Sweet Nothings

It's a fickle time that we live in. The man pictured above may not be known to you, unless you live in Massachusetts. Charlie Baker is a local politician who is running for Governor. His opponent is Martha Coakley, the Attorney General. It's a tight race, but according to WBUR , Martha holds a 10 point lead over Baker. With a month to go before the vote, every moment must be analyzed and calculated. Polls, people and photo-ops are the stuff that wins elections and the candidates know it.

That's why Charlie may have just committed political suicide by uttering one sentence-on camera. Charlie Baker made a huge error when he did something I do quite frequently. Something the President himself has done and something that may well be innocent, but not in these times. Not today.

Charlie Baker was asked a question the other day by local Fox 25 reporter Sharman Sacchetti on camera, His response was, "OK, this is the last one sweetheart." Immediately, Sacchetti responded with "Sweetheart?" The local news had a field day with it and the sound bite ran on loop on all the major news stations. A female journalist dubbed it a "sexist slip-up" and others criticized the comment as "degrading towards women".  Charlie immediately put out a statement then called Sharman Sacchetti and apologized for the error.

“I apologize to Sharman, as she is an accomplished professional and someone who I have come to both respect and consider a friend,” Baker said in a statement.

He then commented;

“I did call Sharman last night, apologized and she was gracious enough to accept my apology. My comment was a mistake and certainly doesn't represent my work, my attitude or what I am all about,” he said, according to Baker’s campaign manager Tim Buckley.

 Oh Charlie, these are not good times.

What he did was foolish, yes it was. But do I believe that Charlie was being sexist, or worse demeaning to a woman? I'm not quite sure. I have to admit that I use the term "honey" or "sweetie" more often than not when having pleasant conversation with people who I may or may not know. In fact I do it a lot, and I've decided that it may be received the opposite of the way it was intended. I need to be aware of NOT using the term. Case in point Charlie Baker. While my mother, grandmother and Charlie's relatives may use the term freely when conversing, they aren't running for public office or working with the masses.

I guess what I'm trying to say is WE need to learn to whisper no sweet nothing.

Baby It's Cold Outside

So I built my house precisely 13 years ago. At the time I was a bright eyed, young ingenue with nothing but hope and pride for my new project. I had a great general contractor and a great architect and I was able to incorporate some fabulous design elements into the home. We sub-contracted everything out, so I was mulling over every bid for every job daily. It was a wonderful experience.

Did I mention that I was young and bright eyed?

Ya, cuz they saw me coming a mile away...I'm talking about my Viessman heating system. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't say I wasn't smart, I just said I was young and hopeful. At the time I chose the Viessmann European system, I had done my research. It was the newest, brightest, most energy efficient system money could buy and I drank the Viesmann Kool Aid heartily. When my shiny new system was installed into my fabulous new home I practically patted myself on the back!

If I remember correctly, it wasn't until the second or third year I began to run into some serious problems with my Golden Boy system.

• Problem: When the temps outside reach epic numbers, ie: -Minus Zero or above 100 degrees, the system struggles to keep up with the demand. And I mean struggles. 
• Problem: The original guy that installed it quickly went away...he closed up shop and moved to God knows where, leaving me to find a new repair service. Easy enough right? Wrong. I cant tell you how UN-funny it is to have service company after service company tell me, "Golly gee lady, that boiler sure is pur-tee, but I reckon I ain't knowin how 'ter fix it."

Long story short, about 9 years ago I found a company that works with the system. They have only one guy that works with Viessman, and he comes to my home twice a year to maintain my unit. 95 percent of the time I am in good shape, but the other 5 percent is a bitch and only happens when the temps get extreme. Like this past week in frigid cold temps.

Efficient my ass...

Tell that to the pockets of cold areas in my house. 

PT Barnum would have LOVED me......

Throwing In The Towel

Ok, so here's something I bet you never really thought about. I know I never did until it was time...

The Back Story:
I moved into the house I currently live in about 11 years ago. When you move into a new house, the operative word being NEW, you buy  lots of NEW things for the NEW house. NEW towels for my bathroom being one of them. Flash forward ten years later: said NEW towels are no longer NEW, in fact they are looking pretty tired and OLD. Throughout the years they became less soft, stained with bleach stains, and here's the straw that broke the camel's back, they shrunk. I know they shrunk because you see that decorative band on the towels pictured above? It is now shrunken tight so that my towels look like they have ruffles on either ends. Accordion pleats on bathroom towels?  Not good, or good looking. It was then that I knew it was time.

