Rant #3,902: Jealousy (Envy)

I have many "friends" on Facebook.

Some are real friends, some are true "Facebook" friends.

I am also friendly with many Facebook users who I grew up with in Rochdale Village, Queens, New York.

My Rochdale friends and I are all joined at the hip, even though I haven't seen many of these people in decades.

That was an incredible place to grow up in, and I have made friends--and "friends"--for life from that community.

I just read about another one of us who has retired, and he is setting his future employment path as he retires from the second major job that he has had in his lifetime.

He still wants to work, which is great--

He obviously loves what he is doing, and hopes to continue to do it, or something else, to keep active, busy and vital.

I wished him the best, with the "caveat" that I add seemingly every time I find out that one of my old buddies is retiring--

"I hope that your retirement is better than mine . ... I envy those who can determine their own destiny, and not have it determined for them."

Yes, it is sour grapes on my part, but yes, I really do believe what I say as I wish these people "good luck."

Nothing--

And I mean absolutely nothing--

Has gone right for me since I was forced into retirement going on seven years ago.

A lot of it has been coincidence, such as losing both of my parents right in the middle of this mess.

They lived long, fulfilling lives, and they really lived life to the fullest.

But a lot of the things on my end that I have gone through during the past seven years have really been horrid, and more importantly, completely out of my control.

It all started with looking for work during perhaps the worst period to be unemployed in our world's history, during the pandemic.

I was also in my early 60s in what I learned was a dead field--old fashioned writing/editing, which has given way to the "new" journalism, what you read on the Internet--and it didn't help that I wrote about a field--military resale--that few knew anything about.

Yes, I was lucky to get the job that I eventually got--writing about that same field, military resale--but I never had a chance to retire on my own terms--

Which so many of the people that I know were able to do.

I experience jealousy--or is it envy--every time I hear about one of my peers retiring on his/her own terms, and it really throws me off kilter.

Envy or jealousy?

It has made me jealous, or envious, in a way, traits that I didn't know that I had, because I have never been jealous or envious of anybody or anything that I can recall in my life.

I am working because I have to, but my life was taken away from me when I lost my job right before the pandemic.

My health has definitely suffered--I went from about the healthiest person I know to just the opposite--we lost our house, my family fractured and let's be honest about it, things did not go the way I expected them to go.

I so just want to retire, but I know that I can't.

My family and I need whatever money I make to live in an environment where by being forced to take early Social Security, my monthly payments were fouled up, generating a monthly sum that is unlivable without some other revenue source.

I know I sound like I am constantly crabbing about this, but I wonder why my path to "retirement"--or "retirement purgatory" as I put it--became so messed up.

Reflecting back, I had many, many interviews in both my chosen field--teaching--and when I had to pivot--to editing/writing--when that didn't work out the way it should have.

When I became an editor/writer, I also had many interviews back in the day, with many large firms and companies--

But it just never worked out.

I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In education, I was looking to be either a middle school or high school English teacher, and I ran into a brick wall in trying to do that--

School districts were not hiring teachers during that period of time because of enrollment drop offs, and certainly not English teachers, because I later found out that English teachers stay with the profession longer than teachers in any other discipline.

In editing/writing, I ran into so many brick walls that it is truly amazing ...

Women were being more integrated into the workforce in elevated roles from secretaries, as were minorities in more elevated roles, and I know for a fact that I lost out on several jobs because of my gender and race.

And I had absolutely no "ins," nobody who could open the door for me and help me out.

So I ended up working for smaller concerns, not big companies, and while there are benefits to working for small companies, the negatives are that you basically work for today, not tomorrow, with many of these firms ...

In fact, my last employer only started a 401K plan during my middle period with that firm, so I had already worked at least 10 years there with nothing planned for the future--

And they stopped that plan right in its tracks when things started to go sour.

My family and I are far from destitute, but we are in a position where it is not my "choice" to work, I have to work, and it makes me very uncomfortable, because at this point, I want to hang it up and move on.

My father worked into his 80s, until his hearing became so bad that many passengers in his taxi cab were taking advantage of him ... like not paying for rides.

He loved his job, he really did, and he hated to give it up ...

But I can tell you until he became ill, he loved retirement after working for something like 70 years, since he worked at my father's butcher store as a pre-teen and teenager.

