It’s not all about winning, just enjoy the ride

Flushing: He was a barker, someone in the Coney Island pleasure caverns who parlayed his shtick, calling out in tones audible 10 yards away, “We’ve got a loser here, another loser!” I wish I had asked him for his autograph because he became an inspiration to me in later years, when I remembered his gusto and pleasure in downgrading people.

I was a bachelor living in Bensonhurst, kind of lonesome sometimes, especially when I did not have a date to look forward to. So, for entertainment and giggles, I would drive over to Coney Island to see all the people having fun in the various venues — the kiddie trolley rides, the 22-caliber rifle range, the carousels, etc. But it was this guy with the electric wire and the metal ring the player had to slide through a 2-foot electric wire without touching ring to wire who caught my attention. If he succeeded, the barker would hand him or his admiring girlfriend a stuffed teddy bear. But if the ring touched the wire, a bell would ring signifying that he had reached the end of his amateurish attempt. The barker would call out, “We’ve got a loser here, another loser!”

And therein lay the kicker: that when the girlfriend might have returned home with a stuffed teddy bear, it might be indelicately denuded, deprived of its inner worth, unceremoniously unstuffed by her pet dog. But the memory of that barker, laughing his head off while standing in front of the tunnel of love, would last forever, and bear witness to the eternal verity that sometimes it is more fun to lose than to win. Saul Grossman

Irrelevant

Massapequa, L.I.: Every time Kamala Harris is asked how she will fix the economy, her answers is always, “Well, I grew up a middle-class kid.” Can anyone explain to me what that has to do with getting this country back on track? Tom Ascher

More votes

Brooklyn: Voicer Raymond P. Moran says Hillary Clinton is more unpopular than Donald Trump because he defeated her in 2016. But Clinton won 3 million more popular votes than Trump. She lost in the Electoral College. Martin Selbst

Negligible

Hubertus, Wis.: After working for NYC for more than 40 years and being retired for 10, I received a nice letter from the NYC Employees Retirement System. It informs me that after calculating all the Biden and Harris inflationary numbers, way up in outer space somewhere, somehow NYC came up with a whopping 1.8% increase in our pensions. I am getting a massive $20-a-month increase. This amount will be well-taxed, so if I finally get $8, I’ll consider myself lucky. Insurance is up a whopping 75%, food is well more than 50%, gasoline is up about 60% and well, you know the rest. Inflation is up well more than 12% in total when all prices are truly calculated, and where the hell did the retirement system come up with 1.8%? I am one of the tens of thousands who fled the rotting apple (Brooklyn) for greener pastures where one can almost afford to live. Robert W. Lobenstein

Targeted?

Ridgewood, N.J.: Re “Pro-Israel teacher targeted” (Sept. 20): The protest was known in advance. The teacher should have arranged an alternate entrance to the school. Lack of common-sense precautions is not justification for claiming a civil rights violation. Protesting criminal or dangerous behavior by a foreign government is not antisemitic harassment. The teacher needs a better lawyer. Peter J. Peirano

It starts at home

Brooklyn: Friends and relatives are now blaming the school for letting their 11-year-old son sneak out to later be killed while surfing on top of a subway train. This is not something new with schoolkids who regularly sneak out. Do not blame the school that can’t chain the youths to their desks. Of course, they take attendance when they arrive to school. Afterwards, they go class to class. Today’s parents must take accountability for their children, not lay blame entirely on the school. You have seen these past couple of years youths leaving schools to protest in the city in large groups, so how do schools control large groups or a few students? Youths today must be taught correct values and to use common sense to keep out of trouble, but it seems like it’s totally forgotten in today’s families. Joseph Comperchio

Fatal inspiration

Richmond Hill: Since social media seems to rule the minds of all the lesser young people, maybe if we sued them a couple million dollars every time they allow posts of children subway surfing, they might actually do some good. Color slideshows of the dead kids’ body parts at all assemblies might just keep someone inside the car. The News publishing pictures of the young fools does not help. Like my father said 70 years ago, “Never do anything stupid!” We might just save a family the expense of a closed-casket funeral. Robert Clolery

Uncharged accomplices?

Howard Beach: To Voicer Marc D. Greenwood: Why was only Daniel Penny arrested and not the other two people holding Jordan Neely down? Please explain. Grace De Stefano

New nickname

Kearny, N.J.: New York Yankees relief pitcher Clay Holmes has 13 blown saves so far this season, tying a Yankees franchise record. When he doesn’t blow a save, he should be called “Sheer Luck” Holmes! Kevin Dale

Cash grab

Maspeth: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory plan: Fill my bags with money so I can share it with my oligarch friends. Our tax money is going to a bottomless, corrupted money pit — for U.S. inflation and higher prices. Wes Warchol

Work remote

Paramus, N.J.: Is the UN really concerned about rising global temperatures? One wouldn’t know this from their actions. This week’s UN General Assembly’s lavish motorcades bring New York City surface transportation to a complete halt. Now throw in the UN delegates’ private jets flying into Teterboro Airport. While we’re all using public transportation this week, why can’t the UN delegates use Zoom and Skype? During COVID, we all used teleconferencing for work, meetings, doctor’s appointments, etc. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings have been streamed online for 15 years. Maybe next year will be different, and the UN General Assembly will show us their real concerns for our planet by their deeds, not just words. Walt Stevens

Get in gear

Manhattan: Re “Don’t abandon New York’s climate plan” (op-ed, Sept. 23): Noah Ginsburg rightly points out that the forces arrayed against clean energy are formidable. Gov. Hochul is listening to the American Petroleum Institute and business interests rather than following the state’s climate mandate, and we’re rapidly falling behind its goals. Delaying climate action is the new denial. Yet, Ginsburg has his own interest — distributed solar, a worthy investment, but not near enough to do the heavy lifting of closing gas plants and reducing climate pollution while cutting costs for consumers. This Climate Week, Hochul has work to do: speeding procurement of offshore wind, building up wind ports, siting industrial-scale solar and battery-energy storage systems. The governor already flouted the law by “pausing” congestion pricing to no political benefit and much detriment to transit-dependent New Yorkers. Hochul must face the reality of being a real climate leader. Laurie Aron

Health hazards

Brooklyn: First we learned that Anthony Fauci told falsehoods regarding COVID. Now we find out that our city COVID Czar Jay Varma went to late-night raves and underground dance parties (“Cavorted during COVID,” Sept. 24). They should take the remaining COVID vaccine needles and stick them in both. And don’t forget to save some for Andrew Cuomo. Joseph Savino

Sufficient stigma

Yonkers: Voicer Sophie Nir writes that her organization, the Abortion Positivity Project, “exists to destigmatize abortion.” How do you destigmatize a barbaric procedure (chemical or dilation and evacuation) that ends an innocent human life? Have we, as a society, plummeted so low that we try to bestow honor on taking away an innocent human life? On ending a whole lifetime of living? On destroying a human world? All the rhetoric and propaganda of pro-aborts can not and should not take away the stigma of this barbarism, and people like Nir and her organization can attempt to indoctrinate the public mind with their nonsense and lies, but rational and moral people will know otherwise. Bruce Berensky