The Third Decade Begins

Tomorrow, I officially begin my 21st year in public education. My first four were with the Bloomfield Hills School District as assistant manager of WBFH-FM (1995-99). That was followed by three with the Martin County School District at South Fork High School (1999-2002) And now, I'm kicking off my 14th at Wellington High School of The School District of Palm Beach County.

And it all started, strangely enough, because of a newspaper strike in Detroit and a phone conversation with a former high school teacher about his meeting David Letterman.

Flashback: November 1994. After nearly 2 1/2 years, I resigned my position as a full-time journalist at The Spinal Column Newsweekly for a myriad of reasons, many of which were directly related to my less-than-stellar relationship with the editor of that newspaper. (Despite the name; it was a paper that took a no-hold-barred approach to local politics and news, not a chiropractic journal.) After years of butting heads with an editor who chose to re-write more than edit, who offended a number of employees in a manner that would make Donald Trump blush, and with whom I had absolutely no faith in as a supervisor anymore, I felt it was in my best interest to part ways and venture out on my own as a free-lance reporter for several Detroit-area newspapers; this included working for The Mirror Newspapers of Royal Oak, The Detroit Jewish News, and The Detroit News, the latter of which had been both a goal and a dream of mine. I landed all three free-lance gigs within six weeks of my resignation.

My signing on with The Detroit News was due in part to my friendship with Oralandar Brand-Williams, with whom I worked for two years in the mid-1980s at WWJ radio. She was my connection; she helped guide me to the right person, and in the media business, it's always good to follow your leads. (Networking, my friends.) I started writing Oakland County political pieces on a weekly basis for The Detroit News, up until July 1995, when reporters went on strike. I was approached on the second day of the walkout by management to cross the picket line and write for the paper full-time; it was at this time I was informed I'd risen to the Number 2 free-lance position at the paper. (I don't know if I was told this to sway me to cross the line, or if it was legit, or both, but it certainly boosted my ego!)

But after pondering the decision - and after speaking with Oralandar -  I turned down the offer.

I value friendship over employment, even though I knew it looked like a death knell both for future full-time work with the paper and my ability to do free-lance reporting for the short term. And yes, I realized at that moment I was cutting off a decent chunk of my pay, which was a rather terrifying consideration. It made me have to both pick up my game with the other two papers and try to figure out other reporting/photography options.

It was about two months into this sudden financial and employment void I received a phone call from Pete Bowers, the station manager of WBFH-FM, the educational high school radio station of the Bloomfield Hills (Mich.) School District. And here, I must digress into some serious background information.

Pete Bowers and I went back, way back, to my days as a student at Bloomfield Hills Lahser High School; I took his Fundamentals of Radio Broadcasting course during the 1979-80 school year. After taking FORB, I advanced to the radio station staff, and spent two amazing years of high school speaking into a microphone, spinning stacks of wax on turntables (an all-jazz show!), writing and covering local news stories, conducting interviews, doing live sports broadcasts, and being active in the practical application of real-life public communication skills on a 10-watt radio station. There were staff road trips to radio conventions in his powder blue VW MicroBus and the annual March of Dimes Radio Marathon every spring, where students would beg for pledges in the fight against birth defects.

It was a pretty cool gig for high school students in the pre-Internet world.

To say I'd found a calling is a disservice to callings; I spent so many hours at the station after school that many of my other classes suffered en masse; during my junior year, my grades dive-bombed to the point where my parents met with Pete, and my time was restricted to "the bare minimum" to pass the class. Luckily, I found my footing by my senior year, and graduated high school (although there are some who probably consider that a miracle in the grand scheme of things).

My time at WBFH (also known as "The Biff" and "The 10-Watt Big Shot") molded my future in a number of ways. I focused on attending Central Michigan University, which offered one of the top broadcasting programs in the nation at the time, and was Pete's alma mater. (The fact I had relatives in Mt. Pleasant, where CMU was located, and knew the area, was an added incentive.) But in 1985, I chose to take a sabbatical from college, and during that year off, secured an "independent study" through CMU's Broadcast & Cinematic Arts Department at - you guessed it - WBFH for a semester. This became my second time working under Pete's mentorship. It was during this time I snagged interviews with the Detroit Tigers radio team of Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, which was one of the highlights of my life, then and now.

