Rant #3,321: Music, Music, Music

I have not done this in quite a while, but it is time for some self promotion.

I run a couple of Facebook sites, and you might be interested in two of them that I am going to highlight today.

The first one is "Where the Action Is, Yesterday, Today ... and Tomorrow," a site that highlights one of TV's great, but almost forgotten, music shows of the past, the Dick Clark-produced "Where the Action Is," which ran on ABC for two sessons or so, from 1965 to 1967.

The show was a Monday through Friday cornucopia of the best in rock and pop music of the time--less the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and some other huge acts that never appeared--and made stars of Paul Revere and the Raiders.

But the show was so much more than just the Raiders, having its own team of regulsr players, including Keith Allison, Tommy Roe, Tina Mason, Steve Alaimo, the Hard Times, Don and the Goodtimes, the Action Kids, and many others.

Predating MTV by more than a dozen years, the show became a TV destination for Baby Boomers, and many of the artists featured on the show weren't on TV elsewhere or only in limited appearances, including Billy Stewart, the Razor's Edge, ? and the Mysterians, and many others.

I try to bring out the eclectic nature if the show on the site, with a daily rundown of artists who appeared on the show along with a rare video of a musical performance, either from the show itself or from other shows of the era.

You can access the site at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Wz8EJnMRYUkP9dRN/?mibextid=oFDknk

Then we have a site simply known as "45s," which highlights those 45 RPM singles that we all bought as kids and which I consider to be an art form in itself.

I have over 5,000 singles in my collection, and while the site isn't a daily one like the "Where the Action Is" site is, I try to put up new singles that I have added to my collection.

After a period of inactivity, I am trying to revive the site, and all are welcome to put up their own 45s or have discussions on this format.

This site can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/GPvr962aDAXwdyVJ/?mibextid=oFDknk

Both are fun, G-rated sites, and you might want to check them out.

Let's have fun!

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

And Happy Easter!

Rant #3,320: Be True To Your School

I have no idea where my high school.yerbook is.

As I have mentioned before here, those four years I spent in high school--newly moved to Long Island, away from my friends, and pretty much not fitting in for my four years of education there--are a forgettable part of my life.

Those unhappy days greatly affected me, and honestly, I have blotted out just about everything having to do with high school.

I remember things in general, but I don't remember much in specifics.

And again, my high school yearbook has been missing in action for years, and I when we moved, it didn't turn up, either.

My junior high school yearbook is an absolute gem, absolutely defining the neighborhood I grew up in, both the good and the bad as well as the very good and the very bad.

This also was lost somewhere down the line, and I was lucky to get a high-grade exact copy of the yearbook from a fellow classmate.

I cherish this yearbook so much that several years ago, I put it up, page by page, on Facebook.

I was able to find my college yearbook, and my undergraduate school did not make it a requirement that graduates get their photo taken for the book, so a lot of the people I hung out with in college--much happier years than my high school years--aren't even in the book, nor are some non-seniors I was friendly with in college.

Graduate school--maybe there was a yearbook, but I never wanted one, nor did I go to graduation; I just waited to get my diploma in the mail, and that was enough for me.

But back to the high school yearbook ...

i just happened to go on the classmates.com site--an address i had not visited in probably more than a decade--and you guessed it, i actually found the yearbook!

I scrolled through it, and my feelings haven't changed.

Those years were bad for me personally, and at least to me, this yearbook doesnt mean much, and to my eye, all these years later, the book is pretty sour.

i remember some of my fellow grads via their graduation photos, and I do remember one imbecile who pushed me so much to the brink during those years that I actually had a fight with him in the middle of the hallway.

(We had to share lockers back then, and he was throwing my stuff all over the place ... I had had trouble with this brat throughout high school, and the full story about this episode is much longer, and I won't go into it now.

Let's just say that i proved my point.)

As for my photo, it really exemplfies how much i hated going to high school.

My hair--yes, i actually had hair--is a mess, due to my remembrance thst they took the pictures during a very windy and very warm summer day.

i walked to school to get the picture taken--it was just a few weeks before i got my driver's license--and when i got to where the photos were being taken, i didnt have a comb to make my hair presentable, so the photo shows my hair all over the place.

Most importantly, my smile is kind of forced. I just wanted to get the whole thing--both the photo and high school.itself--over and done with, and it shows.

(i also remember that all the boys were told that we had to wear a suit jacket for the photo, but on this blistering hot and windy summer day, myself and just about every boy did not wear long pants that day, we wore shorts and sneakers.)

Did looking through the yesrbook--even electronically--spur any good memories of high school? 

Did I get a kick about seeing myself nearly 50 years ago in a picture from the 1970s?

No, not really. 

Upon seeing some of the teachers, I wondered how many were still with us all these years later ... and I also saw a photo of a teacher thst spurred a memory that I would have liked to forget--that being that just about everyone knew he was having an affair with a student when he was in her 30s and she was probably l5 or 16 yesrs old, and yes, they did get married when she was of legal age, if I remember correctly.

What would happen today if such a situation existed?

No, I don't have many memories of high school, certainly not too many good memories at all ...

And I am just so happy that I once again could close the book on this period of my life--

This time, with a simple click!

Rant #3,319: You Better, You Bet

This gambling thing somehow involving baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani and his former translator/confidant/best buddy kind of irks me.

The translator evidently had millions of dollars in gambling debts with a bookie, and if you want to believe the latest explanation of what went on, the translator, who has since been fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that gave Ohtani his historic multi-year contract and oodles of cash, stole the money from Ohtani.

Ohtani, in an obviously carefully vetted statement made during an obviously hastily called news conference by the Dodgers, basically took the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" way out by stating that not only didn't he know that his friend had robbed him, but that he wasn't a bettor himself, whether it was on baseball or any other sport.

And his buddy did not place any bets with the bookie for him; it was all the translator's problem, not Ohtani's.

Ohtani said this--through another translator, of course--then got up, without answering any questions, and walked away so quickly that you thought maybe he had to go to the bathroom --

Not to do #1 ir #2, but to look at himself in the bathroom mirror and wonder about what he said and perhaps, had gotten himself into.

