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.
I have this thing from Geico car insurance that monitors my driving. It’s an app on my phone called DriveEasy. In the past I had something similar from Progressive. But when I used the monitor with Progressive, it was something I plugged into the car under the dashboard and it monitored me for a few weeks, then I mailed in the gadget to Progressive.
The monitor determines your insurance rate based on how you drive.
But now all the insurance companies have the phone app, which is permanent! It doesn’t always work correctly, the Today Show recently did a story on this. A guy was on a rollercoaster and it monitored him as driving and raised his insurance!
I never pick up my phone when I’m driving, yet every once in awhile I get a pop-up telling me I was texting and it was ruining my good record. Other times I’m on the subway and it rates me, thinking I am driving my car.
I’ve thought of just turning it off and letting the chips fall where they may. My rates might go up, but is is worth it to not be monitored with every move I make, or don’t make?
I’ve thought of it, but then I thought what’s the big deal, just go with it. If the rates go down, I win. If they go up, it’s what I had planned by shutting the app off. But so far so good.
Have you been using this app with your insurance company? I guess it’s the same as being tracked by Google and Facebook and others who are watching the websites you visit and things you buy. In this case you are being watched by how well you drive or don’t drive.
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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The quote, “And all at once, summer collapsed into fall,” is by Oscar Wilde.
Fall/Autumn is my favorite season. Again.
I say again, because I think most of my life Fall was my favorite, but for some years recently, summer ended up being my favorite. I don’t know how it became summer, but I’m glad it’s back to fall.
I live in Florida, and yes, we can feel the fall here, too. I was standing outside over the weekend and I could feel the fall. The light is different, there is a breeze in the air. It just feels different. There is less light and cooler temps.
This final quarter of the year is the best, as far as I am concerned. My favorite holidays have changed over the years, too. Of course Christmas has to be the best. And then I loved Halloween. Now my favorite is Thanksgiving. I don’t mind New Year’s Eve either. One of my friends always had New Year’s Eve as his favorite holiday, and I can see that now. I guess it’s the anticipation of a whole new year.
On Thanksgiving, I go to the Macy’s Parade, I stay about an hour, and then one of my cousins picks me up at the subway station in Queens and we go to her house and have brunch. Just three of us and Sara, their dog.
I get to the house before the parade is over, so we watch that and then the dog show which comes on tv afterwards. At 2 pm, we go to my other cousins not far away, and about 20 or more of us have Thanksgiving. We overeat, argue, laugh, just have a nice family time.
We sometimes do the Southampton Christmas Parade the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it ends up being a perfect four day weekend. In between all that, I am in NYC and enjoying the buildup to Christmas, with all the holiday things the city has to offer.
Of course, October leads into this and upcoming in a few weeks in New York Comic Con and a few of us go upstate New York to apple and pumpkin pick. That’s a perfect things, too. I’m hoping the next few weeks go slow leading up to it all because I don’t want it to all happen and be over with. I want the whole season to last.
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For 15 years, I edited and published the local news in the village where I live. It was hard work, but I enjoyed it. I was the only source of news and information around here. People depended on it and read it daily. But after many years, I gave it up. I had to, I just burned out.
To this day, almost daily, people ask me when I’m coming back. It is sorely missed. It really was the voice of the village and everything that was happening was published. My stories were republished in the Miami Herald and the Huffington Post. I was interviewed by others about local issues.
I won awards over the years and I was given a great honor at the end of my run – the City of Miami made February 14 “Tom Falco Day.” All this is not to blow my own horn, it’s just to set up the next part of the story.
Well, a new publication started up a few years ago, I helped them start it by giving advice and explaining the ins and outs of publishing the news. I was all for it, as we needed a local news source. The publication has changed hands and I noticed they have a section called “Village People.” It’s where they talk about locals and what they are up to, etc. At the end of the article, they ask for submissions and provide an email address.
Well, since I started my new 10 With Tom blog (an extension of this blog) at Substack, I thought it would be a good opportunity to pick up some of my old subscribers. Also, people keep asking me what I am up to, so I figured it would be an interesting read.
I sent in a press release, not long, but informative and guess what? I was turned down. By someone I know! A guy who I know well is the new co-editor of the publication. And to add insult to injury, he asked if I would like to write for them – after turning my press release down! The irony of it all.
I told him, “I am writing for you. I just sent you a story. Publish it.”
He refused. He said it’s not what they are looking for. He said this, “We do not print submitted articles. The [last Village People profile] article is different from what you’ve proposed in that we (the editors) came up with the idea and we assigned (and paid) a writer to do it. We are always looking for talented writers to add to our stable but only for producing assigned content.” And in another email, he asked if I would be interested in writing for them.
Crickets.
