My Favorite Silly Commercial

 

This commercial for Six Flags aired in 2004.  I visited their amusement parks in Jackson, NJ, and near Springfield, MA.  In recent years Six Flags has not advertised on TV.

The bald man in the commercial reminds me of a former boss who sadly passed away.  He never danced around the library, but the scene where he is driving some kids on a bus reminds me of the time when he held a staff retreat in Trenton.  He hired a bus to take the staff from Newark to TCNJ.

I had a dream about him sitting by the reference desk and playing poker with some students.

My mind plays strange tricks on me.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics - Classic Hit of the Day

 

I am not a great fan of the Eurythmics or of eighties music, but the title of this song hit me today.  This video is crazy and does not project the meaning of this song to me.  I wish I had sweet dreams but on too many nights over recent years I have dreamt about:

• Visiting my former employer either to work or just to visit
• Working in a library (not my former employer)
• Seeing people, I have not been in contact with for years or even decades
• Experiencing mass transit delays

Is this a symptom of PTSD or what?

Thoughts on the 17th Anniversary of Bruce's Journal

 

On October 15, 2005, I started Bruce's Journal and kept going.  It started as an AOL blog, but it transitioned into a Google blog when AOL discontinued that service.  For $10/year I purchased the BruceSlutsky.com domain that I must renew every year.  I wish I could purchase it in perpetuity so that when I pass away, hopefully, many years from now, my thoughts will be preserved on the Internet.  I am approaching 4600 entries with about 1,100,000 hits.  I question that number as I think many of them are from robots.  By the way, the song above Seventeen by Boyd Bennett seen above was used in 1989 when WCBS-FM celebrated its 17th year as an oldies station.

The major topics include:

• Bob Dylan
• The New York Mets
• Other Baseball Issues
• Oldies and Classic Rock
• Family issues (I try not to be too personal here)
• Strange experiences
• Movies
• Old Friends (I usually just write the first name)

I am usually careful as anyone can read my blog.  I read that a couple of people were fired after they wrote articles critical of the police department.  I once got into trouble with a pompous professor from Texas.

I usually write off the top of my head, but my best articles in my opinion were

• Reviewing the times, I spent with Karen that I wrote shortly after her passing
• Remembering Alan Berman

I never know who reads the blog regularly,  Nick from Long Beach, California is one, but people usually want to surf the web anonymously.

I hope I can keep writing for another 17 years when I will be 90 years old.

Adventures with the iPhone This Week

I have an iPhone 8 that I bought in September 2018.  Recently, the battery was running low very quickly.  So, I thought it should be replaced.  I went to the Apple Store in the Queens Center Mall on Monday and was told that I could wait for 2-3 hours as a walk-in or make an appointment for later in the week.  I made an appointment for Thursday.

On the way home I passed by a small electronics store that stated they repair iPhones.  I thought instead of waiting three days to go back to the Apple Store I would replace the batter at this small store.  When I went back home with a new battery, I discovered that it wasn't charging.  I brought it back to the small store the next day.  He fiddled around with it and insisted that it was OK.  When I got home it still didn't charge.

Luckily, I did not cancel my appointment at the Apple Store.  On the way there my phone would not boot up.  The people there reinstalled the software and put in a new battery.  Everything is OK with the phone, but I lost my contacts and had to put in passwords for many of my apps.  This is a time-consuming task, but at least I didn't have to buy a new phone.  The enhanced camera is the only difference I can see in the newer iPhones.

All's well that ends well.

 

Remembering Oldies Diva Andrea Weiner

Andrea with Broadway Bill Lee and Pat St. John

Photo was taken by Bill Dillane in 2008

Yesterday it was announced on Facebook that Andrea Weiner passed away on September 24.  She certainly was oldies radio enthusiast extraordinaire.  She had to be one of WCBS-FM's greatest listeners when it played the hits of the '50s '60s and '70s.  I remember hearing her phoning the DJs many times.  She had an extraordinary knowledge of the artists and songs of that era.  She regularly went to concerts and came to a few of the oldies meet and greets at Ben's Deli in Manhattan.

I first knew about Andrea in the early '90s when she came to the opening of a Genovese Drug store in Whitestone, Queens hosted by Bob Shannon.  She traveled by public transportation from Brooklyn to Northern Queens to see Bob.  In the mid-1990s Prodigy was a popular online service that had radio message boards.  She posted quite often and had many conversations with the late Vic Monachelli.  She later appeared on the New York Radio Message Board, Oldies Board, and Radiodiscussions.

My condolences to her close friends and family,

 

Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Frankie Valli vs Lauryn Hill

 This morning, I was listening to WFUV as they played Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Lauryn Hill.  It is entirely different from Frankie Valli's version that hit #2 on the Billboard charts in 1967.  By the way, WFUV is fundraising this week. I am a sustaining member and encourage listeners to donate to the station.  Which version do you prefer?

 

 

In a Short Series Anything Can Happen

 

By now everyone knows that the Mets lost last night to the San Diego Padres 6-0 and lost the Wild Card Series 2-1.  The Mets were hot in April and May as they led the NL East by 10 ½ games on June 1.  The Atlanta Braves were even hotter during the last four months and tied the Mets with 101 victories but won the NL East since they defeated the Amazins in the season series. 

In 2021 the Braves finished the regular 89-73 but won the World Series defeating teams with better records over 162 games.  Thus, in a short series, anything can happen.  This is what happened as the Mets cooled off in the last half of the season and couldn't beat the Padres.

 We will have to wait until after the World Series for the Hot Stove League to begin.  The Mets have many free agents. Who will stay with the team and who will go elsewhere?  I didn’t realize that there were so many players who could leave to sign with another team.  I think owner Steve Cohen will open up his wallet and sign most of them. He wants to win the World Series. Is Jacob deGrom worth $40 Million since he is so injury-prone?  If many 2022 Mets move to other teams, who will the Mets acquire through free-agent signings or trades? 

Let’s watch the rest of the playoffs and World Series and worry about that later.