I don't look a gift horse in the mouth; thank God I have this little job that I have, as heaven knows what I would be doing now if I didn't have it.

But all I want to do is to retire, flat out retire, so I can choose my own destiny.

So again, when I read of an old pal who put in his time, is retiring for the second time, and looks to continue a career path not because he needs to but because he wants to, that is something that I really think is great.

But it makes me oh so envious -- or is it jealous--because I simply cannot do that.

Jealousy is a very, very bad trait to have, and being envious isn't any better, and I really wish I wasn't this way, but life has thrown me a lot of curves, and it appears that I am one of those guys who simply cannot hit a curve ball.

Strike one, strike two, strike three.

I'm out.

Rant #3,901: Shopping A-Z

As prices shoot up due to the war we are in in the Middle East, shopping has become a real pain in the butt.

For me, this is normally a happy time to do food shopping ...

Because the pre-Passover shopping period is upon us.

During Passover, observant Jews cannot eat regular bread, we have to eat matzoh, and we are prohibited from eating any products that are not Kosher for Passover.

No bacon, no pork, none of that stuff.

So right now, we are right in the middle of the Passover shopping period, leading up to the eight-day celebration that begins on, of all days ...

April 1, April Fools Day, at sunset.

The reason this year isn't as happy a shopping period as other years is because prices are sky high, and I mean, sky high for Passover products too.

Matzoh is ridiculous.

A box of matzoh, which used to cost about $3, is now $4, $5, $6 or even more--and that goes for the Kosher for Passover variations like egg matzoh, too.

All other products have gone sky high, too, so I am not finding it that much fun to do this shopping this year.

That does not mean that I won't keep Kosher for Passover.

In spite of the annual "Matzoh Stomach" malady--where eating matzoh makes you feel like you have a perpetual bowling ball in your stomach--I will eat matzoh like it is going out of style this holiday, as I always do.

Availability is another thing.

Gone are the days that you needed to go to one supermarket to get all of your Passover goods.

So far, I have had to go to two and three stores to find what I want--whether it be matzoh, UBet chocolate syrup or macaroons, and honestly, some stores have absolutely nothing--and I mean absolutely nothing--for Passover this year.

And some stores perpetually have nothing.

I went to one local store last year to look for gefilte fish.

I asked a worker in this particular store about it, and she replied, "What's gefilte fish?"

No, that store isn't on my Kosher for Passover list this year, although yes, I did go in there to see if things had changed.

Not a chance.

Also, I have found one, single, solitary store that has Passover Coca-Cola, the variety using real sugar and not corn syrup.

The price is about $1 more than the regular soda, so rather than buy two or three bottles like I normally do, I just settled for one bottle this time around.

I am not paying more than $10 for three bottles of soda, no matter how good it really is.

And then we have chocolate matzoh ...

My wife and I have been to a couple of stores looking for this delicacy, and we have yet to find a single box of this stuff, whether in dark chocolate or milk chocolate.

I love chocolate matzoh, even better than macaroons, which we found in great supply no matter where we shopped.

But chocolate matzoh ...

What's the deal with that?

I will still look around ...

It isn't Passover without chocolate matzoh sitting there waiting to meet up with your mouth and stomach.

I did see something new this year.

Not that I would buy it--I am happy with UBet chocolate syrup--but the classic Bosco brand now has a Kosher for Passover syrup--

But it is not chocolate, it is vanilla.

I had never seen this before this year, and while vanilla syrup isn't bad, it is not chocolate.

And while I am not a chocolate fiend, nothing goes better in milk than UBet ...

Of the chocolate variety.

I have not yet seen Kosher for Passover Temp-Tee cream cheese, so couple that with the absence of Kosher for Passover chocolate matzoh, and I am not a happy camper right now.

And let me add, for the first time that I can remember, the Kosher for Passover matzoh boxes have a different design, more snappy, more modern, and more to catch the eye of the younger folk who might be purchasing this stuff, maybe for the first time.

I saw this the other day, and I really had to do a double take, because the box design hasn't changed one iota for generations until I saw what I saw.

Potato chips are plentiful, and there are the usual candies and other snacks that go with the holiday.

