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!

Rant #3,933: Who's On First

I have a bit of a difficult period coming up next week.

I have to have another procedure done, and it will pretty much knock me out for at least the first two days of next week.

So next week, I might have to take a "bye" from this blog ... 

We will have to see how things go and if I am up to anything early in the week and for its duration.

I believe that this procedure will pretty much tell me where I stand with my health, so it is a very important one to have.

Onto other things ...

Now that my son has a new doctor, we had a telephone/video appointment with this physician, which happened yesterday afternoon.

And as usual when something involves me, this supposedly simple task did not go smoothly.

First of all, I tried to connect with my laptop, and it simply would not connect.

I tried my phone, and happily, it connected right away.

Everything went well, and the doctor wanted me to make a followup appointment with him, and to send over my son's recently completed psychological assessment.

As the call ended, I said to the doctor that I would assume that my son, at one point, would have to meet with him in person, and the doctor told me--

"That is highly unlikely, because I am in New Jersey."

Funny, the office I went through to get the appointment is near where I used to work--in my own "garden," so to speak--but we now have a doctor handling my son's affairs who is based in the Garden State.

OK, I guess that is how things are handled today ... not to my liking, but like I said yesterday, I am an old fogey, and after three hours of calls, this was the best we could get.

Anyway, I then tried to call this place nearby, because I wanted to make an appointment and I wanted to find out how to send over the report the doctor wanted--

And the doctor, himself, gave me the phone number to call to do all of this.

Little did I know that this would lead to a solid hour of calling, going online, and getting very little done until the end of that hour.

I called the phone number, got put on hold for several minutes, and then was told--

"No one here can answer your call"--

CLICK!

Befuddled--but again, I think someone up there is testing me--I called another number that I had for this place, and again--

"No one here can answer your call"--

CLICK!

I started to yell and scream, but I figured that perhaps I could get this all done if I went to the patient portal that they provided--

And on which we had to fill out countless forms before meeting with the doctor.

I first went to the "Appointments" tab, and tried to get an appointment as close to a month away from yesterday as possible.

I clicked on a date, and it simply would not take.

I did it again, and it simply would not take.

I could not figure out what the problem was, but I was determined to make the appointment, so I tried again--

And again--

And again--

And I don't know how, but it finally took, and we have our May appointment with the doctor--

On the same day that in the morning, I have to go back to the plastic surgeon to see if the cancerous lesion I had taken off my scalp several weeks ago has healed like it was supposed to.

(Yes, with all the other health difficulties I have, that incident with the staples in my scalp feels like an afterthought, something that took place decades ago rather than just a few weeks back.)

So now, I had to try to figure out how to transmit the form the doctor wanted, and I went to different areas on the patient portal, but to no avail.

I went to one of the emails that we were sent from this place, and lo and behold, one said that if I had any questions, I could send an email to one of the addresses on the email--

I wrote up the email, voiced my chagrin at what had been going on, and sent the email off with the attachment that the doctor wanted.

I also went back to the patient portal, sent a message to them to alert them that I had sent the attachment to them through email, but I could not include the attachment to that message, so it was basically an alert that I had sent this to them and that they should look for it in the email and forward it to the doctor.

I figured for fun, I would call the office again, because I wanted to make sure that they received the attachment--

And incredibly, I got someone on the line this time!

I told the operator that as a new patient, I was not happy with the process, but I also told the operator that I had emailed the attachment to the office, and he gave me their text number--

And I texted the attachment over as well.

(And, by the way, the operator told me they were having "technical difficulties," and I replied that is not a valid excuse, especially for a new customer to go through all of this. He agreed with me.)

So anyway, I did get a message back on the portal that they received the attachment through email, and I replied to make sure that the doctor received it--

And reiterated that I was not too happy with the service.

Well, I thought I was done, and then I received another email, stating that since I had met with the doctor, they wanted me to give them a review of their service.

I thought the doctor did a good job, but the service ...

So I tried to put down my thoughts, and I got a message--

Stating that my review could not be accepted.

I don't know why, and quite frankly, I don't give a darn.

"Oh, that's our shortstop!"

