I watched my favorite Breaking Bad episode on Sunday – Dead Freight. I love the titles of the episodes, they are all a play on words and brain twisters.
This is the train episode, Face Off, is my second favorite.
Spoiler alerts – don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the episode.
Anyway, there are a couple of things I question regarding the Dead Freight episode. First off, how do they know where the train car is going to be ahead of time? Lydia tells them at 2 am, yet a day or two before they set up the spot below the tracks to bury the tanks, as if it is right below their car.
And when the train has to make an emergency stop, most trains, I’m told, need a mile to stop a fast moving train. Is the train not moving that fast? Do they see the dump truck from a mile away, having enough time for them to stop?
And lastly, I hate the last few seconds of that episode. I’m not sure why they need to do that other than to show what a schmuck Todd is.
The Miami Herald has a little article about me printed in today’s paper. My comics are here if anyone is looking for them. They didn’t supply a link in the printed article, but it first appeared in Thursday’s online edition, on the front page! and my comics stats went way through the roof because there was a link to them there.
People are congratulating me and I think they think my cartoons are being published daily in the Herald. I’ve been in the newspapers a lot over the years for various things (including my comics), so people are used to that, so I can only assume they think my comics are being published daily now. Many people just read headlines. I noticed on Twitter now if you go to retweet an article, it asks you if you read the article first. Love that.
Front page blurb
It’s one of the few times I’ve been in the paper where it’s something positive. I’ve always been part of controversial stories. When I wrote the news around here, for some reason I became part of the stories. Not too long ago, was about the wild peacocks in the neighborhood where they twisted my words and had me hating the peacocks (for the record, I love them). I was interviewed on the radio for about 20 minutes and somehow one or two lines made it into the papers. That story and my quotes made it all over the country. Why Chicago, New York and Milwaukee among many others care about our peacocks is behind me. Must have been a slow news day. Here is one little blurb in the NY Post, not too bad.
I did have a nice article recently in VoyageMIA about my comics and me. I guess I gained a lot of good press (and karma) recently due to taking on the daily comics rather than being in everyone’s business while doing the daily news.
After seeing this recent Herald article, I had one friend say, “Your dreams are coming true!” But truth be told, I prefer digital comics, for me anyway. I believe that just like movies and other entertainment – digital is the way to go. The main reason is the deadlines. With newspapers there is such a long time between when the comics are submitted and when they are printed.
Currently I am updating the comics till the last minute. Sometimes late at night I’m making a change on a comic that is scheduled to publish the next morning. I can’t do that with newspapers. The deadlines are way too long.
But even with the Herald article today, it was pared down to a shorter version in print (where digital, there is plenty of room) and even the cartoon itself is quite small, where it is large and featured on the online edition, and also, there are no links to the comics or social media sites – where the digital version had that. So digital seems the way to go, I think.
But what do I know. After the print edition appeared, I seem to be getting more subscribers online. Go figure.
What I wouldn’t mind is having the Herald print me once a week and pick and choose from what was published earlier in the week and just run one, two or three comics in the weekend section or something like that. And running them online, too, wouldn’t hurt!
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My car got towed yesterday. I still am not sure of the circumstances because I was parked in a space that I have been parking in for years. But then again, that’s what they say on Parking Wars the tv show, all the time, so who knows.
You ever watch Parking Wars? It’s rerun a lot on different cable stations. It takes place in different cities like Detroit and Philadelphia – there are different segments, one is booting, so the show is about people booting cars around the cities, another is ticket writing and another is at the towing lot, where you go to pick up your car after it’s towed.
It sounds boring, but it isn’t. It is mostly about people’s reactions and how they handle the situations.
Well, when I saw my car was gone, my Parking Wars knowledge kicked in. I called the towing place and got all the info I needed, you know – the cost, the location to get the car, etc., then I went to the ATM and got cash – you always need cash! You also need your license and proof of insurance according to what I see on tv.
I summoned an Uber and went to the lot. Living in a small town is strange, because as I was Ubering over, I got many texts from people telling me they heard what had happened and they wanted to know if I needed lift to the lot!
