“Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, then you destroy yourself.”
Richard Nixon, August 9th, 1974
Month: September 2016
A Tale Of Two Pauls
I’ve had the same cell phone number since September 1st, 2011. As it turns out, the guy who had my number before I did was another guy with the first name of Paul who’s an insurance agent.
So, the last five years have been spent fielding calls from people who insist I’m “Paul The Insurance Agent” and not me, “Paul, The Non-Insurance Agent.”
I block most of these people, but some don’t get the message after all these years. So, of course, they leave messages for the other guy, always using the phrase “please return my call” when the call. But, since I’m not the Paul in question, how can I?
(I’ve also noticed some of these companies get MAD at you if you dare to take the time and tell them you’re dialing the wrong number, as if it’s their birthright or something.)
One day a couple of years ago, they call me for the umpteenth time, and I pounced on it. I told them I was not the insurance agent, and that if you put my cell number into Google, you’d find him. The lady on the other end of the phone profusely thanked me.
Wouldn’t you know it? A couple of weeks ago, they called me back, looking for the insurance guy, asking to please return the call, as if I never had given them any guidance at all. You’d think people in the communication business would LISTEN, right?
I suppose the moral of the story is not to help people who don’t help you, but I refuse to think this is the better course of action.
Flashback: “Theme From S.W.A.T.” by Rhythm Heritage
Am I the only one who thinks this 1976 chart-topping hit sounds an awful lot like the “Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes five years earlier?
Heck, it could be just me.
Pauly The Walmart Janitor
When I can’t pull a story out of the present, as with the writer’s block I had yesterday, I share with you a story from my life.
One of the reasons I talk about Walmart frequently on this blog is that I was a janitor for a store in southeast Charlotte, North Carolina for a year from 1999 to 2000. (That’s a regular Walmart, not one of the Supercenters.) It was pretty mundane, actually. I cleaned and buffed the floors at various times around the store. On occasion, we’d also remove the wax and re-wax a given area of the store, which I was never all that good at. I would also vacuum and sweep the carpeted floors when I wasn’t giving the floors their often needed wax-ons and wax-offs. If emergencies arose, such as spills, or if they needed an extra hand to make sure someone got to their car safe, I’d likely be called to tend to it.
Let me put it to you this way: 16 years and change from having worked there, if you gave me the tools and asked me to do the same job today, I couldn’t remember it to save my life.
A few months after I started working there, I wasn’t the only member of my family there: my mother began working at the same store, which is probably why I stuck around so long.
The one day I’ll always remember was the shift leading up to Black Friday of 1999. My boss Steve, a great guy, was working everyone over as if the store’s appearance was a life or death struggle. You know how it’s said Christmas sometimes turns normal people into maniacs? That was us that night. My goal was to keep a low profile and do whatever my higher-ups wanted.
Remember that this was 17 years ago, and Black Friday that year is probably a cake walk compared to the “zombie apocalypse” it is now. The store re-opened for business at 6:00 am the day after Thanksgiving. Usually I got off work at 6:30, but they told me to take off before the store was besieged by shoppers, as the next shift was already in place to handle them. I left around 6:02, and I was lucky not to be knocked down by the hordes of people who came in, frantically looking for the best deals to put under their Christmas trees.
Just another one of the many stories of my Forrest Gump like existence.
Death To The Color Rush!
I can’t be the only fan on the planet that hates these “Color Rush” uniforms that the Thursday Night NFL games use, can I?
(For that matter, remember when the NFL games were either Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and Monday night? When will we get an NFL game every day of the week? It can’t be too far behind now.)
When the Bills and Jets played each other last year, they looked like human-shaped Christmas ornaments on a football field. When the Bucs and the then St. Louis Rams played (as I mentioned in the caption), they looked like human condiment bottles of mustard (the Rams) and ketchup (the Bucs).
