No Joy In Cougarville--Tony Bennett Headed To VA.

Coach Tony Bennett who lead the Washington State Cougar Basketball team to the NCAA Tournament twice, has left for Virginia. Bennett, national coach of the year turned down two major coaching jobs last year to stay in Pullman. This year he is leaving after a less glamorous season. The Cougs exited in the first round of the NIT Tournament.

Before Tony Bennett had become head coach, the basketball program was barely on the "radar screen" . He will be hard to replace.

Celebrity Apprentice II: Dennis No Longer A Menace

Dennis Rodman has been, for the most part, a no show for KOTU and last night was no exception.
The candidates gather at a Trump Hotel where they are informed that each team will be in charge of 5 rooms at the Loews Regency Hotel. Athena picks hip hopper T-Boz to be project manager. KOTU picks Rodman. Both teams find their customers to be royal pains as they have to make up the rooms and check people in. Dennis is "with it" to start off and delegates authoriy well. Then he starts to drink, when he drinks he becomes a slurring maniac. He entertains himself and does embarrassing things.
Donald Trump has a reputation as a man who has no tolerance to drinking or people who drink. He has been surprisingly patient with Dennis Not this time though. When the Men lose the task, Rodman is fired.

A Couple Of Decades Ago

It was 1987 and I was living in Walla Walla at time in an apartment. The apartment complex is at the East end of town and had a significant number of Walla Walla Community College students.
It was a Saturday night in probably March or April and I had a couple of friends over to drink some beer and watch TV. In the later hours of the night, there was a knock on the door. I did not bother to answer because I was not expecting any company and besides that, I did not think it was civil to knock on some one's door at that hour. Next, I heard a boom, this college age guy on crutches (no less) had kicked in the door. He yelled "Where's Shelly?" I didn't know who Shelley was. The man looked up and noticed that he was in the wrong apartment, Embarrassed, he pulled out a wad of money and apologized like crazy. I did not accept the money, but told him to get lost. I talked to management the next morning and the door was fixed. I had really forgotten the incident since then but thought that it was worth sharing.

Irving R. Levine Signs Off

Former NBC news reporter Irving R. Levine has passed away in Florida, he was 86.

So Long England Dan

Burl Barer notes the passing of Dan Seals, the brother of Jim Seals of Seals And Crofts. He was also known as "England Dan" of the soft-rock dou "England Dan And John Ford Coley.

ESPN 710 To Air

The Seattle market may have lost one sports team, but they have gained one sports radio station. In the early 90s, KJR raised eyebrows by turning into an all sports station. They since have pretty much had a monopoly on full time on-air sports reporting, still going strong after 16-17 years. Now after winning back the Seattle Mariners, KIRO has moved it's news type programming to the FM band (97.3) and will change it's 710 am station to all sports next month.

My feeling is that ESPN710 will reports sports in a straight forward serious manner emphasizing information, while KJR will continue to be the "rah rah" entertainment approach. We will soon see who will win the battle of the all-sports stations.

Former Cougar Star James Donaldson Wants To Be Mayor

Former WSU Cougar and Seattle Super Sonic Center James Donaldson has announced his candidacy for Mayor of Seattle. The 7 foot plus Donaldson has been running a physical therapy business in Mill Creek for almost 20 years. Current Mayor Greg Nickels has drawn fire for his handling of Seattle's recent snowfall. Nickels is finishing his second term.
Although we don't have a "Governator" like California, this state has elected politicians with sports backgrounds, Congressman Norm Dicks played linebacker for the Washington Huskies and the late John Cherberg was a former Husky football coach who served as Lieutenant Governor.

