Rant #1,584: Bits and Pieces

Today, my random thoughts on a couple of topics ...

New Baseball Hall of Famers Named: No surprise here, really.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza will be going into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and can anyone really argue about this?

Griffey was one of the game's best players during his heyday with the Seattle Mariners, amassing more than 600 homeruns during his career. If he hadn't been injured as much as he was, he would have probably broken Bobby Bonds' homerun record.

Piazza is undoubtedly the greatest offensive catcher in baseball history, breaking just about all of Yogi Berra's long-standing records during his career, which reached its height with the New York Mets, who seem to be on a roll the past few months.

So what is the problem here?

Nobody had anything on Griffey, and we still don't really know if anyone had anything on Piazza, but with the catcher, the PED rumor mill snatched him, and there were lots of rumors about what he supposedly took or supposedly did not take during his career.

I think that his voting into the Hall of Fame shows that the old guard reporter has passed on, and the new young stud reporters are now ruling the roost. While certainly not whitewashing the PED era--Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds did not get voted in--they are more likely to have an open mind than their predecessors.

I mean, these were the guys that they rooted for when they were kids, so why bar their heroes from the Hall of Fame?

It is not right, nor is it wrong. In Piazza's case, it was nothing but rumors, anyway, no hard facts, so why should his career be torn apart by nothing but innuendo?

Gas Falls Below $2 a Gallon On Long Island: This is really something to talk about.

New Yorkers are taxed a ridiculous amount on their gas purchases, and gas over here is rarely what you can call affordable.

Well, just this past week, with gas prices falling across the nation, prices fell to an astounding level in some gas stations on Long Island: to $1.99 a gallon, the first time I can remember paying this little for gas in years and years.

Do we credit President Obama, do we applaud those producing the gas for keeping the prices low per barrel, or do we praise ourselves for driving less, making the demand less?

I would go for the last one, although me, myself, I seem to be driving more, so I am actually benefiting because my brethren are watching their driving.

But let me ask you, if gas is so low, why is this not translating to other areas?

Why is the cost of food so high, why are plane fares rising ... they both originally rose a few years back when gas was nearing $5 a gallon, and that was the reason given for the rise in services, that transportation costs had risen so much.

So why, with gas prices so far down, have these areas not followed suit, and lessened their prices?

Do we blame President Obama for this, do we blame those producing the oil for keeping the prices just high enough where the companies can still complain that fuel costs are high, or do we blame the consumer, who is going to buy these products anyway, regardless of the cost?

Hmmm ...

Four TV Series Reach 50th Anniversaries: Oh, there are many more that will reach their 50th anniversary since their original premiere in 1966 as we move through 2016, but four series in particular left their marks on the Baby Boomers and pop culture, and will be celebrating this historic anniversary this year.

"Star Trek" tops the list, as its cast, storylines and atmosphere changed the landscape for TV science fiction forever, probably more so than "Star Wars" changed the movie landscape for sci-fi.

Without "Star Trek," there certainly is no "Star Wars."

Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future was not a ratings winner with the public when it was originally on, but once going into reruns, people of all ages discovered the show, and it has become perhaps TV's greatest pop classic, spawning movies, merchandise, spinoffs, and discussion that sees no ebb.

It is a phenomena that keeps on giving.

Its sister show on the NBC network at the time was "The Monkees," which took the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" format and brought it to network TV.

Cast with then-virtually unknown actors/musicians, it also was not a ratings winner when it was originally on the air, but it really set the pace for how music was handled in the future of 1966, what with MTV--with that concept actually created by Monkee Michael Nesmith--and the marketing of pop idols, which was honed with this project.

And the music ... well, that music, produced by the likes of Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, John Stewart and the Monkees themselves--Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Nesmith--has prospered from generation to generation, and lives on strongly today.

We move onto a different network now, ABC, which was the true "third network" back then, willing to try everything and anything to garner viewership.

The first of two pop TV projects that we will talk about here is "Batman," a mix of pop art, action and comedy unlike anything that has been seen on network TV before or since.

Starring Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin, the show was made for the then burgeoning color-TV era, with deep hues that even this color blind kid could see, weird camera angles, and dialogue and situations that sprung out of "The Perils of Pauline" and that ilk.

Sure, there have been Batmans before and since, but like George Reeves is with Superman, is there really anybody who has been better in this role than West?

And then we have "Dark Shadows," which began life as a sort of moody, dark, hard to figure out soap opera and with the inclusion of one single character, became a pop phenomena that has ebbed and flowed in popularity during the past 50 years.

