999 The “Merger”
“Merger” is in quotes because in the real world, there’s no such thing. One entity takes over another. The closest we’ve ever come was the “merger” of Chase Bank into Chemical. Chemical took over but more gently than most and then changed its name to Chase because it was better known in more places.
The “Merger” of Chrysler with Daimler and then with Fiat, the “Merger” of the United Church of Christ and The Methodist Church, the “Merger” of the Long Island Jewish-Hillside and North Shore Health systems were all takeovers.
And so is the “Merger” of the two largest and most powerful performing unions, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild.
And even though they’re both unions with long histories and similar goals and many duplicate members, they are two different cultures and those differences spell trouble for members, staff and employers alike.
More than 30 years ago, your correspondent sat on the original exploratory committee and soon thereafter switched sides from “aye” to “nay.”
Now, all these years later, the “ayes” have it. But don’t call it a “Merger.” SAG has acquired AFTRA. Oh, sure, joint presidents and a joint board of directors - for now.
Both unions are dominated by actors. But in the case AFTRA, the radio and television staff people are the backbone and the only steady source of the union’s income. Both unions have said their unemployment rates are in the neighborhood of 95% at any given moment.
So, it’s relying on the low pay grunts to fund the thing and then parade the big names in public when it’s contract time.
Does SAG care about the “radio” part of AFTRA? Likely they’ll say “of course” if asked. But radio is on the ropes again and so is the union, though its independent health and retirement fund recently reported itself to be in decent shape.
Does AFTRA care about Hollywood? That’s hard to tell, but a leading indicator is the recent move of its national headquarters from New York to Los Angeles, the kind of time, effort, energy and financial waste that has come to typify it.
The new entity will be called SAG-AFTRA. That shows you who wears the pants.
These things tend not to work well and never work instantly. Cliques and factions exist within both groups and will multiply exponentially.
Influence over industry -- a major selling point of the “Merger” will remain unchanged. These unions, like most others have given up or been driven to give up their one and only real weapon, the effective strike.
This is a sad day for performers and a sad day for organized labor.
Shrapnel:
--Keith Olbermann may be a pain to work with but he’s effective. So his recent firing by Al Gore’s “Current” TV network does not help people of the Keith persuasion to understand the world of events through a liberal lens. And the guy has made himself persona non grata in so many TV companies he’s unlikely to land anywhere else unless he starts one himself.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Monday, April 02, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
998 A Death in Florida
998 A Death in Florida
What the hell is wrong with us, anyway? How did we get to the 21st century and we’re still getting stories like the killing of Trayvon Martin.
First let’s clear up some stuff:
1. Martyrdom serves no purpose. And young Trayvon’s trip to martyrdom has been put under some clouds. In an era when everyone is a victim, a real victim can get lost in the static and noise. And Trayvon is a real victim.
2. George Zimmerman, the low rent neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the boy, was not held, was not arrested, has -- so far -- not been charged because of a quirky law supposedly enacted to allow prospective mugging, carjacking, robbery, burglary, rape and murder victims to defend themselves.
3. The “Stand Your Ground” law allows deadly force in some circumstances instead of requiring you to run for cover. But it does not prevent you from running for cover, and Zimmerman shot first and ran later.
4. Zimmerman said Martin was “acting suspiciously.” By doing what, walking while black?
Here are some of the other clouds confusing this case. First the “who cares” variety:
1. Zimmerman “cried for days” about the incident. Who cares?
2. Martin was suspended from school because the pot gestapo found “traces” of marijuana (not actual marijuana) his backpack.
2a. What 17 year old doesn’t do an occasional joint?
2b. Who cares?
Now for the legalistic and cultural clouds:
1. Zimmerman called the cops and then disobeyed a direct order to stay back. Later he claimed he shot the kid in self defense. Huh?
2. Early reports say Zimmerman showed signs of injury and his back was wet in a way that made him appear to have been lying on the ground. He had a head injury and a bleeding and possibly broken nose. It sure didn’t seem so in this video courtesy ABC News. (Sorry for the pre-video commercial.)
