Thoughts of a Common Man

I'm not sure that I will surprise anyone with this post, but there are just 8 days until the presidential election and since I'm honest, to a fault, with this blog... .. .I need to say what I feel. First...it's the worst choice ever. It truly is. It's an election that could result with the president-elect facing criminal charges somewhere down the line...either way. In the end it's all about what you want to believe, I suppose and this is what I believe. 1). Donald Trump is not qualified to be the president. He is completely unprepared to handle the job as a leader, as a human being, or as a man who understands the laws of the land. When he was informed that he was insulting a gold star family he had to ask what made someone a gold star. I heard someone mention that if you were to need a root canal you wouldn't go to a person who claimed that he thinks he can do it, you'd go to someone who knew HOW to do it. Trump has no idea what the job enta...

I was reading an article that said that Imagine, by John Lennon may be the most hated song of all-time. I find that hard to believe. I actually love the song, but critics of the song noted that Lennon was rich and isolated and was asking the rest of the world to give up everything and share. That's silly. An artist doesn't actually write a song, or paint a picture, or write a book thinking about the money that may or may not be involved. I've never written a single sentence thinking: "This will or won't sell." Don't care at all, honestly. Anywhoha.... The article got me thinking about songs I can't stand: "Say What You Want to Say," by John Mayer comes to mind. He says the same thing over and over and over...never saying what he needs to say. I also always cringed when Duran Duran came on...nearly broke my neck one night trying to switch off "Hungry Like A Wolf." There are a couple of Don Henley songs I hate. ...

Was never actually a fan of Halloween. Even as a kid I thought it was sort of stupid, and my kids were never into it either. When they were young we had to force them out the door and down the street to get candy. I needed them to grab at least a few Reese's cups! In fact, the only time I can think that trick or treating was fun was when we went during our college years. 3 or 4 big stiffs, knocking on doors in a blatant attempt to grab candy from the good people of Erie, Pa. Most of the people laughed and gave us something! One guy gave us a beer! But I think that I'm not enamored with Halloween because I'm not much of a fan of pumpkins. This year I'm really looking forward to big, round, orange things leaving my life for good in early November. But back to pumpkins! I don't eat or drink anything that is pumpkin flavored! No pumpkin drinks! No pumpkin pie. Yuck. As for the ghosts, witches, goblins (whatever they hell they are)... ...nothing...

Ran into a guy who is a recent first-time Dad. "How's your sleep going?" I asked. He just grunted, grumbled and groaned. Was out on the sites on Thursday when the school called to let me know that Sam hadn't showed up. He rarely misses school, but when he does I know why. "Miss your alarm?" I asked. "Only by five hours," he answered. "I was beat." So, I decided to check in on my beautiful wife, who was on her 3rd day of starting a 5 a.m. shift. She gets up at 3:45! "Tired?" I asked. "Oh God!" She answered. And to top it all off, I was exhausted as well. An early meeting in Buffalo, a flight out, report-writing, buzzing legs... ... blah, blah, blah ... ...and my even the 50 hairs on the top of my head were screaming out for rest. It's weird, but the older you get the less sleep you actually need. So they say. I try my best to go to bed at the same time, and wake up at the same time, b...

So Josh Brown is looking for a job. Only because the New York Giants finally cut him. But the Giants aren't off the hook either. Their owner went on and on about how there would be zero tolerance for any sort of domestic violence issues. The NFL ran a whole bunch of public service announcements showing women who were victims of domestic abuse. NO MORE! The League Cried Out!!! And we all remember why, right? Because Ray Rice knocked his wife out in an elevator. The NFL heard about it and suspended him for a couple of games. Then we saw the video. Ray Rice hasn't been allowed back in the league. He was suspended for a year, went on a world-wide apology tour, prompted the NFL's get tough response, and has been seemingly black-balled from participating. So onto Josh Brown! At the Pro Bowl he allegedly stalked his wife and children. He was drunk. His wife was afraid for her life and the lives of their children. She was so afraid that she contacted ...

