YES WE CAN GET DIRECTV INSTALLED HERE! HOPE...That I can CHANGE the CHANNEL to red ESPN on screen, and I can pause and CHANGE to Craig Ferguson on Channel 3! YES! WE! CAN! (Just be lucky I didn't do McCain's "Stand Up/Fight" from the RNC.)
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I’ve been away from the D.C. Metro Area about a month, now, and things are starting to settle down. Tomorrow, I hope to have the DirecTV install (finally) done, and see more and star recording things. Anyway, once I left Maryland for good, the Orioles start winning. For a change. Gee, thanks.
This brings me to the saga of two guys who lost today—one lost his job; another, his mind, and then life.
A man named James Lee walked into the headquarters of Discovery Communications—yes, home of the Discovery Family of Networks—and held people hostage for several hours, after posting a ranting manifesto on a webpage. According to Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy, Lee wanted to go on the air and rant about what he felt was the declining quality of the networks programming. Hell, I’ve talked about that in the Vent-Hole the last year and a half! But in all honesty? I could give a damn. If Discover wants to go down the pot-hole road of airing vapid reality shows featuring fame whores and The Palin? So be it, but I won't be watching. In that, he had a point.
In rolling up to the HQ at Silver Spring (that's singular Spring, not plural--pet peeve of mine) and taking people by gunpoint, writing ranty screeds and making threats? Not so much. And no, I don't care that he was an environmentalist, allegedly. The only thing that matters is the man was mental--"enviro" had little to do with what he was doing.
And I’m not trying to be snarky at all as I write this, because as of 4:48pm, the cops shot him dead. It’s clear—the man was mentally not there, and needed some serious help that wasn’t provided to him. Nonetheless, there were some, shall we say, professional writers who took to the Twitter and started making jokes.
Ahem, not funny, dude. And WAY TOO SOON.
Now do you see why sometimes I just check out and unplug for a while? And why sometimes you should also? Well, none of you in the Vent-Hole, anyway.
So let us pivot from that, and into the other loser: former Cincinnati Reds closer and now former MASN analyst for the Washington Nationals, Rob Dibble.
His offense might be reported as being fired for saying some dumb crap about Stephen Strasburg—last week, when Strasburg hurt his arm, Dibble took to SiriusXM airwaves and sort of called the kid a punk. Later, it came out that Strasburg needed Tommy John surgery, thus making Dibble look like a total ass. MASN suspended him this weekend, and let him go today.
Now, that doesn’t sound like plausible cause for firing an analyst—many of them have said asinine things, and that was no different. I wouldn’t have fired him for that, necessarily. Except this guy already had a huge strike against him.
Earlier in the month, Dibble took to the air and made these comments:
"Those ladies right behind there, they haven't stopped talking the whole game," Rob Dibble said in the sixth inning of Wednesday night's Nats broadcast. "They have some conversation going on. Right here," he said, circling the offenders. "There must be a sale tomorrow going on here or something....Their husbands are going man, don't bring your wife next time."
There’s more to that…but you kinda get the drift, eh? He did apologize for that, as he apologized (sort of) for his Strasburg rant...but when your frickin' color analyst is The Story of your Baseball Organization, and not the club on the field? You're probably saying too much.
The irony? This is what he told the local media upon the announcement of his becoming a color analyst with Washington:
"My playing days ended in 1996, and I left it on the field," Dibble said. "On the air, with some of my jobs if I'm asked to be a goof, that was my job. When I'm asked to be a color guy doing baseball, the story is not about me. It's about the players on the field. It's their time. There's no 'nasty boy'; there's not going to be an 'edgy guy.' You're just going to get honest and fair opinions from me."--Dibble, The Washington Times (which is still in business...somehow) April 2009
Yeah, well…
I think we have to rule this FAIL.
So, anything wacky happen to you today?
Jerry Springer, the former Democratic Mayor of Cincinnati, OH, former Ohio gubernatorial candidate, cheap-ass backyard wrestling show host (yes, I'm editorializing), former Dancing with the Gets contestant, former Air America radio host, and...former host of America's Got Talent...is on Craig Ferguson's show tonight. Whew...
After that intro...it's time for some highlights from last night's shoe.
What happened to this guy, and that show? Does it still air?
BUM-DA-DADADA-BUM-DE-BUM-DE-BUM-DA-DADADA-BUM-DE-BUM-DE-DADADADADADADADADADADA...
Hey look! It's...that guy from...Nash Bridges which was on forever on CBS!
Laura Lippman:
Okay...I must close with: