6-14-10

In case you missed it...

ROSIE'S WEEKEND WRAP-UP, OWN, GLORIA, KATHY ELDON AND THE YANKEE GAME
Today was "Monday all day" as Ro's Nana would say. Rosie announces the day this way almost everyday and I wish I would have written it in before now, because it's a cute tag line and I love the way she says it. Rosie said she had a BUSY weekend. On Thursday, she did an interview for Oprah's OWN network. She was interviewed along with other famous mothers for a piece about parenting. Along with the interview, OWN taped some B-Roll footage. They taped Rosie and Tracy talking out by the chicken coop and Rosie holding one of the chickens. Tracy thought it was strange to talk to Rosie pretending like she didn't think it was weird that Rosie was wearing makeup and holding a chicken, which she knows she doesn't like to do.

Then, Rosie went to breakfast Friday morning with Gloria Steinem. Rosie said it was the first time she ever met her. Gloria is 75 years old now and Rosie says she looks fantastic! Rosie wished she could have come home from breakfast and called her second mother, Pat Maravel (the teacher who raised her after her mother died). Pat was a huge fan of Gloria's and she wished she could have told her all about the experience. Rosie did the OWN interview (I believe) for her friend Kathy Eldon. Kathy's son Dan Eldon was the youngest Reuters photographer to ever die on the job. He and some other reporters were stoned to death in 1993 after the U.S. mistakenly bombed a hut of village elders in Somalia. On Rosie's 40th birthday, 3 different people gave Dan's journal to her as a present. Then the U.S. went to war again and Rosie called Kathy and they became friends. She also saw Susan Saint James who was at the table next to her. Susan's son died 5 years ago and she and Rosie talked about it at breakfast. Susan was there with her daughter and she looks great, Rosie said. Rosie asked Gloria where the new feminist leaders are today and Gloria said they are on college campuses. Rosie wanted to impress Gloria Steinem with a healthy and nutritious breakfast but ended up cheating on her no soda rule and having a coke and a Greek omelet with extra feta cheese and hash browns. Gloria had nothing but healthy things to eat at breakfast.

Rosie, Tracy and some friends also went to the Yankee game this weekend with Tracy's son with autism, Archie. Archie really wanted to come to Parker's birthday party at Yankee stadium last week but there wasn't enough space so Rosie promised to take Archie to a game. Rosie realized that Tracy is so much better at handling Archie's meltdowns and continuing on with life than Rosie is. The booing and the grand slam/home-run noise really bothered him. They only made it 5 innings but Rosie really never thought they would make it the whole game anyway. She told the story of how she sat next to someone who told her her entire life-story.

PARKER GRADUATES 8TH, PARTY AT THE O'DONNELL'S AND ABBY SUNDERLAND
Rosie's eldest son, Parker, graduated from 8th grade last week. Rosie said the entire class recited MLK's I Have A Dream speech and she found it very touching. This weekend she had the after-party for parents and 8th graders. Rosie doesn't go to a lot of the school parent events normally and she was sitting at the party and recognized that one of the dads she was speaking with was Storm Field - a retired weather guy from the NY area. Jeannie and Rosie talked about Storm and remembered him from when he used to be on air.
Rosie remarked how lots of people at the party told her personal stuff and how this happens to her often. Janette agreed that people do this with her. She served alcohol to the parents but no one got drunk which was good. Then a girl stubbed her toe and one of the parents knew she had hydrogen peroxide in their bathroom! Jeannie and Rosie talked about snooping in people's medicine cabinets at parties to see what drugs they are on.

Rosie wanted to discuss the news-story that broke this weekend of Abby Sunderland. Abby Sunderland is the 16 year old who set out to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe nonstop without assistance. Abby was lost at sea and then found. They discussed how much it cost to rescue this girl and whether or not the parents should be liable for the cost. Rosie asked if anyone in the studio thought it was gross negligence in terms of parenting. Bobby said absolutely YES. Pete said that he just read that Abby's parents just signed a TV deal so the motivation behind their daughter headed to sea was being questioned. Rosie commented that she won't even let her kids go to sleep away camp, let alone sail around the world alone! Janette believed that it may depend on the individual child and the goals of that child. KEYWORD child. They discussed the balance between allowing children to go after their goals and stifling a child's dreams. Rosie said that Parker has a desire to drive a Lamborghini but that doesn't mean she's going to allow him to do it!

