An Occasionally updated series of rantings and musings live from "Content Central". These are solely my personal views, happily presented here on the interwebs for your viewing pleasure. Comments are welcome.
This post originally appeared on my Facebook page. Since not everyone sees that page, I wanted to share it here for all to see.
Friends, I want to take a minute to be very serious here. Actual serious, not sarcasm or snark. Not even Cubs ranting.
I try to share the best of my world, things I find interesting, and a laugh or two on Facebook. And in the past, I've tried to wish those I know or are somehow connected with a happy birthday in as special way as I can. I hope it makes you happy, I know I enjoyed looking for a way to celebrate you on YOUR day.
I've failed to do that last part for the last year or so. I've had a horribly difficult year, with a startup company I poured my heart and soul into betraying its employees, going out of business, and leaving really good people in emotional and financial shambles. It's been a distraction to say the least, and I haven't done a good job in helping those whose connection and friendship I appreciate celebrate their special day, let alone maintain normal contact.
As the High Holy Days leave their lessons behind and my own birthday approaches, I look back on the last year and apologize to those I've overlooked or just plain ignored. That was wrong and selfish, no matter what was going on in my life.
Borrowing from C. S. Lewis, “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” I ask you to accept my most sincere apologies and join me in trying to experience a positive end to this year as well as a great year ahead. The fog is lifting and I'm hoping to put the past and the damage it caused behind and return to a better place in my new natal year. Hopefully, you'll still want to join me on that journey.
On September 22, Yahoo! announced that some 500 million email accounts had been compromised. If you have email that ends in att.net, you very well might have had your email password and other personal information stolen. Here's what you need to know if you're an att.net customer through the company's DSL service, U-Verse, or other products.
First, some background. It turns out the even though Yahoo! finally got around to letting their users and Verizon, the company getting ready to buy them, know about the breach today, the crime happened in 2014, at least according to Yahoo's official statement:
“We have confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter.”
It's all the rage now to blame rogue governments for any kind of data breach, so it's no wonder that Yahoo is using that tactic. Regardless of who stole the att.net information, it's freely available on the Dark Web, and that means your email information, as well as anything you've associated with the account could end up in the hands of Bad Guys.
If you call AT&T to get some help with this problem, a few things will happen. First you'll be told that they don't know for sure if you're information has been compromised. That's true, but if there's even a slight chance that it has been stolen, changing your password is the smart thing to do. You'll also be told that if you change your email password, it will not affect any password information on other AT&T services such as television or wireless that may be associated with your AT&T account. That is a flat-out lie. In most cases, if you change your email password, everything you have connected to AT&T will have its password changed as well. And there's no way around that happening.
cbc.ca
Having all those passwords changed might not be the worst thing in the world. Sometimes refreshing passwords is just good security. However, AT&T won't tell you that once you change your email password, you'll have to change passwords for everything else connected to your AT&T accounts. That means your billing information, any apps that work with your accounts, and other services. It might take an hour or two to fix all the passwords that got changed, so be prepared.
All of that will get you through the first part of the process of trying to protect your email, But what do you do in the long run? Far and away the smartest thing to do is get away from any service running on Yahoo's servers. At some point AT&T may wise up and change to another email provider, But for now if you want to keep your AT&T address you are stuck with Yahoo. There are dozens of other good free email services out there and unless you rely on your current att.net email address for critical items, you might want to retire it temporarily and use another service.
Another thing you can do is just dump AT&T email for good. It's pretty easy to export all of your data to other services, forward email from AT&T to your new address, and most likely be safer than you are today when it comes to the security of your personal information. That's what I'm doing, and what I'm advising my family to do as well.
marketingland.com
A lot of things are different in 2016 than they were before. One of them is that nothing online is as secure as you think it is. Yahoo! taking almost 2 years to tell the world about a breach that affected half a billion customers is proof of that. Do business and use services that you trust, is very strong passwords, and change them a couple times a year. You will probably thank yourself the next time you read the story about a huge data breach.
This Post Originally Appeared On Medium August 23, 2016
Twenty years ago today, my son Ross was born. I know it’s not quite a milestone like his 18th birthday when he got to be “legal” or his 21st birthday, but this is an incredibly special day. Not for me, but for one of the most incredible, unstoppable people I’ve ever known. This guy has been a fighter all his life. My wife and I tried for years to have him, her pregnancy was, to say the least, difficult, and Ross entered the world in truly dramatic fashion as I described to the Chicago Tribune in this column that ran on my first Father’s Day.
