Classic Rant #961 (May 10, 2013): To All the Moms Out There

Sunday is Mother's Day, and to some, that day is the holiest day of the year.

Without our mothers, where would we be?

Moms are the most special people in the world.

They give birth to us, they nurture us, they keep us in step with how we are supposed to behave and act.

Yes, fathers do this too--except the giving birth part, of course--but it is done at a different level.

Both moms and dads are there at the beginning, of course, but moms are there through the course of their pregnancies, give birth to us, and watch us grow into supposedly solid human beings.

I grew up in a traditional setting, one which doesn't really exist anymore.

My father worked, my mother stayed home to bring up their two children, and everything was hunky dory.

When I got a scrape, my mother tended to it. When I needed help with homework, my mother helped me. When I needed a shoulder to cry on, my mother provided comfort.

Of course, in today's world, that type of upbringing really isn't around anymore. Women work, and that type of nurturing aspect has just about vanished.

I am not saying that that is what is wrong with our world today, but the change in women's roles has certainly impacted the way we are brought up and the way we live.

As far as this year's celebration, my wife and I are having both sides of our families over this time. We ordered a large hero with all the sides, and it should be fun having a houseful of people to celebrate the occasion.

I am very, very lucky. My mother is 82 years old and as spry and active as someone half her age. She has the get up and go that puts younger people to shame.

And as for my wife, well, she is just a super person, juggling her job and our home life with nothing but enthusiasm. I don't know how she does it, but she does it, and I am thankful that she can do it the way she does. My son and I would be lost if she couldn't do it at the level she handles things.

So there you have it. I hope all the mothers out there have a great day, because quite frankly, you deserve it.

Where would we be without you?

Rant #2,310: Bits and Pieces

Today marks the return of Bits and Pieces to your favorite blog.

It was just time to bring it back.

To the uninitiated, Bits and Pieces is basically a blog entry that looks at a couple of subjects that I feel do not deserve a full blog treatment, but are certainly worth looking into in a shorter form.

So let's dive right into it--

New York Knicks Trade Kristaps Porzingis To Dallas Mavericks: It is more like Porzing-gone to long suffering New York Knicks fans, who almost certainly got the short end of the very long stick as this deal was being played out yesterday afternoon.

The Knicks' supposed franchise player--who hasn't played a minute in about a year since a serious on-court injury he suffered last season--evidently did not like the vibes he was feeling with a 10-win team, the worst team in the league, which seems to have been in a rebuild mode for at least the past 25 years or so, and he asked, or demanded, a trade.

This after the team stood by him during his long rehab, which might not see him even suit up this season.

Anyway, the bottom-dwelling Knicks, who have really had something of a black cloud over them since their second, and seemingly the way it is going, final championship in 1973, felt that now was the time to get rid of the Latvian, so they dealt him to another lousy team, the Mavericks, along with three other players for what amounts to two players with expiring contracts, another young guard who has become known as something of a head case, and future draft choices, or which the Knicks usually seem to pick the wrong guy (remember Frederic Weis?).

What Dallas is banking on is the possibility that when Porzingis is done with his rehab, he can be the force that he was, averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. He will also be tutored by one of his personal heroes, Dirk Nowitzki, and with the other players that were involved in the trade in tow, this automatically makes the Mavs contenders next season.

As for the Knicks, this trade was made based on hope, and little else, which makes its rationale highly questionable. You inherited expiring contracts in the deal, money that you can shave off at the end of the season to add to the total money you can spend on top-level free agents, making the Knicks a force next season.

The problem with that logic is that the Knicks are assuming that top-line free agents, like Kevin Durant, want to come to New York.

This is a major problem, because with little talent on this team, any free agents--top-line or otherwise--who decide to come to the Knicks will be counted on to bring a team with little to offer to relevance, all in one fell swoop.

Would Durant, who came to the top-tier Golden State Warriors from another successful team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, want to literally start from the proverbial square one at this point of his career?

Sure, the Knicks will likely get the first pick in the draft, and while there is no Patrick Ewing out there, there could be some talent coming to the team right there, but if you are basing making the Porzingis deal on hope, and hope alone, well, you are making a gamble that likely won't pay off.

