Rant #3,878: Human Nature

OK, let's get this out of the way right at the get go: 

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so we are getting six more weeks of winter.

I have no idea what the other groundhogs saw on Groundhog Day yesterday, but if you want to believe Phil, we are in for it during this winter.

Six more weeks of winter ...

Well, that only brings us into mid-March, so I think his calculations are a bit off.

Not only do we have to get through February in its entirety, but I think we have to get through the entire month of March, too, and maybe the first week or two of April before we can kiss Winter 2026 goodbye.

So, in actuality, Phil's prediction is kind of short, isn't it, and short by a couple of weeks.

Sure, the Groundhog Day's predictions are always fun, but they are far from practical, and you really have to take them with a grain of salt--

Road salt, that is, or maybe even Kosher salt.

They both will do the trick.

I just heard that in my neck of the woods, we might have some more snow on Wednesday, and of course, the temperatures have been way down too, so this winter has been a memorable one for the wrong reasons.

Some say to move south, and you won't have to experience a real winter, but we all know how false that is based on this winter, where they are even getting snow in the northern part of Florida, and frigid temperatures have even hit Miami Beach on occasion.

I guess the only way to protect yourself from a real winter is to move to Hawaii, but that isn't happening.

So Phil, thanks but no thanks for your prediction.

It doesn't hold water--or snow--during this year's winter.

And you believe a groundhog as opposed to a meterologist?

I will go with the professional weather forecasters, even though much of the time, they get their own predictions wrong--

But this year, they have pretty much been spot on.

We have Lonnie Quinn here locally on the flagship CBS station in New York, and when he rolls up his sleeves, you know that the weather is going to be disastrous, no matter what season we are in.

It is a trademark of his, and he had those sleeves rolled up when we were blasted with 12 inches of snow and frigid temperatures a few days ago.

Hopefully, he won't have to roll up his sleeves any time in the near future, but with the weather as it has been, I wouldn't bet against it happening.

The groundhogs can only see their shadow; Quinn rolls up his sleeves.

I will go with the sleeves over the shadow anytime.

And just so you know, with the staples in my head the past two weeks, I have covered up my head with my baseball hat--

And yes, pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training camps this week and into next week ...

And you just know that even with a hint of baseball on the horizon, that the warm weather is coming.

And you also just know that when the warm weather does finally get here, we will be moaning about how hot it is just as we have been moaning about how cold it is right now.

It is all just human nature, and hot and cold, that is the way we are.

So try to sit tight; keep on telling yourself--

"The warmer weather is coming, the warmer weather is coming ... ."

And it is--

At the crack of a bat.

Rant #3,877: Dummy!

Word came over this past weekend that actor Demond Wilson, 79, passed away on January 30.

Although he portrayed many characters during his decades-long acting career, he is best remembered as Fred Sanford's big-hearted son Lamont on the classic NBC sitcom, "Sanford and Son "

That show was probably one of the funniest TV shows ever, running for 135 episodes from 1972 to 1978. 

Redd Foxx, the foul-mouthed adults-only comic, somehow found his way onto prine-time TV as Fred Sanford, the lovable patriarch of a Los Angeles--Watts--junk business.

Johnny Brown was the original choice for the role, but he could not get out of his commitment to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," so the role of Lamont went to Wilson, who had earlier appeared in a one-shot role as a burglar in "All in the Family," a Norman Lear production, as "Sanford and Son" was.

Wilson--an Army veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War--played Fred Sanford's  son Lamont, and the interplay between the two stars--with Wilson as the straight man--was stuff made of TV legends.

Boosted by a supporting cast list of chitlin' circuit mainstays who were Foxx's real-life friends, "Sanford and Son" became one of TV's most popular shows on TV in the 1970s, and was must-see TV every Friday night.

Wilson's Lamont character wanted to be upwardly mobile, but the millstone of his father around his neck kept him grounded, literally and figuratively.

And Fred often referred to his son as "you dummy!" when things didn't go right.

When the show ended, Foxx continued his role in a couple of poor "Sanford" spinoffs, but Wilson had had enough.