Look, the guy is being paid millions as a baseball unicorn, a player who can both pitch and hit with the best of them.

Some say he is the face of Major League Baseball, which is hard to believe--and demonstrates why some believe that the sport is in trouble--because he evidently doesn't speak a word of English.

But beyond that, I have to wonder if Ohtani is telling the full truth about this situation.

I guess when you have millions of bucks in your bank account, what's a couple of million dollars thst can't be accounted for? 

It's not like the bank accounts that we peons have, where if $50 is missing, you see it immediately and want to know where it went.

When you have the money that Ohtani has, I guess you can't account for every penny that goes in or out of his account(s).

I am sure Ohtani has financial.people looking after his money--so why were there no red flags brought up by these people if they saw millions taken out of Ohtani's account(s) without any reckoning?

Or perhaps Ohtani did know about what was happening, unlike the innocence that he pled at the news conference, and was helping out his friend--even though the money thrown away went through a bookmaker, of all things.

I am not a betting person myself, but in this day and age, where betting is legal in many states--or better said, legal betting is easily available on a cell phone near you--I naively didn't even realize that bookmakers still existed.

And did you not think that something like this might happen--even in an age of legal betting--since betting on any sport is just so easy to do, and almost encouraged, right now?

Every sports broadcast running right now has gobs of commercials related to betting, some with up-to-date odds posted right there for you.

Like with the legalization of marijuana, some of our state governments are so intoxicated by the lure of tax dollars generated by these supposedly former "sin" categories now being made legal that they have lost their way in properly serving their constituents, and realizing that there are consequences to their actions that go beyond the almighty green.

You make these things legal, you have opened up a Pandora's Box of problems.

Even though these things are now legal--and lure new users each and every minute of each and every day--there remains an illegal market for gambling and pot availability, because the "thrill" of doing something illegal is still there for some people, and the payback might be more or better ... or st least those that go the illegal route think that way.

Plus, more importantly, some people simply can't handle these "fun" things, and they become real addictions, with everything that goes along with these things becoming a sickness.

Now, with the Major League Baseball season beginning tomorrow, the smell of the grass in the infield and outfield really stinks--

But with this lasseiz fare way we look at gambling right now, did anyone actually think something like this wouldn't eventually happen?

Major League Baseball is, of course. Investigating the matter.

Heaven forbid they find anything on Ohtani ... he and Major League Baseball won't be able to talk their way out of it, no matter if they try to talk their way out of a paper bag in English or Japanese or even Pig Latin.

The rules are in place for players to not gamble, in particular on their own sport, but how do you police it when you basically push gambling on every broadcast and throughout society, but forbid your players to do what many are doing anyway, legally or illegally?

Due to betting, major sporting events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA college basketball playoffs--"March Madness" indeed--are almost completely obscured by the betting angle, which has propelled these events to a level of idiocy that is truly difficult to fully contemplate.

Heck, we have a former president gleefully giving his college basketball brackets to the public each year, we have news anchors tearing up their brackets when they are busted, talking about it on the air as if it was an actual news story ... it goes on and on and on.

And this is betting millions upon millions of dollars on kids who are teens or in their early 20s yet.

Heck, you can even bet on professional wrestling--which is pre-planned and with the winners and losers pre-determined--if you want to.

As a sports fan, I prefer the game over the betting angle, and this Ohtani thing is obscuring baseball, my favorite sport, making the betting angle way more important than what is going on on the field.

Look, there have been betting scandals in sports across the decades ... the name Pete Rose comes to mind, pre-Internet, pre-legalization.

Way before that, we have the Black Sox scandal from more than 100 years ago, related to the throwing of the World Series, of all things.

Whether talking about Pete Rose  or Shoeless Joe Jackson or Ohtani, this has got to stop, but it won't.

So expect more betting problems cutting through sports in the future--

And you can bet the house on it.

Rant #3,318: Total Eclipse of the Heart

We have coming up on April.8 the first total solar eclipse that we have experienced in 99 years.

I remember some partial eclipses--I distinctly remember watching one while in school.using some type of paper or cardboard configuration to witness this thing as it happened--but this will be the first total one that most of us have experienced in our lifetimes.

And you have to be very, very careful.

The eclipse will be viewable from Texas to Maine at different times of the day.

In my neck of the woods, the eclipse comes to New York at 3:16 p.m. and lasts until 3:29 p.m. or so.

And you can't look at it without special glasses which many outlets are giving out for free, and there are some other ways to see it, like that paper method I described to you earlier.

New York State camp grounds are sold out, because you can see the eclipse better in wide-open spaces.

And the public has pretty much been told to stay off the roads when this is happening, and I will bet that during the time of the eclipse, the world here is pretty much going to stand still.

You won't see very many people on the street, and I bet homes and businesses will close their blinds and people will just chill out while this is happening.

I can't go out without assistance due to my injury, so I will be indoors when this is happening.

I usually go out to take a walk and go to the area where our mailbox is located om around this time every day, but on April 8, I will take a break from that exercise.

My son has a day off on April 8, and he was going to meet up with a friend on that day, but at my urging, he has changed that date.

My family will be inside the house, with the curtains drawn, because we do not need any problems related to our eyesight related to the eclipse.

I know someone whose eyesight was affected by a partial eclipse, and believe me, no one should have to go through this.

I would rather err on the side of caution, if you know what I mean.

I mean, this is a wonderful happening thst we all can get together on as a society. 

But if you don't know what you are doing, or if you aren't into this event, I would just bypass it and stay indoors if possible.

The word is getting out about this right now, so the public knows about it, knows of the beauty of it, and also knows of the potential dangers of this event.

Personally, I'd rather see pictures and video of it the day after than when it is actually happening.

Again, I admit to erring on the side of caution, but that is the way I feel.

And you just know that people will try to film the eclipse with their phones.

Every report I have read states that it is not a good idea to do so, and only special cameras can actually record the eclipse successfully.

But you know how it is now: "Have Phone, Will Record Everything," and you just know that people will try to record this, and probably ruin their phone's camera, and possibly their own eyesight, by doing so.

And finally, what happens if the weather is bad, or at least obscured by pollution?

