Christmas Season vs. Christmas Reason

In these final couple of days before Christmas it struck me how far from the reason for this holiday we have come. Remember when the magic of Christmas included midnight mass & the singing of Silent Night & Adeste Fideles? In years past going to church on Christmas eve or Christmas morning was as important as opening gifts. Today that seems to be further down the Christmas day "to do list" than it has ever been. It's sad how Christmas has become more associated with department store sales & endless TV specials than anything closely resembling the Prince of Peace. I hope as you & I go through this Christmas season and enjoy wonderful times with family & friends that we take a moment to remember why Christmas is the special day it is. Santa, trees & presents are all wonderful parts of the season....so enjoy that...for it is truly magical, but also remember why we began celebrating this special time of year to begin with. The world would be far better off celebrating the reason for Christmas...instead of just the season of Christmas. And so in the spirit of the season....and remembering the reason....Merry Christmas!

Big Ski...Big Life

I said goodbye to a good friend on Monday. We lost one of Rutland's special residents last week when Bob Liscinsky passed away. He was known to all of his friends (& there were many) as "Big Ski". Though most knew Bob from his days as the owner of the Carriage Room, I always felt a bit luckier in a way because although the Carriage Room had been closed for a few years by the time I arrived in Rutland, I got to know Ski as a neighbor living just a house away for more than a dozen years. And as anyone who knew Bob can tell you, because of his gift of storytelling I was quickly brought up to speed on the Carriage Room and what it meant to be around that crowd over the years. I'm sorry in a way that I missed those days but had I not, I would've never gotten to hear those stories in the way only Big Ski could tell them.....and that was special to me. A couple of years ago he called me on the phone & asked me to drop by because he had something for me. He knew that I had a pub style room in my house and he brought me into his garage to uncover the mirrors that graced the walls behind the Carriage Room bar for so many years. Today they proudly hang in my home as a reminder of a man who led a rich & colorful life. At his funeral it was said that Big Ski left this world a better place than when he came into it. That, I have no doubt, is true. Mine was made better by knowing him. Big Ski led a Big Life. I will miss one....and thank him forever for a tiny piece of the other.

Veteran's Day 2009

I wanted to write a quick post to honor our men & women in the armed services on this Veteran's Day. To acknowledge all who are serving today everywhere overseas & those who served in years gone by. My grandfather would often talk about his brother Martin who lost his life in WWI while my dad at 92 still talks very little about his experiences in the second world war. I have cousins & friends who served in Vietnam all who thankfully came home safely; and know the families of some who didn't make it home from Iraq. Today take just a moment to think in the very real terms of the sacrifice made by all of those men & women who have served & are serving our country today.

MSJ's Real Tradition

Now that the Halloween parade is over & Thanksgiving is moving up fast, I started thinking about the Rutland-MSJ game and the tradition that could've seen its final match-up on the final day of October. With MSJ moving down to D-III next season the possibility of a Rutland-MSJ game next year is pretty slim. That's sad news when you look at the storied history that this one football match-up has brought to Rutland over more than 75 years. It got me thinking about the once huge football rivalry in my hometown in CT. Every Thanksgiving Day for years New Britain High School would play crosstown rival Pulaski High in the annual game. Like Rutland, New Britain was always the bigger school & favored (most years) to win the annual city classic. But that didn't always happen. Like MSJ there were always those years that Pulaski would give NBHS all they could handle and though unlike MSJ, Pulaski would tie but never win the Thanksgiving game, that would all change during my senior year. The year I started high school in 1969 our team would finish with a record of 7-3-0. They went 8-2-0 my junior year, but the year I graduated in 1971 the Golden Hurricane's record was a lowly 2-7-1 and was the first and (I think) only time we would lose to Pulaski. If I remember right it was a last second field goal that beat us by one point. That annual Connecticut match-up didn't have the long history of a Rutland & MSJ but there were strong similarities between both. I remember my first Rutland-MSJ game in the early 90's thinking about how much it reminded me of those New Britain-Pulaski games of the early 70's. The excitement level at St Peter's Field that day brought back an awful lot of hometown football memories for me. Because of declining enrollment through the 70's Pulaski sadly ended its roll as a high school in 1982 and is now a middle school. Today MSJ is suffering a similar drop in enrollment. Here's hoping that dropping down to Division III will begin attracting more students to play as a member of an historic football program, but more importantly in my view to be part of the real tradition at MSJ; being a student of the school itself.

