Sunday Morning Coffee — December 21, 2025 — Sunday Morning Scramble
By Roy Berger, London, UK
Good morning. Today we Scramble from London, our last day in what has been a wonderful week coming over to see the kids to celebrate Chanukkah and Andi’s birthday on Friday. Best gift we could get her (and me) was time with granddaughter Harley, almost five months old. She turns a dreary London winter day into sunshine.
You call it potato and I call it patatoe. Same goes for tomatoes. So why do some write Hanukkah with an ‘H’ and others Chanukkah with a ‘C’? Then some use a ‘kk’ in the word or others just a ‘k.’ It’s all actually in the Hebrew to English transliteration and no difference at all. The ‘Ch’ spelling is a guttural sound that doesn’t exist in English, unless you are clearing your throat—this version is most common in academia, Israeli or traditional Jewish content. The ‘H’ is simpler and easier for English speakers and most widely used in media, calendars and greeting cards. As long as you give us Hanukkah/Chanukkah gelt, pick the spelling you like.
I’m sure I’m not alone having a really difficult time processing the Rob and Michele Reiner murders. We have become so callous to so much, but this just doesn’t make any sense to me. Rob Reiner has been in our lives for well over half a century since his Mike Stivic role in All in the Family dating back to 1971. Reiner’s career is well documented; his success in film as an actor, writer, director, and producer easily worthy of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But for all his successes he never won an Oscar. He was nominated twice as a producer—A Few Good Men and The American President. He once said, “Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar, so I’m in pretty good company.” Again, extraordinarily tragic.
Going to spend a weekend with Bernie? At the Malaga, Spain, airport last week an 89-year-old woman with a ticket to London was placed into a wheelchair by five family members and wheeled on to an airplane. Questioned about her health by gate personnel relatives claimed she was “just tired.” The woman was taken to the back of the aircraft, placed in her seat, and shortly afterward the plane started taxiing for departure. The cabin crew and some fellow passengers weren’t buying the “just tired” line. The easyJet airplane returned to the gate, emergency services were called and the woman was pronounced dead in her seat. At least she was spared the inflight meal.
The last two times we saw former Michigan head football coach Sherrone Moore was with police escorts. On November 29, walking to midfield to shake hands with Ohio State head coach Ryan Day after Ohio State’s win, Moore, 39, had two Michigan state troopers by his side, a courtesy extended to all major college football coaches. The next time we saw him, less than two weeks later on December 12, Moore was also escorted by two officers but this time on a perp walk to be arraigned on a felony charge of home invasion and two misdemeanors—stalking and breaking and entering.
How’s this for a little federal government mismanagement? Amtrak, owned by the feds, lost $1.76 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025. To show appreciation for the fine balance sheet, Amtrak rewarded its employees with $32 million in bonuses.
Baseball season concluded a couple of months ago with a great World Series. Television ratings were sky high. Now as we enter the offseason, the so-called hot stove league, where fans fantasize about next year for their favorite teams, you can pass three hours of the darkness by watching Alex vs. A-Rod, streaming on HBO Max. Alex Rodriguez fits the Seinfeld profile of ‘two-faced.’ A terrific on the field talent was an incredible enigma off the field. Best summed up by New York sportscaster Mike Francessa who said during the three-part documentary Rodriguez was “An incredible baseball player but a very flawed individual.” Love or loathe him, love the Yankees or not, it’s worth the watch. So is the 30 For 30 streaming on ESPN platforms about the late Stuart Scott.
And while we’re at it, if you haven’t watched The Beast in Me on Netflix, do. It was that good. One season, eight episodes starring Claire Danes of Homeland who is just as frenetic in this as she was playing Carrie Mathison. Matthew Rhys plays the bad guy to perfection and any show that features Jonathan Banks in it, Mike from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is on my list.
Maybe it’s just me but every time I get an automatic upgrade to my iPhone I long for my old BlackBerry.