I don't know about "Who's On First," but I do know that I can't win for losing lately, and if God is testing me, I hope that I am passing the test--

And that leads me to the rest of this message ...

Monday and Tuesday of next week are going to be washouts, as my health takes precedence.

I honestly don't know if I will be at the Blog either day, or even for the rest of next week.

So it is going to be like a vacation week for me, or at least a vacation from the Blog.

I could put up a photo of a pretty girl in a bikini to signify a "vacation" like I normally do when I go on a brief respite, but I don't think that would be appropriate.

So as sort of a middle ground, I put up what I thought was an appropriate photo at the top of this entry.

I guess you could call it, "Gorilla My Dreams."

Quite appropriate, I would say. 

So please wish me well, I know that I am going to need all your good wishes, and then some.

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

"Who's on first, I don't know's on second ... "

Rant #3,932: When I Grow Up To Be a Man

I just heard from an old friend, who wished me well with the procedure I will be going through early next week.

It made me feel really good, and I was happy to hear that he was doing pretty well himself.

Goodness, and to think that when we were kids, the furthest thing from our minds was our health--

And getting older.

We looked at people who were our age now as "old fogeys," and never realized that if we were lucky, we would one day be the current version of those "old fogeys."

As I have said in the past, I don't feel old, just older--

Although the past several months have made me feel that yes, I am old.

But when I read stories about people who live past 100 years of age, I have to take a step back.

Am I really old?

No, I don't think I am.

And those people who reach past 100 aren't either, because it is their mindset that is admirable.

They don't feel old even past the century mark, so why should I?

I should be embarrassed to even think that I am old.

I haven't even reached 70 years of age yet--

How can I be old?

But onto other things ...

And yes, I have to talk about someone who just died, someone who was not a major star but who might have touched us all by her performances on TV and in the movies.

Joy Harmon passed away the other day at age 85.

If you don't know the name, you certainly knew her look.

She was in countless movies and TV shows into the early 1970s, and boy, did she have the look.

The blond, saucer-eyed actress--who was sort of that period of time's version of Sydney Sweeney--appeared in numerous TV shows including "The Monkees," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "My Three Sons," "The Odd Couple," and countless other sitcoms, but her "bust out" role was in a.Paul Newman film.

"Cool Hand Luke" featured one of those Hollywood scenes that you never forget. Newman, in jail with his fellow prisoners, was on a work gang, and encountered Harmon's "Lucille," wearing the tightest outfit that Hollywood would then allow, out before them on the road.

These women-starved men were then subject to one of the absolutely sexiest scenes ever put on celluloid, as she washed her car as they ogled and watched, with as much water and soap caressing her voluptuous figure as was going on the car.

It was an incredible scene, not just for the convicts to see, but for the movie audience as well.

She was never a star, pretty much used as eye candy in whatever role she had, and I think she probably knew that.

Her real passion was baking, believe it or not.

She tried out her recipes while still acting, and when the acting roles dried up and she knew that that part of her life was over, she became quite a famous baker, opening Aunt Joy's Cakes in Burbank, Calif., a popular spot for all baked goods, where she worked for the rest of her life.

Again, Harmon was a name most people didn't know, but when you saw her on the big screen or on TV, she was someone that you never forgot.

R.I.P., Joy, you done good.

Rant #3,931: Peace of Mind

I bought a container to put those extra LPs in, and I also bought two storage bins for my next project--

One that will, undoubtedly, take me a bit of time to complete.

I am using the two storage bins, as a start, to put all of my and my wife's CDs together, in alphabetical order.

This is going to be a job for the ages, since we have probably around 1,000 CDs in our combined collection.

I figured out that using these units--the same type which I already keep my 45s in--allows me to keep a total of 56 CDs in each drawer--two rows of 28 each--or 168 CDs per three-draw unit.

Having two units to hold these, I now can put away 336 CDs of normal size.

Box sets and other different-sized CD holders will have to go somewhere else.

So, as I am sure you can figure oymut, if I can fit 168 CDs per unit, and I have just two units dedicated to thus crusade, I will need at least three more units to pack away all the normal- sized CDs.

I can't do it all in one sitting, because 1) it costs too much, and 2) with my health being what it is, i simply cannot do so much at a time.

