A moment in time

Merry Christmas!

As usual, here is my favorite all time Publix commercial. I post it every year at this time.

This commercial ran for a few years from 1987 to 1996 and every time it came on, I would stop what I was doing and watch. It’s part of my Christmas memories of my youth and it’s just one of those things – a song, just like a smell, that brings you back to another time.

The music in Last Train Home is from Still Life Talking an album by Pat Metheny Group, released in 1987.

To this day, when Pat Metheny is performing, he’ll refer to the song as, “The Publix song.”

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It’s all about Luigi

S0 this cartoon got a lot of play – lots of likes, shares, etc. It’s the month of Luigi. Luigi Mangione. I don’t know why I am linking to him, unless you live under a rock, you know who he is.

The idea for this cartoon was a natural. It just wrote itself.

While watching and reading the news, it was all about Luigi and I thought to myself, “Are they going to start naming newborns after Luigi now?” And the cartoon was born.

Some comments I received were that I’m idolizing a murderer. I think I’m just commenting on what’s going on in the country today. It’s the top story. While I don’t do political cartoons, I thought this was interesting to comment on. People are infatuated with Luigi.

It was posted on Reddit with the headline, “Even the girls?” And most of the comments there were about girls names for Luigi, like “Luigia” or “Luigina” or “Luigette” And many were concerned about Mario’s feeling (from the Nintendo game) Luigi’s brother, since the name Luigi is getting all the attention. Unfortunately, most Redditors didn’t really mention the victim in the shooting.

I don’t even like the name Luigi, I would never name one of my kids that. I don’t really like my own name, Thomas. I like Tom and Tommy, but when someone calls me Thomas, I cringe. Usually it’s people I don’t know like someone at the doctor’s office or at a hotel check-in or things like that.

Luigi is such an ethnic name. I think of Nintendo and Mario Brothers when I hear that name. I don’t think I know a Luigi in real life. But Luigi Mangione now stole that name and it’s his now every time you hear it.

He’s a hero to many because he struck out against our screwed up healthcare system, but what I don’t get is that Luigi’s family had lots of money, why didn’t they have good health insurance?

Over the years I’ve paid a lot for health insurance and when I need it, it came through. I wasn’t happy with the premiums I paid monthly, but I was happy when I had two hernia operations in 15 years and didn’t pay much or anything.

After the first one in 2009, I got one bill. For $58.00.

After the recent one I did not receive a bill. It was all paid for. I had CT scans, MRI’s and so many other check-ups over the year before the operation, and through all that, I didn’t pay a dime. And after the operation, I didn’t pay a dime. All those people called me “Thomas” by the way.

So while Luigi and his family may have had good health insurance, is he paying the price now for trying to help the little guy?

That part I don’t get. We do need a new healthcare system in our country. It’s odd that the healthcare is for profit. The most important aspect of our lives, our health, is controlled by huge for profit corporations. not doctors or medical personnel.

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A busy MOMA day

Went to MOMA yesterday because it was raining. But who am I kidding, I would have gone anyway.

But so many other people showed up as well. They mobbed Starry Night, I guess mostly because it was moved from the fourth floor to the second floor for some sort of exhibit related to that era.

I found a wallet on the floor and brought it to lost and found. The lady there said, “Thank you, I’ll keep it for you.”

I said, “Don’t keep it for me, hold it for the rightful owner.”

She said, “Right.”

Hopefully he gets it. I didn’t really go through it, but there might have been a phone number, I didn’t think of it at the time.

This is the third time I found someone’s wallet. One time it was on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa. A guy left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station and drove off. All the papers and everything blew out of the wallet along with the wallet. My friend Victor and I chased down the papers and managed to track down the guy using a check that was in the wallet.

Anyway, if you ever lose a wallet, check with me, I might have it.

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Filming our reality show

We’ve have painters here, painting our condo building for over a month now. They’ll probably be here for another month. They’re doing a wonderful job, but it’s almost like living on a reality show.

What I mean is, they are everywhere, but we sort of ignore them. I mean we say, “Hello,” and “Goodbye” and we buy them coffee and snacks and things, but during the day, they are all around us and we just go on about our business with them sort of in our faces.

