Halloween: 1979, Paul

For Halloween in 1979, my costume was Paul McCartney from the cover of the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road. (McCartney is second from left.)

I was 18 years old and a huge fan of The Beatles. I still am a huge fan. Yes, that is my real hair combed forward. Notice that I am holding a cigarette in my right hand, just as Paul did on the album cover. (Paul is left-handed.) I also went barefooted (wearing sandals) to a party that night. Paul wore sandals to the photo shoot, but took them off for the cover shots. My suit was actually dark blue; the photo has faded over the years.

One of my friends took this photo in my room (No. 214, affectionately know as "Rorer 714," sometimes "Lemon 714"), Wilson Hall dormitory, Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH), Northfield campus, Northfield, Massachusetts. Hello to my fellow NMHers.

Incidentally, I was given my longstanding nickname "Bungalow Bill," "Bungalow" for short, "Bungy" for even shorter, by my dormitory mates at NMH. I was nicknamed after the main character in The Beatles song "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill."

October 31, 2025, at home

***

For Halloween in 1979, my costume was Paul McCartney from the cover of the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road. (McCartney is second from left.)

I was 18 years old and a huge fan of The Beatles. I still am a huge fan. Yes, that is my real hair combed forward. Notice that I am holding a cigarette in my right hand, just as Paul did on the album cover. (Paul is left-handed.) I also went barefooted (wearing sandals) to a party that night. Paul wore sandals to the photo shoot, but took them off for the cover shots. My suit was actually dark blue; the photo has faded over the years.

One of my friends took this photo of myself in my room at prep school in northern Massachusetts.

Incidentally, I was given my longstanding nickname "Bungalow Bill," "Bungalow" for short, "Bungy" for even shorter, by my dormitory mates.

October 31, 2025, at home

Saving My Foot

October 31, 2025, early evening: I am NOT home from the hospital. I am at ANOTHER hospital.

Here's the story. My wonderful wife drove me to the Emergency Room at Delray Medical Center at around 2:30 a.m. on October 29, 2025. Following testing, it was determined that I require surgery to remove an occlusion (blockage) in an artery in my left thigh with a possible stent placement. The surgery was tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of October 30, 2025, but it was never meant to be, due to scheduling.

I was on an intravenous drip of a blood thinner (anticoagulant) and also an intravenous fluid drip through a separate port.

The surgery could not be performed today, either, also due to scheduling. I contacted my vascular surgeon's office this afternoon to schedule the surgery (outpatient, this time, in his office). The soonest appointment that I can get is November 12, 2025. This is way too late because I am in an emergency situation.

My podiatrist believes that I need the surgery much sooner, like yesterday, because of the five wounds in my left foot (four of my toes and my heel) due to poor circulation and diabetes. If I don't have this surgery done soon, I will be in an even more serious situation.

Basically, my podiatrist told me that if I don't have the surgery as soon as possible, I could risk amputation of the toes of my left foot; my left foot; even up to my left knee. He said that it might already be too late. He has already performed four surgeries on my left foot.

My vascular surgeon thinks that nothing is serious about my condition. Also, my wound-care specialist and a nursing student think my left-foot wounds aren't too bad.

My wife and I decided to pursue another hospital (Boca Raton Regional Hospital) to see if I can get the surgery done sooner than the 12th, possibly November 1 or 3. So, here we are in the Emergency Room.

Upon initial examination, the medical guy that's admitting me was expecting my foot to be worse than I explained it to him. I am expecting to meet with a vascular surgeon this evening here in the Emergency Room to see if surgery will help, or do we go directly to amputation. I will have the same or similar testing that I had at Delray Medical Center.

Also, I may need to have my right leg done some time in the future due to a similar situation, but my right foot is now woundless.

Halloween: 2 Pennies Back

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, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Halloween: The Captain

Let me take you back to Halloweens in the later 1960s into the early 1970s, when I was a kid, and a particular, personal Halloween tradition.

It's Halloween again, and my friends and I are once again deciding if we are going to go trick-or-treating at Captain Kangaroo's house. Bob Keeshan, who plays the captain, lives a few miles from my home on Long Island, New York (Babylon and then West Islip). He lived in Babylon.

And, as we do every Halloween, my friends and I abandon this idea. We would either have to get a parent to drive us there or risk our lives riding our bicycles on a busy two-lane highway with no sidewalks. Besides, there is a rather high fence around his house, so we wouldn't even be able to get to his front door. Still, my friends and I always enjoy having our traditional discussion about the captain every Halloween.

