Accumulated Quick Hits

[Comments to this site are moderated.  Before posting, please read Rules of the Confessional.  Thank you.]

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(1)  Why is the phrase "Keep doin' whajja doin', playboy, and chase that money" a Ticket drop?  I read on a Reddit thread that it came from an interview with Quentin Ross on K104 conducted by DJ Bay Bay, but how did it end up on The Ticket?  Was it featured in a Norm bit or something?

(2)  Is Mike Rhyner aware that his "good friend" Rodney Anderson of Supreme Lending is now a competitor of The Norm Hitzges Program with his show from 11 AM - Noon on KRLD 1080 AM?

CORRECTION:  Thanks to readers for pointing out that Anderson is not on KRLD weekdays.  His 11-noon show weekdays is on 1190 News Talk Radio.  His KRLD show is on 9-10am Saturdays.

(3)  Favorite Super Bowl Ads:

       --  Chevy Colorado Pickup, the one with the fake TV malfunction.  I'd never heard of the Chevy Colorado, now I'll never forget it.

       --  The Coke-in-the-computer ad.  A great concept, and visually arresting.

       --  BMW i3 with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, neither of whom I like.  But a great plot and punch line.

(4)  Roger Goodell looked awful after the Super Bowl.  Still think the guy is a juicer.

(5)  It wouldn't surprise me if Brady didn't have anything to do with deflating the balls in that single game against the Colts.  Reason:  I think he's been dirty for a long time, that there was a plan in place stretching back for quite some time to treat the balls when the conditions were adverse and maybe all the time.  Then I saw this article:

Patriots' Unbelievable Fumble/Bad-Weather Stats

And this one:

Bet on Pats in Bad Weather, sez NY Times

The evidence is circumstantial, but murderers can be convicted on circumstantial evidence.  The Pats have been doing something to change the odds for a long, long time.   Deflating the ball is consistent with both anomalous trends, although not proven thereby. 

(6)   An email correspondent notes that before The Hardline hit drydock before Christmas, Mino replayed Mike's musings from the campout a couple years back on the uncertainty of his future at The Ticket.  Those musings were possibly, just possibly, alcohol-fueled. But interesting that Mino would play it and that Mike would allow it.

Having said that, I think Mike is in for at least the medium haul.  He's not going to depart with The Ticket on a downswing -- he'll do whatever he can to right the ship (if the next book or two indicates the need for righting) and get the ratings back where they were.  (I'm still not convinced we won't see a bounceback now that football season is over.)

Are we in agreement that Mike has been more energized, active, participatory in the show over the past several months?   But even that is a two-edged sword.  While it makes the show noticeably better (my view), by contrast it more or less proves what many listeners have been saying for a long time, that Checkout Mike put on those headphones too often for too long.

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[Comments to this site are moderated.  Before posting, please read Rules of the Confessional.  Thank you.]

OPEN THREAD: Various

Let's face it, every thread here is an open thread.  I'll be away for a few days.  In the manner of Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, here are some topics on the table to get you started:

(1) Sunday AM.  Following up on the last comment thread, what would you like to see on Sunday morning, or elsewhere on the weekends?

(2) Bass to MaSS?  I have been startled by a couple of anti-Sean Bass confessions in the comments to the previous post, complaining of know-it-all-ism and breathing patterns.  I have to disagree.  When I tune in and hear a Sean-based program, whether with Ty or Newbury, I'm in.  Always like those shows.  Would have no problem with a Sunday morning show featuring him, Ty, or David.  (Or other guys, either, but they seem to team up with more regularity.)

(3) Matt M.  Also started by the vitriol directed at the departing Matt McClearin.  Yes, Matt has "boundary" issues, although I would classify them more as "governor" or "editor" issues, and I understand the sentiment that one makes one own bed in radio, as one does in whatever freely-chosen profession in which one is engaged (not to mention the personal choices that require, um, cash money).  But they by no means dominate his performance, and on balance I think it's undeniable that Scot and Matt have earned the shot they're getting and that Matt is an equal partner in their success.  I didn't take down random P1's post, because, bitter though it seemed (and the "whore"comment did almost get it booted), it at least had some thinking behind it.

(4) Ax.  And I am hoping, really really hoping, that übercritical posts like those relating to Sean and Matt, are not folks with, shall we say, an ax to grind about these guys.  If you know what I mean.  I am extremely reluctant to question the motives of people who take the time to write comments, but when those comments tend toward the angry and personal (and oddly detailed), I am moved at least to wonder.  If I thought this site were being used to advance anyone's personal agenda to the detriment of both this site and The Ticket, it would be vamanos in zero time.  Maybe I need to get the machete out more often. 

There's a topic:  I don't moderate comments (do not have the time and want comments to reflect breaking items), but should I be more aggressive about weeding out posts that have a legitimate take but are gratuitously mean or nasty?

(5) IJB.  I really regret I do not have time to listen to podcasts.  I barely have time to knock this thing out.  But a lot of P1's really like what Jake and T.C. are slinging, and I wouldn't be offended if the CTO gave them at least a tryout on Sunday mornings.

(6) New Orleans.  What did we all think about Super Bowl Week in New Orleans? Here:  mixed.

Outta time.  Keep it cool, Confessors, with my thanks.

 

Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com





DUAL OPEN THREAD: (1) Transition Fail, and (2) Super Bowl Quick HIts

Really gotta thank the faithful Confessors who have kept us up to date on the latest tension over the continued technical problems related to the transition to Victory Park, or perhaps Victory Plaza.  I've been so busy out on the plains that I haven't had time to listen much, much less to write.

