Rant #2,342: Dizzy Traces Time of the Season, Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In, Proud Mary

Yesterday, I looked back at the past 23 years that I have spent at my place of business.

Today, we are going to go even further back in time--50 years--to look at the most popular music of the time, the music we listened to on our transistor radios, music that made up the top hits on Billboard's Hot 100 music chart.

Yes, FM radio was alive and well, and even playing some of these tunes, but generally, this was AM radio fare, and when we heard these songs on the radio, we would go out to our favorite record stores and buy these disks.

Things are so different today, but don't we all kind of yearn for these past times?

Based on the fare that is called music today, I know that I sure do.

Anyway, here are the top 10 singles for the week of March 29, 1969, or exactly 50 years ago to the day.

Topping the chart was "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe, an artist that had been around for years but who adapted his music to the then-hot bubblegum sound. This was his biggest hit of many that he had, and the song still sounds as good today as it did all those years ago. It would top the chart for four weeks. One bit of trivia is that the song was written by Roe and Freddie Weller, who at the time was with Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Coming in at the No. 2 position was "Traces" by the Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost. The act had only four really big hits, but each one of them was huge, and something of what you would call easy listening standards for the time.

The third most popular song on the Hot 100 for this week was "Time of the Season" by the Zombies, an act that didn't even exist anymore when this song came out. After a few years together, the British band had broken up, but to milk the last breath from the band, their record label--Date--released this single, and it unwittingly became a smash. To support the record, Rod Argent formed Argent, a successful act in its own right.

"Hair" was the hottest Broadway musical of the era, and it spawned several hit singles, cover versions from already established acts, and "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" was the biggest of the bunch. Performed by one of the country's favorite pop acts, the 5th Dimension, the song would, in two weeks' time, overtake "Dizzy" as the No. 1 song in the country, and stay in that spot for six weeks, making it one of the biggest hits not only of the 1960s, but of the rock era.

Rounding out the top five was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary," a song that typified what I said on the outset here, a tune that was a staple on FM radio that crossed over to the AM side of the dial. This song became one of the West Coast act's biggest hits.

Motown was ubiquitous on the Hot 100 during this period, and was well represented by the No. 6 song on the chart, the Temptations' "Run Away Child, Running Wild," among the handful of psychedelic soul tunes that the act produced at the time.

"Dizzy" topped the chart, and bubblegum was hot as could be at this time, and coming in at No. 7 was the 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s "Indian Giver," which I always thought was a big jump from their earlier hits, musically and lyrically. It would be the phantom act's last big hit.

Another Jimmy Webb hit for Glen Campbell came in at No. 8, with "Galveston" continuing a string of several hits that they young songwriter wrote for the pop/rock/country giant, whose TV show was also becoming a big hit at the time.

The second Motown gem on this chart, "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" was the ninth most popular song at the time. The story goes that the David Ruffin tune was supposed to be a Temptations single, but when Ruffin left the act, he took the song with him, and it helped to establish him as a formidable solo act, albeit for a very brief time.

Rounding out the Top 10 was one of the biggest hits of soul singer Jerry Butler's career, "Only the Strong Survive," another one of those songs that sound as good today as it did when it was new 50 years ago.

The "Chairman of the Board" had the highest debut single on the chart 50 years ago this week, as Frank Sinatra's "My Way" came onto the chart at No. 69. It would rise as high as No. 27, and this French song--with English lyrics by Canadian Paul Anka--would be covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious.

The Biggest Mover of the Week, the song that moved up the most places on the chart from the previous week to this week, was another song from the Broadway musical "Hair," and it was the title song from this show as done by the family act the Cowsills. It jumped from No. 70 to No. 35 in one week, and would eventually rise as high as No. 2 later in the year.

So there you have it, the top singles for this week 50 years ago. Bubblegum was hot, "Hair" was growing, and I was a month away from being 12 years of age.

You really can't get better than that, can you?

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Classic Rant #990 (June 25, 2013): Fortune Tellers

Do you read your horoscope each and every day?

Do you hang on what it says, reading every word as if it was the word from God?

I don't, never have, never will, but I do find them to be somewhat amusing.

The words used often have expanded meanings, especially in describing your own personal day.

Like the words "you will find wealth on this day" could apply if you found a lone penny on the floor.

With heads turned up, of course.

Some people go to those who draw up their own personal horoscopes, and spend good money to have them done.

But most people at least glance at their horoscope daily, once only in their local newspapers, but now, with the Internet, they look at their horoscopes while surfing the Web.

Here is my horoscope for today, courtesy of Yahoo:

"You need to police someone who is out of line -- though it may take all your energy to keep them from causing any serious problems. Things are still okay, but you can make them better."

I have no idea at all what this actually means.

Is someone going to cross the line at work, where I will be for nearly 11 hours today?

Is someone going to act stupid on the road, and they will have to be put in their place?

Is someone in my own family going to go belligerent on me, and I will have to knock them down a notch?

How are these horoscopes drawn up anyway?

And how can it only apply to me, because I am sure there a millions of people getting the same exact horoscope because they were born in my general age and date vicinity (April 28, 1957)?

Maybe it is because I am a Taurus, but I am also a Doubting Thomas.

I never trusted these things at all, and still don't.

I glance at them on occasion, like I did today, but I don't put too much credence in them.

On a parallel topic, one time at a street fair I actually went to a fortune teller--or someone who was advertising that she was a fortune teller--to see what my future was.

She said I would have some bad times and good times, and she looked at the palm of my hand and said that my life line was quite long, actually going from my palm to my arm, so I would have a long, long life.

Very convenient to say, and very easy to say.

I gave her my five dollars and split.

All of this is nonsense, but if it puts people at ease, then I guess it is harmless fun.

Unless you run your lives by these things. Then, quite frankly, I think you need medical attention.

Let's see how my horoscope works out today.

But you can bet that it will somehow work into my day today in strange and mysterious ways.

If it's anything out of the ordinary, I promise, I will report back to you.

But I am not expecting anything crazy, I'm really not.

Rant #2,341: Oh Happy Day

Today is a very happy day, because the 2019 Major League Baseball season begins today.

It actually started last week when two games were played in Japan between the Oakland A's and the Seattle Mariners, but for all intents and purposes, the 2019 season begins today.

And something else I guess I have to celebrate doesn't begin today, but continues today--to the surprise of just about everyone, including myself.

Today, way back in 1996, when I was 39 years old and just a month shy of turning 40, I began working at my current place of business.

The story is that I had lost my previous job a few weeks after my son was born--I was literally a political football and was kicked out by a 400-lbs. someone who wanted to show others he was dealing with how strong and powerful he was--and I was out until I begrudgingly took a job that paid me the grand total of $7 an hour--yup, $7 an hour.

I was also delivering newspapers, making the grand total of $150 a week, so I was really in the money back then, wasn't I?

Anyway, I took that job basically because I had to, and then this job came up. They called me, hired me, and let me tell you, I wasn't making that much more than $7 an hour at this company, either ... but at least I was making enough so I was able to quit my newspaper delivering job on my birthday.

So here we are, 23 years later, and I am one of the last people standing at this job. Due to changes in the work and political climate, cutbacks, some deaths, and some other shenanigans, I have managed to stick around for 23 years.

I more than doubled my salary during my time here, but the problem is that I could say that 12 or 13 years ago, as I have not had a salary increase since I was in my late 40s or early 50s.

There have been lots of changes here, but I am one of the constants. And the amazing thing is that there are at least two employees--we only have six full-timers now--who have been here for longer than I have. One has been here a year longer than me, the other, well, she has been here for 30 some-odd years.

Yes, we have a skilled, but dwindling and aging staff. During the downturn in the company's fortunes, those who could get out did, and the others, like me, have tried, but to no avail.

And you can say what you want, but after looking seriously for the past few years, and going through several hundred jobs that I applied for, I haven't had a single, solitary interview in many months. I still look, but I am convinced that this will be my final full-time position before I am forced to retire, well short of the at least 70 years of age that I would like to retire.

The sword of Damocles is constantly over our heads here, and we have gotten several reprieves from certain death several times.

Do we have nine lives like a cat? I have no idea, but I don't know where this is heading, and it scares me--but at least I can head toward retirement if I need to.

What about my co-workers who are several years younger than me, which means several years away from even thinking about Social Security and retirement? Some have young children. What do they do?

Look, I have to worry about myself. Nobody was worrying about me when, fresh out of college, I was looking for a job, and told on several occasions that I was the wrong ethnicity and the wrong gender for particular positions. Nobody was worrying about me when I was out of work for 18 months back in the 1990s, and nobody was worried about me when I was out of work right after my son was born, so I come first.

That being said, I reach another milestone today, and I look back at the past 23 years as a very interesting period in my life.

I have grown with this job, it has been a lot of fun, it hasn't been brain surgery but it has had its challenges.

And it pays the bills.

I certainly have become a better writer, editor and journalist during the past 23 years, but those skills are not as needed today as they were way back when.

I have tried to branch out in my job searches, but to no avail. My resume reads as it does for a reason, and let's face it, I have been a professional writer for more than 30 years. You cannot fake that on a resume.

With that being said, I have just decided, over the past few months, to go with the flow here.

I have been in a similar situation before during my career, and I know one day, maybe soon, there is going to be no job to go to.

But until that time comes, I am going to still see what is out there.

And I have a new preoccupation, which really goes above and beyond my own personal career ups and downs, and that is to help my son find a job.

It wasn't easy a few years ago, and it is not easy now.

My son's last job lasted three and a half years, and when he was let go at the end of 2018, it was a big blow to him and to my wife and I. Things have not gone very smoothly since then, and it has really been a struggle, one that we are near to winning but still so far away.

The main component of this is to find my son a job, but go invent one for him.

As a 23-year-old developmentally disabled adult, he has a wonderful resume--having worked off and on since he was 15 years old--but people talk a good game. Yes, they are all for integrating all types of people into the workforce, but when push comes to shove, my son and those like him are often left in the fog.

But I will push on with that, too, and at this point, I far more want my son to get a job than I want myself to get a new job; after all, at least, right at this moment, I am working.

For how long, who knows?

If you are reading this, are on Long Island and can help my son, please let me know.

It is often who you know, and we don't know anyone. We have applied to numerous organizations and agencies, but there aren't too many jobs for the developmentally disabled, and we are running into brick walls right now.

We will be going to a job fair for the handicapped in late April, but I have found out that there is a definite difference between those who are "handicapped" and those who are "disabled," and oftentimes the disabled are, once again, left in the fog when trying to find work through this method.

We have been there, done that, but we will do it again.

So, happy 23rd work anniversary to me, and I will continue to push on for both myself and my son.

What is the alternative?

Play ball!

Classic Rant #989 (June 24, 2013): Stand-Up Comics

As a kid in my fabled Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, New York, I was a collector from the get-go.

As most boys my age did, I collected baseball cards with a fervor that really was incredible.

With packs priced a a nickel apiece, even someone who didn't have too much money (me) could buy lots and lots of baseball cards.

And get gum with it, too, which I always gave to my sister (hence, the bad teeth that she had).

But somewhere down the line, I got rid of my cards for a woeful price.

I was stupid, I really was.

The other collection I had, and which I still have, is my comic book collection.

I have about 2,000 comics in my collection. I actually started collecting comic books prior to my family's move to Rochdale Village.

I think I actually taught myself to read via comic books, as I have some dated from the very early 1960s, like 1960 and 1961.

And like baseball cards, they were very economical. When I first started to collect them, they were a dime apiece, then they moved up to 12 cents, then moving up to the ungodly sum of 15 cents and then 20 cents, and so on.

I loved comic books. Reading these took me to fantasy places that I would never visit, nor would anyone else.

It put me in the shoes of the heroes. I was a DC guy, not much of a Marvel person, so my comic book heroes were Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc.

I did enjoy Daredevil, for whatever reason.

Anyway, I collected through my college years, so my collection--or at least the bulk of it--stretches really from the late 1950s--somehow, I have comics that are older than I am--through the mid-1970s.

But then, during the mid-1970s, I gave up collecting, and moved "full-time" into collecting my third passion, phonograph records.

Talking about that collection is for another column. I have brought up that collection on numerous occasions here, so let's focus on the comic books this time.

After I stopped collecting comic books, they were put in my old room's closet, and they have basically sat there for the past nearly 40 years or so.

I have tried to sell them, here and there, to little avail.

A few years ago, I actually sold a couple of issues to a collector for a few hundred dollars.

Yes, I do have some gems in my collection, but they are well read gems, and collectors are always looking for near mint copies, of which I don't have many.

When I bought comic books, I did not buy them as an investment. I bought them to read, and I did just that.

That certainly has turned off some potential buyers, but that is a fact.

Anyway, once again, I am going to try to sell my collection. I have decided that perhaps now is the time to sell these comics, and I think I have a good idea to do just that.

Later this summer, I think I am going to have a garage sale--comic books only. I can advertise the sale locally and perhaps on something like Craiglist, so my costs will be next to nil.

I hesitate bringing these comics out into the sun, because they have been holed up in that closet since the 1970s. Bringing them outside might damage them further.

But it has to be done, and I think now is a good time.

I have been reading that the superhero movie craze is starting to push up comic book prices, and for anyone who collected comics in the 1960s, as I did, my collection might be somewhat valuable.

No, I don't have The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 or anything like that, but I have enough lesser issues from the time to interest both serious and casual collectors.

At least I think I do.

And since in today's world, adults collect comics--kids don't really buy into these things anymore, probably because of their cost, which is a couple of dollars per issue now--I think they can be priced right to move.

Pricing should be good, but you can never go directly by the book. I think that book is--or at least was, years ago--called the Overstreet Price Guide, and they always overprice comics.

