Mourning During COVID-19

I hope that this doesn’t sound cold or mean. My dad picked a good time to die. My brother and I flew to South Florida a few weeks ago to see him before he passed away. Then, my family and I drove to Pittsburgh for the funeral. We also held Shiva, the traditional seven-day period of mourning after the burial, at my parents’ Pittsburgh synagogue. Although some people greeted me by touching elbows at the funeral and at Shiva, this was still before social distancing started, and people came. Then, I returned to Northern Virginia, attended services at my synagogue and was able to host a Shiva one night at my home. That was Sunday, March 15th. That was also basically the last day I left the neighborhood. Oh, in case you're wondering, we were able to have a minyan at my home, so I didn't need to ask Larry David or Bill Buckner to join us.



In traditional Jewish culture, there is a 30-day period of mourning after burial called Sheloshim, which includes the first seven days of Shiva. Mourners can return to work, but there are some other restrictions that still apply. In normal times, I would go to synagogue daily for prayer including reciting the Mourners Kaddish with at least 9 other adults. (Again, needing a minyan.) Well, my synagogue and likely every other place of worship shut down because of the coronavirus. Enter the online service! I participated in an online service via Zoom with a Pittsburgh synagogue last week. It was weird, mostly because I didn't know anyone leading or participating in the service and since this was the first online service for everyone. Even though everyone’s in their own home, there’s still a community to this, so it was nice. Plus, this was the first time that Ziggy was able to see a service. (He has joined me on several work video calls too. Why should a laptop be on my lap when he could be there?)

My synagogue hosted a service on Wednesday, so I actually knew the rabbi and some of the people there. Then, I saw on Facebook that a friend of mine from college was hosting an online service. Oh, I should probably mention that this friend is now a rabbi in Denver. It has been really cool connecting with her again, and I enjoy her service and being a part of "my Denver community" from 1,700 miles away!

With schools closed and my office closed and my five-person family being in the same house together 24/7, there really hasn't been any time for grief or reflection. My rabbi gave me a few books about death and grieving, but they are sitting unopened next to my bed. I'm working from home now, but it's definitely not my normal schedule. There are several breaks during the day to be with the kids, so after they go to bed and the dishwasher, trash, laundry, and Ziggy's litter box are taken care of, I'm back on my computer doing work. If we were in our normal routine, I probably would think more about my dad during my commute to and from work. I'd definitely open the books.

Through all of this, the online services have given me a little bit of a routine at a time when there is no normal routine. It's comforting knowing that I have a set time each day to participate in this. Full disclosure: Although I generally wear a nice shirt, I often wear pajama pants during these services. I probably shouldn't share this. Oh well. So if the kids come bursting into the room during the service, I'll probably just sit there with my eyes closed and apologizing so that no one can see me wearing pajama pants.



Looking back at the last few weeks, I'm grateful that my dad died when he did. We knew that he didn't have much time left, and it was a blessing that we got to spend time with him and my mom before he passed away. I feel awful for families dealing with loved ones passing away now, particularly of those dying from the coronavirus. They aren't able to be in the same hospital rooms as their quarantined loved ones. Funerals are being delayed or done on a much smaller scale. I was able to spend time with family and friends in the immediacy of my dad's death. It definitely brought comfort. There's not that same type of comfort or closure for friends and family of loved ones passing away today.

Stick To Sports

I feel bad for my friends who are sports bloggers. It goes without saying that I feel bad for a lot of people right now, but this is a sports related post. Sort of. While there have been times over the years when I considered making Sean’s Ramblings exclusively a Pittsburgh sports blog, I always found this limiting. I like writing about my kids or entertainment or just what’s going on in my life. So while I still write about sports, I have never been a traditional sports blogger. So while I can write about various topics, it’s going to be tough for sports bloggers to come up with content over the next few weeks, months, etc. (Unless you have a blog about football and you can spend months writing about Tom Brady.)

Since we're in a country without sporting events taking place, I thought I would share a few things. First, the XFL announced last week that the league won't be playing its regular season games. I assume that means that there won't be a postseason either. You know what this means? I'm the XFL fantasy football league champion!

ESPN has a game called Streak for Cash. It's a monthly contest where you pick various props such as who will win NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB, soccer, and college games. There might also be individual props such as points scored or goals per game. Anyway, whoever gets the most picks correct in a row per month wins $25,000. I've played for years and never come close to winning. Anyway, with no major sports going on, the props have been quite interesting. There's a Singaporean Premier soccer league match. The Russian Super basketball league game. The other night featured whether the first Mega Millions lottery ball would be odd or even. There's even been "The Masked Singer" and "Survivor" props. I'm all for seeing what props appear next!

And now is where this blog post turns dramatically. Want to know one positive thing about the NCAA cancelling the men's and women's basketball tournaments? Liberty University's men's team, who earned an automatic birth, will not get to play. I'm sure that most of the students, faculty, and staff at Liberty University are good people. The problem is the school's president, Jerry Falwell Jr. I wrote about Falwell being a sore loser after the Virginia elections in 2017. Less than two months ago, Falwell tried to get some Virginia counties to secede and join West Virginia (and he's still working on this). This is completely absurd, but I guess it's politics by someone who is supposed to be spiritual leader and educator. He's all for free speech...except when it comes to people at his own school. Oh, Liberty University also owns Freedom Aviation who sells jet fuel to the Pentagon. I'm not sure how that fits into the school's mission.

Now, Falwell is being dangerous. Last Friday, he went on "Fox & Friends" and said, "You know, impeachment didn’t work, and the Mueller report didn’t work, and Article 25 didn’t work and so maybe now this is their next attempt to get Trump,” he said. This meaning the coronavirus.



You can even hear the anger about the school having to cancel residential classes.

University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., said, “We originally believed it was safest to return our students following their spring break instead of having them return following greater exposure opportunities from leaving them in different parts of the country for longer periods. But, the Governor’s recent decision to limit certain gatherings has left us no practical choice because we have so many classes of more than 100 students. We want to provide for the continuity of our students’ education while doing what makes sense to help slow the spread of the coronavirus to our university family and local community.” The school has one of the largest online student populations in the world, so they can of all places can handle social distancing better than most.

The whole point is that Liberty University, meaning specifically Falwell Jr., doesn't need any type of positive exposure from the basketball team. He's the worst.

I'm going to end this post with something good. Here's Will Ferrell being a soccer referee a few weeks ago.

This isn't a movie. Apparently, all of the parents in this league need to volunteer, and he's a parent. The uniform is legit, so it's possible that he really is a certified soccer ref. Just another thing that me and Will have in common!

Hypothetical Presidential Scenario

Let’s say that President Donald Trump dies from the coronavirus. Before we get too far here, Trump apparently got tested for the coronavirus recently, and the results came back negative. Still, a few members of the Mar-a-Lago resort tested positive for the coronavirus as did a Brazilian official who took a picture with Trump. Therefore, it’s certainly not far-fetched to think that Trump could get the coronavirus. Plus, despite his now-former doctor's statement that Trump would be the healthiest president ever, he’s still in his mid-70s and in a high risk group.

