Things that suck.

I realize I can write about things I like that others may not have discovered but really let’s take a moment to speak about things that suck...

In this case, despite all the hoopla surrounding it, there can be no question Twin Peaks return to television is a steaming pile of excrement that wastes an hour of its viewers lives.

Let’s face facts, if Twin Peaks had really been any good it would have stuck around for a lot longer than just two seasons (one of which was a short season). The series hasn’t aged well at all. Spending precious minutes watching actors delivered stilted dialog, having the camera stay focused on something that illustrates it's mundane nature does not good entertainment make.

There is nothing about the show I can say that’s good except for the fact that Peggy Lipton has aged exceptionally well. She is the female equivalent of Dorian Gray. Seriously, I don’t know how old the woman is but whatever her secret is that should be the focus of the show because aside from that I’m bored to tears by it.

I can’t say I’ve ever been one of the people who bought into David Lynch’s auteur status and nothing about the new series has dissuaded me of those notions. Having bands appear as some sort of a musical interlude does not make up for a really crappy script.

I realized the only way to watch Twin Peaks and enjoy it is to be high (in an altered state) then I would imagine the oohhss and ahhhsss come frequently but for anyone with a working brain it’s threadbare in terms of plot development and structure.

Hopefully one season is all folks will have to endure before Twin Peaks returns to the Black Lodge and Showtime takes the viewers out of their misery.

What it is to be lost.

Monday was a fun day. It was fun because I had work which in and of itself was a surprise since the client I have been working with extended me for a week (although it looks like that could change) but I went in and did a few hours and then was able to leave early.

They were concerned about me leaving early but there was nothing to do and I really didn’t mind because it gave me the chance to do some of the things I hadn’t gotten to over the weekend.

The weekend came and I found myself alternately sleeping and watching TV. When I think about it, that sounds like a pretty crappy way to spend a weekend. Considering how precious time is...

This is a draft I started a few weeks back. I had been working and it was good because I hadn’t been working for a couple of months but somehow I’ve grown increasingly aware of the precious nature of time and being in an office, sedentary in one spot for hours on end and then trying to look busy on top of it because you are out in the open and there isn’t a modicum of privacy proves to be wildly unappealing.

I long once more for the days when I had my own office. It was a brief period but a wonderful one indeed. If someone offered me a job with a window and a door I could close they would have my undying loyalty to be sure.

In this instance the client cut me loose early and then a day later cut me loose even though they had booked me for the week. I was more than a little annoyed at that.

It wasn’t just the loss of income that bothered me but it was the situation overall. There is the office politic that I can’t find myself appreciating because it has so much to do with other people’s insecurities and their own desires to get to some destination they have set for themselves.

In this last office, they did the open office thing so you had about 60 plus people in a very big room with long desks and on either side of those desks people facing each other.

Uggghhhhh.

Sometimes, frankly I just need to pick my nose. It’s disgusting I know but there are certain maintenance issues that occur from time to time and excuse me if I really don’t want an audience of want to take a break and walk all the way over to the other side of the floor and lock myself in a stall in the men’s room so I can dig for buried treasure.

Plus they had the monitors placed in such a way that every time I looked over to the left side of my screen I wound up looking more or less in the direction of the asst for the department who was very much a preening gay man.

I  guess because I’m an old straight bear I shouldn’t speak out of school but the show was on all day every day and I didn’t want to feed into the cult of personality. It was already bad enough I wasn’t part of the club which involved the other two freelancers who had started a week to a few weeks before I did and who knew each other from working together in other shops. This meant they went out to lunch together every day.

Again, more uggggghhhhhh.

The other staffer who was down at the other end of the long table (with someone between him and I) seemed on the outside of that particular triangle as well and one day when everyone but he and I seemed to all disappear with some purposeful intent I mentioned I didn’t think I was part of the club to which he replied he didn’t feel like he was part of the club either.

So I had finished up this thing I was working on, this project where I wasn’t getting much direction but you got the sense the idea was it was my fault somehow people weren’t seeing what they wanted. You really have to love those moments in this business.

Then when I did start to get a little more direction for once and it appeared the results were more pleasing there was this surprise. It’s a moment when you feel like turning around, looking at someone and going, ‘Really? Are you kidding? Do you think I’m fucking Kreskin here?’

The thing I was doing wrapped and there was a lull but instead of involving me in other work, the Director foisted it off on the Asst to pass along something for me to help out with and I knew I was done.

Like I said, not that I cared other than the loss of income since I wasn’t a part of the club anyway.

But to turn that around, that’s really bad management.

I know where I’m weak and I know where I’m strong but I’m past the point of busting my ass trying to convince someone who has already made up their mind about me.

Besides, it’s their loss. Really. Big news on that front but let’s leave that for another day.

More from the drafts queue...

Tell me something I don’t know, stupid.

I came across this article today:

People really are hooked on cellphones, poll shows

I know as I approach the milestone of fifty (still more than a year off), I am venturing ever further into the state of irrelevance in our society because instead of embracing new technologies, I view them with ever increasing disdain.

A part of it is the sense people are struggling to make a connection with the world around them and instead suckling on the pablum this faux intimacy the tools provide them. Another is that the underlying pull the people who embrace these technologies appear to have is to create a sense of importance about themselves...

I have to figure that link is a dead link since this was started over 8 years ago.

In the ensuing years the false intimacy has only grown with Facebook, Instagram and all the other social media platforms where people can indulge themselves in the fantasy they are somehow popular.

Really none of us is that important.

Facebook though is a way to tell our friends what immediate brain fart we’re having at the moment or new and interesting ways we can find to offend people who thought we were friends. Social media is WONDERFUL!

Pass.

I have an iPhone which is getting a little long in tooth but I do admit to loving some things about the device so the cell phone thing I finally understand. Thing is I don’t spend time on it talking but rather use it as a replacement iPod or camera or train/subway checker or solataire game box.

Also, I really am at a point where if you are too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time can you stay the fuck off your cellphone or at least remain in one spot?

Walking around the city has become a real treat with the idiots who are either

• a) Looking at their phone and not watching where they’re going.
  
• b) taking some idiotic selfie.
   
• c) talking on the phone oblivious to the world around them or
   
• d) all of the above while wearing earbuds.
  

Can you dummies get it together? Maybe the best solution is to play some kind of game a la Death Race where you can just watch these folks become candidate for the current year’s round of the Darwin Awards.

Here’s a thought... set aside one day a week to be cellphone less. Seriously. Take one day and put it aside to keep yourself out of touch or at least in a state that most of us lived life before the year 1998. You may surprise yourself how much nicer life is without being tethered.

PAD you just begged your way out of debt, what are you going to do now?!

You know I had a little sympathy when Peter David has a stroke. Not much but a tiny bit if only for the people around him. As far as David himself goes he's struck me as too much of an asshole to shed any tears over.

So, when there was a campaign to raise funds to deal with the mounting medical expenses in regard to that whole stroke thing, it was nice to see that the fans stepped up and donated and if anything it's one of those worthy causes. Even if I don’t like someone, there’s just been too many instances in the comics field where creators who have been the driving force behind some of the most amazing characters, concepts and stories have been left behind while fortunes were made off their work.

I know we are in a capitalist society and all that but it hardly seems fair, it smacks of injustice.

However, anything can be abused and David who has spent the majority of his professional career looking down his nose at others from his (imagined) lofty perch without the benefit of taking a good long look in the mirror and doing some self examination, proved once again there are some folks who are worthy only of contempt.

Earlier this year David spun a tale of woe:

Many years ago I had a television series on the air called “Space Cases.” And I made a lot of money that year. I mean a lot. And I had a ton of money sitting in my bank account ready to send to the IRS on April 15th. It was all good.

And then the day that I was going to send the check, I swung by the nearest ATM to withdraw some cash and was astounded to see that half the money in my account was gone. Why was it gone? Because my then wife withdrew it in order to pay for a divorce lawyer, which was how I found out my marriage was dissolving. So the money never went to the IRS because I had to use the remainder to hire my own attorney.

