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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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There’s always one

Today’s cartoon makes me laugh because it is so true. If you live in a cold climate, you’ve seen this – some guy running or just traipsing around in shorts and a tee, while the rest of civilization is bundled up.

I saw this the other day in New York City, it was quite cold this week and a guy was walking in shorts, with a bunch of people who were bundled up. Usually it’s a guy running through the streets – jogging or whatever -at least the guy here has a hoodie on.

***The Montauk Lighthouse all lit up for the season.***

Last weekend a bunch of us went to see the Montauk Lighthouse Christmas lighting. They make a big show of it every year.

The weather was brutal that night. We were literally on a hill, which goes up to the lighthouse on the very tip of Long Island. The wind was whipping and we were up there for hours. But it was worth it. And no one was in shorts, I’m happy to say.

We usually do the Southampton parade and Christmas tree lighting, but we did Montauk in stead.

One funny things at the end of the lighting, a bunch of people do “The Roll.” I’m not sure how it started but people take a sip of wine and then literally roll down the hill from the lighthouse. It’s a lot of fun (to watch). It’s a tradition that goes with the lighthouse lighting.

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Are bookstores back?

Bookstores are back according to the news. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has seen a growth in membership, with more than 2,500 member stores in 2,561 locations.

Large bricks and mortar bookstores and our favorite, independent bookstores are back.

I usually stop by the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Union Square in NYC, but I noticed the other day that they sort of have more security guys than customers. These guys look very official, like FBI guys with long black jackets and walkie-talkies and they are quite menacing. You can’t steal books there if you want. Which of course is a good thing, but it is a bit off putting.

I guess I look like a thief, because I left the store after being followed around for a bit which was very insulting and annoying.

There seems to be a nostalgia for bookstores. In the past, I would go in and take a picture of the book I liked and then just ordered it online for my Kindle. But of course that doesn’t work well with graphic novels.

Lately, I’ve been ordering comics and comic strip related books, so those I like having in my hands rather than trying to navigate them on a gadget.

For many years I was on a list for book reviewing and all of the major publishers would send me a few books a month – mostly graphic novels. I don’t know how I got on the lists, but it got overwhelming for a bit, but it was nice. During the pandemic, I donated most of them to a charity shop in the neighborhood.

What’s nice about bookstores is the warmth and smell when you enter. And of course, you can be going in for one thing and wander around for a long time finding other things.

In today’s 10 With Tom column, the subject is: “10 Reasons Bookstores Are Making A Comeback.” Read it here free.

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Left on Tenth

Four of us went to see the play, “Left on 10th” yesterday. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It started slow, but got good. It’s an adaptation from Delia Ephron’s best selling book about here life.

It stars Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher, two tv favorites of mine.

The ending was surprising to me, which made it more enjoyable.

Julianna plays Delia, Nora Ephron’s sister, and the play is about her fight with cancer and her meeting Peter and falling in love at the same time. It’s sad at times, but mostly it isn’t. And knowing that it is all a real story, makes it even more interesting.

They meet up again after the death of both their spouses, they had gone on a date many years before but Delia/Juliana doesn’t remember and it goes on from there.

Left on Tenth refers to the direction Delia would give to people to help find her apartment in the West Village in NYC.

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Painting comfort food

This is so good. He paints everyday foods.

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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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The sky is blue; the tree is green

Looks like everyone is moving to Bluesky – it’s a better version of X/Twitter.

I already had an account, I don’t know when I opened it, but sometime when it was new awhile ago, I think I got an invite and I opened the account then. It sat dormant but now I am interacting and have three accounts.

Here are the three accounts:

Tomversation, where I post mostly my blog and cartoons:
https://bsky.app/profile/Tomversation.bsky.social

Tom Falco, where I post personal things and interact with others:
https://bsky.app/profile/TomFalco.bsky.social

10 With Tom , where I post things related to my 10 With Tom blog:
https://bsky.app/profile/10WithTom.bsky.social

It all feels so new, like when Twitter was new so many years ago. I’ll go onto people’s profiles to see what they are all about and they have maybe two or three posts. That’s it! So new and fresh.