In a lower Manhattan school yesterday a young principal came upon a student that was blasting music through a set of headphones. The principal asked the student to turn the music down. The kid pretended not to hear. The principal reached for the headphones on the kids ears and the kid blasted him... ...knocking the principal out cold. The kid just kept on punching, beating the principal, badly, as other members of the student body watched...with some yelling out their approval. The principal is recovering and the student was arrested, of course, but the story horrified me. I couldn't have imagined even looking sideways at our school principal! In fact, seeing the principal in the halls was akin to what it feels like, as an adult, to having a police car slide in behind me in traffic: "What did I do?" I would smile and wave as I walked by: "Hi, Mr. Valone or Hi, Principal McDonough." I'd often get, in response, "Good morning, Fuzzy...

"There's Nothing To Eat!!!" I really wish I had a dime for every time I've heard that through the years: And we spend a fortune on food for these hooligans. They just eat and eat and eat and eat. Sam eats some sort of chicken each and every night... ...the chicken fingers, or chicken fries, or barbecued chicken is usually bathed in Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Every night! Usually within 2 hours of dinner. You know what he eats immediately after dinner... ...for dessert? A bowl of S'mores cereal! What is also unbelievable is that there is usually a run to somewhere for something other than what we have here. Pizza? They eat a football field of pizza. Steak? They turn up their noses at anything that isn't a porterhouse. Milk? A cow would be nice...but I ain't milking it. Which calls to mind my poor parents. As much as my kids eat... ...they were not even close to what we ate as children. Mom was talking about cookin...

The World Series matchup is set.  Will the Cubbies win and break the 108-year skid? Or will the Indians get that 68-year monkey off their back? The photo above is a shot of Bob Newhart , a Chicago fan, celebrating with his grandkids. Newhart has been a fan for all of his life and I doubt if he can remember when the Cubs last made the series in 1945. His grandkids have no idea what the big deal is all about, right? But that's what is cool. I told a little story about Grandpa Fuzzy laying down the law to me back in 1974. I loved Henry Aaron and that Atlanta Braves team - Evans, Aaron, Baker, Garr, Davy Johnson. They hit a lot of homers...Hammerin' Hank was the king (still is). "We're Yankees fans," Grandpa said...as if he were telling me that we were Christians...carried a whole lot of meaning. Been a Yankees fan since. And I have been blessed with a bunch of titles. Yet there are long-suffering fans all around me. Indians fans, Bills fans...

There's a whole lot of anger everywhere you turn, right? Political platforms are designed around tapping into that anger and serving it up in a world of promises that will be broken. And some of the anger is warranted I suppose. Things cost too much. People feel cheated. They don't see the hope, but man, there's too much anger. I was in traffic the other day. The guy in front of me came to a dead stop at a green light. Luckily, I braked in time, but I threw my hands up in the air in a show of disbelief at his move. He was moving again instantly but he had seen my hands in the air because he gave me the finger.  He had been confused by something, made a wrong move and a full minute later he just kept pumping the finger in the air as I went past him on the right. I caught his eyes for a moment and he was so freaking angry! He was in an all-out rage! I waved as I passed in an effort to show that I was all right with HIS mistake and he kept pumping that finger out at me...

Having a real rough go of it with the phones. As we last talked about, I was working with a phone that had a cracked front. No big deal. .. ...but then the home button disappeared. "I can fix that," Jake said. He put a button on the phone that allowed me to move around. I could deal with that. But then I was using my headphones on a trip and I broke the headphone tip off in the port. Whoops! But then the phone rang and I was able to talk to the other person on speaker! I couldn't live with that. So, I consulted the family maintenance department and the head of the department said that she could start a claim that would get me a new phone... ...I had the insurance. It would only cost me $200! "Do it!" I said. We got the phone. I waited patiently as all my new stuff was added. The next day I went to sites... ...all excited! I could talk, navigate and take photos. Then. I dropped it. 3 hours after putting it into action... ...

