UNDER MY SKIN---AARGH EDITION

As I grew older, I often said, "I can either be mellow or bitchy. And mellow doesn't make as many wrinkles."

And so (despite the title of my blog!), I've usually ignored unimportant, minor incidents, let them pass, and stayed on an even keel. But this has been a hot, uncomfortable summer so far, and I've gotten prickly, more aware of small aggravations than I usually am.

So this entry is a catalog of some of the things that have momentarily pissed me off. (Feel free to add some of your own!)

Most of these negative entries can be attributed to immaturity, selfishness, narcissism. We no longer teach people thoughtfulness, courtesy, respect. It's all about "ME"!

I work in a bridal salon. At our department entrance, we always have two sample dresses on mannequins. Prices of those dresses usually range from about $1,500 to $3,000. And every single day, almost everyone who passes thinks it's fine to paw the dresses, to lift the skirts to see what's under them, to let their small kids play hide-and-seek around them. Half the time, the customers aren't really interested in buying a wedding dress. They're just curious. Sometimes they check the price tag (understandable), but then they start grabbing at the dress.

I've never seen people pawing at mannequins in other departments. They usually look at them, maybe check the price tag, then look for the same outfits hanging on hangers. So why do they think it's fine to do it at the bridal salon?

Though I usually politely ask them to move their kids away, thoughtfully warning them that the mannequin could fall and hurt their child, I REALLY want to ask, "Would you go into Tiffany and manhandle a $3,000 piece of jewelry? So why do you think it's OK here?"

Aargh!

And of course the subway, as I go to and from work, is rife with instances that piss me off.  The other day, across from me, there was a young woman sitting with an older woman and a small child, but on the other side of the vertical pole. A rather large (the hell with political correctness, he was FAT!) teenager sat down next to her, sort of squashing her toward the pole. She silently put up with it. But then the kid's friend incredibly sat on the fat kid's lap, further squashing the poor young woman. She endured it for a few minutes, then got up. The friend immediately took her seat, then looked askance at her, as though he wondered why she'd gotten up.

I smiled across the aisle at him (remember always to SMILE when you're telling someone off. They can't easily fight back!), and said, "She got up because you were squashing her. That was incredibly rude of you!" He didn't even flinch, nor did he get up and give her back her seat. Shame on that boy's parents, for producing such a thoughtless little shit!

Aargh!

But why didn't she speak up for herself? That bothers me as much as the rudeness. I've been on elevators where selfish little twits were near the front, busy texting on their iPhones, though there was room toward the back. The door opens, and the new people can't get on, because the iPhone users are too busy to notice and move back. The door closes, without any new people getting on. I don't know what annoys me more---the selfish pricks who couldn't move back, or the spineless wusses who couldn't ask them to move!

Though that can be dangerous, if truth be told! Check out the recent news story of a man in a movie theater who got annoyed at the kid behind him who kept kicking his chair. He complained, and the kid's father pulled a gun on him! But kicking kids are a menace---in theaters, on buses, on airplanes. Since the stupid parents seem unwilling or unable to control their little monsters, maybe there should be public signs in these venues, saying, "Please don't kick the seat in front of you!"  Stupid people sometimes need childish instructions!

Aargh!

And of course iPhones lead me to a more subtle form of rudeness. (I have a particular antipathy toward the gizmos, as you may have noticed. See my very first blog entry, PUT DOWN THE DAMN I-PHONE!) That's the rudeness of people to one another.

I stopped for lunch the other day in my neighborhood. I chose a nice venue. Casual burger joint. You order food, sit at a table and wait until they call you to pick it up.Three men, clearly friends, from their few comments to one another, sitting at the table next to me. All three on their devices. Even when they went to get their food and sat down to eat, they still stayed glued to their screens. I wanted to ask why they even bothered to go out together! Self-absorbed, thoughtless "friends"! Why don't they just stay home and text their friends? It's so much easier than having to make a genuine effort to relate to the people around them!

Aargh!

And, back to elevators---people who are so anxious to save a few seconds that, when the doors open on a floor, they immediately press the CLOSE DOOR button. I've seen new riders nearly get squashed as they tried to enter, because the door was closing so soon! And how about the ones who push past the people with baby carriages or invalids in wheelchairs, just to be sure THEY can get on the elevator! Selfish little entitled twits!

Aargh!

Subway again. This afternoon, on the train, the woman next to me was going through her mail. She read the store flyers and theater promotions, the junk mail offerings, etc. She tore things up, seemed to be ripping out her address from all the mailings, etc. I paid little attention to her, but when she got up to leave, I saw that she had left on the seat a large pile of garbage, all her paper discards. Why the hell couldn't she take them with her and find a garbage pail? There are plenty of them in every subway station! She clearly had taken the address labels, which, I'm sure, she intended to throw out later. Thoughtless, lazy creature! (As for her discards, I put them in my tote until I could find the nearest trash can.)

Aargh!

And how about important messages on the subway? How many years will it take for the MTA to figure out that the PA system in the stations is so filled with static and back-echoes that no one can ever clearly hear what is being said? And make an effort to upgrade their equipment? (And train their personnel in how to speak clearly!) As for the messages aboard the train---the guy who comes on the PA system to explain things always sounds as though he's really too uninterested to make much of an effort. He sounds bored, annoyed that someone gave him this chore, indifferent to the riders who are depending on his words. So he speaks softly, far too quickly to catch what he's saying, and in a tone that implies that he would much rather be home watching a ballgame on TV than having to help the subway riders!

Aargh!

Most of these annoyances are associated with work and getting there, which is natural, since most of my interactions with people involve those days when I'm working and going to work.

But lest you think that I condemn mostly customers and USERS of services, I can assure you that GIVERS of services don't score much higher on my thoughtfulness scale! The service industry, in this day and age, mostly sucks! Clerks in stores can barely be bothered to be helpful. And if they manage to make the effort, they act as though they are doing YOU a favor! (I'm old enough to remember when "service" meant SERVICE! My customers always thank me for doing what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing, which always astonishes me.)

Far too many service people seem to hate their jobs, and it shows. (See my old blog entry, PLAY THE GAME OF LIFE WITH THE CARDS YOU'RE DEALT.) They're miserable, so they don't mind sharing their misery. Chatting with one another and ignoring customers, vaguely indicating a direction when someone asks them where to find an item, instead of going there themselves and finding the item, I've been in stores where the clerk was on the phone while he was waiting on me---and unable to answer my questions! And where is a manager in many stores (drugstores especially, as I've noticed), who sees the need to open up more check-out spaces because of the long waiting lines, and actually does so?

