This evening (October 31, 2022), my wonderful wife made this pizza for me: packaged cauliflower crust; the sugo (tomato sauce) we recently made; a blend of five shredded Italian cheeses: mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, asiago, and romano; and salami. It was exceptionally delicious. (She made the same pizza for herself, except without the salami.)
October 31, 2022
For Halloween in 1979, my costume was Paul McCartney from the cover of the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road. (McCartney is second from left.)
October 31, 2022
What was your worst Halloween costume ever? My worst costume was the result of being asked to a party at the last minute at university in the later 1980s. I put on dark sunglasses and grabbed an unopened box of dry spaghetti from my kitchen cabinet. I went as a Venetian Blind. (Here I am re-enacting that costume for Halloween in 2020. Note that I am wearing my brown "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" T-shirt, which I didn't have back in the 1980s.)
October 31, 2022
Here we are, the copy desk editors of Globe and National Examiner magazines, wearing wigs in our newsroom in Boca Raton, Florida, in celebration of Halloween on Friday, October 30, 2009. Of course, that's me on the right, wearing my "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" T-shirt. The woman in the boa (in the back) is not wearing a wig.
From 2002 to 2011, I was a copy editor / page designer for American Media Inc., which publishes the supermarket / gossip weekly tabloids. During those nine years, I edited and designed many pages every week for Star, Globe, National Examiner, and National Enquirer magazines.
In the lower photo, behind me on the wall are small printed pages of the issue of Globe magazine that we were in the midst of completing. We had an 8 p.m. final deadline for Globe magazine every Friday. We had a 6 p.m. final deadline for National Examiner every Wednesday.
We worked on the pages of both of those magazines at the same time, so we had lots of work and lots of fun. The magazines had different formats and somewhat different styles, so one of my many challenges was applying the proper criteria to the proper page.
For examples, the widths of the text columns were different, with Globe being slightly wider than National Examiner, and Globe required spaces before and after ellipses, and National Examiner did not.
October 31, 2022
Let me take you back to Halloweens in the later 1960s into the early 1970s, when I was a kid, and a personal Halloween tradition.
October 31, 2022
A personal Halloween story from the early 1970s: When I was 11 or 12 years old, I went trick-or-treating with my friends on several streets near my house in West Islip, Long Island, New York. We came to a house where a woman gave every child one piece of candy and one shiny penny. When it was my turn, she gave me the piece of candy and then gave me three pennies. I smiled and went to the next house thinking that I was two cents better than the other kids. You know, that woman sent some kid after me and made me give back the extra two cents. I am sure that there is a life lesson in there somewhere.
By the way, we never went to the house on the left side at the end of that street, only a few houses from where that lady lived. There was a rumor that the guy who lived there was shooting kids with a BB-gun rifle from a second-floor window. I don't know if it was true, but why take a chance, right?
October 31, 2022
Remember, "Movember 2022" starts in one day on November 1, 2022.
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Today (October 31, 2022) is National Magic Day! Perhaps, it is related to Halloween, you know, trick or treat.
When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, I loved magic and practical jokes. For brevity, I'll just mention two incidents at elementary school rather than explain my extensive experiences with my Chinese linking rings and my color-changing handkerchiefs, plus my talking toilet device, my spoon with the hole, my sneezing powder, my plastic ice cubes with the dead flies inside, oh, my joy buzzer and whoopie cushion and fake vomit. I had it all.
When I was in sixth grade in 1972 at the age of 11, I brought a magic trick to school to show my friends. The problem with that was: my classmate and fellow magician John Bass. John could flip 50-cent pieces all around his long, skinny fingers. He was amazing. So, John saw me performing my magic trick for a small group of classmates and quickly approached me. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and angrily yelled at me, "I'm the only magician in this classroom." I said, "OK," and I never brought another magic trick to school. (true story)
I also once scared my sixth-grade teacher Mr. Carlson. I had a trick pen that made a loud bang when opened. One day, while my classmates were reading textbooks at their desks, I asked the teacher if he could open my pen. He said, "If you can't open it, I doubt if I can." He opened it, and BANG! We both laughed, but him not as much as me. He said, "Ah. You got me." After the bang, all of my classmates looked up from their books for a short moment and then went back to reading. Not one laugh was uttered. Not one word was spoken. Dead silence. (true story)
October 31, 2022
On Halloween in Babylon, Long Island, NewYork, in the 1960s, when I was a kid, my parents gave out 150 candy apples to the kids, plus regular candy if we ran out of the apples. Trivia: Candy apples are more popular on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, whereas caramel apples are more popular in the U.S. Midwest.
