An Ode to the Lower East Side of New York

  

                               My grandfather was a butcher,

                               And my father cut the meat,

                               And I'm a little hot dog,

                               That runs around the street.

                             As everyone was an immigrant,

                             We were all very poor,

                             

                             But as we started to gain traction,

                             We moved to the suburbs more and more.

                              We were replaced by Black folks,

                              Who were the "new" very poor,

                              But they too outgrew Delancey Street,

                              And Puerto Ricans came to the fore.

                              The Latinos chose to stay there,

                              And they made the Lower East Side their home,

                                     And now the place is gentrified,

                                     And they are not alone.

                                     Where once stood only tenements,

                                     There now stand some coffee shops,

                                     And also Schillers' Liquor Bar,

                                     To Commemorate my Pops.

                                        And to add to the rich culture

                                        There's now Shakespeare In The Park(ing) Lot

                                        It's happening all summer,

                                        And it surely hits the spot.

                                       So let me say to everyone,

                                       That enjoys this fun event,

                                       It all started from some immigrants,

                                       Who sold hot dogs to pay their rent.

What's Worse, No Son or No Life?

Is there anyone who hasn't seen Moonstruck? Considering that it's on the TV at least once a week, I find that hard to imagine. In my viewing habits, it rivals Groundhog Day as the movie I see parts of most often on TV. Of course, if Mel Gibson hadn't been exposed as the bigoted loon that he is, forcing me to boycott his movies, I think Moonstruck/Groundhog could have had some serious competition from the Lethal Weapon movies. And, coming in a very close second is Bruce Willis' Die Hard movies.

So, when I read the article in The Daily Buzz titled World's smelliest man has gone 38 years without bathing, and it explains that he has NO SON, and, he won't bath until he has one. Rather than paraphrase all of this nuttiness, I invite you to read it for yourself, where you will learn about his wife, his seven daughters, his god, and his marijuana "fire baths". Everyone needs a good laugh on a rainy day. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/world-smelliest-man-gone-38-years-without-bathing-190612822.html

Now, I ask, what's worse No Son, or No Life, as poor Ronny Cammareri (Nicholas Cage) explained to Loretta (Cher) in the bakery scene from Moonstruck.

O.K. I admit it, I could watch that film as many times as they are willing to put it on TV. My favourite scenes are the bakery scene, breakfast after the opera scene, the pre-opera scene where Ronny and Loretta meet at the fountain, the Cosmo's Moon scene, and of course, Loretta explaining to Ronny that he is a wolf scene. I only skip the slow moving college professor scenes which just don't have the pace and wit that the rest of the movie has.

Marvin Hamlisch: Thanks for Everything

Marvin Hamlisch died on Monday at the age of 68. His Broadway and movie music was the music I grew up on. I will give you a view of some of his wonderful work in a moment, but first, I want to spend a moment on the state of art education in the public school system.
Mr. Hamlisch in recent years, has been a crusader for art education in the schools, touring the United States and performing and talking at schools across the country. To quote from Mr. Hamlisch:
“I don’t think the American government gets it,” he said during an interview at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Calif. “I don’t think they understand it’s as important as math and science. It rounds you out as a person. I think it gives you a love of certain things. You don’t have to become the next great composer. It’s just nice to have heard certain things or to have seen certain things. It’s part of being a human being.”
At P.S. 216 George J Ryan Junior High School, in Flushing, my alma mater, we had periodic assemblies (I can't remember the frequency) where the entire grade was brought into the assembly hall, and we were given the words to various Broadway Shows, and we sang. I still know almost every word to songs like On the Street Where You Live and I Could Have Danced All Night, and sing them periodically to myself. I loved them then, and I love them now. 
In my last blog I mentioned how important math is to a well rounded education, well, just as Mr. Hamlisch said above, so are the arts.
Now let's enjoy some music....
This is a little diddy that Marvin wrote at age 21:

And, of course, that wonderful Newman/ Redford film, The Sting:

And, The Way We Were. Here's Barbra Streisand singing the theme song:

And, here's Caryl Simon singing the theme song to The Spy Who Loved Me (Nobody Does It Better):

And finally, from A Chorus Line

Well done!

