Classic Rant #696 (March 15, 2012): Out With the Old, In With the Old

As I am sure you already know, the New York Knicks have a new coach, because the old coach went ahead and quit because he lost the team during its recent trials and tribulations.

Mike D'Antoni, who was brought in three years ago as head coach when the team was in complete and total disarray with bad contracts and bad deals it had to answer for, felt that it was for the betterment of team for him to step down.

Fans have been after his head for nearly the entire season, and a small dose of "Linsanity" didn't last too long.

Actually, the refusal of his top player, Carmelo Anthony, to conform to his program doomed his status, and rather than coach out the season in losing fashion, D'Antoni decided to take the proverbial hike, and take two of his assistants--one his brother--with him to never never land, a place where doomed coaches retreat to, only to come back leading another team in the near future.

The team has given over its leadership to Mike Woodson, one of D'Antoni's assistant coaches, who was basically in never never land himself, having once coached the Atlanta Hawks before being fired.

This situation really went down the tubes because when you lose your star player, you basically lose the team.

The NBA is the only professional sports league that I know of where the players basically have more power than even the coach to help make decisions that are supposedly for the betterment of the organization. Teams rely on players to keep coaches in the right perspective, or the perspective that the players deem is right, and in this case, since Carmelo wasn't jelling with D'Antoni's vision, the coach had to go.

Can you imagine if Derek Jeter told the Yankees that he didn't like what Joe Girardi was doing to him by dropping him down in the batting order or not playing him on certain days of the week, and that, perhaps, the manager should be removed?

That will certainly never happen.

But in the NBA, even though Carmelo Anthony denies it, he has the ear of owner James Dolan, the Cablevision mogul, and even though D'Antoni supposedly resigned on his own, I somehow doubt that he wasn't going to be fired soon anyway.

It's called saving face.

And the Knicks went out and did what they should have done. They were so perplexed by what happened that they whooped the Portland Trailblazers by 42 points, stopping their losing streak.

Rooting for the Knicks, I'm afraid, is like rooting for the Mets. The Knicks haven't won a championship since 1973. They are in a perpetual state of losing and rebuilding. But they never seem to get it right.

This year, they were supposed to compete with the big boys like the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, but all they've done is compete with the Mets as being New York's laughingstock team.

They are the true gang that couldn't shoot straight (sorry, Jimmy Breslin), and they seem to continue to shoot blanks while other organizations prosper.

Thank goodness the Yankees' season opens in less than three weeks.

And I am taking the day off tomorrow, so you will have to wait until Monday for my next pearls of wisdom.

Speak to you then.

Rant #2,043: Teacher, Teacher

On Monday, New York State's Board of Regents, in a unanimous vote, agreed to allow Special Education students who cannot possibly pass Regents exams to earn high school diplomas through an "alternative" route, one that relies on occupational assessments rather than test scores.

These students would no longer be subject to the unfair process for them to receive an actual high school diploma, which includes passing Regents exams in English and Math.

Many of these students cannot pass these tests for one reason or another, and have been denied a real, true diploma under the current rules. When they graduate, instead of diplomas, they receive something called the Career Development and Occupational Studies Commencement Credential (CDOS), which is basically a certificate--note, it is not a diploma--stating that they have passed whatever basic requirements exist for them to actually graduate high school.

This certificate--again, not a diploma--is problematic, as since it is not a diploma, it is completely misunderstood by potential employers looking to hire young adults with an actual high school diploma. it does not give these young adults access to civil service jobs, either, because it is not a formal educational diploma, placing it somewhere between a GED and having no formal credentials of high school graduation.

This new plan, which still has to go before the full Regents Board for full passage, will allow students to gain an actual high school diploma if they meet the new requirements, and they will be able to gain such a diploma as soon as January 2018 if the plan goes through, which it is expected to do.

What about students who have already graduated, those since the 2013-2014 school year who are out of school and need to get a real high school diploma in order to proceed with their after-school careers?

This is where it gets sticky, and this is where my interest in this change comes into play.

When this was announced, I called several New York State educational agencies, as well as my son's alma mater, to find out how he could get his actual high school diploma.

