Sunday, February 28, 2010

February 28, 2010

I am not a vicious person. I don't wish bad on anybody without a good reason. But I don't feel sorry for people who really don't deserve to feel sorry for.

We had a huge snow storm on this past Thursday. According to the news reports this was one of the biggest this area ever had. Thousands of people lost power because of the wet snow weighing down trees and power lines.

Westchester County is an upscale county in the New York City area. Chappaqua, Bedford Hills are ritzy neighborhoods with higher than average income residents. Yet, the newscasts want us to feel sorry for those people because they are without power for a few days.

First, why didn't they buy generators to provide power in case the main power is lost. My friend lived in Connecticut in a nice town, yet he bought a generator for just in a time like this.

Second, all the these people who lost their electric power can afford to check in to the Waldorf Astoria from their bonuses (or buy the Waldorf Astoria). So why don't they?

I really don't care if they are without electricity until Summer!

Another thing.

As I said we had this huge snowstorm. On Friday our neighborhood was very very quiet. There were very few cars on the road, a lot of people chose not to go to work.

We went down around lunch time since driving was not impossible. Went to a few stores near us and heard the same story over and over again.

These stores all opened a few hours late since their owners and employees had difficulty getting here as well as they had to clean their shares of the front sidewalks before opening.

But they told me that people were complaining about their late openings. These complainers were the same people who claimed they couldn't go to work because of the excessive snow.

Thursday morning the news was showing some parking lot in a shopping center. There were no people, there were no cars. Most of the stores didn't or couldn't open. But in the background there was a Pepsi truck making its deliveries.

Can you imagine how much these "I couldn't go out of my house because oi the snow" people would have complained if there were no Pepsi?

All I can say, we have it very easy. No wonder I like animals more than people!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

February 27, 2010

I just want to continue my trip down memory lane that I started yesterday.

Since I wrote yesterday about things that changed and advanced in my lifetime a few more items came to mind.

Going back to ice skating. When I started skating I was about five years old. Yes, we did have ice back then.

My parents took me to a rink that was natural ice even though Budapest had an outdoor rink with artificial ice even back then!

Anyway I wore high top leather shoes and the skates were fixed onto the sides of the soles of my shoes with the help of some special keys that tightened a few clamps. Looking back now it was primitive but that is what we had.

Eventually I "graduated" to skates that were permanently mounted on to the shoes and I thought they were the coolest things in the world.

Back in those early years instead of long pants I think I wore britches. That was the style kids of my age wore than. Looking back now, they looked pretty stupid but, that's what my parents bought me.

In New York City they use adjectives about older apartment buildings as Pre-War, meaning built before World War II.

The apartment building I was born and grew up in was built either in the very early 1900s or the very late 1890s. It was a real old building. But it was very sturdy, with thick brick walls and good solid floors.

Our apartment was large and was on the second floor with no elevator. Actually, we did have an elevator but it was destroyed during bombings and never rebuilt.

There was no central heat, we had specially built wood burning tile stoves in every room that were very comforting in the cold months. There was a cellar in the building where my Father used to go down to collect the heating material for the week and brought it up to the apartment. When I became a teenager I took over that chore.

Our building had a special room in the cellar where all the residents went down whenever there was an air raid during the war. We were in the mistaken belief that if our building were ever hit by a bomb that room was the safest place to be.

Fortunately, we never had the chance to find out how wrong we would have been. We had the opportunity to use that room again in November 1956 when the Russians came in to Budapest after the Hungarian Revolution and were shooting at buildings with the cannons of their tanks.

I never saw television until I came to the US in 1957. I heard about it but never saw one. My relatives had one, black and white though, and I really liked it.

We didn't buy one until 1960 but didn't take long to get used to it. My Mother got her first TV in 1964 and she also liked it a lot even though programming in those days in Hungary was very limited to say the least.

Being ruled by a Soviet type regime the government wanted to make sure that the viewing public is not being corrupted by so called immoral programs.

The happiness of the lathe operator, the joys of sharpening the scythe and similar enlightening programs were the daily norm. And people were watching these things because there was nothing else to watch.

Oh, don't forget the synchronized version of the Soviet movie about the loves of the female tractor operator.

We had no school lunches in my days. My Mother made me a sandwich and I ate that in recess. Sometimes we exchanged sandwiches with each other if we were not very happy with our own foods.

And we still grew up as fairly normal(?) and successful people. Kids here in this country don't realize how lucky they are!

I used to see my Grandfather shave with a straight razor. He didn't know any other way to shave. My Father used safety razors, he never mastered the use of the straight razor. Speaking of my Grandfather, he was so good shaving that he never saw him cut himself.

There is a small shop in one of the shopping centers near us where they provide shaving with straight razors. In reality that is the best shave one can ever get, but it's too much hassle.

Maybe if I get invited to the White House for a state dinner I'll get a shave with a straight razor.

In my early days movie theaters had pre-set show times and tickets were priced according to the location of the seats. Every ticket sold was for a reserved seat and for a particular showtime.

There was a movie theater in Budapest that showed nothing but newsreels continuously all day long. I thought it was very cool that one could see the same thing over and over again.

Due to the darkness of the theater and the non-stop performances and due to to the non existence of hourly rated motel rooms this movie theater became a very popular place among the young and the restless.

In the mid 1950s my Father had a company car which we used sometimes for weekend excursions. I remember the gas stations in those days. They were manually operated. The attendant pumped the gas continuously from one transparent cylindrical container to another and somehow that is how the gas got into the car.

It was extremely primitive but that's what we had back than.

Looking back, those were very primitive days but they were also very uncomplicated.

Friday, February 26, 2010

February 26, 2010

If one lives long enough he'll see a lot of changes in the world. If one adds his parents' lifespan to his own the changes are phenomenal.

Here is one. My Mother was born in 1904, in Hungary. I do know that at that time there were no airplanes there and I'm sure there were no airplanes in the US either.

In my Mother's lifespan the airplane was invented, developed and eventually air travel became very popular in the world. My Mother, who never flew in her life, came to visit me in 1968 and flew from Budapest to New York alone in a huge jet plane. And, was never scared of the flying experience.

Actually, she flew about three more times and loved every trip.

Just looking back at the tremendous changes in technology in our time is mind boggling. Since I am familiar of the times my parents lived in I also count those years.

When I was growing up we already had telephones. Even in Hungary. We gave up smoke signals years before that.

Our telephones were rotary but so were all the phones when I came out to this county. Now, if one sees a phone with a rotary dial he will ask the question "what is this?"

In the late 1960s I saw mobile telephones but there were almost as big as a shipping trunk. Large and uncomfortably heavy. Now, the mobile phones are about 1/8th of an inch thick and weigh only a few ounces.

I remember automobiles, trucks that had to be cranked in the front in order to get their engines started. This was back before World War II and before the invention of the automatic starter, at least in Hungary.

My parents grew up in the silent movie era. In my Mother's time they already had color, wide screen and 3D movies with stereophonic sound.

There is a ski shop not far from where I live. In their window they exhibit some ancient wooden skis with real old bindings, bamboo poles as well as leather ski boots with lacing. They do this to show how much the sport advanced in years.

I am looking at these and saying it to myself that "hey, I used to ski with this type of equipment." Does that make me ancient, too?

My Mother used to have an iron made from cast iron. This iron used charcoal to heat it. She never liked to use it because it was heavy and generally a nuisance.

I think we threw it out. Now they are selling this as an antique item for a lot of money.

When I was growing up we never had an electric refrigerator. What we had was an ice box. The ice man came (cometh) and we bought ice from him, put it in the ice box and kept it there until it melted. She bought her first electric refrigerator in the 1960s.

Direct dialing long distance calls was unheard of. There were the good old switchboards with their corresponding operators.

A very good friend of mine lived in an Upstate New York community and in the mid 1960s when I visited them I noticed that their telephone had no rotary dial. When I inquired I was told that they couldn't dial out. They had to ask the local operator to make the connection. Can you imagine living like that today?

We get upset if in the middle of the Sahara Desert we can get four bars on our cell phone.

Just to note, I grew up in Hungary, lived in Budapest. Budapest was a cosmopolitan city equipped with all comforts money could buy. So it was not out in the boondocks where the fruits of civilization were slow to grow.

