Sunday, May 31, 2015

Election guy.... Brian Williams...and...YOUR NEW ANCHOR! (already with NBC NEWS)


 .....OK...good decision Andrew!

.....Keep Brian Williams....but where to put him.
How about naming him CHIEF NBC NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT?
Let him lead the coverage for the new President...he knows those running and he'll work hard and stay out of trouble.
                           ______________________________
DAVID GREGORY..... .....Your next anchor.
I found him...right in the heart of your "cast" lineup for the Today Show.  He's perfect...already WELL known...believable....experienced and RATEABLE.

.....He can take over the chair Monday and beat both CBS and ABC who basically have weak anchors.  (Cmon...they aren't  Cronkite or Peter Jennings!)

.....Yes...I know he hosts MEET THE PRESS but he'd give that away for the Anchor Job you can  bet!

New Anchor...David Gregory
Williams & Gregory

stanmajor@aol.com

NEW REPORT: Brian Williams...NO ANCHOR ...will stay with NBC?...


        .....BREAKING NEWS

NBC TRYING TO KEEP BRIAN WILLIAMS...FIND HIM ANOTHER ROLE THAN MAIN ANCHOR.

click below for latest:


http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/31/media/brian-williams-nbc-future/

so just eat all the chocolate you want...and need



                                                                                                                            repost
...Here’s a personal story.
About 10 years or so ago...I walked to the mailboxes in the apartment complex where I live(and still do) and I took my key and stopped cold. I paused...and paused....and then got scared as hell.
    I didn’t know what to do next!
Finally...it came to me...use the key...get the mail.
I was shaken and stirred...and I went back to my computer and started to search everything I could find on that awful word we all worry about: "alzheimer’s".
At the time the hot research in Europe said one vitamin “E” and one vitamin “C” taken separately each day had proved to be effective so I got on that program and have been on it since.
And now comes this news.  All I had to do was eat a bunch of chocolate each day and that would have worked!

Here’s the info...enjoy yourself:


                                             --------------------------

and now that you’ve devoured all the chocolate you can for your “memory”...you’ll need this:

New Wearable Fitness Tracker Debuts at just $1 a Month
Life Tracker 1, a new wristband from a startup, charges just $1 a month to track your physical life, from sleep quality to calories burned, hydration to goals met.

now that’s a deal...here’s more about it:


...just trying to help folks!

stanmajor@aol.com

Nick Clooney had good taste....but then so does George!

Nick Clooney's movie crush!

   ....Sometimes things come back from out of the past that I had forgotten.  Since this directly involves the Clooney’s...I thought you’d get a kick out of it.  I know George will.... if he ever wises up that I’ve written tons of stuff about his Dad on this blog.
    The big deal movie “Helen of Troy” came out while we were in Germany and Nick wanted to see it...so we rounded up as many guys from our gang who wanted to go and we went to the military movie house near the big airport in Frankfurt.
    Nick came out of the theater crazy mad about Rossana Podesta who had the female lead as Helen.  Bardot was in it also...I liked her better.
Nick carried on for days about her and it was a real screen crush.  I know because I felt that way about Meg Ryan for a few years after French Kiss. (No...not “Sleepless” I said French Kiss.
    So if anyone who reads this knows Nick ask him about it.  He’ll get a kick out of it.
    Or...you could tell George...that would be nice.  Of course I can just pick up the phone and call him....right.  Sure. Sorry..don’t have the number handy.
                            _______________________

    I love these “come on” new car ads...that try to trick you into thinking you CAN actually pay just $129 a month to drive a new (fill-in the name here)
    Oh...by the way...you get that low rate because you gotta give them a huge down payment of...let’s say $3,000!
Also.....I really love it when they say “no down payment” and then in small...very small print say: $2,999 due at signing.
    These guys never wise up.
        ____________________________
Ok...time to bring you up to date on the trio of missing females on this blog.
First...Christy.  Still not back at the job where I found her...still no email of “hello”.  Maybe she did go into that convent.
    Meg the female cop lookie like.  Never heard from her and I still won’t chase her down...she’d love to arrest me.
Finally...the Kate Middleton look a like.  Never showed up at the Publlx supermarket where I saw and talked to her.
Yes...I am three for three a failure.

    Oh those two “late flying north” Whistle Ducks I saw here about two weeks ago apparently liked their brief stop over and then kept going back north where they belong this time of year.


stanmajor@aol.com
   



Saturday, May 30, 2015

Guns but NO bullets! and....THAT FINISH LINE AD.....If you haven't seen it...do so now!.

Old Beverly Hills P.O.
     ...A gun...but no bullets!

Twice in my life in the line of work I was handed a gun to
guard something...but given NO ammo!

....the first was that News Years eve in the Army in Germany when I had to guard Hitler’s airport.
    We were all standing up drunk and the Sergeant was NOT gonna give us a clip for our M-1’s.

                      ___________________________

    The second was more interesting and quite controversial.
    While working for the Postal Service (US) in Beverly Hills, Ca I was told to make the “airport run”. I would be giving the day’s “certified” mail ...usually in a large pouch...and a hand gun but NO bullets.
    The mail was to be guarded because businesses cent cash able checks and money orders and even plain cash this way.
    So...on the trip to and from LAX and Beverly Hills I had plenty of time to think about the consequences of this.  They told me to leave the gun on the passenger seat so it would be visible.
    Something like that could result in my death of course so I wondered about it.
    I thought maybe I’ll just hide the gun..that way they won’t be tempted to blow me away. And the boss will never know I did it. (unless they killed me and he found the gun in the glove compartment! 
   
