I’m trying to make my way through a really interesting book with what little time I have to indulge this favorite pastime. The other day, needed an oil-change/lube so, book in one hand, latte in the other, I happily anticipated a few minutes…maybe even half-an-hour…kick-back time. I’d no sooner sat down, opened the book when a cell phone rings and is answered. Apparently this encouraged other customers-in-waiting; two others decided they needed to make their calls.

Okay…forget the read. Had a visit to the dentist’s office pending…I can catch up then. That was today. Well, there’s a tv on, in one corner. Now that’s not so bad…it’s only looped promotional information on the services offered and the volume is low. Two people already in the middle of their phone conversations, one…phone in hand, about to be. Another comes back out to sit in the waiting room and immediately rummages for her cell phone while someone else’s is ringing, demanding immediate attention. Not one says, “Let me call you back, later” or “This isn’t a good time…give me an hour”, nor does anyone shut off their phone.

What IS this need to be available or ensure someone else is? I’ve watched folk dial multiple numbers until they finally reach a “live” body on the other end. Frankly, most certainly appear not to be business people but folk who can’t seem to be alone, wait something out in peace and quiet or are reluctant to make conversation with the person in the next seat if conversing is a must. On the one hand, it would seem…in recent years…we, as a society…are distancing ourselves from human, face-to-face, one-on-one interaction while, on the other, need invisible umbilical cords across towns, counties, States for contact of any sort in order not to sit awhile with just their own thoughts. Used to be when bosses, managers, left the office it was with instructions…”Take a message. I won’t be available for the next (?) hour(s).” Anything requiring his/her attention, no matter how pressing, waited for his/her return. Mothers used to relish a day out shopping, having lunch, keeping their appointments either on their own or with a friend and not having to deal with every little thing that arose. Grandparents loved getting a little time away from the entire network of family, enjoying whatever they chose without someone needing to know where they were or what they were doing, when they would be home and “Can you pick this up for me?”

It’s nuts! And it’s not sour grapes for I’ve had cell phones for fifteen years. Three people have that number and of those three I call one from it, as only that person calls me…as and when necessary. Now it’s not even enough that we have a means of reaching someone in an emergency or vice-versa but boredom. To the point that we even see more and more folk walking down streets, round stores, completely alone but talking a blue-streak on a blue-tooth and not all are youngsters. Take a moment, take a newspaper, a magazine, a book…your own mind. Sit, wait, be still, enjoy lunch…just ’be’ and leave your cells in the car. I’m home now…peace and quiet reigns for the moment. Page 34 here I come.

” NEW YORK (AFP) - Telecommunications giant AT and T said its fourth-quarter profit rose 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.9 billion dollars, despite the costs of gobbling up two major rivals.”

And I’m not surprised!

How often do you check your monthly bills? How closely? That
particular chore falls to me so, the other day, decided I’d best take
care of them. We have AT&T only because I do need their overseas
service on occasion. Bill is always the same.very low.but this time I
noticed there was an additional charge. For their Worldnet Internet
Service. Eh?? Don’t use it, never have.never wanted to, mostly because
I think their charges for the service they provide is a rip-off.

So I called them this morning. After a five minute wait finally got a
live voice (I think though it sounded suspiciously robotic) and asked
for an explanation and resolution. Get the monthly fee off my bill or
it doesn’t get paid. The guy asked me if I was unhappy with the
service.Hahahaha! Told him I’ve never used their service because I’ve
never had it.he tells me I’ve had it for three years. (No, I haven’t
for I’ve had Verizon for at least that long and now running FiOS.)
Finally, he tells me they can close the account and credit me “for the
last three months.”

For the moment, that would do.I’m probably not going to let it rest
there. Seems to me there has to surely be a way they can check to see
non-usage of this account if, indeed, they have me listed as being an
internet “customer” that long. Just strange they’ve never billed me
for it until this month.

Now, I check my bills thoroughly, every month. I know this has not
been there, each month, for the last three months, let alone three
years because I certainly would have seen it and called them from the
get-go. But it did get me to wondering not only how often does this
happen to how many, but how.and why, from a supposedly reputable
company? Needless to say, they can’t remove the charge/give me credit
today but while awaiting a confirmation number of the “promise” for
future reference, if need be, he then asks if I’d LIKE to go with
their regular dial-up service. Uuh, no. I have a great service already.
Okay.”would you like an AT&T email address, then, for $5.95 a month?”
Uuh, WHY?

