James Rising

Peter story raises questions: Cover up?

It’s not that the story itself is not the story. It certainly ranks right up there with man bites dog.

But the way it was covered here locally, and in Philadelphia raises (no pun intended) a lot of questions.

One local paper ignored it completely as did (no surprise) the local TV. Too much like “hard news”. No pun intended. Well…maybe a little.

The other local paper took it’s copy direct from the Associated Press.

The story? AP had this:

Suit: Prosthetic penis led to Pa. woman’s firing
Advertisement

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A northeastern Pennsylvania woman claims she was fired from her job for wearing a prosthetic penis to work while contemplating gender reassignment.

Pauline Davis filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against J&J Snack Foods Corp. over her termination from the company’s plant in Moosic, near Scranton.

Davis says she wore the prosthetic to work as a line inspector, informing some co-workers who passed in the information along to management. According to the suit Davis was fired even though the device didn’t interfere with her work.

Davis’ suit claims a male employee undergoing hormone treatments and female clothing was treated more favorably.

The suit was first reported by the Philadelphia Daily News. A phone message left by The Associated Press at New Jersey-based J&J was not immediately returned Friday.

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Whereas the Philadelphia Daily News got this:

Woman says her fake penis got her fired

BY DANA DiFILIPPO
Philadelphia Daily News

difilid@phillynews.com 215-854-5934

Lawsuit claims hard feelings by employer

IS THAT a Fruit-A-Freeze in your pocket – or are you just happy to see me?

A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is suing a South Jersey-based maker of frozen treats and other snack foods, claiming that she was wrongfully fired because she wore a prosthetic penis to work.

Pauline Davis, 45, wore the device to the J&J Snack Foods plant in Moosic, Lackawanna County, while she contemplated a gender change, according to a federal civil-rights complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton. She confided in several co-workers about the device, and someone told management, according to the complaint.

She subsequently was fired from her job as a packer/line inspector. Her termination, she claims, was discriminatory because a male co-worker who wore female clothing and prostheses and took hormone treatments was not fired nor disciplined.

Further, argued her Bucks County-based attorney, Lalena J. Turchi, her fake penis was concealed and “in no way interfered with her ability to do her job.”

Davis filed a complaint in March 2010 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Philadelphia, claiming gender and gender-identity discrimination.

She is seeking back pay, damages for suffering and humiliation, and punitive damages, according to this week’s lawsuit.

The Daily News tried unsuccessfully to reach Davis, of Clifford, a Susquehanna County township north of Scranton, for comment. Her attorneys did not return telephone calls or emails yesterday for comment.

J&J Snack Foods Corp., based in Pennsauken, manufactures, markets and distributes treats including soft pretzels, slushies, frozen pops, cookies and churros. A J&J spokeswoman referred comment to a human-resources supervisor, who did not return our telephone call.

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A LOT more meat (no pun..oh forget it) in the Philly story, which is about 2.5 hours from Moosic. Wilkes-Barre is about 20 mins. Not a long hard drive…sorry.

It will be interesting to see what sort of follow-up the story gets. If it ends in a court, will it conclude in a hung-jury?

Stop me. I can’t help it.

Radio DaZe: Star Struck at WACKY 102:
Prior to working at WACKY I got to meet Dusty Springfield (up close she was…ummm..less than attractive) and once I introduced “The Shirelle”, (it was just Shirley Alston Reeves by that time, and she looked like she had eaten the rest of the group) at a shopping center appearance. I said “The Shirelle”, too…and no one noticed.

But once I got to WACKY and the station got reporting status to Radio and Records I had all sorts of chances to meet and greet the stars, and I took advantage of it.

Meeting big stars backstage can be exciting, glamorous, a dream come true. My experiences, mostly good, were not always any of that.

The first BIG star for me (you never forget your first) was Steve Miller. Now I had been a fan of Steve Miller since the album, “Sailor”, where he was a staple of progressive FM airplay with songs like “Livin’ in the USA”. When I met him he was riding high on the top 40 charts with “Fly Like An Eagle” hits like “Take The Money and Run” (#11), “Fly Like an Eagle” (#2) and their second Number One success, “Rock ‘N Me”.

