It’s Not Me, It’s Him, Right?

Award winning post

You may have read last week that McDonald’s was forced to discontinue a report card promotion where one parent was upset. I would like to point out that 30 years ago I was the recipient of a free McDonald’s hamburger due to good grades. To the right is my award (click to enlarge) for Mathematics and Spekling. And I didn’t become addicted to McDonalds — I have not had a McDonald’s hamburger since junior high. My problem is that I consider a bag of chips a challenge.

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Weekend job changes, in order of revelance…

3. (Think like Les Nessman here): The hiring of Ryche Ryche Rodrehgueez

2. Jim Price demoted from his three innings of play by play. The proper thing would really to be to can his never-say-the-score rear out of the radio booth. But this is a good start. There are many other ex-Tigers that could do this job much better. Even Aurelio Lopez would be an impovement.

1. David Hall is no longer employed by Rock Financial. If you lived in this area, he was approximately on every other commercial, trying to sell you a mortgage. He also had a weekend radio show and somehow once managed to host Piston pre-game shows. Unfortunately, his voice was not meant for broadcasting. You will notice in 2008 a sharp decrease in Detroit metro area suicides, mostly because his voice has been silenced. Seven years ago, his company was constantly pushing dangerous variable-rate, interest-only mortgages through Rock Financial. Now that those dangerous financial instruments are due and have crippled you financially, where should you go to convert that mortgage into a fixed-term one that will be much more costly than if you had just done a straight 30-year mortgage in the first place? Why — Rock Financial, of course. But, thank God, until they get a better spokesperson, we don’t have to hear Opie explain it anymore.

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A year too late, but…

My duck escapades of 2006 have finally hit some other parts of the net: foundmagazine.com

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Gossip…

You know, there just isn’t enough links to early 80s promos for bad TV movies. Hopefully, this link will solve that.

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The 5 century club…

…has been broken by me, in Scrabble, anyway.  I had my first 500+ game over the weekend.  Two bingos and getting at least 60 each out of the ‘Q’, ‘Z’ and ‘X’.  I’m finally getting decent at this.

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CNN, we need to talk…

I’m sorry CNN, we’re through. And this isn’t a case where “it’s not you, it’s me”, no, this one is clearly you. On a moderate news day when you have the former press secretary to the President of the United States saying the latter was involved in outing a CIA agent for political purposes, or oil nearing $100 a barrel (which you at least mention), you choose as your lead story some non-event over some celebrity parent and doctor nobody had even heard of a week ago.  Since you seem to have hired Mary Hart as your news director, I’ll take my business elsewhere.  It’s been a fun 10 years, but I need to find someone else.

Aside: I know I have at least two CNN staffers reading this blog, I know it’s not your fault.

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Airport Roll Call

Some blogs I occasion (rather than frequent) had a list of airports they have been to. Sounds interesting enough (and these are roughly in order of usage):