They liked the comforts the West could offer.

But to think back how much the world changed in our lifetime is staggering. It is almost like going from walking on all fours to walk upright.

The only thing really never finding a fertile soil in Hungary was the sport of golf. But don't worry about Hungarian men. They don't go around in circles looking for a little extracurricular activities.









I'll write about old things that we had, like wood skis

Thursday, February 25, 2010

February 25, 2010

When a person accidentally steps on the toes of another person he says "I'm sorry." When a person accidentally shoves another person on the subway he says "I'm sorry."

These and similar occurrences are the accepted reasons for apologies.

But when the head of a corporate giant, the head of one of the world's largest automaker says "I'm sorry for the mistakes we made and I take full responsibility for them" that sounds very fishy to me.

That apology is as phony, insincere and unbelievable as the one mumbled by a famous athlete last Friday who apologized for his sexual escapades.

I just hate when grown ups who happen to be public figures apologize for various indiscretions they committed.

And it is a fairly long list that includes former state governors, a current state governor, presidential hopeful, senators, professional athletes and God knows who else.

I can not believe that these people, most of whom possess above average intelligence, ever imagined that they could get away with whatever indiscretion they were doing.

Let's just go back to Toyota. The head of the company apologized for the problems caused by his company's products. Too bad! He will go back home to his nice cushy job and I am sure will not lose a moment's sleep over what happened to those people who got killed in their car.

He apologized and as far as he was concerned he said what was expected of him.

But this seems to be the fashion today. People do things that they are not supposed to do and when they are caught they apologize and as far as they are concerned the slate is wiped clean.

Is this what today's kids are supposed to learn? Don't worry about what you do because you can always apologize for it?

Most of these hapless souls are supposed to be important people. I am sure they thought they could get away with whatever they were doing because of their status. But they were wrong, they got caught.

I would hate to think how many important people get away with stuff simply because they are well connected.

It seems that the most important English word today is: sorry.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

February 24, 2010

I always knew that sport is big business. But when the pride of a nation is in question it is very peculiar to see other than their native sons on their teams.

I know that I already complained about this but I can not help it. It is more and more obvious as I am watching the Winter Olympics.

The Chinese women's curling team has a Canadian coach who naturally can not speak Chinese and communicates through an interpreter.

I was watching women's figure skating last night. One of the interesting thing I noticed that the Korean star figure skater is being coached by the Canadian Brian Orser who himself was an Olympic silver medalist for Canada.

The guy who stood on the podium several times and watched his country's flag being raised now was wearing the Korean team's jacket as he was rooting for his pupil. I guess the mighty dollar is the ever encompassing reasoning behind all this.

Most of the coaching staff in figure skating are Russians. Either former skaters themselves or just very good coaches who have the knack developing talents. This applies not only for the American skaters but to skaters in other countries too. Oh, and most of them live and practice in the US with their pupils.

I can understand that countries are selling citizenships to serve their own interests and, athletes are recruiting trainers from all corners of the world. All this because sport is becoming a worldwide business of huge proportions.

I think the Opening Ceremony should be the same way as the Closing Ceremony usually is. Athletes should come in in one large group and not by countries since being part of a particular country has no meaning at all anymore.

$$$$

It seems that the media and others perceive today's children, primarily toddlers and their parents as idiots.

They are constantly occupied with child safety things. The car seat has to be a particular type otherwise the child falls out of it. The crib has to be a particular type of construction otherwise the baby might kill himself.

Electric outlets must be covered because the toddler will stick his fingers in them and gets electrocuted. Kitchen ovens must be protected in such a way that children might not be able to turn them on.

And this list goes on and on and on.

I don't understand all this. Maybe because I don't have any children.

But when I was growing up or any of my friends were growing up our parents never got a manual on how to raise us safely. And none of us ever got electrocuted or killed by our monster cribs.

We were allowed to sleep on our backs or on our bellies whichever we liked. We never had certain rooms barricaded so we might not enter. We never fell out of the windows and always got our shots without argument.

In our time we never had smartass mothers who thought they were more knowledgeable than the rest of the world. When they told us to get our shots we got them otherwise we were not permitted to attend school. We complied, never argued. End of story!

The so called experts are convincing everybody that today's parents are not up to raising children without a manual. And they are also convincing everybody that the babies and toddlers are on a mission of self destruction.

Somehow this world survived all these years without a safety manual and Baedeker.

Look at China. 1.3 billion people and I am sure they were not given a How to handbook every time a baby was born. The same applies to India with its 1.18 billion population.

At the top of these problems are the parents. Everything depends on them. Parents supposed to care for their children, they supposed to train their children for social etiquette. They are not to leave the basic values to the schools.

A well mannered child is not well mannered because he learned it in school. He is such a way because of his home life. Because the parents are willing to spend time with the child.

And since the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, bum parents probably will have bum children. But there is no excuse for good parents to have bum children.

Hate to repeat myself but I will. Just look around. Our parents turned out to be pretty good people and their offsprings aren't that bad either.

If I may say so myself!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

February 23, 2010

To show off my superior intellect, the quote "I could a been a contender" comes from the 1954 movie On the Waterfront and it was said by Marlon Brando to Rod Steiger.

Click on the link and you'll see a five minute segment of the scene where these words were spoken.

It is not very easy to be so knowledgeable. My head is bursting with all the stuff stored in it.

That's why I have a swollen head which is far better than to have a shrunken head!

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Today it is a miserable, dark, rainy day. By English standards it is probably a fine day for a walk outdoors but by our standards it is just plain yucky.

Since we have no business anywhere we decided to stay inside all day. Staying home is not the worse place in the world. Gives one time to catch up with things he wanted to do and kept postponing again and again.

For a very long time I wanted to do absolutely nothing and today I finally had the opportunity to do just that. This writing is about as much as I would do all day long with the exception that I fixed a scrumptious lunch earlier for the two of us.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In physics classes I learned that ether evaporates almost instantly. Now I know something that evaporates even faster.

It is called consumer confidence.

The Market opened up at 9:30 this morning and five minutes later prices were up very nicely. Commentaries said that futures showed an uptrend and things looked good since several major companies came out and reported higher than expected earnings.

By 10:00 consumer confidence disappeared and the Market plunged and stayed that way for the rest of the day, closing at -100.97.

What would it take for that darn consumer to rebuild his confidence?

Maybe some tangible proof for a better economy to look forward to in our future!





Monday, February 22, 2010

February 22, 2010

It is 10:30 am or for my European friends it is 10:30 in the morning.

We Americans are extremely intelligent people. We can't hack the metric system but insisting on using latin description for before noon and after noon.

The day is just beginning. The weather is nice but they are already forecasting some nasty things to come. I wanted to go skiing on Wednesday but with more snow in the forecast I think I am postponing it.

Just to change the subject I want to mention that at the end of next month a very good friend of mine and his wife are coming to New York for their annual visit.

We know each other since elementary school, we practically grew up together (if we can call this status of our life grown up) and in the past several years see each other once a year when they visit here from good old England.

At these visits them and another very old, dear and good friend and his wife we get together and reminisce about the old times (or tymes), exchange gossips and in the meantime stuff ourselves with Hungarian soul food.

We always enjoy and look forward to these get-togethers.

It is nice to meet people from our old lives. We are so far from our roots and there are so few of us left that it is very refreshing to talk and remember about our younger (and unquestionably wilder) days.

Since the Winter Olympics is on I can't help but remember when my friend and I used to go ice skating practically every day in the winter.

We probably put in more ice time time than any serious competitive skater. As the saying goes "I could a been a contender" applies to both of us. However, our interest was far far away from the sport. Well, sport as it is commonly known.

Our single minded devotion was to meet girls. That was the only reason why we were willing to freeze our teenage arses off on the outdoor skating rink. I also think this was before the invention of recreational sex. At least for us.

This was an outdoor rink. In those days, and I am talking about the 1950s, there were no indoor ice skating rinks in Budapest.

We actually never met anybody nice out there but we always had a great time.

Getting together with friends from the old days is such a comforting way to spend time. Meeting these people always give me a warm and fuzzy feeling and I am looking forward to it.

Anyway, here is a life changing story.

