Should Citifield be renamed

It is quite common in this day and age that sports stadia and concert venues are named after corporations. Money, of course, is the name of the game. Citibank is paying the Mets $400 million over 20 years for naming rights to the new stadium. Over the past year Citibank has lost big bucks and has received a bailout from the federal government. Many "ordinary Joe's" are hurting financially and do not get money from the government. They do feel that the name of the stadium should be changed. What is your opinion?

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Support Your Local Not For Profit Radio Stations

I regular donate to WBGO and WFUV since they provide an alternative radio programming. Today I sent a donation to WBGO which I profiled in this journal last August. I understand that with the current economic situation these must be tough times for cultural institutions that rely on donations. WBGO also offers new programming that is relevant to Newark, its city of license and home to NJIT, my employer. In 2009 WBGO is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It is very ususual for a radio station to keep the same format for 30 years. I don't know of any commercial stations that play traditional jazz.

I Don't Have an Ipod

I have hundreds of records, cassettes, and CDs, but no Ipod. I think that for a middle aged person I have adapted well to new technologies, but here is the story. Buying an Ipod would not create any new music for me. I would have to re-package the music that I already have. There are turntables and tape decks with USB connections where one can digitize music from those sources. It is relatively easy to download CDs to an Ipod. However, it would take me hours and hours to transfer my music to an Ipod. I just don't want to do it.

One Last Instrumental

Even Bob Dylan recorded an instrumental. Above is Nashville Skyline Rag. You can listen to this one even if you hate his voice. A will end my thread of favorite instrumentals at 3. Thanks for reading and listening.

Apache by Jørgen Ingmann - my favorite instrumental of the 1960s

This hit goes back to 1961

Popcorn by Hot Butter - My favorite instrumental of the 70s

At the recent Meet and Greet of oldies enthusiasts, Frank from New Jersey paid me a compliment in front of everyone by praising my knowledge of instrumentals. I hated it when WABC or WMCA cut of a good instrumental for the news. Back in 1973 when I was a student at the University of Rhode Island and listened to Salty Brine on WPRO Popcorn by Hot Butter was my favorite. Check it out below. On another day, I'll report my favorite instrumental of the 60s.

Jeopardy Online Contestant Search

For a number of years Jeopardy holds an annual online contestant search. I have watched the show since 1964 but I am really chicken about appearing on the show and making a fool of myself by finishing with minus $2000. The test had 50 questions that you had to answer with 15 seconds. I know I got the one chemistry question right. Californium is the only chemical element named after a state in the union. There seemed to be a lot a literature questions. I really doubt that I will become a contestant. I think that the online players that do the best are ivitied for an interview. I observe that most of the contestants are between 25 and 45 years old. They wouldn't want an old fart like me anyway.

Knicks Beat Houston 104-98

The Knicks have now won 6 of their last 7. The most encouraging factor in tonight's game was that for the first time this season they won a game after being behind after 3 quarters. So it seems that they are finally showing some life under new coach Mike D'Antoni. They are still 6 games under .500 at 19-25 but anything has to be better than last season's 23-59. There are 38 games left, so we'll see what happens.

Netiquette

Common sense goes a long way be it with face to face or electronic communication.

Flaming is a form of verbal abuse when you intentionally attack or disrespect somebody for whatever reason. Maybe you didn't agree with something they said, but there's a nice way to share a different point of view without name calling or attacking someone. Harassing or insulting someone will not likely help you gain many online friends!

The source of the above quote is: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1043498/10_best_rules_of_netiquette_.html?cat=15

In the 16 years I have been on the internet I have met some very nice people who share my interests. Some of these relationships have become real while others remained electronic. Some of them have become long term friendships. For the first time a real "turkey" (and that is being polite) really flamed me unnecessarily.

