Andrew Blechman tagged posts

PLASTICVILLE-USA

ON THE HUNT FOR LOOFA SPONGES…

In his book “Leisureville” Andrew Blechman points out the rather interesting swinger scene that takes place in TV. For those less “in the know” Swinging is known more crudely as “Wife Swapping”.  Blechman opens the door on this subject to the annoyance of The Villagers.

Unless you are calling for Andrew Blechman’s demise in the most hideous of ways, even mentioning his name among TV true believers will make them begin to snarl and foam at the mouth like rabid beasts. The book Leisureville pulled back the curtain on what is little more than a modern and non-fictional Peyton Place and they hate him for telling the truth.

Blechman published his book back in 2008, when Lake Sumter Landing had barely been built and Brownwood wa...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE DEATH OF THE VILLAGES…

In the 1980’s and 90’s there was a very popular radio format called “The Music Of Your Life”. Actually “The Music Of Your Life” is a trademarked entity originally designed by a former record company executive named Al Ham. The format was essentially a big-band, 50’s crooners radio format that was designed to reach the children of the great depression and World War-2. A number of competitors sprang up also offering the same sort of package to local radio stations, and in many ways “The Music Of Your Life” essentially became the generic name of the format no matter who sold the various packages, much like “Coke” has become the byword for any sort of cola product.

While the format was extremely popular with the 50+ age gro...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THOSE @#$% KIDS!!!

If you are a resident of TV you pay what it called a monthly amenity fee. This amount which varies from $0 to $150 a month goes to pay for the private perks that you find in TV such as swimming pools, non-Country Club golf courses, ball fields, parks, tennis courts and the like. In return for your fee you are promised exclusivity of use of these amenities. Those who are not Villages residents, or guests of residents are not allowed to use these various facilities. Fair enough.

You might notice that I said the fee goes from ZERO dollars to 150. Yes, there are a few who pay nothing. Those are the folks who bought into old Harold Schwartz’s original project which is now..depending on who you are....

PLASTICVILLE-USA

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS MAKE LEMONADE

-BUT-

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU A BIG FAT DEFINED-BENEFIT PENSION CHECK…MAKE WHINE.

What is now TV began as a solution to a problem that old Harold Schwartz had. Back in the 1960’s Harold was making a living from buying up cheap scrub land in Arizona and Florida and selling off parcels by mail. While there was never any evidence that old Harold was doing anything the Brits would call “dodgy” there were lots of others out there who were selling chunks of ground where “water front” property would be defined as land that’s covered in 18 inches of water in some fetid Florida swamp. Now why any half-sane person would buy land sight-unseen by mail from somebody you don’t know is beyond me, but Harold was making a go of it.

In...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

GLUB..GLUB..GLUB..

There have been a recent rash of D.W.I. arrests in TV both for drivers of licensed vehicles and golf carts. This recent set of reports caused someone to start a thread on the local Villages gossip board Talk Of The Villages as to whether or not there was too much drinking in TV.

If you have at least one functioning eyeball and spend 10 minutes in and around TV you will know that TV are awash in booze. Actually it’s so prevalent that a blind man could see it with his cane. Drinking is essentially an Olympic sport here.

In his book Leisureville, Andrew Blechman reported on this back in 2007 and the problem has just multiplied as the population has grown...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THE TRUTH HURTS LIKE A BASTARD!!!

Back in the day when old Harold Schwartz began what was to become TV his goal was to sell off some scrub land he owned and make a profit from it. Nothing more, nothing less.

During the 1960’s Harold had been selling land that he owned in both Arizona and Florida by mail. By all information I can find about Harold’s dealings tells me that he was doing business fairly and honestly. That’s not the truth about many other land-by-mail scammers, and the stand-up comics of that time all had jokes to tell about gullible rubes who bought some enticing ocean-front property in Montana, Idaho or Nebraska. Since there were more frogs than there were princes in this business the Federal government put an end to selling land by mail in the U.S.

PLASTICVILLE-USA

JOHN DILLINGER RIDES AGAIN…

When John Dillinger was asked why he robbed banks he was known to quip “because that’s where the money is”. That was certainly true in Dillinger’s day. Back in those days it didn’t matter if you worked the line at Ford in Detroit or the counter at Kovarik’s Hardware store on Clinton Street, your weekly wages were paid in cold hard cash. And back then nobody had ever heard of a debit card, electronic funds transfer or an American Express card. Hard cash was a bank’s stock in trade and depending on the particular bank they had plenty of stock on hand.

Today that’s simply not the case. Banks only keep a small amount of cash on hand in the bank, essentially enough to handle daily transactions, and relatively small ones at that...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

THAT OLD EGYPTIAN RIVER…

Many communities openly promote their town and the benefits and opportunities of living there. The service clubs known as Rotary and Kiwanis developed out of the early 20^th century efforts of “boosterism” hoping to boost enthusiasm for someone’s hometown.

So it’s not at all odd that people who come to TV and are happy with their decision are positive about their new home and want others to know about it. In the television show MASH..Corporal Klinger was unashamedly pro-Toledo. The vast majority of Villagers are very much unashamedly pro-Villages.

But the similarity of Klinger’s Toledo and the Villagers take on TV ends there. In TV it takes a rather weird turn and never comes back to reality.

For the most part Villagers....

PLASTICVILLE-USA

PEYTON PLACE-2014

One day James Earl Carter Jr. aka President Jimmy Carter woke up to find that he no longer held the title of America’s worst president. He had been usurped by a Georgia country mile by a con man from Chicago named Barak Hussein Obama. Similarly on June 16^th 2014 Andrew Blechman awoke to find out that he was no longer the #1 person that Villagers love to hate. He too had been surpassed by Annette Witheridge a correspondent of none other than London’s Daily Mail newspaper. London. Not London, Connecticut..not London, Ontario Canada..but London as in jolly old England!

Ms. Witheridge spent some time in The Villages undercover and has put together an absolutely blistering expose on the antics of Plasticville...

PLASTICVILLE-USA

AMERICA’S FRIENDLIEST HOMETOWN

When it comes to fables one of the biggest of them all is that TV is “America’s Friendliest Hometown”. TV Myth Machine spins this one at high speed and non-stop but the bottom line is that when it comes to fables and downright lies..this one is probably only trumped by..”If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Period. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Period.” Outside of that infamous paragraph, there’s very little to top the whopper about TV being America’s Friendliest Hometown.

Over time I’ve had multiple opportunities to tell you about the obnoxious behavior of the pompous, over-indulged, spoiled-brat Villagers...