God Bless Little Richard

First, the man is 74 years old! That's right, Little Richard is 74! Every time his Geico commercial comes on TV I hang on every word. The man is and was a Rock & Roll icon - truely unique! Some of us weren't around to enjoy Little Richard in his heyday and some of us lived in places where local radio did not play Little Richard's music. Pat Boone made a career out of singing, recording and selling Little Richard songs...but that's another matter. It's good to see him working, again!

Miss America - In Trouble

The Miss America Pareant is in trouble! They lost their TV contract with CMT. Why? Because nobody watched! Well, almost nobody. CMT estimates that this year's show was viewed by 2.4 million people. Compare this with Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant which recently aired on NBC and was seen by an estimated 7.4 million people! Impressed? You shouldn't be. In its heyday, Miss America attracted more than 80 million viewers! Miss America was seen on network TV for 50 years! What's wrong? Many things. First, Miss America needs a major network TV contract - NBC is part owner (with Trump)of Miss USA so they probably wouldn't be interested. There's CBS, ABC and FOX.
Next you need a solid host. Bert Parks was, well, Bert Parks. Tradition is important. My pick would be Howie Mandel. While we are on the subject of tradition, move the pageant back to Atlantic City! Why move it in the first place. Would you move Thanksgiving to June when the weather is nicer? Of course not! Next, and probably the most important, is promotion! Why isn't Miss America in TV commercials promoting products from health and beauty products to automobiles to, well...anything? I'm thankful that the demise of Miss America is not my problem. It's not costing me a dime, but, at the same time, it's sad to see an American institution bite the dust...especially when it dies of simple neglect.

Throwing Celery?

Three fans of England's Chelsea Football Club have found themselves in hot water after being caught throwing celery on to the field. Apparently, celery throwing is common at Chelsea FC matchs. Fans throw it at each other and all over the place. They also sing a song about celery - usually as they celebrate a win.
The entire chant is as follows:

Celery, Celery,
If she don't come,
I'll tickle her bum,
With a lump of celery.

This chant often results in fans ritually throwing celery.

I find this fascinating.....celery!

Phil Spectre

I feel sorry for Phil Spector. The man is a musical genius. He's responsible for some great music which will always be very important to me. Sometimes extraordinary people end up being nut jobs. Eccentric? Absolutely! That's what made his music so good! Nuts? Quite possibly! Guilty? I hope not - we will see.

In the meantime a jury is being selected. The murder trail will be televised. Phil Spector will become famous, again - this time to a new generation - and to the rest of us - for being accused of killing Lana Clarkson.
Something to remember: Sometimes not guilty is not the same as innocent.

Another Teacher's Pet

Here's another case where everybody's wrong!
I'm watching the Today Show on NBC, this morning and this 18 year old boy is being interviewed, together with his parents and their attorney. They all traveled from Colorado to NYC so that they can be heard on national TV. Do you smell money, here?

The story is that when the boy was 17, he and his teacher, 29 year old Carrie McCandless, had a romance - or an affair depending on who you believe. They text messaged each other more than 70 times on one particular day! She faces sexual assault charges and could do more than a dozen years and be labeled a sex offender, if convicted. She no longer teaches at the school, oh, I should mention that she is married - married to the school's principal!
What does all this mean? Well as a former 17 year old boy, I can tell you that 17 year old boys are capable of making decisions - right ones and wrong ones. The teacher? She screwed up. They're both wrong! They both get an "F" in responsibility. Nobody should get any money. Punnishment? Nothing will be decided immediately. Eventually the punnishment will amount to...nothing. They will each write a book and Lifetime TV will make a movie, Law & Order will make an episode out of this and life will go on.

Simple Simon

Ice hockey is a difficult sport to play. Due to the fact that it's played on ice, there is bound to be physical contact. What happened between Chris Simon and Ryan Hollweg is unacceptable. In short, this is why I don't watch hockey. Click, below to see the cheap shot. Watch the whole video for greater detail.


Simon was suspended for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs for a minimum of 25 games. My opinion? Kick him out of the NHL, period. My blog, my opinion.

