Rant #2,398: Bad Haircut

I can't remember the last time I had a haircut.

I think my son and I went to get last, respective haircuts about six weeks ago, maybe even seven weeks ago.

We go to a local place that has about a dozen barbers, and we are in and out of there in about 10 minutes.

We each get a "No. 2," which I am not fully sure of the exact definition, but in the old days, it used to be known as a "regular" haircut.

Me, I have no hair on top, so honestly, at this point in time, a "No. 2" actually means "make me presentable until I have to come back in a few weeks."

For my son, still with a full head of hair at 24 years of age, it means "make me look good."

Quite a difference.

But with this coronavirus pandemic we are in, all of the barber shops in New York State have been shut down for weeks, and right now, my son and I need a haircut really badly.

Me, I do the best I can, but if this goes on any longer, I will begin to resemble Paul Simon in the early 1970s, hence the photo at the top of this blog entry. Someone put up a similar photo on Facebook the other day, and while I cannot find that exact photo, I think that the one I put up is a good replacement, showing the singer/songwriter on "Sesame Street" in the early 1970s.

Yes, I am beginning to resemble what Paul Simon nearly 50 years ago. That is not a good thing for my ego or my psyche, and boy, I just wish I had his talent, not his haircut.

And yes, I have been shaving my face, but not at the same pace that I did when I was working. I used to shave on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, but now, I only shave on Sunday and Thursday. But I do it with regularity if not with verve, so yes, I did shave this morning.

I have seen advertised these do-it-yourself hair-cutting devices, which look just so easy to use on yourself, as it slices through your hair like a hot knife goes through butter. But again, I don't have any hair on top and while my sides are out of control, I don't know if I could regulate both sides to match each other if I cut my own hair.

At least now, I am even on each side; I don't want to cut it myself, and then appear to be lopsided.

And through all of this talk, I haven't even mentioned my neck, which has become a virtual forest of hair, growth that I wish was on the top of my head.

As I look at this hairy situation, I have three options:

1) Just let it grow, grow and grow some more, and be the first on line, with my son, when the barber shops open again; or,

2) I can get one of those do-it-yourself gizmos and, well, do it myself to the best of my ability; or

3) I can travel 1,000 miles to Georgia, where I know I can get a haircut, since the state appears to be open for business.

... and don't think I haven't thought about the third scenario, even just fleetingly.

Yes, it is a bad and hairy situation, and there appears to be no way to resolve this any time soon.

The last time I had longer hair was in high school, when it was the norm to let your hair grow out, so we are talking about the early to mid 1970s. I let my hair grow, and when I was able to finally grow sideburns, I let them grow, too, but by the time high school gave way to college, I went back to the shorter look, and have stayed that way for the past 40-plus years.

Now I am faced with a dilemma; the 1970s aren't even "in" anymore--the 1990s are hot right now--but I might have to harken back to my high school haircut days if the barber shops do not open soon.

No, I won't look for my bell bottoms or puka shells just yet, but in 2020, at least for me, the 1970s are not far behind.

Paul Simon, I am coming to get you--

Tell that to Mrs. Robinson or to me and Julio down by the schoolyard ... .

Classic Rant #1,247 (July 14, 2014): Swat-Sticker

I am sure by now that you have heard that a plane flew above Long Island beaches late last week towing behind it a sign that enraged many beachgoers.

Evidently, in the midst of everything else going on in the world, there is an organization that wishes to change the perception of the swatstika ... yes, the very symbol of Nazi hate during World War II, a symbol so notorious that 70 years after the conflict, it still makes people sit up and notice.

This group claims that the swatstika was once a peaceful symbol, and they want to reverse what people think about it, and the plane with the sign is part of their campaign to reverse the symbol's image.

Sorry, I am not buying that, but I have heard this lament before.

The swatstika--sort of a bent out of shape cross--symbolized everything that was wrong with Germany's stance under Adolph Hitler during the second World War.

It also symbolized hatred, mainly against Jews, as well as many others.

As we all know, that hatred continues to exist both here and around the world.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of extremist groups looking to wipe out Jews in this country and worldwide, and look at what is happening in the Middle East right now.

Incidents like the Israeli strikes against Hamas--an organization whose main goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the map--make some people crazy, and their true colors come out against not only Israelis, but Jews in general.

And don't tell me that this pro-swatstika thing isn't a byproduct of this recent hatred, even though the group that supports this stance has been around for probably at least a decade.

I remember in the early 1970s, Donovan came out with a single called "Atlantis," about the mythical land under the sea. It was a big hit, but it also created an incredible amount of controversy, because on its single picture sleeve cover was a reversed swatstika.

The explanation was that this was actually a peaceful symbol, but even though the song was quite a hit, I don't know if I ever bought that--or perhaps Donovan was a little naive on the way things really are in the world.

I remember in the late 1970s and early 1980s, riding the Long Island Railroad to work in Manhattan. One day while we rode in, at one of the stations--as station in a community with a large amount of Jews living in it--was a very prominent swatstika that was drawn on the walls of the one of the stations.

I remember seeing this along with my fellow passengers, and we were outraged, and saddened by it.

In these pre-cell phone days, all one could do was wait until we got off the train to voice our complaints, and by the next day, the swatstika was gone.

This latest incident is simply the newest of the bunch of similar incidents, but this one tries to justify its existence by saying what it believes the swatstika really means, trying to "educate" us on the true meaning of the symbol.

Hogwash! Whatever the "true" meaning of the symbol, it was taken by Hitler's Germany and used to signify out and out hate.

And no matter what anyone says, that is what the symbol represents.

And the bringing out of the "plan" now simply perpetuates anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in this country and around the world.

One part of the banner actually had the nerve to put together the swatstika with a Jewish star.

I mean, what type of world do we live in where we have people who truly and firmly believe this nonsense?

I know that local authorities are trying to ban such "advertising" from happening again, but why did they allow it to happen the first time?

Yes, I do believe in free speech, but when the speech is hurtful like this thing, then it is not only hateful, it is unnecessary.

And if one can't figure out the true direction of this supposed organization, I feel sorry for you ...

And for the world for allowing this type of hate to fester.

Rant #2,397: Don't Stand So Close To Me

I had a really nice birthday, very quiet, very placid, and I got some nice gifts.

I also had a Carvel birthday cake bought for me by my wife, and it was so good that I gave the rest of it to my mother. We don't need such goodness--and potential source of fatness--in our own home.

And thanks for all the birthday wishes. They made my day.

And yes, as a follow-up to what I told you yesterday, I did send out those two extra CDs I had to people who I thought were deserving.

Both people are from the Carolinas, one from North Carolina and one from South Carolina. They both had compelling stories.

One is a personal health care worker attending to a single client, a person who pretty much needs the person's help 24 hours a day. Because of the existence of the coronavirus, she cannot go home to his/her family, and has not been home for many weeks.

The other is someone originally from Long Island who is out of work, and there are several circumstances for the person to be without a job, and I can really understand this based on my own situation.

So among at least a dozen or so people who told me their stories--not just from the United States but also in Canada and in Europe--I chose these people to get the CDs.

I have no idea if they are giving me bubbameiser stories or they are telling me the truth--I love Yiddish because without having any idea what the word directly means, you can pretty much figure it out by its context--but I believed what they told me. If they are lying, well, it will come back to bite them at some point in time.

And I really, truly, don't believe they are giving me the bum's rush. There are people really suffering out there, and I hope the CDs make these two people happy.

