Old Coot Tattoos! (Published in NY and Penn on 10-21-2026

 Old Coot tattoos are different. By Merlin lessler

Tattoos are quite popular these days.  You see them wherever you go. – A name – a scene – an animal- a symbol – some expression that tells, “This is who I am.” Most of my old coot friends are tattoo free. We don’t decorate our skin; we decorate our clothes.

I don’t know what’s going on here – my clothes seem to be magnetically charged positive, while food and drinks are charged negative. As soon as I get a roll of spaghetti wrapped around my fork, the attraction process engages. I hardly lift it from the plate on a journey to my mouth and a splash of spaghetti sauce flies over and lands on my shirt. I don’t notice it, so the food stain imbeds into the fabric, later to be joined by salad dressing, topped off with a smear of chocolate cake frosting.  

My wife looks over at me, reports the stain process under way on my shirt and I make a lame attempt to remove the stain by dipping my napkin in water and have at it. Sometimes, a waitress notices what I’m doing and brings over a small glass of soda water to help with the removal process. It doesn’t work on magnetized old coot stains. A table mate digs in her purse and hands me a Tide Stick. That doesn’t work either.

I leave the table, proudly sporting my new Old Coot tattoos. Sometimes I attempt to cover them up with my arms, but I look like an idiot with them draped at odd angles across my chest that yield strange looks from the other diners. Some guys hike up their pants to cover up a stain. That’s why you see some of them with their pants pulled up to their arm pits. I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to proudly sport my “Tats” and show everyone I went out to dinner.  

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Old Coot's many kinds of friends. (Published 10/14/26 in NY)

The Old Coot has many kinds of friends.

By merlin lessler

 I have all “kinds” of friends. Most people do. The number of different kinds is intriguing to me. Such a simple word, “friend,” can have so many variations. I have two kinds of “oldest friends” – one is Woody; we’ve been friends since we were three years old. The other is Lester; he turned 101 in August.  We have coffee most mornings when I’m in New York for the summer. The shoe is on the other foot when I’m in Florida; I’m the oldest friend to the guys I have coffee with there.

Other kinds of friends I have are: work friends, neighborhood friends and walking friends (people I cross paths with quite often on the sidewalks). We say Hi to each other, or have a short chitchat. I also have bike friends – people along the route I bump into quite frequently, Similar to sidewalk friends. But we rarely stop and chat. I have locker room & swimming pool friends at the YMCA and the high school where I swim laps. I have “lifelong” friends, those people I may not see for long periods of time, but when I do, it’s like we saw each other yesterday. They stretch as far back as elementary school days.

Now, to the tricky ones – girlfriends and boyfriends. I’ll take the male perspective and hope not to ignite a “Men are from Mars - Women are from Venus” squabble. I use the generic term – girls. I’m not going to refer to someone’s relationship partner, as his woman or lady friend. That just sounds weird to me It’s also tricky due to the number of forms these “girlfriend” relationships can take.  A guy might say, “This is Betty; we are dating.” Or, “This is my friend Betty.” – “This is Betty, my fiancé.” – “This is my partner, Betty.”

Sometimes these introductions get too detailed. “We live together.” – “We have a kid together.” “We’ve been engaged for 35 years. One encounter I had with a guy who was in a complex relationship got totally flustered when introducing her. (not married, have a kid, sometimes live together, might get engaged someday). On and on he went, struggling to explain their complex relationship. I finally said, “I’ll just call her your cousin and leave it at that.” He thanked me.  A few years later I ran into him; he introduced her as his wife. I couldn’t help myself and asked, “So is it legal to marry your cousin in this state?” He may not be my friend anymore. Casual friends, family friends, ex-wife’s friends. It is a big list, these different kinds of friends we have. I’m sure you can add several more, but my brain is on overload at this point. So, I’ll end right here.   

The Old Coot's world is getting thinner. (Published in nys on October 7, 2026)

The Old Coot says his world is thinning out. By Merlin Lessler

My world is getting thinner and thinner. Paper bags are so thin they can’t hold groceries. They bust apart. The clerk tells you to hold the bag under the bottom. That’s good advice, but how do you do that with two or three bags. Some bags have handles, making you think they are stronger, but  they tear right off if you put more than a loaf of bread and a bag of potato chips inside. Forget that bag of sugar. It’s not just bags, all paper. products are thin and weak. Cardboard boxes for example. There is no “board” in the cardboard. They bust apart just as easily as the paper bags There is one good thing about them; they are easy to tear apart to fit into a recycle bin.

 It seems everything is thinner: toilet paper, paper towels and napkins so thin you can see through them. Shirt material is thinner. And, what happened to 100% cotton? Most denim in jeans is thin too, made with stretch synthetic junk. They used to stand up without you in them. Not anymore! Water bottles are so thin they crunch up when you grasp them to take off the top. A top that is so slim, you can barely grip it. When it breaks free, you are rewarded with a geyser. Even my skin is thinner. But I can only blame that on Father Time.

Our entire population has become thin-skinned too, getting mad at each other when on opposite sides of an issue. Band aids are thinner. So thin, they ball up before you can get them in place. And, what happened to that little red thread you pulled to get the band aid out of its envelope. I can just imagine some corporate scrooge getting a bonus because of how much money it saved.

How about skinny pants & slim pants. Less material, more profits. The slim ones aren’t too bad looking, but put a man in a suit with skinny pants and he looks like he’s wearing balled up leotards. There are many things that are thin, everything but our waistlines!