Yesterday I received from my other friend an e-mail with a photo attached to it. The story is that he is going through old slides and digitizing them and he keeps finding stuff he gets very sentimental about .

This particular photo shows a grocery store in our neighborhood. The story goes that he went there one day in January 1957 to buy something. The store was almost closing and the woman in charge would not let him in and in addition made some antisemitic remarks.

Next day my friend came up to our house and told my Mother and I the story. He said this was the last straw and this was what made him decide to leave the country. My Mother agreed with him and together they convinced me to leave also.

OK, looking back in the past fifty three years I am not sorry that I left. I have a good life, a loving wife and this is not the worse place to be in the world.

But the funny thing is how sometimes something insignificant can have a life changing effect. If that little scenario did not happen between my friend and the woman in the grocery store him and I would be two retired gentlemen still living in Budapest.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

February 21, 2010

Last night I was watching the Olympics on the telly. Since there was nothing else to watch I had to suffer through the three runs of the two man bobsled races.

Unless they turn over on the ice and they skid and slide their way down this is one of the most boring activities in Vancouver.

Compared to this or any kind of bobsled racing even curling is more exciting. Bobsledding is not a sport at all. Look at the way those people looked like. With their pot bellies in those skintight suits they looked absolutely disgusting.

Sport is defined as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature...

I don't know which category bobsledding falls under. Also, in my mind any kind of sport that is being practiced at the Olympic Games should be available to any aspiring young person. I can see skiing, hockey and ice skating being available to whomever because there are ski resorts and ice skating rinks all over.

But bobsledding doesn't fall into this category. I can not see a young boy or girl growing up and saying he or she wants to be a bobsledder.

Might as well be a golfer. Lately it seems to be more fun!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After the Olympic broadcast I started to watch a movie which I found very interesting and moving.

It was made in 1988 and its title was "Gorillas in the Mist". It was the story of Dian Fossey who spent a better part of her life studying and protecting the mountain gorillas in Africa.

I vaguely knew the story although never saw the movie itself. The story was riveting. Not only because I do love animals but the acting, the scenery, the gorillas in the film were fascinating.

I read up about her entire story and found that the movie was pretty close to the actual events.

This woman spent eighteen years of her fifty-three years studying, befriending and protecting them from poachers and extinction in the mountains of Rwanda.

At the end she was brutally killed right there in her camp. She paid with her life for doing what she believed in.

What really moved me was the unselfish act by someone who did not expect to benefit and profit from her beliefs.

There are some people, very few, who are really driven by their convictions to do good for the world. These people deserve all the respect we can stow upon them.

The sad thing is that animals deserve these good deeds more than people. Animals are honest, they don't lie and cheat and they are grateful for the smallest kindness shown towards them.

Humans unfortunately don't posses these traits.

Even our leaders whom we supposed to trust come in waving the carrot stick front of us but at the end they take it away and make us pay if we really want to taste it.

Dian Fossey was not driven by views of fortune or Dow Jones averages. She gave up her cushy lifestyle in America and went to live in the wilds of Africa where the gorillas were more appreciative than her human brethren.

This world needs more people like her and than it might be a better place to live in.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

February 20, 2010

Yesterday I was watching women's curling on the Winter Olympics. It was the USA vs. Russia game. I got so excited that that I had to take medicine not to fall a sleep.

The way I see it it is only interesting to the players and their families.

Curling supposed to have been invented in medieval Scotland in 1540. I can not imagine anything being exciting in medieval Scotland! It became an Olympic sport in 1998. The fact that it was invented in Scotland to me means that it belongs to a list of other boring activities that originated on the British Isles. Like cricket and golf. And don't forget big time ale sipping.

Here is an interesting follow up to my previous comment on February 16 about athletes representing countries other than their own.

There lives a family in New Jersey that has two daughters and a son. The mother was born in Japan, the father in the US. The father is American as apple pie.

The youngsters were very good figure skaters. Eventually the older sister and the brother teamed up and became top quality ice dancers.

Apparently they could not qualify to represent the US but because their mother was born in Japan these kids obtained Japanese citizenship and now they are representing Japan in the Olympics. They live and train here in this country but the Japanese Skating Association is contributing to the cost of their training.

If there is any glory in the tournament it will be Japan's.

The youngest sister felt left out of this whole shebang butsince she also wanted to be an ice dancer she looked around in search of a partner.

Eventually Cinderella found her prince in the form a Georgian ice dancer, likewise looking for a partner. The glass slipper fit and they are living or rather competing together.

She at first received a Georgian passport then just before the Olympics last month she received her Georgian citizenship.

This girls doesn't speak a word in Georgian, never been there and probably never will. Nobody in her family was ever Georgian or had any ties with that country.

It seems the country needed an ice skater and she needed a team. End of story.

There is also a Hungarian ice dancing couple competing in Vancouver where the girl is a real Hungarian but the guy is as Russian as Vladimir Putin.

This guy was born in Moscow in 1985 when it was part of the Soviet Union. Somehow he managed to come out to the US and in 2005 became an American citizen.

He had an American ice dancing partner with whom they were quite successful. However that partnership ended in 2007 so he also went shopping.

He met this Hungarian girl and the match was complete. She is of the same age as he is and quite good.

He started competing in Hungarian colors achieving respectable results. On January 25, 2010 he became a Hungarian citizen so he might represent Hungary in the Olympics.

The only difference between this guy and the quasi Georgian girl is that she has absolutely no relationship to the country she is representing while the Russian guy's relatives were probably part of the Russian occupation forces stationed in Hungary in those bad years.

Now, this bum has three citizenships and is only 25 years old. I wonder how many he will collect by the time he is 40.

This is absolutely wrong! What's the point marching under flags when every participant is only looking for their own individual glory regardless whom they are representing.

The word representing only means who is paying the bill.

These people are prostitutes. They go where the glory/money is.

Friday, February 19, 2010

February 19, 2010

I am always amazed at the way politicians think. It is like they are living in a vacuum. They do not care one iota about the public, about their constituents. The only time they come out and shake hands and kiss babies is when they need the votes.

They also have selective memories. They keep reminding us how much good they did but keep forgetting their mistakes or inaction.

New York State Governor David Paterson announced that he would run for a full term at the next election. He totally disregards that his popularity is in the basement. He lives in this dream world where he can get elected.

He was Lieutenant Governor under Eliot Spitzer but when Spitzer resigned Paterson automatically became the Chief Executive of New York State. Governor Spitzer had to resigned because he was pulling a Tiger Woods thing. No, not playing golf but rather playing the field.

So, Paterson honestly believes he can get elected in November. He doesn't take notice of the fact that the public can't stand him, that he didn't do anything for the State and he is a weak leader.

Just because he is black does not guarantee automatic winning. He also should be a good leader which he is not.

But what's interesting is that apparently nobody has the guts to tell him not to pursue this folly.

I'm just surprised that the Democratic Party and other backers are willing to stake their money on his candidacy. I wouldn't waste a penny on it. It would be similar to buying Lehman Brothers' stocks.

The same applies to President Obama. He came into office with the trust of the people, promising everything but the Moon. Did he deliver on his promises? No!

Right now his popularity is very, very low. But he goes on these Town Hall Meetings and other such gatherings where he is surrounded with hardcore Democrats who eat every word he is saying.

But that doesn't count. Hardcore Democrats would vote for one of their own if his name were Dzingis Khan.

Watch these meetings where the President speaks. The people sitting within the cameras are always shaking their heads in total agreement with his every word. These people don't have economical troubles, these people have jobs and houses.

Why nobody bothers to talk to the unemployed, to the ones who lost their homes or the ones on the food lines?

Because that makes bad politics and even worse public relations. Because that would mean they would have to admit their failure.

And failure nobody will admit to. Listening to the President everything is honky dory, everything is proceeding according to the Master Plan. The trouble is nobody is aware of any Master Plan. I think the Master Plan is being made up as we go on.

At least today TW said he was sorry he screwed up the life of his family. When will our leader say he is sorry for screwing up the life of the country?

Thursday, February 18, 2010

February 18, 2010

As I mentioned yesterday I went skiing. I had a great time.

It was very interesting. I left my home at 6 am and drove non stop to the mountain. It was a two and a half hour drive which I enjoyed immensely. Once the sun came up it turned out that there were no clouds in the sky and I thought I would have a nice clear cold day.

How wrong I was! When I got close to the place it turned cloudy and it started snowing. Actually it didn't start I drove into it.

All day long it was snowing and cold. It seems that some of these mountains make their own weather. They probably have an Indian witchdoctor on the payroll who performs the snow dance and then it snows.

Anyway this place was winter wonderland. It seems it has been snowing up there on and off for weeks now so there is no lack of the white stuff.

I didn't realize that that this week is a holiday week as far as schools are concerned. Monday was Presidents' Day which is a half ass holiday. That means that governments offices, stock markets, post office were closed while most private businesses remained open.

Anyway, this week being a holiday week the place was like a zoo. People and more people. Families with kids, families without kids and kids without families.

And they talk about recession! They should look at these ski places. When a daily ticket at holiday periods cost around $60 a person and a family of four visit we are talking about real money.

And, there are a lot of people at these times. The lift lines are crowded, the slopes are crowded. It seems there are still people who are not in the want.

I am an exception. Thanks to my "golden age" I ski for free. I was talking to some people on the ski lift on the way to the top and I said that there were not too many advantages of being old. But skiing for free is one of the few.

Watching the Winter Olympics I thought I try some of the tricks I saw on TV. They are not as easy as they look. As a result of it I decided I would not turn pro, I'll stay amateur.

All these things happened yesterday. Today every bone in my body hurt. It's not because I'm a sissy, it is because there was a lot of fresh snow on the ground and to me that is a lot more exhausting to ski than a nice flat, groomed surface.

But I'll survive and hopefully be able to go again shortly.

***************************

It is all over the news today and was yesterday that a certain golfer is planning some announcement for tomorrow where he will apologize for his actions.

Well, I am hurt. I will not forgive him no matter how much he will apologize.

This whole thing is a joke. This man should apologize to his wife and to his wife only. And if that stupid slut takes him back after what he did to her she is not any better than the women he did it with.

The saying that "a tiger doesn’t change his stripes" totally applies here. It will be just a little time before things will return to the same way as they were before.

"Graduating" from a sex clinic will not cure a person. It will just help him to hide the addiction.

But why he has to apologize? The public really don't give a damn what he does in his private life. All they want to do is see him play golf. It's the media that created this publicity circus about his affairs.

The old saying says the "clothes don't make the man".

Well, money don't make the man either.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

February 17, 2010

Today I am not writing anything. I went skiing, had a great time and am exhausted.

This was the fourth time I skied this season and it is only February 16. Previous years I skied about four times all season. Things are looking up that I might be able to do better than before.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Monday, February 15, 2010

February 16, 2010

The world is getting smaller and smaller. And also getting screwier and screwier.

I am watching the Winter Olympics as much as I can.

What hits me is that I see the strangest named athletes competing for a particular country.

By strange names I mean non-Russian sounding name in the Russian team and other curious things.

It seems that if a person can not make his or hers home country teams they shop around the world to see where can they compete.

For example here is the Jamaican team. They have a single player competing in freestyle skiing. Now Jamaica is not very well known as a skiing paradise but not to worry. The sole athlete was born in good old California and has been skiing there since he was about four years old.

He didn't make the US team but since his mother is Jamaican he qualified for that country.

Then there was this Japanese girl who loved pair ice skating. She was born in Japan and grew up there. However the Japanese were not much for pairs skating and she couldn't find a suitable partner in her home country.

So she went shopping. Not to Macy's but out into the World. As it turned out Russia had a partner to offer and probably the best training and coaches money could buy.

At the end this girl moved to Russia, changed her name to be more pronounceable in Russian and became a Russian citizen. Oh, and gave up her Japanese citizenship for which they call her a traitor back home.

But she made the Russian team and is now competing in Vancouver. Actually, her and her partner got fourth place in the finals.

Then there is this German figure skating pair. The girl has a Ukrainian name and she was born in the Ukraine. But somehow she wound up in Germany and now skates for that country.

The guy who got silver in the Men's Moguls Final is a native Vancouverite but is now competing for Australia. It seems that since he became an Internet millionaire Canada didn't want him for some reason so he showed them all right. Got the medal for Australia!

The world is becoming the playground for professional athletes as well.

At one time I was looking at the compositions of various Hungarian soccer teams. Those teams are all professionals.

I saw the weirdest looking "Hungarians" playing there. They don't have Hungarian sounding names and most of them are much darker than any suntanned Hungarian I ever saw. Some are from Cameroon, Gabon and God knows from where else.

There is nothing wrong with buying talent. But this makes sport into not what it originally was intended to be but big business.

Why is it that an overweight, no talent football player gets $15 million for a year while a talented ice skater who represents this country in the Olympics has to struggle in private life to support his family and to make ends meet.

What did any of the football players or the overpaid baseball players ever do for this country to deserve their money?

February 15, 2010

There was an article in yesterday's New York Times about the financial trouble Greece is in. Actually there were probably more than one articles about it since it has such an effect on Wall Street.

If I remember correctly they said that Wall Street was responsible for the troubles.

The president of Goldman Sachs and other major financial firms traveled to Greece several times in the past and helped that country mask its mounting debt by allowing them to borrow more and more money against future payments.

At the same time they were misleading the public by hiding the bad situation the country was in.

This sounds like giving a person a second and third mortgage in order to pay off the previous ones he owes but at the same time digging himself deeper and deeper into debt.

The banks said everything done was legal and everything was done according to the law.

That's a cop out!

Foreclosing a home and dispossessing its tenant is also according the law but it is inhumane.

Our financial institutions are totally without conscience. They don't care if they bankrupt a family or bankrupt a country as long as they make money on it.

This is the kind of attitude that got us into the mess we and the entire world is in. I agree that Wall Street is the cause of it. By Wall Street I mean the banks and all the major financial services firms like Goldman Sachs and others.

Most of them deserve the fate Lehman Brothers got. Go bankrupt and see what kind of bonuses will be coming.

I wonder how much bonus an executive gets for bankrupting his company. They seem to get a lot for just screwing up the economy.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning I spoke to somebody who is in Florida. After our discussions I checked the weather and from Miami Beach up it was about 48 degrees Fahrenheit everywhere and it wasn't expected to go up much during the day.

All I can say is that I am happy I live in the Northeast where it snows in the winter and it is hot and humid in the summer!

I have friends and family down in the Sunshine State and they are all shivering in their boots. They will manage because they live down there and they will weather this through but I really feel bad for the people who chose these few weeks as their vacation period.

They could have saved their money and stayed home. At least here they would be prepared for the snow and it wouldn't be a shock and surprise.

These are the two reasons we don't go on vacation in the winter.

If the weather is screwy planes don't leave. At the return one might have to dig his car out of a snowbank or worse yet, can get stuck back at the vacation place.

If the airports are closed the resorts will be very understanding and accommodating. Since one can not leave it is obvious that no one will be arriving. However, this is not free. They will charge for the extra stays, as will the car rental company and the restaurants for the meals.

The other questionable thing is the weather. Unless one goes to southern end of the Caribbean it is not guaranteed that it will be hot.

When a person waits the entire year for that little vacation time it can be very annoying if Mother Nature does not cooperate.

Our usual vacation time is in August when the only question is where will it be hotter, in the Caribbean or in New York. And curiously sometimes New York wins.

I love the four seasons. The changes in nature, the changes in the weather. Since I come from a country with four seasons this area is not unusual for me.

One can find something to do any time of the year. Sometimes it is outdoors sometimes it is indoors.

As much as I love the sun and surf I don't know if I could ever get used to living in a tropical climate since I still love winter.

It's a good thing that I am not an avid golfer because now I would be forced to pursue certain indoor activities.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

February 13, 2010

Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. NBC Television broadcasted the event from 7:30 pm through past midnight.

Subsequently, all shows were canceled and there was nothing noteworthy on the other channels either.

I love to watch the Olympics. I like the activity, the international composition and just like it because it has to do with winter sports. I even like the opening ceremonies of all the olympic games because there are always something very unique being presented.

We decided to watch the entire show since there was nothing else anyway.

With the exceptions of the nations coming into the stadium the entire show was tremendously boring.

It was like an ugly baby where people say the baby has a face only a mother could love.

