What You Do Not Know Because You Are Not Me!

Nothing can hurt me now

2026-10-15T00:30:00.000-04:00

On today's date 25 years ago i finished a marathon in 3 hours 58 minutes and 4 seconds. Then I wrote this on the proto-internet of 2000. What I didn't put into that early blog post was that I really had no choice at that point but to finish that race and under 4 hours. The Sri Chinmoy running folk organize the marathon once a month on Randall's Island and I had tried to break for hours and their February race but walked off the course at mile 20. In March of 2000 my wife was 7 months pregnant with our twins i knew my life was about to change. I knew there wouldn't be so much opportunity to trainAnd I didn't really know what my life was going to be like but if I was going to break for hours I had to do it the end of March in 2000Cuz the kids were born the beginning of May.

I know my life was going to become a roller coaster when I became a parent. if I was ever going to break 4 hours I had to do it on March 26th, 2000. Nine of us walked back 0.2 miles on a perfectly flat 1 mile course on Randall's Island. I was able to leave my hydration on a table and take a gulp every mile. I wanted to run 9 minute miles consistently and the race director is knew that. After I finish my first mile and 8:30 they told me I ran an 8:30 and had 30 seconds in the bank. Another 8:30 and I had a whole minute in the bank. When I ran a 9:30 mile at mile 20 they told me it was okay I still had 10 minutes in the bank.At mile 25 they told me I still had 2 minutes in the bank.I ran that mile like an Olympian. I knew I had 2 minutes to spare. I finished in just over 3 hours and 58 minutes and I laid down on the grass.All the other eight participants were waiting at the finish line for me. They all finished before me but they waited for me. And the two people who had to organize the race were there and the race director handed me a trophy that said congratulations your fourth in your age group.

After I finished this race I looked up the qualifying standards for the Boston Marathon. If I could break 4 hours again after I turned 60 years old I would qualify. I decided to make that my super long-term goal. Just stay healthy for another 20 years And then trained hard again and break 4 hours. At the time staying healthy sounds it easy and training hard again as a 58-year-old was the hard part.I had no idea what would happen to me in 2014. Staying healthy was taken off the table.

They were people who thought I'd never walk again Let alone run. They all wrong. But the paralysis from Guillain-Barre syndrome didn't all go away. I need ankle braces so I don't turn my ankle on every step or just fall on my face. But I did come back and finish the New York City marathon in 2017 and then a bunch more So many that I lost track of how many marathons I have finished and I thought this would be a good moment to count them.

The SRI CHINMOY MARATHON
a loop of Manhattan before I had GBS when you join Runners it's called a Corbitt
a loop of Manhattan after I had GBS when you do it with walkers it's called The Great Saunter
the Jersey Shore marathon
the Long Island Marathon
the Bob Potts marathon
the Bob Potts marathon again
The Run for the Red
the Broadway Ultra Society 6-hour pajama run
the frozen flamingo ultra marathon
a 50k in Prospect Park before I had GBS
a 50k in Prospect Park after I had GBS
another 50k in Prospect Park after I had GBS
The Brooklyn Marathon
the Berlin Marathon
a fundraising marathon around the reservoir in Central Park
The Brighton (UK) Marathon
The London Marathon
Another fundraising Marathon around the reservoir in Central Park https://gofund.me/7b23bc54c
The Sydney Marathon (You won't find an official time but my medal was handed to me by the construction workers disassembling the Finish Line)
The Chicago Marathon ( another official dnf, but Achilles people gave me my metal when I actually ran all the way to the finish line)

and..27 New York City Marathons including the two virtual races, one in 2020 and the other in 2012 when no one called it that because the marathon was canceled because of Sandy

That's ~~42 43~~ 44 45 46 47 48

Numbers aren't important but they are. No matter what happens to me I'm always the guy who spent 7 years trying to break 4 in the marathon and succeeded. So training for races where the finish line was literally beyond the horizon prepared me for Guillain-Barre syndrome. And having recovered from Guillain-Barré syndrome has been great preparation for all the marathons and ultras I've been running lately.

I'm also the guy who literally crawled out of a hospital bed and has since finished 10 more fucking marathons. I also ran up the steps of the Empire State Building. I got to look at that building from the hospital window while they were doing experimental chemotherapy on me.

I joke that it takes me twice as long now but I get to have twice as much fun but it really hurts twice as much head for twice as long.

So I might be the co-star of a Emmy award-winning compassion porn video about finishing last in major races. But I also know what it's like to break the tape

So to summarize. Fuck you GBS and fuck the under-cooked chicken you rode in on.

Just one thing

2026-09-29T05:57:09.092-04:00

A little over 12 years ago a lot of really smart doctors were seriously concerned that I was going to stop breathing. They had a lot of good reasons to be concerned but they were wrong, i never needed help breathing but I did spend 4 and 1/2 months in the hospital and had to learn again how to walk. That's another story.

So I think recovering from a near-death experience leads toFOMO. I want to check every box and do everything I can. So just a few weeks after returning from Sydney Australia and fnished a marathon, I decided to go to Calgary and then Vancouver.

Vancouver was always on the top of my bucket list for reasons I'll get to in a moment... but the GBS Foundation of Canada had there by annual meeting in Calgary. The meeting was great. I got to reunite with some great people and meet some new people. I also got to do one of the stupidest things I've done in my life. In hindsight I should have stayed an extra day in Calgary and then booked a day trip to Banff and Lake Louise. But I didn't. I only had an extra afternoon in Calgary and a couple of my old friends we're going on a downhill go-kart ride. Sure I said not even knowing what it would be looking like. It turns out it's a ride that requires functioning hands which I do not have. I was unable to pull back on the handlebar to properly apply the brakes so I had to pull back with my forearms. And the part of the forum I was pulling back with was the part that had tendon transfer surgery so my fingers became numb as I did this.The alternative would have been flying off the edge of an Olympic Bobsled route. I survived it's been a week and my arms still hurts.But my thumb isn't numb anymore so I don't think I have to call my surgeon. But I did get to ride a ski lift with one of the greatest athletes I ever sat next to. Watch the trailer.

But believe it or not my 3-day trip to Calgary was not my primary reason for visiting Western Canada.There aren't really any direct flights from New York to Calgary so on my way there I had to stop over in Toronto but on my way back I went the long way and stopped over in Vancouver It was a 12-hour stopover in Vancouver. And I got to look out the window and see this. It was already worth it. (Also, I totally screwed myself up in a weird way my return flight home from Vancouver to New York was at 11:15 p.m.. But I entered the flight information into my Google Calendar in eastern time so when I got to Vancouver it looked like I had to leave at 8:15. So I rushed to the airport and missed the interesting dinner I was going to figure out how to have it Vancouver.)

For literally years I've been working out at the YMCA and as soon as I was physically able I enjoyed getting on the elliptical. The elliptical is great for me because I can take off my ankle braces run as fast as I want. I don't have to worry about turning my ankle because the pedals are rising with my feet. I can get up there for 45 minutes and run at full speed and work up a sweat. All the aerobic equipment in the YMCA has a video screen. You can choose what you want to watch. On the stationary bike you can view pieces of the Tour de France and I recognized some locations in Clive's movie. But one of the GoPro tours on the elliptical is Capilano suspension Bridge Park in Vancouver. I try to mix up the videos and watch them and order they appear on the screen and I always look forward to that one sometimes I repeat it over and over again. It's a really beautiful park with cable suspension bridges connecting trees as well as suspended from Cliffs. I've watched it many times and observed that everywhere I would go would be accessible to me. All the stairs seem to have proper handrails and there wasn't anything off road. No grass no gravel. Also the very end of the video shows people leaving the park exiting into what looks like a place where buses go. That's what gave me the idea that I can get there this park wasn't in the middle of the Wilderness it was a place where buses go.... and it was

Accessible to me today
but not 12 years ago

So with Calgary a 90 minute flight to Vancouver I decided to make my stop over there. I arrived at 9:30 in the morning and my flight back home wasn't until 11:30 p.m. From Calgary I took a plane to a train to a ferry to a bus and got to the park at around noon. I'm going to post some crappy pictures that I took but if you really want to see what the park looks like go above and click on the link or look at the Google pictures that other people took.

