Rant #850: It's All About the Turkey ... and Family

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so this is my last Rant for the week.

I am taking a few days off. And that makes me happy. I need to relax, and I am very thankful for this little break that is coming my way.

I am also thankful for lots of other things as we enter one of the year's best holidays.

I am thankful that my home was not severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

I am thankful that my family is intact, there have been no major illnesses or injuries, and that we are all relatively healthy.

I am thankful that my pinched nerve seems to be responding to the regimen that I have adopted, and physical therapy too (I am still in a bit of pain, but it's not as bad as it was).

I am thankful I have a job to go to each workday. I complain about it, there are things that aren't right with it, but at least I bring home an honest paycheck.

I am thankful that my daughter, at long last, just told me that she found a job.

I am thankful that the Knicks are off to a great start, and that you always have a good shot with the Yankees.

I am thankful that the Nassau Coliseum will not be razed, and it appears it will be reconfigured to showcase concerts and high school and college athletics. The final word isn't in yet, but it looks like the Coliseum will live on.

I am thankful that I have the best wife, and good kids, and that my parents are still around to enjoy all of this.

And I am thankful that I bought a big enough turkey to fill the brood that is coming here tomorrow: in addition to my family, my sister's family too.

I had to haggle a bit, but I got a decent turkey. Don't ask. A certain supermarket chain runs an ad that they "can't be beat," on the price of turkeys; I beat their price, and they still give me an argument about the definition of what a "frozen" turkey is.

But I prevailed, which was nice.

So to all of you, have a nice holiday.

And remember, it is all about the turkey ... and family.

You can't have a real Thanksgiving without both.

Rant #849: Thanksgiving Day Turkey

Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner, and I am looking forward to all of those Black Friday sales (not).

But something has come up this year which might just spoil the dressing, if you know what I mean.

Numerous stores have decided to open on Thanksgiving Day, and begin their Black Friday sales a couple of hours early.

This has numerous people happy, because they can begin their shopping early.

This also has numerous people livid, because now they have to go to work on a day that is supposed to be dedicated to family.

Black Friday is bad (or good) enough; now we also have Black Thursday to contend with.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the stores are opening on Thursday.

It is to get a competitive advantage.

And yes, people will shop on Thursday, all full of Turkey and with, what they feel, is nothing else to do on the holiday once all their guests have left and the leftovers are firmly tucked away.

But those that have to work, to keep their jobs, protest. They believe that this is the only day of the year that they can really spend top to bottom with their families.

Two major chains, Wal-Mart and Target, are opening on Thursday, and this has riled their employees.

From what I read, there will be protests at these stores. Target employees already have a petition out against opening on Thursday, with thousands of signatures.

Yes, I do feel it is wrong to open on Thanksgiving Day. That is a day that is supposed to be wholly about family, not about sales.

But on the other hand, people will shop 'til they drop if given the opportunity. And stores have a right to play into that, by staying open.

I don't know how the workers are getting paid that day, but I am sure they are not making their normal rate, in particular if they are hourly workers. Anybody hear double and triple time?

But the bottom line is that what makes opening on Thursday any different than the idiocy that goes on the very next day?

Stores open early, real early, on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

And idiots line up to shop, bursting upon the stores hours before they open.

All that some stores have done this year is to push the hours up a bit.

Yes, it is wrong, very wrong, to open on Thanksgiving. But the stores make oodles of money on Black Friday, pushing them into the black, hence the name Black Friday.

They just want to make oodles more, and that is why they are opening on Thursday.

Again, I don't like it, and no, I won't be shopping on Thursday and hopefully not Friday.

But I have to look at both sides, and both sides are right in this case.

I, myself, have worked in the past on Thanksgiving, and it isn't too much fun.

I do feel for the workers, and I hope that this is the only Thanksgiving they have to work.

Maybe, if people stayed away, then these stores would see that it is not economically feasible for the stores to open on that day.

But you just know that shoppers won't stay away that day.

They are full of turkey, figuratively, literally, and stupidly, as far as I am concerned.

Stay home. Show the stores that Thanksgiving is one day that everyone should enjoy, and enjoy on their own terms.

Rant #848: Twinkies Fallout

I am sure that you have read that Hostess Brands, the maker of the eponymous Twinkies franchise, has gone under.

Yes, they have gone out of business.

Their unions were told of their plans last week, told if they didn't accept what the parent company was offering, they would have to terminate business.

In one of the stupidest union moves ever, the union called the parent company's bluff, and now, they have no jobs to fight for.

Stockholders of the parent company will make millions off this deal, as brands like Wonder Bread and Ding Dongs will be sold to the highest bidder.

And that include Twinkies.

What happened after the company went under is one that you have to scratch your heads about.

