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I have a new favorite commercial. It’s the “Joy Ride” Amazon holiday ad. I never get tired of watching this. It’s one of those commercials that you actually stop what you are doing and watch.
As you know, this is my all-time favorite commercial. I show it here every year. It’s “The Publix Song.” Every time I hear it, it brings me back to my youth. I feel like I am in that place and 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 Talkingan 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.”
Till next time . . . .
Subscribe to this Tomversation blogby clicking here – it’s free! Receive my five cartoons each Friday and 2 blog posts during the week!
Welcome! I’m glad you’re here, picking up what I’m putting down. If you aren’t subscribed, consider keeping in touch. I’ll send you 5 cartoons every Friday and two short blog posts during the week.You can subscribe right here.
I was supposed to be in NYC now, for Thanksgiving, but I canceled due to family issues.
I will miss being with my cousins for Thanksgiving and seeing and participating in all the holiday things the city has to offer – all decked out for Christmas already, the ice skating, the bazaars around the city, the parks, the big Christmas tree in the center of the MET museum, etc.
We usually go to Southampton for the Christmas parade, a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Last year we did the Montauk lighthouse instead, which I liked, but I prefer the Southampton thing. Above is the Christmas tree lighting at the Southampton parade and at the Montauk Lighthouse being lit last year.
I’ll be home with my family in Miami for Thanksgiving and of course Christmas.
My mother used to always say, “You are the only person who goes away for the holidays, everyone comes home for the holidays.”
I would say, “It’s only Thanksgiving, Mom. I’m here for everything else – Christmas, New Years, Easter, birthdays, etc.”
I am in NY for July 4th, though. July 4th, Independence Day was my mother’s favorite holiday. One year for her birthday, I bought her all sorts of 4th of July things – decorations and red, white and blue stuff. She loved it. She used them all for years, the stuff always came out every July.
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It used to be Christmas and then Halloween, now it’s Thanksgiving.
Hopefully I’ll be back in NYC next year, which will be the 100th birthday of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I’d like to be back for that and all of the rest of the NYC things – and my cousins, of course.
The one good thing is that I don’t have to travel, which has not been fun these days or this past year. So that’s the good part.
Till next time . . .
Subscribe to this Tomversation blogby clicking here – it’s free! Receive my five cartoons each Friday and 2 blog posts during the week!
Welcome! I’m so happy you’re here. If you aren’t subscribed, consider keeping in touch. I’ll send you 5 cartoons every Friday and two short blog posts during the week.You can subscribe right here.
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Over the weekend we had an Art Walk in the village. Some years back, the first Saturday night of every month there was an Art Walk, where there was music and art all throughout the village. This weekend it was just a random art walk but there was a lot of nice art.
My friend Peter Studl creates these very large abstract pieces you see here and in the gallery above.
I knew a lot of the artists and many friends were there. The weather was perfect. Above are a couple of friends showing and selling their art – at left is Eileen Seitz and at right is Theresa Callouri, walking behind her fruit art, both excellent artists.
I wore one of my “Tomversation” tee shirts to advertise this blog and my comics, I got a lot of comments and questions about it. I was so busy kibitzing, I forgot to get a photo of myself wearing the shirt.
The season for art festivals in Miami usually starts at the end of the years with Art Basel in December, then many local festivals in January through the Spring. These are great places to see art, but even better to meet up with friends.
Till next time . . .
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I’ve had the idea of tutoring or teaching kids lately. What would I teach? The art of cartoons or comic drawing of course. I can barely add two and two, so math would be out and I am good at English, but I guess cartooning is the way.
I have a neighbor who is a retired teacher and she makes more money tutoring kids than she ever did teaching. I think she teaches Spanish and was a Spanish teacher in her teaching career.
She mostly tutors here at the condo, at her condo unit. There are kids in and out all day, I don’t see how she does it, it’s a lot of work, but she is raking in the money.
I’m wondering if this type of tutoring is the way to go. How do I start?
Things are done digitally now. I draw my cartoons digitally using a Surface Pro and a program called Clip Studio Paint.
