This morning’s trivia on KOIT…

Q:  What year was voicemail patented?

A: in 1979

It was invented by Gordon Mathews, who later noted  “I’m not really pleased with some of the things I see voicemail being used for today.  We didn’t design this technology to annoy people, but rather make their lives easier.” Thanks, but I guess it’s back to drawing board, Mr. Mathews.

Any favorite new shows this season? I haven’t had a chance to see many,  but I’m hooked on “Glee”  on Fox, and the new season of “Mad Men” on AMC. “Community” on NBC just hasn’t been doing it for me, so bye-bye TiVo Season Pass.  I glanced at  the first few minutes of the National Parks documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, and it looks spectacular! But clocking in at 12 hours,  I’m going to have to spread it out over a month or so.  I do have to sleep, eat, help raise a family, earn a living, exercise, and Facebook every once in a while.

Danville hero Captain Chesley  “Sully” Sullenberger, who so skillfully piloted his jetliner to a safe emergency landing in New York’s Hudson River last January, is heading back to work with US Airways. This leaves the door wide open for the airline to charge a “Sully” fee….. a premium levied at passengers aboard any flight with Captain Sullenberger in the cockpit.  All the airlines have surcharges on surcharges,  but that’s one I’d gladly pay….in a heartbeat.

Missouri @ Nevada: After tough losses to Notre Dame and Colorado State, the Wolfpack will be up for their home opener in front a national TV audience. My pick: Mizzou

Miami @ Virginia Tech: It’s been awhile since both of these programs were elite. We’ll see if the Hurricanes can survive again in their brutal schedule.  My pick: Miami

Southern Mississippi @ Kansas: Golden Eagles are on an 8 game winning streak which is also the 2nd longest streak in the nation. Jayhawks might be a little distracted by their 3 brawls with the KU basketeball team this week. My pick: Southern Mississippi

Fresno State @ Cincinnati: Bearcats will have to shut down the nation’s leading rusher, Fresno’s Ryan Matthews. My pick: Cincinnati

Michigan State @ Wisconsin: The Spartans have had close losses to Central Michigan and Notre Dame. But it will be tough to get a win in Madison. My pick: Wisconsin

California @ Oregon: It would be tempting to say the Bears will be looking past the Ducks and ahead to next week’s showdown with USC. I’ll resist the temptation. My pick: Cal

Rutgers @Maryland: Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage should be on the field after suffering a head injury in last week’s win. My pick: Maryland

Arizona State @ Georgia: The Bulldogs look to be back on track after losing the season opener to Oklahoma State. My pick: Georgia

Iowa @ Penn State: The Nittany Lions had their perfect season spoiled by Iowa last year. It’s payback time. My pick: Penn State

Washington @ Stanford: After last week’s upset of USC, the Huskies want to prove they’re for real after going 0-12 last season. My pick: Washington

Week 3 (September 17-19)

My record last weekend was 8-2. For the season so far I’m 21-9!

Miami 33  Georgia Tech 17: My pick-Miami

Boise State 52 Fresno State 34: My pick-Boise State

Cal 35  Minnesota 21: My pick-Cal

Stanford 42 San Jose State 17: My pick-Stanford

UCLA 23  Kansas State 9: My pick-Kansas State

Oregon 31  Utah 24: My pick-Utah

Virginia Tech 16  Nebraska 15: My pick-Va Tech

Florida 23  Tennessee 13: My pick-Florida

Notre Dame 33  Michigan State 30: My pick-Notre Dame

Texas 34  Texas Tech 24: My pick-Texas

Week 3 (September 17-19)

Georgia Tech @ Miami: The Hurricanes are 9-0 on Thursday night ESPN games.
My pick: Miami

Boise State @ Fresno State: The Broncos have won 7 of 8 against the Bulldogs including a 61-10 beating last year. My pick: Boise State

Cal @ Minnesota: The Bears try to stop a 4 game road losing streak. My pick: Cal

San Jose State @ Stanford: The Cardinal defense needs to step up after last week’s 2nd half collapse at Wake Forest. My pick: Stanford

Kansas State @ UCLA: I’m a Wildcat and I believe in miracles. I’ll be there too! My pick: K-State

Utah @ Oregon: The Utes have the nation’s longest winning streak at 16. My pick: Utah

