Off the Edge – Sunday 3 May 2009

The following entry is not from on The NewsEdge but follow-up to topics from past shows. Hence, Off the Edge.
The comments are mine. Blame me….

seanohair Sean O’Hair has won the Quail Hollow Championship (formerly Wachovia Championship) tournament. Tiger Woods came in fourth. It is his first victory of the season and now is third in the FedEx Cup standings.
  There is doubt about the future of the tournament though. Reports are the sponsorship contract by Wells Fargo expires in 2014. Estimates are that the tournament generates as much as $60 million to the Charlotte area. But we have four years to worry.

 Swine Flu has a new name. Due to complaints from the pork industry the Swine Flu is now to be called the H1N1 Flu. There are many though, saying that there is more panic and mis-information surrounding H1N1 and reports are overblown. Current fact is there has not been a single death to an American from this flu outbreak. Nada. The one death in Texas was a Mexican who came to Texas for treatment. Compare that with the regular influenza strains of the flu which cause an average of 36,000 deaths each year. More than  200,000 are hospitalized each year with the flu also each year. As of noon today there was 226 total cases in the United States according to the (CDC) Center for Disease Control. For those who are pulling their hair out about the Swine Flu but normally go to work with the regular influenza strains, think about those facts when the next flu vaccine becomes ready.
 
 Several network medical correspondents and editors have come out the past few days to state the media is overplaying the current outbreak. Just seems to me like the reporting of Nadya Suleman, the Octomom. Maybe the name should be changed to Octomom Flu?

The Carolina Queens who made an appearance on the Edge recently beat the bras off the Palm Beach Punishers 26 to 14. The next scheduled game is May 9 at  Louisville. Keep in mind the Carolina Queens have said they wanted to play a team from the Lingerie Football League.

The New Hope Church in Melbourne, Florida continued with their program titled “Great Sex for You” at the local elementary today. No word on how many Fox Newsedge viewers attended. This is the final segment for this program. Pastor Bruce Cadle reported excellent attendance today. The school is still weighing its options on renting the school to the church.

The Charlotte-Mecklenberg School Calendar Poll has ended. Hope you were able to get your vote in for which school calendar you support.

The 2nd Annual Kick CF with Jordan Gross to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was held last week. This year’s kickball event raised more than $55,000 which will be used to help find a cure. If interested in making a donation go to the Charlotte chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Tomorrow starts a new week of Morgan & Fred!

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

border-patrol-18901On the 10 o’clock news, Morgan reported on Chicken pox Parties. This sounded like a segment for the Edge but was only on the news. Hopefully they post a video of the segement on the Fox Charlotte web site. It had a lot of useful information and parents should be aware of this. Not a totally new practice but bad ideas seem to come back to haunt us. Did not have my pen & paper ready but it described sharing lollipops and pajamas (this is not a joke) in order to “help” the kids get the chickenpox. As reported this can have devistating effects beyond just the chicken pox. Maybe it could get mentioned on the Newsedge?

Tonight’s Top Topic: Should the U.S.-Mexico border be closed until the swine flu pandemic is over?
There are some traffic bans already in effect. One Congressman and one Congresswoman have already said they want the border shut down. Fred said why not shut down the border to illegal immigrants? There are already countries that will not import pork products from the U.S. or Mexico. (Did not know we get pork products from Mexico. Most of mine comes from Gary’s BBQ in China Grove.)
Egypt will slaughter all the pigs within their border. This although, it has not been proven there is pig to human transfer of the virus. Also eating pork is not dangerous unless it is not fully cooked. Fred said “Don’t leave your house!”
 Morgan stated the symptoms which include:  headache, sore throat, coughing and body aches. As was pointed out by Fred and Morgan the symptoms are nearly identical to a regular case of the flu. (swine flu can only be confirmed by a lab test.)
 (Ok. Pandemic seems to be used a lot lately. But is this a pandemic right now? The actual dictionary definition of Pandemic is: “over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population.” Maybe we are not in a pandemic right now?)  

The discussion was back about if the players from the Lingerie Football League are really athletes. Brought on as guests are players from The Carolina Queens. (If you said you would watch women play football, here is a chance for you to put up or shut up. They have a game on May 2nd.) The Queens are a part of the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL).
realpowerThey play full tackle football.
Morgan said the Lingerie players are not real athletes because they wear lingerie. Fred asked the Carolina Queens players if they could play football even if they had to wear lingerie. The Carolina Queens issued a challenge to the Atlanta Steam from the LFL to play a game. We did get to see Fred make a pass to a woman. He used  football but did make three good passes. He asked the crew for a round of applause. You almost could hear crickets in the background. Be sure to get your tickets to see
The Carolina Queens play.

