Rant #1,175: All Busted Up About the News

I watch at least one newscast each and every day on TV.

I know that we are being told that people are getting their news from the Internet nowadays, but I prefer the good old fashioned local news--and newspapers--to really keep me up to date on what is going on.

And as a man in the New York Metropolitan area, the female newscasters that are on the local newscasts today are about the nicest looking women that you could find.

Yes, this is the golden age of female newscasters in New York TV news.

One is prettier than the other, and while that is probably by design, their looks do grab you beyond the fact that these ladies are professionals in every way, shape and form.

But sometimes, they put their femininity first before their professionalism, and that is when they get in a little trouble.

The local Channel 5 weekend news has become notorious for this type of thing. Two of its female broadcasters, Christina Park, the anchor, and Audrey Puente, the meteorologist (and daughter of jazzman Tito Puente), are nice looking 30-something women, but they often wear outfits that make them the news, not what they are reporting on.

Both have good figures, and this was a problem for Park on Saturday night.

In the somewhat looser environment of this show versus the weekday programs, Park, who was recently pregnant and gave birth a few months ago, often wears outfits that highlight the upper part of her figure. She did this again on Saturday night, with a blouse with a plunging neckline that showed all the world that yes, she has quite a bit of cleavage.

Funny, but I have seen her wear even more cleavage-bearing tops in the past, but I am mentioning this recent situation because of the reaction later on.

Anyway, any which way he moved, the viewers focus had to be on her breasts because of what she was wearing. Today's women's outfits do bear a bit more than they did in past years, but she is the anchor of the weekend newscast, for crying out loud.

I mean, as a man, I didn't mind it at all, but evidently, someone at the station did.

As I was turning the channels on Saturday evening, it was time for the 10 p.m. newscast, and I just happened to turn it on.

Well, Park was wearing the same top, but lo and behold, it seemed to be a bit moved up on her upper part. Gone was most, if not all, of the cleavage that she had shown on the earlier newscast.

And on Sunday's newscast, she wore a somewhat more conserative outfit that didn't show much of anything.

Ladies, I don't know how women's clothing works, but evidently, Park made some type of adjustment to her wardrobe so she didn't show as much on the later newscast.

Bad for me as a male, but good for the newscast in general. The news is supposed to be the focus, not an anchorwoman's breasts.

But just looking around at local TV newscasts, as I said, this is the golden age of pretty females doing the news on local TV.

I am sure that every metropolitan area has their news hotties, but New York has gone overboard lately.

Heck, on one of the newscasts, we even have a traffic reporter who is a former beauty queen who has posed nude for Playboy in the name of Jill Nicolini on the local CBS affiliate here.

That used to be a career killer, but times have changed, and things like this, I guess, are thought to be a plus.

Although there are some very comely beauties on the network newscasts, the dress code remains a bit firmer on these shows, and the ladies are pretty much covered up from top to bottom.

But on the local newscasts, it seems that just about anything goes now.

After reading this article, you might not find Saturday night's latest bustup on YouTube, but look up any of the three women that I mentioned, and lots of their outfits have gone viral.

It isn't only me who has noticed, evidently.

Isn't this a nice way to begin our week?

Rant #1,174: Sleepless In New York

I am a light sleeper, always was, always have been, and I still am after nearly 57 years on this planet.

My mother has said that even as a baby, I wasn't much of a sleeper. I wouldn't sleep in the house, only when I was in the stroller outside, and since I was "Larry the Menace," my mother did everything she could to get me to sleep, including putting my stroller on the fire escape with me in it.

Yes, back in those days, you could do that with no worries at all.

Anyway, I am my mother's son, and she is a very light sleeper, too, as was her mother, my grandmother.

Some people can just sleep away the day, others need maybe four or five hours and they are ready to go.

My father is one of the all-time sleepers, as was his father, my grandfather. My father can sleep a whole day away if you let him.

As for me, on Thursday night, I was bushed. I fell asleep at 8 p.m.

But I woke up around midnight, found that my son was sleeping on the couch, put him to sleep, and here I am, around 1 a.m. in the morning, and I am typing this Rant.

Yes, tonight I can't go back to sleep.

My allergies are kicking in, which isn't helping. I feel all congested and restless because of it.

No, I know the idea has come into your head that I have sleep apnea. A few years ago, I was tested for this, and no, I don't have it.

I always had a solid five hour or so hour sleep each and every night, never woke up in the middle, and felt pretty rested up until about 19 years ago, when due to some financial problems I had--divorce, naturally--I took a job as an adult newspaper deliverer.

