Rant #3,712: Shout

Yes, we are finally in June, and the warmer weather is right around the corner.

That is reason itself to cherish the coming of this month, in addition to the fact that today, 32 years ago, my wife and I were married, certainly the best thing I did in my entire life.

And i want to shout that message from the roof tops!

That is the happy part of this Rant.

Now, for the not-so happy part, a part i dont like talking about, but i feel that i must.

Please just hear me out.

The past few years, when June knocks at the door, I kind of cringe, because I know that what has become a major event held during the month is going to be foisted on us, whether we like it or not.

i am talking about the all-encompassing Pride Month, which stretches across the entirety of June while it also stretches any sane person's patience.

The media picks up on this "celebration" of LGBTQ pride like a bee to honey, and we are barraged with over-coverage of this event, with parades and other events highlighting those in this community.

I respectfully have to comment on this.

When you define yourself solely by your sexuality, you are never going to be fully accepted.

And the way the media covers this ... funny, I don't remember the local New York CBS outlet having a float in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, the Columbus Day Parade, or the Israel Day Parade, yet they annually have one in the Pride Parade. 

Why is that?

If you are gay, that is fine. But don't continually hit us all over the head with your sexuality. Nobody really cares, but you are forcing us to care, and you are forcing people like me to speak our mind about this.

A news organization is never supposed to be the story. Here, they have made themselves the story by wholly participating in this parade. 

Can anyone answer my question about a major media outlet's participation in this parade over the others?

And i am sure CBS is not the only such participant.

All that they have done is helped to make this nothing but a political engagement, and that is wrong. 

We accept too much as being "normal" today, and if you base your existence wholly on your sexuality, I am afraid you are never going to be fully accepted by the greater breadth of society.

And we devote a full month to this ... what about other groups, like our veterans? We have ONE DAY devoted to those who have served in the military ... two days if you count Memorial Day, where we honor those who have given their lives so our society can continue to thrive, and that includes the LGBTQ community, too.

We give two days to our war heroes, and an entire month to the LGBTQ community?

Please.

The month of June has been fully hijacked by an entirely political celebration that many in the general populace do not truly care about, and respectfully, holidays should not be political like this event has turned out to be. 

The cat is out of the bag, this celebration is certainly not going away, but not everyone is enthralled with Pride Month and its existence.

I might be the only one to shout out about it, but so be it.

All that I ask is for you to respect my opinion, and yes, I truly respect yours.

Have a good weekend, and i will speak to you again on Monday, the beginning of perhaps one of the busiest weeks of my adult life.

Rant #3,711: Picking Up the Pieces

Records ...

Records ...

Records ...

Records to the left of me, records to the right of me ...

And here I am ...

Stuck in the middle--

With boxes.

Yes, I am at it again, with the final boxes I have to empty, which contain my wife's records.

Yes, her collection is not as prolific as mine, but she still has a good 300-400 12-inch records--

And it is my job to alphabetize them, just like I did with my own collection.

If my records were a mess, her records are a cataclysm.

So many of the records are mixed up, in no order at all, and I have a sneaking suspicion that these vinyl disks haven't been in order for decades, or even ever.

That, alone, makes it difficult enough to put them in order.

But what makes it even worse is that many of her 12-inch records are 12-inch singles, which were very popular in the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Most of these are dance/disco recordings, and you can't really see who the artist is because the singers usually aren't prominently featured on the sleeves.

Some are, but for every Madonna, there are Stevie B, Flaspoint, Cerrone and dozens of others who I have to look at the record label to try to find out who the performers on the records are.

And since I never heard of most of them--this is a genre of music I never got into and really didn't like to begin with--it makes it all the more difficult to figure out who is who.

I have all today to get these things in order, as we have another piece of furniture that will be up and ready to go by the end of the day.

I have already filled two boxes full of records in alphabetical order, with about a box to go before everything is in the proper order.

Then once the furniture is ready to go, I can put these away, get rid of the boxes, and finally move on.

