listen freely

Maybe one of these days I'll get an iPod. I've gotten by with the mp3 player on my cell phone and by listening to an occasional podcast on my TiVo or my laptop. Over the weekend I went along on one of my wife's many shopping trips during the sales tax holiday. While our son picked out a silicon cover for his iPod, I looked at the other accessories and got to thinking about how convenient it would be to use a little FM transmitter to listen to podcasts in the car or on my clock radio. I'm not really interested in using the earbuds.

Today I started downloading a free audiobook from Project Gutenberg. Last month I had the idea to listen to something by Mark Twain during our upcoming road trip to Arkansas. At the suggestion of blog reader Clay, I limited my search to only human-read books rather than those done with a computer generated voice. Although the selection wasn't as good as I had hoped, I thought "Chapters from My Autobiography" might teach me about my distant relation. I downloaded most of its 25 chapters today. Tomorrow I'll get the rest and start burning them to a stack of CDs. I hope the disc player in my wife's car works better than the one in mine. Months ago I burned a CD of a podcast by a GMU economics professor. The disc is still in my car's player, unwilling to play. I think it's too long for the machine to read.

Reader John suggested I pry open my wallet and buy some of Chris Addison's CDs. Perhaps next year. For this trip I'm sticking with the free downloads. John's idea did remind me to look for some NPR podcasts for the show "Radiolab" that I discovered in June. There's still time for you to nominate a free download for my travel playlist.

hot now

Happy National Doughnut Day! You can get a free one at Krispy Kreme just for stopping by today. I'm posting earlier than usual in case you happen to read this in time to go get yours.

It's been about a year and a half since my last visit to the famous doughnut shop. And that time I didn't get anything. Today, my intention was to get a glazed chocolate cake doughnut for free. Those were sold out so I had to look for my second choice, glazed sour cream. I asked the lady behind the counter to identify the doughnuts in one tray . She said they were glazed pumpkin spice. What about this other tray, I asked. She said they were also glazed pumpkin spice even though they looked very different to me. I chose the one that I thought might be a glazed sour cream despite what the clerk had said. I won't know if I was right for several days because I brought the doughnut home, put it in a Ziploc bag and stuck it in the refrigerator where it will wait until I can spare the calories. I'm not eating it today because there's supposed to be cake at the party my wife and I are going to tonight. Mmm.. cake.

The Bearden Krispy Kreme has a narrow red ramp to the window so you can watch the doughnuts being made. If I ate there regularly, there's no way I would fit on the ramp.

corpuscle crunch

Ben & Jerry's had their Free Cone Day and Baskin-Robbins had their 31 Cent Scoop Night last week. Today our local Bruster's offered free pints! Well, almost free. You had to donate a pint of blood to get the pint of ice cream.



My wife's blood is always in demand. She gets postcards and phone calls from Medic Regional Blood Center about all the blood drives in our area. She's a universal donor. I'm a universal recipient. How appropriate for our relationship.



We both gave blood and got ice cream and a t-shirt. Unfortunately all they had were XL shirts. I only need a large. My wife had to go to choir practice so I took home her pint of Turtle and some Chocolate Oreo for myself. The girl at the window asked if I wanted a bag or a spoon. A spoon? C'mon! Doesn't she realize that I don't wear XL shirts anymore?



My day started with some sad ice cream news. One of the first things I read this morning was the obituary of Irv Robbins, as in half of Baskin-Robbins. The Los Angeles Times had a link to test your flavor knowledge. For me, it was more like a reading comprehension quiz. I scored 100% because all the answers were in the articles I had just read.

live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars

Doing whatever you can to achieve fame and then doing whatever you can to protect your privacy after achieving fame are two sides of the same coin. That's the thought that went through my head today as I drove behind a VW with the vanity license plate "JAGSTAR" (and they're not even from Virginia).

At first I thought, that the driver must be a big fan of the locally based rock group. Then it occurred to me that the car might belong to a member of the band. One of my co-workers at The River used to play bass in Jag Star. Last I heard, he had moved to California. I pulled up alongside the Jag Car in one of the two left turn lanes from Cedar Bluff onto Peters Road. I could see J and Sarah Lewis inside. I waved at them before driving forward as far as the stopped traffic would allow. A moment later, J pulled up alongside me and rolled down his window so he and his wife could say hi. We had a few seconds of small talk about how things were going before the light turned green.