“All of a sudden the door flies open and it seems like a hundred people flew into the room and the attending doctor is saying, `OK, we gotta go right now, we gotta take her,’ “
Ross was delivered by vacuum extraction, and I won’t embarrass him by posting a photo of his pointy newborn head for the world (and his future bride and children) to see. But suffice it to say we almost lost him, but he came out fighting and has never stopped. Ross didn’t grow as large or as fast as most babies, and eventually he was diagnosed with “short stature” and spent over a decade having to be injected with growth hormones every day. At first, my wife or I gave him his shots, but he eventually learned and wanted to do the injections himself, and became as skilled at it as Dr. Doug Ross, and I promise you it’s only a coincidence the he shares that name. He also has, and will always have, Asperger Syndrome, which is now considered being an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Some call it “high functioning autism”, and the main symptoms Ross presents have to do with social interaction. But he’s worked incredibly hard to overcome his affliction, and has indeed been “high functioning”, taking Honors classes, playing in the high school and college marching bands, getting great grades, and doing an amazing job working part time at a fast food chain, both through his Senior year of High School and now at another location in College. He’s not gregarious, but he gets better at interacting with people every day, and when he’s with his friends, you’d never know how being social can be challenging for him. Ross started his Sophomore year of college yesterday, and is fascinated by history, so much so that he wants to get a doctorate in the field. He speaks fluent Latin, knows facts about every era of the past, and is a voracious reader and learner. College can be challenging for him, but he handles every part of University life with confidence and grace. Undergraduate study is hard enough, especially at the state’s “Honors University”, but his grades are fantastic and he’s committed himself to do whatever it takes to get his PhD. It’s not going to be easy, but he’s faced adversity more times than I can explain and has come out ahead in every instance. His courage, strength, and refusal to let obstacles deter him are truly remarkable. I don’t want you to think I’m bragging on my parenting skills or some secrets I’ve learned to create an amazing son. I’m not, and I’ve seen for twenty years how Ross has overcome multiple obstacles all by himself and is becoming an exceptional adult. He’s come a long way from being that pointy head baby, and I have complete confidence that he’ll go on to do whatever he wants to, no matter how big the sacrifice or how hard the battle. He certainly hasn’t stopped, or even slowed down, yet. Happy birthday Ross. You amaze me every day. I love you and wish I could be with you to celebrate.
I've not made a secret about the fact that I'm visually handicapped. It's been part of my life since birth, I'm not ashamed of it, and I think I've done a pretty good job in a world that was never designed for the disabled. The ONLY thing I can't do is drive a car, which can be challenging at times, but has never stopped me from living a great life, albeit with the challenges of being very nearsighted.
I've always been fascinated with technology, from building crystal radio sets as a kid to seeing the potential of this thing called the Internet back in the early 90's to being at the head of the line with this wacky concept called Social Media a decade ago. One of the things futurists and geeks have always said about technology is that while it could do all kinds of "cool" things, it had the power to change how people live.
I've been fortunate enough to work with a smartphone app that literally can let the blind and partially sighted see. The app is called Aipoly, and there's an article about the app now on Newsweek.com and it will be in their April 8th print edition. The article talks about the app and the kind of work that goes into developing such a revolutionary piece of software. It also shows that the people who predicted all the good things technology could do were indeed right. The same device that you use for Snapchat and Tinder can also have Aipoly, and that's a blessing for thousands, someday maybe millions. Here's the article, hopefully shared with the permission of Newsweek.
The first time Mark Edwards used Aipoly Vision, he cried. Edwards, 56 and legally blind since birth, had signed up as an early tester for the smartphone app that claims to help the visually impaired people “see” the world around them. “When it immediately told me what was surrounding me, I was completely overcome with tears of joy,” says Edwards. “That doesn’t happen very often to a middle-aged man.”
Other early users of the app have called it “game changing” and on par with self-driving cars for its potential to transform the lives of blind people. Born out of the Singularity University in California—an institution set up in 2008 at NASA Research Park to produce “exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges”—Aipoly Vision combines recent advances in artificial intelligence with the standard technology found in an iPhone. The neural networks and deep learning algorithms that power it may be complex, but how it works is simple: Users point their phone at any day-to-day object and the app speaks out what it is seeing.
“When we were first coming up with the idea we spoke to 88 blind people and asked what they wanted,” says Marita Cheng, one of the app’s creators. “We found that their biggest frustration was having to ask what things are.” Before Aipoly Vision, a visually impaired person travelling solo had only one option besides asking for help: to rely on apps that use volunteers to help identify things via video calls. But that can be time-consuming. “The thing that’s special about our app is that it’s all done in real time,” Cheng says. “Current methods require an Internet connection and can take anywhere up to two minutes. Our system can recognize three objects per second.” Bringing in a third party—like those volunteer apps do—also isn’t ideal for those who want privacy. But with Aipoly, says Cheng “no one knows what you’re looking at.”
The version of the app that Edwards is testing is able to identify around 1,000 objects and any color. An update expected to be released by the end of the month will be able to recognize around 5,000 objects. In its current form it can also distinguish between different brands and explain to the user what’s in an image printed or on a screen. What’s more, users can “teach” the app about objects it doesn’t recognize—benefiting both themselves (later on) and other users.