He starred in a couple of other sitcoms--including a black version of "The Odd Couple"--but he pretty much left the business in the early 2000s, with a drug history also on his resume--after earlier finding religion.

On screen, Foxx and Wilson seemed to have great chemistry, and they really seemed to like each other as actors.

But in recent years, in some videos that are easily accessible on the Internet, Wilson has painted a different picture of the duo's relationship.

Wilson claimed that Foxx was very narcissistic, had an ego the size of the Grand Canyon, and that Foxx treated him poorly and disrespected him up to Foxx's last breath.

Wilson also criticized show business, in general, and I have watched a couple of these videos, and quite frankly, they are very difficult to watch.

The actor came off as bitter as can be, but in a bizarre way, he is very convincing, and you don't, and can't, doubt what he is saying.

Even when making what happened to be his last visit to Foxx--right before the comic died of, you guessed it, a heart attack--Wilson said Foxx pretty much ignored him during this meeting, acting as if he barely knew his on-screen son.

It was sad hearing about this, and Wilson's candor--even if true--was a bit alarming.

Whatever the case, "Sanford and Son" was a landmark show, still funny 50 years after the fact, and Wilson was a major part of that funny-ness.

And the great thing is that it is still played pretty regularly in reruns on TV--sometimes censored, sometimes not--so it is very easily accessible.

R.I.P. Demond Wilson.

Your TV father might have called you a "dummy," but in real life, you were far from it.

Rant #3,876: Truth or Consequences

We have all heard about, and seen the video footage of, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota being sprayed with a substance during a town hall.

The guy who did this was sitting in the front row, got up, and sprayed her with what was later described as apple cider vinegar.

He was led away, and I am sure he will get the book thrown at him and serve some jail time for this episode--

If, in fact, it was a real attack, and not staged.

As much as I detest Omar--who is anti-Jew, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, and I could actually go on and on--she is an elected legislator in that bizarre state, and she doesn't deserve to be attacked like this--

And I would say that if she was Republican, Democrat, or whatever her party affiliation was.

An attack against an elected official is an attack on our democracy, period.

But I would also say that the attack was kind of a skivy one ...

One that so many people are claiming was staged.

This guy--who seems to be a low-level thug with some alcohol- and drug-related arrests on his resume--was sitting squarely in the front row of the room, pretty much right in front of the legislator.

I would think such seats would be reserved for those of a higher level--like her aides or other legislators--and not for such "common folk" as this idiot.

Some say she gave some type of hand signal to this guy, so he knew when to start spraying.

And her reaction--essentially that nothing was going to stop her from doing her thing, Minneapolis-strong and the like--was of such a bad actor that you could see right through it.

And what he sprayed her with--which had something of a foul odor and was thought, originally, to be urine--was something that while ridiculously used, couldn't harm anyone, except if you are the one in about a billion people who have allergies to apple cider vinegar.

What was sprayed on her was not initially known, yet she was not escorted away by her security detail, the room was not emptied of people who could have also been impacted by the spray, and rather than change her clothes right away and provide them to the FBI for further analysis, Omar just kept on going as if she spilled a bottle of water on herself.

Omar continually complains that she is oppressed, she has kind of a strange background herself--lots of rumors about her that I won't go into here--and that she might have staged this for sympathy or to deflect focus on more immediate, impactful issues.

The guy will get some time in the clink, but when he comes out, he might have a nice, fat paycheck waiting for him.

Again, all of this is speculation; I certainly don't know what really happened underneath the surface, if anything happened underneath the surface at all.

But if it was an actual attack, I don't care if you are Omar or President Trump or any other legislator, it cannot happen.

Our President was shot at, and it really is a miracle that the shooter just missed taking him out.

And through the years, we have had other legislators attacked, often with fatal results.

Again, I have no idea if this thing was real or staged.

What reason would this guy have to attack Omar?

Of course, it came out right away that he was a Trump supporter, but the guy has something of a criminal background, is not an upstanding citizen, so who knows what his real leanings are, and if they even matter at this point in time.