Back in 2013-2014, he was among the first students who could only gain a CDOS, as the regular high school diploma program had changed due to unfair Common Core rules and regulations.

Students were actually coached on how to react to potential employers questioning of why they did not have an actual diploma, but let me tell you, this tactic was like a store brand band aid trying to cover a gaping hole, as the tactic did not work.

My son could not get anything, and for six months, he tried, tried, and tried again, only to be thwarted because he did not have a real, actual high school diploma.

It is only because he was able to get into a program that helps people with mild disabilities like him to find work that he is gainfully employed today.

Back to the slippery slope that has now been created by this new ruling ... how do actual high school graduates who fall into this newly shaped donut hole get their actual high school diplomas now that the new rules are about to be set in place?

It appears that if former students are under 21, they will be able to reapply to their alma maters, and work it out on an individual basis whether they will be granted their high school diplomas unilaterally or will have to return to school to gain the credits needed to attain this diploma.

New York State rules allow for young adults as old as 21 years of age to actually be in the educational system, and many children with disabilities remain in the school system for an extra three years because, quite frankly, there is no other place for them to go.

But what about kids who are past the age of 21--my son is 22--and cannot legally go back into the school system to attain their degrees?

This is a problem that I brought up to those I spoke to, and it is a problem that was not realized and is still to be addressed.

One school administrator I spoke to from my son's old high school said that in certain cases, students in this true donut hole might simply be granted their high school diplomas unilaterally by school districts on a case by case basis, but that this was something that still had to be addressed by the Board of Regents and the school districts.

On a personal basis, when this situation went through a few years ago, myself and probably thousands of other parents were aghast over this decision that did not allow our children to gain full high school diplomas under this then-new law.

It was completely unfair, limited these kids even more in their career choices after high school, and pretty much ghettoized them, in an era of supposed inclusion.

I vowed that when this law was changed--and I knew that eventually it would be changed, because it was so blatantly unfair to these students--that I would be on the horn immediately once I found out that this ruling was out the door.

And I kept my promise to my son to do just that.

Once the full Board of Regents passes this new law, it will be open to public discussion for a period of time, and then the full law will be on the books, and hopefully, will include those from the 2013-2014 school year who are too old to go back to school to attain their high school diplomas, like my son.

What hurts me, personally, about his entire business is that with my son, at least, this situation didn't have to happen.

In our school district, my son's teachers urged me to hold him back a year in I believe sixth grade, because "it would be better for him educationally to take the year over." I hesitated greatly, but finally agreed, and I rue to this day that I did this.

Not only was it completely unnecessary--the urging had to do with the number of kids in his program, and the money a certain number of kids in the program would help the school get from Albany if they reached certain registration levels--but it kept him from graduating with his true class, the last class where high school diplomas were granted to all graduates.

So it was I who unwittingly put my son in this pickle, and I vowed that one day, I would reverse this whole mess, and I will do that, now that the plan is in motion to allow kids like him, now young adults, to get their full high school diplomas.

Look, we both graduated the same high school. I received my Regents diploma without a problem. My son, who probably worked harder than I ever did during his high school years, was saddled with a certificate.

No, that is not going to work, and it is simply not fair.

Now, if everything comes to the fore, he will be able to get his high school diploma--and we will have the real, true graduation party he should have had when he actually graduated, not a party for him obtaining a virtually worthless-in-the-real-world CDOS.

I cannot wait for that day to happen, and I know that it now isn't a dream, it is going to happen soon.

Classic Rant #695 (May 14, 2012): Lukewarm Reaction To Warm Weather

I hate to shovel snow, I really do.

I figured I would start off this Rant with that information, because I want to prepare you for what I am going to say about the current warm winter weather we have been enjoying in the Northeast part of the country this year.

I am not happy.

Sure, I don't have to do any snow shoveling. I think I shoveled once, and it took me about 10 minutes to clean up everything.

What I am saying is that the unseasonably warm weather we have been experiencing here--today, it is going to be 70 degrees again--is upsetting my body clock and making my allergies go haywire.

Look, I don't want to go back to the winter of 2011, when seemingly every day we had snow, and I must have shoveled more than a dozen times.

No, I don't want to go back to that again.

