Category Archives: Miscellany

The Black & Gold

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The awful truth is… I like a good honky-tonk better than a football game. I finally experienced (there is no other word) The Black & Gold this past weekend. I’ve spent my share of time in nasty little watering holes but The Black & Gold is right up there with the best (worst?). A little cinder-block building out on Business 70 in Columbia, Missouri, this (bar? club? juke joint?) place is a study in White Trash Chic. The place is obviously popular with the college crowd but –I’m told– equally so with the blue collar crowd for whom happy hour is seven a.m. Beer is served in cans because they do less harm when thrown. When the owner had a problem with broken windows, he just bricked them up. Problem solved. The night I was there, Big Head Ed was deep-frying chicken in a skillet and the air was heavy with grease and cigarette smoke and two Rams cheerleaders (Lacy and Amy) were in attendance. In the proud tradition of Tommy’s North-End Cafe and The (original) Shilo, I give The Black & Gold five tab-tops.

Mizzou-rah!

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Attended my first Missouri Tiger Football game on Saturday. Our company has had the broadcast rights for all of the 18 years I’ve been with the company and this is the first time I’ve attended a game. I’m just not a football fan. Even Barb –who is a fan– thought the game was boring enough to leave at the half. So we missed seeing the fans tear down the goal posts. This was, I gather, something of an embarrassment since the team the beat –Kansas– wasn’t very good. It’s a little difficult for me to imagine the people sitting around me mustering enough enthusiasm to rip open a bag of chips, let alone demolish some big metal goal posts. I’m not much on well-mannered crowds, let alone mobs so it’s probably best I left early. Apparantly the players led the attack on the goal posts. They talked it about it on the post-game broadcast (move the Media Player slider in to the 4 hour 12 minute mark)

So, what do you want to talk about?

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In Des Moines for the Radio Iowa 15th anniversary party. Kay’s caterer backed out when she learned pork would be served. And we’re not talking those little bacon wraps on the cocktail weenies. These were huge, Iowa pork chops. Oy vey.

When I arrived at the hotel I learned that my room would not have HBO. (“We got Show Time, isn’t that the same thing?”) No, it’s not. HBO is showing the season finale of Sex and the City and The Wire. HBO is the home of Six Feet Under. And The Sopranos. And Band of Brothers. And just about everything I think is worth watching on…well, it’s not TV, it’s HBO. I cancelled my reservation and scooted across the street to a Fairfield Inn. “Do you have HBO?” I asked. “For another month or so,” replied the young lady at the registration desk. “The chain is getting rid of HBO because we’re pretty much a ‘family hotel’ and we got a lot of complaints about the adult content.”

So, one of two things is happening here. The parents are leaving their children alone in the hotel room where they can (could) hear Dennis Miller say “fuck”… or the parents are in the room with the kids but are unable stop them from watching HBO. But, hey, I give a shit. I get to watch the great HBO programming and that’s really all I care about.

You know what really amazes me? Not just how many people don’t have HBO, but how many people have never seen any of these shows. Or have any interest in finding out what all the buzz is about. The Sopranos? (“Yeah, I think I heard someone talking about that show. It’s a mob thing, right?”)

And it’s not just HBO. It’s all kinds of things. I’ve quit talking about XM Satellite Radio. I can’t stand the puzzled looks. (“So, it’s radio from a satellite or something? Huh.”) Now, I don’t expect everybody to run out and plop down a couple of hundred bucks for one of these, but how could you not have even heard about it? Same thing for blogging. Articles in Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal… all over the Web. Never heard of it. (“So, it’s a web page…but different?”)

What are you people doing with your lives?

Radio Free Iowa.

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They’re holding a little shindig in Des Moines on Sunday to mark the 15th anniversary of Radio Iowa. It’s one of the networks our company owns and operates and I’m going up for the party. Two of the original staff (O. Kay Henderson and Todd Kimm) are still with the network. That still seems amazing to me. I drove about 40,000 miles back and forth (up and down) across Iowa that first year, signing up radio stations for the network. But it was pretty easy. They all got idea and were eager to have such a service. I really believe I as the one –smartass that I am– that suggested Radio Free Iowa for the name. Once they threw out “Free,” the rest stuck.

Where are they now?

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My first effort at a website dealt with the history of the radio station (KBOA) where my father (and later, I) worked for many years. A visitor to the site recently wrote:

“I have been trying to find Norman Shainberg who was a college classmate and friend. I last saw him in Halloran General Hospital when he arrived from Europe on the Swedish ship “Gripsholm” as a repatriated prisoner of war. Being 83 years myself I naturally wonder if he is still alive and if so how can I contact him.”

I’m trying to help him find his friend. This is one of the things I like best about the Net.

Two possible explanations.

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Number One: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels in the U. S. (the world?) have never stayed in a hotel or motel. Number Two: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels really hate their jobs and transfer that hatred to the people who sleep in the beds they make up each day.

In every hotel I have ever stayed, the beds are made in such a way that when you turn down the bed, the bottom sheet (never fitted) is pulled completely free, forcing you to remake the bed. This is because the maid (or house keeper or whatever the politically correct term) insists on tucking the blanket, the top sheet and the bottom sheet together. You can’t turn back the bed without unmaking it. Problem without a solution? Hardly. Tuck in the bottom sheet and let the top sheet and blanket hand loose (except at the foot of the bed, of course). You know, like you probably do at home. Which explanation is more likely? I hope it’s number two. I hope every maid gets to stay in a hotel/motel at least once every year. And when they turn back the bed, I imagine them dropping to their knees one more time to re-make the bed. Good night.

May I have your autograph?

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I’m told they have these baseball “camps” where middle aged guys can pay to go hang out with real baseball players. That’s pretty much what Gnomedex was for me. Four hundred really smart, badly dressed, but very nice people (mostly guys). If they could tell by looking at me that I was not a true geek, they were too nice to mention it. We were summoned to the Des Moines Marriott by Chris Pirillo…the Lockergnome. Lockergnome is a person, a newsletter (300,000 readers), a website and an online community (called Gnomies). Chris put together an A-List of speakers that included some of the Big Names in the online world: Steve Gibson; Phillip Kaplan; Mark Thompson; Doc Searls; Evan Williams; and Leo Laporte. None of whom disappointed.

Gnomedex.

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If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter. More fanny packs than Disney World. Geeks galore and one wannabe. When TechTV star Leo Laporte showed up at the pre-conference party, I morphed into a 13 year old girl who finds herself on an elevator with the ‘N-Sync boys. A few minutes later Leo drags Megan Marrone (another TechTV star) over to meet one of her fans. You could see her mentally composing the restraining order.