Anyway, I decided to send the CDs out to them by United Parcel Service. The reason I chose UPS over the U.S. Postal Service is that I don't know about your mail, but our mail here is sporadic at best. I know for a fact that mail that has been sent to us that has never been delivered, and probably never will, so right now, even though USPS workers are doing yeoman work during this period, I simply wanted to stay away from the regular mail, so I chose UPS instead.

I was still thinking about that as the morning wore on, but the tip of the iceberg was that by about 9 a.m in the morning, I received an email from a company I do business with, stating that I owed them a payment, they had not received a payment, and their services would be terminated if I did not pay. I won't go into what company I am talking about, but the bill was near $200.

I called them up immediately, and told them I had never received a bill. They told me exactly when they mailed the bill out, and it was in the period that my family received absolutely no mail, and I mean, absolutely no mail, which is very unusual. We at least get junk mail every day of the year, but during this period--about two weeks ago--we didn't get a blessed thing in the mail (this was the same period when I was supposed to get my CD, and didn't).

Anyway, the operator told me that others had called her with the same problem, and her company fully believes that nobody they contacted with a bill during this particular date received their bill in the mail.

So I ended up paying it over the phone, something I normally do not like doing, but it is done now, and you can see why UPS was more attractive to me, at least this time, than USPS was.

Later in the morning, I went to a local UPS store, and as I entered, I saw that there were two people on line ahead of me, one being served, another carrying a big box and waiting behind a line put on the floor to promote social distancing.

I waited on the line behind this person, again behind a line to promote social distancing, and yes, I had my mask on, which I can't breathe to well under, but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do, and we are told it is safer to wear the mask, so I do it.

Anyway, the two people ahead of me were tended to, and it was my turn to go to the counter. I tell the clerk what I wanted to do, and she had to go into the back of the store to get the packing materials. As the clerk did that, a woman comes into the store with a box, and she stands right behind me ... I mean about six inches behind me, not following social distancing measures at all.

I saw what she did out of the corner of my eye. I quickly turned around, and did not say a word to her, but what I did is that I pointed to her with my right index finger, got her attention, and then pointed with my index finger to the line on the floor--and she quickly moved back behind the line.

First of all, where are your manners to begin with? I have seen so many breaches of etiquette while waiting on line in Long Island establishments over the years that it makes me wonder how some people were brought up. Don't you normally give people some space when you are on a line, coronavirus or no coronavirus? You don't have to be up people's butts when you are on a line to begin with.

But during these times, waiting on line has become a major battle zone area, and we are told that one way to combat the virus is to stay at least six feet away from the person in front of you when you are waiting on line. You don't even have to calculate the distance yourself, you just use the guides put down by the establishment, and stay behind those lines.

I have seen breaches of this practice all over the place on Long Island, and I would just like to think that this woman simply wasn't thinking. She was in a rush, just wanted to get her package taken care of, and she simply did not think about following the rules we live under right now.

But then again, being six inches from my butt is not going to get her package taken care of any sooner, so I just have to think that she simply was in a rush, doesn't care about what we are supposed to be doing, and doesn't care about anybody else's health and safety.

And this idiocy just doesn't apply to lines of humans. I have also been witness to lines at banks, with people in cars waiting to get their business done, where people are in such a rush that they beep the preceding car when things aren't going as quickly as they would like it to go.

I have taken my mother to the bank to the drive-through several times over the past few weeks, and we have been beeped at several times. One time, the woman behind us not only beeped, but was yelling out the window at us, and I swear, if my mother was not in the car, I would have used some very colorful language to tell her to wait her turn.

And that language would not have included the words "please" and "thank you."

Whatever the case, I mailed out the CDs, it cost me much more than what it would have at the post office, but I felt really good about what I had done, and for one of the few times that I can remember, I did not care about the money I just spent. It was immaterial to the entire scenario.

Now I wait to see when the CDs are delivered, and I hope that it is done prudently, or what prudence is in the scope of the coronavirus and its effect on deliveries.

And I hope that woman that I did not say a single word to learned her lesson ... but somehow, I doubt it. If you feel that you are entitled, you are going to feel that way, no matter what the circumstances.

Classic Rant #1,246 (July 11, 2014): Mercifully, the End of the Week

This has been a very long week for me, and I am glad that it is just about over.

If it is not one thing, it is another.

I seem to be in a tangled web that even though I am doing the right thing, it just seems that I am stuck, because it ends up being the wrong thing.

Work has been a horror show this week.

I don't mind being busy--it makes the day go faster--but being ridiculously busy is another thing.

And I lot of this nonsense could be easily avoided, but I am in a workplace where little bumps in the road are made into cavernous potholes that are difficult to dig out from.

No, it's not me who is creating this situation, but heck, I am just an employee, and I don't have much of a say in how things get done.

Now, the latest wrinkle in the week, which has nothing to do with work ...

The accident that doesn't go away, that keeps on giving me nothing but heartache, is back to rear its ugly head once again.

My own insurance company is going after me for money, claiming that I had some type of agreement with the other insurance company, and that this puts them in a position where money paid to me has to be recouped.

This is obviously a mistake, and I will set them straight today. I have no idea what agreement I made, nor what they are insinuating, but they are not going to get any money out of me ... they are supposed to be representing me in such situations, not accusing me of wrong-doing.

I am sure it is a misunderstanding, but I will get to the bottom of this nonsense bright and early this morning.

My wife told me about this when I got home from work yesterday, and after a hard day at the job, this was certainly the last thing I needed to hear.

I am steamed, didn't sleep well last night, and my eyes are bothering me today.

Need I say more ... this is the accident that keeps giving, and me, the victim, and my family, also victims of somebody who didn't know what he was doing on the road, have had enough.

Heck, my family and I could have been killed in this accident, and the insurance company--my own insurance company--has the gall to go after me for money?

Please ...

And please let this week end already.

I feel like the guy in the movie "Network" who screams, "I have had enough and I can't take it anymore," or whatever he said.

That is the way I feel now, and let's see what happens today.

Enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough ....

(P.S.: By about 11 a.m. est today, the situation with the insurance company was all but resolved, although the other company is sticking with its claim that I was at least partly at fault for the accident. This is truly idiotic, but the main contention they had was found to be completely false, and they have withdrawn that entirely, thank goodness.

And if someone takes their car, goes completely though s Stop sign, doesn't see the other driver, T-Bones that driver, knocks the car over with such force that it turns over, and totals out the car that was hit, how can the other driver have any fault on his part for what happened? Let's see how this thing plays out ... .)

Rant #2,396: When I'm 63

Playing off that old Beatles tune, that "when" is today.

Happy birthday to me!

I made it to another year.

And when I eventually file for early retirement when my unemployment runs out, I will be another rung up the age ladder for Social Security.

That being what it is--my reality for the past nearly seven months--let me tell you a funny story that revolves around my birthday this year.

Yes, even with the coronavirus lurking around, there are still some funny stories to tell, and this is one of them.

As we all know, we are going through a pandemic of massive proportions, and it is hitting everybody every which way possible.

In very early March, when the rumblings of the disease were beginning to get louder, I decided to do something I had not done during my previous several months of unemployment, and that is, to pamper myself.

By that, I mean do something that someone in my situation generally doesn't do, which means I actually had the audacity to order an item through the mail that was not a necessity, that I really didn't need, and that if I was destitute, which I wasn't--I was desperate, quite a difference--I would never even think about.

I had the nerve to order a CD in the mail that I really wanted, and that had not come out yet: I pre-ordered "The Mike and Micky Show" Monkees live CD.

My family and I went to a couple of those shows that the two remaining Monkees--Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz--performed during the past few years, and the shows were fantastic. The two of them--well into their 70s--were both in good voice and good spirit, and through their own bumps in the road-Nesmith had a real mediccal scare that postponed one of the shows we eventually went to--theses were some of the most enjoyable concerts I have ever gone to.

