Rant #3,666: Maybe Tomorrow

I am so tired.

This week has been a busy one, what with work and everything else I have to do.

I am bushed ... I could use a couple of days where I don't do very much.

This is not retirement ... it simply can't be.

I think I need a retirement counselor, if there is such a thing.

This person would need to instruct me about "how to enjoy retirement without any money."

Is it possible?

Not in the environment we are in now, that's for sure.

But getting back to time management ...

I barely have time to write this blog five days a week.

I sleep pretty well, but I have slept better.

I seem to do a lot of thinking in my dreams.

So I'm not counting sheep ... I am going over things that bother me, and there is plenty that gets my goat right now.

I have to tell you, I have a lot to be thankful for, but there are times that my personal situation hits me right between the eyes.

I am brought back to reality each and every morning, when i prepare for the day.

I am so much better than I was, but the stark reality hits me when I shower and get dressed.

Not that either is a struggle anymore ... it is just so much more difficult to do these things than it once was.

It sounds crazy, but putting on socks is the worst.

i do it, but when i put on my left sock, i have to contort myself a bit, and it just brings everything bad back to me.

Yes, I am whining, and i am very thankful to all who got me through this ... but it is still difficult.

In general, I wish things were better all around for myself and my family, but I guess you could say we are holding our own, or maybe just treading water.

But there's always hope.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

And while I contemplate all of this gobbledegook, how about ending the week by reading the next installment of my novel?

I would appreciate it.

And while you are doing it, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

22

The students filed back into the classroom pretty quickly after the lunch break, and as usual, they were led by Melissa, who took her usual seat, the first seat by the door in the first row.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Abraham,” she said, with even more of a perk in her speech than normal. “It is so good to see you again after a nice lunch break.”

“It is good to see you, Melissa, and your classmates here,” “Mr. Abraham” replied. “We have plenty to do this afternoon, so let’s dive right into it.”

Melissa nodded over to another student seated next to her, and whispered, “Sure, he is going to be taking a dive, all right.” The other student smiled, nodding in agreement.

"Mr. Abraham” began the afternoon lessons, and the day went quickly for Abraham Lincoln Panim, as the clock quickly got closer to the 3 p.m. end of the school day time.

During the arithmetic part of the lesson, “Mr. Abraham” turned to the class as he finished writing on the blackboard.

“Does everyone understand this?” he asked, looking around the room. “It is getting late in the day, we only have a few minutes left, so if there is anyone not understanding this, we need to talk about it—“

“I’m not sure about it,” said Melissa as she raised her hand to get “Mr. Abraham’s attention. Responding to her plea for help, Abraham Lincoln Panim walked over to her, anticipating her questions.

“What seems to be the matter, what’s the problem?” he asked, as he bent down to see Melissa’s work.

“I don’t know, what is the problem?” Melissa asked, as she yanked on Abraham Lincoln Panim’s scarf, which went from being held tightly around his face to falling on the floor, revealing his secret to the entire class.

“My brother said it was you!” Melissa screeched “You are that rat-faced guy that my brother told me about. You have a rat face! And you hate cheese!”

The class laughed, and Abraham Lincoln Panim bent to the floor to quickly retrieve his pulled-off scarf.

And as he was doing this, he realized … Melissa Hartung was Brandon Hartung’s younger sister, the very person who had terrorized him when he was in nursery school and when he was in college.

“Not only did my brother warn me about you, but Mr. Sedall said you were the rat-faced guy!” Melissa bragged to the class. “They both knew what they were talking about—you are a rat face!”

“Rat face! Rat face! Rat face!” the class yelled almost in unison, and Abraham Lincoln Panim was only saved by the 3:00 p.m. bell that rang.

The class filed past him as he was still on the floor, trying to cover his face with his scarf.

He sat there as the last child filed out of the room.

Rant #3,665: Start

Today, the 2025 Major League Baseball season begins ...

Although it already began, when the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs played a two-game series in Japan last week.

So, the Dodgers are 2-0, the Cubs 0-2.

And yes, Shohei Ohtani--the very marketable/highly unmarketable star--has a home run already under his belt.