But if it was real, throw the book at the guy.

If it was staged, throw the book at Omar and get rid of her.

Will we ever know what really happened?

Right now, it is not being treated as something that was staged, but that does not mean that it wasn't.

So it is generally being looked at as an attack, an attack against a legislator, a member of Congress.

There have been other completely real attacks like this, things that could not be questioned, but this one is at least a little fuzzy in the reality department.

I don't even know what to think at this point; I lean one way or the other the more I see of the video and the more that I read.

Omar is, in my view, a despicable human being based on her views--even more so on our country in general, a country where she has risen to the highest ranks in our government--but she, or anyone else, should not be attacked like this.

Sure, some people even say that the attack on Trump months ago was also staged, but that has absolutely no credibility whatsoever, and both Democrats and Republicans expressed outrage over this unfortunate incident.

But I have to tell you, I believe what I said, that no one should be attacked like this, but this latest incident is very, very shady, and I, personally, haven't made my mind up on whether it was real or staged.

It is being considered to be real, so I will go with that for now, but that doesn't mean that if something comes out leaning the other way, I won't change my mind.

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

Maybe by then, we will find out more about this incident.

Rant #3,875: Count Your Blessings

Just to give you an update ...

I am still mending, I am still not 100-percent myself, but I am as good as I can be under the circumstances.

I will be getting the staples out of my head late next week, and then, maybe, I will feel a bit better.

It hasn't stopped me from doing the things I need to do, like working and driving, and on Tuesday afternoon, I actually had to clean off my car's windshield myself because an inch-thick layer of ice had formed on it, and the defroster could only do so much to melt it off.

I wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous, but since I had to pick up my son at work, I really didn't have much of a choice.

The ice came off in pizza-slice-sized pieces, so I guess I might have gotten a bit lucky that it came off in pieces rather than in small jigsaw puzzle pieces, but whatever the case, I did it myself.

One thing that I haven't mentioned is that I am unable to do my daily exercises, something I have been doing since I injured my left leg three years ago.

I hate exercising to begin with, but these exercises helped to save the use of my leg, so not doing them--even though they aren't strenuous--has been a big change in my life.

I will have to speak to the doctor and find out when I can resume them ...

Probably get back to doing it after I get these staples taken out of my scalp.

And, as I described to you earlier, I did have some troubles with the medicine I was taking, have since stopped it, and while I don't feel 100-percent physically, I do feel the medicine was adding to it all because it didn't agree with me or my system.

That is the first time that has ever happened to me in my entire life. 

I have always been very good with medicine, but not this time around.

In between doing work--and I had a work meeting yesterday too, and plenty to do after it--I have even started to digitize my records again.

Honestly, early on in this situation, all I wanted to do was to do what absolutely needed to be done, and then put on the TV and fall asleep, but now, my stamina has increased, and I have gotten back to doing some things I enjoy doing, like this fun exercise.

And I have no bleeding from my head anymore, which is a good thing.

Before you know it, I will be fully back in the saddle again--

And be forced to move on to the next health issue I am facing, one thing or another that I have been putting up with for a while now.

Whether it is the partly detached retina in my eye or issue related to my prostate, it is clearly never ending for me.

I just want it to get back to the way it was, which at this stage, might be asking for way too much.

And then we have the next thing to deal with, which is not a health thing but which can, in fact, impact your health.

Taxes.

They say that only two things are guaranteed in life--death and taxes--and while I believe I am far, far from the scrap heap, it is coming to the time of my annual tax cataclysm, where my family and I always owe money one way or the other no matter what we do to minimize or erase that situation.

We are getting the proper documents we need in the mail on an almost daily basis, so we will have everything in line for our annual tax session come early February--

And personally, I just like to get it done ASAP, out of the way, no matter how much money we owe, so I can have a clear mind and don't have to focus on this idiocy for more time than I am forced to.

Now I hear we might have another snow storm come Sunday, which will pile a still-undetermined amount of snow on top of what we already have.

These piles of snow that stand tall now will probably be around until the summer heat melts them down and away, but first, we have to get through winter--

And it is just January ...