People ran out and bought every Twinkie they could fine--the regular vanilla filled ones, even the chocolate ones.

The bought boxes and boxes of the stuff, and figured now would be the time to make a killing.

They put their purchases up on eBay, asking for upwards of $100 for a box of Twinkies.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Twinkies. I just had a few last week. I didn't even realize we had them, and my son and I ate them before all this nonsense started.

It isn't the same Twinkie that I grew up with. Yes, they are good, but they are a bit more dense than I remember them to be, not too fluffy anymore. That's probably because they use corn syrup, not real sugar anymore.

Anyway, would you spend $100 a box for a Twinkie fix, especially when it is almost a certainty that these things will come out once again in the near future through another manufacturer?

People knock Twinkies because they aren't healthy, but heck, if you are eating these things, you are not looking for their health benefits.

I saw that someone on Facebook said the reason that the company went out was because they didn't make their products healthier.

Come on. There is no such thing as a healthy Twinkie, and there will never be a healthy Twinkie.

You want healthy things, eat granola, or real yogurt.

You are not going to reap any health benefits from a Twinkie, and its makers knew that.

People knock Twinkies, but people love them too. If you don't want to eat it, just don't.

But $100 for a box of Twinkies? No, I draw the line.

Where's Little Debbie when you need her ... err, it?

Rant #847: Working For the Weekend

It's Friday.

Thank goodness.

The only problem is that Friday is not Saturday nor Sunday. Friday is not the weekend.

I may have Friday on my mind, but I really have the Friday after work on my mind, and the two days that follow it.

It has really been a rough few weeks for everyone in my neck of the woods, what with the hurricane, the nor'easter, and adjusting to life after that.

And as I have said, my family was really, really lucky. I can only imagine what others have had to go through, and will continue to go through.

As for me, these weeks have been long and rough, and I am just looking forward to some relaxing time.

It has just been announced that gas rationing will end this weekend, so the odd/even thing is out the door.

It seemed to work, and the only question I have to our governor is why it wasn't imposed earlier?

I waited 10 hours for gas one weekend on four different lines. Ridiculous, but it was me and thousands of others who killed a weekend doing that.

There is nothing special about this coming weekend, no Knicks games, no celebrations of birthdays, nothing like that.

It's just a time to relax, and although you can't fully relax as a parent, at least you can wind down a little.

And that is what I hope to do.

So I will see you Monday.

And you know what? Next week is a really short week with Thanksgiving coming up, so relaxation looms.

And no, I won't be running out on Black Friday to do my shopping.

That wouldn't be very relaxing, would it?

Rant #846: Baseball, Anyone?

In the midst of all of this hurricane stuff, sports remains as one of our personal outlets for our frustrations.

Sure, sports fans do live through their teams and individual players, but in the middle of the rubble, it is almost comforting to know that sports are right there for us ...

That is, unless you are a hockey fan. The National Hockey League lockout continues, with no end in sight.

On other fronts, football and basketball are in full swing, and on my end, the Knicks look real good. Is it a mirage or is their 5-0 start--including one victory that my son and I saw in person--the real thing?

And then we go onto baseball, our national pastime.

Yes, lots of baseball news in November.

If you like trades, the Jose Reyes trade from the Marlins to the Blue Jays is a blockbuster, once again totally depleting the Miami team and fortifying the Toronto team, making them contenders with just about every other team in that division (except the Red Sox).

And to make matters even more interesting, the leagues announced their respective Cy Young Award winners yesterday, signifying that these two pitchers were the best at what they did last season.

David Price of the Rays won in the American League, and R.A. Dickey of the Mets won in the National League.

No real surprises here. Price and Dickey dominated their leagues, even though neither team they pitched for made the playoffs.

In fact, the Mets were so bad last year--only prevented from ending up in last place in their division by the totally awful and now dismantled Marlins--that Dickey was probably the one and only bright spot they had last year.

And the two pitchers couldn't be different.

Price is a sleek, classic pitcher with an assortment of nasty pitches. He throws hard.

Dickey, once a pitcher to kick around, throws just about one pitch now, and he throws soft.

He throws a knuckleball.

Not too many knuckleballers are successful, and not too many win the Cy Young Award.

None did before Dickey, but Dickey was so dominant most of the time, that voters simply could not ignore him.

So right in the middle of November, with frost on the cars that survived Hurricane Sandy, the focus is on baseball.

Incredible!

The national pastime lives on and on and on.

No matter how many ignorant people knock it, it stands as the only 12-month-a-year sport.

And I love it, I really do.

Rant #845: Getting Better All the Time

Yes, things are getting better all the time.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter that followed, things are really getting better, at least for most of us that were greatly impacted by those weathre disturbances.

Just about all of us have power, which is a major step in the right direction.

