Hot Dog – Mitchell's thoughts, photos, etc.

Yankee Stadium and Tradition

What Happens as You Get Older and Things Cause You to Update?

I follow a lot of traditions. Most are the ones I created myself. I created the first ones at the original Yankee Stadium, when I was 7. I have kept them wholeheartedly. I am very strict. But what happens when things in your life change? Do you keep the tradition, or do you update it to fit your needs?

So here it is. When I exit the 4 subway station, I go down the same flight of stairs and use only one of two turnstiles to exit. I alternate turnstiles at each game. Yes, I remember from the previous one. These days I walk through the park where the original stadium was situated.

Once I am in the Stadium there is much work to do. Before the first inning ends, I must eat a hot dog with mustard, a potato product, and finish a Pepsi. As for the potato product, a knish ranks at the top. But chips or fries will do. Not every stand sells knishes. That’s a shame. The kosher ones do. They are delicious. In the fifth inning, you need to eat peanuts. I never finish the bag. I have a bunch at the top and bottom of the fifth. I bring the bag home and finish. Often, I hand it to one of the people experiencing homelessness outside the stadium.

Current Stadium and Park Where the Old One Lived

Any flavor of ice cream is required in the sixth inning. It can be in a Yankee helmet cup, cone, regular cup, or an ice cream sandwich. Not enough vendors sell ice cream. The lines at the ones that do are too long. I usually go in the middle of the fifth to make sure I have it by the sixth. As for the brand, I am hoping for Good Humor, Mrs. Fields, or Häagen-Dazs. I will not get Ben & Jerry’s. That ice cream is disgusting. You are better off skipping it, and speaking of skipping it. Sometimes you must. It is not unusual for the machines to break down or they run out. That’s not my fault.

Once the 7^th inning starts, I can eat or drink whatever I want. They no longer sell beer after the 7^th inning. Once, I had one in the 7^th. I went with my cousins, and they bought me one for that inning. Anyway, the beer in Stan’s across the street from the real House that Ruth built is cheaper, and they have a better selection. Plus, Stan’s is like Cheers.

Over the last decade, probably longer, I have had less and less soda. It is not good for you because of the sugar, and it can irritate your bladder. As someone who has had four kidney stones, I am careful. Soda is at the top of the list of no-nos. Spinach is up there. But I have never seen it at the Stadium. I do miss both.

So, what to do? I buy the Pepsi and take a sip or two, and somehow it falls and spills on me. Or spills into the sink in the bathroom. I am too clean to let it spill on the floor in the stands. Sadly, too many people do. Water is the best thing to drink for bladder health. Heck, we all know it is the healthiest thing to drink. I have added water to my beverage mix. I sometimes drink it before the 7^th inning. I do not want to dehydrate. I do wish to overhydrate. I have had that problem.

So, as long as I follow as closely as possible, with minor medical adjustments, I believe I am staying within my traditions. By the way, when the game is over, I exit via a certain stairway and try to enter the 4 subway station through a specific entrance. However, I am not beholden to that.

Jay and Christy Meet Up

Jay’s been lying low. He knows what his cousin, Christy, has been doing. The two do not know each other well. They probably would compete for attention. But Jay thought it might be good for the two of them to meet up.

Jay knows Christy spends most of her time wreaking havoc at Coney Island. He decided he’d get there early on Thursday. He arrived and quietly went into Nathan’s for a hot dog, fries, and Coney Island Mermaid Pilsner. He came off as a typical customer. He wore jeans, shorts, sneakers, and a faded Mets shirt. His t-shirt choices are often another thing that pissed off Marc and Alana, the two diehard fans of the Bronx Bombers.

He quietly munched on his food while sipping his pilsner. He heard screams. He knew the rides were opening and figured they were coming from the people on the Thunderbolt. Nah. He looked toward the boardwalk and saw his cousin on the prowl.

Jay got up and walked towards her. He yelled out her name. She turned around and saw him. She grinned and kept attacking little kids on the boardwalk and landed several pieces of stale bread onto the beach. He was about three feet away from her. She glanced at him and kept firing at the children.

Christy fired at Jay. He was not surprised. He fired glass at her volley of bread and knocked it down mid-flight. She managed to hit him in the head. He retaliated. It looked like the two of them would wage war over who reigns as the chief nemesis.

Likes? Kindness? Courtesy?

Can We Be Polite When We Comment on Social Media?

By Mitchell Slepian

Positively and negatively, social media has impacted our lives. Even if you’re not active and don’t have any accounts, it has made changes for you. I have not posted on my Facebook wall in nearly six years. I do run several sites for the organizations I belong to. We get thousands of hits, comments, etc. It has helped us grow. We’ve gotten financial and other donations. Our social media efforts have helped drive our narrative.

I do post on a few fun sites. The top two are Coney Island and Staten Island Ferry Friends. Who doesn’t love Coney Island? It has it all – The Cyclone, Nathan’s, the NY Aquarium, the Polar Bears, the Wonder Wheel and more. Much more. I am originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. I spend a lot of time at Coney Island. Funny thing, I spend more time there now than when I lived in Brooklyn. Sadly, I only lived there for a few years.

The holy medicinal waters at Coney Island

As someone who grew up on Staten Island, I have taken my share of rides on that big orange boat. That boat has taken Staten Islanders to and from Manhattan since 1817. It has an annual ridership of 22 million.