Well, if the weather is lousy that day, that is just the way it is.

And if pollution or other obstacles stand in the way of viewing the eclipse properly, that is just the way it is, too.

In New York State, less populous areas away from New York City are the prime areas to get the best view of the eclipse, so most people won't get a prime view of this event anyway.

And if you miss it this time, the next total solar eclipse is on August 23, 2044--

A significant day in my family, because my son will celebrate his 49th birthday that day--

And no eclipse will take any shine off of that day for him, I can tell you that for sure.

 

Rant #3,317: Enough Is Enough

I am not a royal watcher; in fact, I usually could care less about what is happening to these people across the pond.

Honestly, I just don't get the fascination we have with the royals at all; we could have had our own king, but George Washington and those that founded this country did not want to go that route.

But the media firestorm around Princess Kate Middleton's supposedly manipulated family photo that she released a few weeks ago piqued my interest as this mountain-out-of-a-molehill story crested into something much worse--

The 42 year old and mother of three young children, and the future queen of England, has cancer.

The Princess of Wales said in a video to the world that she is undergoing therapy and hopes to beat this thing.

She did not reveal what type of cancer it is.

Don't you think those that made such a worldwide kerfuffle related to the supposedly doctored photos of her family should feel completely ashamed of themselves now that the real story has come out?

Is there no shame anymore?

That question is a good one, and I don't know the answer to that query, especially after this mess unfolded.

Good luck to her; I am sure she will kick this thing through the goal posts and leave it all in the dust.

But those people who pretty much goaded her into the big reveal over utter nonsense; if their goal was to squeeze out from the Princess the real information, then they succeeded in doing so.

But at what price to their own consciences, if they, in fact, have consciences.

Now that the information is out, leave this woman alone.

Yes, she is a public person via her royalty, and eyes will always be on her, but the stare should not be as vigilant as it was, when she was being picked apart due to a family photo, of all things.

Enough already.

Let's put this story to bed and give this woman time to heal.

Rant #3,316: Electric Stories

I'm back after two up-and-down days.

As I have repeatedly said, when the Internet works, it is a wonderful thing, but when it doesn't work ... well, I can't think of anything more frustrating.

During the first day of the meeting that I had to cover for my writing/editing job, I was prepared as I could be, with my laptop, my tablet and my phone all at the ready.

The day's conference started at 8:30 a.m., and I went through the process of connecting to the meeting through Microsoft Teams.

I have to tell you, I used three different browsers and to my dismay, I could not join up with the meeting, which was held in Virginia Beach, Va.

I tried and tried and tried some more, and I simply could not get into the meeting. I was hooking up to Micosoft Teams, but it kept on telling me that someone would let me in, but it never happened.

I became very frustrated, and after about an hour of this, I was about ready to give up. During that hour. I contacted my superiors several times to tell them about the problem I was having--

And they had no solution to the problem, either.

Then incredibly, the picture came on out of nowhere--and I thought we had licked the problem.

But to my chagrin, the audio was "wtcfujrujndhkgfjjgg" ... it was completely inaudible.

I again contacted my superiors, and in the meantime, I lost the feed probably about three times in a two-hour-or-so span.

It didn't really matter, because I couldn't make heads or tails about what they were saying, anyway.

I pretty much gave up at about 11:30 a.m. or so, and I went on my desktop computer to do some work that I needed to do.

At this point, the video was fine, but the audio continued to be garbled ... but not as bad as it had been; this time, I could actually pick up about three out of every 10 words.

At noon, the meeting adjourned for an hour lunch break, during which time I sent my superiors a sound file of a few seconds to demonstrate to them that I wasn't losing my hearing, and that the audio feed was as bad as I had previously reported.

Now that I seemed to be firmly attached to the feed, I didn't want to disconnect, because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back on.

So I did the work that I needed to do, and as the meeting restarted at 1 p.m., I heard one of the moderators say, "can everyone find their seats" in a crystal clear tone.

So Voila! I was finally laser focused into the meeting, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

I assume thst technicians worked on both the video and the audio during the lunch break, and those efforts allowed me to finally settle into what I was supposed to do to cover the meeting.

The afternoon and the next day both went swimmingly, I somehow was able to cobble together a story less the morning session of the first day, and I sent in a halfway decent story even though I missed the early hours of the meeting.

This situation has actually happened before to me; one time, all who were tuned into the meeting had the same problem, and things got so bad that those running the meeting had to convene another meeting to duplicate what many people missed sitting at home trying to watch something of importance right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic.

So this has happened before to me, and it will probably happen again, because I simply don't think that these apps--Microsoft Teams and the like--are as trustworthy as we all want them to be.

They are full.of bugs.

This time, the situation had a happy ending, but that isn't a guarantee when things don't work out like we hoped they would.

And it just adds more agita to my mind, body and soul than I really need--heaven knows I have enough--and is annoying beyond explanation.

When it works, the Internet is a wonderful thing, but when it doesn't work--

Oh, the pain!

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

Rant #3,315: Take a Giant Step

I am trying to wean myself away from my leg brace, albeit very slowly.

During my examination by my dictor/surgeon last week, he told me that although I still needed the brace, when I was sitting around the house, I could keep the brace off.

It took a few days for that message to get into my head, but finally yesterday morning, I did as he said.

I am sitting here now typing this Rant out without the brace on, and I haven't had it on for a few hours now.

Without the brace on, my leg feels a bit tight in the knee area, but I noticed that when I sat at the counter in the kitchen to read the newspaper, my leg was not straight out, as it would be with the brace on; it was naturally bent without the brace, not fully bent but certainly more so than it would be with the brace on.

So I think that is good.

I still have to use the brace when I am outside of the house, and it will remain on every time I have to go somewhere in the car or when I walk outside.

I try to get outside of the house each and every day, and one of my jobs that I recently appointed myself to do is to go to the mailbox and get the mail--with either my wife or son with me--six days a week.

The development we live in has a common area which includes a mailbox section. It is a short walk from our apartment, but for me, it is a giant leap on my road to recovery.

Back inside our apartment, I am a little hesitant about what to do when I am sleeping. Do I keep the brace on or not? 

