I noticed a similar behavior with all the hotel h9usekeeprs in New York City. I’ve stayed at a number of places and it’s always the same. The housekeeping ladies are bullies.
It’s like this – they never show up to clean the rooms when you want. Since the pandemic, it is sporadic, some places won’t even bring clean towels or take the garbage unless you specifically ask for it. But either way, you never know when they are going to show up, but it’ s always at an inconvenient time.
The other cay I was out from 8 am to 5 pm, I only came back to send something via email that I couldn’t send from my phone. Just then the housekeeper showed up, I told her I needed a few minutes – five minutes and she could do the room. She then did what they all do. She stood there and sort of folded her arms, basically saying, “I’m here now, get out.”
I don’t get out, I never do. I tell them to go away. And they really are obstinate. Do they get paid per room that they clean?
But it’s the same at every place I’ve stayed. They stand there daring me to slam the door in their faces, or at least, shut the door politely.
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A bunch of us went to see The Who’s Tommy musicalon Broadway last night. I loved it. There were a few slow moving parts, but the music and the flashing lights and loud production was the thing.
Two small kids played Tommy at ages 4 and 10 and what was remarkable was that they didn’t have much or any dialog but their presence and silence and they way they were swung around and turned upside down and just thrown around as if they were dolls was amazing. When the stage was full of other singers, dancers and actors, you couldn’t keep your eyes off the young kids.
Of course, I knew most, if not all of the Who’s music and that made it great.
The story of course is of a boy who witnesses a murder, in his own house, at age 4, and that causes him to turn into himself and he becomes deaf, dumb and blind, as the song goes. It’s a great, loud production.
I heard various reviews from the people I was with and it seems as if I am the one who was the most enthusiastic. But at the end of the musical, the whole audience was up on their feet cheering and singing and leaving the theater smiling. A day later I can still hear the music in my head.
The musical is at the Nederlander Theater on 41st Street in Manhattan.
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Got to NYC yesterday. The city is packed. I’ll be here for a few weeks. I already got my Mister Softee ice cream, and it wasn’t so hot and humid, so it didn’t melt all over my hand.
This Thursday is July 4th and people have started their holiday this weekend.
It’s gonna be a long week, I have a lot of family plans. We’ll be in The Hamptons, Connecticut, and we’re going to The Who’s Tommy on Broadway this week. Plus a lot more things. I visited that Portal thing in Madison Square, right next to the Flatiron Building – where we can see Dublin, Ireland and they can see us live.
It’s funny how people are so flabbergasted at it and can’t believe they are seeing Dublin live, but can’t we do that on our cell phones and zoom on our computers every day if we want?
I’ll visit the usual museums – MOMA, the MET, etc.
I’ll take you along.
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This 1957 cartoon was posted on Mike Lynch’s blog the other day. It’s by cartoonist Tom Hudson.
It reminded me of my new GE washer/dryer, which started out at a reasonable price and ended up being way over priced.
I have a very small space for the washer/dryer in my condo unit so I am limited as to what I can get. I found one at Best Buy. It was delivered, but it didn’t fit in the space all the way, it was sticking out a bit. The delivery guys who installed it blamed the vent in back, but the previous unit had the same dimensions and vent and fit in fine for all these years.
I tipped them $40.00 ($20.00 each) and they left.
I decided to live with it. Only it started making strange grinding noises, so I went back to Best Buy and managed to find the washer/dryer I liked to begin with. It’s ventless, so there is no worry about the size of the vent in back. We swapped out the units.
I didn’t get the unit I liked to begin with because I didn’t know I had two plus behind the washer/dryer, but when the guys were installing the first unit, I saw I had both – 110 and 220. So now I could get the washer/dryer I liked, an LC brand. The first unit delivered only used the 220 socket.
The new washer/dryer was delivered and installed, but then the delivery/installation guys told me the washer didn’t work! They said the 110 socket was not working, where the 220 for the dryer was working fine. I was told to get an electrician to check the breaker.
I tipped these two guys $40.00 ($20.00) each and they left.
By now, the original $1400.00 unit cost me another $940.00 for the new LC unit and the $80.00 for the tips for the drivers – $2420.00 total.
