GOOD, BAD, UGLY SUPERBOWL

The Superbowl is the only football game I watch in any given year. Not because I like football, but because I enjoy the commercials and the halftime show. And then, all the hoopla at the end. It’s exciting to watch the exuberant winners, with their wives and kids running onto the field. This was the year of the Bad, Good, Ugly Superbowl.

The Bad:

This year’s game was pretty dull IMO. No one scored for so long that you felt like you were watching a high school game. Scanning the different apps on my Iphone got me through the tedium.

The Good:

The National Anthem sung by soul singer Gladys Knight. She looked gorgeous and it sent chills up and down my spine just listening to her magnificent voice.

Soul Singer Gladys Knight's memorable rendition of The National Anthem — Gladys Knight singing The National Anthem before the Superbowl kickoff.

The commercials—especially the NFL one. It was entertaining to see all those former players and NFL celebrities throwing cake and football, along with some funny antics. This is one commercial I could stand to see again and again. Not like those disgusting pharmaceutical commercials that you have to endure every night during the evening news. .

The Ugly:

The halftime show which consisted mostly of fireworks, lighting, and people hopping and stomping across the stage while shouting and pointing. What ever happened to real music? You know, those melodies about love and life that stir your soul., and lyrics that touch your heart? I have no idea what any of those performers were supposedly singing and saying, but there wasn’t a song that anyone will remember next year.

The worst was singer, Adam Levine, who ripped off his shirt and proudly pranced around to show us an upper body covered with hideous tattoos. I guess it was supposed to be sexy, but to me , he looked dirty and sweaty.

Don’t you wish tattoos would go out of style? They might look okay on young, smooth flesh, but how about on seventy somethings with wrinkles, sagging skin, and flab? Dermatologists will probably be in high demand 40 years from now. Hopefully, they will come up with a less painful procedure to erase tattoos.

But I digress.

Apparently, they couldn’t get any performers they really wanted to do the halftime show, because everyone was siding with activist Colin Kaepernick, who decided to kneel during the National Anthem in 2016, and got kicked out of football. I don’t know why athletes and performing artists want to get involved in politics, but if they want to risk making a bunch of people mad, I guess it’s their business.

Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people are watching professional football on television. You wonder if Netflix is going to put them out of business.

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019

BRADY’S PUZZLING FAMILY DRAMA

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I find Tom Brady’s family situation a bit unsettling. I’m thinking of it from the oldest son’s point of view. How does a small child understand having a famous father that has never lived with his mother since he was born? Especially if the Mom lives in California and the Dad lives in New York? Brady’s puzzling family drama leaves me scratching my head.

50% of children are born to single moms. Getting pregnant when you aren’t married is no longer taboo. The popular morning show host, Savannah Guthrie, proudly announced at her wedding that she was 4 months pregnant. I guess that didn’t bother anyone. But at least, she was getting married to the father.

I think Brady's oldest son must feel confused — Brady’s unusual family situation makes you wonder what they tell his oldest son

I’m glad Brady’s ex girlfriend , Bridget Moynahan, decided to give birth, and I applaud Tom for being a part of the boy’s life. But it’s strange that the two of them were in a 3 year relationship, and yet she didn’t conceive until the month before they split. What kind of birth control is that? You don’t get pregnant when you’re madly in love, but wait until things are falling apart?

I’m sure it’s best that they didn’t feel pressure to get married at that point. Being raised by people who don’t love each other would be toxic. And yet, how did they explain the facts of his life to this little kid as he was growing up? Even if you talked about male and female differences, and how a baby gets born, I think it would be something the child couldn’t quite grasp.

It seems like every time Brady is in the spotlight, the media interviews Bridget Moynahan. It must be embarrassing for the boy, year after year, having to read about the circumstances of his birth. They say he’s “surrounded by love,” and I’m sure that’s true. Only time will tell how he handles his very public parental situation. Fortunately, he’s growing up on the East and West Coast where mixed up families are the norm.. It might be more difficult here in the conservative heartland

All I hope is that ordinary men don’t decide it’s glamorous to father a child , break up with their baby mama, then marry another woman and start a new family.

February 4, 2019February 4, 2019

DON’T LET ANYONE MESS WITH YOUR MONEY

Most seniors do business with the same places over the years. The same insurance company, auto dealer, plumbers, etc. We’ve spent decades buying goods and services from folks whom we have come to trust. But should we assume that they’re always 100% honest? Be wary. Don’t let anyone mess with your money.

