Goodbye Old Friend

Walter Cronkite has passed away at the age of 92. "Uncle Walter" may be gone but he most certainly will not be forgotten. Mr. Cronkite came into our home each evening as a trusted friend and presented the days news events without bias. He told us about the assassination of John Kennedy and also presented us with the news that a man had walked on the moon almost 40 years ago to the day of his passing. He showed us the images of the War in Vietnam and also gave us the news that a disgraced President Nixon would "resign at noon the next day".

Whenever important news needed to be told it was always Walter Cronkite to whom we turned. Like many baby boomers, I aspired to be the next Walter Cronkite when I decided on a collegiate major of Journalism.

Farewell, good soldier, goodbye faithful friend.

Post - Dispatch Gets Very Lucky

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch continues to amaze by it's lack of professionalism. Thursday evening a member of the "management" team decided to run full steam ahead with a "tweet" from the social networking page "Twitter". The story was that the annual Farm Aid concert would be held in St. Louis. Management decided the story was so important and on the cutting edge of utilizing social media, that it reported the story as gospel truth, without doing any fact checking or confirming the story.

It turns out the concert will be held at St. Louis' outdoor amphitheatre in Riverport on October fourth. And it will include a wide variety of artists and acts.

But, the real issue is why does an old established newspaper run a major story without doing any fact checking or getting confirmation of the issues? It's shoddy journalism at best and would result in a journalism student getting a good chewing out and a failing grade. Professionals at the Post-Dispatch should know better.

Awful Television

So, I'm trying to watch the Cardinals play the Cubs about an hour ago at Wrigley Field. Unfortunately, it's on KSDK which has one of the lamest baseball production teams you have ever seen. And the play by play guy, Jay Randolph, should have been put out to pasture years ago. Anyway, I'm enduring his lack of knowledge and fact errors when a few dark clouds roll over. Next thing you know, Bozo the weather boy, takes it as his cue to break into the game. Now, Bozo thinks he is being clever keeping the video on in the background. Unfortunately for myself and numerous other Cardinal fans the graphics that Bozo and his buddies in the weather department are running are just about obliterating the batters box. Not Good KSDK.

But, then I thought wait...I don't have to watch these amateurs. I have options on the satellite dish. So, I flip over to WGN in Chicago and all is well again. Not only can I see the game and have some fairly insightful analysis, I also get a different perspective on the Cardinals. Life is good again. Now if the FCC would just give KSDK's license to a qualified applicant...

Yet Another good IPA

As regular readers know I am a fan of "big" beers. Well, courtesy of my neighbors H&G I had the chance to sample Bear Republic's "Racer 5 India Pale Ale".

It features two different hops. I am quite familiar with the Cascade hops the brewer used to tie the malt and bittering hops together. The brewer also used Columbus hops which the company's website describes as a "new hybrid High Alpha Acid hop used mostly for bittering, but used heavily as an aromatic". The result is a drinkable brew with an IBU of 69 and ABV of 7.0%.

Happy Birthday USA

This post is late, but like they say "better late than never". I just wanted to post and tell everyone Happy Fourth of July. It was the 233rd anniversary of the United States of America's Declaration of Independence. And I also want to tell the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces thank you for protecting us and our freedoms.

I also want to say thank you to all of the veterans who have served over the years to preserve the American way of life and to the families of those who paid the ultimate price.