...still, well done.

Looking Ahead

The last stop on the D&W Small Town Tour schedule for this summer is Friday, September 26th when we'll be at Purv's Beer and More on Main Street in Peckville.

Why am I jumping ahead almost two months to tell you about that? Because that day not only will we be wrapping up the Small Town Tour for the summer but we'll also be celebrating Chip the Beer Guy's birthday!

So put two and two together.

A couple of months should be plenty of advance notice to get the day off work because I know you'll want to join us at Purv's Beer and More for a four hour radio birthday extravaganza! Just a little heads-up. Here to help!

D&W Small Town Tour: Wyoming

We pitched our Small Town Tour tent outside the United States Marine Corps training center in Wyoming this morning. Thanks to Staff Sergeant Demuro for getting the okay for us. Always fun to get out of the studio and this morning was no exception. Here's the pictures.

Sturges 2008

The whole idea here is, if you can't make it to Sturgis, you can still make it to Sturges!

Saturday, August 9th, 1PM, it's the 3rd Annual D&W Sturges Motorcycle Rally! Once again it's happening at the storied Wildcat Saloon & Eatery on Route 247 in Sturges, PA. Our Sturges is actually a section of Archbald borough and is just about a mile down the hill from the intersection of Routes 6 and 247 in Eynon.

Hundreds of bikes filled the lot each of the first two Rally's and this year we're expecting an even bigger crowd. Doesn't matter what you ride or even IF you ride. All are welcome. Live music in the parking lot from Fender Bender, there are raffles and prizes including Pit Passes to see 3 Doors Down at the Toyota Pavilion! A Best Tattoo contest, special Rally shirts on sale, the gang from Rock107 will all be there, and you can quench your thirst too!

All proceeds benefit the veterans at the Gino Merli Veterans Center in Scranton and I should mention we have a LOT of help putting this together this year including our friends at Electric City Harley-Davidson, the Electric City Tattoo Gallery, Rolling Thunder Inc. Pennsylvania Chapter 3, and J&S Party Tent Rentals. More details on the radio!

Saturday Night

My wife Karen and I wandered onto the Brian Baumgartner entourage Saturday night. White stretch limo'ed backstage at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain "Counting Crows/Maroon 5" show.

It was excellent though Karen and I kept telling each other "What the hell are WE doing here?" Wristbands, earpieces, bigshots, contest winners, a bar, a buffet, plenty of room, and us.

"Kevin" from NBC's "The Office" loves it here. I mean, sure he's on an Emmy winning television sitcom and enjoys fame and money for it, but when he comes to Scranton he's a rock star! And to his credit he is friendly and accomodating and gracious and knows how to have a good time.

After the show we limo'ed to Mohegan Sun where Bobby Soper was waiting to give us the grand tour of the new 208 million dollar expansion. We had a drink and then it was off to The Bog for a nightcap.

Hey, once in awhile I get a little ride on the rock n' roll gravy train.

PHYSICS SECTION:
This is a picture of a Yuengling lager on a steel table on the party deck at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain. Note the circular patterns in the foam. It seems the sound of the band and the volume of the PA evidently vibrates the ground which vibrates the posts in the ground that the party deck rests on which in turn vibrate the deck, the tables on the deck, and anything on the table. Why do the vibrations manifest themselves in this particular "interference" pattern? Who knows? I was never much good at Physics.

D&W Small Town Tour: Duryea

A beautiful sunny morning in Duryea Friday for the D&W Small Town Tour stop. The Germania Hose Company is hosting it's annual picnic this weekend. We had a great time with the guys at Germania and learned a lot of history about Duryea, Rock107 Promotions Director Mark Hoover's hometown. For instance, did you know Duryea has two Main Streets? The second one acquired, according to Mark, in the Avoca-Dupont War of 1800. He says it was originally a runway for the airport at Avoca. I don't know how that fact and 1800 match up necessarily but, hey, Hoover should know, he lives there! Here's the pictures.

Brian Baumgartner Here Saturday

We talked to Brian Baumgartner who you probably know plays accountant Kevin Malone on NBC's hit comedy "The Office" on the show this morning.

(Click HERE to hear the interview.)

Brian will be here in northeast PA on Saturday. He's going to meet with the folks from the Children's Advocacy Center, the organization that he and other "The Office" cast members won $50,000 for when they beat the "American Gladiators" on "Celebrity Family Feud" recently. He's also going to be the celebrity guest at the Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert at Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain Saturday night! In fact, if you read this before midnight tonight (Thursday, 7/24) you might be able to join him at the concert on the VIP Party Deck.

Just go to the570.com/theoffice and enter "The Office" trivia contest. Two lucky winners will be picked on Friday. But don't worry if you don't win, you can still probably bump into Brian late Saturday night if you swing by "The Bog" on Adams Avenue in Scranton. Brian seems to really like "The Bog". In fact if you do stop by he'll probably be bartending!

