Scene and heard

The Royal Wedding: A pragmatic observation

2010-11-16T21:26:00.001-05:00

The Royal Family is a part of the quaintness that many non-Brits like about Britain. As much as the time for this concept has long since passed in a social context, and terms such as ‘commoner’ are anachronisms, it makes huge financial sense to keep them. To be sure, if they were a Corporation, they would probably have one of the highest ROIs year-on-year, in the world

Hundreds of millions of people will either watch the wedding live or see coverage on their local news and any cost will be way more than made up by the boost in tourism both around the wedding and in the months or even years following it, as well as the good will it might bring for our trade.

The British Royal Family may have originally flourished in feudal times, but it is now a great lesson for success in marketing. And I dare say that while many will be angered approaching the wedding day and will boycott everything to do with it, others will look forward to it and their mood will be lifted by it.

Conversations with IT recruiters

2010-09-20T19:23:00.000-04:00

Most recruiters are good to excellent. They listen as well as they talk. Here are two conversations I had with the not so good type;

#1: joined half way through…..
Would it be ok if I get my manager to call you at 5pm?

No, I’ll be on a 4:30 call and am leaving early, so today would be a bad day. Tomorrow morning would be better.

So he can call you at 5pm?

No. I have a 4:30 call and am leaving early today. Tomorrow would be much better. Basically, any time after about 10am

So he should call you before 10 tomorrow?

I repeated myself yet again

#2: Hello, this is Andy

May I speak with Andy please

(resists temptation to be sarcastic): This is he

I have an excellent role….(goes on to describe it)

(I cut him off part way through): Actually, this sounds a lot like a role that was described to me earlier. Is this with Alliance Bernstein?

Yes it is.

Sorry, but if they were the only company left in the world, I would gladly remain unemployed for the rest of my life.

OK. So I’ll submit you then

Did you listen to a single word I just said? (repeats)

Chase Bank compromised? Important read for Chase Debit Card holders

2010-09-10T17:06:00.002-04:00

I tried making two Debit Card transactions today. The first was over the phone and I just thought the person I spoke with was doing something wrong when he said the card came up as invalid.

The second time was at a supermarket, and it was declined, even though I got paid yesterday. So I knew something was wrong.

I called Chase and was told that there were two attempted charges, neither of which were allowed by them, that were made in France against my account. One for about $15 in 'Bazaar Shop' and another for $646 with 'MDA Distributions' for electronics. As these were obviously fraud, I had them cancel my card, which will be an inconvenience until the new one comes through.

I then paid attention to a charge that appeared as Pending, yesterday afternoon. It was with Avon Online for $11.63. My wife sometimes uses my card, and this hadn't seemed an unlikely charge for her to make, even if she'd never bought anything from them before and usually tells me when she's going to use my card.

The woman I spoke with at Avon with told me the amount of the charge before I could even say it.

In the last 3 days, she alone has taken several such calls and the amount is always the same. This is only happening on Chase Debit Cards.

So, all you Chase Card holders (I'd beware even if yours is a Credit Card), look online RIGHT NOW and see if you have this charge with Avon. If you do, contact Chase IMMEDIATELY and have your card canceled!

EDIT: A thought: Just because people are doing this with Avon doesn't mean they aren't making fraudulent charges against other companies also, at small enough amounts to raise little suspicion. If any small charge on your account looks suspicious, act quickly!

Get Low

2010-08-22T16:26:00.000-04:00

This film will be nominated for several Oscars. Of note, of course, Robert Duvall gave the performance of a lifetime and is at least for now, well ahead of the competition for Best Actor. Both Bill Murray and Cissy Spacek will also get nods in their respective Supporting Actor categories. And the film? Well we haven’t seen the usual November and December rush of films which usually make up the bulk of nominations and winners, but this one certainly heads the field right now.

Based on real events, it is the story of a man who is carrying a heavy guilt, incarcerating himself in a house apart from the town for 40 years. The locals see him as a hermit and make up stories about him. And now he is ready to end his self-imposed penitence. He pays for a funeral for himself, to be had while he is still alive. And everyone with a story to tell about him is invited. To tell more here would be doing readers an injustice. This film unfolds so magically, you leave the theatre feeling uplifted. Complete strangers talked to us in the street afterwards, as they knew we had just shared this experience.

I have seen some wonderful films this year, and would recommend Cyrus, The Kids are Alright, The Concert and Kisses, of the films I have seen recently. But this is the first absolute must see film of the year

Growing number in America believe Obama a Muslim – poll

2010-08-19T14:51:00.007-04:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11027568

According to a just published poll, the number of Americans who believe that Barack Obama is Muslim has risen from 11% in March 2009 to 18% now. Of respondents proclaiming themselves Republican, 34% believe him to be Muslim and 33% did not know his religion. Apparently, 43% of all respondents didn’t know, which is quite staggering. I wonder how many people doubted Jimmy Carter or George Bush’s religion, even after seeing them go to Church?

The disinformation campaign really seems to have taken root among those who let certain elements of the media do their thinking for them. I wonder how many people who watch CNN or MSNBC take everything that they see as absolute fact unless there is an element of substantiation. And yet it appears that too many people who watch Fox Views Channel or listen to Conservative Shock Jocks need any proof at all to be furnished. If the words match their own ignorance then they are happy to drink and breath them as if they were water and oxygen.

Another finding was that the majority of people who disapprove of Obama are extremely stupid and racist. Or, to put it the way the poll did, people who believe he is a Muslim, overwhelmingly disapprove of his job performance, while the majority of those who believe he is Christian approve.

I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to an opinion. I am obviously naïve in my hope that such opinions will be reached through reasoning, and that since no two people are exactly alike, so no two people will have exactly the same reasons for reaching these opinions. However, this poll is further evidence – not that I for one needed any more - that a very large percentage of Americans do not think for themselves and are capable of denying all evidence presented which goes against what they want to believe. The venom spitters from Fox Views Channel make their cases based upon nothing but ignorance and lies. They need no burden of proof. Their followers hang on to and will believe their every word. What a shame! And I mean that in both senses of the word.

There will always be ignorance in every country. But surely the levels reached here, now, are approaching historic proportions. Polls like these are an embarrassment to every thinking American, whatever their political affiliation or views of the sitting president.

You are you and can only be you

2010-08-16T22:20:00.001-04:00

I live in New York and work in Jersey City. This means that my commute is very much against the flow of traffic, as very large numbers of New Jerseyans (New Jerseyites?) work in my home town. So in the morning, after climbing the stairs at Pavonia Newport, I must try to find a turnstile to exit which isn’t backed up with people wishing to enter through it. It can certainly be of more than minor irritation that nobody ever yields to us reverse commuters. We must sometimes forge a path through hostile on rushers so that our fellow New Yorkers may follow.

One morning last week, while 3 of the 4 turnstiles to the left of the station were unavailable to me, I saw that the leftmost turnstile offered a free path. I stepped towards it. A split second before the side of my hip hit the turnstile (I am of that certain height where I dare not exit facing forward, at least without protection, for fear of extreme temporary incapacitation of the instantly eye-watering variety), a woman appeared on the other side.

I continued unabated, as to do anything else would have meant a very sudden change of trajectory – and anyway, the other 3 turnstiles in the bank were still taken by people heading to and not from the Big Apple. As I passed her, I caught her mumbling “asshole”. I didn’t dignify this comment with so much as a stutter in my step or a sideways glance. She had perhaps thought that I arrived after her and should have let her pass before me. Maybe she thought that as a man, I should always let her go first. And maybe, in the spirit of camaraderie between our two great States, she thinks that all New Yorkers are assholes. I will jump to no conclusions as to what prompted her comment, other than that she herself jumped to a conclusion strong enough that she felt justified in calling me a name.

It brought back a moment some years earlier, from the days when I lived in New Jersey and commuted from Newark Penn Station, that had long been buried in my memory, of a failed clairvoyant who knew me better than I knew myself. As I walked towards the turnstiles, I was hedging my bets as to which of the two on either side of me I would enter through. As other commuters will recognise, my decision would be last moment, depending upon which one presented itself as open.

I stepped to the right and a man walked into me quite hard. One of the perils of commuting, and not to be fretted? I excused myself but he yelled: “you were headed for the other turnstile and changed your mind at the last moment.” Again, I did not rise to the bait. It would have achieved nothing other than a pointless, heated exchange. In his mind, I had apparently decided upon a path, so he decided, using this certain knowledge of his, to aim for the turnstile I supposedly changed my tack for at the last moment. His reality was forged with such conviction, that he felt justified in telling me what I had been thinking.

The morals of these stories? Even those of us who rarely give much credence to even our own musings regarding the minds of others, still occasionally jump, or at the minimum pigeon step to conclusions. We know that 90% of these conclusions are 90% wrong (and that 76.3% of all statistics are made up), but our untethered minds still sometimes get the better of our varying levels of common sense. I’m not looking to preach about the lessons to be learned apart from suggesting that nobody should leap to (re)action based strictly upon our version of another’s reality, or waste too much time on these ponderings. Indeed, while we may paint detailed impressions of the workings of another’s mind, the event or thoughts we have so painstakingly (or perhaps instantly) crafted, supposedly from the other’s viewpoint, may have registered with them minimally or not at all.

Ultimately, we can’t help but think from our own viewpoint. Even if we are trying to think from that of someone else who we know very well, the closest we can manage is to come from our understanding of who that person is, from our angle of view and through our viewing filters. So whereas people might presume that they know someone well enough to predict how that person will react, sometimes going so far as to state that they know a certain person better than that person knows themselves, this is at best, really only a form of self-flattery. You are you and can only be you. Admit that you are confined to your own mind and don’t spend any great amount of energy presuming you have successfully got into someone else’s while constructing scenarios that are, at the bottom line, all yours and nothing to do with the person you attribute them to. And sure as hell don’t lose sleep, lose friends, call anyone names or yell at anyone based upon a personal construct that you have labeled as belonging to another.

Houseflies

2010-06-24T19:09:00.001-04:00

I saw on a Snapple bottle cap that the average life span of houseflies is one month. This begs a couple of questions:

Is this average noticeably affected by Human use of insect sprays?

I have pondered this one for a number of years: What were houseflies called before there were houses and where did they used to live? Indeed, as the thought now occurs to me, how long did they used to live before we provided the houses for them to live in?

Clearly, you will find very few of these creatures in office buildings, stores or theatres, for example. So somewhere in their tiny minds, they are making a clear choice to reside where we live and not where we work, shop or play.

On reflection, it seems that of all the creatures on Earth, houseflies are the most tied in with Humans. We provided the dwellings for them to live in, from which their name is derived; then set about devising various means of removing them, including the popular father and child sport of fly swatting. Indeed, whereas cats and dogs (okay, maybe not Labradoodles or Puggles) would exist if not for our species, houseflies are perhaps the only creatures which have evolved because of Human Beings, as opposed to either in spite of us (Foxes and Squirrels come to mind) or due to our manipulation (which brings us back to Labradoodles or Puggles!)

Shhhhh. What was that sound?

2010-05-21T11:21:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday evening, the PATH trains were messed up. Well they would be that day, as I was meeting Jan (my wife) and Hannah (my daughter) for dinner and was already running 10 minutes late. The usually timely 7:16 train from Pavonnia Newport Station was maybe 4 or 5 minutes late. If that wasn’t warning enough that something was amiss, the fact that we sat at Christopher Street station for several minutes should certainly have been an indication. Of course, an honest message from the conductor or over the loudspeaker in the station would have alerted us to exactly what might lay in store. But this is the PATH system – home of the “trains are subject to 10 minute delays” messages (*).

We pulled out of the station and travelled perhaps 100 yards before stopping again. Several minutes elapsed before the conductor apologised for the delay, ‘informing’ us that there was a train ahead. The question of whyt there was a train ahead of us was not addressed.

Another few minutes passed before the next apology: “Sorry for the delay. There’s a power outage in front of us and we hope to be moving in about 10 minutes.” Another few minutes: “We are waiting for the dispatcher to give us clearance.” Do dispatchers have power to make trains run when there is no power? Why even bother telling us this nonsense!

He saved by far the best for last: “Ladies and Gentlemen. It sounds like we will be moving soon.” I couldn’t help but wonder what the sound of ‘we will be moving soon’ is and how this mysterious sound was conveyed to the conductor! I would like to know, so that I might recognise it the next time it occurs in my vicinity. That is, unless this conductor is privy to some sound waves my untrained ears cannot discern! I listened hard, but the only thing that came to me was the sound of bullshit!

Of course, it would have been nice if we would have been told while at Christopher Street that there were problems ahead which could result in delays. Just in case a few people might have considered making their way to their destination by alternative means. But that would obviously contravene whatever directive conductors are apparently bound by which forbids them from saying anything that people might actually wish to hear!

* I have mentioned this pet peeve of mine before: Being the literal type, I see a 10 minute delay as meaning that the 7:16 will come at 7:26; the 7:26 will come at 7:36, and so on. Basically meaning that trains are running normally as far as passengers are concerned. This, however, is not what they mean. I have yet to discern if they really mean that trains are running every 20 minutes, as this has not been my experience of these occasions. More likely, it is just something to say when there are problems. The credo apparently being that if something is said, they can’t be accused of not communicating….. even if what is said actually means, or at least communicates, nothing at all of value. See above for further examples!

Manchester City v Spurs: The most important match for many years

2010-05-05T12:47:00.001-04:00

Quite simply, this is the most important match in many years, not just for Manchester City and Spurs, but for all European football.

Currently, City have the means to outbid every other team in both transfer fees and wages. But this is not enough for players who want honours at the highest level and want them NOW! Not that they can be considered one of the favourites to win the Champions league at the first time of asking – and this will likely still discourage a few players from joining them for one more year. But for some players, Champions League qualification will be enough and they will drop any objections they may have against joining the team.

Make no mistake, City should be very short odds for a top 4 spot next year, even if they fail to make it this year. But a Spurs victory today, or a draw today and Spurs at least matching City’s result on Sunday, at least slows down their seemingly inevitable march towards European domination by another year, and gives the teams above them another year to rebuild and stay ahead of them. Let no Arsenal or Manchester United fan feel complacent that they will be able to resist the City march for very long. Only wise player investment by each of these teams will enable them to remain above them a year from now. Liverpool? They really picked a bad year to drop out of the top 4, and there appears little way back for them in the short term.

So whereas Sky apparently relishes the prospect of a new power being born, all ‘neutrals’ really should be hoping for a Spurs victory today – even those who might have to swallow very hard in order to root for them!

Back from LA…. A married man

2009-09-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

The following two posts were written 3 weeks ago. This one was today. I had a lot of catching up to do, so it is short and sweet:

For the thirds and last time, I am a married man. There is so much to write about the ceremony, the party, the Honeymoon, the people, our families, the trip and more. It will take a while, as I also have a lot of other catching up to do. Also, I haven’t yet got the professional pictures. But I do have some great ones lifted from Facebook, posted by various family members and friends. Please bear with me.

It was an amazing 3 weeks which will live with me forever. And those who joined us have similarly raved.

For now, it’s back to reality and the need to make a lot of money!

On my way to LA

2009-09-27T17:57:00.002-04:00

I’m writing this 19,000 feet up in the air (and climbing), on my way from New York to Los Angeles on a futuristic and very comfortable Virgin America Airbus. I had thought I might also send it from up here, but decided I don’t need to pay the $12.95 Internet charge which will be good until my battery dies…. About an hour and a half.

Jan went out to LA on Tuesday morning. She found a one bedroom condo for a short term rental, which is ‘on’ the beach. I expect to take a morning dip in the Pacific tomorrow. By the time I arrive tonight, I’m not sure I will be quite up to it!

So it is a week until the big day. On Wednesday, my mother and sister arrive; on Thursday, my kids and 3 cousins arrive and we have the bachelor party, which will basically just be drinks in a nice bar somewhere. An aunt will come on Friday, the day of the rehearsal dinner. And on Saturday morning, at 9:30am, most or all of us will gather at a location as yet to be determined, and watch Tottenham Hotspur v. Manchester United live. What a way to start my wedding day!!! I hope the lads do me proud and start my big day on a positive note. Whatever the result though, watching it with that many of my favourite people will be unique and special.

The wedding itself is at 6:45pm on Saturday. Somewhere between 50 and 55 people will be there and the work involved in putting it on seems quite disproportionate to the hours it will last and the size of it, but it will be a lot of fun. Jan has put in so many hours to put this whole thing together. Who knew that selecting the type and colour of dress worn by the bridesmaids; the flower that they will wear and the flowers on the tables could possibly be so complicated! Selecting the tux certainly seemed easy enough!! 

Relatives start to filter home on Sunday, ending with Mum and Jackie leaving on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, we go to Maui for our Honeymoon for a week.

I will take pictures and will post some, along with a wedding shot or two, here. But please bear with me – it might be a while.

Challenges of being in New York

2009-09-27T17:57:00.001-04:00

Now at 38,000 feet……

I’m really not sure how much patience I have left for the place. I still love the positive energy and walking around some areas at certain times. But either the bullshit level is on the rise or my tolerance of it is on the decline.

