From Tony Cucurullo

Bounce Sheets 

I can add one to these:  After drying clothes in the dryer, use the used Bounce sheet to clean the lint screen in the dryer....it scoops the lint right off the screen!

Bounce Sheets
    1) Repel mosquitoes - Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

    2) Eliminate static electricity from your television screen. Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television screen with a used
sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling. 

    3) Dissolve soap scum from shower doors - Clean with a used sheet of Bounce.

    4) Freshen the air in your home - Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer or hang one in the closet.

    5) Prevent thread from tangling - Run a threaded needle through a sheet of Bounce to eliminate the static cling on the thread before sewing.

    6) Prevent musty suitcases - Place an individual sheet of bounce inside.

    7) Freshen the air in your car - Place a sheet of Bounce under the front seat.

    8) Keep the shock away - Place a sheet of Bounce in your coat pocket to avoid the shock you get getting in and out of the car in the winter.

    9) Clean baked on food from a cooking pan - Put a sheet in the pan, fill with water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean. The anti-static agents apparently weaken the bond between the food and the pan while the fabric softening agents soften the baked on foods.

    10) Eliminate odors in wastebaskets - Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of the wastebasket.

    11) Collect cat hair - rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.

    12) Eliminate static electricity from Venetian blinds - Wipe the blinds with a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling.

    13) Wipe up sawdust from drilling or sand papering - A used sheet of bounce will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.

    14) Deodorize shoes or sneakers - Place a sheet of bounce in your shoes or sneakers overnight so they smell great in the morning.

    15) Another thing you can do with them is to hang the sheets outside your doors to keep flies from congregating and getting into your house every time the
kids open the door.

    16) Keep mice from getting into stored things in a camper by placing a Bounce sheet with whatever you are storing, or around pipes and holes.

From Harold Deppe

HI.Tony.
Its nice to hear from you again. Thanks for the Bounce subject.I guess it would also work very well in conjunction with the Alka Seltza in the toilet bowl...If you know what I mean...

P.S...I think the Retired Engineers Site could use some Bounce. Best Regards   Harold Deppe

From Tony Cucurullo... Jorge Moran "retires"

Hi Jorge,
Nice to hear you can join the group of "everyday is Sunday"
As President Bush (SR.) would have told you are one of the points of light of CBS.
Enjoy, and mostly stay healthy. And fro God's sake renew your life with your family.
Regards,
Tony C.

From Gayle DePoli

From Cable to Satellite TV
More Is More (Mostly)

By ALFRED BALK/The New York Times

By now every American awake and functioning must be aware of the proliferation of satellite television services. The subscriber base for the satellite TV industry is now more than 16 million, about one-fourth that of cable (70 million), and it expanded by 18 percent last year alone. Headlines tracked plans by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (news/quote), which operates satellite services in Europe, Latin America and parts of Asia, to crack the Chinese and American markets. Now they chronicle the offer made by EchoStar's Dish Network to buy the dominant United States supplier, Hughes Electronics' DirecTV, which is owned by General Motors (news/quote).

About a year ago my wife and I, who had moved from New York to a semirural area outside Chicago, succumbed to the blandishments of the satellite industry ("take a bite out of your cable bill," "over 225 digital- quality channels," "professional installation"). We canceled our cable service and signed with the Dish Network.

We are moderate, highly selective television viewers with no real use for 225 digital- quality channels, but had found our cable provider's 36 channels thin gruel. Given my handyman past, which includes breaking a toilet bowl while unbolting a seat, free standard professional installation sounded fine. And like most Americans, we were not averse to saving money. That did not happen, for reasons I will get to.

Of all the advantages of satellite television for us, perhaps the greatest was audio only: the more than 30 CD music channels (offered by both Dish's and DirecTV's basic service). Not only commercial-free but talk- free, all the music channels display title and artist identification (albeit often frustratingly fragmentary) on-screen. While we relish classical and big-band channels, there are also country, folk, reggae, hip-hop, rock and other genres.

Another boon is an optional "Local and Superstations" package ($7.99 monthly). It not only lets us retain access to Chicago commercial network outlets and TBS, the Atlanta superstation founded by Ted Turner, but also adds WWOR and WPIX in New York, WSBK in Boston, KWGN in Denver and KTLA in Los Angeles.

