Living Proof

Hearing of Greg Giraldo’s passing brought up a lot of emotions for me. Many people seem to think all comedians in whatever medium they work in are all happy & giggly idiots, even in their personal lives. Again, as I’ve said in my previous post , they seem “put together” and more equip to handle the hard stuff in life. ...They’re not. In fact, it’s the total opposite. Most comedians are very sad. They’re aspirations are more than just standing up on stage trying to make people laugh; they want more. Most aspire to be in movies or have their own talk show, perhaps star in a sitcom. My friend Adam Kontras had put a status message about his sadness regarding Greg Giraldo’s death. In a Youtube video, Adam shared his heart with the world, trying to hold back tears and said, “I was in a really difficult place earlier this month and I kinda didn’t let on how bad it was...and how isolated I was...and umm, how I stared at this blue bottle of sleeping pills for way too long...and how I calle

If being an alcoholic and drug addict is a “disease” as some people refer it to, then why is Lindsay Lohan checking herself into a substance abuse rehab program on her own accord? How many times does this girl need to be sent to prison and rehab in order for someone to “listen” to her? She’s screaming for help, yet nobody takes her seriously because this beautiful girl is a talented starlet; “she should know better”, or “she’s a smart girl.” While all that may be true, she may be the loneliest woman on earth. Her “disease” is a chosen one. She doesn’t want to feel the pain anymore. Nobody talks about her emotional pain, they all seem to focus on her substance abuse. She doesn’t want to hear people talking negatively about her anymore, but she’s a star, it goes with the territory. What star doesn’t get a bad rap once in a while? Wanting to be a “star” or wanting being in the public eye has some serious consequences. Most celebrities at times feel the desire to be “a nobody”, while iro

There’s no doubt about it --women are very competitive creatures, especially among themselves, however when it comes to show business, or perhaps just cooking in general, we seem to get thee ol’ bitter bug inside us saying things such as: “We’re the best cooks", “Oh she doesn’t know how to make that right", or “Mediocre cooks don’t know how to bake.” While most comments are based on mere opinions, sadly some of these statements are factual, (of course in my very own opinion). It's been reported that Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart and Paula Deen are in a bitter battle to see who can dominate the ratings for their cooking shows. Although I admire each one of these marvelous cooks, I honestly have to ask one question to myself: whose dinner invite would I accept? Let’s take Rachael Ray for one. Not only is she in a rush to prepare a 30 minute cook off with herself, but her meals are simple, easy, quick and most of the time, loaded with sodium due to her “quick ingredients

Seems as though Katy Perry’s performance wasn’t appreciated by parents who took a peek at the “revealing” dress she had on while dancing with the handsome red-headed Elmo. The production company pulled it off after receiving numerous complaints by outraged parents. Are you kidding? Her dress wasn’t anymore revealing than what children are wearing today. In fact, if you head over to the public pools or the beaches, you’ll find worst case scenarios. Will these parents hide their children’s eyes forever? Will they place two eye patches on them in public, in fear of what’s to be seen out there in this big scary world? Get over it. In fact, earlier cartoons and kids’ shows displayed even more revealing outfits by some of their characters, yet no complaints have been reported. Characters such as, Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Snow White, Smurfette and oh, the ever so sexy Jessica Rabbit. If we’re going to get super conservative, then stop bringing your children to beaches and have

There are times when I absolutely lose it and go off the wall due to whatever and say things I don’t necessarily mean. I’ve had my 17th nervous breakdown about 100 times and understand those who are at their wits' end. Even in my book I published back in 2005 explains that I am a work in progress; that I’m not perfect and that I’m still trying to grasp life’s lessons as much as I can. With that being said, I am also very opinionated and hold strong to my beliefs on certain issues or topics. There are things I highly disagree with, but it certainly does not mean I am not forgiving nor “mean-spirited” due to the way I express myself. I say it like it is without any apologies, and at times, maybe a few apologies pop out if the person is hurt over my jagged edged words. My sisters sometimes describe it as "Deb's poison pen". I do sometimes go overboard, but never leaning back thinking otherwise. I will lessen the blow, but hold on to what I believe in, unless of course

In the late 70’s, I remember my family gathering around inside the den to watch their favorite TV programs. From Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days to Carol Burnett and All In the Family. I’d get up to use the bathroom and my mother would instinctively ask, “Where ya going?” I couldn’t have been more than four years old back then, but somehow, I never understood why she had to know my whereabouts. I could have told her the bathroom, but yet for various reasons, I could have made a right hand turn into the kitchen and started twirling all the pretty little knobs that were connected to the gas stove. The possibilities were endless. I’d respond to her with a resentful tone, “To the bathroom mom!” To me, she was invading my privacy, but realistically, a four year old does not get the privilege of privacy. I would head back into the den and my mom would tuck me under a blanket, more snug than before so I wouldn’t leave again. Dad reluctantly bought me a three wheeler motorcycle when I was

