Rant #2,191: I Got You

If you read this column yesterday, you know that I had a really bad sleep on Sunday night into Monday morning, filled with a terrible nightmare that went on seemingly for hours.

Last night was slightly better, but again, I woke up on the hour, moved my sleeping arrangements to the living room, moved back into the bedroom, and yes, I did have a nightmare, a pretty common one: that I could not find my car.

It is all probably tied into the anxiety I am feeling at my job situation, so I just have to open my eyes and weather these things as best I can.

A different kind of nightmare is continuing to cause plenty of commotion in the Hollywood community, and once again, it involves one of the high and mighty people in show business, who is accused of sexual harassment, and it this time it just happens to be the chief executive officer of CBS, Leslie Moonves.

Six woman have come forward--or been exhumed--claiming that Moonves acted inappropriately with them, including throwing himself at them in a sexual way, trying to cajole them into sexual encounters ... you know, the usual stuff we have heard that had been done by so many people, such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby.

The problem, once again, is that these allegations took place more than 30 years ago, in the 1980s, so the credibility of these stories--and the witnesses themselves--have to be thrown into question.

Those defending the ladies state that the 1980s wasn't the right time to have complained about such activity, and it took until now for people to believe what they said.

This is, of course, balderdash, part of the continued witch hunt that is going on in Hollywood and elsewhere to "get back" at powerful men, and it is really getting tired.

Look, I don't know about you, but if I were female, and guys like Moonves and Weinstein and Cosby did what they were supposed to have done to me, I would have reported these guys to the authorities right away, and I don't care what decade it would have happened in.

With these women only coming out now, you really have to question what really happened in these encounters--and whether they were as complicit as the men were for letting them fester all these years later.

Look, if we didn't know this already--and I am sure we did--there were certainly different rules for Hollywood in the past, and what went for abnormal and horrible in the real world was almost considered an everyday occurrence in Tinseltown.

And both men and women acknowledged it. It didn't make it right, but don't tell me that a lot of these encounters weren't of the consensual nature. Both the men and the women knew exactly what was happening and what they were getting into.

Now, some are looking at this as payback time, and it has turned into a witch hunt, with women accusing men of such abuse 20, 30, 40 and 50 years after the fact.

In the Moonves situation, he remains in his current position, although CBS said it will be doing a thorough investigation of the charges. Moonves has apologized for anything he might have done, even though he admits he doesn't recall much of what was said against him.

His wife, CBS mega-personality Julie Chen, says she backs her husband, and will stand by him. Chen and Moonves have been married 14 years, have known each other for several years beyond that, and Chen has had nothing but good things to say about her husband.

Did Moonves have encounters with these women who, in normal parlance, might have a case against him?

Who knows, but I think we are all tiring of these "gotcha" moments, decades after the fact.

Classic Rant #844 (November 10, 2012): Diversions

Last week was an extremely hard week for everyone in my neck of the woods.

Hopefully, we are all getting back to a semblance of what we used to call normal.

But good or bad, this past weekend was planned by me months ago, and although Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter may have put a damper on it, my family and I still dove right into it.

On Friday evening, my son and I took in an NBA game, the New York Knicks versus the Dallas Mavericks at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks won, 104-94, and are currently the only team in the league with a perfect record.

But what's more interesting is that another phase of Madison Square Garden's renovation in in force, and for the life of me, I didn't know where I was going when we tried to get to our seats.

Evidently, certain escalators, entrances, and what I found out later, exits, are closed during the renovation, so it isn't a clear path to your seat anymore, especially if you sit in the fabled upper deck 400 seats.

So my son and I walked around, were completely lost, and even some ushers didn't know where we should go.

And for the first time in my life, I actually took an elevator in the Garden.

Finally, we found our seats, only to be told that they weren't our seats. We were in the wrong section, and had to move.

Funny, but we later found out the people sitting ahead of us in the were also in the wrong section, and had to move, too. They were from Ireland, and it was their first NBA game there.

On Saturday, it was my wife's birthday. She is five months older than me, but to me, she looks at least five years younger than she actually is.

Anyway, we did everything we normally do on a Saturday, and then in the evening, we went out big.

I spent a bundle at a local fish restaurant, and then we came home, and watched a movie that was better than I thought it would be, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter." This movie was out for about a day a few months back, but it kept my interest and was much more engrossing than I thought it would--or could--be.

Not the new Spielberg film, but a pleasant surprise.

On Sunday, we went to see the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall."

It was good, not great. Funny, the beginning of the film was good, the ending was good, but the middle was putting me to sleep. They could have cut at least a half hour from the film, but all in all, it was a good film.

It demonstrates the "bond" between boss "M" and her favorite agent, and that bond actually saves both of them throughout almost the entire film ... almost. I won't go into it if you didn't see it yet.

Daniel Craig is growing on me as Bond, but he is no Sean Connery, and he is not even George Lazenby, to be honest with you.

But he is OK, just not in the same league with the top Bond portrayers.

And if you see the film, the title song is OK, but Adele is no Shirley Bassey. The song needed the oomph Bassey would provide, but Adele just doesn't have it.

The other uncredited song in the film, which is not on the soundtrack as far as I can see, is "Boom Boom," but I couldn't make out what version this John Lee Hooker song was. It kind of sounded like the Animals' version, but I might be wrong on that one.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend after a horrible week. I was able to get gas with no problem, although the prices are starting to get crazy.

But at least I have gas.

I might add that my daughter and sister finally have power in their living quarters, just getting it this weekend. Thanks goodness for that.

Let's see what the week brings. It can't possibly be as bad as last week was.

(I'm off to the doctor, so I will speak to you again on Wednesday.)

Rant #2,190: Welcome to My Nightmare

Yes, this column is really late today.

Late if 5:30 a.m. in the morning is late for you.

It certainly is for me, about an hour later than normal, because I overslept by an hour last night.

Let me tell you, I was pooped last week.

It was very busy at work (a good thing, actually), and I awaited the weekend like those in need await a heart transplant.

It took a long time coming, because the week dragged, and when it was finally Friday, I had to do some chores after work that delayed my arriving home by about 90 minutes.

The weekend was relatively calm, which was good, although I did have some chores to do on both Saturday and Sunday.

But I kept on feeling that I was still as tired as could be, even though I slept relatively well on Friday night and Saturday night.

But last night, I did not sleep well, not at all, for a variety of reasons.

I first fell asleep at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night while watching the replay of the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held yesterday in Cooperstown, New York.

Then, at about 11 p.m., I was awakened by an errant phone call, of which we are getting more and more in the middle of the night--from about 10:30 p.m. to about 2 a.m. in the morning--during the past few weeks. Whoever calls always hangs up, and this is a problem in itself.

Anyway, I could not go back to sleep, so what I did is that I left the cool with air conditioning bedroom to the hot living room, where I tried to fall asleep on a chair that we have in that part of the house that has the leg portion lift up. It is comfortable as an emergency bed, and I usually fall back asleep when I use it for that purpose.

No, this time it did not work, so after about a half hour, I went back into the bedroom.

I fell back asleep in there, but I then experienced a nightmare that probably continued for a few hours, even though at about 1:30 a.m. in the morning, I once again got up and went into the living room to sleep.

