Happy Birthday Mr. Mel Kaminsky a.k.a. Mel Brooks.

The consummate Steadfast lodestar of comic behaviors -98 and going great.

You embodied the role of a Producer (1968) when you hid jewels in one of The Twelve Chairs (1970.) 

Your pairing of Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder got some Saddles Blazing (1974) -which left you in a

state of High Anxiety (1977.) It was then that you knew it was time for a Silent Movie (1976) and it gave you time to prepare for Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993.)

You had us when he appointed a new sheriff, his friend Ahchoo. So today we say Bless you Mr. Brooks and may you continue to make sure we Enter Laughing (1967.)

One day when I was 12 my Bubby showed me how she made her Grade A mandel bread.

All the ingredients were set up. She handed me some raisins to munch on as she sprinkled flour, got her erstwhile rolling pin and started to roll the dough. She said to me in her most comforting voice-“mamala take a deep breath and watch everything I do. You should make this for your husband one day.”

I cherished the moment and wrote a composition about the experience for my writing homework the next day.

Little did I know I would be recounting the experience on the internet so many, many years later. On a day like today, exhume a favorite long ago and far away feel good experience.

One of the best parts of memories is making them.
Thanks Bub- for the love -laced with powdered sugar that lasted a lifetime. B”H!

We set the tables- one for the game of play, the other for lunch. Check with Sonos, our unwavering music pal, fill the coffee table with treats, unlatch the door and wait with anticipation for the women to arrive. 

The day is analogous to moments of enjoyable pleasures we have gathered along our journeys. We aim for cheerful friendliness. With zero ambiguity and the absence of pushy tactics we roll the dice. Shuffle the cards. Celebrating our time together is optimum. Yes we compete, but know that ultimately “Everyone Wins.” 

After our day of play a friend and I debriefed our time together. Her mother, who also played games, gave her a sound piece of advice. She told her above all to make sure you really enjoy the ladies you sit down with. This is ultimately how we live life now. Weeding out disappointments, striving for better fits. Merely overlooking much more. 

We bask in treasured certainty- pleased, proud… Amazed at how good it can be- astonished by it’s capacity for sudden bursts of brilliance. “Fill our hearts with song and let us sing forevermore.” Make it a great Fall Back! What time is it?

Knee- jerks Upon Standing!

Dear Acid Reflux,
Where were you all our lives?
Tums, Rolaids and Pepto.
Helped our parents stomachs thrive.
Proton uptake inhibitors.
Add an endoscopic search.
Waiting for results clearly keeps us in the lurch.
We love to eat pastrami, deli mustard piled high.
A half a sandwich later.
How will we survive?
We take our little purple pill.
Go along our merry way.
Hello Acid Reflux are you really here to stay?
A cough and then a tickle.
Is our stomach that high up?
Please hand me the mylanta,
Perhaps a half a cup.
Our stomachs have gotten older.
Our eyes still on the pie.
The days of a la mode, have quickly passed us by.
Let’s try the milk from Almonds.
Lactose intolerant too.
We are so very over, the limitations in our view.
A spritz of just plain seltzer, a ginger ale was quite the cure.
Our dietary habits, we need to re-explore.
Forget the mozzarella-deep fried, sauce on the side.
Our days of grabbing a slice,
Makes our stomach wanna hide.
We love a little bolognese.
Tossed on pasta piled high.
We wake up at 2:30 and hear our stomachs cry.
Now we’re planning dinners.
That are as bland as all get out.
Dear Acid Reflux, shut the door on your way out.


Don’t go to the Butcher if you are looking for Flowers.

Give yourself a boost by learning the social terrain in your new community.
And I quote Proust, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Perhaps get intimate with a new hobby, take up Golf- ( you looking at me?), or sit with friends at dinner and add new meaning to the conversation by learning more about their beliefs on a topic you have never discussed before.

Somewhere between sharing a salad and four forks at dessert pose the question -if you had your choice of any one to sit around a table and have a conversation with who would it be? Barack Obama, Andrea Bocelli, perhaps one of your grandchildren?

So just for today find your way to adding and multiplying possibilities by starting the new book collecting dust on your night table, calling someone you haven’t reached out to in a while, try the new coq au vin recipe you found while exceeding your 20 minute allotted time scrolling thru food sites on instagram.

Small positive steps help to minimize stress. With Father Time blinking at us we roll up our sleeves and hit the ground running (well walking quickly.)

“The skies above are clear again. So let’s sing a song of cheer again.

Happy days are here again.”
Make it a meaningful Friday.

The new rage on how to age with grace.

Who can touch their toes?

As you are on the way down traveling south past your new hip, you might bypass the pins and screws in your knee or perhaps an ankle. 

Destination our newly coiffed toe nails. We stopped at “Dr. You Nailed This,” before we picked up six bialys to freeze from The Boys.

We change our shirt, put on some lipstick and get ready to meet our canasta group at Poppies for the early bird dinner/lunch for tomorrow.

 We ask to have our table changed  a few times as the A/C was  blowing right on us. We put on our new cardigan sweater we got at the Flea Market on Sample Rd. 

After we pool our medical updates and order a cocktail we ask for the bread to be heated. We then wait for 20 minutes until we see our waiter again. Ok then, the conversation ensues with a new pill for this, a new procedure for that. As long as our “funny bone” is intact- we got this. A tennis game, a round of golf a pilates class or two. 

We acclimate to the “back nine” with our new cataract less foresight, becoming our new hindsight. 