But the current spate of incredible and unseasonable weather here is throwing off everything else inside of me.

As the birds chirp, the pollen increases, and every day I wake up barely being able to see with seemingly every pore in my body clogged up with something.

My nose runs the entire day, and I often have to clear my throat because all that junk is making it difficult for me to speak.

Look, I expect this type of thing in April--certainly the weirdest month for weather, with extremes from snow early on to 90 degree temperatures later--but I don't expect it in February and March, which is what we've had this year.

We really can't blame anybody for this, except if you want to get into the global warming thing, which I am not going to get into here.

But the very early warm weather--and the possibility, say some meteorologists, that unseasonably warm weather will likely last into at least the real spring season, which begins on March 20--isn't doing me that much good physically.

Look, I feel for those who have had terrible winters, like the people of Alaska, who have had more snow than even Alaska normally gets this time of year, and the people of the Midwest, who have had to put up with deadly hurricanes. Many European countries have also had deadly winters this year.

But back where I sit, this winter hasn't been a good one, it's been a weird one, especially for people who suffer from allergies.

Sure, no shoveling, but on the other hand, way too much pollen as a result of it being too warm early in the year isn't making me a happy boy this year.

I almost long for some snow ...

Remember, the operative word here is almost.

I hate to shovel snow, I really do ...

Rant #2,042: Psycho Killer

Well, the shoe has finally dropped at work.

Yesterday, at about 5:20 p.m., or about 10 minutes before closing time, one of the higher ups at our company called the editorial staff together, and told us the obvious, something that we pretty much already knew: the company was in dire straits, and only probably has enough cash to sustain us for perhaps another year.

Since I have been through this before in my career, I know that when he says "probably a year," he actually means perhaps three or four months.

We lost two people yesterday: a fellow editorial staff member, who finally found a job after looking about as long as I have been looking; and our last salesman, who didn't work on the book that I work on, who is also leaving for greener pastures.

And by the way, this salesman is part owner of the company.

And in the middle of all of this, the higher up says to me: "It's Hanukkah tonight, isn't it? Happy Hanukkah."

Yes, they do know how to rub your face in it, don't they?

Look, as you know, I have been talking about this for the past year.

The day was inevitable, but with another year under my belt there, I was aware of it, but I trudged on, looking like the Dickens for another job, but safe in the fact that I was looking for another job while I still was working.

Now I am working, but sort of in a lame duck status, because by the time I "celebrate" my 22nd year there--March 28--I might actually not be celebrating too much because I might just be out of a job.

I have painted the people I work for as insensitive and nasty, and believe me, they are, and then some, but worse than that, they are also incredibly ignorant for people who are leading a company that has been around for more than 50 years.

I have spent more than one-third of my life there, and at 60 years of age, I really don't know what the future holds for me.

I have done everything I can to get out of this abyss, but nothing has worked thus far.

The only good thing about yesterday was that it at least draws the line in the sand, and directs me to keep on pushing, keep on looking, and keep on doing what I have been doing.

There is nothing else I can do.

Am I scared? Sure I am. I have been out of work before, and it is really, really tough, especially when it becomes extended.

I am not ready to retire, and forced retirement is not an option.

Working in the environment that I am working in is a nearly impossible task, but I will do the best I can to make it work for me.

I owe that to my family.

At this point, there is truly nothing else that I can do.

Classic Rant #694 (March 13, 2012): Ticket Snafu

As most of you regular readers know, I am a Yankee fan, have been my whole life, and will be when I leave this earth.

I have rooted for them through thick and thin, during good years and bad, during championship years and years where they fell flat.

But each year, I am becoming more incensed at their ticket policy for the peons, the people who go to the games maybe once or twice a year.

The new Yankee Stadium seats around 54,000 for baseball, and less the higher-priced seats, the team basically sells out each and every game.

That's 81 games where the only seats that can be had are the ones that cost $1,000 or more.

Sorry, not in my league.

But the very last seat in the house, in the very last row, is a season ticket seat, no doubt.

This year, with seats at a premium, the Yankees has instituted a policy where they are running a lottery just to have a chance to buy single-game tickets from them.

