STANLEY CUP

As Detroit gets ready for Pittsburgh the Free Press put this silly and oddly addictive game on their website, so here's the link. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/MULTI/80522108/0/SPORTS02

Nothing to do with hockey whatsoever (if anything it is closer to Home Run Derby) but hard to stop trying to beat your high score. My high score is 321.

For those who continue to ask, yes Bill Doyle and I are still living right here in metro Detroit, still waiting out our non-compete to return to the air, and still missing you all daily. If you'd like to write either one or both of us directly rather than posting comments for all to see, our email links are found in the right margin. Have a great holiday weekend!

$4.09 A GALLON

That's what I paid for mid-grade gas at a Shell station on Woodward in Royal Oak this morning. Wow, is that ever sobering. $4.09 a gallon. It reminded me of one of these charts we've all seen the last few years to make us feel lucky to have been paying 2, 2 and a half, even 3 dollars a gallon at the time.

Here's such a chart from 3 years ago.



NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Gasoline prices in the United States, which have recently hit record highs, are actually much lower than in many countries. Drivers in some European cities, like Amsterdam and Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the U.S.The main factor in price disparities between countries is government policy, according to AirInc, a company that tracks the cost of living in various places around the world. Many European nations tax gasoline heavily, with taxes making up as much as 75 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, said a spokesperson for AirInc.In a few Latin America and Middle-East nations, such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, oil is produced by a government-owned company and local gasoline prices are kept low as a benefit to the nation's citizens, he said. All prices updated March, 2005.

Nation Price in USD Regular/Gallon
City


Netherlands
Amsterdam $6.48

Norway
Oslo $6.27

Italy
Milan $5.96

Denmark
Copenhagen $5.93

Belgium
Brussels $5.91

Sweden
Stockholm $5.80

United Kingdom
London $5.79

Germany
Frankfurt $5.57

France
Paris $5.54

Portugal
Lisbon $5.35

Hungary
Budapest $4.94

Luxembourg $4.82

Croatia
Zagreb $4.81

Ireland
Dublin $4.78

Switzerland
Geneva $4.74

Spain
Madrid $4.55


So here we are, three years later and we're paying 4 dollars per gallon. I turned around to see the Regular grade price of $3.96. Can't imagine what premium would be. How are people making it? How much gouging and collusion is going on at the big oil companies? How is anybody surviving this in an already terrible Michigan economy? I have no answers. All I've got is a full tank of gas that cost $75.

HANDS-ON MUSEUM

For those of you with kids, if you've never been to it, you MUST bring them to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Stacee and I thought about bringing our kids there a few months ago but I wasn't sure from checking them out online if a 3 and a 1 year old would get much out of it. Well we were passing through Ann Arbor over the weekend and last minute thing we decided to stop for lunch then find the place. It is amazing. Seriously. We've been to the Detroit Science Center which is fine, but if you have very young kids like us the Ann Arbor Hands-On is ten times better. They're at 220 E. Ann Street. Runs parallel to Huron; pretty easy to find. If you want it here's their website. http://www.aahom.org/

COOL PEOPLE

Bought my wife some of the best flowers I've ever seen at a place called FLORIBUNDA on 14 Mile just a little east of Crooks. Chris and Yolanda who run Floribunda flower shop are former D & D listeners and Chris sent me an email through the blog recently so I went in to get my wife hooked up and to say hi. Nicest people you'd want to meet! And Yolanda's a great florist. If you need flowers I can tell you they're terrific.
Also a shoutout to Corey at Logan's Roadhouse in Troy. Was there over the weekend and met him. Another D & D guy. It's gratifying that you guys haven't forgotten us and are as eager for the show to resume as we are. Thank you!

WINGASAURUS

Please keep Howard "Wingasaurus" Perrydore in your thoughts and prayers for the next few days. He is in the hospital with a blood clot in his leg, a bad infection in the same leg, and bronchitis. For those who don't know "Wingasaurus" was the original Wing Cup champion, two time champion in fact, and then later referee, not to mention a good friend who's been to our homes and in our hearts for a long time now. Hang in there big man, we're pulling for ya.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM DOYLE....