Unusual for a meet and greet we met in a large room set up with a buffet after the show. I was nervous and almost ran to his table. The record guy introduced me and Steve Miller stopped stuffing shrimp in his face long enough to stick out his hand. It was covered in cocktail sauce. When he said hello he sprayed shrimp remnants on me. It sort of ruined the moment for me.

Springfield Mass. had a good Civic Center and everyone who was anyone touring at the time stopped there, and if they didn’t they were 30 minutes away in Hartford. I went to EVERY show and met all of them, too many to remember.

A couple of stand outs:

I really wanted to see “The Brothers Johnson”, because I loved their cover of “Strawberry Letter # 23” (Shuggie Otis wrote it) and I still do. The record guy was not really enthused by the idea but said OK. I found out quickly why he was so hesitant.

The show was part of a multi-act deal, I think it was five openers with the headliners, “The Brothers Johnson” on last. The record guy and I were the ONLY white faces in the civic center. We made our way into the dressing room prior to the show and it was the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of my life. I understood for the first time what it was like to be disliked for the color of my skin.

I met “KISS” because the guy who did the WACKY 102 Rolling Boogie Machine sound system also built guitars that launched fireworks (Rockets). He was a mad scientist type. You can’t make this stuff up. He had built one for Gene Simmons and so had all access passes and gave some to me. Usually there are two or three levels of passes at a show. Backstage after show, backstage pre-show, and all access, with the latter being the hardest to get. “KISS” had at least 12 levels of passes. This was back before anyone had seen them sans makeup so I guess it was part of keeping the identities secret.

We waited for a LONG time in a room, just me and about four others. When the band finally showed, so did my Gyro Gearloose sound guy, holding the rocket shooting bass guitar. We posed for photos and the sound guy was showing the guitar when it went off.

Now we were in a room about the size of a living room in a house. Maybe smaller. All of “KISS”, my guests and the inventor guy and about 6 security guys the size of houses. All in this tiny room with this guitar sending roman candles between our legs and into the ceiling. KISS departed the premises forthwith and I don’t recall seeing the rocket launching guitar in the show.

We met “Heart” after show. We had done a huge promotion “Send your heart to “Heart” and had received all sorts of wild entries for tickets, including an actual cows heart.

I asked Nancy Wilson about the show starting slow and building in intensity. Typical radio guy question.

At that point she was slim and very attractive. She grabbed my hand, (I swear this is all true) looked me in the eye and said, “I like to build up the intensity of everything I do, whether it’s playing music or making love.”

I had to change my underwear.

Author on left.

The “Cars” were not noted for personalty. They were stand-offish and not real communicative. The record guy took us to dinner afterward and sliced most of his thumb off cutting a piece of bread at the salad bar. Blood and bread and me collapsing in gales of laughter. It may have been something I smoked.

Record guy before the thumb came off to my right.

One last story. We met “ZZ-Top” and my midday guy struck up a friendship with Billy Gibbons talking about arcane guitar stuff. The bass player, Rocky Hill, was a character who carried a derringer in his boot and had shot himself once. I asked him about it and he showed it to me. The backstage buffet was 100% alcohol. Anything you can imagine. We all drank for a LONG time and as we were leaving Rocky gave us all the unopened bottles. I’ll never know how we made it the car, drunk and carrying all those bottles of booze.

Another time I will relate the story of how the “Who” got me arrested and thrown in jail.

Mr. Gavalas and Ms. Tricha chose to move back to his native Chios, an Aegean island closer to Izmir, Turkey, than to Athens. They set up their boutique farm using $50,000 from their families’ life savings. That investment has yet to pay off; they will have their first harvest later this year. But the couple are confident about their decision.

“When I call my friends and relatives in Athens, they tell me there’s no hope, everything is going from bad to worse,” Ms. Tricha said on a recent afternoon, as she walked through her greenhouse, where thousands of snails lumbered along on rows of damp wooden boards. “So I think our choice was good.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/world/europe/amid-economic-strife-greeks-look-to-farming-past.html

How bad can my life be? I work inside, no heavy lifting and…I DON’T RAISE SNAILS!!!

A SNAIL FARM? Seriously? I know there are worse ways to make a living but I can’t think of any right off hand.

It’s not that I hate them…actually they are kind of cool to watch, crawling on the edge of a straight razor.

But that trail. That slimy mucus trail. Jeez.

I have heard that you can trap the critters with beer. Seems like a waste to me.

