Rabbis

 Friday nights we like to watch Sabbath services that are being televised from various synagogues. There are at least in New York that show their services and we like them. These are all mostly reform temples and maybe that is why their services really surprise me.

I am not a temple goer and I am not an authority on Jewish Sabbath services, but what I see is totally surprises me. I went to services in Hungary a few times in my school years when it was still allowed, mainly because it was mandatory to attend. Here in this country my attendance was limited to weddings. However, in recent years my wife attended a few Friday night services until the pandemic made them stop public attendance.

So, as you see I am not an authority at all. But still that should not stop me from being surprised. So why am I surprised? Because of the musicality of these services.

I know that there are cantors who sing, but I never knew rabbis needed to also sing. In one service we like to watch the rabbis sing and play the guitar, and also there is a small orchestra in the background. There are orchestras in every temple we like to see and we find that all rabbis sing almost as much as the cantor. This is very strange to me. I talked to a rabbi once and expressed my amazement and he told me, yes this is the new norm. Not for the conservative though. 

I can't imagine my old religious teacher, good old Dr. Izsak Smelcer to sing and play the guitar at the Sabbath service. But this is a funny world. What used to be unbelievable now is the norm.

Sunday

 A lot of people had this weekend off, being Thanksgiving on Thursday. But I "worked" diligently on this blog without taking off any time. However, today being Sunday, I collect my dues. I am off!

The dinner

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a roaring success. My wife and Abigail worked for hours preparing it.          To start it off we had turkey soup with necks in it. I love turkey necks because they have so much meat on them.                                                                                                                                                                  The next course was the meat, mashed potato, green beans, gravy and cranberry jelly. I got a drumstick that was fantastic. There was so much tasty meat on it and it was flavored with garlic that I just loved every bite.                                                                                                                                                          For dessert, we had pumpkin pie and apple pie. Very American! We also opened a bottle of Asti Spumante (very Continental) which was ultimately finished.

After dinner we had family time. The girls decided that we should play Monopoly. I really don't like Monopoly and that showed in my plays. In about two hours I went totally bankrupt. That much for my business acumen. On the other hand, my wife and Abigail profited from my shortcomings. Fortunately, this had no effect on the entire evening.                                                                                                                                            

Black Friday

Today is Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It is a common off-work day. Most of the New York companies give this day off since it does not make any sense to go in for one day. So, this became a major before Christmas shopping day. In order to get a leg up on the "frenzied crowd" stores used to open up just around midnight to get started.

This year the earliest opening I saw was 5 am. Even that is brutal for the ones who work there. It is very interesting to see, that no matter how much people complain that there is no work, no money and everything is so expensive, this time they still go and buy toys galore, TVs, electronic devices, etc. I guess when the family come into the picture being cheap or frugal is out the window. This is very nice.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful, sunny and mild. Today it is the opposite. Raining and cooler. But this will not slow down the frantic shoppers. Actually, the malls are all indoors and so is their parkings. This makes shopping that much easier.

In my working years when I was out in construction sites, I always worked on this day even though the home office was closed. The reason was that this Friday was not a union holiday. If management told the workers not to come in, they would have to pay them a day's pay. In order to avoid that we always said that this Friday was a regular workday. Interestingly, no worker ever showed up. Only the construction super and I, the construction manager was there. We stuck around a few hours, bs-d then went home.

This was fine with me, because in addition to the company holiday I did get an additional day's pay. Just for showing up. What a country!

The City at Thanksgiving

When I still worked, Thanksgiving Day was always a holiday, and the following day, Friday was always a non-working day. This gave us all a four-day weekend. Enough to digest all the food eaten previously. Very few people work on that Friday, except retail stores who plan to make big money for pre-Christmas shopping.

On this Friday the traffic is usually lighter than usual but, the City keeps regular weekday rules as far as parking. This misunderstanding leads to a record number of parking tickets. We, the regular drivers assume that because today is a non-official holiday the parking regulations are suspended. But oh no! Not in New York.

