Cynicism

Cynicism is the laziest response.

What We Can Do

If people focused on what they can do instead of complaining about what they can’t do, don’t have, or what someone else did, this planet would be full of happy, productive geniuses.

Poor Tummy

Tummy hurts today 

Hope this box of tummy pills 

Makes that go away 

Influencers

Remember the good old days when ‘influencers’ were people who actually accomplished things?

Shocking Revelations

One of the most sobering revelations about humanity is the realization that large segments of the population will support a corrupt, immoral leader simply because he or she promises to give them what they want.

New York Minute 132 - Good Vibrations

I must have been sending off good vibes the other day. As I home from the grocery store, I saw a couple walking ahead of me with a very young toddler. The little boy seemed barely old enough to walk. He wasn’t going very fast, but he didn’t seem to have any issues with balance. 

As I got closer, the little boy stopped, turned around, and said “Hi!” as he waved to me. His mother beamed at her outgoing child and repeated, “Hi!” I smiled and said, “Hi!” as I walked past. What a cute kid!

I dropped off the groceries and went to another store where the store manager greeted me warmly. Normally, the people who work at the store are stone faced and barely responsive. But hey, good vibrations have a way of making everyone happy!

Copyright © 2019 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Preparation

It doesn’t matter who you are, how talented you are, or what you’ve done before. What matters is how prepared you are for this moment.

You Can Count On Me

The most important thing that you can convey to someone is not that you love them, but that they can count on you. 

Encouragement

Encouragement is an expression of appreciation. Discouragement is an expression of fear. Criticism is an expression of envy.

Crazy Mood

Sometimes, I get in a crazy mood. The other time is 10:49 am on Tuesday.

Greater Expression Of Love

There is no greater expression of love than letting the other person be who they need to be, even if that means letting them go.

Getting Results

You don’t have to love the workout. You just have to want the results.

Determination Is Your Greatest Asset

Determination is your greatest asset. Armed with the conviction that something must get done, the drive to work diligently and effectively, and the commitment to see your goals to completion, you can defy great odds and overcome almost any obstacle. Keep focused and keep at it. You’ll get there.

Copyright © 2019 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

On This St. Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a difficult time for many people. If, for whatever reason, you are feeling sad on this day, if you are alone, if you are missing someone, or if you are unsure of where life is taking you, I want you to know that I care and that my heart is with you. I hope that the burden of what you are going through today will not weigh on you too heavily, and I pray that you will find a clear path to the better and brighter times that lie ahead.

New York Minute 131 - Unsanitary Station

It was a horrible cough, deep, gurgling, and raspy, spewed from the lungs of someone inflicted with a bad case of bronchitis or something much worse. I glanced up to see an obese, elderly man walking slowly in my direction. I moved farther down the subway platform - I didn’t want the person with that cough getting onto the same train car that I did - but the cough got closer.

As the person neared my position, at which point I realized that it was actually a woman, I did a U-turn and walked in the other direction. If she wanted to be in the last car, that was fine with me. I was going to move toward the middle of the train.

I knew what was going to happen when I saw the woman walk to the end of the platform, beyond where any car of the train would stop. I knew what would happen, because I have seen it happen many times before. She stopped, turned around, and took a quick glance down the length of the platform. Then she stepped behind a supporting pillar, stopped down, slid her sweatpants down, and did her business. 

One of the surprising things about New York City is that there aren’t many public restrooms here. Tourists and people running errands can use bathrooms in hotels and coffee shops, but vagrants don’t have that option. People who struggle with addiction or mental health issues sometimes trash and seriously damage restrooms, so proprietors chase them away.

As a result, the indigent homeless use subway stations as toilets, urinating in corners and on staircases and defecating on the platforms themselves. It’s disgusting, not to mention a health and sanitation nightmare, but nobody does anything about it. 

I have no idea what the current administration at City Hall does all day or how they justify their paychecks. They don’t seem to have any interest in dealing with vagrancy. They let the homeless do whatever they want, sleep wherever they want, panhandle wherever they want, and go to the bathroom just about anywhere without restriction. Neighborhoods where you rarely even saw a homeless person under previous administrations now have bums on every block, begging, sleeping in boxes, rooting through garbage cans and throwing trash all over the place. It’s inexplicable and inexcusable that a city of this size and stature can take such a laissez-fairs attitude toward the vagrancy problem. It shows a  blatant disregard for the health and safety, not only of the vagrants, but of the tax-paying public that has to deal with them every day.