Leave it to the most horridly run franchise in professional sports to knock the Super Bowl off the back pages of all the New York and New York Metropolitan Area tabloids this Friday.

Is Amazon Actually Ever Coming To New York: In a story that leaked out yesterday that has far more negative implications on New York than the Knicks deal will ever have, it appears that Amazon.com is having major second thoughts about setting up its dual second headquarters location in the Big Apple.

The reason: it hasn't been welcomed with the open arms that it thought it would get when it awarded Queens' Long Island City with its plan to build its second headquarters there.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported on a New York City Council hearing that took place on Wednesday at which Amazon was questioned about its LIC plans. Since the planned expansion was announced, the online retailer has been hit by a barrage of uncertainties by major politicians in New York, including Mayor Bill deBlasio, related to everything from expected congestion to the percentage of minority workers Amazon will employ.

In a classic fit of looking a gift horse in the mouth, New York City--which entered on its own into the sweepstakes to get Amazon to come here--it having major second thoughts about it, even though the plan will eventually bring 25,000 jobs to the area, most with six-figure salaries attached.

Of course, New York City had to give Amazon a bit to entice them to come to its environs, including as much as $3 billion in state and city incentives.

At this meeting, an Amazon representative expressed the view that even though Long Island City was awarded the second headquarters for the retailer, that Amazon still has a say into whether it actually settles in this part of Queens, which is full of taxi garages, various other lower blue collar businesses, and an area that could be the next big neighborhood in New York City if the plan ever goes through.

And the pushback Amazon is getting from New York City shows that the welcome mat hasn't been fully extended to the retailer in any way, and the insinuation by the Amazon official is that there is a Plan B it has if New York City doesn't work out.

"We were invited to come to New York, and we want to invest in a community that wants us ... we want to be part of the growth of a community where our employees and our company are welcome."

The Times reported that those New York City officials against the plan have actually looked into the possibility that the plan could unravel, and they are looking for a legal out, allowing the city to opt out of the agreement. Further, Amazon executives have "expressed frustration" at their treatment by New York officials, which would include Mayor deBlasio, who appears to want to keep his spot as a hero to some minority members by keeping many of them in the same economic straits that they currently reside in by his utter rejection of this plan.

Amazon certainly hasn't gotten the welcome from New York City that it received from Virginia, where it plans to build the other No. 2 campus.

Like the Knicks, you have to wonder about what type of water those in the city are drinking, because New York's hesitation on this deal appears to be a classic case of shooting oneself in the foot by being so pompous, and making everything into a political diatribe to satisfy personal agendas rather than the needs of constituents who would benefit from the retailer coming to the borough of Queens.

Frigid Weather Leads To Spring: Hey, yesterday when I went to work, it was all of three degrees. It was cold, yes indeed, but Mother Nature, every the cagey lady, is going to be playing tricks on us once again over the next few days.

Even places like Minnesota, which suffered over the past few days with double-digit under-zero temperatures, will be warming up really soon, jumping into the 40s by this weekend.

New York might even get into the 50s, which will bring out all of those idiots who take out the shorts when the temperature gets higher than 30 degrees. We have all seen these morons walking around with the scantiest of shorts even though they can still see their breath come out of their mouths, and if the weather forecasters are correct, you will see plenty more of these dummies walking around starting tomorrow.

Me, I take it all in stride. Do I ever get cold? Yes, I do, but generally, I am a warm person, figuratively as well as literally. I generally wear short sleeves no matter whether we are in winter or summer, I have my fan on at work through thick and thin, and I don't suffer that much from being cold.

And with everyone in New York screaming about it being three degrees yesterday, did we forget so soon that last year around this time we actually got down to two degrees?

And we also had a lot, and I mean a lot, more snow last year than we have had thus far this year.

So who is complaining?

Not me! I would rather bundle up than shovel snow any day of the week!

That is it for now. Speak to you again on Monday, and have a nice weekend.

Classic Rant #960 (May 9, 2013): No Soap

Two elephants were sitting in a bathtub together.

One said, "No soap."

The other replied, "No soap, radio!"