Needless to say, I hope this is a short lived fad, because to me, this looks like a freak show. Now, if they livened up the helmet designs a bit, that would be a nice touch. But that’s just me.
Hillary’s Health, Redux
After her collapse (or whatever words the media uses to spin what happened Sunday) at the 9/11 ceremonies in New York this weekend, it is more evident there’s something seriously wrong with the health of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate.
I first mentioned this back on August 20th, when Dr. Drew Pinsky mentioned his concerns over the kind of health care Hillary has gotten. Now it has come out that Hillary has pneumonia, which is a very serious health problem if gone untreated. However, this begs the question: could Hillary have an even greater health problem, considering she also had pneumonia back in October of 2012? (Use air quotes here if you so choose.)
Not totally impossible that she could have had it then and now, but what are the odds? How possible is it that she has a greater health problem that’s being covered up?
Those are the questions to ponder as the election nears. Do we elect a candidate in seemingly less than good health, or will this be the issue that costs her the Presidency?
Aircheck: WNWS (Miami), 7/4/1978
In honor of what would have been Stan Major’s 81st birthday this Friday past (September 9th), I thought I’d play his July 4th, 1978 interview with former President Nixon.
After his 1974 resignation, the former President didn’t give many interviews to the media, with the exception of the famous exchanges with British reporter David Frost. But on this Independence Day, Stan was lucky enough to get a hold of him to tell him he’d fare well (or so it was thought at that time) if he re-ran as President. But, under the terms of the 22nd Amendment, since he was elected twice (1968 and 1972), that would make him ineligible to ever run again.
As I’ve mentioned before, I was very fortunate to have worked with Stan briefly at the Sun Radio Network in 1991 and 1992. Political leanings aside, I still say to this day he was an exceptional talent who could have wrote his own ticket there if SRN didn’t let him go. I don’t think it’s a coincidence the network folded a little over three years later.
9/11 Plus 15
(Programming note: I’ll do our usual Sunday “aircheck” tomorrow. Just didn’t want to pass up on doing a 9/11 commentary today.)
It’s that day on the calendar again, and it’s not my favorite of days. I’m also sure I’m not alone thinking that.
I’ve mentioned in the past where I was that day: watching it on TV from home in Largo, Florida. Nobody saw an attack like this coming. Who uses planes as weapons, and who uses these kind of weapons on large buildings? Manhattan was quickly cut off from the rest of the world, and just as quickly and extraordinarily, all commuter planes were quickly grounded to make sure any other planes couldn’t used as weapons. Two more planes crashed that day, one into the Pentagon, one in Pennsylvania on the way who knows where.
I was more than five and half years removed from working in radio. To be honest, it was the one day in my life I missed being in the business. There was so much to explain, so much to try and comprehend. How would we respond? How could we respond to a terrorist band who operates everywhere, yet nowhere?
Of course, society as we know it hasn’t been the same since. We went from having a son of a former President being POTUS, to the first man of color to become POTUS. In less than two months, we will either have the first woman and first First Lady become President, or a real estate/reality TV mogul with no political experience becomes President.
It was an event that has impacted history like perhaps no other event ever has. A day we should truly never forget.
Concussion Protocol, Or A Lack Thereof
I watched the first NFL game of the 2016-17 season the other night, with Denver beating Carolina 21-20. Both teams played well, and I’d be shocked if both of team aren’t in the 12-team playoff field come January.
The one thing I noticed in the second half is that Cam Newton, the star Carolina quarterback who led the Panthers to the Super Bowl last season, was looking more and more unlike himself as the game progressed. He got into a shoving match with a Denver player trying to pump the crowd up in the first half, and should have been penalized for it in my view.
He was getting hit in the helmet by Denver rushers leading with their helmets on at least four occasions. The helmet-to-helmet contact should have been penalties on the Denver defense, but several such incidents went uncalled. Newton was looked at for possible back and ankle injuries, but kept playing through the barrage of battering he was getting.
