Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Stuph File Program - Episode #0163

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stuph File Program.

For a program list of the items included and all their accompanying links in this one hour show, you can find the information on my website in the Stuph File Program section, or just follow this link to #0163.





To download the podcast, right click here and select "Save Link As"

Featured in this episode:

Click logo for iTunes podcast subscription If you have any comments or suggestions, or items for the mailbag, feel free to click on the "Comments" link below to add your thoughts.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Mystery Of The Teachers’ Lounge

My career has afforded me the opportunity to interview a myriad of people on a plethora of topics, asking questions on some of the great mysteries of our time. And of course, with each and every one of us, the actual maturing process answers many of the deep burning questions we may have had in childhood, like why our parents sometimes needed to be alone; why Betty-Lou was so protective of the contents of her pencil case in 5th Grade; and why you never sneak up behind a war vet and yell “bang!”

But one question has seemed to go unanswered. Does anyone know what really went on behind the door to the teachers’ lounge? Whether it was elementary or high school, the secrets that room held were legendary.

There were stories of students who actually ventured into this educational enclave. These were the stories of legend. Nobody knew these students. All we heard was that they walked in; then vanished!

There were many theories as to what went on. It was a topic, both then and now, that’s discussed in hushed tones. Was there a speakeasy on the other side? Was it a replica of Hugh Hefner’s grotto? Was it a casino where they played Baccarat in dinner jackets like James Bond, or an illegal gambling parlour, like in the movie The Sting?

As students, we sometimes used to hang around the teachers’ lounge door, waiting for one of them to either enter or leave, if only to get a peek inside to the proceedings. This was a time in the 60’s and 70’s when everybody smoked, so the only thing we ever saw when the door opened was an escaping white cloud, as if they had just finished electing a new Pope inside.

And teachers were very quick to enter or leave the room. They would look both ways before they opened the door to make sure prying eyes didn’t learn their secrets. Security at the entrance was tight, much like at airports today, or perhaps more realistically, like trying to cross into East Germany during the Cold War.

We began to fantasize about life in the lounge. While we were brown-bagging it to school with our lunches, the teachers must have had a full catered cruise ship spread in there. During recess manicures, pedicures, full massages and relaxing steams must have been taking place. We knew from the smoke that tobacco in all forms was plentiful, but there also had to be an abundance of food, alcohol and other bacchanalian vices that belied the otherwise buttoned-down world of those entrusted with our education.

Somewhere in this world the people who never had a first name, folks we only knew as “Mr” “Mrs” or “Miss,” must have let their hair down and cut loose and that place had to be the teachers’ lounge.

As we got older and started to make decisions about where life would lead us, we thought less of the lounge. That’s because we knew that some of our numbers would become teachers themselves and surely they would share with the rest of us what we all yearned to know as kids.

But that wasn’t the case. As our trusted student comrades became teachers themselves, they learned the secret handshake, got the special rings (which I believe contains a cyanide pill should they be captured and forced to talk about the lounge) and entered the Star Chamber.

And so the mystery continues to loom. I have very few regrets in life. However I sometimes wonder why I didn’t just make a break for it one day in school and barge in to find out what was going on. But then I think back and remember those stories of legend; the ones where braver souls than I ventured in, only to disappear forever. And I come to the conclusion that some questions are best left unanswered and some secrets deserve to remain a mystery.

That’s the Stuph – the way I see it

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Stuph File Program - Episode #0162

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stuph File Program.

For a program list of the items included and all their accompanying links in this one hour show, you can find the information on my website in the Stuph File Program section, or just follow this link to #0162.





To download the podcast, right click here and select "Save Link As"

Featured in this episode:

  • Kent Stetson & Paul Stetson, authors, Meat Cove
  • Bret Lockett, NFL safety
  • Stuart Nulman, Book Banter
Click logo for iTunes podcast subscription If you have any comments or suggestions, or items for the mailbag, feel free to click on the "Comments" link below to add your thoughts.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Twas The Time Before Idiocy

Many years ago, during the Nixon administration in the U.S., Vice-President Spiro Agnew once called the press “the nattering nabobs of negativity.”

Perhaps that chestnut of a phrase, which was actually penned in a speech for the Veep by William Safire, could be applied today to the folks who wish to reign over language and culture with the sanitization that is political correctness.

How else could you explain the idea of taking a poem that is a Christmas classic, written by Clement Clarke Moore back in 1822, and changing it for the sake of appeasing today’s sensibilities of removing anything a child might see or hear that has a negative connotation?

I am referring to Twas The Night Before Christmas, also known as A Visit from St. Nicholas. Recently a Canadian publisher removed all references of Santa’s smoking from the 200 year old verse. In the updated version you will no longer see the line, “The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."

While I have no doubt that the publisher did this with good intentions, altering the work of a classic poem to fit with modern times is censorship at worst and just plain wrong in the world of common sense.

I know smoking in today’s culture is considered a heinous, cancerous culling of the herd, but if we are to continue down this dangerous path of rewriting artistic history, where will it end?

Well, let’s stick with Mr. Moore’s work, shall we? This is a 14-verse poem and the offending puffing doesn’t take place until the 11th verse. There are things to worry about right from the start.

In the first verse we learn that the house might have mice. Surely this isn’t a healthy environment to bring up a child. These little rodents carry disease, after all.

In the second verse the children are dreaming of sugar plums. This is just the gateway to an obese society.

To me, the most offensive part of the poem shows up in the eighth verse. This is where we first learn as children that Santa Claus specializes in breaking and entering. In today’s world we spend a lot of time concerned about security. We lock our windows and doors at night, set the alarm, and some keep weapons near or under the bed. Yet, we seem to welcome a jolly old elf who sneaks into our house at midnight. Shouldn’t this be a bigger concern than his personal vices?

