Category: Life with Pratts

He’s dead, Jim

Mr. D.F. Rogers wrote to ask…

Is DogRat Dead?

And this was my reply…

No, Denny, the blog is not dead, but putting the Storage Area Network back together at work has been the only thing on my mind for a week now. Today I went through one of the most stressful experiences of my career. The day started at 7am, and I’m totally wiped. I managed to get something working that was completely broken, that absolutely *had* to be working at 1pm, and I did it with only three minutes to spare. Talk about stress. I don’t have the spare brain cells to even think about blogging. It’s just not on my mind right now.

A $30 shirt for $200

My Achilles tendon is doing a lot better. I’m running short distances without pain, but I couldn’t make up for nearly two months of lost training, so I will be merely a spectator at the Boston Marathon starting line tomorrow morning. Nevertheless, I went into the city with Eric today to pick up my swag bag. Then I visited what I’ll call the quitter’s corral to return my transponder chip and bib. Registration cost me $200, and for my money I’m getting a $30 shirt.

2009 Boston Marathon shirt

This year there are two interesting American entries in the race. The Grand Master, Boston’s own Bill Rodgers, says he’ll be jogging it in four hours, which is literally half the speed of his heyday. The last time he ran it, which was the first time I ran Boston, ten years ago, Rodgers dropped out at Heartbreak Hill. Rodgers had prostate cancer surgery last year.

It was also ten years ago that I first read about Ryan Hall, who was in high school and running the mile in just over four minutes. Now he’s a marathoner, and he has a shot at being the first American to win in Boston since Greg Meyer way back in 1983.

The Den and Doug Show — 1976

From November 10, 1976, here I am on college radio, passing the mic over to Dennis Rogers.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/APR/DenDoug.mp3]

As good as a Jon Stewart toss to Stephen Colbert? Uh, no. Not with my awful attempt at ad-libbing. It was at that time I began my internship at the radio station in town. When I graduated it turned into a paying job, but it sure didn’t pay very much!

Wake up call

When did William Dean Singleton become Chairman of the Associated Press?

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/04/06/daily16.html

In a past life I worked for Singleton, when he was working for a guy named Joe Albritton. Singleton had a house in town and whenever he was there he required a 6 am wake-up call from the newspaper. It was an afternoon paper, and for a bunch of us the workday started at 5 am. One of the girls always took care of calling Singleton, and I got stuck with the chore maybe once or twice. I think one time it was on a dare.

I got into computers from that job. We had a Harris system that never worked right, and when the production guy in charge of it wasn’t around I’d step in. My moment of truth came when I read a sticker on the computer that said, “Use double density diskettes only” and when I took one of the 8-inch floppies out it said single density.

One thing led to another, and working with Harris technicians by phone, I got the thing working well enough to hang in until the system could be replaced. My involvement with that process resulted in one of Singleton’s guys offering me a job in New Jersey, leading a team of installers and troubleshooters.

At the same time, one of my college roommates was trying to talk me into doing the same sort of work, except at hospitals. I decided that hospitals were a better long term bet than newspapers, and as a fringe benefit I’d get to work with my college buddies.

From the item at the link above, it sure seems that Singleton is the same guy he was, both good and bad. I love newspapers, but I despair for the industry’s survival and I’m very glad that I got out of that business.