New York is absolutely non driver friendly. They instituted, this idiot mayor did, a very low speed limit where one literally has to hold the car back form going too fast. There are cameras everywhere recording speeds and then tickets are issued. The only good, if it is good, that camera tickets are just money penalties and there are no points involved. Still, they cost about $75 each time. 

Right now, as I am writing this, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is going on. It is interesting but extremely commercial. Last Year it was not held but today it is on. They are very lucky because the weather is great. Because the last float is Santa's arriving at 12 noon this thing is very much controlled by the TV. They have stars on some floats who sing (or lip sing) their popular songs. Because of the time control many times they have no chance to finish before their floats move on. It is crazy, but I guess necessary.

They used to have a Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia sponsored by Gimbels. But when Gimbels folded that parade also went by the wayside. I don't know if there are any cities in the US that hold such parades.    

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is upon us. This year went by so fast it is unbelievable. Last year we were in the middle of the pandemic and even the traditional Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was cancelled. This year it is planned to be held. I am sure many families were not able to celebrate last year as they are used to. Hopefully this time, not that all dangers are gone, people will be able to enjoy this holiday.

We did not buy a turkey for a simple reason. There is only the three of us and a turkey would last for a week. Who wants to eat turkey for an entire week? In that line of thinking my wife bought some drumsticks and some breast and will make dinner from those. I am sure it will be a nice dinner. We already tasted our pumpkin pie and it was good.

We are not planning to go anywhere, just staying home and relax. That is what I need, more relaxation! 

To all my friends I wish a very nice Thanksgiving!

Who do you trust?

This week I went to see a dermatologist. This was a new doctor, one I didn't see previously but I needed to see one because it was impossible to see my usual doctor within a certain time period. It looks like every doctor is booked way into January or even February. Business seems to be booming.

Anyway, this young lady was willing to see me in a short notice, because unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of waiting a month or longer for an appointment. She did see me, we discussed my problems and I placed my fate in her hands.

Now, dermatology in my opinion is a gamble. They might find the cure or they might not. Most of the diagnosis depend on visually looking at the problem and hoping to come up with the solution. I used to have an older doctor, who looked at these things and almost immediately came up with his verdict. Not always correct but never wrong. The prescribed medication either worked or not. Then he tried something else. I tried to see him, but he was booked far into the future.

I talked to another doctor about older versus younger doctor. In my opinion there is not much an older doctor did not yet see, meaning he can easily come up with the cure. My doctor's opinion was that the younger doctor might be more up on the latest techniques in medicine, therefore would easier identify the problem.

This brings up the question: who do you trust?

I don't know. I trust the one who can treat me and cure me the easiest way possible. Do older doctors keep up with the latest improvements medicine has to offer, or just keep relying on their experience? I am sure a young doctor is aware of the latest things since that is what they pick up in their early years.

Years ago, we had the need for a certain operation. The surgeon told us this was to be a robotic process. The doctor was a fairly young man. Another doctor commented that young surgeons are good at the robotic surgery because they grow up playing all kinds of electronic games and are used to the controls, while older doctors get a short training in this kind of method of operation.

Again, who do you trust? 

LG Television

The other day I saw an advertisement on Tv from LG. They were shoeing a new type of television that can be rolled into a box type of furniture. It looked very interesting and what is most, space saving.

It looked like an old fashioned home movie screen that on could roll up after viewing. This is just before Christmas and I figured this is a new gift idea from LG. I like this company, they usually have good products.

I liked it, so I looked it up where, and how one can buy such a thing. Right now only LG has it but I am sure it won't be long before the other companies will invent this process and start selling it. Anyway, it is only available through LG, it must be ordered. The listed price is $100,000!

Now, I wonder how many people will go out and buy a TV that is not even a home theater for this kind of money? I guess just as many as who buy $80,000 Rolex watches just because their advertisements say they are good.

