On Sunday night, Dak Prescott may have shown us that he is a rookie QB after all, or so wrote Rick Gosselin overnight about Dallas dropping a game in New York.   

On the political side, I can't wait for January 20 so that we can finally get all of this over with.  It started with a debate in August 2015, and the show has not stopped.  Whatever happened to that slow news period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day?

So how about a pause from politics and people complaining about a rookie QB with an 11-2 record?  Or fans from Dallas who are suddenly worried that Zak won't take them to their first Super Bowl since 1995-96!

How about a break from the front and sports pages?

How about a "Sinatra pause" (and I don't mean that song about all the coffee in Brazil)?  By the way, who knew that Sinatra sang about Brazilian crony capitalism in 1946?  He nailed it, and everybody thought he was singing about coffee!

Frank Sinatra was born in New Jersey on December 12, 1915.  He went on to become one of the great vocalists of the 20th century and appear in a few good movies, too.    

Today, we recall that Sinatra had a famous encounter with Mario Puzo, the author of The Godfather:

It had been rumored Sinatra had connections to organized crime which allowed to him make certain career moves, including allegedly breaking a contract through threat of violence. In Puzo's novel, Johnny Fontane's singing and acting career is helped thanks to his mafia connections. Singer Al Martino played Johnny Fontane in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part III. Martino died in 2009 at age 82.

In the director's commentary on Blu Ray for The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola briefly mentions Sinatra during Fontane's first appearance. "Obviously Johnny Fontane was inspired by a kind of Frank Sinatra character," Coppola said on the commentary track.

Sinatra, who won an Oscar for his performance in 1953's From Here to Eternity, was irate and disgusted when the two finally met in the restaurant, according to Puzo's article in New York.

...Puzo tried to tell Sinatra the introduction was not his idea. "'Who told you to put that in the book, your publisher?'" Sinatra asked Puzo, he wrote.

Then, Sinatra "started to shout abuse," at Puzo, according to the author.

"I remember that, contrary to his reputation, he did not use foul language at all. The worst thing he called me was a pimp, which rather flattered me since I've never been able to get girlfriend to squeeze blackheads out of my back, much less hustle for me," Puzo wrote in '72.

While letting him have it, Sinatra also told Puzo "that if it wasn't that I was so much older than he, he would beat the hell out of me." That really got to Puzo, he wrote, but not because he was scared of getting injured.

"What hurt was that here he was, a northern Italian, threatening me, a southern Italian, with physical violence," Puzzo [sic] wrote in New York. "This was roughly equivalent to Einstein pulling a knife on Al Capone. It just wasn't done. Northern Italians never mess with Southern Italians except to get them put in jail or get them deported to some desert island."

Sinatra, again not looking up from his plate, continued to scold Puzo while the author just stared at the crooner, he wrote.

"Finally, I walked away and out of the restaurant. My humiliation must have showed because he yelled after me, 'Choke. Go ahead and choke.’”

Now, there is a man who is willing to defend his reputation.    

Happy 101st to Sinatra!  Hope that you and Mario settled everything in heaven.

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