Ta ta!

We went to Manhattan this morning to participate in a walk to raise money for women's cancers, particularly breast cancer.  

It was the hubby's idea because he said he always wanted to do it, so we registered two months ago.  I'm proud of him.  

We also learned about a new website:  www.chemo-couture.com, if you know anyone who might benefit from it.

****If you are reading this and are a female, do your monthly breast check, and have your annual ob/gyn exam.  Catching things early means your best chance for survival!  I'm talking to you.  Yes, YOU.

Fran Drescher also said that if you don't feel well, if you feel something wrong, keep asking questions of doctors.  She said she had to go to eight different docs   before she got a correct diagnosis of uterine cancer!

May Day!

Anyone got off work for May Day?

Didn't think so.

I don't even know who Mr. May is or why we honor him!

Our trip to Super Duper Weenie

Being that my hubby and I both appreciate fine food, we had to make the trip to Connecticut to visit Super Duper Weenie after it was featured on Guy Fieri's Food Network Show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  

Before you scoff, consider that owner and chef Gary Zemora is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America!  But rather than work at some fancy-schmancy place, he created delicious toppings and divine dogs.

There was a line outside.

Hubby had a dog with bacon and grilled onions.

I had two veggie burgers.  They make them with lettuce, tomato, onions, and their famous homemade hot relish.  

I actually wanted sweet relish on mine too, but Gary talked me out of it, saying it wouldn't make sense to have both hot and sweet.  He suggested sweet on one, hot on the other.  I assented.  After all, he's the chef-jockey and knows what he's talking about.

And yes, Gary - the guy on TV - was right behind the grill serving up the dogs, and chatted with us.  How cool is that?

A friend of my hubby's was in the area and was kind enough to meet us there.  She ordered the above Chicagoan dog.  

This is Gary (facing us in the bandana).  We sat at the corner and ate, right in front of him.  When we told us we came up from two states away because we saw the place on TV, he lamented that we hadn't ordered fries, then gave us a free order of fries because we were "virgins."

For dinner tonight, we just had salads and bread to be a little healthier.

All and all, a fun day.

Cuddly bulldog o' the day

Max

Rainy days and Mondays

We're supposed to start the week with a soaker.

A building nearby. 

These trees are all over now.  Happy spring!

Oh my

Being a writer, I get announcements about anthologies calling for submissions.  I thought some of you might get a kick out of this.  (And NO I am not submitting anything!)

"Publisher: Logical-Lust
Editor: Jolie du Pre
Deadline: June 30, 2009
Payment: $50 and one copy of the e-book, paid within two weeks after the book is published. If The Cougar Book goes to print, you will also receive one copy of the print book.

"What is a Cougar? She's a woman 40 or over who dates younger men. She's intelligent, confident, attractive, enjoys sex, and knows what she wants. (Think Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.)
I am looking for original, unpublished erotic stories from 3,000 to 5,000 words. The sex can be Vanilla to BDSM. The Cougar women in The Cougar Book must be NO YOUNGER than 40. The young men in The Cougar Book must be NO OLDER than 30....
How to submit to The Cougar Book:
Send stories attached as Microsoft Word plain text or RTF format, 12 point, Times New Roman font, double spaced to thecougarbook@gmail.com. Put COUGAR in the subject line. Failure to put COUGAR in the subject line may mean that your submission is mistaken for SPAM."

Ah, innocence

My 17-year-old half sis said this to me as part of an Instant Message conversation today:

okay!.. i judge a food place on 3 things. If they put cherries in their shirley temples, if they have toothpicks, and if tehy have mints. and they had all 3.. so it was very good

All about nothing

I've long known that a lot of the dreams I have at night are meaningless.  Last night's dream was proof.  I dreamed that I was in high school and my best friend (also sometimes an enemy and a competitor) was Donna Martin from Beverly Hills, 90210...and we were going to a party thrown by Dan Aykroyd (or however you spell it).  Dan was very wealthy and quite popular with the ladies.  He had a penthouse apartment.  At some point, he made a sarcastic remark, and I said, "Aren't you Canadian?"  Anyway, I haven't thought about Dan Aykroyd really at all in my life, especially not lately, and I have no idea why he was in a dream.  I haven't seen too many movies with him in them (I'm sure hubby's seen more.)  