One commute home began with a complete selfish idiot running through the revolving door exiting the PATH station at Pavonia Newport in Jersey City. Never mind that I was in the door and he suddenly more than doubled the speed. I pushed ck a little and was sorry I hadn’t jammed my foot there and sent him crashing into it. Next time!!

Then on 6th Avenue in in Manhattan, as I started to cross the road I heard “watch” from a distance and paid it no mind. A couple of seconds later, more urgently, “watch! Watch!!” And I turned to see one of the great menaces of New York, the Chinese delivery man on a bicycle. They observe no rules and I wish they would be stopped and fined more by the Police. Maybe, just maybe, they would observe some common decencies then instead of practicing their headlong pursuit of faster delivery and extra tips. Not that I blame them for wanting more than the meagre money they probably make. But I do resent that happening at the expense of my safety.

And just a day later, on 14th Street approaching Trader Joe’s, a young lady was twirling her oversized umbrella completely oblivious to the people with whom she was sharing the crowded sidewalk. When she slung it sideway over her shoulder, I was forced to grab it so as not to be hit. When I informed her that this was Manhattan and there were other people around, and that I nearly got got, she responded “No shit, Einstein! Well you should stay away from me!” Like I would ever think of not doing so!! Really no point in continuing any discussion there, as people with attitudes and mouths like that will refuse to back down even if they know they are in the wrong.

Pity these assholes and all of those who walk out of restaurants and stores without bothering to look and see if anyone else is around (it’s Manhattan. Others are around!) then stop, blocking the pavement; and all of the other mindless folk who inhabit the streets here spoil it for the decent majority. But certainly, by the time Hannah is more established in her independence, there’s every chance that I will move from the area for the last time. Before then, maybe it will be back to New Jersey for a while.

Yahoo Spam

2009-09-01T20:57:00.003-04:00

I just got a Spam mail that surely only a complete and utter moron could possibly fall for, so maybe I shouldn't be so angry that I want the senders to choke on their own spit overnight and not wake up tomorrow morning. After all, surely, people who are stupid enough to fall for this aren't capable of feeding themselves, let alone negotiating the Internet. Anyway, this is the email, which I have reported to Spam@uce.gov, an FTC website:

Yahoo account users,

All yahoo free account owners,

We are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of yahoo accounts so we are shutting down some yahoo accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this email so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below. Your Username, Password, Date of Birth and your Country information would be needed to verify your Account...

Due to the congestion in all Yahoo users and removal of all unused Yahoo Accounts, Yahoo would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 48 hours for security reasons.

* Username:
* Password:
* Date of Birth:
* Country Or Territory:

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two days of receiving this warning stands the risk of lossing his or her account permanently.

The Yahoo Management

Eyes of the storm?

2009-08-21T16:52:00.001-04:00

A super fast moving and violent storm passed over here. The sky is now blue, but more ominous clouds are rapidly approaching. So we are in the eye. Then I thought of how storms break up the faster they move and the further in land they go, so it is possible that storms may have more than one eye.

I imagine that storms with 4 eyes must be quite a spectacle!

I am a bad person!

2009-08-06T21:14:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, a man in his 30s got on the B train, two stops from where I was getting off, and stood just in front of my seat. He rested his heavy brief case against my leg, which I promptly moved. The brief case came to rest against someone else’s leg. This forced the man to pick it up and rest it between his own legs. He wasn’t happy.

And when I stood up, he had to not only pick up his brief case again, but also move a little to let me off. He looked at me as if I was the biggest pain in the ass he had ever encountered. Somehow, even though he was obviously a lovely fellow, I didn’t feel guilty.

The new New York Times commercial

2009-07-16T16:30:00.001-04:00

Their new commercial has been on for a couple of months now…. long enough for me to hate it almost as much as I hated their previous efforts. Gone are the obnoxious happy yet empty stereotypes. They have been replaced with a couple whose relationship is based on the New York Times; people for whom the New York Times is the highlight of their weekend; people who are “fluent in” sections of the New York Times (yes, the woman is fluent in the Style section!) and a man who knows beyond any argument, that the very best journalists in the world work for the New York Times. In other words, shallow people who don’t have a life beyond the New York Times, plus an opinionated idiot.

As before, the commercials come on all too frequently and feel more like harassment than an attempt to sell me a product. They come across as an attempt to lose the traditional customer base and run the paper into the ground. If there are many other people – advertisers nightmares – who, like myself, tend to use commercials more to determine what not to buy than what to buy - the criteria being that if they are aiming at morons they can’t be trying to sell me anything so I won’t buy it - then their strategy is probably doomed to lose them readership at an even faster rate than modern trends would otherwise predict.

Mattresses, swedes and mashed potatoes

2009-07-16T16:14:00.001-04:00

Some of you may wonder how these could possibly be linked. But you will know from your own secret thoughts, that memories can take our minds on wild tangents. And so it was with me.

I moved in with Jan a couple of weeks ago. She had inherited a mattress which was somewhere in age between considerably older than 15 years and post civil war. It was brutal. I realised after I replaced it with my wonderful 2 year old but good as new firm memory foam model, that I shouldn’t have dumped the thing. I missed an opportunity. I should have donated it to the American torture camp program. Suspected bad people could have been confined to it for 22-23 hours per day. I tell, you, they would have broken even if strong enough to withstand water boarding. And there’s not a convention in the world that would call it torture or consider it illegal!

I was convinced that this was the worst mattress I had ever slept on until my memory dredged up a long forgotten number that I slept on a few times in my Aunt and Uncles place as a pre-teen. It was old, but suited me well enough. Until one day, my Uncle’s Mother stayed over. She was a lovely lady with a truly enormous belly. The next time I slept on the bed, there was an indentation in the middle which directly corresponded to her girth, and which I had to curve my body around for fear of falling in. At the time, I always slept on my front, and this really wasn’t conducive to sleeping in semi craters.

How my mind took me from this to Swedes, which are known in the US as rutabagas, even I’m not willing to guess at, other than both were awful memories. At my Primary School (for US readers, this goes from ages 4 or 5 up to 11), the school dinners were also torture (maybe this memory is linked to Jan’s old mattress and not my uncle’s?). And we had to finish every bite, because “children are starving in Biafra”. The swede was boiled down into a mush, which was somewhat lumpy and watery – remarkably similar in texture to what they called mashed potatoes, which were so traumatic for me that I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes again for 30 years – but with a strong flavour I will never forget but couldn’t begin to describe.

I believe I blogged once before about a moment indelibly etched in my memory. The headmistress of the school, who we all thought was incredibly old, had an enormous gap between her two front teeth. One day, I was sitting in the front of the lunch room, and she decided to speak, or rather shout at all of the kids. I watched in horror as a huge gob of her spit landed in the middle of my mashed potato and slowly disappeared into it, and my usual laboured eating of this dreadful stuff became an exercise of trepidatious picking around the edges.

When she asked me why I wasn’t eating, my young (9 or 10 year old) mind understood that telling her I couldn’t eat my mashed potato because she spat in it could only end badly for me. So when all the other children went out to play, I went into her office to finish my lunch. And I continued nibbling until a dinner lady came in and took pity on me. And no, in case you are wondering, this is not the reason I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes for 30 years. Even without the Miss Kohn spittle incident, these were quite disgusting enough to have left their mark on me.

Mike Bloomberg ads

2009-07-05T12:33:00.001-04:00

Mayor Bloomberg is on TV constantly. It’s almost as if he is running against himself in the Mayoral race. He certainly present a compelling case for himself. But I have two points to make.

You can either believe what he and his political supporters say about City schools, or speak with teachers, who, in my experience, hate the man.

And second and far from least, the reason why he absolutely must not be elected. A vote for Bloomberg is a vote against democracy. I will state and restate this. The New York City electorate voted twice to maintain term limits and Bloomberg overturned these democratic decisions claiming there was a financial need for him to be given another 4 years. After he claimed that the economy here was picking up, a journalist asked him if the conditions for him overturning the will of the people still existed. He not only didn’t respond to the question, he was rude to the questioner. Because the truth is, economic problems or not, he is so conceited, he would have put forward legislation to overturn the public votes and run for a 3rd term.

Please, if you believe in democracy, do not vote for Mike Bloomberg, no matter how you rate his performance as Mayor.

The high speed rail debate

2009-07-05T11:47:00.000-04:00

I saw an article about this on cnn.com today. Apparently, President Obama has pledged $13bn to the cause and there is a split between those who say it will be financial self-supporting, those who say it can never be so and those who say that talk of financial viability is beside the point.

Of course, the last of the three is the right answer, and those who oppose it on financial grounds are the type of dinosaurs who should just hurry up and turn into oil already, like their far more interesting ancestors. But I digress.

The talk seems to be of trains in excess of 110mph. England had the ‘Inter-City 125’ over 30 years ago. In 2007, France broke the world record for a train, at 357.2 kph, which translates to a little under 225mph. So I would seriously question why the country which prides itself as being the greatest in the world is looking to upgrade to 30+ year old, and obviously inferior trains.

My vision is of 300mph trains on all new tracks, built through a combination of corporate and government financing with bond issues allowing the public to also invest. And I want to see these trains run from East to West and North to South. Yes, the cost will be hugs, but the cost of not doing it would be considerably greater in so very many ways.

First, a couple of reasons why this would be a good idea: If you could get from New York to Miami in under 4 hours, would you bother driving to the airport, leaving your car in the long term parking lot, checking in an hour or more before the flight time, waiting for the almost inevitably delayed take off, and then taking a cab from the airport to your destination, when the stations these trains will run between will be in City centres?

You can walk on these trains. They have proper refreshment cars. People who are very long legged or very overweight will not need to choose between travelling first class in order to fit into the seat or upset those sitting in front of them (that person being unable to recline their seat – I know this, because I was that person once) or next to them.

Would you consider a 10-hour train ride between California and New York when the plane supposedly takes about 5 ½ hours? But how long before your flight do you leave home? What is the actual door-to-door journey time? I suspect the actual difference in journey time would be closer to 2 hours than 4 ½. But how much more comfortable and hassle free would those hours be?

Are you perhaps an environmentalist? Think of the savings in gasoline and aviation fuel!

But the recent talk has been about intra-State rail links, connecting major cities in California and Florida to each other. For these routes, perhaps 300mph trains would be overkill, even though a mere 110 seems pointless and redundant even while being planned. But if you could get from LA to San Francisco in 2 ½ hours, or Jacksonville to Miami in 2 hours, might it keep you out of your car or be a far more attractive alternative to flying? Traffic on roads would improve, meaning better air quality, less traffic, less stress and less road works. There would be less delays in air travel, which would also become safer.

And the cost, while undoubtedly high, will be mitigated by a few factors that the status quo people are too blinkered to think of. Many people would work on these projects. A proportion of the jobs would actually pay decently. These people would put money back into the economy by spending. They would pay taxes. They would have health insurance!

And here’s another way this should and probably will be partly paid for: tax on air tickets and higher tolls on roads where these routes coincide with the new high-speed rail lines. True, people would scream that they are subsidising others against their wish. And true, the airlines would scream that their business was being strangled. But times must change.

We are killing our planet and clogging our roads, airports and airways. The cost of gasoline will only go one way in the future, and this plan would relieve the upward pressure. And ultimately, apart from the cost of fuel in dollars and cents at the pump, there is the very real, if less easily discernable cost of dealing with increased asthma and cancer rates and other health issue directly related poor air quality, as well as the cost of attempting to clean the air. Yes, whatever the dinosaurs say, times must change. And the sooner we get real and accept these changes, the healthier we, our children and grandchildren will be.

Catch-up

2009-06-20T12:07:00.000-04:00

This has been a VERY busy time, and I am now on the home stretch, but not done yet.

It all started with Memorial Day weekend. Jan and I went to Amherst, Massachusetts for Sean’s graduation, which was on the Saturday. We actually stayed the night before and the night after at the Springfield Sheraton, about 40 minutes away. We lucked out with the weather. Apparently, not too distant Boston had most uncertain weather while we were bathed in unbroken, glorious sunshine. And with 4000 kids graduating, we were wonderfully surprised that the ceremony was fast moving and very enjoyable.

The college, UMASS Amherst, had a cook out for students and relatives, after which we went for a wonderful meal at a really beautiful brook-side restaurant nearby. Our party was interesting. Sean and his parents, one of whom was with his fiancé; the other with her mother and step-mother, the latter of who was with her new husband, who was the only one I hadn’t previously met.

We went to Boston to spend Sunday evening through till Monday afternoon with my friend Heidi and had another wonderful day. I had hoped to post pictures here. I certainly took enough. Alas, somehow, somewhere, certainly at the end of the Boston stay, I lost my camera. I can still not quite believe it is gone, and I am most upset about that. I will have to get another as soon as I can afford it, but those moments have gone. And the camera was a gift. It’s worse to lose gifts than things we buy for ourselves.

The busy-ness continued. Jan was here for 3 weeks, but has now gone to California to finalise arrangements for the wedding. That entailed two lots of packing. And on Friday, I move into her place on the Upper West Side.

The mountain of things I have to do is tormenting me. I should have been getting to them rather than writing this blog entry. I am selfishly grateful that it is cloudy out, as I now have to go through everything I own to determine what comes with me, what goes into storage, what can be recycled or donated and what ends up in the garbage. And all the while, the new project I am currently learning, to eventually rescue me from a 9-5 existence, beckons.

A New York moment

2009-06-19T09:02:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, walking outside of Fairway on Broadway and 74th Street, I locked eyes with a clear eyed 80-something woman with perfect skin and a youthful spring in her step. Her classic, Bohemian beauty was undiminished, suggesting that she used to turn many more heads than just my own; her eyes told stories of depth and a fascinating life. Our eyes didn’t disconnect until we passed each other; each of our slightly crooked half smiles mirroring the other.

Those few of you who, like me, constantly look at the people passing you by on the street without shying from eye contact, will understand why this moment felt so magical. Those who keep their eyes averted will never experience similar moments on connection and may simply shrug as they read this.

IRS Form W-8BEN email scam. PLEASE don’t fall for it!

2009-06-07T13:25:00.003-04:00

I received an email today from an address stated simply as IRS. The title of the email also was only IRS. This suggested that their records show me to be a non-resident alien, and I am to fill in and fax a form either confirming or correcting this information.

I opened the form. It turns out that this is a modified version of a real form. However, it asks for bank account information, which the IRS would never do. Further, if the IRS wants to contact you, it will do so by snail mail, not email.

When you open this email, the address shows up as noreply@irs.gov. Out of curiosity, I hit the reply button and this address came up: info@nvinternational-ltd.com

For more information on this scam, please go to this website: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/cmosby/archive/2009/04/22/fake-form-w-8ben-used-in-irs-tax-scams-trendlabs-malware-blog.aspx

And don’t just lie down and take it! This is a scam of the most heinous proportions, which makes the stupid letters we all get from Africa look like kids stuff. Forward whatever you receive to your State Attorney General’s Office. In New York, that is: internet_fraud@oag.state.ny.us

I was tempted to send a nasty email back to this scumbag, but didn’t want to tip him off. I want him to have a knock on his door from the Police, as he is taken into custody. I understand that this person may not live in New York or even the USA, but that should stop nobody from doing the right thing here.

DO NOT fill in and send off this form, or you will have enabled someone to steal your identity. DO report this email and let the law deal shut this person down.

Here is the form I was sent. Unfortunately, the formatting was not compatible with blogger:

FORM W-8BEN (NRA Recertification)
Request for Recertification of Foreign Status
W-8BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner
(Substitute form) For United States Tax Withholding
Part I Identification of Beneficial Owner
(JUNE 2009)
1. Name of individual or organization that is the beneficial owner
2. Sex: x male □ female
3. Type of beneficial owner □ Individual □ Corporation □ Complex Trust
□ Simple Trust □ Grantor Trust □ Central Bank of issue
□ Government □ International organization
□ Tax-exempt organization □ Private foundation
4. Date of Birth
5(a). Nationality: 5(b). Place of Birth:
6. Country of permanent Residence
7. Mothers Maiden Name:

8(a). Spouse Name: 8(b). Spouse date of Birth:
9.Permanent resident address (street, apt, or suite no, or rural route).Do not use a P.O.box or In-care of address

City or town, state or province, include postal code where appropriate
Country (do not abbreviate)
10. Mailing address (if different from above)

City or town, state or province, include postal code where appropriate
Country (do not abbreviate)
11. Social Security Number.(if any) / Cedular de Identidad no
□SSN or ITIN □EIN
12. Profession: 13.Day time phone/ fax Number
9. 14.(a) Bank Name(s):
15. Account number(s):
16. Branch Address:

17. Date Account(s) was opened:

18. How often do you come to USA and when did you arrive last?
19. ATTACH PHOTOCOPY OF PASSPORT FOR PROPER IDENTIFICATION
Part II Certification of Beneficiary Owner
Under penalties of perjury, I decided that I have examined the information on this form to the best of my knowledge and believe it is true, correct and complete.
I furthermore certify under penalties of perjury that:
. I am the beneficial owner (or am authorized to sign for the beneficial owner) of all the income to which this form relate.
. The beneficial owner is not a U.S person.
. The income to which this form relates is not effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States or is effectively connected but
subject to tax under an income tax treaty, and
. For broker transaction or barter exchanges, the beneficial owner is an exempt foreign person as defined in the instructions.
Furthermore, I authorized this form to be provided to any withholding agent that has control, receipt or custody of the income of which I am the beneficial owner or withholding agent that can disburse or make payments of the income of which I am the beneficial owner.
The Internal Revenue Service does not require your consent to any provisions of this document other than the Certifications required to establishing your status as a non-U.S person and, if applicable, obtain a reduced rate of withholding.

