The Ghink Ghinks

Earlier today Rita started an interesting thread on our sibling text group that brought back so many memories. She started with her experience that morning pouring a glass of tea from a bottle when as she described it "an old familiar sound became music to my ears". She exclaimed "I got the Ghink Ghinks".

Everybody chimed in with a Ghink Ghinks story. As kids we had a Ghink Ghinks craze. Every time someone opened a bottle of milk there would be a big fuss over who had their milk poured first and thus got the Ghink Ghinks. So what was the Ghink Ghinks? First off it was always plural. It was the sound of that freshly opened bottle of milk being poured into a glass. The Ghink Ghinks only happened for a moment and then was lost. Then there was a commotion at the table whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Eventually our parents forbade us from uttering the Ghink Ghinks. No more Ghink Ghinks but of course that just made us want to do it more. It was such a fun quirky craze and to this day makes us all laugh.

We were the only kids we knew of that had a thing about the Ghink Ghinks. It was ours and ours alone and as Cathy put it we had milk crazed minds. It must have been very annoying to Mom and Dad. Cathy went on to say that they probably laughed about us many many times telling all their friends and our aunts and uncles about us singing and fighting over the Ghink Ghinks. I got the Ghink Ghinks!

I still savor the Ghink Ghinks every time I pour a beer into my fancy beer glass.

We had Abbots Milk delivered to the house several times a week. We had a milk crate sitting on the side of the front steps. It was my job to make sure the empties were put in the crate to picked up and then I would take the new bottles and put them in the icebox as we called it then.

Exploring My Music Collection

The pandemic has impacted all of our lives in so many ways. I was fortunate in a sense because I've been home from work the past few years enjoying a well earned retirement and one of my joyful activities in this new life was to explore my music collection that I had been accumulating since 1965. Covid has ensured that I spend a good part of every day on this activity even more so than I have since I stopped working.

Now I've always been exploring my music collection because for well over 40 years I've been an avid mixtape maker. One of my favorite pastimes after a day at work was to sit down at the stereo and put together a mix. I started out with taking records and recording songs to a cassette tape and then gradually moved to burning CDs. Eventually it was all about computers, iTunes and the digital world. I'm still making mixes now in the middle of this pandemic. It keeps me sane and... it's what I've always done.

As a family we've always had music on in our house. My kids grew up with an album played every evening at dinner time. Always. It could be music from any genre and any era including rock, jazz, classical, folk, doo-wop, funk, reggae, opera, country, etc. Maybe the only thing I didn't play was show tunes.

So for the past almost year I've been at home all day mostly reading and writing with the stereo playing something. In fact all day long except when I may be watching something on TV there has always been music playing. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I've always had a set of good speakers up on top of the cabinets.

I've been going upstairs to play vinyl records. There are a few albums that I only have on vinyl. Over the years I've made an effort to either burn my vinyl to CD or download to my computer as an MP3 file but there are a few I've never converted. I've also went through a period where I was grabbing assorted CDs from the 3rd floor and bringing them downstairs to the stereo on rotation. Now, I've always done that to some extent but a few months ago I was systematically trying to listen to many CDs that I'd not heard in some time.

I've also been working on my mixes and reorganizing them into long mega mixes that would play all day. I was originally making the mega mixes for the eight hour drive to Philly from Buffalo. Our new car had a media player that worked with a flash drive so I spent some time migrating mixes to that format. I also liked to put these long mixes on shuffle and really mix it up.

After a few months I've been looking at some creative ways to explore my music collection. I tried to just put iTunes on shuffle for albums. That really didn't work well because I have so many mixes and random songs scattered about the system. I really wanted to listen to albums I hadn't heard very often. Then I came up with a new process.

I called it Random Album Effect. I start out by sorting the iTunes database by album title. Then I pick out an album that I would like to hear. Something I knew I like and maybe haven't heard in awhile. Then I let the it play and the next three or four albums and call it a set. Later I write about the albums I played. I have a series of Random Album Effect sets and each one is distinguished by a word that starts the set. I wrote about the Random Albums earlier in December when I first started doing this.

Glass of Beer - Abbey Ale

Tonight I had one of my favorite beers from one of my favorite breweries. Abbey Ale a Belgian dubbel from Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown NY.

Also one of my favorite towns to visit. Their Abbey Ale is the first beer brewed by Ommegang back in 1997. It's a fine complex Trappist-style ale. I love it.

The book in the photo is that collection of essays about cases from the ACLU and there is more about that here.

Random Album Effect - Mystery

Another random album effect set. This was a good one. It started out with that wonderful Roy Orbison comeback album released in 1992 following his stint with the Traveling Wilburys. Mystery Girl was one of my favorite albums of 1992 and I've used many songs from it on mixes throughout the years. It was great listening to it again all the way through. 

Next up was a recent Graham Parker album Mystery Glue released in 2015 and backed up by his old band the Rumour. Still a cranky guy but no longer the angry young man. The songs are good but with a darkness and attitude. Definitely worth a listen.

