Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Next week is the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the evacuation of Americans and some South Vietnamese, which was the true effective end of the Vietnam War. And next week PBS will be showing a documentary Last Days in Vietnam. Tonight there will be a public screening and a panel discussion at Celebration South cinema, but last night there was a special invitation screening at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in downtown Grand Rapids.


©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

The auditorium seats 250 and was not full. But the audience was one of the more mixed ones we've seen at special events. A large number of Vietnam vets were in attendance -- they were asked to stand -- as well as an equal number of Vietnamese evacuees. The setting was particularly appropriate, as not only was Ford president when Saigon fell, but through his Grand Rapids connections many of the first South Vietnamese refugees came here, and the iconic staircase from atop the U.S. embassy in Saigon is located in the museum. The Vietnamese community in Grand Rapids numbers over 10,000.

Last Days in Vietnam is two hours, of which we were shown the first hour. There is amazing footage, including the unscheduled arrival of Huey helicopters at the USS Kirk (DE-1087/FF-1087). What we saw was subtitled -- either in Vietnamese or English, depending on the speaker.


Panel discussion moderated by WGVU's Jennifer Moss, and L to R: Red Cavaney, Hung Vu, Phillip D. Nguyen. Lighting in the auditorium was very dim, there are no enlargements available.
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Red served three tours of duty in Vietnam as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1965-69. Worked river interdiction duty. Currently President of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Hung was a 2nd lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Air Force, nominally flying the A-37 (A-37B?) -- but at the war's end they had no fuel and no ammunition. His family spent four years in a reeducation camp before coming to the U.S. as part of a Humanitarian Order in 1990. Phillip serves as the President of Vietnamese-American Communities of West Michigan and grew up in Hue, watching army officers take Jeeps filled with their families and drive them into the sea, rather than get taken by the NVA.


As people were leaving, I was struck by the two flags on the left of the stage -- of course the South Vietnamese flag has been supplanted in the now unified Vietnam.
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Vietnam had a significant impact on my life, but indirectly. In the small upstate New York town I grew up in during the 60s, going off to volunteer in Vietnam was something one did. Canadian TV kept showing a different picture than the American news. Still, I was shocked in 1968 when we moved to White Plains, near New York City, and found my classmates were strongly against American involvement in Southeast Asia. My 9th grade Geometry teacher changed last names in the middle of the year -- Mrs. Miller became Mrs. Rothenberg -- and we found out her first husband had come home from Vietnam in an aluminum box. Somehow it never occurred to us that teachers had lives... And I didn't graduate high school until 1976, and my class was the first who were not required to register for the draft -- and the first to be exempted when Selective Service registration was reinstated some years later -- so I never served.

Last Days in Vietnam will be shown on Tuesday 28 April 2015 on PBS' American Experiences.

Highly Recommended

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Or NO

By gum we got ourselves a bonafied local election issue. The irony is that everyone thinks the election on Tuesday is "just" the Michigan Republican Presidential Primary. So the YES For Allendale and the NO forces are taking to the mailboxes and phones to get the word out.

At issue is a zoning argument. An "outside" developer wants to put up a high rise apartment building into the GVSU off-campus housing mix. Now I could do research, but given the flood of mailings, etc, why look up facts? It involves a five or three-story high complex. In an area not zoned for high density housing. A transitional zone. It'll tower over Allendale. It won't be more sprawl. It averages occupancy density with a nearby neighborhood. Or a field. It will create jobs. It will pump money into the community. It will hurt existing local apartment complexes. It will create cheaper housing. It will hurt an already less than 100% apartment and dorm occupancy rate. The zoning issue was voted on several times by the township authorities. The fix is in. It endangers good Allendale family band Christian values.

Clear about this?

Mrs. Dr. Phil has commented that the valid arguments for each side don't match the agenda items being promulgated. My comment is that we're just not the target audiences for either campaign -- we tend to read the actual ballot issue instead.

But it has been a while since there's been a big local issue on the ballot. Even when it might be forgotten in the midst of a bigger national primary. Can't figure out which way Allendale will go on this -- we'll see.