(true story)

October 31, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Halloween: Venetian Blind

What was your worst Halloween costume ever? My worst costume was the result of being asked to a party at the last minute when I was studying at the University of Missouri in Columbia in the late 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 at my mom's home 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. The glasses and the pasta are, of course, also different.

October 31, 2025, Delray Medical Center

1 Day Until "Movember"

Remember, "Movember 2025" starts in one day on November 1, 2025.

Due to medical issues, I won't be able to participate in "Movember" this year, because I won't be able to be clean shaven on November 1. However, I continue to promote its importance.

"Movember," an annual, month-long event when men around the world grow moustaches throughout the month of November to raise awareness of and to raise funds to combat cancers that afflict men (prostate, testicular, penile); men's suicide prevention; and men's overall physical and mental health. I have participated every November for decades.

Millions of dollars (converted) are raised worldwide every year through fundraisers and donations, with the United States, Canada, Australia, and India typically raising the most money. European countries also do well with raising funds.

Of course, the name "Movember" is a combination of "moustache" and "November." Men start clean shaven on November 1 (every year) and grow their "stashes" throughout the month, so if you notice more guys with moustaches in your travels, that's why.

There is also something called "No-Shave November," when men don't shave at all during that month, so you may see more beards than usual, too. I already have a beard, so I suppose I am already somewhat participating.

In solidarity, many women also don't shave during November in support of us guys. (no joke)

Also, remember that International Men's Day is on November 19 (every year).

For more information and to donate your money and/or your time, here is the link to one of the many "Movember" websites:

https://us.movember.com/

October 31, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Today Is ...

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 in it, 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, 2025, Delray Medical Center

On Halloween in Babylon, Long Island, New York, 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, 2025, Delray Medical Center

My favorite Knock Knock joke is:

Knock. Knock.
Who's there?
Cantaloupe.
Cantaloupe who?
Cantaloupe without a ladder. (can't elope)

October 31, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Blue, Not Pink

October 31, 2025, Delray Medical Center

2 Days Until "Movember"

Remember, "Movember 2025" starts in two days on November 1, 2025.

Due to medical issues, I won't be able to participate in "Movember" this year, because I won't be able to be clean shaven on November 1. However, I continue to promote its importance. 

"Movember," an annual, month-long event when men around the world grow moustaches throughout the month of November to raise awareness of and to raise funds to combat cancers that afflict men (prostate, testicular, penile); men's suicide prevention; and men's overall physical and mental health. I have participated every November for decades.

Millions of dollars (converted) are raised worldwide every year through fundraisers and donations, with the United States, Canada, Australia, and India typically raising the most money. European countries also do well with raising funds.

Of course, the name "Movember" is a combination of "moustache" and "November." Men start clean shaven on November 1 (every year) and grow their "stashes" throughout the month, so if you notice more guys with moustaches in your travels, that's why.

There is also something called "No-Shave November," when men don't shave at all during that month, so you may see more beards than usual, too. I already have a beard, so I suppose I am already somewhat participating.

In solidarity, many women also don't shave during November in support of us guys. (no joke)

Also, remember that International Men's Day is on November 19 (every year).

For more information and to donate your money and/or your time, here is the link to one of the many "Movember" websites:

https://us.movember.com/

October 30, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Day Before Halloween 2009

16 Years Ago Today

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 and page designer for American Media Inc., which publishes the weekly supermarket/gossip 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 30, 2025, Delray Medical Center

28 Years Since Fendrich

Today is the 28th 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 "Über 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.)

https://youtu.be/zNOLTImfadc

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 49(yes, forty-nine) 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.

October 30, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Good Day For Surgery

Good Morning! Surgery Today (October 30, 2025, Delray Medical Center, time unknown): removal of occlusion (blockage) of artery in left leg; stent placement

UPDATE: surgery during the afternoon; stent not guaranteed

UPDATE: Surgery was basically postponed, so I am trying a different hospital due to emergency.

Candy Corn & Publicity

I love candy corn, not only for their distinctive fake taste, waxy texture, coating of shellac, and various numbered 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, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Pending Surgery

Evening, October 29, 2025: Hello from Delray Medical Center, my home away from home (as is Boca Raton Regional Hospital).

My wonderful wife drove me to Delray Medical Center's Emergency Room around 2:30 a.m. I had severe, crushing pain in my left foot and left ankle; pain in my right foot; and painful muscle cramps in both of my thighs, mostly the left one. I have been dealing with this for about two weeks. The pain became unbearable, so I needed to do something about it. Actually, I have been dealing with Peripheral Neuropathy in both of my feet in the form of numbness and pain for many years, but this is a different situation.