When I got to the park and paid my admission price and entered I took a big breath. It looked familiar. I had been there about a hundred times in the past but never in reality it was weird. Upon entering the park I noticed the docent giving a tour it looked like it was winding down. At the end of the tour I followed her back to her station and told her my story. I told her I watched a video of this park about a hundred times while relearning how to walk and run on an elliptical machine. I told her the absolutely only reason I came to Vancouver was to visit this park. I was lucky that she appreciated my story (She probably noticed I was holding pack of tears). About a half hour later she saw me and gave me a hat she told me the owners of the park would love to hear my story and I hope they see this blog post.

Below is a little collage of some of the pictures I took. Again they are crappy I took them with my shaky hands and I couldn't take out my phone and some of the places where the best pictures would have been for fear of dropping it into a Ravine so go to Google and find some better pictures.

So I gave someone my camera and
had them take this

A couple of years ago I told someone who had lived in Vancouver that I wanted to go to this park. She said why would you want to go there it's just for tourists. WTF i'm going to be a tourist.

And below believe it or not was my money shot. I reproduce the picture of the exit that was seen in the GoPro video on the elliptical. I started watching this video when I had just learned how to walk again and eventually I watched it and realized that this is a place I can go to and this is a tour I can take.From Sudden paralysis and hospitalization to a year you went using a wheelchair. To relearning how to walk. And spending hours on elliptical watching videos and then actually getting to go to that place by traveling across a continent. FU GBS, FU!

So I'm not the kind of guy that could operate an elliptical and cell phone camera at the same time. So here's a bunch of pictures I tried to take.. But it was basically 15 minutes worth of video of a guy wearing a GoPro and walking around the suspension Bridge Park. If I can figure out how to get it from Life Fitness I'll add it to this.

10 and 1/2

2026-09-15T07:12:16.100-04:00

As a runner I always found water fountains very important. I never like to run around carrying water and I don't like to buy it. And New York City water is just fine. But not all water fountains are created equal. Well maybe they were created equal but they don't become equal over a period of time. I was actually interviewed a long time ago about what what a fountains might be my favorite. I didn't realize how much thought I had given it until they got me talking.

I don't know how I came up with the idea but I got my kids into water fountains. And with twins I wanted them to talk to each other. So I kind of made up a subject something they can talk about and have their own opinion. And I got them to realize that their opinion could be different than other people's opinion. I encouraged them to rate water fountains. I encourage them to come up with their own ideas about why one was good and to appreciate the fact that other people could appreciate different things. Sometimes it's important to have a good cold thick stream of water. But other times you like a button that you could press. When we would go out on a Daddy Daycamp trips we would approach our water fountain with our eyes open.And without using the words I think I got them to learn about subjective and objective opinions. I hope I did good.I got them to agree on the fact that a broken water fountain sitting in the middle of a pool of sewage got a low score. And a functioning fountain that had cold water got a high score. But they were able to calmly discuss whether or not a great water fountain was at 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Sydney Australia. My primary reason to visit was to run the marathon. But I was also there to see what a parallel universe looked like. One of the things going on over there was the fact that the city was full of drinking fountains. They were all over the parks and many other public places. They all worked.

So when we were in Sydney we took a day trip to the Blue Mountains. So much to say.. But that's not what I'm here to talk about but I do have to mention we went to a park that had two trams to go across a gigantic gorge and one cog railway to go into it. And when we got into the gorge we were there about an hour just wondering around and I had a minor panic attack. I knew the last railway ride back up to the top was it about 5:00 and suddenly I felt it was getting dark and that we were going to miss the train. I looked at my watch and realized it was 2:00 p.m.. I had never been under the canopy of a rainforest before, sunlight doesn't get down there it was dim. My friends and I took some pictures but honestly go Google them. Or actually go there yourself it was amazing. But I did learn that the Blue Mountains aren't actually blue. But they are a forest of eucalyptus trees and the eucalyptus trees emit in oil that Changes the visible prism so things just look blue. And it's okay to spend a little extra money once you get there to pay for the entry to Scenic World

after our trip to Scenic world we had to get back to town to catch the train back to Sydney. We had the luxury of a train running every hour and really didn't care which one we took so we meandered around Katoomba looking for a place to relax and eat dinner. Luckily we bounced into the Katoomba Brewing Company this late lunch turned into one of my top 10 meals of my life. Everything went right. We walked in and asked them if they were serving dinner and they said we had to order quickly because the kitchen was closing in 15 minutes. That was great news because we were hungry. I took a big leap and ordered Kangaroo as an appetizer. I like to try new things and I figured it would be fresh here I ordered it back home in the United States it would be frozen. After I ordered it I asked the waiter if only tourist order it or if locals actually eat it, not sure if he was telling the truth but he said he eats it all

the time. After having it I realize that I would have it all the time. It was like a nice piece of steak. The food was great the service were great and it was great to sit with my friends and relax after wandering around the rainforest. I enjoyed the meal so much I decided to ask the bartenders if I could buy one of the hoodies they were all wearing that said the name of the restaurant. They told me sure go up to the hotel they have a whole gift shop. We had no idea there was a hotel it was just up the driveway and it was 150-year-old building that we all assume that Winston Churchill onece smoked a cigar in.The one Souvenir I paid for in Australia was the hoodie that I brought back from that hotel.

I just forgot this post is supposed to be about drinking fountains. After the 3-hour trip to Katoomba I had to get off the train and pee. In my rush to the bathroom I glanced over and saw this amazing looking water found. I came out and tried it out.

Because what the hell is that. Is it a work of art or a functioning water fountain. Yes. The stream was thick and cold the handle was usable by my broken hand and it tasted great. I found it I found the perfect water fountain. I rate this a 10.5. I would actually give it 11 points except when you use it you get a free hand wash.

One of the top 10 meals on one of the best days I ever had a water fountain that was so good it went off the scale. And that whole day I didn't have to think about the marathon I had to run in 3 days

Don't worry, I won't forget. That's my left elbow in the picture

2026-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

I had the impossible job of trying to keep my students calm. I gave up, and just helped them try to figure out how to get home.

The drug store on the corner quickly sold out of disposable cameras.

I found this photo on my desk in the middle of September 2001.

Image description: about 10 people standing on University Place looking south. In the distance only one Tower stands and it has a hole in it. Smoke billowing from the site of the other Tower. On the right side of the photograph an elbow sticking into the frame

Achilles family to the rescue

2026-09-03T14:28:00.611-04:00

So if you've been following along i used to run a couple of marathons in a year. And until 2014 it used to take me between 4 and 5 hours. In 2014 i won the crappy Lottery and got Guillain-Barre syndrome. In 2017 I came back to Marathon running ass an athlete with a disability and it takes me between 8 and 10 hours.

Some marathons have time limits. Which makes sense because people can't stand at the Finish Line all day. But they can. (You can see the rest of the movie on ESPN +) in New York City Marathon let's athletes with disability start ahead of the elites so that we get to finish during daylight. In the London Marathon I started about 15 minutes behind the fastest runners so I also got to finish during daylight.. But they started breaking down the course and I got an alternative finish line that wasn't really the end of the world. In the Berlin Marathon I was actually advised to lie about my pace so I can start just behind the elite Runners and finish before the cutoffs. I knew what time they would be closing the course and it was like four races in one day.

But I got invited to run the Sydney Marathon and they weren't interested in letting me start early and they definitely weren't going to extend the Finish Line for my finished time. I really thought that I could get the Sydney Marathon people to let me start towards the front if not actually in front of the front. Their response was firm and final....

I'm sure that Michael and his guides can navigate the course, but ultimately, we have to consider the safety of all 41,000 participants. Moving him to an early start would be dangerous for them and for other, faster participants who will be overtaking them for the duration of the event - especially in the early, congested kilometres.

Like I said before, if he is redirected, he can continue on the roads and potentially cross the finish line before it closes at 3:40pm. If he is swept, he is more than welcome to continue on the footpath, but drink stations will close and, by the time he reaches the finish line, it will also be closed. You and the Achilles team are more than welcome to wait for him in spectator areas after the finish line closes, but the chute itself will be a construction site and will be inaccessible for anyone but site staff. Again, this is a safety measure to ensure that no one is injured during bump out, which begins very shortly after the finish line closure.

