Cheers Mike, we miss you

It hardly seems possible, but it is one year to the day that my brother Mike died. I received word of his death in California from my sister-in-law just as I arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport about 7 a.m. to catch my flight.

For a lot of reasons, I have been anxious to put 2009 behind us, but no reason greater than the loss of my brother on New Year's Day 2009.

With the news grim on New Year's Eve, I tried to find a flight out to see him before he died, but the best I could do was an early morning Southwest flight to Oakland. We talked on the phone early on New Year's Eve Day and he was aware that things weren't good and we said our good-byes. He was still insisting I not make the trip out. It was a request I knew I could not honor.

Fortunately, my sister-in-law Barbara had a long time friend with her when the end came. The next couple days were filled with arrangements and putting away Christmas decorations that my brother had put out just a few weeks before.

It was not until three days later that I realized I had missed the New Year's Day bowl game of my beloved Michigan State Spartans. I didn't know if they had won or lost (they lost) and frankly forgot who they played. It's amazing how priorities can change in an instant.

But when I finally did remember the game I had missed, I remembered another game my brother and I had attended. It was a late season game at Spartan Stadium. He arrived on a flight from California in the morning and we drove straight to the stadium. At the time he was dressed in a spring jacket and dress shoes and as I recall the temps were below freezing.

MSU was winning the game going away (MSU vs. Iowa, November 25, 1978, final score 42-7), but despite his pleadings I said we had to stay to the end. A slight fellow, my brother was very cold and was very happy when we got back to my warm apartment.

But I couldn't help but smile when I thought maybe, just maybe, he left me on New Year's just so I would miss that bowl game and he would get the last laugh over a game I made him stay at long after he wanted to leave.

Today, will be tough for a lot of those folks who loved Mike. We were apart far too long until we reconnected a few years ago. It's very hard to believe my little brother is gone, but I'm warmed by the memories I have of him, even the "cold" ones.

If you get a chance today, reach out to a loved one you haven't seen or talked to in awhile. You won't regret it.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! A little disco retro for your pleasure

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

As you can see the food diary is really working....

A2Politico weighs in with some ?? about AnnArbor.com

Wondering about the health of AnnArbor.com? Well, so is A2Politico.com, but the answers are few and far between.

Top 2009 journalism blogs

Someone has compiled their top 91 journalism blogs of 2009. A few that I had not seen before.

Your ESPN/FFE College Bowl game guide

As a service to FFE readers (and myself) I'm posting a link here to the ESPN past, current and future 2009-2010 college football bowl game schedule.

It includes the scores of the many bowl games already played.

Thank goodness for a new battery in the DISH remote.

If you are not into football, go to the AMC channel today. 24-hour Three Stooges marathon.

Washington Post reports on Washington Times downsizing

Not good news for many staff members at the Washington Times on Wednesday.

Even Mr. Spock got in the act back then

Here's a PSA or something done by Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), of Star Trek fame, about the coming Y2K disaster. Now all we have to worry about is the new 2012 "end-of-the-world" theory in two years.

My objection to all these media hypes, and where I agree with Slate.com, is that all the "chicken little" stuff that the media does simply desensitizes people to the time that a real disaster may come.

Y2K: Nike had it right

Y2K: Overkill of all overkills

It seems impossible, but it was ten years ago tonight that the news business lost its collective mind.

(Update: For an opposing view go this blog)

Fueled by months of hype and ridiculous predictions, broadcast and print media tried to outdo each other with angles on the Y2K scare that in today's light seem cartoonish.

The Flint Journal was no exception. I bowed out. I'm not one for hype and I prefer to work the holidays alone. So I was not one of those who volunteered to man the newsroom to watch the end-of-the-world-as-we-knew-it story unfold.

The metro editor was not happy that I was skeptical of all his efforts to find more and more angles to this story. It seemed to me, rightly so as it turned out, that nothing was going to happen. That somehow the worst thing that might occur is that a clock or two might suddenly reset to 1900, but I was not among those who believed the power grid would fail, that the lights would go out in Georgia and everywhere else and that we would be plunged into World War III.

