Here is the other story from my time with Mike. I thought this would water down the Angel Flights piece so I made it it’s own thing.

WARNING:  The following deals with life and death!!!!

I’d like you to meet Mike. If you passed him on the street you would probably think he’s just an ordinary guy. You would never guess that at one time he helped develop machines that are now used to treat cancer, or that he has used his retirement to volunteer his time, plane and gas money on over 200 occasions to help fly the sick from isolated islands to major hospitals for treatment. He is a soft spoken man with a big heart.

(The FLIP camera and basic software I have at home does not do the story justice, but you’ll get a taste.)

Click here for more information on ANGEL FLIGHTS.

All I am going to say is that this makes me laugh. Old friends getting together and trying to repeat history. Hope you have as much fun watching this as we did doing it. There is excitment in the middle.

As Thanksgiving moves in I think it’s important to think about all of those Southern New England families that don’t have anything during these difficult times. As depicted in the Huffington Post article below there is a huge unbalance in the distribution of food. We should all decide to shove a little less food in our faces this year. And it turn you will spend less money at the gym. EVERYBODY WINS!!!

Here are some links to places that will help give your food to the people who need it.

Rhode Island Food Bank http://www.rifoodbank.org/matriarch/default.asp

The Greater Boston Food Bank http://www.gbfb.org/aboutUs/FAQ.cfm

The ‘Fat Map’: Putting World Hunger Into Perspective  by Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein

  Hunger now scars the lives of over 1 billion people — a new record. Today, Monday the 16th, world leaders will gather at a UN food summit in Rome to debate what to do about it. As a former Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Program, I sense how the meeting may go. There will be more media attention on the politicians than on the issues, an abundance of speeches, and a series of oddly fancy luncheons — with more speeches. At a similar luncheon, I remember wondering: What if I could magically transfer the 1000 calories in this vanilla souffle in front of me to a malnourished child begging in the slums of Nairobi? Sharing the extra calories eaten in the United States or Europe alone would end hunger in Africa.

These gratifying fantasies highlight some terrible inequities in how the world handles its food supply. In 2006, the World Food Program produced, but never publicly released, a map charting food consumption. Dubbed the “Fat Map,” it shows where the world’s calories go. Nations grow or shrink based on how much the average person eats. Depending on your perspective, it maps starvation or overeating.

Per capita calorie consumption on a nation by nation basis, compiled and produced by the World Food Program

The mis-distribution of food goes deeper than even the “Fat Map” implies. In India, for example, more than 300 million overweight people coexist with another 300 million who starve. Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease that often stem from overeating are growing at a far faster rate in developing countries than in the more prosperous West. In my own region, the Middle East, obesity is skyrocketing, especially among young people.

In 2007-2008, a global food crisis surprised us as prices soared. But would the crisis have been as severe if we were not so accustomed to wasting the food we have?

Globally we are moving to an “energy morality” with young people lobbying against wasting energy — yet there is no “food morality” even though food is organic energy. We sit by and watch each other overeat and discard food without a thought. Extravagant overindulgence is viewed as hospitality and many assume that being a good parent requires that we force feed those we love.

Eating is even a competitive sport. Earlier this year in Taiwan, a binge-eating contest claimed the life of a 23 year-old student. Each Fourth of July in New York, a young man named Joey Chestnut takes on his Japanese archrival Takeru Kobayashi at a hot dog eating contest — last year Joey wolfed down 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes — more than a week’s supply of calories for a hungry African. At one point, Kobayashi even had a hot dog eating contest with a large brown bear — a bizarre hit on YouTube:

We pay dearly for this overconsumption. Recent calculations set obesity-related health spending just in the United States at $150-$200 billion — more than all foreign aid worldwide. The cost of extra medical care for the obese runs as high as $1400 per person annually. Over 2 billion people do not earn that much in a year.

Food losses are another reflection of our embrace of excess. Each year, food waste costs the average Briton over 400 UK pounds per year, while US households lose or discard 14 percent of their food. America’s supermarkets and restaurants discard another 27 million tons. Adding farm and wholesale losses brings the annual bill to over $100 billion just in the US. Similar figures would, no doubt, emerge from analyzing losses in the European Union and I suspect the Gulf States as well.

While initiatives emerge to tax unhealthy food, improve nutrition education and label foods to show the carbon footprint required to produce them, there is no broad public embrace of the need to eat less and eat responsibly. Retailers and restaurants still sell food in portion sizes and packages encouraging excess eating and waste.

It is time to recognize the energy, health, and productivity losses we incur from consuming and wasting so much food. Public health campaigns worldwide — including in the Gulf States — now promote the message that excess weight and lack of physical activity is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes, and some types of cancer. Is anyone listening? Well, after years of increases, the Center for Disease Control in the US found that levels of obesity have finally begun to level off.

Would cutting overeating and waste really change the contours of the “Fat Map”? Not by itself. The UN estimates we need $30 billion more invested in agriculture yearly. But each of us can consume more wisely and donate food we now waste to a food bank or charity. If it makes sense to save energy, why throw away billions of dollars worth of food and overeat until it endangers our health and our future?

UUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! How come I didn’t see this trailer until today? I have heard of the musical NINE  but that’s about it. This trailer makes me very excited. Rob Marshall is the director and he also directed CHICAGO which was amazing. It is a dream of mine to one day be in a movie like this. It has a gritty dark side but some good music video style dance numbers as well. If I get The Rhode Show gig I think the old FP (Fox Providence) needs to fly me out to cover the premier. Maybe they will swing for a NINE fan to come along!! Wink. Wink.

Below, Entertainment Tonight, which is now on FP weekdays at 6, breaks down the plot and cast for us.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IS KATE HUDSON?????? You know you wanna be her in this clip.

Turn the channel to TLC this evening at 10 pm  for BATTLE OF THE WEDDING PLANNERS – forgive me Fox Providence. My very good friends, Abbie and Drew, got married this summer and the whole thing was captured on film. It was an AMAZING wedding and I am sure it will be an AMAZING show. I was lucky enough to be the emcee for the evening, (hmmmmmm….can I add that to my Rhode Show resume?) so you will probably see me introducing them.  Here’s a sneak peek.

I say we all write in to TLC and ask them to give Abbie and Drew their own show. This way if The Rhode Show doesn’t work out for me I have something that will pay the bills. (Apperantly, I feel that if they get a show I will be some main character and in turn get a spin off. Keep dreaming Matty.)

This is more like it Governor. Maybe a step back is a step forward?

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wpri_providence_governor_carcieri_says_he_is_willing_to_explore_expanded_rights_for_same_sex_couples20091113_tro

It looks like even when you’re dead a gay person is still considered less than. I haven’t been back in Rhode Island too long so maybe I am out of the loop. The last time I lived here I remember people being caring and accepting. It sure seems like the same type of people live here. At least the people I speak with. They resemble the same people who came for religious freedom in 1636. The same people who made Rhode Island the first state to abolish slavery.

Maybe Governor Carcieri needs to read up on what Rhode Island stands for, HOPE!! 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/11/national/main5608892.shtml

Can you imagine the love of your life has DIED and you are left unable to give them a respectful funeral? Not right. Not right at all.

I am always fascinated with how much history we have in our little part of the country. There is more than we will ever know. We should be thankful for people like Frank Grzyb who take the time to research and uncover the mysteries of our local communities. Earlier this week I had the pleasure of taking a trip back in time with Frank. He is currently researching a civil war hospital that was once located in Portsmouth, RI. Out of 183, the Lovell General Hospital ranked as the 12th largest facility in the country during the height of the Civil War. Today, there is not even a sign to recognize the thousands of lives that were saved on that land. I applaud people like Frank Grzyb who take the time to educate us on our local past and help us to remember the soilders who built this country.

Frank Grzyb is the author of  TOUCHED BY THE DRAGON, A STORY FOR ALL AMERICANS  and AIN’T MUCH OF A WAR. He has also had articles published in America’s Civil War Magazine.

Today I am introducing the one topic that can really get me heated and upset at the drop of a dime…No, not the fact that Burger King now only sells chicken tenders in four-piece servings (versus six or eight) requiring me to buy six orders of them in order to meet the FDA recommended 24-tender daily allowance….THE ENVIRONMENT. It is by far the one subject that can make me raging mad and at the same time make me want to cry. As far back as elementary school I can remember walking around the playground at recess picking up candy wrappers and sandwich bags while the other kids played tag. In middle school, I would rummage through the trash to pull out paper for the recycling bin. I could not tell you where this passion began. My mother and father have always done the right thing when it came to the basics like recycling and shutting off the lights. It was never a question in our house to take the extra second to put the can in the blue bin. It baffled me when I went to a friends house where that wasn’t an option. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Why wouldn’t you care?

I can go on and on about why it’s the right thing to do. Instead, I am going to share the easiest tip. STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS. It is such a simple way to remove HUGE amounts of waste and in my opinion LAZINESS. It baffles me that people will get a plastic bag for one or two items. Think about it. How many times do you go to the store for one little thing and get a bag that will be thrown away after the little walk from the store to the car and then from the car to the house. Really? You couldn’t hold that gallon of milk, that HAS A HANDEL, for those two minutes? You couldn’t hold that cereal that is already in a bag and then in a box?

The plastic bag is a simple product. They are free. How bad could they be?  Let me tell you. Worldwide we use between 500 BILLION and 1 TRILLION bags a year. Do you see that number???? It makes my stomach hurt.  The decomposition time….ready??? Anywhere from 500-1000 years. All this, for the leftover meatloaf that you take home from the local diner that has already been placed in a styrofoam container, which will be around longer than the plastic bag.

I urge all of you to spread the word, SAVE THE WORLD ONE BAG AT A TIME!!! It is not dramatic. It helps. I understand that there are times when someone has a baby in their arms, it’s raining and they left their reusable bags in the car. It will not be possible all the time. However, there are so many times where you can make it work. So many times where we can make the choice not to be lazy. You do not have to be in the circus to hold four items in your hand. You will not break the bank buying 4 or 5 ninety-nine cent reusable bags that will last you years. Just think about how muscular your arms will be. You will be getting a work out and saving the world. AMAZING.

I look forward to seeing you outside CVS. Forgive me if I can’t wave to say, “Hi”, I may be holding my zit cream and some Rogaine.