Even as I boarded the plane to Sydney I was thinking that all I needed to do was figure out how to sneak into a forward corral. If they're giving the last person to cross the starting line 7 hours and The last person to start starts 2 hours after the gun... Yeah that might have worked maybe. But I really gave it some thought because I needed accomplices i had to bring my guides with me. The more I thought of it the more I didn't want to drag them into this heist, specially after they were willing. Julie, Who was traveling all the way from Brooklyn to be my guide was okay with it because we were both getting on a plane 36 hours after the race. But the Sydney chapter of Achilles International was providing me with another guide. And I didn't want to drag them into this. Especially after they said they were willing. And to tell the truth talking to Brian who was in leadership of Achilles in Sydney really made me feel good about not trying to push my way to the front. He reminded me of my great accomplishment and also reassured me that my guide would get me to the Finish Line no matter when I started and no matter what they did on the course.

The Sydney Marathon people will offering me two choices after I got swept by the sweepers. Either accept disqualification and take a shortcut across the course... There were many shortcuts on this course because they were allowed about and backs. Or, Take a bus to the Finish Line. Richard and Sharon my wonderful guides offered me a third option. Accept disqualification, But continue on the course to the Finish Line. They knew the way.

I actually surprised myself as to how relieved I was when I accept an option number 3. It was okay that I wouldn't get an official finish. But I would run the Sydney Marathon. And I planned on finishing it.

And even sooner that I expected I was greeted by the sweepers. About 3 mi into Race we were passed by the 7-hour Pace Group. A few minutes later a couple of friendly people on bicycles rolled up and introduced themselves as the sweepers. They asked us what our plan was and we told them we planned on continuing on the course. They thought that was a great idea A half a mile later we encountered the cutoff point. We were officially given our choices, Take the cutoff or get on the bus. We told them we were choosing the third option to continue along the course. They were very cool with that. What about a half a mile later we met the man who it was not cool with.

We leaped off the course because a van was reversing towards us on the roadway. He jumped out screaming at us to get into the van. I told him I'd no intention of getting in any buses and that we were going to finish the course. He told us that was impossible-and my guide Richard said it was very possible because he knew the way. We told him we will already disqualified and he was not responsible for our safety. He flew around like a bow up doll in front of a gas station as we ran away.

A few miles later on and out and back section of the course he ran across the road to scream at us. Told us we couldn't be on the roadway because it was dangerous.We tried to explain to him that the roadway was completely empty..We can see a mile in front of us and there wasn't a vehicle. Our non-compliance to his lunacy seemed to anger him even more and he told us he would call the police if we were seen on the road again. He had no idea how many times in my life I had been involved with the police and I would be looking forward to an actual rational person to interact with.

But true to his world at about mile 15 he came running across the roadway again with the police officer. He told us he was going to have the police officer to take our bibs away. I told him fine take them away now I need a little help with the safety pins. And Richard told him he was an embarrassment to the nation.While Richard was asking this course director's name I asked the police officer to make him stop yelling at me. The cop rolled his eyes and said "I'm trying". Ben Richard did the thing that gets rid of all Karens. Ask them their name!

To the right is a pair of pictures taken about a half hour apart. On top is Julie myself and Richard waiting for the construction workers at the Finish Line to come back with the medals that they said they would get us. Below is a picture taken of all the people from Brooklyn Achilles. In the middle is some weird influencer who wanted a pose for a picture with us

When we made it to the Finish Line my watch said I have been running for 8 hours and 50 minutes and as promised the Finish Line was a construction site. Not only was there no clock there was no timing mat there was no one to acknowledge my finish. But that's okay, I expected that. I was also okay with that. I'm still okay with not having an official finish.

But I need to post this collage. On the top is a screen grab from my Garmin. I ran for 8 hours and 50 minutes. It probably would have been significantly less if I didn't have to stop at traffic lights or in a store to buy water. The bottom part of the image is a screen grab from the video of the Final Finisher. It looks like she finished in 8 hours and 50 minutes. If you watch the whole video you'll see the official last finisher 9:15 on the clock. So if I would have gotten a start near the front I would have finished in the daylight, I would have received my medal from the race officials and not from the construction workers.

Maybe in a couple years the people with the Sydney Marathon we'll do something for people with disabilities to let us finish with everyone else. I thought they would because they made me fill out a form by my doctor. She had to document two things first she had to document that I was disabled and second she had to document that I was healthy enough to finish a marathon

To repeat, i have no regrets. I got to travel to another hemisphere and meet wonderful people and enjoy a great 26.2 mile run through an amazing place. I can right 10 more blog posts about the touristy things we did. The Blue Mountains, the fact that I actually got to see a platypus, Bondi Beach, and I actually ate a kangaroo and it was tasty. But that's another blog post.I also got to travel with the three most amazing people. And my Sydney guides were like new brothers and sisters. I hope they let me know if they're ever in North America because I would travel to the other side of the continent to have coffee with them.The Achilles chapter leaders I met and my guides didn't just get me to the Finish Line of my 47th marathon they help make me a better person.

Before I close out i want to point out that one thing happened on the course that made up for all the crap we took up from Mr Course Director. At about mile 15 a bunch of kids were playing with their bicycles on a closed part of the course. Kind of in the area between a gas station and the road. They thought we finished the race and would just jogging around so they started screaming congratulations but we pointed out that we was still racing. They were so excited and they offered us a ketchup packet. Because they were so excited to offer to me I felt compelled to accept it. Then I realized their plan. They challenge me to chug it. But I topped them. I told them I would treasure it for the rest of my life and bring it back home with me to New York City. Since I didn't receive any cheers at the Finish Line I remember them cheering with excitement over the fact that sauce was going to New York.

A whole bunch of people got an A+ in not giving a shit

2026-07-27T15:53:44.153-04:00

So last week I had a marathon training run and I took one of my classic routes. Running from Park Slope over the Brooklyn Bridge and over to the West Side and up the west side of Manhattan until I couldn't really take it anymore.

Yes basically starting in Park Slope and running over the refurbished car free bridge that crosses the Gowanus Canal at Carroll Street and making it all the way to the Little Red Lighthouse at the George Washington Bridge after that climbing the hills of ~~San Francisco~~ Washington Heights to get to the subway home.

Yeah running 3/4 of the way up the west side is not what I'm writing about i really need to talk about one of the vending machines that sells water and Gatorade. There's a lot of ending machines south of Chelsea but this one is something I always notice. It's sitting on top of the expansion joints of the pier. For no reason at all people keep dropping their money into the Hudson River.

I just have to share this because it blows my mind how stupid and thoughtless people can be there's a lot of other places to put that vending machine there could have put a board over the grate but none of that happened and the Hudson River fills up with coins.

I think it took a team effort to be this stupid

More on being an election day worker

2026-06-16T05:53:20.720-04:00

It's about a year later and I get to update this. The interaction I had below gave me as much joy as seeing a dolphin under the Verrazano Bridge a few weeks ago.

On the first day of early voting for the primary in 2026, this same gentleman walked in wearing a t-shirt that said "vintage 1924". It's a quiet election so when he walked up to my table, I had the time to say, sir, "I'm glad to see you back." I told him that I hope he was okay but I Googled him and I found out he was a really big deal. He told me his grandchildren and great-grandchildren asked him what he did. He tells them to look it up on Wikipedia. That's a great reason to be a grandparent.

.....................................................................................................................................

We had another election on Tuesday. I worked 8 out of 9 days of early voting at Brooklyn Borough Hall and I was coordinator on election day at my local bowling place, there was a bit of extra confusion during this cycle because a lot of people thought they can vote in the primary when they weren't in a political party. It seems a lot of people registered to vote last fall so they can vote in the presidential election and didn't think it was important to register as part of a political party.Some of them thought they were independent and can vote in any primary and that doesn't work in New York state. They're not listed as independents It says the word blank where it has their political party and they may not vote in a primary. We had to explain that and some people were understandably angry.on election day I worked in an unacconditioned school gym and the outside air temperature was 105° . It was actually a little cool in the gym and we were able to perform our jobs Without dripping on the ballots and our equipment did not melt.

