A Night with the Circus

We received a call from the Starlight Children's Foundation saying that we could go to the opening night of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey Circus at the fabulous Baltimore First Mariner Arena. I was excited because I hadn't been to the RB&BB Circus since I was a wee lad. Some may say that I'm still a wee lad, but that's a different discussion.


We arrived at the arena around 6:15 and were looking for a lady named Farrah. We finally found a girl with a Starlight shirt on. She was a pretty girl who couldn't have been more than 24. She hooked us up with clown noses, clown hair wigs, vouchers for hot dogs, chips, and soda, and most importantly - 5 tickets to the circus.

The bag check and ticket line was it's own circus. People were pushing and shoving their way to the front. Then I heard an old man pushing his way through, but he pushed off to the left and down the hall. It was WBAL's Rob Roblin.

Rob Roblin:


We finally made it into the bowl of the fabulous Baltimore Arena. Our seats were in the corner, a bit out of the way, but that was okay. Since it was the opening night, they allowed all obnoxious and rude parents to bring their whiny bratty children onto the floor to meet some of the performers and observer some demonstrations. Since we fit into neither of those categories, we decided to watch it from a far.


The circus finally started and my daughter was super excited. She hollered out, "What, is this a party or something?" She climbed up on my lap for a better view and had a smile that wouldn't quit.


She finally got tired of having her hat on her head and pulled it off. I think her bald head caught many people by surprise. But she doesn't care. When she lost her hair she asked, "I don't have to wash my hair anymore, do I?" She was very excited about that.

During the intermission Farrah returned to give out the remaining vouchers, ask if we were having fun, and take pictures of the families.

Though we don't agree with keeping elephants in cages the size of Subarus, we were excited to see them. We also got to see tigers, acrobats, clowns, and motorcyclists in a cage, which was actually really fascinating.



All in all we had an excellent time. Starlight Children's Foundation - thank you so much for the opportunity to see the circus!

Baltimore City Violent Crime Down 4$ in 2010

Do you ever wonder if the news reporters at WBAL ever read their articles before they post them online? They are ALWAYS full of errors. Repeated words. Misspelled words. Grammatical errors. Sure, my blog has errors - but I don't get paid to do it.

According to an article on WBAL this morning....

Overall crime was down 3% in Baltimore City in 2010. Violent crime declined by 4$ from 2009 until 2010.

Good, grief, WBAL.com.

WBAL and the Ron Smith Show

Have you listened to the Ron Smith show lately? Yeah, neither have I.

Within the past month or so the Ron Smith Show moved to 9am and the Shari Elliker show became the Afternoon News Journal at 3pm.

I can't get an AM signal at work so I can't listen on the radio. I could listen online, but the bandwidth police at work will shut you down after a while. And besides, I have to work. Can't just listen to Ron's show.

And Shari? Sorry. She's just not that interesting. She's not very opinionated. She just wants to hear what you have to say. Her show basically goes like this: "I don't know. What do you think? I guess there are several ways to look at this." She should change her show's name to "Sitting on the Fence". Come on. At least fake a position on the issues.

So, I don't get to listen to Ron Smith anymore, which is a shame because I love that show.

Why did the change happen anyway? I have no idea. I can't think of any reason for the change other than Ron requested it. Think about it - who are they gaining in their audience? People that don't work during the day? They're certainly losing the commuting home crowd, which I would imagine would be larger than the old people and stay-at-home mom's and the unemployed.

What do you think? What are you listening to now that Ron Smith is gone?

I'm So Dumb I Should Work on the Radio

I heard something like this on the radio this morning. "General Growth Properties was one of the largest owners of malls in the country. No longer. They have filed for bankruptcy."

I understand that news reporters have to report on an infinitesimal amount of information. They cannot be expected to know everything about all subjects. However, this is an easy one.

When a company files for bankruptcy, they are seeking protection from their creditors in an effort to restructure loans, close portions of their operations, and such. This is not the same thing as 'going out of business'. This drives me nuts and I hear it ALL the time. When they say things like this I can't help but think that reporters are really stupid.

A Whale of a Technician

Per WBAL's website...I find it ironic that someone as obese as a whale is forced to work on whales. (Hey Scott...read your stories before you post them!!!)

Whale Washes Ashore
Thursday, April 02, 2009WBAL Radio as reported by Scott Wykoff
For the first time in 2 decades, the carcass of a humpback whale has washed ashore on Assateague Island.
It was a female humpback whale.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that another large humpback whale is stranded in another portion of the park.
A team of scientists from the Virginia Aquarium took samples and performed a necropsy on the dead whale that washed ashore on Assateague Island.
A technician with the aquarium in Virginia Beach likely weighed around 40 tons and was larger than a school bus.
For the last several weeks, there had been reports of a dead whale floating in the Atlantic off of Maryland.

The Great Bright Blue Scrotum Incident

That title sure gets your attention, doesn't it? If you haven't heard already, John Sanders, the technology guy from WBAL Channel 11 here in Baltimore, just got the ax. And he got the ax for being a dumbass.

Here's the story: Fox News recently ran a story about a monkey that had gotten loose at a zoo. The female newscaster described the monkey and said that he could be distinguished by his bright blue scrotum. There were a few laughs in the newsroom. The anchor even asked the reporter if she'd repeat the distinguishing character of the monkey and she politely refused to restate it.

The newscast then transitioned to John Gibson's radio show where he was telling viewers that he was going to talk about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the first black Attorney General. John Sanders thought it would be pretty funny to edit the video and have Josh Gibson say, "We'll be talking about Eric Holder...and his bright blue scrotum." He then posted it on his personal Youtube page.

Check out the 4-5 minute mark:

Unfortunately for Mr. Sanders, the video was picked up by the left-wing liberal extremist website Huffington Post and presented it as actual footage. That website has since retracted the posting when it learned that it was a fake and has apologized to Josh Gibson. Rumors indicate that Huffington likes to sensationalize issues without checking facts first. John Sanders, however, was promptly fired from the Conservative-leaning Channel 11. I suspect he'll be applying for a job over at The Onion.

This comes in the wake of a New York Post cartoon depicting the shooting of a chimpanzee and a reference to the author of the stimulus bill. The Post was attacked for being racist despite the fact that Obama was not the author of the stimulus bill and Congress is routinely called a bunch of metaphoric monkeys.

What's West is North

One of my 3 million pet peeves is people that are directionally dysfunctional. It's one thing if you are a child and don't know North from South. Heck, I'll even give you a break if you're a Baltimore City School graduate or even a Democrat. But weathermen?

Channel 11 in Baltimore has Sandra Shaw. I'm sure you know her. She dresses very inappropriately for her job - leather skirts, loud shiny tight silk blouses. She either thinks she's 18 years old or a prostitute.

Anyway, this morning she mentioned that the area saw some snow. Not in Baltimore, but further up north in Carroll County and Frederick County. Since when is Carroll and Frederick counties north of Baltimore? Since they started using this new map. Idiots.