BLAKE WINS CHAMPIONSHIP, LITTLE LEAGUE, KARATE KID AND CALLERS
Rosie said that Blake's baseball team won the championship game this weekend! She said his team won 17 games and only lost 1. He got a trophy for the championship game and for a home run derby that he participated in. When discussing the record with the coach, he couldn't believe that Rosie didn't know it! Rosie said that Coach Ron and all the other coaches did a great job at the last game making it a happy and fun experience. Rosie's youngest son, Blake, was never able to play a sport before because of the challenges he faced with his Auditory Processing Disorder. She said this experience has meant so much more to her than just being about baseball. She said emotionally it's very overwhelming. And now Blakey is dreaming of being a professional baseball player when he grows up! Rosie told him to go for it! Janette and Rosie talked about how team sports can influence your entire life and what you think you can be capable of. At some point they went back to the Abby Sunderland story and Janette said that she thinks a child being in Showbiz is more dangerous than sailing around the world. Rosie then said "speaking of child stars!" She saw The Karate Kid last night! She said she thinks that Will and Jada Smith should have a kid every year. She said how divine and fantastic their son is in the Karate Kid movie. She said his performance was touching and layered and the theater audience loved it so much that they clapped at the end of the film!

Rosie then took several callers on the Abby Sunderland topic. One caller said to allow their 16 year old to sail alone around the world is insane and thought the family should pay for the rescue!

HELEN THOMAS COMMENTS AND MORE CALLERS ABOUT ABBY SUNDERLAND
Rosie said that people can't seem to get over the Helen Thomas comments that led to her resignation and Rosie's opinion on the topic. Rosie said she can't imagine being 89 years old and being in the spotlight for years as a respected journalist and then having your whole life edited down to a 30-second sound bite. Rosie didn't agree or support the words that she said but accepted her apology for it. She said "Helen is a Nana, she's old!" Rosie's brother Danny O'Donnell, who is a U.S. State Assemblyman, forwarded a letter to her that one of his constituents sent to him who was furious with what Rosie had to say about the Helen Thomas situation. Rosie contacted the woman who said she got an email that instructed her to write in in protest about Rosie's comments, but she didn't actually hear her words on the topic herself. Rosie's question was WHY send a letter to her brother and WHY did he forward it to her - things to talk about in therapy this week.

A listener who was in the Navy called in said it was completely irresponsible and crazy to do what Abby Sunderland did. He also thought that her family should be responsible for paying for the rescue. Rosie agreed and thanked him for his years of service. A listener called in to challenge Rosie on the fact that she supported Katie Spotz but not Abby Sunderland. The caller said that there may have been an age difference but if either sailor got lost, both would have had an expensive rescue. Pete pointed out that Katie was 23 years old not 16 and that Katie was traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, not across the world. Bobby asked if Abby would have died if her parents would have been liable because she is a minor. Bobby said it was negligent of the parents to allow their daughter to be in such danger.

TONY'S REVIEWED, STOPPING SODA, BALLPARK FOOD AND CRYING CHILDREN
Rosie said that "none of her people won" but she thought last night's Tony Awards was overall a good show.
Bobby said that the host, Sean Hayes did a great job! He said that the first 15 minutes of the Tony's was all production numbers and he LOVED it! He said it was also interesting how at the end, they had all the casts from the nominated musicals in costume backstage ready to perform when the winner was announced. He said it was so fun to see the cast of Memphis and how excited they were when they won Best musical and then watch them perform. Bobby predicted that Memphis would win best Musical and that actress Katie Finneran would win for Promises, Promises! Rosie said that when she was watching the Tony's with Blake he noticed that it was at the same theater that they saw Glee perform. She said that made her happy. Jeannie only watched the first hour but said since she wasn't familiar with many of the shows nominated, she didn't get a lot of the jokes.

Rosie said she's back on her Soda Free Summer but said that she had 2 this weekend. She had one with Gloria Steinem at breakfast and one at the Yankee game. Rosie and Tracy sat in the stadium seats where you can have all you can eat and she said it was tempting to eat the entire time. Janette asked what kind of food they would serve at the ballpark and Pete suddenly got excited and wanted to list off all the available food items. Pete knew EVERYTHING you could possibly order - french fries (the shoestring kind in a cup), chicken fingers, hot dogs, burgers, pizza, cracker jacks, hot pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy and ice cream. He then described the different areas in the ballpark to eat such as Citi Field and the World Food Market. Rosie said it was hard to say no to the free food and not only do they have guys come up to you and take your order, they bring the food around to you too! Pete said he would have eaten for 9 solid innings. Rosie said she might have too but that Archie was not happy so they left after only 5.