Now, I want to point out that I don’t want Trump to die. Lose the election in November? Yes. Get locked in a castle tower without Wi-Fi so that he's unable to use Twitter with the only way to use the internet again is to grow his hair out and let Stephen Miller climb his hair to rescue him? That would be interesting.

Back to the scenario. Let’s say that Trump dies from the coronavirus on April 2nd. With most of the primaries complete, I assume that the Republicans will select a candidate themselves at their convention. (Assuming there is a convention this summer.) The result would probably be Vice President Mike Pence at the top of the ballot with someone younger (Nikki Haley?) as Vice President.

Next scenario. Trump is in a coma for months or dies on October 15th. Do we postpone the election? Keep the ballots as is with a Trump/Pence ticket?

Finally, Trump get re-elected but dies on November 15th. I read a book ("The People's Choice") by TV political correspondent Jeff Greenfield years ago with this type of scenario. It seems like the Electoral College would decide in this case.

I’m sure that I know people who are Constitutional scholars or can pretend to be on the internet who can give their opinion on this. What do you think would happen?

Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

My Dad (1946-2020)

My dad passed away just over a week ago at the age of 74. I was fortunate to have been able to see him in Florida just before he died. I have no idea whether or not this is real, but my mom says that he waited to see me and my brother before passing away. It's a little comforting believing this to be true. 

I thought I would post what I shared at my dad's funeral. My brother helped with this. Please note that even though I feel like I've shared my brother's name on my blog before, I replaced his name with just "N" below. 


Most people think of my dad as being a nice guy and for his sense of humor. He was the master of the "give me five, on the side" game. He regularly shared stories and told them so convincingly only to be kidding the entire time. If you knew my dad, you got used to this and generally found them funny. If not, well, apologies to all of the restaurant wait staff over the years who were really confused as to whether or not he was serious about ordering a hot fudge sundae for dinner. 

Of course, his stores sometimes backfired. There were times when he was completely serious, but you thought he was kidding. The best example of this was on the day that N was born when he played tennis with a friend. My dad shared that my brother was born earlier that morning at home and the friend obviously didn't believe this since why would N be born at home and why would my dad still be playing tennis that day. The friend got home only for his wife to tell him the news of N's birth when he walked in the door. 

He also told us on April Fools Day that the Pirates traded Tony Pena, one of our favorite players. We obviously didn't believe him and it's not like we could check our phones to find out that it was really true. It turned out to be a pretty good trade for the Pirates.  

I'm not sure that N and I could have asked for a better father growing up. My mom has shared that he was eager to wake up in the middle of the night for feedings and to change diapers because he wanted to be involved in our lives immediately. 

When I was probably in first grade, my parents saw that there was a soccer league starting in our community and signed me up. Soccer in Pittsburgh in the early 1980s was not exactly widespread. Even though he knew practically nothing about soccer, he became a coach and continued coaching our soccer and baseball teams for years. 

My dad loved being a dad and spending time with us. There were countless times when he'd come home from work, and we would ask him to play with us. I'm sure that there were a lot of days when he was tired or maybe had a long day from walking around the Monroeville Mall, but he'd take us to the playground or the basketball and tennis courts. Even when I was in high school and college, he still regularly beat me at tennis even after he worked a full day.

We became big sports fans, and especially Pittsburgh sports fans, in large part because of my dad. He took us to Pirates games and the occasional Penguins and Steelers games since those tickets were a little harder to get. But he also took us to Pittsburgh Spirit soccer games, way too many baseball card shows, professional wrestling events at the Civic Arena and even Pittsburgh Bulls indoor lacrosse games. 

I model being a father after my dad. Even though they can frustrate me at times (which I'm sure I never did with my dad), I love being a father to three amazing boys and I know N does to his kids. I like taking them places and have inherited the role of being a coach to their teams. He was always there for us and involved in what we did. He truly was a caring and loving husband, brother, father, and grandfather and we'll miss him.


After I posted my dad's obituary on my personal Facebook page, I received scores of very kind comments. Thank you so much to everyone who offered your condolences. It really means a lot. I also thought I would share a few that really touched me.

* I am so sorry to hear of this. Your dad was a wonderful man. I have so many good memories of him. He was such a fixture in my young life. There is such a large group of us that were so lucky to know him and be coached by him.

* I am so shocked and saddened, Sean. Your parents were both always so wonderful and welcoming to me, and I can't imagine the heartbreak for you, N, your families, and your mom.

* I remember him driving me and [redacted] to the airport to welcome home the Penguins after they won their first Stanley Cup. I'll never forget how excited he was when we finally got into the building.

* I hope you, your mom, N and your family are comforted by all of your special memories with your dad. He was a wonderful man and I am so happy I got to know him when we were in college.

* [Redacted] wanted me to pass along his condolences to you. He said that your dad was a great soccer coach with a wonderful sense of humor.

* Oh, Sean, our hearts and thoughts are with you all. Your father was a second father to me.


Thanks again Dad for showing me how to be a great father and for always being there for me.

Voting Results In My Neighborhood

I like my neighborhood. It’s a community of about 1,800 condos, townhouses, and single-family homes in Northern Virginia built around an 18-hole golf course. The fact that I can say that I live on (or across the street from) a golf course sounds much more fancy than it is. There’s a pool we use in the summer, a playground for the kids, and tennis courts and a fitness center that I barely use. It’s also a unique community in its diversity. All ages live here, and there are people from many different cultures and ethnicities. It’s been a good place to live over the last 10 years.

With today being election day in Virginia (and several other states), I thought it would be fun to go back to see how candidates have fared in our precinct since I moved here. Here are the results from the 2012 and 2016 primaries.

In 2012, Mitt Romney defeated Ron Paul by a 2-to-1 margin. Were there no other candidates running in the 2012 Republican primary?

In 2016, Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio(!) got the most votes. What's amazing to me is that Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, and Carly Fiorina all got exactly 1 vote each. Jim Gilmore got two!

Overall, based on the November general elections results in both 2012 and 2016, it appears that there are more Democratic voters than Republican voters in my precinct, but it's not a huge majority.

Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to share this, and I plan on updating this post soon with the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary results.

My Life In Pictures - February 2020

With February almost complete, I thought I would share what’s going on in my life.

* We got this note in Pedro Tulo’s backpack.

Our immediate response: What happened YESTERDAY? When we emailed the teacher about it, she wanted to set up a phone call. Uh oh!

* Luigi has been sick since Sunday. He woke up with a high fever on Sunday and Monday mornings, but after taking some ibuprofen, was completely fine though the fever spiked again on Wednesday morning. I took him to the doctor on both Monday and Wednesday, and they tested him for the flu (three times between the two appointments) and strep. All of the tests came back negative. Unfortunately, the Wednesday appointment showed that he had an ear infection. There’s something called RSV (not to be confused with PSV, a Dutch soccer team) that has gone around the preschool, so it's probably that. According to the CDC website, symptoms of Respiratory Syncytial Virus include a runny nose, decrease in appetite, coughing, and fever. That seems about right for Luigi.

