Flint, Michigan, outside of Detroit, is having a serious crisis about lead in water, which is catastrophically toxic to fetuses, infants, and developing children. It can cause serious brain damage for them – and is merely very unhealthy for everyone else.
Here are a couple of articles about lead in water – about how the Centers for Disease Control lied to the public about lead in water in D.C., and about how even a few years ago there may have been lead in D.C. water.
I just saw State of Play for the first time last night. It’s a very good movie set and filmed in Washington, D.C. A lot of the city was shown, and it was nice to see three longtime local reporters get cameos — anchor Jim Vance, reporter Chris Gordon, and former sports anchor and Redskins play-by-play guy Frank Herzog, all of whom have been on TV in D.C. since the early 1980s or even late 1970s. Chris Matthews of Hardball also made it – he’s sort of local but also national. The one gripe I had was that in the Washington Globe’s newsroom they showed a guy wearing an Orioles cap instead of a Nationals cap. True, they filmed several years ago and the Nats had only been around a couple of years, but it’s still a slap in the face to D.C., though there are still O’s fans in Washington. Other than that, they did an excellent job, and more movies should try so hard to capture the scenes from D.C. The movie was probably good enough to crack my top 100 but right now I’m too lazy to update it. I’d definitely also put Inception and possibly Avatar in.
The call came in to the Mike Wise and Holden Kushner show on 106.7 the Fan shortly after 11 a.m. today. The voice was deep, a little gravelly, and sounded familiar. The caller’s voice was close to the phone, and he talked in sort of an authoritative monotone. Dave from D.C. called in to say Randy Moss was past his prime after his trade to the Vikings and also said the Redskins need to build with youth. When was the last time the Skins had two young players like Ryan Torain and Brandon Banks? the caller asked. Wise said it was a good call.
Could this have been the Undertaker calling? The same guy who called Sportsradio WTEM all the time in the early 1990s but then mysteriously stopped a few years later soon after they mandated no more calls from people with nicknames? (WTEM was then called the “team.” It was 570 on the AM dial. Now it’s “ESPN 980”). I have analyzed the call on the podcast, and my conclusion is that this was the Undertaker. The Undertaker doesn’t ask you a question – he tells you the way it is, then you react to it. Kushner tried to shut him down, but you don’t shut down the Undertaker.
Later in the day, I heard Doc Walker on WTEM talking about the Undertaker but he was referring to Caps GM George McPhee. Quite a coincidence, but the real Undertaker had called 106.7 the Fan that morning.
Here’s hoping the Undertaker is back and he keeps calling both stations. Maybe he has been back and I just haven’t been listening that much.
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