Purchase On Amazon

As you may know, today (February 28, 2025) is the day Democrats are not purchasing anything in protest of the Trump Administration: something to do with the abolition of DEI hiring. Today, they are boycotting stores, specifically Amazon, Target, and others. Me being a MAGA Republican, I made a purchase online with Amazon:

1. Three jars of the Italian antacid Brioschi, pronounced "bree-AH-ski. I have use it since I was a kid in the 1960s, usually after eating my Italian grandmother's delicious dinners.

2. A book that I have been wanting to find for decades. It's about the Austrian dialect of the German language. I am partially of Austrian descent, and I have studied textbook German. While I know a few words in "Austrian," I never could find a book about. I found it by luck on Amazon.

3. Austrian chocolate-banana candy that I first enjoyed on one of my seven journeys to Austria to visit my many Austrian cousins and to ski with them in the Austrian Alps.

7 Planets Align

I created and uploaded a video onto my YouTube channel this evening (February 28, 2025). (length: 3'09")

7 Planets Align (Feb. 28, 2025)

This evening (February 28, 2025), seven planets aligned. My mom, my wife, and I got together at my mom's home in southeastern Florida to view it. We then had a short visit.

https://youtu.be/x3gP7mM__-A?si=MwSpw2pPihuXXNpI

Buying Today

I'm going to buy something on Amazon today. I'm a MAGA Republican and a self-professed contrarian. (02.28.25)

Today Is ...

Yes, I did have a rare, potentially fatal disease in May 1977, when I was 16 years old: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I most probably caught it in the backyard of my house in West Islip, Long Island, New York, from either a tick bite or ingesting the feces of an infected tick or even by rubbing my eyes or in my nose. That year, there were 400 cases and 30 deaths just on Long Island.

I was in the isolation ward in nearby Southside Hospital in Bay Shore for ten days because the doctors didn't know what I had. Fortunately, my pediatrician, who was still my doctor at that time, knew what it was and saved my life. I remained in the hospital for several weeks after that. Now that I think about it, with hundreds of cases just on Long Island, how could a hospital full of doctors not know what it was.

My symptoms were high blood pressure; weakness; nausea; dizziness; a fever fluctuating around 104.3 degrees for ten days; and thick purple scales completely covering both of my legs, plus many of them on my abdomen and chest, and a few on my face. It took more than a year for the scales to flake off. To this day, I still have three small scales on my right leg.

I found it strange that my paternal grandmother, who was in Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, passed away at the same time my fever broke and then returned to normal. I often wonder if there was a spiritual connection. Maybe she gave her strength to me.

The day that I went into the hospital, I went to school that morning. I was feeling quite nauseated and dizzy, but my father thought I was faking. In our driveway, he was talking to a neighbor. I told him that I was ill, and he said, "Get your ass to school," so I walked to West Islip High School.

As I was walking into my biology classroom, I remembered my biology teacher Mr. Wallace jokingly saying that if you are ever feeling nauseated from the smell of the formaldehyde, just take a big sniff. So, I took a big sniff as I entered the classroom and immediately threw up on my books and on the floor with possible collateral damage to a girl who was in front of me during the explosion. I went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. When I got back to the classroom, Mr. Wallace told me that he moved my desk and books to the back of the room.

(I thought that was funny at the time, and I still think it's funny.)

February 28, 2025, at home

Not often, but I have enjoyed chocolate soufflé.

February 28, 2025, at home

When I was a young kid, I would cash in with the Tooth Fairy. Suddenly, I started saving my teeth in a plastic tooth that once contained chewing gum. It was my idea, but I just realized the possibility of my parents agreeing with me so that they could save a few quarters. 😁

February 28, 2025, at home

Fendrich: My YouTube Video

I created and uploaded a video onto my YouTube channel today (February 27, 2025) to celebrate the 70th Birthday of my favorite pop singer: Rainhard Fendrich (from Vienna, Austria). Information (written by me) can be found in the video's description section. (length: 11'12")

Rainhard Fendrich's 70th Birthday (Feb. 27, 2025)

https://youtu.be/LETJzJJmUHM?si=SljqszkvzGEwquIJ

Aileen Santos

Fendrich's 70th Birthday

Happy 70th Birthday to my all-time favorite pop singer-songwriter Rainhard Fendrich, who was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 27, 1955. He also plays guitar and piano.

