Rushmores from the week
Thursday - Second Rushmore: FDR, MLK, Reagan and Ben Franklin (not sure why his contributions have kind of been underplayed in our country's history). And yes, we know we have two non-presidents listed.
Thursday - 80s kids stars: Macaulay Culkin, Gary Coleman, Rudy Huxtable and Fred Savage. (All of these were kids - although Coleman may have been 35 at the time, who knows - rather than teens. That teen category is a whole different kettle of fish.)
Wednesday - Sandwiches: This one is hard. We concur at its most fundamental definition, a hamburger is here, so it's here. We'll go philly cheese steak, French Dip and chicken sandwich to round out the group, which is a shame consider the ones that were left off.
Monday - Rushmore of best Masters finishes. Jack in '86 is far left. Tiger in '05, highlighted by the Nike commercial chip on 16. Phil the previous year with birdie on the 72nd hole to win. And probably Norman's collapse in '96.
We also had an interesting question of where the second Rushmore would be.
(We did have a couple of you folks note that there kind of is a second mini-Confederate Rushmore at Stone Mountain outside of the A-T-L. That has Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis carved into its side. And truth be told, we're fairly surprised there hasn't been more of a public push to change that. We hope not, but you know how delicate our public sensibilities are now a days.)
We'd lean toward one of the mountains in Hawaii, especially with the whole FDR comments after Pearl Harbor. But that's us.
Jomo
Who is now "best golfer playing that has not won a major" ?
Jomo -
We talked a bit about this on Press Row earlier this week.
Of course the best all-time golfer without one is Colin Montgomerie, and a lot of people forget that when Mickelson hit his driver on 18 at Winged Foot in 2006 to lose the U.S. Open, Montgomerie also made double bogie on that final hole to allow Geoff Oglivy to win.
We'd put Lee Westwood slightly ahead of Rickie Fowler on the less-than-thrilling list of best without a major right now.
Matt Kuchar would probably be the next name followed maybe a Matsuyama and maybe a Patrick Reed.
Dynomite.
FILE - This April 1, 2012 file photo shows Lance Armstrong during a news conference in Galveston, Texas. A federal judge ruled Monday, Feb. 13, 2017 that the government's $100 million lawsuit against Lance Armstrong can proceed. The decision from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington sets the nearly 7-year-old case on course for jury trial. The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service teammate Floyd Landis, who could collect up to 25 percent. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Michael Paulsen, File ) MANDATORY CREDIT From Steve
Hey Jay, speaking of Rushmores...listening to Press Row on the way home yesterday, and like you, i really, really don't like Bubba. Matter of fact, i started thinking about other Professional Athletes that I'd like to "Cash me ouside"...My Rushmore of Pro Athletes I'd like to throat punch would look like this... Brice Harper, Jay Cutler, Bubba Watson, Kyle Bush. How bou dah?
Steve -
Steve, such an excellent question.
Yes, Bubba's there. We'll add Lance Armstrong, A-Rod and Floyd Mayweather.
If we could add a coaching/executive category, we'd start with Bobby Knight, and add Roger Goodell and go from there.
FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2016, file photo, Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) is defended by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) on a drive to the basket during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City. The playoffs start Saturday, with a series matching MVP candidates Russell Westbrook and James Harden the highlight of the first round. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams, File) From Stan
Did you do your NBA Playoff predictions this week? If so what day? Thanks and keep up the good work.
Stan -
Nope.
And here you go. (Please remember that in the expanded seven-game series between teams, a sizable upset would be a 3 over a 2 in most cases. This year we have one a touch larger than that.)
East Round 1
Boston over Chicago (5 games)
Washington over Atlanta (6 games)
Toronto over Milwaukee (6 games)
Cleveland over Indiana (5 games)
East semis
Boston over Washington (7 games)
Cleveland over Toronto (6 games)
East finals
Cleveland over Boston (5 games)
West Round 1
Golden State over Portland (4 games)
Utah over Clippers (6 games)
OKC over Houston (6 games)
San Antonio over Memphis (6 games)
West semis
Golden State over Utah (5 games)
San Antonio over OKC (5 games)
West finals
Golden State over San Antonio (7 games)
Finals
Golden State over Cleveland (5 games)
FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2015 file photo, Eddie Murphy presents the award for best original screenplay at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chris Rock, Kathy Griffin, Arsenio Hall and other leading comedians will perform Sunday, Oct. 18, in honor of Murphy as he receives the nation’s top prize for humor, the the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, at the Kennedy Center in Washington. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File) From Drew
Not sure if you saw this or not, but wanted to pass it along.
I know by reading your blog and listening to your show that you are a fan of Coming to America. Did you see that they are making a sequel to that movie? As you like to ask us -- Thoughts?
Drew -
This is terrible news.
So bad in fact that we had to take to the interwebs to make sure it was not a prank. Sadly, it is not. OK, we love Coming to America, and think it may be the most underrated comedy of all-time.
In every great metric of comedy movies - great side characters, quotable lines, moments that make you laugh every single time (Bleep you! Bleep you! Bleep you! Who's Next?), parts that you see and notice and laugh at after viewing 5, 10 and 12 (when the Soul Glo family gets off the sofa for example) - it grades exceedingly high.
We have a hard time seeing what - after roughly 30 years - the next storyline would be. (Well other than getting Arsenio a steady paycheck.)
Now add to this that the last non-animated Eddie Murphy vehicle that we thought was remotely funny was the first Nutty Professor and that was in 1996 for Pete's sake.
(Side note: There's a fair bit of plausibility in the theory for individual stars in comedy and other creative endeavors, that reaching the pinnacle a lot of times can derail the ascent. Think of it this way. When a stand-up comedian is faced with the do-or-day terror of making people laugh at midnight on a Tuesday on a side stage in Hoboken or not eating, that is a supreme motivating factor. With that motivation comes inspiration and supreme creativity. When someone is handing you seven-figure checks to do cruddy remakes and Bowfinger, well, it becomes really easy to go through the motions. And of all the things in this life that you can fake professionally and get away with, humor is not among them.)
We hope Coming to America 2 - or whatever they call it - is good because we have always held Murphy in such high regard.
Murphy's rise to the top was amazing. His SNL days. The stand-up routine that was Delirious. His early movies like Trading Places, which still holds up pretty well, to Beverly Hills Cop to Raw to Coming to America. It was amazing, as was his his lengthy stay by most measures as the funniest man on the planet. Think of other folks who grew to that point - Chevy Chase before Eddie; Jim Carrey right after; some others sprinkled in - and their stay atop the hill was no where near as long. From starting on SNL in 1980 to Coming to America in 1988, everything other than Best Defense was pretty dog gone good.
We've all experienced really bad sequels to movies that we hold dear. But the success rate of comedy sequels is pretty low to begin with. Rushmore of worst sequels starts with Caddyshack 2 and think of other 'comedies' sequels from the Hangover or Grease or Son of Mask or Dumb and Dumber or, well you get the idea.
Oh well.
What's on the Rushmore of movies that need a sequel?
Go, and enjoy the weekend.
Happy Easter everyone.