Obama is on his Honeymoon.

All over the internets everyone is talking about the honeymoon or lack of same for the President Elect. I think he has really escaped a lot of scrutiny. The press has really given him a free ride and now it is time for some of them to play catch up. A lot of the stuff that they covered up before the election will start to come out now. This way they can pretend that they have integrity. Much like they did when they were in the tank for Clinton. They knew he had a big problem keeping his cock in his pants and that it would eventually blow up. They did let out dribs and drabs as they were fed by the campaign. But eventually it came out. It always does.

Holiday

Holiday!
So I am walking along the Fort Greene Place between the LIRR and what comes on but Holiday by Madonna. Which is pretty funny because I have made a couple of A-Rod and Madonna posts. It is a cold almost winter day and it is kinda depressing because we have to lay someone off tonight.

If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice

Now she really isn’t working out and we were thinking about it after the first day, but we gave her eight weeks to give her a chance and it has been a fiasco. She asked to leave early three times in the first two weeks and asked for a day off. The last straw was when she asked me to take off Thanksgiving weekend. The busiest shopping weekend in the year in retail.

Everybody spread the word
We're gonna have a celebration
All across the world
In every nation
It's time for the good times
Forget about the bad times, oh yeah
One day to come together
To release the pressure
We need a holiday

We have been paying a really great salary with the view that this person was going to be management. With the economy the way it is we can’t justify paying her so much more than our other workers. She is really, really not pulling her weight. We thought we could trust her. That we could leave the store in her hands and go out to showrooms. We couldn’t even leave her alone at all. One night she forgot to blow out the candle. Another night she left the steamer on. But the main thing was her heart was not in it. You don’t stop in the middle of the day and start texting when there are customers in the store.

You can turn this world around
And bring back all of those happy days
Put your troubles down
It's time to celebrate
Let love shine
And we will find
A way to come together
And make things better
We need a holiday

Now I won’t throw someone to the wolves. I will give her enough hours to pay her rent and survive until she finds a new job. But when she started pushing to take off Thanksgiving weekend after working here a month, we knew it was really not going to work. We couldn’t trust her to just dump us at Christmas time. Plus she asked me instead of my wife. That’s the old let’s ask daddy because mommy will say no ploy. That’s not cool because my wife is the boss.

Holiday Celebrate
Holiday Celebrate

It is no fun when you have to lay someone off. It doesn’t feel like a Holiday.

Politics and family don't mix.

Since we opened the store, the wife and I have missed most of the family occasions. Most of those are on my wife's side as my family is a lot smaller and I don't like any of them anyway so it's not an issue. But we have missed two weddings and four communions and three confirmations in the past 17 months. But we get the full play by play.

Now we went to the wife's brothers kid actual Christening in the church because I think the actual Sacrament is what is important. Not the party afterward. There was a small get together with the immediate family that we attended. This Saturday was the big party where the ten grand uncles and aunts and the 37 cousins all came to admire the little baby. Now my brother in law went to every event as he always drove his mom and dad so most people wanted to reciprocate. He got married late in life and is very happy to have a daughter and rightfully wanted to show her off.

Anyway at the party a couple of the grand aunts were waxing poetic about how great it was that Obama was elected. They went on and on and on. Now the funny thing is that the are both very very religious Catholics who are Eucharistic Ministers and lectors and the whole deal. Well one of the cousins who is studying to be a priest couldn't take it anymore. He explained to them about Obama's position on abortion and the fact that he voted for the bill that allowed doctors to kill a baby that survived an abortion. They couldn't believe it. They said they never would have voted for him if they knew that. Why wasn't that brought out in the newspaper or by the McCain campaign. Good question.

I am just glad we didn't go. I don't like to discuss politics with people who are uninformed.

Going Galt.

I am following Dust Bunny Queens advice and going galt. I just did this carpet guys taxes and I am trading it for getting my carpet stretched in time for Thanksgiving. Plus a good cleaning.

If only Con Edison needed their taxes done. Then I would have something.

Rainy Saturday and the store is slow.

It's a rainy dreary Saturday in New York and business is slow. I know it is going to be crazy tomorrow because it will just be me and the wife as one employee is away in Ireland and one is sick. So we will be running our asses ragged.

It really amazes me how this employee can take off and go to Europe. I am thinking about cutting an employee and doing more with less because I am deathly afraid of the Obama economy. I will just work harder and spend less. So why would you think this is a good time to go away for two weeks. Where did she get the money for it anyway?

Sometimes I just don't understand people.

Everyday people.

So I come out of LIRR and turn on my little transistor radio and it’s the end of fish oil commercial. What the hell. Do they play that crap all the time?

As approach the door there is this orthodox Jewish woman with about six kids including one with a carriage. She can’t figure out how to get through the revolving door, so I push the button on the side of the wall that opens the hidden glass door on the side. She come through with the kids and thanks me. She was in the process of asking this large Jamaican woman about how to get to the mall and I left them chattering as they went into building. Just everyday working people getting along.

