Rant #3,121: Just Do It!

I am back …

And somehow, I have gained a full year in age since the last Rant that I wrote.

I guess that is because today is my birthday.

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!

I am the ripe old age of 66 today, a true old fogey if there ever was one.

As I write this Rant, I might just be exactly 66, as I was born around this time of morning 66 years ago.

Whatever the case, today is my birthday … and to show how old I really am, I share my birthday with the New York Yankees’ supposed phenom, Anthony Volpe.

The “problem” is that he is 22 years of age today, so I am exactly three times his age.

But on the other hand, I also share my birthday with actress Ann-Margret, who is about one and a quarter times as old as I am, at age 82.

So that is the long and short of it.

Today should be the easiest Rant of the year for me to write, and the first part of this entry was, in fact, pretty easy to write, but honestly, I am all pooped from writing lately.

On Wednesday, I had a busy seven-hour day writing about a convention for work, and for the second day of that convention on Thursday, I had an even nicer 13-hour day doing the same thing, so I have reason to be tired of writing today … but if the work comes in to me, I have to do it;

I mean, that is what work is, and I see I have a short editing job that still has to be done, so I have to do it, and I will, a bit later.

I wrote so much yesterday, in particular, that not only does my mind hurt, but my rear end does too, from sitting in my chair so long.

But hey, that is what I make the big bucks from, so I gotta do what I gotta do.

And the good thing is that since this is the last weekday of the month, today is the day I send in my work invoice, and I can get paid by the beginning of next month at about the same time as I get my Social Security payment, so I will be “in the money” for about five minutes, until I need to use the money to pay bills and some other costs that I bear.

Last year was the big 6-5 birthday, so my wife and son held a big bash for me where we had a lot of people over to the house.

This year is the lesser 6-6 birthday, so we are doing something lesser to fit the occasion.

Today, we will have the requisite cake and I will get some presents … my wife already bought me new sneakers and some other clothing, and she gave these gifts to me earlier this week, mainly because she did not want me walking around in seven-year-old sneakers anymore.

(Me, I didn’t mind it at all. The sneakers may have looked like they were not just seven, but probably 70 years old, and who can argue with sneakers that spanned the continents, as they were the sneakers that I wore, new, when I went to South Korea back in 2016?)

Anyway, for tomorrow, I invited over my daughter, who I don’t see too much of, and her boyfriend, who I met only once, at last year’s big 6-5 celebration.

We will celebrate with birthday pizzas—can you get at least one candle in a pizza?--and I think it will be a nice time for all to reconnect again.

I guess that at this point in the game, birthdays should be a bit ho-hum to me, but somehow, they aren’t.

I am like a kid with my birthday, and I simply cannot wait for the gifts and the cake that I will get later today.

I never minded my birthdays as some others do, and I think gaining a year is like making another notch in the holster, a day where I can look back at the previous years and look ahead to, hopefully, many more years of a good life.

I still cannot believe that I have reached this age; it just seems like yesterday that I was playing in the dirt, digging for gold with my friends near the building that I lived in.

But boy, have things changed for me since those days!

I don’t dig in the dirt anymore; but I do dig, maybe “dig in” is the better way of saying it, for the twists and curves that every day seems to bring me.

Yesterday was no exception, as in between all the writing that I was doing, I was trying to get my mother a renewal on a prescription she had, and boy, I was having problems doing it.

Without getting into specifics, I think that that wore me down more than the writing did.

But at age 66, I can still do it; I don’t need a power pill to do anything … I just do it!

And if I leave you with any advice on my birthday, it is to “just do it,” (sorry, Nike, I have absconded with your tagline) and do the best that you can while doing it.

I have found that somehow, someway, it all comes into place if you give it the maximum effort—

Not all the time, of course, but al least you know, in your heart, that you did what you could do to make things right.

So, “just do it” this weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,120: Island In the Sun

Harry Belafonte, 96, passed away yesterday.

I have to tell you, I always thought of the actor and activist as sort of “second fiddle” to Sidney Poitier, who also used his perch as a famous actor to take often controversial stands on different matters, including civil rights.

And I do believe that Belafonte kind of suffered in comparison to his friend, because while Poitier’s presence was growing on screen to massive heights—he was undoubtedly our country’s top male actor in the late 1960s—Belafonte’ star was kind of being eclipsed by his own activism, and his career kind of wavered from the mid-1960s on.

As Poitier was ascending, Belafonte was descending.

But of course, this really was kind of true, and kind of not, but the fact of the matter was that Belafonte and Poitier were both pivotal characters in the civil rights movement, using their notoriety, their fame and yes, their money, to help propel this movement.

They are inextricably linked, and now they are linked in the great beyond.

I really fist discovered who Harry Belafonte was in the mid to late 1960s, apart from the successes he had on the big screen and on record.

With his activism, his career seemed to be relegated to television, and his appearances on two TV specials made me sit up and take notice.

On one, where he appeared with Julie Andrews, he sang a duet with the actress, but the two performers’ movements during one of the show’s musical segments, in particular, irked many.

I don’t remember the song at all, but I do remember that Andrews and Bellefonte, among other things, laid together, side by side, during the performance, which was a definite no-no in the mid to late 1960s.

Not only was it overtly sexual, maybe too sexual for the time, but Andrews, being white, and Belafonte, being black, added to the uneasiness that the performance produced for many viewers.

And then there was his performance with Petula Clark, a musical performance that I am still trying to get right in my head.

Again, on a TV special, Belafonte sang a duet with Clark—and again, I do not recall what song it was--and if I remember it correctly, during the length of the performance, their hands were pretty much not necessarily all over each other, but touched several times, again between a white woman and a black man, anther no-no for those times.

This performance, the more famous of the two I just described, irked many to the point that there were demands for the scene to be re-shot, but that request—or demand—fell on deaf ears.

But I do believe it was edited, because if I remember correctly, at the end of the performance, Clark kissed Belafonte on the cheek, or Belafonte bussed Clark, but that part was not shown.

I could be wrong on this, but I do seem to remember that the entire segment caused a mountain of controversy, because it simply was an act that was not done and not shown on network TV at the time.

I was just a kid when this stuff happened, but I did live in an integrated area in Queens, so maybe I was a little more hip—and a little more understanding—than a lot of people were to the interaction between a black male and a while female than maybe others were—

But the fact of the matter is that the immense popularity of both Andrews and Clark at the time got those shows and segments aired, and Belafonte was simply the black guy in those performances, deferring his power to the two white, female singers.

Later, as I grew older in both age and mindset, I understood a little bit more about Belafonte’s place in society.

Yes, I do have one of his records in my collection, the one with “The Banana Boat Song” on it, but I also grew more aware of his politics and his continued performances on the small screen and the large screen.

And like Poitier, I agreed with his stances on many matters, but I also was on the other side of some of the things he supported.

But whatever side that I was on, you had to respect this guy, a great talent who certainly paved the way for Poitier to live his life in the public eye, whether he was on television, the movies or leading a protest march or shining a bright light on a social matter.

Did his political stances restrict his overall fame?

Probably, but I do believe that like Poitier, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I am super busy on Thursday with various things that I must do, so I am going to have to skip tomorrow’s Rant.

I will speak to you again on Friday, so have a great rest of today and an equally good Thursday, and I will be back at my normal perch on the final day of the work week.

Speak to you then.

Rant #3,119: It's the Same Old Song

So, I see that President Joe Biden has announced, via a video, that he is running again for President of our great country.

Bully for him!

I won’t be voting for him, nor Donald Trump, Ron Descants, Dagwood Bumstead or whoever gets the Republican nod, because, as you know, I have vowed never to vote for a Republican or Democrat again, and I am sticking to that vow in 2024.

And I really wish more people who are as fed up with things in this great country would do the same, but I can only speak for myself.

And I am more attuned to what happens in this country to our everyday lives when one party is in power over another.