And of course the whole subway PA announcement debacle is a classic example of shoddy customer service. As are the grocery store shelf-stockers with their carts of boxes who expect the customer to get out of the way for THEM!

Aargh!

And don't get me started on waiting times in doctors' offices! Do they think THEIR time is more important than ours? And more than once, lately, having waited to see the doctor, I was seen by a physicians' assistant! Is this what I'm paying all my health insurance for?

And a recent aggravation---I was scheduled for a specific exam at a distant health facility. The facility was sending a car to pick me up. (They were paying for the car service.) About a half hour before the car's arrival time, the facility called me to confirm the appointment and tell me that the car would arrive earlier than scheduled. I was fine with this.

I was picked up shortly thereafter. Three-quarters of an hour later, the car having crawled through rush-hour traffic, I arrived at the facility. "Sorry", I was told as I tried to check in. "The machine is down. We'll have to reschedule you."

And they couldn't have told me this when they had called less than an hour before, to confirm a useless appointment? It took ages before they could arrange a return pickup, followed by the long ride home. And half of a precious day off blown to hell! (And they hadn't pre-arranged payment with the driver, so he casually locked me in the car until he got them on the phone and straightened things out!) I guess old ladies look like thieves!

Double Aargh!!

I haven't included any long-ago anecdotes to this entry (which I usually do, since the topics always jog my memory!). So I'll conclude with these two recollections. And maybe if more of us reacted like this, we would get better service!

My father was a very successful businessman. He was also a superb dresser, with every detail just perfect. Custom-made suits, shirts with his monogram on the cuff (long before it was fashionable), accessories just right. And he had a strong presence, which commanded respect from others. But if he didn't get it, he would certainly let them know!

He had walked into a very posh small men's shop in New York, looking for accessories, perhaps. (Don't really know.) Several clerks were chatting together, at some distance. Not one of them made a move toward my father. They smiled at him, said "Yes?" in a questioning tone, but no one moved.

My father smiled back. "Are you busy?" he asked.

"No, sir," said one of them. (Still no movement toward my father.)

"Good!" he exclaimed, and swept his arm across the nearest counter, pushing all its contents to the floor. "Then you can pick this up." He smiled again and stormed out of the store.

The other recollection is a bit more personal. I had gone to a department store to pick up something for my then-husband. I was in the men's department. I started to speak to the clerk in front of me, pointing to the items in the case below. He was suddenly called away to the back. Apologizing profusely, he looked to the end of the counter, where a young man was riffling through some papers on his clipboard.

Bill," he asked, "can you help this customer?"

Bill looked up. "Certainly. May I help you, ma'am?"

I started to point down to the case in front of me. Then I  realized that Bill hadn't moved toward me. On the contrary, after riffling through his papers again, he looked up at me once more, and said, in a rather peeved tone, "May I help you, ma'am?"

I'll be damned!, I thought. I'm the client, he's the salesman. I'm also a woman. He's a gentleman? I'm older than he is! The stuff I want is here! And he can't move his ass to come to ME?

I smiled sweetly.(Remember that!). Then said in a voice that carried to all the other customers in the department, "Certainly, young man---if you're not nailed to the floor!"

He flew to my side, red-faced.

Sometimes it pays to deal with the Aargh! moments with a little backbone.


ADDENDUM:

In all fairness, I have to add this and apologize. Went to my rescheduled lab test this morning. Everyone was wonderful---helpful, efficient, thoughtful. I apologize again and take back my AARGH from the last entry (though maybe not for the driver who insultingly treated me like a potential criminal!).

MY HALO IS BIGGER THAN YOUR HALO

Did you ever notice-how noble "causes" are so often passionately promoted by people with no real skin in the game?

I suppose this has always been so, though I don't remember it being so noticeable in my younger days. Perhaps the advent of 24-hour news cycles, Facebook, tweeting, Snapchat, and widespread social networking in general, have given larger platforms to the "Do-Gooders" and revealed more "causes" to be championed and exploited. To make smug sanctimony and show-offishness a virtue instead of an unhealthy preoccupation with oneself.

There's something so self-reverential and narcissistic about it. "Look how wonderful I am!"

And it's not enough to have a "cause." We have to announce our wonderfulness to the world. Flag pins, wristbands, colored ribbons and other assorted paraphernalia. "Save the Whales" bumper stickers. T-shirts with slogans. A well-known (and favorite of mine) political writer has called it "virtue-signalling."

And of course the less the "cause" directly affects the supporter of that cause, the louder the voice proclaiming his/her nobleness!  (I doubt any big-shot is going to install a large swimming pool in his/her backyard for Willie---not this year!)

Oops! When I wrote "swimming pool" above, it unexpectedly triggered a very old memory, putting the lie to my second paragraph.

It probably would have been in the early 1970s or late '60s. My three boys were in the age range of perhaps 8-12, or 7-11. Can't really remember now.

But New York City had decided to start busing kids around in the school system. That meant bringing in a lot of children from troubled city neighborhoods into our relatively stable school district. There had been a lot of problems with busing in other states and communities, and we were uneasy at the prospect. (Not without some foundation in reality. By the time our daughter was in public school, the teachers were locking classroom doors to keep out marauders, and I had to watch my young daughter, very scared, nervously scoot into her classroom and safety. Despite the cost, we were eventually forced to move her into a private school.)

But while implementing the policy was still under discussion in New York, a college classmate of mine invited our entire family to a day at her home in Connecticut. Her husband was quite well-to-do. They lived in a tony neighborhood, with an excellent suburban school. (And if it hadn't been good, they would clearly have been able to transfer their kids to a private school.)

We had lunch first, around the swimming pool, chatting all the while. But when the talk turned to our busing dilemma, our host was filled with righteous anger at our concerns. Clearly we were class snobs, bigots, intolerant elitists, etc. How dare we deny poorer children the rights that our children enjoyed?  Stunned, since we had merely expressed our concerns, not any outright rejection of busing, my husband and I exchanged looks and quickly moved on to other topics.

