Rant #4,016: Live

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, I am going to rerun Rant #2,490, which ran on September 11, 2020, because it is still fresh, and it is one of the most important Rants I ever wrote.

Things are not what they once were pre-September 11, 2001, and they certainly are quite different than they are today.

Some look at this day as ancient history, as if we were talking about the Civil War or other conflicts in our nation's past.

Some scoff at it by voting into public office people who should be shunned for their beliefs and actions toward our country.

Some are just plain ignorant, and quite frankly, stupid, about this day and what it means to this country, and the world.

I am not the "some people" that I am talking about.

This day changed everything for us as a society and as a country, and it didn't change things for the better.

I have my own story to tell about that day, a day I spent at work telling military people from all over the country and the world what was happening, what we knew, what we didn't know, and trying to help them find out the whereabouts of loved ones.

I have told that story before, but not today.

Please read what I had to say seven years ago about this day and what it means.

There really is nothing more to say.

"Today is Patriots Day, where we honor those who perished, and those who were the first responders to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks.

So many of us seem to have forgotten that day--or at least put it out of our minds--and some of our young people--many of whom weren't even born when the tragedies occurred--look at it as ancient history.

But that horrid day weaves in and out of our current environment, our current problems, and yes, our current solutions, too.

And yes, my father had a story to tell about that day, a story that proved that there is a God in heaven, who was acting in his behalf when what happened happened.

As he told the story, he was at work that day, a day that started out like any other.

He woke up a 4 a.m. or thereabouts, got dressed, and did what he had to do to get ready for just another workday.

He was still young and strong that day--he would turn 70 on November 30 of that year, so he was doing exactly what he had been doing for all the years and years prior to this day.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

He took his cab, drove it into Manhattan, and started his workday, picking up passengers here and there for some relatively short jaunts around the city.

At sometime before or around 8:15 a.m., or so a fare took him to the World Trade Center, where he dropped off the passenger and immediately picked up another one, who wanted to go to a destination in Harlem.

That fare saved his life.

He drove that passenger to his destination, and at approximately 8:46 a.m. or so, he could see through the car windows that the World Trade Center was being hit by aircraft, and also through those windows, he could see that life would change forever in our country.

My father tried to get home, but it was a nearly impossible task that day.

Manhattan had pretty much gone on lockdown, and there was nowhere to go but to go into New Jersey and try to do an end around back to New York and to Long Island.

Cellphones were still in their infancy back then, and my father did not have one to call my mother about his whereabouts ... and even if he had one, as many who tried to do the same thing soon found out, cellphone service was extremely limited or non-existent throughout that day due to the rubble and carnage that ensued.

So throughout the day, my father simply tried to get back home, but we had no idea where he was, or even if he was safe.

He maneuvered the cab through New Jersey, and sometime around 8 p.m., he finally arrived home, so it took him approximately 11 hours or so for him to get back to Long Island and back home.

It must have been a harrowing day for him, as it was for all of us. But to be so far away from home, and finding his way back in increments, must have been incredible.

And that fare to Harlem ... that gentleman was my father's guardian angel for sure.

As we look back at that day, and I, personally, look back at my father's life, that was a signature day for both him and humanity.

We discovered that, if we didn't already know this yet, that human beings can be the most vicious and violent creatures on earth to justify whatever path they choose to take.

But human beings can also be accommodating, they can also be peaceful, and they can also go about their jobs with the utmost of respect and reserve and resolve to do the best job they can do.

We saw all of that on what we now call 9-11, or 9/11, whatever you prefer.

And on this day, we look back on the good, the bad and the ugly, and I do mean the very good, the very bad, and the very ugly.

We must never forget what happened that day, and work to never let it happen again.

I know that my father was only a minuscule piece of the puzzle that happened that day, but his drive and determination to find a way to get home was demonstrated by not only him, but millions of others on that dreadful day.

It once again proved that family comes first, whether it is your own personal brood or the family of humanity.

Family comes first, everything else comes in afterward.

So as we look back at the anniversary of that tragic day, let's remember that though all of our differences, through all of our highs and lows and in-betweens, we are all part of a single family, the family of humanity and human kind, and that we can get through everything if we do it together as one.

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

And Happy Rosh Hashanah--which begins at sunset this evening--to my Jewish family and friends.

Rant #4,015: Wonderful World

Don't get me started ... 

Don't get me started on Lindsay Clancy, Luigi Mangione, and the like.

They are all guilty as charged ...

But in this toxic environment we live in, the perpetrators are being painted as the victims, while those innocent people who they cast their scorn on are considered villains ...

Or at the very least, collateral damage.

Mangione has already pleaded guilty, and quite frankly, he deserves the death penalty for what he did to that health insurance executive.

He planned the whole thing out, shot the guy in the back, and yet ...

Mangione has so many adoring women at his beck and call that you would think that he was this generation's Paul, John, George and Ringo ...

Or at least Davy Jones and David Cassidy.

Clancy's case is just so insipid that it demonstrates what a sick world we live in.

She is as guilty as can be for killing her three kids in a fit of rage, which was underlined by her realizing this and trying to take her own life.

God saw to it that not only would she suffer for this attempt--she is paralyzed from it--but that she would be alive, and seemingly coherent, when standing trial for the severity of what she did.

But her defense claims some type of post-partum depression was the reason that she killed her kids, and thus, she was not fully culpable for her actions.

This is the worst type of baloney, even worse than Hebrew National cold cuts which have spoiled.

She can get the most severe charge--first degree murder--or the lesser charge--manslaughter--or be ruled not culpable for her actions due to reasons related to her depression.

Evidently, it has come out that one juror--one single male juror--did not go along with the other jurors' views that she was not culpable for her actions due to her mental condition, so there was a mistrial because the jury could not come to a full, in unison, verdict.

