We can all agree that over the years our neighborhood, Windsor Terrace has produced many outstanding people. I have been writing the blog for a little over a year and a half now and I find it hard to believe that I have only mentioned this one person once. Maybe it’s because he isn’t one to toot his own horn, not one who is loud, big-times anyone or likes to bring attention to himself. Today, I’m here to bring recognition to a great man and give him a shout-out from Container Diaries.
To this day he still resides on Windsor Place between 8th and 9th…
He has been working as a high school teacher and basketball coach for many years, the past 27 at Msgr. McClancy located in Elmhurst, Queens.(As mentioned below, he just recorded his 400th victory at the varsity level)
I’m talking about no other than Donnie Kent.
‘DK’ as he is affectionately known by many, is one of the nicest people to reside in Windsor Terrace.
With Jack Kelly and Glenn T. posting comments about him for a previous blog entry, I thought I’d write a short piece on the man who has walked more miles around the neighborhood than anyone.
First up is Glenn’s writing on DK:
FYI!! Regarding Donald Kent. My good friend Donald Kent is still going strong and just recorded his 400th High School win on the boys varsity basketball level. Donald has had an illustrious coaching career while coaching at Christ The King and for the last two decades at Msgr. McClancy. When I came home from coaching basketball overseas in 1992 and needed a job it was Donald who got me a teaching position at Msgr. McClancy. I hold Donald Kent in the highest regard for I consider him an older brother/ uncle to me. More importantly he was my mentor for he was always there for me and a friend who often times helped me with his guidance and advice. I owe Donald a debt of gratitude for always being there for me especially in a time of need. Many of you know that I am a basketball coach that has been coaching for quite some time most recently at Nazareth HS although I needed to take some time out to help my family. Anywhere you go especially on the coaching circuit there is never a bad word about Coach Kent. A true gentleman on and off the court. I echo Jackie Kelly’s words regarding Donald Kent!
As a youngster, I never engaged in conversation with him. I’d see him walk up to the avenue every day and I’d see him at basketball games. I’d also see him up in the boys schoolyard at the summer league watching his players from Christ the King. I’ll never forget sitting down on the ground against the church wall one night watching the Royals and the Loughlin Lions; It was a battle! When we watched the summer league as kids, we adopted players as our favorites; when C.K. came to town, Buzz Matthews of Christ the King was my favorite.
It wasn’t until I entered the coaching world at Bishop Ford did I get to know the man who can always be seen siting directly behind the ESPN announcers at MSG at a college basketball game.
Donnie Kent has always been very cordial to me; when I became a coach I’d see him on the avenue where he found time to chat.
The man is filled with basketball stories and is also one of the most sincere people you will ever come across.
As I look back on all those times I had the chance to get to know a high school basketball coach living right around the corner from me, I kick myself for not befriending him. I wish I could turn back time and say something to him as he dashes across the avenue. I would’ve learned so much from him.
One night, late in the summer, I recall DK walking up to the avenue. At the time he was the head coach at McClancy High School and on this particular night he didn’t seem like himself. I was hanging out on the corner of Windsor and 9th, outside Ballard’s.
“‘Hi coach Kent”, I said to him as he lifted his head and glanced my way.
“Hey Red”, he answered back but kept on walking. (Usually on the corner he would stop and ask me how my freshmen team was doing at Ford)
I watched him as he made his way across the avenue towards Prospect Park. Maybe he was on his way to some place important I thought to myself.
A few months later found out that he had received a call from his center at McClancy, Serge Zwicker who at the time stood 6′8″ and was probably going to be a force in the CHSAA in the up-coming season. Zwicker decided to transfer to another school, out of State. Zwicker later went on to play the post at North Carolina.
Something about Kent that many people don’t know is that back in the early 1980’s when Christ the King had a teacher’s strike, Kent refused to cross the picket line, thus losing his job. So he ended up at the Elmhurst school and has been there ever since.
Jack Kelly said of DK: “This would be a perfect time to thank the people like Don Kent for putting up with a bunch of crazy 7th avenue guys and helping us learn the important lessons in life like doing the best you can and if you fall pick yourself up and try again.”