I simply don't know what to do about that.

The doctor also said that I would not have to wear the brace at all by mid-April, so what I am doing now is simply a precursor to all of that.

Look, I still have quite a way to go physically, mentally and emotionally with this injury, but I do think I am getting there.

Nothing is easy, and I am working on every facet of this situation each and every day, with varying results.

This has been a tough ride for me during the past six months or so.

I have learned that you just can't simply blink, and it will go away just like that.

It takes a lot of hard work.on all levels, but I think the mental part is the most difficult to shake, but like I said, I am working on it.

One day, I hope to look at the brace and say to myself, "Remember when?"

I am not at that point yet, but I do feel.like I am getting there ... slowly.

Baby steps ... literally and physically and emotionally ...

I will reach my goal, but I still have a lot of work to do.

Due to work obligations--I have a major meeting to cover beginning today and extending through Wednesday--I am going to have to skip the next two days of Rants.

I will need a lot of time to transcribe and write up a decent story about the proceedings.

But I will be back as good as ever on Friday, so speak to you again then.

Rant #3,314: Who Do You Love?

Ok, do you prefer Biden or Trump ... or neither one?

Last week, I put up a Rant about who I was going to vote for our commander in chief.

I put up a similar, smaller post on the same subject on Facebook, and it elicited a pretty strong response, from those firmly on one side or another and from those in the middle like me.

"Vote Biden, if you know what's good for you and for the country!"

"Vote Trump, if you know what's good for you and for the country,"

Thst's paraphrasing, of course, but that is pretty much whst respondents said in their posts.

But to me, I still won't be voting for either candidate ... simply because I have no confidence that either one of them is any good, for either myself or our country.

As I sit here continuing to nurse my left leg, I have had a lot of time to think about this, and this might be the worst choice we have ever hsd to fill the presidential position.

And that we have done it twice ... where did we go wrong?

I don't have a clear answer to that.

Is it apathy -- as so few people vote in the presidential election every four years?

Could be; but that is really nothing more than an excuse.

I don't think the votes will be as high for either candidate this time around, because Americans back then four years back were seemingly galvanized to vote.

This time around, I do believe many people will sit this one out.

They cannot choose either candidate with a clear conscious, so they won't vote for either one.

But thst won't stop the candidates from enticing the public to vote for them.

You will see millions of dollars' worth of advertising throughout media to try and get you to vote either Democrat or Republcan.

You will want to pull your eyes out of their sockets after we get weeks and weeks of this

It might turn off even more voters from casting their votes.

Me, I will cast a vote no matter what, but it will be a write-in candidate no.matter what.

Look, we still have to get through this election and four more years of either Biden and Trump.

But looking into my crystal ball, I do believe that the 2028 election will be much more interesting than this one.

There will be new blood in that race. On both sides of the aisle--

Even though either Biden or Trump can run again depending on which candidate loses  I doubt either one will, for a variety of reasons.

So in 2028, there will be new skin in the game, and it will be quite interesting to see who emerges post-Biden or post-Trump.

But that is years away.

Biden or Trump ... Trump.or Biden?

Who's it gonna be?

Rant #3,313: You'll Never Walk Alone

I went to my doctor/surgeon yesterday to get an update on the condition of my left leg, and the news was pretty good.

Not perfect, but pretty good.

My leg is not bendable yet at the required angle of 90 percent at this stage of my rehab, and at first, the doctor thought it was much less.

We were told at physical therapy that I was in the 70s percentile, but when the doctor first looked at my leg, he said I was only in the 40s.

But then he saw my range of motion--up and down and side to side--and he changed his tune, saying I was actually doing pretty well, in particular because this was a second operation--recovery from a second operation is a bit more difficult.

The doctor said that now was the prime time for me to really ramp it up at physical therapy, and get the leg beyond where it is in the 70s percentile to into the 90s.

I am already doing this, and let me tell you, when I come out of PT, I am pretty tired and a little sore, but a good tired and a good sore, if you know what I mean.

And he wants me to ramp.it up with my home exercises, which I told him I am already doing. One of my exercises, in fact, I do more than 450 times a day--the exact one he told me to ramp up--so I am doing what I need to do to get back to as normal a situation as possible.

The doctor then loosened my brace a bit, allowing for more independent movement even while wearing the brace.

And yes, he said I can take the brace off in a month, and yes, I should be able to drive by my goal, which is April 28, my birthday.

And better yet, he wants to see me again in two months, not the customary one month, so the doctor must have a good sense of where I am and where he believes I will be in May.

And with this crazy-but-beautiful weather we are having, I walk around my new neighborhood with either my wife or my son each and every day, so that certainly is helping me.

So all told, I guess I am doing pretty well--but there is just so much more to do.

Right at the onset of this, i was told that my recovery would take seven to 12 months, and certainly, my second mishap set me back several months.

So when you add everything up, most people are dreaming of a white Christmas, but I am dreaming of a "walk" Christmas, as by the end of the year, I should be as close to beating this thing as.possible.

But honestly, if it takes longer, i am "all in" for whatever it will take to get me back to where i should be.

So all in all, while the examination might not have been perfect, it was as good as I could expect it to be.

Yes, I am.on my way ... but like I said, I still have plenty of work to do.

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

Rant #3,312: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Less than six months prior to the fact, let me ask you this question:

Who are you voting for as our president?

I know that that is the most personal of questions, and it really isn't anyone's business who you are voting for.

And that belief is particularly important in this virulent political climate we are living in right now.

However, I am ready to talk about this subject, so please hear me out.

I can tell you right away who I am not voting for.

I am not voting for a second term for President Biden.

Are we really, truly better off now than we were under his predecessor?

His policies have had a horrid effect on just about every facet of our lives as Americans.

And if that didn't convince me that four more years of Biden would be a major mistake, just go to the supermarket, and tell me how we are better off now than we were during the previous administration--

An administration led by former President Trump, who I will not vote for either.

I do believe he was a good President, but he completely trashed his legacy with his crybaby/sore loser attitude he had when he lost to Biden.

