Trump

I am not a hard-core Trump fan, but I do like his approach to certain things. I think he does not care about politics, he is trying to do what he thinks is right. And I mean right for the people and for the country. Without being a Republican or Democrat. And that is why the professional politicians, like Nancy Pelozi are popping up and hate him.

Nobody can make me believe that these lawsuits against him are not organized by anti-Trump forces and primarily Democrats. How is it possible that for years nothing and suddenly now lawsuit after lawsuit are coming up into the open?

I always thought that in this country one is innocent until proven guilty. Yet starting with Colorado they wanted to lock Trump out of the primary roster because of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol building in Washington. He was never proven guilty but still they went ahead and tried to exclude him. Is this the American way? Get rid of the popular opposition leader who might win the election the other side does not want him to?

Putin does similar things, maybe a little more drastically and we are criticizing him. But whatever happens here is ok. We are very good with double standards. Criticize the other guy while we are doing the same thing in our own house. 

The lawsuits against him in New York City and New York State, in Georgia and God knows where else are part of a conspiracy I believe to block him from running for the presidency. He is popular and well liked and if he wins again, it is a giant slap on the face of the Democratic party. Hardcore democrats who blindly follow their party will vote for this 82 year old man who forgets his words, has to use cue cards for everything and can not give a straight answer to any question he is asked.

These people do not realize or do not care that their acts make America the laughing stock of the world. Nobody is looking at them as the leader of the free world but as a joke. And this what hey want!

Good country America! 

 

Sorry

Sorry, sorry, sorry for my tardiness. But as always, I do have a legitimate excuse. 

In our home we have Spectrum cable service that provides tv, internet and fax line services. When we signed up with them, years ago their monthly fee was not very high but slowly as time passed it kept increasing. Aside from that a few times a month we woke up to no service at all. It necessitated several rebooting, disconnect and reconnects to get service moving again.

When asked they said these things happen. So, when finally, Verizon wired our building we decided to give them a chance and switch over to them. That switch over took place this Thursday. We had an appointment for a technician to come and do whatever they do to ensure the Verizon service. He worked almost four hours doing the connections and setting up everything. We have three tvs, internet and a fax line and all were supposed to work. At the end of the day, they all did.

Eureka! A new dawn in our house. Now we have to learn new channel lineups and how to use our new remotes.

One of the complications we had to deal with was that my wife decided to rearrange some of the furnitures before the Verizon thing. That meant moving some fairly heavy pieces, and also move some pictures on the walls. Not much but they added up. This was done on Wednesday.

Today is Friday. This morning, voila! The new tv connection did not work. Suddenly, no internet connection. I was on the line with their technical support for over two hours but to no avail. They decided to send out a new technician to look at the problem. The technician came, smiled and said there is really no problem. Stayed for less than an hour, fixed it and left.

Now, we are in a state of scare if it will happen again. We hope it will not but who knows. We can hope!

Russia

It is terrible what happened in Moscow last weekend. More than 130 people were killed by four terrorists who fired into the crowd and killing young concertgoers. People innocently go to a concert and wind up shot to dead. This happened in Israel and now in Moscow. There is no place in the world that is safe anymore?

The four in Russia were caught by the authorities and on Monday they were shown to the public when they went to court. It was obvious that their treatment was anything but gentle. And in cases like this I agree with them. Unfortunately, in this country the bad people have more rights than the victims. They can hide behind those rights if they don't want to talk and human right advocate swill immediately stand behind them.

The Russians in this case did not believe in such nonsense. They got confessions the hard way and that was right. These people should not have any rights since they did not give any to their victims. If these four had any brains they should have killed themselves and go to heavens where 70 virgins (each) were waiting for them. Now what is waiting for them is a lot worse.

In this country they put them in prison, get three meals a day, tv, daily exercise and lawyer visits. After the Iraq war the American intelligence services tried to get away from the restrictions and set up interrogation locations in I think in Turkey, Albania, Romania and even in Hungary where the American restraining rules did not apply.  They worked for a while but eventually they had to be closed down and only Guantanamo in Cuba remained. 

