Rant #3,940: My "Brave" Face

Another great one left us the other day.

Ted Turner took his father's billboard business and morphed it into one of the world's most well known and famous media conglomerates, headlined by CNN, TBS, TNT and several other acronyms.

Turner said that he came up with the idea for CNN because after working a long day at the billboard business, he would come home at all hours, wanted to find out the latest happenings in the news, and couldn't find any news programs to watch to fill that need.

He initially bought a low-fi UHF station, but that station turned into TBS, "America's Channel" for a while.

Like him or hate him, Turner was a broadcast pioneer, became a billionaire from it, and his ideas helped to spread the popularity of cable TV across the nation.

And like I normally do when writing about prominent people who have passed, I am now going to talk about another side of Turner, something that you probably won't read anywhere else but here.

Sports was one way he made TBS popular, and before I get to the gist of his sports offerings, let me tell you about the influence he had on America's view of professional wrestling.

Again, you can like him or hate him, but Turner saw a great opportunity to expand TBS's reach in the heartland--and elsewhere--by incorporating pro wrestling into the superstation's programming, and it clicked on all cylinders.

Like what Vince McMahon did with WWWF/WWF/WWE, Turner went national with his pro wrestling show, making household names of Ric Flair, Sting, the Freebirds, Missy Hyatt, Dusty Rhodes, and many others, pretty much at the same time that McMahon was expanding his organization's reach across the nation and the world.

Pro wrestling would not be the phenomenon it is today without Turner and McMahon, and Turner's legacy was pointed out on the Wednesday night AEW broadcast, when Sting came back to the ring to say a few words about Turner.

Like I said, Turner had his detractors, and CNN became a flashpoint.

Many said it didn't provide the full news story, only the part of the news story that they wanted to be told.

They leaned firmly left, still do, and Turner was probably the first TV or radio broadcaster to put out a list of words that his talent could not say on the air, leaning towards the politically correct way of thinking.

But funny, the baseball team he owned, the Atlanta Braves--a team that he actually managed for one day amidst a managerial firing--has a name that is thought to be politically incorrect by so many of the PC Police's woke squad--

But he never changed their name, so yes, he was pretty inconsistent in his thinking.

But his wokeness spread far beyond that list that he drew up.

My local Newsday newspaper, in the Turner obituary that they ran yesterday, refused to mention the Braves by name, referring to them only as the team that Turner owned.

In fact, in relating the baseball scores in its sports section, it listed the names of all the teams that played--except the Braves.

Newsday referred to them as "Atlanta," not by their name.

Go figure.

So again, you could either love him or hate him--this love/hate relationship reached its peak when Turner married the ultra-controversial Jane Fonda--but you had to acknowledge that he was a true broadcast pioneer.

And here is something else that you won't read anywhere else related to Turner.

The late John Sterling--who we spoke about just the other day--is tied to Turner, because Sterling was the Atlanta Braves' ... err ... Atlanta team's announcer during the early 1980s, or right before he became the New York Yankees' radio voice.

So say what you want about Turner, but he knew what he was doing, at least most of the time.

R.I.P. Ted Turner, you made something out of next to nothing, and your legacy will live on forever.

As for myself, I have my horror show week coming up, and it begins with me seeing two doctors on Monday--

And it ends with a major procedure i have to go through on Friday.

So for the coming week, I might be in and out of the Blog the entire time,  but I will try to be here as much as I can.

Have a great weekend, and I will next speak to you when I can.

I will just have to put a "brave face" on it all.

And notice, I used the word "brave."

There is nothing PC or woke about me--

So why not?

Rant #3,939: Celebration (Not)

We are in the middle of May 2026, yet while the year may change, other things never do.

I am going to do something I almost never do, and that is to rerun almost an entire Rant from the past.

The reason I am doing it is pretty obvious, and belies the theme that things don't ever change-

Even though change is absolutely needed.

I firmly place the blame on the media, which, for some reason, refuses to acknowledge this month-long event, and has refused to acknowledge this event for as long as I can remember.

