Just in Case...

The pleasant scene that played out around the dinner table yesterday

OK, this will be a small work in progress, but hang in there with me.

You see, there is a nasty storm around these parts. We have ice, sleet, snow, and rain with the possibility of power outages.

Now there are a couple of things that can certainly bring down Project 365 (30 more posts left in 2019 after this one). Lack of internet, bad cell service and, yes, loss of power are all bad.

So after I saw the lights flicker a few minutes ago, I decided to rush a post together.

John Nash trumpeted the case of the horses passing the final turn today on The October Weekend. He even generated a "Fathead" of me on a horse and, trust me, jokes can abound off of that.

- I posted some pictures today on social media after watching my family yesterday. The house had my sister and most of her family over. Sean mentioned to me how crowded the house would be, and it made me laugh.

"That's nothing," I said. "We could have even more people. You missed the days when we entertained a lot. The picnics and so on."

Later on, as people were eating, I saw how nice it looked to have the dining room table full of people. At the end of the evening, we all gathered around the table for a group photo.

So I went through my archive and found a few other table photos, with me as a baby, and my parents and grandparents and siblings and my aunt and uncle.

Just a nice tie to the lineage of my family.

There was lots of laughter and Sean was a hit while playing a game (using my name as a punch line).

- I heard Gus Johnson (FOX broadcaster) got a hair political yesterday, whether he meant to or not. The comment  -- made during the Ohio State-Michigan game -- was about Ohio State star RB JK Dobbins. Johnson explained that Dobbins' mother was pregnant at 18 and was talked out of having an abortion.

I get it. Great human interest story. Solid tidbit.

As a friend said to me: "Families watch football, right?" The implication here is that kids don't necessarily need to hear that. Fair point.

Further, it just seemed to set the political football of abortion rights wide open and, indeed, both the right and left have weighed in on social media.

My take? I'm sure there's a way to tell that story in a better way, if at all. I'm not sure it's a story I'd try to tell. That being said, it's live TV/radio, and we all try to say things that turn out clunky. There's no delete button.

Nothing will happen to Gus until he actually ticks off sponsors. That's the way it works. That being said, nothing should happen to him in this case.

- New Rochelle High School won the state championship in their class in New York yesterday. The team has made national news thanks to the "reassignment" of longtime head coach Lou DiRienzo. The story seemed to galvanize an already talented team to even greater heights.

DiRienzo (apparently) was reassigned due to an in-school incident in which he helped a student leave school. Various versions of the story have come to light, including the student was to face some sort of disciple and that the student was a relative of DiRienzo.

Whatever the case (and facts remain sketchy, so forgive my sorting through the tea leaves) students staged walkouts and various protests. Parents and fans did the same.

Support has been overwhelmingly in favor of the coach, including various media members (me included).

However, ABC 7 Eyewitness News reported on Wednesday that allegations have come to life against DiRienzo involving unlawful contact with a female student in Yonkers in the 1980s.

For the record, the Yonkers Police Department released a statement which said, in part: "Due to the nature of the allegations and the amount of time elapsed, any potential criminal charges would not be eligible for prosecution."

But supporters feel that it's just another attempt to smear DiRienzo. I can only tell you that I don't know the coach and have never met him, but I run in circles with a lot of media folks and no one has ever said an unkind word about him.

The main point remains the New Rochelle football team has won a state championship, and that's pretty cool, as few teams have ever dealt with more outside noise and climbed so high. Good for them.

- We still have power. I get to watch the Patriots on TV.

Again.

Their games should be on more often. Maybe just create a Patriots channel.

Oh, while on the NFL and their moronic TV rules, thanks to CBS for changing the start time of today's Browns/Steelers rematch to 1:00 p.m., thus allowing us in New York to not watch compelling football and, instead, giving us the opportunity to watch both the Giants and Jets lose.

Earlier this week, Browns coach Freddie Kitchens was spotted wearing a T-shirt that said, "Pittsburgh Started It," in reference to the kerfuffle a few weeks ago in which Myles Garrett whacked Mason Rudolph with Rudolph's helmet. There are those who believe the Steelers and, specifically, their now former starting QB ignited the fire.

The Steelers won today. Thus many, me included, feel that...wait for it...

"Pittsburgh Ended It!"