One day they are out on my balcony and another day up on a lift outside my bedroom window. And I just go about my business as does the rest of the residents in our small building.

Everyone knows everyone and we all know the painters, but still, they are not one of us – they are the camera men and the sound men and the lighting men, “shooting the show.”

It’s an odd thing. Odd feeling. As I sit here typing this, one guy is outside the window sort of looking in. He’s not really looking in, but I feel as if he is – filming me for the reality show.

Every time you turn around, there they are – with their imaginary camera in your face, staring at you. At least it feels like that. No privacy when they are literally hanging right outside your window.

The painters know our schedules and all our little quirks. I’m sure they know I would rather park in my regular parking space than out on the street, as many neighbors are doing. They covered my car with a drop cloth the other day so I didn’t have to move it. They didn’t ask, they just knew.

They know when I leave for lunch, I usually come back with coffee for them – they like Cuban coffee, I get them a double colada, a doble, and I usually buy them doughnuts and other stuff.

I like them all. They are all friendly and polite and nice guys. And they are doing a wonderful job, they clean up after themselves and are always on time, but I can’t wait for the day they yell, “CUT!” and filming of the reality show is over.

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I prefer Standard Time rather than Daylight Saving Time

Did you turn the clock back to standard time? I know many of you don’t like that, it seems as if the majority of the country prefers Daylight Saving Time (DST). I don’t. I like standard time. DST sounds like a disease.

I get up early, so I don’t like the pitch black mornings, I like it light out. I don’t mind it getting dark at 5:30 or 6:00 pm. When I’m in New York it gets dark earlier, sometimes it seems like 4:30 or 5:00 pm.

DST started in the U.S. with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources. It was implemented again during World War II all year round. In 1966 it was set as it is now, basically half the year.

There is always an outcry about stopping the time change and keeping it at DST. There is legislation in Congress to keep DST But scientists say that Standard Time is healthier for the body.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises permanent Standard Time. They say it is more in line with a person’s natural bio-rhymes and produces less negative health outcomes. They say Standard Time is important because it aligns the earth with the sun.

These days I’m in for the night at dinner time, not too long ago I was out all night, but even going out all night entailed going out after dark, so I never really cared about this stuff about having those extra hours of daylight for whatever people need it for.

Here are 10 reasons it is better to have Standard Time rather than DST. I posted it in today’s 10 With Tom column.

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Pumpkin picking in the Hudson Valley

A couple of my cousins and I did our usual October outing. We drove up to the Hudson Valley from NYC to pumpkin and apple pick.

This year we ended up at this huge farm in Hopewell Junction, which is near Wappingers Falls.

The weather in NY state has been incredible lately. 80 degrees today, 70s over the weekend. Bright, and clear.

The farm was sort of in a valley, we were surrounded by mountains an all four sides. We had a hayride and had hot apple cider and apple cider doughnuts.

We got a lot of stuff to bring home – pies, doughnuts, flowers, pumpkins. It was a perfect day.

We went to Beacon, NY, a very popular small town, on the way home. I’ll publish photos in my next post.

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October in NYC; the place to be

October is special in New York. The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler, everyone is out.

I was out and about the city today and every park was full with people. There were musicians, artists, skateboarders, greenmarketers and so much more.

Lots of tourists are in town, they usually are in October. I even caught Clark Kent and Lois Lane on the subway as you can see above.

I have lots of plans this week – NY Comic Con, pumpkin and apple picking upstate, family day with 17 of us at an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, and lots more. I’ll take you along.

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Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face

I recently published a list of ways to help hurricane victims in North Carolina and other areas in my 10 With Tom column and just yesterday, I published a list of 10 top imports that would be affected if the port strike wasn’t settled.

Interestingly enough, toilet paper and water are not on the list. As you know, people ran out to Costco and places like that and started hoarding toilet paper and bottled water.

It’s a stupid and selfish thing to do and mainly stupid because toilet paper doesn’t come in through the ports, it’s manufactured in the U.S. and gets places via railroad. And the water is basically all locally bottled unless you want in import like Fiji or Perrier, and I don’t even know if those are really imported.

But I’m reminded of what a mayor of ours once said after a hurricane when people waited in line for hours at a truck for bottles of water. “People, just go home and turn on your taps.” That always made me laugh.

