Jerry Dunklee, professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the current state of media and journalism. And by "media" I'm not talking about Access Hollywood. The line is indeed getting blurred...
Daily Del Franco: Do you recognize blogs as a legitimate source of news gathering or is it a tool for the lazy?
Dunklee: It depends on the blogger. The huge majority of bloggers are not news gatherers. They are simply opinionating on what is happening the the field they are writing about. Most of the “facts” they use come from mainstream news organizations who have professional reporters in the field. A few bloggers actually dig and find news that is not being covered by other reporters.
TDD: The national press coverage on Obama...was it fair?
Dunklee: Yeah, I think the coverage was fair. He, like most newer faces on the political scene, went through a long process of getting known. There was, according to some organizations who research such things, more positive than negative coverage. That is not unusual actually. There was more positive than negative coverage of Pres. Bush when he was running the first time also. And Obama is a very different kind of figure on the scene. It’s not only that he is bi-racial but that he is unusually articulate. Now, we’ll see how the press deals with him once he has the power of the presidency.
TDD: In the age of the 24/7 news cycle, some cable news shows (i.e. "Countdown") are so biased it's frightening. Do you think viewers notice? or even care for that matter? Should they?
Dunklee: It depends on the viewer. I think many people choose a show like “Countdown” or “The O’ Reilly Factor” because it’s biased. That is: People who have strong political opinions often choose news and commentary outlets that agree with their views. That said, I think many people...according to quite good research...don’t separate quality news sources from those with high levels of slant...or entertainment shows, like “Access Hollywood” from legitimate news operations. That is a problem. I think better education about what real journalists do can help...but I’m not holding my breath on the great bulk of our citizens becoming more sophisticated. Perhaps this economic downturn will help them focus on higher quality news.
TDD: Was the biggest misconception of student journalists entering the business?
Dunklee: That it’s glamorous. Or high paying. The truth is the best reporters would do what they do for nothing. (though obviously it’s nice to eat and pay the rent.) They are curious, skeptical of authority and willing to dig. And most of the good ones care deeply about making a difference. They believe that when people have good, accurate information they will usually make good decisions about public issues. We try to give students a sense of the First Amendment mission and hope they will be good citizens.
TDD: What's right about the media today? (We know what's wrong about it)....
Dunklee: With all of the warts...economic and otherwise...there is very good journalism being committed every day in this country. We are going through a very difficult time. I hope we will come out on the other side with broader ways to communicate news to the public and figured out an economic model that will pay for it. And I hope the public will understand that without an independent and strong news media a quality democracy becomes almost impossible.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
1869 Baseball card found
An antique collector found a baseball card from 1869 while rummaging through a box of antiques. The 70-year-old woman wanted to sell it on Ebay for $10--the card is going to go for six figures easy. Can you imagine hitting that kind of jackpot? (Oh she did that too! Read on.)
With my luck, I'd come across a 1979 Topps Cliff Johnson. Here's the story. Thanks Fresno Bee.
By Mike Osegueda
Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.
She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.
It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.
It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.
This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.
She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.
Later that night she got a few odd inquiries -- someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.
Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.
Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.
The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.
Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.
And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.
Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.
"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."
Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.
"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."
Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."
So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.
Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.
In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.
"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."
When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.
"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."
The adventure begins
Mirigian's first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?
To this day, the details are sketchy.
"We really don't know where we got it," Gallego says. "We don't even know how long we owned this thing."
Makes sense when you consider the Gallegos are a couple of pack-rats who have been married 45 years and whose antique store overflows into their house.
The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back. It's not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units, usually from a relative of a recently deceased person, for about $200.
That's what the Gallegos think happened here.
Before this, the Gallegos' biggest eBay sale was a John F. Kennedy autograph from 1939 that brought in $1,000.
Since baseball cards were new to them, Mirigian laid out a plan for the Gallegos. They had to get the card authenticated, store it in something better than a plastic bag and put it in a safe place.