Over the years, I never managed to land another project that would pay me that much. I had lots of people make promises–I even did the work for some of them–and none ever came up with the money. Meanwhile I tried to make payment arrangements with the IRS but they didn’t last, because throughout the year I’d send in the payments but then on April 15 I had no money to pay the income tax because I’d already sent them all my spare money.

Poor, poor Peter. He made so much money and in the last 20 years couldn’t pay down his tax debt. What you should know is that by ignoring the debt as David did he made it worse because the government keeps the clock ticking on interest and penalties. So what would have been readily manageable with steady regular payments ballooned.

Poor, poor Peter wanted the world to believe it was all beyond him, he even went on to say:

I have to admit, in recent months, I have been discouraged by humanity. As I constantly read about how Trump’s election has resulted in a country wide coming out party for haters, I was left wondering what the hell was wrong with everybody. To be honest, when I began this endeavor to square myself with the IRS, I was concerned I was pointlessly embarrassing myself for little gain. I suspected people would just tell me to solve my own problems, which admittedly some did.

Peter’s so incredibly enlightened, much more so than the ‘haters’ so he once again asked for help. Hat in hand he asked the fans to support him as he was facing this dire crisis. The situation was so incredibly bleak he had to rely on the charity of the fans and the fans came through. They carried David and settled his debt because Peter just couldn’t manage it himself.

You’ll notice though in David’s original relating of the story he’s a victim there too as he suddenly finds himself learning of his divorce after his wife of almost two decades takes money out of the bank to get a lawyer. The subtext... what a genuine prize of a person David is. A woman doesn’t sue for divorce from the father of her three children if he’s a good husband.

You won’t hear David talk about that though I’m sure. He’s just too busy passing judgment on the rest of the world.

Oh and by the way what bought this up... the man who was so desperately impoverished he needed to rely on the charity of the fans, where is he this week?

As he put it in his normal liberal tizzy which he had to forgo this week:

I can’t. I’m on vacation in Disney World and I’m having much too good a time to think about Donald Trump or his idiot family. So this week, you guys can talk about them. Say whatever you want.

I wonder how many of the people who thought they were helping David out of a tight spot have been able to take a nice vacation to Disney World. Truly when you’re dealing with a narcissist, it’s hard to be in the same room because there’s hardly any left because of their ego.

The most wonderful day.

It is almost the end of Saturday but today I had a wonderful day. Wonderful on many fronts even though there were moments where the shit threatened to fall like rain.

Today, I broke out of my usual routine and did something I had wanted to do for a long time, and not only did I break out of routine but I had company when I did it.

There’s a lot to be said for days spent in good company and today I spent it in the company of China Girl. I think of China Girl as an appropriate reference because of the movie Oz the Great and Powerful.

Oz the Great and Powerful is one of those underrated movies Disney has put out in the last few years where it was supposed to be a blockbuster but because it wasn’t and even though it still made some money people weren’t happy because it didn’t make as much money as it could have.

There is one character in the movie that tugged at my heart strings and that was China Girl and if you asked me why I find I wouldn’t be able to tell you but I loved the character so much I actually thought about getting one of the figurines of the character which is decidedly the most anti-machismo thing a bachelor in his fifties might do but there are soft parts of me too and this really did hit that spot.

And the thing of it is that there is this broken thing that Oz happens upon and he fixes it and it is this delicate treasure and honestly how many times have you had something that was special to your and that broke and you would have wanted to be able to fix it because you had some weird emotional attachment to it?

So, getting back to things, I spent the day with someone who I think of now as China Girl because in some way she is broken because of what has been taken from her. It’s really a horrible thing and I find myself in a strange space because on the one hand, I am taken by her but on the other there are certain boundaries that cannot be crossed if only because of my own ethical parameters.

Then I spend a day and it is wonderful and glorious and I would never make any presuppositions and intrude on someone’s personal space but I am left wondering if any connection exists or if it is the stuff of fantasy.

I’ve never been good at these things.

Still maybe I can solace myself in that I might’ve done a good thing for someone else. Maybe the takeaway is that even if I am only left confused. You see something or someone broken that you care about and you want to do something to help.

Maybe I can say I accomplished that and live in the transient glory of the moment because the moment is all we really have anyway.

Thursday acting classes.

This week are two favorites, people whose work I’ve enjoyed for some time. I keep thinking how much I would like to see McGregor as either James Bond or Doctor Who!

Actors on Actors: Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor

Frank talk with...

the doc!

Yes, I probably pulled or tore something but apparently both legs look the same and nothing is bulging which is a good sign. By the time I got in to see the doc it had been two weeks and starting to feel a little better. Thing is it's time now to start exercising!

So I got a scrip which is supposed to hasten the healing process and I'm going to start my walkies and I'm working towards a secret goal.

I do really want to get back in shape because as the doctor said it's not so much about building as much as it is about maintaining and I do want to maintain everything as long as I can.

If this is the worst I deal with I’m a lucky guy!

On another note I ran some errands today. I had taken a book out of the local library and then had left it on the train. I filed a report with lost and found but Metro North hasn't gotten back to me AND I HAVE GONE TO LOST AND FOUND IN GRAND CENTRAL TO CHECK!

In the meantime I ordered the exact same book from Amazon, THE EXACT SAME BOOK!

And the library which does get a discount on books won't take it as a replacement!

BRAND NEW BOOK!

This is the big library over in White Plains. What total assholes to deal with too. I don't use the term lightly but the woman I dealt with was an automaton and just kept repeating herself without giving any reason.

Greeeeeeaaaaaattttt!

The shit flame.

So, I got stuck tonight and it was dark on the train ride home but I got to see the shit flame which seemed appropriate for today.

I am working on another post about how there are things I love and hate about commuting but you do get a bit of an interesting ride at times on the good old Hudson Line.

It can be the best of things and the worst... you are regaled with the view of the Palisades in the sunrise and sunset which can be absolutely spectacular.

The flip side is the train line goes right through Sing Sing at one point so you have the view of the prison as well.

The shit flame lights up the night sky just south of the Ludliw station in Yonkers. It burns off the methane and other combustible gases that spew out of the water treatment plant in Yonkers.

There all the sewage gets turned into nice clean water that gets released into the Husson but the plant still has to belch farts. There is something fitting in what might be considered the sphincter of Westchester letting loose for all to see.

It can be a horrid thing passing that plant and I wonder what it must be like for the people who live in the neighborhood to be around that smell regularly.

Thing is you can get used to anything. I picked up garbage for a couple of years (which surprisingly enough was not such a bad job and not the worst job I've had by far) and you even get used to that after awhile.

But I digress because I'm tired and the only thing of note is that tonight the shit flame burned bright.

Dead is dead!

Another drafts queue cleaning...

Are we really, really going to glorify this idiot?

I refrain from talking about people who just died. Blogs particularly seem to be a venue where we often comment on the passing of the rich and famous. Is it a question of morbid curiosity or just a matter of paying homage to our icons?

I wonder sometimes.

The same phenomena that makes people slow down when they see an accident on the side of the road could well motivate much of this rather public outpouring of grief.

Michael Jackson is dead and I think, ‘So what.’

The Michael Jackson I knew and liked died a long time ago and in his place there stood a twisted, warped individual who had a unnatural predilection to spend time with young children in a manner that had many people raising their eyebrows.

I’ve never been a big fan of Jackson’s once I was out of my early teens, to me my memories of his music are based around pop standards which broke when I was on the cusp of being a teenager. My first 45 record was a pressing of the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back (my second was an O’Jays single).

To me songs like the aforementioned I Want You Back , ABC, The Love You Save are what...

I was never a big Michael Jackson fan. He admittedly did some amazing work but he was well and truly on e totally fucked up individual. After he died there was this tremendous outpouring from his fans which seemed to forget that if he wasn’t so very fucked up he likely would still be alive today.