Anyway, back to the CD--

So I pre-ordered the CD, which was not to come out until early April, and that was that.

When the time came for the CD to come out, many people received their CD in early April, and proudly talked about getting the CD and how good it was, and how, in a certain way, it was helping to get them through this pandemic. The press gave the CD, pretty much in unison, a hefty thumb's up, and the recording actually made the Billboard Top Albums chart, and some of the less important charts in that publication.

Anyway, I patiently waited, but I did not get my CD. This was even after the sending company and the U.S. Postal Service gave me a guaranteed date when it would arrive.

The days turned to weeks, and finally, I contacted the company that I paid money to get this CD, they kept on giving me another date to give it to, I checked the mailing information with the USPS and I kept on getting an "in transit to next stop" message.

But I still received nothing in the mail.

So I got fed up about two weeks ago, and I put a message up on Facebook that pretty much said how frustrated I was with not receiving the CD when others had received theirs.

Well, I was chastised by many people on Facebook, who took my message to be a political one, which it most definitely was not. Many said, to sum it up, that how dare I cry about a CD, the postal service is dealing with much more important mail, such as protective masks and other gear, that people really needed to combat this virus. Some said I was being selfish, and how dare I have the audacity to complain about such a menial thing in the face of what was going on.

Again, I was not trying to be political. They literally took what I said out of context ... and how many of the people who railed at me actually had the CD in their possession?

(Note: I put my story on one of the main Monkees Facebook sites, of which there are many, so I directed my frustration at the correct audience.)

Anyway, after people vented their own potshots at me, it suddenly opened the floodgates ... and other people said they were in the same boat as me.

We all understood what was going on, but we spent money on this item, and simply wanted to get it and enjoy it in the midst of this horror we were going through.

I contacted the sending company again after their newest deadline passed, and they said they would send another copy out to me.

In the meantime, received no apologies from anyone ... but I did receive some nice messages from people who knew exactly what I was going through. One person, in fact, said he had been in the same boat, complained to the sending company, and they re-mailed out another copy of the CD. He ended up having two copies, and wanted to send me his extra copy.

The cost to me? Nothing.

So, I effectively had three CDs somewhere in the system. The original one I ordered was acknowledged to be lost in the mail; the second was being re-sent by the mailing company; and the third one was being sent by a caring person who knew exactly what I was going through.

Well, late last week, to my surprise, I received the original CD that I had ordered. I told people about it on Facebook, and I got a rousing thumb's up from most people, many of whom were in the same boat as I was.

Then yesterday, we actually received two mail deliveries. In the first, in mid-morning, I received the CD that the caring individual sent me, and in the later mail delivery, I received the second CD that was re-sent to me.

So what's a poor boy to do with three CDs of exactly the same title?

I decided to "pay it forward," or back, or whatever you want to call it.

I put up a message on Facebook saying that I had one extra CD (yes, I had two, but I read on), and that I wanted to gift someone a copy free of charge, just like what somebody did to me.

I said in my message that there was one prerequisite for asking me for the CD: you had to be either out of work (like I am), or yo0u had to be a first responder (and a "first responder" I consider to be not only a doctor or nurse or health care worker, but also a postman, a sanitation worker, a bank teller, a grocery store employee, etc.).

I told people to Facebook message me--I do not want to blab about who is getting the CD--yes I have two, and what people don't know is that there will be two winners, not one--and I gave them until midnight to do so.

After writing this blog today and after doing my usual job search, I will see who has written to me, and sort out who the two winners are. I will ask for their addresses, and either today or tomorrow, I will send the winners their CDx.

Well, my newest post elicited some of the nicest comments I have ever received on Facebook--lord knows I have been raked through the coals on occasion--and it made me feel good to be "paying it forward" as had been done with me.

Let's see what happens.

(And if you are reading this, which you obviously are, and you are on these Monkees sites, please do not spill the beans that I actually am giving away two CDs, not one. Thanks.)

So I went from nothing to something to something more in a matter of days, from famine to feast, and I just thought it was so funny that all of this played out like it did.

And no, I haven't listened to the CD yet. I usually listen to music best when I am in my car, and I haven't been driving much recently, so I haven't had the opportunity to listen, but I will do it soon, and I expect it to be as much fun as having been there.

So happy birthday to me, and I will celebrate it by choosing to two people--probably one unemployed and one first responder--who will get the CDs.

And I have found there is nothing like giving, as well as receiving, on your birthday.

It makes this tortured soul feel really good inside ... it really does.

Classic Rant #1,245 (July 10, 2014): Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

The Beatles have been recognized by just about every musical entity as the No. 1 act during the rock era, from 1954 to the present, even eclipsing Elvis as the most successful act ever.

Every barometer of success points to John, Paul, George and Ringo as the most successful act of all time, and their influence continues to be felt to this day, even though they broke up more than 40 years ago.

I know that the latest barometer of their success is as minor as can be, but it still demonstrates that even on this lesser measurement, the Beatles continue to rule the roost.

I have several Yahoo Group sites that I run, but the most successful has been my Alternative Top 40 site, at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AlternativeTop40/info

It is a fun site that I have been running for about a dozen years now, where I upload songs and members vote on what songs they like the best. Simple as that.

I generally have between 12 and 20 songs up for review each week, depending on what members vote for. Those that receive the most votes each week stay on for another poll, those that don't get taken off.

And the songs I put up are not necessarily the hits. I put up B sides, album tracks, and stuff you will never hear on regular oldies radio, and probably won't even hear on satellite, or at least won't hear with any regularity.

Songs can remain up for review a maximum five times.

I run "seasons," and the 2013-2014 season recently concluded ... and lo and behold, look who the top act was ... it's the Beatles!

Of the many acts' songs I put up each year--more than 300 or so--the Beatles continue to rule.

The Fab Four placed 10 songs on my top songs list for the season, which means, since each song can last five weeks maximum for review, each of their 10 songs that I put up made the cut. Each lasted the maximum five weeks.

The top song on my chart for the 2013-2014 season was "Not a Second Time" by the Beatles, followed by another Beatles' tune, "Doctor Robert."

And I put up really obscure Beatles tunes too, like stuff from The White Album that never gets the light of day, such as "Cry Baby Cry," which was next on the list.

Beatles songs to follow throughout the top vote getters of the year were "Don't Bother Me," "Flying," You Know My Name, Look Up My Number," "Don't Let Me Down," "Good Night," "Long Long Long," and "Old Brown Shoe."

The next most popular act was a former Beatle, naturally.

George Harrison placed four songs on the top levels of the chart, led by "Bangla Desh."

Others on the upper reaches of the chart include Gerry and the Pacemakers--another Liverpudlian act, like the Beatles--with "It's Gonna Be Alright," the third most popular song of the season; the Mamas and the Papas, with their cover of the Beatles' "I Call Your Name" being the fourth most popular tune; and Harry Nilsson, John Lennon's drinking buddy, with his tribute to the Fab Four, a cover of "You Can't Do That," which came in at No. 5.

So, all told, the Beatles had a major influence on the chart during the last season, whether it was with their own renditions of their own songs, covers of their songs, or association with them.

Amazing.

Fifty years after they appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," they still have a major influence. Yes, I know that my chart means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it is a fun barometer of what continues to be popular--

And as far as the Beatles, their popularity continues completely unabated.

Rant 2,395: My Prerogative

How was your weekend?

Mine was quiet, which was good, and I hope to have a good week this week, the week where I gain a year.

