After The Deluge

Two years since Katrina and what have we learned, Charlie Brown?

A lot...much of it wrong...

What I Did On Vacation

Sat and waited an extra hour for our flight out of Bismarck, wondered aloud why any airline would call itself NWA, flew over the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis, sat in traffic on I-95 south of Philly, got disillusioned with the beach (see previous posting), bought a doggie bed for my father's Labrador, went to the Philly zoo (where my wife rode a camel), hit a couple of family cookouts, attended a wine-tasting in Pennsylvania, visited the new Wilmington, DE Clear Channel studios, indulged in some tax-free shopping, took in a couple of movies, drank a lot of wine, bought my wife bagels & lox (while I downed Taylor Pork Roll), tried unsucessfully to catch up on my reading...

...and grew a goatee. My wife loves it. I don't like the itch. Stay tuned for further developments...

"Get Off The Phone, Ya Creep..."

Another small but enouraging sign that spoken-word radio may be bouncing back: WABC Radio in NYC has re-hired the legendary Bob Grant. Grant is one guy who, like his mentor Joe Pyne, knows how to entertain by getting a rise out of people (among the current crop of squawkers, only Stern and Michael Savage are even in the same league - and Savage only partly). His return to the New York dial is certainly welcome (though it just makes the nobodies around him all the more unlistenable by comparison)...

Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home

Thomas Wolfe and Joe South both nailed it.

My wife and I just finished a short vacation-within-a-vacation at the resort area I've always called my Favorite Place On Earth.

Sadly, I may have to rethink that notion. The area is overdeveloped beyond recognition. That, and the ultra-corrupt local political situation have made it the worst of all possible worlds: a paved-over tourist trip operated by backward-thinking yokels who don't even bother to conceal their hatred of the out-of-towners who drive in every weekend twixt Memorial Day and Labor Day, intent on blowing as much dough as possible.

Sorta like the worst of Florida, only with crappy weather six months out of the year.

There is, alas, no future in the past; the only real remedy is forward momentum. If my little trip down Memory Lane (now featuring a Starbucks on every block) has showed me anything, it's that it's high time to get my career back on track...

...and leave the Rank Strangers behind (with the emphasis on the "rank").

Onward and upward.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (dum dum dum dum) In The Summah-Time!

The wife and I will be on vacation back east starting Monday 8/13. I'll check in with updates (eat your heart out). In the meantime, click here periodically and you might even see me...