I don’t know why, but it seems that prices on everything from groceries to gas goes up—and I mean, way, way up—when a Democrat is our commander in chief.

It certainly is happening now, a situation where the economists state emphatically that we are not in a recession, and raise interest rates to hurt spending by the middle class.

If we aren’t in a recession, then what would you call our current situation, where a box of cereal costs like $7 a pop (as in “snap, crackle … “)?

When the Republicans are in power, prices seem to be lower, especially at the gas station.

That doesn’t make the Republicans any better than the Democrats.

We are learning that they are all out for themselves, tell untruths about just about everything, and don’t represent the voters’ interests.

Both parties are horrid, and do plenty of double talking to the public.

For one, as I have said before, Biden, when a congressman, was one of the main proponents of taxing Social Security, but it is so funny that as President, he has kind of forgotten all about that, and says his programs are actually helping older Americans.

“Help” like that no one needs, including many senior citizens, who are existing by the seat of their pants with all of his “help.”

I simply don’t like the current mode of this country, where we accept too much as “normal,” and mediocrity is accepted and applauded.

There is no wonder that you have such stark divisions today, because this country is just so divided on so many issues, and you cannot be in between the two sides on anything, because if you are, you appear to be the real enemy of the already warring sides.

And then, we have the uber-egos to deal with in our politicians.

Just look at George Santos, the embattled legislator supposedly serving parts of Queens and Long Island who lied about everything to the Republicans, somehow got away with each and every lie, and won a Republican seat in the House—and is obviously being protected by his fellow Republicans even though he is a complete and utter fraud.

How is this benefiting anyone but the Republicans? It is certainly not benefiting the constituents that voted him in … and he has the audacity to state that he is running again for his seat!

And the Democrats are no better, looking at illegal aliens as potential votes, not as people, and doing absolutely nothing to stop their unprecedented influx into this country.

Few are vetted, many are bringing possible diseases into our country without having necessary vaccinations, and these people are overrunning cities who have nowhere to put them and few resources to help them.

But they are future votes to the Democrats, so let them in! Let them all in!

And then we have crime, violent crime, which the Democrats ignore with their lax bail laws, and Republicans almost arm themselves with their backing of laws that allow assault rifles to be sold to civilians.

And I am just barely touching the surface here when I say we need a complete overhaul of the two-party system, which seems to only work to line the pockets of those voted into office.

And we might just have a felon running for the top spot in our government, which if it doesn’t make us a laughing stock around the world, certainly proves my point that we need changes … and Biden announcing that he is running again is not the change that this country needs to get on the right road again.

I cannot vote for a Republican or Democrat, won’t vote for anyone on those party lines, and yes, I repeat, I just wish more people did what I am going to do come November, as I did this past Election Day and will do for now on … if or until there is a candidate that makes me think differently.

I am fed up with the way things are, but I am also hopeful that a candidate will emerge somewhere down the line who will galvanize me to change my mind about how to vote.

And yes, I am hopeful that in my lifetime, I will see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Rant #3,118: Our Day Will Come

The past weekend was pretty inconsequential, at least for me, but I did do one thing that was crazy, a lot of fun, but also quite a bit tiring.

It was this year’s first of two Record Store Days on Saturday, where independent record stores across the world get to shine with a plethora of new, mainly vinyl releases to entice shoppers.

I do Record Store Day each and every year, have done it for many years now, and I have no intention of stopping, even though I did say a few times to others there that “I am getting too old for this.”

Not the actual day, per se, but the prep I have to go through to get to my local record store early in the morning to be one of the first on line.

On Friday night, I went to sleep at about 11 p.m., and I figured that when I wake up on Saturday morning, whenever I wake up, I will get up and scoot to the store, which is about a mile or so away from my home.

I wanted to wake up early so I would be one of the first on line, because in this case, the early bird DOES actually catch the worm, or at least the best choices of records on that day.

I woke up at 1 a.m.—yes, I had trouble getting out of the bed—took a shower, got dressed, and motored over to the store—

Where there were already two people ahead of me, two people who, I later found out, had been there since about midnight.

I had a folding chair with me this time around, so I plunked it down, put up the hood on my hoodie, and sat there for about the next seven hours or so.

The three of us spoke for just about the entire time, which took away the chill of the morning to a certain extent, but we did have some side shows that also took away a bit of the chill, and woke us up in the process.

A police car pulled up right in front ot the store where we were congregated, and the cop in the car asked us what we were doing there.

When we explained to him what we were there for—and asked him to join us—he quickly gave us the thumb’s up, got in his car, and sped away--only to come back to the same area about 10 minutes later for a more serious purpose.

Literally right after he left, we heard someone screaming from the major road right by the store, Sunrise Highway, which is a major thoroughfare which unlike most “highways,” has lights on it for many miles as it stretches from Nassau County into Suffolk County, and is one of the major roads on Long Island to get to where you want to go to.

Anyway, our attention turned to Sunrise Highway, as someone was darting traffic while yelling and screaming about something.

This person somehow made it across the highway without getting hit, but someone must have called the police on him, as a flurry of police cars surrounded him in the gas station that he had come to as he somehow made it across the street in one piece.

There must have been 10 police cars that surrounded him, and even with that presence, it appeared from our vantage point that the guy—who was probably drunk or stoned out of his mind—refused to get into one of the police cars that were there.

Eventually, two ambulances arrived, and he somehow was put into one of them, and whatever situation was at hand was over and done with, but several of the police cars stayed around for some time afterward for good measure.

The sun hadn’t even come up yet at this point—it never really did that morning as it was overcast the entire time we were there—and it was breezy and cold, but as the line got longer, we braved the elements—which included some rain—and finally, the store opened and we went in to get our goodies.

Me, I set a limit in how much I want to spend and I really stick to it, and I did during this particular Record Store Day.

I bought four Record Store Day releases—from drummer extraordinaire Hal Blaine; singer/songwriter Carole King; Brit rockers T. Rex and Irish rockers U2, and that was that … or so I thought.

The guy ahead of me at checkout—who was number one on the line—was finally done with picking what he wanted, and he strode up to the checkout counter, and all told, he spent more than $1,000 on records that day.

It took a while for him to check out all his stuff, so to fill in the time, I went over to my favorite part of the store, the singles bin of 45 RPM records, and staring right at me was an old single fron 1973 that I just had to have, and you see it above today’s Rant.

It is “Our Day Will Come,” a promo single released by Lorna Luft 50 years ago, when she was trying to make a name for herself in show business like her mother, Judy Garland, and her sister, Liza Minnelli, had so successfully done.

It is not a great record, and it is not to my taste, but I did not buy it for myself, I bought it for my wife, who is a huge fan of those three ladies.

The picture sleeve, adorned with Luft’s pretty face, was almost staring at me, asking me to buy it in a funny sort of way, and as the cashier was totaling up the guy’s $1,000 purchase, I snatched up this single, which for me, was really more important than the actual Record Store Day purchases I made that morning.

I later gave the record to my wife—I surprised her by not telling her anything, and putting it in the refrigerator so she would see it—and you know what they say, “A happy wife is a happy life.”

So we were all happy that Record Store Day, and even though I did day, “I am getting too old for this,” you can bet that I will be at the same record store during the same time of morning in November when the next such day is held on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Yes, I do some crazy things during the year, and this is certainly one of them, for sure … but when Lorna Luft stares you in the face like that, and then your wife is happy, what, me worry?

Rant #3,117: Over My Head

… furthermore …

Nah, I am not going to talk about the sports names used by various school systems in New York State today ...

But I am going to talk about a much more serious problem related to the sports landscape, although this is not necessarily a sports story per se.

This story kind of went under the radar this week, and I do believe that that was done purposely by much of our nation’s media, which has a habit of deciding which news stories the public needs to read, and which should be given short shrift.

This was definitely one of the latter variety.

Barely covered, if at all, earlier this week, most of the nation’s major professional sports leagues, plus the media companies Fox and NBCUniversal, announced that they have created an alliance to ensure that sports betting advertising is presented responsibly and does not target minors.

