HELLO, GOODBYE

Friends, romans, countrymen, schills: I'm back from hiatus and well . . . I'll start where I should start.

A huge thank you to all fans of FNC and friends of Joe Pendleton for their overwhelming support last week following the death of my father. As I type it in, I still can't believe it happened, and while I won't say I'm in a state of denial, I can clearly say it hasn't sunk in yet.

He was a great dad, a great man, and hopefully I can live up to his reputation. Words cannot express the love, support, and compassion I felt from each and every one of you and it's something I will never forget. They say at times like these, you find out who your real friends are, and I certainly found that out in the last few weeks. Thanks again.

A few weird - beyond the obvious - things from last week. The day my dad's obit ran in the Ledger, the voice of NJ ran a huge story dealing with the lack of funding going to pancreatic cancer research. And then, the night before the funeral, I see on the news that Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer. Unreal.

This form of cancer is a real bastard and must be stopped. I know the Joker has done a fine job of raising awareness and money for the PANCAN network, and I will be doing the same. A charity golf outing is in the very, very early planning stages. Stayed tuned.

Now to some other stuff:

-- I took the Pendleton kids to see Horton Hears a Who today, and was in shock, when 85 minutes into the film, I hadn't heard one shitty 80s' tune sung by the computer generated characters. Of course, that all changed when the final sequence of the film featured the whole cast singing REO Speedwagon's "I can't fight this feeling anymore." While I'm a fan of the song and used to sing it about some dame in college I was in love with, but she thought I was "just a friend," it had nothing to do with the plot of film, leaving me quite irritated afterward.

-- Speaking of being irritated, the news of Ike Bruce's departure from the Rams and quick arrival on the 49er roster also has me quite pissed. Follow that up with hiring of a former Rutgers coach as quarterback's coach and I nearly, nearly thought about changing NFL allegiances. As quickly as the Rams went from NFL non-entity to league powerhouse, they have gone back to non-entity status. Maybe a family member of this new coach can become an "Embraceable Ewe," to lift the spirits in St. Louis.

-- The hightlight of the Oscars was when a certainy "actor" was introduced only as Dwayne Johnson. Give me a fucking break.

-- I'm very worried about the Mets. I think Mr. Delgado needs to start hanging around with a certain trainer/congressional witness or we are in big trouble. It's very possible The Sandman could be playing first base in Queens before the end of the year.

-- Not sure what has pissed me off more the last few weeks - this bullshit about Billy Joel playing the last concert at Shea or this Billy Crystal Yankee farce. Speaking of Crystal, I love all these a-holes saying his playing in an exhibition game has ruined the Yankee mystique. I guess numerous admitted HGH/steroid users from their championship teams, a manager who doesn't think guys should play hard in the spring, and ownership giving A-Rod everything he wanted despite his opt-out bullshit didn't hurt the mystique, but Crystal did. Give me a break.

-- Hard to believe that a dame from Belmar is a whore. Shocking.

-- I have no interest in the NCAA Tourney. This could, could be the year I don't fill out a bracket and then sit back and see if I have any interest in the Big Dance at all. The problem is, there are no bad guys. At least with Florida, you had somebody to root against. This year, nothing. Maybe the NCAA should put Bobby Gonzalez in to raise the hatred factor.

Well, that's it for now. The 2007 year in review is still being worked on. The beer count, which was at 0 before Big Blue won the Super Bowl and at 10 after it, has skyrocketed with the events of the last two weeks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Easter to all.

Thanks again.

I promise I'll blog before Memorial Day.