Rant #1,638: The Real Deal

Today is March 25, 2016. It is Good Friday. Have a good one for all who celebrate this very important day.

Speak to you again on Monday.

Yes, I have turned this whole thing upside down today, putting the final things I normally say last, first.

I just felt like it, and it isn't even April Fool's Day yet.

But anyway, I know we have a new Batman/Superman movie out, and it even includes Wonder Woman, and it leads up to the Justice League on screen, and the movie will probably make millions, and that it all fine and good, and , and, and ...

George Reeves and Adam West remain Superman and Batman to me, and they always will.

I am a Baby Boomer, and proud of it. 

If you are a Baby Boomer, sure, other actors have filled the bill, and some have done it quite well--Christopher Reeve, for one--but I grew up with George Reeves and Adam West in those roles, and I am not going to give them up just because other actors have portrayed the two greatest comic book heroes of all time since then.

These two actors were perfectly cast for their roles--as were those filling the other roles and their respective TV shows--and they portrayed these heroes the way I like them to be portrayed, as beings with nerves of steel, not as the brooding wooses that they are portrayed as today.

Sure, the George Reeves Superman and the Adam West Batman had feelings--certainly when it came to Lois Lane and Catwoman, respectively--but when it came to crime fighting, nothing stood in their way.

As a former comic book collector of long standing, that is how I liked my heroes. They didn't have to duplicate real people, because, well, they simply weren't real people.

They were heroes, period, existed because they were heroes, and they stood fast and tall and honored the American way of life.

Today they are petulant, self absorbed, and well, weaker than they once were.

No, that is not how I want Superman and Batman to be.

I want them to be strong, fierce and unrelenting.

And I want them to have at least a tinge of humor about themselves and their situations.

Funny, the way these heroes are portrayed today, versus the way they were portrayed when George Reeves and Adam West had these roles, kind of parallels the America of then versus the America now.

Yes, this is a stretch, but back then, we were all consuming, probably a bit full of ourselves, but everyone knew what America stood for.

Yes, "truth, justice and the American way."

Today, we are moody, and I don't think we have the standing around the world that we once had.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that these two heroes are portrayed the way they are today.

But for me, give me the heroes of yore, give me the America of yore, and that is the way I want it.

Nobody will ever beat George Reeves and Adam West as Superman and Batman, because, as I said before, they stood for the American way, the way I grew up with, and to me, the way it should be, always.

Have a nice Easter and yes, now, I will speak to you again on Monday.

Classic Rant #287 (June 29, 2010): Picture Sleeves

Today is one of those days that I really don't have anything to rant about.

That situation from yesterday, about my medical records, has not yet been resolved. After a few calls yesterday, the lawyer for my former doctor said he didn't have the files, the district attorney did. I called the DA, and they said the lawyer had the files.

Both said they would get back to me.

Right!

Anyway, I thought I would take my ranting on a little vacation, and give a rave instead (no matter what it says in the title of this entry).

I have a few other blogs, but the one I want to concentrate on here is my Picture Sleeves A-Go Go Blog at http://picturesleevesagogo.blogspot.com/.

I have been collecting records for more than 40 years. Sure, I took some breaks here and there, but I have always been fascinated with records.

And when I say records, I mean vinyl. Those 45s and 33 1/3 LPs are much more fascinating than CDs and those infernal digital files that everyone downloads today.

For one thing, vinyl has character.

Anyway, I have always loved 45s. Those 7-inch pieces of plastic, usually with two songs--an A side and a B side--always fascinated me, how such a little piece of plastic could generate so much excitement for such a small price.

I have especially loved those 45s that came with picture sleeves, and that is the essence of this site.

I plan on posting all of the picture sleeves in my collection--they have to number several hundred from the 1960s through the 1990s and even some in the 2000s--plus some of the sounds contained on the records in these sleeves.

I have thus far uploaded sleeves and music from AC/DC through Chicago, and some good stuff is coming up, including the Dave Clark Five and Elvis Costello as I finish out the "Cs" and move onto the other letters of the alphabet.

So please visit the site, register your opinions, and tell me what you think.

I have put a lot of work into this site, and I hope you like it as much as I have liked doing it all.

Rant #1,637: You Must Be Joe Ken

I came home last night after a very long, hard day at work, sat down and ate dinner, and then turned on the news, as I always do.

About two-thirds of the way into the CBS Evening News, after the chilling reports about what happened in Brussels continued, anchor Scott Pelley came back with a teaser as they went to a commercial.

"Remembering Joe Garagiola," he said, and a collective "aah" went through me.

Garagiola, one of the most popular TV personalities of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, passed away at the age of 90, and even though I hadn't seen him on TV for years, it was like an old friend had left the building.

