WIXY's Gone Bananas

I guess I learned some lessons in internet etiquette this week. Earlier this week, as I was driving to work, I was listening to Scott and Sue talk about Facebook, which I do, and Twitter, which I don't. These two are a lot like those who are regular readers of this blog, who are in turn a lot like me. We don't like to cause any undue hard feelings. Sue had mentioned that she has "defriended" some from Facebook because they have posted something offensive or other derogatory to her, or have posted unfair to some of her coworkers. I called them and told them that I would stick to my simple blog, as Facebook and Twitter are too fast moving. Besides none of you want to know when I'm drinking a Coke Zero. But yesterday changed my perception of my "simple blog." After posting the news about the unfortunate passing of Linda Trivisonno, I noticed that I was getting hits like crazy. I ended up getting 508 hits yesterday, way more than my previous high. I also po...

I have decided to put two recent posts back in draft. I feel to be getting the hits which I'm getting today and the reason for them that to leave those posts up would be in poor taste.

I just received a call from the HR manager at my company. He had just heard on the radio that Linda Trivisonno, wife of Mike Trivisonno, had passed away. I just want those to know that I will be in prayer for Mike and his family. More about this at Ohio Media Watch, a very heartfelt and excellent post . Here's a link to the WTAM website with more info . Cliff Note: 03/09/10 Here is a link to the Triv page at WTAM.com with information for Triv's benefit show. Proceeds go to the Ireland Cancer Center in Linda's name.

I am upset because my Cleveland Indians decided to have another fire sale. Mark Shapiro traded Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco for four suspects, err, prospects. This means that the Tribe continues in it's ways of being the farm system for the rest of Major League Baseball. This means that the next major fire sale should occur about 2013. I decided that I should show my disdain by changing my profile photo. The cap I'm wearing has the number 14 on it. That is Sprint Cup Tony Stewart's number. Tony is one of my favorite drivers and doing much better this year than most had expected. I've been a fan of NASCAR since 2003 and can now understand why the sport has so many fans. In the past 6 years, I've followed NASCAR closer than baseball, mainly because whenever I turn on a race, I know that my favorite drivers will be competing on the same track. So...The change in the profile pic shows my discontent in my favorite baseball team, the whimpering wahoos. GENTLEMEN! START YOU...

Do we really need a law on the books that outlaws texting while driving? Would seem to me that this should fall under common sense. And lest you misunderstand what I'm saying here, I am all in favor of people getting tickets for this very dangerous act. And while we are on the topic of cell phones, I really need to know why they are needed by kids nowadays? I'm sure it causes a distraction in schools and makes some kids who don't have one feel inferior to those who do. I feel if the kids can afford to pay for it themselves then they are entitled to it, but they should be taught some responsibility also. In some cases, parents abdicate some of their responsibilities by giving their preteens cell phones. .....bring back the days when I got detention for chewing gum in algebra class.....

Tonight was the 40th annual Rittman Sleepwalkers parade. There was also an appearance in town by one of my favorite morning show hosts, and fellow blogger, Scott Wynn of WQMX and Scott Wynn's Window fame. I did warn him when the photo was taken for this blog that the last radio people who were photographed for this blog were Paul Rado and Marty Allen, both currently unemployed. However, Scott works for a better company than Paul and Marty did. Even though this year's parade was interrupted by some rain, it was the usual nice parade. In the beginning part of the parade, the best high school marching band around made their appearance. the Rittman Indians Marching Band did their usual fantastic job. One of my usual mistakes is not having enough power in the WIXYcam and my photos were limited. Like I said before, there was some rain during the parade. Caused me to chuckle looking at the kids in attendance chasing after the candy in the rain. I told Scott that it was ironic that we ...

I know how this feels all too well. Karen Jenkins lost her brother yesterday. For those who are unfamiliar with Karen, she writes the blog Karen's Korner , which is in hiatus for the summer. Her husband, Pat writes Pat J knows it all . Please keep the family in your prayers.

To the newer readers of this blog, I want to introduce you to Amelia , of Amel's Realm fame. Amelia had the distinction of being my first European blogging buddy. I met Amelia through my semi inactive Terre Haute, Indiana friends. She has a very bubbly personality and it shows through her blogging. Amelia comes to us from Finland but is a native of Indonesia. She moved to Finland to be with the love of her life Arrtu, or R-2. She does a lot blogging both in English and Finnish. Being one of my facebook friends, I have seen her post both and have teased her about it. Finnish is a language very new to her, but very necessary for her to learn in order to do things as simple as shopping or hold down a job. Now you recovery bloggers will like this. Amelia writes a periodic post entitled 3BT. That stands for 3 Beautiful Things, but there are always more than three. It's a gratitude list that she shares with all who stop by. And like the recovery bloggers, she always describes the mo...

