Thoughts of a Common Man

Had to laugh at Juan Soto who left the Yankees for the Mets. He got $755 million, but had the nerve to say that he left because the Mets had a brighter future than the Yankees. The Mets missed the playoffs. The Yankees go in, hot as a pistol, but they’re seeded behind two teams that have worse records, and they didn’t get a chance to win the division in a game 163. Using tiebreakers to settle the division is ridiculous. Yet, here we go: Yankees versus Red Sux Tigers versus Guardians Reds versus Dodgers Padres versus Cubs I like Yankees, Tigers, Dodgers, Cubs in the first round, which would set up: Yankees versus Blue Jays Mariners versus Tigers Dodgers versus Phillies Cubs versus Brewers In that round, I like: Yankees, Mariners Phillies, Brewers  With Yankees and Phillies advancing to the World Series. We will see how it plays out. It’s the baseball playoffs! It could very easily turn out to be: Guardians versus Reds. Off we go!

One tragic lie after another. All to avoid the Epstein files and the fact that the president is a pedophile. I heard that inflation is gone, prices are down and trillions are pouring in from other countries with tariffs. All lies. Trying to send troops into Portland to what was described as ravaged by a war. Lies. It was said that force will be used as necessary to control ANTIFA. Read that one again. American troops will be using force against American citizens. And it’s not a gang of transgenders that have gathered in Portland. It’s people protesting what the government is doing, and protest and using one’s voice is a protected right in the constitution. We are sliding into authoritarian rule. The federal government is overstepping in a lot of areas. Farmers are going bankrupt and now it is being said that the government will bail the farmers out using tariff money. That’s straight up socialism. The tariffs are being paid as a tax by all of America. That’s why inflation isn’t gone an...

Swung by the local Dollar General (there is one every mile or so) to grab dog bones for the Big O. As I headed for the register I spotted a guy who was about 5’7” by 5’7” in a Bills jersey with the number 17 and Allen on the back. “Oh, thought you were Josh,” I said. He didn’t smile. “Two things,” he said. “I doubt Josh walks around town in his jersey and secondly, I’m just trying to represent.” “They’re playing well,” I said, to calm the dude down.  (Didn’t mention that Allen walking around in his jersey WOULD BE stupid but that some guy named ‘Johnson’ or ‘Smith’ or ‘Bueller’ walking around with an ‘Allen’ game day jersey wasn’t). “This is the year,” he answered. And his wife, or girlfriend, joined him in line.  She was wearing a James Cook jersey despite the fact that she was about 4’2” and white. What a trip! I got to meet Allen and Cook whilst buying milk bones. My boys have about 20 Bills jerseys between them, and I get it, I guess.  I have a couple of Yankees jerse...

I sit here writing this on Saturday morning with an aching back and feeling a little tired.  I took the entire day off yesterday - which never happens - and we played a second round at the Barking Lions get together -  I played well again - but that’s beside the point. I’m sore! “Is that it for golf for the year?” Kathy asked. “Hell no!” I answered. “We played into November last year.” “I just ask because you creaked when you stood up.” “I’ll be all right.” And it’s all about the guys you play with. This month I played 4 rounds with great friends - laughing, looking around at the beauty of the courses, hitting it straight and not so straight. And I kept thinking that I’ve been blessed with a lot of friends throughout my days here. I’ve known Al and John and Jeff and Eddie and Duke for more than 55 years! No need to do anything but go out and play… …like we did when we were 5 years old. Damn. I’m sore. And Ollie is looking at me. He’s gonna have to learn to toss it up in the ai...

Big Al scheduled the golf getaway and the rain held off.  We played a very hilly course, and shared some laughs. Hanging out with guys you’ve known since you were children is easy. Like putting on an old pair of shoes. I got a flashback as Jeffy lined up his tee shot on 17 and absolutely pulverized one. We played a lot of golf together as young men, talking about everything. Jeff’s swing looked the same as it did 44 years ago. Great friendships are easy and if I had to describe the entire round it’s just that the conversation was easy. We had good swings and bad swings, and a few laughs as we talked about our families. Just what Al had in mind, I imagine. Work is busy, life is always busy, and we sometimes lose track of people as we navigate our days, but I enjoyed the good swings and we laughed at the bad ones. Those are important days as we move through life. Reconnecting the past and the future… …just letting the old friends know that they’re still walking beside you, even when ...