Look, I know the reason they do this, but to continue to do this, in the face of what we have going on in the country and in the world, defies belief.

So here goes. 

Whatever I said then--Rant #3,346, May 7, 2024, exactly two years earlier--still holds, and I wish that it didn't.

And it is a Rant within a Rant, because I quote from another earlier Rant from 2023.

Again, I wanted to write something fresh and new, but there is nothing fresh and new about this problem, so with a couple of edits, I am going to leave it as is.

Here is what I said, in edited form.

"Let's celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month!

Let's find out the intrinsic ties between the Jewish population and our country!

What, never heard of this celebration?

You are not alone.

I don't mind that the other "months" get coverage; I do mind that this particular celebration is completely ignored by the media.

And I ask the same question: why is that?

And why is that with all the anti-Semitism simmering in this country?

Well, it is pretty obvious, wouldn't you agree?

The term "systemic racism" is used at the drop of a hat as a catch-all phrase for various ills the country has, but I have yet to hear "systemic anti-Semitism" ever uttered, but it does exist, in particular in the media, which constantly tries to "right wrongs" when it comes to others, but when it comes to Jews ...

Heck, when you have prominent Jewish Americans only using their Jewishness when it lines their pocketbooks, why should anyone care--or understand--the Jewish heritage?

And that media negligence makes them culpable in the rise of anti-Semitism in this country.

And yes, the entertainment industry, too.

I have been bringing up this increasingly virulent situation for years, and some of my fellow Jews have called me every name in the book for my beliefs. 

And believe me, I wish I was wrong. 

But unfortunately, everything I say is true, and it is festering right now, with no end in sight.

And I am sorry ... when the "plight" of Pacific Islanders is highlighted more prominently than the "plight" of the Jews in this country--in particular in the New York Metropolitan Area market, featuring the largest Jewish population in the world other than Israel itself--you know there is a major problem.

The problem isn't going away so fast, certainly not in the environment we are in now.

You have all of these vicious campus protests, and the anti-Semitism which is front and center in these protests is downplayed.

And when it is spoken about, it is lumped in with anti-Muslim or Islamophobia ... it has nothing to do with any of those failings.

And notice how the media refers to Hamas as "militants" now, rather than as "terrorists," which they had been acknowledged as being throughout the world.

The next thing is that they will be portrayed as a humanitarian organization ...

Don't laugh, that time is coming.

Now, how about Jewish American Heritage Month? 

Here is what I said about Jewish American Heritage Month, in edited form, in Rant #3,128, May 9, 2023.

It bears worth repeating.

"To celebrate that great success we hare had—as well as the struggles we continue to have, as anti-Semitism is on a dramatic rise in this country—we have Jewish American Heritage Month, which started in 2006 and is this month, to put a spotlight on our accomplishments in this country, as well as the problems some still have with us being as successful as many of us are here.

Jews are clearly woven into the fabric of our country’s history, but some still refuse to acknowledge this fact.

The problem is that this annual celebration gets virtually no acknowledgement from the mainstream media, receives little-to-no coverage at all, paling in comparison to other such celebrations which dot the calendar throughout the year.

Why is that?

The reason is that Jews are not part of the government's eight Special Emphasis programs, which includes Asians, Blacks, Women. LGBTQ and others, meaning that the federal government does not consider Jews as an oppressed group.

With anti-Semitic acts on a steep rise every year, and with an increasing amount of hate speech directed at the Jewish population, this is, quite frankly, hard to believe, but true.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which is also this month, gets precedence and full coverage because this group is thought to be oppressed by our government and our country.

It is shameful, but it is true.

Not to minimize their pain, but we get bombarded this month by tributes, remembrances and what have you for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but little to nothing about Jewish American Heritage Month, which is really striking for a variety of reasons.

Notice that the rise of anti-Semitism is real—so why the cover-up beyond what I just told you?

And don’t tell me that the lack of coverage for this month does not add to the rise in anti-Semitism that we are going through now, but I think that, unfortunately, my Jewish brethren are at least partly to blame for this invisibility.