    Well...to late to fire me, right!

Fun and games with un-loaded weapons!
                            ______________________

 

Have you seen this ad?  Click and get the tissues

    click below:

http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/124-finish-line


 Wow...you're welcome!

stanmajor@aol.com

Hurricane WILMA was a blast!

Wilma aiming at me!
                                                                                                                                   repost
        Hurricanes that come in from the Atlantic Ocean toward south Florida don’t seem to cause the massive destruction and loss of life (except Andrew) and I’ve been thru several of those when I was living here on and off since the 1970’s.
      Wilma in 2005 was different.  Wilma was another category 5 just like Andrew but she circled around the keys into the Gulf Of Mexico and made a sharp right turn across the Everglades toward the western suburbs of Ft. Lauderdale.
      Laurie and I had split by this time and I was living in a nice apartment about a mile from the Everglades and there was nothing to stop the storm from blasting us pretty good.
       I wasn’t doing a show at the time so I could devote my full attention into being safe and secure for myself and my kitty.  Actually he took it pretty good but he doesn’t like loud noise and he heard a lot of that for a couple of days and nights!
      My apartment is on some water...a small lake and the winds were blowing the water onto the patio.  That was unusual.
      The strong firedoor of the apartment was starting to cave from all the heavy wind and I feared it would get blown off its hinges so I moved a very large and heavy bookcase over to block the door from caving. We weren’t going anywhere anyway!
      The power was off of course.  FPL, the power company here has had much trouble in south Florida for years which seems strange since we don’t have the ice storms...snow and other stuff that other locations have to cause problems.         They have finally begun improvements in the past few years and even so you can still count of needing batteries for flashlights and radios during intense storms here.
      The storm eventually moved away after doing considerable damage up and down the state.  MY car had been parked under a tree.  That’s a mistake that won’t happen again.  It was not a new car...about five years old but it was totaled.  The insurance company had no patience in these cases because of all the claims filed and it was easier just to write it off and pay you off.  I was lucky to have one of the new cars (forgot which model) for review so I had that one to drive....knowing they would replace it with another in a week.
      So that you’ll understand the intensity of this kind of storm...my patio was enclosed with screen and facing north.  The car was parked on the south side of my lot near some huge old trees and a pool and tennis courts.
      A few days after the storm I went out to search for some new cushions which blew off my patio chairs. I found one...didn’t find any others.  The cushion I found was on the tennis courts!  So that cushion would have had to be taken by the wind...pulled thru now broken patio screens...hurled high...and I mean high enough to clear the top of this section of the apartment complex and then...higher in the air above tree top heights and about 100 yards further on to the tennis courts.  Now that’s a trip.  All this and it still looked fairly new!
      That was a hurricane named Wilma back in 2005 and it convinced me of one thing.  The next time a storm like that comes in from the west...get the hell out!

  my email:  
stanmajor@aol.com

Gifts from everyone's favorite gift store!



 The NSA-CIA-NRO-FBI gift shops!                                                repost


bits & pieces 
      When I was doing my national show I was on a big Washington DC station...WWRC and a DC cab driver listened all the time.  He sent me some Washington memorabilia caps, one from the gift shop(?) at the super secret NRO (I couldn’t even have written those initials 20 years ago!) the snooping National Reconnaissance Office which no one was allowed to know even existed until recently.  Now they’ve got their own webpage.
 Check it out...they’re probably hiring.
    

      Also...an FBI cap...and refrigerator magnets from the NSA (famous today for reading all your emails and listening to all your phone conversations here and abroad and last but certainly not least...the infamous CIA.
      The NSA magnet is pretty thick and I’ve a mind to take hammer to it to see if there is a chip in it!
                                                    ------------------------------------

     When he was Governor of California at the height of the cold war days Ronald Reagan, who never missed a chance of being dramatic, recorded a “doomsday message” and issued it to California radio stations with the demand that it be kept out of harms way and only played at the Governor’s order.    There was such a cart in the control room at KSDO San Diego and one day (while filling in) I carefully unwrapped the cart and shoved it into a machine and listened to it in cue (not on the air). This is all I remember Reagan announcing:
        “My fellow Californians...the day we’ve all dreaded is here.” and it went on in dramatic fashion as you can imagine.
        As late as last year Tom Taylor of the national radio news letter NOW was asking if anyone had a copy and to no avail.    That’s amazing as there are hundreds of California radio stations that must have been issued the tape message
                                        _______________________________
.....Now...check this one out.  Companies that will PAY for your vacation if you work for them!
click below:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-11/these-companies-will-pay-for-your-vacation?cmpid=BBD051115


stanmajor@aol.com

Friday, May 29, 2015

help me...I'm falling.....scary bridges!

Crazy bridge in Japan! 
                                                                                                                     repost
....Ok...here’s the challenge.

    See the pic of the bridge above?
   
    What would YOU do if you just came upon that with no prior knowledge?

    I can tell you what I’d do...turn around and get the hell away from it!  Call me a “chicken” or what ever...but I’m not driving that damn thing.
    I have a bad enough feeling driving that bridge over in Tampa Bay...the rebuilt one where the boat hit the original base and a bus full of people fell to their death in the water below when the bridge base collapse. That was at night too...ugh!
    Here’s the new one they built and I don’t even like it.  but compared to the one in Japan...it’s a snap.

