The Old Coot hears a bird call. Published in NY and elsewhere 01/06/2026

 The Old Coot is a birder?

By Merlin Lessler

There was a bird on a rooftop across the street from me in Florida yelling, “Blow-Ah, Blow-Ah.” It was a call I’d never heard before. It looked like a crow, but I know what a crow sounds like and that wasn’t it. I should know, after all, Cornell Ornithology Laboratory has a free bird identifying App that is named Merlin, just like me. I have the App on my phone; I use it quite often, like when I’m sitting on the porch. I use the “bird sound” function to call birds in the vicinity to come to me. I pick one of several mating calls and soon enough, a bird flies over, but quickly figures out that I’m not a proper mate and flies off to tell their friends to stay away; it’s just an Old Coot calling, not the Coot Bird. (Coots are dark, chicken like waterbirds)

It is a fun thing to do, but it can get out of hand, as it did one evening at our friends, Paul and Carol’s house in the early evening while we were sitting in their lanai at the back of their home. Carol said a lonely screech owl flew over and sat on the fence next to where we were sitting. It was quite regular; it came every night.  Just one owl, all by itself. She thought it was the only one around. I pulled out my “Merlin App” and scrolled down to the screech owl section and tapped on one of several available calls.

 It didn’t take long. First one owl came by, then another and then another. One flew into the screen around the lanai, then did it again. Being the jerk that I am, I’d overdone it. A single screech from Carol, not the owl, got me to shut the thing off. I felt the same fright as she did; it was like being in the Alfred Hitchock movie, “The Birds,” where the whole town was trapped in their houses by angry swarms of birds that attacked and tried to kill anyone who ventured out the door.

Anyhow, back to the bird that was chirping, “Blow-ah.” It flew off before I could get the Merlin bird ID” App going to identify what it was. I tried artificial intelligence on Google; It wasn’t sure, but thought it might be a “Fish-Crow,” and then suggested I install the Merlin Bird ID App. It didn’t say it, but I could sense it thought it was appropriate for me, since I’m a bird brain.

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The Old Coot's best Christmas present, 1949 - Published in NY papers

 An old coot remembers his best Christmas present ever.

 By Merlin Lessler

 It happened when I was seven, the best Christmas present a kid (in the fifties) could hope for, was under the tree. A bicycle! My sister, Madeline, and I both got bikes that year, second-hand, but freshened up with a new coat of paint. We didn’t care; they sparkled, as did our eyes when we saw them under the tree. But, into the basement they went, to wait for Spring to arrive.      

 Finally, the first robin arrived and the bikes came out. We lived on a hill; it was steep and a terrible place to learn how to ride. My father helped me push it up to a flat street at the top of our hill that hardly had any traffic on it. I still remember the exhilaration of staying upright while he pushed me. I remember even more vividly, the terror I felt when I looked over my shoulder and discovered he wasn’t there. I panicked and crashed to the ground. He eventually convinced me that I’d kept the bike upright all by myself and didn’t need his help, except to get started. I hopped back on, and like Hop-a-long Cassidy, my cowboy hero, rode off into the sunset. One problem; I didn't know how to dismount. When I came to a stop, I simply fell over.  

 My sister solved the problem. She raced ahead, jumped off her bike and caught me as I came to a stop. Later on, I just stopped near a curb and put out my foot so I could climb off. It wasn’t my fault; the bike was too big, like everything in those days. We had to “grow into” stuff: shoes, clothes, skates, sleds and yes, bikes. I went around in oversized jeans (we called them dungarees) with a six inch cuff, shoes with wadded up newspaper stuffed in the toes and to top it off, I had to use a curb to get on and off my bike. Now that I’m in my 80’s, I still use a curb when one is available.   

 I developed a deep relationship with that two-wheeler. I don't think a cowboy ever loved his horse more than I loved that bike. It was freedom; it was status; and it taught me how to fix things. I learned to take it apart and convert it into a racing bike, by removing the fenders, reversing the handlebars and raising the seat. Sometimes, I decorated it with red, white and blue crepe paper and rode at the tail end of Memorial Day and Fourth of July parades. A lot of kids did. We also “clothes pinned” a piece of cardboard to the fender support so it would flap against the spokes and made it sound like we were riding a motorcycle. It didn’t take much to entertain a kid back in the fifties.    

 When I turned 12, I found a lightweight, English bike, with hand brakes and three gears under the tree. It was brand-new and the exact right size. I was ecstatic, but I’ll always think of that used, repainted first bicycle as the best Christmas present ever. I hope your Christmas was as merry as mine was back then.

Old Coot piles on. Published 12/17/2025 in Owego, ny papers

 The Old Coot found an ally.