Many of us cavalierly have blended themselves into the mainstream of society, and have no idea what anti-Semitism is, simply because they don’t really know who they are.

And many others know what anti-Semitism is, but choose to ignore its very existence.

This is just so wrong on both counts, but as a proud Jewish American, I, personally don’t ignore what is happening in this country right now as easily as others seemingly do.

To each his own, but when Jews are not considered to be oppressed anymore, yet anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise, there is something wrong here, something very wrong.

That Jewish people in this country have somehow persevered through all the hatred is to be commended, and almost completely ignoring Jewish American Heritage Month is a clear slap in the face to this group of people who have had such a major impact on our nation.

And yes, ignoring this month is also sort of under-the-radar anti-Semitism, which is probably the worst anti-Semitism that there is, because it clearly exists, but is completely ignored by the mainstream, the very faction that perpetuates its existence."

You can cover it up as much as you like. 

But if you are Jewish, you are Jewish.

Be proud of that fact.

Nothing more needs to be said." 

Rant #3,938: Voices Carry

The Yankees did the right thing with their salute to the late John Sterling on Monday night, but I think that the YES Network botched it a bit.

What they did is that before the night's game against the Baltimore Orioles, they had the Bronx Bombers line up on the field, and a short video was shown to fans on the scoreboard, highlighting Sterling's great radio calls of past great games in Yankees' history.

Then Michael Kay--who began his broadcast career with Sterling--and Suzyn Waldman--a trailblazer herself who worked with Sterling for two decades behind the mike--came out and placed flowers on home plate.

But in what seemed to be a millisecond after the flowers were placed on the plate, YES went right to a commercial.

It was too quick, too abrupt, and the viewer lost the sense of the moment with the quick departure by YES, where Sterling appeared regularly on several shows devoted to the Yankees.

It just seemed so hollow.

But leave it to others to bring us back to the occasion at hand.

When the game started, the Yankees displayed their uniform tribute to Sterling, with a "JS" put on the back of their caps.

I would have preferred a patch or something else on their uniform, but this will certainly do--

And plenty of fans already want to add this tribute cap to their collection, as a fitting tribute.

The fabled Bleacher Creatures did their thing, yelling out the Yankee starters like they always do--

But at the end of their regular chanting, they added a vibrant chant for John Sterling.

Then, in an almost scripted moment that just had to be that way for the Yankees, Aaron Judge hit a first inning home run, and Michael Kay called it almost as John Sterling would have--

And yes, he used Sterling's "Here Comes the Judge" mantra as Judge rounded the bases and touched home plate.

It was fitting, it was touching, and it was the right thing to do.

And I am sure Sterling was happy with it, as the homer put the Yankees up 2-0 en route to their eventual 12-1 win.

The YES botch was odd, because the network came on the air with almost two hours of John Sterling memories to start the day, but they broke away just so quickly from the ceremony, as if to say that they had commercials to fit in--

Almost like Sterling would read one succession of ads after another in between pitches of every broadcast.

Maybe that was the point, and maybe that celebrated Sterling even more than I thought it did, but their leave of the ceremony was really the only blemish on the entire day.

Sure, Sterling's death was certainly not welcomed, but the plethora of tributes online, on radio, and on television had to make you smile amidst the sorrow, and the playing back of clips where he announced homers and big wins on the radio had to make any baseball fan smile, at least a little bit.

Sure, he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his calling of games, but he was revered as much as any baseball announcer I can remember, up there with Vin Scully and Bob Uecker when they passed away.

As I said yesterday, I was not a fan of Sterling, but I understood his importance in the grand scheme of Yankees things, and his death really was a shock.

He was one of those people who you thought would live forever--

And thanks to modern technology, he will.

Just go to YouTube, type in "John Sterling." and you will see--and hear--exactly what I mean.

Rant #3,937: Yankee Doodle Dandy

We lost one of the greats yesterday, and I think this person's prominence extended well beyond sports, and even non-sports fans knew his name.

