Rant #3,808: Boo!

It's Halloween!

Boo!

Today, I want to talk about how I celebrate the holiday.

I have started to make this an annual ritual, and I I plan on doing it again this year..

I plan on watching "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," not only one of the greatest comedies of all time--as voted on by the American Film Institute (AFI)--but probably the greatest of all the horror/comedy movies.

Here is what I wrote about this film.in Rant #1,310, October 27, 2014:

"This film certainly led the way to not only all of its Abbott and Costello sequels, but also to a number of other similar-type films, including, to a certain extent,  "Ghostbusters."

The Abbott and Costello film both revived their film careers and revived Universal Pictures, which might not still be around if not for this movie. It made so much money back in the late 1940s and early 1950s that it kept the studio afloat, and allowed Bud and Lou to star in a series of similarly themed films, some very good, some not so good.

The 1948 film sees the boys playing two dimwitted shipping clerks who are hired to move two large crates to a house of horrors.

One crate supposedly has the remains of Dracula, the other the remains of the Frankenstein monster.

This all ties into the fact that Lou is enamored with a beautiful scientist, who just happens to be Dracula's assistant.

Once the crates are delivered, the boys unwittingly release both Dracula and the monster, and tied into Lou's relationship, Lou is being sized for his brain, which will be implanted into the monster by the evil doctor and her own, handsome assistant.

Most of the action takes place in Dracula's castle and at a costume party being held nearby, and at the end, Bud and Lou succeed in destroying both Dracula, and the monster, at least for the time being.

And then there is that trick ending ...

What leads up to all of this is not only clever, but hilarious, and while most of it revolves around the use of Lou's brain--which is supposedly superior to the one Dr. Frankenstein implanted into the monster in the first place--Bud is also part of the hilarity, as is Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman.

In his own Wolfman films, the character of Lawrence Talbot is to be pitied for his affliction; here, he is part of the hilarity. I am sure there are outtakes of this film that are as funny as the movie itself, and when Chaney, stone-faced as always, recites to Bud and Lou the reason why he fears the full moon at night, turning into a wolf, I am sure it took many takes to get it right. Just hearing him tell them this makes me laugh, and I am sure it made them laugh too.

Of course, on film, Lou says the proper reply to this supposed nonsense. At about the film's 55-minute mark, as Chaney tells him that he turns into a wolf at night, Costello says, "So do a million other guys."

Universal took their most popular franchises, during a down time in their history, put them together, and came up with gold.

The film was so successful, and so well regarded, that is spawned several other "Abbott and Costello Meet ... " films, including movies where they met the Invisible Man (another terrific film), the Killer, Boris Karloff, and the Mummy.

Its success also saved the studio, which was back in the black with this movie.

As one of the few Abbott and Costello films without the use of any routines, it is really the dialogue that spurs the comedy and the action, and the boys are superb in their roles, as are Bela Lugosi, who supposedly had a tough time concentrating with all the craziness that went along working with Bud and Lou, and Glenn Strange as the monster, who handles an impossible role with aplomb, the best comedic Frankenstein monster until Fred Gwynne gave it his 110 percent on "The Munsters."

So I have made watching this movie my ode to Halloween."

I couldn't wait to watch the movie again, and I actually watched the first half on Wednesday night, and finished it on Halloween Eve on Thursday.

Anyway, if you are looking for some fun for Halloween, watch this film, a movie for the ages, and for all ages, and one of my favorites.

My horror show is actually next week, but I will get into that in Monday's Rant.

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

Boo!

https://nunzioweb.com/video/abbott-costello-frankenstein/

Rant #3,807: Nothing From Nothing

Halloween is coming up tomorrow, and it seems that the country has been preparing for the celebration fir weeks leading up to the big day.

I have been pretty blase about the whole thing for a while now, for two reasons:

1) We never got any kids coming to our door, and now, living in a 55-and-older community, we certainly aren't going to get anybody.

2) The holiday simply isn't the same anymore, not since it was almost fully co-opted by adults.

When I was a kid, this was truly a kids' holiday, but things have changed so much over the decades, and now it is as much an adult holiday as it is a kids' holiday--

Maybe it is even more an adult holiday now.

Thus, I don't get too worked up over Halloween anymore.

Maybe if I still had young children at home--or even grandchildren--I would feel differently, but since neither is happening right now, Halloween doesn't mean much to me right now.