Here is what I remember from the nightmare. It was enough to send chills up my spine.

I got another job, at some type of publishing firm with many employees and based in Manhattan. I went to work the first day, and they put me with a group of writers/reporters.

I was given an assignment that was not to my liking, not explained and boring. I made several calls, but I could not hear what people were saying because of the din of noise that was in this room with so many workers.

It was lunchtime, and I went outside, and decided to leave the company and get this--return to my old place of work!

I called my former employer--in real life. my current one--and told them I was coming back. They said that was fine, but they warned me that the last person they paid had money taken out of some type of special account to get paid. In other words, they had no money to pay anyone, or at least had to search around for a payment source for their workers.

I told them that was fine, I told my new employer that I was leaving, and I took the Long Island Railroad back home.

One problem--I was naked. I had no clothes, so I called my mother to meet me at Roosevelt Field, one of the most famous of all the Long Island Shopping Malls--which is in Garden City. In real life, my train does not venture near Garden City--in Western Nassau County--but in my dream it did.

The train reached Garden City, I disembarked from the train, and somehow (I don't remember how), I got to my mother, who brought clothes to me.

And that is all I remember from this nightmare, which lasted a few hours and even continued after I got up and moved into the living room to sleep.

And when I opened my eyes, I was met with a real life nightmare--it was about an hour later than I normally get up during weekdays.

I hurriedly took a shower, ate breakfast and came to my computer, and here I am now typing this thing out for you.

Yes, the realities of my job are playing on my mind, and it is never a pretty picture, and this one sure wasn't.

What it all means is another story, but I think it revolves around confidence.

With the impeding doom that I feel I will soon experience, I guess I am starting to doubt myself and my abilities.

You get that way when you apply for more than 400 jobs during the past nearly two years and you get a sum total of one face to face interview and a handful of phone interviews, and that is it to show for your hard work.

Don't get out the violins, but I guess it is depressing.

Last week, I was told by a fellow worker that the CEO of our company was shredding hundreds of documents during the day, and I think that played on my mind as another nail in the coffin, just a few days after being told that one of the books that I work on has ceased to exist after decades of existence.

I try not to think about it during the day while awake, but once I go to sleep, all bets are off.

So, welcome to my nightmare, which although it was in my dreams last night, it is so real to me that I am even dreaming about it.

So that is why I overslept, and that is why this column is relatively late,

I hope to have a much better sleep tonight, more restful and certainly happier.

We can dream, can't we?

Classic Rant #843 (November 9, 2012): Odds and Evens

New York City and Long Island--Nassau and Suffolk counties--have implemented an odd/even gas system based on your license plate number.

They have done this to alleviate the long lines at gas stations since the coming of Hurricane Sandy and then the coming of the nor'easter afterwards.

Based on your license plate, if you have an odd number, you can fill up on odd numbered days; if you have an even number, you can fill up on even numbered days.

Those with vanity license plates can fill up either by whatever number is used on the plate--using the odd/even scheme--or if they don't have a number, they are considered to be odd (which isn't all that much off for people like this, by the way).

This program has worked in New Jersey, and hopefully, it will work in New York.

Last weekend, I waited a total of 10 hours on four lines, about two and a half hours apiece on these lines.

Only two of the lines proved to be worth it, as I was able to fill up my gas tanks--for my car and my wife's car--at two of the stations.

But I wasted five hours at two other stations, sitting there and doing nothing.

I am hoping that this process won't happen again, but since I am an even person, I can't get gas until Saturday, November 10.

My wife is an odd person (no, not really, but in this program she is), so she can get gas today or on Sunday.

This is the life we have to live now, and hopefully, it won't be that long before we get to normal.

But what is normal?

Is normal to be without electricity for more than a week and a half, like some people have been--my sister and my daughter included in that bunch?

Is normal to go to sleep in a house that is as cold as it is outside, in the 40s?

Is normal to see your house in ruins, and you are, in this instance, homeless?

Just what is normal now?

I don't know, but for those people whose lives have been incredibly changed by these weather events, I hope normal gets back to normal soon.

This is a catastrophe, one that will cost in the billions of dollars to fix. It has ruined lives, irreparably damaged our greatest resource, our people.

Maybe this is just a minor first step, but I think the gas rationing is a great idea.

Sure, it is a first step, but it could lead to something better.

Like getting back to the way we lived before these weather disturbances took that away from us.

Rant #2,189: Broken Wings

Last night, during the New York Yankees' 7-2 win against the lowly Kansas City Royals, the Bronx Bombers organization's worst nightmare became reality in a quick instant.

Batting the the first inning against Kansas City pitcher Jakob Jnnis, a 90 miles per hour-plus pitch hit Yankees' slugger Aaron Judge on the wrist.

He grimaced in pain, shook his hand a few times, and then the All-Star outfielder, acting as designated hitter for the game, made his way to first.

The Yankees' trainer ran out as quickly as I have ever seen his portly body move as Judge strode to first base. The trainer did a couple of quick physical tests on the wrist, asked Judge how he felt, and walked away, probably not fully convinced that the current face of the Yankees was OK, but he was OK for the moment.

Judge ran the bases, later scored, and in fact, came up to the plate again, and got an infield single.

But looking at how he swung, the Yankees pulled him from the game, sent him for a quick MRI, and the worst possible news came back--he had a fractured wrist, and will miss about three weeks of the season, but probably more.

The fans absolutely love Judge, and even non-Yankees fans at least respect the guy. The 6 foot, 7 inch player regularly gets cheers in opponents' ballparks, and he is as likable for his demeanor as he is for the mammoth homers he hits, 26 of them this year alone.

And later in the game, in something that I don't think has ever happened before, thousands of people at the Yankees game turned on their cell phones in unison, displaying something of an electronic candlelight vigil for the popular 25 year old player.

And honestly, this couldn't come at a worse time for the Yankees.

They have been in a dogfight all year with the Boston Red Sox for the top spot in the American League East, and as we speak, they are just 4 1/2 games behind the team from Fenway Park with a big series coming up next week with the Bosox in Boston.

The Yankees have become quite injury riddled this season--among the walking wounded is catcher Gary Sanchez, who is on the disabled list again with bad wheels--and others have stepped up in the process, including surprise All-Star Gleybar Torres and Miguel Andujar, who has surprised many as probably, along with Torres, the leading candidates for the league's Rookie of the Year award.

Judge is expected to miss three weeks, but you just know that probably will be more. It could have been a worse break, but for the Yankees, it is a really, really bad break, no matter how severe it actually is.

And in a funny twist of fate, Judge wasn't the only Yankee to get hit by a ball last night.

Pitcher Sonny Gray also got hit, nicked on a batted ball on his hand, but happily, he appears to be OK.

So on a day that the Yankees fortified their pitching staff by adding J.A. Happ and Zach Britton, they got the biggest hit you can get when your best player gets hit and is down for the count for the next couple of weeks.

At least the Yankees do not have their crosstown rivals' New York Mets' problems with injuries, but losing Judge for any length of time is bad enough.

