kevin lyman
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I doubt you have ever had the experience of a TOTAL solar eclipse.
If your had, you'd be damn excited for tomorrow if you are in the path of totality!
Josh Cohen
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Maybe actually listen to the Beyonce album instead of just wondering what its numbers will be a year from now.
You don't want to watch TV or movies or the eclipse or listen to music, that's your prerogative. But you are curating yourself on to your own little island disconnected from the rest of us. Your sounding like an old crank, a get off my lawn guy, that path doesn't get better it just gets worse.
Eat some cereal. Take a walk. Don't take yourself so seriously.
Really man.
Mitch Tenzer
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"Does any adult other than Seinfeld even eat cereal?"
59, finishing off a bowl of Cocoa Crispies as I read this.
Ken Baum
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Hi Bob,
As always you wrote another great piece!
The eclipse will pass directly over Indianapolis at 3:06PM tomorrow. The excitement here is overwhelming. For the most part ALL of the hotels in Central Indiana are at full capacity tonight and they are anticipating around 200,000 people converging here. Personally I am involved with 3 events including a high end event on the spacious grounds at a large museum (Newfields) and that alone is just about sold out at 5,000 tickets. They sold all 1,000 VIP reserved tickets on the first day! The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has sold over 40,000 tickets including people from all 50 states and over 20 foreign countries. Lester Holt will be at the Speedway to do the NBC Nightly News live. Most businesses, schools and services will be closed due to the increased traffic. There are "watch parties" everywhere.
And the forecast is excellent!
I know this all sounds crazy but its true!
All my best!
Steve Gerardi
Indianapolis
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We're all gonna Diiiiiiiiiiii......
Happy Sunday Bob
Steve Lukather
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I got glasses for free from the Malibu library. An old friend from middle school is going out to Texas to track the eclipse. I would rather stare in the sun than listen to that Beyoncé album!
Blake Einhorn
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In 2017 my wife and I went with our best friends to see the total eclipse. Totally worth it. If you are in the totality path it won't change your life - but you will remember it. It's a moment. And it's cool. It's not stupid.
Jerry Gray
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Give cereal another try
- Greg Garbowsky
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Hi Bob, of course you're blasé about the eclipse. You're almost 1000 miles away from totality's path. I'm about 50 miles. We're excited! So is everyone in the coffee shop I'm in right now. I can hear everybody talking about it. Small towns on Lake Ontario's north shore and in the Niagara Falls area are telling people to stay away. Schools are closing. It's going to be crazy tomorrow. Digital signs on the big highways are warning about delayed arrival times, even for people just going to work.
Steven Ehrlick
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I don't know how much time and money people will have spent to fly to a sweet spot to see the eclipse, but it has been montetized to death. I'll pass as it will be minimally noticable on the West Coast. The most telling story about how horribly things have gotten is the news alert that hustlers were making fake viewing glasses. People were buying them not knowing they useless and won't protect you. How many will go blind today? Hard to say.
John Brodey
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"I'm not. Furthermore, wasn't there a once in a lifetime eclipse just a few years back?"
yeah like ever 2 1/2 years it seems like
Jeff Lorber
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I was at the eye doctor yesterday.
They are expecting to take in a few burned out retinas tomorrow by 4:00 pm.
It's not like you have to look up to see the effect, and given the inaccuracies found on the internet these days, I'm quite sure there will be many more blind people tomorrow about this time. Being partially blind myself I already feel sorry for them.
Will Eggleston
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I'll tell you who is excited about the eclipse - CHILDREN!!! They want to know what the eclipse is all about, so you describe the eclipse, which leads to a discussion of our solar system, the relative sizes of the planets to the sun, to each other, the pull of the moon on tides, the moons around Saturn, the Voyager space probes that are still going after 47 years, the pictures they have sent back, the "Earth Rising" picture which brings you to the Whole Earth Catalog . . .
At this point my grandson says, " Bubby, you should write this all down for me, a big book that tells how everything works."
Bingo.
That's why we watch the eclipse.
Liz Dean
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Here in the Midwest, you better believe we're excited about the total eclipse. I just turned 72, around the same age as you, so I'm looking forward to experiencing totality for the very first and probably only time in my life.
My wife and I drove two hours south to join our children and grandchild in the Indianapolis area. My brother and his wife are also joining us. The weather looks good. We will sit in the backyard having a picnic, playing ball with the grandson, drinking a few beers, telling stories and gazing up at the sky with our special glasses.
Totality- Certainly a once in a lifetime experience I don't want to miss.
