An open apology to my grandson

 Dear Jesse:

I'm sorry. 

I'm sorry that you probably won't have the same quality of life that I enjoyed for most of my first 60+ years of my life.

I'm sorry you won't be able to enjoy most of the outdoor spaces and activities that I just took for granted.

I'm sorry that the asthma you will most likely endure will inhibit your ability to enjoy every day things.

And I'm sorry that, in all likelihood, your lifespan won't be as long as mine could be.

I'm sorry because my generation and the one that preceded me, as well as the ones that trailed me all failed by allowing a pigheaded, narrow-minded little man take over first, our country, then our way of life and finally the future you and your generations were owed.

Please know that I tried. It's just unfortunate that those that KNEW better didn't DO better. They tell me that actions have consequences - I guess you are living the consequences many of us knew would happen.

I'm sorry.

- Grandpa

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

Yes, Mr. President - Slavery Was, in fact, Bad

Donald J. Trump, President of the United States as quoted in The New York Times today:

The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. 

The President of the United States, in an effort to whitewash American history as presented in the Smithsonian, which is essentially our national museum of record, as well as other museums, has chastised the leadership of these museums because they are focusing on “how bad Slavery was.”

As an English teacher, I tend to still rely on things like dictionaries as an authority on the meaning of specific words. With that in mind, I share with you, dear reader, what the Webster dictionary defines as “slavery”:

1a: the practice or institution of holding people as chattel involuntarily and under threat of violence; b: the state of a person who is forced usually under threat of violence to labor for the profit of another; c: a situation or practice in which people are coerced to work under conditions that are exploitative;

2: submission to a dominating influence

So,by the very definition of the word, as shared in what is a highly respectable dictionary, it pretty much looks like slavery was, to say the least, BAD.  I mean,I can’t think of anyone on this planet at any time in the history of humankind, who would think that being held as property under the threat of violence and forced to labor for the profit of another person would be THE JOB OF THE CENTURY AND ONE THAT THEY CAN’T WAIT TO FULFILL!! 

It’s fucking slavery, for God’s sake.  It’s dehumanizing. It’s. . . . .BAD!!!  So yes,  Mr. President, at the Museum of African American History, slavery is going to be presented as a pretty bad thing - what else could it be????    A great job-training program (as Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, has in essence described it in defending a new history curriculum that teaches as much, pointing out that some slaves became blacksmiths, tailors, and other manual tradesmen)??? 

It’s time to call out this President for what he is - a deranged individual who is slowly but surely pushing this country toward what can only be described as a collective state of imbecility.  

Slavery WAS bad, Mr. President. And I don’t need a damned museum to tell me that.

Edison, New Jersey

To Get Here

 Almost everyone I know  looks back on their childhood with some degree of nostalgia. No matter how tough the times, you can always find something that makes you smile and feel good.  I was a child of the seventies, having been born just days before President Kennedy was assassinated, meaning I came of age during the latter stages of the Age of Aquarius and developed into what passed for an adult during the era of gas shortages, Watergate and Fonzie.

Personally, I love the Seventies. The music changed as the decade wore on, but it was (and still is to a certain extent) the soundtrack of my life.  While nothing will ever replace The Beatles as the most important musical influence on me, Wings, The Doobie Brothers, ELO and Chicago did a lot to shape the person I was to become as the decade wore on. 

And while many call the automobiles of the decade those of the Malaise Era, these were the cars of my childhood.  Fortunately, growing up the Seventies meant I was surrounded by the great cars of the Sixties, and those that were to become nostalgic touchpoints for me in the Seventies, including the Gremlin and the Vega (two no-so-great cars of the decade which came to signify the decade), the Grand Prix, the Camaro Z28 and the Pontiac Trans Am.  Not to mention my beloved Corvettes (not mine personally - mine is from 1991, but that’s a different story).

Speaking of the Trans Am, that reminds me of my favorite movie of the Seventies, Smokey and the Bandit.  I don’t exactly know how many times I have seen that film but it has to number in the thirties at least.  It’s one of those that I don’t turn off when I come across it on TV on any given day (and one that I can easily pop the DVD in and watch whenever I want).   There were so many good films that came of out this decade, including of course The Godfather (I and II), A Star is Born (I’m pretty much a sucker for almost any Barbra Streisand film of the decade - I thought she was absolutely stunning back then), Saturday Night Fever and, of course, Grease.

The reason for this sudden quick trip down memory lane was really inspired by a more recent film that I just re-watched, called The Last Movie Star with Burt Reynolds.  Burt Reynolds WAS the Seventies - he was an action star, a dramatic star and a comedic star. He was the embodiment of cool. He was probably the reason (my uncle being the other) that I grew and maintained a mustache for so many years.  I loved Burt Reynolds in the Seventies and seeing him in his later years (The Last Movie Star was his last film) was sad, but it was also inspiring. His fictional character was really Burt Reynolds with another name. Even the flashbacks were Burt Reynolds movies from the Seventies.  Watching the film reminded me - in a good and bad way - that time has moved on and, with it, I have aged as well. I was a pretty carefree kid during the Seventies, with almost nothing to worry about except what kind of car I was going to drive someday (always a Corvette - which took decades to happen.  Almost always a Chevrolet, though), what music to listen to (see the above list), what movie to see, and who I was going to date.  That pretty much took care of itself when I dated the girl next door for the first time in 1979 - and we have been together ever since.

There was a great song in the film called “To Get Here”, written by Diane Warren and performed by Willie Nelson that reflected on life. And while it wouldn’t have made sense to me back in the Seventies, as I sit here in 2025, it sums up my life perfectly.  So I’ll end with those lyrics:

There are things I've done

I wish I could undo

I'd take back all the pain

I put the ones who love me through

And I'd make some better choices

I'd take some different roads

I'd hold on to what mattered

I would never let it go

Life is 20 20 hindsight

Might take a lifetime just to get some insight

Might not always get it right

But you get where you need to be

All the mistakes I made, I'm glad I made them

All the wrong turns I took, I had to take them

Can't look back with regret, 'cause the view is never clear

That's what it took to get here

There are things I said

I wish I could unsay

I'd erase all the hurt

From those I have hurt along the way

And I'd make the right decisions

And change some I made before

And I'd love a little deeper

And I would give a little more

Sometimes you get second chances

When they come you gotta go and grab them

Might not be the way you planned it

But you get where you need to be

All the mistakes I made, I'm glad I made them

All the wrong turns I took, I had to take them

Can't look back with regret, because the view is never clear

That's what it took to get here

And you can't go back and change anything

You can't make what happened happen differently

But you can get what you need

Get where you need to be

All the mistakes I made, I'm glad I made them

All the wrong turns I took, I had to take them

Can't look back with regret, because the view is never clear

That's what it took to get here

• Ocean City, NJ

Checks and Balances

While I ended up as an English major in college, and currently make my living teaching English to middle school students, I loved Social Studies (or History) when I was a student.  In fact, had I taken a class or two more, I would have been certified in that and who knows how my career might have been different.

With that said, one of the things I loved as a student was the study of American history - specifically the Constitution.  I seem to remember that the founding fathers created three branches of government to allow for checks and balances - keeping one branch from having too much power.   I always accepted that that was the expectation here in the US - the Legislative made the laws, the Executive carried out the laws and the Judicial made sure it was all kosher.

So you can imagine my dismay as I continue to follow the follies of the Trump administration and their blatant disregard of the judicial branch of government.  They seem to do whatever they want and, sadly, the Judicial branch seems to be completely ignored. But what is more disturbing is that the Supreme Court - the ultimate arbiter of Constitutionality in this country - seems to be, if not blatantly ignorant ,then at least anemic when it comes to assuming their rightful position in the whole "check and Balances" equation.

It's time for the justices to remember that their job is NOT dependent on who is in the White House once they've gotten the job. And it's time for the justices to remember that they have an obligation to uphold the  US Constitution - even if it pisses off the Chief Executive.

So what do you say justices?  How about doing your damned job. And not making the judicial branch simply an extension of the Executive branch. Because that's not what the founding fathers intended.

Do your job.

Oldies . . . and Goldies (or How the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are still relevant in 2025)

 Just a quick note for today to say how remarkable it is to me that, in February of 2025, both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones won Grammy awards.   Perhaps some of the votes were sentimental (I mean, how many more times might you, as a member of the academy, get a chance to check "The Beatles" or "The Rolling Stones" on our ballot).  But  the fact that they are still relevant - and still known by enough of the academy to warrant a statue, is just remarkable.  

Think about all of the groups and artists that have come and gone since both of these groups burst on the US scene in 1964.  Do you seriously think that Gary Lewis and the Playboys would have received a vote for any new record released in 2025?  And while that's an extreme example, it just  goes to show how culturally significant both of these groups were and are.

I have often said what I'm about to say yet again - it is remarkable that, for every day of my 61 years on Earth,  I have been privileged to be surrounded by the music of The Beatles. And that, for my entire record buying life, I have been able to add new music to that collection - be it by the band itself, or its individual components - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.  Ringo just released a brand new album - at 84 years young!!

They have been the soundtrack of my life and I'm so thrilled to see that they are once again Grammy award winners.

Post mortem to election day

 November 6, 2024

The following was written in response to a comment on a New York Times editorial published earlier this morning. Actually, there were two responses, which I have sewn together into one. And given that nobody really knows how long digital files will exist to memorialize this work, I share it here (and stored in hard copy on human compliant paper) for all to see.  The original comment had to do with Kamala Harris not accomplishing a Herculean list of tasks in her short time on the campaign trail.  What follows is my response:

Earlier today, commenter “Axel” posted that, among the things that Kamala Harris should have done was to “have presented her  own bold program for change, including political institutional change and major constitutional reforms,” But let’s be realistic here - you wanted her to do all that in eleven weeks?!? And even if she did, do you think the Times and others would have given it the coverage it deserved? Trump started running again on January 20, 2021 and never stopped. Harris never had a chance.  Make no mistake - the Democratic Party enabled Trump, most notably by not primarying Biden this year. Then by waiting so long to have him step out. And the Obamas and other “rock stars” of the party laid low too long before stepping up. 

