Rant #2,047: Black Is Blech

Yesterday, as I was putting the finishing touches on Rant No. 2,046, everything went off in the house, and we had a power failure in my neck of the woods.

And what made this even stranger for me is that the power failure happened at around 4:45 a.m.

We have had power failures where I live, but few during the near-winter time period and even fewer early in the morning like this.

Of course, I was up, literally writing up the last sentence of that Rant, and then, poof!, everything went black.

You could not see anything around the house, so I felt the walls as I moved into the kitchen to retrieve my handy cellphone, which I would use as a light until I could get to a flashlight we have by the regular landline phone.

I got that, and as I did that, I went outside to get our delivered newspapers, and lo and behold, every house as far as the eye could see showed that not a single residence had power at that time.

I guess for most people, 4:45 a.m. is a good time to have a power failure, as most of us are asleep.

But not me, of course. I had been up since 3:30 a.m, which is when I wake up during weekdays.

I have things to do, and that is why I wake up so early.

And I can do it because I am a light sleeper to begin with, although I do like my sleep.

I was able to use my phone, so for the remainder of the time we did not have electricity, I was on the phone, even being able to put up a message on Facebook, telling people of the situation and alerting them to the fact that my daily Rant would be delayed until we could get our power back.

I went into Facebook, and then my email, then Facebook again, and that is pretty much where I stayed when the lights came on, about an hour after the power failure began.

Once the lights came on, since I have a modern house, many things had to be reset, and I didn't have enough time to do them all while I was home.

Our living room TV, a source of consternation to begin with, is not working properly, and I was hoping that the burst of power we got did not harm it for good.

Well, it did not harm the TV, but it harmed the satellite receiver that we use, and that has to be replaced. The thing simply does not light up anymore, so I think that even while hooked up to the surge protector, either the surge when the power went down or the surge when the the power came back knocked the thing out, and last night, I called Dish Network to get a new receiver,

I checked on the other TVs, brought them up to where they should be, reset my clock, and then went to deal with our Dot, Alexa, who can be a real pain in the tuckis to begin with.

Well, Alexa was giving me problems, but with the assistance of my wife, I got it back to where it should be.

I still have to help my mother to get her Dot ready to go, which I had no time to do yesterday, but perhaps I can do tonight.

This is pure torture, but I am happy it all worked out.

None of us really know how much we rely on our electric power to keep our dwellings running ship shape. Heck, what did people do before they had electrical power?

I know, lighting candles and lamps was the way to go, and I guess for those times, that was as high tech as it got.

But in today's world, everything taps into the electricity, and when you lose it, you are sunk.

In particular at 4:45 a.m. in the morning.

And without a generator, we are truly in the black at that time of day.

I can't complain that much, because we haven't had a long power failure like this since the summer, I do believe.

This one came so suddenly, and left so abruptly, that I just want to forget it.

Yes, it was a fun day in the house in the early morning yesterday, and it was so much fun that I hope it never happens again.

Heck, I went through the famous 1965 blackout, and if I never go through another one, that will be more than fine with me.

And all this happened during Hanukkah yet.

"The Festival of Lights" ... yesterday morning, it was more of "The Festival of Dark" than anything else.

Classic Rant #699 (March 21, 2012): A Little Meat

Yesterday, I wrote about fast food chains, and I said that nobody who is on a diet or at least watching their calories should be frequenting these establishments.

Today, the word out of Israel is that a new law passed on Monday prohibits the employment of underweight models, or models whose body weight index does not match their height.

The new law requires models to produce a medical report that is no older than three months old at every shoot that they want to do in the Israeli market. The report has to show that they are healthy and not malnourished, using the standards put forth by the World Health Organization.

The WHO relies on body mass index, which is calculated by weight and height, and using this calculation, a body mass index of 18.5 indicates malnutrition.

Using that standard, a 5 foot eight inch woman should weigh at least 119 pounds.

According to news reports, this new legislation might help even non-models to regulate their weight according to these standards. About 2 percent of Israeli females between the ages of 14 and 18 have severe eating disorders, a rate that is similar to other developed countries, so the legislation might show some girls that if models don't have to be paper thin, neither do they.

Of course, that is simplifying the problem of eating disorders that so many women go through, but it might be a step in the right direction to show girls that paper thin isn't necessarily in.

I never got the model thing. Some of these models are so thin they look like sticks with legs. Many of them are completely unattractive in my eyes, only around to show off some designer's hideous outfits.

And, on the other hand, I never got the bulimia thing either, eating and then throwing up. To me, that is more a psychological thing than a weight or body image thing, but then again, I am not a doctor, so what do I know.

But those eating disorders can kill you. Some girls purge so often that their insides can't take it. Singer Karen Carpenter may have purged herself to death, as has been reported, and this was a woman who was thin as a rail, probably naturally so, but she wanted to be even thinner.