Sign Here ____________________________________________________ ___________________
(Signer #1) signature of beneficial owner or individual authorized to sign for beneficial owner Date

Sign Here ______________________________________________________ ___________________
(Signer #2) signature of beneficial owner or individual authorized to sign for beneficial owner Date

SEND TO FAX NO: +1-206-203-3379
JUNE 2009

Dear Sir,
Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. As a result, you are exempted from United States of America Tax reporting and withholdings, on interest paid you on your account and other financial dealing to protect your exemption from tax on your account and other financial benefit in rectifying your exemption status.

Therefore, you are to authenticate the following by completing form W-8BEN, and return to us as soon as possible through the fax number: +1-206-203-3379

If you are a USA Citizen and resident, this form W-8BEN is not meant for you, please indicate “USA Citizen/Resident” on the form and return it to us. We shall then send you a form W9095.

When completing form W-8BEN, please follow the steps below

1. We need you to provide your permanent address if different from the current mailing address on your Form W-8BEN , you must indicate if a non-USA resident, your country of origin to support your non-resident status (if your bank account or other financial dealing has a USA address for mailing purpose).

2. If any joint account holder are now USA residents or Citizen, or in any way subject to USA tax reporting laws, Please check the box in this section.

3. Please have all account holders, sign and date the form separately and fax it to the above-mentioned number.

Please, complete Form W-8BEN ‘attached” and return to us within 1 (one) week from the receipt of this letter by faxing it, to enable us update your records immediately if your account or any other financial benefits are not rectified in a timely manner, it will be subject to USA tax reporting and back up withholding (if back up withholding applies, we are required to withhold 30% of the interest paid to you).

We appreciate your cooperation in helping us protect your exempt status and also update our records.

Sincerely.

A quote to get you thinking

2009-06-04T14:09:00.001-04:00

I just finished reading E. H Gombrich’s ‘A Little History of The World, a surprisingly enjoyable book once you get past the first couple of pages which seem to talk to children and not adults. It actually is aimed at pretty much all ages and reads that way beyond the opening. The book was first published in 1936 but only recently did the author add a final chapter and translate it into English.

A quote near the end caught my eye, as it surely demands that we all look at ourselves and our respective countries, and ask some serious questions. It is from an unnamed Buddhist Monk the author knows.

He would “love to know why someone who boasts that he is the cleverest, the strongest, the bravest or the most gifted man on Earth is thought ridiculous and embarrassing, whereas if, instead of “I”, he says, ‘we are the most intelligent, the strongest, the bravest or the most gifted people on Earth’, his fellow countrymen applaud enthusiastically and call him a patriot.”

Perhaps if a few more people thought this way, we would have less conflict and would treasure our neighbours instead of thinking many of them beneath us. I will not point fingers at individual countries. Most or all are guilty to some extent, and certainly, some more so than others. I can think of one where the crowds go wild every time a politician proclaims it the greatest country on Earth. As a sound bite, it certainly works. But just consider how those listening think of others when they proudly take this message to heart and how they (perhaps you) view the outside world as a direct consequence of believing this. It really isn’t possible to put yourself on a pedestal of any kind without all those who don’t share your pedestal being beneath you. And if you think that last statement isn’t true, I respectfully suggest that you are fooling yourself, but not others.

Been busy!

2009-06-04T14:08:00.001-04:00

I have some material lined up to write, but I haven’t had enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do, so unfortunately, the blog has suffered a little. And it may stay like that for the next couple of weeks. Bear with me, folks. I’ll be back!

Swine flu hysteria

2009-05-01T13:54:00.001-04:00

With 200+ cases of this virus confirmed in the entire U.S., a mass hysteria is sweeping the world. I have even seen a very few people in New York and Jersey City wearing face masks! OK, a couple of dozen of those cases were right here in the City, and there are undoubtedly quite a few undiagnosed people walking around as carriers. Yes, more people will get this flu.

A baby died so we have a serious pandemic? I feel dreadful for the parents and family of this baby, but put into perspective, every year, flu viruses claim lives of very young, very old and very sick people. If this virus starts killing otherwise healthy people, it is time to get worried, but this is at most a remote possibility. At least wait until a few people you know get sick before starting to worry. Then again, what flu season has ever passed by without you or people you know getting sick from it? I will only start to worry when reports have it that the number of reported infections is growing exponentially and low-risk people are winding up in the hospital, or worse.

In the meantime, take your hand sanitizer with you. If you see someone in a confined space who seems ill, get at least 6 feet away from them. In New York at least, don’t worry about touching the hand rails. So few people here sneeze into their hands that these might be more germ free than they should be! (I wish that was nothing more than irony or sarcasm, but unfortunately, it happens to be true!) Just don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth with the same part of your hand that you use to grasp hold of the rail. However, this is sound advice for every day, even if there is no health scare.

On a slightly different and certainly lighter note, now that we are hearing this virus being called H1N1, am I the only person who can’t get the Gorillaz song M1 A1 out of his mind?

Soul Catcher by Michael White is a great book!

2009-04-29T17:17:00.001-04:00

I somehow manage to pick out very good books for myself. Most recently, I have read Broken by Daniel Clay, which American reviewers don’t seem to like, but I thought was excellent; and The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright, which I thought was more accessible to more people than Broken and another excellent book. And then I picked up Soul Catcher!

The story dates back to pre-Civil War America, when Slave Catchers were called Soul Catchers by Black people and White abolitionists. It is a high adventure trek from South to North and back again, first in search of and then in the company of two runaway slaves. The book is billed as a story of redemption, which it most certainly is. But the style in which it is written, the depth of the various characters, the description of the journey and the complex relationships of all of the characters set this book apart from most.

Yes, I have read many books that I would recommend to people; many that I have thoroughly enjoyed. But this captivated me in a way that very few books ever have and moves into the upper echelon alongside Birdsong and above such notables as The Secret Life of Bees, To Kill a Mockingbird, Water for Elephants, Tuesdays with Morrie….

When you see this described as an important book, believe it! As avid a reader as I am, I would describe few books as ‘must read’. This one deserves that accolade. Read it!

You may be an asshole if….

2009-04-29T15:53:00.002-04:00

You may be an asshole if you don’t make room for people to get off trains, particularly in the rush hour.

You are an asshole if you barge through the crowds trying to get off said train.

You may be an asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass.

You are an asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass in the rush hour.

You are a mega asshole if you stand in front of a turnstile in a train (Subway, Underground, Metro, etc.) station fumbling for your commuter pass in the rush hour while your friend or kid is standing in front of the neighboring turnstile either doing the same or waiting for your pass.

You may be an asshole if you come out of a store onto the pavement/sidewalk without looking, forcing those already there to have to stop in order to not clatter into you.

You are an asshole if you come out of a store onto the pavement/sidewalk without looking, forcing those already there to have to stop in order to not clatter into you in a busy place or during the rush hour.

You may be an asshole if you drive around corners without signaling.

You are an asshole if you drive around corners without signaling, especially when pedestrians who are waiting to cross could have done so if only they knew you wanted to turn.

You are a mega asshole if you drive around corners without signaling, when pedestrians who are waiting to cross could have done so if only they knew you wanted to turn and it is bucketing down with rain or is freezing cold or otherwise dreadful out.

You may be an asshole if you sit on a park bench near people who aren’t smoking, and light one up yourself.

You are an asshole if you sit on a park bench near people who are eating, and proceed to light a cigarette.

You are most definitely a mega asshole if you light up a cigarette before getting all the way outside, while crowds jam the exit staircase and nobody has any means of not breathing your second hand smoke other than holding their breath.

You may be an asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth when anyone else is around you.

You are an asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus.

You are a mega asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus, when it is crowded.

You are a multi mega asshole if you sneeze without putting your hand in front of your mouth while in any enclosed space, such as a train or bus, when it is crowded and there is fear of a pandemic.

Sin Nombre: Superb

2009-04-13T22:36:00.001-04:00

As with my other film reviews, I will not give away the story beyond what you would see in any other review. This film is, for the most part, the story of a young Mexican gang member whose conscience gets the better of him. He winds up running from his old gang, who are determined to kill him. Before his flight, he introduces his 12 year old brother to the gang, and while on the run, he meets a young Honduran girl who is on her way to the USA with her father and uncle. Although we see her before the two meet, there is no doubting who the story is really about.

And what a story! To be sure, this is not easy viewing. It is tense and violent with no shortage of conscience-free sadism from the gang members. But it is so gripping, you might feel exhausted when it is over.

I consider this to be the best film I have seen in a very long time. Certainly considerably better than Slumdog Millionaire, which I loved. I have to say, if this was an English language film, it would be unlikely to not win the Oscar. Will there be 5 better films than this in 2009? I doubt there have been 5 better films than this any year ever! But such is the way the Academy works, it will be a pleasant surprise if it is one of the nominees.

This isn’t a date movie; at least not for early in a relationship. But it is a film that will have you wanting to talk about it, once your superlatives stop flowing and the stunned feeling you experience lightens.

Thought for the day: Sexual attraction

2009-04-09T21:20:00.002-04:00

Is the true mysterious genius of sexual attraction rooted in the beauty of women or in the fact that men find them beautiful? After all, do male goats not find the females of their species to be overwhelmingly attractive? And yet few Humans share this attraction, and those who do, are unlikely do be a discerning as your average gigolo kid (the tail chasing goat that never grows up)! Indeed, how many goats would be aroused by Kate Moss or Halle Berry. Or would a dog be more attracted to Angelina Jolie than Rosie O’Donnell? Just a thought. Some might think it a weird one. :)

Criminal road contractors continue to fleece New York taxpayers: The 86th Street ‘road workers’ are back.

2009-04-09T21:19:00.000-04:00

I knew it had to happen, the state they left my block in after a mere 7 months camped out here last year. Yes, the endless pit of hard earned and now in short supply, New York taxes, known to some as road contractors, but to me as nothing more than shysters (if I’m being kind), camped back on this block last Monday, March 30th. They started digging one side of the road, in advance of recycling.

When this is done in England, a block of this length would have the surface removed in the morning, would be re-surfaced in the afternoon, and people would be driving on it by the evening rush hour.

Here in New York? Well they have completed the surface on part of the road, but rather more than half is still several inches below the regular street level, including a few feet that they took 2 weeks to resurface towards the end of last year. They will presumably move to this side of the street some time next week and finally move out at around the end of this month.

I did know this was going to happen, but I’m still outraged. The amount of money these people have been paid, as compared to how much the job should have cost if they knew how to do what they are supposed to do, instead of the object of their work being to fleece their paymasters for as much money as will be allowed, is clearly outrageous. Who hires these people!!! Don’t they know how much it should cost and how long it should take? Or is it somehow in their best interest to not know?!!!!!

Etiquette that has outstayed it’s time

2009-04-02T21:04:00.001-04:00

In the early days of commercial air travel, people used to dress up to get on a plane. This has gone by the wayside because it was ppointless.

People used to dress up to go to the theatre and to restaurants. For the most part, these customs have also gone.

Here’s one that really needs to go.

Apparently, it is improper to make any effort to eat the dregs of food that won’t easily come off of the bottom of a plate in ‘decent’ company. Let us count (some of) the ways in which this is stupid!

1. Growing food uses power and water
2. Water needs power and chemicals in order to be purified
3. The chemicals used in purifying water need power (and probably water) in their production
4. The chemical also need to be transported to the water purifying plants
5. The food is somehow harvested. This uses fuel and manpower
6. The food is then transported. This uses fuel and manpower
7. The food is stored. This takes fuel, manpower and real estate.
8. Food is grown on precious land
9. There is not enough food to feed everyone in the world
10. Food prices are affected by scarcity and food being used for non-food purposes, making it difficult for many to afford a decent diet
11. Fuel, manpower, farmland and real estate cost money and should not be wasted
12. Transportation, chemicals, water and power all have a carbon footprint
13. Cooking/storing food has a carbon footprint

This particular etiquette is socially and environmentally irresponsible and surely, it’s time has been and gone. I am not suggesting that people should loudly scrape or lick their plates in fine restaurants or business gatherings (although wouldn’t the world be a better place if that was seen as a sign of passion for food instead of lowly manners!). Those who leave food because it is proper are anachronisms and should be made to feel such if they cannot accept the sense in changing this behaviour.

Lost something in a New York Cab? A Craigslist cautionary tale

2009-03-30T22:39:00.001-04:00

Please forgive me for not mentioning actual names here. I think that if I do so, I could be targeted by an unscrupulous pig of a man. And anyway, I don’t for a moment think this character is the only such scammer on Craigslist, which PayPal told my friend is infested with these creeps.

A friend, who I will call Eve, largely because I don’t know anyone named Eve, lost her iPod in a New York taxi. She scoured Craigslist lost and found ads before placing her own one. Within hours, she received an email suggesting a great website where she could post a lost and found ad. Eve went to the site, placed her ad and hit enter…… and was taken directly to PayPal. There had been no prior suggestion of a charge and to her embarrassment, Eve, a smart but jetlagged and very upset woman paid the $19.99.

Within 2 hours, she tried to cancel but the owner of the site refused. So reported the guy to PayPal and stopped payment with her bank. And this guy opened up a complaint against her with PayPal.

In the meantime, I posted a fake ad on Craigslist, and the same person who contacted Eve contacted me. My best guess is that the person sending the emails is either the female alter-ego of the scammer, or someone working for commission. I googled lost and found in New York and the website didn’t come up. So anyone who has found something in a New York cab will not be looking at this “great website”

A couple of days later, not wanting to give up, Eve posted another ad on Craigslist, suggesting she would be willing to pay a reward. A guy answered, asking how much the reward was. She was a bit flabbergasted that the guy who responded was all over the Internet, a self-professed entrepreneur, but was asking for a reward!

After a couple of back and forth emails, she asked the guy how much he wanted and if he could please tell her the serial number of the iPod he found. His last email simply said “Goodbye”. This scumbag didn’t have an iPod, but just wanted the reward money.

And here’s the kicker. One of his enterprises, is as ‘web master’ of the phony lost and found site. So not satisfied in taking money off of desperate people on his website, this asshole also tries to rip people off for reward money1

People, I can’t stress this enough. If you are pointed to a website by someone responding to your online ad, and that site wants you to pay, DON’T DO IT! It is a scam! Trust what PayPal said. Craigslist has it's uses, but it is infested.

Eve was assured that this creep will be prosecuted. But I can tell you that his website is up and running. And 17 people were scammed out of $19.99 today alone. None will find what they lost with this add and nor will you. Be warned!

Really stupid CNN poll; really stupid people responding

2009-03-10T22:54:00.003-04:00

I searched and searched this evening, but couldn’t find the poll that is the subject of this blog entry. Pity! I would have posted the link so you could have seen it for yourselves.

To paraphrase:

Question: If big banks are allowed to go bust, will it

a) Be catastrophic for the economy
b) Be a lesson for the big boys
c) Make no difference at all

I thought it was obvious which of these options would gain the most votes. Viewers of Fox Spews Channel could only possibly vote one way, as that channel and its never ending parade of non-thinking, knee jerk conservative moron pundits, pummels people with how they should think. I have seen these so called economists popping up elsewhere also. Their views are designed to get them time on television and should not be taken as truth. Truth must be researched and not accepted from one argument or another.

Actually, this poll is very stupid. If big banks are allowed to fail, FDIC insurance will have a lot of money to pay out. This will ultimately be paid for by all of us. Such a failure would also shake the stock markets around the world, most likely knocking somewhat more than 10% off the value of the world economy in the first day with smaller drops to follow before some sort of stabilisation. Is that catastrophic? Not really. Is it just a lesson to the big boys? Idiots would like you to think so, but that would be true trickle down economics. Because after the big boys pay, so will we all.

The results when I viewed the poll were:

a) Be catastrophic for the economy 25%
b) Be a lesson for the big boys 60%
c) Make no difference at all 15%

So 15% of people who felt moved to respond to this poll think that if Bank of America fails, it will make no difference to the economy; to them; to anything. Absolutely mind boggling!

60% follow the conservative nonsense doctrine. Give the big boys a slap. It will end there. We won’t feel pain, or if we do, at least we hurt them.