While here today, after a syringe dose of intravenous anti-nausea medication in preparation for a syringe dose of nausea-causing morphine, and also later, a syringe of a stronger pain medication to help me get through a CTA scan (from my belly to my toes) due to back pain from recent surgeries, the doctors determined that I have an occlusion (blockage) in an artery in my left thigh. I had already know this from a few years ago, when it did NOT require further action at that time. It obviously needs action now.

Here at the hospital, I continue to receive Heparin (anti-blood coagulant) via intravenous infusion through a needle in the back of my right hand. I also have an intravenous port in my left forearm that was used to accommodate infusion of the contrast solution for the CTA scan.

I am scheduled for some time tomorrow to have a surgical procedure performed to have the artery cleared and a stent installed.

As for this evening, I received another morphine syringe through my intravenous port, with the same anti-nausea medication administered, this time after, to help me get through the night.

I received an insulin injection in my left arm, as I usually inject daily into my belly at home. I will soon receive my usual nebulizer respiratory treatment, a stronger version than I self-administer at home.

It seems as if, in recent years, I am living much of my life in hospitals and in a physical rehabilitation facility:

Recent Surgeries:

2022: quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery, including removal of a vein within my left thigh; plus two related chest surgeries

2023: two spinal surgeries

2024: right-ankle surgery

... and now, 2025: left-leg surgery 

So, it goes. Be well.

Peggy Kirk Bell

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Peggy Kirk Bell !!! Thank you for having such a positive influence on my life.

"It doesn’t take a great athlete to be able to play golf. Conversely, great athletes aren’t always good golfers. That’s the beauty of the game."

- Peggy Kirk Bell, from "The Gift of Golf: My Life with A Wonderful Game"

I had the privilege of teaching golf to adults and children, side-by-side with the late great hall-of-famer and LPGA champion Peggy Kirk Bell, during the summer of 1981 (age 20) at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina. PGA touring pro Pat McGowan, husband of Bell's daughter Bonnie (R.I.P.), also taught there at that time. That summer, I played a round of golf with him, just the two of us. I shot an 82. He shot a course record 64. He was like a machine.

I also have the distinction of throwing up on Mrs. Bell. Yeah, I threw up on a hall-of-fame golfer. I was a very young teenager, attending a Golfari (golf instruction/camp) in the 1970s. I became ill, so she decided to feed me soup while I lie in bed. Soon, I told her that I couldn't eat any more of the soup. She said, "Just one more spoonful." I ate it, and then lost it. She loved all of the kids who attended the Golfaris. I attended the Golfaris every summer from 1972 (age 11) to 1980 (age 19), and, of course, had the honor and the privilege of teaching there the following year. Thank you so much. I cherish such fond memories from that time and aspect of my life. They were definitely halcyon days.

October 29, 2025, Delray Medical Center

Today Is ...

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.

October 29, 2025, at home

I am absolutely a hermit. I am perfectly comfortable with being alone.

I grew up as an only child and was without female companionship from age 20 to age 40, and not by choice, but being with people is sometimes better. I have lived a rather nomadic existence, having lived in six states.

October 29, 2025, at home

Emergency Room

Good Morning!

I entered the emergency room of Delray Medical Center at around 2:30 a.m. today (October 29, 2025) with severe, crushing pain in my left foot and left ankle, and cramping in my left thigh. I also have some pain and swelling in my right foot and cramping in my right thigh. An ultrasound of my left leg and a CTA scan from my upper belly to my toes on both left and right sides of my body show an occlusion in my left thigh. I am being admitted to the hospital. I am not sure of my status as to when I will have the procedure done. I am also on a Heparin intravenous drip to prevent blood clots. I also received an injection through my main intravenous ports (in the back of my right hand) of Morphine and later of a stronger pain medication. The other intravenous port that was used for the contrast dye for the CTA scan is in my left forearm.

Today's Is ...

I like dark chocolate because of its bitterness. My favorite candies are chocolate-covered orange peels and chocolate-covered marzipan.

October 28, 2025, at home

I have been tended to by many of them over the last several years.

October 28, 2025, at home

I agree with comedian Bill Burr when he says that first responders are actually second responders who have been notified of the disaster by the first responders who are at the scene of the disaster already.

October 28, 2025, at home

Climate Control

October 27, 2025, at home

Not Pink

October 27, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

Today (October 27, 2025) on Navy Day, I honor my father, who served 22 years in the U.S. Navy on active duty and in the reserves. Here he is in 1958 at age 24, when he was stationed in Hawaii.

