From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac...
October 31, 1963…At London's Heathrow Airport, the Beatles arrived home from a tour of Sweden to find 50,000 screaming fans waiting for them. Also at the airport was U.S. television host Ed Sullivan, who noticed the excitement. "Who are those guys?" he asked a bystander, who told him they were "England's foremost singing group." Even though he had never heard them perform, Sullivan immediately contacted their manager Brian Epstein to book the band for three appearances on his CBS show early in 1964.
I thought this sign from a woman in Washington summed it up pretty nicely (via Twitter)
In 37 seconds...
Nobody could live up to that in real life.
I found this on the website upworthy, which also has a good commentary for moms to share with their daughters.
From Tom Taylor's NOW column...
Love this song about anonymous and mean people who comment on YouTube videos, but it applies to all anonymous on-line comments. Brilliant, although definitely NSFW.
I got these from the thought catalog website. I thought a few of them were hilarious...
It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.
Q: What does the “B” in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for?
A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot.
Did you hear about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on technicality…
Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg turns to the other two and says, “Clearly this is a joke, but how can we figure out if it’s funny or not?” Gödel replies, “We can’t know that because we’re inside the joke.” Chomsky says, “Of course it’s funny. You’re just telling it wrong.”
A biologist, a chemist, and a statistician are out hunting. The biologist shoots at a deer and misses 5ft to the left, the chemist takes a shot and misses 5ft to the right, the statistician yells “We got ‘em!”
there are two types of people in the world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data sets
A Photon checks into a hotel and the bellhop asks him if he has any luggage. The Photon replies “No I’m traveling light”
A German walks into a bar and asks for a martini. The bartender asks “dry?”, he replies “nein, just one”
There’s a band called 1023MB. They haven’t had any gigs yet.
A Buddhist monk approaches a hotdog stand and says “make me one with everything”.
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
To.
To who?
No, to whom.
Silver and Gold walk into a bar. Bartender says “‘ey you, get outta here!” Gold leaves the bar.
We had to pre-tape the segment because "Chicago Tonight" is on at the same time as John's radio show on WLS-FM, so I arrived around 4:45 for a 5:00 taping. When I got there, John was already in the dressing room.
"Deja Vu?" I asked.
"You're telling me," he replied.
John was a regular contributor to "Chicago Tonight" for several years about a decade ago. It was obvious that he was fondly remembered. He couldn't take more than a few steps down the hallway without being warmly greeted by technicians, producers, and WTTW office staff. After rekindling old relationships, he went into the makeup chair (the makeup artist also remembered him and had friendly banter with John), before being ushered onto the "Chicago Tonight" set. Phil Ponce hadn't yet arrived, so John reminisced with a few more staffers.
"Loved your book," one of them said.
"It is so weird returning here as an 'author'," John joked. "I remember one time I was on with Bob Sirott and the segment before ours was about the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or something like that, and I said to Bob, 'What in the world are we doing here?'"
When Phil arrived I was taken upstairs to a viewing room. They turned on the big screen for me so I could watch the interview on television, but I could also see them through a darkened window. 
I thought the show went very well. You can see it below...
Nancy Loo is a reporter for WGN-TV and a blogger for wgntv.com. She's got quite a following there as "Big Tiny World". Yesterday's piece was about our newest author and book, Chuck Quinzio and "Life Behind the Camera". Here's a short excerpt...
The most exciting part of being a publisher is sharing that first moment the author sees his new book. My co-publisher David Stern and our newest author, Chuck Quinzio, hold the first hot-off-the-press copy of "Life Behind the Camera" (available for pre-order now at Eckhartz Press www.eckhartzpress.com) 
The latest Chicago radio ratings news, comes from Tom Taylor's NOW column...
This one comes courtesy of "MS", a gentleman in his 60s.
You should see my new neighbor. She's young and beautiful and single...and lives right across the street. I can see her house from my living room.
I watched as she got home from work this evening. I was surprised when she walked across the street in the rain and up my driveway. She knocked on my door...I rushed to open it.
She looked at me, and said, "I just got home, and I am so horny! I have this strong urge to have a good time, get drunk, and have sex all night long! Are you busy tonight?"
I immediately replied, "Nope, I'm free... I have no plans at all!"
Then she said, "Good! In that case, could you look after my dog?"
As an Illinois grad (class of 86), I'm not true to my school when they get blown out 42-3 during homecoming weekend, but I still get the message of this Beach Boys classic recorded 50 years ago today. From Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac...
