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It’s ‘Jaws’ time of year

It’s the 50th anniversary of Jaws this weekend. 50 years!

It’s one of my favorite movies. I think I’ve seen it over 50 times. I can repeat all the dialogue as they are saying it. NBC had a showing on Friday night, but they screwed up the whole thing by having a commercial every five minutes – totally annoying and not worth it.

You can see Jaws all over the place if you want to, so you don’t have to deal with NBC’s commercialization.

AMC or one of those channels is always showing it, mostly in summer months, but I’ve already seen it twice in the last month or so.

I grew up in Miami, so I was at the beach almost daily. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for three or five hours. Sometimes with a lot of people, sometimes alone. And I’ve always been in the water – the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, and I’m happy to say in all those years, I have never come across a shark, not that I know of.

I’ve had stingrays, fly over my head, and I’ve had schools of hundreds of small fish swim around my body in shallow water – it’s very ticklish – but never sharks.

The thing about the movie is the town – Martha’s Vineyard, which is the town of Amity, in the movie. I am not so much into the climax secenes, the last part of the movie when they are out in the boat going after the shark. But of course the most famous line come from that, which I used in the cartoon above, “You’re going to need a bigger boat!”

That line was apparently adlibed at the moment by Roy Scheider, police chief, Martin Brody. He had tried using it in other scenes, but this time it was perfect. The line was actually used by the cast and crew throughout the filming of water scenes. The crew boat – the boat that was used for the cameras and film crew was too small and always a problem while shooting.

Every time something didn’t fit or there wasn’t room, an inside joke on the set, or rather out in the water, was, ‘”You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Roy thought it was funny and would slip it in during takes at various parts of the movie, which of course were not used in the finished cut of the film, but the part where it did fit and was funny and added levity to the scene was just perfect and to this day, it is one of the most famous movie lines.

Another thing that I love, which I have never seen in other movies, is that in almost every scene, you hear the people speaking in the background – when they are on the beach or in town hall or wherever, or even in the kitchen in the house, you hear the background people speaking, along with the dialogue spoken by the main characters up front in the scene. Ever notice that?

I saw the Jaws animatronic used in the movie some years back at a Universal tour in Hollywood. It’s still so popular today. I think it was in the Gilligan’s Island lagoon, of all places.

I love the small town life. New England is one of my favorite places. I always think of moving there or near there for part of the year. Every time I tell someone that, I get, “But the winter! But the cold!” And that comes mostly from Miami people, who bundle up when it hits 70 degrees.

I would like to be up north for three seasons, and down in Miami for winters.

In a week I will be in Hudson New York for a cousin’s wedding. That’s some place I might consider. It’s almost New England, it’s a few miles from three New England states – Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. At home, I often watch the NBC Connecticut 6 pm news on Roku, and I like it up there. One thing – I had to look up spelling for Massachusetts and Connecticut, so I guess it’s best that I learn how to spell the places before I consider moving there.

I go upstate pumpkin and apple picking every fall, but New York state people will tell you that where I go – Poughkeepsie (had to look that spelling up, too), Sleepy Hollow, etc. are not considered upstate, Upstate is further up the Hudson River, apparently.

So I’ll check out Hudson with my family next week and we may go to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, which I always wanted to see.

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Snagged my NYCC tix

I got my tickets for New York Comic Con (NYCC) yesterday.

It’s a whole process. I no longer get press passes after 15 years of that, so I have to purchase the tickets now and wait in line, online, like everyone else.

You have to be fan verified, and get a time and date to get on and buy the tickets. Mine was 10 am Sunday morning, the first thing, the first group, but of course if you get online at that very moment, there is a long wait to get your access to the tickets. My wait was 20 minutes, not that bad.

Who are these people that are always there, first in line? In person, you see them in tents, camping outside venues for a week to buy something like an Nintendo Switch or concert tickets.

By the way, NYCC is Oct. 9-12, and the tickets sell out fast.

For so many years, I wrote for the Huffington Post and other publications and I received press passes, which made me feel important, but best of all, I didn’t have to wait in any lines and I had access to everything for all four days.

To be honest, I think I outgrew the whole thing, but since I’m a cartoonist, I feel it’s my duty to go, but it seems that Comic Cons have gone from being comic oriented, to movies, games and tv, which make up the bulk of it all.

One of my cousins works for a company that sells original cartoon art. His company has a booth at the cons and last year when I finally found his booth, he was telling me how the actual comics are all confined to a small area now, almost being forced out of their namesake event. I can’t even find the cartoon syndicates now. I’m not sure they show up anymore.