Perhaps Ms Harris wasn’t the perfect candidate but the media and the Times held her to an impossibly blue standard of perfection that certainly Mr Trump could never meet. Once again, the “oh that’s Donald being Donald” has played out - and played - the American people. And this time it looks like it’s a majority of them.  

Perhaps it is those of us who identify as Democrats who are wrong. Maybe the country really is as dark as Mr Trump and the GOP paint it. My city is not on fire, I’m not tripping over illegal immigrants on my way to work, I have a job and food on the table. Maybe I’m the one who is wrong here. Maybe the rest of the country is seeing these things. In which case, it’s the Times job as paper of record to report them. If not, it was their job to refute these claims. 

Show me one NY Times article proving beyond a doubt that the claims about the economy were false, or at least somewhat dubious. They’ve done neither.  The guardrail that was supposed to keep democracy strong - the fourth estate represented by the likes of the Times and the Washington Post - failed miserably in this election. 

Had this type of weak journalism or what passes for journalism these days been around when Nixon was president, he would have served his full two terms and who knows how the country would have turned out. But reporters and editors were, perhaps, more high minded back then. Or maybe we as readers were more demanding. We could actually read back then and didn’t get our news in quick 30 second bites.

And so, as stewards of the First amendment they have failed. But so too have we.

The blood of this nation rests on all of our hands.

• Ocean City, NJ

Election Day - 2024

 November 5, 2024

Today is Election Day in the US and a more contentious election I certainly can’t remember.  And today is a good day for me to practice what I have been preaching to my students for quite some time.  But first a bit of background.

I have spent the last year or so trying to better understand the philosophy of Stoicism. I’m not exactly sure what got me into this, but I discovered a guy by the name of Ryan Holliday and found that a lot of what he was saying was making a lot of sense to me. So I started to dig in a bit deeper and, as the year has gone by, I am actually finding that it is making a bit of a difference in my life.

One of the practices that Stoicism has taught me is that there is really nothing I can do about so many things - I can only control that over which I have control. And basically, as I have come to understand, that over which I have control is my own mind, my own emotions, my own body, and my own thoughts. I can’t control the weather, traffic, or other people for that matter. And I have been trying to get some of my students - especially my former students who are now finding life a bit harder as they get older - to understand that, especially when they are having a hard time getting along with others.

Which takes me back to this election.  I vehemently dislike the Republican candidate, mostly because I find him to be a detestable person.  He has so little regard for others - women, immigrants, middle class people, just about anyone not named Donald Trump - that I just can't fathom how we could elect him to the presidency - again!!

But, in the end, all I can do is vote my heart and my conscience. I’m just one vote - but it’s all I can do. I can’t change the outcome of the election. I can’t change the way people vote. All I can do is accept what is, and pray with all my being that the country will hold together regardless of who wins.  And so that is what I will do. I will vote. I will pray. And I will hope.

• Ocean City, NJ

A World without (printed) Newspapers

 I read the other day that the Star Ledger was going to stop publishing its print edition in February of 2025.  Now, I don’t take the Star Ledger and haven’t for quite some time. I don’t even subscribe to the electronic edition although I am a subscriber to two newspapers - both online - as I truly believe that newspapers are essential to fair and free communications in this world.

The reason that the news hit me so hard had more to do with what I had discovered in the top of my closet, ironically just two days prior.  While searching high and low for a missing Halloween shirt (don’t ask), I came across the box of “stuff” that I keep in the top of my closet. Among the miscellaneous stuff that one accumulates, I found several copies of seminal newspapers that marked several important moments in history.

There were two newspapers reporting the news of September 11, 2001 when the country was attacked and the World Trade Center was toppled.  There were newspapers marking the election of Joe Biden as president, replacing the (in my opinion) dangerous Donald Trump.  There were also newspapers marking significant sports events, such as the Mets winning the 2000 National League Championship (sadly, no New York Jets headlines - a topic for another post). 

As I thought back to this pile of yellowing news print, I started to wonder - how will future generations learn about the major events of our time, if there is no written record of it?  How can electronic news be archived so that those that are still to come can look back and see what was being reported about the major events of our time? (And in case you’re wondering, all of these entries are printed and saved for posterity - who knows how anyone would ever read these electronic musings in the future). 

I know that producing a printed product every day is a great expense, and one that is not easy to accommodate for a newspaper company. But with the need to archive major events, is this something a newspaper can afford to not do??  I guess time will tell - and perhaps replica editions can be archived, much like the microfiche of my generation - but with the major events happening just around the corner, is this a good time to stop producing?

In the end, it’s our fault. We are the ones who stopped buying or subscribing to newspapers. We’re the ones that adopted the electronic medium with such gusto that the publishers had no choice.  Can we turn back the clock? No.  But should we??  A question our future generations will have to answer.

• November 4, 2024

• Ocean City, NJ

Birthday Boy

 So today is my birthday. 59 laps around the sun. Normally, I don't make a big deal out of my birthday. And today is really no exception. Except that there's something that feels final about 59. Because next year is, well, lets just say it's a year that end in a zero and that is always somebody's idea of a big deal.

Anyway, this morning, as I have done every November 14 for the last 30 years or so, I played this song - "Birthday Boy" by Chicago.  But today, the lyrics hit me harder than they have in the past. 