I don't think the Russians are worried about public opinion about the methods of their interrogation. As I see it. these people do not deserve any soft treatment! And if they tell everything then the end justified the means.

Impossible

My cronies and I, all in the same age category are living in a very restricted world. This world is full of "not possible" categories. If we look around there are not too many things we are allowed or say permitted to do.

Let's look at a few examples:

It is not possible to make babies any more. Even though some Hollywood characters claim they became fathers at a very late stage of their lives. I don't believe them. They probably had a very good and virile friend who did the favor.                                                                                                                                We can not take out a 30-year mortgage any longer. As a matter of fact, I don't think we can take out any mortgage at all.                                                                                                                                              We can not get life insurance at all. 80 or 85 years is the upper limit (I think) and we are easily passed that. According to the insurance companies we are on borrowed time! Nice, right?                                  I  just saw today that we can not rent a car any longer. Their age limit ends at 75 in this country. So, if I want to go somewhere alone, all I can get is a bicycle (if I steal one).                                                          I have a feeling that health clubs will not let us sign up as new members because they don't want us to drop dead on their property. 

This world is a wide open space except for us old-timers. No matter where one looks there are restrictions or exclusions. I wander if that is for the reason that they want to protect us or protect themselves against possible liability. I think it is the latter one.     

So, what is that left for us to do? Sit home on the sofa, watch tv and wait for the boogey man to come for our soul or stand up and say, "hell with all this, I want to live my life the way I want to"?                  I am choosing the second one. I am not ready to give in, yet. 

Even though I gave this article the title Impossible, actually nothing is impossible!

         

     

Sunday

                                                                                   SUNDAY

Sorry

So, I missed one day. I am the Basa of this blog and it runs by my rules. But I do have a legitimate excuse. Friday evening, we went to Manhattan for Sabbath services to the Temple Emanu-El synagogue and after that we went out to eat.

The service as always was nice and elegant. They always have a guest speaker and this time it was some Muslim guy because of Ramadan. He spoke of the joint past and the hope for cooperation and friendship between them and the Jewish people. The congregation listened and applauded him at the end. People must have thought that the only way cooperation and coexistence may happen when one of the parties do not exist any more. And that is not in the future.

After the service there was a table at the entrance with some cheese, crackers, fruits, soda and wine. Before the pandemic they had this but not since. I think they just started this costume again. As non-paying participants I think this is a very nice way to treat the fellow Jews.

The dinner was in a Turkish restaurant my wife likes a lot. For meat they only serve lamb and chicken but but those in many varieties. So, we ate well, got home late and I skipped writing. God will forgive me so better if you do, too.

Sorry!

Tik

Today's excitement was that this morning we noticed a little reddish spot on Robin's neck. My wife looked at it and made the diagnosis that is must be a tik. Last Sunday Abigail took Robin to the park and it is possible that he might picked something up there while rolling in the grass.

I called his vet's office, but they said they were very busy and couldn't take him until next week. This really riled me up and I gave them a piece of my mind about being unprofessional and money hungry, but it was of no use. 

My wife looked it up in a Hungarian web page where it was advised to rub the place with pork fat and after about half an hour try to remove it with a tweezer. The pork fat supposed to soften up the skin.

So, after a half an hour she tried the removal process but since the tik was not really visible there was not much to remove. Robin behaved very civilized during the attempt. Now we will wait and see if there is any negative sign that would show up.

Never a dull moment in our household.

Spring

Spring 2024 begins on March 19. I don't understand why but if they say so then it must be so. They say it is a day early because this is a leap year. When I learned the seasons in school, I was told the change is always on the 21st so that is what I am used to.

But as they say that was old school and this is now. But I am old school so I will wait until the 21st for Spring to start. I wander if the plant world knows that the new season start a day early? Now Spring supposed to be nice and warmish but we are having none of that. Right now the temperature is 44 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat in the apartment is on. To me that feels more wintry than springy.