Whatever the meaning of this show was it totally escaped me. The meaning was so deeply buried in the spectacle that only the producers understood it.

I was watching the native Indians while they were jumping around. Most of the young women looked like showgirls. Nicely made up, tall, slim young women. Not at all looking like ethnic, native Canadians.

Why is it that whenever there is live broadcast from any event the announcers have to explain what is it we are looking at? Do they assume the public is so stupid they wouldn't understand unless they explain it?

That's what happened yesterday. Bob Costas and Matt Lauer didn't shut up during the show at all. OK, they explained he countries as they came in but why did they have to explain everything during the rest of the show?

Now speaking of the countries. The American team's uniforms were designed by Ralph Lauren.

Most of the countries came in dressed in nice winter clothing without any logo or advertisement on them except their nationality.

Ralph Lauren decided to put that huge horse logo on the front left side of all the jackets. This man's ego bigger than that horse's behind he is using. Why was it necessary to advertise that these are his designs?

I was looking at their uniforms as they marched in and found this totally distasteful.

That poor Georgian athlete died yesterday while training. It was a shame and such a waste.

Before the Georgian athletes came in several countries' athletes were wearing black armbands which I found very moving. But after Georgia nobody was wearing it anymore. I found it peculiar that the Russian contingent came in and were not wearing any.

Their hate for Georgia didn't have to be this obvious. This supposed to be sport and not politics.

I can't wait for the games to begin, mainly the curling!

Friday, February 12, 2010

February 12, 2010

My wife and I don't like cruises. At least not ocean cruises.

I know I have been saying a lot of negative things about generally popular subjects, but hey that's how I feel and that is the view from the bottom.

Anyway, we don't like cruises.

This is not based on some information picked out of thin air, it is based on a cruise we took years ago.

Don't misunderstood, we had a great time. At the time we went on a Western Caribbean cruise with stops in Key West Florida, Cozumel Mexico, Jamaica and Cayman Islands.

This was our first excursion into the Caribbean and we instantly fell in love. The weather the sea, the palm trees the whole shebang.

The ship was luxurious and comfortable. Not too huge yet not small either. Since this cruise was about eighteen years ago that ship is now living her fourth life with another cruise company still plying the oceans of the world.

And it is good to know that she is not part of some artificial coral somewhere deep down.

We really liked that cruise. We saw beautiful places, ate good food and since we went with friends it was really fun.

What we didn't like were the rigidness of their schedules and the mass of people. At that time time we didn't realize that cruise ships usually dock at the ugliest and most commercial parts of these islands.

Since that time we vacationed in Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten and I can tell you the places where the cruise ships dock are not the prettiest.

The rigid schedules included meal times and getting off the ship and back while at dock. Since this ship spent only two days at sea, on board activities were limited. We wanted to see the islands and not taking part in ping pong tournaments.

OK, the meals were excellent and plenty, the service first class. Entertainment was good and night life was fun.

So if everything was so good why don't we like it? Because once you are on an island everybody is running around like a headless chicken from store to store or going on an overpriced tour and constantly watching the clock to be back at the ship on time.

Eating on the islands and savoring the local food becomes an issue because the meals are paid for on the ship so why spend the money.

The merchants on these islands look at the cruise passengers as cash cows and suckers. Some of them raise their prices when the ships are in believing that once they say the item is tax and duty free it will be sold.

After our cruise we started to vacation on different Caribbean islands by staying two to three weeks in one place and realized what a difference that is. That's what vacation is. Relaxation in the sun and we love it.

The new cruise ship that is roaming the seas is called the Oasis of the Seas. It just went into service and it cost $1.4 billion to make it. This alone is an obscene amount.

It can carry 6,296 passengers and a crew of 2,165. That totals 8,461 people. This is bigger than a small town.

The ship has 16 decks, it is 236 ft high, 1,181ft long and 198feet wide. It is huge.

I saw this ship on a web camera while it was at St. Maarten. There were three other ships at the pier and they were dwarfed by this monstrosity.

When it stops at an island and you add all the other ships there, there will over ten thousand people going ashore pretty much at the same time. These quaint, nice island are being ruined by the presence of these hordes of humanity.

In our resort we are advised to stay out of town when the cruise ships are in. Fortunately, there are days when it is nice and quiet since no ships come in.

A cruise ship of the size of the Oasis is just leave all imagination behind. There are restaurants galore, activities galore and naturally multitude of shopping opportunities.

I know someone who is hung up on these large ships. Every year he manages to go on a cruise on the newest and biggest ship.

I told them once that if I want to go shopping I can go to Macy's and not to a ship. If I want to eat French, Italian or Japanese I go to a restaurant that is on Terra firma.

I just can not see having enough time on a such a huge ship to enjoy it and at the same time leave, explore the islands and also relax.

But obviously some people like it otherwise they wouldn't be building bigger and bigger cruise ships. The Oasis of the Seas' claim to be the largest cruise ship in the world very likely will not last forever.

I'll take my three weeks on the beautiful island of St. Maarten anytime.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

February 11, 2010

A sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.

That is the definition of all sport activities. Sports can be exercised as leisurely activities or they can be pursued competitively.

In any manner of activity sports usually need some form of physical exertion as well as technics.

An individual who is not a professional athlete may pursue any kind of sport activity for enjoyment or for competitive purposes.

There are a multitude of activities available to any individual where excellence is not a requirement. As long as the person enjoys what he is doing without causing harm to himself it is fine.

As soon as any kind of harm comes into the picture it is no longer a leisurely activity.

Professional athletes, using the terminology in its broadest sense, fall into a different category.

Watching professional football players, hockey players, boxers, any kind of extreme sport participants or any one of the multitude of professional sports is reminiscent of the old Roman gladiator duels. It was expected then and it is expected now that there would be injuries. Some serious, some not.

Why is fighting permitted in a hockey game? Because it is no longer a sport!

But I veered away from what I wanted to say.

Auto racing is not a sport! NASCAR racing is not a sport.

It is a business that is very high on promotion. What is the sport in sitting in a car a drive around a course with 150-190 miles an hour speed?

We all drive. Last week I drove on a major road where the speed limit is 65mph. That usually means one can safely drive at 72-74mph speed without getting a speeding ticket. Naturally there are always people for whom that is not satisfactory and they try to go much faster. Those are the ones who get caught.

What happens at these races is that they take these professional drivers and let them go as fast as they want without getting speeding tickets. And the bloodthirsty crowd is watching and waiting for an accident which always do happen.

These drivers have a skill. They drive fast and they drive well. But most of the licensed drivers drive fast and drive well. So why are these any different?

Because they get the sponsors and we don't.

The American public loves car races. They can sit through five-six hours of watching cars going around and around. I get dizzy after ten minutes.

But these drivers are not athletes by any means. They are people who know how to drive.

Maybe motorcycle racers have more athletic ability than the drivers but that sport didn't catch on here in the US.

To me an auto race or a truck race or a monster truck race is not any more sport than chess or stamp collecting.

There are several sports that to me are really not sports at all.

Take curling for instance. It's on the Winter Olympics' schedule. There is this 40 lbs granite piece that is being slid down the ice while two people vigorously sweep the ice front of it with brooms. Sweeping the ice with brooms is an athletic procedure?

How good one has to be with a broom to qualify for the Olympic Team? I'm sure once their sport career is over they all go into the cleaning business.

Bobsledding is not a very exciting activity either. It doesn't mean if one is a 90 pound weakling or a 250 pound powerhouse all one needs to do is to drive that thing down the icy chute. There is no physical conditioning necessary for this sport.

Skeleton and luge are equally idiotic. Kids do this in parks or mountainsides when there is sufficient amount of snow. I can't see a young kid who says I want to be a luger when I grow up.

At least catching butterflies requires some stamina.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

February 10, 2010



It's been snowing all day here in New York. They are making such a big thing about it that if World War III broke out today it would have taken second place behind the snow.

Looking out the window it is pretty. But only by looking out from the warm room to the cold snowy cityscape. The city will be nice and white and clean for about a half a day after the snow stops falling. After that all the nice fluffy stuff will turn to dirty slush.

That means we have to enjoy it while we can. Since I don't have to shovel all I can do is looking at it and enjoy it.

People are very funny creatures.