The best part of course is the cosplay, you know, people dressed up as their favorite tv and movie characters. But I do like to mix and mingle with other cartoonists and organizations. I could have sat and worked the National Cartoonists Society booth, but I declined. I’m not sure why, that way I would have free access and get to meet many of my peers. Maybe next year.

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Columbo solving crimes today

I was watching an old Columbo rerun the other night and this idea came to me. How would it be these days where Columbo had to solve a murder?

With security cameras all over, he wouldn’t have to do much. It would almost be a 30 second TikTok video.

I did a Columbo cartoon awhile back, where he is asking Siri for the answer to the crime. But now with ring cameras and security cameras in every business and in so many homes, that’s a big help for solving crimes.

There’s a tv show I like called, See No Evil. It’s one of those murder shows in the I.D. Channel. They solve murders by following the cameras.

What I mean is, they track the killer through his steps shown on security camers – seeing his car through a gas station security cameras, then from a motel camera, then across the road from a supermarket or bank camera, etc. We’re always on camera.

My mother used to always say that Columbo solved crimes through circumstantial evidence – never concrete proof. But he managed to do it week after week.

After seeing so many reruns, I can always tell that he knows the murder from the start. From his first question, he knows who it is. What’s interesting about the show is that you see the murderer commit the murder at the beginning of the show, then Columbo comes in and does his thing.

When I was a kid we watched all those shows including Murder She Wrote, McCloud, McMillan and Wife and of course Columbo which was always my favorite.

Here’s another Columbo cartoon; I’ve done a number of them. You can see all my cartoons, not just Columbo, but everything at TomFalco.com

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It’s all about language immersion

I saw this cartoon by Robert Leighton recently and it really hit home because it’s so true. A couple looks like they are in Italy, on the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence. And the wife says to the husband, “Not only do they all speak fluent English, but they keep correcting your grammar.”

I don’t know if I can republish it here on my blog, so here it is at CartoonStock.

I’ve been saying for the longest time that in many foreign countries, people speak English, yet in the U.S., most of us don’t speak other languages. I find that very humbling. You can actually spend time in Rome and not have a language issue. Thanks to their ability to speak English.

So many people in Italy, France and other parts of Europe speak English and even in places like Egypt and the middle east, that’s true, to.

I’m told that’s because they learn in school from a young age and apparently they do an excellent job since it’s not something we learn in the U.S. and then forget. Learning from an early age is crucial to learning a new language.

Many have thick accents, of course, but that makes it even more endearing. And you can tell if people learned words from reading, rather than hearing them, when they pronounce them as they are spelled.

Along with English, I speak Spanish and I can understand Italian, but not speak it. And that sounds weird, but it’s because Spanish and Italian are so close in many ways, many words are the same or very close, but then other words are totally different, so it’s hard to speak one language when you speak the other – but not difficult if you can understand every few words.

When the new pope was giving a speech in Italian, I could get the gist of it because I might understand 80% of the language and could figure out the other words by what he was saying. So it’s easy to listen and understand that way, but of course, not an easy to thing to speak since I would have to know every word to speak it.

One of my friends goes to Italy at least once a year and she attends Italian school when she is there. This October she is meeting up with a group, but she is going there a few weeks earlier so she can attend the school. She also lives with an Italian family for a bit, so as to immerse herself in the language. I guess it’s like an Airbnb where you live on the premises with the owners of the property.

I learned Spanish in school when I was a kid, but I also live in Miami, where Spanish seems to be the prominent language in many cases – so I was immersed most of my life – my friends speak Spanish, and English of course; and I’ve learned from books, from tv and just hearing it on the street.

It’s all about immersion.

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Abstract recipes

I don’t know why, but today’s Tomversation cartoon makes me laugh out loud. I mean I usually laugh at my cartoons, otherwise I wouldn’t create them, but for some reason, every time I look at this, I crack up.

I guess I am picturing a calm lady explaining to her friend that she goes mad when her recipes don’t turn our right and she throws them across the room onto the wall.

At first, it was going to say something like, “Oh, that – Frank doesn’t like some of my recipes.” But I didn’t want to bring violence into it, so I made her mocking her own creations.

It sort of looks like modern art that she is creating.

I have a friend, who needed to start making money, so he started creating modern art; you know, abstract stuff and he it sells for thousands of dollars now. He never did this before, he just used his imagination and came up with incredble stuff.

They are huge canvasas, I’m not even sure how he transports them to houses and condos where his work is sold and hung, but he does work sort of like Jackson Pollock, that sort of abstract stuff. It’s awesome.

