9/11 THE WAY I REMEMBER IT....AND WILL NEVER FORGET.

    I posted this entry on my blog for the last few years to commemorate 9/11 and it always receives a very positive response. So, I've made the decision to post this blog entry every year on 9/11, so new readers and new friends can read what I went through on this horrific day. Here is "9/11 The Way I remember it": 

      In my 10 years of writing this blog, I try to be entertaining and for the most part, funny. Today is not one of those days. In the years prior, I realized that I never shared my 9/11 experience with you in this blog because quite frankly, who wants to re-live that day of horror for New York City and this great nation? Today, I want to share with you, how my day went 20 years ago, which by the way, I cannot believe it's been 20 years already!

      Anyway, I remember driving into Z100 in Jersey City, NJ the morning of 9/11/01. The sun was just rising and was looking like it was going to be a gorgeous day out. I remember it like it was yesterday. The air was crisp. Not too hot and not too cold. It was perfect! For some reason, I remembered driving down the New Jersey Turnpike from my Bergen County home and just looking at that beautiful skyline. Little did I know, it would be the last time that I would be enjoying that skyline with the twin towers standing tall. 

       Our morning was your typical morning of comedic banter among the morning show, which consisted of host Elvis Duran, Christine Nagy, John Bell, Danielle Monaro, Skeery Jones, David Brody, Greg T., Scotty B., a guy named Stick, myself, and our morning show consultant Dennis Clark. I happened to be screening phone calls for the show that day and right before 9 a.m., I received a strange one from a caller saying, "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. I'm not sure if it was one of those little Cessna planes, but the North Tower is on fire." I swear to God, those were his exact words. It's weird how some things just stay with you. Now, mind you, the only thing separating where our studios were in Jersey City and the World Trade Center was the Hudson River. We were up on the 36th floor and were literally that close. Also, at the time, the sun was still making its rise, so we brought the blinds behind us down so that we can see our computer screens. So, after I received this call, I turned my chair around and raised the blinds to see one of the most horrific sites I have ever seen in my life. It was clear that this plane that crashed into the North Tower was not a little Cessna because a little Cessna would not have caused damage like that to these strong towers.

     

    As Elvis tells this same story in his 2019 book, Where Do I Begin, I quickly ran into the studio and told Elvis, who was in a commercial break, about the call and what I saw. The whole show literally ran out to take a look outside our window. Elvis made Christine and I stay in the studio to break the news. He interrupted commercials and asked me to go on the air to explain what had happened and what I saw, while Christine explained what she was reading on the news sources. As I ran back to the call screen area, the hotline rang and it was MJ, one of our promotions girls, and she explained to us that it was a commercial airliner that crashed into the tower. Elvis put her on the air and let her explain. People from different departments in our office showed up to watch from the window, when Stick noticed something flying really low over Staten Island, which was to our right. We literally watched this plane quickly pick up speed and as if it happened in slow motion, it slammed into the South Tower with such an impact, we felt our building shake. We all could not believe what we just saw. A plane used as a weapon as it slammed into the World Trade Center, I just remember seeing a fireball and paper shooting out the other end. I was baffled and confused and it all became clear when I heard Danielle Monaro crying, "Oh my God! We're being attacked by terrorists!" 

        We were forced to evacuate the building and at the time, all I could think about was trying to get home to my family because if there were any more attacks, I wanted to be with them. Elvis and John Bell stayed up in the control booth like true radio men to stay on the air. To this day, I truly commend them for their bravery and loyalty to our listeners. Elvis told us all to go home and be with our loved ones. He and John ended up staying on the air for the majority of the day taking phone calls from listeners as Dennis Clark helped screen the phone calls. Me? I high-tailed it out of there and at the time there was no cell signal. I could not call home. Driving through the streets of Jersey City that day was an absolute mess! People walking the streets like zombies with a "what the hell just happened" look on their face. I remember sitting in traffic and looking in my side view mirror only to see the South Tower collapse. I literally almost threw up when I saw this. I couldn't believe it. I asked the guy in the car next to me, "Did that tower just go down?" He said it did and we sat there stunned! 

      It took me about two hours but I finally got home only to find out that my cousin Michele's fiancée, Arnold Lim, was missing. Arnold and Michele had gotten engaged a month before, and the eerie thing is that one of the last pictures I remember of them, was at their engagement party in Edgewater, NJ and the Towers stood behind them. Anyway, Arn used to work at Lehman Brothers in Jersey City a few floors below me at Z100. We used to meet for lunch all the time. It was right around the time of their engagement that Arn took a job at the Trade Center with a company called Fiduciary Trust. When I found out that no one was able to get in touch, I began calling him every hour only to get his voicemail. The last person to speak to him was my Aunt Barbara, who called him to tell him the towers were on fire. He told her that he knew and he was actually watching it, but the building told everyone on the PA to stay where they were and that they were safe. My aunt told him that she didn't care and to get the hell out of the building. He told her he was leaving and that was the last we heard from him. My guess is that he was making his way down the stairwell when that second plane hit, which is the one I saw. They never found his body. 

      The weeks to follow would be about rebuilding and Memorials. I've heard so many different stories from people who were actually down at the Trade Center and survived. I've also heard stories about people seeing bodies fall around them and stories from people who overslept and never made it to work at the Trade Center that day. Then there's the story of my wife, who never made it to the PATH station because her new kitten needed her attention. Everyone in that PATH died underground. With all of these stories and families of the victims, how can we ever forget what those scumbags did to us as a nation? Sure, there are so many other stories! This one was just mine....

And now here stands what looks like the big middle finger to the terrorists....The Freedom Tower!

HIGH TIMES IN SAN FRANCISCO

     Finally! After years of advocating the legalization of marijuana, I can't believe that I'm actually witnessing it all happening! And supposedly with this new dolt as Governor in New Jersey, we're supposed to legalize it here to, though I still believe he only said this to get voters, but I guess we'll see. 

     Anyway, San Francisco too a huge step in the legal marijuana age with a dispensary that was more like an Amsterdam-style cafe lounge. The Barbary Coast Dispensary's marijuana smoking lounge is a darkened room that resembles a steakhouse or upscale sports tavern, which it probably was before, with its red leather seats, deep booths and high dividers, and hardwood floors. 

     "There's nothing like this in Jersey," grinned a visitor from Atlantic City, NJ, as he was getting high with his cousins. To be honest, there's nothing like the Barbary Coast lounge almost anywhere in the United States, a conundrum for many marijuana enthusiasts who find it increasingly easy to buy pot but harder to find legal places to smoke it besides their own homes. 

     Only California permits marijuana smoking at marijuana retailers with specially designed loungers. But it also allows cities to band those kinds of shops. It's no surprise that San Francisco is the trail-"blazer." It's the only city in the state to fully embrace the Amsterdam-style coffee shops, the iconic tourist stops in the Netherlands where people can buy, eat, and smoke marijuana in the same shop. I mean come on...The home of Haight-Ashbury? Are you really surprised? You can drive through that neighborhood and get high. It smells like Patchouli the minute you walk into it. 

     San Fran's marijuana "czar" Nicole Elliot said her new permits will be issued once the city health officials finalize regulations designed to protect workers from secondhand smoke and the neighborhood from unwelcomed odors. The lounges are required to install expensive heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to prevent the distinct marijuana odor from leaking outside. Other California cities are warming up to this idea. Oakland and South Lake Tahoe each have one smoking lounge. 

     The city of West Hollywood has approved plans to issue up to eight licenses, the tiny San Francisco Bay area town of Alameda said it will allow two and Oakland and South Lake Tahoe each have one. Sacramento, L.A. and other cities are discussing the issue, but have not authorized any lounges yet. The city of Los Angeles' business development manager said residents and cannabis businesses complain there is "no safe place, no legal place, to use it." She continued to say that Los Angeles officials envision smoking lounges to be set up like traditional bars, but for now the idea is more concept than plan.     

