6-23-10

In case you missed it...

YESTERDAY'S SHOW, THE WORLD CUP AND MACY GRAY ON FRIDAY'S SHOW
Rosie began the show today playing the Memphis Broadway version of the Rosie Radio theme song from yesterday! It was fantastic! Rosie and the crew talked about how yesterday's show had a whole different vibe because they did the show out of the New York studios. Rosie was exhausted and Janette said she almost wanted to cry she was so tired after yesterday's show. Deirdre thinks that's because in the city there are a lot of people and in Nyack it's like being with family. Rosie told her kids that she met Miranda Cosgrove yesterday and they were impressed and wanted proof! Rosie was sad she didn't have a picture with Miranda to prove it to them. Vivi almost started to cry because she didn't get to meet Carly from ICarly and wanted to know why they don't get cool celebrities like that to come to her studio in Nyack.

Rosie and the crew were watching the United States playing in the World Cup against Algeria on mute during today's broadcast. Rosie said she only likes seeing the goals rather than watch an entire soccer game. Janette proved she didn't know anything about sports and confused baseball and football.

Rosie said that at 8:30am every morning they have a meeting to talk about what topics they're going to discuss on the show that day. This morning they were talking about the deaths over the World Cup around the world and how in North Korea there's no coverage of it anymore because they didn't win. Rosie saw a great documentary about North Korea and the kidnapping of kids from Japan. She said it was unbelievable, fascinating and frightening and recommended it to the listeners. I looked for it and found a documentary called "Kidnapped!" Here's a link to Part 1.

Rosie and the crew went back to talking about the World Cup and the goal that wasn't counted last week that would have been the winning goal for the USA. Rosie wondered why we care about the World Cup if it's just a bunch of cheaters? Deirdre thinks the World Cup is just a big excuse to get drunk and go to a bar and watch a sport. Pete said it's a way to get very Nationalistic with a game that people around the world really care about.

Shoshana then emailed Rosie that there are some photos of her and ICarly (Miranda Cosgrove). Rosie was worried that she may have scared her being so excited to meet her and demanding an immediate interview. Rosie told Deirdre that she wants to book more of the Nickelodeon stars! Rosie's so tired from yesterday's show she said it made her realize that she could never go back to TV.

Macy Gray will be on Friday's show (they post taped it yesterday afternoon)! Macy will be playing 4 songs on Friday's show and Rosie sang backup! Pete said Rosie was "awesome" and she had the movements of a real backup singing down too! (It wasn't her first time obviously.)

CYNDI LAUPER ON TOMORROW, AMERICA DOESN'T HAVE TALENT AND BASEBALL
Rosie said she wanted to tour again with Cyndi Lauper but couldn't because of her radio show. Cyndi is doing a reality show and she's coming tomorrow (June 24th) with her son Declyn (who Rosie's eldest daughter Chelsea has a huge crush on). Then the staff started to talk about Cyndi and Rosie thought they were talking about her daughter and Rosie got all confused as to what they were saying and who they were talking about! It was funny. Rosie said her kids are sad that she isn't going on tour with Cyndi this year.

The staff all talked about how much they love working for Sirius and Rosie said they are trying to pressure her to stay on the radio. Rosie was watching the World Cup while talking and noticed Bill Clinton sitting at the game and Janette gets upset when Rosie watches TV while on the air.

Rosie said she watched the first hour of America's Got Talent and it made her realize that America doesn't have any (talent). Rosie talked about last night's episode and how disappointing it was.

Pete mentioned taking his daughter Sophia and a 9 year old friend to a baseball game. Sophia is a fan of ice cream which is what sold her about going to the baseball game. It's Catholic night at Citi Field so they got tickets to go with the school. Rosie joked that they pass out the host at the game and say "Body of Christ" to each of the fans as they come in.

ROSIE'S LITTLE FRIEND, A CALLER ABOUT AMERICA'S GOT TALENT AND EMINEM
Rosie said that the other day she and all the kids were in the pool. A little boy, who's Archie's friend, was there who Rosie adores. The little boy has Autism and Rosie loves the kid. She said he's really "out there" and amazing and he loves anything to do with eggs. My Thomas who's on the Autism spectrum loves ceiling fans, light switches, school buses and Pez. He's fascinated with Pez and is already creating a huge collection. He was distraught that he couldn't hold the dogs and the girls were tormenting him so he struck a Kung Fu pose. He wanted a toy and Vivi grabbed it back so he bit Vivi. She got him to take a time-out with her in her office to calm down and then they walked out to the pool. After going to the pool he went under the water and came up and said that everything looks RED!!! He couldn't believe that Rosie couldn't see the red too! Then he went back under the water and came up and said "Hey Ro, are you from Egypt? Your legs sure look like they are." It was because of her ankle tattoo. Rosie thought he was so adorable and she hugged him and laughed. He started laughing too and seemed so happy because she "gets" him.

