This is just a quick note to pass along something that I think is really cool.

For many years, Spike O’Dell was the morning host on Chicago’s legendary WGN Radio 720. Spike retired at the top of his game a year or so ago, and he and his wife, Karen, moved to Tennessee…where they’re now enjoying the fruits of their hard-earned success.

Spike has a hobby. Bird-watching. Well, bird-feeding, too.

And, he’s installed a live web cam that looks right at the feeder outside his office window.

You should check out his live stream. You’ll find yourself spending more time than you should watching the birds as they fly up and chow down. He’s got all kinds…red ones, blue ones, grey ones. It’s fun!

Please take a few moments to relax…and watch Spike’s birds!

Have a great day!

Steve

So, I stepped into the elevator to go downstairs to the CBS Broadcast Center “Station Break” cafeteria. As the door is starting to close, I hear, “Please hold the door!” Okay, no prob…I did.

What follows is proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

The woman who stepped into the elevator immediately starts complaining about how cold it was outside (27F at the time, with a windchill of +16). She asked me if I hated the cold. Being an old Chicago guy, I told her I had pretty thick blood…I didn’t think it was all THAT bad.

Then she said it.

“You larger men like cold weather.”

I’m sorry?

“I’ve found that to be true. Maybe it’s your girth, I don’t know. But you larger men like cold weather.”

Ummm…

“I think it’s because you have more padding.”

She then went on to say that she could easily spend the rest of her life in the tropics…even if it would frizz her hair.

“Oh, haha. I guess you wouldn’t have that problem.”

Thankfully, the elevator reached the lower level. Even more thankfully, she turned left out of the elevator…and went straight, toward the cafeteria.

Where, by the way, I bought a cup of soup and a scoop of chicken salad with tomato and cucumber slices. 

Even larger guys like soup and chicken salad. I’ve found that to be true.

My wife, Jeanne, and I saw Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in “A Steady Rain” on Broadway Saturday afternoon. It was a powerful, although somewhat dark, show…and, it was cool to be up close to Jackman and Craig in their two-man show. Each actor did a very nice job.

After the show, Jackman and Craig held an impromptu on-stage auction, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. It’s a great cause. 

We ended up buying a couple of Playbills hand-signed by Jackman and Craig. 

If you’d like to support this very worthy cause, please check out this web site.

Thanks!

p.s. - “A Steady Rain” closes this coming Sunday, with a specially-added 7pm show…in which all proceeds will benefit local, NYC charities.

I’m just askin’…

And, please don’t try to blame “bad lighting” or something like that.

(photos courtesy Getty Images)

  When Game Six of the World Series reached the top of the 9th inning last night, I turned down the sound on the TV and turned up the radio. If the Yankees were going to win the World Series, I wanted to hear John Sterling make the call. John didn’t disappoint.

“Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! THHHHEEEE YANKEES WIN!”

I know there are a lot of Yankee haters out there. That’s fine. Whatever.  I’m not one of them.

People here in New York who were born Yankee fans - or at least grew up with the team in the late 1990s - may think that winning the World Series is a birthright. It’s not (as witnessed by the last nine Series-less seasons).

I’m what you call an “acquired taste” Yankee fan. I’m a Yankee fan by choice, thank you…not birthright. I was born in California and then lived 20+ years in Chicago before moving here a few years ago. I don’t know when I started liking the Yankees a little. Maybe all the way back in the 1970s, watching the bickering between Billy Martin and Mr. Steinbrenner.  Maybe it was the late ’90s, with the emergence of Jeter, Pettitte,Posada and Rivera. It was certainly solidified when I joined WCBS 880, the radio flagship of the Yankees. I became a fan!

This is the first time that a team I really liked has won the World Series since the Oakland A’s of the early- to mid-1970s, when I was a kid growing up in California. Oh, I was in Chicago when the White Sox won in 2005. It was fun to watch their World Series run, but I was never a die-hard White Sox (or Cubs) fan.

I’m not a jump-up-and-down kind of fan. But, as I listened to John Sterling call the final out last night, I found myself quietly doing a Derek Jeter-esque bent-arm clenched fist. The radio broadcast on WCBS was several seconds ahead of the TV broadcast…so I knew the outcome before my wife saw the final play on TV. I turned up the sound on the radio.

 Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! THHHHEEEE YANKEES WIN!

Indeed!

So, excuse me, Yankee haters. Let me - and other Yankee fans - enjoy the Yankees’ 27th World Series title.

My WCBS 880 colleague, producer Lou Zambrana, put together this nice AudioFile that brings you the sounds of the Yankees’ Game Six win.

Now…bring on the parade in the Canyon of Heroes!

(Yankee celebration photo courtesy Getty Images)

I’m all suited up and ready to go. 

Good luck Yankees!

It must be hard to be a New York Mets fan today. 

The Mets’ hated rival, the Yankees, have advance to the World Series…where they will play the Mets’ hated rival, the Philadelphia Phillies.

What’s a Mets fan to do?

Just ignoring the World Series is not an acceptable answer. Mets fans are some of the most loyal, most passionate fans in all of baseball. And, they are baseball fans. They could never just ignore the World Series.

It’s mathematically impossible for neither team to win the Series. So, that option is out for Mets fans.

I know a bunch of Mets fans. Most of them say they will root for - get this - the Phillies. Yes, their hated division rival…the team that has kept the Mets out of the playoffs the past few years. These Mets fans so hate the Yankees, so despise them, that they will root for any one to beat them. In this case, that “any one” is the hated Phillies.

I don’t know who will win the World Series, but it must really be tough to be a Mets fan right now.

What IS a Mets fan to do?

(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Congratulations to my WCBS 880 colleague Irene Cornell, who was honored with the New York Press Club’s President’s Award over the weekend. 

No one can tell a radio news story like Irene Cornell. Next year, she will celebrate 40 years covering courts and cops for WCBS. It is a pleasure to know her and an honor to work with her.

Congrats Irene!

This made me smile this morning! A family of geese (Mom, Dad and three very little ones) out for a stroll along the Hudson.

Some things simply defy explanation.

  I was walking along the Hudson River this morning…when I spotted this guy.

There he was. Wearing a very ugly suit. Sitting in an inner tube. Floating in the river.

Yup.

When I asked him why, he said simply (and I quote), “Because it’s Wednesday!” 

And, then he waved.

Oh, and that suit. Nice.

You just can’t make this stuff up!