I honestly did not realize that my wife had so many records, but she does, and the care I put on getting my own records in order is a mandate I have to follow with my wife's records.

And her 45s ...

Don't get me started ... .

Rant #3,710: Nothing's Changed

I tried out the barbecue yesterday.

I did it because I had to get my frustrations out.

Among other things, I had an MRI appointment postponed until today, which fouls up my entire week, preventing me from doing what I wanted to do related to my son's employment possibilities.

And that is just a tip of the iceberg at what is frustrating me right now, but I will leave it at that for now.

Anyway, I vented my frustration on the used grill I recently purchased--

And I have to say, everything came up--

Cooked to perfection.

I tried it by letting it warm up for 20 minutes to a half hour, and doing some work I had to do while it warmed up.

I edited a story, which took about about a half hour, and I discovered thst the grill was ready to go--as I checked here and there, it actually took about 10 to 15 minutes to heat up.

I put on two hot dogs and a knish,  and within about 10 minutes, the food was ready.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and ate my food with glee.

I always enjoyed barbecuing, and I really missed it when we moved from the house.

But now, with the terrace in our new apartment, we are allowed to barbecue, albeit electrically, and not by coal.

Electric barbecuing IS NOT as good as coal barbecuing, but I really don't mind the change.

Now, someone who was really raked over the coals was New York Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau, who was fired yesterday from his post.

I don't get it.

The guy took them to the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years, and the players and fans loved him.

After years of dysfunction, he helped make the Knicks credible again--

But the dysfunction is evidently still there, as proven by this idiotic move.

Who will become coach is anyone's guess, as is why Thibs was fired in the first place, as he was the team's most successful coach this century.

He was no Red Holzman, but he was a terrific coach.

With the NBA Finals ready to begin--and the off-season trades and draft right around the corner--it would behoove the Knicks to name a new coach ASAP.

I like my new old electric grill, but Thibideau has got to believe he was charred by this move.

I don't get it--

Do you?

Rant #3,709: What's Going On

That completely despicable incident in Boulder, Colorado--where an idiot Hamas sympathizer threw Molatov cocktails at innocent Jewish marchers, manybif them elderly, and setting them ablaze--was yet another incident demonstrating that the intifada is here, and all of us--Jew and non-Jew alike--must be fully aware of this situation.

The perpetrator came from Egypt, let his visa lapse, and was here illegally for the past three months or so.

He decided to set ablaze Jews marching for the release of the remaing histages--and dead bodies--still in the possession of the terrorist Hamas group.

And while throwing one explosive device after another at this peaceful crowd, he yelled "Free Palestine" as he mercilessly carried out his devious plan--

And told police that he didn't regret anything he did, and, in fact, would do it again.

And most of the world had little or no comment about this horrid incident.

It is easy to say that this has to stop, but how can it be stopped?

I really don't know, to be honest with you.

The media continues to spread horrid lies about Israel, the latest of which is that Isrselis were shooting at Palestnians as they strove to get food.

CNN, among others, picked up on this lie, without any fact checking, which would have shown that Israelis were not doing the shooting, if there was any shooting done at all.

When the media reports total falsehoods, it is difficult to combat what they say, even if it is wrong.

The word gets out, and like the game of telephone, it gets out in one form and grows tentacles as the word moves on.

And we need to fully acknowledge that Hamas are terrorists, not militants as the media would have us believe.

They constantly paint themselves as the victim against Israel, and it is truly amazing how many people buy into this.

Funny how people forget that Hamas started this war by their subhuman actions on October 7, 2023.

The world should have condemned that action right then and there, and they did not. Heck, the United Nations have never officially condemned the actions of Hamas, but they, of course, and the world at large, has plenty to say when Israel takes actions to defend itself 

Back to Hamas ... they have had hostages since they started this war--even dead bodies--they use their own people as human shields, and they steal food intended for supposedly innocent Palestinians.

But back to our own country--

How do we stop the intifada from encroaching on the American way of life?

First, we must admit that Islam is not a peaceful religion.

It has been proven time and time again what an idiotic assessment this is.

