Tag Archives: short-story

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, October 8, 2025. Yesterday I was attending my gay men’s reading club meeting along with my friend “Harvey.” I did go to Julius’s afterward for some libation and conversation. Even though I’m more of a coffeetotaler, I relented and had a glass of beer.

I took the F train to West 4th Street around 3 and got down before 4. So I walked to the Jefferson Market Library where our meeting is always held and went to the second floor to comb the books on the shelf to purchase. Of course, I definitely didn’t need any more books; I am close to finally finishing Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys an entertaining read and this book is surely that!

Don’t worry, folks, I didn’t buy any more books yesterday. I then started walking back to the IFC Center where I got a text from Harvey saying he would be on time. He had called me earlier to say that the train he would have taken was cancelled and that another train was scheduled for a later time; he expected to be late then, but he wasn’t.

When we met, Harvey indicated he was hungry, so we discussed where we might dine. I heard about a Chinese restaurant called Steam located near the library, but we never got there. Harvey spied an Italian restaurant called Osteria 57 and examined its menu outside and suggested we eat there. I did say that we just dined on take-home Chinese food the other day and said I would be amiable to eating Italian food.

The place was quite empty since it wasn’t even 4:15 yet. But we chose a nice table near the window in the front to sit. We were given two menus: one for lunch which actually ended at 5 and one for dinner. We preferred to choose from the dinner menu, so we selected some nice dishes from that listing. I eschewed an appetizer this time to select spaghetti cacio e pepe, which is basically spaghetti with Pecorino Romano cheese and pepper. Harvey chose some fish entree, fritto misto that included Montauk shrimp, local calamari, and zucchini tempura.

Harvey’s hunger was not slaked until he had dessert which turned out to be gelato. I decided against having my own dessert and helped myself to two spoonfuls of Harvey’s gelato.

Then it was time to stroll toward the Jefferson Market Library, but not until we spent a little time in a bookstore opposite the legendary gay bar called Three Lives & Company. I made the conscious decision before we entered that I would not purchase a book from this lovely little bookstore. But Harvey did! He bought a new hardcover book called 38 Londres Street (which I never heard about) by Philippe Sands that chronicles Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his involvement with a fugitive SS officer. Harvey thought the book would be a nice present for his Chilean wife, “Sofia.”

Now it was time to walk toward the library after Harvey paid for his book. When we got to the room in which we hold our meetings, we already saw an almost full room of sitting avid book readers. When it was time to begin the meeting – at 6:30 – the room must have close to 60 guys.

We started the meeting by discussing one cultural thing we did this month. When it came to my turn, I spoke about seeing The History of Sound. That was last Saturday.

Then it was time we dived into discussing Guapa by Saleem Haddad. All of us dissected the book with erudite analysis; however, Harvey and I had trouble hearing many of the men’s comments. We whispered this to each other during the 90 minutes the meeting ranged over.

Later, I took this up with our organizer, “Jerry,” at Julius’s. He listened to me as I made the suggestion that he announce that members speak up during the next meeting. I do hope he will do this – if not, I’ll remind him of this in November.

I then went home by myself since Harvey did not stay for a drink or to schmooze with the other members.

When I got home, I eagerly went to try out our restored television set which was delivered to us after 5. I took the two remotes and clicked the “On” button. And the set came on and I was able to watch regular TV.

However, when I pressed the button for my apps, the streaming services, I was unable to connect to the services – like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. The screen where the apps appeared looked very different from what I used to have. And when I clicked on an app, I got nothing. Thus I decided we’d have to call “Ernest” today and ask him to return to get these apps working again.

So I spent another night in the bedroom watching the Ed Gein series on Netflix. This time I don’t think our upstairs neighbor banged on the ceiling as she has since I went in there after the Sony died. Boy, what a victory!

In the meantime, in our fascist American moment, the news just gets worse and worse, with today’s arraignment of former FBI director James Comey for charges of lying to Congress – which is definitely a spurious charge since we all know that Comey was on the Orange Turd’s enemies list and he publicly sicced his lapdog of an attorney general, blonde bimbo Pam Bondi, on him. A trial date was set for January 5, 2026, which is an ironic one, since the next day, January 6, would mark the fifth anniversary of that second infamous date in U.S. history. Comey’s lawyers have rightfully claimed the charges are just the result of a sitting president’s vow of vengeance against the former FBI director. The arrest of a public official like Comey should outrage every American who is shocked by this fascistic regime and to what measures it would take to overthrow the rule of law. I should hope this case will be dismissed outright before any evidence is ever presented in such a kangaroo court in this country.