To my surprise, when I got to the lot, on a Wednesday afternoon, I was the only one there! I literally was in and out in 10 minutes! From watching the tv shows, I had expected to be there for hours, shuffling from window to window, arguing with the towing people behind the glass windows. But it wasn’t like that.
Unlike the tv show I was able to walk to my car and get my registration without an escort or pass. I also didn’t need to show proof of insurance, which explains a lot about Miami drivers. I literally did not have to show that my car was insured. I think this bothers me more than anything.
After I paid, I was set loose in the lot – alone – I got my car and drove off. All very civilized, nothing like the tv show! The whole experience took about an hour and wasn’t bad. The total cost was about $200.00, which included the towing fee, the parking ticket and the Uber! Not bad, on tv they show people paying lots more money for their infractions.
All in all it was not as bad as I had anticipated.
I told you I get premonitions and things like that. Well, my recent premonition on Thanksgiving payed off. I avoided going to my family for Thanksgiving because I had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be safe and lo and behold, my nephew’s father-in-law now has covid!
So now they are all quarantining. Unfortunately, his father-in-law never saw a mask he didn’t hate.
Hope they are all well and learned their lessons about big family gatherings – not a good thing to do.
I took this picture in 2012 at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. I’m usually downtown more for the parade, but that year, I was at 72nd and Central Park West, right in front of The Dakota apartment building, which you can see here in the background.
This is one of my favorite photos. I love everything about it and there’s an interesting story about it that happened a day or two later.
After Thanksgiving, I was shopping around the Christmas Market down at Union Square and I stopped in my tracks. One guy was selling drawings of New York scenes and he had this exact scene you see above. He had the Snoopy balloon floating by the Dakota. Exactly! But it wasn’t the photo – it was a black and white drawing!
I don’t know why I didn’t buy it, but that was one of those instances where you are in the right place at the right time or something like that. I showed the photo on my phone to the guy at the booth selling the art and he was flabbergasted, too.
What I loved about that particular day when I was at the parade was that I was in the park. I had crossed over from the east side to the west side, but it was too crowded to get out onto the street, so I watched from inside the park. As I walked down to get to the train station to take the train to queens for my cousin to pick me up, I did it inside the park, and it was a strange experience. I was experiencing the parade almost from backstage. All the action was outside the park, but the leave-less trees allowed me to watch it through the branches from a distance, from inside the park; almost as if backstage, as if I was not actually at the event, but watching from afar. Hard to explain but very memorable.
So I was alone for Thanksgiving! First time ever. It was weird, sort of like the first time I ever spent New Year’s Eve alone. That I have grown to like, I don’t think I’ll ever grow to like being alone on Thanksgiving. But this year I did it.
I’m usually in New York for Thanksgiving. This year I was going to do my Boston thing and take the train down to NY, but it was not to be. My family was at my nephew’s house. He and his wife moved in to a big new house recently and they sort of took over family holidays I think, so I should have been there, but I kept hearing on tv that we should be mindful of others and not go to family gatherings unless we physically live with the people.
I had been to their house earlier in the year and to my other nephew’s house earlier this year, too, when we should not have been. They both had birthday parties for their young daughters who I don’t think will ever remember the parties, they are too young, and these parties had upwards of 50 people each! And each time I went, I regretted it later.
So regarding Thanksgiving, I felt that even if there were only going to be a few of us, maybe 15 people or less, it wasn’t a good idea to go. I get premonitions and I got one that told me not to go. My gut was telling me not to tempt fate. Thankfully I made it through those two birthday parties unscathed,and it’s not a good idea to play with mother nature or question your gut feelings.
I spoke with my cousins and aunt and uncle in New York earlier in the day. I really miss our yearly tradition. It’s been a thing since I have been in high school – almost every year in New York. My mother always would complain that I was the only person who left their family for the holidays, meaning I would leave them here to go up north. And I would say, “Mom, I am here for every other holiday!”