Now for the electrician – another $120.00 – for nothing. Because it turns out the 110 electrical socket was working fine. The installers just must have had the plug in there too loosely.
So another $120.00 for a total of $2540.00 for my original $1400 unit.
But I like the new washer/dryer and I’ve been happy with it. And contrary to reports on ventless dryers not drying the clothing fully, that’s a myth, because mine come out great. The towels come out dry and fluffy, too.
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This one with the rooster of course came from our neighborhood rooster. I wrote about him a couple of times before. Well, the other day I was walking and and I heard him crowing non-stop – it was about 8 am. I kept looking for him, but couldn’t see him. I saw the female chicken and babies but no rooster.
Then I looked up and there he was – up on a fence outside a neighbor’s house. I wanted to video him crowing, but he shut up as soon as he spotted me as I took this photo, but no video of him crowing.
The rooster up on the neighbor’s fence.
I have a friend who says Miami is the home of Peacocks and Palm Trees, we have to add roosters to this list. The other day when I was driving out of Publix, I had to stop for a family of chickens crossing the parking lot. Literally. They stopped right in front of my car and there was no way to get around them. I got out of the car and shooed them away. When I looked up, I saw a police officer watching and laughing at me. Just another day in the life.
This Temu idea came from the fact that I bought this beautiful trench coat on Temu – for $37.00! That’s it, no shipping charges and no sales tax. The thing is, I was looking for a coat like this for the winter and I went to Macy’s and the prices were $495.00 for the coats I wanted. I was actually prepared to pay $300.00, but I couldn’t see myself paying $495.00 for the few days I’m up north in the winter.
I tried them on in the store and fell in love with them, but I just couldn’t. So I ended u buying the coat on Temu. I’m not sure how, I am not a Temu shopper and I am guessing the good old internet saved my cookie from Macy’s and sent me ads online including the Temu add.
Anyway, the coat is beautiful, but knowing it was from Temu and $37.00 bothered me. Perception.
The Kors coat I bought from Macy’s.
I saw an ad on tv for Macy’s one day sale, where things were up to 70% off and I ended up buying the coat from Macy’s for only $137.00 plus sales tax. I had to order it online because when I went back to the store they had all been shipped out somewhere to make way for Spring clothing.
I ended up getting a gorgeous Michael Kors Wool Cashmere Blend Overcoat. It is so nice. To be honest, I don’t know if you can tell the difference between the Temu coat, other than the colors – Temu is black, Michael Kors is Charcoal.
But I’m all set for winter now. It seems way to dressy for me, I usually wear a bomber-style jacket in winter. But I’m looking forward to walking around the city in this new overcoat. I noticed that the charcoal coat at Macy’s is now $199.00 but all the other colors are back to the original price of $495.00. When I purchased the coat, they were all $137.00. The games retailers play.
I tried giving away the Temu coat, but I always preface it by saying it’s from Temu, and that sort of lessens the value in people’s eyes, so no one wants it.
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Yesterday I spent hours on the phone with American Express, Door Dash, Venmo and GoDaddy.com. All issues which I guess were modern and technology related.
I paid an electrician last week through Venmo, his choice, and he still had not received the money. I called American Express since they were the ones I used to back up the payment, and they said it was approved and went through. As I was on the AmEx website I saw a $9.99 charge for Door Dash, which I had not used for months.
AmEx told me to contact both Venmo and Door Dash. I did.
Venmo, which is almost impossible to navigate, said the reason the payment was held up was because the electrician did not verify his phone number. I contacted him and to make a long story short, he was incapable of doing this one simple task, so I sent him a check.
Door Dash was charging me $9.99 a month for some sort of service I never signed up for. They easily refunded my AmEx card for the four months that they charged me for and I canceled my Door Dash account, for screwing me over, when I know I never signed up for whatever service it was.
As for GoDaddy, they added some sort of thing to my email accounts called the Quarantine List, which seems to quarantine everything and I have to go in and one by one approve or block emails. It was even blocking my own emails which I sent to myself. I send out my cartoons via one email address for example and it sends me a copy to the same email address. So it was blocking itself!
And I was being charged for this Quarantine service, like the Door Dash service, which I never signed up for. It looks like this is the new thing, sign people up for things they don’t know they are paying for and hope they don’t catch it.