The news gets even worse as the Supreme Leader calls for the jailing of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Democratic Governor JB Pritzker because of their opposition to the Orange Turd calling in his private army, ICE, into Portland, Oregon, and Chicago. This is what the Orange Turd actually wrote: “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice [he couldn’t even capitalize ICE here – the idiot!] Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” He wrote these incendiary remarks on his stupid “Truth” Social.

After these developments, all I can say is, “Are we living in America right now or in a banana republic?” I can’t wait until the protest scheduled for October 18 to express my disgust of what is happening under Dump and his evil regime.

Maybe tomorrow Ernest will fix the television set once and for all. He’s set to come after 5. In the meantime, I’ll sit one more time in the bedroom to watch another episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

And so it went!

Here’s a great sign from one of the protests I participated in that says it all!

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, September 25, 2025. I was going to write about the ongoing train wreak known as Donald J. Dump who, just two days ago, delivered the stupidest, most insulting speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly which is still being assessed for its insane, incoherent substance, but something personal in my life has been acutely felt, and that is the death of a friend on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah this past Monday. Today was the funeral service on West 91st Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

I received the terrible news from his husband, “Jeff,” just around 4:40 p.m. while Elliot and I were having a holiday dinner at our friend’s house on Monday. Something told me to answer the call and not let it go to voicemail since “Larry” had been suffering from an aggressive case of leukemia for over two years, I believe, and he was definitely not doing well this past week or so. My suspicions were confirmed when Jeff announced that Larry had just died and that he was going to text me the information concerning the service, which couldn’t be the next day because of the holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thus I went out today at 8 a.m. to get to the West Side to attend the last rites for Larry. The chapel was overflowing with mourners, many of them friends and relatives, and even coworkers of Larry over the years. Larry served with distinction, first, as a teacher in Brooklyn, then ascended the pedagogical ladder at one elementary school by becoming an assistant principal and then ending up as principal of the school. He began his teaching career at almost the same time as Elliot did – in 1967. Elliot began his career of teaching over three decades in 1968.

After retiring in the early 2000s, Larry found his true passion: first volunteering for the CSA – the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, and then becoming a unit chapter head. Those who spoke at the service recounted how dedicated he was to those he came into contact with at the council and how heconsidered everyone an equal. Speaker after speaker recounted how informative he was about union regulatory rules and would share that information unhesitatingly with others.

Larry received accolades from everyone who spoke. He was primarily described as a generous, kind, gentle, soul who had a complimentary word about everyone. This I can attest to in my association with him over the years. I met him through his soon-to-be husband Jeff who Elliot and I first got to know at the gay/bi dads group at the LGBTQ+ center on 13th Street.

Jeff offered the first eulogy which was spoken in a half-whisper about his loving husband and how he was forever altered for the better through knowing Larry. At one point, he mentioned that Larry told him – on his deathbed, literally – to give up petty grudges, which, I hadn’t known at the time, was actually addressed to Elliot and me. You see, our friendship with both Larry and Jeff was frayed after 2021 resulting from a misunderstanding between Elliot and Jeff. Because of the seemingly petty nature of the grievance, I won’t even mention it here. Thus for close to four years, Elliot was persona non grata in Jeff’s mind. I recently decided to renew the connection between Larry and Jeff when I heard from a mutual friend, “Gene,” that Larry was seriously ill.

Therefore, when I would see the pair generally in Midtown near where they lived, Elliot would stay behind. I never felt good about this, but I went along with this arrangement to not ruffle any feathers, even though I instinctively believed it was wrong.

Today the situation was put into stark perspective with Larry’s untimely death – he was 79 and would celebrate his birthday on the same date as I, which is November 8, but he was 10 years older than I – when I stood in a line of bereavers to hug Jeff in the hallway and he started to say through tears, “Did you hear what I said up there – about giving up grudges?” I said I did, and said something so cliched, like “Life is short!” But it’s the damn truth! I hugged him as he tearfully said he would get in touch with both of us when things settle down. That’s all I needed to hear.