And then Clancy's lawyers asked President Trump for a pardon!

You cannot make this stuff up.

Let me tell you, Clancy is guilty of the most severe charge, and I am going to tell you why.

She had three children ... three kids ...

So you are telling me that this post-partum thing was a buildup from having three young children to care for?

I want to tell you something that I only found out about a few years back.

When my mother gave birth to me, she experienced what we now know is some level of post-partum depression.

She gave birth to me, and she really did not know how to take care of me.

She never harmed me, never did anything untoward to me.

Doctors didn't know that this type of malady exists, so I guess the doctors simply thought that she was a new mother, and that she would figure it out on her own.

My mother knew something wasn't right, and she did the right thing--

She called in my grandmother, her mother, who helped my mother through this thing, until my mother could stand on her own two feet and take care of me.

My mother did the right thing; Clancy obviously did not.

And all of the family members that attended this trial to support Clancy--

Where were they when she was going through all of this?

And again, this is not one kid, it was three kids.

Yes, Clancy is guilty of the top offense, and she should get the death penalty like Mangione, but neither will.

And again, Clancy has hordes of admirers, who look at her as a hero ...

And most of these, like with Mangione, are middle-aged women.

I always thought that women were the stronger and brighter of the two sexes, but I am beginning to have my doubts.

Many women born from the 1980s on are not the same women who were born earlier.

They are petulant, delusional, and I do think the reliance on the Internet has a lot to do with it.

And many of the men are no better.

So they can support Clancy, and Mangione all they like, but their blue hair and nose rings don't hide the fact that they are among the dumbest human beings on the face of the planet.

Making those that perpetrate these horrid crimes into heroes is just so abominable.

I don't know what these women get out of this, and a few commentators have postulated what these women need to get their feet planted on the ground again, so I won't get into that here.

And when we talk about Clancy and Mangione, and how cults have sprung up around them, don't get me started on another instance of perpetrators of horrid crimes being made into the victims--

Just look at what is happening in the Middle East, where Israel--and the U.S.--has become the villain and terrorists like Hamas/Palestinians and Hezbollah are looked upon as the victims, even though their crimes are horrid.

We live in such a strange world now, and level heads must prevail.

And that goes for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, which I will talk about in tomorrow's Rant.

Yes, the world has lost its collective mind.

Rant #4,014: Wrong

As I spoke about in yesterday's Rant, I called the cemetery office about my mother's plot not being taken care of, and the woman I spoke to said this to me:

"A mistake may have been made," relating to my mom's gravesite being totally devoid of care and full of weeds.

She said that the greenery which had been earmarked for my mother's grave might have been, instead, placed on someone else's nearby grave by mistake.

She said they would send a caretaker out to see the state of the site.

Again, this is not the world I was born into.

This is a world of complete ineptitude, one where this type of behavior seems to be accepted.

And when my sister called the cemetery, she received a com0letely different story.

Again, this is partly my family's fault, as we hadn't visited the grave to pay our respects in some time.

Again, I can make the excuse that we have been busy with so many other things, which we have, but that is not a good excuse.

We dropped the ball as much as the cemetery dropped the ball.

The only thing that is different is that the cemetery told us two different stories, neither which made much sense.

Now, we have been told that the site will be cleaned up, and bushes put where the weeds are.

So I have to say, I learned another life lesson, and I learned it the hard way:

You can't trust anyone or anything--not even a cemetery--to do the right thing.

In this bizarro world that we live in today, you have to be on top of everything, or nothing will get done.

Even to keep a gravesite in presentable fashion.

I don't even know how I feel right now.

Sure, I am upset with myself for not visiting the site and not making sure that our original wishes for greenery there were carried out.

But I am also upset with the cemetery, which should have done whatever they could to to make sure that my mother's gravesite was not a site of weeds.

So there is fault on both sides, making me kind of dizzy from the whole thing ...

Maybe even a bit numb about this episode.

Again, my father's site is fine, with nice greenery standing proudly right in front of his gravestone.

My mother's site ...

The gravestone stands out proudly, looks brand new--

But the actual grave site is nothing but a gaggle of weeds.

That is not what we intended it to look like, and whatever mistake that was made must be rectified ASAP.

The Jewish High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur, begin later this week, ironically on September 11, the evening of the 25th anniversary of one of the worst days in our nation's history.

I am not likening what happened that day to what happened to my mother's gravesite, but it all seems to be rolled into one, in sort of a strange way.

I believe that my mother deserves way better than this, and yes, I do blame myself for not going to the grave and seeing what was there, and not there, sooner.

My fault. My fault entirely.

I hope my mother, in heaven, forgives me for this obvious oversight--

And I hope that in the coming days, her gravesite will be something that looks presentable, is full of greenery, and something that she deserves for a long life well spent caring for her children and grandchildren.

She simply does not deserve this, and no matter whose fault it is--individually and/or collectively--my mother deserves much, much better.

Period.

Rant #4,013: Don't You Care

Labor Day was a "labor," what can I tell you.

Things are supposed to slow down that day, but for me, they revved up.

I decided to visit the cemetery where my parents are buried.

I, personally, had not been there in quite a while, but I decided to go on Labor Day because my father died on Labor Day, the same exact September 7 in 2020, when he passed, that Labor Day was on this year.

So I figured that I would visit both of their graves--they are not buried together, as this is an Orthodox Jewish cemetery, and men and women are buried separately--one, and then the other, just a few steps away from each other.

Admittedly, although I had a map of the place, it was still difficult for me to find the graves, but through trial and error, I finally found them, to my relief.

I found my father's grave first, and I have to tell you, it looked pretty spiffy.

