Loners Anonymous Meeting 2025

Our Leader Tom Hanks in "Castaway"

We have not met for quite some time but I know you are all out there -- or rather in there -- and I salute you. While being a loner in today's world has a negative connotation, we all know that it's the only proper way to live. As William Shakespeare said, "To thine own self be true," and blah blah blah. Trying to please others is a losing game. So continue doing your own thing, and above all avoid reading the news, it will only bring you down.

For example, a letter to the editor in today's Wall Street Journal about the White House ballroom now under construction that is getting lots of negative press contains the following sentence: "I don't suppose a President AOC will complain about hosting galas in the new digs next store." It's very frightening to consider that scenario. Hopefully, should that come to pass I will be dead by then. 

Anyway, stay strong, stay home, don't answer the phone and especially the door, and Happy Holidays!

Ballroom, Shmallroom -- What About Mamdani?

The charred remains of the World Trade Center, September 1, 2001

I lived in Washington DC for 30 years. During that time I worked as a graphic designer and had many government agencies as clients. I dated a Secret Service agent for a brief period and a White House press photographer who took me as his date to the annual White House Press Photographer's Dinner. I also was employed by the Democratic National Committee for over a year and attended a barbecue at the official home of the Vice President at that time, Walter Mondale. 

Many of my daily interactions were with government employees. I often went to the Executive Office Building a few blocks from the White House for business meetings. My best friend worked at the Department of Health and Human Services, another one at the Department of Education. We would meet for lunch at their offices quite often.

I went to the Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial, The Capitol, all the Smithsonian museums, the State Department and the Library of Congress countless times. Not once in 30 years did I enter the East Wing of the White House. I couldn't care less about the East Wing. It makes no difference to me what the heck happens to it. Surely all Americans who never even visited Washington, DC, who never had any doings with that building, feel the same way. 

The only people who care about Trump tearing down the East Wing to make much needed improvements to the White House are Democrats, especially those who work in journalism and in Congress, who spend every waking minute trying to invent ways to smear our President.

Ballroom, shmallroom -- who cares? All the Democrats who are currently wringing their hands over this apparently have forgotten a really bad demolition of a building, that of the World Trade Center in 2001 by Muslim terrorists, and are voting right now for another one to run their city as Mayor. Go figure.

What's Wrong With the Democrats?

I heard on the news today that the Democratic frontrunners for the presidency in 2028 are The Dumbest Loser, Governor Hair Gel and The Bartender From Queens. I'm sure everyone knows who those people are, but just in case I have included photos. (See photos.)

Please excuse me for saying this if you are not an idiot but still vote Democrat in this day and age -- and I know several who are quite intelligent otherwise. Holdovers from better days, they are mostly older folks who stopped paying attention to politics a while back and still think their party has some merit. To all of them I ask: Are you kidding? Do you know about nuclear weapons and that the President has the power to release them? What's wrong with you?

Loser

Hair Gel

Bartender

Staying Home

Before the Internet existed I had no idea how many stupid people there are in the world. Now it is all too obvious, and it's very depressing. Just stepping outside your home is opening yourself up to an encounter with a moron, or worse. 

If you have a home, you are a winner. Fix it up nice.

Potholes

The world today is so screwed up, it's hard to think of anything to write about that is not fraught with division. Apparently humor was banned long ago. (Although Mike Birbiglia is hysterical, check him out -- he has four specials on Netflix.)

 I recently lost a longtime, very close friend. When I say recently I mean on October 15 and this is October 23, so that's eight days ago. And when I say longtime, very close, I mean we met in 1986 and all the fun things we did together over the years have become live hand grenades in a minefield of memories. (See photo.)

I am waiting to "get over it" and will certainly find something amusing, or interesting, or stupid to write about soon. Like how everyone is up in arms because Trump is building a ballroom at the White House, when they should be considering the fact that everyone dies and their time will come, so don't sweat the small stuff. And if you ask me, ongoing construction at the White House is small stuff. 

I would like them to repave my road, however. I do care about that and it's really bad, potholes, frost heaves, etc.

Film Review: BAD SHABBOS

New on Netflix, Bad Shabbos is a witty and decidedly dark story about an interfaith engaged couple whose parents meet for the first time at the special Friday night sabbath (shabbos) dinner hosted by the Jewish groom-to-be's parents. Time flies by in this 84-minute farcical tale involving the accidental and somewhat gross death of one of the guests.

As a Jew myself I can say the depiction of the Gelfand family is right on the money. The passive-aggressive mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and her wishy-washy husband (David Paymer) typify so many of the Jewish, definitely Democratic, denizens of Manhattan's Upper West Side living in luxury within a stone's throw of Zabar's. Even the perfect challah on the table looks straight from Central Casting. 

I won't spoil things by relating the plot in detail like every other film critic does. Just know that hiding a dead man in the bathroom during dinner will certainly put a damper on your evening, as will emptying the contents of a soup bowl on a future in-law. Everyone except the goyish Catholic visitors from Wisconsin is culpable, including the old faithful Magical Negro* (Method Man) who saves the day. And while they all avoid prison, I'm thinking none of them are going to Heaven.

*The old-fashioned word "Negro" is used to imply that a "magical Black character" who devotes himself to selflessly helping whites is a throwback to racist stereotypes such as the "Sambo" or "noble savage".

Some People Crack Me Up

Honestly, you have to wonder about some people. Like what the heck happened in their life to make them the way they are. 

For example, I was just scrolling through some photos of Diane Keaton on Facebook. She was such a beauty throughout her entire life, yet in the comments section below one photo someone had written, "Whatever could Al Pacino have been thinking?" 

For those who are not slaves to Hollywood gossip, Pacino and Keaton were romantically linked for a while, back in the days when they played a married couple in "The Godfather." But I guess this lady thought that Keaton was not worthy of him. So I checked out the commenter's page and her photo showed an old lady who never could have ever been at all attractive, even in the glow of youth on her best day, yet she's writing trash about Diane Keaton! WTF?

I wish I could understand what makes some people tick.