So, I share them here for you to consider. 

"Birthday Boy" by Danny Seraphine and David J. Wolinski

Birthday boy, blow out the candles;
Good friends around you, you should feel O.K.
Don't look so sad and blue;
Don't act forsaken, this day's for you.
Good days are coming, my friend;
Life can be easy 'til the end.
Birthday boy, don't fear tomorrow;
Changes before you; years drift away.
You see life as pictures, frame to frame;
Many years wasted, what a shame.
Good days are coming, my friend;
Life can be easy 'til the end, 'til the end.
That empty feeling won't go away;
Caught up in hurting, day after day;
When will you see the joy in your life?
It's there for you, it's there for you.
Don't look so sad and blue;
Don't act forsaken, this day's for you.
Good days are coming, once you stop running;
Life could be easy, easy for you.

Again. And Again. And Again.

 It happened again. Again, I sit here with my head in my hands as I try to come to grips with still another mass school shooting.  18 lives taken in Texas. 18 more!!

At what point do we finally wake up, America? At what point do we, whether we are "red" or "blue", finally decide that enough is enough. No more. No more mass shootings. No more gunmen in supermarkets.  No more gunmen on subways. And,  dammit, no more gunmen in schools!!  When does it end?

And don't hand me that Second Amendment bullshit either, because there is no way in Hell that our founding fathers ever thought we'd have access to weapons, for our personal use, that had more firepower than any Colonial general ever had at any battle, with ALL of their weapons combined.  So for all of you who are purists to the Constitution, I say if you want guns, get muskets.  And while you're at it, turn off your damned electric lights, and park your F150 at the curb and grab some candles and a horse or two. You want to live by the exact words of 1787? Then live LIKE it's 1787.

I'm a teacher. And tomorrow I have to go into my school. And, once again, I will look cross-eyed at anyone who approaches my building and is not 100 percent familiar to me. Once again, we will have police cars parked outside the building. And once again, I will listen to the bullshit about "thoughts and prayers."  Well I for one am sick of all the "thoughts and prayers."

It's time to get our country back. And don't tell me we can get there on prayer alone.  No, we need some gutsy legislators to put themselves out there and propose gun legislation that makes sense. Gun legislation that will finally do something about all of these mass shootings. Because while we may consider our country to be head and shoulders above all the others - and yes, in many ways we are - we are so far behind on common sense gun legislation it makes my head spin.

The Supreme Court will, in a few weeks, overturn Roe v Wade, which will effectively put an end to abortion in so many states. Why? Because, according to many, life begins at conception and therefore needs to be preserved.  Well listen, geniuses - life is also supposed to continue beyond birth. Preferably to an old age.  So if you want to preserve all life - especially you Conservatives that go on and on about no abortions but how we need to keep our guns - it's time for you all to pull your heads out of your respective asses and put your money where you mouth is.

Gun control. NOW. Not later. 

RIP Beverly Cleary

    Early in my school career, I discovered my favorite of all places in whatever school I was attending at the time - the library. I absolutely loved the library.  What I remember of kindergarten library visits were mostly the picture books (what else can you read in kindergarten) but by first grade,  I remember visiting and being able to borrow a book. For free!! As long as you returned it two weeks later.

    We moved before second grade and that was when my fondness for the school library really took off. Because I was considered “advanced” as a learner - perhaps because I actually paid attention in first grade - I was able to get additional library privileges. This meant I could go pretty much whenever I wanted - which I did.  And I read and read. So much so that, by the time I was in sixth grade, I was asked to help the librarian choose new books by being able to preview the new ones that had just come in.  What a thrill for a library lover like me.

    Later, in junior high school, I ventured beyond the usual fiction and non-fiction fare, and explored biographies of those who were far less known to me. One in particular - Alone by Richard Byrd - stood out. I always wondered what it would be like to live completely alone under the ice.  Perhaps that was inspired by my two brothers and one sister, ensuring I didn’t know what “alone” meant.

    By high school, the library had gotten bigger and I had discovered the music room - a huge room full of records, more than I could ever imagine. I started borrowing them and, thanks to the arrival of a new cassette recorder, I started to expand my own music library - while still stopping by to borrow a book from time to time.

    What inspired this trip down memory lane was the news this week that Beverly Cleary, the creator of my all time favorite character, Henry Huggins, had died at the age of 104. Of all the books I borrowed as a kid, none excited me as much as the Cleary books. I loved them. The stories were relatable, the characters were realistic and funny and they were just a good way to pass the time. I remember wishing I could live with the Huggins family on Kilkitat Street - it just seemed like a better place to live than wherever I was at the time.

    Beverly Cleary was an inspiration to me, and one that I still call upon today as a teacher. I remember buying my own children their copies of the Cleary classics (“Here, read these. You’ll love them” I said. And along came Harry Potter to prove me wrong.)  Cleary was a living link back to my childhood. I thought she’d live forever.

    It’s  been, in all honesty, only a few months since I last read one of her stories. Henry and the Paper Route to be precise. I think I’ll take one down from the shelf tonight and take another trip down memory lane.  Rest in peace, Mrs. Cleary. And thank you for everything.