Then it was time for the kids to swim. (Remember how old my kids were---and obviously sensible.) Our host called over our kids, and in a condescending tone, announced to them that there was a chemical in the pool. If they peed in the pool, it would turn red. Frankly, I was shocked that he would think so little of our children's upbringing or our parenting. Moreover, that he would put the "sanctity" of his damn pool above common politeness to his guests.

I remember thinking at the time, "You son-of-a-bitch. Invite the (lower-class) Boys' Club of Bridgeport to swim in your pool before you lecture US about school busing!"

Of course, if it happened today, I wouldn't just THINK it, I would have said it to his arrogant face! (One of the nice things about getting older. And I HATE wussy older ladies. We've earned the right to say what we're thinking!)

But back to today's Do-Gooders. All too often, they are rich celebrities, politicians, business people, well-compensated Media pundits. Folks who are untouched by the causes they champion. And their degree of positive sanctimony is inversely proportional to the negative effect it has on the lives of people who are directly affected.

The mega-rich tycoon who rants on about open immigration for all,  but is building a six-foot-high wall around one of his properties.

The media, political and celebrity gun-control advocates who don't go anywhere without their coterie of armed bodyguards.

The famous star who is big for Climate Change, but insists that all her various houses be kept at 68 degrees, even when she's not there.

The Climate Change politician who has made a fortune on his cause, but uses more electricity and power for his home than half the people in his state. And travels by private jet, sanctimoniously insisting that he can balance off  his effect on the environment by buying climate offsets.

The politicians who can afford to go to a gym to lose weight, mandating that fast-food places post calorie counts, which will inevitably drive up the prices for people who CAN'T afford to go to gyms, but can only afford to eat fast food.

The politicians who scream about "Soak the rich!", "Let them do their fair share"---noble phrases---all while living off the freebies, trips and perks of their office (paid for by the poor taxpayers!) and angling to get as rich as possible as fast as they can! (Check out how many Senators and Representatives in Congress are millionaires. Doesn't anyone ever wonder how they got there on their modest salaries?) As I've mentioned in a previous entry, sometimes I think that the "Soak the rich" rhetoric merely disguises that ugliest of all vices---envy.

The "Rape Justice" crusaders, so enamored of their cause that they can create victims out of questionable reports, and can't even change their tune if the report turns out to be false. (Mattress, anyone?) And the lives they may have ruined? Doesn't affect THEIR lives, so who cares?

Don't be silly! If you are against the cause, you are not only wrong. By today's standards among the elite, you are EVIL!

And that's the other point that bothers me. Today, we can't just have differences of opinion. We must shut down all debate by demonizing those who disagree with us. (Well, it's easier than defending your position with reasoned arguments. And in our adolescent culture, we really don't like thinking hard, more than we have to!) So much easier to shut down your opponent with a patronizing sneer! Or even worse, as more and more protests continue, to stop dissenting opinions with violence.

Part of this, I'm convinced, is the dumbing-down of Academia. It's all about how we FEEL today, not about how reasonable we are. When I was growing up, the perceived wisdom was: If you're an idealist in your twenties, that's natural. If you're still an idealist in your thirties, you haven't grown up.

Well, half our culture is at that sticking point right now. So professors, who are supposed to teach reason and logic, yammer on about Safe Spaces and Micro-aggressions and "feelings", to protect the semi-babies under their care!

Ugh!

Yes, there was some of it in our day, but not nearly to the extent it is now, as it warps our thinking and our collective maturity today.

This current rant triggered another couple of memories before I sign off.

It involved the new middle school in our suburban New York neighborhood that an elitist architectural critic from a prominent magazine thought was wonderful. At the time, I wrote to him with all the points below---never heard back, nor did my letter appear in the magazine. (Surprise!)

It was during John Lindsay's tenure as mayor of New York City. Our suburban community needed a middle school. The mayor had dumped the city's architects, who had been turning out graceful, functional school prototypes for years---which worked! An early self-righteous "do-gooder" and elitist snob (he created The Big Apple concept, which focused almost exclusively on Manhattan, as though the other boroughs didn't exist), Lindsay hired an independent architect, who basically created a beautiful building. Except that it was suitable for an industrial park in the middle of an open field, and meant to be used by adults, not by kids ages 11-14 or so!

It was built like a dark gray fortress---3 stories, pentagon shape. No accident that the photo in the article was taken from a helicopter---that was the only way you could see the thing whole. You'd only catch gray slab pieces of it as you looked down the nearby streets.

Barely visible narrow slits for windows on the outside, which is where the classrooms were located (the rooms were weirdly trapezoid in shape, given the shape of the building!). Therefore, all classrooms had to be constantly lighted with artificial lighting---not enough daylight could come in through those slits. Teachers soon learned that they had to lock the classroom door. Otherwise, some kid would open the door, turn off the lights, and all hell would break loose in the dark.

However, there WERE windows. It was a hollow pentagon, with a large grassy atrium in the middle. So all the inner walls were floor-to-ceiling windows. Unfortunately, those windows were where the corridors were. It soon became apparent that kids of that age were prone to horsing around as they walked to classes. To prevent someone from being shoved through those wonderful windows, they had to install thick plastic sheets over the glass, which severely curtailed the light and the view of the grassy atrium.

And the atrium? Lovely, with a wrought-iron gate leading from the street to a grassy space with benches, etc. Except that local troublemakers would go in there during off-school hours and have access to the school. Solution? Block the entrance to the atrium, both from the gate on the street and from the inner school doors.

But the mayor or the architect didn't have to send THEIR kids to school there! Form over function, and people with little common sense. Or a sense of being so wonderful and perfect that reality never entered their exalted world!

And finally, perhaps to show that human nature doesn't really change that much, and we have always inclined to demonize our opponents:

At the time of this brief anecdote,  I was still in college. The world was consumed by the Red Scare. The McCarthy hearings, the whole Communist question, etc.  I found it hard to comprehend the whole situation from the comfort of our easy American life in the 1950s. (That is, until I spent two years in Germany a few years later as an Army wife, and learned how precarious was my soldier husband's life if the Russians should invade the West!)

But, young and idealistic and ignorant of reality as I was at the time, I expressed to a dorm-mate that I couldn't believe that ALL the Russians were bad. Instead of having a discussion, she said, with a certain degree of contempt, "My God, Sylvia, are you a Communist?"

And walked away from me, obviously convinced at that moment that HER halo was bigger than MINE!

        

SO WHERE THE HELL IS MY ROSE GARDEN?

"It isn't FAIR!"

