The last few years there has been a Sarah Brightman Christmas special on PBS and in it she talks about an animated 1982 British movie called The Snowman, based on a children’s book.
There’s a haunting song that she features about and has a boy from her choir along with the original singer Peter Auty.
This is a scene and the song from the movie.
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I saw this cartoon by Bill Bramhall and it really brought memories back of Norman Lear. It’s sad that today’s generation doesn’t know so much about our history, including television history. I still pay for cable! I want to cut the cable, honest, but I can’t figure out if I’ll miss it or not.
Bill Bramhall is the excellent cartoonist for the New York Daily News, you can see his cartoons daily at GoComics here.
I grew up watching all of the Norman Lear shows from All in the Family to Maude to Sanford and Son and of course Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. And there were so many more. He basically created 1970s tv. For awhile there, All in the Family was must see tv. Norman died on Tuesday, he was 101!
I googled a list of Norman’s shows here.
I think our favorite was All in the Family. My mother and I used to mock Archie Bunker all the time. There was one thing that Archie did when Edith would over-talk, he would make believe he was killing himself. He would slowly load a gun and then shoot himself. Or he would tie a noose and hang himself. My mother would do that when I overtalked. She would just suddenly mime one of the actions, and we would both bust out laughing.
There was a period when Mom used to cut my hair and I would quote Archie. There were a few episodes when Archie was out of work due to a strike or something, and Edith would cut his hair, so when my Mom would ask me how I wanted my hair cut, I would say, “Without blood, Mom, without blood.”
And I would also say, “Go around the back, take some off at the top and when you get to an ear for Gawd sake, stop.” I would say God, the way Archie said it, Gawd.
Archie was a bigot and politically incorrect, we knew it. But so did the 40 to 60 million people who watched All in the Family each week.
Here is a list of Archie’s top 10 most politically incorrect comments.
I’m just thinking now, what Norman Lear would have been an excellent person to interview for my 10 With Tom series.
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I guess I’m in a grumpy mood these days – airing all my gripes.
The other day I got a notice from Amazon that my package was delivered. Only I looked all over the building and I could not find the package.
This is a common thing. We have a sign out front that says leave all packages on the table by the elevator, but no one reads it or pays attention, so we’ve found deliveries back on the table by the pool, in unused emergency stairwells, on private balconies of neighbors and other places. So I looked all over and the package was nowhere.
I went on line to double check and it says it was delivered and signed for by “Fermin” who is one of the security guards at the building next door. So I traipsed over and he handed five packages – for five neighbors, including me. The Amazon guy just dumped all of our deliveries next door. But who is wrong? The guy did get a signature, and Fermin just accepted them without reading the labels.
Either way, Amazon is always screwing up. I know it’s the start of a busy delivery season, but he did manage to the packages next door. He just neglected to read the addresses.
We have a great UPS guy. He has my cell phone number and often calls about deliveries and other things. When I was in Greenport last week, he called, it was about a neighbor’s delivery. I told him I was just thinking about him because as we drove to Greenport, we drove through a lot of farmland and there right in the middle of it all was a UPS truck delivering a package to a house.
One day, recently, our UPS guy called to tell me he had a delivery I needed to sign for. I went downstairs and there he was at the pool (dressed) talking to one of my neighbors (dressed), both lying on lounge chairs feet from the bay, chatting away. I joined them and we all ended up talking for about 45 minutes. Sorry for the neighbors expecting deliveries!
Village life.
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I took an Uber to LaGuardia Airport from the city. As usual, I go early in the morning for early flights, I was coming home.
A lady named Miguelina picked me up. She seemed nice, she didn’t speak much English, so we didn’t speak.
As we approached the area of the airport, I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t the usual way. It was early Monday morning, about 6 am, so there was no traffic to avoid, so she should have taken the usual route.
As I looked out and saw the airport in the distance, I was wondering, “Where are we going? Did I punch in Kennedy Airport by mistake? Are we going there?” I asked her and she said she didn’t speak English. I asked her in Spanish, if we were going to LaGuardia and she sort of ignored me.
We finally arrived, but it was at a place I had never seen before. I had just seen the Seinfeld “The Pledge Drive” episode where his grandmother is lost in a desolate area, looking for Chemical Bank. That’s what this was like. We were sort of underground somewhere – under the airport!
She told me to get out, in that rude way non-English speakers think they are speaking English politely. I said, “Wait, there is nothing here!” The airport is usually very well lit, you know, there are always cars coming and going and there is always plenty of travelers and staff around. This was bare. The lights were very dim, there was no other car or other person. She said this was my stop.
I told her we have to go to “departures” but she would not move. She looked at her phone, which meant nothing. Finally a security guard arrived and he yelled for us to move. She refused! The guard said we were on level 1, and get this, the baggage level and arrivals was up a flight to level 2 and the departures were level 3, we needed to go to 3. She didn’t care, she just sat there.
I asked the guard if I could just get in some way down in that dungeon area and climb stairs or something and he showed me a back escalator and I took that up two flights to the regular entrance area. I’m still not sure what that was or why we were there. Maybe it’s a loading dock area.
Scary trip. Scary driver. First time in my life I did not tip. The driver deserved nothing.
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Greenport, NY
There were a lot of us together for Thanksgiving, and then Friday, we went to Greenport, Long Island, not to be confused with Greenpoint which is in Brooklyn.
Greenport is this little old village at the northern tip of Long Island – on the north fork. You can see Connecticut from the shore, which is across the Long Island Sound.