So the Gallegos headed south to Los Angeles, bound for the headquarters of PSA, the leading sports card grading and authenticating company, which has graded 12 million items since 1991.
Most people mail their cards off to PSA. The Gallegos decided that for their almost 140-year-old card, they'd rather drive it down. They picked the one day a month that PSA opens its doors to the public, dropped the card off at 9 a.m. and picked it up at 3 p.m., encapsulated and authenticated.
It was all a little much for a dumbstruck Bernice who still says, "It's a little card I found in a bunch of stuff."
They chose not to have the card graded, the process of judging the mintness on a 1-10 scale. It's PSA's most popular service, but in the case of this card, being real and in one piece is the most important thing.
"It does have some pretty significant discoloration and creasing," says Joe Orlando, the president of PSA. "The good news is that the sepia tone photo that is mounted on the front is, relatively speaking, unscathed. The clarity of the photo is still there. If this were graded, it would be near the bottom. But even for a card that low on the grading scale, it does have some eye appeal to it. It still presents fairly well, and that's the more important thing."
And perhaps even more important is the story it tells.
'A Time Capsule'
Before the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were no professional baseball teams.
Formed in 1868, the team set the foundation for what we know today as Major League Baseball.
"To borrow a term from rock 'n' roll, they were a kind of supergroup," says Tim Wiles, the director of research at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"They brought in some of the best baseball players from around the country. They went around and challenged all comers. They barnstormed around the country and were undefeated."
The Red Stockings won games by as many as 30, 40 and 50 runs, Wiles says.
"They were kind of an all-star team before that concept really existed," he says. "In 1871, what the Red Stockings started would evolve into the first baseball league and the first sports league."
In 1869, the team's picture ended up on the front of a card advertising Peck & Snyder, a company that sold baseball equipment. Unlike modern baseball cards, the Peck & Snyder card was larger and focused on the whole team, not individual players.
"It really provides a time capsule for the game," says Orlando of PSA. "You look at the picture and the guys are wearing boots. They don't use gloves at that point. The classic uniforms. It was a completely different game at that time."
To Bernice -- who, let's remember, has never been to a baseball game -- it was the history, not the sport that meant something.
"Because I love history, the thing that really got to me was that it's a photo, a real photo of real people, basically taken right after the Civil War," Gallego says. "That's what got to me. I don't know much about them. Who are they? What are they thinking? Those kind of questions go through my mind."
Next is the big question: How much is this card worth?
Mirigian says he expects six figures.
The Gallegos are content to put it on eBay and "let it fly."
Orlando offers: "The last one that I'm aware, it sold about a year to a year and a half ago, and it sold for well into five figures. You have to let the market decide what it's worth when you're dealing with something this scarce, because there's just not the market history to determine it."
But who would pay that kind of money for a baseball card?
"A lot of people use sports memorabilia and sports cards as conversation pieces," Orlando says. "And what a conversation piece this is."
That could mean anybody from a businessman who is a baseball fan to a baseball executive. That's the kind of stuff that Mirigian and Gallego sit around talking about.
"You might have George Steinbrenner wanting to buy this," Mirigian told her one day, referring to the longtime New York Yankees owner.
"Who's George Steinberg?" she asked.
Plans are to put the card back on eBay, though the auction is expected to draw a little more attention this time, thanks to Mirigian, who is already plotting marketing schemes and sales tactics. He'll get a percentage of the sale for his part.
"I find it so hard to believe that this little card is worth so much," Bernice says. "Neither one of us count chickens before they hatch. We don't want to expect the world out of this find. It's good enough that we've found it, and have been able to enjoy it and share it with a few of our friends. That for us is more of where it's at."
It's not the first time Bernice has unexpectedly walked into a windfall. She hit a $250,000 jackpot playing quarter slots at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe.
"She's a very lucky lady," Al Gallego says.
That was 10 years ago. Now this. Next? Who knows.
"We gotta live at least another 10 years for the next one," Bernice says.