At this point in their careers, it makes sense for the band to use their license plate to promote themselves. If things continue to go right for them, they'll need to get anonymous plates and tinted windows to keep the public at bay. If your curiosity is piqued, you can download a free song by Jag Star through the News Sentinel's site.

popsical popera

Every time the television commercial for The Ten Tenors comes on, my wife jokes that ten is too many tenors. She says there should be a few baritones and at least one bass. A family friend (who is also a faithful reader of this blog) had one extra ticket for tonight's show, which is part of the Broadway in Knoxville theatre series at the Civic Auditorium. I was invited to tag along to hear the Australian singers who sometimes broke out their boy band moves.

As you would expect, the Tenors did several operatic pieces including the famous aria from "Pagliacci" and that song Paul Potts did on "Britain's Got Talent." They sang a couple of otherwise unknown songs from their CD, which was available for sale in the lobby.

As a fan of cross-genre cover songs, I especially liked the Bee Gees medley that came right before intermission. They also did an effective cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer." The definite highlight of the night was "Bohemian Rhapsody," which they use in their TV commercial. You can download a free mp3 of it on their website. It was preceded by some other Queen song that I didn't know. One of the tenors announced that Queen was their all time favorite band.

The concert was very enjoyable but it's always a little more fun to make snarky comments, so let me get those out of my system. Their Australian folk song medley made me feel like I was back at Dollywood's Festival of Nations. Throughout the night, each tenor got a chance to stand front and center and sing a solo, except for the one who had the most, um, expressive facial expressions while singing. For his featured song, they made him stand in the back by the drum kit. It was a bit like that scene with Marla Hooch in "A League of Their Own." In addition to the drummer, there was a pianist and a bass player who alternated between a bass guitar and a bass violin. We were sure that we heard more music than those four instruments could provide. I suspect that either the grand piano was really a synthesizer or that there was a recorded backing track to fill out the sound.

The eldest of the Ten Tenors, David Kidd, was born in 1971. I had my picture made with him after the show amidst a throng of autograph seekers in the lobby.

apologies, we ran out of time

The Regal Riviera Stadium 8 is open for business. The News Sentinel has lavished the place with coverage. Some of my friends in Los Angeles find it hard to believe that the country's largest theater chain is headquartered right here in Knoxville.

For the opening of the new theater, Regal is running a radio commercial voiced by the legendary Don LaFontaine. One of my personal career highlights was directing LaFontaine and several other celebrities in a radio production of "A Christmas Carol" at the Museum of Television & Radio.

I have already seen two Matt Damon movies at the state-of-the-art Riviera. In fact I've been there three days in a row. On Thursday we went to a one dollar charity showing of "Oceans 13." Yesterday evening I did a remote broadcast from outside the theater. Today we saw "The Bourne Ultimatum," a movie we've wanted to see ever since the hysterical preview was on TV.

As we left the theater on Thursday, I saw County Commissioner Mike Hammond leaning against a company vehicle from his day job. I walked over to say hello. He complimented the photo of me that he's seen on the wall at LA Weight Loss.

For the first two weeks, everyone who buys a ticket at the Riviera gets a free popcorn and a free soda. I appreciate the deal but if anyone from Regal is reading this, how about some Sprite Zero or at least some Caffeine-Free Diet Coke?

On Monday, "Live at Five" originated from the Riviera during a VIP reception. It would have been nice to be invited but I know that I may have ruined my chances to get on the guest list two years ago with my red carpet question to David Keith.

we all scream

There was a line out the door at Baskin-Robbins tonight. Obviously the word had gotten around that it was 31 Cent Scoop Night to honor the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. They have a picture of my cousin Terry on their site.

Baskin-Robbins has always been a favorite of mine. During high school, I worked at store #1207 in Bronxville, New York. Almost every day that I worked I would try a different combination of flavors in a shake or sundae. I especially liked to make shakes with Jamoca Almond Fudge and chocolate syrup. It's also where I learned to cut a banana without touching the fruit. One time I used that skill to make a banana split for WNBC-TV anchorman Chuck Scarborough when he stopped by the store.

Around this time last year, I wrote about the disappearance of Free Scoop Night. When I moved to Knoxville five years ago, I lived alone until my family got here three months later. One of the first things I did after my car arrived on the auto transporter was to find my way to the Baskin-Robbins at West Town Mall for Free Scoop Night.

Some other companies still give away free samples. Again this year I missed Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's by a couple of weeks. I also missed Free Slice of Pizza Day at Pizza Hut by 24 hours. Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday. Are there any other freebie days coming up?