For all the tens of people who might have the (apparently unexpressed) desire to know what I have been up to, here goes:

Most of my time has been devoted to, well, not competing. Every day, I ask myself, "What can I do today to not compete?" So far, I've been pretty pleased with my lack of effort on that front.

I also rounded up all the books I've bought over the years but didn't have time to read and put them in a big stack. I then moved the stack to where I couldn't see it anymore so I wouldn't feel guilty about not reading them.


You know those daunting projects you think about doing, but you don't start them because you know you don't have enough time to finish them? Even though you know the project will enrich your life, benefit you and your family, and possibly nourish your soul, the sheer magnitude is too overwhelming and the chances of completion are too remote for you to even begin? I've undertaken one of those and am proud to report that, to this point, I have unlocked 12 of the 41 Historic Teams in NHL 2K8 for the Playstation 3, including the '52, '97, and '02 Red Wings. The '63 Maple Leafs were particularly difficult since you have to score on a power play and there's just no way to make the other team commit a penalty. I am hopeful that I will have them all unlocked by the time I actually get a job.

A couple of months ago, I took a trip to Colorado and New Mexico with my oldest son; if you are desperately bored, you can see pictures of that trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bildo17/collections/72157604357756986/ ...but be warned- they are mainly landscapes and would be extremely dull to most people.

Congratulations to Nicole Salem on making it to the "Exotic Eight" in the WRIF Rock Girl competition! Oh, and sorry your rat, Trevor, died. I was wondering, did you use poison or a trap? I know the poison is more effective, but with the trap, you know exactly where to find their disfigured corpse. If you used a different method, let me know. Thanks!

I enjoyed reading the "Rudy Gets So Drunk He Goes Into The Wrong Apartment" story. Rudy's antics used to have a certain "Animal House" quality to them; now they seem more like "Leaving Las Vegas" (without, I assume, the Elizabeth Shue butt-rape scene).


I was going to give my take on "Lost" so far this season, but I think I'll save that for next week; I'm kinda spent from unlocking the '87 Oilers today.

Oh, and while you all certainly have my permission to ignore most things CBS, please listen to "Pwned Radio" with Shane Hamelin on Sunday nights at 8 (except this Sunday 5-11-08 when it will be pre-empted because they are supposed to be moving the studios). Shane's lifelong dream was to host a radio show about video games and he made it happen (even though CBS didn't pay him or me before, and what they pay him now literally doesn't cover his gas to get there and back). Anyway, Shane's a good man and deserves your support.

OK, I have to get back to selling my stuff on Ebay and, of course, not competing.


That's all I have to say about that.

Bill


PS. Rudy's gay

LISTENERS

It is always cool to still meet listeners who are missing the show and waiting for it to return. So a quick hello to a very cool guy I met tonight in a Baskin Robbins at 14 and Crooks named Eric. I was there getting my wife's favorite cake for Mother's Day when I had the pleasure of b.s.'ing with him for a minute or two. Eric if you're reading this, I would have talked longer if my crazy daughter Mina hadn't been trying to break both my arms, lol. Cool guy though. Also a dude named Greg who was doing some work on our house this week. Real down to earth, nice guy. As almost always our listeners are genuine people; the kind of guys you'd want to knock back a couple of beers with. What I want to say though is for as much as you guys keep telling me you miss the show, we miss you guys more. But we're still right here in Detroit and we're looking forward to one hell of a party.

