Rant #3,881: Up, Up and Away

Today, I am happy to say that I finally get the staples taken out of my scalp.

Hopefully, everything is good up there and I will be fully on the road to recovery.

It has been difficult since the cancer was removed, but somehow, I have gotten through it.

Onto other matters ...

We lost two more personalities from our Baby Boomer youths this week.

One was Mickey Lolich, one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball during the late 1960s and early 1970s, who carried the Detroit Tigers on his shoulders when they went on to win the 1968 World Series.

He won three games in that series, and that is in addition to winning more than 200 games during his career.

Lolich, 85, was second fiddle to Denny McLain, the last 30-game winner in a season, but when it came down to it, Lolich was the better pitcher and had a much longer career.

He is another guy who should be in the Hall of Fame, but isn't.

And then we have a name that you might not know well, but you certainly knew his image well at one time.

LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of The 5th Dimension, died Tuesday morning. He was 90 years of age, and he died from natural causes following a stroke suffered several years ago.

McLemore was the "tall" guy in the group, and while he usually was in the background when the group performed, he was in the foreground in the background, if you know what I mean.

He was the arranger of the group's music, so he was perhaps the most important cog in the 5th Dimension's success. In that capacity, he mapped out the music for different instruments and different voices, and based on his group's success, he was a master of his craft.

Doing a little research on this guy, I found out that he was an athlete--he had played minor league baseball--and an avid photographer, chronicling the group's hit cycle in photographs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The 5th Dimension, along with Three Dog Night — which lost Chuck Negron the other day--were perhaps our most popular singing groups during this period, and while Negron was out front with his group, McLemore was in the background in his act, but he was pivotal in the success of songs like "Go Where You Wanna Go," "One Less Bell To Answer," "Up, Up and Away," and "Aquarius," among all the massive hits the 5th Dimension had.

So, two more from that era are gone, and with the passing of Demond Wilson, this has not been too good a week for people who excelled during another time and place.

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

Without the staples in my head ...

Although there is supposed to be more snow coming to contend with.

Would I rather have snow or staples?

For once, I will take the snow.

Rant #3,880: Taxman

Yes, it is tax time!

How exciting!

My family and I always get hit pretty hard by the taxman.

My son usually makes out OK, but my wife and I ...

Fugedaboudit!

The problem is that since I am a remote worker, I am, pretty much, an independent contractor, and the taxman hits me pretty hard when it comes time to pay up.

My father, as a licensed New York City medallion cab driver, used to go through the same thing each and every year during his more than 50 years of cab driving, so I know all too well that it is now time to pay the piper.

And then we have Social Security, which greatly impacts your taxes, where you get double taxed, when you get your monthly money and then, when you have to pay Uncle Sam.

President Trump, when he was running for President this time around, told us all that one of his major thrusts would be at cleaning up Social Security, where monies were going out to those who didn't deserve it, like people who were getting monthly checks for those who had been dead for years, and in some cases, for decades.

That was clearly fraud, and he stated that he would weed those poachers out.

But he also vowed to eliminate taxes on Social Security, and I have to tell you, I am not sure if he did this in his "Big Beautiful Bill" or not.

We still pay monthly taxes on our Social Security payments, but are we supposed to be getting that money back when we do our taxes?

I thought that for the next two years--2025 and 2026--we are supposed to get that money taken off our taxes, but I have heard differing reports on this--

So I am confused, to say the least.

I guess we will find out when we go to our accountant, and yes, it greatly impacts myself, my wife and my son.

The next thing is that as of this moment, I do not have my tax material from work.

I don't know if this is because I am a remote worker or just from negligence, but it seems every year that I have to ask for the form, and this year is no different.

I have contacted the person at work who handles this several times, and I have yet to get anything.

And I have learned that it isn't just me who is waiting for this form; at least one other co-worker is in the same boat that I am.

I get my daily message from the post office about what is in my mail, and lo and behold, on Wednesday, it once again was not in the mail, so I contacted the office on Wednesday morning to tell them that it is not in the mail, and I was told that, supposedly, it is going to be taken care of.

That is fine, but it simply adds insult to injury that I have to go through this seemingly each and every year--

And this is going on six years as of this writing.

Not fair, not fair at all.

So as of this moment, I have not made our yearly tax appointment with our accountant, because while we have everything else we need, this crucial piece is still missing.

I just want to get this process over and done with, I don't want it to linger, and since it is officially tax season, let's get this thing done already.

The guillotine is sharp, it is waiting, and the time has come to get my yearly head chopping.

I may still have those staples in my head, but let's get this done already while I still have a head to chop.

Rant #3,879: Joy To the World

We lost Demond Wilson the other day, and now, we have lost another popular performer from a different time and place.

Chuck Negron died the other day at age 83, and if you don't know the name, you do know the following three words:

Three Dog Night.

Negron was one of the three lead singers of this ultra-popular band, and he was probably the most lead singer of that three-headed monster, along with Cory Wells and Danny Hutton.

With a superb backing band, the three had numerous hits from the late 1960s into the mid 1970s, and you know all of them, whether you knew Negron's name or not.

"Joy to the World," "Eli's Coming," "Mama Told Me (Not To Come)," "Black and White," and my favorite, "The Show Must Go On," where Negron's vocals, I felt, were among the top lead vocals of any song of that era.

And he was a trailblazer.

He was of Puerto Rican descent, and decades before Bad Bunny even was born, Negron was perhaps the first lead singer of Puerto Rican descent to nab top hits and albums.

Three Dog Night was not without controversy.

First off, a lot of people derided them because they sang other peoples' songs, like those from Laura Nyro, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Leo Sayer, among others--

Not realizing that the three lead singers had all been around the block, so to speak, had paid their dues, and had been business veterans even before the forming of the band.

Having three lead singers led to a lot of ego issues, and with Negron the actual lead singer on most of the hits, there was a lot of animosity between him and Wells and Hutton, which eventually led to a breakup in the late 1970s.

There was also a lot of hard drug use in the band, and Negron was a major part of that environment, by his own admission.

It got so bad for him that the other two singers broke away from him, and he was so down in the dumps at one time--spending his fortune on hard drugs--that he actually lived on Skid Row in Los Angeles for a time.

He was sick, and had a very bad case of COPD, but somehow, he rehabilitated himself, and during his last few years, he recorded a number of solo albums and was part of the "Happy Together" Tour.

His voice was unmistakable, and while his ills greatly impacted his health, the voice may have been a little more ragged, but it was still there.

I saw him during one of the "Happy Together" Tour stops on Long Island, and he sounded good--and really happy.

Wells and Hutton toured separately under the Three Dog Night banner into the 1990s, and Wells' passing left Hutton as the sole lead singer of the act.

Reports are that a few months ago, Hutton and Negron finally buried the hatchet, and there have always been persistent rumors that the two--and when Wells was alive, the three--would get back together someday, which actually happened in the late 1980s when they recorded an EP together that garnered some FM rock station airplay,

But it was nothing permanent, and with Negron's passing and Wells' own demise, Hutton remains the last Three Dog Night singer standing.

So, with Negron's passing, one of the great voices of that era is gone, but the records remain as his legacy.

Listening to Three Dog Night all these years later, a lot of those hits hold up pretty well, and Negron's voice continues to stand out from the rest.

R.I.P. Chuck Negron.

You brought a lot of "Joy to the World" with your voice, and your overall talent.

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!