There’s an old joke that my Dad used to tell.  Guy goes to the funeral parlor and sadly says, “I’m here to bury my wife.” The funeral director says: “I’m confused. Didn’t we bury your wife a few years ago?” The guy says, “I got remarried.” And the funeral director exclaims, “Oh! Congratulations!” Unfortunately, I thought of that joke yesterday as I ran into an ironworker who suffered a stroke a few years back. He was in his early 30’s at the time. Yet, there he was, back on the iron. “I’m so glad to see you recovered,” I said. “I was out of work for three full years,” he said. “You look good,” I said. “For now,” he answered. “Found out a few months back that I have stomach cancer and I gave up treatment.” That’s what made me think of that old joke. Good Lord. He battles all the way back through the rehab. He beats it! Only to get hammered again. I didn’t even know what to say as a way of parting. He answered my question for me. “I just feel alive when I’m out here. Going to do it a...

It always amazes me that there are people out there, walking amongst us, who believed that the rapture date was September 23, 2025. First off, September 23rd is Bruce’s birthday- he turned 76 yesterday - God isn’t going to disrupt the Boss’ birthday. Secondly, those who believed that the rapture was imminent were so sure that they’d be lifted straight out of their shoes and taken to heaven. Now what do they do today now that it didn’t happen? Why move the date, of course! They need to come up with a new date, and work on convincing themselves that the next one is the real one. Seriously, there are people who sell all their worldly possessions, and get themselves a brand new haircut so they can stand at the pearly gates and sell themselves to Saint Peter. “I’m on the list! God pulled me up. I told everyone! I was right!!” I’ve always wondered why God only seems to speak with crazy people. There was a woman on a Dateline episode recently. She’d been shot in the face by the guy her husban...

We like to watch a comedy show as we eat dinner. Sometimes it’s ’Modern Family.’ Sometimes it’s ’Two And a Half Men.’ Last night, I played clips of the moron in chief playing doctor. Good Lord, it was funny. He couldn’t pronounce acetaminophen, and after the third try he said it, and then looked at someone and asked if that was good. He talked about Tylenol and how they don’t have it in Cuba - or so he heard - and that they don’t have any autism. Then he added that he’d heard that, but didn’t know if it was true, but added that you shouldn’t take Tylenol unless your fever is really high, but that you should try and tough it out, but that Tylenol is the only thing you can take because it works. My head was spinning, but it was funny! Then my personal favorite. He explained that what he wasn’t saying didn’t come from the doctors, but rather from him, because he has good common sense. He hit the punch line by saying, “Some of the doctors might have good common sense too, I don’t know, may...

“If you could design the weather to play golf in, this would be it,” I said around hole 8. 70 degrees, light breeze, ball still bouncing down the fairway. I missed some make able putts, but swung it well enough, and was happy with the round. The Yankees were on television and it was a good game. An important game for playoff seeding and it was tied at one in the 10th when Ben Rice hit a grand slam. Round of golf - check. Yankees win - check. Sausage made and in the freezer - check. Played a half dozen games of football with Ollie - check. I made the meatballs, cleaned out the cat box, took the garbage to the road, and did the laundry. Working on a new story. At about 7:30 last night, it dawned on me that the weekend was nearly complete, and that Sunday was pretty perfect…. …and that I was pretty tired! I need a day of rest from the weekend, but no time to waste… …here comes the week.

We love Jason Bateman and his new series, ‘Black Rabbit’ dropped on Netflix. We love Mark Ruffalo (a terrific actor) and his series, ‘Task’ is showing up an episode at a time. “Hey,” Kathy said. ‘The Morning Show’ is back.” That is also a weekly drop. ‘Tulsa King’ has a new season starting and ‘Landman’ with Billy Bob Thornton - who is also great - is also coming. Which is all great news because right now… …reality sucks. Have you caught any of the recent press conferences? A reporter asks a question and the pig answers by asking who they work for. “NPR.” “Oh, you’re going out of business.” America truly needs to wake up a it appears that the plan is to shut down anyone who speaks out. I’m wondering about the blog. Will it come down to… …either say what we like or you won’t be able to speak anymore? It’s getting there. And this should certainly frighten everyone! Not just liberals or conservatives. Every single American should be wary. “I don’t know what is true anymore,” someone said ...