This obsession that we have with perfect bodies is so off base, but it isn't going away because of some Israeli law.

I have never figured out why so many women, in particular, go under the knife to change their looks, whether it be to increase or better shape their chests or to get nose jobs and face lifts.

Why can't we be who we are and be happy about it, or at least be comfortable in our own skins?

Some people are naturally thin. My mother is built like a pencil, has always been that way, so it is natural for her to be skinny as a rail.

My father, my sister and I are not built that way, not even close.

And that is what makes the world go around. You have fat people, skinny people, and people who are moderately skinny and heavy.

This obsession with being like actors and models--who also go under the knife to assure that they look "perfect"--really is appalling.

We should be who we are, and not be somebody else's approximation of that.

They say beauty is only skin deep, and I truly believe that.

Not that this law will make that much of a difference for many of us who are obsessed with how we look, but I guess it is a step in the right direction.

Rant #2,046: Last Train To Nowheresville

I am sure you have read about the horrific Amtrak train derailment in Washington State.

Multiple injuries--and six casualties--have been reported, and investigators are checking to see if excessive speed was the cause of this terrible accident.

Whenever I hear about a train derailment, I cringe, not only because of the blatant horribleness of such an occurrence--you are leaving the "driving" to someone else, and that person has failed you--but also because of my own experience in a train derailment.

I have told this story many times, but I am going to tell it again, because it is pertinent to the current situation on the rails in Washington.

It was 1980, I think it was in the late winter or early spring, I just don't remember that point exactly, but everything else about this incident remains vivid in my mind.

I was coming home from work, my first real job after college graduation, where I worked for a printer in midtown Manhattan.

I absolutely hated this job. It paid me all of $180 a week, but it was a job, and it took me several months after graduation to find it.

I knew I wouldn't be in the job for more than two or three years, simply because I had decided to go to graduate school and pursue education as a goal.

Anyway, it was just another day at work, nothing stood out, and at the end of the workday, I left work, took the subway about two stops to Penn Station, and waited for my train to take me home.

I always sat in the back car, and I generally got the same seat each day, in the tail end of that car pretty much in the middle, by the window.

I had my newspaper, and I had my mini-TV, and those things kept me occupied if I wanted to use them. If not, I just stared out the window, made sure I saw my old neighborhood--Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens--out the window at the Locust Manor stop, and whiled away the more than an hour it took to get to my home stop.

As I said, it was a normal day for me, the end of a regular day when I entered the car and sat down in my usual spot.

It was a direct train, so it made maybe one or two stops, and that was it, so I settled into my seat, and again, I don't remember if I read the newspaper, watched the TV, or simply stared out the window, but as we were approaching the Jamaica station, I was staring out the window.

We did not stop at the raised platform in Jamaica, so the train buzzed through that station, but as we were moving through the platform area, I heard a large "pop," and the car I was in was moving sideways, and I saw Jamaica Avenue moving closer and closer to me.

This lasted a very few seconds, and we would have gone over the side--evidently, the engineer in the front had no idea we were off the track--if not for the vigilance of this little, short guy who sat a few rows from me.

This guy--who I kind of remembered from high school, but I did not know his name--got out of his seat, jumped up, and hit the alarm on the ceiling, literally just as we were about to go over the side right after the platform.

The train stopped, and we were all saved.

We were led off the train, and a few people stayed around to talk to reporters, who had rushed to the scene, including one from the New York Daily News, where we were a page one story the next day.

Me, I waited for the next train, took it home, and vowed that this was my warning from God never to work in Manhattan again, a vow I broke several years later for a short time as a freelancer but one that I have basically kept to this very day, where I am looking for a job just about anywhere, including in Manhattan.

Anyway, when the train was creeping closer to Jamaica Avenue, I have to say that my life was coming out before me. You hear stories that people tell about facing death in an instant, and how their life unfolds out to them once they realize what is happening, and let me tell you, it is the truth.

In a flash, I thought about my family, my old neighborhood, and probably several other things that were allotted milliseconds in my mind during the few seconds that this took place in.

It is eerie, but it is true.

I can only wonder what people going down in a plane see--and feel-when they realize what is happening, and it is something I never want anyone to experience, myself included.

So again, whenever I hear about a train wreck, a derailment, or some other train mishap, I think about that day, coming on 40 years ago, when I thought that this was it for me.

It is a feeling I carry with me to this day, and even after another horrific accident--one in my car--that happened to myself and my family a few years back, I carry both of these things with me, and will to the day I leave this earth ... naturally.

Classic Rant #698 (March 20, 2012): Wendy Crowns Burger King

McDonald's is the top hamburger chain. Nothing comes near it in sales, and I mean nothing.

