Classic Rant #178 (January 22, 2015): John Edwards’ Baby

So I hear that John Edwards finally admitted that that baby that he was rumored to have fathered is actually his.

Heck, until this admission, I thought it might have been Tiger Woods' love child.

The ex-Senator and former Presidential candidate finally fessed up, saying that he fathered a two-year-old daughter with his former mistress and video production firm head Rielle Hunter.

What's worse, he did all this while his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer.

Edwards said that he hopes that when his daughter gets older, she will forgive him for the lies that he made trying to cover up this mess.

Edwards is also being looked at by federal prosecutors in North Carolina for his campaign finances regarding Hunter, whose firm was paid at least $100,000 in 2006 alone.

This guy is a piece of garbage, plain and simple. How he thought he would be able to cover this up while running for the top office in the land is beyond me.

I mean, this is not the Kennedy era, when everything was kept hush hush.

And, this guy is no Kennedy, even on a good day.

There are also allegations that he tried to pass off the fathering of this child on someone else, a real dope who was going to take the rap for this.

Can you believe all this? You can't make this stuff up.

Now, his wife is suffering from terminal cancer. She said that her family was relieved at the admission, and that now, her marriage concerns could be just hers, and not the general public's business.

You have to really feel sorry for his wife. She is not going to be here much longer, and has had to put up with this nonsense for many months now, all the while battling a disease that is slowly eating away at her very being.

And as for Edwards, he should be ashamed of himself. Any positive spin that he attempts to put on all this is really for the crapper. There is no positive spin. He cheated on his wife, and cheated on her when she was ill.

He should just fade into the woodwork and go away, Permanently.

Rant #1,525: Chubby and "The Twist"

This past weekend, Chubby Checker had another birthday.

And with another birthday comes another year that this guy is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

How can that be? The guy who made "The Twist" a national obsession is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

The guy who had many, many other hits along with "The Twist," but remains out of that place in Cleveland?

Yes, very true.

Chubby Checker--real name Ernest Evans--is not in his rightful place in that poor excuse for a Hall of Fame, a place where he and many others are excluded for one reason or another, chiefly among them, the musical tastes of the person that runs the place, Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jan Wenner.

He has no use for certain music, and evidently, the heights that Checker reached during his prime years are of little or no concern to Wenner.

And that is a shame, because if you are of a certain age, you remember the greatest dance craze and how it captivated the world.

There have been many, many dance crazes since the birth of rock and roll--the frug, the duck, heck, even "The Freddy"--a song that Checker actually recorded himself after Freddie and the Dreamers had a hit with it--but there has been nothing like "The Twist."

If I remember correctly, it was originally recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters as something of a throwaway tune.

Checker took it, made it something more than a throwaway, and the rest is history.

Everyone was doing it--from kids in wheelchairs in hospitals to Jackie Kennedy in the White House--that you can rightly say that it became a worldwide phenomenon.

You didn't have to do much, just basically shake your body from side to side with your arms arched back and forth, so even people with limited movement could do it.

"The Twist" was an absolute sensation, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard charts not just once, but twice--the only song that has ever done that, first in 1960 and than in 1961.

There were variations on Checker's "Twist," including "The Peppermint Twist" by Joey Dee and the Starliters, but there was only one "The Twist."

It became such a sensation that the mere inclusion of the word "Twist" in a title of a song could make it popular, and every act from the Sam Cooke to the Isley Brothers to the Chipmunks had their own "Twist" song.

This influence reached through 1964 or so, with the Beatles' taking the Isley Brothers' tune, "Twist and Shout," to the heights of the charts.

I was young in 1960 and 1961, but I can vaguely remember dancing "The Twist" with my grandmother--who loved to dance--in the kichen of her apartment.

Like I said, anyone could do this dance, and even people who don't normally dance did "The Twist."

But Checker was much, much more than "The Twist."

Between 1959 and 1988, he placed nearly three dozen songs on the singles charts, many of the songs trying to mimic his lasting hit--"Let's Twist Again"being a prime example--and others trying to generate more dancing buzz--such as "Pony Time."

Although his main years of hit making were generally the pre-Beatle years of 1960 to 1963, in recent years he has been embraced by the rappers, and actually had a big hit with the Fat Boys in 1988 with "The Twist (Yo Twist)."

Checker has also had some success as a rapper himself, and in another guise, he had a major rap hit just a few years ago, the name of which I cannot remember now.