In case anybody wants to know 44 degrees Fahrenheit is 279.817 kelvins. Figure out what kelvin is. This just to flaunt my wide range of knowledge. Abigail may know chemistry, but I do know my Kelvin! Anyhow, we just walked Robbin and I almost froze my arse off. It is cold outside.

Robin is funny, when the weather is not to his liking he just don't want to be out. He takes care of his things and heads inside. He likes the comforts of a nice warm room. And he is not yet retired.

People

There is something to say about people whose parents were not born in this country and their offsprings made impressive careers. There are many men and women in government positions with obvious middle eastern or oriental facial features. Watching news and governmental broadcasts one can see a multitude of people in high positions or working behind the scenes as support staff.

Hilary Clinton's long time assistant was Uma Abedin. She was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Indian and Pakistani parents. The head of FCC is Ajit Pai. He was born in Buffalo, New York to Indian parents. Bobby Jindal, former governor of Louisiana from 2008 -2016 was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Hindu parents. The recently in the news Robert Hur is an attorney, born in Buffalo, New York to South Korean parents. And there is Nikki Haley! The former head of the Congressional Budget Office was Peter Orszagh. He was born in New York City and his paternal great grandparents were Hungarian.

I thought I add this last one just for good measure.

This shows that first generation children generally do better than their peers. What is the reason? Is it that their drive to succeed is stronger than the rest or just that they are plainly smarter? I believe that these people are just smarter than the average American youngsters and also, they take their studies more seriously than the rest.     

This is a trend we will have to get used to. Racial prejudices will have to be put aside because one can not walk out of a doctor's office just because the doctor's skin color, accent or origin. In this country that is not the way to survive. I already mentioned that I go to a medical center where Russian is the predominant language spoken. It is in a Russian speaking neighborhood and the operators of the center try to appease the residents by hiring Russian speaking staff and doctors. 

The staff is ok, but the doctors are usually better than the Americans. I told my wife that sometimes I feel like I am sitting in a Moscow medical center. But as long as they cure me it is all right. I have to note that the doctors here are not first generation. They all brought their basic education from Russia, but they all completed the necessary American medical education, and they are very good.  

  

Purim

Next Saturday is Purim. This is a Jewish holiday and while most holidays are somber this one is quite happy. It is not a carnival, but it is being celebrated by singing, dancing and not least of all eating. My wife decided that to celebrate this holiday we will go to the synagogue on next Friday night.

She also promised that after the service we would go out to dinner. Now, this is all fine with me. I have nothing against going to the service and have nothing against going to eat out. But two weeks in a row to dress up is more than what I signed up for. For me to put on a pair of normal pants is a very stressful exercise. My waistline is used to my elastic friend. But really, I can not go to the temple in warmup pants, can I?

Maybe I should buy me a pair of pants they sell for expectant mothers. These pants adjust to the constantly changing (growing) waistline. This is not a bad idea, I'll look into it. This is very upsetting. When I used to work, I was able just to take anything from my closet without worrying if it would fit. Slacks, jackets, shirts, anything. Now I have to try on at least three items before I can find a good one. This is very depressing. And I am not even overweight or obese.

The last solution is to buy larger sizes, but that cost money and who knows how long before they don't fit any more.

Sunday

This week went with lightning speed. It seems it just started and now it is over. Well anyway, it is Sunday again.

Clothing

When I worked and went to work regularly, I always used the subway. It was fast. convenient and in those days safe. Since my office was in Manhattan it was logical to use this mode of transportation. Lacking anything useful to do on these 45 minute train rides I had ample opportunity to watch people.

Around this time of the year when winter is not really gone, and spring is not really here I used to get a kick out of seeing how people dressed. Mornings were always cooler but during the days it warmed up considerably and that created the weird dressing habits.