I’ve used other programs like Procreate and an ipad and a Wacom Tablet, but I like the Surface Pro because it’s also a computer with a keyboard and it’s easy to work on when I need to do actual work. I’m used to Clip Studio Paint, so I use that. But anything will do, I suppose. But therein lies the rub.
How do I teach? Do I teach using digital tools or do I use pen and paper? Does the student need their own hardware (computer) and software (program)? I’ll of course need to know how to use all the tools if I am setting them up to draw, which I suppose would be the same using all platforms.
How do I get clients? Is it ok to have kids here at my condo or is that weird since I’ve never been a teacher and I’m a strange man having students in and out? I guess it’s like giving piano lessons or tutoring Spanish or math.
Lots to think about, but I like the idea of being a sort of art teacher, which was always my favorite “subject” when I was in school.
Maybe I could do the whole thing digitally, you know, online I could possibly do lessons through zoom. Do people still zoom? Or maybe I can tutor on YouTube or something; give drawing or cartooning lessons on YouTube. Then I can reach a lot of students at once and not have to interact one-on-one in person.
if I teach through zoom or YouTube, then adults can be tutored, too.
Guess I should think this all over for a while before I make any decisions, or god forbid, get any paying students and then not know what to do with them.
Till next time . . .
Subscribe to this Tomversation blogby clicking here – it’s free! Receive my five cartoons each Friday and 2 blog posts during the week!
Malls are making a comeback thanks to Gen Z and I featured one in a Tomversation cartoon from this week. Stanley tumblers and an old man named Stanley are featured, too! For those who listen to this post, (I found out recently people listen rather than read this), there is a cartoon above and one below. You might want to see them since this story is about them.
I got the idea for this Stanley cartoon from my neighbors. We have a text string with everyone on it and one neighbor, who is always texting nonsense, sent a nonsense post, but it worked out in me getting the cartoon idea.
She and her husband are snobs and while we all live well, no one here is a snob, not that I have noticed, so whenever they pull their snobby bullshit, it stands out.
So little miss thing texts the other night – “Hi everyone. Left my pink Stanley on the table (in the lobby) and went back to look for it but it was gone, maybe someone took it by mistake.”
I knew what she meant right away, instead of saying she left her “tumbler” on the table, she had to announce it was a Stanley. It’s just the way she and her obnoxious husband are. It’s about the hard-to-get brand name item, rather than the item itself. I wouldn’t put it past her to not even have lost the Stanley, and perhaps was just saying she lost it to sound posh.
I thought of texting back, “Pink Stanley? Is that your baby’s name? They have a baby who they dote all their time on. Even told me to “Shush” more than once (once in my own apartment) because Pink Stanley the baby was sleeping.
My mind started wandering, I knew there was a cartoon in there somewhere. I thought of Pink Stanley being her dog on the table, then I came up with the double meaning cartoon.
A few neighbors texted back, asking, “What is a Pink Stanley?” or “What does that mean?”
She replied back that it was a tumbler.
One clever neighbor replied, “Stanley. He’s such a great guy!” And I knew he got it.
I like the double meaning cartoon, I’m thinking of doing it more often. Some time back I did this one about “10 pounds,” which has two meanings.
I’m dying to know if she got her Stanley back and if not, who may have taken it. I don’t believe anyone in the building would touch it, perhaps the maintenance man put it in storage somewhere, thinking he did someone a favor, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Would the Amazon, FedEx or UPS driver take it? I doubt it.
I guess we could look on our camera system and see what happened, but honestly don’t really care, although it would be interesting to know.
If I find out, I’ll let you know. Perhaps it was just part of the Universe’s scheme to give me a cartoon idea. Who knows.
Till next time . . .
Subscribe to this Tomversation blogby clicking here – it’s free! Receive my five cartoons each Friday and 2 blog posts during the week!
A package was lost. I tracked it and it was coming along with another package by U.S. Mail this one particular day. The packages contained proofs for my new Tomversation cartoon calendar. There were two separate proofs. In two separate packages.