His story is such an intriguing one--born on the West Coast to an unknown birth mother and father of mixed ethnicity, he was adopted by his Caucasian parents who are both teachers at a day old, has an also adopted brother who is a missionary, turned down his first pro offer to go to college, and when he finally made it to Yankee Stadium, he hit a home run in his very first at bat, and the very next season, he won Rookie of the Year, shattering every rookie hitting record that there was, and in last week's All-Star game, he hit yet another homer ... I mean, if this guy is not the All-American kid for the current time, I don't know who is.

Hopefully, he will recover quickly and continue to lead the Yankees to victory as he has been doing for the past two seasons.

Them are the breaks, I guess.

Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Classic Rant #842 (November 8, 2012): Just When You Thought Things Couldn't Get Any Worse ...

I mean, the Northeast has had enough already.

First, we get Hurricane Sandy, our own Hurricane Katrina, and it tears apart our infrastructure like no other storm in my memory.

Then, yesterday, as if to add insult to injury, we get a nor'easter that dumps several inches of snow on us, brings massive winds, and further delays any normalcy that was brought down by Sandy.

What's a poor region to do?

My sister and my daughter still do not have any power in their respective living quarters.

My son has no school again.

It is a real mess.

I went out there today to clean off my car, and we got plenty last night.

It appears to be mainly wet snow, and as a further insult to injury, it will probably be all gone by the weekend, as it is supposed to hover in the 60-degrees range starting tomorrow.

We have had it up to here in my neck of the woods.

We can't stand it anymore.

And the frustration of people who have had nothing for the past week and a half is starting to show on their faces.

These are weather disturbances, so you really can't blame any one thing for them.

The people who have been entrusted with fixing things are doing the best they can under very trying circumstances.

Unfortunately, we just have to wait things out.

Things can only get better, because they can't get much worse.

Rant 2,188: (I'm On the) Last Train to Clarksville

Last month, the Mike Nesmith/Micky Dolenz Monkees show tour was postponed just prior to its New York City concert when Nesmith was hospitalized for a still-undisclosed illness.

A month later, it appears he has recuperated, and while official makeup dates for the remainder of their tour, including the New York City gig, have not been released, it appears that that show and others will be made up starting in January 2019.

Say what you want about the Monkees, but they seem to never stop, never go out of style, and I don't think that it is a stretch to say that more than 50 years after the fact, they stand as one of the most popular pop/rock acts of all time, cemented by the fact that in 2016, their "Good Times!" album of new and redone tunes actually hit the Top 15 on Billboard's Top Albums chart.

Anyway, let's go back in time to 1966 and 1967, the period where the Monkees were actually challenging the Beatles for the top spot in how many records they actually sold.

The Monkees' first hit, "Last Train to Clarksville," had hit the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in the fall of 1966, and all of a sudden, numerous cover versions of that tune, as well as many of the songs on the Monkees' debut LP--which also hit No. 1--were being covered by numerous artists. It kind of replicated what had happened when the Beatles burst on the American scene in 1964, to a somewhat lesser degree.

Anyway, somebody in the Monkees camp had the bright idea to make an answer song to "Clarksville," from the female perspective. Answer songs were in their waning days in 1966, but numerous such songs had come out, answering the likes of Roger Miller and even Gary Lewis and the Playboys' hit singles.

Linda Ball, who I don't have much information on, but I think might have been a Canadian singer, was recruited to warble the tune, where a couple of the lyrics were changed to reflect the female point of view, and the tempo was changed to reflect a more dour mood.

I am only surmising the history of this record, because I really have no idea of its true history, but I believe the single's original title duplicated that of the Monkees' tune, with "Last Train to Clarksville" at least coming out as a promotional record on Tower Records (not to be confused with the store) with that title. And it is a Jerden Records production; more about Jerden later.

I don't know if the label knew that they had a stinkeroo on its hands, but it did everything it could to try to promote this record to DJs--even its picture sleeve, on each side, trumpeted the fact that the single was connected to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the song's original writers and producers of this new version, and to the Monkees.

I believe that radio stations and DJs passed on this version of the song, and it was later officially released on Uptown Records, a small Canadian label, in Canada sometime in 1967, with a slight name change--it was now "(I'm On the) Last Train to Clarksville)--where it pretty much laid an egg.

And by the way, its B side is "I Wanna Be Free," probably the most covered song from their first album, with versions out there from the likes of Andy Williams and Trini Lopez.

I can only find a few other references to Linda Ball. The first is another promo single that I don't think ever officially came out, something called "Always You," which was released in 1967 on Jerden Records, a popular Pacific Northwest imprint that was the early recording home of the likes of Paul Revere and the Raiders.

In 1970, Ball was featured on the LP release "The Singing Parson," on the John Law Enterprises label. This was evidently a religious recording, with I assume Ball as the lead singer.

She evidently was also featured on a single "The End," but I don't have any more information on that recording.

That is it. I don't have any other information on Linda Ball.

The only reason that I bring this up is that in my record travels over the past few months, I finally located this single, The Tower version, and added it to my collection.

It is not one of those records that I desperately looked for over the years, but when I saw it, I knew I had to have it, and its reasonable price made the decision even easier.

If you want to hear Ball do her thing, you can hear her version of the Monkees hit at https://youtu.be/dgqRWsXjON0

You can also hear her warble "I Wanna Be Free" at https://youtu.be/pLrTSQ7tBFs

And some of the other songs I spoke about earlier are featured elsewhere on YouTube, so if you are interested, you can find them there.

So, the Linda Ball mystery continues, and if anyone has any further information on the singer, please let me know.

It is sort of like a needle in a haystack at this point, at least for me.

Classic Rant #841 (November 7, 2012): Congratulations

Congratulations to President Barack Obama, who won a second term as our commander in chief yesterday.

I guess people like the "same old, same old," because the President won in a race that was close until about 11 p.m. last night, when he took the bull by the horns and thrashed his opponent, Mitt Romney.

I think we all know what "swing states" are now--I am sure that Romney certainly knows that now.

I think the problem with Romney is that he never really connected with the people, the common people, the people like you and me.

He came off as brash, aloof, looking down at much of the populace, even if that wasn't exactly true.

That is how the media portrayed him, so that is what he was.

The media was much more friendly with the President, and you just know that that helped his campaign tremendously.

Romney also did not connect with Hispanic voters, the voting block that is growing more than any other.

Bob Schieffer on CBS said something to the effect that one senator said to him that the country was having a "lower number of white guys" voting than ever before, but more and more Hispanics.

And he never connected with them, or a good number of the populace.

So what do we have in store for the next four years?

It is hard to say.

The economy remains a shambles, and unemployment is high.

We are still fighting overseas, and we are still dependent on others for oil.

Will any of these things change during the next four years?

I really don't know.

We voted for the "same old, same old," so will these areas remain the "same old, same old," and not move an inch?

Now that the race is over, my neck of the woods can concentrate on other things, like the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the coming nor'easter, which can't help matters that are already unmanageable for so many people in the Northeast.

My sister and daughter still are completely without power, gas lines are long, and people's nerves are starting the reach the breaking point.

Now that the campaign is out of the way, I don't know what President Obama can do about these things, but we need help here.

Let's hope things for the people in need get better real quick.

Rant #2,187: Nothing From Nothing

Today is Wednesday, July 25, the 206th day of the year (207th in leap years), and I have to admit something to you ...

I don't have anything planned that I wanted to write about today.