I had a stray thought about the Yankees-Red Sux race from way back in 1978. People generally recall that the Yankees were 14.5 games back in July and that they caught Boston leading to the one game playoff at Fenway where Bucky Fu**ing Dent became a legend. What people forget is that going into the last day of the season the Yankees had a one-game lead with one to play. All they had to do on the final day was to beat the lowly Cleveland squad, or hope Boston lost. Cleveland had nothing to play for, and they were bad that year. Didn’t matter. They beat the Yankees that day, and 13-year old me was devastated. I love the baseball races for the playoffs. Back then only 4 teams made the playoffs in each league. Now there are wild cards, but the races are still awesome. Houston and Seattle are tied in the AL West. Cleveland is just 1.5 games back of Boston for the wild card, and they still have a chance in the central. The Yankees can chase down Toronto and will almost certainly host playoff...

Jimmy Kimmel was kicked off ABC for making a factual comment about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer. Colbert’s show was cancelled. Meanwhile, a Fox News host said that homeless people need to be killed, and that organization paid a massive fine for lying about the 2020 election and that lie is still being repeated five years later. Here’s the deal. None of this is America. I was against it when it happened to Roseanne Barr and what she was saying was a little nuts. We have freedom of speech and for those who are saying that an employer can make such a decision and that we are free to say whatever we want but that there may be consequences - certainly - all well and good… …but did ABC suspend Kimmel because they were being pressured by the huge, orange mess that has done little besides complain about Kimmel? That’s not good. I don’t know who needs to hear it, but if the Federal government will control free speech then it isn’t free speech any longer. We have troops in the streets. Dissenti...

$12 billion is being cut from the education budget in what is a distinct effort to get rid of the department of education because we are trying to make America great again. What says greatness more than giving a tax cut for the wealthy so you can rip education and healthcare away from the masses? The con job is amazing, mostly because it’s all so dumb, and there’s a huge amount of people falling for it. Who in the world believes that less money in education is a great idea? Teachers are living paycheck to paycheck and that’s only the ones who are still doing it. Many of the qualified teachers left for greener pastures because there was little money available to them…. …either personally or for their classrooms. The economy is in a free fall but those in the administration are telling people that the prices are going down. Which is laughable. You know what cutting funds to education will accomplish? Absolutely nothing. And the other day, the orange dope said: “Smart people don’t like me...

Artificial intelligence. Social media. Fabricated news stories. Truth is done. Now we all laughed at Kellyanne Conway, years ago, when she spoke about alternative facts. I don’t talk politics with unfamiliar people, but a guy straight up asked me about Charlie Kirk. I gave him a benign answer. “There are too many unstable people with unfettered access to guns.” “It’s those transgender m-fers,” he said. “They’re the ones shooting up everything.” “The guy who shot Kirk wasn’t transgender,” I said. “HE WAS!” He yelled. “No, he was far right,” I said. “Wasn’t transgender.” “That’s what I read,” he said. “A transgender, crazed libtard.” (It was the exact reason why I never bring up politics to someone I don’t know). “That’s not true,” I said. “Seriously, read a little more about him. You got some bad info.” “We can agree to disagree,” he said. (I should have let it go). “We actually can’t agree to disagree on this one,” I said. “What you are thinking isn’t true. There’s not an ounce of fact...

One of our go-to shows for laughs is ‘Two and a Half Men’. Even after all these years, it’s still funny, and Charlie Sheen was great as Charlie Harper. Of course, Sheen was a huge star for decades and then he had a famous breakdown, that was certainly embarrassing. There’s a documentary that goes through all the high and low moments of his life, and Sheen (8 years sober now) bares his soul. By the way, I enjoy these trips down memory lane with the artists - the Billy Joel one is excellent - and I’m patiently waiting for the one that will go through Mick Jagger’s life. As Sheen goes, he has a certain charm. I recall how I felt back when he was doing his Tiger Blood tour, and I remember feeling ashamed of the people who were making money off of him. We certainly can’t fathom such a life. It’s not like our lives. I also considered what might have happened if during my 20’s I’d been paid millions of dollars and plopped me in the middle of Hollywood. He was making movies, and was on the cov...

