Good Night, Good Luck, and Good Grief

It bugs me when incompetence wins over competence.

Katie Couric is a talking head and not a very good talking head. At best, she is average, but she does have a big following. I don't understand why. I guess some people like her because she is so perky. (Personally, perky people bring out the worst in me; I just want to punch them in the face and bring them back to reality.)

Also, she supposedly has a big following because she has great legs. She does not have great legs; few munchkins have great legs and she is not one of them. However, she does flaunt her legs at every opportunity and so it goes.

For decades, CBS News has been the home of very competent journalists, for example, Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Eric Severeid, Roger Mudd, Harry Reasoner, etc. Currently, the excellent Bob Schieffer occupies the CBS Evening News chair (following in the footsteps of Edwards, Cronkite, and Rather.) When I watch the news on television, I turn to CBS first… always have, always will until now.

Evidently, the word is that CBS has hired Couric to replace Bob Schieffer on the CBS Evening News. Obviously, they did not hire her for her journalistic skills because she has none. They hired her because she has a big following. Whether her following will follow her from the AM to the PM remains to be seen, but I can tell you that the CBS Evening News has just lost one long-time viewer (me).

Rockville Rocket

My favorite rock 'n' roll cooner, Gene Pitney, died. He was only 65 and died in his sleep while on tour in the UK.

Gene was from Connecticut, born and raised just up I-84 in Rockville, although there was no I-84 back then. During the 1960s, the "Rockville Rocket," as the local deejays called him, had one hit after another and seemed to be a guest on the Brad Davis television show* every week.

It is hard to pick out a favorite Pitney song, but if push came to shove, I would pick "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." A great song and one of my favorite movies.

Yesterday, I set my iPod to play Gene Pitney songs all day long.

* The Brad Davis Show was a Connecticut version of American Bandstand. It aired on channel 3, WTIC, Saturday afternoons for years. Connecticut Bandstand was another local version of American Bandstand that aired weekday afternoons on channel 8, WTNH just before or after (I can't remember) American Bandstand. I remember that one of their sponsors was an early frozen pizza (I can't remember the brand). My sister and I convinced our Mother to try it out. She did and it did not compare favorably with Jimmie's Pizza at the bottom of Stiles Street. I also remember that the Holden Sisters, who lived across the street, had their 15-minutes, or more like 15-seconds of fame, when they appeared on Connecticut Bandstand. I wonder whatever became of them?

snow

Took the Pies out for last call around 11 PM and the sky was clear. Woke up this morning and it was snowing. The ground had a thin layer of snow, but the pavement was just wet. By the time I arrived at work, the snow was starting to stick to the pavement.

It's too late for snow, but I've said that before!

Surfin' Update: Customizing Firefox for Ham Radio

Here are instructions on how to install the items mentioned in this week’s installment of Surfin’: Customizing Firefox for Ham Radio:

Propfire

1. From http://www.n0hr.com/Propfire.htm, click on the propfire.xpi link to download it to your computer.


2. From Foxfire, select File > Open File to open the propfire.xpi file that you downloaded to your computer.


3. Foxfire opens a Software Installation window to install propfire.xpi. Click the Install Now button.


4. Quit Foxfire and restart it to complete the installation.

Call Sign and APRS Search Engine Plug-ins

1. Go to the referenced web site.


2. Click on the appropriate link to install the search engine plug-in.


3. Foxfire opens an Add Search Engine window; click on the Yes button to add the search engine. The new search engine will appear as a selection in the pull-down Search menu in the upper right corner of the Foxfire window.

TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference call for papers

TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference issues call for papers: The 2006 TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference (DCC) has issued a call for papers. The event is slated for September 15-17 at the Clarion Airport Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. This year's conference celebrates the 25th anniversary of the founding of Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR).

The deadline to submit conference papers is July 31. Authors do not need to attend the conference to have their papers included in the conference Proceedings. Submit papers and presentations via USPS or e-mail to Maty Weinberg, KB1EIB, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 .