Its sales alone trump everything in its sight. Last year, McDonald's reportedly took in $34.2 billion in sales, which was much more than the No. 2 and No. 3 hamburger chains' sales combined ... and I mean much more.

But what are No. 2 and No. 3 anyway?

Wendy's dethroned Burger King as the U.S.'s second biggest hamburger chain based on sales last year.

According to research firm Technomic Inc., Wendy's reportedly had sales of $8.5 billion in 2011, and Burger King wasn't far behind, with $8.4 billion, so Wendy's is now the No. 2 hamburger chain in America, but not by much.

Worldwide, Burger King remains in second place behind McDonald's, as it has far more restaurants than Wendy's does in other countries, so if you add everything up, Burger King is still No. 2 worldwide, a very distant second to McDonald's.

But what is the No. 2 restaurant chain overall?

It is Subway, with $11.4 billion in sales in 2011, and Starbucks is No. 3 with $9.8 billion in volume.

But as far as strictly hamburger chains, Wendy's is No. 2.

Yes, I eat fast food. I know that is such a negative comment today, or seemingly it is, with everyone talking about eating healthy, but I do eat fast food on occasion.

My family and I just had Wendy's the other day, and I don't think it is as good as it once was. I had its new Big W sandwich, and it really didn't have that much taste.

It was OK, but nothing that special.

McDonald's deserves to be No. 1, because its food tastes better than the rest.

And its fries are excellent.

Burger King is Burger King, meaning that you don't get that much when you go there, but you know what you are getting.

It is less expensive than the other two chains, and that is reflected in the food there.

It is OK, but McDonald's and Wendy's are a couple of notches above Burger King.

I also like Taco Bell, Arby's and the like, but honestly, the best hamburger you can get remains the one that you cook up yourself at home.

But if you are on the go, and don't have the time to make one yourself, the fast foods do offer an alternative.

And no, you don't go to them if you are dieting or watching your weight.

They aren't to blame for any weight issues you might have.

But if you want a quick bite, the fast foods are the best place to get full in a hurry.

So congratulations to Wendy's. I think they deserve to be where they are, although I was a bit disappointed the last time I went there.

Rant #2,045: (You Don't Have To) Paint Me a Picture

As I reported to you last week, I had a pretty busy weekend, although what we planned to do on Sunday--visit my father in law at the Veterans Home in Stony Brook--was scuttled because for this first time in a very long time, my son was sick.

He got up at his normal time, felt really bad, was sweating pretty badly, and he did not go to work. He slept past 3 p.m., and woke up completely refreshed, hungry and ready to go.

He appeared to be fine the rest of the day and night, so let's just hope it was "one of those things" many of us go through once or twice a year--where we feel like garbage--but it doesn't last very long at all.

Anyway, on Saturday, we had family over for a holiday party, and it went pretty well.

My Aunt Suzanne was there, my dad's sister, and among other things, she brought with her a curious and interesting photo which I had never seen before.

The black and white photo, she believes, was taken at then-Idlewide Airport, now Kennedy Airport, in Queens back in 1961 or so.

She believes it was taken when either she was leaving for, or coming home from, a trip to Israel when she was in her mid-to-late teens, like 17 years of age or so.

The photo doesn't show her, but shows my mother--in the dark glasses--on the left, and in the right foreground of the photo, my grandmother--my aunt's mom--holding both myself and my sister.

I have no idea at all who any of the other people are in the photo.

If the photo was taken in 1961, it means that my mother was 30 years of age, my sister maybe near two years of age, and her big brother was four years old.

My aunt mistakenly left the photo with us, I discovered it on the counter near our phone, and yes, I do have plans to return it to her, but in the meantime, I scanned it, and put it up on Facebook.

Old, black and white photos live on on the social networking site, and I put it up there, and got a pretty nice reaction.

Even if you don't know a soul in the photos, these black and white photos seem to have more character than the color photos, only because the black and white photos almost force you to look at who is in the photo, rather than being distracted by the color in those types of photos.

My grandmother is beaming, as she usually was. She had a tough life, but she absolutely adored her children and grandchildren, and me, being the first grandchild, well, she absolutely adored me.

She had a smile that could light up a pitch dark room, and you can see it in this photo--although you just know that my sister and I were a load to handle at this point in our lives.

Even years later, when Alzheimer's Disease ravaged her, and took away her bright smile, she still knew who I was, and managed that warm smile maybe for the last time in her life.

And her smile makes the photo for me, and it was nice to once again see my mom--still vibrant at 86 going on 87 in March--looking like Audrey Hepburn, who I believe she resembled at the time.

And those dark glasses--so cool!

It is funny how an old photo like this can conjure up such memories, but it reminded me how beautiful my mother was, and still is, and also reminded me of my grandmother, and what a great lady she was.

And my sister and I were hard to handle, but we were cute kids. I have no idea what type of outfit I am wearing, but with my short haircut, I looked kinda cool too.

