Rant #3,142: Check It Out

Happy May 31.

This month is almost over, and it cannot come too soon for myself and my family.

My wife is still recuperating from the work accident she had earlier this month, and while she is getting better every day, there remain lingering effects from her fall, and while she is better, she is also feeling these effects every day.

Looking at our country, even though we are told that we are not in a recession—and have been told that so many times that I do believe that we are actually in one—for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, I had to cross my money threshold in my checking account to pay one last bill of the month.

It is the first time I have been below that threshold I have set for myself in three years, and I am not too happy about it, but with prices still going haywire, I crossed the comfort level I set for myself this morning when I wrote a check helping to pay our car insurance bill.

I remember those days right before the pandemic hit so vividly, and they are still affecting me.

I had lost my job, and we weren’t yet into the pandemic phase of our lives yet,

I wasn’t bringing any money into the house due to a glitch that had existed—unbeknownst to me--for more than a quarter of a century, I had an open case with the New York State Labor Department that was never closed out as they moved over electronically.

So the state would not accept my unemployment status, and thus, not until late in the year was that resolved, and it was only resolved because someone in Albany felt he needed to do the right thing to help me, and although it took several weeks, he did just that.

Without his help, I would not have gotten one red cent from unemployment due to their own negligence.

I was literally 20 minutes away from getting a lawyer and suing the state Labor Department for lots more than they actually owed me.

And then we also have the leeches at a clinic I was going to for a minor injury that I sustained to my leg.

They thought they would get away with fleecing me for more money during my therapy by charging me per item and per exercise that I did during physical therapy, and then extending the therapy beyond what I actually needed to get more money out of me.

When I discovered what they were doing, they knew I would sue them—and win—because of their practices—which I checked with other people and places and no one had ever heard of—and they settled with me before I could sue them, and yes, they would have had to pay a lot more to me than what they actually owed me if I had placed the case and won.

So anyway, before all of this happened in my favor, I actually went down to $5 in my checking account.

I had no money coming in at all for the first several weeks that I was unemployed because of others’ stupidity, and I paid every bill that I could during this period, and after several weeks of nothing, I actually got down to barely anything in my account.

Don’t ask me how I did it, but I did it, and some places let me pay in increments, which definitely helped, but it went down to $5 … and then these things happened, and I vowed to never let it happen again.

And later, without any hopes for getting a full-time or even a part-time job during the pandemic, I had to file for Social Security retirement, which I did, and I was quickly approved for that.

And as I built up my savings account again, I got contacted out of the blue from the freelance job I have had for nearly three years now, and boy, it has really helped.

But today, the final day of this month, I went below the threshold that I set for myself in my checking account, and I am not too happy about it.

I have my savings, I have some other accounts, so I am far from destitute, but I knew this day was coming, what with prices out of sight—like those for groceries and gas==it happened today … and I would not be surprised if it happens again.

With posturing politicians unsure about the recently agreed upon debt limit—demonstrating once and for all that they do not represent their constituents, but only their own agendas, and that goes for both sides of the aisle—how am I, and millions of others who depend on government programs like Social Security and SNAP—food stamps—going to be able to maintain their lifestyles and pay their bills if this thing isn’t approved?

I have never seen so much posturing in my life, where some politicians absolutely do not understand what the word “compromise” means … where you don’t get all that you want, but you get enough to make the deal a real and viable one.

I cannot believe that these elected officials—who get a good salary and many perks, too—literally cannot see the forest for the trees, and cannot understand how a “No” vote on this measure will hurt their constituents, those they have sworn to serve.

If this thing does not go through, my own personal threshold in my checking account will be the least thing I will have to worry about.

Rant #3,141: Another Brick In the Wall

So, how was your Memorial Day?

Did you go swimming … did you have a barbecue … did you shop until you dropped?

I brought in cans and bottles to the recyclable area in my local supermarket, that’s what I did.

So all told, for myself and my family, we did not do very much on the holiday.

I brought my cans and bottles in at about 8 a.m. or so and there were two people who were actually ahead of me at the machines, so I had to wait a bit.

And they told me that the machines were not doing too well, so I knew that I was in for it.

When I finally got to a machine, it was basically “take one step forward, two steps back,” as the machines—and I ended up using both of them for the bottles—would take one bottle, but wouldn’t take two more, so it took forever for me to get even one-third of my bottles into the machines.

At one point, both machines were full, and there is an intercom in this area that hooks up to the courtesy desk, and I called to get someone over to tend to the machines … although the guy took his time getting there.

And once he got there, even though the machines both read that they were full, do you think he changed the bags in the machines?

No, that was evidently too difficult, and, of course, too logical.

So I started to use one of the machines when he left, but within about a minute of his disappearance, the machine was full, and I moved over to the next machine, and again, the same “one step forward, two steps back” approach ensued, to the point that I felt it fruitless to continue there, and I left for another supermarket’s machines after I cashed in what I got there.

Happily, the next supermarket’s machines acted “patriotic” for the day, and it took my bottles without any problem.

All of this wasted over an hour of my time, but honestly, I had nothing really else to do on Memorial Day, so after a run to Staples—I needed a new print cartridge for my computer’s printer and still need one because they didn’t have what I needed—I was pretty much done for the day.

Other than moving some of the furniture back onto our patio—which I did with my son—I did absolutely nothing yesterday.

I watched all or part of three movies during the afternoon, and since one was worse than the other, it doesn’t even pay to mention any of their names to you.

I casted them off of YouTube, and three more rotten films you couldn’t find.

In the evening, it was tine to watch pro wrestling with my son, and after watching three—count ‘em, three—pay per views with my son this past holiday weekend, the body could stand no more, and I fell asleep at about 8:30 p.m., went into the bed at about 10 p.m., and had an up and down sleep throughout the night, but I guess when you add everything up, I did sleep a decent amount of hours.

And today, it is back to the grind of work, both for myself and my son, so I will be writing, editing—and driving—all over the place today and for the rest of the workweek.

My wife is slowly getting better, and next Monday, we have another very early appointment with the doctor, and we will find out her real progress and what she can do, can’t do, and has limitations on.

But she is getting better by the day, still a little wobbly, but she is able to do more things, so I am looking forward to a positive report from the doctor.

So anyway, that was my Memorial Day, a slight respite from the norm but little else to me, to be honest with you.

And today, we get back to the grind, which I guess is a good thing.

And yes, over the weekend, I did notice that two actor/singers with a similar trajectory in their careers left us.

George Maharis and Ed Ames parlayed roles in hit TV series—“Route 66” and “Daniel Boone,” respectively—that led the to have more than respectable singing careers, as they were among the most popular TV actors of their time due to the popularity of those shows.

Ames also is enshrined in the “Ad Lib TV Hall of Fame” for his memorable appearance on “The Tonight Show,” where he took a tomahawk and threw it at a cutout of a human being, only to have it land in a very sensitive area of the body, and Johnny Carson’s ad lib is one of the funniest ad labs of all time.

You can find that clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5QC9ZJkM8

Watching it is a great way to begin the workweek, as 60 years later, it is still as funny as can be.

Have a great day, and I will speak to you again tomorrow

Rant #3,140: Frankenstein

Let me say at the get-go that I really don’t have that much to say about the passing of Tina Turner.

Yes, she was an icon, yes, she was “Lady Rock and Roll,” yes, we all know about her struggles and her triumphs over great adversity—

But I have to admit that I was never a fan of hers, either with Ike Turner or without him.

I have exactly one record of hers/theirs in my collection—a re-release of the “River Deep, Mountain High” LP—but frankly, she and they were never among my favorites.

I just found it all so interesting that the frenetic pace that they performed at was never linked to the church, because like James Brown, a lot of that electricity that the two performers displayed was more like a church revival meeting than a rock concert, but not being much of a fan, what do I know?

R.I.P. Tina, you did well.

But let’s move on from that to this coming holiday weekend, which for some people, is already here and has been here for at least a day or two.