Dr. Phil

The History of the World in Two Hours

History Channel, Thursday 6 October 2011, 9-11pm EDT

An ambitious project, given all of history in two hours, especially when you start at the Big Bang and spend the first 14 minutes or so doing cosmology and the creation of the world. But part of the logic is that the makeup of the universe in part controls what elements and materials are available and in what scarcity. Copper is three elements past Iron in the Periodic Table. That means that like everything past Iron it cannot be built up in the cores of stars by fusion alone -- it can only be created in the fury of supernova explosions. So advancing from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age not only made stronger materials, but more common ones.

So what is civilization? What does civilization move around the globe from peoples to peoples? Apparently it's dark magenta smoke. (grin) At least they used smoke trails snaking through the Silk Road and crossing the Atlantic, billowing from the sacks on camels, pouring out of smoke stacks, etc. But... all kidding aside, the metaphor is a good one.

I suppose one could criticize the animations of representations of morphing and construction and development, which might give some people the wrong idea. They get shown repeatedly in recapitulations to remind the viewer of their point, probably because they really are trying to create a coherent and complicated weaving together of facts and influences. Images get inlaid and expanded in things like the representation of the Big Bang and expansion -- again, a metaphor rather than literal. And for my tastes the space program and modern communications and computers get short shrift. But given that they don't get to the 20th century until 14 minutes left, there's only so much you can include.

After all 14 minutes was enough to cover the first 10 billion years of history. (double-grin)

So Who's This Good Looking Guy?



This is our friend Craig Benjamin. Transplanted Aussie, professor at Grand Valley State University and the most energetic True Renaissance Man that I know. He teaches, among other things, a History course which covers this whole scope of the Universe sort of thing. And he's one of the talking heads used in this show.

We knew he'd worked on this project, but Mrs. Dr. Phil found out during a noontime water aerobics session today when Craig was in the pool that it was on tonight -- which is why I didn't get a chance to post advance warnings out there. But I think it'll be run again on the History Channel.

It's a cool show. And it's so very cool to know somebody who's in it! Thanks, Craig! I wish we could spend more time talking... about everything.

Dr. Phil

A PBS Crowd

In 1993, documentary filmmaker extraordinaire Ken Burns came to Allendale and Grand Rapids to talk about The Civil War. We'd only been down here a year or two, but for Ken it was a homecoming, as his father taught anthropology and photography at Grand Valley State University for twenty years. We managed to make it both his talk downtown at Fountain Street Church and at the main GVSU campus. I seem to recall we were right up front at the Armstrong Theatre, and though I cannot recall how full the auditorium was, it seemed like an intimate personal talk at the time.

In 2011, GVSU is celebrating their beginnings fifty years ago, and Ken Burns came back to be their third speaker. Ostensibly his talk Thursday night was supposed to be about the next fifty years. But come on, the man is a historian. You know he wasn't going to talk about the future per se.

During the introduction, a comment surfaced from Ken's talk with students in the afternoon. "He talks in paragraphs!" Ah, the joys of literacy. (grin)

Ken Burns regaled us for about an hour, and then they took questions. Mrs. Dr. Phil asked about the book American Uprising, about the 1811 slave revolt of New Orleans that no one seems to know about. Not sure he knew the book, but finessed a philosophical answer about us versus the other and racism in America.

Tonight our PBS station did their WGVU Newsmakers program and Patrick Center had a half-hour interview with Ken. Much as in the two talks in 1993, I was struck with how well prepared he is to talk -- which means you hear some of the same prepared talking points. But of course. If you attended my PHYS-2050 course lectures in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011, you'd hear some of the same dialog, the same examples, the same jokes. It's called being good at what you do. That Ken Burns is a good speaker and tells good stories in person, in addition to his real day job as being a documentary filmmaker, well, that's just bonus.

Dr. Phil

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD

Well, the weather people in West Michigan have been hyping this winter storm for nearly a week. Fact is, nearly every storm which has clobbered the Midwest west of here or clobbered the East Coast repeatedly, has ended up going around West Michigan. Oh sure, right on the lakeshore there have been multiple one- to two-foot snowfalls. But much of the prevailing lake effect bands have been running down Lake Michigan, north to south, and Allendale is located inside the "waist" of Michigan, so we just haven't gotten all that much snow. Alas, it's really been too warm, so we've got a lot of ice.