But if I keep prices fair, maybe I can get a good financial haul from this garage sale.

And yes, I would prefer to sell the whole lot, but that probably won't happen.

Anyway, this is the first announcement of this garage sales, so stay tuned for more.

If you are interested, please contact me through this column.

If not, thanks for bearing with me while I got this all off my chest.

Two thousand comic books. That's a pretty heavy amount, and I hope to get them off my chest this summer.

Heck, I doubt even Superman could bear the brunt of all of these issues I have.

And now it is time to unload them, and I hope I can do just that.

No Kryptonite, just my childhood right there in my collection.

Classic Rant #2,340: Good Man To Have Around the House

Remember last week, when I told you about a 45 RPM single that I had finally found that showcased a song that was featured on an episode of "Bewitched?"

If you are a regular visitor here, you must remember that blog post.

Anyway, I have another one of these for you, a song that was on a single that I finally located--with picture sleeve--and which features a tune that ended up being a major part of an episode of a long-running sitcom.

Don Grady played Robbie Douglas, the second child of Steve Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray, on the long-running sitcom "My Three Sons."

A lot of people thought he was the oldest child, but they did not see or remember or had access to the first few seasons of the sitcom, where Mike Douglas, played by Tim Considine, was the oldest brother.

But one thing led to another, and when the show moved from ABC to CBS and was shown in color, Considine was out and Grady was in as maybe not the "oldest" brother, but he was now the "older" brother.

OK, now that that scenario has been set, here is some more background on the record that I am going to eventually talk about.

Grady was something of a TV veteran by the time he was cast as he middle brother on the show, which began its 12-season run in 1960. He had been on "The Mickey Mouse Club" and had done some other things before he was cast as the kind of dopey younger brother to Considine's Mike.

But one thing that Grady had was an early interest in music, and this carried him through his teenage years through his later years, when he was more known as a musician than an actor.

But let me digress ...

Music was a major part of "My Three Sons" from the onset, with each member of the family playing a musical instrument. Grady was experienced on several instruments, so when he is seen playing on the show, yes, he is really playing.

Anyway, as Grady got older, well into his teenage years, he was firmly ensconced on the Hollywood scene, acting on the show while trying to make it as a musician on the side.

He was signed to a small Los Angeles label, Canterbury Records, and began to put out a record here and there, with little or no success.

He was also a member of the Yellow Balloon, a West Coast band that he helped to create to simply be an actual band to sing a song called, believe it or not, "Yellow Balloon," as he got some of his musician friends to join this band that hadn't previously existed to perform this song.

Incredibly, this tune--originally done by Dean Torrence but listed as being done by Jan and Dean--reached up to No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles in April of 1967, but with the label restricting Grady's presence in the band--they could not use his name or his image for legal reasons, so he went under a fake name--"Luke R. Yoo--and always wore dark glasses or a mask while playing with the Yellow Balloon--the band fell apart with just a few singles and one album under its belt. Some of the songs on the LP were credited to Don Agrati, Grady's actual last name.

Anyway, as I said, Grady had previously released a few singles under his own name, some with his backing band The Windupwatchband, and one of these was "The Children of St. Monica," which reached "Bubbling Under" status in Billboard magazine coming in at No. 132 at the tail end of 1966 and into early 1967, which meant the song probably got some regional airplay and/or sales, but nothing on the national level.

Grady often said the single was a top player on Los Angeles radio, being played in the same rotation as the Beatles and Beach Boys, but nothing generated nationally on this record.

But this time, the song we are going to focus on is the B side, "Good Man To Have Around the House."

In a 1966 episode of the "My Three Sons" sitcom called "A Falling Star," Steve and a business associate go to a local lounge and hear a past-her-time singer warble a tune or two. They later learn that that was her last gig there, as she was fired that night.

Steve felt bad for her, and invited her over to the house to hear Robbie's band, and maybe she would get some ideas for a new act.

Grady and a backing band called The Greefs played a shortened version of "Good Man to Have Around the House," the singer gets some ideas, and she later appears at a teen club to try out her new material.

The kids are not convinced that this old, 30-something singer could thrill them, but she sings a song called "Gonna Getcha" and she wins over the audience and revives her career.

Playing like a pilot for a new series spinoff from "My Three Sons," the show features Jaye P. Morgan--a fine singer in her own right with several hits in the 1950s, and later star of "The Gong Show"--as the failed singer who gets reinvigorated by Robbie's band's song.

Back to "Good Man To Have Around the House"--the song was a strong garagey-type tune, with Grady's excellent vocals, but it really didn't serve to boost the A side to any prominence at all--and probably should have been the A side over "The Children of St. Monica," which was kind of a spaced-out tune, however good it was.

But to me, the B side made the single, and made the single something I just had to have in my collection, and after searching forever for a clean, fairly priced copy, I finally found one, and now it is part of my collection.

The A side is good, but I got this for the B side, and it delivers, brings me back to another time, and is just such a fun record to listen to--and to finally hear the full version of the song to boot.

Grady was an extremely talented guy. Although he never broke through as a hitmaker in rock and roll, he did hit by composing the theme for the old "Donahue" talk show, and after he left "My Three Sons" a year before it left the air to concentrate on his music full time, he put out several singles and albums that while not chartbusters, are quite interesting to listen to.

He was also a Facebook friend of mine, one of the few celebrities who actually replied himself to the deluge of posts he would get on a daily basis.

He passed in June 2012.

So I hope that I opened your eyes to the convoluted path that was Grady's career, both on-screen and as a musician, and I certainly got what I wanted when I added this record to my collection.

Speak to you again tomorrow.

Classic Rant #988 (June 20, 2013): Catch of a Lifetime

Continuing along the baseball theme this week, yes, the Yankees ended up playing the Dodgers yesterday, and they played them twice.

Due to the rainout on Tuesday, they had a day/night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium yesterday.

The Yankees won the first game, 6-4, and lost the nightcap, 6-0.

The winning team in each game had to get the required 27 outs to secure their victory, and yes, there were numerous fly ball outs that had to be made.

But no catch was as important as the one made yesterday out of Yankee Stadium in Brooklyn by the child of one of baseball's greatest figures.

Cristina Torre, a Montessori teacher from Brooklyn and one of the elder children of Joe Torre, former Cardinal and Brave great and ultra-successful Yankees manager who now works in the baseball commissioner's office, caught a young child who fell out of the window of an apartment yesterday.

Evidently, the teacher had been having coffee in a donut shop and was alerted, with everyone else in shouting distance, that a young child was dangling from a window nearby.

She ran out of the shop like others did to see what all the commotion was about.

Evidently, the child somehow got loose and crawled through an open window while her parents were sleeping.

Finally, the child could not hold on anymore, and fell--

Into Torre's arms.

The parents have been charged with child endangerment, and the family's pastor has had window guards installed after the incident.

But the story with Torre is pretty incredible. What a coincidence, wouldn't you say?