So I get out onto Fort Green Place and the commercial is over and the song starts. It’s Sly and the Family Stone. Everyday People.

Sometimes I'm right, then I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my songs
A butcher, a banker, a drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am everyday people

I like to think of myself as an everyman. I try to see the other guy’s point of view. To put myself in their shoes. Of course that means sometimes I have to tell them they are acting like a dick. Or sometimes I have to act like a dick. For dramatic effect of course. For example we had a situation with a vendor. The little girl who handles our account got all shook up because when she went to LA the designer got in her face because our stuff was ready but we didn’t take it yet. Now I had until October 30 to get it. She was freaking out on October 18. I told her I was definitely taking it but she calls the store and tells my workers that it’s an emergency. When I find out what it is about, I tell her it ain’t an emergency. If the fucking showroom burns down and my dresses burn up, now that’s a emergency. So I gave a piece of my mind. But I put myself in her shoes and told her I understood that she was in the middle. And I would be happy to yell at her boss or the designer himself. That’s me, I am everyday people.


Then it's the blue ones who can't accept
The green ones for living with
The black ones tryin' to be a skinny one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby
Ooh sha sha
We gotta live together

I love to tease Mort on Althouse because he gets so sensitive but he is pretty good guy. A little touchy. And he hates the blue ones. He just can’t stand Smurfs. I saw him stab a Smurf with a fork just to see it die. But that’s a different song.

I am no better and neither are you
We're all the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me
You know me and then
Still can't figure out the scene I'm in
I am everyday people

One of the things I don’t like is when people try to fool you. You know what they are up to but they try to get over on you. It’s bad to be predictable. That’s why I try to shake it up now and then.

Then it's the new man
That doesn't like the short man
For being such a rich one
That will not help the poor one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on scooby dooby dooby
Ooh sha sha
We got to live together

Do you think they named the TV show Different Strokes after this song? Gary Coleman is such a weird little dude. His parent screwed him over and spent all his money. I mean it must be really tough for him. Is he a midget or what? I think it must be better to be a full fledged midget rather than just a quasi-midget. I wonder if he got to bang Dana Palto?

There is a yellow one that won't
Accept the black one
That won't accept the red one
That won't accept the white one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and
Scooby dooby dooby
Ooh sha sha
I am everyday people

Did you know that there was a big rumor that Sly Stone was banging Doris Day when he was a big rock star. Back in the day. I bet Sly sits around and thinks to himself “Damn I used be into the Day back in the Day.” I remember talking about this with one of my teachers in high school and he got all pissed off. He said no way. If she was banging anyone, she was banging Rock Hudson. It’s funny the things you remember.

Scooby dooby dooby
Ooh sha sha
I am everyday people

Am I a soft touch?

There is this elderly woman who lives on the block of the store. She is a cancer survivor with a buzz cut who has one of those wheely things that serves as a walker but she can sit down in too. Anyway I always say hello to her and stop to talk. She is often in front of the senior citizens center down the block. Anyways she calls me over to ask me a question. She says "Can Morgan Stanley stop payment on a check." She was supposed to get a check today and she didn't get it. She said when she called up that said that she would get it in a few days when things "calmed" down. And could I lend her $20 because she had absolutely no money and would pay me back Friday when she got her Social Security check. I said sure. I don't know if the story was true,but to be honest there was an odor of Icelandic fish oil to it, but what's twenty dollars. She went and bought milk and bread in the bodega next store. So that's fine with me. I just hope I don't have a bunch of old ladies lining up at the door tomorrow. Some of those bitches own five brownstones and have more money that Bill Gates.

The long walk between trains is the time for instrospection, eh?

I was all set to do another navel gazing piece about some song I listened to on the long cold walk between the LIRR and the Subway. I put on the oldies station and waited for the song to hit me. For inspiration. But all I got were commercials.
In fact one commercial. For Icelandic fish oil.

This woman with a really sexy voice was telling you about all the wonderful qualities of Icelandic fish oil and how it would change your life. And how you get a free sample. All I could think about was...sexy voice...fish oil...where do they get the fish oil....how is extracted...how is it harvested...jeeez what the hell.

You can't always be introspective ya know.

Introspection or where the fuck did all this lint come from?

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.

Last night I was walking from the Long Island Railroad station at Flatbush Avenue to the Subway. When I walk around I always listen to my little transistor radio. It’s not an expensive ipod, just a little transistor that I picked up for ten bucks. WFAN had a hockey game on so there was no sports talk. So I had switched to the oldies station. It was a cold night and I was all bundled up. First real cold night with the wind blowing fierce. As I crossed Hanson place a song came on the radio, playing low. Against the wind.

“It seems like yesterday
But it was long ago
Janey was lovely, she was the queen of my nights
There in the darkness with the radio playing low”

Do you ever think about the people who were so important to you years ago and now you can barely remember them? People you worked with? People you went to the game with? Hung out at the bar with? Lovers? But it was long ago….

