More random thoughts

Some funny, some serious - All my own...

The JetBlue pilot meltdown reminds us that New York passengers don't play. You make a threat and 5 huge guys WILL tackle and sit on you until the plane lands. I LOVE IT!

Fidel Castro asked to meet the Pope during his visit to Cuba. If I were Castro I would keep my eye out for lightning.

Dick Chaney received a new heart - rumor has it before the operation a nurse asked one of the doctors who the patient was, to which the doctor replied "A bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart two sizes too small"

Whatever you think about what happened just remember on that night in February - George Zimmerman went home to his family and Trayvon Martin went to the morgue.

Newt Gingrich is charging $50 for a picture with him. I'll give him $100 to disappear instead. That goes for Romey and Santorum too.

Go Yankees!

Whoa whoa those Wildwood Days

As summer approaches, I am reminded of my family vacations in Wildwood, NJ as a child and the wonderful memories that go with it. My parents and I started going to Wildwood when I was 2 1/2 years old until I was 19. We stayed at the same motel, during the same week every year (I am the product of two creatures of habit). The motel room was nothing fancy, with two double beds, a kitchette and a bathroom..but to me it was paradise.

Certain sounds and smells can instantly take us back to moments of our lives. A window air conditioner humming through the night, mini powdered donuts, a young newsboy, early in the morning, calling out "Philadelphia Inquirer", and the smell of Coppertone suntan lotion all remind me of Wildwood. As I got older those smells and sounds turned into hearing the waves crash at night while you sit on a bench by the beach, the rough feel of a concrete sidewalk on your bare feet and the smell of pizza and funnel cake on the boardwalk.  To this day, all these years later, any one of these sites, sounds or smells transport me immediately to that place in south Jersey.

As we grow older we yearn for the simple days we had as children.  Our worries were as small our hands reaching for that boardwalk ice cream cone.  The world now, both my own and the one in general, is much more complicated.  I long for the days when my biggest concern was how many times we would go to the boardwalk in that vacation week or what rides I could convince my Dad to go on with me (I was and am a lover of roller coasters - my Dad not so much).   I had some of the very best times of my life during those 17 summers. When we started going I was a baby; when we stopped I was on the brink of adulthood. 

All these years later, most of Wildwood has changed.  Gone are the small motels, which have been replaced by high rise condominium.  Like everything else in the world - what was is a distant memory.  People who remember the Wildwood of yesteryear have tried to restore it; but you can't turn back the sunrise (to quote one of my cousin's songs).   Luckily, I have the pictures, the friends who were also there to reminisce with and the memories locked away in recesses of my mind, ready to call up whenever I long for the happy times of my childhood.  Bobby Rydell sang in best in 1963.......



"Headin' down the shore (Wildwood days) to have a ball once more Whoa whoa whoa whoa those Wildwood days, wild, wild Wildwood days
Oh baby, every day's a holiday and every night is a Saturday night Oh those Wildwood days, wild, wild Wildwood days
And then those party lights wild, wild Wildwood nights.
Say baby you'll be mine (Wildwood days) 'cause it's kissin' time (Wildwood days)"
Wildwood Days by Bobby Rydell (1963)

Random thoughts.....

Just some random thoughts on the items in the news recently....


Getting a little tired of the media naming sports players.."Linsanity" "Tebowing".....in the 1920's when someone hit a home run they weren't
"Babe Ruthing"

Tim Tebow coming to the NY Jets...."Holy Roller" meets "Holy Sh*t".    I think before he decided to come to New York he should have talked to Randy Johnson.  One team's shooting star is another team's firework dud.

So Greg Smith quit his job at Goldman Sachs because he found that the company has lost integrity.  Where we suppose to be surprised?  This is the same Goldman Sachs that was the catalyst to the subprime mortgage meltdown.  No integrity?  No kidding!

Jersey Shore's Mike "the situation" Sorrentino is in rehab - I care why?

I just saw Jaclyn Smith on CSI..another actress who has chosen inflated lips and the "joker" smile plastic surgery.  iPad needs an app to show these women what they will really look like after the surgery. 

