Monday, October 13, 2025

Today Is ...

Today (October 13, 2025) is the U.S. Navy's 250th birthday (founded in 1775).

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.

My dad was stationed in Hawaii in and around 1958. A few years before that, he served aboard a Navy 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 in 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.)

When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, my mom made a version of Yorkshire Pudding but without the gravy. They are called Popovers, and we ate them with lots of butter. My wife, who is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has made Yorkshire Pudding for me.

October 13, 2025, at home








Today's Holidays

Happy Columbus Day !!! (I'm half Italian.) Columbus Day is technically yesterday, October 12, but it is officially celebrated on the second Monday of October every year, meaning today, October 13, 2025.

October 13, 2025, at home

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day !!! My wonderful wife is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, so we celebrate both Thanksgivings.

October 13, 2025, at home




Sunday, October 12, 2025

Soup & Pasta

My wonderful wife made this large pot of vegetable soup (and pasta) today (October 12, 2025) at home.




Happy Columbus Day

Happy Columbus Day !!! (I'm half Italian.) Columbus Day is technically today, October 12, but it is officially celebrated on the second Monday of October every year, meaning tomorrow, October 13, 2025.

October 12, 2025, at home


Today Is ...

October 12, 2025, at home







Saturday, October 11, 2025

Today Is ...

October 11, 2025, at home



Democrat Layoffs

GOOD NEWS !!!

"Trump says federal layoffs will be "Democrat-oriented'"

“And it will be Democrat-oriented, because we figure, you know, they started this thing,” he (Trump) said in the Oval Office about the firings and shutdown. “It’ll be a lot.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5548023-live-updates-trump-nobel-government-shutdown-gaza-deal/

October 11, 2025, at home

Friday, October 10, 2025

Flirting Vs. Harassment

October 10, 2025, at home



The Best President

NOT "SEXIST"

October 10, 2025, at home



J. Lennon (From Yesterday)

FROM YESTERDAY

Happy Birthday to John Lennon (October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980)

"Crippled Inside" is my favorite solo Lennon song.

In the early 1980s in a museum in Vienna, Austria, I saw a Yoko Ono "sculpture." It's the white table/chessboard that appears in this video. When I saw it in the museum, most of the pieces were not on the board, and there was a thick, clear plastic cover over the display, apparently for security reasons and as protection against dust.

If you ever wanted to see John Lennon and Miles Davis playing basketball together, watch this video. There they are together in the picture below.

https://youtu.be/SpM621m6YNs?si=I0JjJbhJms_HVPP0

October 9, 2025, at home

Yes, He Did

October 10, 2025, at home



Today Is ...

I don't really like cake, but I do prefer anything with chocolate frosting.

October 10, 2025, at home


Thursday, October 9, 2025

Happy Birthday To John

Happy Birthday to John Lennon (October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980)

October 9, 2025, at home



Columbus Day Proclamation

"Trump signs Columbus Day proclamation"

“In other words, we’re calling it Columbus Day,” Mr. Trump said. (applause by media) ... Columbus Day is October 13, 2025. 🇮🇹-🇺🇲  ... Being half Italian, I celebrate every Columbus Day every year.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/oct/9/donald-trump-signs-columbus-day-proclamation/

October 9, 2025, at home

Cheese & Cupcakes

I do particularly like moldy, stinky cheeses.

October 9, 2025, at home

I am 100-percent pro-life.

October 9, 2025, at home




Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Men's Rights

October 8, 2025, at home



Trumpin'

Yes, we are.

October 8, 2025, at home



Learn The Truth

Learn the truth.

October 8, 2025, at home




Today Is ...

As a young kid in the 1960s into the 1970s, I loved eating Fluffernutter sandwiches. I haven't eaten one in probably decades.

October 8, 2025, at home

I do enjoy eating pierogis.

October 8, 2025, at home

When I was a kid in the 1960s, my friends and I played regular tag, but we also played two other types of tag. Freeze tag required us to stay motionless (freeze) when we were tagged until someone else tagged us again to unfreeze us. TV tag required us to say a TV sitcom to be allowed to continue playing after being tagged.