If you are a gym regular or hang out at the beach, you’ll notice the propensity of people sporting tattoos. In fact, 32% of Americans have inscripted art.
The 1970s was such an influential period for so many boomers. The top song of the decade? It was Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life which remained number one on the Billboard 100 for ten weeks in 1977.
The last time Phillip Rivers, 44, threw a pass in the NFL was five years ago for the Colts before ending a 16-year career. Fifteen of those were in a Chargers’ uniform. Some 1800 days later, after working as a high school football coach in Alabama, old man Rivers suited up again last Sunday for Indianapolis as its starting QB illustrating just how empty the secondary tank of NFL quarterbacks is. Rivers, who hadn’t missed many all-you-can-eat buffets since being away from the game, respectfully acquitted himself by throwing for 120 yards and a touchdown in Indy’s two-point loss to Seattle. Even with the extra weight, Rivers was just as much a running threat as he was years ago, scrambling for minus five yards. The good news for the fourth overall selection in 2004 from NC State is by playing one game in the NFL he doesn’t have to worry about Obamacare and now gets an additional five years of league sponsored family health insurance coverage. However, by playing that one game he now falls off this year’s Hall of Fame ballot and needs to wait another five years, or when the health insurance expires, for consideration.
Calling Alabama a conservative red state is a big understatement. It’s the only jurisdiction in the Bible Belt without a state lottery. Surprisingly, Alabama has just taken the extremely unlikely step of approving licenses to operate medical marijuana dispensaries; something that has been on the books since 2021 but not acted upon until now. Make your doctor’s appointments as soon as you can.
And speaking of doctors, I hate when this happens: Dr. Vivek Vatikutti, a surgeon outside of London, was suspended from practice for nine months for being drunk while on duty. He admitted to drinking three-quarters of a bottle of vodka to ease stress. Assuming the stress wasn’t that bad or he would have finished the bottle.
The 12-team College Football Playoff begin this weekend with Miami and Alabama, both slight underdogs, winning proving they belonged. Who didn’t belong were the automatic qualifiers, Tulane and James Madison, losing to Ole Miss and Oregon by a combined 48 points. There’s no room in a 12-team event for auto qualifiers. Put the best dozen on the field and let them slug it out. Under the present format Notre Dame and BYU sat on the sidelines while Tulane and JMU got in through the back door. Interestingly, before the games started a Vegas odds-maker said Notre Dame would have been favored over every team in the field except for Ohio State. A format revision is needed.
And speaking of the Irish I would have lost this bet: Last Saturday when Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love finished a distant third in the Heisman Trophy voting to Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, I fully expected Notre Dame to announce their players will no longer participate in the Heisman Trophy process. There’s still time.
As a young kid I was a big New York Knicks fan right through the time I left to go to college in 1970. I went to the Garden often to see the Knicks and Rangers. The highlight was the great 1969-70 playoff run that culminated with the Knicks beating the Lakers in the championship round. But only one other NBA title after that, in 1973. If you are keeping score that’s 52 years, 23 head coaches and over 400 players ago. Since ‘70 I’ve seen a handful or two Knicks games live but last weekend the Knicks were in Vegas playing in a designed for television mid-season competition called the NBA Cup. I dialed up fellow New Yorker Peter Cox, who was a big shot trader on Wall Street back in the day and said we need to go. Glad we did. Reed, Bradley, Frazier, and the old crew are no longer in uniform, but some guys named Towns, Brunson and Hart are and these guys can play. The game is so much more physical and faster than it was back when the guys wore really short shorts. However, the most visible change was on the bench. Rosters in the ‘70s were ten players; now they are 13 but that wasn’t the attention grabber. Each team, the Knicks and the Magic, had 12 coaches seated on two rows of team benches. When the Knicks won in 1970 there were two non-players on the bench: Red Holtzman wasn’t called the head coach because he was the only coach; he sat alongside trainer Danny Whelan who moonlighted in the offseason in the same role for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Knicks did win the NBA Cup tournament beating Orlando and San Antonio. A nice payday came with it worth half a million to each player. It may not be the trophy we ultimately all want, there’s no parade, but maybe it’s a start as the Knicks will be a factor in this season’s playoffs. However, not so fast. This is the third iteration of the NBA Cup. The first two winners, the Lakers and Bucks, were eliminated in the opening round of the postseason.
