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The Great Pumpkin won’t be on broadcast tv this year

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown won’t air on regular tv this year.

I know, I know, we can watch it on DVD’s and other methods, but there’s something about knowing when it’s on broadcast tv and we are all watching together.

This year, you can only see it on AppleTV+, and it is free for a couple of days, so you can download the app on your tv or wherever and watch it from Friday, October 28 to through Monday, October 31.

And it’s the same for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Those can be seen on AppleTV+ from Nov. 23-27 for the Thanksgiving special and Dec. 22-25 for the Christmas one.

I miss those old Dolly Madison and Coca Cola days when the shows were on CBS every year. Guess it’s time to move with the times.

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Five cents for the newspaper

Five cents, Ten cents for a newspaper? Of course, years ago, that’s what it was. And not that long ago either. I remember when I was a kid, when I was a paper boy the newspaper was five cents for a daily paper. I delivered the Long Island Press for a few years.

It was five cents a day for the dailies and 30 cents for the Sunday paper – 60 cents for the 7 day week!

This paper from 1969 shows the price of 5 cents, so I guess that was the price for everyone, not just subscribers.

I used to have to “collect,” which is going around and getting paid from customers weekly. I had a little green book, which I think is still at my parents’ house somewhere, and I used to go around the block collecting.

At one point the Sunday paper went up to 35 cents, the dailies were still five cents – so it was 65 cents for the week! Today newspapers are $3.00 for the daily and I’ve seen up to $8.00 for the Sunday paper! They are much less if you subscribe and have it delivered.

Anyway, I went around collecting one time, and one customer yelled at me because the paper went up from 60 cents to 65 cents for the week. He was upset over the nickel. He said no one told him about the rise in price. I just shrugged, but I’m sure the Press put the info on their front page as they usually do, publishing in a box or something to inform readers of the change.

Now you can’t even get a candy bar for 65 cents.

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Pumpkin pickin’ on the North Fork

We did our usual October pumpkin and apple pickin’ this year, only we didn’t go up to the Hudson Valley, as we usually do, we ended up on Long Island’s North Fork because we were going to a couple of things afterwards on the South Fork – in the Hamptons. Lots of little villages filled the day.

It was gorgeous out, a bit chilly, but gorgeous, we got hot apple cider and pumpkin break and apple cider donuts and pumpkins and apples and such, but it wasn’t the beautiful Hudson Valley, which is the best part of the pumpkin pickin’ each year.

But still, we had fun and then ate in Westhampton and enjoyed a street festival then went to a bar where one of my cousins was performing, he’s a singer. It ended up being a long, but enjoyable day.

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If it’s October, it must be New York Comic Con!

Yup, New York Comic Con is back. Last year’s event was a bit subdued due to covid and the year before was totally canceled, but now it’s back.

From Oct. 6-9, all your favorite, movies, tv shows, pop culture, comics and super heroes will be at the Jacob Javits Center, just as they’ve always been.

After four days of rain in NYC, the sun came out for New York’s favorite fantasy fest.

Most tickets are gone, but you may still be able to find a few at newyorkcomiccon.com.

Tell Spider-man, we sent you!

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The museum windows

Was at MoMA again in NYC yesterday, seems like my home away from home. I saw people looking out the window again and it reminded me of this cartoon, which I’ve shown before.

It’s been shown around the internet and people always comment on it as if they are experts. People insist that museums don’t have windows next to the art, so the cartoon makes no sense. But of course I got the idea for the cartoon because in most of the NYC museums, there ARE windows next to the art – new buildings, old buildings, it just is.

Here are some shots from yesterday.

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Back and forth; NYC, home and back

I was in NYC last week, had to go home to Miami for four days and now am back. Very weird feeling to do it over again, you know, hop on a plane to the same destination. I was at a wonderful wedding last weekend, part of it in Babylon, New York, which is a village in Long Island. Very New England-like, beautiful there.

