Daily Mail succeeds in solving riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more..."

Ikea - Bättre skilsmässa åt alla -Better divorce for everyone.
(FYI: That's not their nanny, that's their mother.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjrGmFapS4


In a move that surely will get the notice of the Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm, The Daily Mail has succeeded where so many others have previously failed, and solved a riddle as old as time: "Ikea design stores 'as mazes' to stop shoppers leaving so you end up buying more, professor says."
Thanks Professor Alan Penn, or is it "Sherlock"?


Daily Mail Online
Why shoppers find it so hard to escape from Ikea: Flatpack furniture stores are 'designed just like a maze'
By James Tozer
Last updated at 8:14 AM on 24th January 2011

If you've ever found yourself hopelessly lost in an Ikea store, you were probably not alone.

The home furnishing chain’s mazy layouts are a psychological weapon to part shoppers from their cash, an expert in store design claims.

The theory is that while following a zig-zag trail between displays of minimalist Swedish furniture, a disorientated Ikea customer feels ­compelled to pick up a few extra impulse purchases.

Read the rest of this interesting pop culture article, complete with a map dissecting the psychological layout of a typical Ikea retail store at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349831/Ikea-design-stores-mazes-stop-shoppers-leaving-end-buying-more.html#ixzz1Byrc3awm

Now if only those of us living in this part of South Florida could get a Business School professor to engage in a case study of why the Burger King in Hallandale Beach near the Walmart and the Intercoastal bridge persists in only having one cash register on the customer counter.

Or why on Sundays and Wednesdays, when McDonald's 59 cent hamburger and 69 cent cheeseburger promotion is in effect, the location on U.S.-1 north of Hallandale Beach Blvd. persists in only having one person work at the counter with numerous people in line, but utilizes 2-3 people to take care of one car in the drive-thru window, like they're a VIP.

There's a real consumer riddle there worth solving, which on very bad days, seems straight out of the HB City Hall management handbook.

And it's just the sort of low-hanging fruit of an investigation that the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel can still handle now that they've gotten rid of so many reporters who actually know the area.

Perhaps they can actually help for a change and get some big brains noodling over that counter-intuitive management behavior, which only causes customers to get upset.

Those two fast-food places are easily the worst run retail operation in this small city, though to be fair, the Burger King near Hollywood City Hall is tied with them for WORST if we're going by region and not simply by city, since it's easily THE SLOWEST fast-food place in Southeast Broward County.
By a sun dial!

Cat herding at the Ikea store in Wembley, England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCB7RqGS684




Ikea -Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEe05lCgYrY


http://www.ikea.com/
Fascinating facts and figures for 2010:
http://www.ikea.com/ms/sv_SE/about_ikea/pdf/Welcome_inside_2010_final.pdf

2011 Ikea catalog, USA: http://onlinecatalog.ikea-usa.com/2011/ikea_catalog/US/

2011 Ikea catalog, Sweden: http://onlinecatalogue.ikea.com/2011/ikea_catalogue/SE/

Ikea USA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ikea?blend=1&ob=4

A sagacious friend calls, I listen; an old benchmark returns; no North Beach video here today

What's right in front of you and never been used...

Above, the pathetic little sign erected on the side of the city's North Beach complex, facing away from most passing traffic, is the perfect reminder of the sort of over-paid geniuses who populate Hallandale Beach City Hall. January 21, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Per my last blog post on the longstanding fiasco that is Hallandale Beach's two-story North Beach facility, located just steps from the Atlantic Ocean, and which despite being given to this city's residents for FREE on August 3rd, 2007, has NOT been open to the general public but once in those intervening 41 months, my plan for the blog today was simple.

I'd post numerous photographs of the facility from several different angles and perspectives so those of you who come here regularly could get a better sense of just what is at stake here, and why the vast majority of this city's concerned and well-informed residents, full-time and seasonal, are VERY ANGRY at HB's mayor, city manger and city commission for squandering a valuable and dynamic resource for what is now three-and-a-half years.

A facility that communities in South Florida not located on the ocean, like Hialeah, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Miami Lakes, Sunrise, Tamarac, et al, would positively kill to have in their city, especially for FREE.
(And then there's the observation deck on top, too...)

Yes, those are just some of the many South Florida communities which, however poorly-run they might well be on a day-to-day basis, you know with certainty have at least some elected officials who would've had the common sense to see what a dynamic facility it could be, and who'd have done everything in their power to "fix" and and open to the public ASAP.
All the more so so they could pat themselves on the back at the public dedication.

Now contrast how those hypothetical and presumably enthusiastic dedications elsewhere might've been to the very somber and subdued one that will surely take place in Hallandale Beach on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., where the very people who are most responsible for totally mismanaging this and screwing-over the residents of this city, are going to be present, and try to say with a straight face to them that the only way that you residents can utilize it is if you pay for it. Yes, it's been one slap in the face after another for 41 months.

(Not like it's the only city boondoggle in this city, since the city's municipal storage parking lot on Ansin Blvd., near1-95, that cost well over a million dollars, had but seven vehicles utilizing it the other day when I paid my most recent visit of the past several months, leaving what seems like hundreds of parking spots empty. It was very weird! Oh, trust me, dear readers, I have literally dozens of photos and video of that facility, too, just waiting to see the light of day here.)

Yes, Tuesday afternoon here promises to be yet another "only in Hallandale Beach" moment for this city's beleaguered citizen taxpayers, one more civic insult for them to endure, individually and collectively.

I was also going to post video here of the North Beach facility, showing just how close it is to State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive, the sand and surf of the beach, as well as the neighboring Beach Club condos, which are the three tallest buildings in the entire city.

Well, there's been a change of plans for the blog today. And a concurrent change of philosophy in how some things will be done going forward into the future.

Late Saturday night I received an unexpected phone call from a friend who is more aware than most of the stories and personalities that have come to animate this blog over the past four years.

Someone noted for their candor and savvy who knows a lot more about me than most people I know and deal with regularly in Hallandale Beach and South Florida, and who has been encouraging when it was needed, but also pointed-out mistakes or areas that needed improvement when they were needed, too.
In the case of the latter, both in the blog and in my life.

As it happens, this person is also pretty aware of many if not most of the blog posts that never made it online, for whatever reason, since they're part of the sounding board that I consult from time to time when I rethink something that seemed genius, funny, or insightful at the time, but which... well, maybe not so much.

This person reminded me of some of the things that we had discussed just a few weeks ago when talking about things we'd both learned in the past year and some things we both wanted to avoid in this new one, as well as some new ideas and traditions we wanted to inaugurate.
One of the things on that short list of mine, which I've hinted at here but written about more forcefully in emails to friends, with very specific examples, was to stop enabling South Florida's lazy and dis-interested news media.

To stop making excuses for the middling mediocrity that characterizes far too much of what passes for news media in South Florida, and their sorry excuses to me and others privately when they pump us for information and either don't do the story at all, or do it in such a piss-poor way that I don't even recognize it, and wish I had never wasted my time talking to them.

(You know, like my bad experience with Channel 4's I-Team, which proved to be a one-way street just months after I was invited down to the station in Doral and met everyone.
Unfortunately, I got sucked-in and didn't wise-up and cut them out-of-the-loop until months after I should've.)

I needed to stop pretending that certain people I'd met in the local news media really gave a crap about Hallandale Beach, Hollywood or Aventura specifically, or Broward and South Florida in general -or the intricacies of public policy- when they called or emailed, wanting information from me or access to something or someone I could arrange.

Instead, go back to using the measuring stick that I'd used so well -usually- in Bloomington and Chicago and Washington, where the benchmarks were genuine accountability and actions spoke louder than words.