Ohtani is an enigma, and MLB really doesn't know what to do with him.

He could be the game's most highly marketable star, as he is not only a great hitter, but also a superior pitcher, the first such bombastic combination since Babe Ruth, who did what he did a century ago.

But the Babe became the true face of the game because he was, by far, its most marketable player, appearing in ads, movies--

You name it, and he was there.

Ohtani--and MLB--have a problem, and that is that while he is highly marketable, he speaks no English, so that kind of stifles his marketability.

Don't get me wrong, he DOES speak English, understands it, and even with a strong accent, could use the language in a variety of merchandising tools.

The problem is that it is something of a "badge of honor" for Japanese players not to speak English to reporters and the public, instead relying on personal.interpreters to get their message out.

The Seattle Nariners' Ichiro Suzuki certainly laid the groundwork for this during his Hall of Fame career, and the New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui followed suit--

Only to be outed by teammate Derek Jeter years after both of their careers ended, at one point telling the press that Matsui spoke and understood English as well as anyone.

Don't get me wrong; Ohtani has been in a number of commercials, but he has scant little to say.

Compare that to, for instance, the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, who is a marketing goldmine for the NBA, and often has too much to say.

Ohtani makes a goldmine from sales of his shirts and other things, but he woukd make even more if he spoke English.

This is a conundrum that MLB has had to deal with since Ohtani has been in MLB, and while the game has the Yankees' Aaron Judge as something of a substitute, can you imagine if Ohtani could be persuaded to speak English?

As it is, like Ichiro and Matsui, Ohtani has made baseball-crazy Japan even wilder about their adopted national pasttime--

Brought to those shores by none other than Babe Ruth when he barnstormed in Asia prior to World War II.

Whatever the case, the 2025 season officially begins today, with Ohtani and Judge leading the way.

Play ball!--

Or in Japanese--

プレイボール

Pureibōru

Rant #3,664: Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday, our local Newsday newspaper had a great story in its pages, all about Bill White.

You don't know who Bill White is? 

Let me fill you in.

White was an excellent ballplayer during his career--a five-time All-Star and a World Series champion in 1964 for the St. Louis Cardinals-- perhaps not a Hall of Famer, but an excellent player nonetheless.

In 1972, with the New York Yankees radio/TV broadcast booth in a bit of turmoil, the team took a chance on this newbie to broadcasting, doing something no team had ever done up to that point--hire a black broadcaster.

That chance latest 18 years, and opened the door for many professional sports teams to hire minority voices.

White--a smart guy who actually aspired to be a doctor--fit right into the broadcast team which was manned by sports broadcast lifer Frank Messer and Yankee all-tume great Phil Rizzuto.

The duo eased White into his new role, and White became a mainstay on both Yankees broadcasts and on national baseball broadcasts.

When he joined the broadcast team, the Yankees weren't very good, and hadn't been for a number of years.

Messer was the pro of the group, and his demeanor never changed, win or lose.

But Rizzuto--who himself was trained on the air by Hall of Fame broadcaster Mel Allen--kind of fell off the ledge during these years, paying less attention to the game at hand, and more attention to birthday wishes, his wife Cora, and cannolis.

And the fans loved it!

With White as the straight man, Rizzuto went off on tangents having nothing to do with anything, and the game almost became secondary to Rizzuto and White's Johnny Carson/Ed McMahon imitation.

Or maybe it was their Abbott and Costello imitation.

Holy cow!

The stuff that went on on that booth--a lot that we don't know about, according to White--was stuff of legends, and could not happen in today's woke world.

Goodness, I remember such things--Rizzuto's "guinea" segment ... getting White's name wrong and saying "all you guys look alike" ... covering for Rizzuto when he left games early ... I won't rehash a lot of this, but suffice it to say that you absolutely could not get away with any of this stuff today.

Yankees games on WPIX became "must-see TV," even if you didn't like baseball and/or the Yankees, because you never knew what was going to come out of Rizzuto's mouth--

Or how White would respond.

White became an excellent broadcaster, and when the Yankees regained their excellence, he demonstrated how great he was too, as when he described Bucky Dent's big home run against the hated Red Sox in 1978.

