The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 13 years. Every couple of weeks I will attempt to post a new set of musings from the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic.
U.N. Update: March 08, 2003. If you saw or listened to the latest U.N. Security Council debate on Iraq, you know that only the U.K., Spain, and Bulgaria seem to side with the U.S. position that time has run out for Iraq to disarm and force is required. I believe I heard the Council president say that he was pleased that most of the 15 member nations were present for the debate. Most? What more important work was there to do on that day? There is, in my opinion, no way that the U.K. and U.S. sponsored resolution calling for a March 17 deadline to comply with disarmament will find the nine votes to pass. Even if it miraculously passes, it will surely get vetoed by a permanent Council member. It is a mistake to call for a vote on it early next week. At best, after a week or two of debate, the Council might pass a resolution calling for several more months for Iraq to disarm or force will be authorized. But, don't hold your breathe - even for that. Most Council members simply say over and over that war is not the proper solution. So, President Bush, with the invasion Tigers pacing up and down in their cage roaring for raw meat, will probably initiate the war. And the U.N. will once again and finally prove itself incapable of dealing with international security issues. It will be rather belatedly recognized as a polite debating society unwilling to make hard decisions. Hans Blix is a great part of the problem. He is such a wimp and weenie - a virtual tool of the Iraq government. His reports sound like they were ghost written by Saddam. After listening to the indecisive debate at the Security Council, Saddam is now making demands of the U.N.! He knows a cripple in the herd when he sees one. If a retired U.S. Marine General, or top British Commando leader, or that feisty female U.N. Ambassador from Spain, had been running the new inspection regime, we might have gotten somewhere. Along with the U.N., Hans Blix is also irrelevant. I have finally given up on "giving peace a chance." Let's lock and load. Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC has been cancelled! Phil Donahue had a TV show? TV executives and advertisers are concerned about the number of people who mute
commercials or zip past them with Personal Video Recorders. I also have a VCR that bypasses
commercials upon rewinding. One coming counter-strategy is "product placement," where a product is a part of
the plot and is either prominently displayed or mentioned by name. On "JAG" on CBS, the
Admiral's lady friend offered him a drink of "Wild Turkey" and plunked the bottle down on the
coffee table. Very smooth. Both the product placement and the whiskey. FOX viewers were upset about the episode of "Joe Millionaire" where they thought Evan
Marriott was going to make his final choice between two girls on the show that aired on Feb. 10,
2003. The show was mostly a recap and no final decision was made. If you are dumb enough to watch
"Joe Millionaire," you got what you deserved. My Personal Video Recorder on satellite TV has messed up my mind. With the PVR, I can
pause live programs, rewind programs in progress and so on. Now, I find myself listening to talk
radio at night and letting my mind wander. I reach for the rewind button, but there is none. Some
day, we may have chips embedded that will allow our brains to store information in a buffer, so
that you can pause live events or back up and replay them. What a godsend to men. "Did you
hear a word I said, John?" "Of course, dear." (Rewind the buffer) "You asked me if I would
object to your mother spending a week with us. That would be great, dear." And suppose you
witnessed a murder. The scene might be recovered from the buffer chip and put on disk as a
video. Don't laugh. I read a lot of stuff about brain research. Sooner than you might think. On Friday, February 15, 2003, FoxNews Online ran a story with the headline: "Columbia
Probe Hones In." The page was listed as posted at 1:27 pm. ET. I sent an e-mail to FoxNews
in which I told them that you cannot "hone in" on anything. It is "home in." I cut and pasted my
piece from the Outback of March 16, 2002 "You Can't 'Hone-In' On Anything." Later, at 7:15
p.m. ET, I checked the FoxNews site. The story headline had been changed to "Columbia
Probe Continues." Same story, as it was /0,2933,78694,00.html. My guess is that they
actually read their e-mails.
