7-14-10

In case you missed it...

BOBBY AND HIS MAC PRODUCTS, AN ANTI-MEL DAY AND MORE TIME OFFLINE
Bobby sang the Rosie Radio theme song today with his best version I've heard him do so far! Bobby also shared with everyone that he is the new owner of an iPhone 4. Bobby said Mac has changed his life once again and he thinks his new phone is fabulous. Rosie said she just read an article that an iPhone 4 recall is inevitable. Bobby said he received an email from Apple saying that there is a software issue and they will send out a fix for it so he is confident that it will be okay. Deirdre wanted to know why Bobby would ever need the video conferencing feature. She also commented how Bobby carries his iPad "like a baby" and his iPhone and his computer with him everyday. So the newest gadgets just means he has more to carry around, not less. Janette said that because Bobby is so prepared that means, as a staff, they will always be very prepared. In his life, Bobby said he is always prepared.

Janette mentioned an article that called cellphones "blood cell phones" (similar to "blood diamonds") that states that the increased demand for the minerals used in cell phones is causing more war in countries like Congo. Here is an article I found about blood cell phones. And Rosie pointed out that we have just found a large amount of these minerals in Afghanistan which Janette said will keep us there for the rest of our lives.

Bobby gives away his old Mac computers and he stores his old iPhones in case he ever loses or breaks the one he has. Pete told a story about a time that Rosie ruined her iPhone and he had the old one stored in his desk as a backup. Bobby mentioned an application on your computer that allows you to locate your phone on a map. Bobby said the coolest thing about the latest iPhone is the camera on the front and back that allows you to video conference. He said there is also a flash and a zoom for the camera feature which the older phone didn't have. Janette said that it makes her crazy that these "new" features, which were around at the time of the last phone's release, are purposely not included so that you are forced to buy the next version. Janette said she will use her razor phone until it dies. Pete has the zoom feature on his Droid phone but says that when you use it the pictures have a low image quality which he finds disappointing. They mentioned the documentary The Story of Stuff and how they talk about many of these topics. Anne Leonard from the Story of Stuff was a guest on Rosie Radio on April 28th. It was one of my favorite interviews so read about it if you have the time.

Rosie mentioned that her girlfriend, Tracy, was skyping in and saying that they were being boring and they needed to change the topic. Pete suggested they talk about making a roof for the chicken coop out of old iPhones and perhaps that would catch her interest. Then they started talking about the vegetable smoothies that Tracy likes to make in the morning. Janette said she goes into a gym everyday after work to buy a freshly made vegetable juice drink which totally cracked Rosie up. Not that she drinks a vegetable drink but that the only reason she steps foot into a gym is to purchase a drink and then she leaves. Deirdre gets them too and loves them.

Rosie said that today she does not want to talk about Mel Gibson and here's why. Yesterday she was depressed all day long after their conversation about the phone calls he made to his girlfriend. All day yesterday she was worried that there was going to be another one released. She talked to Jeff Garlin about it on the set of Curb Your Enthusiasm and he told her he chose to not even listen to it. So, last night she got home from shooting and there was another phone call released and she had to listen to it in spite of herself. They talked about how the constant release of these audio tapes may begin to make people question the girlfriend's motive. Rosie said that it is a running theme in her life where she seems like she is always waiting for people she knows to "rip off the mask" and reveal their deep, dark, evil side. Her therapist told her this is common in people who have suffered abuse and it could be from her own past where someone who was supposed to take care of her, abused her. Janette feels that the Mel saga has now become a media circus and Mel will be tried in the court of public opinion. Rosie wondered why she can't just stay away from the dark side and not participate in it. She wondered who runs the website Radar Online. Pete googled it and said that Radar used to be a print magazine and now it's just a web magazine. He said they pay people to be interviewed.

Rosie said for 17 days she turned off the "AskRo" portion of her blog and she's starting to think she wants to turn it off completely. She said that most people are incredibly sweet and wonderful to her and they've even gotten good show topics off of it but she is coming to realize that she doesn't want to live in a virtual world anymore. Rosie said that the Internet takes you out of your own life and distracts you from living. She said it isn't because she doesn't love her bloggers or her listeners but she has more time for real life when she's not online. Pete thinks time spent on the Internet is like anything and anything in moderation can improve your life and your experiences. But too much of anything is a bad thing. Pete spends hours on the Internet researching things for work. Deirdre said she has cut down greatly on her Internet time that she spends communicating with people online and now she only does it twice a day. AND, she has started shutting off her phone at 10 pm every night and is reading more before she goes to bed.

Rosie agreed and said that at her Jersey Shore vacation she read many more books than she would have when she was spending a lot of time on the Internet. She said she she isn't sure that the Internet time is contributing to her life and the things she is reading about is taking up too much in her brain. Conversely, Bobby is always connected and online and can be reached anytime. Janette checks her email for emails from Rosie but beyond that she still has yet to listen to the voicemail messages she had from when they were on vacation last week.