I wonder why anyone at all felt moved to vote in this poll that was designed to incite; a poll with one exaggerated option and two that are put there for people to prove their ignorance. Well, 75% of those who were proved to vote, were only too anxious to prove their ignorance. I wish people would think for a change! The makers of Tylenol and Excedrin would probably see a huge spike in sales if that happened.

Am I surprised by these results? Let me answer that by telling you about a poll that was released on Lincoln’s Birthday.

When asked if President Lincoln or fellow birthday boy Charles Darwin made a bigger difference in the world (that’s the world, as in America, Canada, Britain, Nigeria, Russia, China, Japan, India…….), 60% of Americans said................................................. Lincoln.

Possible no-cost, effective stimulus? You be the judge.

2009-03-09T21:36:00.001-04:00

At a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a guy named Larry, who is a successful money manager. He sent a proposed stimulus package to President Obama’s people that I believe is a decent starting point for discussion. Here’s what he proposed:

1. Everyone can get a pre-charged Visa or Mastercard with up to half of their last year’s tax paid on it. People who paid little or no tax are allowed $1,000.

2. You must use it or lose it by the end of the year. Uses can be to pay off other credit cards or spend wherever the cards are accepted.

3. You pay it back within 5 years at 5% per annum interest.

The benefits, as he states, are:

1. People will spend money they don’t currently have available, or

2. Pay off higher interest debts, thus lessening their monthly bills

3. Money spent goes into the economy, creating jobs

4. The new jobs are taxed, so the country further benefits. In most States, this also results in State Income Tax

5. Money spent incurs Sales Tax, which helps States

6. After the Government pays at the most 2% interest for the money, it makes a profit on the deal.

7. To pay for the initial outlay, special Bonds are made available to potential wealthy investors, at the 2% rate discussed above. This is quite a bbit higher than any guaranteed, no-limit investment currently pays.

What I think:

I see little fault in this other than, it would be wrong for the country to profit on the interest from these loans. It would already profit from increased Income Taxes. So I would suggest decreasing the interest rate paid by individuals to 2%.

The benefits could be immense. The economy would be stimulated; employment would increase; Federal and State tax income would increase. The overall cost of the program would be zero.

What do you think?

Universal Healthcare: Some basic common sense

2009-03-06T21:34:00.004-05:00

I understand that a considerable percentage of the population is against Government mandated Universal Healthcare on the grounds that this will increase their tax burden. It seems like a reasonable assumption, and after all, Conservative politicians, pundits and journalists have been quick to put forth this notion. But it is extremely misguided, as I will demonstrate here using simple common sense, coupled with a few facts – something in short supply among detractors.

First, and most obviously, anyone who is insured currently pays higher premiums than they would if everyone was insured. This is because when an uninsured person gets sick enough, they are given treatment. And the costs are not swallowed by altruistic healthcare concerns. They are passed on in the form of higher costs to those who pay.

In the same vein, the cost of running public hospitals is passed on in the form of taxes. So it is untrue that we currently pay nothing for the uninsured.

From there, the picture becomes somewhat more difficult, as HMOs and other insurers will seek to maintain their profit margins. They will surely launch a propaganda war that will have considerably more to do with maintaining their stranglehold and their profit margins, than actually telling it like it is. So how is it?

My doctor told me that the numbers of young medical students opting for Internal Medicine (your family doctor), have dwindled alarmingly due to drastically reduced earnings potential caused by imposed Healthcare Insurers maximum payment schedules, and the nightmarish and very costly bureaucracy that each must navigate in order to get paid by the insurers. It is fair to deduce from this that the standard of general care has gone down in recent years as doctors face the stress of cramming in more patients to make their practices financially viable and that this standard is set to further decline as less new doctors come in to replace an aging population of MDs.

Also, insurers pay a lot of people to try to disqualify claims. To put it another way, money that might otherwise be spent on healthcare, is being spent on wages of people whose job it is to make sure that as few claims as possible are honoured, and that as many as possible of those that are honoured, are paid at a reduced rate.

So what happens if we have Universal Healthcare? The big machine put in place to make sure claims are not paid, will no longer be needed. A nice little side benefit of this for those of us who already pay premiums, is that there will be no more nasty surprises in the mail informing them that a procedure they thought they were covered for was partly or wholly disqualified. Another logical effect is that doctors will have more time for doctoring, giving them the choice between increasing their patient intake and reducing their total working hours – in case you are not aware of this, their total hours worked are considerably longer than those to which they are available to you. A less stressed doctor may well be a better doctor. Think about it! Maybe, just maybe, a few more med students can be tempted into this very necessary field?

Hospitals too, will need less clerical staff. Perhaps some can be retrained as medical assistants?

But what will the biggest benefit be? As the machine is drastically reduced, a far larger percentage of healthcare dollars will go to……. Healthcare! And if hospitals are paid for everyone they treat, there will be no hidden costs in their charges. As an analogy, every store you go into factors a percentage of the price of their goods to cover for shoplifting and pilfering. If everyone paid for everything, the price would come down.

While I’m not going to try offering you numbers, I hope I have conveyed to you that the cost of Universal Healthcare will not be close to what its detractors would like you to believe.

Of course, any savings that will be used to help fund Universal Healthcare will be a drop in the bucket in comparison to potential savings if people were taught that in most instances, diet is more effective in preventing and lessening illness than expensive drugs, physician care and costly operations – something that many pressure groups not limited by any means, to drug companies, will fight tooth and nail. But that is a whole different, larger and darker subject, and multiple possible future blog entries.

Rush Limbaugh is a moron

2009-03-03T21:01:00.004-05:00

He wants the stimulus to fail. He accuses any Republicans who are working to make the rescue package work, traitors to the Republican Party. This from someone who called people who did not agree with the Iraq War ‘un-American’! This, from a man whose party caused this fucking mess! The word hypocrite falls so far short of adequate as a description for this man.

Does he not realise that in order to fix the mess his darlings caused, drastic action is needed? If not, exactly how stupid is he? Does he not realise that if the stimulus fails, America goes down the tubes for the next several years and there will be no money to pay back the national debt, which will push taxes up, the dollar down and unemployment, business failures and house and car repossessions to previously unknown heights? Or that the car and building industries will be decimated?

He thinks he should want President Obama’s policies to fail because he is a Republican. But he is nothing more than attention seeking, egotistical traitor. Who can want his or her country to fail!!!! I have honestly never heard anything like it.

People who don’t need truth, memories or history in order to form opinions listen to this man! It doesn’t matter that they too are idiots. I’m sure his employers love the publicity and probable increased ratings. Hopefully the spike will be temporary, as I trust that most Republicans realise you don’t have to root for your country to fail while still sticking to your political principals. Time for the clown to leave the radio and join the circus.

The Oscars: Slumdog and Mickey

2009-02-22T14:30:00.003-05:00

I admit I haven’t seen too many of the nominated films. We haven’t been to the ‘depressing’ films, such as Revolutionary Road and The Reader. We did see Milk yesterday and it was everything that the critics say: A superb film with 2 excellent acting performances. Sean Penn was brilliant and would surely have won the Oscar almost any other year; and Josh Brolin also put in an award quality performance that will not get the nod.

But as good as the film and Penn’s performance were, I think both are very narrowly second best. I found Slumdog Millionaire to be a little more complete. Honestly, there was so little between these films in terms of quality, I could easily see why someone would go with Milk instead.

And Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler was as good as any in years. Truly monumental. He gets some emotional votes, of course, but for purely acting, I think he beats the superb Penn.

I must confess that I haven’t seen Benjamin Button. I will probably enjoy it when it comes onto Netflix, but I do tend to shy away from the mega films. Could it be better than Milk or Slumdog? Could Pitt’s performance be better than those of Penn and Rourke? I suppose so, but the bar is pretty high.

Tiffin Wala: The best Indian restaurant in NYC; a vegetarian delight!

2009-02-16T23:31:00.003-05:00

I have to say that Indian food has improved greatly since I first arrived in the City in 1980. Back then, I was told to go to 6th Street and 2nd Avenue, and was assured the food there was great. Well it sucked in comparison to what I was used to back home!

After telling Adrian, my ex wife, about this in 1985, she assured me she knew one I would love. I ordered Chicken Vindaloo and they asked if I would like it hot or spicy. Had I gone in there alone, I would have left right then, as the question is nonsense. If you know about Indian food, you will understand this!

I mention this by way of illustrating how happy I am to have found a restaurant in New York as good as the best vegetarian Indian restaurants in London. There are so many Indian Restaurants in the area between 27th and the low 30s, between 3rd and Park Avenues, that the area has been nicknamed Curry Hill – a play on the Murray Hill neighbourhood just above it. Most of them are strictly vegetarian, as is common for the South Indian cuisine prevalent there.

Tiffin Wala, on 28th Street between Lex and Park, (Website; Menu) should be tried by everyone who has ever enjoyed Indian food and some who think they don’t like Indian food, as it really is quite different from the North Indian and Bengali Food which predominates Indian food elsewhere. The food tends less towards spicy curries, and more towards the aromatic. Yes, it is related, but it is a distinctly different cuisine, and you will not recognise many of the menu items. One item you will recognise is the Samosa. But you won’t have had any this good!

Their soups are superb. I had previously had the Rasam, which I greatly enjoyed, but the Mulligatawny is incredible! Sean had the Spicy Tomato and that was also excellent. Other dishes I would recommend are the Behl Puri, a starter; Masala Dosa, my absolute favourite Indian dish, and Aloo Matar, but ask them to make it without dairy – I have had it both ways, but this way is superb. Jan loves the Bhindi Masala; an okra dish.

Anything you have here is likely to be delicious, and the prices are so very reasonable that if you spend over $20 per person, you will have plenty of leftovers. I can’t recommend strongly enough that you each choose different dishes, and share.

One last thing: This will not satisfy those who require Rabbinical supervision, but the food is Kosher!

GO HERE! You won’t be sorry!!!

Passenger or Customer? Customer or Guest?

2009-02-10T20:43:00.004-05:00

Transportation companies in Britain and America no longer call passengers, passengers. We are customers. When I asked the British bus company Arriva about this a few years ago, I was told that a focus group showed that people felt more important if they were called Customers. I will not mince words about this. In English vernacular, it is utter bollocks! I have asked several people what they prefer, and each prefers ‘Passenger’. Clearly, this is a case of the focus group being fed loaded questions.

As I see things, being accepted as a passenger puts more onus on the company providing me conveyance than if I was merely their customer. I am both, to be sure, but I don’t want it to merely be about service provided for money. A passenger is someone whose comfort and life depends upon professional and safe passage. I would feel more secure if I knew that the company transporting me felt the same way. I also didn’t like Virgin Atlantic calling a customer on my recent Transatlantic trip.

And I found a recent visit to an Upper West Side Duane Reade (that’s the number one Drug Store chain in New York City) to be entirely ridiculous. The checkout process ran very smoothly. Each time a customer – in this instance, I feel that word appropriate – left the cash register, the cashier called “Next guest please”. Next guest?!!! It’s a Drug Store ffs! I am not their guest! I was a guest when I stayed in a Paris Hotel. Or was I? When will Marriot, for example, start calling their guests customers, or residents…… or passengers!

Now that I think of it, I would prefer Duane Reade to call me a transient resident rather than a guest. As they didn’t invite me, offer me tea or put me up for the night, I feel this would be more appropriate.

Holiday trip – Jan meets my family

2009-02-05T12:37:00.005-05:00

As a sign of just how serious ‘an item’ Jan and I are, we planned this trip after having been together for a little over a month, with me already having met her Mother and Brother in Los Angeles. The timing was to take in a trip to Paris for her birthday. I’m under orders to not reveal the number!!!

Well, by the time we left, Jackie had begged me to propose to Jan on our last day there, so it’s fair to say that she and my Mum both absolutely loved her! I should add that the feeling was entirely mutual, and Jan has even talked about us living for a while over there at some point. She loved our time there.

We arrived on Friday, January 23rd, and had two very lazy days before heading into the West End on Sunday. We had a long walk from Oxford Circus, taking in Liberty’s, Carnaby and Regent Streets, Leicester Square, Soho/Chinatown and Covent Garden, stopping in an incredible restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue, New Mayflower – perhaps the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Most people in there were Chinese, and if you don’t book on a weekend night, expect a lengthy wait.

The next day we were back in the West End. We got half price tickets to see Hairspray, which is funny, as it is American and the two things we have seen on Broadway, Spamalot and Billy Elliot, are both English! What can I say about this show? The younger folks seemed to like the passé humour more than we did, and I only really liked 4 or 5 of the tunes. So this doesn’t get my recommendation.

Between buying the tickets and seeing the show, we walked around Knightsbridge.

Holiday trip – Tuesday: Turkish food and a football match

2009-02-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

After a very lazy late morning/early afternoon, we headed to Stoke Newington to find a Turkish restaurant. We found Bodrum, a really charming and homey little place. The food was superb and cheap, and the hummus they place on the table when you arrive will definitely have you wishing for more. I know that the area boasts many excellent Turkish restaurants, but doubt that too many can beat this for a combination of friendly service, charming atmosphere, great food and great prices.

From there, it was off to White Hart Lane, home of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur (okay, not so mighty, but I’m a fan!). It was Jan’s first ever match and they did us proud with a great first half display. We sat – actually stood, as nobody on front of us sat for a minute of the match – very close to the visiting supporters, and Jan really enjoyed the banter between the sets of supporters. I had warned her of what to expect when Spurs scored, but hadn’t expected her to see the unbridled joy 3 times in the opening 25 minutes…. or even 3 times in 90 minutes!

We met my brother-in-law, Roger, and nephew Nathan after the match and had a reasonably early night in advance of our train ride to Paris the following day.

3 days in Paris

2009-02-05T12:11:00.005-05:00

If anyone ever does this trip by Eurostar, they should make a point of looking at the French countryside. It is dotted with little, close-knit villages built around churches. By the time you have a chance to tell your travelling companion about them, they have disappeared behind a cluster of trees. Really charming!

We arrived at our hotel before 6pm, having taken a cab. Due to the appreciation of the Euro, Paris is now really expensive! We found it to be considerably more expensive than London, as the pound has lost 30% of it’s value against the dollar, making that city actually quite affordably right now. From our point of view, it was actually cheaper in London than New York!

We picked a restaurant close to the hotel for Jan’s birthday dinner. Café Les Fontaines was recommended as the best in the vicinity, but we found it expensive and ordinary. After going to another local restaurant the next day for lunch – also a bit overpriced and unexceptional – we headed to Trocadero to look at the sites, including this wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.

The following day, we walked in the general vicinity of the Pompidou Centre, starting at Notre Dame and ending in Marais. It really is a breathtakingly beautiful city. It was a pity that we didn’t have a chance to visit any galleries or museums, but the architecture and street layouts alone are thrilling.

We finished our evening at a place recommended to us by Alice, who we met the previous evening in Au Pied Du Sacre Couer. Le Berthoud had nice food but really tiny portions which made the apparently reasonable prices seem not so cheap after all. But we got lucky! Nino is a local singer who goes into restaurants and sings for tips. He was wonderful and everything you could ever hope for in a French balladeer: great guitar, beautiful voice and charming, warm personality. What a great end to a special day!

Hotel Murat – Surely their 3-star rating is made up!

2009-02-05T12:10:00.001-05:00

I made a point of looking only for 3 and 4-star hotels, and was most disappointed to walk into the smallest hotel room I have ever seen and the only one to not have a chest of drawers. I ate the breakfast on our last morning there. The croissant was ordinary at best, and the coffee not warm enough. One of the desk staff was both unknowledgeable and unhelpful – when we asked for directions, she said we should buy time on the Internet - while another was very willing to help but was also not knowledgeable.

I don’t know where they got their rating from. I have to doubt that it is genuine. When my daughter went, she stayed in a 2-star hotel. Her room was a decent size and had drawer space. Hmmm!

I have to suggest to anyone planning to visit, that they make sure to see good photos of the rooms or follow recommendations from people. In the meantime, I have to decide whether I should report this hotel for possible fraud.

Au Pied Du Sacre Coeur

2009-02-05T12:00:00.002-05:00

We were at Trocadero, and frankly, more than a little bored with the food we’d eaten the previous evening and that lunchtime – nice, but nothing to write home, or blog about! We decided to ask someone for advice, and Jan asked a passer-by, Clement, where there was either some good ethnic food or really good French food for Parisians instead of tourists, which is certainly what Trocadero was all about.

He told us to go to Lamarck, which he called a Paris equivalent of Greenwich Village. He also travelled with us part of the way there. It turned out that he was one of several very friendly Parisians who made a lie out of what seems to be the accepted wisdom about the people of that city.

As we arrived on the beautiful Rue Lamarck, Jan asked a passer by what she thought was the best restaurant in the area, and she didn’t hesitate. She recommended Au Pied Du Sacre Couer and said we had to have the warm Fois Grois. I had never had it and had no idea it was so cruelly produced, so will never have it again. But wow! It was delicious!

The restaurant is at the foot of a steep flight of stairs which go up to the next street, set in from the street, downhill from the station. And as beautiful as the setting is, the food is just outrageous! I really didn’t want my meal to end, and I have never done this before, but I asked the waiter if I could personally thank the chef, who is also the owner of the place.

