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.