Yesterday, I spoke about the real meaning of Memorial Day, beyond the picnics and barbecues and baseball and flip flops and the swimming and the like.

But today, I am going to go where most of us go this holiday, and that is the more commercial route.

Whether we buy into it or not, Memorial Day pretty much begins the summer season for our culture and country, and while by me it is only in the high 60s and low 70s temperature-wise, people are already getting out their beach wear and are ready to go into the water (while looking out for sharks).

So Memorial Day takes on a different tone for most of us, and what were most of us listening to on the radio 50 years ago to the day?

And boy, was the music we were listening to back then on the beach during Memorial Day weekend 1973 an interesting collection of tunes!

Let’s get right into it!

At #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for May 26, 1973 was the yodeling one-hit wonder Focus with “Hocus Pocus,” certainly one of the strangest tunes ever to appear in the Hot 100.

Coming in at #9 was another one-hit wonder, Skylark, with “Wildflower,” and at #8 was two-hit wonder Dobie Gray with “Drift Away” (but to be fair, Gray had many hits on the country chart).

The Sweet—with the added “The” which they were known by at the time—had one of the biggest novelty tunes of all time with their “Little Willy,” which came in at #7. They had quite a string of hits, the majority of which were in the bubblegum/glam/novelty vein, and we all know what this double entendre tune was all about.

The equally controversial “Pillow Talk” by Sylvia came in at #6. Many stations banned this song because of its suggestive lyrics, which were pretty much more to the point than the Sweet song’s lyrics were.

The next two songs were moving down the chart from the #1 position during this week. At #5 was Steve Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” and at #4 was Dawn featuring Tony Orlando’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” the song about how we honor soldiers in the Vietnam War that became something of a standard during the war years.

Elton John’s “Daniel” was at #3, and it was preceded by Paul McCartney and Wings’ “My Love” at #2, a song that became one of the former Beatles’ best-selling hits after his time with the Fab Four, eventually reaching #1 and staying there for four weeks.

And at #1, pretty much another one-hit wonder, one of the great novelty instrumentals of all time—

“Frankenstein” by The Edgar Winter Group, which would remain at the top spot on the chart for just this one week.

The highest debut on this week’s Hot 100 chart was “What About Me” by Anne Murray, which debuted at #83 but would only creep up to #64 during its very brief chart run.

The biggest mover—or the song that jumped the most places on the chart from one week to another—was George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),” which went from #59 the prior week to #34 this week on its way to the #1 spot in late June—supplanting, what else, but Paul McCartney and Wings’ “My Love” from the top position.

Have a great holiday listening to these tunes and more recent ones, and I am going to take Memorial Day off too, so I will speak to you again on Tuesday.

Rant #3,139: Requiem For the Masses

It is Thursday, the Thursday before the Memorial Day weekend, and I know that that weekend has already started for many people.

There are many more cars on the road, there are more people in the stores, there appears to be more hustle and bustle on the streets, and a lot of people are wearing their more summer-geared clothing, including shorts, even though it is only in the 70s outside.

Memorial Day has become the beginning of summer for many of us, even though, in actuality, summer is still a couple of weeks away.

But Memorial Day is more than the pathway into summer, and we should know that, but due to our propensity to gloss over things when it comes to a real holiday and its true meaning, it is not surprising that many people don’t have a clue about what Memorial Day really means.

Let’s go back to what I said about the holiday and its true meaning. Here is an edited version of what I wrote about the holiday in Rant #970, May 24, 2013:

“Coming up on Monday is Memorial Day, the day we honor those who have served, and gave their lives, for our country in the numerous wars we have fought leading up to our country's creation in 1776 and beyond.

Once known as Decoration Day, the holiday falls every year on the last Monday in May.

In recent years--or for as long as I can remember--Memorial Day has taken on a different meaning.

Not to knock our service men and women--who continue to protect our country from unimaginable peril each and every day--the holiday means so many other things now.

First of all, many of us have off on that day.

Memorial Day also signals the beginning of the summer season.

Notice I say "the summer season," because summer actually doesn't come for several weeks after, in late June. But it signals warmth, hot nights and days, and so the holiday is thought of as sort of a gateway to summer and all the fun that that season brings.

And finally, Memorial Day generally signifies the day when many of us have our very first barbecue of the year.

Honestly, I can taste those hot dogs right now!

Many parades are held during this holiday, and most of them are seemingly precursors to barbecues, so even if we honor our war dead--and again, this is not a knock against any of our service people--we gradually move toward family oriented events during the holiday.

This makes Memorial Day one of the most family oriented holidays on the calendar, and a day we can all look forward to.”

So Memorial Day is actually the day we honor our war dead, and not the day that we have the day off and barbecue and wear our flip flops.

It is a much more solemn event than some would have us believe, but due to their ultimate sacrifices, we are able to have the day off, barbecue and take it easy—

Because those brave soldiers gave their lives so we could live our lives that way we want to.

And we all should know that, but I don’t think that we do.

Perhaps that is part of the equation for Memorial Day—to make their ultimate sacrifices almost transparent, so the general populace can do what they want in their lives.

This year, in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, there will be a moment of remembrance celebrated during the actual day of the holiday.

Taking a cue for the moment of silence that Israel has instituted each year on Holocaust Day, each of the counties have asked citizens to take a moment during the holiday to stop what they are doing and recognize those service members who died defending our freedoms.

In Israel, everything literally comes to a stop during that moment … people get out of their cars, people stop walking, people stop doing everything they are doing to remember the day.

I doubt that will be so all-encompassing here, but it is a wonderful idea, going well beyond barbecues and baseball and swimming and really honoring the memory of those who have perished defending our freedoms.

I have no idea what my family will be doing on that day—my wife is still recovering from her fall, my son has the day off, and since I work for a government-related entity, so will I—but even if we do nothing at all, that is our right.

Others will have their barbecues, will be able to go swimming, will meet up with friends and relatives … and that is their right too.

And whether you look at this as the beginning of summer or as a day of remembrance, that is yoiur right too.

That is the great thing about the holiday; you can handle it however you want to handle it—

But again, it all leads back to the same thing: if it weren’t for our service members who made the ultimate sacrifice, this day would not exist, and more importantly, the freedoms we have to do what we want to do would not be possible.

Rant #3,138: Stuff Like That

Too much to do this morning, too little time to do what I wanted to do, which was to write up another entry to this blog.

First, my work gave me a little job to do, which was send out an email to all the services that we deal with to find out what they were doing to prepare for—and eventually deal with—a super typhoon that is slated to hit Guam in the coming days.

Not too many people in the U.S. know that much about Guam, even though it is one of our possessions.

It is a big military site for our country, as it is strategically placed in the Pacific, and ironically, it is a big tourist site for the Japanese.

But whatever the case, we have a major military presence there, and numerous military stores, so if a super typhoon is coming, it is my job to find out what the services are doing to protect themselves and the people stationed there, so that is what I am trying to do.

And then I really got blindsided, in a very pleasant way, by the announcement that the basketball group that my son plays in is actually going to have a summer session this year.

I don’t think that they have ever had one before, but according to an email I received this morning, “due to popular demand,” they are having a summer session at $85 a pop for six weeks.

I signed my son up for this session, and while we won’t be able to attend the first one—we are going to WWE wrestling at Madison Square Garden that Friday night—he will attend the other five sessions.

This is good for him, because, funny, I was just talking about my son’s lack of activities during the summer, and then this came up totally out of the blue.

They tried this with his bowling league several years ago, and they did not get too many people to join, but basketball brings a different crowd—although a lot of the participants also do bowling—and I think this is a great thing for my son.

I hope they get enough participants and that this thing is a go!

And somehow, this segues into the debt ceiling, a problem which is beginning to worry me and should be worrying all Americans, because if we don’t have enough money to pay our bills, it is doing to effect everyone in one way or another.

It will push us into an official recession—don’t tell me we aren’t already in one, so it could push us into a depression—it will ruin the stock market, it will force thousands of people to lose their jobs, and any program run by the federal government is gong to be greatly impacted, including Social Security, which, of course, greatly concerns me, since my wife, my son, my mother and I—and millions of other Americans--all get these payments each month.

