Rant #3,025: Shakin' All Over

Each and every morning, before I left for my cruise and now since we came back home, I do something that is fun to me, but also very important to another member of my family.
 
I make a milkshake—or what I call a milkshake—for my mother to drink, each and every day.
 
My mom lost 19 pounds over the course of a year—no cancer, just age related—and being that she is of small frame to begin with, losing 19 pounds is a lot of weight to get rid of, especially when she was not dieting.
 
So in addition to inserting better eating habits into her day, and eating things to bulk her up, one of the things that we have been given the doctor’s OK to do is to give her shakes each day.
 
So far it is working; she has regained seven pounds of the poundage that she had lost.
 
Funny, shakes are a part of my family’s legacy, in a weird sort of way.
 
My father always loved shakes.
 
It got to the point where he bought a milk shake maker in the early to mid-1960s, and every time he had a chance, he would make himself s shake.
 
He was a former heavy smoker, and food became his substitute for cigarettes, and he just loved ice cream, so a shake was a natural for him …
 
That is until his weight ballooned and he had to stop drinking them almost as soon as he got the milkshake maker.
 
But that did not stop his obsession with shakes by any means.
 
When we moved to Rochdale Village in South Jamaica, Queens, New York, my father was very active in the youth sports programs that were offered there, namely the Rochdale Village Athletic League (RVAL).
 
He coached baseball for several years, and was very successful in doing so, winning a championship or two along the way.
 
Along with having some good players on the team—not me, unfortunately, although I did get better as I got older—he had another secret to his success that the players loved, but the officials of the league absolutely hated.
 
When we won a game, he would take all of us to the local Carvel and buy each and every one of us shakes as a reward for our success.
 
If we lost, we got bupkis, nothing.
 
And he would buy for the entire entourage, which meant that not only did he buy shakes for the players—at least 10 to 15 of us—but he would buy for anybody else who tagged along, and of course, he would buy for himself.
 
Back in those days, 20 shakes would probably cost you about $25 or so, and that was a lot of money back in 1969, but it made us a better team, because we wanted those shakes.
 
League officials hated it—they looked at it as a bribe—and they told him so on several occasions, but he persisted.
 
It was his way of rewarding us for playing so well, and league officials threatening him was not going to work, not when a shake was involved.
 
And we loved it!
 
Fast forward more than 50 years to today, and that shake that I make each day is benefitting my mother greatly.
 
It really isn’t a true shake per se—just ice cream, some milk, and some Oreo cookies mixed in for good measure—but it is good enough for what she needs it for.
 
And my mother kind of likes it, which makes the whole thing better.
 
So each day, I get out the ice cream and the milk and the cookies and the cup and the spoon and another cup to pour the concoction in, and I go about making my mother’s daily treat, a treat which is fun but is also helping her get up her weight.
 
When I make this thing each day, I do believe that my father is looking down at me and smiling … the shake legacy continues!
 
And one extra benefit for me, in addition to helping my mother out, is this:
 
I get to lick the spoon after the thing is all stirred up and ready to go.
 
I have to tell you, what is left on the spoon tastes pretty good!
 
Not as good as those Carvel shakes tasted more than 50 years ago, but good enough for what we need it for.

Rant #3,024: Kicks

This is a pretty interesting time of the year if you are a sports fan in the U.S.
 
Not only do you have college football nearing the end of its season, but in the pro ranks, you have basketball, football and hockey all right in the middle of their seasons and generating lots of interest.
 
And even baseball is sizzling right now, with the “Hot Stove League” generating as much interest as when the games are actually being played.
 
And then we have another sport, which is supposedly the most popular sport in the world, holding its every-four-years tournament to declare which country’s team is the best in the world …
 
 
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … .
 
Yes, The World Cup is right in the middle of its competition, and while perhaps the rest of the world foams at the mouth while this competition takes place, Americans are generally not very interested in the outcome … in particular when our nation’s team is out of it, as they are now.
 
The media so wants Americans to be as enamored with soccer—or football in most places—as we are of baseball and our football, and they have literally been trying for the past 60 years to get us interested … but we simply aren’t.
 
The game is boring, there are fewer scoring chances than even in hockey, and with so little actually going on, we are led to believe that this is more of a “thinking man’s game” than the other sports, with finesse trumping any real action.
 
When my family was on our cruise, they had the World Cup games playing incessantly on the big screens on the boat, and in the bars and restaurants that dotted the ship.
 
I watched some of the proceedings, and it is as boring as watching paint dry.
 
Sure, it gets exciting when a goal is scored, but otherwise, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds, the ball gets kicked around, the ball goes out of bounds … incessantly.
 
And quite frankly, the only people on the boat who were getting a thrill out of all of this were the international cruisers, who watched the games with rapt attention.
 