I am happy to say that the tread is still there, and I have a lot of mileage to go before I am done.

My weekend actually began in Friday, where at long last, I finished editing my first novel. It is geared to young adults, age 12 to 15 years of age or so, and I wrote it in a bare bones style that doesn't allude to any modern conveniences--so there is no mention of things like the Internet, cell phones or computers.

The reason I excluded these devices entirely from the 37,000-word novel that I wrote--kind of in between a novella and a novel by word count--is that so much of our lives are shaped by these devices, and I did not want that to happen to the characters in my novel. I wanted them to stand on their own, not be guided by the use of these devices, and I thought by excluding certain things, I could give readers a better handle on exactly what I was trying to say.

In fact, the only "modern" devices I even mention are cars and regular telephones.

So I fully edited this thing, and then I searched around the Internet for what I wanted to do with what I had written.

I found a company out west that was holding a contest for new writers. They usually do not handle books like this, more self help and positive-type novels, but I figured that they could expand their own horizons by at least giving my novel a chance, and, in fact, they are going to call me tomorrow afternoon to speak about my story.

And yes, they are a legitimate book publisher, hold a similar contest every year, and maybe they will be interested in what I have written.

Sure, it might be rough around the edges, it might need a professional book editor to smooth it out a bit, but I am ready for the challenge that such an undertaking might produce ... but let's not put the cart before the horse; let's see if they are interested first.

Beyond that, it was pretty quiet at my house. I did my usual due diligence in my job search, I watched a movie or two, I spoke to my aunt on the phone--she lives at "ground zero" pf this entire pandemic, in Manhattan--and I helped out where was needed.

As for this week, my wife worked on Saturday, has to go back today for the next three days to be on the front lines of this mess, and other than taking my mother to the bank--which has become a great undertaking for her that I can live without myself--I don't really have much planned.

As you know, there was great talk this weekend about further opening up the country, and as I listened to what our leaders had to say, a realization came to me. It is really what I have been saying all along, and until I hear differently, I am going to stick with it.

I put it down on "paper," and sent it out as part of a discussion with a couple of long-time friends that I have. Here it is in edited form:

"Honestly, I am sticking with my year prediction--until next February or March--until things get back to relative normal.

I believe that we will come up with a serum or something to at the very least mitigate the virus, but it is going to take time.

I also believe that we will have to get back to business, to a certain extent, by the end of the summer, or even earlier.

We are going to have to come to the realization that this is just another virus we are going to have to deal with, and deal with it the best we can. 

Like the regular flu--which has many permutations--some people don't get sick from it, other people go get sick from it, and still other people die from it.

It is the same thing with this virus, but the troubling thing is that it spreads faster than anything we have ever seen.

But we, as a country and a civilization, are not going to be completely shut down for any longer than we at least have something to lessen the effects of the virus, and I do think we will have something by summer's end to do that.

That does not mean we go back to the old normal right away, as some people would have us do. It simply means that we are going to deal with it the best we can with the best weapons we can, until something better is developed, if that is possible.

We are already seeing cracks in the regional unions to prevent the spread of the virus. The one for New York is already dented, as one of the state's partners--Pennsylvania--is already saying that certain parts of the state will be open for business very soon. And remember, the northeast is the epicenter of the virus, so this announcement is very important.

I think within a year, we will be back to work, back to play, back to doing what we do in life. We might not have solved the puzzle in full, but we are going to understand that this thing is out there, and we simply have to deal with it on a case by case basis, just like we do with the flu.

Again, I wouldn't go back to business as some states--like Georgia and Florida, the latter to a certain extent--have done right now--I think it is too early--but we can't keep everything totally closed down for much longer, including in New York State.

That does not mean I support those crazy idiots parading around talking about their rights being abridged by what they don't believe is a pandemic. They are being foolish, and there is no excuse for their behavior.

But there is going to come a time when we are just going to have to say that we will deal with this thing as best as we can on a case by case basis, and move forward."

We have to move on from this scourge, and we have to move on soon.

We cannot be shut down like we have been for the past several weeks and hope to make a successful recovery on any level.

I read this weekend that an economist predicts that our country will not fully recover from this mess until 2023 at the earliest. That is a belief that boggles the mind, but one that has to be believed.

There is simply no "magic potion" out there to cure our ills, physically, mentally and emotionally. We are going to have to get things started soon, because there are already cracks in our supposed unity, and we absolutely must look at ways to take baby steps to get things going again.

But they must be baby steps, because doing anything else puts us at risk for something possibly much worse.

Classic Rant #1,244 (July 9, 2014): Getting Older

At 57 years old, I have been around the block a few times, but lately, I am noticing changes in my own personal makeup that have put me to sleep.

Literally.

I don't think that this is anything out of the normal path for me--since I base this on how my parents have reacted over the years--but I seem to get tired more easily now than I did when I was younger.

I used to laugh at my parents for basically bedding down some nights at 7 p.m., but I am starting to feel the need to rest like this too.

Honestly, I started to notice a difference about two or three years ago.

On lazy weekend days, I would be watching TV, and suddenly, I was asleep for a half hour or 45 minutes or an hour or so.

I never napped before. In fact, my mother says that I was not the greatest napper even as a baby, and if I napped, it was probably in the baby carriage outside of the house. I seemed to like the fresh air.

I was the guy who literally could stay up all night--and often did--with little or no sleep.

Years ago, when I supplemented my income as an adult newspaper deliverer, there were days that I actually did not sleep at all, from one day to another, as I delivered newspapers.

And I can tell you, I didn't really feel it.

Of course, I was in my late 30s then, now I am in my late 50s, and I could never do that anymore.

During the week, I am pooped from work, and I have to tell you, to make 10 p.m. is often a chore.

When I watch wrestling with my son, I am guaranteed to fall asleep, even if it is for only a few minutes.

Usually, on Fridays, I do stay up late. For some reason, the weekend gets me going again, and if I am occupied, either with a TV show or perhaps doing something on the computer, I can stay up to about 1 a.m., so I am literally up on Friday from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next day, a good 21-hour day.

Sometimes I feel the effects of doing that on Saturday, sometimes not.

I find that if I am occupied and doing something that I like to do, I don't really feel tired doing that.

But usually, come Saturday night, I rarely do back to backs of that.

On Saturday night, I am basically in bed by 11 p.m. at the latest.

And come Sunday night, preparing for the long work week, I am asleep by 10 p.m. at the latest.

And during the workweek, I have absolutely no trouble getting up by 4 a.m. Monday through Friday. I might deviate by a few minutes either before or after that time, but generally, I am up and about way before the sun comes out.

I know I take after my mother in this regard. She is an early riser, as was her mother, my maternal grandmother.

My father also gets up early when he goes to work, but he is a person who literally can sleep all day, as was his father, my paternal grandfather.

So I think that this sleep thing is simply a natural progression for me, from being a kid with a lot of energy, able to stay up to all hours, to an adult who has put in his time after all these years and needs his sleep.

My wife is basically the same way. She was also an all-night person, but now, if she makes 10 p.m., it is more of an aberration than anything else.

So right now, as I type this entry at 4:37 a.m., I am tired, but I did have a good night's sleep.

By the end of today, I will be pooped, I will go to sleep by 10 p.m., and the whole cycle will start up again.

Yes, I do feel like a hamster in a cage running but getting nowhere, but that is where I stand right now on sleep.

And I hope this Rant hasn't been that big a snore, because I bet many of you have noticed the same changes I have as you have gotten older.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ...

Rant #2,394: ABC, Let It Be

Well, we finally got to Friday.

And I finally got some sleep, although it wasn't easy.