Old bridge where bus went over into water and 30 died
story of that accident

http://www.sptimes.com/News/050700/TampaBay/Horrific_accident_cre.shtml
 

Right.
   
    Well...I don't like helicopters or small planes either after Vietnam thank you.
    Just call me “Mr. Chicken”.


Now...if weird bridges are your thing...click below.  lot's of em for you!

http://www.weather.com/travel/news/weirdest-bridges-world-photos-20140730


stanmajor@aol.com

..........Respondeat superior..........2

CIA... LANGLEY

    TODAY'S ISIS CARNAGE!

Isis in Palmyra: Civilians forced to watch execution of 20 men at amphitheatre

                                        _________________
A couple of days after their last phone conversation Bill and Jim were back in contact.

   

 Jim warned "I can’t say anything strategic here...you understand that, right ?”
    “Right...but things are developing on your side...correct?”
    Correct.
    “What’s not being considered or discussed is the huge “blowback” that would undoubtedly follow any decision of Obama to engage the enemy on large scale on their own turf.”

    “What blowback Jim.  Nothing’s been said over here across the river either.”

    “Think about it..as a campaign rolls on...a lame duck Democratic President is going to turn THAT upside down, basically, by invading and occupying large areas of Europe to defend the safe keeping of the citizens who live there.”
       
    “Now...the first Republican Presidential candidate to hop on the Obama war bandwagon...could well end up in the White House next year.”
    “Bill laughed heartily, you got to be kidding!”

“No...not at all...Hillary will give luke warm approval but she will not lead the band in this.”
    It’s all upside down if this happens and we will just have to wait on the “blowback” to settle in to see who’s strongest in all this.
    Obama may be compared to Abe Lincoln for fighting a war to keep Europe free......from ISIS.....but he’s not running again.  You tell me which Democratic candidate would ride this horse?”
    If our troops are still engaged when the voting starts...and no Democrat has jumped in full force FOR the action...the White House will probably go to any one of Republicans who has impressed the public that he is the leading hawk here...even more so than the President!”

    “Holy shit” Bill responded.  It IS topsy-turvy time.”

“Well...I’ve got a lot of preparations to work on here and I’m sure you’ve got an earful of political dogma to keep you going for awhile  We’ll know we are in for political havoc on the Democratic side when CNN starts to look like Fox and Fox looks like a winner either way.
    Talk to ya later.”

    Bill...in Langley...pressed a few buttons and planed for a long night of political “what if”.

    At the White House now...each and every night...the lights were on “bright” and the staff was on overtime because the plan of action was in place....awaitng a final go ahead.
    Much like “Zero Dark Thirty” was....but with one major exception:
   
    this time it would be monumental in scope and something never before attempted in military history.
    But the odds...were looking pretty good.


stanmajor@aol.com

   
   
   

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Obama's biggest decision....WHEN


   ....Fox News  watcher...and Obama Hater....Bill...turned down the volume to make an important call....across the river.

    “Jim...you in your office over there?
What the hell is going on....this blogger ...Major is his name has been pumping away at Obama telling him to invade Europe!”
    “Yeh...we’ve read it too.”
    “Is Obama reading it?”
Don’t know...never says what he's reading or watching or whatever.
    “Did you read that part about his legacy and that he could be compared to Abraham Lincoln if he sent the troops to get ISIS?”
    “ha...Lincoln...yeh...that’s a bit of a push to think that...but the comparisons get a little interesting when you look at em.
    Hold on a second Bill.”
    Off the phone ....."oh really?  now? Jesus Christ.  Has the man gone nuts?
   
    Back to Bill "well I can’t say what’s up...but something’s stirring and it ain't a mouse.
    I’ll get back to you later when I know more.”

    “Ok.”
    The volume on Fox tv came back up.
                       -------------------------------------------

Meanwhile that night....late that night...a solemn figure was seen strolling slowly around the Rose Garden on the White House lawn.  If anyone had been close enough they would have heard one word...repeated over and over again.

    “Lincoln.......”   “Lincoln.......”   “Lincoln.”

    then the figure stopped near some roses...bent to pick one....left the stem long because she likes it that way....and entered the East wing of the building where he lives.

    Barack Obama had decided. 

    &.....soon the world would know.

    Soon.....



stanmajor@aol.com



   

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

IRAQ NEEDS HELP...SYRIA....YEMEN...SAUDI ARABIA etc Obama.....the troops are more than ready. Send em!