Few Americans were even paying attention, and I got more interest from other guests when I wore my New York Yankees hat than anything having to do with soccer.
 
Yes, interest in soccer is increasing in this country, what with myriad youth leagues and the increasing ethnic population, and the media—mainly television—is relentless in pushing “the next big thing,” but honestly, soccer is kind of like pickleball, which is the current “next big thing” that TV is pushing … but they have been trying to sell the American public on soccer since the days of the New York Generals and the Cosmos, he NASL and Pele, and it simply has not worked.
 
And to those Americans who somehow are interested in all of this hooey, it is sort of like their feigned interest in the Olympics.
 
Sure, when the games are going on, you know the players and the stats and the goals and everything about what is happening … but once your team or the games are over, can you name me one player?
 
It is all phony nationalism and phony politics, and that is what soccer, and the Olympics, really stand for … and do we need even more politics in sports than what we already have in these athletics?
 
I think not.
 
But if you think this phony interest is bad now, wait until 2026 …
 
When the World Cup, and soccer in general, will make its major push into our consciousness, as the tournament will be hosted by Mexico … Canada … and—
 
THE UNITED STATES!
 
You just know that we will be engulfed in World Cup madness in four years that will make the current push look like a senior moving around with a walker.
 
World Cup propaganda will be everywhere, and you won’t be able to escape the madness—
 
Unless you are like the majority of Americans, who could really care less about this tournament no matter what television might say or do to get us all hopped up about it.
 
I am sure that interest will reach its height here then, and newspapers will continue to give it a bit more coverage, but still on the par with the WNBA (unless Beverly Greiner is somehow involved with the tournament as she plays out her nine-year sentence in Russia).
 
Sorry FIFA—the governing body that oversees this tournament—the vast majority of Americans will be too preoccupied with the 2026/2027 football, basketball and hockey seasons, as well as the baseball “Hot Stove League” to really care about guys licking a ball in and out of bounds with regularity, and soccer will remain more of a niche sport than anything else.
 
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ … . 

Rant 3,023: Movin' On

Oh, and did I mention that while we were on our cruise, maybe about 1 percent of passengers were wearing masks, and perhaps about 25 percent of cruise workers were masked up?
 
I forgot to mention that in Friday’s Rant, but if you are looking for a reason that masking has now become a true, individual choice, look no further than that comment I just made …
 
But then again, even though we are clearly in the endemic phase of COVID, California is considering masking up once again, which will, I am very sure, will go over really well with those in the Golden State.

 
I think not.

And Long Island has been rated as one of the top areas in the country for COVID re-infection.

But it does not stop there.
 
Look, the world we live in likes to live in P-A-N-I-C, and our country has already found the next thing to alarm us, and that is the flu.
 
I have never taken a flu shot, and I probably won’t for this year.
 
I have had the flu, at my count, just once in my life, and that was several years ago, when I caught it from my son, and we watched pro wrestling videos all day to pass the time, which certainly got me back on the right track to recovery.
 
We have been warned that this year’s flu is more virulent, and paired with COVID, it creates a one-two pouch which in certain cases, can be deadly.
 
I have no doubt that that is somewhat true, but for the general population, it is no more virulent than other flus have been, and somehow, we have gotten through about 850,865 strains of the flu during my lifetime, and we will get through this one too.
 
Yes, there are people who are more susceptible to these illnesses than others, and they should take the necessary precautions, which I am sure they have done since COVID, and before it too.
 
But to put the general public into panic mode is wrong, but that is what our government feels the need to do.
 
Lump that in with yet another disease that affects kids only—generally young children—and you get a real trifecta of P-A-N-I-C.
 
As for me, as I have said all along, I continue to believe that these things exist, but we, as a civilization, have gone slightly overboard in our vigilance against them.
 
I have taken three COVID mitigation shots, and at least right now, I don’t plan on taking any more.
 
I think statistics prove that most people have taken at least the first two shots, many the third, and after that, the numbers plummet.
 
And like I said said many, many months ago, these shots have morphed into shots like what we get for the flu, where you take them if you want them and if you don’t want them, you don’t take them.
 
And personally, I will handle this like I do the flu shot, which is not to take it at all but not because I don’t believe it exists, but because, very simply, FOR ME, I don’t think it is necessary.
 
Notice I didn’t say "never" related to the COVID shots, and while I have never taken a flu shot, I won’t say never for those either.
 
My 91-year-old mother has taken a few of the COVID shots and always gets the flu shot, and she got the flu shot this year too.
 
That is good, it is her choice, and she did what was right for her.
 
Funny, when my father was alive, he also took the flu shot regularly every year, but he did get the flu—pr at least what we thought was the flu—a couple of times even with the shot.
 
When I was a baby, I got measles, but although there was a shot for it—fairly new at the time but available—I was too young to get it, and happily, I survived this disease and have never looked back.
 