Once Jonathan Frid's character was added to the cast--a vampire, Barnabas Collins, that had such problems with love that you really cared for him--the show took off. It was probably the first soap opera to have a large teenage audience of both males and females--most shows of this type were geared to stay at home moms--and its marketing often rivaled that of "Star Trek," "Batman," and "The Monkees."

Its legion of fans have grown over the years, and even with the movie bomb of a few years ago with Johnny Depp--and two good movies that preceded it that were produced with the original cast in the late 1960s and early 1970s--the show has lived on in the hearts of its fans for the past 50 years.

Looking back at these shows, you can see that each one was created in a time where creativity was king, not like today, where ideas are basically rehashes of things done over and over and over.

Shows like this, I truly believe, could not exist today, because nobody would have thought of them in this anti-creativity climate we live in.

But just stay tuned--you will hear about celebrations of each of these shows during 2016. Their rich histories almost demand that they be looked at once again, and rediscovered.

Anyway, that is it for today. Let me rediscover myself and I will speak to you tomorrow.

Classic Rant #236 (April 19, 2010): Happy Earth Day To You

Earth Day is Thursday, April 22. This will be, I believe, the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day, which was held in 1970.

We seem to go through cycles when it comes to being environmentally friendly to our planet.

The hippies and counter culture brought this to the fore way back in 1970, and those hippies have all grown up now, but a new generation is bringing what is now called "greening" to our attention today.

The premise is the same today as it was 40 years ago: we have only one planet, let's not ruin it any further than we already have. Let's be environmentally conscious of what we are doing, and for those tasks that are not earth friendly, let's change them to make them so.

It's a good idea, but to put it into practice is not as easy. Even on the personal front, it takes a long time to unlearn learned behavior. If you have thrown little pieces of garbage out the window of your car since day one--such as gum wrappers, used cigarettes, etc.--it is hard to learn to throw those away in the proper receptacle.

It is also hard to learn to keep your bottles and cans so that you can turn them into your local supermarket for recycling, and the same thing goes for old newspapers.

I remember the first Earth Day, not because it sparked my interest in preserving the environment, but because of what myself and a friend of mine did that day.

I believe the first Earth Day was on a Saturday, or at least we had off on the first Earth Day (maybe it was the Easter break or something like that). I was 13, still living in Queens, it was right before my birthday and bar mitzvah, and my friend and I took the bus into downtown Jamaica, which was a bustling retail area then.

He had heard about an "underground" bookstore--you know, the ones that sold books about pot and had lots of nudie magazines, as well as X-rated comic books--and since we were both into comics, this store had old ones we could buy.

So we trekked into Jamaica, went to the bookstore (I don't remember the name), and looked around amongst potheads, hippies, and other curious people.

It was an eye-opener. I saw my first Fritz the Cat comic book, and even though I didn't buy it, it was a revelation--not every book had Superman in it, and not every woman in the comic books felt the need to have clothes on.

Oh well, it is a childhood memory I still cherish.

But funny, most of the people who would frequent such a store were probably into ecology, spearheading this movement way back when.

Now, those people are at least in their early 60s, if they survived that time. I wonder if they are still into ecology, or if they have left the movement to their children and grandchildren.

And what did I buy that day? I don't remember, but the memory of the day has far outlived the need for me to remember what I bought from that store.

Have a happy Earth Day!

Rant #1,583: A Hunk, a Hunk of Burning Smartphone

I guess my dental work yesterday was a success.

I am still not used to the crown I have; it feels somewhat like an anchor in my mouth.

But it does not hurt, it just feels like there is a foreign object in my mouth, and it will probably feel that way for a few days, until I get used to it. Once I do, it will be like I was born with this thing right where it is.

Whew, I am glad that is over.

Anyway, something else happened yesterday that sounded the alarm in my house, and quite nearly sounded off the fire alarm.

Like most of us today, I have one of those darned smartphones at the ready. I wish we, as a society, weren't tuned into such devices like we are, but due to my wife's insistence, I have one, but unlike most other people in society, I don't use it to take pictures or store music.

I actually use it as a phone.

Anyway, as I do at least once a day, late yesterday afternoon I decided to charge the thing up. I hooked it up to its wire, plugged it into the wall, and I figured that over a period of time, it would charge to 100 percent and that would be the end of that.

Lately, I have noticed that the charging time has been getting longer and longer, and some people have told me that the battery's life is running out, and that it was time for a new phone.

I have had the phone for a few years, so I felt that what they said was probably correct ... but I wasn't going to get a new phone until the thing was unchargeable and/or unusable.

So I continued to use the same phone, charged it up each morning as best I could, but the charging times were becoming a bit ridiculous, well over an hour to charge a phone that already had a good amount of juice in it.

