College Basketball Tonight

We went to CW Post this evening.  CW Post beat Franklin Pierce College 61-57.  For $5 a ticket, how could we go wrong.  It is certainly much cheaper than seeing the losing Knicks.

Reading Biographies during the Winter Break

I have in my bio that I am greatly interested in the popular music of the 1960s.  When I am not listening to the music of that decade I am often reading about it.  I just purchased from Amazon.com biographies of Donovan Leitch (http://www.donovan.ie ) and Mike Bloomfield (http://www.mikebloomfield.com ).  Donovan is a Scottish folksinger often called the British Bob Dylan.  I have several of his albums on Vinyl from the 1960s.  He just released a boxed set on CD, but why should I buy it if I have most of the recordings on vinyl.  I enjoyed the biography, but it stopped at 1969.  Although Donovan was not active in the music business after 1970, it would have been interesting to know what he was doing.  He did release a CD called Sutras in the 1990s. Mike Bloomfield was a blues guitartist from Chicago.  He played with The Butterfield Blues Band, the Electric Flag and with Al Kooper.  I have on vinyl his Supersession recording with Al Kooper.  Yesterday I downloaded his greatest hits from Itunes.  Sadly Mike died in 1981 at the age of 37.

2 Museums in 2 Days

Yesterday we went to the Cradle of Aviation Museum (http://cradleofaviation.org) located in Garden City Long Island.  Lee visited this museum some time ago with his Y group.  It is very similiar to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.  Charles Lindbergh took off from Mitchel Field which is near the museum.  Also Grumann and several other aviation companies existed on Long Island.  Today we went ot the Museum of Televsion and Radio (http://www.mtr.org) on 52nd Street in Manhattan.  We went to the museum and saw a Howdy Doody Show from 1952.  Karen is working on a jigsaw puzzle which shows the history of television.  Lee all of a sudden became intersted in the Howdy Doody puppet.  It satisfied his curiosity to see a Howdy Doody Show.  We also saw the premier of the Johnny Cash TV show from 1969 which featured Bob Dylan and Joanie Mitchell.  We also saw Elvis Presley performing in Hawaii in 1973.

International House of Pancakes

For the first time in about a year the family ate breakfast at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) on Northern Blvd and 156th Street.  I had my favorite breakfast dish, chocolate chip pancakes.  The bill was about twice as high as our usual breakfast when we go to Uncle Bill's Diner in the Pathmark Shopping Center.  When you go to the IHOP you are paying for the name of the restaurant.  We went to the multiplex to see Cheaper by the Dozen 2 with Steve Martin.  It's nice to have the entire week off.

King Kong 2005

When you are Jewish, there is nothing much to do on Christmas day.  Gentiles generally stay home, open their gifts and have a big family dinner.  Today, the three of us went to see the new version of King Kong.  It was the same story of the original from the 1930s but of course used new computer technology.  These fantasy movies are for kids anyway.  It was good to get out the house for a few hours.

Oy Vey: A New York City Transit Strike

I live in Queens, NY and commute by public transportation to Newark, NJ where I work at a university. I take the subway to Penn Station and then New Jersey Transit to Newark. I have decided to stay home and use vacation time instead of trying to drive in. I would have to go across the Whitestone Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway to the George Washington Bridge. Traffic is tough enough on a normal working day. It would be impossible during a transit strike.  For 13 years I have schlepped by public transportation to my job.  Over that time period I've had an exemplary record of attendance and punctuality.  On snowy mornings I have arrived much earlier than people who live in New Jersey and drive to work.  For once I have decided to put my personal needs ahead of my job which I have grown to hate.  13 years of loyalty and excellent service did not qualify me for any kind of promotion.  I have plenty of vacation time which I can use for this strike.  I would rather lose this time than aggravate myself trying to fight the traffic.  I understand the Transport Workers need for a fair and equitable contract.  Striking and imposing a hardship on 7 million New Yorkers is not the way to solve a labor dispute.  Under the Taylor law the union will be heavily fined for this illegal strike.  Let's hope for a short strike.

Basketball/Movies

On Saturday night we went to Queens College to see them beat C.W. Post 84-68.  It is Division II basketball, but it is certainly a bargain.  We pay $5 for adults and $3 for Lee as a student.  It is certainly cheaper than paying $40/ticket to see the Knicks who are now 6-17 under multimillion dollar coach Larry Brown.  On Sunday we went to the movies.  We were going to see King Kong, but we would have to wait for 2 hours.  Instead we saw Just Friends.  It seems that it the "In Thing" to go to a blockbluster movie on the opening weekend.  We'll wait until next. week.  Now I will have to sweat out the threatened transit strike for Tuesday.  If they pull it off, I will use vacation time.  Why should I struggle with Bumper to Bumper traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway to stare out at a computer lab.

Even the threat of a transit strike stinks

There was a threat of a transit strike for 12 midnight.  I commute from Queens to NJIT in Newark, NJ.  I take the subway to Penn Station and from there New Jersey Transit to Newark.  If there was a transit strike, I would have to drive across the Bronx to the George Washington Bridge and down to Newark.  Traffic would really be a nightmare.  Who needs the aggravation.  If there was a transit strike, I would take vacation time.  Even the threat of a strike creates anxiety.  When I woke up this morning, there was no settlement, but the trains were still running.  I decided not to go to work. I was just afraid that the union would commence a strike in the middle of the day leaving me stranded.  It turned out that the trains were running all day after all.  There is a threat of a strike now for Tuesday.  By being absent today, I missed a boring staff meeting.

College Basketball Weekend

It's Sunday night, I'm writing this blog entry and am listening to Sound of the Sixties with Brian Matthew.  I seem to be falling into a pattern.  Anyway we went to two college basketball games this weekend.  On Saturday we went to Queens College were we saw Queens beat Bentley College 87-79.  Today we drove out to Hofstra in Hempstead where the Hofstra Women lost to St. Johns 71-65.  College basketball games are very inexpensive, about $8.  For the Knicks we would have to pay $40 a ticket to sit in the stratosphere.  Even with Larry Brown as coach the Knicks are struggling at 6 - 13.  We will see our one Knick game of the season on King Day.

Crummy weather today

There was light snow this morning which later turned to rain.  It was only about an inch, but it kept me inside most of the day.  Maybe you can call it Seasonal Affective Disorder or Cabin Fever, but I just hate being cooped up in the apartment.  The winter hasn't started yet.  We saw the movie Mine, Yours, and Ours at the College Point Multiplex.  It is nice to have a movie theater complex within walking distance.  I must get out of the house even in the worst weather.  yester we drove out to Hofstra University to see the mens' basketball team beat the University of Delaware 79-65.  When I got home I listened to the return of Musicradio WABC 77.  People are still venting after WCBS-FM abruptly dropped oldies for the Jack format last June.  Back to work tomorrow.  I have to put up with the bean counters and bureaucrats in the NJIT Library.