So here it was, the Summer of 1995, seven weeks after my time with The Detroit News had come to a sudden stop. Pete Bowers called me out of the blue, and we chatted for around 40 minutes. The majority of the phone call was him talking about his trip to New York City in mid-August, where he and WBFH Assistant Manager Ron Wittebols had personally met David Letterman outside the Ed Sullivan Theater (near the famous Hello Deli). They posed for photos, and had tickets to that night's show, so it was a double amazing experience for PB and The Ronster. (In case you didn't know, Pete is a huge fan of Letterman, so this was probably as close to walking on air as humanly possible for him. And if you didn't know this before ... now you do!)

The conversation shifted at some point to Pete informing me Ron had landed a job at a Detroit-area public relations/advertising firm ... and his assistant manager position was available ... and he wondered if I was interested ...

And I think I accepted the job before he had finished the offer. It was a no-brainer among no-brainers.

I spent four years - four glorious years - working with Pete Bowers for the third time in a 15 year span. But this time, it was a little different. As with any new job (and this time, it truly was a job - hey, a paycheck!), I still had much to learn. There was new computer technology to work with, including automated broadcasting overnight and during the summers. There were students working with record label reps from California and New York, securing advance copies of to-be-released CDs. There were live remotes of sports broadcasts, new ways of recording local news stories and public service announcements.

But I had two advantages: (1) even though years had passed and some aspects of the program had changed, I knew enough about how the WBFH functioned and how the program was structured that it made the transition smoother than coming in blind; and (2) Pete is an excellent educator who has made a different in thousands of young adults' lives the past four decades.

I even got a radio show out of the deal! I, with my friend Jeff Falcon, hosted a nighttime program called The Biff Rock Cafe, which we dubbed "fly by the seat of your pants radio at its finest"; shows included bringing in local politicians, doing live local band performances, and running "theme" broadcasts.

{Sidebar: I also started free-lance reporting and feature writing for The Detroit News again. Happy happy, joy joy, indeed!}

About a year into my working at The Biff, I thought, maybe this whole "education" thing might be something to consider. I spoke to several individuals about the idea at length, including my aunt Ruth Moltz (a French & Spanish teacher in Southfield) and Pete. They encouraged me to consider it. So I enrolled in Wayne State University's "Masters of Arts in Teaching" program and started taking secondary education courses. The real fun was my last year (1998-99), when my student teaching commenced at The International Academy, an all-International Baccalaureate high school about five miles from the WBFH studios. For the year, my exhausting schedule was basically Monday-Friday 7am-3pm at the IA, 3:30-10pm at WBFH, and Saturdays 8am-1pm at WBFH overseeing the station's Saturday Jamz program (for area middle school DJs) in order to reach the 40-hour work week expectations. Somewhere in there, I breathed, ate, put together lesson plans, graded papers, and retained my sanity. (Notice that "sleeping" is not included here; that's because I don't think it happened during the entire run.)

In July 1999, I landed an International Baccalaureate English position at South Fork High School in Stuart, Florida, and my third time with WBFH came to a conclusion.

Something I am asked by many of my debate students is about my own high school debate program experiences. Sadly, I have none (to the best of my knowledge, Lahser didn't have a program at the time). But I can relate my radio broadcasting experiences to them, and in many ways, radio to me in high school is what debate is to my students. WBFH is definitely a parallel connection. Both debate and radio involve multi-tasking and various skill sets. Both involve honing critical thinking, researching, writing, and oral communication skills. Both involve mentorship of all students from an adult supervisor, and of newer students from program veterans. Both involve real life knowledge of the world in which we live. And both are comprised of close-knit groups of highly intelligent and motivated young adults, many of whom remain friends long after their commencement exercises take place.