It was taken care of with perpetual care, and everything was neat and tidy.

I said what I had to say, put a rock on top of the gravestone to signify that I had visited, and moved on to my mom's grave.

During her burial service, I am about 99.9 percent sure that we asked the cemetery for perpetual care for her site, but since we never received a bill from them for this service, I had a sneaking suspicion that our wishes were never applied--

And to my dismay, they weren't.

The site was full of weeds, and while the stone was immaculate--she passed away on Sept. 5, 2023, so it is only a few years back--the plot where it sits was awful.

I said what I had to say, put a stone on top of the gravestone to signify that I was there, and I left, to go to the cemetery office--

Which I found out was closed, at least when I was there, as again, it was Labor Day, a national holiday.

So I vowed to call them today--which I will do when the office opens at 9 a.m.--and get this thing figured out.

Look, when we buried my mother, the day was obviously an emotional one, and the unveiling of the stone some time later was also very emotional.

Perhaps things didn't get done that should have been done, but I am pretty sure that we did ask for perpetual care for my mom's site.

I believe my mother, when she still was cognizant before her mind went, might have paid for "forever" perpetual care for my father's grave, as we have never received a bill for that either, and his site looked very well kept.

But for my mother ...

I even remember talking to my brother in law about this, and we said we would alternate the payments, he paying one bill, me paying the next bill, and on and on into perpetuity.

But we never received a bill, so we were each at fault for not following up on this until now.

I could make every excuse in the world, but I won't--

We dropped the ball on this, and the results were disturbing.

There is no moral to this story ...

Just that when a loved one like a parent passes, the survivors have to keep up on things like this, and quite frankly, we simply didn't.

But at least now, we will start to take care of it, giving my mother the proper burial site that she deserves.

As the song goes, "Sorry seems to be the hardest word," but all I can say to my mom and dad after visiting them yesterday is--

"SORRY."

Rant #4,012: Reflections

Labor Day is coming up on Monday, and as I explained yesterday, I have a lot of mixed feelings about the holiday--

Nothing to do with the holiday itself, but with the fact that my father died on the holiday a few years back--yes, on September 7, 2020--and my mother passed away a few years later around the same time. 

Much less in my mind in 2026 is that for many years when I was working full-time, I worked on Labor Day, and honestly, it was just so unnecessary.

Those feelings have dissipated over time, as I am almost at the seven-year mark for when I lost my job on October 10 when the company I worked for went out of business right before the pandemic.

Things have been very difficult for myself and my family since then, and it isn't getting better anytime soon, but that really has nothing to do with Labor Day.

Compound all of this with the Jewish High Holy Days, which are right around the bend.

Ironically, Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 11, and this year, that day takes on added significance, as it is the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

So, at least for me, this is a pretty somber period, and again, it has absolutely nothing to do with Labor Day per se.

Labor Day honors the American labor movement and is a federal holiday in the United States.

It is really a joyous occasion, and since it is a federal holiday, most people, ironically, have the day off from their normal work labors.

People go to ballgames, have fireworks, there are barbecues and family get togethers.

And Labor Day is also the unofficial end of summer, although it actually ends about two weeks later.

For me, I will hand in some work that day, although the federal government--and the association I work for--will be closed to honor the holiday.

I will probably write up and edit some work for them, so I have it handy when everything gets back to normal the next day.

There won't be any family gatherings or anything like that, at least with my family.

Both my son and wife have to work that day, so if I have a barbecue, it will be mainly for myself, although I could heat up some things for them as they arrive home from work.

But otherwise, it will be just another day for me, really nothing more or less than that.

However, I am going to take the day off from writing here at the Blog, so it feels like the holiday it really is.

But more importantly, it will give me time to think about my parents, and think about my future good health.

I will rev it up again on Tuesday.

So enjoy yourself on the holiday, have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Tuesday.

Rant #4,011: All Those Years Ago

As you are reading this, I am getting my latest medical test done--

And I hope that it puts me in the clear, at least in that part of my body.

I really and truly wish that I didn't have to go through all of this stuff, but that is not my reality at this point in my life.

How about in the past?

Let's do something I haven't done in quite a while, which is to look back at what I wrote about on this date years ago.

I certainly could not possibly foresee the sorry state that I am in now, but it might give some insight into what I was into some years down the line.

And with so many significant dates coming up--Labor Day, the Jewish High Holidays and the anniversary of the passing of both of my parents--it might be nice to look back on what was on my mind on September 3 during the past several years.

Let's go--

Phil Spector's Pleasant Valley Jail Day (Rant #80, September 3, 2009): Phil Spector, the prolific music producer and music legend, had fallen on very hard times at this point, incarcerated in jail for murder. The guy simply had lost it, but the crux of this entry was the name of the facility that he was living out his life in: Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. And since the name reminded me of the Monkees' hit "Pleasant Valley Sunday," I took that and ran with it, with new lyrics to that song related to where Spector's digs were. Heck, you have to have fun with such things, because they are so absurd.

Country Rock Legend Passes Away (Rant #1,505, September 3, 2015): I bemoaned the loss of someone who was not in the same pantheon as Dolly Parton, but still had his little iota of importance in the world of country music: Boomer Castlemen first came to some notoriety as a member of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, an act which shared the same Colgems label as the Monkees did, and featured Michael Martin Murphy as a band member. They had a few charted singles, never hit it that big as sort of a country/rock version of the Monkees, and Castleman's fame was that he was the inventor of the "palm pedal," a device allowing guitar players to execute pedal-style string bends, which became integral to the sound of country music.

Work Work Work Work (Idle Hands Are the Devil's Playground) (Rant #2,215, September 3, 2018): It was Labor Day on September 3 of that year, and I lamented the fact that I was laboring on that day, not having the day off from work like most people did. I acknowledged that the company I worked for was going down the tubes--it did a little more than a year later--but even though we were going into the abyss, I still had to labor on Labor Day, Well, it ended up being just one more Labor Day of work, and then, that was that.

Simply the Best (Rant #2,485, September 3, 2020): Again, I looked at the career of another legend who had just passed away. I was never a Mets fan, but even as a dyed-in-the-wool Yankees fan, I had to hand it to Tom Seaver, probably one of the greatest pitchers of all time and certainly one of the best I had ever seen; I think Bob Gibson was probably a slight notch better, but Seaver was certainly a strong 1A on my list. Rubbing salt on the wound, he won his 300th game as a member of the White Sox on Phil Rizzuto Day at the old Yankee Stadium, but whatever the case, "Tom Terrific" was just that.

A Time of Remembrance (Rant #2,726, September 3, 2021): I was lamenting the upcoming Labor Day of that year, not so much for what Labor Day means, but for the new significance it had taken on for myself and my family. My father passed away on Labor Day 2020, which was on September 7, so I link the holiday with his death; but since Labor Day takes place on a different date each year, it kind of makes the holiday an odd one for myself and my family, because while he died on Labor Day, that day is not the same each year.

"Julia" (Rant #3,775, September 3, 2025: In this Rant, I wrote about actor Mark Copage, who you might remember was one of the stars of the groundbreaking program "Julia," which starred Diahann Carroll, one of the first TV programs with a black female lead. Copage played her son, but when the show ended after a few seasons, Copage kind of fell into obscurity. the reason I wrote about him was that I found one of the couple of records he had made, a bubblegummy 45 "Will It Be Me," and I found it with a picture sleeve. When I found it, I decided to dig into his life and career, and that was the direction of the Rant.

So there you have it.

Fun, sadness, reverence ... September 3 encompassed all of those categories here over the years.

I can say it was fun to look back, but it actually forced me to take a step back ...

And really look into what I wrote about all those years ago.

Sort of like a scrapbook of my thinking during different periods of my life.

I am happy that I have the resource to do that, and the Blog stands as my testament to my life and/or where I was at a particular time in my existence.

All those years ago ... .

Rant #4,010: When I Was Young

Yes, I did go to the skin doctor to get rid of that pre-cancer on my head.

Supposedly, I don't have to worry about it anymore.

But I did ask the doctor why I keep getting these things, and he told me the same thing I already knew.

It might have come from the sun against my scalp from 50 years ago or even more than that, or it could be hereditary.

It could also be because of age, and that is what we are leaning to.

I was never a sun worshiper, and if you knew me way back when in Rochdale Village, you know that I always had a baseball cap on my head, and that baseball cap stayed on my head when we moved to Long Island.

Did I go to the beach and/or to the swimming pool during those years?

Sure I did!

We went all the time, especially when I was in Rochdale Village Day Camp, but I always wore a cap on my head ...

But you never know.

Maybe one day I didn't, and more than 50 years later, these lesions are the result.

When you get older, things get you that you would have never dreamed of when you were younger, and I think that is what is happening to my body now.

All of these things that my body was able to fight off when I was younger are coming out now, and again, you never know what is going on in your body, even when you feel fine, like I do.

Tomorrow, I have to go for an ultrasound test to see if I have any further kidney stones to take care of, and I sure hope that I don't.

I have to drink 24 ounces of water about two hours before I get the test--I am getting the test at 7:30 a.m., so I have to do this at 5 a.m. or thereabouts--and I cannot pee during the period when I do the drinking and I have the test.

That should be so much fun!

I also have to get allergy shots that day, and at least with those, I have known I have bad allergies my entire life, so there are really no surprises with that type of health care ...

Or at least I don't think there are, but again, who really knows?

At this point, I am prepared for just about anything ...

Just about.

And again, I don't want any surprises.

Surprises are supposed to be fun, but as I get older, my surprises are just the opposite.

And all of these things are hitting me all at once, which makes the whole thing even worse.

Those carefree days of youth are definitely done.

But why do my later years have to be so difficult?

Rant #4,009: The Time It Is Today

Look, in the grand scheme of things, what I am going to relate to you is pretty inconsequential, but even with all the other major problems I have that I have described to you over the previous weeks and months, what I am going to tell you now is annoying at least, and frustrating beyond all understanding.

As you know, my son is into professional wrestling. It is his thing--we all have our own things--and he just loves to watch these shows on TV and in person.

AEW is the new kid on the block in pro wrestling, but they have made great leaps and bounds during their few years of existence. They are not WWE, but they are as close as you probably can get.

Anyway, as we customarily do, when a new pay-per-view (PPV) event comes up, my son and I order the event through our television.

It usually takes less than a minute to do, and when it is done, we get ourselves ready to watch that show.

No muss, no fuss.

Two weeks ago, AEW All In from England was the next PPV event on the list, so as we always do, we went into the PPV section of our service and tried to order it.

For the very first time, we had a problem.

Each time we tried to order it--for $49.99, for a six or seven hour show--we came up with a screen saying that there "was not enough credit" on our account to make the purchase.

First of all, I had no idea what they were referring to by "credit," and secondly, there should not have been a problem with "credit" or anything else, because we pay our monthly bill the day that we receive it, and have been doing that with our service since day one during the past 19 years we have used this particular service as our TV/phone/Internet provider.

The service is Verizon.

So after repeated tries to purchase the PPV, I called Verizon's customer service, which at one time was excellent, but now has fallen into the garbage pail of customer service, as I have had a lot of problems with them since moving to our current digs.

Anyway, I was passed back and forth from one department to another, and was told that they would have to call me back during business hours, because this was a billing department malfunction.