When I visit NYC in April, I will be sure to seek ‘DK’ out by getting a hold of him and talking some basketball with a guy who is also a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame.
Would love to hear your thoughts on Donnie.
-SF
Hoops135@hotmail.com
Well it’s that time again when the Chicago Cubs make all of us baseball fans hopeful that this will be the year that the Cubs win it all. I thought for sure back in 2003 that the Cubs would win it all. Of course they played the Braves in the first round of the playoffs and that was a sure win with the way the Braves choke in post season. The Chicago Cubs had it all, hitting and pitching. We had Sammy Sosa, Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Alou and Lofton. But what we didn’t plan on where the Marlins and their secret weapon…Bartman. I really don’t blame Steve Bartman for the collapse of the Cubs in 2003. I blame Alex Gonzales, who dropped an easy Sunday hop that should have gotten the Cubs out of the inning by starting a double play. Besides the Cubs had a whole other game that they could have and should have won. They were leading in the 7th game and couldn’t hold it in the later innings. So maybe this will be the year that Lou Pinella can get Soto, Fukudome, Zambrano, Lee, Ramirez, Dempster, Lilly and the rest of the Cubs to actually win a post season game after the last 2 appearances. Well either way we all know that the Chicago Cubs fan will always have a good time at Wrigley Field no matter if the Cubs win or lose. The Cubs fans always have the “HORRY KOW” t shirt to wear.
HORRY KOW CHICAGO CUBS FUNNY T SHIRT SIZES S-3XL WHITE
Lego + guns = awesome. If you are a hardcore Lego fan with a membership with the NRA these toys are right up your alley. BrickArms can sell you your very own Lego army complete with realistic weapons right down to every detail. Some of the weapons include the superadvanced Colonial Marines’ Xeno Pulse Rifles to NATO’s G36 Assault Rifles to vintage German Rocket Propeller Grenade launchers, PPK pistols with Brausch silencers and Magnum revolvers. Play out all the major conflicts in Lego!
This year’s Halloween was uneventful. We bought candy at about 6:30pm, gave some away to a few groups of cute kids who knocked on the door, and then gave more away to obnoxiously old teenagers sans costumes. Then we turned the lights off.
But, 10 years ago, I had a very unique Halloween. I had been living in my new home — a remote and tiny African village — for about a month and a half. I didn’t yet speak more than a few words of the local language, and while the villagers were very welcoming and kind, it would be a while before I really started making friends. So there I was on Halloween 1999, sitting outside my mud hut with my usual entourage of curious children, feeling very far away from America. It was harvest time in the village, and someone brought me an enormous squash. At that point in my life, I wasn’t a fan of many vegetables (Africa would quickly change that) and I knew almost nothing about cooking. But, I did know how to carve a pumpkin! So, with a bit of naivete about the fact that the squash was actually a valuable food source, I decided to make a Halloween squash-o-lantern! I carved in a pretty standard jack-o-lantern face, but then added some traditional facial markings common in the village. That night, I lit a candle and stuck it in the squash. Kids and adults were quite perplexed by the “squash head,” and I’m quite certain that my attempts at an explanation were insufficient. But, they’d already determined that I was unusual, so they were just happy that I was passing out candy! And I was happy to have that small connection with home.
(By the way, I did try to dry out the squash to preserve it for food. But, I underestimated the humidity factor and the whole thing became a moldy mess!)
The Squash-0-Lantern was not my only Halloween memory from that night. When it was dark out, I pulled a chair to the middle of my yard and sat under the moonlight enjoying the cool evening air. A young girl from the chief’s family would bring me dinner every night, but I hadn’t yet learned that I could go join their evening gathering and share the meal with the women. So I sat alone. Enjoying the calm.
Then there was a rustling noise in the woven grass mat that served as my bathroom wall. I shined the flashlight to where I heard the noise and out emerged a horrible creature — a disgustingly creepy scorpion! The first one I’d seen in Africa. What to do? I was alone in the moonlight on Halloween with a scorpion charging towards me! So I grabbed the garden hoe a neighbor had loaned me to weed my yard. It was an iron spade attached to a wooden handle the length of a rake. Plenty of distance to keep me safely away from the monster. So I whacked it a couple of times with the flat end of the spade, and that only served to piss off the scorpion and make him (yes, it was definitely a him) run faster towards me with that nasty little stinger ready to strike. Quickly, I learned the best use of my weapon — strike with the blade. So, I guillotined the sucker, and he went flying in two separate pieces across the yard.