There are people in music I REALLY MISS. The more I learn about John Lennon, the more I miss him, the more I think about how tragic it was there never was a true Beatles reunion because some nut job took it upon himself to commit violence on a stranger.

There are people in art I miss, I still can’t get over Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colan and a host of others who gave me so much as a kid...

Michael Jackson... not so much.

If you have enough money, you can cover anything. Michael Jackson grew up in a very messed up house (which is putting it mildly). I know I read somewhere that at one point a very, very young Michael was performing in strip clubs with his brothers before they got so very famous.

Maybe that’s why he turned out the way he did but as much as I can feel sorry for someone I can’t ignore some truly vile acts and I am amazed others would so willingly turn a blind eye to them.

Hereditary dynasties.

Another one from the drafts queue...

How f*#$ed is our political system?

Your doctor dies, your pilot dies, your mechanic dies... do you really want a person who without experience taking on the dead person’s duties on the basis they swapped bodily fluids with the departed?

Yet, somehow there are people in this country who think Ted Kennedy’s wife should fill out the remainder of his Senate term. This is the same twisted logic people used to hold out Hillary Clinton would be a good President because she spent eight years in the White House sleeping next to Bill Clinton (one wonders if at that point there was any exchange of secretions given the former President’s well known dalliances)...

I never cease to be amazed by the incredible level of stupidity in our midst. It makes me understand how the whole ‘king’ thing and ‘royalty’ got started because there are more than a few drones in our midst.

This idea that if you swap bodily fluids with someone you can do their job never ceases to amaze me.

If you go to a woman OB/Gyn and she dies do you think her husband is qualified to go poking around your nethers because he’s listened to shop talk all those years?

I doubt it.

This happened with Sonny Bono as well, so it’s not the exclusive domain of the Democrats although I am trying to remember if there was an instance where a women passed on and her husband served in her place.

The whole thing is just ludicrous.

The other day, I saw something in the paper where a woman was suing a man because he didn’t fork over a pile of money to her. They had been together for 20 years, not married and he was in shipping. When she found him, he had ‘four old boats’ but now he was rich beyond belief and it was due to her help so there should be a big payout.

Can you imagine if a man did this the kind of reaction women would have?

I know a few people who are ardent feminists and will occasionally rail against me for perceived sexism. Thing is I’m for equality but when we talk about equality I MEAN EQUALITY. I don’t mean you get equality along with the perks of your gender.

Case in point...

All to often of late I regular have been seeing instances where female teachers have engaged in sexual activities with their charges. When it’s happened there has been a tendency to treat this crime ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THEN HOW A MALE TEACHER WOULD BE TREATED.

This happens quite often because the narrative goes that men are the source of all evil in the world.

Of course these are people who haven’t read MacBeth.

Look, equality is great! Cool! Terrific!

But when men can stay at home and be treated like our self proclaimed ‘domestic goddesses’ without being thought as less of a man for doing so, or lazy or a bum because they stay home. When women toe the line men have to when it comes to dating and the like instead of passively sitting back and then complaining there are ‘no good men’ because they don’t want to get off their lazy asses and do the work men do to find someone. When they don’t get to use their gender as an excuse for when their boss is a dick, or when they have to work overnight or late...

Look I understand we’re not talking about zero sum games here and things aren’t all that black in white but the preponderance does go in one direction and it is NOWHERE CLOSE to equality.

Well... that’s today’s rant. The upshot is, it’s just another reason I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Hillary. That and the fact that as a voter I had been too disappointed by these folks to let myself be lied to yet again and put then in power.

A one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

This is from my drafts queue and while I can’t place the exact date I do know I wrote this in August of 2009. I know because it was during August I was recovering from dropping my Vespa and really fucking myself up.

Nothing says stupid like doing something that winds up injuring you and that particular day is still very fresh in my memory...

More discoveries from a day in the city.

More remarkable discoveries from my voyage into the city yesterday.

The city has wildly uneven sidewalks. Sidewalks that are a total peril.
Case in point, I went ass over elbows three times yesterday. I’m talking about instances where I literally went with my feet flying up in the air and I came crashing down on the concrete. I have to say, I’m sure it looked absolutely hilarious. Big guy on small wheeler chair taking phenomenal header right into the concrete. How I managed not to crack my skull open is amazing, I’ve started to get this whole thing going of twisting when I fall to protect the side I have the cast on (nowhere near as graceful as cats who I have always respected for this ability).

The first time I was going down one of those handicap cuts in the curb right by Washington Square across the street from the doctor’s office. Well, there was something of a dip in the street at the bottom of the cut where a sewer vent was and before you knew it, Flying Italian! It must’ve looked really nasty because I picked myself up and I had people on all four corners staring over at me. All I know is between the way the chair is constructed and the way I twisted I didn’t get nary a bruise (very lucky), I was just really annoyed.

Someone came over to help me and asked if I was alright but even before they had gotten within five feet from me I already had the chair back up and was plopping my fat ass back in it.

The second time I was on my way to a client meeting. Amazingly enough the phone continues to ring and this client wanted to meet with me ASAP so taking the opportunity I parked within a crosstown block and wheeled myself over (very exhausting in the heat too by the way). I got within fifteen feet of the building I was going to and again encounter another one of those uneven plates in the sidewalk.

Whoops, Flying Italian all over again.

This time a guy with a cane who had been watching me past (and who kind of looked a little like the guy on the old Forbidden Planet sign) came rushing over. Again by the time he got close I had already flipped around, set the seat right and was in the process of putting my ass back into it. He did pass me my bag though which was nice of him.

The third time was at the end of the day. I was going from the car to a muni-meter and a nice sliver of sidewalk was just missing. Sure enough the front wheel got stuck and once again... Flying Italian!

At this point aside from being frustrated, angry about all the falls (one for each stop) and thoroughly disgusted with the situation I figure I could have sold tickets and made myself some money from the whole thing or at least filmed it for Jackass or something.

Some people will fight about anything.
I was trying to pull my car into a spot, narrowly because there was a Fresh Direct truck double-parked and as I was pulling forward some guy walked right in front of the car from the blind spot in front of the truck. It was just stupid, so words were exchanged (my own stupidity) and the guy was like, “Get out of your car.”

Now, I will never ever have the opportunity to do this again so I said, “Sure!” and I got out of the car getting my crutches out of the back. I loved it! The guy was, “Your on crutches!”

“C’mon! Don’t let that stop you idiot.”

(really like I’m not the idiot for this but I’m sorry I couldn’t resist)

Anyway, the guy walked away muttering, it’s just one of those too funny moments in the city.

____________________________

Yes, I actually went into the city with a broken leg to try and get some work. I do things like that because I am not independently wealthy although for all the effort I do know it led to naught.

The funny thing that happened that day was the idiot who almost got into a fight with me. What a douche. The guy literally walks in front of my car as I’m moving forward and I totally can’t see him because of the double parked truck and the fact that he is walking inches from the grill, so from my vantage point when he just steps out in front of the car it’s only quick reflexes that save him from getting hit.

But he was the one who had the problem with my reaction because I was freaked. He crossed against the light (which being a native New Yorker I can hardly quibble about) but still, show at least a little concern about your own body.

That whole thing wasn’t about me though because the guy had to have had a chip on his shoulder and I knew just how much of a dick he would look like to the people around when I did get out of the car in a cast. You could see he was totally frustrated but the really crazy thing is that I’m stupid enough to actually fight the guy if I have to cast and all. You can take the boy out of the Bronx but you can’t take the Bronx out of the boy.

The laughs never stop at Freak Out Fridays.

So, for my own sadistic pleasure I look in on Peter David’s Freak Out Fridays because I really get a kick out of watching the hand wringing going on among the delicate liberals in this country and I think this is a representative slice of exactly that sentiment.

I don’t engage in any dialog mainly because it would be akin to torturing a wounded animal.

I do admit though it does provide me with some good laughs especially the comments section where Peter and his cloying fanboys congratulate each other for being so smart and having tremendous insight on how stupid everyone else is.