I have a major procedure to get through next week, so i don't want to push things too much--

And after that procedure, I don't kniw how long it will take for me to recover.

So, I am going to do what I can now, and I will do the rest in the future.

I also did two stories for work, attended a work meeting, and had other things to do, so I actually made a major dent in this job I have created for myself.

It keeps me busy, and if I can do it now--

Why not?

My body might be falling apart at the seams, but my mind and determination remain strong.

Do I still hurt?

Have I recovered from Monday's LP cataclysm?

Will I finish this project before I am old(er) and gray(er)?

Stay tuned as I go along ...

Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

(And yes, if you were wondering, i do have a few "Batman"-related CDs to put in order as part of this project ...

And yes, I still hurt a bit.)

Rant #3,930: Hurt

I had another one of those days yesterday.

After doing some work, I received a call from the doctor's office where I set my son up for a telephone appointment for June.

The office called me, and said that they did not carry our insurance, so the appointment was canceled.

That led to a three-hour odyssey over the phone to try to find another physician for him.

Our insurance provider seemed to be useless, because the physician we had the appointment with was obtained through them, so obviously, their information about their own doctors is not up to date.

I called all around, left messages, and of the more than a dozen calls that were made--

Two got back to me, and we took the one that was most convenient for my family.

We now have a telephone appointment with a local doctor on Thursday morning... not two months from now.

And then the handyman came to fix my record shelves.

He finished the project just as I was finishing with my calls, and the job was done, at half the price that he originally quoted us 

With that job completed, it was my job to put everything back on the shelves--

Thousands and thousands of albums, which were all over the floor after the unit's collapse 

So I spent the better part of the afternoon putting all the records back where they belong ...

Or more to the point, almost all of them.

No matter how much I tried, there are 50 albums I could not fit into the repaired unit, although they were in there before the thing collapsed.

I guess that I might have left more air in the rows so that it wouldn't collapse again, probably doing it somewhat unwittingly.

Anyway, my back is killing me--I really pushed myself to do this--and i have those 50 LPs stacked in the corner, so it is now my job to find a receptacle for them.

I will be looking on Ebay and Amazon for something to put these records in.

So, with all I had to do yesterday, I am really hurting. As you know, I am not physically fit right now, and I pushed myself beyond the line of what I should not be doing.

What it all amounted to is for a day I thought would be relaxing leading up to my next medical procedure next week, it was anything but ...

But at least it wasn't for naught.

And yes, I still hurt all over!

Rant #3,929: Mirage

Saturday was perhaps one of the most bizarre, up and down days of my entire life.

I knew that it was going to be a crazy day, but not like it turned out to be.

At 9 a.m., my son had his scheduled telephone meeting with his doctor.

He has been "seeing" this particular doctor for the last 10 or 15 years, and this physician--an older man who has been practicing for decades--really helped my son with his mental difficulties,

We knew the day was coming that he would retire--the doctor is around 90, at my own estimation--but he told us, in very sullen tones that I could barely here--that with his own health woes, he would be retiring, effective immediately.

So with that, I had to start to look around for another doctor, on a Saturday morning.

I called our insurance provider, they gave me a list of doctors, and I began to call them, with the full knowledge that it was a Saturday, and none would be available.

It is hard enough finding a doctor, but finding a doctor under this specialty is even more difficult.

So I left a few messages, and it was time to take my son to his bowling league.

It was the first time I was present to see him bowl in a few weeks, and I have to tell you, it felt pretty good to be there--

Until I got inundated with phone calls, including from my son's retiring doctor, a relative, and from the office of one of the doctors that I had called earlier.

If you have ever been in a bowling alley, you know just how noisy it is, and I had to take the calls in the men's bathroom, which I have to tell you, was just as noisy as being on the lanes.

The call from the doctor's office was the most important of these calls--which came in rapid succession, one after the other--and I told the caller that I would contact them at about 2 pm., because I obviously could not talk to them at that point.

My son bowled, he bowled pretty well, as did his team, which regained its first-place standing, and the bowling finished early, as the other team had only one member present.