And I felt very proud that I’d not only found a way to celebrate the fun parts of Halloween all alone in my African village, but I’d killed the scary monster too.
Chase Utley (26), celebrates after clubbing a first-inning three-run homer with Jimmy Rollins (right). His shot gave the Philadelphia Phillies a jolt, fueling their Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
You Have Only the Right to Remain Silent: Let’s Try Democracy
by David Swanson
Black Commentator
2009-09-24
According to the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The men who put their signatures to those words sought to endow each other with those rights, and those rights can be gained or lost. And since that day, people around the world have imagined, created, and struggled for a great many additional rights as well.
Our Constitution came very early in the history of the formal establishment of individual rights. It helped to inspire many other nations to develop the idea further, and to inspire international agreements. Our original Bill of Rights is no longer cutting edge, and yet it does a remarkably good job of providing many basic protections. The most glaring problem with it is not dated concepts or ambiguous wording, but our failure to enforce it. We have to make enforcement happen through Congress and the courts, or there will be no point in making improvements.
To restore and expand our rights, there are three basic steps we should take. The first is to enforce the rights already protected by the Constitution. The second is to ratify and enforce international agreements (some of which the United States has already ratified) providing additional rights. The third is to amend our Constitution to include a second Bill of Rights.
So, first things first: how are we doing on enforcing the rights that we are already supposed to have? Here are the basic rights provided by the US Constitution and its amendments, and a quick summary of the shape they’re in today:
article i, section 9, habeas corpus:
The right not to be kidnapped and detained without charge or trial has been eroded in the United States, its territories, and secret prisons. The Supreme Court has admirably insisted on the right, while Congress has been willing to toss it to the wind. Not a single individual has been held accountable for having violated it, and the violations have not ended. In 2001 and 2002, US Justice Department lawyers put down in “legal” opinions that the right to habeas corpus could be tossed aside. In 2007 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before Congress that the right to habeas corpus that appears in the Constitution doesn’t really exist. In 2009, the new Obama administration claimed the continued power to render and detain without charge.
article i, section 10, the right against ex post facto laws:
It is clearly unconstitutional to criminalize something that has already been done and then punish a crime that was not a crime when it happened. But what about taking actions that were crimes when they happened and immunizing the violators? This looks like Congress taking over the president’s pardon power. If the ban on ex post facto laws is understood to include laws that grant retroactive immunity from prosecution, then Congress has been busy violating it by passing laws like the Military Commissions Act or the FISA Amendments Act, laws that claim to give immunity to past violators of crimes. We should consider whether to amend the Constitution to clarify that point.
first amendment, freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, and the right to petition for redress of grievances:
President Bush punched quite a few holes in the wall of separation between church and state. He used agencies including the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Park Service, the Department of Defense (DOD), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Education (DOE), the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of the Surgeon General to promote the establishment of a religion. Freedom of Road Scholar – the world leader in educational travel for adults. Top ten travel destinations for African-Americans. Fascinating history, welcoming locals, astounding sights, hidden gems, mouth-watering food or all of the above – our list of the world’s top ten “must-see” learning destinations for African-Americans has a little something for everyone.the press has been severely curtailed by the establishment of a system that bars entry to ownership of effective media outlets to all but the very wealthiest. Pundits in the existing media outlets are often directly paid and told what to say by the Pentagon or the White House. Media outlets in occupied nations like Iraq are paid to publish false stories. Reporters on wars are “embedded” with the military, denied access, and banned from publishing important information and images. Independent reporters were preemptively detained but not charged with any crimes during the 2008 Republican National Convention. Freedom of speech and assembly have been radically curtailed to the point where we now have “free speech zones” consisting of walled-in cages outside and at a distance removed from political events. These freedoms are also absent in the workplace, where unionization is effectively blocked, and in “private” gathering places like shopping malls. While you can appeal to your government for a redress of grievances, you’d better do so by mail. People attempting to do so in person are usually prevented by security guards. A Justice Department memo on October 23, 2001, claimed the president could suspend First Amendment rights.