I used to see people dressed in warm winter clothing with fur collar, hoodies against the chilly winds, then later in the day when the temperature went up into the 50s or 60s, they all looked silly and out of place. But people never learn. They keep doing this year after year and being uncomfortable. Maybe they like to suffer, I don't know.

Oscar

Last Sunday it was Oscar Day. ABC TV made a whole day of this Oscar presentation. All their good programs were postponed because this event. As far as I am concerned Oscar is nothing more than their self-adulation, sucking up to the producers, looking for more work.

The women strut down the red carpet in their designer dresses that their get for free and the loaner jewelry they have to give back later on. Interestingly, years ago they were always asked what (or whom) they were wearing and at that point they mentioned the designer's name. But recently they stopped this practice. I am sure it eventually comes out.

Made up by cosmeticians, hairs done by professionals. There is nothing real with these people. They should come to these events looking the way they look when they wake up. That would be interesting to see, and scary. 

With the short life of movies some of the nominated movies are not even around anymore. I recognize the very recent ones but not the ones from a year back. That's ok, I don't count what is important that they remember. There were some interesting movies mentioned, I will wait until Netflix has them for free. 

Wednesday

I honestly admit that I skipped yesterday because I just had no time to write. It was a crazy day with things to do around the house. It happens occasionally. But what made the day exceptionally busy was that there is a lady in our building who is a fairly well-known harp player and yesterday she had a concert in Manhattan. We saw two of her previous concerts and yesterday was the third.

It started at 7pm, doors opening at 6pm and no reserved seats, so we left early to make sure we get good seats. Well, we did get a very good table. This was a night club like environment, sitting at tables. The show was good. This lady is a very good harp player, she had a small band with singers accompanying her. She played popular songs and that way the atmosphere was very enjoyable.

My problem was that I had to dress a little more than I usually do. Bottom line was that my pants were very tight. I haven't had other than my warmup pants on for a very long time so when I tried to dress up yesterday it was a shock. I didn't think I was gaining weight, but reality said it differently. Pants and jacket that were comfortable the last time, now were tighter. This was a culture shock.

But regardless of the pain, I did enjoy the show. And that is what counts.

Wikipedia

It is hard to believe that Wikipedia was not around ever. It is such a good source of information. I can think of any subject, turn to Wikipedia and there it is in details. Many times a lot more than I really want but still. Some know it alls claim Wikipedia is not that good or accurate but from where I stand or sit it is pretty good.

If I were going to school now, I would certainly rely on them. I am sure many young people make ample use of the information they contain. Come to think of it, how do they collect all that information, knowledge. They must have thousands of extremely smart people available to do this.

In addition, they are also available in many languages. I read the Hungarian Wikipedia and that one is also a bottomless pit full of information. I don't recheck the information, but I am sure they are correct. 

Wikipedia came into existence in 2001 and in that time it became the (I think) the most popular source of information. One interesting thing is how up to date they are in many things. A death announcement comes on the tv and a few minutes later Wikipedia shows that information.

With my wide range of knowledge I sometimes feel I am Wikipedia personified (ha, ha, ha).

Social etiquett

I have a lady friend who is a hairdresser. She has the habit to offer to fix, adjust, do her guests' hair just as a nice gesture. I find this very friendly and warm act of hospitality. I see nothing wrong in using a friend or guest's profession for help or advice when people are in their company. It should be done tactfully without overdoing it.

If I would have a plumber friend and he is in my house as a guest, I would have no qualms asking him about let's say a leaky faucet. Or an electrician friend about maybe an overheating wire. Naturally there are limits to these things. I couldn't ask a bricklayer to lay brick when he is over for a drink, or an executioner to execute me as a favor, right?

But these things are done, and most people do not mind giving limited professional advice or help to friends. If I had a friend who is a tax expert, you can bet that I would grill him on what can and what can not be done as far as taxes.

However, there is a profession who is not giving all it could and those are the doctors. I think it would be nice if and when a doctor invites friends to his or her home would give a physical exam to the guests as a goodwill gesture as long as it is not a colonoscopy. People would appreciate this, and it would also make this doctor very popular amongst his friends. Just think about this! 