By Merlin Lessler

A recent article by Dan Smith in the Volusia Hometown News caught my attention. In it, he realized he sounded like that grumpy old man in his neighborhood he hated as a kid, as he listed the things that irritate him: dances in the end zone when pro football players score a touchdown, fake butter on popcorn, men wearing too much jewelry, names he can’t pronounce or remember. His list went on and on, several dozen in total. I’m that grumpy old man too. Look up grumpy in a dictionary and you’ll see a picture of me.

It was a good start, but he left out a lot of things that bug me: stuff you are interested in buying, but it’s sealed in plastic and you can’t see what you are getting, stickers – on everything: apples, oranges, but the hardest to get off, are stuck in the worse possible place, like on the lens of a pair of glasses. The liar at the check in station who says the doctor will be right with you. You sit, and have no idea when you’ll be called. Meat and deli counters solved that issue 100 years ago, giving you a number. But, not modern day medical centers, in spite of having computers that could easily be used to reduce patient’s anxiety. My blood pressure is always high after sitting in a waiting room.  

Stretch jeans bug me. It just allows them to replace some of the cotton with a synthetic substance, probably derived from oil, like plastic bags. Stores that offer 50% off on a second item, but you don’t want a second item. So, as the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld might say, “No sale for you!” How about socks that are so tight they cut off your circulation and socks that are “one size fits all,” which means they don’t fit anyone properly. 

It's just wrong to advertise prescription drugs on TV. Just like it’s wrong for ambulance chasing lawyers to dominate the advertising landscape. Adds in general. Too many and everyplace: every App, every website, every streaming service. New Year's Eve celebrations, and worse, New Year's resolutions - nobody keeps them. Names for moons, every 28 days, a new, made up name. Naming winter storms, like the overzealous weather, people do with hurricanes. Weather reports dominate the news and make us focus on the disaster headed our way with DANGEROUS lightning. No longer called a simple thunder storm. They want us scared and tuned in.

My list is long, but I’ll cover it over the next year. That’s my new year’s resolution. For now, I’ll end with shoe laces that don’t stay tied, airplane seats for those of us in “the back of the bus,” glass bottles replaced with plastic, no free air at gas stations and crappy ones you pay for that hardly are up to the task. A rule against taunting in pro football. What’s wrong with the good old, “Na- na, na- na- na,” that my generation grew up using to celebrate, and rub it in, after scoring a touchdown. It’s a war out on the football field, and the insults exchanged that we can’t hear would make even a salty old sailor cringe.   

The Old Coot Splits in two. Published in Owego, NY 12-09-2025

 The Old Coot made a split decision.

By Merlin Lessler

I’ve been, or it seems like it, a Siamese twin for the last dozen years or so  – one-twin that grew into adulthood and old age, constantly saying, “I used to …..” or “I once could do…” and the like. The other one, trying to look ahead, not back. I’m in a struggle to separate the two. It’s a tricky process because we are joined at the head. It’s pulling away from those old brain cells from the past and moving to a new beginning. I should have done this ten years ago, but I’m a late bloomer.

 I’m just starting to get used to the separation. I limit my looking back, to the day I turned 80.  Not much going on since then to reminisce about with longing. A clean slate. I walk; I swim; I bike, do push-ups; wash the car and putter around in the yard. No real changes in my 80’s. Oh sure, I have a few ailments and physical limitations to put up with, but not bad, when I don’t compare myself to the memories now in the hands of my separated twin.

Life is happier when you get rid of a “I used to” focus. Sure, a few brain cells from my twin cling to me, but for the most part, they are fuzzy, weak and fading. It took all these years to learn to live in the “here and now.” My coffee-buddies in both New York and Florida are younger than me, except for 100 year-old Lester. Some, by a few years, others younger than three of my oldest daughters. This kind of daily interaction helps a lot.  

My memory lane trips still come out on their own, but only when I take pen (or keyboard) in hand. It’s not a conscious thing. It just happens. When I look at the output, I’m always surprised. It might come from my twin, but seems more likely to be produced by the subconscious in a process similar to the one that produces dreams. So, you still have to put up with the Old Coot. Sorry.     

 

My friend's sofa squeaks. Old Coot article # 1139. December 2, 2025

 The Old Coot’s friend is a squeaker.

By Merlin Lessler

My friend Mat, I won’t mention that his last name is Laba, recently bought a new sofa. Sofa’s cost a lot of money and you want it to be perfect. It wasn’t. It squeaked, every time he sat or moved on it He had the store pick it up and take it back to the store and take the squeaks out.

When they brought it back, it still squeaked. So, he told them to bring a brand new sofa. They did. Guess what? It squeaked. The company escalated his complaint and sent an expert to his house to figure out what was going on. She sat on it; it squeaked. She looked down and noticed the coasters under each leg it was resting on, to protect his new floor. She asked him to remove them. Then sat on it, no more squeaks. Much to Mat’s chagrin, it was the coasters that squeaked.