Assigned content? Talk about a total idiot without a clue. If he was a news person, an editor, he would grasp at all news/articles that came in. That’s how news organizations work. They accept news tips, press releases and stories – newspapers, magazines, tv stations, especially online publications – that’s how it is done.
He might not publish them as-is, but he would get a story out of it some way. He would re-write it, he would call the person and do a fresh story, he would make something out of it. He would realize that unsolicited news coming into the office is where most news comes from. You take the news that is given to you and make it something. One one hand this moron is asking me to write for them, and on the other he says they don’t print submitted articles that I have written for them.
We live in a small village. Everything is a story. Joe Schmo painted a new portrait, that’s a story. Wilma opened a new bagel store, that’s a story. Ed bought a vintage house – that’s a story.
I published everything – I wanted everyone to be heard in the village. I published articles on subjects this guy was interested in. He would contact me and discuss issues and ask me to cover the event or the subject. And I did. Now I asked him and was told, “no.”
The one thing I would not post was lost animal notices. That would have turned into a 24/7 non-stop thing if I did that. One guy on the Village Council called me a prick once because I would not post his girlfriend’s lost cat. Ironically, I personally had to hand this guy an award a week later for winning “best car” in a classic car contest. Yes, I also covered the contest and his winning the award as news, pictures and all.
I’ve been publishing my work on Substack, since it seems like it’s the thing to do. I publish cartoons and my blog posts there and I also started publishing my 10 With Tom column there.
My 10 With Tom is now at Substack at substack.com/@10withtom . It started out at the Huffington Post some years back. I interviewed celebs and news people, athletes, all sorts of people you may know. I moved it to my own url at 10WithTom.com and now at Substack.
I interview people in 10 random questions. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker and yes, a slew of folks you probably know. While I mainly covered famous people and celebs, I want to go back to my original purpose – interview people coming up in the world – everyday people. Everyone has a story, that’s what I would like to include in the publication – a new guitarist, a new author or artist; a teacher, the mailman!
I’m still working my way around Substack, but it’s a blogging, publishing platform, where you can make money from having people subscribe to your work, although at this point, everything I publish is free, even to subscribers.
There is a section called “Notes” which is sort of like Twitter/X, and there are long-form stories and published pieces. Many well-known people publish on Substack and they have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of followers. It seems like every regular contributor on these cable news shows, now has their own writing space on Substack.
I mostly follow other cartoonists and artists. I like that community. I am all in with this project, I even have a t-shirt, which is for sale on the site (and here).
Substack is slow going at first, but that is to be expected until the algorithm notices you. But I have noticed famous people get lots of subscribers right away. Sort of like the rich getting richer. This one guy made believe he was Keanu Reeves, he didn’t post anything other than introducing himself, and he got so many followers just for that reason. And therein lies the rub . . . .
Hope to see you at my new Substack for 10 With Tom, hopefully you’ll subscribe, which is free, and every time I post a new interview, you’ll receive it via email.
I walked out of the doctor’s office yesterday and I don’t think they even know yet. I was in the waiting room for over two hours, almost three in fact. My appointment was over two hours before and as usual, they just had me sit in a crowded waiting room.
I hadn’t been for a couple of years, so I made an appointment to basically show my face. I would get my cholesterol checked, deal with the rude doctor, and swear to myself to never go back again. Well this time, I left for good.
This office makes appointments and when you show up, the tiny waiting room is full. Does everybody have an 11 am appointment? There is only one doctor, it’s not a large practice other doctors there. It’s the one guy. It almost reminds me of Doc Martin, where it seems like it’s first come, first serve. But if I lived in Portwenn, I don’t think I would mind having Doc Martin as my doctor, or Portwenn as my home.
My doctor’s waiting room looks like the free clinic. It has wall-to-wall people, taking up all the seats. Most speak on their phones very loudly, telling the person on the other end and the rest of us who overhear it all about their ailments and why they are at the doctor. Others have their phones ringing every two seconds, luckily they don’t answer, but they are too stupid to turn the ringer off. So it rings and rings. And others just chat with others across the room. All strangers, but still chatting away very loudly. This all takes place in Spanish, which I understand, so they sometimes include me in the conversations and I reply as to be polite.
The worst are those sitting listening to videos with the sound turned up, they never heard of earbuds I guess.
The doctor himself is rude and condescending. Not rude and condescending like Doc Martin. Worse. I remember during the pandemic, I put on a few pounds. By a few, I mean maybe 10 pounds on a muscular 186 lb. man’s frame. I don’t think that is a lot of weight to put on for my build. He would tell me in his calm, sickeningly sweet voice, “You have to push yourself away from the table.” And one time, he kept saying, “Half. Half” I asked him what that meant, he said it means only eat half of what is on my plate. Which is funny because I am known for leaving most of my plate and not finishing it. A friend asked me once why I never finish my food. “Are you trying to be polite? He asked, as he grabbed across the table for my leftovers. I told him, “No, I stop eating when I feel full.”