Sunday

 SUNDAY!

Mysteries

Mysteries of life:

When a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?

When a man (or woman) takes a shower and there is nobody around, does he pee in i

Flatulating (farting) in public is a no-no. When there is nobody around, do you fart out loud?

Does fart smells bad only when there are others (like your wife) around or in total privacy it has no smell at all?

My wife accuses me of slurping when I eat soup, so I keep controlling myself until she gets up and goes out to the kitchen, then I slurp. Are other people in the same boat?

One has a toothache and goes to the dentist. While sitting in the waiting room the toothache stops. Why?

In the area where I live there is not a single gas station with chargers for electric cars, yet I see electric cars parked on the streets, not in garages. Where do they charge their batteries?

Kosher food costs more than non-kosher. Why, because the rabbi so expensive?

My wife claims that I snore so loud that neither her nor Robin are able to sleep. I don't believe this. How come that only she hears it and I hear nothing?

SOTU

SOTU means State of the Union. And the SOTU is in fantastic shape, according to the POTUS. Well, maybe where he is. Look at it this way, he is living for three years now rent free. He gets free meals, free transportation and $400,000 a year salary. He also gets $50,000 non taxable expense account and $19,000 for entertainment. Naturally he would see everything through rose colored glasses. 

Thursday night he gave his annual SOTU speech in the joint session of congress. Lacking any other entertainment on the telly we watched the old man going through his presentation. Here are a few of my observations.

The entire gathering looked like the ones we can see in newscasts from North Korea where the attendees hysterically applaud at every word of their great leader. That was how the democrats behaved last night.

If our vice president would ever find herself in the need of a job she can always apply for cheerleader. Yesterday she was jumping up at almost every sentence POTUS made and was leading the Democratic cheering section. I never knew she was so talented.

The esteemed New York Senator Chuck Schumer was so far up Bidens's ass that he was practically looking out his mouth. He was always near him grinning like a proud father. 

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House was very busy shaking his head and making faces at the president's claims of his successes. Well, at least he did not tear up the speech like that hag Pelosi did when Trump was making his report. 

Interestingly, he started his speech with Ukraine (understandably) and spoke very briefly about Israel much later. And even then, he made the people of Gaza the martyrs, the suffering ones. He spent more time saying that Israel should slow down, start a cease fire and also should assist in providing humanitarian aid to those poor Arabs whose one goal in life is the destruction of the State of Israel.

What a world we live in. Anyway, this morning everything looks different. There is no inflation, prices are going down, there is no unemployment and everybody (should be) happy. We are living in a democratic utopia!

Good country, America! 

    

Birthday

Today, Thursday is the birthday of my bestest friend in this whole wide world. We grew up together, our past is kind of intertwined. there is a lot of things common between us. We came to this country together and kept in close touch ever since.

He is not just my bestest friend we are somehow also related. But that is secondary because a person can not choose his relations but can be very selective with whom he becomes friendly with. I am very happy that he is the selected one.

He is two months younger than I am and that makes me the older but not necessarily the wiser. On many things we think alike and even we might not communicate for a long time, at out next conversation it always seems we just spoke. Scary, isn't it?

This weekend we are planning to visit him and his wife and since we didn't see each other for quite a while I am pretty excited. Hope the visit will turn out fine.

F.T.

F.T. is short for Food Terrorist. This is my new name and designation for Abigail. Every day we are having serious discussions about what is for dinner. This girl is so selective, so choosy about food that it is impossible to agree with.

My wife is a very good cook. Many times, she makes good old fashioned Hungarian food that lasts for three or even four days. These foods get better as they age. A good Hungarian goulash is a lot better in its second or third day than on the first day. Abigail never eats anything after the second day. When she finds out that on the third day, we might have some leftover that is when the sh.t hits the fan. Then either she orders something from some exotic restaurant like Japanese or Mexican or my wife cooks her something different.   

