Christmas Eve Dinner

December 24, 2023, Christmas Eve at home

My terrific (Italian) mother made a delicious Christmas Eve Dinner: antipasto; stuffed shells; and Crème de Menthe brownies. My wife and I enjoyed it at our home with my mom and her guy-friend.

A Christmas Toast

December 24, 2023, Christmas Eve at home

I hereby propose a heartfelt toast to you with my favorite alcoholic beverage: Campari and Orange Juice. A Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to you.

A Cherry Tradition

December 24, 2023, Christmas Eve at home

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 this year's box for Christmas 2023. I have yet to fill out the tag.

Taking Tree Photos

December 24, 2023, Christmas Eve at home

My wife took a photo of myself taking photos of our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas Tree

December 24, 2023, at home

Christmas Eve Day 2023

Here is our Christmas tree 🎄. The lights are adjustable to be white or colored, with blinking or steady lights. This year, I prefer the steady white lights, so there it is. We switch based on our moods.

My wife and I typically go to my mom's home down the street to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with her and her guy-friend. However, my excessive weakness and inability to walk due to my medical condition (five surgeries in the last two years), my wife and I will be hosting both days this year. My mom at age 86, God bless her, has done the cooking and the baking.

Eggnog Day

December 24, 2023, at home

I like to drink eggnog in the traditional way: with a shot of whiskey, specifically Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey. I also freshly grate nutmeg for the top. Many people like it with rum, but almost all people around the world drink it with whiskey.

AMI Holiday Lunch

December 23, 2023, at home

(13 years ago today)

Here we are, the copydesk editors of Globe magazine and National Examiner magazine in our office in Boca Raton, Florida, during our holiday lunch on Friday, December 23, 2010. Of course, that's me on the far right, looking a bit awkward because I was trying to maintain the proper distance from all of my female co-workers.

I worked for American Media Inc. (AMI) from 2002 to 2011 as an editor and page producer. I was a freelancer for one year before I was hired as a full-time employee. While there, I edited stories, and produced computer-generated pages using articles and photographs.

During my first week of working there, I was seated at my desk and saw from across the room a woman dressed in a bridal gown walk by followed by someone dressed in a gorilla costume. I immediately thought: "This is exactly where I need to be."

When I started, I worked for Star magazine. I had the good fortune of helping with the transition from matte paper to glossy, which also involved a change in the magazine's size.

When Star eventually moved to New York City, I was switched to Globe. Soon, the Globe staff was given National Examiner to produce in addition to Globe. It meant more work for us, but I didn't mind, mainly because National Examiner was easier to construct than Globe.

I also worked one day as an editor for National Enquirer, when someone was on vacation.

Several years after I left the company, the Boca Raton office closed, and the whole operation was moved to New York City.

Also, while I was with AMI, I edited two full-length biographies (Johnny Cash and Whitney Houston) to earn a little extra money. I also "earned" an extra $25 by allowing my face to be used in a Weekly World News story. I was a limbless man who earned lots of money as a conversational table centerpiece at high-class dinner parties.

Also, to earn a bit more money in 2009, I served as an editor and page producer for two tribute magazines: Michael Jackson and those who passed away that year.

The magazines produced in our office were Star, Globe, National Examiner, National Enquirer, Sun, Weekly World New, and the British version of Globe. At one time, we had 117 people working in one large room. There were no walls between any of the desks, so the buzz in that room was sometimes overwhelming, especially during our four weekly deadlines: two soft and two hard.

In different locations at that time, AMI also published the magazines: Shape, Country Music Weekly, Men's Fitness, Flex, Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy, and Natural Health.

Shiny Brite Ornaments

December 23, 2023, at home

Did you put Shiny Brite ornaments on your Christmas tree? My parents and I did, when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s.

Christmas Trees Long Ago

December 23, 2023, at home

Both my maternal and paternal grandparents would have trees like this when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. My paternal grandparents' tree was wider and not as full.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that my parents' Christmas tree was vastly different. They decorated a taller, thinner tree with thick strands of gold garland going down vertically from top to bottom with three or four strands of garland wrapped horizontally around the tree. At the intersections of the garland were many bright-red, rather large, velvet roses. All of the lights were white.

Today Is ...

December 23, 2023, at home

I do particularly like Pfeffernüsse.

December 23, 2023, at home

My heritage is: 50% Italian; 25% Portuguese; 12.5% Austrian; and 12.5% Swiss.

Ice Cream Order

December 23, 2023, yesterday, at home

As a kid and as an adult, I ate chocolate first, and then vanilla. I never ate strawberry (yuck), unless I was desperate.

December 22, 2023, at home

No, we just think we do. Well, you can try to make some things happen, but ultimately you will have both success and failure that are both beyond your control.

Sad, But Interesting

December 22, 2023, at home

Two recent studies found that women consider 80 percent of men to be "below average" and "unattractive," respectively. The population of the Earth is declining. Could these be the reasons why?

