Show Prep #21

Greetings and Salutations, people. Broadcasting live from Colorado, the state that pretends to send our six year old children sailing away in homemade dirigibles, this is Vertically Striped Radio. I am your host Craig Dodge. VSR is brought to you by the fantabulous website VerticallyStripedSocks.com, where you can currently find the NFL Weekend preview, NFL Power Rankings, and photos of yours truly wearing the goofy socks from which my blog and this show derive their name. It’s truly a treasure trove over at the website, I recommend checking it out!

Programming alert!! – We will have a special show this Thursday. The second ever episode of the Vertically Striped Interview. My guest will be former University of Colorado Buffalo and San Francisco 49er George Visger. George played at CU in the late 70’s and went on to briefly play with the San Francisco 49ers, his career was cut short due to traumatic brain injuries, and he has battled through this disability to become a successful businessman and motivational speaker. George has had 9 brain surgeries due to his football injuries, and has recently spoken with Dr. Omalu who has been in the news due to his research into NFL football players and brain trauma. Dr. Omalu has asked George to sit on his board. George is going to join us to talk about his playing days as well as his injuries, recovery and overcoming difficulties to find success. We will also discuss the physical and moral implications of brain injuries to football players. I am very excited to spend some time Thursday night talking with George, you can listen live if you like, or since I will be going directly up against the Ed show, you can download the podcast and listen later, but this should be a fascinating show.


Today on Vertically Striped Radio…We’ll have another installment of the Magnificent 7, this time it will be a Top 7 Beers, I’ll share an interesting and sad but somewhat obscure moment in the history of our nation, We’ll take a look at the Broncos 5-0 start and assess their prospects for Monday night’s showdown with the Chargers, I’ll share a bit about my crazy day of sports last Sunday attending both the Broncos-Patriots game and the Rockies playoff Game 3 against the Phillies, of course we’ll have the news and another music recommendation for you, and if you’d like to take part in today’s show, you may call in by dialing…


Give out the phone number - (646) 716-6831 OR 6-HOP-1-MOVE-1
Email address: radio@verticallystripedsocks.com

Without any further ado, Let’s get to the news…









(Play News Music – Clip 03)
Our first story is one that proves that you’re never too old for your Dad to think you’re your music is too loud…
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- San Antonio police are investigating the wounding of a man after his elderly father allegedly opened fire when the victim refused to stop drumming. Police said the son, in his 50s, suffered a non-life threatening head wound early Friday while at the home the men share. Police said his 83-year-old father was detained on an aggravated assault charge.
Police said the son, who was grazed in the head, ran down the block to call for help.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German police are investigating a chilli sauce to determine whether it was so spicy that it was capable of causing grievous bodily harm when used in an attack.
Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen's central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins.
"Legally, the question of whether the spiciness of the kebab sauce constituted 'normal' or grievous bodily harm must be addressed," local police in the northern city said on Friday.
Officers broke up a scuffle that kicked off after a 23-year-old wiped his kebab-soiled hands on the stand because the salesman refused to give him a paper napkin. The seller responded by flinging a ladle of sauce in the man's face.
The victim's eyes became bloodshot and police are investigating why the napkin dispute broke out, a spokesman said. Both men could end up facing charges, he added.







UNIONTOWN, Pa. – A Pennsylvania Civil War buff faces a felony charge for accidentally firing a 2-pound cannonball through the wall of his neighbor's home.
Fifty-four-year-old William Maser had been charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. Authorities on Thursday added a felony count of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure
Maser has acknowledged firing a homemade cannon outside his house in Georges Township, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, in early September. The cannonball, about two inches in diameter, ricocheted and hit the neighbor's home about 400 yards away, smashing through a window and a wall before landing in a closet. Police say nobody was hurt.

I’m Craig, and that’s the news…(Play News Music – Clip 03)
(Check the phone lines to see if you have any calls)

Well, My big mouth got me in trouble again, I was reading the sports section of the Denver Post in the break room at work with a CSU football player on the cover…The story I was reading was about how Miami football players are watching nothing but Spongebob Squarepants during this season, however a co-worker came in who made a comment about the CSU player. I said I don’t follow bad football, to which he responded, “You know I played for them, right?”