I focus heavily on my photography at these locations. My posts get hundreds of likes and comments. One shot of the ferry has over 10,000 views. I do not live for “likes” on Facebook. I once had a dear friend who got upset when his posts didn’t get too many likes. Years ago (Feb. 3, 2017), I wrote a blog post titled “Do We Live for Likes?” It got a few views and likes.

Deck on the Dorothy Day: Over 10,000 views and 600 likes

It is nice to see my images generate comments and memories. People bring up fun times they had riding the Cyclone, munching on that great hot dog at Nathan’s, or when they heard the man yell, “Shine, shine” on the ferry. Don’t forget the ferry preachers. It is fun.

But what I do not understand is why people must be nasty about the posts. For the record, the people on the Coney Island pages are so positive. There are those afraid of the Cyclone and mention the moments they freaked out on the drop and its twists and turns. I rode it on Mother’s Day. Mom watched while she held my Yankee hat. Once my old Yankee hat blew off on the Cyclone. I am still hoping to find it under the tracks. Who knows what probably tried to eat it? I love it when people comment about how they ran into the ocean in February during a snowstorm. More power to you.

For the most part, people on the ferry page are just as nice. But people need to be polite. I recently posted a shot of the Sandy Ground boat docking at St. George. In the shot, the deckhand is at the gate. One person commented, “He looks lost.” Another wrote, “gay.”

Deckhand Getting Ready for the Sandy Ground to Dock

I can understand why people attack how filthy the boat bathrooms are. They need to be cleaned. Or when they are shocked by how clean the decks look in the images I shot. Bear in mind, I usually take photos on weekend morning runs. The ferries would be dirtier if I shot them during rush hour. But why can’t people just either be nice or refrain from commenting? There’s no need to say mean things about the deckhands. I can understand a comment about a needless pitching change that cost the Yankees a game. This is just a guy doing his job. Let’s love the drop on the Cyclone, ride our ferry, have fun, and support it all.

Nothing Works

Does Old School Still Work and Do We Want It to Continue?

We have apps and online platforms for everything. I love them. They are helpful and make many things easier. Is that always the case? Absolutely not. Time and time again, these extraordinary technical advances slow me down.

A few weeks ago, I tried to order deli sandwiches for delivery to my grandmother’s house for our traditional Chanukah celebration. The app wouldn’t let me pre-order more than a day in advance. It wouldn’t let me pick a delivery window. Funny thing is a week before it let me do exactly what I wanted. I had to cancel when she got sick. A year ago, I sat in her place and tried to do pretty much the same order. The wi-fi wasn’t working well.

Did I give up? No, I went old school. Both times I called the deli; I got a delivery or pickup window within 5 minutes. Years ago, she was able to travel to my place. The family came to me. I used to walk down the block to the deli and sit with the manager for 2 minutes. He scribbled what I needed on an order slip, took my credit card, thanked me, and gave me a hot dog. The deli’s manager called to confirm a day before the delivery. Unfortunately, that store closed. I carried on. I emailed a store a little further away. They called me to confirm and double-check everything. Like the other place, the day before, they called and confirmed. In all instances, the proper order arrived as planned.

A month ago, I ordered my favorite Dead Sea skin care products from the site that I have been using for over a decade. I am still waiting for it to arrive. The stuff usually arrived two or three days after I ordered. They’ve had my address since day one. I followed up. They told me the shipper returned it because the address was insufficient. They asked me to resend it. At one point, they had a simpler online ordering system. These days, it seems to go through who knows what? I am hopeful my products arrive soon.

A few weeks ago, my network-attached storage (NAS) drive died. I worked with the maker’s customer care department. They were helpful. They said I needed a new one. I suspected this and was only moderately upset. I knew the device was over eleven years old. It had a good run. I ordered the upgraded device. I asked how to transfer my data to the new one.

Customer care said to turn on the old one and do a data transfer. They had noted in the notes that the old device did not turn on. It flatlined. It was as dead as could be. They sent several more emails insisting that I need to connect the defunct NAS drive to the new one. Per their notes, the old NAS was done. I repeatedly sent back their notes. I called a data recovery service. They said drop off the old drives, and we should be able to recover everything and send it back on an external storage drive. I did that and, as advised, bought new drives.

I got the new drives and connected them to my MacBook. I had a few issues. I reached out to customer care. They told how to set it up on a Windows-based PC. The process is different for Apple. They had in their notes, that I was using a Mac.

The data recovery service emailed to let me know they recovered everything and that they are shipping the external drive so I can connect it to my computer and transfer the data. They shipped it with a PC-based cable. I emailed and they said we told shipping it needed to send a Mac cable. They said they’d mail the right one immediately. A week later, I emailed to see where it was. They forgot to send it. It arrived, and of course, the device would not power up. I tried connecting it to multiple electrical outlets. Nothing. I told them exactly what I did. Their advice was to try to connect to various electrical outlets. I finally got it through their heads that it did not work. They asked me to send it back and ship a new device. They claimed they tested the original. The power on it wasn’t working. The new one came, and all was well.

I could go on for hundreds of pages about situations like this, whether in finance, retail, or other tech products. Don’t get me started on when your internet or TV service goes down.

I miss the old days when it was simpler, you spoke to a human and got clearly written emails. I have been working to fix a few issues with bots. I’d give them a C grade. As we try to make things easier, we must remember that keeping it simple creates loyalty and repeat business.