Working at my polling places We get to have some celebrities vote. Some people from the acting world and sometimes politicians. But I got the honor of having this interaction

a voter walked up to me and said"Hi I'm 101 years old and I'd like to vote", Certainly sir but I need to know your name... He told me his name and I typed it into the pole pad. He confirmed his address and I looked and saw that he was born a week earlier in 1924. When he signed the poll pad his helper said that his signature is worth money and then we had the following conversation

he: Yes I won the Nobel Prize for medical research in 198*

me Thank you, because of medical research I am alive today

he That's why I'm voting.

By publishing this on probably already violating my confidentiality agreement with the board of elections. But whatever. With all the shit that's going on in the world right now we have to remember that we live in the greatest country in the world., because this gets to happen.

I wrote this during the June primary, in 2025. He voted again in November. He didn't come to my table but I noticed him two tables away and after he got his ballot everybody applauded at the table. I also googled him. He's an immigrant.

I was really looking forward to last night's Saturday Night Live (updated with video of Larry David nailing a Bernie Sanders impersonation)

2026-05-06T06:37:00.000-04:00

I usually don't pay attention to celebrities. But, Tracy Morgan and I both spent last summer in the hospital, So, it really made me happy to see them on the stage at the Emmys of month ago. I also made a point of staying up late last night and watching them host Saturday Night Live. Many people have told me how happy they are to see me recover. So, Tracy, I know you're an A level celebrity and I am only a D level celebrity. And I know you'll probably never read this, but from one recovery person to another, I'm really happy for you. Congratulations!

But, I have to say the wonderful and obvious use of Larry David to play Bernie Sanders was wonderful. (See below). Probably more so than the directors thought. Of course they act and sound the same. They grew up together. They might not have known each other but they grew up together, or at least in the same world.

Check out this rare video below of Larry David totally nailing a Bernie Sanders impersonation

Bernie Sanders went to Madison high school (with my mother). When he was there he was captain of both the cross-country and track. When I ran track, for Sheepshead Bay, the only school we have a beat was Madison.

He graduated in 1959, two years after my mother and eight years before my neighbor, United States Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Madison probably had about 3000 people in it when my mom went to school. She wasn't friends with Bernie, but they definitely walk the halls together.

(I might be updating this soon if my mother can find a picture of Bernie Sanders in her yearbook.)

UnlikeReply113 hrs

Larry David graduated Sheepshead Bay high school when I was two years old, in 1965

(Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn, but did most of his growing up in Massapequa. But on his TV show he went back to his junior high school with George. For the TV show they used the outside of Edward R Murrow High School. A few of my friends have taught there. In 2000 I was asked to be a Sing! Judge. I remember giving the senior band a high score for being able to perform so stoned)

(Update from Sheepshead Bay High School Facebook page

S***** H***** I grew up with Larry and knew who he hung with, Bernie was not one of them. Maybe Larry's older brother Kenny who I believe went to Madison knew Bernie. )

J*** B****** I also graduated with Larry David, SBHS '65, but I did not know him nor do I know anyone who did know him.

If you ask Google to connect their childhood homes by bicycle route, the ride would pass the house I grew up in. The red dot (naturally) is the house Bernie grew up in. The purple dot is Larry David's childhood home. My mother grew up near the blue mark, and I was raised under the green mark.

I can't find any evidence on the Internet that Larry and Bernie ever met when they were growing up. But it is pretty clear that they grew up in the same world.

A day trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

2026-02-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

Last week, a bunch of my friends and I decided to jump on the train and go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A little day trip with friends that I usually meet to go running, and we decided to do something else together. It was fun just to have fun. We were all of the same mind that we were there to enjoy the museum and see as much of it as we felt like seeing, and then go back home. Amtrak tickets were three times as much money to return to New York from Philadelphia as they were to go there, so oddly enough, it was much cheaper to be in an Uber, and that provided a lot more flexibility. But that's not the subject of this blog post.

I went to museums a lot with my kids. And when you do that, it's about the kids, not the museum, so it was fun to go with adults. When you slow down, you get to look at stuff. Notice things. And I think that's kind of the point of an art museum.

If one were to ask what my favorite piece of art was, I would say that Still Life with a Tortoise came up as number one. It was up on the floor with all the old European portraits. And I turned a corner and came upon this surprise. At first, it looked like a collection of stuff that a kid would put together on the beach. But then I noticed that the things didn't go together very well. It turns out it's a still life of a collection of a gentleman's accumulated stuff. Kind of the three hundred year old version of anybody's junk drawer. Possibly by Thomas Black

My other favorite piece of art was this one to the right. Listening to the unexpected , by Yeonmi Kang. Maybe I should have taken another picture, but it was on a shelf with other objects that were all 300 years older than it and were the kind of things that royalty would wear as jewelry. I like the way it stood out from the crowd, and I like the way it looks.

There was a section of the museum entitled "Bathing," and this painting was featured in it. I stopped to look at it because it was quite disturbing. I was somewhat relieved to see that I wasn't the only one who thought that. The first words in its description are: "In this strange and unsettling work..." If you Google Leon Fredericks, the source of life, the first item that comes up is a blog describing it as the worst painting they've ever seen what impressed me the most was that this was 135 years old. I didn't think people were that fucked up back then.

A few years ago, when my daughter started art school, I wanted to understand modern art a little better. What Are You Looking At was recommended to me as something that would give me an introduction to that. But it turned out it was more like a textbook for juniors in art college, and I didn't have the background to really continue reading it. So I only read the first third of it. But the first third of it was about the urinal.

I had forgotten about the urinal until I saw pictures of it in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The last third of our time there was spent looking for it, following the arrows towards the urinal. When we got to the spot where the arrows all led to, it wasn't there. We found out it was on tour, and it was in New York. It turns out they're all replicas anyway.

if you just take a minute to look at this thing, this thing that you've seen reproduced many times before, you notice that Vincent van Gogh only signed his first name.

Updating my blog to add something. Because after I shared this with the people that I went to Philadelphia with, one of my friends sent me this picture that he took of me when I wasn't looking.

He probably overheard me saying that I wouldn't mind babysitting for that kid. He looks like the kind of kid that I wouldn't mind teaching how to play checkers or something. Or maybe a kid who is anxious to learn how to play checkers .

And if you might have noticed, for all the pictures that I posted here, I also took a picture of the description of the art. That was kind of my plan as I walked around the museum, but it never occurred to me that I was going to post this picture. But I am pretty impressed with what Google can do in just a minute.

So it's Paul Cezanne's Boy in Red Vest. But it's not... It is Portrait of Master Bunbury AI is pretty good until it's not.

Park Slope curb alert

2026-02-13T07:14:00.004-05:00

It's been a cold few weeks. More than that it's been very cold and then we had a foot of snow and then it stayed cold. But we need to be reminded that we're going to get to open our windows again soon. Don't go looking for this. I took the picture in the afternoon and by the evening it was gone. There are optimists out there

You don't have to be abilist

2026-02-03T08:59:00.000-05:00

Every morning with my morning coffee I sit down and fill out surveys to make a couple of bucks. (I make at least $5 a day and sometimes over $100. If you want more information about how to do that contact me and I'll get a commission if you start doing it. But this blog is not about that.)

A very common question they ask in the beginning of the survey is employment status. Sometimes it's used to screen people out because they don't want people who work in a certain field . But more often than not it's used to sort people into groups .

To the left is a screenshot of that question. Please notice on top the little red dot that indicates that you have to select one answer . At first I was going to check the box that said self-employed part-time because while I was filling out this survey I was working. They are paying me to fill out the survey. But I went down to the bottom and click the box that said disabled. Because I identify as a disabled person.

Then I went to click the other box that says employed part time. And low and behold it unchecked the box that said disabled . Can't I be both ! What makes them think disabled people can't work.

Honestly, What does my disability have to do with my work status.

I'm thinking about this more I'm wondering If we were in a different time in the United States and they edited a check box on the bottom thhat said "colored" as an employment status . I wonder how African American people would feel when they were filling out the survey .

Or what if there was a box that simply said woman So they would figure that a woman wasn't getting paid at the same rate as a man. They can do that now .

Disability is not an employment status. It's a physical condition or or an identity. So dear survey people: If you want to know if someone is not working because they're disabled ,say that. But please do not assume that disabled people are not able to work.