After leaving the Yankees, White became the first black league president, of the National League.

After leaving that post, White has laid pretty low, writing his autobiography several years ago but generally staying out of the spotlight.

And White, in his early 90s, said thst he misses his old partner to this day.

It was good reading about White, and yes, he is doing pretty well, although he lost his wife a few years back and resides in an assisted living facility.

It was a nice read, and if you enlarge the photo, you might be able to enjoy it as much as I did--

A great baseball story right before the 2025 season is getting ready to begin tomorrow.

Play ball!

Rant #3,663: Dirty Water

This passing didn't make the obituary section of my local newspaper, but I found it kind of personally important.

Larry Tamblyn, brother of actor Russ and the leader of The Standells rock group, left us the other day.

A lot of people looked at the Los Angeles-based band as something of a one-hit wonder and little more, but I looked at them a bit differently.

Sure, their "Dirty Water" hit single pretty much defined what garage rock was 60 years ago, but many of you might remember that the band guest starred on "The Munsters" TV show as the band that took over the ghoulish family's home with other hippie/beatnik types of thst time period.

It is a classic episode from a classic TV series, and it really typified the time when rock and its long-haired types were starting to be coming into our living rooms on a regular basis.

Things were changing, and TV was a major cog in that change.

The Standells recorded a number if LPs and singles during their most prolific time period, and they were featured on numerous TV variety shows during that period.

For the psst 50 years or so, there have been various incarnations of the band continuing to perform all over the country, and Tamblyn continued to keep the flame going into the present time.

Another reason that Tamblyn's passing hit me was that The Standells actually had a couple of side projects during their heyday, producing some recordings that are really difficult to find.

One was "The Sllednats"--Standells spelled backwards--which produced one single to my knowledge.

I don't have that one in my collection, but the next one I do have.

"Larry" was another side project, named after Tamblyn himself.

One song--"Summer Clothes"--came out of this project, and this 1967 tune is a bit of whimsy, certainly not the greatest record ever produced but a great addition to my collection when I found it several years ago.

(Heck, for this Larry to actually have a record by "Larry" kind if puts a cherry on top of my record collection.)

There are several Standells music compilations out there, and they are well worth getting.

And you can always see their appearance in "The Munsters," and on YouTube.

So, thanks to Larry Tamblyn, and to salute him, I am going to use a song title by Del Shannon, which I think fits the bill:

"Hats Off To Larry."

https://youtu.be/6qCRTtQ4XaU?si=bN-X9xSyHvhL9fU1

Rant #3,662: It's Not Right

As I have told you many times, there is a rift in the handicapped persons' community that one can only see if they are in it or somehow attached to it.

I am attached to it because of my son, and when I see it, it hits hard.

This rift is multi-level and multi-faceted, and with all of the prejudices unfairly hoisted on this community by the non-handicapped world, it is really almost blasphemous that prejudices also exist within the handicapped world.

Let me begin with a prejudice thst the non-handicapped world places on the handicapped world, perhaps doing it unwittingly, but it still stings.

The first one is between the physically handicapped and mentally handicapped, and this one really is one that the outside world promulgates by its actions, in particular in its hiring practices.

There are two levels of handicapped: those who are physically handicapped, such as thise whose limbs do not work properly, and they are often confined to wheelchairs; and those who are mentally handicapped, such as those whose thought processes might not be up to what society considers to be the norm.

Many companies do hire handicapped workers, because they do get a tax credit when they do so.

But I have noticed that companies lean toward hiring those with physical handicaps rather than thise with mental handicaps, because I do believe that these companies believe they can get more out of those with physical handicaps than mental handicaps.

And when they do get hired for menial jobs, those with mental handicaps get taken advantage of in the workplace; case in point being my son's situation at his job, where his already measely hours were cut by 75 percent, evidently because of the increase in the minimum wage.

These workers are taken advantage of, because they don't have the capacity to speak up.

The entire situation is truly upsetting.

Rant #3,661: Think

I put this post on Facebook on Wednesday.

Please read it and see what you think.

"You know, since I am independent voter, and could care less about the Democrats and Republicans, I don't see any positive vibes coming from Washington about coming together and making our country the best that it can be.