THAT’S REALLY FUNNY.

The liberal circle jerk is the best part of the whole thing and the pollyanna hysteria in evidence is wonderful to see.

Not that there are solutions, not that there is even any evidence of recognizing problems, no we just have the blind fealty to party rhetoric that just proves what mindless drones some of the people in this world really are, regardless of whatever may spill out of their mouths.

In New York, a staunchly Democratic state and in a staunchly Democratic city we have the perfect example of progressive stupidity in the person of the current mayor Bill DeBlasio. You know what the best part about the lie that the mayor is?

His name isn't even really Bill or DeBlasio! He was born Warren Wilhelm Jr!

About two years ago, I started saying to people I know if they hadn’t noticed there were more homeless people on the streets of the city. If you lived in New York for an extended period of time you know that New York wasn’t always the Disneyland it became and that it took almost 20 YEARS of Republican mayors to clean up the mess New York had become.

Progressive Bill made it his first priority to undo that progress.

Let’s get rid of Stop and Frisk! So what happens?

March 19, 2016 The number of weapons seized at city public schools last year shot up 25 percent to 1,678 — including 62 Tasers and stun guns, according to data ­released Friday.

Oh and as far as people pointing out the crime rate is going down, don’t forget the mayor in his infinite wisdom has told Police NOT TO prosecute crime! OF COURSE THE NUMBERS GO DOWN!

After years of public debate and months of negotiations, New York City began directing its police officers on Tuesday to issue civil tickets rather than criminal summonses for petty offenses such as public drinking and public urination.

In a city that pioneered tough enforcement for low-level crimes, often referred to as broken-windows policing, the changes represented a rare instance of legislative police reform and a recognition of the burden that style of enforcement imposed on residents.

You can’t make that stuff up! What a great solution! Let’s ignore the problem!

Thing is when you look at things like this its always about this idea of being government doing things without responsibility on the individual and the truth is people will be lazy. I'm lazy. If you give people stuff for free without working they have no reason to work. The progressive agenda as it is currently positioned rewards this. We’re watching what the results are in New York City currently as things are definitely going in the wrong direction.

I have to wonder though if New York City residents will be smart enough to elect the city’s first female mayor Nicole Malliotakis is the real deal... and there is enough there that I think she could wind up being the right person for the right time. We’ll see if New Yorkers feel the same.

Thursday acting classes.

This week two big names...

Tom Hanks & Viola Davis - Actors on Actors

The bad anniversary.

Someone I know just celebrated a bad anniversary the other day.

I don’t mark bad things on the calendar, the person in question said they have a tendency within the family to take a bad anniversary and change it but I don’t want to give any bad anniversary power and treat it as anything more than another day.

There’s this other issue as well which has to do with death... we can’t let go some of us.

I took care of my father for many years, more than I care to remember and it was a very, very difficult journey that no one around me understood. I mean NO ONE. Several other people have gotten on that train and have come to me later and asked with amazement how I managed but the truth is that it’s a ride you take alone.

Seriously if you have the responsibility of managing another person’s care it’s really a thankless task.

But the thing is you have to know how to let go.

So, my father had had a heart attack... and it had happened several days earlier and he got worse and worse. It had been the first time I had been able to get some work in several months and I was leaving him alone even though there was a part of me that was concerned about doing that. I know it sounds really, really weird but I have a sense about these things. It sounds nutty to even put it into words but I can’t tell you how many times it has happened.

So, Pop was pretty sick and the day I bought him to the hospital was an interesting morning only because there was a back and forth over whether I should take him as he wasn’t too keen on going. In the car on the way there though I talked to him, frankly. I mean to say I said as plainly as I could, “Tell me what you want me to do.”

What I meant by that was do you want me to make them do things to you to keep you going.

Only a few years earlier my uncle (his brother) passed and there were moments that were not fun. My uncle pointedly told me when I went to visit him and no one else was around that he didn’t want to go through the ordeal of having a breathing tube put into him EVER AGAIN.

He was very clear on that and right now when I think about it today many, many years later tears still come to my eyes. He was in my opinion a great man.

When my father was in the car with me, my one goal was to be sure that whatever I did, I did what he wanted. It was important. It was the one time when I knew he was counting on me more than at any other point in his life. At that point he needed me more than a person needs anyone else. He was at a point where he was defenseless.

Now, as much as I may have thought my old man was the most incredible dick to me imaginable, there also is something in me through other people in my life that does not shirk from responsibility. I felt an incredible amount of obligation (which I am still trying to figure out why considering the kind of parent my father was) and I could not walk away from that. I sacrificed quite a bit because of that responsibility.

Anyway, so my friend now is celebrating a year long ordeal and I can’t help but think the mistake that was made was in not letting go.

You can’t say that to someone because they will look upon you as an enemy but I would not want to make someone I love suffer nor would I want to suffer myself.

We can survive today because modern medicine can help us survive but that doesn’t mean we can live.

There’s a big difference between surviving and living.

My father for all his problems lived... he lived another year and a half. It was good he did because he got a chance to see people and say goodbye. That last year and a half wasn’t great at times but it wasn’t bad at others and strangely enough he did get a chance to say goodbye (even to me which is a story for another day and another reason I think he was such a dick).

My friend though can’t do that and it’s sad because the time to say goodbye happened a long time ago and all that’s left now is pain. You can’t say that but you can watch and wonder how long it will take before the realization sets in that it’s not about the person as much as it is about you and letting go.

I can’t say a word, I can only watch in mute silence and feel bad.

I love working.

But honestly... if I didn’t already right something over the weekend I’m just too tired to get anything of substance out here, I’ll have to try and do better.

(How fried I am, how fried I am, nobody knows, how fried I am... I wrote that and didn’t catch that I put in the word right for write because I rarely go back and read what I have written once I post it - I do sometimes and then always find myself correcting errors that make me just CRINGE!)

Am I really a prognosticator?

So I made baseball predictions about where teams would be and I since the All-Star Break is upon us now is a time to see how badly I suck at predictions. I could claim that injuries are the unforeseen factor that can throw off any prediction you make but that’s part of the game and it’s why they play them instead of crowning a team world champion based on what’s on paper.

So, let’s break things down by Division...

NL EAST

Mets

(I’m biased)

Braves

Nationals

√ Marlins

√ Phillies

Could I have seen how snake bit the Mets would be when it came to injuries?

No.

This was the year when all this great young pitching was supposed to come together and what happens? Outside of Jacob DeGrom EVERY SINGLE METS STARTER HAS BEEN ON THE DL!

And even when Familia came back, they shortly after his return LOST HIM TO INJURY!

Aggggghhhhhhh!

So as of this writing, the Philies are indeed in the basement with the Marlins above them but the Nationals? They’re tops in the division! And Atlanta has been swapping second place with the Mets for the last week or so.

I still think the Nationals are playing about their heads and only have a hot start to thank for where they are. It will be interesting to see what they do at the trade deadline and if they can avoid injury the rest of the way.

NL CENTRAL

Cubs

Cardinals

Pirates

Brewers

√ Reds

The order would be right if you just mover the Brewers into the top spot! No one saw that coming but the Cubs being a .500 team? No one saw that coming either. The Brewers right now are 8 games above .500 so there’s still a lot of baseball to play and more than enough time for things to change. This is another instance of what a team does at the trading deadline can really impact its fortunes because I don’t see the Brewers standing pat and being able to run away with it, word has it that the Brewers are on the hunt for starting pitching that they can control so it’s a big piece that’s missing for them and will be interesting to see if they can pull a trade off.

NL WEST

Giants

Dodgers

Padres

Rockies

Diamondbacks

I’m admittedly surprised by the Giants total collapse. I had figured the West to be a battle between the Dodgers and the Giants for the year but Arizona and Colorado have turned out to be two of the strongest teams in the league!