Actually, does that even make sense, considering 49.999 percent and lower of men are below average? I don't know. I just know all women just like only the top 20 percent of men of which I have never belonged.

It's sad, but interesting. What do you think of this?

Today Is ...

December 22, 2023, at home

Happy Birthday FZ (R.I.P.)

December 22, 2023, at home

Original Post

December 22, 2022

Happy Belated Birthday to Frank Vincent Zappa !!! (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) ... I attended an FZ concert at The Pier in New York City in 1984 with my cousin. It was absolutely terrific.

The Rules Of Sixes

December 22, 2023, at home

The Rules of Sixes

Women use The Rules of Sixes when judging men. He must be at least six feet tall; he must earn at least a six-figure salary; he must have six-pack abs; and he must have at least six inches down below.

Today Is ...

December 21, 2023, at home

"The Big Difficult"

December 20, 2023, at home

Long ago, I had a friend who called New York City "The Big Difficult." Get it? New Orleans is called "The Big Easy."

PT

Physical Therapy at home was infernal today (Dec. 20, 2023).

Today Is ...

December 20, 2023, at home

I sort of like sangria (meaning blood). I haven't had in decades, and I am somewhat sure that I have only had it once, maybe twice.

December 20, 2023, at home

I don't think that I have ever been caroling, at least not in contemporary decades.

December 20, 2023, at home

Have you heard the expression "My name is mud"? Well, this is Mudd, Dr. Samuel Mudd. So, the expression is actually, "My name is Mudd." Actually, the former iteration existed before Mudd existed, according to DayCalender.com, which explains:

After assassinating Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth rode with co-conspirator David Herold to Dr. Samuel Mudd’s home in the early hours of the 15th before crossing into Virginia. Mudd performed surgery on Booth's fractured leg and allowed both men to stay the night. At some point, Mudd must have learned of the assassination. However, he did not report Booth’s visit to the authorities for another 24 hours. This delay appeared to link him to the crime, as did his various changes of the story under interrogation. On April 26th, authorities arrested Mudd. A military commission found him guilty of aiding and conspiring in a murder and sentenced Mudd to life imprisonment. He escaped the death penalty by a single vote. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Mudd, and he was released from prison in 1869. Despite repeated attempts by family members and others, Mudd's conviction has never been overturned, nor has his record been expunged.

Favorite Video Games

December 20, 2023, at home

Two of my favorite video games, loosely speaking, are:

Mind you, this was in the 1990s, when I was in my 30s, and single. I forget the name of the game, but there were a bunch of slutty cartoon women running around in different locations (the forest, the beach, etc.). The idea was to chase them and throw blobs of slime at them to dissolve their clothes so only their bras and panties remained. Basically, at the beginning of the game, you are shown three cartoon women in their underwear, and you have to find them by dissolving their clothes. Does anyone know the name of this game?

I loved playing the game Killer Shark at the arcade when I was a kid in the 1970s. You shoot spears at cheezy, low-resolution, cartoon sharks. If you miss, and the shark gets too close, its mouth turns red as if he ate you. If you hit him a few times, he also turns red. It came out in 1972, when I was eleven years old. That was the year my parents and I moved to a house on the water on the south shore of Long Island, New York, so perhaps that affected my choice of game. Here is a video about the game.

https://youtu.be/eXIXrW61fIk?si=anJOknE6_NoRFIyKr

Good News, Bad News

December 19, 2023, at home

Good News: I am regaining feeling in my thighs, both numb from two recent spinal surgeries.

Bad News: While both of my thighs are still numb, I am now often experiencing pain in them, like someone is sticking needles into them.

Good News: I am regaining feeling.

Bad News: It hurts.

Good News: My back pain is not as bad as it was.

Bad News: The pain continues.

Coal For Christmas

December 19, 2023, at home

I was about that age when my father gave me a large piece of real coal, wrapped in Christmas paper with a tag that read, "from Santa." That was my reaction. 😭😆

Hard Candy & Oat Muffins

December 19, 2023, at home

I am not fond of hard candy. I believe that the day I start eating hard candy is the day I admit that I am old. (I'll be 63 in February 2023.) Notable exceptions: When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, my paternal grandmother always had raspberry hard candy (large lozenges) imported from Austria; her heritage was Austrian and Swiss. I liked them, and I still do. I have found them recently. In fact, I think there's an open bag of them in a kitchen cupboard. Also, I have been known to enjoy the occasional horehound lozenge as an herbal remedy.

December 19, 2023, at home

I am not a fan of muffins.

Today Is ...

December 18, 2023, at home

I somehow remember attending a family gathering when I was a young kid in the 1960s, where some kind of animal carcass was roasting on a mattress spring over hot charcoals. I think it was a pig because it was too small to be a cow. Maybe it was a lamb. Anyway, I also remember a bowl of sheep's eyes on a nearby table. Also, I dissected a fetal pig in biology class in high school for weeks in the late 1970s.

December 18, 2023, at home

My father's twin brother passed away at the age of nine months in 1935.