After the game, he couldn’t remember the final drive that resulted in a missed field goal that would have given Carolina the win. That reminded me of an HBO fight back in the 1980’s I watched when a boxer named Marlon Starling got knocked out on a punch that didn’t land until after the bell for the end of a round had sounded. He then couldn’t recall being knocked out when interviewed after the fight. (Initially, it was ruled Starling had lost the 1988 fight, though the decision later became a no-contest, a ruling rarely used in the sport when something takes place beyond the control of the fighters.)
The NFL has a “concussion protocol” system in place so that players under the suspicion of being concussed during a game can be looked at. It was revealed after the game that no one bothered to look at Cam. Why? Because he’s a star player? In that case, doesn’t the protocol hinder better players and help protect the weaker gladiators? (It was revealed later on Friday that to physicians at the game, Newton didn’t show any symptoms of a concussion.)
I get football is a physical game, and a violent one at that. But it’s clear to me that the current system is very flawed. Thursday night was quite an example of the loopholes in the present scheme of things. The last and only death on an NFL field was when Chuck Hughes of the Detroit Lions died on October 24, 1971 of a heart attack in the middle of a game. I was a little over a month and a half old when that happened. I truly hope it’s not about to happen again.
Flashback: “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani
Yep, I know the song has some dirty lyrics, but if this song doesn’t make you want to dance, something is wrong with you.
32 Tribes
Once again, it’s time for the 32 “tribes” of the National Football League to reemerge, and for the next 22 weeks, play 267 games, the last one to determine the 51st Super Bowl champion in Houston come February of 2017.
This season, we welcome Los Angeles back to the kingdom (thus removing St. Louis from it) with its prodigal tribe of Rams, housed out of their once and future legendary arena, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as they await more modern digs in the suburb of Inglewood.
Last year, Denver’s tribe of Broncos turned back the aggressive challenge of Carolina’s Panthers to take the 50th Super Bowl trophy. I see neither team returning to the big game this year, with Tampa Bay’s Buccaneers and Atlanta’s Falcons teaming up to provide a formidable challenge to the Panthers. Carolina might win their division, but they might come out of the fray too badly damaged to not become roadkill in the playoffs in the realm of the National Conference.
In the AFC, I like the Bengals of Cincinnati. In the NFC, the football might bounce Seattle’s way, two seasons removed from an unfortunate fate in the 49th Super Bowl that cost team back-to-back championships and gave New England’s Patriots it’s most recent crown. Birds and tigers in Houston, oh my!
A Couple Of Days Off, And A Quiet Birthday
I had a quiet birthday yesterday, which is just the way I wanted it, actually. When you get to my age of now being 45, you kind of hope this day passes quietly.
The only thing I did different is where I had my birthday dinner. For the last 10 years (2006-2015), I’d be treated to the Zom Hee Chinese Restaurant in Seminole for dinner, and I felt that had run it’s course. I suggested the Red Lobster on US 19 instead, and those flipping the bill agreed. Nothing against Zom Hee, I just needed to change things up a bit.
I had a steak and salad dinner and some Samuel Adams beer to wash it down with, with plenty of biscuits and cole slaw. The waitress pushed their “endless shrimp” hard, and as some of you know, employees at a food point pushing their own (or management’s) agenda as to what you should eat is a pet peeve of mine.
I got congratulatory e-mails, tweets, and Facebook posts from a slew of people, because that’s the age we live in. They used to say on the TV show Cheers that everybody knows your name, well in our technologically advanced age, these are the places everyone knows your birthday.
As you may have noticed, I took a couple of days off from blogging, which I haven’t done in nearly a year. Just felt I could use that break, plus my favorite TV show isn’t giving me a heck of a lot of material as its 18th season winds down. No, I don’t have any interest in covering the fall online-only extra season when that starts, one season a year is plenty for me.
Well, back to my regularly scheduled life.
A Slice Of Big Pauly 