And no, he was not an athlete, but he called the games featuring athletes from America's four major sports--and then some--for probably a half century.

We lost John Sterling yesterday.

Yes, Sterling, 87, made his mark as the decades-long voice of the New York Yankees, with his mouth-swirling, tongue-twisting home run calls being the stuff of legends.

He was there through more than 5,000 games over 36 seasons, just about all the recent successes of the team, only fully retiring less than two years ago, but still around and still talked about as if he was never really going to fully go away for good.

And you know what? I really never liked Sterling as a broadcaster.

Yes, I am a Yankees fan tried and true, grew up learning and loving the game with the Frank Messer-Bill White-Phil Rizzuto trio as my broadcast standard on both radio and television, but I simply could not get into Sterling at all.

As I wrote on Facebook:

"I have to tell you, I was never a fan of Sterling. 

I didn't like his calling of the games, I didn't like that he often ignored [broadcast partner] Suzyn Waldman and everything she had to say, and I didn't like his ego on the air ... but I absolutely respected him and the work he did to bring Yankees baseball to everyone on the air. 

I also remember him as the ABA New York Nets announcer, his work on TBS, and for his own sport talk radio show, where I actually won a prize answering a question about paralyzed basketball player Maurice Stokes. 

He was extremely nasty on that show, in particular to younger listeners like myself, but somehow, I won out that one time. 

Anyway, to all of us, he became an institution on the air, and whether you loved him or didn't, he will be sorely missed."

Yes, I absolutely respected his work, and respected him as the "Voice of the Yankees" for all of those years, but I simply didn't like him as an announcer.

To me, he was too shrill, and his immense ego came out on the radio broadcasts of the Yankees games.

But to others, he completely defined the Bronx Bombers, in particular during the years that the so-called "Core Four"--Andy Pettite, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada--as well as others--Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill--drove the Yankees to several World Series victories under the reign of owner George Steinbrenner.

His after-winning games chant of, "The Yankees win ... The Yankees win!" was beloved by Yankees fans, and chastised by everyone else.

However, Sterling made his mark with his home run calls.

They became the stuff of legend, filled up compendiums of lists, and were his calling card for decades, the reason people who weren't sports fans knew him.

"All rise! Here comes the Judge!" (Aaron Judge)

"Giancarlo, non si puo de stopparlo!" (Giancarlo Stanton)

"It's Gleybar Day!" (Gleybar Torres)

"Robbie Cano! Don'tcha know! (Robinson Cano)

"It's a thrilla by Godzilla!" (Hideki Matsui, known in Japan as "Godzilla.")

And my personal favorite--

"Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!" (Bernie Williams)

Every season, when the Yankees would get a new player, the anticipation was great about how Sterling would announce that player's first Yankee home run.

And it wasn't just a New York thing.

People wondered around the country, and probably, around the world, about how Sterling would handle a new player's maiden Yankee home run.

When Didi Gregorius joined the Yankees, Sterling came up with something so simple for a home run call for someone who had a kind of strange name.

"Yes In-Didi! Euphorious and Uproarious!" he said, and that was all you needed to know.

There were so many others, but those just seem to stick in my head, and will be there forever.

I am sure that Sterling will receive a plaque or some other accolade at Yankee Stadium for his work calling the team, and I would think naming the radio broadcast booth after him would be the most proper--

Even though I think it was already named after him some years ago, but I am not entirely sure about that.

Whatever the case, the announcer that brought us both Derek Jeter and Julius Erving (with the Nets) at their best, and so many other great players through his announcing, has left us, but he has left us so much, all over the Internet, that his legacy will never be forgotten.

R.I.P. John Sterling, and I wish I could come up with my own "home run call" for you.

"A Sterling effort by a Sterling man!" is all I can come up with, and it doesn't even come close to the importance that he had to the New York Yankees, the team's fans, and to the sports world in general.

Rant #3,936: No Time

My run of bad luck continues--

Although this is more in the "annoying" category than anything else.

On Friday, I did not get the correct pay for the month by my employer.