Anyway, I took the weight off and am back to my usual routine.
By the way, it’s been 24 hours since I walked out and I still have not heard from the inept doctor’s office. They probably think I was seen by the doctor and then charged my insurance company. But most likely, it’s a numbers game. Pack in as many as possible and keep the ones who don’t walk out.
But in the end, I think I willed it, you know, manifested not being there. I didn’t want to go because of all of the above, and I think i just manifested not having to be there, so I left and no one noticed I was there to begin with. It never happened.
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This recent cartoon received a lot of talk lately. It seems another cartoonist did the same thing, a few weeks after mine was published and it might be a meme, too.
Over the years, so many cartoons have appeared that were the same or similar and it bothered me, but I’ve learned to get over it. There’s no way of knowing where the ideas come from, although this one particular cartoonist seems to have quite a few of my ideas pop up a week or two after mine are published. Coincidences, I guess?
I got this idea from a friend who actually asked me, “Are you ready for the fall?” And I laughed and said, “Of what, civilization?” And we both laughed. When he first said, “ready for the fall,” I thought of my favorite Madonna song, “Live to Tell.” In it she sings, “I was not ready for the fall.” I never saw the movie it’s from, “At Close Range,” but I’m assuming she isn’t singing about October.
The fall is special to me – Autumn, that is. In October and November, I’m in New York and there is a lot to do this time of year. I attend New York Comic Con in October and also in October, my cousins and I take our usual trip from NYC upstate to pumpkin and apple pick and to see the leaves changing.
In October, we sometimes go to the San Gennaro Feast in the Hamptons and also there’s an Oyster Festival, out east, too. This year, I see San Gennaro is in September. And of course, October is capped off with Halloween!
In November, we do Thanksgiving, and then the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the Southampton Christmas Parade, where all the small Hamptons towns get together for a light parade at dusk, then there is a tree lighting and fireworks afterwards. One of the best events of the year.
So yes – I am ready for the Fall – September, October and November.
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I came up with this cartoon years ago. I redrew it for publication today. It just made me laugh when I blurted out “Morning Joe it alls” one morning a few years back while watching the show. I do watch it almost every morning – not the whole thing, but maybe an hour, from 6 am to 7 am, first thing in the morning.
I do like Joe and Mika, although Joe does shout a lot and it’s very early in the morning, so I have to lower the tv quite often when he’s off on one of his tangents. There are a couple of regular guests who put me to sleep the moment they open their mouths, so I turn the channel when they are on, but I do enjoy Morning Joe.
My mother started watching years ago. I believe it premiered in 2007, so back then, she would say to me, “You don’t watch Morning Joe?” as if it was must see tv. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I knew she was addicted to politics and she would go on and on with the goings on in Washington whenever she could.
She wanted to discuss the world events so badly and finally she finally found a comrade to discuss things with when my niece’s husband chimed in that he was addicted, too. So the two of them would rattle on about the goings on in DC, and so much of it included what Joe and Mika had to say. They agreed with each other and with Mika and Joe, so there were no shouting matches.
So while it’s still dark out most mornings, I turn the tv on in the living room at 6 am and I watch and listen to what the crew on Morning Joe has to say – the “Joe it alls.” And I agree with them most of the time, so I don’t mind Joe screaming at me in the cold, dark mornings. Like he did this morning.
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I’m still feeling FOMO about the Paris Olympics. I want to be in Paris. The 2028 summer Olympics are in Los Angeles – meh. For me it’s about the Olympics and Paris as a combo, not simply the Olympics, so LA has no allure as far as I’m concerned.
I started up my Tomversation single panel cartoon again, along with the final week of Ollie And Jacomo in Paris, so they are overlapping. My single panel had been on a two week break while I concentrated on Ollie and Jacamo.
I’ve been playing around with Substack, the blogging platform, but it seems to be overwhelmed and hogged by a few other cartoonists. I don’t follow them, but they seem to be dominating the platform in an annoying way. One cartoonist is very thirsty, he posts something every few seconds it seems, which is really being too extra. It’s all about him it seems where Substack is concerned.
He draws in the park and announces it. I’ve seen so many people drawing in the park in NYC and I don’t think any of them announce it. It’s sort of like these street musicians, they just appear and play, I don’t think they announce it to everyone, “Hey, I’ll be in Madison Square Park by the fountain playing at noon.”
This one guy drew something on a stain on the wall in a public restroom and had to post that image.
It reminds me of when my condo board was doing things around the building but not telling everyone about it as a courtesy. One person said, “I’ll tell you the next time I sneeze or pick my nose, Tom!”
I guess less is more. In every situation.
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