Celebrity Apprentice: The Men Finally Win

The show is getting more absurd, and that in itself is quite an accomplishment. This week's task was to do a sales presentation for Video telephone maker ACN. KOTU picks R and B Singer Brian McKnight to lead their team. They have lost three in a row and they are all frustrated with Dennis Rodman, who does nothing for the team, well almost nothing. He decides to pick a fight with Clint Black, who laughs it off.
Athena, on the other hand is hot as a firecracker, they pick model Claudia Jordan to lead theirs. Claudia wants Joan Rivers to do the presentations, but finds out that she will not be back in time. Luckily for Athena, Golfer Natalie Golbus steps up and flies Joan back in time to help the team.
Kotu's Jesse James gets an idea of filming a video at West Point, the drive to the military academy takes up almost all of their task time, but luckily, they are able to make the shoot.
The Men finally win a task as their presentation is more pointed and focused. They are also aided by the singing of Project Manager McKnight. Claudia, it turns out, is not a good people person and especially cannot get along with Joan Rivers' daughter Melissa. Her decision to try to throw Melissa under the bus was questionable considering how helpful Joan was to the task. She also takes Kloe Kardashian into the boardroom, which may have been her most intelligent decision yet. Claudia puts up a mild fight but it is not enough to save her job. Dennis is spared by the Men's victory and lives to create more mayhem next week.

President Obama's strength is his ablility to relax and be down to earth, it's too bad that his comment about "Special Olympics" was taken out of context.

Family member Don Brown was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Houston Advertising community. Here is the tribute paid to him.

Tragedy Strikes Hollywood: Natasha Richardson Dead At 45

Natasha Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, has died from injuries incurred in a weekend skiing accident. Details are at this Yahoo web site.

Celebrity Apprentice: Wedding Bell Blues

This week's show was mercifully cut from last week's two hours to one hour. The task was to sell wedding dresses. The men's team KOTU thinks that disqualifies them right away. Not true, it's the personnel. The men have not figured out that Dennis Rodman being gone is an asset. They will find out if Trump can wise up and fire him. Brandi Roderick lead's the girl's team. She is a Playboy Centerfold. That is now becoming commonplace on reality shows. Tom Green leads the men's team and if he had hung in and showed up for his task on time, he probably could have survived the loss. Instead he is fired and Dennis Rodman lives to slack off another day.

Good Bye Seattle P-I

It was announced today that the Seattle P-I will print it's last edition tommorrow. It will remain on line as an internet only periodical.

Ice-Burg Page Popular

A Facebook page honoring Walla Walla's Ice-Burg received 1200 fans in one week. The Ice-Burg goes back to when the town had no McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King and was know for onions and wheat instead of wine. There is still no indoor seating, and unlike Dick's in the Seattle area, it has only one location.

Kirkland Fun On Saturday Night

We had not been to the Kirkland Waterfront in some time so last night, Deb and I met my Cousin and Cousin-In-Law (her husband) at Hector's. The food was great and the service was incredible. They even had table side entertainment. From there, it was off to the Lake Street Grill to shoot pool. As the night went on, the bar got a little crowded, we headed to 21 Central to finish the evening. It was a great evening, although we did not even scratch the surface of what the area had to offer.

Backyard Entertainment

It was snowing like crazy last Sunday, so I strapped on the snow skis and had a little fun. What's crazy is at this time of year, it could get hot in a few weeks.

It's Cold

It's been a long winter and it does not want to end yet. There is about an inch of snow on the ground and temperatures are expected to get down into the teens tonight. Not what you would expect for the middle of March.