• Detroit-Wayne County Metro Airport: An airport already obsolete by the time it was opened in the late 50s, the new terminal for Northwest/Continental/Delta isn’t bad other than there’s much more taxi time involved. The terminal for the other airlines, which I commonly refer to as ‘the leper terminal’, will be replaced in 2009. Even though I went several times as a kid to pick up/send off stray relatives, I never actually went onto a plane until I was 18. My first flight was to:
• Logan (Boston): First flight was just to Boston, although most people on the plane were continuing on to Gatwick. Due to the steep landings, the people on either side of me lost their lunches.
• Midway (Chicago): Was driven to Chicago, had to get back somehow. This was done on Midwest Express, the only airline I flew on that no longer exists.
• Jacksonville: My only charter flight (band related). Had to board the staircase route, which was odd even for 1990.
• Stapleton (Denver): No longer in existence. One of its runways was a bridge over I-70.
• LAX (Los Angeles): I believe I’ve actually spent more terminal time here than any other airport due to the 11-hour wait I had once. I try to avoid this one like the plague.
• McCarran (Las Vegas): The slot machines are a little jarring.
• Washington (wasn’t Reagan yet) National: One of two times I’ve flown for work. Nothing exciting here, other than its the only time I’ve been in a airline club.
• Baltimore-Washington (wasn’t Marshall yet): It sucks now that the rental car locations are off-site.
• Denver International: The luggage often beats you in picking it up, due to the fact that the terminals are actually in Kansas.
• O’Hare (Chicago): Only for connections. Many, many connections.
• Memphis: Only for a connection.
• Chattanooga: First small airport I’ve ever been to. Only 4 gates.
• Manchester (New Hampshire): Often the airport I was assigned when trying to fly into Boston when using Priceline.
• Green (Providence): The other airport I was assigned when trying to fly into Boston when using Priceline.
• Kennedy (New York City): I was carrying a pocket knife on my key ring at the time, I was able to talk my way into keeping it. That would become moot 16 months later.
• Sky Harbor (Phoenix): Mostly again for connections. They have free Wi-Fi. Also the only airport I was given a food voucher because of a late plane.
• Long Beach: A three-gate airport. Small, which was good, since I was still able to get my rental car returned, through security, and onto the plane despite the fact my plane was leaving in 35 minutes.
• Pittsburgh: Only connections as well. Both times nearly missed the connection due to a slow McDonalds.
• Philadelphia: Pan-handled at the gate.  I don’t think this can happen now.
• Nashville: The Southwest gate attendant gave me a pre-board card once because it was my birthday.
• St. Louis: Pretty good. Nothing remarkable in either direction.
• Hartsfield (Atlanta) : Huge.  Having boarding lines outside doesn’t help because of the humidity.  Nice setup with MARTA.
• Seattle-Tacoma: I believe I am banned from this airport. Both times I’ve left the airport on a departing flight (September 10, 2001 and August 25, 2005), the world has gone to hell the next day.
• Kansas City: First time through, a third class dump. After forced renovations due to 9/11, it has been upgraded to second class.
• Salt Lake City: During the 2002 Olympics, I was waiting for my flight home. The Sweden-Belarus hockey game (the Tommy Salo game) was on. What were all the TVs showing? Golf.
• Myrtle Beach: Couldn’t get much of an impression, was there a very short time. Nice, though.
• Minneapolis: Long concourses.
• Bismarck.  A two-gate airport.  Rental car clerk had to get my car personally because “they were not allowed to leave cars idling in front of the airport due to security concerns.”  I think my house is higher on Al-Qaeda’s list than the Bismarck airport.
• Montréal: Only outside-the-U.S. airport on the list.  Hopefully that will change soon.
• Bush (Houston): Eh.  You don’t like it at first then in retrospect it didn’t seem that bad.
• Dulles (Virginia): Never been taken to the terminal in a troop transport, before.  Or since.
• Dallas: The train thing is pretty freaky.
• Bob Hope (Burbank): Another tiny airport.  Much preferred to LAX.
• LaGuardia (New York City): Apparently I got real lucky because I had no delays and my trips to and from the airport were at non-peak times.

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As required by law…

This link contains “forward-looking” statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the a new employer, the integration of its products and technologies into my new employer’s products and solutions offerings and customer demand for such offerings. A number of factors could cause my new employer’s actual results to differ from anticipated results expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, satisfaction of closing conditions to the transaction, our ability to successfully integrate the merged businesses and technologies, and customer demand for the technologies and integrated offerings. Such factors are further addressed in my new employer’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2006, its latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2007 and other securities filings which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (available at www.sec.gov). My new employer assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

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And playing left beef…

Never, ever give people too many options.

If you grew up in the Detroit area in the 1970s or 80s, you undoubtedly watched much CBC.  And you saw the commercials for local businesses that were usually public access quality at best.  On the left is a fake ad from last month’s Ann Arbor Observer (they have a fake ad contest every month).  As much as the ad is an easy joke by just listing a few Canadian musical acts, the deep Windsor knowledge of adding that the concert will take place at A.J. “Gus” Gervais Plaza takes the ad to a whole new level.  Mr. Gervais’ store was a fur shop, where “manufacturing makes the big difference”, a tag line delivered by “Gus” himself with all of the charisma of a can opener.  If only I can find a copy of this somewhere.

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Thanks, Matt. Thanks a lot.

The picture on the left (or top, depending on your browser width) is me from a 1989 step show (I believe vs. Illinois, I’m the bass drum on the right) during the song Temptation. The picture on the right (or bottom)  is me during this year’s (2007) homecoming, also during Temptation. Every year I wonder if this is going to be the last year I do this. It’s a pretty unnatural act to take a bass drum and hold it head high in rhythm. It’s also one thing to do it at 19, and another to keep trying to do it at 37. I was in much pain during the whole day and for the next day as well.

I had pretty much decided after rehearsal this year to get through this one, and call it a nice ride. I wasn’t going to give up doing Alumni Band anymore, but I was not going to do anything showy in the future, just play the music without the visuals. I would have to take the loss of not getting filmed (notice the guy below me on the picture to the right) and accepting the aging thing and use equipment that is easier on the body.

Then Matt, the person I share my football tickets, apparently took pictures, like the one on the right/bottom. And I have to admit, it looks pretty cool. At least I have a year to think about it. I’ll let you know by October 4, 2008.

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