There is apparently a new Democratic-sponsored Federal law regarding the nomination of
Federal judges. The Democrats are wasting days of debate on the Senate floor in a filibuster
against Miguel Estrada. I can find no language in the Constitution nor in the U.S. Code that says a highly-qualified Hispanic lawyer cannot be confirmed to the U.S. Court
of Appeals, or that a 60-vote majority is required for his confirmation in the Senate. This is a
disgraceful scenario and a very bad precedent to set. Listen to a list of the marvelous
qualifications for Mr. Estrada and the lack of a really substantial reason to oppose him, and you
will see that the Democrats continue to insist on shooting themselves in the foot. This
Democratic stonewalling of the Estrada nomination is one of the most infuriating things I have
ever witnessed on the Senate Floor. While important business is shunted aside, we must listen to
the same canned speeches from both sides, over and over and over. Then, it spills over onto TV
talk shows and talk radio. Unprecedented and thoroughly disgusting. On Feb. 16, 2003, I sent an e-mail to Ed Bradley congratulating him on the "60 Minutes"
segment about unnecessary heart procedures at the Redding Medical Center in California. I
pointed him to my article in the Outback for Dec. 7, 2002 "Too Many Unneeded Heat Bypass
Operations." I also suggested that Andy Rooney and Bob Simon take a look at my piece of Jan.
07, 2003 - about letting South Korea fend for itself. Andy had been up in arms about how
ungrateful the French are to us. I wanted him to see my take on the ungrateful South Koreans. In
the Outback for Nov. 24, 2002 I had mentioned the idea that since we buy so much stuff from
China, we might consider building a tube-tunnel from Seattle to Beijing - to make the trip shorter
- and install a conveyor belt. On the Feb. 23, 2003 edition of "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney did a
piece about drilling a tunnel through the earth from the U.S. to Australia to make the trip shorter.
Another amazing coincidence! I guess. Each day, and for good reasons, I am convinced it may be my last and that my brain is
rapidly going into the dumper. Then a miracle takes place. On JEOPARDY! one day, the final
question was pretty much this: "In a Mason City, Iowa museum how many of what type musical
instruments are hung from the ceiling to commemorate a local hero?" I ran a quick Google-type
search of my brain of all the mentions of such things in the past 60 years or so, and in about 8
seconds out popped only one hit - 76 trombones. Two contestants had no clue. One guy came
close. He said 96 trombones. Sorry, close but no cigar. The human brain never ceases to amaze
me. And you might go back to the question I have been asking for years: "How many gigabytes
of storage are there in the human brain?" The tribute, of course, is in memory of Meredith
Willson, who wrote "The Music Man."
It gets pretty old when the TV media keep interviewing obese people who say that
because of the cost of heating oil they will have to cut back on food purchases. That might be the
best thing that ever happened to them. And stop showing poor people who say they are going
hungry and then putting a 240-pound woman on TV to tell how she has to forsake food to pay for
her prescription drugs. Somebody has not missed many meals through all this privation.
If you want to find a mother-lode of Hillary material, check out: www.newsmax.com/hottopics/Sen._Hillary_Clinton.shtml Colin Quinn is getting a show on Comedy Central. Well, I have been on his case for years.
Worst weekend anchor update on SNL in history, in my opinion. I predicted that his last TV
show would bomb, which it did in short order. Good luck on Comedy Central, Colin. If this
doesn't work out, maybe you should consider going back to school and taking computer science -
or something. Funny you are not. The strains of the war on terror, the Iraq situation, the conflict between Israel and Palestine,
the North Korean nuclear problem, the faltering economy, fighting the Democrats to get some of
his judicial nominees confirmed, and other concerns, are showing on President Bush. He looks
many years older than when he took office, and often looks tired and drained. If things don't
improve, he might be relieved if he loses the next election. If things don't improve, he can almost
be assured of being able to spend full time at the ranch in Crawford after 2004. Colin Powell
might even be the Republican nominee in 2004. But, I am sure Secretary Powell has days when
he says to his wife, "Alma, why did I ever let them talk me into taking this job? We had it made
in the shade." NBC programming meeting: "Jeffy, baby, we've got this great idea for a crime show,
'KINGFISH.' It is about a Mexican drug cartel. The boss is married to a Gringo lady. The police
chief's wife is sleeping with the brother of the cartel boss. And an American plastic surgeon is
dealing dope. Yeah, so that's all been done, but nobody paid any attention. There's a lot of sado-masochism and bloodshed in it. Something for everyone. There is a lot of mumbling and
whispering, so we will suggest people use Closed Captioning. And some Spanish thrown in
here and there to help the Gringos get used to the eventual 'native language' in America. Here's
the best part. We hire only actors who have never had a job, or if they did, they got bad reviews.
The acting will be so bad that people will think it is part of the plot. You know, realism. What do
you think, Jeffy?" "Okay, but only six episodes. NBC viewers are dumb, but not that dumb."