I can only hope to be as positive an influence for my debaters as Pete Bowers was - and continues to be - for his students, as well as for me. I'm proud to be a product of his program.

So, here I am, some 35 years removed from my introduction to the world of radio broadcasting. I carry much of it with me in my debate classroom, as a professional educator. The tools have been modified to some degree (radio and debate aren't exactly clones of each other), and they work. The crux is helping young adults learn how to harness their inner voice and make it shine. In some cases, their voices were already out there, but just need to be fine-tuned; in others, they didn't even realize they had a voice.

Much has happened in the 16 years I've lived in Florida. Just as much has changed at WBFH. A new high school is under construction in Bloomfield Hills, scheduled to open this fall. Modern WBFH studios are part of the new facility. And I know Pete is as excited about this as he was about starting up the model program in 1976, with a fresh degree from Central Michigan University.

Truth be told, so am I. Even from 1,200 miles away.

Here's to another great year of preparing young adults for the future.

CAMPAIGN 2016 NEWS OF THE DAY:

From MarketWatch: "A Trump presidency? Some are betting on it" - The new campaign financing platform, I think.

FACEPALM NEWS OF THE DAY:

From CNN: "Donald Trump on Megyn Kelly: 'She should really be apologizing to me'" - This should be interesting.

FLORIDA NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Rolling Stone: "Blood Boat: Inside a Florida Fight Club's Quest for the High Seas" - Breaking the first rule, I see.

WEIRD NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Local: "France's employment tsar quits his job" - Now hiring for a position involved with hiring individuals.

SPORTS NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Mighty: "When We Asked Ronda Rousey If She Had Apraxia of Speech" - One more reason she's a champion!

VIDEO OF THE DAY:

If only CGI didn't suck. Yeah, right!

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY:

Rush, "Subdivisions"

You Can Ban Words, But They Still Exist

Global warming is happening. All the arguments postulated by our political leaders doesn’t change that a bit. It's action that counts, not words, and we need action now.

Unfortunately, the only action that seems to be taking place is the spewing of words from said politicians. And that should scare the hell out of anyone living in southeast Florida.

Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s edict that the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” be banned from the official government lexicon, water levels are rising and the region is at risk.

Last weekend, the 3rd Annual Sea Level Rise Symposium took place at the Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches, which featured a series of presentations, workshops and forums on topics ranging from how new resiliency design strategies for southeast Florida and business planning for a changing environment, to mitigating the sea level rise effects on the Everglades and community disaster preparedness.

South Florida is caught in the crosshairs of global warming. And right now, the future doesn’t look pretty. A number of models have been created - several of them are available  online - and all of them basically tell the same story: a sea level rise of only a few feet would inundate thousands of acres of highly developed land and beach communities along Florida's Atlantic Coast, the Florida Keys, and the Florida Gulf Coast. Significant flooding and environmental change would also be experienced in the Everglades.

“This is not a future problem. It’s a current problem,” said Leonard Berry, director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University and a contributing author of the National Climate Assessment, which found that sea levels have risen about 8 inches in the past century. A recent Florida Atlantic University study estimates that just 6 more inches of sea level rise - very plausible within two decades - would cripple about half of South Florida’s flood control capacity.

According to Climate Central, some 2.4 million people and 1.3 million homes in Florida sit within 4 feet of the local high tide line. Sea level rise is more than doubling the risk of a storm surge at this level in South Florida by 2030. The global average sea level has gone up about 8 inches since 1880. In South Florida, taxpayers are already paying the price for climate change as salt water pushes through porous bedrock into coastal drinking-water supplies, and rivers and canals choked by heavy rains have a harder time draining into the ocean.

