Today Is ...

I prefer New York-style and St. Louis-style pizzas.

April 5, 2025, at home

I really don't like caramel.

April 5, 2025, at home

I considered being a cartographer as a profession when I was fairly young in the 1960s and 1970s.

April 5, 2025, at home

It's the story of my life as a lifelong underdog: personal and professional.

April 5, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

I was a "newshound" from September 1982 to April 2017. Do I still get a hug?

April 4, 2025, at home

I particularly like Chicken Cordon Bleu.

April 4, 2025, at home

I am unable to do this because I am still unable to walk without support due to six recent surgeries (1 heart, 2 chest, 2 spine, 1 right ankle).

April 4, 2025, at home

Tex-Mex Feast

My wonderful wife made this Tex-Mex feast for us this afternoon. I thank her profusely.

April 3, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

I do like chocolate mousse.

April 3, 2025, at home

I prefer chimichangas. (My wonderful wife is making tacos today.)

April 3, 2025, at home

I had a couple of tweed jackets in the 1980s. I was just starting out as a journalist, so I thought that I needed to look like one. Actually, my dad suggested it.

April 3, 2025, at home

What time is it? It's time for ...

April 3, 2025, at home

No More Cake

Trump is concerned about the people of the United States. These people who hate him are similar to a child getting angry at the parents because the parents won't allow the child to have a third piece of cake.

April 3, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

I like peanut butter (extra crunchy now; smooth when I was a kid) and grape jelly sandwiches on white bread. I sometimes prefer using apricot jam or orange marmalade.

April 2, 2025, at home

I am still unable to walk without support due to weakness and numbness from six recent surgeries and also numbness and pain from peripheral neuropathy in both of my feet. I am attempting to regain my strength and hope to experience self-mobility quite soon.

April 2, 2025, at home

2 Practical Jokes

April 1, 2025, at home

Two Practical Jokes

With today being All Fools' Day, I am reminded of a wonderful practical joke my father (1934-1997) organized many years ago and the subsequent retaliatory joke. Neither joke had anything to do with April 1; it was just what my dad and his group of friends did to torment each other on Long Island, New York, in the 1980s and the 1990s.

My dad, my stepmother, and my dad's secretary, along with their friend who was a landscaper, conspired to play a joke on the secretary's husband. They put sod on every inch of his driveway; placed a round picnic table with a big umbrella and several chairs surrounding the table on his front lawn; and inserted pink plastic flamingos all around his lawn. They grabbed a few beverages and sat down around the table, waiting for the secretary's husband to come home from work. When the secretary's husband drove his car down the street where he lived and around the curve in the road by his house, he just kept driving because his driveway was gone. I was fortunate to have been there to witness the fun.

The secretary's husband decided to get even with my dad, so he contacted another mutual friend who was a funeral director. I was living at home at the time, so I was the one who discovered this prank. I remember arriving home from work one early evening before my dad got home and discovering exactly FORTY (40) large funeral flower arrangements on wire tripods placed in every room of our house, upstairs and downstairs. I counted all of them, twice. Two of them with banners reading "Rest In Peace" were placed upstairs on top of the bed in the master bedroom. The huge stuffed (plush) pig seated on the bench at our white baby-grand piano in our living room was turned upside down with his legs in the air as if he were dead. I think my stepmother was involved in this joke because how else would the funeral director (and probably his helpers) be able to get into our house?

That was the last of the practical jokes for this particular group of friends. They all got together one evening to take an oath to stop the pranks because everyone was getting too paranoid, waiting for the next prank to be played on them. We all were a bit sad that the pranks ended. It was truly an end to an era. However, I am glad I was there to witness both of these pranks, which are surely large-scale classics.

Bread & Cents

I like sourdough bread.

April 1, 2025, at home

4/1

 

April 1, 2025, at home

Older Improv With Effects

On its sixth anniversary, I decided to visually modify one of my older piano improvisations partially using effects and then upload it. (length: 4'47")

Since I originally played it and uploaded it on March 31, 2019, until now, it has received only seven views, so almost everyone missed it the first time. I watched this video again, and I really like this particular improv. I REALLY like it with the effects that I added.

I like to sit at my digital piano and just start playing whatever is in my head at that time. I make it up as I go along. This is what I did with this video and all of my improvisational videos.

Improv from March 31, 2019: Effects (March 31, 2025)

https://youtu.be/6LNV6k0RnHU?si=c-PLwUQMbUrfFA-p

March 31, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

Yes, I have used Bunsen Burners during my formal education in chemistry courses in high school and at university. When I was a kid, I had a chemistry set, but I used a candle during that time. When I was young, I considered "bench chemist" as my future profession.

By the way, from 1992 to 1996, I was a reporter, writer, editor, and researcher for a weekly international magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry based in New York City. This is my favorite job among my many jobs during my journalistic career, more accurately series of gigs, from September 1982 to April 2017.

March 31, 2025, at home

I prefer mashed potatoes, especially mixed with Gorgonzola cheese.

March 31, 2025, at home

My favorite Crayola crayon color when I was a kid in the 1960s was "Cornflower." What was/is your favorite crayon color? (See the cornflower color in the comment section below.)

March 31, 2025, at home

When I was a teenager living in West Islip, Long Island, New York, in the 1970s, I used to dig for Littleneck and Cherrystone clams with my feet in the Great South Bay. I occasionally ate them, but only minced and baked with breadcrumbs. I also occasionally ate steamer (piss) clams, but I didn't much like them.

March 31, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

Many thanks go to doctors.

March 30, 2025, at home

Visiting Italian Cousins

This afternoon (March 29, 2025) here in southeastern Florida, my wonderful wife and I entertained (at our home) my mom, who lives about a mile away, and three of my Italian cousins (Rose, Carmela, and Filippo) who were visiting from Long Island, New York. We enjoyed pick-ups (appetizers), pizza, Italian pastries, and fond memories.

My cousins brought Italian red wine; a basket of oranges; homemade greeting cards and two colorful handmade potholders made by Carmela; and two delicious Italian delicacies, not including their homemade biscotti.

Rose made this beautiful homemade ricotta cheese from scratch with sliced tomatoes and fresh basil on top. Carmela made two batches of Italian Christmas-Easter cookies with the white glaze, using my Italian grandmother's recipe: one batch for my mom and one batch for my wife and me. I have enjoyed those cookies since my age was in single digits in the 1960s.

(I admit that I partook in a little of the obligatory Brioschi.)

We had such a wonderful time, sharing memories and enjoying delicious food, including my wife's homemade tortellini salad. My cousins are returning to Long Island this coming week and plan to return to southeastern Florida next winter.

Next Photos By Carmela