I called them and told them to take my name off their waiting list! 

Sunday

 Boy, time flies. It is Sunday again!

Labels

Did you ever buy pillows, bathroom mats, mattresses, blankets and other similar items and saw those large sawn in labels hanging out of them? Why are they so important that they say it is illegal to remove them? It is written on them that "Under penalty of law it is illegal removing this tag..."

I have pillows for years now, but I am scared to cut those labels off because one day the police might knock on my door. I am sure these labels have some kind of microchip embedded in them which would immediately notify the authorities if I do anything unlawful.

So, beside the secret microchip, what is the purpose of these labels? Why they can not just have a label like shirts or other clothing items have. Now, if they are sold in international markets there are notices in about ten languages, this way they are only made once for a worldwide market. 

The other ting is that they are so tightly sewn in that their removal is very difficult. Just to haphazardly cut them off will make the item look ugly. If one wants to have them removed with surgical accuracy one will have to be very careful because, at least I always cut into the material, and always got hell for it. 

Just a thought on something that is present in our everyday lives. ___________________________________________________________________________________

Yesterday, on Friday, Biden was supposed to have a colonoscopy done. Nothing special, it was scheduled. Because of the procedure requires anesthesia, the presidency was transferred to the Kamala woman. I hope she was told not to get used to it because this was temporary. I heard that the doctors who performed the colonoscopy on Biden were sworn to secrecy for not telling if anything they might find. One of the doctors on the team was a brain specialist because they wanted to know if any unrecognizable material they find might that be his brain!

TV Show

On CBS Tv there is a crime series based on the FBI. It has three parts, first is called FBI, the second is called FBI International, and the third is FBI Most Wanted. They are shown right after each other and many times the stories intertwine.

Anyway it is the second, FBI International I want to write about. This is about four agents stationed in Europe to solve crimes there involving Americans. Interestingly, they are stationed in Budapest, Hungary. I like to watch and trying to identify the various neighborhoods. Now, these agent travel to different countries in the area to solve crimes. 

What I noticed, and probably other Hungarians also did that the folmmakers don't pay much attention to background details. For example in one show that was to take place in Paris, we could see the Eiffel Tower in right behind a fairly well known Hungarian bank's storefront. I checked, and that bank does not have Paris branch.

In another story that happened in Warsaw, street scenes were filmed with occasional Polish signs but Hungarian store designations were very visible. In my opinion, aside from far shots of a particular city they film all the stories in Hungary which is ok, but then pay attention to the backgrounds. The American viewers probably never notice these little flubs but Hungarians certainly will.  

If I would have done such shoddy job where I worked I would have gotten kicked out a long time ago. I know that Warsaw is a cosmopolitan city but I doubt that they have stores and streets with Hungarian names.

Chips

I am very disappointed in America. If I would have a written guarantee I would like to ask for my money back.

Yesterday, there was an announcement on one of the business stations that General Motors announced that due to chip shortage they will discontinue offering seat warmers in their cars.

This is a terrible news. A world collapsed in me. All my life hope was kept in me that one day I will have a warm ass in a cold car. And now, that hope went out the window. What kind of world we live in, where a person can not even have his bottom comfortably heated in a cold car?

I wonder if this only applies to the less expensive cars or to the higher priced one also? Hard to imagine that owner of a high priced Cadillac will have his arse just as cold as a Chevrolet Sparks.  

As far as I were buying cars, the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price was always a starting point in car buying. The game was how far one can go below that price and what extras can the dealer give with the car. I always loved this haggling, and at the end I always believed I made a good deal.

Not long ago we went to a Hyundai showroom and noticed that all new cars had an additional fee added to their basic prices. When I asked I was told that was because the chip prices went up. Never heard this kind of explanation before.

How big is a chip? How many chips can they put in a shipping container? Probably enough for all the cars in the world several times over.