I grew up, as much as I have, playing Glen Campbell’s songs on the radio. I remember him on the “Smothers Brothers Show” and his own insipid TV show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and when I think on him I always get this song in my head:

It was a tune that was composed by John Hartford but owned by Campbell.

He was a hell of a guitar player, he was part of the studio musicians clique known as “the Wrecking Crew”, many of whom went from session to session together as the same group. In addition to Campbell, it featured Hal Blaine on drums, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Leon Russell on piano. He filled in for Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in the 60’s while they were on tour and Brian preferred to stay in his sandbox.

Campbell has Alzheimer’s and bravely or stupidly depending on who you ask, is on his “Goodbye Tour”, a maudlin exercise if there ever was one, made noble if only by the fact that he has his children as his backup band.

Alzheimer’s is called “The long goodbye” with good reason, but this feels like I am writing an Obit.

Campbell was not always a nice guy, In 1980-81 he had a stormy relationship with then 21-year-old country star Tanya Tucker (He was 45) and on November 24, 2003, Campbell was arrested on drunk driving and hit-and-run charges. He left the accident scene but was later arrested at his nearby home. After he was booked into a Maricopa County lockup, Campbell kneed a sergeant in the thigh, for which he was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, a charge that was later dropped.

But he was a talented musician and a smooth singer.

Here he is with Jerry Reed. The banjo player in the beginning is John Hartford:

Last June, Glen Campbell announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease, and on Saturday night he came to Town Hall as part of what was billed as the “Goodbye Tour.” Everyone in the room understood. The faithful, reverent crowd appeared not to mind that for much of the show Mr. Campbell was reading lyrics from prompters that had been set between the monitors at the foot of the stage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/arts/music/glen-campbells-goodbye-tour-at-town-hall-review.html

Somehow this makes perfect sense.

The number one song in the land on my birthday was a spoken word parody by the great Stan Freberg.

“St. George and the Dragonet” a #1 hit for four weeks in October 1953

“St. George and the Dragonet” is a short audio satire recorded August 26, 1953 by Stan Freberg for Capitol Records. It was released September 21, 1953 as a 45 rpm single (Capitol F2596).

Scripted by Freberg and Daws Butler, the spoof combined the tale of “St. George and the Dragon” with the popular 1950s radio-TV series Dragnet. The recording was a #1 hit, selling over one million copies in the first three weeks. The cast featured Freberg, Butler, June Foray and Hy Averback.

Freberg wanted to use the original Dragnet opening theme music by Walter Schumann. Capitol Records insisted he get the permission of Dragnet star and creator, Jack Webb. Being a Freberg fan, Webb liked the idea, approved the use of the theme and allowed Freberg to use the same orchestra from the Dragnet series with Schumann conducting.[1] The recording had to be restarted several times because the trombone players were laughing so hard at the jokes that they were unable to play their instruments. Schumann’s music was issued on sheet music with a front cover photograph of Freberg (minus his glasses), a humorous close-up with noir lighting as if it were a still from Dragnet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_and_the_Dragonet

Freberg also produced this:

Daws Butler did the other voice in the famed “Lake Michigan” skit.

This was part of the reason I got into radio. I always loved the line “Try doing that on Television”-kind of summed up why radio had such appeal for me.

Sunday Wrap 1/2/11-1/7/11:

A jam-packed, action-filled and surprisingly prolific week that was…
I begin my Vegan journey, crusade against diets, do my version of New Years resolutions as published in the “WEEKENDER”, post some cruel photos of me in my salad days in a Radio DaZe feature, rail against “Corporate Amerkia” and do the usual meandering, not to say rambling in the Saturday Aggregate. Also for good measure I throw in a look at the way internet usage is skyrocketing and a look at a new film featuring John Mellancamp.

What else could you ask for, I ask you?

Monday 1/2/11

Blog Post Weight, weight, don’t tell me.

Tuesday 1/3/11

Blog Post Diet begins with DIE

Wednesday 1/4/11

Blog Post Weekender Column 1/4/11: New Years Resolutions.

Thursday 1/5/11

Blog Post Radio DaZe: Wacky 102 has it’s way with me.

Friday 1/6/11

Blog Post Corporate Amerika

Saturday 1/7/11

Blog Post Saturday Aggregate: 1/7/11


and some extras:

Blog Post Uh oh…

Blog Post John Mellencamp: It’s About You

Saturday Aggregate: 1/7/11

A rare day off on a Saturday.