It was Record Store Day, so I figured that since we finished early, I could go to my local record store, with my son, and see what they had available.

So we trekked over there, spent about five minutes in the store, I made my purchases, and we left.

We went home, and I turned on the Yankees game, hoping for a relaxing afternoon--

But with the knowledge that I had to speak to the doctor's office that called me when we were in the bowling alley.

In the meantime, did I tell you that one of my record racks buckled the other day, dumping thousands of LPs all over the place?

Yes, it did just that, and we hired a handyman we have used in the past to fix it.

He came over in the middle of the afternoon, and did part of the job, with more to come.

So while he was doing his thing, I made my call to the doctor's office, they got back to me, and after about 90 minutes on the phone, we secured a first meeting between this doctor and my son, a telephone meeting in June, which was the best we could do.

So the game is on, with the sound turned off, the handyman is doing his thing, and I am talking with the doctor's office, where I was so involved that I had no idea what was even happening during the game, which the Yankees won, 13-4.

They hit three home runs in one inning, and I was so involved that I had no idea what was going on during that inning.

Finally, at about 4:30 p.m., with that concert I told you about last week coming up, my family and I decided to do something that we hadn't done in months, which was to actually eat out at a local restaurant.

We did that--I thought the meal was pretty good--and before you knew it, it was time to go to Westbury Music Fair to see Tommy James perform.

We arrived at the venue a little early, so we sat in the car for about a half hour, and then we finally went on line, saw friends who were also seeing the show, and planned to chill out for the next two hours or so.

Tommy James remains an excellent performer 40 years after his last hit.

We have seen him countless times over the years, and his show is pretty much both wonderful and predictable at the exact same time, never wavering very much from formula--play the hits, do some banter, and talk about his book about his time at mob-run Roulette Records being made into a movie.

This time, he didn't stray too much from this formula, slowing down the arrangements on his songs a bit, but the one revelation that came out of the whole 90-minutes-or-so concert was that this movie that he has been talking about for ages is now supposedly going to be a multi-part series on one of the streaming channels.

This was originally a Martin Scorcese project, but it has been up and down over the years, and now, it apparently is on again.

So the concert ended, and we drove home--

Ready to watch Wrestlemania with my son.

The problem was one we have had for months, that we cannot get the pay per view, even though we have paid for the service on ESPN through our Verizon subscription.

So for the umpteenth time, I called Verizon about this, and for the umpteenth time, the situation had not yet been resolved.

The problem was that I used my phone so much on Saturday that I didn't realize how much power it had left--very little--and I was disconnected from Verizon because the phone had no juice left.

Since my son and I were already up, and sleep was not in the offing right then, I decided to help him fully download a video game he had purchased, and which he had partially downloaded a couple of days ago.

It literally said that we had 19 minutes to go for the full download, which turned out to be the slowest 19 minutes on record--maybe like 40 minutes--and then, before you could play the game, you had to register at a site online before doing anything.

Finally, as frustrated as all hell with just about everything that happened on Saturday, we were able to go to sleep, probably around 12:30 a.m. or so, and when I woke up on Sunday at 7 a.m., I was just as frustrated as I was when I went to sleep.

The funny thing is that through it all, my stamina level was much better--

Not up to the level it normally is, but much better.

Waking up on Sunday morning, I felt a lot of get up and go, but through the morning, the level dropped a bit as the morning turned to the afternoon.

And yes, my son woke up a little early, and we called Verizon again about this problem we are having.

It was supposedly fixed, we were able to watch Wrestlemania after my son got home from work, but with one glitch--

The screen kept freezing, and needed to be constantly reset.

You can't have everything, I guess.

So Saturday was a strange mess, Sunday was time to relax... sort of.

I truly think that God is testing me through this entire business that I am going through, but honestly, I just wish that the test was over, and that I passed the audition, once and for all.

Rant #3,928: Crimson and Clover

Another week is coming to an end.

Another week of tests ...

And another week where I still don't know where I stand with my health.

I go from feeling OK to feeling lousy.

A lot of it is mental, but a lot of it is, I am sorry to say, physical. 

Next week appears to be a pretty "dry" week regarding further testing, as it appears that I have absolutely nothing on the docket--

Which is a good thing, because I am worn out from all of these tests, and I need a break.

