Leaky Faucets

We just got caller ID last month and it is already paying off.  The Democratic National Committee has tried to reach me five times in the past three days to no avail.  You think I’m going to knowingly answer a call from them? I know what they want.

This sign (partially obscured by the overgrown shrubs) on the awning of a building on 73^rd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, could be in danger of being removed.  Why?  Because dentist Myron J. Thurm has a new partner, and he is a dentist, unlike his former partner also named Dr. Thurm who I assume is his brother.  The other Dr. Thurm is (was?) a podiatrist.  Hence, the “Center for Teeth and Feet.”  Not too long ago the name of the Feet half of this unusual medical duo was unceremoniously removed from a smaller white sign in front of the apartment building where their office occupies the ground floor.  What happened to the partnership, I wonder.  And more importantly, will the sign on the awning be changed to reflect the new configuration?  Perhaps, in the same spirit, the office will be re-christened “Center for Teeth and Teeth.”  For the sake of my daily amusement, I hope the sign remains as is.

Am I getting old or is punk becoming more accepted by the mainstream? Or both? These questions were prompted by my shocked viewing of a new AARP commercial yesterday featuring the Buzzcocks’ “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays.” Admittedly, the song is pretty poppy and certainly palatable to the mainstream, but the Buzzcocks never were mainstream. Apparently, the people this ad is aimed at are both near retirement and around the same age as the band. I grew up listening to them although this song came out when I was six. Current retirees would most likely be too old to have listened to the Buzzcocks. Other old punk songs have turned up in commercials such as Nike’s use of the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy”and the Royal Caribbean cruise line’s misuse of Iggy’s “Lust for Life.”  I guess there comes a time when aging punk rockers need money so they sell their songs to anyone who has the money and wants to appear to be a hip brand. But AARP?

We were walking one way and they were going the other way. The two of them were struggling with too many bags. Just after they passed I happened to look down on the sidewalk. There was a bill there. A fifty. I thought that perhaps one of them dropped it so I tried to call after them. They didn’t respond. I have no idea if it was theirs or not; I did not see it drop. It probably wasn’t theirs. But it didn’t feel like mine either. Normally, I would feel so amazingly lucky to find money on the ground, let alone a fifty which you don’t see too often. I could spend it on something frivolous or take it to the race track or to Atlantic City with the thought that this lucky note has some more luck into it. But, I would probably lose it all in five minutes time.

But this time I couldn’t shake the feeling that my good fortune was the result of someone else’s good fortune. I didn’t want the bad karma. Not now. So I quickly made up my mind that I’d give it away. But to who? The homeless couple who almost always inhabit the Roosevelt Avenue subway station? I thought about it as we passed. I could really make their day. Their year, even. But what would they spend it on. Booze perhaps or cigarettes. That’s what Aya thought. (Once, when I gave a homeless man in D.C. a ten dollar bill on a particularly good day, he gave me a bear hug. I don’t think I needed that kind of appreciation.) So, I kept it. I’d give it to a reputable charity, something associated with children. I recently met a young girl afflicted with spina bifida, a terrible birth defect. I did some research and found the Spina Bifida Association. They got the fifty though via credit card. The actual fifty went to Nick’s Pizza.

This photo was snapped yesterday outside the 165th Street Bus Terminal in Jamaica, Queens, just down the block from my office. This is a reprisal in miniature of the massive outpouring of grief that occurred when former Run DMC dj Jam Master Jay was murdered execution style in the early morning hours in his recording studio on this very block over four years ago. The news media covered it for a few days so the dreary block where I work was showcased to the city and even the world. That wasn’t the first time gun violence effected my work neighborhood in the nearly five years that I’ve been there. Once, we heard gunshots on Jamaica Avenue at midday followed by cops sprinting after unseen assailants. The Colosseum Mall behind the Bus Terminal was also the scene of a robbery/murder in the bathroom of the lower level, which also occurred during daylight hours.

Jam Master Jay, a local Queens hero, will always live on in the minds of his fans and violence in Jamaica is still as strong as ever with the recent killing of an unarmed man named Sean Bell by undercover cops putting the neighborhood in the media focus like never before. Maybe some day there will be some good news out of Jamaica.