I again went to sleep pretty early, woke up early, tossed and turned for an hour or more, but finally, I got back to sleep and woke up pretty much at my normal time of 6 a.m.

I blame it on my allergies, which with the cool, wet weather we have been having--it is raining as I speak--has brought out pollen big time, and it is really impacting me, in particular when I am sleeping, or trying to sleep.

With that being said, 50 years ago, I had the same allergies, but back then, the study of allergies like I have was in its infancy, and there really wasn't much I could do to at least lessen them. It would be a few years until I got regular allergy shots, which I still get today--I will get them tomorrow--so I just had to suffer, and suffer I did.

But I did not suffer listening to the radio at all, which was full of great music that has pretty much stood the test of time.

So today, the last Friday in April, let's look at the Billboard Hot 100 chart of April 25, 1970, and see what we were listening to back then.

In the No. 10 position on the chart was Tyrone Davis' biggest hit, "Turn Back the Hands of Time." The singer placed 15 singles on the chart from 1968 to 1982, but this one was his biggest hit.

Coming in at No. 9 was "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel. The former No. 1 song still resonates today, as we look for our own "bridge" to battle the horrid coronavirus.

The Friends of Distinction had one of their biggest singles with "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely," which was at No. 8 this week. The act was a spinoff of the Versatiles, the same act that spawned the 5th Dimension.

Paul McCartney was expanding his hold on the Hot 100 singles while still a Beatle, and he did it with "Come and Get It" by Badfinger, at No. 7 this week. He wrote this song, one of the first not credited to "Lennon-McCartney" but to just "McCartney."

Thought of as a "one-hit wonder," the Edison Lighthouse scored with "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), which slotted at No. 6 this week. The lead singer on the recording, Tony Burrows, actually had many hits under his belt in the U.S. and in Europe during this period, including songs by First Class and Brotherhood of Man.

A double-sided hit came in at No. 5 this week. Canada's the Guess Who--an act which had been around since the mid-1960s--scored with "American Woman"/"No Sugar Tonight. This A and B side hit would eventually reach No. 1 on the charts in a few weeks' time.

Like Paul McCartney, John Lennon was expanding his reach at this point in time, and as John "Ono" Lennon, he came in at No. 4 with "Instant Karma." The song's full title, which is rarely used anymore, was "Instant Karma (We All Shone On)."

Another supposed one-hit wonder came in at No. 3, with Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In the Sky" reaching its peak on the chart this week. Greenbaum registed other lower-echelon Hot 100 singles with other acts during the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Dr. West's Medicine Band and Junk Show.

Lennon and McCartney's "Let It Be" was at No. 2, and demonstrated that although each of them had one foot out the door of being a Beatle, their collaborations as a team still packed a mighty punch. This former No. 1 hit was also the title of an accompanying documentary of the same name, showing their, George Harrison and Ringo Starr's final days as a single unit.

And at No. 1, for the first week of a two-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, was--

"ABC" by the Jackson 5. The song pretty much encapsulated what this band was all about, brouight them worldwide stardom, and made Michael Jackson a teen idol, right up there with then-current heartthrobs David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman.

The top debut single of the week was another two-sided hit, "Around the Bend"/'Run Through the Jungle" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which came onto the chart at No. 48 this week. The single would eventually reach No. 4 on the chart.

The biggest mover on the chart--the song the moved up the most places from last week to this week--was "Puppet Man" by the aforementioned 5th Dimension, which moved up 30 places, from No. 86 to No. 56, in the span of a single week. The song, written by Neil Sedaka, would later top out at No. 24.

So there you have it, the top 10 songs that we were listening to 50 years ago.

To me at least, most of these songs still hold up, and as we go through this tough period in our lives, some of them really and truly resonate today as they did way back when.

So "get your old records off the shelf," and listen to these songs once again. I am sure this experience will bring back lots of great memories.

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

Classic Rant #1,243 (July 8, 2014): Satellite Radio

OK, I can change my mind, can't I?

I am referring to satellite radio.

I did not understand what its value was before I had it, but now that I have it, I kind of like it.

Although I generally listen to CD-Rs in my car that I have created myself, you can't keep putting the CD into the radio when you make short stops or go on short trips.

And in those in-between times, I would much rather listen to satellite radio than what is on the over the air radio stations.

Those stations lost me years ago, because they are completely bland, don't play the music I like, and even the oldies radio stations have generally moved on from the music I like--the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s--and look at oldies as the 1980s and beyond.

Not my cup of tea.

Now, with satellite radio in the car, I can listen to the type of music that I want to listen to during those breaks from the CDs.

I have located three stations that I really like, and they are set in the car--yes, I finally found out how to do that, too.

They are the 1950s station, the 1960s station, and Little Steven's Underground Garage Radio, which really is a true mix of the first two stations with some newer stuff mixed in.

I became a disciple of satellite radio when I was listening a few weeks ago, and the Underground Radio  Garage station played three in a row of first, Frank Sinatra, second Elvis Costello, and third, the Monkees.

That type of mix is appealing to me, reminds me of what they used to do on the AM Top 40 stations in the 1960s--namely WABC and WMCA in New York--and right then and there, I decided that I liked what I had.

Now to pay for it ... I am obviously not thrilled about that, but I worked it out in a way that it won't cost me an arm and a leg to do so.

I have a three-month trial subscription, which will end in two months. The other day, I called Sirius, the satellite provider, to try to get a good deal after the trial period is up.

They first offered me a deal at I think $14.99 a month, which I balked at. Too expensive to listen to three stations, I told them.

They knocked it down to $9.99, and I told them that it was still too expensive.

They then asked me what I wanted to pay for the service.

I told them that some people I know are getting it for $4 a month, which is true, I heard some people at work talking about it.

The operator put me on hold for like five minutes, came back, and we had a deal for five months at $4 per month after the initial free period ended.

So I don't have to worry about this until the beginning of next year, and then, I will probably sign up for the same $4 deal.

I think that that price is worth it for what I am listening to. I have sampled the other stations, and they really don't appeal to me and how I am using satellite radio as a fill-in, but the deal I have makes it all worth it.

So I made a mistake early on, not really being impressed with what I heard.

But the more I listened, the more I found that for what I was listening to, the experience was quite different than listening to regular, over the air radio.

So there. I admit that I was wrong.

And for $4 month, who's complaining?

Rant #2,393: Sleep Walk

Yes, I am writing this blog entry a bit early today, mainly because I am up and about already.

I did not have the greatest sleep in the world last night, and when it hit about 5 a.m., I figured that since I usually wake up at 6 a.m. anyway, what's one more hour of sleep to me at this point?

I actually woke up, pretty much for good, at about 3 a.m. this morning, maybe a few minutes earlier than that. Since then, I just haven't been able to go to sleep, although between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., I was in some type of slumber for a couple of minutes during the time period, but I wasn't fully asleep.

Now I have to ask myself--and I guess you do too--why I didn't have too great s sleep last night. I think there are several factors to consider, one of which is not that I had anything heavy on my mind overnight. Usually when I have some type of insomnia, something is playing on my mind, but really, nothing like that happened last night.

One factor that does have to be considered is my normal sleep pattern, which is not that great to begin with. I have never been much of a heavy sleeper, even as I child I have been told, and yes, I have been checked for sleep apnea, and no, I don't have it.

Some people can sleep all day. My father is like that, my son is like that, but I have never been much of a sleeper. I am very much like my mother; we sleep a few hours, wake up, maybe sleep an hour or two more, but really, we don't need eight or 10 hours of sleep like many people do to help us prepare for our day.