PARKER AT CAMP, REALITY TELEVISION, GAMESHOWS AND THE CHICKENS
Rosie finally connected with Parker yesterday and she said he sounds really happy. Rosie's eldest son Parker is at a sleep-away camp to prepare him for a highly competitive high school that he is beginning in the fall. She was waiting in the trailer on the set of Curb Your Enthusiasm when she got the call. She was so worried about him and she said he sounded totally fine. Rosie spoke about the special love she has with her eldest son. She said it is an intense relationship and she thinks it's partly because he was her first child. They talked about how the oldest kids often get all the photos of them taken and the youngest kids barely ever have any. Rosie said that there are barely any photos of her brother Timmy who was 5 years old at the time of her mother's death. Rosie said that none of her kids like to have their photos taken and treat her like she's the paparazzi when she tries to take their picture. However Vivi, Rosie's youngest, loves to get her picture taken and will even pose for the camera. She said that her girlfriend Tracy still likes to look at pictures of her kids when they were babies.

Rosie said that when she and Chelsea were riding in the car to visit Parker at his camp she noticed that Chelsea had a picture of her and Parker when they were 5 and 7 years old in her pocketbook. Rosie made them hug each other when they saw each other at camp.

Deirdre said that she needs to go on the Internet to know the major headlines for work but she doesn't need to know why Kim Kardashian cut her hair. Rosie asked why the Kardashians are even famous which then launched an entire debate about reality television. Rosie said she has no idea what The Hills is and admitted she has never even watched any of The Real Housewives before. Rosie said those types of shows don't speak to her anymore. She also used to love Survivor and Amazing Race but not anymore. She said those shows are not a true game-show, they are more of a contest. Rosie loves game-shows and still wished she was chosen to be the host of the Price Is Right. This started a detailed conversation about old game shows like Match Game. Janette never saw the Match Game so Rosie described it to her. Rosie talked about the time she did the remake of Hollywood Squares and said she wished there were more game shows back on air. Rosie has also been on Password, Celebrity Jeopardy and Celebrity Millionaire. Pete said he has added something to his Bucket List. Pete wants to be on Cash Cab! Rosie and the ladies of The View were Cash Cab when she was on the View. Deirdre had never heard of Cash Cab so they described it to her.

Rosie announced that actress and performer Polly Bergen would be on the show today. Polly is celebrating her 80th birthday today so they brought her a cake at the studio. Polly contacted Rosie to tell her about Add the Alert which is an application you can download on your computer that will alert you when a child goes missing in your area. Rosie was looking forward to talking to Polly and hearing more about this application to help find missing children. Deirdre said that Rosie reminds her a lot of Polly because Polly chose to put her life ahead of her career similar to the way that Rosie did.

During today's broadcast Rosie got an email from Parker's summer camp saying that he did amazingly on his test scores! Rosie said that Parker is doing really, really well at his camp and she can't even begin to articulate how much she loves him. She even thinks of him when she hears a love song. Parker has mentioned to Rosie that he wants to go to Italy for a semester in high school (which makes her incredibly nervous) because he loves it there. Parker has traveled to Italy with Kelli in the past. Bobby talked briefly about his time at boarding school.

Janette said she read an article about a new reality show named The Choir. Janette read a review about it and heard it is supposed to be better than Glee. Bobby and Rosie said it's not possible for a show to be better than Glee. Glee received 19 Emmy nominations and they raved about the musical numbers and the dance numbers and the amount of work that must go into it. Janette said she heard the show is supposed to be fantastic.

Rosie said it has become apparent that they have two roosters in the chicken coop. They can't really get replacements for the roosters because there is a pecking order. Rosie said it's shocking to her how much she loves having the chickens. Rosie hasn't had to do any of the work for the chickens because Tracy has done all of it. She talked about how much fun it is having the chickens around and how much enjoyment they have watching them. Rosie said her kids like to try to catch them and throw them in the air to see if they can fly. She also admitted that it's become a tad bit embarrassing going out to dinner with Tracy because whatever is leftover she will take home for the chickens. For example, the other night at Casa Del Sol she took all the leftover chips and salsa on the table to feed to the chickens. Rosie said that if they have roosters they have to get rid of them because there is a noise ordinance in the town. Rosie said they may give the roosters to an exotic animal rescue that feeds them to the Lions that they rescue! Janette and Pete offered to take the roosters and eat them! Then they talked about how long it takes to kill a chicken and how you snap its neck.

