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It is what it is – Feb. 12, 2025 – Jen Brien
by Jennnifer Brien, commentary
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE
So that’s that. The football season has officially ended and my Sundays are going to be dreadful until the Sept 4th NFL season opener. In the meantime, did you all hear that at peak over 135 million people tuned into this year’s SUPERBOWL?! Evidently it was the most watched Superbowl to date, and you have to wonder if it was a tune-in for a CHIEFS win or the loss. We may never know. No matter… it’s over and they LOST. It really was a lost cause for the CHIEFS after that delightful pick 6 that was run back by a rookie for a TD in the 2nd quarter. That was a treat, huh gang? Oh, it was!
All in all, I’ll give the whole shabang a C-. The game was only phenomenal because the CHIEFS GOT DESTROYED. The commercials were weak and the half time show was a bowel movement. The best part of Sunday… really was… the Puppy Bowl… if you want to be honest. However, the shalacking MAHOMES TOOK was one of the more satisfying things that has happened in 2025, to date, and the year has just begun! I know that’s really petty and I am convicted about being overjoyed that the team got thrashed and embarrassed… but yet, it still makes me so damn happy. I can’t lie. The epic Mahomes catastrophe brought me A LOT OF JOY… A LOT. So I’m petty. Sue me.
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Audits for thee but not FOR ME
DON’T you just love the manic meltdowns Democrat leaders are having on a regular basis? All because a new agency is auditing the hell out of everything and everyone. I mean… what’s the big deal? If you’re not doing anything wrong and you care about and support the hard working AMERICAN taxpayer, why on earth wouldn’t you want to find out where every penny of their hard earned money is going?
I thought these were the people who LOVED AUDITS – hiring 89,000 new IRS AGENTS to go and sift through working class families tax forms looking for a shady $400, somewhere, even on your Venmo account. Instead, now that the shoe is on the other foot… that crazed swarm of bees behavior from those KNOWN AS Democrats – are threatening to get violent in the streets, screaming into BULL HORNS, chanting “WE WILL WIN… WE WILL WIN… WE WILL WIN…” (when actually, they lost) and frothing at the mouth about a fake “constitutional crisis”.
At this point I swear, I have NO IDEA who they’re playing to. Over 70% of Americans approve of the PRESIDENT’S job performance so far. I’m perplexed as to what exactly they think they’re doing throwing tantrums like babies who just dumped in their diaper. Trump derangement has definitely morphed into DOGE derangement and they want all inquiries into everything to end. Thing is, like my mailman said to me yesterday morning, Pandora’s box has been opened. We may never know how deep this rabbit hole goes, but at least we are finally looking down it. Yep, at least we have a President not beholden to the deep state and who is living his best life in D.C… trying to ensure that we get to live our best lives out here. Thanks, Mr. President. Those of us out here who didn’t get the BIDEN lobotomy over the last four years… we thank you.
WINNING
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SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE (RIP GOMER PYLE)
JUDGES APPOINTED BY OBAMA AND BIDEN are trying to stop TRUMP from cleaning up the D.C SWAMP
59 MILLION of your tax dollars just went to house illegals in luxury hotels in NYC via FEMA… while people in NC have suffered for months and months because FEMA GAVE THEM NOTHING.
VOGUE magazine has already trashed Melania
There’s a MOLE in the FBI
Democrats are threatening to shut down the govt and are trying to GASLIGHT AMERICANS into thinking TRUMP is the problem
THAT 200-foot-tall WHITE BALLOON that BIDEN let fly all over the country “was loaded with a satellite communication module, sensors and TECHNOLOGY from at least 5 AMERICAN FIRMS used by the Chinese to spy on America” according to a classified military report.
The Super Bowl crowd screamed wildly when they showed TRUMP ON THE JUMBOTRON during the National Anthem… and the camera immediately cut away, and almost never panned back. Hmmm…
The woman in charge of combing through the released JFK, MLK, RFK files says she believes there were “two shooters” that killed JFK and “pledges to release more secrets” as they find them.
A 489-pound rapper is suing LYFT saying “she’s a victim” because the driver claimed she couldn’t fit in the car that was sent. The ride was subsequently cancelled… and now she’s… A VICTIM… she later did a radio interview and the station had to replace a chair with a couch for her to fit on
U.S ARMY RECRUITING has hit a 15-year high under the TRUMP administration
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HOWARD JOHNSON’S
When I was a kid I grew up in Woonsocket, RI and fondly remember all that it had to offer at that time. From Almacs, and MAMMOTH MART, to the Hamlet Ave diner, LUMS, BURGER CHEF, JACK IN THE BOX … L’IL GENERAL on my STREET… CARVEL ICE CREAM down by the ballfield… and of course… HOWARD JOHNSON’S in PARK SQUARE, with it’s orange roof. They served all kinds of comfort food and were famous for their fried clams, baked beans, and of course their “28 flavors” of ice cream!
I bring this up because every now and then when I see a wood paneled station wagon I think of my father and all that he allowed me to have and do as a kid. My relationship with him was complicated, but I truly have him to thank for so very much. Some of my happiest moments took place at HOWARD JOHNSON’S as a kid. Especially when dad would drive me up to summer camp in Vermont every year where I could be free for 7 weeks and live in nature, sing songs around a campfire, and sail around Lake Fairlee in a little sunfish sailboat. On our way there, dad would stop at the restaurant with the orange roof and we would eat hotdogs and get ice cream sundaes in little plastic baseball caps.