3. Authorities performed a “tox screen” on Trayvon, looking for the presence of drugs and alcohol. They found none.
4. Authorities did not do a tox screen on Zimmerman so we’ll never know whether he was “on” something that day.
5. Zimmerman’s lawyer paraded a black “friend” of the shooter to swear by all that’s holy that Georgie is not a racist. And in truth he might not be. But again, who pulled the trigger and for what reason?
6. Here come the civil rights profiteers, Jackson and Sharpton, to turn this horrid thing into a national incident. Which it should be. Maybe it would grow better in the sunlight of popular support and doesn’t need these guys to tell us what to think.
And there are questions:
1. Who started the conflict. The best answer is Trayvon Martin and he did that simply by being a young black man in a dark hoodie carrying a package of what turned out to be candy and juice, and then having the audacity to be on the grounds of a gated community where he had every right to be.
2. Should Zimmerman have been arrested? Probably. But he should have been detained and tested, not just given a cursory interview by a police department that gets called on roughly three murders a year.
3. Where are the self described and so-called “pro lifers” in this mix? Does a murder count only when it concerns a fetus? We see plenty of demonstrations for Martin, but not from these guys. They formed a mob of screaming banshees when another Floridian died and the jury acquitted her mother of murder. Is this loss of life different?
Readers of this post may be interested in an excellent story told by Dianne Thompson Stanciel linked here.
Shrapnel:
--Magic Johnson buys the Dodgers and radio WBLS, New York. Not bad for a guy who only a few years ago thought he was dying of AIDS. Let’s hope he can do better with both properties than the previous owners.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
What the hell is wrong with us, anyway? How did we get to the 21st century and we’re still getting stories like the killing of Trayvon Martin.
First let’s clear up some stuff:
1. Martyrdom serves no purpose. And young Trayvon’s trip to martyrdom has been put under some clouds. In an era when everyone is a victim, a real victim can get lost in the static and noise. And Trayvon is a real victim.
2. George Zimmerman, the low rent neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the boy, was not held, was not arrested, has -- so far -- not been charged because of a quirky law supposedly enacted to allow prospective mugging, carjacking, robbery, burglary, rape and murder victims to defend themselves.
3. The “Stand Your Ground” law allows deadly force in some circumstances instead of requiring you to run for cover. But it does not prevent you from running for cover, and Zimmerman shot first and ran later.
4. Zimmerman said Martin was “acting suspiciously.” By doing what, walking while black?
Here are some of the other clouds confusing this case. First the “who cares” variety:
1. Zimmerman “cried for days” about the incident. Who cares?
2. Martin was suspended from school because the pot gestapo found “traces” of marijuana (not actual marijuana) his backpack.
2a. What 17 year old doesn’t do an occasional joint?
2b. Who cares?
Now for the legalistic and cultural clouds:
1. Zimmerman called the cops and then disobeyed a direct order to stay back. Later he claimed he shot the kid in self defense. Huh?
2. Early reports say Zimmerman showed signs of injury and his back was wet in a way that made him appear to have been lying on the ground. He had a head injury and a bleeding and possibly broken nose. It sure didn’t seem so in this video courtesy ABC News. (Sorry for the pre-video commercial.)
3. Authorities performed a “tox screen” on Trayvon, looking for the presence of drugs and alcohol. They found none.
4. Authorities did not do a tox screen on Zimmerman so we’ll never know whether he was “on” something that day.
5. Zimmerman’s lawyer paraded a black “friend” of the shooter to swear by all that’s holy that Georgie is not a racist. And in truth he might not be. But again, who pulled the trigger and for what reason?
6. Here come the civil rights profiteers, Jackson and Sharpton, to turn this horrid thing into a national incident. Which it should be. Maybe it would grow better in the sunlight of popular support and doesn’t need these guys to tell us what to think.
