Category Archives: What’s for Dinner?

I Read A Lot

1 Reply

Sugarplum Fairy Sugarplum Fairy, Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker. You might be able to tell where my head is at with regards to that opening line, if not- c’est la vie. It’s the day before a holiday which makes it an eve, however unofficial. Newscasters have been calling it Thanksgiving Eve and you know how right they are. It’s a Wednesday and the Nor’Easter that was predicted seems to have been forgotten. I’m grateful for it. People leaving town for the weekend, lots of buses headed in different directions. Since the Path train is still out of service in Hoboken it’s not that crowded down by the terminal.

I’ve been spending time at the smoke scene in Hoboken. To my chagrin I am becoming ‘one of those guys’, hanging out at a cigar store and chatting with the proprietor. Shlomo seems like a nice guy and I’ve just been hanging out as he tries to get his shop off the ground. It’s fairly new you see. He’s been in the business for a long time and this is an attempt to get something of his own in Hoboken. He’s meddled about here and there but now he is staking out his own turf.

Since I’ve been in the Mile Square City for quite a while it figures that I know a number of people. Some are surprised to see me smoking a cigar, others not so much. I’ve introduced Shlomo to a few people and also identified people from old Hoboken, the ones that use certain phrases that no one really uses anymore. Nothing bad, just a friend greeting amongst the natives, calling each other ‘Comp’. I don’t know if it means ‘Compadre’ or ‘Compari’ or even company or companion. Perhaps it is a mixture of all of those in Hoboken.

In any event, hardly anyone uses it so to hear some characters talking like that certainly got my attention. Shlomo was doing well and that’s what really matters. A few guys were buying cigars to smoke after their Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow and asking Shlomo if he, meaning the store, was going to be open. He said yes they would be. I am not too sure what kind of traffic he would have tomorrow since Hoboken on Thanksgiving can be a ghost town of sorts. Parking should be easy and there were quite a few people with luggage getting onto buses.

Bill is driving tonight and might even be back tonight which is a plus. We’re going to dinner tomorrow at Oscar’s, the same bistro where we went with Hyman Gross two years ago and last year decided to make it a regular occurrence in Hyman’s honor. It’s later in the afternoon than usual which I guess is fine. Bill once again set the whole thing up thinking he would be doing an overnight drive somewhere. But now he is not, in fact I can see on Latitude that he is on his way back to the Garden State.

I’m just going to sit and wait. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.




Tariq and Co.





Hot, no?


I Have Everything I Need

I Love You But I Don’t Know What To Say

Leave a reply

Last night I slept well. I had a dream about the cigar shack. Don’t know if I had too many of tose in the two months since I was dismissed. No one I recognized in the cigar shack. No Thomas, no Jerry Vale. There was definitely no possum and no one saying exactly every 30 seconds. Just about the only thing I gathered from the dream was that the cigar shack was painted baby blue. It was different but I would safely say it was not an improvement. I have been thinking about various customers, besides Bruce Horowitz, Lou Moreno, Anthony and Vinnie, Allan Brown and Nick Colas. Yesterday I found myself thinking of Brian Buck. Nice guy, I hope he is doing well.

It’s another hot day today, not like last week though. I got myself together and did some busking which was fun. A bit rusty though and the callouses on my fingers had faded somewhat. Still I persevered and was able to play for about two and a half hours. I made $1.50 which was alright. Just a bunch of kids with their mom who gave them each a quarter to throw in the case. I thanked them profusely as they strode off. I also saw Tariq, who I like but is a bit of a scatter brain sometimes.

At first I looked for him when I walked over to the promenade by Pier A but I didn’t see him so I set myself up about 50 yards from where he usually sets himself up. After strumming for about a half an hour he walked by and told me he was going to join me. He had a bag of something from the store and I didn’t ask what it was. He walked off and I resumed strumming. A little while after that he got his stuff together and walked towards the end of the pier.

I just sat where I was and kept playing. Things were OK and I tried to stick to songs that I knew by heart but my head wasn’t in it so I had to refer to chord notes that I kept nearby. A few people sat nearby and a nice guy named Art hung around. He works in the office building close by and was taking a break. He stood and checked his email and mentioned that I should sing when I was playing. I mentioned that I was shy and usually only sing when a friend is nearby.

Art seemed friendly enough so I started singing a bit. He knew some of the songs but not all of them and he told me he liked what he was hearing so that was good. He wished he knew how to play guitar and for some reason I did not tell him anyone could do it. Of course it’s taken me about 30 years to play somewhat decently and in public, and I did not tell him that either. It was a good day for guitar playing though and I am glad I did it.

As I was leaving since I had gotten hungry I started to get my stuff together and noticed Tariq was back at his spot. I walked over and said I was leaving. He asked why and I told him I was hungry. Then he asked if I was coming back and I said no. I live on the top floor of a five story apartment, blah blah blah. He was with a buddy named Barrett and apparently they had a few beers and possibly some weed. I wasn’t interested in hanging out and playing some more despite Tariq telling Barrett that I was a good guitar player. No, it was dinner time and spent enough time already strumming. I did mention that I would likely be out again. Tariq invited me to a barbecue by his studio on Thursday night but I already have two commitments and out of those two I can really only attend one.


this photo raised some eyebrows as well as some other body parts on FB this morning. And this isn’t the full frontal photo.


Falling