05.17.13
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‘Clearance’ pricing

Well, it looks like Walmart is giving me gibberish, so I’m going to go ahead and give you the story of what  happened yesterday with my webcam.

My prior webcam cost about $5, literally from the checkout line at some dollar store, and, frankly, the video looked like it came from a $5 webcam. A few weeks ago, some stranger left a snarky comment on something I’d posted noting that better webcams are now available.

Last weekend, I wanted to post a video encouraging people to attend the symphony concert, and so instead of using the webcam I held my phone at arm’s length. It worked, but it wasn’t very convenient (and my arm got tired).

I went online to see how much a new webcam would cost. One of the results was from Walmart’s online shopping web site; a Logitech webcam for $13.30. (Remember that price.) A few days later, after payday, I went online and ordered that webcam under Walmart’s “ship-to-store” program, where you save on shipping costs by picking the item up at your local Walmart store. They said that pickup was available as soon as that day, indicating that the store already had the item in stock.

Walmart accepted my order, but then a couple hours later cancelled it, saying that the item wasn’t available at my selected Walmart store.

At lunchtime yesterday, I decided to drop by Walmart and see what they had in terms of webcams. I had been to Walmart a day or two earlier, before payday, and vaguely remembered there being one model on clearance sale.

I found a webcam on a cart with other clearance sale items, marked down from $18 to $15. There were three of them on the cart. It looked like a good little webcam, so I purchased it and brought it home.

It wasn’t until I got the webcam home that I figured out it was the exact same model, the Logitech C110, that I’d attempted to purchase online. My online order was cancelled because the webcam wasn’t in stock for the regular price of $13.30, and yet when I went to the store the item was, in fact, there, for the low, low markdown “clearance” price of $15.

I e-mailed Walmart’s online store, including a scan of my cash register receipt from the brick-and-mortar store, and hoped for an apology or maybe even some credit. This morning, I got an e-mail saying they were reviewing it but basically making the excuse that store pricing and online pricing weren’t necessarily the same. I can understand some variation between the two, but the fact of the matter is that they told me the item was out of stock when it was in stock, and the full retail price online was less than what the store was saying was a marked-down “clearance” price. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Happily, the webcam itself seems to be working well, and it’s a great improvement over the dollar-store model.

Elaine Taylor Piper liked this post
05.15.13
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Harmon on religion

I’m not necessarily recommending that you go and listen to Dan Harmon’s “Harmontown” podcast, because it can be a little profane, and there’s a lot about Harmon’s humor that some people might take the wrong way. But I thought one segment of it was interesting this week.

Harmon, for those who aren’t familiar, is the creator of, among other things, the TV show “Community,” which he ran until the end of last season. He was fired by the producers after various situations including a public feud with one of his stars, Chevy Chase. Chevy eventually left the show this season, even without Harmon around to feud with. That’s not to exonerate Harmon completely; even the description for the podcast describes him as “self-destructive.”

Harmon is not, by his own admission, a religious man. But one theme of “Community” under his watch was tolerance and co-existence among those of different beliefs. The show features a Christian character, a Jewish character, and so on, and there were some episodes that specifically dealt with how they could be friends while holding different beliefs about the world. The Christian character, Shirley, is sometimes portrayed a little stereotypically, but she’s also portrayed with a lot of sympathy.

But Harmon and his podcast co-host, Jeff Davis (whom some of you may remember as an occasional cast member on “Whose Line Is It Anyway”) have no particular love for outspoken atheists like Bill Maher, whom they consider just as dogmatic, unthinking and harmful as some of the worst believers. They have an interesting conversation (joined by comic Kumail Nanjiani) about some of what offends them on both sides – the anti-scientific bent of some fundamentalists, but also the arrogance of some scientists towards others, including other scientists, who choose to believe that some aspects of life are beyond science. Many of the Richard Dawkins class of militant atheists point to various holy wars, inquisitions and so on as proof that religion is harmful, but Harmon says that they’re more about humanity than about religion – and if religion disappeared, those same abuses would go in in the name of some other cause. (“South Park” made much the same point, in an episode set in the future where Dawkins has managed to eliminate religion but where two different atheist organizations are fighting a holy war for supremacy over some arcane point.)