We still have February, March and the beginning of April to go.

By the end of winter, my health should be back to normal, I hope.

But let's not put the cart before the horse.

Let's get through winter first.

And just think ...

Yesterday, I turned 68 years, nlne months old.

Three more months until 69!

Sixty-nine is supposedly a happy number--

And I plan to be happy leading up to that momentous occasion.

Let me count the days!

Rant #3,874: I Can't Explain

In Monday's Rant, I spoke about responsibility, something we have instilled in our son, whether it be to your workplace, your team, or your family.

Evidently, this is not a universal concept, or at least it isn't a universal concept anymore in this bizarro, very sick world we live in now.

The situation i am going to describe to you is not a cataclysmic one; it didn't change the world in any way, but in its own way, it demonstrates the level of total dismay that our culture has fallen to.

In fact, I will bet that it isn't an isolated incident.

During my son's bowling match on Saturday morning, I saw a complete lack of responsibility exhibited not by one of the bowlers, but by the parent of one of the bowlers.

And I was later told that I am not the only one noticing this, not by a long shot.

What happened is that my son's team was bowling another team in what was a pretty enjoyable back and forth meeting that ended up being decided by a handful of pins.

My son's team won both games, but the other team seemed lackadaisical, completely out of it, and not acting as a team.

When someone did well--getting a strike or a spare--there were no high fives, and even in between everything, there was no talking on the team, no enthusiasm, no nothing.

My son's team only had three members present--the other team had all four members present, if not fully there, if you know what I mean--and it was a good time on our side.

Look, my son's team wasn't perfect, but they high-fived when it was appropriate, talked up the place as they usually do--my son is quiet, but his team gets him going--and the three of them had a good time, win or lose, at bowling.

The other team ...

I can't tell you how many times I or one of my son's team members had to tell them that it was their turn to bowl, with only maybe one member of that team not having to be told it was his or her turn on the lane.

This holds up the game, with an ebb and flow non existent, and it does impact the bowlers.

Anyway, my son's team squeaked by in the first game, winning by two pins, and we moved on to the next game of the match.

Both teams were competing--it was up and down the entire game--but again, the other team looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.

The teams approached the ninth frame of the second game, and it was still anyone's contest.

It was one of the other team member's time to bowl, and the person could not be found.

Finally, someone on the lane saw her, and everyone is telling her that it was her turn to bowl.

She had her jacket on, which was kind of curious, but being that Saturday morning was pretty cold, you couldn't really question it.

Anyway, when she was seen, she acted as if she was "caught" for doing something, and she did not return to the lane.

Her mother--who was nowhere to be seen during the entire match--finally emerges, and says, "Oh, I promised my daughter and someone else that I would take them out to lunch."

I heard the head of the league say, "Look, you just can't walk out in the middle, if you have somewhere to go you have to tell someone."

"Well, I promised them--"

And she and her daughter left, without a care in the world.

This fouled up the two teams, as the scoring had to be updated to reflect that the bowler wasn't there anymore.

And since she wasn't there, whatever she had bowled was negated, and her average, minus five points, was used to replace what she had bowled, likely costing her team the game.

This threw everyone for a loop, and I have to tell you, if I would have had my wits about me, I would have said something to the parent, but I didn't.

I spoke to the head of the league, and I said, "We were in the ninth frame ... 10 more minutes, and she would have been out of here."

"I know all about it," he said. "We have had problems with this woman for a long time. She does this all the time. When I saw her daughter with her jacket on, I kind of knew we were going to go through this again."

He told me some other things about the parent that I will not repeat here, but there is evidently something out of whack when you have someone 40-something-going-on-10 years of age as the parent of someone with special needs who needs some direction, and can't get it from her own mother.

Without going into detail, I have seen this mother from afar, and I have wondered about her.

Again, I won't get into specifics, but just let's say that this woman might have some problems of her own that she needs to deal with--

Just from, let's say, her own "presentation."

I even apologized to the head of the league for being so concerned, and he said to me, "No, you are right about it."