To make a long story short after he objected a post of mine on a message board, he sent me three extremely nasty e-mails since he had no posting privileges on that board. He has a right to disagree with me, but he did it in a very nasty and crude way. He even found this journal and bashed me on many of my postings that he thought were silly. If he doesn't like my journal, there are millions of other sites on the web he can visit. He should keep his comments to himself. Believe me I have seen plenty of silling posting on various message boards. If I see it, I just go somewhere else and not contact the poster.

I have been intentionally very vague here. If anyone wants the details, please contact me privately.

Bruce

Sending anonymous e-mail is cowardly

Whenever I post to a message board or send an e-mail whether it is to a person I know or not, I sign my full name and stand by what I say. Some loser whose screen name is ofm5 sent me a nasty e-mail because he didn't like what I wrote on the Saturday Night Oldies board. I will not stoop down to his level and write back to him. I do not like silly parodies of Bob Dylan and will stand by that.

Bruce Slutsky

Radio Notes for Saturday and Sunday

I have publically stated that I refuse to be a prisoner of my apartment every Saturday night to listen to the entire 4 hours of Saturday Night Oldies. As stated in my previous entry I took the family to see Queens College basketball. I was able to listen to the beginning and end of it. I reviewed the official message board and noticed that Mark Simone played a parody of the Patty Duke Show theme by Bob Dylan. There is a very devoted listener who uses the anonymous handle Medium Wave Dx and posts an MP3 of the show. I listened to it and knew right off the bat that is was an imposter imitating Dylan singing that theme song.

Every Sunday morning I like to hear the archived version of Sounds of the 60s with Brian Matthew on BBC2. For some reason the show was not yet posted. I'll look for it tonight or later in the week. Right now I am listening to American Top 40 of January 25, 1971 on the 70s channel from XM Radio. I used to enjoy listening to Casey Kasem's countdown which was heard on various radio stations in NYC over the years. Right now I am listening to the lower part of the survey which includes records that are rarely heard on oldies radio today.

Queens College Basketball last night

We drove over to nearby Queens College to see them play Molloy College. For $5/ticket how can you go wrong. True, the quality of play is not the greatest at the Division II level, but we enjoyed ourselves. Anyway Molloy won 81-76.

I'm Glad I Don't Have Time Warner's Triple Play tonight

For years Time-Warner has been advertising a "Triple-Play" that for $100/month you can get cable TV, internet access and phone. I have been a Time Warner Cable TV customer since 1986 had have been reasonably satisfied with the service and the price. I have land line telephone service from Verizon and internet access through AOL DSL. Tonight at 6 PM the cable TV went out and after 4 hours the service has not come back. This is a rare occurrence. Luckily we have a small TV in the bedroom that we never connected to cable TV. Why should we pay for another installation and an additional monthly fee for a set we seldomly use. We even bought a converter box for this TV for the switchover to digital TV on February 17th. We were able to watch Jeopardy on channel 7 tonight, but Lee had to listen to the Knick game on the radio. If we had the Time-Warner triple play, I would have lost my phone and internet service as well. Hopefully the service will be restored soon.

Audio Cassette Players

I must be one of the last people who still has an audio cassette player. Back in the 1990s I collected and traded audio tapes of radio stations all over the country. I still have audio tapes of recording artists that were popular before CDs took over. I used to take my portable AM/FM radio cassette player/recorder when I visited other cities to tape the radio stations. I have hundreds of tapes in my collection. About twice a month I take my tape player to listen to the tapes on my way to work. This morning when I checked my tape player, there was a problem with the stop switch. The only way I could turn it off was to take out the batteries. There is always a weak point in any product and with electronics it is usually a switch. It is not worth it to get repaired so I ordered a new radio/cassette player as featured above.

Happy 68th Birthday Richie Havens

Richie Havens must be best known for being the opening act at Woodstock in 1969. His anti-war saong Handsome Johnny was certainly a show stopper. I was introduced to his music by the late Murray the K when he was on WOR-FM before the Drake format. Pete Fornatale certainly played plenty of his music on WNEW-FM, K-Rock and WFUV.