I would go to the Macy’s parade; a few years ago it was 17 degrees! I was proud of that one, reminds me of when my cousins and I would go as kids – we would get cocoa at McDonald’s to warm up those days. Anyway, now I have the same routine – I would go to the parade, leave that a bit early, maybe 11:30 or so, get on the train at Grand Central and one of my cousins would pick me up at the next stop in Queens – Vernon-Jackson – in Long Island City.
We would go to her house and have bagels, pastries and coffee, then we would watch the dog show which comes on after the parade. I find the dog show boring, but I would get into it and watch with them. At 2 pm, we would head over to my other cousin’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and everyone else would be there, there would be maybe 20 of us in total. I miss that. All of it, even the boring dog show.
But this year I was at neither place for Thanksgiving. And I didn’t mind. I am counting the days until next year. But for now I’m content.
Last year at the end of November, I had to leave NY early – a nor’easter was coming and I had to get out three days earlier than I had planned. The airline contacted me and had me reschedule. Seems like yesterday, and that sort of consoles me thinking that next year will be here before you know it. Although I’m sure I don’t want to the year to rush by, but I do wish 2020 would end already.
It’s funny because last year, a friend of mine in New York missed Thanksgiving. He said his family left for their relatives without him because he overslept. I don’t understand that, but I said to him, “How did you miss Thanksgiving? Who does that?” And here we are a year later, and I did it!
I did have McDonald’s this year – but it wasn’t cocoa – it was burgers. That was my Thanksgiving dinner, instead of turkey. Life is strange.
I give money to people who ask for it when I’m walking around New York and I have also bought meals for people who look like they need it, and this Hanging Coffee idea from Suspended Coffees on Facebook is a great idea, especially with winter coming on.
There is a little coffee shop, where two people arrive and approached the counter. “Five coffees ☕️ please. Two for us and three hanging.” They paid, they took their two coffees and left. I asked the waiter. “What’s this about hanging coffees?” “Wait and you’ll see.” Some more people came in. Two girls asked for a coffee each, they paid & left. The following order was for seven coffees and it was made by three women – ‘three for them and four hanging coffees.’ I was left wondering…what is the meaning of the hanging coffees, they leave. Then, a man dressed in worn clothes, who looks like he might be homeless, arrives at the counter and asks sincerely… “Do you have a coffee hanging?” “Yes we do, sir.” They serve him a coffee…. I got my answer. People pay in advance for a coffee that will be served to whoever can’t afford a hot drink. This tradition started in Naples. Amazingly, it has spread throughout the world’s cities and towns. It’s also possible to order not only “hanging coffees” but also a sandwich or a full low cost meal.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all start doing this in the cities and towns where we live?
Small kindnesses like this can impact so many lives, in ways we could never imagine.
Maybe we should all try it. 😊
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This week I would normally be in New York for Thanksgiving but of course this year, due to the pandemic, I am not. Some years, like this year, my plan was to spend a few days in Boston and then I would take the train down to New York, which is a fantastic trip through New England in the fall.
This story ran in 2017, it ran in the Huffington Post and other places – it was a memorable train ride.
I travel a lot throughout the year, but in 2020 I did not leave town. I’m posting the train story here again, just to remember a great trip.
On Thanksgiving week, I took a four hour train trip from Boston to New York. Sitting behind me were two older ladies. They didn’t know each other and they just ended up sitting together and they talked and talked for that four hours. I know their whole stories, I know their names, I know about their kids and I loved every minute of it. I almost wish I had taped it.
One lady is 82 and one is 83. One is from Manchester, England one is from Rhode Island, they both had lived in New Jersey at one time and both were on their way back to New Jersey to be with family for Thanksgiving.
This video is 23 seconds through Connecticut, and you can hear the ladies speaking behind me. It’s low, but listen . . . It’s amazing, when I hear them it brings me right back to that moment.
The lady from Rhode Island talked like Cyndi Lauper. Exactly. The lady from Manchester had that refined English accent and you can imagine these two accents going back and forth sharing their lives with each other. Cyndi Lauper was nosy and nervy, she asked a lot of personal questions, and Manchester calmly answered them.