Garagiola grew up in the same neighborhood as Larry Berra, better known as Yogi, and this Italian-American St. Louis neighborhood ended up turning out two of the most ubiquitous presences that the sport of baseball has ever produced.

Both Joe and Yogi were superior ballplayers, each made it to the major leagues, and while Yogi carved out an incredible Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees, Joe was pretty much a nondescript player, good but never great.

He got into broadcasting in the 1950s, and his all-American personality and charm later transferred to the national stage, mainly on NBC, and for about three decades, this guy was everywhere, on TV just about seven days a week, whether co-hosting "The Today Show," emceeing the old "Concentration" game show, or doing "The Game of the Week" for Major League Baseball.

He also did plenty of local broadcasting during his career, and was an announcer for the New York Yankees for three years in the mid-1960s, probably my first encounter with him over the airwaves.

If ever there was an All-American success story, it was Garagiola, and he, along with his lifetime buddy Yogi, both ended up in baseball's Hall of Fame.

All the tributes are pouring in, and while most of us didn't know Garagiola personally, it is quite evident that the "Mr. Nice Guy" personality that he had on the air was who he really was in real life, one of the all-time nice guys at that.

After the mention of Garagiola's passing on the broadcast. Pelley quickly brought up another passing, that of actor Ken Howard.

Howard had a long career as an actor, performing on TV, the movies and the stage, but I want to focus on one thing that he did, the one acting gig that cemented his status and became his most famous role.

He was Ken Reeves, the ex-pro basketball player turned coach on the 1978-1981 TV series "The White Shadow," an hour long CBS dramedy about a white coach leading a bunch of inner-city youth on the basketball court and also in life.

The show was funny, touching and while it was only kind of a TV version of such a situation--where a white coach takes over a team made up mainly of blacks and Hispanics, with one or two white kids thrown in for good measure--the show really went beyond sports and the basketball court, and demonstrated how teamwork could make you an All-Star on the court and in life.

(As a side note, I went to high school with one of the white kids on the show, Timothy Van Patten, who played "Salami" on the program.)

Howard simply brought just the right touch to the show. He looked like he could have been a former player, and a coach, and the actors who portrayed his players looked like high school basketball players.

Whether talking about such topics as drug use or the outer skin of people versus how they were on the inside, "The White Shadow," which was only on for a few years and is hardly ever rerun, really was an excellent show, sort of a "Room 222" on the basketball court.

All told, the two personalities will be missed, but their legacy is there to be revisited for those who remember these two people, or investigated by those who never heard of either of them.

But at least to me, both Garagiola and Howard touched me during my life, and may both rest in peace.

Classic Rant #286 (June 28, 2010): Doctor, Doctor, Give Me My Medical Records

I am in a quandary right now, and I figured that I might as well bring up this predicament that I am in here on this blog.

As I told you many rants ago, my doctor was arrested for dealing certain prescription drugs to people without prescriptions, and he had the nerve to perform these dastardly deeds from the sanctity of his own practice, which just happens to be across the street from the local high school. He was arrested, and from what I understand, he is awaiting trial.

Prior to his arrest, he had a pretty healthy practice, catering to all ages as a general practitioner. I had gone to him for his entire time at this particular practice after seeing the doctor he took over for for decades. All told, I went to a doctor at this site for 38 of my 53 years.

When he was arrested, and made national headlines in doing so, like many, I took a wait and see attitude. When it became apparent to me that he was caught red handed, I figured I would take my time to find another doctor. I am in good, general health, and all I need are my cholesterol pills and I am OK.

The doctor prescribed this particular cholesterol pill to me for many, many months, and the last prescription was to last six months, or six refills.

The first several refills were filled by my local pharmacy, even though this doctor had already been arrested.

However, two weeks ago, when I tried to have this prescription filled, I was told that the pharmacy could no longer fill his prescriptions.

Evidently--and I am piecing this deduction together from a variety of sources--he finally gave up his medical license just a few weeks ago, making all his prescriptions null and void.

I have found a new doctor, and will be going to him for the first time this coming Saturday.

However, I would like to retrieve my medical records from my old doctor, and here is where my problems have arisen.

To make a long story short, I have had a lot of trouble getting these records.

The new doctor told me I should contact the local precinct, which I did, and they didn't know what I should do.

The local precinct told me to contact the district attorney, which I did, but the DA does not have my records.

The DA told me to contact my former doctor's lawyer, which I did, but so far, I can't get my records from there. I have been told several times that the lawyer "hasn't had time" to look for them.

They are stalling for some reason. If they told me that they couldn't release the information because they were going to trial, I could understand it. But they have said no such thing.

And this goes for my wife's records too. She used our former doctor on several occasions, and I would like her records back too.