Janette was stammering which is typical and now she was snapping her fingers too! Rosie commented about it. Deirdre thought the Algerian guys were hot and she might start rooting for the other team because they're so cute.

A listener called in to talk about the boy that flies indoor kites without wind on America's Got Talent. The caller thought he was absolutely fabulous. Bobby cried through most of his performance last night and thought it was beautiful. Rosie watched it during the broadcast and said she likes the judges and she likes the host of the show. Rosie loves Nick Cannon and thinks it's Howie at his best. Unlike former judge David Hasselhoff who she said seems like a man with a very serious disease and it's hard for her to not have judgment of him ever since she saw him eating a hamburger on the ground and his daughter begging him to stop. You can watch that video she is referring to HERE.

Rosie said that she listened to Eminem's new CD Recovery and she loves it. Deirdre loves it too and also loves his book The Way I Am. Then Rosie talked about the time that she thought he won an Oscar and his acceptance speech he gave and Pete was sure that Eminem didn't receive his own Oscar and that Rosie was wrong. Brendan (or Lou) looked it up and played the audio of Barbra Streisand giving the award and some weird guy accepting the award who was not Eminem. Pete recalled it correctly and Rosie did not! Janette said that Rosie is never wrong about these things and suggested that Rosie go see a physician. Rosie loves Eminem and mentioned that he even uses her name in two of his songs! One of the songs is Taking My Ball and the other one is Evil Deeds. They played Eminem's Going Through Changes from his latest CD and went to commercial. Rosie asked Deirdre if she could get him to come in as a guest and be interviewed.

BLAKE'S PROGRESS, LOU'S UN-BIRTHDAY, THE TUDORS FINALE AND THE OIL SPILL
Rosie said it was her good childhood friend Jackie that really got her into reading as a kid. She now tutors Blake for an hour every day and he's now at the same level as all the other kids in his class. Rosie said it amazes her every time she sees him read and where's he's come from in comparison to where he once was.

The staff was celebrating Lou's birthday today (kinda) because he didn't tell anyone the other day that it was. Rosie said she's not acting excited about it because he didn't tell anyone when it was really his birthday. Rosie and her friends and coworkers Jeannie and Jackie did an episode of Password for the Raw Dog comedy hour on Sirius. As they were playing the game, one of the other teammates said that Lou offered to give him all of the answers! All Rosie kept thinking for the rest of the game was who are they going to get to replace LOU?! Lou also offered to give Jeannie all the answers! Rosie said she's very very distressed with Lou. He defended himself that he offered to give the answers to Jeannie first. Lou said that Jim Breuer and Rosie attacked him for about 15 minutes during the game. He said he wrote all the questions catered towards Rosie so she could win! Lou said that Rosie's team kicked his ass and she was by far the funniest one there. Rosie fully appreciated the ass kissing and she complimented him by calling him a handsome version of Yoda.

Rosie asked if anyone in the studio had watched the series finale of The Tudors. No one had seen it besides Rosie. Rosie said that Vivi walked in just as a woman was being tortured and she tried to change the channel very quickly but Vivi saw some of it. Rosie liked the way they ended it because all the wives came back and told Henry the 8th what he did wrong.

They briefly discussed the moratorium on the oil drilling in the Gulf by the President and how a judge in Louisiana overrode the moratorium because he felt like the jobs were too important to the area. They discussed the differences between this oil disaster and the one that happened in 1977 happened in 200 feet of water. They all seemed annoyed with Obama when he said we would be able to capture 90% of the oil in his address to the nation. Rosie and the staff wondered how they come up with those numbers when they can't even get a good estimate on how many gallons/barrels are leaking on a daily basis?!

Then the conversation took a turn back to Archie's friend who did the Kung Fu move and Deirdre mentioned the show from the 70s Kung Fu and Rosie discussed The Magilla Gorilla Show and sang the theme song from it. Rosie said she wants to do a cabaret show with her just singing theme songs.