Among the pleasant surprises: we have liked several lectures and discussions we have surfed into on the Brigham Young University channel and, on KTLA, the spare, urbane narration of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games by Vin Scully (who, apparently uniquely, alas, among high-profile sportscasters, works alone). For tranquillity we switch to a NASA channel's live views of Earth from space.

All this is apart from pay-per-view options and a smorgasbord familiar to many cable subscribers, from the History Channel, Arts and Entertainment, Discovery, and Learning to C-Span, CNN, MSNBC, BBC America, American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, Bravo, Comedy, Court TV, and an ESPN cluster - more, indeed, than ordinary mortals could or should watch. But, wherever you live, switching from cable to satellite involves trade-offs. The first is psychological: accepting that your television, as in pre-cable days, won't be receiving its signals by wire but through thin air.

On contemplation, that seems surreal if not miraculous. But miracles have costs. In this case, one is occasional vulnerability to weather. Heavy rain, snow or cloud cover can block your satellite signal, which can interrupt your programming service.

That has occurred for us a half-dozen times in a year. When it does, sometimes at inconvenient moments in a drama or sports event, an on-screen slide announces, "The satellite signal has been lost/Signal acquisition is in progress." If the cause is a blizzard or torrential rain, interruptions may last five minutes or more.

There were more consequential trade- offs. With cable, we could receive different channels simultaneously on several receivers. One set's picture-in-picture feature let us call up an extra channel as an on- screen inset, allowing monitoring of two programs simultaneously or, during commercial breaks, switching commercials to the inset and surfing about. To record, we used the VCR Plus feature on our television, setting VCR timers simply by punching in key codes for the programs we wanted.

Satellite television cost us all three capabilities. Our equipment relays only one satellite channel at a time (the last one we have punched into the hand-held remote) through our receiver box. To view two or more channels simultaneously we need boxes for each receiver. The second box cost us $99, plus $59 for hookup and $4.99 monthly as an additional unit access fee. Our picture-in-picture feature, for which we paid extra, now delivers only snow. Nor can our recorder equipped for VCR Plus scan channels to find programs keyed by codes, as it could with cable.

But since our installation, technology has marched on. Dish now offers a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) that allows the customer to set a timer, using VCR Plus codes if desired, for recording from four different channels in any sequence. It stores up to 35 hours of content, and on playback it can zap commercials in 30-second chunks or cycle back 10 seconds for second looks. Though it records on a hard disk, you can transfer content to tape by connecting to your VCR.
 
Indeed, a current promotion from Dish offers new customers a PVR along with a second-room receiver to watch different shows on two televisions, a package of 150 channels and standard professional installation, all for a 12-month commitment to pay $59.99 monthly. (DirecTV offers a similar package and the opportunity to purchase its PVR equivalent, TiVo (news/quote), outright.)

So where did this leave us?

Upgrading to PVR would cost $364.95. That would render one satellite receiver box (originally $99 plus $59 installation) and one VCR (about $250 when purchased during our cable days) redundant. But - good news - no more $4.99 monthly second-box access fee. Monthly charges for our chosen programming would fall from $51.46 to $46.47.

Compare that to our last cable bill, which was $33. So switching didn't save us money but, in quintessential American fashion, we viewed the increased cost as paying more to get more - more channels, more clarity from digital signals and other options. These include a national PBS feed (many PBS outlets, including New York's Channel 11 and Chicago's Channel 13, pre-empt some offerings for local programs); the Madison Square Garden network (MSG), home of Knicks games and some Yankees games (until the end of September, when the network's contract with the Yankees runs out) and the talk-free audio music channels.

One option proved illusory: despite assurances by two Dish sales representatives, MSG's Yankees and Knicks games are blacked out in our area (but not in New York). When I protested this misrepresentation, a Dish legal representative corrected me: it was a "misunderstanding," he said. C'est la vie, and caveat emptor.

Among lesser disappointments, the Weather Channel's satellite feed lacks the place-specific local forecasts fed to cable. We also lost an around-the-clock metropolitan cable news channel. And of course, a PBS national feed does entail missing worthy local programs.