Shortage

In the Soviet Union there were regular shortages in baily necessities. That included food and anything that the population needed. Even though they said it was the land of milk and honey, the milk was scarce and the bees left the country. Well, the good old Bolsheviks in order to keep the faithful happy and to keep the policy of equality, set up special stores that never lacked anything. They were fully stocked and even had better quality things than in the ordinary stores. This was very nice of them but the hitch was that these stores were only available to a selected few. To the ones in high position, to the faithful of the faithful. No wonder they were happy and well fed. These stores never had their toilet paper shelves empty!

I have a feeling we will be heading in that direction. They will set up special stores for the wealthy where everything could be found and the rest of us can just deal with the situation. My wife and I went to the supermarket yesterday and what we saw was unbelievable. Empty shelves and high prices. How long can this go on? That senile old man is sitting in his ivory tower, grinning like an idiot and does not realize what goes on in this country?

This is very sad. He thinks that his 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill will compensate for everything? There is still a shortage of toilet paper. 

I wonder if the White House lacks toilet paper. 

Doctors, again

I have some medical issues that need attention. And unfortunately some of these attentions should be given sooner than later. So, I make appointments believing that those appointments will be kept.

On Sunday night, Sunday not weekday, I got a call from one of those doctors' offices telling me that the doctor will not be in on this Wednesday and the earliest appointment I can get is December 1. This really upset me, because I do not want to wait that long.

I can understand that the doctor has other things to do, maybe play golf, but when he has hours only on Wednesdays in that particular office it is irresponsible to cancel all of them. And what is more that it is totally irresponsible for the staff not to try to accommodate the patient when help is needed.

Looks like doctors are doing extremely well. Lately we noticed that in order to get an appointment you have to look far ahead in the calendar because they are all totally booked. At least one business is flourishing.

In the old days it was commonly believed that doctors did not practice on Wednesdays because that was their day off to play golf. Maybe this custom is coming back and Wednesday hours will disappear. 

We'll see.

X-mas

Today is the 15th of November, almost seven weeks from Christmas and I am already fed up with the non-stop Christmas ads and other stuff. An apartment buildingacross the street from us already decorated its front lawn for the holiday. Ridiculous!

That idiotic Hallmark Channel is showing non stop Christmas movies for a few months now. Everybody is constantly grinning and their only preoccupation is how to get the biggest tree and what type of cookies to bake. Hey people, there is a real world outside with other problems. Oh yea, all the homes are decorated so richly that it turns my stomach. A tree in every room and every square inch of the house is hung with decorations. And on Hallmark hot chocolate is the national drink.

Stores are advertising their Christmas deals. The big question was if will there be a Black Friday this year with all the empty shelves and lack of merchandise? Do stores have enough merchandise to sell at attractive prices? Economists think that this year this will not happen, but only time will tell.

Anyway, I am bored with it.                                                                                                                          ___________________________________________________________________________________

Here is something interesting.

I always believed the US postal system was the best in the world. They were prompt and reliable. The emphasis in this WAS. Now, they are totally unreliable and without responsibility. Mail to other cities used to get in 2 or three days the most. Now if it gets there in a week we are lucky. 

It doesn't matter if it is express or certified it still gets lost or sits in a distribution center for days.

We sent an official letter to Hungary using their express service. It cost $64 and we were told it would take about five days. For days it was sitting in a New York distribution center when suddenly it showed up in Doha, Qatar. Then from Qatar it went directly to Hungary. Iy is there now, waiting to be delivered. 

Since that idiot country has no direct air service, it is difficult to send mail there. So I guess Qatar is the solution.

I love to send Christmas cards. I don't know if those will ever get there or Qatar will discard them because we are the infidel.  

Sunday

 It is Sunday, and you know the rest of the story.