THE DEATH PENALTY, CALLERS AND PRISON
Rosie and the staff discussed the death penalty. Janette is against it but didn't change her mind about it until she saw the movie Dead Man Walking. Rosie and the staff talked about the death penalty and Rosie said that someone who commits a horrible crime has the right to life, maybe not to freedom, but at least life. She said people have asked her what if one of her kids were murdered, how would she feel about the murderer. Rosie said that she hopes that she wouldn't become what she loathes. Janette said she's against anything that eliminates your right to redemption. Rosie can understand the sentiment but she doesn't know if it's the way a civilized society should react. Bobby said if murder is wrong then why is murdering the murderer right? Bobby said that he thinks death is perhaps the easy way out and that perhaps life in prison is a worse punishment.

Rosie said that people have a misconception that being in a prison is like being at a spa. She said it's not like that and prisoners are isolated, in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day. Rosie took a call from a listener whose brother was sentenced to life at 16 years old for raping and killing a 16 year old girl. He is now 34 years old. The caller said that he loves his brother but it was wrong what he did. He also feels sorry for the victim's family. They talked about how they put teenagers to death in Ohio. Rosie sounded very compassionate to the caller and she said she didn't know how anyone survives what he is going through and what the family of the murdered girl went through. Rosie suggested that he read the book by the author that they were going to interview today.

Rosie took another call from a listener with a child on death row. Her son was on trial for 3 years for murdering his girlfriend. She said she can't explain how it feels as a mother to know that people want to kill your child (by sentencing him to death). It was 3 years of hell for her to know that people wanted him to die. He plead to second degree murder and was sentenced to over 20 years in prison. He's going to spend the best years of his life locked away as punishment. The caller visited him and while he was on trial it was always behind glass. Now that he's in prison she got to hug him unshackled for the first time in 3 years. She talked about how hard it was for her because the love of your child never goes away. She said her son has remorse for what he did and was willing to take whatever punishment they gave him. The caller said her son was a successful athlete and went to a party and tried Meth and was addicted immediately. She said they went through 6 years of hell and rehab as a family trying to help him kick the addiction. The counselors in the prison say that her son could possibly be bipolar. At the time of the murder he was also doing steroids and crack. Rosie encouraged the caller to reach out to the mother and the sisters of the woman that he murdered. The caller said she used to be for the death penalty until this happened to her family. Rosie was truly touched by the caller, her openness to share her experience and her willingness to discuss it with her.

AUTHOR DAVID DOW

Rosie then introduced David Dow who wrote The Autobiography of an Execution. Rosie said she thought his book was really fascinating. David said that he met a guy who was scheduled to be executed and had no lawyer representing his defense anymore so he agreed to work on his case. He was 30 years old at the time when he defended his first death row inmate. David was not married and had no children at the time. Rosie commented on what a toll his job must take on his personal life. David shared some stories with him about how the job has effected his life and his family vacations. David said that most of the people he's met on death row do not maintain innocence. He said only 6 or 7 out of the 100 he defended tell him that they're truly innocent. He said the vast majority of the inmates on death row take responsibility for what they've done.

David said that he's very honest with his son about what he does for a living. And then Rosie asked him why he continues to do it. Even though he loses most of the cases David knows that what he's doing is important and he doesn't ever want to abandon his clients - the clients that have been abandoned by everyone that has ever been in their life. He said it is important for him to be with the people he defends until the very end. David also said it's better for his clients to hear that it is the end of their appeal from someone who cares about them and their case so he likes to be there for them for that. David successfully defends about 5% of his clients and for him, that makes it all worth it.

Rosie and David talked about one of the cases he describes in his book about a man who was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his family that was innocent. David said that being sentenced to death is not just about law but about the many other factors that come into play. He said if you're not white, don't have a lot of money and if you've killed someone who isn't white your chances of being on death row increase. This imbalance shouldn't exist in a system that tries to treat everyone fairly and as equals. For example, of the 15,000 homicides every year there are only 60-70 executions. Those 60 or 70 executions aren't necessarily the worst crimes either. David said that luck, who your lawyer is, money and the jury that has been selected to try your case, as well as many other factors, come into play as to whether or not you will be sentenced to death.

David was in favor of the death penalty before he started defending the clients on death row. He said that almost all of his clients who have committed a crime come from some sort of bad environment that destroyed them after they were born. Had they had a different upbringing, he's sure that the majority would have turned out differently.

Rosie talked with David briefly about how she was concerned he was drinking too much as he mentions in the book. He said his wife isn't concerned and as long as she's okay with it he knows he's okay. :) Rosie thanked David for the interview and told him he wrote a beautiful book. She ended the interview telling him she would really like to meet him one day and he shared the sentiment back. Here's a link to an article written by David Dow about the book.

At the end of the program Rosie announced that the USA soccer team had scored and won the game against Algeria, 1-0! Rosie closed the show.

and that's what you missed -kw