Today, January 18, marks the 24th anniversary of ALL 50 states celebrating Martin Luther King Day. He was born Michael King on January 15, 1929. He would have been 88 last Sunday. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. This week there is a lot of op …
In January 2007, Apple announced that the first iPhone would shortly be released. It has been ten years since Apple’s first smartphone. Can it only be ten years ago? I was a late convert to iPhone, hanging on to my treasured Blackberry until my office manager literally refused to order me a new one. But the concept of smartphone was, and co …
In the world of social media, “likes” are very important. I recently noticed that my daughter had taken down a picture she had posted on Instagram. When I asked her why the photograph was removed she told me, “Because I didn’t get enough “likes” in the first hour it was up.” Based on my Facebook year end history I am a good “liker.” Apparently, …
In my weekly eve and weekend games, the same expectation applies to all players: Get open, get ball, shoot. And some I play with demonstrate phenomenal shots and range. I know my spots and when to slide or roll after a pick. Folks found the ball we used at our last session a bit heavy so maybe the usual bounce or roll that falls into the basket …
Have you every gotten frustrated and angry at our government institutions (I know;) Here's a captial idea...pay your government bill with pennies. In fact a business owner recently did this. Nick Stafford paid a DMV bill of $2,987.45 using five wheelbarrows filled with 300,000 pennies. The employees at the DMV office in Lebanon, Virginia were f …
Recently, Ben blogged re our most worthy Advocates initiative. Another of our great under the radar Gotham initiatives available to all members is our peer mentor program. Administered by Flo Feinberg, it matches Gotham peer members in a unique counter intuitive manner. We seek to hook up 2 people from 2 different worlds so that their shared exp …
Every week, on Friday afternoon, towards the end of the workweek, I get a subliminal message reminding me to wish a good friend a "Good Sabbath" - a "Shabbat Shalom" - in anticipation of the imminent arrival of sundown. We exchange the greeting, whether in a text message, voice call or, on rare occasion, in a face-to-face exchange, and whether init …
There are a lot of great films out there to be seeing. I find watching a movie, especially in a theater, to be a wonderfully uplifting experience. In hard times, a good film can really change my mood. First and foremost, you must see Hidden Figures. It is not because it is such an artfully crafted film, but because it has so many messages of hope …
Well, not really. Unless you are part of what has become a tradition around the world – No Pants Improv. Here’s how it works. Every January, a group of willing participants join a subway prank where random passengers board different subway cars and simultaneously drop their pants. They proceed as if they do not know each other wearing their h …
In Yiddish the word for jinx is kaynahora. Kaynahora is roughly similar to “knock on wood” and is often spoken to ward off a jinx after praise or good news. Kaynahora is a contraction of three Yiddish words: kayn ayin hara, literally not (kayn) the evil (hara) eye (ayin). Essentially, kaynahora is a word that one uses when they want to ward off the …
I already played two hours of (basket)ball, enough of a workout for any day. I did not anticipate that hours later another workout loomed. When I left early to drop off Shelly’s dad at a medical appointment before heading to the school to play, it snowed lightly. By the time a reached the school there was an inch covering the sidewalk. I was d …
This falls under a broad cateogry I've been calling "Trumpish." I define Trumpish as things people do in honor of Trump becoming our President. Case in point, a Washington state trooper ticketed a single driver trying to get through the carpool lane with a giant cut-out of Donald Trump's head. It cost the driver $136 but the trooper let him kee …
For me 2016 was a very good year. Some highlights: Joanne and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We visited Cuba. A once in a lifetime, never again experience. Gotham held its best event in it's, about to be, 20 year history; author Tom Rinaldi's Red Bandanna book celebration of Welles Remy Crowther at a Gotham Book Club lunch at the Fr …
We recently visited the Mitzi Newhouse theater at Lincoln Center. As I walked down the stairs to the theater, I thought of the lockers that were available in the lobbies of the theaters at Lincoln Center. Convenient, especially in the winter, for coats. However, the lockers are gone -- removed many years ago for security reasons. In the lobby o …
A very moving experience at the movies on Monday. One of the previews showed a woman hiding Jews from the Nazis (The Zookeeper's Wife, true story). It is still astonishing and upsetting to me that humans could have let this happen. My hope and belief is that we will not let this happen again. We are certainly better equipped today than we were then …
