Thursday Clutter: Trump, Wall Street, Boston Red Sox, Shohei Ohtani, Denzel Washington, Melrose Place, Sheldon Cooper, Van Halen, Pharrell Williams, and more
Tuesday Clutter: Trump, Mike Johnson, Clarence Thomas, Wall Street, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Rhea Ripley, NCIS, Conan O'Brien, Doctor Who, Phish, and more

Monday Clutter: Trump, Governor Sununu, Tax Day, Boston Red Sox, Tom Brady, SNL, Only Murders in the Building, Conan O'Brien, Doctor Who, Billy Joel, Dua Lipa, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Monday to you all.  How was your weekend?  Things went well on our end.  We took care of a number of errands, and BDH and Little Buddha did a great job of making sure there was also plenty of time to work in the garden yesterday.  The plants have a little bit of a head start on me this year because of the mild winter, so I need to catch up to them.  I had a blast playing in the dirt, but I'm moving a little slowly today as a result.  Totally worth it.

The guys said we'll start the week with a light to-do list while I wait for the Advil to do its thing.  First up, let's check out the headlines.  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 Clutter.

We have teamed up with Clearly Balanced Days, a NH-based/women-owned CBD company.  Enter promo code "cmoore" to get $5 off your next purchase!

Donald Trump's hush money trial will finally begin today, despite all of his recent panicked attempts to have it delayed.  Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide the payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide their relationship during the 2016 presidential election.  This makes Donald Trump the first former White House occupant to ever be on criminal trial.  According to the linked article, the trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, with Trump required to be present the entire time. 

Donald Trump April 15 2024Lock him up.  (pic via www.newjerseymonitor.com)

Donald Trump loves to constantly brag about how he appointed the U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped to overturn Roe v. Wade.  However, now Trump is begging Arizona Republican lawmakers to fix the state's abortion policy after the Arizona Supreme Court opened the door to a pre-Civil War ban that only has an exception for the life of the woman.  Donald Trump always says abortion should be left to the states, and this is exactly what he's promoting - an extremist attempt to control women, which is going to come back to bite him and the rest of the GOP in November.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu acknowledges that Donald Trump "absolutely contributed" to the January 6 coup attempt.  However, Sununu will still support Trump this fall, because the only thing Republicans care about is power.  Who cares whether the guy tried to kill democracy in this country, as long as business and the wealthy get their tax breaks, right, governor?  It's all about priorities, and the GOP doesn't not prioritize ordinary Americans.

President Biden and other allies are trying to convince Israel to have a limited response to Saturday's missile attack by Iran and not launch the region into an all-out war.

This is Tax Day for most of the country, so good luck to everyone who is filing at the last minute.  (The linked article lists taxpayers who are eligible for certain extensions.  It also provides details on how to file for an extension if you need it.)  If you are receiving a refund this year, we'll just mention that we are always accepting donations for our coffee budget.

A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Thursday showed there is no link between the COVID vaccines and cardiac problems in teens and young adults.  This debunks one of the anti-vaxxer crowd's favorite conspiracy theories. The data remains clear:  COVID presents a much greater danger to peoples' health than getting vaccinated.  To think of the people who have died because they fell for nonsense on the Internet and didn't get vaccinated remains a tragedy.

Good luck to everyone running the Boston Marathon today.  Despite watching many of the MCU movies and TV shows, and appreciating the possibilities of the multiverse, there is no reality where we would ever run 26.2 miles.  However, we applaud those athletes who are brave enough to tackle this challenge.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 yesterday to win their series and improve to 9-7 on the season.  Boston starter Brayan Bello gave up two earned runs over 5 1/3 innings.  He may not have had his best stuff, but it's encouraging that Sox pitchers are consistently getting through at least the 5th inning.  Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen continues to struggle with his control, but he was eventually able to put away the Angels. 

Next up:  The Sox start a new series against the Cleveland Guardians at a special Patriots' Day start time of 11:10 this morning.  Kutter Crawford will take the mound for Boston.

Tom Brady is leaving the door open for a return to the NFL, in case his ownership bid and broadcasting job don't work out to his satisfaction.  Can't say we're surprised.  We've long argued here that Brady seems like he'll have difficulty adjusting to life off the field, because that seems to be the only place where he's found anything resembling peace.  Hopefully TB12 is done.  He went out still playing at a high level, and it would be such a shame to see him join the long list of star athletes who hung around too long. 

(Of course, we reserve the right to revisit this opinion if Brady comes back to the New England Patriots.)

All we'll say about O.J. Simpson dying last week is that he reportedly owed the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson over $100 million.

Caitlin Clark made an appearance on "Weekend Update" on this week's SNL, and she nailed it like a three-pointer:

Is it creepy that Tom Cruise has apparently given former co-star Dakota Fanning a birthday present every year for the past 19 years?

We really tried not to burn through it, but Hulu's Only Murders in the Building is such a treat, we couldn't stop watching.  Our crew usually checks the clock at least once or twice during an episode whenever we're watching TV.  However, there were several times where we were so engrossed in these story-lines, we were legitimately surprised when the closing credits appeared.  Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are a delightful trio, and the mysteries are fun.  This series is enough by itself to make us feel good about finally subscribing to Hulu.

Now we have to wait for Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building.  Thankfully, The Hollywood Reporter is keeping track of everything to know about what's next.

Ryan Gosling hosted SNL last weekend, and that meant it was time to discuss another alien abduction.  All we can say is, God bless Kate McKinnon:

It looks like we need to set aside some time to watch the new Hot Ones episode featuring Conan O'Brien.  He's getting rave reviews for his apparently unhinged stint as a guest on the show, including drinking hot sauce straight from the bottle.  The Hot Ones interviews are almost always entertaining anyway, so BDH and Little Buddha will need to figure out where this goes on the schedule.

We want to wish a happy belated birthday to former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi, who turned 66 years old on Sunday.  This RadioTimes.com article argues that Capaldi is the most underrated version of the Time Lord, which is a notion we support.  The actor was a perfect choice for the role at the time.  He had the years to shake up appearances after a number of younger men played the part, and he offered a new take on the trauma that the Doctor was still processing at the time, while also showing heart (or rather, hearts.) 

The 12th Doctor's first season wasn't great (because of the writing), but the second was near-perfection, and the third was strong.  Peter Capaldi deserves more acknowledgement for his work.

Taylor Swift's new album comes out on Friday.  We can't wait to hear how many different records The Tortured Poets Department breaks.

CBS plugged their Billy Joel concert special for weeks.  How did they reward Joel fans who tuned in to see their favorite perform?  The network started the special 30 minutes late because the Masters went long and then cut it mid-song for the local news.  Yikes. Talk about a complete disregard for your viewers.

Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart shared some thoughts during a Howard Stern interview about what it was like to tour with Van Halen in 1979.  Spoiler:  The brothers drank and fought a lot.  One of the many things we're hoping to learn more about from Alex Van Halen's upcoming memoir is why exactly he and Eddie got into so many arguments. 

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  It's pretty foggy outside at the moment, so let's have Dua Lipa brighten things up and take us out with, "Illusion" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, folks.  It was great to see you, as always.  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.

 

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