Anybody could have been there and caught this child, but it just so happened that the child of the former All-Star has as good hands, or even better, than her very proud papa.

How the child could have gotten loose like that is another story, which I am sure will be investigated by Child Protective Services, but the basic story, of Torre catching the falling kid, really is a story of serendipity, isn't it?

And it is pretty sure that you can say that nobody in that family--and remember, Joe Torre's brother Frank also played in the major leagues--ever made a better catch.

This is my final column for the week, as I have to go for my dreaded eye exam tomorrow, so I am taking the day off from work and from here.

Speak to you on Monday.

Rant #2,339: Simply the Best

First off, yes, I overslept pretty badly today.

I was ultra-tired, and hit the sack early, but I woke up a few times, and I guess to make up for that lost sleep, I just slept past my usual time.

It happens, and it certainly happened last night.

Anyway, today's column wasn't going to be a long one, anyway, looking at the life of someone who passed away yesterday who had a definite impact on a lot of people's lives.

Cal Ramsey died yesterday. He was 81 years old.

The name might not ring a bell to you, but to New York basketball fans of a certain age, part of our childhoods went with him as he left us.

A New Yorker through and through, Ramsey was actually born in Selma, Alabama, in July 1937, but he came with his family to the Big Apple in the 1940s.

Ramsey first came to prominence as a basketball star first at New York's Commerce High School, and then at NYU, when the school's basketball program was nationally known and respected.

He was drafted by the NBA's St. Louis Hawks, and later played for the Syracuse Nationals and the New York Knicks. Although his NBA career was a brief one, he was a New York basketball legend, having been Rucker Tournament MVP and through his play against another New York basketball legend, Connie Hawkins.

With the Knicks, his genial personality and knowledge of the game led him to a long career off the court for the NBA team.

Ramsey held a number of positions with the team--most recently up to his death as the Knicks' community relations ambassador--but he is most fondly remembered by Baby Boomers as the team's TV color analyst from their last championship in 1973 through the mid 1980s.

He was a font of basketball knowledge, displayed his knowledge of the game on the air, serving as color analyst for Marv Albert and several other play-by-play broadcasters, and his ready and loud laugh was his trademark.

As Ramsey continued with the team as its ambassador, he always had the same seat in the Madison Square Garden crowd, a few rows behind the Knicks' bench,

What the public did not know much about was his continued participation in the NYU basketball program.

No longer a college basketball power, for the past 30-plus years, Ramsey served on the staff of the school's basketball team as an assistant coach.

So between his out-front work as Knicks ambassador to his behind the scenes work with NYU, Ramsey was a true basketball lifer, and he knew more about New York basketball than just about anyone, having been part of it on the court and in the background for more than 50 years.

He was also a member of the New York University Athletics Hall of Fame and and the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

To honor his legacy, the Knicks plan to wear either a patch or a ribbon on their jerseys during their upcoming games as they play out their schedule.

"From Rucker Park to the Garden, Cal Ramsey was a New York City basketball icon. He was a kind and caring friend who gave so much to the game he loved," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote on Twitter, offering the league's condolences to Ramsey's family, friends and fans.

R.I.P. Cal. You done good.

Classic Rant #987 (June 19, 2013): The Baseball Gods Speak

In yesterday's Rant, I talked about the Los Angeles Dodgers playing the New York Yankees for the first time during the regular season at Yankee Stadium.

It would be the first time these foes from long ago--from the days of the Brooklyn Dodgers--were going to play in the House That Ruth Built.

But you know what? Things have a way of working out the way that they should work out.

The rainy weather forced the Dodgers and Yankees to take a seat yesterday. The game was postponed, and today, weather permitting, they will play a doubleheader--a day/night doubleheader--in the Bronx.

Funny, it was as if the baseball gods were looking down at the situation and saying, "No, not yet, as long as we have a say in it."

The baseball gods being purists, they are not into interleague play, where a National League team plays an American League team during the regular season.

These contests were only supposed to be held during the World Series, making that best of seven game series extra special, but in the modern age, it isn't as special anymore.

And no, the Dodgers and the Yankees were not going to play at the House That Ruth Built, but the one that George Steinbrenner constructed.

The House that George built, if you will.

And you know, I am something of a purist when it comes to baseball, so I say, so be it.

Interleague play really isn't my cup of tea either, but now it is not only here, it is being forced by each league having 15 teams.

If all the teams are playing on a given day, at least two teams have to play interleague.

It waters down what already is a watered down schedule, and it is so diluted that it makes these games somewhat ho-hum.

Sure, you have the Yankees and Dodgers, which ties together a lot of history, but at the same time, you have the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, which ties together virtually nothing.

I liked it the old way, where American League teams played American League teams and National League teams played National League teams during the regular season.

The only times the two leagues met were during the All-Star Game, where the best of each league faced off against each other, and during the World Series, to determine who was the best team in Major League Baseball.

That is the way I liked it, but in this watered-down age, it was only a matter of time before that system went to the dogs, and it has, and at this point, it doesn't generate the interest that many of these contests once did.

So, at least last night, the baseball gods basically said, "One more day."

I kind of like that thinking, but you can't put it off forever.

Like Ernie Banks used to say, "Let's play two today."

And weather permitting, they will do just that.

Rant #2,338: Money Honey

Good morning!

How was your weekend?

Mine was kind of bland after several weekends where my family and I were very, very busy.

This weekend, we could really exhale and take it all in for the first time in quite a while.

Every weekend, I go out and get my wife, my son and I dinner on both Saturday and Sunday. My wife works during the week, too, and I don't want her to have to cook on the weekend, even though she has told me she doesn't really mind it.

So on Saturday, we were actually out of the house after visiting her father at the Veterans home that afternoon, so we took in our local Wendy's.

We hadn't had Wendy's in quite a while, so it was good to experience it again.

On Sunday, a real lazy day for us, I went out myself and brought food in. I got my wife a rotisserie chicken at the local supermarket, and my son and I had Taco Bell, another fast food that we hadn't had in quite a while.

I went to the Taco Bell by our home, and ordered what I wanted for myself and my son.

The bill came to $16.71 including tax. I looked in my wallet and I had very small bills and a $100 bill.

Since the small bills I had would not add up to what I had to pay, I gave the cashier the $100 bill.

And this is where the problem started.

As she was taking my order, she was also speaking to somebody sitting in the restaurant, who ended up being a coworker on break. She was talking to him in Spanish as she took my order.

And then she gave me back my change, and from a $100 bill, with the bill being $16.71, she gave me back exactly $73.29--or $10 less than she should have given me back.

I counted my change as she continued to talk to her coworker on break in Spanish. I told her that she shorted me $10.

She said in English to me that that was impossible, and I showed her the receipt she had just given me, which clearly said that she was supposed to give me back $83.29, not the $73.29 she gave me back.

Stopping her Spanish speaking to her coworker, she asked if she could see the bills again.

She counted each out, and she said to me, "Here. It is $83 here."