Today, Lee put Richie Havens sings Dylan and the Beatles on the CD player during Jeopardy. My favorite CD of his is Mixed Bag which lent its name to Pete's radio shows on the 3 stations. Richie also appeared in the Dylan biopic I'm Not There as he sang Tombstone Blues. My favorite Havens song is his cover of Dylan's Just Like a Woman which he sang at the Bobfest in 1992.

Inauguration Day 2009

Inauguration Day should be a holiday so we can all participate in the ceremonies. It would be impossible for everyone to come to Washington, DC, but there could be local celebrations. Today was the first day of classes of the Spring Semester at NJIT. The had a large TV screen set up in the campus ballroom for students, faculty and staff to watch the proceedings. I arrived at 11:45 and so the swearing in and Obama's speech. At 12:30 I ate lunch and then it was back to work. We can only hope for the best in the future. I think economically, we have hit bottom but a turnaround will not happen overnight.

I recalled the inauguration of John F. Kennedy 48 years ago today when I was in the 6th grade at PS 139 in Rego Park. We were talking about bringing in a portable TV so that we could watch the swearing in. It turned out that there was a big snow storm that day and school was cancelled so we could stay home and watch everything.

WABC Radio gets a new program director

It was reported on the New York Radio Message Board that Laurie Cantillo was appointed Program Director at WABC a few months after Phil Boyce resigned. There is some concern among the Saturday Night Oldies (SNO) enthusiasts that a new program director could cancel the show. I still enjoy it, though I usually have to juggle SNO, Cousin Brucie, and a ball game on TV on a typical Saturday night. If SNO is cut short due WABC's programming committments to sports, I can easily find something else to do, while there may be a few nebishes out there who go into mourning.

Anyway, whenever a new boss comes on the scene, he/she is very likely to come in and make changes. Ms. Cantillo could a purist and say she doesn't want music on a talk radio station and would cancel SNO and WABC Rewound every Memorial Day. She apparently is not a native New Yorker and may take time to appreciate the heritage of the station. I sugggest that SNO enthusiasts wait a while until she is settled in her new position and write to congratulate her and encourage her to keep SNO and Rewound.

Congratulations Donovan

In my November 2, 2008 entry I reported on the DVD on the musical career of Donovan (Leitch). I was pleased to learn today that he was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. This is a very prestigious honor. Oldies listeners know Donovan for his big hits such as:

• Mellow Yellow


• Sunshine Superman


• Atlantis


• Hurdy Gurdy Man

However he has recorded many albums in the Folk/Folk Rock genre.

My hearty congratulations

The Knicks at MSG - A Martin Luther King Day Tradition for the Slutskys

I just checked entries for January 2007 and 2008 and saw that we did see the Knicks on MLK Day of those years. If I remember correctly we started going a few years before that. Anyway I read in the newspaper today that the Knicks have played a day game at home every MLK Day since the holiday began in 1986. In today's matinee the Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls 102-98 to improve their MLK Day record to 17-6. Game Recap. The Knick record for the season is a mediocre 16-24 at the midway point of the season.

When the season began I looked at the Knicks very optimistically since they hired Donnie Walsh as General Manager and Mike D'Antoni as the coach after a horrendous 23-59 season under Isianh Thomas. Early in the season they traded their two best players Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph to dump salary. In this way after the 2010 season they will be under the salary cap so they can pursue blue chip free agents such as LeBron James, Amare Stoudamire, and Steve Nash among many others. This seems to guarantee mediocrity for this season and next. Instead of 23-59 they will improve to 35-47. Look at all the money they are throwing away:

• $21 Million for Stephon Marbury to do nothing
• $9 Million for Cuttino Mobley a recent acquisition who can't play due to a heart condition
• $30 Million for Jerome James who is injured
• $X Million for Isiah Thomas to sit home and do nothing

Just one more comment. Tickets are expensive as we paid $133.50 for the three of us to sit in the upper deck. A young couple was sitting in front us and both spent almost the entire game text messaging. They walked out with one minute to go when the game was tied. They should have saved their money and stayed home to text message.

