Stuck in the Middle of the Week

So here we are- stranded between two weekends-one just a faded memory, the other teasing us with possibility- if it ever gets here .Let us amuse ourselves meanwhile with whatever has come along lately… I got some nice feedback in talking about things I used to watch here on our original station, WCIU, way back in the past. Several wrestling fans reminded me about other grapplers who would show up on our airwaves- Bobo Brazil, Yukon Moose Cholak (who was also Golden Moose Cholak for a while- I’d never forget him entering the ring , with a huge moose head balanced on his shoulders!), Cowboy Jack Lanza (later Blackjack Lanza, whom I met many years after, when he was working for the WWE as an road agent, helping to coordinate events),Calvin “Prince” Pullens, and the Masked Assassins (there were other Assassin teams in other parts of the country- who knew back then?)- along with some great commercials done by the wrestlers. Another viewer wrote about the gospel programs that ran on the station, like Isabel Joseph Johnson’s “Rock of Ages”, sponsored by Rossi Brothers and the Leak Funeral Home. Bob Lewandowski did Polish programs on WCIU, and Luis Carlos Uribe did Hispanic programs. One very notable personality who was on the air here was the Olympic track and field great Jesse Owens, who did news and sports reports. It’s amazing to think that the star athlete who outraged Adolph Hitler by winning four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin was a part of our company’s history. Thanks to everybody who added their memories of our reminiscences of the early days of WCIU. So- after I’ve been writing things here and there about the impending release of the animated monster mash-up “Hotel Transylvania”- did anybody go see it? Is it entertaining- for just kids, or for adults as well? Feel free to let me know… Speaking of monsters in movies, I read today that somebody wants to do yet another reboot of “The Mummy”- but make it darker, while still adding the elements of an adventure movie. As I’ve said before, I thought the last reboot with Brendan Fraser was a lot of fun (and I’m not just saying that because our friend Kevin J. O’Connor was in it- by the way, he’s also in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “the Master”- though even he wasn’t sure how much of his footage made it into the movie!) No word on any actors for the Mummy reboot yet… Will those darned Sox (see what I did there?) manage to knock down their “magic number”? Granted, any help from Detroit is appreciated, but I’d rather see the White Sox win their division with bats a- blazing than by backing into it through the Tigers’ losses… As we near our favorite “holiday”- Halloween- news reports say that we can expect more people than ever to be taking part in the spooky fun, approximately 71.5% of the population, up from 68.6% last year-but spending a little bit less money. Its popularity among adults continues to grow, with the statistic that the average person will spend (gasp) $70.82 on Halloween stuff- actually a couple bucks LESS than last year! One of the options mentioned for cutting back- not visiting as many haunted houses or Halloween- themed amusement parks. Also, more people will consider making their costume instead of buying one. Hey, yours truly will NEVER skimp on Halloween- it’s pretty much a way of life for me. That would be like me cutting down on the number of rubber chickens I use.