And there are questions:
1. Who started the conflict. The best answer is Trayvon Martin and he did that simply by being a young black man in a dark hoodie carrying a package of what turned out to be candy and juice, and then having the audacity to be on the grounds of a gated community where he had every right to be.
2. Should Zimmerman have been arrested? Probably. But he should have been detained and tested, not just given a cursory interview by a police department that gets called on roughly three murders a year.
3. Where are the self described and so-called “pro lifers” in this mix? Does a murder count only when it concerns a fetus? We see plenty of demonstrations for Martin, but not from these guys. They formed a mob of screaming banshees when another Floridian died and the jury acquitted her mother of murder. Is this loss of life different?
Readers of this post may be interested in an excellent story told by Dianne Thompson Stanciel linked here.
Shrapnel:
--Magic Johnson buys the Dodgers and radio WBLS, New York. Not bad for a guy who only a few years ago thought he was dying of AIDS. Let’s hope he can do better with both properties than the previous owners.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
997 The Hillbillification of America
997 The Hillbillification of America.
We are turning into hayseeds. We worship at the Church of Wal-mart where we get our groceries and our costumes. We vote hayseeds into high office (Carter, Clinton, Bush II,) and we choose from mostly among hayseeds for the next round of guys who will lead our slalom down the mountain and into the sea: Newt, Santorum, Paul.
Oxycontin, hillbilly heroin, is the modern drug of choice along with meth, most of it made at former moonshine sites.
To be clear: there’s nothing wrong with living in the country if that’s what you choose. But both public and private power want to make sure that IS what we choose.
We confuse “American Values” with “Hick Values.” We replace thought and evaluation with “common sense,” which is neither common nor sense, often enough.
All of this is kind of ironically funny, because of the claimed values have nothing to do with the values practiced.
Love they neighbor as thyself? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone? Thou shalt not covet? Rich men passing through the eyes of needles? Tolerance? All the “blessed are(s)...” in the Sermon on the Mount?
What’s the difference between today’s Republican Party and Iraq’s Party of God? What’s the difference between the sleazy corrupt Soviet Communist Party and its sleazy corrupt American politicians who don’t see the ties between religion and communism but preach the excesses of the former as the antidote to the excesses of the latter?
The powers of state and the powers of industry want all of us to wear bib overalls, hate science as they claim to hate the Satan they created, and most of all want us to live in widely scattered little places so we don’t band together for the common good.
All this in the name of “freedom.” Freedom to do or be or from what?
Make us stupider than we already are and we’ll do what we’re told and at the same time think we are making choices.
Shrapnel (Bert Sugar edition):
--Bert Sugar died this week at age 75. Sugar was probably boxing’s greatest historian and always a great “get” for radio and TV interviews. He edited or wrote about 80 books which people read, edited at least three different magazines at various times, and left us more well ordered words about sports and sports memorabilia than the next ten guys down the list.
--Sugar was right about most things, but not entirely right when he ranked the 100 greatest boxers of all time. He correctly put Sugar (no relation) Ray Robinson as number one, but he put Muhammad Ali only at number seven. And ranking Tyson on the list even as #100 was just plain wrong.
--The guy was not limited to sports. He asked great questions. One of his best: “Why does Hawaii have interstate highways?”
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
We are turning into hayseeds. We worship at the Church of Wal-mart where we get our groceries and our costumes. We vote hayseeds into high office (Carter, Clinton, Bush II,) and we choose from mostly among hayseeds for the next round of guys who will lead our slalom down the mountain and into the sea: Newt, Santorum, Paul.
Oxycontin, hillbilly heroin, is the modern drug of choice along with meth, most of it made at former moonshine sites.
To be clear: there’s nothing wrong with living in the country if that’s what you choose. But both public and private power want to make sure that IS what we choose.
We confuse “American Values” with “Hick Values.” We replace thought and evaluation with “common sense,” which is neither common nor sense, often enough.
All of this is kind of ironically funny, because of the claimed values have nothing to do with the values practiced.