So while my wife and I enjoyed a night dining and dancing at the local American Legion Hall, many of my colleagues were gladly taking triple time pay to cover the end of the world.

One reporter was assigned to stay with a Lapeer County survivalist family in their underground, well-stocked bunker. The couple predicted they would be overrun by unprepared neighbors, but were ready to meet the assault with firearms and sturdy locks.

How silly it must have felt for them to crawl out the next morning with their neighbors snug in bed.

But there were reporters at City Hall, at the police department, and stationed throughout the county waiting for the predicted disaster that never came. What no one ever was willing to answer was the question of where the newspaper would be printed if the disaster the editors so anticipated actually happened.

My wife and I left the smokey Legion Hall early and watched Peter Jennings on ABC welcome in the new year from around the world, each hour on the hour. The reporters were almost disappointed to report that no problems, power outages, or riots had occurred anywhere.

When the clock rolled around to midnight here in the Eastern time zone, the lights stayed on, the computers and clocks still worked and Y2K fizzled like a wet firecracker.

I lifted a non-alcoholic beverage to my wife and toasted my good sense in staying home that night.

The latest reason why I detest both parties

Here is a New Yorks Times article on the back and forth between Republicans and Democrats over the latest terrorist incident on Christmas.

When it's a Republican who is to blame the Democrats howl. When a Democrat does something stupid (similar to what the Republican did) the Republicans howl.

The latest involves the incredibly stupid comment made by Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano during the news shows Sunday that the security "system worked." She and the President have been backtracking ever since, but the damage was done.

It worked only if "the system" is that terrorists will be interupted in flight by brave passengers. If "the system" is supposed to be keeping terrorists off airplanes, then it didn't work quite so well.

The comment drew comparisons to the situation during Katrina when President Bush commended FEMA's Mike Brown only to fire him two weeks later.

One could also make a comparison to President Bush staying on vacation and being criticized by Dems and President Obama spending his holiday on a golf course immediately after issuing a statement on a near homemade disaster in Detroit.

The Times article does a good job of taking apart the hypocrisy of both sides better than I could do, but it simply further explains why both parties are off my list.

As for my opinion, Napolitano deserves Mike Brown's fate, if for no other reason than to show that President Obama will not stand for incompetence in such an urgent area.

Buffalo being Buffalo

We have had incredible luck coming to Buffalo in the winter to visit the folks. But the last two winter trips have resulted in us being here for major snow storms. Well, not major in the Buffalo sense, but in our own sense.

Today we received 12-inches at the Buffalo Villa, but the road crews here are extremely efficient and our very good neighbor took care of the driveway while we were visiting mom at the nursing home.

Here's a couple photos, and yes, that is the Buffalo Villa in the background of one of them. More like a Chalet today.

Curious use of bylines in Bay City Times

Bay City Times Staff produces 2009 Fashion Moments List, except the note at the bottom shows a Washington Post credit. And this one.

LA Times story published under Bay City Times staff byline as well.

This came to me from a reader. It's a curious use of byline credit. Normally, a story taken from a news sydicate would be at the top of the story, not at the end. And putting a Bay City Times staff byline on it implies it was compiled by that paper.

Maybe just a mistake, but curious just the same.

Airplane terror attack, a frustrating lack of security

Going to the airport for Joan and I is always an adventure. Joan has a titanium knee and I have a common name that has me listed on the "terror watch list."

Because of my status we are unable to use the electronic check-in and because of Joan's knee there is always an extensive search at the TSA screening area.

We always plan on an extra hour to get us both through security.

Yet, despite all that a guy with an explosive device strapped to his body somehow gets through foreign security and tries to detonate the explosive on a plane near Detroit. And according to early reports is on the "terror watch list" just like me.