AL EAST:

√ Red Sox

Orioles

Yankees

√ Blue Jays

Rays

Well, here I at least got two right! The Red Sox are leading the division and Toronto is in fourth (last) place tied with the Orioles. The AL East is a tight division though and anything can change at this point as Boston has 50 wins and the two teams at the bottom each have 41. Yankees fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. The team was lucky to overperform and their schedule in the second half is brutal.

They are better served by letting their youngsters get experience, making some trades to help the team and positioning themselves to improve in the off season. Nothing could be worse for the Yankees as to abandon their rebuilding effort to make a run this year.

AL CENTRAL

√ Indians

√ Royals

Tigers

White Sox

Twins

I’ve managed to be accurate on the top two teams in the AL Central (YAY ME!) The Tigers apparently are done as are the White Sox but break up those Twinkies! They are now in third place, 3 games over .500 and only two games out of the division lead. This division is going to come down to the wire!

AL WEST

√ Astros

√ Rangers

Mariners

Angels

√ A’s

The AL West is a funny bird. My record here is pretty good but bear in mind, Seattle, Texas and the Angels all are separated by 1 GAME! So the jockeying among these teams in terms of position within the division is sure to change again and again. (The Rangers and Angels are tied at 16 games out of the lead in second place - no one is catching Houston but I’m giving myself this on because the Rangers are tied for second).

So in review... right now I have correctly predicted the position of 10 of the 30 teams in MLB.

That may not sound so good but look at it this way, I’m batting .333! IN BASEBALL I WOULD BE A SUPERSTAR WITH THAT AVERAGE!

We’ll review again as the season winds down to see whether or not my batting average improves or falls of a cliff.

So I saw Wonder Woman...

I managed to catch Wonder Woman the other day (let’s not talk about how I managed this).

Listen I get that it’s a female power fantasy, I’d wish the girls would be more transparent about that. Diana, extremely beautiful, extremely smart, extremely powerful swims out and saves the blonde himbo from his wreck of a plane and then walks in on him nude, if the genders were reversed you mean to tell me we wouldn’t have people complaining about this?

Yet, that doesn’t mean it’s not a great movie because honestly it really is!

I enjoyed it a great deal and Wonder Woman is a hard character to get right.

I’ve bought Wonder Woman when I was buying comics based around who the creative team was on the book at the time. Some people can do a good job, some people just do a horrible job of it. It reminds me of Captain Marvel, it can be good if the right person is writing the book but more often than not the creative team just doesn’t understand how to breathe life into a character.

Wonder Woman the movie though is just GREAT!

And I have to say I don’t care that women are getting gassed because their power fantasies are being realized. It’s cool with me and certainly it’s great to see that they have done such a terrific job with the movie and the character.

Here’s a rub for you though...

Wouldn’t it be funny if DC actually did a better job with female superheroes on film than Marvel?

Think about it... what came out of Suicide Squad was a Harley Quinn project and a possible Birds of Prey movie and now I have no doubt Wonder Woman is going to be a big success at the box office for 2017.

Can you tell me where Marvel has been able to do the same? (Jessica Jones? I think not).

Wonder Woman has an interesting history that a lot of folks aren’t aware of. People don’t actually realize that Wonder Woman is the first hero born of kink.

Think I’m talking out of my ass? Well, the truth of it is that William Moulton Marston was quite the kinkster:

On the other hand, “The Secret History of Wonder Woman” is fundamentally a biography of Wonder Woman’s larger-than-life and vaguely creepy male creator, William Moulton Marston (1893-1947). He was a Harvard graduate, a feminist and a psychologist who invented the lie detector test. He was also a huckster, a polyamorist (one and sometimes two other women lived with him and his wife), a serial liar and a bondage super-enthusiast.

Now, is there a certain amount of irony that the world’s feminist icon sprung forth from the mind of a pervert? LOL! I’m trying to think how that would go over in certain circles and I’m thinking it might not go over too well.

Still I commend DC and Warner’s for doing a great job and for making Wonder Woman more than just an accessory to a male dominated genre instead being a character with an outlook and story true to the character and uniquely her own.

The Cross Fit evangelist.

Well, that’s interesting. So, you may have seen an empty post there. Tabbing in your browser can have hazards.

About the Cross Fit Evengelist... a friend of mine who is about ten years younger than me manages to go to Cross Fit regularly. He was trying to sell me on Cross Fit not too long ago and I had to admit I looked at him a little askance.

Not because I am against exercise, if anything I should be exercising more but the truth of it is as an orthopedist told me, I need to be a little more careful.

Round about this time 2009, I dropped my Vespa. I went down, it was stupid, it was my fault and I was angry at myself for a whole host of reasons.

First I had just finished up a three month stint back at that client I would work with for the next six years on and off and I really needed to keep the momentum going and line up more work quickly. Second, I had just finished paying off the damn Vespa so it was mine free and clear. Third, I had only gone out that day (a Saturday) to go and pick up the mail down in Tarrytown and then had stopped off at a hot dog place (So Damn Hot, no longer around) and read the paper while having lunch at a small park that has a little lake. I had taken the Vespa out because it was such a beautiful day and since I only intended to run the short errand didn’t do what I normally would when riding... namely I DIDN’T WEAR MY GEAR!

This meant I was wearing jeans, no leathers, no pads, a loose shirt and not my normal padded motorcycle boots.

I went down and while I wasn’t going super fast getting caught between the immovable object (the pavement) and the unstoppable force (a 350 lb Vespa) didn’t work out so well for me overall.

I broke my ankle, broke a rib, got popped really well in the side of the head where my open face helmet twisted when I banged my noggin on the pavement and received some really wonderful road rash on my arm and my leg.

I’ve been lucky in life. I think aside from tonsils and another event when I was my late teens, I can’t really say I’ve wound up especially banged up. Well, I mean I did fracture my wrist once playing ball on concrete in a schoolyard in my late teens and there were a few others things including getting hit by a car and sailing about 20 or 30 feet but overall I’ve not been especially hurt.

This was a different matter and it really set me back.

A few months later... I had put on weight and was starting to toy with the idea of running. Being the genius that I am, I thought I might wear those strap on weights (which I conveniently have) on my legs to get them stronger. I did it and then a few weeks later managed to pop one of the tendons in my legs!

Great.

And then not too much time later I popped a tendon in the other leg!

Super terrific.

So, the orthopedist a very nice Greek man asked me pointedly when i went up the stairs how did I do it? Did I run up the stairs and the truth was I often did going two at a time and he looked at me and said, “I like people like you. I see plenty of patients, I have patients of mine who are in their thirties and they come in and act like they’re old people. Then I have people like you.”

“It’s not bad that you have energy but you have to remember you are not a kid anymore. It’s better to be like you than to be like those people in their thirties who act like they’re old but you need to be more careful.”

And he was right because truthfully the body is breaking down and I’m not doing the best job taking care of myself. I do a better job of looking after other people than I do taking care of me. Why that is I don’t know but it’s easier for some reason.

So when my friend was advocating Cross Fit, i kept thinking about the words of my orthopedist.

Mind you this same friend has run several NY Marathons and other marathons. He will run until his nipples bleed (which apparently is something that happens to runners even though it sounds disgusting).  He has pushed himself to the point where he pees blood. I’ve said to him on more than one occasion while I think the exercise is a great thing you need to listen to your body and know when to stop.

A few years ago... before the Vespa thing, I was going out with this very wonderful woman. She was studying to be a yoga teacher and would regularly go to Yoga. It seemed the first few dates we went on were all tests of stamina and strength. I went to one of her Yoga classes (let me tell you, YOGA IS HARD!- It’s good for you but don’t think it is in any way easy to just walk in and do), we went on a hike up a mountainside (which was fun but I stopped not knowing how close we were to the top for a break), then we spent a day in the city walking.

You can see the approximate route here http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7104926

By the time the day was over, where I had been the one winded in Yoga and on our hike it was my partner who lacked the endurance over the several hours of walking around. She was the one who was wiped out and I was fine (and could’ve walked even more - all the way back up to Grand Central)

Walking is good, I can manage walking and should really be doing more of it. I would semi-regularly go out with my friend Marilyn when she was alive and walk about five or six miles feeling really good about it.