What other religion treats others like they do?

We must also strengthen the vetting system for visas, students or otherwise.

There should be a pause on issuing these visas to anyone on a specific list of Arab countries, simply because people coming here from those countries simply cannot be trusted to behave when they come to America.

We cannot undue what was done via the visa process in the past, but we can stop it from festering to a level even worse than it is today.

And the media must change its ways, which might be the most difficult thing of all to do.

I do not know specially what ails the media, but its anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric is appalling--and it has spread like wildfire. 

We have young people who have no idea what the Holpcaust is. May was Jewish Anerican Heritage Month, and this celebration was completely ignored by the media.

Why?

Jews must not be afraid in their own communities.

I just heard that someone in Manhattan was punched in the face simply because he was Jewish. Again, the perpetrators shouted "Free Palestine. "

Anti-Jewish hate crimes represent 56 percent of all hate crimes registered in New York City.

Those two young Isrseli diplomats were gunned down by another "Free Palestine" Hamas groupie.

These horrid incidents have to stop here in our country, but the fact of the matter is that they are happening not just here, but in just about every supposedly civilized country of the world. 

Yes, the intifada has come to those countries, too.

It has to stop.

And why do some people not understand what "Never Again" means?

It is, after all, not just a slogan.

Things must change. 

Anti-semitism must be rooted out.

Why does it exist to begin with?

Jealously, pure jealously, at what the Jewish people have been able to do in spite of all the hurdles.

Rant #3,708: Something's Cooking

June has finally arrived!

Although the entire month has been hijacked by one "celebration" that I am not going to talk about now--not the time or the place--the coming of the month signifies that summer is right around the corner.

In less than three weeks, we will officially be in the summer season, and that means warm weather and everything that revolves around that.

It has been fairly cool lately in my neck of the woods, but forecasters have assured us that by the end of this week, we will finally be in the 80s, and next week we could actually see 90.

So with our new apartment and our new terrace, it is just about time for barbecuing season, so what did I do this past weekend?

I bought a barbecue.

We are only allowed an electric one in our development, so I looked around, and they are kind of pricey, well over $200 brand new.

So I did something i had never done before ...

I actually bought a used barbecue, and I did it off of Facebook Marketplace 

Look, I knew I wasn't going to get a brand new barbecue off of there, but I figured that I could get something decent there for a fraction of the price, and on Saturday afternoon, my son and I went to a neighboring community to look it over and ultimately, pay for it and pick it up and bring it home.

It is a well-used barbecue, and it needs a thorough cleaning.

My wife cleaned part of it as best she could, and if I have time today, I will do some more cleaning.

My parents had an electric barbecue for decades, and while nothing is as good as a real barbecue using coals, we can't barbecue in our development using coal, so this will have to do.

We tested it before we purchased it, it does heat up, but I know from my parents' electric barbecue thst it can take about 20 minutes to a half hour to really get it going.

I will try it later this week, and I hope it does what it is supposed to do.

Since we moved from the house, one of things I missed most was barbecuing during the summer.

But now, with our move, I can get into it again, and honestly, i can't wait.

My wife doesn't like real barbecuing--she doesnt like the smokey taste--but she prefers barbecuing electrically, so this is all fine with her.

And if for some reason this thing doesn't work, there is still time to get another one as we prepare for the summer and July 4, our country's 249th birthday.

So I will let you know how this all turns out.

I can almost taste it!

Rant #3,707: Fever

Well, I am glad that's over!

I finished the final meeting recap that I had to do for work, and now i get a little breather next week--

Before it all starts up again the following week.

This last one was, to me, was the most difficult, because the speakers pretty much read their presentations, so it was very bland and boring.

It was so obvious with one of the speakers, as, evidently unaware to him, he put up the stapled pages he was reading from in front of his face, and thus, in front of his computer's camera.

At least it was audibly listenable pretty much the entire way through, which always makes the job a bit easier.

But it is done, before I can get a "fever" about it.

