having a Baby and Sixteen Candles.
Hughes' Rushmore as a director, in our view, is The Breakfast Club, Ferris, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck. (Yes, we have a soft spot for Uncle Buck for a lot of reasons. As a writer, add in the fact that he wrote the Vacation movies (and Christmas Vacation is glorious), as well as Mr. Mom and Home Alone. Home Alone has to make it, so we'll go TBC, Vacation (all of them under one, well all of them other than European, which was awful), Home Alone and probably Ferris. (Side note: It's tough to leave off a slew of movies such as Weird Science, but so it goes. And yes, Ferris holds up like a champ. If you haven't seen it in a while - if you have the funds - we highly recommend it.)
As for the best careers of the cast of Breakfast Club, well, since we deal in Rushmores around these parts, we think it has to be Emilio Estevez. Dude was less in the Brat Pack than the others. We likely would be most surprised that Judd Nelson didn't do more. Dude was aces in TBC, but after "New Jack City" in 1990, his career resume is rather sketchy.
Michael Anthony Hall likely would be second behind Emilio, and his overall Rushmore - Vacation, TBC, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science - in the 1980s was pretty stout. (And yes, he appeared to be a Hughes fav, since Hughes was deeply involved in all of those.) In fact Hall's run of those four came from 1983 to 1985, and that's a two-year stretch that few can match in comedy.
As for the females - Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy - well, they kind of peaked and perished around that time, sadly.
Truth be told, the best overall career may have belonged to Paul Gleason, who played assistant principal Richard Vernon. Gleason's movie Rushmore includes, TBC, Die Hard, Trading Places and the Great Santini. That's stout. Now add in the fact that he may be one of the great "I know that guy" in TV history, who has played roles on some of the biggest shows ever - All My Children, Hill Street Blues, Dallas, A-Team, Miami Vice, Magnum P.I., L.A. Law, Wonder Years, Seinfeld, Friends to name several - and Gleason has had the best career.
Great question, and we promise to do better in the days ahead.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin StallingsFrom Jomo
JG- for mailbag, Have heard rumors that Kevin Stallings will be fired in a day or two when he gets back from visiting his son at spring training ( plays minor league baseball). If that happens and Vandy wants to hire Will Wade, as their fan base has been clamoring for, would you think Wade would listen? Would it be hard to leave after one year, or would it?
Jomo -
Interesting question.
We all know Wade is from Nashville. Personally, if Vandy doesn't run Kevin Stallings, then, well, it's fair to question how much they really want to commit to basketball. After 17 years, don't we have a really good idea of who Stallings is as a coach, and what Vandy is going to be. Three times out of four they are going to underachieve.
Every third or fourth year, they will make a mini-run because guys tend to stick around for several years at Vandy. That's a recipe for success at mid-majors, so Vandy must be fine with a mid-major resume in a power five league. Stalling has six NCAA tournament trips in 17 seasons. You do the math.
As for Wade, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch, he made well more than $1 million this year.
According to this website, which is two years old, Stallings was making $1.992 million in 2014. That's unofficial of course because Vandy does not have to release salaries because it's a private school.
We all know Wade is from Nashville. Plus, the accepted difference in money offered by Vandy compared to VCU would have to make him look.
Weighing the pros and cons, we think Wade would have to look very seriously at Vandy.
We think Wade could win more at VCU, and potentially springboard that into a big-time gig. (Although in some ways Wade's future is tied to what Shaka Smart does at Texas. VCU's run of next-level hires has gone Jeff Capel, who had some success and some NCAA troubles at Oklahoma, Anthony Grant, who underwhelmed at Alabama, and now Smart, who made the tournament at Texas in year one. Also of note, Capel followed Chattanooga legend Mack McCarthy at VCU.)
