On the sadness front, while P+J missed our chance to say "Good (beat, beat, beat, wait for it) . . . day!" for the last time to Paul Harvey, the sporting old boys hereabouts were grieved to learn of the passing of former Brown basketball star Eddie Morris on March 5. Eddie's picture is next to the definition of "mercurial" in the dictionary. One of the greatest defenders in Ivy League history, he played alongside the legendary Phil Brown on the 1973 Brown team that ran up a 19-3 lead at the Civic Center on PC's legendary Final Four team, with Eddie going head-to-head with St. Ernie D. and Phil matched up against Marvin "Tire Iron" Barnes in an unbelievable game, which the Friars eventually won.
With Morris running the show, Brown hoops took a quantum leap forward, in addition to being at the heart of such headline-grabbing episodes as the Bears' all-black cheerleaders refusing to stand for the national anthem at the Civic Center. (Yes, Rogeriee, we know you weren't one of them.) As exciting a player as Little Rhody has ever seen call home for his college years, the wonderful memories will remain.
CRAM IT, CRAMER
Holy Olberman-O'Reilly feud, Batman! Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" show, is having a hissy-fit worthy of a junior-high-school girl with a sudden outbreak of pimples on date night because Jon Stewart dared make fun of him on The Daily Show. The fact that Cramer set himself up for it by being caught on tape urging his viewers to buy Bear Stearns stock right before they tanked, as well as dishing out other pearls of investment wisdom that backfired, makes his protestations all the more silly. You gonna believe frothing lunatic Jim or your lyin' eyes, folks?
Cramer is so desperate, he obviously bullied his way onto the Today show, ostensibly to defend himself, and it turned out to be farcical. All wild-eyed Jimmy could do was to try to demean Stewart's humorous balloon-puncturing of this egomaniac (again right there on the videotape) by saying with what we suspect he thought was huge import, "He's a comedian," drawing the word out as if he was saying "torturer."
Cramer was so insecure he felt obliged to bring along as his support group and cheerleader, CNBC biz-news reporter Erin Burnett, the ever-widening Peewee Herman-lookalike who is so desperate for attention herself she recently appeared on Donald Trump's ghastly Celebrity Apprentice show as an advisor of some sort. God knows why she was on that, save to serve her own ego, unless she's playing hide-the-Trump-Tower with The Donald. At any rate, full marks for overreaction to Cramer, who succeeded only in having even more of the nation see the damning tapes, while helping implode his and Ms. Peewee's reputations further than Stewart could have dreamt.
FROM SCOOP TO POOP
A big scoop last week for WPRO-AM talk host Dan Yorke when former Cranston Mayor Steve "Laugh at Me" Laffey announced on Yorke's afternoon drive show that he would not be seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the Biggest Little in 2010 when the term-limited Don "Laughing Boy" Carcieri must say "adios" (although most pundits would agree that his parting words will not be uttered in Spanish). As most local political handicappers were expecting a Laffey campaign, this was indeed big news.