After Parker came The Mystery Lights with their self titled second album from 2016. They have a fuzz psych garage rock sound but not a lot of originality. They were fun to listen to and sounded good after Graham Parker.

They were followed by a mid career Fleetwod Mac album from 1973. Mystery To Me came in that period between the group as a British blues band and California pop ensemble. This was when Bob Welch was with the band and the highlight of the album is certainly the great song Hypnotized. Overall a very satisfying record and a flashback to a different time.

Speaking of flashbacks. Martha and the Muffins were of a certain time and place in the 1980's. I liked this Canadian new wave band a lot and all of their early music. Mystery Walk was their fifth album from 1984 and had some really wonderful dance songs. I played their music all the time while DJing including this album.

• Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl, 1992
• Graham Parker - Mystery Glue, 2015
• The Mystery Lights - The Mystery Lights, 2016
• Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me, 1973
• Martha & The Muffins - Mystery Walk, 1984

Four Years Retirement

It has been a little over four years now since we retired and almost a year now since the we were hit by the global pandemic. We were fortunate in many ways to have had those three retirement years before the shutdowns, stay at home orders and quarantines. We do miss the traveling we had been doing the previous couple of years, the seeing live music and going out to dinner at least two times a week.

The previous years of retirement somewhat prepared us for all of the staying at home and keeping ourselves busy in different ways. We are also fortunate that Becky has been able to keeping going to her art studio throughout the pandemic. 

We know a few people who are recent retirees and it has been very difficult for them. We are glad that we've had some practice being at home a lot and finding ways to keep busy. We were also able to travel to Europe that past couple of years and to be able to go down to Philly regularly to spend time with Katie and the kids. We were also fortunate that Katie had her surgeries scheduled and completed before the pandemic hit. That would have been awful if we had not be able to go down there and help them.

However, I do feel like we are being cheated out of some of our well earned retirement time. We had been going out to dinner regularly and I really do miss the that and the social aspect of being out and about. I'm really looking forward to get our vaccinations and having our life get back to normal whatever the new normal might be.

Random Album Effect - My (2)

This is the second set of music with albums starting with My in the title. I selected this Chick Corea album first to listen. I had this on vinyl when it was released in 1976 and played it a lot when I was on a jazz fusion kick and in particular we listened to Chick Corea. My Spanish Heart was a little different from his previous albums as he embraced his Latin roots much more on this set which was his tenth solo album at the time and was a 2 LP record. I hadn't listened to this all the way through in years and it sounded great. I also knew every song very well. It was a great start for this set.

Next up was the R&B great Chuck Willis who had sadly died in 1958 at the age of 32 and at the peak of his career. He was known as The King of the Stroll and had  top of the charts songs like his C.C. Rider. This album My Story is a compilation of his songs from 1951 to 1958 and sounded wonderful. Many of his songs were covered by other R&B artists with much success. I was toe tapping throughout this set.

This was followed by singer songwriter Shawn Mullins' My Stupid Heart from 2015. This was his ninth solo album of alternative pop with a country rock folk story telling feel that explores a timeless American tradition. It was all very pleasant and sounded very nice after the Chuck Willis R&B. 

Speaking of a timeless American tradition... the next album up was a wonderful collection of classic soul music covered by New Orleans soul vocalist Aaron Neville who had that great #1 song Tell It Like It Is back in 1966. My True Story was released in 2013 on Blue Note Records and contains about a dozen great songs from the classic period of soul music. He has always been an outstanding vocalist and he shines with this material.

The album in this set took the music to the new but vintage R&B sound of Eli 'Paperboy' Reed and his 2016 gospel influenced album My Way Home. Reed has been putting out retro-soul-blues revivalist albums since 2005. This is his fifth album and it evokes the music I just heard on the previous Aaron Neville album. This music is very swampy late 60's Memphis style soul and sounded great. A nice way to end this set of music.

• Chick Corea - My Spanish Heart, 1976
• Chuck Willis - My Story 1951-1958, 1980
• Shawn Mullins - My Stupid Heart, 2015
• Aaron Neville - My True Story, 2013
• Eli 'Paperboy' Reed  - My Way Home, 2016

The Searcher

The Searcher by Tana French, 2020

Read in January 2021

I have read and loved all of Tana French's novels. I found this one to be a slow read early on but one that draws you in and hangs on. The novel takes place in a small out of the way village in Ireland and an American ex-cop slowly gets drawn into the rural community life and the disappearance of a local boy. The author's writing style and gritty story telling carries the book.

Random Album Effect - My (1)

Earlier in the day I was playing the Woody Guthrie 4 CD compilation set My Dusty Road. I later continued listening from the end of that album and came up with the following set. I wrote about Woody here.

I've always been a big fan of the acoustic folk guitar work of Leo Kottke and I like his occasional vocals too. I think he is a wonderful song writer. My Father's Face from 1989 is a very pleasant album produced by T- Bone Burnette. I could listen to Leo Kottke all day long.