“And the secrets that we shared
The mountains that we moved
Caught like a wildfire out of control
Till there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove”

Some times those passions burn so brightly, love or hate. In the end, in time, there is perspective. And indifference. Red hot turns to ashy cold grey.

”And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh so tight
Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then”

That line is just about my favorite line in any song ever. “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” Man truer words were never spoken. Sometimes experience can be a curse. You hate to be right about people but you know you are. You hate to disillusion people but you don’t want them to be hurt. Naiveté can be cute but it will hurt them so you have to wise them up. “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”

”Against the wind
We were running against the wind
We were young and strong, we were running
Against the wind”

Remember when you were young and strong. You could go out with your friends and go to the park and play pick up basketball all day long. Just stop long enough to get a drink of water from the old stone water fountain and get right back on the court. No bum legs. No varicose veins. When the cold didn’t bother you and you went out at midnight and ready to party to the wee hours. “We were young and strong, we were running Against the wind”

”And the years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home”

You are not really alone. I mean you have your friends and family. But the friends and family that are gone leave a hole in your heart. Your mom or dad who may have passed on. Your grandmother who taught you how to cook. The uncle who taught you how to fish and bet the horses. The aunt who would take your hand and take you to your first Broadway show. The people who were home. Now most of them are gone. Forever. You have new friends, maybe even a new family. But you still think about the ones that are gone. And find yourself “further and further from your home.”

“And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worried about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searching
Searching for shelter again and again”

So you have a new life. With new friends. The people you grew up with are all most all gone. Just a few linger on. You keep moving. Getting and spending. Buying and selling. Working seven days a week. Running as fast as you can, cause if you stop you might fall

”Against the wind
A little something against the wind
I found myself seeking shelter against the wind”

The only shelter you can find is with your wife and the new family you have made. You are together in the foxhole. Holding each other tight and getting shelter from the wind.

”Well those drifters days are past me now
I’ve got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out”

Those carefree days are gone. When you were just worried about going out and having a good time. Knowing that you could go to your grandmothers or your moms and walk into the kitchen and lift off the lid of the pot and fish out a fresh meatball. Or sit on the stoop with the old men and have some grappa and smoke a cigar. Now you have to watch what you say and watch what you do. You have to edit yourself. You don’t know what to leave in, and what to leave out.

Against the wind
I’m still running against the wind
Well I’m older now and still
Against the wind

I listened to that song as I walked the long three blocks in the cold wind as papers swirled and kicked leaves that had just fallen. I am a lot older now, but I will still struggle against the wind.

I just wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.

Where I almost killed a Yuppie bitch.

So I have been dragging my ass the last two weeks as we have been doing seven days a week in the store and I have a lot of work doing the taxes for final extensions. My idiot clients were finally sending me the information so I could finish the returns. My leg has been killing me which makes it even more fun.

Now normally I take the subway to Flatbush Avenue to get the Long Island Railroad to take it to my office in Long Island. But there are seven long stairways to walk up and down as the Fulton St stop on the G train sucks donkey dick. Since my leg is killing me I can't face all that especially now that I am exhausted.

So I have been taking a cab to the railroad and skipping the subway. What I do is go to Clinton St where all the cabs go to pick up fares on the way to Manhattan. There are always cabs there all hours of the day and night.

Anyway, I am in an exhausted daze as I get to the corner and wait for a cab. After about ten minutes one starts to pull up. I hear someone screeching "Excuse me, excuse me but I have been waiting here for ten minutes for a cab." Some woman comes from across the street and starts for the cab. Now cab etiquette is that if you are waiting for a cab you go to the corner where the cab has to stop. Not the next corner. I never even noticed the cunt. She was a typical yuppie who had just moved into the neighborhood with a sense of entitlement and a copy of the New York Times under her arms. I said "Lady I never saw you are you bullshitting me." "No I was really waiting for ten minutes" as she got into the cab. So I say "Well I think you are a lying sack of shit but go a head." I was just too tired to argue. The cab driver was pissed as I think I had been in his cab a few days before and had given him a good tip. He goes "If you want to get in to go to Manhattan after I drop her off we can do that sir." "No that's ok you are stuck with the bitch."

Back in the day I might have lost my temper, but what are you gonna do.

To busy to blog.

I have been too busy doing taxes to write any posts here since this requires some thought. Not like dropping comments here and there. You can do that while you are running copies of returns and stuff. But I have some new ideas so we will see whats what in a few days.

Why Psycho is a great movie

Did you ever see Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie Psycho. The movie starts out about this beautiful woman (with pointy tits for blake) who steals some money from her job. We start out watching the movie from her point of view. Then all of a sudden she gets murdered. We are in a whole different story. Everything that went before was a set up and wasn't important. Hitchcock called it the Mac Guffin, something that seems important but really isn't in the whole scheme of things.

It is very unusual for someone to set up a story and make it from the point of view of one character and then to kill off that character in the middle of the story. Most writers prefer a much more linear approach. Hero arrives, goes through a lot of stuff, suffers but not too much, wins and lives happily after after. Very few books or movies has the hero killed off in the middle of the story. I just think that approach would be very interesting.