Anyway, here is Luigi taking a 2.5 hour nap on me Wednesday.

He's generally been very happy and active throughout the week (except when I want him to drink something!), but he can't go back to school until the fever stays down.

* A local restaurant hosts a weekly Bingo game geared towards families, so I took the kids there recently. I mention this because everyone there was so supportive. When someone yelled out "Bingo," most people clapped or cheered. When I was in college, a friend and I played Bingo once at a local fire hall. (I may be wrong about the location.) It was intense! People had multiple cards and ink Bingo markers. My friend won one game, and the regulars were quite upset that a college kid beat them. No Bingo markers at this game. Crayons only!

* I took a school trip to Washington DC when I was in 8th grade. I don’t remember much about the trip, except that seeing the White House was the worst part. You waited in line for seemingly forever, only to see a few roped off rooms with fancy chairs and plates. I recently had a chance to take a White House tour and thought I should give it another chance. It was better than I remembered, but there are still so many other things I’d recommend seeing and doing in DC. Two things stuck out. First, I liked that there is a soccer goal in the Kennedy Garden. Although there’s no room for anything other than penalty kicks (practicing corner kicks seems impossible!), it's still pretty cool.

The second is that I "saw" the President leaving the White House (per the incredible picture below). When a friend asked a Secret Service guy if he was taking the helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base, he replied "something like that." I know secret is in the title, but I looked later and saw his published schedule state depart White House and then arrive to and depart from Andrews. A yes would have been okay. (And yes, it was cool seeing the helicopter.)

* Finally, I took this picture from a hotel restaurant near the White House.

There is a lot to complain about living in the DC area (mostly the cost of living and the traffic), but views like these are incredible.

Arsenal Player Eats During Game

I'm sharing a video that will likely get removed rather quickly. (Update: The video got blocked almost immediately.)



On January 1st, I was home celebrating the first day of 2020 by watching an English Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester United. As you can see (by the pictures below, not the video), near the end of the second half, Arsenal's Lucas Torreira is clearly eating chocolate, an energy bar, or something else in the middle of the game.

Then, it appears that he put the remaining food into his pocket. My immediate thought was this seems really unusual, and then I began considering this from the perspective of a soccer referee. I don't think there is anything in the Laws of the Game that would prevent someone from having a mid-game snack. However, if a player threw or spit the food at someone, the player would receive a red card.

Now I kind of hope that this becomes a trend though I'm sure it would come down to sponsorships. Look, there's LeBron James running the Lakers offense while eating a McDonald's Big Mac! And there's Michael Thomas of the New Orleans Saints making an incredible one-handed catch...because he's holding a KIND bar in his other hand. How is Sidney Crosby able to make such an amazing pass while holding and eating a bag of Skittles?

Maybe eating during games will encourage more youth to play sports?

Kangaroos Wanted

I love my community message board. Where else could you see a post like this?

Does anyone know of a petting zoo with kangaroos or a rental service with kangaroos for birthday parties?

I mean, sure, requests for kangaroos probably happen all the time in Australia or on websites for zoos. (That’s a thing right?) Not the type of post you typically see in Northern Virginia though.

As always, the fun is in the comments! There are actually a few legitimate responses. Someone suggested a local animal park while someone else shared a kangaroo website. Yes, there is actually kangaroo facility that serves the Washington DC area. Who knew?

Others were appalled by the suggestion.

1. OH NO! That is so cruel. It does not seem so, but is a terrible thing to do to an animal. I can’t believe folks do this sort of things. This must be so traumatic for these guys. All of the noise at parties, travel and handling. There must be something else that would be fun for the kids, but not at the expense of the kangaroo. Just think about it a minute.

2. WHAT? Rental kangaroos is a really, really bad idea

My favorite response, though, was this:

I have a kangaroo, but he’s not for rent.

Does this guy really have a kangaroo or is just messing around? I was able to figure out that he works as an Environmental Scientist, so maybe he does have a kangaroo. Maybe?

What the original poster really should do is contact the executives of The Masked Singer to see if the kangaroo is available.

Another option is to have Anthony Anderson and Jerry O'Connell attend!

I Went Viral

You may have heard that there was a Super Bowl last week. You may also have heard that there was a halftime show featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. While there was no debate that the Kansas City Chiefs won the game, there was plenty of debate about the halftime show. My friend Christine put it best.

The topic is pretty polarizing right now. Even in my small little [Facebook] universe, the contrasting opinions have gotten heated at times. You have those saying it was inappropriate, those who hold it up as an example of strong women and Latin culture, those who see it as exploitation and objectification of women, others who say people are hypocrites while sharing cheerleader pics and last year's shirtless Adam Levine. I've seen men and women on both sides of arguments for or against - and that's just the clothing issue. I've also seen people disliking the dancing, the music choice, complaints about the Spanish songs...lots of complaints.

On the Monday after the Super Bowl, I posted this tweet:

I don't understand any criticism about Shakira and Jennifer Lopez's wardrobe last night. They've dressed the same way their entire careers! Even the character voiced by Shakira in Zootopia dressed like this. pic.twitter.com/y5nCCuInZp

— Sean's Ramblings (@seansramblings) February 3, 2020

(If the tweet doesn't embed well here, this is what I wrote.
"I don't understand any criticism about Shakira and Jennifer Lopez's wardrobe last night. They've dressed the same way their entire careers! Even the character voiced by Shakira in Zootopia dressed like this.")

Apparently, lots of people searched Shakira and Zootopia and found my tweet. And then they liked it and retweeted it. The end result was over 2,500 likes and 650,000 impressions. That’s just slightly more than I receive with one of my typical tweets.

Alas, the tweet has now faded and few people are noticing my tweets. For example, I thought this tweet on Monday night was brilliant.

I think this was the original premise of Marriage Story. https://t.co/DgrRneoQTH

— Sean's Ramblings (@seansramblings) February 11, 2020

Unfortunately, 650,000 people didn’t see this one!

A Political Post That’s Not Really Political (Landmines Are Bad)

It’s been a big week in politics. (Probably not the best way to start a post based on the title.) Monday featured the Democratic Iowa caucus, where as the time of me writing this, there still hasn’t been a declared winner. I guess it’s possible that the people of Iowa read my campaign platform and voted for me!

Tuesday was the annual State of the Union which will be remembered more for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up the speech at its conclusion than for anything else.

Some people have said that this is the worst thing to ever happen in Congress. Clearly, these people never heard about House Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beating Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts unconscious with a cane in the 1850. Or they didn’t see Ted Cruz read "Green Eggs and Ham" on the Senate floor.



Wednesday will be remembered for the time when a sitting president survived an impeachment vote in the Senate. Clearly, President Trump learned his lesson and will never seek foreign assistance or try to dig up dirt on political rivals ever again. 

With all of this going on, it’s easy to miss an action that occurred last weekend when President Trump “rescinded restrictions on the US military's ability to use landmines.” I’ll let this article explain.