Love they neighbor as thyself? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone? Thou shalt not covet? Rich men passing through the eyes of needles? Tolerance? All the “blessed are(s)...” in the Sermon on the Mount?
What’s the difference between today’s Republican Party and Iraq’s Party of God? What’s the difference between the sleazy corrupt Soviet Communist Party and its sleazy corrupt American politicians who don’t see the ties between religion and communism but preach the excesses of the former as the antidote to the excesses of the latter?
The powers of state and the powers of industry want all of us to wear bib overalls, hate science as they claim to hate the Satan they created, and most of all want us to live in widely scattered little places so we don’t band together for the common good.
All this in the name of “freedom.” Freedom to do or be or from what?
Make us stupider than we already are and we’ll do what we’re told and at the same time think we are making choices.
Shrapnel (Bert Sugar edition):
--Bert Sugar died this week at age 75. Sugar was probably boxing’s greatest historian and always a great “get” for radio and TV interviews. He edited or wrote about 80 books which people read, edited at least three different magazines at various times, and left us more well ordered words about sports and sports memorabilia than the next ten guys down the list.
--Sugar was right about most things, but not entirely right when he ranked the 100 greatest boxers of all time. He correctly put Sugar (no relation) Ray Robinson as number one, but he put Muhammad Ali only at number seven. And ranking Tyson on the list even as #100 was just plain wrong.
--The guy was not limited to sports. He asked great questions. One of his best: “Why does Hawaii have interstate highways?”
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
996 The Sit Down
996 The Sit Down
Shrapnel (Dick Cheney edition):
--Conservative activist Dick Cheney’s new heart wasn’t cheap, but fortunately as a retired member of congress he has pretty good health insurance. Still, his friends are worried about his finances and will hold a contest and fundraiser. The winner gets to go duck hunting with him.
--Previously, Cheney had one of those electric shock things installed, the gizmo that sends out an electric charge that re-starts your heart when it stops. What happens, do you think, if a guy with one of those gets Tasered? Don’t know... but it’s a nice thought.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
The two of them used to meet four times a year, alternating at each others’ apartments. One time here, one time there. As they got older and traveling got harder, they made it twice a year, which is how they do it now, only they meet on neutral territory in midtown. Hard traveling.
Schlomo Tzedaka the Last Bronx Jew and Augie Galiano the Last Flatbush Italian got together at Ronnybrook Milk Bar at 9th and 16th. Usually, they pick somewhere on the D line because it’s convenient.
So here they are at Ronny’s for the spring sit down, where the real problems of the real world get solved by these two old coots from different cultures that aren’t all that different.
“We’re here because of Dr. Oz,” says Augie. “Yeah,” ads ‘Mo. “That guy wants us all to go green, so here we are at a (expletive deleted) milk bar. Got milk? Got granola? Got crunchy stuff you don’t know what it is dipped in goo you also don’t know what it is?”
Augie says “the guy Oz gives me the creeps. Skinny guy. Doesn’t know how to eat! Runs around on stage. Says he’s a big time professor at Columbia.”
‘Mo: “I wonder if he runs around his classroom like he runs around on TV. Plus when does he have time to teach, he’s so busy telling us what we should be doing that we’re not.”
Augie: “The ladies love him. Exotic guy. Turkish or something. Looks great in scrubs. I gotta tape it for Fortunata if she’s not home to watch. Personally, I don’t see it. I don’t get it.”
‘Mo: “You can’t get a decent hot dog and a cup of real coffee in this joint. Let’s get out of here and find a cart.”
Augie: “Deal. We can find our own ‘exotic.’ A dollar says the first cart we come to, it’s a skinny guy... speaks only Arabic.”
So the Spring Sit Down turns out to be a Spring Stand Up.
Augie wins the dollar. “So who you voting for President this time?”
‘Mo: “Gotta be that kid from Kenya with the funny name. You?”
Aug: “I wanted Bloomberg. Get him the hell out of City Hall. But I guess it’s going to be that Moslem guy, same as you.”
‘Mo: “Think we could get Dr. Phil to run?”