     In Colorado, one of the first states to broadly legalize, lawmakers failed in a close vote to make so-called "tasting rooms" legal. However, cities may do it, and Denver has authorized loungers where consumers bring their own marijuana, issuing permits so far. Nevada has put off a vote on the issue until next year, while lawmakers in Alaska and Oregon have considered and rejected legislation. 

     The Barbary Coast, which received its state license in January, first opened as a small dispensary in 2013. It expanded and opened its smoking lounge to medical users last year. On January 11, the shop opened to all adults when it received its California recreational use license. The state started issuing those on January 1 and continues to approve dozens of applications a month since voters broadly legalized the use and sale of marijuana. Man....moving to California is looking better and better every day!

SNOW ON YOUR CAR AND RECEIVE A FINE!

     For many of us, it's my least favorite time of the year. It's snow season. With that comes shoveling, snow blowing and plowing. It means we have to clean off our cars of all the snow that fell the night before....or do we? Many of you are too damn lazy and don't clean your cars off at all, which is a danger to many others on the road. We get sometimes you're in a rush and don't have the time to clear it off, but it needs to be done. Especially, when it hardens up and turns into a sheet of ice. I had a friend who was driving behind a truck who didn't clear off their car, the wind picked up that sheet of ice and it slammed on her windshield and cracked the whole entire thing. 

     That being said safety groups are warning drivers to make sure they clear the snow and ice off of their vehicles before driving on roadways in Virginia, and one state lawmaker has even proposed a law that would fine drivers who fail to do so. I think that's brilliant, but also thought it was already a law. 

     HB 207, introduced by delegate Mike Mullin from Newport News, VA, would allow police to write a $100 ticket if a person drives a vehicle "with any amount of accumulated snow or ice on its exposed surfaces where, were the snow or ice become dislodged from such vehicle, such accumulated snow or ice could interfere with the operation of another motor vehicle or cause injury to persons or property." Mullin said, "Every person I've spoken to said, 'thought this was a law already.' It's what they teach you when you go and get your license to begin with. It's what VDOT and DMV recommend. This is something that is just common sense."

     A personal experience on Interstate 64 during the first snow storm this winter led Mullin to file the legislation. He said, "I had a car in front of me didn't clear off the top of the car at all, didn't clear off the back, and when it all came off in a big sheet, it darn near killed me." 

     Several northern states, like Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maine, have laws that fine drivers for not clearing snow off their vehicles. I thought we had that law here in Jersey! In Virginia, cases of body damage done to vehicles by sleets of ice flying off other vehicles have been reported. In other states, snow and ice flung from vehicles have resulted in traffic fatalities. Then again, does Virginia get as much snow as we do up this way? They might now with this Global Warming!

      Bottom line is it's bad! This is your public service announcement for today! Clean your cars off when it snows. It literally takes 5 minutes. You could be a danger to someone else and you wouldn't even know because you're just driving. You don't care what happens behind you. Clean that crap off!

WHAT BAGGAGE FEE?

     My wife and I, we travel a lot. More so my wife, since she travels for work, but when we travel, we like to pack light. We'll travel with one carry-on and a backpack, which never incurs any extra charges since most airlines allow that as a minimum per person. 

     Well, this is my new hero because he attempted something that I've only seen Joey Tribbiani accomplish on an episode of Friends! So, this British man was prevented from boarding a British Airways flight from Iceland to London after he attempted to wear 10 layers of clothes to avoid paying a baggage fee. Yes, 10 layers of clothing! I'm sweating just thinking about it. 

     This is Ryan Carney Williams. He goes by the name Ryan Hawaii on social media. Ryan put on every article of clothing that was in his luggage while at the airport in Reykjavik last week after he was told he'd have to pay $125 to check his bag. Williams said on Twitter that he didn't have the funds to pay for his bag. So, we did what any intelligent poor person would do! He tried to beat the system and eliminate the bag and put on all of his clothes. Brilliant!

     Ryan Tweeted, "I couldn't afford the fee as a result of being left homeless in Iceland for over a week." In a video he posted online, Williams said that the airline employee told him he'd be able to get on the flight if he put on all of his clothes, which he did. Williams said in the video, "They're really having me dress like this to go on, and they won't even let me go on." It turned out, bundling up didn't get him on the flight either. 

@British_Airways hi being held at Iceland Keflavik airport because I had no baggage put all the clothes on and they still won't let me on. Racial profiling? Or..... pic.twitter.com/NKgpe1cPFP

— Ryan Hawaii (@RYAN_HAWAII) January 10, 2018

     The next day, Ryan tried to board a flight on easy Jet, which normally charges fees for carry-on and checked bags, and they didn't make an exception for Ryan, even when when he again tried to wear all of his clothes. An easyJet spokesperson said in an email, "The Captain and the ground crew were concerned about reports from the previous day, so we provided a refund and he traveled with another airline." 

     Okay, so what did we learn here today? We learned to always have money on us when traveling, so we can pay our baggage fees. And we cannot  wear 10 layers of clothing on an airplane. They get really mad! I have to commend Ryan for even attempting this to beat the system! Bravo!

THE TIDE POD CHALLENGE

     I know this story was released a couple of days ago, but the stupidity has to come to an end. I mean its hit an all-time low with this new challenge among teens. For those of you who don't read or watch the news, teens have found a new way to entertain themselves. They're challenging each other to eat Tide Detergent Pods online in what they're calling the "Tide Pod Challenge." WHAT? That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!

     So, a government watchdog is expressing concern over the dangerous misuse of the laundry detergent. In this latest social media fad, teens are putting the detergent pods in their mouths for the challenge. The ingredients in the pods include ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and polymers, a highly-toxic mix of detergent meant to wipe out dirt and grim. Manufacturers have been concerned about toddlers mistakenly ingesting them, but now teens are popping them on purpose and posting videos of the results online. I mean, when we were younger, I remember getting my mouth washed out with soap for cursing, but this is way more dangerous! 

     According to 19-year-old, Marc Pagan, "A lot of people were just saying how stupid I was or how.....why would I be willing to do that? No one should be putting anything like that in their mouths, you know?" Acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Anne Marie Buerkle, says ingesting any of the liquid carries a deadly risk. She continued, "This is what started out as a joke on the Internet and now it's just gone too far."

     The pods are bright and colorful and to children, they look like candy. At least 10 deaths have been linked to ingesting these pods already. Two toddlers, and eight seniors with dementia. Okay, toddlers, who don't know any better, and seniors with dementia, who don't know any better. Teenagers, who know better equals stupid, stupid, stupid! 

     Procter and Gamble, the maker of Tide products, told one news source, "They should not be played with....Even if it's meant as a joke. Safety is no laughing matter." More than 62,000 children under the age of six were exposed to laundry and dishwasher detergents between 2013 and 2014. The next year, Consumer Reports said it would no longer recommend detergent packets, citing "the unique risks" while urging the "adoption of tougher safety measures." Buerkle says her group has worked with manufacturers to make the packets less attractive to children." She said, "Making that laundry packet opaque, less attractive, less colorful, reducing the toxicity and the strength of the laundry detergent." 

     This is so silly that we even need to call attention to this, but anyone concerned about the dangers of laundry pods can get more info from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. If immediate help is needed, you can call 1-800-222-1222, or text "poison" to 797979 to save the number in your phone. The fact that I even need to give you that information for laundry detergent pods is plain stupid. Anyone who even attempts this challenge seriously needs to get their heads checked. The stupification of America continues!   

NOT IN MY TOWN

     Now, I'm not sure this is even legal, but leave it to New Jersey to find a way to scam more money from it's fellow statesmen. The sad part is I used to drive through this town all the time when I lived in Teaneck. Curious yet? 

     So, beginning next week, driving through Leonia, New Jersey could cost up to $200 as the jurisdiction tries to prohibit drivers from using apps like Waze and Google Maps to help drivers get around traffic. Um, hello! That's what GPS systems do. They try to get you around traffic. 

     For you non-NJ people, Leonia, a small suburb, sits just west of New York City and near the entrance to the George Washington Bridge leading into Manhattan and the Bronx. Because of the effect of GPS apps rerouting commuters through the town, it adopted an ordinance in November that effectively bans non-residents from driving through the town. How can you do that? What if I had family in that town and I used to live there, but changed my driver's license address because I live somewhere else now. So, now this prevents me from visiting my family? Wait! This might be brilliant! 

