Sunday Morning Coffee — July 28, 2024 — Sunday Morning Scramble
Good morning from somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean drifting comfortably closer to New York enroute from the U.K.
The brand new Peninsula Hotel- London sits right at the Wellington Arch on perhaps the most valuable piece of real estate in the city.
Clockwise from top left: My kid brother Kenny and I share a chuckle in front of Buckingham Palace; family dinner at Delilah’s in Chelsea; a four-foot martini pour at Dukes; Andi solidifies international relations with Gilbert, a 17-year-old police horse during a bobby breather.
Ah, London. A great city. It’s been six years since I last visited in 2018 which ended a streak of 20 years in a row for business. More traffic, more people, still no pretzels but as enjoyable as ever. Our son Scott and daughter-in-law Cayla are living there so the visit was even more special. Scott is the Hotel Manager of the brand new Peninsula Hotel located in toney Belgravia at the Wellington Arch, less than a mile from the Palace. It opened to justified rave reviews. Great location, super property. The visit was enhanced by my brother Ken and sister-in-law Maureen visiting their son Kyle, who is also doing a London residency in the insurance industry with s/o Annette who we hope will become our niece-in-law one day. Fun week also seeing old business colleagues Matt Webb and Charlie Boyd and friends Sherrie and James Murphy from our long ago Iowa days. Reconnected with some favorite restaurants from years ago and had my long overdue first martini at Dukes. Then six nights of sailing to the mainland on Cunard’s QE2. It’s time to get home.
Things always sound better in the King’s English. In the States we call them homeless but in Britain they are ‘rough sleepers.’
I’ve written a lot of sports stories in my day and read thousands more but was at a total loss reading this sports lede (yes, spelled correctly) in London’s Daily Mail: “England are back in control of the second Test against West Indies after an unbroken partnership of 108 between the Yorkshire duo of Harry Brook and Joe Root gave them a lead of 207 with seven wickets in hand.” Huh?
We can’t leave the U.K. without noting that during the recently concluded Wimbledon tournament over 55,000 tennis balls were used.
I bet you didn’t know that 13% of the American population is left-handed but 25% of professional baseball players are southpaws.
It’s difficult to ignore the role nepotism played in this year’s NBA Draft. The Lakers selected LeBron’s son Bronny, a role player at best in his one season at USC, with the 55th selection in the second round. I chatted with a friend and former PAC-12 coach (actually all of last year’s PAC-12 coaches are now former with the dissolution of the conference) whose team played USC twice last season and asked him about the Lakers pick: “He’s a dime a dozen. This past season there were probably 30 PAC-12 players with better basketball skills who won’t get the chance afforded to Bronny because of who he is.” Sportsbooks aren’t high on his potential either. The younger James is 250-1 to be NBA Rookie of the Year. He’s even money to score 15 or more points in any game and that jumps to 8-1 for 20 points or more. He’s 6-5 to make three or more three- pointers in a game jumping to 12-1 to get at least five from downtown. Good luck kid.
True story. Three days after my synagogue presidency ended, playing golf for the first time on July 3 and totally void of any texts, emails or phone calls I shot a 78, my lowest round in over six years. Coincidence? I doubt it.
As a devout Southwest Airlines customer for the last 25 years, an early thumbs-down on the news of reserved seats beginning in 2025. Open seating is what made Southwest so unique. For me it was a competition to get the seat I wanted and I was pretty darn good at it. I’ll miss the challenge. Southwest fares already rival the legacy carriers and reserved seating will ultimately make them just another one of the bunch save for news if bags will still fly free. Southwest doesn’t use the hub system. Instead a spoke from point to point, with just about all their flights becoming thru-flights with a set amount of passengers staying aboard at any given stop. This will make reserved seating ultimately problematic for both the consumer and company. A lot of wrinkles to iron out before this happens.
And before we leave the airlines it’s been at least 20 years since I was a regular United customer. Back in the day I was a big macha with them: 1K Premium status; rarely not automatically upgraded; over a million miles in the bank and using O’Hare as my hub, I had agents that would take care of me on a first name basis. I know they have taken heat lately for their customer service, but I was more than pleasantly surprised when on this London trip we used United and was really wowed by its customer service. The ground agents couldn’t have been more helpful, the text messaging right on cue and the new terminal A in Newark as nice and easy to negotiate as it comes. I know these words might cause my friend and travel guru Joe Brancatelli (Joesentme.com) to cancel his SMC, but as a gentleman named Cosell taught us — we gotta tell it like it is.
Happy 75th birthday to Michael Richards who we haven’t seen for a long time. His role as Cosmo Kramer was really comedic genius. He fell out of favor in 2006 with a racist tirade against hecklers while doing a stand-up set at the Laugh Factory in LA. He’s tried a couple of times to redeem himself but has never recaptured the prominence he had during the Seinfeld years. And we’d be remiss not wishing Elizabeth Francis of Houston a very happy 115th birthday. Ms. Francis is the oldest person in the United States and fourth oldest in the world. Clearly no longer watching her waistline, the New York Post reported she celebrated with not one, but two slices of vanilla cake!
The off-season Hard Knocks featuring the New York Giants now on HBO and MAX is very good.
I hesitate to call this great, instead just say extremely interesting, is Netflix’s Hitler and the Nazi’s: Evil on Trial. I learned so much that I’m ashamed I didn’t know. Going 180 degrees the other way is Loot with Maya Rudolph on Apple TV. Funny. Ms. Rudolph is now getting pressured by NBC to re-create her Kamala Harris role on SNL.
Glad we got back to the Mirage one more time before it closed on July 17. Had so many great memories over its 34-year run. With Tropicana and Mirage closing, the Vegas Strip has lost 5% of its rooms in the last two months.
Lou Gehrig’s 1926 contract with the New York Yankees paid him $6500 for the season. However, he had to put down a $30 deposit ($525 today) to ensure the return of his uniform at the end of the season. He returned it and got back the $30. Bad deal for the Gehrig family. That same jersey sold for $2.6 million in 2019.
Proof that you can fool some of the people some of the time. I went for medical testing a couple of weeks ago and was gabbing with the tech. She asked me where I was from. Born in the Bronx, grew up on Long Island. “I never would have guessed that,” she said. Why? “Because you are too nice.” Not sure she had the right guy.
I’m a fan of the New York City subway system as the best way, short of walking, getting from point to point in the city. I was also always wary of its vulnerability to both crime and potential mass tragedy because users are not subject to any kind of weapons check. System wide its riders went unchecked. Finally, 119 years after the first token was put into a Perey turnstile, NYC mayor Eric Adams had introduced a trial of limited screening using metal detectors designed to identify knives and guns. Good idea.
And finally my predictions are normally lousy, but let me take one final bow for my February 18 vision when we wrote in an SMC Scramble, going against conventional wisdom, that “I still don’t think the November election will come down to Biden and Trump…..” However, never did I think we’d come within a bullet’s inch of a Nikki Haley-Kamala Harris showdown.
Time for us to come ashore as the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal looms ahead. Have a great week.