Monday, August 25, 2008

Newspaper values opinions that radio announcer scorns

Somebody named “Party Ben” resents the degree to which“the public” is permitted to waste precious public radio airtime in a “Mother Jones” online blog, “World, Shut Your Mouth: The Horror of Public Radio Call-In Shows.” It is one of very few circumstances in which I have been disappointed by “Mother Jones,” which is an otherwise excellent magazine.

Person screaming into telephone
MotherJones.com
Party Ben, who identifies himself as a late-night radio DJ, resents that public stations waste one-sixth of their programming on call-in radio shows. He dismisses every single caller, in every single case, as “yammering and paranoid.”

I wonder if it has occurred to Party Ben that one of those radio callers for whom he holds such disdain could be the next Larry the Cable Guy?

Our news editor, Mandy Feder recently talked with Dan Whitney, a.k.a. Larry the Cable Guy, during a telephone interview. Larry the Cable Guy appeared this weekend at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa. One of the things Whitney told her was that for 13 years, he called a local radio station as the character he had created. “He’s the relative or friend who will say or do anything, burp, fart and talk about his sister’s moles,” Whitney told my colleague.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Our dog Frankie interacts with a kitten

A kitten perches on its hind legs and raises front forepaws up toward the head of a dog that bends down toward it.
Lily and Frankie
Frankie stayed with us a couple of times during the kittens Gizmo and Lily's tenure in our home. He was super excited and fascinated. He kept following the kittens around, wagging his tail, sniffing and licking them.

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