Neil Diamond's favorite holiday song...

Hello out there in TV Land! What's new and exciting in your world?

Here in Atlanta, I prepare for the two holiest days on the Jewish calendar; Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur. They are the days to atone for your sins of the previous year and as most of you know, I am still repenting for since from the 1990s.

Thanks to my wonderful faith, you can be a mass-murderer or a simple sinner like me and if you fast for 26 hours once a year, you are clean for the next year. Just like everything else Jews do, it's all wholesale man!!!

Funny part is also - I can guarantee you that every food commercial every made will be on Sunday night and Monday when we cannot eat!!!! Just a fact. Watch and see.

I have always wondered why the Rabbi doesn't do confession and then after listening to everything you did, he gives you an amount of days during the year you need to fast. Most people would be once a month people, but some may be more or less. Be more appropriate than lumping us altogether.

Oh well. Such is life in the big city.

Before I go for the weekend, I have to give a shout out and a HUGE thumbs-up to Mike Valenti of WXYT-1270 in Detroit. He is a Spartan alum and just funny as hell. He had a rant this week after the loss to Notre Dame that is going down as an all-time classic.

Take a listen - laugh a bit and have a great weekend.

Good morning America, how are ya?

"Don't you know me I'm your native son, I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done."

What an incredible night in New Orleans. Friend of mine went to the game and he said it was the wildest scene ever. And he would know wild scenes as well as anyone I know!

As I sat and watched the game, I kept laughing thinking about how a stadium was fixed before tons of homes. How the levees are still not up to category 5 capacity and that if another hurricane came through the Gulf Coast they are no more ready today that yesterday. But hey, they have their Saints back. And for one night, every one was happy.

Every one?

Are they sure? Did they ask every one?

Spike Lee was in the booth for the game and he pretty much stopped short of saying that the government is still blowing it. He had the chance to make his usual statement and blow it all up, but he said, “I am not going to pull a Kanye West tonight.”

Funny, but it was the right time for something to be said and no one said it. How hard can it be to fight a war half way around the world when you can’t win the war in your own home? Just an embarrassment.

I only hope it doesn’t happen again. But we all know something like this will happen again, just a matter of where and when.

And speaking of where and when… where and when will the American’s win the Ryder Cup again?

Not like any American golfers care because hey, we win Majors and are the top two players in the world. Great individual golfers but horrible team golfers.

We have no passion and no fire when it comes to the Ryder Cup. I don’t care if the team are all rookies; they have to have some pride in them? Some swagger and some arrogance to become the great golfers that they are.

On the European side, we can flip the question, when and where will one of them win a Major again? No one on the Ryder Cup team has won a Major since 1999 when Jose-Maria Olazabal won at Augusta.

It’s amazing to me to see Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia become dominant players for three days every two years when they can’t close out a Major to save their lives. Heck, they struggle to get to the fourth round in contention and when they do it, choke city is coming.

Just wild to watch how match play changes players.

And speaking of changes, how about the New York Football Giants this week? Just horrific – I don’t agree with how he said it, but nonetheless I totally agree with Jeremy Shockey that Tom Coughlin has got to go.

He is supposed to be a disciplinarian and that team takes more stupid penalties than I have hair on my head! How is it that you let the exact same thing happen to you two weeks in a row! They didn’t show up until the 3rd quarter, by then the damage was done.

Even if the Giants make the playoffs, Coughlin needs to go. The only coach in America that needs to be fired faster is John L. Smith of Michigan State University.

Three minutes to go in the game with a lead at home and he is throwing the ball???? For those of you who don’t know, the L in his name stands for LOSER!

To all my friends of the Jewish persuasion I would like to wish you and yours L’Shana Tova. A sweet, healthy, happy and safe new year for all of us and our family in Israel.

ELI'S COMING - HIDE YOUR HEART GIRLS....

"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...."

For those of you who don't know why I reference the Monkees classic, you didn't see what I saw on Sunday afternoon. The New York Football Giants won a football game that they had absolutely NO right even being close in. (Bonus if you know who sang the song I reference in the title!)

