Collusion - Available 11/24/13

My new novel, Collusion, will be available for sale tomorrow, November 24.  Please check it out at JMS Books: http://www.jms-books.com/

So Much Stuff

I'm moving soon and I didn't realize how much stuff I had until I started weeding through it. I'm not a hoarder or anything, but I found tons of paper, printed copies of manuscripts I'd edited by hand in various three-ring binders. Just when I thought I'd shredded my last piece of paper, I found more paper in need of shredding. When you live in an apartment (an older apartment that's not particularly spacious), you don't have the luxury of keeping a lot of things. When I lived in a house, I could keep many, many books. But now, I have to be frugal about which books to keep and which books to toss. I feel bad when I have to throw a book out, particularly a book I liked, but didn't necessarily love, but it must be done. I can't live under tons of stuff. Some people can, but I can't. I need to feel like the space I live in isn't claustrophobic. I need open spaces that aren't filled with clutter.

I have an aunt who lives alone in a three-bedroom, two-bath house and, I swear, she seems to fill ever corner of that house (and the basement) with stuff. Just when you think she can't fit more stuff into her house, she does! She's constantly on the prowl for another DVD, another kitchen gadget, another something. I don't know how she can stand it.

What Is Wrong with People???

When I heard about the shooting at the ice skating rink in Bryant Park over the weekend, I wondered, "Who would shoot up an ice skating rink?" Now ice skating rinks are places to be avoided??? Thugs are trolling ice skaters now?  It turns out the thug in custody was attempting to steal a coat from another guy. Are we back to the bad old days of coat and shoe stealing? I remember the string of coats people were robbed and shot for in Detroit back in the 80s: the Max Julian, the leather 8-Ball jackets, the Triple Fat. I don't know what would possess someone, a 16-year-old at that, to behave so violently. It's truly sad that one kid may be paralyzed as a result of this wannabe gang banger's actions. No one's life is worth the price of a coat or any other material object.

Stupidity on Parade

So, I'm moving at the end of the month and I put in a change of address request with the post office a week ago. My mail was not to start being forwarded until 11/18. Unfortunately, my mailman decided I'd already moved because I neglected to get the mail from my box one day. And when he saw the mail from the day before still sitting there, he assumed I'd moved and took it to be forwarded to the new address.  Idiot. Why even bother putting a start date on your mail request if the mailman is going to ignore it? So if I don't get the mail out of my box one day, it's automatically assumed that I'm gone? I could see if mail piled up for a week, but one day? I had to go to the always reliable (sarcasm) Kensington post office this morning and talk to the mailman and another postal employee. I was assured my mail would continue to be delivered now until the 18th, but no one was able to give me the mail that was taken from my box yesterday. I wish I had just grabbed it when I saw it, but I was on my way out to work and just figured I'd pull it when I got home.

The post office wonders why it loses money each year. Yes, people are mailing less due to e-mail and other forms of electronic correspondence, but the service at the post office is often awful. The employees are rarely helpful, the staffing is insufficient, and their methods are just outdated. For example, the post office opened this morning at 9:00. I got there about 9:10 and there were already about seven people in line ahead of me. There was one window open for service.  One!  Eventually, I guess around 9:30, another woman came out and opened up, but by then the line was almost to the door. This is not a good way to maintain customers. No wonder people go to Fed Ex or UPS to mail things.  Even if they cost more, I suspect you get better service there and that's worth the few extra dollars.

Post-Election Roundup

So the New York mayor's race is finally over and deBlasio won, as predicted. I must say Lhota ran a terrible campaign. Harping on how deBlasio is going to turn New York into some crime-riddled wasteland rather than talking about what he would do as mayor really didn't help. Also bringing Giuliani out to help your campaign isn't exactly the best strategy either. Who was advising this guy? The ads deBlasio ran really resonated with people, not just the ones featuring his family, but the ads that showed New Yorkers of all races. Those were very effective, at least for me.

And in Detroit's mayoral race, the Motor City has elected a white mayor, Mike Duggan, for the first time since 1974. I can't ever remember a non-black mayor of Detroit. Detroit did what it felt it needed to do and, even though Duggan's hands will be largely tied due to the bankruptcy situation, I do hope he's able to help get the city back on track.

As for Chris Christie's re-election as Governor of New Jersey, I just have to say if he thinks he's taking the Christie show on the road to a national run for President, he'd better understand that the whole Tony Soprano thing doesn't play outside of the Northeast. He'd better get an attitude adjustment real quick if he wants to run on a national level. Plus he'd better drop more poundage so that he doesn't look like a walking heart attack.

No One Made You Do This

The New York City Marathon was yesterday and the weather was great for it and I certainly hope the runners and spectators alike had a great time at the event.  There was blog post last week on Gothamist about streets that would be closed due to the marathon and the accompanying picture showed some runners passing a group of spectators and one person held a sign that said "No One Made You Do This." I, personally, found this funny.

In other things no one made you do, tomorrow is election day in New York and we'll be voting for a new mayor to take over after Bloomberg's illegal third term. I fully intend to get out and vote in the morning for DeBlasio. As for Lhota, no one made him run for mayor. He chose to do it and he'll have to live with the consequences. I think he's run an ineffective campaign. I don't think he's a terrible guy, but he just hasn't done a good job of getting his message out and he's got no one to blame but himself. Although the polls show DeBlasio with a sizable lead, you never know what might happen at the polls. DeBlasio folks could think his chances are so good that they can afford to stay home and not vote tomorrow and the Lhota folks could come right in and sweep this thing.