Text recognition is another struggle for blind people, though this has already been largely solved through an app called KNFB Reader. Developed through a partnership between the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and Ray Kurzweil (one of the founders of the Singularity University), the KNFB Reader app allows users to listen to an audio readback of printed text. While some have criticized its relatively high cost ($99), the KNFB Reader has proved invaluable in helping blind and visually impaired people carry out tasks like reading menus in restaurants or understanding printed instructions. Aipoly Vision aims to take this one step further. And for free.
Chris Danielsen, a spokesperson for the NFB who has been blind since birth, tells Newsweek that object recognition usually isn’t a problem for blind people if they can touch it. “Where this technology comes in handy is when you don’t know what color something is or when there are items inside a container,” he says. “It can also be useful when you’re in an unfamiliar area, as it could be used to recognize local landmarks, or in an education setting to describe diagrams in textbooks or images without captions.”
While Aipoly’s AI is not yet sophisticated enough to describe the details displayed in a diagram, it is able to understand certain images and communicate them to the user. For example, when shown a cartoon of Superman it is able to understand that the figure is indeed the superhero from the planet Krypton, but the app couldn’t tell you what exactly Superman is doing. And this isn’t its only limitation. The app touts its ability to differentiate between logos of different brands, which is very handy when a user is faced with cans and packets of food or drink that feel identical to each other. Unfortunately, when shown a can of Coca Cola in tests, the app misidentified it as Coors beer, a mistake that could prove dangerous if made in a real world setting.
Despite the limitations—and no money spent on advertising or marketing—the app has already had 35,000 downloads on Apple’s App Store. The limited funding received through grants from competitions has been spent instead on improving the technology and developing new functionality, such as facial recognition, which it hopes to add in future versions of the app.
Something that has come as a surprise to the app’s creators is its popularity in Japan, where there have been over 8,000 downloads since the start of 2016. It turns out that people in Japan—people without visual impairments—are using it to learn English. “It speaks with a proper British accent so people know how to pronounce in English,” says Simon Edwardsson, co-founder of Aipoly. “That’s something we’re going to explore more in the future.”
The app’s creators are also working on ways to give it a more holistic view of the world, so that it can explain not just what an object is, but can also offer context on how the object relates to its surroundings. For Edwards, even in its current form Aipoly Vision has become an essential part of his daily life. It is allowing him to explore the world in a way they never could before. “Walking in town I use it to tell me what’s ahead, be it a traffic light, a sign or a mailbox,” he says. “That’s life changing. I know that sounds grandiose but it really is.”
Well, it’s finally happened. The Cubs are in the playoffs. And while I still think MLB Playoffs Rootability Index this year.
2016 will be the Season Of A Dream for the Cubs, one never knows what the boys have up their sleeves. After all, they did win 97 games, have one of the most exciting rookies in years in Kris Bryant, the big bat of Anthony Rizzo, and the lights-out pitching of Jake Arrieta. That’s why ESPN put the Northsiders at the top of their
The Cubs play the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday night in the NL Wild Card Game to see who will go on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS. As a rule, Cardinals fans aren’t very fond of the Cubs or anything having to do with the Cubs. And that means many of them will automatically root for the Cubs to lose in any game, especially one that could advance them to face the Cards. But the smart Cardinals fan should rethink that notion, because Baseball’s Best Fans would benefit in a big way from a Cubs/Cards NLDS.
Cardinals fans LOVE stats, so look at these 2015 season matchups:
Cardinals vs. Pirates 10-9
Cardinals vs. Cubs 11-8
Sure, it’s a one game swing, but any advantage should be good for the Redbirds, and since it’s a game of inches, that one extra win from the Cubs may make all the difference in the world.
It’s only a five game series, so Cardinals fans only have to drive to Chicago, which is a lot closer than Pittsburgh, to try and buy tickets to the two games in the Windy City and end up watching the action in a Wrigeyville bar. (For what it’s worth, I highly recommend The Cubby Bear, home of many of my brain cells over the years and right across the street from Wrigley Field)
More Cubs fans than Pirates fans will make the trip to Busch Stadium for the same reason. Sure, some might get into the game, but most of them will be crammed into Ballpark Village drinking beer that’s just as expensive as inside the ballpark and maybe even listening to Joe Buck provide between inning commentary, which is punishment for any Cubs fan.
And let’s be real here, St. Louis needs all the tourist money it can get these days. Think of the dough those giddy Cubs fans will drop while they celebrate having their team in the playoffs for the first time since 2008? Tony’s and Mike Shannon’s are gonna be packed, PACKED I tell ya!