By Sunday, which started off a beautiful sunny day, the National Weather Service chimed in and issued the first Winter Storm Advisories for Tuesday night and Wednesday -- and the magic word "blizzard" popped out. And the hype machine was on. Storm forecasts of 12"-14" are now 14"-18". And on Tuesday, they moved up the warnings from 7pm to 5pm.

I don't remember where I was on US-131 coming home on Tuesday, but at 5:02pm the snow started. Before that I was just dealing with icy roads and gusty crosswinds. Mrs. Dr. Phil posted on Facebook that "5:10 pm -- home, no sign of snow all day long. 5:27 pm -- OMG! It's snowing sideways, can't see out to the road!"

Yeah, the blizzard is actually here.

Everybody's Doing It

I warned my students that if the storm followed Track A and not Track B, then I probably couldn't make it to K-zoo on Wednesday -- and with drifting might not be able to make it out of the driveway. (grin) By noon, or so, I updated my class webpages and canceled Wednesday's classes and office hours.

Grand Valley State University canceled their evening classes on Tuesday and all classes on Wednesday. Kalamazoo College closed for tomorrow, but part of their campus is on narrow streets on a hill -- I had to go there once after a snow storm, parking was impossible. And Kalamazoo Valley Community College closed early, but KVCC is just off of I-94 and is very exposed and always gets creamed by the snow.

My university? Western Michigan University did what it always does -- posted on their homepage that WMU rarely closes and here's why. They even provided a list of closures:

Weather-related WMU closings since 1999

1999, Jan. 4-5--Heavy snowfall delayed the start of spring semester.
2000, Nov. 21-22--Thanksgiving recess began Tuesday because of snow.
2006, Dec. 1--An ice storm downed trees, caused power outages.
2007, Feb. 5--Extreme cold and snow closed many Michigan colleges.
2008, Feb. 1--WMU closed due to snow.
2009, Dec. 10--Blizzard conditions closed WMU.

Funny thing, about half the time I cancel classes because the forecasts say the roads are for shit, WMU ends up agreeing with me. They've even stayed open when they should've closed and caught hell for it, then canceled classes the next day, which turned out to be not bad at all. Go figure.

However...

Around 10pm WMU bowed to the inevitable:


So along with most of the rest of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, we'll both be having a snow day.

The bad news is that the blizzard conditions will persist to as late as 7pm. With drifting, clearing our 250-foot driveway may not be useful.

Probably need to find someone with a plow to come by once on Wednesday and once on Thursday.

Be safe, all those of you who are in either the snow dump or ice coating zones of this storm.

Dr. Phil

49 Hours To be Precise

Under DST2007, this was the weekend of "Fall Back" from the twice annual clock changes. Only one device -- an alarm clock -- automatically fails the DST2007 test. Even our digital thermostat with the new furnace knows both sets of DST rules and so pretty much only those date insensitive clocks needed to be changed.

With recent weather dipping down into the mid-20s and low-30s at night, and a couple of visible flakeages during Friday afternoon in West Michigan, it's been some nice fall weather lately. Today on Sunday it's finally the full blue sky and sunny I've wanted in order to shoot some reference photos with different lenses and settings with my Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. (Update: wrote this note too early, haze settling in, it's wan sunlight and no bright blue sky anymore.)

The Bagel To Batteries To Litter Triangle Trade

We went out to Holland yesterday on errands. Stocked up on bagels -- got two baker's dozen. Felt good that I didn't get them in Kalamazoo on Friday, because Saturday they were half price. Then ran by the Holland Post Office to mail my mother's birthday card, and found they had a 4pm pickup which the Allendale P.O. doesn't, so that was a win. Then circled back and located a new Batteries Plus store. Our two Motorola Razr cellphones need new batteries, but I couldn't find any Motorola replacements that weren't actually old stock. Bought a pair of new Rayovac Li ion batteries, so unlike everyone else in the world, we'll continue to have cell phones that are two-and-a-half years old. Shocking, I know. Mrs. Dr. Phil also got a new watch battery for her Pulsar watch with no numbers and no second hand, which was got in Hancock MI back in the late 80s, I think.

And since the weather was fine, we drove over to Grandville to get some cat litter and some paper and a memory card. Finally home, just in time to watch most of the Northwestern football game.

Gas Prices On The Move

Suspicious of motives? Moi?

