FERRERMAN- AGAIN?

 Last night was "The Running Man" night here at the Home for Unwed Ferrermen, where I am chief cook and bottle washer. I have seen the original (1987) with former California governor, Arnold Swartzenegger, a few times over the years, and liked it. He's a horrible actor, but the story was good and the cast was bolstered with the lovely Maria Conchita Alonso (AY CARUMBA!) and Richard Dawson was perfect as the game show host, Damon Killian. Other guest stars like, Jim Brown, Mick Fleetwood, Dweezil Zappa(!) and Jessee Ventura, a former Minnesota governor make up the cast. It is set in a 2017 dystopian America that has become totally owned and operated by corporations ( IF  you can fathom that ever happening) where people live pretty much like one would expect republicans would expect a perfect society to be. There are the corporate super rich, the well-off middle-class consumers and the poor standing around burning 55-gallon drums, trying to stay warm in ragged clothing. Yea...

 Kinda piggybacking on my recent "The Deciders" piece here, of several posts ago. I still look at the show, because it's there, and I find it oddly relevant to normal, non-naked dating. You see, people are being honest on this show about what they  want in a love interest. That's good. Honesty is good to a fault. It doesn't make you right, except in the context of you being you. Where people go wrong is when they try to speak for their own gender, race, political party or etc. and etc. That is disingenuous and only occasionally on the mark.   Back in the 90's/00's there was a pretty popular men's magazine called "Maxim". There was also a sister publication- "Stuff". Neither were nudie mags like Playboy or Penthouse (which were pretty much on their way out thanks to the growing internet) but instead were pics of beautiful, scantily clad models and stuff about cars and girls that were of interest to somewhat sophisticated young, strai...

Did you ever watch "Gomer Pyle USMC"? How about "Forrest Gump" with Forrest and his buddy, Bubba? You had to look at these shows and think they were just too over-the-top to be true. How could those three-room temperature IQ men ever make it in the military?! And the other "Private Pyle", Vincent D'Onofrio's character in "Full Metal Jacket. That sure didn't end well. Clearly, he did not belong in a combat-centric outfit like the Marines! Ridiculous that anyone would conceive this was plausible! Well, former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara did. He was the creator of "Project 100,000". You probably never heard of that. I hadn't until yesterday. He was Secretary from 1961 to 1968. The Vietnam war had never gone well for the US. It was all body counts and victories that went nowhere for the Americans who had fought and sacrificed during the very righteous war in Europe and the Pacific that had such an obvious storyline to i...

Yes, I know  we are not supposed to take the comments section seriously. They are the domain of bots and trolls, home to vitriol and poor spelling, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or Walmart on-line. I have gotten two emails from Walmart applauding me for a review I wrote about an item that I received that "Did not work", noting that my review had received hundreds of views, and encouraging me to make more! I write pretty well and could have gone to town on that review, probably burying Walmart in the process, but it wasn't worth it. These days bots are processing complaints, and bots not being from around here... sarcasm and creative writing are obviously lost on them.  It is similar with bots and allegedly human maga trolls, particularly on the WGN Chicago site and what's left of newspapers in my Northern Illinois vicinity that I find on my Facebook feed. There is always talk of "NO KINGS" rallies to be held, and maga- the world's most practical, no-no...

 Back in the 80's, I was friendly with a coworker, a cook named, "Sami". He was a happy, friendly guy which is fairly unusual amongst line cooks and chefs. All that heat back there really does something to their social skills. But not Sami. He was from Romania. His English was good. His thinning, black hair, pleasant demeanor and his eastern European accent reminded me of the comedian, Yakoff Smirnoff who was fairly popular at the time. Sami was a pretty good cook too. If I had to work Sunday mornings, the best part of that was the excellent scrambled eggs they served, which were free to me. I asked Sami how he and the guys created such delicious eggs. Did they add milk, water- anything special to make them so delightfully soft? Nope. Add nothing, he told me. Really? Yes. Just cook them, low heat. No problem. I can manage a soft scramble at home, but I've never been able to make them as good as him.  One night I was out for drinks with Sami and his Mexican wife, Danie...