"The President has canceled the Obama administration's policy to prohibit United States military forces from employing anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

"The Department of Defense has determined that restrictions imposed on American forces by the Obama Administration's policy could place them at a severe disadvantage during a conflict against our adversaries. The President is unwilling to accept this risk to our troops," she added. 

Look, in theory, I get the idea of having smaller government and fewer restrictions. But getting rid of the restrictions on landmines? Is there a landmine company out there that donated money to the re-election campaign because it needs to sell more landmines? Is there a significant group at the Pentagon who, in 2020, believes that our military really needs and is missing out on landmines? I thought we’re doing the Space Force thing now, so why go back to landmines? 

Landmines are bad and tend to hurt and kill civilians, often more than military members. Sure, the article says that the Department of Defense will only use landmines with a 30-day self-destruct or self-deactivation feature, but are you going to walk on a path where landmines might be buried on day 31? Or day 310? Or day 3100? Probably not. You still hear stories about landmines that have been found or detonated from World War 2. Again, landmines are bad, so there is no reason to get into the landmine business again. 

And since everything else is going on, no one is even mentioning this.

Life Update

I hate not writing. I’ve written Sean’s Ramblings for over 15 years now, and I get in the pattern of writing a new post every few days. It bothers me that it’s been two weeks since my last post. So today, I’m going to share the primary reason why I’ve had this break. My kids!

Luigi (2) had surgery last Monday to get his tonsils and adenoids removed. Because he is fairly young for this procedure, he stayed overnight at the hospital for observation. He did great and was a little restless in the hospital after the he fully woke up from the anesthesia. It probably didn't help that he wanted to move around but couldn't go too far since he had an attached IV.

He was fine the first few days at home, but woke up a little cranky on Friday thanks to a fever despite taking Tylenol and ibuprofen regularly after he got home from the hospital. I took him to the doctor, and it turned out that he had strep. I have no idea how or where he got it but he did. He's back at preschool this week but still has restrictions on what he can and can’t eat and do.

On Saturday, my wife wasn’t feeling well, so she went to an urgent care and discovered that she had strep too.

Just for fun, Pedro Tulo (5) woke up yesterday with a sore throat, so I took him to the doctor. Strep for him!

Finally, The Moose (8) and I got checked out last night, and we’re fine. NO STREP FOR YOU (well us)!

In non-health news, Pedro Tulo got assessed at school. Here’s part of the report:

After modeling and instruction by the examiner, Pedro Tulo generated the following story about a boy who brings his pet bunny to school

He went to the school. Then they was talking about bunnies. Then (distracted by another student in the hallway) Who’s that? (Just another kid. Go ahead.) Do you know him? (No, go ahead. You said they were talking about bunnies.)

This is a perfect summary of Pedro Tulo in that it is a struggle to keep him focused. He’s kind of like the dog in Up.

Otherwise, The Moose has to go back to the dentist since it seems like he needs a filling.

So this is my life. Just taking kids to and from doctors appointments and washing my hands constantly. My hands are so dry right now. I’ll end with this. On Sunday, as the kids watched the Super Bowl, I was doing laundry and getting things set for Monday. I slipped going up the first step from the basement (not like my fall two years ago), and broke my fall with a bag of pretzels. The unopened bag of pretzels become an open bag of pretzels. This was only part of the result.

I think I’m going to find small pieces of salt in my basement for days or weeks!

Random Ramblings

I know that I’ve talked about Wegmans many times over the years, but I wanted to add one more story about how awesome they are. Pedro Tulo was “helping” me put groceries on the belt from the cart and accidentally dropped the container of hummus, causing the package to crack. Fortunately, the hummus didn’t get all over the place. The cashier saw this and had a colleague get a brand new container without charging us. I’m sure that other stores do this too, but it was still nice of Wegmans to not have the “you break it, you buy it” policy.

In a parking lot last week, I squeezed into a space and when I opened the door, it slammed into the car next to mine thanks to some very strong winds. Naturally, the driver was in the car when this happened and gave me a “what the heck” gesture. I quickly looked at his car and saw no damage before giving a sorry gesture and also tried to pantomime that it was really windy. Then I walked away. I’m not sure what else I could or should have done.

Reason #1786 that Sidney Crosby is awesome: Watch this between the legs pass.



I love the Australian Open and Grand Slam tennis in general. (I also write some variation of this regularly.) With DirecTV, I get the mix channel for the tournament’s first week where I can watch up to 5 matches at once and then switch to any (or all) of them. They have this for the other Grand Slam tournaments, but I typically can’t watch during the day. With the time difference, I enjoyed flipping between matches before going to sleep. Someday, I’m going to visit Australia and attend the Australian Open. It will probably be 20 years, but it’s going to happen! (I'm going to visit New Zealand too on this trip!)

Finally, my favorite DC-area artist Emma G has a new song and video titled Living Proof. Check in out! (You can also learn more about Emma G on her website.)

Friday Video: Hall & Oates

There is a Hall & Oates revival going on. Want proof? My two older kids really liked the song “Maneater” as performed by the Rottweiler on The Masked Singer. (Try to explain this sentence to somewhat ten years ago...or ten years from now.)



Then, a friend recently went to Nashville and saw John Oates perform at the Grand Old Opry. As I wrote, a Hall & Oates revival!

Therefore, I’m sharing arguably the group’s best song “You Make My Dreams Come True" today. Enjoy the elaborate, state of the art, and cutting edge video.



It’s amazing how the filmmakers had Daryl Hall move out of the shot and then he came right back. (For example at the :50 & :58 second marks). Oates' shoulder shake around the 1:23 mark is also outstanding. Again, state of the art!

I also came across this video of the same song with Hall and Kenny Loggins. Sadly, no Oates.

Cole Tucker and The Jonas Brothers

It’s been quite a good run for the Jonas Brothers. I mean, sure, they’re on a seemingly highly successful tour, performed on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, appeared on their own episode of Carpool Karaoke, and earned a Grammy nomination (though many thought they deserved more). More importantly, however, they golfed with Jerome Bettis and recently met Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Cole Tucker.

In the Pittsburgh sports world, it seems like they’re only missing out on hanging out with a Pittsburgh Penguins player. I think Brandon Tanev may be available!

Until that time, the Jonas Brothers are no Taylor Swift!

2020s Predictions

Welcome to 2020! Many people like to make predictions about what will happen over the upcoming year. I thought it would be fun to ask an esteemed group to make predictions about what would happen in the entire 2020s in sports, entertainment, and politics. Let's introduce the panelists:

Alan Saunders - Writer at Pittsburgh Sports Now and Pittsburgh Hockey Digest among other places. I'm not sure that anyone writes more about Pittsburgh sports than Alan.

Jim Shearer - Host of 70s 80s 90s Now on SiriusXM and the creator of the amazing Yinz Luv videos. (I’m sure it was a lot of work putting those together, but I’d love to see a return of this series.)

Josh - The founder of the oddly titled blog Josh's World. He also thinks he's better at fantasy sports than he is!