This isn’t a unique experience for Mat. It’s happened before. Several years ago, I wrote about a similar experience Mat had. I inadvertently mentioned that his last name was Laba then too. Anyhow, he asked his wife Linda, to have some copies made for him. When she brought them home he noticed that they hadn’t copied the back side of the originals. He was irked, to say the least. He stormed out of the house and demanded that they remake the copies and told them, “I’m not going to pay for it!” The poor clerk was frightened, let out a few squeaks (see how I tied that in to the sofa story) apologized profusely and immediately remade the copies, both sides this time.

When Mat got home and told Linda that he’d rectified the problem at the office supply store, Linda looked him dead in the eye, (I made that up; I  don’t know how she looked at him), and said, “I didn’t have the copies made at the office supply store;; I had them made at the screen printers shop. When you do business with Mat, be prepared to squeak.     

New bottle caps for an old coot. Published November 26, 2025 in New York papers

 The Old Coot is getting a reprieve.

By Merlin Lessler

Finally! A reprieve is on the horizon! It will put an end to my bottle opening incapability. Plastic bottle caps shrank over the last decade or so, requiring me to use pliers sometimes to get a swig from a water bottle, which have the worst caps of all. The mandate was created by bureaucratic overreach. To save the planet.

A new version of the caps that proliferate our society on milk, juice, water and other liquid containers will be starting to hit store shelves in the near future, according to Elizabeth Weise and Dinah Voles Pulver of USA Today. It can’t be soon enough for me. The new design will make the tormenting caps we now live with a little less vexing, by making them taller. A taller cap with a different internal twist pattern will make it easier to open. When you twist one, even if you are in your eighties like me, it will pop off in a snap. 

I’ve complained, wrote articles and commiserated constantly about my decreasing ability to open just about everything, but especially items with a tiny cap. I thought it was me, with my old man grip and diminished strength.

It was me, a little bit, but mostly it was THEM! Those miserable people who produce rules without any idea how it affects consumers. And, the bottlers as well, who could care less about us.. Many modern packaging designs have invaded my world, obviously designed with no consumer input. That issue, that wrong-headed product development, isn’t of concern to the bureaucrats or CEO’s running the companies that manufacture them. Their focus is on the quarterly stock price and how it will affect their bonus.     

I can’t wait for the new caps. Maybe then, I’ll be more user friendly too.

 

The Old Coot is in a blizzard. Published 11/17/2025

 The Old Coot is in a blizzard.

By Merlin Lessler

I recently ordered a bookcase online. I couldn’t find what I wanted in local stores, as often happens, so I was forced to go to the Internet. The bookcase came in a large, heavy box. The shelves and other components were nestled in Styrofoam. Long sheets, short sheets, half inch wide sheets, skinny sheets, floppy sheets, peanuts. I got the components unpacked and into a disorganized pile. Then, I dealt with the Styrofoam nightmare. I cut it up to fit in the recycle bin or the garbage can. I’m never sure which it should go in. Recycle rules are too complicated for me, so I decide by flipping a coin. Garbage always wins.  

Anyhow, I started breaking it down. I used scissors, a small saw and my hands, tied it up with twine, now ready for disposal, from my house to the dump, to live there forever. But that wasn’t the end of the nuisance. All these little bits and pieces of Styrofoam surrounded me in a blizzard. It stuck to me and everything around me. I tried sucking up the mess with a shop vac, but it’s never that simple. Some of those particles hung around for weeks.

My next step was to put the bookcase together with only a very limited instruction manual. Still, that issue was a cinch compared to dealing with the packing material. The only tool required was an Allen wrench which came in the box with a bunch of fasteners, unfamiliar to me. I was used to using nails, screws and glue, not these things. But, I got it together and wondered how the packaging world became so cruel, forcing us to live with Styrofoam nightmares.  

There weren’t many packages coming and going in most of my world. I still remember the box of chocolate chip cookies my mother sent me when I was at Camp Arrow. I was a 12 year-old, away from home for the first time. I wasn’t homesick, but it was the first and still is the best package I ever received. It was rare to mail or to receive a package back then. Everything we bought was local. If we couldn’t find it, we didn’t get it.

 When we sent a  package, we used wadded up newspaper to pack things in. That’s hard to do today; most of us don’t buy an actual newspaper and don’t have a stack of them on stand-by. That wonderful packing (and window washing) material is gone. I remember getting some packages in the 60s with items nestled in popcorn that was sprayed with a blue dye and came with a warning to not eat it. Some things came packed in straw, but most items were nestled in some form of paper product.

The world changed and the people in charge weren’t paying attention. So we now live with a Styrofoam nightmare. I’ve adjusted to the snow storms. But I don’t like it. Do you?