Author Archives: Sans Souci

Part 1: A Vacation Journal: Food, Felines, Fotography

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Friday, July 12, 2013 As interesting as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) is, The Porches Inn may be just as fascinating. This area of Massachusetts has long been a mill area with factories lining the rims of canals aiding the shipping of materials in and finished products out. If you read the yellow link embedded above about the history of the building where Mass MoCA is now housed, you will learn about the area, its factories and how so many people depended on them. I have spent many days in the summers since the opening, walking the … Continue reading →

NYC Photo Journal: Louis, Louis! Hot Jazz!

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Louis Armstrong’s favorite food was rice and beans. That’s what is served along with hot jazz in the cool garden, a summer concert series held under the trees in Louis’ yard in Corona, Queens. There is a fascinating house tour, films and audio tracks that illustrate how remarkable this man was and how he lives on. Louis’ birthday party was celebrated on July 4th with the usual rice and beans, lemonade and a celebratory birthday cake. Bria’s Hot Five with Bria Skonberg was the billed show. This is one amazing young lady.

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Part 57: Back In The Saddle Again

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Howdy, Buckeroos. I returned from a short sojourn where I tried to turn off my head and was partially successful. Toward the end of the week the phone began ringing with questions and issues; there went the final days of vacation but I tried to keep my cool. Before I sort through some of my trip photos (no place new, the annual cultural trek to the Berkshires which I have blogged about endless times before) and begin making sense of it all, I’ll just say this: Mom is leaving Florida next Tuesday. No more rats or lousy food. Except maybe … Continue reading →

A Blog Came To My Door With A Prayer For The Soul

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Today was another of those days where I allowed stress to overcome me and overwhelm me. Too many details about relocating my mother, too many thoughts about her funds dwindling, the what-if’s began to panic me. I had several phone calls that needed to be made, the important one was to the woman who works with the mover and who takes care of all the details. We are looking at the last Tuesday in July. Then I had a conversation with my mother’s aide who will be accompanying her and I found it hard to discuss the parameters for her … Continue reading →

A Slice of Life …

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The Lower East Side of Manhattan Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Are Highlighted     The following video is a segment of a PBS broadcast about Robert Moses and the post-war re-building of New York City. Mid-way, it features the development in which I grew up, Stuyvesant Town and how it replaced hundreds of tenement buildings and displaced thousands of people. It is interesting to note that the original purpose of the building of Stuyvesant Town was to provide affordable housing to the World War II veterans and their families. At this time the management has changed hands several … Continue reading →

A Wonderful, Nostalgic New York City Video

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  My friend, K., brought this video to my attention and I sat there for almost a half hour glued to it: I had a bad case of nostalgia. I miss the old simple New York City of my childhood, the young ladies in white gloves and dresses, the young men in suits and ties, the Mamie Eisenhower outfits on mothers. This is one of the kitschiest “tours” of New York City I’ve seen. Of course the young man in the horse drawn carriage on a date was smoking–it seems so passeé. The streets that are now so impossible to … Continue reading →

Part 7: Pissed Consumer: Resolved? “It’s Always Something” -Gilda Radner

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It took three calls to the New York State Public Service Commission to seemingly resolve the issues. Can’t wait for the bill to come in and to try to decipher it. I got something bill-like in the mail for -.41. Figure that one out. I am not even going to try. You know about my fight to keep one of my phones on copper. Here’s an article you should read from The Washington Post on Verizon and the quest to do away with traditional copper phone lines: click here True to Mercury in Retrograde form, my computer got wonky, aol … Continue reading →

New York City Photo Journal: Goodbye Rosie, Queen of Corona

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        The website is here “Our corn is non-genetically modified and non-transgenic. It comes from Rovey Seed Farm Company, a company located in Illinois that applies kosher-certified practices along with an unprecedented process for selecting only the best quality corn for nixtamal production.” Nixtamal Tortelleria 10405 47th Ave. Corona, NY 11368 | (718) 699-2434 It’s time to eat! Fabulous food; the best mole sauce, friendly staff and lots of rain.   ↕  Click to enlarge photos See Nixtamal Torterlleria on the food network: Show: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives -> Episode: Latin Street Food Hosted by: Guy Fieri / … Continue reading →

Mercury in Retrograde: Think Before You Hit “Send”