You have to wonder if this may have been an early attempt to try to thwart security measures that were inadvertently published on the Internet just a few weeks ago. That TSA security publication provided a complete road map to our country's security measures.

We are not being well served by the agencies that are paid billions to keep us safe. While our local Congress representatives score Homeland Security funds to buy fire trucks for rural fire departments far from the fight against terrorism, we have security lapses that leave you scratching your head.

Those agencies are going to have to ramp up their security when KSM is brought from Gitmo to stand trial and another 100 terrorists are brought to an Illinois prison.

How confident am I in our current security measures to protect us? Not very much.

Here's what I said on Facebook today:

"I hope the investigators in the Detroit airplane terror incident are careful not to hurt or deprive this Nigerian citizen of his hard earned American civil rights in an effort to find out if further attacks are planned over this busy holiday travel period. Wouldn't want to offend the young man or deprive him of his fr...ee lawyer and right to remain silent. Glad he is getting the best free health care available."

Mary did you know?

No offense Donny Osmond, I love Elin's version better, but I don't have a video so we'll use yours.

Come now hear the angels sing

O Holy Night!

Merry Christmas! It's a simple story

It really is this simple.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was always an exciting time when I was a boy. Like most American children I anxiously waited, sometimes unable to sleep, sometimes up at 4 a.m. on Christmas morning to see what "Santa" had dropped off.

In 1966 and 1967 I spent Christmas at sea in the U.S. Navy, the first time I was not at home. It was a sad and lonely time filled with feelings of emptiness.

Later when I worked for two California police departments, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day often meant going to work, which also had a feeling of emptiness and being away from those you loved.

As a reporter, I often volunteered to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Thanksgiving, too) so younger folks with families could stay home. (OK, the triple-time pay was a magnet as well).

The holiday murders and mayhem have a tendency to take the edge off the holiday however. (One Christmas Eve in Flint I covered a murder-suicide, a homicide and the next day another homicide).

So now that I am semi-retired and able to have these special days off, I truly appreciate them. It will be a quiet Christmas Day, just Joan and I, but we have some special visitors (John, Nicole and the two grandchildren, Addisen and newcomer Griffen) coming this afternoon for Christmas Eve dinner.

We miss our two sons, William and Timothy in California, and daughter, Elin, who is working in Boston. Granddaughter Brittany in California will also be missed. We will see our California children and grandchild in February, but we miss them all at this special time of year.

Our thoughts are also with those we lost this year, my brother, Mike, and Joan's Dad, Red. As much as holidays are a special happy time, they can be sad reminders of those not still with us.

My thoughts also turn to those standing the wall, those in the military, those serving in police deparments and fire departments who will be on watch for the rest of us on this special day. We thank those serving in ambulance companies and in hospitals, as well.

I hope you will stop for a moment and be grateful for their service to us and to our country. I know I already have. It's lonely on Christmas in a far off place and the least we can all do is stop and give them a thought.

For those on watch in patrol cars or in fire houses we also extend our thanks for their sacrifices.

As to the blog, I have a series of special YouTube videos on auto pilot going up tonight, but I encourage you to spend your time with family and friends and not here.

Merry Christmas!

Straight No Chaser returns with new Christmas song

Straight No Chaser is back with the Christmas Can Can:

AnnArbor.com hosts Santa

An inside look at the fancy lobby of AnnArbor.com is part of this Santa letter-writing contest event.

Maybe I'm not understanding the contest, but according to the story and photo slides only five children participated in a Santa letter writing contest?

Either the contest was very limited or AnnArbor.com is not reaching the young folks in the community. According to AnnArbor.com the participation was so limited they couldn't even hold a contest and instead awarded the grand prize to all five entrants.

That was nice of them, but someone in corporate must be wondering where all the people are?

When the Journal would sponsor holiday coloring contests, they were inundated with entries.

But it's not good to go against Santa, so Merry Christmas, AnnArbor.com