...The lonely man...who is our President....sits in a dimly lit oval office late this night.
    He’s disturbed.....not by anything anyone else has done...or written about his “legacy” but because he feels things have not gone well...and he’s the responsible party. “The buck stops here” as Truman said...before deciding to drop “the bomb”.
    What the lonely man does not know...has not realized...is that he is at an apex... where one defined move can not only change his legacy but the legacy for the future for generations to come by making one bold move.
    Remember, Barack...that night when you made a bold move and because of that decision America and not just America but the entire world was free of that pestilence of bin Laden.
    Oh... recall for us the euphoria of that moment when the woman from the CIA who had searched and found this demon...slowly unzipped the bag...holding the dead body of our worst enemy....then lifting her head to nod to the General with the phone waiting to inform Washington. 
    How did you feel at that moment?
    I would dare say that feeling was indescribable.
    Well...you have the same opportunity to feel like that again..only ten times over....if you will just realize that you and only you can issue an order that will shake the Earth

 and result in a legacy for you that will be compared to Lincoln and Washington and FDR. That is power. 
    Few can ever obtain that kind of power and when they do...it is their duty to extend it for the good of all mankind.
    There are those who would kill...kill..and kill again
and they are threatening sections of our neighbors in Europe and the Middle East.  And you can stop it.
    Just stand up straight.... pull yourself together and power the lights on in that Oval Office and issue the order that will send thousands of American troops of all types to the beleaguered areas of the middle east.  That is your legacy...so let’s get on with it...before another head rolls or a marvelous artifice is crushed by the new demons wishing to stifle and enslave those who would think differently from them.
    Give the order Mr. President.  Before it’s too late for all of us.


stanmajor@aol.com

NATION 101!.....MALTA



        


           
         MALTA....NATION # 101


     Nearly 83,000  VIEWS...
    ..... 1144 POSTS

Countries around the world now viewing this blog:
                                           Now  101!
(random order)
U.S. 
Malaysia
Canada
Russia
France
Germany
China
United Kingdom(England)
Ireland
Poland
Cambodia
South Korea
Spain
Israel
Turkey
Serbia
Ukraine
Indonesia
Czech Republic
Philippines
Australia
Greece
Japan
Italy
South Africa
Sweden
Mexico
Hungary
India
New Zealand
Thailand
Slovakia
Brazil
Peru
Andorra
Columbia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Macedonia
Dominican Republic
Portugal
Taiwan
Argentina
Chile
Ecuador
Albania
Hong Kong
Latvia
Jamaica
U.S. Virgin Islands
Romania
Algeria
Singapore
Venezuela
Uruguay
United Arab Emirate
Ghana
Bangladesh
Moldova
Kazakhstan
Denmark
Netherlands
Lithuania
VIETNAM!
Kuwait
Austria
Oman
Bahamas
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Belgium
Switzerland
Nigeria
IRAQ
Slovenia
Finland
Pakistan
Luxembourg
Costa Rica
Boliva
Papua New Guinea
Morocco
Croatia
Turks & Caicos
Senegal
Bulgaria
Norway
Panama
Nepal
Lebanon
Belarus
Chad
Zimbabwe
Tunisia
Sri Lanka
KENYA
MONTENEGRO
HONDURAS
MALTA (101)


If your nation was not mentioned please email the info:

stanmajor@aol.com

Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley join up for Brian Williams!


Walter Cronkite
 

....The ghost of David Brinkley paid me a return visit last night.
    “Stan, good to see you again.”
“David...same to you.  Who is that with you?
    “It’s Walter.... Stan, Walter Cronkite.”.
    “Walter, I am honored.  Our career path's just never met but I was a great admirer of you and CBS News”
    “Thank you, Stan.  What's with the Brian William's situation anyway?  We hear nothing”
    “That’s right Walter.  It just drags on and on.”
David added “did they offer buy Katie Couric that house in
Georgetown that I mentioned?”
    “Nope...nothing about a duo anchor...but it would have been excellent.”
    “Well, Stan, Walter went on...anchor’s like Brian William's don’t come along very often...he is very good and you tell that guy at NBC News that Walter Cronkiet said that!
    “I will Walter and thank you.”

    “AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS” Walter added...his old close from his news chair.
....and they slid off into the night...two friends and long time news adversaries joined to help another anchor...get his job back.   

stanmajor@aol.com

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Obama COULD go down as the greatest President since FDR and Lincoln! just read on

Isis headlines today

Watch out ISIS.

    ....Obama is coming with his troops and his Presidential legacy.....

Word I have received is that there is a change coming.

Instead of sending in special operation missions in groups of 30 or so American  military...President Obama MAY have changed his mind.  (You don’t suppose he’s read my posts lately about “sending them all!”

So maybe here comes Obama’s great decision leading to his Presidential legacy for all time:

     To be the greatest President Since Abe Lincoln or FDR.
    (did I really write that?)

Word I’ve received is that some special mission officers have been summoned to travel to major military units to train regular troops...and if that is so...bye bye ISIS....and his crazies.

As the training ends the movement will begin.

Obama will be forever remembered for making beleaguered Europe safe from head choppers and idiots who would kill you for loving Jesus

Europe...FREE for thinking and believing in anything that suits you...all by the same guy who DID give the ultimate “kill” order on bin Laden. (finally...right Maya?)

President Barack Obama...


stanmajor@aol.com

Presenting Nation number 100 to this blog.....HONDURAS!