Well, I did the same thing yesterday, only charging the phone in the late afternoon because I was at home while I normally was at work.

Well, my wife came home from work, made dinner for herself and the two men in the family, and I figured that after we ate, the phone would be done charging and that would be that.

I went into my bedroom, where the charging was being done, and I smelled a burning odor. I ran over to where the phone was charging, looked at my phone, and at over an hour being charged, it read just 35 percent--or several percent less than when I plugged it into the wall.

I immediately ripped the wire out of the phone, and I slightly burned my hand. The end tip of the wire, the part that goes into the phone, was black, and I noticed that the case that I have the phone in was also slightly charred at the opening on the bottom.

I ripped the plug out of the wall, and noticed that the plug below it--which is used for our air conditioner--was also slightly charred.

Evidently, the wire was the culprit in all the charging problems I had had with the phone, and this time, we could have had a real problem had I come into the room a few minutes after I did.

I checked out the phone, it appeared to be fine, and I have another wire from my tablet that I can use to charge the phone, and it worked to perfection, did it speedily, so again, I have no real need to get another phone. The case is slightly burnt on the bottom, but I simply have to remove the case to charge the phone, and everything is copacetic.

So at least in this instance, the charging wire had simply given out, not the phone battery, and if not for some luck, I guess, we could have had a major fire in our home.

We have all heard of smartphones exploding without warning, and we kind of think that these are isolated instances, and these things cannot happen to us.

But while my smartphone didn't explode, the wire charging it basically imploded, so these things can happen.

Now that I know the warning signs, I think I know what to do so it never happens again, but it was a bit scary for a minute or two yesterday.

These phones are wonders of modern technology, but they can also potentially be problematic, and I hope that I nipped this problem in the bud before it can potentially do more harm than good.

And I thought that my dental work was going to be the big problem yesterday ... .

Classic Rant #235 (April 16, 2010): Record Store Day

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 17, is the annual Record Store Day celebration, which is being held across the country.

You haven't heard about it? Let me fill you in.

Independent record stores are suffering right now. Some years back, just about every community had its local record store. Kids and adults would congregate there, buy their albums and 45s, and hear about local acts who had pressed their own records.

These stores were basically treasure troves of information about acts current and long gone, and the workers in these stores were knowledgeable, and really cared about the music.

However, during the past few years, chain stores like Best Buy have taken the steam out of these stores, and many, far too many, have closed up shop.

(I might add that I have nothing against Best Buy. I have bought many, many CDs, DVDs and hardware items there. It is a fine store with a limited selection of CDs and DVDs that they believe to be the most popular. And, very importantly, my nephew works for them, so they aren't bad at all.)

Record Store Day not only celebrates the independent record store, it also celebrates vinyl as a vital way to listen to records, even in these days of CDs and digital downloads.

So support your local record store--or if it isn't local, find one close by to where you live.

There will be free concerts, discounts, and lots of giveaways at many of these stores to celebrate the day.

We have such a store in my community, and I think I will visit--and buy some vinyl.

Rant #1,582: Back Into 2016

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night ...

No, that is not what I wanted to say here.

I hope you had a nice New Year.

We are entering a great unknown with 2016, and we are already four days into the year.

Boy, time has sure flown fast.

On the way home on Friday, a guy came out of a street, never stopped, and yes, I nearly had another T-bone accident.

Happily, I was literally far enough away where I could jam on my breaks and barely miss this idiot.

That being said, I am off to the rat race again, as just about all of us are, as we go back to work after at least a little time off to recharge our batteries.

The weather has finally turned cold in my neck of the woods, and already people are complaining.

Heck, on Christmas, we had 70 degree temperatures, and I guess you can say that they have forgotten that we are in winter, and we are supposed to get cold weather.

I have some aches and pains. My right foot hurts at its rear, but it does not hurt as bad as it did a few weeks ago, when I thought I would need some type of therapy.

It hurts, but actually, it is more stings than hurts.

My wife hurt her back, and her back really has been bothering her for the past month or so.

Both of these pains were sudden things, coming out of nowhere, but like I tell her, this is what happens when you are the age that we are. We aren't 25 anymore, that's for sure.

I don't know if you have noticed, but Antenna TV has started its showing of "The Tonight Show" reruns. These are pretty much full shows--I have seen some very benign cuts in the two shows that I have watched--and the shows are pretty much running for the first time since they were originally on.

Carson was the master of this medium--late night chat--and he still is, and these shows really demonstrate just how good he was at his craft. The show flows around him, not about him, and he is an equal opportunity skewer, barbing both sides of the political spectrum when they need to get made fun of.

