People of Wikipedia claim:
Pete Franklin is widely credited with pioneering the more aggressive, acerbic and attention-grabbing form of the genre, which has since been adopted by generations of sports media personalities, and bringing it to a multi-national listening audience. The zenith of Franklin's career came when he hosted Sportsline on the 50,000-watt Cleveland AM station WWWE ("3WE") 1100-AM from 1972 to 1987.
Well if you rate sports guys on a scale of one to ten and let one be the guy who doesn’t know sports exist and ten be the guy who tossed-out his remote as obsolete once he tuned in ESPN, I would be a 3.45. I establish this because Pete Franklin being an early version of a radio sports talk guy is not why I listened to him late into the night.
I listened because, back then, I couldn’t fall asleep unless the radio was on, and I couldn’t fall asleep if the radio was playing music. When Pete’s voice came over my old clock-radio, I could focus on this, tune-out the little odd noises that would distract me from falling asleep and peacefully drift off.
Around 1982, I broke up with Pete Franklin and became a loyal Larry King fan (King was exclusively on the radio then). His syndicated show played live from 11 PM till 2 AM and then repeated from 2 till 5 AM. So as I worked through high school and college it didn’t matter what time I hit the sack, I could always count on Larry King to be there to talk me off to sleep.
Well, strange as it might seem, I still listen to the radio late at night (For my wife’s benefit, I now use one ear-bud). When Larry King left the late-night radio world, I jumped around to various local and syndicated news and talk shows for years never quite able to latch on to one for longer than a few months. So, as of now, I have settled for something called The BBC World Service.
This all news and human interest format works well for me. The British accents and somewhat obscure stories about the governmental taxation in Zambia are often just what the doctor ordered for a good night’s sleep. Oh, I guess I should also mention that sometimes when I roll over at 3:48 AM and barely wake up for a minute or two, I catch an interesting news bit and then fall back to sleep. That’s exactly what happened last night. Here are two little stories that caught my semi-conscious mind and stuck.
The first is from Iran. Here is a summary I found this morning online:
A man who blinded a woman by throwing acid in her face in Iran, after she rejected his marriage proposal is preparing to face the same fate.
Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the controversial sentence against Majid Movahedi, who attacked Ameneh Bahrami six years ago. Amineh has demanded that Majid should be blinded too. She told the BBC's Persian TV she wants to carry out the sentence herself.
"They told me there will be a doctor who will carry out the sentence but I said no I really want to do it myself. Let me do it first and if it didn't work, the doctor can complete the operation"
Even by the tough standards of Iran's judiciary system this is an unusual case. The country has one of the highest death penalty rates in the world, and there have been high profile cases recently involving stonings or amputations.
But nonetheless Iranian public opinion is divided about the verdict -- as is Ameneh's family. Arguments about punishment, fairness, deterrence and revenge are being used by those who both sides of the debate.
For their part, the family of Majid Movahedi, who have repeatedly pleaded for mercy, are preparing themselves for the daunting prospect of their son's being forcefully blinded on Saturday.
Pete Franklin is widely credited with pioneering the more aggressive, acerbic and attention-grabbing form of the genre, which has since been adopted by generations of sports media personalities, and bringing it to a multi-national listening audience. The zenith of Franklin's career came when he hosted Sportsline on the 50,000-watt Cleveland AM station WWWE ("3WE") 1100-AM from 1972 to 1987.
Well if you rate sports guys on a scale of one to ten and let one be the guy who doesn’t know sports exist and ten be the guy who tossed-out his remote as obsolete once he tuned in ESPN, I would be a 3.45. I establish this because Pete Franklin being an early version of a radio sports talk guy is not why I listened to him late into the night.
I listened because, back then, I couldn’t fall asleep unless the radio was on, and I couldn’t fall asleep if the radio was playing music. When Pete’s voice came over my old clock-radio, I could focus on this, tune-out the little odd noises that would distract me from falling asleep and peacefully drift off.