I said to her in plain English, "No it's not. it is $73."

I gave her the money to count it again, just as her coworker went back on duty.

Now that she was back in the English mode, she counted the money out once again.

"Oh, yes, you are right. I owe you $10," she admitted, and said she was sorry.

My food had come out and was ready for me to take as she gave me my $10 back, but she was so involved with her coworker and telling me that my change was correct that she never gave me my cups for my drinks, with two cups due back to me.

"Can I have the cups?" I asked her, and the coworker actually was the one who gave me the cups.

Clearly frustrated at their work behavior at this point, I said to both of them, "You know, it is time to get on the ball here," as I took the two cups off the counter and proceeded to the drink machine.

They both then started to speak in Spanish to each other, and heaven knows what they were saying about me in their conversation.

I got my drinks and left.

On the receipt, it said that by going online, I could "rate" my experience at the restaurant. Lucky for the cashier and her coworker that I simply decided not to, purely out of laziness--and yes, I admit that to you. I was just darn lazy, and I didn't feel like doing it this time around.

In the past, I have reported fast food restaurants that did not give me good service, but this time, I simply put this place on notice, in my own mind, that if I receive bad service from them again in the future, they will hear from me. Laziness won't get in the way that time, if it happens again.

So I basically gave the restaurant a bye this time. For the $15 an hour these people are now making in New York State, I would expect better service, and honestly, if they were making one-third of that money, I would expect better service.

It is called taking personal pride in what you are doing, and I think that the cashier, going from English to Spanish and back again, made herself confused.

And why is she speaking Spanish in the restaurant when she is supposed to be serving me to begin with?

No, the aggravation that I got wasn't worth the money that I spent there.

Hopefully, the next time there will be a lot better.

Classic Rant #986 (June 15, 2013): Bronx Cheer

Tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers make their first regular season appearance at Yankee Stadium to begin a short series with the Yankees.

The wonders of interleague play, eh?

With all the post-season history the two teams have against each other, it is really hard to believe that the two teams haven't played in the Bronx during the regular season up until tonight.

I mean, who can forget Don Larsen's perfect game, the only one thrown in the World Series?

Reggie Jackson's titanic three home runs in one game to beat the Dodgers?

Heck, even the one time the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series?

The roots run deep for both teams, and the roots will even run deeper tonight.

With the cast of no names that the Yankees have had to put on the field this season due to injuries, the person who probably will receive the loudest cheer from those fans in attendance will be a Dodger.

The Dodger manager, no less.

Don Mattingly comes back to the Bronx, and he was probably one of the greatest players the Yankees have had in their storied history not to ever get to a World Series.

He played for them in the 1980s and early 1990s, right before the Derek Jeter era, when the Yankees were mediocre at best.

He got into one playoff series, the memorable 1995 series against the Seattle Mariners where he played like he was the second incarnation of Babe Ruth.

The Yankees lost that series, and he was done--and from 1996 on, the rest, as they say, is history.

So "Donnie Baseball," as he has been called, will be coming back to the Bronx tonight.

It should be an interesting series.

Both teams are broken down, not playing well at this point in the season, but I am sure that they will be on the top of their respective games tonight, if for history's sake only.

Sure, you can bet the ghosts of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle will be watching closely, as will the ghosts of Hodges, Reese, Maglie and Robinson on the other side.

The Dodgers are in Los Angeles now, as far removed from their Brooklyn roots as I am from my roots in the borough.

The Yankees don't even play in the "real" Yankee Stadium anymore, only a nice facsimile of the original.

But it's the Yankees versus the Dodgers, so it IS important.

The Bums versus the Bronx Bombers.

And during the regular season yet.

Who woulda thunk it 60 years ago?

Rant #2,337: I'm Gonna Blow You a Kiss In the Wind

Well, yesterday's employment-seeking experiment was an abject failure, as absolutely nothing came of it.

I still think it was a good idea, but I guess thinking outside of the box does not apply to looking for work.

Onward and upward!

Let's talk about some people who had good jobs, had many fingers in many pots, and well, I am pretty sure they never had to do what I did yesterday.

Let's first talk about Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who you might remember were the prolific songwriters who composed many tunes, including a bushelful for the Monkees.

That being said, their everlasting contribution to pop culture might just be that they were the songwriters for the theme to the "Days of Our Lives" TV soap opera, but whatever the case, these guys were a hot commodity in the mid to late 1960s, whether as songwriters, producers, or performers in their own right.

They were ubiquitous, they were everywhere, and even if you turned on your favorite TV show, you might just see them.

They were on episodes of "The Flying Nun," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched," as well as performing as a duo on every TV variety show you could name, including, of course, "American Bandstand."

There was a very good reason that they were all over TV, and that was because they were actually being groomed for their own sitcom from Screen Gems Television.

The duo broke up, so that never came to pass, although the concept of the show was used later on in the very short-lived situation comedy "Gettin' Together" starring Wes Stern and somebody by the name of Bobby Sherman.

But let me digress ...

In the season six episode of "Bewitched," Samantha's evil sister, Serena, wants Boyce and Hart to perform at the Cosmos Cotillion, but the duo is booked until 1976, so she can't get them the right way.

So Serena does what Serena does ... she puts a spell on them so they become highly unpopular, which forces them to play the Cotillion, because nobody else will have them.

Once Samantha catches wind of this scheme, she insists that Serena remove the spell, but, of course, Serena has other thoughts.

The song that the duo performs, and which is heard throughout the show is "I'm Gonna Blow You a Kiss In the Wind," and it rings the show to the point that it becomes a real earworm by the end of the half hour episode.

This procedure worked to get the Monkees' tunes into our consciousness, and I assume that those behind this episode thought that the constant repetition of the tune would make this song as big a hit as Boyce and Hart's "Last Train to Clarksville" was for the Monkees.

Well, that plan didn't work at all, the song never even charted on Billboard's Hot 100, and the whole project exists all these years later as one of the more amusing episodes from the popular series, and nothing more.

The only reason that I even bring this subject up is that I finally found the single, with the picture sleeve that you see here, and I added it to my collection.

Boyce and Hart had an interesting career both in front of the camera and behind it, and while they may only exist as footnotes all these years later when talking about popular culture in the 1960s, their work really is something to behold, because they seemed to squeeze so much input and output into such a small window of time--even though these guys had been around honing their craft since the late 1950s.

Hart is still around, Boyce died in 1994, and while they will forever be remembered for their work with the Monkees and for their one lone giant hit on their own, "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," they were really so much more than just those things.

When their episodes come up on the shows I listed above, give them a try; they are all good for a few laughs and they all have some pretty good music in them to tap your toes to.

Have a good weekend. Speak to you again on Monday.

Classic Rant #985 (June 14, 2013): Young 'Uns

Remember how on "The Andy Griffith Show" they used to call little kids young 'uns?

I assume it was a contraction, of sorts, of the term "young ones," but it was so connected to that show, as I had never heard the term used anywhere else.