So what can we do to create action, not talk? Despite the obvious issues, that’s easier said that done. The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact Counties’ 2012 “Regional Climate Action Plan” (http://www.southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org//wp-content/uploads/2014/09/regional-climate-action-plan-final-ada-compliant.pdf) developed 110 action items in seven goal areas, to be accomplished over five years. Policy recommendations would be implemented through several approaches, including:

• existing legal structures, planning and decision-making processes;
• the development of new policy guiding documents by local and regional governing bodies;
• the development of operational guidance documents;
• the development of consistent goals and progress indicators throughout the various
• governments in the region;
• a coordinated multi-disciplinary outreach and education program; and
• processes for focused and prioritized investments.

Suffice to say, the problems associated with climate change are numerous, and solving them will take time and money.

But action is needed, regardless of our political leaderships’ rhetoric.

It's Always Rainy In Tampa

Last weekend, I traveled to Tampa to visit members of my family who live on the west side of the state. It was a nice getaway, my first out of town venture of the Summer of 2015.

For someone who enjoys long road trips - in 2014, it was a 28-day, 5,000-mile venture that took me through 10 states - it was another reminder of how nice the open road can be, even if it was only four hours one way and interrupted by multiple storms that are a staple of mid-afternoon life during Florida summers.

Part of the trip was to make a donation several years in the making. My cousin Karen's son, Jared, is now in college, and has grown over the years to become a huge fan of various music styles. Basically, his tastes are as eclectic as mine. And he has also developed a love of how music sounds when it's of the vinyl variety. So in the back of the 2015 Toyota Prius were five boxes with around 250 record albums (including some 78 RPMs) - essentially, the remains of my musical "hard copies" that I've had since my teenage years.

This, of course, comes several weeks after I had purged some 350 compact discs from my collection through a donation to the local library. Which means essentially my entire music collection now exists on two external hard drives for my computer. I still have about 150 CDs and about 10 albums (and yes, about 40 cassette tapes, but they are recordings of Biff Rock Cafe radio shows from the late 1990s). Welcome to the new world order.

The weekend itself was uneventful. Much of this was due to the weather, which was definitely on the rainy side. I stayed at the Brandon Township home of my cousin Leslie and her husband Ron; their two daughters are not currently living at home (Kayla recently moved out on her own, Jillian is at the University of Florida taking summer classes). Kayla came over every day when I was there to do dinner with her 'rents. On Sunday morning, we had a family brunch where I got to see Jared, his father Emad, and my aunt Phyllis. (Sadly, Karen was out of town.)

The weekend was definitely spiked by a series of movies and TV shows we watched together. One film I hadn't seen in ages: the Clint Eastwood classic A Fistful of Dollars. (This despite my owning the "Spaghetti Western" trilogy.) The others I had never seen: the 2001 cult classic Hot Wet American Summer, and two episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Hot Wet American Summer was easily one of the most bizarre and disjointed movies I have ever seen in my life. It tries to spoof the "teen" sex comedy genre, but really doesn't do a very effective job at that. It was filmed on a cheap budget and looks that way when being watched. But it does have a few hilarious moments along the way, and has what 14 years later would be an amazing ensemble cast: Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Zak Orth, and A.D. Miles. Meloni, in particular, is over-the-top hilarious as a shell-shocked Vietnam war veteran and camp chef (who has open-ended philosophical conversations with a can of vegetables, which offers him some guidance on how to proceed with his life).

Then we watched two episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which just added to the extremely warped experience. Ron had described IASIP as comparable to Seinfeld, and I can see why: the performances seems extremely improvisational, as if the five-member main cast was basically thrown a conceptual topic and told, "Run with it!" The two episodes we watched focused on (1) a spontaneous group trip to Atlantic City (complete with some of the characters participating in an armed robbery, and others getting stranded at sea), and (2) a spontaneous hosting of a kiddie talent show (complete with Danny DeVito in pure, unadulterated whiteface and insinuations of illegal child exploitation).

I felt like I needed a long, cold shower afterward. I don't think I was alone.

CAMPAIGN 2016 NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Fox News: "This 92-Year-Old Woman Registered to Vote Just to Cast a Ballot for Trump" - So she can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

FACEPALM NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Yahoo! News: "Bounty hunter arrested after mistaking Phoenix police chief for target" - Oops. My bad.