I’d hope everyone vets their standing bills, closely, but if not, please do.

Why do the good people of Delmarva fear snow?

What is it about the white puffy moisture that causes so many people to fear for their lives? Why does normal life come to a complete end on this peninsula every time a stupid weatherman mentions that unmentionable,….”Chance of Snow”?

Like a flock of screaming children at recess, you run to the supermarkets, mini-markets and roadside stands to purchase Milk, Eggs, Bread and Toilet Paper. OK, so this leaves me to believe that the fear of snow brings about the massive hankering for French Toast which you apparently don’t have the digestive tract to properly handle, hence the toilet paper.

Question: When was the last time people in this area were literally ’snowed-in’ so bad that they were unable to leave their home because of the high snow? When was the last time the roads were so un-navigable that nobody, and I mean nobody, was able to drive including Police, EMS and newspaper delivery people? How many of you live so far from civilization that if you were snowed in and ran out of toilet paper, you would be too far away to walk to a neighbor’s house and borrow some? And finally, why are the elements to make French Toast so important to you in the event of snow?

I was transferred to North Carolina some years ago by the retail company I worked for at the time. My store was in Hanes Mall in Winston Salem, we lived in a tiny town called Advance. Our first winter there was the worst in anyone’s memory. The snow wasn’t so bad, it measured almost 12 inches, but the following ice storm took out power lines all over the area. We were without power for 5 days. Since the state had very little snow in this area, local municipalities never felt the need to purchase snow plows or even road salt. Being from Pennsylvania, I was accustomed to driving in heavy snow and easily drove to and from work while many stayed home to wait it out. In our home, no electricity meant no cooking, we had an electric oven. We did have a fireplace and actually made some stew in it as well as heated up leftovers and such. Mostly, we ate out during the outage. The locals, who were not used to driving in snow made the most of it by working together. Farmers drove their big tractors around to neighbor’s homes, seeking lists of needed supplies before driving to the local filling station/mini-market. Folks with 4-wheel drive or who were brave ventured to Mocksville, to the supermarkets, armed with many shopping lists, especially for the elderly.

People just automatically came together to help one another in the ‘crisis’ as I believe they would here as well! They also used the time to play. A neighbor with a four-wheeler stopped by our home to let the kids grab their sleds and hold a rope as he pulled them through the neighborhood. He told us of a plan to gather at the top of a local road which had a nice hill for sledding that night. We drove (much to their astonishment) instead of walking the 3 miles with our sleds. They had a huge bonfire and a large farm tractor which would drive down the hill with a huge tow-rope, pulling the kids back up the hill so they could have more fun without getting so tired of the reverse trek.

But here, well, that’s a different story. As some of you may know, I run nearly 2 dozen weekly trivia gameshows at local (and not-so-local) restaurants and other venues. One such venue is a new game inside the private gated community, The Peninsula. For our premiere event last Sunday the staff had acquired reservations for more than 50 people to sit in a nice restaurant inside their community, with a warm fire, protected by a back-up generator, where their was plenty of eggs, bread and milk as well as a supply closet full of toilet paper, and enjoy a trivia game with a house-cash prize. Slowly but surely these reservations cancelled one-by-one until we had but one team left for the game. Why? “Chance of snow.”

By the end of the game that first massive snowfall of 2007 had grown to nearly an inch with ‘bitter’ temps in the upper 20’s and virtually no wind. Why should such a minor meteorological event prevent people from going out to have a good time? Why do we scare so easily? I don’t let such occurrences prevent me from events. When I was young I didn’t let blizzards prevent me from honoring my commitment to a girlfriend for a date to the movies. Why should I start fearing the white fluff now?

My final point is to encourage you folks to stop being so scared of your own shadows! You have to live your life to enjoy it. Your end will come, but here on Delmarva it is very unlikely it will be caused by hunger due to a snowstorm. Get out and live!

I suggested on last Friday’s program that Nile Rodgers killed Rock music. I’d like to qualify my remarks and shed a little light on Rodger’s musical history from session rock guitarist to Disco king.