The next album up was the last record by Guy Clark My Favorite Picture of You released in 2013 and won a Grammy for best folk album. Sadly he died in 2016. It's a wonderful sounding record and nicely followed the Kottke album. There was some wonderful female duet and background singing on the album by Morgane Stapleton.

This was followed by the incomparable John Coltrane and his 1961 album My Favorite Things. This would sound wonderful following anything. Every cut on this album is a classic.

Then it was back to a folk sound with Irish singer Damien Rice's My Favourite Faded Fantasy from 2014. This is his 3rd album which I found to be very good but just not up to the really high levels of his first two albums. I especially loved his first one.

Holly Golightly. Sometimes called the British Garage Rock Queen. My First Holly Golightly Album released in 2005 is actually a compilation of her favorite tracks going back to 1995. This is a highly entertaining collection and a wonderful way to end this set of random albums.

I really enjoyed all of these albums.

• Leo Kottke - My Father's Face, 1989
• Guy Clark - My Favorite Picture of You, 2013
• John Coltrane - My Favorite Things, 1961
• Damien Rice - My Favourite Faded Fantasy, 2014
• Holly Golightly - My First Holly Golightly Album, 2005

Woody Guthrie - Classic Antifa

This morning I listened to the Woody Guthrie 4 CD set compilation My Dusty Road released by Rounder Records in 2009. An amazing collection of Americana and the original and classic sound of antifa. As his guitar always said... "this machine kills fascist".  That statement was also displayed on American tanks in World War II during the 1945 invasion of Germany.  He originally wrote that on his guitar in 1943.

Woody Guthrie is considered one of the most significant figures of American folk music. I can remember as a little kid singing his song This Land Is Your Land and I knew all the words. I think every child in our grade school knew the words to that song. When I became a teenager and became aware of Bob Dylan then learned more about Woody Guthrie and the folk music he influenced with his songs and life. I've read a lot about him over the years but have actually never read a biography. I should fix that. 

Of course I did see the movie Bound For Glory. He was a prolific writer of songs, poems and stories and many of them were anti-fascist. He died in 1967 but not before witnessing the folk revival of the sixties.

The 4 CD set My Dusty Road contains 54 tracks.

Today there is an anti-fascist movement in America that the conservative right wing labels communists. Some things never change.

Morning Routine - Winter Pandemic

I've been getting up a little later as the winter months set in. Usually some time just after 8. Turn off the house alarm. Take a shower. Get dressed and head downstairs.

Turn up the heat and open the living room heating vent. Open the curtains. Turn off the holiday lights which we keep up throughout the winter. Turn on the plant lights. Turn off the hall light. Turn on the kitchen light. Put on a pot of tea. Turn on some music in the kitchen which is usually classical or sometimes some jazz.

Empty the dishwasher. Make some breakfast. Most of the time I put some bread in the toaster but occasionally will have cereal. Open up my laptop on the kitchen table. Eat a banana. Watch the birds at the feeder. Drink some tea. Do some writing.

Becky usually comes down about an hour later and immediately begins to fuss with making coffee. I'll usually turn on the TV to a news channel. Becky will make her toast and sit in front of the TV eating her breakfast. Then she will get out her laptop on the couch.

Later I will be sitting in a comfortable chair drinking tea and reading a book. Then Becky will go off to her studio late in the morning to work. Then I will often watch an episode of a TV show that she is not interested in. Usually science fiction or a techno-thriller crime drama.

Another day.                    

My Hankies

I carry a handkerchief in my pocket everyday everywhere even when I'm staying home all day. I always have one on me and this has been true almost everyday of my life since I was a little boy.

It apparently was drilled into me by my maternal grandmother Elizabeth Keegan Morris Casey who we called MomMom. She probably got me started because maybe I sneezed on her one day or maybe I was a snot nosed kid. When I started first grade I remember her insisting that I carry a handkerchief with my at all times. I really don't remember my mother making me have one. Just MomMom. 

She bought me packs of handkerchiefs for birthdays and holidays. She would get me other things too but there were always the hankies.  I guess I was getting them from Mom too because I did get into the habit of carrying a handkerchief with me at all times as I grew up. I did it in high school too. 

Later in the Navy I would always make sure I had my handkerchief but for different reasons. We were issued handkerchiefs in boot camp as part of our uniform. We needed to have one ready to spit shine our shoes whenever necessary. 

I also used the handkerchief to keep change in my pocket from jingling. Something my mother had taught me at an early age was to always have a dime or two in my pocket at all times to make a phone call in case of emergency. Of course that later became a quarter but up until the time of cell phones I always had some change in my pocket in with my handkerchief.  Those ladies in my life certainly had some long term influence on me.

Having a handkerchief in your pocket at all times was also very handy when our children were young because there was often a need to wipe something from one or both of them in unsuspecting situations at any time. I was always ready.

Sometimes over the years I would need to buy more handkerchiefs and in later times I would often need to ask a store clerk for help finding them because the packs never seemed to be in any obvious locations. Becky has bought some for me and now of course we know that it is best to buy them online.