By the way, Harmon responds to the rumor floated last week that he might return to the show now that it’s been picked up for a fifth season and now that Chevy is gone. There’s apparently no such plan in the works. At one point, weeks ago, when the show’s fate was still in question, someone from the studio made a very informal inquiry to Harmon’s agent about whether Harmon would be willing to come back. At the time, Harmon suspects, the studio might have been brainstorming tactics to get the network to renew the show. But nothing ever came of it, and now that the show has already been renewed without Harmon he doesn’t expect there to be any real offer.

Anyway, I’ve warned you that there are aspects of the podcast you might find offensive. But if you want to listen, here’s the web site.

05.14.13
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Another one in the can

It had become a running joke between Dawn Holley and me that this year’s “Symphony at the Celebration” concert was cursed. It seemed everything that could go wrong did go wrong. That was the case in the lead-up to the event, and it was even the case tonight – the “instrument petting zoo” was stuck in rush-hour traffic getting out of Nashville, no one had taken care of the cooler of bottled water for the symphony musicians, and so on and so on.

Our crowd was down – which we were expecting. In fact, we were expecting worse than we got. The date of the concert has to do with when the Symphony is available and when Calsonic Arena is available; the organizing committee doesn’t set the date, we just have to deal with what we’re given. This year’s date was later than normal and conflicted with a couple of other activities that probably cut down on our crowd.

But you know what? It all worked. Everyone had a great time. Once the instrument petting zoo showed up, it was mobbed by kids (and some adults) anxious to try their hands at real-life instruments:

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This young man, by the way, made a point of coming up to both me and Dawn, individually, after the concert and (prompted by his grandmother, but adorable anyway) thanking us for bringing the symphony to town. He shook our hands.

Albert-George Schram and the Nashville Symphony were in fine form, with one of their best programs ever, including selections from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, and an Irish sing-along. My friend and former castmate Joe Rada told me he was in tears during a Puccini medley.

I have to say I teared up a little bit during the traditional finale, “Stars And Stripes Forever,” one of four selections which the symphony played along with the Community High School Band. As always, Maestro Schram asked the piccolo player from the high school band – which, this year, meant a young woman named Victoria Brown, at right in the photo below – to take the solo. (The photo was taken during a pre-concert rehearsal.) Over the past seven years, seven Bedford County high school students have had the opportunity to solo with the Grammy-Award-winning Nashville Symphony. That’s a memory they’ll treasure forever. symphony4

The Community band, led by Jimmy Bratcher, sounded fine both playing along with the symphony and playing on their own just before intermission. A brass ensemble composed of both Community students and alumni played during intermission and during the pre-concert period.

I’m proud to say that all three of our public high schools have great band programs. My own alma mater, Cascade High School, didn’t have band when I was a student, but they won a statewide award last year. We rotate among the three high schools, and it will be Cascade’s turn in 2014, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

As I said, our crowd was down a little, but everyone who did attend seemed to have a really good time. I heard lots and lots of positive comments, and the crowd’s energetic applause made it clear they were having a good time. I am tired – I ran up higher numbers on my Fitbit today than I have in some time – but happy. What a wonderful night.

C Don Ladd, Dawn Lambert Holley liked this post
05.13.13
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In sight it must be right

Double-Steakburger-with-CheeseI’m a sucker for signing up for restaurant e-mail lists, the kind that occasionally send you coupons. Most will send you some kind of coupon for your birthday, and the one for Steak ‘N Shake is actually pretty nice – a free double steakburger with cheese, plus fries. I love Steak ‘N Shake, and don’t get over there as often as I’d like.

Well, I had to go to Murfreesboro tonight for a planning meeting for a big United Methodist laity event that’s taking place in June. We met at the lovely home of the Rev. De Hennessy. I’m going to be one of three people delivering brief messages on the theme of the event.

Anyway, you had better believe that once I was done with the meeting I headed for Steak ‘N Shake to use my coupon (which fortunately, doesn’t have to be used on the exact date of your birthday – it was good until the end of the month). They were quite crowded tonight, but there was one seat left at the counter. If you’ve never watched the grill man at Steak ‘N Shake, you’ve missed a show. He lays out two or three rows of little puck-shaped nuggets of ground beef, and then, spatulas blazing, flattens them out as they cook. The chain’s legacy slogan, “In sight it must be right,” referred to the fact that you could watch  your food being prepared.

I had my free burger and fries, and happily paid for a cherry limeade to go with them. It was all delicious.

A previous mayor of Shelbyville actually called Steak ‘N Shake corporate headquarters during her term to try to talk them into putting a store here. I don’t think they put too many in towns our size, and she was unsuccessful, but I’d have been right there on opening day.