While still in his teens, Rodgers was in New York recording sessions and a member of the Sesame Street Band. (Perhaps this is where he began to get confused?) He met a bassist named Bernard Edwards and they formed a ROCK band in 1970. They played successfully in NYC but found it difficult to get a recording contract partially because the label execs couldn’t accept a couple of black guys performing ROCK music.
After years of trying, they gave up on rock and in 1977 formed Chic with some fellow musicians. Chic had a string of Disco hits including Everybody Dance, Le Freak, Dance, Dance, Dance, I Want Your Love and a personal favorite of mine, Good Times (which was later sampled for use in the first crossover Rap music hit, Rappers Delight).

On top of the huge success of Chic, Rodgers and Edwards went on to produce and write for other artists, using CHIC to perform everything musically and vocally except lead vocals. Those productions with Norma Jean Wright, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis(!) and Debbie Harry (of Blondie fame) among others on hits such as “Saturday”, “He’s The Greatest Dancer”, “We Are Family”, “Spacer”, “Upside Down”, “I’m Coming Out” and “Backfired” to name a few. Rodgers himself also produced many major hit records such as Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, Madonna’s Like A Virgin, two albums by Duran Duran, and various projects for Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Thompson Twins, Al Jarreau (including the theme to “Moonlighting”!), The B-52’s, David Bowie, David Lee Roth, and more recently Michael Bolton, Soul Decision, and MorrisonPoe. Believe me, this is a short list of the artists he has produced.
To be fair to Chic, while they are most often associated with Disco, the music is really more of a funky blend of R&B, Rock and Jazz stylings. They were really quite a breakthrough band which are amongst those credited with salvaging the music industry as the Rock era suffered it’s first real slump in sales and quality.

Nile Rodgers has been noted to have influenced some Rock legends such as Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Still scratching my head over this.
The introduction of heavy string support on Chic’s debut album and the over-produced singing tracks are among the reasons why I site Rodgers as the man who killed Rock music. Although these facets of music styling were not his invention, he used them to further his recording and financial success. In reality, Nile Rodgers seems more of a talented opportunist. He saw a hole and he filled it, now where’s ma-money?

The instrumental ballad Savoir Faire from Chic’s debut C’est Chic is the stuff of George Benson. At Last I Am Free sounds to have inspired much of Prince’s slow and easy attitude toward ballads. Sometimes You Win could have been penned by the BeeGee’s (who also started out as a Rock band, by the way). The final song from this album is called Bone (Funny) and is an upbeat instrumental dance tune with the sound of laughter running in the background. This song was obviously a filler with no great aspiration. The biggest hit from the album was Le Freak which when combined with the name of the band made the populous of the time think they were a French band, giving them cultural superiority over our lame US bands. (Isn’t it always the ‘guy from England’ or the ‘chick from Russia’ that seems to get all the attention in high school?)
Anyway, European envy aside, Nile Rodgers has certainly influenced music and I believe that influence was born of anger for not being considered a proper rocker. On top of that the success of Disco lead many of the great rocking bands to falter under the enormous pressure of the record companies to put out a “Disco Song”. We all cried as one-by-one our heros, rock legends, fell to the pressure of the almighty dollar and SOLD OUT to Disco!

On Friday’s Jared Morris Show I intend to expose these turncoats. Will you join me?

Yippie, everyone can be a star on Youtube!  Some recent highlights with commentary:

Who knew the Lewes Fire Department could “rock so hard?”

Homosexual in drag talks about “Rehomo the gay beach” (in “slower lower”)

Milford High School kid tapes his day in school. (This is part II of a III part series, with a lot of classroom time wasted, and disrespect shown toward the classroom guest speaker. Part I in the series shows a disorderly class with lots of talking, time wasting and general disorder.)

Trailer for the movie featuring the Rehoboth Beach Lifeguards.

I love this report about smokers and littering.  When you listen to it, please remember WGMD reporter Joe Ciccanti actually sat in the parking lot at Midway and counted how often smokers tossed their butts on the ground!  Are smokers this self centered and self absorbed in other areas of their life, or only when it comes to littering?

Hear the report here, and others here.

I agree with the manager of Prime Hook; a five cent deposit on butts to help clean up.