I’ve heard a lot about God during the telling of the Charlie Kirk death. J.D. Vance, who says some horribly abhorrent things, in the name of Jesus, was eulogizing Kirk and he said (paraphrasing) Kirk should have been here for decades spreading the good news, but that God had other plans. Really? God’s plan was to put the gun in the hands of a radicalized kid who spent too much time going down rabbit holes on the internet, and practicing his long rifle shots in order to one day pick off Kirk with a neck shot. Did God write that plan down? I’m just lost on some of the interpretations of the Bible and of Jesus’ life. Read that one guy said that we should kill the homeless. Where is that in the Bible? Covering up for men who were involved in a sex ring involving children and then voting against exposing those men by saying: “I prayed long and hard for guidance in making my decision .” The hell you did! And I’m a man who spent a lot of years going to church and reading Bible verses. I don’t...

For just about thirty years I’ve participated in the Militi-Raulli golf weekend. I wore the baseball cap that I got on year one as we played on Friday afternoon. Tony D., who is now 80 years old, golfed an 83, hitting lasers all around the course. Joe, who is my nemesis, and once drilled me with a rock from 100 yards, started my day by stealing Chippy out of my bag and costing me at least 3 strokes on the first two holes. Rob and Paulie set everything up so that all we had to do was show up and be ready to laugh. I won my bet against Tom again this year - a running bet that we have for most everything we do - I have a dinner coming. And we laughed about the trip we made to Yankee Stadium. Tom eating a bowl of gravy that he thought was soup. Linguine and clams at the Italian restaurant and a second round when all our backs were sore on Saturday morning. I wore that hat because back when Joe Militi was alive I showed up wearing a Yankees cap. Joe said two things to me that fine day: 1). ...

Killing in the name of religious beliefs is about as hypocritical as one can get. Turns out the alleged Kirk shooter is a young, white male. Like so many other shooters in so many other scenarios. White supremacy is the true terror that the people of the nation are facing, and it appears that the problem is growing. What annoys me to no end is that immediately following the Kirk shooting there were wild accusations flying about the ‘radical left’. Now there are lunatics all across this great land, and they all have unfettered access to powerful firearms. So, it was possible that perhaps it was a fringe leftist… …but it certainly seemed odd. Most lefties don’t collect guns, or paint their faces or their trucks or their homes with the colors of their favorite political candidate as if they were rooting for a ball team. Most don’t live their life in blind rage at opponents both real and imagined. Violence? A quick look at the data will reveal where the violence is coming from and how thes...

Empathy. It’s difficult to imagine that someone simply doesn’t care enough about someone losing their life. I don’t have any thoughts that resemble what Charlie Kirk believed. In fact, I don’t even believe that he believed all that he was saying. Some of it had to be an act. Regardless. He was just 31 years old and his children will barely remember him. How can that be anything but sad? It was also sad when Paul Pelosi was beat with a hammer. Kirk tried to bail out the man who attacked Pelosi… …and he also mentioned that empathy makes us weak. We hear a lot of people saying now that the left needs to turn down the rhetoric, as if we haven’t heard people being called: Pigs, stupid, low intelligence, dumb… …the list is too long. We all know when the discourse headed for the toilet. And as I noted, the political violence amped up on January 6th. So, the reaction to a senseless murder of a young man? Fox mentioned that we are ‘at war.’ Dangerous stuff. Empathy. Is sorely needed. For the Ep...

Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot to death yesterday afternoon. A 31-year old father. That’s a shame. It truly is, and about a half hour later there was a news alert about three high school kids shot to death. We don’t even read about all the shootings anymore. They’re old news. And there will be a lot of discussion about the political division and how the hateful rhetoric has caused the violence. There’s some truth to that, but tolerating January 6th and pardoning those who did it, went a long ways to promote the violence. We accepted it. I don’t see a reasonable way out of this. Charlie Kirk isn’t the first political figure to be gunned down this year. I’m hoping it will stop, but I don’t see how. There are guns in the hands of unstable people. Guns don’t kill people but unstable people with guns do. It’s a terrible thing. Horrible. Pray it stops.