My mother worked for the U.S. Navy as a civilian on Long Island, New York.

My dad retired at the rank of Commander, about three months away from earning the rank of Captain. After more than two decades, he had enough and decided it was time to retire from the military.

Dad also served aboard a ship, transporting displaced persons (delayed pilgrims, as he called them) after World War II multiple times from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York City. Soon after his death in 1997 at age 62, some of his ashes were scattered from a Navy ship into the North Atlantic Ocean, where, as he had told me, he spent one of the best times of his life.

The remainder of his ashes were interred at Breslau Cemetery in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. (Lindenhurst was formerly named Breslau after the city in Germany.)

Dad had requested that his ashes be mixed with the ashes of his favorite dog Ludwig, which were in a metal can as the only thing Dad kept in his large metal safe which was never locked. (We didn't do that.) Ludwig's can was the only thing in that safe.

Dad would take Ludwig to work with him at his insurance, real estate, and travel agencies office in Lindenhurst, the town where he grew up. Every weekday morning, my dad would get the dog a buttered roll and a cup of coffee with sugar and milk. Two things an already jittery dachshund definitely does NOT need are sugar and caffeine.

I don't really have a favorite American beer, well, Yuengling and maybe Samuel Adams. At university in the early 1980s, 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, 2025, at home

Superstition: It's good luck if a black cat follows you home.

October 27, 2025, at home

Whining Dems

October 27, 2025, at home

Stuffed Peppers

This afternoon (October 26, 2025, at home), my wonderful wife made bell peppers (green, red, yellow, and orange) stuffed with ground beef, Israeli couscous, onions sautéed in a little olive oil, minced garlic, dried basil, and ground black pepper, topped with tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and grated Romano cheese, and then baked.

Mexican Grand Prix

I am watching live coverage of the twentieth race of the 2025 Formula 1 racing season on October 26, 2025. The Mexican Grand Prix is being broadcast on ABC TV from a feed from ESPN from a feed from Sky Sports F1. The 71-lap race started at 2 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Eastern Time, here in southeastern Florida, United States).

Below is a diagram of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico (capacity: 110,000). Each circuit (track) around the world has a different configuration, therefore a different dynamic, regarding turns and elevation fluctuations.

This season's 24-race schedule is as follows: Australia, China, Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Miami (U.S.), Italy, Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, The Netherlands, Italy (different circuit), Azerbaijan, Singapore, Austin (U.S.), Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas (U.S.), Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.

Before each race, there are two or three days of practice/qualifying. The races run every week or every other week from March into December, with a month-long summer break that starts after today's race.

In Formula 1 racing, there are 20 (male) drivers, with ZERO drivers from the United States.

There are 10 teams (with two drivers on each team), so not only do drivers compete against their rivals, but they also compete against their teammates. There are two championships: one for the drivers and one for the constructor teams.

The 10 constructors are Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, Kick Sauber, McClaren, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Red Bull Racing, and Williams.

This season, as with last season, there are three races in the United States. In fairly recent years, there were no drivers from the United States and no races in the United States.

Formula 1 racing is the only sport that I actively follow. I have been a fan for decades. I watched my first F1 race decades ago on television at the home of one of my many Austrian cousins while on vacation in Austria.

Austrian National Day

Today (October 26, 2025) 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 and of the Vienna, its capital city. I remember visiting the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum – Militärhistorisches Institut (the Museum of Military History) in Vienna 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.

Rainhard Fendrich is my all-time favorite pop singer. I have 49 (yes, forty-nine) of Fendrich's CDs (48 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 of his 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. Here is a link to a video of a live performance of my second-most favorite Fendrich song ("Über Meinen Horizont") from the concert tour I attended. (The man in the photo below is keyboardist Gary Lux.)

https://youtu.be/zNOLTImfadc?si=tzIg4rg3bLZJtwZU

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.

Mother-In-Law Day

Today (October 26, 2025) is National Mother-In-Law Day (fourth Sunday in October), so I would like to remember and honor my mother-in-law Lorna, who passed on February 16, 2011.

This is my favorite photo of her and me. My wife snapped it on July 13, 2008, in a coffee shop in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, when the three of us were on vacation, visiting my wife's family and friends in and around Toronto. I particularly like that she is small and is holding a big cup, and I am bigger and am holding a smaller cup.

She always encouraged me to become a better person with each passing day, while accepting me each day exactly as I was. For that, I thank her again. Lorna, you are sorely missed.

Today Is ...

My dad liked mincemeat pie. So do I.

October 26, 2025, at home