Stakes

The kids are alright. I love amusing corona headlines. Here’s one from nypost.com: “UConn students party during coronavirus pandemic, get kicked out of dorms.”

Steve Bannon has been arrested for fraud. It involves a private group’s raising funds to build a section of the southern border wall. 100% of the money was supposed to go to the project, to which I contributed six bucks. Now it looks like the organizers were doing a bit of old fashion skimming. Of course, the mainstream media is trying to link this to the president. Anyway, this morning, talk radio host Mark Simone offered a great bit of info on one of Bannon’s former deals. According to an article at mentalfloss.com by Jennifer M Wood, “In 1992, he negotiated a financial stake in the syndication rights to Seinfeld, which was then just in its third season.” The piece quotes Madeline Berg of Forbes magazine: “… If Bannon owned only a one percent share of the profits, he would have made about $32.6 million since 1998.” “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” A great side bar, Bannon’s group bought Castle Rock Entertainment, which was co-founded by liberal icon Rob Reiner! It’s a riot, Alice. I don’t recall having ever heard of this before today. What fun!

Wow, even Mike Bloomberg isn’t far enough left for many, as this foxnews.com headline manifests: “Bloomberg appearance at DNC outrages progressives.” Mikey doesn’t like it, I’m sure.

Here’s another FN headline: “Paterson, NJ, to hold new election in City Council race marred by voter fraud charges.” An investigation found “… hundreds of mail-in ballots located in a mailbox in Paterson, along with more found in nearby Haledon.” “A mere bag’o shells,” Ralph Kramden might say.

From an article at foxbusiness.com regarding Goodyear’s apparel policy: “Under ‘Acceptable’ were Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride (LGBT). Under ‘Unacceptable’ were Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, MAGA and politically affiliated slogans or material.” I understand management is trying to avoid fistfights among the workers. Why not do it by banning all sloganeering?

Literary critic Alfred Kazin is included in Writing New York, an antho I’ve been sorting through, sampling authors I’d never read before. In an excerpt from his memoir, A Walker in the City, he waxes nostalgic about growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He uses a term I’d never heard before, and which has probably disappeared from the lexicon: “Alrightniks,” with which the poor labeled middle class Jews. I love stuff like that.

A woman who is moving to Florida next month delivered her fourth and last books donation. Today’s batch is about 75% Russian. Apparently she isn’t a fan of James Patterson or Stephen King. Not one of the 300 or so books she donated were by those popular authors. My thanks, and also to my constant benefactress, who brought about 20 works of non-fiction, mostly self-help; and to the Frenchman, who couldn’t resist the copy of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment included in today’s haul, his fifth purchase of the week; and to the woman who bought two Danielle Steel paperbacks; and to the one who selected a novel in Russian. Here’s what today’s gift looked like:

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza