Friday Forward Rush

COP 24/7 every now and then finds its self backlogged with more info than it can handle, sort, read or flip through. Believe it or not, this forum actually reads most of the mail it receives and all of your comments, back talks, rants and what have you don't get tossed becasuse we're busy with other matters. Of course everything doesn't make the cut, but for the most part if it reaches out and grabs our attention enough, you will see it posted at some time throughout our weekly cycle. With all that said, if you have items, updates, links or obseravations that you want to share, feel free to give us the scope at nealix101@comcast.net  We love hearing from each everyone one of you!!! Let's hear from you today.

Airlines Bemoan Recent Changes

For the life of me I can't understand why the Airlines seem to always believe that somehow they are being singled out or picked on. The recent changes concerning fares that do not include those pesky fees of Airport Transfer, 911 Tax, Federal Taxes, etc seems to me to be a no brainer. Especially since I've never thought of the "ticket" without those additives as being the actual fare. It was  the total when I included all the excess that I personally considered my purchase price. I don't know how anyone could think that any fare is actually "$59," "$99," or any other of those other low cost come on's that are bold advertised by the discount carriers. Those carreirs, Spirit, Allegence and Southwest are not amused at the changes citing that advertising the "real" price of their tickets versus those core prices that they state are being infringed upon, seems rather silly to me and should be to most of the flying public. This is most evident since each individual has now become their own ticket agent with almost the entire ticketing process being done by the consumer. In case you haven't flown recently, litterally you can create your travel plans from seat assignment, view the aircraft on which you will be traveling, search your fares, compare fares, choose the time of day of travel, and print out your boarding passess for the entire trip. Not to mention you can be alerted to early check-in and flight cancelations through text, cell phone or e-mail. Just think when I wanted a job as a ticket agent, I couldn't get an interview and now I'm doing the job without any damn training whatsoever. Amazing. In the meanitime, I think that those airlines who feel that the flying public is so short sighted to think that a "$39" fare is really the actual fare, then surely they are mistaken. Note to airlines, "forget about it and get on with it."

The OWN Network: Year Two

I don't know about you, but I'm still tyring to figure out exactly what's up with the Oprah Winfrey Network's programming. Have you seen it? Well in case you haven't actually you haven't missed much since its much talked about and widely hearlded coming in 2011. This multi-Billion dollar mash up of the Discovery Channel and all things "O" has sorted meandered and shuffled along with stuff that I'm not sure a lot of her base viewers really would gravitate toward. Since that big send off, Ms. Winfrey dismissed former chief executive Chris Norman while announcing that she would now be guiding the embattled OWN mothership herself. The big dollar venture has been losing money as those all important Ad sales dipped. Also viewership is not growing but rather diminishing as the cable competition up ticks with more channels that I personally think are needed.  For myself only a few notables have stood out and had me to come back to the show. Lisa Ling's, Our America, offers distinct glimpses into her subject matters lives from numerous aspects. Her interview style is personal, intimitate and presented from a sort of "observer" position of human nature. Her subjects have ranged from drug abusers to those dealing with gender identity issues. Its a good show among the line up. Another keeper is the Oprah Masterclass series which feature the "life experiences and lessons" from those in her power roledex. Recently I saw Morgan Freeeman's entry which was enlightening and gave me a boost in the morale department. He talked about watching movies in the dark of the theatre as he visualized himself as an actor and his long and winding trek to becoming an overnight sensation at 50 years old. I'm not so much a fan of all the re-run of old movies that have been seen so many times, on a channel some where else on the dial. Also, I 've never seen so many cooking shows featuring peppy white women. Who at OWN thought that filling the schedule with all these ladies who live in beautiful spaces and shop endlessly for products that the average viewer has either never heard of or most likely will never use. A bright spot in the cooking set was Sweetie Pies which gives a realtiy treatment to the daily operations of runing a restaurnat. It's appeal is based in the all american "boot strap" story of a person with a dream and bringing the family along for the ride. I took aliking to it and watched a marathon wrap-up as the season ended. Hopefully they will be picked up for another season.   Then there's The Rosie Show do over featuring gal pal Rosie O Donnell rolling out more of what she's already done. More singing, silly gags, guest star small talk and her engaging monolouges. I've seen this on two occasions and felt that I could take it or leave it, and so I left it where I found it. To sum matter up, Lady O will try to resucitate the situation with breaking out with Oprahs's Next Chapter series with the tag line "we're not that studio and sitting those chairs anymore." So far she has troutted out Steven Tyler and a two part with movie mogul Georgre Lucas. The Lucas interview was extremely candid and eye opening in which the producer talked about his childern, love interest Melody Hobson and his vast entertainment empire. It was vintage Oprah with her actually sitting in another set of chairs for the session. Hopefully as 2012 unfolds, there will be more stimulating programming in the networks future. Let's hope that OW hasn't called in all her markers for this big budget behemoth that will either fly or come crashing down all around her. Good Luck Ms. O, I'll be watching.