Gasoline in West Michigan has ping-ponged a bit of late, but just before the election it dropped down to $2.67.9/gal. After the election, when many business and big oil friendly politicians get elected, gas shot up 18¢/gal to $2.95.9/gal, dropped briefly to $2.90.9 Saturday morning, then up another 19¢ to $3.09/9/gal an hour later.

I heard a pundit on the news explaining that gas prices rose because (a) there was a fire at a small Chicago refinery and (b) the Federal Reserve dumped $600 billion into the money supply and "devalued the dollar". Ri-ight...

I think gas prices were kept low all summer, compared to an earlier prediction of $3.50/gal summer gas, by the BP oil spill in the Gulf and the Enbridge oil spill into the Kalamazoo River. Now that both of those are no longer daily news items, and those evil socialists in Washington have been roundly defeated, I am NOT surprised that gas prices are jumping. And now that we've broken the three buck barrier, I expect $3.50/gal gasoline Real Soon Now. The frugal local conservatives should chew on that for a while. (evil grin)

Football & Such

Illinois scores 65 points yesterday. In a football game. And still lose. Michigan won 67-65 in 3OT. I turned into NU scoring 3 TDs in a row against Penn State, then PSU managed to run 3 unanswered TDs before we turned away, finally beating Northwestern 35-21. Sigh. At least Joe Paterno got his 400th win.

Before last Sunday's 60 Minutes, we'd never heard of Zenyatta, the mare who was 19-0 and going for a 20-0 retirement at Saturday's Breeder's Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. Despite another example of her terrific out-of-last-place acceleration, she just barely lost. A 19-1 career.

Last weekend's football had been disastrous. Michigan State ran into the University of Iowa at home buzz saw -- I've always maintained that Iowa at home is one of the toughest games in the Big Ten. And undefeated #1 D-II Grand Valley State University went up to Houghton lost last weekend to Michigan Tech in football. Unbelievable.

I can't root for anybody.

Dr. Phil

A 50th Anniversary

Grand Valley State University was founded 50 years ago in 1960. While it would be a couple of years before there were buildings and the Pioneer Class met for registration in a corn field, GVSU is going all out to celebrate its amazing growth and excellence. I taught at GVSU for one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Mrs. Dr. Phil is a Senior Librarian at GVSU -- we watched it grow and expand a lot in the 19 or so years we've been in Allendale.

Come Sail Away

The other week GVSU recorded a LipDub video, featuring hundreds of faculty and students, in over six minutes of continuous take lipsynching to Styx' Come Sail Away.

So Come Sail Away with the Lakers of Grand Valley State:


I should point out that the pond in the closing shot is not much larger than the field of view. I don't think anyone has ever rowed a four-man shell there before. (grin) You can just see them putting on the brakes before they row back into the frame. (double-back-grin) Also, Mrs. Dr. Phil was outside and ran into the rehearsals, and talked with the Grand Rapids Rapid bus driver who was minding the bus they borrowed for one of the shots.

If I was going to make any complaints, I'd point out that many of the people are shot backlit, so it's not so easy to see faces. Also there's an outtake where they accidentally run over the Louie The Laker mascot. (oops-grin)

Enjoy!

Dr. Phil

A Soggy Start To The Day

Big storms rumbled in from the southwest and it poured buckets of rain in the morning yesterday. Since we had a dinner date for Thursday night and Mrs. Dr. Phil had to get to the downtown campus early, I drove her there. Also, no breakfast for me, as I had to stop by the Campustown lab in Allendale to get blood drawn for a cholesterol test. It could've been done any morning, but as you'll see, I didn't want to do it after Thursday morning. (grin)

The rain slowed on the way back from downtown G.R., but picked up to a roar at the lab. Only had to walk less than 20 feet and still got quite wet. For once, the lab didn't have the order from the doctor's office. And when the lab called over, they sent the wrong lab form -- one that I might have needed if my spring break GI illness had come back. (grin) Eventually they got it right and I gave a blood sample, not stool. (big grin) End result -- I got up at 6:30am, left home at 8, got to the lab at 9, finally had breakfast at home around 10:15am. Poor baby! (sarcastic grin)

Another In An Irregular Series Of Reports

I'm probably inconsistent about blogging about the absolutely wonderful GVSU Food Services' Classic Pairings special dinners, and I completely forgot last night to take some pictures as I did in February for the Route 66 dinner. But we had such a lovely and leisurely meal last night. Oh yum!