I was in the basement watching on Sunday Ticket - which along with Tivo are the two greatest things in a man's life.

I sat there incredulous for most of the game. We looked horrific. Eli was sacked eight times and we took a ton of dumb penalties. But they never quit. Even after Eli got sacked for the eighth time, he didn't yell or scream ... he just did his job.

Thanks to the prevent offense of Andy Reid and the Filth-a-delphia Eagles, Jay Feely made a short field goal with time running out in the game to send it to overtime. And there, the legend of Eli Manning grew some more.

He went 8-for-8 in the OT, including the "walk-off" game winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress. As the ball hung in the air, I jumped out of my chair. I watched as Plaxico grabbed the ball and the win... couldn't believe it. Just wrong.

But then again - it was in Filth-a-delphia. Couldn't happen to nicer people!

Seattle - Eli and company are on their way ... could this be a magical year?

"The ink is black, the page is white ... together we learn to read and write...." The Giants did more than read or write. They won a game they used to lose and in thus started a new chapter in Giants history.

What have we learned in five years?

Wow. Has it really been that long since that horrific day? I could live to be 1,001 years old and remember everything about that day.

From my dad calling me yelling at me to turn on the news. To the Atlanta Thrashers players, coaches and staff piling into my office to see what the heck is going on. To my dear my friend, Sherry Skalko, calling me up crying hysterically saying that Mark was on the second plane. To my mom walking in New York City the next day crying as soldiers walked with machine guns.

It was and will always be Sept. 11th in my mind. The problem I have is how many people here don't feel the same way.

This is how the people of Israel have lived for a long, long time. Imagine - we are the lucky ones we aren't that close to the real action of the Middle East and have only had one day of attacks.

The world goes round and round and many think we are safe. They think that we need to defend our civil liberties more than anything else. Well kids, if a nuclear bomb goes off on our soil, how do you defend our civil liberties then? Proactive is the only way to go after terrorists.

We are not in the 50s. Happy Days was a great TV show, but it's not the reality we live in now. We need to defend our nation and be on the offensive to stop these radical people before they stop our way of life.

I am sick of Democrats and Republicans fighting over the political garbage. Just shutup and get us safe. Until that day - this propaganda that one can defend us better than the other is a joke. Neither can do the job as of right now - and then need to get on it quickly before we are hit again.

Many people died on Sept. 11 in the U.S. and many more people have died defending justice around the world since then. It's not an issue for politicians to throw around glibly. If they do - I hope you challenge them on it.

If we don't - Mark and all the others have died for no greater good. When I see him on the other side, I don't want to tell him that. Do you?

SOAPBOX - hug and kiss your kids and spouses more today than yesterday!!!!

Customer service is an oxymoron...

Hi kids – sorry it’s been a while, but life has been very busy.

I am sitting in Austin, Texas about to get into a day of meetings. But before I do, let me share a few things.

First, American Airlines was great. Flew through Dallas and had no issues – both flights were early. The night before I left, there was a little incident with them. I called to try and get seats on my flights home on Friday and they told me that they have released the amount of seats that they can over the phone and I need to get my seats at the airport on the day of departure. I asked if I was going to get stuck in a middle seat and they told me that there’s a possibility, but that they have seats on the aisle, I need to get there early. I asked if I gave them a percentage of my money when I booked the flight or did I give them all my money? The gentleman on the other end of the phone told me I was being rude and hung up on me. Nice – that’s what customer service is about! I wrote a letter to American letting them know about it … we will see what they say.

Went to the UT campus yesterday to buy a few things for the family. The place is huge - tons of stuff to choose from and my cousin Alan probably owns most of it ... I was talking to him from the bookstore and he was telling me where I was in the store. Scary man ...

And for those of you in the Northeast that have children, take them here to look at the school. It's one of the best college towns I have been to. To me, it's up there with Madison, Wisconsin, East Lansing, Michigan and Boston. Young people are everywhere to be seen and it's a great music town.

For those of you without kids, come check the city out anyway... it just rocks.

Until next time ...

That’s it for now … more later… JB