And let’s not forget the elephant in the room here. Santa’s fat! With a sleigh full of toys his girth is overtaxing the strength of a mere eight tiny reindeer. Isn’t this animal cruelty? (And by the way, he also wears fur from head to toe!)

And speaking of reindeer, there are those who say that this method of traveling might be a greener, less polluting way to ride. Well, have you ever been in a parade following the horses? Now imagine they could fly?

And what do we really know about this Santa character anyway? He spends his time with elves, he knows each and every child, keeps meticulous lists on them, but has no kids of his own. Don’t we usually call somebody in cases like this?

Okay, in the last paragraph, I mixed up two Christmas classics, Twas The Night Before Christmas with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. But I did for a very valid reason. If we continue to sanitize works like a 200 year old poem, then how can a song that only dates back to the 1930’s survive the politically correct wrecker’s ball?

How about we just let the classics stand on their own merit and read them to our kids? If the little darlings have questions about the content, use it as a teachable moment and move on, all the while marvelling at how forward thinking your little DNA project has become. After all, you’re in for a lifetime of tough questions and teachable moments with your kids anyway, so what’s one more?

As a child I never questioned Santa’s smoking (and I come from a family of non-smokers) or even his annual breaking into my living room. Personally, I was more freaked out about the Tooth Fairy sneaking into my room and going under my pillow, while I was sleeping on it! But that’s a therapy session for another time.

That’s the Stuph – the way I see it

Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Stuph File Program - Episode #0161

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stuph File Program.

For a program list of the items included and all their accompanying links in this one hour show, you can find the information on my website in the Stuph File Program section, or just follow this link to #0161.





To download the podcast, right click here and select "Save Link As"

Featured in this episode:

  • Edward Mayer, VP, Exhibits & Archives, Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
  • Deb Bowen, Director of Marketing, Caliente Spa & Resort
  • Andrew Fazekas, Science Writer
Click logo for iTunes podcast subscription If you have any comments or suggestions, or items for the mailbag, feel free to click on the "Comments" link below to add your thoughts.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The Stuph File Program - Episode #0160

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stuph File Program.

For a program list of the items included and all their accompanying links in this one hour show, you can find the information on my website in the Stuph File Program section, or just follow this link to #0160.





To download the podcast, right click here and select "Save Link As"

Featured in this episode:

Click logo for iTunes podcast subscription If you have any comments or suggestions, or items for the mailbag, feel free to click on the "Comments" link below to add your thoughts.

Monday, September 3, 2012

The Stuph File Program - Episode #0159

Welcome to the latest edition of the Stuph File Program.

For a program list of the items included and all their accompanying links in this one hour show, you can find the information on my website in the Stuph File Program section, or just follow this link to #0159.





To download the podcast, right click here and select "Save Link As"

Featured in this episode:

  • Peter Geiger, editor, Farmers' Almanac
  • Mary Jane Popp, author, Marilyn, Joe & Me
  • Peter Franklin, Gabby Cabby
Click logo for iTunes podcast subscription If you have any comments or suggestions, or items for the mailbag, feel free to click on the "Comments" link below to add your thoughts.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Fifteen Digits

A while back I wrote a blog piece called Krazy For Kindle where I espoused upon the joys of using the electronic e-reader. The Kindle has given me the opportunity to read more and just about anywhere. I read in waiting rooms, in the checkout line of supermarkets, while I’m waiting in fast food lines, or when I’m dining by myself during lunch or dinner hours from work. I sometimes even get into the longer lines at Costco, just to have a chance to read a little more. There’s never any down or boring time when my Kindle is handy.

But the Kindle is only valuable, if there is something worthy to read. So I want to share with you a summer time novel that I just finished which was a joy to read from cover to cover (or is it pixel to pixel now). That book is by screenwriter Nick Santora and it's called Fifteen Digits.

Nick Santora has spent a career expertly weaving compelling story lines with complex characters for television. So it's no surprise that he does it with his second novel, Fifteen Digits (his first novel was called Slip & Fall).

As a screenwriter Nick has written and/or produced for The Sopranos, The Guardian, Law & Order, Prison Break and Lie To Me. He also co-wrote, created and executive produced the A&E television series Breakout Kings. All projects with a history of richly developed characters.

With Fifteen Digits, Nick delves into the modern world of white collar crime. In a world where more criminals are working computers rather than weapons, this tale of insider trading and the surprising perpetrators involved, is a tightly wound, fast paced novel.

Its slow build brings you into the lives of those involved. You get to understand their wants and desires and learn what drives them. By the time you reach the plotting and execution of the crime, you HAVE to know what happens to these characters and how their actions affect those around them. And you'll be surprised which directions the roller coaster ride will follow as you try to read faster and faster to absorb this thriller.

Not only is the story compelling, but Santora has a way of turning a phrase that makes you smile, if not laugh out loud; welcomed levity for a story that has a somewhat dark underbelly.

To get a little bit of a taste for the story, take a look at this trailer that Nick has put together, and has expertly cast with Jimmi Simpson, from his own Breakout Kings as Jason Spade, the spoiled-son of a law partner who hatches a get-rich-quick scheme with consequences. It was this trailer that made me immediately hit “buy” on Amazon.com and purchase my Kindle copy; and that was a purchase well worth not only the price, but my time in reading it.

I’m looking ahead with this story. With Nick’s writing skills and his extensive background in crafting highly charged, engaging television, I’m hoping that this trailer, which he directed, will lead to Fifteen Digits being fleshed out cinematically so that we can watch the entire story unfold.

But in the meantime, I completely recommend the book Fifteen Digits. Some people might call it the perfect summer read, but that statement just robs the other seasons of an enjoyably juicy tome.

That’s the Stuph – the way I see it