Heck, its only a FIVE GAME SERIES. Win 2 at home, knock off the Cubs on the road, and then rest up for whatever suckers the Cardinals face next. Bang, zoom. You get to beat your biggest rivals and then sit at home and watch Frank Cusumano carry on about how easy it’ll be to slaughter whoever dares to face the Mighty Cardinals.
If anyone is going to ruin the Cubs’ chances of getting to the World Series, shouldn’t it be the Cardinals? Beating Pittsburgh would be nice and all that, but what satisfaction do you get from that? Mocking bottles of Heinz Ketchup? Cardinals fans deserve better than that.
So you see, Cardinals fans, there are plenty of reasons for you to toss aside your long standing hatred of the Cubs, at least for one night. Think of it as short-term pain for long-term gain. Don’t you want to see the Cubs humiliated by The Cardinal Way? Wouldn’t you like to take a nice four hour ride to follow your heroes and see them advance to the NLCS by winning game 3 or 4 at what the late Steve Goodman called an “ivy-covered burial ground“? Well, that can’t happen if the Pirates prevail Wednesday night. Face it, Cardinal Nation, if the Cubs win Wednesday night, so do you. If they lose, it’s just another Red October without all the juicy hatred and rivalry the Cubs stir up in you.
I bet Fredbird would even be celebrating a Cards/Cubs NLDS series.
I've been hesitant to write this post for quite a while because I rely on the taxis in St. Louis to get around since I'm visually handicapped. I have no reason whatsoever to think that speaking out, even indirectly, against the taxi companies will affect my ability to get a cab when I need one. I find myself far from the center of the debate I'm going to discuss here, and for a multitude of reasons, I don't see myself taking a leadership position in the quest to get Uber and Lyft to St. Louis. Edward Domain is doing a tremendous job in that area and I support the effort fully. However, I do need taxis often and don't want my personal opinions to get in the way of being able to get to things like doctor's appointments. But as they say, No Guts, No Glory, so here's what's on my mind.
Courtesy Thomas Hawk
St. Louis is two cities, the one real people live in and the one the small group of civic and business leaders think they've created that simply doesn't exist except in their minds. All too often, decisions are made for the latter city, with the needs of people in the real city not taken into account or completely taken for granted. The issue of ridesharing shines a blinding spotlight on the differences between the real St. Louis and the "heavy hitters" perception of the city and St. Louis County.
Using an app to order a ride via Uber
The region has more than it's share of problems, murder, crime, the economy, the upcoming loss of the St. Louis Rams and more. Leaders, at least some of them, are trying to fight all the problems while they try to promote St. Louis as a great place for tech companies to start or relocate. But one of the problems with bringing tech workers to town, and a long-lasting, unsolved problem of the region that these same leaders choose to ignore, is the horrendous transportation system in the region. If you don't have a car, you're basically screwed. Taxis are expensive and often hard to come by. The public transit system serves only parts of the region, needs to be expanded and enriched, but isn't likely to have that happen for a long time. There will be more cutbacks before there are new light rail lines, BRT, or expanded bus service. One alternative that, for the most part, is working well is for people to use a service where they can order a ride that is often less expensive than a taxi using a smartphone app.
In order to try to address the region's inadequate transportation choices for people who either can't or don't want to drive their own car, Uber and a group of very passionate supporters want to bring the service to STL. And to be clear, when I say "the service", I'm talking about the affordable UberX service where people giving the rides drive their own cars. St. Louis already has "Uber Black", the luxury car/limousine version of Uber. Right now, St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area in the country without Uber, Lyft, or any other form of ridesharing. To say the least, the (and I have no other word for this) battle to bring ridesharing to St. Louis has been a spectacle. The Metropolitan Taxi Commission, about half of whose members own or work for local taxi companies, has steadfastly blocked Uber from coming to the region, throwing up roadblocks every time it seems like a deal is done to license Uber. Just this week, it looked like the Commission was close to coming up with reasonable rules for Uber and Lyft to operate under, but the meeting turned into a melee, complete with police escorting citizens out of the meeting room.
Courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch
This insightful article by David Nicklaus of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at the Uber situation from a strictly business perspective, and like so many other times progress is impeded in St. Louis, cites local history for valuable lessons that the Powers That Be should be paying attention to. But the entrenched, closed circle of St. Louis political and regulatory leadership keeps on finding ways to ignore both that history and the needs of people in the region.
St. Louis is running out of eyes to blacken (as in from getting punched around over and over). The region should have ridesharing and the regulators who are holding that back should get over themselves and take the public's interests and needs into account. Once we get this embarrassing debacle behind us, maybe we as a region can spend our time and energy dealing with far more serious problems.
When I started the day, I made a promise on Facebook that I wouldn't post incessantly about the end of David Letterman's Late Show. But I HAD to write at least one thing. For any student of broadcasting, any student of comedy, or anyone who lived through the last 33 years, this is a truly bittersweet day. And for some of us, it's just a little more sad. I won't dwell on all the things you've probably seen on real media outlets, but I wanted to share some personal recollection on David Letterman's talent and influence on my life.
