Tuesday Morning – Where's Jerry?

We're getting close to the end of the month and that means Labor Day weekend is facing us head-on.  And for people in the fire-rescue business, Labor Day is synonymous with "Jerry Lewis – MDA Telethon."  But this year Jerry won't be there.  He has been unceremoniously dumped from the legendary charity fund-raiser without any word of explanation or reason from the MDA organization.  Jerry had already announced his retirement from the grueling demands of the show despite his love and committment to the charity.  The man is 85 years old and he has visibly been suffering from health problems over the past few years, so nobody was surprised at his decision.

Jerry's plan was to give it his all, like he always did, and go out with a grand exit, singing his traditional wrap-up rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone."  But less than a month ago, the MDA board issued a press release curtly stating that Lewis would not be a part of this year's "telethon."  It was obvious that Mr. Lewis was not part of that decision-making and it left millions of people stunned.  Jerry Lewis is still respected as one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century and he is truly beloved by his peers in the Hollywood circles.  There is no doubt whatsoever that many of his friends would have moved heaven and earth to make guest appearances on this year's show to not only give Jerry a great send-off, but to help encourage a record-setting amount for the charity.

Jerry Lewis has been active in MDA fund-raising since 1954, before many of you were born.  In 1966 he helped organize the MDA Telethon and has hosted it every year since.  "Telethon" is a created word derived from "marathon" to describe lengthy non-stop programming on a television station and was popular during the 1950s, especially on local tv stations that were non-network operations and had little feature programming anyway.  There are still a handful of tv stations that hold annual telethons for local charities including Louisville, Kentucky, Buffalo, New York, and Green Bay, Wisconsin.  But these days the word Telethon is used in the same breath as Jerry Lewis, they go hand-in-hand.

The MDA Telethon has always been held on Labor Day weekend in September and for the first 20 years or so it would come on the air Sunday afternoon or evening and run all night long into Monday with a non-stop parade of big-name acts interspersed with other quality entertainment while the pledge totals were tallied onto the display board.  It was an interactive event with the local stations getting airtime twice each hour to introduce groups who were bring in their collections.  Neighborhood children would go door-to-door collecting and other groups like Cub Scouts and bridge clubs would gather donations and then all converge at their city's tv station to turn it in and perhaps even be on screen for it.  This is where the firefighters Fill-the-Boot campaign got its start and rapidly became an organized function of the IAFF which in turn became the charity's largest, by far, single contributor.

During the Telethon the folks at home would tune in to the show frequently to see who was performing at that moment and check the cummulative total of donations.  That was one of the great features of the Jerry Lewis show, you could look in anytime and see some great entertainment.  A side show was keeping an eye on Jerry who had been hosting the program non-stop all night long and would start getting a little punchy later on Monday as he tried to stay awake.  In the later years as he got older, he would turn over the hosting to another prominent star while he ducked out for a 3 or 4 hour nap.  But nobody faulted him for that.

This year though, nobody will be seeing Jerry putting on his best because following his announcement that this would be his final telethon, his deserved send-off was cancelled without notice.  Not only will you not see the great acts and professional entertainment, but you won't be seeing much of anything.  The MDA board has puzzlingly cut back the show to a measly six hours on Sunday evening.  That's it, folks…. six hours beginning at 6 pm with time delays for all the time zones so that everybody will be exposed from 6 pm until midnight.  Wow!  No more flipping to the channel on Labor Day to see who's singing or juggling, or who's handing Jerry a symbolic check for a gazillion dollars.  It's gone, folks.  It's over.

And just who will be running this great piece of entertainment this year?  For that I will quote from the MDA website:

The shorter show, which is expected to draw more viewers in its prime-time slot, will be fast-paced and jam-packed with top-notch entertainment.

The prime-time slot already is attracting new talent, such as country music superstars Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum and Martina McBride.

In addition, talented co-hosts Nancy O’Dell, Nigel Lythgoe, Jann Carl and Alison Sweeney will keep things hopping, joined by MDA National Goodwill Ambassador Abbey Umali, 12.

MDA’s social media will add a new dimension to the show with "tweets" and online posts from behind the scenes.

I've got to be honest with you, I have never heard of a single one of those "talented co-hosts,"  and since I already know what Harold Schaitberger looks like, I seriously doubt that I'll be tuning in during the six lousy hours that they are expending for the little effort.

It will be interesting to see what path the IAFF will be taking in the future with MDA.  It's a very worthy charity and the International has a lot of sweat equity as well as physical facilities (such as summer camps) devoted to the service.  I don't see them abandoning the mission, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the very prominent and visual Fill-the-Boot weekend program wither away in lieu of other fund-raising activities.  But will they be as successful in collection totals as now?  It remains to be seen.

Now let's go have our daily Fill-the-Checksheet  campaign and get this equipment checked out.  I can already see the need for more coffee, so I'll get that taken care of.  See you back in the day room.

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Monday Morning – Damage Assessment Time

Thanks to Irene's inability to keep her strength up, the hurricane didn't create as much physical damage as was first expected.  As soon as it made first landfall in North Carolina the intensity level dropped from Category 2 to a Cat. 1.  The storm still brought plenty of rain and created problems along the No. Car. and Virginia coasts, but when it slipped offshore, instead of regaining its prior strength and wind speeds, it remained a 1 as it moved up to New Jersey and even dropped to tropical storm-level before it eventually made its second landfall at New York City.

No doubt there were many billions of dollars of destruction saved by this fortuitous change.  But still there is a major flooding issue throughout eastern New Jersey and the greater part of New England.  Landlocked Vermont is undergoing some record-setting flooding this morning and for a while they were considering releasing some water behind a threatened impounding dam to keep it from failing.  The action would have flooded the entire city of Montpelier, the state capital, but the threat eased up and they were able to scrub that contingiency.

Vermont also has a fine collection of culturally-historic covered bridges and at least two of them were destroyed by the floodwaters yesterday.

140-yr.-old Bartonsville bridge was washed away entirely

Quechee covered bridge loses 40 ft. section

That's the kind of unfortunate damage that cannot be repaired.  Sad.

The good folks up there are going to have a long day today as they assess the damage and begin the long struggle to get things working again.  Many areas won't even get their electric service restored for another week yet.  Add in the food loss from a few hundred-thousand home freezers to the total.

We'd better get the equipment checked out now.  Fresh emergencies are still going to arise, so I'll get some more coffee started too.  See you back in the day room after a little while.

AP

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Sunday Morning

Well, I'm sure glad that's over.  The storm was far enough east that we didn't even get enough wind here to wake me up during the night at FG HQ.  But I haven't checked yet to see how the folks along the coastline are making out.  The storm seems to have weakened somewhat, so that's good news.

STATter911 has a live-streaming link to WUSA-TV continuing storm coverage and just below the player he has links to the public safety radio frequencies in selected Maryland and New Jersey agencies along the coast.  That's a good place to start your morning review, so CLICK HERE to access those.

Video from Long Island town of Long Beach:

Anyway, let's go ahead and get the equipment checked out.  I've got lots of fire and ems news to get posted this morning, so I want to get started.  After we make some more coffee, that is.  See you back in the day room.

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