He still performs, too, continuing to spread "The Twist" to newer generations.

It is a song that won't stop giving, and it is probably the most popular song in the rock and roll era, not by plays or sales, but by knowledge by people who don't even like rock music.

Perhaps that very fact has hurt Checker. I am sure some people view him as a one-hot wonder who spread the one hit out to three dozen hits.

Not me. I think the guy is the real deal, and he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not having him there is a real oversight, or perhaps you can call it a snub.

Whatever the case, here is to the one and only Chubby Checker. Happy belated birthday to you, and keep on twistin'.

Something tells me that he will do just that, even for newer generations of kids to listen to and to dance to.

Happy No. 74 to Chubby!

I will next speak to you on Wednesday, as I will take off from tomorrow's column for a private matter. See you on Wednesday, and keep twisting!

Classic Rant #177 (January 21, 2010): Take a Jet Back to New Jersey

If you are a football fan, you know that the team that no one wants to play during the playoffs is the New York Jets. They are playing over their heads, and beating some of the best teams in football as they push to the Super Bowl.

They play the Colts this weekend, and even though they are the underdogs, wisdom says that they will probably win this game--they beat the Colts during the regular season, a feat that no one else accomplished.

That is all fine and good, but like I have said before, I hate football.

And I hate New York football, because, the only NFL football played in the state of New York is by the Bills of Buffalo.

New York City has not had an NFL team for more than 30 years, and no, the Jets--and for that matter, the Giants--are not New York teams, even though they are called "New York."

They play in New Jersey, and since when is New Jersey New York?

New York could have had the Jets in a return to the city where they played prior to their move to New Jersey. That billionaire nincompoop of a mayor, Michael Bloomberg--a great businessman but not a great politician, even with this three terms--could have had the Jets come back to New York City. The proposed stadium near the Javits Center was where they would have played, but this idiot of a mayor--who, you might remember, tried to horn in on the Yankees World Series coverage but Fox wouldn't bite--tried to tie in the Stadium with an Olympic bid. New Yorkers didn't want the Olympics, but they wanted the Manhattan stadium.

Well, when the Olympic bid fell through, so did the stadium.

Anyway, this dummy is having what amounts to a "pep rally" today for his beloved Jets, who bring nothing to New York City, and during this playoff, certainly bring nothing, since they are playing miles and miles away.

And even if they make the Super Bowl, they will still bring nothing to the city, because the game is being played in Florida.

New Jersey can have their Jets, but why is Bloomberg and his cohorts making this out to be a New York sports moment?

It has as much to do with New York as Hawaii does.

New York City has the Rangers, and Long Island has its Islanders. The Knicks play at the Garden. Pitchers and catchers report in mid-February--and yes, I am talking about the New York Yankees and even the New York Mets, New York City's two baseball teams.

These are the teams that New York should focus on, not teams that left here and don't give anything back to the city that they dumped all those years ago.

Rant #1,524: Bits and Pieces

Here are my observations on a few recent news items that might have gone under the radar during the work week we are happily now concluding today.

Me, I have to work tomorrow, but for most of us, we will be jumping for joy come 5 p.m. or so today.

Kid With Clock Isn't So Innocent After All: Yes, I kind of figured this was going to happen. Remember the kid who supposedly, innocently, brought a clock to school and was later arrested when some teachers thought the clock was a bomb?

Well, this kid apparently is no choir boy.

According to reports, a teacher who had the kid as a student said that, basically, the kid is already, in his young age, a "professional victim" who has been suspended before for causing a ruckus in the school system. The teacher, who was anonymous, said that the kid did things to draw attention to his Muslim faith, and has caused problems in the school system before.

In fact, the teacher said that the kid was so smart that he could be a great scientist one day, "or a gang leader."

I hate when people use "anonymous" to identify themselves, it does take away from the veracity of what they say, but in this case, the person probably feared retribution from the PC Police, so he/she laid low.

But, let's all of us--including President Obama, among others--take another look at this incident, and put it in its proper context.

We are in a situation where anything suspicious on school grounds must be reported, and that includes a clock with wires hanging out of it that appears to resemble a bomb. So the school district was right in taking some action against the kid, even though it ended up being misplaced.

Schools have become, unfortunately, places of sometimes horrible violence. Look at what took place in Oregon yesterday.

So, if a teacher believes something that resembles a bomb might just be a bomb, isn't it his or her duty to report it as such? Our own President has said we have become jaded to such things, but our own President also lauded this kid as something of a conquering hero, making the local school system look like fools in the aftermath.