I became a fan of Fendrich in 1983 while visiting many of my Austrian cousins in the western Austrian province of Vorarlberg. (Fendrich released his first album in 1980, so I have been a fan since close to the start of his career.) He is still releasing albums and performing concerts.

I have 49 (yes, forty-nine) of his CDs: 48 music CDs and one interview CD. This includes duplicates of two of those CDs. I am still missing several of his CDs, so I plan on purchasing at least some of them soon.

Fendrich 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.

I also have vinyl record albums from the 1980s, which I purchased on multiple trips to Austria, including at the record store at the airport in Zürich, Switzerland, which is the closest airport to my cousins in western Austria. I have 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 and a 1987 photo calendar.

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.

I attended a Fendrich concert at the Stadthalle (arena) in Vienna, Austria, on October 30, 1997, with one of my many Austrian cousins, her then-husband, and more than 16,000 other fans. It was terrific.

Here is a link to a live performance of one of the songs during that 1997 concert tour. It's one of my favorite Fendrich songs: "Über meinen Horizont." It means "Over My Horizon."

NOTE: The man in the preview (of the video) is NOT Fendrich. It's Gary Lux, his keyboardist/background singer. The two photos are both of Fendrich.

https://youtu.be/zNOLTImfadc?si=AAGdkyrXBsII_oFQ

February 27, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

I am perpetually retro.

February 27, 2025, at home

I somewhat like Kahlúa.

February 27, 2025, at home

The polar bear population is thriving, so: no worries about them.

February 27, 2025, at home

One word: YUCK !!! I dislike strawberries: the taste, the texture, the everything.

February 27, 2025, at home

Anosmia is the loss of the sense of smell. I had a school teacher many years ago who lost his sense of smell following a car accident. I sort of had something somewhat related. I had nasal/sinus surgery several years ago to remove eight polyps, and to clean out and expand all eight of my sinuses. I guess it's not that I couldn't smell, but more like I couldn't breathe through my nose. After a month or two, I was able to smell again.

February 27, 2025, at home

R.I.P. Gene Hackman

R.I.P. Gene Hackman (January 30, 1930 – c. February 26, 2025) ... The Popeyes chicken restaurant chain is named after his character Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (below) in the 1971 movie "The French Connection."

February 27, 2025, at home

5 Birthday Photos: Video

I created and uploaded a very short video onto my YouTube channel. (length: 37 seconds)

Photos From My 64th Birthday (Feb. 26, 2025)

Here are five photos from my 64th Birthday celebration at my mom's home this afternoon (February 26, 2025). My mother, my wife, and I enjoyed pizza and ice cream cake. I then played my digital piano (at my mom's home).

https://youtube.com/shorts/SlXiqwN3MQs?si=fnN-yI8uYQBGnIEY

My 64th Birthday: Video

I created and uploaded another video onto my YouTube channel. (length: 9'31")

My 64th Birthday/Piano Improv (Feb. 26, 2025)

This afternoon (February 26, 2025), my wife and I were with my mom at her home to celebrate my 64th Birthday. We enjoyed pizza and ice cream cake.

I then played my digital piano (at my mom's home): another one of my piano improvisations. I like to sit at my piano and play whatever is in my head at that time. I make it up as I go along.

I have been waiting for my 64th Birthday since 1967, when I was six years old. I became a fan of The Beatles in the early 1960s, when my mom took me to a movie theater at age three to see The Beatles in their first movie "A Hard Day's Night." In 1967, when I was six years old, The Beatles released their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on which is the Paul McCartney song "When I'm Sixty-Four." Today, I am 64.

(This video is impromptu.)

https://youtu.be/HOSDXLOO0Bc?si=G1lpecjirAlmDGRk

"When I'm Sixty-Four"

 I have been waiting for this day since 1967, when I was six years old. Today (February 26, 2025) is my 64th Birthday, and I have been a huge Beatles fan since the early 1960s. The Beatles released their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1967, and on this album is the song "When I'm Sixty-Four." I have finally arrived.

https://youtu.be/HCTunqv1Xt4?si=Jx_-Vs0zdXYikTMF

LYRICS (music and lyrics by Paul McCartney):

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four
You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you
I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four
Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck and Dave
Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

9:08 ET, February 26, 1961

YEAH !!! I am officially 64 years old !!!

I was born at 9:08 a.m., Eastern Time, at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, Long Island, New York, on February 26, 1961. In the 1960s and 1970s (and later), the windows of the hospital were much lighter.