     The prohibition of the town's roads is from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. on weekdays. In order to access the roads, the driver must prove that they are residents of the street, needing access to their home or can demonstrate or document a need to access a residence on the street or parts of streets as described. According to NJ.com, this law has drawn anger from neighboring town and drivers. It also attracted questions to its legality. 

     Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director of the ACLU-NJ (American Civil Liberties Union) says, "This plan gives enormous power to police officers. People who are traveling safely down the street should not be subject to law enforcement. It's intrusive. It's hard to imagine that Leonia could enforce this in a way that didn't discriminate."

     Town leaders said something has to be done to calm traffic in the area. Police Chief Thomas Rowe said, "We have a lot of vehicles that leave the highway to the bridge and use Leonia as a bypass or to cut through up to Fort Lee. This is a public safety issue." Rowe continued to blame the influx of traffic-avoiding apps, which has caused traffic within town to snarl. Seriously? Blame the people who built the roads way back when. Why should people trying to avoid traffic be penalized? I bet if Police Chief Rowe was late for an appointment in the City, he wouldn't want to be sitting in traffic and would try to find a quicker way. GPS app or not, it's only natural to find a quicker way to avoid traffic. No one....and I repeat....No one likes to sit in traffic!

     Leonia is currently working with app developers like Waze to try and help enforce the new statute. If you ask me, this is one of the silliest things I've ever heard, and those who voted this in back in November, I can't wait until they're stuck in traffic and are looking for a quicker way out.  

THE FART TRACKER

    My partner in crime, Kevin, at work introduced me to this amazing little gadget. Okay, it's not amazing, but it is a little interesting, especially, for someone who loves to fart. Scientists often hope to break ground with their research, but a group of researchers in Australia would be happy with breaking wind. 

     The team of researchers developed an ingestible electronic capsule to monitor gas levels in the human gut. When the gadget is paired with a pocket-sized receiver and a smart phone app, the pill reports "tail-wind" conditions in real time as it passes from the stomach to the colon. The researchers reported their invention this past Monday in Nature Electronics.

     The researchers are optimistic that the capsule's gas readings can help clear the air over the inner workings of our intricate insides and the multitudes of microbes they contain. Until now, collecting such data has been a challenge. Popping the electronic pill is a breeze comparison, while early human trials have already hinted that the pill can provide new information about intestinal wind patterns and gaseous turbulence from different foods. One of the researches concluded, "Our pilot trial illustrated the significant potential role for electronic-based gas sensing capsules in understanding functional aspects of the intestine and its microbiota in health and in response to dietary changes." The researchers are currently setting up a commercial company to further develop the test capsules. 

     I'm not sure if I wants something in my body and tracking the gases I've produced from the foods I eat. Why can't I just enjoy farting? I am, however, a little bit interested in the study process. So, the researchers beefed up a prototype they had previously tested in pigs. The capsule is around 26mm in length and 9.8mm in diameter. Basically, the size of a large vitamin. In the trial published this past Monday, researchers tested the capsule in six healthy people. For the first, researchers monitored the pill's intestinal trek using ultrasound and linked locations with gas profiles. Overall, it took 20 hours to get from one end to the other, spending 4.5 hours in the stomach, 2.5 hours in the small intestine, and 13 hours cruising through the colon. In that time, the pill took continuous gas measurements, revealing potentially useful information in addition to gut position. 

     There were also problems in the low-fiber scenario. The pill took a little more than three days to work its way out of the body. It spent 13 hours in the stomach, 5.5 hours in the small intestine, and whopping 54 hours in the colon. In fact, about 36 hours after taking the pill, the subject was given a high dose of fiber to try to move things along. It picked back up 12 hours after the fiber treatment, according to the pill's data. 

     Well, that's your science lesson for today. No teacher sex with students. No sex dolls. Today, we discussed something we all do, and secretly love to do, but now we can learn what it all means. It's all in THE FARTS!