How often have we heard that whine from our children?

We used to respond with: "Life isn't fair!" or "I never promised you a rose garden."

It seemed an appropriate answer to childish or adolescent complaints. But not any more. We are being destroyed by an adolescent culture, by grown-ups who no longer feel the need to grow up. Who think they are entitled. Therefore the concept of FAIRNESS now rules. Everyone better damn be equal---or else!

I remember when I first became aware of the growing trend for FAIRNESS. In the early 80's, I think. The American Scholar magazine had an article about questionable legislation that had just been passed. Don't know where, at this point; don't know by whom. But the writer's main complaint was that trouble begins when FAIR stops being an adjective and becomes a policy. So someone has to pass a law.

And, too often, that law is based on an anecdote, not on sound law. Someone was denied entrance to a public building? (As a random example). Perhaps because they were intoxicated? Violent? Clearly disturbed and dangerous? Whatever. But they complain. And now a law has to be passed, in the name of FAIRNESS, which forbids anyone, ever, from being denied entrance to any public building. EVER! Drunk, disorderly, menacing? Doesn't matter. It's the law! It's being FAIR. (Or they can sue.We mustn't forget how much the lawyers and their propensity for frivolous lawsuits has affected our culture and made cowards of us all.)

I remember reading that article and sarcastically commenting to my husband  that it wasn't FAIR that I was married and had children and therefore I couldn't ever be in the running for Miss America. I insisted that they should pass a law making discrimination against women like me illegal. Because it wasn't FAIR.

Absurd? Not by today's standards!

Did you know that students at a Midwestern college are demanding that the school erase any grade below a C? It's just too difficult for them, when they take time off from studying to attend protest rallies, and it isn't FAIR that others (who maybe stayed in the dorm and studied?) get better grades!

And did you hear about the school system that is proposing to ban tight pants for the girls because the bigger girls were getting bullied when they wore them? And it isn't FAIR! How about---don't wear tight pants, girls, if they don't suit you? But of course that would put the responsibility on the students to be sensible---and that clearly isn't FAIR!

And how about a study on air rage that found that it increased when passengers had to go through First Class to get to their seats. Obviously, it wasn't FAIR that others got more perks than they did! So they had a right to act out on the flight!

And of course the whole political emphasis on "Income Inequality?" Clearly, that isn't FAIR. Why should Nora Roberts make a fortune on her writing and I don't? And don't use words like "talent" or "luck" to me! In our Brave New World of FAIR, everyone has to be equal. Remember? And so we have to excoriate the fortunate, and insist they share with people less well-off than they are. Because it isn't FAIR otherwise.

You know what I see when I read about or see these complaints? I see selfishness and envy!

When I was growing up, there were rich people and poor people. Smart people and dumb people. Lucky people and unlucky people. Lazy people and productive people. But we mostly didn't know about them unless they were in our immediate circle of friends and neighbors. So we were content with what we had and with who we were.

Then two things happened. Television and the Victim Culture.

TV showed us people in sitcoms and other family shows who were supposed to be just like us, but who clearly lived better than we did. (And don't forget "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.") And because envy is an ugly vice, we had to turn our vice into a virtue. We weren't complaining for OURSELVES, you understand. We just didn't think it was FAIR that others didn't live as well as the TV people did. Obviously, if they lived better than we did, it wasn't FAIR, and we lowly folk were clearly helpless Victims of some vague "system."

And the concept of Victim-hood was seductive, since it meant that nothing was ever OUR fault.  I remember trying to raise four children in the '60s and '70s, the time of the burgeoning drug culture, Every single show with a troubled youth---detective, comedy, mystery, adventure---always showed that the young person's behavior was not his/her fault. It was always the fault of an abusive parent, a drunken parent, a vicious teacher, a domineering police officer, a nasty neighbor, etc. That made it very difficult to raise kids with a sense of responsibility, a sense that THEY were in charge of their behavior and couldn't blame it on others.

(As a sidebar---all four turned out fine. My husband and I, traveling with the kids asleep in the back of the station-wagon, would turn to each other and say with delight and relief, "Four out of four ain't bad!")

And envy, of course, leads to a sense of entitlement ("You OWE me!"), which turns people inward, which leads to selfishness and narcissism.

Moreover, we can't be judgmental. That implies a ranking---THIS is better than THAT, which destroys the insistence on equality. Which isn't FAIR.

So we're afraid to make rules, to rein in our adolescent spoiled brats; we rush to ease the pain of anyone who claims he is offended by ANYTHING! Because it isn't FAIR that something offends someone!

I nearly spit into my coffee reading an article about a professor who is so obsessed with FAIRNESS that he thinks that parents who read bedtime stories to their kids should feel guilty, because of the children who don't have such thoughtful parents! According to him, they are "UNFAIRLY disadvantaging" others.

(As a sidebar---I;m sorry to say that I think much of the pernicious and destructive thinking among the young people today has been fomented by so-called educators, who are, themselves, only half-grown-up products of the '60s. and '70s)

I touched on this briefly in a follow-up note in my last blog, where I said the following:

I think the real problem began in the seventies, with the "Victim" Movement. Nothing was ever one's fault---there was always someone else to blame. An easy out. And of course being judgmental was a no-no. and from that developed the asinine "self-esteem" movement, spearheaded by the schools. If there was no judgement, and everyone was a victim, then everyone was equal.(Trophies for all? Of course!) And if it took phony self-esteem props to make everyone FEEL equal, so be it.

All in the name of FAIRNESS, or course! Not to mention how self-righteous it is to trumpet FAIRNESS---especially if it doesn't affect YOU directly.

So by all means, let's pass laws charging 5 cents for every plastic shopping bag---doesn't affect the politician who made up the law, only the people managing to scrape by on their meager incomes. And it feels so NOBLE to announce such a law! In FAIRNESS to the environmentalists.

We have become a selfish, envious, adolescent, narcissistic culture. I don't want to get sued. I don't want to look "mean". I don't want to be judgmental. I want praise for my sanctimonious moral stance---my emphasis on FAIRNESS. And, in the name of FAIRNESS, I want MINE!

So where the hell is MY rose garden?

APRIL FOOLS

April 12th is a landmark date in American history, and this year it suddenly and unexpectedly revived for me a long-ago memory.

It's the day President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. 1945. A Thursday, as I recall. I was eleven years old.