The huge canvasas go perfectly in very large spaces in condos and houses. They really complete the decor.

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Now, I am the stalker

The stalked becomes the stalker.

I wrote about my neighbor who is “stalking me,” – unintentionally, that is.

Well, this morning I wanted to run downstairs to get something from my car and I felt I better scout the area first, so as not to be “attacked” at the elevator.

Good thing I did, because, as you can see, there she is with the freaking dog, just lying in wait. If I had called the elevator up and went down, she would have been standing there, waiting to get in, as I was getting out.

This is a screen capture from our security cameras.

I fear I have turned into the stalker now – stalking out the layout of the place, to be sure that the coast is clear.

Am I being paranoid? I don’t know.

If you haven’t read the past blog post about this annoying neighbor, it’s here.

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They are always lurking

I feel like I’m being stalked.

There is a new couple who moved into our small building and it seems that every time I turn around, there they are – in my face. It’s not intentional, I don’t think, but I am beginning to hate them for it. They have been here a few months and they are driving me out of my skull.

They rent the unit, and over the years, I’ve known everyone who has lived in that unit, and I was friendly with all of them and liked all of them. And I never felt annoyed by them. But this couple – I can’t explain it – they are just there – they are always there.

It’s a young husband and wife with a baby, who seems to be about one-year-old, maybe younger. They own a small restaurant in town, but they seem to always be here at home, when I am, rather than at the restaurant.

They seem to walk the baby around in a stroller or walk their dog every five minutes – they are always doing it. But the annoying part comes in where they are everywhere I am. Just lurking.

If I’m going to the elevator, she is invariably standing there waiting for it. If not standing there waiting for it, when the door opens for me to enter, there she is exiting and I have to say hello to her, which I don’t want to do.

More than once, I would say maybe seven times, when I have come home, driving up in my car, as I try to park in my parking space, she is in the parking space, washing her dog! The hose is next to my car, but rather than pull it out across the lot to a more convenient area, there she is, in my space washing the freaking dog.

And she is always so sickeningly sweet – “Have a nice day.” “Have a beautiful day.”

Her husband, is usually on his bicycle and he is always there when she isn’t there. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them together. But I must have. But it’s sort of like they torment me one at a time – only not on purpose.

I’ve lived in this building for many years, it’s a small condo building, only 14 units. I can honestly say, I’ve never seen any one of my neighbors this much. I’ll go weeks without seeing anyone, except for them. I don’t even remember their names.

Another neighbor, my friend Mary, says I am conjuring them up, you know, willing their presence, by talking about them. But I don’t think about them ever – that’s what makes it so irritating, when they pop up in my face so unexpectedly. I feel can do a magic trick, regarding this if I wanted to. I can tell someone, watch this, I can push the elevator button and one of them will appear – no joke.

I have avoided them by not getting in the elevator with them, making an excuse that I forgot something in my car, just to get away and not ride the lift with them.

Mary says I sound crazy, and asked if I told anyone else about this. But I only told her, and now you. I know it sounds crazy, but imagine that every time you opened your front door the same person was standing there. Or you walk in your backyard and there they are. Or you go to park your car and they are blocking your spot. Daily, more than once a day.

I did say something to the lady with the baby yesterday. I came home from Publix with arms full of bags, I hit the elevator key, and out popped mamma and baby. I said to her, “You are always there! You are always coming or going!” She said, “Excuse me?” She wasn’t exasperated, she really did not understanding what I meant. I just let her pass and I got in the elevator without responding.

I’ve taken to using the stairs to avoid the elevator, but of course that doesn’t matter since she is always washing the freaking dog in my parking space and always walking the dog around the elevator area and always pushing the baby in the stroller. The husband, not so much, but again, he pops up when she isn’t popping up.

Another neighbor keeps insisting that we go this couple’s restaurant for lunch, which is right here in the village. I keep turning that down. I see enough of them right here up my ass every day, I don’t need to go seek them out.

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Navigating insurance rates

I’m dealing with insurance – auto and homeowners. It’s amazing how different the rates are.

I didn’t get the homeowners rates yet, what happened was my insurance company of so many years dropped me. Well, they dropped the whole state.

This happens a lot with Florida insurance policies, but this was not for hurricane and windstorm, it was for homeowners, you know, to cover a toilet leak or something. The big insurance for hurricanes, etc., I get through the condo association, we pay through our maintenance fees.

Anyway, regarding the auto insurance, I am with Geico now, but every once in awhile, I change companies because you get better rates that way. I had State Farm auto insurance for many years, when I changed to Allstate, I immediately saved $800.00 per year.