Sure, I might mark the occasion by watching the greatest horror/comedy movie of them all, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," but otherwise, I won't mark the occasion too much.

My son doesn't have basketball tomorrow because of the holiday, and no, we don't have any candy on hand just in case.

And speaking about candy, I think that one of the reasons I am so very blase about Halloween is that I was never into the candy, just the getting of it.

Even as a kid, I wasn't really a candy eater--my mom and sister pretty much got my Halloween candy--and as an adult, my tastes haven't changed, and if I have one or two candies a year, it is a lot.

As a kid in Rochdale Village, the getting of it was the fun for me.

We had 20 buildings, hundreds of apartments, so it was most fun getting the stuff than eating it.

Then in about 1969 or so, I saw someone i knew get mugged for his candy, and that was pretty much that for me and Halloween.

It revved up again when I had my own kids, but once they got older, that was truly the end.

And now that I am watching my sugar intake a bit more, candy absolutely does not figure into the equation.

So enjoy the holiday if that is your thing, but for me, it is just another day on the calendar--

Although next year, my daughter is supposedly getting married on that day, and when that happens--

You better believe that i will be fully spooked!

Rant #3,806: Something's Burning

Coming back from our vacation, my wife has been given some strange hours at work.

To say that she is not pleased is an understatement.

The hours are much later than normal, and it throws everything out of whack.

It has also forced me to be the cook for myself and my son for dinner--my wife eats when she comes home--and while i don't mind doing this, let's just say I am not much of a cook, or a chef, or a meal maker, whatever you want to call it.

I can cook something for lunch using the toaster oven, but using the regular oven is another story.

On Monday, I used our oven for one of the few times since we have been living in this apartment.

The last time I used it, I didnt even know how to shut it off. It is an electric oven, and it doesn't have a "proper" "Stop" button.

I discovered that the "Stop" button is on the oven's touch screen.

It is in red, and against a black background, my color blindness--or color deficiency--prevented me from seeing it.

My son--who, happily, did not inherit this problem--pointed it out to me as I panicked, using up my phone's power trying to find a site that could help me out.

On Monday, with the "Stop" problem behind me, I bravely cooked my son chicken, and according to him, it came out fine.

Me, I made myself a Boboli pizza in the toaster oven.

I also started a veggie burger for my wife in the toaster oven.

I had to do it again in Tuesday, and for my son, I made him something a bit simpler--

Two chimichangas, which i heated up, with fries, in the toaster oven.

For me, I didn't know what I wanted, and finally settled on--

A bowl of chili, mixed with cheese and some chips, which i heated up in the microwave oven.

I boiled an egg for my wife, on the stove top.

No problems there.

And I have to go through all of this again tomorrow.

Hopefully, my wife's hours will return to normal in the coming week, even though I have seemed to get through it all pretty well.

More importantly, I don't like her working later hours.

She has done it in the past at various jobs, and I cannot relax until she gets home.

That is how I am, and I don't think.i will ever change.

But if this situation continues, I am now more up to the task.

Heck, I am ready to cook things like ... maybe a roast beef ...

If I could afford to buy one.

Rant #3,805: Breakdown

I took my son to the dentist yesterday, and he had a cavity filled.

It is not the only thing that needed to get fixed in my life, but I hope that it is the last, at least for the time being.

As many of you know, I have had computer problems since late August, and I have been slowly rebuilding my system piece by piece.

First, the actual computer broke down, so I replaced it with my old, beat up work computer.

Next, the keyboard died, and I purchased a keyboard that unbeknownst to me, really wasn't right for my computer. Too many problems, usable but not right.

So I bought another keyboard, and this time, I got the right one.

The printer was next, and I got a good deal on the same one I had, but one that was never used.

My exterior CD/DVD player/burner--the one that came with my work computer--works, but it leaves blank spaces that last on some songs when you use it to copy CDs into MP3 files, so I had to buy a new one, and it appears to work pretty well.

I thought I was done, but then my turntable went, the one that I play my records on and also transfer my records over to mp3 files so I can listen to my music on the car.

Unlike the other pieces, the turntable has actually not been right for many months.

It was usable, but after about 15 years of regular use, it was not recording correctly, although it still played fine.

I would try to tecord a record, and it would leave gaps in the recording which you could not hear when playing the record.

Upon playback, the gaps sounded like the record was skipping, but it was all artificial.

I tried it on two computers, and the problem continued.