Hank Aaron

Baseball legend Hank Aaron died today at age 86. He was certainly one of my all time favorite baseball players. My brother Tom and I saw him many times down at Connie Mack Stadium throughout the sixties starting during the1960 season. I would see him play a few more times in the mid seventies. It was always a treat and a reason to go down to the ballpark when Hank Aaron and the Braves were in town.

There were several players that Tom and I would make the effort to get down to ballpark to see when we were kids that included Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax. We started out going to games with our Uncle Tom, our grandmother's brother, who lived around the corner from us and would take us down to games on the trolley. As we got to be pre-teens and early teens we would go down to games by ourselves and sit in the outfield bleachers. Tom got into all the baseball stats back then and kept at it his entire life.

Becky and I went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown a few years ago. I had been there before but it was Becky's first time. We were both very impressed with the special Hank Aaron room.

The last time I saw Hammerin' Hank was play 1976 at Veterans Stadium. R.I.P.

American History

I've always loved History and America History was my favorite subject in school. As an adult I've continued to read history books and not just American history. I will read history about anywhere at anytime.

Yesterday was President Biden's first day in office and I saw that this morning he disbanded the 1776 Commission and withdrew their recently published report. I was delighted. The 1776 Commission was created by former President Trump in September 2020 to support his view of "patriotic education". The project was created in response to the New York Time's 1619 Project which conservatives hated because it explored American history from an African-American perspective and criticized the Founding Fathers as mostly slave owners. The 1619 Project was journalism with "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative". The project explored the deep roots of slavery and racial injustice in America.

Trump's commission was made up of conservative political appointees with no background in US history. They quickly put together a report that came out on Martin Luther King Day that was strongly criticized by historians as "pseudohistory" with no basis in actual American history. Trump had planned to use the report to pressure schools across the country to change their history classes to reflect his view and wanted all national parks and federal historical sites to include his nationalist "patriotic education". They wanted to write the definitive chronicle of the founding of America but reads like a right wing manifesto that excuses slavery and justifies racist policies. This was also part of Trump's attacks on critical race theory and the concept of systemic racism in America. The report rails against socialism and called progressivism, accusations of racism and and identity politics "challenges to American principals". It criticized affirmative action and called it "preferential treatment". This commission and report was a sop to white supremacy and his racists supporters and has been strongly criticized by scholars of American history.

This was to be a central program of his second term in office. Today President Biden disbanded the commission which was supposed to work for two years and pulled the report from the White House website. This was one of the many executive orders issued immediately upon taking office.

I'm so happy the trump years are over.

Farewell

This article by Elizabeth Spiers in The New Republic deserves to be quoted in full.

Farewell to Trump’s Baby Sociopaths
Good riddance to the fake redneck, the cancer-charity grifter, and the amoral Florida Woman.

"Today we say goodbye and good riddance to Donald J. Trump, the worst, laziest, and most tangerine-hued of our 45 presidents. He left a path of destruction in his wake that included 400,000 dead Americans, a decimated economy, shattered norms, broken laws, and endless grifting. And if his venality, corruption, and incompetence weren’t enough, he punctuated his tenure in the highest (and before now, most respected) office by inciting an attempt to overthrow the same institutions that empowered him—the act of a malignant and sociopathic narcissist who is also, to use a diagnosis not technically listed in the DSM, a giant baby.

But we also must bid farewell to the Trump children: the ambulatory evidence that narcissism, incompetence, and corruption are genetically inherited traits. Like their decency-challenged paterfamilias, they hardly bothered to veil their contempt for democratic norms, and used every available opportunity to exploit their positions—and by extension, taxpayers—to make money and accumulate unearned power. They deserve their own send-off, especially considering the persistent rumors that they have political ambitions of their own and that some form of recidivism seems inevitable. Each one is unique and memorable, much in the same way that every individual experience of food poisoning is similarly horrible and yet surprisingly varied in its repulsiveness.

A personal favorite among the things that won’t be missed: Donald Trump Jr.’s redneck cosplay. As a rural Alabama native who grew up in a family full of hunters, it’s sometimes entertaining to watch Junior—a New York City–native, Ivy-educated, Buckley School grad who probably spent many high school weekends doing coke in the bathroom of Dorrians—suit up like a Duck Dynasty extra and awkwardly pantomime those things that he thinks red-state Trumpists do (bless his heart). Only the unfettered racism comes naturally to him. It’s unnerving to watch him wave around such a vast assortment of absurdly souped-up guns, each one more accessorized with far-right stickers and gratuitous vanity mods than the last. As a rule, you never want a guy with unresolved anger issues to have easy access to high-powered firearms, let alone a collection that he probably has to transport with a forklift.

You also generally don’t want anyone operating a firearm while they’re under the influence of … well, anything: recreational drugs, prescription drugs, Donald Trump. Junior’s public appearances have been concerning on that front. His Visine budget alone could probably fund two fiscal years of Meals on Wheels. His TV appearances have always been directed at an audience of one, and I won’t miss watching a 43-year-old man tell his father he’s desperate for love in a coded language that appears to consist entirely of conspiracy theories.

