Number 42. Mass Shootings. Fandom Across the Pond. Answers Please. Random Thoughts. Freddie Mercury All Over Again.
- Quote of the Week: “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson
Seventy-eight years ago, he broke the color barrier as Major League Baseball’s first Black player. He took on detractors and racists and started his major league career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Jackie Robinson, against all odds, commanded respect not only with his on-field accomplishments, but for his life values and perseverance. Last Tuesday, and every April 15th since 2004, Major League Baseball has celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, with a goal of educating all fans about his life and legacy. One of the ways Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day is for all players to wear the number 42 during their April 15th game.
A number of people, for all the wrong reasons, did not want Jackie Robinson involved with Major League Baseball. Robinson rose above the fray to earn respect as a Major League Baseball player and later as the first Black to be a vice president at a Fortune 500 company, a banker, and a developer. Jackie Robinson’s name will always be synonymous with breaking barriers.
- On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) were ratified by three-fourths of the States. The second amendment is again top of mind these days with another school shooting, this time at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Second Amendment reads: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Little did Thomas Jefferson know that when he authenticated and ratified the Bill of Rights, the second amendment would indirectly lead to many school tragedies across the United States. Nor did he know how people of lesser minds would use the weapons allowed by the Second Amendment.
Last Wednesday’s tragedy at Florida State University was the school’s second campus shooting in the last eleven years. The twenty-year-old shooter was the son of a Leon County deputy and used his mother’s former service weapon to conduct his assault. Thursday’s incident was the 81st mass shooting of 2025 and the 18th shooting on a college campus in 2025.
I do agree that people kill people, not guns, but the United States, one way or another, must get control of the ability to access guns AND find a way to help the deranged and mentally fragile who carry out these mass shootings.
- The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs started yesterday. The playoffs, depending on the matchup, usually draw large and loud crowds to NBA arenas across the United States and Canada. Fandom also crosses the Atlantic Ocean with professional basketball in Europe. The EuroLeague, officially named the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, is in its twenty-fifth year of competition. Similar to European football crowds, the fans really bring their passion to arenas from Madrid to Istanbul. This short video is from a recent pre-game at Crvena Zvezda’s (Red Star Belgrade) arena in Serbia. Wow!!
- Question of the Week: Thank you to all of you who provided your answers to the Question of the Week: Will the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have short and long-term impact with the U.S. economy? How? Why?
Here are a few of your answers:
While you know my opinion about our president, I feel the tariffs, Not the chaos in the way he is managing it, is good in the long term. If Germany imposes 15% on American cars, we should impose 15% on German cars.. Very logical and let the best win. That said, China in my opinion is the evil as everything in China is controlled by the government and is supported financially by it and that tilts the balance to these companies as they are fully subsidized.. You can’t compete against that. They steal your intellectual property and they create something similar… THEY SUCK…
I think there will be and already have been impacts both positive and negative. Most people have not educated themselves on the different tariffs imposed on the U.S. I don’t completely understand them myself but I want to believe that Trump knows what he’s doing.
The tariffs will have a long term effect as it continues the destructive path of eroding relationships globally paving the way to remove the U.S. dollar as the largest internationally used currency. This will have a devastating impact.
Tariffs also erode the value of the American brand, reducing the desire for American goods, even if foreign countries reduce import tariffs, as Rand Paul eloquently said in his speech against tariffs. A consumer from one country buys goods from a manufacturer in another country, governments don’t essentially buy products from each other, so if consumers in other countries dislike the new American position then they simply won’t buy American goods, regardless of tariff levels.
Tariffs…..short term pain …..long term gain…..in the end….just a negotiating tool to right the ship. We have been taken advantage of by many countries where the tariff on our exports sometimes are a multiple of what we tariff imports.
Please take a few minutes to answer and comment about this week’s Question of the Week: What is, or once was, your favorite Easter Sunday memory or tradition?
Seven Random Thoughts and Questions for April 20, 2025
- How are we already less than two weeks away from the fifth month of the year?
- Not that I am big on watching award shows, but September’s Emmy Awards show will be hosted by Nate Bargatze. That should be fun to watch.
- How much fun was it to take in last Sunday’s final round of the Masters?
- There was another island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico. Alarming considering hotels are at capacity due to tourists celebrating Easter weekend. Not good and systemic infrastructure issues to say the least.
- The Americans, after many years, is still a top five series for me. I have always been intrigued and curious of how foreign agents blend into a target country and pose as everyday citizens. A friend recommended a new book that explores the real-life KGB program. I bought The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West, have read three chapters, and highly recommend the book if you were a fan of The Americans.
- Headline of the Week: NVIDIA’s “QC Checks” On The GeForce RTX 5090 Come Into Question as Redditor Reports Damaged Capacitor After Just One Month of Use. I have no clue what this headline refers to.
- The end of an era. Lee Corso, who for forty years brought some fun and levity to ESPN’s Gameday show, has finally decided to call it quits…at the age of ninety! Lee Corso always made his pick of the week by wearing an oversized mascot’s headgear during the live broadcast. Corso will make one more cameo appearance at this year’s opening Gameday show. All the best to Lee Corso!
- Pure Talent. Benson Boone has taken the music performance world by storm. Talented with a great voice, this twenty-two-year-old put on this great performance of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, getting a good bit of help from the legendary Brian May. Benson Boone is Pure Talent.