So last Monday, they did call me back, and the operator told me that not only would the problem be fixed, but that he was manually going to add the PPV into our account, so we wouldn't have to try to order it again.

Everything was supposedly hunky dory.

On Sunday morning, my son and I turned on the living room TV and were preparing to watch the show.

Just so you know, AEW's "All In" is what "Wrestlemania" is to WWE. It is AEW's biggest show of the year, an international event that takes place at England's famed Wembley Stadium.

So we maneuvered to the channel it was supposed to be on, and lo and behold, it wasn't on.

I tried to order it again, but the same thing came up, about our credit.

I called Verizon again, and I might as well have been speaking to Moe, Larry and Curly when trying to get this thing fixed, as once again, those I spoke to--including a supervisor--had absolutely no clue what the problem was, and once again, they told me that I would have to wait until the next business day to get this thing resolved.

So with it not being resolved, we could not watch the PPV through Verizon.

On Monday morning, for some reason, I slept through until 8 a.m., when I was awakened by a call from Verizon's customer service.

Trying to address this problem, I was put on hold several times while the operator tried to process my request, but then she told me that the office she was trying to contact was not open yet, and that she would have to call me back--

Which elevated my blood pressure even further, as I was on the phone for about 20 minutes to hear that once, again, my request had been passed onto another department.

I do not appreciate lip service, and I let them know very clearly that I was perturbed, and that their customer service was terrible.

They told me that they would call me back at 9 a.m.--

Which they did, but at 9:05 a.m., and for the next hour, I was on the phone, trying to get this thing resolved.

I was passed on to another operator, who had absolutely no idea what she was doing, once again trying to contact yet another department without resolving the problem, and then she told me that a work ticket was going to be put out, and this would be dealt with in a few days--

When I heard this, my boiling point had reached its limit, and I asked to speak to a supervisor.

I finally spoke to the supervisor, who basically reiterated what the operator said, and I told her that that was not good enough.

I wanted action now, right now, but she explained to me that it would take longer to fix the problem, and I had no choice but to wait a few days for the problem to be resolved.

I again told her that that was not good enough.

She explained to me that the "credit" situation has to do with clients generally with younger children who don't want their kids constantly ordering PPV events without their knowledge, so they put a credit cap on their system so the kids cannot order anything without the parents knowing about it until they get their bill.

However, they admitted that I had no such credit cap on my account, and that the credit cap can be as high as $1,000, so even with a $49.99 PPV, it should not have impacted my ability to get the PPV--

So once again, they had absolutely no idea why I was getting this message about "credit," and that I would have to wait a few days for it to get fixed.

As you can imagine, my blood was boiling at this point.

I told the supervisor that I have been a Verizon customer for 19 years, and that unless this thing was resolved, I would not make 20 years with them, as I will find another provider for these services.

"I have been working here longer than you have been with us," was her very cavalier reply.

She told me that I would have to wait, but that she would call me back on Monday to tell me how they were progressing with the problem.

Since she copped an attitude with me, I told her that if this thing was not resolved, I would go to the next level, with her the target, which I don't think I have to spell out to you--

She said she understood, and that I would get a call from her later that day.

And that was that.

After spending about 90 minutes of my two hours up after sleep on the phone with Verizon, nothing--

And I mean nothing--

Had been resolved.

What a complete and total waste of time.

It made the very busy week that I described to you yesterday even more frustrating.

I do not like being lip-serviced to death, and that is what has been happening to me for the past two weeks about this problem.

I have been around the block ...

I know incompetency when I see it.

And here it is on grand display.

Then late in the afternoon, I got the first of two calls from Verizon, one trying to assure me that they situation had been resolved--

But not being able to see it put into action, and I had/have my doubts.

The person on the phone told me to order any PPV event, and when it went through, he would immediately wipe it out.

The problem was that there were no PPV events to order, so that was for naught.

I told him that I will click on a sporting event, and see if it worked, and after clicking on it, it took me right to the channel, so I did not have to go through any payment levels, which makes me even more suspicious about whether this thing was fixed or not.

The person told me he would wipe out that event and the AEW event on the bill--I had been told previously that the AEW event has already been removed--and that was that with him.

I received another phone call an hour later, and to make a long story short, I reiterated the entire thing to this woman on the other end, and she said that she would actually call me on September 23, or right before the next AEW PPV event, to make sure everything was copacetic.

And then I got a message from my dermatologist for today's procedure I have to have done early this morning, and I don't want to get into that, because their artificial Intelligence-generated phone system is equally as incompetent as Verizon's customer service system is ...

And yes, never getting the information I needed from them because there was a glitch in their system, I let them have it too ...

In my usual polite, but very ticked-off, manner.

And yes, I spoke to the business manager in the office, and she agreed with everything I said about their phone system.

Big deal

And here I sit, with nothing to show for my efforts.

What a waste of time.

If I have said it once, I will say it a thousand times--

This is NOT the world I was born into.

No way, no how.

Rant #4,008: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

To quote Gomer Pyle again ...

"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."

My dermatologist found another lesion that is pre-cancerous, so I have to have that removed--and hopefully taken care of for good--on Tuesday morning.

If it is not one thing, it is another.

But unlike Gomer's other famous saying--

"He gonna kill me, he gonna kill me, he gonna kill me dead"--

This thing isn't going to do that to me, as I am sure it will be removed and over and done with.

I hope I don't have to go through what I did a few months ago, where my scalp had to be opened up, staples put into it, and I had to go to a plastic surgeon to fully heal the wound.

No, this time, it has to be removed in full on Tuesday, and that will be that ...

I certainly hope so.

Thus far this year, I have had three major operations, and it is actually four if you count the cancerous lesion I had removed earlier.