With my luck, I'd come across a 1979 Topps Cliff Johnson. Here's the story. Thanks Fresno Bee.
By Mike Osegueda
Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.
She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.
It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.
It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.
This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.
She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.
Later that night she got a few odd inquiries -- someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.
Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.
Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.
The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.
Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.
And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.
Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.
"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."
Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.
"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."
Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."
So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.
Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.
In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.
"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."
When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.
"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."
The adventure begins
Mirigian's first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?
To this day, the details are sketchy.
"We really don't know where we got it," Gallego says. "We don't even know how long we owned this thing."
Makes sense when you consider the Gallegos are a couple of pack-rats who have been married 45 years and whose antique store overflows into their house.
The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back. It's not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units, usually from a relative of a recently deceased person, for about $200.
That's what the Gallegos think happened here.
Before this, the Gallegos' biggest eBay sale was a John F. Kennedy autograph from 1939 that brought in $1,000.
Since baseball cards were new to them, Mirigian laid out a plan for the Gallegos. They had to get the card authenticated, store it in something better than a plastic bag and put it in a safe place.
So the Gallegos headed south to Los Angeles, bound for the headquarters of PSA, the leading sports card grading and authenticating company, which has graded 12 million items since 1991.
Most people mail their cards off to PSA. The Gallegos decided that for their almost 140-year-old card, they'd rather drive it down. They picked the one day a month that PSA opens its doors to the public, dropped the card off at 9 a.m. and picked it up at 3 p.m., encapsulated and authenticated.
It was all a little much for a dumbstruck Bernice who still says, "It's a little card I found in a bunch of stuff."
They chose not to have the card graded, the process of judging the mintness on a 1-10 scale. It's PSA's most popular service, but in the case of this card, being real and in one piece is the most important thing.
"It does have some pretty significant discoloration and creasing," says Joe Orlando, the president of PSA. "The good news is that the sepia tone photo that is mounted on the front is, relatively speaking, unscathed. The clarity of the photo is still there. If this were graded, it would be near the bottom. But even for a card that low on the grading scale, it does have some eye appeal to it. It still presents fairly well, and that's the more important thing."
And perhaps even more important is the story it tells.
'A Time Capsule'
Before the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were no professional baseball teams.
Formed in 1868, the team set the foundation for what we know today as Major League Baseball.
"To borrow a term from rock 'n' roll, they were a kind of supergroup," says Tim Wiles, the director of research at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"They brought in some of the best baseball players from around the country. They went around and challenged all comers. They barnstormed around the country and were undefeated."
The Red Stockings won games by as many as 30, 40 and 50 runs, Wiles says.
"They were kind of an all-star team before that concept really existed," he says. "In 1871, what the Red Stockings started would evolve into the first baseball league and the first sports league."
In 1869, the team's picture ended up on the front of a card advertising Peck & Snyder, a company that sold baseball equipment. Unlike modern baseball cards, the Peck & Snyder card was larger and focused on the whole team, not individual players.
"It really provides a time capsule for the game," says Orlando of PSA. "You look at the picture and the guys are wearing boots. They don't use gloves at that point. The classic uniforms. It was a completely different game at that time."
To Bernice -- who, let's remember, has never been to a baseball game -- it was the history, not the sport that meant something.
"Because I love history, the thing that really got to me was that it's a photo, a real photo of real people, basically taken right after the Civil War," Gallego says. "That's what got to me. I don't know much about them. Who are they? What are they thinking? Those kind of questions go through my mind."
Next is the big question: How much is this card worth?
Mirigian says he expects six figures.
The Gallegos are content to put it on eBay and "let it fly."
Orlando offers: "The last one that I'm aware, it sold about a year to a year and a half ago, and it sold for well into five figures. You have to let the market decide what it's worth when you're dealing with something this scarce, because there's just not the market history to determine it."
But who would pay that kind of money for a baseball card?
"A lot of people use sports memorabilia and sports cards as conversation pieces," Orlando says. "And what a conversation piece this is."