But the money - if Vandy offers a five-year deal worth $10 million, per se - you have to look hard at it. Who knows what could happen, and a $10 million nest egg for the rest of your life is pretty outstanding.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014, file photo, actor, talk show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey addresses an audience after accepting the W.E.B. Du Bois medal during ceremonies, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. A number of high-profile entertainers, including Winfrey, Mary J. Blige, Charlize Theron and Meryl Streep, have signed an open letter calling on world leaders to fight for gender equality across the globe. The letter, released Sunday, March 6, 2016, states that some 62 million girls are denied the right to education, 500,000,000 women can’t read and 155 countries have laws that discriminate against women. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) From Michael
Just a little side note – I think the Democrats' best bet is to get Oprah to run! Think about that a minute and tell me I'm wrong.
Michael -
Not going to say that's completely wrong, but the Democrats' dream scenario is starting to unfold in my mind.
Bernie motivated some of the under-30 bleeding hearts without pointing out in the debate process that Hillary's Federal email crimes cost Americans their lives.
The GOP continues to implode at levels not seen since Nixon was during his paranoid-limits before Watergate. Forget the #NeverTrump hashtag; shouldn't Republicans be focusing on #NeverHillary movements in the grand scheme of things?
Plus, we wake up this morning and Business Insider has this story about Hillary is currently crushing Trump in head-to-head polls.
But to your point, thank goodness the GOP will run against Hillary than Oprah.
Oprah would be much tougher to beat - much better financed - than Hillary.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James reacts after dunking during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, Sunday, March 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo) From Stewwie
I can't imagine being a Cavs fan right now. Or Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love. Have we reached the point where the Cavs should just consider letting LeBron walk away? He's a toxic teammate. Passive-aggressive, but still toxic.
Stewwie -
We never would have considered that before this week, but LeBron's antics - he's acting like a petulant eighth-grader wanting everyone to tell he or she how popular they are - in the last few days make your point interesting.
In a million years, Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert can't give LeBron an excuse to walk, that would take LeBron off the hook in a lot of folks' eyes. In truth, Gilbert can't afford to let James walk either, considering he's selling out the joint and will have them no worse than in the Eastern Conference Finals everywhere year that he's a Cav. Business-wise, you do everything in your power to keep him.
But this is example No. 1,301 of why you can't let the residents run the hotel. LeBron is the alpha and the omega in that organization and, as great a player as James is, this set-up may never work.
Look at how James reacted last night when the Cavs lost to a bad New Jersey team.
This does not look like a team that has any chance to win more than a game against the Warriors or the Spurs. Well, that only chance would be LeBron going 45-18-12 for the Finals, and sadly, everyone in Cleveland - including LeBron - knows that is the only way these Cavs could win it all.
As for the thought that Popovich or some big-time head coach wouldn't want him, we think that may be overstating it. James was a great teammate in Miami because Riley had his respect. We think Popovich - or fill in NBA stud X here - would have a pre-signing discussion with LeBron, and in the right system, James could assume his spot as the supremely athletic version of Magic Johnson he was destined to be.
Right now, though, he does appear toxic, to use your word. And that's stunning to us.
FILE - In this March 21, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Washington. Republican and Democratic presidential candidates clashed over the role of government, and its limitations, in enforcing U.S. national security Tuesday, March 21, 2016, following deadly attacks on the Brussels airport and metro system. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) From Frank
It's violence and bigotry we fear. To compare the Trump campaign of hate to the civil rights struggles (against lynching) proves you to be among the hate filled bigots who disgrace this community and our entire nation. Chalk, how ridiculous can you get? Shut up BIGOT!!! There are people more worthy than you who have no voice. Just shut your racist hate filled face!
Frank -
As a lot of my high school teachers would attest, I can get pretty ridiculous.
That said, I was never intimidated by chalk.
Frank was part of the negative reaction to our A2 column earlier this week. We had a ton of response and that's cool. Most of it was positive, some of it - like Frank's - was shall we say, less than positive.
To each their own and we appreciate the feedback. (Something tells us, if we decided to get 5-at-10 T-shirts, Frank may not be among the first to order. Thoughts?)
On a side note, sorry you missed the point of the column, but that's OK.
Either way, this feels like a fine point to wrap this up.
Happy Easter everyone.