Fans reach out to touch Judy Garland during her historic 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall. It is possible that one of those people near the front of the stage is my Mom. Source: Biography.com
BETWEEN THE LINES: All these years after her passing, I still think of my Mom, especially on Mother’s Day. I can’t send her a greeting card, so this remembrance will have to suffice.
When the commercials for sales and deals start popping up on television, days before Mother’s Day, I tune them out since they don’t concern me.
My mother died on December 24, 1998. It was Christmas Eve. For the last 14 years, even though I never observed Christmas — because I’m Jewish — Christmas Eve is a time of recollection, not celebration.
For that matter, so is Mother’s Day. Other than thinking about her and sending a silent message on the second Sunday in May, ever since the first one, five months after she died at age 76, its impact fades with each passing year.
We all got a little bruised up for our daring escapades as children; adults are there to prevent worse when we don't know better. (Source: sugarsnaptastic/Flickr)
Some residents of the project where the incident occurred hold the management responsible due to the lack of recreational facilities on the property. Some criticized the mentality left over from the pop cultural craze known as Jackass, where daring — reckless seems more appropriate — people performed stupid and dangerous stunts just to get fleeting attention on Facebook or YouTube.
For those who may not know, Jackass was a popular MTV reality show for three seasons. It ended a decade ago, yet spawned three movies, a web site and a bunch of controversy, including condemnation by Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman after a teenager from his state got severely burned. MTV responded by programming the series after 10 p.m., when its youngest viewers were supposed to be fast asleep.
You can imagine how effective that was, knowing from personal experience that when youngsters, especially teenagers, are prohibited from participating in an activity, they routinely attempt to elude the ban.
This tragedy triggered a memory of a personal Jackass moment from my youth, which, thankfully, did not end in tragedy.
Telling Tips is a series of articles from local experts to help you save money, make better decisions and plan for a better future.
The time to increase the debt level is fast approaching. What everyone should know as the battle begins is where we are starting from. Basically the country brings in $2.1 trillion dollars a year in revenues, and spends $3.5 trillion. The U.S. is spending $1.4 trillion a year more than it earns and the accumulated debt is $14 trillion in the past 10 years.
Basically if the country was a taxpayer, they would earn say $50,000 and spend $83,333 a year – they would have to borrow $33,333 a year and after 10 years they would owe $333,333 – scary stuff.
Recently, there were local fears of new cameras for speed enforcement raising “Big Brother” alarms. And, of course, Sheepshead Bites has its own Big Brother. Now the city is prepping to roll out a new alert system, requiring cell phones to be equipped with special chips and software that would give the president a direct line to our handsets. Creepy…
Bob Haggerty, whose house was nearly destroyed in a Lake Avenue fire on February 10, has a simple but powerful message for Sheepshead Bay residents: start giving a damn about your community.
During the Sheepshead Bay / Plumb Beach Civic Association Meeting last Tuesday, Haggerty took the floor to talk about the squalid conditions of a neighboring home – which he said belonged to a “slum lord” – that caught fire, spreading to his home while he napped inside. The legally blind Haggerty made it out safely and now lives up the block with his daughter until repairs can be made. But, the night of the fire, Haggerty and his daughter Melissa were incensed at their neighbor, cursing her out, and devastated by the city’s lack of action despite repeated complaints.
But on Tuesday night, Haggerty didn’t come to complain about the Department of Buildings or other city agencies for their lack of action.