If anyone reading this lives in or visits Paris, you really should treat yourself to a meal at this place. With a glass of wine and a coffee, your 2-course meal will cost you about 35 Euro, which is certainly cheaper than considerably inferior restaurants in tourist and business areas, and I would be most surprised if you don’t rate it as one of the best meals you have ever eaten.

London’s worst snow in 18 years becomes a magical, wonderful day

2009-02-05T11:40:00.004-05:00

We were due to leave London on Monday, Feb 2nd, but woke up to the worst snowstorm London had seen for 18 years – a whole 6 inches! This shut the city down and runways at Heathrow were closed when a Cyprus Airways plane skidded off the runway prior to take-off. So we had an extra day with my family. And we really made the most of it. This turned out to be the best day of the trip!

We built a snowman in the morning, had relaxing family time in the afternoon while watching the final hours of the football transfer window unfold; then had a lot of fun playing Apples to Apples in the evening. After all of our running around two great cities, this was a magical day, made all the better for my mother staying overnight and being around to see us off.

Roger worked from home; Nathan’s school was closed for 2 days; we got to see Nathan on his 10th birthday and spend some great time with my oldest nephew, Joe. All courtesy of Mother Nature and London’s complete inability to cope with more than a lick of snow.

Jan and Andy talk marriage!

2009-02-05T11:34:00.002-05:00

I didn’t formally propose, but I will. And Jan will accept! We are hoping for a September date in Los Angeles – her mother is about to turn 92, so she can’t travel any great distance - with parties in New York and London and a Honeymoon in the Amalfi Coast, Italy.

This will be my third and last marriage and Jan’s first and last. Neither of us has any doubts that this is absolutely right. It is obvious to all who see us together that we are a perfect match and our friends and family are all very excited for us.

Going to London and Paris

2009-01-20T22:04:00.000-05:00

There may be a gap in my blog postings. Jan and I are off to England on Thursday evening. She’ll at least meet my mother and sister, niece and two nephews. Hopefully more. We’ll try to get theatre tickets for the one day that will be possible – next Monday; then go to see Spurs v Stoke the next evening. Hardly a glamour tie, but she’s never seen a football match and that’s who we’re playing! On Wednesday, Jan’s birthday, we’re going to Paris the Channel Tunnel. Back to my sister’s place on Saturday and back here on the Monday.

I’ll definitely get lots of great pictures and will be sure to post a selection of them along with a recap of the trip, once I have the chance to download them.

Who answers nonsense Spam mail?

2009-01-20T22:01:00.001-05:00

I keep on getting ridiculously titled emails. Here are some of the latest:

incision nougat sukiyaki emptiness, sent by igneous Macdonald

The results came in due time, sent by barnes triplett

via.qgr.fa gravestone flake artification, sent by qEjorgeCraft@rocketmail.com

tangibleness moonbeam assignees endogenously sent by Sofia Goodman (a real name!!!)
I actually opened this one, and this is the content:

“bargaining upgraded. circumcision desirable. overpopulate crank. ambiguity postman. vibrate Overshoots.”

If anyone who has ever sent one of these should happen to read this blog, would you be so kind as to let myself and other readers know if anyone ever answers these? I can neither imagine that anyone would or why spammers would continue to send them if nobody does answer.

THINK before you sign petitions: A cautionary tale

2009-01-14T01:17:00.000-05:00

In the summer of 2002, my sister and I went to a rally in support of Israel in Trafalgar Square, London. There was a crowd of 40,000. My old friend Pinchos, originally Tony before he became religious, was on the Lubavich mitzvah tank and saw me. He asked me to lay tefillin and I did. This was my mitzvah (*). I did it not because I believed it would do for me what he believed it would, but because he is my friend and he hoped I would do it. His mitzvah was to get me to do it.

Among the large crowd, across the road from a group of Arabs and Arab sympathisers yelling hate at the attendees of the Jewish rally, we found a group of a few dozen people standing in a group. They were mixed Jews and Palestinians. My sister and I thought the Palestinians very brave for attending this rally. Brave to be amongst so many people of whom some would be guaranteed to be hostile. Brave to attend a Jewish rally in support of the right of Israel to exist. We stood with them. And yes, some passers by did sneer. We thought them small minded. If Palestinians will stand with Jews in support of Israel, why should other Jews judge those who stand with those Palestinians? It made no sense to us!

We were asked to sign a petition by a group called Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP). I offer no support for those who choose to bomb Israel or teach their children to hate Jews. But I do cling to the hope that most Palestinians want what most Jews want: peace. And I want those people to have their dignity. I can’t remember the actual wording of the petition, but it appealed to the justice in us, so we both signed. And we both left the rally when Benjamin Netanyahu, who we consider to be a warmonger, started to speak. He was greeted with great cheers, and we were disgusted.

For the next few years, until I stopped them, I received countless emails which I took as showing that this was a group that sees the Palestinian cause but not the Israeli one. I found a level of gullibility in this organisation. They requested Jews to attend a joint Arab/Jewish rally which had been organised for a Saturday. No, I’m not religious. But if the Arab organisers wanted Jewish attendance, they should have shown the respect and courtesy to arrange it for one of the other 6 days of the week, and the Jewish side should not have been so eager to please as to accept the proposed date. For me, an insult was offered by one side, and eagerly accepted by the other.

I know such behaviour is common. People think they are being balanced, and they lose sight of what makes their own people do what they do. They don’t even realise that they have gone so far the other way that they are no longer the liberals they believe themselves to be, but are instead knee-jerk apologists. I choose to retain the middle ground I seek. If people on each side think I sympathise to some extent with the others, I am probably succeeding in my goal.

Unfortunately, according the browser you use, if you search my name, you may find several entries where I am associated with JfJfP. I signed one petition which seemed reasonable to me at the time I signed it. I now feel that I am intractably associated with a group which I feel no affiliation with. If this group publishes a statement which denounces those whose stated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and death to Jews, maybe I will stop resenting them. I am not an apologist. I am a Human who believes in justice and dignity for all, or at least all who deserve it.

The moral of my story? If you don’t know the organisation asking you to sign what seems like a moral petition, research them before you sign. Example: Lyndon LaRouche’s organisation are frequently seen seeking signatures for apparently excellent causes. But if you read his full political beliefs, mixed in with the good stuff, I can pretty much guarantee there are things that most people will neither agree with nor want to be associated with. By signing a petition of his, no matter how much the cause speaks to you, you are endorsing his entire manifesto. Your conscience can associate you with people and things which are not as you first believed and not what you would have associated yourself with had you known better. Beware!

* A mitzvah is a good deed. I have also evocatively heard it described as a deed which makes God smile.

Thought for the day (sub-titled: A good reason why you need to think for yourselves)

2009-01-13T21:05:00.001-05:00

Picture a caveman.

The image that comes into your mind will be of a squat, short legged, stocky bodied, broad shouldered man with a strong jaw, an overhanging forehead and bushy eyebrows. It’s fine for us to think this. There is skeletal proof that this (perhaps not the eyebrows) is what they looked like. But there is another thing that comes into your mind:

He is clean shaven!

This is the picture we are fed over and over again, and it makes no logical sense whatsoever! Evolution-wise, he was closer to Apes than we are, so would have been more hairy than we are. What did he shave with? Is this evidence of time travel? Did someone go back in time with a few million Gillette razors and some shaving foam?

By itself, this is not a big deal. Certainly not as big as a man born in the Middle East a little over 2,000 years ago being depicted as having fair skin! If you try hard enough, you can probably come up with other widely accepted images that make no sense. The moral of this post? Think for yourselves!

Looking for work again! Can’t keep on doing this!

2009-01-09T00:26:00.001-05:00

My job at UBS ended. This wasn’t a surprise to me. I will not call it one of my favourite jobs, although I certainly learnt a lot and did like some of the people. I didn’t expect anything to happen regarding a new job during the holiday season, but was hoping for some more signs of life in the job market by now. It isn’t as dead as it was after 9/11, but it is hardly vibrant! My hope is that I will be back at work shortly after my return from my next trip to England. I will be taking Jan to meet my family, as I met hers at Thanksgiving.

While I am seeking what I hope is one last contract, I am looking into a venture that where I will be my own boss. It will not be something that happens either fast or without a considerable amount of hard work, but I am excited about it. When I’m ready to tell more, I will post about what will be a new blog. In the modern world, nothing happens without first building a community through blogging. Fortunately, that is something I have had plenty of practice with!

The current Hamas/Israel conflict. The eternal Arab/Jewish conflict.

2008-12-31T13:05:00.001-05:00

I understand that the Arab/Israeli conflict is considerably more complex than can be delved into in a couple of paragraphs. I am aware of arguments on both sides for the existence/non-existence of an Israeli State and to the degree that someone not experiencing it at first hand, of the psychological effect on Palestinians of having the powerful Israelis next door. I certainly don’t claim that everything Israel has ever done is right, nor do I fail to understand the anger seething among Palestinians and other Arabs. I want there to be a peaceful solution between the two sides. But I do need something explained to me regarding the current conflict.

This question is not aimed at those who do not think Israel should exist, although I would be unlikely to delete any comments from people who feel that way. It is mainly aimed at those who do not consider themselves anti-Semitic, even if others might disagree with their self-assessment, who disapprove of the way Israel handles conflict in general and the current situation more specifically.

Simplistic synopsis: Hamas starts bombing Israel. After two days of bombardment, Israel warns that it will retaliate if the bombings do not cease. The bombings do not cease. Israel retaliates.

Questions:

Should Hamas have stopped bombing?

Do you think Israel should have just taken whatever Hamas wanted to mete out, for as long as it wanted to do so?

What do you feel Israel should have done?

Do you agree that both the timing of the strikes and the means of retaliation are political and fashioned as they are due to upcoming elections?

Do you feel that ultimately, Israel will be more or less likely to negotiate for peace if it is bombed regularly? Think both short and longer term.

What do you feel is the ultimate goal of Hamas and other Arabs with regard to Israel?
Are these goals the same?
Are these goals compatible with the continued existence with Israel?
If not, are these goals compatible with a continued presence of Jews in the region?
If either of the above questions was answered in the negative, would you still expect Israel to negotiate? Would you not expect Israel to fight for its life?

Ultimately, I want peace and I want an Israel. I want to see and understand both sides. But whereas some people seem to think that seeing both sides means accepting the right of only one, I look at the psychology of both. I look at the poor and downtrodden on one side, and the analogous cornered animal on the other and can therefore understand the actions of both. I want dignity for all. I don’t think that very many people understand sufficient to be making the pronouncements that they do, and I’m always willing to learn more. So, pray tell, what do you think I’m missing here? Please try to respond with the same respect with which I ask.

Xmas Party

2008-12-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

Jan has some amazing friends, two of whom have a party each year on Christmas Day. Apparently, largely the same crowd go each year, and it is easy to see why. I’m hooked! Lawrence cooks up a storm before he joins his friends in a jazz/blues/rock jam. When I had asked Jan if the neighbours minded the music going on until midnight, she responded that they all go to the party! And I met several of them, along with other very interesting people. This was fun!!!!

Adirondacks journey - heading north in a snowstorm

2008-12-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

December 19th was the day of the worst snow in New York for a couple of years or so. I wasn’t here to get the news on exactly how bad it was, as I drove to Hague in the Adirondacks that day. I was assured that there had been no snow up there when I went to pick up my rental Ford Focus, and they were expecting a very few inches. But the estimated 4 ¼ hour drive ended up taking 10 hours, as I went large stretches doing under 25mph, on unlit, icy roads, with blinding snow severely limiting my view. We would find out later that the area had 15-17” of snow.

The first local road we got on after leaving I-81, County Road 11, started with a steep hill. It was so icy that half way up, we were barely edging up the hill even though the speed was registering as 40 mph. We could smell the burning rubber from the smoke kicked up from the tyres, and I had serious doubts that we would make it all the way up. And it was so profoundly dark that I really didn’t know how long the hill was. Fortunately, we did make it!

The next 21 miles took an hour on narrow, windy roads with rarely more than 5 yads visibility. But as hyper-alert as I was to the roads, I was also blown away by the gothic beauty of snow-laden tree branches overhanging the road in a near continuous arch. And although I couldn’t look off-road too often, I couldn’t help but notice the lights shimmering from the houses, off of the lakes. Jan described some of what I was missing – she was absolutely loving the romance of it all.

Before we arrived at Trout House, our wonderful and truly romantic destination, we did get stuck in snow. We were trying to follow the directions that were being given to us by Scott, the owner of Trout House, but didn’t realise we were on the wrong road. We thought we had reached our destination and pulled in to a driveway which we couldn’t pull back out of.

Scott left the comfort of his home to come out and help us, but his muscle added to mine was insufficient. And then Donny appeared in a monster pick-up truck and happily stopped to help us. Hague is one of those sleepy little towns where everyone knows and is friends with everyone else, and that really worked to our benefit. We finally walked into our beautiful cabin after 12:15am.

Adirondacks stay – Trout House

2008-12-30T13:18:00.004-05:00

Apparently, during the summer, families stay at Trout House. But during the winter, it is mostly romantic getaways. And that is of course why Jan and I went. The place is owned and run by Alice and Scott Patchett, a really lovely couple who made us feel not only welcome, but like old friends. And the cabins?

There is actually a large house with several rooms in it as well as the various cabins. We stayed in ‘Paul Revere’, which is the upper floor of a very large cabin. It has a spacious open plan living room/kitchen. The kitchen is actually fully equipped, so you can cook there. There is a log burning fireplace that you can see from the living room and the bedroom. The bedroom has two queen size beds. I suppose that setup is more for the summer guests?! And the bathroom has a large hot tub. There is also a TV, DVD and CD player. Honestly, the only thing that could have made it more relaxing would have been a fish tank!

Behind the cabin was a tree lined hill, and the view from the front was Lake George, which is just across the street from route 17. I’m sure this is spectacular whenever you go there, but snow just turned the entire place into a winter wonderland!

By the time we arrived in Hague, Alice and Scott were very surprised to see us, and perhaps the sensible thing would have been for us to wait a day. Indeed, we did delay our journey back by a day, as the area was blanketed with another 20” of snow on the Sunday, which was our planned leaving date. I didn’t much fancy the idea of navigating the steep hill on CR11 in a downward direction, and Alice strongly advised against and offered us a 3rd night for half price.

I reflected this past very warm weekend on whether we picked the right or wrong weekend to go, and I came to the firm conclusion that we truly lucked out. We went for romance, and snow added to the beauty of the location and to the romantic nature of the trip. Plus, the extra day really made the weekend complete. The only thing I would do differently next time, would be to drive there in a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

The folks up in the Adirondacks must have worked around the clock to clear the roads. The journey back was easy, although I didn’t want it to end, and found myself slowing down as we came closer to the City.

If you are looking for a short or not so short retreat to a sleepy, beautiful, friendly and romantic place, follow this link.

This last picture was taken after we missed the exit for CR11 on our way home. I pulled in to a driveway to do a safe U-turn, and we were both captivated by the spectacular lake view.

Internet Dating - Thank you

2008-12-30T13:07:00.003-05:00

I had a great date with a woman whose conversation made it obvious that she had understated her age in her ad by a few years. When I joked about it with her, she was highly insulted and didn’t respond to my emails or pick up the phone when I called. To her, I say thank you.

Then there was the woman who I got along great with on the phone and who asked that we no speak for the last two days before we met, so as to build up the anticipation. We met at my favourite pub, St. Andrew’s, and had a very nice time. For the second part of the date, we went to one of the ‘New York Sings’ series. Operatic and Choral societies from the entire region fill the audience and sing along to the program music, which on this day was Carmina Burana. For me, it was magnificent, having all of these amazing voices all around me. But she didn’t like it, and 20 minutes before the intermission, she announced that she would leave at the break. And so she did. And I thank her too.

Then there was the woman who I had a great date with but who thought that me calling her 2 days later was too much pressure. We spoke once more, two weeks later, and the conversation was as good as the date had been. But she also never answered when I called, so I stopped. And I give her very special thanks.

Why do I thank these women? Because had things turned out differently with any of them, I would likely not have met Jan. (pictured here with her lovely brother, Lloyd, her 91 year old mother, Anita, and Anita’s 92 year old boyfriend Nate – these two have known each other since 3rd grade and he was Best Man at her wedding!)

Happy holidays

2008-12-24T14:58:00.002-05:00

In case anyone was wondering, I will be back blogging soon - maybe early next week. Just too busy having fun right now, and when I am home, I have too many things to catch up on.... like doing a little of absolutely nothing! I have stored some things to write about and will no doubt gather more experiences I will wish to share.

In the meantime, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.......enjoy whichever you celebrate and however you celebrate it.

I wish you all the very best health and happiness.

Zimbabwe – When will the world stop this genocide

2008-12-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

I don’t see this on US Network ‘News’ shows (I use the word show purposely). Every day, there are stories about the misery in Zimbabwe. It goes a long way beyond the Cholera epidemic that is more widely reported. People are getting cholera because they are forced to drink from sewers. And this in a country that used to be known as the bread basket of Africa!