FDR had seen us out of the Depression and through a dreadful war that was coming to a successful conclusion. Moreover, he had been elected to the presidency four times, a completely unprecedented occurrence. He was our idol, our great leader, our country's savior in hard times.

I was eleven, as I said. We lived in central Massachusetts, in a region where winters were harsh and cold. The ground froze almost every year. By the time April rolled around, we could literally smell the scent of the earth thawing (it's quite a distinctive smell---I missed it when I moved to New York, where winters were not so lingering or severe). But the earth had already begun to thaw that April 12th. And, as my mother braided my hair before school, I thought about that with pleasure.

We played marbles at recess when the weather got warm, because the earth was soft enough. We would swivel our shoe heel around in the dirt and make a circular cup-like depression to hold the marbles when we shot them. And I was looking forward to recess that day, for that very reason.

And also because I was wearing a new dress. Would you like to know what it looked like? I have a rather vivid memory, and can still see it in my mind's eye! A cotton dimity dress, woven with white thick-and-thin stripes, and over-printed with pink and blue flowers.

Marbles and showing off my new dress---all in one day! Wow!

Then, as my mother was braiding my hair, we heard over the radio that President Roosevelt had died.

My heart sank. My first---and only---thought? No recess. No marbles. No showing off my new dress to the whole schoolyard.

Surely, I was an April Fool, under the circumstances. Selfish and self-focused.

But I was only eleven! What excuse can we use for the myriad April (and otherwise) fools around us today?

Let's start with the bureaucratic mind-set. When I was an Army wife in the 1950s, and we lived in a Germany still recovering from the war, we were struck by how rigid their thinking was. How narrow and mindless, with rigid ideas and rote behavior. They still had apprentices, locked into the proper routine for their various trades, and everyone knew his job and his place, and nothing more. Problems with electricity? Call the Spezialist.  Couldn't get the plumbing to behave?  Call the Spezialist.

Our kitchen sink was clogged. We told our landlord. We were promised that the Spezialist  would come. Morgen. (Tomorrow.) After a week (and several days' worth of Morgens), my husband went to the PX and bought a plunger. A few quick plunges and the sink was clear.

"Mein Gott!" exclaimed our landlord to my husband, completely astonished. "Are you a Spezialist?" The classic, rigid bureaucratic mind-set. Very comforting, in a way, relieving a person of any need to think independently. We could see, in that example, and in so many others we encountered, how the Germans could have been led into Nazism. ("Do what you are supposed to do, and don't look around or ask questions.") We thanked heaven for "Yankee ingenuity." For our traditional American common sense.

Well, it's gone by the books. People in this country today are as rigid and as mindless and as tied to "rules" as the society we encountered all those years ago in Germany.

First-grader points a finger and goes "Bang, bang," and he's expelled from school, or he innocently
 kisses his little-girl neighbor and is charged with sexual harassment.

And, just recently, a class of students from North  Carolina was stopped at Ground Zero and forbidden to continue singing the "Star Spangled Banner" because, they were told, they needed a permit to perform. Because "The rules are the rules" and "You must obey orders!"

Surely today's bureaucrats are April Fools, who no longer know what common sense is!

And how about the movie theater company that was considering allowing people to text in the movie house, because, as one of the executives explained, "You can't tell 22-year-olds to turn off their cell phone."

Why the hell not? Where is the grown-up here? April Fools are the idiots who dreamed this up. Only after a loud public protest did they change their minds.

And then there was a pandering politician who made me laugh. Attempting to prove to his constituents that he was doing something for them, and earning his pay, he announced to senior citizens that, in order to fight identity theft, they should come to a specific site and bring important documents that they wished to be shredded. Just what we all need---a long bus or subway ride to destroy papers that we could certainly (and more conveniently) tear into multiple pieces for our protection, if we had to. (Or purchase a small shredder, which I have done,) Sorry---but that politician is an April Fool in my books.

And then there was the professional woman recently caught on camera screaming at an Uber driver. The video was posted and she lost her job. How many April Fools are there out there, who don't realize that, in an age of instant cameras and social media, you simply DON'T misbehave in public anymore and expect to keep it private!

And then there are the everyday, selfish little April Fools.

The woman on the elevator who is so busy texting (See my blog entry PUT DOW N THE DAMN I-PHONE!), that she can't make room for people who want to get on. (I'm not sure who is the bigger April Fool---the woman with the i-phone or the woman who wants to get on and can't even say "Excuse me, please!")

Or the guy on the subway who is so busy playing games that his extended elbows push against the people on either side of him.

Maybe it's my age, but I really do wish we weren't all so selfish and stupid and rigid.

April Fools indeed!

YOUR MOTHER WAS RIGHT

   Tips for people living on their own in the Millennium.

   You thought you had it made. A decent job, a nice apartment, an adequate career wardrobe, a busy social life. On your own, complete with PC, tablet, Smartphone, large-screen TV, microwave, credit cards.
 
    So why is there lettuce rotting in your fridge, and nothing else to eat unless you order in? Why can you never find anything to wear, and wind up frantic and late for appointments because the outfit you took out from the closet has a stain you'd forgotten about? Why hasn't your best buddy called you lately? (So what if you forgot his birthday. Big deal!) And why do you never seem to have cash when Fluffy or Spot barfs on your floor and you have to rush him to the vet in a cab that only takes cash? And where ARE your keys, anyway?

     In the "bad old days" of traditional Moms, a mother raised a brood of children without daycare, ran a household, usually without help, commandeered the kitchen (3 meals a day, and no microwave or take-out food), served as wife, mother, chauffeur, social secretary, cook and laundress.

     If you think an insistent iPhone or demanding boss is stressful, try ignoring the urgent screams of "Mom!" a dozen times a day while arguing with the washer repairman and trying to keep the family pet from eating the houseplants.

     Well, how did Mom do it? By taking time to make sense of her busy life and separating the various components into manageable pieces.

      In this age of instant gratification and quick fixes, the worship of anything "new", and the constant need for a "perfect" life so we don't get "stressed", perhaps it's also time to re-examine some of the verities previous generations held as truths for a very long time. Maybe they had something we have forgotten, something that might ease the chaos of today's living, bringing a breath of orderliness to our lives.

     Haste makes waste.