I was short quite a bit, and while I won't go into how much, it was a substantial amount.

I contacted my employer, but I did not hear back from them over the weekend.

Not good.

And then in the evening, when I was watching my son play basketball, I was speaking with one of the other parents there, who asked about my health.

She is the parent of one of my son's bowling teammates, so she knew about my ailments.

As I was talking to her, I felt something funny on my left wrist.

I felt the wrist, under my hoodie, and lo and behold, my watch broke.

The band just split while I was wearing it.

When we got home, I tried to fix it, but to no avail--

So I had to order another one, did it online, and I actually received it on Sunday, believe it or not!

I only had the watch for about two years, if even that, and this time, the band just wore out.

I think it had to do with the fact that with all the medical procedures I have been through during the past several weeks, the taking off-putting back on the watch weakened the band to the point that it simply snapped.

Yes, I wear the watch all of the time. 

It is waterproof, so I can wear it in the shower, and I never take it off, even while sleeping.

So it went kaput on me.

Just another expense, and expense I paid for with a wallet that is short a bit of money right now--

Money which I hope to get back sometime this week ...

I hope.

With mounting medical bills, every dollar I have in my account is really, really important, because Medicare simply doesn't pay for that much, in particular when it comes to surgery and procedures that I have had and will have this month and in the future.

Personally, I am feeling OK right now, still not 100 percent myself, but somewhere near it, at least for now.

But these little things simply do not help me feel better, just adding more bricks to my already full load.

Everything is torture, it seems.

But at least this past weekend had some good times, too.

My family and I went out to eat dinner to honor my 69th birthday on April 28.

We went to a nearby what I thought was a Chinese food place, which I picked because we hadn't had that type of food in a long, long time.

My family and I aren't the biggest Chinese food eaters, but I figured that we hadn't eaten that type of fare in a while, so why not now?

But to our surprise, the place turned into an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue place, which was a bit different than we had expected.

It was OK, and it was nice to relax for a spell.

So I am less my pay and my watch, but full in the stomach.

They say, "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach," so I guess that even with the other voids, at least my stomach felt good.

Now, as for the money owed me ...

They say "Money is the root of all evil"-- 

But it has become the root of my ability to keep up with my bills, so, as they say--

"Show me the money!"

(And who is this "they" I talk about?)

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Ranting and Raving Blog, so congratulations to the blog, to me, and to the readers of this blog for everyone's perseverance!

Rant #3,935: Shaddap You Face

The second day removed from my procedure was a little tough. 

I kind of started to feel it during the prior day, on Wednesday, where my back started to hurt in various spots, and it kind of picked up during the evening.

Thursday saw a continuation of this, but I passed one protocol in the morning that I won't go into here, so I guess you can say that I am on my way ...

To what, I don't know, but I do know that May is going to be a very busy month for me, medically and otherwise.

I have so many things to do, I have a bevy of procedures that are going to be done, and hopefully, by the end of the month, I will better know--and my doctors will better know--what is ailing me, and how in tandem we can fix these things.

Now onto other things ...

The Jimmy Kimmel stuff has riled me, as I think it has just about everyone with a brain in his or her head, but perhaps not for the same reasons as one might think.

Yes, his "joke"--if that is what you want to call it--was totally tasteless, but I don't believe he called on the President to be harmed in any way by saying what he did.

But he did cross the line.

The supposed "comedian"--who hasn't been funny in eons--pretty much made fun of the First Lady grieving for her husband, who he assumed would pre-decease her.

How can this be the least bit funny?

Yes, he dug his grave a little bit deeper with his explanation--that he was simply making fun of the disparity between the President's age and his younger wife's age--but the quip was completely tasteless.

Since when is a joke about death, and the death of a specific president no less, funny?

We know that Kimmel doesn't like Trump, and Trump doesn't like Kimmel, but this feud has reached a level that is reprehensible.

This is what I said on Facebook the other day, and I am going to stand by it:

"Now the FCC is getting involved in this mess. 

ABC/Disney really should, at the very least, suspend him. 