The group, called in bombastic terms “The Coalition for Responsible Sports Betting Advertising,” was created on Wednesday, consisting of the National Football League; Major League Baseball; the NBA; the WNBA; the National Hockey League; NASCAR; Major League Soccer, and the aforementioned news outlets.

Ostensibly, the group is a voluntary alliance to oversee how sports betting advertising, which is ever-present on the airwaves, in print and online, is presented to consumers.

It includes a recommendation that what it calls “excessive” advertising be avoided.

According to news reports, formation of the group follows a move in March by the commercial casino industry through its national trade association the American Gaming Association to adopt a new and more responsible sports betting marketing code.

What exactly does this all mean in English?

What it means is that the sports leagues have formed this alliance to ensure that sports betting advertising is overseen with a supposedly strict hand, before the government gets involved in any regulation of these ads.

And don’t you think these sports leagues, all of which at one time quaked in their boots about sports betting on their respective teams but now wholly embrace it as a new advertising money stream, are worried that with the preponderance of these ads on TV and radio and seemingly everywhere else, that without any regulation—or at least without any supposed oversight—that these ads will eventually come under the scrutiny of the government?

The leagues look back to what some call ancient history, the Nixon Administration’s 1970 ban on cigarette advertising on TV and radio, as the template that they want to avoid for sports betting.

They feel that it could happen to the sports betting ads, which give the impression that anyone with a cell phone or another device can push a few buttons, and they can bet on just about any sport and non-sport aspect of given games in each of their leagues, everything from which team wins the coin flip to who comes out to present the lineup cards to baseball umpires.

And these ads often use high-profile retired but still-in-the news athletes—like the Mannings and Kevin Garnett—to get their message across about the “fun” that sports betting is, without much in the way of the fact that one can lose their shirt—and much more--participating in this activity.

It is no different than doing the same action in an actual casino or betting hall, but you can do this right on your phone or another device, making the whole thing as easy as sending a text message—

And yes, this does appeal to kids and the uninitiated, especially when you pair it all up with a flashy “Caesar” character and with Halle Berry as his queen.

So this group just wants to take hold of the Pandora’s Box it created before the government can scrutinize this industry, and based on what it did with cigarette advertising more than 50 years ago, there is a precedent for a ban, which would hurt these leagues’ pocketbooks tremendously.

So here, with the creation of this organization, the leagues are basically telling the government that they acknowledge that there could be a problem, and they are taking care of it internally.

But the fact that sports betting has been made so easy now for anyone to participate in, and if these leagues grab unwitting kids into wanting to participate if not now, then right when they become of age, then their money is as good as an old fogy’s money, even though these younger players not only don’t know what they are getting into, but don’t have the strength or knowledge about how to get out of it once they are buried in it.

Yes, this story kind of got buried in all the other news that we are seeing recently about school and other mass shootings, shootings of innocent people in situations that don’t warrant it, and the new regulations about the use of sports names related to indigenous people, but this latest action deserves major media coverage, but it won’t get it because I don’t really think that the overall media wants the public to know that such a regulatory organization exists—

Because once such an organization exists, it casts light on the fact that yes, sports betting is a problem overall … and yes, these ads are being touted to younger viewers to get in on the action now or when they reach the right age.

And like pushing cigarettes and vapes and other poisons on our youth, sports betting might be a fun thing to do for those that don’t really understand it, but it can lead up other avenues that none of them realized when they unwittingly got into it.

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

Rant #3,116: Words

... and furthermore ...

Names like “The Chiefs” and “The Warriors” have kind of morphed into generic terms, so those who are so upset about their use as school athletic team names … can you rightfully say that you have never used these terms yourself in general conversation?

Yes, I am getting back to yesterday’s Rant, where I bemoaned New York State’s new law that state school districts cannot use any athletic team names related to Native Americans.

This is all so ridiculous, and is already wasting time—and soon, a lot of money—to put into force.

Several school districts, including Long Island’s Wantagh and Massapequa, have already said that they will fight this nonsense—which they should—and I am sure that there are other school districts in the state that will do the same.

What makes the entire thing so laughable—and so sad at the same time—is that the one “out” that the state has given these school districts is that they can keep their name if they get approval from a recognized indigenous tribe … and on Long Island at least, there is only one such recognized group, the Shinnecocks, who wholly support this ban, so there isn’t really any true “out” on Long Island.

(And the Shinnecocks, by the way, are, as an indigenous tribe acknowledged by New York State, is allowed to, among other things, sell tax-free cigarettes to the public, which not only is a public health hazard, but perpetuates the high and early death rates of its own people.)

Some of the affected schools are going to fight this ban, and I would not be surprised if this entire argument eventually makes its way all the way through to the Supreme Court.

The Wantagh School District has said that It wants to keep its Warrior name, and will soften its logo to meet the new standards of the state removing anything considered to be offensive in its depiction of Native Americans including ceremonial feathers used in the depiction.

The Massapequa School District said that the Chiefs name is used to celebrate the Massapequa Indians, a group that does not exist anymore, and that the use of the name is celebratory, not blasphemous.

And looking back over recent history right in the environs of Long Island, St. John’s University—based in nearby Queens—about 20 years ago or so changed its team name from the Redmen to the Red Storm.

Now, I can see where the name Redmen could be considered offensive, because remember, American Indians were known for their “red” faces as much as white Americans were known as “pale faces” way back when … so how were they allowed to keep the “Red” in the name—an obvious negative American Indian connotation—and become the Red Storm?

Yes, the whole thing is completely ludicrous, but we have become a nation where we are more concerned with things that are trivial rather than things that are important.

I mean, look at the recent handling of the pandemic by our nation, which would need about 100 Rants to discuss fully.

Since we are talking about the use of words today, I want to focus on the use of a single word in reference to the pandemic, which is the word “vaccine.”

Prior to the pandemic, the word “vaccine” meant, in layman’s terms, a serum either injected into you or taken by mouth that completely protected you from getting whatever virus it was earmarked for, i.e., measles or polio.

Once you got the vaccine, you were pretty much protected from ever getting those dreaded diseases.

During the pandemic, our scientists during “Operation Warp Speed” started to put into motion, in record time, what was soon called a “vaccine” to prevent us from getting COVID.

The problem was, while the “vaccine” was successful in mitigating the effects of COVID, it did not fully prevent anyone from getting the virus.

That is all fine and good, because it has been a lifesaver for many of us, and I have taken three shots, gotten COVID, but ever so mildly that I do believe the shots helped me.

But the very definition of the word “vaccine” has changed, now defined in most of the prominent online and printed dictionaries not as a preventative to getting a virus or disease, but as a mitigater.

And that new definition is because our government decided to classify the shots as “vaccines” to make more people get them, even though that term was wrongly used, and primarily used for political purposes.

I spoke about this back in Rant #2,781 (December 2, 2021), where I said the following:

“But I guess there is going to be some politics involved in this discussion, and that is only because Merriam-Webster has fed into the media’s obsession with the shots not by its choice of the word as “the word of the year,” but by tweaking the definition to fit the current narrative of what a "vaccine" is.

So if you are looking for the real, true and actual definition of the word “vaccine,” don’t buy any new dictionaries put out by the company, nor buy into their current definition.

Let me explain …

With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has pretty much changed the definition of the word to not only reflect the status of the coronavirus vaccine, but to garner the publisher some extra press coverage.

Earlier in 2021, with the “vaccine” being made available to adults of just about all ages, Merriam-Webster added to its online entry for “vaccine” to cover all the talk of mRNA vaccines, or messenger vaccines such as those for COVID-19 developed by Pfizer-BioNTech PFE and Moderna MRNA.

And by doing so, it pretty much allowed people to misuse the word. Including every politician and supposed infectious disease “expert” who came down the pike.”