I cannot for the life of me understand how both sides of this matter are trying to get a deal done before the deadline.

Each side seems to be steadfast in its beliefs related to this situation, and neither side appears ready to budge—

Once again demonstrating that neither the Republicans or Democrats really care a hoot about their constituents.

But let me ask what I believe to be a logical question in a very illogical situation:

If we have billions of dollars in debt, can’t we also have billions of dollars in money that is owed to us from other countries?

Haven’t we put off collecting these monies because we know it might put these owing countries in a bind?

But now,, we have our own problems, and isn’t it due time to collect these monies owed to us … maybe not every penny, but a substantial portion of what is owed to us?

Wouldn’t this help us out in a dire time of need that we are approaching?

But again, as a critical thinker, I guess I am reacting logically, a mindset that will never work when dealing with the Republicans and Democrats.

And ultimately, if this does happen, this all falls not President Biden’s desk under his watch, so please answer me, just how can anybody vote for him for reelection to office in 2024 if he has to answer to presiding over the mess?

And maybe that is the Republican’s plan, which makes this situation even more heinous.

So just let me go on the Internet … that is, if I am of age, because the surgeon general of the United States proclaimed that we are in a health emergency with our youth related to their use, and really, abuse, of the Internet.

This is a very weak generation we are talking about here, a generation which thinks it knows everything, but tries to solve its own problems by surfing the web and taking to heart everything that various sites—like TikTok—tells them is “true.”

They have no reasoning skills, do not know how easy it is to get out of their malaise—just turn off the darn computer—and have absolutely no social skills to handle both the good and the bad.

So, now like smoking, the Internet is harmful to our youth’s health … but the solution remains the same.

STOP DOING SOMETHING THAT IS HARMING YOU.

Don’t smoke cigarettes, don’t go to places on the web that upset you.

Simple as that.

But I guess it is not as simple when your mind—or body—is already poisoned by this stuff, but as human beings, we have to know right from wrong … and you know what they say: “If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Unfortunately, when talking about a generation without reasoning skills, this is a difficult thing to do, but for their own state of mind, these kids should find other pursuits to get them off their phones and tablets and into the real world …

And that is precisely why programs like my son is in are the perfect antidote to such nonsense.

(And that is how I tied all of this together into a nice ball … or basketball, if you will.)

Rant #3,137: Forget

With everything going on, something passed me by that shouldn’t have, but did.

On May 4, the Ranting and Raving Blog celebrated its 14th anniversary.

I don’t know how it got past me, but it did.

For 14 years, this blog has been a constant.

Where other blogs have started off with grand ambitions and have quickly fallen by the wayside, this blog has continued, never losing its focus, and is always there to provide you with my thoughts and opinions.

It has been a fun ride, and I can’t see it stopping anytime soon.

It is just so much fun to have a forum to talk about anything I want to talk about, and you don’t have to agree with me on anything I believe in.

This is my perfect format for telling you stories, for venting, and for allowing me to write about what I want to write about.

So, for 14 years, I have allowed you get into my head.

Sometimes I tell you the full story, and sometimes I hold back things that I don’t think are relevant to the discussion.

But whatever we are talking about, I never pull any punches, even if my thoughts are not popular ones or are at the very least controversial.

And it is all done in fun.

Another anniversary that recently passed that I did not mention was the ninth anniversary of my bad car accident, which happened on May 10, 2014.

It is an anniversary that I really don’t want to remember, but I am almost forced to remember due to the circumstances.

Some kid T-boned my car on a rainy day, flipped myself and my family over in the car, and we all somehow escaped with very minor injuries.

It could have been so much worse.

A few weeks later, I got my new car, the car I am still driving, and that car just hit 97,000 miles as I push it to the magic 100,000-mile mark.

It has been a great car, but I just wish that I wasn’t forced into buying it when I did, but that seems to be the story of my life, being forced to do things that I don’t want to do but have to do.

It will be four years in October—October 10 to be exact—when the company I was employed by for more than 20 years went belly-up.

Again, I was thrown to the curb by this action, and eventually, without any light at the end of the tunnel, I was forced to retire against my will.

I finally got something where I could bring some money into my wallet, but let’s be honest about it, it is nothing but a cash Band-Aid, and it is not the way I wanted to go out.

And I went out not on my own terms, which makes the situation all the more horrible.

Another anniversary that I did not bring up here was the one I had on May 15, when it was the 35th anniversary of me becoming a father.

What that translates to is that my daughter turned 35 on that day eight days ago, and believe me, I don’t get any rush from it at this point in my life.

As you know, I rarely see my daughter, that is her choice, and I have come to live with that reality.

All the fight I put into being part of her life when she was younger is pretty much in the rear view mirror, and there is really very little I can do about it.

So while I wished her “Happy Birthday,” I did it in a text, because on the celebration of my own birthday, she kind of let me down, but again, what else is new?

I have learned, and I have learned the hard way, that you can only do so much.

So while some of these anniversaries are kind of depressing, the 14th anniversary of this blog is not one of those.

It is fun to do this, and the fun isn’t stopping in the foreseeable future.

Why stop?

I am having too much fun here, and with fun at a premium in my life, I am not going to stop doing something that I enjoy doing.

So here is to another year of the Ranting and Raving Blog, and many more years to come!

Rant #3,136: Fight the Power

This past weekend, it was announced that Jim Brown had died.

No, not James Brown the singer, or James Brown the sportscaster.

We are talking about Jimi Brown, the legendary football player, actor and activist who had perhaps one of the most interesting lives of anyone on the planet.

Yes, there was confusion even though the Jim Brown I am talking about here had one of the most interesting life stories of anyone I can think of, and his story was an American one, one that could only happen in this country.

He was born in Georgia and raised by his grandmother while his single mother looked for work in the North, and in the New York suburbs.

At age eight, he moved to Long Island, to Manhasset, as pearly white a Long Island town as there ever was or will be.

The only people of color you saw there were the servants of the rich white people who lived on the estates there.

Brown went to Manhasset High School, and he played every sport that was offered at the school, and he was good at all of them, not just football, but baseball, track and field, basketball, and the game he loved the most and was the best at, lacrosse.

His sports heroics continued on to college, and he chose football over all of the other sports because he believed it was the fastest track to stardom of all of these sports, and when he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, he went on to set every record there was to set, and then after nine seasons, at age 30, right in his prime, he did the unthinkable—

He retired from football, and retired way before his time.

Even if you weren’t a football fan, you knew of his exploits, and realizing that he didn’t need to sacrifice his body any more on the ball field to earn his day’s keep—and much more than that—he went right into the movies as the first black action star.

He eventually made several dozen movies, but his earliest films—including “The Dirty Dozen”—cemented his stardom well beyond what he attained on the football field—and made him more money, too.

During the filming of “100 Rifles,” he explained his departure from football by saying something to the effect of, “I am in a movie with Raquel Welch, I don’t have to earn my money by getting beat up on the football field, so what’s not to like?”

But being the one black on many of his pursuits—whether it was sports or being the only “colored” kid in school—made him want to get more into the burgeoning civil rights scene of the time, and along with the NBA’s Bill Russell, he was one of the first athletes to use their podium to say what they had to say about the racial problems of that time period.

And he continued that pursuit when he became an actor, and he felt that that was his true legacy beyond whatever records he made as a football player.

But in retirement, his legacy became clouded,, and that is probably why he is not held in the highest regard for his work in civil rights as, say, fellow athlete Russell or other high-profile blacks at the time, such as Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Brown had a problem with his treatment of women, and was arrested several times for violence against females.

And what made it worse was that he never apologized for any of it, even serving jail time because he refused to acknowledge this violence.

So while he was fighting for civil rights, he also, apparently, was fighting with the opposite sex, figuratively and literally.

It tarnished his reputation, lessened his legacy, and relegated him to a life of B- and C-movies, never quite reaching the film stardom that he should have attained.

