NO MAS

School's out for the summer!! And I have a few gems for your consideration. Here goes: --Hate to say it but I would have to take Marjorie Taylor Greene in any wrestle mania bout with AOC. AOC wins all other battles. --I will not discuss the case of "Spencer the Goat" which of course appeared in the Globe. --I am so so disheartened by the Hamas/Israeli "war" and the deaths of so many. Netanyahu has to go but I fear this tragedy may get him the support he needs to stay in office. --Have come to love the Dropkick Murphys. A kind of old fashioned rock and roll band--first time in too long that I have gotten into a new group. --We all know that Gaetz did all that shit, right? That's it. No mas. I will be back in the fall. Have a good summer.

THE TURTLES

No, not the teenage mutant ninja ones. And not Flo and Eddie who collaboratively called themselves the Turtles (as in a singing duo) in the fabulous 60's. I'm talking about the cute live ones who appeared on my computer screen at the scene of a fire in my neighborhod. After the Globe assured us that people were saved but that the loss was estimated at $500,000--after that, they not only told us that the turtles were saved but shared a picture of the little things. They just cannot help themselves and use so much footage from third parties,you would think they had no staff. Moving to other items of note: --I do not want to hear the words "proximate" or "transparent" coming out of the mouths of any politician. First of all, I have no clue what they mean about proximate. Second, they have to quit yakking about transparncy and just behave in a transparent manner. Talk continues to be cheap. In light of that, kudos to Liz Cheyney for being so direct about the Trumpster. --MSNBC lhas to do something about Reverend Al. He has a regular show on the network but also is the President of an activist group whose issues he forcefully addresses when he is on the air. He also sits at a desk with the name of that organization prominently displayed over his shoulder. Seems like lit is proximate to being a conflict of interest. Just sayin. --No more apologies emanating from the mouths of public figures. Either shape up or get kicked to the curb. --Two little factoids frokm my birth state (which is Fla. for those who forgot). First, the CEO of some private school informed her staff that if they chose to get vaccinated, they would be fired. Seriously. No insight abouit what if they get the virus. Then, in a state with too many private airplane pilots, one decided to land in the water off Cocoa Beach. And not way out there in the water; but within yards of the beach. He got out and just kind of sat on the wing for a bit. Probably looking to be congrautlated on his perfect crash landing. This is a state which has a Governor who makes the Trumpster look almost normal. --My current fine state will shortly be using helicopters to drop anti rabies medicine in places where racoons and coyotes live--seems they frequently are rabid. But, omg, maybe we should tell people not to go near them? --I was very scared about the Chauvin jury while they deliberated. I did not want to be around if, like many juries before, they returned not guilty verdicts. I am frequently referred to as a Luddite because of how I am not a big fan of cell phones. But I have to say that without the video shot by onlookers, that guy would be free and likely back on the force. --Despite a bunch of signs and fairly clear recycling guidelines, our common trash area is a fucking nightmare. My fellow condo dwellers either ignore the signs or don't care. But there is trash all over and no shared plan to address it. --There are regularly a bunch of law suits involving the Boston Public Schools. Usually they involve the elite exam schools in the system. The suits are generally filed by parents who want their kids to go to these schools and are usually white. If the other schools in the system were of a high quality, this woud not be an issue. But the Teachers Union is in control of that system and change is consistently opposed and seemingly not in their vocabulary. --The Worcester AAA farm team of the Red Flops opens its first season this week. Predictions of the end of the world accompany this opening because of worry no one will attend the games. These folks who worry about things before they happen drive me to distraction. Shalom

"I LIVE DEEP INSIDE MY HEAD"

