WEEKLY HUM ( 08-21-06 )

DSS ALERTED AFTER YANKS SEEN SPANKING SOX
Boy! Bronx bombers blast baseballs; bury Bosox batters.
Long weekend from hell in Beantown with Yanks scoring 49 runs in five games to up their division lead to 6 1/2 games. Damon big catalyst in the series - he seems happy as heck to be on the same team with best bud Jason Giambi. Johnny D heading for arguably his best season ever - he will post personal bests for homers and possibly ribbies, along with stealing around 30 bases.
Sox-Yanks notes:

• Jason Giambi not only slugs home runs, he's fourth in the league in OBP, with .419. He's walked 93 times; in comparison Posada has walked 50 times, and Jeter 55.
  
• Manny Ramirez never fails to amaze. He's having a signature year, and along with his homers and everything else, he's also leading the league in OBP, with an incredible .444. He's occasionally maligned for his fielding, but the way he plays the angles in left is impressive; sometimes it looks like he's not hustling when actually he's got a logical bead on where the ball will end up. We've seen him turn many possible doubles into singles.
• What in blazes was skipper Francona chewing on yesterday. It looked like he had an entire Baby Ruth in his mouth and spit-per-minute ratio was high.
• We hope the Sox stick with Crisp. He's a good guy and if he avoids injury, will shine next year. On the Yankee side, we agree with an announcer who predicted Cano will lead the league in hitting in the near future.
• Overheard from a Sox fan talking to a Yanks fan: "Gee, you guys scored big landing Abreu." Well, at least for this series. Abreu seemed to be on base every time we turned around.
  

Considerable Hum in New England regarding the recent release, Feeding The Monster, which is on the independent bookstore bestseller list this week. Written by Seth Mnookin (Vanity Fair, Newsweek), the book gives a brief yet exacting history of the Red Sox and then delves into the background of years 2003 and 2004. Fascinating read from a Boston native who had a key to Fenway and a desk in the front office.
Editor's note - This report is from a correspondent who, unbelievably, likes the Yankees AND the Red Sox!

JET FUEL OVER VERMONT
Best and worst from the air show:

BEST

1. Thunderbirds, despite a short performance, electrified the crowd. One Thunderbird performed two stealth flyovers, afterburners a blazin', scarin' the heck out of people. At some air shows, they'll do just one. The Saturday show was truncated on account of the weather but attendees at the Friday practice run said the weather was divine and the jets flew for hours.
2. Cockpit cam. If you could see the big screen monitor, you could see the flight from the pilot's perch. How cool is that. In fact, most of the tech stuff was great, from the clarity of the announcements to the sound at the various tune stations.
3. The crowd. Not a lot of problems considering there were 25,000+ at the waterfront alone. Credit VTANG, Burlington Police, Parks and Rec among others for creating a safe and enjoyable experience. Now about the weather... Naw, it wasn't that bad.
   
4. Local fliers, especially the VTANG F-16s and the T-47, along with the incredible faux rescue performed by a Coast Guard helicopter crew, complete with rain-shattered stormy seas, like something off a movie set. It was spellbinding.

WORST

1. The lines for the port-o-lets were dreadfully long, and the lines to catch the buses at the end of the show were long, as well. But, as one spectator said, "Whadduyudu?"
2. Too much time between performances, especially if one couldn't hear the PR guy. But the performers were certainly worth the wait.

ARBITRONY
Recent radio ratings reveal rockers, rollers, roilers and riff-raff. WOKO riding high and WEZF STAR 92.9 solid as Arbitron spring book finally appears. But remember - ratings can be twisted around like a pretzel to accomodate a stations's approach. If station X does terribly with 12+ but scores with 40 something males, well, sell it. Or a station can have bad ratings but have a niche market and keep on going forever.
It's too early to tell if Kool 105's switch to classic hits will bear ratings fruit, but MP103 seems to have more listeners, from both anecdotal and ratings sources. The Buzz seems strong and The Point has a nice, tidy loyal listenership. Champ and WIZN are still rockin', though there is some debate about the whether the genre is, well, growing old. Triple X still gets the kiddies, but they have potty mouths, and should be ashamed of their ribald presentation, when they know a bunch of eight year olds are listening. All in all, we have a lot of choices in this area, in fact, more than some middle markets, 'cuz we are farther away from the big cities than say, Springfield, Ma which has to deal with Hartford bleedover.
That's it for now. Whatever...whenever.

FIVE CORNERS UPDATE - Essential collection
We waited for so long at the Essex Junction Five Corners Light yesterday that a local cop came along and arrested us for loitering! When I tried to explain that I was waiting for the light to change, the cop just laughed and said," That's life in the junction, Baby!"