    And that especially refers to wasted time, in my opinion. If you're going to do something, do it right. My mother used to say, "If you don't take the time to do it right the first time, when are you going to find the time to do it right the second time?" Being focused totally on the task at hand---putting things away where they belong, sorting through your paperwork, keeping up with your laundry---saves you time in the long run. Pick up and clean up as you go along. Make every moment count, instead of filling it with bits of TV, a few minutes wasted on the Internet looking up trivia you don't really care about, constantly checking on your Smartphone for text messages from someone you just saw, etc.

     Look before you leap.

     Plan ahead. Run your home life like you do your job. Make lists, keep calendars with notations of appointments, errands, bill-paying schedules, etc.  Keep a grocery list, where you write down items you need to buy, or items you are running out of. That way, you'll never reach for a tissue with a runny nose and discover you forgot to buy more! Set aside a day, perhaps every two weeks, when you know you'll do laundry and clean out the fridge. I also keep a list of people's birthdays and anniversaries. That way, I can send out cards or e-mails or greetings on the occasion.

     I'm old-fashioned and still keep written lists, as I did years ago, but my daughter tells me there are great apps for Smartphones for list-keeping, which can be shared among family members or significant others ---since, in modern households, often multiple adults will do the shopping, not just mom, as in the old days. So as not to have to write multiple lists or worry that 2 people will buy milk that day, she and her husband use “AnyList”, which allows them to load items onto the grocery list and cross off items if either of them purchases. The updates happen in real time, so even if they're both out and about, they can stay up to date on needs and purchases.

     (Not that I'm completely antediluvian! Though I have written lists, plus a physical bulletin board near my front door to pin up pending appointments, needs, occasions that I want to remember, I also have a file on my computer called, MY BULLETIN BOARD,  There I keep a current list of all subscriptions I have, date of expiration, and whether they are paid up or not. Also keep there a list of books and DVDs I've loaned out with date and "loanee"---nice to keep, especially if I eventually want the items back! Oh, and that physical bulletin board near my front door has a hook for my keys!)

 

     An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

     A stitch in time saves nine.

     Your briefcase is about to rip at the handle? Take it to a shoemaker to repair or buy a new one BEFORE the stupid thing falls apart at the worst time. A loose button or hem that's starting to come undone? Fix it yourself if you can, or take it to a tailor. It will cost less than if the button goes missing and you have to buy a whole new expensive set, or the hem actually tears and the tailor charges you a fortune to fix it, if he can!

     The same is true for your health. Seeing a doctor BEFORE you're flat on your back is the sensible thing to do.

      A place for everything and everything in its place.

      You don't have to be a neat nut. But make a conscious effort to de-clutter and put things away whenever you have a moment. (Double-up on time. Empty the dishwasher while the water is boiling for the spaghetti. Dust the living room furniture during a TV commercial.) And make sure everything has its own place. Again, this is to your advantage, though you might not think of it that way. But picture how much more time you would waste if you had to stop and search for individual items whenever you needed them!    

     Garbage in, garbage out.

     What I really mean by that is, Stop buying "stuff" you really don't need! Get rid of stuff. Be coldblooded about closets, books, files, etc. Learn to throw out, at the same time resist impulse buying. It just adds to the clutter.

      And finally:

     Well begun is half done.

      When you're setting up your various lists, don't forget one important step---prioritize! Plan to do the most pressing things first, if you do nothing else. Don't be afraid to put off the less important things, guilt-free! Give yourself the luxury of goofing off once you've accomplished at least one vital thing on your list.

     Take control of your life. Make a start. You can do it!

   

NOTE:

Some of the entries in this blog came from a book idea my daughter and I worked out fourteen years ago and then abandoned. Thanks, Julia!

     

     

LOVE AND ROMANCE

This being the month of St. Valentine, I thought it would be nice to talk about love and romance. Since I am a writer of Historical Romances, I find the topic endlessly fascinating. I much prefer to write the interaction of my hero and heroine leading up to the sex scene, than the actual scene of their coupling. So many qualities are involved in their interactions---thoughfulness, kindness, a certain empathy. I want my characters to CARE about each other before they go to bed together.

So this blog entry is not going to be about sex, but about the many facets of love.

Quite often, reading "dating" columns in the newspaper, I'm struck by the shallowness of the men and women involved. "Oh," she will say,"I couldn't possibly date him seriously. Not someone who doesn't even like the Rolling Stones!" "If she can't come to football games with me, why should I keep seeing her?" he might say. That's self-absorption and narcissism of the first order! Can you only date your clone, for Heaven's sake?

Even more dismaying than that sort of superficial judgment is what it says about the maturity of the people involved. Since when does your partner have to fill EVERY nook and cranny of your life? And if he/she doesn't, you're disappointed and dump them? I sat through a lot of baseball games and cowboy/war movies with my husband, because I didn't mind, and he wanted my company. But I didn't drag him to too many foreign films (my cup of tea), because I preferred to share them with girlfriends who loved them as much as I did. (Your lover should be your friend---one of your best friends---but not your ONLY friend!)

And we had enough shared interests---and cultivated more through the years---to satisfy us both. Travel, opera, good theatre, dancing. And the raising of our four children together was a partnership that strengthened the bond of love between us.

Thoughtfulness, of course, is one of the cornerstones of love. And in such short supply in this day and age of ME FIRST. This past Valentine's Day, I heard more than one female complain about not getting flowers or candy or something for the occasion. And being furious at HIM! But I didn't hear anything about what SHE had done for him! We never cared that much about the occasion---sometimes there would be a gift,sometimes just a silly card. But just something to show we cared, even if it wasn't a "special" occasion.. One of my favorite gifts from my husband for Valentine's Day wasn't candy or flowers or dinner out. It came several years into my writing career. He gave me a huge unabridged dictionary. I cried. He couldn't have more clearly expressed his pride in my career with any other gift.

And I had fun with a silly "gift" when he was studying for the bar exam. I was going to my parents with the children for the week, while his "study buddy" came every day for them to go over their books. Before I left, I wrote about a dozen silly notes ("How are you doing?", "Get back to work!", "Love you a bunch---now study!". I left them all over the apartment. Three handkerchiefs down in his clothing drawer, taped on the fifth ice cream pop he'd take from the freezer, slipped into the heel of a pair of shoes, etc. And he knew that I loved him and cared.