I just started another survey and this came up. I'm pointing it out just to show that it's typical that you can choose disabled OR working. Please look also that you can choose one gender I always assume that transgender people were male or female Shouldn't that also be too different questions .But that's a different story.

And yeah I wasn't born on April Fool's Day. These people don't deserve the truth

I'm updating this the next day and excited to report that I was able to click these two boxes on this survey .

But then when I hit enter it told me I wasn't allowed

can't choose more than one

Stuff I saw on the subway

2026-01-22T06:28:00.002-05:00

I used to work by Union Square and my quick trip home was to walk up to 14th Street Union Square and take the Q.

A couple weeks ago I was changing trains and noticed this graffiti on the pole. I had my phone in my hand so I clicked a quick picture.

Then I turned around and saw this on the pole I was leaning on.

A minute later the train showed up and I got home

WTF eBay What The Fuck!

2026-01-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

I sell a lot of crap on eBay. I am choosing the word crap very specifically. I have made thousands of dollars on eBay and I have never sold anything I paid for. Back in olden times I used to sell Metro cards as collectibles and every single one of them were ground scores. Before the MTA explained to me that I was in violation of the law I made a few thousand bucks selling Metro cards for a discount. lately I just sell stuff that I find. Mostly in my basement because in my apartment building we have a table where people leave stuff that might have some value to someone else before it gets thrown out. I make a little money and I save things from the garbage dump.

There are basically three types of things that I save from the garbage dump.

Items that are new in their box. They are easy to sell. I can use stock photos and list them at half the price other people are selling them for. They get sold kind of quick (or I can just return them to the department store where they came from and get a store credit. A few weeks ago I returned some weird thing to Ikea and then sat down and had a lunch and bought some candy to share with my friends).
Items that might be antiques. That takes a little bit of research. But I've made some real money. Sewing machines... typewriters... Even lots of picture frames. I estimate the weight so the buyer pays the shipping. I also take a lot of pictures. I list the sale as "as is" and " Good for parts and might work". Sometimes I only make a dollar. But that's one more dollar than I had before and I saved something from going into the garbage dump.
The bulk of what's in my basement are books. And unfortunately there's not much value in them and the big library near my house doesn't even want donations. I did make a friend that accepted a giant pile of them because she can send them to prisons. but there's a real limit on what they'll let you send to a prison .. Just use your imagination.

But some of the books are easy to sell on eBay. I learned by trial and error it's not new books that sell. I don't think many people are buying new books anymore They are reading them on their devices. But it's the older books that are out of print that have more of a market. I see what other people are selling them for and I usually start my bidding at half of that. A few months ago I found a first edition of a book that was about 40 years old It seemed to be some sort of science book. Man and Time by JB Priestley. I took some pictures to show the book wasn't in perfect shape and started the listing at $5 when other people were selling it for 20. I didn't get any bids so I lowered the starting bid price down to 99 cents. It automatically relisted a few times and eventually it sold for 99 cents. The buyer paid immediately. They paid about $6 because they had to pay for the shipping label at book rate. I even used a padded envelope that I had found in the basement. Someone had left a whole box of them down there and I've been going through them one at a time to sell my crap on eBay.

But a moment after I printed the shipping label I got a pop up on my computer that I had an Internet on my credit card

What the fuck!

Ebay collected 99 cents for me and $4.47 for the shipping label. That's $5.46. but the sum of their fees was $5.61. So they charged me 15 cents to sell this book.

I'm glad I don't do this for a living.

And now I understand why all the Uber drivers are grumpy and why restaurants that rely on delivery apps are going out of business

Not a micro aggressive moment of ableism and my favorite marathon

2025-12-09T08:08:00.002-05:00

A photograph of me sitting
in a folding chair after running 31
mi in about 13 hours

A couple of days ago I finished my 44th race of marathon distance for greater..... The Prospect Park Track Club Endurance Fest 50 km / 31 mi.

It's kind of wonderful to say this out loud but I don't think it got tough until I hit mile 28. The race started at 6:00 a.m. and the sun didn't rise till about 6:30. As you can see from the photo to the left, when I finished it was dark It took me 13 hours so it was 7:00 p.m. I wasn't just physically exhausted I was a little bit confused because I started before it got light and it had gotten dark again And I was still doing the same thing. I also hadn't eaten much...I've been outside since 5:00 a.m. and it was getting dark and I hadn't even had breakfast. I was literally glad that it was the last loop of Prospect Park. I just focused on that for the last hour of running. Because I know I'd be finishing my 44th marathon.

The moment I finished I was offered a chair. I think I responded with a barely audible "Fuck Yeah". Stopping turning figuring out how to sit we're all very awkward and as I was wobbling towards the chair one of the race directors took my elbow and balanced me. I didn't ask for help and I've gotten used to people grabbing me when I didn't want help. I kind of appreciate it, but I didn't need it and I moved on. I've known that race director for years and he was a kind of person doing a kind thing. But if someone who acquired their disability 11 years ago being touched without permission is something I've learned to live with. People mean well. But sometimes I'm fine. ( i'm never going to get used to the people who jump in front of me to hold the door open and at the same time stand in the doorway, but that's a different thing)

while I was sitting in that folding chair and trying to figure out what it's like to not be running i saw the most wonderful thing. One of the 50 mile racers was about to finish their race. He crossed the finish line right at my toes. They didn't have any apparent disabilities and were asked if they wanted a chair. At the top of their lungs they screamed "FUCK YEAH". A folding chair was popped open and that same director took his elbow and helped him sit down.

I wasn't offered help because I had an apparent disability. I was offered help because I had just finished an ultra marathon. I figured that out in slow motion during the next 13 hours where I wasn't running forward.

>>>>>>>>>

After you run a lot of marathons people ask you which one was your favorite. It's really hard to compare them to to each other. There's the noisy big city races, the calm rural races, the sub 4 race, the destination races, the first marathon, the first marathon after having kids, the first marathon you have to coming back from a disability, or the most recent marathon. But something special did happen in this marathon.

When my kids were little I remember sitting at the starting area of the New York City marathon talking to one of my teammates who was a bit older than me. He told me that his son was training for next year's race. I told him he was living my dream I hope that one day I'd run the New York City marathon with my kids. He corrected me. He pointed out that when my kids are old enough to run a marathon they'll be terribly faster than me; We won't run it together.

In Sunday's race I had set up a sign up sheet for people to take turns guiding me. I couldn't have done this alone and I couldn't ask someone to be out there for 13 hours. People took turns of walking alongside of me for an hour or two. Calling each other to figure out what part of prospect park I'd be in and seeing if I needed something from the outside world. Both my kids and their partners signed up for a shift. They didn't just help me they got to witness how hard it was to run as far as I did. They also witnessed the praise I got from fellow runners recognizing my achievement.

>>>>>

A photograph of me after
finishing the New York City marathon
in 2000 holding my 6-month-old twins

when I was in the hospital I was randomly visited by a shrink. We talked about how long my recovery would be and the possibility of it not being complete. We talked about what was important to me. We talked about the fact that what was very important to me was being a role model for my kids. It occurred to me back then, 11 and 1/2 years ago that I had to show them that sometimes you have to crawl out of a really deep hole.

I think I did that Sunday.

A Mitzvah

2025-10-08T04:30:00.000-04:00

Updating for October 2025

I have two things to add, first the are you Jewish boys have include me in to the concept of Jewish exceptionalism. The concept of "the chosen people" really discussed me more than ever. I confronted a couple of them on the fact that they're only interested in interacting with Jewish people and they said that people who are in Jewish have their own seven commandments. The 7th one is completely about homophobia. They also wouldn't say them in an audible kind of way because it wasn't on their agenda.But I really don't want to be part of a religion that decides that because you're born ofcertain parents you're different or better than people that were born of different parents.

But the main thing I've picked up on the fact that being uneducated is something that these kids are proud of. When I told him I don't believe in God they confront me with the fact that the big bang theory can't exist because something cannot come from nothing. I asked a couple of the kids how old they were and they both happened to be 17. Then I asked them what a molecule was. Neither one of them know.Then I told them how can they say the Big Bang Theory can't exist if they don't know the basics of chemistry and physics. They told me that everything they need to know was in the Torah. There you go......