It has gotten to a point where I have to try to record a song about four or five times before it records correctly--yes, I changed the program I use and the problem persists--so it is time to get another turntable.

It is on order, and i hope it works.

So, when all is said and done, the only thing that still works related to my computer is the scanner.

I changed that piece several years ago, so you never know what will go next.

When electronics work, they are really a wonder to behold.

When they don't work ...

There are almost no words to describe how frustrating it can be--

Except words that you cant mention in a G-rated column like this blog.

Pjdjxoydosyophcplljvkpkvpc%$@%&<$:(*!!!!!

Rant #3,804: Monster Mash

Halloween is coming up later this week, but the biggest celebration of the holiday actually comes a few days later, on Election Day.

If you believe the polls, Zohran Mamdani is a shoo-in as New York City's next mayor--

And while he portrays himself as nothing but sheep, as the victim, his behavior and beliefs squarely make him a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I received a reply to one of my posts against him late yesterday, and let me tell you, the poster, along with anyone voting for this garbage, are either stupid, ignorant, or a combination of the two.

This latest poster asked me this question:

"You keep on saying that anyone who votes for him is an anti-Semite, but what is the evidence of his anti-Semitism?"

After rolling my eyes a few times--and stating that the poster's own anti-Semitism.is blinding him to the obvious--letter me count the ways ...

He has openly stated that he has supported Hamas and the Palestinians in the latest war ...

He has not repudiated Hamas' actions starting this war ...

He has never officially stated thst he rejects the phrase "Globalize the Intifada" ...

He fraternizes with those that are terrorists or support terrorists, like the imam who praised the efforts of the terrorists during 9/11 ...

He says thst he would arrest Isrseli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes if he sets foot in New York City while he is mayor ...

He has marched against Israel, has made rap videos praising terrorists against Israel ...

He comes from a family of known Hamas and anti-Israel sympathizers ...

You want me to go on?

So yes, anyone who supports this garbage is wearing their own anti-Semitism on their sleeves, and that includes people like politicos Hakeem Jeffries and Kathy Hochul, who should know better, but are as stupid and as ignorant as the constituents who voted them in ...

And, any Jew thst votes for him really is completely repugnant, and hasn't a clue that voting for this guy is akin to voting for Hitler.

Does that answer the question?

This guy is a wolf, and his anti-Semitism and other idiotic policies will surely destroy a city that was on a respirator to begin with.

But there are just some people who are too stupid, and ignorant, to know this.

To the good people of New York City: it is time to abandon the city that you once loved.

And if he gets in, this is a horror story thst certainly bests any horror movie, because--

IT IS REAL.

Rant #3,803: Bits and Pieces

I welcome back "Bits and Pieces" to The Ranting and Raving Blog.

"Bits and Pieces" focuses on current topics that might not need a full Rant devoted to them, but need to be spoken about, in a shorter form.

So here goes--

NBA Betting Scandal: it has just come to light that the NBA--which opened its 2025-2026 season on Wednesday-- is embroiled in a betting scandal, including current and retired players and coaches.

Some of it involves supposed injuries and inside information that only players and coaches would know.

It involves the Mafia, and the feds named others involved, including those who took part in some shady poker games as well as supposed fake injuries.

Probably the biggest name being investigated is Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, former Detroit Pistons player and current Portland Trailblazers coach.

The cat is out of the bag, with nearly 40 states legalizing sports betting within the past couple of years, and you just knew that professionals would eventually get involved.

It is not just the NBA; Major League Baseball has also been hit, including a betting scandal involving a couple of players on the Cleveland Guardians just this season.

The temptation is out there, and people--pro athletes and the average Joes--should really know better than to get involved in this nonsense, but they have no.self control--

Especially when it takes just a push of a button on your phone to start betting.

When i see professional wrestling being bet on--a "sport" that is pretty much pre-planned, with outcomes pre-determined--you just know things have gotten way out of hand.

Any player or coach, or any sports official, who is found to be involved in this, or any other betting scandal, needs to be banned fir life.

Any betting scandal ruins the integrity of the sport involved, and absolutely cannot exist. 

Again, are we talking about pro wrestling or pro basketball here?

Record Collectors or Record Investors: I am a collector.

When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards, comic books and records, and now, I have whittled it down to just records.

I buy vinyl records that I like, regardless of what anyone thinks--I would rather buy a record by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. that i don't have in my collection than a Led Zeppelin record that I have no interest in.

