Today’s trivia on KOIT:

Q: Who said “Just let the wardrobe do the acting.”?

A:  Jack Nicholson. A couple more great JN quotes..”I’ve been too many places, I’m like the bad penny” and “There’s only two people in your life you should lie to, the police and your girlfriend”

Three cheers for Pabst the boxer mix, and winner of Sunday’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair. Love that two inch underbite.

Pabst’s owner, Miles Egtsad of Sacto,  says that beyond sitting, snoring and passing gas, Pabst doesn’t have much in his bag of tricks. But that’s OK because Pabst took home, among other things, a check for sixteen hundred bucks.

As long as we’re on the topic critters, one of our favorite topics in the morning on KOIT, the current budget mess in CA may mean shorter lifespans for cats & dogs in state funded animal shelters. Here’s why. Current state law requires that shelters hold animals at least six days before euthanizing animals if they’re not claimed or adopted.  To save money, the Governor wants to cut that back to three days.  The ASPCA opposes the idea, arguing that the move would lower owners’ chances of finding a lost pet, and would give shelters less time to find pet adopters. Think this is a lousy idea? Then call the Gov at 916 445-2841.

Wed 7/1 will be the first anniversary of California’s hands free law.  As of the end of May, more that 200,000 tickets were issued to drivers holding their cell phones while behind the wheel. About a 125 dollar fine. Don’t know about you, but it seems like more drivers have their phones up to their ears than ever before.

Why we love BART. The Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood concert at Oracle and A’s/Tigers baseball at the Coliseum at the same time tonight. Baseball at 7:05 and concert at 8. I won’t see you tomorrow because I’m taking our son Jordan(12),  who’s quite an accomplished guitar player, to see Clapton tonight. He’s a huge EC fan, as is his old man. ‘See you Wed.

jack

This morning’s trivia on KOIT:

Q: Today (June 26) is bar code day. It was on this date that the first supermarket bar code was swiped. What year was it?

A: 1974, and it was for a pack of Double Mint gum. (C’mon, people. That’s why it’s called trivia!)

I found it kind of ironic that I learned of Michael Jackson’s death at a music store yesterday.  Not the kind that sells CDs, but a store that sells musical instruments. That’s where our son, Jordan (12), has his guitar lesson every Thursday, and I was picking him up there yesterday when the news broke on the web. The employees at the store were devastated, and they were quite young. To me, this indicated two things. A) Jackson’s music knows no generational bounds, and B) his talent transcended, and was never trumped by any of  Jackson’s eccentricities, either alleged or established.

Rolling Stone  has an excellent MJ archive, with plenty of photos and features. Check it out if you get the chance this weekend. Feel free to post your thoughts  here, if you’d like.  And have a great weekend, whatever you do. I’m going to listen to “Thriller” again. This time with Jordan.

jack

Believe it or not, as I was driving into the station this afternoon, I was listening for traffic information when the news broke about Michael Jackson being taken to the UCLA Medical Center for cardiac arrest and that the website TMZ.com was reporting that Michael had suffered cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him.

My first thought was…he’s my age…what in the world happened? Now, TMZ.com is known for it’s celebrity gossip, but could they have gotten it right?

I immediately called Larry Ickes here at KOIT and told him to look into the story…

Sure enough 45 minutes later, while still unofficially confirmed, Michael Jackson was dead at the age of 50 of unknown reasons…

With Farrah Fawcett, an icon of angelic proportions passing earlier in the day…and Ed McMahon earlier in the week leaves us all feeling a bit vunerable, human, mortal.

Celebrity’s we grew up with, passing, leaving their mark on our hearts with their talent.

You can remember Michael’s amazing talent through YouTube.

What is your favorite song of his?

Did you know that he was one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice?
13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

This morning’s trivia in KOIT:

Q: Next year the number of Academy Award nominees for Best Picture will double from 5 to 10. What movie won Best Picture the last time there were 10 nominees?

A: Casablanca in 1943

“Hiking the Appalachian Trail” will never have the same meaning again, unfortunately. Instead, it’ll be added to the Big Dictionary Of Euphemisms that someone is undoubtedly compiling somewhere.

If you’re starved for some good economic news -  I know I am – you’ll be pleased to know that Fenton’s Creamery in Oakland is doing well. Well, better than well. Business at the ice cream shop is up about 15 percent over last year. Of course it helps to have a great product. The fact that Fenton’s stole a scene in the Pixar film “Up” also helped. Pixar staffers in Emeryville frequent the place, so it’s no suprise that the iconic sweet shop made the final cut.