It probably won't surprise many of you that over the past four years, I've tried many times to get the local Miami TV stations and local South Florida newspapers to give various compelling stories I knew about some play, and in the case of the North Beach facility in particular, had many sit-down discussions with reporters and columnists about the facts and context of what has or hasn't taken place, even sharing chronological photos to show that nothing was being done for LONG periods of time.

All so that something positive would come from it, and that people here in HB could actually gain some use and enjoyment from something on the beach that already belonged to them, and which had been, in essence, stolen from them by Hallandale Beach City Hall's custodians.

To paraphrase that very animated phone conversation with my friend, here's a taste, and I should mention that this savvy person used to make a lot of money in media circles:

"Why the hell are you going to run photos and video on Sunday of that facility and video or whatever of that oblivious Antonio guy totally stepping all over HB's citizens at London's meeting, with his totally unacceptable comments to citizens about who works for who, when you know that the press down there is so f-ing lazy that they will use whatever you've done, ignore you, and then try to make it seem like they always knew what was going on, just finally decided to do something about it themselves?

Dave, don't help them, ignore them or beat them at their own game, but whatever you do, DON'T make their job any easier. Better yet, start FINALLY doing those video reports you kept talked about doing months ago, and simply go around the
news media and post your stuff to your YouTube page. And though I know you already know this well, let me just remind you: reporters are NOT your friends."

So that's what I'm doing.

The promised photos and video will be up soon, but I'm no longer making public promises here on the blog about that sort of thing when there's nothing positive to gain from it.

Believe me, last night, once I realized I was changing my plans, I was very keen on publicly revealing what news and print reporters and columnists and correspondents have taken information from me in the past, who has called me up or who has sat across a table from me and promised me that finally -finally-their editor or producer or news director was going to let them file that story.

But as my friend reminded me, there's no point in burning a bridge when they don't have to know they're being burned -digitally.
Eventually, it'll sink in when they don't hear from me anymore.

No more promises.
Results, not words.
The old benchmark is back in play, and there will be no substitutions.

Just added my two cents to the debate and website... New Times: "Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years"

Looking west from the Atlantic Ocean and the beach towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower, Fire/Rescue station, North Beach Community Center.
October 26, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Below is the email that I sent out this morning to my well-informed grapevine after finally deciding to comment on this BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes article of yesterday. It'll be interesting to see if any other reporters FINALLY show-up on Tuesday to grill Mayor Cooper or City Manager Antonio about this longstanding scandal.

In any case, on Monday I plan to invite the State Attorney's Office to attend.

----

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years

By Stefan Kamph, Fri., Jan. 21 2011 @ 6:36AM

Mike Butler is facing an uphill battle. He's the blogger and gadfly of record in Hallandale Beach (the 40,000-citizen heel of the Broward boot), and he's the one who calls out the city for spending through its reserve funds, paying its city manager nearly half a million bucks a year, and leaving the beach in suboptimal conditions.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/hallandale_beach_north_beach_opening.php

------

Here's what I posted above:

To paraphrase a sports maxim, Hallandale Beach City Hall can't stop Change Hallandale and Hallandale Beach Blog, they can only hope to contain them.
And they will FAIL at that.

The biggest problem that the status quo Cooper Crew have is that while my friend Michael and I and many other concerned HB residents are entirely forthright, transparent and public about the sort of city we'd like HB to be, and equally clear about the sort of accountable public policy that we believe ought to prevail here -which, at at a minimum, is a dollar's worth of service/product for a dollar's worth of taxpayer's funds, plus some innovation with common sense instead of the longstanding secrecy and duplicity- history has shown us that the Cooper Crew is deathly afraid to share PUBLIC information in a timely fashion and debate the issues based on facts in public forums -without their completely controlling the forum or the microphone.

Plus, they have shown over-and-over again that they can't ever admit being wrong about something, and are equally unwilling to admit that other people actually have good ideas, too.