Alec Baldwin has been doing a pretty good job of imitating Donald Trump on SNL. He's going to have plenty of material after the 3rd debate. First off, Trump invited Obama's half-brother and Sarah Palin... so hopefully Tina Fey will be there. Secondly, he kept yelling out " WRONG !" while Clinton was talking. Look, this has turned into a first-rate comedy show and it would most likely be hysterical if we weren't just days away from electing a president. And after all this time I can say that I finally found some common ground with Donald. I used to play my brother Jeff in video games. Actually I was there for his amusement. He would simply annihilate me no matter what the game was. "My controller is broke!" "My seat sucks!" "I can't see!!" "You found a glitch!" One excuse after another that would allow me to take a beating and leave with my head held high. I wouldn't lose... ...I would get c...

Melania Trump was asked what she thought when she heard the old tape. Her first response was (she said): "Donald, the language is inappropriate." Who actually believes that it went down like that? I can imagine what Kathy might say! "The language is inappropriate" might take a back seat to "Get the hell out of my house, you creepy bastard." She went on to explain that the poor 59-year-old guy was egged on by Billy Bush. Damn! She has to start watching who her senior citizen hangs out with...bad influences can stunt the growth of an adolescent mind. And to be fair and balanced: Don't you think that Hillary needs an IT guy? She certainly comes across as someone, like me, who is challenged by technology. I can imagine asking my wife or kids. "Why is there a big 'C' on all the damn documents? Does that stand for Clifford?" How about the guy who shot at Zimmerman getting 20 years? Isn't it ironic? Zimmerman ...

Reading the Sunday paper. Guy in Buffalo received a feature article in the Buffalo News because he has a noose hanging from the porch rafters just below his Trump Mafia sign. Some of his neighbors are peeved because they see the noose as having racial overtones. The guy said that he doesn't mean to be racial. His rambling, nonsensical explanation of the noose did not sway me. I was reading a bit of Twitter during the Bills home game. Watching as little football as I ever have, but when they're playing a mile from the house it's difficult to ignore everything. There was a 9-second clip of people playing a game called "Hit the Muslim." A dummy dressed up to look like Colin Kapernick was shown being drilled by a woman. Not easy to see which one is the dummy. "Buffalo being Buffalo!" The comment section declared. That's embarrassing. Not to be undone there was another video of a woman, her pants at her knees, guy behind her....mouth in ...

I'm not whining, Pops! And even if I am, leave me alone... ...it's my 52nd birthday!!! Truth be told though, I had a very bad weekend. My legs were numb for a full 48-hours. I did my best to stay off of them as much as possible. And watching shows, reading, getting up just enough to get meals ready... ...I considered how much life has changed in the past 7 years. "Happy Birthday!" Someone texted me. "There's no difference between 25 and 52! It's all the same in your mind!!!" Bull poop! But let's take stock. There was a woman speaking at a recent corporate event. She lost her ability to see...due to diabetes complications at the young age of 28. She learned new things about living. She showed us technological devices that allowed her to choose her clothing, write her checks, live her life. I've learned a lot of new things at 52. How to rest, how to stretch, how to get back in shape so I can get back to work. There...

The title of this blog is a tee-shirt being worn by some fans of one of the presidential candidates. There is an additional word in there, ending in 'ing' between 'Your' and 'Feelings' . And that right there might be the absolute theme of this entire campaign. It is also the true shame of the matter. We have to get rid of the political correctness! I've heard that shouted from the mountaintops. Don't get your feelings hurt if I call you a name that is meant to be demeaning! What gets me about that is that it is coming from the same people who don't care for the fact that someone says 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'. So what are the rules? We can call someone fat, stupid, gay, Islamic, Muslim, pigs, whores, bitches and worse? But put 'X-Mas' on a greeting and you're off my friends list? I never got the nastiness attached to the fact that someone gets in trouble for saying something abs...

So, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon I received this little gem from my great friend, Maria. I started laughing! Because I thought of so many things all at once. Yes, that is me. Think 1973...about 9 years old...shortly after it became known that I needed glasses. Mom picked out those glasses for me. "You look so smart," she said. "He looks like Clark Kent," said Corinne. "Smart? He looks like the ugly dude from 'My Three Sons,'" said John. I recall being devastated in that eye glass store. "The other kids might call you four eyes," the optician said. "Four eyes are better than two!" I begged Mom not to do it to me. "I can't stop looking at it!" Maria said as she sent the photo over. My confidence was shot. It still is. But, of course, the best was waiting at home where Dad was. "What in the hell are you doing to that kid?...

It's wild what a mess things can be in a 7-day span. A week ago I returned from a trip to New England that saw me visit Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Last weekend went good. I made braciole on Sunday, watched a little of that lousy debate and got ready to roll. Then delayed flights, a flat tire on a rental car and my cell phone officially shit the bed once and for all as my headphone jack broke off in the port and I could only talk on speaker. I had a cracked face and had to put a button on the face so I could get back to the home screen. Yet I was in Kansas, Georgia, Minneapolis, Missouri and Iowa... ...so I couldn't get it fixed because I don't know how to set it up! I would have to nurse it through. Return flight wasn't bad but I got in my beautiful wife's car at the airport curb. "Why didn't you bring my car?" I asked. "The battery is dead, I think and the oil light was coming on." I didn't handle that news...

Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It's a controversial decision to be sure, as Zimmy isn't the classical type of choice for such an honor. He's a folk singer, a songwriter. How is that literature? I saw one snob say that he didn't deserve the prize because there have been plenty of times through the years when Dylan actually stole the ideas for his songs from books and the such. One critic said that Dylan being chosen was a dumbing down of literature. I beg to differ, actually. The first vinyl album I ever purchased with my own money was "Slow Train Coming." I played that disc until it was worn to a nub. I love every song on that record. I bought it in cassette form, cd and then on I-tunes. I still crank every song. That's not even my favorite Dylan record. "He sucks!" I've heard plenty of times from people who were caught listening to Dylan with me. "He's a poet," I would always resp...

The 27-Time World Champion Greatest Franchise in the History of Organized American Sports, the New York Yankees, didn't make the playoffs this year. But that hasn't stopped me from watching. And the other night when the Indians were clinging to a one-run lead and there were two outs and the Red Sux got a runner on... ...I was texting Sam. "This is intense!" He wrote. The next batter walked. The place was rocking. "How is football better than this?" I wrote back. It's our running argument, but I defy anyone to tell me that there is anything more intense than the late innings of a playoff baseball game. The Cubbies came back late to beat the Giants and win the series. The ALCS is going to be great: Indians versus Blue Jays I hate the Toronto team so I will be rooting hard. As for the National League? I'm looking for the Cubs to NOT win! "It's been 108 years!" Sam said. "Why don't you want them to win...

Did you see the guy in the red sweater at the 2nd Presidential Garbage the other night? At least he was entertaining! And his name was Ken Bone... ...how perfect is that? First off, you have to give Bone a lot of credit for sitting through that. I honestly could only watch about 5 minutes. It was actually the most uncomfortable thing I've ever seen on television and my beautiful wife likes to watch those medical shows that give you an ongoing surgery. The debate was worse than watching a live bowel surgery! Trump was waking around like he was the bad dude in a WWE match...he was staring at her, interrupting and lying to justify. Clinton was speaking in that shrill voice, smiling uncontrollably and lying to justify. 70-year old people were having a discussion about who is sexually less moral... ...and then we got Ken Bone!!! It's hard to fathom what this "race" has been... ...but Ken Bone will be famous for a little while. He was wearing the b...

