1938: Joe is eleven and going to the ball game alone

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

My brother took me everywhere in my pre-teen years. He brought me to see the Bronx Zoo; the Aquarium at Battery Park; the Planetarium at Central Park; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when it premiered at Radio City Music Hall. He took me to Madison Square Garden to see the one-and-only Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, starring Clyde Beatty, the fearless lion tamer, and bought me a toy whip should I want to follow that career path. On another occasion, he took me there to see a Wild West Rodeo. He decked me out in a cowboy hat, holster and cap gun. To increase my cultural knowledge, he brought me to a number of New York City art museums. He taught me how to swim and dive at the Palisades Amusement Park, and how to ride a bike.

JOE FINNERTY

It should come as no surprise that he took me to see my first major league baseball game shortly after my seventh birthday. We saw the New York Giants play the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds, located in the Bronx, just one subway stop away from Yankee Stadium. In addition, while it may seem difficult to believe, he managed to take me to Ebbets Field in 1935 to see Babe Ruth, then in his final year as an active player, a member of the Boston Braves. Yes, I saw the Bambino!

My big brother took me to see a number of Giants games over the next several years. They became my favorite team and Mel Ott my favorite player, whose batting style I tried to emulate. He would shift his weight back on his left leg, raise up his right leg, knee toward his tummy, then stride toward the pitcher when swinging at the ball. He seemed to be able to hold his balance on one leg forever, waiting for the ball to reach the plate. Mel was a great home-run hitter, though slight of stature, and forever my idol.

After turning eleven, a day came when my brother could not take me to see a Giants game that beckoned me. He entrusted me to go see the game by myself and funded the trip with two one-dollar bills and some loose change, a large sum in those days. I put the money and written travel instructions in my pants watch pocket. Having those instructions comforted me, although I knew which trains to take from previous trips.

About noon, brimming with confidence, my trek began by hopping aboard a jitney bus for the ride to the subway station at the foot of Hoboken (five cents and ten minutes). The Hudson Tubes subway carried me under the river to Manhattan (ten cents and fifteen minutes). Here, hunger forced me to stop and enjoy a Nedick’s hot dog and a glass of orange juice (twenty cents) before ambling down the steps to board the Eighth Avenue Express (a dime). The subway train howled while hurtling non-stop from 42nd Street to 125th Street. My journey ended a few stops later, at 155th Street, where every sign read Polo Grounds. The trip had been a breeze and it would be a simple matter for me to return home in the same manner.

The crowd of fans seemed to carry me up the stairs from the subway to the stadium. It was exciting to think that the game would soon begin and there was still plenty of money to treat myself to another hot dog and an orange drink on the way home because a grandstand ticket cost only fifty-five cents, a program a mere dime.

I walked up to the ticket window, stuck my index finger into my watch pocket to pull out my money, and made a startling discovery. The pocket was empty. Even my subway instruction sheet was gone. Frantically searching through all my pockets, finding nothing, my heart sank. Reality hit me between the eyes. Forget the game. How in the world would I manage to get home?

Hordes of police officers stood guard around the stadium and the subway, but it did not occur to me to ask one to bail me out. They frightened me. Instead, I decided to try to get home without asking for anyone’s help.

Returning to the subway entrance, while eyeing the ‘men in blue,’ I summoned my courage, ducked under the turnstile and ran for the incoming train as fast as possible. Moment later, the doors of the Manhattan-bound express closed behind me and it took off, headed to the Hudson Tubes at 33rd Street. My mood was ebullient. I had eluded the subway turnstile attendant and the ‘coppers.’

My joy was short lived. At the entrance to the Hudson Tube station, an imposing change booth employee eyed me suspiciously, sensing it was not my intent to pay for my next ride on their system. He granted my impassioned plea for a free ride. The sight of a crying boy must have softened his heart. My sob story had worked. While racing down the stairs headed for the subway ride back to Hoboken, my heart pounded with joy. I’m comin' home, Ma!

Fortunately, my family treated me sympathetically upon my return. They were happy to have me back, scared and broken hearted. The lesson learned that day remains with me to this day. Never stop to buy a hot dog until AFTER you have reached your destination.

This experience did not dampen my enthusiasm for baseball. Mel Ott remained my favorite player, and the Giants my favorite team, even though my allegiance had cost me two bucks.

Artie Shaw and his band, (1940)

I’ve enjoyed music my entire life. As a kid, it was the nightly hit parade from 6:15 to 7:00 on our big Stromberg-Carlson radio. Those were the days in the late 40s when people like Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Jo Stafford could record hits.

Elvis came by in the mid 50s and although I was never a big fan, I did like the artists who were inspired by him like Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Gracie.

By the late 50s into the mid 60s it was Dion, Freddy Cannon, Gene Pitney, Sam Cooke, some great black groups and flashes in the pan like Chubby Checker and “The Twist”.

Then it was the “British Invasion” with The Beatles, The Stones, and countless other groups until disco, electronic music, and a few other genres came by in the 90s including alternative rock which is now my current favorite pop music. If I’m in the car, I will have 103.9 welded on unless there is a ball game. At home it will be Channel 918 on Music Choice through Cox.

As much as I like those tunes through all the changes during the years, I never lose touch with the big band sounds that dominated through the 1930s and 1940s with guys like Harry James, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, The Dorsey Brothers, and many others.

Those guys were great and were a big part of the war effort in the 1940s with their style of “swing.” In those days you had to be in shape to swing or “jitterbug.” There was plenty of touching your partner then. Watch some musicals like “Stage Door Canteen” (1943) to get an idea what it was like. Those clowns on “Dancing with the Stars” wouldn’t have a chance in those days!

As entertaining and successful as James, Miller, and the rest of the guys were, I was fascinated with Artie Shaw. Artie was born in 1910 and lived until 2004 dying at 94 from the effects of diabetes. He was a complicated guy and even while his music made him as much as $60,000 a week, he would grow impatient with his gigs and look for new adventures in music and other fields.

Artie Shaw and his Band in "Second Chorus" with Fred Astaire (1940)

He was very popular with his 12 to 25 piece primarily brass bands but he wanted to explore other sounds like classical jazz and the use of strings. It annoyed Shaw that when his band appeared nobody cared about innovations. All they called for was his theme, “Begin the Beguine”.

He once described himself as a “very difficult man”. From 1932 until 1985 he was married eight times with three of the marriages being to Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and Evelyn Keyes, three beauties of the day.

One of Shaw’s most fascinating songs to me is his 1940 recording of “Gloomy Sunday.” Being a sullen guy from time to time, he does a great job on this one with band singer Pauline Byrne. The song is also known as the “Hungarian suicide song” as the writer of it in 1933 eventually committed suicide. Some urban legends claim that many radio stations were prohibited from playing it because of suicide worries. Many also think it was the Depression that caused the suicides more than “Gloomy Sunday”. It didn’t help that the last line was “My heart and I have decided to end it all.”

Here is a link to “Gloomy Sunday”. It is true to the style of the day when the female band singer (Byrne) would come in after the first couple of bars from the band. I even found a YouTube showing someone putting the playing arm on the 78 rpm record from 1940. Some of you have probably never seen those.

It’s a sad song running 3:30 but is fascinating as a contrast to Artie Shaw’s normal dance band tunes.

Are reusable bags safe?

Doug MacEachern of the Republic had an interesting Quick Hit the other day in the paper where he mentioned that plastic grocery sacks may not be causing as much harm to the environment as the cotton and canvas reusable bags that are so popular now. He mentioned a British government study which shows that plastic may cause up to 170 times less harm and the number is higher if you wash the reusable bags.
Reusable bag from Trader Joe's.

That’s interesting information so I checked it out further. I found a column by Jonah Goldberg in a USA Today from April 4th where he states that a new study by the Environmental Agency of England says that plastic bags have a smaller carbon footprint than the reusable plastic or cotton “satchels” as well as paper disposable bags. It goes on to say that you'd have to reuse a cotton bag at least 131 times to equal the low carbon footprint of a simple plastic bag. If you reuse a plastic bag — as a wastebasket liner perhaps — they pull even further away as the greenest technology.

Goldberg also notes that “as other studies have shown, those trendy reusable bags provide a wonderful breeding ground for E coli and other bacteria. That is, unless you wash them regularly. But if you do that, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Ken Green notes, all that bleach, soap and hot water expand their carbon footprint as well.”

More evidence of reusable bags being a source for disease also comes from the U of A: “Studies completed by University of Arizona professor Charles Gerba found that 97% of consumers using reusable grocery bags never wash or clean them. When paired with his findings on the bacteria count of the average grocery cart, neglecting to properly and routinely wash these bags opens your family up to a host of nasties including E. coli, coliforms, salmonella and a range of other bacteria and mold. According to Professor Gerba, reusing your shopping bags again and again without washing them is akin to “wearing the same underwear everyday”.