My sister is my sister, and even at that age, she looked like she was not going to sit still for too long.

And that goes for me, too, and maybe that is why it looks like my grandmother has a bear hug around both of us.

As always, it was nice to see my aunt, still doing well and living in Manhattan.

And I love the fact that she shared this photo. It really made my day!

Classic Rant #697 (March 19, 2012): The Way the Ball Bounces (Is the Same)

It's good to be back. I had some personal things to get out of the way, which I did, and now I am back in the saddle.

These things were somewhat involved, but toward the end of the day on Friday, I finally had a lot of fun.

I saw two basketball games virtually back to back, and the only thing that tied them together being the way the ball bounces.

The school district that my son is in, along with several other school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties here on Long Island, have joined together to create a Challenger Basketball League. What that means is that Special Ed kids--the kids most likely to be forgotten in high school, and the kids that certainly feel left out when it comes to athletics--compete against one another on the basketball court in a slate of games against different schools.

My son is a Special Ed kid, and he also loves sports, so this league has been a godsend to him.

Sure, they bend the rules a bit to get all the Special Ed kids involved, but it is a fun time for all.

My son has wanted me to see him in one of the games, but since they are played during the weekday afternoons, I haven't had a chance to see them.

However, one of my goals for Friday was to finally see him play, and that is what I did.

Even though his team lost 42-26, I really enjoyed myself at the game, but the kids who played enjoyed themselves the most.

Whatever their ability, they were able to run up and down the court and feel good about themselves. Both boys and girls played at the same time, and a few of them actually showed some athletic ability.

But for kids who often feel left out of activities like this, this was a great thing. The season ends this week, and I hope that it spreads to other schools next year.

Right after the game, my son and I whisked off to see the New York Knicks take on the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden.

It has been a rough stretch for the Knicks, as they've changed their coach and hopefully changed their attitude. As you may have read in my previous post, it has been a frustrating time for the team's fans too.

Anyway, with a new coach in tow, they have recently won three games in a row and look like an excellent team again. The game that my son and I saw was the middle game of this mini-winning streak, and it showed that a different mindset can do wonders for a team that was floundering.

Preaching defense, the Knicks put away the Pacers early. Although the score was 115-100, the Knicks were ahead by 30 or more points for a good part of the game, so for once, my son and I saw what amounted to a relaxing game at the Garden.

So we saw two games, and two good games at that.

One was much more important, in the grand scheme of things, than the other, and I will let you decide which one I am talking about.

Rant #2,044: Late In the Morning

I overslept today.

I don't know why I did, but I did.

I generally do not oversleep, ever, but today, I did, so I apologize if you were looking for today's entry an hour earlier.

Heck, an hour earlier, I was still sleeping ... very odd for me.

This has been a busy week for me, and I guess that it finally got to me today.

If it was not one thing, it was another this week, running around after work and never coming home on time.

Yesterday was another day like that.

After work--and I had a busy, busy day there, for once--I ran to the allergy doctor to get my shots, something that I had put off doing the previous week because quite frankly, I was too busy to get to the office to have this done.

Then, no, I did not go straight home.

I had to go to our local pharmacy to pick up something, so I did that, and then, finally, I went home.

I ate dinner late, and then finally could relax as I watched TV with my wife.

The problem was, I conked out around 8 p.m. or so.

I woke up, watched a little more TV, conked out again about 9:30 p.m., and that was that, I was cooked for the night.

I went to sleep, woke up about 1 a.m. briefly, woke up at about 2 a.m. briefly, and then, I slept through to 4:30 a.m., or about an hour later than I normally get up during the week.

I like to get up early because it allows me to do everything I want to do before I leave for work at about 6:20 a.m., including writing this blog, reading the newspaper, doing some exercises, and just basically relaxing before I trudge off to work.

And later today, I have more stuff to do, of the more pleasant variety.

I am leaving work a bit early to meet up with some old friends in Manhattan. It should be a lot of fun; we do this every two to three months, and it catches us all up on the past, present and future.

I have known these guys for more than 50 years, and it is fun catching up with them.

Then tomorrow, we are having a house-full of people over to celebrate the holidays ... after I have to do our food shopping and after I take my son to his bowling league.

I think on Sunday, we might visit my father in law at the Veterans Home at Stony Brook University, an 80 mile round trip, and that is after I take my son to work.

After the visit, I will pick my son up at work.

Yes, I do keep busy, don't I?

So today, I guess my body said, "You don't have to wake up so early ... take an extra hour for yourself," and I did just that.

Funny, I still feel a bit pooped.

Maybe it is the weather.

Maybe the allergy shots are having an impact on me.

Maybe I am just getting old.

Maybe I should just end this Rant right now.

Speak to you on Monday. Have a good, and restful, weekend.