Oh well, I don't think this dream tells me much about life.  It was just weird.

Photos sitting on my camera

Outside "Hair"

Strawberry muffins I made this morning

Former convent in my town

Yesterday's rain

Here's a newsflash

AOL has this as a news story today:

Stop Buying Baby Carrots

They're really just large ones cut up smaller:  Biggest wastes of money

So?  I buy baby carrots because they're easier to carry around and snack on.  Not because I thought they were a different type of carrot with mythical properties.  Big deal.  It's too hard to pare down big carrots at work.

Anyway, I hope all of you have a happy Passover and Easter.

Carl's take

This is what blog reader Carl has to say about the 'death' of print journalism...

What ever happened to...

Remember this song?

It was about a real homeless woman who used to sing "La de dee, la de daaaaa" on the streets of D.C. So I want to know, is the woman still homeless? I wonder...

Death of print journalism

I suppose I should comment on the oft-mentioned death of print journalism.  Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times officially filed for bankruptcy.  Also, in today's news, "New York Times Co.’s biggest union will meet today to discuss a proposal from the company that would save the publisher as much as $4.5 million this year. The company is asking the Newspaper Guild of New York to accept a 5 percent pay cut or risk losing about 80 jobs..."

This past week, in Newsweek, the "My Turn" columnist d'jour writes about how her dad, an old newspaper man, predicted this decades ago.

Frankly, EVERYONE PREDICTED THIS.  When I was a kid in the '80s, it was said many times that some day, people would read newspapers on a little machine on the subway as they commuted work, and there would be no print newspapers.  This was no surprise at all to me, but we didn't know when.  "2000" or "2010" are good round numbers, but they were still arbitrary.  In one class of mine, we had a unit on "The Future," and one of the most commonly accepted views on The Future was that we'd have computerized handheld news.  That, and phones where you would see the person you were talking to.  Hmmm.  The phones exist but no one seems to have a need for them.  Who uses a phone to contact friends these days, anyway?

When I was about 12, I knew I liked writing.  I didn't know what I'd do as a career, though.  One day, waiting with my dad outside a medical office in Freehold Township, waiting for my mom to come out of a doctor's appointment, I saw a climbing thread of smoke in the distance.  An old farmhouse was burning down.  I realized then what I could do with my writing as a career:  Be a journalist.  I was very curious about what was going on, and wanted to find out and let other people know.  Writing for a newspaper would meld my love of the written word with my need to understand.

But I knew newspapers were supposed to be dying, sooner or later.  I hoped they'd hold out long enough for me to write for them.

What was funny was, people thought it would happen sooner.  In the '70s and '80s, they had this vision of "The Future" that was a little quicker than reality.  Look out your window - do you see us flying in spaceships like the Jetsons to get to work?  And when are we going to use the metric system, anyway?  My second grade teacher said we'd do it "next year."

Technology had other priorities.  E-mail.  Video games.  It took a while for iPhones and computers to be small enough and cheap enough to allow easy access to the news.  And some of us prefer not to fish around to see what interests us, but to just flip the pages and see what catches our eye.  Plus, it's easier on the eyes to read a newspaper when you're eating your breakfast.

But the money isn't there for a lot of papers.  Too much competition.  People realize that internet news has its downside, lower verification standards for one thing.  Would an internet blogger with a lot of priorities have uncovered Watergate?  Still, there are only so many advertising dollars in a recession.

The upshot is, we really need news organizations like the Times, but they are for-profit businesses.  They can't ask the state to subsidize them.  That would defeat their purpose.  So they have to find ways to stay in business.  Adapting to technological demands is the only way.  And some need to cut costs in order to stay viable.

But don't think that all of this wasn't predicted.  It was.  We all knew it.  We just thought print was worth saving, anyway.

I know, I know

My last entry was so darn interesting. I think my hub fell asleep in the middle of it. Luckily he had to wake up to go watch basketball championships.