Focusing on words—“vaccine,” “Warriors”—rather than focusing on real problems takes the spotlight off those real problems and puts it on trivial things, and I do believe we have more problems with our educational system than the use of certain names for our public school teams.

But as long as our leaders put the focus on nonsense, we will continue to skirt the real issues of our time …

Which I do believe is thru true reason we are focusing on this truly unimportant nonsense rather than on real, honest to goodness issues that face us all.

Personally, I am more upset with gas moving up to the $4 level as it is right now than about the team name used by my local school system, but have you heard one single, solitary word from our politicians lately about rising gas prices?

The key word here, or really the key term here, is also made up of words, and they are the following:

“Fed up."

Rant #3,115: Call Me Lightning

What’s in a name?

A lot, if you are a school in New York State.

Yesterday, the New York State Board of Regents unanimously voted in favor of a move that will ban mascot names that some believe are insensitive to Native American cultures.

There is one exception: the names can stay if they are recognized by one of the state’s accepted tribal nations.

Refusal to comply with the rule could impact schools' eligibility for state aid.

The decision will affect all K-12 public schools in the state, and will require schools which currently have indigenous names and mascots to change them by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.

The problem here is that at least on Long island, most of the names used by the school districts for their sports teams are in place to celebrate the Native American history of the towns that the schools operate in, and not to offend anyone.

These names have been in place for generations—for instance, the Massapequa School District has used “The Chiefs” for their sports programs to honor the Massapequa Indians, who once populated that area—and has nothing to do with names that lessen that history.

Names like “The Chiefs,” “The Warriors” and others have been used for generations in a positive way, but the state, in its woke/PC stance to eradicate anything that appears to insult anyone—it already insults the populace with its lenient stance on crime—is hot on this decision.

There is a major problem here, and that is that the state is mixing together two different things into one big pot, and these things have actually very little to do with each other.

Yes, some team names can be considered to be very mildly racist, or overtly racist.

Certainly, the NFL’s Washington Redskins name could be considered offensive, and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians name might fall into the same category.

With the Redskins, yes, a change to the Commanders name was warranted, but if anyone knew the history of the Cleveland Indians—who were named after one of their earlier players, to honor his American Indian heritage—perhaps the name should have been changed—and was, to the Guardians—but the use of the Indians name was far from racist—at least originally—but became so with the use of the Chief Wahoo stereotype insignia that came much later.

Now you have teams with names like “Chiefs,” “Warriors,” “Braves” … explain to me how the use of these names is racist.

These names actually honor American Indians, naming teams for the values established by the Indian nations in the face of a lot of turmoil since white settlers came to the New World centuries ago.

And let’s remember, not all indigenous tribes were “benevolent” ones, certainly not to other tribes which they overtook forcefully and bloodily—much like many white settlers when they came to North America.

Admittedly, a lot of the problems with the schools that have such team names is that they went one step further with their mascots, which were often caricatures of Native Americans.

And the face painting—which has become big business—probably got way out of hand.

That is certainly intertwined with all of this, and the state has decided that rather than not offend its constituents with its anti-citizen, almost lawless policies—which it already does—it will not offend overly sensitive people by the use of team names.

You have to wonder when it will get around to banning the name “Yankees,” because everyone knows that is a derogatory name used by southerners for northerners that goes back also hundreds of years.

Personally, I think there are more important matters for the state to look at, but with this latest move, they placate some people who are so offended by these names that they would give back this country to Native Americans on the spot if that was the demand … or would they?

And you just know that there are going to be some school districts that are going to fight this tooth and nail by trying to get approval from Native American tribes for their name … but in the case of Massapequa, the tribe doesn’t exist anymore, and that is the very point of using the “Chefs” name, to demonstrate the history of the area and its once vigorous native community.

So what can that school district do that would make their name legal? Get another American Indian group to recognize their name, maybe with a little donation made by the school district helping that agreement to be made?

And what about our own English language?

I guess we misappropriated the words like “chief” and “warrior,” so we shouldn’t be able to use them anymore, even if they are used in a completely positive light, as in “chief executive officer” as the top executive of a company, or “wounded warrior,” as describing one of our service members who was injured while serving his country.

Do you see how silly this “name game” thing has gotten?

There are more pressing issues in this country related to our schools than the names of the school sports teams—such as safety of students while in an educational institution—and this is what New York State centers on as something to threaten schools with?

Call me a “Monkey’s Uncle”—that seems to be a safe term (sorry animal activists)—but isn’t this more of a tempest in a teapot than anything else?

Rant #3,114: Sleepy Joe

Yes, it is very early in the morning that I am writing this.

It looks like it is one of those nights that I can’t sleep, although I actually did do some sleeping earlier this evening.

I think I fell asleep at about 8:15 p.m. while watching WWE Raw with my son.

Watching professional wrestling always relaxes me, to the point that I generally fall asleep right in the middle of the TV shows.

Watching these shows is almost like taking a fast-working sleeping pill, and although I enjoy watching these shows, I invariably conk out while doing so.

Anyway, I fell sleep watching the show at about 8:15 p.m. or so, and I then woke up at about 9:45 p.m. and after I wished my son a good night, I went straight for my bed, joining my wife in dreamland.

But then I woke up at about 11:15 p.m., went to the bathroom for a minute, and crawled back into bed.

But sleep simply didn’t last for me, and I have been up since a little after 1 a.m.

And in the middle of trying to sleep, I remembered something that I had forgotten—I forgot to wish an old friend of mine “Happy Birthday” via email on his big day on April 15.

It just dawned on me while sleeping that I didn’t do this, and yes, I since have done this, right before I started writing this Blog entry, and I apologized to him, but so many things are on my mind that his birthday just wasn’t in my thoughts when it should have been.

I think that that is part of my sleeping problem … I do a lot of thinking while I am sleeping, not that I do it purposely, but I think that my mind is so busy during the day that at night, while I am supposedly relaxing, I simply cannot turn it off and give myself a rest.

It shouldn’t be this way, but like what happened today—when I woke up slightly past 1 a.m. and felt like I was done sleeping and ready to go for the day—I simply can’t get back to sleep.

What usually happens in this situation is that I do some writing—like I am doing now—and within an hour and a half or two hours, I poop myself out and crawl back into the bed and finally fall asleep again.

I have never been much of a sleeper—even as a little kid I wasn’t the greatest sleeper according to my mother—so while I wouldn’t say I have “battled” this problem my entire life—I really wouldn’t use that specific word—I have learned to live with this, I guess.

Lately at least, I have been sleeping fairly well, so I look at this situation right now as simply a blip or a yip, just one day out of many that I slept well, but not today, or tonight, or this morning, whatever you want to call it.

I do have to admit that I have had some very vivid dreams lately--one of which I described to you last week—but at least I was asleep when I had these dreams, or nightmares, or whatever you want to call them.

Whatever sleep I had this night did not have any dreams that I remember, so tonight is just one of those nights, what can I say?

I actually had a pretty bland day yesterday.

I had a little work to do, but nothing like what I went through the previous week.

I do believe, if I remember correctly, that I took a nap early in the afternoon for about a half hour or so, and that probably fouled up my nighttime sleeping, I do believe.

Sleep is good, but too much sleep probably isn’t.

There have been many studies done on just how much sleep one needs to get by and stay healthy, and these studies say that old fogeys like me should be getting at least eight hours sleep a night.

I certainly won’t get that tonight, and even if I go to bed a little later than now and do fall asleep, it will amount to broken sleep, so I am not sleeping consecutive hours of sleep.

So even if I somehow get to eight hours of total sleep, it has been interrupted sleep, which I never see discussed in any study on sleep that I have heard of.

Is interrupted sleep better than no sleep at all?

Who knows.

All I know is that it is right now 2:22 a.m., and I am sitting here writing this Blog entry that I normally begin writing after 6:30 a.m., so I am more than four hours early in what I am doing.