        
           
           HONDURAS.....NATION # 100

Nearly 83,000  VIEWS...
    ..... 1140 POSTS

Countries around the world now viewing this blog:
                                           Now  100!
(random order)
U.S. 
Malaysia
Canada
Russia
France
Germany
China
United Kingdom(England)
Ireland
Poland
Cambodia
South Korea
Spain
Israel
Turkey
Serbia
Ukraine
Indonesia
Czech Republic
Philippines
Australia
Greece
Japan
Italy
South Africa
Sweden
Mexico
Hungary
India
New Zealand
Thailand
Slovakia
Brazil
Peru
Andorra
Columbia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Macedonia
Dominican Republic
Portugal
Taiwan
Argentina
Chile
Ecuador
Albania
Hong Kong
Latvia
Jamaica
U.S. Virgin Islands
Romania
Algeria
Singapore
Venezuela
Uruguay
United Arab Emirate
Ghana
Bangladesh
Moldova
Kazakhstan
Denmark
Netherlands
Lithuania
VIETNAM!
Kuwait
Austria
Oman
Bahamas
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Belgium
Switzerland
Nigeria
IRAQ
Slovenia
Finland
Pakistan
Luxembourg
Costa Rica
Boliva
Papua New Guinea
Morocco
Croatia
Turks & Caicos
Senegal
Bulgaria
Norway
Panama
Nepal
Lebanon
Belarus
Chad
Zimbabwe
Tunisia
Sri Lanka
Kenya
MONTENEGRO
HONDURAS (100)


If your nation was not mentioned please email the info:

stanmajor@aol.com

Let's load em up and move em out! Obama as GREAT as A. Lincoln? or FDR? He may be!

Isis headlines today

Watch out ISIS.

    ....Obama is coming with his troops and his Presidential legacy.....

Word I have received is that there is a change coming.

Instead of sending in special operation missions in groups of 30 or so American  military...President Obama MAY have changed his mind.  (You don’t suppose he’s read my posts lately about “sending them all!”

So maybe here comes Obama’s great decision leading to his Presidential legacy for all time:

     To be the greatest President Since Abe Lincoln or FDR.
    (did I really write that?)

Word I’ve received is that some special mission officers have been summoned to travel to major military units to train regular troops...and if that is so...bye bye ISIS....and his crazies.

As the training ends the movement will begin.

Obama will be forever remembered for making beleaguered Europe safe from head choppers and idiots who would kill you for loving Jesus

Europe...FREE for thinking and believing in anything that suits you...all by the same guy who DID give the ultimate “kill” order on bin Laden. (finally...right Maya?)

President Barack Obama...


stanmajor@aol.com

New Orleans....JIM GARRISON...MORT SAHL......CHILL WILLS on my show!

Bourbon Street

New Orleans the City of Dreams...1973                                             repost

What an interesting city we have here.  First and foremost of course, is the French Quarter.  The radio station WGSO...was actually located in the French Quarter. 
    If you ever watch that great movie HOTEL you will see Rod Taylor walking up a flight of stairs and into an office.  That was the back entrance to our radio station in the Quarter.  What a way to get to work.  Parking a few blocks away and walking into the Quarter each day with the multitude of tourists and past the great shops.  
    They were in the process of moving the station into a big bank building out of the quarter...which was a disappointment.
I did a nighttime talk show and had great guests.  Everyone with a name hit New Orleans for obvious reasons.  
Mort Sahl came to town and joined former District Attorney Jim Garrison for a couple of dynamite hours in the studio to talk about the Kennedy assassination.
The next day I was in my office and I got a mysterious call.  It was a young guy who refused to give his name.  He said he had all the answers to what really happened and who was involved and about Lee Harvey Oswald’s time in New Orleans.  He said he’d call me again.  He didn’t and I left the city on my radio “merry-go-round”  a few months later.  Was he a crank?  I have a good sense about these kind of things and I don’t think he was.  We’ll never know.
I would get an one the air call in Tampa in 1973 on my WDAE talk show from a woman...claiming to know where Jimmy Hoffa’s body was buried.  This sounded legit too. She said her husband told her they buried him in the concert base of a new bowling alley in Ft. Lauderdale.  We’ll never know about that either.  
Another great guest in New Orleans was classic western actor Chill Wills.  I asked him about the movie GIANT and about James Dean, Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor. He said he didn’t think Dean bathed the whole few weeks they were filming in Marfa, Texas!  I found that hard to believe as rumor had it Liz Taylor took Jimmy under her wing during that time.
The tragic gay nightclub fire took place while I was there. 32 persons were killed.  I went on my show the next night and raised some money to help out.
   The city was also interesting in that the Super Dome was just being completed near the quarter and our station had a early tour set up for some bigwigs with food and drinks.  One guy from New York was Tom O’Brien of ABC News, head of the radio division. I would see him again when I returned from Vietnam in 1970 and he would try to persuade me to return to Nam for ABC News.  I turned him down but I did thank him for his public comments that my NBC News stuff was “killing them” from over there.  My boss at NBC News, Russ Tornabene got wind of that and passed it on while I was still in Saigon.
Finally...I had a nice apartment near a big pleasure boat dock on Lake Ponchatrain.  The complex had a rec room with a pool table and guess who I played friendly pool with almost every night after my show. None other than Peter Starr...head of Starr Broadcasting (bunch of music stations...no talk) who admitted he was a fan of my show.  Starr had an apartment there and a huge yacht parked in the water across the street. Peter was William F. Buckley’s brother despite their different last names. 
I hate to say this and don’t want to offend anyone in New Orleans...but almost every weekend I would hop in the car and drive to Destin, Fl. in the panhandle to take in the beautiful beach.  I’ve lived in South Florida for years now and still think Destin is one of the best...right up there with the Gulf coast beaches of Marco Island and Naples.  (Robert “Bourne” Ludlum told me to keep quite about those last two places cause he lived there and didn’t want anyone to find out how beautiful they were)  

  

connect:
stanmajor@aol.com

Monday, May 25, 2015

thoughts...and remember...it could be worse! it could always be worse!



sent to me from Bruce Still  &  George Camden 
            ---------------------
Nine Thoughts to Ponder

Number 9
 Death is the number 1 killer in the world.