I guess 10 years is a pretty good life span for a towel, but they were becoming an embarrassment, to me especially. So what to do and where to buy? Should I go to an off price store like TJMaxx, be a Maxxionista and buy a cheaper brand? Or should I go to a fine department store and invest in a better quality cotton that supposedly will last a lifetime.

Guess what I did?

Invest being the operative word here, because we got suckered into the "better" brand. Good news is, I LOVE my new towels. They are plush and gorgeous and they all match and when I reach for a new towel  form the neatly folded pile in my linen closet, it makes me smile. We got matching hand towels and face cloths (does anybody really use these any more?) and I'm ready to start enjoying them for the next twenty years. Bad news is they cost around $500.00.

Are we crazy or smart? I'll let you know in ten years.

While I pondered the question in my head, what came to mind immediately was this:with all the problems in the world; starvation, global economics, devastation and plague, am I really wasting my energy worrying about my bathroom towels and how much I paid for them and how long they will last.? I'd be better served to just shut the old pie hole.

I'm going to thank God for making my life simple. On this topic, I'm throwing in the proverbial towel.

Who Does That?

Ok, so this is me today.

This was supposed to be a different post.
I was supposed to be giving you a quick blip about how I'm going to NYC today and will not be returning to the bloggersphere until Wednesday, August 8, 2012.

BUT, I missed my bus.

You see, I was supposed to leave at 6:30 and I didn't calculate in the travel time, with traffic, for exactly how long it would take me to get to the bus stop. So when I pulled up this morning at 6:33am and saw my big bus leaving, driving right by me, it didn't feel good.

Who does that? I'm not 5 years old anymore, and it probably cost me more $$$. What a moron I am.

Anyway, I'm leaving on the 9:30 and you can be DAMN sure I will be there at 9am sharp!! SO I lost 3 hours, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'll still get there and get what I need to get done and this will all be soon forgotten. I hope.

Shit happens. But usually only to me.

See you Wednesday bloggers and for God's sake, don't be like me. Be on time....

Isn't It Ironic?

http://failblog.org/tag/irony/

The Thief Among us

So I go into my favorite little gas station/variety store this morning and I see the owner behind the counter. He and I are on a first name basis and we exchange pleasantries. After a few moments of this and that, I ask him where "Bobby" is?

Now "Bobby" is the regular attendant who, for the past 5-6 years, has been faithfully behind the counter at the convenience stop. Close to my home, the gas/convenience store is a place that my entire family uses for gas, lotto, scratch tickets, milk, eggs, etc. on our way to and from home.  "Bobby" if you remember, was the guy that told me the story of what turned out to be one of The Daily Dandy's most popular posts entitled, "Desperately Dirty Housewives." We knew about his new baby, his wife and I even knew him before he got married three years ago, when he was a single guy looking for fun.

So, this morning, it was a natural response to walk into the store and inquire about "Bobby." The owner of the shop replies, "Bobby" stole a large sum of money from my safe, lottery tickets and cash from the register and fled the country."

"Huh?" I blinked. More than once.

"Are you kidding me?" I said. He wasn't kidding. A couple of days ago "Bobby" never showed up for work. The owner called all over looking for him. He called his wife, his friends but no one knew where "Bobby" was. Then, hours later the owner got a call on his cell phone from a strange number. He answered it and it was "Bobby" who was rude and told him that he stole money and that he was in another country and that he was never coming back.

"It was almost like a F-you, you suck," the store owner said. "Thanks for everything."

He then told me that he had taken....get this, the CUSTOMERS for money. What? I couldn't believe it so I questioned him further. He told me that "Bobby" turned on the water works and gave an Oscar worthy, good guy, down on his luck, performance to some of the regulars. "So are you saying they just, like, cut him a check, right there on the spot?" I asked.

Evidently people are that stupid, or generous, or whatever you want to call it. I can't say I might not have fallen for it if he had asked me, because "Bobby" was someone I felt like I knew. In a small way, yet I thought I knew who he was, enough to believe him if he said he was in trouble. That's the thing, you think you know someone and then you find out you don't know them at all.

So here's the question:
Does that make you stupid?
or
Does that make the other person a deviant genius?

I've often posed that question to myself.

So Now I'm Really Pissed

OK, now I'm pissed.  Another Twitter virus???