On this front, Eric Trump seems a little more put together, or at the very least, I’ve never seen him look like he was on the verge of bursting into tears, which is a semi-regular feature of Junior’s appearances. Neither of them was supposed to be involved in their dad’s campaign, but the entire Trump family interprets “conflict of interest” as an ethical conflict that may be “of interest” in the participatory sense. Eric’s contributions to the Trump legacy mostly include guaranteeing his wife a $180,000 salary via marriage and funneling money from a kid’s cancer charity into his business—and admittedly, stealing money from children with cancer is so cartoonishly villainous it wouldn’t be plausible in a Marvel movie. My most controversial Trump-related opinion is that Eric is not actually The Dumbest One, but the competition is so heavy for the title that it’s sometimes hard to tell.

Which brings us to Ivanka, who once got into an argument at a dinner party about the difference between liberal and libertarian, which she maintained were the same thing, and when the person she was arguing with suggested she Google it, she replied that she’d “take it under advisement.” Now she is in the position of having to take her own “advisement” and “find something new,” as she recently counseled millions of newly unemployed Americans (presumably because “Let them eat coding” was too awkward a construction).

Career coaches typically suggest that people who lose their jobs should highlight their primary skill sets when they apply for something new. Judging from her White House track record, Ivanka’s skills are: staging her own photo ops, developing a mastery of public self-congratulation, misattributing inspirational quotes to Alexis de Tocqueville, and pulling the rug out from under women as a class with Olympic-level vigor.

I’ve historically maintained that she is the Edmund Hillary of social climbing, but have come to realize that my analogy is off: Hillary had to do the work himself and couldn’t just take credit for it. As someone who’s adept at taking credit for things she didn’t do, Ivanka’s equally accomplished at avoiding responsibility for the disastrous things she did or enabled. A high school friend of hers recalls in Vanity Fair that she once farted in class and blamed it on a classmate—an apt, if pungent, metaphor for what she continued to do as she transformed herself magically from “Senior White House Adviser” to “just a daughter” every time the administration did something catastrophic and morally repulsive.

Rumors suggest that she plans to run for office one day herself, demonstrating that delusions of grandeur may be inheritable, as well. But she won’t do it from her native New York City—where she and her brothers have worn out their welcome—because as someone once said, “It’s not excusable to embrace right-wing extremists just because you weren’t embraced enough by Dad, or were, perhaps, inappropriately embraced by Dad.” (De Tocqueville, I think.)

So Ivanka will soon be a Florida Woman, and will presumably adopt the in-state tradition of insisting that parts of Florida are “not really Southern” and that other parts are “lower Alabama,” but in a breathy voice that’s inexplicably two octaves lower than it should be. Her on-camera appearances will continue to have a certain hostage video quality, and the expert hair and makeup will not compensate for the unsettling uncanny valley effect she exudes when she tries to speak with authentic human emotion.

She won’t be alone. Jared Kushner is not literally a Trump child, but he might as well be. He is as qualified as Ivanka to be a senior White House adviser, benefitted from the same nepotism, and has many of the traits most pronounced in the Trump children: an inflated sense of entitlement; a belief that his wealth is simultaneously a product of meritocracy and dynastic fate; and a visceral allergy to any kind of knowledge acquisition that involves listening to experts, talking to anyone with a lower net worth, or reading anything longer than the first paragraph of this column that doesn’t contain his literal name.

I have some personal experience here: In 2011 and 2012, I was the editor in chief of The New York Observer, a newspaper he bought and proceeded to destroy with disastrous shortcuts framed as “optimization” and a seeming determination to interpret “move fast and break things” as an end goal and not a path to success. He occupies a special place in my heart: Specifically the part responsible for the ventricular contraction that sends my blood pressure to stratospheric heights any time I hear that he’s been put in charge of something important. The only comfort I get from the fact that Donald Trump had custody of the nuclear football for the last few years is that he wasn’t able to outsource that function to Jared, who might have just casually given it to Mohammad bin Salman in exchange for a small investment in a promising Kushner Co. property right at the center of New York City’s luxurious Fifth Avenue.

The sheer number of bad decisions Jared has made is only rivaled by the number of times he’s declared his failures a success. Watching him do this in real time was like watching a football player run in the wrong direction toward his own end zone, cross the goal line, then spike the football and declare himself the winner. Repeatedly. And the coach was unwilling to bench him.

Thankfully, voters have benched all of them. Aside from asking Jared if he happened to have misplaced the federal vaccine reserve, there’s no need for any of us to interact with or pay attention to them ever again. (I’m leaving Barron and Tiffany out of this analysis because, as a minor, Barron is trapped in this family for the foreseeable future whether he likes it or not; and no one—least of all her father—was paying attention to Tiffany or her four-year plan to bigfoot her dad on his last day in office by announcing her engagement)

That doesn’t mean their names won’t appear in headlines, though. Don Jr. and Ivanka narrowly escaped an indictment on criminal fraud charges before their father was elected president, and it seems implausible than any of the many ongoing investigations into Donald Trump’s business affairs do not include scrutiny of them, as well. Eric Trump has already been deposed by the New York Attorney General’s Office. And the Senate Committee on Finance has been trying to determine whether Jared’s dealings with the Qataris, potentially in exchange for helping to bail out Kushner Co.’s 666 Fifth Avenue property, violate criminal conflict of interest statutes.