October 31, 2022
My favorite Knock Knock joke is:
Knock. Knock.
Who's there?
Cantaloupe.
Cantaloupe who?
Cantaloupe without a ladder.
October 31, 2022
You purchase a souvenir pyramid that costs $5 from a mummy. You give him a 10-dollar bill, and he gives you $4 in change. What did he do?
Egypt you.
(That's an old joke I remember from when I was a kid in the 1960s.)
October 30, 2022
It's 4 p.m. here in southeastern Florida, and I am watching a live broadcast of the Mexican Grand Prix on Sky Sports F1 (on ESPN) this afternoon. Today's circuit (track) is the Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃguez in Mexico City, Mexico.
Dutch-Belgian driver Max Verstappen won the 2022 World Championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix on October 9, 2022. He also won the championship in 2021 for a total of two championships. He is the second-youngest driver in Formula 1 history to attain two championships at the age of 25 years and nine days. Germany's Sebastian Vettel was about nine months younger when he did it. Vettel will retire at the end of the 2022 season.
Austria's Red Bull Racing won the 2022 Constructors Championship after the United States Grand Prix on October 23, 2022. In this race, the two members of the Red Bull team, Max Verstappen and Mexican Sergio Perez, finished first and fourth, respectively.
None of the 20 F1 drivers is from the United States.
After today's race, there are two races left in the 22-race 2022 F1 season: Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Formula 1 racing is the only sport that I actively follow.
October 30, 2022
Today is the 25th anniversary of the best concert I have ever attended. On October 30, 1997, I experienced an amazing performance by my all-time favorite pop singer/guitarist, Rainhard Fendrich, and his band. His genre of music is called "Austropop," which is pop music by Austrian singers and musicians. During the concert, Austropop singer/guitarist Wolfgang Ambros made a surprise appearance and sang a duet on Fendrich's most famous song: "I Am From Austria." I am also a fan of Ambros.
The Fendrich concert was at the Wiener Stadthalle (arena) in Vienna, Austria. I enjoyed it with one of my many Austrian cousins, her husband, and more than 16,000 other fans. I was living in Jersey City, New Jersey, at the time. (I now live in southeastern Florida.)
Here is a video from that concert tour. Fendrich's song "Ãœber meinen Horizont" was the second song he performed at the concert I attended. This ballad, which is one of my favorite songs, is from Fendrich's 1989 studio album "Von Zeit zu Zeit."
(Note: That is NOT Fendrich in the picture below; it's keyboardist/singer Gary Lux. Also, the Spanish guitarist is Mario Berger, and the saxophonist is Christian Felke. Fendrich's brother Harald Fendrich plays bass guitar.)
I first became a fan of Fendrich in 1983, while visiting many of my Austrian cousins in the westernmost Austrian province of Vorarlberg. This was my second of seven trips to Austria to visit my cousins and also to go skiing in the Austrian Alps. Anyway, I heard one of his songs on the car radio when my cousin was driving me to the airport in nearby Zürich, Switzerland, to return home. I was immediately hooked. I asked another cousin in the car who was singing. She told me, so I purchased Fendrich's second and third albums on vinyl at the music store in the airport. He only had three albums at that time. Several years later, I would discover his first album.
I purchased many more of his vinyl albums and CDs during my later trips to Austria, as well as many more CDs that I bought online. I still listen to many of his albums on my turntable. I have 47 (yes, forty-seven) of Fendrich's CDs, which includes duplicates of two of those CDs and one interview CD.
He writes (sometimes co-writes) all of his songs, which are all sung in the German language. His earliest albums from the early to mid-1980s are sung in the Viennese dialect of German. He soon switched to writing songs in "High German" (textbook German) so that more people could understand them.