On Facebook, I have noticed that all of a sudden, supposed collectors of older and more recent vintage are suddenly asking what the worth is of particular records that they have or are thinking about including in their collections.

This irks me to no end.

I buy records because I like them, not because I know they might be valuable--

And that is what makes me a collector, and not an investor--a situation that has plagued both baseball card and comic book collecting for decades.

in fact, when I finally sold the remainder of my comic book collection two years ago, i sold it to someone who i lnew would actually enjoy the comics, and not flip/resell them for a profit.

Each of my 10,000 records is worth $1 million to me. I am not selling, so I really could care less what their actual, individual worth is. 

Not being flip, but I collect not to see how much my records are worth; I collect because I actually like the music. 

Anyone who does otherwise is not a collector; they are an investor. 

Not me!

The Government Shutdown Continues: Funny, those that are promulgating this idiocy continue to receive their paychecks, while average folks are waiting on food lines, because they are not being paid through this crisis.

There is enough blame to go around on both sides, and the longer this goes on, the more average people are being hit.

But our elected legislators really don't care, blaming the other side for the situation.

Again, I do believe that if these legislators' own paychecks were affected, they would move a bit quicker to resolve this thing.

It is going on five weeks since the government shut down--

And how long can this thing go on before the ever-stretching rope breaks right in the middle?

Lock these selfish imbeciles in a room and don't let them out until this thing is settled.

Later today, I have a meeting to cover that revolves around the shutdown topic, and how its continuance will impact military stores.

And by the way, note that each of these topics revolve around one thing--

M-O-N-E-Y.

So let me go.

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

Rant #3,802: Get Back

It has been several days since my family and I have been home from our cruise, and it is good to be home.

I have been very busy since getting home, what with work, catching up, or a mix of both.

Heck, I didn't even shave for a week!

I finally took off those bristles this morning.

Staying on the topic of hair, my son and I both need a haircut badly, and hopefully, we can do that in the next few days.

I worked on getting my computer in working order again, and I am still working on getting it up to snuff.

I am trying to catch up.on phone calls that i owe some people, I brought my car in to get an oil change 24 hours ago, and I am trying to catch up with "Survivor."

I finally watched the first episode I missed while away, and it was an important episode, with a first: a contestant was bitten by a poisonous snake, and had to be rushed away for treatment.

He was bit, but it luckily was what is called a "dry bite," which means there was a bite, but no venom was injected into the bite.

However, the guy was not allowed to return to the game, so that was an interesting twist.

Now, I have to get the twists and turns of my own life back in order.

Twelve days away doesn't sound like much, but just to demonstrate how much it really is, while away, we received about 75 pieces of mail, with most being junk and others, on the other hand, being quite important.

I got through that pretty well, but it was very time consuming.

My son is back at work, my wife goes back today, and as you know, I worked on the cruise and continue to work at home.

I finally heard about my son's assessment.

The woman who helped my son didnt get back to us in two months, so I emailed her after we arrived home, and only heard from her yesterday morning.

She clained that she told me the results when I picked up my son on the last day of the assessment, which is ... well, let's say what it is--

It is completely untrue.

The only thing the woman told me was that, "He shouldn't work in hotels," and that she would get back to me with her findings.

She never did until I got back to her.

Happily, my son found a job all on his own, because all roads lead back to the same organization, one that hasn't done a blessed thing for him ... ever.

So, it's the "same old, same old" with that--

And God forbid my son is ever out of work again, I will never, ever go back to these agencies, which have proven their overall incompetence over and over and over again.

That being said ...

Yes, the three of us are slowly but surely getting back to our normal schedules, and I have to say that it is good to be back.

You can't be on vacation forever.

Rant #3,801: Swingin' Together

In 1962, rock and roll was still a fairly new commodity, and other than on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "American Bandstand," television really didn't know how to present this new musical form to the masses.

A couple of TV producers thought that the best way to do this was to get pop and rock stars to appear in sitcoms built around them and their music, including such notables as Jan and Dean. 

And remember, 1962 was still four years before "The Monkees" burst onto the scene.

The other night, while trying to find something to watch on TV, I turned to YouTube, and i stumbled upon one if the "missing links" of the rock and TV musical marriage.

"Swingin' Together," produced by Desilu Studios of "I Love Lucy" fame, might have been a failed pilot, but elements of it were certainly used--or lifted--for the future Monkees' pilot.