Wind By The Bagful

Al Frankin called him a Big Fat Idiot....Idiot he is certainly not. Dangerous maybe, but no idiot. To me it's more a dose of wind by the big fat bagful every day!! I like Maureen Dowd. I read her column whenever I can. I don't always agree with what she says, but she's always entertaining. Today however she hit the nail as square on the head as one possibly can. And gave us a bit of insight into the self proclaimed "king of all media".

Here's her column from this morning:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?_r=1

Dark & Stormy Night

"It was a dark & stormy night" ......that's how Charles Shultz always had Snoopy starting his stories. It certainly seems a fit way to start a quick review of the 50th anniversary of the Rutland Halloween Parade! By the time the parade started the weather actually improved a little bit, but let me tell you just how bad the weather was for that hour or so that we stood around waiting for the parade to begin. Two halloween parades in Rutland stand out for me more than the others. My first in 1993.....that was the year I came to Rutland...IT SNOWED FOR GOD's SAKE!! And this year's parade .....not just because of the awful rain & wind, but because it was pretty special being part of the parade on its 50th birthday....dark & stormy night or not.

Oh, & the picture is of me, Uncle Dave & Charlie Murphy stuck in the 60's before the start of the parade on Saturday.

Hand Me Down World

When I was a kid a morning like this with the fairly widespread frost that I saw just about everywhere on my drive in this morning would have our school teachers talking about squirrels scurrying around gathering twigs & leaves to line those huge nests high in the trees for warmth & looking for enough food to get them through the harshest part of the winter. I remember thinking that with my nine brothers & sisters it wasn't so much different than what my mom did to get all of us ready to face the winter ahead. The heavy winter clothes would come out in droves and the "hand me down" wars would begin! I never seemed to get exactly the coat or hat that I had my eyes on for a winter or two before. And I always ended up with the MITTENS!! The gloves were what I wanted....they looked so much better than those mittens! You could tell "guy gloves" but there was no such thing as "guy mittens". They could be hand me downs from one of my sisters for all anyone knew!! And the kids at school would remind you of that OFTEN! That must be why the 60's group The Guess Who sang "don't give me no hand me down world".... But not one of the 10 of us ever went to school cold...So the squirrels would get ready to keep warm for winter just like we did. A few things you don't think about as a kid though is how your mom & dad made sure the house was warm when you got home. In those days as the squirrels were scraping up everything they could find to keep warm, parents were scraping up every dime they could find to keep the house warm; we just either never knew it or never thought about it. Today though I think about it a lot. With the cost of heating oil & other fuels, keeping the home warm today may be even more difficult than during the days of my family "hand me down wars". Here's hoping that while the squirrels are rustling through leaves getting things ready to help them stay warm this winter all of us can rustle up ways to keep our homes warm too.

Give Peace A Chance

It really pisses me off...oh wait...I should try being more civil. It really angers me to hear the reaction of some this morning to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. It's really laughable to hear the reasoning of some people as to why it was not deserved. Well thought out reasoning like "what a joke" or "he's an idiot", "the guys a moron" or "I'm no fan of Obama". Well, fan or not, as Americans we should all be proud of the fact that our president is viewed by the rest of the civilized world as someone who is deserving of the award. It's sad to think that we will hear more anti Obama sentiment over the Nobel prize here than anywhere else in the world. With all of the problems we have here at home & the questionable commitments we've made to other countries we should all take a moment to put aside "the reasoning" of some & think clearly about how important it is to have the world find our leader worthy of such an honor. In today's dangerous world the U.S. should never take its eye off the ball. But for those who want it...... maybe it's finally time to "Give Peace A Chance".

Where's My Trophy?

Well I'm just about dried out & warmed up this morning after yesterday's GT Outdoor Power Equipment Invitational to benefit the Christmas Fund. The golf tournament took place at Green Mountain National at Killington and I do have to say this: Even with the rain coming down & the wind whipping up as the temperature struggled to hold onto 50 degrees Green Mountain has got to be one of the most beautiful courses in the east. Even through the nasty weather the views really were incredible. It would've been so much better if the weather had cooperated, but with the Christmas Fund as the beneficiary it was all for a very worthy cause. Thanks to Cassella Waste Management & LaValley's Building Supply the entire $80 fee to play in the tournament went directly to the fund. The group I played in included Bruce Milo of Rutland's Vermont Home Theatre & Drive listener Janet Cole. All I can tell you is that the weather got the best of all of us. By the time we had hit the eleventh hole all of us were ready to throw in the towel (which, by the way, was soaking wet from constantly wiping off the seat of the golf cart). With the "best ball" format we started out the day hoping for at least a somewhat respectable showing, but with the rain & wind continually getting the best of us we gradually went from who was going to play the best to who was going to SUCK the most! By hole 9 or 10 all three of us had our run at that dubious distinction but when we finally got to the refuge of the club house I had only one question...where's my trophy?