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Here’s a good one. We are in a retrograde: when this happens, with >>> Mercury, <<<< communication gets bollixed. Means of communication get wonky. Come to think of it, I still do not have my phone issues resolved with Verizon. Sometimes communication gets really tangled, misconstrued, lost. Other times things that have gone unresolved pop-up and get closure. This was one heckuva pop-up! But there is no closure… My nephew received an iPhone for his High School graduation and while he was in Florida with his folks recently, visiting grandma, (the very grandma who will be moving back to New … Continue reading →

The Aura Continues…Blame It On The Mafia

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      Curiouser and curiouser.  I am going back to the topic of ocular migraine aura. (see this blog) I have been keeping track of the episodes and becoming disconcerted. After a significant lessening of occurrences for a few months, and the taking of Petadolex which appeared to be working, the auras are coming back in full force. Sometimes two, three times in a day or in an hour! I consider a good day just dealing with gold lights zooming through my field of vision. It is the strangest feeling and the strangest event. What I think is so disconcerting … Continue reading →

Part 6: Pissed Consumer: It Ain’t Just Me

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Click on this!↕ Here’s a link to the New York Times article. How timely is this? I am still in my quest to stand up to a corporation: Verizon. My journey begins as outlined in this blog and still in progress. This month I have dealt with Verizon, Natura Pet Food, my mother’s assisted living facility, and would also have involved Corelle products but I got so disgusted with all the time I spend with this kind of stuff I put my latest nastygram off. (I purchased a bunch of attractive Corelle dishes to fill in for a waning old … Continue reading →

Part 5: Pissed Consumer Update

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I write these blogs so I can recall events. This Pissed consumer series about Verizon just keeps going and going. In my previous post which mentioned the Verizon issues, I stated that things were possibly on the way to be resolved. As things stand now, days after I spoke to Miss Lima, my main line has not been moved back to Fi-OS, it is still on digital voice. If I pick up the receiver to make a call, it stutters, indicating messages, however the account was never set-up. The interesting thing is that if the phone is off the hook … Continue reading →

Part 56: Looking Up: (Partially Pissed)

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Today was a strange one but a positive one. I’ll start with Verizon. (From the pissed consumer series). I received a call from a Miss Lima (just add her name to the hundred others on the list) who I think responded to my second complaint from the Public Service Commission. She was calling to explain that her colleague’s phone (remember I was trying to contact Ann Marie in corporate and couldn’t?) was broken. Um, I knew that, I was the one who told them. I was the one who thought it was kind of ironic that a corporate executive at … Continue reading →

Part 4: Pissed Consumer: More Bupkis on the Floor

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Where to start? You all know that I’ve been pissed at and been head-to-head with: Verizon: all kinds of crazy stuff My mother’s assisted living facility in Florida: rodents Natura, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, cat food recalls   oh, right, Monsanto is killing us but I am here for now to write this post and hoping that all the GMO’s I have ingested in my life don’t attack me before I am finished Today’s rant will pick up where I left off with Verizon. At the beginning of last week I spoke to Ann Marie at the Verizon … Continue reading →

Save Your Berries! (and save money, too)

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Recently at a berry festival the following sheet of paper was placed in my bag that held about four quarts of freshly picked strawberries. On the paper is a great tip; it works and will help save your berries from a quick demise. It will also save you money. All you need is water and vinegar. Read on! Please click on the photo.    

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Part 55. Just Plain Freaking Pissed: I Smell a Rat, Or Bupkis on the Floor

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  Just when I thought things were calming down, falling into place, today happened. If you recall, I was having issues with Verizon. That story begins here.  I am still having issues with Verizon even after having contacted the Public Service Commission. Even after the Public Service commission filed a complaint and Verizon corporate called from the escalation department. Even after someone promised me a call-back days ago. My second phone line is still in limbo, can’t get any incoming calls, not sure of outgoing functioning. My primary phone line is giving callers a weird message stating that the service … Continue reading →

Pissed Consumer: Procter & Gamble Makes Pet Food That’s Not 99/44% Pure

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I am beginning to feel that a day doesn’t go by when I don’t have to waste time running after some irresponsible corporation. My ongoing issue with Verizon has not been resolved so why not add to the fun? Little did I know when I purchased my first bag of Evo dry, grain-free food that it was produced by a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, which will, by the way, always remind me of Ivory soap … which was “99/44% pure.” Pure what? Here I can tell you that my Evo didn’t follow behind the Ivory soap reputation. By sheer … Continue reading →