In 1962, Davy Jones was on Briadway as the original Artful Dodger in "Oliver," but in this 1962 pilot, the episode was built around Bobby Rydell, an already well-established hitmaker and teen idol who was about as rock and roll as Enrico Caruso was.

But this was the time if "Bye Bye Birdie," and Rydell was thought of as the next Elvis by some--I guess.

Rydell led a band of musicians, who traveled the country in a bus--"Partridge Family" anyone?--driven by their older manager.

Rydell and the band--the only notable one being Art Metrano, who had some fame later on as a comedian--travel from one gig to another, looking for that big break, much like the Monkees did four years later.

They wind up at a country club of a lot of rich snoots--again, the Monkees did the same in their pilot episode--and Rydell and his mates had to win over the members and the daughter of the club owner who looked down on such acts.

More about the daughter later.

In the Monkees pilot episode, they also had to win over the older members and the rich father of a girl that Davy was dating. 

The father not only didn't care for the music,  but he thought Davy and his band were taking up too much of his daughter's time, taking her away from her school studies.

And you know what happened in both instances.

The bands ended up winning over the snoots, and this led to a happy ending for each show.

But the main difference is that the Monkees had the music, but Bobby and his band did not.

Rydell--who had an incredible music canon even by 1962--sung some incredibly lame songs in this show, and reached the pits with the song that supposedly won over the crowd--

Probably the worst-ever cover version of "Let's Twist Again."

It was so bad that you could base a case on white people having absolutely "no riddim" just on this performance.

Horrible--and we are to believe that this is the tune thst won the snoots over yet!

Now, back to the actress who played the country club owner's daughter.

I recognized the voice immediately, but I could not, for the life of me, place the face.

It took a while, but she was so very young here, that it took me almost the entire episode to finally figure out who this was--

A very, very young Stefanie Powers!

So, all in all, i am glad that I found this relic of a different time.

It kind of was like a "steppin' stone" to "The Monkees" TV series, and it demonstrated how rock and roll was handled by television before it fully went mainstream.

Watch it here.

https://youtu.be/IM_KH0zGTrY?si=3phsvk3wYkiYwte3

Rant #3,800: Liar, Liar

The president commuting George Santos' sentence was a mistake.

At least he did not get a full pardon, so all the charges still stand.

But with virtually no punishment at all, Santos can make millions off his celebrity on Cameo, sign TV, book and movie deals, and bask in his past indiscretions monetarily.

And please don't bring up the Hunter Biden situation. That, too, was wrong, but the comparisons stop there.

As a free man, Santos now says he wants to work on prison reform. 

Yup, anybody that believes this really needs to get their heads examined.

Once a liar, always a liar.

This guy is completely delusional, but the president said that his loyalty to the Republicans was a main reason he got his free pass out of jail.

That just sets a very, very bad precedent.

Party affiliation should have nothing to do with a jail sentence commutation.

And while the president is rewarding Santos' supposed party loyalty, how loyal was he in real terms?

He let down his party with his constant lies.

He let down his constituents who voted for him and believed in him.

And he let down his position on the House of Representatives, a post that won't ever be manned by a Republican again due to his idiotic actions.

And by the way, Santos can run again fir office if he so chooses--

So what was his punishment, exactly?

It ended up being a couple of days in jail, and that is it.

He does not have to pay any restitution for the money he stole, and he can continue to say that he was railroaded, and does not have to own up to his blatant misdeeds.

I like a lot of what the president has done in his second term in office, but on the other hand, I don't like a lot of what the president has done in his second term in office.

Santos' jail sentence commutation falls under the latter, and I just hope that a full pardon os not in the offing.

This guy needs to know that what he did was wrong, but how can he see this if he is pretty much being rewarded, monetarily and otherwise, for his behavior?

Maybe the president can explain this concept to me, but I don't get it.

And that's no lie.

Rant #3,799: Back In Pocket

I am not "out of pocket" anymore.

I am home after a 12-day pause in my normal, everyday life.

It was fun while it lasted, but now, it's back to the grind.

As I already knew before getting into this, 12 days is way too long to be on a cruise.

We had four stops, which was fine, but eight sea days ... way too much.

Cruises are great, but the problem is that there is a lot of dead time, and try as they might, there just isn't very much the cruise lines can do to fill that time up for you.

You are left on your own, and there just isn't that much to do.

There are some days where it seems that you go from breakfast to lunch to dinner, and that is it.