Around 1982, I broke up with Pete Franklin and became a loyal Larry King fan (King was exclusively on the radio then). His syndicated show played live from 11 PM till 2 AM and then repeated from 2 till 5 AM. So as I worked through high school and college it didn’t matter what time I hit the sack, I could always count on Larry King to be there to talk me off to sleep.
Well, strange as it might seem, I still listen to the radio late at night (For my wife’s benefit, I now use one ear-bud). When Larry King left the late-night radio world, I jumped around to various local and syndicated news and talk shows for years never quite able to latch on to one for longer than a few months. So, as of now, I have settled for something called The BBC World Service.
This all news and human interest format works well for me. The British accents and somewhat obscure stories about the governmental taxation in Zambia are often just what the doctor ordered for a good night’s sleep. Oh, I guess I should also mention that sometimes when I roll over at 3:48 AM and barely wake up for a minute or two, I catch an interesting news bit and then fall back to sleep. That’s exactly what happened last night. Here are two little stories that caught my semi-conscious mind and stuck.
The first is from Iran. Here is a summary I found this morning online:
A man who blinded a woman by throwing acid in her face in Iran, after she rejected his marriage proposal is preparing to face the same fate.
Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the controversial sentence against Majid Movahedi, who attacked Ameneh Bahrami six years ago. Amineh has demanded that Majid should be blinded too. She told the BBC's Persian TV she wants to carry out the sentence herself.
"They told me there will be a doctor who will carry out the sentence but I said no I really want to do it myself. Let me do it first and if it didn't work, the doctor can complete the operation"
Even by the tough standards of Iran's judiciary system this is an unusual case. The country has one of the highest death penalty rates in the world, and there have been high profile cases recently involving stonings or amputations.
But nonetheless Iranian public opinion is divided about the verdict -- as is Ameneh's family. Arguments about punishment, fairness, deterrence and revenge are being used by those who both sides of the debate.
For their part, the family of Majid Movahedi, who have repeatedly pleaded for mercy, are preparing themselves for the daunting prospect of their son's being forcefully blinded on Saturday.
Wow. I mean one side of me is saying that this scumbag deserves this, but the other side is saying that this doesn’t seem emotionally healthy for the victim. Revenge is not really an ultimately satisfying resolution and most psychologists would work with the victim to focus on acceptance and perhaps even forgiveness; but then again, I can understand wanting to do this to the guy who inflicted so much agony on me. I do know one thing, however, that just like capital punishment, this verdict will not stop other people from repeating the act. We do not function this way. If I am really angry and crazy enough to throw acid in someone’s face, then I am not rational enough to think that I better not do it because I will get into trouble. So, this verdict is based purely in revenge and punishment. Maybe that is fine, but I tend to think it is not.
And the second story is about a woman who meets her anonymous, biological, sperm-donor father. It turns out that the guy is Jeffrey Harrison who lives alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down RV in a Venice Beach car park. He donated sperm three or four times a week, totaling 500 times, during the 1980s and 1990s to help pay the rent.
Obviously an interesting story from the privacy standpoint, but for me the most interesting thing about the story is that the daughter did not find the guy. Harrison came forward and identified himself. It seems that he saw a newspaper article about the girl and her search for half-sisters (his daughters from other donations) and knew he was the father. After about two years, he freely came forward and sought them out. He said it took two years to decide if he wanted his daughters to know what he was like and how he lived.
So here’s the question I leave with today. If I had donated back in the day, am I proud enough of who I am today to want the resulting child to know me? Maybe this falls under the category of how we decide if we are of good character, or maybe it falls under the category of it’s not about me. One side of me feels that even if I were ashamed of my life, I would still owe it to the child to let him make his own judgment.
Disclaimer: I never donated. This is hypothetical.
I bet Pete Franklin and Larry King would be so thrilled to know of your dedicated listening, if only it wasn't for the sole purpose of falling asleep. At least the BBC doesn't have a dedicated broadcaster who is calculating his number of followers.
ReplyDeleteDo you have trouble falling back to sleep after listening to these stories or does the mind begin to process the information?
No, I typically do not process the stories and actually struggle in the morning to remember something that I heard over night that I thought was interesting.
ReplyDelete