How many of us know about situations when family members don’t talk to one another over some conflict or misunderstanding that occurred over decades ago? How many of us know people who never had the chance to repair broken relationships with sisters, brothers, aunts, cousins, or friends? I would say that number is quite large. So all I can say is life is unpredictable and, if you have the chance to repair a strained relationship with someone you once held very dear, now is the time to do it before it’s too damn late. I’m sure Jeff became cognizant of this very life lesson as his husband’s life was ebbing away.

So if any of you see yourself as being described in the above-mentioned paragraph, you know what to do. Go out and mend those fences – if you can. Time is of the essence.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Tuesday, August 19, 2025. Did you hear this one about the current president showing further signs of dementia as he dismantles democracy, bit by bit, where he attacked mail-in voting for no apparent reason other than his strongman pal, Vladimir Putin, put the thought into him very recently. He conducted a particular rant on national television in which he told a narrative about one of his own trips to the ballot box in which a poll worker asked him for a license plate to prove who he was. He informed this supposed poll worker, “I don’t know if I have it. They said, ‘Sir, you have to have it.’ He ended this absurd story by saying, “I was very impressed, actually.”

Who has ever heard of being asked to produce a license plate when voting? No one asks for a fucking license plate before being allowed to vote! A photo ID, which would be on someone’s driver’s license, not plate, is usually required as proof of identity. So has the president just made another gaffe here or is he truly delusional?

In the meantime, Texas Rep. Nicole Collier has slept in her chair in the Texas chamber since she has publicly refused to sign some sort of “permission slip” allowing the state police to shadow them until they return to the legislature to vote on this monumental unfair redistricting of the Texas map. Collier should be lionized for her refusal to bend a knee to corrupt repugnicans in the Texas legislature who will do anything in obeisance to their Supreme Leader – like throw away their own principles and dedication to the Constitution.

In an online Daily Kos article entitled “‘Go home’: Voters boo wannabe GOP governor off stage,” by The AP, the brutal reality came home to roost for Representative Elise Stefanik (who, I believe is a total boob) who was unmercifully booed by her constituents when she appeared at an event in her district on Monday. The people in the audience voiced their great displeasure of Stefanik’s total embrace of pedophile in chief Donald Chump and her vote to pass the “one, big beautiful bill,” which is anything but, as it rips Medicaid and food stamps from millions of Dump supporters in order to cut taxes for the richest few.

Aside from booing, protesters shouted that Stefanik “sold us out!” and told her to “go home,” and also shouted that Stefanik should “unseal the Epstein files,” according to a report from HuffPost.

In her case, the boos became so disruptive that the scaredy cat Stefanik eventually left the stage without finishing her prepared remarks. She was allegedly talking about a local government building that was being named after John Zurlo in Clinton County who died in her district at the age of 86. She did not anticipate the enmity that was going to greet her as she took the lectern.

News Nation Capitol Hill correspondent Joe Khalil reported, “Rep. Elise Stefanik booed off stage at an event in Plattsburgh, NY.” “After a few uncomfortable seconds of screams and boos, she left the lectern rather than deliver her prepared remarks.”

Protesters said they chose to show up to the event to voice their frustrations with Stefanik because the New York repugnican doesn’t make herself available to her constituents.

Here is a representative who has not shown up in her district for months and months, according to Mavis Agnew, a protester who attended the event as she told a local television news station. “She won’t hold a town hall, she won’t take questions. She’s never in her office. People show up at her office constantly, door’s closed. Her representatives, her employees won’t talk to her . . . So this was her first appearance, the first opportunity we had to let her know we’re unhappy.”

And, boy, did they! As you might recall, Stefanik has remained in her district after the dementia in chief pulled her nomination to be United Nations ambassador out of fear the GOP could lose her House seat in a special election. If this event were any indicator, it would seem that many repugnicans should fear losing their seats in the midterms if the bastard doesn’t rig the election in his favor.

This news out of Plattsburgh should be a warning sign to this cunt who thinks she was going to run for governor in blue state New York against Kathy Hochul. Thus a Siena College poll from last month found Hochul leads Stefanik in a hypothetical match-up by a massive 47 percent to 24 percent margin.