Food

At the earlier stages of my working career in this country I worked in construction. Those locations were all over the city, in the outskirts, out of the city or not near any civilization. If the workers did not bring any food with them there were no places nearby where one could go and eat. This situation (I think) created the birth of the coffee truck. These were small trucks very well equipped to carry hot and cold stuff. Coffee, hot water, soup, sandwiches, cakes, cold drinks etc. 

they always knew where these construction sites were because they showed up around 9:30 in the morning and just before 12 noon, every day. I initially brought food from home (I was a poor refugee with no money) but later in the summer months it was not very easy to store the food, so I also started buying it.

The other day I saw such a truck on the road, so they might still be in use today. But what is becoming more and more popular are the food trucks. These trucks are almost as well equipped as a restaurant kitchen and they offer a large variety of food.

Near where we live in one city block, there is a Hispanic (I don't know what kind) truck, there is a Chinese food truck and there are two Halal (that is Muslim kosher) trucks. They seem to be very popular because there are always people lople liined up and they were occupying the same spot for quite a while. I know that in other parts of the city there is a Polish food truck and I'm sure there are Greek food trucks. And, God knows how many different types there are.

In Manhattan around the offices these are pretty popular because they have very low prices and people like that. Restaurants on the other hand are up in arms about these because they claim they take their customers away. I like the Halal food and we buy it occasionally. They have beef, lamb and chicken varieties and they are all good. There used to be a Hungarian truck but I think it evaporated some years ago.

Shortages

The land of "milk and honey" is going sour. Thanks to the "no clue" administration we are even short on toilet paper. It is a sad experience to go to a supermarket in these days where empty shelves are in abundance and merchandise is scarce. This is like wartime supply shortage.

As it turns out it hits us most in the supermarkets where everyday staples are the basic elements of our lives. But looking around a little more closely, there are shortages in every part of our economy. A basic American staple is the car. Every household have at least one car and in the past automobiles were never in short supply.

Now, there is a serious shortage of new cars. In the old socialist ways, in my country, one was able to purchase a new automobile. But the way it was done they put you on a waiting list for a particular brand (there were not too many) that could stretch to six months and when it arrived you had to accept it no matter what your choice of color was.

Here it looks like it is heading that way. The waiting list for certain cars is as long as six months. This is unbelievable. What causes this shortage? Are all new cars floating on those ships off shore waiting to be unloaded? Together with our toiletpapers?

It seems that we are totally dependent on foreign produced items. Nothing seems like being manufactured domestically. It is a crying shame that we got this far!

We have a president who is totally clueless about the goings on in this country. Price of gasoline is going through the roof. Why, if we are not depending on foreign oil? The "mighty" dollar is worth less and less and he is just smiling and trying to tell us how well we are doing. But when he is asked, he refuses to answer.

His second in command is not any better. She just laughs her way through every appearance. Now we have a farter, and a laughing hyena at the helm. No wonder everybody sees America as a joke.

Da prince

 I am not a grouchy old man who does not like anybody and hates everything. I am just very opinionated. That is all. I have rights to my own opinions. And if the bottom line is that I happen gto hate that particular person, item, policy or whatever else, let that be. 

So, without further ado, I hate that little English prince and his uppity black wife. I wrote about them before, and I already expressed my opinion about them, so this will not come as a surprise. They came to New York yesterday to a gala event to celebrate Veterans Day. Both showed up and mingled and played cutsey. Harry served time in the British military and that makes him a military expert. His wife served time in the mattress and that makes her an expert on mattresses not military.

This guy was and is thinking with his eleventh finger and blindly follows his wife. The wife thinks that she is better than the admired, loved and envied Royal Family. With that thinking she convinced her husband to give up his family, give up his unique royal status, give up money, and move away to the US and live like the (wealthy) common folk live. And that idiot followed her. 

He turned his back on his grandmother the Queen, his grandfather, his father, his brother and all his friends and moved to California where he is accepted only because he is (was) the prince. His friends, if he has any are around him only because of his name. And I am sure that will not last forever. 

I would love to see what will happen when his wife will get older, turn unattractive and to resist their temptations and lose whatever charm and hold she had over him. Knowing his celebrity status, he will not lack the attention of attractive young ladies. How long will he be able to resist their temptations? 