--- "But, boss, we plan on putting all six episodes on DVD right away."--- "You guys are really
gluttons for punishment. I'll be on the golf course if you get any really good ideas." I sort of tongue-in-cheek say that Spanish will eventually become the official language of the
United States - at least co-equal with English. Recently, the ABC TV outlet in Dallas has begun
running its weather-alert crawl in English and Spanish. I would expect that in San Antonio, but
Dallas? They are ahead of the curve. Although I did not watch the Grammys, it was reported that
they ran a Crest toothpaste ad in Spanish. Maybe I am ahead of the curve in my predictions. Identity theft is increasing at alarming rates. It bothers me that most all credit-card statements
ask you to put your account number on the check. Do you have any idea of how many people see
that check as it goes through the system? I used to put a note in with my cell-phone bill saying
that I was not putting my cell-phone number on my checks. "Don't we have enough security
problems?" I asked. Finally, Cingular Wireless issued account numbers. I have made inserts
for use with all my credit-cards that list my account number - and am not putting the full number
on my checks. The insert also points out the security implications of putting your card number on
checks. Maybe they will get the message and issue separate "administrative account numbers."
It is also not a good idea to put full credit-card numbers on your computer, such as in
Quicken or Money. (Norton Internet Security firewall will block outgoing personal data, if you
set it up right.) The file to print the inserts is encrypted on my hard drive. Carol Moseley-Braun recently gave a political speech in Des Moines. There was ONE guy in
the audience! The national media dutifully reported on her diatribe against Republicans and
Bush, but few mentioned that nobody in Des Moines seemed to care. Well, there had been a lot
of snow, but there was no doubt a big crowd at the basketball game. I was born in Iowa. Snow
never slowed us up if there was something we really wanted to do. Same in Minnesota. What is troubling about her campaign is not what she is saying, but her record for dishonesty.
I said the following in the Outback for Jan. 25, 2003: "Media Watch" for Nov. 1993 reported that Carol Moseley-Braun had intentionally attempted to defraud Medicaid. There was a letter from Ms. Braun to her mother, in which it was alleged that she counseled her mother to hide her assets (to qualify for some Medicaid benefits). The letter was said to include a sentence: "In an effort to help you 'launder' the timber proceeds..." Moseley-Braun did not deny writing the letter, when asked by a reporter. But the local NBC station sat on the story. (From the Washington Post Feb 14, 2003) Moseley-Braun lost her office amid controversy in 1998 after serving one term. The Federal Election Committee investigated her campaign financing practices, including allegations that she had used thousands of dollars of campaign money for personal expenses. Ultimately, the FEC concluded her bookkeeping was sloppy, but not illegal and did not fine her. In the "National Review Online" for Nov. 22, 1999, Kate O'Beirne, writing about MoseleyBraun's nomination to be Ambassador to New Zealand titled the article, "Madame Ambassador? Yech!" My sentiments exactly. What did New Zealand do to us to deserve this? Ms. O'Beirne pointed out that: In 1995, the Justice Department twice turned down requests by the IRS criminal tax division seeking subpoena authority to pursue its investigation of Moseley-Braun. In its first request, the IRS told the Justice Department that it had evidence of bank fraud, bribery, and other crimes dating back to Moseley-Braun's stint as Cook County's recorder of deeds. In its second request, the IRS reported that Moseley-Braun and her 1992 Senate campaign manager (and ex-fiance‚) may have used more than $280,000 in political donations for personal expenses. The IRS found evidence that the pair had spent $70,000 on designer clothes, $64,000 on travel to Hawaii, Europe, and Africa, $18,000 on jewelry, $12,000 on stereo equipment, and $25,000 for two Jeeps. When the IRS investigation became public during Moseley-Braun's reelection race in 1998, the tax agency quickly announced that the senator was no longer under investigation....Had the investigation been quashed by illicit political pressure? During her 1992 campaign, evidence surfaced that Moseley-Braun had committed Medicaid fraud. Three years earlier, she and her siblings had split a $28,750 inheritance owed to her mother, who, as a Medicaid patient in a nursing home, should have used the money to pay for her care. Moseley-Braun attributed the incident to a misunderstanding, and later paid $15,239 to reimburse the state. Illinois's Democratic attorney general declined to pursue the case, and although Republican governor Jim Edgar declared that "someone broke the law," he couldn't bring himself to say who exactly that might be.
