Looking Forward to the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions

Alex Trebek announced the the Tournament of Champions featuring the big winners of the last two years will begin tomorrow.  The questions are always more difficult during this tournament as the cream of the crop of the players are competing.  I hope there will be a face off between Julia Colllins and Arthur Chu who bring different styles to picking the answers on the board.  Good luck to all of the players.

I Fixed A Computer Problem - Mazel Tov to Me

As I reported last week  I had a problem with my printer.  I tried just about everything, and it still didn't work.  Today I restored my windows settings to what they were a month ago and the printer worked.  Apparently something in the Windows Files were corrupted.  It took about a week, but I fixed the problem.

Garth Hudson of the Band Visits Big Pink for the First Time in 47 Years

So far I have listened to the first two CDs of the 6 CD set. I found this video on the Rolling Stone Magazine Web site.

Random Thoughts of the Day

Happy Birthday to Art Garfunkel and Peter Noone.  We would have played their music tonight, but the CD player was busy with Bob Dylan's complete Basement Tapes which took about an hour.  He actually covered two Johnny Cash songs - Big River and Folsom Prison Blues.

It was a busy night as I had to juggle Cousin Brucie, Bob Dylan, Jeopardy, and the Knicks.  So far they are 2-2.

Alex Trebek announced that the Tournament of Champions will begin next Monday.  I hope there will be a match of Arthur Chu against Julia Collins.

Mr G Leaves WCBS-FM after 37 years

Irv Gikofsky better known as Mr. G announced this morning on Scott Shannon's Big Show that he was retiring after 37 years at the station.  I have listened to Mr. G give weather reports for at least 30 of those years with:

• Harry Harrison
• Dan Taylor
• Mike Fitzgerald
• Micky Dolenz

When Scott Shannon came to WCBS-FM this March I stopped listening to the station since I just did not like all the talk associated with the "Big Show".

Mr. G will continue to do the weather for PIX-11 TV.

Here is where the speculation sets in:

Did Mr. G leave WCBS-FM voluntarily or did Scott Shannon want his own morning team without anyone from the good old days at 101.1 FM?  I will give the management of WCBS-FM credit for giving Irv a chance to say goodbye to his audience.  The Jackasses in charge of CBS radio n June 2005 didn't offer that courtesy to their listeners.

Above is a photo of my son Lee taken with Mr. G on CBS Radio day at Yankee Stadium in June 2010.

Remembering Valerie and July 1970

I was listening to Hy Lit radio when I heard Ronnie Dyson's 1970 hit Why Can't I Touch You Came On. For many years I have associated that song with Valerie whom I dated in July 1970 when that song was a hit. Back then my father managed a ladies clothing store in Mount Vernon in Westchester. He met a young lady named Valerie and suggested that she meet me. I phoned her and met her in Manhattan. We saw the movie The Hawaiians at a theater near Times Square. From there I took her home taking the Metro-North train to Mount Vernon. When we arrived home she invited me to her sister's wedding the next week. I was absolutely stunned to be invited to her sister's wedding after knowing her for just a few hours. During that first date she told me she was going to Israel during August.

Listening to Ronnie Dyson's song regenerated my memories of her. Over the month of July:

• I took her to see Blood Sweat and Tears at Madison Square Garden
• We saw the Movie Z
• We went dancing at Community Gardens a disco in Queens Village
• We went to the beach at Rye Playland

I never tried to be too forward with someone I just met. But she never wanted to get close to me physically. I remember one date, I got a handshake instead of a kiss. This is why I associated the Ronnie Dyson song with her.

Just before she left for Israel she cooked dinner for me. At point I certainly expected to see her when she returned.

At the end of August I phoned and she talked about her trip. When I asked her out she said “call me again.” A few days later I tried again and she said “I can't go out with you because I had a bad reaction to my cholera shot". After a few more phone calls I got the message that she didn't want to see me anymore. I was really disappointed. Perhaps she met someone on the trip to Israel or maybe she had gone with another boyfriend. I've learned that most disappointments like this in the long term are for the better.

When I heard the Ronnie Dyson hit today, out of curiosity I Googled her and found out that she passed away about a year ago at the age of 63.

Valerie's obituary

Later in 1970 the family is in the car and Valerie by the Monkees came on the radio. Leave it to my sister to ask “What happened to Valerie?”

One consequence of having excellent autobiographic memory is that I often recall too many disappointing experiences of the past.

The printer spooler was unable to connect to your printer

Oy Vey! - This message has been driving me crazy for the last 3 days.  When I got this new Dell Computer I used my HP desk jet printer that I had for a few years.  I downloaded the drivers for Windows 8.1 as the old computer ran on Windows Vista.  For about 2  1/2 months there was no problem printing, but all of a sudden I kept getting the message "The printer spooler was unable to connect to your printer"  I tried everything, but just couldn't get it to work.  I don't do all that much printing anyway, so I really shouldn't worry about it.  I was able to download a file to a thumb drive and was able to print it from my old computer.  So, there are no mechanical properties with the HP Printer.  Obviously, the problem is with the software.

It was a rainy and miserable day anyway.