Classic Pairings Wine Dinners
May 13th, 2010
"Cuban"
Meadows Club House

Appetizers
Fresh Fruit
Tostones and Shrimp Mango Mojo
Plantain Chips with Garlic Sauce

1st Course
Picadillo Hash with Avacado

2nd Course
Roast Pork Croguetas, Black Bean Puree, Yellow Rice Radish and Mango

3rd Course
Citrus Snapper, Arroz Amarillo, Black Beans and Sofrito

4th Course
Cordero en Salsa de Vino Rojo (Lamb) with Corn Cake

Desserts
Banana Custard Empanada with Dulce Gelato
Coconut Rum Flan
Figs and Cheese

They didn't have a printed list of the wines, but they were extraordinary -- I took notes as they talked about the wines, but surely didn't get all the spellings right. Hook & Ladder red and whites by a retired SF firefighter with the appetizers. A Michigan white, Left Foot Charlie Riesling. An Orello Maloc Pinot Grigio which had a lovely pear finish. A Dry Creek Valley Quivira Red Grenache. A DOCG Querceto Chianti Classico Reservo '04 (rated as one of the top 100 wines). And a Chenin Blanc dessert wine, which a little went very nicely with the three desserts.

As for the food, I've had some Cuban or Cuban-inspired dishes before, but never this much range and it really was something different in total than I'd expected. Chef Paul talked about the basic Cuban type food groups, so of course we had to have pork, fish, fried, black beans and yellow rice, in variations forms and recombinations. They'd had kumquats amongst the fruit in the appetizers, but they also did a candied kumquat reduction on the croguetas. At my grandparents' Florida house in 1965, I saw kumquats on a tree, but my grandmother insisted that nobody eats them. Since then I've been delighted to run across kumquats from time to time -- you pop the whole little tiny orange thing in your mouth and eat it rind and all. Bitter and sweet. Chef Paul told me that he describes the candied kumquats as being like natural Sour Patch Kids. (grin)

The Meadows is the GVSU golf course and club house. Last year they had a dinner at The Meadows and arranged one really long table in the small dining room. It didn't work well for conversations. This year they set up diagonal tables of eight and not only had more seats but it really worked as a nice layout as you were closer to more people on the adjacent tables. Hats off to the wonderful people at the GVSU Food Service who put these on, with the servers making sure all the right glasses were changed, the right silver placed and all the food served and wine poured in a timely fashion. Amy, who joined the staff in the Fall, once again served as the perfect hostess. And with all the glass windows overlooking the golf course, it was a lovely evening with the setting sun after so much rain earlier in the day.

Future Pairings

The regular wine distributor guy who does the pairings and explains the wines and their history, just had a baby girl, so another gentleman came in to pinch hit. He was also very knowledgeable. After dinner, a side conversation with some of the other guests may result in "Someone" organizing a Japanese saki pairings dinner. I know that there are a lot of different sakis out there, but typically you just don't get to sample many in most restaurants. To have a saki pairings dinner, with both sakis to taste and perhaps in the food as well, sounds very exciting. And I do mean "taste", as I officially do not drink alcohol, but recognize its importance as a solvent to blend flavors in dining, and so sample small amounts of wines with a meal.

For the 2010-11 academic year, which will be GVSU's 50th Anniversary as well, the GVSU Aramark people are considering having the four Classic Pairings dinners be about tributes, rather than regions. So we might get a Tribute to Pork, to Julia Child (oh YES!), a Valentine's chocolate dinner and Summer Preserves -- a little jar of something preserved with each course. Chef Paul and I were talking afterward and talked about the latest episodes of Bravo's Top Chef Masters -- Chef Paul very much likes pork and duck, as do I, so he thought he might be able to "come up with a pork and duck dish for me" at the Tribute to Pork dinner. Okay, twist my arm... Whatever they decide to do, we'll buy the series and plan on enjoying each and every one of them.

Well done, good people.