After a bit with Allstate, I changed to Progressive and saved and then from Progressive, I changed to Geico and saved.

Now it may be time to change again, so I checked back with State Farm after all these years, I told them I would like to bundle the homeowners with auto. While I didn’t get the homeowners quote yet, I got the auto insurance – $1329.00 for six months. That’s with the bundle. Without the bundle, it’s $1466.00 for six months.

That’s almost $3000.00 a year!

Know what the rates are from Geico and Progressive? Less than $500 for six months ($481.00 with Progressive), and that’s with Snapshot, that thing where they track you. And according to my tracking – it isn’t perfect – but that’s the rate.

Maybe State Farm doesn’t want my biz or maybe they think I’m stupid or maybe they are punishing me for leaving them so many years ago.

They are calling me today with the homeowners insurance rates – that ought to be a laugh.

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Password craziness

This weekend, Twitter/X went down for me. I have a lot of accounts I still use for business, comics and other things. It just locked up and froze. I mostly use it for news.

I stopped watching cable news awhile back, for various reasons and occasionally I watch local news. So Twitter/X is it.

I know it sounds stupid to say that, but I’m talking about seeing reputable sites for news and verifying it if I questions something.

Anyway, I removed the app from my iphone and reinstalled it and I had to one-by-one, add my separate accounts. So many had different passwords, because that’s what you’re supposed to do – have different passwords.

I did this three times – deleted it all, reinstalled it all and tried to remember all the passwords.

Luckily things worked out after all that, and it’s all working now. My X account related to my cartoons and this blog is Tomversation, if you’re interested. I also have accounts on Bluesky and Threads, and they are related to this blog and my comics, too.

But now my Chrome browser on my computer, lost all the passwords! I had them all in the password manager – maybe 60 of them! And they are gone.

I remember most of them, but still, it’s an issue to deal with.

I know, I know, it’s a first world problem. It’s interesting that when one thing goes, everything seems to go.

Years ago when I worked with typesetting and all sorts of newspaper equipment, that was always the case. If one machine went, they all went at the same time.

So far, hopefully not jinxing things, but all things are well, now.

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The chicken wars are on again

The Today Show had a story on how chicken is dominating the fast food chain wars. Isn’t that old news? I thought that was a thing.

I remember the chicken sandwich being a big thing not long ago. Popeye’s introduced a chicken sandwich and then everyone started doing it. I think Popeye’s still has the best chicken sandwich.

I try not to eat most meats, including chicken and fish, but awhile back, I noticed I was not getting enough protein, so I went back to eating non-red meat things.

I was forgetting things – including names of people. A friend who is against vaccinations kept telling me it was that I got the Covid vaccine and that was the cause of me loosing brain cells, but I knew that wasn’t it.

Then one day, on the Today Show, ironically, a doctor was on and she said, “If you are forgetting names and other things, it may be because you are not getting enough protein.” And that was it! As soon as I heard that, I realized that was my issue.

For maybe six months or so, I was eating green. I mostly had a big salad, sort of like Elaine Benes, as my main meal of the day.

They knew me at Panera Bread around the county. I would go to various ones depending on where I was during the day, and I would get a cobb salad, minus the meat. I would also add extras in it like red onions, super greens, etc. But I was not getting any protein.

When they added the Mediterranean salad and Greek salads, I started eating those. I felt since the ancient grain farro was in one of these salads, it must be good.

I figured if it fueled the ancient Greek and Romans, it must be good. Then I realized this was an ancient grain, but people, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, didn’t live very long according to our standards. So farrow didn’t help them when you think about it.

Eventually I went back to chicken and fish – sometimes red meat, but hardly ever.

I like the Popeye’s chicken sandwich and also Wendy’s and Burger King. I also like Pollo Tropical’s chicken sandwiches and Publix makes a great chicken and fish sandwich, quite cheap, only the bun is always hard as a rock from sitting under the hot lights all day.

Popeye’s has Honey Lemon Pepper Wings – this drippy, zesty delicious thing. I think that’s my favorite thing right now.

I don’t like KFC; they really went downhill. It’s hit or miss. They have some chicken nuggets now, which are delicious if they don’t come out rubbery.

They are always trying to upsell at KFC. Before they even see you when you are around the bend at the drive-thru, the first thing they ask is if you want a 20 piece bucket. I guess they don’t realize that at noon, most people are there for a quick lunch, not a family meal. I try to joke with them about it, but they get offended, so I keep my mouth shut now and just order lunch.

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