Reunited

TigerBlog was driving to work today when he heard the unmistakable, instantly recognizable voice of the person who was guest-hosting the "Boomer and Carton Show" on WFAN.

It was none other than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was filling in for Boomer, Esiason, that is.

So let's start off right off the bat by saying this is not something pretty much any other high profile, a-chance-to-be-the-next-President politician would even consider.

In the course of the 20 minutes or so that TB was listening, he heard Christie say he hates the Yankees, that the only team he hates more than the Yankees is the Phillies, that he loves the Jets, that a caller who thought that Rex Ryan should be fired immediately was out of his mind and that Geno Smith is definitely not ready to be a starting quarterback but that if he is, then the Jets need to cut Mark Sanchez.

Oh, and he also sang a duet with Carton of the Peaches and Herb sort-of classic "Reunited."

Any other politician would have been tap-dancing around each subject, for fear of the remotest chance of saying something that might possibly turn off one person who otherwise might vote for him/her. And the singing? Never.

This, of course, is precisely why Christie is a different politician, one who strikes fear into the establishment of both parties. And why you could make a case that Christie's approach - which is innate and can't simply be imitated - makes him so appealing to so many people.

Ah, but to paraphrase Rick in "Casablanca," your business is politics; TigerBlog's is running a saloon.

And so TB will stick to less political subjects. Like the MTV Video Music Awards, which presumably were on last night.

Governor Christie also talked about Justin Timberlake, who apparently hit a big home run with his performance with his old band, N'Sync, last night. TB knows no N'Sync songs and isn't troubled by that.

Timberlake comes across as a nice enough guy, so TB is fine with the accolades he was getting at the end of his performance.

Mercifully, TB wasn't watching. He learned all this from Twitter.

Because he wasn't watching, he didn't get to see the train wreck that is Miley Cyrus, who apparently humiliated herself to no end with her own performance, except that this is a country where nobody really ever stands up anymore and says that such behavior is humiliating.

Once upon a time, Miley Cyrus was one of TB's favorite kid show characters, the very watchable Hannah Montana. If you have an early teenage daughter now, then you get TB's point.

"Hannah Montana" was a perfectly wholesome 30 minutes, time that an adult parent could suffer through without wanting to gouge out an eyeball or two, unlike so many other shows that kids get addicted to and force their parents to see.

Yeah, if you went to school with Miley and couldn't figure out she was Hannah then you didn't exactly deserve to be on the honor roll, but that's nitpicking.

Now? TB can sum her up in one word: yuck.

Ashleigh Johnson's 19th birthday is a few weeks down the road, so TB thinks she's a little too old to have been a fan of Hannah. Maybe she caught the beginning before she grew out of it.

Whatever she watched as a kid, she herself is now very much worth watching herself. Maybe women's water polo flies under the radar a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that Johnson may very well be Princeton's best female athlete right now.

By the time she's done, it's possible that "right now" could be changed to "ever." At the very least she's in the discussion for the first and ultimately has to be for the second.

Johnson finished her summer vacation in Greece this past weekend by being named the outstanding goalie of the World Junior Championships and helping the U.S. to the gold medal.

It's not a bad performance for a young woman who is starting her sophomore year of college.

A year ago, Johnson led Princeton to the Eastern championship and a fifth-place national finish. Along the way, it seemed like every picture that was taken of her showed her doing something ridiculously athletic and spectacular.

If you don't think water polo requires an unbelievable amount of stamina, strength, tenacity and athleticism, try going and treading water for seven minutes at a time with nobody else in the pool. Then try it with a pool full of people who are trying to essentially beat you up.

Luis Nicolao has done a great job through the years coaching both the men's and women's programs.

He's also somewhat buddies with the New Jersey Governor, whom he met at a Bruce Springsteen concert, where the two looked like long-time buddies or even brothers in the picture they had taken together.

A picture like that is a great prize to have.

So is a goalie like Ashleigh Johnson. Make sure you see her this spring and the two that follow it.

You'll be looking at a rare, rare athlete.