I Hate Light Snow

I just hate it when there is only an inch or two of snow as there was this morning. When there is a light snowfall, you have to go to work in bad weather and cope with poor traveling conditions. At least when there is a bg snowfall, places close and you can get a day off from work. Today was Sunday, anyway, but I just hate being bound to the apartment. So, that means another trip to the local multiplex. We've seen so many movies over the last month. Today we saw Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

We've seen worse movies. I guess if you are a Keven James, you would like this flick. It was a silly story about a nebish (loser) who works as a security guard in a shopping mall in West Orange, NJ and some how bumbles his way and becomes a hero. I wish that this multiplex would reserve one screen for independent films. There is a small theater in Kew Gardens, about a 15 minute drive away, which shows movies suited for an older audience. On a crummy day like today, I just don't feel like driving in tricky conditions just to see a movie.

College Basketball Today

We had some errands to do this morning so we couldn't make it to the Hofstra game which started at 12 noon. We saw the game on MSG+ where Hofstra beat Northeastern 57-52. Instead we went to CW Post to see the Pioneers defeat NYIT 91-79.

When we got home I turned on Saturday Night Olides and heard my friend Cara Sieden speak to Mark Simone over the air. Mark just completed an excellent interview with Ernest Borgnine who will be 92 years young next week. I'll check out Cousin Brucie a little later.

The Painters Finished the Job Today

They came in at 7:30 and did the living room, dining room and hallways. Their part of the job ended about 3 PM, but we still have to take all the stuff out of the boxes and put them where they used to be in the apartment. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it around. We discovered some wine glasses that have not been used in 25 years. It will take some time before our part of the job is finished.

So how did I celebrate? I went to Ben's Deli in Bayside and treated myself to a pastrami sandwich.

Day 1 of the Paint Job

The painters came about 8 AM and worked on both bedrooms. We had to place most of the boxes in the living room so they would be out of the way. Karen and I had many cases of audio and video tapes of radio stations and movies that just could not fit in the apartment while it was being painted. So I took those boxes and moved them into the hallway. About 2 O'Clock the building manager came to our apartment and told us that it was illegal to place anything in the hallway and that the co-op could be fined if fire department inspectors came. Boy, she was really playing the devil's advocate. We had to wait until the painters finished for the day and brought the stuff back to the apartment. Other than that everything went smoothly.

Happy 90th Birthday Andy Rooney

We read too many stories about the passings of many journalists, actors, singers and politicians. Some of them sadly leave us before their time. It was nice to hear of Andy Rooney's 90th birthday today. At this advanced age he is still very active and in my opinion he's 60 Minutes' greatest asset. I have never sent him a letter or a gift. I just do not want to pester him at all. Lee is the biggest Andy Rooney fan in the family. I just hope that my favorite entertainers are as active as he at age 90.

Painting the Apartment Begins Tomorrow - Let's Hope it will be a masterpiece

Tomorrow is the big day when the Slutsky apartment is painted. We should have done it years ago, but it has to be done. It was a nuisance putting so much stuff into boxes over the last week. It will be a pain in the butt to move the furniture away from the walls. I will also have to move my multitudes of records, tapes, CDs, and DVDs. I may be offline for a few days, so don't worry about me. We are really hoping that the job will be a masterpiece.

Dolly Parton talks about Bob Dylan

I was scratching my head thinking of what to write for today's journal entry. I was listening to the Bob Dylan Internet Radio Channel when they played an interview of Dolly Parton talking about Bob Dylan. She was saying that they were trying to contact Dylan about a recording when she sang a few bars of Blowin' in the Wind. She then said she was thinking about an album titled Dylan Does Dolly. LOL At age 67 Bob is not a dirty old man, but a sexy senior citizen. I have a better idea, have Dylan sing "Lay Lady Lay" to Dolly.

Happy 50th Anniversary to Motown Records

A hearty congratulations is in order to Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson and the others who were there from the beginning. Congratulations are in order for the multitude of artists who recorded for Motown including the Supremes, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, the Jackson 5 and many many others.

Lee Really Wanted to See Frost/Nixon

It was a cold and icy morning and we all just can not stand sitting at home. I told Lee he had a choice, stay home and watch the Giants football game or go into Manhattan to see Frost/Nixon. He chose the latter. It seems strange that a 20 year old who was not yet born during the Watergate era would have a fascination with Tricky Dick. It actually comes from Jeopardy. Whenever his name comes up in a question or answer Karen and I yell out Nixon. This movie came out several weeks ago, but it has not played in our local multiplex or even in Queens. So we saw it at the Regal Theater complex on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street.

The acting was suburb with the diction of Nixon and Frost being recreated perfectly. In my opinion the entire Watergate mess could have been avoided if Nixon had taken responsibility and fired his entire campaign staff right after the burglary.

William Zantzinger, Villain in a Bob Dylan song dies

CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. – William Zantzinger, a wealthy Maryland landowner whose fatal beating of a black barmaid was recounted in a Bob Dylan protest song of the 1960s, was buried Friday. He was 69.

Zantzinger died Jan. 3. His family did not provide further details of his death, the Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home said.

The tobacco farmer served six months and was fined $500 for manslaughter in 1963 for striking the 51-year-old barmaid with his cane for taking too long to serve him a drink. Hattie Carroll later died of a stroke. In the "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," Dylan criticized different standards of justice meted out to whites and blacks.

Zantzinger was allowed to delay the start the sentence two weeks so he could harvest his tobacco crop and served the time in the Washington County jail, working in its kitchen.
"There is something wrong with this city when a white man can beat a colored woman to death and no one raises a hand to stop him," the Rev. Thomas C. Jackson said in his sermon at Gillis Memorial Church the Sunday after Carroll's death.

News accounts at the time said Zantzinger had been seen drinking with his wife at a dinner before a ball. While dining, Zantzinger told jurors he began hitting waitresses with the cane.
"I'd been smacking — tapping — waitresses on the tail, and they didn't say anything. I was just playing," Zantzinger told the jury in Hagerstown, where the case was tried.
"I had no other purpose than to have a good time," Zantzinger testified. "The last thing I intended was to harm or injure anyone. I never even thought about it."

Zantzinger, who later became a foreclosure auctioneer, didn't answer questions about Dylan's song for years. In 2001, he spoke with Dylan biographer Howard Sounes about the singer, saying he "should have sued him and put him in jail. (The song is) a total lie."

Larry Jenkins, a publicist for Dylan, said the songwriter was not available for comment.

Gran Torino - Good Movie for a Snowy Day

It was another nuisance snowstorm today in the Big Apple. The forecast is for about 3 inches of snow, enough to cause inconvenience, but not enough to close things down. There were basketball games at CW Post and Queens College, but I decided to leave the car in the gargage and walk to the multiplex to see Gran Torino, the latest Clint Eastwood movie. Clint produced, directed an acted in this film about an elderly man living in a poor section of Detroit. I have seen several, but not all of his films over the years. Highly recommended.

Happy Birthday Joan Baez

Joan Baez who celebrated her 68th birthday is still very active doing concerts and issuing CDs. The photo above is of her with Bob Dylan apparently during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour of the mid 1970s. Dylan and Baez collaborated in the early 1960s and perhaps were romantically linked for a while.

The Bob Dylan - Elvis Presley Connection

Nobody knows if Bob Dylan ever met Elvis Presley. However I am aware of two Dylan songs that Elvis covered:

• Tommorow is a Long Time
• Don't Think Twice It's Alright

The King did justice to those two Dylan songs.

25 Random Things about Me

There is a thread on Facebook about this, so I'll post here which will be imported into Facebook anyway. I'll try to think of things that are not obvious.

1. I actually was born in Brooklyn but moved to Queens when I was 2 years old.
2. I was named for my grandfather Baruch Wagman.
3. I went to P.S. 139 Queens
4. I lived near the Woodhaven Blvd. subway station in Rego Park, Queens
5. My father was a manager of a woman's clothing store.
6. I went to JHS 190 also known as Russell Sage Junior High School
7. I was a terrible athelete. I used to cry when the kids didn'twant to play ball with me.
8. Only July 15, 1957 I went to Ebbets Field to see the Dodgers beat the Braves 20-4.
9. Right now I am listening to Outlaw County on XM/Sirius Radio.
10. Today we had our annual reference retreat.
11. My favorite TV show of all times is Car 54 Where are You?
12. My favorite TV show of the 70s was All in the Family.
13. When I was a chemistry student, I hated thermodynamics.
14. I had a perfect 4.0 index as a student of library and information science.
15. I just said goodnight to my son Lee.
16. I am listening to the Bob Dylan song Idiot Wind on Outlaw Country.
17. My favorite saying is "Is there anything else for the good of the order?"
18. I dislike people who talk too much.
19. On a work day I wake up at 6:10 AM
20. I wish New Jersey Transit could devise a more modern and efficient method of collecting fares on the trains.
21. Tom Seaver is my favorite Met player or all time.
22. Mickey Mantle is my favorite Yankeer player of all time.
23. I just hate spreadsheets.
24. I hate people who compile meaningless statistics
25. The lowest point in my life was the two years I lived in New London, CT.

Citifield - We Will Be There

For several seasons we bought 7 game packages for games at Shea Stadium. Today I bought a 15 game package for the new Citifield. We will be sitting in the upper deck just past 3rd base. The seating capacity for Shea Stadium was 57,000 while Citifield only has 45,000 seats which will obviously create a big demand for tickets. The only plans that are available are for 15 games, 40 games or the entire season. We picked a plan for 10 Saturdays and 5 games during the week. We paid $920 which meant about $20/ticket per game which is not too bad since the fans have to pay the big player salaries. I can always sell tickets to friends if there is a game or two that I can't make.

I think this situation is unfair to people who just may want to go to a few games each season. I don't know how many seats will be available on a single game basis. Anyone can use a service like Stub Hub and sell tickets for a big profit. It is only illegal to sell tickets near the venue, so fans may have to pay big bucks for tickets.

Happy 48th Anniversary Mr. Ed

After four days of playing the History of Rock n Roll, WCBS-FM returned to regular programming this morning. Karen told me that after left for work this morning, DJ Dan Taylor mentioned to weatherman Mr. G (Irv Gikofsky) that 48 years ago today was the first appearance of Mr. Ed, the talking horse, on TV. Lee has been a fan of that show since he was a little boy. We had to explain to him that real horses do not talk. Just a few weeks ago as we were returning from an afternoon in Manhattan he asked that he watch the tape of Mr. Ed shows when he got home.

I did a little searching and found an interview of Alan Young (now 89 years young) with Fox News personality Bill O' Reilly. If you need more information about Bill, please check Dave DuBrow's World Journal File. In the interview, they talked about a book called Mr. Ed and Me and More that was published in 2007. We had to buy it from Amazon.com. In fact Mark Simone interviewed Alan Young some time ago on Saturday Night Oldies. I am sure that the show's historian Frank D'Agostino could tell you the exact date. Below is the interview with Bill O'Reilly from Youtube:

Marley and Me - A Bob Dylan Connection

On the last day of my holiday break we went to see Marley and Me at the local multiplex. Marley is a dog owned by the family in the movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. This song was not in the movie, but it came to mind as I was watching it. If Dogs Run Free appeared in the New Morning album released in 1970. The video below from Youtube was a concert performance, but the original studio version featured some scat singing.




If Dogs Run Free

If dogs run free, then why not we
Across the swooping plain?
My ears hear a symphony
Of two mules, trains and rain.

The best is always yet to come,
That's what they explain to me.
Just do your thing, you'll be king,
If dogs run free.

If dogs run free,
why not meAcross the swamp of time?
My mind weaves a symphony
And tapestry of rhyme.
Oh, winds which rush my tale to thee
So it may flow and be,
To each his own, it's all unknown,
If dogs run free.

If dogs run free,
then what must be,
Must be, and that is all.
True love can make a blade of grass
Stand up straight and tall.
In harmony with the cosmic sea,
True love needs no company,
It can cure the soul, it can make it whole,
If dogs run free.

Copyright ©1970 Big Sky Music

Hofstra Basketball Today

It was cold but clear today so we took a drive out to Hofstra in Hempstead. This arena was the site of the recent Obama-McCain debate. Anyway Hofstra lost to Drexel 63-56. So far we have seen 4 college basketball games this season:

CW Post
Queens College
St. Johns
Hofstra

There May be Scott Muni WABC Airchecks available

For readers of this journal who are not radio enthusiasts Scott Muni was one of the greatest radio personalities in New York history and rightfully called the Professor. He appeared on WMCA, WABC, WOR-FM, WNEW-FM, and WAXQ during his distinguished career. For about 10 years WABC plays recordings (airchecks) of radio shows done during its Top 40 days (1960-82) on Memorial Day. This show called WABC Rewound is produced by Johnny Donovan and Rob Frankel. There were shows done by many WABC DJs, but only a very short tape of Scott Muni has surfaced until now. There is a posting on the Radio-Info board by an anonymous poster with the moniker Radio Truth saying that he has a 1961 WABC Scott Muni aircheck. I immediately notified Rob Frankel. Hopefully, this tape will be heard in May 2009.

People in cyberspace often chose to be anonymous and that is certainly their prerogative. About a year ago Radio Truth really bashed Saturday Night Oldies. Another anonymous poster (I know who he is) named Oldiesking or SNOFAN1 really gave it to Radio Truth. If Oldiesking were told that he could have a date with Jennifer Anniston every Saturday night, he would turn it down to listen to every second of Saturday Night Oldies. To each his own.

Contributed to My Individual Retirement Account Today

An investment counselor once told me that people don't plan to fail, but they fail to plan. Sometimes you have to look several years ahead to retirement, when I won't have to cope with the managers of Maggie's Farm. I have a TIAA-CREF pension plan since I have worked for universities over the past 18 years. NJIT gives a certain percentage of my salary to the fund, while I also give a significant amount each pay period for retirement. For many years I contribute to a supplementary retirement fund through mutual funds. Over the past year these investment accounts have decreased in value. This has happened to millions of people, so I was advised not to panic since I will not be retiring in the near future. Today I put some money into a retirement account through my savings bank. Although the interest rate is relatively low, this money is guaranteed.

Spotlight on Victor Monachelli

This afternoon I received a phone call from radio enthusiast extraordinaire Victor Monachelli wishing me a happy new year. I was appreciative that Vic took the initiative to phone rather than use e-mail. Vic was the first radio enthusiast that I met when I first went online at home in 1994. At that time we were using the online service Prodigy which preceded the internet. Vic must have made umpteen thousand posts on the radio boards there about WCBS-FM. I visited him in 1995 when he owned a pet supply store in Yonkers. He has since relocated to central Florida but still follows New York radio through the Internet. He is proud of his Myspace page. Happy New Year Vic and happy listening.

Valkyrie - Our First Movie of the Year

Since the weather was very cold today, it meant a walk over to the local multiplex. We saw the new Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie. It was about a plot by German officers to kill Adolph Hilter, the most miserable man to ever exist on the earth. I didn't realize that there were 15 unsuccessful plots to kill him during World War II. Although the conspiracy depicted in this movie failed, Hitler committed suicide 9 months later when he realized that the Allies were going to defeat him. If he were captured he would have been executed as Saddam Hussein was 60 years later. I highly recommend this film.