Psychologists suggest that couples can improve their relationships by bonding over novel experiences. If that’s true, it bodes well for relationships between the Trump progeny as they encounter something new and uncharted for them: accountability."

Inauguration Day

The day began with the grifter skulking away in the early morning where he later stood before a small crowd of ass kissers stumbling over narcissistic expressions of self congratulations for things he had nothing to do with. Then he left without the special send off he craved.

Then the real celebration began as the new President and Vice President were sworn in a few hours later in a wonderful ceremony at the site where the orange stain tried to overthrow our democracy a couple of weeks ago with his terrorists. 

The whole ceremony was stunning to watch and very inspirational. The majority of the nation is relieved to finally move on and deal with the pandemic and so many other problems ignored by the previous administration. President Biden's speech was inspiring and set a tone of healing and unity.

Lady Gaga was amazing singing the national anthem as was Jenifer Lopez singing America The Beautiful and This Land Is Our Land. Even Garth Brooks was OK but the highlight may have been the young poet Amanda Gorman and her call for a better America. 

Criterion Channel

Yesterday was Sean's birthday and we had not sent him a birthday gift yet. I then came up with the idea of getting him a subscription to the Criterion Channel. He had told me recently that he had been buying more movies on disc so I thought this would be a good gift for him. 

We have a subscription to Criterion and love it. There is an amazing collection of movies to watch on demand. 

Today I went to their website and purchased a year subscription for Sean after checking with Ashley about their television system. I was pretty sure they had a smart TV with internet app capability but wanted to make sure. She verified that everything would work and she really liked the idea. Later in the day Sean got via email and was sure happy. He called us to say how much he liked our gift and that he had been considering getting it himself.

Tonight Ashley sent us a photo of Sean in front of the TV obviously watching the Criterion Channel.

We watch a lot of movies and Becky especially will watch a movie almost every evening. We also subscribe to the Movie Package on Sling TV which includes the on demand TCM Channel which Becky loves. We've had the Criterion Channel for about three years. We originally got it through the Film Struck service but when that shut down last year we subscribed directly to the new Criterion Channel service.

Fight of the Century

Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases edited by Michael Chabon, 2020

Finished reading in January 2021

This was one of my first books of 2021 that I started reading the first week of January.  This book is a wonderful collaboration between the American Civil Liberties Union and some of the most influential writers working today. Each essay is written by a different author on a landmark civil liberties case in the Supreme Court that marks the 100th anniversary of the organization.

Some of the many authors I've recently read are represented here including Jonathan Lethem, Yaa Gyasi, Ann Patchett, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, Scott Turow, Louise Erdrich and so many more.

I started reading this book a few days before the trump insurrection and it had a deep impact on me as the terrorist stormed the Capitol Building.  Those trump supporters were obviously against everything that the heroes of this book stood for. As the days went by I immersed myself in this book and relished being an American where we strive to improve ourselves and our country. As I read these stories of people conquering injustices and as Inauguration Day approaches I'm feeling better about America.

I had downloaded this book from the public library as an e-book. I was enjoying reading these essays and drawing inspiration from the amazing perspectives of the various authors. I found that I was going back and rereading some of the essays and then I did something unusual. Before I even finished the book, which had a significant waiting list at the library, I purchased a hardbound copy for myself.

Vaccination Scheduled

This evening Becky and I were both able to get an appointment for a Covid vaccination at the same time over at the UB South Campus on February 15th which is exactly one month away.

We spent quite a bit of time online trying to get that appointment. It wasn't easy and there was a need for patience and persistence but we now feel much better. This is also a state run site rather than the county which is probably better. The vaccine is from the Pfizer.

Hopefully with the new president coming into office that takes the Covid pandemic seriously things will start getting better including more people getting access to more vaccinations.

Bullfeathers

J. P. Bullfeathers and Wine Cellar on Elmwood Avenue closed in 2015. It was a shock to drive by and see it boarded up. Other bars and restaurants in the area were doing fine and new ones were opening up all the time. People apparently had stopped going to Bullfeathers. We hadn't been there in ages although we had been going to places right down the street.

Back in the 80's and 90's Bullfeathers was one of our go to places. We were there all the time. We would walk down there all the time when we lived nearby off of Elmwood Ave. We would be there for dinners and for just hanging out in the bar with friends. There were three spaces in the restaurant. The main bar area was very nice and comfortable and there was a large back room for dining. There was also the so called Wine Cellar downstairs that was tight and cozy.