Having gotten caught up on other bingeworthy shows, I decided to see what the hullaballoo was all about with HBO's, "Euphoria". I'm never on time with any hit show and this series, first airing in 2019, is no exception. I thought it was more current than that. It is  sorta, as it's official third season begins this coming April. Doing the math, it began six years ago, and it seems to me that it should be in season six by now with ordinary television accounting. All I can figure is that it is an expensive show to produce and, since it's so gloriously cinematic in its presentation, it takes time and money to do each episode.  My family grew up on TV. Back when we used to all get together before mom passed, and we broke up into camps; pro-Laurie (the oldest) and anti-me (middle child/oldest son) my siblings used to talk about hit TV shows all the damn time. I was usually lost in these conversations. Even if I had cable, I was using it for sports more than any com...

 I have never for a moment believed that the National Rifle Association (NRA) seriously viewed themselves as anything but a business, out to make as much money as possible. They could argue that the design of the Second Amendment was to arm American citizens against a tyrannical government- and they did- but it was all marketing to sell guns, ammo and gun related accessories. Like many advertising campaigns do, as it grows it tends to go in different directions as it succeeds in the marketplace. From its humble beginnings as a post-Civil War organization whose aim was to teach northern boys to be the marksmen that southern boys were at the time, to a non-profit, multibillion dollar 'gun rights' organization that owns most of congress. Quite the uniquely American success story.  For the last several decades the NRA has been focusing on the notion that if a tyrannical government took hold in the United States, their members would be the citizen militias that stood against tyrann...

Found a pretty interesting show on HBO. It's a dating show, but the six contestants start out buck naked, and the *decider* takes a little bit longer to get there as she or he thins out the herd. It ran from 2016 to 2024, so if you want to go on it, you'll need a time machine. I have to say I was expecting cringe but didn't get it. Perhaps because all the participants were from the United Kingdom where- maybe it's just me- the people seem so much more civilized than us. Eh, it's probably the accents. Well, I'm forgetting the scouse...  You know how dating is. I used to know myself before I retired from work and play. It's agonizing at best whether you are a man or a woman. Day in, day out people are attracted to each other, and both men and women surely spend a lot of time pondering what the objects of their eyes look like naked. So, why not reverse the process and start out with full, frontal nudity and take it from there? Well, interesting as that can seem...

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". The entire country can look at the same footage (from all angles) of Renee Nichole Good being killed and see completely different things. Some see facts. Others see the alternative facts of the narrative their political leaders tell them to see. There is  clear right and wrong about that tragic incident, but even in the media- now more than ever- both sides of every story must  be reported as equal. It all sounds like that AI shit to me as this particular story is reported in the black and white of either/or rather than the full, living color of truth. You can't 'both sides' everything in life, because when you do, you both sides right and wrong and the script is irrevocably flipped.  The thing that might frustrate me most in life today with maga, is that they absolutely don't mind being stupid. Most of us go through our younger lives in fear of being perceived as stupid. Kids won...

IF  trumpublicans really wanted to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants, they could easily have begun in user friendly red states with compliant governors. There would be little need for ICE goons, National Guard or threats of military. But what fun would that be?  In Obama's 8 years, he deported 5.3 million people without ICE goon's wilding out on the streets of America. Also, without unnecessary fanfare, Joe Biden deported 545,000. Neither of those two gentlemen used concentration camps for this process. I do not recall much hullaballoo about this on the news or the internet in those 12 years. But here Trump is one year into his second disastrous term and certain blue cities look like war zones. I have to believe that's on purpose.  Both Biden and Obama respected the 14th Amendment and used due process to accomplish their tasks. Trump however gets by with a memo telling ICEholes to disregard the 4th Amendment. ICEholes will also tell you that you can't film them...