WTF!!! How does this happen?

Does this mean I'm Twitter vulnerable? I got the virus from my daughter's friend. Her Twitter feed sent me a message yesterday that said, "OMG, I'm laughing at these pics of you (followed by a link)". Last year, the same thing happened and I totally fell for it and tried clicking on the link. I must have tried three or four times, then I started to get the messages from my followers that someone had hacked my account. I changed my password and did what I had to and proceeded on. Problem solved.

This time, I knew it was a virus and did not click on the link. I ignored it. Was that my mistake? Then last night, I got another message from my daughter's friend that said, "Someone is saying terrible things about you (followed by a link)".  Even though I didn't click the link this time, my followers still got the virus. WTF??? How annoying. I have since deleted all the messages, changed my password, but I want to know how it got into my account. Now I'm a Twitter hazard, since it's happened twice.

How do I protect against this happening again? I mean, I use my Twitter for business and today one of my favorite clients emailed me and asked me personally if I knew who it was that was saying bad things about her. I immediately explained to her that it was a virus and that I was sorry for the inconvenience, but that can't be good for business.

Any advice? I'm so pissed.

What The?

Hey bloggers! It's Friday and over here at The Daily Dandy that usually means a fun and frivolous send off to the weekend. Not today.

Today I am turning the tables and taking a completely serious tone with the topic. I read about this and I'm shocked at how modern technology has turned something as innocent and pure as cinnamon into a what could be a lethal substance.

I'm talking about the viral craze called the "Cinnamon Challenge". Crazy? For sure.

The Cinnamon Challenge is dangerous and absurd. Defined as a "dare game", the participant's challenge is to swallow 1 teaspoon of pure cinnamon without water and without inhaling or vomiting for one minute. The result is a viral world of Youtube video posts with people coughing out enormous bursts of brown smoke. In some cases the coughing is so severe, the participant has extreme difficulty catching their breath. And asthmatics? Forget about it.

I found this little tidbit while trolling the interwebs:

"To understand the potency of cinnamon, ponder this: Cinnamaldehyde, the organic compound that gives the spice its distinctive flavor, is used as a pesticide and fungicide. It’s strong enough to kill little things, for heaven’s sake. The EPA warns of acute dermal toxicity; acute oral toxicity; eye irritation; dermal irritation and dermal sensitization. Granted, this is just a component of cinnamon used in concentration, but still, this demure seasoning clearly has a wicked side."


Judge for yourself this Jackass prank that seems to be sweeping our youth. By posting this I am in no way endorsoing this challenge. You gotta see this to believe it because it's really sad.

Have a great weekend bloggers. Try not to huff anything.

The Scales Of Justice Aren't Always Balanced

So I've got this story I've been dying to share with you, that has made national headlines recently, and I want to know what you think.

Here's the situation:

Two Massachusetts high schools, Cathedral High School and Blue Hills Regional Technical School, were competing this past weekend in a season ending Super Bowl Championship game.

Cathedral senior quarterback, Matthew Owens, rushed for the go-ahead touchdown to cap off what would have been an undefeated season and Cathedral's first ever Super Bowl victory.

On his way to the goal line, Matthew "raised his arm for two strides" before crossing into the end zone, untouched, and scored the game winning TD, with almost no time left. All sounds great, right?
Wrong, because no more than 5 seconds later the touchdown was nullified by the referee, citing a new Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association rule that, "bans any celebratory or taunting behavior by someone scoring a touchdown." The rule, just instated this year, not only nullified the touchdown, but resulted in a loss for Cathedral, 16-14.

I'm going to post the play for you to see and decide for yourself. Was this "un-sportsman like and taunting, or was this a blatant abuse of power?"



Many people here feel that the ruling should be overturned, but the MIAA said in a statement to the press that "there is no provision in it's rules to overturn an official's call after the game is over".

What do you think?

Oblivious In The Bloggersphere

So it's turning out to be a Porn kinda week over here at The Daily Dandy, and if you read on you'll get what I mean.

One of us screwed up real bad. I'm talking about Boston based Barstool Sports blogger who got himself into quite a bru-ha-ha over something he posted on Barstoolsports.com. El Presidente, aka David Portnoy, last week posted and commented on pictures of My Tommy's 2 year old son, Benjamin, frolicking naked on the beach while on vacation in Costa Rica with his mom Giselle. The photos were of a naked Baby Ben's "privates" and his comments, considered both controversial and inappropriate, set off a firestorm that went from bad to worse for El Presidente and Barstool Sports.