Nebraska @ Virginia Tech: The Hokies are tough to beat at home, having won 31 straight non-conference games. My pick: Va Tech

Tennessee @ Florida: Gator head coach Urban Meyer is 4-0 against the Vols and would love to inflict some pain on Lane Kiffin. My pick: Florida

Michigan State @ Notre Dame: The Irish have lost 6 in a row at home to Michigan State. But the Spartans lost to Central Michigan last week. My pick: Notre Dame

Texas Tech @ Texas: Payback time for the Longhorns who lost to Tech in Lubbock last year. My pick: Texas

This morning;s trivia on KOIT:

Q: How many balls are used during an average major league baseball game?

A:  about 70

At a Philadelphia Phillies game the other day, a dad in the stands caught a foul ball, then handed it to his three year old daughter.  She then, without hesitation, threw the ball back onto the field. It’s a priceless video you can see here.

Week 2 (September 11-12)

Second week of the college season and I stumble a little from last week, going 6-4. Over the first 2 weeks my record is 13-7.

Toledo 54  Colorado 38: Buffs give up 54 points on the road and start the season 0-2. Dan Hawkins’ prediction of 10 wins is looking even sillier now. My pick: Colorado

Iowa 35  Iowa State 3:  Iowa forced 6 turnovers in beating their in-state rivals. My pick: Iowa

USC 18  Ohio State 15: 19 year old freshman quarterback Matt Barkley goes into the Horseshoe and shows no fear. My pick: USC

Wake Forest 24  Stanford 17 : Tough loss for the Cardinal after being up by 2 touchdowns at the half. My pick: Stanford

Penn State 28  Syracuse 7: Nittany Lions have no trouble with the Orange. My pick: Penn State

UCLA 19  Tennessee 15: Huge road win for Rick Neuheisel & the Bruins. My pick: Tennessee

Oregon 38  Purdue 36: The Ducks bounce back from the Boise State loss and losing YouTube star Blount. My pick: Oregon

Michigan 38  Notre Dame 34: Bad block management by Charlie Weiss with the Irish leading by 3 points late in the game. My pick: Notre Dame

Utah 24  San Jose State 14: The Utes extended the nation’s longest winning streak at 16. My pick: Utah

Brigham Young 54  Tulane 3: After the emotional win over Oklahoma last week, the Cougars overcame a slow start. My pick: BYU

Here we go again! The marquee matchup is USC-Ohio State in Columbus. But lots of interesting games this week.

Week 2 (9/11-9/12)

Colorado @ Toledo: The Buffs were upset at home last week by Colorado State. Dan Hawkins is already on the hot seat 2 weeks into the season. Must win for CU. My pick: Colorado

Syracuse @ Penn State: Syracuse almost knocked off another Big 10 team last week in their game with Minnesota. The Big 10 can’t be that weak can it? Going with the JoPa here. My Pick: Penn State

Stanford @ Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons lost to Baylor at home last week. Ouch. My Pick: Stanford

Brigham Young @ Tulane: We’ll see if the Cougars have a let down after their huge victory against Oklahoma. My pick: BYU

Notre Dame @ Michigan: Everyone says the Fighting Irish are back. They’ll try to get win #2 in the Big House. My pick: Notre Dame

UCLA @ Tennessee: I’ll be watching this closely since my Kansas State Wildcats play the Bruins next week. The Lane Kiffin era begins 2-0. My pick: Tennessee

USC @ Ohio State: Buckeyes struggled at home against Navy last week. Navy?! USC took care of San Jose easily. We’ll see how the freshman Trojan QB does  on the big stage. My pick: USC

Utah @ San Jose State: If they’re not toobeat up from their trip to USC, the Spartans could keep it close at home. My pick: Utah

Purdue @ Oregon: The Ducks have to refocus after last week’s ugly scene at Boise State and the season suspension of RB Blount. My pick: Oregon

Iowa @ Iowa State: Iowa was another Big 10 team that struggled in week 1. They beat  Northern Iowa by 1 point. This game is in Ames and the Cyclones could have a chance but… My pick: Iowa

…that Loggins & Messina split up.

This morning’s trivia on KOIT:

Q: What year did Loggins & Messina break up?

a: 1976

And this morning’s trivia winner, a disbelieving Joan Forsyth of Hayward, picked up two tickets to see the re-united L&M at the Paramount in Oakland come October.