In 1979-1980 I was a distributor for Mobile Chemical in Kansas City and our most important new product then was the plastic grocery sack which we were selling in an effort to replace the large paper “barrel” sack of that time. From a cost standpoint, it was an easy sell. From a technological view it was more difficult. The checkers and sackers hated them because they were “different” and it wasn’t uncommon for me to install a store in the morning and have the bags discontinued by evening.

Eventually all my accounts came aboard and the rest is history as one can tell from any supermarket you enter. In recent years, plastic bags have had their share of criticism but with the evidence coming in about reusable bags, maybe they aren’t so bad after all. Regardless, they were fun to sell and have saved the grocery industry millions in supply costs.

Let's talk food

This month the AFMA Commentary with Phil Hawkes has some good food news as it does about every month. I’ve found that even if I don’t like the suggestions, I enjoy what is said about them.

What would you consider your favorite food combinations? Some are obvious like bacon and eggs but one I’ve always enjoyed is vinegar and salt over home grown tomatoes. I’m talking about summer tomatoes that you buy out of the garden at a farm stand in the country. Winter tomatoes, or “hot house” tomatoes as we used to call them, don’t make the grade.

Another great combination from my youth was to dunk sugar cookies into a cup of hot chocolate on a wintry Cincinnati morning in the 1950s before starting the long walk to school.

Other obvious choices would include Oreos and a glass of ice cold milk, mashed potatoes and gravy, chips and salsa, and cheese and crackers, especially if the cheese is the Longhorn I used to sell at Carl’s Deli in the mid 1960s. I haven’t found a cheese yet that compares.

Here are some unusual combinations you may or may not enjoy:

Carrots and sugar. It’s a French taste and I’m half French-Canadian so maybe that is why I like carrots and sugar. The sugar makes a nice sweet glaze on cooked carrots.

Coffee and salt. When I was in the Air Force, I worked in offices that had those big 24 cup coffee pots and whenever someone made coffee they put a dash of salt in the grounds. It was supposed to bring out a bit more of the coffee flavor but I never noticed any difference. As a sidebar, the Lieutenant Colonel I worked for used to use fresh coffee grounds like snuff and put a little between his cheek and gum. Yikes!

Tomatoes and sugar. I like good tomatoes about any old way. I’ve had them with sugar, salt, and vinegar and they taste great all three ways.

Tomatoes and their foliage. When cooking with tomatoes, it is recommended to throw the stems into the pot with the tomatoes. When through cooking, fish out the stems and you find a much stronger tomato presence in your food.

Potatoes and nutmeg. Add a dash of nutmeg to any potato recipe and you should notice a more enriched taste of the potato.

Strawberries and pepper. This one sounds a bit strange but it is recommended that you grind some fresh peppercorns onto strawberries to add more flavor. I’ve never tried it but if you do, I would recommend doing a test berry first just in case. We’re in the strawberry season now so you may want to give this a try.

1958 and now

I have some old Cincinnati Reds baseball team yearbooks from my younger days growing up in that city. I was looking through one of them today from 1958 and, although it is 53 years old, there are some interesting items there that offer a good look at the contrasts of life then and now.

There is an ad for the new 1958 Ford Thunderbird advertising that is “all swoop and no sway.” Those of you familiar with T-Birds know that ’58 was the year they enlarged it into an ugly 4 seater thus ending the three great model years of 1955, ‘56, and ’57. That also was the year the Edsel was introduced so it wasn’t a good year for Ford.

There is an ad for Weidemann’s Beer, a popular local brand at that time. It asks me if I am “beer hungry.” Of course, who isn’t? On the next page is a half page ad for Lucky Strike cigarettes boldly telling me that “LUCKIES TASTE BETTER!” No surgeon general warnings in those days. As they used to tell us in basic training: “Light ‘em up!”

Another half page is for some hotels you may wish to stay in during your next trip to New York. How about the Hotel Times Square or the Knickerbocker? In 1958 you get a room at those places for $4 and up. A cup of coffee at Starbucks costs that much today.

One of the big time hotels in Cincinnati in 1958 was the Netherland Plaza. They had a cocktail lounge there called “The Gay Peacock.” Do we have to even imagine how a name like that would be interpreted today? For those too young to remember, the word “gay” used to have a lot different definition than it does now.

How about a complete steak dinner at Jack Stayin’s Charcoal Steak House for $3.75? The ad says it is “magnificently prepared” so it must be good.

Since these are ads from the Cincinnati Reds yearbook, I must mention the price to see a ball game in those days: Box seats, $2.00, general admission, $1.50, bleachers, .75.

It all sounds good but we must remember that incomes were a lot lower in 1958 so when the steakhouse finally raised their steak dinner price to $4 they probably caught hell for it.

Another interesting note from 1958 is where the ballplayers have their biographies. Each player’s ancestry is listed. For Pitcher Brooks Lawrence and other black players they are “Negro”. A pitcher named Johnny Klippstein is listed as “German-Scotch, English-Indian”. I doubt if such nomenclature would be available in the yearbooks of today. In 1958, it was still a big deal.

Another oddity is the addresses of the players during the off season are listed. If you wanted to go by and say “Hi” to Brooks Lawrence in 1958, all you had to do was stop by his home at 1817 Springmont Avenue in Springfield, Ohio.

With everyone’s paranoia about privacy today, it’s amazing how accessible ballplayers were then. But, since they didn’t make much money and had to work during the winter at regular jobs, maybe they didn’t consider themselves the celebrities that today’s players with their millions think they are.

Well, it’s time for me to stop by Jack Stayin’s for a complete chicken dinner for $2.00. Then, I’m heading to the Reds’ game to sit in a box seat for $2 and drink a couple of 25 cent Wiedemann’s. Let’s see, that’s $4.50 for the evening so I’ll have enough to buy a deck of Luckies for a quarter on the way home. It’s 1958 and life is good!

Born grocerymen: A. J. Bayless and Smitty

The two greatest grocers from the past to do business in the Phoenix area are Clyde “Smitty” Smith and A. J. Bayless. Both had great success but they also came from totally different backgrounds.

I’ve talked about Smitty in previous blogs (August 6, 2010, December 7, 2010). He was born in 1919 and grew up dirt poor in Iowa. He fell in love with the grocery business at an early age and through hard work built a chain of stores in Phoenix from 1960-1980 that eventually controlled 35% of the Phoenix market.

A.J. Bayless, center with derby.


A. J. Bayless’ rise through the grocery business took a different route. He was born into a family of grocers according to historian Jack August. His grandfather had owned a store in Tennessee and his father, J. B. Bayless, opened his first store in Phoenix at Van Buren and Grand in 1917.

By 1930, J.B. had opened 18 stores but was getting a bit long in the tooth so he decided to retire and sell off his holdings. Meanwhile, A. J. had spent his entire youth working in the stores so he knew every aspect of the business. When his father sold his stores, 21 year old A. J. Bayless opened a store of his own. Throughout the Depression and World War II, the Bayless chain continued to grow as A. J. had an uncanny sense of finding good locations. He saw the postwar suburbanization of Phoenix taking place so he put stores in new areas, especially in strip malls. In 1948 alone, he opened three stores using that philosophy.

It helped that Bayless was in tight with some developers who realized they could sell homes faster if a mall, especially a mall with a grocery store, was located near the newly built homes. A good example of this was West Plaza Shopping Center at 35th Avenue and Bethany Home which opened in 1959. That center had the largest Bayless store up to that time and it contributed to making West Plaza the second largest shopping center in Arizona behind only Park Central.

A. J. Bayless was riding a wave of success in the early 1960s when he began to experience medical problems. By 1962, he radically slowed his activity with the stores and in March of 1967 at age 58, he died. The A. J. Bayless chain had lost its leader and although it contained 47 stores, The Bayless family eventually sold off the stores to other chains or independent groups.

Many of you probably remember the layout of the Bayless Stores. Some were sold to Bashas’ and re-named “A. J.’s” There is one in particular in Carefree that I remember as a Bayless store. It is still operating as a Bashas' and I shop there often.

To summarize, Smitty and A. J. Bayless were both born grocery men who achieved success from different sides of the tracks. A. J. Died too soon at age 58. Smitty is long retired and living in Texas at age 91.

AZ Diamondbacks could go 61-101 in 2011

(Reprinted from the Scottsdale Republic edition of March 26, 2011)

DIAMONDBACKS’ LOSSES COULD ECLIPSE ONE HUNDRED IN 2011

By Jim McAllister

I started watching major league baseball as a kid in 1954 while living and dying with the Cincinnati Reds. They usually played around the .500 mark because they had great hitting but no pitching. There were a lot of 11-10 losses but they always had a chance to pull games out in the bottom of the ninth with guys like Wally Post, Ted Kluszewski, and Gus Bell coming up to bat.

In the late 1950s there was the "Go-Go" Chicago White Sox who had great fielders but not many power hitters. However, they had good pitching and defense and scrambled for runs while actually making it to the World Series in 1959.