But it is also a bad thing--

Because without the tests, I don't know where I stand with my health.

This all leads up to the following week, my birthday week, where right smack dab on the day of my birth, I have another major procedure to get done.

I am hoping that it is the best birthday present that I could ever give to myself.

We shall see.

Onto other things ...

Tomorrow is Record Store Day, where independent record stores feature a vast array of exclusive releases to those who attend.

For the second spring Record Store Day in a row, I am going to have to pass on being there, at least early in the morning when my local record store opens and the best merchandise is available.

I have too many things to do on Saturday, and honestly, I am not up to it right now.

Just to make sure that nothing on this RSD list is spiking my fancy, I looked at it again yesterday, and quite honestly, there is nothing on the list that I must have.

There are some interesting things, but nothing that will force me to get up at some ungodly hour and wait on a line to get into the store.

Now, that does not mean that I won't get to the store sometime during the weekend; it just means that I won't be there at the break of dawn to look through releases that I really don't want.

Saturday is a very busy day.

My son speaks to his doctor in a phone visit at 9 a.m.

My son then has his bowling league, and for the first time in a month, I have plans to be there and watch him and his team compete.

When that is over, there is a window for me to attend the event, and if I am up to it, I might just go and see what is available.

Later in the day into the evening, my family and I are attending a concert at Westbury Music Fair, a concert that was supposed to be held six months ago--when bad health was the furthest thing from my mind--and was postponed for one reason or another.

This will be a very good test of my mental and physical well being, and I am really looking forward to it.

The act we are seeing is Tommy James, who always puts on a great show, and I am hoping I can get through it unscathed.

It is also Wrestlemania weekend, so my son and I will be watching as much of that spectacle as possible, from the comfort of our living room couch.

So this Saturday, in particular, is going to be a real test for me.

Am I feeling better?

I guess I am, somewhat, but I still have some health problems, and that always is in the back of my mind.

I go up, down, all around on this question.

So this weekend is going to be a memorable one for me, one way or the other.

I really hope to get to RSD, and I hope that everyone gets to their local independent record store and supports that store as much as they can.

So with that all ahead of me, yes, I am looking forward to this weekend, and looking forward to it very positively.

I hope I can get through it.

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

Rant #3,927: Point of No Return

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is nothing but a dumpster fire of bad choices.

It has little to do with rock and roll anymore, and the names that are consistently left out for inclusion in this HoF reads like a who's who of rock and pop and popular music in general during the rock and roll era.

No Lesley Gore, no Neil Sedaka, no Monkees, no Paul Revere and the Raiders, no Tommy James and the Shondells, no Turtles ...

And I could go on and on and on.

Without these seminal acts, more current acts that get in routinely would not even have had the door left ajar for them to even exist.

This year's crap ... err ... crop of inductees is absolutely the worst class of them all, including Billy Idol, Phil Collins and such non-deservees as the Wu-Tang Clan and Sade.

Blecch!

Absolutely awful.

But for once, this dumpster fire finally did something right--

It named Ed Sullivan as an inductee via the Ahmet Ertegun Award for those who have had "a major influence on the creative development and growth of rock and roll music that has impacted culture."

If you were around during Sullivan's 23-year run on CBS every Sunday night--1948 to 1971--you know just how important he was--unwittingly--in the development and acceptance of rock and roll by our culture.

From Elvis Presley to the Beatles, he put on the national TV stage just about every major hitmaker of that era, pushing them into our living rooms, whether we--or he--liked it or not.

He knew how to grab the kids to his show, and in between Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny and Hollywood's "old guard," he sandwiched in the Rolling Stones and the Doors and even the Cowsills and Tiny Tim.

And those nights where he gave the world Elvis Presley and the Beatles--nights that no one will ever forget.

Sullivan preferred the newer acts that went by the old Hollywood aesthetic--the Supremes, Dave Clark 5, Petula Clark and the 5th Dimension among them--but he was just as open to the Jefferson Airplane and the Vanilla Fudge, anything to draw eyeballs to his show.