Of course, this show featured a character named Opie, so yes, "The Andy Griffith Show" was really in a world of its own in Mayberry.

Anyway, I have my own two young 'uns, and both were in attendance yesterday during my family's Father's Day celebration at my sister's house.

I wanted to get a picture of the two of them together, as I don't have any very recent photos of them together in one picture.

But alas, I forgot my camera.

My wife came to the rescue with her iPhone, and the two photos you see here are the most recent photos of my son and my daughter together.

My own, personal young 'uns.

My son wasn't feeling that well. He gets clogged ears, due to excess wax buildup. My father and I have had the same problem over the years, and it has been passed down to my son.

My daughter was sick earlier in the week, but it appeared she had what I call a "24-hour virus," and she looked and felt a whole lot better yesterday.

So I finally got the photo I wanted, and it really was the best present I could get on Father's Day.

It was a good day all around for me.

I did get some nice gifts from my family, and later on, the Yankees actually won a game.

They led 6-0 going into the ninth inning against the Angels, and held on for a 6-5 win.

No, nothing is easy in this life, is it?

Well, not really.

I am easy to please, and on the rare occasions that I can get my son and my daughter in the same room, I am very pleased.

I am very proud of both of them, and the world really is their "oyster," another term I didn't make up but suits them perfectly.

Maybe one day they will have their own kids, and they will have their own young 'uns to contend with.

And that would make me a "zaydee," the Yiddish term for grandfather, another term I did not make up.

Let me "come to terms" about that another time.

But for now, yes, I am a proud papa, I really am.

Sheriff Andy Taylor, "eat your heart out."

And that goes for Aunt Bea, too.

Rant #2,336: You Can Make It If You Try

Today, March 21, is the first full day of spring.

It is also the first full day of the rest of his life for my son.

My 23-year-old son has had many ups and downs in his life, and today is the beginning of the newest stage of his life.

Today, we are going to start the process of helping him to find a job.

My son worked for three and a half years for a popular retailer, but that job ended in December.

They paid him through early January, but since that time, he has been out of work.

The problem is that my son is developmentally disabled. He is on a new medicine--personally, I wish he did not have to take any medicine, but right now, he has to. One day, I think with the proper instruction, behavior modification will be in play with his life, but not yet at this point in time.

He has a high school degree--a certificate stating that he met all the requirements for graduation under New York State's idiotic core competency guidelines--but he has not gone to college, and he might never do so.

Nor does he drive, an area that would open up a lot of doors if he could, but right now, he cannot pass the written test. I have no doubt physically that he can do what is needed to maneuver a vehicle, but he cannot take the test without first passing the written test.

He is completely able bodied, thank goodness, and can do just about anything physically and mentally, as long as he is shown how to do the task, and with repetition, he can master that task.

Yes, he is in all the agencies and government programs that he needs to be in, but their process is oh so slow, and we decided we wanted to jump start the process.

So here is what I have done and what I am going to do today, probably right after I finish writing this Rant.

I have called a few places--my son cannot do this on his own--and have gotten some interest, but not for right now.

To go outside the box with his job hunt, I am going to go right around the corner from home, where there are two small shopping centers, and I am going to put an envelope with his cover letter and resume in the door stops of each business. Yes, at 5 a.m. in the morning, so when they come in to start work, the first thing they see is this envelope.

(And yes, beyond his last job, my son has been working off and on since he was 15 years of age, so he does have a pretty substantial resume.)

Look, I realize most of these envelopes are going to be thrown in the garbage, but if at least one retailer contacts us, I will consider it to be worth it.

Look, I know some of you are shaking your head about what I am going to do, but you have to do unorthodox things to get a job today. I know from my own experience that going onto a job board and looking for work is a complete and utter waste of time, and it is even worse for someone who is himself completely out of the box to begin with.

So you have to do some crazy things to get a job today, and if this can be considered crazy, then maybe I am the head lunatic, but at least I am trying something different.

I remember before he got his last job, we did the usual stuff: fill out applications, go online, go directly to a retailer to look for work, go to a new business and leave his resume.

It amounted to a pile of nothing, except for a lot of anxiety brought on by people who spoke with him in these companies that simply were either nasty because of his situation or simply did not "get" it at all.

I assume we are going to have to go through that again, but maybe we can lessen things by doing things this way.

I feel that it is worth a shot.

And if nothing comes of it, so be it.

We will then go through the usual channels, hope that one of the agencies we contacted can come through for my son, and just do what we have to do to find him a job.

I think today is worth a shot, so let me go and see what happens.

Classic Rant #984 (June 14, 2013): The Holiest Day of the Year

This Sunday is Father's Day, and in my family, we call this the holiest day of the year.

Or at least the men in the family call it that.

It is the day to celebrate fathers and all they do for our society.

Fathers often get knocked for not doing the right thing, but fathers are important to the very framework of the family.

In the old days, it was the father who "brought home the bacon" to the rest of the family.

Today, in two-salary households, it is less so than it was a generation ago, but fathers continue to work hard and provide for their families.

I was lucky, because my father is and was solid as a rock.

He worked hard, did what he had to do with his kids, and earned the right to call Father's Day the holiest day of the year.

I have tried to follow in my father's footsteps. I work hard, do what I have to do with my kids, and I think I have earned the right to call the day the holiest day of the year too.

But my path was different than my dad's was.

I went through a divorce, and that disrupts how much influence I had on my daughter.

I have been a father since 1988, and I cherish the moment my daughter was born on the morning of May 15.

But it is really hard to parent over the phone when your child is not living with you and you are only seeing her every other week.

But that is what I went through with my daughter, and although we are on friendly terms, I don't think our bond is as strong as other fathers have with their daughters.

And that bothers me to no end.

When I remarried and my son was born in 1995, it was like I was given a second chance at being a father, and I have run with it since that day, on August 23, when he was born.

I have been his Little League coach, have gone to school meetings, have helped him with his homework, and I think I have done everything possible to being a good dad.

I hope he sees it that way.

So happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.

Even though we are often drubbed as not being around, and when we are around, clueless about what is going on, there may be nothing more important than the bond between a child and his parents.

And that includes fathers.

So have a nice barbecue, have a nice dinner or brunch, and relax on Sunday.

It is our day to do whatever we want to do.

And we deserve it, we really do.

Rant #2,335: Two For the Price of One

Today, March 20, is an interesting date on the calendar.

Later today, at 5:58 p.m. EST, we move from winter right into spring.

And around that time today, Jews celebrate the holiday of Purim.

Let's talk about the move from winter into spring first.

In many parts of the country, this winter has been one to remember but try to forget.

They have had terrible, devastating weather, with everything from massive snowstorms to floods to whatever else.

Here where I am, this has been about the mildest winter I can ever remember. We have had maybe two or three snowfalls of any great proportion, and one of them actually happened just prior to the coming of winter, in November.

We haven't had much snow because it has been too mild temperature-wise, which has made my allergies go haywire, but that is another story.