Speaking of watching things, we got to see the revival of "Hair" this weekend. (My idea.) I love the music (it's both unique and funny, always a plus in musicals). But it's among the many musicals that's 96 percent music and little spoken word in between, so if you're not into that type, you might wanna skip it. And there was...wait for it...nudity! Nudity! Nudity! (Full frontal, too.)

I think I tend to love the songs more than the actual plots of most musicals. Here's my horrible confession: I've liked the movie versions of the Sound of Music, Annie, and Oklahoma way more than when I saw the stage shows on Broadway.

I really did like Sweet Charity on Broadway, though. Never saw the movie version (if there was one), but my high school put it on when I was a sophomore. The star was Colleen Fitzpatrick, AKA pop star "Vitamin C", believe it or not. Somehow, in my humdrum central Joisey h.s., we had a few stars come out.

Buzzards, vultures, and hawks

Do you know the difference between those three things? 

I thought about this because yesterday, I saw on the news that a "turkey vulture" slammed through someone's windshield on a highway.  They said that turkey vultures are often spotted near highway shoulders circling for roadkill.  They aren't turkeys, but have red turkey-like heads.

I Googled "turkey vulture" today and saw that they can also be called buzzards...and then was led to the fact that sometimes buzzards, vultures, and hawks are used interchangeably.  Not always, but sometimes people use those words to mean the same thing.

Wikipedia says:  "[Hawk is used] more generally (especially in North America) to mean falcons or small to medium-sized members of the Accipitridae – the family which includes the "true hawks" (Accipiters) as well as eagles, kites, harriers and buzzards."

Then it says:  "The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight."

I'm sure scientists could tell you all the distinctions, but I just found that interesting.  

Hi

Good morning.

Publishing news

Regarding young-adult books.

Sounds like a plan

I just read this article about the Japanese.  Sad:

"There were 2,645 suicides recorded in January 2009, a 15 percent increase from the 2,305 for January 2008, according to the Japanese government.

The Japanese government said suicide rates are a priority and pledged to cut the number of suicides by more than 20 percent by 2016." 

Quote of the day 

"Jennifer Aniston must be very high maintenance.  Because she's a total hottie.  And all these guys who are ____ing her are leaving her.  And you can quote me on THAT!" -- The hubby

I told him I'd quote him if I could blog him.  He said yes.  Well, OK, then!

...On another note, people at work today were talking about the fish commercial, and someone played it on her computer!  I put forth my questions about it, and I think I just annoyed everyone.

Overcompensating, part II

Well, the gas company's attempts to paint over this don't exactly obscure it.

Lemonades! Lemonades! I need Lemonades!

The Girl Scouts sell two different kinds of lemon cookies.  They come from two different bakeries.  One bakery makes my favorites, "Lemonades."  Another one makes lemon creme cookies, which are so-so.  So far, I've bumped into Girl Scouts selling either the cremes, or they've said they ran out of Lemonades.  I want Lemonades!  If you know any girls who are sellin', I'm buyin'.

Yummy

I don't know this girl - found her blog while looking for something else - but wow, she eats well!  Lots of good pictures of dishes, most of them without meat.  (I'm not a vegetarian, but I really don't eat much meat.)  Check this out - it's good for ideas.

She lives in Canada.  Who knew it was such a culinary wonderland!

Love is in the air

Oddly, the narrator's voice sounds like me. (It's not.)

This takes the cake

A case just appeared in the news in Utah where 47-year-old teacher admitted she was having sex with a 13-year-old boy for about a month. She then found out another teacher in the same school had been having sex with him the month before that!! Neither of them knew about each other (they found out later). They must have been jea-lllllous.

What is going on here? Not one but TWO teachers risking their careers (and jail-free lives) for some kid?

Who is this kid? He must have some moves!!! Most guys don't know how to seduce a woman until they're about 40.

Just weird.

