What? You've Never Been to my Website ONCE?

For the information of some browsers who found this blog and think it's a website, it isn't. A blog is a journal of sorts, a place to sound off, blow off, piss off and generally exercise your writing muscles, if you have them. It may be a place you can convince yourself that your verbal output is actually the same as writing. I use it to display my breadth of knowledge about practically everything, while demonstrating a depth of wisdom at the other end of the scale.

I don't know why I write a blog. This blog doesn't have any mission statement in particular. It is about finding myself, whatever that happens to mean, and it is about Hoboken too. When I moved here in December of 2007 I knew almost nothing about Hoboken, but the more I wrote, the more I learned, and I picked up a smattering of followers in the process who helped me along by writing comments about what Hoboken really is, was, and maybe even could be. So far I love the Hoboken part; the finding I could do anywhere. But it would be different.

Many of you who click on "View my complete profile" are probably interested in the fact that I have two other blogs going, and a website. The blog "Finding Fair Hope" was a little play on words as I found myself in my old hometown of Fairhope, Alabama, and I still post over there occasionally. I started blogging with that one. I cut my teeth over there, thinking it would be a good way to plug a book I'd written, Meet Me at The Butterfly Tree, but I posted about everything from the meaning of life to the activities of the local political committees. I still keep up with Fairhope, and occasional post over there when there is something I want to say.

And I have a blog called "Finding Fair Food," which has nothing to do with fair food, although many visitors found that one when they Googled "fair food." It's a food blog, describing how I cook--I love to cook--and even providing the occasional recipe. It's beginning to pall on me, and I seldom post there, but I do check out the traffic every day.

Traffic is why I'm writing this post. There is very little traffic on my web site, which you can find here. On it you'll find pictures of me in various incarnations, a little biographical information, and shameless plugs for my two books. It's a good read, if I do say so myself (and if I weren't a bit of an egomaniac I would write neither blogs, websites, nor books). If you haven't visited the web site, do it now, and think about buying one of those wonderful books.

If you want to skip the web site and go directly to buy the book, go here instead. You'll notice the name of the author is slightly different from the one on all my blogs--my maiden name makes a good pen name, don't you think?

Marlon Brando Slept Here

You may not recognize this one, new residents of Hoboken--but you can't deny it's as impressive as that new piece of glitz that's been blocking the sidewalk on River Street for years and now is open, boasting crystal chandeliers and glamorous stars.

In 1954, there were a few little hotels in Hoboken, and some nice ones like this, the Meyers, where Marlon Brando and the other actors and technicians who were working on the classic Hoboken movie On the Waterfront spent a little time. I only wish the hotel were still around!

Thanks to Bob Slezak for the picture and the title of this post!

My Work Is Being Noticed

Sometimes it's frustrating to write a blog. You never know if your work is being noticed. The comments are thin on the ground, yet The Site Meter tells you that a few loyal readers return time and again. You go to their blogs too to see what's happening in their world.

This morning it was raining and just about the time I decided not to trudge to the gym, I decided to troll a few blogs, and I found a hilarious tribute to my diet on this one.

At least he doesn't show any cleavage.

And Now the Video

Two Months After Reinvention

That title was come upon hopefully, after I received my borrowed Flip videocam in the mail. I had lent it out to a University of Alabama student because together we had created a video that I didn't seem to be able to transmit electronically so I sent him the whole camera.

It seems I am the world's leading expert on the life and work of Marietta Johnson, a 20th century visionary educator who lived in my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. For more information about her, click here or here for websites, most of which I wrote, or buy my book which puts the lady in the context of her town and her times.

I got my camera back and made a little video of myself showing how I've changed since starting my reinvention program April 1. It was shorter than usual, less that three minutes, so I thought it would be relatively easy to post here. Wrong. I tried about ten times yesterday, using both my Internet servers, and was told there was an error in processing. I tried again just now and got the same error message.

Rather than leave you with nothing but a post about Susan Boyle's triumph and trials, I decided to put up a post about the reinvention, and you'll just have to believe me about how I look.

Since my personal reinvention is little more than an optimum-nutrition diet, I can report on that phase. After posting on the blog, discouraged, that I really wasn't losing weight, I followed the suggestion that maybe the reason is that I am retaining water. I followed up by adding a glass of water with fresh lemon every morning first thing, and added a couple of glasses of water during the day, and I think that helped. Although I have changed my way of eating and have been rather diligent, I have lost only six pounds in two months, but that is a respectable amount, and the weight loss is beginning to show.

I didn't get on the diet to lose weight, but just to change my eating habits. Everybody has a downfall if he has a weight issue; mine is not junk food, but snacks. Having done the Atkins diet for years, I convinced myself that nuts and cheese were not really fattening, so those became my addiction when watching late-afternoon television. I don't have to tell you that over time this has added pounds.

As for the rest of my optimum life plan, I do go to the gym four days a week and workout on the machines, and I live in Hoboken, so I walk everywhere and have a fourth floor walkup apartment. Hoboken requires a lot of fresh air and exercise.