BARACK OBAMA

would have won Indiana last night if it hadn't been for this bullshit nutjob Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Polls showed the Wright issue mattered a lot to nearly half of those who cast a vote. Yet Clinton wins by only 2 %. It is really unfortunate too because had Hillary not squeaked out her razor thin Indiana victory plus lost North Carolina she'd have been done. But this was enough for her to keep the charade going in hopes of convincing the super-delegates to swing her way. I wish she'd just give up. Considering the discounted states of Florida and Michigan, Barack will have won more states, more delegates, and more popular vote. And don't tell me we should count Michigan Hillary. Not when your name was the only one on the ballot. If you think that's fair then you have no problem with all of Saddam Hussein's wins either. To have the superdelegates hand it to her after all this will be disheartening. Plus I just can't stand to think of that whiny yell coming at me for four years. You know what's turned me off the most about Hillary? Not so much things she's said, but the look in her eyes during the debates. Every time she'd try an unfair political twisting of facts against Obama and he'd calmly correct the situation back to reality, she'd watch him do it and the "bitch" would just POUR out of her eyes and across her face. Like pure hate. I can't imagine what this person would be like behind the scenes when cameras aren't on her. Anyway, I think we all hope it'll be over soon no matter who we'd like.

I'M FAT, AND SOME OTHER STUFF

Okay, the important stuff first. Barack won Guam by 7 votes. I can't ever remember an election year where Guam got so much coverage, lol. Weird thing is Guam's not allowed to cast votes for the actual election in November, but they play a role in the nominations.

Speaking of voting, our former traffic woman Nicole Salem has now made the top 8 in the WRIF Rock Girl contest. Apparently her having a penis didn't set her back the way I thought it would. GO NICOLE! Support her and keep her off the streets, because the sugar daddy she might otherwise have to latch onto could be your son.

Remember the story of Rudy so drunk he stumbled into the wrong and vacant apartment and he thought he was robbed? (see previous post) Well there's an update. What I didn't know at the time was that once he stumbled back out of there realizing his mistake, he left his keys inside. He got back to his apartment through the unlocked sliding glass door which is how this whole thing got started, and the only key he's had for a week and a half was his spare car key. No apartment key, no mailbox key, no key to his mom's house, etc.. I asked why didn't he just go back to the vacant apartment and see if the door was still unlocked and go in and fetch them. He said because he didn't remember where in his complex it was. I said why don't you go to the office and tell them. He said because he didn't want them to know he was that drunk. So today he saw a couple maintenance guys outside his apartment, his real apartment, and went to them for help. Rudy got his keys back. Let us know about your next train wreck Rudy.

You read this Goodman report on how the mayor should be removed from office? If not click here http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/NEWS01/80505023
And did you hear Kwame's response to this? His office is calling it a "witch hunt".
A witch hunt.
Kwame, witches weren't real. Scumbags are.

Okay, the weight thing. This is completely humiliating but I thought if I'm finally going to fix this problem in my life maybe by letting everyone in on it it might help keep me motivated not to quit on myself. I am in the worst shape of my life. My weight's been up and down for years. Being a type 1 diabetic doesn't help. When I first came to the old WKRK in August of 1999, my weight was disgustingly down...down to 138 pounds. For a six foot tall person, 138 pounds is not good. Well, neither is 252. I can't believe it myself but that's where I am right now. I'm completely embarrassed and disgusted with myself. I can use all the handy excuses about insulin putting weight on you which it does (see articles on diabulemia), but all that really means is I just needed to work that much harder than a healthy person to lose each pound, and I've failed myself miserably. Tomorrow morning I'm starting a Body for Life program. I was having great success with this last summer, but then they moved us suddenly to morning drive and it completely upended my sleep world and schedule, but while true its really just another excuse, and I fell away from it for 3 weeks. Then I got back into it full steam for one solid week, and at the end of that week, a Saturday, I was running my 3rd run of the week, when the ligament in my right foot went. Had to lay off it again, saw doctors, got orthotics for the shoes, blah blah blah, but in the end I just quit myself again. And here I am. So tomorrow morning I'm starting all over, and it is going to take a long time. But I must do this. I want to be able to play with my kids without getting tired. See them grow up. Not have people stop me asking for Louie Anderson's autograph. Okay, that one's a joke. But I thought if I publicly came out and admitted how horribly out of shape I've become, it might serve to keep my fat ass on track and fix this thing. So tomorrow at 6 am the fat war begins.