Radio Forever! Except In The Fall.

Even radio guys look forward to the fall TV season. Last spring we were left with cliff hangers on Criminal Minds & Fringe (two of my TV favorites). Fringe kicked off its new season this week & so far it seems to be worth the wait. I hope the new season of Criminal Minds starts out with a good show as well. We'll see. Then there's those comedy shows I look forward to seeing; Big Bang Theory, Two & A Half Men & The Office still crack me up. And just where would we be without the baseball playoffs & the start of football season? Oh yeah, those we can listen to on the radio! So listen to a good ball game on the radio. In a lot of ways they're better that way, but take the time to check out one or two of my favorite TV shows....or just watch your own favorites....The new season is finally here.

It Was A Great Time To be A Kid

I was talking to one of our Drive listeners the other day who also happens to be a friend. Mike Kelly (no relation...and I think he's thankful!!). He mentioned that he had heard me say something on the air last week about the music I was playing that really hit home for him. It was a Stones song from the mid 60's I think and I mentioned, especially from a musical standpoint, what a great time to be alive that decade was. He heard me say that you were hearing all of this great music for the very first time. One after another; one from the Stones, then one from The Beatles & that would be followed by something from another great artist. As great as it is to be playing some of that music today on The Drive, being one of the lucky ones to be hearing that stuff for the very first time as a kid was a very special thing. Mike felt the same way. That got me to thinking about what kind of effect my favorite 60's group The Beatles had on not only my generation, but on a whole new generation 40 some odd years later. And though it really only scratches the surface of why that music is so strongly entrenched in our lifestyles even today, I took a look at some of the statistics concerning The Beatles music that has yet to be duplicated. Take for instance the fact that in the first week of April 1964, The Beatles held twelve positions on the record singles chart, including the top five positions. Neither feat has been matched by any other artist to date. Unless you include the first time their music was released on CD back in 1987. They held the top 5 chart positions again, but this time on the album charts. And now with the release of The Beatles Rock Band & the newly remastered Beatles catalog they are dominating the charts again for a third time. Four of those remastered albums made the top ten, with seven more in the top 40. They had 16 titles in the top 60, breaking a record set by Elvis Presley in 1977. As I mentioned earlier, all these numbers just scratch the surface. It's the reason for all those numbers that is the real story. And for that reason you just have to go back to the time I was a kid....that reason is quite simple: the music.

Division III Team, Division I Host

Although it's been 5 years since my son Kevin graduated from Castleton State, I was part of the crowd at the historic first football game at the college this past weekend. The weather was beautiful, the playing field looked great, & the football team looked pretty impressive with a 42-28 victory over Anna Maria College. Granted, Castleton's first game was against another team with a start up program: The AMCATS of Anna Maria College play their very first home game this Saturday in Paxton, Massachusetts. The Spartan's real first test will come this weekend when they travel to Utica to take on Utica College. I do have to tell you though that even though The Spartans are a D-III football team, the whole day felt like a page out of Division I. There was a group of about 20 of us who started our day together tailgating with the other hundreds of fans at about 9:30 Saturday morning. I heard someone say at one point that College President David Wolk wanted everything to feel like a Division I experience & if that's true, without a doubt, he succeeded. It was a day I was happy to be part of and if you missed the chance to experience a day of football at Castleton plan on doing that during their next home game on September 26 when they host Gallaudet. Do that & you'll get a taste of Division I football courtesy of a Division III team.

A Thousand Words

Today's post is one I wish I wasn't writing. Although I don't know them well, I met Martin & Betsy Fortin a few years ago when both of our daughters were attending college together. The one thing I can tell you about them is that they are two of the finest people I have ever met. I recall on "parents weekends" hoping to see them on campus so that we might be able to spend a little time together during a hectic couple of days. The day before our daughters graduated Martin & I spent a few minutes talking about what our daughters would be doing after graduation and I remember him also talking proudly about his son Joe and his plan to join the service. Then, the other day I read about the death in Iraq of 2nd Lt. Joseph Fortin of St. Johnsbury. As a parent, how do you put into words how you feel about the loss of a child whether it is your own or someone else's? Your heart aches. Then you see a photo like the one above & you realize that words aren't necessary. This picture truly speaks a thousand words.