I spent my formative years in Indianapolis, and have a very unique experience of watching a very young David Letterman and a very young Jane Pauley start their careers on local television. Jane was, and still is, a magnificent newsperson but Dave started out a little bit differently. He was the smart ass who was sitting in the back of the room throwing spitballs at the teacher while the teacher was trying to explain the Roman empire. Even as early as the mid 70s, Dave was the guy who was breaking rules and changing the way those of us in our impressionable years molded our personalities. Just listen to the writing and delivery on this rare audio of Dave doing radio bits in 1974, courtesy of Brad Krantz.
People in Indy knew Dave had "something", but most of them didn't know exactly what it was. But it did land him a full time job at WLWI, the then ABC affiliate. Here's a video of some of Dave's local television work, hosting a 4H talkshow, doing the weather, and other middle market television duties in Indianapolis.
You've got to understand, that as a 15 or 16-year-old kid growing up in ultra conservative Indianapolis, seeing this kind of stuff on local television had a huge effect on me. Not only was it incredibly funny, but it proved that you could be sarcastic, sardonic, and silly without being shot at sunrise. I felt that this guy gave me permission to come out of my shell and develop a personality that was uniquely mine without fear of being seen as a freak. Of course, if you talked to my classmates at North Central High School, many still thought of me as a freak and do to this very day. But that's another blog post
After gaining a foothold in television and doing guest comedy bits on legendary Indy radio stations like WNAP, David Letterman somehow found himself becoming a radio talk show host on WNTS, perhaps the worst radio signal in Indianapolis, a daytime station at 1590, WAY at the end of the AM dial. Just to give you an idea of what a potential train wreck the station was, this was their building.
But Dave did amazing radio. There aren't many tapes of his work at WNTS, otherwise I'd post them here. But he was simply hilarious, doing "bits" unlike anything heard on the radio at the time and coining phrases like "homelisteners" to refer to his audience, a term that' morphed into "homeviewers" during his TV career. The son of the owner of WNTS and General Manager of the station was Jeff Smulyan, who has always had a keen eye for talent and broadcasting, and later went on to found (and still runs) Emmis Communications. On a side note, I tried to call into Dave's show often, and hardly got more than a few what I thought were brilliant words out before he'd call me a "snot-nosed kid" and hung up on me with great aplomb. I don't think I ever got past the second sentence, and sadly have never communicated directly with Dave since those days.
At some point, most everyone realizes they've done all they can do in Indianapolis, and Dave was no exception. He got his wife Michelle, loaded up a red pickup truck, and headed to Los Angeles. This is where the well shared stories about David Letterman in just about every media outlet start, and where, in the interest of brevity, I take a pause in the Dave stories.
Fast forward to 1980. With The Gong Show's run finished, I needed a reason to avoid college classes by watching oddball TV shows, and I discovered my childhood hero Dave Letterman had a NETWORK show. None of this cheesy local programming, a real live network show with an audience, Edwin Newman, an actual News God, doing updates, and crazy things that nobody had ever seen on television before. He had semi-regular guest players like Chris Elliott, Edie McClurg as the wonderful Mrs. Marv Mendenhall, and many more. It was absolute genius, and that's why it lasted only four months.
But like Jeff Smulyan before him, Fred Silverman, who was running NBC, saw that there was something amazing about Dave, so, as is well documented in other places, Dave got his own show in the Wasteland of the Vast Wasteland, 12:30AM Eastern. And it was spectacular. You know the story, I won't go into it, but for many years, I never missed the show, watching it in real time even though I had to get up at 3:30AM to produce a radio show for some of that time. It didn't matter, you never knew what a going to happen next on the show, screaming at workers in Rockefeller Center with a bullhorn, jumping into water in an Alka-Seltzer suit, having Jay Thomas throw footballs at a meatball on top of a Christmas tree, it was all off the wall, usually hilarious, and completely different than anything else on TV.
Perhaps my favorite recurring bit on the show, both at NBC and CBS, a the annual visit from Darlene Love and her singing the classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". After her final performance of the song last year, the Late Show staff put together this supercut of all her performances. I only have two words to describe it, musical magic.
I can't talk about David Letterman and how much he means to me without sharing two personal stories, so please indulge me. My wife and I got to see Late Night With David Letterman tape in the mid 90's, and it was amazing. But perhaps the part I'll remember most was before the show. As things often happened for me in those days, we got our tickets from a staffer on the show who was the friend of a friend, so we sort of had to sneak our way into what was then (and to me will always be) the RCA Building, we went up to the offices and got taken to the 6th floor studio. We were early, so the person who was taking care of us suggested we wait for a while up on the 9th floor in the NBC Commissary and she'd come get us when it was time for warm-up. I'd been to the legendary Commissary before, but my wife hadn't. So we hung out there having a drink with me rambling on about how Johnny Carson made jokes about the place when he was in the building and who I'd seen there in the past. Just then, Hal Gurnee, who was a TV legend in his own right, but was better known as the Director of
Legendary Director Hal Gurnee
Late Night, walked in. If you remember those days, Hal was a part of the show and had become kind of a cult hero. To make a long story short, I can clearly remember Hal's blue shirt and the fact he grabbed a snack and coffee before showtime. It was "a moment", to sit a few tables away from HAL EMMY AWARD FREAKING GURNEE. I can't tell you who was on the show, what jokes Dave told, but I can tell you all about my "brush with greatness" with Hal Gurnee.
One last thing. One of the Executive Producers of the Late Show With David Letterman is a lady named Barbara Gaines. She's been featured on the show on and off over the years in many different ways, but her story is much more significant to the success of the show. She started out as the receptionist on the Morning Show, has been with Letterman through thick and thin, and, as many of the unheralded staff and crew of TV shows are, is not recognized for the tremendous contribution she's made to Dave's career. I found her on Twitter (no, I wasn't stalking her) yesterday and sent a short "thank you" tweet.
.@barbara_gaines1 THANK YOU for being there since the start & for helping bring pure joy to our lives. YOU made a difference!
I know this sounds geeky and a little bit creepy to some, but I was stunned to see that she favorited the tweet and followed me. That may not mean much to most people, but it's a true honor to be noticed by one of the unsung heroes of Dave Letterman's magnificent career. Barbara, not that you'll read this, but I'm deeply touched.
I loved Johnny Carson, but only really appreciated his talent and interviewing style towards the end of his career. I feel like I've had some kind of connection to David Letterman most of my life, and I've laughed and learned from him. I believe he's the last of the late night sitting-behind-the-desk-with-a-big-non-functioning-microphone-on-it hosts. Yes, we have Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and those who will follow them, but the guy who set the tone for all of them is Letterman. 33 years on network television is an amazing run, especially with some of the bumps in the road he's endured. But his wit, wisdom, and whimsy have changed the late night talk show genre forever, and we should all be proud that, just as with people like Michael Jordan and other one of a kind megastars, we got to see Dave in his prime. There will never be another David Letterman, and, at least to me, he will be missed.
But that still doesn't make up for hanging up on me so many times.
I have a vision problem. Actually, I'm legally blind. I'm usually able to take care of myself and get around just fine, although I don't see well enough to drive. I've discovered that as air travel and airports get harder for all of us to deal with, I need some help when I fly. The airlines are supposed to provide assistance for disabled passengers, and some do a fine job in that area. Of course, there are exceptions to that, and this is a true story about my latest flying experience. It's not presented for sympathy or pity. I'm sharing because people with a disability should know what to expect when flying, what their rights are, and how to deal with airlines and airports when something goes wrong. This post was updated on August 11, 2015.
Remember when airlines claimed to make travel a "special" experience, even running ads like this on TV?
If you've flown anywhere in the last ten years, you know those days are over and this is what flying is like now.
It isn't pretty. It isn't easy. And it's harder if you have any kind of a disability. Yes, there are laws that provide protection and help for disabled flyers like 14 CFR Part 382, which provides for nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in air travel, but the laws are only as good as the airline employees who have to follow and enforce them. More often than not, the airlines are aware of the laws and do their best to follow them. But when airline employees don't follow the rules, things can go horribly wrong.
I had to fly from St. Louis to Boston on April 28, 2015.
American And US Airways, Together
I bought my ticket on American Airlines, and as it turns out, the flights I was taking were operated by US Airways, the company that recently "merged" with American. As soon as I made the reservation for this trip, I contacted both American Airlines, who I bought the ticket from, and US Airways, who was operating the flights. I let them both know that I am legally blind, would need wheelchair assistance getting to the gate because it's sometimes hard for me to see signs in some airports and would need to sit near the front of the plane because I have problems navigating the aisles and can't see the signs above the rows. When I got to the airport in St. Louis for the first leg of my flight the term SSR (airline talk for Special Service Request) was on my tickets and the people at the US Airways ticket counter knew that I had special needs. The gate agent and flight attendant on that flight were very helpful and made sure that I was able to find my way and get everything I needed. That's the way things are supposed to work under the Air Carrier Access Act.
When I got to Philadelphia, I was quickly taken to my departure gate and I checked in with the gate agent to let them know I was there and had special needs. They found me on the manifest and said they would let me pre-board and take care of me on board. They did let me pre-board, but mispronounced my name so I had to go after a few other people. When I got on the plane, I was unable to introduce myself to the flight attendant because she was looking away from the door doing something in the galley. I always try to identify myself when I get on a plane. However, this time I was not able to. To make a very long story short, I had to go back about four rows behind my seat in order to find an overhead compartment to stow my suitcase as the one above my seat was already taken. During the flight, the flight attendant never approached or acknowledged me as having special needs.