Aug: “You mean Dr. Oz, right?”
‘Mo: “Yeah. Him, too.”
Shrapnel (Dick Cheney edition):
--Conservative activist Dick Cheney’s new heart wasn’t cheap, but fortunately as a retired member of congress he has pretty good health insurance. Still, his friends are worried about his finances and will hold a contest and fundraiser. The winner gets to go duck hunting with him.
--Previously, Cheney had one of those electric shock things installed, the gizmo that sends out an electric charge that re-starts your heart when it stops. What happens, do you think, if a guy with one of those gets Tasered? Don’t know... but it’s a nice thought.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
995 Efficiency
995 Efficiency
There’s nothing like a little immobility to make you more efficient. What? Yes. Think about it. You’ll realize you’re doing much less moving around but probably getting as much done.
If every step hurts, you’ll figure out how to take fewer steps.
Example: Turning down the bed, a queen or a king, something that can take half a dozen trips around the mattress. You have to fold back a comforter and then blankets and a sheet after removing the decorative pillows. (Aphorism: if you have decorative pillows on your bed you’re either married or gay.) Instead of stacking the pillows in the corner or putting them on the chair -- that requires at least one unnecessary walk-around -- push them off the bed. Fold down half the comforter. Walk to the other side, turn down the rest of the comforter, then stack the pillows. Saves you one trip.
Example: When checking out of the supermarket, put all the cold stuff in one bag and when you get home, plunk that bag down right in front of the refrigerator.
Example: finish the wash and put it all in the dryer. Don’t bother sorting or hanging unless the hanging rack is close at hand.
Think of the discomfort you’ll avoid if you really think about your moment to moment movements over the course of a day.
This, of course, won’t help those of us who are habitual pacers. But somehow, pacing the floor doesn’t provoke the same kind of nerve bending, Advil craving pain you get while having to walk a lot and accomplish something at the same time. A mystery.
Shrapnel:
--Associated Press CEO Tom Curley is retiring next July and will be replaced by Gary Pruitt, now chief of the newspaper company McClatchy, publisher of the Miami Herald and other dailies, large and small. While Curley first seemed a bad choice in bad times, he rode the horse reasonably well in retrospect, considering how important a post his is and how dependent the rest of the world of news is on it. Pruitt has done some good journalism and reasonably good corporate stuff at McClatchy, one of the few publishers that still takes news seriously.
--Whitney Houston, high on coke, accidentally drowned in her bathtub? That’s what they’re saying. How long before the conspiracy theorists get hold of this and start talking about the evil cabal that filled the tub for her then filled her nostrils with nose candy?
--You have to hand it to the Cook Islands in the south Pacific for ingenuity, and not just because they’re a tourist magnet. They issue a lot of gold coins which look like legal tender, but they use the New Zealand dollar for commerce. The gold coins, commemorating anything and everything from Koalas to the Titanic are meant for and sold pretty much exclusively to collectors and somehow that seems inauthentic.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
There’s nothing like a little immobility to make you more efficient. What? Yes. Think about it. You’ll realize you’re doing much less moving around but probably getting as much done.
If every step hurts, you’ll figure out how to take fewer steps.
Example: Turning down the bed, a queen or a king, something that can take half a dozen trips around the mattress. You have to fold back a comforter and then blankets and a sheet after removing the decorative pillows. (Aphorism: if you have decorative pillows on your bed you’re either married or gay.) Instead of stacking the pillows in the corner or putting them on the chair -- that requires at least one unnecessary walk-around -- push them off the bed. Fold down half the comforter. Walk to the other side, turn down the rest of the comforter, then stack the pillows. Saves you one trip.
Example: When checking out of the supermarket, put all the cold stuff in one bag and when you get home, plunk that bag down right in front of the refrigerator.
Example: finish the wash and put it all in the dryer. Don’t bother sorting or hanging unless the hanging rack is close at hand.
Think of the discomfort you’ll avoid if you really think about your moment to moment movements over the course of a day.