 I'm no fucking rat, but I got a line on some very clever immigrants that seem to have escaped the scrutiny of our ICEhole storm troopers. I'm not really worried about them getting busted because I don't think ICE reads and like a lot of stupid people, they don't read this blog. For that reason, I'm going to go ahead and out them here and because their skills in blending into America are so excellent! I mean- they fooled a Ferrerman. That's not supposed to happen. First one is Gerran Howell. He plays young doctor, Dennis Whitaker from Oklahoma on HBO's "The Pitt". He does a fine job, even finer when you discover that the little scamp is WELSH!  That's a country in the United Kingdom called Wales. I never would have guessed or been the least bit suspicious until I saw an interview clip of him on IMDb, speaking in his native voice.  Second up (also from The Pitt) is Shabana Azeez. OK, now the name is not the big tip off you might think it is. I w...

 Is rooting for Trump to fail- knowing that America will fail along with him- is that really such a bad thing?  What we and the rest of the world hate about Trump is what the world has hated about the US for the better and worse part of 250 years. Mostly the worse parts. We built this country on slavery for fuck's sake! We all but wiped out the native people living here. Who does that? Well, other societies have, but they don't gloss over it as well as we do, and they don't continue on into the future with no shame about it. Not for long that is. Spain and England once ruled the world, but the world eventually humbled them, gave them their comeuppance, and they learned not to be so goddamn greedy. They survived and today are two pretty damn nice countries. Germany started two world wars in the last century because they were awful people with Trump-like *qualities*, but now they are pretty settled down and not only very contrite about their past but concerned for our present...

 Until the news broke of the bigly protest at the fancy, Southern Baptist Church in in St Paul, Minnesota, I hadn't given much thought to ministers and pastors having day jobs. The pastor at that church, David Easterwood (a fitting name, I'd say!) has a fulltime job as the director of the local ICE field office. Makes you wonder which is the side hustle. I really had thought at some point that "the calling" is a 24/7 gig for all of them. A niece is married to a minister, and I've never known him to have a day job of any sort. I believe though, that something like 30% of pastors in his field of Christianity have fulltime jobs in other, non-religious fields. I did  know that as I had worked in Memphis with maybe a dozen guys in commercial construction who were preachers. But these fellas had store front churches at best. Kinda like a starter kit of ministry. Many didn't even have that, and they'd tell me they were also a preacher. I'd give them a Pete Da...

Heard a comedian (I think, Jimmy Carr) talking about how communism has only ever been effective at the level of the family unit. That's long been my assessment of it. He went on to say that democracy was the worst form of government, "except for all the others". Not my sentiment exactly, but also true. I lean towards democratic socialism. It's not perfect, but any system where you can obtain wealth for your efforts, but you also have to help others out, is a good thing in my book. You can be too rich, just as one can be too poor. No one should be either.  These are very odd times in 2026. Soooo many filthy rich people and they just can't be happy with what they've got. They must have it all. But having it all means lording over the poors in every aspect of their already sad lives. This is late-stage capitalism as it could only work out when left unchecked by society for so long. I think the true 'trickle-down' is only available to those that can enable...

 "They are all crooks!" "The two parties are the same!" I've heard these statements in the bars and jobsites of my life, and I would shake my head at the great unwashed snarling them whenever the subject of politics reared its head. What idiot children these men were to just brush off their involvement in the political process, by writing them all  off as crooks. Well, the stupid fuckers are right,  just for all the wrong reasons. Republicans and democrats are in this together, taking turns fleecing the citizens for fun and profit. This is  by design. It is why we can't have nice things. It is why we have Chuck Schumer as senate minority leader and senate majority leader depending on whose turn it is to be in charge. That's a big clue right there. This Seinfeld's Mr. Littman is the most useless piece of shit this side of Donald J. Trump. He's a horrible character. I mean Schumer- not Littman. Both are playing a role though.  Politics is Hollywood...

 Well, here we go again... In December, I added a cable TV package to my Xfinity internet, foolishly thinking I would have access to NFL games. (Da Bears are doing well this season, and I wanted them in my home) For $20 a month I would get Fox Sports (typical home for da Bears, or so I thought) and the Chicago Fox station that carries them as well. And CBS and all that other crap. But wait- there's more! As a bonus, they would stream me the Peacock Network (a $12.99 value). This seemed like a pretty good package.  Of course, it wasn't. I don't know what Fox Sports does, but they don't do NFL games. That turns out to be FOXONE, which costs more money. I could upgrade... And the local Fox station- well, I'm not in Chicagoland anymore, but if I can get it and watch their news, surely, I'd be seeing the Bears on Sundays, right? Right? Wrong. To be Ferrer, at no time did the folks at Xfinity tell  me that I'd be getting Bears games, or any NFL teams. This was all...

