Live From Eastern Long Island.

Random Thoughts from Kismet on Fire Island.

For a few reasons, tomorrow is the most important Holiday in the United States.  Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May and was formerly known as Decoration Day.  Memorial Day commemorates all men and women who have died in military service for the United States.  If you have a flag, please honor our fallen veterans and fly your flag; if you don’t have one please go buy one.

Another home match for Atlanta United later today.  Player personnel decisions come into play soon as Josef Martinez will return from injury and Brad Guzan joins United in July.  It is going to be interesting to see what starter gets benched and what Tata Martino and Carlos Bocanegra decide to do with starting goalkeeper Alec Kann.

A big dilemma for all of us.  Public venues around the world spend millions of dollars on security to ensure their customers and fans are protected during an event.  Pat-downs and metal detectors, as well as bag checks are now common place.  So while the interior of a stadium or arena may be relatively safe, the exterior of these types of venues are vulnerable to the sick bastards who think they are representing ISIS or other terrorist groups.  I don’t have an answer for this problem but I hope that the world’s security specialists can figure this out soon.

Last week I paid tribute to one of my favorite guitarists, Jimi Hendrix.  Similar to Hendrix, Gregg Allman’s magical keyboard mixed his influential music with blues and rock, along with the ‘jam-band’ sound (think Widespread Panic).  Along with his brother, Duane, and awesome guitarist Dickie Betts, Gregg Allman made The Allman Brothers great.  He will be missed.

Some soccer pundits lambasted Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho for electing to dial down his team’s efforts to stay atop the Premier League standings.  He instead decided to focus his team’s resources on the Europa competition, and for good reason.  He figured out, based on the remaining league matches, that ManU would only have a nominal chance of securing a fourth-place finish.  So he threw down the dice and decided that the better path to qualifying for the Champions League was to win the Europa League.  Wednesday night in Stockholm, ManU beat Ajax and Mourinho’s goal was achieved.  You may not like his arrogant personality but you have to respect his decision-making.  To ManU, the affect of not making next year’s Champions League may have resulted in revenue shortfalls of up to $40m.

Salute our veterans and have a Funday Sunday.