When I was a kid at school in the 1960s and 1970s, I would jump up and say "YEAH !!!" at exactly 9:08 a.m. on my birthday in whatever classroom I was in, invariably interrupting my teachers.

I share my birthday with my cousin Jackie, also Victor Hugo, Tony Randall, William Frawley, Jackie Gleason, Johnny Cash, and Antoine "Fats" Domino. I am quite happy that my birthday is sandwiched between the birthdays of my dear friend Bryan, whom I have known for 64 years, and George Harrison, both on February 25, and my favorite pop singer, Rainhard Fendrich (from Austria), on February 27.

February 26, 2025, at home on my 64th Birthday

Aileen Santos

Pistachios & A Tale

I like a mixture of chocolate and pistachio Jell-O puddings.

February 26, 2025, at home on my 64th Birthday

I have long considered my life to be a cautionary tale. (smiles)

February 26, 2025, at home on my 64th Birthday

Bryan & Billy Birthdays

Happy 65th birthday (February 25, 2025) to my dear friend Bryan, who has always been a year and a day older than me.

As per personal tradition, I (living in Delray Beach, Florida) just called on the phone my dear friend Bryan (living in Las Vegas, Nevada) to wish each other happy birthdays. He turned 65 years old today; I turn 64 years old tomorrow (February 26, 2025).

We have literally known each other for 64 years. We were neighbors in Babylon, Long Island, New York, from the moment of my birth on February 26, 1961, until the summer of 1972, when my family moved several miles away to West Islip. Although we lived on different streets in Babylon, only a hedge separated our backyards. 

The last time I was with Bryan was for several hours when I was on a business trip in Las Vegas for a few days in March 2016.

On March 24, 2016, I had the fortune to visit with Bryan for several hours. We had a great time cruising the Vegas Strip in his truck; and walking up and down Fremont Street, enjoying dinner in a restaurant and watching all of the crazies doing their crazy stuff.

At that time, we hadn't been together in about 19 years, since we embarked on a road trip together from Long Island to visit our childhood friend Maureen near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 

In Vegas that evening, after dinner, we returned to my hotel around midnight. We played the slot machines there for about an hour. Bryan then grabbed a cup of coffee (to go); I handed him a birthday card; and then he drove home. I returned to my room to rest my aching feet.

While we only spent about five hours together that evening (8 p.m. to 1 a.m.), this was one of the most memorable and wonderful experiences of my life. 

Here are two photos of Bryan (right) and me grabbing bites to eat at Mickey Finnz restaurant on Fremont Street on March 24, 2016. (It's strange that the lighting is different in these photos.)

February 25, 2025, at home

Aileen Santos

Birthday Of Mr. Harrison

Happy Birthday to George Harrison (February 25, 1943 – November 29, 2001) !!!

One of my favorite Harrison songs is "This is Love" from his 1987 album "Cloud Nine." I requested that the DJ play this song at our wedding reception on February 4, 2006. I thought the lyrics best represented our marital celebration. (I added the following opening lyrics when I made the wedding ceremony program.)

"Vicious words drift away from their meanings
And the sun melts the chill from our lives
Helping us all to remember what we came here for
This is love ..."

https://youtu.be/wqWkBk2ixs8

February 25, 2025, at home

Birthday Wishes To George

Happy Birthday to George Harrison (February 25, 1943 - November 29, 2002) !!!

I have been an official Beatles fan since the summer of 1964, when I attended a theater showing of their first movie "A Hard Day's Night" with my mother, one of the two teenaged girls who lived in the house next to us, and her mother. I was 3 years old. I really became a fan before that because my mom and the two teenaged girls next door were big fans.

George Harrison was always my favorite Beatle, and he still is. I like his songs best, plus he was a major influence regarding my conversion from Roman Catholicism to Gaudiya Vaishnavism (Hare Krishna).

"Love Comes To Everyone" (link below) is my favorite song by Harrison. It appears on his 1979 self-titled album, which is my favorite Harrison album. Eric Clapton plays guitar during the introduction of this song. Steve Winwood plays keyboards on this song.

https://youtu.be/peTMq9lVBoA

I also like Harrison's song "This Is Love," which I requested that the DJ play at our wedding reception on February 4, 2006.

As a devotee of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, as was Harrison, I also like his songs "My Sweet Lord," "Beware of Darkness," and "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long." I also like his songs "Run of The Mill" and "Pure Smokey," the latter a tribute to singer Smokey Robinson.