I would think she would easily lose her seat based on this evidence when she is up for reelection. Democratic State Senator James Skoufis had this to say about the backlash at Stefanik for appearing at this event: “Elise Stefanik won’t even hold a town hall in her bright red district – I just held four in one week – but she thinks she’s gonna roll up into NYC and run for Governor without a problem. Congresswoman, meet rude awakening.”

I’m hearing the boos and catcalls right now on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show tonight. Another repugnican congresswoman was booed also in a town hall. I’m happy to hear that people are now standing up to repugnicans who had the audacity to pass this horrible bill without realizing how ruinous it will be for many Americans. They are all getting a rude awakening if they risk showing up at town halls in front of their constituents.

Today’s highlight was my driving to Nomad Cafe in Ridgewood, Queens, in the new car on the Jackie Robinson Parkway and having a different sort of breakfast as compared to my Austin Street Diner fare. I had their “eggscape from NY” that consisted of over-easy eggs, rosemary parmesan hash browns, Black Forest ham, and wheat toast, with fresh berries. I also had the coffee which was very good. Looking around, I noted I was the oldest patron in the cafe.

From there, I walked to the Topos Bookstore, located around the corner, on Woodward Avenue. There I browsed the used bookstore for at least a half hour. I won’t say if I bought any books; you’d be upset with me if I confessed that I did.

Later in the day, Elliot and I drove finally to the Ice King of Corona. I have nudged Elliot to go there since the beginning of the summer, and we’ve always had an excuse not to go, but this time I held Elliot to the fire and we left a half hour or so after I returned from Ridgewood. We both indulged in a medium peanut butter ice.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, May 4, 2025. Today Elliot and I stayed close to home because of the inclement weather and because we were both exhausted from yesterday’s commute to Princeton, New Jersey, to attend my closest friend’s granddaughter’s two-year birthday party. The party was called for 2 and my friend “Harold” met us at the Princeton Junction station to drive to his son and daughter-in-law’s house. I believe we were one of the first guests, along with Harold and his wife, “Rachel.” As we entered the threshold, the party girl, “Nina” ushered us in; she was so cute in her pretty reddish outfit. Mother was in the kitchen working feverishly on the food being served at the party. Her daddy was adhering to orders given by his wife.

Food was very plentiful at the party: hot dogs, various hero sandwiches, popcorn, candies, potato chips, and cupcakes for the kiddies. Very soon, guests arrived with their children. I didn’t count how many children were at the party, but there were a sizable number. Elliot and I were clearly the oldest guests at the party and we couldn’t recall the last time we were at a children’s party; it must have been at least 35 years or more for me and later for Elliot. Anyway, it was very nice that we came in support of Nina’s parents.

We left the party after 5 to get the 5:32 train out of Princeton Junction. Harold drove us back to the station which was around ten minutes away, while Rachel drove herself back to her house in Cherry Hill.

As I mentioned yesterday, I did not share information about my second leg of my trip out West. Here I took a flight out of LAX to get to Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday. I was picked up by “Joan” and Elliot and was driven promptly to a friend’s house in Willow where we chowed down on spare ribs that she prepared herself. Her friend “James” joined us for dinner also.

One of the major highlights experienced during my stay with our cousin was going to a petting zoo located in Marana, Arizona, called Ghost Ranch Exotics and Funny Foot Farm, where we took a guided tour of the exotic animals there with the manager or owner of the zoo and where we saw such rare animals as capybaras, porcupines, emus, warthogs, Patagonia maras, and desert tortoises. For this unusual experience, Joan booked us for a 10 a.m. tour, so we got up early that morning to drive close to two hours to the destination. I will show you some pictures of the animals that we fed and petted. I had no qualms petting these strange-looking creatures. As long as there were no snakes in the mix.

The second day we drove to a used bookstore called Changing Hands on Camelback Road where we had a great lunch consisting of hale and hearty cuisine. Then we spent some quality time in the bookstore where I resisted the temptation to buy another book that I wouldn’t read.