All last night and this morning they were warning people about the coming winter storm. They said if you didn't have to drive don't, if you can not go to work don't. In New York City they closed all Public Schools which is a rare occurrence.

So today there were a lot of people who decided to stay home and none of the kids went to school.

But people do venture out during the day and since they have nothing else to do they go to the stores or the malls.

A lot of malls and department stores were open as well as smaller stores.

People who are too wussy to go to work get upset if they find their stores closed because of the weather. The sales people at these stores have to be there and ready to serve regardless of the inclement weather even if the wusses are unwilling to go to work for the same reason.

We get upset if our supermarket is not open and its shelves are not fully stocked without thinking that the poor guy responsible for it had to brave the elements to get there.

This morning I looked out the window and saw absolutely no traffic at all. Suddenly a huge Pepsi truck drives by very likely making some deliveries. Interestingly, I didn't find it out of place or unusual him being on the road.

We are a very selfish bunch, all I can say.

I remember that about nineteen years ago I was assigned to work on a construction project not far from the City. But to ease my commute to and from the job sites, they were multiple locations, I was given a car to use.

Every evening that car was parked on the street front of my house while my own car was in the garage. My apartment house is on a small tree lined street that was always considered safe.

In the winter we had a humongous snow storm. Roads were impassable, streets were totally snowed in. I couldn't go to work even if I wanted to, so I stayed home the first day.

Now, my building's garage opens to a major road that is always cleaned first. By the end of the firs day that road was nicely cleaned while our small street was waiting to be discovered.

I decided that instead of sitting home I'll go skiing, which I did. Needless to say I had a great time.

Two or three days later I was finally able liberate the company car and go to work.

As it turned out I was the last to show up since all my colleagues lived in the suburbs where snow cleaning was done a lot quicker than in New York City.

When I relayed how I spent my days off some smart alec asked how come I was able to go skiing but couldn't come to work.

I responded that to work I use the company car for skiing I use my own car and my car was in the clear while the company car was buried in several feet of snow.

Doesn't this sound fair?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

February 9, 2010


Valentine's day is celebrated on February 14 every year. This day is officially called Saint Valentine's day but nobody knows who was Saint Valentine and why this particular day is named after him.

Valentine was an early Christian martyr but not much is known about him. One of the earlier popes, Pope Gelasius I established the holiday in 496 AD.

'It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending greeting cards.'

This last quote is from Wikipedia under the definition of the holiday.

I have a very big problem with this holiday and with a few other similar ones.

First we came a long way from what the quote implies as far as the observance is. Thanks to the total commercialization of every holiday and observance, every important day lost its characteristics and importance.

Merchants are trying to outdo each other and themselves by offering jewelry, clothing, special dinners and other varieties for this one day. In the process they are making everybody feel guilty who is not running to the jewelry store and buys a diamond bracelet or any such item.

My thing is that I love my wife very much. I love her 365 days (or 366 as it may be) a year. To me every day is Valentine's day. I don't need one special day to show her my love.

This is not a cop-out so I wouldn't have to buy her anything. But we both refuse to run to the stores and spend money on something that is overpriced just for this occasion. We buy each other presents throughout the year.

This is similar to confessions. One commits a crime, confesses to the priest, gets absolution and everything is hunky-dory.

One is mean and rotten to his or her partner all year, buys the person a present for Valentine's day and everything is back to basics.

To me the whole thing looks false and phony.

Let's talk about Mother's Day. That day is traditionally the second Sunday in May. The entire world observes it on the first Sunday in May but the US has to be different.

This is the same thing as Valentine's day. Somebody who is mean to his mother thinks that by being nice on that one single day will repair the damages that occurred during the year.

Another thing that I hate to see. If one goes to a restaurant on Mother's Day he is invariably apt to see large groups of people at various tables. I assume these people are families who got together to celebrate their mother.

In many cases the ladies are quite old, and are sitting at the head of the table dressed nice and with a large corsage.

The rest of the family is busily engaged in conversations with each other while nobody seem very interested in the guest of honor.

She is sitting there smiling, putting on an air of utter happiness while probably thinking that it would be more fun being back in the home with her friends where she is comfortable and loved.

At the end of the gathering she is asked by everyone present if she had a good time for which she dutifully answers that this was the best time she ever had. She always loved to be ignored and disregarded and this day was full of it.

Why people can not show love toward their parents all year, every year. Most of them deserve it.

Love has to be shown while they are here because later on it will be too late.


Monday, February 8, 2010

February 8, 2010

There are about a thousand weather forecasters on their knees praying that the forecasted snowstorm would materialize.

This past weekend they were all up in arms about a snowstorm that never happened in New York City. They said we should expect 2"-3" of snow. The end result was that there was none. Not even a dusting.


So now they are praying that the storm that supposed to come would hit New York City because that would indemnify them.

I received through e-mail some photographs from friends showing the amount of snow on their properties. Some pictures came from Pennsylvania while others came from Maryland.

The amount of snow is staggering.
Looking at the pictures I am glad we live in an apartment building.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

They interviewed a guy on TV this morning who just "graduated" from a sex addiction treatment center. This seems to be a very popular thing now.

He was asked about his marriage and he said, himself and his wife are both working on this problem.

Apparently as part of the treatment the wives are requested to attend certain sessions of the program alongside their husbands.

The guy who was interviewed was a known TV personality.

The way I see it whenever somebody gets caught cheating he claims sex addiction. He argues that this is an illness that he can not control.

This way he counts on the wife feeling sorry for him and if she decides to leave him she would turn out to be the bad one.

I have absolutely no faith in these treatments. If a man cheats and gets away with it, no matter what he promises he will cheat again. His credibility is nil.

But society will forgive. When that other person goes back to play golf and play it well all his transgressions will be forgotten and he will be the public's darling again.

===========================

I was checking out airline ticket prices for our annual Caribbean vacation. I checked the airline, checked all the known travel services and discounters.

I can not understand their promises and advertising. When I compared prices the airline came in best no matter how I looked at it.

Buying from a discounter has its drawbacks.

A few years ago we went to the Caribbean. We bought the tickets from a discounter and it happened to be a good price.

However I had an accident and we were forced to fly home one week earlier than planned. The firs thing the airline said that we had a discount ticket and we had to pay the difference between that price and full price. They also charged us $100 each for changing our travel arrangements.

OK, at the end between our travel insurance and the airline's good will we didn't lose anything but we had to fight hard for it.

Ever since that experience we buy direct from the airline. Usually the Internet prices are not that bad and also more reliable than the discounters.

Our vacation is in August but arrangements have to be made far in advance otherwise we lose our space. It's stupid but that's the rule.

I bought the plane tickets two weeks ago and three days later the price went up $30. That's free enterprise.



Sunday, February 7, 2010

February 7, 2010

This morning on CBS' Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood program there was a segment about charities that kind of upset me.

As you know charities are not my favorite industries. Yes, they are industries because they are being run as such. They are industries where the executives are getting high salaries and the larger portions of honest people's donations remain with them to cover their cushy lifestyles.

Anyway, this story was about some wide eyed Atlanta teenage girl who one day saw some homeless people by the road while she also saw some expensive Mercedes drive by.

As it happened she started to wander about life's inequalities.

She is from an upscale family where both the mother and father had good jobs and they lived in a very expensive home, practically a mansion.

At her insistence the family agreed that their lifestyle was not appropriate and they should do something about it. They sold their home and moved to a smaller house.

The story did not end here. On the sale they made about $600,000 profit which was donated to some hunger fighting charity.

The next film clip showed them in Ghana opening some cornmeal plant that would feed the local people. This girl is standing with the microphone in her hand and is making all kind of speeches and I am sure is very full of herself.

I think what they did is commendable. To sell one's home and turn the profit over to help the poor is a beautiful act, but I have reservations about the whole thing.

First of all, the house was not hers. Even though American kids always refer to their homes as 'my house' they are not. These are their parents' homes.

Kids do absolutely nothing toward the improvement of their parents' houses. They just happen to live there because the stork dropped them at that address.

This girl's parents were not Wall Street people nor were they gangsters. They made their money by work and they decided to buy into the American Dream. Here comes this naive, bleeding heart and convinces them that their lifestyle is the wrong one.