HR1, School Elections, and the power of a Lollipop

When I was in elementary school, my best friend decided he wanted to run for student council president. Not that he had any experience in being IN student council, but he thought it might be fun to be president of something. I, being his best friend, was enlisted to be his campaign manager.

We spent hours strategizing on how to best win the election. We focused on promises. Lots and lots of promises. We promised better quality of school lunches. We promised more recess time. We promised free ice cream on Fridays. We even promised no homework on days that ended  in Y. In other words, we patterned our campaign after the real political campaigns of the day.

We handed out lollipops, which was only possible because my dad owned a candy store. We even handed out unopened baseball card packs to select “organizers”, who promised they could influence certain groups of voters. Again, just like real political campaigns.

But when the votes were counted, we lost. And, to be honest, it wasn’t even close.  We didn’t ask for a recount - there was no reason to. I realized that all our voters were only in it for the lollipops.

But, if we had run today instead of 40 years ago, things might have been different. Because I would have taken a page from the Republican party and, instead of trying to get AS MANY votes as possible, I would have sought out ways to suppress the vote. Keep the voters AWAY and we would win!!  What a brilliant strategy.

Hey you, third grader. You just moved here 2 months ago. You can’t vote.  You, kid with the accent. How do I know you’re eligible?? Out you go. You, tall kid in the 6th grade - are you REALLY a student here?? No vote for you.  Had we followed this new strategy, we might have actually won. And we wouldn’t have had to promise free Yoo-Hoo to every student on Mondays.

As juvenile as this strategy sounds, it’s actually the Republican approach to winning elections these days. It’s why HR-1 is so vehemently opposed by the GOP. In other words, don’t try to “persuade” voters to vote for you by promising things that they may actually want (or by offering up real ideas to improve their lives - not by promising more pizza on the lunch menu!). No. Instead, keep voters for the opposition OUT of the election process. Make things more difficult. Basically, suppress the vote!

That is the entirety of the GOP strategy. It’s not about bringing “integrity” to the election process. It’s about bringing smaller numbers of Democrats out to vote. It’s not about improving the messaging or the positioning of the party but rather fighting the fact that the Democrats are making more and more inroads with the middle class.  Make no mistake - the GOP is not about improving the election process. It’s about “fixing” the process to their benefit.

Perhaps I should have borrowed some of their tactics. After all, had we forced the third grade to take a spelling test before voting, that may have swung the election our way. Who knows how things may have changed for us?  Yoo-hoo anyone?

Hey - I bought a new pen!!!

I bought a new pen today.  Which to the average human being is not such a big deal. But if you would have seen how long I agonized over this ridiculously simple decision, I think you might have decided to call the men in the white coats to take me away.  I bought a new pen because I just lost my most recent “favorite pen”, which was pressed into service when I actually did lose my most favorite pen, for which I haven’t been able to find a replacement.

Confused yet?

My most favorite pen is a Parker Jotter. Specifically, a Parker Jotter with a blue barrel and a silver top. Specifically, a Parker Jotter with a blue barrel and a silver top that contains blue ink, because I am partial to blue ink. I had two of them. One had, over the years, somehow gone “out of round” and the clicker mechanism sticks. The second - my go-to pen - somehow disappeared somewhere between my car and my school (or perhaps my school and my car, depending on when I lost it).  Anyway, it’s gone.

And replacing it has been a pain, because all of my trips to the office supply store have turned up fruitless. No Parker Jotter with a blue barrel and a sliver top (none of them have blue ink, by the way. You just have to buy that separately). So, needing to write, I have set off in search of a suitable replacement. (Now I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say, “why don’t you just order a replacement from Amazon?” And one of these days, I’m going to write my entry on why I am trying to wean myself off of Amazon, but at the end of the day the simple answer is because it seems like a ridiculous amount of effort to simply have a pen delivered to my home. A picker to a packer to a driver to a pilot to a driver to a warehouseman to a packer to a driver just to get to my home?? This is almost as ridiculous as how much time I wasted buying my new pen in the first place!!)

I’ve had other pens over the years. My previous absolute favorite was my Cross retractable ballpoint pen. I had several of those - still have one or two - but I went off of them because I found them to be annoyingly slim. Built like a tank, but two delicate for my everyday use (but it did look good in my pocket during my Wall Street years).

I also liked the Pentel G7 pens. I like that they are refillable and the purple ones are my favorite for grading. I like the blue ones too, but I find that sometimes the gel ink gets smudged.  But, in a pinch, it’s a good pen. EXCEPT - for the clip. The plastic clip never seems to last, which seems to render the refillability somewhat moot.

For Christmas, my daughter bought me two Beatles pens. These are the retractable kind, which I like, and, right off the bat, a lot better than the Beatles pens I bought on a trip to Epcot Center several years ago, which write like crap and had an annoying sticker that left a horrendous residue on the barrel of what was a very attractive pen.

But, as well as they wrote, I was still partial to the Parker. Until that got lost, and the Beatles pen was pushed into service.  And I know why they sell two at a time. Because #1 fell apart (literally) after about a week, rendering it useless.  Into the garbage it went.