FLORIDA NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Sun-Sentinel: "Senior slapstick in South Florida" - Body of Binky.

WEIRD NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Romeoville Patch: "Judge Frees Tattoo Face Kiddie Porn Guy's Snitch Brother" - Come for the amazing headline, stay for the amazing tattoo mug shot.

SPORTS NEWS OF THE DAY:

From the Baltimore Sun: "Documents indicate Ravens warned Colts about Patriots' footballs last postseason" - BALLtimore. Say it, Tom. BALLtimore.

VIDEO OF THE DAY:

Bill Nye Reads Mean Tweets

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY:

Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield, "What Have I Done To Deserve This"

The New Fitness Era

I have been using the FitBit One for just over three years as a way of tracking my daily steps, as well as how many calories I burn. It was a $100 investment from Best Buy, and it has served as a really nice and effective way to help focus on my much-needed workout routine.

This doesn't mean I've been consistent with that whole workout routine, but when I have been focused and locked in, it has definitely made a positive impact.

But FitBit One's days are numbered. About 18 months ago, the clip that attached to my waistband broke, so it became necessary to carry the tracker in my pants pocket. About three weeks ago, it began not powering fully. Last night, it started to crack along one of the seams. Basically, the FitBit's life is coming to an end.

Normally, this might mean I need to drop another chunk of change for a newer, still amazing step tracker. Except, as it turns out, I already have a replacement, and it's looking like a very nice upgrade: my new iPhone 6, which has a built-in, low-power step tracking sensor that automatically populate this data with information about my physical activity. The sensor tracks the steps I take, the distance I walk or run, and the flights of stairs I climb.

That's what the FitBit One does.

The iPhone tracker also connects with MyFitnessPal, the online calorie counter and diet plan to which I enter meals and supplements on a daily basis.

Which is also what the FitBit One does.

So basically, my iPhone is now capable of replicating the FitBit, which is pretty darn nice to know.

This isn't a done deal yet. For comparison today, I have used both the FitBit (which, while falling apart, is still operational), the iPhone Health app, and the free-to-download Pedometer++ app, to see how accurate the trio are at tracking. As of 3pm, here's what the numbers say:

iPhone Health: 9,194 steps (4.09 miles)

Pedometer++: 9,321 steps (4.1 miles)

FitBit One: 7,646 steps (3.46 miles)

I'm a bit concerned that the FitBit stats are quite a bit different from the other two; however, the major difference took place when I was on the stationary bike at the gym today, not the elliptical or other regular walking activities. I'm not sure if this means the FitBit isn't accurate there, or if the other two trackers are in error.

I'll be using all three for the next few days, since it will allow me to better compare/contrast the apps and see how consistent they are. Plus, it will allow me to do a bit more research. But right now, it looks like the FitBit run will be ending by next week.

CAMPAIGN 2016 NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Raw Story: "Bill Maher on running for office: Americans would ‘probably elect a pedophile before an atheist’" - What about an atheist pedophile?

FACEPALM NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The Boston Globe: "Cambridge cab drivers plan strike for Monday" - Mad at Uber for competing with you? Going on strike should teach them a lesson."

FLORIDA NEWS OF THE DAY:

From NBC 2: "Man attempts to chew off fingerprints while in patrol car" - The best-laid plans of ... ok, REBOOT: The worst-laid plans, also.

WEIRD NEWS OF THE DAY:

From Rocket News: "Girls, drink all you want! “Hangover Makeup” is in!" - No word on whether "Walk of Shame Makeup" is next.

SPORTS NEWS OF THE DAY:

From The New York Daily News: "Wilmer Flores, nearly traded, homers in 12th to push Mets past Nationals, 2-1" - One love feeds the fire. One heart burns desire. Wonder who's cryin' now?

VIDEO OF THE DAY:

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every drunken idiot ...

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY:

The Grateful Dead, "Touch of Grey"