And what happened in our nation's capitol on January 6, 2021, which he egged on and seemingly adored every moment of, cannot ever be excused, and I do mean NEVER.

So who do you vote for when you are talking literally about two candidates who go from bad to worse?

I guess I am going to have to write in a candidate. Based on the two main choices, I don't think I have a choice, and I am being forced to do this, especially as an independent voter who has no ties with any party.

Now, who do I vote for?

In the past, I have voted for John Anderson years ago, and during the two Bush administrations, I voted for neither father nor son for president.

(To be more accurate, I did vote for the younger Bush once. I was forced to do this as when I went into the voting booth (remember those?), there was no write-in material available. 

I complained, sticking my head outside of the curtain to do so, was told there was nothing they could do about it, voted for Bush because i could not write in anyone, and later called up the Board of Elections to complain, and they laughed at me on the phone.)

And just so you know where I am coming from, I won't vote for RFK Jr., either, because 1) his behavior and beliefs are truly repulsive, and 2) choosing either Aaron Rogers or Jesse Ventura as a running mate is, well, idiotic.

So again, who am I voting for?

I am certainly not going to write in Nikki Haley's name.

I am sure thousands of people will do this, as they will write in Michele Obama, Mickey Mouse, and a slew of other characters that defy any logic.

So again, who am I voting for?

In the past, maybe i would say Pat Paulsen, but he left us a long time ago.

Maybe Alvin Chipmunk or Snoopy of Peanuts fame, but I may as well vote for George Santos if I vote for them.

So again, who am I going to vote for?

Maybe I will end up doing what I did years ago, when I refused to vote for either Bush ...

I could use a job with a steady income, you know.

Rant #3,311: Money

My son is in a bowling league which plays its games on Saturday afternoon.

He likes to.pay exact change to cover the two games each Saturday, and usually, there isn't a problem in putting together the proper collection of bills to get his payment to be exact.

But this past Saturday, for the first time in my memory, between myself, my wife and our son, we could not come up with exact change.

We looked through our wallets and simply couldn't give him exact change with anything we had in those wallets.

He was going to have to break a large bill to pay for bowling, which was doable, but which was also the first time he was going to have to do this in all the years he had been in this league.

Again, no big deal.

We looked and looked, and cobbled together a few singles and a $5 bill, but it still left him short of what he needed for exact change.

And then one of us said, "Look in yout bank," meaning getting out a bank our son had in his room that we figured only had change in it.

We found the bank, and I dumped dozens of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters on my bed ... but then I noticed that there was something else in there--

It sounded like paper dollars.

Since we had not opened up this bank in probably a decade or more, I had no idea what was in the bank, and when I discovered that there were a few paper dollars in there, I assumed that they were $1 bills, which would have been fine and solved the problem if that is what was in there.

I reached in with my fingers, and pulled out three separate bills.

But they weren't $1 bills--

They were $2 bills!

I hadn't seen a $2 bill in ages (have you?).

I know that esrly in the 20th century, they were in circulation, were later pulled, and did not come back until 1976, the Bicentennial year, when they were re-released with great fanfare.

But then our government found out thst most people weren't recirculating the $2 bills; they were keeping them, pretty much as oddities.

Nearly 50 years later, the government still produces them, they are legal tender, and they can be circulated.

So we put together one of the $2 bills with the other bills we cobbled together, and I reminded my son that they are legal tender ... but if, for some reason, he was questioned, that he could take some change with him to cover the $2.

But there were no problems, and his streak of paying exact price for his bowling continued.

I have no idea where he got those bills, but we obviously buried them in his bank, not circulating them like most people don't do.

Thomas Jefferson is on the front of the bill, a rendering of the Declaration of Independence is on the other side, and it actually is a nice looking bill.

Preserved at the bottom of an old bank that we hadn't opened in years, it was like finding buried treasure, in a funny sort of way.

The $2 question is this: will we have to use another $2 bill this week to keep our son's streak alive?

I don't know yet ... let me look in my wallet.

Rant #3,310: Talking In Your Sleep

My life as a sedentary person has greatly affected me, both mentally and physically.

The physical part is one thing, and it is the "easiest" thing about what I am going through.

"Easy" is the operative word here.

The physical part of this is getting better all of the time, and with the physical therapy I am going through, and the work on the physical side that I am doing st home, I believe that I will be back to some semblance of myself later this year.

The mental toll is harder to figure.

Being so cooped up in the house much of the time has put a heavy load on me.

I was always a very active person, and now, not being so active, I have had to change many things in my lifestyle.

I have had to reduce my sugar intake, watch my salt intake, and try to stay as busy as possible, all within the confines of a small two-bedroom residence.

It has not been easy, and I take it day by day, as some days are better than others.

I have not been sleeping very well. 

I am not a heavy sleeper to begin with, but since my first accident, my sleeping has been ragged at best.

I sleep an hour here, two hours there, 45 minutes elsewhere, and this has been going on since the end of September, when I first hurt myself.

My wife suggested that perhaps my soda intake was greatly affecting my sleeping during the past six months or so.

When I was active, I just burned off a lot of the caffeine and sugar, but now, not running around nearly as much, my body simply can't do it anymore.

So I first cut it down to having my favorite Coke at dinner, but it just had little impact on my sleeping.

So then, I decided to cut it out completely.

This was a tough decision, as I am not the most prolific water drinker ... although I do like seltzer.

My wife found a sugar-free juice that is OK, and we put the premise that the soda was affecting me now like it never had before into practice.

Well, it has worked. To a certain degree at least.

I am not sleeping in my bed or bedroom very much, probably because it is very uncomfortable to sleep with the leg brace on.

But even though I am doing much of my sleeping--at least 80 percent of it--in the living room, with my leg propped up on an ottoman that we have--my sleeping has improved, but not consistently.

Although I continue to sleep in clips, the clips are somtimes longer. And most important, I can get back to sleep easier, but not all of the time.

For instance, on Friday and Saturday nights, I slept for about nine and 10 hours total each night.

Before, I was sleeping maybe four ir five hours, sometimes six.

But on Sunday evening, I had a setback, and only slept about three hours.