That's a direct quote from a song on the last album by John Prine. He just had a way with words--his choice of rhymes (pairing Idaho with ago) that is virtually poetic. I miss his music and regret the opportunities I had to go see him but something came up or it was too expensive OR OR OR.....He died right at the beginning of the pandemic and was at risk due to bouts with cancer. These specific words resonate with me because I sometimes think this blog allows me to share some things that lie deep inside my head. Moving on. --Speaking of poignant phrasing. How about: "camaraderie of the marginalized"? I stole that from a novel by Matt Goldman. He is a writer who originally wrote for Seinfeld and then Curb Your Enthusiasm. I have now read two of his mysteries which are set in Minneapolis and feature a private detective whose name is Nils Shapiro. I have yet to be informed about that mixed lineage. Anyhow, I recommend his books if you like mysteries. --Please send the inventor of collagen directly to the principal's office. That person needs to explain him or herself. Same goes for whoever invented "anal bleaching". Which is apparently a thing. This person also needs to explain him or herself. Both of these people need to go sit in the corner of the principal's office until they settle down and apologize. --Now we get to that great interchange between Dr. Fauci and Jim Jordan. Did any of you see it? Jordan's take on the pandemic is that it (the virus) has taken away our freedom and it is the fault of science. Jordan is a fucking idiot. I am more surprised that Fauci did not get up and leave the room. Maxine Waters finally and literally told Jordan to shut up. This lack of belief in science is scary because it gets linked to the anti-vaxers, the anti-maskers, and the I'm against anything the government tries to make me do. That is one reason nearly 600,000 have died from Covid. --We turn now to the following. Please don't tell anyhone that I was raised in Miami. As of this moment, I officially repudiate that entire state--except for that city way down at the bottom closer to Havana than it is to Orlando--Key West. Let's see: DeSantis is Governor, Scott and Rubio are its two senators, Gaetz traffics in drugs and underage minors. If that is not enough, Dade County is full of crazed wealthy right wing emigres from all over Central and South America. And they are killing the Everglades in favor of development. Good riddens and good luck. --Our Governor, who I generally like, is a firm believer in privatization. That philosophy rests of the assumption that the private sector does anything and everything better than the public sector. It also implicity is a way to diminish the role of unions. But oh my--it is not perfect. So the state's effort to set up vaccine web sites was privatized. The computer system running our Regisltry of Motor Vehicles is also privatized. Both systems have crashed in the last month. Even though I have recived my two shots, it was totally a mess trying to access the web site. --Two things I don't want to hear: How businesses on the Cape are having trouble finding employees. Every year we have to hear that shit. Nor do I want to hear how wonderful the new Boston College unis will be now that they have an agreement with New Balance. They still will have sucky teams (except for ice hockey) but they will be prettier. I'm done with that. --If that police officer is somehow found not guilty in Minneapolis, it will get very ugly very fast. Have no words for the regularity of young men of color being murdered. Especially as a parent, it is not something I can fathom. How can you recover from such losses. SPORTS TALK --One question for you red flop fans: when they started 0-3, how worried were you? TA TA