All too often today, self-interest takes over. How can you have a relationship when you're only thinking of yourself? I am constantly struck by a sight I see when I'm going to work at my department store job, selling wedding dresses. A young couple, seeming to have a warm relationship, approaches the revolving door. (In my day, the gentleman knew to go through first, pushing the door so his female companion, behind him, wouldn't have to. Now, all too often, the guy lets HER go through, then scoots in behind her in the same space and lets her do all the pushing!

And one of the more astonishing things I experienced at my last job (also selling wedding dresses) was a young woman who wanted a particular dress. We had it in ivory, but to get it in white, which she really wanted, would mean the dress would come in AFTER her wedding date. So she pulled out her cell phone and called her groom and postponed the wedding for a month. And he agreed! When I expressed shock to a co-worker, she said, "What's the big deal if she wants the dress of her dreams?" When I said I thought it was an insult to choose a dress over her groom, she was genuinely bewildered. "But it was so SELFISH of her!" I said. And she replied, "Not if it 's the dress of her dreams!", as if a damn dress was the most important thing about the wedding and SHE was the only person who mattered.

A few odd final notes about love and romance;;;

Some years ago, my then-husband and I were at a very formal affair at the Plaza Hotel. Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the noted sex expert, admired my evening gown. "Very romantic," she said. "That's because I'm a romance writer," I responded. She asked about my pen name. "I have a few," I said, and told her Ena Halliday, Louisa Rawlings and Sylvia Halliday. She seemed at a loss for a moment, then brightened. "Well!" she exclaimed. "As long as your husband knows who he is getting into bed with!"

Another long-ago memory, maybe more sexy than romantic. When I began to write, I was trying to sell my first book. (Marielle, now reprinted by Diversion books : Marielle ). I sent it to a lawyer friend with publishing connections. He sent it on to an editor. Her reply (which I was clearly NOT intended to see!) stated that, though she found the book well-written, it involved a heroine who had been raped by the villain. (That was allowed in those days.) Consequently, she was frigid to the hero for much of the book. The editor thought someone would want to buy it (and someone did---Pocket Books launched their Tapestry line with Marielle, by Ena Halliday)., but she was passing on it because it wouldn't be a best-seller. "And," she added, "we both know that heroines of best-sellers are relentlessly orgasmic!"

I chuckled for days, and made sure that my next heroine fit the bill!

Finally, a REALLY distant memory! When I was in college, most greeting cards were of the Hallmark "sweet " and cloying variety. But there was a small company just starting out that was youthful, daring and funny. I sent this card to my then boyfriend (later my husband) on Valentine's Day.

There was a cartoonish drawing of an Old Master painting of Venus and Adonis. (Venus is the Roman goddess of love, Aphrodite is her Greek counterpart,)

The verse inside read:

Ponder yonder Aphrodite,
Ran around without her nightie.
The ways of love are ever old.
I too, for you, would risk a cold.

YUM!

Okay, I know I said this new entry would be called HAPPY BIRD DAY TO US, in honor of my goofy mother (see entry JUST FOR FUN), who always came into the dining-room bearing the turkey and singing, "Happy Bird Day To Us" to the tune of the birthday song.(And check an earlier entry, SURPRISE! to see how my mother made a Thanksgiving centerpiece out of our Thanksgiving squash!)

But since Thanksgiving is well past, and Christmas and New Year are nearly upon us (and I'm still unpacking, so my writing time is limited), I thought I'd combine the three holidays and talk about food in general.

Spent this past Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with all four of my children and their spouses, plus a gaggle of grandchildren. As a labor of love, I spent two hours shelling three pounds of chestnuts for my special stuffing---chestnuts, cornbread and white raisins. Definitely a yum! (Am ending this blog entry with the picture my son---the host of the day with his lovely wife---took of me as I was working. Sweatshirt was a gift from a fairly recent gentleman friend---not sure if he was being funny or if I had pissed him off!)

I've long-since learned that the most important ingredient in cooking IS love. When my marriage was falling apart, some years ago, and we gathered for what turned out to be the last Thanksgiving for the  intact family, the meal was just not very tasty. I guess my heart wasn't in it. The following year, with the separation complete, and my children gathering at one son's house, I was invited to come a week early and do the whole meal. That year, because I was at peace with what had happened, and surrounded by all those I held most dear, every dish in comparison was wonderful, though it was practically the same menu. (And I had two delightful helpers in the young daughters of the woman that son had just married---11 and 12, I think. They had never cooked, but they took to it like naturals, insisting that we make "just one more pie, Grandma!" We wound up with SIX pies that year!)

Final Bird Day story---son who took picture of me is a professional photographer, and sometimes gets carried away! When he went to Thanksgiving at the house of one of his brothers a few years ago, he took pictures of the occasion and sent them to me. I don't know what it says about his appetite, but there were more pictures of the cooked bird than there were of the guests and the family! "Please!" I begged him. "Next time, EDIT!"

On to Christmas meals. One marvelous memory is from very long ago, when I was first married. My husband, drafted into the Army for two years, was stationed in Germany, where I joined him. We had rented a room (shared bathroom and kitchen) in a lovely old town house in Bad Nauheim, which was a beautiful hospital town untouched by the war. We had become great friends with our landlady, her two little children, and her mother, a delightfully lively senior citizen. In the past, the family---mostly doctors---had been quite wealthy, and the town house, still owned by a doctor relative, with one floor rented out to OUR landlady, was a beauty, with polished wood floors, vintage furniture and views overlooking a lush park.

Then, after only 4 or 5 months, my husband was transferred to Darmstadt, a dismal city, still partially in rubble from the war. Our rented rooms were in a cinder-block house built by a stone-cutter, who had spent nine years in a Russian prison camp AFTER the war, and had finally come home to his wife and son to make a sparse life for himself. The only heat we had for two rooms was from a coal stove, also for cooking, which certainly was a challenge for a bride just learning to cook! My lemon meringue pies were regularly speckled with black soot, because I never remembered to put in more coal (to make the stove hotter to brown the meringue) until AFTER I had put in the pie! (One quirky note---the house was on the outskirts of the city, in Darmstadt-Eberstadt. On the hill behind the house, which I could see every day, was Frankenstein's castle!)

Anyway, come Christmas, our Bad Nauheim friends had invited us back for the holiday. The grandmother greeted us at the door in a family heirloom, a magnificent gown (probably dating from the turn of the Twentieth Century), purple silk velvet with a Victorian high collar and bodice of real gold lace. A large key hug at her waist. She took the presents we had brought, unlocked a door to one of the spare rooms, and disappeared inside.