Portnoy, who at first refused to remove the pictures because of complaints, argued that the pictures were all over the Internet and that he was just posting what was already out there. And that's exactly when his carefully constructed house of cards began to fall. "Babygate" as it has been dubbed, caused the fall out to start almost immediately. Portnoy, a regular contributor to WEEI's Dennis and Callahan radio sports show, was immediately banned from the radio station. WEEI's Vice President of programming, Jason Woolfe tweeted in response to caller's complaints:

“No we will not have portnoy on again. What he did was completely irresponsible. It’s not about whether he was allowed to do it or not. It’s about common decency. And he showed none.”

Then the Massachusetts State Police, under the direction of AG Martha Coakley's office, showed up at the door of his home and requested that he remove the pics from his site. According to Portnoy, he was told that it would be in his best interest to remove the pictures so that the complaints would stop deterring them from getting back to their real police work.

But the biggest blow of all came from none other than The King of All Media, Shock Jock Howard Stern who invited Portnoy to his radio show yesterday morning to discuss "Babygate". In Portnoy's own words,"an ironic twist of fate", Stern told Portnoy he had crossed the line.

"I have three daughters and I gotta tell you, Dave, I would never post a picture of a child and comment on their genitals, and I’m known for outrageous commentary,” Stern said on his syndicated Sirius XM radio show.

Stern also added:

“People said, ‘You must take this down, it’s kiddie porn,’ and I saw the picture and quite frankly, I do think it’s kiddie porn,” he said. “I don’t think you can put up a picture of a 2-year-old nude.”

Portnoy told the Boston Herald that he thought Stern would be in his corner and ridicule the mainstream media for their reaction, but was subjected to the exact opposite. Although he told Stern he was torn over removing the pics and felt like a "sell out", Pornoy still maintains he was within his rights to post the pictures, but admittedly was unprepared to wage this battle.

For me, I think that Portnoy made a common error that of us some bloggers make and that within the confines of our little domain, we rule all. Or so we think.

Do I think that Portnoy is a "kiddie pornographer"? Hell no.
Do I think that a bad joke turned super bad. Hell Yes.
Did Portnoy think something was funny when it really wasn't? Oh yes.

While The Daily Dandy has not the following nor the revenues that Barstool Sports has, the commitment is nonetheless similar. Heck, over here at Candy's Daily Dandy I am the Queen, and what I say goes.

I think that Portnoy's problem's stem from an over-inflated feeling of self importance within the Barstool Sports world. He forgot the golden rule. It's the first rule I learned in graduate school. "Journalists", if that's what we choose to call ourselves, must report responsibly or face the consequences. Period.

What do you think?

Unrest In Peace

A quick peek at all the news that's out there today reveals s a lot of unrest. It's everywhere you look. There's the unrest in Egypt. There's unrest in Lybia and in Mexico City the drug cartels are bonding together to resist capture. Here in the US, Charlie Sheen is babbling and manic-ly proclaiming his rock star status while Lindsay Lohan has commenced on her own "Unrest-full" press tour.

I read yesterday that although there is unrest in the world we live in, Americans are more interested in who won an Oscar and whatever words last came out of Charlie Sheen's mouth.

Why? Because we can. Because our forefather's fought many a famous battle of unrest to ensure that we had certain freedoms from political dictators and oppressive governments. So we can indulge in frivolity, in the privacy of our own computers, if we so choose.

In Beijing, the Chineese people are uprising against authoritarian rule, only to be met with police force and imprisonment. In Yemen, thousands of protesters took to the streets to protest against their president, possibly hoping for the same kind of outcome as Egypt. Yet, in LA, they are calling a press conference to announce the new cast of Dancing With the Stars.

And somehow, it's OK because that's just how we, as Americans, roll. Detroit Free Press journalist Mitch Albom wrote about how the Kardashian's made $65 million dollars last year without doing anything of particular importance. Not one of them found a cure for cancer, wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning essay, solved an economic crisis or contributed anything of civic value to this country. They simply perfected the art of having an audience and we bought it, all $65 million hooks, lines and sinkers.

There is a battle going on in this country too, over public vs private workers and the unions that represent them. The battle hymn of the so called "working man" can be heard throughout the land.

I just hope it's not loud enough to drown out tonite's 20/20 episode with Charlie Sheen.