This, of course, won’t help those of us who are habitual pacers. But somehow, pacing the floor doesn’t provoke the same kind of nerve bending, Advil craving pain you get while having to walk a lot and accomplish something at the same time. A mystery.
Shrapnel:
--Associated Press CEO Tom Curley is retiring next July and will be replaced by Gary Pruitt, now chief of the newspaper company McClatchy, publisher of the Miami Herald and other dailies, large and small. While Curley first seemed a bad choice in bad times, he rode the horse reasonably well in retrospect, considering how important a post his is and how dependent the rest of the world of news is on it. Pruitt has done some good journalism and reasonably good corporate stuff at McClatchy, one of the few publishers that still takes news seriously.
--Whitney Houston, high on coke, accidentally drowned in her bathtub? That’s what they’re saying. How long before the conspiracy theorists get hold of this and start talking about the evil cabal that filled the tub for her then filled her nostrils with nose candy?
--You have to hand it to the Cook Islands in the south Pacific for ingenuity, and not just because they’re a tourist magnet. They issue a lot of gold coins which look like legal tender, but they use the New Zealand dollar for commerce. The gold coins, commemorating anything and everything from Koalas to the Titanic are meant for and sold pretty much exclusively to collectors and somehow that seems inauthentic.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
994 Siri Exposed
994 Siri Exposed!
So you have one of those new iPhones with the built in talking woman you’ve taken as your personal assistant, Siri. Well, there are things you should know about her.You think she’s this innocent thing who lives inside the telephone and is ready at all hours to do your bidding... to find your location on the map... to lead you to a gas station in walking distance... to remind you about tomorrow’s dentist appointment.
And, yes, Siri does all that. But Wessays™ Investigations has discovered the truth about her, and it’s not pretty. Well, it IS pretty, but not in a g-rated sense.
Siri is a retired porn star. And nude pictures have emerged!
click here for picture: Siri circa 2003. (Photo courtesy of Thatsmyebabe.com)
This of course shows an R rated picture. She still has her top on. But she shows a lot of leg. So you get the idea.
Siri started life as a poor little girl from a small town in Wisconsin and worked her way to the big city, Palo Alto, by waiting tables and practicing her second language, Monoto-speech. And as anyone who has her trapped in an iPhone knows, that’s what she understands best. A good Midwestern upbringing helps. Of course, you have to train yourself so she can understand you, too.
One myth that circles around Siri is plain-not-true. She is not related to the woman working inside the Garmin GPS. But it is possible she’s related to the woman working inside the Verizon phone GPS. We’ll let you know.
Siri is underpaid. But not as badly underpaid as you think. Some people believe because of her name, she’s from Sri Lanka or some other slave state where Apple makes its electronics... places where people are REALLY underpaid. Siri is short for Sirinonomous. But they have not as yet trained her to either say or recognize that name. Tough on a poor farm girl from Wisconsin. (Or was it Nebraska?)
Anyway, the porn career is beginning to haunt her and Apple may have to find a new girl.
Shrapnel:
--Here’s another annoying little “improvement” from Google... in the “docs” application. The vertical cursor starts level with the line you’re typing and as you move down the page, it sinks lower and lower until the top touches only the bottom of the word. You can’t turn this “feature” on or off, but they can... and do... at what seems like random times.
--Here’s another annoying little fact about Sears, the soon-to-be REIT/RIP. Not only do they do not attract enough customers to make a decent buck, but they paid their CEO about $10 million including stock options. That doesn’t include the private jet that takes him from his home in Philadelphia to his office in Hoffman Estates, near Chicago, for which the bill last year was about $800,000.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
So you have one of those new iPhones with the built in talking woman you’ve taken as your personal assistant, Siri. Well, there are things you should know about her.You think she’s this innocent thing who lives inside the telephone and is ready at all hours to do your bidding... to find your location on the map... to lead you to a gas station in walking distance... to remind you about tomorrow’s dentist appointment.
