It May Be Finally Time To Retire “God Bless America” During The Seventh Inning Stretch

God Bless Ronan Tynan? No — God Damn Ronan Tynan:

The famous Irish tenor — who has become a iconic staple of New York Yankees playoff games for much of this decade — admitted to making the slur Thursday to a Jewish woman who was looking to buy an a apartment in his East Side building, a team spokeswoman said.

His gig singing for last night game was then cancelled. It was a move that even Yankees fans who loved the singer agreed with.

. . .

The alleged slur came while Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, an NYU Medical center pediatrician, was inspecting the building with a real estate agent and they bumped into the golden-throated team singer.

The agent joked to Tynan: “Don’t worry they are not Red Sox fans.”

And for some reason Tynan responded by saying: “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish.”

The burst of bigotry stunned Gold-von Simson, who said “Why is that?”

According to the team, Tynan said that a lot of “scary” Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before.

This comes after the Yankees were forced to settle with a fan for trying to use the bathroom during the song.

The Dirty Little Secret About Trees

The mayor’s half-billion-dollar Million Trees initiative may be revenue-neutral after all:

A newly installed ‘no parking’ sign in front of the Tosca Marquis catering hall, located at 4034 E. Tremont Avenue, is difficult to see because a tree obscures it.

Many unwitting motorists are getting tickets because of the obscured sign in front of the hall designated as a no parking zone from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. There is no clear indication as to where this parking regulation ends on the street. The sign has only one arrow pointing north to the curb in front of the dining hall. The entire area is now designated for loading and unloading in what had formerly been two metered spots.

“The sign is obstructed by the tree, so I didn’t even notice it,” said a motorist named Milton, who was parking in front of the catering hall on Friday, October 9.

Can Howard Wolfson Massage This, Too?

Gains in student test scores that the Bloomberg administration trumpeted as proof mayoral control reforms are working, apparently are limited to questionable state testing:

New York students math scores stayed mostly flat on the most recent national tests, calling into question the big gains the same students have posted on state exams.

Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exams show little change for fourth- and eighth-graders in New York.

The percentage of fourth-graders scoring proficient or higher fell from 43% in 2007 to 40% this year.

The state math exams have painted a very different picture of student achievement.

Bloomberg’s Record: Deep Cuts!

If you’re interested, Wayne Barrett takes a close, sober look at Bloomberg’s tenure, including his agency appointees, mayoral control of the schools, public employee pensions (and massive layoffs after November 3), illegal guns, public health and stadium financing (thankfully, the mayor’s glory-hogging, grandstanding, questionably effective environmental record seems to be missing):

When I was in high school, and John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were squaring off, my father helped me craft a list of the qualities and issues we should use to judge the two candidates, a score card so logical that it did not take into account the heart or the gut. I wound up the only kid in my class, at a small Catholic high school in Virginia, willing to champion Nixon in a debate.

There is only so far that a checklist of pluses and minuses can carry you, though this one is not as detached as the one I concocted in 1960. I won’t let my emotions rule, either, however. I believe that the self-serving reversal of term limits was the greatest abuse of power I have covered in more than three decades on this beat. But elections are choices between names on the ballot — not opportunities to file a protest.

You can view elections in a sober manner like this or you can, like me, be content to simply file a protest.

Somewhere Dick Van Patten Picks Up His Pet Cat And Sadly Reflects On What A Long Career In Television And Film Has Amounted To

And Willie Aames wonders if this somehow means that his life may turn around:

As the debate concluded, Mr. Carter asked each candidate to say something nice about the other. Both complied, momentarily, before reverting to attack mode.

“He is a great golfer,” Mr. Bloomberg said. But he added, “I just think he’s not the right person to lead the city for the next four years.”

Mr. Thompson offered that the mayor “is well dressed” but went on, “At some point, after eight years, eight is enough and it’s time for him to go.”

The mayor became uncharacteristically animated, interjecting: “Wait, wait. Eight isn’t enough for better schools, eight isn’t enough for lower crime.”

Mr. Thompson shot back: “Obviously eight is enough, when you violate the will of the people and overturn term limits.”

At that point, the moderator put a stop to it: “O.K. All right.”