My 10 With Tom column has changed.

I’m having a hard time getting people to respond to my interview requests for my 10 With Tom column, which is strange because for so many years it was such an easy thing to do.

I would contact a person, they would say, sure, they would love to do it, I would email them the 10 questions and they would respond right away. Now it’s not like that. So to that end, I changed my 10 With Tom column to 10 random things – a list of 10 random things. But I’ll add the interviews of the 10 questions periodically if and when they come in.

I would just abandon the thing, but I have too many subscribers to give it up. So I’m doing the list thing now and people seem to like it. Like Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face.”

I have upcoming lists like:
The Top 10 Halloween Costumes
The Top Fall Fairs at Farmers Markets
Why Kathy Bates’ New “Matlock” is a must see tv show
The Top 10 Brain Foods
The Top 10 Ski Resorts in the U.S. this winter

And things like that.

They’re fun and informative and eclectic. My 10 With Tom is here if you want to check it out and hopefully subscribe.

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Writing for me

I was mentioning us going apple and pumpkin picking in October. It reminded me of this guy that contacted me one day about writing gags for my comics. He was a gag writer. There’s a thing for cartoons and comics.

A few of us were headed upstate New York and this guy emails me just before we were to leave. He lived up where we were going – near Hudson, NY. He introduced himself and offered his services. He wanted to send me gags to buy for my Tomversation comic.

I emailed him back and thanked him for reaching out to me, but I explained that I don’t need that service because I write what I know and I express myself through the cartoons and I don’t think buying gags would be the same. Also, I strongly believe that 90% of a cartoon or comic strip is the writing. You’ve seen stick figure cartoons that have millions of followers – well, the people are there because of the writing, not the stick figures.

I told him I would keep him in mind, just in case and I mentioned the coincidence of us headed up his way that day. He invited us to stop by his house; of course we didn’t. But every time I think of us going upstate to pumpkin pick, I think of that incident.

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Madonna

I woke up early this morning and I started scrolling Twitter and almost every other post was Madonna’s concert in Rio last night. She had a free concert to close out her tour and it was attended by over a million people. The stats say from 1.5 to 2.5 million people – all singing and dancing, in peace, I might add, at Copacabana Beach in Rio. You can see videos of it all over Twitter and other places today including right here, part 1 and 2.

I started clicking and watching clip after clip because it all brought me back to my youth. Whether we think about it or not, Madonna was a large part of our lives from the early 1980s and on.

I remember I was in a club back then and my friend Javier, who I’m sill friends with today, said to me as I was leaving one Saturday night, “Aren’t you staying for the show?” There were free shows in the clubs back then. I asked, who is performing? He said, “Madonna.”

“Who is that?” I asked. He replied, “You know, she sings ‘Burnin’ Up’ and ‘Holiday.’ ” I remember saying, “No, I don’t like that.” Which I did, I just meant to say, it’s getting late, the show was starting at 2 am, and I was tired and wanted to leave. Of course I regret that now because I would have been mere feet away from Madonna on that night as she performed.

I saw her in person many times after that – in concert, at the movie theater and driving in her car, where I almost gave her the finger! And ironically, it was a block away from where I live now. She lived down the block, next door to Sylvester Stallone. Remind me to tell you about the funny story when Javier and my friend Peter were caught almost stalking her and she went to Stallone for “protection” right in front of them.

Anyway, she was driving erratically and I was rushing to get downtown to meet my friends at Happy Hour on a Friday night and as drove by her, I put my hand up and gave her dirty looks. She seemed nervous behind the wheel, she was alone, in a black Mercedes. As I looked, I said to myself. “That looks like Madonna.” And then she turned onto her block and I was sure of it. I’ve felt embarrassed about that all these years, as if she know who I was. That’s how much she was in our lives – we felt we knew her (and she knew us).

The Rio concert is worth checking out, the music brings back so many memoires.

I have three favorite Madonna songs, that I’m sure people don’t expect me to say. In this order I love: “Live to Tell,” “Cherish,” and “True Blue.” I love all her stuff, but these are my three favorites. I noticed Debi Mazar in the True Blue video today, which I never noticed before.