Well Friday turned out to be a decent day for yours truly, which is better than I thought it would be, but then my plans sucked and got in the way. But I got into work and for the third time this week we had a no call no show in the deli, this time it was someone I wish we hadn't hired back so for me it was a warmth of the cockles of my heart moment. Brian fired them a second time (let's hope there isn't a third), but in my book it is addition by subtraction.
Plus I had 5 different cigarette orders to sort through on Friday's delivery and I didn't mess any of them up, which is also a good thing. Usually there is a carton or three missing, especially when I have almost 300 cartons coming in, the vendor will be out of stock on something or I will screw something up.
I realized on Thursday that Friday was the premiere of the new Star Trek movie. So I figured if I got everything done in a timely fashion Friday I would head over to the Waterfront and check it out. Maybe throw in some dinner too and call it a Matt night.
Well I got things done in a timely fashion, caught a 57 and headed off to the Waterfront and that is where the day started to turn downhill. The bus was detoured for something on 2nd Avenue and instead took a bunch of back streets across the South Side until getting on Carson Street over by 18th Street, even though it could have got on Carson right off of the 10th Street Bridge. With all of the turns on side streets I can guarantee you they saved no time whatsoever. The bus didn't get back on 2nd Avenue until the Hot Metal Bridge.
Eventually the bus made it to my destination and it was all kinds of hot and muggy out. I opted for Red Robin, I was in a burgery kind of mood, and as I am walking there the air is so heavy and clingy that I can smell burgers from their kitchen vents and the fact that the wet air just left the smell hang rather than dissipate. It was like walking through burger grease just to get to the restaurant.
I got inside and was seated in the pub section and I saw that Red Robin is also preparing for the ramifications for the fight for a $15/hr minimum wage. All of the tables now have tablets that can take your order, of give you your check, or take payment on your bill. Literally they can be down to just food runners from the kitchen, the waiting tables job will be obsolete in the new economy. But for now they still have waiters and waitresses and I gt to deal with a human being. I got me a Royal Robin, which is a burger with a fried egg. The egg w o runny I had to go ll civilized and use a fork and knife, let I get yolk all over my hands. But the food and service overall were good, and after finishing up my iced tea I headed off to Loews, where the fight for $15 lives on.
See, they removed the ticket sellers, now they are touch screen panels, you swipe through the movies, tap the move you want, then a list of showtimes pops up underneath it, you pick your showtime, swipe your credit or debit card and you are done, it prints out your ticket and you head off to your theater. I arrived at 6:09pm and I saw there was a showing for 6:15pm. Not only that, they had the VIP seating with the leather chairs I like for that showing so I upgraded and got me a leather seat. I swipe my card and my ticket prints out and it ends up being a 3D showing. I hate 3D movies, they add nothing to the film for me and I have to sit there with a dorky pair of glasses overtop my own glasses just so I can get an effect that looks like I am watching a movie through a fucking Viewmaster.
Still I am there and I bought the ticket, so I figure I will suffer in silence. It is Trek after all, and I loved Next Gen and Deep Space Nine. This wasn't as good as either of those however. When your plot has such holes as a captain crash landing on a planet and apparently forgetting where his ship was. The conflict resolution consisted of playing the Beastie Boys really loud to get rid of most of the baddies and the big bad guy had the requisite chase scene through a populated area, only to have Kirk beat him my kicking him and a biological weapon out into space and as you can tell by my description I was highly unimpressed.
The best part of the movie was when it was over and taking off those stupid glasses. So my Friday would have been better had I not made any plans at all.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
B365V3.41 - Cardille
"My family promised dad that he could go home to pass. We are transferring dad from the hospital to home. He will be in hospice care. Everytime I tell dad how many letters he is getting he smiles. Although we are so very sad, we know what an amazing life dad had. I told him he was the best father, husband, grandpa and friend, I or anyone could have had. He smiled. I told him he was going home. He smiled. Because of all your prayers, cards, drawings and love, dad is going out with a chariot of angels taking him home. We are taking our daddy home. Love, Lori Cardille"
The above was taken from Lori Cardille's Facebook feed, because this is one of those posts I hate to write. I never know what words to put together when dealing with a person, or in this case, a city's loss and if Bill Cardille is on what amounts to borrowed time at this point, then the city of Pittsburgh is suffering a loss. I don't know many people in my age bracket or older who do not have fond memories of Bill Cardille, whether it be his work on studio wresting back in the day, his show "Chiller Theater" which showed a bunch of B list horror flicks that were more funny than scary (http://www.chillertheatermemories.com, his cameo in "Night of the Living Dead", his local run on the MDA telethon where he would host the local cutaways during labor Day weekend, his time doing the weather on Channel 11 or listening to his show on the radio, pretty much anyone who is anyone around these parts has at least one Bill Cardille memory to share.
My first memories of him were mostly with the Chiller Theater, trying to sneak up past my bedtime to catch a minute or three of it (Chiller Theater was popular enough to preempt Saturday Night Live in Pittsburgh back in those days) and if I was lucky enough and didn't get caught by a parental unit, I would catch at least part of the show, before my eyes would start to sag and I would fall asleep.
Funny thing though as luck would have it, my radio career would bring me into contact with Bill. After our station was officially bought out by Renda Broadcasting, they wanted to move the studios into one location. I say studios because along with us at 1360 AM, they alos owned at the time 1320 AM and 99.7 FM. Who should be on the air afternoons (10am - 2pm) on 1320 AM but Bill Cardille. From the first day I met him, Bill was nothing but gracious towards me, who cares that his experience level versus mine in media was enormous. But back in those days it was easy to wander the halls and be in awe of the people I worked with, Bill Cardille, Jack Bogut, Lynn Cullen and Doug Hoerth, all people who I heard or listened to growing up (hope that doesn't make them feel too old). In many ways it felt like playing with the '27 Yankees, here are these giants in media and me, who quit college to take a radio internship and I was now sharing space with them all.
I even got to work with Bill, as I was tasked with putting together his vacation shows. He and I would record liners for days he was going to be away, in hopes in didn't sound like he was away. It's a little magic called voice tracking kids, as long as we had the song list ahead of time, it is easy to get someone to front sell (the record coming up) or back sell (the record you just heard) or throw in a quick anecdote or two (time permitting of course, we are on a clock after all) and the finished product would sound like Bill had never left the building. Sitting in the production studio, i got the chance to pick Bill's brain between him running back to the on air studio and out voice tracking endeavor.
A couple of times when I was producing for Doug Hoerth we would have Bill in as a guest, usually it involved one of Bill's closest friends as well, Bruno Sammartino. Funny thing about Bruno and Bill, both men looked better than men half their age, certainly better than yours truly, but that is why I am behind a keyboard as opposed in front of a camera.
I had seen a couple of weeks ago Bill went into the hospital, he had gotten a cancer diagnosis (liver), but through all of the medical maladies Bill went through over the years, it felt like more of a bump in the road, having lost a kidney at 18, beaten back colon cancer and surviving open heart surgery in the past. There were requests for cards and letters, and by all means continue to send them if you can, no need for my blog to be a listening of everyone's remembrances of Bill, because I doubt he knows this page exists (or remembers me for that matter) and there are far better means to reach him, such as through his daughter on Facebook, she has already posted where cards can be sent to though to save you the trouble here you go; Chilly Billy, c/o Century Communications 313 East Carson Street , Pgh. Pa, 15219.
The above was taken from Lori Cardille's Facebook feed, because this is one of those posts I hate to write. I never know what words to put together when dealing with a person, or in this case, a city's loss and if Bill Cardille is on what amounts to borrowed time at this point, then the city of Pittsburgh is suffering a loss. I don't know many people in my age bracket or older who do not have fond memories of Bill Cardille, whether it be his work on studio wresting back in the day, his show "Chiller Theater" which showed a bunch of B list horror flicks that were more funny than scary (http://www.chillertheatermemories.com, his cameo in "Night of the Living Dead", his local run on the MDA telethon where he would host the local cutaways during labor Day weekend, his time doing the weather on Channel 11 or listening to his show on the radio, pretty much anyone who is anyone around these parts has at least one Bill Cardille memory to share.
My first memories of him were mostly with the Chiller Theater, trying to sneak up past my bedtime to catch a minute or three of it (Chiller Theater was popular enough to preempt Saturday Night Live in Pittsburgh back in those days) and if I was lucky enough and didn't get caught by a parental unit, I would catch at least part of the show, before my eyes would start to sag and I would fall asleep.
Funny thing though as luck would have it, my radio career would bring me into contact with Bill. After our station was officially bought out by Renda Broadcasting, they wanted to move the studios into one location. I say studios because along with us at 1360 AM, they alos owned at the time 1320 AM and 99.7 FM. Who should be on the air afternoons (10am - 2pm) on 1320 AM but Bill Cardille. From the first day I met him, Bill was nothing but gracious towards me, who cares that his experience level versus mine in media was enormous. But back in those days it was easy to wander the halls and be in awe of the people I worked with, Bill Cardille, Jack Bogut, Lynn Cullen and Doug Hoerth, all people who I heard or listened to growing up (hope that doesn't make them feel too old). In many ways it felt like playing with the '27 Yankees, here are these giants in media and me, who quit college to take a radio internship and I was now sharing space with them all.
I even got to work with Bill, as I was tasked with putting together his vacation shows. He and I would record liners for days he was going to be away, in hopes in didn't sound like he was away. It's a little magic called voice tracking kids, as long as we had the song list ahead of time, it is easy to get someone to front sell (the record coming up) or back sell (the record you just heard) or throw in a quick anecdote or two (time permitting of course, we are on a clock after all) and the finished product would sound like Bill had never left the building. Sitting in the production studio, i got the chance to pick Bill's brain between him running back to the on air studio and out voice tracking endeavor.
A couple of times when I was producing for Doug Hoerth we would have Bill in as a guest, usually it involved one of Bill's closest friends as well, Bruno Sammartino. Funny thing about Bruno and Bill, both men looked better than men half their age, certainly better than yours truly, but that is why I am behind a keyboard as opposed in front of a camera.
I had seen a couple of weeks ago Bill went into the hospital, he had gotten a cancer diagnosis (liver), but through all of the medical maladies Bill went through over the years, it felt like more of a bump in the road, having lost a kidney at 18, beaten back colon cancer and surviving open heart surgery in the past. There were requests for cards and letters, and by all means continue to send them if you can, no need for my blog to be a listening of everyone's remembrances of Bill, because I doubt he knows this page exists (or remembers me for that matter) and there are far better means to reach him, such as through his daughter on Facebook, she has already posted where cards can be sent to though to save you the trouble here you go; Chilly Billy, c/o Century Communications 313 East Carson Street , Pgh. Pa, 15219.
Monday, July 18, 2016
B365V3.40 - Good thing I wasn't chewing gum
So Friday after work I came up with what I thought was a splendid idea, i was on point most of the day and looking to get out at a decent time, so perhaps I would head over Greenfield way and visit my friend Rich. It had been a couple of years since I had been over there, but i know Rich to be a creature of habit, he normally stops at his local watering hole on the way home for a beer or two, my plan would be to meet him at the bar, since i had an extra shekel or two and then see where the day takes me.
I het to his bar before 4, i get a Yuengling, and proceed to not make a spectacle of myself, just sitting there playing on my tablet while some of what i presume are regulars are yakking it up at the bar. Some people leave, others come in including a guy named Colin. He and I struck up an interesting conversation ti say the least, when Colin gets ready to leave he asked if i had been there before, to which i said yes, just waiting on my friend Rich to arrive. Colin and the bartender both say that Rich only works Monday thru Thursday, he isn't there on Fridays. So my plans were not coming to fruition after all. But since i know where Rich lives, i figure i will just head over to his place. The next bartender came in and i realized i am now the only guy in the bar, so i felt it my moral obligation to stick around for one beer, in case no one else came in. I have another beer, by now it is after 8 and i realize i have put in a solid 4 hours drinking, all beers and a shot (with Colin) and i better stop myself if i am still going to be functional in public.
So i head back to Rich's place, see his wife Cindy and his daughter Jessica but no Rich. Turns out he did work on Friday after all and was just getting off at 8, so back to the bar i go to meet him. We probably drank for a couple of hours, bringing my solid drinking time to 6 hours or so before walking back to his place and calling it a night, where we sat around and bs ed some more, talking about our respective computers and shit we do on them. I think i lost my coolness factor when i mentioned i don't even play Diablo anymore (I beat Diablo I ( who didn't though) and Diablo 2 before they started coming out with all kinds of crazy patches to make it more difficult). Diablo 3 i was geeked for playing until it took Blizzard a damn decade to develop the game. I bought it and played it a few times but in the back of my mind i was always like, i waited 10 years for this?
Anyway we chat for a bit then i have to head home, he has to get his wife ready for a trip to the hospital in the morning (lots of transplant and dialysis issues there, but that isn't my story to tell) so i headed out to the bus stop across the street, hoping to catch a 58 that would get me to Oakland, where i needed to be or downtown, where i could transfer buses to get to where i needed to be. That was when the alcohol started hitting me, i stood at the bus stop for maybe 5 minutes before i got tired of waiting, so i started walking down Greenfield Avenue, figuring my odds at catching any bus would be better along 2nd Avenue than where i was. I make it to the bottom of the hill, passing one road that would have been the back way into Oakland, but in my drunken reasoning that road went up hill and i was being too drunk and lazy to climb hills, who cares that my drunken route downtown would add probably 2 miles to my walk if i didn't see a bus.
I get further down 2nd Avenue, where there is a ramp up to the Eliza Furnace Trail, a pedestrian trail that runs parallel to 2nd Avenue all the way into town. I decide i will take the trail, so i go up the little ramp type thing connecting the trail to the sidewalk. Once on the trail i decide i better make sure i am on the far right side, the weather was nice and i didn't want to be run down by anyone on their bicycle late at night, or anyone out doing any late night Pokemoning. I start down the trail, when my foot slides off of the side of the pavement and into gravel. My drunken cat like reflexes kept me from falling but i made myself a mental note to be more careful. That lasted about 20 feet or so before i did the same thing again. Funny thing when you fall down, there is that brief moment in time where you realize there is no saving yourself, you are going to eat dirt and like it. And sure enough i did, my right leg breaking most of the fall, my tablet went flying, as did my backpack (with jetpack and laptop in it), my glasses clanked to the ground and i popped one of the lenses out. My inner common sense had to fight my drunkenness at this point, because if drunk Matt would have won i would have just laid down right there and called it a night. Instead i managed to get my disheveled self back together, including fixing my glasses and decided maybe climbing a hill and cutting significant time from my walking wasn't such a bad idea after all.
I made it home, my knee was bleeding but i wasn't feeling much pain, we would save that for the following morning, where it took 5 attempts to get my shoe on over my ankle. And now you see why i don't stray far from home with my drinking.
I het to his bar before 4, i get a Yuengling, and proceed to not make a spectacle of myself, just sitting there playing on my tablet while some of what i presume are regulars are yakking it up at the bar. Some people leave, others come in including a guy named Colin. He and I struck up an interesting conversation ti say the least, when Colin gets ready to leave he asked if i had been there before, to which i said yes, just waiting on my friend Rich to arrive. Colin and the bartender both say that Rich only works Monday thru Thursday, he isn't there on Fridays. So my plans were not coming to fruition after all. But since i know where Rich lives, i figure i will just head over to his place. The next bartender came in and i realized i am now the only guy in the bar, so i felt it my moral obligation to stick around for one beer, in case no one else came in. I have another beer, by now it is after 8 and i realize i have put in a solid 4 hours drinking, all beers and a shot (with Colin) and i better stop myself if i am still going to be functional in public.
So i head back to Rich's place, see his wife Cindy and his daughter Jessica but no Rich. Turns out he did work on Friday after all and was just getting off at 8, so back to the bar i go to meet him. We probably drank for a couple of hours, bringing my solid drinking time to 6 hours or so before walking back to his place and calling it a night, where we sat around and bs ed some more, talking about our respective computers and shit we do on them. I think i lost my coolness factor when i mentioned i don't even play Diablo anymore (I beat Diablo I ( who didn't though) and Diablo 2 before they started coming out with all kinds of crazy patches to make it more difficult). Diablo 3 i was geeked for playing until it took Blizzard a damn decade to develop the game. I bought it and played it a few times but in the back of my mind i was always like, i waited 10 years for this?
Anyway we chat for a bit then i have to head home, he has to get his wife ready for a trip to the hospital in the morning (lots of transplant and dialysis issues there, but that isn't my story to tell) so i headed out to the bus stop across the street, hoping to catch a 58 that would get me to Oakland, where i needed to be or downtown, where i could transfer buses to get to where i needed to be. That was when the alcohol started hitting me, i stood at the bus stop for maybe 5 minutes before i got tired of waiting, so i started walking down Greenfield Avenue, figuring my odds at catching any bus would be better along 2nd Avenue than where i was. I make it to the bottom of the hill, passing one road that would have been the back way into Oakland, but in my drunken reasoning that road went up hill and i was being too drunk and lazy to climb hills, who cares that my drunken route downtown would add probably 2 miles to my walk if i didn't see a bus.
I get further down 2nd Avenue, where there is a ramp up to the Eliza Furnace Trail, a pedestrian trail that runs parallel to 2nd Avenue all the way into town. I decide i will take the trail, so i go up the little ramp type thing connecting the trail to the sidewalk. Once on the trail i decide i better make sure i am on the far right side, the weather was nice and i didn't want to be run down by anyone on their bicycle late at night, or anyone out doing any late night Pokemoning. I start down the trail, when my foot slides off of the side of the pavement and into gravel. My drunken cat like reflexes kept me from falling but i made myself a mental note to be more careful. That lasted about 20 feet or so before i did the same thing again. Funny thing when you fall down, there is that brief moment in time where you realize there is no saving yourself, you are going to eat dirt and like it. And sure enough i did, my right leg breaking most of the fall, my tablet went flying, as did my backpack (with jetpack and laptop in it), my glasses clanked to the ground and i popped one of the lenses out. My inner common sense had to fight my drunkenness at this point, because if drunk Matt would have won i would have just laid down right there and called it a night. Instead i managed to get my disheveled self back together, including fixing my glasses and decided maybe climbing a hill and cutting significant time from my walking wasn't such a bad idea after all.
I made it home, my knee was bleeding but i wasn't feeling much pain, we would save that for the following morning, where it took 5 attempts to get my shoe on over my ankle. And now you see why i don't stray far from home with my drinking.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
B365V3.39 - A Vagina problem
"Outnumbered is an American daytime news and talk show that airs on Fox News Channel. The series features four female panelists along with one guest male panelist discussing the issues of the day."
The reason I have the previous sentence in quotation marks is because I am borrowing it from IMDB.com, used to describe the show "Outnumbered" on Fox. Now rare is the time I dive into anything political on this blog these days, I left the politics bullshit in my rear view mirror after leaving radio many moons ago. Well leaving is a bit of an understatement, rather I was escorted out during one of those staffing cuts, but that is neither here nor there. Suffice it to say I no longer work in radio, fair enough?