I am going to contact the lawyer again today, and let's see what happens.

I don't want to be nasty about it, but 38 years of medical records could be an invaluable resource into my general health for any doctor that treats me. And a doctor that has given up his medical license certainly does not need these records anymore.

I was under the impression that I "owned" my medical records, but due to this situation, I have found that this is not true.

I will let you know what happens.

Rant #1,636: I Got the Email Blues

Electronic mail, better known as email, was a revelation when people first got hooked up to the Internet.

You could actually get mail on a daily basis--incredible!

We were so hooked into regular mail--which became known as snail mail, for its slowness--that email was a revelation.

We could get messages day and night, night and day, 365 days a year--or even on leap day, like we had this year--and we could communicate with people when we wanted to about what we wanted to.

And companies got hold of this, and once they got your email, you were hooked.

Spam programs took a lot of this out of sight, but sometimes because of our own doing--signing up for things--we would get ad after ad after ad of stuff ...

And that is what has happened to email today.

With other ways of "instant" messaging--through various points such as Facebook and texting from phones--what is email for today, anyway?

I make these observations as I look at my own email, which I get through Yahoo.

Every once in a while, I get messages that are somewhat important, things I need to know from friends, family and even some companies.

But I have found that a lot of my email is junk, garbage, ads from companies that I don't care about.

Yes, I did sign up for some advertising missives, but it seems that they have multiplied like rabbits over the years.

Once you sign up for one, you get many.

And oftentimes, when you opt out of certain emails that you don't want--as I did a few weeks ago--you get even more spam and junk.

And I don't even look in my spam folder on a daily basis anymore. I guess I got sick of seeing all of those Viagra ads that I didn't ask for, didn't want, and well, didn't need, if you know what I mean.

So where once looking at my emails was an integral part of my day--and still is at work, where my email brings in many of the story ideas that I write about at my job--my personal email is really a compendium of junk, more junk, mixed in with a few messages that I really do want to get, or at least need to read.

Most of my communication today is done through this blog and on Facebook,and for my family, text messaging. It is just so much easier, and the communication is more to the point, or at least to the the point of what I am talking about.

Yes, even in these places I get spam, especially on Facebook, where I go through periods where it seems that every 18-year-old young lady with a big chest to show off in low-cut blouses contacts me to friend me--nothing pornographic here, but why would such a young lass want anything to do with me?

They get deleted immediately, and happily, those types of messages have pretty much stopped, or at least stopped for the time being.

Here, I do get some messages posted, most of the times on topic, but sometimes, I have to delete the messages because they are pathways to viruses and have no reason being here.

So that is the state of my electronic messaging today.

I use it a lot at work, but personally, it really has gone into the dumpster, except for certain instances.

Happily, I have been able to monitor what I get, and I haven't run into too many problems with my email, but I am always on the lookout for garbage, the perpetual "I saw your name on such and such, and I want to meet you, please click here and we can get together" type of garbage.

Yes, sure, let me put heaven knows what on my computer from my new "friend."

No, they got the wrong guy.

Text me if you agree.

Classic Rant #285 (June 25, 2010): Take Me Out To Another Ballgame

Baseball is the greatest sport in the world. It is our national pastime. Once this current soccer nonsense ends its run, it will only be a brief memory; baseball memories last for a lifetime.

Last night, my family and I went to a minor league baseball game. The Long Island Ducks, who play in the independent Atlantic League--meaning that the league and its teams are not directly hooked up with any Major League Baseball (MLB) organization--played at home against the Camden Riversharks.

The Ducks lost 6-2. This was not like watching the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, but on a hot, blistery night, this was good enough.

The Atlantic League is somewhere between AA and AAA baseball. There are several former major leaguers who play in this league--the Ducks' own Robinson Cancel and Dustan Mohr being two of them--and the league is used by many players as a stepping stone to getting back to the Big Time, or at least get back into a MLB organization.

But on a hot, steamy night, this was simply a game being played by two league rivals.

No, the action was not up to MLB level, but that was to be expected. The runners seemed slower, the pitchers seemed wilder, the batters seemed less able to hit.

But nonetheless, it was a fun night, something different to do on a mid-week summer evening.

I would suggest that if you have a minor league team in your area--and it seems that most areas in the U.S. have such a team or teams, or at least one or two within driving distance--attend these games. It is cheaper than going to the MLB ballparks, and you often see players who will eventually turn up in MLB uniforms.

The Ducks are one of the most successful minor league franchises around. They have a beautiful stadium where you can see everything no matter where you sit, they regularly get at least three-quarters capacity for their games (probably about 4,500 people or more), and they have become fixtures in the Long Island community.

