I am really late to the story here, but I was reluctant to write about Muhammad Ali because, besides the obvious loss of a legend, his was another death attributable to sepsis, the disease that nearly KOd me several years ago. In his case, it was septic shock, meaning severe sepsis that doesn’t respond to treatment. Sepsis gets “severe” when it starts to affect internal organs, as it did with my liver. …
Throwback Thursday – Sepsis Days Read More »
Well, that didn’t last long. Early this year, The Guardian newspaper in the UK announced that Alanis Morissette was going to write an advice column for its weekend magazine. She took over from Molly Ringwald and said her mix of “intuition and empathy” would serve her in the role. Well, she just quit. Alanis and her rapper husband just welcomed their second child and she says she wants to focus on being a Mom. …
You, You, You Oughta Know Read More »
The Ghostbusters reboot has been lauded, criticized, praised and hated since the contract to make it was first signed several years ago. When the trailer was released, it was widely panned by fans who were horrified by it. Now it’s here and it’s a hit. We saw it on Sunday night, in VIP 3D no less! …
Review: Who Ya Gonna Call? Read More »
You don’t mess with a national anthem – ever. That’s what someone wise said in the wake of the rogue Tenor changing the lyrics to Canada’s anthem at MLB’s All-Star game earlier this week. …
A Tenor Hits a Foul Note Read More »
I feel like a bit of a jerk for my response to this book, but I’m just a person too! …
Review: I’m Just A Person by Tig Notaro Read More »
You’re familiar with the clutch-and-rotate? It’s the last song of the high school dance, and some dweeb asks you, or you ask some dweeb, and you clutch and rotate through the song. More often than not, when I was in high school, that song was Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. …
A Clutch-and-Rotate Classic Wins Read More »
Following George Takei on Facebook has its benefits. The legendary Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek series has a biting sense of humour and loves to provoke, politically. Why shouldn’t he? He’s an openly gay man, married to his partner, who champions not just gay rights but all human rights. Gay rights are human rights, after all. …
Free to Pee, You and Me Read More »
There’s a TV show we watch regularly that ends with nearly everybody on screen, and in our living room, with tears in their eyes. And the other night, I figured out why I like it so much. It’s because it shows the way I think wealthy people should behave. Instead of accumulating more stuff than they could ever use, they could spread a little of it around and improve the lives of those who need a hand up. …
I first met Dick Williams when I was working at 1039 FM here in London. His son, DJ, was the station’s Sales Manager and Dad had dropped by before joining him for lunch. Dick is a broadcasting legend in this city and he’s finally releasing to the public the stories that have entertained his friends for so many years. …
It wasn’t the golden age of television, but it’s an age that no longer exists. CKNX-TV in Wingham used to create original programming and host its own newscasts and commercials. It was a “thing”. And when I worked there, from 1986-1990, there were many opportunities to be part of that thing. …
Throwback Thursday – Prime Time Television Read More »
Two younger broadcasters I work with recently made decisions that made me want to stand up and cheer for them. …
Recently, someone in our industry died and social media was filled with tributes to him. From my first introduction to him in the early 80’s, to our last encounter at Rogers radio in Toronto, I didn’t have a good experience with this person. Ever. So I simply stayed out of it and didn’t comment. It was as if they were all talking about someone I’d never met. …
If I asked you to identify Henry Heimlich, you might say he’s the guy who invented a life-saving technique called the Heimlich Manouver. And you’d be right. But did you also know that he’s not popular in the science world? For one thing, who puts their own name on something that saves lives? If that was common, a defibrillator would be known as Johnson’s Chest Paddles. …
The Heimlich Validation Read More »
There aren’t too many people to look up to in broadcasting anymore. Thousands who thought Jian Ghomeshi was all that sure got a slap upside the head in the past year or so. And the business is less stable than ever. Even some of the well-liked, long running hosts find themselves at the wrong end of a pink slip. Take Jennifer Valentyne. She was let go from CITY-TV after 17 years simply because they found a cheaper way to do what she does. …
Throwback Thursday: Scott Shannon, Still Tops Read More »
Whenever someone mentions Prince, the following story comes to mind. And yesterday, when news of his death at 57 started burning up social media, it came back in vivid purple colour. It was the time Prince came to London, Ontario. In 1984, I was working at CKSL and so was Derek when his purpleness was spotted in the Forest City. As my friend Dan Brown writes, this was long before he lived in Toronto or had any ties to Canada. …
Back in the late 1970s when I discovered Bruce Springsteen, who knew that it would become a life-long relationship? Loving his music offered no guarantee that he wouldn’t go all Ted Nugent on us. …
This week, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. burned up the Twitterverse with a post about his favourite sandwich. You remember Elvis’s ‘nana and peanut butter? Try banana and mayonaisse on white bread! …
What’s In the Middle Read More »