I would rather have my allergies go haywire than have to shovel snow, I can tell you that!

What will the spring bring?

Well, at my own personal estimation, these parts are not out of the woods for snow until about April 15, so we have a few weeks to go before we can really breathe a sigh of relief.

Once Tax Day comes and leaves us, there won't be anymore snow; heck, on my birthday on April 28 a few years ago, it got up to 97 degrees!

And I think the summer isn't going to be that great a summer, heat-wise.

I am sure we will have our 90 degree days, but by August, the real summer heat will have passed us by.

Global warming? I have no idea.

Now, as for Purim ...

The holiday commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all people of this persuasion way back when, during the times of the Persian Empire in the fifth century BCE.

His plans were foiled by Esther, the Queen of Persia, and this day is celebrated because rather than being the day that all the Jews were killed, it was the day that the plan was thwarted and Haman and his backers got their comeuppance.

For those into the modern interpretation of a strong woman, Esther is really the precursor to all of that, doing what she had to do to save her people.

On this day, observant Jews dress up--it is almost like Halloween--but young girls generally dress up as Esther, the hero of the story.

Hamantaschen, the traditional food eaten to celebrate the holiday, is basically what can be called a danish, usually with fruit in it, which is shaped into the headwear that Haman wore when he made his edict against the Jews.

I have also seen Hamantaschen with chocolate inside of it, but whatever it contains, and whether it is a big pastry or a small one, it must be sweet, to remember one of the sweetest and fun days on the Jewish calendar.

The Jewish community holds parties, parades, and other get-togethers to commemorate the occasion, but the focus is always on Esther, one of the first "strong" women in the Old Testament and certainly the model for such characters as Wonder Woman and other female superheroes.

Well, the coming of the spring season and Purim would be more than enough for one day, but this year, March 20 also signifies another thing.

Tonight, there will be a full moon, so in addition to spring and Purim, we have the werewolves and wolfmen coming out, too.

Take cover, Lawrence Talbot is fast on your tail!

In the classic film "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr., meets up with Bud and Lou and tells them his story of woe.

He tells them that when the moon is full, he turns into a wolf.

"You and a thousand other guys," Costello says with a wink in his eye and a smirk on his face.

Have a good day.

Classic Rant #983 (June 13, 2013): In Dreams

I don't know what it is with me.

I go through spurts where every time I go to sleep, I seem to have a dream, and then there are other times where I don't have a dream--or at least, don't remember having a dream--for months at a time.

I am in the "dream mode" right now, and as I described in yesterday's Rant, I had one involving my car on Tuesday night.

Last night, I had another kind of weird dream.

I am not a dream interpreter, so I have no idea what it all means.

Evidently, my brother-in-law (my sister's husband) went to a unnamed planet to retrieve two children for me.

There was some type of experiment going on where children were being concocted here, but being retrieved in outer space.

So, he went to some planet to get my two kids, one a boy, one a girl.

But scientists up there found that my kids would be diseased unless the aging process was sped up, so they came to earth as young adults in their 20s.

The boy was very close to me, but very immature.

The girl was not close to me at all, very aloof, and did her own thing.

The only other thing I remember is that my son in the dream had to be taken off a subway platform because he was not dressed correctly for riding the rails.

I don't get it either.

In my present situation, yes, I am very close to my son. He has lived with myself and my wife his whole life, and he turns 18 in a few weeks.

My daughter is a child of divorce, I see her occasionally, and I wish our relationship was better than it is.

Other than that, I really can't figure this dream out at all.

I remember as a kid, I would have spurts of dreams where I was falling, whether it was off a building or into the ocean. Of course, I always woke up before I crashed.

I seemingly went years without dreams that I could remember. I used to tell people that I never dreamed, although that probably was not true, I just didn't have any dreams that I could remember.

I am in a dream spurt now, but the dreams aren't recurring, so I have no idea what the next dream will be.

It is kind of eerie, I admit, but do the dreams mean anything?

I don't know.

I would love to know what my last two dreams meant, but so be it.

Maybe I am better off not knowing what the dreams mean.

One can dream, can't we?

Rant #2,334: The Gift

A long-running saga in my family seems to have reached its conclusion.

You don't know how happy I am that it has finally ended.

It involves a computer printer.

Any computer printer.

And it involves my mother's computer.

This began a few years ago, when I finally got my mother interested in computing.

It was a long time coming, but my mother has always been hot on new things--heck, she was the one who bought my sister and I our Beatles records way back in 1964--and she wanted to learn the new way to look for things and to socialize, so it was inevitable that she would get interested in computing.

And her age--then in her late 70s--wasn't going to stop her, it invigorated her--she wanted to learn about the computer, and she wanted to learn NOW.

I went out, got her a simple, relatively inexpensive computer--I bought it on Black Friday, as I remember, at Radio Shack--and she was off to the races.

Now into her third or fourth computer--I forget which one--she also has a tablet computer, but has not yet jumped on the telephone cellphone bandwagon, only having a flip phone.

But let me digress.

Now that she had a computer, she wanted to print things off the Internet, mainly restaurant and store coupons and certain articles that intrigued her, but without a printer, she couldn't do that, usually relying on me to print these things out on my computer.

(And it took her awhile to understand how to forward emails to me, which made it even more frustrating to her.)

So, of course, she needed a printer, but with my limited knowledge of computers, to be honest with you, every printer that we got her never worked correctly, and was useless.

I even tried to hook up some old printers that I had once used that I still had, but to no avail. These printers simply would not work with the computer she was using at the time.

Well, finally this year, she asked me to get her a printer for her birthday. When someone is 88 years old and asks for something, you basically do it, even though you have some trepidation based on past experiences.

So yes, I went out and got her an inexpensive printer (the one you see in the photo above), and yes, I tried to hook it up this past weekend ... again to no avail.

I spent a good hour trying to figure this out, but again, I failed.

I have hooked up other printers--to all the computers that I have had--with nary a problem.

But for some reason, I have never been successful in the least hooking up a printer to any computer my mother has ever had.

I told her that this time we would try to do things a bit differently. There must be something that I was doing incorrectly, something that I was missing, even though I responded to all the prompts on the computer screen while trying to hook up the printer.

"You will have to get in a professional," I told her. "I simply cannot do this, and I want you to be able to use this printer."

I actually had nightmares about this printer on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Even while sleeping, I was trying to figure out what I did wrong, or at least did not do right.

Yes, I was dreaming about this printer. I guess there are worse things you can dream about, but dreaming about a printer, in my mind, is not healthy.

Anyway, my mother called a professional in to try to fix this thing, and finally, on Monday afternoon, it was successfully hooked up.

My mother did not find out what I did wrong, but she did say that it took the technician upwards of 45 minutes for even him to figure out this thing.

I suspect it had to do with obtaining the proper printer drivers so this thing could work, but again, I followed all the prompts myself, and doing so, you would think that the thing would work.