As I have said in the past, sometimes things just come to me to write about, sometimes I know exactly what I am going to write about, and sometimes, like today, nothing really stands out in my mind that I want to put up here for all to see.

I guess you could call it temporary writer's block; I don't care who the writer is, there are days that they just don't have anything to say, nothing comes to mind, and they don't have anything specific to talk about.

Like today with me.

And going on the title of today's Rant, I am going to write about something that often gives me fodder to write on, but which more often than not is simply a slight amusement to me in the morning when I am preparing to write something.

And that is the "news" provided on the Yahoo home page, which my computer opens up to once I go onto the Internet each and every day.

This page is certainly the National Enquirer of "news," featuring some legitimate news stories but a preponderance of trashy items, non-news items that are deemed "news" by Yahoo.

Today's list is truly representative of what you get on your Yahoo page each and every day of the year, with salacious headlines about non-news items that are treated with the reverence that real news items used to get, but don't anymore.

Let's see what we have today ...

"Demi Lovato's Ex Wilmer Valderama 'Devestated' Over Her Reported Overdose, Didn't Know Her Issues Were This 'Severe'"

"'Married At First Sight' Bride Arrested At Airport On Her Way To Honeymoon"

"Oregon Woman Finds Mountain Lion Napping In Her Home: 'This Is Wild'"

"Jenna Jameson Proudly Sbows Off 57 Lbs. Weight Loss"

"Demi Lovato's Overdose: 'This Is Absolutely What So Many People Feared' Said Source"

Yes, the news world, if you want to believe Yahoo, revolves around the Demi Lovato overdose, or at least reported overdose ... could you imagine if your daily newspaper plastered this all over its front page ... I mean, this is news?

Yahoo does offer an actual news page, which is one click away from its opening page, but how many people actually click onto the news page (I do)?

Thus, for much of the populace that uses Yahoo as its opening page, this is the news page that they get more often than not, and thus, whatever Demi Lovato did or didn't do is the top news item of the day.

If it is really news at all.

This type of non-news news first crept onto our news radar via a TV show like "Entertainment Tonight," which started life as a real, true news show about entertainment but over the years has morphed into nothing more than a brown-nose platform for Hollywood-ites to show us how much fun their lives are.

With such shows making celebrities out of true nobodies, was it a big stretch for the Internet to pick up on this, and bring it even to the next level of insipidness?

I might be out of the big picture of today, but somehow, Demi Lovato and what she did or did not do is really not on my radar, and certainly not on my news radar.

Every generation has had such non-news items morph into news items--heck, how many times did the news cover the drug busts of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard 50 years ago--but today, it has kind of gotten out of hand.

And while I type, I have my TV on, and I hear that the local news reported on ... Demi Lovato's overdose.

Yes, I must be out of the loop, completely out of the loop.

Maybe it IS time to pay more attention to my Yahoo home page, and in particular to Demi Lovato.

Maybe.

Classic Rant #840 (November 6, 2012): Vote, Vote. Vote

I have voted.

My polling place was lucky enough to be open and with power, and I voted there earlier today.

I am going to tell you who I voted for.

I voted for the guy that I felt could lead this country the most competently during the next four years.

I voted for the guy who I feel will make my life and the lives of my family and friends better over the next four years.

I voted for the guy who I felt most comfortable with, even though both major candidates give me the shakes.

I voted for the guy who I think can help us out of our economic doldrums, the guy who will lay down the law and tell big business what is right and what is wrong.

I voted for the guy who I believe will lead us out of Afghanistan, and let those people do their own governing ... and killing.

I voted for the guy who seemingly has a nice family, a solid marriage, and practices good values.

I voted for one of the two major candidates, because while I don’t really like either candidate, I feel that since the race is so close, every vote will, in fact, count this time around.

I voted for ———— as President of the United States.

And if he wins, I hope he can do the job.

I really do.

Rant #2,186: Ladies Night

Some major news took place last night on WWE's Raw Monday night show--even getting coverage by mainstream media like Newsweek--so I figured I would continue the professional wrestling jag that I started yesterday to talk about it.

And ladies, normally I know that this is your exit point, but this time, please read on. You might find this of interest.

On last night's show, the opening featured all the wrestlers on the WWE roster coming out to hear an announcement that was going to involve them.

Greeting them were three major players in the WWE, including Chairman Vince McMahon, his daughter Stephanie, and her husband, Paul Levecq, better known as Triple H.

Through phony tears and platitudes, the No. 1 wrestling organization in the world--a multi-billion dollar organization--announced that on Sunday, October 28, it was going to stage something called "Evolution" at Nassau Coliseum right here on Long Island.

"Evolution" was going to be something totally off the wall and special, as it was going to be the organization's first pay per view event featuring entirely a female cast.

That's right--no men allowed.

All of the WWE female championships would be fought on that evening's card, there will be a new women's tag team title that takes place, and the annual Mae Young Classic--a gauntlet type of match featuring potentially a few dozen wrestlers at a time pummeling themselves--would also be held that evening.

History or marketing ploy--actually a lot of both--this is something worth talking about,

Females who are professional wrestlers have changed incredibly since the early days, where Fabulous Moolah ruled the roost for a generation as the top female wrestler in the world--and she kind of looked like it, if you know what I mean.

Female wrestlers during the early days were one step above strippers as far as relevance and respectability, and while there were numerous ladies who made it in the pro ranks--Moolah and Mae Young were two of those--most female wrestlers looked the worse for wear, and they were pretty much looked at as oddities, one step above--or sometimes one step below--the midgets as relevant athletes.

Things did not change when TV pretty much turned to all color, and, in fact, the use of color actually accentuated the negatives of female wrestlers, pretty much that they weren't in there for their looks, very important when dealing with a mainly male audience.

Things began to change in the late 1970s to mid 1980s. The WWE got the idea to meld athleticism with beauty, and with the Rock and Roll period of wrestling, they began to recruit not necessarily wrestlers, but other female athletes--including body builders and trainers--to their female ranks.

At least the eye candy gave the mainly male audience something to look at, but with the numerous night gown, bathing suit, lingerie and other beauty pageent type matches, women were still looked at as pretty much nothing more than oddities.

Things continued this way into the 1990s and through the early 2000s. The WWE was looking for female athletes who also looked good, and a number of their female athletes had Playboy pictorials to boost their appeal.

They were beautiful, but the two-minute matches that they went through showed that not only couldn't they wrestle, but they were still not much more than eye candy and not to be taken seriously.

A few years back, the WWE saw the potential of their female wrestlers, and actually began signing up those who not only looked good, but also could wrestle, to a certain extent, and they boosted the profile of their female roster by having other spinoff TV shows highlighting these women for a growing female wrestling audience, including Divas and the Bella Twins.

Flash forward to yesterday, and the WWE's recent experience in Saudi Arabia--where they could bring their male wrestlers to perform, but their female wrestlers couldn't do much of anything--supposedly spurred on this idea of having an all-female show--something that rival Impact Wrestling has already done several times on pay per view.

But when the WWE does it, it makes news.

The problem was that in their generally skimpy attire and with their pumped up bodies--naturally and through human methods--female wrestlers probably will never attain the overall acceptability of the wrestling audience, even with more and more females becoming fans of the sport.