This is when things went wrong, really wrong.
Not my actual bag
When the flight landed in Boston, I let people who were rushing to deplane get off the plane and found a break in the line that I could use to go back and get my suitcase. I got it out of the bin facing towards the back of the airplane. I turned around with the suitcase and tripped on the leg of a seat, which I could not see. I fell on my knees and my hands and it hurt quite a bit on my knees. The flight attendant was probably five rows ahead of me and she did not do anything to help me, didn't even walk towards me or ask if I needed help. When I got myself up, I realized that my leg was bleeding and I told her that she hadn't done her job because I had an SSR and she didn't look out for me. She claimed she never saw an SSR for me. I explained that there was one on my first flight and that the Gate Agent saw it, so she must not have looked very hard. I told her I wanted to speak to the captain about the situation and I wanted her to come off the plane with me so we could reported to the CRO (Complaints Resolution Official) on duty. She refused to leave the plane and when she asked the captain what to do he said he didn't know. In fairness to her, a flight attendant isn't supposed to deplane while passengers are on board, but she didn't even come off to follow up with me or the gate agent once the plane had emptied out.
I walked down the Jetway with my pants covered with blood and my leg bleeding. The gate agent was a CRO and I told him what happened. His immediate response was "what do you want"? I told him I wanted my pants replaced, to fly home on a different airline, and a full refund of my ticket price. According to the ACAA, he had the authority to resolve the problem on the spot, and I wanted to clear things up as soon as I could. the Massport EMTs were called to look over the bleeding knee, examined me, they cleaned it up, and applied a bandage to it. They asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I declined but asked them to file a report of the problem for the record.
My leg and pants after EMT's cleaned me up
The male CRO (whose name tag I couldn't see so I don't have his name) was very helpful in re booking me on another airline for my return home and having a check drawn for $40 to help pay for my pants. (I haven't done anything with the check because the whole situation is still not settled) However, we were not able to agree on the refund of my entire ticket price. He said that the reason that wasn't possible is I was technically still traveling and that a refund couldn't be processed until I returned. On a number of occasions, he said that refund would probably show up on Friday May 1st. Later on, it was made clear to me that a refund would probably be out of the question. I reminded this gentleman and a lady who was helping him named Heleine Delalue that he had agreed to that refund and then he needed to find out who could get it done. They called the station manager, the person who oversees US Airways operations in Boston, and his response was the same, that I would have to deal with Customer Relations after my travels were over to try to get the refund.
I could tell we had done all that we could do, so after about 3 hours of activities after I fell, I was put in a cab and sent to my hotel. Later that night, I received the CRO's report to the airline, posted below.As you can plainly see about halfway down the page, there's a question "Did a violation occur?" The CRO checked "YES", meaning that the airline had violated the ACAA. In other words, he admitted that his company broke the law.
I posted quite liberally on social media about my injury. Here are some of the first posts. You might want to open the Facebook post to see the reaction I got. Sorry the same photo is repeated.
When I fly, I usually ask for assistance because I don't see very well. I asked USAirways for the same assistance on...
Posted by Mark Edwards on Tuesday, April 28, 2015
I received a call from a gentleman in American Airlines customer relations the next day, Wednesday, saying that he had seen my social media posts and wanted to talk about the situation to me. I asked if he was calling because I had filed a complaint at the airport, and he said no, it was only because of my social media activities. I explained to him that the outstanding issue was the fact that I wanted to be reimbursed for the full amount of my plane ticket. He told me that he would have to check into that and we get back to me in the next day or so. I asked him to get back to me by the end of business on May 1st, because I wanted this situation resolved, over and done with. In writing this, it is 3:22PM on May 3rd and I have heard nothing else from American Airlines Customer Relations despite many Facebook posts and tweets to their social media team.
I found out that the flight was actually operated by Republic Airways, I left messages for their senior management on Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon I get a call back from Julie Moser, their customer service director and I asked her for the name of the flight attendant. She would not give it to me. She was under the impression that I was ready to file a personal injury lawsuit and I explained to her that I did indeed mention that at the airport because it was an option but I have not decided whether to exercise it or not. She claimed that American Airlines turned my case over to her because of the threat of a lawsuit and that her airline would have to shoulder the burden of that situation. I explained that I had not decided what action I was going to take at that point, but I did want the name of the flight attendant for my records. She said she would get back to her counterpart an American Airlines and see what they can do to get this situation behind us.
