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No Sympathy For The Devil, The Dentist, Or His Wife

8/25/2022

A couple of weeks ago a pair of wealthy, well-known Rochester, New York socialites of high social status, dentist Nicholas Nicosia and his real estate agent wife, Mary,

...threw a pool party at their fabulous manse.

The theme of their summer bash was a mockery of Juneteenth. The yard was decorated with jokey Juneteenth signs and flags, Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets and Party City cutouts like the one below of Donald Trump.

The Nicosias served their guests fried chicken and expensive Hennessy Cognac.
Among the invited guests was Rochester Fire Captain Jeffrey Krywy .

Now, Captain Krywy happened to be on duty the night of the party, but he really wanted to go, so to cover his elbows he ordered several of his subordinates who were on duty that night to go to the party with him in the firetruck. (I expect that taking the truck made it official business).
Among the firefighters who were pressured into going to the party was Jerrod Jones, a 14-year veteran of the Rochester Fire Department.

Jones was appalled by the party's blatantly racist theme and angry that he'd been made to attend while on duty. He found especially offensive the presence of an entertainer impersonating Democratic Monroe County legislator Rachel Barnhart who was gyrating in a sexual way while the laughing crowd yelled sexually explicit comments.
Jerrod Jones is now suing the city of Rochester and Captain Jeff Krywy resigned before being fired. As for Nicholas and Mary Nicosia, they called a press conference with their lawyer,

...to let the world know that they were being wrongly persecuted by the woke, politically correct cancel culture, that that they didn't have a racist bone in either of their bodies, and that they did nothing wrong.
Well, all right, Mary Nicosia did admit - because by then it had gone viral several times 'round the world and back - that she did have a couple of blatantly racist twitter accounts that she published under the pseudonyms "Colonel Nathanial Sanders" and "Ho-Ho-HomeboyROC":

But the couple cried bitter public tears that they're being victimized, that their world has come crashing down, and that their lives and professions are ruined.

As for me, I have zero sympathy for either of them. In fact I have less than zero sympathy for these people.
I know it's said that to understand all is to forgive all, and I guess that's my problem: I don't at all understand Nicholas and Mary Nicosia. I don't understand how someone could be so consumed by hatred that they would feel compelled go out of their way to have two twitter accounts just to spew their venom; to go to the labor and expense of throwing a nasty, ugly party just to spout their poison. I don't understand how anyone could even have gone to that party. If I walked into such a party I'd turn around and walk out. I don't understand anyone who wouldn't.
And I especially don't understand why two such wealthy people, rich in money, social status, family, professional satisfaction, possessed of every good gift that heaven could bestow, would need to look down on and demean others, especially others who might not be as fortunate as they are.
Still, there's no doubt that for all their wealth and status, Nicholas and Mary Nicosia are now two pretty sad, miserable people. No doubt their world has, as they proclaimed at their press conference, come crashing down.
As Matthew so thoughtfully pondered in chapter 16, verse 26: What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Reference:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-firefighter-alleges-captain-took-racist-party-mocking-juneteenth-rcna42782

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Busy With The Book

8/23/2022

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A couple weeks ago I signed a contract with my publisher Black Rose Writing,

...for my third book.
This book, a novel called "Tropical Depression," is the final installment of a three-volume comedy cultured in the petri dish of contemporary human relationships that starts with "Equal and Opposite Reactions,"

...continues with "Hail Mary"

...and will wrap up with "Tropical Depression," in which the setting moves from Northeast Philadelphia to the jungle and volcanoes along the border of León, Nicaragua.
The projected launch date of "Tropical Depression" is April 27, 2023.
Getting ready for the launch of one's book is kind of like planning a wedding in that a good nine months out from the Big Day – aka the book’s release day – one must get to work on a list of to-do’s, all of which must be checked off by a specific date about seven months from the launch date in order for one’s book to snag its spot in the production queue.
Okay, maybe the wedding metaphor doesn’t work quite as well on the page as it seemed to when it was rolling around in my brain, which is nonetheless quite preoccupied at this time – my brain, that is – with the pre-production to-do’s:
There’s figuring out which genre my book falls under: (Comedy? Relationship comedy? Relationship conflict comedy? Family relationship conflict comedy? Central American family relationship conflict comedy? None of the above?)
There’s coming up with some spot-on keywords or phrases to use for marketing my book, (Jungles? Volcanoes? Psychological jungles? Emotional volcanoes?)
There’s submitting a marketing sales pitch, a back cover and metadata synopsis, an updated author bio, social media links, a description of my book’s target audience and my favorite line from the book.
I need to give my dedication and list my special thanks and acknowledgements.
I need to send in a photo of myself for the back cover.