And, yes, Siri does all that. But Wessays™ Investigations has discovered the truth about her, and it’s not pretty. Well, it IS pretty, but not in a g-rated sense.
Siri is a retired porn star. And nude pictures have emerged!
click here for picture: Siri circa 2003. (Photo courtesy of Thatsmyebabe.com)
This of course shows an R rated picture. She still has her top on. But she shows a lot of leg. So you get the idea.
Siri started life as a poor little girl from a small town in Wisconsin and worked her way to the big city, Palo Alto, by waiting tables and practicing her second language, Monoto-speech. And as anyone who has her trapped in an iPhone knows, that’s what she understands best. A good Midwestern upbringing helps. Of course, you have to train yourself so she can understand you, too.
One myth that circles around Siri is plain-not-true. She is not related to the woman working inside the Garmin GPS. But it is possible she’s related to the woman working inside the Verizon phone GPS. We’ll let you know.
Siri is underpaid. But not as badly underpaid as you think. Some people believe because of her name, she’s from Sri Lanka or some other slave state where Apple makes its electronics... places where people are REALLY underpaid. Siri is short for Sirinonomous. But they have not as yet trained her to either say or recognize that name. Tough on a poor farm girl from Wisconsin. (Or was it Nebraska?)
Anyway, the porn career is beginning to haunt her and Apple may have to find a new girl.
Shrapnel:
--Here’s another annoying little “improvement” from Google... in the “docs” application. The vertical cursor starts level with the line you’re typing and as you move down the page, it sinks lower and lower until the top touches only the bottom of the word. You can’t turn this “feature” on or off, but they can... and do... at what seems like random times.
--Here’s another annoying little fact about Sears, the soon-to-be REIT/RIP. Not only do they do not attract enough customers to make a decent buck, but they paid their CEO about $10 million including stock options. That doesn’t include the private jet that takes him from his home in Philadelphia to his office in Hoffman Estates, near Chicago, for which the bill last year was about $800,000.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
993 Bill Ahearn: Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished
993 Bill Ahearn: Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished
This goes back to 1971, which is a long time ago by today’s standards. This tall, lanky, pipe smoking guy, Bill Ahearn, is back from ‘Nam and he’s working what they called “The Early” at the Associated Press. The early was AP-ese for overnight. Everywhere in news, overnights gather both the very quiet and also the very rowdy types. Kind of gets them out of the way of “regular” people.
Ahearn was -- and is -- the former. Have a cup of coffee and a conversation with him and later you realize that he didn’t say much, even though you thought he did while the coffee was going on. Gotta watch those quiet types.
Long story short, Bill rose through the ranks at the AP to become executive editor, the top news job and only one step below president/CEO. When that job showed signs of opening up, most of us thought Bill was in like Flynn. By then, he was a fixture of around 30 years service.
Instead, they canned him. No reason given. He said at the time and for years afterward he didn’t know why. Quiet guys are like that.
So what’s a guy do who gets axed from the most important job at the most important news agency? Goes to the competition.
When all this happened in 2003, Bloomberg News swooped in and hired him. But there wasn’t really a job opening and they didn’t know what to do with him. They made work. After all, this was a star catch. “We’ll figure out what to do with him later.”
Now, here it is 2012 and Bloomberg News fires Ahearn. But this time we can at least make an educated guess about why.
Seems he was managing an investigative story that the headless chickens of the executive suite didn’t much care for. The writer was a guy called Craig Copetas, previously from Rolling Stone magazine and the Wall Street Journal and another star catch for Bloomberg News.
Copetas was nosing around allegations of human rights abuses in Dubai. Ahearn was handling the New York end as editor. Evidently, the people running Bloomberg’s main business, the financial data and trading terminals, raised a red flag. Those terminals are each good for up to around $1600 a month in rental fees and there are a quarter million in service, many of them off shore, many of those in Dubai. Quite a revenue stream. “Let’s not upset the customers” can be an operating phrase. A person with knowledge of Bloomberg practices says the company would disagree with this account. A spokeswoman for the company is quoted by journalism blogger Jim Romenesko as saying Bill “...has left the company. We wish him well.” That’s Corpspeak for “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead.”
