Entries Tagged 'Editorial' ↓

A tour through one of the most influential years in America, with Steven Spielberg, E.T. the beginnings of rap, hip-hop, and break dancing, arcade video games, home video games, $99 personal “computers,” 44 channels of cable TV, a major recession, the unveiling of the Vietnam Memorial, the first word processor used by Steven King which costs $12,000, fads that are returning today – such as the Smurfs and 3D glasses for TV, and finally one of the worst cars ever made by General Motors which directly led to their bankruptcy in 2009.

Elaine Crane, 82, and husband Ralph Crane, 87, have been volunteering for two decades feeding the hungry in Flint, Michigan. They pick up excess food from an area supermarket that has short shelf life and make an 18-mile journey throughout Flint, delivering it to various charities.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh those lazy bums can’t help themselves.’ They don’t realize, especially right now, things are getting worse, it looks to me like, anyway. Do you get the idea we enjoy what we do when we can help just a little bit?” Elaine says.

Ralph’s had a stroke and I’ve had just about everything taken out of me that you can have taken out, but it’s not stopping us. If more people would do just a little bit of something, we’d be so much better off.”

I came across this photo and caption and was not prepared for what I saw. I guess what really messed me up was the pained look on her face. The image and what it meant knocked me out of my chair. When I got back up, and looked at the photo again, I wondered how in the hell I was supposed to dismiss this. Like so many other news stories and photographs I come across, 9/11, layoffs, murder, death, natural disasters, national tragedies, it’s easy to turn the page.

But not her. Just look at her.

Here she is, trekking all over the city delivering food to charities that feed hungry people and yet she clearly is in dire need of help herself. She looks like she can barely walk.

And it’s winter. Michigan winter. It’s a freezing, cold, mind-numbing hell. Yet there she is, ignoring her own death like an african lion ignoring a fly. Neither can apparently be bothered with such idle curiosities.

Are these people, like Mr. & Mrs. Crane – who are completely invisible to us – the reason our society can exist? And is it because there are so few people like them we are in the shape we are in today?

“If more people would do just a little bit of something…”

‘A little bit of something?!?’ I thought. I stared at her face again. Twenty years of “little bits of something.” I wonder what it adds up to? It’s incomprehensible, so don’t try. Twenty years.

So many lives they must have touched. How many children have they helped feed? Children who grew up and had a chance to get out of poverty and make something of themselves. Do these people know Mr. and Mrs. Crane even exist?

I stared at the photograph again. I think she’s standing in a doorway, perhaps that very supermarket, waiting to carry food back to that van so she can deliver it where its needed. I can see her now, struggling; ever carry a case of canned food? It weighs as much as she does. I desperately want to run into that photo and help her, tell her she’s done enough already. I want to apologize to her on behalf of our pathetic, worthless society that needs a tired, elderly woman to do its charity work.

But I can’t run in to help her. It’s just a picture… I stare at it one last time.

And right there, this 82 year-old woman has shown me just how absolutely irrelevant the rest of us are.

Today is the 13th anniversary of my landing in NYC for the first time. I chose the moon landing anniversary as a metaphor to boldly try something new, unexplored, and out of my comfort zone. I did fly First Class though, I wanted to arrive in style!

I love New York more than anything, even when she gets me down and I take a break, I still look forward to coming back. New York is my home and it will be for years to come.

I think about how much it has changed me, and yet how much I have felt like I’ve always belonged here.

Thank you for welcoming me and taking good care of me New York, New York.

Excellent article in today’s Travel section of the New York Times about how airlines have to – by law – compensate you when you are delayed or your flight is canceled.

For example, if you’re on a flight from Paris to New York that is canceled because of engine trouble and you’re put on another flight that lands more than four hours after your original arrival time, your compensation would be 600 euros ($700 bucks!)

Wow.

Grady from Sanford & Son is back in an iPhone 4 Facetime commercial!

(P.S. Not the real Grady but sure does remind me of him!

Check out this travel gadget article from the New York Times.

Ugh. Love you NYT, but your gadget writing abilities on a few subjects are sorely lacking. Let me give you a little perspective here…

1. Don’t ever pay attention to any so-called “National TSA” rules. Each and every TSA employee interprets things differently. Every time I fly via EWR or JFK they make me take my iPad out even… though its “national TSA policy” that an iPad is not required to be taken out of luggage. “National TSA policy” does not apply to NYC-area airports. Believe me!

