I will preface this with the fact that I'm a Letterman guy, have been since WAY back to his NBC show he had weekday mornings.

Has he seen his better days? That's up for debate, and he has been doing this a long time, but no matter how much he'll be "off" on any given night, I still will choose him over Jay Leno every time.

He's developed into a bit of a cranky old man, but he was a cranky old man when he started, and THAT was and is his appeal.

And being an individual who has been accused of being a cranky old man at 21 as much as I am today at 57, I can really identify with that.

With that in mind, I'm reading, listening to, and watching everyone discuss his "interview" Tuesday night with Lindsay Lohan.

Ooh, Dave is mean, Dave is cruel, Dave is a bully.

No, Dave is just being Dave, if you don't get him, or don't like him, nothing I say will change your mind.

But did he "have it in for Lindsay"? Hardly.

If you can, watch the interview and decide for yourself.

Let's be honest, Lindsay Lohan has been, currently is, and (unfortunately) will always be a train wreck.

I wish her well with her upcoming rehab.

Keep in mind she's been in rehab multiple times, and has many times in the past left in the middle of the program.

And I don't even have to detail all of the legal issues she's had.

This upcoming rehab is court enforced, and this time she can't leave.

Again, I hope she makes it and lives a clean and sober life, but from what I saw watching her with Letterman, I don't buy for a minute that's she's ready to change.

I see a little girl who just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  I predict she'll do the time, and somewhere down the road, we'll start with the problems all over again.

The phrase "You can lead a horse to water, etc", comes to mind in discussing Lindsay Lohan and rehab.

So don't blame Dave Letterman if she came across badly during the show.

After all, she was only there to plug her latest movie...in which she shares a scene with Charlie Sheen.

She got the plug in and played a clip, so I guess she would call that...

wait for it....

winning!

Mike Patrick

mike@wgy.com

photo credit: Andrew Morrell Photography via photopin cc

Now that Major League Baseball has started the 2013 campaign, my mind goes back to a great stadium that's no longer around, site of one of the strangest and hardest publicity stunts in my broadcasting career.

It was in, I believe, 1985, when I competed in what was called a "Seat A Thon" at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium (former home of the Indians and Browns, among others).

I was at the time working in Elyria, Ohio, a short hop, skip and jump to Cleveland, doing the Morning Show at (the now former) B-107, a Top 40 station that played (what seemed like) Madonna every half hour.  I was also known as "Mister Mikey In The Morning" (don't ask).

My Program Director at the time, Drew Bentley, who came from I think Iowa of all places, wanted us to help the Red Cross raise money for victims of a series of tornadoes in the northern part of the state.

Drew read about something at (I think) Miami Stadium, where one of the radio guys down there sat in every seat there, also as a fundraiser.

He thought we (meaning I) should do the same at Cleveland Stadium.

Sure, I say, sucker I am.  Couple of issues we didn't consider;

1. I was around 30 at the time, and not really in proper shape to handle such a task (last time I was in good shape I was, oh, twelve).

2. Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a LOT bigger than Miami Stadium.

As in 79,201 total seats bigger! I will remember that number till I'm in the box.

Still, we press on; we send out the press releases, get the word out to the various other media, and I think "this should be easy, all I have to do is sit in a seat, get up, and sit in another one."

79,201 times!

Rules were adapted from what the Guinness Book of World Records people use, do the task for an hour and get a five minute break; go twelve hours and get an hour break; go twenty four hours and get a two hour break.

I started going for a twenty four hour stretch...needless to say that was not the case by the end.

It started on a Tuesday morning at 10, it FINALLY ended on Saturday afternoon at 5.

79,201 seats.

What was I thinking?

I started in the bleacher section.  I decided to "slide" to get it done quickly. 

I went through at least two pair of jeans doing that alone.

To this day there's still splinters in my "nether regions".

Mid way through all of this the knees started to go, and yes, you really can injure the "nether regions" too.

Especially after 79,201 times sitting down and getting up.

By the last day, I was hurting so much, the volunteers had to help me up from one seat, and push me back into another.

In the end, I'm not really sure how much money we raised; we were hoping for a buck a seat, but I don't think we quite made that goal.

The important thing was, it was a real "feel good" thing to do (aside from my "nether regions" that is), and I like to think in the end it helped the Red Cross in the long run.

Tough as it was, it was one of a handful of highlights to my career, ond one I'm especially proud of.

Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built in 1931, it closed in 1995 and was torn down the next year.

I'm guessing (hoping) I have a little time left before I'm torn down.

Mike Patrick

mike@wgy.com

I'll be the first to admit, I have a big problem with being politically correct.

It's not that I'm in favor of insulting, hurting the feelings of, or being disrespectful of anyone.

Well ok, there's a couple of odd (and I do mean odd) members of my family, extended or otherwise, that would give me great pleasure in putting down (and considering a couple of people in particular, maybe the words "putting down" aren't the best), but still...

You have your beliefs, I have mine; that's cool, bygones be bygones and all of that.

But when the issue is many times FORCED down my throat, I like to force it back.

Words and phrases that describe any particular group of individuals, that those individuals are offended by, and in general are considered derogatory, shouldn't be used. Period.

In other words, labels, or here's a better word, stereotypes.

Agree, agree agree.

However, here's a trigger word...Christmas.

I never have, and never will substitute the word Holiday for Christmas.

It's not a case of religion, it's a case of tradition.

I say Merry Christmas.....if it's good enough for Santa Claus, it's good enough for me.