That is the all-time sucker joke, used to see if you are paying attention.

It isn't funny, was never meant to be funny, and quite frankly, it makes no sense.

Neither does the situation my family goes through every week regarding the use of soap.

When we shower, we use soap to clean our bodies.

Not that our bodies are dirty, but this way, we know we are clean from head to toe.

But somehow, bars of soap get eaten up here like hot dogs at the ball park.

There are three of us, as my daughter does not live with us.

Three people using a total of seven bars of soap during the week doesn't make too much sense.

The problem is one that many of us have gone through personally and have experienced as parents ...

We have a teenager in the house.

Our 17-year old son goes through soap like he goes through chocolate donuts; he doesn't leave a morsel behind.

When we are teenagers, for many of us it is the first time we have a sense of ourselves, or own beings, and the first time that we want to look good for ourselves, our friends, and certainly, the opposite sex.

So when he goes into the bathroom, he attacks the soap from both ends of the bar, so to speak, and seven bars of soap wrap around his body like a straightjacket.

Often times, he uses so much soap that when I go in to take a shower, there are either pieces the size of dimes that are left, or nothing at all.

In those cases, I use either body wash or hand soap, but to go through basically a bar a day ... how clean can a person possibly be?

One saving grace to all of this is that we buy our soap at the dollar store, so we can get seven bars of soap for $3 dollars. It is a cost-effective way to minimize the damage.

Luckily, since it is only Thursday, I found a brand new bar of Irish Spring in the cabinet, so I was able to bathe myself with a new bar of soap. There is still one fresh bar left, so until we go shopping on Saturday, I would think we would be OK.

But maybe I am assuming too much.

I like the fact that my son is taking care of his own personal effects, but I don't know if I will feel soap-safe unless we had 10 bars in the house.

His room is a mess, he throws stuff on the floor of his room and doesn't hang anything up, but he uses soap like there is no tomorrow ...

Meaning he is a typical teenager, and my wife and I really wouldn't have it any other way.

Rant #2,309: Blonde Ambition

Yesterday, it was reported that Louisa Moritz had passed away.

She was just 72 years old, and died of heart failure.

If you don't know who she was, I could tell you that she was one of the Hollywood personalities who recently accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them decades ago.

And I could leave it at that.

But there was so much more about Louisa Moritz that I would be leaving out, and that would be criminal.

During the late 1960s through to pretty much the mid-1980s, Moritz was one of the most visible, head-scratching, eye candy personalities in show business, appearing in dozens and dozens of TV shows. movies and commercials, but I don't think too many people knew her name.

Whether appearing in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with Jack Nicholson or in a commercial promoting underarm deodorant or on "The Joe Namath Show," this lady was everywhere during her peak time, and she used her voluptuous figure and baby-soft voice to make quite a name for herself, even though viewers of her work probably didn't know who she was.

Moritz was probably the first modern day sex symbol to not hide her Hispanic background--as Rita Hayworth and Raquel Welch did--and, in fact, play off of that background to a comedic hilt.

Moritz was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1946 as Luisa Castro, and as political upheaval enveloped the country, she ended up leaving there in the late 1950s and early 1960s, coming to New York and looking for fame and stardom.

She changed her name from Castro to Moritz so there would be no link with the Cuban dictator, who she was not related to family wise, dyed her hair blonde, and as they say, away she went. And by the way, legend has it that she named herself after the Saintz Moritz Hotel in Manhattan.

She made her way to Hollywood, and she ended up being one of the last of the "it" girls in movies and TV. Whenever a sexy lady was needed for a walk on or just to dress up a scene, Moritz was often the choice to do just that.

On "The Joe Namath Show," when the macho Namath and his equally macho guests would be talking sports and shooting the breeze, Moritz would walk into the situation wearing high heels, a skin tight dress, bringing her trademark figure and blonde locks with her.

She would completely interrupt the scene to tell Namath something, or hand him something, and honestly, it was worth the price of admission just to see her do this, totally upstaging Namath and his guests although her walk on might last just a minute or two.

But Moritz was well more than that. She went to law school in between acting gigs, earned her law degree, and actually was an attorney through the 1980s and 1990s and early 2000s. In 2017, her law license was suspended for numerous, unnamed violations.