And when i use the word "fever," it is the only segue way I could think of to talk about the life of guitarist Rick Derringer, who passed away the other day.

You might not recognize the name, but you have heard his guitar playing and production on dozens of recordings, everyone from Cyndi Lauper to "Weird Al" Yankovic to Barbra Streisand to Edgar Winter.

One of the most prolific session guitarists of all time began his life as Rick Zehringer--later Derringer--and he first rose to prominence with his band The McCoys, which had one of the biggest hits of the 1960s in "Hang On Sloopy."

(He is on the far left in the photo above.)

The McCoys had one other big hit--the "Sloopy" sound alike "Fever"--that is where my reference came from--tried to change into a harder rocking band, but by the late 1960s, they were done.

Derringer then morphed into a popular session and backing musician, played in the bands backing up Lauper and Yankovic, and had an interesting solo career, with his best-known solo tune being "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo."

Derringer had quite an interesting career, and he will certainly be missed--

Unlike those meeting write-ups that I had to do, which I won't miss at all.

Notice how I back segued into that.

Now I will try to hang on ...

Oh, enough of that already!

Have a good weekend, and i will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,706: Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Well, here i am again, and I am smack dab in the middle of that story i have to finish.

So today's Rant is going to be another "story" Rant, but i should be back tomorrow in full force.

One week of normalcy, followed up by one week of horror--two major doctor's appointments, and two eight-hour meetings to cover--but let's not put the cart before the horse ... let me take one week at a time.

So here is today's entry. 

Please let me know what you think.

28

The school day ended, and on this day, since his mother was not at work and was at a conference, Abraham Lincoln Panim had to walk home all by his lonesome.

After his class filed out of the room, he got together whatever work he needed to take home, put his scarf around his neck—not around his face--and made his own way down the hall to the exit.

As he did this, he noticed both male and female teachers, school workers and aides, lunch room ladies and whatever students were still in school, almost moving to the sides of the hall, to the left and to the right, parting the hall in half and clearing the way to him to proceed to the exit.

Teachers, students, aides and whoever else was there—both male and female--stared at him as he walked past them, and he had a slight smile on his face as he moved past them, knowing that he was being stared at—and liking the feeling.

Some people whispered, not thinking that he could hear them.

“He is the most handsome man I have ever seen,” said one female teacher to another as “Mr. Abraham” walked past them.

“Rat face? That is the face of an Adonis,” said another.

“Now we have competition,” said a male teacher. “What chance do I have against this guy?”

“My goodness. He is just so handsome,” said one lunch lady to another. “I wish he was my son.”

“I wish I had him as a teacher,” said one of the female students who stood near the exit. “He is so … I mean so—

“Oh dry up,” said a male student standing nearby. “He is way out of your league!”

“Mr. Abraham” opened the door and left the school for the day, walking on the same streets he and his mother regularly passed when they drove by car to and from the school.

And if Abraham Lincoln Panim got a great reaction when he walked down the school hall to the exit, that reaction continued as he walked up and down the streets to his home, from people who did not know him.

“My, what a good-looking young man,” said and elderly lady to her friend, who had just come out of the local supermarket.

“Yes, wouldn’t we all love to have him as our grandchild,” said her friend.

‘No, dear, I want him as my … husband!” the other woman said, and both chuckled but never lost their gaze of him.

Abraham Lincoln Panim could see out of the corner of his eyes that male and female, young and old, were staring at him as he walked home, and staring at him with awe.

He thought to himself, “I like it, I really do,” as he tugged on his scarf. And why shouldn’t I like it … I have been through hell all through my life because of that … that … rat face that I have, err, had, so why shouldn’t I like all the attention I am getting now?”

Abraham Lincoln Panim came to the front door of his home, took out his key, and put it into the keyhole as two young girls stopped in their tracks to look at him. The key was already in the keyhole, but he purposely took extra time to turn the key and let himself in as the young girls giggled when he turned around and winked at him.

“Yes, I can get used to this, I can get used to this every day,” he thought to himself. “I can never tire of this … and I deserve it, anyway.”