I would love to be around and see their future.

Small print

There are people who are in love with their own voices. They are the politicians and TV people. I watch enough TV to criticize this.

I love to watch congressional committee hearings. Those hearings are fairly entertaining. I love when a congressman puts up a question and there is a time limit on it. They have the tendency tu use up about 75% of the allocated time on themselves making useless speeches and then leave the remaining time for the response which is obviously is not enough. But they just love to hear their own voices. Most of the time the questions are so long that I am not able figure out what the particular question is.

The same goes for TV interviewers. They put for forth a question that is so long and convoluted that the meaning is lost in the packaging. And if the response gets too long or complicated, they just cut in and say well, that is all the time we have.

The other thing is the small print. Did you ever watch these questionable commercials where there are multitude of lines of small print on the screen? They make sure the print is there but they also make sure there is no time allowed to read it. Their contents are all legalese to protect themselves. We, the common people are not privy to what they say. It is nothing but just another way to rip off the naive public. 

This is very similar to the presents or freebies that are offered to us with no charge except shipping and handling (s&h) per each item offered. Just another way to gyp the innocent public.

The questions are longer than the answers

Ads

"Where is the beef?", "I don't believe I ate the whole thing!", "He likes it! Hey , Mikey!", "Time to make the donuts", "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" and many, many more.

These are unforgettable commercial slogans for years and years ago. Even though I am not a youngster I do still remember these. They were kind of funny. It didn't mean that I ran to the stores and bought these products it just meant that they were memorable.

It showed that back then there were advertising people with imagination because they created products that stayed with us throughout the years. Unfortunately, today's ads are lame, tasteless and easily forgettable. There is not a single TV ad that I would call memorable. 

While watching TV I see ads that make me wonder who was the idiot who designed it and who was or were the idiots wo approved it. Companies spend big bucks on tv commercials and at the same time they produce such idiotic messages that it is unbelievable. 

I guess working for an ad agency is easy. It does not need any talent, just the know how to sell your work to the client. And if the client, the advertiser, doesn't know any better they would buy and pay for anything as long as they see their name up there. 

And the public, as stupid as it is will buy it!

Spnsorships

Sunday was the traditional New York City Marathon held. This race encompasses all five boroughs of the city, starting on Staten Island and finishing in Manhattan's Central park. Usually there are 30 to 40 thousand participants from every corner of the earth. The various races are divided between the professionals and the amateurs. The pros, obviously are doing it for the glory and the money. That rest just for their own satisfaction.

Thousands and thousands participant come from different countries. I wonder that with today's travel restrictions how were these people able to manage that. Did all the 30 - 40 thousand had the required vaccines? Or at this time the rules did not apply?

What I find peculiar and I know I wrote about this before, but it bugs me, that who were the main sponsors of this race. Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is an Indian company with about a half a million employees, based in Mumbai and offices around the world. Good, god for them to employ all these people.

But why an American event in this country needs to be financed by an Indian company? Are there no American companies willing to pick up the tab? In my eyes this is a shame. Where are Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, the domestic airlines, Facebook, Microsoft and all other corporations that make billions of dollars a year. The sponsorship for such an event would not even show up in their profit list. I think they just don't care. They seem to want to keep their money a lot closer to their chests.

It is not unnoticeable that a multitude of sport events here and abroad are being sponsored by Emirates airline, Etihad  Airways and Qatar Airways. Their names, logos and their slogans are all over most of European soccer games including players uniforms and as well as in US teams. I guess when local businesses are not willing to support these teams the Emirates airline jumps in and help out.

Watching European soccer games I can not help but notice frequent ads by Gazprom, the quasi private Russian gas company. Is this to remind Europe that they are at their mercy as far as the natural gas supply is? 

  

Sunday

 It is Sunday and I do what I usually do on Sunday. TRest!

Medicare

Now I will give away my age. Ha, ha, ha.