Friday afternoon at 4 p.m, about 45 hours AFTER HB City Manager Mark Antonio said at Comm. London's 'Resident Forum' that the (taxpayer-funded faux newspaper) South Florida Sun-Times was City Hall's main avenue for informing residents -despite the fact that nobody actually reads it because it's nothing but PR and propaganda- I swung by the North Beach Community Center with a copy of that laughable rag.

I walked around the area as I have so many countless dozens of times and took notes -and photos and video.

Here's what I found: One smallish banner hanging on the side of the Fire Station facing NOT the passing traffic on State Road A1A, but rather facing south towards The Beach Club and residents leaving that condo complex.

There were ZERO signs on the doors of the Community Center bldg. itself, ZERO sandwich boards advertising it on the beach or on the A1A sidewalks.

There were ZERO of the city's electronic message boards that are ALWAYS seen on U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. two weeks before the city's overly-aggressive PAL has something THEY want to promote.
(Why exactly does PAL have special rules that allow them to do whatever they want? Nobody ever wants to say why they get special privileges in this city.)
.

Looking east from State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL. July 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

As for the faux newspaper that Mark Antonio said would have word about Tuesday afternoon's public unveiling, almost 42 months after it was given to the city for FREE on August 3rd, 2007, the event that only two of the concerned residents at London's meeting had even heard about prior to Antonio mentioning it there, well, they had ZERO words about it in the last issue before the event.

Not wanting to be hasty, I gave a copy of it to a friend to read and asked him to carefully double-check and see if he saw a single word about Tuesday's event at the North Beach bldg. NOPE!
There was NOTHING there.

Typical!

That's the anomie-centric HB City Hall Crew in a nutshell: unable to even mange to get a word in edgewise about their little spectacle in the fake newspaper that THEY themselves keep alive thru HB taxpayer-subsidies.
How absurd!

Video of City Manager Antonio's remarks at Comm. London's Wednesday night meeting, along with photos and video from Friday of the North Beach Community Center will be on my blog on Sunday, where I already have dozens of photos of its neglect over the past three-and-a-half years, along with numerous blog posts about its longstanding mismanagement.
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Many of them ask the basic question that NEVER is answered: Why have mayor Joy Cooper and past and current city managers adamantly refused to hold a city-wide forum where citizen taxpayers of this city could weigh-in on what THEY want that building to be for?
That discussion should've taken place YEARS AGO!

Nobody has a problem with the city to make revenue from renting the place out on weekends, as I've mentioned at numerous budget meetings, but what taxpayers DON'T want is for it to continue to be off-limits to them Monday thru Friday, and used exclusively, as it has been, as a warehouse for the city's office chairs, and a beach-side clubhouse for PAL and other City Hall cronies, as my past photos on the blog have shown.
That public facility doesn't belong to them, it belongs to all of us.

By the way, Hallandale Beach City Hall DID finally 'fix' the large water fountain located in front of the North Beach bldg. and the Fire Station last month.
It only took the city 16 months to get water into the fountain.
Congrats!

Good friends, a loyal dog and the open road of adventure, imagination & whimsy in Sweden: Stiko Per Larsson - Oxens År

Stiko Per Larsson "Oxens År"
(Officiell Vandringsvideo från Göteborg-Stockholm under Oxens År)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em7nHXuCfwg

Good friends, a loyal dog -Yrrol- and the open road of adventure, imagination & whimsy in Sweden.

The video above was shot from Stiko's annual walking tour, which, in this case, was from 2009 and was from Göteborg to Stockholm, a distance of a bit under 350 miles.

Stiko's "Oxens År" EP came out on Monday, and five days before it did, because of heavy pre-orders, it was already the number one single on iTunes Swedish music chart. Pretty impressive!

I think it's fair to say that even if you don't understand the lyrics, it's very, very catchy.

Stiko's official website: http://www.stikoperlarsson.se/

Intimidation tactics of union-backed anti-Walmart goon squads in D.C. are ticking time bombs. "Boom goes the dynamite!"

Fox News Channel January 20, 2011
Megyn Kelly interviews Fortune magazine's Nina Easton about orchestrated union efforts to intimidate people in their own homes because of labor's opposition to a Walmart in to D.C. I actually saw this broadcast LIVE today, and knew I had to post it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBzBER4YcjU

Speaking of liberal hypocrisy in-action - 'Hoisted on their own petard Dept.'- in conclusion, Chicago...

Before the first Wal-Mart store in Chicago was finally approved, some of the most vehemently anti-Walmart voices on the Chicago City Council used their city-issued office debit/credit cards to make purchases at suburban Big Box stores, even while they decried... oh, you know... the pernicious effect that having them located within the oh-so august Chicago city limits, blah, blah.

But when these same Chicago council members could save some money -and on city taxes- especially for office supplies and party favors, get out of their way!
Here they come with their taxpayer-funded cards!
LOL!

If you never heard about that issue, much of that information emerged in Chicagoland news outlets from clever public records requests.

Well-timed, surgically-applied public records requests do a lot of amazing things when you know what to ask for and know what your rights are -and are keen to let others know that you're asking for, since it aligns with what others have done.

In the next few weeks and months, more than ever, I'll be doing a lot of PRR at Hallandale Beach City Hall, the Broward County School Board HQ, and the Broward County Commission, where in the case of the latter, I'll be zeroing-in on certain matters involving Stacy Ritter, Kristin Jacobs and the invisible presence that is-or-was Ilene Lieberman.

Three uninspiring, unappealing female elected officials in Broward County whom it's fair to say I loathe, and not just a little bit, for their actions, attitude, words and behavior.

Yes, more fun times are definitely ahead!




Chicago's First Wal-Mart! (Whoop-di-do.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkR55-dpYFk

June 29, 2010 video of Mayor Richard M. Daley on Walmart in Chicago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_I1IAYdado

Chicago City Council Approves New Walmart in Pullman Park: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

June 30, 2010

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/walmart-gun-ban-city-council-meeting-chicago-aldermen-vote-20100630

----

Walmart Eyes North Side Store Location in Lakeview: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

December 9, 2010

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/walmart-wal-mart-north-side-lakeview-stores-chicago-20101209

-----

New York Daily News
Walmart's been a boon to Chicago: An alderwoman says she's seen it with her own eyes
By Emma Mitts
January 9th 2011, 4:00 AM

Read more at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/01/09/2011-01-09_walmarts_been_a_boon_to_chicago.html

British Tory Party co-chair giving key public policy speech today on whether Islamapobia has become 'acceptable' dining-room conversation in the U.K.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12235237

Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi, is a VERY interesting personality and the star of some of the British Conservative Party videos, some of which I have posted here on my blog in the past.




Sayeeda Warsi looks at the exciting times ahead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP5PopqK9e8

I'm listening now to BBC Radio 5 live... a VERY INTERESTING interview by Richard Bacon with Duran Duran's Simon LeBon on their exciting new album All You Need is Now -online now, out physically March 21st, that sounds like their '80's roots; it sounds great!- and they will be discussing her speech in Leicester later in the day:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two
Check it out!

http://www.sayeedawarsi.com/

Daily Telegraph
Tory chief Baroness Warsi attacks 'bigotry' against Muslims Prejudice against Muslims has become widespread and socially acceptable in Britain, the Conservative chairman will claim.
Baroness Warsi will warn against trying to divide Muslims into 'moderates' and 'extremists' saying that it simply fosters intolerance
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent 10:00PM GMT 19 Jan 2011

Islamophobia has “passed the dinner-table test” and is seen by many as normal and uncontroversial, Baroness Warsi will say in a speech on Thursday.

The minister without portfolio will also warn that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice.
Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, has pledged to use her position to wage an “ongoing battle against bigotry”.

Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8270294/Tory-chief-Baroness-Warsi-attacks-bigotry-against-Muslims.html

Spot-on! Scott Powers on 10 FL statewide candidates given $5.8 million in taxpayer funds "who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway"

Sometimes, all your faithful blogger needs to do to bring something important or worthwhile to your attention is to get out of the way ASAP so you can read it yourself, since there's hardly anything I can add to the original story that could make it any clearer.
As is so often true in those cases, it involves Florida or South Florida politics and government, and what a complete fiasco something was, is or is becoming.

This is such a time as Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel shows how Florida's public campaign-finance laws, intended to create a more level playing-field, doesn't, if ever, work as planned.
So why keep it?

Do you keep a compass that refuses to actually point in the right direction?
I don't.

I was always against public-financing of statewide political candidates in principle, even before I read this eye-opening piece on Tuesday night.
After reading it and thinking about the financial implications of continuing the system into the future, I'm even more convinced that it's a well-intentioned bad idea.

Especially now that we all have some idea how much taxpayer money went down the drain.

Or, should I say, provided employment for political consultants and advertising revenue for TV station owners.
I see why THEY would like it and want to keep the system intact, I'm not nearly as sure why we as taxpayers should continue something so manifestly broken and unworkable.

Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog

Campaign finance leftovers: taxpayers contributed $5.8 million
Posted by scottpowers on January, 18 2011 9:22 AM

How much did taxpayers contribute to all those nasty campaign ads heading into last fall’s election?

Try $5.8 million, and counting. The latest available reports from the Division of Elections show Florida taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million to bolster the campaigns of 10 candidates for statewide office last year, giving public dollars to individuals who arguably didn’t need the money but took it anyway.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/01/campaign-finance-leftovers-taxpayers-contributed-5-8-million.html

The parent Orlando Sentinel article was:
Candidates collected $5.8 million in public money
By Scott Powers, Orlando Sentinel
10:54 p.m. EST, January 17, 2011
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-state-public-finance-20110116,0,6550241.story

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-state-public-finance-20110116/10

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on making tough decisions -Fox News Sunday; he's NOT interested in running for President in 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ScqNYCVb1g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTiHz9D1ckA
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on making tough decisions -Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, January 16, 2011; he's NOT interested in running for President in 2012



Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuTm-ON904


New York Times
Public Workers Facing Outrage as Budget Crises Grow
By Michael Powell
Published: January 1, 2011

FLEMINGTON, N.J. — Ever since Marie Corfield’s confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie this fall over the state’s education cuts became a YouTube classic, she has received a stream of vituperative e-mails and Facebook postings.

Marie Corfield, a teacher in Flemington, N.J., challenged Gov. Chris Christie over state education cuts at a town hall meeting in September. Their tense exchange was posted on YouTube.

“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/business/02showdown.html




New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: Day of Reckoning
Governor Christie speaks on accountability at a Town Hall meeting in Perth Amboy, N.J., June 15, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evtt-R7Rmdw

The funniest discovery of the new year: "Jeff from Tallahassee" on Red Eye; reminds me of the Steve & Garry, Don & Mike comic genius I miss

Because reality is always the funniest thing.

The funniest discovery of the new year: "Jeff from Tallahassee" on Fox News Channel's Red Eye, broadcast weekdays at 3 a.m.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/red-eye/index.html
See the video at:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4497479/red-eye-answers-viewer-mail/
No matter how many different video clips of "Jeff" that I see on must-watch Red Eye, he cracks me up every time with his deadpan delivery of not-so-pithy comments.
This guy is a gold mine of comedy satisfaction.
Even when you know what he's going to say.

For me, listening to his droll comments recalls the very best times from the kind of 'Old School' radio I prefer, and of my listening everyday for hours to Steve Dahl & Garry Meier in Chicago on WLS-AM and then WLUP-AM, then FM, while living in Evanston and Wilmette in the mid-'80's, often crying from laughter at work or on the walk from the El station to my home and then once in the house.
I knew their bits and routine better than I knew my neighbors.