My favorite Harrison song with The Beatles is "Savoy Truffle." This song warns his friend Eric Clapton about eating too much candy or he will have his teeth removed due to decay. TRIVIA: Clapton married Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd.

February 25, 2025, at home

Nuts & Chowder

Chocolate-covered almonds are OK, but I prefer chocolate-covered cashews.

February 25, 2025, at home

I like Manhattan clam chowder, but New England clam chowder is nice, too. Sometime in the mid-1980s or so, I voted for the best chowder at a chowder contest on the Jersey shore. I think that I only voted for the Manhattan version by placing a poker chip in a jar. I don't think that I voted for the New England version because I seem to remember still having somewhere the poker chip for that version.

February 25, 2025, at home

Speaking With Cousin Rita

PHOTO: Pfänder mountain in Bregenz, Austria, in Vorarlberg, the westernmost province, where I proposed marriage to my wonderful wife on April 10, 2005 ... I took this photo of the exact spot where I proposed a few minutes after I proposed. Four countries can be seen from that location: Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany.

*****

This mid-afternoon (February 24, 2025), I fulfilled a decades-long tradition, albeit late, by speaking with my cousin Rita in Dornbirn, Austria, near Bregenz. It's a New Year's Eve/Day tradition my father created in the early 1980s.

Rita's phone had not been working, which is the reason for my delay this time.

In the early 1980s, my father and I took our first trip to Dornbirn to visit many of our Austrian cousins, including Hans and his wife Rita. On that trip, we spent New Year's Eve at Hans and Rita's house, where we were staying.

When we returned home, my dad started a new tradition, where Dad would call Hans on the phone from Dad's house in West Islip, Long Island, New York, every Dec. 31 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time/U.S., which was 12 a.m./Midnight Austrian Time (Central European Time) on Jan. 1 of the next year. My father wanted to be one of the first people to wish Hans and Rita a Happy New Year.

When my dad sadly passed away on February 14, 1997, I first continued the tradition by calling on December 31, 1997. I have been calling from my various homes in southeastern Florida since I moved from Jersey City, New Jersey, in May 1998. Sadly, Hans passed away on November 20, 2013, so since then I have been calling Rita directly.

This afternoon, I was finally able to get the telephone line through to Rita and speak with her in the English, German, and Italian languages. She is originally from Italy. She was quite happy to hear from me. I am elated that I was able to speak with her for another year; she's 82 years old.

Since the early 1980s, I have visited my cousins across Austria seven times and have gone skiing in the Austrian Alps with several of them on many of those trips.

My father and I traveled for the first time to Austria and celebrated New Year's Eve at Hans and Rita's house (in the early 1980s). On that trip, we arrived on December 28 and departing on January 8.

Hans and Rita live(d) on the side of a mountain ~ Rita still lives there ~ in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, overlooking the small city of Dornbirn. I remember the wonderfully subdued feeling as we gently raised our Champagne-filled glasses and quietly spoke the words "Zum Wohl" and "Prost" as the clock struck midnight in their living room. We then went outside onto their patio to watch the fireworks explode below us in arrays of colors. It is my most memorable New Year's Eve celebration.

Actually, the last several years, she has not been celebrating at home, so I have had to leave voice messages during the beginning of the Januaries until I was able to speak with her.

On April 10, 2005, the day I proposed marriage, my wife and I went to lunch with Hans and Rita in nearby Schwarzenberg, Austria. We then shared Champagne (maybe it was Prosecco) with Hans and Rita in their house with two more Austrian cousins (Blanka, Hans' sister, and Blanka's son Markus) to celebrate our wedding engagement. I had just proposed marriage to my wife on a nearby snowy mountaintop in Bregenz with Hans and Rita just several yards from us.

My wife and I wed in a small church in Delray Beach, Florida, on February 4, 2006, and we are still married.

February 24, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

One of my favorite snacks is Doritos nacho corn chips dipped in chocolate pudding. When I was in sixth grade (1972-73; age 11 or 12), I first ate it in the cafeteria of Bayview Elementary School (West Islip, Long Island, New York) in an attempt to make two girls disgusted. They didn't care all that much, and I discovered that I really like it. I have eaten it many times over the years.

February 24, 2025, at home

I would like to take this opportunity to address one of my punctuation pet peeves and also to tell you a somewhat obscure punctuation rule that many people do not know.