I also have been going to sleep pretty early lately. In particular, when I watch professional wrestling with my son at night--and this is every weekday but Thursday, and sometime on the weekend, too--I end up falling asleep early. The last two nights, I have fallen asleep at about 8:30 p.m.--right in the middle of the show--wake up briefly at 10 p.m., and dive into the bed a few seconds after that, so this past evening, that very thing happened, which means I slept from about 8:30 p.m. to near 3 a.m., so I did actually get a little more than six hours sleep, so maybe using "insomnia" is inappropriate.

Usually when this happens--and it certainly happened on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning--I wake up, and then after anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, I fall asleep again--but Wednesday evening going into Thursday morning, it did not happen, so that is why I am typing this blog entry out so early.

It was 5 a.m. already, and I basically thought to myself, "What's the use?"

And then I got up.

Add to this that my allergies are haywire at this time of year--I have year-round allergies, and the strange weather we have been having have upped the pollen count to extremely high levels--and you don't have to wonder why I have been getting up in the middle of the night pretty regularly lately.

I go for my allergy shots this Saturday. Maybe that will help.

Maybe I can go to sleep later. There is no wrestling tonight, so I can't use it as sort of an electronic sleeping pill, and perhaps I can stay up a bit later.

And as I type this, my allergies have kind of leveled off, and I do feel I can breathe again.

Let me say that before you jump to any conclusions, no, this has absolutely nothing to do with me being in the early stages of getting the coronavirus. My allergy pattern hasn't changed at all for the past year, the past two years, the past 10 years, and I am one of those people who go through this and have to deal with it.

Thank God that I know that this is not a major change in my health, and that I am not on the road to getting this disease. I can only feel for people like my sister, who have experienced breathing problems for the first time in their lives. And yes, even though I have such problems here and there with my allergies being as bad as they are, I can't possibly imagine the severity of what they are going through.

I have been getting allergy shots continuously since I was 15 years old, and nearly 48 years of getting them, without stop, have helped me immeasurably. I still can't imagine what these people stricken with this disease are going through as far as breathing, though.

But back to my lack of sleep ...

I think this morning it was just one of those things. I think even the most healthy of people in mind and body have nights where sleeping is at a premium, and I think that that is probably what happened last night to me.

Will I conk out during the day and take a nap to make up for whatever sleep I have lost?

Perhaps. I have been known to do that as I have gotten older. I never did it as a kid, but during the past 10 years or so, every once in a while I do take a nap.

But right now, I am so busy that I don't have time to take naps.

As I have said time and time again, I have used my time off to my advantage. Where some people fumble for things to do, my nearly seven months in purgatory have opened up new doors for me, even if the doors have only been personal ones.

I am currently editing that novel I told you about the other day. I am about half through with it, and I hope to finish by Friday. At that point, I have to figure out what to do with it--40 chapters and 37,000 words make it on the high end of a novella and the low end of a novel--and that will be my next pursuit, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse. One thing at a time.

Then I have continued digitizing work that I do at home. Sure, this is pretty much stuff I do for myself, allowing me to listen to my record collection in the car, but it is time consuming and a lot of fun. I have really gone afar of just doing my vinyl records now,  as I have started to do some cassettes that I have, as well as cassette singles, known as cassingles. Digitizing music on tape presents it own unique challenges, but with so much time on my hands, why not dive into those challenges head first?

And then there are the usual things that I do that eat up a lot of time during the day, including looking for work. I have not given up by any stretch of the imagination, it is something I am mandated to do by New York State, and my hope is that somebody will look at my resume during this pandemic period, maybe put it aside for now, but will have a collection of resumes, including mine, to choose from when the job really becomes available.

I also have my weekly food shopping to do, and I will do that today with my son helping me out, since my wife goes back to work today after having a few days to recover from working at her bank. No, it hasn't been easy for her, and her story of being on the front lines--which somehow some forget when they talk about people who are dealing with the public during this pandemic--is an interesting one, to say the least.

And I am still dealing with my parents, who I have to say, are doing quite well at this point in time. I do have to drive them to doctors on occasion--even during the pandemic--and I will have to do that next week. But overall, we should all be so healthy when we reach our late 80s.

And I am being tasked with fixing up the room where all my records are, and where the computer is that I am typing this out on, so I have made some strides in that area, although it will probably be a few months before this room is done. Yes, it remains a mess, but I am trying, so give me some credit.

So there you have it.

As you can see, it isn't even 6 a.m., and I am a bundle of energy.

Maybe that is why I didn't sleep well last night.

I guess I need to turn it down a bit, but since I have been in this purgatory I am in, it is just so difficult for me to do.

Let me douse the flame a bit ...

It is time for my shower.

Speak to you tomorrow after a good night's sleep (?).

Classic Rant #1,242 (July 7, 2014): Good Time Off

It was really nice to have July 4 off from work, even though the actual day really was horrid.

It rained, and rained, and rained some more, washing out our plans for a family swim and barbecue day.

But we did not let that stop us.

We found what to do this weekend, and it started on July 3.

My work actually gave us a half-day off, so we only worked until 1:30 p.m.

It was very busy at work, so I stayed until near 2 p.m., but when I got out the door, my holiday began.

I went to the allergy doctor, got my monthly shots, and eventually worked my way home.

It was hot as all hell outside, very humid, and let me tell you, I could not wait to take off my shirt and tie.

And that is basically what I did once I got home, stripped down and let the air conditioning pour onto me as I watched "People's Court" and "Judge Judy"--there was nothing else on, and I needed something that wasn't too deep, because I was fried.

The next day was July 4, and it was a disaster, weather-wise.

Hurricane Arthur pummeled us with enough rain to last a month in just a few hours, and whatever plans we had were wiped out.

So we took in a movie, as did many people in our neck of the woods, because the place was packed.

We saw "Maleficent," the Angelina Jolie film about a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend. It was OK, not great, and with all the special effects, they made Jolie's skin look like porcelain.

Getting into the theater was the first mishap of the holiday weekend. I told the ticket taker that I wanted three tickets, and when he gave me the tickets, I did not realize that he only gave me two. I even said to my wife that the seats were cheaper than other places we had gone to see movies, and lo and behold, we found out how cheap they were at the door, when we were turned away, missing a ticket.

I went back, bought another ticket, and we were set, but unhappy. It's the first time that ever happened to me in the more than 50 years I have been going to the movies.

Later that day, after the film, we decided to bring in food for dinner, and I went to a fast food place that I won't name right now, because I had another incident there.

I ordered my food, and the person taking the order got it completely wrong. When I set them right, I had to wait for part of the order, and it seemed that the person taking my order forgot about me. I gave them about 10 minutes, and then brought it up to them that I was missing part of my order. They put in for the order, but initially put in for the wrong thing.

It was a disaster, fueled by the fact that the person taking my order did not have good English skills; she had a limited understanding of English ... what else is new?

Yes, I reported the place, and they did get back to me, saying that I was going to get a call from them. I am still waiting for the call.

As for what fast food place it was, let's just say the Red Sox play in the town this restaurant chain is named after. Figures, me being a Yankees fan ...

Anyway, on Saturday we really didn't do anything but watch baseball and finally have our barbecue.

And no, we did not watch soccer. Funny, who is talking about soccer now that the Americans are out of the World Cup? Not too many, not even the phony fans who were sitting at the edge of their seats for this nonsense as it played out.

Yesterday, we watched more baseball, swam in the backyard pool, and enjoyed our last day off.

Now it is back to the workplace, which I am looking forward to like getting the plague.

I have no other days off this summer, less one day I have to take off next week when my son goes through some testing.