Update: A male reader writes:

"He is a 13 year old boy. He is a victim of female sexual child predators. Would you have made that comment if it was a 13 year old girl and the teachers were men? Of course you wouldn’t have said any such thing about the girl’s moves. Said nothing about a 13 girl hitting on her male teachers.
You’re comment is a classic example of how too many people believe that only a man can be a sexual predator. I find the comment off the wall. You just made the victim of sexual assault the criminal. You claim that he was hitting on them! Excuse me? You have it all backwards."

Good points.

Joaquin Phoenix...and the Siamese cat song

Am I not the only one who hears similarities? (Listen to each for at least 35 seconds...)


THIS ONE

listen to the music...

then try

THIS ONE

Also, watch the animated one with the sound low as you listen to the music from the other one. (You need to open them in separate windows, probably.) Way fun!!!!!

Also, I am not on drugs! It really is fun!!!

Dear CNN,

Sorry.  But it doesn't matter how many days the link stays up on your home page...I am not going to click on the video of a cat stuffed in a "smoky bong."  

I know you have to lure a mix of readers to your page.  Maybe they will go there because they heard they can watch the pot-addled pussy, and they'll read about the civil war in Chad as well and be enlightened.  But I don't know.  It's not for me.  Thanks anyway.

Recession, or depression?

Some feel we're heading toward the latter.

Here's a little ditty from the last Depression...well, okay, from a musical about it.  It's funny.  Who knew "Annie" could be so mean?!?!

Today we're living in a shanty
Today we're scrounding for a meal 
Today I'm stealing coal for fires
Who knew i could steal? 

I used to winter in the tropics 
I spent my summers at the shore 
I used to throw away the paper-- 
We don't anymore!

We'd like to thank you: Herber Hoover
For really showing us the way 
We'd like to thank you: Herbert Hoover 
You made us what we are today 

Prosperity was 'round the corner 
The cozy cottage built for two
In this blue heaven 
That you gave us 
Yes! We're turning blue! 

They offered us Al Smith and Hoover
We paid attention and we chose
Not only did we pay attention 
We paid through the nose. 

In ev'ry pt he said "a chicken" 
But Herbert Hoover he forgot 
Not only don't we have the chicken 
We ain't got the pot! 

Hey Herbie 
You left behind a greatful nation
So, Herb, our hats are off to you
We're up to here with admiration 
Come down and have a little stew 

Come down and share some Christmas dinner
Be sure to bring the missus too
We got no turkey for our stuffing

WHY DON'T WE STUFF YOU!!!

We'd like to thank you, Herbert Hoover 
For really showing us the way 
You dirty rat, you Bureaucrat, you
Made us what we are today
Come and get it, Herb!

Women and food

It's an easy comfort, and a curse.  I don't think men have these issues as much.  Sure, they want to stay in shape, but I don't hear derisive comments on men's weight as much.  I never have heard a girl say, "I met this great guy, but he's a little fat."  (I'm sure there are girls who say it, but I haven't heard it.)  Anyway, here's the latest article about girl vs. food.

Spring Break

Well, the state department doesn't mince words if you are a student planning to go to Mexico this Spring Break:

Over 100,000 American teenagers and young adults travel to resort areas throughout Mexico over Spring Break each year.  While the vast majority enjoys their vacation without incident, several may die, hundreds will be arrested, and still more will make mistakes that could affect them for the rest of their lives.

More news

"NEW YORK -Fifty years after debuting with "Goodbye, Columbus," Philip Roth is as prolific as ever.
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced Wednesday that the Pulitzer Prize-winning author will have a novel out this fall, titled "The Humbling," about an aging stage performer. Next year, he'll have another book, "Nemesis," set during a polio epidemic in 1944.
Roth, who turns 76 next month, has been averaging a book a year for the past few years.
His works include "Portnoy's Complaint," "American Pastoral" and "The Human Stain."

What? How does he know they won't be rejected?

In the news today:

"Feb 26th 2009 By Susan Johnston
If you wake up the morning after a one-night stand with a little something more than a hangover, should you able to sue the person who slapped you with that nasty case of crotch cooties? A 56-year-old woman in Riverside County, Calif., was recently awarded over $7 million after contracting genital herpes from a partner, a 77-year-old man who had genital herpes for over 25 years and failed to mention it.
The man also failed to use a condom, so now the woman has genital herpes, too, and said she was denied health insurance after contracting the sexually transmitted disease."

