January: Final Thoughts

Jerry Springer is still a television fixture. Once upon a time I got a kick out of the closing moments of his extraordinarily tasteless talk show. For it was then that the unctuous host delivered what were dubbed his “final thoughts.” Springer would oh-so-seriously opine about the lessons learned from the day’s show, as if he had delivered a public service by having guests brawling with one another, cursing each other out, and tossing chairs around the set. Lost on Springer and his “final thoughts” was any sense of irony. But then this was the same guy who got caught in a sting after paying a prostitute with a personal check.

I’d rather talk about the weather than Jerry Springer. Mercifully, January is near an end. Overall, it was very cold month with just a handful of temperate bones thrown our way. This past weekend was on the mild side with a pleasing Sunday morning fog. The homeless were omnipresent on the streets of Manhattan. It seems there are more of them than ever living in the great outdoors. One aggressive fellow stood on a corner asking for bucks. I handed him a dollar, which displeased him. “Aren’t you going to help me get ten dollars?” he asked. I replied, “I just did!” His retort came with a menacing stare: “That’s all you can spare?” Actually, his questions weren’t really questions. They were angry statements. There are many poor souls on the street who are mentally ill with addiction problems. Some of them, like this guy, are on the scary side of the street. I don't suspect it took him too long to amass his goal of ten dollars. Menace has its benefits.

With the first month of the year practically in the history books, the 2018 Lenten season looms on the horizon. I don’t know if there’s any significance to this, but Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. For those unfamiliar with the former, it’s the day when Catholics and assorted Christians are reminded that they were dust and dust they will soon be again. It’s a dusty road we trod. And I suppose it’s never too early to teach kids this important fact of life. With that knowledge and, of course, an ashy cross on their foreheads, they can rest easy.

And now for something completely different: What’s with the excessive use of countdown clocks on cable news channels? Is it necessary to have a twenty-seven hour, thirty-six minute, and forty-five second—and ticking down, down, down—advance notice of the State of the Union speech? It’s pointless glitz, a distraction, but somehow befitting of the times in which we live.

Speaking of these times: There are an awful lot of thoughtless, inflammatory, offensive oafs in the wider world. And social media is their playground. While perusing a nostalgic picture site on Facebook recently, I came upon a comment to an innocuous photo that was aggressive, vulgar, and totally uncalled for. What else is new? My modus operandi in such situations is to check out the offending party. In this instance the oaf was a sixty-something man and great patriot, of course, with grandchildren—a bona fide power-of-example. This sort of behavior—adults who should know better—used to leave me dumbfounded. But I am no longer surprised that countless men and women now sit behind their Wizard of Oz curtains and fulminate on forums that in simpler times didn’t exist.

(Photos from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)