Rob Evans
Francesville IN
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I'm taking a pass on the eclipse as well. Instead I'm going to listen to Manfred Mann's version of "Blinded By The Light". Maybe the best Springsteen cover ever. And no eye protection required.
Eron Epstein
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I've also noticed the many fads and hype cycles in recent years; Pokémon Go, Stanley cups, NFTs, crypto, meme stocks, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon, every Beyoncé release as if it's going the best album in history, the comeback of vinyl (in an era where you can stream almost anything), White Claw drinks, and now the eclipse. There were probably others that came and went quickly. It's kind of sad to watch American consumers get so easily sucked into fads, especially when it costs them money that can better be used for something else, particularly if they're in debt to begin with.
I'm interested in the eclipse. Seeing it on the news after the fact, or perhaps on a live stream if I'm free at the time will be enough for me. But hopefully those traveling to see it and spending their hard earned money on viewing equipment will have a memorable experience, and not end up disappointed.
Anthony Ferrara
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Face it … you're an old curmudgeon, but we already knew it !
Doug Pomerantz
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I agree with you on the eclipse. But I eat cereal almost every day…
Tom Truitt
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Bob
Yes, I am excited.
It will be the last one I'll ever see.
I think you've becoming a Curmudgeon.
Ron Stone
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The funny thing is, Bob, Maine is the only state in the path with forecast clear skies tomorrow. We can see 97.1 % totality from my house and that's fine with me.
Sugarloaf is having a big bash.
Jim Bowers
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Grouchy Bob,
I usually am on board with your missives, but not this time. This one reminds me of Andy Rooney...
I don't spend a lot of time reading entertainment news, so I don't know what they are saying about Bey, but Cowboy Carter is the first album of hers that I have listened to more than once. I love it. Not sure why you are trying to dunk on her.
But even more importantly, my family cut short a friend's wedding to fly to see the eclipse. So many people told me that the last totality was one of the coolest things that they have ever done. It is my wife's birthday so we celebratimg it in astronomical style. I know others doing the same thing thing.
-Nate Bonilla-Warford
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My friends' band was hired six months ago to play "Dark Side of the Moon" live at an outdoor venue in Conneaut, Ohio. They have been rehearsing for months to get it right. I wish I could be there to support them. Tickets sold out months ago. There is a lot of excitement about the eclipse in Ohio. Then there are my religious friends in Ohio who fear the world is going to end and the eclipse is part of biblical prophecy. But they're still planning to vote for trump. Incongruence. Why plan beyond April 8 if the world is going to cease to exist? My money is on seeing the sun again for many years.
John Swetye
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As I read your posting, I'm literally in a rent a car with my husband and his parents in Dallas. We all flew in today. It's not MY thing but they are all astronomy and eclipse fans so I figured I'd tag along. We'll see what happens but at least the barbecue will be good!
Turk
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Certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion. I thought it was nice that something that is science based and spiritual was a nice break from all the negativity and disagreeing we live with. I guess you won't be in the dark but we will!
All the best ,
Steve Langford
(From Paducah Kentucky)
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Hi Bob! I love your posts, read them religiously, but man . . . I am worried about you. Have you just had any . . . Fun recently?
What's next? A hit piece on apple pie? My late grandma's baklava? You are always b-ing and m-ing about the lack of mass community but when a natural event like the eclipse occurs, albeit for only a few minutes, you have to dump on it.
Douglas Trapasso
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Bob, you of all people should know that it's not a good idea to be uninformed and try to write about a subject. Your comments about the total eclipse show that you have never seen one. If you had, you would never make such comments.
First of all, looking a photographs that will be "better than being there?" No. There's not a camera on this planet that can capture what the total eclipse will look like, or feel like. Photos are maybe 20% at best. It cannot be photographed and look like it really looks. You can't describe it either, because no words do it justice.
What you've experienced is a partial eclipse, not totality. Too bad for you. It's maybe 1% as cool, if that. No wonder you are disillusioned with the hype. You don't know what you are missing.
Mike Blakesley
___________________________________
Mainstream media biased and useless
Pushing the eclipse on folks to scare them back to the Stone Age and keep them docile, managed and easy to shear.
One party that is angry about the other and running on that ticket - get out your fingers and count Bob....there are two
Steve
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I live on the West Coast of BC and it's going to be raining and even it if was sunny the event means nothing here.
I guess it's something to fill any lulls in between Trump TV Breaking News.
Is it just me or is anyone getting sick of seeing this guy everywhere 24/7?
I really wish he would just go away.