Moseley-Braun has escaped serious inquiry by boldly intimidating anyone who dares ask uncomfortable questions. She frequently complains about being held to a double standard owing to her race and sex. At one point during her reelection campaign, she flatly declared she wouldn't answer any questions about her use of campaign funds, or the activities of her former fiance. (From the Chicago Sun-Times, February 12, 2003) But she was criticized for splitting an inheritance from her mother that should have gone to reimburse Medicaid. She also was dogged by allegations that her campaign manager and then-fiance Kgosie Matthews sexually harassed workers and was forced to deal with accusations that campaign funds were used for jewelry and expensive clothes. I asked a highly-educated and connected friend of mine in New Zealand what he recalled of Ms. Moseley-Braun during her tenure there as American Ambassador. He said that nothing remarkable came to mind. Well, at least she apparently did not get us in too much trouble down under. By the way, this whole idea of appointing political pals and big donors as ambassadors could use some looking into. How would you like to work for the State Department, at a fairly modest salary, with your eventual hope to become Ambassador to Italy or Spain or Denmark - only to have some political patron given the appointment? Having chatted with some career American ambassadors about the subject, I can tell you they think the policy stinks. Some pundit on radio called Ms. Braun "Carol Measly-Brain." Not very kind, but very clever. When I look at Al Sharpton and Carol Moesley-Braun and compare them to someone like retired U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts, I just shake my head. When are the Democrats going to stop promoting black candidates who are crooks, are blatant racists, or who have never done anything demonstrable for black people? Other than demagogue? Maybe there is no party mechanism to deny any candidate the right to file and run. Here's an idea. Form a Selection Committee with clout. If you think that a candidate is a sham or will hurt the Democratic party's chances in an election, call that person into a windowless room and 'splain the program to them. "If you file in this election, we will put a 'contract' out on you. Dead candidates do no damage to the party." Neat, tidy, and effective. No charge.
Just Who Are These Radio Talk-Show Hosts?After studying the biographies of several radio talk-show hosts, an interesting pattern developed. Many of these people have had no other careers outside radio. Many migrated from being announcers or disk jockeys to being talk-show hosts. They have never had a "real job," yet they pass themselves off as experts on the economy, health, politics, police work, intelligence work, international relations, and so on. Go to web sites of radio stations and read some bios, or type their name in Google and see who they are and what they have done. I once sent my resume to a popular talk-show host and asked him to reciprocate, in effect challenging him to tell me why I should listen to his opinions. He had done nothing but radio and talk-radio for 30 years. When I questioned his lack of background to discuss the many weighty issues of the day, he defended himself by saying that he read a lot and had interviewed thousands of people. So, talk show hosts in large part get their expertise from reading and listening to other people's opinions. Think about that as you hear them pontificating like they are God. Many print and TV journalists have never had a "real" job. They only know what they read and what other people tell them. And they often only talk with people of like mind. They may end up working anonymously on the Editorial Page, or writing a column, or doing TV commentary, telling us how to lead our lives, conduct foreign policy, or handle crime. One reason that Bill O'Reilly on FoxNews is so successful is that he has a varied and impressive background. He has done something in his life and can often verbally and logically destroy a politician or academic who only knows what he reads or what other people tell him. Remember, a majority of politicians have been politicians all of their lives, except for maybe being a lawyer - which does not count as a real job. The majority of academics have never had a real job and are largely insulated from the actual world. Rush Limbaugh has enormous influence. As I recall, all he has ever done is work in PR for a baseball team and work as a talk-radio host. Just think about that when he tells you how the tax bill should be structured, or how the military units ought to be configured for an invasion of Iraq. Oh, he is bright, very articulate, and has a lot of smart and influential friends. But, he practically never has a guest on the show to compare or contrast his views. You are forced to listen to his opinions for hours on end. Those of you who listen to him. I can drive to town, get the mail, get some groceries, and drive back, and he still has not finished making the point he was making when I pulled out of the garage. He is right there in the dictionary under "redundant." TV and Movie Union Costs Passed On To ConsumerIt has been my observation for about 50 years that unions do more harm