Monday evening, I probably slept about five or six hours, but it was split up, not consecutive hours but some time here and some time there.

Look, I am not sleeping normally, not sleeping through the night without getting up for several minutes in between, but things were better, at least on Friday and Saturday nights.

I continue.to have some anxiety, and I continue to believe thst staying as busy as I can is the best remedy for what ails me in my head.

But while I do miss my daily Coke to a certain degree, if it is going to.impact my sleep, perhaps I can live without it.

Maybe at some point in the future, when I am well and running around like I usually do, I can go back to drinking soda, but right now, I can live without it.

I previously went a few years without soda when I had my gall bladder removed when I was age 50--I tried to drink it afterwards, but i.stopped drinking it because it made my stomach feel a bit bloated--but I went back to it gradually, and never had any ill effect from it.

But now, I am getting away from the stuff again.

Maybe I will return to my favorite beverage again at some point, but right now, I won't lose any sleep over this loss.

Hopefully, I will be able to gain some sleep--and some mental peace of mind--from pushing soda aside and letting it fizzle out from my daily routine.

But I clearly am suffering from insomnia related to my injury, and I keep on trying to learn how to fix this.

I am frustrated, but I am not defeated.

Rant #3,309: Mama

Today, you get a second Rant.

Happy birthday to my late mom.

She would have been 93 years old today.

I hope she is enjoying her day in heaven.

I am going to keep this bonus Rant shirt and sweet.

Here she is, on the far left, with my grandmother (her own mom) and my sister, in a picture taken sometime in the 1980s or so, I would guess.

If you look.closely, I unwittingly got into the picture myself, in my bar mitzvah portrait in the background.

What a photo!

I have no idea who took it, it might have been me for all I know, but look.how happy everyone is there.

Happy birthday, mom!

Rant #3,308: A Must To Avoid

What took place during the Oscars telecast on Sunday evening is exactly why I will never watch any such ceremony.

The majority of these Hollywoid elitists--who continually relate to us that because of their fame, money and notoriety, they know better than the rest of us peons--sported pro-Palestinian and pro-ceasefire pins on their ultra-expensive and lavish tuxedos and gowns, bringing the Israel-Hamas conflict to the award ceremony--just like you knew they would.

Notice, these perverted idiots may ask for return of the hostages, but they do not demand any rebuke to Hamas for starting this thing to begin with.

And in the "Month of Women" I don't see any of them calling out the atrocities we know were perpetuated on numerous women during Hamas' seige, nor how women are treated, in general, in much of the Arab world, and more directly, by Hamas and the Palestinians themselves.

They yell about a ceasefire, but they very conveniently forget that Israel has already recently agreed to one--Hamas rejected it.

They yell about the supposed "plight" of the Palestinians, but they forget that these very people allowed Hamas to be the group that represents them, so they are culpable in all of this too.

And somehow, they forget that in this Hamas-run territory, every cause that they stand for--including LGBTQ rights, women's rights, inclusion--would be met with not only rebuke, but with the worst, most heinous retribution imaginable.

They yell about a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians have rejected this notion for generations, and Hamas doesn't want this either--they refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, and they demand the entire territory, not any piece of land that resembles a "state."

And do they honestly believe that Hamas really gives a hoot about the Palestinians? Their end game--the annihilation of Israel and then, the world's Jewish population--justifies the means, using the "plight" of the Palestinian people as a guise for what their actual intentions are.

No. I won't watch any money-laden, ego-driven group that glamorizes terrorists.

And finally, where is the Jewish pushback in Hollywood to all of this?

Nonexistent.

The Hollywood community, in its entirety, is the biggest bunch of phoneys the world has ever known.

And to see them self-congratulate themselves for their so-called triumphs and accomplishments is just so completely repulsive that the Oscars--and all such awards ceremonies--have become totally unwatchable, even before the infusion of the latest conflict into the precedings made these shows not just unwatchable, but repugnant.

God help us all when terrorists are looked at as heroes, and those who should earn our adulation--Israel and its mosaic of different people in their democratic society--are looked at as enemies and villains.

God help us all. 

Rant #3,307: The Way

Black History Month is over, but there is no reason not to talk about black history, or anyone's background or history, whenever the subject comes up.

I had an interesting experience on Facebook yesterday, related to black history on television, but a discussion that stepped way over thst subject into something that I honestly could not foresee and had no idea that it would amount to.

A Facebook.poster put up a message that "The Andy Griffith Show" was, as was the norm for the time it was produced in, not a very diverse place as far as actors were concerned, using the definition of the word "diverse" that we use today.

I can't argue with that; there were very few, if any black speaking parts on thst show.

(As an aside, I really cannot stand when people use the norms of today to often unfairly ridicule the norms of the past. It serves no purpose st all, other than feeding into a "cancel culture" vibe that honestly, serves absolutely no purpose.)

I brought up that on the sequel show, "Mayberry RFD," there was a regular black character on thst series: Charles Lampkin, a black actor who had a very interesting career, played a Mayberry farmer named Ralph on that show.

But not having a diverse cast did not take away from the fact that "The Andy Griffith Show," by any definition, was a classic TV show.

I brought up my own situation to give more solid backing to my claim:

"The norms of the time were different, and "Mayberry RFD" did have a recurring black character. 

I also didn't see any Jews on the show, either. The whole town seemingly went to church every Sunday, but were there Jews in Mayberry?

I, as a Jew, never questioned it, and it really wasn't important at all.

The show was a classic. The end."

i had a few fellow respondents state thst they didnt know that there was a regulsr black character on "Mayberry RFD," and that they would check the show out to see what i was talking about.

Now, that should have been the end of the discussion ... but one respondent wanted to bring the discussion into another dimension, one that I did not expect, but one, given the world we live in, that shouldn't be very surprising:

"That's because yall are too busy bombing babies."

Since Hamas began the war with Israel, latent anti-Semitism in some people, which probably has festered under the surface in their warped minds for years, has exploded in all media and onto our streets.

Once again, Jews are being blamed for all.of the world's ills, and some people believe that they now have the freedom to voice this filth and inject it in any and all conversations.