Through her spot TV and movie work, she was able to eventually buy her own hotel, which she named after the original Saint Moritz Hotel that so impressed her early on that she changed her name to celebrate it.

And when her celebrity faded, she came into the news again as one of the original seven women who accused comic Cosby of sexual impropriety, a case that her agent said will continue even though Moritz has passed on.

Moritz was married for a brief time, had a child before her marriage, but little is known of her offspring, as he was raised by relatives when Moritz went to Hollywood.

So that was, in a nutshell, the life of Louisa Moritz, whose voice and figure you probably knew way back when, but whose name probably escaped you.

Personally, in movies and TV shows and commercials that I watched growing up, she was a ubiquitous presence, always there, always there briefly, but even in her small parts and scenes, she was someone you never forgot.

R.I.P.

Classic Rant #959 (May 8, 2013): Know They Neighbor

It seemed that the nation became collectively stunned as the news of the Cleveland kidnapping case came to light yesterday.

Three young women, one who had been missing for 10 years, were found to have been kidnapped by three brothers in a Cleveland neighborhood.

One of the women actually had a child that one of her captors fathered.

And absolutely no one knew about what was going on in this house of horrors.

The three Castro brothers were that good in keeping the three women in hiding, shackling them and brutalizing them to the extent that they would not, or could not, leave.

The police had checked out the premises before, but they never went into the house.

You would think that the screams of the women would have alerted somebody that they were in there, but after a time, the screams probably turned to whimpers and then to absolutely nothing.

But you would still think that somebody would have noticed something, and that the Castro brothers would have made a slip that would alert someone that something was wrong.

Neighbors said they did not suspect anything. I heard one neighbor say that he had had barbecues where the brothers were in attendance, and he never suspected a thing.

Other neighbors said that they considered the brothers friends and acquaintances, and they were as shocked as anyone about what was uncovered about the evil deeds of these brothers.

In today's world, where we are truly mesmerized by personal devices, and social activity is not what it once was, you can say that what happened in Cleveland is a reflection on the society in which we live.

Everybody is pretty much into themselves, and they rarely move out of their own personal cocoons to view the world.

I guess you can say that, but, of course, this is an extreme case.

But people do appear to be anti-social these days, or at least not as social as they used to be.

Do anyone of us really know our neighbors and people who live in our own communities?

I know in the community I live in, we don't really know our neighbors, and this is a symptom of the problems neighborhoods face today.

When I lived in Queens, it seemed everybody knew everybody. We lived in apartment buildings, and maybe it was because of that close proximity, but our neighborhood was almost like an urban Mayberry.

When my family and I moved out to Long Island in 1971, I immediately noticed a big difference.

People lived in private houses here, and people weren't as much into the social aspect of their neighborhood as they were when we lived in the old neighborhood.

That has carried over to today, and I think modern technology and the Internet has a lot to do with that, and has made communities looser.

With all the devices we have today--and all the outlets provided by those devices--you really don't have to physically communicate with anyone anymore. You can do it through the device.

People simply aren't as social today as they were 40 or more years ago, and that hurts neighborhoods.

Sometimes, it is good for everyone to know everyone's business.

In this extreme case in Cleveland that is unfolding, it certainly would have been prudent if the people living next door, near and around this house of horrors would have known their seemingly nice neighbors a little bit better.

It certainly would have been better for these women.

Rant #2,308: I Am What I Am

This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, and I guess we are in the midst of Super Bowl Week, all leading up to the Big Game, Super Bowl LIII, held in Atlanta, Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium

On Sunday, we had the Pro Bowl, which is a prelude to Super Bowl Sunday.

Monday was Super Bowl Monday.

Tuesday was Super Bowl Tuesday.

Wednesday, today, is Super Bowl Wednesday.

Thursday will be Super Bowl Thursday.

Friday will be Super Bowl Friday.

Saturday will be Super Bowl Eve ...

And then the Big Game will take place in the early evening of Sunday, but the coverage of the game will begin at 9 a.m. and pretty much last through the game and past the game throughout Sunday evening.