A close friend of mine had written a status message on her facebook account. Whether it was one of those ‘encrypted’ type of messages directed at a particular person, or just frustration in general, it got me thinking a lot about life. She wrote, “Apparently, an income of $75,000 a year can buy you happiness.” Oddly enough, her status message came at the right time, as I’m sitting at my counter in the kitchen sipping coffee, getting ready for the day and sifting through what other people are up to over on facebook. I left a comment. “I know a few people who exceed that & some of them are miserable souls. There’s a quote, ‘Happiness is not having what you want; it’s wanting what you have...’ author unknown.” As I’m typing away, I said to myself, “What a hypocrite I am. How can I ever give advice about this when I need it myself?” It’s good advice, but nonetheless, a hypocritical one as I thought about the previous day. Madelene and I occasionally drive around aimlessly hunting

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban smoking in city parks, beaches and even Times Square. Are you kidding? As a nonsmoker, I have to say this is absolutely ridiculous. If you’re going to ban smoking on NYC streets, please ban all the diesel fueled busses, as well as Hummers and every single oversized SUV out there. That’s worse for your health than a slight breeze of someone’s secondhand smoke. Try putting your mouth around a transit bus exhaust pipe and then take a puff of a cigarette. Which affected you more? Case closed. We’ve eliminated smoking in enclosed spaces like restaurants and bars, etc. That I can understand. I even want to venture to say that people who sit at the bar should be able to smoke if it’s sectioned off and of course, long after dining hours. Come on, smoking goes hand-in-hand with cocktails. There is a few ‘local’ bars that I will not name that bring out the ashtrays after 1am. I think it's great. The smokers don’t have to schlep outside like unwanted patrons

Let’s face it, people love drama. They love the thrill of pointing fingers and coming to outrageous conclusions about whatever. Lately, with all the media chatter about Rev. Terry Jones who had planned to burn the Qurans this September 11th, the mosque being built near ground zero and most of all, calling someone a "hero" for jumping out of a chute of an airplane just because he had a hissy fit for whatever reason, is just insane. A real hero, as Ian Lidster stated on my previous post, is the guy who set the plane down in the river and everybody got off alive. That’s a true and genuine hero --not this nutcase Steven Slater. Let that story RIP please. My real issue today is the media though. For now, the burning of the Quran has been canceled. This pastor who had no more than 50 people in his congregation stirred up nationwide chaos. Who’s to blame? The media. They gave him the publicity to make his voice heard - to make the world outraged on either sides of the argument. T

It took this long to figure out that there was no passenger who supposedly assaulted JetBlue’s crybaby, I mean, umm, “hero”, Steven Slater? Other passengers who had witnessed his insanity said the gash on his head was there the entire time even before he boarded the plane. What gets me the most are the people who thought this guy was a hero. I mean ...really? A “hero”? For what? Going insane on a plane, screaming on the loud speaker and then grabbing a few brewskies to then hop out of an emergency chute? He acted more like a mentally unstable frat boy than he did a hero. I’m sorry, but from the get go, I thought this story was a bit ‘off’ than what most people had initially thought. “Oh he finally did what we all thought about doing! He’s such a hero!” ...Really? You wanted to go insane too, scream out over the loud speaker in your office and then jump out of an emergency window near your boss’s desk? Hopefully you’ll have some beer on hand. By the time you get down to the fir

Sometimes I wonder if being a Christian is the right choice for me. More often than not, most Christian people rub me the wrong way, in means of either pushing my buttons or judging everyone about what they ‘should do’ , or more so, what they shouldn’t be doing. They’re more focused on the sins of other people, I guess perhaps to save their souls, however I do believe it’s a self-serving agenda that makes these “Christians” so high and mighty, leaving them to believe that they are simply playing the role of God. If someone of the Christian or Trinity based religion had so much faith, then why don’t they believe that all Christians alike will be saved, and have been saved through Christ Himself? Think about other religions, such as Islam. Most Americans seem to compare the “terrorizing demonic” types of Muslims (extremists) -- but there are Christian Fundamentalists who are terrorizing fear mongers themselves. It goes both ways. In the Bible, Matthew 22:36-40, it tells Christians that