Rant #3,732: Independence

It is finally July 4th, and happy 249th birthday to the great United States of America on this wonderful, celebratory day.

As we swim, barbecue, vacation, or go to or watch baseball at the stadium or on TV, let's all remember that we are doing all of this in the greatest country in the world.

This is no fringe anniversary celebration; this is a day all Americans can savor, not just some of us.

Americans gave their lives for us to be able to have this great celebration, and we cannot forget that.

And for those people who hate this country ...

Well, you are just jealous of what we have accomplished, which is proven by the fact that these people hate us, but they still come here in droves.

Why is that?

Because we are truly part of the most free, most inclusive country on the face of the planet, and while these infidels won't admit it, they enjoy the freedom they have here, in particular compared to where many of these carpetbaggers come from.

My family and I are going to have a barbecue for just the three of us.

First, we have to do our weekly shopping, but by the afternoon, the grill will begin to heat up and be primed for cooking.

I just love to barbecue--

And bring on the hot dogs and hamburgers, because i do plan on eating plenty.

For some reason, I usually eat more when I barbecue, and I am sure I will do the same today.

Today should be a great day, as we lead up to next year, when we are going to celebrate our country's 250th birthday.

I cant even remember what I did 50 years ago during our 200th birthday, but I am almost sure that my family and I had a barbecue that day as we always do on July 4th.

I was 19 years old, in college, but I simply cannot pinpoint what I did on that extra special July 4th.

That being said, let's not put the cart before the horse.

Let's all celebrate and party like it's July 4, 2025, to take a spin on that old Prince song--

But most importantly, let's all be safe!

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

Rant #3,731: Hanging On the Telephone

Yesterday, I received probably the strangest phone call I have ever gotten.

And I received it when I was waiting for my appointment at the doctor's office.

It was from an investigative lawyer, who was gathering information for a case he was working on.

The lawyer asked me if I went to a specific school in the 1960s, and I said I did.

It was one of my grammar schools that I attended all those years ago.

He asked me if one of my teachers was so and so (i won't reveal the teacher's name) who I had in fifth grade, I believe. She left after half a year to retire, and her job was taken over by another teacher.

He knew all of this stuff because he did the research, and found that I was, in fact, in that class.

He asked me how I got to school each day, and I said that I had walked there, as everyone from inside my community did.

I told him kids from the outside were bussed in, and that is evidently what the problem he was investigating centered on.

Evidently, back in 1968 or 1969, there was some type of abuse of a child on a school bus going to this particular school, and somehow, it is tied into this teacher, I can't figure out how and he did not tell me much about that.

Or perhaps this teacher was not involved in any way, but he thought I might know something about the incident, since he found out that I went to the school at this time.

But he harped on the teacher, asking me if I remembered anything about her.

I know that she retired mid-year, and that is why we were assigned the next teacher.

I seem to remember that she was of Jamaican descent--in the Caribbean--and that I guess she might have been in her mid 50s to early 60s when she left.

This is all legit. I looked up the firm, and they are well-known for handling abuse cases.

I looked up the lawyer, and he is also legit.

I do wonder why they contacted me like they did, through a phone call rather than a certified letter, but maybe that is how they do things like this nowadays.

Yes, a very strange phone call indeed.

It piqued my interest, but you know what?

I really don't care to hear about this ever again.

I wished the attorney well, but that is that.

I know that for certain cases of abuse, there is no statute of limitations, so I suspect that the person claiming abuse is still alive.

Nearly 60 years ago, and now, there is some type of legal action being launched?

I won't even pretend to know how the human mind works ... but 60 years is a very, very long time.

And even though I have a very good memory, that is eons ago, and even to remember the teacher's name was a great stretch.

Well, that was something, wasn't it?

I mean, if he asked me other questions about 60 years ago--who my favorite baseball player was, what my favorite ice cream was, things like that, I could definitely answer, but the questions he asked me--

FUGGEDABOUDIT!