Number 8
Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 7
 Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 6
 Men have two emotions: hungry and horny, and they can't tell them apart.   If you see a gleam in his eyes, make him a sandwich.

Number 5
 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day.  Teach a person to use the internet and they won't bother you for weeks, months, maybe years.

Number4
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.

Number 3
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number2
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Number 1
Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers.  What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.

 ...and as someone recently said to me:
 Don't worry about old age; it doesn't last that long.
---------------------

thanks Bruce for the forward.  let’s not forget the old newspaper guy in Peoria...on the corner by our building selling papers...in snow, sleet, rain etc and always telling us his philosophy of life:

“IT COULD BE WORSE... 
It could always be worse!”

TO THE FINISH LINE.......this is a great tv commercial
click below

http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/124-finish-line





stanmajor@aol.com

Now...99 nations. Wonder who will be 100?



        
            Welcome...Nation 99.....MONTENEGRO !


     Nearly 83,000  VIEWS...
    ..... 1130 POSTS

Countries around the world now viewing this blog:
                                           Now  99!
(random order)
U.S. 
Malaysia
Canada
Russia
France
Germany
China
United Kingdom(England)
Ireland
Poland
Cambodia
South Korea
Spain
Israel
Turkey
Serbia
Ukraine
Indonesia
Czech Republic
Philippines
Australia
Greece
Japan
Italy
South Africa
Sweden
Mexico
Hungary
India
New Zealand
Thailand
Slovakia
Brazil
Peru
Andorra
Columbia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Macedonia
Dominican Republic
Portugal
Taiwan
Argentina
Chile
Ecuador
Albania
Hong Kong
Latvia
Jamaica
U.S. Virgin Islands
Romania
Algeria
Singapore
Venezuela
Uruguay
United Arab Emirate
Ghana
Bangladesh
Moldova
Kazakhstan
Denmark
Netherlands
Lithuania
VIETNAM!
Kuwait
Austria
Oman
Bahamas
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Belgium
Switzerland
Nigeria
IRAQ
Slovenia
Finland
Pakistan
Luxembourg
Costa Rica
Boliva
Papua New Guinea
Morocco
Croatia
Turks & Caicos
Senegal
Bulgaria
Norway
Panama
Nepal
Lebanon
Belarus
Chad
Zimbabwe
Tunisia
Sri Lanka
KENYA
MONTENEGRO(99)


If your nation was not mentioned please email the info:

stanmajor@aol.com

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Nam.....hard to stay away!

"How many of us...would like to play catch...with our Dad just one more time?"
            Field of Dreams
Dan Rather Vietnam 1966
Some left over bits and pieces about Vietnam etc...

     I actually went to Nam three times...twice as a freelance reporter and the third time for NBC News in 69-70.  The first trip was to do what are called “home-towners” or short interviews with military types which were sold to radio/tv stations in their hometowns.
My second trip was more interesting albeit unfruitful money wise.
I initiated the first one hour daily program from a war zone in history. 
I took my handy Uher portable recorder where none had gone before and taped a couple of hours a day until I realized the so called “syndicator” back in Miami wasn’t placing any of the shows.  So...nobody got to hear these fascinating hours at all but it was fun doing them.
On the way over I stopped off in London and stayed at the Savoy Hotel.  Over priced and unimpressive for me...despite its reputation.
The next day I took my tape recorder down to Trafalger Square...famous for a lot of speakers and pigeons.  As I began interviewing Britishers about the Vietnam War for my first program I was interrupted by a London bobbie.  The Cop wouldn’t let me continue.  So much for free speech in Trafalger Sqaure...for Americans anyway.
The next day I landed in Rome and stayed at the Hilton (much more to my liking).  That night...with an early flight to Vietnam the next day...I decided to “see” Rome via taxi.  I took the first cab in front of the hotel and offered the driver a hundred bucks to give me the grand tour for a couple of hours.  He spoke good english which was a plus and I got the check everything out...without the daytime crowd problem.  It was different...but enjoyable.  And nobody picked my pocket!
Early the next morning I boarded a German Lufthansa flight leaving Rome and bound for Bangkok, Thailand.  We landed to refuel in a couple of interesting places...only one of which we were allowed to deplane and check out the airport gift shop.  The first stop was Dar Es Salaam deep in the middle east and as we walked from the plane to the door of the terminal...there were fatigued clad soldiers with big guns watching us.  The  attractive stewardess walking beside me whispered: “We’ve never landed her before...My god I think they’re going to shoot us!”.  Eventually they did let us back on the plane.
Our next stop, just as daybreak arrived, was in Calcutta, India.
It was a fast refueling stop so I only saw India from the sky.  And from high in the sky it was most appealing but very misleading.  You saw lush green fields...lots of rivers and water...but you couldn’t see the multitude of humanity for which that country is famous.
Arrival in Saigon was interesting.  I had been warned by some experienced Vietnam travelers that I must be prepared to ‘grease palms” to even get through customs.  Turned out to be true as I had some radio equipment with me which was subject to much discussion.  So I took the official aside and slipped a couple of twenties into his hand.  It worked.
SAIGON
Dan Rather had just arrived for CBS news and he sat for one of my shows.  We did it high atop the Caravelle Hotel in downtown Saigon but about halfway thru the interview the reel to reel tape began sticking....because of the heat.  So Dan calmly took his finger and helped me keep the tape going while we finished off the hour. So just envision Dan Rather doing that...it’s pretty hilarious!  Of all the correspondents famous and not yet famous I met while in Nam, Dan was one of the nicest. I ’m sure to this day he probably remembers that interview...not for what was said but for the magic “tape saving” he did.
I recorded another hour show in the very busy control tower at Tan Son Nhut airport....actually the busiest airport in the world during the Vietnam war.  As I was interviewing the air traffic controllers I noticed they were having trouble communicating with income planes.  Later when I listened to the playback I found the reason.  
The Germans made those little Uher recorders so powerful that my tape recorder was the culprit.  In fact the pilot’s conversations were so strong on the tape I had to dump the show.  Thank heavens I didn’t cause any planes to crash!
After taping a show up north in Danang...I caught a late flight that arrived in Saigon after the nightly curfew was in effect.  A couple of MP’s were kind enough to drive me into the downtown area but I still had to walk about ten blocks to my hotel.  as I turned off one of the main roads to get to my hotel I heard some strange animal-like noises.  A light from one of the buildings revealed that just in front of where I had to walk were hundreds...maybe thousands of rats.  It seems they like to take over the city after the curfew starts.  well...this is a scene right out of Hollywood.  
I clapped my hands...yelled as loud as possible and stomped my feet for sure...to scare off enough of the little buggers so I could finish the last block to the hotel.  Something one never forgets!