We ran into a guy, who seemed to bore everyone else who wandered off, but he had me interested in the history of the town. He was about 70 and he was visiting from Brooklyn. He told me he grew up there and he was pointing out things in the area – where the old police station was, where the 5 & 10 was, where his uncle worked in a sailing mast shop, etc.
He explained the place as if it was Mayberry, with only two officers on the police force at the time.
My family and I shopped and hung out, spending money on Small Business Saturday, but it was Friday.
It was nice, but so far from the city, about three hours in and three hours back. We went to the Hamptons after that for dinner and hung out, then headed back to the city very late.
Usually we would go to the Southampton Christmas parade and tree lighting on Saturday night, but we did Greenport instead.
We enjoyed the non-Starbucks, one-of-a-kind village coffee shop.
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I’m back in NYC for Thanksgiving week. I took the Amtrak down from New England.
I was telling my friends how bad the drivers are in Boston, and I guess karma came and got me. I was almost mowed down by big bus in Hoboken yesterday!
I was leaving Hoboken, and it was cold and windy. I usually walk along the Hudson River to the train terminal where I could get the PATH train back to the city (NYC), but I took the back way and walked through the bus yard, which is part of the train terminal.
There were only three buses and they weren’t moving. The whole big lot was empty otherwise, so I proceeded to cut through to get to the trains. Just as I was standing in the center of the lot, one of the buses started moving, and it appeared to be coming right at me, but I figured the driver saw me, he was going to bypass me, there was 100 feet or more on either side of me.
But no, he came right at me. Then as he reached me, he proceeded to make a U-turn – right into me! I started running along the side of the bus, at the driver’s side window to avoid ending up under the bus. If I ran to the left, I would be under the bus, if I stood there, I would under the bus, so I kept running, and yelling and the driver didn’t see or hear me! He was alone on the bus, so there was no one to distract him.
Someone from above was there to protect me. It had to be, it was the only explanation. Finally the driver saw me and stopped. He opened his window and started yelling at me. Sure, I was wrong to cut through the lot, but I would assume a driver could see a man walking alone in a parking lot.
I was so pissed and upset, that I just ignored him and walked away. Another driver who witnessed this from her bus, started yelling at me. I told her I was lost and that’s not a reason to not be paying attention. If I was a stray dog, would he have run over the dog, too?
I walked away from her since they weren’t going to take the blame.
So after all these years of almost being hit by Boston drivers, I now have the distinction of being almost struck by a Hoboken City bus; at the bus terminal.
It was very scary. Remember that old Dennis Weaver movie, Duel? It was a bit like that. Not really, but almost.
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I’m in Boston for a few days, then I’ll take the train down to NYC for Thanksgiving.
It’s a mixed batch weatherwise – mid ’60s one day, cold and rainy the next.
Did my usual things in Boston and Cambridge, ate in my usual places, did my usual thing. I’m a creature of habit.
See you in NYC in a few days.
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I eat an avocado daily. Sometimes the whole thing, sometimes a sliver in a salad or sandwich or something.
One of my friends said that I’m going to turn green from eating all those avocados. That’s where I got the idea for this cartoon.
One of my neighbors has avocado groves, so sometimes he gives me fresh avocados. He always punctuates all of his texts with three avocado emojis.
I eat a lot of things daily – extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), cinnamon, green tea, apple cider vinegar, chia seeds, flax seed, etc. I’m not sure how I fit it all in, but I add a little to my food during the day. When I travel, I don’t have all this stuff – only at home.
When I have the avocado at home, I slice it open, remove the pit and then sprinkle sea salt, black pepper, oregano and EVOO, and I eat it with a spoon.
The green face made me think of this guy who used to have a blue face, Paul Karason. His face was blue due to taking colloidal silver, for medical reasons.
He passed away in 2013, but I remember seeing him on the streets of NYC one time. I think it was on Park Avenue, near Union Square. I was walking downtown and he passed me by. His hue was not really that noticeable unless you looked right at him. What I mean is it wasn’t neon or glowing.
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When I look at today’s cartoon it reminds me of that Below Deck tv show on Bravo. It’s a franchise, there’s all sorts of Below Decks. There’s the original Below Deck and there’s Below Deck Mediterranean, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Below Deck Down Under, and Below Deck Adventure. Sort of like the Real Housewives – one for every city.
I don’t watch any of the Below Decks, even though they seem to be very popular and my reasoning is quite stupid. The reason? I can’t understand how the full crew, including the captain and his staff and all the guests, along with the film crew, fit on the yachts. Seriously.
I live on the water, there are many yachts like that in my area, and I tried to look them over and figure how a large crew and a large bunch of guests, along with the camera men, sound men, etc. all fit below deck, let alone above deck!
And that’s why I can’t watch the show. I get too technical in my head to enjoy the story. I keep trying to figure out where everyone is sleeping, how they maneuver in the galley/kitchen, how they store all the food and drinks and how they all live aboard for a whole week or however long each outing is.
By the way, when I came up with this cartoon idea, I didn’t have Below Deck in mind, it just made me think of it after I looked at the cartoon.
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With The Beatles’ new song out, “Now and Then,” there seems to be a lot about The Beatles online now. I’ve seen a bunch of memes along with news stories. One meme, shown below, reminded me of this old Paul McCartney cartoon I did awhile back. Tube vs. Tube.
I guess it should really be is he on the “tube,” meaning subway or “telly,” meaning television? But tube and tube seems to work.
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tomversation.com 