But where is Kosher for Passover chocolate matzoh?

It can't be impacted by what is happening overseas ...

Or can it?

Rant #3,900: The Big Three-Nine-Zero-Zero

I don't know how we did it, but the Ranting and Raving Blog has reached another important milestone today--

Our 3,900th post.

It is probably a little more than that, because the numbering system somehow got a bit fouled up a few years back, and I also made some posts without numbers, but all in all, we have reached the big Three-Nine-Zero-Zero!

Amazing.

This Blog started out as simply a place where I could write whatever I wanted to write, talk about whatever I wanted to talk about, without any restrictions.

Work had restrictions on my writing, but here, I could do what I wanted to do.

What comes around goes around, and work still has its restrictions, but here, I can pretty much do what I want to do.

As a creative person, it is good to be given a direction, but sometimes, you just want to do your own thing, and that is what this blog has given me the ability to do.

It is a fun place, but I do take on serious subjects--like yesterday's Rant about the war we find ourselves in--but even when I talk about serious subjects, I try to keep it as light--and as readable--as I possibly can.

That is how I am, so if you want more serious and involved discussions, go read a dictionary or an encyclopedia (if you can still find either one).

Me, I like to take it easy on the verbiage.

Several other places I can't take it too easy on.

My health is one of those places.

After never having been sick a day in my life--or thereabouts--the past nearly three years have been awful, to say the least.

It seems that when one part of me gets better, another part fails me--

And I am at that stage right now.

I have to go to a couple of doctors next week, one being the dermatologist, and hopefully, nobody finds anything too out of whack.

But I know that if they do, I will be in that "one step forward, two steps back" thing that I have been on for a couple of years now.

I hate it, but you cannot play with your health.

But other than missing some days here and there, no matter what shape I am in, if I can get to a computer or my phone, I can post a new Rant each weekday.

I missed a day this week pretty much our of utter exhaustion from all the health stuff I have been through, but hopefully I can go on without too much interruption.

And as usual, I thank you, my readers, for keeping me going.

Yes, I know some of my recent Rants have been pretty lengthy, but I have had a lot to say in recent times, so it difficult to compact it into a nice tidy couple of paragraphs.

So stick with me, because that is how it is going to be for the foreseeable future.

There aren't going to be any word counts here.

I say what I want to say, and if it takes several paragraphs, so be it.

But again, I have a lot to say ...

And I like to write.

Funny, way back when, in P.S. 165 and then, at P.S. 30 and I.S. 72, I always kind of knew that this would be my life's work.

I thought about other things here and there, but English was always my best subject, so I knew that I would do something with the language--

I taught for a while, could never get out of the caste system of being a substitute teacher--the worst job in America--and somehow, I gravitated over the writing and editing, and all of these years later, that is what I have done for the better part of well more than 40 years.

I want to retire, but I know that at least for me, that ain't happening anytime soon, so I just have to plug away.

You guys generally don't see the writing/editing that puts food on my table, but it is quite different than what I do here.

In the past, I have written/edited as a professional writer/editor about real estate, security, show business and military resale among other things, but it wasn't even worth a hill of beans when I was looking for a job during the pandemic, probably the worst period to be looking for a job in the modern era.

But the Blog kept me going, even during the lowest of lows during that horrible period, and it keeps me going now.

We are now at Rant number 3,900, so we are on the precipice of reaching our 4,000th post, probably sometime in September of this year ...

That is, if I can keep my health going up to snuff.

So really, that is all I have to say right now.

I am being self-congratulatory here, for sure, but heck, why not?

You can't name too many blogs that have gone on for this many posts and this many years, can you?

This Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary on May 4, and I see no reason to stop it.

We get people from around the world reading it, so why stop now?

I don't make any money from it--it is monetized, but I haven't received a payment in something like 11 years--but that is not why I do this Blog.

I do it because I like to write, and I like to share my opinions and experiences with you.

So continue to visit, continue to read what I have to say, and question me when you don't agree with me or don't like what I have to say.

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

And please stay healthy.

Rant #3,899: The Right Thing To Do

I understand why we are so heavily involved in the Middle East right at this moment.

It is a matter of national security, and, as usual, the right applauds our efforts, the left is disgusted at what is happening.

