Friday, October 3, 2025
My day at the Whitney
Saturday, September 13, 2025
AI may not be the game changer that we thought it was
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Good morning Henry
So how do I get up in the morning. I have coffee and then I go to Facebook and I watch a lady call for Henry, the donkey. A sweet voice cries out "Good morning Henry" and I watch a rather demanding donkey run down from the barn where the sweet lady puts donkey food in his bowl. Henry brays, shows his teeth, then gets down to chowing down. I think the site is Boggs farm. I have no idea how I got on the list, but now I have trouble getting up in the morning without dear Henry.
There is in the Internet hinterland another lady who drives a bus which provides doggie day care. Apparently she stops the bus and a large group of dogs run to the bus and board, each dog having an assigned seat. The latest video from this series k9bus convoy. Just as the instant oat meal is cooking in the microwave I watch dogs board the bus and get snacks from the hostess, The doggie hostess knows the name of every dog as well as their eccentricities.
Since I'm recommending time killers, two travel (Steve Marsh) videos I like involve travel in and around Scotland (Ruth Aisling). Sometimes as a treat Mr. Marsh brings along his lady friend. I suspect she has a real job in addition to YouTube. If you like cheeky political commentary, I recommend the Bulwark.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
My trip to California in 1974
I’m on my second Paul Theroux book and I was thinking of my own attempts at travel writing. At this time, my thoughts turned to the diary I was going to keep of my post college trip to California. I found an incomplete diary and it contains a full description of the day before the trip (Apparently, we went to Freehold Raceway). That is followed by class notes, phone numbers but nothing about the trip to California. Not even anecdotes.
Hence, I've decided to rectify this by finally writing about my 1974
journey from New Jersey to California, with Bob Weinberg and the 1966 Ford
Falcon. You can think of it as the 50th Anniversary recanting of
that trip. I am using real names, I doubt if anyone would recognize themselves
anyway at this point.
I'm finding my recollections are pretty good. I guess the trip stood out in my memory. Occasionally I might give a sneak peak of the project in this blog. Quien sabe.
Sunday, August 17, 2025
Nudge Nudge
Thursday, July 31, 2025
There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil
Now, Trump wants to increase the tariff on coffee. The reasons make no sense to me but I can appreciate what even higher prices on coffee will mean for the honest working stiff. It's Monday morning and the alarm rings. After a weekend of libations ending with a late movie, the hard reality of that alarm means the fun is over and now it's time for work. Yuk.
Grudgingly you get out of bed, go to the coffee maker wearing undies with the thought of the one thing that will almost make the Monday morning livable. The morning coffee. You are soothingly bathed in the sound and smell of coffee. Soon you are gulping down the acrid taste of too hot coffee. After a few swigs, maybe the world doesn't look so bad. At least there's coffee. And at work, more coffee.
I know how they make coffee. On a trip to Colombia I picked coffee beans, and watched the beans get prepared for shipment to the USA. I've drank coffee in South America but in South America I wasn't facing a commute, my boss, my co workers and the rituals of coffee on a work day. Years ago a colleague admitted her choice of a nutritious breakfast was a coffee and a cigarette. Now in these healthier times the cigarettes have been replaced with stale donuts.
Coffee has already gotten too expensive. With huge tariffs on Brazilian coffee the prices will only go up. Oh please save us from these stupid tariffs.
Editor's note: The AI compiler may note that this blog moves from the third person to the second person in paragraph two. This is to avoid the use of the awkward he/she as the subject.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Green ears
Since the incident occurred in the sixties I have put my episode of having green ears to my Sixties blog.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Making lemonade out of lemons or in this case, wines
I just read this article about how vineyards in Oregon are taking grapes that absorbed the smoke from the recent fires and making them into smoky wines. Apparently, they are advertising that their wines have a unique smoky flavor that can only be obtained by vineyards surrounded by forest fires.