...........................

The beginning of fall is a busy season for these missionaries. I avoid them during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because for whatever reason they don't carry money on that holiday. They are allowed to ask me to listen to a horn but they're not allowed to pay me. But on Sukkot they want me to shake a stick and some sort of dried up melon while saying some prayers. Since I didn't have to put any leather straps on my head I only asked for $5 and they were quick to agree. The cool thing was that last week I was not alone during this encounter I was hanging out with some friends waiting to go for a workout.

So it's time to update this a significant amount. Since I originally wrote this 12 years ago I probablycollected about a hundred bucks off the "'Are you Jewish?' boys" they're pretty quick to give me twenty bucks if I put on the tafillen and repeat whatever words they told me to say or read off a card. the truly pathetic thing is that it's so obvious that I really don't care what I say it is just meaningless words to me and I AM just doing it for the money. They don't care as long as the son of a Jewish woman does the ritual. my obvious insincerity is irrelevant.

................................................................................................ Janurary 2010

A couple of days ago I was changing trains in Times Square. There is always a lot going on down there, bands, art, various religious/charity looking for a handout or a sole. So it was not surprising that a man dress in traditional Hasidim clothing ask me "Are you Jewish?" It was about 1pm and I had plenty of time before I had to pick up the kids. So I decided to engage.

I tried to guide the conversation towards the subject of free will and humanity, but that was useless. It was like talking to a dining room table. I knew this man had one and only one agenda, that was to get me to use tefillin.

That subject came up quick. He asked me if I want to put them on. I said sure, if you give me $20. He instantly agreed. After a very short and polite discussion about the timing of payment. I performed the ritual, right there in the Times Square Subway Station.

We then had a short conversation about our personal religious histories. He gave me $20 and shook my hand.

"Congratulations, you did a mitzvah."
"No, the mitzvah will be when I donate this money to help end the suffering in Haiti."
"Are there Jews in Haiti?"

Oy Vey

So if yo want to do a mitzvah you can help someone in need or support one of the organizations below.

The American Red Cross

or

I personal know the people involved at Heartline Ministries, it is not about religious rituals. It is about helping those who need the most help.

I think I owe the blogosphere another more blog

2025-09-29T14:32:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I posted and I've been writing this in my head for a while. But ever since I got kicked out of AdSense for killing the bird that was laying the golden eggs I haven't felt that inspired to post. But I wasn't really making that much anyway so here goes

i have actually had an amazing spring and summer. I could say it's been amazing because I got to run an a marathon in Brighten England with my son, and a half marathon in Reykjavik Iceland with my daughter. Honestly you can Google pictures of Brighton and London and Iceland much better than me showing you pictures. But I will show you some highlights.

To the left we see the entrance to a tunnel that goes under a road that gets you to the beach in Brighton. Not an entrance to the Q train at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Also a picture of my son smarking with the actual Rosetta Stone behind him. And a picture of each of us goofing around in front of Stonehenge.

And oh yeah we did run a marathon when we were in England. Here we are finishing last.

Also got to give a shout out to my son. He accepted a job to accompany me to England and run a marathon with me. Then after we bought the plane tickets he got accepted to graduate school at Brooklyn College. Night school. That meant he had to take two remote classes in the middle of the night from England. Well done, Nicholas!

And I just realized that I've been to Europe twice this year. After going to England in April I went to Iceland in August. I went there to run a half marathon with my daughter Sabrina and we did tons of touristy stuff with her brand new fiance (YEAH), Julia.

Upper left hand corner of the picture shows Sabrina and Julia enjoying Icelandic breakfast with jet lag like rock stars. And then to the right is the two of them at 12:30 a.m. with the northern lights behind them and then me and Sabrina with The Northern Lights behind us. (By the way if we would have turned our head 90° from looking at the northern lights we would have seen the sun peaking out from the horizon at 12:30 a.m.) On the bottom we see them in front of a glacier in front of a waterfall and in front of the crevice that separates the North American played from the European plate. Below is a short video of a geyser. (Again use your Google to find lots of great pictures of Iceland)

I could sell Iceland as a vacation to everyone I know. Glaciers and geysers and waterfalls and northern lights and the crevice that separates North America from Europe. Reykjavik is also a completely new city. It's like the anti Disney World of places to visit. Things are natural and beautiful but it takes a little work to get there and the weather is not going to be great. But again google to look at some great pictures. But then you wouldn't see what I did so because you're not me.

I also just got back from a long weekend conference to Denver Colorado with the GBS Foundation. I did get to do some touristy things while I was there. On my first morning I woke up on Eastern Standard Time and just ran around Denver. I was really pleased to find a creek that had a pair of trails on either side of it. One was recycling and another was for pedestrians and they seem to go under all the roads in town.I went out for 45 minutes and then ran back and I felt great. I pre-registered for a 5K in Suburban Denver. It was called the Nun Run. I really assumed it was just a fundraiser for the archdiocese or something. I assumed I can take an Uber to the start and then I would walk over to the bagel table say hi to people and finagle myself a ride back to the hotel. That was a bad assumption. This was not a fundraiser for the Archdiocese, it was a religious event....Lots of prayer at the start. The run of show included a mass and confessional. And they were people that to finish line area encouraging people to sign a petition to end children sex change mutilation surgery. Needless to say I didn't stop and ask anyone for a ride back to the hotel. Back at the hotel I realized I got a text from a friend who wanted around Denver on Thursday and told me that I should go to the arts district and enjoy some galleries and some tacos made by people who knew how to make tacos. I was glad I took that walk.

I have to wrap up this blog post. I'll do it by talking about a couple of things I learned this year and some of the highlights.

One of the things I noticed about Iceland was that there has been an incredible amount of growth and construction over the past couple of decades. Included in this is a lot of American franchise stores opening up. There was a lot of Kentucky Fried Chicken, subway Hero shops, and Sbarro Pizza (often in the same building). One morning while waiting for the tour bus to pick us up I actually was craving a bacon egg and cheese and at the pizza place they had a bacon egg and cheese pizza. I thought it might be reminiscent of the breakfast pizza that they serve at table 87. I was wrong and I should have known I was wrong. That abomination on a pizza plate was an insult to every Italian-American who ever made pizza as well as everyone who I've ever operated a Bodega or a breakfast card and made an egg sandwich.

Have to Sabrina and I were a quarter mile into the half marathon it became apparent that we were the back of the pack. We were accompanied by two cyclists who made sure we found our way. At about mile 11 we passed one of these fast food halls. Our bike marshals didn't speak much English but when we passed this food hall I turned to them and apologized that America sent them our shit restaurants. They understood me clearly but responded by saying" at least we have something now". I felt that for telling her what she liked was shit to me

Along the pedestrian path by The Creek in Denver I took a picture of this sign. I took the picture because I was confused The path wasn't wide enough for anything but a golf cart to travel on. Only work vehicles would be on that path Why would they tell people no standing or stopping. Then I realized it was anti homelessness laws because they didn't want people sleeping under the bridges. along the way I was passed by a jogger and I asked her how far the path went and she said it went for miles and stayed very beautiful but I should watch out because it's pretty creepy under the bridges.I responded that I was from Brooklyn and wasn't worried about any creepy under the bridges. She looked at me and said"I understand but you're a dude"

i think I grew from these two interactions. I simply learned that at sometimes I could keep my mouth shut. Don't always have to say the thing that I think is funny.

But I do have to go back and say why I think this has been a fantastic year for me.

did I say I won the lottery and got accepted into the London Marathon for 2026. That's not the big deal. The big deal is that the first thing I did was that I called my son and told him I won and I wanted him to come back with me. The fact that he wanted to go back to England with me on Broad tears to my eyes because I thought he wanted to kill me after we came back from Brighton.
My daughter told me that this was one of the greatest vacation she ever had in her life.I got to tell her that I hope it's the first of many.
And I got to tell my future daughter-in-law that I was so happy to spend time with her.

Some things I saw on the subway (art is anal))

2025-07-18T16:23:00.004-04:00

In no particular order there is some things that caught my eye while riding on the subway over the past few weeks. Well technically not in the subway There's a food court in the Columbus Circle Station. There's also some selling arts and crafty stuff. Am I far the first guy to know notice that "artisanal" is art is anal. I can't unsee it and my daughter went to school a block from that subway station and probably traveled through there twice a day.