And I face another one when my eye gets operated on in September--

On September 21 ...

On Yom Kippur yet!

I just can't win this year, and that is why I simply can't wait for this year to end.

I need to put 2026 in the rear view mirror, and simply put it behind me.

By the way, I have another test this week related to my kidney stone surgeries, and then next month, I have to have another procedure done to ensure that I am OK somewhere else.

Makes we want to screech and scream with joy at all of these medical things.

But I guess I am not alone.

We have since heard that Dolly Parton had numerous health ills leading up to her passing, including kidney stones.

So these things can hit anyone and everyone, regardless of who you are, how much money you have, have much fame you have, etc.

If it teaches me--and all of us--one thing, it is that we are all human beings.

No one is better than anyone else, and we are all in the same boat.

I guess I should take comfort in that, but I have to tell you that I really don't.

Why is all of this happening to me, seemingly at the same time, one on top of the other?

Don't I get a break?

Doesn't my family get a break?

I guess the "breaks" I am talking about are the fact that these things are getting taken care of before they get worse, or even worse, untreatable.

So I have to take solace in that.

But it is still perplexing, and bewildering, that 2026--a year that I really thought would be a good one--has turned out to be the worst year of my life and my family's lives.

That is why I want it to end so, so much.

But today is only the last day of August.

We have September, October, November and December to get through.

Will any more negativity happen to me during this four-month span?

Only the Shadow knows.

And as for Gomer ...

I don't need "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" ...

I need peace of mind, which is much more important at this stage of the game.

Rant #4,007: Elected

This post was actually completed earlier this week, but had to be postponed due to all of the celebrity passings I wrote about.

Finally, now is the time for this post to see the light of day.

I have absolutely no problem with sending in my ballot for November elections.

I think it is safe, it is trustworthy, and it is something I have participated in for the past few years, ever since I hurt my leg, which made it difficult to get to the polls.

But a lot of people don't trust it, claim that it is open to widespread fraud, and are trying to obliterate it, or at the very least, lessen its use.

One of those people is President Trump, who has been against mail-in voting since ...

Well, the times that he has used it himself.

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted an injunction that had blocked parts of Trump’s March executive order that sought to tighten federal oversight of mail-in voting, granting Trump a legal victory.

Again, I have no problem with voting by mail.

Perhaps I had a problem when it was first instituted for those other than service members and Americans living overseas, but I don't have a problem now.

Look, the cat is out of the bag, and it isn't going back in that bag.

Not every American can get to the polling place to do their voting, and this makes it easy to vote, allowing all Americans to participate.

And I admit, the reason I, and my family, continues to decide to vote this way is that it is simply more convenient for us.

Period.

There is no other reason.

I do understand the President's hesitancy in all of this.

There is definite voter fraud each Election Day, including ballots made out by non-citizens.

But I believe there has always been voter fraud, even in the days when there was only one choice in the way one could vote, and that was at the polling place.

However, I don't believe it is as rampant as the President says it is, and I don't think it was a factor in his losing the Presidential election a few years back.

One way to ensure that elections are 1,000-percent valid is proof of citizenship--whether at the polling place or via mail--and why this is even an issue is beyond me.

You have to show your identification at so many different places now--everywhere from the pharmacy to the doctor to Walmart--that I see no problem with showing my ID at the polling place, or furnishing it to officials via the mail.

Why some of us don't feel this is necessary--and an abridgment of our rights--is beyond my comprehension--

Although it really isn't.

Every vote counted is cherished by some people in our country, but some people are now cherishing votes made illegally, and that is just plain wrong.

Look, illegal votes are going to get through, no matter what precautions are placed on voting.

I told you some time back of a situation where I literally could have voted twice for President, but I decided not to break the law and held back from doing something illegal and against everything I believe in.

But going back to mail-in ballots, my family and I will do it again, if it is still made available to us as a way to vote.

My mother, in her last months of life, made it to the polling place, and I feel that most Americans can do the same.

But I will continue to vote by mail, because it is simply easier for me to do.

You can call me lazy if you like, and perhaps I am, but I have no doubt in the system, in the process, and once you vote by mail, you won't go back to the other way of voting, if you can help it.

You can cast my vote for mail-in voting, this November and every time in the future.

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

Rant #4,006: I Do the Rock

This has been a particularly hard week for notable people from the entertainment field who have passed away.

Shelley Fabares ... Dolly Parton ... I am sure I am missing someone ...

But now we have two other notables.

Actor/Singer Tim Curry left us the other day.

He is best known for his work in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Clue" films, but he also had a very short-term singing career.

The one song of his that I fondly remember is "I Do the Rock, which made the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in 1979 at its lower rungs, and that was pretty much that for him as a singer.

I always liked that song, and his deadpan vocals made the song memorable.

He had been in ill health for quite a long time.

And then we have Jaye P. Morgan.

Let me focus on her.

It is very difficult to describe Jaye P. Morgan to anyone who doesn't recognize the name, but she really had several different careers all rolled up into one.

During the early 1950s to the early 1960s, Morgan placed 20 singles on Billboard's Top Singles Chart, or whatever it was called back then.

She was basically a Big Band singer in the era when that phenomenon had already died out, but she was still pretty successful as a vocalist during the early rock and roll era, with "That's All I Want From You" hitting #3 in 1954.

She had a couple of other pretty big hits, but by 1960s, that was pretty much that.

Morgan--born Mary Margaret Morgan in 1931--kind of faded from view, but she continued to record and act during the entirety of the 1960s and early 1970s, and appeared on many of the variety shows and game shows of the era.

One memorable appearance that I remember was her guest starring role on "My Three Sons" where she played a washed-up singer (!!!) who wanted to resurrect her career.