One arrived, one didn’t. When I checked back with tracking, it said that customer, meaning me, requested that it remain at the post office for me to pick up, which of course made no sense.
The next morning, I started calling my local post office as soon as they opened at 8:30 am. I wanted to see if I could catch my mail carrier before she left for her rounds for the day. I didn’t have her private cell number, as I did with previous postal carriers. So I called and called the post office and there was no answer.
At about 11:00 am, I headed over to the post office. It’s never very crowded, which is good, since they are slow as fuk there.
The girl behind the counter asked to help me, I told her the issue and she asked for the tracking number, which I didn’t have. I left it at home. I told her, “I am not leaving without that package. Can’t you just look for it using my address?” She said no.
I remembered I had an email with the tracking numbers and I found that gave her the number. Then she took it and went into the back and that was it – for what seemed forever, she was gone.
There was one other postal worker there and she was helping a lady and she went into the back, and she was gone. And for what seemed forever, the lady and I stood out at our postal windows waiting for the two postal workers to return. And we waited and waited.
Crickets.
A guy came in and started to wait for his turn and then he started getting angry. And he started making comments.
“Maybe they’re at lunch.” I joked.
“Is it lunchtime already?” He asked.
He then he started in with socialism. He said, “People want socialism!” This is socialism! Incompetence.”
I normally would be angry at what he was saying, but I agreed with him. I said, “I never was for the privatization of the post office, but if this was a private business, these people would out of a job. They would be long gone due to their incompetence.
He replied, “Funny you should say that. Mamdani is living in my parents’ old apartment building in Queens, NY.” Which did seem odd and funny at the moment. “Yes,” he said. “The apartment my parents used to live in is now rented by Mamdani and his family.” A full circle moment, I guess.
Finally the two postal workers came out and mine said to me, “Your package is now with your postal carrier, she will deliver it today. They had it in the wrong bin yesterday, so it sort of got lost. I just spoke to Maria (the carrier) and she says she has it with her.”
She then says, “Why didn’t you just call early today to try and catch her?”
I said, “Are you joking? I called non-stop all morning and no one picked up. I literally called 35 times.”
Proof of the 35 attempted phone calls.
I then showed her my phone and the 35 attempted calls I made.
She asked me if I had the right number and I just smiled and walked out.
I always want to move to Italy and this post office incident reminds me of so many stories I hear about the service, or lack of it in every part of Italy. So I’ll chalk this incompetence up to a short Italian experience without leaving the neighborhood.
On another note, my spellcheck wants to spell Mamdani as “madman.” I know many people who would agree, but I’m willing to give the guy a chance.
Till next time . . .
Subscribe to this Tomversation blogby clicking here – it’s free! Receive my five cartoons each Friday and 2 blog posts during the week!
I saw this cartoon the other day, “Geech,” by Jerry Bittle.
This could have happened to me with my car many years ago, and to this day I am still using the same mechanics.
What happened was, I heard this squeaking sound which I thought were the brakes. So I brought it to a mechanic in the neighborhood. I had never been there before, except to buy gas, and I noticed a sign that said they worked on foreign cars, so I brought my car over.
I told them there was something wrong with the brakes, and I took an Uber home.
They mechanics called me a short time later to tell me there was nothing wrong. But I insisted. I said, “Go look again, I can tell there is something wrong with the brakes.”
They called back a little while later and told me to come and the car, they had checked again and found nothing wrong.
There and then they had my business for life.
They could have said, “We fixed the problem, that will be $750.0o,” and I would have paid it and been on my way. But they did the right thing. Ever since then I’ve been sending everyone their way.
And they got a lot of business from me over the years. I had an older car that needed a lot of work and they did it all.
I would leave the car for everything, they were cheaper than the dealership, of course. I would leave the car and the keys early in the morning with the person working the gas station part of the place. I would block the garage section, so they had to get into my car to move it.
They would always have the car done early in the day and I would go and pick it up and be on with my day.
I finally got a new car and haven’t been by except for small things not under warranty – tires and things like that. And to guy gas.
It pays to be honest.
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