One time in the early 80's my brother Dan was visiting us. He was actually in Buffalo for some college related event and staying at a motel near the UB South Campus. We picked him up and took him to Bullfeathers for lunch which of course including chicken wings. This was his first time having wings and he ordered them hot. He was eating them and really enjoying the experience when he broke out in a serious sweat that was dripping down his face. Then his glasses suddenly slipped right off his face and landed in the bowl of sauce covered wings. We all had a wonderful laugh and told the story for years.

I saw an article online this week about the reopening of that space under new management and the new name Jack Rabbit. I also realized that there has been a lot of controversy over the site of Bullfeathers during the past few years.  A development company from out of state had tried to purchase the site which includes the block of buildings to construct a high rise apartment building with retail space and a multilevel parking garage. The community protested and the plan was not allowed to move forward by the city. Then the owner of the site wanted to tear everything down and build a large parking lot. That didn't work out either and the people of Elmwood Village demanded better. Fortunately now the building remains and is being renovated and there will be a new bar/restaurant in the former Bullfeathers location. Looking forward to checking it out.

News Channels and Their Relentless Commercials

During the election and the period after it I've been watching a lot of news on TV. Probably way too much and the result has been a tremendous overexposure to their relentless commercials that seemed to be targeting older viewers who are probably watching the news all day like us.

I've tried hard to turn the TV off and have done so for long periods of time. We've had cooking and food shows on and we've had classical concerts playing in the background on YouTube. However, sooner or later the news would come back on especially as things got crazier with the trumpian dysfunction over the election results along with the ongoing botched response to the pandemic by the administration.

I complain about the commercials being relentless and in particular I'm very tired of all the Medicare supplement insurance ads. I thought that was all done when the Medicare open enrollment period ended on December 1 but after a brief period of inactivity they suddenly started up again almost more than that original barrage. They are relentless and there are about six or seven insurance companies vying for the attention of seniors watching the news shows all day. Sometimes there are two or three different ones during a single commercial break.

Another relentless ad is for Car Shield insurance which is a company that has had an F rating from the Better Business Bureau because of bad and dishonest business practices. Then there are the other car insurances companies that keep flooding the news programs like Liberty, Progressive and Gieco. Then of course there are the Big Pharma commercials. All seniors are diseased. All Americans are in need of constant drugs.

I've gotten to the point that I'm turning off the news because of all the horrid commercials. Sometimes I'll bounce around between commercials but eventually I get sick of them all and either turn off the TV or find a noncommercial show somewhere. It's bad.

Blue Lives Matter?

The flag on the Capitol Building has been flying at half staff for the past three days to honor the Capitol police officer killed in the line of duty defending the Capitol building and the members of Congress under attack by terrorist. 

It took trump three days of constant criticism for him to order the White House to lower the flag for the dead police officer. Not surprising knowing that trump had publicly stated that he loved the people who attacked the Capitol building.

There have also been several horribly disturbing videos showing the trump supporters beating police officers with the poles of American flags and punching officers in the face with sticks. Apparently in trump world blue lives matter only if the police officers are confronting black people.

There is another awful video showing a group of white trump supporters chasing a black officer and threatening him. It's not hard to imagine what would have happened if a white officer was being confronted with a group of black protestors.

This week has clearly shown the true racists nature of trump supporters.

Glass of Beer - Brooklyn Mix

The Brooklyn Mix from Brooklyn Brewery. Becky came home from the store recently with this cool looking box of beer. We've been getting more of the assorted packs during the pandemic. This particular mix included Brooklyn Lager, Bel Air Sour, Stonewall Inn IPA and a seasonal which is this pack was their Winter Lager.

The Brooklyn Lager is their flagship beer and would be considered a hoppy amber lager. Very tasty.

The Bel Air Sour is a refreshing tart beer with a tropical fruit essence. One of my favorite sours.

The Stonewall Inn IPA is a hoppy session IPA. This beer supports the LGBTQ+ initiative.

The seasonal selection in this particular pack was their Winter Lager which is a schwarzbier inspired dark lager.

Here are some of the other beers I've had from Brooklyn Brewing according to my Untappd log.

• Defender IPA
• Black Chocolate Stout
• Brooklyn Pilsner
• American Ale
• Brooklyn Greenmarket Wheat
• Brooklyn Sorachi Ace
• Brooklyn Summer Ale
• Insulated Dark Lager
• Brooklyn Brown Ale
• Brooklyn Oktoberfest
• Monster Ale
• Brooklyn East IPA

Davey Crockett

King of the Wild Frontier. One of my earliest TV memories is of the Davy Crockett show on Disney. I remember Fess Parker starring in that role like it was yesterday. The series first aired on the Disney show in the 1954-1955 season which means I was 3 and 4 years old. I'm not sure I saw it that early but I'm sure Disney was on in the house as Betsy would have been around 5 and 6. The series was shown again in the early 60's and I know I watched it at that time too. They also made it into a movie in the 60's and I'm sure I saw it at a Saturday matinee at the New Lyric theater.

I remember a lot about that show but especially the theme song. I can still sing it right now. This came up because some folks in Growing up in Germantown Facebook group were talking about TV theme songs. I contributed the video below to the conversation.