But he never stopped fighting for respect, for himself and others who didn’t have a voice, but he was truly a complicated person to understand.

There is no question that Jim Brown was the greatest football player that ever lived.

But as an overall human being, he was far from an all-star, even with his exploits to make the human playing field level.

R.I.P. Jim Brown, a totally imperfect human being who tried to make the world he lived in a perfect one while battling his own personal demons.

Rant #3,135: Spanish Flea

I had a much better sleep last night, had no nightmares, had a dream I did remember a bit about—interviewing baseball’s all-time stolen base leader, Ricky Henderson—and that was pretty much it.

I have no idea why I was thinking about Henderson, but anything is better than having one ni9ghtmare after the other.

And it is Friday, so we are just one day away from the weekend.

The other day, I had a somewhat strange encounter at the gas station while filling up my car with gas.

I drove into the station and pulled up to the tank, got out of the car, and starting pumping gas, paying at the pump.

I was about a minute into the pumping, and another car came into the station, pulled up to the tank on the other side of where I was, and a man got out of the car, starting pumping gas himself—

And then started to talk to me in a blue streak of Spanish.

(I have no idea why he thought I would understand him in that language; did I look Hispanic that day? … maybe I did, because it was on Wednesday morning that this happened, and perhaps, with the sleep dust still in his eyes, and me with s several day growth of beard on my face, maybe that threw him off.)

I took Spanish in school through my senior year of high school, and was actually so good in the language at the time that I was offered AP Spanish, which I very stupidly did not take.

(I watched so much pro wrestling on the Spanish channels of the day—channels 41 and 47—that, as a residual effect, I picked up a lot of the language from watching those channels and the wrestling announcers—Louie Magana and Miguel Alonzo—describing the action in Spanish.)

But that was how many years ago?

Almost 50, and let me tell you, I don’t remember that much Spanish at this period in my life.

But after I told him that I did not understand him—in English, of course—I kind of went over what he said ot me in Spanish, and I was able to pick out a couple of words that I did know.

I said to him, “You are talking about the weather, aren’t you?” and honestly, I did not expect him to reply to me, based on his all-Spanish introduction to me a few seconds earlier.

He replied to me in very broken English, something like, “Si. It is cold today, not hot, supposed to be summer, but it is cold.”

(I think his reply was mainly in Spanish, too, but I am just anglicizing it for content purposes … whatever it was, I was able to pretty much make out what he said to me.)

I replied, all in English, “Yes, but it is going to get warmer in a few days.”

I then finished pumping the gas, brought the hose back to the pump, and said to him, “Have a good day,” and then pulled away my car and went on my merry way.

(I honestly did not think to say to him “Buenos dias,” because I was so perplexed by the encounter to begin with, and I guess my brain had used up its allotment of Spanish for the day.)

The guy was trying to be social and nice, and I do wish I could have understood him a bit more, so I could have had a better conversation with him, but I guess it was not meant to be.

I remember that way back when I went to school, I first took French, which for a variety of reasons—including the teacher, who literally looked down on us boys—I absolutely hated, but when I took Spanish, I was more in my comfort zone, and I excelled.

But it has been so many years since that time, and you know what they say, “You don’t use it, you lose it.”

And I have, almost entirely, but it is funny how the brain works, and it still clings to some of the Spanish that I learned all those years ago.

So in my conclusion to the final Rant of the week, I will tell you this:

“Que tengas una buena fin de semana, y te hablaré de nuevo el Lunes,”

(I think I got that right.)

Rant #3,134: Quicksand

Another crazy night of sleep for me last night.

Another nightmare, another period of restlessness, and when I finally got to sleep, I slept, and overslept, and thus, the lateness of this Rant.

I firmly believe that the added pressures of what is going on over here—my mother’s condition, and now my wife’s situation, and some other things—is having a major impact on my psyche, and it really is not enabling me to relax during the optimum time for relaxation, which means bedtime.

My mother’s situation is pretty static.

It is what it is, and it really isn’t going to ever get any better; in fact, it will probably get much worse.

But she has her days, and yesterday, she seemed to be as chipper as could be, mainly because she actually ate something yesterday, including for dinner.

Food provides the nutrients one needs to get through the day, and you could see a definite change in her yesterday from prior days, where she ate minimally at best.

My wife is getting better by the day, and although she is getting hit with paperwork and other things related to her head injury, she is as bored as can be, ready to take on the world again, but as I mentioned the other day, the doctor basically told her “not just yet.”

She had another CAT Scan yesterday, and I am sure it will show great improvement from the first CAT Scan she had, which showed the damage to her skull from the fall she had.

She is feisty, wants to resume her activities, but I don’t think she will be able to, at least fully, for some time.

You don’t fool with such injuries, so she is just going to have to bide her time and let her body heal.

I think this is all playing out in my mind, and since I am in overdrive during the day froim everything I have on my plate, it is very difficult to turn it off at night, and that is why I am not sleeping like I should and why I am having nightmares on top of everything else.

The one nightmare I had last night that I remember, at least partly, involved my son and myself.

He was much younger than he is today, and we were going to an amusement park and he was really acting up big time, and was totally uncontrollable.

There were several incidents during the nightmare, but the one that I remember fully was that he put his face into the dirt and rubbed his face fully into the dirt, and then he took his face out of the dirt and smiled at me.

I then woke up in a huff.

I have no idea what the dream means, because my son has been a “Rock of Gibraltar” though all of what is happing with my mother and my wife.

When he was younger, he used to act up in certain situations that he felt uncomfortable in, but due to his own maturation, and yes, due to the proper drug therapy related to his developmental disability, we really haven’t had the least bit of a problem with him at all for several years.

I like to think that is more his own maturation than what any pill is doing for him, but bringing me back to a time when he was a bit of a problem made my nightmare even more unsetting to me, so unsettling that I had to move myself to the living room to sleep rather than try to sleep in the bed that I had the nightmare in.

And that is where I slept, and finally slept well, for about two hours, sleeping so well that I overslept.

I guess that there is just so much going on in my extended family right now—I am only telling you a portion of the full story—that this is the way my mind handles it all, even though it is quite unsettling.

I know I—and we--will get through all of this in due time, and yes, I am trying to do some things for myself that will make things calmer, at least for me.

There is a record show coming up in my community, and I plan to go to it sometime on Sunday, an activity that I find pretty relaxing.

And then I digitize whatever I buy so that I can listen to the music in the car, and I find that entire process—from creating the digital files to listening to them in the car—very relaxing.

I already listen to stuff in the car that I digitize, so my time in the car—including driving my son back and forth to work—is kind of relaxing … until I hear a “skip” in what I have digitized, which throws me for a loop.

And then I have work, which is not relaxing, but in a funny way, it gets me away from everything going on around me, so it can be relaxing in a strange sort of way.

But whatever relaxation I get, it doesn’t take away the fact that there is a lot swirling around me right now, involving people that I love, and it does take its toll on you when it is one thing after another after another.

But you can bet that I will get through it all … hopefully in one piece.

Rant #3,133: Broken

Today is the day that I am bringing in my bottles and cans—mostly plastic water bottles—to the supermarket for recycling.

I usually do this every other Monday, but I couldn’t do it this week on that day because I had to go with my wife to the doctor to find out how she was doing after her fall.

And I could not go yesterday, because 1) I had to take my wife to the gym she belongs to so she could tell them that she was holding off on her membership while she recuperates, and 2) I was just too busy with things from work to take the time out to do this.

So today looks like the day, and I will do this after I bring my son to work.

Maybe, if I can finish what I have to do early this morning in a reasonable amount of time, I can bring the bottles in before I take him to work, but somehow, I doubt that I am going to have the time to do this, so doing this after taking him to work is a better time.

And this afternoon, I have to pick up my son from work, and right after that, take my wife for another CAT Scan to see how see how her head wound is healing and that everything else there is getting better.

I don’t mind bringing in the bottles and cans, as I have been doing this for decades, or since New York State instituted this program probably around 40 years ago.