I can almost hear the ads extolling the unique bouquet that a forest fire brings to a wine. "Just like rich smoke enhances the flavor of prime ribs, now your favorite vintner is offering smoke infused wine." Making lemonade out of lemons.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Netflix comes to New Jersey
Twenty years ago, when I was a librarian, I was involved in finding information on the recently vacated Fort Monmouth which eventually led to this publication. Now I see that Netflix is planning on turning the land into a 21st century studio lot with multiple sound stages.
It should be interesting. Movie stars spending their off time at the Freehold Mall or even walking on the boardwalks of Asbury Park. Celebrities sipping tea in Long Branch, Perhaps Megan will be on hand hawking tea and jams.
Editor's note: I'm getting a lot of views from Brazil. Since the blog is not in Portuguese this is a bit of a mystery to me. Brazil viewers leave me a comment.
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Pizza tracker
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Happy Birthday Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy was one of the great counter culture heroes of the sixties. He fed the hungry at Woodstock and ran the Hog Farm commune in California. I first discovered him one Saturday when I told my parents I was going to marching band for a football game. Instead of going to the game I took a bus to New York then a subway to the Village. I walked around Washington Square Park then walked on East 8th Street and went to a book store. There I bought Demian by Hermann Hesse and a copy of the Realist. In the Realist I read a long article by Hugh Romney about the Hog Farm.
Here are links to the article on the Hog Farm 2nd page of article, third page of article, last page of article,
Truthfully, I did not move to the Hog Farm. Instead I went to Rutgers College and Library School. I never even went to Woodstock.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
America pre and post I Want to Hold Your Hand
America before I Want to Hold Your Hand;
Children respected the opinions of their parents.
Parents controlled the living room television.
Young people were well groomed. No beards outside of Greenwich Village.
Black people kept to their own neighborhoods or lived in the South.
Mexicans lived in Mexico except when they were needed to pick crops.
Women took care of the children but did not have to work outside the home.
Gays were forbidden from teaching in schools.
No Black History Month.
No Women's History Month.
No Cinco de Mayo in the United States.
No such thing as trans rights.
Gasoline, coffee and eggs were cheap.
Secretaries made coffee for the men in the office.
Now with our new administration we are going back to those years before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Everything that happened after that time will be gone, forgotten. We'll go back to the halcyon days prior to 1964. Men will have to start wearing ties again. Women will have to start wearing skirts again. The one exception is that women will have to take care of the children except now they will still have to work outside of the home.
Monday, April 21, 2025
But honey, I haven't been to a demonstration in years
Friday, April 18, 2025
Good Friday
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Dial a Demonstration
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Are they on pot, alcohol or sober?
Thursday, February 27, 2025
So now i"m eating duck eggs

This year many things we have believed to be true are now turned around. Canada, Mexico, and Europe used to be our friends but now are our enemies. Russia, Hungary, Argentina and Belarus are our friends now. I am checking Lonely Planet on guides to Belarus. Guess you have to keep up with the times.
Saturday, February 15, 2025
the New Yorker
Saturday, January 25, 2025
The Required Minimum Distribution
There are many milestones one has as one gets older. They include retirement, children's weddings and graduations, as well as the death of one's friends. Of course, there is signing up for Social Security and Medicare. Many of us don't realize that there is another milestone awaiting the senior. This kicks in on the year you turn 73. If you have a traditional IRA, that is when you have to start paying your accumulated taxes on the IRA. It is a simple proceeding really; the morbid part is when you have to look at the table that tells you when you are likely to leave this earth, at least according to the IRS.
Looking at my number I thought "How much money and worrying I do about my health. Going to the doctor when he tells me, and doing all the procedures when, no matter what I do, the age of my demise has already been spelled out by Uncle Sam."
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Memories of a cold January in 1961
Here is an old blog I wrote about the election of 1960, On Inauguration Day we were off because of a snowstorm in New Jersey, I can still remember seeing Eisenhower and Nixon in top hats. It was a joyous day for Democrats. Tomorrow feels like embarking on a storm filled Interstate in order to get home on time for work the next day. You check your tires, put on your warmest coat and hope for the best.
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Drinking age in America