than good, and I have been a member of a couple outside of government. One thing they tend to do is put people in categories where only they are allowed to do a certain job in a group environment, even though they might stand around picking their nose much of the time. The movie and TV industry are two bastions of "featherbedding," where people's individual job descriptions are protected at all costs to efficiency. If you have worked on the set of a major TV production, as I have, you see that there are people to do each specific job. God help the actor or makeup person who tries to move a light to a better spot. There is a man for that! There is a man to move a chair. And so on. On "Later Night" with David Letterman, Dave often refers to his "head carpenter." Gracious, is there also an "assistant carpenter"? Is there a lot of carpentry work going on at the "Late Show"? If it were not for union rules, they could hire a local carpenter from the Yellow Pages on the rare occasion they needed one. Tony Mendez, the cue-card guy is apparently employed by a separate company that provides such services. If you did not have a gun to your head, how much would you pay a guy to print notes on cardboard with a Marks-a-Lot? I love Tony, but a company to provide cue-card people? Let's get real. Any intern, working for nothing, would be happy to print the cue-cards. Have you ever watched the full "credits" roll at the end of a "The Late Show" or "The Tonight Show" or "Wheel of Fortune" or a movie? Everybody has two assistants. There are job descriptions that defy understanding. No doubt some are for relatives of the show's backers. If you printed the list, it would be several pages long. There are enough people to build the Brooklyn Bridge, just to put one TV show on the air or make a movie. Were it not for unions, they could no doubt do it with half the people. You can't submit a script to a TV show, unless you go through an agent. Heaven forbid that some lady who is a postal clerk and moonlighting as a screenwriter might send in a script far superior to one cranked out by the $100,000-a-script Hollywood marvels - who belong to a writers-guild union. You and I pay for this union scam. The TV ads cost a bundle to support the hordes of people who work on each TV show or movie. The companies that make the products advertised on TV pass the inflated ad costs on to us. You pay at the box office for the movie excesses caused by union bloat. And then there are the $20 million salaries for a star in a picture. That is another sorry story. It appears that about 13.2 percent of the American workforce belong to unions and the number is declining. Maybe folks are wising up to the fact that their dues are often not well spent, that the dues are often used to contribute to the political candidates they do not favor, and that too often the dues money ends up in the pockets of union officials. And that in the end the unions do not deliver for them. Well, except for the West Coast longshoreman who make $100,000 for loading cargo containers. Music-Video DVDs Finally Come to the OutbackFor reasons that I cannot explain, until this month I never bought a music-video DVD. My plunge has been a revelation;"Jane Monheit: Live at the Rainbow Room," "Live in Paris," with Diana Krall, and "BACH - Greatest Organ Works," played by Hans-Andre Stamm on the Trost- Organ in Waltershousen Germany. I already owned several music CDs by both Diana Krall and Jane Monheit and had some BACH organ work on CD - and some old BACH organ LPs from Europe. In my rambling days in Dallas, I hung out at different times with a former big-band singer who owned a jazz club and the premiere cabaret singer in town. Really good female singers are one of life's greatest gifts - at least from my male perspective. Jane Monheit is incredibly sensual and beautiful on her Rainbow Room DVD, in a red gown, sprinkled with glitter, and enough lipstick on her voluptuous mouth to last the average woman a month. Her voice is velvety and sultry and with enough range to do justice to most anything she sings. In addition to the renowned jazz musicians backing her up, there is a 27-piece orchestra on tap for many segments. She sings all of the songs from her latest CD "In The Sun," as well of a couple she has never recorded, and a few from the earlier albums - 20 cuts in all. From "Over the Rainbow," to "It Might as Well be Spring," she caresses every note with loving care. Jane Monheit is now 25-years-old. She was only 2-years-old when she began singing some of the songs she still sings today. On one CD, after one of her songs finishes, there is short cut of a very young girl singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." I always thought it was her daughter or a niece. Now, I realize it is probably a tape of Jane at a very, very young age. She will get even better as she matures. This DVD is as close to being present in the Rainbow Room in New York City, as I will likely get - since I have not been to the Big Apple in over 15 years. One regret is that this live DVD was not mostly a program of her major songs from previous albums. On replays, I will probably skip over some of the songs. One reviewer commented that her songs renditions were "too derivative" of other singers. One