The other day, I woke up an my leg was sore... it was sore in a very specific spot. Right behind the knee, in the crease between the thigh and the lower leg on the inner side. One very specific point was what I felt and now a week later it looks like I might be having another problem with tendons.

So, even though the evangelist wants to convert me, I’m staying away from that religion and trying to find one that works for me.

So, what’s the deal with your phone?

If you know me and you’ve been around me you may have heard my phone ring.

If you’ve heard my phone ring, you also may have noticed it has a rather unique ringtone. I doubt there are many other people on the planet that have the same ringtone and I would doubt that anyone in my orbit has ever heard that ringtone.

If you were ever curious about where that sound generates from, I have a very simple answer for you... you see, I’m on the Global Frequency.

Don’t know what that is? Watch this:

This is probably the one greatest pilot that was never released and never made it into a series.

There’s a long tortuous story behind this pilot and what happened that the CW (the network that commissioned it) passed on it. It’s a sore spot for Warren Ellis (the creator of Global Frequency) and a sore spot for John Rogers (the Director of the pilot) to be sure because let’s face facts, with all the dreck that does wind up on TV this is something that should have gone forward.

Jerry Bruckheimer actually optioned it in 2014 but that went nowhere as well.

Still I watched the pilot again last night and just was amazed once more by it.

Warrren Ellis has done some great work but I think Global Frequency is even more relevant today than when it was originally released and certainly there are more stories to tell.

So, as much as a maniac as I am, I sent off a short note to Warren Ellis through some back channels (there is an advantage to having been on the internet for over 20 years) asking him if the time isn’t right to revisit GF.

At the same time, I sent a note off to the President of Original Programming at Showtime (don’t ask me what I was thinking) suggesting he watch the pilot and check out the graphic novel as it would make for some great TV.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed on both counts.

Thursday acting classes.

So, I’ve done some performing when I was a much younger man but nothing at all serious. I’ve dated actors too one who was taking Sandy Meisner’s class way back in the day and while she was taking it I would find myself fascinated by the way they went about trying to create a very naturalistic performance.

Someone recently told me that it sounded as if I could be a stand up because of the conversation we were having and that it sounded as if I was doing a routine which in a way I was because I was using material that I developed awhile back that I know is funny, gets laughs and am still honing.

I had at one point even toyed with taking some classes down at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade but truthfully I couldn’t muster the energy to fight my default state of lassitude

Anyhow... in my many hours of idle internet wandering I happened upon this jewel which is totally fascinating and which I am going to post regularly as I track more down.

Actors on Actors - Kirsten Dunset & Rami Malek

Some people have bad luck.

This is a reporter from Los Angeles, yesterday on the Fourth of July apparently someone vomited on her... yeah, you read that right. But, it looks as if she is one of those folks who has bad luck:

First the vomit:

But this wasn’t the first time something strange happened to this reporter:

Television Tuesday!

Another from the drafts queue!

Okay... I’ve put this off long enough.

What’s my favorite show now? I mean the show that I look forward to every week, the one that makes me smile, the one that makes me laugh? The one that genuinely makes me happy?

Why, that’s simple...

It‘s Chuck!

I’ve been lving every second of it since it premiered last year and I was so happy that it made it past the hump and got renewed...

Chuck was fun but never really caught on the way it should’ve which is a bit sad. It did develop quite a loyal following, enough of a following that the viewers themselves were the ones to save the show from cancellation! Something that’s a rarity!

Still there was enough in that first episode that had me and a bunch of other people hooked!

Fansite ChuckTV.net launched the first organized fan effort, the Watch/Buy/Share campaign (an idea thought up by "Chuck, vs the podcast" founder Gray Jones), on March 18, 2009; a letter writing campaign was later added to the effort. The week of April 6, 2009, television blogger Kath Skerry changed the name of her website GiveMeMyRemote.com to GiveMeMyChuck.com and used Twitter to notify her readers to support the show, prompting television columnists Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune and Josef Adalian of TelevisionWeek to write Chuck-related news on their websites and Twitter feeds. Sepinwall also wrote an open letter to NBC on reasons for renewal, while Ryan encouraged fan support by listing the various ways in which they could contribute to the campaign to save Chuck. One fan, Wendy Farrington, was inspired by a product placement in second season episodes to organize a campaign to purchase "Footlong" submarine sandwiches from Subway on the air date of the second season finale. This movement gained support from various cast and crew members, with actor Zachary Levi seen leading hundreds of fans to a Subway restaurant in Birmingham, England. Members of the show's cast and crew participated in a special "rally cry" episode of Chuck vs the Podcast on April 24, 2009, just before the season finale, to encourage fans to keep the campaign going and thank them for their support. On the campaign, co-creator Josh Schwartz remarked that it “has been one of the most amazing experiences of [his] life to witness—and certainly the most creatively gratifying.” Other fan efforts include the “Have a Heart, Renew Chuck” campaign, involving Chuck fans donating money to the American Heart Association on behalf of NBC. By the NBC Upfront on May 19, 2009 over $17,000 was raised.

Yes, chances are if you were a fan, you didn’t like Chuck, you LOVED IT.

Of course, if people think of the series lead Zack Levi, they’re more likely to think of Tangled than Chuck but Chuck may actually come back:

Cleaning out my closet.

I started to write this back in ’06. If you asked me where the time has gone, I'd have a hard time telling you because the days really do seem to rocket by. However, I’m on this kick of late to clean up all my clutter and the drafts que is a part of it, so here goes...

You look back on life and the funny thing is the things that stick with you. Memory is interesting, you block out a lot of the bad stuff and the past takes on a rosy tint. It’s a wonderful glow, free of the suffering and trauma that existed when it you were living it.

Life through the prism of memory is a highlight film, just the best moments there for you; it’s the magical times and magical people who made a lasting impact on you. They are fixed in your memory and if you grow out of touch they remain there unchanged by time.

I was about 12 when I first met Jackie. It would be around 1972 when Flo, Jackie and Laurie became a part of my life. They would be a big part of my life from ’72 all the way through to ’76 or so but they still would remain in contact with me through about 1980.

Jackie was the older daughter of a very sweet woman (Flo) my father was dating at the time. Through Flo and her family, I wound up meeting a wonderful group of people, people who would become important to me throughout my early years as a teenager. As a result, I ended up being exposed to a lot of things I would have otherwise missed out on and I would have been a lesser person for it.

There was Flo, Jackie and Laurie - we wound up spending a lot of time together for a period.

Jackie, two years older than me and Laurie a year younger, all of us would go out with our parents and have a wonderful time. I saw Gilbert and Sullivan plays because of Flo. I remember going to see Ben Vereen in Pippin on Broadway and seeing Gigi and the Desert Song as well. Also, I can recall dinners at La Crepe and the Hawaii Kai - vaguely mind you but, with fondness nonetheless.

Me, a boy on the cusp of being a teenager, an only child to boot, it was a bit of an adjustment being exposed to this household of women. It wasn’t a problem so much as being a kid in a candy store with two very beautiful girls around my own age in close proximity...

So, I started that in ’06 then came back to it in Oct. of ’08, let’s wrap this one up.

 

The Hawaii Kai was truly a great place for a teenager back in the seventies who grew up poor and wasn’t familiar with the city.  There’s a great article on Gothamist about the place (click to read).

Or watch this video:

And La Crépe too! On Broadway just up from Lincoln Center! Going there for a treat after a Broadway play was just about amazing for teenage me!

I think the Lincoln Square movie theater replaced La Crépe, so much of the city has changed.

But the point is that at a young age I did get exposure to things that made a difference in my life because I have no doubt my path could have gone off into some very dark places.

Think about it, I got to see Ben Vereen in a Bob Fosse directed play!!!

Kind of a big deal...

