Mac Davis - Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me - Country Crossover

 

I just heard this on Willie's Roadhouse on Sirius/XM.  It hit #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart in 1972 so it can be considered a country crossover.  It is a message to the young ladies who started chats with me as discussed in my last journal entry.  One of them said she loved me, but stopped chatting with me when I didn't want to invest in Bitcoins.

My Experiences with Chatting with Younger Women Through Social Media

 

Warning - this journal article is much longer and somewhat more personal than my usual commentaries

Over the past several months I have had some experiences chatting with much younger women who somehow find me.  In all cases I advise the young lady that I am a widower and 75 years all.  In every case the women said that age is just a number, and they thought they could learn from an older person.  The problems with chats are they are very time consuming, and I never know when there is a hiatus or if the chat relationship is over. In any event, I feel that there is nothing to gain by chatting with someone from afar as there is no chance of meeting them in person.  You never know when the person is assuming another identity (catfishing).  Inevitably the chat ends.

 Let me relate a few experiences:

I “met” Carolyn on Facebook when I made “friends” with her when I should not have.  She said she lost her husband two years ago and had a five-year old son.  After several days of chatting, she said she desperately needed money to pay her rent.  Like a fool, I sent her a small amount of money.  A few days later she asked me for more money, and I refused.  That chat ended but seven months later she restarted the chat.  She said she moved from West Virginia to Ohio and the abruptly ended the chat again. Conclusion – Romance Scam.

Connie read one of my Facebook posts and said they were interesting and wanted to become friends.  When we started chatting, she said she was in the U.S. Army stationed in Syria.  She started to call me Honey and Dear and said I was her best friend.  How could I be her best friend if we never had met. Romance Scam.  She asked me to buy her a Steam Card since she could not use her credit card until she returned to the U.S.  I refused and she ended the “relationship”.  About a year later I got a friend request from Tessa.  When I saw her picture, it was Connie.  It was obviously a Catfish.

Allyson like Carolyn lost her husband at a very young age.  She has two small children and lives near Baltimore.  She was originally from Memphis, but moved away after both her parents, husband, and sister passed away.  After a while she started to call me honey and dear, so I suspected a romance scam coming.  I was right as she abruptly said she had no food in her house and needed money to feed her kids.  Goodbye.

I “met” the following three women recently.  All of them were Asian, in their mid-30s and divorced.  In the three cases they claimed they got my number by accident on WhatsApp  or Telegram.  I explained to all of them that I was old enough to be their father and a widower and they said they could learn from an older person.  “Age is just a number.”

Cindy said she saw my number in her company’s phone book, but my name was not there.  She worked as a data analyst, financial risk analyst and fund manager in San Francisco.  She lives in a large house worth over $1 Million so I was confident that she was not going to hit me up for money.  We chatted for a while on Telegram.  She even said I could stay in her house if I visited SF and offered to meet me whenever she visited NYC for business.  I had a brief video chat with her, but she cut it short after a minute or two.  She offered me advice about buying bitcoins.  After I told her I wasn’t interested, she stopped chatting.  This was about three days ago.  Perhaps she was attempting to get a commission on a sale of bitcoins to me.  Who knows if she will come back.

Anna who lives in Beverly Hills found me on WhatsApp.  She seemed friendly and like the others were not concerned about the age difference.  We had a nice chat about food among other things.  I don’t sense any malicious intent on her part, but I haven’t heard from her in over 24 hours.  I will leave the ball in her court and let her restart the chat if she wants to.

This last chat is ongoing.  Emily from Singapore and lives in St. Petersburg.  I met her on her business account on Telegram.  She then moved the chat to her personal Telegram account and said that her name was Genevieve, but I should call her Gina.  The chat has gone reasonably well appears not to be a romance scam.

This is much longer than my using journal entries.  Over the past 20 years I have written in this journal since I find it easier to express myself in writing than it is verbally.  I have never been a good conversationalist.  I am careful with these chat relationships as I will not give anybody money after I learned my lesson from Carolyn.  I sense that for most of these chats there was no malicious intent from these women.  I don’t understand why these women want to chat was a man old enough to be their father. People must socialize in person with people about their own age.

I have found it difficult to make new friends after my wife Karen passed away.  I have lost confidence in myself in social situations.  I am afraid to get involved in dating again as I remember too many bad experiences decades ago.  I guess that is a consequence of having an excellent autobiographical memory.  Subconsciously, I am using these chats as a substitute for dating.

Enough said!

Good Luck to Brett Baty for the 2025 Mets

 

It is difficult for a major league player to establish himself.  Many careers end in the minor leagues as only 26 players can be on a major league roster.  Other players may have a "cup of coffee" meaning a brief appearance in the major leagues.

Brett Baty only appeared in 50 games for the Mets last season as he lost his job as a third baseman to Mark Vientos.  He spent most of last season at AAA Syracuse.  He had a hot spring training as reported in this article from MLB.com.  He is expected to make the Mets' roster and be a backup infielder.  As you can see in the photo above Lee and I met him at Amazin' Day at Citi Field in January.  He was very friendly to us.  Let's hope he does well and sticks with the team.

A Year Later Whitestone Lanes is Still There

It was just a year ago that I was interviewed on NY1 news about affordable housing coming to the site of Whitestone Lanes which is actually located in North Flushing.  At that time Community Board #7 and the City Council approved affordable housing there.  The reporter interviewed me after she found my name initiating a petition opposing it arguing it would create congestion in that immediate neighborhood.  She was able to contact me through Facebook.

A year later Whitestone Lane is still there with no immediate to close.  The only difference is that there is graffiti on their south wall.  I advised the reporter that it may be premature to do that story, but wanted to do it.

Over the past year NY1 has done stories on the immediate closings of:

• A hardware store in Brooklyn
• A diner in Astoria Queens.

I regularly read the local Queens newspapers so when the bowling alley finally closes I'll know about it in advance.

Get Together by the Youngbloods with Lyrics

Love is but a song we sing

Fear's the way we die

You can make the mountains ring

Or make the angels cry

Though the bird is on the wing

And you may not know why

Sadly, the President of the United States is making the angels and millions of people cry.

The Metrocard will Finally Be Phased Out In Favor of the OMNY Card

 

I have used the New York City subways since the early 1960s when the fare was 15 cents.  For many years riders paid their fares using a subway token as seen below.

As the fare went up, the subway token was changed.  It was a nuisance to have to wait in line for the new token.  Finally in the early 1990s the Metrocard was introduced.  Riders could refill their cards when the value was low.  At times the thin plastic caused problems when the magnetic strip could not be read.  For a number of years there was a dual system as both the token and Metrocard could be used.  The Metrocard allow for a free transfer between the subway and a bus.  Before that two fares were needed for a transfer.

OMNY is the contactless fare payment system for public transportation in the New York region. Simply use your contactless credit or debit card, smart phone, wearable device, or an OMNY card to tap and go.

For several months I use one of my credit cards as my OMNY Card to pay my fare.  Metrocards will not be sold in 2026, but they will be accepted for 6 more months.

Beatles Rarity I'm Down

 

I reported on my Facebook page yesterday I saw a DVD of the Beatles movie Help.  It has not been shown on TV in many years.  I remember seeing it with some friends at the Midway Theater in the Summer of 1965.  One of them remarked that I'm Down which was the B Side of the 45 RPM release of Help was not in the film.

I'm Down was not on any Beatles album until it was released on a compilation album/CD called Past Masters.