Not every minor league team is this successful, but one thing that they all wear on their sleeves is the "fun" aspect. Sure, they are there to win just like the big boys, but minor league baseball offers its own brand of "down home" fun that isn't rivaled anywhere.

So take in a game. You will be glad you did.

Rant #1,635: My Choice For President

Even though it is just late March, and we have roughly seven months to go before our Presidential election, it is time for me to make my choice, the person who I want to lead this great land of ours.

I figured it was time, because actor Scott Baio made his choice for the world to see, and it created a firestorm and an uproar on Facebook.

If he can make his choice, I can too.

Personally, if you got so riled up with Baio's choice--Donald Trump--then I feel sorry for you, whether you are voting Republican or Democrat, but that is another story.

Personally, I look at our country, and we really are at something of a crossroads.

We are still a country that the world has to take seriously, but it seems, at least to me, that we aren't what we once were.

We have taken at least a step back, if not a leap back, from where we once were.

And a lot of that has to do with our beliefs and values.

We simply aren't where we once were with those things, too.

We accept too much as being "normal." We justify things and behaviors that are simply lifestyle choices, and in the worst case scenarios, are sicknesses.

The country is also full of strife. I have not seen such divisions since the early 1960s, and it has truly separated our country into pieces.

And you know what they say, "United we stand, divided we fall," and today, we are a severely divided country on a number of key issues.

I also have to look at myself and my family, and if we are better off than we were before our current leader was elected.

And for the naysayers, I have done this analysis of myself and my family for years, so it is nothing new to me.

I have not had a raise in going on nine years. My family was hurt by Obamacare, and we are now paying premiums for our insurance that we never had to pay before, or at levels we never had to pay before.

Yes, gas prices are down, but they are just about canceled out by the fact that all other prices, including grocery prices, are way, way up.

My son graduated high school was a certificate, rather than a diploma, because of Common Core educational principles, something I very strongly disagree with. Kids are human beings, not test-taking robots, but Common Core would prefer the latter over the former.

My son also had a tough time finding work when he got out of school. With so many programs for the disabled being cut, thank God he found one that was still around, and while he is gainfully employed, the best he could get was a part-time job, albeit with a very good company.

Personally, I see the world around me crumbling, run by the Internet and those who believe that we need mind control rather than clear thinking to make our own decisions.

The rise of the PC Police is astonishing, and it all goes back to what I said before. Things that are accepted today would never had been accepted as "normal" at any other time in our history.

And for these reasons, for what it is worth--less than Scott Baio's opinion, I am sure--I throw my support for the next President of the United States behind--

Whoever gets the Republican nod.

Notice, I did not say Donald Trump, or Ted Cruz, or whoever, because I think we are going to have to wait a while to find out who that is.

There are deep divisions in this party as to who should be their candidate to challenge for the top job in the country.

I feel that that is because Donald Trump has thrown convention on its ear, and is not part of the political old boys club that says you have to be a politician to be our President.

Funny, Harry Truman was not really a politician, either, but he did just fine in the top spot. How soon people forget.

But anyway, I must support the Republicans, because I believe that four more years of Democrats in the White House simply continues what we have now, and I, personally, don't like what I see, and I don't like what we have experienced the past eight years.

I think that the bottom line is that we need a return to real, solid values, and I do not believe that the Democrats can provide that to us.

I do believe that the Republicans can.

I am not a big fan of the Republican candidates, and I do not support everything that they propose and say and do.

But I think of it almost as a vote against the Democrats, a vote against the past eight years, if I vote Republican, and if I need to, I will hold my nose when I cast my ballot in November.

I believe it is a necessary vote, because without a Republican in the Oval Office, we will continue down the path we have been going on for the past eight years, and the operative word there is down.

I would rather go up than down, and I feel that we can only do that with the Republicans.

And if you know me, you know that I never voted for Reagan, I only voted for the combined Bushes one time--because my voting place could not provide me the opportunity to vote for a write-in candidate, as the voting booths broke down while I was there, so I had to use a paper ballot when we were still using machines on Long Island--so voting Republican is never a clear-cut thing for me, certainly not as an Independent voter who has voted for candidates in all the major parties.

I have voted for Democrats, I have chosen write-in candidates; in fact, I have rarely voted for a Republican for the top spot in all my years of voting.

But this time around, I feel that it is a necessary thing to do, and I must do it.

So, for whatever it is worth, I will vote Republican when November comes.

I feel that I don't have much of a choice.

But most importantly, when November comes, exercise your right to vote, no matter who the candidates are.

It is very important to vote; it is exercising a right that our forefathers fought for, and that people over the world fight for in their own respective countries too.

So at least vote. You don't have to agree with a word I said here, but if you vote, you are all right by me.

So if you are not registered, become so, and vote.

See you tomorrow, and in November.