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.
Here’s today’s published comic and you know, what? I’m disappointed in myself. I forgot one big thing when it comes to shots – the vaccine shot! A reader pointed that out to me.
I should have had the ladies lined up getting vaccine shots in one of the panels.
I did this cartoon awhile back, so the vaccine and pandemic were not a thing at the time, but it would have been right on point if I had added the shots. Maybe I’ll redo it and post it with the vaccine shots once the vaccines are out.
Update: It was bothering me so much so I added a fifth panel!
Love that show. I mostly watch it in reruns in early evening now, and I’ve seen every episode more than once. I never get tired of it.
On more than one occasion I’ve been walking through a Comic Con and I hear their voices – especially Linda, the mother, I look up and there are the voices – the actual people – sitting at a table signing autographs! Iconic!
Even though it’s a cartoon, it seem so real. I want to visit Ocean Avenue where Bob and family live and work – with the small town seaside feel and the amusement park on the pier at the end of the street. It all feels so real!
One of my favorite episodes is Brunchsquatch – where every scene is drawn by fans. It jumps from character to character design, all different, but it works.
We have a little dive diner in town called Burger Bob’s and of course I always call it Bob’s Burgers by mistake, like, “Hey, wanna go to Bob’s Burgers for lunch?” It’s been around for many years, so it came before the tv version, but still Burger Bob’s is always Bob’s Burgers to me.
I’m seeing a reason to visit Indianapolis. Something I don’t think I ever thought of.
Why? For THE LUME’s debut at Newfields in Indianapolis. Starting in June 2021, Australian-based Grande Experiences is featuring a cutting-edge experience where you can walk among Vincent Van Gogh’s work.
You can immerse yourself in 30,000 square feet of Van Gogh, where 150 projectors will turn paintings into a 3D world.
Walk among Starry Night, Almond Blossoms, Irises and Van Gogh’s self portrait among so many others.
These images of The LUME Indianapolis are courtesy of Grande Experiences
I watched Pretty In Pink yesterday. Yup – Andie and Duckie. 1986. How I wish I could go back to that era – my favorite time. I was flipping through channels and there it was in all it’s 1980s glory.
Watching it was like a time capsule – the sayings, the places, the fashions. I don’t think I saw the movie since the ’80s, so it was nice to see.
All of those John Hughes movies ARE the 1980s. I think the Simple Minds song, “Don’t You Forget About Me” from The Breakfast Club, is one of the THE ’80s songs. It always brings me back there when I hear it. Always.
The Brat Pack, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Culture Club, George Michael, Prince, Guns ‘n Roses, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, The Police, Def Leppard, Metallica, Talking Heads, REM, etc. So great.
Cheers, Alf, The Golden Girls, Night Court, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Moonlighting, Remington Steel, thirtysomething, Dynasty, Unsolved Mysteries, Dallas, etc. Such great tv, too. And movies – Ferris Bueller, The Outsiders, Moonstruck, Field of Dreams, Heathers, Top Gun, Weekend at Bernie’s, St. Elmo’s Fire, and of course all the John Hughes movies.
I sometimes think that when we die, we can then travel through time. Like if we want to visit a time and place, we can go there. I would visit the 1980s, I would start on January 1, 1980 and live it through to December 31, 1989 and do it all over again.
Today’s comic was a friend’s idea. He said, “Why don’t you do something with Joe Cool and Joe Biden?” I wasn’t keen on the idea at first and then started thinking about it and came up with this. It really doesn’t say much, just two figures of American culture; maybe welcoming Joe Biden as our top figure now in media, I guess. Now that he is our new prez, he is surely the main guy in political cartoons now. I know many of you don’t like when I post political cartoons, and I won’t post many, I’ll stick with my usual gag-a-day, but who knows, Cool Joe Biden may pop up once in awhile. Who knows.
I drew Biden before in another cartoon, I’m not sure if I’ve ever used Snoopy, but I’ve drawn him since I was a child, so he’s easy to do.
This other Biden cartoon was used when he was deciding to run or not, it seemed so long for him to make his decision, but I think it was longer in 2016, which is when I originally used this cartoon, I think it ran in the Huffington Post at the time.
See this picture? It’s Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, our new Prez and VP, but look closely at Joe’s desk. See what’s behind the computer? It’s a comic strip.
A Hagar the Horrible strip that spoke to him.
With all that Biden has gone through in his life; many deaths in the family, this strip spoke to him. I love that.
Many times I wonder if people are reading comics these days. I know they are, but are comics relevant today as they were years ago? I guess they are according to President President-elect Joe Biden.
Gives me hope, not just for the future of comics, but for the future of our country. You gotta have a president who reads and saves comics!
This comics info on Biden came from a long Piers Morgan article in Mail Online, it talks about his phone call from Biden when his son Beau passed away, Piers had never spoken to Joe Biden before, but he knew Beau, and at that time, Biden told him about saving this comic strip. You can read it here.
This morning there was a great segment on CBS Sunday Morning about a book compliation between Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, the cartoonist. Here it is:
