GA Russell

paps, I have no objection at all to the obit you have posted. Perhaps the obit that was printed in my paper (The News & Observer) was altered by the paper to add their opinion of the man.

paps, the survey says that only 21% consider themselves liberal. Every major metro paper I'm aware of is liberal, except Rupert Murdoch's neocon papers. In this poll, the conservatives came in first place with 40%. I don't think it's reasonable for you to link the middle (the moderates) with the distant last place group. I don't object to there being liberal papers catering to the 21%. But I see the entire industry to cater to that group, and that group is too small. Like I said, they wonder why their sales are a disaster, while they sneer at the largest group, 40% of the market. And when I say "sneer", I'm not just referring to the editorial page. A ton of criticism has been poured on the New York Times over the years, but I have long wondered why the AP has gotten off scott free. As an example, the AP obituary of Jerry Falwell made it clear that they considered him not a respected leader but rather someone whom they were glad to be rid of.

Here's a Gallup Poll out today that says that "40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal." http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/Conserva...ical-Group.aspx I point this out not to debate the merits of each position, but only to support my longstanding view that newspapers are selling what people don't want to buy. The papers are liberal, while the people are conservative.

Well, for reasons unknown I have the CBS affiliate today. So all is well. As I have stated elsewhere, I'm not a television watcher, and I could have gotten along without CBS. As it is, I get along without PBS, whose station is too far way to pick up here. However, I can imagine that there might be an NFL game in the fall on CBS that I might want to watch. As it happens, today is the 24 Hours of LeMans, and I've spent the day listening to it on the internet at radiolemans.com, and in the car on Sirius. Given the choice of missing one or the other, I would rather miss the Stanley Cup finals than LeMans, so I'm happy.

Thanks Quincy. I got them all back except the CBS station, which has the best signal of them all. It is after 1:30 am here, so maybe they are off the air doing something. I'll try again tomorrow.

Thirty years later, still the City of Champions!

You won't believe this. I have had the converter box for over a year, and everything has worked fine. Tonight, the high-number ex-UHF stations and their digital sub-stations came in fine, so if I wanted to I could watch The Rockford Files, but the NBC, CBS and ABC stations were off the air, at least as far as my TV was concerned. This meant, of course, that I was unable to watch the Penguins win the Stanley Cup. It was the only hockey game all year I wanted to watch! Too bad the NHL radio broadcasts are not on the internet.

Woody Held died yesterday. I recall him as a very solid ballplayer. His obit doesn't say that he ever played in an all-star game, so I guess he didn't. Any Cleveland fans here? Here's his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,6531920.story Woodie Held, 14-year major league ballplayer, dies at 77 June 12, 2009 Woodie Held Ballplayer was traded for Maris Woodie Held, 77, who played 14 years in the major leagues and was traded for future home run king Roger Maris, died Thursday in Dubois, Wyo., after a long bout with cancer, the Cleveland Indians announced. Held played for seven American League teams, including the 1966 World Series champion Baltimore Orioles and the California Angels in 1967 and '68. But he spent most of his career with Cleveland after being acquired June 15, 1958, from the Kansas City Athletics in a multiplayer trade for Maris. A year later, Maris was sent in another big trade to the New York Yankees -- the team that originally signed Held and brought him to the major leagues in the early 1950s. (Maris went on to hit 61 home runs in 1961, then a record for homers in a season.) Held primarily played shortstop, but he also filled in at second base, third base and all three outfield positions. His best season was his first full year in Cleveland, 1959, when he set career highs in home runs (29), runs scored (82) and RBIs (71) while batting .251. Overall, he hit .240 with 179 homers and 559 RBIs in 1,390 games from 1954 through 1969. Woodson George Held was born March 25, 1932, in Sacramento. After retiring from baseball, he moved to Wyoming and ran various businesses.

Happy Birthday 2009 Kevin!

How could I forget Carla Bley??? I voted for her as Jazz Artist of the Year! And Maria Schneider's name came to me earlier this evening as well. Rooster, maybe you and I are hooked up with ESP!