I sometimes ship some of my dirty clothing home to lighten my luggage and it was such a fast turn-around that the dirty laundry didn’t arrive home yet, before I left.

Hurricane Ian came and went, luckily we were blessed and it bypassed us, but it destroyed one of my favorite parts of the state. One of my best friends lived up in the Punta Gorda, Venice, Ft. Myers area and I would spend many days there. He lives in the panhandle now, but those poor people on the west coast . . . .

Ian made it’s way to the northeast with some wind and rain, but nothing to speak of.

I wasn’t going to return to NY, but I had Comic Con tickets and basically I didn’t think a friend of mine would go without me. We are going together. He is so excited to go, I didn’t want to ruin it for him, so I returned to the city for 10 days.

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Wanna feel old?

I went to one of my favorite museums, the Museum of the City of New York. I’m not sure why it’s a favorite, I think it’s the neighborhood I like, Spanish Harlem, as for the museum, it’s the same old exhibits, and once in awhile they change out one room. And their app to buy tickets sucks. Other than that, I did like one exhibit they had today.

But it made me feel ancient. It literally had these things under glass: a dial phone, a pay phone, a newspaper, printed classified ads, film cameras, typewriters, and so much more.

I did enjoy watching a video on the old way newspapers were made and they had a huge old linotype machine and all sorts of old newspaper equipment. That was cool.

But to see these other things behind glass was really freaky.

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A wedding, a funeral and Comic Con

I have some traveling to do in the next week and beyond. But it’s a crazy schedule.

I’m going to NY for a few days for a wedding, coming home to Miami for three days for a funeral, and then going back to NY for 10 days for Comic Con, along with pumpkin and apple picking and the usual fall stuff.

I’ll take you along for Comic Con and Pumpkin and apple picking, the other stuff, probably not.

*Pumpkin Picking, Hudson Valley, NY, October 2021*

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Keep your mouth shut!

I laughed when I saw this on Facebook. It reminded me of something that happened to me a few years back, maybe 10 years ago.

I was at a meeting, covering the news for our village like I did. And at the beginning of the meeting, this guy, Joel, stands up from the dais and yells out to me in the back row, “Tom, you can stay if you keep your mouth shut and don’t say anything!”

I was dumbfounded because I never spoke at meetings, even at important City Hall meetings, I would just take notes for the news story I was writing. I didn’t speak because I didn’t want to be part of the story. I quoted everyone else, I didn’t want to quote myself.

I said, “Joel, when have I ever said one word at any meetings?” He just sat down and proceeded with the meeting. Our village was like the Gilmore Girls, you know, everyone showed up for meetings, the whole town would be there in one scene.

I don’t hold grudges, even though that was a stupid and rude thing to do and we are still friendly to this day, but I hadn’t thought of that in years until I saw this quote on Facebook.

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Nasty comments

I don’t do political cartoons, mostly because it’s not expected by the readers, so I don’t want to throw them a loop. But some things I post might be a bit political, but they aren’t meant to be.

Other times, a cartoon has nothing political about it, yet there are people who turn it into that and they leave nasty comments.

I posted this cartoon with Joe Biden and Joe Cool (Snoopy), when Biden became president. A friend suggested it and I drew it up and used it. Boy – did the nasty comments come in about Joe Biden, most of them lies and made up stuff.

Yesterday, this Special Master cartoon was published. I just thought it was funny and it was on my mind I guess since it’s in the news daily.

Of course, the nasty comments started coming in – against President Biden – not Trump! Go figure.

What I did was turn off comments on social media sites where the cartoon was published, just to avoid fights, ugliness and me banning readers from the pages permanently.

I met a professional cartoonist at NY Comic Con years ago, he was signing autographs at the GoComics booth. He has comments blocked on his cartoon all the time – every day. It’s not a political cartoon, but I told him I understood why he did that. I guess he has a thin skin like I do.

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