Rant #3,730: STOP

I put this up on Facebook yesterday morning.

It bears worth repeating, because I do not believe that people--and especially my fellow Jews--are getting the message about what is happening in New York City.

Please read this, and if you have already read this, show it to others, both Jew and non-Jew alike.

There is something dastardly going on in New York City, and IT MUST STOP NOW.

It obviously has spread to the suburbs, and IT MUST STOP NOW.

And what's worse, many Jews are buying into this--in particular, younger people of the Jewish faith--and IT MUST STOP NOW.

"If you can get a hold of Long Island's Newsday newspaper today, get it for the Letters section.

It was filled with praise for that garbage running for New York City mayor, with barely a mention of his blatant anti-Semitism.

He was praised for his "progressive" values, for his social media tactics and his youthful exuberance, but only one letter writer even delicately touched on his well-known disdain for Jews and Israel.

I guess the letter writers are choosing to miss a very important issue here.

To my Jewish friends and others, you simply cannot have a mayor of the most important city in the world, with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel itself, who backs Hamas terrorists, is anti-Israel, and has a proven past of blatant anti-Semitism.

It simply is unfathomable that this garbage has even gotten this far, but when people choose to turn their heads the other way, this is what happens.

And that includes many Jews themselves ... I have said time and time and time again that if Hitler ran on the Democratic ticket, Jews, and others, would vote him in because they vote the party, not the person.

And that is proven by the rise of this garbage.

Further, any union that supports this candidate is simply showing, and doing it very proudly, its own anti-Semitism.

I know it is very "chic" and "fashionable" to be anti-Semitic today.

However, we all know that if this garbage showed the same obvious disdain for specific ethnic groups, he would have been tossed out on his rear end a long time ago.

Why isn't this happening now?

It is pretty obvious, isn't it?"

Rant #3,729: Hot, Hot, Hot

July 4th is coming up, and what would the holiday be without fireworks?

Fireworks have been part of the festivities for as long as i can remember, and lots of people really get into the pops and explosions in the sky.

I am not one of those people.

I never got into fireworks, even as a kid, and as an adult, I can really and truly live without them.

Growing up in Rochdale Village, South Jamica, Queens in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, fireworks were all over the place--

Illegally, of course, but we all knew who to get those M80s and ashcans from if we wanted them, and I guess i simply didn't want them.

I wasn't even into sparklers and punks, the milder forms of fireworks.

I just never got what all the fuss was about.

But what is the holiday without fireworks?

I guess it wouldn't be the same.

The problem is that a lot of people don't leave it to the experts when it comes to fireworks, and each and every year, you hear about people suffering horrible injuries from their mishandling of firecrackers.

But again, what would July 4th be without all of this noise?

And what would July 4th be without barbecues?

Well, my family and I didn't have any July 4th barbecues during the past few years due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances 

But this year--in a new apartment with a terrace--my son, my wife and I are going to have a small barbecue.

Hot dogs and hamburgers, chicken for my wife, and whatever else we decide to cook will be on our electric grill, and I know it is going to be great!

I just love to barbecue, and now that I have used the electric grill three or four times, I am getting into the groove, learning more about barbecuing on an electric grill each and every time.

So I will be grilling on Independence Day, our nation's 249th birthday.

I can live without fireworks, but there is nothing like a great hot dog off the grill on the holiday.

I can't wait!

Rant #3,728: Old Days

Continuing the high school reunion story that I told you about on Friday ...

When I put up on the Class of 1975 Facebook site that I was going to the event, I got a couple of likes, from people whose names I absolutely don't recognize at all.

But I did get a Facebook message from another person whose name I also did not recognize at all, and what he said took me for a loop.

He said that he remembered that I told him that my father was a New York City medallion cab driver!

I still did not recognize the guy's name, but his memory literally propelled me to try to find my yearbook online.