I also have a videotape and several DVDs of his concerts and music videos; a photo calendar from 1987; a hardcover biography written in German; and two of his autographs, even though I have never met him. Also, at one time, I was the only non-European member of his official fan club. I lost that title when a man from Japan joined the club.
Hallo. Wie geht's? My wife Debbie is working hard from home, and I am still recovering from my three surgeries this year. We hope that you, Andy, and your family are doing better than well.
I had to send you this message: Today (Oktober 30, 2022) is the 25th anniversary of when we attended Rainhard Fendrich's concert at the Stadthalle in Vienna. Here is a link to a video of a song from that concert tour.
October 30, 2022
I love candy corn, not only for their distinctive taste, waxy texture, coating of shellac, and various colors, but also because they contain FOUR types of sugar.
Here are the ingredients for Brach's Classic Candy Corn (my favorite): Sugar, Corn Syrup, Confectioner's Glaze (Shellac), Salt, Dextrose, Gelatin, Sesame Oil, Artificial Flavor, Honey, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 3.
October 30, 2022
Remember, "Movember 2022" starts in two days on November 1, 2022.
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October 29, 2022
Do you remember this boys club from the Our Gang/Little Rascals short films oh so long ago? I am a lifelong charter member. Well, at least I thought I was. 😉
In real life, I have been a proud Men's Rights Activist since the early 1990s, when I was in my early 30s. I still fight the good fight. In the 1990s, I was even a dues-paying, card-carrying member of the National Organization for Men.
October 29, 2022
I like oatmeal, preferably steel-cut, with chocolate chips and/or berries (never strawberries ... YUCK !!!), sometimes with real maple syrup, and sometimes with brown sugar. However, I prefer grits with butter and a little white sugar for crunch. Shrimp and grits is a favorite dinner of mine.
I am absolutely a hermit.
October 28, 2022
These are some of the people from which I am gaining wisdom, strength, and inspiration these days:
Andrew Tate
Jordan Peterson
Ben Shapiro
Steven Crowder
Mark Dice
Bill Burr
Donald J. Trump
Ron DeSantis
October 28, 2022
This is one of my favorite quotes. It's by the cartoon character Bobby Hill (below) talking to his father Hank Hill in an episode of the TV show "King of the Hill." I can definitely relate to Bobby.
Today (October 27, 2022) is Navy Day. My father retired at the rank of Commander after serving for twenty-two (22) years in the U.S. Navy, both on active duty and in the reserves. My mother worked for the U.S. Navy as a civilian.
In the late 1950s, my father served aboard a ship, transporting displaced persons (delayed pilgrims, as he called them) multiple times from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York City after World War II. After his death in 1997 at age 62, some of his ashes were scattered from a Navy ship into the North Atlantic Ocean, where he spent much of his time with the Navy. The rest of his ashes were interred at Breslau Cemetery in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. (Lindenhurst was formerly named Breslau after the city in Germany.)
October 27, 2022
I don't really have a favorite American beer, well, maybe Samuel Adams. At university, I drank PBRs (Pabst Blue Ribbon) because it was cheap. I also went through a short stint with Miller High Life long ago.
I did drink Grolsch long ago, but that's not American.
I never drink Budweiser and Molson due to resultant hangovers.
My favorite beer is Mohrenbräu, which is a famous Austrian beer. I first drank it in my Austrian cousins' living room in Dornbirn, Austria, in the early 1980s, when I was in my early 20s. I have enjoyed it on many subsequent trips to Austria. I have never found it in the United States. Mohrenbräu is brewed in Dornbirn.
https://www.mohrenbrauerei.at/
October 27, 2022
Superstition: It's good luck if a black cat follows you home.
October 26, 2022
Brief Piano Improv (Oct. 26, 2022)October 26, 2022
When I was a kid, I would watch the news and hear about all the men dying in the Vietnam War. I never heard about women dying in the war, so there was a period of time in my life when I believed only men die. Women live forever. Women are immortal, so I interacted with girls and women with this in mind. I was in awe of females. (I still am.) I have since learned that women actually DO die, but there was a time in my life when I believed women had super powers and that they governed the world, and that all men and boys were at the women's and girl's mercies. I still believe women govern the world, and that we poor guys are at their mercy, but I know now that women in fact do NOT live forever.