Deal Or No Deal Banker - Revealed! (Maybe)

I think I have this figured out! The banker on the TV quiz show Deal Or No Deal is a native New Yorker (just like me, your hero). He's also a part-time actor and the head bartender at a fancy West Hollywood watering hole. (Golly, he might know Paris Hilton!)
Most soursces say that his name is Peter Abbay, a 46 year old Brooklyn, N.Y. native. He's listed as an actor on the Internet Movie Data Base. That's where the "dead end" comes. I see that there's a 43 year old bartender at The Belmont in West Hollywood named Peter Abbay who is also an actor. This bartender is 43 and from Long Island, N.Y. Coincidence? I don't think so. I also saw that Peter Abbay, the bartender, was ranked byThe Beverage Network as one of the top 10 bartenders "to watch" in the USA! So there you have it.
If I am correct and if you are NBC, don't be too upset.
Nobody reads this blog!

Sirius Sinking

There's an old joke that when a man talks dirty to a woman, it's sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man, it's $3.99 a minute.
When Howard Stern talks dirty on Sirius Satellite Radio, it's $500 million.
Folks, Sirius is in serious trouble! In the year 2000 a share of their stock sold for about $65.00. in 2002 that same share of stock was worth less than $1.
Enter Howard Stern and the stock, today, is bouncing around the $3 - $4 range. And Howard? He's still working within his $500 million contract. Talker Magazine says his national pre-Sirius popularity ranking was #1. It is now #12. Fewer people listen to him on Sirius than they did on conventional broadcast radio. It's not Stern's fault. When stupid businessmen make stupid decisions, stupid things will happen. There's talk of XM and Sirius merging. This doesn't speak well for XM. If XM were strong and healthy, they'd simply let Sirius crash on its own.
The answer? I have the answer! Give the people what they want at an affordable price! What do people want? Come on, this is just a damn blog.....

Yoko Matsugane

In an effort to boost readership (or at least hits) to this blog, I present an encore post of Yoko Matsugane, a close personal friend of mine. Yoko enjoys playing basketball, golf and the violin. She is extremely polular in Japan.
Here's a shot of her modeling her little sister's swimsuit. If you click on the picture, on the right, you'll see the full size image.
As I mentioned, there's no real reason for this post, other than to increase hits and to provide some eye candy, and of course to further promote the popularity of my little friend, Yoko.

Santa Monica- Too Squirrelly

Santa Monica's got a problem. Squirrels! So many that LA county has cited Santa Monica 5 times for squirrel over population. A health concern is at the root. So, Santa Monica is going to do what they did in Berkley. Give the squirrels injections to stunt their sexual activity and development.

In Terre Haute, Indiana, we have an over population of birds - crows. What are we doing about it? We are doing what we in Terre Haute do best! Absolutely nothing.

Santa Monica, forget about the injections, ship the squirrels to Terre Haute. You will save money and not have to worry about sexually frustrated squirrels. What will we, in Terre Haute, do about all those squirrels? Duh! Absolutely nothing! Of course!

CHICAGO CUB(an)S

Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner with deep pockets, denies that a deal is in the works for him to purchase the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co. Tribune wants to sell. Cuban wants to buy. The $625 million is more than the franchise is worth. What's the hold up?
Last wednesday, Cuban denied that the deal is going down. Denial of a business deal is common as the lawyers and accountants dot the i's and cross the t's. It'll happen because Cuban wants the Cubs. People with his kind of money usually get what they want.

No-Go For This Logo!

So, in Belgium, SNBrussels and Virgin Express merge. The two airlines plan to offer passenger service between Belgium and Africa. They are painting the new logo on their planes and people go nuts! Why? Because the logo is a large "B" composed with 13 orange balls. 13 - that's the problem. Most of the complaints came from Italians and from Americans. The airline decided to change to 14 orange balls on the logo.
Fine, except for the Chinese. 14 is extremely unlucky in their culture.

The Skinny On Connor

I remember, as a kid, at school every class had at least one fat kid. Now, from Wallsent, North Tyneside, England, 300 miles north of London, comes news of an 8 year old boy, Connor McCreaddie, who tips the scales at 218 pounds. This is roughly 3 times the normal weight of a boy his age. Problem? His health! Local social services people were set to meet with his mom, Nicola McKeown, on Tuesday of this week. They're trying to get her to change his diet. There is a chance that the boy could be taken away from her. I'll follow this story...stay tuned!

Update: She gets to keep the kid. Meeting with Social Services, Conner's mom agreeed to whatever she had to - to keep Conner. I can see Jared, the Subway guy, doing a commercial with the kid.

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