Fun with FaceBook (tm)

For a frustrated writer like me, FaceBook (tm) has provided a nonstop outlet for my musings, allusions, and, well, bullshit. I enjoy the selective voyeuristic aspect of it as well -- seeing what friends from 50 years ago on LI are up to -- and I always keep in mind how people typically portray their lives in the best possible light. And that's fine -- there are enough negative Nancys around -- I much prefer hearing about the great and good going on with those I know. There are exceptions, too. One old friend of a college friend is a fellow I'll call Al, since that's his name. He married his neighborhood sweetheart, and they had kids, all grown, and Al went to law school late. They moved to Tampa, and Al got into real estate. His lovely wife, who I met only a few times, died young -- three years ago -- of cancer. Al was devastated. He hasn't been able to move on, at all. His family friends own a well known bait and tackle shop in the Grove, and Al has moved back home, with his very elderly mother, to help manage the place. His posts are all sad -- to the point of morose. He is obsessed with the dead wife. His friends on FB cheerlead. I did a bit of it, but I no longer do. I skip his posts now. And then there is FB politics! I mostly stopped commentating on that, too, even when friends who really ought to know better espouse the benefits of a Trump Administration. Every once in awhile I make a wise ass quip, but largely say merely "Vote for Pedro," the laconic character from the great sleeper film "Napoleon Dynamite." A Pedro Presidency would be awesome. But I'm never silent when anti semitism rears its ugly head. I can't -- I'm my Father's son, and married to a daughter of Holocaust Survivors, and that I never let pass. I don't mind jokes -- I tell more Jewish jokes than anyone -- that's part of my working class Long Island upbringing -- my Irish, Italian, and Jewish friends always "busted balls" and joking about each other was an integral part of it. But actual anti semitism -- especially when FaceBook posters couch it in intellectual terms -- no way. Another friend of mine is a fellow I'll call Todd, since that's his name. He's a good looking Jewish guy, late 30s, born and raised in Miami. We met when he was an associate of one of my roommates. After a few years doing criminal defense work, Todd switched to Plaintiff's civil work, and is going gangbusters. Todd has an unusual propensity in the love life department -- he's only attracted to black women. He had a girlfriend he got pregnant, and their son was born, now 4 years ago. He and his baby mama married, and there's another baby on the way. The majority of Todd's FaceBook post friends are black -- mostly professionals. And Todd is EXTREMELY politically liberal. In fact, he guilted me into buying expensive James Taylor tickets 4 summers ago as a fundraiser for Obama. It was worth it -- great time seeing the honey voiced one in a living room in Northwest Broward. The other day Todd posted about the Israeli athletes' snubbing by the Egyptians and Syrians -- how disgraceful it was. One poster, a young black woman, took exception. Without going into detail, she essentially said that Israelis are like Klansmen to Arabs, and she would never shake the hand of a Klansman, so the Arabs were more than justified in the snub. Turns out that the Black Lives MAtter movement is now intimately tied in with the Palestinians -- the Palis see themselves as the blacks of the Mideast, and the Israelis are the region's white oppressors. I held nothing back with this woman. I called her a moron, and said the fact that Todd allowed her a voice on his page was a testament to my friend's tolerance for morons and dolts. Israelis as Klansmen? Really. She responded saying that her mother raised her to always be nice, and clearly mine hadn't. I responded that her mother raised an anti semite. And then I ended the exchange with "Dave Out." If it works for Obama and Kobe, I figured, why not me? Of course, it's not worth it. This angry young Panther will never change her views. I can only hope she decides to take a trip to, oh, Damascus, or Gaza, and see how well she is embraced by her fellow oppressed. As for me...I'll return to quoting great song lyrics, and talking about the Canes. My tickets arrived yesterday -- first game only 15 days away. Life is worth living. Vote for Pedro.