I had to be up before midnight to deliver the papers, and with my other full-time job that I had, I had little time for sleep.

There were days that I was literally up for more than 24 hours straight.

Anyway, I used to go to bed at 7:30, woke up at about 11:40, took a shower, and left for the depot.

I would get home, and when my son came into this world, I would feed him his bottle at about 3:30 a.m., watch "Gomer Pyle USMC" with him while I was feeding him--which was on the local ABC outlet here at about 4 a.m. back then--and put him back to bed. He was a good sleeper, way better than me, and rarely gave me a problem.

Then I would try to sleep for at least an hour or so, and then I would go to work.

This lasted for nearly a year, but let me tell you, it screwed up my sleeping forever.

I still haven't gotten over it fully, even though it is so many years ago.

Anyway, you try to have a good night sleep, because my sleep is fouled up for good tonight.

I am using this Rant as almost some type of sleep therapy.

Maybe when I am done with it, I can actually make myself go to sleep.

The typing is making me kind of tired, and maybe the night is not lost.

So good night to you, and I will speak to you again on Monday, hopefully more rested than I am right now.

Followup: It took me a while, but I did fall back asleep, and ended up oversleeping, so I got in maybe an extra 90 minutes of sleep time. I am bushed as I am typing this, but at least I did get back to sleep. Maybe I will have better luck tonight ...

Rant #1,173: Good Music

I don't think I am the only person who can say this, but I am going to say this anyway:

Is today's music the most horrid trash you have ever heard?

All the songs sound the same, no artists truly stand out, and electronics rate well over real instruments in these songs.

Sure, I will bet there are one or two of you out there who probably disagree, and that is OK.

I guess my generation was spoiled.

Being born in 1957, I was part of the first rock and roll generation, spearheaded by the music of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a host of other Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

Growing up in the 1960s, I was there when the Beatles took over the world, and all the other great acts followed, everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Dave Clark Five to the Monkees and on and on and on.

Sure, I was also there in the 1970s and beyond, when this music started to become corporate, but heck, there was still a lot of great stuff to choose from.

And that is the thinking behind my more than 10-year-old Yahoo Groups site, Alternative Top 40.

Each week, music lovers from around the world vote on between 12 and 20 songs as being their favorites of the week. Those songs that get the most votes remain on the poll, and can remain available for up to five weeks. Those that don't get the most votes are removed, and replaced by new songs.

It is as simple as that.

Most of the music I have put up in the past 10-plus years has been from the 1960s and early 1970s, but I have also uploaded music from the 1950s, the 1980s, 1990s, the early 2000s, and even the current time, the two latter dates mainly from classic artists who have something new to say through their music.

It is a fun site, nothing more than I described to you.

The reason I decided to trumpet the site today is that I am coming to the end of listening to every song I have put up there through my 2012-2013 season, a total of well more than 2,500 songs. They range from pop, rock, soul, and other musical genres.

I put them all on CD-Rs, and have been listening to them in the car since early this year.

I am just about done, and I really think I have uploaded a terrific cross-section of stuff during the past years to listen to.

So if you are into discovering music you never knew existed--or revisiting music that you might have forgotten--Alternative Top 40 is for you.

I put up a lot of B sides, album tracks, and other things from both popular artists and those who really never made it in America.

Just as an aside, the most popular artist on the site, with the most placements and total weeks on the weekly charts, is the Dave Clark Five.

However, the most popular artist in terms of numbers of full placements on the chart versus songs on the chart--eeking out five total weeks on the most songs--I believe is the Beatles, naturally.

Just so you know, the Rolling Stones haven't done very well on the chart, but Petula Clark has. The Lovin' Spoonful have not done too well, but Cheap Trick has.

You can't figure this thing out, and neither can I, which makes the whole thing that much more fun.

Please visit the site at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AlternativeTop40/info.

You won't be sorry that you did.

Rant #1,172: Up To the Challenge

It goes without saying that I had a horrible day on Monday, got little accomplished, although I did get the satisfaction that at least I tried to do something, and I am supposedly pointed in the right direction now.

We will see.

The only good thing that I was able to do that day was to see my son play basketball in the Challenger Basketball League contest held at a local middle school.

This is a really great program, and with my son's impending graduation, this is it for him in the league. Monday was his final game.

The league is made up of kids who have some type of developmental disability, everything from simple learning disabilities to more serious problems.

These kids would never get the chance to play in an organized sport like this if it weren't for this league.

