I carry a pair of Playtex Living Gloves to help loosen and remove stuck lens filters.

I lost over $1,700 in Rivian stock in 2023!

I used to receive two or three telemarketer or scam calls a day on my AT&T landline. But that ended when I cancelled my landline service (including my formerly prestigious “212” area code) and now only use an iPhone 14 Pro. I still get occasional scam and telemarketer phone calls, but at least my iPhone warns me in advance and I don’t pick up.

Very strange… I purchased a used in excellent condition Zeiss ZF2 35mm f/2 T* Distagon lens from MPB in 2020 and was very pleased with the purchase. Because I had never done business with them, I called their USA customer support number and spoke with a very helpful man from Brooklyn. The lens arrived within a few days and was in perfect condition in its original box. It even included a metal Zeiss lens hood, which wasn’t mentioned in the online listing. Based on this original posting, something must have changed at MPB over the past three years.

Next thing you’ll be telling us is that AM radio should be eliminated from cars.

My second favorite Angry Photographer video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIEYk0FDRA

My favorite classic Angry Photographer "Secret Lens #3" video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MofKnwMIQGM

He's still around, but not commenting too much these days on Nikon or Fujifilm gear. Thanks to Ken Wheeler, I built my entire collection of three cameras and 40+ contemporary and classic Nikkor lenses based on his reviews and recommendations. My only disagreement with him is with my two Nikon Df's which he pooh-poohed. I love them along with my D850 which at one point he called the best DSLR camera on the market.

I’ve been a Macintosh/Apple user since 1990 when I could never figure out how to use “DOS” on my IBM desktop computer at work. So I bought my first Macintosh SE for use at home. One of my favorite work memories was when my company upgraded all office PC’s to Microsoft Windows in 1993. I had to teach all of the members of my department how to use a mouse and drop-down windows. Since that time I’ve never purchased or used at home anything but Apple equipment, other than my first “semi-smart” Blackberry cell phone that I purchased from AT&T in 2007 because I was advised that Blackberry’s were considered more “professional” than iPhones. But that all changed when the head of IT at my company showed me his new iPhone 4 in 2011, and immediately realized I needed to ditch the Blackberry and buy a iPhone. I’ve remained loyal to iPhones ever since and currently have an iPhone 14, which of course, I love. I don’t have any trouble quickly transferring jpeg’s taken with my Nikon Df or D850 stored on a hard drive connected to my Mac Studio to my iPhone simply by holding the iPhone close to the Mac Studio and using Apple’s built-in AirDrop function to quickly move the photos from the Mac Studio to the iPhone over my home wifi network … and vice versa, including my iPad or LG smart TV, for that matter. I can also email or text photos from any of my Apple devices. So I’m not clear what advantages an Android device would offer over a modern iPhone when it comes to image transfers. In my opinion, the Apple ecosystem is top notch… especially for photographers’ use at home where you don’t have an IT department to fix equipment or software issues.

Fortunately, living in New York City, many of the self-checkouts at chain drug and mass merchandiser stores are being shut down owing to all of the thefts created by "customers" who skip paying at the self-checkouts. We're returning to cashier check outs (...once the clerks unlock the cabinets where everything valued at over $5.00 are kept safe from rampaging thieves).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I also have a pretty extensive collection of pre-1990 made-in-Japan Nikkor lenses that I prefer to use, especially with my Nikon Df. The reason is simple, as was told to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, “Ben, I have just one word for you… ‘Plastics.’” Thank God for eBay and sellers in Japan who sell lovingly cared for vintage Nikkors.

Time to reformat the memory card in your brain?

For me it’s the Nikon Df whose retro design revived my passion for photography when I discovered it in 2015?

What about… “A generation that believed America was exceptional?”