That could mean anybody from a businessman who is a baseball fan to a baseball executive. That's the kind of stuff that Mirigian and Gallego sit around talking about.
"You might have George Steinbrenner wanting to buy this," Mirigian told her one day, referring to the longtime New York Yankees owner.
"Who's George Steinberg?" she asked.
Plans are to put the card back on eBay, though the auction is expected to draw a little more attention this time, thanks to Mirigian, who is already plotting marketing schemes and sales tactics. He'll get a percentage of the sale for his part.
"I find it so hard to believe that this little card is worth so much," Bernice says. "Neither one of us count chickens before they hatch. We don't want to expect the world out of this find. It's good enough that we've found it, and have been able to enjoy it and share it with a few of our friends. That for us is more of where it's at."
It's not the first time Bernice has unexpectedly walked into a windfall. She hit a $250,000 jackpot playing quarter slots at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe.
"She's a very lucky lady," Al Gallego says.
That was 10 years ago. Now this. Next? Who knows.
"We gotta live at least another 10 years for the next one," Bernice says.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sarah Palin redux???
I'm not saying there's a double standard here (or maybe I am) but where's the outrage over Caroline Kennedy's "youknow" fest with the editorial board of the New York Times? And where's good 'ol Katie Couric now?
Sarah Palin, like her or hate her, was destroyed by the mainstream media. Where's the Charlie Gibson sitdown with ol' Caroline? Is it because Caroline has the deep political bloodlines?
Upon McCain's announcement picking Palin Obama's people quipped that Palin, a former mayor of Wasilla (pop. 8,000) was a heartbeat away from the presidency. What did Caroline Kennedy ever do?
We'll see how Caroline holds up under the white hot spotlight and media frenzy---and it will be.
Sarah Palin, like her or hate her, was destroyed by the mainstream media. Where's the Charlie Gibson sitdown with ol' Caroline? Is it because Caroline has the deep political bloodlines?
Upon McCain's announcement picking Palin Obama's people quipped that Palin, a former mayor of Wasilla (pop. 8,000) was a heartbeat away from the presidency. What did Caroline Kennedy ever do?
We'll see how Caroline holds up under the white hot spotlight and media frenzy---and it will be.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
What I Learned in 2008....
I can go another twenty years without equating "Wall Street" to "Main Street." Ditto for bailout, and Joe the Plumber and Change. Yes we can? Now go do so. There's a lot of pressure for BHO to lead us. There's bound to be backlash. But call me Ned Negative.
When you accidentally lock both of your children in the car--with the engine running--as I did on Christmas Eve...remain calm.
I'm fired up for Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and "Frost vs. Nixon." Lots of Oscar talk surrounding these movies.
I'm rooting for Caroline Kennedy in her Senate quest. Yup. Ums and all. If she wins, she'll eventually have to run again in two years. And that means opening the Kennedy
financial records. Let's see where all that money comes from. Kennedy money trumps all...including Trump.
The people who thought Bernie Madoff could deliver 8% - 12% annual gains,regardless of the market, were as delusional as ol' Bernie. Call it the chickens coming home to roost
Memo to Dick Clark....Please. Please. Please. Stop appearing on camera on New Year's Eve. Dude, it's over. I understand you own the show and you are the executive producer, so you're the boss. I get it. But you have to stop.
Yout think the NHL would have at least ordered some snow for its Winter Classic. It just wasn't the same this year without the near blizzard as was the case last year in Buffalo. Commissioner Gary Bettman continues to do the wrong thing. Islanders/Rangers at Yankee Stadium would have been my choice.
The Dallas Cowboys went from America's Most Wanted Badasses at the beginning of the season to the team that couldn't take a punch. Glass-jawed fools. The 2008 finale at Philadelphia was reminsicent of Mike Tyson at the end of his career. Sad.
Same old Jets. Wildly entertaining. Only a gift touvhdown by the Buffalo Bills prevented the Jets fom losing the last five games of the season.