ANIMAL RIGHTS AND BEING A VEGETARIAN
Rosie said that Janette was fired up at the morning meeting because of a New York Times article about the killing of 400 geese in the New York area. The geese were disposed of because of the dangers to the airplanes. Janette understood that something needed to be done with the geese if they posed a danger to airplanes but she didn't like that they just took them 2 at a time and euthanized them and then threw them away. Janette thought they should have killed the geese in another way so they could have fed people with the meat or used it for animal feed. She said it seemed wrong to kill them and then to waste their death. Rosie said that the level to which it upset Janette surprised her because she doesn't respond to humans with the same compassion that she does to animals.

Janette talked again about how wrong she was about Sonya Fitzpatrick, the Animal Communicator they had on the show, and what a wonderful woman she really is. Janette thought that Sonya had insulted her beautiful hairless cat and then admitted she was wrong. Rosie gave that "beautiful" animal to Janette who Rosie thinks is the ugliest animal on the planet. Pete loves the hairless cat but Bobby pointed out that Pete also wanted his child to be a dragon. Good point.

Janette's cat

Janette just thinks that if we have to kill animals we should honor and respect them.

Shoshana, who is a vegetarian, asked if Janette then feels bad eating meat. Janette explained that she was a vegetarian for a few years until the night she saw an alligator eat a snake on the National Geographic Channel. That show made her realize that we are meat eaters and she immediately went out and bought a 10-pound ham, boiled it, and ate it. Shoshana wondered how we determine which animals are okay to eat. Shoshana does not refrain from eating animals because she loves them but she doesn't eat animals because she doesn't like them. Shoshana said that animals gross her out and the thought of eating them disgusts her. Plus, the thought of eating something that is dead grosses her out.

Rosie just read Big Mouth & Ugly Girl and the girl in the story never eats meat. Rosie found it interesting and thought it seemed totally possible to never eat meat. Shoshana mainly eats carbs like pasta, rice, and french fries. She also eats pretend chicken (which Tracy feeds to her kids which Rosie thinks is a form of child abuse) and Morningstar Farms vegetarian meats.

POLLY BERGEN
Rosie then introduced actress and entertainer Polly Bergen! When Polly arrived Rosie's Chihuahua "attacked" Polly's poodle and they had to take it out of the studio. Polly said that she got her dog from a breeder who couldn't show her. It's Polly's 80th birthday today! Polly explained that she has always had so much responsibility growing up because both her parents had to work that she has always felt older. Rosie said she felt the same way and realized she started to act like a teen when she was 40 years old. Polly did that too when she married her first husband. She said it was the first time she was having fun in her life. They talked about gambling and how they would watch high rollers bet thousands on a hand in Vegas and it gave them both panic attacks.

Polly started singing professionally at 15 years old. Her first gigs were in bars and her mother would travel with her as her sister. Her last name is really spelled Burgin but she changed it to Bergen because no one ever spelled it correctly. She would sing whatever songs were current at the time and she made about $95 a week! Rosie told a story of Richard M. Dixon (who looked just like Richard Nixon) who owned the bar where she started doing stand-up. Rosie would get $5 to do a 20 minute set. In high school, she would sing on a little weekly radio show that they had in Richmond, Indiana, where she lived. The manager loved her and offered her her own show. Everyone who listened thought she was 25 years old and black because she learned to sing off of imitating Sarah Vaughan records. When Polly was in her early 30s she went to see a young singer perform at the Ambassador hotel. She had been singing since she was 15 but this kid walked out on stage and within 10 minutes of watching her she said she would never sing again. That kid was Barbra Streisand. Polly said it took her 35 years to learn to do what Barbra was already doing - her presence, the singing, her confidence, the communicating with the audience, etc. Polly and her husband adopted both their children. She made sacrifices in her career so that she could spend time with her children and her husband. She turned down great roles to be with her family. She made a deal with herself after her first marriage failed that if she ever married again her marriage would be more important than her career.

Rosie and Polly talked about her role on the show Desperate Housewives. Polly admitted that she had never seen the show before so she had a friend tell her all about the plot line from the beginning. Polly said it was an amazing experience and that everyone on set was warm, charming and sharing.

Polly and Rosie talked about Broadway and the sense of family that you feel with a cast when you do a Broadway show. They talked about her career on Broadway and the famous actors and actresses that she worked with.

Polly was on the show to discuss the website Add The Alert. 800,000 children go missing every year in the U.S. Add the Alert will notify you when a child within a 100 miles of where you live goes missing. You get a picture and a description of the child. The system works in conjunction with Amber Alert and Polly and Rosie talked about how great it is and how much it can help alert the public today since we live in a world where so much information we get is on the Internet.

The staff then presented Polly with a cake and sang Happy Birthday to her!

After the interview Rosie and the staff talked about what a legend Polly Bergen is and how honored they were to have her in the studio. Rosie first met Polly after a performance of Grease on Broadway at Joe Allen's.

Rosie apologized for not taking any calls and said that tomorrow is going to be call-in Thursday! Get your questions and topics ready people!!!

and that's what you missed -kw