Heck, on Monday I finished writing my Blog entry at 7:06 am., so talk about being early--

Does “the early bird catch the worm” in this instance?

I have absolutely no idea, but this worm here simply isn’t asleep when he is supposed to be, and I really do have to get back into that bed and try to sleep, sleep, sleep.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … .

Rant #3,113: My Little Red Book

This past weekend was completely uneventful, but I did manage to get two things done that needed to get done.

First of all, that transcription that I told you about, the one that I needed to do for work, was completed on Saturday morning.

All 55 pages and 14,171 words are on the books, and after I send it into work in about an hour or so, I will be as happy as can be.

It’s done. That is all that counts.

And then we have my bar mitzvah album, which I finally got back from my sister yesterday evening.

I believe I told you last week that she took it for safekeeping, she didn’t even realize that she had it, but lo and behold, she did, because we certainly didn’t have it here.

Anyway, I now have it in my possession, and this keepsake of my early life is finally in the right hands.

I thumbed through the yearbook yesterday and this morning, and it really is something to behold.

In our current days of video and streaming and the like, I doubt if people even have albums like this for their children who go through bar and bas mitzvahs--or even weddings and other such celebrations—but back then, in 1970, you had a bar mitzvah, you had an album made of the festivities.

I have probably looked through this album of photos from my great day perhaps thousands of times over the past nearly 53 years that the event took place, but honestly, I hadn’t checked this thing out for a few years, so seeing it again brought back such memories of the time to me.

The photos haven’t faded and are still as vibrant as when they were shot, but many of the people in the photos are not with us anymore—like my father and my grandparents, and even one of my friends—so this has become not only a document of that time of my life, but it also stands as a scrapbook of those times, featuring photo after photo of people who I dearly loved and have fantastic memories of.

Take my paternal grandfather.

He was a difficult man to figure out, although I think I had a keener perception of who he was simply by being his grandson.

He was an Orthodox Jew, and he was the one who said to me, when I had 105 degrees fever and couldn’t move out of my bed the evening before my actual bar mitzvah ceremony, “You will do it in the bed if you have to.”

He grew up in the old country in Europe, was still very European in his ways—in the ways he treated his family, in particular before I came on the scene—but when he became a grandfather, he kind of mellowed down a bit.

But he still followed the Orthodox ways, and the European ways, and his treatment of my grandmother—or mistreatment sometimes—became legends of my family that we still talk about and grimace about to this day.

But he had softened up a bit by the time I came around, and he could be very loving and also, very funny.

He had a strange sense of humor that I think I somewhat inherited from him.

But anyway, on the day of my bar mitzvah ceremony, he probably put out a big sigh of relief when I got through my Haftorah, even though I nearly passed out doing it.

And on the day of my bar mitzvah party, a few weeks after the actual ceremony, he just let it all hang out.

It was the first, last and only time I saw my grandfather drunk, and he was drunker than drunk that day.

There is a photo of him in the album that shows all that, his impromptu dance of the hora all by himself.

All the anger, all the rage, and all of the angst that my grandfather had was let out in full when he did his dance—it was like opening a bottle of soda that had been shaken and exploded when you took off the cap—but it was something that he needed to do, and he did it with a verve that I had never seen him demonstrate before, or even after.

So even with just a photo, I can see him doing his dance right before my eyes like it was yesterday.

And that is the idea behind the bar mitzvah book.

It is full of photos, just photos, but every photo brings up a memory of something being played out, so each photo almost becomes a template for a living, moving memory in my mind, almost like a mental video.

And I can still see my grandfather doing that dance, and all the angst and anger just dripping off of him right then and there.

I miss him, and my other grandparents, and I miss my father too … but the memories of them live on in this book that I finally have in my possession.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, my bar mitzvah book speaks many more words than that transcription I had to do, and is certainly much more memorable.

“Those were the days, my friend, I wished they’d never end … .”

Rant: 3,112: Say Say Say

Passover is over for 2023—it ended at sunset last night—and I am happy to report that I came out of it in one piece.

Did I have “matzoh stomach?”

Yes I did, and I had it off and on throughout the eight-day celebration, including to close out the holiday yesterday, where my love of matzoh really got to me the worst that it has in some time.

But I got through it, the matzoh has been put away for another year, and really, other than that, everything about the holiday was good this year.

Then we have this exciting interview which I am still transcribing, which is taking away any time I have to relax this week.

I do believe that this interview—coupled with my heightened matzoh intake—doomed me this week, but while the matzoh has been put away for another year, this interview might last for a long, long time.

I am way past 10,000 words, still have about a half hour of it to transcribe—which doesn’t seem like a lot, but think about how much you can say even in a minute’s worth of time, and then you can see that I am really at third base with this thing, looking to get to home plate really soon, but I do not know if today is the day that I can finally put this thing to rest.

And while I am at it, a clarification is needed about what I said the other day about Social Security income being taxed twice.

When you ready to get Social Security, you are asked how much tax you want taken out of your monthly payments, I think from 7 percent up to double digits percentage-wise.

I don’t exactly remember the numbers, but I can tell you that for many months, I took out the highest percentage, which really left me with little per month.

So I then had it adjusted to a lower percentage, and that is the genesis of where my “Social Security being taxed twice” comment came from.

What is done during tax time is that whatever you pay via taxes every month is adjusted when you pay your yearly taxes, and they are adjusted to reflect what you should be paying each month, not what you have chosen to pay.

So, just say if you pay, let’s say 10 percent each month, and you should be paying 12 percent each month, your taxes will be adjusted to reflect the fact that during tax time, you have to pay what the government says you should be paying as far as taxes are concerned, so the difference has to made up.

But the question remains this: why are taxes taken out of your Social Security payment to begin with?

Ask Joe Biden this, because while he says that he is doing everything he can do to help seniors, he was the one, years back as a senator, who spearheaded the legislation to have Social Security payments taxed, and on top of that, since he has been in office, prices on everything have gone into the stratosphere … how does that help seniors who are being what I believe to be overly taxed on their benefit for steady work performance over the decades, which is Social Security?

Not only that, but if you use Medicare as your health source, you have to pay extra to get fuller coverage than what Parts A and B provide you alone, so please explain to me how this is helping seniors to eek out their lives when they are supposed to be enjoying the benefits that they have earned and take it easy a bit as they play out their lives?

It has gotten to the point that I, personally, won’t vote for either the Democratic or Republican candidate for president, as I have said I wouldn’t, but I hope the winner is the one whose presence as commander in chief brings prices down to something reasonable.

The winner’s other policies almost don’t matter to me, I want to see lower prices when I do my food shopping and get gas.

I filled up my car with gas on Tuesday, and what I paid was bad enough, but then, 24 hours later on Wednesday, I noticed that gas went up 10 cents from what I paid.

I feel this is all a ruse to get Americans to buy electric cars, the latest marketing ploy by the government and auto makers to fleece us even more than we are already being taken for.

Electric cars are more expensive to purchase, and remember, you need to charge them up to full capacity each time you run low, or like any battery, the car will not work correctly without a full charge, and the battery will degrade quicker without a full charge.

These cars are also more expensive to repair, and about their helping the environment by not using gas … what a load of malarkey we are being fed, because like other batteries, how do you dispose of the car battery safely and without harming the environment?

The answer is that you can’t.

And then we have the lack of convenience … how do you charge the car up if you live in an inner city or in an apartment building?

Do you hang a wire out of your window to charge the car up … good luck if you live on a top floor of a building. Even Rapunzel’s locks aren’t that long.

Yes, charging stations are being built, but it might take 100 years to create enough charging stations to service the general population … and there is nothing more convenient than filling up your car with gas, no matter what it costs.

Me, I have a 2014 Kia Optima, and can’t afford another car now or in the future … but when the time comes that I do need a new car, I will certainly go the gas route.

And that is all I have to say today.

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

Let me get back to this transcription.

Keep me in your prayers this weekend.

Rant #3,111: In the Dark

It is kind of weird how your life often plays out on your brain.

