Call Me By Your Name. 07/10/25

Sigh. Chances are, if you’re old enough to be a reader of this blog, you’re old enough to have grandchildren. But there’s another generation who reads the blog. My children, John’s children and some of their closest friends. They’re the ones having the children who become our grandchildren. And one of them suggested I should get my grandchildren to call me Grandy, a portmanteau of Grandpa and Randy. By the way, portmanteau is two words squished together to make one word, like how “web log” became “blog”. Grandy is rather clever, I must admit. Way back in the early days of the internet, I did something similar. When I first got an AOL account (remember them?), my email address was Andylandy@aol.com. Andylandy being a portmanteau of my entire name, Andy Landorf. So why was I okay with Andylandy but not with Grandy? Because one was my choice and the other (at least in my head) was my grandchildren’s choice. I have a buddy whose grandchildren call him Granga, because that’s how they learned to say grandpa, and the name still sticks, even though one grandchild is in high school and the other is off to college. I remember every New Year’s Day my mom would call me (way too early in the morning) to wish me: “Hockey New New,” which is apparently the way I used to say Happy New Year when I was learning to speak. I wanted to see what version of “hockey new new” came out of my grandkids’ mouths when they learned to speak. For my eldest granddaughter it’s Gwampa, and for my youngest it’s ga ga goo goo (she’s only 7 months old). John’s oldest is obviously a savant. She calls him grandpa. There is a tendency these days to come up with clever, grandparent-inspired ways for grandchildren to address their grandparents. Some memorable ones are Popeye instead of grandpop, Lala instead of grandma, Gigi (which I’ve heard for both grandma and great grandma). Come to think of it, I may go back on everything I just wrote and try to get them to call me Superman, even though I’m unable to leap even a tall curb in a single bound. If you have another grandparent nickname you like, write us back and share it.

For our second comic, we were inspired by July 1st which is also called “Bobby Bonilla Day.” Bobby Bonilla ended his career with the Mets. He was so bad, they cut him from the team despite still owing him $5.9 million. The year was 2000. Instead of taking the money in a lump sum he and his agent elected to have it deferred until 2011, earning a guaranteed 8% interest every year. It amounts to an astonishing $1.2 million per year from 2011 until 2035 every single July 1st. Every one. The Mets owners at the time agreed to it because they were sure they could earn more than 8% every year. Their financial advisor guaranteed them a 10% return every year. You might remember him. He was a fellow named Bernie Madoff. The hapless owners ended up selling the team.

We’re working on a deferred payment plan for the New 60. We’ll let you know when we’ve figured it out. Until then, hockey new new or at least happy July 10th…

Andy and John