My comment on this:

I'm glad she won. He should have said something to her before they had sex. Willingly passing on a disease is criminal. She probably thought he was safe because he was 77. What a (shriveled old) d---.
He might have gone on to infect half of Florida if not for this!

Spam

Got this in my e-mail:

Hello
I am interested in purchasing some of your products, I will like to know if you can ship directly to NEW ZEALAND , I also want you to know my mode of payment for this order is via Credit Card. Get back to me if you can ship to that destination and also if you accept the payment type I indicated.
Kindly return this email with your price list of your products..
I await your quick response.
Kind Regards.
Walter J. Sperko

Responded:

I'm sending them by spaceship. Look into the sky!

Gleep

So far, no response.

Liz Smith has been fired from the NY Post

Geez, newspapers really are in bad financial shape.  Not that I really care about her column, but if they can fire a virtual legend over money, it's not a good sign.

Response about Toddle Inn

Michael Bates of Batesline blog writes:

I'm fascinated by old roadside architecture (I live about a mile from Route 66) and was intrigued by your photos of the Toddle Inn Tourist sign, so I did some digging. Google found an eBay item labeled "Toddle Inn Tourists Home, Ridgefield NJ, 1930s" that sold back in October on eBay for $15.95 -- a postcard presumably. Unfortunately, the listing has expired. 

The site is on US 1/US 9 near the intersection with US 46, so it would have been a prime location for catching the attention of passing motorists. I wonder whether the house was the entire hotel or whether there were tourist "cabins" surrounding it. Before the advent of motel chains, someone with a farm or largish piece of land along a highway could make some extra money by building a few simple houses -- bed and bath -- around or next to the main house. (This postcard of the White Elk Motor Court is a good example.) There are still a couple of these still standing, but closed for business, along old 66 in east Tulsa. It's possible that the Toddle Inn had a few such cabins which were torn down when the inn closed.

Thanks, Michael, for reading my blog, and thanks for the insight!   Very interesting.  I guess that sign goes back to the 1930s or more!

I love stuff like that.

Let this be a lesson to dog owners

Dominoes

Since there are still between 3 and 11 people who check this once in a while, here is one of my 

favorite '80s fads.  Oddly soothing to watch.  Probably high-anxiety to set up.

For official use only

Pirates

Single game tickets

Yuck-o!

I never got into this trend of mushing all your breakfasts together.  I do not want my egg sandwich to have a waffle on the top and bottom, or a fast food sandwich with eggs and pancakes on it, or ham on my French toast.

Why don't you just mush your eggs and pancakes into our cereal, huh?  And then why don't you put it all on a bagel!  Huh?  Do you like that?  Do ya?  Huh??!?!?

Happy V-D !!!

heh heh

'Facebook Fatigue'

Last night, I thought about how I don't check Facebook that much anymore, leading me to come up with the term "Facebook Fatigue." I knew from experience that there were probably also a million other people who thought of it and posted it on the internet already, but I figured there's always hope.

Of course, I just Googled it and there are 9,000 references on the web. TIME even did a story last April. Ha, I'm really ahead of the pack, not!

Just saw this on the fresh concrete near my office

Looks like someone is overcompensating.

Thoughts that may just go nowhere

There are so many people who need help in the world that if you thought about all of them, you'd go batty.  By the time I'm done writing this blog entry, thousands of kids in other countries will have died from starving, governmental atrocities, diseases that could be easily treated if they were in the U.S.

But I do want to focus on one kind of news story I read about every once in a while.

Every once in a while, there's a story about a brave kid who's usually under 10, who is dying, and he does something completely unselfish.  A few months ago it was a kid who had a week to live because of Leukemia, and he wanted to make sure the homeless people in his town were fed.

I wonder why these kids get these diseases and not me.  I'm not half the person they are.  If I found out even today that I had a few months to live, I don't know if I'd be able to focus on people outside of my family.  In fact, I think I'd largely stop communicating with outsiders.  I'd be a pretty miserable person - not brave or unselfish.