The Reds and White Sox had their deficiencies but won games because of being proficient in other areas. Conversely, the Arizona Diamondbacks lack pitching, hitting, and defense although Chris Young in center field and Stephen Drew at shortstop have pretty good gloves.

Last year they lost 97 games and that includes having a good pitcher in Dan Haren for half a season, Mark Reynolds at third, and Adam LaRoche at first. As much as Reynolds struck out, he did have a lot of runs batted in and homers while LaRoche had a good year hitting .261 with 25 homeruns and 100 runs batted in.

Those three guys are gone and have been replaced by mediocre and old journeymen players. The pitching staff is full of has beens, never “wases”, and rookies. The only outfielder with consistent power is Justin Upton but he is usually injured and strikes out too much with his .260 average. Probably the best guy on the team is catcher Miguel Montero.

Prediction for 2011: 61-101 and by August, Kirk Gibson will have thrown twenty Blackberries against the clubhouse wall to match the number of after game buffet tables he turns over in disgust. It’s going to take more than a new spring training home to revive this team. The Diamondbacks are a good example of bad management by former personnel who were poor judges of talent.

Jerry Colangelo has to be smiling while looking at the shiny ring his Diamondbacks’ team won for him in 2001. He may have spent a fortune on that team but at least they were winners.

Jimmy Breslin wrote a book many years ago recalling the New York Mets 1962 baseball season. The Mets were a terrible team and Breslin titled the book "Can Anybody Here Play This Game?" The title came from a statement by an exasperated Casey Stengel, who had to manage that bunch of misfits. After this season, maybe Republic sportswriter Dan Bickley can write a similar chronicle about the 2011 Diamondbacks.

There is some good news: I have been incorrect on predictions before so I will say that if I am, I will quote my favorite pulp fiction detective Nick Carter by saying, “If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize!”

(L-R) Wally Post, Gus Bell, and Ted "Big Klu" Kluszewski of the Cincinnati Reds of the 1950s. The Diamondbacks need more sluggers like these guys were. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Mr. Joe flies inaugural TWA Boeing 707

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

In 1959, I became a small part of Trans World Airlines (TWA) aviation history. While in New York City on a business trip, a change in plans allowed me to cancel my Friday flight to New Orleans and return home to San Francisco on Saturday instead. The ticketing agent offered me two options. I chose to take the flight scheduled to depart from LaGuardia at 9 a.m. rather than 1 p.m.

On the morning of my departure, a crowd of passengers seemed to be celebrating some sort of festivity. The reason: We were flying to San Francisco aboard a Boeing 707, TWA’s first commercial west-bound non-stop cross country flight. Their inaugural east-bound flight from San Francisco had arrived in New York City the day before.

Joe Finnerty

Before boarding, each passenger received a framed certificate with the TWA logo commemorating the flight. It hangs on the wall of my den. Almost as an afterthought, they later mailed me an egg timer neatly wrapped in a TWA emblem. It’s now missing from my kitchen.

From the outset, one knew this inaugural flight would be memorable. The plane had a new-car smell about it. Everything looked spic-and-span, bright and clean.. My seat was next to the window which really pleased me.

My journey started out inauspiciously. The plane left on time and ambled along the tarmac at a slow speed toward the runway where it paused a few moments. The pilot then began to crank up the jet engines to full power. At the precise moment he released the brakes and the plane surged forward, as if on cue, a young boy seated behind me let out a yell, "Charge!" This shout of bravado and encouragement matched my emotion perfectly. For that brief moment, I thought of myself as a member of the Light Brigade, about to ride heroically into the jaws of . . . the unknown.

As we flew across the country, the pilot provided a running commentary, relaying our air speed and current location. We flew too high to see the landmarks he identified below, but we strained to see them. Was that the Mississippi? The relative lack of noise compared to piston-driven planes astounded me. We encountered some minor turbulence on three occasions during the five-hour flight, but it was the smoothest plane ride in my experience.

Actually, this was not my first encounter with jet flight. In 1947, while stationed at Ladd Field, Alaska, a P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter plane approached the runway on its first flight to the arctic, accompanied by an escort of two P-51 Mustangs. As the three planes flew by the control tower, just a few hundred feet above ground level, the P-80 pilot hit the jet engine throttle, and then pulled the plane straight up into the sky, leaving the escorts in its wake. In that flash of time, one could see that jets had made piston-driven engines obsolete.

Not every passenger enjoyed the flight. The editor of the Wall Street Journal, West Coast edition, sat next to me. He grumbled before, during and after takeoff. The airline had bumped him from first class, even though he had booked his flight months in advance in order to be aboard this first jet trip. He fumed when I told him that I had purchased my seat just a day earlier, and had no idea of its maiden status.

In 1966 my wife took our six children ages 1 to 9 to New York City (by herself) to visit relatives. The cost staggered us. I asked TWA for a discount because of my pioneer status with the airline. They told me, in polite terms, to ‘take a hike.’ The value of my inaugural flight status had declined faster than a jet zooming up on takeoff.

It’s regrettable that TWA folded before it could offer me a chance to be aboard its first flight to the moon. I need another egg timer.

Food fads come and go

Food fads come and go. Remember when energy drinks were the rage? The only one I see lately being pushed on TV is 5 Hour Energy. It brags about its four calories and no sugar and that it gives you a nice boost like a cup of coffee would except you can just down it out of the bottle and not have to mess with cups and coffee pots. Maybe that’s good for the kids who are ready to party on a Friday night and need that extra boost to get them to when the band starts but for me, I’ll stick with the good old cup of mud.

Energy drinks aren’t all that has been “faddish” reports Phil Hawkes of the AFMA Journal. In today’s hurry up society, bagged salads are expensive and popular since they cut down on preparation time for those who like the easy way out of cooking. Also, what’s with the sudden love of everything pomegranate? I love the ads with the half naked girl twisting her anguished body around a bottle of Pom but what is so great about that stuff? I’ve broken open a pomegranate and found nothing but a bunch of sour seeds inside. Maybe someone can explain this to me.

Now, there is a new kid on the block. Its Greek yogurt and its dollar sales were up 160% while unit sales were up 203% in 2010. Regular yogurt dollar sales were up 3% during that time with unit sales up only 1%. Besides that, Greek yogurt costs significantly more. Why is this happening?

As a long time yogurt eater I can say I like the Greek stuff better because of the more tart taste and its smooth, thicker, consistency. Non taste reasons are listed as double the protein of regular yogurt and 50% less sodium. That’s fine and I’m glad it is healthier, but taste is my number one priority and the Greek stuff has it.

There are several brands but the only one I have tried is Dannon and it is excellent. Phil Hawkes mentions other brands like Stonyfield, Fage, and Chobani. I understand that Trader Joe’s brand is excellent too. If you like yogurt, the Greek style is for you.

More food news from the AFMA: Did you know that “re-fried beans” is incorrect as a result of a translation error? They are actually only fried once. Frijoles refritos are well fried beans, not re-fried.

Did you know that the FDA allows 30 insect fragments or one rodent hair per 100 grams of peanut butter? Wow! I’ll bet that news has you rushing to the pantry to make a couple PBJ’s for lunch!

How about that Worcester sauce you like to spread on meats and other items. Did you know it is made from dissolved anchovies, bones and all? I guess if you like anchovies, it’s no big deal. If not, try to forget what you just read.

As for me, I guess I’ll stick with the pomegranates and yogurt.

Dad, me, and a '56 Chevy

I saw a 1956 black Chevrolet convertible go by today. It was a thing of beauty as it looked completely stock like the day it rolled off the assembly line fifty-five years ago. That car is a memory maker for me as I was 15 when it was built plus we had one in our family. It had a white top that gave it a classy look and was a stick shift with a “Power Pack” V8 engine. Needless to say, that baby would really go and it gave me chills when it whined through the gears. That’s a sound that has never been duplicated.

In June of 1956, my 19 year old brother drove that Chevy from Cincinnati to Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit some friends. Since he had flunked out of college, he was looking for something to do so he joined the Air Force while in Albuquerque leaving the car at the friend’s house. That made it up to my dad and me to go to Albuquerque to retrieve it.

Thus began a summer trip I will never forget. Even at 15 I had a bit of wanderlust in me and the thought of going all the way to New Mexico from Ohio had me on pins and needles. It was going to be just me and my dad heading west!

We caught the Santa Fe Super Chief train in Chicago which was exciting as hell with the dining car, a bedroom of our own, and the excitement of waking up the next morning and seeing Dodge City, Kansas.

After we got to Albuquerque and picked up the car, we headed east on Highway 66 for Chicago. I didn’t realize it at the time because there were no such thing as interstate highways, but I was riding on a road that would later become a legend and a historical attraction in many places as it wound northeast to Chicago. The diners, the bars, the motor lodges, and the gas stations were all part of the lore of Route 66 which would sadly become obsolete by the mid 1980s. But, who knew that in 1956? All I knew on those hot summer days was that I was 15 and my dad let me drive a ’56 Chevy halfway to Chicago. He was strictly old school and didn’t worry about me not having a driver’s license! What the hell, I was still a good driver!

