Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  Come on in, have a seat.  I was just talking to BDH and Little Buddha about last night's Red Sox game.  The game itself was atrocious (more on that later), but it was great to catch up with a friend who I haven't seen in about 20 years.  Of course I was up past my bedtime again, and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight, so the guys are trying to figure out the best time for a nap this afternoon.  They're terrific schedulers, you know.  For now, we'll focus on powering through the start of the day.  There's a fresh pot of coffee on the counter, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

Donald Trump announced yesterday that he doesn't want the CIA to use informants to spy on North Korea's Kim Jong Un. The supposed Commander-In-Chief doesn't want anyone spying on his good buddy, you see.  He also doesn't want to give any credit to the intelligence community, since they know he's owned by Vladimir Putin.  In other words, Trump is putting himself before the country's needs yet again.  Reverse the parties, and Republicans would be starting impeachment hearings as we speak.

Donald Trump is looking out for his BFF.  (pic via cnbc.com)

Jon Stewart blasted members of Congress for not showing up to a hearing regarding the re-authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund yesterday. Those first responders are heroes.  They deserve all of our respect for the rest of their lives and shouldn't be ignored like an out-of-date talking point.

Good for Texas for passing a law preventing police from shutting down a kid's lemonade stand, and every other state should have the same statute.  Lemonade stands are one of the great joys of life.  You'll never go wrong if you stop at one. It takes a special kind of awful human being to complain about them, and the law should never be on those monsters' side in those cases.

Here's the latest from the Big Papi News Desk:  There's been a second arrest in David Ortiz's shooting, as Big Papi continues to recover at Mass General Hospital.  Apparently the first arrest that happened right after the ambush on Sunday night was the man accused of driving the shooter to the location.  One would think this latest arrest is the shooter himself, but that doesn't seem to have been confirmed yet.  Rumors continue to swirl about the motive for the shooting, but we're not going to get into them until something is actually publicly confirmed.

Fine, let's get to the Red Sox game.  The Boston Red Sox lost 9-5 to the Texas Rangers in one ugly performance at Fenway Park last night.  Darwinzon Hernandez gave up four runs on three hits (along with eight walks) on 86 pitches in three innings in his major league debut.  Hernandez is touted as a talented prospect, so we'll keep an eye on him moving forward, but he was in over his head on Tuesday.  Bobby Poyner also looked out of place, as he gave up five runs in three innings of relief. 

Things continued to get ugly when Brock Holt didn't realize a ball he'd try to catch near the Pesky Pole stayed on the field, so Rangers DH Hunter Pence had an uncontested inside-the-park home run.  Add to that Andrew Benintendi getting ejected by the first base umpire for complaining about the home plate ump, and then Alex Cora getting tossed for defending Benintendi.  The Red Sox are now back to .500 (34-34), and injuries aside, it's still unclear what it's going to take for this team to get back on track.  In the meantime, Rick Porello takes the mound for Boston against Texas tonight.

The big question before tonight's Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is who will wave the Boston Bruins banner before the game begins?  No spoilers here, but this prediction is perfect. If it happens, expect Bruins fans to lose their collective minds and the TD Garden to shake.  We've got goosebumps just thinking about it.

Now that Katy Perry and Taylor Swift have finally called a truce, anything is possible in this world.

Netflix announced that there will be a second season of Russian Doll.  The first season, starring Natasha Lyonne as a woman who keeps dying on her birthday, was one of the best things we've seen on television in years.  No idea what they would do for a follow-up, but we'll definitely give that a look when it's released.

We're big fans of the YouTube show Hot Ones where host Sean Evans interviews celebrities while they eat progressively hotter chicken wings.  Evans is a good interviewer.  However, the most entertaining part is the second half of the interviews which usually break down as the guests just try to survive the wings.  Jimmy Fallon and Selena Gomez recently did an abbreviated version on The Tonight Show.  Fallon is overdoing it as usual, but check this out and then go find the real show for longer interviews:

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here are The Killers to close things out with, "When You Were Young," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha say of course you're invited to come back and watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals with us tonight.  We'll just need to get some snacks first.  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll catch up with you again soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.