Happy Birthday To Elvis

January 8, 2024, at home

Today is Elvis Presley's birthday. I only like ONE of his songs: "Burning Love."

"I'm burning a hole where I lay." I never knew until now that is what he sang. Hmm.

I find the drums on this song to be absolutely amazing.

https://youtu.be/TmnqKmgesw4?si=1DVIriQj8bd8I9Mx

Biological Betrayal

January 8, 2024, at home

True. Men should NEVER chase after women, but biology betrays us.

Liberals' Hatred

January 8, 2023, at home

1. Male

2. White

3. Republican

4. Conservative

5. Straight

6. Married

7. Intelligent

8. Spiritual

9. Successful

My Favorite Comedians

January 8, 2024, at home

Currently, my favorite comedian is James Gregory. I like his take on so-called "climate change" (below) and his basic anti-animal rights stance.

I also like Bill Burr, Andrew Dice Clay, Matt Rife, Chris Rock, Katt Williams, Sam Kinison, Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Steven Wright, Andy Kaufman, Pat Cooper, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Steve Martin, Bob Hope, and LaWanda Page. I am sure there are many more.

Who are your favorite comedians?

UPDATE: I forgot Ralphie May.

UPDATE: Yeah, I forgot Brad Stine.

UPDATE: I forgot Brad Upton.

https://youtu.be/V6EQHNz9Yho?si=hccIc_wIt87z0yeN

Today Is ...

January 8, 2024, at home

I do like chocolate-covered toffee, especially the Skor candy bar. When I often went Alpine skiing in my younger days, I always carried a Skor bar in the pocket of my ski jacket.

January 8, 2024, at home

At least make an attempt.

January 8, 2024, at home

My typing teacher at West Islip High School in the late 1970s (Mr. Cresson) was good friends with my father, so Dad told him to be especially rough on me. I don't know if he was purposely rough on me or if he was just a good teacher. I'm glad he was tough because I eventually became a print/online journalist, and, of course, need this skill. I was a journalist from 1982 to 2017, so typing has served me well, especially with one particular job in the mid-1990s: I was writing 13 to 16 articles every day in the New York City bureau of a financial wire service about commodities trading.

January 8, 2024, at home

I have liked to wear argyle socks since the mid-1980s.

Tempura & Bobbleheads

January 7, 2024, at home

I somewhat like tempura.

R.I.P. Cindy Morgan

January 6, 2024, at home

R.I.P. Cindy Morgan, age 69 ... She starred in the movies "Caddyshack" and "Tron." I loved both movies. In fact, Al Gore once said that "Tron" was his favorite movie.

I saw "Tron" in a movie theater when it was released in 1982. I was 21 years old, but I thought I was younger. (You may remember the arcade video game. I do.)

Watch this trailer for the movie. The special effects were pretty good for the early 1980s. I am fairly sure Morgan appears in this trailer.

https://youtu.be/hMT8tRrEMC4?si=1W1jwE5IPmZA0ShD

Today Is ...

January 6, 2024, at home

I prefer black beans. Of course, I also like baked beans.

Multiverse???

January 6, 2024, at home

I have lived in six states, and here in southeastern Florida is the only place I've lived where the temperature actually INCREASES soon after midnight, and the rain clouds often move from EAST to WEST, especially with hurricanes. It's like living in an aspect of the multiverse.  I even grew up in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, in the 1960s and 1970s with an area code of 516. My area code now is 561.

Backwards Speaking

January 5, 2024, at home

When did people start speaking backwards? It's strange to me. For example, it should be, "My wife and I went to the store" not "Me and my wife went to the store." However, I absolutely LOVE the backwards speaking of a New Yorker, maybe a Long Islander, or an Italian English-speaker, when they put the pronoun before the noun. For example: "She went to the store, my mother."

Today Is ...

January 5, 2024, at home

I don't particularly like whipped cream.

January 5, 2024, at home

My favorite bird for decades has been the puffin. When I was very young, my paternal grandfather introduced me in the front yard of his house to what he called the "chippy," which is the chipping sparrow. The chippy looks somewhat similar to the birds in the photo below.

January 5, 2024, at home

I have yet to try Keto.

Pizza For Lunch

January 4, 2024, at home

My wonderful wife made me this homemade cauliflower pizza with salami for lunch.

Today Is ...

January 4, 2024, at home

I graduated with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia in May 1988. The upper right photo in the picture below shows the campus in Columbia. During my three years of study there, I also worked as a scooper and manager of an ice cream shop that my father opened near the campus.

January 4, 2024, at home

I grew up eating linguine, which is somewhat similar to spaghetti, but flatter. Actually, these days, I prefer bucatini.

Free From Medical Help

January 3, 2024, at home

PHOTO: (December 25, 2023) my healed incision following two spinal surgeries in 2023

With the start of the new year, I have ended my therapy that was guided by my home physical-occupation therapist. My home nurse discharged me a few weeks ago, so now I no longer require any outside medical assistance.

The almost-14-inch-long incision in my back from two recent spinal surgeries (in September and October 2023) is healed, so I no longer require a home nurse. I have a list of exercises to continue to do, so I really no longer require a home therapist's guidance.

I am now on my own to get myself physically stronger. I am already stronger, but I am still unable to walk without the support of a metal frame walker. Well, I am able to take three or four steps on my own, walking like Frankenstein's Monster, with the then-potential of falling on my face. With the continued help of my wife and my mother, I expect to be able to walk without support fairly soon.

