Old So What

  An Internet personality for our times. Cash is in real estate:   leasing apartments in New York City.   He likes some questionable properties if you ask me, but maybe it’s because he is the most optimistic person on the planet. Not that there is anything wrong with that. He also dissects the neighborhoods that the properties are in. He speaks of relevant issues such as:   the safety of the location, available transportation, and local places he can personally recommend. Cash also takes trips outside the boroughs of New York.   He takes his wife (Japanese born) and his two very sweet children to Japan occasionally.   Whether this is business or pleasure I don’t know, maybe a little of both. Wherever he goes for his videos, people seem to know and like him.   Why not?   Cash is a likeable guy, and sometimes his comments are really funny, but his thoughts are always original.

  I’m tired of hearing all the accolades, and seeing all the awards for superior performance and talent beyond compare. To incredible insights and going where no one has gone before, I say phooey! Where would you all be without: Average, Commonplace, or just Acceptable?   All comparisons would cease to exist. Here’s to all of those who cannot attain first prize, cannot be lauded as the best at something. Who’s to say that the average didn’t try their best, yearn the most but succeed the least. Life is a fickle fiend, spreading gifts of intelligence, creativity, and beauty to a few, and leaving in its wake the battered dreams of the many.

  Your family usually starting with the eldest members begin to disappear. One by one they leave.   At first, because you’re young, you don’t notice all that much, but eventually it all catches up with you, until you are forced to notice. This usually happens around the time you realize that you are now getting old. You lose a spouse or a parent, in other words a significantly essential person. Where’d they go? Unfortunately, we know…so start now having a few extra caring people around you.   You can never have enough of those. Having a loving pet is good, too.   And don’t forget to provide a caretaker for that pet for when you, yourself, disappear.

But unfortunately, I already forgot one of them! So, I better tell you about the other one quick! Loquacious .  It calls to mind all sorts of wonderful possibilities. But all it means is: “tending to talk a lot; that is, full of excessive talk.” (Which can be a positive or negative thing.) Some synonyms are: chatty and talkative. This word is pronounced as:  LUH+KWAY+SHUHS (A guide just in case.)   That’s it! But somehow, I expected more. 

  I feel that the world is in such crisis right now, that you and I (with our rational conversation) are just arranging   deck chairs on the Titanic, don’t you think?

  If you watch some ads you may get a taste of what not to do, as for instance in the bathroom redo commercial,  complete with a sing-song delivery as the speaker’s voice goes up at the end of each and every sentence (to drive the listeners truly nuts!). Also, speak clearly and enunciate each word. Unlike the commercial done by a faux children’s band where (I must admit that this was quite an achievement), the little lead actor did the entire recording without moving his lips or jaws! And, this is important, if the audience cannot remember the name of the product or service right after viewing the commercial, then technically that ad is a dud, a failure.  An award-winning professional in the industry told me that.  He should have called it "Commercial-Making 101." ) 

  Delivery services always deliver what you want most… last.

  You know you’re old when you trip over your own cane.  Something which is not that funny when you actually do it, so go to YouTube’s video on how to properly use a cane. It’s well worth knowing if only for your own survival!

  I am an American. I have always been proud to be one. But new things are happening now. And I fear that my country, my America, has been invaded by chaos…to say the least.

  I am using a cane more often these days.   Fact is that I spent so much time looking for the cane that I resurrected another one, which is a big klutzy, ugly thing. Now I spend my time looking for two canes. I am going to put some flashing lights on them, or cow bells, or something.

  For starters, the house itself was unusual. It was haunted. No really.   It was. I don’t normally believe in phenomena like this but I experienced it myself. I know what I know. The reconverted barn had reconverted ghosts. You became the victim of its wrath if you fell asleep in its room. Usually it struck (if that’s the right term for it) at 1 in the morning.   Then sharpened bony fingers would grip your shoulder and hold on tight until you woke up in a fright.   (I always thought of it as a he, but it could very well have been a she .   I mean why not?) This “thing” whatever, was not friendly.   Its physical language was aggressive, clearly saying, “get out, you’re in my territory!” Besides me, it appeared to both my brothers, and a friend of ours who knew nothing about what happened in that room, but slept there as a guest one unfortunate night for him. Because it was now a house and no longer a barn, it took on the hybrid effects o...

On a February day in 2024, in Athens, Georgia, Laken Reilly was brutally struck down for no reason by a monster.  Laken was a nursing student. We will never know now how many patients she would have helped had she been allowed simply to live her life. She has left us too soon at 22 years of age. She has left us with just a glimpse of her promising future. She has left us with her middle name:  Hope. Laken Hope Reilly.

  In case I didn’t mention it in Part 1, and I didn’t, the film, “Bridge of spies” was based on the Berlin Wall, (built by Communist East Germany in 1961), and how various world powers swapped two famous prisoners trapped on either side of it.   Rudolf Abel was the convicted Russian spy and Francis Gary Powers was the convicted spy from the US. The hero in real life who should be mentioned in capital letters, was the American attorney, James Donovan, who actually achieved this difficult feat…in real life!

  You will enjoy this 2015 film I’m very sure. It has everything:   good script, good director (Steven Spielberg) good producers, (one of whom is Steven Spielberg)   good actors. Based on a good story. A true story.   It grabs your attention and holds on in no small measure to the acting ability of its star, Tom Hanks.   He should be called:   Mr. Believable. You find yourself so caught up, so captured by the story and actors that you end up rooting for everyone, even a communist villain. Warning:   This is a feel-good film!