05.12.13
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The briner things in life

I don’t cook pork chops often, but I found some beautiful thick ones yesterday at United Grocery Outlet. I brined them all afternoon and cooked them in a cast iron skillet last night – searing them on each side with a little sprinkle of Tony Chachere’s, then covering the skillet, throwing in some diced onions and cranking it down to low to cook them through.

I have to say, the brining worked perfectly. Last night’s chop was moist and tasty, and so was the second chop that I’m eating right now, straight out of the fridge, for lunch.

Jan Schilling, Sharon Kay Edwards liked this post
05.10.13
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It’s a conspiracy against me

My tastes in music are eclectic, but I’ve always professed that my two favorite musical talents are Randy Stonehill and Terry Scott Taylor, both of whom I grew to love when I was in college. Randy, who goes back to the very early days of contemporary Christian music in the 1970s, is a singer-songwriter. Terry is the focal point of two overlapping bands, one called Daniel Amos (also known as DA) and the other called the Swirling Eddies, and he’s in a third band, Lost Dogs, and also releases solo albums. I still remember going with friends to see Randy Stonehill and Daniel Amos as a double bill in, I think, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, while a student at Oral Roberts University.

Two or three years later, when I was a senior in the spring of 1984, I was vice president in charge of student activities for the ORU Student Association. Our concert chair, Mike Rapp, brought in Randy on a double bill with Mark Heard (another favorite of mine, who died tragically young). I’ve told this story before, but I’m telling it again. I intended to sit next to Randy at the after-concert meal, and meet someone who was already one of my musical heroes.

Well, Randy ended up going through one of those airport-hell trips on his way to Tulsa – delays, missed connections, everything that could possibly go wrong. He arrived exhausted. Then, we had to tell him that, because of an arcane ORU rule, we wouldn’t be able to hand out flyers for Compassion International, a worthy charity with which Randy was closely affiliated and which he promoted at all of his concerts. Randy probably had every right to object or make a scene. He didn’t. He was the perfect gentleman. He gave a great concert – I guarantee, no one in the audience had any idea how tired he was – and stayed down front afterward to talk to anyone who wanted to talk to him. He behaved exactly as you would hope a Christian artist would behave. It’s so nice to meet one of your heroes and have them live up to your high expectations.

Needless to say, and quite understandably, he didn’t stick around for the after-concert dinner, and so I didn’t get the chance to have any sort of conversation with him. I met Mark Heard, and asked him a question which I realized as soon as I heard it coming out of my mouth was ridiculously stupid.

I saw Randy one other time in concert, a few years after college, when he was at the War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Nashville. I only saw DA in concert that one time.

OK, let’s jump to 2011. After not having toured in years, DA books a few dates, including one in Smyrna. Smyrna! But they failed to check with me on the scheduling, and managed to book the concert during one of the two weeks that summer when I was at Camp Cumberland Pines at Mountain T.O.P.’s Adults In Ministry program. By a strange coincidence, my roommate in camp that week was devoted Mountain T.O.P. volunteer “Smitty” Smith, a member of the very church in Smyrna where DA was performing.

Now, it’s 2013. Randy Stonehill was scheduled to appear May 18 and 19 at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville as part of the “One Way Experience,” a sort of CCM nostalgia event also featuring Chuck Girard, Michael Omartian, Evie and The Archers. For my birthday, my wonderful sister, Elecia, gave me a ticket to the May 18 concert….

… which has now been cancelled, for some unannounced reason.

I can’t win.

05.06.13
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Back with the kids

I was out sick last Monday and had to miss my weekly time at Learning Way Elementary, so I looked forward to it  even more this week.

I was gratified to see how eager the kids were to be picked by Ms. Aymett to be in my group.

I’m feeling much better this week, but still coughing quite a bit – I’ve still got some chest congestion that I’m getting rid of. Anyway, between that and the fact that I’m just generally fat and out of shape, I was a little sweaty when I got to Ms. Aymett’s class this morning.

“You’re sweating, Mr. Carney,” said one of the kids, as we played Double Duel.  “I thought you were crying, but you’re sweating.”

We had a great time with the game. Just as last time, the air was filled with various comical buzzer sounds even when the kids weren’t buzzing in with an answer. But it was OK.