Scott Hamilton Takes A Spill In Celebrity Apprentice

There is nothing that puts the "fun" in dysfunctional like the Celebrity Apprentice. Two teams made up of celebrities who were put together solely because of the fact that none of those people would ever want to spend 10 minutes with each other. Since a well-run cohesive group in this genre equals boring TV, we have this cacophony of celebs with no tie what so ever with one another. The upside is that the winnings go to charity, with times as hard as they have been, they may have to crank out a few more of these shows just to take care of all the needy people including some of Trump's less fortunate investors.
In this week's episode, the task is to develop a cartoon character to sell for online shoe retailer Zappos. The CEO says that his company is fun loving and a great place to work, although his demeanor sort of suggests otherwise.
The KOTU team is lead by Olympic Figure Skater Scott Hamilton. The Athena team picks Khloe Kardashian for it's Project Manager, khloe, I think, is on the team because Kardashian is a popular name in reality Tv. Tom Green, unlike Dennis Rodman and the now fired Andrew Dice Clay, contributes and wants to win, the trouble is, he is clearly an out of the box thinker and expresses his ideas out loud.
On the women's side, Kardashian is a crummy leader and poker player Annie Duke takes the lead. She ruffles feathers by not picking Joan Rivers to come up with a script. Messaging egos is not Duke's strong point.
Scott Hamilton comes up with a character named E, Green says that it should be something starting with Z. Hamilton tells Green to butt out and Hershel Walker tells him to shut up. When it comes to petty squabbling, it is a draw between the two sides.
Although Athena's presentation is terrible with the beautiful but ailing Claudia Jordan stumbling in places, it beats KOTU. Scott Hamilton only wants to take Tom Green into the board room, Trump however, suggests that he bring 2 people in to increase his odds of staying on. Dennis Rodman would have been a great choice, but he picks Hershel Walker. Hamilton knows that Walker cannot stand Green, it turns out to be Hamilton's last bad decision on this show as he is fired.

Look Out For "The Rock" Obama

Being the Democratic partisan, I loved this sketch on SNL last night.

Cougs Come Up Short In Mini Apple Cup

The Cougs put up a fight, but could not curb destiny they lost to Washington 67-60 in Seattle.
By winning, Washington wins it's first outright Pac-10 Championship since 1953

Burl Barer and Judi Faye recently apeared on "The Dog Whisperer" for a follow up.

Trump Fires Dice In Celebrity Apprentitce

Donald Trump kicked off his second season of Celebrity Apprentice last night with more recognizable, yet not so appealing celebrities. Like last year, it's starting out as competition between men and women.
In last night's episode, the teams introduced themselves and came up with names and project manager's for the first task. Actually, the teams will keep the names, they will just have different PMs, like usual. The men being as humble as they are picked KOTU or "Kings Of The Universe". The women picked Athena for a name, explaining that they were named after the Greek goddess of war.
Speaking of War, Donald Trump kicks off the first task by landing on the US Air Carrier Intrepid, reminding me of George W's famous landing on an air carrier awhile back. KOTU has picked former NFL star Hershel Walker for project manager. Athena picks Joan Rivers. Incidentally, Joan's daughter Melissa is also on Athena. Will Trump be afraid to fire Joan in front of Melissa? How about firing Melissa in front of Joan?
The first task is to bake cupcakes and sell them on the street. One of Trump's favorite tasks is street vending in New York. The women cannot get along at all. The men on the other hand don't seem to be able to get it together. Their big selling point is Dennis Rodman and he runs his own show. Andrew Dice Clay is another problem as he is still protesting lack of celebrity treatment although his being on the show should count for something--I mean really.
Needless to say, Hershel cannot control either Rodman or Dice. They also cannot cook worth a darn.
Athena wins, and Trump asks Walker to pick two people to go into the boardroom. Not surprisingly he picks Rodman and Dice. Either of those 3 deserve to be fired, but Dice had already expressed his desire to quit and he does the walk of shame.

The Shot Heard Across Cougarland

WSU Senior Taylor Rochestie hits this miracle shot in overtime to defeat nationally ranked Arizona State 51-49 on "Senior Day" in Pullman.

Another Season Of Celebrity Apprentice

Celebrity Apprentice starts tonight,and although I liked the idea of unknown contestants fighting for a job with the Trump Organization, the celebrity version where they compete for personal charities has become more popular than the origninal version.

Final Thoughts Paul Harvey

A while back for a short time, I sold radio time for KTEL in Walla Walla. Without a doubt, the easiest sell was a slot of Paul Harvey. I did not agree much with Paul Harvey, but knew his apeal. His straight forward, non pretentious delivery was conforting to mainstream America and he was always there, from years before the time I heard him on the kitchen radio as a child until now.