Channeling Larry King

Spent too much time traveling this week, so I'm going to channel a bit of Larry King with this junk-drawer brain dump that came from some extra time in the airport today:

• Paid $5 extra for a seat on a Bakersfield-Phoenix flight so I could have extra legroom and be closer to the front of the plane to catch a tight connection to Philadelphia. Get on board and find a 95-year-old woman sitting in my seat. Anyone who has lived 95 years deserves props, so after about 3 seconds of internal groaning at the thought of being jammed into a window seat, I jammed myself into same window seat and made friends with Hazel. That -- not the legroom -- was worth the extra $5.
• On return flight from Charlotte to Phoenix today, saw a woman sitting in first class but her two small children -- probably 6 to 7 years old -- were sitting in coach a few rows directly behind her. I can understand wanting to keep costs down or even needing quiet time from your kids, but how about stooping to sit with your kids on a 4-plus-hour flight?
• Unfortunate headline placement from USA TodayUnfortunate placement: Wednesday’s USA Today sports cover gave prominent play to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which the National League won after a 13-year drought. The headline – “National nightmare is over” – would have been great had it not been placed immediately above a secondary photo of controversial Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died Tuesday.  Ouch. Or was it intentional?
• Do we really need a footlong hamburger? Apparently so, Carl’s Jr. has decided. $4 gets you just the meat, cheese and bun; and extra 50 cents gets you lettuce and tomatoes to make it healthy.
• Saturday night's Phoenix-to-Bakersfield flight had a few local sports celebs on board. Mike Dallas was flying back home, fresh from his nationally televised boxing victory in Mississippi. Dallas remains undefeated at 15-0-1. Word is his next fight may be televised live on ESPN. And LA Dodgers consultant George Culver was heading back home. Culver, who tossed a no-hitter during his time in the major leagues, has a long history of supporting local college baseball programs.
• If you’re on the run from the law, you probably don’t want to be tatted in a very promiment way. This Bakersfield suspect would probably be less conspicuous if he were wearing a hockey mask.
• Philly has done it right when it comes to pro-stadium placement. The stadiums for the Eagles, Phillies and Sizers/Flyers are all in the same place, meaning they can share the same parking, theoretically creating a smaller imprint on the city, consolidating mass transit efforts and more.
• Love the public-use rocking chairs placed here and there in the Philly airport. Nice touch and a way to help calm the masses.
• Saw a restaurant named Legal Sea Foods at the Philly airport. Not a very inviting name if you ask me, even if it’s supposed to put one at ease. Maybe it’s a regional thing.
• US Airways gives you the ability to upgrade your coach seats AFTER you book. So, instead of choosing your choice seat when booking at their rock-bottom price, they get your money, then upsell you later anywhere from $5 to $20 depending on the length of the flight. And this is just within coach, not up to business or first class. I suspect they know I’m a big guy who has tight connections because invariably my default seat is in the middle of a row and at the back of a plane. And because their data will show I’ve upgraded in the past, they know I’m likely to do the same thing again if they conveniently plop me in the middle of a row toward the back. Aggravating to me, but not a bad business plan where airlines have to pick up quarters anywhere they can.
   

RIP, Stan Glyde

I was saddened to learn today of this weekend's death of Stan Glyde, the British immigrant who introduced me to soccer and taught me how to play the drums. Most importantly, he taught me that I could accomplish things if I had the right focus and commitment.

Stan died in Fresno at age 76, and lived a long fruitful life as a musician, teacher and soccer coach. He inspired hundreds of kids to adopt the then strange game of soccer, taught drumming for decades and played regularly with local bands up until early this year.  I was school friends in Fresno with his sons David and Shawn, and our parents (including Stan's wife, Emily) remain close to this day.

I met Dave in third grade and soon thereafter was playing soccer on a Holland Elementary School team Stan had inspired and coached. He turned a bunch of misfits who had never played soccer into a championship team. More importantly, he taught us the value of hard work, with daily practices that focused on fitness, fundamental ball skills and teamwork.  We were called the Holland Hammers, named after the West Ham United Hammers, Stan's favorite British professional team. I can still visualize our purple and light blue uniforms, colors West Ham continues to use to this day.

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"I Want to be a News Reporter"

A family friend dropped off a children's book titled "I Want to be a News Reporter" that left me both laughing and wincing. It's an unintentionally hilarious story from 1958 that was part of an educational book series designed to 1) encourage reading at a beginning level and 2) help plant the seed in kids minds about the many exciting careers in their futures.

The book came from a local school library, and I can see why they figured it had served its time. The text and illustrations are dated in a bad way, and what passed for excitement back in 1958 would drive a kid back to the videogame or Club Penguin in about ... 3 seconds. 

Case in point is this exchange between Don, an impressionable kid, and Uncle Jack, a reporter at the City News:

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