I live in an area of the United States called the rust belt. At one time blue collar work was abundant and the most secure, best paying jobs around were either in the automobile plants or the steel mills. As we now know, that is no longer the case. People now are looking at elected officials to make this a prosperous, productive country again. I'm here to tell you that you cannot legislate prosperity. The hard reality is that true prosperity comes from hard work and dedication. In this age of information, we need to brainstorm and find some better ideas to serve one another. And yes, we need to build a better mousetrap and the world, once again, will beat a path to our door! Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17 As the bible verse implies, we should try to build one another's skills and abilities. We all are capable of ideas that can change our lives and lives of others. It's just that we sometimes need someone to prime our ...

I have posted a request on the Prayer Hubs on behalf of our son, Adam, who lost his job today . Please pray for him and others who need jobs.

Three pigs went into a restaurant and sat at the counter. The first pig asked for a cup of coffee and directions to the men's room. The second pig asked for a cola and directions to the men's room. The third pig asked for a glass of lemonade. When asked why he didn't ask for directions to the men's room, the pig replied that he was the piggy who went wee wee all the way home.

During my lunch break today, I got to writing in one of my spiral notebooks and going through this, and my Whattville blog. I now have a sense of direction for my book. The title, for now, will be Welcome to Whattville . So far I have picked out about a dozen of my poems, some of which will be edited. I plan on giving some background as I introduce the poems. There may be some of my other posts in the upcoming book also. I think I had been going about things the wrong way as I was looking at my posts from the beginning, August 26, 2006. Today I looked at yesterday on back. That's the direction I needed. So soon be on the lookout for Welcome to Whattville , or whatever I decide to call it...

Put your hand in a bucket of water Pull it out, what do you have? You find more of an impression Left on your hand than in the water Walking barefoot in the sand You leave behind a set of footprints The footprints will soon be gone But the sand will still be there The wind blows and it howls It will often cause destruction Strong enough, it can knock you down But you can do nothing to stop it God created the forces of nature He also formed man from dust Before long we return to dust As nature still rolls on.....

Before I started getting ready for bed this evening, I was watching the first few minutes of America's Got Talent. I was treated to a great performance by a trio called the Texas Tenors. Then as the show was going to commercial, I saw some of the things coming up, which included someone getting $100 bills stapled to his face. And a few weeks ago one of the people featured was someone who ate light bulbs. Are we reaching the bottom of the talent barrel and have to scrape it to get anyone to showcase? I then decided that I could better spend my time blogging then studying the inside of my eyelids. I gotta visit some of y'all. It's your talent that I appreciate.

I was looking for a video to post when it occurred to me to find one posted by Videoholic aka Ray Glasser. In case you don't know, Ray is the webmaster of the WIXY/1260 tribute site. You can check it out on my sidebar. If you are a radio fan, especially one from the Cleveland area, you'll love this site. Ray also has several channels on YouTube, videoholic50sthru70s, videoholic80s, and videoholic90s. He has found a great collection of shows to share.

It's probably no secret that most of my posting this past week has been more out of a sense of responsibility than out of my love of communication. You have all reached out to me a lot more than I've reached out to you, and for that I'm grateful. I have also picked up three new followers, one of which has been back several times to check up on me. And the part of this which is becoming the norm here is this person is a recovery blogger. I love all my friends, but the recovery bloggers are building a very special place with me and making me believe that we all need to find a twelve step program tailor made for just us. Cliff Note: I do carry around a copy of the "Big Book" which I bought at the AA headquarters in Akron, Ohio, where AA began . Introducing All's Fair in Love and Alcohol . It's written by Gin, and yes I did think that was rather amusing and ironic. Gin, like others, is a member of Al-Anon. She has quite a broad readership, so I do feel flatte...

I have not been in the mood this past week to get my thoughts together for my Sunday Musing. I apologize for that, but Lord willing the Sunday Musing will be back next week. I do hope to post later today and introduce a new friend.

During this cookout season, let us pause and reflect on the passing of Oscar Meyer at age 95 . Yes, that Oscar Meyer. A semi humorous side note is that Oscar specified that he did not want the Oscar Mayer(the company spelled the last name differently) Weinermobile at his funeral, as he did not want to draw too much attention. My condolences to the family of Oscar Meyer.