What I do mind is that at least at the supermarkets that I go to, a lot of times the machines don’t work, the returns area is filthy, and the restriction of 150 bottles at a time is not enforced.

I have seen people bring in thousands of bottles at a time, which is against the law in New York State, and what they do is hog the machines so you can’t get to them … and when you finally get to them, they don’t work.

There are two types of machines that these supermarkets use, and the grocery closest to my house uses the old fashioned one, the one where you literally have to shove the bottle or can into the machine, it reads the URL code, and it either accepts or rejects the bottle or can.

These machines are so filthy that they often reject perfectly good bottles and cans, so you just have to shove them in again until they accept them, often taking the bottle caps off of the plastic bottles to do so (why, I don’t know, third base).

And then you have the newer machines, which use a conveyor belt to bring in the bottle or can, which is a cleaner and better method than the old fashioned one.

And each gives you receipts—not cash as they used to—when you are done with your recycling—a ploy to get you into the store, where you will invariably buy something with the cash that you received from the recycling.

Now, beyond the broken machines and filthy conditions, there is a major problem with the newer machines, which I cannot believe is not illegal in New York State.

One supermarket’s machines only accept bottles from their store, meaning that if they do not sell a particular brand of water or seltzer or soda or whatever—even if it is a major brand—the machines will not accept the bottles or cans.

This, of course, should be illegal, in particular with the branded products, because they are so plentiful and most people buy them rather than the no-brand or store brand.

I mean, we are supposedly recycling these bottles because we are trying to help our environment stay clean of these bottles and cans, so aren’t we all in this together?

What infuriates me most about this is that the store I go to with the conveyor belt machines is one of those German-based, smaller supermarkets which only sell a short list of items, so they invariably won’t offer even the most popular water or seltzer to their customers, so the bottles and cans won’t go through.

Why isn’t this illegal?

We are trying to keep the environment clean, our shared environment, not just the one where the supermarket operates.

Why are these bottles from major beverage producers not accepted in these stores’ machines?

It is infuriating, and not worth the nickel I get for each bottle or can I recycle, but the other store I go to generally does not accept the other store’s no-brand and store brand bottles and cans, so as you can see, there is something of a conspiracy here as to what one supermarket accepts in my community and what one supermarket does not accept.

We share the same environment, so why aren’t the acceptances reciprocal?

Is this about the environment, or is it more about business?

I think the latter, and that is just so wrong.

It is like saying that the store has the power to decide whether it will even accept a national brand of water, and if it doesn’t accept it, just throw it on the ground, because you aren’t going to get the lousy five cents for it anyway.

That is exactly what we were doing as a society before recycling came to the fore, so we haven’t really progressed that much in 40 years.

Recycling because we are so concerned at saving the environment?

Hah!

It all has to do with business, which means that ultimately, it all has to do with the money.

Rant #3,132: Welcome To My Nightmare

I am back at my usual perch after taking yesterday off tending to my wife and her early doctor’s visit.

Everything went pretty well.

Her skull is healing … she is still under numerous restrictions, including no gym, no driving and no alcohol … and she has to go through more tests, including a CAT scan which she will take tomorrow.

I think that if she bides her time, my wife will be OK and will come out of this as good as new, but being that it involves her skull, it is something that has to be dealt with in increments … meaning that it will take a few months before she is as good as can be.

Workman’s comp is another matter.

Her workplace is fighting her tooth and nail and on this, and I kind of knew that this was going to happen when I brought the paperwork to them.

I gave the paperwork to the manager, and he never asked how my wife was doing. He was pretty stoic even having lost one of this best workers, someone who had been there since the store opened.

And then, my wife saw that they only paid her for a half day on the day of the accident, and did not pay her for the following day at all—her regular workday—so we kind of know who we are dealing with here.

Let the process proceed, but early indications are that we are in for a fight with them, and if that ends up being true, we will fight back.

That is all I am going to say on the matter right now, other than happily, my wife is getting better by the day.

I am holding up through all of this, but I did have a bad night last night, having one nightmare after the other while I tried to sleep.

I don’t remember much about the nightmares—one had to do with my car being stolen, which is a nightmare I have had probably a dozen times in recent years—but I somehow got through the nightmares even though I didn’t sleep too much.

What caused me to have the nightmares is a good question, but hopefully, I had my fill of such horrid dreams and can have a good sleep tonight.

The car nightmare might just have been provoked by something that actually happened about two weeks ago on a Friday night.

My son and I had just arrived home from his basketball night on that Friday night, and it was well past 9 p.m. when I got up from the couch as we were watching wrestling on TV and I just happened to take a peak out the window.

My car was parked where it is always parked—right in front of the house--but I noticed that another car was parked just opposite it, with its headlights pointing squarely on my car.

It dawned on me that the lights were pointed directly on my car to use as a light for some crooks to possibly steal my catalytic converter, so I kept on going to the window, wanting these potential thieves to see what was going on, that I saw them, and what they were planning to do, even before they started the process.

As you probably know, theft of catalytic converters have become big business in my neck of the woods because the metals in the converters are valuable on the black market.

So erring on the side for caution, I kept going back to the window, and lo and behold, after a couple of minutes, the car in question pulled away in such a huff that you just know that my car had been chosen for their larceny.

I could kick myself for not getting their license plate or the make and model of their car, but when I saw this transpiring, the only thought in my mind was to protect my own car, and nothing else.

Happily, that was the extent of it, but I guess the incident has put my car on my mind, and thus, I had another dream about the car being stolen.

But anyway, my wife is getting better each and every day, and it is just a matter of time before she is back to where she should be.

Consequently, our Mother’s Day was a bit subdued, but it was still nice.

My wife was not up to going to a restaurant, so I ordered from two restaurants, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, so we had better meals those days than the usual fast food stuff we get on the weekend.

My mother was there with us on Saturday evening, and she was going to celebrate Mother’s Day with my sister’s family on Sunday, so she was all covered for the holiday.

I hope you had a good Mother’s Day, and hopefully, by Mother’s Day 2024, my wife will put this real nightmare behind her and be able to move on from it.

It’s one thing when you have a nightmare in your sleep that goes away when you wake up, and it’s another thing when you have a real nightmare that doesn’t go away so easily.

Rant #3,131: Mama

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, and to some, this is the holiest day of the year.

It is the day that we celebrate mothers, those women who gave birth to us and gave birth to our children.

This year, my family is going to have a very subdued celebration.

My wife continues to mend after her recent fall, and my mother’s dementia is really starting to get the best of her in uncertain ways.

We will celebrate the day—my son and I bought cards and gifts for the two of them—but it is going to be very subdued, and I hope it will be as fun as it can be under the circumstances.

My wife and mom deserve a day to celebrate themselves and their accomplishments, and no matter what their physical condition is, they will get what they deserve this weekend.

Here is what I wrote, in edited form, about the holiday in Rant #2,141, dated May 11, 2018:

“Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Yes, I am wishing all of you ladies a happy Mother's Day two days early because I generally do not write blog posts on Sundays, and that is when what some call "the holiest day of the year" occurs.

Without our moms, we would not be here. Yes, the same could be said of fathers, too, but we have our day next month, so let's focus on moms right now.

They are our first best friends, because we grow inside of them.

When the time comes after nine months, they are the ones that bear us.

And when the time comes, they are basically the ones who nurture us.

Dads are there, too, but our relationship with our fathers is similar, but different.

Often the first words we say as babies is "mama," and there is a clear, distinct reason for that.

I don't know if my first word was "mama," but I respect my mother with all my heart.

And the same could be said for my wife, the mother of my son, who is a mother through and through.

Yes, mothers are the best people in the world, and on Sunday, we celebrate their greatness, but we really should be celebrating 365 days a year, because mothers are that good.

And on Mother's Day, I often think about my grandmothers. Even though mine have both been deceased since the 1990s, they live on in my heart. They were two great people, and I will never forget them.”