This might still be acceptable but why in the world they had to go to Ghana? Isn't there enough misery in this country?

Then the show interviewed the head of United Way. All throughout the interview I was wondering how much salary he was getting from the donations. He certainly didn't look undernourished.

He was asked how much people should donate. His answer was until it feels good. I accept that answer.

But then a college professor was asked and his answer was 'until it hurts'. I was just thinking how much of his income he was donating.

I hate college professor experts. They are so much removed from life it is not even funny. They become professors because they can not hack it in the outside world. They live in a world of theories without possessing any practical experience.

And as a good old Hungarian saying goes: nothing is too costly for the kibitz!

They always come forward with data about how much of $1 donated really get to the help it was intended for. The results are very disturbing.

Most of the major charities take a very large chunk of the $1 out for administrative expenses. This is unfair and disgusting. This equals to reaching into the donation box and take a handful of cash out every Sunday so the priest can have lunch in a nice expensive restaurant.

These are the major charities. The small ones are more "honest". They steal the entire amount.

Look at Haiti. It is like the dog chasing its own tail. Help is not reaching the intended because they either steal it or gets caught up in red tape. In the meantime people are suffering there. But that's not important. Nobody really cares about the people there anyway. Its all for a show!

The important thing is that Bill Clinton goes there for a six hour trip, shakes some hands, holds some babies and talks to some clown who claims to be the president and also have a lots of photo ops.

Going back to the Atlanta teenager's story. I am very glad that they adopted this village in Ghana and I am also sure our President is also very happy about it.

But driving home in Atlanta she will still see the homeless because in her little mind Ghana was more important than her own country.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

February 6, 2010

When I was a little boy my parents and I used to go on summer vacations down to the countryside. My Mother and I stayed for several weeks while my Father came down on weekends.

I know we did this before and also after the war. The usual thing was to rent a room in some farmer's house and that was always a lot of fun for me. There were farm animals, I was allowed to play around them and the fresh air was good.

There was a particular village at Lake Balaton that had absolutely no glamour at all but was a popular vacation spot with middle class Jewish families.

Aside from my family, my Father's two brothers with their families went there all the time. As it happened my Mother and Father met there because their families used to vacation at this place.

I have a friend here in New York who's family also used to vacation there. So, as it turned out this was a hugely popular place.

Early spring on a particular Sunday, every year the train from Budapest - nobody had cars back then - brought an influx of prospective vacationers. The ones in the know headed to their usual places while the new comers wandered around the village looking for the right house to rent.

I loved this place. When I got older, like four - five years old I was allowed to go out to the fields with the farmer and "help" him with his chores. The house we stayed a lot had cows, chickens and pigs.

The farmer used to go out with his cart pulled by his two cows. This was not unusual in those days. I loved to sit up front with him and shoot the breeze while the cows slowly plodded their way through the roads. I was never afraid of any animal so being near and handling these was not a problem.

The odor was not always the most pleasant on these journeys, since I was not the lead dog, but I got used to it.

Other times my Mother and I went down to the lake to the public beach where we met up with my cousins and other people and had a great time. I was five or six years old, what did I know of what was waiting for us in the future.

I have to mention that our place did not have indoor plumbing. We had to use the outhouse, which aside from the flies was fun and we brought our water in from the well they had in the garden. But they did have electricity.

A note: the outhouse and the well were sufficiently away from each other.

As is the accepted practice in this country too, certain occupations or trades are the domains of certain nationalities.

In Hungary back then outhouse cleaning was the domain of the gypsies. They came to the house, climbed down into the cesspool that was a lot less civilized than today's treated stuff and cleaned it out. I always liked to watch that procedure. Actually everything done on a farm used to interest my five year old mind.

My Father was a very good soccer player in his young days. His family used to vacation in this village for many years. He got to know the local boys of his age and was accepted by them very quickly because of his soccer know how.

He was telling me that most of these boys played barefoot since shoes were kind of luxury for them. Coming from the big city he played with shoes on but these boys had such tough feet that their kicks were good and strong.

When we went back for our summers he knew a lot of the men from their younger days and he was treated with respect and love. I was very proud of him.

On Saturdays we all went to the train station because around noon the Budapest train arrived and all the fathers were there. That was one of the few days of the week when the train station was crowded.

All the mothers with their kids waiting for their husbands. Then Sunday afternoon the entire process in reverse. They were leaving.

Back then a trip to the lake by train took about four hours even though it was only a hundred miles.

I always loved the train ride down there. Back then we had steam engines on most of the train lines. The cars were warm so all the windows were open. I loved to hang out the windows like dog from the car except my tongue was not flapping in the wind.

Steam engines spew soot from their chimneys and all the soot always found its way into my hair. By the time we got home my hair was so thick with soot that it was impossible to comb it, it had to be washed out. And any soot that didn't land in my hair got into my eyes. Boy, was I stupid kid or what?

Two years ago we were visiting Hungary and drove down there (I drove) in less then two hours. Clean driving, no soot at all.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller.

Friday, February 5, 2010

February 5, 2010

There are a few things occupying the news today.

One, there is a whopper of a snow storm coming our way.

Two, the Super Bowl on Sunday.


Three, the Market took a dive yesterday.


Well, let's look at these one by one.

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They started by saying that we might be looking at a minimum of one foot of snow in the New York City area. This was said early in the week when they had no clue what they were looking at.

As time approached it was downgraded to "maybe" a couple inches. But to save their reputation they are promising two feet or more to Southern New Jersey.

First of all who cares about Southern New Jersey? Why those people don't live in New York City? They would then only get two inches of snow.

Should I care about them? Do they care about us when we get two inches of snow and New York City is totally paralyzed? No, they don't care. So, it is mutual.

It is midday Friday and the weather smarts still can not determine what's going to happen. But the supermarkets are emptying out because nobody wants to venture out in two inches of snow to go to the stores. One might not find his way home in that terrible weather!

I tell you, we are living in a country of sissies.

So, they are creating this artificial panic which leads to all kinds of inconveniences.

They announced it that it was already snowing in Washington and there it could be expected to be as much as three feet.

Do I feel sorry for those poor politicians? Absolutely not!

If they get buried in snow, good riddance! They were giving us a snow job all their careers, now the shovel is in the other hand.

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The Big Event of the season is upon us. This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. The world will stop and everybody will watch football. There is nothing on TV but football.

The supermarkets empty out not just because of the coming snow but because one can not watch The Game unless one munches on snacks and drinks beer all throughout.

As I said earlier I am not a fan and I really don't care who wins.

What I find interesting is that I heard on the radio today that this might be the last Super Bowl for a while because the players are threatening some kind of a player strike for next year since their collective bargaining agreement expires in March.

These guys are getting more money than they could ever make with honest work, so what more they want?

Since football supposed to be a college sport I assume that most of these players graduated with some kind of a degree. Nobody held a gun to their heads saying you can not be a brain surgeon, you must be a football player. This was their choice.

If any one of them ever tried to make a living based on their education they would find that life is not a bowl of cherries in the outside world.

They would find that life is full of tumbles and fumbles and no cheers and very little glory.

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Yesterday the Market took a dive to the amount of 268 points. All because Greece and Portugal and God knows what other countries are in bad shape. Why should that bother us?

Why my investments have to suffer because Greece and Portugal and others can not keep their financial affairs straight?

The more these problems arise more I believe in isolationism. We should mind our own business first and let the rest of the world take care of its own.

Humanitarian help is one thing but why do we have to be entangled in other countries' financial affairs. All these involvements hurt us badly but nobody seem to care about us here.

We are back to our yo-yo economy. Yesterday the economy and the future looked gloomy. So gloomy that the Market dove 260 points. Today after an entire day in negative territory the Market miraculously came out of is coma and closed ten points up.

I wonder if there is yak shortage in Tibet how much would that effect Wall Street.



Thursday, February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010

The government says the economy is improving. We are out of our financial quagmire, things are improving, businesses are getting back to close to normal and we are getting closer and closer to where we were before.

I don't know what country's data this government is looking at.

The problem as I see it is that everybody deals with percentages only. That applies to the Federal government down to the local governments, financial people, and all the financial publications.

Nobody gives a damn about the individual. The idiotic radio blares about all the opportunities that are out there. The only thing is that one has to be a health care worker or a brain surgeon or something similar.