And then you have those imbeciles that will continue to blame Israel--and all Jews--for what is happening around the world, and not just in the Middle East, and this latest war has simply made their anti-Semitism even greater.

Don't blame the oppressors, blame those that are trying to make things right.

I never believed that one person, in particular, could make people so absolutely crazy, but President Trump is the guy.

We even have something called "Trump Derangement Syndrome," which is a non-medical term which has been conjured up to describe people who have their heads explode every time our president does something that gets their gander.

And with our entrance into the Middle East skirmish with Israel as its partner, I am really starting to believe that whatever our President does, even if it is the right thing to do, certain people will get nuts over it, won't give him any credit, disparage him at every turn, and make him into the devil.

No one wants war, but our actions in the Middle East are necessary to root out terrorism, and these actions should be applauded, and not disparaged--

But you know that even if Trump does something right--he doesn't always do the right thing--certain people will even side with the terrorists over him, and that is exactly what is happening in the Middle East right now.

You have many Democrats, many Hamas groupies, and many others, who are saying that this war is not needed, it is illegal, Congress was not alerted to his intentions, etc., etc., etc.

So would you rather have Middle East terrorists, and the terrorist state of Iran, continue to treat the world as its own bizarre playground, with millions of people tortured, oppressed, and losing their lives?

We should be rallying around our country's actions, even if we don't like our President, but again, if Trump does it, even if it is good, it is no good, because Trump did it.

This is absolutely crazy, but that is what Trump does to people, to those who hear the name "Trump," and they get absolutely crazy.

This is not the first war that an American President has not received Congress' OK to participate in, and it won't be the last.

Ideally, everyone should have been briefed and on board with this, but the action had to be taken now, not after the Senate and the House debated it for days or even weeks, giving the terrorists more time to prepare.

Sometimes you have to hit people when, perhaps, they least expect it, and that is what we, and Israel, did.

The President gave absolutely no impression that this was going to happen.

He went about his everyday business as usual, and while he might have hinted at something happening, no one--not the terrorists, either--thought it would happen this quickly.

But it did.

War brings casualties, and we--and Israel--have lost people early on in this battle.

That is the unfortunate thing about war--there are victors, but those that give their lives--and often their limbs and psyches--during these battles never win.

But wars must be fought when the situation begs for it, and the continual rise of countries like Iran into the nuclear firmament threatens our country and our way of life.

Now, if the U.S. can get some of the more moderate Middle Eastern countries on its side to fight terror--like Saudi Arabia--it will make it even a better situation for all, and certainly for the Iranian people, who deserve freedom after nearly a half century of oppression.

Look, I am not a Trump MAGA 100-percent devotee -- i don't like the fact that prices will rise as a result of this war, and gas rose 22 cents in my neck of the woods in just one day--but you don't have to be a full-throttle devotee to understand what is happening, and to back our President in what he is doing.

A recent poll by CBS News demonstrated that 76 percent if those polled support our current actions in the Middle East--

As long as it doesn't go beyond a couple of weeks.

We don't want another Afghanistan.

But if you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, everything related to the President is BAD, even if it is CORRECT.

I hope we can all get on the same page.

Hamas, Hezbollah and the other terrorist organizations are not to be defended, as they are the enemy.

President Trump and Israel are not the villains, as they are the heroes in all of this.

We need to get that through our thick skulls.

All of us.

Rant #3,898: Back Together Again

I am back!

I skipped Tuesday's Rant because to be honest with you, I was pooped.

My eyes had been dilated the day before from my retinologist visit, and I just wanted to take it easy--

And easy on the eyes.

What happened during the eye examination was that I was told what I already knew, and what I pretty much acknowledged--

I continue to have a partially detached retina in my right eye, and that isn't going away anytime soon.

I can see, I can read, I can drive, I can work ...

I have absolutely no pain in the eye.

The doctor said that since the eye hadn't gotten any worse, and since it wasn't greatly impacting me in its current state, that I didn't need to have the procedure done right away--

And to come back in two months.

If the eye gets any worse, I can go back to him sooner, but right now, the eye is holding steady in its slightly-off position, so I didn't need to have anything done with it ...

At least right now.

I realize that eventually, I am going to have to get something done, but not right now, with the doctor's diagnosis being to just watch the eye and see how it is progressing.