I feel guilty.  There's no reason I should live comfortably in America - there's nothing special I did.  Certainly no more than some 8-year-old whose last wish is to feed the poor.

What's my point?  I don't know.  Maybe that I don't ask for anything anymore, because I got all the things I need.  Even though it happens to people every day that they find love, it's still a miracle that it happened to me.

Publishing a book is kind of the same thing.  It's something I really wanted, and a near-miracle that someone paid me for my silly words on paper, so I can't really ask for more after that.  It was a lifelong dream.  It came true.

More importantly, there were the times my dog got sick and I prayed for her to get better, and she did.  My family would have been devastated if she hadn't survived the operations she had at 8 and 10.  (Those of you who are not pet lovers may scoff at this, but she really meant a lot to my mom and brother, who had very little at the time.)  She ended up living a long life suitable for any great dog.

So in terms of the big things that I need to be happy, I got pretty much what I wanted now.  It's fun to dream of more, but I could never ask for it.

I'm not saying that life has been a bowl of cherries, because it isn't that way for anyone.  I could tell you some terrible things about my childhood, but I'm sure you could tell me the same.  And some of you couldn't - that's fine, too.

I guess I'm still not getting to a point.  I guess my point is, reading about some little kid who is dying makes me not want to take anything for granted, not want to get angry, not feel like I'm a worthwhile person, because I couldn't hold a candle to a person like that.  I'd like to be a better person, we all would (well, most of us), but I don't think I 'deserve' any more than I have, even the things I strive for. 

A man who takes your money

He's a lot different from most salesmen.  Because when this guy tells you you need something for $1,000, or maybe even $2,000 or more...you trust him.

Really, you don't want to fork over that money without thinking about it, consulting other people, looking at other prices.  But this person has spent time with you, and you want to trust him.

Plus in this kind of situation, it's really hard to ask around.  In order to get other estimates, you have to go through it all again, forge a new relationship, or at least do a one-time thing for $100 or more.

So you put your trust in this person, paying thousands of dollars just on his word and his demeanor.

Who'm I talking about?  A dentist.  For the kind of money we pay, there should be an easy way to get a second opinion.  But to go into another office, take another round of x-rays, pay money, seems so hard.  You can, of course, bring your x-rays from your original dentist, but then if you go back to him, he may now know you've been shopping around.  And he's going to put his sharp tools in your mouth.  You want there to be some trust.

If someone opened a dentist's office that catered to people looking for a second opinion, they could make a fortune.  It's such a pain to get a second dental opinion, but we DO pay these guys a fortune.  We wouldn't willingly fork over $1,ooo or more to any other professional without doing some research.

There really isn't a lot of research you can do on your own mouth, though.  If you go on the internet and try to see what procedures cost, it won't necessarily apply to your situation.  

A lot of times, a dentist will tell you that you don't need the surgery that the other dentist said you did.  So this new one earns your trust.  But how are you to know if next year he'll say you need the same thing?

Just something I was thinking about today.  (And no, it's not because I'm facing this situation right now.  I actually have already forked over plenty to my dentists.  Sigh.)

Maybe there should be a rate-my-dentist dot com.  There probably is, but it hasn't reached critical mass.  

Up with chuck

I saw this last week when I was walking to the dentist's office.  (Even in the city, I pass woods occasionally.)  I guess the little feller was a week early.  I don't think he saw his shadow.

Who could ask for anything more?

I get up, we put our laundry in, walk two blocks to the Italian deli where all the young men in town get their huge hoagies before the big game every Sunday.  This deli has been featured in Esquire for its sandwiches and fresh wet mutz.  I told my hubby about it when we were dating, and his eyes lit up.  Today, it's a bigger game, so in the deli, they're slicing up fresh wet mozzarella, slinging sundried tomatoes, slicing bread more than ever.  They tell a customer that it's a quieter vibe this year because the Giants aren't in it.