second amendment, the right to bear arms:
The Second Amendment was written to protect the Southern states’ right to use armed militias to enforce slavery. We no longer have slavery, but we do have the National Guard, which is supposed to be under the control of state governors. We need to correct the current situation in which the US president controls the National Guard and sends its members to fight foreign wars for empire. If we read the Second Amendment as providing an individual right to bear arms, it is important to notice that it makes no distinction between the right to bear arms to violently protect oneself and the right to bear arms to easily slaughter masses of people, or the fact that some types of arms are much better suited to the latter than the former. Clearly, this is one right that needs to be limited by legislation or amendment to the extent that it conflicts with that “self-evident” right to “life.”
third amendment, the right not to have soldiers quartered in your house:
This is perhaps the only right we have that has not been threatened or eroded in any way in recent years. But, of course, that’s because—counter to everything the framers of the Constitution intended—we are all paying significant portions of our income to the government in order to provide soldiers with their own homes on thousands of permanent military bases maintained in times of war and peace.
fourth amendment, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures without warrant, probable cause, and specificity:
That same memo that brushed aside the First Amendment, mentioned above, also claimed the president could toss out the Fourth Amendment. Our Fourth Amendment has been erased by legislation amending FISA, and should instead be protected by the repeal of FISA and the passage of new legislation. Rather than permitting the government to sidestep a rubber stamp court that routinely and even retroactively approves violations of the Fourth Amendment, such a procedure should be replaced by one that does not violate our rights. The Fourth Amendment requires a warrant describing specifically what is to be searched, and requires that the warrant be based on probable cause. FISA permits, and always permitted, retroactive warrants based on the flimsiest of evidence.
fifth amendment, the right to grand jury, due process, and just compensation for property taken, and protection against double jeopardy and self-incrimination;
sixth amendment, the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial local jury, to be informed of the charges against you, to confront witnesses against you, to compel witnesses in your favor to appear, and to have the assistance of counsel;
and seventh amendment, the right to trial by jury:
These rights have been eroded by Bush and Cheney so that they now apply in some cases but not others. If the president calls you an “enemy combatant” you lose these rights. In June of 2002, Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote a pair of secret memos denying an American citizen named Jose Padilla these rights on the grounds that he was guilty of various offenses. But the memos themselves served as his trial as well as his sentence; Padilla had never been charged with the crimes, much less found guilty. In 2009, the new Justice Department under Eric Holder sought to dismiss a case that Padilla brought against Yoo alleging that his memos had led to Padilla’s detention and torture. Our due process rights must be restored to their intended state and then expanded to include protections unavailable in the eighteenth century, including the videotaping of all interrogations and confessions.
eighth amendment, the right against excessive bail or fines or cruel and unusual punishment:
The cruelest punishments imaginable have been employed in violation of the Eighth Amendment, with the disgusting defense sometimes offered that “interrogation techniques” are not punishment at all. While torture and any degrading treatment are banned by numerous treaties and statutes, the Constitution would be improved by the clarification of the ban provided here.
thirteenth amendment, the right against slavery except as punishment for crime:
Slavery is alive and well in US territories like the Marianas Islands and for immigrants held by force and compelled to work without compensation on farms in the United States; slavery should be banned even as a punishment for crime, and that ban should be enforced.
fifteenth amendment, the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged because of race:
Names are removed from registration rolls on the basis of race, and provisional ballots are rejected on the basis of race. If provisional ballots from African-Americans in Florida in 2000 had been rejected merely at the same rate as those for whites, President Al Gore’s victory margin would have been substantial.
sixteenth amendment, the right to vote cannot be denied or abridged because of sex:
This right cannot be protected for women any better than it can be for men. We do not have an individual right to vote, but only a guarantee that nobody be denied that right because of their race or sex. We require that everyone register, and then sometimes dump their names off the rolls. We hold elections on a weekday, when many people have to work. We provide insufficient staff at polling places, so voting can take many hours out of someone’s day. We insert the electoral college between the voters and the president. And we insert private corporations between the voters and the counting of the votes. We should create the right to directly elect the president and the right to have our votes publicly and verifiably counted on paper ballots at each polling place.