We saw all of the comedy shows and all of the stage shows, played all of the trivia games, and we even went to a cooking demonstration and swam onboard the ship, but there is only so much you can do to fill up the time.

The ports we went to were great--in particular Grand Turk, St. Maartens and St. Kipps--and we did plenty of sightseeing and swimming amd shopping at these stops.

But the sea days can be lethal.

I worked during this cruise, and I pretty much had an hour or two of things to do each day.

Honestly, it kept me going on certain days, and kept me focused.

So we had Internet, which was quite pricey, but it not only allowed me to work, but it also allowed us, at the end of the day, to slow down a bit by watching some of our favorite shows.

My son watched his WWE, AEW and TNA wrestling shows, and we were also able to watch a pay-per-view event.

My wife watched her "Walking Dead" shows.

Me, if I didn't need the Internet for work, the last thing I would want to do is be on my phone while on vacation--

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

One thing happened on the ship that I thought was quite interesting.

While waiting for one of the comedy shows, i got to talking to two women who were also waiting.

i found out that both of them were in their 90s--they sure didn't look that old--and incredibly, one of the ladies lived in Rochdale Village during the neighborhood's early years, just like I did!

We were swapping stories about our old neighborhood, and she mentioned a name of soneone I hadn't heard about since I left there in the early 1970s, a woman who was very involved in the schools I attended there.

We spoke so much about the old neighborhood, and honestly, she reminded me of my mom--

So perhaps it was serendipity that we met each other, but if nothing else, it sure is a small world, isn't it?

Now we are home, laundry has to be done, snail mail has to be answered, and we have to get back to normal life.

But for our first vacation in a couple of years, it was mostly fun 

But for 12 days ...

Too long ...

Way too long.

Rant #3,798: Time Will Tell

I am still "out of pocket," but the return of the Israeli hostages is truly a monumental occasion, in spite of some misgivings that I have related to the continued existence of Hamas.

I am posting this while we are in the middle of nowhere, and I originally put much of this up on Facebook, but it bears worth repeating.

The return of the hostages--dead and alive--is the first step. 

But until Hamas is completely obliterated, there is no true peace. This should have been done right at the get go, but entities like the U.N. never came down on the terrorists like they should have--and any sane person knows why--and we have Hamas groupies in this country who helped the terrorists spread the lies about Israel and how, among other things, they were stopping aid from getting through. 

Utter nonsense, but the world still buys into this stupidity. 

This ceasefire had better take, because if Hamas makes one false move ... well, you ain't seen nothin' yet. 

Israel actually held back, but they won't if they have been lied to. 

Sorry for being so skeptical, but as a Jew myself, we have seen the absolute worst in humanity directed at Jews during the past two years, and I have to hope the world will come back to its senses now that the peace process has at least started.

And for you Trump haters, don't you think it is time you gave the President his due?

i don't like the guy that much either, but he did something that looked to be impossible to do.

Give him credit ... I mean, do you think Biden or Harris could have gotten this done?

I doubt it, and if you are truthful.to yourself, you will doubt it, too.

And by the way, I have read numerous posts alluding to a religious aspect in all of this, with many conservative Christians voicing the opinion that there will be no true peace "until the lord returns," and I am getting the feeling that this group truly believes in Israel because they see a group of people--Jews--who can be "saved."

Let me say this: if the reason you are so happy for Israel is because you feel it is your "duty" to "save" the Jews, you are barking up the wrong tree.

We do not need to be "saved," we are Jews, and we will not be subject to conversion or a belief in Jesus as our savior.

And to those people who firmly believe that Jews need to be "saved" remember this:

Jesus, himself, was Jewish.

End of dIscussion.

Now, back to being "out of pocket." 

Rant #3,797: Brass In Pocket

Finally!

It has taken a long time, but my family and I will be "out of pocket" for the next several days.

"Out of pocket" is a term often used in the military. I will leave it to you to figure out what that means.

The last time we were "out of pocket," my mother became very sick, and i barely got to her in time to say goodbye.

Thus, that situation was a very poor one, and to this day, I sometimes feel that I would never live it down.

That period was just prior to us being in total turmoil; we were forced to sell our house, where we lived for many decades ...

And then came that fateful Sunday, where I tripped, fell, or did whatever I did, and I injured myself, needing emergency surgery.

Little did I know I would soon have another surgery--

Talk about being "out of pocket!"