And out came #2. And I discovered something remarkable. I discovered that if I replaced the cheap ink refill with a Parker refill, I had a reasonable facsimile of my Parker Jotter - at least as far as ink was concerned. The workmanship was lacking, but hey, it worked.

And worked it did. Right up until this past Thursday, when it went missing. It’s got to be somewhere, but I don’t know where.

So I struggled with a stick pen on Friday, which is an abomination as far as I’m concerned. Taking off a cap and replacing a cap is only a sure fire way to LOSE a cap.  Which led me to Walmart - or at least that’s where I was today when I decided I had to buy some pens.

I looked and looked. I don’t like Pentech pens for some reason. And there were no Pentel pens in blue. And a million stick pens. Finally, after like 15 minutes (really, 15 minutes to pick out a package of $3 pens), I decided on the Bic Atlantis.  It’s blue, it’s medium point, it’s retractable, and it has a metal clip. And it was made in France, just like my beloved Jotter.

As for how it works as a pen, we’ll see. But if I lose this one - there’s still 4 more in the package.

Say goodbye to Glamour

I read earlier today that Glamour magazine was going to be suspending producing print publications. Another magazine goes by the wayside.

Now, as anyone who knows me will attest to, I am definitely NOT a Glamour magazine reader. My sense of style tends more toward plain white button-collar dress shirts, two pairs of Levi’s and several assorted t-shirts with various logos on them. So I will definitely NOT miss the monthly issue of Glamour.

But that’s not the point. The point is that, if you love words as much as I do, losing still another familiar print publication is just one more blow to the writing and publishing industry. There have been way too many publications that have ceased to exist on our newstands. So many, in fact, that I often wonder why we still have newsstands!!

So, if you love words - both the writing of and the reading of - I have one simple request. Go buy a magazine. A real honest-to-goodness, glossy magazine. And read it. From cover to cover. And, if you are so inclined, subscribe to a magazine. And while  you’re at it, subscribe to a newspaper too. The real ink-on-my-hands kind. The kind that is a pain in the ass to read on the subway.

And maybe, if that works for you , buy a book. From a bookstore. And here you are probably expecting me to say from a local bookstore, but to be honest it’s to the point that I don’t care if it’s the Barnes and Noble at the mall, just go buy a book. (I know Amazon is so convenient, but bookstores are so nice). And if money is tight, go the library instead. And check out a book or two.

Because it is those of us who love words who have to do all we can to try to save the printed word. In an age when a Tweet (is that right?) is considered “official White House correspondence”, I feel we need to make a stand for ink on paper.  The magazine you save just may be your own.

Now where’s my GQ? Didn’t they just have an article on denim?

By all means, don't let the law get in the way....

As published in the NY Times today:

“If I did one mistake with Comey, I should have fired him before I got here. I should have fired him the day I won the primaries,” Mr. Trump said. “I should have fired him right after the convention. Say, ‘I don’t want that guy.’ Or at least fired him the first day on the job.”


Is that the way it works? Win a primary, fire anyone you want? Or is it win a nomination, fire anyone you want. Even if you aren't in charge. Even if the person doesn't actually work for you since you don't actually have the job yet.

Of course, had he said he was going to fire Comey the day after the Republican Convention, perhaps Mr. Comey wouldn't have made the ill-timed "reopening the Clinton investigation" decision. And who knows how that might have affected things.

Nevertheless, I think it is an interesting insight into the mind of the person occupying the Oval Office in that he thinks his power extends far beyond the power of the law. Don't let something as trivial as an election get in the way of your aspirations!!

I aspire to own the New York Mets someday. Can I please fire someone - today!?!

Sometimes you just gotta deliver the good yourself

Jacob DeGrom has the best ERA in major league baseball as of today. And that’s after letting up 3 runs last night. He may be the best pitcher in the National League at this moment. Oh, and he has a losing record. Yes, Jake has a losing record because his team (and mine) the Mets just seem to not be able to score any runs in support of his efforts. It may boggle the mind to see this happening to such a talented pitcher, but if you’re a Mets fan of a certain age, you’ve seen this scenario before. With one Tom Terrific, the Franchise, Tom Seaver.

Seaver was dominant in his prime. It’s probably hard for today’s fans to appreciate this because, in Tom’s era, they didn’t keep all of the detailed stats that baseball fans (except me) seem to thrive on today. But Tom Seaver was the main reason so many of us Mets fans kept watching during the dark days of, oh, 1970 to 1979 (with 1973 being, as of August, the exception). Seaver was the best at what he did. But the Mets, much like today’s Mets, couldn’t make it work for him. Over his tenure, the Mets won one World Series (1969) and appeared in one more (the improbably 1973 World Series). That’s it, as far as team success goes. DeGrom has a similar pedigree - one losing World Series appearance in 2015 - which really was no fault of his own. The big difference between the two, however, was that Tom Seaver managed to post a winning record during his time with the Mets (‘74 he was 11-11, but that’s good enough for me). In my opinion, the reason he had a winning record so much of the time (and posted a good number of losses AND didn’t have DeGrom-like ERAs) was because he pitched so damned much. Between 1970 and 1976 (his last full season with the Mets), he pitched 96 complete games. 96!! Which means he had a lot of opportunities for his team to come back late in a game while he was still pitcher of record AND he had a lot of opportunities to keep his team’s bullpen from blowing a game that he might have left with the lead. Compare that to DeGrom. He has - wait for it - 2 complete games in his career. 2. Let me say it again, just to make it sink in. TWO! So the most dominant pitcher in the Mets stable has let, basically, his bullpen decide his fate more often than not. Way more often. It’s like being a chef, a great chef, a 5-star chef, cook her ass off in the kitchen and then having the wait staff drop 6 out of 10 trays of food to the floor, leaving the diners hungry. At some point, you probably wouldn’t blame the chef for delivering the damned food herself to each and every table. Which basically is what Seaver did. He delivered himself to victory - or defeat - way more often than not. And he did it all for 20 years. And 171 complete games. And no Tommy John surgery. Which might be a message to one Mr. DeGrom. Maybe it’s time for you to start delivering your own food to the table, take the reigns, and leave the bullpen to blow somebody else’s games.