RANDOM THOUGHTS

--Major, Joe's dog, was banished to Wilmington because there was a biting incident at the White House. Then he gets to Wilmington and,a couple of days later, there is another biting incident. Oh, those dogs--just like humans except, well, they are animals and have pea sized brains. --The area South of Boston is known as the South Shore--duh. As an fyi for those of you not from around here, it consists of the towns you pass on the way to the Cape. Some people refer to that area as the "Irish Riviera" due to the fact that many folks who live there came from city neighborhoods predominantly Irish. Now we have the fine athletic staff at Dluxbury High Slchool. In this screwy pandemic year, high school footbal is being played in the spring. The coach at this fine bastion of academia decided he needed a code to transmit plays to his team. Two of he codes were "rabbi" and "Auschwitz". MMM--do you sense a trend? It was all fine and dandy until someone actually learned of these play calling trends. Oh, you are reading too much into this--these are just kids. That was the first explanation. Then the Coach was fired and other games were cancelled. A day late I'd say. Either they are not teaching well in that school or the kids are not listening. But in the end, I am not shocked--it is there below the surface. Anti semitism will raise it read again aomeplace else and we will be shocked all over again. --Kind of like the recent attacks on Asian Americans. These things do not go away. They simply submerge until one of the people (a la the capitol rioters) feels irked by diversity and has access to weapons. --Teresa Hanafin is a Globe reporter with a blog. I like her writing a lot and in response to folks who refuse the vaccines, she had this to say: "it is astonishing that they take pride in their ignorance of science". Where is the Trumpster when we need him. --It is time for Deborah Brix to go away and quit trying to resurrect her career. Talk about a day late and a dollar short? Where was she during the last 6 months of the Trumpster's presidency. Kick her to the curb with the rest of the apologists. --In the midst of the pandemic, our transit system (MBTA) went about cutting some servies and eliminating others. Demand was down they said and in the narrow sense they were right. But the stimuus bill will give them tons of money--yet they insisted they stil had to make the cuts. Until of couirse, our Reps and Senators in DC basically said restore everything or maybe you wont get any money. This governor simply is not interested in public transit. They quicikly and fearfully caved. --I continue to be sick of teachere'unions who continue to fight a return to face to face education. The city had to set up a special and separate vaccination site for the union members and even then, they were not sure it was a good enough location. I say Fuck 'em. --We finally have a Secfretgary of the Intlerior who cares about the land and its importance to us citizens. She is a Native American woman who has already set about minimizing if not eliminating many of the trumpsters drilling decisions. --When NCAAm baseketball teams finally hire a woman to coach a men's team, then I lwill know that there has been a big change in that world. I have seen far too many men coaching the women's teams and nary a woman coaching the men. --Speaking of which, I had a grand old time texting back and forth with OH to discuss the brackets. We both got demolished but he was a fierce competitor. --Have no words or even language for the Denver murders. As a local reporter put it--If laws did not change after Newtown and the murder of children, why should we expect them to change now? --The "normalcy of this President is astonishing. Shalom

A LETTER TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS---AND OTHER THOUGHTS

Dear Ms. Smith: First, let me say how wonderful it is that my boy Tommy has a male teacher in elementary school. It is so rare. I also want to acknwoledge that this has been a difficult year for you and your staff. On the other hand, let me share a few parental thoughts. In general, if you believe my son has been educated over the last year, you are mistaken. Remote education is a contradiction in terms. We were lucky to have a computer--otherwise, it could have been called no education. It has been a little over a year since the virus impacted the town, the state, the country, and even the world. I could not expect that the local school system would have prepared for this disaster.So,my child was remotely educated for the last 3 months of the 2019/2020 school year. That deprived him of all sorts of peer interaction and, as a single parent, it created a major crisis in our home life. I did expect that by September of 2020, your system would have made adjustments and minimally would have offered multiple days of weekly instruction--even if remote. But nope, Tommy continued to be fully educated remotely throughout the fall--for half days. Since January, he has gone into the school building one full day a week. Recently, we were told tht all K-8 students would return to buildings completely by May 1st. But our local teachers union has sued the state saying they have not been prepared adequately. If my math is accurate, 13 months have passed since the beginning of the crisis. What have you been doing if not preparing for the reopening of schools? Preparing lawsuits? Hiring lawyers? Plese explain why the CDC says teachers are safe to teach in person. Please explain how teachers can be prioritized for vaccinations yet still not be prepared. I have already lost my job and have to hope that the recently passed federal bail out will reach us soon. I assume you and all the teachers have continued to get paid. TOMMY'S MOTHER Moving on: --Am wondering if Cuomo will survive. Kind of believe he has done all these awful things. Also wonder why it took so long for Senator Gillenbrand to say he should step down--after all, it took all of 5 minutes for her to ask Al Franken to resign. --Speaking of Senators, can someone explain to me how the state of Wisconsin can elect a progressive out gay woman (Tammy Baldwin) to one Senate seat and elect a moron like Ron Johnson to the other? He is too stupid for words. --I'm waiting for Ozzie and Harriet to show up at one of those CPAC conferences maybe with Robert Young along for the ride. Bring back small town values and all the good stuff from the 50's. Sky King is at the airport ready to pilot your 737. --I did not watch the Oprah interview with the royals and have no time for their shit. I got enough of my own, thanks. --The Globe gave us this past week the 25 most frequently used names of dogs. The vaccinations are all screwed up here and we continue to get pet stories. --Kids are streaming across our southern border and being detained for, on average, 107 hours. That is better than the Trumpster but detaining young children is not a good idea and kind of still smells like an unplanned big time first problem for Joe. --One can only hope that the stimulus money does in fact impact low income people and enhance their lives. ONE SPORTS NOTE: I worry that both the Bruins and Celtics have the same issues--no depth and lots of inconsistency. SHALOM.