The third day we had plans to go to the Heard Museum in Phoenix in which exhibits primarily showcase Native American paraphernalia, including a large collection of Southwestern art, but Elliot nixed the idea because of the exorbitant price of admission, which was $18. (I wasn’t even sure if this were a senior rate.) Thus we stayed indoors and watched an Amazon Prime series that was recommended by Joan. The series had only six episodes comprising one season, and each episode was only about 30 minutes. The series was called The Sticky and it starred that character actress who’s in everything these days, Margo Martindale, and even sported a cameo by Jamie Lee Curtis who was given producer credit on the show. I must say the show was quite good, as it depicted the events leading up to the heist of Canadian maple syrup from a plant orchestrated by Martindale who plays a syrup farmer thrust on hard times, owing to her husband being in a coma and the bureaucracy that is threatening to take her farm away because she’s unregistered. Soon she teams up with a French-Canadian security guard and a Bostonian mobster to carry out a heist of Quebec’s maple syrup surplus. We finished the series in just two days.

The last day, Thursday, was spent shopping in a Costco and going out with Joan and her friends from Monday, “Emily” and her gentleman friend, “James.” We went out to a steak restaurant called Steak 44 in Phoenix and it was a lovely way to end our stay in hot and sultry Arizona, where the temperature was in the 80s every day of my four-day stay, as opposed to the cool 60-degree weather experienced in Los Angeles. Here I wore shorts almost every day, except when we went out to dinner on Thursday.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. We enjoyed Joan’s company, along with her ailing Labrador Retriever, Raya. She is now 13 years old and has trouble with her legs. She is showing her age like all of us, regretfully.

It’s another week.

And so it went!

Here’s a sitting emu at that Ghost Ranch.

I believe this is called a red-rumped agouti native to the rainforest. They are known for their ability to break open Brazil nuts, and we saw this when we saw this reddish-furred critter breaking open these kinds of nuts in his enclosure.

Here is a porcupine gnashing on his steel gate. I was able to touch this extraordinary creature without being pricked.

Here is a capybara looking up at me. They belong to the rodent family and they are very gentle. I was able to pet this creature without any repercussions. They usually subsist on a diet of grasses and our tour guide gave us lettuce to feed them. Adults can weigh up to 143 pounds.

This is another capybara and I believe it’s a male because of the hard ridge on its snout.

Here a capybara is taking a dip in his pool to escape the Arizona heat.

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, April 9, 2025. It’s pretty late here owing to us being out with our adopted “niece” “Esther,” so I won’t belabor you with any more venom directed toward our moronic president who just announced a 90-day pause on his disastrous trade war which clearly demonstrates he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing with these tariffs. This patently demonstrates that he’s the most economically illiterate president in U.S. history. But enough of him!

Before meeting Esther at a local Chinese restaurant, Spicy C, on Austin Street, I drove to my usual comic book store by the name of Royal Collectibles close to 11. The extent of the traffic snags encountered on just this 15-minute drive could cause anyone to suffer agita. Not only did I encounter the usual number of double-parked cars in every major road, which is so exasperating, there was also a clogged line of traffic on 71st Avenue and Continental Avenue that forced me to go another way to Metropolitan Avenue. I had to wait several minutes longer for the directional light to flicker allowing me to turn left onto Continental Avenue which I avoided this time. So my complaint is with rude drivers who fail to show any common courtesy to other drivers by parking willy- nilly in narrow roads, thus blocking cars from getting around them. Before I got to that turn on Continental Avenue, I was driving in back of a Rogue driver who positioned her car in back of a car pulling out of a spot. She positioned her damn car in such a way that I couldn’t get around her, so I honked her right away which caused her to abandon the spot. This is the kind of discourtesy that I’m referring to here. It’s infectious just like the Dump virus these days.

We met Esther around 7:30 and had a wonderful dinner with her, as we ordered scallion pancakes, steamed pork dumplings, won ton soup, hot and sour soup, and chicken rice noodles. Esther ordered mapo tofu. The only one to take food home was Esther who retained a lot of her tofu dish as a take-home supper for another time. After dinner, we walked down to Martha’s Country Bakery where we sat down for dessert: Elliot and Esther had some gelato (Elliot enjoyed chocolate gelato, while Esther asked for mango gelato) and tea, while I ordered a piece of strawberry banana cake and coffee.

We got home close to 10. We asked Esther to text us when she got home and she did.

And so it went!