And then you had Stephanie McMahon, herself a former wrestling champion that was involved in numerous storylines about her supposed romances with male wrestlers, including the one that was real with Triple H, and who has herself been "enhanced" to fill her role as a wrestler prior to her current role as a WWE executive, said something to the effect that "the days of the 30 second match was over" for female wrestlers--

Yet a few minutes later, the first female match of the night lasted about two minutes.

Yes, the WWE has always been one for hypocrisy--how can you legitimize a certain part of your roster if they are wearing bikini tops and letting it all hang out, so to speak--and "Evolution" won't change that at all.

But it will give female wrestlers a show to themselves, where the WWE can gauge if this direction is a legitimate one or just more exploitation.

And you just know it is quite a bit of both.

Classic Rant #839 (November 5, 2012): Over and Out

I am going to make this brief, because my eyes are bothering me big time once again.

But this weekend was bad, really bad.

As I predicted, getting gas was like finding a needle in a haystack/

I waited at a total of four stations for two cars. Two I was able to get gas at, two I wasted hours and hours of time and came up with nothing.

Most people were civil.

However, when I filled up my wife's car's tank, I had a slight incident that was perpetuated by the police who were there to patrol such things.

I was sent over to a specific pump, and someone cut the line and took my place.

I got out of my car, and screamed, "Someone cut the line!"

A cop came over and shouted to me, "This is a gas station, and there is no shouting here."

I reiterated what I said, and he told me to get back in the car or he would physically remove me from the premises.

The guy who cut me off not only fills up his car, but takes out a few gas cans.

I get out of my car, and talk to another person pumping gas.

The same cop tells me that if I don't get in the car, he would throw me out of there.

I went back into my car.

I should have known.

As I approached the service station, I asked another cop what price gas was here, because many places had been price gouging.

He tells me, "80 dollars."

Yes, I should have known.

Better luck next time.

But at least my wife and I have gas.

So many people don't, and the lines haven't gone away so quick just yet.

Hopefully, we will only have to bear with this until the weekend--when I probably will need gas again.

Rant #2,185: I Don't Want To Miss a Thing

I'm back ...

This was kind of a laid-back weekend for myself and my family, in particular with myself and my wife off on Friday.

But it only came off the hook when watching the latest edition of the Yankees-Mets Subway Series clash in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium, which was supposed to take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Yankees had previously taken two of three at CitiField, and hoped to improve upon that mark back at home.

They ended up splitting the first two games that were played, but the focus seemed to be not on the games, but on the Mets' ineptitude when it came to handling injuries to its players.

A final game in the series might take away the shine on that, but it was never played, with the New York City area experiencing what amounted to a weekend nor-easter that dumped lots of rain and accelerated winds on the Big Apple, but not that much nearby, like where I live on Long Island.

Anyway, with no game to be played on Sunday--with the makeup scheduled for August 13--what could we do to while away the now open evening?

My son and I watched "Slammiversary 2018," Impact Wrestling's annual showcase of their top talent, which was broadcast yesterday evening from Toronto, Canada.

As I have said in the past, Impact Wrestling is the No. 2 wrestling group in the country, but it is really like talking about David and Goliath, because WWE Wrestling is so huge. If WWE has about 95 percent of the audience, Impact is really lucky to get 5 percent of the domestic wrestling audience, and it probably doesn't even get that.

But if that makes it Hertz to WWE's Avis (or is it the other way around), it simply means that Impact tries harder with its group of talented male and female wrestlers.

It offers a unique product, because it has working relationships with a number of other wrestling alliances around the world, so it brings much more international talent to its weekly TV show on the Pop Network than WWE does, and these shows, while scripted just like WWE's shows are, are often more outside the box and for lack of a better expression, more "out there" than the WWE product, which is geared to families.

Impact is geared to young males in the 15 to 35 year old age frame, so few punches are pulled to how it delivers its product. It is much more violent than WWE currently is, replicating how WWE was maybe 20 or 25 years ago, right before its product became mainstream.

Anyway, we watched that show last night--I managed to watch the first two hours before dozing off--and I have to say that Impact does try to put on something different from WWE, and it mostly succeeds.

Its talent is not as well known as WWE's is, but it offers as much action as it possibly can for a more mature audience.

Winners last night included "Johnny Impact"--the former John Morrison and Johnny Nitro from WWE who is going to become known to mainstream fans with his upcoming appearance as a contestant on "Survivor," which became the big newsworthy announcement on the show last night--and other wrestlers who are well known to wrestling fans, including Tessa Blanchard, Eddie Edwards--in the bloodiest match of the evening, beating former WWE star Tommy Dreamer--Brian Cage, Su Yung, the LAX tag team, Pentagon Jr., and former WWE wrestler Austin Aries, who defeated former NFL player Moose for the Impact Wrestling World Title.

The show was good, fast moving and interesting.

No, it was not a WWE pay per view, so it did not have all the glitz and glamor that that type of show provides. There are lots of rough edges on the Impact product, all of which makes it impressive.

So for a night that could have been a dead one, my son and I ended up being fully engaged, which is a good thing, a nice end to the weekend.

Now, onto another engaging workweek.

Classic Rant #838 (November 2, 2012): Gas Attack

Yes, I consider myself and my family to be very, very lucky when it comes to Hurricane Sandy.

Other than two hanging wires on our block that will have to be fixed, as well as a tree that toppled over on our neighbor’s lawn, we really didn’t have too many problems with the storm.

But just go about one-quarter to one-half mile away from us, and you will be in God’s Country. It really is that bad.

The one obstacle that we are going to have to face is the lack of availability of gas.

Lines are long, people are getting nervous, and gas deliveries are being handled as almost the second coming of the Messiah for those without gas.

I fueled up my car on Saturday morning, not because I felt the coming storm would disrupt matters so much, but I was most worried about the jacked-up price of gas after the hurricane.

Now, I don’t think too many people are really caring that much about the price; they just hope they can get the gas.

Right outside our window at work is a gas station, and the lines at this station have been something I haven’t seen since the gas crisis in 1973 or 1974.

And people’s tempers are starting to flare up. It’s one thing to wait for gas, it’s another to wait a whole day for gas.

The people who own hybrids are probably laughing their butts off now.

That is, unless, they need to charge their cars. With so many people not having electricity now, where does it leave these owners who don’t have any power?

It’s a mess, a real mess, and it doesn’t look like it is going to improve anytime soon.

Me, I still have a little less than three-quarters of a tank, so I am not in need of gas right now.

But come early next week, I will need to refuel.

Where do I do it and when?

I will probably be better off to find a 24-hour station that has gas and go late at night or in the early morning, which means I will have to fill up on Saturday evening-Sunday morning.

Me and a million other guys.

What a pain in the butt this is!

Rant #2,184: Grazing In the Grass with Lady Willpower and Jumping Jack Flash

Today is Thursday, but I am going to write this Rant as if it was Friday.

I won't be at this perch tomorrow, as I am taking the day off to be with my wife, who has been out of the work the entire week on vacation.

So it will be my one-day vacation from the drudgery of my job, which is creeping closer and closer to oblivion.

Yesterday, we got the formal word that one of our publications is no more. That leaves us one more down and one step closer to the inevitable.