I’m telling ya… the days before the Internet/technology were so special. I know the world is complicated and moves so fast these days, but all of us have a place and time we go to every now and then In our hearts and minds for peace. That’s where I go. Summer camp and Howard Johnson’s. I can see all my friends and hear their laughter. I can hear the clinking of glasses at the restaurant as the waitresses cleaned off the tables and I can still smell the coffee.
I can see my dad in the front seat of his station wagon firing up a Marlboro red as we drove along once we got back on the road. He’d turn on the ball game or a music station that was playing “Billy don’t be a hero”. When we got rambunctious and we asked “ARE WE THERE YET” he’d say “sit back… relax… and enjoy the ride”. That’s a pretty heavy statement depending on how you receive it. As a kid I hated when he would say that. It seemed so dismissive… but all these years later, as I trudge through life as an adult, I now know where he was coming from.
I take his advice with me on a deeply spiritual level. A very simple phrase that is applicable through the rough waters on this journey. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Yup. It’s hard some days, but life is hard. Its just designed that way.
So, fast forward to 2025 from 1977. Where did you find your joy? Your Laughter and peace ? Did you have a HOWARD JOHNSON’S? A wood paneled station wagon? Let me know in the comment section below. I care – and I want to hear from you! The crazy ones that read my column!
That’s all I have this week gang…
“IT IS WHAT IT IS”…
Till next week,
Jen
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Jen Brien has over 20 years of radio broadcast experience having hosted shows on WPRO and WHJJ with Ron as well as her own shows on WRKO and WBZ in Boston, WXTK on Cape Cod and WHAM in Rochester, New York. Jen was born and raised in Woonsocket and served six years in the Army MP Canine Unit.
To read more columns and commentary by Jen, go here: https://rinewstoday.com/ron-st-pierre-jen-brien/
Just “common sense”, unfortunately some people will never have it.
I truly enjoy you weekly article/thoughts. This one brings back memories because living in North Smithfield in the 1970 I remember all the places you mentioned especially HOJO”S
Hi Ralph! Remember PONDEROSA ACROSS TOWN on Diamond Hill Rd? My grandfather used to take me to JACK IN THE BOX ! WE would order into that stupid clowns mouth! Hahahaha good times…..
thanks for reading!!!!
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!! Love it, my parents said it to me and I say it my kids. It doesn’t strike a chord until you are older and have some wisdom. Keep on doing what you are doing, greatly appreciated and enjoyed.
Jen… I love who you are, what you say, and the logic that swirls through your mind and writing.
Just like his first term, Milania will get ignored or trashed by the so called fashion media and the haters. A classy, intelligent and graceful woman who deserves better.
As a kid I grew up in Cambridge when it was a blue collar city, walked to school, played in the streets and had friends from every corner of the city. Joined the drum and bugle corp at nine and it changed my life forever….it took kids off the street and taught us life lessons and friends for life.
Sunday was the ride day… never knowing where we were going, we knew it was somewhere that wasn’t associated with a cost… a stay home mom and blue collar dad, we lived frugally. Eating out was not a common event… my cousin and I would take the train to Boston to take in the pinball arcades and an afternoon at the movies… life was simple… life was good.
Pinball and movies……that’s a perfect day to me 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Ps….alot swirls thru this mind of mine. I share a tiny bit with you here! I am so grateful for that!
Jen,
Although you may be conflicted about the joy you feel in the Chiefs thrashing, I doubt you’ll ever be convicted. If that were the case, you and I and most of America outside a small area around Missouri and Kansas would be in jeopardy of incarceration.
My happy place was a tiny ramshacle cottage without potable water on East Sandwich beach. For 2 weeks every summer my parents, sister and I would cram into this tiny shack, the ocean was freezing cold, nothing to do but walk the beach; but from the top of the dune next to our place you could see ships entering and exiting the canal, hear the thump of artillery practice from Camp Edwards and on a clear day see all the way to the Pilgrim Monument in Ptown. It was grand!
Wonderful column about the Super Bowl and terrific outcome. Your memories section brought back old ones for me.
Good stuff! I especially liked the first section.
Hi Jen,
Back in the day, I used to go to Howard Johnsons which was located on Jefferson Blvd in Warwick, RI.
Loved the fried clams!
Well first – there is no way anyone can seriously criticize Melania Trump. She is simply exquisitely magnificent. Okay I am short and chunky and have been for 70+ years. When I look at her/see her I just think that is what every female really wants to look like. I grew up in downtown Boston. It was called the South End but folks today think that is South Boston AND IT IS NOT SOUTH BOSTON. To see trees and grass we walked down Washington Street to the Boston Common. We were truly inner city kids before that officially existed. My dad worked 6 days a week so we only got to ‘go for a ride’ on Sundays. We would drive to Castle Island and walk around, get a FAMOUS hotdog and watch the planes fly in to Logan. (My father smoked unfiltered Camels – four packs a day which cost 23 cents a pack – for which he eventually paid the price. But on Sundays in June we would walk down to the Common and visit the COWS. June was dairy month and they brought cows in so folks could see real cows. That was a major league highlight of life growing up in Boston.