Copyright © 2019 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Improve Your IQ

Did you know that it’s possible to improve your IQ? No, not your Intelligence Quotient - your Internet Quotient. 

Learn how to recognize conversations that are likely to be combative, soul-sucking time wasters, and avoid them altogether. Don’t leave a single comment. Don’t take the risk of letting yourself get swept up. Let the idiots and the know-it-alls, the curmudgeons and the pedants fight it out amongst themselves. They’ll get along fine without you, and you won’t have to block a bunch of lunatic trolls i just order to protect your identity.

With discipline and determination, you could double or triple your IQ within a few months and save yourself valuable time in the process. Reduce your blood pressure, get more done, and have rollover minutes to spare on your data plan. Win-win!

Confused Weather

Sometimes the weather doesn’t know what to do, so it does everything at the same time!

Make Art For Yourself

Make art for yourself first. If it doesn’t move you, it won’t feel authentic to anyone else.

Cold Weather Fashion

It’s cold in New York today. Women have been seen wearing pants that aren’t ripped.

Choices

We don’t always make the best choices 

They’re not always thoughtful or kind 

Driving those daily decisions 

Are the haunts of our hearts and our minds 

But it’s the right of the living to make them 

Good, indifferent, or bad 

For when we are gone, dead and buried, 

There’s not one more choice to be had 

Copyright © 2019 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Where Do We Draw The Line?

Where do we draw the line?

Was it acceptable for Yul Brynner, an actor of Russian descent, to play the role of the King of Siam?

Was it acceptable for Elizabeth Taylor to play Cleopatra?

Was it acceptable for Charlotte Heston, who was not Jewish, to play Moses and Judah Ben-Hur?

Is it acceptable for a British actor to play the role of Hamlet, a Danish prince?

Is it acceptable for English actors to portray Italian lovers Romeo and Juliet, or Julius Caesar?

Is it acceptable for any European actor to play Jesus of Nazareth?

Who gets to decide what is and isn’t acceptable? Is this something that can be determined rationally, or is it based on the whims of society at the time? In Shakespeare’s England, women were not permitted on stage. Female roles were played by young or effeminate men. Would that be acceptable today?

I understand that some cross-racial portrayals are clearly offensive. ‘Charlie Chan’ movies starring English and American actors in the title role were awkwardly stereotypical. Far and away, the most offensive performance that I have ever seen is Jerry Lewis’s horrifyingly insensitive Asian caricature in ‘The Nutty Professor’. Lewis should have been banned from the movie industry after that disaster. That said, when Eddie Murphy reprised the Nutty Professor role, he did it in a fat suit. Was his pretend obesity offensive to people who have trouble losing weight?

Make Believe

There idea of dressing up to pretend that we are someone other than who we are is not unusual, nor is it scandalous. Actors spend their lives pretending to be someone other than who they really are, an athlete, a criminal, a billionaire, a historical figure, a superhero, a computer genius. 

Those of us who aren’t actors have fewer opportunities to pretend that we are someone else, but opportunities do occur: Halloween, Madrid Gras, carnival-themed holidays, parades, costume parties, even sporting events. (Any Raiders fans out there?)

I don’t recall there ever being standards about what types of costumes were appropriate and what would be deemed offensive. As long as it’s even moderately tasteful, people do pretty much what they want to do. In fact, the more creative and outlandish the costume, the more attention it will receive. 

Standards have a way of going over a slippery slope of oppression and control. Do we want parents to discourage their daughters from dressing up as doctors and encouraging them to dress as nurses instead? That would be tragic.

Blackface 

You saw that coming, didn’t you? Dressing in blackface has become one of the most unforgivable sins in our politically correctness society. Political careers are hanging by a thread because of blackface costumes that were worn decades ago. 

I understand the sensitivity. The United States has deep, unresolved wounds from a history of racially-based suppression, a history that continues in the present day. There is still discrimination against people of color in the United States. It’s not always legal, but it happens. Police brutality, voter suppression, and legal jeopardy disproportionately impact communities of color. Despite increased awareness, there’s no relief in sight for these intractable problems.

On the other hand, while dressing up in an insensitive costume shows poor taste and a lack of judgment, it’s far from the worst behavior that a human being can demonstrate. It’s not a physical assault. It’s not sexual harassment. It’s not false accusation. It doesn’t put others in danger or take away anyone’s rights. The only person who is likely to be harmed by an offensive costume is the individual who decided to wear it; their reputation is likely to sustain serious damage.

Dressing in blackface in this day and age, and even in the past, shows insensitivity and poor judgment, but I don’t believe that it should end someone’s career. 

And if dressing up like Michael Jackson is deemed offensive, then wouldn’t Elvis impersonations also be offensive? I see at least one person in a Michael Jackson costume every Halloween; I never cared about the race of the person wearing the costume. People dress as MJ as an expression of admiration, not racial intolerance.

I think that we as a society need to worry less about a costume that someone wore to a party decades ago and start focusing our energies on resolving the serious issues that we face as a nation and a planet.

The Rules Of American Politics

The Rules Of American Politics

Once dressed in a racially insensitive costume: Unacceptable. Resign immediately.

Cheated on three wives, paid hush money to porn stars and playmates, ran businesses that methodically discriminated against people of color, bragged to a TV reporter about physically abusing women, defrauded investors, refused to pay suppliers and contractors, hired illegal aliens, and appealed to a hostile foreign power for help in getting elected: No worries. You can keep your job.

The Complex History Of The United States Of America

The United States, a country founded on the stated principle that all men are created equal, has a long, tragic, violent history of racial inequity.

The United States also has the foremost entertainment industry in the world, an industry that has profited enormously from the direct and indirect contributions of African Americans. Travel around the world, and you will see American movies in theaters, and you will hear American music played everywhere. 

In light of those facts, consider that the very first “talking” motion picture ever made (ending the silent film era), featured a Jewish man singing jazz in blackface.

Climbing Out Of A Hole

When you want to climb out of a hole, the first step is to stop digging.

Vietnam Trip

Trump is finally going to Vietnam. They should give him John McCain’s old room.

Heaven and Hell

Hell is longing for what you can’t have. Heaven is cherishing what you have now.

Mistakes And Their Consequences

When someone admits to making a mistake, or when it’s discovered that they have made mistakes in the past, several responses are possible. We can disregard the mistake or forgive it outright. This allows everyone to move forward, but it does nothing to hold the person accountable for their actions or reinforce a sense of responsibility. That can be counterproductive in the long run.

We can ostracize the person who made the mistake. We can demand that they resign from their job or be removed from a position that they hold. We can humiliate them publicly. This may be the right way to handle a serious mistake, but could be overkill for a lesser infraction. Unfortunately, this is often the first reaction of well-meaning observers.

The third option is to start a conversation in order to analyze what happened thoughtfully. What was the nature and seriousness of the mistake? Did it do lasting harm to someone? Did the person who made the mistake attempt to make amends? Have they learned from the experience? Are they a better person today than they were when they made the mistake? Can they be trusted? Such reflection gives us the chance to take action in accord with the severity of the infraction, the quality of the person and their value to our community. The punishment can still be severe if necessary, but by avoiding a rush to judgment, it’s more likely to be appropriate.

In recent days, it discovered that a prominent politician had a racially insensitive photo posted on his medical school yearbook page. I question the integrity of an institution that would permit this, but I digress. Many people called for his resignation immediately upon hearing the news, even though it has not been determined whether or not he was actually in the photograph.

A famous actor admitted in an interview that he once, for a short time, felt animosity toward members of a certain race. This came after learning that a friend had been raped. People immediately demanded a boycott of the actor’s movies. 

Note the following. Both of these situations happened decades ago. Both men say that they learned from their experiences and that these actions do not reflect who they are as people today. And in neither case was any person directly harmed.

Contrast these with the case of a judge who was recently nominated to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. It was alleged by a credible witness that the judge had also made a mistake decades ago. He, too, claims that the alleged action (to which he did not admit) is not a reflection of who he really is as a person. The difference is that the judge’s mistake, an attempted rape, did a lifetime of damage to the victim. That judge was confirmed by the US Senate and sits on the Supreme Court today.