What he is doing is not comedy--it is left wing politicking, and it is just so wrong. 

His explanation about the disparity in ages simply begs the question: why are you so gleefully joking about the potential widowhood of anyone on the air in front of millions of viewers? 

If your wife writes your jokes, what is her angle about making a supposed "joke" about a woman losing her husband?

This is "funny?"

Kimmel is neither "funny" nor "clever."

You just cannot say whatever you want when you have free speech, and there has to be some responsibility shown, especially when your words go out to millions of people each night.

Kimmel's explanation is a poor one, and if he uses his pulpit to spout this garbage night after night, then it is up to ABC/Disney to police their own.

I mean, there really isn't much more to say about it.

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

Rant #3,934: I'm Alive

Yes, I'm alive.

I got through my latest health procedure pretty well, although I still have to hear back from the doctor after my polyps--six of them--are fully analyzed.

On the surface, it appears that I might have dodged a bullet based on the doctor's own analysis, but I will await the final word on them before I kick up my body in glee.

And If everything is OK, it was one of the best birthday gifts that I could have ever given myself.

Yes, I had the procedure done on my birthday--

Not because I necessarily wanted it done that day, but because the doctor had no other open spots to do this procedure.

His office was closed during the Easter/Passover break--more for Passover, based on what he and his office told me--and they had a backlog of cases, so it just worked out that my birthday was my day.

I had my gall bladder taken out on my birthday 19 years before on my 50th birthday--that was an emergency surgery--so it is not totally foreign for me to celebrate the date of my birth by having medical procedures done on that date.

It all made my special day kind of weird, but my family helped me get through it, hopefully with flying colors.

I need another such procedure done in six months, but hopefully nothing further about that area in between.

And thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes ...

Let me tell you, it helped--

And it helped a lot.

Funny things happen after i get anesthesia, when I come to and wake up from the it all..

Sometimes I sing, sometimes I say some gibberish, but on Tuesday, I do remember coming out of it, and thanking the medical staff that worked on me for their help in getting me through all of this.

I also looked at the two nurses who were there--both probably in their early 30s--and telling them, "You are two beautiful looking ladies."

But then I told my wife, who they had summoned in after the procedure to help me get dressed, "But you are the best looking lady here."

And I meant that one million percent.

(But yes, the two nurses were absolutely gorgeous.)

Anyway, after speaking with the doctor, my wife had to go up to the desk to make my next appointment there, so I sat in the waiting area, took out my phone, and went on Facebook--which should have been the furthest thing from my mind--and tried to type out the word "polyps."

I had six--count 'em--six of these things removed, and I guess I was happy with what the doctor said about them.

But for the life of me, I could not correctly type out the word "polyps" spelled correctly.

I think I first spelled it "pollips" or "polips" or some variation of that, but I could not spell it out correctly--

Until I fully came to, and I wondered how "polyps" became "pollips" or "polips" or whatever I wrote, and I corrected my spelling.

Kind of strange how the mind works, especially when you aren't fully out of your anesthesia-induced slumber.

But whatever the case, I got through it, and hopefully, I can move on to the next procedure.

May is going to be a very busy month for me, with numerous doctors' appointments on a variety of my ailments throughout the month.

I am not looking forward to any of this, but at least none are on a birthday or a special day for me--

Except one of them.

I don't have any procedures scheduled for May 9 or May 22, which are the anniversaries of my bar mitzvah and my bar mitzvah reception, respectively--I can't believe it is going to be 56 years for both--but I do have a major procedure scheduled--

For May 15, the day I became a father for the first time, when my daughter was born 38 years ago in 1988.

I guess that once again, I will celebrate the occasion with, hopefully, good health--

And I will be able to wish her "happy birthday" maybe with some pain, but with a smile on my face for getting through another hurdle towards good health.

Let's all hope for that.

But for now, let me just relax a little bit.

I think I have earned that, even with the knowledge that the medical merry-go-round continues to turn for me.

Like they said in "The Jetsons"--

"Jane, get me off this crazy thing!"

Please!