DOG NAPPING AND OTHER URBAN ANECTDOTES

So, right here on this very block, right here in this very complex, right here a few doors down (the litany as stolen from Arlo), in other words very close--a neighbor has a mini-dog named Lady Gaga. That dog had a traumatic week when she learned that two of her distant relatives were dognapped and their dog walker assaulted. Furthermore, that dog never knew that she was named after a famous singer--it was all news to her and apparently the Globe which featured the story prominently. Our local Gaga quarantined herself in case those dognappers came for her. But fortunately the dogs were found--due to the vigilance of Officer Obie (also stolen from Arlo) and other public servants just doing their job. Moving on. --Close your eyes and see me if you can imabgine this: a President who visits an ailing Senator from an opposition party. Can you imagine that President being Trujmp. Nah, not even with your eys open. Biden just visitd Robert Dole who apparently is very ill. Biden may have already made some mistakes but the affect coming out of the White House and the presidency in general is so much more positive and less gloomy. Mistakes are allowed. Dark versions/visions of American are the work of fools. --Speaking of which, what planet deposited Ron Johnson here? I mean the Senator from Wisconsin not the former great Wolverine running back. The guy from the Badger state is still supporting the Big lie theory of the election. And used one of the confirmation hearings to share his grievances. --I hope all of you saw some of the speeches at the CPAC conference. All of those light weights paying homage to Trump as they are already running for Presidengt in 2024. Pathetically Cruz was making jokes about his Cancun trip. At least, he did not blame his daughter which he had done previously. --I did not grieve for a second over Limbaugh's passing. He was a festering wound on the body of our democracy. Not worthy of that Congressional Medal hung on his neck by the Trumpster. --I am so so tired over the Cornel West tenure battles with Harvard. He wants it and they don't want to give it. But why should I care about anything going on over on that Cambridge campus? Give it to him or not--but it truly is not the biggest issue in my life. --But the vaccine might be the biggest. Got my first one last night at the Tom Menino YMCA. The Y is located in a Boston neighborhood and is named after the former Mayor who lived in that area. Easy peasy. The difficulty was finding the place since I had never been in that part of the city before. --Our Governor, who I happen to like, really botched the whole vaccination process especially the on line access to the vaccine appointments. This is a guy who ran a major health care business and loves to be identified as a hands on manager. Well, he pretty much mismanged this and he exhibited as little skill as I might have. Ugly computer crashes, long lines, and confusing guidelines. --I am beginning to really like Brianna Kellar on CNN. She is factual, to the point, and nails politicians with what sems like an unending supply of video catching them in all sorts of lies. --Do you have a weather addict in your family? You know, the kid of person who cannot plan an activity withoout checiking the weather firt. The kind of person who gets immobilized by the first mention of the word STORM. Well, I thought I was above that fray until this winter when I kind of got caught up in all the weird weather all over the place. Not quite addicted by getting close. --And now this--to quote John Oliver. I had a memorable week last week as I passed the 3/4 century mark. The women in my life made that day so very special. Friends/family said very nice things about me--to the point that I wondered if they mistook me for someone else. I am still exhilirated by that day. Love them all Shalom