So, because of a parent who doesn't seem to know what she is doing, she adversely affected her daughter's team, showing absolutely no responsibility at all.

And suffice it to say, my son's team was finishing up bowling in the 10th frame--where they did well and won the game right in that frame, that is how close it was--and not one member of the other team was present to see if they won or lost.

They finished their game, and had all gotten up and left way before my son threw his 10th frame.

Ridiculous.

Irresponsible.

Idiotic.

Maybe it was a good thing I did not have my wits about me, because if I did, I might have said something to this woman that I would regret later.

Maybe not regret, but felt I could have said in another way--

Or better yet, not at all.

But as a former Little League coach myself, I mean, you just don't do things like this.

As a kid in Rochdale Village, we used to call people like this "flat leavers," and I think, 60 years after the fact, that term still applies.

Rant #3,873: Truth

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, where we remember the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Adolph Hitler during World War II, and vow that nothing like it should ever happen again.

Eighty years later, we are witnessing what is possibly the early indicators that this actually could happen again, what with levels of anti-Semitism at their all-time highest levels not just in the United States, but worldwide.

And the level of anti-Semitic, anti-Jew and anti-Israel rhetoric on social media is growing by leaps and bounds--

And what's worse, the number of posts blatantly denying that the Holocaust ever happened, with so many actually believing that this atrocity was nothing but something of a publicity stunt to bolster Zionists' justification of a true homeland, is absolutely appalling.

I have seen this rising tide myself, where praise for Hitler and the Nazis exists--

And not only exists, but is thriving.

This can't be, but it is.

I have answered many of these imbecilic posts, but it is really amazing that while I am receiving more likes for what I have to say to these idiots, i am also seeing more and more people agreeing with these imbecilic posts being put up by the most ignorant people.

Yesterday, I had had enough, so I put up a post about this situation and my feelings about it.

Look, this stuff is nothing new.

When the Nazi crematoriums were uncovered by the Allies, Gen. Eisenhower--who had Jewish blood--ordered that as many photos as possible be taken by his troops as these camps were liberated.

He knew that visual proof would be needed not just then, but through the ages, to prove that these atrocities actually happened--

Because without visual proof, nobody would believe what took place at these camps.

And now, through the decades, we have people who are so ignorant that they believe the camps were simply propaganda to make the Jews look good, to gather sympathy for them.

As far as I know, my family was pretty lucky.

I believe that all my family was able to get out of Eastern Europe before Hitler took over, but they had witnessed many atrocities in Poland, Russia and elsewhere that happened to them simply because they were Jews.

But growing up, my father told me never to mention to my grandmother about one of her brothers who never came to America.

I knew my grandmother had one brother here, but there was another brother who was unaccounted for, and I do believe he perished during those horrible years.

He was never talked about, never spoken about, and I was told not to bring him up.

And I didn't, but I was curious.

Yesterday, Israel finally brought home the final hostage, which Hamas didn't help to return, as they had promised, and Israeli forces located.

There is a sense of relief that his remains are finally home, but the Internet remains filled with an increasing amount of vile words and imagery related to the Holocaust and the current Israel-Hamas altercation.

So like I said, I got fed up with trying to answer these imbeciles, and I posted the following.

If you haven't read it yet, please read it, and if you saw it yesterday, read it again.

Those who deny the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Hamas are sick people indeed.

"I have never dealt with such ignorant, stupid people in my life as I have recently when it comes to Israel and the retrieval, finally, of the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, an IDF soldier whose dead body was taken hostage by Hamas, and never formally returned to Israel as Hamas had been instructed to do by the ceasefire plan.

Some imbeciles I have dealt with say it was actually Israel's fault that it took so long ... some say that Israel prolonged the retrieval so that they could bombard the area once again ... some said he was not a real "hostage," because he was a member of the IDF.

One even said his body was buried under the tiny bones of babies killed by the IDF during their strikes on the area.

Yes, I know I am dealing with pro-Hamas groupies and the completely uninformed and uneducated here, but I think that this proves once again that since the world--except for the United States--pretty much abandoned Israel after the October 7, 2023, massacre, and still does, that Israel had to do what it had to do to get back the hostages and fight against this terrorist organization that so many imbeciles seem to love.