When we reached Chicago, dad would spend the few days we were there at the horse racing track while I caught the “El” to either Comiskey Park or Wrigley Field to watch baseball. I felt like I was really cool for a 15 year old being allowed to run around Chicago on my own. But, my dad had grown up in an era where kids had that freedom so it was no big deal to him.

After those few days in Chicago, it was back to Cincinnati and reality. By September, I was back in high school but when I looked at my classmates, I smiled to myself feeling certain that none of them at age 15 that summer had driven a ’56 Chevy convertible up Route 66.

Camelback Mountain, Phoenix, AZ

I’ve had this photo (below, top photo) from the Library of Congress in my file for a while and thought I should post it to let you see what the area around Phoenix looked like in 1908. That is Camelback Mountain in the hazy background so using that as a bearing, you can pretty much figure out where the photographer may have been standing (click on photo for much better view). I would guess somewhere east of downtown Phoenix and in what there was of south Scottsdale or north Tempe at that early date.

In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt was still President, Barry Goldwater would not be born for another year, Carl Hayden was 31 years old, the canal built by William Murphy through Scottsdale was twenty-five years old, and the population of Phoenix was pushing 10,000. In 1911 the Roosevelt Dam was completed while in 1912 Arizona would become a state with its capitol Phoenix during the administration of William Howard Taft.

I wonder what those cowboys would have thought of all that happening so soon before and after this photo was taken. We have no documentation but some say the cowpoke on the horse in the foreground with the rope on the saddle is our own reader “TrailBoss”. He looks like he may have just had a cup of cowboy coffee while tending to the herd!

click on photo for better view of Camelback and TrailBoss. (Library of Congress)

Camelback Mountain, c. 1950 (DS Hinkle)

P. J. Crowley, Blockbuster

P.J. Crowley has resigned as the State Department spokesman adding to the growing list of those who have departed Obama’s administration. Crowley is dissatisfied with the treatment of document leaker Private Bradley Manning at the Marine Base in Quantico, Virginia according to a report from James Rosen of Fox News.

This isn’t a funny story but I thought this comment was funny if not a bit strange: “At least twice, Manning has been made to stand at attention in the nude at the front of his cell in the morning. Officials at Quantico declined to explain those measures, other than to say it was for his own protection.” Protection from what? I never could figure out the Marines!

BLOCKBUSTER BUSTED: This was not hard to predict. I’ve wondered how they held on this long after posting losses from last November to January of $65 million. They had their day though in the late 80s and into the 1990s when they wiped out the business of every poor independent guy trying to rent films.

As often happens quickly these days, someone came along with a better idea. That was Netflix, who starting in 1999 would allow customers to rent films which were then sent to them by mail. By 2005, there were also the Redbox kiosks in stores like Walgreen’s renting films for low prices.

There is a Blockbuster near me, or at least there was until a few weeks ago when they closed the store which was about 4,000 square feet. I was surprised it took them that long to shutter that dog with the rent they had to be paying. All that is left is the outline of the removed letters on the building.

Things happen fast in our society. With people downloading programs to their computers, can films being mailed by Netflix stay competitive? Will people still drive to Walgreen’s to use Redbox? I’m sure those companies are considering that in their business plans. If not, they can learn a lesson from former record and video stores who went out of business like Tower Records, Sam Goody, Musicland, and Peaches. It wasn’t long ago those stores had thriving locations in all the big malls. Have you seen one lately?

Every mall had a Sam Goody's

The electronics business is always in a growth mode. I’ve seen 8 millimeter silent home movies grow into VCR tapes, DVDs, DVRs and Blue Ray. I remember finally giving up my VCR and buying a DVD player at Circuit City (remember them?). I think that while I was driving home with it the DVR came out and made the DVD obsolete.

It’s the same with music. I remember 78 rpm records, 45’s, 33 1/3, cassettes, and CDs. I’ve heard CDs are now obsolete. Can someone please tell me how I would buy a single song now?

And then, there are TVs but let’s not even get into that. I have a bigger concern at the moment: What the hell is going to be the new name of Blockbuster Pavilion? It can't be Cricket Pavilion; it’s already been called that.

The Oscars, newspaper films

James Franco (Getty Images, Rick Rowell)

ACADEMY AWARDS: I don’t watch the Oscar telecasts anymore and apparently this year was a good year to be sure not to watch. Some guy I never heard of named James Franco was the host along with a gal who is a pretty good actress, Anne Hathaway. I hear that Hathaway gave it a good try but hosting awards shows doesn’t seem to be on her list of things she does well. The consensus was that Franco was terrible.

So, who is this guy? Time says he writes fiction, is working on a Ph. D from Yale, and has appeared on the soap “General Hospital”. When told the ratings for the Oscars were dismal, he replied, “You know what? If it’s the worst Oscar’s show ever, who cares?”

That’s a pretty cocky attitude from a guy who is basically a nobody who blew his chance for a great gig. I hope for his sake, he stays in school. He’s probably going to need that degree. Where the hell is Bob Hope when we need him?

I was looking over a list of past Oscar hosts and I would have to give David Letterman the booby prize as the worst I have seen. He hosted in 1994 and really laid an egg from the start with that silly “Uma-Oprah” nonsense trying to make a joke of the introduction of Uma Thurman and Oprah Winfrey to each other. It was embarrassing to watch but I think Letterman is always embarrassing and I wonder how he holds his late night job. If they want a late night host to do the Oscars, try Jimmy Kimmel, a guy who IS funny.

FINAL NOTE ON CHARLIE SHEEN: Charlie is getting his 15 minutes and then I think we will not see much more of him in anything noteworthy. Charlie says, “I’m tired of pretending I’m not special.” What a great line that is: Just think of what Dana Carvey could do with that as the church lady.

Charlie never was a BIG star. He milked his dad’s influence and because he was so adept at playing himself, made “Two and a Half Men” a hit. Now, he is pushing 50, appears to be strung out on that airline made of snow, and his prospects appear to be minimal. I love “Two and a Half Men” and hope he straightens out but I’m not holding my breath.

GREAT NEWSPAPER FILMS: Most of you know I love the films from the 1930s through the mid 1950s. I realize I am a member of a small group but there were some great films then especially about newspapers. “It Happened One Night” (1934) won all 5 major Oscar awards. In the 1940s it was “His Girl Friday” (1940) with Cary Grant. In the 1950s it was “Deadline USA” (1952) with Humphrey Bogart. Before you say, “Huh?” let me say that if you don’t enjoy the story, it’s still fun to see how newspapers operated in those eras. Check out TCM for running times.

As far as modern movies which involve newspapers, I hear “Iron Man 2” (2010) is pretty good. Has anyone seen that? If so, what did you think? IMDB gives it a 7.1 out of 10, not bad.

Walmart is losing customers

A recent AP article discusses how Walmart is missing out on the supposed consumer comeback. That’s quite a statement. Could it be that the public has grown tired of cheesy Walmart products coming from China? It didn’t seem to matter a couple of years ago that they had Christmas lights that exploded, low quality toothpaste, and toys painted with lead paint among other junk items.

I guess customers are wising up to bad quality, long lines, bad service, and out of stocks plus having to drive to get them. Or, maybe those photos of the “Walmartians” are legitimate after all. Those guys with high heels and dresses to complement their beards scare me!

The drop in sales at Walmart has been going on for about two years and possibly none of the above reasons have anything to do with it. Some blame mistakes in merchandising and pricing along with the financial stress on the many low income people who shop there. The holiday season was also lackluster and didn’t help much compared to business done at some competitors.

Walmart seems to be scrambling to restore a lot of the products they discontinued during the last year plus they have gone back to offering discounts across the store instead of using big discounts on selected items. It’s become a “whatever works” attitude as sales dropped 1.8% last year at the stores in the United States that have been open at least a year.

One more important factor in lower sales may be the changing habits of consumers. With gasoline prices skyrocketing, a lot of people are shopping closer to home, especially for essentials like bread and milk. Also, the rise of the dollar stores has to be a factor. Those places are everywhere and have a lot of nice stuff for a buck.

The changing consumer buying habits have also changed with the rise of Internet sales. I never leave my house to shop for Christmas items and plenty of other items too. The demise of Border’s Books was no surprise to me. Who wants to pay full price on a paperback or other book when they can save a trip, avoid lines, and buy it considerably lower on the Internet at places like Amazon with no shipping cost? But, Border’s has a coffee shop! That may have mattered a few years ago but not now. Can Barnes and Noble be next?

Today’s customers are buying closer to home and are only shopping when they really need things. Some of the things they may not need at this time are new electronic items. Ultimate Electronics found that out recently when they were forced to close their stores.

Guest writer Joe Finnerty speaks

On February 23, I wrote a column for the Scottsdale Republic reflecting on the challenges the newspaper business has faced since the introduction of radio in 1920. These challenges were not only from radio but from wire services, television, and now, the Internet. In spite of them, the hard copy newspaper still exists.

