A man and woman are seated at a restaurant table on a date. The gent is trying to impress his companion but clearly he has taken a wrong turn when he says that she reminds him of his mother. He tries to extricate himself from the comparison only to make matters worse, explaining that the resemblance is in their build and then more specifically their chests.
Coming to the rescue is Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon who know is acting more as a manager. He moves to replace the guy at the table with another player but the original chap insists he can go the distance. Papelbon isn’t convinced and brings in a new relief pitcher, patting the original guy on the rump as he leaves.
A voiceover then tells us of Sox Appeal, a new show on NESN touted as being a hotter, sexier, funnier take on the Boston Red Sox. The voiceover relates, “This year the game isn’t on the field.”
The promo spot then returns to the couple, this time with a new guy ready to pitch. As if giving the reliever advice as to how to pitch against the batter–in this case the lovely lass–Papelbon warns him to stay off of the mom stuff because “she kills that.”
“Relief Dater” was part of a package of spots directed by Jonathan Bekemeier of Picture Park, Boston, directly for NESN.
Mark Hankey executive produced for Picture Park with Scott Burtnett serving as line producer. The DP was Patrick Ruth.
CJ Kaplan of NESN was the writer. And NESN’s Kevin Shea multi-tasked as editor, colorist and audio mixer.
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More