Anyway, I think I solved all the problems. I was able to undo the money I sent through Venmo and I got a full refund from Door Dash. I didn’t hear back from GoDaddy yet, but I did manage to turn off the Quarantine thing.
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I heard someone say, “The clams are clamming,” and thought it was funny, so I used that, but then I guess my subconscious, in the middle of the night, liked the other version.
This happens often. I don’t lose sleep thinking of the gags all night, it just sort of pops into my head at some period and there I am, up at 3 am, changing it.
What I like about this is I am picturing these two guys on the beach in New England this summer. Two locals. One is walking the beach, sees the other guy clamming and asks him about it. The one guy in the flower shirt could also be a tourist asking about the clamming. I only say that because of the flowery shirt, it sort of looks like a tourist thing.
I can almost hear the seagulls in the background.
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I borrowed this recent cartoon from another one of my cartoons – it’s taken from Ollie and Jacomo. It’s popular, because people seem to like talking animals or inanimate objects. I’m not sure why.
I do cartoon on ancient Egypt and social events and cavemen and a play on words (but not puns) and the cartoons that get the most likes, shares and play are animals and inanimate objects.
Here’s the Ollie And Jacomo version. Interestingly enough, I haven’t published Ollie and Jacomo for quite awhile, yet it keeps picking up followers and fans around the internet. What do actors say about working with animals and children? Well, animals and inanimate objects seem to steal the spotlight, too.
I wanted to test the theory and that’s why I redid the cartoon for my Tomversation comic panel. And I was right, people love this cartoon. If I made the tree talk I’m sure it would be even more popular!
This recently “voted off the island” was very popular, too. Toast, salt, pepper, fruit, all in living form, what’s not to like?
I like to live by the quote: “Don’t publish for likes, publish what I like and the audience will follow.” But every once in awhile I’ll throw these animals and inanimate things because I need to grow my audience.
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I wasn’t sure what tv show to use for this cartoon, but I ended up doing “The Office,” in hopes that people are familiar with it. I don’t see how you can’t be since it’s on almost 24 hours a day on some tv channels.
I thought of doing Seinfeld or I Love Lucy, Gilligan’s Island or some other well-known show, but The Office seemed to work.
I’ve been watching The Office constantly on Comedy Central and while I watched it on it’s initial run every Thursday night, I never realized what a jerk and creep Andy is. I always liked him, but as I watch the reruns now, I don’t see any redeeming qualities in him. I guess he was always been a jerk, on purpose. Dwight is a jerk, but he doesn’t know he’s a jerk; that’s the difference.
My sister-in-law has a few dogs, their names are Lucy, Ethel, Desi and I think Carolyn Appleby, not sure if there is a Fred, but I remember on one Lucy episode, they had a puppy named Fred on the show.
My parents used to have a next door neighbor whose dog’s name was Richard. I never saw the lady, but when I would visit, I would often here her calling Richard – “Richard! Richard!” I asked my mother if the lady was calling her husband, and my mother, with a straight face, said, “No, she’s calling her dog.” And the fact that I never saw the lady made it even funnier.
This was some years back. My parents also had good friends who lived across the street – the Earps, descendants of Wyatt Earp, but that’s another story.
We had dogs named Daisy, Hans, Ginger, etc. The usual names i guess.
This is one of my favorite pictures It was taken a few summers ago. That’s Molly and Me (that’s a movie, isn’t it?) on our way to the Hamptons in the back seat of the car. Molly was my aunt and uncle’s pet, they were in the front seat. I don’t remember if one of them took this picture or if I took it as selfie. Molly is no longer with us and neither is my aunt.
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Swipe back and forth and you’ll see the two different text choices.
I changed the text on this cartoon just before it was published. At first it said, “You uninvited your brother to the BBQ?” and then I changed it to, “Your brother uninvited us to the BBQ?” I thought the brother uninviting them worked better. What do you think?
It makes the guy I drew here the protagonist . . . but maybe not, since he was uninvited.
My family isn’t dysfunctional, but my small condo building is – in a funny, nice way. I always compare it to Mrs. Madrigal’s boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane in Tales of the City. When I mention that to people, they start laughing, because they can see that about our building and the comparison is right on.
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tomversation.com 