Jews are once again being looked at as emissaries of the devil, and based on Hamas's very reason for existing--that each and every Jew must be removed from.the face of the earth--some people are proudly and blatantly jumping on this insane bandwagon of hate.

And in our country, anti-Semitism, and acts related to it, are on the rise at horrific levels not seen in generations.

Well, I just had to reply to this fool, and I did just that:

"Get a hobby. You are an anti-Semite imbecile, taking a comment I made thst was not political into one that you felt the dire need to show your true colors. I have spent more time on you than you deserve. Moderator--get rid of this fool."

Honestly, I don't expect the moderator to do anything about this person's comments, because I have seen similar comments made in other Facebook threads, and pretty much nothing is done.

The world we live in today is a scary place. Way before the war, I was a victim of more than a couple of anti-Semitic incidents over the years, one where a neighbor came right up to me when I was holding my then-infant daughter in my srms and called me the most vile anti-Jewish name you can imagine.

But in 2024, some people believe that this door is not just ajar, but fully open for this hatred to be bantered about as part of normal conversation.

Sorry, I don't agree.

Those that have this venom of hate pulsating through their veins need to be educated and need to know that there are people from all backgrounds that will let them know how imbecilic they are.

If nothing else, these fools should keep their thoughts, however ridiculous they are, to  themselves.

A discussion of something so benign as "The Andy Griffith Show" should not elicit such repugnant responses.

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

Rant #3,306: A New York State of Mind

I remember that as a kid, we used to go into the open fields and find things like coins, horseshoes, and discarded stuff that we thought was interesting, like discarded clothing and cans and bottles of Thunderbird.

In today's world, kids find body parts in open fields.

I am sure you have heard about the case, right here on Long Island, where kids going to school found arms and legs and other body parts right by their school.

Dusattached body parts have been found in other nearby places, and they have supposedly been traced to a love triangle involving people from Yonkers, a man and a woman carved up and thrown around as if you were throwing old gum wrappers out the window of your passing car.

Police have taken into custody four people from the unaptly-named Amityville as suspects--

But they could not jail them and had to release the four because New York's bail laws do not allow for those suspected of perpetrating such a crime to be bail-worthy, fir the lack of a better expression.

Each has a GPS attached to them, and they have been told to stay where they are.

The bail laws in this state are idiotic to begin with, make no sense, and if anyone needed to be incarcerated for their possible crimes, these four fit that profile.

What more can you say about this crime?

It is almost as if the perpetrators wanted to get caught, because the initial body parts were found near a school, basically hiding in plain sight.

And then the police find four imbeciles who they think are prime suspects for cutting this man and woman into pieces, and they can't even hold them in jail, where they belong?

That is what is happening in New York State now, where criminals of every level run rampant here because they know that little will happen to them and they will be out on the street lickety split.

Is it any wonder that some thug being held for some heinous crimes in Arizona, and has a long rap sheet linking him to some heinous crimes in New York, is not being extradited to New York because authorities in Arizona do not trust that he will be handled properly if they sent him back to New York? 

They believe that because New York bail.laws are so lax, that he will be back out on the street right away if he came back east.

Crazy, absolutely crazy.

Serious crime is a daily occurrence in New York City subways, with innocent people being stabbed, pushed onto the tracks, and assaulted each and every day.

The governor here, "Yokel" Hochul, is even dispatching the National Guard to the subway for protection, and has put in place random searches of those using the subway.

And as many people are for it as against it, as those against it say that it is not inly an invasion of privacy, but it could lead to racial profiling, even if the searches are random.

And then we have the "migrant" crisis ... what more can you say about this that hasn't already been said?

Good people are leaving this state in record numbers every year, due to crime and the cost of living, which is impossible to handle here.

I have said this time and time again, and I will say it again: this is not the world I was born into--

And I will also say this again: watch who you vote for, this November and every November.

It won't be Nikki Haley, who bowed out of the race on Tuesday.

Even though I wouldn't have voted for her--nor Biden or Trump either--it would have been interesting to see how many votes she would have usurped from Biden and Trump if she would have remained in the race as an independent.

But now, we will never know, and we are stuck with a choice of an extremely weak president and a former president, a former Queens boy like myself, who is a crybaby and a sore loser.

Me, I might just vote for another former Queens boy--and I will let you figure out who that person just might be.

 It is somebody I fully trust ... unlike the two major party candidates.

Who can it be now?

Rant #3,305: Kind of a Drag

Yesterday, there was a short period--something like an hour or so--when many people could not access their Facebook accounts.

I found out about this when my wife asked me if I had trouble getting into Facebook. I wasn't on at the time she asked me, but I had been on several minutes earlier.

I was actually doing some editing for work, so while I was on the computer, I was not social networking when the outtage occurred.

When i did go onto the social networking site, I was asked for my Facebook password, and as I was ready to put it in, the screen dovetailed right into my account as it normally does, so I really didn't think twice about it.

But lots of people got absolutely hysterical about not being able to get into their accounts.

Based on some of the posts I read later on, you would think that the world had fallen off of its axis, and that not being able to get on Facebook was akin to treason, or something like it.

Facebook said it was some kind of technical.issue, and that it also impacted Instagram and Messenger.

The first thing people think of when they can't get onto their favorite Internet sites is some type of electronic terrorism is afoot, some type pf hacking, some type of nefarious behavior that is akin to a world where social networking is about the most important thing in the universe right now.

Again, I, personally, had no idea that anything was amiss because I was busy doing other things than social networking at the time.

The outage, or whatever you want to call it, lasted between an hour or maybe two hours tops, and some people simply could not handle it.

i saw many messages about the outage after the fact. One Facebooker wrote, and I paraphrase, "I have some very important information that I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't do it when Facebook was out.

"I wasn't going to try to get 7,000 phone numbers and call you all up and tell you what I wanted to say, but what I have to say is very important."

OK, I get it, but not having Facebook available for any period of time does get some people hysterical.

Maybe it would have gotten me hysterical, too, but we'll never know for sure how I would have reacted.

Maybe I would have reset my phone, or maybe I would just have put the phone down for a rest.