WE DIDN'T SEND HIM THERE TO VOTE HIS CONSCIENCE

Apparently, they sent him there to do anything Trump asked. The title is a semi exact quote from a Republican official in Pnnylvania. He was reacting to Senator Toomey's vote to convict Trump. In general, Toomey is not one of those communists trying to take over the country. By and large, he is a conservative Republican. While Toomey did vote to convict, he had a major advantage. He had already decided to retire and was not going to run in 2022. So the Trumpsters did not scare him. Many other Republican state committees are censuring their Representatives and Senators for voting the "wrong" way. Rep. Adam Kinzinger's family wrote vulgar angry letters essntially disowning him. Worse, they got them published. Moving on. --JM wrote to tell me what a "joyous moment" it was to see Kamala laugh so often. After so much darkness emasnating from the White House. --BTW, anybody hear from Stephen Miller? --The Republicans basically chose Greene over Cheyney. Cheyney being another one of those Commies who spoke against Trump. --Anyone else bothered by the length of Rachel's intros? Or the length of her questions? She just goes on and on sometimes. --Bruce has had a bad few weeks. Got trashed for being in a Super Bowl ad for Jeep--which I kinda liked. But then we later learned he got arrested for DWI. Oh my. --Rand Paul was very busy doing work while the House managers presented their case. And Hawley was doing paperwork in the gallery. --Ted Cruz needs to shut up along with Ron Johnson and Marco. Step aside and grow a pair. All excited about 2022,they are. --Amanda Gorman's poem diuring the Super Bowl was wonderful. I love how she recites and uses her hands as part of the presentation. --Watched "One Night in Miami". The guy playing Clay/Ali was so so good. Meanwhile, I grew up there but due to segregation, that could have been set on Mars for all I knew about that part of the city. --Marilyn Stasio has been my reviewer of choice for a long time. Every 2 weeks or so, she reviewed mystery novels in the NYT book review. I learned about Rankin, Adler-Olsen, French, and many others from her columns. She is no longer a regular reviewer and will appear every so often. Hope the new person is as good. I will miss Marilyn. Next to the wedding announcement writers, she was my most favoirite Sunday writer. --A year ago I celebrated a birthday by taking out three of my favorite relatives for dinner. That was the last time I have eaten inside a restaurant. It means that not only am I coming up on another birthday, it also means we have been "inside" for a bit more than a year. It is getting to be grueling and yet I know I have it better than many many others. --I have yet to be vaccinated and l refuse to cheat. I should be able to get my first shot next week. --For a manager with a serious background in Health Care, Charley Baker really screwed up the vaccine distribution process. I had come to like the guy a lot and then this mess. --Someone else I liked is our about to be Secretary of Labor--aka Marty the Mayor of Boston. He totally blew the process of replacing the retiring Police Chief. Almost immediately, the new guy was found to have been charged with dom4estic abuse a bunch of years ago. Marty picked a good time to leave town. --If anyone ever wanted to appoint me to a big position that required deep back ground checks, I would have never been hired. Lots of stuff has been swept under my carpet. A SPORTS NOTE I knew it. I warned all of you about Pedey not being a HOF worthy second baseman. Sure enough, the following week the talking heads and other sports media types started advocating for him. No fucking way. Shalom. Shalom