 Fred and Morgan apologized that they did not update the board last week for American Idol and also did not get into Anoop’s departure from the show. Anoop was on Fred’s A.M. Mayhem show this week. (You can get many outakes from the show on their 96.1 website so the interview with Anoop might be on there. Check it out if you missed it.

Octomom – The Musical. You heard it on the Edge. “A comedic parody with a point.” It will open at a small theatre in Los Angeles. (O…K….Let’s move on now)

Naked Frisbee. (not a replacement for Lingerie football) A student board at an oregon University has called an early end to the season for the ultimate frisbee squad. It was reported as conduct violations after hearing a complaint the men’s team had played naked.

tupac_lives_0002_layer_4_copy_2_fullTupac is alive! A picture has been published by TMZ that claims to show a very alive Tupac. MoFo said he is alive. With Elvis and Biggie Smalls. It was mentioned that there has been new albums published from Tupac since his death and where is all that coming from? Tupac Shakir died back in 1999. You decide.

Monday, 27 April 2009

Another week on the NewsEdge with Brotha Fred and Morgan Fogarty.
Tonight’s Top Topic: Do wrecks make races more interesting?

At yesterday’s NASCAR race at Talladega on the last lap, After trying to block Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards crashed into the catch fence. While Carl Edwards was not injured, Seven fans were injured. Two were transported by helicopter to a local hospital with one woman suffering a broken jaw. Because of increasing speeds at Talladega and Daytona, NASCAR started requiring restrictor plates on the cars to keep the horsepower of the cars down. The main reason NASCAR chose to use them was because of an accident at Talladega by Bobby Allison back in 1987 that was very similar to the one yesterday with Carl Edwards. The restrictor plate goes between the carburetor and the intake of the engine. It has four holes, with each hole being 15/16″ which “restricts” the amount of air entering the engine. It is because of the restrictor plates that causes the drivers to all drive in large packs which can make accidents become large messes.
At this year’s Daytona 500 (another race with restrictor plates) there was a crash that involved Dale Earnhardt Jr. Morgan called Juinor’s incident a “bonehead move.” (Not likely for her to win many fans who follow the sport’s most popular driver and comes from the Charlotte area!)
(Usually I write short quips but this is more complex. I have been racing myself in various forms of racing for over ten years and have been a fan of nearly all forms of racing since I can remember. Most fans do like to see wrecks and crashes which they feel make it more exciting. I as a racer, definitly do not like to see crashes. The definition of a race is: “A competition of speed” I like to see a race. I do not like to see crashes because people get hurt and I do not want to see anyone get hurt. Second, I do not want to see crashes because the cars have to be fixed. As a racer, you understand that costs money, time and sometimes frustration in making the repairs. So for me, it is about the speed competition and not the crashes.)
Fred suggested the most interesting thing about the races was the people in the infield. Walking through the infield or campgrounds before a race can be a lot of fun. (And no Morgan, it is not about the beer or alchohol. I do not even drink myself.) It was mentioned that it might be dangerous to watch a race from the infield (actually probably the safest place.) but alchohol would numb the effects of being run over by a race car.

The Edge crew reported that in Israel, officials there object to the name Swine Flu. Because the pig is considered dirty by both jews and muslims (But perfectly fine as a pet for the Octomom) and pork is not kosher. Officials there suggested calling it the Mexican Flu. Fred suggested calling it “Flu I don’t want to get.”
Morgan mentioned about Eva Pilgrim’s report from the airport about a passenger who may have the Swine Flu. MoFo said they at the station said to Eva “Don’t come back to the Newsroom.” The highlight of the report and the show was we got to hear Morgan snort like a pig.

A swiss insurance agent called into work sick from Nationale Suisse. She had said she had issues with being at her computer at work because of the bright display and needed to lie down in the dark. The woman was later fired for being caught on her Facebook profile that same day from home. Nationale Suisse fired the woman saying she abused the trust of the company. Morgan said co-workers (but not her!) at Fox Charlotte check up (read that SPY) if other workers are on-line when they call in sick. Morgan said she does not do that.

A church is getting the boot from having its services at an elementary school when they mixed sex and sermons. In Melbourne Florida (great place for surfing) New Hope Church had been having a workshop series called “Great sex for you.” The church recently sent out 25,000 fliers to local residents asking “Is your sex life a bore?” Also in the fliers was an invitation to attend the workshop at the local school to “Learn how to have the great sex that god created you to enjoy.” (Do not think that was the pastor from last week speaking against the Lingerie Football league) Pastor Bruce Cadle has been giving the workshop. The church rents the school for $606 each week. The next session of the workshop is next Sunday at 11:00am. (sure many of you want to attend. Take I-77 South to I-26 East to I-95 South to Exit 180.)

Noticed a commercial ran during the last break for the NewsEdge for Pontiac. The comercial for the G6 stated “America’s Best Coverage” and this leads me to wonder, did anyone at Pontiac get the memo today that the brand is going away?