OK, who'd have thunk it

That Deborah Harry would be alive and well after all these years?  Yet look at the announcement below.

Blondie

August 25, 8:00 PM, Pikes Peak Center

Yes, there it is.  Proof that we can survive despite all odds.

I was never a huge fan of Harry's music but you have to admire her constitution!

Wickedly good comedy is coming our way

Dennis Miller will be at the Air Force Academy Saturday, September 19.
www.dennismillerradio.com I'd list an academy website, but I can't find one.

OK, this guy is the opposite of Larry the Cable, whom I love. (Tickets to his concert were my birthday present to myself, a couple of years ago.) I adore Miller even more.





I heard Dennis Miller in St. Louis, in 1987, and I was working to keep up with his humor. He makes you feel like you missed that philosophy class and you really wished you hadn't. My favorite line at that point? (I'm paraphrasing: "The reunification of East and West Germany kind of reminds me of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., I never really liked their original work and I have no need to see more.")





Miller made his mark on Saturday Night Live, anchoring "Weekend Update." He then worked into an odd, not quite comfortable fit, on the ABC Monday Night Football team that lasted two-years.

I have to tell you, ordering tickets from the academy is a trial. Academy Concerts really seems to want you to do it (in long-hand) by writing to Academy Concerts, USAFA/10MSG?SVCAE, 2302 Cadet Drive, Suite 12,,,, USAF Academy, CO 80840-6000. The only way I have ever been able to get it done it to call 520-9090. Our Department of Defense at its best.


Hey, tell me what you think?!?
This is a solicitation for your thoughts. If you can give them to me, click on the little word below that says "comments" and I'll be able to see them.
Thanks!

Local Art: The Best TP Job I've Ever Seen... And Other Things

Check this out. 

Is it not magnificent?  This is a house at 265 Haversham Drive.  The county assessor's website says it's owned by Catherine and Joseph Neibur, and we can guess they have at least one teenage child.  I think this is among the most masterful toilet paper jobs I've ever seen.

Other things:

Salazar on The Daily Show

OK, we mentioned in a recent post that Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar of Colorado would be talking with Jon Stewart.  He did and our buddies at the Interior Department's Minerals Management System (know for their fun-loving way of doing business, on their backs and through their noses) escaped pretty much unscathed.  We all expected Stewart to egg the good secretary on over the stories of this unit, but he did not and Salazar seemed pretty uncomfortable talking about almost anything.  The result?  A big sigh of relief for the mattress-backs at Minerals Management and a snoozer of an interview for all the rest of us.

The New Calendar 

You'll notice there is now an events calendar in the upper right-hand corner of All the Talk of the Town.  I'm in the process of getting it running and filled with the events we follow.  It's not my work, but that of a gifted freelancer.  Thank God for them.

On the hunt for the cheapest tickets to the Earth, Wind and Fire concert

I'm working on this.  Live Nation is the distributor that seems to have a lock on Fiddler's Green, but there's got to be a way to get decent tickets for less that the exorbitant prices it's charging ($1,000.00 plus per seat for the three front sections.)  I shall continue to badger and harass friends who have actual information on the subject.

Send Me Stuff

If you have thoughts, graduation / prom / line-up photos of your kids (or for that matter, yourself) send them to me at ervin_annie@yahoo.com.  

Tell Me Stuff

If you want to comment on this (or any other) post, go to the bottom of it where the word "comments" appears and click on it.  It will give you a screen.

Do any of you have prom pictures?

I would love to post them.  You can email them to me at ervin_annie@yahoo.com.  You know, I was thinking in terms of our kids, but if you have prom pictures from our era, this could be hilarious.

An American Idol Winner ran in Meg's family race and helped raise $2-million!

Remember my beautiful friend, Megan Barber?
(She lives here in Colorado Springs and is a frequent contributor to the Gazette's Your Hub. You can see her in a family photo on the April 16th post.) Well, hers is a tremenous example of a family taking a loss and turning it into amazing action. Meg's brother Pat Cassidy died of brain cancer ten years ago, leaving behind a young family. The Cassidy clan (and it's a large one) started a fund-raising race in his honor. Success is apparently a Cassidy gene. Get a load of what this has become. Here's a letter from Megan's sister Ceil.

Ann,
Ceil Cassidy Haus here, Megan Barber’s sister. I want to thank you so much for your generous support of the RACE FOR HOPE last weekend in Washington, DC.

This year, American Idol winner David Cook joined the race, revealing in the closing ceremonies that his brother had died of brain cancer the day before.

Thanks to David and all the wonderful runners and donor, this event raised $2 million, providing funds for reserach and support to those in the thick of the disease.

This is always an emotional day for us, as we see families who have lost loved ones (like we have) and families who have survivors still fighting off brain cancer. It’s a terrible disease and the only way we make progress is to continue to fund the research and hope and pray that one day a breakthrough will come. The National Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure are the two beneficiaries. Over the years, they have funded grants at Duke University’s Brain Tumor Center and Johns Hopkins Brain Cancer Research Center and more and the work continues. Thank you again for your kindness and very generous donation. I speak for the Cassidy family when we say how grateful we are to those who help us support this fight!

B*@%# Blog

Computer stuff can still be bull....  

I live in a wonderful house, I own one of these infernal devices, I have, through the grace of God, the ability to go buy a new router, since mine gave up the ghost, and still, I am infuriated by the fact that I'm sitting in a blindingly dark room, thanks to the fact that even in this ostentatious house, there aren't enough outlets to illuminate all the ridiculous pieces of equipment required to run a computer AND a desk lamp at the same time...

 

Is this  @#?>*%#* ridiculous or what?  The bottom line is that I have information I want to post here and, having spent hours, then witnessing my husband spending more, I'm guessing that all you social networking scions may have had similar experiences and will cut me the slack to attempt it again tomorrow.

I hate *@&%# technology.

Talk about being in bed with 'em

This may be among the topics on the Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/ Thursday night. It airs on Comcast channel 62 at 12:00 p.m. (that doesn't seem right to me, but that's what Comcast says and since it's next to impossible to get a printed schedule of tv listings in this town, I guess I'll believe it) and is rebroadcast at 3:00 p.m. the next day. That's the one I always catch.

My friend, Mike Ernest, works for the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management System. He emailed tonight, writing, "The Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar will

be on John Stewart's "The Daily Show" this Thursday night, May 7th. I can

only imagine the references to MMS hijinks. Ought to be fun."

The Minerals Management System was accused of trading favors for drugs and sex.

(The reverse of this has reportedly been a tried and true business model on the corners of south Nevada Avenue for years.)

MMS is the part of the Department of the Interior responsible for collecting royalties in lieu of taxes, from companies that produce oil and gas on federally controlled land and water. The department collected more than $9 billion in oil and gas royalties in 2007, making it one of the largest government income producers other than taxes.

In a report to Congress, the department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a bunch of employees of the MMS. He wrote that officials in the MMS Royalty-In-Kind program "frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, used cocaine, marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

Having taken a look at this document, I can tell you, if you this government reports are boring, you ought to get a load of this!

Thanks Mike!