They get to wear the jerseys of their high school, there are cheerleaders, the works.

It makes these kids feel very important, and the fact of the matter is, they are important.

And it is important for these kids to get exercise, because with their various problems, these children are often couch potatoes, including my son.

Nowadays, there are numerous programs like this, and my son bowls in a Saturday afternoon league with much the same aim: get some exercise, socialize, and have fun.

My son's team lost, and they ended their season at 1-3.

But it really didn't matter. The kids had lots of fun, and felt good about themselves as the game progressed.

My son actually scored 12 points, had a couple of rebounds, and did pretty well.

But honestly, if he didn't score a point or grab a rebound, that would have sufficed.

He was having fun, and that is all that counted.

My son will miss this league when he graduates, but I am sure he will move onto something else as he starts his post-high school career.

But I am sure that he will never forget the fun that he had in this league.

I know that I won't.

Rant #1,171: 21st Century Circus

Well, yesterday was as an exasperating day as I have ever had.

I won't go into too many details, but the bureaucracy--and trying to maneuver yourself through it--is alive and well.

I did make some inroads toward the end of the day, so it wasn't a day wasted--although it almost was.

Enough about that. How about we talk about professional wrestling?

My son and I went to another show at the Nassau Coliseum on Saturday night, a house show in the so-called "Road to Wrestlemania."

All that this means is this was a house show--an untelevised event put on by the WWE--that is just one of many that leads up to the big Wrestlemania show in early April.

Nothing of consequence happens at a house show, so the crowds are less than they would be for a televised event.

In fact, with Monday's Raw show at the nearby Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, this was nothing by an afterthought to most wrestling fans, and thus, the place might have been half full.

But as usual, it was a good show for what it was, but the future for professional wrestling shows like this is cloudy on Long Island.

For the first time that we have been going to house shows, the WWE did say they would be returning to Long Island "in the future." Usually, they give you a date and say that tickets would be on sale right after the show.

But they didn't do that this evening, and the reason is that the future for the existing Nassau Coliseum is something that will unfold during the next few years.

The plan is that the Coliseum is going to be redeveloped and repurposed, all under the auspices of the same people who created the Barclay's Center, so you know that they will make a nice venue, but one that really won't compete with the one in Brooklyn.

The Coliseum's main tenant, the New York Islanders hockey franchise, is moving to Brooklyn after it completes the 2014-2015 season, so it has just one season to go in the existing Coliseum.

The venue has numerous attractions slated for the next year, but after that, it will be at least two years to complete the newer, smaller, Coliseum and all the other improvements the area has been slated for.

Thus, the next few years are kind of murky for the WWE on Long Island.

Its main competition, TNA Wrestling, usually has its own house show at what used to be called Westbury Music Fair. It is a nice venue for a concert--maybe the best around for its size--but for wrestling, it is a bit too small for the wrestlers to really do very much.

There are no comparable larger venues to the Coliseum around on the Island, and with Barclay's Center just miles away, the WWE probably isn't sweating this thing out.

So, on Saturday night, we might have seen the last show for the WWE on Long Island for a long, long time, if not forever, depending on just what happens with the Coliseum as it is rebuilt.

Will it be big enough for the WWE--which regularly sells out larger arenas, especially when it broadcasts one of its shows from that particular arena--of usually 15,000 to 20,000 fans?

I don't know, but at least I can say I was there if, in fact, this is it for now between the marriage of Nassau Coliseum and the WWE.

Funny, if that is the case, it will be the second such occurrence in my lifetime.

I was also there for the final games of the old ABA with the old New York Nets, who also now reside in Barclay's Center.

I was there for that league's final championship before it was merged into the NBA--those were the days of a young Julius Erving, and the games were really memorable.

I was there with friends, and I will never forget those games, and the Nets won that last championship of that league.

So it will be two times that I went down for the count with the Nassau Coliseum.

Let's see what the future brings, but I will tell you that if the WWE does come to the Coliseum at least one more time before the work begins, I will be there.

Like they say in the WWE, "It's best for business," at least their business, and I look forward to seeing them again sometime, someday soon.

Rant #1,170: The Best of Ranting and Raving #3: Breast Legal Practices

I have to take today off from work due to a previously unforeseen matter that I have to clear up. I did not know until late last week that this was something that I had to do--it has to do with my son and the programs that he has available for him once he graduates--and, unfortunately, it is something I can't do while at work.

So, I figured it was time to present to you another breast ... err ... best of Ranting and Raving, this one going back to Rant #515 from a couple of years ago.