As regular readers of this Blog know, my 92-year-old mother has dementia, but otherwise, she is in quite good shape for someone of her age, thank goodness.

Her hearing is not what it once was, so every few months we have to go to a hearing center for an upgrade and/or cleaning of her hearing aids.

(Getting her to wear them regularly is another story for another time.)

So we went to the hearing center, the technicians did what they needed to do, and my mother said she could hear a bit better than she could before.

We came home, and I said that I would see her later as she rested from the car trip.

As I always do, I went down to her part of the house to see her after I ate dinner, both to see her and to make sure she was eating, and also to give her the pills she takes in the evening with her food.

She was ready to make something for herself, and she went to the bathroom beforehand, and I was sitting on her couch waiting for her to come back and start to eat so I could give her the pills she takes.

While I was waiting, my eyes and my mind centered on the marble-top table we have in the living room, the table that is pock-marked with divots in its wooden legs placed there by me when I was a toddler, whether by falling into it, throwing things at it, or who knows what else.

(I have been told that I was a little terror as a toddler, and those deep divots in those legs were mine, all mine.)

Anyway, for the longest time that I can remember, atop the table sat my bar mitzvah album, which has sat on the top of that table for going on 53 years in May of this year.

So yesterday evening, I just happened to look for it, as I just wanted to thumb through the pages once again to eat up some time until my mother came out of the bathroom, and my eyes searched and searched for it, darting back and forth numerous times, and it wasn’t there.

When my mother came out of the bathroom, I asked her where it was, she didn’t know but searched through a cabinet she has in the living room full of scrapbooks, but I knew it wasn’t in there because it had never been in there.

(My mother said that my bar mitzvah album was never on the table, which demonstrates her dementia fully, since like I said, it had rested atop the table for more than 50 years.)

Anyway, not yet in a panic but getting there, my sister managed to call my mother in the middle of all of this, and I asked her over the phone if perhaps she had the album.

She said she would look, she called me back within five minutes, and lo and behold, she had the album, but said she didn’t know why.

We figured out that since my sister told me she took a whole slew of albums from my mother months ago—probably for safekeeping after my mother’s dementia struck and she was throwing out everything that wasn’t bolted down—that my sister took the album for protection and safekeeping.

I asked her to bring it with her when she comes over to see my mother the next time—probably on Sunday—and everything was pretty much hunky dory from that time on.

I told my wife and son about it, and that was pretty much that … until I went to sleep,

Sometime during my sleep through nearly 3 a.m., I had this recurring dream about not knowing where my classes were in college—a dream that was definitely related to my mother’s current state of mind.

In the dream, for the life of me, I could not remember what rooms my classes were in, no matter how hard I tried.

I decided to go to I think it was the registrar in the dream, but before I got there, the dream would start up again, and this pattern was almost a “Groundhog Day” dream, as the same thing kept happening over and over and over again.

Finally, at about 3 a.m., I woke up from this recurrent nightmare, went to the bathroom, and could not fall asleep again until maybe 4:30 a.m. or so, upon which I had a different dream—nothing with nothing and I barely remember it—and I woke up at about 6 a.m.

Yes, my mother’s dementia is getting to me.

I see her each and every day, and it breaks my heart that this once vibrant, aware person now cannot even figure out what day of the week it is, whether she ate anything, or what my birthday or age is.

And being what amounts to her caretaker, I think it is starting to permeate my very being, even when I am sleeping.

I can only imagine what she is going through, although at her current level of dementia, she probably doesn’t know.

It is truly heartbreaking, but there is little to do about it, except to make her feel comfortable and involved, because her dementia, as we have found out after numerous tests, is entirely age related … and it isn’t going to get any better.

But it is playing on me, and I just have to keep my patience and frustration under wraps.

If I get it all out in a dream, a nightmare that unnerves me, so be it.

I wake up, it was only a dream, and I can move on from it.

My mother … it is like she has a perpetual blanket over her head, one that she can’t get her head out of, no matter how hard she tries.

It really is a shame.

Rant #3,110: Hold Your Head Up

Well, the rest of my week is shot.

For work, I have to transcribe an interview that the president of the association I work for did with the outgoing director of the commissaries, or military supermarkets.

It is an extensive interview, and while I have worked on it in bits and pieces since late last week, it is tiresome and tedious, and even though I have transcribed more than 3,000 words already, I figure that I am about one-quarter done with this opus, so I still have plenty to go.

And this transcription is being done in and out, with the remainder so the week very busy for me, making it very hard for me simply to sit down and do this thing.

I will do my best—I got an email at about 6 a.m. in the morning today about this—but I already told them that there is probably no way that I can finish this thing this week.

It is just too large, covering too much territory, for me to do completely in a week where I have already been pretty busy.

For instance, today, after I take my son back and forth to work, I have to take my mother to a hearing checkup, which will eat up an extra hour of time on a day where I don’t have much time to begin with.

And on a much lesser note, the curse of the afternoon Yankees game continues.

Every time the Yankees play a day game—like today in Cleveland—the baseball gods work against me, and I have no time to watch much of the game.

You would think that as a retiree—or a semi-retiree, like I am—that I would have the time to watch the game, but once again, I won’t be able to watch any of it, not with this disaster of an interview to take care of.

But such is the life of a retired—or semi-retired—person.

And Congress is talking about scaling back some of the Social Security and Medicare benefits I receive within the next few years, so I have to ask you, will people like me ever be able to be really and fully retired?

We are already double taxed on what we receive from the government, meaning that we are taxed on Social Security like someone who is working is, with taxes taken out of our paycheck when it is originally given to us once a month and then, we have to pay taxes on it come Tax Day.

It doesn’t leave much for us to work with, being that what they give us is a paltry sum, after years of work, to begin with.

Without any real pension, there is no way people like me can have any level of comfort during retirement, so we have to work … and if you think I really enjoy doing what I am doing, I can tell you that about the only thing I enjoy is getting paid, again, once a month, from this little job I have.

I am fortunate to have such a job, and I am not downgrading it at all.

But to force people to work when they are supposedly retired … that is certainly not the scenario I envisioned for myself.

I figured I would retire when I wanted to retire, and take it from there … but it did not happen that way for me, and it still irks me, nearly four years after the fact, that I was told at age 62 that I was done and too old to be working full time.

I was very, very fortunate to get this little job I have when I did—right before my unemployment ran out—and I do the best I can with it.

But it seems to be never enough.

So rather than enjoy my retirement years as so many people do, I have to work and struggle to do the best I can do in an impossible situation, one that I know millions of others are going through too.

When the unemployment numbers have come out recently, they show that most of our population is working, but the numbers are phony, because they do not see people like me. who are working but obviously underemployed.

I should, at this stage of the game, be making anywhere from three to four times what I am making now, salary-wise, if I were doing this job full time, but I do the best I can do.

But I do worry about the future; will I always have to work, into my 70s and 80s, just to keep my standard of living at least near what it was when I was working full time?

I think I got the wrong end of the stick to begin with when I lost my job, and all of those resumes I sent out when I was out of work—more than 1,000 in my estimate—are all in the garbage at this point.

I have looked for full time work on a limited basis during the past many months, but there is simply nothing out there for someone with my background—and more importantly it seems, my age--so again, I guess I am lucky to have what I have.

But when I toil at this interview today and through the rest of the week, over many hours, I have to wonder if it is all worth it.

What and where is my personal pot of gold as I gain a year of age at the end of this month?

I have no idea, and that is what worries me to no end.

Rant #3,109: Doctor's Orders

I participated in something yesterday that I had never done before, and after my participation, my feelings about it, and its effectiveness, are still the same.

I felt it was a waste of time beforehand, and afterwards, not only did I feel it was a waste of time, I knew it was a waste of time.

I participated in a medical video teleconference, where a doctor hooked up with me on my phone and spoke to me about medical matters.

