First Favorite Song

OK, what was your first ever favorite song on the radio?  The one you just couldn't get enough of, the one you of course went out and bought the 45 single of?...

Mine was "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash.  My real introduction into the world of popular music came in the fall of 1982.  The Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots weren't doing it enough for me anymore, and I was still at the time way too shy with girls.  Never a big TV person, I turned to FM radio -- specifically 103.3 WEEI FM Boston.  That was the big Top 40 radio station at that time.  That riveting sounding guitar/piano intro to "Rock the Casbah", Joe Strummer's forceful and energetic voice thrusts -- and that crazy echo chamber at the end of the second verse!  Incidentally, of the two versions of the song that got radio airplay, the one with the echo chamber was the only one I liked.

So thank you is in order to The Clash -- whatever else you were, you were my first stop along the path of a lifelong love and devotion to contemporary music.

The Boomer

This week, one of the first baseball players I followed intently, passed away.  George Scott, aka "The Boomer" died on Sunday in his home of Greenville, MI.  According to Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com, he weighed right around 400 lbs. at the time of his death.  Can't say that I'm surprised.

My first knowledge of Scott, actually came before I even knew he was (back) with the Red Sox.  When I began collecting baseball cards around 1976/77, I remember getting his 1977 Topps card in a pack.  Don't know what it's like today, but back then, unless a player got traded or signed as a free agent with another club before around 11/15 in the offseason, that player automatically showed up in the following year's set as a member of the team he played with the previous season.  Scott, although starting his career with the Red Sox, played for five seasons with the Brewers, then was sent back to Boston after the 1976 season in the deal that sent him and Bernie Carbo in exchange for Cecil Cooper.  I did not even know he was with the Red Sox until I went to my first game in May of '77 and saw that he was in the lineup for the us (he doubled and scored a run as a part of a 4-run 9th inning rally, come from behind win for the Sox that day).

Breakfast

I ended up eating such a full breakfast after shachrit services this morning, I'm still no where near hungry for lunch.  Of course, all the water I've been drinking (to soak up all of that salty salmon, I'm sure), has been a big part of the appetite suppressant.

2 days to go til the July 31st trade deadline, and we find the Red Sox in first place in the American League East.  On my way to the beach yesterday, I had the pleasure of listening on satellite radio to them build up a 3-0 lead in the first three innings, on their way to a 5-0 shutout win.  I arrived at the beach, and stayed in the car just long enough to hear the call (on Baltimore's radio station) of Big Papi's two-run shot (part of what turned out to be a 4-hit afternoon for him).

I am the Table Topics Master for tonight's Toastmasters Meeting.  The topic I chose?  Of course, baseball.  Going to get my first look ever at Dodger Stadium in a couple of weeks.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Have finally picked it up and started reading it after all these years.  33 years ago in 6th grade, I got ahold of the abridged children's version of it, and read it for an oral book report.  The next year, I was due to give another oral book report, and reread it (for some reason or other, the teacher never ended up assigning us the report).  So I've always know the basic premise of the story.

Never read through Moby Dick either.  I once picked it up around that same time, got to the part where they caught the whale and served up all the meat of it to the crew, then never returned to it.  Of course, I hadn't read either The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye until about 10 and five years ago respectively.

At some point, I'd also like to check out Paris in the Twentieth Century, the Jules Verne novel that never got published until almost 20 years ago.

Newman

Being a young adult throughout the 90's, I was, of course (despite going through most of it as I am now, sans TV), a huge Seinfeld fan.  My favorite character on the show was none other than..........NEWMAN!! (Hello, NEW-man!!!)  But not stand-alone Newman.  Only when he was interacting in some way with Jerry - and you could just feel the disdain those two had for each other, especially Jerry over Newman...hilarious stuff!

One of my favorite scenes involving those two was in the Kenny Rogers Roaster episode, when Jerry catches Newman smuggling an order of it to Kramer's place after Kramer had sworn off of it because he had become addicted.  When Newman tries to pass off the side order of broccoli in the bag as his own, Jerry calls him out by saying, "you wouldn't eat broccoli if it was deep-fried, then dipped in chocolate!"

That got me to thinking -- what about deep-frying/chocolate dipping, all different sorts of food that many people in general can't stand?...Brussels sprouts?...lima beans?...

Shabbat Shalom

Tokyo Pop

Very excited that I am on slate next month to interview someone who worked as an extra in one of my favorite cult films of the 1980's Tokyo Pop.

Finished Seth Godin's book the other day The Icarus Deception.  I emailed him a question about it yesterday - and got a response!  Basically, I asked whether he thought that it was the scare tactics of Corporate America that kept people in tow, or if just some people are naturally more inclined to be followers rather than leaders.  His answer was that he thought it was both, but it depended on what was the culture (of the organization, I figure is what he was referring to).

Still hard to believe as a somewhat old-school East coast hockey fan, that the Stanley Cup has actually found its way here to Southern California a couple of times over the last several years.

Quality Movement of the 90's

Anyone remember the big quality movement in business that began back in the 90's?  This was basically the precursor of today's Six Sigma (which I admit to knowing almost nothing about).

I was at the forefront of this movement -- and from about 1992-96, pretty much made a short career out of it.  Aside from the fact that once I found out how much the whole thing was involved in numbers, there was something else that happened that exposed its flaw.

In 1995, I remember attending a Service Quality conference being given in Baltimore by the American Society for Quality (then the American Society for Quality Control), of which I was a prominent member and held a chair position for my local chapter.  In it, I attended a seminar given by a woman who had this story:  She was from Connecticut, and lived near a small local hamburger stand that had apparently gained quite a cult following throughout the area and the state, for that manner.  The name of it I remember she said was Pilot Burger.  According to her, the stand just served darn good hamburgers.  She said that when you went there, you were greeted by a sign that said, "If you want it your way, go to Burger King".  Her talk began after this story with her saying, "that's fine for that little hamburger stand out in the middle of nowhere Connecticut.  But, realize this -- they are never going to achieve the mass global appeal of a franchise conglomerate like Burger King."

I don't know about you, but I almost immediately realized the problem with this thinking.  The service quality movement said in effect, it's the customers who determine what is good based on their purchasing preferences.  OK, but if the mass appeal churns out more Burger Kings, that's not good at all for society in the long run.

I could easily continue to write about this for another hour or two.  Any comments?