Worst Movie Ever

January 3, 2024, at home

The original "Beaches" with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey from 1988 ... My dad, my uncle, my cousin, and I almost walked out of the theater, but we stayed because we thought it would get better. Nope. It just got worse and worse. After all these years, it stands as the worst movie I have ever seen. When the movie was over, the lights came on in the theater, and my uncle stood up and said in a loud voice, "That sucked." We all agreed.

National Straw Day

January 3, 2024, at home

Chocolate-Covered Cherries

January 3, 2024, at home

Today (January 3, 2024) is National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day. 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 every Christmas. (They HAVE to be Cella's.) Here is the box for Christmas 2023. I will eat a couple of them today.

Today Is ...

January 2, 2024, at home

I like profiteroles, as I call cream puffs, especially filled with chocolate pudding. I have enjoyed my mom's profiteroles throughout the decades, since I was a kid in the 1960s, particularly with vanilla pudding. I am not fond of them when filled with whipped cream. I don't like whipped cream on anything.

January 2, 2024, at home

I am mostly an introvert, although I do have some extroverted qualities, especially when I am not being myself. I'll explain.

I performed, not read, but performed two of my original poems in February 1990 during a show as a performing member of the avant-garde troupe The Port Jervis Poetry Society in Port Jervis, New York. The anniversary show (poetry, folk music, and artwork) was broadcast on public-access television. I joined the troupe shortly after I wrote a story about the troupe for the Newburgh Evening News newspaper in Newburgh, New York.

My father drove about two hours from Long Island, New York, to have dinner with me and then watch me perform. After the show, I asked my dad what he thought of everyone's performance,  including mine. His response was an absolutely classic. He said in a sly, low-volume voice: "You got to get away from these people." LOL ... Well, I was soon laid off, with the newspaper becoming defunct a couple of years later, and soon procured another job in upstate New York.

In 1991, while working as a reporter for the Olean Times Herald in Olean, New York, based in the Wellsville, New York, bureau, I interviewed the director of a community-theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "Cinderella." She heard my speaking voice and told me that she needed another baritone singer for the chorus. She asked if I would like to be in the musical. I said "yes," because I typically say "yes" to everything, even though I had never sung on stage before. I had three weeks to learn three songs, which I did.

I was also fitted for my costume. I was a cobbler (shoemaker). I wore white tights; a pink-and-orange satin graduation gown with a leather toolbelt around my waist; and orange makeup on my face, neck, hands, and arms.

My boss was quite angry with me because she had slated me to write a review of the musical, which she hadn't told me. Because I was in the musical, I could not write the review, you know journalistic ethics or something like that. The newspaper printed the review that was written by the local librarian. Oh, well.

I guess I am a mix: I am an extrovert because I have been a reporter and appeared on stage, and an introvert because I have been a writer, editor, researcher, photographer, and page designer, all for print and online publications from 1982 to 2017.

January 2, 2024, at home

I don't particularly like buffets, especially breakfast buffets, but I do like the occasional Chinese buffet. Hint: Buffets have the cheap, filler stuff like bread, pasta, and salads at the beginning of the line so that you fill up on this stuff. So, skip this stuff, and focus on the heartier fare that is deeper down the line.

Optimism In Healing

January 2, 2024, at home

This is quite indicative of my life in lieu of my medical challenges in 2023 (and in 2022). After five surgeries during these two years, it's time to move farther forward and continue my physical, psychological, and emotional healing with a positive outlook and a renewed optimism.

New Year's Video

January 1, 2024, at home

I created and uploaded this video onto my YouTube channel to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Its title is: Happy New Year !!! (Jan. 1, 2024). As per a good-luck tradition, I (try to) always eat herring in sour cream on every New Year's Day.

https://youtu.be/QhEnD91-KqU?si=xStsYWPQllDWXL6U

Observation

January 1, 2024, observation at home

Baby Boomers, 1946-1964

Gen Xers, 1965-1980

While I was born in 1961, I feel more like a Gen Xer than a Boomer, mostly. While I like music from the 1960s, 1970s, and somewhat up until around 1985, with a little in 1987 and 1988, I also really like the music from the 1940s, mostly 1943. In regard to physicality, basic experience, and upbringing, I feel like a Gen Xer, but I would rather be called a Boomer, which is a much more dignified moniker.

New Year's Frog

January 1, 2024, at home

Here is my lucky New Year's coin that I purchased from the Austrian mint in 2001. Obverse Side: Prosit Neujahr 2001 (Happy New Year 2001), with the lucky frog. Reverse Side: "BIN ICH AUCH NUR KLEIN UND RUND, BRING DOCH GLÜCKICH JEDE STUND," which means "I'M ONLY SMALL AND ROUND, BUT I BRING HAPPINESS EVERY HOUR." (translated from German)

Bluatschink Video

January 1, 2024, at home

I am a huge fan of the duo Bluatschink. They have been called The Austrian Simon and Garfunkel. There are only a few songs that make me feel like dancing. This is one of them. Feel free to dance or just sing along; the lyrics are on the screen. They are singing in an Austrian (Tyrolean) dialect of German. This music video for their song "Funka Fliaga" has a Happy New Year theme. However, I do not know if the song is related to a new year. I do understand the basic German language, but I can only barely figure out the Tyrolean dialect of German which has vastly different spellings.

https://youtu.be/3armVDCmF-s?si=a0cKKeQEukp7H3Fi

Today Is ...

January 1, 2024, at home

Happy New Year !

January 1, 2024, 12:01 a.m., at home

Buon Anno ! (Italian)

Glückliches Neues Jahr ! (German)

Happy New Year ! (English)

Bonne Année ! (French)