Nick - My brother. Please note that I will mock him for making some ridiculous picks below.

Jason - Friend and UVA graduate. Little known fact: Virginia has been pretty good in many college sports recently.

Heidi - Writer of The Steel Trap, the only place to go for First World Problems and to read about things overheard during the holidays.

Christine - A friend I've known from college (so only a few years ago) and  writer of the late The Adventures of ChrisMichRob in Korea.

Joe - AKA Joey Bag of Donuts. The hardest working man in podcasting.

Rich - Writer of the now late Boo's Ramblings.

Matt Grubba - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review contributor and someone else who pops up on the Pittsburgh sports scene quite often.

Sean - Writes a 15 year-old blog that you’re reading right now!

We'll start with sports questions.

What NFL team will win the most Super Bowls in the 2020s?

* Alan - Only one team won more than one Super Bowl in the 2010s -- the New England Patriots -- and the Pats entered the decade as three-time winners with a quarterback in their prime. Since there's no one else in that category, I'll say no one wins it more than once in the next 10 years. 
* Jim - Dallas Cowboys/Buffalo Bills
* Josh - I am going to make a bold prediction here and say that no team will multiple Super Bowls in the next decade. The NFL will truly have their parity wish and it will probably be the most boring decade in football history.
* Nick - Steelers
* Jason - Baltimore Ravens
* Heidi - Hopefully one that isn't filled with folks who have bizarre social media habits.
* Christine - Ravens
* Joe - I think it'll be the Patriots again. Belichick is only 67, I can see him coaching for the next 10 years easily. Tom Brady will be replaced with a newer, better QB.
* Rich - The NFC will come back to power, with San Francisco leading the charge
* Matt - My heart wants me to say the Steelers, and I do think they'll get one in the first half of the decade if they can keep the young parts on their defense together. I'm going to go with teams that have All-Pro talent already on both sides of the ball and guess the Ravens and Rams each get two, which will be the top mark.
* Sean - Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes will lead the team to at least two titles over the next 10 years.

Will Mike Tomlin be the Steelers coach on January 1, 2030?

* Alan - Absolutely not.
* Jim - No.
* Josh - Yes, I think he has shown this year that he is a great coach who even when lacking in talent can still lead a team to wins.
* Nick - No
* Jason - No.
* Heidi - "Obviously." Not.
* Christine - Yes - he's pretty young
* Joe - No. It's amazing he has been around this long. There are dark times ahead for the Steelers after Ben retires and Tomlin won't be around for it.
* Rich - No, he'll retire before the end of the decade.
* Matt - No. As mentioned above, I think the Steelers get another in the next five years, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Tomlin bow out soon after getting another, much like Cowher did after getting his first. And when he wins another, 25% of Steelers fans still will complain about him after the first loss the next year.
* Sean - No. I think he'll retire on his on terms and go work on television.

What MLB team will win the most World Series titles in the 2020s?

* Alan - The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the best-run organizations in baseball and have an essentially unlimited payroll. A rebuilding cycle in San Francisco means you can essentially pencil them in for a playoff spot every year. Can't ask for much more than that.
* Jim - The team with the most money.
* Josh - This is a tough one. The obvious answer is the Yankees, but they did not win one the last decade, but it seems like they are going to spend enough to at least be in contention every year. The Astros are poised to win for a few more years, but who knows what happens as players get older. I doubt the Giants thought they would be as bad as they have been the past few years after winning three in this decade. So, I will take a long shot team here. I will say the Los Angeles Angels. Look, they have Trout and Rendon, so all they need is some starting pitching. If they develop, sign, trade for some, then they could be a dominant team for a few years.
* Nick - Buffalo Bisons (Sean's note: Does he think that baseball is going to expand to Buffalo and that the team will be the most successful in the 20s?)
* Jason - New York Yankees
* Heidi - Well, it won't be the Pirates.
* Christine - Yankees
* Joe - Yawn. Yankees or Cubs or Dodgers or any other large market team. Baseball's economic system is a joke and only the rich teams do well for a long time.
* Rich - Yankees continue to buy championships and take 3-4 out of the 10.
* Matt - The Yankees just went a whole decade without making the World Series for the first time since the 1910s... I hate to say it, but it looks like they have the pieces together for another run of dominance. The spoiler could be if the Astros can grab another couple before their current window closes (and I don't think it has just because Cole is gone).
* Sean - Los Angeles Dodgers. So many good young players and play in a much easier division than the AL East.

How many winning seasons will the Pirates have in the upcoming decade?

* Alan - Four. It won't be 2020, but Ben Cherington will get the team over the hump as Neal Huntington once did. Keeping them there will be harder.
* Jim - 2.5
* Josh - They will have two winning seasons. Just enough to keep fans from falling into too deep of despair, but not enough to ever be relevant.
* Nick - 2
* Jason - 3
* Heidi - Define "winning season." I am unfamiliar with the phrase when it comes to Pirates baseball.
* Christine - 3 (optimistic)
* Joe - 2. They'll have another 'run' and then have to tear it apart again like other small-market teams.
* Rich - 4, with 3 postseason appearances and 1 year of making it past the first round
* Matt - 3. They're going to be in rebuild mode for the next few years, so I'm going to say they split the last 6 years after being under .500 from 2020-23.
* Sean - 4. Drafting and development will finally show some dividends in the second half of the 2020s.

What NHL team will win the most Stanley Cups in the 2020s?

* Alan - NHL feels impossible to predict. Who would have guessed the Blues? I'll go out on a limb and pick the New Jersey Devils. Ray Shero is a good GM. Couple nice pieces to build around.
* Jim - The yet-to-play unnamed team from Seattle.
* Josh - I do not follow hockey enough to even venture a guess. I had to look up who won the most in the 2010s (Chicago Blackhawks). I feel like the Boston Bruins are always a good team, so they are my prediction.
* Nick - Penguins
* Jason - Boston Bruins
* Heidi - Pens!
* Christine - Penguins
* Joe - Washington. They have a solid organization and will survive Ovi retiring.
* Rich - Las Vegas
* Matt - No idea, but it very well could be whichever team Connor McDavid ends up on when the Oilers realize they can't afford him anymore.
* Sean - Colorado Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon is the best young center in the NHL (not including Edmonton, but the Oilers keep trading other good players for little return).

Next, we're going to the world of entertainment.

What actor will win the most Academy Awards in the 2020s?