Jay Leno on at 10:00 every night? Great financial move by NBC. But don't you think this hurts Conan taking over the Tonight Show. It's like dating a chick after her ex moved out...across the hall.
When you accidentally lock both of your children in the car--with the engine running--as I did on Christmas Eve...remain calm.
I'm fired up for Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and "Frost vs. Nixon." Lots of Oscar talk surrounding these movies.
I'm rooting for Caroline Kennedy in her Senate quest. Yup. Ums and all. If she wins, she'll eventually have to run again in two years. And that means opening the Kennedy
financial records. Let's see where all that money comes from. Kennedy money trumps all...including Trump.
The people who thought Bernie Madoff could deliver 8% - 12% annual gains,regardless of the market, were as delusional as ol' Bernie. Call it the chickens coming home to roost
Memo to Dick Clark....Please. Please. Please. Stop appearing on camera on New Year's Eve. Dude, it's over. I understand you own the show and you are the executive producer, so you're the boss. I get it. But you have to stop.
Yout think the NHL would have at least ordered some snow for its Winter Classic. It just wasn't the same this year without the near blizzard as was the case last year in Buffalo. Commissioner Gary Bettman continues to do the wrong thing. Islanders/Rangers at Yankee Stadium would have been my choice.
The Dallas Cowboys went from America's Most Wanted Badasses at the beginning of the season to the team that couldn't take a punch. Glass-jawed fools. The 2008 finale at Philadelphia was reminsicent of Mike Tyson at the end of his career. Sad.
Same old Jets. Wildly entertaining. Only a gift touvhdown by the Buffalo Bills prevented the Jets fom losing the last five games of the season.
Jay Leno on at 10:00 every night? Great financial move by NBC. But don't you think this hurts Conan taking over the Tonight Show. It's like dating a chick after her ex moved out...across the hall.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Yanks Get Big Tex
Only in Yankeeland is there no recession. Don’t get me wrong I’m fired up for baseball season now that the Yankees picked up Mark Teixiera yesterday. Great player. Switch-hitter, young, good defense. 8 years at $180 million---that’s after spending $243 million on CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. I’m a little embarrassed by how they thrown their money around like Teddy KGB in Rounders. It’s one thing to get a single big free agent in the offseason…but to get 3? The Yankee lineup now includes the four highest paid players in the sport.
This team still has a few holes with which to address. That’s hard to believe after spending a King’s Ransom on players. For example, who’s the left fielder? Damon? My grandmother has a better throwing arm. The center fielder? Is it Melky Cabrera..who ended the season in the minors? The fifth starter? Phil Hughes? Howard Hughes pitched better last year.
Don’t get me wrong. The Yankees pay to play. The luxury tax, which should be named the Yankee tax, just grew way north of $26 million. That money gets doled out to other baseball teams to do with it as they wish. So in a weird way, the Yankee subsidize the Royals for the right to go pound them in July. I look it at like this: when your starting third baseman (Aaron Boone) breaks his ankle playing a pick-up basketball game during the off-season, you shouldn’t be allowed to go get the best player in the sport (Alex Rodriguez). It’s in the rules but not really in the best interest of the game.
Oh well. Let’s play ball. The pressure’s on …..manager Joe Girardi.
This team still has a few holes with which to address. That’s hard to believe after spending a King’s Ransom on players. For example, who’s the left fielder? Damon? My grandmother has a better throwing arm. The center fielder? Is it Melky Cabrera..who ended the season in the minors? The fifth starter? Phil Hughes? Howard Hughes pitched better last year.
Don’t get me wrong. The Yankees pay to play. The luxury tax, which should be named the Yankee tax, just grew way north of $26 million. That money gets doled out to other baseball teams to do with it as they wish. So in a weird way, the Yankee subsidize the Royals for the right to go pound them in July. I look it at like this: when your starting third baseman (Aaron Boone) breaks his ankle playing a pick-up basketball game during the off-season, you shouldn’t be allowed to go get the best player in the sport (Alex Rodriguez). It’s in the rules but not really in the best interest of the game.