A Brew To Bruschi

I heard earlier that Tedy Bruschi retired from football today. Being a Patriots fan it was disappointing news to say the least. I've been a fan since the days of the Boston Patriots and remember when New England picked him. This season most analysts pick The Patriots as the team to beat in the AFC. I hope they're right. They certainly are loaded with talent again this year. But I was just getting used to the idea of the Pats without Mike Vrabel. That was bad enough, but a Pats team without Bruschi will seem very odd indeed. So Patriots fans....wherever you'll be watching on opening day September 14th when The Patriots host the Bills let's toast one of the best & classiest "former" members of the team. A Brew to Bruschi.

Camelot No More

When I read of Ted Kennedy's death the other day I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss. Not just on a personal level, but for the entire country. I suppose some of that still stems from my youth & the hope many of us felt during the "Camelot Years" of the 60's. That hope faded tragically before the decade was over with the assassinations of his brothers, but Ted Kennedy even despite his own personal demons gradually brought that sense of hope back to millions of Americans through his work in the senate. Say what you will about his liberalism but Senator Kennedy fought for what he believed in every day that he was on the senate floor. His legacy includes having major roles in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, The Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 & Meals On Wheels. That's only five examples of the hundreds of pieces of legislation that he has sponsored over the years, and so for me that sense of loss comes down to substance. Unlike Jack & Bobby before him who made us feel like there was nothing we couldn't accomplish if we were commited to it (and I still believe they could have led us there had they been given the chance)... Ted Kennedy had that chance....and he served us all well.

Penny Wise

Is it just me or does the idea of hiring consultants at hundreds of thousands of dollars seem like a waste of money to you too? Does it bother you that CVPS may be hiring a consultant to decide if they are too big? Figuring out whether or not you might be able to save some money for the consumer by downsizing is one thing, but doing it to the tune of what could approach one million dollars just seems so out of whack to me. Leave it to state government. It wasn't CVPS who suggested spending that kind of money. The Vermont Public Service Board ordered the utility to hire an outside consultant to gauge whether the Rutland-based utility has too many employees. Spend a million dollars to see if you need to lay people off. Brilliant! Downtown Rutland hired a consultant from down south to tell them what they need to do to improve the downtown. Another brilliant move. I wonder what that one's costing taxpayers!

When the Rain Comes..

So begins The Beatles song Rain. It goes on to say: "they run & hide their heads". I entered the Drive studio & sat at the microphone just as the storm was beginning here this afternoon and on a whim popped Rain onto the air while saying something cleverly humorous along the lines of "if you want to know what it's like outside this afternoon, just listen to The Beatles & you'll know". I had no idea of the problems to come for Rutland City until later in the afternoon when the station began getting requests from the Rutland City police to announce that people should stay away from downtown. The Bloomer building closed once again, the transit center flooded, Friday Night Live was cancelled and the streets were a mess everywhere. Just take a look at the photo to get an idea of how bad things were for awhile. My thanks to Roxane Shappy for the great camera work! All afternoon I tried to stay up to date on the rain and in turn keep you up to date with timely information but even The Drive was a victim of the storm as we struggled to stay on the air. We had a couple of setbacks on that front, but things seem ok right now. It looks like we will be dealing with more thunderstorms right through the weekend. Hopefully they won't be as bad as the ones that came through earlier today when people had to run and hide their heads. Hopefully by Monday morning we will all be able to quote a different Beatles song.....Good Day Sunshine.

60 Seconds on 60 Minutes

I read this afternoon that the creator of the TV show "60 Minutes" has died. His name is Don Hewitt & he not only created the news magazine but produced it for 36 years. He also put the debate between Nixon & JFK on the air in 1960. That was the very first televised presidential debate. But he really made his mark in 1968 when he created "60 Minutes". Hewitt was born in New York City in 1922, and grew up in New Rochelle. He dropped out of New York University to become a copy boy at New York's Herald Tribune. He joined the Merchant Marines during World War II and worked as a correspondent during the war. He joined CBS News in 1948 at the very beginning of the television era. I got to thinking about Hewitt's impressive career at the same network that gave us Edward R. Murrow & Walter Cronkite. There's been some fine newsmen on other networks since the advent of television but Murrow & Cronkite; and Don Hewitt to boot? Come on. Hewitt died of pancreatic cancer at home. He was 86. "60 Minutes".....I still watch that show almost every Sunday. This Sunday watching it will feel a little bit different.