  Those sneaky little things that are supposed to help you, but are really there for pure sabotage. You think you’re putting your glass on something protective, when at the very last moment the coaster segues to the right or left, and there you are with another spilled mess on your hands!

  You can see just what it’s like to live in another land; practice another religion; eat different food without having to literally do it. Treat yourself to an adventure (or have you already been there, done that?)

  You know that you’re old when… o   you start having difficulty cutting toast. o   people who are older than you…are now dead. o   you keep misplacing your cane.

  When I run the water in the shower for too long, the cat comes looking for me. (She’s afraid of water.)   When I’m late with her meal, the cat comes looking for me. (Just a friendly reminder as she passes by.)   When someone knocks too loudly on the front door, the cat comes looking for me. (Irritated at the intrusive noise.)   When she hasn’t seen me for a while, the cat comes looking for me… just to see that all is well.

  We used to learn this stuff in school. So here goes… George Washington was the first president of the United States of America. The most important fact about him to me has always been that at the beginning, the founding of this country, he was offered the title and role of “king,” but declined.   He didn’t view this title as appropriate for the American soul, mind or spirit. Bravo to him. The world had had enough kings and queens.   This was a new chapter and it deserved a new beginning, a new title. President Washington was a hero! Period! He served as President from 1789 to 1797. He is known as the Father of Our Country.   Born on February 22, 1732 in Virginia (One of the original 13 Colonies.), President Washington commanded the Continental Army, which fought for independence from England during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Because he was so trusted, he was asked to preside over the  Constitutional Convention,   which was responsible...

  For all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’                     John Greenleaf Whittier

  Is that you can never have enough chocolate! As soon as you start to eat it, it’s gone, so always buy a little extra.

  Zsa Zsa Gabor If you don’t know who she was then why are you reading this blog? Ms. Gabor was an actress and celebrity, known for her many marriages, approximately nine (though I don’t think she counted one as an actual marriage), and her many humorous, inciteful quips. (I used to see her in New York City when I lived there as a child/adolescent.   My family and I seemed to run into her often right outside the entrance to Saks Fifth Avenue. Not that we knew her, we did not, but after every encounter my mother would embarrass us, her children, by doing her imitation of Zsa Zsa ad nauseum.) Zsa Zsa was an actress, mostly known for her style, beauty, sense of self-deprecating humor, inside stories about fellow celebrities, wealth and most of all her vulnerability. That last characteristic was what people liked most about her. We felt as if we knew her, personally.

  Have you ever thought after you pray and you don’t get an answer right away, that all the angels and saints may be busy at the moment. They can’t answer, just be patient and wait. Just a thought I had while waiting for an answer to a prayer.

  You will survive Menopause, honest, even though it may not seem like it right now. You should take something to help you with the symptoms, which can be:        Hot flashes,        Excessive perspiring (including Night-Sweats),        Excessive bleeding. I took an over-the-counter product for hot flashes, but I don’t know if this item even exists today. However, do a little research and try one of the products available now. I did not take any hormone replacement. I can tell you what I did and you can ask your doctor for advice, but remember these are YOUR decisions to make. I am not a medical person; I make no specific suggestions, except to say that getting something (or someone) to help is probably a good idea. In my menopause memories, I can recall many evenings coming home after work, and the tail end of the trip was on a trolley. I was fatigued, which worsens symptoms...

  Instant coffee can be delicious. The secret is to let it brew (develop). Use boiling water (some in the cup to warm it up), then pour a cupful on the coffee. Let it steep, let it brew for a few minutes. I use Nescafé Clasico. But I have no horse in this race: you can use whatever you like best. Don’t ever put milk or cream in coffee before letting it brew first. If you do the coffee will be rendered pretty much tasteless.

  When it comes to disgusting TV commercials, BUT the all-body deodorant ads have supplanted everything else!   Yikes! Actors with screen size shots of their armpits, and spraying their nether regions by putting the product down their pants. Help, I’ve died and gone to the hell of bad taste! I don’t want to see your armpits, or bask in the splendor  of whatever you have that should be covered up. Spare me, please. Spray on your own time, in your own space.   I don’t need a demonstration.   I get the idea.   Keep your graphics to yourself! And I’m not so sure that all that spraying and rolling-on of deodorant product is so good for you. Try washing, and a discreet limiting of deodorant to the parts of your body that you know for sure from actual experience tend to smell without help from a deodorizing product. Think for yourself.

  Are here and aren’t they lovely and hopeful? They come to us while it’s still chilly almost as if they’re saying, “We can’t wait, we want life now!” If spring is hopeful, then surely cherry blossoms are their cheerleaders.   We love these exquisite visions of happiness.

  If thou of fortune be bereft And in thy store there be but left Two loaves—sell one, and with the dole Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul. This version of a famous poem appeared in The Century magazine in August 1907 by James Terry White, under the title “Not By Bread Alone” (My mother [Virginia’s] favorite, oft-quoted poem)

  Maybe you haven’t heard of it because it hasn’t been advertised…a lot. Because of the cost.   It’s just too costly.   It’s a good book. Short and to the point. It’s a book with humor and just a touch of occasional pathos. Or you could call it life with all its slices. I still think it’s funny and it still makes me l augh and I wrote it! You can get it (the book, that is) in various forms from Amazon. (One of my favorite places to shop!) My book was edited by my talented cousin. It’s a quick read, actually is called, “A Quick Read.   Short-short Stories” Perfect as a gift. Perfect to read at the doctor’s office or anytime you’re stuck waiting. It contains no questionable language. And I think the on-line version is really inexpensive. So go for it…I would appreciate it very much! Readers of this blog should stick together.

  Be happy today because Blue is your color!                                  The FlabberGasp