* Alan - Leonardo DiCaprio is only 45 somehow.
* Jim - Tie: Adam Driver and The Rock
* Josh - There are so many great actors out there. Were there any repeat winners in the last decade? If I had to put money on someone, I would go with Christian Bale, he seems to only be taking roles that allow him to really stretch his legs as an actor (kinda like Daniel Day-Lewis). So he will probably get a few more nominations over the years.
* Nick - Robin Williams, wait Hugh Downs. Yea, Hugh Downs. (Sean's note: I guess the Robin Williams thing was supposed to be funny? The Hugh Downs thing stemmed from New Year's Day 2020 when I mentioned that there were a lot of clips going around of Barbara Walters saying "This is 2020," but that there didn't seem to be any mention of Hugh Downs anywhere. Still, this answer makes no sense.)
* Jason - Adam Driver
* Heidi - Bradley Cooper
* Christine - Taron Egerton
* Joe - Tom Holland! I hate that he pulls off an American accent so well :)
* Rich - Finn Wolfard
* Matt - Christian Bale. He'll get nominated but probably won't win this year for Ford vs. Ferrari, but he's young enough that he'll probably get at least 3 or 4 roles this decade that merit consideration. (As a caveat, I think Tom Hanks has a shot at Best Supporting Actor this year, so if the question is ANY Academy Award, Hanks probably has a couple more in him after being snubbed a lot over the last decade.)
* Sean - Adam Driver. Of course, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mahershala Ali, and Michael B. Jordan aren't going anywhere.

What actress will win the most Academy Awards in the 2020s?

* Alan - I'll again say 10 unique winners.
* Jim - Amy Adams (midway through the decade we will only honor one best actor, regardless of their gender)
* Josh - I will take the safe bet here and go with Meryl Streep.
* Nick - Lisa Bonet
* Jason - Jennifer Lawrence
* Heidi - Meryl Streep
* Christine - Saoirse Ronan
* Joe - Jennifer Lawrence
* Rich - Katherine Langford
* Matt - I have not seen Little Women, nor is that sort of film my cup of tea, but I have yet to see anything I didn't love Saoirse Ronan in. Even if she doesn't win this year, on the heels of Lady Bird and Little Women, I could totally see her going on a Daniel Day-Lewis-type run where everything she does is a contender. I sure hope so, because I'd watch her read the Dublin phone book.
* Sean - Amy Adams. Of course, Emma Stone, Octoavia Spencer, and Olivia Colman aren't going anywhere.

Will Keeping Up With the Kardashians or some spin-off be an active television show at the end of the 2020s?

* Alan - One of the Kardashians or Kardashian-adjacents will still have a TV show.
* Jim - Probably.
* Josh - That is still a show? Umm, probably...
* Nick - Of course. No, I think Paris Hilton will make comeback to rival the Kardashians.
* Jason - Yes
* Heidi - Is water wet?
* Christine - No (or at least I hope not!! I think a new family will claim the spotlight.)
* Joe - Nope. Eventually people will get tired of them (I hope).
* Rich - OH GOD PLEASE NO!!!!
* Matt - No, and thank goodness for that! I do think at least one of the younger Jenner girls will still be prominent in the fashion world, and maybe Kim, too. (Though I suspect some plastic surgery might be needed to keep her, um, best assets viable.) But I really can't see someone still paying any of them for a show 10 years from now, unless we're talking via some YouTube sort of format. I mean, internet video is what got Kim famous in the first place, right Ray J?
* Sean - Sort of. They won't be on traditional TV, but a variation with one of the Jenners or Kardashian kids will be on some type of streaming service. This is kind of cheating.

Politics: Who will be President of the United States on January 1, 2030?

* Alan - I want to give a reasonable answer like Cory Booker, but who the hell would have picked Trump? So, I'm going way off the wall and picking The Rock.
* Jim - That title will no longer exist.
* Josh - Donald Trump Jr. I mean, I hope not, but I just have no faith in our electorate.
* Nick - I won’t go there. (Sean's note: Why won't you go there? You're making a guess on a blog about who will be president in 10 years. This isn't a case where you'll lose your job if you're wrong.)
* Jason - Pete Buttigeg
* Heidi - Michelle Obama
* Christine - I think it will swing back to a career politician, and hopefully someone who has a clue how to be a decent human being. No idea who the specific person will be.
* Joe - Michelle Obama
* Rich - Justin Amash
* Matt - It's probably going to be no one we've heard of at this point. If I had to guess, it will be a moderate-ish Democrat, as changing demographics are going to put the hurt on Republicans by 2028. Assuming both win their congressional races this year -- and I think they will -- PA has a couple in that mold with incumbent Rep. Conor Lamb and current PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. The Texan Castro brothers come to mind, too.
* Sean - Kamala Harris. She'll be more prepared after not doing well in 2019 and will stay relevant thanks to being a Senator from California.

Finally, what is one prediction that you have about the upcoming decade?

* Alan - We will still not have flying cars at the end of it.
* Jim - The robots are one step closer to taking over.
* Josh - I was going to try and be funny, but I really have nothing. Especially since it looks like we may be on the brink of WW3 (I don't think it will escalate that far, but according to Twitter...). Anyways, I have been thinking way too much about the automation and future of work, plus reading Dan Carlin's book, and it led me to this prediction...I think the next decade will be know as the calm before the storm. Before we can reach that Utopian society where no one works and machines do everything for us, there are a few obstacles to cross. I think the next decade will be the period future historians call the intermediate period. Probably chaotic to those people, but to us it will just seem normal.
* Nick - Major League Baseball will be forced to contract. There will only be 18 teams. (Sean's note: So baseball will contract, yet somehow there is now a team in Buffalo. Clearly, Nick did not think this through.)
* Jason - There will be no president impeached.
* Heidi - Fruitopia makes a come back.
* Christine - A bunch of Generation X will be taking over things. We've been sitting quietly by as the Boomers and Millennials have been duking it out. Our time is coming...
* Joe - Remember Google Glass? Tech glasses like that will be a big thing next decade.
* Rich - The country will finally get tired of the two-party system that continuously moves farther left or right, abandon one or both of them, and a youth movement will push a new third party into prominence. Traditional cable tv will cease to exist as online streaming becomes the new standard. Those online services will continue springing up with every major studio, and a few independents, starting their own creating an online video boom before many start folding and condensing back down to 4 or 5 major options. Finally, online shopping becomes the norm, as only specialty brick and mortar stores survive; but the post office folds and Amazon and FedEx become the major delivery services.
* Matt - As much as I hate to say it, I think the next decade will have some major, catastrophic "natural" event that will finally start get people's asses in gear about stemming climate change. All the arguments about whether humans/fossil fuels/the good Lord above are causing the change will go by the wayside, and people will start to think: "Hey, it's starting to get pretty uncomfortable here, let's do something about it."
* Sean - There will be a lot of discussion and perhaps even a vote by a state legislature or two (Alabama or Mississippi are the likely favorites) to secede.

So will any of us be correct? Sean's Ramblings just turned 15 years old, so we can all look when the blog turns 25 to see how we did. Plus, please feel free to include your own predictions in the comments section below.

Mr. 3000 (State of the Ramblings)

This is my 3,000th blog post almost exactly 15 years to the day that I started Sean’s Ramblings. 15 years ago, I was still a newlywed and in my 20s, before kids and before even Ziggy. We had recently bought a small and comfortable condo, and I started a new job. Basically, within about six months, I got married, moved, changed careers and professions, and started a blog. All four ended up being major life events! I’m kidding a little about the blog being a major life event, but I can’t imagine the number of hours I've spent thinking of and writing 3,000 separate posts.