The seats are small on Delta Airlines. I'm not small. I'm also beginning to understand that there are people who are a lot bigger than me... It's the luck of the draw! I wasn't lucky on Monday. And it makes you think of the song about sometimes being the windshield and sometimes being the bug. Let's go through my day. I took my seat, big guy, really big guy is coming down the aisle (not here, I'm thinking). "Excuse me, I have that one," he says. I couldn't read on the trip because I didn't have enough room to hold up the book. So I put my headphones on. They didn't work! I sat like a statue and made it to Atlanta. My gate was close to where we landed! I got a water, opened my book, (a half hour to relax). I glanced up at the screen: "Minneapolis" said the sign. "Isn't this the Kansas City gate?" I asked. "That gate has been changed to C32." I was at A3. I made the 5 mile walk. Boar...

The Trump tape is a little scary, right? The people justifying the remarks have started one of the arguments by saying: "Who hasn't said a horrible thing in their life?" "Men talk like that all the time!" There's a tad of truth to some of that, right? We have all made stupid comments that are meant to be funny, or condescending, or immature, or whatever. I suppose that's true. But that's not exactly what that was. (Splitting hairs, right? But his remarks were predatory ). Anyway...it's not about that garbage anyways. It's about the total lack of any sort of privacy anywhere...ever. The fundamental question isn't about if he should or shouldn't have said it, but the audio was crystal clear on a conversation that Trump and Billy Bush never had any idea would ever be out there. Big brother isn't only watching... he's listening too. Being alone isn't possible anymore. As the words of the tape hit m...

When this is all over... ...and I'm fairly sure it will be all said and done in November... ...the Trump era will be a fascinating campaign to digest. Will there be a lasting effect? I don't much care for politics on social media. There is no changing of the mind. No one is really listening to the other person. Minds are made up. All the angst does it torture people who used to be friends. But it's a disservice to NOT talk about what the hell is going on. People who don't believe in abhorant behavior are in the awkward position of defending that behavior. People who believe that Bill Clinton's time in office was a national embarrassment are now DEFENDING their candidate by saying that Clinton did it. So, it was okay then? Or it's okay now? The other amazing thing is how low the bar has now been set. How will future elections be handled? Will outrage over inhaling pot be a news story ever again? Appears that nothing is off the table now. ...

Right? I was on a plane when I received a text from a buddy: "See the Trump news today?" I hadn't. I was listening to baseball as I drove from site to site. I was reading and writing in the airport gate area. I had burned out on the daily stupidity a long time ago. "He was caught on tape saying horrible things about women." I still wasn't alarmed. Hadn't we been through that before? "He can't be hurt by anything he says or does," I said. "This one's a doozy." And yet I didn't rush right to Twitter. Instead I waited until I was on Jet Blue. I flipped the channel to CNN. They were playing the tape. They only beeped the two worst words. I was thoroughly disgusted. Locker room banter? He was a 59-year old man! Sounded like a 14-year old boy!! And yet... ...I flipped the channel. There was a woman supporting him! Saying that "boys will be boys" sort of. "That's horrible...

We like to watch series after series on Netflix. We recently needed a new one and this was the conversation we had: My beautiful wife: "Now what?" Me: "You're in charge of entertaining me." My beautiful wife: "I've grown weary of that." I was looking down at my phone as she clicked through the choices. My head snapped up quickly when I heard the music: "Got yourself a gun." The Sopranos!!! Ultimate entertainment! We watched 3 straight episodes that night. A few more the next night. "Look at how great of an actor he was," I said at one point. I laughed at the Italian phrases. We marveled at the manipulation of his mother, the conflicted angst of his wife. Meadow. Silvio. Paulie. Anthony Jr., Big Pussy, Melfi Awesome! We watched the shows right up until bed and then I saw Gandolfini in my dreams. I can't watch the show without appreciating everything about my Italian heritage. There's a lot ...

I was on my way away from a job on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. I was in a hurry to get to the next one. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a man in a wheelchair. Evidently he lived in the nursing home that was across the way. He was a double amputee. He was also rolling my way. I heard him call for me. "Son, what are you doing on that job?" He called out. "I'm just visiting," I said. "Do you work at the job?" He asked. "Kind of, I'm the safety guy," I said. The old man was now within ten feet of me. I immediately considered that he was about 80 years old. "So, you don't work," he said, with a laugh. I laughed too. He wasn't being mean about it. "Why I ask," he said, "Is because I asked a few guys from there how much money they're making, per hour. Do you know that some of them are making just $15 an hour?" We watched a guy lug a bundle of shingles across the roof deck...