And millions watched, millions started to accept the rock and roll aesthetic, and this then new music was accepted into our society.

Sure, we had "American Bandstand," we had other shows of the same ilk, but to put rock and roll mixed in with the plate twirlers on prime time on Sunday night on the number one network solidified rock and roll's hold on the nation.

He championed black acts, he fought with the Rolling Stones and Jim Morrison of the Doors, he wore love beads with the Mamas and Papas, he preferred Ella Fitzgerald but put up with Janis Joplin--

Sullivan was the ultimate showman, and even though he probably didn't know it, his show made rock and roll the music of our times.

For the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to name him to be inducted is way more important than inducting Luther Vandross and Iron Maiden, because quite frankly, without Sullivan opening the door for the likes of Jackie Wilson, James Brown and Steppenwolf, acts like this would never had had a pathway to the popularity that they enjoyed.

And that is why naming Ed Sullivan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the best, and most significant, move that this place has made in probably about 40 years, since its early days.

Maybe there is hope for the place after all ...

But by naming the likes of Joy Division and Oasis this year, the induction of Ed Sullivan might have been nothing more than a major glitch.

Perhaps they meant it to be Topo Gigio ... ?

Rant #3,926: My House

Today is kind of a weird anniversary for myself and my family.

It is the one-year anniversary of us living in our current residence, and it is about two-and-a-half years or so since we moved from our house to the apartment complex we are in now.

I can focus on both anniversaries here right now, but using general observations.

When my family and I moved to our house on Long Island in late summer 1971, it meant a great change for the four of us, since we all were born, lived in and grew up in New York City.

When we moved out to Long Island in late July 1971, it was a real and true mind shift for us.

My parents finally had the home they wanted, in a safe environment, unlike where we came from, which was in such disarray that it prompted this move.

For my sister and I, it was a new beginning, one that was fraught with many potholes, in particular for me, because we moved just before I was starting high school, a time in one's life that is full of so many changes to begin with that any additional upheavals can be striking, and it certainly was for me.

Flash ahead more than 50 years, and I still lived in that house, this time with my wife and son, with my parents living in the same house.

When my parents passed away, my family and I were in for new changes and a new reality, that being that we had to leave our home, and leave it as quickly as possible.

My health problems started right then and there, but we found a nice, new neighborhood to live in, and we moved into our first apartment here a few weeks after my mother died, with me hobbling and really, there was nowhere else for us to go.

Then exactly a year ago today, we relocated within the same development to a much larger apartment, and while I wasn't hobbling anymore, I certainly did not know what the future would bring, and that hobbling led to more maladies that I can't comprehend.

Anyway, let me say right away that there is nothing like a house.

Moving from an apartment to a house is a daunting task, but it is doable.

Moving from a house into an apartment is more involved, more intense, and much more involved--

Especially when I, myself, lived in that house for the better part of 50 years.

We were darn lucky. 

We found a development not too far away from where we lived, but in another town and another county, which has posed its own problems.

I can still frequent places that I used to when we lived in the old neighborhood, and I still feel like I still live in that old neighborhood.

But it simply isn't the same as living in a house ...

I have grown to enjoy where we live, enjoy our apartment, enjoy our terrace, and enjoy being where we are now.

I still wish that things could have turned out differently, that we still could be in that house, but I guess it simply wasn't meant to be.

I have been near the old house, but I have never purposely driven by it.

It is not ours anymore, and I have no interest in seeing what it looks like now.

I am firmly ensconced where I am, so why look at something that isn't ours anymore?

It makes no sense, to me at least, so while I have had opportunities to do so--we are only about 3.5 miles away from where we were--what would be the point?

As Dorothy said in "The Wizard of Oz," "there's no place like home," and that is just so true.

And home is not in a house anymore, it is in an apartment, and that is my home now.

Thinking back to when I was a kid in Rochdale Village, when we would invite someone over to our apartment, we would say variations of "come to my house," or "let's go to my house," or something like that, even though the word "house" was used in place of "apartment."

I never remember uttering the word "apartment" in such instances, and all these years later, even though my "house" is my "apartment," things haven't changed that much.

My house, my apartment, is my home, and that is the way it is, and the way it will always be.