Trusted salespeople may try to sell seniors things they don't need. — YOU COULD BE BE A VICTIM OF DECEPTIVE SALES PRACTICES

Last month, we received a call from our insurance agent We weren’t sure why we’d been called in for an interview, and wondered if some policy was being cancelled. Turns out he wanted us to buy an annuity. After a lengthy sales pitch, he gave us the most salient feature of this type of investment—we could leave it to our beneficiaries tax free. That rang a bell, since I had inherited a small Payable On Death certificate years ago, and had not had to pay taxes on anything except the subsequent accrued interest.

When I pointed out that we could receive that same benefit with a CD purchased from our bank, with a Payable On Death beneficiary, he smiled at my ignorance, and assured me that I was misinformed. I felt my confidence wavering. After all, that inheritance was 30 years ago. The tax laws had probably changed, and maybe I was too old to realize that. And yet, I wasn’t quite ready to sign on the dotted line. We told him we’d think it over.

At home, I went on the internet and found that the tax laws hadn’t changed. A payable on death CD is considered an inheritance. And, unless you have an estate of over 11 million dollars, it is not taxable in my state.

Was the agent poorly informed, or was he purposely deceiving us in order to make a sale? Either answer is disturbing. We’re satisfied with our insurance coverage, so this won’t make us change companies. But, we won’t be buying an annuity.

Although I was disappointed in that person, I put the incident out of my mind until last week, during the polar vortex. . The heat in our house was not coming up to where we had set the thermostat, and since we have a service contract, we called our contractor. They arrived promptly, and I went upstairs to check my computer, confident that they would take care of things. About half an hour later, my husband called me downstairs because the serviceman needed to talk with us. Uh oh. That didn’t sound good.

He said we need a new inducer motor, and that it would cost about $400. That seemed reasonable. However, before we could agree to the purchase, he pointed out that our furnace was getting old, and now that we were starting to incur expensive repair costs, it would probably be wiser to buy a new furnace. When I asked what that would cost, he said about $5.000 to $10,000. He assured us we could have a new furnace within a few days. I said, no, just go ahead and order the new part.

Once again, I turned to the internet for advice. First, I learned that an inducer motor is not even a part of the furnace—it’s just a booster fan . And its breakdown does not indicate the need for a new furnace. Also, I found that the average cost for a new furnace is somewhere between $4,000 to $6,000. (not $10,000)

It appeared that the person representing the company we trusted for years wanted us to buy an unneeded , overpriced furnace.

Two similar incidents with salespeople in a one month period makes me wonder. Are seniors targeted for deceptive sales practices? Do they think we’re too senile to check things out?

.These incidents didn’t come close to being fraudulent, and I’m quite sure no lawyer would have advised us to take legal action had we fallen for these sales pitches. . Nevertheless, it’s disappointing to know that even the most reputable of companies might attempt to deceive the elderly..

Seniors: Don’t let anyone mess with your money.

February 1, 2019February 1, 2019

A POLAR VORTEX ISN’T FOR WIMPS

If some old geezer tells you he walked to school in below freezing weather, he’s telling the truth. We’ve been enduring the coldest weather that some younger people can ever remember, but according to records, we’ve endured many colder days in the past couple of centuries. But, here in Indiana, they’re not only closing schools, but banks, and city services, and of all things, the United States Post Office. A Polar Vortex isn’t for wimps.

Should all city services be closed during a polar vortex? — MOST OCTOGENARIANS RECALL WALKING TO SCHOOL IN BELOW FREEZING WEATHER

During my school years, our nation was half rural and half urban. We were still coming out of the depression and World War II. Times were tough, and if you had a job, you treasured it greatly. The thought of staying home from work on below freezing days would not have been considered.

That tough philosophy extended to the children of those hard working parents. In the winter, below freezing temperatures were often a fact of life. Before getting dressed, we children would first put on long underwear, and long wool socks. We had “snow pants,” which were loosely fitting woolen pants lined with cotton flannel. Along with those, you wore a matching jacket, similarly lined. I suppose those layers provided some extra protection. Wool stocking caps, mittens, scarves over our faces, and boots completed our outer wear before we left for school. Many families didn’t own a car, and so children walked to school.

My parents were Catholic, and we never missed a Sunday mass in the winter. My husband was raised Protestant in rural Nebraska, and his family always made it to Church on Sunday, no matter how cold it was. He also remembers getting up on many a below-freezing morning to milk cows before going to school. In an unheated barn, no less. He doesn’t remember ever suffering from frostbite.

This week in our Indiana city, all schools were closed for two days, at least. I think that’s a good idea. But the post office? Banks? And trash collection? Come on, these people are grownups with warm vehicles to get them where they are going. They have cell phones. They don’t have to navigate icy interstates, and most main streets have been cleared by road crews. It’s bad enough we just had to endure a government shutdown, and now this? Come on, Hoosiers, toughen up! This isn’t Minnesota or Alaska. Don’t let the polar vortex make a wimp out of you.