To our President, shut up and be our President, and don't stick your nose where it does not belong.

Pope Visits Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Martyr: Yes, it comes out that the Pope visited that woman who refuses to sign marriage licenses for same-sex marriages during his visit to the United States last week. This was kept very hush-hush, and only came out after he left our country.

(I have since heard that this "meeting" was possibly only a meeting in a line with others, where the Pope may have not even known it was the person in question. Who knows what the truth is, as the Vatican tries to clear up this mini-mess.)

It just goes to show that last week's visit was nothing but a carefully orchestrated marketing/PR push for a Pope who is being marketed and sold to the public as being "new and unique," but, well, really isn't much different from the Popes the preceded him.

Why did he give an audience to a woman who does not support same-sex marriages, supposedly because of her religious beliefs, but who is breaking the law of the land?

Because, my friends, he is as against same-sex marriages as she is, that's why.

This Pope was supposed to be a new breed, someone who welcomed everyone into the Catholic Church, but he seems to talk out of both sides of his mouth, depending on the audience.

And he supposedly has God behind him, so people make of him what they want.

To me, that whole trip was a whitewash, an untruth, and this visit was one thing that certainly proved that.

For a Pope that is supposedly so open to change, he still doesn't support not only same-sex marriages, but he doesn't support abortion, divorce, contraception, etc., either.

This is a progressive Pope?

Boy, did he sell the public a rancid bill of goods last week!

Yankees In Playoffs, Win 10,000th Game: Two things finally happened last night at soggy Yankee Stadium. Not only did the Yankees officially squeak into the playoffs as a wild card team, they won their 10,000th game since joining the American League in 1903.

I am happy about the former, but let's focus on the latter.

The Yankees are the first American League team to reach this plateau, doing it in 112 seasons. They started off life as the original Baltimore Orioles, but moved to New York in 1903 and became the Highlanders.

Of course, when they finally adopted the Yankees monicker, they became what they are today, North America's most successful professional sports franchise, bearing one of the most iconic logos on the face of the earth.

It's too bad that Yogi Berra passed on right before reaching this triumph. He was undoubtedly a first-hand witness to a great portion of these wins, either as a manager, a coach or a player.

Now, onto the playoffs, that one wild card play-in game, where anything can happen, and let's start today off by winning No. 10,001.

Speak to you again on Monday.

Classic Rant #176 (January 20, 2010): Stop Complaining, Just Eat!

I am sick and tired of people complaining about what they are eating when they go out to restaurants, including fast food sites.

Yesterday, at work, there was a "white noise" discussion in our office about the amount of salt in one offering from a local Tex-Mex place. People were shaking their heads, and asked, "How can they sell something with that much salt?"

Well, the reason they can sell that product, and many others, is simple--

Because people are buying it!

If no one bought these things, then I think these restaurants would take them off the menu.

On top of the fact, I don't think that if you go out to eat at certain places that you should expect everything to necessarily be healthy for you.

We, as a country, are on this health kick, which overall, is probably a good thing. We eat too much, and we eat too much stuff that we really should not be eating.

However, nobody is forcing us to eat it. And certainly, if I go to my local fast-food restaurant chain, I am not going there for a healthy meal. I am going there because I am hungry.

These chains offer healthier options, not necessarily healthy choices, but healthier than the normal fare. I am sure people eat these things, and I think it is probably good business to have them on the menu.

But to think that you are eating healthy when you eat at these places is a pipe dream.

And the people at my work, the same ones complaining about the salt content of the Tex-Mex item, are the same ones that are eating donuts and bagels and candy and other junk during the work day.

This nonsense harkens back to those idiotic lawsuits in the 1990s where "concerned parents" were suing fast-food chains because their children ate too many hamburgers and got fat. Sure, it was the chains' fault that their kids became Chubbsy Ubbsies, wasn't it?

Now, in many restaurants, at least here in New York but I am sure elsewhere, the content of many of the things they offer are posted for everyone to see. So, if you find there is too much salt in something, and it bothers you, just don't eat it.

But I guarantee that other people will, and that is why it is on the menu.

Better yet, save your money, and eat at home. I am sure that if you are so concerned about what you are getting in restaurants, you are even more concerned about what you are putting on your own table.

Maybe you can post the content of what you are eating at home on your refrigerator.