Pete understood because he said that his daughter Irene cried all weekend. He was trying to help Jeannie with computer stuff over the phone but his daughter was screaming loudly in the background. She generally stops crying long enough to eat, so Pete will feed her to keep her happy/quiet. Rosie scolded Pete for feeding Irene when she cries. Janette said that fat from infancy is called gray fat. She said that if you're fat in infancy it's easier to gain it back later in life because those fat cells never go away.

Tracy doesn't really understand why it's so hard for Rosie to resist a soda because she doesn't like it. Pete said he discovered a root beer with no high fructose corn syrup. Rosie said that Tracy does like root beer so Pete said he will bring it in for her.

OIL SPILL CLEANUP TO URINE TO CANABALISM?
Rosie asked if everyone had heard that BP purchased 30 or 40 Kevin Costner centrifuge machines. Pete explained that Kevin Costner's brother has created a machine that sucks up and then spins and separates oil from water. It took him 15 years to develop it and 24 million dollars of his own money and then 1 million dollars more to make changes to it recently. His brother created the machine as a first response for a disaster such as this. The dispersants that we're using seem to effect the machine's ability to work so more changes had to be made before it could work correctly. Janette pointed out that many of the inventions that seem to work are all effected by these dispersants that we use. Costner's machine can clean 210,000 gallons of water a day per machine and BP has ordered 32 of them. Bobby is hopeful by this news.

Someone brought up the fact that Kevin Costner was in the movie Water World where he invents a machine that changes urine into clean drinking water - sort of life imitating art. Pete thought that entire concept of that movie was flawed because urine is sterile and safe to drink. He said he has thought that if he ever is in a position where he is without water and needs to drink his own urine, the hardest part would be that it is warm. Janette suggested a glass of ice! Everyone thought it was funny that Pete has had these thoughts at all. They then talked about the movie Alive and eating people as beef jerky.

WALKING THE LINE OF WHAT TO SHARE ON THE RADIO, LITTLE LEAGUE, HELEN THOMAS
Rosie said it is difficult for her to do this job sometimes because she is supposed to talk about her life and then people in her life get mad at her. She asked if this has happened to anyone else in the studio. Jeannie said her husband has asked her that she not talk about their relationship on the radio and she has to be careful about how much she shares from her job because she deals with children. Rosie said that someone in her life is mad at her because of Thursday's show. Rosie said that her general rule with what she says and what she does not say is if she would say whatever it is in front of the person in real life, then it's okay for her to say on the radio. Rosie asked how she can talk about life without worrying it will hurt someone's feelings. Janette told Rosie that she's pretty open in real life and if she edits too much it will change the entire show because it's a life driven show, not a topic driven show.

Rosie said that during the final Little League game one of the coaches from the other team got out a tape measure and measured the size of the first baseman's glove! Rosie admitted she's new to Little League but was so surprised that they go to this length for a sport for kids.

In reference to the Helen Thomas flack Rosie is getting, Jeannie said she thinks Rosie needs to stop using Helen's age as the reason to forgive her. She said to her, the issue is about freedom of speech, not age. Rosie said that there is all this tape of Helen talking to some Rabbis just before the now infamous statement and she is speaking to them about how to have a good career in journalism. But no one cares about that. Janette said that's because "they're" LOOKING for a mistake, they're LOOKING for a story." Rosie asked where is the forgiveness. Janette quoted the Bible (after checking with Pete) and said "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Rosie then referenced the story The Lottery where a woman with a black spot on her piece of paper is stoned to death because she picked that particular piece of paper. Janette and Rosie talked about how human behavior can be disturbing and how some people can't wait to "pick up a stone" and throw it at you when the they have a chance. Rosie said her English teacher read that story to her class and then said she decided, like the story, she was going to give everyone an "A" and one person was going to fail. She said that person will be chosen by lottery. Rosie said that all the kids in danger of failing loved the idea and all the kids who had studied thought it was unfair. Rosie said the challenge sometimes is to have empathy for the person who is being judged rather than being so quick to judge.

JOSH FOX: GASLAND
Rosie then introduced Josh Fox the maker of the documentary Gasland. Rosie and Josh talked about the film and how shocking it is. Josh talked with Rosie about the deception going on about Natural Gas and how they present it as if it's supposedly so much safer than other forms of energy. They talked about the people from the film, water bubbling and fizzing, and children and animals getting sick. Josh explained that the gas companies pay land owners to lease the land and then drill everywhere. He said there are some parts of Pennsylvania where you can light your tap water ON FIRE from the toxic chemicals in it! Rosie said the whole thing sounds unbelievable. Josh said that the Bush administration exempted the Natural Gas industry from the EPA regulations and they spend a lot of money lobbying to get around those regulations.

Josh said that when the Natural Gas companies find out that the water is so toxic they simply disconnect the water wells from the houses and then deliver the water to them. Then the companies make the owners sign a nondisclosure agreement. One woman whom Josh was speaking with had to trade her silence for water. Because without access to water, the homes become unsellable because no one wants to buy a home that has no access to water except for water that is provided by a Natural Gas company that may go out of business.

Rosie asked Josh why this is the first documentary about this topic and he said it's not. But he's very happy it's getting as much attention as it has and is excited that it will premiere on HBO on June 21st. Rosie said the documentary is phenomenal, jarring and chilling. Rosie said you SHOULDN'T MISS THIS.

Gasland Trailer

A vast majority of people who live near the areas where they are drilling are getting sick and dying. Josh said that a lot of the syndromes they are seeing in these areas are neuropathy and brain damage. They're not sure if that's from inhaling all of the toxins coming off the site or if it's from the water. All the ads say drilling for Natural Gas is a cleaner alternative to coal but the actual process of drilling for gas releases enormous amounts of methane into the air. Methane is 25 times the greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. It's on par with the emissions as coal because it releases methane and hazardous air pollutants. Josh said Natural Gas companies are exempt from the clean air act and the clean water act.

Josh wants a health study done. He thinks that more and more people are realizing what the process entails yet in New York State you have compulsory integration. If 60% of the land owners in an area sign and say it's okay to drill for natural gas then everyone is signed and they can take the gas from out from under you without your specific permission.

People come up to Josh at the screenings that they continue to have as a sort of community meeting and they ask him to look at their water. In order to fight the gas companies the people have to prove that the gas company is responsible for the chemicals that are in their water. And the gas companies don't have to report the chemicals that they're putting in the ground (just as with the dispersants in the ocean) because they say they're proprietary so it's impossible to prove that the chemicals in the water are from the process.

Josh is a theater director with International Wow Company and works with actors all over the world creating plays. He's hoping to do a series on renewable energy because it seems like we're capable of producing it but we're not utilizing what we have available. Rosie told him that with him in the world there's hope for salvation. She thanked him for the interview. To hear more from Josh check out his interview on NPR (thanks Liz!)!

JOSH FOX INTERVIEW REVISTED, MINERALS IN AFGHANISTAN AND A CALLER
Rosie and Janette discussed the interview with Josh and the documentary. They both thought it was chilling. Janette said she was so freaked out by this movie because she has family in Pennsylvania who live in the perfect place for this sort of thing to happen - a small, remote town. Janette thinks that everyone in the universe should see this movie.

Brendan played this for Rosie and Janette

They discussed the poor animals who are still drinking the effected water and how their hair is falling out and they are projectile vomiting. Janette said we then feed this contaminated water to our cattle and then we eat the cattle! Rosie and Janette called it horrifying and said how it feels like the end.

Janette and Rosie advised listeners who are concerned about this to look into The Frac Act and tell your members of Congress to support it. You can find your members of Congress here.

Brendan mentioned a story from the front page of the New York Times that said we found vast mineral riches in Afghanistan. He said it is sure to be one of the biggest stories of our lifetime and if we ever thought we were getting out of Afghanistan, we are not. Brendan said they've found 1 trillion dollars worth of mineral deposits such as copper, lithium, etc. We use these for electronics and our computers. Brendan said that America, knowing what we know now with how unstable things are over there, almost can't leave Afghanistan now. He said the person who was in charge of the mining board over there took a 30 million dollar bribe to give China a teency bit of copper.

Rosie took a caller who's mother in Michigan had been contacted by the natural gas companies to drill on her land. He said he was scared now after listening to the last interview with Josh Fox.

Rosie asked Lou to go out with a fun song. Lou went out with Say Hey I Love You and Rosie closed the show.

and that's what you missed -kw