I'm two months into the reinvention and have no plans to curtail the project. It's not a diet that I will abandon, I simply started to think differently about things. I can report that I am fine (I had no health problems anyway), I am happy (I've never been anything but), and that my personal reinvention is nothing more than a commitment to keep doing what I was, only in a better way.

One of these days I'll get that video working and show you how I look.

Susan Boyle: Back to Life Size

It was a beautiful dream. The mousy little lady next door became an overnight sensation.

I wrote about the phenom of Susan Boyle, the Scottish church lady who could sing the socks off many younger, more beautiful, flashier superstar wannabe's, as soon as I saw the first video of her performance on Britain's Got Talent. That one got a lot of hits on this blog. On YouTube, where it originated, it broke all records. People I emailed it to reported being moved to tears--even those who normally are pretty cool about showbiz news in general and skyrocketing stars in particular.

This was something we had not seen in our lives. So many of those skyrockets are created by publicity flacks--they are pre-packaged, pre-digested, made over, and made up--using modern technology to create the illusion that they are singing and modern medicine to make them look a certain way. Here was a normal, ordinary-looking person with the audacity to announce that she wanted to be the next Elaine Page. The crowd, the judges of the competition, and we at home, were dubious. Then she sang for us.

The moment we first heard that voice is one we shall never forget. It simply was the promise fulfilled, the promise that perhaps each of us has something he can do better than anyone else. Here was this unpretentious, unknown, unheralded lady who had lived in obscurity, sheltering a blinding light that will never again be under any bushel.

The contest went on, with the finals held last night. Since that first moment, plain little Susan Boyle has no longer existed. She went to a local beauty parlor and had a few things done. She was besieged by photographers and news hounds. She appeared on television interviews. When asked what her success meant to her, she said, "I won't be lonely any more." This was a lady who lived in a remote town, had spent the last few years doing little more than attending church, singing in the choir, and caring for her mother until she died. She was unprepared for the spotlight, but she was sure she was ready and that it was going to be fun. She had no way of knowing how difficult it all was going to be.

The latest chapter happened yesterday, when she came in second in the final lap of the contest. One senses that this is the best thing that could happen to her. She needs some time to process the events of recent weeks in her life. She needs to check into her real life again before she decides how (or whether) to reinvent herself. The world needs a breather from the Susanmania that has overtaken us, and we sense that she needs to gather herself before she enters another phase of her life.

The joyful news is that of course we shall become accustomed to hearing that voice. Like that of Frank Sinatra, we will recognize the voice by its splendid timbre, and be grateful to have it wash over us time and again. We have welcomed a new neighbor into our hearts, and all we need is for her to sing to us some more.

Birthday Party in Cyberspace

All my life I've run into people with the same birthday as mine. Sometimes it's a near miss, for example, the first person I found with a birthday anywhere near mine was JFK, and he wasn't a close friend. I was delighted to learn that he was born the day after I was, but quite a few years before.

This made him another Gemini, and Gemini is the only zodiac sign that likes itself quite so much. I used to lunch at the end of May with two guys I met in the market when I was covering the textile market for a trade newspaper. We were all Geminis and we called it the Gemini lunch, agreeing after a mistake in the early years never to have lunch on an actual birthday. As they left their office one year they announced that they were both Geminis headed for lunch with another Gemini, an astrological buff at a nearby desk asked, "Who's gonna do the listening?"

There are plenty of stories I can tell about, shall we say, great friendships I've had with men whose birthday is very near mine (one I flew to Paris to meet for a weekend after not having seen for 20 years), so I have to believe that, at the very least, Geminis like each other.

Some signs of the zodiac do not share this affinity. Some actually don't like Geminis. But most are not very compatible with people of their own sign and Geminis just naturally do.

Imagine my surprise when in this morning's email there is a notification from the Internet that day after tomorrow, (my birthday) May 28, is Slezak's birthday. Slezak himself, noting in the blog that I said my birthday is coming up, mentioned that his is too. but this site apparently exists just to tell people when somebody's birthday is. I explored to find out exactly what the site is about and Slezak hadn't posted anything on it. Sometimes I see the name when I go to post a comment on a blog, but this appears to be sort of a Facebook with no traffic and no real info. It informed me that Slezak was born on the same day and year as I, even though he tells me he is a year older.

Now that I think about it, once when I was helping Slezak post comments, I used the name Slezak on this very site. It seems to me that through some clerical or computer error, the site could have thought that I myself was named Slezak and taken the birthday information off my account. This would mean that the email was actually sent to inform me of my own birthday! And the Hoboken Kid doesn't know about any of this.

I wonder if the notice will go around the Internet about me too. Most of my friends are well aware of my birthday since I take care to remind them in numerous ways in preceding weeks, usually giving myself a party, and at the very least mentioning the fact about 20 times a day during the month of May.

If there are any Geminis or FOG's (friends-of-Geminis, I just made that up) who share a birthday with us, have a happy one and remember that Geminis just like to have fun. Have a happy one! You too, Hoboken Kid!