commented that she seems to lack the emotional depth for some of the more introspective songs she sings, because of her youth. She does come across as a young lady who grew up pampered and without much turmoil in her life. As she said during a break in the music, here she was singing all these songs about broken loves and she was actually a newlywed. Exactly. Whatever her shortcomings, real or perceived, I am mesmerized by the beauty and the voice of Jane Monheit. She reminds me of my dear friend who was the premier cabaret singer in Dallas many years ago. In fact, I wrote my friend (now living in another state) to tell her how much Monheit reminded me of her. For sure, Jane enunciates better than Diana Krall or Norah Jones. It is nice to actually understand most of the words. Yes, I know, after I wrote the draft of this column, Norah Jones won five Grammys. I have her CD. She is good, but no Diana Krall - and in my opinion - no Jane Monheit. Jones won in the Pop category. If her music is Pop, I am now a Pop fan. Only kidding. She is a fluke in that category. Even she was surprised. There were a few things on the Monheit DVD that are distracting. Jane bobs up and down when she is talking to the audience, as she does when she sings. She spends a lot of time with her left hand resting on or near her right breast. And she seems to try too hard at times to add vocal embellishments. But who notices when they zoom in on her angelic face? Some of Jane Monheit's fans (and detractors) comment on her weight. She has a few extra pounds - which I find appealing. But, I hope she does not let her weight get away from her. Part of her "package" is her beauty. Only opera stars can generally get away with being obese. Please, Jane, "Stay Just the Way You Are." Diana Krall has more of a punchy, "take-no-prisoners," style than Monheit. But if everyone sounded alike, we would need only one record label. Diana also plays mean jazz piano. She is attractive, not beautiful in my view, and wore very little makeup for the "Paris Live" gig. She seemed more concerned with her music than trying to be a sex symbol. She wore what looked like a black leather jacket and an ankle-length skirt, which pretty well covered up her very attractive body. No glitter. No low-cut gowns. No distractions. Just music. As I watched her piano finger technique on the "Live In Paris" DVD, I kept seeing what I thought were the hallmarks of a person trained in classical piano. A bio I read later said that she had started classical piano lessons at age four. It shows! Classical piano training teaches hand technique, with finger independence and precision of movement that garden-variety jazz pianists often seem to lack. None of that slapping at the keys with straightened fingers for Ms. Krall. Diana in Paris had a fine group of jazz musicians backing her. On some segments, there was a full orchestra, complete with four French horns and a harp. The main conductor was the same fellow that conducted the orchestra on Jane Monheit's DVD! Busy guy. Diana sings and plays her head off. On some songs, she attacks the vocal and the piano like a Tiger jumping on a fresh kill. I now have a better appreciation for the disembodied voice that previously I had only heard. When seen in person, her vocals exude a raw sexuality that I did not notice on the CDs. She put so much emotion into her songs that she sounds like a woman who has had 50 love affairs gone bad - and is intent upon recounting each one in song. Her eyes are sad, with more than a hint of pain - and at times moist with apparent emotion. Now, those CDs in the truck and the MP3s on the computer will have new meaning to me. As with Monheit, I have Diana Krall available on every imaginable platform, including an MP3 disk in a portable player. This is one great singer and musician, and the DVD saved me a trip to Paris - which I have not visited in about 30 years. There is probably not a single cut that I will skip over as I play the DVD again and again. From "Let's Fall in Love" to "Cry Me a River," there's not a clunker in the lot. I already had the audio CD of the live in Paris gig. But, the DVD was a whole new experience and allowed me to establish a real emotional connection with Diana and her music. I am indebted to Larry on Long Island, NY, who first turned me on to Diana Krall - in an e-mail. After I wrote the draft of this column, Diana Krall won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album - for my beloved "Live In Paris." I told you she (it) was good. And Norah Jones won several Grammys. If she would only learn to enunciate better, she could be really good. The BACH organ DVD is great. The liner notes say that it is believed that Bach once played on the Trost-Organ featured on this CD. When we lived in Germany, we went to an organ recital by Helmut Walcha, who was at the time recording Bach's organ works for Deutsche Grammophon. This DVD, played though my 5.1 digital system, with Klipsch speakers, took me back to that magical night in Germany - several decades ago. (Helmut Walcha, the renowned German Orgelmeister, was blind from birth. He memorized all of Bach's organ works, which he recorded. He lived in Frankfurt, Germany, until his death in 1991 at age 83. When we lived in Frankfurt, I studied