Gas lines have either shortened to next to nothing or they don't exist at all.

Yes, things are getting back to normal.

But for many, that just isn't the case.

Those who have lost their homes or are still flooded out of their homes don't know what normal is yet, and they won't know what it is for some time.

Many seaside communities are still without power, and many are so lacking that you can say that they are without hope.

Each home has to be inspected to see if it is safe to start up the power again.

The problem is that the water is still so deep in many cases that it isn't safe at all to turn on the juice.

And the inspection process is slow and arduous, and, of course, that really rankles people.

And that's for the people that still have some semblance of their homes.

Others are homeless, and will remain homeless for some time.

Housing has to be erected, to keep those people in their communities while they rebuild.

I am sure some people will just throw up their hands and leave, but others will stick it out.

Where they will stick it out is another problem, and that is why temporary housing is severely needed in some seaside areas.

This might be a somewhat nasty thing to say in light of these peoples' problems, but I am going to say it anyway.

If I had the money for a home, I would never, ever build near the water.

And I do mean never.

As a teenager, I had friends who lived right on the water. Their backyard was the Great South Bay.

I remember the mother saying that anytime there was a heavy rain, their basement leaked, and there really wasn't anything they could do about it.

That was a long time ago, and that family isn't there anymore.

I presume the house still is, and if it is, you can just imagine the damage that the hurricane inflicted on that house this time around.

Years ago, when my family was moving from Queens to Long Island, our family was supposed to live near the water, not on the water, but very much near it.

Happily, those deals fell through, and we moved to an area that is close enough to the water but far enough away.

Water is a great thing, it keeps us going, but as we saw this time, it can take away things from us too.

I hope those that have been ravaged by these weather disturbances can get their lives together, but as we have seen, it is going to be tough.

But for the rest of us, things are slowly, very slowly, getting better.

And that's good.

Rant #844: Diversions

Last week was an extremely hard week for everyone in my neck of the woods.

Hopefully, we are all getting back to a semblance of what we used to call normal.

But good or bad, this past weekend was planned by me months ago, and although Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter may have put a damper on it, my family and I still dove right into it.

On Friday evening, my son and I took in an NBA game, the New York Knicks versus the Dallas Mavericks at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks won, 104-94, and are currently the only team in the league with a perfect record.

But what's more interesting is that another phase of Madison Square Garden's renovation in in force, and for the life of me, I didn't know where I was going when we tried to get to our seats.

Evidently, certain escalators, entrances, and what I found out later, exits, are closed during the renovation, so it isn't a clear path to your seat anymore, especially if you sit in the fabled upper deck 400 seats.

So my son and I walked around, were completely lost, and even some ushers didn't know where we should go.

And for the first time in my life, I actually took an elevator in the Garden.

Finally, we found our seats, only to be told that they weren't our seats. We were in the wrong section, and had to move.

Funny, but we later found out the people sitting ahead of us in the were also in the wrong section, and had to move, too. They were from Ireland, and it was their first NBA game there.

On Saturday, it was my wife's birthday. She is five months older than me, but to me, she looks at least five years younger than she actually is.

Anyway, we did everything we normally do on a Saturday, and then in the evening, we went out big.

I spent a bundle at a local fish restaurant, and then we came home, and watched a movie that was better than I thought it would be, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter." This movie was out for about a day a few months back, but it kept my interest and was much more engrossing than I thought it would--or could--be.

Not the new Spielberg film, but a pleasant surprise.

On Sunday, we went to see the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall."

It was good, not great. Funny, the beginning of the film was good, the ending was good, but the middle was putting me to sleep. They could have cut at least a half hour from the film, but all in all, it was a good film.

It demonstrates the "bond" between boss "M" and her favorite agent, and that bond actually saves both of them throughout almost the entire film ... almost. I won't go into it if you didn't see it yet.

Daniel Craig is growing on me as Bond, but he is no Sean Connery, and he is not even George Lazenby, to be honest with you.

But he is OK, just not in the same league with the top Bond portrayers.

And if you see the film, the title song is OK, but Adele is no Shirley Bassey. The song needed the oomph Bassey would provide, but Adele just doesn't have it.

The other uncredited song in the film, which is not on the soundtrack as far as I can see, is "Boom Boom," but I couldn't make out what version this John Lee Hooker song was. It kind of sounded like the Animals' version, but I might be wrong on that one.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend after a horrible week. I was able to get gas with no problem, although the prices are starting to get crazy.

But at least I have gas.

I might add that my daughter and sister finally have power in their living quarters, just getting it this weekend. Thanks goodness for that.

Let's see what the week brings. It can't possibly be as bad as last week was.

(I'm off to the doctor, so I will speak to you again on Wednesday.)