twenty-fourth amendment, the right to vote without paying a poll tax:
We no longer have poll taxes, but we have registration procedures, long lines, elections on a work day, voting rights denied as punishment for a crime, and a system so prone to errors that many voters are disenfranchised. Hollywood actor Tim Robbins had to spend a full day traveling around his city appealing to judges before he could get a glitch corrected and be able to vote in 2008; most people are not rich, white, famous movie actors with a full day to spare.
twenty-sixth amendment, the right to vote beginning at age eighteen:
This right cannot be protected for young people any better than for old. We should have universal registration when people reach eighteen. If we can register everyone for the military draft, why can’t we register everyone to vote?
There you have it. We’ve got rights, but they are threatened. They need restoration and enforcement. They also need expansion and updates. But that’s not the half of it. There’s also the matter of rights we ought to have that were never imagined by the creators of our Bill of Rights.
Will Smith announced that he is not chaning the new “Karate Kid” remake, to the “Kung Fu Kid”, he’s strictly going to keep it as, “The Karate Kid”.
MTV Movies Blog reports:
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/05/06/karate-kid-remake-keeping-title-taking-jaden-smith-to-china/
I’m sure Ralph will be pretty pissed about this. I expect a response from him soon about his thoughts on keeping the title for the remake.
Kev
These are old predictions, before Slumdog became the one to beat - for my latest predictions: Oscar Corridor
Best Picture:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
Doubt
Slumdog Millionaire
Revolutionary Road
Milk
Dark Horses: Australia, Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Dark Knight, WALL-E
Best Director:
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes – Revolutionary Road
Gus Van Sant – Milk
Dark Horses: Baz Luhrmann (Australia), Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino), Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Best Actor:
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Sean Penn – Milk*
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Dark Horses: Benicio del Toro (Che), Will Smith (Seven Pounds), Josh Brolin (W)
Best Actress:
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road*
Kristen Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Dark Horses: Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Best Supporting Actor:
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight*
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
Josh Brolin – Milk
Michael Sheen – Frost/Nixon
Dark Horses: Eddie Marsan (Happy Go Lucky), Russell Crowe (Body of Lies), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
Best Supporting Actress:
Viola Davis – Doubt
Vera Farmiga – Nothing But The Truth
Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona*
Rosemarie DeWitt – Rachel Getting Married
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Dark Horses: Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Elsa Zylberstein (I’ve Loved You So Long), Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Best Original Screenplay:
Milk
Happy-Go-Lucky
Rachel Getting Married
Wall-E*
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Dark Horses: The Wrestler, The Visitor, Synecdoche, New York, Changeling, Che
Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Revolutionary Road*
Frost/Nixon
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Cinematography:
The Dark Knight
Australia*
Milk
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
Best Animated Film:
WALL-E*
Waltz with Bashir
Kung Fu Panda
Best Foreign Language Film: Full Potential Nominee List
Gomorrah – Italy*
The Class – France
Waltz with Bashir – Israel
Three Monkeys – Turkey
The Rest is Silence – Romania
Dark Horses: O’Horten, The Mermaid, The Baader-Meinhof Complex
Best Original Song:
WALL-E
The Wrestler*
Sex and the City
Best Documentary:
Man on Wire*
Trouble the Water
Standard Operating Procedure
Encounters at the End of the World
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Dark Horses: American Teen
Other technical categories coming soonish.
Do you have any predictions/thoughts yourself? Do tell!
Showtime ha estado entrevistando a los productores ejecutivos al genial compositor que tiene la serie y a algunos de los actores de Dexter hace ya un tiempo, cada uno dando su opinión respecto al show y su rol en el mismo. Hoy es el turno de la hermosa Julie Benz, quien nos recuerda dónde quedó su personaje en la temporada pasada, también nos comenta sobre su papel en esta nueva temporada y habla sobre las “sospechas” que tiene respecto a su nuevo esposo, entre otras cosas.