That is a doctor that I like; not jumping the gun on things when they don't need to be done so quickly, like some other doctors that I have--

Like my urologist, who I visited on Tuesday.

As you know, I have had some issues in that area of my body over the past couple of months, which was set into motion by the over-precaution of my prior urologist, who I allowed to do something that should not have been done at that moment.

That sent me into a spiral that a year and a half later, I am just coming out of.

If things need to be done immediately--like removing that cancerous growth on my scalp--then go ahead, do it, but I don't like doctors that look for things and do things that are not necessary at that precise moment.

My urologist found what he thinks is something this time around, and I am going to have to have yet another catscan to prove--or disprove--what he thinks I have.

It is something I have to get done.

Going back to my previous urologist, of course, a major portion of the fault is mine, because I allowed myself to go through this butchering, when all the tests I took before proved that it wasn't necessary.

But so be it.

You live and learn, even with doctors, who I have learned well into my life, are human beings, and they make mistakes.

My current general practitioner just made a big mistake with me, ordering the incorrect prescription for me, which was never processed by the pharmacy I use because it contradicted what I had been getting.

Nobody ever contacted me about the mistake, and I had to unravel it myself to discover what had happened.

Now that I figured out what happened, the pharmacy said they would process the proper prescription for me--

Only to send me a text just a few hours later stating that they were out of the pills and that they had to order it, and they would contact me when my order was ready.

And I am still waiting.

I really can't win here with doctors ...

You might remember that I was a patient of one doctor who committed suicide, another doctor who was caught red-handed selling prescription pills to high schoolers, and another whose partner fleeced him and the practice they shared, forcing a shutdown of the practice without any notice.

No, I really can't win with doctors, but these messes have forced me to be very proactive when it comes to my personal upkeep.

I do have other great doctors who are treating myself and my family, so they aren't all bad ...

But gone are the days that I put my health entirely in the hands of these doctors, and fully trust them on the level I trusted my parents to do the right thing for me.

Those days are gone, but I know from experience that there are really good doctors out there, some not so good, and others, well, they are dreadful.

My only advice to you is to keep on top of everything related to your personal upkeep, question things you don't understand, and find out if procedures are absolutely necessary before you submit to what are, on occasion, the whims of the doctor.

Over-precaution is good, but sometimes over-precaution rises to a ridiculous level, embroiling you in something that can take months to reverse.

Been there, done that, and I am not going there again if I can help it.

Rant #3,897: Bits and Pieces

Yes, you have read right.

We are doing another "Bits and Pieces" after not doing one for many weeks, we have two in a row.

These stories I am going to get into today definitely do not merit a Rant-long entry, so why not do another "Bits and Pieces?"

Here we go--

Singer/Songwriter Neil Sedaka Passes Away: He was one of the giants of the early 1960s Brill Building era, where mainly Jewish, New York-based songwriters wrote so much of what we heard on our AM radios ...

But Sedaka was a bit different, because not only did he write many hit songs--with long-time buddy Howard Greenfield--but he didn't take his time getting out and performing much of what he orchestrated, unlike others like Carole King and Neil Diamond, who were hesitant about doing so.

Sedaka was something of a piano prodigy as a kid in Brooklyn, and he was even accepted to Julliard on a music scholarship.

But he found his place in the burgeoning urban pop/rock scene, helping to form the earliest version of The Tokens before going out on his own.

"Calendar Girl," "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," and "Oh! Carol"--about a girl he pined for, yes, Carole King--all were big hits, and he wrote and collaborated with many other stars over the years, everyone from The Monkees to Elton John.

(I always liked "Next Door To An Angel," so I posted its picture sleeve above.)

He re-emerged during the 1970s with "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain and Tennille, where the refrain of the song was "Sedaka's back," and he was, with numerous hits of his own in the 1970s, such as "Bad Blood."

And yes, he is another one of these personalities who really should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but will likely never get in due to politics and the cancel culture of the era in which he excelled.

Also, as I wrote in a brief bit this past weekend, I believe--but never could flat out say was true--that I knew some members of his family who lived in Rochdale Village in Queens, New York, when I did, during the mid-1960s through the early 1970s.