This one?

None of the above? Or just keep the old one from the first two books?

I also need to give the cover artist some ideas for what the book is about.
I need to gather some blurbs from other authors who might consent to giving my book a recommendation.

I need to seek out some advance copy readers to help me proof my manuscript. And I need to seek out some advance copy reviewers and hope that they might find something worthwhile to say about my writing.
But most of all I need to read, re-read, and re-read again my manuscript, read it chapter by chapter, then read it mixing up the chapters, over and over again, hunting out every typo, every rogue punctuation mark, every misspelling, every linguistic blunder, clunky construction and syntactic faux pas that mars the telling of my story.

And yet for all my hours of proofing and line editing, there’s bound to be some cagey little grammatical gremlin that slips by.
My deadline for turning in my pre-production requirements is October 1. If anybody is looking for me between now and then, just follow the glow of my laptop screen.

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The Ohio Lottery Has Some 'Splaining To Do

8/17/2022

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

THE OHIO LOTTERY HAS SOME 'SPLAINING TO DO

I believe that everybody in Ohio has a bone to pick with the state lottery. Especially the citizens of Columbus. Most especially the students and parents of the Columbus City School district where the teachers are poised to go on strike days before the scheduled start of the school year on August 24.

At this point the teachers' grievance isn't even about salary. They haven't even gotten to salary yet. At this point their grievance is about over-crowded classrooms; it's about the need for properly functioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning in school buildings; it's about the lack of music, art, and physical education programs in the schools; it's about teachers having more class periods piled on them every day than they can handle.
Of course, it's all really about money. The Columbus School Board apparently lacks the funding to provide for a well-stocked education for its students and a minimally healthy, productive teaching and learning environment. And I want the Ohio Lottery Commission to tell me - to tell everybody - why this is.
See, the thing is, I recall - I recall as clear as day - that back in 1987 there was a push to expand the lottery games here in Ohio. To this end there was an issue on the election ballot to amend the Ohio State Constitution to make lottery profits a source of revenue for our state's schools.
And oh, how we Ohioans overwhelmingly approved the lottery amendment! Teachers were for it! Parents were for it! Churches were for it! Democrats and Republicans were for it! Folks like myself who were against gambling were for it! It was a veritable love feast of agreement among us all. After all, it was for the children. From now on our schools would be flush with funds for the best education for our kids that all that lottery money could buy.
And oh, did the lottery money start rolling in! That is to say, one must assume the money was rolling in and has continued to roll in ever since when one hears of the obscenely gargantuan amounts of money in the lottery jackpots:

And while the lotto is raking in enough cash to give away dozens of millions of dollars at a pop, how are Ohio's schools making out?
Still scratching out an existence from property taxes and whatever state and local money school districts can snag while they beg, hat in hand, for their communities to pass levies so that children can have school sports, extracurricular activities, enough teachers, safe and healthy classrooms, and a decent education. The schools in the wealthy districts where income and property taxes are high are doing well enough while the schools in the non-wealthy districts are doing not so well. In any case, for all the millions being raised by the lotto there's no evidence that Ohio schools are flush - or even comfortably getting by - with lottery money.
And so I find myself wondering: Instead of a $99 million jackpot, could the lottery commission not give away a $49.5 million jackpot and distribute the other $49.5 million to the schools? How about making the top lottery prize $10 million with the rest of the money collected from the ticket buyers going to the schools? Wouldn't a $10 million windfall be enough for anyone?
Come to think of it, if Ohioans as a whole can afford to fork over enough money on a regular basis to raise the lottery jackpot to $99 million, could they not be contributing that money to the schools instead of spending it on lottery tickets?
Well, couldn't they?

Reference:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2022/08/16/no-agreement-on-new-columbus-teachers-pact-after-tuesdays-session/65405851007/

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Karm-A-Lago

8/13/2022

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

KARM-A-LAGO

Ah, Donald Trump, how you reveled in the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server during the 2016 presidential election, calling Clinton "guilty as hell" and leading chants of "Lock her up!" at you campaign rallies, turning that nasty quip into the mantra of your disciples.