Those stubborn journalists on the news side of the company may have been “encouraged” to drop or change the story. And they may have replied with some impolite variation of “no thank you.”
Thing about investigative journalists and wire service-trained editors is the fanciful belief that there really is a wall between the sales guys and the news guys. There may be at traditional wire agencies. Elsewhere, no way. And when it’s a matter of income vs. outcome, there’s no contest.
Meantime, the news company that just had to have both of these guys suddenly realizes it can live without them. And it can, but at a loss. And the loss is ours.
Shrapnel:
--What goes around comes around. McDonald’s has apologized to the government of China for selling outdated chicken. Take that, you lead-painting, pet food-poisoning commies.
(善有善報，惡有惡報。麥當勞中國政府道歉，賣老雞。拿去，鉛畫，寵物食品中毒黨員.)
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
This goes back to 1971, which is a long time ago by today’s standards. This tall, lanky, pipe smoking guy, Bill Ahearn, is back from ‘Nam and he’s working what they called “The Early” at the Associated Press. The early was AP-ese for overnight. Everywhere in news, overnights gather both the very quiet and also the very rowdy types. Kind of gets them out of the way of “regular” people.
Ahearn was -- and is -- the former. Have a cup of coffee and a conversation with him and later you realize that he didn’t say much, even though you thought he did while the coffee was going on. Gotta watch those quiet types.
Long story short, Bill rose through the ranks at the AP to become executive editor, the top news job and only one step below president/CEO. When that job showed signs of opening up, most of us thought Bill was in like Flynn. By then, he was a fixture of around 30 years service.
Instead, they canned him. No reason given. He said at the time and for years afterward he didn’t know why. Quiet guys are like that.
So what’s a guy do who gets axed from the most important job at the most important news agency? Goes to the competition.
When all this happened in 2003, Bloomberg News swooped in and hired him. But there wasn’t really a job opening and they didn’t know what to do with him. They made work. After all, this was a star catch. “We’ll figure out what to do with him later.”
Now, here it is 2012 and Bloomberg News fires Ahearn. But this time we can at least make an educated guess about why.
Seems he was managing an investigative story that the headless chickens of the executive suite didn’t much care for. The writer was a guy called Craig Copetas, previously from Rolling Stone magazine and the Wall Street Journal and another star catch for Bloomberg News.
Copetas was nosing around allegations of human rights abuses in Dubai. Ahearn was handling the New York end as editor. Evidently, the people running Bloomberg’s main business, the financial data and trading terminals, raised a red flag. Those terminals are each good for up to around $1600 a month in rental fees and there are a quarter million in service, many of them off shore, many of those in Dubai. Quite a revenue stream. “Let’s not upset the customers” can be an operating phrase. A person with knowledge of Bloomberg practices says the company would disagree with this account. A spokeswoman for the company is quoted by journalism blogger Jim Romenesko as saying Bill “...has left the company. We wish him well.” That’s Corpspeak for “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead.”
Those stubborn journalists on the news side of the company may have been “encouraged” to drop or change the story. And they may have replied with some impolite variation of “no thank you.”
Thing about investigative journalists and wire service-trained editors is the fanciful belief that there really is a wall between the sales guys and the news guys. There may be at traditional wire agencies. Elsewhere, no way. And when it’s a matter of income vs. outcome, there’s no contest.
Meantime, the news company that just had to have both of these guys suddenly realizes it can live without them. And it can, but at a loss. And the loss is ours.
Shrapnel:
--What goes around comes around. McDonald’s has apologized to the government of China for selling outdated chicken. Take that, you lead-painting, pet food-poisoning commies.
(善有善報，惡有惡報。麥當勞中國政府道歉，賣老雞。拿去，鉛畫，寵物食品中毒黨員.)
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
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4759 The Supreme Court
C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing. You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the U.S....
