I wanted to do another entry after almost two months of being away. I got lots to talk about and then I'll get back to the regular junk offerings. That's what a blog is all about right? RIGHT? Right Right Really Really Right.

RIP Jay Thomas

(Image copyright to the owner of it, since I don't own any pics of Jay, I thought this was the best one that sums up how I would best remember him.) He's "that guy from television that is in everything". He's "that guy from Mork And Mindy". He's "that guy from that movie, you know, the one with the Jaws guy".  All I knew about Jay was he was good on Letterman and I liked to see him every now and then on TV. Turns out, he was a radio guy. He started as a radio guy and continued to be a radio guy until the end. I did something crazy in 2006 and subscribed to Sirius Satellite radio. Pay for radio? Was I nuts? No, it was the only way to hear Howard Stern.  I found some other channels on there as well, but Howard is why I had it.

Well, Howards channels evolved, and when Bubba The Love Sponge stopped doing his Friday "Live" show, Howard needed a new show. He had heard Jay Thomas all the way back before Howard Stern became Howard Stern and admired the fact that a disk jockey could transition to an acting career. Sirius hired Jay just before they made a deal with Howard.  Jay was doing his show Monday through Thursday so Howard asked if he wanted to join his channel on Fridays.  That's where I started listening to Jay Thomas. I'd only hear that Friday show, but pretty soon, I was so hooked on Jay's style of radio, I sampled his weekday shows and was hooked again. He was incredibly talented for doing a show with minimal support. He turned on the mike, interviewed odd and unusual guests, had fun with callers, and did a show that was compelling and funny with none of that goofy radio "s*it". The first time he was sick, he made us believe it was from an old football injury that was making it tough to swallow. (He had throat cancer.)  He recovered and blamed the length of his recovery on an infection from the operation. I believed it. Unfortunately, another type of cancer came and silenced his voice. He never let us as listeners know. He took more days off but I thought he was doing things for his acting career. He blamed his weakening voice on the CA wildfires and squirting eye cleaner in his throat rather than throat spray. He just didn't want his show to become a pity party.

On his last day on the air, he bitched at us for complaining for all the repeats that were airing when he took days off. He said he hadn't begun to get all his vacation days on his contract and that we should just enjoy the reruns. That was it. He never came back. Nearly two weeks later when going back to work from lunch, I saw that he had passed.  Still missing what felt like a familiar friend spending two hours a day letting me in on his world. He'd probably call me an idiot and "Get Rid Of Em" if I called and told him that. Goodbye Jay.

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So, besides that hole in my day, my Sunday nights also changed forever as the Funday Pawpet Show ended it's 18 year run. I have Yappy Slyfox to thank as he put my Radiolawn show "on the air" with a Real Audio broadcast. It was streaming audio/video in it's infancy and most home users were lucky to have just a 56K modem to bring them internet goodness. Well, when he had to start working Sundays, he couldn't keep running my show and it went over to Romeo Rabbit's "Rabbit Hole" show stream where it continues to air. Romeo had some hurricane damage but decided to keep entertaining us all on Sunday nights. So, Radiolawn #250 will likely air this weekend Oct. 1st/2nd.

Leon is getting LARGER, as I went to Kentucky Kingdom and found that the new rolling stock roller coaster cars that they have installed on the existing coasters are not built for anybody of larger carriage. At least at Cedar Point, larger people get ONE SEAT on every roller coaster where we can at least enjoy the park. Believe me, there's a lot of shame involved when you sit in a tester seat and can't get it to close. LOSE WEIGHT BEEYOTCH!

Believe it or not, I finally got me a "smart phone". My old phone with the model number "K9" had never seen me type a text to anyone and I used it only as an emergency phone. A good friend of mine convinced me that I really couldn't avoid the smart phone TXT'ing goodness and after burning off $120 credit by Hex/Dec typing text messages, I got one. I don't think it takes the best pics, but there is nothing better than texting someone standing across the grill from me at BDs Mongolian. Maybe that K9 phone will be a future post here. It plays TETRIS.

Smash Greywolf called me out of the blue and invited me to a concert by "VNV Nation". He was the first fur I met ever, and we became fast friends because we had so much in common. Turns out he moved into a best friend's home after that friend left Avon Lake. I even asked if he remembered the pulleys that were nailed to his trees in the back yard, as my friend and I had a pulley system for getting stuff up to our tree forts. Here we were in Toledo and we went to my first con and he introduced me to lots of early furries, so I'm forever grateful. Well, I didn't know "VNV Nation" but I did like "industrial" music in my past, so I treated it like I was seeing an opening band that I've never heard of. I bought two albums at the show, and that was that. I'm part of the Nation. I want to collect em all.

Well, sorry for being lax about the posting. Live Journal says I need to agree to "Russian Law"  and I'm no Russian law scholar so I'm not going to agree. So, occasionally I'll break from the Junk Blog format for a post like this. When silly things may happen, like Cleveland sports or someone famous that means so much to me passes or I lose 100 pounds on the Pabst diet, you'll know.

ARF! -Ric