Now I will tell you that for the first time, I did get the shingles shot a few months ago.
 
I had adult chicken pox several years ago, and I guess that that experience—again which I got from my kids—has stayed with me, so I took the shot this year, and supposedly, it is a one-time shot.
 
But again, it was my choice to get the shot,, not from an edict or panic or anything else.
 
I took care of business—my own business—and I feel good that I got that shot.
 
But again, if you don’t want the shingles shot, you don’t have to get it.
 
And those TV commercials that show literally blazing areas on peoples’ skins who did not get the shingles shot are simply, once again, panic creators, nothiing more.
 
Shingles, like COVID, does exist, but let’s stop being in the P-A-N-I-C mode and move over to the P-R-O-A-C-T-I-V-E mode, and get on with our lives without this constant cloud over our existence.
 
It is time. 

Rant #3,022: Yesterday

Hello!
 
I am finally back!
 
And yes, I know that I am late today with my December 2 blog entry, but not only did I sleep late, but my computer was giving me problems in starting up, problems that have not gone away, but have actually gotten worse.
 
I think I understand them better now based on what happened yesterday and today, but more on that later.
 
And it is funny how you will see the term “yesterday and today” wafting throughout this blog entry today.
 
Anyway, the short cruise we took to Bermuda was a good trip away for a few days.
 
Bermuda is a beautiful island, more European than other similar islands that we have been to on cruises, and while it wasn’t that hot while we were there—it was only in the low-to-mid 70s—it was nice enough to get in the water to do some swimming after a summer where our pool never really was usable.
 
We went on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Joy ship, and it was a nice ship, with just about everything one could want on a boat like this.
 
We saw a couple of really nice shows while we were aboard in between and around the two days we spent in Bermuda—among them a magic act, a Broadway songs medley, and two Beatles shows featuring The Beatles Revolution, a Fab Four looalike/soundalike band that was really quite good.
 
The food was generally very good, the service was not as good as we had experienced before—labor shortage?—but really, nothing that terrible for a five-day vacation.
 
About the food and my fellow cruisers ... I did not see the gorging that I have seen on other such trips, which was a welcome sight. I remember on other cruises, people were just taking food off the buffet like they hadn’t eaten in ages—in particular bacon, which some people used to pile higher than their belly buttons. There was none of that on this cruise, or maybe I just didn’t see it.

Maybe it had to do with COVID ... people toned down on some of their usual cruising habits, or at least some did. While the boat's restrictions were few--the usual "Washee Washee" stuff, and little else--some people did take advantage, drinking like no tomorrow and smoking in the rooms--yes, the funny stuff too--which I did smell while sitting on our balcony a few times.

But that really was pretty minor, when you take the entire cruise into consideration.
 
The cruise was so good that I still feel myself rocking like I was still on the sea, and yes, some of our voyage was pretty rocky, so much so that the barf bags came out by the second or third day for those who needed them.
 
But I didn’t really sleep the entire cruise … maybe one night or possibly two of OK sleep, but the rest of the time, I was pretty wide awake … and that brings me back to that term I mentioned earlier, “yesterday and today,” and in this case, “Yesterday … and Today,” the 1966 Beatles album that featured the song “Yesterday.”
 
“Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.”
 
Yes, those lyrics were going in and out of my mind throughout my sleep during the cruise.
 
I simply could not relax, knowing that when the cruise was over, I was coming back to the same problems that I left back home for the five days asea.
 
In fact, yesterday, I slept maybe three hours as we came back to port in New York. I was up all night, and finally took a shower and got dressed at about 4 a.m.
 
Maybe it was the influence of the Beatles band that we saw, but I simply could not get out of my mind all the problems that were happening at home.
 
And here I am at home, and “Yesterday” still goes through my mind, because as the song said, those problems did not go away, and they are still here …
 
Not that I thought that they would go away, but at least I figured that for five days, they would be in the back of my mind.
 
No such luck.
 
Yesterday—again that Beatles reference—my computer turned on just fine, but today, it took me about 10 times to get it going, and I finally think I know why.
 
It is somehow tied into the iMac mouse, which is old and needs replacing.
 
But at least when it was plugged into the computer the unit would turn on, eventually.
 
I finally switched mouses to a non-iMac mouse—just a standard mouse that can be used on any keyboard—and the machine simply would not boot up.
 
Once I switched mouses back again and the iMac mouse was in place, it took two times to start it up, so that leads me to believe that the health of the mouse is somehow tied into the booting up of the computer.
 
It should not be that way but it is, so my next mission is to replace the iMac mouse, which by the way, has a right click that finally gave out on me the other day, so the function that creates folders and helps you do other things has left the building.
 
So with everything going on at home, yes, I am glad to be back, but honestly …
 
“Oh, I believe in yesterday.”
 
Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.