I got to see Agnes Moorhead of Bewitched fame in her last role before she passed. That was in Gigi!

I saw so many plays over a period of two years or so and got a chance to be exposed to a world that was so different than the one I knew, I can’t think it was a bad thing and thinking on it now I have to wonder how things like that could be so helpful to so many kids.

I’ve talked about Flo, Jackie and Laurie before. Jackie died about ten years ago now, she never made fifty. There are no guarantees and she was just one of a few people in my orbit who passed far too young and reminded me how we don’t have certainty about the length of our ride.

Which makes me finishing something I started 11 years ago seem very small in a way I can’t explain but I am lucky in a lot of ways for who has come in and out of my orbit over the years.

Sunday in the park with George.

You know, I’m of a certain age and being of a certain generation there are people who were my heroes and a few of them have not diminished in stature over the years although it is rare.

One of those heroes is George Carlin... no one is, was or will ever be like George Carlin.

So, let’s revisit some of George’s observations, shall we? THESE ARE NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

But, I have to say if you think things have changed, listening to George will disabuse you of that notion. This is from 2009 and it still is relevant today:

There’s no question that the older George got, the angrier and less patient he got but it still didn’t diminish a lot of what he had to say.

More housecleaing!

This is from sometime in 2010!

Wow!

This regular writing stuff CAN be a chore if you let it. Unfortunately, right now I have no excuse and am feeling as if I have been very lazy the last few days.

I was going to mention what happened to Juan Williams which is just another example of Political Correctness run amok...

Juan Williams got fired for being honest. Being honest though is something that long ago fell out of favor in our society. Maybe the lesson here is that you can write about Civil Rights, you can be open in your views but you won’t get a pass from the Left if you don’t buy entirely into their narrative.

What Williams said?

“Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Some observers have questioned whether NPR actually fired Williams for making the comments on Fox News, as opposed to making them in another forum. William Saletan of Slate.com compared the Williams situation to that of Shirley Sherrod, saying that both Sherrod and Williams had their words taken out of context in a way that made them appear racist and led to the loss of their jobs, except that Williams was victimized by liberals, rather than conservatives as in Sherrod’s case. Saletan said that while Williams’ confessed fears of Muslims were “unsettling,” the context was Williams' argument that such fears should not be used to curtail the rights of Muslims or anyone else, and that Williams consistently argued that Muslims in general should not be blamed for the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists. NPR has been criticized by Williams and others for practicing a double standard in the firing, compared to their not firing Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg and other NPR reporters and analysts for their opinionated statements.

Ultimately, the people at NPR who fired him paid a price themselves...

NPR’s top news editor resigned Thursday after an internal review found that the Washington news organization mishandled the firing of news analyst Juan Williams over controversial remarks he made on a TV program in October.

In an additional piece of fallout from the firing, NPR’s board voted to cancel the annual bonus of NPR's chief executive, Vivian Schiller, who supported the decision to fire Williams and made some ill-timed comments about it, for which she later apologized.

Look, I saw a friend of mine not too long ago and she was bemoaning her experiences traveling. Particularly she talked about the TSA and their ineptitude in shutting down a terminal at the airport when someone found a crockpot that had been there for two days when a person realized they likely wouldn’t be able to get that through security.

She noted how people were running to and fro without any real direction because the TSA people didn’t really have much of a plan except to get everyone REALLY, REALLY scared.

My response was twofold...

First I said, you get what you pay for, knowing that the TSA doesn’t pay especially well and the people doing the job are for the most part not that much better trained than the folks manning the lobby stations in most office buildings.

Second, CAN WE STOP?

My friend is a woman in her mid seventies who has lived in this country her entire life. This idea that we shouldn’t profile people is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE DOING IF NOT PROFILING?!!??!?

On September 11th a bunch of Arab men bought one way tickets to LA with cash and boarded a flight in Portland, Maine... maybe that should have set off alarm bells?

Instead our response to these things is to put everyone through the ringer because we don’t want to be accused of bias.

When the Grey Panthers start hijacking planes and flying them into buildings let’s target them but until then can we give the seniors a pass at the airport if they’re people who are from this country and not Muslims?

And Juan Williams actually got fired for common sense.

More from the drafts queue!

This I started way, way back in April of 2010!

Freestyling.

This is where I let things roll around inside my hear they just move down my arms and into my fingers and the words wind up on the page. Things have been mighty quiet around here (on the blog) but that hasn’t been the case anywhere else. Lots of STUFF to do and lots of STUFF getting done.

This is a good thing.

However, I was at a seminar recently and the person leading the seminar was talking about how necessary it is today for everyone to have a web site (or rather a web-presence) and when someone mentioned a blog what was funny was how he commented to the person that a blog needs regular updating ad it is far too much work, all that content that has to go up each and every day to drive traffic and draw interest.

Still here I am 7 years later and I’m still blogging.

SEVEN YEARS! Think about that for a second if you will. Yet, it’s true I started writing on this thing way, way back in 2003 and I don’t have any clearer an idea today of where I’m going with it (the blog) than I did the day I started it other than I would use it to force myself to write. My first entry was on March 15th 2003

So. another seven years has passed and I am dumbfounded to think how quickly it has gone.

Time, the one precious resource that I have that I freely squander much to my own detriment. They say as you get older you are supposed to get wiser but I wonder if aside from that not being true the reality is that you only get more set in your ways.

And not the good ways either...

Well, my goal has been to write regularly and revive the blog which I let fall fallow so that is no small accomplishment so far this year that I have been able to write regularly and post on a somewhat regular basis and in a steady stream.

As I am writing this (a few days in advance), it is dreadfully hot and dense. I’m one of those stupid people who denies himself AC even though I have AC (but not in the room I’m currently in). As I get older again, all those bad qualities come out.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to be productive and not squander as much time as I normally would and try to continue to move forward without being paralyzed by worry.

To that end, I’ve been going down a list and doing the things that need doing around here. One thing was yard work because I am that neighbor whose house looks like a shack.

I cut the grass last week after it had grown to about waist high... there was the combination of working for a spell, rainy weekends and then a lawnmower which although only a year old was being uncooperative.

So the first order of mowing the lawn was to get the lawn mower running, this was a few days... looking to see what to do, getting fresher gas, looking online to see how to take the thing apart when the fresher gas didn’t immediately work, finding and replacing a plug, flushing out the carburetor and even after all that it didn't work at first and I was very frustrated and ready to call it quits. I had already scraped my arm pulling the damn cord and whacked my finger at least once.

Fun times...

Then I went and was getting something else set up, came back and tried the lawnmower again and IT WORKED! I was so happy and it was such a victory and I mowed my lawn and felt a sense of accomplishment.

Then I took down this tree and had to deal with the chain saw crapping out. That too was another adventure but I did get the damn thing down and chopped it up and raked the side and again felt pretty good.

But man, you don’t do stuff for a long time and there is simply so much to do.

Poison Ivy is EVERYWHERE in my yard! So I’ve been spraying and dealing with that (meaning of course I’ve got a little patch of that now on both arms).

Things are getting done though!

AND THAT’S GOOD.

They never get done as fast as I would like but they do get done. Much the same way I am whittling away at all the things in the drafts queue and now have passed below 200! YAY!

So maybe it’s a question of putting one foot in front of the other to make any kind of progress at all.

What LOST wasn’t

Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrota just wound up The Leftovers the past weekend. (a few weeks ago)

It’s the second series finale I’ve watched this year the first being Bates Motel which was the product of Lindelof’s co-conspirator on LOST.

Everything they should have done on LOST, they did on The Leftovers and the series ending turned out to be entirely satisfying in a way the series finale of LOST wasn’t. Sure enough I wrote that and moments after writing it, I did a search and quickly found this:

If you haven’t seen The Leftovers you really should, it’s only three seasons long but I have to say it turned out to be just incredible and addictive in short order.

More drafts queue cleaning

This is from back in 2011!

I know it’s hard to believe.