Celebrating Austrian National Day
Today (October 26, 2022) is Austrian National Day, which is a federal holiday in Austria. After World War II ended in 1945, Austria, which had been occupied by Germany, was then occupied by the United States, Russia, France, and Great Britain. Each country occupied a different section of Austria. I remember visiting the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum – Militärhistorisches Institut (the Museum of Military History) in Vienna, Austria, and seeing on display a jeep with four seats, one for each soldier from the four occupying countries. That was done in an effort to better mediate disputes among citizens within the capital city of Vienna. Ten years later on October 26, 1955, Austria established its independence.
Part of my heritage is Austrian, so I celebrate every year.
I have visited my many Austrian cousins across Austria seven times since the early 1980s, and I have also been skiing with several of them in the Austrian Alps several times. I love Austrian food, especially Käsknöpfle and Tafelspitz. I also like the chocolate dessert called Mohr im Hemd; translated from German, it means "black man wearing a shirt" because that's what it looks like on the plate.
Also, since the early 1980s, I have been a huge fan of Austropop (Austrian popular music), including Rainhard Fendrich, Wolfgang Ambros, Georg Danzer, STS, Hubert von Goisern und die Alpinkatzen, Boris Bukowski, and more.
Here is a link to a video of a live performance of Fendrich's most famous song, "I Am From Austria" from his 1989 album "Von Zeit zu Zeit." It has been called the unofficial national anthem of Austria. This video is from a very famous concert at Schloss Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn Palace) in Vienna from this year (July 3, 2022). The orchestra begins by playing "An der schönen blauen Donau", Op. 314 (The Blue Danube Waltz), but that is NOT part of Fendrich's song.
Rainhard Fendrich is my favorite pop singer/guitarist. I have 47 (yes, forty-seven) of Fendrich's CDs (46 music CDs and one interview CD). This includes duplicates of two of those CDs.
Fendrich writes all of his songs and sings all of his songs in the German language, with his earliest albums from the early to mid-1980s sung in the Viennese dialect of German. As he became popular, he wrote his songs using "high" German, which is the "textbook" version of the language, so more people could understand his lyrics.
I also have many vinyl record albums from the 1980s, which I purchased on multiple trips to Austria; several of his DVDs and videotapes; and two of his autographs, even though I have never met him. I also have a hardcover biography written in German.
I attended a Fendrich concert at the Stadthalle (arena) in Vienna, Austria, on October 30, 1997, with one of my many Austrian cousins, her husband, and more than 16,000 other fans. Also, at one time, I was the only non-European member of his official fan club. I lost that title when a man from Japan joined the club.
October 25, 2022
"Women Don't Know"
Women don't know that men actually know more than women and that women know less than men, but women don't know that either or at least won't admit to not knowing. So, men know and won't admit to women that they know. You know?
October 24, 2022
Happy Diwali: The Festival of Lights !!! In other words, Happy Hindu New Year !!! I wish you much happiness, health, and spiritual and financial prosperity during the new year !!!
I must always eat Indian food on Diwali which occurs on a different day every year, so ...
In celebration of Diwali, this evening for dinner, my wife and I ordered an Indian, vegetarian feast that was delivered to us from the nearby restaurant, Coriander: Indian + Euro Kitchen. Here is the link to the restaurant's menu.
https://www.corianderflorida.com/menu
We enjoyed Samosas with Hari Chutney and Imli Chutney; Paneer Pasanda with Basmati Rice; Lachha Paratha; and Gulab Jamun.
My wife and I celebrated my birthday at Coriander this year on February 26. I highly recommend it.
My religion is Gaudiya Vaishnavism, also known as Hare Krishna, which is a sect of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism).
Hare Krishna and Namasté
October 24, 2022
I am definitely a gourmand.
My wife likes fried bologna. I don't think I have ever eaten it fried. I prefer salami fried in butter, but not that often.
October 23, 2022
LOL ... Facebook just reprimanded me for posting a one-word comment on a post. (no penalty; just a warning) ... I formally disagreed with the decision.