Mr. Joe Finnerty of Scottsdale was born in 1927 and at 83, has four great grandchildren. He also is a lifelong newspaper reader who has seen many changes in the newspaper business. This is a piece he wrote fifteen years ago relating to newspapers as he has seen them through the years.

I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE by Joe Finnerty

Years ago I subscribed to both the Arizona Republic and the Scottsdale Progress, the former a morning edition, the latter a late afternoon publication. The Mesa Tribune acquired the Scottsdale Progress, renamed it the Scottsdale Tribune, and began dropping many of the editorial columnists I liked to read. Then, it switched to become a morning newspaper. I found two to be too many, and set about trying to determine which subscription to cancel.

It proved to be a difficult choice to make. I liked many of the Tribune’s features, especially its New York Times crossword puzzles. However, I found that the coverage provided by the Scottsdale section of the Republic, published every Wednesday, more than met my need to find out about my fair city. That made my decision easier to make. I canceled my subscription to the Tribune, with some second thoughts.

Selecting which of two papers to spurn is akin to choosing between a spouse and a mistress. They both have their unique appeal. It is possible I will renew my subscription to the Tribune if my lust for it becomes unbearable.

Growing up in Metropolitan New York provided me with ample opportunity to evaluate newspapers. I had my choice of the following: The New York Times; Herald Tribune; Journal American; World-Telegram; Daily News; Daily Mirror; Brooklyn Eagle; New York Post; Jersey Observer; Hudson Dispatch; and a few more.

In my grade school years, my mother chose to read the Daily Mirror because it arrived at our candy store minutes before the Daily News. This gave her a head start in reviewing the horseracing program for the following day, information vital to her economic well-being. On summer nights, while people sat on apartment stoops, my mother would send me across the street with a nickel in hand. This provided sufficient capital to buy the Mirror, a real cigarette for her, and a candy one for me. Pleasures were inexpensive back then.

I came to love that paper because it had wonderful coverage of New York's myriad sports teams and the best comic strips, including Dick Tracy. I learned important news by reading Walter Winchell, the quintessential gossip guru. The front page carried screaming headlines and pictures of gore and blood, with details on page three.

After college, I began commuting via subway to my job in lower Manhattan and began to consider other possible newspaper choices. I tried them all, at one time or another. Gradually, I came to favor the Times. The crossword puzzles captured my attention more than the editorial page.

The convenient size of the News, Post, and Mirror made them easy to read in a crowded subway and accounted for their popularity then and to this day. In contrast, it took skill to fold the other papers down to a manageable size for reading while standing in a moving railcar, hanging on to a strap, crushed in by a crowd of other riders. Many of them cared little which paper they read as long as they could pick up a discarded one. No class, dat's what some of dem New Yorkers ain't got.

I bought both the Times and the American on Sunday. The Times had all the heavy stuff, whereas the American had the funnies. I figure the Times cost me a lot of extra dough over the years by refusing to print comic strips. I called them the “American" and the "Un-American." I would purchase both after attending church. Occasionally, for some reason or other, the candy store would run out of Sunday papers. I would go ape. How could a citizen enjoy a Sunday without a paper? I would trek around Hoboken to see if I could buy one elsewhere, but this added inconvenience made the papers less interesting. It spoiled the whole ritual. As a last resort, to guarantee availability, I began pre-paying for them.

In my late twenties, I moved to the San Francisco Bay area. There, I soon discovered I had few choices when it came to newspapers. I subscribed to both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Mateo Times. One was a morning paper, the other an evening edition. However, it took quite a while for me to get used to them. They did not compare favorably with New York’s papers. I thought the editorials and the columnists were less than first rate. It took years to overcome my bias toward the New York papers.

For a while, I continued to subscribe to the Sunday New York Times, but the cost was too prohibitive for my purse and I had to drop my subscription. I never renewed it. I had access to another worthwhile paper to fill the void.

During my working years in Arizona, my employer paid for my subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I paid for my own subscription for a few years after I retired, but my enthusiasm for reading financial stories dwindled. Articles covering the state of the copper market, for example, no longer seemed of vital interest to me.

The public criticizes newspapers for what they print, or how they report the news. Many readers notice and complain about the numerous spelling and grammatical errors which appear with some regularity. Just a few days ago a feature editorial in the Republic read, "taking it to this plain" when the spelling should have been "plane" for all to see. I sympathize, however, because the relentless pressure to meet press deadlines, day after day, week after week, must be nail biting. It is a tough business.

The biggest advantage to dropping my subscription to the Scottsdale Progress is the reduction in trash. As it turns out, my recycle container is barely large enough to hold my weekly toss-outs. If the Republic would tailor the paper to meet my specific criteria, it would please me. I would prefer never to receive the Sunday want-ads, for instance, which I deep-six upon delivery.

Newspapers are folding faster than I could fold them while riding the Hudson Tubes. Struggling to print all the news that’s fit to print on paper, they are switching to an electronic format. While the day is not far off when a computer network will be able to provide me with a newspaper matching my specific interests, I will not subscribe. Who wants a computer in the bathroom?

Charlie Harper is Charlie Sheen

I really enjoy the TV sitcom “Two and a Half Men”. Reruns are usually shown for one to two hours a night on the FX channel. I can honestly say that I usually laugh from beginning to end at the antics of Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones and the rest of the cast.

Unfortunately, after nine seasons of success with the show, Charlie has decided to become difficult. Translated, that probably means that at his $1.8 million per episode he feels like he has enough leverage to start calling the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, a “maggot” and “a hymie”.

Charlie apparently has a drug problem which has seen him make the news several times for destroying hotel rooms among other forms of bad behavior. On his behalf, the head of CBS Television, Nina Tassler, says that in spite of his behavior he has always showed up for work on time and known his lines. However, because of his recent outburst aimed at Lorre, the final eight episodes of the show have been canceled.

It’s a shame Sheen has gone off the deep end but some experts claim it is not atypical behavior for someone with a drug addiction problem. When Charlie was younger he was a big time party boy. A lot of us were too although we probably were not in his league. Plus, in most cases we grew out of the party mode and went on with our lives. Not Charlie Sheen, he is now 45 and hitting the skids hotter and heavier than ever. Besides his role on “Two and a Half Men” he may lose a movie part in an upcoming production of the “Major League” film series where he plays pitcher “Wild Thing”. Executives now doubt whether they want the troubled star.

Charlie Sheen was born in Dayton, Ohio and lived there until his father moved to California. While living in Dayton he became a Cincinnati Reds baseball fan as Dayton was a short interstate drive north of Cincinnati.

By the early 90’s, Charlie had the big bucks and loved to throw parties for the Reds’ players when they came to California. One of those parties was after the Reds won the 1990 World Series. The other was in 1992 and, according to one unnamed Reds’ player, was quite a wild affair. He mentioned that two topless women attended and the alcohol flowed freely. The players also traveled to the party in a fleet of stretch limos that Sheen sent to their hotel.

The Reds’ player was amazed at Sheen’s Malibu home saying it had three decks with a fountain Jacuzzi on the top deck supplying water to the other two. That Charlie was quite the guy at 27! He still is at 45.

If you watch “Two and a Half Men” you probably notice that Charlie Harper on the show is actually living the lifestyle of Charlie Sheen. It’s no wonder Sheen plays the part so well: Harper IS Charlie Sheen.

I got 57 channels and nothin' on....."

I upgraded my cable a few months ago to about 400 channels and I still don’t have much on. For some unknown reason, I saved $5 a month by EXPANDING my service.

When I called Cox Cable initially, I inquired about how I could receive the Fox Business Channel. The representative told me “no problem” and when I asked him how much more it would cost, he said he could give me a few more tiers of programming along with Fox Business and it would save me $5. Since I believe the old saying about not looking a gift horse in the eye, I took the offer and hung up before he could change his mind.

With the competition among the satellite dish companies, the phone companies, and the cable companies, I think it is pretty easy to get deals these days. It is a buyer’s market now and may become more of one as many people are streaming shows through their computers now. Plus, as Bruce said in 1992, he had 57 channels and nothin’ was on. That was a lot of nothing for that year and it is a lot more now.

For example, how many of you watch any of the three C-Span channels? Hallmark Channel? Lifetime? Oxygen? SoapNet? Or those shopping channels? That’s what I thought. We are all paying for that stuff and never watch it. Why can’t cable companies let us go a la carte and buy what we want? I know that is rhetorical as we are stuck with those channels because they make the cable guys money.

A recent survey showed that between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. channels like the Golf Channel, TV Guide Channel, and BBC America receive less than 0.1 per cent of households that have those stations available. A TV writer for a Midwest newspaper lists the following channels as the “10 least wanted channels” on cable TV. These channels have been on the air at least three years and these numbers indicate their average nightly prime time audience during the last quarter of 2010:

Current (18,000 households), DIY, 80,000, ESPN Classic, 19,000, Fox Soccer Channel, 33,000, GAC, 49,000, LOGO, 39,000, Outdoor, 46,000, RFD TV, 56,000, Sleuth, 81,000, VH1 Classic, 31,000.

