Author: Andy Labis

Should Anderson Cooper Report from a Studio or On Location?

I’m watching the coverage of Sandy, the storm that might just be the precursor to the Mayan end of the world on December 21st, and mostly I’m watching CNN. They seemed to have the better weather guy doing a great job explaining just why New York City was screwed with this storm, and they had a variety of reporters in the field which is always entertaining as most people (including me) are hoping something wacky might happen to them, maybe be swept over by a big wave, yet we hope that it’s not bad enough to cause their demise. Piers Morgan was showing why he really shouldn’t be covering nature’s fury, I think it was Ashleigh Banfield in Battery Park in NYC showing the water rising, and then there was Anderson Cooper in Asbury Park, NJ, being battered around by the wind and the rain, his signal cutting in and out, and trying to host a show. I’m watching, fascinated, hoping for that TV moment, amused by him trying to hold an interview with the Mayor of some town where neither of them can hear each other, and my wife says “Why isn’t he in the studio?” I look at her like she is crazy and say, “Because he’s Anderson Cooper.”

Sure, it really isn’t informative TV. I mean we learned pretty much nothing from the interview with the Mayor that Anderson was talking to, but when compared to Rachel Maddow over on MSNBC, safe and sound in her studio and wondering how all of this was going to impact the election, on CNN we get entertained by TV feeds cutting out, reporters putting their finger up to their ear trying to hear the opposite side of conversation, misinformation telling us that the New York Stock Exchange is under four feet of water, and Anderson Cooper showing why he is more man that Rachel Maddow could ever hope to be, or maybe just a little more crazy. And so I plight, wondering if my wife might be correct: Should Anderson Cooper report from a studio or on location?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Have You Ever Tasted Food Meant for a Dog?

I’m a fan of the show “Shark Tank.” If you’re not familiar with the show the basic synopsis is for entrepreneurs to come before a panel of five potential investors to pitch their projects and companies. If the “Sharks” like their business, or sometimes just have faith in the people, they will offer an investment in the company. There are four people who are the regulars as investors, namely Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Robert Herjevec, with the final spot rotated by Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner. Each potential investor has their field of expertise and unique personality so for most of the dreamers on the show there is someone there, if the business seems like a good fit and the partnership seems workable, that they will get the mentor of their dreams, or at least a reasonable offer for the smart ones to take and the idiot ones to turn down.

With the show’s simple format, my love of seeing new ideas and projects, sometimes quirky personalities of the entrepreneurs, and the attitudes of the investors, its an entertaining hour of “Why didn’t I think of that?”, “That’s a perfect fit for so-and-so to work with them!”, “That person is an idiot for not taking that deal!”, and “Good for them!” comments. It was the other day that I saw something I never thought I would see, however, and it wasn’t Robert Herjevec dropping a dog. Nope, it was seeing Matt and Meg Meyer, two quirky dog lovers, with their business of frozen yogurt treats for dogs, getting the “Sharks” to taste dog food. Okay, technically it wasn’t dog food, it was doggie yogurt, but it is always fun to also see the investors “try” the products and this was no exception, especially the reactions of Mark and Robert. Matt and Megg didn’t get any takers for their business, as seems to be the norm for people pitching dog products (It keeps looking to me like it’s a bitch of a business to get into on a national scale), however, the episode did stir up an old plight idea I have had for a while, as every now and then, since we have a dog and sometimes see interesting treats for him (the cupcakes at Sprinkles seemed like the closest I would have gotten to do it), I sometimes wonder how those treats taste. I mean, his beef jerky treats don’t seem to be any different from some of the jerky you would find in the candy isle, his little cookies smell wonderful with their pumpkin aroma, and in looking at the ingredients for most of the things we get him, nothing looks that horrible, but I have yet to bridge that gap into dog treat taste-testing as the “Sharks” have seemed to now crossed. And so I plight: Have you ever tasted food meant for a dog?

If you have, I would also love your comments if you found it any good, or if your reaction was one of “Yuck” as was the reaction of the “Sharks,” but in any case…

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!!  L8R!!!

Has a Google Search Ever Led You Down the Wrong Path?

This morning there are about 286 results in Google if you search tap-dancing militant islamic fundamentalists. Add quotation marks around the phrase and you end up with 286. (Go ahead, tell me you aren’t tempted to try the search and and see for yourself?) Some, but not many of you, may remember this “search” from the writings of Zay N. Smith who used to write a quirky column called “Quick Takes” for the Chicago Sun-Times, then for WBEZ, and now can be found on a “not so easy to find his writings” website called The Beachwood Reporter (His column may not always be that easy to find – but I highly recommend looking for it). I bring that up is because sometimes Google will send you to weird places or sometimes a site probably that’s not really what you are looking for based on what you search, and as happy as I was for the extra traffic to the web site, I was curious as to the spike in traffic to an old podcast posting when, during an earlier match-up between the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys, all of a sudden our page titled “A Tee Pee, the Chicago Bears, Cowboys & Aliens, a Carnival, and Shooting Up in a Theater!” started getting a lot of visitors.  Sure, the page title had “Chicago Bears” and “Cowboys” in it, but as I looked at the stats for the day it appeared people were searching for “Bears pissing on Cowboys” and low and behold there the page was, a #2 rank in Google. As the page didn’t have the word “pissing” in it I can only assume that some magical Google algorithm intertwined “pee” and “piss,” not realizing the “pee” referenced in the article was combined with “tee” so therefore about a tent and not the act of urinating. With that, if you search “Bears peeing on Cowboys,” the page shifts to #1. In the search world I guess that makes sense, and from a quick perusal of the results it didn’t seem there was a page of images of bears urinating on cowboys, but with the mixture of words, our page ranks up at the top!