Otherwise, I am truly fried this summer, and it isn't going to be pretty.

I hope you had a good time off, and now that it is over, I can say that even with the mishaps, it was fun.

Speak to you tomorrow, if I survive work today.

Rant #2,392: Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

Happy Earth Day!

It's the 50th anniversary of the day that we celebrate and honor our planet, and try to keep it as healthy as possible.

Right now, or course, the planet's inhabitants are in a tizzy with the coronavirus in out midst, but we will fight this thing and beat it to a pulp by the time all of this is over.

When it is over is another story.

Many people want it to be over RIGHT NOW, and I mean RIGHT NOW, in large type. They believe that their liberties are being absconded with by something that they clearly do not understand.

The problem is that we, on the whole, do not understand what we are dealing with, but we get a clearer picture of it every day.

it is a process, and this process is going to take time.

Those that want to reopen everything in their communities--and who are jumping the gun because they have such a mental need, not just a monetary one--to get back to normal, are truly missing the boat here.

If we jump the gun, there is a distinct possibility that this thing will come back, and come back in even a stronger version than we are dealing with now.

We cannot have that happen, not with the great strides that we have made to at the very least mitigate the virus.

So to those people, I would say that your rights are not being taken away--they are actually being protected--and "freedom" will come in due time ... but not before it is safe for you, for your families and for everyone.

Then we have another faction that is warning that if this thing lasts into the summer, well, there is going to be trouble.

I am not a fan of New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio in any way, shape or form, but he made an announcement the other day that was vital, that was necessary, and yes, it was probably the most difficult thing he has had to do as mayor of the city where the coronavirus is at its epicenter.

He basically canceled the summer for the city, by stating, in particular, that there would be no city pools that would open, and no beaches would be open either. No parades would be held at least for the time being--he later kind of recanted that, stating that there will come a time when we will have at least one parade, to celebrate the work of first responders in battling this virus--but basically, he told city residents that they would be on their own this summer because of the pandemic.

So instead of other city leaders embracing this decision, one city leader in particular made one of the most virulent, racist comments I have ever heard made, and it is only because of the liberal media and the PC Police that he had not been taken to task for what he said.

The borough president of Brooklyn--whose name I will not mention because he doesn't deserve to be named--pretty much went against what the mayor said, and gave a warning ot others that fed into every racial stereotype we have been fighting to eradicate for decades.

He pretty much said, and I am going to paraphrase him, that if the mayor wants to close all beaches, pools, and put heavy restrictions on the use of parks, that he is giving the mayor and the city fair warning: with nothing for the youth that he oversees in his borough to do with their time, then "there will be an increase in crime" in the borough and in the city.

If not programs are put into place to give this youth something to do during the hot days of summer, when many of them live in apartments without air conditioning, there is going to be trouble.

Well, by doing that, we know exactly the "youth" that he is referring to, and he has branded them as some type of human subspecies who have no idea how to keep active, and they only thing they will know how to do on their own is to rob, pillage and destroy.

Isn't this the stereotype that we, as a civilization, have been fighting against for years? Isn't that a stereotype that labels one particular group as something akin to foaming at the mouth animals?

I cannot believe that few have taken his comments to task. I was appalled when I heard him say this, He basically gave carte blanche approval to reckless behavior in his borough and throughout the city.

What's more, by saying this, is he any better than the white supremacists who actually believe this?

Maybe Mayor deBlasio didn't say anything, and maybe others kept quiet, because what the borough president said was so ludicrous that it wasn't worth a reply.

But it demanded a response, and the response should have been that the disease doesn't care who you are or where you live, and we must take matters into our own hands to try to eradicate it. If it means taking away beach, pool and park privileges for one summer, people will adapt and make the best of it.

That should have been the response, but it never was made.

Shame on the Brooklyn borough president for making such heinous, racist, anti-human remarks. He should know better, and when his constituents can vote him out of office in 2021, I hope they won't forget this utter lapse in judgment.

(Of course, since there are rumors that the mayor's wife will be running against him in 2021, this may have been an early swipe at the mayor's wife through her husband.)

Anyway, back to Earth Day ... do you remember the first Earth Day, 50 years ago?

It was a Wednesday, I was living in Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, and I was ready to not only turn 13 years old, but I was also days away from having my bar mitzvah ... which means I was just a few days away from getting really, really sick.

Nerves got the best of me, and I got up to 104 or 105 degrees of fever in the ensuing days, but on April 22 of that year, I was still OK.

(More about my bar mitzvah in a few weeks here at the Blog.)

Anyway, I remember the day quite well.

On the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, I went into downtown Jamaica with my friend Andy. We used to frequent a book store somewhere off Jamaica Avenue--I forget the name of the store or exactly what its address was--but we took the bus from our development into the downtown area, and walked about a block or two to this bookstore.

This type of bookstore back then would evolve into the head shops that were around in the early to late 1970s, but at that time, that facet of the store was not as pronounced as it probably became in just a year or two.

Andy and I just knew it as a bookstore that carried all different types of books and comic books, and with the day off from school--I believe 1970 was one of the first years that New York City actually gave students off for the spring break, and I don't think we got off for Earth Day per se--we decided to go to the store and browse around.

The store also featured X-rated comic books. It was the first place I ever saw that had a rack of these comic books right there for anyone to look at, so all of the early "Fritz the Cat" and similar comics were there for the public to see.

The place had sort of a mixed bag of customers, including kids like us, but also, people who came to be known as potheads and even older people looking for something out of the ordinary.

I don't remember what I bought there that day--no X-rated comics for me!--but I must have purchased something, maybe a few regular comic books.

When Andy and I were done celebrating the ecology by purchasing these books and not discarding the paper in the street or in the ocean, we took the bus back home, put our books safely away, and maybe played some ball later on in the day.

It may have been "the age of Aquarius" back then, but we were still at the "age of innocence," and we did what any normal kids with a brain back in 1970 would do to while away the day.

Are kids any less creative today? Can we get through the summer if this thing stretches out to the warmer months?

I think we can, and I think our youth can, too.

Clsssic Rant #1,241 (July 3, 2014): Happy July 4

Hey, it's summertime!

Let's all go into the water!

Let's barbecue until we are blue in the face!

Well, we will have that opportunity tomorrow, as it is July 4, Independence Day, and most of us have off from work.

One problem, at least in my neck of the woods.

Tomorrow is literally supposed to be one of the 10 worst days of the year, a very humid, rainy day where the best place for any of us will be indoors.

This is all courtesy of Tropical Storm Arthur, which is drunkenly moving up the East Coast, teetering on becoming a hurricane, and wreaking havoc in its path (get the "drunken" reference, Dudley and Liza?).

Anyway, tomorrow is supposed to be a horror of a day, so what do you do when you are stuck at home with nothing to do?

Well first, cherish the day--I mean, how many paid days off do we get?

Second, there is always the TV, the Internet, the radio ... there will be a lot of special programming tomorrow, a lot of marathons, so take your pick.

Third, cherish being with your family, even if you are doing nothing. At least you are all together, not scattered about like on a normal Friday.

And finally, because of the calendar this year, July 4 is actually the first day of a legitimate holiday three-day weekend ... so you can relax for three days straight.

I don't know about you, but it has been so busy at my work that I am looking at the three days almost like a mini-vacation from the nonsense I have put up with there.

And you can watch fireworks on TV. I have never been a real fireworks person, never really that into all the booms and bangs that these things cause--and the horror they can cause when in the wrong hands--but the safest place to watch these things is from a distance, anyway, and that is what TV is for.

So even if the day is a washout like it probably will be for many people in the northeastern part of the country, enjoy the day.