Please post any further information re Transition Fail (or Transition Improvement -- the watchword here is fairness) and any thoughts you have on the week in Indianapolis. 

No Top Ten tonight (Rotten Radio instead); listening between the lines I gathered from Jake's narration that this was also the result of a technical fubar.

Again, my hearty thanks and welcome to all new Confessors and commenters.

Am I Missing a Pun Here?

Gigantic headline on The Ticket's Super Bowl page:

Super Bowl XLV is in Our Town

and Our Guys are Hitten it  .  .  . 

Come on, guys.  I know it's a guy station and guys don't always spel gud, but really.

Cue the Masterpiece Theater music.

Is Dallas a Drag?

Ooo, I may get in trouble with the Nation for this one.

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I was very struck by segments on three different showgrams -- The Musers, The Hardline, and The Orphanage -- that the nation is not going to have a positive reaction to the City of Dallas when it visits for the Super Bowl.

There were various reasons given.  One common theme was that downtown Dallas is nothing.  It was pointed out that pockets of enjoyable nightlife and retail are few and isolated.  In general, I got the impression from almost every host that they didn't think Dallas was much of a city, for all of its apparent belief that it's world class. 

I agree.

Even ESPN is making its home in Fort Worth.

I arrived in Dallas in 2004.  I moved here because I love Mrs. Plainsman and Mrs. Plainsman's family is here and it's a great family and it was inevitable.  So at an appropriate juncture, we found jobs in the area and made the move.  We were living in a certifiably great city at the time, but I wasn't feeling too bad to leave it.  I'd lived there a long time and had experienced what it had to offer and could always go back to visit.  I had a vision of Dallas as vibrant, young, on the move, putting its money -- it has lots of money, doesn't it?  I mean Dallas and oil and money, right? -- to good use with exciting urban projects.

When I got here, I was stunned.  Compared to the other American cities I'd lived in  (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest), Dallas wasn't even close to being in their league.  And yes, a lot of it had to do with the wretched downtown, the decaying West End and Deep Ellum, the stark southern border and western borders that fall off instantly into poverty and junk, the incomparably ugly public buildings.  As noted, more strip clubs per capita than most anyplace else.  The view along many of our expressways is simply appalling.  I came to understand that local government dominated by the city council was a joke --  no city so constituted ever gets much done, and it does, it's so corrupted and compromised that it's a disaster in the making.  Dallas was a poster child for weak-mayor civic government.

And you know, even in its best parts -- it is really not an extremely attractive city.

Now, if I were a single guy with tons of free time on my hands to zoom from one island of reasonably cool stuff to another, I might feel differently.  It's not that there isn't good stuff in Dallas, it's that its almost randomly scattered about the place.  A couple of good museums.    Dallas is a restaurant capital as well, among the most if not the most restaurants per capita of any city in the US.  (In my judgment, many of the finest by reputation are overrated.)  But what's good about the city is almost random -- you can find good museums, restaurants, night life, architecture anywhere you go, but Dallas doesn't convey an identifiable singular urban experience.  It's entirely generic.  What cities do convey that experience?  Well, Fort Worth; San Antonio; Austin; and, I would argue, even Houston has a better brand than Dallas.

The city has many, many good people, and some gorgeous women.

But, and you must trust me on this, absolutely no more than elsewhere, and, like everything else about the place, and despite the evidence of that photograph, they're so scattered that even the pulchritude in this city is seriously diluted.

Ah  .  .  .  but Dallas has The Ticket.  It is no surprise that in resident surveys on what is best about DFW, a little light-bulb of a guy-based radio station consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts.  This is testimony to The Ticket's greatness, but it must also be counted as a serious rebuke to the city, that so many of its residents can't think of ten things better than a sports-talk station.   I am not entirely sure what I would do without The Little One to elevate my Dallas experience.

In discussing Dallas with others, I am always fearful that I would come off like a snob, so I don't talk much about my disappointment with the joint.  Which is why I was so startled to hear so many Ticket hosts believing that visitors were going to come away with a bad impression.  Yeah, they will, but it amazed me that these long-time Dallas guys believed that.

What do you think, Confessors?  Does Dallas have an inferiority complex?  Does it deserve to be mentioned alongside the great cities of our country?  Tell me what I need to do -- other than listen to The Ticket even more than I do now -- to get into the good things that Dallas has to offer, to learn to appreciate the place. 

I can be educated.

A Rare Sportsy Post

I was interested in the Musers' discussion this morning on whether, if the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year, Bill Parcells or Jerry Jones will get the lion's share of "general manager" credit.

Craig and George reviewed the roster, noting who was a Parcells guy, and who was a Jerry guy, and coming around to the conclusion that the fact that there were more Parcells guys (including Tony Romo), meant that even if the Cowboys are successful this year, Parcells might well get more credit than Jerry.

Anyone find it odd that a huge Parcells/Jerry difference was completely ignored?

That being:   The Jerry/Stephen-engineered Parcells's departure and the subsequent Jerry selection of and loyalty to Wade Phillips.  You will recall that Parcells was angling to stick around in administration even when most, including Jerry/Stephen, wanted him to go as head coach. 

This suggests that the Musers don't think much of Wade -- or at least don't think he has much influence on whether the team wins or loses.  Junior tiptoed toward this point when he suggested that the team may have been said to have underachieved following Parcells' departure. 

Anyway, thought the switch from Parcells to Wade switch -- and sticking with Wade -- was a major Jerry GM initiative that got overlooked.  Like I know anything about sports.

PS:  Props to Junior for the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" reference:  "Some men call me Tim."

PPS:  Interesting that we refer to Bill Parcells as "Parcells" and Jerry Jones as "Jerry."