October 8, 2025, at home

I certainly have many curves.

October 8, 2025, at home










Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Yankees Win !!!

YANKEES WIN 9-6 against the Blue Jays !!!

October 7, 2025, at home



LED

Today (October 7, 2025) is National LED Light Day, so this is my excuse for sharing with you a magazine article I wrote about ... LED lighting.

From February 2016 to February 2017, I was the Associate Editor for "Shop!," an international nonprofit association that represents manufacturers of components for retail store displays, including mannequins, display cabinets, signage, lighting, shelving, flooring, architecture, etc. I worked at the office in Hollywood, Florida. The main office is in Chicago. (I had to leave this job for medical reasons.)

My duties consisted of editing, reporting, writing, photography, and photo editing for the association's two magazines, which alternated every month: "Retail Environments" and "Shop! Insider." I also edited and wrote for our news website, as well as edited statistical reports, white papers, and directories.

I scanned and uploaded onto a blog website my LED article, along with the three other articles I wrote during my tenure there, for the purpose of potentially future job hunting. Click/Tap on this link, then on the headline of the second article (LED), and then on each page to see larger versions. If you wish, you can do the same for my three other articles.

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

This link will take you to scans of my two-page LED article, plus the contents page and the cover of the magazine issue in which my LED article appears (photo below).

I conducted all of the interviews for my LED article (and took many photos, three of which were used) during our three-day annual trade show in Las Vegas in February 2016, where more than 750 companies from around the world exhibited their products on 715,000 square feet of a convention center.

I was also able to spend a little heartfelt time one evening with my childhood best friend Bryan who lives in Vegas.

Shop! resulted from the merging of two international nonprofit associations: A.R.E. (Association for Retail Environments) and POPAI (Point Of Purchase Advertising International).



Compliments & Insults

October 7, 2025, at home




Vaccines Or Not

October 7, 2025, at home



Today Is ...

Yes, I do like chocolate-covered pretzels.

October 7, 2025, at home

"I sell propane and propane accessories." - Hank Hill

October 7, 2025, at home

National Inner Beauty Day serves to raise awareness and mobilize support for the victims and survivors of human trafficking. Worldwide, more women than men are human/sex traffickers, meaning more women than men are the actual perpetrators, not the victims.

October 7, 2025, at home






Monday, October 6, 2025

2nd Of 2 Spinal Surgeries

Today (October 6, 2025) is the second anniversary of my second spinal surgery of 2023.

PHOTO: my 34-centimeters-long (13.3858-inches-long) incision on October 16, 2023 ... To see the photo below (if blurred by Facebook), just click/tap on "Learn more," then on "See photo," and you will be able to see it.

My first spinal surgery on September 2, 2023, was to remove an abscess in one of my spinal disks along with removal of some spinal bone due to an infection.

My second spinal surgery on October 6, 2023, took six hours to complete (8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and involved the placement of titanium plates, titanium screws, and about a fourteen-inch-long titanium rod affixed to my spine by my surgeon due to a bone infection in three sections of my spine. My surgeon told me that I needed emergency surgery because my spine was "collapsing" due to the infection. My incision was then closed by my plastic surgeon so that the metal pieces do not stick into and out of my skin.

To this day, my thighs are still numb, but not as numb as they were. My back still sometimes hurts.

My Other Recent Surgeries:

March 9, 2022: Quadruple Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (using a section of vein removed from my left inner thigh)
May 19, 2022: First Chest Surgery (to open my chest to remove sternal plates and clean out an infection; probably to secure wire to hold my broken breastbone pieces together)
May 25, 2022: Second Chest Surgery (to close my chest with seven sutures, leaving me with eight holes from my lower neck to my upper belly)
April 30, 2024: Right Ankle Surgery (bone biopsy, deburring, and fluid draining due to bone infection from two recent fractures)



Today Is ...

Today (October 13, 2025) is the U.S. Navy's 250th birthday (founded in 1775). My father retired at the rank of Commander after serving f...