I will spend it enjoying the company of my Long-suffering wife. We have some errands to run, a new antique place to visit and a local winery has a going out of business sale. Dallas winery to close.
I feel sort of bad I haven’t visited them before they gave it up but, greedy spendthrift that I am I will swoop in to pick the bones.

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Think PA winery is some sort of joke? Guess again:

Here is a List of Pennsylvania wineries. The wine is good, cheap and it’s a fun way to spend a day, touring and tasting. Don’t worry, LSW drives.
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Slippers are best invention ever. I had been padding around in stocking feet. It wears out the socks quickly and gets them dirty. Plus it provides anti-traction on wood or vinyl floors (90% of the Rising ranch) and no protection for my toes. Hurray, slippers. Mine from K-Mart, on sale with coupon cost around $2.00.
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Eating Vegan is not as much of challenge as I thought it would be. I have been cooking more and eating a big variety of really delicous dishes. It has certainly opened my eyes. See more here.
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I gave out copies of The Sparrow – by Mary Doria Russell to all my loved ones for Christmas. Bought ’em at Amazon used but good, they were a present I made because I think it’s the best Speculative Fiction book I have EVER read.

So far my oldest, James, is the only one to crack it as near as I can tell…he seems to be enjoying it.

Boy, I hope the rest of my family gets into it. It’s SO good.
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Tea, Earl Grey, Hot is in the replicator. That and a few rice cakes with Natural Peanut butter and I am ready for the day. I sound like Euell Gibbons
meets Jean-LucPicard.

I will do something on natural foods at some point. Suffice to say, they are nice.
–

Ever have trouble getting your “smartphone” to be smart? Wonder why it takes so damn long to connect, why it drops calls and why the internets (now on computers, as Homer Simpson would say) sometime seem to move like glaciers?

Here is some of the reason:

The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/technology/top-1-of-mobile-users-use-half-of-worlds-wireless-bandwidth.html

Think it’s gonna get better? Guess again.

It’s always been my experience that when some business or organization gets bigger, they rarely get better.

Better is a very subjective word.

The business may indeed get better, better profit structure, more employes, better survivability in times of economic stress. My better has to do with customer service and product quality.

I had my first Big Mac when I was 15. For the sake of argument let’s say that was 40 years ago (it’s a little more, actually) in the late 60’s. I thought it was just about the best thing I ever ate. It came in a huge Styrofoam container so it wasn’t squashed, tasted all nice and fresh and cost less than a dollar. In fairness I have not had a McDonald’s meal in years. But the last time I did have a Big Mac it looked like this:

when in my memory it looked like this:

I have to assume that as McDonald’s got bigger, the quality control slipped a bit.

I don’t mean to single out Ronald and his buddies.

Take the music industry. The golden age saw sales of $40 billion (with a B) back in the 90’s when the “Big 6” — EMI, CBS, BMG, PolyGram, WEA and MCA — dominated the industry-now that there are, what? two record companies that matter, sales are in the toilet. You can bark all you want about how digital killed the music industry but even taking into account digital sales:

total sales have tanked. The industry has not produced a genuine “Star” in years. In doubt? Look at the highest selling acts:

See any Taylor Swift there?

Without the big stars music will continue to be less and less an issue. The big corporate labels that are left do not want to waste time in artist development. It doesn’t fit the corporate vision of how to increase sales to go out to nightclubs and listen to up and coming acts.

Radio…don’t get me started about what consolidation and corporate management have done to radio. It’s a shame.

The presidential election? Just another corporate beauty contest. Do you think a politician who suggests real “Change” and then tries to actually do it would get very far?

How’s that working out for you?

“The decay of America is original and massive in its scale,” reflects Kurt Markus, the esteemed photographer, who, with his son, Ian, filmed the small, pungent rock ’n’ roll tour documentary, “John Mellencamp: It’s About You.”

This looks like a great film. I doubt it will break the surface and certain I am that it will NEVER see the light of day in NEPA. I could be wrong. I hope I am. But I will likely have to wait for the DVD.

http://www.mellencamp.com/news.html?n_id=1324

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/movies/john-mellencamp-its-about-you-by-kurt-and-ian-markus-review.html