 For many people, the big takeaway from the "Godfather" was Don Corleone's advice to youngest son, Michael, to "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer". It might be brilliant on paper or in the film, but it has never worked for me. Oddly enough, I was thinking about this last night while watching "Single White Female" (1992 with Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh). Well, that's how my mind works, I reckon.  On a new job years ago, I actually consciously made the decision to make an obvious enemy closer to me. It didn't work.  Enemies are enemies for good reasons. They should never be your friends. A better quote that we can all relate to is: "With friends like these, who needs enemies?" We have all  been there! Admittedly, it's a different dynamic to have a friend turn on you and become an enemy, but that is more emotionally palatable and common than being so fucking stupid as to purposefully provide care and feeding ...

Due to the wonders of algorithms, my zone has been flooded with videos about narcissists, since my last remaining sister sent me one that was germane to our oldest sister. I've never been much on psychobabble, yet I've always acknowledged there indeed are  many truths in them thar assessments. Like our oldest sister being a narcissist. Ohhhh yeah. Definitely. Short story is that I am completely out of her life, unofficially because I refused to turn over my life and finances to the care and custody of her and her husband. Officially- from her end- I'm merely belligerently ungrateful for all she and her husband had done for me. Still not sure if that's done "for" or "to". I'm not the bad guy for wanting to choose where I would live and how I would spend my money over her intentions for me. Her plans for housing me first were an apartment that would more than eat up my SS check, and a stipend from her and her guy so that I could also eat. I did not...

 Do you ever read some person's ramblings in the comments section of any internet site and think to yourself, "OMFG! This asshole could be President of the United States! He's a fucking idiot! This guy is as dumb as Trump!" The bar is set pretty low when you have millions of mental defectives who could step into the White House and continue doing The Lard's work without skipping a beat. The bar is damn near buried in the scorched earth of democracy and getting deeper every hour. There is absolutely no difference between Trump and random posters in thought, *policy* and communication skills. The entire cabinet- the whole regime- is made up of the same morons that you would find waxing pathetic on Twitter or your local paper's site. This is very disconcerting.  It's not representative democracy as the nation has kinda-sorta strived for these past 250 years. But maybe it is? Perhaps it is over now, and we have gotten the government we deserve because we'v...

 Back in the 90's and into the ought's, I was a pretty serious NASCAR fan. I had my favorite drivers- mostly Ford guys like Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, I knew about cars and loved them. Still do. NASCAR races would seem to be a natural extension of that, but that world of racing was at the time, cloistered in the southeastern states. Occasionally the "Wide World of Sports" might show a race on the weekend, and if you were lucky enough to see that, you got a taste of the action in the old days of Richard Petty and Junior Johnson. That was the best NASCAR back then, like seeing Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb playing in their prime. Junior Johnson, they say, had actually gotten his start running moonshine. He was a real outlaw and a good ol' boy. This also was the time when "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was a real thing. The stock cars were actually (modified) versions of the Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet muscle cars that yo...

Let us pretend for a moment that Trump actually is as wonderful as he thinks he is, Maga knows  he is, and the media so desperately wants to believe he is. That is a lot to pretend for us reasonably normal folk but relax; we will soon go back to the normalcy of independent thought. This is just a side trip into the delusions of others. It'll be just a minute.  The guy is damn near 80 years old and in steadily declining physical and mental health. Though not bedridden, he could go at any time. Whatever they are injecting into him to make him somewhat publicly presentable and slightly lucid given his role as president, can't be good for what is left of his mind or body. It just can't be. In their desperation to make him presentable and to get as much out of him as they can, while they can, they may well be hastening his demise. That is the good news. The bad news is, what happens when his body and mind give out and death becomes him? Is our suffering over? Or has it just begu...