That's right. To get tickets to one game, you have to be put into a lottery. If you are one of the "winners" of the lottery, you have the opportunity to buy tickets from them for single games.

Yes, it has gotten ridiculous. Soon, they will be selling seat licenses like football does.

How does a family who wants a day at the ballpark manage to get tickets?

They don't, that's how.

Or they go on one of the ticket broker sites. That is really the only way you can get tickets to a single game at Yankee Stadium, but you will pay for this privilege, paying much more for the ticket in nosebleed land than it is actually worth.

That's what I am probably going to do. My family and I want to go to one game, just one game, and it's doubtful that we are going to win any ticket lottery, so we'll have to go the StubHub route.

I wish some of our politicians would look into this.

Sure, there are bigger problems, but what the Yankees are basically doing is catering to the elite fan, those who can afford season tickets, while shutting out the average Joe who can just afford a single game.

And that is wrong.

We go to Florida each year on vacation. Since we are in Orlando, we usually try to take in a Rays game in St. Petersburg, and we will do so this year.

No problem there. They are lucky if they get 10,000 fans per game, so you have your choice on tickets.

And with the Rays, sometimes if you go through a broker, you can get a better deal on a ticket.

That is what we've done, and we will be sitting right behind the visiting team's dugout for the game we are seeing at Tropicana Field in July.

Look, the Yankees are the Yankees. They are the most successful sports franchise in the world, and they can basically do what they want with their tickets.

But not to offer families some sort of deal to take in a day at the ballpark is ludicrous.

I am sure I will pay an arm and a leg to see them this season, just for the one game, when I go the broker route.

But there's nothing like being out at the ballpark to see a game, so I am going to have to manage.

But it just isn't fair.

Rant #2,041: The Night the Lights Went On Around the World

Yes, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. 

We will exchange gifts, eat potato latkes, and basically, relax.

It is an eight-day holiday, so it lasts into next week.

And this year, it is an even more special holiday, because we celebrate not only our own families, but our extended Jewish family, those that live in Israel and can say that yes, finally, Jerusalem is the "land of milk and honey's" capital, or at least it is to the U.S. and Israel.

Other countries will fall into line, in particular when they see how barbaric those that oppose this move really can be. 

I think it was our President's Hanukkah gift to Israel, and you could not pick a better gift to our friends in the Middle East than this one.

Nearly six years ago, in Rant #641, dated December 20, 2011, I wrote about Hanukkah, and most of it still applies today, so I am going to run it in edited form as part of this Rant.

Here it is:

"Tonight is Hanukkah.

I know that for most of our culture this means absolutely nothing, but for many of us, this holiday, which begins at sundown tonight, reflects the culmination of a year's work, and the time to party and celebrate.

I know to most people, this means absolutely nothing, but to us 3 percenters--the percent of the U.S. population that is Jewish--it does mean something, maybe more to some than others, since there seems to be a rising tide for Jews to celebrate Christmas. No, I don't get it either.

Anyway, on the Jewish calendar, Hanukkah is not a major holiday. But it is a joyous and festive one, celebrating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt, during the second century BCE (before the common era).

After the Jews regained control of the temple, they found that they only had one night's oil for their candelabra, their eternal light. Somehow, through some type of miracle, the oil burned for eight days, hence the celebration of Hanukkah for eight days and the use of a menorah to signify the eternal light.

It is a joyous holiday and a festive one, but, as I said, it is not a major holiday on the Jewish calendar.

That is the reason that many give for high-profile Jews basically ignoring the holiday, at least out in public.

But of course, that is nonsense.

Whatever anybody says, Hanukkah is a huge holiday for Jews around the globe.

It is a gift-giving holiday, a holiday where you reaffirm your family ties, a holiday that is to be celebrated, and not shunned, like some unfortunate Jews do.

Sure, it's always right near Christmas, and a lot of people believe that it is the Jewish Christmas.

Well let me tell you, it isn't. It has nothing to do with Christmas at all.

However, because of the actions of some high-profile Jews, many people think that Hanukkah simply doesn't measure up, that Jews celebrate Christmas.

Sorry, at least in my family, we don't.

Christmas is a wonderful holiday, with its direction very similar to that of Hanukkah.