Sometime in October I received a copy of the book titled Medicare & You 2022. I guess they know my age! The purpose of this book is to confuse us older people more than we already are. This is a thick book that explains the different type of Medicare coverages that exist and we might be entitled to.

An entire year goes by where I am convinced that the insurance, additional to Medicare, is good and satisfactory to my needs, and then this book comes out and totally confuses me. Through about 20 pages it lists various insurance companies in my state and county that offer different types of coverages, and I suppose to be the smart one to chose from them. 

This is all fine. Nowadays most doctors accept Medicare but they are very selective in accepting the various advantage plans. I might have a primary physician who accepts my plan and she sends me to a specialist who does not. Then what do I do? This is terrible that doctors chose insurance plans they want to affiliate with and reject some others. 

I am sure this is based on money. Some plans reimburse the doctors better and quicker than others and that is what effecting their choices. I guess doctors being individual businesses they have the right to work with whichever insurance company they chose to.

I usually go to doctors that are affiliated with one of the major New York hospitals. But even though their practice is through the hospital each one is affiliated with different insurance companies. That makes it necessary for me to check if my plan is accepted before I make an appointment.

This is an idiotic system that should be changed.

Commercials

I am sitting front of the TV and watching (forced to) all kinds of commercials and wander. 

Furniture store chain Raymour & Flanigan, Macy's, Walmart, Burlington and many others, too long to list. Every single one shows in their ads smiling happy, clean cut people helping out costumers. This is all fake, at least in New York it is fake.

I have yet to make a sales person who is happy to assist. Maybe at the furniture store because they get a commission on their sales. But the moment they find out you are just looking, they drop you like a hot potato. They give you their card and say call when you decide to buy.

Macy's have no people on the floors. It is impossible to find somebody to help you. Many isles have clothing fallen to the floor and nobody is there to pick them up. Look like a Salvation Army Thrift Store. And when you finally force yourself on a person, that person is unfriendly, grouchy and show very little knowledge about the product you are interested in. Or frequently will tell you that he/she is really not working on this particular department just there to help out. Help out how?

Walmart is terrible. They seem to hire anybody, and naturally they have no clue where certain merchandise can be found. The fact that many do not even speak English is another thing. Burlington, at least where I live, is a dump. No matter what their ads say they sell crappy merchandise. To find a floor  person if you need help is almost impossible.

Raymour & Flanigan ads show their furniture delivery to be don by smiling, clean cut people in uniforms. We had a delivery a while back and not they were not smiling they didn't even speak English. Brought the furniture, put it together, said "thank you" (in English) for the tip and left. I tried to talk to them but did not get through.

Does anybody remember the old times when the milk man wore uniform with a tie. That is now history. Today's delivery men are totally changed. We recently bought a new refrigerator. It was delivered by a man, woman team. Likely husband and wife. Didn't speak English. Cut the box open and left the fridge front of the door. I had to run after them to give them the tip. They didn't seem too happy either.

Boy, the world is changing.

Election

Yesterday, Tuesday was election day. We voted. We, in New York were electing a new mayor. The two leading candidates were Eric Adams a democrat African American, and Curtis Sliwa a republican known for as the founder of the Guardian Angels group.

Since Biden's election we were leaning towards the republican candidates whenever it was possible. Unfortunately, our candidate did not win. Adams will be the second black mayor of New York in its history. The first was David Dinkins who. thankfully, served only one term and did not enjoy great popularity. It looks like blacks are coming in major offices. Manhattan district attorney will be a black person (the first in that office). New York City public advocate is African American as well as the current state attorney general who just announced that she has her eyes on the governor's position next year, New York City's health commissioner is a black doctor. 

It looks like pretty soon, being white will be a disadvantage in New York. The current mayor Bill DeBlasio, is of Italian origin with an African American wife, is finishing his second term and currently not enjoying great popularity amongst New Yorkers, even though he is a democrat in a democratic city. People actually can't wait for him to leave. It is very funny that it was announced that DeBlasio who came from Brooklyn where he owned his house immediately after January 1 will move to Cambridge , Massachusetts. I guess he thinks there he will be liked. Maybe he will run for dogcatcher that way he can stay in public service.