Here it is. Enjoy.

"Leave it to the New York Daily News to find this story hiding under a rock somewhere ...

A Chicago lawyer is saying his opponent in a small claims case is using his paralegal's large breasts to distract the jury.

Attorney Thomas Gooch, who is representing a car dealership, filed a motion last week asking Judge Anita Rivkin-Carothers to force the opposing lawyer's buxom assistant to sit in the audience, rather than at the plaintiff's table.

Gooch (yes, that is his real last name) said his opposing lawyer, Dmitry N. Feofanov, is using Daniella Attencia to draw the attention (get it Attencia-attention) of the jury away from the proceedings.

Feofanov insists that Attencia is his paralegal, and he needs her for his case.

Gooch, on the other hand, thinks that she is just there to show off her ample bosom, and isn't a paralegal at all.

"Personally, I like large breasts," Gooch was reported to have said. "However, I object to somebody I don't think is a qualified paralegal sitting at the counsel table -- when there's already two lawyers there -- dressed in such a fashion as to call attention to herself."

Feofanov said he's got paperwork to prove she's legit.

Evidently she has been paid as a paralegal before, but Gooch said that even though she has been paid as one, it doesn't make her one.

(The photo I used today is totally unrelated to the story. It is the cleanest photo I could find related to the search "busty lawyer.")

I don't know about this one. Just because a woman has an ample figure, does that preclude her from working on a law team?

On the other hand, if you see how some women dress today--even to work--with their you know whats bouncing and hanging out all over the place--don't you think the woman, or even the lawyer she is working with, know what she is doing?

There are scant few pictures of Attencia on the Web (rats!), so I can't judge for myself.

But again, should a woman's ample figure bar her from court proceedings?

All who believe that probably believe that a woman like this was born to do porno films, and that is it.

On the other hand, if her ample endowments are on display in the court, wouldn't you say that is wrong too?

Personally, I don't want to be Solomon here, making the breast, err, best decision about this woman and why she is in the courtroom.

But I think that Gooch should get her eyes of this woman's breasts and back to his legal briefs. (And keep on his other briefs, while he is at it.)

I'm sure his client would want that from him.

As for Attencia, well, let's see more of her on the Web. Then we can judge for ourselves what's going on.

C'mon, more Attencia on the Web.

Please.

The latest wrinkle in this case is that Atencia is actually Feofanov's wife! Stay tuned, this might get more interesting!"

Followup: I could not find anything alluding to this case and its aftermath, and I could not find any photos of Ms. Atencia online that would point to her breasts as being the focal point of this case. I posted a picture of her, but it does not show much of anything, other than she is a nice looking woman facially.

I do know that her hubby the lawyer defended her left and right for her appearance, and didn't deny that she has a huge chest, but also said that he was not using it as a distraction.

But as far as evidence one way or the other, I don't have any.

So I will rest my case.

Rant #1,169: Spring Has Sprung

Today is the first full day of spring.

Spring sprung on us at 12:57 p.m. yesterday, right in the middle of my lunch break, so today is the first full day of spring.

Although the so-called "winter from hell" could have been much, much worse in my neck of the woods, it was pretty bad as it was.

I believe we have had the seventh worst winter in our history, just a little behind the sixth and all the way to the second or third.

The way they rate snowfall is not by winters, but by total snowfall from October-April, so we still could move up there if we get some more snow--and I believe there is some precipitation in the forecast for late next week, when it gets like 20 degrees colder than it is now.

But it could have been worse.

I remember the winter of 1995-1996, when we got more than 90 inches of snow, compacted into about two or three major snowstorms.

That was horrible. I was out of work, which made the whole thing even worse, but I also found a job in the middle of winter, too, the job that I am still at, 18 years later.

As a kid, you can't help but love the snow.

You take your sled out, find a hill, and shoot down it in reckless abandon. I know that I sure did.

As an adult, you hate the snow. It is a nuisance driving, you have to shovel, and it always comes at the wrong time.

So I wish this past winter season, at least, a hearty "goodbye" and hope for a much better spring season.

The weather is getting warmer, we haven't had any real snow in a few weeks, and heck, the ballplayers are getting ready in Florida and Arizona for another season, so that signals to me that the warm weather is right around the corner.

Good, because at this juncture, my bones ache, my allergies are killing me, and I am feeling much older than my 56 years.

And next month I gain a year, to boot, so heck, BRING ON THE WARMER WEATHER ALREADY!

Here comes summer ...