But I do go out and do fun things from time to time. Back in early December, I even made it out to go see a band I really like perform live!

But best of all, they did this song off their new album! Check it out!

It’s funny because the video is of the song Sick Of You and it was shortly after the show I broke up with the woman I went with. I got sick of her pretty fast.

My cousin’s wife was really funny about it and I’ve spoken about it before because the woman in question had some serious assets but like most of the times we went out, there was always some moment when I’d get snapped at, it was like having a pet snake.

The show was okay, I’m of two minds when I go to a show because I’m a person who doesn’t like crowds. I’m acutely aware of my surroundings and I’m not crazy about being pushed, bumped into or the like. I just can’t believe that people are so entirely clueless as to not be aware that it’s another person they’re elbowing, stepping on, pushing. It REALLY bothers me to the point where I push back so there’s that.

I always have to remember earplugs too because my hearing is already damaged and I have tinnitus so I don’t want to do even more damage than has already been done (and yes, I have gotten my hearing tested and was pointedly told at the time that the amount of loss for someone my age was more than would be accounted for with age).

You can’t get people to do these kinds of things though as you get older unless you have a really adventurous crowd you hang around with. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of the music I like is not the kind of music you would go to a supper club to see.

Cake was great though and they were worth it even if the company wasn’t so good. It got to a point where I just decided I wasn’t going to let someone else stop me from enjoying the show and that’s what I did.

Why the Democrats fail.

I spend way too much time posting comments in places instead of getting things done. I know it too which doesn’t speak well of my discipline.

One of the things I posted a comment on was a story relating to the string of Democratic losses since the Election last November including the Election itself. There is a big disconnect going on and I find it fascinating.

Anyway, I posted a comment... and you know it got over 100 up votes and not a single down vote. That's not easy because usually depending on what you post one side or the other will get pissed off and then, there you go, down votes.

This though was an assessment of where the Democrats have gone wrong. Mind you, I’m registered to that other party but as stated before I don’t fall in lockstep.

I simply have to laugh at how stupid the Democrats have become.

They act as if it is so hard to understand why they have fallen so far out of favor when the truth is plain for anyone who cares to look.

Historically the party was supposed to be about the middle class and the working man (and woman), with Barack Obama’s election that focus changed... it changed focus to carrying out a social agenda and policies that worked against the Middle Class. Then when people cried out about it, the Democrats called them racists, sexists, xenophobes, Nazis, stupid and a whole host of other unflattering names because those folks didn’t believe the party was in their corner anymore.

This is a surprise? You insult people and think they're actually going to vote for you?

The Democrats embraced globalism at the expense of jobs, illegal immigrants at the expense of jobs, refugees... basically everyone else that they could while telling the people in the middle class who are struggling that they need to just suck it up because the world is changing. Oh, and we're going to keep raising your taxes while we’re at it too because we believe government should be even bigger.

I mean honestly, how hard is it to figure out? The evidence is in front of your faces and even now the Democrats deny it and position themselves as “the resistance” not realizing this is the attitude that got them into this position to begin with.

Some folks believe Bernie Sanders managed to be so popular because he sounded like a Socialist, they took this as a signal to push the party further to the Left which is simply a huge mistake.

The reason Sanders message resonated with people was because it talked about Middle Class concerns, it spoke to the people who had been the Democrats traditional base. Hillary Clinton couldn’t do that because she managed to make her campaign about whatever special interest group was in front of her at that moment and she sounded disingenuous all the while.

I still believe if Sanders had been the nominee he would’ve won.

But I really wonder if the Democrats recognize that? I wonder if they understand what it is people across the country want? They’ve got precious little time to learn that lesson and if they don’t learn it fast they are likely to be suffering through a second term of a Trump Presidency much as they may not want that to happen. 

Nasty bitch syndrome.

Another drafts queue ditty...

One of the things I find infuriating about society today is the overwhelming tendency to relinquish responsibility for one’s behavior to some kind of external factor. People today can’t run away from themselves fast enough it seems.

It’s just not their fault. No one is above this and it has become so prevalent it is truly disturbing.

In the spirit of running away from one’s behavior, today’s subject is PMDD.

PMDD for those of you who are unaware is defined as the following:

PMDD is premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that is so severe it can be debilitating due to either physical, mental or emotional symptoms. Treatment is recommended because PMDD interferes with the sufferer’s ability to function in her social or occupational life. The cardinal symptom—surfacing between ovulation and menstruation, and disappearing within a few days after the onset of the bleeding—is irritability. Anxiety, anger, and depression may also occur. The main symptoms, which can be disabling, include

• feelings of deep sadness or despair, possible suicide ideation
• feelings of tension or anxiety
• panic attacks
• diarrhea
• mood swings, crying,
• lasting irritability or anger, increased interpersonal conflicts. Typically sufferers are unaware of the impact they have on those close to them
• apathy or disinterest in daily activities and relationships
• yeast infections
• difficulty concentrating
• fatigue
• food cravings or binge eating
• insomnia or hypersomnia
• feeling “out of control,”
• increase or decrease in sex drive.
• increased need for emotional closeness,
• physical symptoms: bloating, heart palpitations, breast tenderness, headaches, joint or muscle pain, swollen face

Gosh!

Could the symptoms be any more broad based than that?

I hate to say it but the description sounds just about like every angry feminist I’ve ever run across. Merely saying it makes me an incredible sexist pig, I know. I still find it very funny though.

Thing is this... let’s say for a second this is a totally valid condition and I’ve no doubt it is to an extent. If true, by accident of gender men are not subject to this. So, there is a difference between men and women, a real physical and physiological difference affection not only people’s bodies but their behavior too.

A DIFFERENCE.

Meaning as much as certain quarters would want you to believe otherwise men and women aren’t the same.

Further, is there any time when we would readily excuse this in a man’s behavior? Excuse it without viewing him as weak or diminished in some capacity? View it without calling into question his ‘manliness’ or thinking less of him somehow?

I think not.

Then again, since there is some kind of prize in being part of the privileged elite of being a white male in this society (I guess I have all these fucking benefits I’m not aware of) who am I to say. Who am I to call into question this ridiculous double standard that is crammed down our throats? I’m tired of this crap being foisted around, this emasculating bs society and certain quarters use as their rallying cry.

Equality? Let’s all shave our fucking heads and run around in jumpsuits like a science fiction movie taking up the assignments given to us by some faceless bureaucracy. In the meantime, don’t expect to get a pass because your plumbing is slightly different and you’re having a crappy day.

WE ALL HAVE CRAPPY DAYS!

Your biology is not an excuse and if you want to use it as an excuse some of the time don’t be at all surprised if it gets pulled out of the hat other times when it’s less than convenient to your cause.

 Now, I know there are some quarters where this post will be received like the turd in the pool.

This is over 8 years old and to me underscores something of a strange argument that we continue to have. The argument being that there are no differences between the genders. Better still, the misandry that is perfectly acceptable in today’s society.

The narrative that men are evil oppressors and women have nothing but the most noble of motivations for all their actions in this world, it’s so patently ridiculous.

What has this narrative wrought?

We’ve all heard about the collegiate gender gap. But the implications of that gap have not yet been fully digested. Women now earn 60 percent of master’s degrees, about half of all law and medical degrees, and 42 percent of all M.B.A.s. Most important, women earn almost 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees—the minimum requirement, in most cases, for an affluent life. In a stark reversal since the 1970s, men are now more likely than women to hold only a high-school diploma. “One would think that if men were acting in a rational way, they would be getting the education they need to get along out there,” says Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. “But they are just failing to adapt.”

And the question here is whether they are failing to adapt or that we now have a new kind of repression in place, a passive aggressive way of portraying boys as bad from a very young age:

“A more level and wider playing field for girls enabled them to blossom,” they write. “At the same time, the slower social development and more serious behavioral problems of boys remained and allowed girls to leapfrog over boys in the race to college.”

You know that’s the same kind of language we used to hear from racists (and still do today).

But, misandry is alive and well in America.