Today I’m offering a Potpourri of things in my brain. There
been a lot of thoughts simmering in my brain these past few months and I can’t
hold them back any more.
FGenerally, my life revolves
around Spolotics (Sports and Politics). I’m
happy to report that nothing in my blog entry is related to Sports or Politics.
SADNESS IN DALLAS
Some would like to believe that what happened in Dallas is
political. I think it’s apolitical. Some may also believe that #BlackLivesMatter
is political. It is not. It’s a movement to bring awareness to the suggested unfair
treatment of Blacks in America. With the rash of violent deaths, particularly
at the hands of police it has made this movement unavoidable and made it a
powder keg ready to explode. Clearly
this is what occurred in Dallas last week when a mad man took vengeance upon
officers who had nothing to do with the deaths of black men tragically killed
by police earlier in that week. All 3 incidents on consecutive days was
sickening, disheartening and tragic. We don’t need to be Liberals or
Conservatives to agree on that. As a matter of cultural simplicity,
practicality and love and lets agree on this premise: #BlackLivesMatter,do matter as do JewishLivesMatter,
WomenLivesMatter, ChildrenLivesMatter, PetLivesMatter…All humans matter. This
includes officers; most who take their jobs seriously and often make
split-second life and death decisions. Let’s just all agree that every life is
equal despite ones skin color, religion, class or occupation. Let’s all make
and effort to not prejudge and or take
matters into our own hands. As a father and a husband, I hope we can restore American civility and protest without provoking other tragic events like the ones we have seen this past few weeks.
OUTSOURCING AMERICAS GOT TALENT
Americas Got Talent (AGT) is one of my guilty television
pleasures. It’s fun, entertaining and just makes me feel happy after a long day
of work. However, I am oddly bothered by a glaring inconsistency on the show. There are versions of this
show around the world. In England, you will find Britain’s Got Talent, where
you can see the acts and the judges are all from the UK. There are
literally 4 dozen plus “Got Talents” around the world. Such as India, Iceland
and Italy. Each has judges and talent of that countries nationality. We live in
one of the largest countries in the world (350 million people living here. Many
are super-talented). Yet we have a show with 4 judges, none of whom are actually
American (2 from England, 1 from Canada and 1 from Germany). I’m not saying our
judges aren’t great talent scouts. It’s just odd they can’t hire 1 American to
be a panel judge. I’m not even going to bring up the many contestants who are
also NON-Americans…At least the host is American.
GREETING CARDS
Can someone please explain the point of Greeting Cards?
Firstly, the cost of these cards has become outrageous. Why do I need to spend
$5 on a card that has someone else’s words that may describe how I feel about
my loved one on that significant day, which by the way also ironically are the
words that describe thousands of others who purchased that same card to express
to their loved ones how they also feel on that special day. It’s just ridiculous.
For now on I’m going verbal on greeting cards. This is how it will work. When I
see you, I will find something clever to say like “Happy Anniversary” or “I’m
super proud that you graduated from high school” or “Congrats on the divorce.”
For those special celebrations like Valentine’s Day, I may take my wife to the
CVS, let her read are the cards on the rack. Maybe I’ll let her take a picture
of the card and let her have that fond memory. By the way, if my kid happens to
be invited to your kids 3rd birthday party, we hope that you will
forgive us as we write a special “Happy Birthday Message on a small square
piece of overpriced wrapping paper. Trust me, your kid won’t care, they can’t
read anyway. Also, you can do the same for my kid because we toss the card
after we take the money out first.
FASHION TRENDS
Let’s be honest, no man looks good in skinny jeans. It looks
dumb and it’s not scoring any points with women who just assume you have a
perpetual wedgie. Stop wearing these, your butt cheeks thank you too. Also, I
am equally annoyed by people who wear oversized sunglasses. Unless you are a
clown, your glasses should only cover the part of the body they are intended
for, your eyes not your entire orbital region. It looks you are just screaming for attention.
Also with fashion, do men really need scarves accessories? Especially in the
spring and summer evenings. A nice wool scarf to protect you from frigid
weather temperatures is all one needs.
THE DOWNFALL OF ADAM SANDLER
Attention Adam Sandler: Really? “Just Go with It” in 2011
was your last good movie and that movie was sandwiched in between a lot of
crappy movies. I was insulted by your vanity movie “Grown Ups.” I was equally
insulted by your friend reunion on camera with “Grown Ups 2.” So we now have to
live on “Billy Madison”, “Happy Gilmore” and “Big Daddy” for the rest of our
lives? Please dude come back? You are
better than that. Here is my career resurgence advice:
1.
Ditch the voices that got you through the 90’s
2.
Ditch the fun and cute sidekicks that got you
through the 2000’s (Drew Barrymore, Robbie Schneider, Kevin James, and Chris
Rock).
3.
Reinvent yourself.
Believe it or not, you turn 50 in a short few
months. Take the path of Michael Keaton.
Put yourself in a position to win an Oscar. You can handle a serious role.
Please, we need you to come back to relevance.