Let me go back to late 2004. I was in a job that I liked but the organization completely changed. All of a sudden, I went from being the new guy to having more tenure than the rest of the small staff combined, and I wasn’t even there two years. It was at this time that I first learned about blogs thanks to several friends starting their own. I would check their blogs multiple times a day to see if they posted something new. Eventually, and after talking (or at least emailing) with all of them, I decided to start my own blog thanks to their encouragement. My friends stopped writing their blogs years ago, though one of them started a successful website and continues to write regularly. The difference is that the personal blog is gone, and the new website is subject specific.

And that gets me back to my blog. Sure, I write about sports and entertainment, but it's a personal blog, and most people don’t write personal blogs anymore. Life gets in the way, or it’s easier to type out a few tweets instead of coming up with a thoughtful blog post. While it’s one thing to share your status on Facebook or pictures on Instagram, writing a blog post is potentially there forever and can be seen by anyone. I’m not going to suggest that we go back to 2010 and begin a Make Blogs Great Again campaign. That’s just the way it is. Right, Bruce Hornsby?



Even though I’ve written a lot here over the last 15 years, I’m still guarded. I don’t use my kids' real names or include pictures of them. Sure, I’ve written about emergency room visits, but I don’t write about how the kids are doing in school or some personal things about myself. Maybe I would if this was completely anonymous (about me, not the kids), but it’s not. With that written, I’ve found Sean’s Ramblings to be a wonderful outlet. It's an amazing hobby. I often find it much easier to share my thoughts and feelings in a blog post rather than through talking with friends or family. I'm sure that says something about me. When someone creates a biography about me writing the (possibly) world's oldest continuously operating personal blog, I'm sure this will come up!

Someone that I follow on Instagram posted recently that they deleted many old blog posts "in the hopes of improving overall SEO on my blog." I don't understand this. I know that plenty of my old blog posts have links to other sites that no longer work or include videos that were removed. I don't have the time or interest to go through all 3,000 posts. Apparently, I also don't have an interest in improving my SEO or CEO or IBM either. At this point, I view Sean's Ramblings as a bit of a time capsule in that I can look back at old posts at any time to see various stages of my life or to look at events from a certain time period. 

While this is starting to sound like a retirement speech. Sean's Ramblings isn't going anywhere. I don't know if I'll still be writing this blog for another 15 years. At my current pace, I'm certainly not going to write 3,000 more blog posts. So what's next? I have a few ideas for blog posts including a fun look at the next 10 years likely coming out on Thursday, but who knows what I'll write about next month (for example). Although my idea of becoming Loudoun United's official team blogger failed, I still hope to get invited to various events or openings or receive a press pass to cover something. I've shared in the past my admiration for the different opportunities for the Pittsburgh blogging community. There just doesn't seem to be the same community in DC or Northern Virginia, or if there is, I'm not part of it. Maybe it will happen in 2020!

I'm ending this post by including one of my favorite songs from the last few months. 



Dave Grohl starts the video by saying that "there are friends everywhere, even those you don't know." I'm grateful for all of the interaction I've had with so many people over the years. I've never met most of these folks in person, but I do feel like I have friends everywhere. Thanks to all of you for reading this post and for checking out Sean's Ramblings. Maybe this is the first time you've read my blog. Maybe you've read all 3,000 posts. I hope that I've given you some entertainment or maybe even something to think about. Although that last part seems doubtful, I really appreciate all of your support! To 3,000!

Emergency Room Christmas

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your 2020 is off to a good start. Today, I’m going to share a story that goes way back to a time when the Pittsburgh Steelers were 8-7 and still had a chance to reach the postseason. A time before Jake Guentzel of the Pittsburgh Penguins needed shoulder surgery. Yes, I’m going all the way back to December 25, 2019.

On Christmas, my family joined millions of others across the country by visiting a movie theater. We purchased tickets to see the animated film "Spies In Disguise" featuring the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland.



We bought popcorn for the entire family to enjoy. Then, we sat in our reclining seats to eat our popcorn and watch the film. I should probably mention that patrons 3 and over are required to purchase their own tickets. Kids that are under 3, like Luigi (2) get in for free and have to sit on your lap. Not a problem.

During the movie, both The Moose (8) and Pedro Tulo (5) really enjoyed the ability to move their seats into a reclining position including an adjustable footrest. Near the end of the movie, Luigi decided that he had enough of sitting on someone’s lap and wanted to move around a little. There was plenty of room in our row to do this, and he could easily go between our four seats. Apparently not paying attention to his brother, The Moose closed the adjustable footrest...on Luigi’s foot. Luigi started screaming, so I quickly took him out of the theater. He calmed down after a few minutes, but he refused to let me put him down and he kept his head on my shoulder. We eventually went back inside because I had to know if Will Smith would turn back into a person from a pigeon. (I won’t spoil this for you.) I stood in the back with Luigi still in my arms. The movie ended, and we went home. Luigi was unable to put any weight on his foot though and cried whenever we tried to put him down to walk. With limited options on Christmas day (and agreement from our on-call pediatrician), my wife took Luigi to the emergency room while I stayed home with the older boys. The short story (since I wasn’t there) is that all of the X-Rays came back negative, Luigi was given some ibuprofen, and they came home. He also received Shaggy and The Headless Horseman as a gift from the hospital, so that almost made the trip worthwhile (especially since I haven't received a bill yet).

Oh, I also picked up some Chinese food. Christmas tradition!

Luigi limped some for the days following Christmas, and he still sometimes winces a little when we put on his shoe, but he’s fine. I think a New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to visit the emergency room less as a family this year than the two times we visited in 2019. In addition, between this incident and how I barely escaped Frozen 2, perhaps I shouldn’t take my family to the movies anymore!

Sean's Best and Worst of 2019

Just in time for the start of 2020, here is my best and worst of 2019.

Best Movie I Saw In The Theater/Airplane: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

On Friday, January 11th, I boarded a flight from Washington Dulles airport to Dallas-Fort Worth for my annual-ish hockey road trip. I realized the night before that I had an economy ticket, meaning that I was allowed only one item that fits under the seat. Any other bag would need to be checked for $25 or $30 each way, so I successfully fit everything for my weekend trip into my backpack including a 2011 Kindle in the hopes of downloading the United app for in-flight entertainment. Although the Kindle was too old to download the app, it worked on my phone, so I watched documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" on a very small screen. What a film! First, Mr. Rogers is iconic and an excellent subject matter. Then, the clips, and especially interviews with people who knew Fred Rogers the best, were outstanding. It definitely got a little dusty a few times during the flight. How this film didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary is one of the biggest snubs in Oscars history. Because of this oversight, I fully expect the 2019 film A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (which I also saw) to receive several nominations with Tom Hanks winning for Best Supporting Actor.

