Goodbye Captain

I was saddened to read about the death of Lou Albano recently. Lou was most famous for his appearances in a Cyndi Lauper music video but made his living in the world of professional wrestling. Back in the '70's pro wrestling wasn't the huge juggernaut of the current WWE but was still very much a fringe entertainment. It was even hard to find on television back then since the "sport' was often relegated to UHF channels that were hard to tune into as opposed to the regular over-the-air stations that had the monopoly of programming before the age of cable. As my friend Roger said to me recently, before the WWE, wrestlers weren't all the steroid-built hulks of today but in large part were just a bunch of fat guys from New Jersey. Enter Lou Albano. Like Freddie Blassie and The Grand Wizard of Wrestling Lou's role was a manager of various villain wrestlers such as Ivan Koloff, the Valiant Brothers and the Wild Samoans. Lou's modus operandi was being totally off the wall during matches and interviews. I think what appealed to us about wrestling when we were kids - and of course we knew it was fake - was the sheer wackiness of it all and it was kind of cool to follow something that was out of the mainstream. Being a manager of a bunch of "bad guys" is not a role to aspire to, but the self proclaimed Captain sure made me laugh a lot.

NFL keeps blacking out

Whether you're a football fan or not, the NFL is one of the strongest brands around. Just look at how Fantasy football has become such a big business (I've been in a league for 17 years now) so much so that the NFL has gotten in on the action with its own fantasy game to further generate interest in pro football. There's a disconnect however as far as the NFL's policy of blacking out games in local markets if a particular game hasn't sold out as pointed out in a recent posting in Tech Dirt. Game blackouts might have made some sense back in the day when there was no cable TV and internet and the media wasn't as everywhere as it is now. However, by restricting fan's access to seeing their favorite teams - then and now - is the NFL increasing or decreasing interest in its product? With ticket sales down this year, the league seems to be shooting itself in the foot by continuing this outdated policy. Let's face it, the NFL is a sport that has evolved based on television anyway, with instant replays and its use by the game officials to make close calls, breaks in the action for commercials, etc. There will always be fans that enjoy going to games and ones that would rather watch the action from home or a bar with friends. Rather than fight this reality, the NFL should embrace it and find ways of getting people to games other than depriving those who want to continue their team loyalty via TV, mobile or the web.

RIP Dominick Dunne

Almost lost in the Ted Kennedy news coverage was the death of Dominick Dunne. Dominick was a writer who reported on high profile criminal trials, most notably O.J. Simpson's. I always enjoyed his articles in Vanity Fair and would make a point to watch any of his television appearances that I came across. He had a no nonsense style and made no bones about his bias toward the victims of the cases he wrote about, no doubt stemming from the fact that his daughter's killer got away with less than 3 years of jail time. Mostly though, I admired his tenacity. He went against his doctor's orders last year when he was very ill and insisted on covering O.J.'s kidnapping trial. And he re-invented himself as a writer after a failed career as a Hollywood movie producer. He really told it as he saw it and that's what ultimately made him so influential and popular.

Word Power

Reader's Digest has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy so it looks like yet another venerable American Magazine is biting the big one. Not that I was ever a fan of the publication (it's a bit too right of center for my tastes) but whenever I think of Reader's Digest I think of my grandparents who were long time subscribers. Visiting them in their apartment in Jamaica Queens was my only exposure to the magazine and I can picture it now, lying there on their coffee table. I came to enjoy testing my language skills with the Word Power section that was my favorite feature (and really the only part of the magazine I paid much attention to). Sure, I can sign up and play the quiz on the Reader's Digest website now but it is, of course, not the same experience. My grandparents and visits to their home in Queens are long gone and now so too is their favorite magazine. I'd like to think that in addition to the fond memories I have of them, I can truly say that it pays to enrich your word power.