The thing I told you yesterday about one of those job-posting companies actually helping me to find a job fizzled out, as I knew it would, when they couldn't back their bark with any bite.

I kind of figured, and without telling you the name of the company, I will tell you that their claims are monstrous, their delivery feeble.

But anyway, tomorrow is July 20, so why not look back at the most popular 45 RPM singles 50 years ago to the day based on the Billboard Magazine charts? It's what people were listening to around the country way back when, and I am sure that you will find a wealth of great tunes in the list that I am going to roll off right now,

So for the week of July 20, 1968, the No. 1 record in the country was "Grazing in the Grass," the instrumental version by Hugh Masekela. The song is infectious, and you still hear it played as background music today, and yes, it was followed by the vocal version of the song by the Friends of Distinction, but that song came later.

The No. 2 song was "Lady Willpower" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, one of the string of hits the act had during this period, where they sold more singles than the Beatles or any other performer did.

The Rolling Stones came in with the No. 3 song on the chart, and their "Jumping Jack Flash" truly is one of their best tunes, featuring in its short length everything that has made this band so popular over the last 50-plus years.

Herb Alpert's solo turn, "This Guy's In Love With You," the previous week's No. 1 record, stayed relatively strong this week at the No. 4 spot. Alpert would do a few other vocals, but this one is the best and most remembered, and spawned a female version by Dionne Warwick later on.

One of the great one-hot wonders follows at No.5. Cliff Nobles & Co.'s "The Horse" probably isn't a song you know very well just by its name, but when you hear it, you know it.

The 5th Dimension had become one of America's favorite vocal groups during this period, and one of their best songs, "Stoned Soul Picnic," was at No. 6 this week. Were there better singers during this period of time than Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.?

Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was at No. 7 for the week. Although his lyrics were hard to decipher at times, his music was infectious, and this tune was certainly one of his best, proving once again that he was far more than a Bob Dylan rip-off.

Mason Williams' one hit was "Classical Gas," and it came in at No. 8 this week. With his writing work on "The Smothers Brothers Show" and one of the first frequently seen videos, this instrumental had it all, and is one of my personal favorites of that genre.

The Doors once again brought their alternative rock sound to the Top 10 with "Hello, I Love You," pretty much a rip-off of the Kinks' prior hit "All Day and All of the Night" but just as enjoyable. It reached No. 9 this week, and within two weeks, would reach the top of the charts.

Rounding out the Top 10 for the week was "Indian Lake" by the family group the Cowsills. Certainly one of the creators of the "Sunshine Pop" genre, the act, led by their mom, was the real-life inspiration for the Partridge Family, but in my mind, oh so much cooler than David Cassidy and Co. could ever be.

The highest debut single of the week was "People Got To Be Free" by the Rascals, which came in at No. 64 but didn't stay there for long, and within a month, it would reach the No. 1 spot.

The single that was the biggest mover of the week--the song that jumped the most places on the chart from the previous week to this week--was the instrumental "Soul-Limbo" by Booker T. and the MGs, which moved up 32 places, from No. 84 to No. 52 on this week's chart. The song would eventually rise to a No. 17 high point for the Memphis group, and become the act's second gold record in the process.

So there you have it. There was some great music in the Top 10 for this week, great summer music that soothed the soul back then and still does today.

Again, I won't be here tomorrow, but I will speak to you again on Monday, so have a great weekend and I will see you then.

Classic Rant #837 (November 1, 2012): Back to Normal (?) Part 2

Everything is trying to get back to normal after the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, but it isn't going very quickly.

Mass transit is trying to come back to order. There are some limited trains--Long Island Railroad and New York City subway--but the going is still tough, as most of the lines are still out.

More and more people are now able to get back to work. This was a "vacation" that nobody foresaw or really wanted.

But there is still lots to go before we can be back to "normal."

For one thing, the schools have yet to open, and I seriously doubt that they will be open again this week.

In my community, many continue to be without power, and probably won't have power for days, if not longer.

Most banks are not open, so if you want to make a deposit or take money out or pay your bills, you may be stuck (my wife's bank is one of the few that is open).

Supermarkets are open, but most without power. You can forget about chill or frozen goods. You can't get them, and the availability of canned and shelf-stable items is dwindling.

Driving continues to be hazardous without lights to guide you.

People are doing funny things on the road, because they don't have the lights to slow them down.

And gas. That has become another problem.

Many people didn't take this thing seriously, and now find that their car's gas tanks are low. So they are filling up now, but so many are filling up, that gas availability is low and getting lower.

The lines are unprecedented, reminding me of the gas lines we experienced in the 1970s during gas rationing.

Right outside my place of work is a gas station that remains open, but after yesterday--with hundreds of cars trying to fill up--I wonder if they will be open again today.

Yes, I went to work yesterday. We were fortunate to have power, but no Internet or email, which hampered us to a degree. Most of us were there, and most of us still do not have power at our homes.

No, we are not even near normal right now.

It is going to have to take baby steps to get back to normal.

So right now, I don't even know when that will happen.

(And as a sidelight, this Sandy is a "he," not a "she." So why is everyone, including the so-called informed news media, referring to it as a "she"?)

Rant 2,183: Bits and Pieces

Yes, the time has come again for this periodic roundup of things that I want to talk about, none which deserve a full Rant to do so.

So here is what I have to say on these topics, and you can chime in too if you feel the need to do so.

Trump/Putin Summit: I am so sick of reading negative comments about this meeting between the leaders of the world's two top nuclear powers, and I am going to be as concise here as possible.

In a media-fed frenzy, President Trump has been taken to task for his handling of the possible intervention of the Russians in the 2016 Presidential election, which put Trump in the top spot and sent Hillary Clinton home.

Critics have faulted the President for not speaking up on the subject, for cowering in the presence of Russian leader Putin, of not putting America's best interests first and foremost when talking to Putin.

This is utter nonsense, of course, but the anti-Trump media wants everyone to believe that the meeting accomplished nothing and made us look weak.

Nothing could be further than the truth.

For the world's benefit and safety, the two superpowers are now aligned on the same page, and that is always a good thing.

Second, for those who don't believe that Trump brought up his concerns with Putin about Russian meddling, well, come on now, you know that that isn't true--the only reason you are shaking in your pants is that you didn't get the possible conclusion that you wanted to of this subject: that yes, the Russians had something to do with our election, and yes, the reason Trump is president is because of the Russians.

Behind closed doors, Trump and Putin did speak about this subject, but it wasn't how the media portrayed it, as in, "Mr. Putin, did your country somehow help to rig our Presidential election? "No, Mr. Trump, we did not." "OK, thank you."

You just know it went deeper than that, and our President, satisfied with what he heard, went on to other things with Putin, much more important things for the world and our future.

Those who hate the President are going to hate him and blame him for everything, but in actuality, the ones who rigged the vote in 2016 were the biggest blowhards, the ones who were so confident in the media's prediction of a Clinton landslide that they stayed home and didn't vote.

I would tell those people that rather than go on wild goose chases, look within yourselves, and you will discover the real reasons that Trump is in office, and might just be there when the vote comes up again in 2020.

