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Random Thoughts and Interesting Facts

March 1st, 2022 by Kenneth Abrahams

Recently, New England was hit by a blizzard. Not an unusual occurrence. We needed a few things for dinner the day the storm was going to hit, so the day before I went to the store. Huge mistake. Not only were there ridiculous lines waiting to check out, but the shelves were bare. Now mind you, I live in a part of the country that should be used to this and where roads are cleared very quickly. For many people, the store closings were for one day, but they shopped as if Armageddon were rapidly approaching and there would be no available sustenance.

Every year the commercials aired at the Super Bowl (sorry NFL if I am forbidden from using the name) are of huge interest and, for me, they often disappoint. Yes, I realize many of you no longer watch broadcast TV, but certain commercials should be limited to one showing per night. Lemu Emu and Doug are on that list along with Haribo Gummy Bears, Sonic Drive In, Jan from Toyota makes me cringe and some of the local car commercials are awful. They don’t air on TV but the Commonwealth Motors radio commercials about the lack of chips will cause me to change stations every time they air.

Still trying to figure out who doesn’t believe climate change is real. Only about 3% of the scientists worldwide say it doesn’t exist. For those of you that are doubters, if 97% of the engineers that looked at a bridge told you it was unsafe would you cross it?

Recently, the Boston Bruins retired and celebrated Willie O’Ree, the first African American to play in the National Hockey League. Now, most people know that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Every April 15th all MLB players wear #42 jerseys to celebrate. It is the only jersey number retired by every major league team. (Bonus points if you know who the last 2 players that were allowed to wear the number are.) It got me to wondering who the other men were that broke the color barrier in basketball and football. In 1950 Earl Lloyd suited up for the Washington Capitals in the NBA a day later Chuck Cooper hit the floor for the Boston Celtics and 3 days after that Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton checked in for the NY Knicks. On to the NFL which is a bit more complicated. In 1919, Fritz Pollard played for the Akron Pros but later the NFL banned any non-white players. In 1946, Kenny Washington suited up for the LA Rams along with former UCLA Bruin teammate Woody Strode. At the same time the Cleveland Browns, members of the AAFC All-America Football Conference, were joined by Marion Motley and Bill Willis.

When you look at lists of the best shows on TV now or the best shows to binge CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX are rarely if ever on the list. Hulu, Apple+, HBO and Netflix happen to dominate the list. It is no wonder why so many are “cutting the cable.”

Speaking of things to watch, the movie The Green Book is absolutely fantastic. It is inspired by a true story and has so many great elements to it. I was shocked that Peter Farrelly of Dumb and Dumber, Shallow Hall, and Me, You and Irene fame produced and wrote the movie. Perfect for watching at the tail end of a snowstorm or any time.

Sometimes I fall down the internet rabbit hole. While looking up the players that broke the color barrier in the 4 major sports, I also started looking up some other interesting facts. As far as I know, the Oakland Raiders quarterback, Jim Plunkett, is the only Mexican American / Native American to ever win the Super Bowl or to be named its MVP. Doug Williams was the first African American to lead a team as its quarterback to an NFL championship. For years, many people thought, incorrectly of course, that the position was too complicated for an African American to play.

I usually try to read 10 books a year, but during the first year of the pandemic, I read a ton more than 10 books. Although my pace has slowed since, I am still reading a lot. I love the fact that with books the author can provide us with so much more detail than a movie. It also allows you the opportunity to create images as to what you think the characters look and sound like.

Yes, I’m late to the party but I have started to listen to some Podcasts. Perhaps it is just some of the ones that I have stumbled on, but there seem to be huge differences in content, quality, and production values. One that I would recommend is called Bad Women. It is a series about the women that Jack the Ripper killed and who they really were. It debunks, very effectively, the myth that they were all prostitutes. It also provides incredible detail on the inequalities of that time between the haves and the have nots. After listening to it, you have to wonder how far in that arena we have come, or not.

One of these days someone needs to explain to me the difference between Frozen Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Ice Cream. They seem pretty darn similar to me.

TV Weather people are a favorite target of mine. If you want to accuse me of being jealous, I am guilty as charged. They have all of this technology that wasn’t available years ago and yet their percentage of accurate forecasts doesn’t seem much better than it did decades ago. Why am I envious? They make a lot of money to be right 60% of the time. Let’s thank goodness they aren’t doctors or engineers. One other thing, the worse the weather predictions the happier they seem to be.

Many of us, myself included, have a lot of cookbooks but cook the same foods all of the time. Lately, we have tried some new recipes like Hungarian Goulash and braised beef short ribs that were really good. It never hurts to “spice” things up in the kitchen. Always good to take the taste buds out for a spin.

Being a schoolteacher has always been hard, now it seems virtually impossible. There is so much politics involved and with the pandemic it has gotten exponentially worse. I keep hearing how safe the schools are currently but last week 18,000 children and 3,100 faculty and staff tested positive in the Boston School system and that was a big improvement over the previous week.

Valentine’s Day is coming, whether you are in a relationship or not, make sure to let those that you care about know how special they are.

Punxsutawney Phil the Ground Hog predicter of the arrival of spring is accurate 39% of the time. Is that significantly worse than TV weather people?

About the Author

Ken Abrahams is the CBO, Chief Blog Officer for FUN Enterprises, Inc. If this blog made you laugh, smile, think or try something new it has done its job. Wishing you all a great week.

To find out more about the company go to our website www.funent.com you can also go to this link to sign up for our newsletter which comes out about 6 times a year https://funent.com/subscribe-to-the-funny-pages/.  Our newsletter will tell you more about the company and the products and services we offer as well as some games, things to do and the occasional cooking tip.