Woodstock: The Anti-Drug

Everybody's been talking...so it seems...about the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Dateline even did an hour special on it a week or so ago. That show wasn't bad, interviewing many who were actually part of the event in 1969. The closest I came to being there were the stories I got from my brother Matt who (it seems to me) went without permission from either of our parents. I was 16 at the time & he wouldn't be 18 for another month & a half but he had a friend of a friend who was going kind of thing that he took advantage of and so became part of an historical event by hitching a ride with someone he knew only vaguely. The funny thing is neither of us realized any historical significance at the time. He talked about the music of course, but also about the drugs, the mud & my favorite story of the good looking naked "woman" with the long blonde hair he & his stoned friends saw from the back who, when "she" turned around, was a naked guy!! That story still makes me chuckle but it just may be the story that kept me away from anything more potent than....well let's just say........that high I have NEVER been!! Thanks Matt.

You may have to copy & paste but here's a look at Hendrix doing Purple Haze at Woodstock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvs4j4IniA

On Michael Vick & Tom Brady

08/14/09

So I have to admit that I am not quite sure how I feel about Michael Vick becoming a member of the Philidelphia Eagles yesterday. From a pure football "play to win" standpoint I guess it's a great move for Philly. Think about the formations they could create with both McNabb & Vick on the field at the same time. There's not a team in the NFL that would guess correctly what the offense will do 100% of the time. Remember the fits Miami gave opposing teams last season when they ran their wildcat offense? The Patriots sure remember. I'll bet you could notch that up quite a bit with McNabb & Vick both on the field at the same time. Glad that New England doesn't have to worry about that during the regular season. They squeezed out a 27-25 pre-season win last night against the Eagles. In his first game action since Week 1 of last season, Tom Brady started and played nearly all of the first half in Thursday's preseason opener. Tom threw for two touchdowns in the Patriots win....Oh, and no Michael Vick for the Patriots defense to worry about.

Vick was tried, sentenced & served all of his time. He also met with the NFL Commissioner and then had a couple of personal meetings with Eagles coach Andy Reid. I like Reid. He seems like a pretty decent guy who can in a way relate to Vick's situation. Reid said that Vick understands what he needs to do moving forward and he's willing to except Vick at his word. I hope he's right. What Vick did was pretty sick when you think about it. If he's truly sorry for what he did and is a far better person today because of it, he could be making a lot of opposing teams & their fans pretty sick later on this season.

My Kids, McCartney, & A Little Magic

8/11/09

I guess this is the perfect subject to kick off the blog I’ve been planning to start almost since The Drive went on the air in February of 2008.

Whether you were ever a fan of The Beatles, Paul McCartney or any of the other Fab Four….or your taste is more in line with some of the other great artists you can hear on The Drive like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Skynyrd or The Stones, seeing your favorite artist perform a flawless concert full of great music that brings back wonderful memories is something we all should enjoy at least once. For me, that flawless concert came this past week at Fenway Park in Boston. At just a few minutes before 8pm on August 6th on what was as close to a perfect summer evening as we’ve had this year the rumble of nearly 40,000 fans discussing the night ahead turned into a roar as Paul McCartney casually walked onto the stage unannounced (but then again, why would you need to?).

The night of magic had begun.

Like many of you I imagine, I wasn’t even a teenager when The Beatles first appeared on American television. But from that moment; on a winter night in 1964 I was totally hooked on the music that would be with me from that day in February to this day 45 years later. And because of that the music that I fell in love with has been a part of my life & a part of my family life for all that time. I started dating my wife Fran during the Summer of Love in 1967 and although she was a rabid Monkees fan at the time, a couple of songs from Sgt. Pepper changed all that for her. When we were married seven years later, all of the songs played at our wedding ceremony were ones written by Lennon & McCartney. When we started a family, our kids knew the words to Beatles songs almost as quickly as they learned “Old MacDonald” or “This Old Man”. And so…..
back to the night of magic.

I never had a chance to see The Beatles as a group but saw McCartney for the first time during the “Wings Over America” tour in 1976. Fran & I drove from Connecticut to the old Boston Garden to see that show. I remember it as being just incredible. But looking back it seems that Paul has improved with age. I remember seeing him again in Worcester, then Foxboro, then again at the “new” Boston Garden just four years ago. But none of those shows, as slick & professional as they were, held the magic of a night in August in 2009… because on that night not only was McCartney, at 67, perhaps the best he’s ever been but for the first time I was watching this amazing writer & performer with both of my kids by my side. I can’t explain to you the feeling that I had when, with arms around each others shoulders, we sang along to “Hey Jude” “Let It Be” & (during a tribute to John Lennon) “Give Peace A Chance”……and though they are both in their 20’s now….just like when they were little, they knew every word. Still holding on to both of my kids & singing along to the music I leaned forward just a bit to look past my daughter so I could catch Fran’s eyes & we both smiled. No words. She knew it was a night of magic too.