Throw Me a Chair

Sensor Fuzed Weapon

Every once in awhile I run across one of these videos from Future Weapons, a show on the Military Channel. That's the BLU-108 Sensor Fuzed submunition. It's the business end of the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon. In the video it says the CBU-105 has only been used one time. If you were the enemy and even if it didn't get you, it would make you want to give up just for having seen it.

Watch the video but before you do you should know that this is a kind of humanitarian futuristic molten copper killing machine. If some part of it somehow makes it to the ground without detonating (not likely), it has a redundant self-destruct program so it blows up anyway. That's so it doesn't accidentally get some guy walking his donkey through there two years from now.

The Corn N' Clam Slam!

This week the D&W Small Town Tour returned to Mayfield for the William Walker Hose Co. annual "Corn N' Clam Slam"! It's a great group of folks who work hard on this, their major fundraiser every year. The clams are great (we had them for breakfast), they gave us a nicely framed Certificate of Appreciation for being there, and they happen to have the largest beer tent in northeast PA! Check it out, it's on Penn Avenue in Mayfield and runs thru Saturday. Here's some pictures from this morning.

Getting Interesting

Before primary season, Hillary was the Democrat presidential nominee "sure thing". A done deal, a fait accompli. And of course, it didn't pan out. She was to be the Annointed One but Barack Obama took that title away from Hillary and to be sure there are many people who support him or at least support anyone who's not "the Republicans".

But even before the conventions roll around, is the Obama campaign getting a taste of things to come when the opposition is someone who was never married to Bill Clinton? An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 72% of those polled said John McCain would be a good Commander-in-Chief while only 48% thought Obama a better choice to lead the American military. On Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq according to a sixteen month timeline, 50% like the idea. But John McCain's "stay as long as we need to" gets a 49%, statistically a tie.

Draw your own conclusions or draw none. I can't wait until the conventions are over.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Karen, the kids and I spent a week in Portland, Maine. It's a beautiful place and we enjoyed heading north on vacation for a change. Here's a LOT of pictures.

Back from Vacation

Just back from a great week in Portland, Maine where it's tough to take a bad picture. Talk about scenic!

My wife (who organized the whole extravaganza) and kids and I had never been as far north so it was an adventure a little bit out of the ordinary for us as we usually head for tropical climes when we get the chance. The weather was just outstanding every day. We had rain just one evening. It poured for a half hour and that was it.

We spent most of the week in Portland where lobster is free! (I'm exaggerating. The price is about the same as it is here, hey I guess they figure tourists have money even if the lobsters are practically growing on trees!), took in a Sea Dogs baseball game, and made a few side trips to Freeport, "The Home of L.L. Bean" and Old Orchard Beach.

More details when I get unpacked and organized and get some time to post more pictures including the ones I took at Shipyard Brewing, Gritty McDuff's, and Bull Feeney's. Hey, it was hot. I got thirsty!

D&W STT: Clarks Summit

Clarks Summit was our last stop before the 4th of July and a week's vacation. A great morning in the Village Square Plaza parking lot right outside Manning's Ice Cream & Milk. Free D&W STT t-shirts, free ice cream sundaes from Manning's and free coffee from Electric City Roasting Company. And I tried on some handcuffs.

College

Happy 4th of July! We're on vacation. But that's not important now.

Remember Kevin Covais? He was the kid I was voting for (he never had a chance) on American Idol two seasons ago?




I kind of looked like him when I was a kid which is pretty much why I took Ryan Seacrest's advice and texted my vote for Kevin, in the end to no avail. (Thanks by the way, to my pal Leo for the Photoshop on my picture and for this info!)

Well, Kevin's got a movie coming out!

This Is Not an Ad

The Ford Motor Company is introducing a new vehicle this week. It's a fullsize crossover vehicle called the 2009 Ford Flex.

I got one today. I didn't buy one. My local Quality Plus Ford Dealer invited me to take one home and try it out. The one I'm driving is the white platinum tri-coat Ford Flex Limited. It has every conceivable bell and whistle. Top of the line model. Rear view camera. SYNC voice-activated cellphone, navigation, and music pumping through a Sony 390 watt system. It has Sirius Radio and a music "jukebox" that you can put your favorite 2300 songs into then you can just ask for them by name!

The engine is a 3.5 liter V6 that generates 262 horses. 19 inch wheels. Seats seven and they all fold flat if you need the room to move stuff. 24mpg highway. It has a backseat DVD player which can also handle any videogame system you care to plug into it.

There's a refrigerator.

Programmable interior ambient "mood lighting" in seven colors. And this is just stuff I discovered by looking around! Wait until I open the Owners Manual!

Anyway, I have it just a few hours now and it is a blast to drive. It's distinctive in appearance I think you'll agree. I took it to Honesdale where my wife works to show it to her this afternoon. Then I did some running around to Sam's Club and a few other places. It is definitely turning heads and I get to play with it for the next couple of months. I'll be telling you about it on commercials and I'm sure it'll come up in conversation because it's a fun car to drive and it's loaded with toys and I like me some toys!