Making the team - finally

Fifteen years ago I decided to leave the rather profitable canyons of Wall Street to start anew as a public school teacher. Needless to say, the impact on my bottom line was startling. BUT, the impact on my physical well-being was startling too. My grey hair started to disappear!! Perhaps a fringe benefit to having so little money in my pocket?

My first entree to this new profession was as a substitute teacher - a gig designed to let me gauge whether or not I had the intestinal fortitude (and bladder control) to spend each and every day with more children than any one human being should have to manage at any one time. And it turned out I did - although the bladder thing took a bit of training since I wasn’t used to peeing on a set schedule.

Near the end of what I call this year of introduction, I had the good fortune to do a long-term gig at a middle school. Over 45 days of NOT having to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to try to line up a job for the next day. A place to belong. And, as it turned out, a place that I loved.

Middle school had it all - specific teaching periods, specialities (as opposed to being a generalist in elementary school), sports, a great atmosphere and kids who were old enough to “get the jokes” that I attempted to tell (such as using Homer Simpson to teach Homer).  This, I decided, was where my future would lie.

And so, as fate would have it, I interviewed for an English teaching position and was told “no vacancies”. And, since I had to actually pay my bills, I became a para-professional - a non-teaching teacher who specialized in helping one or two children to hopefully succeed academically. Did I mention this was in first grade? And later Kindergarten? And later second grade? None of which was middle school.

But hope springs eternal and the following year I was hired as a full-fledged teacher - of fifth grade. Not quite middle school but at least some of the kids got the jokes. And besides, it was just a matter of time before I was finally lucky enough to get that middle school job, right?

Sure. I’ve spent the last 13 years teaching fifth grade - almost all of them as a “generalist”, teaching reading, writing, science, math and social studies. And while I can’t complain, I always harbored that hope of moving to middle school. But as time has gone on, I ended up seeing most of my “post fifth grade” plans end up on the scrap heap.  I figured I’d just ride out my time, teach fifth grade, and eventually find my way into retirement.

Until two weeks ago. When, at long last, the assignments for next year were approved by the board of education and there, beside my name, was finally the title I had longed for all those years - Teacher of English, Middle School.  And to make things even better, it was at the middle school I had taught at 15 years ago. Getting that e-mail  was like finally getting the call to the majors after toiling in the minors for so long. And on my “orientation visit”, I was greeted not by teachers who saw me as an intruder, but rather by teachers who remembered me from my first stint and were genuinely welcoming me “back” to my school. It was like a homecoming to a home I’d only spent 50 days in.

I can honestly say I am energized like I haven’t been in so long. I’m actually regretting that we have a summer vacation this year since I can’t wait to get there and get the ball rolling right away. But first - some new jokes. Because if I remember correctly, these kids get them!

Let's Pretend

So let’s pretend for a few minutes. Pretend it’s Thursday. You rise as you always do and get ready for your day of work. You leave just as you always do, but today you seem to be particularly aware of just how many high school students leave the same time you do. You also notice that they all drive the same car - a Ford Mustang. You leave your neighborhood and start down the county two-lane road on your way to wherever. You switch on the radio.

Suddenly, a Mustang carrying two students passes you on your left and, as they do, the front wheels fall off and the car skids out of control, smashing into a utility pole. You immediately stop and rush back to the car only to find both students dead. You reach for your phone to call 911.

But 911 doesn’t answer. Because they are busy on other calls. It seems that at the same exact moment, 9 other Mustangs suddenly lost their front wheels and crashed, killing nearly 16 more people. Later that night, as you watch the evening news, you see the full impact of the carnage on the highway that morning. 18 young people - all students at your local high school - all killed in tragic car accidents. Involving the same car. Involving the same part failure.

You know the story doesn’t end here. Because there’s going to be an investigation into this apparent design flaw in the Ford Mustang. 10 cars don’t suddenly lose their front wheels, all at the same time. There MUST be a problem here. The NTSB declares that the issue is under investigation. People are cautioned.

And 10 weeks go by. And then, suddenly, in a town hundreds of miles from yours, on another beautiful Thursday, 10 more Mustangs lose their front wheels. And 15 more students - all from the same school - are killed.