And let’s consider the peculiar case of another man, the man who occupies the White House, a person who, by all accounts, has made and admitted to a wide range of mistakes and unseemly, unethical, and even criminal behaviors over the years, some of which have done real harm to people, including but not limited to the man’s own wives. The man has never claimed responsibility for any of his past transgressions, and yet, he continues to serve in his elected capacity.

As a society, we need a more even-tempered way of handling revelations of past transgressions. If we simply overlook someone’s mistakes, no one will take responsibility for their actions. But if our first instinct is to call for the ruination of a person’s career at the mere mention of alleged misbehavior, that swings too far in the other direction, pushing us toward an Orwellian dystopia where one need only think bad thoughts in order to be deemed worthy of extreme punishment.

Let’s all take the opportunity to learn from these recent incidents. We could all use a bit of empathy and thoughtful reflection in our lives.

The NFL Has Bigger Problems Than A Boring Super Bowl

Ah, what an exciting Super Bowl it might have been! It’s fun to imagine a high-scoring shootout between the resurgent New Orleans Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs, led by nice-guy coach Andy Reid and rookie quarterback sensations and NFL MVP, Patrick Mahomes. What an amazing contest that might have been!

But it was not to be. Instead, we were forced to sit through a low-scoring stalemate between the Los Angeles Rams, who looked unprepared and outclassed, and a team that has made nine trips to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots. Yes, the Tuck Rule Patriots. The Spygate Patriots. The Deflategate Patriots. Back again.

How this thoroughly unsatisfying matchup came about is indicative of the NFL’s current state of operational dysfunction. The AFC Championship game was a close contest. The Patriots benefitted from a late fourth quarter “roughing the passer” call against a Chiefs player who, upon review, did not even touch Tom Brady. Despite this setback, the Chiefs had a chance to seal the win when they intercepted Brady, only to have the interception nullified by a neutral zone infraction for which they have only themselves to blame.

What happened to the Saints was ludicrous. As a Saints receiver approached the end zone, a Rams defender interfered with him in a blatant and brutal way. Everybody knew that it was pass interference, there was no question about it. But because the foul wasn’t called on the field in real time, it didn’t matter. NFL officiating rules dictate that pass interference can’t be called based on what the referees see on replay. Replay can only be used to overturn calls that were called on the field. This egregious foul, where the receiver was lucky to come away with his head attached, was not called on the field. Maybe the referees were too busy trying to figure out what counts as a catch in today’s league to pay attention to actual plays.

And so, the world was left to watch the Rams and the Patriots give a clinic on unentertaining football. One opinion writer called it the worst Super Bowl ever. He was being kind.

If these comments come across as annoyance over the fact that the Patriots have dominated the league in recent years, let me say that their success is well deserved. Tom Brady is untouchable as a quarterback, literally and figuratively. The Patriots’ offensive line is so solid, so impenetrable, year after year, that Brady is rarely knocked down, let alone sacked. Other teams have had plenty of time to study their tactics, but the best defenses in the league have been powerless to stop the man who is unquestionably the greatest passer of all time. Even the Patriots’ most passionate critics have to face that fact.

But the six-time champion Patriots have a dark side, as well, and that, too, has to be acknowledged. The team has a long history of scandals and legal action. An assistant equipment manager faced criminal charges for lying to investigators during the Deflategate scandal.

Consider the Patriots’ head coach, an undeniably brilliant football tactician whose win-at-all-costs philosophy once earned him an unprecedented one million dollar fine for cheating. That wasn’t the team’s fine; the organization paid a half a million bucks for their role in the Spygate scandal. The big fine was levied against the coach, himself, a man so unconcerned with doing the right thing that he once publicly accepted the head coaching job at one team only to quit the next day and sign on with the team that he really wanted to work for. The Patriots are champions - they have the rings and the records to prove it - but it would be difficult to argue that they exemplify good sportsmanship.

The NFL is in a sad state. The league is plagued with public relations issues, from domestic abuse to substance abuse to on-field protests and care for ex-players with CTE. Athletes put their health and well-being on the line, week after week, in contests that are too often spoiled by laughably inept officiating complicated by increasingly inscrutable rules changes. In this chaotic environment, over the past seventeen seasons, over a third of the championships have gone to one of the most unethical teams ever to step on a gridiron. (The Oakland Raiders of the 1970’s might give them a run for their money.)

It shouldn’t be like this, but it is, and I’m getting tired of watching it.