Do you know what steatopygia is? I will let you look it up. 😉
October 23, 2022
For dinner, my wonderful wife made this generous pot of delicious beef stew with chunks of beef, onions, potatoes, and carrots; green peas; onion powder; ground black pepper; and, of course, water.
October 23, 2022
Congratulations go to Red Bull Racing which secured the 2022 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship following today's United States Grand Prix in Austin Texas. In today's race, the two drivers on this two-driver team finished first (Max Verstappen) and fourth (Sergio Perez). The top 10 of 20 drivers, none of which are from the United States, receive both individual and team points.
Verstappen already won the 2022 World Championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix on October 9, 2022, with four races left in the 2022 season. This is his second championship in as many years. With today's victory, Verstappen, age 25, tied a record with 13 first-place finishes in one season. The season isn't over, so there is a chance he will break that record.
Below are the constructors standings with three races left in the 22-race 2022 F1 racing season. It is now mathematically impossible for the Ferrari team (or any other team) to surpass the Red Bull team, even with three races left in the season: Mexico, Brazil, and Abu Dhabi.
The 2020 champion, Lewis Hamilton, who has seven championships, has not won any of the 19 races so far this season. He had his best finish of the season today by finishing second. With three races left, there is a chance that he could still secure a first-place finish.
Formula 1 racing is the only sport that I actively follow.
October 23, 2022
It's 3 p.m. here in southeastern Florida, and I am watching a live broadcast of the United States Grand Prix on Sky Sports F1 (on ESPN on ABC) this mid-afternoon. Today's circuit (track) is the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Dutch-Belgian driver Max Verstappen won the 2022 World Championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix on October 9, 2022. He also won the championship in 2021 for a total of two championships. He is the second-youngest driver in Formula 1 history to attain two championships at the age of 25 years and nine days. Germany's Sebastian Vettel was about nine months younger when he did it.
The Constructors Championship is still up for grabs.
Today's race is the second of two F1 races in the United States this season. The other race was the Miami Grand Prix in Miami, Florida on May 8, 2022. For the expanded 24-race 2023 season, a third race in the United States has been added: the Las Vegas Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada.
None of the 20 drivers is from the United States.
After today's race, there are three races left in the 22-race 2022 F1 season: Mexico, Brazil, and Abu Dhabi.
Formula 1 racing is the only sport that I actively follow.
October 23, 2022
I am a member of a Facebook group titled "Heart Bypass Surgery Survivors/The Zipper Club." Members have requested that I post videos of myself playing my digital piano from my YouTube channel, so I posted a second video in that group today. Here is the explanation that I posted in that group, along with the link to one of my favorite older piano videos:October 23, 2022
PHOTO: Here I am in the Intensive Care Unit at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Boca Raton, Florida, on March 10, 2022, the day after my seven-hour-long heart surgery. My wife took this photo of myself.
As you may know, I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022, and two reconstructive chest surgeries: on May 19, 2022, my surgeon removed metal sternal plates due to an infection; and on May 25, 2022, my surgeon clipped off the tips of my ribs and reattached my chest muscle flaps to my body.
During the past few months, the pain has mostly dissipated. The eight-inch-long incision in my chest has been closed for several months. While my chest continues to be sore, swollen, and numb, these days, I am noticing more pain within my chest as my sternum (breastbone) broken by my heart surgeon, my clipped ribs, and my internal chest tissue all continue to heal. I suppose my heart is also still healing. By the way, I still get an occasional twinge of pain in the inside of my left thigh near my knee where my heart surgeon removed a long section of my main vein there. He used four segments of the vein for my heart surgery.
I mention all of this because, this morning, I felt a slight, but noticeable increase in my usual chest pain just by lifting a regular-sized mug full of coffee and vanilla almond milk creamer.
I am a little dishearted by this occurrence, but I know that it is all part of my healing process. I was told that I will be mostly healed after one year, which means around the end of May 2023.
While I still require the use of a metal walker for stability, I am stronger than I was. I just need to be patient with my healing process, which seems to be quicker than I expected; to continue to walk and to engage in light exercises; and to make an appointment with my cardiologist.
Again, I thank you for your heartfelt prayers and your much-needed support. I, of course, also again thank my wonderful wife and my terrific mother for their selfless help, more so in recent months.