Overkill? You bet it is, but the Super Bowl has been made into a national, and in some places, an international holiday of our own creation, and there is no holiday that is hyped more than Super Bowl Sunday, and yes, it has gotten to the point that it is Christmas, the Fourth of July and any other holiday you want to name all wrapped together into one.

The marketing and promotions surrounding this game have become legendary. Manufacturers hype new products. TV networks use it as a springboard for new programs.

And alternative programmers, not knowing what to do to entice the audience that could care less about this event, broadcast programming that they think can entice people to turn over to them and watch, even if it simply takes place during the overly hyped halftime show.

This year, outlets like the WWE Network are actually going to broadcast a wrestling show--albeit for the length of the halftime show--where a six-man tag team match will be held, all to entice viewers to skip Maroon Five and the other acts performing and settle in on what they are offering--if only for 15 or 20 minutes or so.

I remember in past years, other outlets have put on some really weird stuff, like the Kitten Bowl and the Lingerie Bowl, just to entice potential viewers who have little or no interest in the Big Game to at least come on over for a few minutes.

The network carrying the game also has an opportunity to hype new series, and given the holdover audience that they have after the game, a show like "The Wonder Years" got a tremendous boost from premiering right after the Super Bowl ended. It doesn't always work--remember "The Last Precinct" starring Adam West?--but when it does, like it did with "The Wonder Years," it works like a charm.

Are you going to be watching the Big Game--that is the name that is used by advertisers who do not want to pay a fee to use the actual "Super Bowl" name, which is owned by the NFL--and if not, what are you going to be doing?

People who could care less who wins often get into the Super Bowl swing by attending parties, and some even betting on various aspects of the Big Game, everything from who will win the coin toss to who will score the first points to, of course, who will win the game.

With online betting getting more prominence in our country, you just know that the betting will go haywire this Sunday, and probably billions and billions of dollars will be spent putting money on some aspect of the game.

My family and I will not be watching or participating in any way or doing anything much related to the Super Bowl. I lost interest in football years ago, don't watch it at all, and I am sure my wife, my son and I will find something else to do on Super Bowl Sunday.

What that will be is another matter, but with Netflix and YouTube literally at our fingertips, it probably won't be that difficult to find something to watch and get involved with.

But to those who will dive head first into this--and even those who will participate even though they don't know a quarterback from a quarter back--good luck to you.

On this day of utter hype, you are certainly going to need it.

Classic /Rant #958 (May 7, 2013): Tuesday, Tuesday

Tuesday is about the loneliest day of the seven-day week.

It is the third day of the week and the second day of the work week, so it really is a runner-up to Monday, and thus, something of an also ran.

When it is Tuesday, you have completed just one day of the work week. And it isn't even as good as Wednesday, which is affectionately known as "hump day," getting over the "hump" for the remainder of the week.

Tuesday is sort of like Thursday, but on the opposite end of the week. When it hits Thursday, you are not quite there for the end of the work week on Friday. When it's Tuesday, you are just past Monday, so you have plenty of work week to go.

The "terrible Ts," I guess.

And when a major holiday falls on a Tuesday, don't we now switch it to a Monday, so it makes for an easier three-day holiday weekend?

And creative people don't really honor Tuesday much.

We do have a past hit song that talks about Tuesday, "Tuesday Afternoon" by the Moody Blues. The song hit No. 24 in 1968, and maybe it is one of the reasons that the Moody Blues aren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I mean, it doesn't have the cache of "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas, a chart topper and a true pop classic.

And then there is "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," a film from 1969 starring Suzanne Pleshette about a trip to Europe. It is a piece of fluff, with nothing much memorable about it other than the fact that a lot of "faces" of the time pop up for cameos in the movie, including Peggy Cass (if you don't know the name, look it up).

No, Tuesday is kind of the poor stepchild to Monday, and it certainly can't hold a candle to most of the other days of the week.

It doesn't mean that Tuesday can't be a good day, it just means that Tuesday is usually an also ran, just another day in the work week that builds to the weekend.

Tuesday is Tuesday, and we will just have to move past it to get to the other days of the week.

Let's start to move! The faster, the better.