I went to several sites--all trying to entice me to buy my long-lost yearbook for anywhere from about $50 to $100--but I finally found one that I could at least access page by page, on the Classmates site.

So for the first time in many years, I went through the yearbook page by page, and I remembered how this yearbook infuriated me to no end when it came out, as I was barely mentioned in its pages, as if I didn't exist.

I remember questioning the editor of the book--I think he was in my Social Studies class--about my conspicuous absence from the yearbook--other than my mandatory head shot in the graduates section--and i remember he told me that they used mainly photos of his and his yearbook group's friends in the book, and that is why other than that photo, I had been pretty much left out.

I was even left out of the Senior Variety Show section, an event that I stole. He admitted that I should have definitely been included in that section, but ...

That one photo I had in the graduates' section pretty much said it all.

I remember that the photo was taken during a very windy summer day leading up to my senior year, my hair--yes, I had plenty of hair then--was a complete mess, and, well, looking back, it pretty much demonstrated how I felt about my high school "experience."

Anyway, I found the picture of the fellow who remembered that my dad was a cab driver, and it rung kind of a very muted bell, as I kind of remember him, but I simply don't remember having any dealings with him--

But I must have, because he remembered that my father was a cabbie!

I continued to look through the book, and I did see that there was a picture of the debating team, and yes, I am in the photo. In the back row, and the photo is very dark and you can barely see me.

There is plenty else wrong with the yearbook--there is an embarrassing placement of a photo of a girl who died during senior year in a car accident ... preceded by just a single page of the other senior class member who was directly involved in the accident that killed her--and suffice it to say that I won't be spending $100 to obtain a copy of this tome.

Again, I am not going to this reunion for myself; I am going with the hope that by going outside the box, I can help my son find a job.

I know that that is a job in itself, but if it takes returning to an era of my life that I completely despise, I will do it.

Heck, after an hour or two or three it will be over, and I can return to the life that I am most proud of, and that is today, right now, in 2025.

High school ...

Just four years of my 68 years of life.

Those high school years ...

Best forgotten.

Rant #3,727: Doing What Needs To Be Done

Going completely against what many people have said to me, i have decided to go to my high school reunion.

But I am going with a purpose.

Honestly, I reviewed the list of those who have already sent in their money for this event, and believe me, I wasn't floored.

Of the 70 or more people on this list, I would say that not a single one can I place by face after reading their names.

Nothing comes up in my memory, and I have a very good memory.

A couple of the names sound familiar, but without a yearbook--I think my ex-wife gobbled it up when she ransacked my house and left me all those years ago--I can't look anyone up.

So familiarity--and the need to meet up with people I haven't seen in 50 years and probably had absolutely no discourse with when we were all in Massapequa High School at the same time--does not exist.

The reason that I believe that this Class of 1975 graduate is going has to do with a Class of 2014 graduate that I know pretty well--

My son.

Yes he graduated the same high school as i did, but what he faced was way worse than what I faced, no matter how bad what i faced was.

Being a special needs kid from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, he and others like him are looked at and handled differently, and even though a lot of times they are integrated in the overall student community, their experience is measurably different than almost all of their classmates.

And when he graduated high school, things got worse, in particular in the employment area.

And right now, he is having a really tough time finding a job, and it is because of his disability.

We have tried everything, groups that exist to help people like him don't, and I believe it is time to think outside the box.

I figure if I can go to this reunion, even if I get maybe even one or two people who can help a fellow alum, it will all be worth going to.

Maybe someone owns a business, has a child that owns a business, or knows someone who can point my son in the right direction.

Why not take a chance?

Look, as you well know, I know all about reunions, helping to carry out the 2014 Rochdale Village Reunion.

We had twice as many people as this one is having, and we worked around many obstacles to make it an overwhelming success.

If one of the attendees would have come up to me with a child in a similar situation, I would have had absolutely no problem with thst attendee passing around a few resumes--

And that is exactly what I plan to do at this reunion.