The debate between Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays will continue till long after you and I are gone, and if you're offended by me saying Merry Christmas, for ANY reason, sorry, just don't care.

That brings us to the latest insult to the concept of sanity, the removal of the word Easter from a school system.

In case you missed it, look the story over by clicking here;

OK, yes, Easter (it can be argued) falls into the same "catagory" as Christmas, but to many people (myself included), the day has multiple meanings.

If my grandsons came to me and said "Popsie, we can't say the word Easter at school.", I know I'd jump in the car and have a little "chat" with administrators.

What's insulting most is this issue is happening at an elementary school.

You know, Easter Bunny, Easter Eggs, Easter Candy...

THAT Easter!

Little kids should NOT have to be brought into this debate, they are little kids!

Perhaps some people feel little kids should be taught "the right way of thinking" as soon as possible.

To that I offer a two syllable answer.

The first syllable is "Bull".

You can guess the second.

Mike Patrick

mike@wgy.com

OK, after all the hype I gave in and decided to watch the first episode of the new ABC show "Splash"

Which will be the last time, and judging from what I'm hearing/reading, I'm far from alone in that opinion.

If you missed it, I suggest you go to ABC On Demand and check it out; that may be the only chance you'll have to see it.

Someone should start a pool (pun intended) on how many more episodes will make it before the plug is pulled and the pool is drained (it's just way too easy).

If you aren't familiar with "Splash", it's celebrities...and that term is REALLY used with tongue in cheek, diving into pools for competition.

"Diving With The Stars"

"American Diver"

"America's Got Chlorine"

If a TV Network schedules a show to run immediately after one of their Sweeps Months periods, that's their way of saying "Yeah, it's crap but we've already made the commitment so deal with it."

Here's the list of "Celebrities" (and I'll be the first to admit I'm not up to speed on my "D Listers":

* KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR (Gotta give him props to do this at 65)
* LOUIE ANDERSON (This is wrong on so many levels)
* DRAKE BELL (Who?)
* CHUY BRAVO (Who?)
* RORY BUSHFIELD (Who?)
* NICOLE EGGERT (Who?)
* KESHIA KNIGHT PULLIAM (Rudy Huxtable...I should say a very healthy Rudy Huxtable, there's room for a "floatation device" joke here, but I'll just leave it alone)
* NDAMUKONG SUH (Who?)
* KATHERINE WEBB (Who?)
* KENDRA WILKINSON (Who?)

Now I know many of you will say about some of the folks I list as "Who?", "Hey, not fair Mike, I know who they are."

OK, good thought; is that enough for you to watch every week?

Yeah, didn't think so.

At the end of the first show, Rudy got the boot.....or maybe we'll call it the fin...after a "Dive Off".

Reaction online as I write this is brutal.....what would Theo say?

Unless things change and Moses reappears to part the pool, I'm parting with this show.

Mike Patrick

mike@wgy.com

This is a true story about how a school system didn't look at the big picture when it comes to "parental units".

A bit of background to the story; over the last couple of weeks, I've finally started the very long process of dubbing years of "airchecks" (recorded examples of what one does on the air) from cassettes to digital files.

I know in time the Good Lord will make the cassette recorder/player vanish, especially since it's an endangered species now.

Anyway, in addition to being a News Guy, for many years, I was paid to be a so called "Radio Personality", doing the morning show, afternoon show, mid day show, night show, even overnights.

One of those stations was WKKG in Columbus, Indiana, where I hosted the Morning Show on the Country Music station, as well as run the joint as Program Director.

Back in, I think, 1999, I brought our daughter Megan in with me to do the show as part of "Take Your Daughter (now Kids) To Work Day" as my Co Host (still have a copy of the show).

She was (if I remember) 15, and attending one of the local high schools.

Point of technicality here; Megan is not my "blood" daughter, and at the time, Nancy and I weren't "legally" married (thus the title of the blog).  Didn't matter...to this day...she's still my kid.

I know I'm bragging here, but she actually did a pretty good job, even better than some of the part timers we had at the time. She did weather forecasts, read birthday announcements, even took phone calls.

Let this fact sink in, she was on the radio with me, on a station heard by a LOT of people (the signal covered a good third of Indiana).

People at the school KNEW what she was going to do.

So the show ends and we all have a good time.  She gets lots of compliments from listeners and my co workers alike.

The next day, it hits the fan.

We find out she got listed as basically "AWOL" from school for the day.

Even though one just had to turn on the radio to find out where she was.

We were told she was "AWOL" because, despite the fact that they all knew where she was, since Nancy and I weren't "legally married", I was not considered an "official parent", thus we "broke the rules".  If she went with Nancy on HER job, there would have been no problem.

Needless to say...I was...well.. rhymes with "missed".

So the next day I do the only thing I thought would work...I called out the school...on my radio show, letting them know in no uncertain terms they were wrong with their decision, and in fact, the day couldn't have gone any better for Meg in learning (A) what I do and (B) what a job is all about.

I also took LOTS of phone calls from listeners, most of them in agreement with my...rhymes with "missiness".

Never did hear from the school by the way.

But THEY heard from parents of that school as well as others in the area, many of whom were in the same boat as I was.

Don't think that issue came up again.

And just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Nancy and I moved on (with Megan and our little dog Earl).

Our job there was done.

And people looked at each other, and then someone said...

"Who was that fat man?"

Mike Patrick

mike@wgy.com