I know there’s no crying in baseball but after watching the Knicks and Magic I’m also convinced there’s no walking violations in the NBA.
A lost art: nattily attired basketball coaches both pro and college. Thanks to UCLA’s Mick Cronin and his staff for keeping the classy suit and tie look burning.
When you’ve been a Jets fan long enough you never look at the NFL standings from the top down; it’s always from the bottom up. And in our quest to draft the next superstar college quarterback who will probably be either out of the game or wearing another team’s uniform in three years, the Jets have some losing to do and need help over the final three weeks of the season. Statistically entering today’s game, the Jets have only an 11% chance to get the number one pick in April’s draft. The Giants and Titans are tied with an 18% chance while the Raiders are at 41% chance to grab Fernando Mendoza to be their savior. All Las Vegas needs to do is lose their last three. At 2-11 odds are in their favor. Circle next Sunday, December 28, that’s the big one when the Raiders and Giants meet with the number one pick on the line. The Giants will open as a field goal favorite. There’s no over/under total published yet but this one should be about 6.5 points.
And before we leave the Raiders, and there are a lot of people in this city who hope they do leave, last Sunday the Raiders chalked up 75 yards of total offense in their loss to the Eagles. Yep, 75 yards. Spelled seventy-five. The least amount in any NFL game this season, taking the Jets and their 82 against Denver off the hook. Meanwhile, a couple of thousand miles to the East there was offense of a totally different sort. Ty Cummings, a running back at West Laurens High School in Dublin, Georgia, rushed for a state record of 615 yards on 19 carries and eight touchdowns—each touchdown on runs of 53 yards or longer in West Laurens’ 70-55 win over Baldwin High. Cummings, a senior, has committed to play at Georgia Southern next year. He won’t be there long.
With the rule changes, NFL kickoffs are once again in vogue and if you think five yards doesn’t matter consider this: when teams start a drive on their own 30-yard line, they score a touchdown or field goal 37% of the time. Start on your own 35 and that jumps to 45%.
Finally, it was a week ago when the trifecta of terrible news flashed across our phones. The shooting at Brown University, the targeted massacre in Australia and the aforementioned Reiner family tragedy. What’s going on here? I’d like to say it can’t get any worse, but it can and sadly it will. There is far more good than evil in our world but evil sells and gets the headlines. The attack on Jews at Sydney’s Bondi Beach celebrating Chanukkah was a hate crime of the worst sort—15 innocent, fun loving people dead. Jews have become a fashionable target over the past couple of years for doing nothing but protecting their homeland and their soil. In fact, two were arrested in London on Wednesday for terrorist anti-Semitic threats. Judaism is a religion but it’s also a peoplehood strengthening our resolve. We have never been more united. We’re not looking for trouble but not willing to turn our backs and walk away from the haters either. Will there ever be peace in the Middle East that translates to the rest of the world? Not in our lifetimes but I can still hold out hope that maybe one day baby Harley and her generation will see a sea-change. So, on this last day of Chanukkah/Hanukkah and with Christmas four days away, let’s savor and enjoy the spirit of the season in spite of tragedy throughout the world. We need a break, we need to smile, we need to appreciate life and each other. Let’s make that our focus this holiday season.
Happy New Year; thanks for letting us into your busy life every week and we’ll see you again on January 11. Shalom.
I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger
Roy, thank you for another great read. Hope to see you soon on the course..
Enjoy your well deserved break. We will miss your dry humor and reminders that all news is not good news. Happy birthday Andi. Travel safely.