So just for today we will put on our prescription less rose colored glasses. We will go to the we got lucky dept. at Bloomingdales and be grateful when we get a text that a table opened up at the new Mediterranean restaurant on Federal Highway. They give us all the hummus and Baba ganoush we can eat as we watch the belly dancer shake her age appropriate belly fat from table to table. 😎 Next stop fro-yo to claim our free ( after ten times punched on the card) dessert.

Have a great Thursday– aka senior discount day at Publix.

As the days are getting shorter and our time is approaching November 5th with rapid fire speed, help keep our Democracy together and go out and Vote.

It is June 2025 and I am getting ready for my high school graduation. I am graduating with honors and excelled at the top of my class in creative writing. I was bestowed the honor of delivering a speech on my take away of the Covid-19 virus that plagued the world in 2020.

It is 5 years later and although it took the better part of 2 plus years until the eye of the storm subsided, we were left with a brave new world. The last five years have defined our world and my youth in ways that could never have been believed with no preparation in site. We were human shock absorbers. In guinea pig fashion we were isolated in our own boats navigating a storm flooded with fear, rage and no real answers. The virus knew no limits and left its mark on millions of innocent bystanders. We never knew if it was our turn to suffer on the front line of battle. We spent time dodging bullets, while baking blueberry pound cake with our siblings in lockdown mode. There were months on end where no expiration date was just that. As 13 year olds while forming friendships was top of mind, we were concurrently learning to fight an enemy that could come from around any corner, on any block. The streets crowded with people wearing masks was a clear visual of the enemy at hand. As lucky kids, the worst we knew was strep or a wrist sling from breaking a fall on the basketball court. Yet, we came to understand we were now dealing with deregulating the rules of the health cards as we knew them. Belly aches, scrapped knees and irritated gums from braces were mere annoyances compared to what we were up against.

Fast forward and with no braces in sight, I am dressing in a new suit and sporting a tie decorated with happy faces. We survived and are thriving as a vaccine and maintenance program is in place. While overcoming an act of G-d, and a human disaster that has left us with emotional scars, I will address my graduating class today with honor. I will look in the eyes of my friends and know we developed strong friendships in spite of the scariest of times. My take away dear friends is if anyone one of us falls a little behind, we will wait till you catch up. We all started behind the starting line and emerged stronger and knowing together is “hashtag” better.

A chip with a schtickl of cheese,
a dollop of sour cream onion dip yes please.
Come sip a glass of an 8 ounce pour an olive filled with blue cheese.

A martini glass with chilled vodka- what could be bad?

A flat bread a.k.a. bread and cheese -is quite a popular fad.-

So when shifting gears in a community unknown, there is an overwhelming push not to feel alone.
We sign up for some courses, grap a burger at the “bar”.
Fitting into a groove and playing a card game couldn’t be too far.
We sign up for Pilates, practice long and straight with our eye on the ball.

A real who knew as we are waiting -for that “come play a game “call.

We need a fourth for canasta, our mj game needs one more.
We grab our card and mojo and dash quickly out the door.

A brand new group of people, a daunting part of life.
With popularity throughout a lifetime and now another slice.
So we set the alarm for 7:00.
Grab our gear to play 9 holes.
They need a 5th for mah jongg, our calling could be close.
So as we recalibrate priorities and add grateful to the mix.
Woke up and smelled the coffee, refilled our bag of tricks.
Flipped our myopic vision.
Cause a game is just a game.
Yet all in all it’s social.
Acceptance leads the way.
We want to be included cause we are here to stay.
Have a good Monday.

This is just for the moment when we take our eyes off the screen, pick our head up from the daily News and wipe the fear and horror off our faces.

Then one day the sky fell down.
No chicken little warning- the house fell on the witches legs and just like that the emperor had no clothes.

Cinderella lost more than her slipper and the three blind mice could no longer run. Mother Goose stopped singing nursery rhymes and stood by as prisoners exercised around the “mulberry bush.” There were no rainbows and we waited for happier days to be here again-hit it Barbra with an A.

Severus Snape knew that “the dark arts are varied, ever changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and more clever than before.”

Even though Tom (Tom and Jerry) was the antagonist, all of us felt for Tom. “After all what good is a cat if he can’t get the better of a rat.” From our own little corner in our own little chair- uh, oh! we spied with our little eye a black cat crossing our path.

And to quote Elmer Fudd in his garden of evil- “Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m hunting wabbits.” Only in that case, the hunter gets hunted always.

Then we ran into Mary Poppins who offered us a spoon full of sugar. It helped the medicine go down. We began to believe again and just like we know pruning flowers helps new ones grow bigger and brighter, alas the Prince of Tides helped our ship sail in.

We turned the beat around, stopped playing victim and got behind the wheel to claim our power back.

If you believe in magic, follow toto down the yellow brick road and know that somewhere between the curtain and the wizard is a place called Home.

Shall we Play? Tra la la.

We’ve just been introduced.

I do not know you well.

But when the cards were shuffled.

Something drew me to your side.

I sensed we could be friends.

Share a joke or two.

It made me think we might be— Similarly occupied.

Shall we play? Tra la la

Shall we still sit together,

And depend upon each other?

On a clear understanding that we signal with the 7’s? remember to count aces.

Shall we play?

Shall we play- shall we play?

Shall we play? Tra la la

Shall we turn on the music,

Shall we try?

Shall we go down with four jokers and hope our partner matches.

And just go for a mere per chance.

With a clear understanding that this kind of thing can happen, shall we try and then try and then try.

When the last little 3 has left the deck.

Shall we still play together,

Staying tethered to the table.

And show up with a poker face?

Cause we know we are better.

For engaging one another

So we played and we played and we tried.