That being said my boss is a Republican, so when Brian comes in one of the first things he does is turn on the office TV to Fox News. It s cringe worthy, especially when 'Outnumbered" comes on. I liken it to a Republican version of The View, replete with cackling females that are on the screen because they are little more than eye candy, and one guy, whom they refer to as "One Lucky Guy". Not sure how lucky he is, once the show starts I would say the guy's luck has run out.
As unluck would have it, after I made my bank run today, I came back to work and this particular show was on. They were yapping on about the FBI not bringing charges against Hillary Clinton over the whole email hullabaloo. Probably more upset about the days of incessant talking they just lost more than anything else, they tried to find something new to complain about regarding Hillary, saying that Hillary said if elected she would like half of her cabinet to be female. To which I say "So?" I would like a 12 inch cock and to be starring in porn (the Ron Jeremy model proves you can do porn, no matter how Quasimodo looking you may if you have a large enough member) but in reality my cock is not going to explode in growth overnight so I will have to settle for my general manager position at Smithfield News for the foreseeable future. That being said, if Hillary can find qualified female candidates to make up half of her cabinet, good for her. Not that she should overlook candidates based on gender but if she can get women into positions of power who are qualified I say more power to her. (Besides, women in a position of authority are HAWT!!!!)
But then one of the panelists, Megan McCain chimed in. She started the whole argument of the best qualifed person for the position should be hired. I agree with that, just not from Megan McCain. She is on a quota based show, 4 women and one man. The only reason she is there is because she has a vagina, and isn't intolerable to look at, not because she possesses any superior skill set. The old adage of one who lives in a glass house should not throw stones comes to mind. I am sure Hillary's vetting process will be a tad more in depth than the one at Fox News.
The reason I have the previous sentence in quotation marks is because I am borrowing it from IMDB.com, used to describe the show "Outnumbered" on Fox. Now rare is the time I dive into anything political on this blog these days, I left the politics bullshit in my rear view mirror after leaving radio many moons ago. Well leaving is a bit of an understatement, rather I was escorted out during one of those staffing cuts, but that is neither here nor there. Suffice it to say I no longer work in radio, fair enough?
That being said my boss is a Republican, so when Brian comes in one of the first things he does is turn on the office TV to Fox News. It s cringe worthy, especially when 'Outnumbered" comes on. I liken it to a Republican version of The View, replete with cackling females that are on the screen because they are little more than eye candy, and one guy, whom they refer to as "One Lucky Guy". Not sure how lucky he is, once the show starts I would say the guy's luck has run out.
As unluck would have it, after I made my bank run today, I came back to work and this particular show was on. They were yapping on about the FBI not bringing charges against Hillary Clinton over the whole email hullabaloo. Probably more upset about the days of incessant talking they just lost more than anything else, they tried to find something new to complain about regarding Hillary, saying that Hillary said if elected she would like half of her cabinet to be female. To which I say "So?" I would like a 12 inch cock and to be starring in porn (the Ron Jeremy model proves you can do porn, no matter how Quasimodo looking you may if you have a large enough member) but in reality my cock is not going to explode in growth overnight so I will have to settle for my general manager position at Smithfield News for the foreseeable future. That being said, if Hillary can find qualified female candidates to make up half of her cabinet, good for her. Not that she should overlook candidates based on gender but if she can get women into positions of power who are qualified I say more power to her. (Besides, women in a position of authority are HAWT!!!!)
But then one of the panelists, Megan McCain chimed in. She started the whole argument of the best qualifed person for the position should be hired. I agree with that, just not from Megan McCain. She is on a quota based show, 4 women and one man. The only reason she is there is because she has a vagina, and isn't intolerable to look at, not because she possesses any superior skill set. The old adage of one who lives in a glass house should not throw stones comes to mind. I am sure Hillary's vetting process will be a tad more in depth than the one at Fox News.
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