Manchester has two children, one in Washington DC and one in New Jersey, I think she said she lives in Boston now. Cyndi Lauper has five children and nine grandchildren, they live all over and I don’t remember where she lives now.
They spoke about their husbands who have both passed, Manchester’s husband passed 10 years ago, Cyndi Lauper’s husband passed nine years ago to the exact day we were on the train. Cyndi Lauper was very into her husband’s life, it was more about him than her, and it seemed to be a man’s world according to her questions. She asked Manchester what her husband did for a living, rather than asking Manchester what she did. Manchester’s husband did many things, including real estate, to which Cyndi Lauper said, “Oh you must have made a lot of money!” to which Manchester calmly said, “No, just enough to live on.”
Cyndi Lauper’s husband was a highly regarded college professor. It was a hectic life being a professor’s wife, according to Cyndi Lauper.
They spoke of World War II and of all of the places they have been and lived. They spoke of the Royal Family. Neither of them like Camila, Cyndi Lauper doesn’t like Charles, but Manchester says he is not a bad sort.
Manchester came to the US in the 1960s. She said that period of time was a “brain drain” where all the good minds from England moved to the states. She eventually became a citizen with her husband in Elizabeth, New Jersey, they lived in that county at the time and that was the county seat and the location for the citizenship ceremony
The conversation was fascinating. And the thought of these two older grandmas traveling alone together was nice. When they first met, Cyndi Lauper told Manchester that she was nervous about traveling alone, getting on the wrong train and all but Manchester said, “We’ll you’re on the train now and the only thing to do is get off when it’s time. That’s it.”
Cyndi Lauper had her son picking her up at the train station and Manchester had her daughter-in-law picking her up at the train station. Manchester said the first thing she wanted to do once she was settled at her son’s and daughter-in-law’s house was to have a hot cup of tea. She said, “When she asks if I want anything [meaning her daughter-in-law], I will say ‘yes,’ a hot cup of tea!”
I did not look back at them the whole time, I didn’t want to spoil the image I had in my head of them. But when my stop came, NYC, I had to get up and leave, so I looked back and there they were, sitting and staring at me. I just stared back, I didn’t want to be rude but I wanted to take them in. Neither was what I had pictured in my head and I almost wish I had not looked.
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I was watching the news and a lady was on from the Detroit Free Press and it made me think of all those great old newspapers. Not to say the Detroit Free Press is an old newspaper, but it actually is, founded in 1831. They are sometimes known as Freep – which is their website name: freep.com.
It makes me sometimes wish I was around when newspapers were important, but then I would be old now, so maybe not.
When my parents were kids, NYC had 14 daily newspapers! Remember there was no tv then, there was radio, but the news came from the newspapers, which were published all day, every day.
NY had the Mirror, and The Daily News and the Journal American, The Sun, the Herald-Tribune, The Times, the Post and so many. Millions of papers were sold daily – literally millions. The Daily news sold 2 million alone daily and 4 million on Sunday!
There is something about the deadlines, and the roll of the presses and then getting them out on the streets. Every single day.
Such great old names, too – The Brooklyn Eagle, The Miami News, The Tampa Tribune, The Boca Raton News, The Hollywood Sun-Tattler, Los Angeles Examiner, Oakland Tribune, Philadelphia Bulletin, Chicago Evening Post, New Orleans States-Item, Boston Phoenix and so on. There is a long list here.
I visit some of the old sites when I am in certain areas, like NY, you know, visiting the original Daily News building or the location of the New York Herald, the New York Sun and of course Park Row and all the history there.
One fifth of daily newspapers in the U.S. closed in the past 15 years.
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After screwing up Charlie Brown for Halloween, I never did get to see it this year, Apple tv has made a deal with PBS to show A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and a Charlie Brown Christmas on broadcast tv.
PBS will show the episodes commercial free on Sundays, November 22 and December 13 at 7:30 pm eastern time both nights.
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