Has the United Nations ever officially condemned the actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023?

How many countries have backed Israel in its efforts, amid all the nonsensical propaganda that Hamas has thrown out to the world since that fateful day?

One person even said, on Facebook, that the Holocaust never existed, "or maybe 270,000 Jews perished, not the 6 million, that has been reported."

Another fool said that Anne Frank never existed, that she was basically a creation to add sympathy to the Jewish "plight."

This makes me angry, and the world should be angry, too ...

Even though it is obvious why they really aren't.

I could go on and on about this subject, but I will just stop it right here.

I wish I could stop all the hatred right here, too, but that is a task that is way beyond my capabilities.

But posting this message, it is perhaps my only way to describe what a very, very sick world we live in right now."

Rant #3,872: It Hurts

Snow.

I hate it as much as I hate anything.

But we finally got hit over the weekend.

I could be sad or angry about it, but I am neither right now--

Because i am alive and healthy enough to experience it.

I had my cancer surgery on Thursday, and the doctor told me that they got it all out.

I have staples in my head, and they won't be coming out for around two weeks.

I am very sore on the left side of my body; it feels like there is a knife in my back.

I have soreness--or something red-- under my left eye-- 

I can see, but it is making me feel bad about myself--

What did I do to deserve all of this?

I hurt, and I am about 75 percent myself, pretty much tired all day with the medicine I have to take.

(Note: I was able to contact my doctor via text and he told me to stop using the medicine--

It is the first time in my life that I had a negative reaction to medicine.)

But it hasn't stopped me, at least not that much.

I helped my wife do food shopping, and I took my son to basketball and bowling.

And as promised, I am back here at the Blog.

Due to the weather, my retinologist appointment was postponed until March, so hopefully, my detached retina will continue to heal on its own--

And that soreness I am feeling under my left eye goes away as quick as it came.

Honestly, I don't think my body could have taken two surgeries, one after the other, so it is all for the best.

And then we have this lousy snow ...

Due to my present condition, I cannot exert myself too much--

No exercising, no lifting, no bending ... pretty much no nothing for several weeks.

So guess who is going to have to dig my car out from the snow?

My son is going to have to do it.

His workplace closed early on Sunday, so he did not have to go in, but he lost a day of pay when they closed at 1 p.m. and his shift began at 3 p.m., so he did not have to go to work.

But now he has another responsibility.

He knows his responsibility, and he is ready to go.

And with my wife and I getting a bit older, our son has some new responsibilities, too.

After my wife and I did our food shopping on Friday, he had to help us up with all the full-to-the-brim grocery bags, in addition to bringing up a carton of water, something that he normally does anyway.

We have stairs up to our apartment, and I simply have been prohibited from doing anything like this, at least for now, so he is going to have to do it.

So right now, I am down but not out, and I am really happy that I went to my son's basketball and bowling.

Being there took my mind off of things for a few hours, and my son did well in basketball and did even better in bowling, leading his team to victory against their opponent, where a situation occurred which I will talk about with you later this week.

But I am cancer free, which is a great feeling.

And yes, I know that I am a broken record about this subject, but if you see something on your body that doesn't look right, please, please, please see a doctor about it.

Ninety-nine times out of 100 it will be nothing--maybe a wart or a simple blemish--but that one time that it is something, getting it removed as quickly as possible can actually save your life.

I found this thing myself, went to the doctor, he removed it, but then, later, I was told that a more drastic measure was needed.

I am in pain now, but I would rather be in pain than to have cancer.

So get these things checked out--it doesn't matter about your ethnicity or anything else--but it is treatable the earlier it is taken care of.

Please get these things checked out.

Even though I am not 100 percent, I am 100 percent happy that what I had was removed, and removed in the nick of time.

Do it for yourself and your family.

And if anyone needs a good dermatologist, I have one and I can recommend them to you.

I might have staples in my head, my I don't have marbles or rocks in there too.

Get this done now!