Dave Kearns

Ed McMahon died today, seemingly the last link to a gentler, softer time on TV and in the media generally. In a very nice obit in the New York Daily News (Of all places!) David Hinckley writes:

“As host of ‘Star Search,’ he kept the show moving, kept the mood upbeat, never did anything to call attention to himself.

To appreciate how that style of hosting shaped ‘Star Search,’ consider ‘American Idol’ – which is basically the same show, but so tarted up with attitude that it seems to come from a different universe.”

Au revoir, Ed. We will miss you.

Google today unveiled new images to use with iGoogle. The post announcing this said, in part, “At its core, iGoogle is about personal expression.” But if that were really true I could use my own photos in the header, wouldn’t you think?

neuschwanstein_4300

Originally uploaded by Maimeo

Mad Ludwig’s castle that “inspired” Walt Disney to create Cinderella’s castle. This shot, from the Marienbrucke (Mary’s Bridge) above the castle is one of my favorites from our trip to Bavaria in 2008.

British Airways has some verygood pluses – World Traveler Plus, for example: extra seat and leg-room for only a bit more cash in your own seperate compartment with (usually) no kids. There’s also the uniformly competent, unflappable staff and crew. But their processes are often in the minus column.

We recently flew to Munich for a conference and chose BA because they offered a free stopover in London (with 2 hotel nights thrown in) – a very good deal. But after booking the non-refunable, non-changable fare I discovered that I needed to be in Munich somewhat earlier than the flight provided for. I asked (via email) about changing only the LHR-MUC leg. I was told it couldn’t be done, so I replied that it should be cancelled (with no refund) and I’d simply book an earlier flight (one way) for that leg. It went well, the conference went well. Everything, in fact, went well until the day before the flight home.

With BA, you can only check-in (and choose seats) 24 hours before you fly. So early on Friday morning (it was a Saturday, 7:10 AM flight) I logged on to the BA website and tried to check in. I couldn’t. I was told our tickets were cancelled!

We later figured out that the unused LHR-MUC tickets weren’t, in fact, cancelled. But when we didn’t check in for that flight the ENTIRE rest of our trip was cancelled! Even though BA knew (from my email) that we wouldn’t be on that flight because we were taking an earlier one – also on BA, same names, passports, etc. Not hard to verify!

So we head to the airport to rectify the situation. After 30 minutes or so with customer service, I’m assured that our tickets have been re-instated (see above about BA staff). We go back to the hotel, having killed almost three hours of the only day I allowed for “tourist” activity. Still couldn’t check in, but at least the “cancelled” was removed and the message simply said we needed to check in at the airport.

Went to the airport Saturday morning – very early Saturday morning – and tried to use the self-service kiosk.Again the message comes up “further information needed, please see an agent.” OK, we get in line and eventually get to the counter. Hand over our passports and say we’re on the 7:10 flight to LHR and continuing on to SFO. “Sorry sir,” the clerk says, “you’re not listed on that flight.”

I give him the booking number which does bring up the record (and shows we’re on that flight) but we’re still not on the manifest. More time passes, phone calls are made, keyboards are worked hard and – voila! – we get boarding passes!!

Through security, out to the gate, call the flight, go up to the door, and – the scanner rejects my boarding pass. More keyboarding, phone calling and (on my part) under-breathe swearing. The problem is eventually cleared and we can board the plane and go home. Of course, there’s still the idiocy of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to put up with…

…in Detroit that make stupid, bonehead decisions. Now the city’s two newspapers have decided to cut back on home delivery – by not delivering on MOST days.

The Detroit Free Press will deliver on Thursday, Friday & Sunday while the Detroit News will deliver Thursday & Friday.

They’ll still publish a print edition on the other days, just not deliver it.

They’re hoping to devote the ’saved resources’ to the on-line editions. No word, though, on how they’ll serve lower income, and other non-connected, citizens. But it isn’t just the non-connected.

Should my daily paper (the San Jose Mercury News) do something as ridiculous they can pretty much count on not getting another penny out of me – either for a random home delivery, a newsstand copy or an on-line one. The San Francisco Chronicle or the Palo Alto Daily News would be the beneficieries of the Merc’s poor judgement.

What WERE they thinking?!?

Tried Xanh tonight, for the first time (it’s on Castro in Mountain View, CA) – outstanding! This is no Vietnamese noodle shop, but shows all of the style and grace of the best Franco-Vietnamese establishments. Best we’ve had in a number of years!

The crispy egg roll and crispy shrimp roll were fine, my Miso Salmon over coconut rice and Anne’s Crab with Glass Noodles were head and shoulders above the best Thai & Chinese establishments. And, of course, the ambience is simply elegant. At least, as elegant as you can get on Castro.

We enjoyed a bottle of Gewurztraminer from New Zealand’s Bird vineyards along with it. Just an excellent meal.

I’m watching the Penguins play the Sabres (it’s on NBC TV) – they’re outside, in the snow, in Buffalo. It’s everything we always imagined ‘pond hockey‘ could be – but with real nets and boards! As the late Bob Johnson (former Penguin coach) would say, “It’s a GREAT day for hockey!”

Had an earthquake just after 8 PM last night, 5.6 on the richter scale, the biggest in this area since the Loma Prieta (a.k.a., the “world series quake”) quake in 1989. There was little damage from this one, though, which had an epicenter near Alum Rock, about 11.5 miles due east of here.

We’d just finished dinner, I was starting the dishwasher and Anne Mary was wiping down the table. But the table started vibrating, and the kitchen counter started jumping! It lasted 25-30 seconds – fairly long for a mid-level quake – and was felt all over the area, from Monterey to Marin.

There were numerous small aftershocks for the next few hours, just enough to rock me to sleep.

I guess, after 6 years, we’re real Californians now.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the official start of the space age – the day in October, 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik, the breadbox-sized (18″ in diameter) first artificial satellite in space.

This was the height of the cold war (we were still having air-raid drills in school) and this major win for the Russians could be foretelling their ultimate victory over the western capitalist societies. At least, that’s what our parents were talking about. To me and my contemporaries (I was in the 7th grade at the time) it was simply “neat-o” stuff. Our talk was about how we would all finally go into space someday. We would all be Buck Rogers, or Flash Gordon, or Commando Cody.

Four months later, the US launched Explorer I and the race to land on the moon was on in earnest.

We’ve come a very long way in 50 years. We’ve explored almost all of the planets in our own “backyard” and launched deep space probes which may only be relevant to our descendants. Watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon in 1969 was my biggest thrill (so far) of the space age, but the launch of Sputnik has to be #2 on the list.