Yes, life imitating art!

Don Grady played Robbie Douglas on the show, and not only was he an actor, he was an actual musician with singles out under his own name and with a band called The Yellow Balloon--which had a hit with a song with that same name.

Anyway, Morgan's character saw Robbie's fictional band perform, "Good Man To Have Around the House"--which Grady, in real life, actually released under his own name and that of the "Windupwatchband" during that period--and her character decided that if you can't beat them, join them, and ended the show with the rocking "Gonna Getcha" and she found a new audience with the kids.

But nothing really happened after that.

She continued to appear on a lot of TV shows, but her career kind of stalled ...

Until "The Gong Show" became a brief phenomenon on the airwaves.

Starting out as a somewhat legitimate talent showcase but morphing into something very, very different from that, Morgan was one of the judges, and she was as wild as the show's creator and host Chuck Barris--

Even more so.

On the show featuring Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine and acts where sexual innuendo was their stock in trade, Morgan went with that flow, and there was one episode where she got so into what was going on that she stripped off her blouse--network censors were onto the show as it grew in popularity, and the scene was censored--

And she was suspended from the show for a short period.

She became a very hot commodity again, and while her singing career was still in limbo, she once again became a name and a guest on every variety show of the era.

When "The Gong Show" went off the air, she kind of faded from view, too, and honestly, I did not even know that she was still with us until the announcement of her passing on Wednesday.

Yes, both Curry and Morgan are not in the same class as Dolly Parton was--they are somewhere in the same neighborhood as Shelley Fabares--but they each made their indelible marks on our consciousness--

And their performances live on on YouTube and the like.

Yes, this has been a tough week for celebrity passings, but all of their legacies are stoked in cement for all to enjoy.

Rant #4,005: A Coat of Many Colors

First we lost Shelley Fabares.

Now, Dolly Parton has followed her to the Pearly Gates.

Parton was 80, and she really lived life in those 80 years.

I am not comparing the two ...

Fabares was a teen idol, something of a singer, and she was an excellent actress.

Parton was in another class altogether.

When it was announced that she had passed, it felt like a piece of America--really Americana--left us here on earth with her death.

From nearly dirt poor to as rich as can be, she earned her status as probably one of the most popular entertainers in the world.

Her fake glam--yes, in that area, she finally confessed--enamored her to so many, made her literally stand out, and then the talent took over, and nobody noticed the other stuff anymore, or at least it really wasn't that important once she got you.

I have to tell you, I was not a fan of hers.

I don't like country music, and all the glam and glitz that she proudly showed off was really not my cup of tea.

I didn't really like her music, I didn't like her movies, and her phony look kind of trickled out to me, and kind of turned me off.

But I simply cannot look the other way at her talent.

Starting off as a "project" with Porter Waggoner, she soon eclipsed her mentor by a long shot, and the rest really is history.

She prided herself most as a songwriter, and she wrote many, many tunes, including "I Will Always Love You," which she had a hit on her own, but which skyrocketed into the nation's consciousness via its version by Whitney Houston.

She was so popular that her very existence was made fun of--and admired--and yes, there is a country novelty song called "Dolly Parton's xxxx" that is out there (I think I might even have it somewhere in my collection).

She owned "Dollywood," she gave to many philanthropic organizations, and she even started her own such endeavor, related to reading and literacy, in honor of her father, who never learned to read or write.

Parton came from a big family, and most of her siblings also went into the music industry, with various degrees of success.

Parton was married to Carl Dean for 60 or so years, and he completely kept in the background as his wife became one of the world's most famous people. 

He died a few years back, and from what I have read, Parton never really got over it.

Although she and Dean had no children of their own, she was the godmother to one of the current queens of excess, Miley Cyrus, but she said she never wanted to exert any influence on Cyrus or anyone else.

But she directly or indirectly influenced millions of people, and that will be her legacy now that she has left this earth.

Parton had been battling some health problems in later years, but seemed to have overcome them. As I write this, there was no cause of death reported, but I am sure something will come out in the days to come.

President Trump has ordered that flags be lowered throughout the country for the next week in her memory.

Very fitting.

This was a big loss, and even if you weren't a fan of hers like me, you feel her loss just the same.

"I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world." - Dolly Parton

Rant #4,004: Johnny Angel

Shelley Fabares finally met up with "Johnny Angel" the other day.

Fabares, the quintessential TV actress who started her career as a teen pop star, died over the weekend at age 82.

I briefly spoke about her yesterday, as the news came in of her passing, but there is more I want to say about her.

The niece of fellow actress Nanette Fabray, Fabares acted in several TV productions as a young child, but she became a huge star in her early teens, as her portrayal of the very prissy "Mary Stone" on the ultra-popular "The Donna Reed Show" (1958-1963) made her a teen idol for the ages, a teen idol for a much more innocent time.

She became every young boys' fantasy girl--even if us boys weren't at the point in our lives where we could know or understand just why--and her every move was chronicled by the teen mags, just a few years prior to these magazines' pivot to the Beatles.

She was so popular that the fledgling Colpix record label--Columbia-Screen Gems' record label--decided that they could market her popularity into a singing career, and her rendition of "Johnny Angel" hit the top spot in the singles chart in March 1962.

Like Ricky Nelson with his hits, she performed "Johnny Angel" on the sitcom, and it propelled sales of the tune into the millions.

Even though she wasn't much of a singer, Fabares was one of those teen pop star TV actors that was groomed for records--Paul Petersen, James Darren were others--and the success of this way of creating pop stars certainly laid the groundwork for the later Monkees project, with Colpix morphing into Colgems, and everything that followed.

She had a couple of other mild hits during the next year or so--the followup "Johnny Loves Me" hit #21 three months later--but that was pretty much it. 