But our main frustration - endemic with today's media overload - is ferreting out what we might want to watch among the plethora of alternatives.  Parts of our on- screen menus are guessing games, with options identified simply as Major League Baseball (who's playing?), Public Affairs (what kind?) or even "Information Not Available."

More than ever, with continual channel proliferation and programming gold scattered throughout vast wastelands of dross, arguably one of television's most desperate needs - on cable as well as satellite - is more detailed program information. Not simply sequential listings by time slot, but summaries by subject and possibly even advance capsule reviews.

Computer-age counterparts of TV Guide's creators, where are you now when the millions caught in a megachannel morass need you most?

From Les

Every so often I receive an email from someone that in my judgment I should not post, but I do anyway, I call these my red cape in front of the bull articles.  Last week I posted one such article where in the person, I assume, meant well but is not very well people skilled in the way to address subjects.  This person has the habit of addressing others with small letters and puts his own name in full upper case.  Take that for what it is worth.  I was also informed that some of our retirees have articles to submit, but because of this person, won't do so.  They feel that they will have the articles edited and maybe chastised by such an individual.  I have been told by this person that he/she will not send anymore articles for posting.  So please send your stories to either Tony or myself.  I promise to only change the font style and correct the capitalization of  what requires the change.  One other area of where we could use some help is in the area of someone to spearhead the examination of Health Insurance.

On a personal side.......I and my wife will be occupied with some personal changes in the next couple of months, but I promise to put everything on the web site that I receive.  It may take a little longer, so please be patient.

Lee, have you made any progress with a Florida retiree gathering?   The season is almost upon us.

From Harold Deppe

Hi Les.
Where is Lisa Kehrle with the answers to HDTV.?
The Ball is in Her Court.
Best Regards  Harold Deppe.

[Les] Harold, maybe I missed an email somewhere, I don't recall the question/specifics that you are asking.

From Fred Schutz

Hi  Guys

The Web Site for the past few weeks has been going through a most difficult period and as Adrian has noted we have reached our 1 year anniversary,  renewed our lease for another year, and I think we all should look back to why the web site was created ..

Its a shame that we are considering eliminating the site when I think those that put it together should be given a word of thanks for putting in many  unpaid hours  and creating a  means that the CBS retirees can communicate and receive information on their fellow retirees.

I think that you Les and Adrian have the most difficult task in putting items on the web site that meet the rules of good taste while  avoiding discussions of religious and political subjects, a most difficult task...

Tony, our ring leader/cheerleader has certainly gone beyond the call of duty in getting input to the web site......

Our web site, celebrating its first anniversary should now look forward to many years of reporting on the doings of our fellow retirees and reporting news of interest to all , keeping in mind the camaraderie and friendship we all have developed over the many years.  Our former employee, would like us to just  "fade away"....as they have
certainly taken no interest in our welfare , as to most importantly ,our medical insurance coverage..

The web site along with our luncheons are the only thing that we have left to keep aware of each other...and I certainly would like to vote that the CBS retirees web site continues.......bigger and better than ever..........

Touching on a sad note now....and I feel this effects our web site as well as the luncheons....The luncheon attendance has been slowly dropping off  and the attendance
recently is effecting our ability to continual to hold them..I think a similar problem is effecting input to the web site....Unfortunately we are all just  getting older and health problems, poor eye site and  other aging problems ,including a lack of interest are starting to take their toll..

Most of us took early retirement.........and now we have reached the point where the early part is gone........

Having said all this........The web site starts to take a more important role in keeping us together....If for no other reason than just reporting the health or the sad news of the passing of our fellow friends and coworkers......Our web site is our "link with the past"  and hopefully will record a good portion of what we all did, during the great years of Television.....

Again let us keep the web site going........realizing that there will be pitfalls along the way...

Best regards   Freddie S.

From Tony Cucurullo

Eloquent..Concise, and to the point. It is one of the finest letters to all of us.
It should inspire new hope in this project. It excites the spirit of Doris Reardon.