I’ve never heard of five of those channels. They are only taking up space but we are stuck with them. There is a lot of back scratching in that business and I’m sure those channels piggy back their way on to systems.

So, what comes next? I watched a 1997 film the other night called “Jackie Brown”. In that film there was a scene in a music store and they had shelves full of cassette tapes. The cars looked old fashioned too compared to now even though now is only 14 years later. Change comes fast these days.

Cable TV is cumbersome and they are wheeling and dealing. Look for some drastic changes soon.

Olbermann on cable's bottom rung

Keith Olbermann

Poor Keith Olbermann. He never realized it but when he teamed up with Dan Patrick years ago on ESPN’s Sportscenter, he probably reached the zenith of his career. When he switched to MSNBC to become a liberal political commentator he probably figured he was on his way to fame and fortune and leading the charge against Fox News. It hasn’t happened and probably never will.

Keith has been canned at MSNBC where his final show on January 21 drew 1,106,000 viewers. That’s not too bad for a low rated channel but is still just 1/3 of the viewers of Bill O’Reilly and less than ½ of Sean Hannity’s audience at Fox. However, Olbermann’s numbers are about 200,000 more than his replacement, Lawrence O’Donnell.

Now Keith will try out his act at Current TV. Who is Current TV you ask? It’s a small public affairs cable channel that includes Al Gore as one of its backers.

To put things in perspective, Olbermann’s initial employer, ESPN, is the number one cable network drawing an average of 2,683,000 households in prime time. MSNBC draws about 1,500,000. Current draws 18,000. These are nightly averages from the fourth quarter of 2010 as reported by Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star.

To give you an idea of how low a number 18,000 households is, the CW channel plays on fewer cable systems with shows like reruns of “The King of Queens” yet it outdraws Current which is the least watched channel that the Nielsen ratings follow.

Olbermann has a chance to sink or swim on Current. Will his one million viewers follow him if they can even find him? Surely he can boost the ratings above 18,000 households at least for one hour, but will it be enough? We shall see but one thing is for sure: He can’t sink much lower unless he becomes a spokesman for the fireplace channel.

Cable TV is a strange duck. There are many channels that have no business being carried by any system. However, strong ratings channels like ESPN, ABC, and others are able to use their leverage to coattail some of their weaker channels into the fold. Do we really need ESPN Classic or the Do It Yourself network? How about VH1 Classic, Fox Soccer Channel, and the Outdoor Network? No one watches them but they are attached to their big brothers as part of the deal.

Another mystery about cable is why doesn’t anyone give the world news station Al-Jazeera English a shot? It’s one of the most watched news networks in the world but can’t even get a trial run here. Barnhart reports that during the Egyptian crisis, 7 million Americans watched it streamed through their computer but the cable companies say there is no demand. Maybe not or maybe they are concerned about a controversy since it is an Arab channel.

Maybe Al-Jazeera can sneak on a system somewhere if they hire Olbermann after he and Al Gore get into a fight and Keith goes job hunting again

Partying in the '70s, part 2: one hit wonders

Jimi Hendrix in 1967. He died at 27 in 1970.

It makes my eyes well up a bit when I remember some of the great songs from the 1970s that were one hit wonders.

Woodstock in 1969 signaled the end of an era that brought us The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and many others. By 1970, The Beatles had split up (Thanks, Yoko!) and Joplin and Hendrix were dead. Music was changing, guys were shaving again, and women went back to wearing bras. The Stones and Rod Stewart survived but by 1977 had done a couple disco songs!

Every era has had its one hit wonders but some of them in the 70s surprised me as they were good songs from good bands or individuals that gave every indication they would offer more after their initial success.

From 1970, there was Norman Greenbaum with Spirit in the Sky, a great tune that you still hear today as background in films and commercials. Then there is Mountain with Mississippi Queen, a great grinder of a tune that sounded better with each additional Budweiser you choked down. Also, from ‘70 was All Right Now by Free with lead singer Paul Rodgers who would eventually work with Queen after Freddy Mercury died.

In 1971, Brewer and Shipley from the Midwest hit with One Toke Over the Line. Who can forget Hold Your Head Up from Argent in 1972? Brother Louie from Stories in 1973, Rock and Rolll Hootchie Koo by Rick Derringer in 1974, Never Been Any Reason by Head East in 1975, A Fifth of Beethoven by Walter Murphy and The Big Apple Band in 1976, Jeans On David Dundas, 1977, I Love the Nightlife, Alicia Bridges, 1978, and in an indication of things to come there was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles in 1979.

If you are a certain age you probably danced to these songs more than once during the 1970s. Barb and I had a favorite club in Kansas City called The Attic which always had great bands and cold beer. After closing time, I would always stop at a little bar on Westport Road on our way to Kansas and pick up a couple of 6 packs of Falstaff for Sunday. No Sunday sales in those days.

Somehow, I survived that lifestyle and am living to write about it. Would I do it over again? Sure!

Partying in the 1970s

Barb and I went out the other night with our next door neighbors visiting from Illinois. We went to a nice Italian restaurant in Carefree (that’s in Arizona if you are from out of the state or country). After feeling a nice little buzz from a couple glasses of Merlot, I found myself reminiscing about the many times Barb and I painted the town on a Saturday night back in Kansas City during our early years of marriage in the 1970s.

If you were too young to have enjoyed that era, you missed a lot of fun. We used to go at it one or two ways on Saturday night: Sometimes I would fire up the charcoal grill (no fancy gas grills for us) and grill a couple of thick steaks nice and rare. We would have those with a bottle of cold duck or sparkling burgundy while we watched “All in the family”, Mary Tyler Moore”, and “The Bob Newhart Show” on our 10” GE color television.

That would take us to about 9:30 and since we never wanted to waste the nice buzz from the wine, it would be time for a shower together (saving water) after which we would head over to Kansas City, Missouri from our home in Kansas to some clubs. After Missouri closed at 1:00 it was time to head back to the afterhours clubs in Kansas. Needless to say there was a lot of drinking and driving in those days but somehow we made it through without incident although I’ll never know how. "Shit faced" only begins to describe it.

The second way to go out was similar to the first only we went out to dinner and missed the TV shows. Tough luck in those days; no VCRs to record them. I hated to miss MTM, Mr. Grant, Rhoda and the still vibrant Betty White. After dinner it was off to the clubs again and another long night as mentioned above. We sure piled up the miles on our 1970 Ford Fairlane!

Eating and drinking out was a lot different then. There were no designated drivers; EVERYBODY drank and drank a lot. Beef was what it was all about in restaurants; fish got to live long lives. It was thick, rare steaks, baked potatoes, and the inevitable salad bar which I hated. If you wanted to see people “pig out”, salad bars were for you.

Another feature that drew people to the bars was happy hour. They still exist but are nothing like in the 70s where it was big time competition among bars to get people soused at 5:00 in the afternoon. Remember the Steak and Ale restaurants? They used to have 3 for 1 during happy hour and the drinks were strong. I almost fainted on 3 martinis one day but it felt great. “Now, just where did I leave my car? (hic!) Oh, yeah, there it is!” Vroooooom. I’ll never know how Barb drank 3 grasshoppers!

The 70s were a fun time and I’m glad I survived them.

Since you have probably been wondering for the last few minutes what cold duck was I’ll tell you. It was half champagne and half sparkling burgundy. Andre sold it for a buck a 5th.

Miscellaneous ramblings

Do you wonder why you don’t see kids playing outside anymore? A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that kids 8 to 18 spend each day with 4.5 hours watching TV, 2.5 hours listening to music, 30 minutes on a cell phone, 1.3 hours on video games, 1.5 hours texting, and 1.5 hours of nonschool computer use. Add sleeping and school and there isn’t much time for doing much else. Kids are hooked on technology and many have lost their ability to have meaningful face to face conversations. They’ll never know the fun of catching fireflies and playing hide and seek. (They may not miss fireflies in AZ; I've never seen one here, plenty in Ohio though)

On last November 28, actor and Paradise Valley resident Leslie Nielsen died at age 84. On October 16, actress Barbara Billingsley died at 94. Both had a link to the 1980 spoof film classic “Airplane” where they played completely against type. Nielsen was usually the handsome first or second lead in films or TV. Billingsley was the straight laced mom June Cleaver in the 50’s TV series “Leave it to Beaver.” In “Airplane”, she was a jive talking grandmother. Nielsen went comic with his role as the staid Dr. Rumack. Surely they will both be missed to which Nielsen would probably reply “Don’t call me Shirley!”

Barbara Billingsley (AP)

Freeman Gosden (L) and Charles Corell in blackface doing "Amos 'n' Andy. (below) The show was so popular that movie theaters would delay film start times so customers could hear the nightly 15 minute show on radio.

