PMSimon.com

The loss of the US Men's Olympic basketball squad to Puerto Rico has me so depressed that I can't write a column this...

No, actually, I don't really care about the US Men's Olympic basketball squad.

OK, the Phillies' miserable home stand has...

Forget it. They've been done for weeks, and I know it, and I'm too far away to really get caught up in that.

I... er... I...

I ran out of excuses.

Maybe I'll come up with a better one tomorrow.

 Share

This is what you get when you're a nice guy who gets traded away and finally makes his first appearance in a visiting uniform:

They had a sellout, more or less, at Dodger Stadium to welcome back Paul LoDuca (and Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion, too, or, as Tracie Savage on KFWB blurted on the pregame show, "LoDuca, Guillermo, and Mota"). The first inning reaction: standing O. First pitch: big swing and a miss. Result of at-bat: double play.

You can go home again. You just might not be pleased with everything that happens.

(The Marlins won anyway, and LoDuca was part of the rally against Darren Dreifort, who probably wishes he had been traded rather than get booed by a sellout crowd that resents the fact that he isn't Guillermo Mota)

 Share

From another old TV Guide, this time from February 1960 in Philadelphia:

FLORIDA'S
Most
Amazing
Investment
Opportunity

1 1/4 acres for $695, but hurry, the price WILL go up June 15, 1960. Ten bucks down, ten bucks a month and the land is yours.

So I saw this and I was curious. I know Orlando- I used to do some work there- and I wanted to see if the area for sale ever panned out.

I believe this is the place:

(Thanks to mapquest.com)

The location is fine- off South International Drive near Disney- but there's evidently nothing on it. Florida... undeveloped... "lakes" all around... the word "swamp" comes to mind.

You did, however, get "100% OIL & MINERAL RIGHTS."

 Share

I can't make a decision.

I made it all the way to the point where all I needed to do was to press one button and I'd be ordering a new computer... and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Spending two grand on a new computer is difficult- the problem is not justifying the buy, 'cause I DO need it, but it's deciding which one. I was about to pull the trigger on a customized HP, but I kept thinking maybe I should go for something else, because HP's service reputation ain't all that, and so I've looked at the Sony (ditto). I already have a Dell and I'm not all that hot about their customer service or prices. MPC is out- I vowed never to buy a Micron again, and I won't. Apple- no. Gotta be a PC. And I want PCI-Express graphics, a dual layer DVD burner, a good sound card, plenty of inputs, and some open drive bays and PCI slots. And a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, and no monitor. Is that too much to ask?

No, making a decision is too much to ask. I've looked at Alienware, Cyberpower, iBuyPower, IBM, Dell, HP, and Sony. I need fairly high end, but at low cost. Should be easy, right? (No, of COURSE I realize it isn't)

Suggestions are welcome.

 Share

"We're going to have to let you go."

Those are the words you hear when you're being fired by a radio station. "We're going to have to let you go."

No, you don't. You can keep me on. You don't HAVE to let me go.

I was reminded of this while listening to some of KPOP/San Diego's last day as a Standards station. Clear Channel's changing the format to the liberal talk thing that they're using in Portland and Miami, with a local show in mornings followed by the unbelievably dull Al Franken and the more entertaining but strident Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz. Fair enough, but it was sad hearing SDRadio.net's Chris Carmichael talking to jock Jerry G. Bishop and saying that the news was "leaked" when Randi talked about it on the air July 1st, and Jerry responding that he and the staff hadn't been told about it at that time and really weren't told much of anything while the Air America people were trumpeting the move on the air for weeks.

That's typical in radio. I've found out about my lack-of-future in trade magazines (swiftly denied by the GM, who, naturally, was telling less than the truth), by rumor, by weeks of management and others walking around me like an invisible wall had been erected, word clearly having spread to everyone except me that the end was near. But it's appalling when your replacement tells the world you've been fired before YOU'VE been told you've been fired.

I'd hope for more class, but it's radio. We have no class.

 Share

Another L.A. local alternaweekly article about radio with me in it written by Johnny Angel?

Certainly. Coming right up. Click here.

And I am not "bookish." Doughy? Maybe. "Bookish"? Moi? Nah.

 Share

From 1960 again, something designed to get you to drop everything and tune in... for laughter!

Looks like a rip-roaring good time, huh? Just check out that wacky expression- it practically SCREAMS "Comedy Tonight!" Ha ha! That wacky M. Hulot! Always a laff riot!

More like a vacation FROM laughter.

Of course, one could posit that this speaks volumes about the Gallic sense of humor, but Jerry Lewis did that already.

(Actually, I quite like the M. Hulot movies. "Mon Oncle" is, despite a Luddite perspective on modernism, an amusing snapshot of late 50's Paris and the clash between old and new. But I digress. And I fill up another item with an old TV Guide scan. Hey, it's the weekend and I don't get paid for this. Whaddya want from me?)

 Share