To counterbalance the wording at the arts and crafts store a couple of weeks ago I was riding a Coney Island bound F train and this guy was sitting across from me. I was pretty sneaky in taking the picture and deleted all the ones where his face showed but I thought this was kind of a perfect kind of scene.The weird ad behind him and the fact that he was on his way to the beach to go fishing.

And speaking of Coney Island F trains, i just love this new Subway ad for Nathan's.

The Subway Nerds might say that the N and the Q also go to Coney Island nathan and that it's not just that F stands for Nathan's famous.

I made it to the big screen

2025-06-13T08:02:00.000-04:00

Back in March the people that the New York City Roadrunners Club contacted me and asked me if I'd be willing to talk to some people who are making a movie about the people who finish at the very back of the pack in their big races. Sure.

A couple of days later on a really nice day they met me at the Achilles workout in Central Park. We plop down on a bench and they put a microphone on me and asked me a couple hours worth of questions. I told them I wasn't always the last guy that I used to be a mediocre marathon runner and finishing about four or five hours and now it takes me 9 or 10. "it might take me twice as long but now I have twice as much fun" when I remembered saying that I heard the director say to the sound guy "did you get that?" and I knew I was going to be in a movie. Zoom in on the picture to the right and you could read what I actually said. They will recording I ~~don't remember shit~~ tend to embellish.

The day after the Central Park interview was the New York City half marathon. They told me they were interested in filming me during the race. Blah blah blah blah blah. They met me at ~~ass o-clock~~ 5:00 in the morning in front of my house and put a microphone on my son and I. They recorded us walking from my house all the way to the starting line and then kind of ambushed us three or four times along the course.

So last night they had a screening party. My son was my plus one because he was my plus one in the race.It was great that he was there because he acted as my guide more on that in a minute. But the screening event was at a fancy hotel in Manhattan ($1,200 a night!?) that had a movie theater in the basement and an actual red carpet. I realize when I got there that I had a handler. There was one staff member who was assigned to make sure I was in the right place at the right time.

And I made it to the local news. Just a video of me moving my lips with no audio. followed by the classic pathetic comment by newscasters that they couldn't even....... . Maybe eventually the newscasters will watch the whole movie and realized that the whole point of it was to say that anyone can finish a marathon you just have to choose to do something very hard and suffer.

And they were fancy people at the screening. I turned around and saw Meb Keflezghi. I explained to Nicholas that I've only been a fan of one sports figure in my whole life and that was him. He turned around and looked at me and said he came to see you and a movie. Oh shit. Then without me knowing it Nicholas found my handler and arranged for me to meet Meb.

I told him that for the next two weeks I'm going to be telling everybody that he came to see a movie about me. And I will.

Anyway below is the trailer. The film is not available yet and when it is I will share it here. There's also going to be a screening party. Bring your tissues and your money. It's going to be a fundraiser for Achilles International.

Making security theater a little less unsafe

2025-05-25T16:45:00.003-04:00

First, and second and third and more than that... It is terrible when someone finds that way onto the tracks that doesn't want to, either accidentally or on purpose. But building barriers on subway platforms is only microscopically going to reduce this from happening. Also they're success is unmeasurable. But people who benefit were enjoy fear-mongering are saying that the subway is dangerous and something must be done. So the MTA is installing permanent fences on the subway platform in the areas where the doors do not open on the subway cars. I feel this only makes people feel the subway is more dangerous because things are being done to to prevent a bad thing that very rarely happens. Whatever.

In articles about them they would describe as better than nothing. But since I am a disability writes activist fighting with the MTA or the time , I was given a tour of one of the first stations to have them installed. I actually said nothing would be better than these. They created unsafe condition for someone with a mobility impairment. I told the engineers that they were a trip hazard.I took a picture of how they're connected to the platform.The base of each barrier as a mounting bracket about three or four inches square and a bolt holding it into the ground on each corner. I told them someone like myself who drags their feet could trip over it or someone with a vision impairment who's walking close to it could also trip and fall right onto the platform. I snapped the picture on the left at the Clark Street station.

About 9 months later without any warning ( or a parent necessity) these barriers were installed at Grand Army Plaza. The subway station that I would refer to as my home station. I took a look at them and lo and behold! They redesigned the way they're mounted to the platform. The bolts are completely underneath the leg of the fence. They're still useless but slightly less of a trip hazard.

Now we just have to paint them bright yellow so my visually impaired friends are less likely to bump right into them.

This reminded me of the one time that I sent one email and made the government fix something. It reminded me that sometimes something could be made better but no one realized how easy it was to fix it. The second closest subway station to where I live is 7th Avenue for the B&Q train. I really need to hold on to the rail when I walk downstairs and I really need to hold it with my right hand.Have to finishing a marathon It's especially tough and I noticed the rail going down from Flatbush Avenue at that station was lower than the rest of the rails.I had to lean over to hold on to it securely. Every other hand rail on every other staircase seem to have some standard height that I was used to. I filled out the complaint form and a few weeks later I got a boilerplate email saying that the problem had been rectified. I really thought that was a bullshit response but then I went over to the subway station and I saw the old holes where the rail was and they lifted it a few inches and drilled it in a little higher. Also,Many of the other handrails on the other staircases in that station had been raised to the appropriate height They didn't just fix the one I complained about they fixed them all.

If you read this far do me a favor.... Next time you feel like screaming at the sky because you don't like the clouds go figure out who actually gets stuff done. Call the governmental agency and politely tell them they have a problem. Don't think they're not listening.

Not a complete waste of time

2025-03-08T14:31:00.002-05:00

In a few weeks I'm going to be traveling to the United Kingdom and running a marathon in Brighton. I thought it would be cute of me to wear a t-shirt that says Brighton Beach Brooklyn when I got there. I can easily go online and buy one. But I thought it would be a little bit more authentic to actually buy it in Brighton Beach. This morning I had to be in that end of Brooklyn so I walked the length of Brighton Beach Avenue and found a lot of stores that sell a lot of cheap crap, some stores that sell expensive crap but I didn't find any stores that were selling crap that was appropriate for tourists. I could have gone over to the boardwalk but I was getting cold. I'll go back another day.

But while waiting for the Q train to get me home I looked up and saw this.

Thank you Brighton 6th Street.

This is why we can't have nice things

2025-01-18T20:52:00.003-05:00

685 1st Ave

We are not allowed to post on social media

2024-12-21T19:55:00.000-05:00

I have been a poll worker for about 7 years and working early voting for the last four of them. I started working early voting during the presidential primary in 2020. Back then people came to vote and Hazmat suits. Since then every election has really been a practice election for the presidential election of 2024.We actually had to do many of the things that we only read about in our manual. I worked the first 5 days of early voting at Brooklyn Borough Hall. About 95% of the time every table had a voter. Sometimes the line was an hour long but usually it was less than 5 minutes.At the end of each day a lot of the pull workers congratulated ourselves on how hard we worked and what a good job we did. Because we did.

We are not allowed to have beverages on the tables we work at. Even before the polls open and our computers are not on the tables. The polls opened at 8:00 a.m. and we were supposed to show up at 7:00 a.m. On the second day of early voting I showed up at 6:30 in the morning so I can have a cup of coffee before everything got started. As I was entering the Starbucks diagonally cross street from Borough Hall I noticed a very elderly woman with a walker talking to a police officer. In her hands was all the paperwork that you get in the mail to tell you about the election. Before I went into my get my coffee I asked her if she was here to vote. She said yes but she wasn't sure what time the polls opened or where to go. I looked at her paperwork and told her that I was a poll worker and that she's supposed to vote across the street but the polls don't open for 90 more minutes. She said She thought they opened at 6:00 a.m.. I said no that's unreal election day but if you wait for me to get my coffee I'll walk you to the door where you enter into. The cop made eye contact with me and thank me.