I believe Sedaka's elderly parents lived below my family in the sprawling development; we lived on the first floor, and his parents lived right below us on the ground floor in Rochdale's Building 9, Section C.

I also believe--but again, could never fully substantiate--that Sedaka had other relatives who lived in Rochdale, one of whom I was fairly friendly with.

But whatever the six degrees of separation was--real or at least never fully substantiated--Sedaka will certainly be missed.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Backlash: I am going to tell you a story, and I still find it very hard to believe that I was embroiled in this utter nonsense.

As I mentioned briefly in my previous "Bits and Pieces," I posted in a few sites on Facebook that I found the most recent list of nominees in the Hall of Fame to be the worst list I had ever seen, and I didn't feel that any of these performers--while successful in their own right--deserved to be inducted into this Hall, and I still feel that way.

As I said, I put this opinion up on a few sites, and some people agreed with me, others didn't, and that was that ...

Except on one person's post in particular, a post from someone who I generally respect highly.

I put that opinion up on this person's original post, where he lauded the choices, and one person took it upon themselves to call me every name in the book, referring to my race and religion in the process--as if this had anything to do with anything--and really going off the deep end on this.

I answered back--I mean, you cannot post such trash and not expect a reaction from me--and the original writer of the post took great offense at what I said--

But took absolutely no offense to what the other person posted about my race and religion.

I attempted to explain that my opinion was that NO ONE on the list deserved entrance into the Hall--whether they were white or black, whether they were lily-white Billy Idol or mixed race Mariah Carey or black Luther Vandross--and I was lambasted for my reply.

It shouldn't matter, but the original poster is black, the one who took offense at my post and made it a racial/religious thing is black, and yes, I am white and Jewish, so I guess I was a target.

Couple that with my earlier reaction to the death of Rev. Jesse Jackson--an avowed anti-Semite--and I was told that I got what I deserved, and that I should just take it--

Because the original poster is black and the one who lambasted me was black, so this was, essentially a "black" post.

The offending party, while calling me every name in the book, also went after the original poster, asking him why he puts up with myself and someone else--both of us are white and Jewish--in our various posts we have made.

The original poster pretty much told me that I would have to take it for my opinions, because he is black, just about all of his respondents are black, and that is the way it is.

Funny, if someone, on my "white and Jewish" posts called a black respondent on any of my Facebook posts the horrid names I was called on this "black" site, I would probably get rid of that person just about immediately.

But because I am white and Jewish, I just have to take it on this particular post?

I chatted on Facebook with the original poster. He is a nice guy, but he backed the vulgar respondent for the reasons I said earlier.

We buried the hatchet, but I am still off his friends list for at least a bit.

This is social media, where one post can make people absolutely crazy.

And I don't really buy into this nonsense that Jews "just have to take it," have to grin and bear all the anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric on social media.

No, we don't.

To paraphrase a famous saying, social media seems to be more powerful than the sword in this deranged world we live in.

Health Update: Yes, after all of this, you would think that my health would be absolutely on the fritz, but I feel pretty good, to be honest with you.

Some of my physical processes have actually come back after months of absence--stopping medication with a doctor's approval can work wonders--but I still have some things to contend with.

The first is today, where I have to go to the retinologist to see where I stand with my partly detached retina.

If it continues to show improvement, I might be able to last another month without having a procedure done.

If the doctor determines that I need the procedure done right away, then I will have to go through this, and the aftermath, where I am going to have to lay low for a while.

Hopefully, the former situation will prevail once again, and I can go a bit longer as the retina fixes itself.

But if not, I am going to have to have this done--

And that could impact my work, and my time here at the Blog.

So this might be it for this week here at the Blog, or you might see me again on Tuesday and for the immediate future.

So if that is it for this week, I will speak to you again, hopefully, next week.

Say a prayer for me, because I feel that I am going to need it.

Rant #3,896: Bits and Pieces

Yes, it is that time again--

For Bits and Pieces, where I comment on several subjects that do not require a full-length Rant to get to the nitty gritty of what I have to say about them.

After the snow we have been getting, I figured it was time to rev up Bits and Pieces again, because all we have been getting is a snow job this past week ...