I have absolutely no memories to relive with these people--i already had my "Janis Joplin" moment late in my senior year--a situation where little old me stole our Senior Variety Show right from under others' feet--I am not there to see them; rather, to see what they can do for my son, and this way, my son and I can leave no stone unturned in our quest.

The money has to be in soon, so I plan on writing a check ASAP.

Look, if nothing works out, I can, once again, be the first one there and the first to leave.

But I do believe it is worth a shot.

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

P.S. Janis Joplin was a very unpopular girl at her Texas high school, actually being voted "The Ugliest Boy in Class."

Years later, about the time when she reached stardom, like her other classmates, she was invited to her high school reunion.

The reunion organizers were flabbergasted that she said she would be there, as she had become a star by that time in 1969 or so.

She did go to the reunion, but continued to be treated poorly by her now very jealous former classmates.

They still looked at her as the "frump" that they had decided she was all these years earlier, and she left the reunion seeing just how phony--and jealous--people were of her.

Whether any of this actually happened has morphed into an old wives' tale, but I do believe something did happen in one way or another.

My "Janis Joplin" moment was much more subtle.

At my class' Senior Variety Show, I outdid everyone that Friday night, breaking the then Guiness Book of World Records eating record of downing 23 donuts in 10 minutes.

My brief notoriety suddenly made me everyone's best friend, and on the following Monday, this guy that no one cared about for nearly four years became a school celebrity.

I signed lots of autographs, people who had never, ever spoken to me became my best buddies, and it gave me occasion to see just how phony the whole thing was.

After a short while, maybe by that Monday afternoon, I realized all the phoniness, and I just had to laugh it off.

My momentary notoriety basically served me perfectly, as it "gave the finger" to the school and how I was treated there for the entirety of my time in high school.

And, the fact of the matter was that someone in England actually topped my record the next day or so, so I never actually got into the record books. 

But I had my "Janis Joplin" moment, and no one could ever take that moment away from me.

In fact, it is the only good moment that I had in my four years of high school.

So take that!

"I got the Mercedes Benz ... ."

Rant #3,726: Dear God

And looking at the New York City mayoral race a little bit closer ...

Zohran Mamdani has not gotten the nomination yet, because he did not get 50 percent of the vote, and not all votes have been counted.

Andrew Cuomo dropped out of the race, like the coward that he is.

Or did he? Only he knows for sure. He might run as an independent.

Onto the next round.

That being said (and I said a lot of this on Facebook yesterday)--

New York City voters deserve who they vote for ... and can you imagine this anti-Semite as mayor of a city with the second largest Jewish population in the world, behind only Israel?

His popularity demonstrates both where New York City residents stand on Jews and Israel--becoming the most anti-Semitic big city in the country--and just how truly ignorant these voters really are.

The city is dead, has been dead for generations--that is why our parents moved us out in the early 1970s--and again, you get exactly who you vote for.

Thinking back, the city was starting to deteriorate 70 years ago, under Mayor Wagner, where the Dodgers and Giants called his bluff and moved to California.

That was the beginning, and it continued through Lindsay, Beame, Koch, Dinkins, Bloomberg, deBlasio and the current Mayor Adam's.

Giuliani--when he was a sane person--stemmed the tide, but it was brief and temporary.

There were some who called us every name in the book when my family, and thousands of others, moved out of New York City in the early 1970s.

The movement out of New York City was called "white flight," but more to the point, our parents saw the handwriting on the wall.

The city was teetering, and they wanted no part of it.

Now, New York City is dead, absolutely dead.

If this clown actually becomes mayor, you might as well hold the official funeral, because the people of New York City voted in the funeral director--yet are too ignorant, and quite frankly, too stupid, to know it.

Even at this stage of the race, for him to get this far, it should call out the alarm.

But it is almost like a falling tree in the forest; no one will hear the crash, not because they aren't there, but in this case, they refuse to listen.