Funny, the next two days after Friday are supposed to be nice, so if I have to, I will push back the celebration of the holiday a day, and really get into the summer spirit.

So enjoy the holiday, and no, I won't be here tomorrow, either, so I will speak to you again on Monday.

Have a great holiday and a great weekend.

Rant #2,391: Everyday I Write the Book

Just let me start off by saying "thanks" to everyone for their good wishes about my sister.

She remains quite ill, but all indications are that she is getting better in heart, mind and soul, and physically, she is getting better by baby steps.

She has a long way to go, but she is closer to that goal than she was a few days ago, so there is really some light at the end of the tunnel now.

I spoke to a friend on the phone yesterday, and yes, he has the coronavirus too. Thankfully, he doesn't have it to the level that my sister does, and he is also getting better in small increments.

Having spoken now to three people who have the virus, although they all have it at different levels, the one constant seems to be that at some point in their sickness, they were all repulsed by food.

And I do mean repulsed.

Each one of them told me that not only didn't they have an appetite at some point, but even the thought of food made them sick.

That is an interesting point, and it just shows how this virus works on both the body and the brain.

That being said, I hope that each one of them--and every person who has this thing--feels better today and keeps on feeling better, and is able to kick this thing once and for all.

Me, I am doing fine, as is my family. I worry about my wife, who had to deal directly with the public as a bank teller, and I worry about my daughter, who works in a residential facility for at-risk youth, but at least right now, everything seems to be copacetic with them, and I hope that that continues.

Everyone who is home right now has had to cope with being there, and even though this is our home, we were certainly not ready to be staying there for such a long amount of time.

Some of us can work at home, some of us can't, and some of us have no work--we have been fired, laid off, furloughed--so we just have to bide our time doing whatever to keep ourselves up and about and sharp during this inactive period.

As you know, all of these people have now joined my world, a world I have been living in since October. It wasn't easy for me, either, to accommodate myself at home for so much time with little to do, but I quickly learned that this was the time to take the bull by the horns, and use that time as wisely as possible.

From Day One, I have continued to look for work, and that eats up part of the day, but since the coronavirus struck, job listings are down I would say anywhere from 33 percent to 50 percent--and a lot of the listings are reruns from long ago, meaning that the job listing companies are re-using listings to keep their lists as full as possible.

I even contacted one company myself, a company that I had applied for an editor's job right at the start of my unemployment, and whose ad continued to run non-stop for the past nearly seven months. I never heard from them at all, but the same ad kept running day in and day out.

So I contacted them myself, and they pretty quickly wrote back to me that that job was done and over with, so I firmly believe that once again, you can't trust the job lists being put out there, because they often run outdated and/or bogus ads.

What else is new? Things aren't going to change even as we go through a pandemic.

So after I look for jobs--two phone interviews, two in-person interviews in nearly seven months, and the two in-person interviews led me to believe one thing but actually delivered something totally different than I was prepared for--what else have I been doing?

Well, quite frankly, a lot of other stuff.

One of the things that I have done during the past nearly seven months is that I decided to expand my writing experience. As a professional writer.reporter/editor or whatever you want to call what I have done for the better part of my career, I have written what amounts to non-fiction, true stories about people, places and things.

They are considered to be news stories, or feature stories about true events.

So I decided to expand my sphere a bit, and do something that I have never done before, and that is to write a novel, and a fiction one to boot.

The idea came to me one day, and it allowed me to create my own world, my own characters, and my own set of circumstances that everything in the story I am telling revolves around.

I purposely did not put any recent references to date it, so there is no mention of things like the Khardashians, the Internet, Facebook, blogs or even television or radio in the story. I learned long ago, from reading an article where Carl Reiner was interviewed, that the last thing you want to do is to date your work with modern references, and that is why his own creation, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," has only a scant few references in its episodes, so as not to date the show.

So I pretty much did the same thing, with only one reference to pop culture in the entire 37,000-word opus. I mention this reference a couple of times in the novel's 40 chapters, but the reference has become so much a part of our culture during the past nearly 60 years that I didn't think that that one mention--which I used a couple of times to move the story along--would date it at all.

Anyway, without giving anything away, the story is about a fellow who was literally born as a square peg, with an affliction that prevents him from fitting into the round hole of the world as we know it.

Then one day, he gets his big opportunity, feels confident about himself, and then he loses everything one by one.

I didn't mean the story to kind of replicate what is going on in the world today, where so many of us felt so confident with what we were doing with our lives, and then have the rug pulled from under us as the coronavirus struck, but it kind of mirrors that in some weird type of way.

I had that vision way before most of us had even heard the word "coronavirus," so I make no apologies for using the analogy I described in the novel, but that is simply how it is.

I don't know even how to describe what I wrote, other than to say it has some comedy, some sci-fi, some drama, and some bathos and pathos in it, but I finally finished it yesterday after ramping up my writing during the past week or so.

I was so close to the end of the story I wanted to tell that I simply dotted the i's and crossed the t's a little quicker, and right now, I have a somewhat finished product.

A little later this morning, I will begin the editing process, and I should be done with this thing by the end of the week.

Other than giving me something truly different to do during my time at home, what do I do with my first novel when I am done looking it over?

I have no idea.

I don't know if it is good, or simply an experiment to stretch myself a little bit.

In this time of the coronavirus, I don't know if I need a literary agent if I am serious in putting this book out professionally. Maybe I can self-publish it if I want to.

I just don't know.

But at least I did it. I accomplished something I always wanted to do, and believe it or not, I have an idea for a second novel, one that is a bit racier than the "soft PG" one I just wrote, but I am not going to act on that idea until I find out what I am doing with this first novel, the name of which I cannot divulge at this time, because it kind of gives off a certain vibe that I want to hold back right now.

So, in addition to the 1,805,705,761 other things that I have done since I have been home, I found time to write a novel.

It might pack a punch, it might be a dud, it might even set off its own virus ... I just don't know now what I have in my virtual hands, but I did it!

And I am proud of it, no matter what happens with it or to it.

I did it! And that is all that counts.

Classic Rant #1,240 (July 2, 2014): Self-Serving, Promotional Rant

Today, I am not ashamed to say that I am going to use this Rant as a vehicle to promote my Facebook page about the 45 RPM record.

My Facebook site, entitled 45s, is possibly the most benign thing I have ever done.

The site address is https://www.facebook.com/groups/45RPMSingles/

There is no controversy, although we have had some problems with a few people who have joined up, and they are pretty much gone.

The site has to do with those old singles, the little seven-inch records that we used to spin when we were kids.

These records were the hits of the day, and some came with picture sleeves.

Most were tied into longer LPs, but even if they were, they were unique to themselves as pieces of art as much as albums were.

We celebrate these seven-inch wonders on 45s.

We have over 200 members now, and many of us put up good representations of our collections.

Many of the photos used are scanned, and I have been told by a member or two that they actually collect the scans, primarily of singles that they do not have, which is interesting unto itself.

I am no expert on 45s, and quite frankly, even though I have thousands in my own personal collection, I certainly do not have everything there is.

Some members seem to, or at least they have things that I have never seen, so it makes it really interesting to see what people have--and more importantly, see what record companies thought would sell way back when.

There actually is a resurgence in interest in vinyl records, fueled by college-age kids, who really dig this format more than many of their predecessors.

Me, the 57-year-old old fogie that I am, well, I will always prefer vinyl over CDs, and over MP3s or any other electronic file.

You have the piece of art in your hands, at the ready. What could be better?

So please visit 45s--you won't regret it.

I am now off the pulpit, and ready for the next thing to really rant against.