Little did I realize five years ago that the two mothers my family are celebrating would be not themselves at this point in time, but things are looking up for both of them.

My mother—who does not eat regularly even when watched over, and doesn’t seem to understand, at this point, what she is doing to herself by not eating—actually gained two ponds when she went to the doctor this week, certainly due to my prodding her to eat.

She now weighs all of 100 pounds, but still down a dozen pounds from a year-and-a-half ago.

It isn’t easy—it often feels like I am the parent and she is four years old when trying to get her to eat—but whatever I am doing seems to be working, to an extent, and until the next time she goes to the doctor and they find she has lost weight, which I know is coming.

My wife goes to the doctor in an early Monday appointment, where she will be checked out to see where she is after the bad fall she took last week.

I have no doubt that she is going to be given a relatively clean bill of health, with limitations, of course; you can’t fall on your head like she did and expect to walk out of the doctor’s office scot-free.

But I believe the doctor will tell her that yes, she is healing, and yes, she can do many things she wasn’t allowed to do before, but with limitations.

She seems to be physically better, and appears to be more annoyed at the inactivity than anything else.

The other day, I asked her flat-out what she wanted for Mother’s Day, and she told me, “I want to be better and be myself.”

I told her that that would be her Mother’s Day gift from God, but if she continues to adhere to the program, she will get there in due time.

So all you moms, have a great Mother’s Day!

Due to my wife’s early doctor’s appointment on Monday, I will have to skip that day’s Rant, hopefully with good news all around.

Please keep my wife in your thoughts this weekend, and have a great weekend, a great Mother’s Day, and I will speak to you again on Tuesday.

Rant #3,130: Can You Dig It?

Today, I am going to tell you about the tale of an old T-shirt.

It is a shirt that I really enjoy wearing for a variety of reasons, but it riles my wife each and every time that I put it on.

“Why don’t you throw that thing out already?” she asks me every time I wear it. “It’s old and it has holes in it.”

“Yes” on both accounts, but I simply cannot throw out this shirt.

It is comfortable, is a bit different than the norm, and I have always liked the shirt since I first bought it in 2012 or so.

The shirt memorializes the Monkees first and only motion picture, “Head,” certainly one of the strangest movies ever filmed but if you give it a go—or two, or three, or maybe even four watches, and you have an open mind, you will see that this is actually one of the best films about rock and roll ever put on celluloid.

More to the point, the shirt honors the LP that came from this film, with its mirror cover making YOU the actual subject of the album cover ever time you look at it.

And the film had a great soundtrack, featuring songs written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Harry Nilsson and the Monkees themselves, including “Porpoise Song,” “Daddy’s Song” and the blueprint for neo-country metal cowboy space rock, “Circle Sky.”

And yes, both the film and the LP flopped badly when released in 1968, as the Monkees deconstructed themselves in this movie and imploded while doing it, but over the last 55 years, the film, its soundtrack, and anything having to do with “Head” have reached cult status.

But back to my shirt …

If I remember correctly, I bought this shirt at one of the Monkees’ innumerable reunion concerts that began in the 1980s and lasted through Mike Nesmith’s death nearly three years ago.

I think this was at their 2012 reunion, after Davy Jones passed away and Nesmith rejoined Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz on the concert stage.

I had never seen a “Head” T-shirt before, so I snapped it up, and I have worn the shirt for the past nearly dozen years or so—

And it probably looks like I have worn it for each and every one of the more than 3,000 days encompassing that time period.

It has a couple of small holes in it, it is all stretched out … but I like it, so I continue to wear it.

I am not going to a wedding or bar mitzvah, so really, does it matter that I still wear the shirt on days that are ho hum and nothing special?

I think guys are like that.

Most of us are not clothes horses, we like the clothes that we like, and we will wear them until they are unwearable.

I remember an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” where on a lazy weekend, Rob would wear this old, nearly ripped-to-shreds getup and it would make Laura crazy.

I guess it is the same way over here; when my wife sees this shirt, she just goes bananas (yes, the Monkees/bananas connection is duly noted).

But again, I like the spirit that the shirt conveys.

I have told my wife a thousand times that if I had a substitute or a replacement for the shirt, I might just ditch this one and wear that one in its place, but since I don’t have one, well, this shirt marches on.

And our weather story for today and the next few days leans me even more to wearing the shirt at least once during the next three or four days, because it is going to be in the 80s each of these days, and this is a cool shirt to wear on such hot days.

Guys, and you ladies too--haven’t you ever had something that you know is beyond its expiration date, but you keep it out of allegiance to whatever it is?

I guess I feel that way about this shirt.

I loved the movie, I loved the soundtrack, I really enjoyed the entire Monkees’ project and program, so the shirt still lives on my body, not every day but certainly every once in a while.

And “As We Go Along,” I will continue to wear this shirt, even though my wife certainly will ask me “Do We Have To Do This All Over Again?”

And I will reply:

“Can You Dig It?”

Rant #3,129:Bits and Pieces

OK, it is due time for another “Bits and Pieces” entry, where we go over a few stories that don’t demand a full Rant to get through.

So without further ado, here is today’s “Bits and Pieces” entry:

Trump Found Liable For Sexually Abusing, Defaming Woman: Let me get this straight … I thought this was a trial about rape, about something ungodly that supposedly happened between the future President and this supposed journalist 30 years ago.

The journalist accused the future President of sexually attacking her in the backroom of a store all those decades ago, but she could not convince the jury that he actually raped her, which to me, seemed to be the end of the story right then and there.

So exactly what did the younger Trump do to this woman that led to her convincing the jury that she was sexually abused if they found that no rape was committed?

I can almost understand the defaming portion of this, because the older Trump went after this woman whole hog, calling her just about every name in the book to show that she was nothing but a gold-digger.

But by the jury’s decision, isn’t that just what she is?

She walked out of the court beaming,m, even though the main charge brought against Trump was thrown out ... but she got her money, and in today's world, I guess that means that she has triumphed.

I am not defending Trump at all … but I do not understand what actions he perpetrated on her to get a sexual abuse conviction if he did not rape her.

Don’t they literally go hand in hand?

And yes she made plenty of money off of this verdict; from what I heard, she will get $5 million from Trump … and if she wasn’t raped, why is she getting the bulk of this money from sexual abuse?

Again, what did Trump do to her if she was sexually abused but not sexually attacked?

Trump damned himself with that ridiculous video deposition, where he made himself look so idiotic with his replies to questions surrounding this woman and the supposed incident … basically, “Trump convicted Trump” with his arrogance … but I still want to know what he did to warrant such a verdict.

His lawyers will certainly appeal this verdict, but he won’t win, and some people—women and men—love this guy so much that it won’t matter anyway.

The Republicans are trying to distance themselves from their presumptive candidate for President in 2024, but the Democrats shouldn’t be snickering … their own former President, Bill Clinton paid off several women before any similar trials were to begin.

Rep. George Santos Charged By Federal Prosecutors: Again, even the greatest writers in the world couldn’t make this story up as a work of fiction.

Rep. George Santos, supposedly of New York and the creator of personal fabrications not seen before, has been charged by federal prosecutors with crimes, supposedly related to allegations of false statements made related to his finances.

As I told you weeks ago, you can tell tall tales until you are blue in the face … it is not illegal to lie in the public forum.

But once it involves money. the outlay of money, where the money came from, and from whom and for what purpose(s), it gets a bit more serious and substantive, and in this case, Santos could be cited, and yesterday, he was.

And if you think Trump has chutzpah, Santos has defined that very word since taking office, even to the extent that he has already filed to run again for his seat when it comes up for vote next year.

This guy has told tall tales about everything from his religious background to his educational background, seems to think that is an OK thing to do, and has not served his constituents one iota in the process.

I am sure that he will be found guilty on every count that the feds lob at him, but we shouldn’t feel too bad for the guy.

Once he pays his fines and serves his jail time (if any), you just know he has a best-selling book in him, and everyone from CNN to Fox to MSNBC to the major networks will vie for his “expertise” as a political commentator, so in the end, cheaters do prosper, don’t they now?