Her list of I don't like those is long. She is not too friendly with Hungarian food even though there are a few that she likes, but the majority she dislikes. Japanese Ramen soup, Mexican from Chipotle, Thai and Korean foods are her favorites. I don't know where she picked this crazy habit up.

The reason I call her the Food Terrorist is because regardless of what we like, she practically forces her mom to make what she likes. She doesn't like peas, she doesn't like bell peppers. She will not eat grilled salmon on the second day and the list goes on and on.

I always tell her that she is having it too good, and she will not be able to live like that once she goes off on her own. But this kind of talk falls on deaf ears because I can never win. I am the best customer for food. Whatever my wife puts front of me, I eat. I learned a long time ago never criticize a wife's cooking if I don't want to wear it. So, I learned to keep my criticism to myself. I am a pacifist! 

Medications

I never denied that my main current "occupation" is watching tv. It is comfortable, it does not use up any energy and last but not least it is not educational. Since I learned all there is to learn in life I am not open to any new education. They can talk, they can force any issues, but I will always stick to my gum.

Any given day on any given channel there are a myriad of drug advertisement. They pop up, they impress upon the innocent tv watcher that they are the answers to their so far untreatable ailments. Ok, maybe so. Now the patient is supposed to go to the doctor and request that particular medication, right? Or the doctor is now expected to change the medication because of what the tv ad said? I really don't think this is what happening.

Then what is the point for these advertisements? The other interesting thing that crops up each time is the small print at the bottom of the screens. There is always a lot of writing and always made sure that it could not be read. I'm sure these are legal notes, protecting the advertiser but wouldn't it be nice to be able to know it?

The other thing is and if one reads fast enough can see it is that at most of these medications it is noted what kind of harm or disturbing side effect it has. The list includes suicidal tendencies, depression and many other not very pleasant symptoms. So, while it might cure a specific ailment it might create a list of other problems. This is the part that I noticed and got upset about.

The problem is that doctors do not always know about the side effect and medication interactions. If one questions it their answer always is, ask the pharmacist. 

Israel

On October 7 of this year Hamas terrorists without any provocation attacked Israel killing innocent civilians including women and children. Israel was caught off guard by this attack and very shortly got its act together and retaliated by attacking the Hamas strongholds in Gaza. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Arabs too over 200 people as hostages.

Israel started to bombard Gaza while also sent in troops. In the retaliatory attack civilians lost their lives in Gaza. Hamas did not care about the lives lost and the damages their action caused in their own environment, they just kept up fighting and resisting.

It was interesting to see how fast world opinion turned against Israel and made the people of Gaza the innocent victims of this war. Demonstrations in every country broke out on the side of the Palestinians but never on the side if the Israelis. Governments all over, including this one are sending aid packages to the poor suffering Palestinians who would at their first chance turn against Israel.

Yes, many Palestinians died as the result of this engagement but that is the price of every war that is what they call collateral damage. During WWII the Americans or the British or the Russians regularly bombed Budapest. There was absolutely no military force in that city so why bombing? After some of the air raids I did see the bombed out apartment buildings where people died under the rubbles. How come the world never complained or demonstrated at that time?  

We live in a very interesting time. People protest against any thing many times just for the sake of protesting without looking at the morality of the cause. This is disturbing but there is nothing anybody can do about it. 

Israel probably is strong enough on its own but since the US and many countries always announce that they are the friends of Israel and stand ready to help it would be nice to see some unconditional help. The way I see it any cease fire just help Hamas to reorganize themselves and get ready for the next invasion. Short of wiping them off the face of the earth there is no solution.   

Sunday

 Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

TV

I don't like boring tv shows. I do very much like action movies and tv shows. Because the ladies in my house don't like them this way many times I am forced to watch these by myself. Just recently I finished watching a British series by the name of Peaky Blinders. I liked it very much. It had all the necessary ingredients: gore, sex, violence, rough language.