piano and organ with an American music teacher who was in turn studying with Prof. Helmut Walcha. Of the three of us, I am the only one with no talent. I am these days relegated to playing "Ebb Tide" on my electronic piano/organ.) Obesity Can Be Conquered in Small StepsAn obesity researcher suggests that the average person gains 2-pounds per year. He recommends eating 100 calories less per day. Since a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, for a person with average metabolism, 100 calories less per day would equate to a weight loss of about 10 pounds in a year. One easy way to cut out 100 or more calories a day was mentioned by Oprah on her TV show. Make a rule that you do not go into the kitchen for food in the evening after you have eaten dinner. I posted a sign on the refrigerator that says "Closed At 7 p.m." - and it is working. I repeatedly started for the fridge or the cupboard around 8 to 11 p.m. before the sign went up. Now, I seldom even make a move in that direction after dinner. And I am losing weight. If you now don't exercise, you could walk a mile a day and burn off the 100 calories - or more. Fat people burn more calories-per-mile than skinny people. As you lose weight, you have to recalculate your calories and exercise to take into account your current weight. In an article I wrote, I once said that you can have a Snickers bar every day and not gain weight. You just walk a mile to the 7-Eleven and a mile back to purchase that candy bar. A small Snickers is about 280 calories. The math works out - if you walk very fast. There was a study once that said a typist who switched from a manual typewriter to an electric, and did not change eating habits or food intake, would gain weight in a year! Small things do make a difference. I shop for small bananas, because eating a large banana every day, everything else being equal, would increase my weight by over two pounds a year! I got in my present weight bind because of an automobile accident that prevented me from doing my normal exercise program for more than a year. Eating the same amount of food, I gained a bunch of weight. Now, back on the exercise program and charting my calorie intake, I am on the road to my goal. Drinking wine, beer, or liquor after dinner is another calorie peril. The bar needs to close early, too. A friend, who is president of a major distillery in Kentucky once told me his rule. "Never take a drink after dinner." That is one hell of a good tip, for a lot of reasons. In addition to the empty calories, late evening consumption of alcohol interferes with sleep. Not to mention that you might become a lush. Of course, I do something that few people are willing to do. I chart calorie consumption (by food type) and exercise and set calorie limits and exercise goals. It's all in a database on the computer. I know from experience, how many calories I can ingest and how much exercise I need, to lose one to two pounds a week - or to maintain my current weight. Each month, I print a summary of calories, and a food chart that shows how many calories of each type of food I ate - and an exercise chart. When I review what I ate, for example, 3500 calories of donuts in a month, I can say to myself, "You know, fat boy, if you had cut out the donuts last month, you would have lost one more pound!" It's a revelation. Once in a while, I will eat an Apple Fritter and go "light" the rest of the day. What is life worth without an Apple Fritter now and then? Or a Snickers bar? If I quit charting my calories and exercise, I start gaining weight. You know, you fat, compulsive eaters, that overeating is just as much an addiction as smoking or drugs. So, instead of attending a 12-step program, you really need to set limits and chart what you eat. With all the anxieties in modern life, it is doubtful that you will ever "cure" your compulsive eating. Just as a diabetic needs to manage his or her blood-sugar level every day of their lives, you need to manage your calorie intake and exercise program - for the rest of your life. I know the drill. The CCRadio-plus - DX (Long Distance) AM RadioIf you live away from a big city and you like to listen to a variety of out-of-town AM stations, especially the evening and late-night talk shows, I can suggest a radio for you. The CCRadioplus is made for the C. Crane Co. by Sangean (www.ccrane.com). It costs $159, but it blows away all other AM radios in my house, including the Henry Kloss Model One (Tivoli Radio), which has the most useless receiver (weakest at pickup of stations) I have ever seen. My $29.95 Radio Shack with the crank to charge the battery has a more sensitive receiver than the Kloss Model One. The CCRadio covers AM, FM, 7-channel NOAA weather radio, and TV audio channels. It has a digital display, which you can flip between the station frequency and a clock, 5 memories for each band, a sleep timer, an alarm timer (wake up alarm), and outputs for a recorder, including an output to automatically trigger the recorder for unattended off-air recording. You can also set a timer to make an unattended recording to a separate recorder (not supplied). There is a tuning knob and Up/Dn buttons. You can scan for the next strong station by pressing either the Up or Dn button and holding it briefly. The 