The Knicks are on a 5 game winning streak since Mike D'antoni quit last week.  They should have lied to Carmelo Anthony and told him he quit two weeks ago.....

A few companies are apparently asking potential employees for their Facebook password in order to be considered for a job.  So, now my personal life truly is no longer going to be mine.  I would be afraid they would see my FB page and realize how incredibly boring my life is....

Hugh Hefner's 21 year old son was sentenced to 52 week domestic violence program after beating up his playmate girlfriend.  Shocking considering he grew up in such a stable, normal household...

Welcome back Andy Pettitte! 

How far have we really come as a society?

My Dad was in the National Guard in the the late 50's and 60's.  In 1959 my father was sent to Tennessee for the Guard.  Two of the young men in my Dad's

company were black. As they all arrived a day early, they went to a local hotel to stay for the night before reporting in the morning. The hotel manager told the group "You white guys can stay, but you ni*****s  can't, this is a whites only hotel" My father was shocked and disgusted. He told the young men, while glaring at the hotel manager, "We'll go somewhere else". The young African-American men where apprecitive he wanted to stand up for them but told my Dad there was no point, this was the south and it would be the same everywhere they went. The two left and found a place to stay, where my Dad never knew.  They never discussed it after that night.  Growing up his entire life in New Jersey and never having been anywhere else until this point, it was behavior that my father had not experienced before and was apalled by. Over 50 years later, when my Dad tells that story, it is with anger, never understanding how this country could treat it's own people with such hate. Even in 2014,  I have asked myself that same question.

All these years later, we no longer have "Whites Only" establishments. Our current president is of mixed race. There are extreamly successful people of all minorities in almost every sector of business.  Yes, we have progressed. But then you have Michael Brown and Eric Gardner and the thousands like them. What happened in Ferguson and Staten Island are not isolated inicdents in this country. And although they were both complex and different legal issues, they both involved a white police officer and an African-American citizen, the key words being American citizen. It brought to our attention that dispite our society having progressed, at times we are still a racist country (even if you only base this on ugly things written on Twitter by bigoted assholes). No matter what you think of Treyvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, etc  they were someone's child, brother and husband. My heart breaks for their families and for any family who has lost a loved one to senseless violence, regardless of their race. 

  
Sadly, we are never going to stop prejudice and racism entirely .  Maybe if we continue to be disgusted by people's behavior we will change how society acts towards each other. If we continue to protest peacefully that as citizens of this country, we will not tolerate racism of any kind. Legally, I don't know if what the grand jury in the Brown and Gardner cases and the actual jury in the case of Treyvon Martin decided were the right decisions. Morally, I know all three of those men did nothing that should have resulted in their deaths and people should have been held accountable. We have come only so far as a society - but we can do so much better. I will never give hope that can happen.

Facebook - Saint or Sinner?

Facebook. The website that basically changed the way we interact. Although there are various other types of social media, Facebook is the most familar to everyone on the planet. So, Facebook - Saint or Sinner?

The upside to Facebook is our ability to connect with those we otherwise may not be able to. It allows us to share moments in our lives - good and bad. For some it may be, for one reason or another, a way for them to have contact with the outside world. Nine years ago I broke my ankle and was completely homebound (my parents home, no less) for six weeks. Facebook would have kept me a much more sane person!

Facebook should never completely replace human contact, but enhance our social world. Bottom line is, Facebook can't make you anti-social, only you can do that to you.

We, as a society need to remember the same rules in life apply to Facebook. Posting on Facebook is no different than talking to someone in public; and that being insensative to people, whether it be in person or on FB, makes you a jerk-plain and simple.

Granted, there is (or should be) a whole differet set of rules for children. I think kids need to be closely monitored when it comes to any kind if social media.

Facebook, invented by a Harvard kid who by all accounts was socially inept, has expanded our social world. To me there is no downside to that. As with people, Facebook is neither all saint or sinner. It is what you make it, just like life.

Besides, if you are reading this most likely it is because of Facebook.

An open letter to my nephews

Dear Sam & George,

I just finished watching a very touching video (by way of a link your very own mom posted). Without going into details, which you won't understand for many years, it made me cry because it was about a mean man, very far away who treated little children very badly. It also made me appreciate how lucky I and the rest of our family is, everytime a new life enters our circle. You two are the latest.

From the moment you came into this world four months ago, you had big shoes to fill. You were each named after a great-grandfather, one from your Daddy's side (and mine) and one from your Mommy's side. Both men were loved so dearly, they chose their names as yours.

Sam, you were named after your Mommy's grandfather. I never knew your great-grandfather, so I can't speak of him specifically; but what I do know is your Mommy and her family. From the day Daddy brought your Mommy into our lives she moved immediately into our hearts. She, like her family, is sweet, smart, honest, funny, sincere and kind. So, without having actually met your great-grandfather, knowing Tamara, I am sure he had those very same qualities. Big shoes...

Now to you George. Your namesake I did know. He was mine and your Daddy's grandfather. He was a man of few words, so when he spoke, it was something he felt was important. He loved (and I mean LOVED) golf. Watched it, played it, talked about it. Knowing he passed that love to your daddy, I am sure makes him smile. The other thing he loved was his family. Your daddy and he had a special bond. They went fishing, to the park and a dozen of other places Daddy will tell you about someday. He loved Pop-Pop and like us all, still misses him to this day. He was a special man who did what he could for anyone that needed it. Big shoes....

I have no doubt you will both fill these shoes. You boys have a Mommy and Daddy who will teach, protect, guide and most of all, love you forever and ever. To your parents, you are the sun, the moon and the stars. You have grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts (including myself) who love you as much as the Earth is big. I have no doubt that you will not only fill those shoes, you will far exceed them.

But for now, at 4 months old, we will enjoy you being beautiful, happy, healthy babbies. Two smiling little boys who make all those around you smile too, just by being here.

Love,

Aunt Jenn

Davy Jones, The Monkees and me

No, I don't have any direct connection to either Davy Jones or The Monkees. I was born one year after The Monkees TV show went off the air. However, there is a special place in my heart for these guys.

In early 1986 MTV started showing The Monkees on a daily basis. I was 16 and I fell in love with the show and the four guys in it immediately. I taped every episode from the TV and bought The Monkees music and books about them. They became my secret obsession. Of the four, my heart belonged to Micky Dolenz (comediens and ballplayers always win my heart). My mom thought I was crazy. She reminded me that this show was over 20 years old, which was her way of telling me that Micky was much older than I was and not what she considered dating material (in addition to the fact that he was married and I had little shot of meeting him being 16 and living in central Jersey) I didn't care - that's why they call it an obesession, right?

By the summer of 1986 a resurgence in The Monkees popularity thanks to MTV resulted in The Monkees reuniting (minus Mike Neismeth) touring the country and in 1987 releasing Pool It, their first new album as a group since 1970. Pool It had all new songs and I wore that tape out.

As time went on my obession waned like most teenage obessions do. Every so often, when something about The Monkees would be on TV or in the paper, my mom would remind me of how much I loved those guys while she shook head and rolled her eyes. But I would smile and stop to read or listen to the story. Immediately I was 16 again. Over time I have downloaded various Monkees songs - Daydream Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Valleri, Last Train to Clarksville, and of course I'm a Believer, just to name a few. My obsession may have waned, but my love of their music never did.

I was a truly saddened when I learned last Wendsday that Davy Jones had died. Over the years, watching various interviews of Davy (with and without his former bandmates) made me realize how he was not only a good singer but what a great sense of humor he had. He performed in NYC only two weeks prior to his death, singing Monkees classics and entertaining the audience with anacedotes. He embraced the fact people wanted to hear the songs of their youth. Once again, talent has been taken from the world much too soon.

In Davy's death another resurgance in The Monkees music has happened.
Somewhere Davy Jones is smiling and loving it. Of that, I'm a Believer.