Home Run Haven in All-Star Game: Baseball fans, ponder this: do you want to see a well-pitched game, or do you want to see offensive carnage>

Actually, true baseball fans would say a little bit of both, but last night's All-Star game gave fans--rabid ones and casual ones--an incredible offensive display never seen before in baseball's mid-summer classic.

A record 10 homers were hit in the 8-6, 10-inning American League win, and the game kind of followed the script laid out the day before, when hometown boy Bryce Harper of the host Washington Nationals won the Home Run Derby.

The Derby evidently did not stop in the actual game, when Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees led the barrage by hitting the first homer of the game in the second inning.

Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels followed him up with a homer of his own, and then, the barrage continued, with the Cincinnati Reds' Scooter Gennett and Joey Votto, the Chicago Cubs' Wilson Contreras, the Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yellich, the Colorado Rockies' Trevor Story, the Seattle Mariners' Jean Segura, and the Houston Astros' George Springer and Alex Bregman (the latter being the game winner and earning Bregman the game's MVP award) all homering.

Home runs are up in baseball, as are strikeouts, but there is nothing more majestic in sports than a player hitting a baseball into the seats.

And since the All-Star game is simply an exalted exhibition game, there is nothing better than an All-Star game featuring homer after homer.

Pain-Free Dentist: After my past travails at the dentist, which I have chronicled over the course of the life of this blog, I finally found a dentist that I can trust, one who will do the job and one where I don't have to worry about my teeth anymore.

I took a local dentist after the horror show I experienced with my previous dentist--including sending me on my trip to South Korea with, among other things, a major dental infection and sore teeth--and happily, this is the dentist I have been looking for for a long time.

I had a cavity filled yesterday, and if I felt any pain or anguish, I don't remember it at all.

I was in, out in about 15 minutes, and that was that.

The cavity was in one of the back of my mouth teeth, it was kind of hard to get to, but the dentist did it without a problem, and my mouth felt fine then and feels fine now.

What a relief after the pain I experienced at my previous dentist.

I still hate to go to the dentist, but at least when I go now, I have an expectation that everything will be fine.

Current Job Prospects: I have noticed that on Facebook, more and more of those online job services are putting up posts trumpeting their services ... and people are writing back, saying how truly bad their services are.

I have done that on numerous occasions, and I don't know where else I get so many "likes" on things that I put up on the social media network.

I did the same thing yesterday, when one of the major players in this field put up how successful they have been at finding people jobs.

"Pooh!" I said, and I challenged them to find me something, with two years of searching, more than 400 jobs applied for, and a couple of phone interviews and one face-to-face interview to show for it.

Incredibly, they got back to me, and said that I should contact them personally and they would try to help me out.

I did just that, and sent them my resume.

So far, I have not heard back from them, but when you are snatching at straws--or anything--like I am at this point--my job and company might last now to October, based on what one of the higher ups blurted out the other day--you have to try anything.

Maybe this will turn the trick, but I am not holding my breath, because I have been down this road before, and if I do hold my breath, well, I would pop for sure.

Speak to you again tomorrow.

Classic Rant #836 (October 31, 2012): Back To Normal (?)

Today, we get back to normal.

Or do we?

I called up my work last night, spoke to the vice president who is holding down the fort (another story for another time), and he told me they had power, but no Internet.

I kind of find this hard to believe, since just about every area in that town is without power, but he says we have power, well, I have to go into work today.

I supposedly have physical therapy today. I called the office, but the message has not been updated since Monday, so I have no idea if I have it or not.

My wife has to go into work, and she has a later shift today, so at least she can sleep a little bit.

But here's where things are not getting back to normal, not getting back to normal by any stretch of the imagination.

My son still doesn't have school, and based on the enormous way our town was hit, I don't really know when he will have school again.

From what I have heard, there are no traffic lights operating throughout my county, so when I drive, I am going to have to be extra, extra careful.

And for those who lost their homes, well, things won't be getting back to normal any time soon.

People still can't get out of their neighborhoods, and can't get to work because mass transit remains a mess.

On a side note--and I do really mean that, since to most people, this mention is really inconsequential--the Nets are going to play the Knicks tomorrow night in the Barclay Center in Brooklyn.

This is the first game of the new NBA season for both teams, and thus, the first season game at the new arena.

But to show you the stupidity of it all, the Barclay Center has been touted as being at the center of transportation in the Metropolitan New York area, right at the Long Island Railroad train stop and surrounded by subway stops.

The problem is that nothing is running. Nothing.

No subways, no railroad, limited buses, and some cabs.

So how is anyone going to get there? You really can't even drive there, because there is no ample parking around.

Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to be there. Of course he said he would be there, once again showing to the masses that he is better than they are.

What is one supposed to do, walk there?

Anyway, this is the first day that we try to get back to normal, or at least the first day we try to get back to normal.

But for some, what is normal, especially when your home has been washed away by this terrible hurricane?

I don't know. I just don't know.

Rant #2,182: Do the Freddie

It's funny how the mind wanders when you are not having fun.

During the drudgery of work, my mind often wanders, and it kind of did so yesterday, and even today, when I am still more than three hours away from starting my workday as I write today's Rant.

Over the weekend. my family and I listen to the 1960s music channel on satellite radio when we are in the car, and among the myriad of hits we heard was "Do the Freddie," the 1965 song by the British band Freddie and the Dreamers--written by Dennis Lambert and Louis Pegues--that got up to No. 18 on the American charts.

It stands as one of the dopiest--yet ear catching, like an ear worm--songs of that decade, and every time I hear the song, I see lead singer Freddie Garrity well, doing the Freddie, a dance craze that lasted maybe a month or so until fading into history with the Frug, the Watusi, the Mouse and many other dance crazes to come out of the 1960s.

In order to do the Freddie, the dancer stands in place, extends one leg after another, and like a jumping jack, extends both arms upward in sort of a spastic motion, and then jumps high, followed by a laugh like the Joker would make, a maniacal laugh that pierces your ear canal. It is pretty easy to do, and if you want to see the master himself do it, simply click onto this link: https://youtu.be/wgJ-P_uOkC0

Basically, the song's lyrics tell you exactly what to do:

"Hear the happy feet dancing to the beat
Of the Freddie
Put a guy in front
Make a line in back 
Then you're ready

Kick your feet up high
Move your head both ways
As you see me do
Then jump three feet high
To the swinging beat
Do the Freddie

It's an easy dance
Give yourself a chance
Dance the Freddie
It's the thing to do
Kids will envy you
So do the Freddie"

Yes, if you watch the video, Freddie and his band look like Lurch from the "Addams Family" dancing, and, in fact, there is one segment of that show where Ted Cassidy, as Lurch, actually does the Freddie.

Although the craze was very short-lived, even dance-master Chubby Checker--who made the Twist into an international phenomenon and probably the longest-lasting of all the rock and roll dance crazes--took up the Freddie with his own interpretation of the song and dance called "Let's Do the Freddie," which hit the Top 40 also in 1965.

It is simply a fun song and dance to do, and as I said, it is funny how the mind can wander so during times when you are bored stiff.

But when I think of the dance, I guess I think of fun. And fun was Freddie and the Dreamers.