I still haven't heard from her. I did try to call her again on Friday, May 1st to follow up but never received a return call. I also called the US Airways disability hotline on May 1st to try to speak to someone and was only able to leave voicemail. American Airlines does not have a telephone contact method as the phone number listed on their website has been disconnected. As a last resort, I left a message with American Airlines' Media Relations department Friday evening. I received a call the next day from a very nice lady in Media Relations, not Customer Relations, who listened to my story and said she couldn't help me, but would talk to someone in Customer Relations and I'd hear back from them "soon". I'm still waiting, just like I have been waiting for the help the American Airlines Twitter team promised early in this situation.
@markedwards It doesn't look good, Mark. We hope you feel better soon. Let us know if we can help.
So five days later, I have a huge scab on my knee, a large bruise under it, and while I can bend my leg (which I couldn't do for two days after the fall) a pretty fair amount of pain. And no resolution from US Airways, American Airlines, or Republic Airways.
What to do if you have a disability and have to fly
I thought I did everything I could have to prevent any problems while flying, but even the best preparation can be foiled by bad airline employees, the monopolistic "customer service" practices of the few remaining national airlines, and fate. If you have a disability and need to take a trip by air, I suggest you do these things.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. The US Department Of Transportation has many resources showing the rights of the disabled. If you don't want quite as much information as that link has, here's a handy guide that puts your rights in simple terms.
LET THEM KNOW BEFORE YOU GO. Call your airline's reservation number or look on their website for Disability Services contact information. Once you've made your reservation and have a record locator, contact the airline and let them know EXACTLY what you need to accommodate your special needs. Don't be afraid to ask for what you really need, most airlines will do whatever they can to make your travel experience as painless as possible.
GET TO THE AIRPORT EARLY AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF. Even if you already have your boarding pass, get in the airline's ticket line in the lobby of the airport. There are usually airline employees roaming the line and you can tell them you have special needs. They'll get you to the right place and right people to help you, or at least they're supposed to.
IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG AT THE AIRPORT, ASK TO SPEAK TO A CRO. The CRO, as mentioned above, has the authority to resolve any problems on the spot. The law requires that at least one CRO be on duty at the airport when their airline is operating. If for some reason the airline can't put you in touch with a CRO, they're violating the law. Ask for the person in charge of the airline's operations at the airport, even if they need to get them on the phone.
IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG ON THE PLANE, TALK TO THE CAPTAIN. Even the "Senior" or "Head" Flight Attendant is just that, a flight attendant. The Captain of the plane has the final word on what is right or wrong and how to resolve a problem. Be strong, many flight attendants don't want their bad decisions overruled by the Captain, but you can consult him if you feel your rights aren't being respected.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO COMPLAIN, AND COMPLAIN LOUDLY.
Once your travel is over, you can discuss any bad experiences you've had with the airline. Most of them have a special Disability Hotline listed on their website for problems. You may have to look hard to find it, but it's there. And if the airline is too slow, unhelpful, or refuses to deal with your issue, file a complaint with the Department Of Transportation. You can do it over the phone, online, or via mail. Your complaint will be investigated, you'll get a full report of the investigation, and if the airline broke any rules, they will be held accountable for the violations. One thing to be aware of is that the airline has 30 days to respond to a complaint once they get it from the Department Of Transportation, and they usually take every nanosecond of that 30 days to respond. Don't expect a quick resolution, but expect a fair resolution by the specialists at the Department Of Transportation. Some of them are disabled themselves, and they really do understand both the laws and what it's like to travel with a disability.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS, SUE. Even if the Department Of Transportation finds that the airline has violated the ACAA or other regulations, they can't award you anything for damages. They CAN fine the airline and use your complaint to establish a pattern of misbehavior. I'm not a lawyer, but using the legal system might be a remedy in some cases, especially when monetary damages or injuries are involved. Don't just go out and file a lawsuit because you feel like it, find a disability rights attorney and discuss the case with her. Then you'll know if it's worth your time and effort to take that route. I might suggest you talk to more than one lawyer to make sure you're getting the best advice and a plan of action you're comfortable with.
Air travel is hard enough these days, and having any kind of disability, small or large, just makes it harder. I pray nothing like what happened to me happens to you, but I hope you can be better prepared for your next air excursion after hearing about my experiences and how to prevent bad things from happening to you when you travel. Please share your tips, comments, or other things you do to travel without incident in the comments below. And if you know someone with a disability or an organization that helps the disables, please share this tale with them. It could make someone's next trip a lot less challenging.
UPDATE AUGUST 11, 2015 The US Department Of Transportation found Republic Airlines violated Section 382.111(e) of the Air Carrier Assistance Act by not properly assisting me after I told them I had a disability. The airline received a formal warning about their illegal conduct, and this event will be taken into account when evaluating the airline's performance, possibly leading to a cease and desist order and/or civil penalties. The DOT issued a report today saying air travel complaints rose in the first half of 2015, and this unfortunate incident was one of the complaints. As of today, I have not settled my dispute with Republic Airlines.
