By Stanley P. Gershbein
Next Sunday, March 5th, 2006, much of America will be watching the 78th Annual Academy Awards to see what was selected as the best flick, who was the best actor, the best actress, the best, the best and the best. I have no interest in watching an organization of members patting each other on the back. I think the People’s Choice Awards make a lot more sense. I will, however, watch the first few minutes just to hear Jon Stewart’s opening line. I have a feeling that the scriptwriters are getting ready to have him start the show with “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Democrat National Convention, 2006.” According to the Las Vegas Sun, a popular Nevada newspaper, the odds-on favorite for best picture is ….”Brokeback Mountain”….SURPRISE! … a two cowboy love story that has the entire movie world buzzing. My roommate and I love going to the movies and see almost everything with decent reviews. We both thought that “Brokeback” was a good flick. Not a GREAT flick as most of the world believes. A good flick. There was something about the subject matter that bothered me. No! I’m not talking about the fact that it was a story of love between two men. I am not a homophobe. I was bothered a bit that Hollywood seemed to kosherize and romanticize family men that cheat on their wives. Tinseltown looks to not only condone infidelity it applauds it. Very nice. ******** Does anybody really care if Perky Katie jumps ship and signs with CBS? ******** Mayor Bloomberg went berserk when he noticed the game of Solitaire on the computer screen of a city employee. He was shocked that a civil servant should be working instead of yada… yada … yada. Hey there, Mayor Mike. Wake up. These are city workers. They’re not supposed to work hard. It’s somewhere in their rules. Do you really believe that this worker is unique? Do you think that he’s the only city worker that goofs off? For thirty-one years I worked on Queens Boulevard directly across the street from Queens Borough Hall. I frequently found it necessary to pay a visit to one office or another. No matter which office I went to, I saw the following: If there were three employees present only one was working while the other two stood over a desk, with coffee cups in hand, yakking away. If there were six employees present, two would be working while four stood around, coffee cups in hand, yakking away. It seems as if, regardless of the time of day, two thirds of the employees were on a coffee break. I am told that this occurs not only in Queens but also in City offices all over town. I have said this many times and I’ll say it again. New York City could dismiss two thirds of all city office employees and have the same amount of inefficiency. That’s only my opinion…. No! Stop! Remembering very well what these eyes witnessed, it is more than an opinion. It’s a fact. ******** Controversial cartoons about Mohammed are printed in the Danish press and extremists in the Arab world go bananas. So how do you suppose they retaliate? Besides burning flags, demonstrating, throwing rocks, and doing all of the insane activities that are making them look like crazy fools to the rest of the world, one of their newspapers is now having a contest. It is searching for and intends to print their dumb ideas of what they consider to be the best cartoons of the Holocaust. In simple language, this whole uprising is being blamed on Israel and the Jews. Can somebody out there please send me one…just one logical, intelligent, reasonable, valid basis for this rebellious unrest to be blamed on the Jews? ******** Once again the folks over at the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals organization find themselves in a bit of an embarrassing situation. Punch up WWW.PETA.ORG , right near the bottom, under the heading ‘About PETA ’, it says that animals “…..are not ours to use – for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation or any other reason.” It’s that word experimentation that’s being talked about. The PETA people are vehemently and sometimes violently opposed to using animals in the laboratory. Who do they expect research scientists to experiment on…each other? It is the laboratory test that leads the way to the discovery of another life-saving wonder drug. I was listening to a radio talk show this morning as they were discussing diabetes and the new sugar lowering nasal spray soon to be released by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. That exchange segued directly to a conversation about insulin injections that diabetics take to lower blood sugar. The insulin that is injected is a product that comes from animals and was tested in the lab on animals. Here’s the embarrassing part. It was recently revealed that the number two person in the PETA administration is a diabetic and takes daily injections of insulin. Does the word hypocrisy have any meaning here? ******** On November 18th of last year the pilots of Delta Airlines threatened to strike if their contract was broken. Then again on December 8th, 2006 we heard it again. Once more the Delta pilots are in the news. In the morning papers we learned that Lee Moak, the chairman of the union’s executive committee, said that the pilots would strike if their contract were thrown out as part of the carrier’s attempt to impose $325 million in concessions. I know all about the November 2004 Delta pilots vote of concessions. I am also aware of the contract and job security. I’ve been filled in on the wage cuts and the pension plan problem. I really feel for these guys but…and a big but it is …. I am
StanGershbein@BellSouth.Net and I want to leave a three-word message for the pilots. Drum roll please … here are the three words …. Eastern, Pan-Am, Braniff. ******** All Emails and letters are the property of this newspaper and may be published. For verification purposes only, all correspondence must contain the writers real name, address and telephone number.
