Things I Want (Or Need) To Know

  • Have you tried to sign up for MLB TV because Fox pulled the World Series from Cablevision in a fee dispute?  I did.  I can’t figure out why, after taking my money, MLB decided that I’m blacked out and wants my credit card information again so they can straighten it out.  How does that help, if they already have that information and already got it wrong?

  • I wonder if the hotel I stayed in last week thinks it’s fooling anyone by designating the top ten floors of the place penthouses.

  • A teenaged boogie boarder was killed recently in a shark attack.  I’ve seen on TV that many scientists believe that sharks attack surfers and divers because they mistake them for seals.  I’ve also read that sharks see in color.  If both of those things are true, why does anyone wear a black wetsuit?

  • Sears and Kmart (same company) have revived lay away plans for shopping.  Lay away laid low once credit cards became ubiquitous.  Do you think that letting people pay over eight weeks will make that big a difference in their sales?

Things I Know

  • I said two or three years ago after visiting Lake Placid NY that my travels would be more enjoyable if Ben & Jerry’s was open for breakfast.  I haven’t revisited Lake Placid since then, but at the Jet Blue Terminal at Kennedy Airport on Thursday, Ben & Jerry’s was open for breakfast!  Haagen Dazs in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas isn’t though.

  • President Obama visited Las Vegas again today (third time) to stump for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  I suppose the President and his advisors know that there is early voting in Nevada, so some of the people he hopes to convince have already voted.

  • According to news reports this week, Osama Bin Laden is living in relative comfort in a house in Pakistan.  If we can’t blow him up with a predator drone, we should at least get his bank to foreclose on his mortgage.

  • I’m in Las Vegas where I walked through the New York New York casino today.  In the place, they have a food stand called “Stadium Snacks.”  Comparing the prices there with the prices at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, I have to say the prices at Stadium Snacks are nowhere near high enough, and Stadium Snacks is the only place I’ve found in Las Vegas I can say that about.

  • I don’t patronize pawn shops, but the only one I’ve ever seen a line outside is Gold and Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Boulevard.  That’s the one the TV show “Pawn Stars” is about.  We didn’t stop, get on line and go in.

  • You can’t argue with the sign on a souvenir stand that says, ““If It’s In Stock, We Have It.”  However, before I’d agree that the particular store is the world’s largest souvenir stand, as another of its signs claims, I’d want to measure South of the Border.

  • The economy in Las Vegas is among the worst in the country.  New unemployment figures say it’s 15% in Vegas.  Starbucks seems to be doing just fine though.  I’ve seen more than one Starbucks in more than one of the casinos I’ve visited so far.

  • I’ve been in communities with smaller populations than some of the big Vegas hotel-casinos.  I’ve been in lots of communities like that.

  • For Halloween, I don’t recommend going out as Lady Gaga in a raw meat dress.  There are probably dogs in your neighborhood and that could get ugly.  If you’re flying someplace, I don’t recommend bringing that dress on the plane as carrion luggage either.

  • If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Ginny Thomas, wife of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas this week, it’s don’t leave a voice mail message if you don’t want that message plastered all over the news.

  • Texas wins.  If San Francisco wins too, we may never get Channel 5 back on Cablevision, or the Fox station in Philadelphia either (I think that one is Channel 29).

Things I Want (Or Need) To Know

  • Other than bringing a 19-year-old story back to life, what was Ginny Thomas thinking when she left a voice mail message for Anita Hill asking Professor Hill to apologize to her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for accusing Judge Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing in 1991?

  • According to NBC News this morning, Professor Thomas turned the call over to the FBI.  Other than bring a 19-year-old story back to life, why did she do that?

  • Mark Teixeira isn’t the only player I’ve seen sliding into first base this year, but what the heck is up with that?  For those who don’t follow baseball, you can run faster than you can slide and the first baseman only has to step on the bag, not tag the runner on his way to first base.  Since there’s no need to evade a tag, there’s no need to slide and Teixeira strained his hamstring on the play, although not necessarily because of the slide.

  • Do you think they’ll ever finish Kennedy Airport?  Or LaGuardia?

  • Is there any candidate for any elected office anywhere in the country who hasn’t promised the voters that he or she will “fight” for something?

  • I keep wondering why Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor in New York shot himself in the foot while he had both feet in his mouth, instead of firing either before he put them in or after he took them out.

  • Does Jimmy McMillan, the candidate New York governor of the “Rent Is Too Damned High Party” think that beard is attractive?  I’m disillusioned with him, by the way.  Did you know that he doesn’t pay any rent?  He does maintenance on the Brooklyn building he lives in rather than paying money to live there and that’s been going on since the 1980’s.

  • Do you think that TV executives are longing for the ratings winner that a Texas v San Francisco World Series won’t be?

  • If there is a Texas v San Francisco World Series, will anyone but football Giants fans in New York care that Fox has pulled channel five in New York from Cablevision in a dispute over fees?