I pick up a couple sandwiches, some frozen lobster ravioli for later, and a little cheese to melt over the stuffed mushrooms I'm going to attempt tonight.  Then I come home and we finish with the laundry.  We have to walk downtown to Barnes & Noble later and do some errands, then come back to our apartment to eat the hors d'ouerves and watch the game.

It's nice to be young and in the city.

This is nothing new

In a piece of trend journalism, the NY Observer writes about how lots of young male writers create protagonists who have emotional issues or are anti-heroes.  This is really something new?  Look at Holden Caulfield.

And it's a reach to string together the protagonists that the author links.  Ned Vizzini's main character in "It's Kind of a Funny Story," who has emotional problems, is not a bad guy; he just suffers from depression, a mental health issue.  The new book by this Sam Munson fella sounds really interesting and I'd like to read it, but I doubt it's the same thing as Vizzini's character or the others mentioned, y'know?

While I'm writing about writing, here's a brief update on my own writing:  Revising a teen novel (not the one I'm usually revising), also in the midst of an adult novel, hoping to get the former to an agent this month and the latter some time this summer.  

Self-publishing: Worth it?

I get asked that question at times. Here's a pretty good story from the NYTimes. Thanks to my friend and former roomie A. for sending it.

T-Mobile commercial

Never mind the Saved By Zero commercial...the worst commercial on the air now is the T-Mobile one.  It's the one where the dad is talking about his T-Mobile services and his son says something like, "Now you can call that woman you're always staring at at my soccer games."  The dad looks totally busted.  But then his daughter says she wants to call Derek, and the dad says, "You mean Derek with the mustache and the Mustang Derek?"  Then he says there's a no Dereks with mustaches clause and adds teasingly, "What a drag...dude..."

But really, who is this paragon of morality to start in on his daughter when he's practically fornicating in his head every weekend and his son's ballgames?  Hypocrisy has risen to new heights.  Instead of telling his daughter whom she can and can't see, he should drop to his knees, beg for his wife's and son's forgiveness, promise not to lust in his heart, and then get a new hairstyle.

Well, this is unique

Today I got internet spam that starts out, "DEAR INTERNET SCAM VICTIM"!!

Hmmm. Nothing like showing your hand right away. But it goes on to say:

"ATTN: Sir/Madam, How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family? You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the passed 7 months which ended 2 days ago with the then secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS have agreed to compensate them with the sum of US$ 850,000.00 each (Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars).
This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. Your name and email was in the list submitted by our Monitoring Team of Economic and Financial Crime Commission observers and this is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed..."

Old signs

Whenever I see an old community with antiquated signs, I worry that someday they will be destroyed and people will wonder what used to be there.

Anyway, I was on Broad Avenue in Bergen County today and took some photos of old signs. A few of them tell a story. 

Okay, this one is not incredibly old, only a 60s/70s-era sign, but I liked it anyway.  Fading and humble, this business was or is someone's dream, but it's not very flashy in this industrial neighborhood.

Who really stayed at the Toddle Inn? It's just an old house. I notice that the company is registered to a Mr. Angus Todd, who is or was an official in the town, but "Toddle Inn" is registered as some kind of parts supply company. My guess is, his family used to run the inn and when it went out of business, he kept the company name.

No surprise that there are vacancies.

Old sign next to the new.

Apparently the Rivoli-Rutherford (see the paint on the bricks) was a 1920s vaudeville theater.  They are supposed to be restoring it.

Hmmmm

Sometimes you have to swallow your pride.

$10 an hour ain't bad, but he does have to use his own car.

1977 

A very faithful blog reader sent me this excellent link.  What fun!

Would you help, or not?

By now, many of you have probably read this story about an elderly woman who was mugged in England and tried to beg for help, but people ignored her.  How many times does that happen here, when someone needs help and people make assumptions in order not to help, assuming perhaps the person is drunk or is at fault in some other way (when maybe they are actually ill)?  Would calling police at least be a start if you are not sure whether someone is in trouble?

I Married Dora

Pretty dumb premise for a TV show, right?  A guy marries his maid so she can stay in the country and keep taking care of his kids.  They can never figure out if they really want to be "together" or not.  Anyway, I used to watch this on Friday nights in the '80s, and it actually started getting pretty funny.  