I suppose the two topics, the Zay N. Smith quest for “tap-dancing militant islamic fundamentalist” Google domination, and “Bears pissing on Cowboys” aren’t directly related, but in trying to figure out the increase in traffic for my website that day, for whatever reason, it triggered that old Smith “search” thought, and I was curious what the count was up to. For what it’s worth, if you do search for Bears pissing on Cowboys, being #2 out of 4,670,000 results isn’t that bad (Add the quotes around it and you only get 6, with this post being one of them). Anyway, if you remember a Google search that didn’t quite take you to that page you were looking for, please share in the comments, but for now I plight: Has a Google search ever led you down the wrong path?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Will You Watch the World Series?

As a Chicago Cubs fan, along with being a Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox fan although not necessarily in that order, I can’t say I was disappointed that the St. Louis Cardinals lost to the San Francisco Giants, but once again it’s a year when unless the TV people do their magic spinning I don’t think I’ll be watching the World Series. It’s not that I don’t like baseball, nor can’t get wrapped into teams I don’t really have an allegiance to, but of the many teams in Major League Baseball I can’t get excited about either the Giants or the Detroit Tigers being in the big game this year.

The thing I do know is that what might bother me the most is the fact that another sporting event I don’t care that much about might be screwing up my normal TV viewing. Yup, this summer it was the Summer Olympics screwing up my watching of “America’s Got Talent”, where it turned out that dogs have the most talent in America, and now I’ve got some baseball possibly interrupting Simon, Britney, Demi, and L.A. as yes, I’m getting sucked into “The X Factor.” I suppose I’ll survive and let me DVR plan my TV viewing (When does Real Housewives of Atlanta come back?), but I’m pretty sure FOX would probably prefer nearly any other teams fighting it out for the Commissioner’s Trophy, and the only people who really care are Giants and Tigers fans. And so I plight: Will you watch the World Series this year?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Will You Watch the Presidential Debate or Monday Night Football?

This should be a quick plight as it’s pretty much straight to the point, but after sort of paying attention to the previous two debates, knowing that I can get all of the relevant clips filtering out the B.S. the next day, and I’m a Chicago Bears fan, it really won’t be a decision for me at all as they’ve decided to put the final Presidential Debate up against the Chicago Bears/Detroit Lions Monday Night Football game. I have a 99.995% chance of skipping the debate and watching football but wonder about the rest of you, what your decision will be, and if neither of those two, feel free to comment about what your Monday night viewing will be. And so I plight: Will you watch the Presidential Debate or Monday Night Football?

I Call My Parents a Version of …

First I will say that I know some people have two parents of the same gender so there may not be a correct answer in my choices list so feel free to leave a comment if you use something else, however, this plight is because of my watching “Real Housewives of New Jersey.” As I’m watching the reunion show, which I’m finding out eventually might get as many episodes as the normal series (Jersey had three reunion episodes, not counting the “Lost Footage” show), Teresa Giudice started referencing her parents as “Mommy and Daddy,” and I have to say that I found it a little weird – a 40 year old lady calling her parents “Mommy and Daddy.” “Mom and Dad,” a “Mother and Father” fine, but “Mommy and Daddy” almost filters back to her being an 8 year old girl crying to her parents. I was trying to think of the last time I called my parents that and it had to be the pre-teen years, and I’m thinking the same is for my sister.

I did have a friend who called his parents by their first name, which I also find a little weird, but hey, what do I know? I guess I just found it a little weird, and then wondered how other people reference their parents, and so I plight: I Call My Parents a Version of …

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Do You Know Anyone Who Has Hugged a Garbage Man?

The first Presidential Debate is over and now the debate will shift to who won. Me, I was watching the debate, wondering if Jim Lehrer owned a watch and thinking Mitt Romney just seemed a lot more sure of himself up there, but by the nine-o’clock hour I was getting tired of the seeming lack of control by Mr. Lehrer and since I wasn’t playing the Obamacare drinking game, decided my mind might be better served by relaxing a bit and switching to a new episode of South Park, complete with a lampooning of Honey Boo Boo, fat Americans, and the awesomeness of James Cameron who saved the day by “raising the bar.” I believe I made the right decision just before going to bed.