Fabares remained as a regular on "The Donna Reed Show" through 1963, as the storyline moved her to college ..,

But the real reason for her departure was that she was gradually moving into a big screen career, and Fabares appeared in several movies of the time, including three films with Elvis Presley, "Girl Happy," "Spinout," and "Calmbake," and one with Herman's Hermits, "Hold On!," with these films establishing her as the female lead and pairing this female pop idol with two male pop idols, Elvis and Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits.

During this period, she remained faithful to the show that launched her, making a couple of return appearances to "The Donna Reed Show" during its three remaining seasons on the air.

Teen idols have notoriously short runs of popularity, and the same thing happened to Fabares, as movie roles dried up, so she went back to television, and guest starred on numerous TV shows during the early 1970s.

And she found fame again from the mid-to-late 1970s into the late 1990s with regular roles on "One Day At a Time" and especially on "Coach," two of most popular sitcoms of the era.

Fabares continued to act into the early 2000s, both in movies and on television, but she pretty much retired in the early 2000s, a period during which she had a liver transplant.

She was married to actor Mike Farrell of "M*A*S*H" fame.

Fabares did many things in her extraordinary career, but I think even with her later successes, I believe that her role as "Mary Stone" on "The Donna Reed Show" will always stand out from the rest.

She was the perfect, prissy antagonist versus Paul Petersen's less "perfect" "Jeff Stone" character, and even with Oscar winner Donna Reed at the helm, it made the show a never-miss sitcom of the time, especially for younger viewers.

And her "Johnny Angel" just floats into your consciousness every time you hear it.

Funny, I had only recently stumbled onto a podcast where Fabares was interviewed, and she seemed to be quite a humble person, astonished to this day about her success.

R.I.P. Shelley Fabares. You left quite a legacy to us all on film, TV and records.

Rant #4,003: Good Thing

We celebrated our son's birthday on Friday evening, by going out to a local restaurant.

The place wasn't very crowded, and the food was good, so it was a nice way to celebrate his special day.

We mentioned to the waiter that it was his birthday--which was actually yesterday--and the waiter gave us a free dessert for him, on the house.

I thought that that was a really nice gesture.

Our son had to work on his actual birthday, so I hope it was a good day for him even though it was also a workday.

Otherwise, it was a pretty slow weekend, which is a nice thing.

This coming week is a busy one, starting with today, when I have to go to my regular doctor for medical clearance to get that eye surgery in late September.

I am sure I won't have a problem getting the clearance, as my recent exam with him showed that in spite of all the surgeries, I am pretty healthy for an old codger of 69 years young.

That is the befuddling thing ...

I am healthy on one level, but unhealthy on several others.

Hopefully, the eye surgery will be the end of the cutting for this year, and for any year in the near and long-term future.

But I know that I have several other doctors' appointments coming up, so who knows what fear will lurk in the heart of Larry?

I certainly don't know.

But my wife and son also had their physicals over the past few weeks, and they also came out of it with good health, so hopefully, I am on the road to that goal.

Just one more surgery ...

Anyway, enough about that.

I also have a work meeting this week, which I am sure will go pretty well.

Our online magazine really looks great, and in this issue, we have a remembrance of Sept. 11, 2001--9/11--that is really, really good.

I helped put this section together with several others, based on the reminiscences of one of the executives of the association I work for who was actually on the ground when this horrible day happened, 25 years ago.

I think it is the best thing that the book has ever had in its electronic pages, and I will give you an update when it comes out so you can read this man's story, too.

We all have stories about that day--I do, too--and that will all come out in the ensuing weeks.

For the rest of this week, I have several other things I have to attend to, so it is going to be a busy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ...

Leading into several other busy weeks in September, October, November and December.

It will all keep me on my toes, which I guess is a good thing--

Even if some of the things I have to do aren't really in the "good" category.

But so be it.

They have to be done.

So let's get them done ASAP.

(And rest in peace, Shelley Fabares. She died over the weekend. 

Who could ever forget her, from her regular stint on "The Donna Reed Show" to "Johnny Angel" to everything else she did in front of the camera, and mostly on TV? 

She will be missed.)

Rant #4,002: This Could Be the Start of Something Big

Well, we just about made it through another week!

It is finally Friday, and the weekend is just around the corner.

Tonight, we are going to celebrate my son's 31st birthday.

We have to do it then, because he works on Saturday and on Sunday, the latter of which is his actual birthday.

I know i say it every year, but I am going to say it again--

I simply cannot believe he is 31!

Time does fly!

And before you know it, my daughter will be married, so this us an exciting time for both my kids.

Thinking about it kind of takes me away from my own problems, so that is a good thing.

And in between it all, one if my nephews is also getting married, so there are a blitz of fun things happening during the next few months ...

And that isn't even including my wife's xxth birthday in November, another milestone celebration.

I have to be healthy for all of this, and I will do my darndest to make sure that I am just that.

It all should be a lot of fun, hopefully making the year go out in a good note.

And it all starts tonight, when we take our son out for his big day.

Maybe that will be the start of something big!

Heaven knows that my family and I could use some good news at this point.

And I am sure you have heard, doctors believe that they have a cancer drug that works in a different way for people with skin cancers like I had--

And if trials continue to be successful, not only will it help fight the re-occurrence of those horrid skin lesions, the way it works--by attacking cancer cells that remain after the lesion's removal, and is done on a person-by-person, individual basis based on what is happening in a person's own body--might be a clue for combatting ALL cancers.

Maybe things are looking up during the remainder of this absolutely dreadful year.

So have a good weekend, i will speak to you again on Monday--

And I will try to enjoy myself as we celebrate our son's birthday!