Magnificent 7: 7 Best Beers Going! (Clip #7 for Intro Music)
7. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – A truly fantastic beer, you can’t go wrong with a Sierra Nevada.
6. Guiness – Yes it’s thick and dark as motor oil, but sometimes in life you need a good solid stout, and Guiness is the definition of a solid stout!
5. Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale – This beer is almost sweet, but that’s a good thing. It goes down smooth and tastes delicious.
4. Pacifico (Especially if you can get it in Mexico) I’m not a huge fan of Mexican beers, but this one hits the spot, it’s perfect with fish tacos.
3. Warsteiner Dunkel – This German beer just screams quality, it’s very tasty. Plus it’s fun to say.
2. Fuller’s, ESB (Extra Special Bitter)– Just tried this for the first time last night and WOW! It rules. It’s Malty and Hoppy and smooth as silk, it’s a bitter ale in name only, as it is 100% delicious. It’s a definite winner. I need more Fuller’s in my life.
1. Newcastle – My Favorite Beer ever. When in doubt, go with Newcastle


Broncos – So perhaps the Broncos are for real. Taking down the Pats was huge, and they have another great chance to prove themselves Monday night against the Chargers. A win would give them a huge divisional lead and would definitely make a statement.

Rockies – Lost in 4 to the Phillies (Discuss Baseball playoffs) Phillies vs. Dodger and Yankees vs. Angels.
-Great Moments in the History of Blog TalkRadio (Clip 15 for intro) Set up clip (Pick one for tomorrow)
(Clip 16) – Ed meets Minerva on the LCS show in October 2008
(Clip 17) – Ed does 9 pushups August 2009
(Check the phone lines to see if you have any calls)