That doesn't help the poor schlub who lost his accountant job a year ago and can not find any work. Tell it to this guy that the economy is looking good, things are returning to normal.

This guy is collecting $405 a week unemployment benefit and has to support his family. Sends out his resume and gets nothing but rejections if he is lucky because most of the time there is no response at all.

The View from the Bottom is that I know this accountant and if his wife wouldn't work he would be in real trouble. And what about the middle aged woman who was an office assistant for several years but lost her job a few months ago. If the husband wouldn't have a job they would be out on the street.

She is over middle age, wants to work but very likely nobody will hire her.

They tell you in the media that middle aged workers are the best. They are reliable, they want to work, won't get pregnant. Too bad that this is only a theory. In practice it doesn't work. Nobody will hire a middle aged or over middle age worker. Age discrimination is rampant even if they deny it.

This government is living in the twilight zone. They refuse to acknowledge the actual situation. And the actual situation is bad.

Everywhere we go, in the city or in the suburbs we see empty storefronts. Closed businesses mean people unemployed. We have acquaintances who lost their jobs and can not find work at all.

Want ads are phony. Most of the ads are by agencies who do nothing just collect names for future use. The few companies that advertise are very secretive about their information. Understandably they don't want to be overran by prospective applicants.

The stimulus money that was supposed to create jobs did nothing but lined the pockets of the politicians and banks.

Where are all the new opportunities the glorious leadership was talking about?

The democrats got into power because the public thought they would do better than the republicans who supposedly got us into this mess.

Well, the democrats are not doing any better either. As a matter of fact they are doing so bad that I am sure they can kiss their current position goodbye. At the next elections they will be history. And that includes the Administration, too.

I am neither a democrat nor a republican. I vote for the right people. But it is becoming obvious that the the democrats I recently voted for are not the right people.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

February 3, 2010

It is amazing that some people don't know how to applaud. It is not something one learns in school but seeing enough people do it should give an idea of how to do it the right way.

When I see a show, let's say a game show and the contestants applaud on stage as many as they are that many different ways they applaud.

Some do it like a trained seal, downward vertical just clapping their hands together. Some people do it with bent palm thereby without realizing creating a booming sound. Some do it the cutesy way with their fingertips.

Nobody really knows the correct way to applaud and it is a shame. If these people would see themselves they would be ashamed of how silly they look.

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Holding eating utensils in one's hands the correct way is actually in the eyes of the beholder.

When I was little my Mother took the time to show me how to hold the spoon, fork and knife correctly. Spending time with me doing this didn't upset her social schedule and I was glad she did it. Even years later she had the tendency to correct me if I did it the wrong way.

I do realize that there is a difference between the American and European ways of holding these utensils.

The way I learned it and that is the European way is that one holds the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand. The knife is not only for cutting but to help pushing the food onto the fork. That is how I still do it.

The American way is holding the fork in the left hand, hold the knife in the right hand cut the meat, most of the meat than switch the fork into the right hand and eat. There is nothing wrong with this system, but...

I have been watching people eat in restaurants and what I see sometimes curls the hair in the back of my neck.

They hold the fork in their left hand like a bayonet, practically nailing the meat to the table then proceeding with the cutting that is almost like killing that poor animal over again. And this is done by kids and grownups alike.

Don't American parents believe in teaching their kids the proper table etiquette?

I saw an American war movie that happened during World War II. The Americans dropped people behind German lines and they were to pass themselves off as German soldiers. Obviously these people spoke perfect German and had some German background.

The story followed two particular Americans. Also, there was a Gestapo guy who thought something was not right, he had his doubts and was watching these people.

It happened in a restaurant. The two Americans, in German officer uniforms were having dinner and the Gestapo guy was watching them. One of the Americans forgot himself and held his knife and fork the American way. Well, that was the end of him all right.


February 2, 2010

Today I went to the gym again to work out. There is an older gentleman I know with whom I always have a nice chat. He seem to be knowledgeable about a lots of things. In plain English he is an old Jewish guy.

Like any other times we tried to solve the problems of the world while we sweated during exercise. He doesn't have a computer but reads the New York Times (NYT) daily. I don't read the New York Times (NYT) but have a computer therefore, I am also pretty well informed.

The problem with this man is that while I was trying to describe a local interest story to him he was looking at it through the eyes of the NYT. His response to my story was that he perfectly understood whatever happened because the NYT described such events also in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

I told him I didn't give a flying hoot about what the NYT said, this thing happened in our corner and that's all I care about.

Now, this was tho prologue. The main body of this literary piece is coming.

The New York Times is a great newspaper. Its sources are reliable, its stories are credible and its language is impeccable.

In the 1960s when I was taking English in college we were told by our instructor that the New York Times' use of the English (American) is the correct way and we could learn from it.

New York had several now it has a few daily newspapers but their use of the English language is far from correct. The use of slang is commonplace since their readership understand that more.

The problem I have with the NYT is that it is too big. The daily edition during the week has several sections and reading through the entire paper is not an easy task. This is not a paper that can easily be read on the train on the way to work. Maybe if the trip takes six hours then yes.

Aside from its size, every article they write continues several pages later which makes it necessary to massage the paper back and forth all the time.

There are papers that limit their articles to that same page and those are a lot easier to read.

Their articles report the news but then they also go back to the basics and describe the total background of the event in question. This gets tedious and boring at times.

Now back to the people who read this publication. This is an intelligent newspaper that is not aimed at the general public but only at the ones who think that they are smarter than the rest of us, or "smarter than a fifth grader".

These people think the New York Times is the gospel. Whatever they write it must be so. Having a discussion with anyone is a futile exercise because they are convinced that everybody else who don't read the NYT is stupid and is not worth talking to.

You try to talk about some local interest story and their response is solving the world's problems.

I also find their travel articles far removed from reality. I traveled to a few countries and reading the NYT's descriptions of those places I realize that what they write is absolutely not for the everyday traveler/vacationer.

The prices they quote, the restaurants they suggest, the places they advise to visit are not best information available for that particular country.

Their trip suggestions are not priced to the average American family. It seems that this paper does not realize that we are living through some terrible times and families are trying to save a buck whenever they can.

The New York Times would do better to come up with discount travel tips that are within reach for the average family, to permit a family even in financial trouble to have some, even if limited enjoyment out of life.

Monday, February 1, 2010

February 1, 2010

Today we had a very lovely day. It was clear, not a cloud in the sky and wintry cold. Even though it was pleasant the weather people make such a big thing about a little cold that it is unbelievable.

If it is cold in the winter they complain, if it is warm in the summer they complain. What the hell they want?

Years ago we vacationed in Aruba where almost every day of the year it is sunny and warm. We heard that they don't have any weather forecasting because there is nothing to forecast. Things never change there.

I'll bet if they would send some of the New York forecasters there they would be able to mess up even there.

I still say, this is the best job in the world. If they are wrong they just say oops! No consequences.

My wife and I went to the gym today. We try to go a couple of times a week just to stay in shape. So we went today and it was a good workout. She did her exercises and did mine. We do it for about an hour and a half and we feel good afterward.

The advantages of being retired is that we can enjoy the lack of crowds at places like the gym. We used to go after work when it was always crowded and it was like zoo. Now, during the day it is bordering on the pleasant since there are no crowds.

People like us come during the day and they behave a little more civilized than the night people.

I love to work out on machines and also to lift weights. We know enough people there and occasionally somebody will show a good exercise which I try to follow.

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Last night we watched for about an hour the Grammy presentation. That show is the perfect example of beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

The way some or most of these people were dressed was ridiculous, tasteless and just plain ugly. Even if these women get their dresses for free from the designers they should have enough self criticism to realize what they looked like.

Just because it is free it doesn't mean they must wear it. They looked dowdy, stupid colors and showed anatomy where it should have stayed hidden. It shows that these people have absolutely no self respect.

Their self adulation is getting boring. Publicly they all love one and other while privately they wish the competition to hell.

I know I am an old fogy with old ideas, but this is not music to my ears. Screaming and rapping is no art in my books. The only real artist yesterday was Andrea Bocelli. I was surprised to see that he lowered himself to appear there.

And these people make 20-30-40-50 million dollars a year. Something is wrong with this equation.