And his guests, well, let's say that they all had agendas, but they were mainly professional.

The comedy remains funny, and I found myself laughing out loud at a lot of the material thus far shown.

If you are wondering how this will play in 2016--more than 30 years after the shows originally ran--don't worry, the humor is timeless, not vicious.

My, how things have changed in those 30 years.

I would say that we need Carson more than ever today, and finally, we have him.

Other than that, I am glad to be back writing this column, but I am going to have to take a brief sabbatical tomorrow, when my latest dental saga will, hopefully, finally come to a close.

As you remember, I had a crown put on one of my teeth, or more precisely, a temporary crown and tomorrow, in a procedure that is slated to last a few hours, I am getting the permanent crown put on.

This should not be fun, but it will close the book on this saga that started more than a month ago.

I can't wait for it to be over, so if you have any prayers to say tomorrow, please include me in them.

Remember, I am the guy who has a piece of dental equipment stuck in my tooth from this nonsense, so I feel like the bionic man.

What would Carson say about this?

Speak to you again on Wednesday.

Classic Rant #234 (April 15, 2010): Pay Up and Shut Up!

Well, did you pay your taxes yet?

Today is April 15, and today is the day that we all must submit our tax forms to the government so they can be processed. You probably know this, but today is the deadline, although you can get an extension under certain circumstances.

Some of us will be getting back money from the government; others will have to pay the federal and local governments what they owe them.

Some people choose to not partake of this process, while others claim deductions that are unlawful. Still others--very wealthy people--use tax shelters to shield their money from the arms of the government, and/or take tax write-offs that us regular people could never do legitimately.

I mean, what can a poor (and I mean that literally) middle class guy like myself, and my wife, do? We go by the law, and file our taxes each and every year.

Our deductions are minimal. Our son is one deduction (I can't take my daughter, because my ex-wife takes her as a deduction), and our child care expenses during the year are another deduction. Other than that, we don't own property, we don't have enough money to give anything substantial to charities, and thus, we don't have many deductions.

And if you don't have many deductions and make what we make, well, you don't do too well on your taxes.

But we file tax returns each year. At least we can say that. No monkey business here.

And it could be worse.

If you think that April 15 is annually the worst day of the year for you, take heed, it was worse for President Abraham Lincoln.

On this date, in 1865, the President died, nine hours after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.

So it was a really, really bad day for him.

Classic Rant #233 (April 14, 2010): Ringing In My Head

The Yankees opened the 2010 baseball season several days ago in Boston against the hated Red Sox, but they finally made it back to Yankee Stadium (not the real stadium, but a good facsimile) yesterday, and played the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or whatever they call themselves these days.

The day was also one to remember, not necessarily for the score--the Yankees won 7-5--but because the Yankees hoisted their championship banner and the team also received their championship rings.

Just as a quirk in the schedule, Hideki Matsui, who was the World Series MVP last year but who signed with the Angels a few weeks after the World Series, was there with his new team, but his old team didn't forget him.

He received his ring from his old mates, and was allowed to go over to them and accept high-fives and such.

The Yankees actually played a trick on him, giving him a phony ring initially, but giving him the real ring aftewards.

Other dignitaries were in attendance, including owner George Steinbrenner, who has battled illness during the past few years, and Gene Monahan, the Yankees' trainer for the past nearly 50 years, who is going through his own battle now, against throat cancer. And Yankee stalwarts Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra were also there, giving authenticity to the whole affair.

It was a great day all around.

I know people love to hate the Yankees and what they stand for across the land, but let's be honest about it, they are baseball, American sports, and yes, American greed all wrapped up in one package.

The problems I had securing tickets to a game for myself and my family a few weeks back exemplifies what many people think the Yankees stand for, and I can't disagree with them.

Nonetheless, they are the most famous professional team probably in the world, and I have been a fan since I was a kid.

I love 'em, what can I say.

But they always have targets on their backs, because of what they represent and where they are from. It's easy to hate the Yankees, because so many people love to hate them.

Heck, there was even a great Broadway show and movie, "Damn Yankees," about this hatred people have for the team from the Bronx.

They are highly paid, and last year, they went to the zenith of the sporting world. They don't do it every year, even though people think they do. They have only done it 27 times in their history ... not a lot, but more than any other professional sports organization in North America, if not the world.

It's more pleasing than rooting for the Knicks, a horrible team run by a horrible organization. Whenever I get on my high horse about the Yankees, I have to look at the Knicks, who are to basketball what an enema is to constipation.

I root for teams on both ends of the spectrum, but I bleed pinstripe blue.

I really do.