Maybe something else was needed; at this point, I really don't know and I really don't care.

She has her printer, and it hopefully will work to her satisfaction.

My mother has not yet printed anything, but she says she wants to do so when I am home ... as if I can help her! I couldn't even hook the thing up right!

But when that day comes, and the paper goes into the printer, and it comes out perfectly, the long-time saga of the printer will finally be over.

I mean, dreaming of printers is not normal.

I would rather dream about ... well, I will leave that to your imagination.

Classic Rant #982 (June 12, 2013): Here In My Car

I have finally paid off my car.

After five years, it is one less bill that I have to worry about.

And that makes me happy.

I love my car, I really do.

A couple of years ago, I was driving a 13-year old car. It was a good vehicle for what it was, but after 13 years, it was giving me nothing but trouble.

It had way more than 100,000 miles on it, and it was falling apart at the seams.

I held onto it for as long as I did because I didn't want a car payment.

I figured the maintenance on the car, even though it needed lots of work each year, equaled out to less than I would have to pay for a new car.

And for a while, that thinking worked out just fine.

But the last few years of that car were something else.

Not only did it need lots of work done to it to pass inspection and to drive it, but even its outside was falling apart ... or falling off.

One Saturday, with my family in the car, something was dumped--or fell from the sky--onto the car. It was some type of waste material, and it hit the car--as well as the car ahead of us and the car behind us--while we were waiting at a light.

This mess got us more than the other cars, and I swear, it peeled the paint right off my car.

I used to joke that my car was unique, as it was the only one on the road that when you drove it, the paint blew in the wind.

But it did--you could peal it right off the surface of the car.

Anyway, now a little more than five years ago, the car broke down for good while my son played one of his last Little League games.

I went to the car dealer the next day, and within a few hours, I was the proud owner of a brand new 2008 Kia Spectra.

I was very happy with the car at the outset, although the radio was nothing to write home about.

This was right before all the gadgets on the dashboard became pretty much standard, so it really is a basic car.

And I really enjoy riding in it.

My family and I have taken the car back and forth to Florida several times since then, we use it all the time, and it has nearly 68,000 miles on it.

I hope to have this car for at least another five years. I keep up the maintenance, and I really have never had much of a problem with it.

I think it can make it.

In fact, since the line was discontinued by Kia, I have had calls about selling the car. Evidently, this make and model of the car is highly valued, and since it isn't made anymore, people want it, especially as starter cars for their children.

No deal. I love my car.

Although the car pictured here is not mine, you can basically see what it is all about.

Nothing flashy, just something reliable.

What more can you ask from your car?

But I have to tell you, the only reason I am writing this Rant is that I had a dream last night that made me shudder, and it had to do with my beloved car.

I was driving the car, and my mother, of all people, was in the car with me.

I backed up, and the car would not stop.

It roared in reverse, weaving in and out of a busy parking lot, but it didn't hit a single car.

It made its way up and down the lot, in and out of parking spaces, but it never hit a thing.

I even used the emergency brake to try to get the car to stop, but the brake, and obviously the regular brake, did not work.

Finally, I got it to go on a patch of grass that was on one side of the lot, and the thing stopped. I turned the car off and breathed a sigh of relief.

The car was towed away ... and that is when I woke up at about 3 a.m. in the morning, never really able to fall back to sleep again.

Kind of weird, and if you know anything about dreams, please let me know what it all meant.

The dream notwithstanding, I love my car, I really do.

And I love it even more now, when I have finally paid it off and can call the car mine.

It is a good feeling, it really is, and even though the radio really isn't that great, I can live with it.

The only negative thing about the car is that today, I have to drive it to work.

When will the week end? I feel like this week has amounted to three weeks of work already, and we are only on Wednesday.

But that is another story for another time.

I love my car!

Rant 2,333: Celebration

Happy post-St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you had a good weekend.

I know that my family and I did.

Continuing the theme of this past Friday's Rant, my wife, my son and I went to see Tommy James at the NYCB Theater, or whatever they call the Westbury Musid Fair nowadays, on Friday, and as usual, we had a great time.

The place was about 99 percent full, which was good, and my son was probably the youngest one there, but that is fine. He likes rap music, but when we take him to concerts like this, it gives him an all-around music education, which I think his generation needs.

But whatever the case, James--as well as the Box Tops and the Grass Roots, his opening acts--were in fine form during the concert.

The southern-pop-baked Box Tops opened the show, and while former lead singer Alex Chilton left us several years ago, they soldier on as best they can. Chilton had a unique voice--he sounded like a grizzled veteran although he was only in his late teens when the band broke it big--and while the two original members of the band can't hit the notes that Chilton did, they did do a good job even coming close to that type of perfection.

I had never seen the Box Tops live before, so it was a treat hearing the live renditions of songs like "Cry Like a Baby," "Neon Rainbow" and "The Letter" that way for the first time.

The Grass Roots followed, and this is the version of the band that Rob Grill pretty much ordained as the Grass Roots just before he passed away, so while there are no hitmaking members of this conglomeration, they have been doing this now for years, so you do get the true sound of the band when you hear them do many of the act's biggest hits.

So you get good versions of "Midnight Confessions," "Let's Live For Today," and "Where Were You When I Needed You" and all the rest when you hear the Grass Roots today, and they do an excellent job doing it.

But when Tommy James comes on with his band--there have probably been 100 different Shondells over the years--you know you are getting the real deal.

James loves to perform live in front of an adoring audience, and he got that ego boost at Westbury the other night.

He said there would be little talking and a lot of hits, and he was right. Just pick you favorite James song--"Crimson and Clover," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Draggin' the Line," and a whole lot of others--and it probably came up in this set.

And he still has the chops to do this, which makes it even better. He doesn't sound much different than he did 50 years ago when these songs were hits, nor does he look that much different (except for a few more pounds).

Now that I finally read his book and have listened to his satellite radio show, I have gotten a new appreciation of James as a performer and also as a person, and he and his music are both very endearing.

And he gives you his all when he is on stage, and he looks like he is having fun.

That is al you can ask for from a performer like this at this point in time.

I love seeing shows at this hall because when the show ends, my family and I can be home in about 20 minutes, and that is what happened after this show, too.

All the better to rest up for Saturday, when my family and my sister's family took my mom out for her 88th birthday.

We went to a Hibachi place in Carle Place--again, pretty close to where we live, maybe a half hour or so on a busy Saturday afternoon--and we had a lot of fun.

One of my nephews and my daughter were there, appearances which were good to see, the food was good, and the general atmosphere was good.

My mother had a lot of fun, which was the best part, and even though he would not admit it, I think my father had fun, too, if for nothing more than he had three of his grandchildren there.

So we had a fun Saturday afternoon, and in the evening, myself, my wife and my son pretty much passed out.

And we still had Sunday to get through.

Sunday was a true day of rest, and we got through it just fine.

So yes, it was a full weekend, and now we have a full workweek to look at and get through.

I think we can do it.

Let's see what happens.