Then we repaired to the parlor, where we spent the evening eating piles of home-baked cookies, drinking good German schnapps and playing silly games like pickup sticks and tiddly-winks. At midnight, the grandmother came in with a candle. Tiptoeing, we followed her to the door of the spare room. With great fanfare, she unlocked it and we went inside.

What a wonder! The windows were wide open to the cold night air, but that was because, they told the children, the Christ Child had to come into the room and decorate the tree. The huge Christmas tree was hung with silver tinsel, live candles, and lit sparklers! It was breathtaking!

Each of us had a separate little table, with our presents piled on it, and more dishes of cookies. After we opened our presents, and ate more cookies, the family went off to church for an hour. When they returned, the traditional supper they served was marvelous after all the sweets we had eaten! Salty herring salad, plain boiled potatoes, and bitter dark bread. I can still taste how delicious it was after all those cookies!

One more Christmas story. For many years, one of my dearest friends gave a Christmas Eve party at her home. Her large extended family came from other states and also from Puerto Rico. Every year she chose a different ethnic theme. So we had an Italian Christmas, a Chinese Christmas, a Greek Christmas, etc. One year, as we sat around waiting for midnight to open the presents, the conversation turned to what  theme we should choose for the following year. Being Jewish (and a pretty good cook), I said, as a joke, "How about a Jewish Christmas?" Much to my surprise, everybody LOVED the idea! So the next year, we had matzo ball soup, chopped liver, potato kugel, and roasted chicken, among other dishes. Very successful.

New Year's Eve. For many years, my husband and I had a New Year's Day open house. As we sent out our Christmas cards, we included to a large group of friends (probably about 75-100) an invitation to drop in on New Year's Day from noon to 8:00. Since we usually went out New Year's Eve (that's a story for another entry!), everything had to be done in advance. Finger food. A large smoked turnkey, conveniently cut into small pieces, with toothpicks. Smoked ham, done the same way. Lots of cheese chunks. Stuffed mushrooms, piled on trays and ready to be popped into the oven as guests arrived. Same for small squares of noodle puddings---one with spinach, one with cottage cheese and sugar. Big bowl of fruit salad. Brownies made in advance. Drinks confined to wine, vodka with orange juice or tomato juice. Easiest parties we ever gave!

Assorted food notes and recollections:

Because we had four children, and I didn't want to become a short-order cook, catering to every individual taste, we had the "One-Taste Rule." Each child was expected to taste everything at every meal, even if they washed it down with water at once. It was a Family Rule. (See blog entry IT'S MY HOUSE AND I'M BIGGER THAN YOU ARE.) The plus factors were that I could cook just one meal for everyone, try new dishes, and the kids developed pretty broad eating habits at an early age. ("Ooh! Beef Bourguignonne!")

Another offbeat memory---had given a very elegant dinner party, with a wonderful galatine of leg of lamb, stuffed with ham and pistachio nuts, followed by a dessert that is one of my culinary specialties---chocolate-dipped pears. At the last minute, one of my dearest friends came down with pneumonia and she and her husband couldn't attend because she was sick in bed. After our guests left and my husband and I had cleaned up and put on our pajamas, we suddenly wondered how she was doing. We called. Was she still awake? Yes, she said. Were they hungry?: Absolutely! Still in our PJs, we packed up a meal for both of them, drove to their house and presented it to her in bed. At 2:00 A.M.! She still talks about that crazy evening! (She still remembers the main course as French cassoulet, another of my specialties, but I remember it as the lamb.)

Chocolate pears or not, I am, according to my children, an alien. Basically, I don't much like chocolate, peanut butter, pizza or ice cream. Small correction---except when I was pregnant. Ice cream was my rabbit test! Usually, when we went to Friendly's or some place like it, and my crew ordered banana splits or assorted ice cream concoctions, I would have an English muffin and coffee. Once in a great while, I might ask for the teeniest scoop of vanilla ice cream with marshmallow or caramel on top. It was usually all I could manage. But if I scraped the bowl and wanted more, I KNEW I was pregnant. And I always was! During my final pregnancy, I spent nine months eating chocolate-chip mint ice cream daily. Came home from the hospital and my older kids dished out a plate for me, as they had done for months. I took one taste and pushed it away. "I don't like ice cream!" I said.

The children's favorite foods were "zerks" (desserts), as in "What's for zerk, Mom?", "peenadelly" (sound it out), and "La Rosa", otherwise known as "Mom's Mac". They also liked chocolate mousse, but teased me unmercifully about the name. If they said, "What's for zerk?" and I answered "Chocolate mousse," I would then have to endure lots of smart-alecky comments about the moose's antlers, whiskers, etc. But I finally fixed them. Made the mousse in an oval mold, turned it out onto a flat plate, added marshmallow eyes with raisin pupils and a cherry nose, and used chocolate wafer cookies for antlers. When the usual snarky comments came at my announcement that zerk was chocolate mousse---"And does it have antlers. Mom?"---I plunked down the platter with a triumphant cry of "Yes!!"

A few kitchen hints---

1. Did you know that there are male and female eggplants? You want to choose the male eggplants if you can---fewer seeds. Go to the stem end of the vegetable. If the "scar" is a circle, it's a male. If it's a line, it's a female.

2. You can freeze lots of herbs. Dill especially takes to freezing. Just wash it, shake off the excess water, wrap it tightly in foil and pop it into a plastic bag. When you need finely diced dill for a recipe (I have a wonderful dill sauce that goes over a salmon mousse), you don't have to defrost it. Just unwrap the foil from the top and finely dice as much as the recipe calls for. I've noticed that the dill flavor is enhanced from the freezing.

3. Pie crusts---it's a messy nuisance to roll out a crust on a board with flour, etc. But because I didn't have a rolling pin or a board as a bride in Germany, I learned to roll out the crust between two sheets of wax paper crisscrossed. The paper is 12" wide, so you get a crust that is 12" in diameter. What could be simpler? It just fits a 9" pie plate! And I used a glass, not a rolling pin, to roll it out. Still do. More manageable than a large rolling pin.

And finally, I'm a good cook. (I actually sat down with a friend to write a cookbook many years ago. After a time, we found it boring and then I discovered romances. And that's how I got started on my writing career!) Complete story to follow at some point! But I do share recipes. E-mail me, if you are interested. My e-mail is Syl4brides@aol.com

Enjoy the photo!