What happened is that last week, when I went to get my allergy shots, I was alerted that I needed to speak to the doctor about my allergies and my handling of the shots.

This is not unusual, as I had done this many times before, but what was unusual was the new rule they attached to this consultation.

They told me that I would have to come in and have the meeting with the doctor on a day that I was not scheduled to get the shots, as they had to do the shots and the meeting on two separate days.

Number one, this must be a new rule, because this never happened before—I have always done the consultation and received my allergy shots on the same day; and number two, there was no way that I was going to drive back and forth all those miles twice in a month to get a doctor’s consultation that I knew, from the past, was a total waste of time.

I protested, so they said I could do it over the phone in a video teleconference, which I agreed to, and the meeting was set up for Monday at 1:30 p.m.

At nearly 2 p.m., the doctor—who I didn’t know at all—finally called, asked me what medications I take, asked me if everything was OK with the shots, and that was that.

The meeting didn’t even take one minute to complete.

Yes, as I said, it was a total waste of time.

When I have gotten the in-person consultation in the past, the doctor knew me, and kind of made it somewhat worth my while, because they took my vitals in addition to asking me about the shots, so at least I had up-to-date information on things like my blood pressure and temperature.

Doing it by video, those things obviously weren’t done, so the 45 seconds or so that I spent on the phone with this doctor was simply a going-through-the-motions thing, and what made it worse was that the doctor was over 20 minutes late with the call, further wasting my time.

I am now waiting for the bill for this nonsense, and I am sure it won’t be penny ante in cost.

My family is no stranger to such phone conferences with doctors.

My son does a straight phone conference with the doctor who gives him his medication, and that is strictly a phone meeting, no video.

We are on the phone with the doctor for a few minutes, he asks my son how he is doing, what he is participating in, if the medication works, any negative reactions, etc.

The doctor also reorders the medicine while we are on the phone and sets up the next appointment.

We have been using this doctor for years. He is now in his 80s, and since COVID, he does the monthly exams over the phone only.

So we are pretty much used to these calls each month, and while they turn out to be non-expensive, there is a cost to them, and again, the exam is not being done in person, so there is only so much the doctor can do over the phone.

So I am truly skeptical about these types of medical meetings, and while my son’s meeting is necessary—the doctor simply won’t see us in-person anymore—what I went through was a complete and total waste of time.

I mean, at least my son’s doctor calls within about five minutes of the scheduled meeting time … my guy kept me waiting more than 20 minutes for a 45-second meeting, if it was even that, and it was completely inconsequential, for lack of a better word.

Look, I know that these non-in-person medical visits are the future of medicine, but unless somehow they become something more than simply talking and nothing else, I cannot see their viability at all.

Where are the medical functions being performed here?

I could have spoken to the garbage man the same way, and gotten the same result, so what is its purpose—to hit me up for more money while freeing up the doctor to make more money on his end?

When I talk about this type of stuff, I remember the old-school doctors I had while growing up, and in particular Dr. Geller, the doctor I used from the time I was a toddler all the way through to my early 20s.

He was an old fashioned doctor, had his own practice and traveled to make house calls.

To me, he was the do-all and end-all of doctors, having such stature and presence that when he spoke, you listened, and you listened good to whatever he told you or told my mother about myself and my sister in our times of need.

Goodness, I can still hear his booming voice in my head right now.

I am sure that Dr. Geller is long gone, but if he were alive today, how would he practice medicine?

Would he also do these video teleconferences?

Would he still do house calls?

I just don’t know … maybe he left us at the right time.

The type of doctor he was is, unfortunately, a lost breed, and let me tell you, we are all much worse off because doctors like Dr. Geller simply do not exist anymore.

Rant #3,108: Nothing From Nothing

How was your Easter and continuing Passover holidays?

Mine were inconsequential.

We did what we did, and that was pretty much about it.

I continue to eat matzoh and yes, I did have a slight bout of matzoh stomach this year, but I seem to be all clear of that now …

But with a couple more days to the holiday, who knows?

Now it is Monday, tax day is approaching for those who have not yet taken the plunge, and it is once again time to check out my Yahoo News Feed, the most dependable source of news on the entire Internet.

Let’s see …

“Samantha Hooper Wore a Swimsuit So Tiny She Described It As a ‘Friendship Bracelet’”

“Halle Berry Drinking Wine While Naked On Her Balcony Is a Weekend Mood.”

And these two were near the top of my newsfeed.

I have absolutely no idea who Samantha Hooper is, but Halle Berry … I mean, c’mon, isn’t it about time to grow up?

Further down …

“Heidi Klum Celebrated Easter Topless At the Pool”

Ditto what I said about Berry when talking about Klum. Don’t these ladies, at their vary “advanced” ages, know better by now?

Apparently not.

No Elizabeth Hurley sightings this time around … but I do see that yesterday she probably would have been in my news feed under this headline:

“Elizabeth Hurley Stuns At a Beach Resort For a New Announcement,” which evidently was an announcement that her new bikini and robe that she was showing off in the photos accompanying the news article were now available at her website.

She, like Berry and Klum, should probably know better, but when you are making millions of dollars every year flashing your figure at such “advanced” ages, I guess you have a right to sell whatever to the public, who can’t possibly look as good as you do but who think they can.

And no, I still have no idea who Samantha Hooper is … maybe it is time to check her out, figuratively and literally.

Just so we all know, she seems to be a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who wears bikini tops too small for her frame, which seems to be a prerequisite to splash yourself all over the Internet when modeling next to nothing, again figuratively and literally.

She made such a dent in my brain with her news item that I guarantee if you ask me a month or two from now who she is, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you a thing about her.

And just a note of trivia: do you know how the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue began its iconic history?

It was actually a rip-off of a similar idea used by the late, lamented Sports Magazine.

In the early to mid 1960s, Sport Magazine began showing the latest athletic swimwear that athletes used when they were swimming competitively, so there were no bikinis, just one-piece items that were specifically made for swimmers who participated in the Olympics and other swimming meets—men and women, but the way.

Sports Illustrated did the same thing for a while, but when they found that these issues were outselling their regular issues—even with modest flesh exposed—they decided to take the whole idea one step further, and really, the rest is history.

So if Sport Magazine would have had the vision to take this whole idea beyond sports, they would have survived, and we would be talking about the Sports Magazine Swimsuit Issue.

But being purer to sports than Sports Illustrated was, they didn’t do what they could have done, and they actually bit the dust several years ago.

(And yes, I do believe much later on, they did actually try to rival Sports Illustrated with their own bikini-laden swimsuit issue, but it was too little, to late.)

True story, but it is funny that in the times we live in, Sports Illustrated can prosper with its Swimsuit Issue, but a magazine like Playboy—which showed you pretty much everything—cannot.

Playboy has an online presence, but that is pretty much it nowadays, where it makes its main money off its iconic rabbit logo and not off much else.

Just another aside on Easter Monday.

You won’t get any of this information anywhere else but here.

Aren’t you happy that you read today’s Blog entry?

See you tomorrow, “same Bat time, same Bat channel.”

Rant #3,107: Easter Parade

Happy Friday.

And it is Good Friday, a solemn day for Christians around the world, leading into Easter on Sunday.

Not being a Christian, we used to have a “funny” thing in my house when it was Good Friday and I was working full time.

I would go to work, and in my last job, just about every year, with a few exceptions, we were let off early on Good Friday because of the holiday.

So I would come home, and whoever was home would ask me what I was doing home so early.

And I would reply, “It’s Good Friday … it’s a good Friday,” and we would laugh for a split second and that was that.

It was not meant to denigrate the holiday, but for me, honestly, I am on the outside looking in on both Good Friday and Easter, two of the most solemn holidays on the calendar for the majority of people in this country, so to me at least, it was kind of funny.

And while I am on the outside looking in for a majority of these holidays, I was never left out of the more fun parts of the holidays.