1983 Entertainment Tonight video of Steve & Garry, with Mary Hart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-7DE_SlmQ


Their insightful observations and repartee with guests, esp. Joe Walsh of The Eagles, plus the best collection of "bumpers" ever assembled, as comedian/actor Richard Lewis was always quick to mention whenever he was a guest of theirs, ensured hours of amusement for their loyal listeners throughout Chicagoland, NW Indiana and southern Wisconsin.

Their hysterical satirical stories about guys-on-the-make flying dates to Palwaukee Airport-in Wheeling- were classic, and always sure to ensure comic paralysis.
Listen to those broadcasts at: http://wn.com/steve_dahl,_airport

There were SO MANY times I'd end up staying at an El stop rather than get in the train car, even when it was absurdly cold, because I just had to hear the very end of the segment or bit they were doing before they went to a commercial break.
If I had a dollar for every time that happened...

I actually preferred listening to Steve & Garry out in the bleachers at Wrigley Field when I went to Cubs games during the week than I did listening to the game broadcast on WGN-AM. I could always tell that many other fans in the bleachers were doing the same thing, because when I took out my earphones, I could hear so many people laughing at the same exact time.

I once was walking down N. Michigan Avenue near their studio and heard them say something incorrect about a subject I knew quite a bit about, so I took the elevator at the Sears Tower up to their office intent on writing a short note with the correct info and passing it on to one of their producers. Or so I thought...

In all the time it had taken me to finally catch an elevator to get upstairs, the duo had gone in to a commercial break and once I walked thru the door, who do I spy but Steve in the lobby wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts. 
Naturally, he asked me what I was doing there.


I explained the whys and wheres, he listened intently to me and eventually agreed I was right, so he said he'd mention the correction on-air later, shook my hand and went back towards the studio.

I was so casual about the whole thing it wasn't until I was at the Main El stop at the Chicago-Evanston city line, where I had to change over to another train that took me up to the Linden Avenue stop in Wilmette where I lived, just a block from Lake Michigan, that it all sunk in.
If only I'd had a digital cameras back then!

Audio: 1/9 - Steve Dahl &Garry Meier -
December 1987 - WLUP AM 1000 Chicago, Illinois
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5MH29RquQ
December 5, 2008
Steve Dahl out at CBS' WJMK-FM
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2008/12/steve-dahl-out.html

Years later, while living for 14 years in the Washington, D.C. area, I'd be as devout a listener to the Don & Mike -Don Geronimo & Mike O'Meara- on WJFK-FM, even while I'd also try like crazy in the wintertime to get Steve & Garry on my AM radio after they switched stations, because of the seasonal "skip" that allowed me to start getting distant AM stations around 5 p.m.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_and_Mike_Show
In the future I hope to have a separate post or two about the Don & Mike Show, but this honest 2005 Washington Post article I think gives you some insight into what made them so ridiculously popular and the number-one show in the very competitive Washington, D.C. market, as well as some other cities around the country where they were syndicated.

Don Geronimo's Grief-Stricken Solo
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 2, 2005http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080200036.html

With both duos, I made dozens of audio-cassette recordings of them on my Sony cassette recorder, a sort of "Best of" mix tape if you will.

I'd take 3-4 of them with me to listen to while away on business trips or flights down here at the holidays, so if I got bored, I'd have something to amuse me or to fall asleep at night in hotels. Something familiar!

As a person who had the radio on in my office all day while living and working in the Chicago and Washington area, it's hardly surprising that having listened to such very talented guys for so many years, it's my opinion that nobody even half as talented as them currently works in the South Florida radio market, otherwise I'd have mentioned it here.
http://www.donandmikewebsite.com/
June 11, 2009
Steve Dahl to launch daily podcasts in partnership with CBS Radio
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/07/steve-dahl-to-launch-daily-podcasts-in-partnership-with-cbs-radio.html
Steve Dahl Show podcasts: http://www.dahl.com/podcasts/weekly
http://www.facebook.com/stevedahlshow
http://dahl.com/blog

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOriginalShockJock

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Some recent Red Eye videos worth perusing:


CNN's over-the-top coverage of the Coffee party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK3oks9xOkE(*Includes THE sexiest woman on American TV, Courtney Friel.)