In Ms. Hester’s class, we worked with a little booklet about scientists which compared them to detectives. The cover of the booklet had a caricature of a man in a deerstalker cap.

“What’s that thing he’s holding?”

“That’s  a pipe,” I responded. “Smoking is bad, but that’s a pipe. That drawing is supposed to look like a famous detective named Sherlock Holmes.”

The kids reacted to the book, which was nice. One was disappointed that it wasn’t about a real detective. Another asked how the man in one of the pictures could be looking at dinosaur tracks when dinosaurs lived a long, long time ago, leading me to try to explain how fossils exist.

At the end, we were supposed to do a Venn diagram showing the overlap between scientists and detectives, but just as soon as I had the kids mark the two circles I realized it was time for me to leave.

I’ve only got a week or two more of this before school ends; I need to figure out exactly what the schedule is. I’ll miss it this summer.

Check and see if there’s a program like this in your community. If you’re in Tennessee, you can contact your local United Way and ask about the “Raise Your Hand Tennessee” program. Now’s a good time to volunteer to do this starting in the fall. Reading with kids, whether it’s in a big group, a small group or one-on-one, can make a huge difference in the education process. It can also be personally rewarding.

05.05.13
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Whiskey a no-go

In one of my posts about jerky-making a few weeks ago, I said that my favorite brand of commercial jerky seasoning, which I primarily use for making ground meat jerky, is Hi Mountain seasonings.  I happened to run across another brand, Eastman Outdoors, which came in a smaller, less-expensive package, and I had a PayPal credit which paid for part of the cost. I ordered a box of the Whiskey Pepper  flavor from an eBay seller.

I am not impressed, and there’s no need for me to revise or update my original recommendation.

I have several problems with this stuff:

* You would think a product being sold as “whiskey pepper” would have any whiskey flavor at all. I couldn’t find any – but the directions suggest adding a small amount of whiskey when making the jerky, something that wasn’t made clear in the product description. Made without the whiskey, the “whiskey pepper” flavor tasted like neither, and was bland an uninteresting. You’d be much better off, not only with Hi Mountain, but with the generic seasoning that comes with and is sold next to dehydrators.

* The online description says the 2-ounce package seasons 5 pounds of meat. (The actual box says “up to” 5 pounds.) The directions have two different charts for ground meat – one giving you the proportions for a “mild flavor” version, the other for a “full flavor” version. If you use the latter – and I did – you only have enough seasoning to do four pounds, and you have a little cure left over. But if this was the “full flavor” version, the mild flavor must be indistinguishable from cardboard.

* Confusingly, the charts for making the mild flavor version are all based on doing all five pounds of meat at once, while the charts for making the full flavor version are based on a pound at a time.

Skip the Eastman Outdoors product and buy the Hi Mountain product instead. It seasons up to 15 pounds of meat. I’ll have to try their “bourbon barbecue” flavor now and see how it stacks up.

Forgot to add: I’m making another batch today, but with a heavy addition of a jalapeno pepper sauce, which is likely to be the predominant flavor.
05.02.13
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Duel In The Sun

“Duel In The Sun” (1946) comes on in prime time on TCM tonight. Whether or not you consider it a good or bad movie may depend on your own personal preferences, but it’s famous as a disappointment.

You see, it’s the first epic-scale movie David O. Selznick produced after World War II, which means it was considered his followup to a movie he’d made in 1939, right before the war. You may have heard of it: “Gone With The Wind.” Obviously, anything would pale in comparison to “Gone With The Wind.”

The movie also takes some criticism for the performance of Jennifer Jones. Selznick was enamored of Jones – in fact, they were married. She was a popular classic-era star, and has her fans even today, but she doesn’t really have the charisma to carry this movie the way Vivien Leigh carried … well, you know. This movie, like GWTW, has some cheesy, over-the-top melodramatic elements. GWTW was strong enough to make you overlook those; “Duel” … isn’t, really.

The movie has a western setting as contrasted with the Civil War setting of GWTW. Jones, a mixed-race foster child, is at the center of a love triangle between two men – idealistic Joseph Cotten and nasty, self-centered criminal Gregory Peck. In a plot reminiscent of “King Lear,” father Lionel Barrymore disowns Cotten while continuing to forgive and enable Peck’s bad behavior.

Definitely worth seeing if you’ve never done so, if only for the curiosity / film history aspect of it.