This show ran for six seasons, six episodes each. That is 36 episodes and I watched them all. It was very realistic and to a point scary. The storyline begun in the 1920s and ended in the 1930s. This is a gangster story with some (maybe) historical undertones. 

The scary part was the implication that in the 1930s in England there was some sympathy towards fascism and Hitler. They implied that there was even an English Nazi Party preparing for taking over the government. Now, this could have been just plain fiction or historical truth. I don't know but if it was the truth, it is scary because it shows what lurks in the minds of the people when they let their thoughts run wild.

From the lower working class all the way up to the aristocracy these sympathies were there and who knows where they are now? History proved it that it did not take much effort to stir up abnormal feelings in people.

In this so-called democratic country, they sent Japanese people into concentration camps during WWII just because they were Japanese. The rounding up and the eventual locking them in was not done in the most humane way and what is scary again they found people who were willing to assist in this shameful act. 

I just pray and hope that no such discriminative act will ever happen in our and in our children's lifetime.

Abigail Continuing

On February 15 I wrote about that Abigail was notified by Columbia University that her application for their masters program was accepted, and she may start her studies in the next fall. Naturally she was overwhelmed about this news not counting the fact that one has to take out a second mortgage to cover the costs. Understandably, I was a little reserved with my overjoyment.

This week she received a letter from New York University, her second choice that she was accepted there also. I understandably was totally overjoyed by this news because what that letter also said.

Full scholarship plus all costs, fees and expenses and $18,000 a year stipend. Now, isn't this something to be overjoyed about?

While Columbia is a one year very congested and full program, including Summer, NYU is a two year program with a little more breathing room. Now, her mom and I are trying to get her to accept the NYU offer even though she thinks Columbia is much more superior.

I keep saying to her that it is not always the schools that make a person. It is the person that has to show the want and the energy, the willingness to learn and what to do with that knowledge. Just running around and screaming that I am a Columbia graduate, I'm a Columbia graduate will not make people falling on their faces and will not make companies stand in line to join them and pay humongous amounts of money. 

But anyway, today Abigail and her mom went off to Columbia because they have an open house for prospective master's students to listen what it is they have to offer.

Like a good Jew that I am, I asked Abigail if it is possible to haggle with these universities. I asked if she could ask Columbia if they might be able to match the NYU offer? She said it is usually not done. too bad. Anyway, NYU is just as respectable as Columbia.

Interesting side note. I was reading the NYU PHD program. Did you know that it is totally free and in addition they pay an annual $40,000 stipend? No wonder there are so many PHDs around. It is a great thing not to do anything but just study and getting paid for it. It is almost like welfare!

Good country, America! 

Older

This old(er) age is beginning to be a pain in the butt. Actually, not just in the butt but everywhere else. Anybody saying that these are the golden years is shamelessly lying. When one is younger, quite younger some ailments, discomforts creep up slowly. So slow that we don't even know about them until they are here. And then, being as I said younger, we hope that our stronger bodies can deal with these.

Now, this is a different story. We can go to sleep feeling good but next morning when we wake up there are pains, new symptoms and a myriad of yet experienced discomforts. Some of this I experienced myself. I had no issues with my waist. Then from one day to the next it started to hurt so bad that I had real problems bending down. I was thinking about everything that could have caused it but then I just let it go. Three days later it is gone. I don't know what it was, probably just came to annoy me.

I noticed on myself that my walks are not as steady as they used to be. I am starting to walk like an old man which I really am trying not to be, even though I am. I walk with a cane, and I am very conscious of where I put my feet since I do not want to fall. For a long time I really did not have any permanent need for it but lately I rely on its support more and more.

Now I have a moral question that I touched on before. Being at an advanced age, should we run to the doctor at every sign of discomfort, pain or ailment or if it is tolerable should we just let nature take care of it?

Would doctors be trustworthy enough to tell us the real truth or what we would like to hear? Would they prescribe necessary and possible long term and costly treatments for the ailment? Or are there some secret insurance company guidelines about wasting money on older people's medical expenses? 

I'm just curious!