I was really looking forward to seeing a guy I know. He is a MAGA, fat-orange-guy-fan that I have bantered with for a decade. I wanted to get his thoughts on the fact that Shitler was Epstein’s best buddy and that he sent that disgusting letter with the crude drawing of the ‘girl’. “What’s up?” I yelled. “Did you see the birthday card?” He laughed. “Oh, I’m going to need to see proof,” he said. “The birthday card is proof that they were partners.” “Anyone could have made that card,” he said. “They’re framing him.” I laughed. “The card was included in a book that was bound and given to Epstein as a gift more than 20 years ago, so if they were framing him, they did it more than two decades ago.” He looked a little confused by the FACT. He said the exact thing that I knew he’d say. “Clinton was pals with him too.” “I don’t care! Put him in jail too, right next to your favorite shit bird.” He was stunned by that answer too. “I’m going to need more proof than that,” he said.  That answe...

On a job site I watched a kid jump into a 3’ excavation. “Ah, don’t jump!” I said. “Is jumping against the rules?” He asked. “Technically, no,” I said. “But how old are you?” “Twenty-one.” I told him about the knee surgeries, or the hip surgery in his future. Then we talked about how I missed being able to do some things as I got older. Cut to last evening, and I was watching the neighbor boys play basketball in their driveway. I played a lot of basketball at that age, and for a whole lot of years after. I miss playing basketball. I miss playing softball with my buddies and then going out and eating platters of food. I also miss eating more than just a little food at dinner time. One cheeseburger! I miss staying up later than 11:00 or sleeping later than 7:00. I even miss going out for a few beers, or more than a few beers. I could probably still do that, but not without a freaking hangover. I miss being able to stay up long enough to watch the end of a game. I didn’t even bother turni...

By now we’ve all seen the footage of the woman who went a little nuts at a Phillies-Marlins game. A home run ball reached the seats in the outfield and it was bouncing around in an empty seat. A man ran one section over and picked up the ball just before the woman was about to pick it up. The happy man ran back to his seat and handed the ball to his young son, but the woman was right there. Screaming in the guy’s face. Big brother is watching! The man let the woman have the ball just so she’d get the hell away from him and his son. The fallout was that the Phillies and Marlins stepped up and gave the kid a signed bat and their own ball. The woman? She has been absolutely vilified! I saw last night that there is already a Halloween costume that shows the ‘Karen’ Phillies fan. There was a rumor going around that said she was about to be fired from her job.  (I didn’t investigate it all that much). Yet we see story after story about people going nuts in public only to be outed by soci...

I have OCD thoughts from time to time. Every day, actually, as I have to do certain things at certain times, and then every once in a while, I’ll get stuck in a loop of sorts. I had an idea to clean out some of the closets and drawers, and file cabinets. There are just two of us here, and there’s a lot of accumulated junk. I went through the boys closets last week, and our garbage tote was full. My closet was calling to me, and I knew that most of what I had to sort through was two huge plastic totes where I stuffed everything. I pulled one of the totes down to the couch area, and as I watched ‘Modern Family’ I went back in time. One of the first things I pulled was a card that my new college friends - Rosie, Gag and Bob - made me for my 18th birthday. I was away from home for the first time ever on my birthday, and I was a little down-hearted. My friends placed a photo of a beautiful woman on a piece of construction paper: “This is Edith.” When I opened the card there was a badly draw...

Still lost whenever I think about the High School Catfish series, and whenever I read anything about the current political situation. Jake was just about four years old when he got frustrated with a house rule and he blurted. “It’s not your world.” We still say that to one another when someone is being too self-absorbed.  To be able to do some of the things that evil people do… they simply have no conscience. One of my favorite Mellencamp songs off the “Big Daddy” record has a chorus that goes: “I want, I want. I need, I need.” I have a theory that we were a lot nicer to one another decades ago. Compassion and understanding seem to be in short supply. You’d think that eventually we will go back to being a society that raises money for ALS by dumping ice water over our heads, or running in a 5k, but man, it seems that overall (and I know that there is still good out there) we are a less compassionate nation. How else do we watch families being torn apart by wildly aggressive immigra...

