Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 17, 2026

I love peach ice cream. It reminds me of enjoying it at my paternal grandparents' house when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. The brand name in their freezer was mostly Sealtest, but sometimes it was Breyers. More recently, I have loved the peach shakes at Chick-fil-A, but I haven't had one in quite a long time.

from husband Bill, July 17, 2026

I don't have any tattoos. However, I now have many incision scars from nine surgeries with the last four years or so: one in my chest; one in my back: three in my left leg; and an epic three-foot-long, winding, red scar in my inner right leg. It looks like a line of many connected division symbols (÷÷÷÷÷), combining the incision scar with the scars left behind by the many metal staples. Two of the three scars on my inner left leg are the same, but shorter.

For decades, I wanted to get a tattoo of a simple fish on the bottom of my right foot. That way, when I crossed my legs at the beach, it could be seen. Why a fish? My zodiac sign is Pisces, and the corresponding (weakest) body part for this sign is the foot. Many fairly recent surgeries on my feet due to bone and skin infections due to diabetes caused me to abandon this whim.

I have also considered a tattoo related to my religion ("Hare Krishna;" written in the Sanskrit language) or an Austrian flag or the flag of Vorarlberg, the westernmost Austrian province, where many of my Austrian cousins live now or grew up there.

from husband Bill, July 17, 2026

My sense of direction is quite poor. In the 1990s, whenever I got a bit lost while going on job interviews in New York City, I would stop walking, decide which direction I thought was the right way, and then walk in the opposite direction. This method worked out quite well for me.

As per Wikipedia: Douglas Corrigan (born Clyde Groce Corrigan; January 22, 1907 – December 9, 1995) was an American aviator, nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight in July from Long Beach, California, to New York City, he then flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to Ireland, although his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach.

from husband Bill, July 17, 2026

I don't particularly like gambling. When I do engage, it's slot machines and scratch-offs. I do like roulette, but that is the casino game with the worst odds. Craps has the best odds, but I have never played craps.

from husband Bill, July 17, 2026

AI Day Video

from husband Bill, July 16, 2026

I created and uploaded a short video onto my YouTube channel to celebrate National AI (Artificial Intelligence) Day. (length: 2 minutes, 6 seconds)

National AI Day (July 16, 2026)

https://youtu.be/7whpXThmocg?is=1On1pKebh7Q3FTd3

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 16, 2026

I like cherries. Every Christmas for decades, my dad would give me a box of Cella's chocolate-covered cordial cherries. (They HAD to be Cella's.) After he passed away in February 1997, I continued this heartfelt tradition by purchasing a box of them and giving it to myself from my dad (as Santa) every Christmas. (They HAVE to be Cella's.)

I will eat fresh cherries later.

from husband Bill, July 16, 2026

I do like corn fritters, but they certainly have not been and are not a staple of my diet. I am more acquainted with apple fritters.

from husband Bill, July 16, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 15, 2025

I love tapioca pudding, which I have been eating with chocolate syrup, preferably Bosco, since I was a kid in the 1960s. My paternal grandmother would often make it from scratch. She called it "fish eyes."

from husband Bill, July 15, 2026

I eat hot dogs on a bun with only ketchup. I will eat sliced hot dogs mixed with baked beans.

from husband Bill, July 15, 2026

I do love horses, especially when betting on the standardbreds, which I haven't done in quite a while. That was mostly in the early 1980s and beyond with a dear friend.

from husband Bill, July 15, 2026

I prefer gummi bears.

from husband Bill, July 15, 2026

Happy Bastille Day !!!

Happy Bastille Day !!!

I was in Paris, France, on Bastille Day (basically French Independence Day) with my parents in 1970, when I was nine years old. I remember the top of the Eiffel Tower was closed on that day, so we enjoyed lunch in the restaurant that was about halfway up the tower.