Oh well. Let’s play ball. The pressure’s on …..manager Joe Girardi.
Monday, December 22, 2008
I'm back.....
A lot has happened while I was away. And believe me, there are many people worthy of a shoe-throw: (Thank you, Iraqi journalist)
They are:
Anyone sending out a letter detailing that year's highlights: I have two thoughts on this: A.) Nobody gives a shit what you did or saw and B.) nobody can believe that you're arrogant enough to put it on paper and pay for postage.
The Dallas Cowboys--From Tony Romo to the defensive line, let's begin playing like it counts..because it does.
WFAN's Mike Francesa--It's not because he's an arrogant know-it-all, it's his picks. For instance, take his expert "analysis" of this weekend's games. First, there's "no way" that San Diego beats Tampa Bay. They did. Then looking like "they're done," Washington jumps up and nicks Philadelphia. Again, it's not like he's allowed to be incorrect but the near certainty in which he says it.
Bernie Madoff--This bastard deserves a big pair of size 14s upside the head. The NY swindler who put Cbrales Ponzi in the news again was clearly wrong in bilking $50 billion from wealthy clients and foundations. However, call me a prick but weren't some of these well-heeled clients guilty too...of greed? Story after story detailed clients who wanted to believe's Madoff's steady gains of 8%-12% regardless of market performance? I'm no Gordon Gekko, but doesn't that fly in the face of the stock market? The fact that joining Madoff's exclusive club had an air of exclusivity to it for the privilidged is what got me. Granted I never had a fortune to lose but some of these people will have to learn the wonder that is shopping at Costco...
Lastly, the other day I went to CVS to pick up Sudafed. Long story short: the girl behind the counter demands identification because some ahole druggies out there use the ingredients in Sudafed to make homemade Meth. And, that "the government monitors how much you buy in week or month." Reluctantly, I hand over my ID but not before I make a big scene. To quote Bob Grant..."It's sick outn there and getting sicker."
They are:
Anyone sending out a letter detailing that year's highlights: I have two thoughts on this: A.) Nobody gives a shit what you did or saw and B.) nobody can believe that you're arrogant enough to put it on paper and pay for postage.
The Dallas Cowboys--From Tony Romo to the defensive line, let's begin playing like it counts..because it does.
WFAN's Mike Francesa--It's not because he's an arrogant know-it-all, it's his picks. For instance, take his expert "analysis" of this weekend's games. First, there's "no way" that San Diego beats Tampa Bay. They did. Then looking like "they're done," Washington jumps up and nicks Philadelphia. Again, it's not like he's allowed to be incorrect but the near certainty in which he says it.
Bernie Madoff--This bastard deserves a big pair of size 14s upside the head. The NY swindler who put Cbrales Ponzi in the news again was clearly wrong in bilking $50 billion from wealthy clients and foundations. However, call me a prick but weren't some of these well-heeled clients guilty too...of greed? Story after story detailed clients who wanted to believe's Madoff's steady gains of 8%-12% regardless of market performance? I'm no Gordon Gekko, but doesn't that fly in the face of the stock market? The fact that joining Madoff's exclusive club had an air of exclusivity to it for the privilidged is what got me. Granted I never had a fortune to lose but some of these people will have to learn the wonder that is shopping at Costco...
Lastly, the other day I went to CVS to pick up Sudafed. Long story short: the girl behind the counter demands identification because some ahole druggies out there use the ingredients in Sudafed to make homemade Meth. And, that "the government monitors how much you buy in week or month." Reluctantly, I hand over my ID but not before I make a big scene. To quote Bob Grant..."It's sick outn there and getting sicker."
Monday, November 24, 2008
Get Your Free Dr. Pepper
Did you guys see this?
LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality.
The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."
Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.
LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality.
The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."
Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.
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