 ”Some are trying to say that because we’re enforcing, helping ourselves in Iraq by stopping outside influences killing our soldiers and hurting Iraqi people that we want to expand this beyond our borders. That’s a presumption that’s simply not accurate,” Bush said.

–George W. Bush

Is this a Freudian slip or did Bush mean to say Iraq’s borders?  I suspect that it is the former.  Remember what Colin Powell said abou the Pottery Barn rule: you break it, you own it?  Well, perhaps, the Bushies are taking this to the extreme thinking that they have officially annexed Iraq.

A couple of thoughts on last night’s State of the Union because I don’t want to spend too much time on it.  In fact, I already spent way too much time watching it.

I kept thinking: Madame Speaker, this is your chance to thrust a sharp object into the President’s back.  When else are you going to be sitting behind him like this with such a clear shot?

At the same time, I amused my self with the thought of the Speaker and the Vice President engaging in a slap fight while Bush was speaking.  That sounds like something out of Saturday Night Live, I know, but I had to entertain myself somehow.  The speech itself was dreadful.  I have no doubt, that Nancy would get the better of Dick; he’d probably have a heart attack after one slap across the face.

Bush said the word “terrorist” at least 12 times and “war on terror” at least four.  I know.  I counted.  Actually, when you think about it, that count is probably way lower than past State of the Union addresses.

He stated that Hezbollah has killed the second most Americans after al Qaeda.  Really?  How many? When?  Is he referring to the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983?  If so, I think that’s a little old to bring up at this point.

When they showed Robert Gates, I couldn’t help thinking that I miss Rumsfeld.  I don’t know why, but I just do.

I must have been zoned out at the time, but Aya said Bush finally said “nuclear” correctly.  However, he still has trouble with the land mass holding the two Koreas.  You know, the Korean Peninchula.

Why was Dikembe Mutombo sitting next to Laura Bush?  I just didn’t get that at all.  He was a poor African and now he’s an American citizen thanks to his unusual size and ability to dunk a basketball.  Wow, I feel better now.

Over all, the speech was completely devoid of any real ideas.  It was not very interesting at all, and there wasn’t even that much to make fun of.  What a waste of time.

Aya’s impulsiveness and spontaneous nature are part of what I love about her.  (Sometimes, these traits can drive me crazy too.)  The other day, we were walking down Roosevelt Avenue and we passed by a store called ‘A Quilter’s Notion.” She just had to go in.

Suddenly, she was overcome with this sense that she had to start knitting again.  I never knew that she knew how to knit but apparently she did at one point.  She was more than willing to start over again from scratch especially with the specter of labor in the very near future.  She was eager to find new hobbies to preoccupy herself in order to ignore the pain and discomfort of the contractions as much as possible.  That certainly seems like a reasonable idea.

The past few days, since she bought her knitting needles and yarn, she has jumped into her new hobby with gusto as she always does when she finds something new that interests her.  Last year, it was the piano.  Before that it was doing triathlons.  So every spare moment she gets these days she finds herself under the spell of the knitting yarn.  Trancelike, she doesn’t seem to even know I’m there sometimes.  I guess I’m not quite as interesting as a spool of yarn.  I have no problem with it though.  This is a great distraction for her, and she may even end up completing a hat or something else for our coming baby girl.

 

  This guy has more balls than I do.  I toyed with the idea of wearing my NOFX “War on Errorism” t-shirt on the flight to the
Philippines but thought better of it so I didn’t.  It was probably a good thing I didn’t although I think it’s quite absurd that our freedoms—the very freedoms that Bush is supposedly fighting the terrorists to preserve—our being violated every which way possible by the U.S. and other governments including Australia and private industry that have fallen under the spell of this so-called war.

 

How legitimate can a newspaper be if they substitute advertising for editorial on the front page?  The Daily News today included an ad for Boost Mobile on both the front and back cover.  The front of the tabloid is usually devoted to a sensationalistic headline while the back is reserved for sports.  I believe this is called a cover wrap, and it is the latest example of advertising trumping everything else in this country.  Everything is for sale, especially in the struggling newspaper industry.  If The New York Times starts putting ads on their page one, the industry’s apocalypse will be close at hand.