We are now in the busy part of the Summer, but you should be keeping your mind sharp and try to read some books. We here at WIXY's Gone Bananas have some books that are guaranteed quick reads: "Tasteful Michael Jackson Jokes" "How to Leave a Good Impression," by Kim Jong Ill "People I Have Made Rich" by Bernie Madoff "Coherent Words Actually Spoken by Ozzie Osbourne" "Things I Have Taught the Bullpen This Season," by Carl Willis, Cleveland Indians pitching coach "The FDA Guide of Foods not Harmful to Eat" Happy reading everybody.

The past couple of days, as I have been mourning the passing of my older brother, Allen, I have come to the realization that I'm one of an extremely small group of people who care. If Allen could communicate now, he would say that he's not proud of some of the things he did in his life, especially to those closest to him. As I have stated in my previous post, there are some who oppose having a memorial service because of some of the things done in his life. A memorial service is given for those who are still here to give them closure. We could all see from the memorial service of note yesterday, that there are those who want to honor how the departed touched their lives. Cliff Note: I did not mention specifics in this paragraph because I did not want the hits from google searches on this topic . Those who read this blog last March remember when my younger brother, Richard, had passed away. Kathy and I had scheduled the memorial service on March 8, which in retrospect was not a ...

In the past 36 hours, several things have surprised me.... First, my reaction when Kathy gave me the news of Allen's passing. If you would have told me even a year ago that I would have been sobbing when I heard that news, I would have replied that you were crazy. I give Allen credit for reaching out to me. The response to my post of two sentences. As of the time I started writing this post, there were 19 comments all in support of me. I thank everyone for all your kind words and prayers. I also want to thank Mike , Jeremy , and Suzie for the prayer request for me and my family on their blogs. And Suzie, aka Clean and Crazy wrote a very nice post for me . I just checked Jeremy's blog and he just reposted one he did in my honor several months ago . I'm very flattered by the prayer requests and also that CNC and Jeremy in posting the tribute posts made it a point to use a tiny bit of my blog language in writing these. Cliff Note, no they don't use the term "Cliff N...

I just received word that my brother, Allen, passed away at 6:00am. Please pray for our family...

You see it all the time: Someone aspires to do something better with their lives and that brings out the "experts." The meanest man in town goes to a revival and accepts Christ. The armchair quarterbacks say that "this won't last." Someone struggling with weight problems announces that they are trying to lose some weight and are asked how many times have they dieted so far? Somebody switches jobs and others predict that this is a decision that they will regret. We hear these predictions all the time. Some don't listen and do fine. Others make the predictors look like Nostradamus. These folks are SNIOP's or Susceptible to the Negative Influence of Other People. I don't know why people want to prevent others of higher accomplishments by making negative accomplishments. Usually these comments are made without any suggestions of how to do it better. If the negative predictions are correct then they are around sometimes to offer up other negative comment...

This is one of my most favorite songs from the eighties. As you enjoy your holiday weekend I want you all to remember that you are ALL friends of mine!

Sixteen months ago, March 4, 2008, was one of the saddest days in my life. 3:07am that day as I was getting ready for work, I received a phone call informing me that my younger brother had just passed away. For the next two weeks afterward, I let all those who read my blog all about my brother Ricky, someone who made the most out of life despite the fact he had physical and developmental disabilities. This afternoon when I left work, I went over to the Hospice of the Western Reserve to visit my older brother, Allen. I was there for about 10 minutes and I'm sure he didn't realize I was there. Allen is one who was provided many tools from God, but spent his life using them improperly. I remember my parents telling me that Allen had a higher than average IQ and he was also a very good mechanic. Through the years Allen worked on my car many times as I'm the complete opposite as a mechanic. I think Allen's worst enemy was himself. He dropped out of school with an 8th grade e...

As I'm writing this post, I'm doing two things I couldn't do 24 hours ago-eat breakfast and get ready for work. As those of you who follow me on Facebook know, yesterday I was knocked flat by an intestinal virus. I'm still not 100%, but I also don't want to burn another day of vacation time. Another thing I also want to share is that my brother isn't doing very good. I received a call from his daughter in law yesterday morning and she told me that he was not responsive at all and his body is starting to shut down. If I'm not here posting in the next few days, this may be the reason. And if you don't hear from me, I wish those in the United States a great holiday weekend. Those who stop by from other places on the globe have a great weekend.