2. Take a look at those bulky, monster-sized headphones. You wanna carry those backpacking through Europe? Anyone that carries noise-canceling headphones is wasting their time… and luggage space!

Apple’s $79 earplug earbuds cut outside noise by 80% (my own estimate). These earplug earbuds weigh .4 ounces! That’s right, less than HALF AN OUNCE. Remember these are ear *plugs* that have speakers inside. When properly inserted you can’t hear a dang thing other than the music, movie, or audiobook. Apple generously includes not one, not two, but three different earbuds in one package, and also includes replacement metal meshes for you heavy earwax people (yuk!)

My grandfather, Captain Robert K. Chittle (China Burma India “Hump” C-47 pilot) with his wife Jessie, 1945. He made Major before he left the service. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his perilous flights over the Himalayan mountains, supplying the Flying Tigers and ground fighters who were fighting the tough Japanese forces. These stories and more are currently featured in The Pacific on HBO.

Many pilots never made it back from these flights and were never heard from again. They called the hump “Aluminum Alley” because of all the crashed planes.  When my grandfather returned home, several major airlines offered him a job. He ended up joining his family’s restaurant supply business in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, where he retired in 1983.

He and my grandmother are still alive and well today!

My brother and me, circa 1977, in my Star Wars sheets.

The Archandroid the new record from Janelle Monae is R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S! Full of banging beats, that classic Prince sound but with her own twist – she establishes herself as a full fledged, wide-ranging artist. This album is musically complex and dares to challenge the listener to keep up! Listen to “Mushroom & Roses” fewer songs have come as close to capturing that trippy Sgt. Peppers-era Beatles sound. Hats off to the production team!

The album is a sweet blend of folk, pop, rap, R&B, rock, and swings from beginning to end – it’s groovy as hell, sounding modern and classic all at once.

One minor downside – she doesn’t “quite” have Whitney Houston’s vocal range and punch, but she does cut through the mix and I like her delivery better than say, Mariah Carey, who tries too hard.

This album is one of those you’ll be listening to for years and years to come. It’s timeless, not overprocessed or cliched.

Janelle Monae, you have arrived.

Here’s a hilarious e-mail I got from a buddy of mine, who is white and lives in the very black, often dangerous Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. This is where Everyone Hates Chris, Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, Clockers, and Summer of Sam were filmed.  The Notorious B.I.G Biggie Smalls is from here. Not exactly suburbia, which is why I like my friend so much. Why settle for a less than ordinary life. The NYPD 79th Precinct reports that crime, while “down” isn’t exactly unheard of. [PDF of crime stats]

Dear Shawn:

I call for a delivery pizza on Halsey. I know the usual guys. Nice kids.

After a one-hour wait, delivery guy calls my cell. “I’m out front.” This usually isn’t the case as they just knock on my window as the shade is open, and you can see well into the living room and kitchen.

I let him in, same as Fresh Direct, Thai, Chinese…but its obvious he’s from northeast Bed-Stuy. He pauses and as I go for my wallet I ask him to set it down on the kitchen island, same as the usual guys.

He comes in, I introduce him to my little kids who are watching Sesame Street on DVR.

He glazes over and here’s where it goes nutso.  He sets down the pizza and pulls out his pocket a sweaty bundle of $30 in singles and fives sets it all on the granite kitchen island.  He says “Here’s your change.”

I say “I haven’t paid you yet, and I don’t know how much I owe you.”

He’s a deer in headlights, dazed by the glow of two toddlers dancing to Elmo. He runs back out the door. “One second,” he says.

Shocked as he left all his change on the counter, he comes back in after two minutes, having left my front door open. “Twenty-one dollars” he says upon return.

I open my wallet, give him $25 and say “Keep it.”  He stalls. I tell him not to forget his change.  He grabs it, walks for the door. He has an indescribable look of confusion on his face.

As he leaves, I say “Have a great night!”

Seriously, the entire time I thought he’s spotted an alien. After living for three years in rural asia, that young man topped all my “never seen a caucasian” encounters.