The British hitmakers did relatively well in the States during the early days of the British Invasion, scoring a No. 1 song here with "I'm Telling You Now," and other hits included "I Understand (Just How You Feel) (#36); "You Were Made For Me" (#21); "A Little You" (#48); and "Send a Letter To Me (#123).

They were more of a comedic rock band, but to the extreme, where the comedy often was more prominent than the music. Herman's Hermits, the Turtles, and to a certain extent, the Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders, ventured into this territory, but it was never more so than with Freddie and the Dreamers.

And if you needed any proof of that, one listen to "Do the Freddie" will do the trick.

Everything in the music world that was put out in the 1960s wasn't great, and "Do the Freddie" wasn't the greatest song to come out of that decade.

But it may have been up there as one of the most fun songs of that period, and I guess that is the reason my mind wandered over to it while I was toiling at work.

Now, if I only had the nerve to get up in the middle of the office and actually do the Freddie ... well, that would really be something, wouldn't it?

Classic Rant #835 (October 30, 2012): Safe At Home

Well, Hurricane Sandy, at least for myself and my family, wasn't as bad as it could have been.

And I am very thankful for that.

We had power losses throughout the night, but nothing substantial.

It was just the old pain in the butt thing that when the power goes out and then, a minute later, when it goes on, you have to check everything and reset what needs to be reset.

Inside our house, the rod holding up the blinds in our living room fell down. I can't exactly figure out why that happened, but the pummeling the house took from the winds must have had something to do with it.

One of the lines outside the house was flickering last night, which probably means that the insulation around the wiring became dislodged from the winds. It sparked for about a half hour, and we did call the authorities about it.

They will get to it when they get to it, and that might be several days.

Other places in our surrounding communities were hit much harder than we were, with downed trees and power lines, water all over the place, and other calamities hitting them hard.

As for my work, I called them at 8:30 p.m. last night to tell them I wasn't coming in.

I got to one of the vice presidents, who presumably stayed over holding down the fort last night.

"Well, we'll see tomorrow how bad it is," he said to me after I told him I wasn't coming in today.

"No, I am not coming in," I replied.

And to this moment, I haven't gotten a call from them about whether our place of business is open or closed today.

But since they have said that all Nassau County roads are closed, and the rain and wind are still here, somehow, I don't think I will be venturing outside much, if at all, today.

At least I was at work yesterday.

But anyway, my parents are OK, my sister hasn't had power for many hours now, but I think we all pulled through this storm pretty well.

I know New York City is basically totally shut down. No mass transit and numerous areas that were hard hit have caused the city to be in lockdown mode.

But I still think it could have been much, much worse, and for those who were hard hit, I know that you will pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get back in the saddle as soon as possible.

Look! The sun is trying to come out as I look out the window!

That tells me that things are going to be getting better.

Rant #2,181: Some Kind of Wonderful

Today is Monday, so it is a day where most of us go back to work, to the toil that helps us to make money to put bread on our tables.

Sure, that is very important in the grand scheme of things, but it is not some kind of wonderful.

The weekend--or whenever you have your days off during the week--ARE some kind of wonderful, because you can pretty much do what you want and do them without hindrance.

Yes, you need your job, but you also need time off to fully round off your life, and for me, the weekend is it.

Forget about all the troubles my company is having with staying solvent--we just got our latest hint that we probably won't last past October--but whatever job I have had over the years, I do work for the weekend.

Nothing else is important, because the weekend is devoted to your family.

And when I first became a father 30 years ago, the fact became even more important, and more focused.

Personally, I had a busy Saturday and a somewhat less busy Sunday, with each balancing out the other.

On Saturday, I went to the eye doctor, my wife and I went shopping, and then later on, we went to another barbecue, this one thrown by one of my brothers in law. We had previously gone to a barbecue at my other brother in law's home, so we have been well covered with barbecues this summer, as we have also held a few of our own.

Anyway, it was a nice, relaxing day, a day to unwind from the previous five days of work.

On Sunday, we ended up doing next to nothing.

My wife and I wanted to go swimming in the backyard pool, but the weather wasn't really cooperative--it was warm, but a bit rainy here and there--and the day did not improve until late afternoon, so after I took my son to work, my wife and I went shopping for things we needed here and there.

I bought another storage case for my 45 RPM records. This is the fourth one I have purchased over the years, and with my collection still growing--I must have at the very least several thousand singles--I need at least two more of these things to get them all safely away in convenient devices to hold them and enable me to get to them easily.

This has been an ongoing project for me--many of my singles still remain in the drawers of my son's old changing dresser--so it is really time to get this done.

I then picked up my son from work, watched a little baseball--a very disappointing Yankees game--and then went out to get my family and I something to eat. Not that I am so gallant, but I don't want my wife to cook on the weekend after a busy week at work.

After trying to watch the WWE's Extreme Rules pay per view event--I barely made it to 9:30 or so--I went to sleep, woke up earlier than I normally do, and decided that yes, it was time to get up to prepare for the pleasure I have at returning to work today.

And now we meet the latest workweek head on. My wife is off this week--I would have loved to join her at home, but I simply cannot do that this week--so at least she will be enjoying some extra, well-deserved time off. I hope she enjoys it fully.

Me, in about three hours from right this moment, I will be back at work, and no, I am not looking forward to it at all. The atmosphere at work is toxic, my fellow co-workers, looking at their own survival, are throwing others under the bus with aplomb, and I count the minutes until we reach 5:30 p.m., and I can stand up, shut off my computer and leave work to come home.

This IS, actually, a short work week for me--I did take off on Friday, so at least my wife and I will be together for one day of her vacation--but certainly to get to that point is going to be difficult.

So anyway, have a good day at work, I know that I will (ha ha), and I will speak to you again tomorrow.

But with one parting thought--Monday is really a horrible day of the week, because it is the first day of the workweek. I guess that is why there are numerous songs about Monday in the pop pantheon, including "Monday, Monday" from the Mamas and Papas; "Manic Monday" by the Bangles, and my current theme song of this post, "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats.

Yes, Mondays are difficult, but you have to get through Monday to get to Friday, so even though we moan and groan about Monday, is it really any worse or any better than Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?

Yes, it really is Saturday and Sunday for me!

Classic Rant #834 (October 29, 2012): Back Home

Here is another uncharacteristic Monday afternoon Rant, because quite frankly, I don't know what Hurricane Sandy has in for my neck of the woods tonight and tomorrow.

Anyway, my place did let us out early.

We had maybe 30 percent attendance, and while I had plenty to do, the fact of the matter was that things were getting worse and worse outside, making any travel treacherous.

So at about 12:30, they finally let us leave.

Driving home was fine for the most part.

There were hardly any cars on the road, and I had little trouble getting around.

There were two roadblocks I had to maneuver around: one was on the highway I use to get back and forth to work. They blocked off the area just past the exit I use on my way home; the other was on the street that I use to get home from the highway, and just following other cars, I was able to find my way back to where I should be.

Now that I am home, I am wondering where my wife is.

She told me she was also being allowed to leave early from her work, but so far, she has not shown up at home yet.

I am sure she will be home soon. She has also been given the day off tomorrow, which is good.

(She just walked in the door.)

I have not been given that day off yet, so as of now, off to work I will go.

Let's see what happens, and let's see if I can visit with you tomorrow.

"Anyway the Wind Blows ... ."