You’re probably thinking the same thing I am - by now there would have been some sort of congressional action and the Ford Mustang would have been ordered off the road. In all likelihood, the chairman of Ford Motor Company would have either stepped down or been fired. Sales of Ford cars would plummet. And everyone would say “good riddance” to the damned death traps that were killing our students by the dozen every few weeks.

We just played “Let’s Pretend.” At least the car portion was pretend. The reality is that our students ARE being killed by the dozens every few weeks. By gun violence at school. Over and over we see the news. And over and over, our politicians offer there “thoughts and prayers.”

It’s time for more. Much more. You know I’m right - if the Ford Mustang was killing students in droves, there would be congressional action to eliminate the car and fix the problem. So here’s a novel idea - pretend guns are the aforementioned Mustang. And get off your ass and do something.

Four Square Yards

I went to the supermarket on Sunday, as I do most Sundays after church, to do a bit of grocery shopping. But this time, I had a small twist to add to my shopping experience. Since I’ve been really trying to be conscious of my own impact on the Earth, I decided to use some reusable tote bags instead of the ubiquitous plastic bags that are proliferating the Earth.

So there I was, in the checkout line, diligently trying to pack as many items into my cloth bags as the laws of physics would allow, when I looked down the line at the 15 other checkout stands, all packed with their Sunday shoppers and nearly all of them bagging away into their bright yellow Shop-Rite bags. I felt discouraged, somehow, as though what difference was it going to make that I was NOT using about 8 plastic bags while the rest of the world was just bagging away, completely oblivious to the ongoing problem of plastics in landfills?

It’s easy to start with great ambition and then quickly become discouraged. So many of us wake up each day with the thought that “today I will change the world” only to return home after a long day perhaps more discouraged about things than you were just 8 hours before.

And I realize that’s because changing the world can’t happen in 1 day. Or 12. Or 1,200 for that matter. Because changing the world is a damn big ambition. A worthy ambition, to be sure, but damn big. Perhaps, dare I say it, too big??

So I suggest we change our point of view. Not our ambition - just the scope of it. Try this: stand in one space in your room, your apartment, your home, your classroom. And imagine a yard stick extending 3 feet in front of you, 3 feet to the left, 3 feet to the right, 3 feet behind you. A square that is basically 4 square yards in total size. Roughly the size a little larger than a king size bed.

Then ask yourself - what can I do in this small space to make it better. To make this small space a better place on this Earth. Or a better place for my family. Or a better place for my students. Or my co-workers. Or my employees. What can I do to make this the best 4 square yards it can be.

When you’ve done that, move to another space and try the same exercise. Later in the day, or tomorrow, try it again someplace else. Try it outdoors. Or in a public space like a park. Anywhere where YOU, working independently, can make an improvement. No matter how small.

You see, while it doesn’t seem like much, little by little, you can make a difference. No, not on the whole word, not in one day, or one week or one month. But, if you tried this, say, three times a week, you’d make a difference in a measurable amount of space in a pretty short amount of time. Some of the changes might be long lasting, some just momentary or short-lived. But the think is, you’d be making a change. Making a difference. And you would succeed because YOU really can affect small spaces more readily than big spaces.

It’s sort of like my mother used to say about cleaning the house. Our house was rather large when we were growing up and with 4 kids there was always a lot of cleaning to do. And mom, being a stay at home mom, was the one who did it. All day. Every day.

Later, after my wife and I were married and had three kids of our own, we too had the big house and the constant need for cleaning. But we both worked, so it came down to spending most of Saturday cleaning the entire house. A full day, dusting, scrubbing, mopping. And the laundry - who knows how many loads, washing and drying and folding. And when it was all done, our house was clean, our clothes were clean but we were exhausted and we hadn’t even given a thought to dinner.

And yet somehow, my mother managed to keep the house as neat as a museum, kept on top of the laundry for four kids and a husband and cooked breakfast AND dinner every single day. And somehow she found time to watch TV with us, or play a game, or take us to practice or wherever. AND she did the shopping, back in the day when shopping involved trips to the supermarket, the butcher, the bakery, the deli - all without a car.

So one day I called her and asked her just how she did it? How did she manage to do all of that? Yes, I knew she didn’t have a job outside the house, but she was 100 times more productive than I was, with one more kid and a lot fewer conveniences.

Her answer? I did one thing at a time, one small thing, over and over. Every day. I spread out the work, and I found that I was able to get it all done and still be a mom. That was her secret. One small thing, every day. Maybe it was vacuum the carpets. Or clean the master bathroom. Or wash my sister’s laundry. She did one task at a time but spread them out over 7 days. It meant she was busy each day, BUT she also had time to do what made her happy, like spend time with us. Or cook a great meal. Or watch her soap operas!

She wasn’t changing the world. But she was teaching her four kids a strong work ethic, so that we could go out and do the same. And if I teach my three kids the same, her influence spreads far beyond our old family house.

So there I was, standing in the grocery line, with my cloth bags. And, looking back, I was managing my 4 square yards. I was making that space a bit better by cutting down on the plastics. And maybe, by watching me, someone who stood in the next aisle will bring their own cloth bags. And together we will start to make a difference.

Change the world? Big and ambitious. Change 4 square yards? Easy and manageable. Try it.