Ok...so how does a guy from Stillman Valley, Illinois...or thereabouts get with NBC news?
Well...I got beat running for Congress by John B. Anderson of Doonesberry(sp) fame....and then I burned my folks house down!
No...I mean literally. We lived in an old stone house on one of my Dad’s three small farms in Northwest Illinois...and I was alone there in the winter of 68 after I lost the Congressional race.  
I needed to stoke up a fire to keep warm and made the mistake of using some flammable fluid which spilled out onto the floor and whosh...up it went!
So...I’m a firm believer in the “bad luck-good luck” syndrome and a couple of weeks after all that bad news...I got a call from NBC News Chicago...drove over to the Loop and went to work as a writer/editor for Floyd Kalber, Jim Ruddle, Bud Dancy and a bunch of others at NBC News in the  Merchandise Mart.  The highlight (or low light) of my few months with NBC News in Chicago were the riots of ‘69 on the west and south sides.  We could watch the fires from the windows of the Merchandise Mart.  Also...I got a real education about the liberal media...watching writers editing film to make Mayor Dick Daley look bad!  But that’s a whole ‘nother book. 
30 Rock calls

   It didn’t take long for the honchos in New York to call me in because of the two earlier freelance trips on my own to Vietnam. I auditioned for the main NBC News radio correspondent slot by writing a five minute newscast and reading it into a mike as they listened in NYC.
So...I had burned down the house...got beat by Anderson...and within six months I was an official NBC News Vietnam war correspondent!  There must be some category of psychology that has a term for this “bad luck/good luck” syndrome but I only had one semester of that subject at Bradley University earlier...and sat next to All-American basketball star Bobby Joe Mason (later with the Harlem Globetrotters) and we talked basketball instead of the subject matter...so I don’t know.  By the way...Chet Walker...later a star with the Bulls sat in front of me in English.  Nice guy too!  Bradley was big in basketball!