On a number of levels, the first being--

The Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping: This story gets weirder by the day, and the latest that I heard about it is that a 911 call was supposedly put in by a woman who was in distress right around the time of the kidnapping, and it could have been Guthrie herself making the call, but the authorities aren't sure about that.

And Guthrie's family has put up a $1 million reward for their loved one, which again shows that no matter how horrid this story is--and it is extremely horrid--yes, again, it all has to do with money--

But the odd thing is that nobody has taken the family up on its offer, at least not yet, so if the kidnappers were intent on making a windfall from this, they have yet to cash in.

I still believe what I have believed from the very beginning, that this is an inside job--a family member, or someone that the woman recognized, such as hired help, a landscaper, even the paper deliverer.

But something else came to my mind about this sad situation.

The woman was kind of sickly, and we were told that she had mobility issues--

Not that she couldn't get around, but that she had trouble doing so.

Isn't it possible that she may have, for whatever reason, wandered out of her home, and perhaps stumbled in the thick brush surrounding her home, and that she--or her body--can be found there?

There is a lot of thick brush around her home, and I mean, from all accounts, very thick brush, and maybe she is there?

I know, they have that video, but I have to wonder about it ...

Maybe she was, in fact, taken from her home, but maybe she was dumped in the surroundings around the house.

And as for the police there ...

Maybe they aren't telling us everything--and they probably aren't--but would even the Mayberry Police Department had done a better job than these suburban yokels have thus far?

I don't get the whole episode, I don't think anyone else does, and I don't think the police there get it either.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Announced: The announcement on Wednesday demonstrated the worst, most inept list of nominees to date, in my humble opinion.

In fact, I would say that just looking at the list, my first thought was that not a single performer on it deserves induction--everyone from Pink to Mariah Carey to The Black Crowes.

And even the performers I have liked in the past--Billy Idol, INXS--are they really worthy of induction?

What's more, an era has finally been bypassed completely, as acts from the 1950s and the mid to late 1960s have been shunned again, and seemingly shunned for good.

I have my own picks for the HoF, but let me just harp on one that I have been harping on forever.

Lesley Gore was a pioneer in the rock field: a singer whose songs were not the usual girl meets boy type of stuff that girl singers put out in the early to mid-1960s, including "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me."

They were mainly about empowerment, doing what a girl wanted to do when she wanted to do it, and were more forceful than material put out by both female and a lot of male artists during her heyday.

Her music was produced by Quincy Jones, marking his entrance into pop music, and honestly, Gore fits every criteria for enshrinement--success, influence, and even her background checks off all of the boxes.

How can Pink even be discussed without Gore already being enshrined? Would Chrissie Hynde and Joan Jett even be mentioned if it wasn't for Gore opening the door for them?

With its current list of nominees, the HoF is clearly moving away from the genre of rock into a more pop area, and that is shameful, because there are just so many real rock acts that should be enshrined but will never be in there because of a lot--and I mean a lot--of politics.

I put up my views on Facebook under another person's posts, and I was called every name in the book--none complimentary--because of my opinion.

That is another story for another time, but this is the low-reaching level that the HoF has fallen to with its nominees, and I hope that it is proud of itself for its kind of cancel-culture choices.

As for me, as one of the people who actually put up some money to get this thing built, it is a place that I will never visit because it doesn't reflect music that I enjoy, and performers that I believe should be celebrated.

More Snow Forecast: I couldn't leave this story alone.

On top of what we already have--more than two feet of snow after Wednesday's latest dropping--the weather forecasters are saying that we might get several more inches between now and next Tuesday.

This might directly impact me, because on next Tuesday and Wednesday, I have very important doctors' appointments set up, first with the retinologist about my partially detached retina and second, with my urologist about the various problems that I have had in that area.

Any postponement of these appointments sets me back quite a bit, especially the meeting with the retinologist, where I might need to have a procedure done to correct the retina problem.

None of these doctors are around the corner, so they will take a bit of travel to get to, and if there is more incessant snow, I might have to further postpone these appointments ...

Which is not a good thing for my mind, my body, or my soul, to be honest with you.

But let's see what happens--

And I hope if we do, in fact, get more snow, it is not anything too bad.

Not another two feet bad, if you know what I mean.

And with that, I wish everyone a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Let's see how the rest of next week pans out.