There is a terrible genocide taking place before our eyes and no country is doing anything about it. Exactly what are we waiting for? In 2002, CBC of Canada said that 6.7 million Zimbabweans faced starvation. By now, that figure will seem low, as almost everyone in the country (pop. 11.35m) is in that predicament. As of 3 years ago, 700 people a day were dying of AIDS.

In case you need it, here’s some perspective: As of the beginning of this year, the birth rate in the UK was 10.65 births per 1,000 people and the population growth rate was 0.276%. Those figures were 14.18 and 0.883%. And Zimbabwe? 31.62 birth per 1,000 and a population growth rate of -0.787%. The Infant mortality rate in the UK was 4.93 per 1,000; in the US it was 6.3; in Zimbabwe, 33.86.

There is a rather dark joke in Zimbabwe that the definition of an optimistic Zimbabwean is one who thinks that the country has hit rock bottom. Sadly, it hasn’t and it won’t until Mugabe is removed.

Letter from Zimbabwe sent in by John Winter

2008-12-16T00:17:00.000-05:00

I reckon that these are the last days of TKM and ZPF. The darkest hour is always before dawn.

We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next........I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK47's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was 'too close to the airport', so we are feeling extremely insecure right now.

You know - I am aware that this does not help you sleep at night, but if you do not know - how can you help? Even if you put us in your own mental ring of light and send your guardian angels to be with us - that is a help -but I feel so cut off from you all knowing I cannot tell you what's going on here simply because you will feel uncomfortable. There is no ways we can leave here so that is not an option.

I ask that you all pray for us in the way that you know how, and let me know that you are thinking of us and sending out positive vibes... that's all. You can't just be in denial and pretend/believe it's not going on.

To be frank with you, it's genocide in the making and if you do not believe me, read the Genocide Report by Amnesty International which says we are - IN level 7 - (level 8 is after it's happened and everyone is in denial).

If you don't want me to tell you these things-how bad it is-then it means you have not dealt with your own fear, but it does not help me to think you are turning your back on our situation. We need you, please, to get the news OUT that we are all in a fearfully dangerous situation here. Too many people turn their backs and say - oh well, that's what happens in Africa

This Government has GONE MAD and you need to help us publicize our plight---or how can we be rescued? It's a reality! The petrol queues are a reality, the pall of smoke all around our city is a reality, the thousands of homeless people sleeping outside in 0 Celsius with no food, water, shelter and bedding are a reality. Today a family approached me, brother of the gardener's wife with two small children. Their home was trashed and they will have to sleep outside. We already support 8 adult people and a child on this property, and electricity is going up next month by 250% as is water.

How can I take on another family of 4 -----and yet how can I turn them away to sleep out in the open?

I am not asking you for money or a ticket out of here - I am asking you to FACE the fact that we are in deep and terrible danger and want you please to pass on our news and pictures. So PLEASE don't just press the delete button! Help best in the way that you know how.

Do face the reality of what is going on here and help us SEND OUT THE WORD.. The more people who know about it, the more chance we have of the United Nations coming to our aid. Please don't ignore or deny what's happening.
Some would like to be protected from the truth BUT then, if we are eliminated, how would you feel? 'If only we knew how bad it really was we could have helped in some way'.

[I know we chose to stay here and that some feel we deserve what's coming to us]

For now,--- we ourselves have food, shelter, a little fuel and a bit of money for the next meal - but what is going to happen next? Will they start on our houses? All property is going to belong to the State now. I want to send out my Title Deeds to one of you because if they get a hold of those, I can't fight for my rights.

Censorship!----We no longer have SW radio [which told us everything that was happening] because the Government jammed it out of existence - we don't have any reporters, and no one is allowed to photograph. If we had reporters here, they would have an absolute field day. Even the pro-Government Herald has written that people are shocked, stunned, bewildered and blown mindless by the wanton destruction of many folks homes, which are supposed to be 'illegal' but for which a huge percentage actually do have licenses.

Please! - do have some compassion and HELP by sending out the articles and personal reports so that something can/may be done.

'I am one. I cannot do everything, ---but I can do something.. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God,
I will do.'
Edward Everett Hale

Please send this on to everyone in your address book. We send jokes out
without blinking an eyelid. We don't get told this on the news in South Africa , we only get told what they want us to hear. We all have a chance to do something, even though the something is by pressing forward to as many people as possible. Let's stop talking and let's start doing! There is power in prayer, there is also power in more people knowing about this than you in my address book. This is going to America , Dubai , Australia , France , South Africans all over South Africa , the UK . By forwarding this to all in my address book I have done something. The world needs to know what is going on.

Billy Elliot – The musical

2008-12-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

I went with Jan to see this amazing show. I can’t pretend to have seen many musicals, but this was the best I have seen by a long way and absolutely recommended.

This is the story of an 11 year boy in a macho mining town in the North East of England and takes place during the Miners strike of 1984-5 during Maggie Thatcher’s Premiership. His father wants him to box and he wants to dance; and his father just doesn’t get it…. at first.

Politically, it might be somewhat eye-opening to Americans, who all seemed to love Thatcher. In England, some respected her, very few liked her and most truly despised her. And the miners most certainly fell into the last of the three categories, as did yours truly. As I said to the women who were surprised by the anti-Thatcher sentiment and asked me what I thought of her as we were leaving the theatre: “She was a horrible, disgusting, disgusting (more emphasis second time), dreadful, nasty woman…. and I didn’t like her!”

The songs and singing are superb and the dancing is exhilarating. The part of Billy is alternated from one performance to the next between three boys. I suspect the other two are as good as David Alvarez, who performed last Friday. The audience was entirely enraptured and clapped harder and longer than I have previously witnessed at a show.

Honestly folks. Anything you may have heard about this show is true. It is the best musical in many years and instantly takes a place alongside the upper echelon which for me is inhabited by West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof and a few before them, but none since. It is thrilling. See it!

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting

2008-12-03T21:44:00.002-05:00

Until today, I had never been near the Rockefeller Center on the evening of the Christmas Tree lighting. I didn’t know what I was missing. And I can honestly say, I wish I still didn’t know what I was missing!

I have a two block walk along 6th Avenue from my office to the Subway. I was faced with road barriers, some manned by Police Officers who didn’t seem to know what to do and some merely impeding my progress. And there were people jamming the sidewalk and there were amblers-a-plenty. The entrance to the subway station was closed, so I had to cross 6th Ave. to confirm my belief that everyone there was from out of town, what narrow opening was left between barriers and cop, was blocked by people stopping when the little red man started flashing. As all New Yorkers know, this is the signal to walk a little faster, not stop! Actually, that isn’t entirely true. The assholes who think they are cool slow down when the light starts flashing!!

Was that the end? Of course not! Droves of people coming off the platform were piling through the turnstiles, two of which were exit only – not that those were the turnstiles people were exiting through of course! The remaining two turnstiles close to the downtown platform were several people deep with people waiting to enter. They were blocking the path of the few sensible people, myself included, who noticed that the other bank of turnstiles had no wait at all. As I approached said turnstile bank, a ditherer changed direction into my path once; hesitated squirrel-like as I manoeuvred to avoid him, then cut me off again. Most frustrating!

Will someone please remind me to take the day off next year if I’m still working in Midtown!

Thanksgiving in LA

2008-12-02T21:50:00.001-05:00

What an amazing few days! Jan met me at the airport. One of her many good friends circled the airport while she waited for me. I was expecting delays and ridiculous crowds, but there were empty seats on the plane and no traffic on either end of the journey. Good thing about the empty seats, because the person who sat next to me started the journey in front of his wife and their 1 and 2 year old kids, but the hyperactive older one ended up with daddy, who kept on elbowing me while dealing with his kid. I’ll be kind and say he was a nice dad.

After our hello – you’d think we hadn’t seen each other in several weeks instead of just one – we went to dinner with a few more friends, plus Jan’s amazing brother, Lloyd, and his lovely wife, Janet, who had just turned 70, but appears to have boundless energy. I stayed at their place the first night there.

Thursday and Saturday Thanksgiving dinners – the first at her Mom’s place, where I stayed the next two nights, and the second at Lloyd’s - sandwiched another visit to a restaurant. We were treated by Jan’s 91 year old mother, who is feisty and funny and like no other person of her age I’ve ever met. Except perhaps for her 92 year old boyfriend who takes stairs better than most 70 year olds, drives like an old fashioned New York Cabbie (the modern variety just aren’t the same) and has a whip smart mind.

Between running and relaxing, Jan and I were inseperable and had a magical time together. The trip to LA was almost an incidental part of the entire journey.

My 3 and a bit days, unsurprisingly, went way too fast. We are already talking about our next visit there. I feel I have new family. And anyone wondering about Jan and I based upon things I have written should know that we are every bit as serious as you were probably suspecting. I don’t say this lightly, but this is the real deal, folks!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (sic.): My review and my critique on the dreadful New York Times review

2008-11-23T18:55:00.001-05:00

The makers of this film were handicapped, in that the story was told from inside the head of an 8 year old boy, complete with repetitious thoughts extrapolated from things he had heard others say. It further missed much of the innocence of the book because the boy misunderstood so much of what was being said to him, that his thoughts were jumbled with these mis-hearings, such as, Out With (Aus Mit in German) for Auschwitz, and The Fury, for the Fuhrer. And the dramatization of the ending was changed somewhat from the book. This was done in such a way that the reviewer for the New York Times was able to get an entirely unintended understanding of the feelings of the father of the boy who is the centre of the story.

Unfortunately, not being as egotistical as Manohla Dargis, I am rather hamstrung, as I am unable to either reference or directly rebuff her opinions, as that would be to give away the ending here, as she did in the New York Times. I would certainly suggest that anyone wishing to see this fine film does not read that review. I rate the review as the worst I have ever read. Had I never read any Village Voice film reviews, I would also call it the most conceited review I have ever read. In the Voice, reviewers somehow tend to forget that they are supposed to be describing a film, seeming to believe that they are supposed to impress upon the reader how absolutely phenomenally brilliant they are. While considering that this movie trivialises the Nazis, this woman trivialises the entire film and gets it all wrong, either reflecting that she has a heart made of stone or that she has long since left the child in her behind.

The film is charmingly made. Not everyone in it is an awful character, although it certainly portrays the Nazi soldiers as dreadful. But they are partly incidental to the film, which is mainly about the friendship of Bruno, the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz, and Shmuel, the boy in the striped pyjamas. I would recommend the book more highly, but this film is excellent and will likely be remembered at Oscar time.

Why is this no longer a question?

2008-11-16T00:28:00.003-05:00

"Question marks will be asked about [insert coach's name] team selection"
"There is a question mark over [insert fighter's name] chin/stamina"
"There are still question marks over how long this recession will last"

WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are question marks:

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

These are questions:

When did people start calling questions, question marks?
Why do so many people call questions, question marks?
Are question marks still called question marks or are they question mark marks?

Note, dear friends, that each question is followed by a question mark.

This is Jan

2008-11-15T19:58:00.001-05:00

I will be meeting Jan’s mother and brother for Thanksgiving – will have to go to Los Angeles to do so! So you would be right in thinking that things are going amazingly well between us. No details. Just to say, we’re both very happy to have met and excited about the future.

Pesce Pasta – Broccoli surprise

2008-11-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

Jan and I went to the Bleecker Street Pesce Pasta and were greatly enjoying our Soul and Broccolli. I would recommend these to anyone based upon quality and flavour. However, my pleasure abruptly ended when something apperared to come out from under the broccoli . My first reaction was to swipe at it, but I realised afterwards that might not have been the best thing to do until I knew what it was.

And then it reappeared. A little cockroach. Had this been mentioned on the menu, I would have asked to substitute, say, almonds or a nice tangy sauce. But as I didn’t order it, and I have a thing against eating things that carry disease – especially if they are still alive. Actually, call me selfish, but I don’t even want to share my food with anything living other than my girlfriend. So I signalled for the waiter.

He provided surprise number two. After he had the food removed from the table – did I mention I lost my appetite? – he asked if I wanted something else: “some more broccoli perhaps?” Flabbergasted, I asked to see the manager. Initially, he just stood with his hands by his side, turned outwards pleadingly, and a rather clueless look on his face. After Itold him that I could have everyone out of there without paying their bills, he spoke. He said he didn’t know where it came from and offered the two meals free and coffee and dessert on the house. I left there feeling ever so slightly queasy, but poorer only to the tune of the tip.

Do I even need to suggest that people should avoid this place? No. I didn’t think so!

Your New York City tax dollars at work

2008-11-09T09:44:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of March, after a 5 month hiatus, road ‘work’ began on my block – supposedly the project was to do with replacing the aging water pipes. And sure enough, a mere 6 months after digging up the road, the shysters started laying water pipes.

On Friday, October 3rd, I could hardly believe my eyes when I came home from work, and for the first time in 7 months, there was no work being done on this block. Actually, let me re-phrase that, because for several of those months, this block was just a dumping ground and parking place for work being done on other blocks, and no work was done on it at all. And when it was, it was just the re-digging of holes that had previously been dug and filled in, dug, and filled in. So my re-phrasing is, for the first time in 7 months, the entire road was open. But it was a disgusting mess and it was only a matter of time before someone had to clean it up!

10 days later, the pavement at the end of the block was ripped up, and replaced in a mere 3 days.

And on Friday the 24th, approximately 15 yards on each side of the northwest corner of intersection of 86th Street and 4th Avenue was ripped up on my side. The following day, they opened up road on 4th Avenue, but their resurfacing work was uneven, and cars had to slow down as they approached the 2 inch dip, for fear of damaging their cars.

On the Monday, they dug deeper on 86th Street. On Tuesday, one half of it was laid to a level of 3 or 4 inches below that of the other side of the road. On Wednesday, that side was complete and the other half of this 15 yard stretch was laid to the lower level. The next day, that work apparently was complete, but the section was still blocked to traffic for one more day. But there was a hole that needed filling just beyond where they worked, and the rest of the block was still a disgusting hodgepodge of slapped on tar. However, they did even out their poor work on 4th Ave.

This week, they spent two days supposedly resurfacing another of the corners. However, it too was left in an apparently incomplete state as the dug up a third corner and another section of my block. These people are a curse! In England and in Montclair, New Jersey, I have seen entire blocks resurfaced in a day. In Brooklyn, 15 yards on one side of a road takes 8 days.

I have never seen resurfacing entailing digging a foot down and laying the road in two or three section. They obviously don’t have a clue about what they are doing, at least when it comes to road work and road-laying. They are clearly brilliant at screwing the City and its tax payers. It is a complete disgrace and I resent my taxes enriching some mafioso who has a construction company as a front for their criminal activity. Do they pay off the politicians to get the contracts or do they threaten them? There is obviously nothing at all honest about it!

Il Cortile

2008-11-09T02:04:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Jan and I went to Il Cortile, a superb restaurant in Little Italy - a lovely little stretch of Manhattan; really quite romantic to walk around. I’m sure everything on the menu is superb, but I must recommend the halibut, which was heavenly. I feel it my duty to inform people that the asparagus, which isn’t on the menu but we ordered as a side dish, turned up as a $15 item on the bill. Wow!

The restaurant largely emptied out between 9 and 10pm, and then an altogether different clientele came in. I have never seen anything like it. Everyone who walked in there looked like a character out of the Sopranos. It was quite an experience! I’d have loved to take a picture of them, but somehow think they wouldn’t have been happy with me doing so. And I really wouldn’t want to upset them. I really wouldn’t want to upset them! Of course, I could have said that I’m English and ask if I could please take a picture, but again, it didn’t take much thought to dismiss this. Not quite sure what I would have said if they had asked me why. And whereas I have missed out on a potentially great photo, I am alive, and on reflection, that is more important.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 – history is made

2008-11-09T01:42:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama, brought up by a single mother, his father a Kenyan national, did something that 4 short years ago seemed impossible. He became President-Elect of the United States of America. They eyes of the world watched as everyone anticipated this great moment. But even though the result had seemed likely, if not by such a large margin, I don’t think anyone had anticipated exactly how happy they would be and exactly how much they would be affected by it.

I got a text from a Black friend who was so over the moon, he really wasn’t making much sense. But the words weren’t important. His emotion, plus the abiding image of seeing Jesse Jackson in tears, moved me to contemplate exactly what this election meant for African Americans. I don’t think it is for me to put this into words here. Anyone Black or mixed race reading this will not need me to try to express how they are feeling, although I certainly invite them to please leave comments.

Naturally, everyone I associate with is thrilled, whoever they supported when the whole process started. And in my discussions, they have certainly contemplated the meaning of what has really happened beyond a Democrat, or a Black man or a product of a broken home ascending to the Presidency. I hope those who supported McCain have recovered from their disappointment sufficiently to consider this, because we have witnessed history; we are living history. And January 20th will be a day that will live on forever.

