Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Billi Pod Reports on Monday

It was 41º @ 7:30am in The Big Apple, The Greatest City In The World. Bright and cold.


Yes ... a beautiful but cold morning for The Big Blue parade through "The Canyon of Heroes" which began at @ 11:00am downtown, ending up at City Hall Plaza.


Yes ... Billi Pod has been watching the event unfold from the cozy and warm confines of PHC. The relatively nice weather has brought out record crowds of die-hard Giants fans and, at the moment ... Eli Manning is King Of The World ... at least here in Gotham City.


Can you believe this ... we haven’t even finished the award ceremony and already the “pundits” are talking about the odds for and against The Giants making it back to Super Bowl XLVII. Come on guys ... why don’t you just give us the opportunity to live in the moment ... OK?


Anyway ... for your enlightenment out there in the boondocks and hinterlands, the early morning odds to win the 2013 Super Bowl are:


Green Bay Packers - 5-1

New Orleans Saints - 6-1

New England Patriots - 7-1

New York Giants - 10-1

and ... way down the list

New York Jets - 20-1

and ... at the bottom of the list ... tada ...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 150-1


Moving on ...


As you loyal and faithful readers know ... last night’s scheduled entertainment event was THE MOST HAPPY FELLA @ 8:00pm at the NYU Skirball Center in The Village. Was really looking forward to this show.


I guess it was around 7:00pm when I left PHC and headed over to The Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch a train down to The Village. It is only a 4 stop trip and I made great time. As usual, I played a bit of solitaire on my iPhone.


Leisurely walked from the subway station to the venue and I estimate it was around 7:30 when I got there. It was a bit chilly but tolerable.


Decided I would go on inside the venue even though it was a bit earlier than I usually do ... so ... I took out my iPhone to check my messages and emails and ... then ...

OMFG!! The iPhone was 100% dead. OMFG!! I had recharged it before leaving the apartment, as I always do. Punched buttons and even shook it ... nothing ... OMFG!! It was dead. I had my recharger-battery system with me, so I took it out of my backpack and plugged it in, hoping that perhaps it would jump-start the iPhone back into operation.


Nothing!! Nada!! Zilch!! OMFG!!


Now I knew I had a serious problem. The issue was ... do I simply ignore it and go on inside for my event and then try to “fix” it when I get back to PHC after the 2+ hour show ... or ... do I run down to The Apple Store further downtown in SoHo, at Prince and Broome, and see if they can fix it for me?


Damn ... I really wanted to see this show ... but I also knew that if I went inside I would have extreme difficulty focusing on the show because of my concern over the status of my iPhone.


Now ... I have to say to you loyal and faithful readers ... to those of you who don’t have iPhones ... I know you can’t understand why I was so bent-out-of-shape ... but ... those of you in the iPhone Universe truly understand and identify with my conundrum.


Well ... Billi Pod headed south to SoHo at a brisk pace. Then ... OMFG!! When I got down to The Apple Store location I learned for the first time that it was closed for renovation. Man ... why was Billi Pod being punished like this? OMFG!!


Then ... I noticed the sign that said there was a temporary location about 2 blocks further south ... so off I went.


Found the temporary location and went up to a nice young man wearing all of the usual Apple gear and explained my problem to him ... or rather ... my iPhone’s problem. When he told me that all of the technicians were booked until 3:00am my heart virtually stopped pumping ... but ...


He said ... “I’m not a technician, of course ... but let me see your phone for a minute.” I gave it to him and he did a procedure which he called a “butt-kick” which involved holding down two buttons ... and ... presto ... the Apple logo lit up and the phone was alive again ...


We talked briefly about what it would entail to get a new phone immediately and I decided that I wouldn’t do it just then ... but ... trust me ... a new phone is just around the corner.


I thanked him profusely and left the store ... it was 8:15 and I had missed my show. Damn!!

I wasn’t in a mood to head back to the apartment, so I walked over to the Spring Street subway station and caught a train back to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and went to one of the mega-plex movie theaters and got a $9.50 senior ticket to see the recently released movie CHRONICLE.


CHRONICLE is about “three teenage boys who accidentally gain superpowers, with one of them becoming a destructive megalomaniac.”


Had about a 30 minute wait until the previews began so I spent the time playing solitaire on my now operational iPhone. (It is still functional as I write this posting)


The show has received generally good reviews and I enjoyed it a lot and have no problem recommending it to you loyal and faithful readers.


So ... that was yesterday’s entertainment event ... finally ...


Today’s entertainment event is ...

7:30==>THE CONFUSIONS OF YOUNG TORLESS - “In an elite late 19th century Austrian military school four adolescent boys become enmeshed in a dangerous rite of passage.” (Off Broadway - $9.00 TDF ticket).


Yes ... I know ... sounds like a bit of a downer doesn’t it? But, it is playing at The Looking Glass Theater on West 57th Street and I usually like the stuff they do there ... so we will see ...


Ending on a sad note ... my longtime friend and fraternity brother Joe Heyck of Tampa, FL, died on February 2nd. He was 76.


Joe and I go way way back to the University of Florida where we were both, at the same time, members of: Kappa Alpha Order; Florida Blue Key; and the University of Florida Hall of Fame.


Joe had a long and distinguished career with the Tampa-based law firm of Allen, Dell, Frank, and Trinkle. He is survived by: his wife of 47 years, Marilyn; two children; and 4 grandchildren.


Seeya later Alligator!!


GO YANKEES AND GO GATORS!!


Billi Pod

“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”

ALEX-168

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