Mike DJ
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The eclipse is a big deal if you are in the path of totality. I am planning on sitting in my driveway a 3:15, wearing the glasses I got in 2017 and enjoy a new 4 minute experience.
in 2017, I looked at the partial eclipse for a few minutes, it was a chunk missing from the sun, maybe a little darker. Not that big a deal but worth the cost of eclipse glasses ($7.50 a pop when you wait till the last minute in 2017). at least I'm down to $3.75 an eclipse now.
But totality, when it gets dark as night, that is something special. Or so I hope. But here in Ohio, there will probably be clouds. So I might not get to see the corona. but the darkness will be interesting.
Dale Janus
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As for the eclipse, OK I get it, you're not in the least bit a romantic and aren't getting caught up in the beauty of the celestial mechanics taking place.
But look at it this way: for at least a day we get to think about something other than taxes, Trump, Biden or Gaza.
Cheers,
Chris Nissen
___________________________________
Come on, man! It's gonna be fantastic. Get out and enjoy the realization that your place in the universe is subject to cosmic forces beyond your control, but not beyond your ability to understand and appreciate. We are lucky to live in an age that isn't beset with superstition and a deep mistrust of science (MAGA be damned). Don't act like one of them! Fight the urge to "curmudge".
Stephen Gordon
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The best part about the eclipse was some commonality. In today's world we need all we can get.
Alan Johnson
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Watching the eclipse coverage on TV, I thought of your hostility to solar eclipses. People fascinated with eclipses filled up the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch it, and you're like, "I skied through an eclipse. It got dark. Bah humbug." I made the last sentence up, but dude, the way you describe him, you sound like Gene Simmons.
Don't worry, Bob, I still think you're harmless.
Take care,
Michael Ball
___________________________________
I'm not any more interested in the eclipse than it sounds like you are, but as I tried to get home on the NYS Thruway this afternoon, the northbound traffic I sat in tells me you and I may be in the minority. That's traffic from NYC and its suburbs, so probably not people completely on the other side of the culture divide from you.
Is there a little bit of irony in you writing about how "our world has been decentralized. And the mainstream media acts like it is not," while at the same time seemingly not allowing for the idea that something that means nothing to you is, in fact, a big deal to a whole other slice of our world?
Love your writing regardless. Thanks for putting it out there.
Andrew
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How can one not be at least interested in the eclipse? It's an incredible and rare natural phenomenon. It used to freak out the ancients, which is enough for me.
I know loads of people into it, though in many cases I'd say in SPITE of the hype. Enough already … being inundated by the media at every turn can make an extraordinary event seem as bland as Wonder Bread. And, the never ending barrage of alerts and advisories … we get it - DON'T LOOK AT IT. Somehow as kids we survived it; our parents and friends said 'hey, don't look at the sun during the eclipse' and that was plenty. We didn't need NBC and all the rest driving the point home 300 more times. I guess I'm showing my age.
And we wonder why everyone is going underground …
Marc Platt
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Everything since at least the 1990's has had to be 'the first,' 'the best,' 'the most or the least,' 'once in a lifetime,' '1000 year event,' and other euphemisms with similar importance or lack thereof.
I could make a list, from memory if I was so moved, but I won't ---- and you could certainly do the same --- you and I are within a few years of age of being in the same generation, growing up on the eastern seaboard/NY Metro area, etc. etc.
If the moon blocking the sun for less than 10 minutes on Monday April 8th passes for an entertainment opportunity, justifying spending lots of money on hotel accommodations and travel expenses, it is truly shocking ---
Now, I do admit that discussing solar eclipses in history can be a fascinating educational experience, about how European explorers could win over native populations by 'commanding' the sun to disappear at a precise moment --- etc. etc.
But to watch the moon cross the face of the sun in the afternoon on a given date --- really?
How 'bout that politician from the east coast who blamed the recent New Jersey quake on climate change?
Have people become THAT stupid?
R Lowenstein
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I'll tell ya who is REALLY excited about the eclipse.
The QAnon conspiracy whackos.
The flat earthers saying it's just a projection onto the sky.
Nasa's launching rockets into it.
There'll be a massive power outage that will break the world's economy.
The sun couldn't possibly be in line with the moon because the sun is in Pisces and the moon is in Aries.
I sh*t you not Bob, these are things people have either said to me or the laughers I keep in my feed because well... they make me laugh.
But they all believe it!
Exciting stuff!
Dan Millen
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"eclipse schmiclipse" lol. not my cup of tea either.