Bloomberg: The right balance for democracy

2008-11-09T01:42:00.001-05:00

The day before the historic Presidential election that showed American democracy at it’s finest and most hopeful, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proved that he has one of the hugest egos the world has ever seen, by signing into law the bill that reverses the democratic will of the people of New York City, 59% of whom (more literally 59% of the people who could be bothered to vote, but if you don’t vote, you don’t deserve an opinion) voted for term limits in 1993 and 54% of whom voted to re-affirm that decision 3 years later.

So what were the words Bloomberg chose to say as he signed his bill that reversed 2 democratic votes? “This is the right balance for Democracy”. What a bloody nerve! According to this man, his opinion is worth more than hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, and his version of democracy is that it is fair for his opinion to carry more weight than any number of New York voters. It is really quite mind boggling to me that he can think that and get away with it.

People of New York: In a recent poll, 89% of you said that term limits should be put to another referendum; that only the people can overturn the will of the people - but the right balance for democracy is that only one opinion counts and yours doesn’t.

So now, a vote for Bloomberg in next years’ Primaries, should any Republican run against him, or in the Mayoral election in November 2009, will be a paradox, as it will be affirming the will of a person who has circumvented democracy. I trust, my fellow New Yorkers, you will do the right thing when the time comes, and throw this man out on his ear.

Palin 2012? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

2008-11-05T22:01:00.007-05:00

Mind boggling!

How a preacher made me late

2008-10-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

When I was on my way to meet Carrie for our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge two Sundays back, I decided to not listen to music. But I did carry my iPod with me. You never know when there will be a group of loud people; a person who believes him or herself to be so brilliant or funny that everyone on the train deserves to share their wit or brilliance; a person whose house burned down/wife left him/had everything stolen/is trying to get his life back on track/doesn’t steal…… or perhaps….

A preacher got on. It was a short stop, so I tuned him out without music. But the carriage I was in must have been full of sinners who needed their souls to be saved, because after a one stop break, he came back! Enough! I went for the music.

A few minutes later, as the doors were closing at Pacific Street, I caught the tail end of an announcement from the conductor: Trains were diverted over the Manhattan Bridge from the next stop. I would not be able to get to Downtown Manhattan on the local train. I got off at the next stop, doubled back to Pacific Street and took a different train line from there to our meeting point.

Now I suppose I could claim that the MTA should have had signs up about the change of service. And the conductor should have made announcements during the first several stops also, instead of only the last two before the re-routing. But if it wasn’t for the preacher, I would have heard the announcement the first time. Perhaps some people feel that Jesus saved them. Indeed, had I not turned on my music and drowned out the sermon, he could have saved me 20 minutes!

I meant to blog this a week ago, but was reminded of it while coming home late from my second date with Jan, whose name, I trust and hope, will be become a fixture on this blog. On the longest stop of the journey, going across the Manhattan Bridge, a woman got on. I couldn’t hear her words even though she stood right next to me, but I thought she was a crazy person. Slap my wrist! I thought she was challenged by reality. Between tracks of my music, I figured out that she was preaching. And a woman who had been reading her book, just like me 9 days earlier, decided enough was enough, and put on her music. And I was amused; not alone in the anonymous yet interesting world of mass transit.

An amusing New York Subway moment

2008-10-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

On the 3-seat bench on the R train, the only seat taken is the one to the right, directly across from me, by a man sitting in his own world, as we all tend to do at least sometimes. A young man almost jumps into the seat right next to him, in a way you might expect one young friend to sit next to another. The already seated man looked at him quizzically, with a wtf expression I can fully understand. And I laughed! The other man saw me, and he laughed! The young man was obviously unaware of our amusement. I chuckled for a while longer before re-entering my own little world….sort of!

Term limits in NYC: The Bloomberg disgrace

2008-10-25T00:45:00.002-04:00

I am not casting judgment on Michael Bloomberg as Mayor. I am also not considering whether it is right or wrong for Mayors to be eligible to serve for 3 terms. Each of those things has become irrelevant.

In 1993, the people of New York City voted for term limits. They voted that the Mayor of their city, along with City Council members, may not hold office more than twice.

On Thursday, October 23rd 2009, the City Council voted that they and the Mayor may run for a third term. Before doing so, they voted against an amendment requiring a referendum.

This is truly disgraceful. The people of New York City have been completely disrespected. Their voted wishes have been overturned by a power hungry Mayor and 29 cronies.

None of these 30 people should receive a single vote in next year’s elections. Maybe many of them would have been re-elected. But New Yorkers must use the election in 2009 as if it were the referendum they have been denied:

1. Do you think you should have had the chance to decide whether or not to keep the term limits? Vote the opponent.

2. Do you agree that it is OK that what you voted should be overturned by 30 elected officials? Vote for them again.

Simple really!

Walking on the Brooklyn Bridge

2008-10-22T22:13:00.007-04:00

I had done this once before: September 10th, 1981. And that time, it wasn’t planned. A power sub-generator had caught fire in Downtown Manhattan and, having been stuck on a train for a very long time, an announcement was made that no trains were going into Brooklyn. So my old friend Carolyn and I walked, along with many others, over the bridge. That time, I couldn’t really enjoy it. I was supposed to move back to England that evening.

We had been visiting our friend Arline, who was working on Central Park South with another great friend, Rob. I had moved out of my apartment and shipped my stuff home, so was staying at Arline’s place. We left Central Park at least 5 hours before my plane was due to leave. And arrived after what should have been no more than an hour long journey, 40 minutes before I should have been hitting the skies.

Fortunately, it was 1981 and not 2008, because the airline put me on a flight the next day without any penalty to me. And Carolyn, Arline and Rob are all still great friends. As, now, is Carrie. And it is with her that I strolled across from on the reverse direction on Sunday. No such exciting stories to tell.

New York's cheapest BJ?

2008-10-22T21:54:00.003-04:00

Ahem!

How stupid is the MTA?

2008-10-22T21:54:00.000-04:00

OK. That’s obviously a rhetorical question. Every morning, they run W trains from Coney Island into Manhattan. What’s wrong with that? The W starts in lower Manhattan and heads into Queens. The train in Brooklyn states on it’s ELECTRONIC DISPLAY BOARD that the train starts at Whitehall Street Manhattan. It’s electronic for fucks sake! Why don’t they just program it to say that the train starts at Coney Island!

This evening, on my way home, I was waiting for an R train at 36th Street in Brooklyn. A W came. The conductor made 10 or more announcements that the train was running on the R line. It’s an electronic display! What’s wrong with these people. Change the W to an R and nobody would be confused and the conductor wouldn’t have to constantly repeat that the train is running as an R. Too simple for them, I fear. And too logical. But am I surprised? I started with a rhetorical question, so I might as well finish with one!

You picked on the wrong cat, sucker!

2008-10-17T22:04:00.002-04:00

I think the cat's saying "the world isn't big enough for you to hide in. I'm going to find you, you mother fucker. And I'm going to get my revenge. Over and over again I'm going to get my revenge. You think you've ruined my life? We are enemies unto the death!"

Vernon Jordan

2008-10-15T23:07:00.002-04:00

I was enjoying the beautiful sunshine shortly after 2pm on Wednesday, sitting on a bench in Rockefeller Plaza, when the man next to me called out: “Are you Vernon Jordan?” to the immaculate gentleman who was passing by. “Yes I am”, was the smiling response, as he stepped back towards his questioner.

“Well thank you for getting JC Penney to leave the City”
“I was not responsible for that”
“A lot of jobs were lost and about two-thirds of them were for minorities”
“I agree it wasn’t good”
“The company has suffered because of it”
“Their stock price is $22.” (I checked. It was)
And this idiot sitting next to me kept on hammering while Mr. Jordan said that the rumours about his involvement weren’t true; that he knew a lot more about the situation than his assailant and that he voted against whatever the proposal was that made them leave.

Overall, I have to say that I was most impressed with the way Vernon Jordan handled and eventually extricated himself. The man next to me settled back into his conversation with the woman he was sitting with. I was considerably more interested in reading 100 years of solitude than I was in their discussion, but she did seem to raise her voice - a suggestion perhaps that she thought she was being particularly enlightened and profound - as she stated: “I’m a believer in raising taxes”. Bit of a blanket statement there, lady!

Every freakin time I go to the freaking gym…

2008-10-15T22:40:00.001-04:00

….the worst freakin song in I can’t think how many freakin years comes on the freakin radio. Basically, it goes on for a little short of a lifetime, repeating the main verse “every freakin day and every freakin night I wanna freaking baby every freakin way” on what seems to be a 10 second sound loop. I have taken to asking the guy behind the desk to change the channel when it comes on. I can see suspending one’s usual music taste at clubs, when the beat is what counts. But seriously people! How can you listen to this freakin shit on the radio!!!

Sarah Palin is stupid. Ergo, Sarah Palin supporters are stupid

2008-10-12T14:05:00.003-04:00

This is getting serious. This woman goes to rallies and whips the conservative moron wing of the Republican Party into a frenzy over such things as how a person Barack Obama palled with when he was 8 year old was a known terrorist. There are some bad 8 year olds, it is true, but does this make everyone who knew Hitler when he was 8, friends with the most evil person of the 20th century and therefore terrible people? Does it make everyone who know Martin Luther King or Gandhi when they were 8, wonderful people in their own right?

She whips up a frenzy among people who claim that America is now more Socialist than China. Yes folks, her supporters are that smart. Smart enough and nice enough to not vote Obama because he is an Arab!!!!! Where do these people get this stuff from! I repeat a claim I made in an earlier post: These are people who would vote for a decomposing Ronald Reagan if he was the Republican candidate. They would probably claim that his silence denoted strength and that he won all debates. We are not talking about people playing with a full deck here folks! But along with the criminals who are busily trying to strike as many Democratic voters off the voting register as possible, these are the people who may decide the election.

Palin claims to be a foreign policy expert and McCain claims her to be one of the world’s leading experts on energy. But she can’t give straight answers. She cannot think on her feet. All she can do is attack. This woman would be a doddering and sick old man’s heartbeat away from the Presidency. All this Country First stuff might play well with insular idiots who think that the USA can survive in this world without friends, but I have news for them that they will be either too stupid to understand or too ignorant to want to: IT ISN’T SO!

I can just imagine this woman meeting world leaders and trying to bully them to her ways. She, of obvious little intelligence and with no experience or knowledge or capacity to do anything other than attack, lie and memorise what her advisers teach her, would be pummelling intelligent and experienced world leaders? The people who are already aware that George Bush has made this country a standing unfortunate joke in world terms will be well aware that Palin would make him seem like Henry Kissinger. And the people who don’t see that are probably too dim-witted to see anything.

Now when it comes to opinions, I am perfectly accepting of differing opinions and happy to agree to differ. Indeed, no matter how moronic a person is or how dangerous or pathetic what passes for their reasoning might be, they are entitled to their own opinions. However, in this particular case, I have no patience for those who support McCain or particularly Palin. All great empires come to an end though, but few can ever have plummeted so far and so fast as 8 months of President Palin following on from 8 years of W would surely precipitate.

Not convinced by words? Then watch!

She is a Foreign policy expert….

…. and an Energy expert….

…. Who doesn’t read newspapers

The thirty-nine steps

2008-10-07T22:07:00.003-04:00

Who’d’ve thought that a Hitchcock film could have been turned into a comedy! Certainly when I told my mother, she didn’t believe it. But I have to say folks, you should catch this while it’s still on. The upper tier wasn’t filled and even though tickets were on sale at half price, the lower tiers didn’t entirely sell out. So I doubt this will be around for too long.

All parts are played by 4 people. To be more precise, the 3 female parts are taken by one woman and the male lead takes only one part. All other parts are taken by two men who work very hard; sometimes switching between 3 characters by simply changing their hat. It makes for great slapstick And the actors/characters are very likeable, so as soon as you see them wearing a new hat or coat, you laugh.

Being that my mother’s mobility it rather compromised, she took a while getting to and returning from the ladies room, which is downstairs. And by the time we left, 3 of the actors (pictured) were outside, along with another fellow (in the blue vest) who obviously worked on the production.

Amusingly, and I wish I had a video to show this, although the ladies room is only accessible via stairs, there is a handicapped stall. That’s obviously a legal requirement, but I wonder how handicapped people are supposed to get there in the first place!

Rockport, Massachusetts

2008-10-07T21:45:00.004-04:00

I brought my mother to Boston for a couple of days. She was hoping to see the famous New England Fall leaf colours. On our first evening, my friend Carrie picked us up from South Station and we went see Andre Previn conduct the Boston Symphony.

For day two, Sean came in from Amherst and Heidi drove us all to Rockport. What a stunningly beautiful place. I took so many pictures, I will let the few I’ve selected do the talking.

For day three, we went to the downtown area where I used to work, and which I have missed. Mum loved the trip and it confirmed for me that I have to come back to Boston for regular visits. It is such a great place. As much as I love New York and its excitement and energy, people in Boston are just so very nice, and the city is so easy. If my life didn’t centre around New York, I could easily live here. Then again, if I did, I’d miss New York! Oh, well. It was a lovely little trip.

I want this house!

Sean, my Mum and Heidi

Hold the presses! My block is clear of road works – for now.

2008-10-04T09:55:00.001-04:00

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got home yesterday. My block is open to 2 side parking and there are no lanes blocked off. Unbe-fucking-lievable. 7 months, almost to the day since they started digging. There are a couple of the ‘workmen’s’ vehicles parked, as they have expanded the hole across 4th Avenue, and obviously need to put their diggers somewhere, but what seemed as if would never happen, finally has.

I wonder when the road surfacers will show up and tear it all up again, and how long after that some other crew will be back to do some more ‘work’!

Palin’s debate: A piss poor performance which hugely exceeded expectations

2008-10-04T09:47:00.000-04:00

Over 30% thought she won? Well 60 million voted for a second term for Bush, so there really is no shortage of stupid voters in this country. She entirely ignored the first several non-energy related questions, choosing instead to talk about energy. Oddly, I have read little about this.

Her little nods and winks were awful. People are taken in by that folksy stuff? Sorry, but that’s pathetic. And how many of her answers were clearly memorised by rote? I congratulate her teachers and admit that she does have a great memory. But am entirely unconvinced that she can think on her feet. For me, she is Dan Quayle with thighs. She can wink at the damned fool men who will be swayed by such things; cross her legs and show a few inches of thigh – things that wouldn’t have worked too well for the unfortunate Mr. Quayle. But I no more want her as my President than I wanted him. Actually, as I write that, I realise I am being unfair to Quayle. He seemed like a very nice man.

How many people reading this actually think that John McCain is the candidate for change? Question 2: On what grounds do you think that?

Finally, OJ Simpson can rest!

2008-10-04T08:49:00.001-04:00

How many years ago was it that he said he wouldn’t rest until ‘the real killers’ were found? Well he will have plenty of time to rest now!

The 86th Street road works: Could they be over sometime next year?

2008-09-28T22:25:00.003-04:00

There are no holes on the block! None! The ‘workmen’ seem to like it here though, so they still have their stuff here. There actually is one hole at the corner, across the road. They are apparently keeping my block down to 2 lanes for old times sake.

Previously, 5 ½ months after re-starting work on this block – and I use the word work in the loosest possible sense – they started laying water mains. Odd, as the entire point of the digging was supposedly to do with water pipes.

This is the current condition of the road. They dumped tar on what used to be road and pavement by the intersection with 4th Ave, and made criminally pathetic attempts to smooth it over. I heard a couple of elderly women discussing how difficult it is to navigate that area. My mother, visiting from England and needing a walking frame to get around, has a hell of a time walking there and crossing the street.

It’s truly disgraceful. The corruption is there for all to see. I wonder how much money it has cost so far. And no doubt, within weeks of these people leaving, road workers will have to come and dig everything up and re-lay the road and pavement. At a cost of? And who pays? And which Brooklyn politicians accept generous campaign contributions while handing these shyster companies generous contracts without accountability or minimum standards! In some places, this wouldn’t be allowed!
Footnote: There used to be a drain at the crosswalk. Gone now. So when it rains, we have puddles. People should go to prison for this. I resent my taxes lining the pockets of crooked politicians and enriching cynical ‘businessmen’.

The secret life of wires

2008-09-23T22:55:00.001-04:00

This morning, I put my uncharged iPod into my manbag – yes, I succumbed to the manbag as an alternative to a large workbag and the other extreme, the supermarket plastic shopping bag. The speaker wire was wrapped around the iPod. At work, I removed it from the bag to recharge it, and slipped it briefly into my pocket as I left the office.

How, I ask; exactly how did it get so knotted that it took minutes to untangle it? A couple of weeks back, the wire somehow attached itself to the cord of my camera case in a way that defied known physics.

So how do wires intertwine when nobody is looking? Why will a telephone wire automatically gravitate towards any other nearby wires making it so that one day, when you pick up the phone, it won’t even stretch halfway to your ear? It will of course be a really important phone call that happens with.