It makes me feel doubly honored to be associated with the likes of Adrian, Les, Ted, and mostly you Fred that has exhibited true leadership courage, in rallying us to better days.
Thank you.  Tony C.

[Les] I assume that this is in response to Fred's email.  

From Adrian Ettlinger

Hi Freddie, Les, et al,

Very glad to see Freddie's very well-spoken endorsement of the concept of continuing the website.

It doesn't appear that there is really any significant impulse to discontinue the site. I don't want to put words in Tony's mouth, but I did get the impression that Tony made the suggestion that perhaps we should quit entirely out of concern that the Association could be running some risk of legal exposure from a lawsuit based on an accusation of slander or libel. Being at the shore (this time North Carolina, not New Jersey) right now with my complete extended familty, including my son the lawyer, I had a chance to educate myself further about how the law works, and it's all very reassuring in the direction that we really don't have anything to worry about.

Firstly, it would be libel and not slander that would be involved, if anything was. Slander stricly applies fo verbal expression. Anything in writing, including on Internet, would come under libel. The key factor that makes the possiblity of any risk very far-fetched is that one can recover damages for libel only if one can demonstate that one suffered some tangible financial loss as a result of the alleged libel. "Hurt feelings" just doesn't count. Also, one cannot recover damages solely for "pain and suffering" in any kind of legal action unless there is first an element of financial damage involved. It's very difficult to see how any individual who is retired from any kind of employment or business can claim to have been financially damaged by anything anyone says about him.

I'd echo Freddie's comment that the website might assume more and more importance as time goes on as a way to hold the CBS Retiree family together. We are maintaining a "hit rate" on the site of about 250 per week, which I'd take to mean we have a substantial devoted group of followers. This has continued even though we now are doing updates only once per week. So, even though those of us who are actively involved might wish we heard more often from more people, we still seem to have a reasonably substantial group of "lurkers", as they are called in the trade.

Best regards to all, ----------------------Adrian

From Tony Cucurullo

We have come through a year with the WEB page. I know because Fred Schutz has just paid the rent on it.  Some of us picked up the tag last year to get it going. Now that we have it for another year, let's get to sending in your memories of years and stories from the past,...or present.

Herman Lang, I wrote about your history, at the Nuremberg Trials. Wouldn't you care to fill us in on some of the unknown facts?  

We had a great series from Tony Landry. Where is Bill Murtagh, (one of the original founders of this club of ours)? He has a book in the making?

Pierce Evans, has an award winning 'Web Page' and he also is a published author, with what I feel will be a big sell item this year.

We all miss those juicy tidbits from our dear lady Doris Reardon, so come on gang, slip us a couple.

There were certain restrictions on last year, but they are off now. So those cross-dressers, transsexuals, and video men let it all hang out.

Confession is good for the soul. Poking some fun at ONESELF is also cathartic.

Recently, I submitted an offer to let us know about some relative in your background that would qualify for the proverbial 'fifteen minutes of fame'.  It didn't make the page, but I would like to give it another try.

David Paine       Relative to Thomas Paine

Ted Perzeszty's   Father constructed the 'Atlas that holds up the World Globe in the front of Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue, across from St. Patrick's Cathedral.

You get the idea?

So come folks, please...please contribute. We need some variety and you have it...so share it.

Regards,       Tony C.

From Harold Deppe

Hi Tony.
If only we had more Guys like you we would not have a problem to keep this Webb Site interesting .Where are the C.B.S.Retirees that could send in great stories
about C.B.S.?
Like...Adrian....Bob Wilson....Les Burkhart....Paul Budda...,Fred Schutz we very seldom hear from them .Lets keep this Webb Site C.B.S. and not Post Things we can
get on our Local or Network News.
P. S. If the above Names have no Ego and that is why we do not hear from them Its sad Please lets hear from them. It would bring back many memories of long
ago. Time is short And if only a few of us send in to the Webb Site It could become boring.  Some one asked about Hobbies Mine is Reading this Webb Site.... Help Me.  SEND IN. ..I know You are out there ..Bill Wagner...Sea Hunt. Vidicon Valley..

Best Regards   Harold Deppe.