PET PEEVE: Please do NOT place a comma between the subject and the verb in a sentence, even if the subject is lengthy. For example, do NOT place a comma in the following sentence:

"The boy who lives down the street in the two-story house is coming to our apartment for dinner."

If you place a comma between the word "house" and the word "is," it is incorrect and is tantamount to writing this sentence: "I, am."

RULE: When making a word ending in "ss" possessive, the method is based on the first letter of the next word. For example:

the boss's chair

the boss' salary

the princess's castle

the princess' secret

Basically, you can have an "s" three times in a row, but not four times in a row. Did you know this rule?

February 24, 2025, at home

I have eaten Cherries Jubilee many decades ago. I would prefer it with chocolate ice cream.

February 24, 2025, at home

Delicious Dinner

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS !!!

My wonderful wife made one of my favorite dinners: boiled (yes, boiled) pork chops. She also made HOMEMADE mac and cheese. She served it with red cabbage. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Many Thanks !!!

My paternal grandmother, whose parents were from Austria and Switzerland, often made boiled pork chops when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. My father's sister has often made it, too.

February 23, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

My wonderful wife makes delicious banana bread. I also like her mango bread.

February 23, 2025, at home

Saddened By Profession

I was a journalist from 1982 to 2017. I am politically conservative, but I always kept that out of my work. I am saddened by what my profession has become: just a gaggle of liberal propagandists.

February 23, 2025, at home

Sweet Potatoes & Margarita

February 22, 2025, at home

Bagels & Biscotti

My wonderful wife baked this morning (February 22, 2025, at home): Homemade Sesame Bagels and Homemade Almond Chocolate Chip Biscotti.

Today Is ...

Every two weeks for one day, my religion (Gaudiya Vaishnavism) forbids me from eating beans and grains. My religion also always forbids me from eating meat, fish, eggs, onions, garlic, mushrooms, red lentils, and chocolate. (I am not strict with these tenets.)

February 21, 2025, at home

I would like to profusely thank my wife and my mother for being my stalwart caregivers. I am still recovering from six surgeries: 1 heart, 2 chest in 2022; 2 spine in 2023; and 1 right ankle in 2024. Also, many thanks go to my many doctors and the many nurses who have helped me. I am still unable to walk, but I hope that will change.

February 21, 2025, at home

I particularly like chocolate-chip pancakes, but blueberry pancakes are OK, too.

February 21, 2025, at home

I enjoy the occasional sticky bun.

February 21, 2025, at home

Stuffed Peppers

This evening, my wonderful wife made baked bell peppers stuffed with mild Italian sausage and Israeli couscous.

February 20, 2025, at home

Aileen Santos

Cherry Pie & Muffins

I love a big piece of cherry pie with a large scoop of chocolate ice cream nestled next to it.

February 20, 2025, at home

I really don't like muffins. I like English muffins, but that's a different category. (I also like crumpets fried in butter.)

February 20, 2025, at home

Expanded Blog Title

I expanded the title of my personal blog. The new title is "Quizzical Sojourns 2: Observations and Practices of a Self-Proclaimed Bohemian and Optimistic Nihilist." I added "... and Optimist Nihilist."

https://quizzicalsojourns2.blogspot.com/?m=1

February 19, 2025, at home

Optimistic Nihilism

I have been this way for almost my entire life. Yes, I first started as a self-professed nihilist in the 1980s, when I was in my 20s, probably from reading the writings of German philosophers (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Hesse). It gained strength in the 1990s, when I realized that working hard does NOT provide me with anything substantial and that life really does NOT have any meaning. My nihilism continues to this day, and it will continue. Actually, I have been pessimistic about it, rather than optimistic. What I really am is a fatalist, which means "believing that people cannot change the way events will happen and that events, especially bad ones, cannot be avoided." I found that the results of my actions never aligned with my actual actions.

February 19, 2025, at home

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15r7nzr5P2/

Us As Suncatcher

Delivered today (February 19, 2025) is a gift I recently ordered for my wife (and for me) for our 19th wedding anniversary on February 4, 2025. The cartoon version of us on the (acrylic plexiglass) suncatcher was adapted from a photo that was taken on our wedding day (inset photo).

Chocolate Mint Day

My favorite flavor of ice cream when I was a young kid in the 1960s was Howard Johnson's mint chocolate chip. I still love the combination, especially York Peppermint Patties, which I will eat today.

February 19, 2025, at home