While for us to walk around the building and the building security had just unlocked the door. On the way there she apologized for her physical condition She told me she wasn't always like this She used to own a business and go skiing. She used to have friends. I told her that's all fine and today you're going to get to vote

I used my Brooklyn voice to inform the Borough Hall police officers that this was the first voter to come in when the polls open at 8:00 a.m. and that she needed to sit inside on a chair. They heard me. When I went upstairs I told the line management crew that the first voter was already sitting inside. I thought that was the end of it.

At 7:59 a.m. my coordinator came running over to me and told me that the lady I had walked into the building would not come up the stairs without me.I jumped up and escorted her right up to my table so I could issue with her a ballot. I did that and walked her over to the accessible privacy booth so she can sit down and take her time with the ballot. Then I let the inspectors at the scanning machines know that she might need some help getting over to the machines. I told her that the men standing next to her would help her when it was time for her to actually cast her ballot. She looked right at me then and said "Thank you and I love you."

i'm told everyone in New York City who work the election in 2024 got this thing mailed to them. I happen to know why I got mine.

Words matter

2024-12-10T07:42:00.002-05:00

A few lifetimes ago I was a school administrator at a private for-profit job training program. I was the dean of students at a 600-hour training program that taught people how to record music. I was also the first and only employee there that didn't have a background in the industry or in business. I had an MSW. One of the problems that I observed was that teachers were often scheduled to be in two classes at once. The teacher would announce to the class that they won't be teaching the next class a substitute would teach the class. So of course a lot of students just cut the class. But in reality it was a plan.Teachers double booked on a certain day when a different teacher was available who was actually better at teaching that subject than the original teacher. I suggested we stop using the word substitute teacher and replace it with specialist.

Attendance dramatically improved on these days. My boss was happy and she actually looked at me and told me that that's why she hired me. She needed someone that thought differently from the musicians and recording engineers and business people that worked there. I told her it was a no-brainer and she again reminded me that I was the only person with a sociology background in the building. Through my training and education I understood that what you call things matters. Words matter...

So now I have a Google search setup. A news alert to tell me if Guillain Barre Syndrome and New York City ever come up in the same news article. I really did it so that i might receive news of someone else getting this rare disease that is in my town. Once it said me a link to a obituary and I really wish I knew this person before he died. It is often irrelevant content. GBS could be mentioned in an article and there could be an ad for another article that contains the word New York. Like this article I looked at this morning. The article is only remotely about New York City contains the words Guillain Barre Syndrome in the signature box about the author. I remember hearing about Carl Goldman back at the beginning of Covid. He got Covid on a cruise and was one of the first Americans to have recover. He met with President Trump and was an example of how Covid wasn't a big deal. Much earlier in his life he had also had GBS.

ABOUT CARL GOLDMAN
Carl Goldman, along with his wife, Jeri repurchased KHTS AM-1220, Santa Clarita’s hometown station on October 24, 2003. They owned it from 1990-1998, and then sold it to Clear Channel Communication in 1998, buying it back from Clear Channel in 2003. Since then, they have rebuilt KHTS as a critical voice of the Valley. In 2015 the radio station moved to its new headquarters on Main Street in Old Town Newhall, in the original Newhall Hardware building. In 2018 an FM was added, 98.1, with its signal being simulcast with AM-1220. In January 2020, Carl and Jeri cruised on the Diamond Princess. Carl was one of the first Americans to come down with Covid-19. Months earlier he was impacted by Guillain Barre Syndrome as a result of a Shingles vaccine in September 2019. He is still in recovery from the vaccine.

Okay, according to the FDA up to six people per million might come down with GBS within 6 weeks of having the shingles vaccine. Six people per million above the background number of 10 to 20 per million people who are getting it anyway . In other words 10 to 20 people per million are getting GBS every year and 16 to 26 people per million are getting it within 6 weeks of the Shingles shot. Would have gotten GBS the same way I did or from some random reason rather than the recent triangle shot he had but we'll never know. (And by the way I just got my first shingle shot last month. Both my neurologist and my GP told me that shingles could also trigger GBS and shingles really sucks)

But in his lights It says,"Months earlier he was impacted by Guillain Barre Syndrome as a result of a Shingles vaccine in September 2019. He is still in recovery from the vaccine."....

"He is still in recovery from the vaccine"

I wonder why he chose those words? I would never say that I'm still recovering from food poisoning which is the most likely trigger of my GBS. I wonder how many people got shingles because He and others liked him said that this vaccine gave him GBS and he still recovering from the vaccine. Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise all over the world and people are starting to die from polio again . Words matter

10 years ago I couldn't walk without assistance. People said that I was wheelchair-bound. I thought that was weird. I wasn't tied to the wheelchair. In fact like many wheelchair users I was able to get up and walk a few steps almost the entire time I had a wheelchair.One of my friends said to me that she was never bound to her wheelchair except in the privacy of her bedroom with her spouse. That was funny. And when I said that it made people uncomfortable and then I looked at them and I said it's a tool not a prison. There are people out there who are hesitant about using a wheelchair because they'd be embarrassed because of phrases like wheelchair bound. I'm not eyeglassbound I just put them on as soon as I wake up in the morning.

.... so I was thinking. Instead of saying doing the dishes or doing the laundry, maybe we should say recycling the dishes or recycling the clothes. Think about it.

Apparently I am inspirational

2024-11-02T15:06:00.001-04:00

I never signed up to be inspirational. It's not my job. It's too much pressure. But if people tell me I'm inspiring them I accept it because there's only two people I want to expire and those are my kids so if strangers and acquaintances tell me that inspirational I accept it as a compliment.

it all started with NYRR featuring me here. that triggered this on News 12.

That said the GBS Foundation asked me if it was okay if they referred me to a reporter from the New York Post.The reporter was very nice to me as was the photographer who I met separately. I was hesitant to talk to anyone from the post because they are a rag that made me look like a dirtbag 11 years ago. But here's the story as published in Microsoft News so you don't have to click on a Rupert Murdoch link.

then it seems someone at news radio 1010 wins read the post story about me and wanted to put me on the radio. That was pretty exciting because I was very busy this week as an inspector at early voting location in Brooklyn Borough Hall. i'm told that my pol site was featured in this news article but I was too busy to even know that the camera crew was in the room with me. also there was a little piece of me that thought I was going to be live on the radio. I had a scheduled 3:30 phone call with the reporter and I felt pretty cool asking my boss to make sure I can have my lunch break at that time because I needed to be interviewed for the radio. But we spoke to for 15 minutes and it was recorded and it boiled down to this news story

I never heard of Wide Open Country, but apparently they have a writer who moved some of the words around in the post article and created this about me

and WNBC news gave me a call and showed up at the Achilles workout on Thursday evening and made this little clip.

And hey I just remembered before the Brooklyn half marathon news 12 featured me in this

Took some pictures on my run today

2024-10-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

Today was the disability pride parade that it was also two weeks before the New York City marathon. So I had to do two things. I had to march in the parade that started at 11:00 a.m. but I also had to get in some miles. So I left my house at 6:00 in the morning and ran to Madison Square Park.

It was still dark when I left my house. But by the time I got to The Manhattan Bridge the sun had risen. When I was about 2/3 of the way over the bridge I noticed a stripe across all of the buildings in the Alfred E Smith houses. It took me a moment to realize the shadow of the bridge that I was on was being cast on buildings between half a mile and a mile away. To the left are two different views of this celestial event.

It reminded me that about 20 years ago i woke up before Dawn to run to the start of a race in Central Park. I ran over the Brooklyn Bridge and noticed many many people sitting on the same side of the bridge looking north.Some look like they just woke up and some looked like they had been there all night. I stopped and asked them what they were looking at and they pointed at The Manhattan Bridge.the sun was low and shining on us. but I'm Manhattan bound train went over the Manhattan Bridge and it cast a shadow on us over on the Brooklyn Bridge. Everybody uploaded. I didn't stop and take a picture

i also stopped to stop one more picture that's become kind of an iconic scene from the Manhattan Bridge. Apparently people keep cutting a hole in the fence so you get a great view of the world trade center. I didn't stop and take a picture in 1999 when I realized it was a great view of the Twin Towers so I stopped and took it today.

I continued my run up the west side of Manhattan. It was about 8:00 a.m. and I was approaching West 14th Street and to my left was Little Island. You can look at the Google for a lot of great pictures but when I got to the top I did take one picture because it might be 25 years before I go back.