Canadian Radio Bans 1985 Dire Straits Songhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voUMsybfbPo

Rock station fights back
http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxNewsChannel#p/u/83/M7OuQ0LucvE

Gutfeld: Brokaw's Bar Hopping Fears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXGkr_CtkHk

See also:
http://www.dailygut.com/

http://activitypit.ning.com/
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Phil Rosenthal's Tower Ticker blog at The Chicago Tribune, covering the "Media business in Chicago and beyond."
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/

Follow-up to shocking 20/20 Exclusive on Peace Corps - Video Exclusive: Peace Corps Women Tell Stories of Assaults Overseas -and Agency's Indifference

Peace Corps Women Tell Stories of Assaults

In roundtable with ABC News Chief Investigative correspondent Brian Ross, six women describe sexual assault while volunteering overseas. 01/14/2011

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/peace-corps-women-stories-assaults-12619514?nwltr=blotter_featureMore

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow/sexual-assault-peace-corps-12618764

This is the follow-up on The Blotter to Friday's 20/20 Exclusive which was the subject of this post of mine:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/must-see-tv-tonight-abc-news-2020-on.html

ABC News Investigative Team Blotter
http://abcnews.go.com/blotter

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See also: First Response Action

"First Response Action advocates for a stronger Peace Corps response for Volunteers who are survivors or victims of physical and sexual violence. We envision a Peace Corps with policies that reflect best practices in all areas of training, prevention and response."

For more information email firstresponseaction@gmail.com.
Visit their website at: www.firstresponseaction.org and their blog at http://firstresponseaction.blogspot.com/


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KESQ-TV, Palm Springs, California
http://www.kesq.com/news/26502628/detail.html

Peace Corps Murder Raises Questions On Safety Of Volunteers

By Philippe Djegal, News Channel 3 Reporter

POSTED: 9:35 pm PST January 14, 2011
UPDATED: 11:34 pm PST January 14, 2011
Story and video at:
http://www.kesq.com/news/26502628/detail.html

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Newsweek
Goodbye, Hollywood. Hello, Peace Corps!
Newsweek's 43-year old Hollywood correspondent Sean Smith quits his job to join The Peace Corps.
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/19/give-peace-a-chance.html

Look who's back to rock some more? Marie & Per! Roxette - She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio); The Look (LIVE) -Stockholm, 2010

Roxette - She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)
Directed by Mats Udd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1N-Gf0Fbcg
High Definition version of this video is at: http://bcove.me/s8zormvd

Roxette will be touring starting in February in Russia, playing nearly everywhere BUT the U.S.A.: http://www.roxette.se/tour.php
When last we saw Marie and Per, it was about seven months ago in Stockholm at the great LIVE nationally-televised concert thrown for Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling the night before their wedding.

That was something I'd meant to post here the next day, since there were several other interesting-to-great performances, plus the finale with a Who's Who singing my favorite Elvis song.
Well, better late than never!And dig all the rocking royalty!
Official Swedish Royal Court photo of Daniel Westling & Crown Princess Victoria by Paul Hansen, 2010.



Pre-Wedding Concert for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden & fiancé Daniel Westling. Roxette sings "The Look" backed by the Swedish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. June 18, 2010 Stockholms Konserthuset, Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmvonM23JUk
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Finale of the pre-Wedding Concert for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden & fiancé Daniel Westling
a.) Various artists singing "Can't Help Falling in Love" backed by the Swedish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

b.) Children's choir of Adolf Fredriks musikklasser (Adolf Fredrik School of Music) singing ‘I morr’n är det bröllopskalas’ (‘The wedding party is tomorrow’) backed by the Swedish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. June 18, 2010 Stockholms Konserthuset, Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfBq3bmEQsY
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For more on Roxette, see:
http://www.roxette.se/
http://www.dailyroxette.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RoxetteVEVO