I wonder if anyone has ever considered attaching a little camera to several wires to see exactly how this happens when we aren’t watching. I don’t suppose it would be particularly exciting, but if a day’s worth of film was condensed into 30 seconds or so, I think it could fascinate a lot of people. I can just hear the eureka moments: “Oh! So that’s how that happens!”

In the meantime of course, nobody has ever invented a pair of shoe laces that won’t come undone. If only wire could be coated with shoelace material and shoelaces made of telephone cord, at least the right things would be knotted. Hell! You wouldn’t even need to tie your shoelaces. They would tie themselves!

Sarah Palin a great mother? Her 5th child’s grandmother?

2008-09-16T21:06:00.003-04:00

I watched an NBC documentary about Sarah Palin. My mother likened it to what they do in England for royalty, so it was certainly sympathetic and respectful. But while I rarely have any time for conspiracy theories, I was rather interested when they talked about her 5th ‘pregnancy’. Nobody knew she was pregnant and after 6 months she went away on vacation. She decided to give birth in her home town, so flew back at the very end of her pregnancy - AFTER her waters broke!

What I remember from when my ex was heavily pregnant, is that doctors advise against flying in the latter stages of a pregnancy and airlines don’t take women for whom the birth is imminent. They just can’t take the risk of complications, which include mid-air birth. So unless there are different rules for politicians, did an airline really allow a heavily pregnant Sarah Palin to fly? Was it her that was pregnant?

Let’s give her the benefit of some reasonable doubt and say that it was her who gave birth to a Down’s Syndrome baby who had health problems. She went back to work 3 days later! Does this show a great work ethic or absolutely no maternal instincts or even Human instincts, come to that! What mother feels like working so soon after birth? After a difficult birth? After a difficult birth of a sick baby? When I asked the first question, my son Sean responded “the kind of mother who has a 17 year old unwed pregnant daughter.” I should add that none of us are prudes.

But for those who may not be able to figure out what he meant for themselves, a woman with zero emotion or motherly love – and she surely could have neither to leave ‘her’ 3 day old sick baby in the hospital while she goes back to work - could only possibly be an unloving and lousy mother. Perhaps one of those modern parents who mistakes saying yes for being a good parent. These people are responsible for a lot of the teenage monsters in the world. Now while I certainly am not calling Sarah Palin’s children monsters – I don’t know anywhere near enough about them to make any assessment at all – they clearly missed out on what I would call parental love.

Of course though, maybe she didn’t give birth at all, in which case she isn’t a monster, just a damned liar.

Now, supposedly, Bristol Palin is 5 months pregnant, while baby Trig is 5 months old. I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction. Bristol's baby will be born very small, either when she is due, or a short while after. And there's a strong chance that the birth will be induced due to 'lateness'. Maybe I'm a little too suspicious, but nothing quite adds up.

I just had to copy a couple of sentences and a photo from this article: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/archive/2008/08/30/bristol-palin-pregnancy-is-sarah-palin-s-baby-really-her-daughter-s.aspx

Palin's daughter Bristol who attends an Anchorage high school, was reportedly absent for what would have been the last 4 -5 months of her mother's pregnancy, claiming to be suffering from a prolonged case of mono.

Sarah Palin's water broke while she was attending a conference in Texas. She then proceeded to give a 30-minute speech before taking an 11-12 hour flight home to Alaska to give birth.

Supposedly, she was almost 7 months pregnant here. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

Professional Fitness – Avoid

2008-09-14T01:15:00.002-04:00

If you are thinking of signing up with a personal trainer, you should know that Professional Fitness may be an easy option, as they might have a presence in your gym, but ultimately, as I will explain, the only fitness that is really important to them is that of their bank balance. You, the customer, are of no real consequence to them other than as a source of income. This is how I reached my conclusion.

I signed up for 2 sessions a month on an annual contract, at a cost of $80 per month. It seemed reasonable at the time, but for half hour sessions, it isn’t.

I had a trainer who seemed decent. He was certainly a nice enough guy. But people complained about his aggressive tactics in signing up new customers, and he was let go after I’d had 3 or 4 sessions.

I really liked the next guy who trained me. He was much better than the first one and I felt physically stronger. But after a few sessions with him, he had a dispute with the company over hours – they wanted him to work longer hours, but it was a second job for him and he was happy to keep the arrangement he’d had for a couple of years. But they made things difficult for him, so he left.

Onto number three. This guy had been with the company for as long as I had been at the gym. He was the only one who had lasted the 5 or 6 months, so I chose him rather than the person who called me at home, didn’t understand a word I said, and then got threatening when my vocal expression showed that I was clearly upset that I had been called at home by someone who couldn’t understand a word I said. No, I didn’t want that guy as my personal trainer..

Guy number three was very good – the best of the bunch. After I got back from Boston, I had a couple of sessions a week, as I hadn’t used any while there or on the East Brunswick assignment which preceded it. And he was helping – enough that when he told me about a special ’20 for 20’ deal, where if I paid up front, I could get 20 sessions for $400, I signed up. But I still wanted more.

So I signed up with a private person at the gym who goes by the name of Franco. I always saw the condition of the people he trained, and it was much better than the people trained by personal fitness. The only reason I didn’t sign up with him sooner is that if you see the guy, you know he is at the top of his field, so I thought he would be really expensive. But he sells 3, hour long sessions, for $100, or 10 for $300.

For 3 weeks, I saw Franco once and the other guy twice and the results were the best yet. Then Professional Fitness ‘suspended’ trainer #3 without warning. I found out when I went for my session. I hadn’t started using the sessions from the 20 for 20 deal yet, as I was still playing catch-up on the original contract. So I wrote to them at the beginning of August, cancelling the auto-renew on the original contract that I was supposed to know about because everyone reads small print and companies such as this one always tell you stuff like that, and requesting my money back from the as yet unstarted contract. .

I have been having two sessions a week with Franco ever since. Damn! What a difference! I’m in the best shape of my life! I’ve got muscles! Big ones! Even new ones! Yes, my tummy is being a bit stubborn, but it has got smaller and is quite firm.

Last week, I saw a charge for $80 from Professional Fitness against my bank account! So I called them. No apology offered, but they will refund that money. However, they could only refund the $400 if I had cancelled within 3 days of signing the contract or on medical grounds. Forget that they have basically fired 3 trainers already and I have no confidence that they will not do so again. Forget that none of the people who currently work there are as good as the last of their employees who trained me; and sure as hell none of them are a patch on Franco. Forget that I only signed the contract because of the last trainer they had me working out with. It is not their policy to refund money. So I eat $400 or I train with an inferior trainer perhaps once a week.

Since that phone call, I have heard from the other trainer. 6 weeks on, he’s still suspended and they are threatening to fire him if he keeps calling to find out when his 30 day suspension will end. They have informed him that he will have to go to a different location. So screw all the people who signed up with him. We don’t count.

Anyone who might have read this to the end, who is actually considering personal training, forget about this lot and find someone who works for him or herself and who looks the part. Check out their other clients. Talk with them. You might be surprised about the price and you will probably be happy with the results.

Sarah Palin - A nasty piece of work

2008-09-14T01:09:00.002-04:00

I'm really not Barack Obama's greatest supporter, although I sure as hell hope he wins in November, but I don't believe that his pig wearing lipstick comment was about Sarah Palin. I do believe that he sometimes says things that he hasn't quite thought out.

However, after you read this,

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/sarahpalin.asp,

you might just agree that she really is a pig wearing lipstick. A truly nasty piece of work!

Will the real John McCain please stand up!

2008-09-13T11:25:00.001-04:00

He apparently doesn't listn too hard to himself:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html

Republican hypocrisy re. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin: even more absurd than you might imagine

2008-09-05T20:15:00.004-04:00

Republicans hypocrites? Nooooooo! Watch this clip from the Daily Show of various commentators and politicians and their short memories and (I want to say unbelievable, but it is actually highly believable) ridiculous double standards.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

Maximum Performance 'pure' oxygen

2008-08-30T16:18:00.000-04:00

This is the worst new commercial I’ve seen in a while. A man and woman are running; the film is black and white. He stops, tired, saying he can’t go on. Suddenly, there’ colour, and she is handing him “maximum performance”. He takes a hit from the can at which point she tells him that it is pure 92% oxygen.

Has anyone ever heard of 92% oxygen? If it exists, this stuff is it in pure form. If not, I’m not quite sure how they can get away with putting the word ‘pure’ before ‘92%’.

I asked my personal trainer about taking pure oxygen, and he said that I’m fit enough and don’t need it. Although I suspect that on my low energy days, it could help.

But! Don’t buy this stuff. At $19.95 for “up to” 30 applications, it is very poor value. Especially when they recommend that you take 2 or 3 breaths, which makes the can have 10 to 15 applications. The web has several better values. Like this one: http://www.oxygeninacan.com/, which is a mere 90% oxygen, contains 70 breaths for $15 (and they give smallish volume discounts), but they recommend 4-6 breaths (12-17 applications). Or this one: http://www.oxygen4energy.com/order_oxygen.htm. This claims 99% purity but recommends 10-15 breaths! This would yield 9.5-14 applications. But this one is easily the cheapest, at $8.75 per refill can if you buy 12.

I confess I had not understood how some oxygen is more potent than other oxygen (!), so I asked. 10-15 breaths are how many it would take to infuse your bloodstream. Anything less may be beneficial based upon your level of fitness and exertion. But the 2-3 recommended by Maximum Performance is likely to be bait to get you to buy it, and unlikely to be enough.

Some of that previous paragraph came from Craig, at oxygen4energy.com. If you have any questions, you’ll find him very friendly and helpful. I hope the guy succeeds, whether I buy his product or not. If he used the same level of ‘honesty’ on his website that Maximum Performance use in theirs, his product would seem to yield between 47.5 and 70 applications per can. If you’re going to buy, buy from the person who is most honest, not from the one making the grandest claims.

A day at Long Beach and the gulls strut their stuff

2008-08-29T21:52:00.001-04:00

I had mentioned to someone that I never get to the beach, and she recommended that I should go to Long Beach, Long Island. She goes alone. So I decided that rather than another day at Union Square, I would take myself off there last Sunday.

As I was going alone, I decided to take no valuables at all and also not take a credit card. But at Flushing LIRR Station, the machines only take cards, and I couldn’t try to find the ticket office, given that the train was about to leave. So I bought my ticket on the train. It was $19 and the beach pass was another 10, as opposed to the complete package if I’d had some plastic with me, costing $18. Lesson learned!

The day was beautiful and I was surprised that the beach wasn’t crowded. People constantly left their stuff unattended, and the only thing I saw taken was a tied up plastic shopping bag, which apparently had leftover lunch in it. The thieves were gulls, which made for an amusing diversion. There had been a lot of them the entire time I was there, and I had been surprised that they had avoided walking on towels.

That changed half an hour before I left. First one bird that had been getting close to unattended belongings but not looking in open bags, discovered something that really interested it and started pulling it this way and that. Several birds swooped down, barely missing him or her. He (for sake of my telling) saw them off non-violently and resumed. This happened a few times until a little grey gull upped the ante and more aggressively made the bag his.

Several attempts were made to usurp him, and each time he came closer to meting out actual bodily harm before the upstarts left. And then my attention was switched to the excitement caused by a woman throwing food and causing aerial pandemonium. With her action, the violence became real, although no blood was drawn. As the excitement there waned, I looked back at my original focal point. There was garbage strewn over several square yards with several gulls strutting and happily pecking.

I left shortly after that, as I wanted to be on the 6 o’clock train back to Brooklyn. Definitely heading back this weekend, and I will most definitely go several times next year. Take food and drink, a book if you are so inclined, an iPod if you are more brave than me, and enjoy.

86th street in Bay Ridge – the eternal digging continues

2008-08-16T00:30:00.001-04:00

3 weeks ago, my daughter asked me what all the digging was on my block and when it was going to end. I told her that I think it is to do with water and they will continue digging until the end of time.

It has been over 5 months since they started. Shortly after my last offering on this subject, they redug the original very deep holes from the beginning of March. I barely saw them for a while after that, but did hear them sometimes after dark – except when it rained or was hot. Slightly wry there, I hope you’ll understand, seeing as it was a warmer than average July.

The block between 4th and 5th has now been reclaimed for cars and the deep hole on that side of the intersection was filled in. But now whenever it rains, nothing drains away. A couple of weeks ago, they closed off 2 lanes of the block between 2nd and 3rd. My block? On Tuesday, they dug another new trench. 5 ½ months and no sight of an ending. It’s beginning to really piss me off.

More reflections: 52nd Street & 6th Ave, NYC

2008-08-16T00:21:00.002-04:00

I liked the first picture because of all of the vehicles, parked and reflected and the people walking by with their umbrellas up. I felt that the cab turning onto 52nd completed the shot.

The larger reflected building in the second picture would be the one I work in and took these pictures from. What caught my eye was that it looked so warped.

An evening in the East River Park Amphitheater/Ain’t supposed to die a natural death

2008-08-10T18:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was one of those perfect weather days in New York that there are few enough of that they should really be savoured: Not too hot but very warm in the sun, very low humidity and clear skies. I have been very lucky with these evenings this year, having gone to the Symphony in The Park a month ago on a perfect evening.

Last night, I went with Carrie to see the Melvin Van Peebles musical ‘Ain’t supposed to die a natural death’, which was set in the very violent 1980s. The production was magnificent. Brilliantly staged and acted, with some wonderful voices and dancing. And having never heard any of the songs before, they were all fresh and highly enjoyable and each told their stories at first with some humour, then with poignancy as the story became more serious.

The production is now moving to St. Mary’s Park in The Bronx and I urge anyone reading this before August 15th/16th to treat themselves. Or if you hear of it being revived and coming your way, go. It is a very fresh telling of a very 70s to 80s reality.

The setting at the Amphitheater (Sic.) in the East River Park was so very beautiful, particularly after dusk. There was a constant flow of pleasure cruisers and water taxis, and I even saw a little yacht. At one point, a small flock of white birds flew low against the river, and several times, butterflies we framed in the spotlights. Couple that with the wonderful costumes and some moments where all but the one or two principals in a scene were motionless on stage, and I wish I could have taken a picture. But flash photography at night would not have been a good thing. What a perfect setting though. I know I will go back for the right event, and I would certainly suggest to others that they will find few better ways of spending a beautiful New York evening.

Round trip Subway ride – bad luck and nasty MTA

2008-08-08T22:55:00.002-04:00

The first four days of this week, I arrived on the platform at 86th Street within a minute of a train leaving, so I had to wait several minutes for the next one. On one of those days, as also happened once last week, as my train pulled in to 36th Street, the D train I want had barely started pulling away from the platform.

This morning, I was a little later, and as I reached the turnstiles, a train was pulling in. Was I lucky today? No! My monthly pass had run out, so I needed to buy a new one. Americans have their name for such luck, but the British call it Sod’s Law. And that was a perfect example.

On my way home, I took the N train. At Pacific Street, we sat for at least two minutes. An M train pulled in and it was almost at a halt, the doors to the N train closed. The train started moving as the doors to the other opened. Hardly rare, but why have us wait for 2 minutes and pull away then? I know they claim it is necessary to do such things during the rush hour, but anyone who has travelled much on the New York Subway will be all too aware that they do the same thing away from the rush hour also. I think it is part incompetence and part insensitivity/nastiness. I really don’t like the MTA.

Rockefeller Center Post Office – redefining futility

2008-08-08T22:29:00.002-04:00

By today’s standards, the Post Office in the basement of the Rockefeller Center is large. And considering how many people work in the area, it should come as no surprise that it is usually busy in there. When I went in yesterday at about quarter to two, just at the tail end of lunchtime, there was a fairly lengthy line, though certainly not the longest I have seen. Five tellers were behind the counter, of whom, I would discover, only three were serving customers – all, very, very slowly.

Unfortunately, the man in front of me was muttering every 20 seconds comments such as “oh, come on!” and “so slow!” He let up when I said “Please! You’re not making them go any faster!”

While the number of active tellers rose briefly to 5, the line moved somewhat quicker. It took barely more than 5 minutes for me to go from 17th in line to 5th, then another 10 minutes from there. I was aware all of this time of one woman who could put out DVDs on how not to work. This woman is near genius level. Only near, because if she was true genius, I wouldn’t have tumbled her.

I watched this woman putting labels on envelopes with extreme deliberation. She moved things from the right to the left side below her counter, then moved things from right to left, then attached more labels, looked thoughtful, attached yet more labels and further re-arranged things. All the while, she was initiating conversations with the woman a the station next to her. Oh the laughs they had!

When she finally took a customer, she continued her conversation and managed to take several minutes processing a single package. And then another couple to recount money and move some more things.

When I was close to the front of the queue, a woman was walking around asking people if they were aware of the new hours at that office, and handing out glossy leaflets for those who couldn’t remember that it will now close at 5pm without a piece of paper. My thoughts, having witnessed the work ‘ethic’, was that it must be incredibly exhausting avoiding work so effectively, and by 5pm they presumably are too tired to continue.

More seriously, if Post Office tellers were paid by the number of customers they see, my time in that place would have been 5 minutes instead of 40. What a total disgrace.