LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD

 

As we approach the end of 2022, I acknowledge that there was much to celebrate this year. 

1. President Biden and the Democrats in Congress continued, and continues, to work to undo the damage done to America and the world by the Trump presidency and to deal with the problems facing our country today with competence, intelligence and integrity.

2. In November intelligence and patriotism won out over ignorance, bigotry and treason in my home state of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country.   

Unfortunately, the three absolute worst Republican Congresspersons - Taylor Greene, Boebert and Gaetz - won re-election.  Two complete morons and a suspected pedophile and sex trafficker.  This is a sad commentary on the state of ignorance, racism and bigotry in America today.

3. The Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud.

4. The January 6^th Committee completed its extensive investigation of the insurrection, released its report, and recommended criminal charges be filed against Trump.

There is much work to be done in 2023.  We must continue to be vigilant and to oppose and denounce the Republican Party and vote against all Republican candidates for all offices at all levels.

As I have said before in various venues, although it is beginning to finally attempt to distance itself from Trump and his lies, by continuing to embrace the racist, bigoted and repressive agenda of the fake Christian “Evangelicals” of the Religious Right today’s Republican Party remains the greatest threat to America, American values and American freedom and democracy.  The once “Grand Old Party” has truly become the White Christian Nationalist Party.

By playing down and whitewashing the January 6^th insurrection and opposing the work and findings of the January 6^th Committee, not because it believes the attack or the reasons for it to be legitimate but because it does not want to lose the votes of Trump’s cult of ignorant racists and bigots, the Republican Party has proven that it has no conscience and puts the Party’s interests, and remaining in power, ahead of the Constitution, democracy and the country.

And let us hope that 2023 brings the indictment, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment of Trump for his multitude of federal and state crimes.  It is vital for the future of our democracy that this corrupt, deplorable and despicable malignant narcissist be held accountable for his actions.

On a sad personal note, this year I mourned the passing of a long-time friend from grammar school, high school and college – Howard Levine.  We have been friends for almost 60 years - I believe we first met in the third grade.  In our high school and college days we were involved together in various political issues of the day – as leaders of the local Vote 18 campaign.  He is one of the small handful of friends from grammar school that I saw in person at least once a year every single year since we left school (at tax time).

TAFN

THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Robert D Flach

WORKS FOR ME

 

How about a helpful household hint?

I am always seeing fancy looking organizers and containers for storing office, household, workshop and other supplies on home improvement shows and in the aisles at STAPLES.  It appears that some are rather expensive.  However, I get all my business and personal organizers absolutely free!

I have found that the various plastic containers that food and household products come in are perfect organizers for holding different sized paper and binder clips, various sizes of sticky pads and smaller lined paper pads, stamps, pens and pencils, erasers, nails, screws, and other supplies.

For one, there is the containers that many “tv dinners” come in (the aluminum ones are no good).  And the brown container that holds three crème-filled cupcakes or clear container that holds cookies in a package.  They provide multiple sections for organizing clips and binders.

The green or blue containers that hold the Swiffer wet pads, or the generic alternative, come in several sizes and have many uses in the kitchen, bedroom, and office.

The round plastic containers that contain potato or macaroni salad from the supermarket or “Blimpie” are also good for holding small supplies.

I even make use of the metal Altoids containers.

Not only am I saving money, but I am recycling as well!

TAFN

THE BAYONNE BLEEDER

 

I recently read that a “Statue of Chuck Wepner, ‘The Real Rocky,’ unveiled in Collins Park” in his hometown of Bayonne.

 

Yes. Wepner, aka "the Bayonne Bleeder", was, surprising to me, Sylvester Stallone's "inspiration" for the character of Rocky Balboa.

 

Wepner was a liquor salesman in Hudson County NJ. We could always tell when he was making a sales call at Kilbride’s Bar, next to our office on Sip Avenue off Journal Square in Jersey City. His station wagon was detailed with a small red line along each side that ended in a pair of boxing gloves. And I think he had a boxing-related vanity plate, thought I don’t recall what it was.

 

Wepner’s claim to fame was a title bout with Mohammed Ali back in 1975.

 

I remember the week-end before the fight with Ali. I was at Jimmy Byrnes’ Sea Girt Inn with friends from college with whom I shared a summer home in Belmar. Wepner was there and drunk, and got up on the stage between band sets and bragged about how he was going to beat Ali. As I recall his reference to Ali included racial slurs, including the notorious “n” word.

 

The night of the fight I watched along with friends at Narrowback’s Bar on the Boulevard in the Heights section of Jersey City.

 

Here is a story I heard shortly after the fight. It was so long ago I don’t remember the source -

 

Wepner bragged all week to everyone, including his wife, that he was going to beat Ali. As he left for the Richfield Coliseum on the morning of the fight, he told his wife - “Honey, tonight you’re going to be sleeping with the champ.”

 

After the fight was over, with a not surprising conclusion, as Wepner was sulking in his dressing room his wife came in and asked him -.

 

“Is Ali going to send a car for me, or should I meet him at the hotel?”

 

An aside to my long-time friend and client Aditi Kinkhabwala, reporter for the CBS Sports cable network and frequent co-host of  "We Need to Talk", this is my only sports story.

 

TAFN

A HALF DOZEN MIRACLES

 

The Christmas season is underway.  Here are some things nobody ever told you about a Christmas classic.

We all know and love the 1947 film MIRACLE ON 34th STREET with Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, a very young Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies.  It is on everyone’s list of Top 5 Christmas movies, along with IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and WHITE CHRISTMAS.

Of course, 34th Street in the title refers to Macy’s Department Store, located on 34th Street at Herald Square in New York City.

It was remade in 1994 with Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, Mara Wilson, and Richard Attenborough as KK, written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Les Mayfield.  There were two major differences in the remake - Macy's department store declined involvement with the remake, so the fictitious "Cole's" was used instead of Macy’s, and the final court decision in the remake is based on a different reasoning than in the original film.

I remember the 1973 television version with Jane Alexander, David Hartman, Susan Davidson, and Sebastian Cabot.  The store was still Macy’s and the basis of the court decision was the same as the original movie.

There had been two previous tv versions.  A 1955 one-hour television adaptation, originally aired as an episode of “The 20th Century Fox Hour”, starred Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey (who starred as Dr Tom Horton for almost three decades on tv soap “Days of Our Lives”), Sandy Descher, and Thomas Mitchell.  Ed Wynn played Kris in a 1959 adaptation broadcast live and in color on NBC the day after Thanksgiving.  It also featured Orson Bean.

But did you know that there was a Broadway musical version?     HERE’S LOVE, with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for THE MUSIC MAN (the first Broadway musical I saw as a child – at age 5), opened on October 3, 1963 at the Shubert Theatre, and closed on July 25, 1964 after 334 performances and 2 previews.  I was in the audience for one of the 334 performances. 

HERE’S LOVE was directed by Stuart Ostrow and choreographed by Michael Kidd.  The cast included Janis Paige, Craig Stevens (aka tv’s Peter Gunn), Valerie Lee, and Laurence Naismith as Kris.  The classic song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" written by Willson in the early 1950s, was used in the show.

BTW – according to Wikepedia - “Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation in 1947 which starred the original cast including Natalie Wood. In 1948 it was done again on Lux, without Natalie Wood's participation, and it was adapted as a half-hour radio play on two broadcasts of Screen Director's Playhouse, all featuring Edmund Gwenn in his screen role”.  

TAFN