October 28, 1963…The Beach Boys released the single "Be True To Your School." They recorded two studio versions of this song. The original recording, which appeared on their "Little Deuce Coupe" album, was in a higher key and at a slower tempo than the second version, recorded later that week, which was released as a single. The second version features the Honeys doing various "cheerleader yells" before the first chorus, and after the second and third. Marilyn Rovell of the Honeys later became Beach Boy Brian Wilson's first wife and is the mother of Carnie and Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips.
Marcia Wallace was Bob Newhart's secretary Carol in the old Chicago-based Newhart show from the 1970s, but she was also the voice of Edna Krabapple on the Simpsons. She passed away yesterday at the age of 70. She had been battling breast cancer for years, although it's unclear if that was the cause of her death.
Some sad news for Fleetwood Mac fans. From today's RAMP Newsletter...
This was a shocker to me. I hadn't even heard he was sick. Lou Reed was 71 years old.
I was never a huge fan of his Velvet Underground material, which I realize is blasphemous to say in the rock and roll world. I was, however, a big fan of his solo material. He will probably be most remembered for this one...
One of the board members of the Chicago Cubs, Todd Ricketts, has apparently become a big-wig in Republican politics. The Chicago Sun Times has the story.
Amazing bit by the Daily Show the other night. The Republican activist featured in this segment was forced to resign the next day. I don't think it's hard to understand why.
#1 on this day in 1968, part of it's nine week run in the top spot. It ended the decade as the top selling single of the entire decade.
Last week I noted that former Chicago radio personality Don Geronimo was leaving his station in Sacramento. Yesterday the news came out where he is headed next. The site of his biggest success in radio, Washington D.C. From this morning's RAMP newsletter...
The AP has the details.
I'm scratching my head a little bit about the casting. On the one hand, Carrie Underwood is a good singer, which is essential for the role of Maria.
On the other hand...An Austrian? ("Let's start at the very beginning, y'all.")
I've previously written about my love of the film, and have personally met a few of the stars (Read here and here), so I am a bit biased against doing it at all. But Carrie Underwood? Who will be playing Liesl? Taylor Swift?
I'll probably check it out, but I've got a very bad feeling about this. I'll have my autographed copy of the film soundtrack nearby, just in case.
I'll list the eight mistakes below, but you'll have to read this to find out how to avoid them.
1. WE SURROUND OURSELVES WITH INFORMATION THAT MATCHES OUR BELIEFS.
2. WE BELIEVE IN THE “SWIMMER’S BODY” ILLUSION.
3. WE WORRY ABOUT THINGS WE’VE ALREADY LOST.
4. WE INCORRECTLY PREDICT ODDS.
5. WE RATIONALIZE PURCHASES WE DON’T WANT.
6. WE MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON THE ANCHORING EFFECT.
7. WE BELIEVE OUR MEMORIES MORE THAN FACTS.
8. WE PAY MORE ATTENTION TO STEREOTYPES THAN WE THINK WE DO.
I have been guilty of all of those things, although I had to read what the anchoring effect was.
You should read the original transcripts of the phone interviews I try to conduct over the summer when the boys are home. Very professional. Thanks "ND" for this...
I don't remember any of these, and I watched A LOT of television in this era...
OK, I'll confess. I actually do remember Paul Sand's show, Barefoot in the Park, and Bridget Loves Bernie. Not proud of that, but it's true.
This is about as shocking as the Anderson Cooper's outing (as in--it's not), but it's also different because Cooper was allowed to come out on his own terms. Slate Magazine examines the motivation for Gawker outing Smith, and makes some pretty good points about why they shouldn't have.
You can read it here.
Chuck Quinzio's book "Life Behind The Camera", which chronicles his 30 years working as a television news cameraman, is available for pre-order now and will be shipping by November 4th. Only a few select people have seen it, and they are raving about it...
There's a new book about Rupert Murdoch called "Murdoch's World" written by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. A few of the details are already emerging and Slate has highlighted them today. This little tidbit pretty much confirms what I suspected...
On the blogs, the fight was particularly fierce. Fox PR staffers were expected to counter not just negative and even neutral blog postings but the anti-Fox comments beneath them. One former staffer recalled using twenty different aliases to post pro-Fox rants. Another had one hundred. Several employees had to acquire a cell phone thumb drive to provide a wireless broadband connection that could not be traced back to a Fox News or News Corp account. Another used an AOL dial-up connection, even in the age of widespread broadband access, on the rationale it would be harder to pinpoint its origins. Old laptops were distributed for these cyber operations. Even blogs with minor followings were reviewed to ensure no claim went unchecked.