Rant #1,523: Soda Pop

I see where Keurig, the company best known for making single-serve coffee makers popular, is now trying to do the same thing in other avenues, most recently with soda.

They already have developed, with Campbell's, pods for soup, the directions of which sound so confusing that I have to wonder why anybody would bother doing it--how can you beat a can of soup for ease of use to one made on a coffee machine?

Now, to move to the next step, we have something called "Kold."

They, in association with Green Mountain Coffee and Coca-Cola, have developed a soda maker, much like its coffee maker, which allows you to slip in a pod and make your own single serve soda in seconds.

The unit costs $300, the pods about $1 each, and this thing will be marketed for the holiday rush.

Let me preface this by saying that I love soda, I really do.

With all the health warnings and such, I still drink soda, and I drink it because I like it.

It gives me nothing but taste, sugar, and probably a bit of caffeine, but for someone who drinks no coffee or tea, it is my favorite refreshment.

And by the way, I am a huge milk drinker and I also have my share of water, too.

I can live without soda, as I proved a few years ago after my gall bladder surgery.

I did not drink soda for more than four years because it was too bubbly for my system back then.

But since going back to it a few years ago, I have suffered no ill effects from it.

But now, back to Keurig ...

Like with their coffee maker, they are trying to convince the public that they need such a thing, but also like the coffee maker, people really don't need this new device.

Like the coffee maker, you are going to pay more for your refreshment if you use this thing.

Even with the coffee, if you work it out by pound of coffee, you are paying a lot more for coffee by using their machine and pods, and this will even be more so if you make your soda this way.

At more than $1 a serving, you would be better off getting a can of ready-made Coke than one from a machine.

The company claims that people will buy this because it frees up the clutter that occurs when people buy pre-made soda, both in the refrigerator and in the pantry where these bottles and cans are often stored.

This is a load of fizz. Soda bottles and cans do take up space, but who hoards soda? I certainly don't.

And at $300 for the machine, who is going to buy this thing?

There are other soda makers on the market which allow you to pick and choose the flavor of your soda, and how much flavor you want in your drink.

With this device, these are simply pods, like the coffee pods, so you really can't pick and choose anything, at least not right now.

Quite honestly, as a soda drinker that these machines will certainly be directed to, this is, to me, the most useless new kitchen appliance of the year.

And talk about clutter? Where do you put this in your kitchen ... right next to your Keurig coffee maker?

No, I will continue to buy my soda in bottles and cans, and take my chances with those.

Making an individual soda for myself or others simply is not a draw for me, as all you need is one turn or click, and you have what you want with the standard packaging.

Like I said, this is all a lot of fizz to me.

Classic Rant #175 (January 19, 2010): Not Hitting the Nets

This is a story that sports fans around the country are not really aware of right now, but history could be in the making come April.

The New Jersey Nets, the wandering team that is slated to play in a new Brooklyn arena in about two years, are on the brink of setting a record for the worst single-season record ever for an NBA team, and one of the worst single-season records for an American professional sports team.

I say that because I know what the NBA record is, and I know what the baseball record is, and I know what the football record is. I am not sure of hockey.

After another loss yesterday on Martin Luther King Day, the Nets' record stands at three wins, 37 losses. At that rate, all you have to do is do the math. With their NBA season one game from the halfway point, double their record and you will get six wins, 74 losses. Give them a win and another loss, and they will end up seven wins, 75 losses.

If that happens, they will eclipse the record set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who were 9-73.

This is a story that the sports media is pretty much ignoring for some unknown reason. Maybe it has to do with the Nets being, well, the Nets. Wherever they have played--be it Long Island or New Jersey--the Nets have always been a poor second cousin to the New York Knicks. Even in the Knicks' down years, like right now, they garner much more coverage than their New Jersey cousins, and even when the Nets were a good team in the NBA, the Knicks received most of the coverage.

And when the Nets were really good, when they played on Long Island, they were in the ABA, so the majority of pro basketball fans didn't care about them, even if they had Julius Erving.

Now, they have Brook Lopez, a couple of journeymen castoffs, and little else. They are a lame duck team, expecting to move to Brooklyn in a few years, and their pursuit of this record is going somewhat unnoticed.

No, it's not as bad as the Detroit Lions' 0-16 record a few seasons ago, and it is better than the 1962 Mets' 40-120 record, but it is bad enough.

Let's see how far this team can go into the dumpster. They are there already there, but they are digging deeper on a weekly basis.