Anyway, my left leg is much better, while other parts of my nody are much worse.

We moved not once, but twice, in our new community.

We just went through an eight-month period where our son could not get hired, amd that took a major toll on all of us.

But finally, the time has come, and we will be "out of pocket" for a period of time.

This period of time won't be forever, but it is certainly needed.

Sometimes you need to simply take a break, and that time has finally come for myself and my family.

I think with all the craziness we have experienced over a number of months--just about six years if you use the day I lost my job as a measuring stick--being "out of pocket" is coming at just the right time.

In fact, I look it this period as not being "out of pocket"--

I look at it more as "brass in pocket," as the riches we will get during this period can't really be quantified in monetary terms.

"Jingle Jangle."

Speak to you somewhere down the road ... .

Rant #3,796: What the World Needs Now Is Love

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How did my new year begin?

Well, now among my recent spate of casualties is that my computer printer broke down on Wednesday afternoon

These things tend to run in bunches with me,  and this time appears to be no different.

First, my computer broke down. Then my electric razor, followed by my computer keyboard, and now this.

There were a couple of others during the past month, but these were the main ones--

Other than my body, my spirit, and my patience, all of which have been breaking down for many months now.

And this comes at a really bad time ... as if any time is really good.

And yes, i ordered a replacement quickly, because what good is an editor/writer without a keyboard and a printer?

Simply incredible and very frustrating.

Otherwise, the holiday went OK, the fast was good, and hopefully, this will be a good year for myself and my family--

And for everyone.

That war in Gaza needs to come to an end, all the hostages must be freed--dead and alive--and the world needs to be peaceful.

Too much has been going on since Hamas attacked Israel nearly three years ago, and if these terrorists reject the latest peace proposal ...

Well, I do believe that Israel will have had enough, and I feel, well, we ain't seen nothin' yet..

And if Hamas thinks they can survive this onslaught--well, they ain't seen nothin' yet.

I think Israel has actually held back in this war it didn't start, but gets blamed for anyway.

And if the terrorists still think they can win, then they have proven, once and for all, that they do not care about the Palestinians at all--

This should have been quite evident anyway, but the world has continued to prove, once and for all, that its blatant anti-Semitism is showing.

None of this had to happen, and the world will have a collective egg on its face when Israel emerges victorious--

And all the Hamas groupies can find something else to be paid for to hate.

And on a lesser note ...

Let's go Yankees!

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

Rant #3,795: Happy New Year ... and Baseball Too

The keyboard I told you about yesterday won't get here until later this week or into next week, so I am just going to have to manage.

In the meantime, I got a brainstorm on Monday night, which I thought could help me out of this jam, to a certain extent.

Why not hook up the non-Apple generic keyboard i have to the extender and see if it will work?

Well, I tried it yesterday morning, and it worked!

So I have two keyboards hooked up to the computer, and it allows me to keep everything together without unplugging anything, and I don't have to copy the letter "p" and some other characters to do my work.

And all of this is happening right before Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, which begins at sunset today and ends roughly 24 hours later on Thursday 

By fasting, one shows allegiance and worthiness to God, and for about the 58th straight year or so--maybe more--I will be fasting during this holiday.

Fasting is difficult, but it has a purpose--spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally, and I always feel better in all of those ways when I complete the fast, which I will be doing at my sister's house with her family and my family.

I hope that God writes in his book that I have been a good person, and that he allows me to demonstrate what a good person I am for another year.

And Max Fried, who is Jewish, started the playoffs on Tuesday for the Yankees against the Red Sox.

I read that while with the Braves, he pitched in a playoff game on Yom Kippur, and actually won the game--

While he fasted!

I don't know if I could ever do that, and let's remember that a pitcher like Sandy Koufax did take off for the holidays.

You are not supposed to do anything during the holidays but pray and fast, but somehow, baseball has always worked into the High Holy Days for myself and my family.

As a kid, when my friends and i came home from services, we always watched the World Series, which was on at the time, conveniently for us Jewish kids, in the late afternoon.

Whatever the case, I don't plan on pitching when I begin my fast today--

But I will be rooting for the Yankees to help me get through the fast.

Wins make fasting easier.

And if what I read is correct, Israel is very soon to bask in the knowledge that it has won this horrid war, and will get its hostages back and know that it did the right thing after it was brutally attacked--

No matter what many in this bizarro world would have you believe.

Have a great holiday, an easy fast, and I will be back on Friday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!