04.30.13
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Andy Dick

I was one of the estimated  3-5 people who watched “The Ben Stiller Show” in its original run on the FOX network. Although it won an Emmy, it was the lowest-rated show on network TV at the time. I thought it was brilliant, and looked forward to it every week. It was a sketch comedy show, in which Stiller (who’d had an even lesser-known show on MTV) was joined by Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and Andy Dick. Here are the opening credits:

All four of the stars went on to bigger and better. Stiller, of course, became a movie star. Garofalo has found fame in a number of different areas, from movie star to political pundit, and was great on “The Larry Sanders Show” on HBO. Odenkirk and one of “The Ben Stiller Show”’s other writers, David Cross, created what may be the second-greatest sketch comedy show of all time (behind “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”), “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” which also aired on HBO. Dick was on a hit sitcom, “Newsradio,” but even before the death of co-star Phil Hartman sent that show on a sad march to cancellation, Dick was already starting to get into legal trouble for substance abuse and for other charges, including indecent exposure and sexual abuse.

Dick’s troubles have been comic fodder. Chris Kattan used to impersonate Dick occasionally on “Saturday Night Live,” having the comedian say outrageous and embarassing things as if he were high or drunk. As recently as this Monday, David Letterman’s Top Ten list was “Top Ten Things You Don’t Want To See In An Online Dating Profile,” and number one was “Twice, with Andy Dick.”

I’m an occasional follower of “Dancing With The Stars,” although I don’t claim to be able to appreciate the nuances of dance and often just have the program on as background noise while doing something on the computer. When I first heard that Andy Dick was going to be in this season’s cast, I was skeptical.

But as soon as the very first episode, I was impressed. You can’t fool yourself about your ability to judge people through a TV screen, especially on a reality show where the producers are skilled at portraying people as angels or demons. But I’ve really been won over by Andy Dick. He really does seem to have a sense of what he was, why it was wrong, and what the stakes are for his family as he tries to make his way in the sober world. I immediately started rooting for him.

As admitted, I’m not necessarily one to be able to judge the nuances of dance. I don’t usually vote, and I have to admit that when I do vote it’s sometimes because I like the contestant. A few seasons back, a disfigured Army veteran named J.R. Martinez – an authentic American hero, who serves as a motivational speaker and advocate for other disabled veterans – was in the finals against one of the Kardashians and the former host of one of the sleazier and more voyeuristic daytime talk shows. According to the judges, J.R. was a worthy finalist – but even if he hadn’t been, he could have sat in a folding chair for three minutes and called it a dance routine and I would still have voted for him. (Happily, I was not alone – he won.)

Each season on “Dancing With The Stars,” there’s a sympathy contestant – someone who, based solely on the judges’ scores, would have been eliminated in the first or second week, but who sticks on for a while based on audience goodwill. One year it was Cloris Leachman, for example. You couldn’t help but root for her. Eventually, as the field narrows and the serious dance followers have fewer options among which to choose, the serious vote overcomes the goodwill vote and the axe finally falls.

Andy Dick was more serious about the competition than most such “sympathy contestants,” and did get some occasional respect from the judges, but this week his luck ran out. Last night he and his dance partner, Sharna Burgess, tried to recreate a dance routine so familiar and classic even I recognized it. As soon as Andy came out wearing that yellow vest, I thought, “He looks like Gene Kelly in the ‘Broadway Melody Ballet’ from ‘Singin’ In The Rain.’” Sure enough, there was Sharna, posed with her leg up and Andy’s straw hat teetering on her shoe just like Kelly’s hat teetered on the toe of Cyd Charisse. Whoever had the idea that Andy would look good trying to imitate Gene Kelly was really, really mistaken. That was a huge miscalculation and resulted in abysmal scores from the judges. It may very well have been responsible for sending Andy home tonight. I’d been watching a repeat of “The Dust Bowl” on PBS tonight, but I turned over just in time to hear them call Andy’s name as the contestant going home.

All of the eliminated DWTS contestants seem to be good sports, and Andy Dick was no exception. I really felt for him, though. I’ve never struggled with substance abuse (except food), but I have friends who have, and I’m in awe of the way they have to face each new day. Andy really seemed to want to do well in this competition. Host Tom Bergeron mentioned in Andy’s exit interview that Tom’s been peppered with questions about, and support for, Andy wherever he goes. I hope that’s what Andy will take with him, and I hope he uses this experience, and the new connection he’s made with the public, to go on to something productive, and funny. He’s got the talent to be a great entertainer.