5-inch speaker has been tuned to sound very clear on voices. There are Bass and Treble controls. You can listen to stereo FM only with headphones, as there is only one speaker. Radios have two receiving benchmarks. One is sensitivity, that is how weak a signal it can pick up. Selectivity is how well a radio separates two adjoining stations without annoying buckshot or splatter. The CCRadioplus is outstanding in both parameters. In big cities, you might get overpowered by a close high-power station, but here in the Outback, you can slice the AM stations cleanly as you dial from one to the next. The set has an AC cord, not a wall-wart, and 4 D cells will power the set for a very long time. Also, you can use D size Nicads and charge them with an optional plug-in charger. The dial light has an On/Off button and while on battery power the light goes off in a few seconds to save power. I am in NE Texas, about 90 miles NE of Dallas. Starting just after dark, and peaking in the late-evening hours, I can clearly pick up San Antonio, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver, Chicago, Des Moines, Dallas, Nashville, Kansas City, Atlanta, Tulsa, several stations in Mexico - and various other stations not so clearly. All of these have been received on the internal loop antenna. I have not yet attached a long-wire antenna to the external screw terminal for AM reception, which should increase the range of the radio. The FCC designates some stations as Clear Channel. These stations run 50,000 watts and are either the only station allowed to operate on a particular frequency, or a couple of 50,000 stations are separated so far, such as Texas and Alaska, that they do not interfere with each other. WOAI in San Antonio, WLW in Cincinnati, WBAP in Dallas, and KOA in Denver are examples of Clear-Channel stations. Of course, distant stations come in stronger at night than in the daytime, due to changes in atmospheric propagation - and usually better in Winter than in Summer. You can print a list of AM stations from sources like: www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amclasses.html orwww.ac6v.com/clearam.html (clear-channel stations and Mexican super-stations). I downloaded the FCC lists of every AM and FM station in Texas and Oklahoma. Although the files are too long to sensibly print, you can have an easy screen reference. The Clear-Channel list is only a few pages and is a good place to start. The FM receiver is sensitive and picks up a lot of stations on its extendable whip antenna. The weather radio picks up the same two NOAA (VHF band) stations that I get on my several weather radios. The audio from the two TV stations in the Sherman, TX area (CBS, NBC), about 60 miles away, comes in clearly. The CCR comes in Black Mica and Platinum colors. I bought the Platinum and love its looks. C. Crane also sells some sophisticated, and expensive, AM antenna/tuners that will increase the range of the radio and null out stations from other directions. I have no idea if they work well, but if they are anything like the radio, they are worth a look. So far, I have only a couple of quibbles. I wish there were at least 10 memory buttons for each band. It is easy to do though, just tune in the station and hold the memory button down for a couple of seconds. Still. And a digital keypad to input frequencies would be nice, as is done on many shortwave radios. But then, the cost would increase. Although not a complaint, you should know that the radio has a NOAA Weather Alert feature. Normal weather radios (like this one) will alert on ANY weather alert, from a flash flood watch, to a thunderstorm watch. This is nearly useless, as you get tired of the alert going off for stuff you don't care about. Few "watches" turn into severe weather events. New technology, called S.A.M.E., allows you to select only the types of weather alerts you want to hear. This is too sophisticated for inclusion in the CCRadioplus, But, the weather-radio function is useful if you want to punch up the weather channel and hear the overall forecast and any current warnings. C. Crane Co. sells a separate S.A.M.E. weather radio, as does Radio Shack, Midland, Oregon Scientific and others. But even with S.A.M.E technology, it is implemented in varying degrees of usefulness on different radios. I have written about the S.A.M.E. radios under Ham Radio on my main Web page. I am working on an updated article on S.A.M.E. weather radios and will post it in the Outback. Over my years as a ham, shortwave listener, and broadcast listener, I have owned about 100 radios. But, the CCRadioplus is the best AM tabletop radio I have ever owned. Sangean also makes AM/FM/Shortwave portable radios. I would not hesitate to buy the Sangean ATS 909 if I were interested in a portable/tabletop radio of that type. It evens covers SSB (single side-band) for commercial and ham-radio broadcasts. It is $259, but I am sure worth every penny. I listen to BBC, Radio Havana, etc, on my big ham radio sets, so I have no need for the ATS 909, until I decide I want a radio to rest on my chest in bed and listen to the BBC. They sell pillow speakers for those who have a bed mate who would rather sleep. COPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Richard C. Rhodes End |