The fact that the republicans are trying to sell the Epstein list as a “Democrat Hoax” might just be the cherry on top of the mountain of hypocrisy that has been built since fat orange came down the escalator. What we know: Epstein and Trump were best friends. They were co-defendants in a rape case brought by a woman, a long time after she was assaulted.  She was 13 years old at the time. There are photos of Shitler, as a middle-aged man, making out with a girl who was no more than 14. The information was handed over to this administration and they made a grand gesture of holding up copies, letting the world know that there was going to be hell to pay! And now? They’re hiding it and claiming that Obama and Comey wrote the Epstein files. If that were the case, why did they never release them? Here’s the truth as I have reasoned it. 1). Epstein and Trump were partners - there’s certainly a money trail that linked the two men. 2). Hundreds of powerful men of both parties were involved...

I am so out of the loop when it comes to the NFL that I had to ask my son when the Bills played over the first two weeks…. …mainly because it will upend my golf outings when they play at 1:00 on Sunday. But, if I want to catch up on the NFL I just have to put on a sports talk show, because despite the fact that baseball is in the middle of a mad rush for playoff spots… …all the questions from callers is “First time caller, long time listener, can Patrick Mahomes shake off last year’s Super Bowl loss?” The NFL dominates the national sports conversation, and I have a problem with that because it’s all smoke and mirrors. Most games are absolute snooze fests. But here we go. Who can win the Super Bowl this year? That’s a legitimate question because before the year even starts, we know all the teams that COULD win it, and there aren’t many. 1). The Eagles - they are favorites to repeat. 2). The Chiefs - Can Mahomes shake off the Super Bowl loss? Will Taylor Swift have an impact? 3). The Ram...

There are a whole lot of people who are at the end of their rope. Just hanging on. Crazy as a loon. We stumbled upon a documentary on Netflix called “The High School Catfish” or some such nonsense, and we were horrified by the theme. A young girl and her junior high boyfriend were being harassed via text message. Simply nasty, disgusting messages that literally drove the entire town insane. The police were stymied and eventually they brought the FBI in. Now, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it was the first documentary where I literally was shocked, and my crazy barometer exploded. Three days later, and I’m still thinking about it. Kathy was also utterly disgusted. And we hear a lot about mental health every time there’s a mass shooting. People aren’t getting the help they need and on freedom road they’re free to concoct and plan and ultimately destroy innocent people, or their own families. I stopped for lunch in Buffalo yesterday, and it was a nice enough day to eat outside. I w...

Last weekend was a very good golf weekend. I played in a scramble last Saturday and then a round on Sunday - played so well both days - but got rained out on the 17th hole on Sunday. There were to be 8 days in between rounds - so I was really focused on keeping it going. First ball was great - down the middle and good distance. “Stay focused,” was my two word message. Shanked the 2nd shot of the day. And I pretty instantly knew that it was just different. It’s such a crazy game that requires intense concentration, and repeated mechanics that if, are an inch off, can send the ball flying in a completely different direction. I’m a consistent player. I know some guys who can play an absolutely perfect hole, and then turn around and card a snowman on a par 3. On back to back holes! Fickle! I usually can roll with the punches, but the game can drive one nuts from time to time. On the 7th hole, we talked about the short par 3 - just 140 yards - I topped my drive…. …about 50 yards! Let my clu...

Spent some time on Saturday morning watching “Monk”. Must have rubbed off a little because I had an overwhelming urge to clean up some of the closets and cabinets in all the rooms that we no longer use anymore. Needed to put everything in the right place. The boys vacated the place without cleaning up their closets and I was dreading digging in. But it was kind of cool because I saw some of their paraphernalia from their little league days. I also found a magazine, with Kobe Bryant on the cover, that held a note from my Dad to Matt. My Dad was as great at that - finding something that you were interested in and sending you something about the subject. I saved that for Matt - he will appreciate it as he gets older. “I’ll do a closet at a time,” I thought, but that’s not how OCD works. I was in full Monk mode. Cleaning, putting things away, folding old clothes that my kids won’t wear again, sorting through their football jerseys. Throwing garbage away. The one closet I didn’t touch yet i...