  • My wife and I got married after the World Series.  This year, the Series starts after my anniversary.  Do the people who run Major League Baseball know that it is possible to have a Minnesota v Colorado World Series?  Both the Twins and the Rockies play in outdoor stadiums, not under domes.  Do the powers that be at MLB know that a November game in either of those cities could be cancelled because of a blizzard?

Things I Know

  • After watching paid political announcements for the last couple of weeks, I have the impression that the Albany Insiders are some kind of professional sports team.

  • Fodor’s “Las Vegas 2010” travel guidebook informs us that there are some gambling resorts with pools where topless sunbathing is permitted.  The book explains that these pools have cover charges and that just struck me as funny.

  • At 3:00 AM recently, the HUB cable channel broadcast the pilot episode of the early 90’s TV show, “The Wonder Years.”  I DVR’d it and just got around to watching it.  In fact, they’ve started running the whole series.  What an outstanding show, from the first episode to the penultimate one.  In the last episode, they graduated from high school, she moved to Paris to study art and they never saw each other again.  In real life, I think one of them would have pursued the other, even if it meant Kevin went to Paris to surprise her and found her with someone else.  The show that seemed so real to me for so long would have seemed more real if, at the end, it blew up and didn’t fizzle out. 

  • I understand that people like iPhones because of all the cool things they can do, but judging by the trouble I have hearing my friends with iPhones when they call me, they aren’t that good at making clear and uninterrupted telephone calls.

  • I don’t know that anyone is right in the current dispute between Cablevision and Fox TV that will deprive me of National League playoff action until I go out of town, but I hate missing the games and I hate it when Cablevision changes my preferences on my cable box from their end and without my permission too.

Things I Want (Or Need) To Know

  • Is the outcome of New York’s gubernatorial election a foregone conclusion?  And has Carl Paladino damaged his own cause badly enough to also hurt the cause of Republican candidates for offices like State Senate, State Assembly and Congress in New York?

  • Brett Favre is, after all, a quarterback, so you’d expect him to make passes.  Still, if you were the recipient of unrequested pictures of a  guy’s private parts, would you be impressed enough to date him?

  • Okay, but would you bring him home to meet the family? 

  • My wife and I are going on a trip soon, but since I’m not working, I can’t really call it a vacation, can I?

  • I saw former US Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao on TV recently.  I believe she was raised on Long Island.  If she were interested, Secretary Chao would be a formidable US Senator.  She doesn’t live in New York now as far as I can tell and she is married to Kentucky’s Senator McConnell, but I wonder why New York Republicans can’t run someone like her for public office instead of some of the candidates they do have.

  • Esquire Magazine called Minka Kelly the sexiest woman in the world.  I’d be interested in knowing how that was determined and whether Derek Jeter objected to the selection process.

  • October is breast cancer awareness month.  People wear pink ribbons, race car drivers appeared at an event with pink cars and many newspaper comic strips were printed in pink rather than in full color.  Lots of other PR events have or will occur.  Encouraging people to get examined for breast cancer is a good thing.  I say people, by the way, because men get breast cancer too, although not as frequently as women do.  Encouraging research on breast cancer is also a good thing.  However, did you know heart disease is the leading cause of death among women?  February is heart disease awareness month in case you were wondering, but the media I notice seem more aware of breast cancer awareness.

Things I Know

An announcer on the NLDS Cincinnati v Philadelphia series was talking about a player who had some treatment from a man who is a masseuse.  Good luck with that.  A masseuse is, by definition a woman.  A masseur is a man who provides massage therapy.

  • I hope Conan O’Brien’s new show on TBS is funnier than the promos they’re running for it during the baseball playoffs.

  • I went to a retirement party at a catering hall last week.  Two of the tables had signs on them that said, “Reserved.”  I didn’t sit there because it was a party and I wanted to be boisterous.

  • I’m sad to report that a talented man I’ve known almost forever, but not very well, has cancer and the type of cancer he has, liver cancer, is never good news. 

  • I don’t like to go to public places that consider themselves so fancy they need a men’s room attendant.  There are lots of things I’m happy to pay someone else to do for me because I don’t know how, it’s too hard for me, or I don’t have time.  Getting myself a paper towel doesn’t fit in any of those categories.

Things I Want (Or Need) To Know

  • Why the controversy?  Katie Perry was wearing SOMETHING.  Elmo was naked!

  • Does anything happen to Pontiac Michigan now that GM has stopped making Pontiacs?

  • According to the radio spot, a Visa prepaid debit card keeps you from spending more than you have.  Doesn’t cash accomplish the same thing?

  • If you ever meet anyone from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show could you please urge them to take turns speaking?  They talk all at once and I can’t listen all at once.

  • Where did the phrase “red-letter day” come from?  I know some calendars print holidays in red so they stand out, but wouldn’t those be red-number days?

  • The Travel Channel had a bunch of shows about Las Vegas, one of them about high rollers.  If you can afford to gamble one to five million dollars in a weekend, what is the attraction in winning or losing?

  • I went to a retirement party where several people presented the retiree with “tokens” of their esteem.  In this day and age, wouldn’t a Metro Card of their esteem be more useful?