I heard a track this morning on Sirius. I was a little surprised because they don't often play songs without hummable melodies.

Good luck, TTK!

Aggie, you're giving the rest of us some ammo, whenever we feel the need to humiliate you!

Disregarding singers, the first two names that come to mind are Geri Allen and Terri Lynn Harrington. I like Renee Rosnes and Eliane Elias, but I haven't heard anything from them that makes me think they are really special.

The CFL will try to do what the NHL does for reviewing questionable calls this year. As I understand it, and this may not be exactly right, all the television replays will be fed to the league headquarters, and quick decisions will be made there and then promptly phoned in to the ref on the field. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...748756-sun.html

I agree with ejp that the Kindle is way overpriced. It seems to me that if they want you to pay for the content, they should give you the Kindle for free. "Give 'em the razor, and sell 'em the blade", as they used to say. paps, I don't know what you do with the New York Times, but you might have some insight as to the fundamental issue regarding the financial losses. Is the major problem that advertising revenues are way down right now? Is that a temporary phenomenon (which is probably true for department store ads) or a permanent one (which may be true for classified ads, which apparently have moved over to craigslist)? Or is the problem that people don't want to pay for a newspaper anymore? Is it because of the internet? (I doubt it. Nobody reads every day the number of articles on the internet that he would read in a newspaper.) Is it because fewer people take public transportation, so they aren't reading on the bus anymore? Is it because as the population ages it has become more conservative, and the newspapers are usually liberal? (I see lots of conservative articles/issues posted on digg that never make it to any newspaper I have the opportunity to buy.)

Bret Favre's family has booked 25-30 rooms near Lambeau Field for the weekend of the Nov. 1 Vikings game. Maybe they know something. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/favr...article1174921/

You might find this interesting. This is the second time in two days I have read about the need for Kenton Keith to lose his NFL weight. The NFL gets first pick on all the players because they pay so much more, but NFL players are considered to be 20 pounds overweight for the CFL. That is to say, an NFL player who does not change for the Canadian game will not perform well. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/in-k...article1174238/ ***** The Argos are going to have a weekly TV show. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Tor...735091-sun.html

Happy Birthday Bertrand!

Kenny Rankin died yesterday. I'm very moved by this. He was one of my four favorite singers, along with Mark Murphy, Mose Allison and Paul Jones. I remember seeing and hearing him for the first time in 1974/75 on the late night show The Midnight Special which that week was hosted by Olivia Newton-John (who was the reason I was watching in the first place). I still have one of his albums that I haven't opened yet. I'll have to get to it pronto. Here's his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5347669.story Kenny Rankin dies at 69; singer-songwriter's long career almost defied categorization A well-regarded guitarist, he wrote the hit song 'Peaceful' for Helen Reddy and played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home.' By Jon Thurber 7:27 PM PDT, June 8, 2009 Kenny Rankin, a singer-songwriter and musician whose song "Peaceful" was a hit for Helen Reddy and who had popular covers himself of a pair of Beatles hits, has died. He was 69. Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause of death, according to his management company, was lung cancer, which was diagnosed three weeks ago. His career, which spanned more than five decades, almost defied categorization. A well-regarded guitarist, he played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home." He also spent several years on the road opening for comedian George Carlin. Rankin appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 25 times. Carson was such a fan that he wrote the liner notes for Rankin's 1967 debut LP, "Mind Dusters." As a singer with a velveteen tenor voice, he had highly successful covers of the Beatles' "Blackbird" and "Penny Lane" in the mid-1970s and in 1976 recorded an LP of standards, "The Kenny Rankin Album," with a large orchestra conducted by Don Costa. In a review of a 2000 Rankin performance at a San Fernando Valley jazz club, critic Don Heckman wrote in The Times: "Rankin has been -- for a decade or more -- a singer whose unusual improvisational skills and innate capacity to deliver a melody with a strong sense of swing stamp him as a consistently appealing jazz artist." In addition to Reddy's version of "Peaceful," jazz singers Carmen McRae and Mel Torme recorded versions of Rankin's and Ruth Batchelor's "Haven't We Met." Rankin was born Feb. 10, 1940, and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. He was signed to Decca Records as a teenager and released a few singles. He later signed with Columbia Records. One of his major influences was Laura Nyro, the late songwriter who wrote "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic," whom he met in Greenwich Village in 1960. "She profoundly changed my musical life and affected it to this day, more than anyone or anything else," Rankin told the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto in 2007. "She was deep, dark and light, the spectrum of passion." His peak recording years were in the 1970s, when he released the LPs "Silver Morning," "Inside" and "The Kenny Rankin Album." Paul McCartney was so pleased with Rankin's covers of the Beatles hits, he asked him to sing a medley of them when McCartney was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987. Rankin is survived by his son, Chris; daughters Gena and Chandra; and a granddaughter.