In addition to the debate of the debate, there will surely be a new blast of ads supporting each candidate, but one that already hit was from the AFSCME (that’s the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to you and me) and was part of their “Meet…” campaign, designed for you to meet American workers that Mitt Romney supposedly doesn’t care about. In any case, one of the ads is about a gentleman named Richard, a garbage man who does the route in front of Mitt’s house in California. Richard talks about his job, about some of the things he does, and how people really appreciate him to the point that he mentions some of the people on his route will give him a bottle of water when it’s hot outside, and that some people actually hug him. It was the minute I heard this that I said “Really, people come out and hug you?” Fine, I can see an instance where a little old lady might hug a garbage man, like when the guy might spot a treasured heirloom in the trash, questions if it should be thrown in the trash, and joyfully presents it to the homeowner much to their delight, and sure, I’ll buy the bottle of water thing, but in general I have to plight: Do you know anyone who has hugged a garbage man?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Are You Concerned About the Upcoming Bacon Shortage?

The warning has been issued from the British National Pig Association, “A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable.” First, who knew there was a British National Pig Association, and second, heaven help us bacon lovers! Yup, remember how we have been having that drought and people were worried about corn prices impacting beef? Well, cows don’t really eat corn, but guess which animal does? Yup, the piggy. So with the drop in supply of corn, and soybean for that matter, the stories tell how farmers have been thinning their herds, especially in Europe, and with less pigs come a shortage in bacon, and even worse, an increase in prices.

We in the United States won’t really have to worry about finding bacon, as the American National Pork Board (Again, who knew?) says we won’t really have a shortage of baconny goodness, but with our increasing demand for all food bacon and the shortage of actual pigs to make said bacon, you can expect prices to go up. Me, I like bacon, but in moderation, however, football tailgaters will have to up their budget if they want to maintain their waistlines, and so I plight: Are you concerned about the upcoming bacon shortage?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Do You Plan on Watching the Presidential Debate?

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for the election to be over next month as the over-analysis of everything Presidential has gotten nuts, and I’m not even in a battleground state and subjected to the relentless television advertising. ABC, a somewhat respected new outlet (Peter Jennings was the go-to anchor for the longest time for me), held a poll, and we found out that Americans would prefer to see President Obama on “Dancing With the Stars” instead of good-ol’ Mitt, but at least we don’t seem to be worried about a Mormon watching our kids as people think the President and Mitt would do about the same job babysitting our kids.

With the Presidential Debate on Wednesday night, the pre-analysis now has tried to figure out every bit of the debate before it happens, stressing the the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates, wondering if there will be any “knock-out” punch to the other guy, then debating whether we should even use the term “knock-out” punch anymore as the debates are so scripted it would seem impossible for anyone to land a “knock-out,” but mostly we are waiting to see if one of the guys trips over his own two feet. Does Mitt have an edge because he’s been debating in the primaries, does Barack have the edge because people seem to like him more, will Mitt be able to get under Barack’s skin, or will either candidate actually tell us what they plan to do to save America all in a 90 second soundbite? It seems all of these questions and more will finally be answered sometime tomorrow night, although probably not, to be immediately followed by about a week of analysis trying to figure out who “won” the debate.

As a good American it should be my due diligence to watch the debates and develop an educated analysis of which candidate will best lead our country, or I could just base my decision on whom I’d prefer as a ship’s captain, in which case if I’m not thinking Barack I’m in the minority. And so I plight: Do you plan on watching the Presidential Debate?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Do You Decorate for Halloween Like You Do for Christmas?

A couple of my Facebook friends recently posted that they’ve already done their decorating for Halloween, and it made me reflect on a few things like “When was the last time I actually really decorated for Halloween?” (I believe the answer is “Never”), and “Isn’t it a little early to decorate for Halloween?” (At the time of the posting it was still a month away so I say “Yes.”). We all have seen the escalation in decorating for Halloween, a holiday that most decorations used to just be the occasional jack-o-lantern and construction paper cutouts we would make in grade school to now a full-blown decoration feast where Halloween Factory stores will pop up for a couple of months so you can buy the latest, giant, inflatable witch to put in your front yard, and it has now become a competition for one neighbor to out-decorate their other neighbor, much in the way Christmas used to be. Back in the day there was always the one house that was uber-decorated, usually by the handyman who will build some sort of scary, haunted house theme, but now anyone can buy a cheap-looking, five-foot tall, Chinese made, lighted pumpkin that has a good chance of blowing away before the holiday even get here.

Maybe I would get into the holiday a little more if I had kids, but for me it has turned into a holiday where I end up with too much leftover candy because I never learn that I will get five kids, at the most, coming to my door for candy, thus leaving me with a couple of bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Maybe if I did decorate I would get a few more kids, but I also know that if I open that decorating door that suddenly my car will be packed with Halloween tchotchkes, my wife will wonder what is wrong with me, and my neighbors will be upset because now the “Halloween Decorating Competition” will be on and suddenly I’ll have to bust out the circular saw and build a haunted house. I believe it is that first piece of yard decoration that starts it all, but I also plight: Do you decorate for Halloween like you do for Christmas?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!