As you heard this morning on KOIT, these brands of handbags were found in tests to contain levels of lead exceeding the state’s anti-toxics law:
Fluff
Aldo US
Ashley Stewart
Urban Brands (Ashley Stewart)
Bakers
Chinese Laundry
Lulu NYC
Forever 21
Relic
Haddad Accessories
H&M
St. John’s Bay
Worthington
Nine & Co.
Nine West
Apt. 9
Daisy Fuentes
Liz & Co. (by Liz Claiborne)
Dana Buchman (by Liz Claiborne)
Roxy (by Quicksilver, Inc.)
Rosetti
Cul-de-sac (Sears)
Steve Madden
Xhiliration (Target house brand)
Urban Expressions
No Boundaries (Wal-Mart house brand)
Fossil

Everytime I move, I swear it is the last time. But sometimes, the situation dictates that a move is necessary, so I am leaving my “bachelors” apartment and moving into a house in Marin.
I contacted a mover to do the heavy stuff, but there is still a ton of packing, and little details. And I like to move my own clothes, the stain glass lamps and art work that my mom made for me, and other items that I don’t like to trust to a mover. I probably bent over a couple hundred times in the last week, and yes, I do have an achin’ back. Gimme some more motrin; and does anybody know where I can get a good massage?
Because of the move and disconnections,etc., I’ll be without TV and a home internet service for about a week. Looks like I’ll learn how to read again.
I’ve always believed, and heard, that if you haven’t worn something for a year, get rid of it. I try, I really do. But after going through all my stuff, I found a couple pair of shoes,half a dozen shirts, and a pair of leather pants I use to wear to the disco. It really pained me to give up those leather pants: I mean, what if disco makes a comeback?
I DON’T TWITTER, TWEET, OR TEXT. AND I DON’T DO ‘FACE-BOOK.” Why?? Cuz I have a home phone, a cell phone, a work computer ( lickes at koit.com) and a home computer. ( litheguy at hotmail.com). I think my friends all know where I am, and how to get hold of me. And I have this blog. My boss did mention recently, that I should think of doing “Facebook.” Hmmm I wonder how I do that??

This morning’s trivia on KOIT:

Q:  What year did color televisions finally outsell black and white sets?

A:  1972.  And here’s a convenient listing of the most popular shows that year.  I think our family got our first color TV circa 1965.  I was just a kid.  Up til then, on Sunday nights, my sister and I would  watch Bonanza on a color set owned by a widow  across the street. I remember, to this day, the owner didn’t have a clue as to how to adjust the color. Hoss was green, but so what.  Green’s a color, and we were thrilled to see it.

As long as we’re on a TV jag,  George Costanza from Seinfeld called it “shrinkage”. That’s exactly what’s happening around the country as municipalities everywhere are seeing their income from taxes and fees vaporizing. They’re making up for the shrinkage by aggressively, sometimes too aggressively, issuing traffic citations to generate income.  Happened to my wife a few weeks back. 8am. A little cloudy, but day lit and dry. She gets a ticket for not having her headlights on!! The issuing officer told Kim not to worry about it. It’ll only be about a 20 dollar fine, and won’t go on her driving record.  When Kim got the citation in the mail..over 200 dollars! She’s fighting it. But it’s gotten WAY out of hand in Toledo, OH, where a little known law prohibits parking your car on an unpaved surface, including gravel. People are getting ticketed for parking their car in their very own gravel driveway.

Different subject. BART and the Contra Costa County library system have a great idea going. If you’re a regular at the Pittsburg-Bay Point BART station, you’ve probably noticed the book lending machine that lets riders check out library books. If you use the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station you’ll be happy to know that a “library a-go-go” as they call them, opened at your station today! CoCo County library employees will even be on hand to register people for library cards.

This morning’s trivia on KOIT:

Q:  He built swimming pools before he got into acting.  He’s……

A:…..Clint Eastwood.. Here are what some other celebs did “before they were famous”.. Whoopie Goldberg was a bricklayer & bank teller. Danny DeVito was a hair dresser. Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  Take a look at  Hardly Famous for more of these gems.

Tomorrow at Golden Gate Fields check out the Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals. Yup, the dachshund races. Only 4 dolars to get in, and it’s a riot! Here’s a video of the same event in April.

Kim and I went to a matinee of  “The Hangover” yesterday afternoon, and left the theater very disappointed. And it got such great reviews too. We may go for “Up” at some point this weekend. Whatever you do, have a great one!

jack

This morning’s trivia on KOIT:

Q: The average cherry tree will yield how many pounds of cherries?

A: about 200 pounds. By the way, that comes out to be about 28 cherry pies.

The problem with cherry season (now!), is if you blink, you’ll miss it.  Kim brought home some beauties from the farmers market yesterday, and they’re almost gone.

So, you’re an EBMUD customer, and you’ve worked hard to conserve water…letting your lawn die, never flushing the toilet, bathing ONLY on odd-numbered months…So what’s your reward? You’ve won a rate hike.  All because EBMUD is selling less water (because you’re USING less!), and expenses are increasing.  Congratulations!  Doesn’t seem right, does it?

Let’s get all the bad news out of the way. I’m beginning to smell a toll hike on the Bay Area state bridges, and it looks like it’ll happen January of next year. From 4 to 5 bucks. The Golden Gate won’t be affected.  Your reward for car pooling? You’ll get dinged 2 or 3 dollars. The carpool lanes are now free during commute hours.

How ’bout some good news. Make it three years in a row for cable car bell-ringing champ Leonard Oats. Mr. Oats, who competed in the gripman/conductor division, made it a hat trick during  the noon-time competition at Union Square yesterday. In the community division, our very own General Sales Manager “Scotty B” did us all proud by winning his second victory in a row.