I have a prediction — Houston radio edition

I read this at the Chronicle:

Denver talk show host Lois Melkonian tells the Denver Post she has left KOA-AM in that city to take a position in Houston, reportedly with Clear Channel Communications, but specifics remained unconfirmed Thursday.

Melkonian did not return a phone call placed through her agent, Clear Channel Houston GM Eddie Martiny is on vacation and unavailable for comment and AM operations director Bryan Erickson failed to return a telephone call and an e-mail seeking details on the report.

Melkonian hosted The Ride Home on the Clear Channel-owned station with Broncos play-by-play announcer Dave Logan, and a Denver radio chat board reported that Melkonian would land at KTRH (740 AM), one of Clear Channel’s three AM stations in Houston along with KPRC (950 AM) and KBME (790 AM).

KTRH’s only local slots at the moment are its morning news block from 5 to 9 a.m. and Michael Berry’s show from 5 to 7 p.m. (pending Astros pre-emptions). KPRC (950 AM) airs San Antonio host Joe Pagliarulo from 6 to 9 a.m. and Michael Garfield, Outlaw Dave and Berry from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Melkonian came to Denver in 2005 after working at several stations in California, including KGO-TV and KCBS-AM in San Francisco, where she was a member of the station’s news team that won a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

I’m thinking she will replace one or the other of the morning news readers, Lana or J.P.  Both have been around for a very long time, and instead of continuing to pretend like they are still actually reporting news (as opposed to mouthing wingnut talking points), I could see how one or the other or both of them would want to retire.

One thing I can’t see is KTRH or KPRC breaking up their week day monopoly of white male talkers.   That’s not gonna happen.

I mean seriously, Michael Berry has expanded to San Antonio, Baton Rouge, and Portland!  What’s next?  Little Rock?

This past week I listened to the news waiting to hear of a massive ICE raid at Reliant Stadium or of crime spiking in the area as Michael Berry  had related on his show.  (Remember, he didn’t really say anything like that.   Some “Hispanic” law enforcement officer said it to him and he was just repeating it.)  Nothing of the kind happened.  Should Michael Berry lose some credibility over this?  Certainly.  Will he?  Nope.  This sort of thing just increases his creds.  Just like whining about having too many listeners does.  His fans are like opened mouth fish on a feeding frenzy.  They want more!

This new lady from Denver is not going to get a “talk show.”  She’ll either be a “news” anchor or a reporter.  That’s my prediction.

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Chain of Events

For the past couple of weeks, I have been unable to find the pup comb.  It’s not such a big deal for Dora or Murphy.  They are short-hairs and both have gotten a “bath” in that time period — Murphy because I hosed him down while watering the front yard — he loves to try to “eat”  the water from the hose — it turns into something of a frenzy — and Dora got caught out in a downpour one morning this past week.

For Tammy, it is critical.  I almost bought a new one.

I knew I would find it and tonight I did.

I decided to look at my finances again.  I have a rather large expense coming up in August and I’m trying a) not to think about it because it is counter productive b) plan for it financially as best I can.  While looking for a particular bill in a pile of papers some kitten had knocked off the filing cabinet — what did I find?  The very special pup comb!

YAY!

My joy even woke up a very sleepy Dora who is now (fianlly) having her kibbles.  She’s finished now and ready to go potty, so I will wrap this up.

A pretty bad week has turned out ok, nay even good.  We got six more cucumbers into a fancy new bed and Roberto made great progress with the lettuce bed.

I found the pup comb!!!!!!111111!!11!!!1!111!!

Crazy — in a good way — Week

The transition from one term to the next can be infuriating, but this time it has been more comical than anything.  I’ve got one unusual “class”, one normal class and one potentially great class.

My first class is a lab with one student.  I think the norm has been to set the student in a particular direction and then leave him alone.  I’m not going to do that.  As I get to know him better, I will help him in his classes and make great progress.

My reading class has already gotten into my style of digging down into the meaning of what they read and vocabulary acquisition.  I’m going to incorporate lots of different reading situations for them as well.

It’s rained.  We even got a little rain this evening.  The lack of rain had almost made me crazy.  It looks like things are turning back to normal, though that could change.

My advanced level writing class looks promising.  It seems that they are willing to follow me into the madness that is research papers.

It’s been a difficult but rewarding week.

Rain, finally rain

The garden and yard look good after the rain. My new favorites — the eggplants — did something funny in a funneling type way and the  grasshopper who had stationed itself on one of the sunflowers was gone.

We need more rain.

Harry is still gone.

I’m still too busy to post about politics.   Michael Berry hasn’t done anything more than claim he never said the n word on air, though it is well documented.  Michael Berry lies, is a liar is nothing new.

Is This Day Almost Done?

My father made it clear that I was the third on his list of three.  Even  on the day he died, I was the only one to grieve the least.

Enough to say no to his organ donning.  Since I was the only one there.

My father’s death.

I remember telling him that he had had 10 good years.