Is Algebra Necessary? Only If We Want Our Education System to Produce Kids in A League of Their Own

The New York Times Sunday Review had a bizarre editorial on the value or should I say, lack of value of teaching Algebra as a mandatory subject to Secondary School (High School) students. The article can be found at
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
and is written by Andrew Hacker, who is described by The Times as follows: Andrew Hacker is an emeritus professor of political science at Queens College, City University of New York, and a co-author of “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids — and What We Can Do About It.”
As someone whose almost entire working career has been spent utilizing least squares approximations, first as a scientist, predicting the behaviour of anti-ferro magnetic materials in outer space conditions, then as a computer guy developing consumer predictive behavioural buying models for retailers, I am shocked. It appears to me that Mr. Hacker's logic is that if so many people can't do it, it is just a set up for failure, and the last thing that the Americans can afford is more High School drop outs. So, remove it from the curriculum. Or, as they say in algebraic terms, If Math+ Reading+Writing=Diploma, but no one can do Math, change the formula to Reading+Writing=Diploma. 
I don't get it. And, I thought the purpose of education was to educate, even though it might sometimes be hard.
And, to back me up, here's one of my favourite exchanges from A League of Their Own:
Jimmy Dugan: Taking a little day trip? 
Dottie Hinson: No, Bob and I are driving home. To Oregon. 
Jimmy Dugan: [long pause] You know, I really thought you were a ballplayer. 
Dottie Hinson: Well, you were wrong. 
Jimmy Dugan: Was I? 
Dottie Hinson: Yeah. It is only a game, Jimmy. It's only a game, and, and, I don't need this. I have Bob; I don't need this. At all. 
Jimmy Dugan: I, I gave away five years at the end my career to drink. Five years. And now there isn't anything I wouldn't give to get back any one day of it. 
Dottie Hinson: Well, we're different. 
Jimmy Dugan: Shit, Dottie, if you want to go back to Oregon and make a hundred babies, great, I'm in no position to tell anyone how to live. But sneaking out like this, quitting, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that. 
Dottie Hinson: It just got too hard. 
Jimmy Dugan: It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great. 
And, just for fun, here's the trailer:

Ernie Kovacs: Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant

I was in the midst of finalizing my work week when I somehow got to thinking about Ernie Kovacs and how when I was a kid I loved all those wonderful skits. I thought, could youtube have them.

THEY DO:

Here are a few from the Nairobi Trio, you must stick it out for the entire 3 minutes because the end is always worth the setup....

Loved that one, here's another one...

I'm not sure that I knew when I was a kid that it was Ernie in the monkey suit. I'm not sure what I thought when I was 9 or 10, but I definitely knew comedy.
During Ernie's time on late night TV, he often performed with his wife, Edie Adams. Edie was a spectacular talent in her own right and was the beauty to his beast. One of the more famous episodes in her career was her Muriel cigar commercials. At first, so the story goes, Muriel rejected her as not sexy enough to sell their cigars, even with a husband who was never seen without one in her mouth. So, Edie and Ernie produced their own mock commercial to try and convince Muriel. They did. Here's Edie in 1971, in her 40's, singing Hey Big Spender for Muriel...

Wow. Wasn't that great.