How you exulted when, after the first investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails yielded no evidence of wrongdoing, FBI Director James Comey,

...made the highly irregular move of publicly announcing the opening of a second investigation into Clinton's emails eleven days before the election.
"Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before," you, Donald Trump, happily cried. "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” you gleefully preached. “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI is now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” you pontificated, referring to the FBI's previous clearing of Hillary Clinton.
You were, of course, outraged when the FBI cleared Clinton a second time of any email-related offense, even though James Comey's announcement of that second investigation eleven days before the election was sufficient to feed a public perception that Hillary Clinton was involved in some sort of criminal activity; even though her exoneration by the FBI arrived just two days before the election, too late to save her now mortally wounded campaign; even though you rode into the office of President of the United States on the damage done to Clinton by the public statements FBI Director James Comey chose to make about her.
Still, it was oh, so thrilling for you when Hillary Clinton's feet were being held to the fire.
Ah, but now, Donald Trump, the FBI has come knocking at - or rather knocking down - your door. Seems you pilfered quite a few boxes of secret government documents when you left the White House and smuggled them into your pleasure palace at Mar-a-Lago.

Seems that stealing government documents is a felony, a violation of the Espionage Act and also, in this case, the Presidential Records Act. Seems that now you are the one under investigation for mishandling of classified government documents.
Hillary Clinton's emails, over 300,00 of them were parsed and parted with a fine tooth comb in search of wrongdoing which was not found. Now, Mr. Trump, it's your turn to be parsed and parted. Not so fun this time, is it, Mr. Trump?

(Sigh). Karma's no beach. Even at Mar-a-Lago.

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I Don't Understand The Republicans

8/9/2022

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE REPUBLICANS

Wait, when I say I don't understand the Republicans, I'm talking about the Senate Republicans,

...and certainly not those among my family, friends, acquaintances and fellow citizens who happen to be Republican. Because even though we may disagree on political ideology in theory, when it comes to the kitchen table issues, the bread and butter issues, the life issues, I believe most Americans agree on more than we disagree on. After all, we all have the same needs, the same concerns, the same desire for ourselves and our loved ones to to live a pleasant, productive, safe and secure existence. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with just enough jingle in our pockets for a little fun now and then.
Which is why I don't get the Senate Republicans in their across-the-board rejection of the Inflation Reduction Bill, the huge economic package that ended up being passed by Democrats in the Senate this past Sunday.

Now, here's a bill, the general consensus regarding which is that is that it's full of beneficial outcomes for all Americans, whether Democrat or Republican:

So why was there not one Republican Senator among the fifty, not one, who supported this bill which, one would think, would be well-received by their constituents? What American doesn't favor putting the kibbosh on price-gouging by Big Pharma? Who among us wouldn't approve of clamping down on corporations that rake in more than $1billion in annual profits then get away with paying nothing or almost nothing in taxes while the rest of us non-millionaires must ante up our share? And is there any of us from sea to shining sea who wouldn't applaud tax credits and rebates for clean energy and fighting climate change? Aren't these things that the constituents of Republican Senators will welcome as much as the constituents of the Democratic Senators who effectuated them?
Or am I totally clueless?

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The Lesson Of The Pink Cake

8/4/2022

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GET IT WHILE IT'S FREE!
TODAY, AUGUST 4,2022
"hail mary" IS FREE ON KINDLE

"Hail Mary" by Patti Liszkay
is FREE TODAY AUGUST 4, 2022
on Amazon Kindlettps://www.amzn.com/1684334888

THE LESSON OF THE PINK CAKE

This past Sunday we celebrated the birthday of my daughter Theresa (here with her kitty Dory),

...with a small family get-together.