I don't have anything against blacks. I just don't like the attitude some of them have when confronted with whites or any other race. I lived through a system that was built on race discrimination and I will be damned if I will let anybody treat me as a second class citizen, again!                                               

Let's just wait and see what is ahead of us. 

Oranges

When I arrived in New York. way back then we were picked up at the airport and were taken to a hotel (Hotel Saint George) in Brooklyn. The place was set up to receive us, the refugees. It was nice, we all got our private rooms, which was a change after living in dormitory style for nine months.

They told us to go downstairs to a large cafeteria where I think soldiers were helping out. There was food in trays and we just had go around and point and ask and were served. Interestingly, for most of the food we had no idea what they were and since nobody spoke Hungarian we couldn't even be told even though they tried to enlighten us. Regardless, we ate.

We were not locked in, and this was the first time we were not restricted in our movements. So, we just went out and wondered around (not too far) the streets. I think I had a few dollars in my pocket so we went into a little grocery store next to the hotel. Me, the big internationalist and linguist said "one kilo narancs", meaning one kilo oranges.

The guy was very friendly, I guess he knew whom he was dealing with, and patiently explained that here there is no kilo but pound. At least I think that was what he said. So, we bought two oranges. And, this was the story of my first American purchase.

2021 Halloween

As I mentioned it, my first day in this country happened to fall on Halloween. Neither I nor any of my traveling companions had any idea what Halloween was, what it did represent. It took a few years until I really understood the importance or rather the meaning of it. I purposely changed it from importance to meaning because as far as I am concerned it has absolutely no importance.

As I can see it this is a typical American event created to fill the gap between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. It is a chance for merchants to sell more candy, chocolates and silly costumes. I don't want to sound like a grouchy old man, which I probably am, but to me the entire Halloween thing is a waste of time and money. 

Some people go crazy about it and naturally go overboard, while some people really don't care about it at all. In our family, Abigail goes all crazy about Halloween. She thinks it is the holiday of holidays. Like this year, she dresses up as the black swan, went into Manhattan with her girlfriend who also dressed up like something else and were wandering the streets convinced that everybody was looking at them. If I dared to criticize Halloween I got rebuffed and called old and crazy. 

I bet if I ask anybody on the street about the meaning or origin of Halloween, not one person would be able to explain it. I know that Abigail has no clue.

I think that this year because of the virus the entire Halloween thing went flat. They had a parade in the Village but in our building for example there were no kids going around ringing doorbells asking for candy as it used to be done.

So, we bought a bunch of candies to give away but there were no takers. I think I will volunteer to help to reduce the backlog.    

Flying

Thinking back 67 years, it was an interesting experience flying. As I said before I don't think anybody ever flown a plane before. Traveling was not permitted in the old regime and even then since Hungary had limited air travel possibilities riding on an American airplane was a brand new experience.

For one, nobody spoke any English and thus we had no way understanding what the stewardesses (back then they were stewardesses) were saying. We were restricted to communicate with hand signals and loud Hungarian. People believe if they speak loud their language is more understandable.

When they gave us food we ate them, when they told us to go somewhere we did. Ailine food was something none of us experienced before. We sniffed and smelled the food when we couldn't figure out what they were. We all behaved like someone from a real third country.

At one point during the night, somebody looked out the window and thought he saw one engine on fire. In total panic, he called the stewardess over who in turn notified the pilot. Somebody came out of the cockpit, looked and said something to the stewardess, probably that these idiot Hungarians are getting on my nerve. Anyway, the fire turned out to be nothing, and we arrived safe and sound at our next stop.

At that time I decided that if I fly again and see anything outside my window I will keep it to myself. Let faith be at the controls.