The Importance of protecting the Brand

The beauty and I are in the market for a new TV for the family room. We currently have a Sony 52 inch rear projection model in the room, and, we've built around it a very nice wall unit. Regretfully, it doesn't compare to high definition models, so, it's time to go.
When we were in the mall a few weeks back, after seeing the 55 inch and larger models side by side, we decided that the optimal size for that room was 60 inches. And, since the TV was in a room with a bay window, and the TV was angled towards that window, the choice became 60 inches LED.
In shopping around, I've found 4 manufacturers who sell that model size, LG, Sony, Samsung and Sharp.  
We've eliminated LG because of our previous experience with the Brand.
Less than 3 years ago, we upgraded our fridge to a french door model and chose the LG brand. In retrospect, not a good choice, in my opinion. Within 18 months, the unit turned off and the display read "FF" (freezer fan). When the repairman came, he removed the freezer back panel and showed me the ice build up on the rear wall of the unit. He said he had seen this in LG models in the past. He said, the problem was that when the model was designed, they didn't build a path for condensed water to run down the back of the freezer compartment. and so, at some point in time, the odds were good that with no direction, the ice might decide to build up around the fan and eventually interfere with the turning of the blades. He solved the problem by thawing out the ice and building a path out of aluminum foil to direct any future water away from the fan area. He said that if this was an easier product to deal with, he suspected that there would have been a manufacturers recall. Since then, two of the plastic shelves have cracked. Granted, for awhile we had the 2 grandkids and our daughter and son-in-law living with us, so, we did have a full house and a full fridge, but, this is the third fridge that we've owned since having children and the only one that every had a shelf cracking problem. As a matter of fact, this is the only one that ever required service. Fridge one (bought in 1981) was retired when we bought the new fridge, and fridge 2 (bought in 1993) was moved to the basement and is still working just fine.

Now compare this Brand experience with our recent trip to Disney World. Talk about protecting the Brand in every way. Unbelievable. We didn't meet one employee who wasn't gracious and kind and helpful and friendly. We didn't eat one meal that wasn't of quality, either in a restaurant in a theme park, a restaurant in an on site resort, or in the Disney Marketplace. There are no bargains in Disney World, but there are no problems.
 In the end, what we remember are the problems, not the cost. Disney knows that, does LG?

Pool Guard Door Alarm

We're back from the annual Visit the Family in Florida Vacation, or, as Uncle Bram used to describe it, hearing a years worth of "suris" condensed into a week.
After the stint in Southern Florida we joined the kids/grandkids for a week at Disney. We rented a house with 4 bedrooms, 4 ensuite bathrooms (all for the women, the guys still couldn't get in without waiting in line) and a swimming pool. And, a very clever contraption on each sliding door leading to the pool, a PoolGuard Door Alarm by PoolGuard (www.poolguard.com). This clever little device, or one of its competitors is mandatory for any "door" leading to a pool in 3 states, Florida, California, and Arizona. It's absolutely brilliant, and I don't know why anyone with a pool in their backyard doesn't have one.

I couldn't find a youtube video of the product, but I found a 14 second video that explains conceptually how these types of devices work.


What the video doesn't show is the use of the button in the middle of the master section. The button is a cut off switch. Simply put, if you place the magnets at around 5 feet, or, higher than a young child's reach, then, every time an adult passes through the door, they press the button and deactivate the alarm. Nevertheless, this deactivation only lasts around 30 seconds if the door is not shut, thus preventing accidentally leaving the door open. 
These devices cost around $50US, a very reasonable price to pay for a bit of peace of mind.
Here is the description of the PoolGuard product features, the one we had in the Florida house.

• The Door Alarm will sound in 7 seconds when a child opens the door, and the alarm will continue to sound until an adult comes to the door and resets the alarm.
• Poolguard Door Alarm will sound in 7 seconds even if a child goes through the door and closes it behind them.
• The Door Alarm is always on and will automatically reset under all conditions.
• Poolguard Door Alarm is equipped with an adult pass through feature that will allow adults to go through the door without the alarm sounding.
• Optional screen door kits can be purchased for the alarm, this kit allows you to get air through your screen door without the alarm sounding.
• Poolguard Door Alarm uses one 9-volt battery, (not included) with a battery life of approximately 1 year.
• The Door Alarm is equipped with a low battery indicator that will audibly alert you when your battery is getting low.
• Poolguard is the only door alarm that is UL listed under UL 2017 for water hazard entrance alarm equipment.

This is a wonderful product, but as the Safe Kids Canada website reminds us "Pool alarms, door alarms, pool covers and door locks are not an adequate substitute for a four-sided fence with a self-closing, self-latching gate"
Nevertheless, everything helps, so, if you have a friend/relative with a pool and a door leading directly to that pool, this is a great XMAS present.
You're Welcome.