Rant #1,655: Random Thoughts

A day after I had my major dental work done, and hopefully, over with, I have a couple of random thoughts I would like to share with you on a variety of subjects.

Dental Work a Success(?): Well, I sure hope so.

I was eating a soft pretzel filled with cheese one Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, and all of a sudden, I felt something on the left side of my mouth.

The tooth had broken apart, and I had a crevice in one of my teeth all the way in the back of my mouth.

The next day, I went to the dentist, and he said I needed a crown. This declaration made me nervous, because the last time I needed one, it turned into a root canal done by a specialist and a process that I would really like to avoid.

But this time, it was only a crown, but it was a difficult procedure, and it took about two hours to complete.

And I have to wonder why I always have these episodes after I have a cleaning. It seems after I have one, my teeth start to fall apart.

Is there a connection? This is at least the third time in a row that I have had a problem after a cleaning--the root canal/crown also happened right after one--and I am starting to wonder.

Yankees Stink (At Least Right Now): Although I was quite happy when the MLB season started, in the back of my mind, I thought that my beloved New York Yankees really didn't have a very good team.

And that is playing out now.

With last night's extremely frustrating 3-2 loss to the Oakland A's at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees are near the bottom of the American League East. They aren't hitting with runners on base, and they are making blunders that are reverberating throughout their games.

And they are not winning at home. On this homestand alone, they are 1-3 and falling fast.

They look like an old team, even with the infusion of younger talent.

They are boring to watch, as they get men on base, but don't get any hits to score them.

Woe is me. I am hoping for a turnaround, but this could just as likely be a long, lost season for them.

Who Is a Real New Yorker?: This has come up during the presidential campaign, and particularly leading up to the New York presidential primary, and the answer is so obvious that it hurts people to admit it.

Ted Cruz is not a real New Yorker, and doesn't claim to be one, but he knocks New York for the ills of our country, which is wrong, but at least he really doesn't qualify, anyway.

Hillary Clinton is not a real New Yorker. She is the classic carpetbagger, who came up from the south, established residence in New York with her husband, and became our Senator through almost default competition from the Republicans. She spouts like a New Yorker, but she is as much as New Yorker as she is Jewish, although she would have you believe that she is both, while she is neither.

Bernie Sanders was born in Brooklyn, but he is not a New Yorker at all. He galavanted over to Vermont, was a politician there, but it is funny, all of a sudden, leading up to the New York primary, he became a New Yorker again, spouting his roots as if he still lived here. He hasn't lived in New York in decades. Who is he trying to fool?

Donald Trump was born in Queens, and lived in New York for most of his life. The Trump Organization is also based in New York, and from the days of his father putting rent into a paper bag, his family is New York with a capital N and and a capital Y. Say what you want about him, but he has become the New York stereotype that people love to bash, the brash New Yorker who lets nothing stand in his way to get what he wants. Whether the stereotype is true or not, his roots are the longest in the Empire State, so he almost wins by default.

You either are a New Yorker or you aren't, and although there are pretenders to that throne, the Donald is the only one who can claim it, whether anyone likes it or not.

Pushing of Agendas on National Television: Yes, we are in strange times now. Bathroom legislation permeates our wretched air, and on Sunday night, we moved closer to further nonsense, all on a TV show that has nothing to do with much of anything.

As if TV shows haven't pushed the envelope already, ABC's "Once Upon a Time" pushed it even further into the garbage pail this past Sunday night.

This most convoluted TV series, about fairy tale characters coming to life, becomes even more convoluted with each episode, and that includes Sunday night's show.

It seems that the writers found it convenient to push the gay agenda within this episode, and this is not the place to be doing this, as far as I am concerned.

It seems that without going too deep into the storyline--again, this show makes absolutely no sense to begin with, and for the uninitiated, it makes even less--Little Red Riding Hood and Dorothy Gale from "The Wizard of Oz" well, have a thing for each other.

Yes, two characters who are basically as anti-agenda as characters can be have become figureheads for the gay agenda, and I just don't think that this is right.

The writers have taken, let's say, poetic license with all the characters on the show, whether it is Prince Charming, Snow White, or even Jiminy Cricket, but I feel that they reached a new low with the relationship between Hood and Dorothy.

They even smooched like there was no tomorrow on the episode, making it obvious that the gay agenda is thought to be part of the storyline on this show, after several seasons on the air.

I guess those in Hollywood know that they can get away with this, and I really didn't read much against the episode on the Internet, but this type of TV show--a family show that has never pushed any type of agenda before, except for the people of fictional Storybrook, the setting of the series--feels that it needs to do this to make this type of behavior appear to be "normal"and "appropriate."

Sorry, many of us don't feel that way, and even if we do, I don't like agendas pushed down my throat like this one was.

That is it for today. I know I am going to be raked through the coals on some of what I said, but so be it.

Somebody has to say it, you know, and it might as well be me.