What in the hell is going on with the clowns? I honestly don't know. I always think about reading all about it, but every time I find the story I only read the first paragraph.  It doesn't seem to hold my interest. What I've gathered though is that clowns are showing up all around the country and some people think they're up to bad news. Hasn't anything gone down yet? I hadn't heard that they'd done anything more than scared people. I'm trying to remember if there's anything in the past that makes me think much about clowns, but I don't have any recollection of ever having been entertained by a clown. It's all rather silly, isn't it? Let's just hope that it stays peaceful. Anything might happen in this day and age, right? Like Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint in France. They got $10 milllion in jewelry. Is that what she was wearing? Doing nothing other than porn tapes pays well, huh? Excuse me if I...

There really aren't any celebrities who I'd be thrilled to meet. With the exception of two: Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. I've actually met quite a few other celebrities and while it was interesting...they were just men and women who I'd seen on television, or in the news. (Although the Pamela Anderson moment was exceptional, and signing books with the Fonz was epically cool.) But I had a chance to meet Bruce a little bit in his autobiography, Born to Run . I knew some of the stories. There have been a number of other Bruce books...all sort of tell the tale. Yet, this was a chance to actually hear the words from the man himself. The drive, the work ethic, the love of music, the concerts, the writing, the deep pain of living. It's funny, but I can recall exactly which record store I was in when all of Bruce's records came out through the years. I remember listening to Darkness for the first time with Digger and Doug...the first l...

By late last night, Sam mentioned, at least 70 times, that the Bills won. He'd walk up and say: "By the way, the Bills beat New England." They had done the improbable... ...gone to New England and shut out the Patriots. I didn't catch any of the game, but man he was fired up! I'm a little confused over our taxes... ...thought it was my duty to pay.... ...turns out I'm just stupid! Cheating the system at the bottom is the sign of a dirtbag... ....robbing the system blind at the top makes you smart? What garbage. Seems to me that if you're living in a gold house you can contribute a little. The debate is Pence versus Kaine. Wow! It would take me about 20 minutes to figure out who they were if they walked into my house. I won't be watching. The SNL stuff was pretty good. Damn, Alec Baldwin is funny. His Trump was pretty dead-on. Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin will always be the best....but Baldwin did a lot of stuff right. ...

Opened my eyes on Saturday morning. It was past 7 a.m. I rarely sleep in so late. There was a light rain and the cool air was blowing into the room. Melky lifted her square head as if to see if I was still breathing. Sleeping past 7??? The date was the first thing that registered. October 1. My nephew Tony's birthday! 17 days until I turn 52 years old. Time just flies by and I thought of all the past October days that were crushing because I was worried about the Yankees. No playoffs this year, but they did okay. Changing of the guard. I can live with it. I wore a light jacket on Friday morning. The first jacket of the year. "7 months of crap, now," one of the guys on the site said. For many of us, fall is one of the better times of the year. The crispness in the air. The ability to slow down a little. I actually laid there for a few minutes... ...taking stock. 3 months left in the year. Rest, baseball playoffs, cool air, birthday. "Yo...

Saw a guy I hadn't seen in some time. "You're looking good," he said. "Little bigger than you used to be." I gave him a two word answer. The second word was 'You'. The first word wasn't 'Thank.' Hardly know the guy... He laughed, but I wondered: "What makes people say such things to others?" I thought of it a little longer when I once again was horrified by something one of the political candidates said about a beauty queen. Miss Piggy??? I bust people's chops from time to time. My buddies and me go back and forth constantly. Nothing is off-limits and it is something I'd never take personally... ...but malicious intent is malicious intent and when it's someone that you hardly know? That doesn't feel right. A few months back I was listening to one of the morning radio shows. They had audio of an older, male newscaster who was bantering with a young, female weather person. That usual gar...