ANNOYING GROUP TEXTS
New rule, group texts should be reserved for 4 people or
less. There is nothing more irritating then getting a text on January 1st
wishing me and your 40 top friends in your phone back a happy New Year. This
kind of thing should be reserved for Facebook only. This way I can chose whether
I want to see 30 strangers reply with “you too” as my battery slowly drains. Better
yet, if you really want to make it a personal well wish, text me directly…I
will answer that. In addition, I don’t want a group text sharing an inane
happening in your life like you just bought a cat. Once again this should be
reserved to Facebook. If you need a lesson on how to share ordinary moments of
your life by mass posting on social media, I can help you with that. I’m an
expert.
EASY TV JOBS
Chris Harrison is a 44-yar-old man, who gets to host a
reality show called “The Bachelor.” Personally I enjoy the show itself but
truth be told, my fifth grade history teacher can host this show and it wouldn’t
change the dynamic at all. I don’t begrudge Chris Harrison. He found himself in
the right spot in the right time. For the effort of him traveling around the
world and uttering the same sentiments constantly like “this is the final rose” even though everyone can
clearly see it on TV and telling viewers
that “it’s the most dramatic episode/finale” even when we know he is just
trying to drum up interest . For this he gets paid $60,000 an episode. Most
people make less than that in a year. That’s roughly 10-12 episodes a season X2
as there are two Bachelor seasons annually. In other words, over $1million a year
to host a dating show. He now has a net worth of $12 million. I swear it’s the easiest
freaking job ever. I mean the shows take
up literally 5 months of his year while he can do whatever the hell he wants
the other 7 months. Ok, I may be bitter but that’s only because I see other
hosts working a little harder. I mean at least Jeff Probst has to sleep on an
air mattress while getting bit by ticks on some god forsaken island that no one
ever heard of before. Hek, even Pat Sajak has to be clever every once in a
while. Although let’s be honest any monkey could do his job too, which gets him
$12 million a year. For 35 years this lucky SOB has been getting paid big bucks
to watch real people spin a wheel. It’s said that his net worth is $45 million.
I guess none of these compare to the $20 million a year
Regis Philbin was making back in the day when “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”
was big. That’s right $20 million a year to read questions to a contestant. At
least when Alex Trabek does it feels like he actually knows the answers.
FINALLY MY OVERRATED/ UNDERRATED LIST FOR Summer, 2016
Underrated:
1. French Onion Soup- This really is sex of the lips to me.
Besides the flavor of the soup, the best parts are the experience is the
delightful dipped bread and peeling the cheese from the side of the bowl. I
make it a point to order it wherever I go.
2. Adult Coloring Books- I don’t enjoy art much at all but
recently my daughter asked me to color with her. I gave in because I love her
so much. As it turns out, coloring is quite therapeutic. It’s fun and helps me
relive my days as a kid. Try it sometime.
Overrated:
1. Chickie and Pete’s – Just because he (Pete) has 2 dozen
locations doesn’t mean the food is that great. Yes, let’s applaud the fact that
he discovered how good it is to have old bay seasoning on French fries. Let’s
also salute the way he has made his restaurant a go-to location to watch the
big game but everything about the place is highly overrated. Part of it is
because it’s over-hyped with loads of marketing and endless radio ads. Let’s set
the record straight, the crabs are not great and extremely over-priced. His
sandwiches are served an rolls so hard it can chip a tooth. Let’s also state
that you will always end up waiting for a table and his service staff looks
like they hate being there among the yuppies and muscle-heads. That place is
like a Kardashin: everyone is always talking about it but there’s not much
there.
2. The Beach: For those that know me, understand that for 10-12
weeks every summer since 2005, which is when I met my wife, we go to Long Beach
Island. My in-laws have a house and they wine and dine us, which we greatly appreciate
but I never understood the love affair
with the Jersey shore. When I was a kid, my family would go on occasion and
that was plenty. Maybe I’m simply over-shored these days. Too much of a good
thing? Maybe, I’m at the wrong shore? Possibly.
Long Beach Island is more of an adult-oriented place with little to no activity
for kids. Its mostly high end restaurants and overpriced ice-cream shops. This
can all contribute to my overrated feeling. I don’t want to seem ungrateful but
the routine of lotioning up, carrying a bunch of crap to the beach, swim in
dirty water and get baked on a hot day with the only reward of staring directly
at an ocean for five hours…It just seems like it doesn’t befit a guy with ADD
who can’t still for long periods of time.
I admit, I do like
the concept of the shore and of course I love the fact that I can take a
weekend to decompress and not feel obligated to be running all over the place.
It does force one to put the hustle and bustle of life on hold. It’s just that
I feel restricted, sometimes bored and unmoved by the tranquility of water. Oddly,
I don’t mind visiting exotic beaches. I loved being in a beach in Nantucket,
Venice Beach, Miami beach, Manual Antonio in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Punta Cana,
etc…Maybe it’s just the jersey Shore lifestyle that makes me think “Is this
all?” Trust me the only good thing about the Jersey Shore is that you can tell
your friends you are at the jersey Shore. You are not missing out. Let me
reiterate I appreciate and am truly blessed to stay at and hang with my wife’s
family. That part I do like. The thing that gets me is when people are like “well
you are lucky that you go to the beach all the time. Sometimes my wife invite these
people to come down and by Day 2, they are ready to pack it in and go home.
Thanks for reading. I guess I can’t help myself so I will
finish with a quick:
Go Phillies and Go HillaryJ