More on the concert topic..Kim and I drove up to the Wells Fargo center in Santa Rosa a little over a week ago to see Sheryl Crow. If you ever get the chance to see her live, run, don’t walk, to the box office. The venue was great too. (FREE parking, what a concept!) As her encore, she and her band played Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll” as I’ve never heard played it before. We were sorry when the song, and the concert, ended.

For my wife and I, and maybe you too, it was a week for back to school nights. Wednesday we had one at Jordan’s middle school. Last night it was Andrew’s high school gathering. People are probably sick of hearing me say this, but I don’t care….our teachers’ dedication is truly awesome. Especially when you consider that they’re not supplied with what they need to teach as effectively as they’d like. They need to ask parents for money to buy paper, for crying out loud. Or in some cases, cough up the dough out of their already close-to-being-empty pockets. A scandal.

Did you know that our own Julie Shannon (Kansas State) is a college football junkie? In fact every week during football season, she’s going to pick winners and losers from some of the games being played that week. Granted, the season’s pretty young, but she’s done pretty well so far. Check out Julie’s college pigskin blog here. And, as Letterman would say, please, no wagering.

If you’re planning on doing some clearing-out this weekend, don’t forget we could sure use any books your kids have outgrown. Again this year, we’re helping out the Bay Area Childrens Book Project with the fifth annual KOIT Kids Book Drive. Through last year’s drive you donated over 10  thousand books to the BACBP, which since 1992 has put over a million books into the hand of kids who might not have access to books otherwise. You got until Sunday 9/20.  Here’s more info, including drop off locations.  Thanks so much for your help, and have a great weekend!

Well wasn’t that an interesting start to the college football season? We began with an Oregon Duck sucker punching a Boise State player. Then OU’s national title hopes took a big hit when Sam Bradford suffered a sprained shoulder. Throw in a few upsets and we have an exciting beginning to the season. I went 7-3 for the weekend, missing on Oklahoma-BYU, Colorado-Colorado State and Florida State-Miami.

Week 1 (September 3-7)

Oregon @ Boise State: The punch thrown after the game got all the attention. But before that the Broncos held the Ducks to just 8 points and 152 yards. My pick: Boise State

Maryland @ Cal: Just one of many bad losses for the ACC. This one was over when Jahvid Best scored 2 TD’s in the first 6 minutes. My pick: Cal

Stanford @ Washington State: The Cardinal opened the Pac 10 season with a 39-13 win on the road. My pick: Stanford

Georgia @ Oklahoma State: Slowstart for the Cowboys but the defense gets it done in a 24-10 win. My pick: Oklahoma State

Brigham Young @ Oklahoma: Brigham Young @ Oklahoma: You could just feel the air go out in Norman when Heisman winning QB Sam Bradford hit the turf holding his right shoulder. But no surgery means he could be back in time to play Texas. Cougars get the big upset. My pick: Oklahoma

San Jose State @ USC: Pete Carroll’s 89th win at USC was never in doubt. A 56-3 warmup for Ohio State next weekend. My pick: USC

Alabama vs Virginia Tech: Despite giving up a 98 yard kickoff return the Crimson Tide came away with a 34-24 win. My pick: Alabama

Miami @ Florida State: The weekend ended with a thrilling finish and a big upset of 18th ranked Florida State by the Canes. My pick: Florida State

Colorado State @ Colorado: Dan Hawkins was already on a short leash in Boulder. Now the Rams get their first win at Folsom Field in 23 years. My pick: Colorado

Mississippi @ Memphis:

Several Rebels were sick with the flu during the game. They still handled the Tigers 45-14. My pick: Mississippi

I found this story on OMG! .com…watch the video…glad to see that men are just as aware of breast cancer as women… Kudos to all involved in this project…

“Men for Women Now”

Funnyman Jack Black – along with several other celebs such as George Lopez, Kim Kardashian, and Bob Saget to name a few — has joined forces with the Noreen Fraser Foundation’s “Men for Women Now” campaign and SocialVibe to raise funds for groundbreaking women’s cancer research.

Although breast cancer is no laughing matter, leave it to the silly “School of Rock” star to create a video that not only raises awareness for the cause, but makes you chuckle at the same time.

Paging Dr. Jack Black!