Glass of Beer - Official Hazy IPA

It's official. I love books too.

Official Hazy IPA from Bells Brewery. A nice pungent double dry-hopped American style IPA but with a wheat beer essence.

I liked it. First time I had this beer was on tap at The Public House on Hertel Ave in May 2019.

Interesting book too.

First Ship - 50 years ago

It was 50 years ago today I reported aboard my first ship, The USS Portland, at the US Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Virginia. In a couple of days we would be underway on a shakedown cruise to the Caribbean. The Portland was a brand new addition to the fleet and my orders had actually been sent me to the General Dynamics Shipyard in Quincy Massachusetts near Boston right after New Year's. 

I had to take a bus during a snow storm from the airport to the shipyard while carrying all my gear in my seabag. It was a real pain in the ass and then I check in at the shipyard and my ship isn't there. It had left a few days before. It took a few more days to get things straightened out while I hung out at a small Navy facility in Boston before taking a Greyhound bus down to Virginia.

So after reporting onboard I was immediately sent to the mess decks to work in the scullery for a couple of months which was standard procedure for the lowly new guy. We headed down to the Caribbean to do lots of training exercises among the islands.

On that first trip I got to see San Juan, Santo Domingo, Port au Prince, Charlette Amalie and Guantanamo Bay.  A couple of months later we were heading across the Atlantic on our way to the Mediterranean Sea.

Over the next few years I would spend a lot of time in the Caribbean Sea and make many visits to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Panama, Aruba, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominica, Venezuela, Martinique, Nicaragua, Curacuo, Barbados, Trinidad, Grenada and probably a few more.

I think my favorite place in the area was Limon, Costa Rica.

Day of Infamy

Wednesday January 6th 2021 will be remembered in American history as a Day of Infamy when the President of the United States stood before thousands of his supporters and demanded that they storm the Capitol building to stop Congress from the ceremonial process of counting the votes from the Electoral College. And they did.

It was shocking to see the demonstration of trumpies turn into a riot on live television and the protestors became terrorists. It was hard to watch the rioters actually break into the Capitol building. How could that happen? Where is security? Where are the police? The National Guard?

We were watching the news today to mostly see what was going on with the Georgia Senate runoff election. We knew about the one race that was won by the democrat when we woke up this morning but although it looked like the second one would also be won by the democrat it wasn't official yet.

We also knew that the joint session of Congress was meeting to ceremonially count the electorial college votes and that there would be the circus of some republicans objecting to the count. 

And we had also known that there were trump supporters demonstrating in DC that were addressed by trump himself. So there was a lot going on but we certainly did not expect everything to converge on the Capitol steps like they did today.

It was horrible to see those rioters push back the woefully inadequate police lines and actually force there way into the building causing a disruption in the congressional proceedings. House and Senate members actually had to be evacuated from the floor and go into hiding.

We are going to bed worried about our country.

You're Welcome

Woke up this morning to a text from my cousin Bill that simply stated "you're welcome". I laughed and that was the first indication I had that the Dems had won a Senate race in Georgia. Bill lives in Atlanta, Georgia and we had been chatting online about the election earlier in the week. I was thanking him for voting Democratic.

We went to bed on Tuesday night before the results were in although it was looking potentially good for the Dems one never knew. It was amazing already how quickly Georgia was turning from Red to Blue but it would be harder on a runoff election that the whole country was watching and where the control of the Senate was hanging in the balance. It had been quite a surprising and wonderful shock when Trump lost Georgia in November.

And then there had been the whole crazy efforts of trump to overturn the election results in Georgia. The release of his phone call to Georgia Republican election officials where he cajoled, begged and threatened to get them to change the election results anyway possible.

So Bill gave me the good news when I looked at my blinking phone in the morning and read his text. Raphael Warnock was declared the winner over the trumpie republican and Jon Ossoff had a large lead. Later in the day he would also be declared the winner and the Senate was officially Democratic controlled. It was amazing to see Moscow Mitch get smacked down.

However, as the day went on things on Capitol Hill started getting crazy and the Senate race results in Georgia were no longer the biggest news story but that is another post.

Doo Wop Box Sets

This is my morning kitchen listening today. Put it on and just it all play.

Maybe it's from growing up in Philly but I would take both of these Doo Wop box sets with me to that proverbial desert island.

It was like street corner soul and everyone tried their hand at it. Especially those of us who were choir boys. These were the slow songs at school dances and those Sunday afternoon dances at Wagner's Ballroom on Broad Street. They were also the soundtrack in a house with older brothers and sisters, cousins. In our case a teenaged aunt who lived down the street and was our babysitter. 

We also heard a lot of this music on the radio where by the mid 1960's there were plenty of oldies shows and DJ's were

promoting their collections of oldies. I had several of these albums by Jerry Blavat, Hy Lit, Joe Niagara and others.

When Becky and I got married we had our first dance to a song from this set.  I Only Have Eyes For You by The Flamingos. We also had that song at our children's weddings.

Lots of great music on these 8 discs and wonderful memories too.