The bunnies, the colored eggs … when I was little, my mother used to buy that Pas colored egg kit, and we would color the eggs, with the coloring getting all over the place. no matter what my mother did to prevent that from happening.

Years later, at work, I was given the assignment of writing a full-page story about the interaction of Pas and the world of military resale—military stores—which was supposed to generate a ton of future ad revenue for our company.

If I remember correctly, our big boss had met the president of the Pas company on the golf course, they struck up a conversation, and they thought that they could do business with us … and that led to my assignment.

I wrote up the story, it was published, but it garnered not one thin dime after that, as the partnership fizzled.

Due to this misstep—and I have to say, I always brought up that this was the worst article I wrote in my long career at the company--we never devoted a full page of copy in that way to an potential advertiser ever again, as this one literally blew up in our faces.

So when I talk about these holidays, again, it is from a different angle than most would, because honestly, these are not my holidays, although I fully understand their meaning.

And today won’t be the greatest “good Friday” for me, as I have to go from the end of Nassau County into Lake Success—right over the Nassau/Queens border—to get my allergy shots.

So that mild joke I told you about earlier went down with my place of work going under nearly four years ago.

In Rant #931, March 29, 2013, I wrote about what Easter means to me, pretty much as an outsider looking in. Here is what I said in edited form:

"Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter.

As a Jew, these are among the holidays where I am an outsider looking in.

I don't have recollections of these holidays, per se, because I never celebrated them.

I know they are wonderful holidays, days where people can reflect, look back, and look ahead.
  
I know that Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary, as described in the New Testament.

But as an outsider looking in, I have my own views of the holiday, just about all non-religious in nature.

I remember that at one time, nothing was open on Easter, and I mean nothing … no department stores, no movies, no restaurants, no nothing.

As you know, that has changed greatly in recent times. Many restaurants are open, and certainly the movies are open on Easter Sunday.

I remember painting Easter eggs as a child. I never knew the significance of this act, but I can remember that my sister and I made colorful Easter eggs using a product called Pas.

It was messy as all heck, and a lot of fun, as I recall.

I also never understood the significance of the Easter Bunny, but I guess that is almost equal to Santa Claus on Christmas.

I remember watching lots of TV on Easter Sunday, because nothing much else was doing.

I recall watching “Easter Parade,” “King of Kings,” and “The Ten Commandments,” sometimes back to back to back.

And I remember the actual Easter Parade in New York City, where so many people wore so many strange hats on their heads.

And I also remember that Easter Sunday was right near, or sometimes on, Passover, my holiday, and the significance of the two holidays being together is very strong.

The Last Supper, anybody?

And I also know that to some, this is the holiest time and day of the year.

To them, and to everyone else celebrating these holidays, I wish you great holidays, time to reflect, time to recharge your batteries."

So to those who celebrate, have a nice Good Friday and Easter … and I will continue to eat matzoh, and love every minute of it.

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

Rant #3,106: You Are What You Eat

We had our first Seder of Passover last night, and even thought it was small, it was a very good one.

We read something that I had prepared to read, we spoke about the holiday in general, and what it means to the Jewish people, we spoke about how matzoh signifies the holiday by its mere presence on our Passover table, and we recited “The Four Questions” and what they mean to this special holiday.

We did it all, and then we ate our festive meal.

Passover is just about my favorite Jewish holiday, and it is one of my favorite holidays period.

The holiday tells the story about perseverance under the worst of circumstances, and also allows participants to really feel like good about who they are throughout the holiday.

And a great part of the holiday is the food … and the food is so good, but you have to watch yourself, because if you eat too much, you could get the affliction that Dr. Larry has called for generations “Matzoh Stomach,” a situation where you feel like your stomach is going to explode.

As long as you don’t go overboard, you should be fine … but if not …

You have not felt real, physical bloat until you have a case of Matzoh Stomach.

Take it from me, as a person who has had it here and there since my childhood during this holiday, it isn’t pretty.

But beyond that, what are some of the favorite foods that one can have—Kosher for Passover, which is different than simply kosher—during this holiday?

Let’s look at two of my favorite foods to eat during Passover.

They actually add to what you already have, and you wouldn’t necessarily eat them as they are, but you could if you wanted to.

Here is what I said in Rant #2,114, April 2, 2018, about one of my favorite foods to eat during Passover.

“You have not lived until you have matzoh smeared with Temp Tee Cream Cheese.

No, sorry, Philadelphia Cream Cheese just won't do on matzoh during Passover, and I don't think it is Kosher for Passover like Temp Tee is.

Anyway, you have matzoh and Temp Tee Cream Cheese for breakfast on Passover mornings, and you really are in breakfast heaven.

It just goes so good with a glass of milk.

I will probably mix it up with white fish salad spread--which I also found in a Kosher for Passover version this weekend--which is almost equally as good as having Temp Tee cream cheese on matzoh, but it still cannot beat Temp Tee.

Temp Tee is made by Breakstone--famous for its cottage cheese--and it is one of those uniquely New York food items that is so akin to the population here, one of the few foods that has pretty much kept its regional status although it is known probably throughout the country.

The one similar food that I can think of off the top of my head is Wise Potato Chips, also akin to this area, but widely known outside of it.

Temp Tee just has the right smoothness to put on a piece of matzoh, as it is whipped cream cheese. Philadelphia also has a whipped cream cheese, but while it is spreadable on a piece of matzoh, it is not as light and creamy as Temp Tee is.

And when Passover is over, or you are not of the Jewish persuasion, get a real, bagel store bagel and spread it on your bagel--there is nothing better.

In the old days, we would spread Temp Tee on our matzoh and add some salt to it, but I haven't done that in decades. It isn't healthy and I don't use salt for anything nowadays, although I am sure many people still do this.

That was then, this is now, and all I need is matzoh and Temp Tee cream cheese to get me going during Passover mornings.”

And that isn’t it.

Here is something else I said about another one of my favorite foods to eat during Passover, from Rant #2,116, April 4, 2018.

“But if I want something a little different in my milk, you cannot--and I mean, you absolutely cannot--beat Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup to make chocolate milk.

I mean, even the non-Kosher for Passover U-Bet is far and away better as a chocolate syrup than anything else, in my humble opinion, but when it is the Kosher for Passover U-Bet, watch out!

For the holiday, U-Bet--made by the same people who give us Gold's Horseradish, another Passover and non-Passover delicacy--uses real sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup, for sweetness, and there is a tremendous difference. People actually hoard Kosher for Passover U-Bet--I have two bottles of it in the fridge right now--and there is a good reason why.

U-Bet is thick as can be to begin with, and when you squeeze it into a glass, it oozes out of the plastic bottle so nice and slow, building up the moment.

Anticipation ... yes, that is the selling point of Heinz Ketchup, but it can also be a big selling point of U-Bet.

Pour milk into the same glass and with a little stirring, you get the best chocolate milk on the planet. The sugar, rather than the corn syrup, doesn't make it any sweeter, it just makes it more heavenly, more like real chocolate syrup should be, and was at one time before high-fructose corn syrup, cheaper than using sugar, became the norm.

And let me tell you, U-Bet's Kosher for Passover Vanilla Syrup is also quite good, although given the choice, I would rather put the chocolate syrup into my glass of milk than the vanilla syrup.

When you look for Kosher for Passover Fox's U-Bet, look for a slightly different bottle this year. The old photograph of the little girl (the company has no idea who this girl is) has been replaced by a drawing of a little girl, the bottle clearly says "Kosher for Passover," and the ingredients list on the back of the bottle includes sugar.”

Yes, in 2018, I must have really been into the Passover foods, and I actually could have gone on and on about Kosher For Passover Coca-Cola and gefilte fish and tuna fish, but I guess I am going to stop right where I am.

Heck, even when I merely think about all of these things, I feel a tinge of Matzoh Stomach, and no, I don’t want to go there right now.

I mean, I have to last seven more days until this holiday runs it course, so no, I simply cannot go there now.

Way too early.