Do you know where your marriage licence is? How many times have you looked at it, thought about it, depended upon it since you were married? Sure…every once in a while someone in authority may want to know if you are married, where you were married. They don’t care by whom or how many were in attendance, only that you are legally bound each to the other. And, sometimes, that doesn’t matter a whit. I know…I’ve been there. Now I’m somewhere else, where friends, colleagues, acquaintances, neighbors, are fighting for the right to be “married” with all it entails. A civil union apparently will never be enough…and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why not. In this day and age of seeking equality, marriage is not an equalizer and anyone who believes it is should really get into marriage vows. Yes…a couple may change, delete or ignore the “obey” (I know I would!), make up their own version of marriage vows. They may be married in the church, on the beach, in a garden, house or court. With the exception of, perhaps, the church a civil union can be performed in any of those places; all friends, family, may attend the ceremony to wish the couple well just as they could a marriage. A cake could be baked, fancy clothes worn…even rings exchanged! A traditional marriage gives legality to a union of two people, first and foremost so what makes a civil union different? If either couple have and raise children who want to question marriage or not, the bottom line remains the same, surely…we are legal partners. A married couple is a legal partnership, civil union is a legal partnership (though, for sure, only in a few places at the moment). I never once asked my parents…or anyone…if they were legally married.

But what is really the point, here? We fall in love, decide to spend the rest of our lives together…sharing joys, sorrows, ups, downs, raising children, goats, dogs…whatever. We make joint purchases of homes, cars, trucks, furnishings and contribute to joint bank accounts. We do this whether same-sex or hetero couples, we do this married or not. As I see it, the difference IS…while we live and share our lives no differently than married couples we can neither enjoy or feel secure in any of the benefits legality provides them. Whether in illness, death or on April 15^th. I strongly believe…and maintain…we DO deserve and should have the right to share the same comforts and benefits as any other couple spending a lifetime together. I’d even go so far as to say that in the instance of civil union it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ensure the couple had been together for a couple of years and/or have no entitlements if their union/partnership dissolves in less than ten. Why not? Those who spend a career in the military already fall under those guidelines as far as some of their benefits are concerned. If you haven’t been a military spouse for at least nineteen years of his/her service your benefits and “rights” are limited. It might not be a bad idea, even, to extend that same ruling to a married couple given that too many of them may only stay together for a few years. Why do we want to replicate the traditional heterosexual union called marriage? Too many of them don’t plan on their marriages lasting “forever”, moving on to greener (or younger) pastures. Already, even though gay marriage is only recognized in a very few states and there have been couples who’ve taken advantage of it, enough of them have seen fit to divorce after either months or a year or two. That is a mockery of any union…civil, marriage, whatever. Unfortunately, it leaves a taste of “Why did they bother? So that, legally, when they move on to someone else, they’ve secured their “investments”?” What price “cleaving each to the other as long both shall live”? What on earth makes some think that the word, the ritual of marriage will make any difference? I’ve known couples…too many for my liking…who were “together forever”, had commitment ceremonies with friends, family attending, even had the gift registry only to be introduced a year or so later to “my new partner, Bob/Sue”. So to what end marriage?

My partner and I discussed a commitment ceremony a few months after we set up home together. Neither of us believed there was a need. It brought nothing into our relationship that wasn’t already there…nor would it. We had already committed to each other and that commitment is as strong now as it was then. We had invested our feelings, thoughts, intellect into our partnership and nothing will change that between us.. We have made bigger financial and material investments in our life together…and nothing will change those between us as long as we make the decisions, are healthy and competent. Just as it doesn’t with married couples who do likewise for the long haul…and mean it. What does concern us is that outside influences will…and do…affect us where it won’t a legally joined couple and that IS a problem…yet nothing a civil union wouldn’t alleviate or that “only marriage” could make right.

If one truly cares for the other partner, each other’s best interests, what difference does terminology make? Why is civil union “less than”…or “marriage” more than? Why, tonight, in New Jersey are gay couples…or even singles…balking at a good step in the right direction instead of rejoicing in hope? Why can’t we be magnanimous in accepting that our affairs…legal and financial, that is…may well be on their way to easing many of our concerns, will likely provide us with the same rights, benefits, privileges as married couples only without the “M” word. I don’t care…but I do care that this attitude of “I want what I want when I want it” will continue to hinder those like me who believe it’s not the word which counts but the deed and how we decide to both live honouring it while expecting our government to do likewise. 

 

To Lamda Legal in Gennessee Valley I’d suggest that “equality, dignity and fairness to families” doesn’t come from one word such as “marriage”.  It’s up to us to live and be equality, dignity, fairness.