About 1000 miles north of the Gulf Coast, we seldom feel the devastation and effects of the hurricanes that plague Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolina's. The remnants of the storms usually crawl up here a few days later with a smattering of warm refreshing rain from the Atlantic for a day... but Ike was different!Arriving with winds of up 60 to 70 miles an hours, we lost power about 5:00PM Sunday. And so did much of the area. 300,000 homes were out of power come Monday morning. No electricity at work... no electricity at home... And with many of the electric company's trucks having been sent out to help assist the people in Texas... repairs were slow in coming.Of course the people just across the street had power and lights the whole time! As always... Grrr!Tuesday morning, power still had not been restored, So I eventually decided to check out a movie and drove down to the theater. No power there either! Despite the nearby restaurants have full power and serving tons of customers. I ended up checking out a bookstore (Barnes & Nobles). And by the time I arrived home at 4:00PM Tuesday afternoon... power had finally been restored for over an hour (almost 48 hours without electricity). Before I left five trucks from New Jersey had been roaming the streets so the out of state help must have the job!At last!!! It's so nice to be able to turn a light on again!!Power is also restored at work... via a generator. True power may not be restored until the end of the week.Ike will be remembered... for a long time.McDoogleYour Challenge: Create a hurricane of your own. Start with a squirt gun and a big fan and work your way up to a Cat 3 storm from there. Be sure to give your hurricane a really fun name. Like Otto!
Yes, it's Season #1 of WKRP in Cincinnati - that great comedy series from the late 70's. For those who don't remember or didn't see (?) the original series... a failing radio station in Cincinnati regulated to playing oldies (think the 30's and 40's oldies), hires a new station manager who abruptly changes the format to.... gasp!.... Rock n' Roll! What a great ensemble cast. Standout performances are Johnny Fever by Howard Hessman (layed back doesn't even begin to describe him. Oh, by the way...... BOOGER!), Jennifer E. Marlow portrayed by Loni Anderson (the beautiful secretary who wouldn't do secretarial work. 'It's in my contract!'. Smart and Sassy, and may have enjoyed tormenting Herb Tarlick the salesman), Les Nesman the news report (his hillbilly hick news reports on hogs and other farm critters in contrast to the rock format made for an unusual merging of cultures. And Les' yellow taped office 'walls' - very off-beat). Jan Smithers played the shy Bailey Quarters trying to establish herself in the media biz, but rumors are that Jan really was shy and there really wasn't a lot of acting going on... I also have a new respect for the actor who played Herb Tarlick - while I never cared for his part, he did a good job to playing part convincingly! Tim Reid's Venus Flytrap is also unique, good, and unbelievable. Gary Sandy's performance as Andy Travis the hip new station manager is probably the weakest performance of the lot. Why these actors didn't have more success post-WKRP is a bit of a mystery to me.The DVD set contains 2 Commentary episodes with the writer Hugh Wilson, Loni Anderson, and 'Herb Tralick'. A lot of fun facts, and behind the scenes secrets are revealed. Even the creation of the songs in the opening and end credits. The ending credits songs isn't even a song... it's just nonsensical words played by a friend of the crew looking for work! Listen closely... see if anything makes sense to you! Also... the famous turkey drop promotion for Thanksgiving episode is actually based on a real radio promotion event which took place in Texas where a manager really did believe turkeys could fly and threw them out of a helicopter. And more...The DVD set also contain two story featurettes. One (Do My Eyes Say Yes?) is the turbulent relationship between Jennifer and Herb and his continual frustration with getting anyway with the quip Jennifer, and her ability to avoid anything resembling secretarial work. The second (The Fish Story) told how the writers were being strong armed into writing an episode with physical humor in it, more like 'Laverne and Shirley' - less character driven, issue driven stories. So the writer, Hugh Wilson, decides to create the most far fetched episode he can think of: 'The Fish Story'! And the plan backfires. To Hugh's dismay The Fish Story is a big hit and one the the highest watched show in WKRP history!DVD rating: B+McDoogleYour challenge: Start a radio station of your own. Tools required: Microphone, wires and cords, Speakers, a radio frequency, and a little modulation, and some duct tape wouldn't hurt. Must be able to speak fluently, sometimes for hours at a time.
