Bruce's Journal

Thursday, June 30, 2011

She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby

I associate this hit with my joining the New York Public Library Science and Technology Division in February 1983

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Grand Slam Heaven

When we were on vacation in California we ate breakfast several times at Dennys where we ate their grand slam special. Today Met fans are in grand slam heaven. No Met player hit a grand slam home run since August 1, 2009, but last night Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran both him grand slams as the Mets beat the Detroit Tigers 14-3. Keep it going!

Game summary

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Big Speculation on Radio Message Boards about 101.9 FM

Whenever a radio station is sold there is always speculation as to what new format will come. For many years. WPIX-FM owned by Tribune broadcasting owned the license at 101.9 for many years. If you read the Wikipedia entry for this station you will see that it had many shortlived formats. In August 1988 the station adopted a smooth jazz format and changed its call letter to WQCD. In February 2008 Emmis Communications which acquired the station in 1997 announced a change to a rock format under the WRXP call letters and the tagline 101.9 RXP: The New York Rock Experience.

Majority ownership of the station was acuired by Merlin Media LLC, a new entity headed by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels. Now there is speculation that the station will change format to News/Talk when the deal is consummated. I don't care for that format. There has been much discussion on radio message boards about this, but it is essentially talk. Only Randy Michaels will make the decision. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bob Dylan song for Lee for this weekend

Lee - this one's for you!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Why Couldn't All Met Games be like this?

It was the Mets 14 Texas 5 in a nationally televised game from Arlington, Texas. The Met's bats really came alive for once. The 17 hits for the Mets matched their season high. The first 8 batters in the 6th inning got hits. Lucas Duda was 4 for 5 and hit a long double with the bases loaded just missing a grand slam. No Met has hit a grand slam home run in almost 2 years.

Game Summary

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Thank Goodness for Redundancy in Mass Transit

For the third time this week there were power problems on New Jersey Transit. If you are really interested read about it in The Asbury Park Press. To quote the article "Some of the infrastructure on the corridor, especially the overhead wires and equipment that distributes electricity to the wire to power trains dates to the 1930s-era electrification done by the Pennsylvania Railroad." IMHO an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Amtrak owns the tracks and the right of way, and thus New Jersey Transit customers are second class riders. I really think more effort must be placed into maintenance to prevent these failures before they happen.

Today, I encountered delays both going and coming to work. I arrived at Penn Station about 7:30 and saw that no trains were running to New Jersey. I immediately walked over to 6th Avenue and 33rd Street and took the PATH. Thank goodness for redundancy in mass transit. If I had to go further, I would have no other choice but to wait. Going home as I boarded an NJ Transit train in Newark, an announcement was made that there were problems with the catenary wire problems. I immediately left the train and for the second time in a day took the PATH. If the train had been caught between stations I would really have been out of luck.

It seems that whether you drive or use public transportation, there will always be problems.