If you’re new to the Old Man Rant, here’s how it goes. Once I turned 50, I started venting my frustration at the irritations of life. It felt good, so I kept doing it. I call these periodic and hopefully humorous verbal tantrums Old Man Rants.
Today’s Topics: Checks, Drugs & Rock n’ Roll

Checks:
I’m down with Venmo, Zelle, Google Pay, Apple Pay and all the rest of these new age, paperless pay pals (except actual PayPal- they suck), but sometimes in life, you just need a good old-fashioned paper check. Not often, but sometimes. And if you do need one but you don’t have one, you just become a pain in the ass to all involved. BOOO!
Drugs:
What’s with these drug advertisements on TV? They literally tell you to tell your doctor what to do and what to prescribe! I don’t know about you but I’m gonna leave the doctoring to the doctors.

Plus did you notice the way the half the commercial is just a voice rattling off all the side effects? There are dozens of them and some sound pretty serious.
What if clothing ads came with disclaimers like that too?
“Shirt may cause compliments and flirtatious advances from others.”
Or the opposite….
Pants may not help you to appear attractive or fit properly if you gain weight, lose weight or are just naturally ugly”.
I smell a lawsuit!
Rock n Roll
I’m easily irritated when people use words in ways I don’t like. One example of this is what I call Rock Star BS. I’ve ranted about this before- you can read about it here. Contrary to popular culture, I don’t think everybody’s a rock star. Not the plumber, the school teacher, the grocery store clerk, the kid who does their homework, etc… Just because you do something good or valuable, that does not make you a rock star.
As I watched my beloved Philadelphia Eagles lose the Super Bowl last month, I felt vindicated as the following commercial came across the screen, basically illustrating the very point I was trying to make with my rant against the “everybody’s a rock star” garbage.
If you missed the commercial- here it is.
Ah- I feel much better now! Time to go chase some punks off my lawn.
Follow us here at Wise & Shine for more stories on a variety of topics. For additional Old Man Rants along with other, more serious and useful writings, visit Todd’s magazine styled blog, Five O’Clock Shadow. For Todd’s work as a musician, visit www.toddfulginiti.com
I’m glad medicines prescribed by doctors can’t be advertised on TV here (or in magazines). They can only advertise over the counter stuff
I like that policy 😎
C’mmon Todd, what do you mean I am not a rock star? just kidding, I am school teacher. I hear your pain, as long as we keep our drugs in check, we should be fine
😁😁 thanks Milena! I am a retired school teacher😎
awesome, how does it feel?
It feels awesome! I retired just before Covid started and thank goodness for that. I don’t know if I could’ve survived school with all the weird stuff that was going on during those few Covid years. You and all those who did have my total respect!
It was uncomfortable and exhausting, I don’t think we have fully recovered yet.
Checks are very old fashioned Todd, but if you go to France they would be happily accepted. Funny episode of old man rants!
Thanks Cristiana- France sounds very nice! 😁
Okay…you had me with the funny line…the warning about ‘pants may not fit properly’. Are you talking to me? I swear some jean shorts shrunk from last year. How odd! 😎🤣😎
😁sadly I had that same problem this week trying on pants I hadn’t worn for a while. “ I didn’t gain THAT much weight.”, I wrongly assumed. But then…. alas- I actually did gain that much 😬
Funny how that happens…hey, pass the cookies, will you? 😜
I would but I finished them already…. 😅
LOL! 😜😎😜
Oh good lord I’ve met a like-minded blogger, your a gem this is so relatable! 🤓
Haha thank you CC! Thanks for reading – it’s great to “meet” you 😎
🤓
I have used the rock star line to compliment people, and as crazy as it sounds, I probably will again! It makes me happy to see how appreciated people feel! Keep Rockin’ it out, Rock Star!!
😁🤘😎
Ha ha ha…well you had me laughing this morning..no side effects!
😁 thanks VJ!