I get very tied into Facebook myself at times, and you know how it is--

When the Internet, as a whole, is working, it is the best thing going ...

But when it doesnt work, it is the most frustrating thing in the world.

The one glimmer of hope thst came out of this episode is that we all suffered as a society when Facebook went down

Facebook not working impacted everyone--people of all colors, all creeds, all religions and all backgrounds.

Even if we have differences, it brought us all together as ONE.

So we can, in fact, all agree on one thing:

When Facebook.goes out, it's a catastrophe--

No matter who we are.

Rant #3,304: Bad Medicine

You might remember that a few weeks ago, my regular doctor went out of business without warning.

Unable to find out much about what was going on, l did my digging, and found out that there were some financial improprieties at the practice, forcing the shutdown of the entire four office medical office.

Well, I received an email bright and early yesterday morning making the shutdown official.

The email did not speak directly as to why the practice was shuttered without warning, but it made the close-down official.

I guess the doctor was given the approval to finally, all these weeks later, alert his patients to the closure, because you might remember that when I got through to the doctor on my own, he said he was prohibited from alerting his patients about the closure, which, honestly, made no sense, but ended up being true.

The latest email also gave me a glimmer of hope about my family's medical records.

It said that we could transfer our medical records to our new doctor, if we had one, which is a good thing.

All we had to do was make a written request for the records and send it out using regular mail, and that is exactly what I did first thing in the morning.

Fourteen years ago, when my previous doctor was in jail for peddling drugs to high school students, I tried to get my records, but I was told by the state attorney general that even though my doctor was a jailbird, his license had not been revoked, and he still owned those records--and if I wanted them, I woukd have to pay per page for them.

My records went back decades--including those from the doctor that preceded the jailbird--so it was unfeasible for me to be paying per page for decades of records.

I believe I later found out that when they cleaned out the doctor's office to make it into a residence that was eventually sold, all the records ended up in a dumpster--the bulk of my records were on paper, as much of my time there was during the pre-Internet days--and that if I wanted my records, I could search for them in there.

No way!

So this time, at least my new doctor will have my medical records ... but as you can imagine, based on past experience, I am not holding my breath on this.

But I guess thst yesterday's email put a bow on this entire situation, and I am glad that I was able to find a new doctor relatively quickly.

So that ends that ... I hope.

I certainly don't need to get sick over this for a second time.

Rant #3,303: Dear God

Another weekend ...

Not much doing ... same old, same old.

I did take a walk outside with my wife yesterday afternoon. It was the first time I had done this since my injury. 

It was near 70 degrees yesterday, so why not?

Late Friday night, a Facebook friend that I won't name here posted an interesting question, one that garnered quite a number of replies.

The question was one that had no right or wrong answer, and iisone that I believe we have all asked ourselves at various points in our lives:

"Do you believe in God?"

The question was not religious based, it simply asked the question about one's belief in a higher power.

I decided to give it a go, and this is what my reply to thst question was:

"I am going to start out that I am Jewish, so my viewpoint might be from a different angle than many of you.

I have never been a very religious person, more Jewish in culture rather than religion. I was bar mitzvahed, married a Jewish girl and raised my kids as Jews.

But 2023 stretched my belief in God.

My family and I experienced the most horrible of years.

My mom's dementia ended up enveloping her, and she had a major stroke--while I was on a cruise, thousands of miles away.

I did get to see her briefly when I returned, but she never recovered, and she passed away at age 92.

My family and I were forced out of our home of many decades due to a variety of reasons, and we were forced to downsize about 90 percent as we moved from a house to a much smaller apartment.

And in the process of moving, I tore the quad muscle in my left leg due to an accident--

And then once we moved to our new residence, I tore the quad muscle for a second time due to an even odder accident than the first one.

Yes, I asked God on more than one occasion, "Why is this happening?"

The reply that I received was all in my head anyway: "Just sell mom's house and everything will be better."

We ended up selling her house, but made little money from the transaction, again for a variety of reasons.

And since we sold the house, things have gotten better.

I am rehabbing well, and although things are a little bumpy, so far, so good thus far in 2024.

And I almost forgot to mention that I lost my job almost four yesrs ago, a job I had for a quarter of a century, when the company I worked for went out of business just before the pandemic hit--and you guessed it, I never was able to get another full time job, not being in my 60s as i am.

And I lost my dad during this time too.

So how does this long-winded tale answer the original question?

Right now, although I have been severely tested during the past couple of yesrs, I still believe in God.

I have no choice in the matter, but I have asked "Why?" so many times, and I am still waiting for an answer.

If I didn't believe in God, there will never be an answer ...

And there may never be an answer, but I do believe thst God will answer me, maybe not directly, but God will reply to me.

I have to believe that."

Yes, it is a very difficult question to answer, but I think I did it.

What would be your reply to this question?

I am sure everyone would have a different answer.

Just something to think about as we move through another week.

Rant #3,302: Move On

It took an extra day this year, but we finally got to the month of March after having to go through an extra day of February to get there.

March has always been an important month in my family, because it was the month my mom was born.

But with her no longer with us, it has taken a lot of gleam off the month for me ... and when we reach March 11--her actual birthday--it will really hit me that March simply isn't what it used to be.

Looking ahead to this month, I will continue to have my two-times-a-week physical therapy as I creep closer to normalcy.

I think I am still at least several weeks away from being given clearance to drive, so March will be a month where I continue to work hard to reach that goal.

And at mid-month, I have to go back to my doctor/surgeon, who will give me an update of where I am in my rehab and update my physical therapy itinerary and/or expectations.

Otherwise, I have my work to keep me going. I know I have a meeting to do later in the month, and I also provide them with content during the work week, so I will be plenty busy with all.of that.

In my increasingly lessened down time, I will continue to digitize my records.

I just find it very relaxing, and even though my LPs are in storage, I have enough here with me thst I can probably do one record a day and still not reach the end of my 45s collection into my 70s.

So far, 2024 has gone pretty well for myself and my family, and I have no reason to believe March will be any different than January and February were.

Maybe a bit quieter, but other than that, it should be just another month for me ...

Although I do wish my mom was here to enjoy the month--her birth month--with my family and I.

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