After spending over 30 years peddling false needs in consumer electronics as a manufacturer's representative based out of San Francisco I can give you a little anecdote about Beats and how they found a hole and filled it for a jackpot of $3 billion from Apple. I believe the real genius behind Beats was not so much Dr Dre as it was his partner Irving or Irvine? (senior moment I can't remember his name). Together, he and Dre figured out that a whole lot of young kids had money to spend, were into hip hop (and a solid base beat sound) and headphones could reflect fashion, lifestyle and hipness, yet there was no audio brand out there at the time offering this. Sony, Yamaha, Bose, RCA and other audio brands were clueless when it came to delivering sound as a fashion and lifestyle accessory.
Dre and Irvine (spelling?) had the billion dollar idea, and easily could get the product built, but had no way to break into retail store distribution locked up by all the traditional but unhip old audio brands.
So the genius of Irvine was meeting Noel Lee, the founder and head of Monster Cable who had entre into every retailer in the country and their audio accessory shelf space, through his network of very successful independent reps and Monster Cable's unique dealer and salespeople reward programs that no other audio accessory brand could compete with. Lee had already done with audio accessories what Irvine and Dre wanted to do with headphones.
Starting with hook up cables, probably the least significant part of any music system , in the consumers mind , Noel had turned it all around and convinced salespeople and they in turn convinced consumers that if they wanted the best sound and something to brag about and enhance their audiophile self image they had to have Monster Cables not just any other no brand cables.
Noel was not in the headphone business but he knew how to build a brand and more important retailers would buy anything associated with Monster Cable because it was the most profitable line they carried in the slim profit margins other than speakers and needles audio gear provided them. So a marriage was made, and Noel was obviously swayed by the glamour and celebrity of Dre and Irvine and their celebrity friends surrounding him. Noel and his organization and marketing skills took on an exclusive deal with Beats and got it into every retailer selling their accessories and in less than a year it became a had to have brand name in headphones by everyone except real audiophiles and bargain hunters.
I suspect Noel is still kicking himself for not getting a longer contract or a piece of equity in Beats, because after a year or so from Monster Cable starting the snowball into avalanche sales of Beats and getting it into the retailers. Irvin pulled the plug on their deal and eliminated Monster cable and ran with it independently and shortly thereafter sold it to Apple for $3 billion.
As my father used to say to me when I complained about the lack of ethics of some of the manufacturer's I delt with, "business is business".
Alan Segal
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Bob
With all due respect, two things in this selfish, purposely uninformed rant stick out like elbows in a foul.
for a long time now, you've prided yourself in your coolness: Your worldly weariness about most of the art that you get paid to cover - that earns you your living - cheats your readers out of needed information. We don't care about your coolness and hipness. We expect you to cover all of the business- fairly and without prejudice. Nevermind 'oh Bob's too jaded and worldly to cover X.' We do not care about your taste. All you're telling us is what you personally love or hate. Let's all agree upfront that you are knowledgeable to a fault. Please quit blowing off steam about your personal pets and pet peeves - and simply do your job. That will permit the rest of us to come up with our own conclusions instead of receiving only the tiny niche of reality you've deemed worthwhile.
You also love to pontificate on topics about which you have no knowledge or background - not to mention intellect. Case in point: who needs Bob's clueless rantings about an eclipse. Instead, why not earn your money and actually interview a scientist who specializes in such matters. Do you have any idea how utterly stoopid you come off dismissing eclipses out of hand because they're of no interest to you personally. Here's an idea: stop doing a column on the music business. It's a broad and deep field requiring constant focus of the kind you've apparently lost as you've become increasingly mired in your own personal, narrow opinions. instead, change the topic of your column to skiing. It's more suited to your narrow focus, and you apparently know something about it.
In your increasing focus on yourself, you have unintentionally provided the reader with a stark and revealing comment on our country. It's fairly unique to recent times to judge what's going on politically solely by its impact on the individual. Your comment that the vibrant economy means nothing because it doesn't impact you personally is as revealing and empty-headed as any recent comment from that segment of the populace who illogically demand that an administration satisfy each individual's unique needs and opinions in order to be judged successful.
Whatever happened to selflessness and 'the good of the country.' With your view, it would be impossible even to raise a standing army, for example. 'It hasn't helped me so I'm not going to support it' is the rallying cry of the 'disinformationalists' who want simply to abolish national government.
Worst of all, you are, in effect, supporting Trump and the advent of the strongman presidency - I.e., the end of democracy as we know it. Your country's very existence depends upon your ability to quash your puerile whinings about Biden's age and/or relative effectiveness. The choice is simple: democracy v non-democracy. Take a stand.
Manny Freiser
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You cranky old fart. It doesn't have to be a cereal box. The carton your Depends are packed in will do.
Minky
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"the news just repeats itself
like some long forgotten dream"
John Prine
David Ray
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