Tuesday 6/8/21
Received this text today from a reader of "Seedless Cherries":
"What an amazing story. Big time. Off the motherfucking hook. This shit is getting scary. You may be an alien or a god living amidst us and keeping it to yourself."
All of it. The best. Better than anything now, anything before, and all different. Right here, ready to change the world. Rock the world. And they won't let anyone see it because of who it is by.
How many different ways can you ask a bigot to read something?
That sums up a huge amount of my life and days.
Sent it to Harper's and The New Yorker as well.
But I keep thinking of these lines: "One way or the other/This darkness got to give."
Worked more on the Beatles book. 6000 words in the last two days.
Walked five miles, ran a mile and a half. Hot.
Rask allowed four goals on sixteen shots last night. There is no circumstance in which an NHL goaltender should allow four goals on sixteen shots. An NHL goaltender shouldn't allow four goals on sixteen penalty shots. This is what the Rask defenders--and the people who say that Rask is unfairly criticized--do not understand. When he is needed most, he might torpedo you. If he is not 100% healthy, he can end your season. The Bruins had a chance to win the Cup last year. That chance ended when Rask opted out and Halak became the starter. Then there is Game 7 of the 2019 Finals. What did he allow, like two goals on the first four shots? You were done then. If he gave you anything approaching just bad last night, you win that game and probably the series. Now, you probably lose the series.
That's Rask right there. That is what his detractors are talking about, though they're also too dim and oafish to explain what the problem is and instead tweet, "TOOKKKA SUKKKKS." But that's the problem. I think Bruce Cassidy is an excellent coach, but it was obvious to me--barely watching the game--that something was wrong with Rask. As it was the game before. He was moving gingerly. When he's not perfect health-wise, you have to go with someone else. You have to. Or you will lose. That's just how it is. He's a great goalie when he's on. And then he gets the stats, and he can play the position so efficiently. Textbook. But when he's a little banged up or sick, he's a season-ender. Rask is changing the legacy of future Hall of Famers like Marchand and Bergeron. These guys should have multiple Cups. And they may both retire with one.
Cassidy should have put Swayman in for Game 4. He needs to start Game 6. The officiating has also been atrocious, and I think Cassidy is dead on about that--the Isles coaching staff has sold a narrative that the refs have bought into that they are this hard-nosed, but squeaky clean, team. I've seen half a dozen Bruins on the receiving end of a high stick and no call, and I'm hardly watching the thing because I just work. Bruins still nearly won that game last night. They are the better team. But you cannot go anywhere with your goalie giving up four goals on sixteen shots. The 1980s Oilers would be hard-pressed to overcome that one time out of ten. This is a team with an excellent shot to win the Cup. The right roster, the right mix, the right trade deadline moves, and then everything gelling nicely. A shame to get knocked out in the second round by a tough but highly beatable Islanders team. Their goalie won them that game, yours severely curtailed your chances. The penalty kill did as well. Wretched. Barzal is a good player and you can tell he's feeling it.
Listened briefly to sports radio. Heard a guy who makes $250,000 a year do one of his jokes. His joke was about Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy and his comments about the refs. "I call him Bruce Wah-ssidy, like I said," this guy said. Absolute tool/moron. He thought this was funny. And here I am, better at radio than anyone has ever been, and I am sitting here fucked because talent and merit is the last of what anything in this society is about.
Entertaining Downtown segment tonight. Talked about the Bruins and the playoffs, episode of Lights Out from 1938, a five-part Johnny Dollar episode, the 1951 film His Kind of Woman, and Ryne Sandberg and Rogers Hornsby.
Sandberg's rookie card. And yes, he came up as a third baseman.