New York City
NBC wanted me to fly in to the New York and spend a few days getting acquainted.  Also I had to get a new passport and all the damn shots again since it had been over three years since the last bunch.
It was quite a thrill being at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for that three or four days.  I watched the guy who sits at the big desk ordering crews all over the world to catch planes (or charter them) to go cover breaking stories. 
One day I noticed a lot of the tv monitors were tuned to an alternate channel where actor Paul Newman was visible going up and down a flight of stairs. Constantly.
Turned out he was taping a show in one of the NBC studios on the floor below and all the females at NBC news had discovered they could watch him do his thing.  It was better than a soap opera.  I think they also could have watched the rehearsals for Saturday Night Live that went on all week...But I only saw a cast member or two at the small restaurant down on the lobby level when I took a lunch break with my radio boss Russ Tornabene and his buddy...Edwin Neuman.  
I couldn’t believe I was lunching with Ed Neuman...and more than once.  Ed is the only newsman, I think, who was ever invited to host a Saturday Night Live show.  Spending some time, informally, in his presence was one of the great thrills of my life.  
And then came David Brinkley.  I spent my afternoons hanging out with the Huntley-Brinkley folks in their office.  Chet Huntley was on vacation...so Brinkley, who normally does his end of the cast from Washington  had moved to 30 Rock for the week.
He invited me into his office (no more than a large cubical with a desk and old fashioned typewriter) and lit up one of his constant king sized Salem cigarettes and said in that clipped Brinkley tone...”so Major...you’re going to Saigon”...and I replied in the affirmative...sitting straight up in my chair in awe of the audience I was being given. 
`He took a long drag on the smoke and got a kind of a twinkle in his eye. “You know, Major, you ought to go over there and be the first peace correspondent in the war.  Tell it like it really is.”
I thought about it for a moment then replied that I really wanted to stay longer than a couple of weeks.  Which was probably the length of time it would take to replace me if I did that.
I don’t know if he was serious or not...but we chatted for a few more minutes and then I let him get back to work on his evening news script.
  Later, I observed Brinkley typing quite a bit and inquired of Les Crystal...the producer of the H-B report if Brinkley actually wrote the  whole show. He said...everything but the film intros but he checked them out too.
“Do you ever edit David’s stuff?” I ask.
“Are you kidding” Crystal he laughed. “ I’d rather edit God!”!
But Crystal was worried about a piece of footage being used on that evenings’ newscast.  Seems there was a shot of a woman with a see-through blouse...and the shot was a required part of the story so it couldn’t be dropped.  When I saw Les the next day I said...”well how did the shot go?”
“Not one call” he said.  No stations or viewers called to complain. You never know.
Much later when I was doing a talk show in Philadelphia David Brinkley jumped to ABC (he told me he couldn’t stand CBS) and began his “This Week” show but for some strange reason it wasn’t going to be carried by the Philly ABC affiliate.  When I found out I got David  on my show and I started a campaign which quickly resulted in them taking his Sunday show.  It was important to him as Philadelphia was the 4th largest TV market in the country. He was forever grateful to me.
NBC News flew me first class to Tokyo and then to Saigon. On the leg out of Japan I had my first taste of Kobe Beef.  Never in my life had I tasted anything as good.  Beef just melting in your mouth...no need to even chew.  It was the first time I ever ask for seconds of airline food!  
   To this day I’ve never been able to find Kobe beef in any of the places I’ve been.  And I’ve eaten in some of the finest restaurants in the world.  What a shame.
My NBC news corespondency got off to a bad start.  Upon arrival in Saigon there was no one to meet me at the airport.  This was not a big deal because of my experience in Saigon earlier...but it should have given me pause because of the breakdown in the “protocol” of not greeting a new reporter.  
I made my way to the NBC News office and a somewhat surprised staffer immediately contacted the bureau chief who wasn’t around... who blamed the whole thing on New York.  I found out later that a new boss was coming in shortly so the whole Saigon bureau was in a state of flux. 
I settled in at a nearby hotel which wasn’t too bad...and no rats to traverse to get to the front door.  
My reports were fed to New York via phone line at 7AM and 7PM each day...seven days a week.  During the balance of 1969 and   1970...I had more stories broadcast by NBC Radio news on the hour than any other correspondent before or since.  On any given day New York would run from three to five or more reports from me...ending with “Stan Major...NBC News Saigon”.         My parents were very proud...and I was making a lot of money based on reports aired on the network.  NBC brass wanted to keep me off the books (more or less) and paid me as a “freelancer’.  This way they retained the regular their budget and I made more...lots more money.  In fact I twixed them a couple of times that I was making way too much money...but they messaged back that it was correct and “don’t worry about it.”
Shortly after I arrived in Saigon the bureau got a new boss. The new bureau chief shall remain nameless for reasons that will become painfully obvious in the next pages.
The guy (like the rest of us) had his watch ripped off his wrist by the infamous “Honda mafia” dudes.  Saigon had a bunch of them...guys doubled up on motorbikes who would rip the watch off your wrist as you were being rick-shawed down the road.  
We soon learned to trade our expensive watches in for a Timex..no expansion band please.
Well..the new boss was livid about losing his watch.  
So angry in fact that he ordered all three tv correspondents and crews...about nine staffers in all with cameramen and soundmen to be dispatched to several key places where known watch thief's operated.  He wanted to catch the culprits on film.  So...the whole war stopped on the tv side for a couple of days while they staked out the roads and bridges in Saigon on behalf of this guy’s bruised ego.
  They never did catch anything on film, of course.  We had some good guys there...like Kenley Jones and Robert Hager who wasted their time on this and were obviously embarrassed by it.  
I didn’t cover much on the TV side.  Because as radio correspondent I had to meet the two circuits seven days a week so I was land-locked in Saigon most of the time.  If there was an interview or story in Saigon that needed both tv and radio I would cover it which allowed Hager and Jones and others to roam the war zone for their stories.  
“Embedded questions”
I soon learned how the Pentagon got its points across by using the media. I was assigned to interview a General...but with the proviso that during the TV interview I ask him one very specific question which had been planted by the Pentagon with someone in New York.  So, about halfway through the interview I dealt him the planted question...he answered...and I made the Huntley-Brinkley report on NBC-TV that night.
Another interesting facet about NBC’s coverage of the war lay in the fact that I was told right off the bat after arriving in Saigon that each time I fed the circuit (reported stories to NYC) which was twice a day...seven days a week...I had to include a war story i.e. something about a battle somewhere and causalities.  This was tough at times because some mornings there just wasn’t anything to report.   But I would scratch around and rewrite something from the day before or perhaps write a short piece about a possible engagement forthcoming...just to give the impression there was still a war going on.
I never really found out the “why” of this rule  at NBC News Saigon...whether it was New York inspired or just a local edict.  There are two possible answers here:
a.  The brass in New York wanted an anti-war slant a couple of times a day and the best way to get that was an increasing American causality count. (see Iraq coverage)
or
b.  The local bureau wanted to insure their continued full staffing so what better way than to pretend there was a big battle everyday. 
Take your choice.

stanmajor@aol.com