THEY BLEW IT AGAIN

They have all the latest electronic gizmos. They have NWS updates. They have the European model and they have the GPS model. They have the models they designed at their own stations. They have all this and they still got it wrong. As late as 5 p.m. yesterday, they told me (personally) that we would be getting 10-14 inches of snow. Schools, (which barely are open anyhow) cancelled whatever in person classes they had. Cities declared snow emergencies and told people they could park in city lots overnight. The Weather Channel folks were the worst--virtually hysterical as they described how bad it would be. And then and then--if there was 3 inches when I woke up this morning, that would be a lot. Don't tell me about all the places that got gigantic amounts of snow. With all their models, they should be able to differentiate between the city and a town ten miles away. As I have said before--if I had done my job this badly, l would have been let go. But all of them are now alerting us to some other MAJOR storm next week. Moving on. --Larry King died last week--and I have an anectdote. Back in the day, a close relative of mine was a journalist for the Miami Herald. He was very SMART and very IMPORTANT. He frequently appeared on King's radio show which broadcast from a houseboat on Indian Creek on Miami Beach. I was allowed to sit in every so often. Way cool. And my memory is that King was very nice. WIOD on your dial. --What I consider a little known fact about the inaugeration--one of the songs sung was by Woody Gluthrie and another was by Leonard Cohen. That was a message from Biden to us about diversity and the new world order. --Did you see Kamala swear in the 3 new male senators? One was Jewish (GA.), one was an African American (GA.). and one was Hispanic (CA.). All of these men sworn in by an Afican/South Asian female Vice President. --Beyond whatever else elections represent, they also mean we are sending people to offices(at the local, state, and national levels) to make decisions. Not to eqiuivocate, not to be wishy washy,and certainly not to complain that they have too many issues to deal with. So it is the old thing about walking and chewing gum at the same time--they apparently cannot multi task and would likely choke on their gum if they were walking. --I am already tired of the media's impatience with Biden. As I write this, he has not been in office for two weeks and some of them are already telling us about his "problems". And, oh my, what impact will this or that have on the 2022 elections. Enough--try and give the man and his extraordinarily bright helpers some time. That woman who does the press conferences makes Kaleigh seem like an infant. --A bunch of revisionist stuff is going on about Deborah Brix. So what if she quietly travelled the country to help state governments deal with the virus. She also stood next to POTUS as he lied his pants off about fake science. --Poor Kelly Loeffler--she lost and is now selling her interest in the Atlanta WNBA team. The same mainly African American women who publicly supported Warnock. --I would pay big bucks to see Rubio battle Ivanka in the Florida Republican primary. A Brief Sports Note Dustin Pedroia was overrated and if his name gets mentioned in a sentence about the Hall of Fame, you red flop fans should be embarassed. Shalom

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Fill in whatever title you want or--don't fill in anything. I am fresh out of catchy titles for this blog. I can no longer pretend it cannot get worse before it does get worse. So rather than struggle for a thougtfuil headline, I decided to encourage you to let your own mind wander and figure soethihng out. Moving on. --I watched it live and got scared. I have listened to the talking heads every day since January 6 and got more scared. And,now, I am scareder still about the inaugeration and the lead up to it. John Klelly has reappeared to tell us how bad things are--even though he was enabler in chief for a good chunk of time. I don't want to hear from Kelly or any other person who never spoke up until people had died and there was blood spilled. Kellye Anne? please. Scaramucci, please. Republican enablers all. their silence and, in some cases their explicit support, allowed this POTUS to get away with inciting this mayhem. Not intersted in any of them attempting to resurrect their reputations. I hope they are all un3employe3d forever and a day. I am done with that crew. -- A memory. ln 1968, the summer olympics were held in Mexico City. Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and silver in either the 200 meters or the 400--i forget which. What I haven't forgotten is that they each raised black gloved hands and bowed their heads at the playing of the national anthem. It was a sacrilege to see Josh Hawley raise his left hand (sans glove) to encourage the rioters. Even after the riot when the chambers were "safe", Hawley still went ahead with challenging the electoral votes. --Question--Am i supposed to praise that Raffensberger guy for doing his job and upholding the constitution? Not here and not until he backs off from supressing Georgia voters. --I know the virus is out of control. But callilng each case or each death as a record setter does not set the right tone. Records get set in sports or someplace else for positive occurrences. Not for deaths partly caused by the mishandling of the virus. --One picture after the riot really hit me. It was a picutre of the African American capitol staff cleaning up the mess left by the predominantly white rioters. On their lhands and knees cleaning up our capitol. --How did you like the guy with the "Camp Auschwitz" tee shirt? A fine exapmpe of manhood that. Wonder what Jared and Ivanka thought of it. --What do you make of a Jewish man and an African American man winning senate seats in that hot bed of progressive politics, the state of Georgia. I never expected both to win. I will say Kelly Loeffler is an idiot. --So, the Republicans have about 5 days to muck things up--as of an hour ago they already postponed the first scheduled confirmation hearing. Cannot wait until MItch gets kicked to the sideline. --In the Department of Who Cares--Sheldon Adelson has passed away. --Keep all fingers and toes crossed in advance of and during the inaugeration. Shalom.