Our family of three finally decided to cut the cable, or in our case the satellite dish. The vote was unanimous. Since signing up for Netflix and Amazon Prime, we stream 95 percent of all the television we watch. I had whittled down the offerings and monthly payment for the dish to its lowest level — $34.58, including tax. But we rarely watch the dish, and I hate spending money for services not being used.
So I bit the bullet and called to cancel the other day, knowing it would be an ordeal. Companies of all types structure their customer service systems to make it well-nigh impossible to cancel...
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The opening scene of the first episode of “Newsroom” has stuck with me since I first saw it a couple of years ago. Jeff Daniels portrays news anchor Will McAvoy, the star of the Atlantis television network. McAvoy is seated at a panel discussion in a university auditorium. A student asks the panel, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?”
Others on the panel respond with the usual patter about freedom and the American way, while McAvoy tries to avoid answering the question. But the moderator keeps pressuring him to respond, and he finally does. It is a tough scene to watch....
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I walked alone on the morning of Father’s Day, down a street in South Austin on which I lived more than three decades ago. My Beautiful Mystery Companion was still stoking up on caffeine and our teenage daughter, of course, was asleep. We were staying in a spotless condo I had rented using Airbnb, the website used by folks to rent lodging. I have become quite a fan of Airbnb, using it to find places to stay for less cost than a hotel — and with a lot more space.
The neighborhood was filled with rental units — mainly fourplexes and duplexes, with a few full-bore complexes. In 1981, I lived...
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I drove by the old S&H Green Stamp store on High Street in Longview the other day, on the way to taking Sam the Dog to the veterinarian for routine vaccinations. One has to have been on this planet a while to remember S&H Green Stamps. An informal poll of the younger crowd in this building drew blank stares when asked about them. But I bet many of you reading this at least remember your moms collecting the stamps, even if you did not personally do so.
S&H Green Stamps were considered the first customer loyalty program offered by retail merchants. Not every store offered them, and those...
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Let us pause a moment to acknowledge the death of America’s most famous headline writer — an admittedly obscure title to the average reader, but a person revered by us ink-stained wretches. Vincent Musetto died Tuesday from cancer at 74 at his home in the Bronx. He was retired from the New York Post, famed for its screaming and often outlandish headlines.
Musetto entered into the land of giants of tabloid journalism on April 15, 1983, according to the New York Times story about his death. A lurid crime scene had been discovered at a Queens tavern. A patron got into an argument with the owner,...
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They sent the Mayor of Bluesville off in grand fashion with a jazz parade in Memphis along Beale Street. B.B. King, the legendary guitarist and singer died in his sleep Masy 14 at age 89.
King earned the title of mayor from the Sirius-XM satellite station Bluesville, Channel 70. All day after his death, his powerful voice and the wailing sound of Lucille, his guitar, streamed on that radio channel as I drove into town, ran around taking photos and then headed home after work. Tributes poured in from across the world, from fellow blues musicians and fans alike.
If I am not listening to National...
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It was a lovely night for a rodeo, the storm clouds dancing around the area but never landing, a sweet spring breeze wafting through. The nearly incessant rain of previous weeks meant the dusty haze that usually fills rodeo arenas was absent. The Mount Pleasant Rodeo was kicking off its 51st year.
Rodeos are as American as it gets. The queens and junior queens, decked out in their finest Western apparel, open the night by bringing in the American flag and waving to the crowd. The crowd stands, hats off, while the preacher prays for safe rides. And a raise the hair on the back-of-the-neck rendition...
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In the course of a day recently, I did the following:
While driving to work, listened to music stored on my phone and played by some miracle on my vehicle’s stereo through Bluetooth technology.
Bought tickets to an upcoming Red Sox – Rangers game and stored the tickets on my phone. When we get to the ballpark, all I have to do is let the person at the turnstile scan my phone screen. (I’m bringing printed tickets as a backup. With my luck my phone will die just as we walk up).
Watched video on my laptop of B.B. King playing “The Thrill is Gone” in a tribute after his death.
Checked...
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Newspaper offices and trains have gone hand-in-hand throughout my checkered career. This current gig is no exception.
We moved our office downtown last August, on my birthday. It was not my intent to celebrate the final year of my sixth decade on this planet by sweating profusely and risking back injury while moving desks, filing cabinets and the like. But that is how it worked out. Football season was set to begin the following Friday, and I wanted us settled in our new digs before that commenced. Moving downtown proved to be a wise choice. Our walk-in traffic has increased immensely, and being...
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When “A Prairie Home Companion” first went on the air, Richard Nixon was a month away from being run out of the Oval Office. “Annie’s Song” by John Denver topped the pop charts. The Ford Pinto and the Plymouth Valiant were the best-selling cars in America, and the median price of a home in America was $37,400. It was July 1974, and Garrison Keillor and his troupe took the stage for about a dozen people in the audience in Saint Paul, Minn.
Today, the show is heard by four million listeners each week on more than 600 public radio stations, as well as abroaThank youd, according to its website...
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