I am still on X/Twitter, but I’m trying to build up my Bluesky readership, so if you are there, let’s follow each other! And the same names/handles are on Threads, if you are so inclined.

On another note, I put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I know, I know, too early.

I’m going out of town until December, so I wanted to get it up so I don’t have to deal with it when I return home. I only lit it to take this picture, I’m not lighting it until mid-December. That’s when I’ll bring it alive.

I’ll be in NY for Thanksgiving – leaving early, coming home late, you know, stretching it out.

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I got this custom printed pen at TheDiscountPrinter.com

O Christmas tree

I’ll be putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend.

I know, I know. Too early.

The thing is I am going to NY for a couple of weeks and when I get home, it will be the first week of December, so I like to just have it up so I don’t feel rushed and have to deal with it then.

I don’t light it up until December. Right now I’ll just have it up and decorated. Ready to go.

One year, I had the tree up in October! It wasn’t decorated.

What happened was, my friend Michael was visiting from NY and the spare room he was sleeping in, is used as storage for the tree, which of course, is artificial, so to make room, I dragged the tree out and stood it up in the living room. That’s it. It was not decorated or lit or anything like that. It just stood there. Naked.

I always had a real tree. I would throw it in the back of my convertible and lug it home.

One year I saw a nice tree in a big box store and thought I would get it and use it for a year or two and then go back to real trees, but it’s been so many years now and I still use the artificial tree. It’s so easy – just pull it out and it’s up. No lugging real trees in and out. To dump the real trees, I would throw them off the balcony, making sure no one was below. Then I would just drag it to the street.

When we were cleaning my parents’ house out this year, I was hoping to find the old Christmas ornaments from years past – from when we were kids and before; vintage stuff. But there was nothing old – just new ornaments. I’m guessing the old ones were ruined years ago in a hurricane, and I never paid attention to what was on the tree all these years, which obviously was new things which took their place.

When we were kids, I mean very little, we would put the tree up (real tree) a couple of weeks before Christmas. Now it seems people have trees up right after Halloween. I see some of the lots in the neighborhood at churches and clubs, already have their tents up with trees – probably to be sold out before Thanksgiving.

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Phone games

Whenever I want to talk to one of my friends on the phone, I text him. Because he doesn’t usually text back, he calls.

I don’t call him because he is on the phone a lot due to his job, so he can’t always talk when I call. So simply by texting, I get him to call back, when he can, which oddly enough, is right away.

As for me, I don’t pick up the phone most of the time – especially with business.

Years ago, my accountant, well, my father, asked me why business was down so much in the last quarter, and I told him probably because I took the business phone number off the website. And he said, in a half joking way, “Well, you better put it back on.” And I did, but for the past few years I haven’t.

When people call, which is few and far between since today most people email or text, the messages asks the to email us, and they do.

I know it’s maybe a Millennial thing, where they cringe at the sound of a phone ringing. But I do the same. There’s something new with cell phones now where even if you don’t have the person’s or company’s phone number in your phone, it will tell you who it is, many time by the person’s name, not just the company. So that’s a big help.

I can remember when Caller ID came out. That was a big thing. It was a small electronic thing you attached to the phone (which was still on a wire back then). And then you could avoid most calls. Although we didn’t text or email back then, so we picked up anyway, no matter who called. We had to.

At one point I had a hot dog cooker type phone, I don’t know how else to describe it. It took me forever to find this image online – I didn’t know how to describe it. But here it is – it’s called the Western Electric Telstar Phone. You had to roll back the cover every time you wanted to use it, but that was part of the charm/coolness. I had it for years.

Now we have smart~~ass~~ phones. Wonder what’s next. Probably telepathy.

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