In the last episode, there was a debate over whether the dad would end up taking a job overseas for a year, and leave Dora and the kids.  Such suspense!  The ending was very surprising... 

I knew it had to be on Youtube somewhere, and it was.  It's only 24 seconds long...

Why women sometimes believe men are jerks

I just saw the term "threadjacking" in the comments section on someone's blog.  "Threadjacking" apparently means making a comment on a thread that completely changes the nature of the thread.  I thought it was a pretty cute term, and I wanted to see if the person made it up, or it was commonly used in cyberspace.  I Googled it and there are like 143,000 entries, so I guess it is quite popular.  Heck, it wouldn't be the first time I hadn't heard a term that everyone else uses.

Anyway, the top link in the list of Google entries was to a debate that was going on on a dating web board about whether it is "acceptable" to date a fat woman.  So I had to look.  And of course I got annoyed.  

Instead of saying "Depends on her personality," they all are being rather judgmental here. 

What really bothers me is the guy who comments that the first woman "doesn't respect herself" just because she is overweight.  Why does that mean she doesn't respect herself?  That's bull.  If you simply aren't attracted to someone, don't try to make it about them - it's about you, too.  Just admit that your comments are based on attraction, not someone else's personality failings.  She might respect herself just fine.  Pleeeease.  And then the guy says, "barring a medical reason" or something else.  Well, exactly - how do you know? 

Things from my camera...

It was 7 degrees outside when we woke up this morning.  But right now it is way up to 20 outside.  That must be the high for the day.

What my day planner looks like at the beginning of a year.

What it looks like at the end of a year.

Most dogs I ever saw walked at once.  This was in Union Square, NYC, last week.  I count seven.

Bully!

Don't try walking past me on my street with a bulldog and expect me not to photograph it.

I WILL find you.

Trees and choo-choos

Today was the last day of the holiday train display at the Bronx Botanical Garden. The focus was more on the elaborate NYC apartment buildings that they constructed more out of natural materials, and on the plants, than on the trains. It was $20 a person plus $12 for parking.

Dalmatians!

Cute photos of 18 pups in a litter, fighting for their mom's nutrients

Mailbag

Blogfan Sam writes:

“I might agree to the bailout if there were a porn shortage, if maybe Grils Gone Wild had gone bankrupt because girls were no longer going wild. If they bail anyone out, it should be the girls dancing naked on the net to ‘put themselves through college’... a $5 billion scholarship for wayward girls.”

Ned Vizzini sent out an mass update about his life, progress, etc. He notes:

“Sixth, in 2008, I finished the first draft of my new book. It was 584 pages long and cost a lot of money to print at Staples. (The first time I printed it, I forgot to put in page numbers. Do not try and edit a 584-page manuscript without page numbers.) It is being polished like a diamond and I will turn it in to my agent by my birthday, April 4th, 2008.”

Well, I’m looking forward to reading all….584….584?? pages of it. Ned’s other books were fabulous, straddling the line between adult and young adult fiction. You can read about him at www.nedvizzini.com.

That's all, folks!

Believe it or not

This is a real story on CNN:  "Porn industry asks for bailout."

Food

Today we ate at a comfort food place in NYC called Cafeteria, at 17th and 7th Ave.  Even at 3 p.m. there was a 20-minute wait.  But it was good food:  Smoked gouda mac and cheese, big salads, sandwiches, meatballs, soups, etc.  Definitely a hipster kinda place.  It's sorta like "We're so hot, we don't even need to give our restaurant a real name."

From the looks of half-asleep people in their jammies, it was also kind of a "morning after" place.

Anyway, I'm not into the whole mac and cheese revival (big deal), but it was tasty.

Oh, it's open 24 hours, so you can go now if you want.  

Also in the city, I got a haircut.  No, no photo, sorry.  

Out in the country

About six months ago, we spent a few days in Burlington, Vermont. It was a fun trip.  I happened to see the photos today when looking for some others, so I figured I'd post more as a reminder of summer.