My Wife Is Doing Better: My wife is doing better after her fall the other day.

She is able to do more each day without pushing herself too much, but Monday is the day where we will find out exactly where she stands with this head injury, and what she can do and can’t do as we go forward.

She appears to have been very, very lucky in this fall, as she “only” appears to have a bump on her head, and she appears to be healing every day.

But we will find out from the doctor for sure where she is with this, and then I think she will be able to breathe a sigh of relief about what happened, what could have been, and where she is going in the near future.

My Computer Is Doing Worse: Not to really compare the two, but today, my computer had a lot of trouble starting up after several days of starting up on the very first try, so there is something wrong with this unit and it isn’t going away sp quickly, if at all.

Thankfully, I have just about everything backed up that I need that is on this computer, so if it goes, it goes.

But I don’t want it to go, because it is like an old friend … it and I get along so well together, and it has served me proud for years now.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

And I will speak to you tomorrow … same Bat time, same Bat channel … .

Rant #3,128: Shame, Shame, Shame

Today is a big anniversary in my life, a touchstone that I will never forget.

Today is the 53rd anniversary of my bar mitzvah.

I had my bar mitzvah ceremony on this day in 1970, but I did not have my party this day because it was during a scared period in the Jewish religion where you cannot have such parties, so that was put off until near the end of this month.

But I read my Haftorah that day 53 years ago, even though I was sick as could be.

I have gone into this story many times here. It has become part of the folklore of my family, where the New York Knicks winning the NBA championship the night before—and Willis Reed walking onto the court, or more to the point, limping onto the court—not only propelled the Knicks to victory, but it energized my sick body enough that I was barely able to get through my speech and become a man in the Jewish religion.

I won’t go into that entire story again—more than I just did—but it is 100-percent true, and as the current Knicks team battles the Miami Heat in the playoffs, maybe my story can spur them on as their story energized me 53 years ago.

They are going to need it, as the Knicks are down three games to one in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

And let me bring up my bar mitzvah experience even more to the present time.

I had that experience as a Jew in America, a second-generation-born-in-the- U.S.A. Jew who benefited from my grandparents coming to the country in the early part of the 20th century (my maternal grandmother was already here, but my three other grandparents all came over from Eastern Europe during that period more than 100 years ago).

My grandparents came to this country as young people looking for a new and better way of life, and through hard work and their own smarts, they were able to carve out that new and better life for themselves and later, their families.

My grandparents came literally from what you might call “nothing,” and they made themselves into something and followed that up with kids and grandkids and great grandkids who really lived the American dream, and still do.

Thousands of other Jewish families in America have the same story, and some of us have reached historic heights in every semblance of success.

To celebrate that great success we hare had—as well as the struggles we continue to have, as anti-Semitism is on a dramatic rise in this country—we have Jewish American Heritage Month, which started in 2006 and is this month, to put a spotlight on our accomplishments in this country, as well as the problems some still have with us being as successful as many of us are here.

Jews are clearly woven into the fabric of our country’s history, but some still refuse to acknowledge this fact.

The problem is that this annual celebration gets virtually no acknowledgement from the mainstream media, receives little-to-no coverage at all, paling in comparison to other such celebrations which dot the calendar throughout the year.

Why is that?

The reason is that Jews are not part of the government's eight Special Emphasis programs, which includes Asians, Blacks, Women. LGBTQ and others, meaning that the federal government does not consider Jews as an oppressed group.

With anti-Semitic acts on a steep rise every year, and with an increasing amount of hate speech directed at the Jewish population, this is, quite frankly, hard to believe, but true.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which is also this month, gets precedence and full coverage because this group is thought to be oppressed by our government and our country.

It is shameful, but it is true.

Not to minimize their pain, but we get bombarded this month by tributes, remembrances and what have you for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but little to nothing about Jewish American Heritage Month, which is really striking for a variety of reasons.

Notice that the rise of anti-Semitism is real—the latest mass murder in Texas, in a shopping mall, was perpetrated by a gunman who had wide anti-Semitic views.

So why the cover-up beyond what I just told you?

And don’t tell me that the lack of coverage for this month does not add to the rise in anti-Semitism that we are going through now, but I think that, unfortunately, my Jewish brethren are at least partly to blame for this invisibility.

Many of us cavalierly have blended themselves into the mainstream of society, and have no idea what anti-Semitism is, simply because they don’t really know who they are.

And many others know what anti-Semitism is, but choose to ignore its very existence.

This is just so wrong on both counts, but as a proud Jewish American, I, personally don’t ignore what is happening in this country right now as easily as others seemingly do.

To each his own, but when Jews are not considered to be oppressed anymore, yet anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise, there is something wrong here, something very wrong.

That Jewish people in this country have somehow persevered through all the hatred is to be commended, and almost completely ignoring Jewish American Heritage Month is a clear slap in the face to this group of people who have had such a major impact on our nation.

And yes, ignoring this month is also sort of under-the-radar anti-Semitism, which is probably the worst anti-Semitism that there is, because it clearly exists, but is completely ignored by the mainstream, the very faction that perpetuates its existence.

Rant $3,127: Head Games

This past weekend was pretty much a throwaway, but what happened late last week just added another brick to my family’s already heavy load.

On Thursday morning, everything seemed fine with us … my wife and son went to work, and since that day of the week is my shopping day, I prepared to go to the supermarket as I also prepared to do some of my own work later on at home.

I went to the supermarket as planned, and as I was coming home to drop off the groceries before eating lunch, doing some work, and picking up my son, I received a call from my wife sometime after 11 a.m. which was pretty alarming.

“I am in the hospital,” she told me. “I hurt my finger at work, and please come over to the hospital.”

So I had to pivot from being about half-way home to going to a hospital I had never been to. I used the GPS on my phone, and I found where I had to go, and arrived there pretty quickly.

I went to the emergency room, and was led to where she was, and she was with a doctor there.

“How is your finger?” I asked, and before my wife had a chance to reply, the doctor cut in and said, “I’m afraid the finger is the least of her problems.”

What I soon learned is that much more happened than a bloody finger that put my wife in the hospital.

My wife had a fractured skull.

At that point, they had no idea of the severity of the injury, and let me tell you what happened for her to get such an injury.

My wife works in a restaurant which specializes in salads. It is a small chain, and she has worked in this particular restaurant since it opened about six months ago.

She is part of the prep staff, and went about her duties that day like any other day, which meant cutting and preparing all different types of vegetables for the salads.

She was cutting beets using a machine, and the beets got caught in the machine.

My wife reached her hand into the mechanism to clean it out so the beets would go through, and she cut herself on the cutting blade.

She saw blood, fainted, and fell backward onto the floor, with the full force of the fall being on her head.

She was knocked out for several minutes as a hospital ambulance came to get her, and after an examination, it was determined that she had a fractured skull.

This particular hospital does not have a unit that specializes in severe skull injuries, so my wife was eventually transferred to another hospital—and was released later that evening, as the injury is supposedly not as severe as it could have been.

She still has a skull fracture—incredibly, no concussion--but it is a hairline fracture, she has a bad bump on her head, and she is pretty much restricted in what she can do for the foreseeable future.

She cannot drive, she cannot exercise, she cannot do anything taxing, so she is basically relegated to the couch for at least the next week or so until we go to the doctor next Monday.

She actually was very lucky, as the injury is evidently not severe enough to require surgery.

So right now, she has to heal, to get better, and is doing that by being a couch potato and by taking the medicine that they gave her … but she has felt sick and not herself the past few days, which I guess is understandable after what she went through.

I pray that she gets better quickly and is OK, but when you are dealing with this type of injury, the rehab is not immediate, and can take quite a while depending on the severity of the injury and the person who has the injury.

She just got up from sleep, and she told me that she feels a bit better, less wobbly than before, but she is really going to have to bide her time until we can get to the doctor next week.

This could have been so much worse, but it is bad enough, especially for an active person that can’t sit on the couch too much and gets antsy pretty quickly.