My parents and I were on a 28-day trip around the world. We were living in Babylon, Long Island, New York, so we started our journey at a New York City airport. We visited San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Osaka (Expo 70), Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Bangkok, (refueled in Calcutta and Karachi), Rome, Sturno (in Italy to visit my great-grandparents and cousins), Paris, London, and then home to New York.

I returned to France twice after that: once with West Islip High School on Long Island, New York (a week in Paris on a cultural trip with my French teacher and three girls) during the summer of 1978; and with Villanova University near Philadelphia (three weeks to study the French language during the summer of 1984). We lived in a high-rise school/dormitory in Massy, France, studying with many students from China and north Africa. We would only visit Paris on weekends, which was about 30 minutes by train.

July 14, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I occasionally like Mac and Cheese, as shown below. However, I prefer Käsknöpfle, which is western Austrian homemade dumplings with farmers cheese and sautéed onions on top. My wife and I sometimes make it from scratch.

My Austrian aunt Brunhilde (R.I.P.) made the best I have ever eaten. I was fortunate to have enjoyed her homemade Käsknöpfle while on several vacations to visit her and my other Austrian relatives in western Austria, and to go skiing in the Austrian Alps.

Also, my wife makes delicious "regular" Mac and Cheese from scratch.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

At one time, I wanted to be a dairy farmer/cheese maker in the western Austrian province of Vorarlberg. Cow Appreciation Day is on a different day every year.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

On this date (July 14) in 2022, when I was living in a physical rehabilitation facility, my occupational therapist told me there was an apparently "crazy," elderly woman screaming and running around the hallways of the facility naked. I told my therapist that the reason for her actions could be dementia or simply because today is National Nude Day. I was fortunate not to have seen this woman. I wonder if that was the same woman who often screamed from her room down the hallway almost every night.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I sold (and exchanged for free) many tape measures when I worked as a salesman in the light hardware department at Sears, when I first moved to southeastern Florida from New Jersey in 1998. I worked in that department for more than five years, including while searching for a job in my profession (journalism) and also after I secured a journalist job. While I requested shorter hours at Sears, I still could not reconcile working both jobs at the same time, so I had to quit my sales job at Sears.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

I like Grand Marnier, but I haven't had it in many years.

from husband Bill, July 14, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

I like eating sliced hot dogs mixed with Heinz vegetarian baked beans, as I have done for decades. I started eating Heinz vegetarian baked beans when I was a young kid in the 1960s. They are still my preferred baked beans.

My paternal grandfather would always have many cans of these beans in the pantry in the root cellar of his house in the 1960s and 1970s . (There was also the regular pantry near the kitchen.) He mostly did the grocery shopping, so whenever canned foods went on sale, he would stock up on them.

He was NOT a vegetarian and would often eat vegetarian baked beans with various meat dishes.

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

My dear friend and I used to bet on the standardbred horse races at a few tracks when we were at university in Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, and also beyond. These include tracks in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, and also in Illinois. I have also been to tracks in Missouri and Florida. I grew up on Long Island, New York, and lived there after I grew up, but I have never been to a track in New York.

from husband Bill, July 13, 2026

Today Is ...

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

When I was working, I preferred my professional life to be complex and my personal life to be simplistic. For example, from 1992 to 1996, I was a reporter, writer, editor, and researcher for an international weekly magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry based in New York City. When I wasn't working, I would read Jughead Jones comic books to take a break from the complexity of my job and to add a little simplicity to my life.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

I like pecan pie. I once ate a piece which had chocolate ganache on top. It was terrific.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

My favorite Jell-O flavor is lime.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

In recent decades, plastic bags have mostly replaced paper bags. In recent years, the trend toward returning to the use of paper bags has gained speed and continues to do so.

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026

While I don't have different colored eyes, my eyes change color: from dark brown to light brown to hazel to green. Alexander the Great had one brown eye and one blue eye. Many dogs have mismatched eyes. It's called having a "China eye."

from husband Bill, July 12, 2026