I remember people he worked with that my brother’s wedding was too much.

I remember that my mom made him mow the yard around her shop on the day he died.

My mom killed my dad.

That’s about the sum of it.

For those of us without a dad because of our mom. . . this is not a good day.

Things Fall Apart

My DVR can’t read any disks that I put in it.  My tv now doesn’t have audio.  I have a little back up tv, but its reception is spotty at best.  My internet connection is lousy.  I seem to live in the worst place for any forward looking technology, despite living within sight of the downtown of the 4th maybe 3rd largest city in the country.

Harry is gone.  I hesitate to make better friends with Dot.  He might be next.  I can’t get so attached to the outside kittens.  Their lives are different and so much shorter than the inside ones.

The sun has scorched almost everything.  The garden suffers not so much from lack of water but from the heat.  The leaves of the bean plants are burning up and the squash that survived the vine borers wilt in the sun, I fear never to return, no matter how much they are watered.

I expect my laptop to die any day now.

I can’t afford to buy anything new.

Looks like life is gonna change.

There is a game on my relatively new cell phone that takes a long time to load and only lets me play for less than a minute before asking me to pay for it.  My first thought was that I could play that game at home without my phone, but what would occupy my time when I want to use my phone?

The same thing  that I did before I had a phone.

I have a choice.

I’m Surprised There is Anything at All

There’s no hope for rain.  I am dreading the time when either there will be some sort of curtail on watering lawns or a tropical storm that will drown us.

My beans and squash are burning up.  I feel like I should protect them with umbrellas.  Unfortunately I don’t have any.

The volunteer roma tomatoes are producing.  It looks like the other tomatoes I planted in front of the garage are cherry.  They have lots of flowers.

The eggplants are beautiful.  They have delicate flowers.  I love them even if they don’t produce fruit.

I wonder where the warming deniers are when we are experiencing these conditions.  They are always around when it gets really cold.  They hide when it gets really hot and all of the cold precipitation melts and floods places.  Like the old sand crabs we used to play with on the beach.  They don’t know anything.  They don’t care about anything.  They want everything to stay the same for as long as possible.

I think it’s already too late.

Feeling a little under appreciated

that’s me.  I won’t go into it, but all I can say is that I tried.  I tried to connect with a group that has many other dynamics going on that I don’t know about.

It’s been a disappointing term overall, but for one class — my Reading class.  We have celebrated everyone passing the last two tests, and they have learned reading skills that I’m sure their counterparts in the other equal class have not.

Despite the added time of having both morning and afternoon classes, I think I will continue with it.  I refuse to teach one particular level, but I will do a split schedule from now on.    I think it is important for a master teacher to teach at the lower levels.   If we only have weaker teachers at the lower levels, then we reap what we sow.

I want to work with the lower level students to give them the foundation they need to succeed at the upper levels.  I feel that I have done that this term.  Nobody but me and a handful of students know that, but it’s ok.

I’ve done it now!

In my beginners class, we have finally come to food.  The last two days it has led to lots of first language usage in class, which drives me crazy.

After yesterday’s craziness, I decided to show them pictures of the food we were learning from my garden.  They asked me what I had now, and none of them know what beets are, so I told them tomatoes and parsley.  And that lead to tabouli.  I think we are going to make it.

I picked tomatoes this evening, as well as parsley.  I  tried to get volunteers for the other ingredients, but I think I will just buy them tomorrow after work, prepare it during my break and we will enjoy it Friday during class.

I don’t want to buy a cucumber, but I will since my plants are way behind from last year.  I’ll buy some mint and I will see if anyone brings an onion tomorrow.  I can make it easily and I think it will be a good bonding experience.

I also don’t want to play favorites.  I think I will buy ice cream and serve it with the blackberries and pom that I canned tonight for my other afternoon class.  It should be a surprise.  I will have to taste it first, but also be ready.

In other words, the best thing about having a garden is sharing with my students.  It seems to make them think I am human and not just a language nazi.

I’m almost back to the point of letting students come to my house.  With Gretchen and Buddy, it was easy.  With Dora, Tammy and Murphy, I have to be more careful.

Still, I like it that my students will get to eat food I have grown in my garden.

And if someone stops by tomorrow, there will be pan-seared cod, beets, and zuccini.

 

A Few Thoughts

This thoughtful post over at BJ made me think.  Well, it’s not just that post, it’s something that Keigo said, too.

In industrialized and moving toward post-industrialized countries, we can move forward.  Keigo feels confident that Japan can recover.  Of that I have no doubt.  Germany came through the world recession, with its unions intact.

I think that our unions will recover, despite all odds.  I think our economy will continue to turn around.

Obama is no Reagan.  It startles me that the UK is going to put up a statue of Reagan on the Fourth of July this year.  The man who negotiated with terrorists twice.  The biggest drug dealer our country has even know.  The guy who resisted the fight against apartheid.

Why, oh why is he a person to adore or revive again and again?