Worst Movie I Saw In The Theater: Angry Birds 2

The problem was that I never saw the original Angry Birds, so it was difficult to follow along. Actually, the movie wasn’t that bad, and there’s an amazingly deep voice cast including Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Sterling K. Brown, Awkwafina, Peter Dinklage, Tiffany Haddish, and more. My frustration is that I took 5 year old Pedro Tulo to the movies, and he chose to see Angry Birds 2 over Toy Story 4. I tried to convince him that Toy Story 4 would be a better movie, but it’s really difficult to persuade Pedro Tulo once his mind is made up. We still haven't seen Toy Story 4.

Best Song: Bad Guy by Billie Eilish

As always, my criteria for best song is that I have to feature the song in a blog post at some point during the year. My best song for 2019 is by a teenager who hadn't heard of Van Halen when asked. She's also really talented and recently earned 6 Grammy nominations including those in the biggest categories like Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.



An honorable mention goes to Here We Go by Dave Grohl with Elmo and Big Bird.



I love this song!

Worst Song: Bad Guy remix by Billie Eilish with Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber's verse in the remix version of this song is totally unnecessary and simply not nearly as good as the original.



Best Television Show: Barry

This was the most difficult category for me. I watched both seasons of both "Succession" and "Fleabag" in 2019 which are outstanding shows that deserve all of the recognition and praise they receive. My pick though is another show that I started watching in 2019, Barry. This HBO show features Bill Hader (of Angry Birds 2 fame) as a hit-man who joins an acting class. Hilarity (and murders) ensue! I guess you'd call this a dark comedy or a funny drama if that's a thing. Anyway, I'm always entertained by the show and love the acting by Stephen Root, Henry Winkler, and especially Anthony Carrigan who plays a "nice" Chechen mobster named NoHo Hank. He makes the show.

Worst Television Decision: ABC Cancelling Speechless

I don't have a worst TV show. I pretty much watch the shows I know that I'll like and even then I don't have time to watch what I want. For example, I have over 40 episodes of "This Is Us" and "Modern Family" saved on my DVR that I haven't seen yet. Even the shows that my kids have watched this year like "American Ninja Warrior Junior" and various cooking competition shows have been fine. It may not have been the best parenting decision to let the kids watch The Masked Singer, but we are fascinated by the reveal of who is behind the mask. It's probably not appropriate to have them chant "TAKE IT OFF" though.

That's why I'm creating a worst TV decision category. I don't understand why ABC cancelled "Speechless," a show about a family where the oldest child of three has cerebral palsy. They could have made this a heart-warming drama, and there are definitely some touching moments, but it was a really funny show. USA Today even included Speechless in its top 25 shows of the 2010s. It deserved more than three seasons, especially since it would have been fun to see how the writers dealt with JJ going to college. ABC could have made room to fit the show in its schedule, even if it's only a 12-episode season. Here are a few clips to remember the show.







Best Book: John Temple

This was John Temple’s year even if he didn’t realize it! Temple published "Up in Arms: How the Bundy Family Hijacked Public Lands, Outfoxed the Federal Government, and Ignited America's Patriot Militia Movement" over the summer, and I also read his 2015 book "American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic" this year. Both nonfiction books are thoroughly researched and filled with detailed first-hand interviews. These books are examples of what journalism and story-telling should be.

Full disclosure. I know John Temple's wife though I haven't talked with her since I was in high school.

I also wanted to share other books that I read this year for no particular reason other than to show off that I read some books!

- Educated: a memoir by Tara Westover
- The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
- Playing Through The Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town by S.L. Price (I thought about writing a blog post about this book and compare Aliquippa to my own Western Pennsylvania community. I still might in 2020.)
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
- Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
- The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer by Caitlin Murray
- Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski

Best Sports Moment: US Women's World Cup Win

Not a great year for Pittsburgh sports (I'll get to that momentarily), so to me, the best sports moment was the dominance of the women's national team. I included three videos below based on the round. In the quarterfinal, Megan Rapinoe scored twice in a 2-1 win over the host team France.



Alex Morgan's gave the US a 2-1 lead in the semi-final against England. A lot of people made a big deal about the sipping tea celebration. What a dumb discussion that was. This was a monster goal in a huge match. The celebration was fine.



Finally, with a 1-0 lead part-way through the second half of the final against The Netherlands, Rose Lavelle took a pass near midfield and sealed the victory for the US. She's an assassin!



Worst Sports Moments: Penguins vs. Islanders Playoff Series

Pittsburgh sports fans hoped that the Pirates would be decent in 2019, but I think we knew that seemed unrealistic. The Steelers lost Big Ben in week two and pro-bowlers RB James Conner and WR JuJu Smith-Schuster missed significant time. The fact they have been as competitive as they have been is a credit to the defense and head coach. Still, the most disappointing moment of 2019 was the Penguins getting swept in the first round of the NHL playoffs to the New York Islanders. Look, I don't think most fans realistically thought the Pens were going to win the Stanley Cup. Tampa Bay and Boston looked really strong in the Atlantic division. In the Metropolitan, Washington and the Islanders were better than the Penguins all season (and continue to be so far through the 2019-2020 season) and Carolina and Columbus were about equals. Still, with Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Guentzel, Letang, and Murray, you didn't expect the team to lose a series 4-0.

Best Blog: The Steel Trap

I really enjoy Heidi's writings. Her first world problems posts are worth the price of admission alone. (I should probably note that there are no fees to read The Steel Trap.)

Worst Blog: All of the blogs that I used to read but aren't around anymore.

I get it. Writing a personal blog takes a lot of time and life gets in the way. I'm going to write more about this soon in a separate post.

Best Podcast (No Budget Category): The Donut Bag

Joey is the hardest working man in podcasting. He puts out 3-4 podcasts a week on Pittsburgh sports, movies, television shows, random drafts, and more. I don't think this man sleeps!

Best Podcast (With a Budget Category): Hit Parade

I only learned about this Slate podcast regarding music chart history in 2019, and I'm only a few episodes away from going through every episode. This podcast was made for me. Chris Molanphy picks a song or artist in each full-length episode and does a deep dive on the song/group/time period with lots of song clips.

Best Sean's Ramblings Blog Post: Kamala, Katy, Ariana, & Demi

I had the most fun writing about what may have occurred when Senator (and now former Presidential candidate) Kamala Harris met with Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato.

Honorable mention to field trips. Specifically, our family vacation to Pittsburgh and taking Pedro Tulo to a DC United game. In addition, The Moose ran for class office.

Worst Sean's Ramblings Blog Post: ............

In late April, I fell asleep in front of my computer and either my finger got stuck on the keyboard or Ziggy sat on the keyboard. The result was a series of periods. According to Blogger, this has also been my most-read post of 2019, and it's not even close. Maybe I need to have Ziggy blog more often.

Best Play/Musical I Saw: Come From Away

This musical is based on 9/11 and the subsequent days where Gander, Newfoundland in Canada, a town of less than 10,000 people hosted approximately 7,000 people from international flights after the American airspace was closed. There are plenty of lighter moments but with the realization that 9/11 just happened. So so good.

Worse Play/Musical I Saw: None

With three young kids, you think I have time to see lots of plays and musicals?

Thanks for making it all the way through this post. Please feel free to click here to see my best of and worst of the last few years. Happy New Year!