January contains two dates three days apart that had important effects on the Black community. On January 15, 1929, civil rights leader Martin Luther King was born. On January 12, 1926, “Sam and Henry”, a humorous show dealing with Blacks who had migrated from the South to Chicago, made its radio debut. King became famous as a civil rights leader. “Sam and Henry” evolved into “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, one of the most popular shows in radio history. George Bernard Shaw once said “There are three things I’ll never forget about America: the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, and “Amos ‘n’ Andy”.

There are many ways to receive entertainment and connect with friends so I wonder if anyone listens to AM radio anymore. AM began in 1920 and was the rage among kids and adults. By 1922, Phoenix had its first station which in 1929 became KTAR under ownership of The Arizona Republic. Today, AM is primarily talk radio or a ball game broadcast in the background but in the 1920’s, it ruled the entertainment business and was an important part of the Jazz Age.

McDonald's here and there

Phil Hawkes of the AFMA Journal tells of some things about McDonald’s restaurants that I didn’t know and you probably didn’t know either.

If you eat at a Mickey D’s outside the U. S., don’t expect the menu to be the same as here. In fact, in some cases, don’t expect it to even be edible based on American tastes. Also, with all their success, the golden arches have fallen on their faces a few times. That’s hard to believe based on their success but nobody is perfect.

Here are some of the goodies you would find outside the good old USA:

In Germany, you may enjoy the “Big Rosti”: It’s a burger patty, potato pancake, bacon, cheese, and cheese sauce on a bacon cheese bun. You may want to have an ambulance waiting in the parking lot after eating that concoction.

In Taiwan, it’s the Rice Burger. It has a burger patty but instead of a regular bun the meat is placed between two rice cakes. It’s probably healthier for you but tastes as exciting as a can of Slim Fast.

In Canada, French fries are served covered in gravy and cheese curds. Once again, have the ambulance ready.

In the Philippines, you could order the McDon. It doesn’t sound disgusting, just boring. It’s a fried chicken leg on top of spaghetti.

In Japan, you can get a Baked Potato Pie. The best way to describe it is that it looks like the fried apple pie you get in the U.S except it has a filling of baked potato and bacon instead of apples.

As far as flops in the USA, you may remember some of these. If you don’t, be glad. You didn’t miss anything worthwhile.

Remember the Hulaburger? It was introduced in 1963 as an item for Catholics who didn’t eat meat on Friday. It was a cheeseburger except it had a slice of pineapple subbing for the meat. Yum!

The McLean Deluxe Burger was introduced as a low fat dietary item. They took the fat out of the meat and replaced it with water. To make the meat retain the water, they added seaweed. Double yum! There is no word yet on whether they caught the guy who invented this taste catastrophe.

Another flop was the Arch Deluxe. It was introduced in 1996 as a “hamburger for adults.” It was like a quarter pounder but it had bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and a mustard-mayo sauce. It wasn’t bad but people were resentful of the high price plus there were numerous complaints from consumer groups about the health aspect.

McDonald’s has come a long way since founder Ray Kroc sold those malt mixers to the McDonald Brothers in San Bernardino back in the 1950s. They have had their successes and failures and I agree with most of them except the McRib sandwich. They keep bringing that thing back. I guess someone likes it!

"The Twilight Zone"

Rod Serling puffing on an Oasis. They were to be his downfall.

My 5 top Twilight Zone episodes (in no particular order)

1. “The Invaders” (1961) starring Agnes Moorehead.
2. “The After Hours” (1960) starring recently deceased Ann Francis
3. “A Stop at Willoughby” (1960) starring James Daly
4. “A Hundred Yards over the Rim” (1961) Starring Cliff Robertson
5. “The Shelter” (1961) starring Jack Albertson

Honorable mention: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (1963) starring William Shatner when he was a serious actor. It’s not a great episode but it’s fun to look at all the men passengers on the airplane in suits and ties and smoking. Plus, Shatner has a gun in his possession! Sorry, I don’t have a link to this one.

“The Twilight Zone” was a classic. As many times as I have seen all the episodes, I never tire of the plot twists that Rod Serling came up with.

If you have the time, click the above links for these shows. They are complete episodes from IMDB.

Graeter's Ice Cream, Skyline Chili

They have been making this stuff since 1870 and have numerous ice cream parlors located throughout the Cincinnati area. It also was the winner of a recent "Food Feud" on the Food Network.

Graeter’s Ice Cream from Cincinnati is the best I have ever eaten. They use the highest quality ingredients available and combine them in a “French Pot” process that makes for a great product.

None of us were born yesterday so you know that such a process is not going to be happening at a low cost. Graeter’s sells for $4.99 a pint at Fry’s in Scottsdale. That’s a hell of a lot more than the $3 to $4 you may pay for 1½ quarts of private label ice cream at a supermarket near you. Plus, the cheaper stuff is pretty darn good. I buy Safeway’s brand all the time and like it very much. But, good as it is, it isn’t Graeters.

I suggest you try a pint and let me know what you think. Fry’s carries vanilla, black raspberry chocolate chip, vanilla chocolate chip, cocoanut chocolate chip, chocolate-chocolate chip, mocha, mint chocolate chip.

Speaking of Cincinnati, Skyline Chili is also available in cans at Fry’s for $3.95. This stuff is great over spaghetti with some grated sharp cheddar on top. That concoction is called a 3 way and if you want to make it really exciting, add chopped onions for a 4 way or kidney beans AND onions to make it a 5 way. It’s also great to spoon over chili dogs (Coney Islands).

Every city has their own particular taste for local foods. In New York, Pizza rules, in Phoenix its great Mexican food, Philadelphia has their cheese steaks, and Kansas City their barbecue. It’s different everywhere. So, if you try some Skyline Chili and Graeter’s ice Cream, I hope you like it.

"Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet"

Luckies green were pre WWII. Luckies red and white were introduced in 1942 after "Lucky Strike green goes to war." They were thought to be more "female friendly." (American Tobacco Co.)


We think there are a lot of con men around today but they are probably a small group compared to the guys who were in the advertising and promotion business of the 1920s.

That decade wasn’t called “The Roaring ‘20s” for nothing. It was a post WWI party for ten years that contributed greatly to the worst Depression in the history of the United States. Every night was party night and Prohibition only added to the fun with the characters it wrought. It also was the first decade of commercial radio which spawned a new generation of con artists with what we would consider today as outlandish advertising.

The number one guy in that group and probably the most successful was the head of the American Tobacco Company, George Washington Hill. Flamboyant and brilliant only begins to describe this guy who would ride to his Fifth Avenue office daily in a limo decorated with Lucky Strike cigarette packages.

Hill took over the company from his father in 1926 and was totally sold on radio as an advertising tool. Until radio, advertising was done in print but in 1928, Hill dropped all print ads and replaced them with a radio show called the “Lucky Strike Dance Hour.” Within two months, sales of Lucky Strike cigarettes went up 47%.

One day Hill looked out his limo window and saw two women standing at a bus stop. One was overweight and chewing gum. The other was thin and beautiful and smoking a cigarette. A light bulb lit in Hill’s head: women smokers were considered modern and daring in the 1920s but there were still millions of women who didn’t smoke. However, like today, most women were very conscious of their weight. That was the group Hill went after with his slogan, “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” The candy makers were livid but sales of Lucky Strikes shot up again.

Other gimmicks like “It’s Toasted” and “LS/MFT” (Lucky Strike means fine tobacco) sold plenty of Lucky Strikes but probably his most creative idea was early in WWII when he was told that the green ink on the Lucky Strike package had to be discontinued because the chromium in the ink was needed for the production of tanks.

Hill was never one to pass up an opportunity to peddle more Luckies, so he redesigned the package to be white with a red and black bull’s eye. At the same time, he advertised that the discontinued green package was helping the troops and that “Lucky Strike green has gone to war.” It was a brilliant patriotic line that sold a lot of cigarettes but many people also thought it was just another way to sell more Luckies as Hill wanted a newly designed package anyway to lure more women to smoking.

He may have been a con artist but no one can doubt the success of George Washington Hill as a superb salesman and a true character from yesterday.

Common sense, political correctness

Common sense can’t be learned. You either walk out into the rain or you take an umbrella. Those who do the former are the same people who think it makes perfect sense to type messages to their friends on a cell phone while driving a car. They will always do it (unless they are killed in the process) and the non umbrella users will always get soaked. Neither party “gets it.”

The latest person to join the list is a car salesman in Chicago who wore a Green Bay Packers tie to work Monday after the Chicago Bears lost to the Packers the day before in the NFC Conference Championship Game. The car dealer is a sponsor of Bears’ games and most of his customers are huge Bears’ fans so what was this guy thinking? I know what his boss was thinking after he probably blinked a few times in disbelief while looking at the dreaded Packers tie: “You’re outta here!” The guy probably crossed the street on a red light as he was headed to the bus stop afterward.

The insanity of political correctness: So, here we go with the latest example of jumping to conclusions.