Absolutely nothing seems to be working right in our country, and it is hurting people like myself and my family.

That is just a blanket statement, but it is a heartfelt and honest one.

I would love to hear what anyone else has to say about this, because right now, I feel that people like myself, and my family, are being led and dumped into a thick fog created by people who think they breathe a more rarified air than we do.

Any thoughts on this?

A "like" is nice, but I really want to know what you feel about this, so please, post your thoughts.

Thanks."

I have to tell you, I received very little feedback on this--

Just two people posted replies.

The replies were good, but I would have thought that my post would have gotten much more response than it actually did.

I can't be the only person who feels this way, can I?

The president makes an executive order, and it is stopped by judges.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by a billionaire who acts harshly without any feelings, finds efficiencies which need to be made, but also lops off thousands of workers without any reason, other than a filtering of the force.

The Democrats sit on one side of the aisle, the Republicans on the other, and you would think we are in a real, honest to goodness civil war with the way they act towards each other.

Anti-semitism is surging, no matter what the president tries to do to quell it, with the courts seemingly taking what amounts to the adversary's or foe's side at every turn.

Me, I just was attacked on Facebook again, with my ethnicity and photo made fun of, and a swastika drawn on my face--all because I disagreed with someone who posted something that I took issue with.

(Yes, I reported all of this to Facebook, but the last time I looked, the image was still up for all to see.)

And the president continually fans the flames of disunity by acting like a "king" rather than as a "president."

With all of this, I see no unity at all, and I don't see any side taking measures to make us a unified country.

And yes, even though I agree with the president on some things he has done--certainly not all--I do believe things have gotten worse--much worse--since the new administration has taken power.

This is not meant as a knock against the president, who I believe is doing a much better job than his predecessor did or his adversary would have if she attained the presidency.

But I simply do not see us as a unified country, more of a group of factions doing all it can to thwart the enemy--

And the enemy appears to be within.

The greater problem is that I see this continuing into the foreseeable future.

And that is not good.

Just something to think about as we go into the weekend.

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

Rant #3,660: Alone

Yesterday was the calm before the storm, and today, my son has that job fair to go to, and I sure hope it is a fruitful exercise--

Because once again, an organization that is supposed to help him is dragging its feet while my son sits here and watches TV.

I called them like I said I would, and again, I think I got his counselor at a bad time, because she, once again, had no clue who my son was.

And when she finally figured it all out, I asked about an assessment--which she said he needed before the organization could help him--and she said that he needed to sign some document--which has not yet been sent to us--and then some outside entity could proceed.

How long does all of this take?

"Oh, you have to understand that I have a large caseload, and it is something that isn't immediate, and there is no telling how long this process will take--

And--

And--"

Well, I could have told her that I don't care about her large caseload, and I could have said that Christmas is coming too, but I simply didn't.

I knew I was wasting my time right then and there.

This is a situation that needs quick, steady action, and when you are dealing with what amounts to a pencil pusher, the pencil evidently isn't going to be pushed too quickly.

The only thing I did was ask her if she had the proper mailing address and email address, because she supposedly sent us some communication a while back, and we never received it, as it went to the wrong address.

So I just said, "Thank you," and that was the end of that.

I will never call them again, and I won't count on them for anything.

But now is the time to out them, because, like Popeye, "I have taken all I can stand and I can't stand no more."

If you know anything about these organizations, this one is Access VR, and I was led to believe that all roads lead through this group, and no other group can help you if you aren't overseen by Access VR and are in their system.

So, another dead end, another waste of time, and as I told my wife, "These people are working, and I am sitting at home"--related to the fact that these incompetent people have jobs, and after I lost mine, no one would hire me to do anything.

Incompetency is valued; good, responsible workers ... what's that?

And most importantly, my son still sits here.

So after his big, four-hour workday today--remember, he was cut down from four days/16 hours and is a victim of the increase in minimum wage--we will go over to this job fair, with our heads held high.

And maybe, just maybe, something good will happen.

But as I said, with all of these organizations set up to help people like my son, we are on our own in the goal of finding him a new job.

Totally, completely, on our own.