That's great Ken! Let us know how they are. Remember, I haven't heard them!

A day after cutting Ryan Dinwiddie, the Bombers have signed former Ticat Richie Williams. I've always liked him, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him start a few games as the season goes on. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Win...711906-sun.html

Thanks, Niko, for your PM response. ***** Lala: Chet Baker - Stairway to the Stars I had this one in college under the name Comin' On with the Chet Baker Quintet. I have listened to it on Lala before. Apparently if you go a month or so without listening to an album, the Lala computer forgets that you have, and you can listen to it once again for free. Stan Getz - My Foolish Heart: Live at the Left Bank

The Bombers have cut Ryan Dinwiddie! He was expected to be competing for the starting position. http://www.winnipegsun.com/sports/football...06/9700021.html ***** Lots of previews. Montreal Alouettes http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/foot...8143/story.html Hamilton Tiger-Cats http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/578626 Winnipeg Blue Bombers http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/ho...y-47117242.html Saskatchewan Roughriders receivers http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Jason+Cle...9433/story.html Winnipeg Blue Bombers rookies http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/fo...h-46802922.html Saskatchewan Roughriders o-line http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Roughride...6069/story.html Saskatchewan Roughriders linebackers http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Saskatche...4096/story.html Saskatchewan Roughriders def. line http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Roughride...0153/story.html

Jim Owens was the head coach of the Washington Huskies when I lived in the Seattle area as a kid in the early 60s. Here's something you probably didn't know, but I remember it well. Sports Illustrated had sort of a quote of the week from a sports figure each issue called "They Said It". About 45 years ago, it was Jim Owens who was quoted to say what is now considered a cliche and attributed to almost everybody, "A tie is like kissing your sister." Here's his LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,1707578.story Jim Owens, 82, an All-American end at the University of Oklahoma under legendary football coach Bud Wilkinson who later coached the University of Washington for 18 seasons, died Saturday at his home in Bigfork, Mont. The University of Washington confirmed his death but did not specify the cause. Owens coached at Washington from 1957 until his retirement in 1974. He went 99-82-6 in his nearly two decades as coach of the Huskies, including three Rose Bowl trips. The first, in 1960, was Washington's first victory in the Rose Bowl, a 44-8 rout of Wisconsin. The Huskies came back to win the 1961 Rose Bowl, 17-7, over Minnesota, then lost in 1964 to Illinois, 17-7. Owens also served as Washington's athletic director from 1960 to 1969. His accomplishments were honored in 2003 when the university dedicated a statue of Owens outside one of the entrances to Husky Stadium. But that honor came with protests about his treatment of black players during his time at Washington. "To my players, I thank them and apologize for any hurt they may feel. I hope today we can begin to heal the wounds of the past," Owens said the day his statue was dedicated. An Oklahoma City native, Owens served in the Naval Air Corps during World War II. He was a four-year letterman at Oklahoma after the war, and in 1949, his senior season, was team captain and the leading receiver on a Sooner team that went 11-0 with Darrell Royal at quarterback. Ownes played one year with the Baltimore Colts in the National Football League, then became an assistant coach under Paul "Bear" Bryant at Kentucky and Texas A&M in the 1950s before being named head coach at Washington.