Congresswoman Giffords was shot by an insane guy working on his own and suddenly any kind of terminology concerning weapons is becoming politically incorrect. The other day I saw a wimp talking head on CNN named John King apologize because a guest used one of these now forbidden terms.

King’s guest was a guy named Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association, whatever that is. Shaw used the term “in the crosshairs” while he and King discussed the mayoral race in Chicago.

A few minutes later, King was apologizing for the dreaded “in the crosshairs” term just like the politically correct little liberal he is. Watch this (0.24) if you would like a good laugh.

Based on CNN’s attitude, I guess Target Stores better change their name, Steve Nash better stop taking “shots” at the basket, you can’t collect sea “shells”, and during elections there will no longer be “battleground” states. Let’s not forget those “bullets” used in typing to indicate certain important items, no one should be the “butt” of jokes since rifles have butts, and whatever you do, don’t put an ink “cartridge” in your printer.

This is what we have to put up with today, folks. Don’t allow it, use those supposed offending terms daily plus the many others that accompany them. We still have free speech in this country and I defy any politically correct group to try and change that.

I'm wondering.....

Handsome fellow, huh? Javelinas won't usually bother you unless they are provoked. It's good to have a couple rocks handy just in case.

Why are people who live near the desert in the Phoenix area surprised when they encounter snakes, javelinas, coyotes, etc.?

The Scottsdale Republic reported recently that some guy who is a ten year resident, and his daughter, were walking near the desert in Scottsdale when they met some javelinas. They were scared out of their wits as they jumped somebody’s fence and called the police. The police? I wonder what they expected the police to do other than tell them not to worry about it. There is no word yet as to whether the javelinas were arrested and charged with living in their natural habitat.

It reminds me of a couple of years ago when I was doing a story for the Republic about the Scottsdale Fire Department. One of the firemen told me it is not unusual for them to get calls from hikers who wanted to report a snake sighting while they were on their hike and would the fire department please remove the offending reptile? Snakes in the desert? How dare they live there!

Also in the Republic last week: Advice on how to be a better business writer.

This is a subject that strikes close to home for me. When I got out of college and went looking for a job, I must have had the longest resume in history. I was stoked up to find work and wanted every prospective employer to know all about how great I was. Little did I know that most of the junk I had on there was worthless and would never be read. A friend who knew about these things told me something that I have never forgotten: keep it simple! He was right; those who interview people have more to do than read resumes the length of a Tolstoy novel.

I found that simplicity was also more desirable in making sales presentations. Make presentations brief, stay relevant, and don’t try to show off your $1.98 vocabulary. You won’t impress anyone by using “aggregate” when “total” will do the job.

Speaking of jobs, the current feeling that if you have been unemployed for a while, it hurts your chances of being hired, may not be true. Some companies are only hiring those who have been unemployed rather than those who are employed and just want to change jobs. They feel that the unemployed will show a better appreciation and not have unrealistic expectations. However, it is usually important to have a good explanation as to WHY you have been unemployed.

Honey West is gone

The late Leslie Nielsen with Ann Francis in "Forbidden Planet" (1956)

One of my all time movie heartthrob babes left us this week when Ann Francis died. When I was a kid, my friends and I drooled over any film Ann was in whether it was Glenn Ford’s wife in “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) or the gorgeous daughter of Walter Pidgeon in “Forbidden Planet” (1956).

Her most popular years were the 50’s although one of my favorite roles from her was a “Twilight Zone” episode from 1960 where she played a mannequin trapped in a department store.

In 1965-66 she won a Golden Globe award for her portrayal of “Honey West”, a female private detective, on television. Ann Francis was 80. I will miss her!

I recently saw the ballet film “Black Swan”. As a man, I’m not the type of demographic that the makers of ballet films expect to see in their audience. But, my wife wanted to see it plus I like Natalie Portman from other films and heard she plays an Oscar nominating role in the film.

Although it’s a decent film, it doesn’t match “The Red Shoes” (1948) as a great film about the ballet. Nothing ever will as that film stands by itself. “Black Swan” also contains the typical gratuitous sex scene that we have come to expect from modern films. I usually refer to it as the “obligatory f--- scene” because you know it is coming at some time.

This time it was a lesbian scene that Portman herself said was the “hook” used to get an audience. It’s too bad modern film makers feel they have to incorporate those scenes but they are in the business of making money and that’s what gets butts in the seats. Personally, I like my sex and violence at home but, hey, I guess that’s just me.

I still like the old films the best. They didn’t need sex scenes to draw an audience. The other night I watched “The Sting” (1973) and enjoyed it as much as ever. Paul Newman and Robert Redford were big with the ladies at that time but that film was a huge hit without any gratuitous sex scenes. Imagine that: a film getting by on pure acting and a good story! What will they think of next?

If you would like to leave a comment or read some of the 32 other comments, click "Jim's azcentral blog" in the right column under links. You will not receive a virus. Jim McAllister writes for The Arizona Republic newspaper in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Steam engines and cabooses

I enjoy the 24 hour showing of “A Christmas Story” (1983) every year on TBS. They start the loop at 9:00 Christmas Eve night and it runs continuously until 9:00 Christmas night. It takes place in the 1940s and brings back some nostalgic memories like Ralphie having to put a bar of Lifebuoy soap in his mouth as punishment for uttering the infamous “F” word when he and his dad were changing a flat tire.

In one scene there is the background sound of an old steam driven locomotive going down the tracks with its whistle blowing as it makes its way through the night. I grew up in southwest Ohio and can identify with that steam engine. They were still operating in the early 1950’s before diesels took over and we lived close enough to the railroad tracks that I could hear them late into the night. I would lay in bed next to my window on rainy nights and think about the romance of working on the railroad. To a ten year old kid it seemed like a really cool job.

A freight train never went through a crossing where I didn’t wave at the engineer and the other crew members who worked on the train. All of us kids respected those guys as trains were a really big deal. I loved movies involving trains like Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” (1939) where George and Lenny hop a freight train during the Depression years. The trains were the major form of transportation for the hobos of that era.

During the early ‘50s, before our brains had matured enough to know danger, my friends and I would “hop” freight trains and ride them several miles before jumping off. This was really stupid but when you were 13 or 14 in those days, it was great fun. Never mind that we could have been easily killed or that many times we had to ride a lot farther than we wanted because the thing was going too fast to jump off!

The caboose was always intriguing to me. Unless you are a certain age, you probably don’t remember cabooses. They were separate cars attached to the back of the freight trains that were used as living quarters for the train crew. Many times they were decorated with pictures and posters and many had a cast iron stove used for heat and cooking. The stoves usually had a lip on the edge of the surface to keep cooking and coffee pots from sliding off. Those guys thought of everything!

By the 1980’s, cabooses had outlived their use as railroads were looking for ways to reduce labor costs and materials. They were replaced by a FREDs (Flashing Rear End Device). A FRED could be attached to the rear of the train to detect the train's air brake pressure and report any problems back to the locomotive. It did other duties too which used to be done by crews.

Cabooses are gone now but to a lot of us they were a big part of growing up in a friendlier, simpler time.

If you would like to leave a comment or read other comments, click "Jim's azcentral blog" in the right column under links. You will not receive a virus. Jim McAllister writes for The Arizona Republic in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Hello, 2011!

One of the political victories of 2010 has to be the failure of the DREAM Act. It was nothing but semi-disguised amnesty in the form of a plea to help illegal immigrant children up to age 35 who were brought to the U. S. as babies to gain a path to citizenship.

Up to age 35? Now, that is funny! It’s ridiculous when we are expected to cater to kids (kids?) who are illegal and have parents who are also illegal all of whom are living illegally in the U. S. Somehow, I didn’t see the kids wanting to serve two years in our military or do two years of college. As simple as this would have been for them, this would have been a great dodge. How about a bill sending the parents and kids back to Mexico and letting them start over the right way?

The bill was an attempt to gain votes from the Latino community in the next election and nothing else. Defeating it was the right thing to do. Seal the border; then we can talk some more.

I don’t see the big deal about “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. Gays have been in the military for a long time. When I was serving Uncle Sam for four years in the 1960’s, we had at least ten gay guys in our barracks. One of them was a roommate of mine and he knew that I knew he was gay. However, neither he nor any of the other gay guys had confrontations about their sexual preferences that I ever heard of. They went their way and we went ours, no big deal.

Now, a can of worms has been opened with the repeal of DADT. Why they didn’t let sleeping dogs lie on this, I will never know unless it is just another typical attempt by this government to endorse a certain lifestyle in their never ending push for votes. I wonder how Clinton feels about his legislation from 1993 being repealed by Obama.

Anyway, 2011 is upon us so Que sera, sera. It will have to go a long way to beat the events of 2010.

Jim McAllister writes for the Arizona Republic in Scottsdale, AZ. To leave a comment or read the 39 other comments, click "Jim's azcentral blog" in the right column under links. You will not receive a virus.