   All week long I'd had it on my to-do list to zip over to Kroger's and order a birthday cake for Sunday, but it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I finally made it to Kroger's.
The place was jammed with shoppers,the bakery department no less crowded than the rest of the store.
Ahead of me in line at the bakery was a middle-aged couple who apparently had just ordered a cake that was being put together on the spot by the bakery employee behind the counter.
The couple were explaining to the baker as the baker patiently slapped on the icing that they were on their way to an out-of-town birthday party for which they needed to bring the cake.
It was clear that this walk-in custom decorating job was going to take some time, so I decided to do some shopping and come back later to place my cake order. I meandered around the store for a bit then circled back to the bakery, but the couple was still there waiting on their cake and chatting with - or at - the baker.
  On my second round back to the bakery department the custom cake couple was gone, but now there was another customer at the counter. I decided to hang out in produce from where I'd have a straight-shot view of the bakery department. While picking out my fruits and veggies I kept one eye on the bakery, and as soon as the last customer stepped away I made a swift bee-line with my grocery cart, hoping to beat out any other customers who, like myself, might have been scoping out an all-clear at the bakery counter.
I made it to the counter, breathless and jubilant, before anyone else could beat me to it. But the baker, who was looking down at something on their side of the counter, seemed oblivious to my presence. I thought they were probably checking over the order placed by the previous customer, so I waited, figuring they'd be bound to look up and notice me eventually.
And they did eventually notice me, though they didn't look up.
"Whataya need?" they semi-barked, still looking down at whatever they were looking at.
"Would it be possible," I asked in the deferential, semi-penitential tone I unconsciously take on whenever someone barks at me, "to order a birthday cake for tomorrow afternoon?"
Now the baker looked up at me with an expression of disbelief. "No," they said. Then they added, "Not unless you want it for this time or later tomorrow."
"Sure," I said, noting that the current time was 2:50 pm. "Tomorrow at 3 o'clock would be fine.
The baker grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and commenced to barking the usual questions: "Name; Phone number; What kind of cake?"
"White," I replied to the last question.
"We only have yellow," they snapped.
"Yellow's fine," I said.
"How do you want it decorated?" they said.
"Well," I replied, "We like lots of icing."
The baker didn't look up but repeated, this time speaking louder and more slowly, as if I were both deaf and dumb (as in stupid), "HOW...DO...YOU...WANT...IT...DECORATED?"
"Um, white buttercream icing and pink roses?" I meekly replied, feeling just a weence rattled.
This response caused the baker to look up at me again. "There isn't enough time to make roses."
"Oh, uh, no problem," said I. "Something else would be fine. Balloons, rainbows, whatever."
"What about little flowers?" they said.
"Sure, sure, little flowers are fine," I said. "Oh but wait," I said, suddenly realizing what it was that, in a moment of flusteration, I'd just ordered. "Did I say pink flowers? No, not pink!  My daughter hates pink! Could you make it yellow flowers instead?"
The baker let out what I took for a long-suffering sigh. Then they said, "What size?"
"Like this one in the display case," I said. "The one that says $23.99."
"Hold it up so I can see it," said the baker.
I then removed the cake from the case and held it up for them to see.
"Quarter sheet," said the baker. Then they added, "Why don't you just take that one you're holding?"
To which I replied: . I said nothing because I was afraid to tell the baker that I would like a fresh cake.
By now one thing was very clear to me: this baker was so over taking cake orders on this day. I'd wager that the last place in the world they wanted to be was behind that bakery counter and the last thing they wanted to be doing was taking a cake order from me. In any case, though the person was going through the motions of their job, at this moment they were exhibiting a decidedly bad attitude about it.
Still, the baker took down my order, which I clarified before departing: A yellow cake. White buttercream icing. Yellow flowers.
The following afternoon, as I was busy getting ready for the birthday dinner, I sent my mate Tom to Kroger's to pick up the cake.
When Tom got back he set the cake on the counter. "Is this what you ordered for Theresa?" he asked.

Indeed it wasn't, to which fact even the label attested.

And so Theresa, who hates pink, had a pink birthday cake.
And that's pretty much the end of the story, except for the lesson, which hit me as soon as I saw that cake, because it's a lesson that I've learned over and over again in the seven decades I've been kicking around the planet. The lesson is this: Whenever someone is coerced into, pressured into, talked into, or otherwise made to do something that they absolutely do not want to do or have a bad, angry, or negative attitude about doing, the outcome will seldom be as desired. Whether on purpose or by accident, consciously or unconsciously, you can count on an unfavorable frame of mind producing an unfavorable result.
Did the pink cake taste good? Sure. It tasted fine. But it would have tasted better if it would have had white icing with yellow flowers.

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No Sympathy For The Devil, The Dentist, Or His Wife

Busy With The Book

The Ohio Lottery Has Some 'Splaining To Do

Books By Patti Liszkay​Available On Amazon

​THE OHIO LOTTERY HAS SOME 'SPLAINING TO DO

Karm-A-Lago

Books By Patti LiszkayAvailable On Amazon

​​KARM-A-LAGO

I Don't Understand The Republicans

Books By Patti LiszkayAvailable On Amazon

​I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE REPUBLICANS

The Lesson Of The Pink Cake

GET IT WHILE IT'S FREE!TODAY, AUGUST 4,2022 "hail mary" IS FREE ON KINDLE

​THE LESSON OF THE PINK CAKE

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Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

THE OHIO LOTTERY HAS SOME 'SPLAINING TO DO

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

KARM-A-LAGO

Books By Patti Liszkay
Available On Amazon

I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE REPUBLICANS

GET IT WHILE IT'S FREE!
TODAY, AUGUST 4,2022
"hail mary" IS FREE ON KINDLE

THE LESSON OF THE PINK CAKE