So we just have to wait this thing out, will find out more about it in a week, and we just have to thank our lucky stars that it wasn’t worse than it actually was.

Now, we play the waiting game on this thing, and in a week, I am sure my wife will be fine … but I think her days at this job are pretty much over, as it is too difficult for her to do this type of work … and who knows, at this point, when she can do any work outside of the home?

When the dust settles, if she wants to continue to work—or more importantly, needs to work—she is going to have to find a less demanding job than this one, where she constantly complained about leg and back pain.

Yes, I am putting the cart before the horse, and I really shouldn’t do that.

Let her get better and back to normal first, and then we will deal with that part of the equation.

I hope and pray that she is OK and can heal as quickly as possible.

I love my wife and I hate to see her in this condition … she will get all the time she needs to mend, however long it takes.

Rant #3,126: Ticket To Ride

Yesterday was an exasperating day on a number of levels.

I will tell you more about the day next week, but right now, let me tell you about the evening.

I watched professional wrestling with my son last night after a long, long day.

It kind of helped me to unwind a bit, and I watched pretty much the whole show with him.

Afterwards, I was still pretty wound up, and I thought I would do a couple of things that I needed to do before I went to sleep.

I had a bunch of mail that I had to go through, which I did, and then I went the electronic-mail route, going on my phone and checking my email before I finally was tired enough to go to bed.

I didn’t think there would be much in there, but to my astonishment, I had one message that caught my eye:

“Download your tickets.”

After the millisecond that it took for that to settle into my brain, I started to do just that, but let me backtrack a bit.

As you know if you are a regular reader of this column, my son is a huge fan of professional wrestling.

It is his go-to thing to watch on TV, and we have literally seen dozen of matches live in various arenas around the country, including locally, the Nassau Coliseum, the UBS Arena, Westbury Music Hall (or whatever they call it now), and Madison Square Garden.

He loves to see the matches live, and I have to admit that there is a certain electricity when you see pro wrestling live than when you see it on TV.

Last year, we went to a few such matches—including when we were on vacation in Atlanta—and we had a great time each time we went.

Well, this year, with the Nassau Coliseum and its operations totally on hold as the Nassau Hub project remains far up in the air—and with the Sands gambling organization now the operators of this huge white elephant—the WWE has steered clear of Long Island—one of its main fan bases—for live shows.

My son desperately wanted to go to a live show, and I finally relented, so we are going to see a WWE Smackdown show in early July.

It will be our first venture into Manhattan since the pandemic began—we were at a Knicks game the day prior to the world shutting down in March 2020—and I guess it is time to go through that brick wall and venture a bit our of our comfort zone.

So I scanned the Internet looking for the best ticket deal, and I came across a new secondary ticket site, and ordered the tickets through there.

That is when the problems started.

Somehow—and I don’t yet know how—the site used my two email addresses that I have to send me messages that my ticket order had gone through.

I became a little nervous about this, and when I tried to survey my order on the site, I was getting messages that my order was not there—even though the two email addresses had messages that my order had gone through.

I spoke to a representative from the ticket broker, and they assured me that everything was copacetic, providing me ways to view my order, even though not one of them actually worked.

This went on for a few days, but the broker said that yes, my order had gone through whether I could see it or not, and that I should await an email to tell me how to get the tickets—

Which I got last night, and that started a 90-minute odyssey that did not culminate in me actually getting the tickets in my possession—electronically—until about 11:30 p.m.

Again, I received two emails about the ticket availability in each of my email accounts, but each seemingly counteracted each other—as had the alert that my order had goner through that I told you about earlier—and I simply could not get the tickets.

I finally was able to pivot and received a message that my tickets would be retrievable through my respective email, but each time I tried to get them, I got the message that 1) “there are no tickets in your account” or 2) “something went wrong.”

Now, I cannot tell you how I finally got the tickets, but I never take “no” for an answer, even electronically, and somehow I was able to —through a lot of trial and error and maybe luck—actually see my tickets on my phone screen.

The suggestion by the site was to save them to Google Wallet, which I tried to do about a half dozen times, but it simply would not work, so I could now see the tickets, but I could not save them either to my email or to Google Wallet.

But then I came to thought that became the game changer: rather than save them together, how about saving them separately, or one at a time?

It took me a few minutes to figure that out, and lo and behold, it worked!

After literally after an hour and a half of drudgery, I finally had the tickets in my possession electronically.

This situation almost made me yearn for the day that you had to call to get tickets, or stand on a physical line, sometimes for hours at time, to get tickets.

And, of course, in those days, you received physical tickets, which are now pretty much a thing of the past.

Everything revolves around the phone, and the Internet, which I don’t think is as perfect a world as some might lead us to believe it is.

So I went to bed about 90 minutes later than I thought … but at least I went to bed knowing that I can tell my son when he gets up to go to work a little later this morning that we actually have the tickets in our “electronic” possession.

And that will make my son’s day, so I guess all the toil and trouble I went through was worth it …

Or at least I tell myself that.

Have a great weekend, and I will have plenty to tell you about what happened yesterday when I speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,125; Rock the Boat

I still get ticked off by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and its choices for entrance into this supposedly hallowed Hall.

Yesterday, it announced its newest members, and I have to say, if this isn’t the worst class ever, then certainly, based on this class, the worst is probably yet to come, because I said the same exact thing last year about the 2022 class.

When your top three inductees are named Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott and Kate Bush, you know you are in major trouble.

What these people have to do with rock and roll is beyond my comprehension, but the three of them will generate ad revenue for the yearly show, which I assume qualifies them for even being nominated over many more deserving acts.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been controversial since the get go, and once the obvious inductees were put into the Hall—Elvis Presley, Beatles, Rolling Stones—it was almost a certainty that each and every year, there was going to be a rumble from some quarter at first, the nominees, and second, the inductees.

Not every act that has hit records should be in the Hall of Fame; it is supposed to be what influence that act had on other generations of rock performers, but I fail to see where recent inductees qualify as being influential.

This year’s class includes The Spinners, and that is one act going in that I really can’t argue with.

They were the last of their type of act—the multi-member act of black, male singers based on the Motown model of the Four Tops and the Temptations—and while I would not call them influential, they did have a string of hits into the mid-1990s that made them one of the most popular acts of their generation for all audiences.

OK, they should be in based on the supposed parameters of the Hall, but how about, in addition to the three singers I mentioned earlier, this rogues galley of performers who were voted into the hall in the latest class:

George Michael
Sheryl Crow
Rage Against the Machine
Al Kooper (I am kind of wishy washy on his being elected in and he feels the same way according to news reports.)
Chaka Khan (I feel much the same about her as I do about Kooper.)

I have read numerous articles about the Hall and just about each one of them states the same thing: the latest class shows “inclusion” along racial and gender lines, and the Hall is just so proud of that.

Well, just like in the real world, the use of “inclusion” has been bent to the breaking point to satisfy some egocentric need to include everyone, and when you practice “inclusion,” that also means you are going to practice “exclusion” of those more deserving, and the same thing goes on each and every year in the Hall.

Too many politics, too little listening to the public when it comes to nominations and those who eventually get in.

I can name plenty of acts that should have gotten in years ago that still aren’t in, and probably won’t ever get in, including the following:

Chubby Checker
Lesley Gore
Monkees
Michael Nesmith (as a solo performer, and music and video pioneer)
Tommy James and the Shondells
The Turtles
Three Dog Night

And if I really racked my brain, I could probably think of about 20 more acts that should be in there but aren’t, won’t and will never be.

The newest list of nominees will be announced later this year, and I shudder to think about that group, most of whom will probably have as much right to be elected to the Hall as I do, and maybe less so.

But guaranteed, a year from now, I will probably be as upset with the newest inductees as I am now with the 2023 group, because when you throw politics into anything where it doesn’t belong, you are going to have problems—and dissent.

And even though Jan Wenner doesn’t rule this roost anymore, politics and money run the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and really, always will run the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame …

So what, me worry?