From Tony Ancona

Tony:
    That was a great piece--by the way -Herman & I are working on a past CBS history memory TV talk-show-  we would like your input -

 cheers  Tony A

From Tony Cucurullo

I understand Tony Ancona, is doing another of his TV series.  I think Herman Lang will be the subject. I hope it is like a 60 minutes piece.  With Herman's background as a Captain in General Patton's Army. It should be an interesting series.

Tony Ancona and I worked for Charlie Grenier, on the Daytime soap, "Secret Storm." We used the studios on 26th Street, were they shot the hit, "Sgt. Bilko Show."

Just before lunch time, Tony would start cooking in the A\V room. He had a full setup kitchen there. On many occasions he wooped-up spaghetti, and other colloquial Italian dishes. He is quite a good cook. His prices were very reasonable, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Bob Myrum, was the director. He was a character in himself. A big burly, bearded gregarious man. He was what I called an improv director. He would move sets to accommodate the camera crew.  I liked him very much, he made a busy day exciting.

I used to drive in with Charlie Grenier. He would pick me up at my home in Teaneck, New Jersey, and I would pay him what I would have to pay for transportation and maybe a little more. Charlie was always an enterprising man. He told me he was the audio-engineer on the world famous recording of "Benny Goodman," in concert at Carnegie Hall.  The original recording was done from one side of the stage. Charlie did it just for himself. It became one of the most famous recordings in music
history.

So, good luck to Tony Ancona, on his other adventure. Proving once again the versatility of the family of talent that CBS had in abundance.

    And that ladies and gents, is what made us the greatest entertainment network in the world...."you don't believe me..go ahead ask me"

Tony C.

From Tony Cucurullo  

Saturday, August 18th. I was privileged to attend the 'Transfer of Command' of the Navy Seals Special Boat Command.

Captain Michael R. Howard, transferred his Commodore, rank to in coming Captain Walter S. Pullar. Captain Howard takes up new duties in the Pentagon, in Special Naval Warfare.

The ceremony was poignant and apropos to military custom. But, the impression one leaves with is that this country is not in the hands of the drug dealers, or the likes of the Soprano's. They are just the cancers in the body of this great country.

Where your tax dollars are going is to the magnificent young men that were in attendance. It was said by Commodore Howard that, "sitting in this tent are the finest, and fiercest warriors in the world, dedicated to this country's highest ideals, and are willing to endure unimaginable hardships to that end"

They are truly a sight to behold. Young, physical specimens but not over built as to be muscle bound creatures. But, physically tuned to perform these unusual assignments all around the world.

He mentioned that with the new technologies that they now employ, they have the capability to fly a secretly fast surface boat, to an area and drop it by parachute, with a team of Seals in it and be ready to destroy the enemy, or capture a drug smuggling ring as they did recently. As he said," this isn't Hollywood, this is the real world"

I was invited to this affair because they like to have a representation of those of us that were the original UDT (Under Water Demolition). There aren't to many old timers left.

I was a swimmer volunteer, off of a Destroyer in the Pacific during WW2. I participated with UDT 4 in the landing on Guam. That doesn't make me a SEAL, these young men of today are highly skilled, thoroughly trained, and dedicated. They are a formidable force, each and every one of them.

We were known as "Naked Warriors." All I had was tennis shoes, trunks, and a bone handle knife. Later, I got my hands on my first pair of swim fins. When another man died. Because of my observation ability and some skill in drawing, I was good at reconnoitering the shores and positions of the enemy.

Today, they can infiltrate right up to the enemy and he won't even be aware that he is being observed, or compromised.

They have tours of the Seals on the base at Little Creek, Virginia, and also on the Coast at Coronado, near San Diego. I recommend that you visit. You leave with pride in your chest for these people that are there to protect us and our system of Democracy.

I have been very blessed in my life with the associations that I have made.  My Navy life, didn't prepare me for civilian life, or work, as Tommy Thonpson told me when I tried to come back to CBS. But, later working with what I consider are the finest people  I could have spent my working life with. And too, those people that felt confident in me to elect me to represent them as a union man. I have truly met some great people in my time, and one of them is certainly you.

regards,    Tony C

[Les] see photo 359

From Tony Casola