But Hanukkah isn't the Jewish Christmas much like Christmas is not the Gentile Hanukkah.

No matter how much society wants the two holidays intertwined, one has nothing to do with the other.

On that note, I wish everyone a joyous Hanukkah. Eat lots of sweet things, get and give your presents, and feel content with who you are and what religion you are.

I know that I am content, very content indeed."

And I still firmly believe everything I said nearly six years ago. 

While I am not a religious Jew, I know that I am Jewish, and I don't behave as if I am not.

I know who I am, I am happy with who I am, and yes, I am Jewish.

I do celebrate Christmas with those who follow that holiday, and we all have fun.

But Hanukkah is not Christmas, and Christmas is not Hanukkah. Period. There is no intertwining of the occasions, because they are so beautifully unique--why would anyone want them to intersect like some people want them to?

There is no reason for this, because it diminishes the specialness of each holiday.

So happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate this occasion, and yes, I will say Merry Christmas to those who celebrate that occasion in two weeks.

Heck, wishing people happy holidays is a nice thing to do, and to do it two times makes it even nicer!

Classic Rant #693 (March 12, 2012): John Carter of Tars

My family and I went to see a movie on Sunday. We don't go to the movies much anymore--too expensive, and lack of films to take the family to--but we decided that this Sunday, we weren't going to vegetate at home.

Oh, how I wish we would have.

We saw probably the worst movie of the year, if not the worst movie I have seen in many years.

Disney's "John Carter," about Edgar Rice Burrough's second most famous character--a distant second to Tarzan, of course--is an absolutely horrid film, overblown with special effects, horrid acting and, ultimately, not making much sense at all.

It is 150 minutes of boredom from beginning to end.

And funny, for a film touted as "the first blockbuster film of 2012," there were about 10 people in the audience besides us.

I can't even really tell you what it was about. It is sort of a cross between "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars," about interplanetary traveler John Carter, an archaeologist who ends up on Mars, saves that planet, and marries the girl.

And it stars Taylor Kitsch (I kitsch you not) and Lynn Collins.

Yes, it is really, really bad.

And evidently, I am not the only one who thinks this movie is ready for the trash bin already.

"John Carter" opened in second-place at the box office with $30.6 million. That's an awful start based on the $250 million that Disney reportedly spent to make the film, a movie which received generally poor reviews that some think could hurt its long-term prospects.

The movie's salvation could come overseas, where it opened in 55 markets with $70.6 million, giving it a worldwide total of $101.2 million.

"We would have hoped for more considering the larger economics of the film, but are still encouraged with how it's been received by audiences that have seen it and hope to see that generate positive word of mouth for the balance of the run," said Dave Hollis, Disney's head of distribution.

By the way, the top movie was Universal Pictures' "The Lorax" at No. 1 for the second-straight weekend as the animated adventure based on the children's book took in $39.1 million. That raised its 10-day domestic total to $122 million, making "The Lorax" the top-grossing movie released this year.

So, "The Lorax" is really "the first blockbuster film of 2012." Dr. Seuss is laughing about all of this, I am sure.

"John Carter" is an example of movie bloat, where a director is given x amount of dollars and does everything he can to spend every penny--except create an interesting move.

And thank goodness we saved a little money by seeing the non-3D version of this bomb!

On top of that, I swore I was watching an umpteenth rerun of "I Love Lucy" when I was watching this movie.

Why, you say? What's the connection?

Well, it isn't much of a connection, but you know how in "I Love Lucy," when they had a famous guest star on the show, they mentioned his/her name about 100 times in the show--and not just "John," or "Wayne," for John Wayne, but they would say "John Wayne" all those times during the episode?

Well, the name "John Carter" must have been said--and remember, I said "John Carter," not "John" or "Carter"--about 200 times throughout the film, if not more, as if to remind you what you were watching.

Why, I don't know, third base!

At least "I Love Lucy" was funny.

This film is just plain bad. Stay away at all costs.

(And a shout out to my mom, who celebrated her 81st birthday yesterday. She is the greatest mom that there ever was--heck, she put up with me, my sister and my dad through the years, so she has to be great!)