Dr. Phil

Thursday Special Dinner

Another in the series of Classic Pairings dinners from the GVSU food service. This year's Valentine's February dinner had American fare from "along Route 66", running from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier. As they did in 2008, they also made a point of advertising to the Alumni Association, and so there were quite a number of couples besides "the usual suspects". We sat at a small table with some library people and a young couple, GVSU Class of '09 and '10. Ah, to be young and just starting out again... (grin) Mrs. Dr. Phil took one of the crayons available on the table and made us a heart:


February 11th, 2010
"Me and My Baby Down Route 66"
Alumni House

5:30 pm Appetizers

6:00 pm Dinner

1st Course
BBQ Short Rib, Maple Gastrique
Brioche Black Pepper Mac n Cheese
Watermelon Salad, Shaved Fennel Slaw

2nd Course
Chicken Tamale with Red & Green Sauce
Corn, Bacon & Black Bean Hash

3rd Course
Santa Monica Shrimp Panzanella

4th Course
American Apple Pie

Actually, the meal began with a light pilsner from the Philadelphia Victory brewery and a tiny little Chicago-style hot dog. The miniature wieners were from Chicago and properly dressed with lurid green relish, pickle, onions and celery seed. The miniature hot dog buns were from the local Nantucket bakery -- and the chef had to keep after them to make the buns softer! The short ribs were so tender that a knife was totally unnecessary, and the two salads were quite refreshing. We've seen fennel salads/slaws on a number of the cooking shows, but haven't had it before -- might have to play with that. The wine pairing was a Syrah called BOOM BOOM, which we've had before along with a wine called (oops):

Everything was fabulous, as expected. The apple pies were more of an individual Michigan apple casserole, not too sweet, and served with cheddar ice cream -- very yum! The wine pairing was a local Fenn Valley ice wine.



On Saturday, The Kitties Got Eggs

Mrs. Dr. Phil was making a corn pudding for dinner on Saturday, for which she needed two egg whites. So the kitties each scored an egg yolk. Both Sammy and Blue like eggs. And it'll make their fur even softer. (grin) But we give them eggs every once in a while because we love them.

Yup. Love is in the air...

Dr. Phil

The Good "NU"s

I do believe that my Northwestern University Wildcats finished the season 4th in the Big Ten at 8-4. Which put us in line, not only for a bowl game, but a much better bowl game than say the 6-6 Michigan State Spartans. Michigan Wolverines, you say? Who? Where are they this year? Home for the holidays? (grin)

Anyway, Northwestern will meet the Auburn Tigers, I believe for the first time ever, at the Outback Bowl in Tampa FL, at 11am EST on Friday 1 January 2010, New Year's Day -- the day where God intended big bowl games to be played.

General Rants

Don't get me started on the whole ruination of the bowl game system that the BCS has wrought these last years. I want closure. I want the bowl games to end after New Year's Day. As we wait for this Saturday, 12 December 2009, to see the Grand Valley State University Lakers take on Northwest Missouri State -- and you know this was the matchup everyone wanted -- for the NCAA Division II National Championship in Florence AL, 1pm on ESPN2, I am not going to hold my breath for a real Division I National Championship system.

But more to the point of NU's game on New Year's Day, I would like to point out one of my biggest pet peeves. Now, I dare you to go the homepage of the Outback Bowl site and find exactly WHEN the game is to be on. No, really. I'll wait.

Yeah, somewhere it does say New Year's Day. But the time? Why would you want to know something silly like the bloody time?

While it is probably almost reasonable that at some point during the end of 2009 most people will figure out that 1 January 2010, like 25 December 2009, falls on a Friday, in general most announcements made by most people (and NOT Dr. Phil) manage to omit the day of the week.

Let's think about this -- given the way our schedules are, in any given week the one piece of information that will right off the bat tell you whether you can do or watch some activity is the bloody day of the week. Our work schedules are based on the days of the week. Our class schedules. Our TV shows. Our days of worship. Some of our holidays. Why in the world would nearly everyone routinely NOT put the bloody day of the week? This band will be in concert in your town on 14 April 2010. Quick -- tell me if that's a school night. Idiots. Newspapers, advertisers, promoters, websites, radio stations -- they are all IDIOTS for not telling us that the 14th of April in 2010 is a Wednesday.

It's a little thing, I know, but... Please, I beg of you -- if you have to ever promote an event, make sure you mention the day of the week. It will make everyone so much happier. And doesn't our racing modern recession world need a little bit more happiness?

Oh, and please mention the time, too, if it's not too much trouble. And it isn't, is it? Too much trouble I mean. (double-trouble-grin)

Dr. Phil