The Ludlow Massacre:
Southern Colorado was a hotbed for Gold and Silver mines in the early part of the 20th century. The three major companies in the area were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF).
These companies had harsh management tactics under the conservative and distant Rockefellers and other investors. To prevent strikes, the coal companies had lured immigrants, mainly from southern and Eastern Europe and Mexico. CF&I's management purposely mixed immigrants of different nationalities in the mines to discourage communication that might lead to organization.
As was typical in the industry of that day, miners were paid by tons of coal mined and not reimbursed for "dead work," such as laying rails, timbering, and shoring the mines to make them operable. Given the intense pressure to produce, mine safety was often given short shrift. More than 1,700 miners died in Colorado from 1884 to 1912, a rate that was between 2 and 3.5 times higher than the national average during those years. Furthermore, the miners felt they were being short-changed on the weight of the coal they mined, arguing that the scales used for paying them were different from those used for coal customers. Miners challenging the weights risked being dismissed.
Most miners also lived in "company towns," where homes, schools, doctors, clergy, and law enforcement were provided by the company, as well as stores offering a full range of goods that could be paid for in company currency, scrip. However, this became an oppressive environment in which law focused on enforcement of increasing prohibitions on speech or assembly by the miners to discourage union-building activity. Also, under pressure to maintain profitability, the mining companies steadily reduced their investment in the town and its amenities while increasing prices at the company store so that miners and their families experienced worsening conditions and higher costs. Colorado's legislature had passed laws to improve the condition of the mines and towns, including the outlawing of the use of scrip, but these laws were rarely enforced.
Despite attempts to suppress union activity, secret organizing continued by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in the years leading up to 1913. Once everything had been laid out according to their plan, the UMWA presented, on behalf of coal miners, a list of seven demands:
Ludlow labor demands:
1. Recognition of the union as bargaining agent
2. An increase in tonnage rates (equivalent to a 10% wage increase)
3. Enforcement of the eight-hour work day law
4. Payment for "dead work" (laying track, timbering, handling impurities, etc.)
5. Weight-checkmen elected by the workers (to keep company weightmen honest)
6. The right to use any store, and choose their boarding houses and doctors
7. Strict enforcement of Colorado's laws (such as mine safety rules, abolition of scrip), and an end to the dreaded company guard system
Management refused to comply with these demands, and so huge numbers of miners went on strike, setting up tent cities at the opening to many of the mines in the area to barricade the mines and prevent the “scabs” from crossing the picket lines to work the mines. The violence slowly started to escalate as the miners would get violent to keep scabs away and the mining companies hired Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to help break the strike by protecting the replacement workers and otherwise making life difficult for the strikers.
Baldwin-Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking. Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and fired bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to patrol the camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan. Because of frequent sniping on the tent colonies, miners dug protective pits beneath the tents where they and their families could be better protected.
On October 28, 1913 as strike-related violence mounted, Colorado governor Elias M. Ammons, called in the Colorado National Guard. At first, the guard's appearance calmed the situation and the strike went on relatively peacefully until the spring of 1914. By then, the state had run out of money to maintain the guard, and was forced to recall them. Rockefeller offered to pay to have his camp guards act as the national guard, so during that spring, the men in National Guard uniforms were paid employees of the CF&I company. As you can imagine, having people acting with the authority of the National Guard but with sympathies completely in line with the management of the mining companies the peace was not going to last.
On March 10, 1914, the body of a replacement worker was found on the railroad tracks. The “National Guard” asserted that the man had been murdered by the strikers. And the order came down that the tent colony be destroyed in retaliation. The militia set up machine guns and began an attack on the tent city, and the strikers retaliated and a full scale firefight broke out. By 7:00 that night the tent city was in flames, and the militia descended to loot the city. The leader of the strikers a man named Louis Tikas remained in the tent city until he was captured late in the day by the militia. While he was being held by two militiamen, Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies and a man who had confronted Tikas several times in the previous months broke a rifle butt over Tikas’ head. Tikas and two other miners were later found shot to death. Their bodies lay along the Colorado and Southern tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia officers refused to allow them to be moved until a local chapter of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.
During the battle, four women and eleven children who had been hiding in a pit beneath a tent trying to avoid the gunfire were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. These deaths became a rallying cry for the UMWA, who called the incident the "Ludlow Massacre."
After the massacre, the organized labor called upon as many men as they could get to rally to their cause, and a group of 700 to 1000 men ended up enacting a large scale guerrilla war. These men attacked mine after mine and shut down operations, all told over somewhere between 100 and 200 people lost their lives in the ten days of fighting. This conflict became known as the Colorado Coalfield war was the most violent labor conflict in American history. In the end, the UMWA ran out of money, they didn’t get their demands met, and most of the workers were replaced. Over 400 strikers were arrested, 332 were indicted on murder charges, only one man, John Lawson, the leader of the strike was convicted and his conviction was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. 22 National Guardsmen were court-marshalled, but all were acquitted except for Lt. Linderfelt who was found guilty of his attack on Louis Tikas, but he was only given a slight reprimand.
Although the strike failed, it’s legacy led Rockefeller with the prodding of some government officials to enact sweeping changes for the mines. Safety and health regulations were enacted, an eight hour work day was established, and child labor was abolished. Still, it’s crazy to think that the National Guard got into a war with American People and it all happened less than 100 years ago.



Extra Talking points:
-Can you be a fan of more than one team? I say no.
-The Ed’s Gambling Competition. MJ is in first and I’m dead last at the moment.
-Jen and the Muppet Movie: How can I be married to a woman who doesn’t appreciate the Muppets? I love her, so I guess I’ll find a way.





Thriller classes - Downtown Thriller Dance Event
Attention, Grisly Ghouls! DanzArtz Studios is a hot, new dance studio located at 520 Cherokee in central Denver. DanzArtz Studios is teaching a series of affordable group classes for people of all ages and skill levels to learn the group zombie dance from Thriller. Thriller will be performed in zombie costumes on the 16th Street Mall at dusk, on Halloween, by all dancers who have been trained to do the routine.
The final round of Thriller classes are being offered on Wed, Friday, and Sunday nights in October, and cost $32 for four, one-hour sessions. Classes are filling up, and you must reserve your space in advance. Amateur dancers are learning the choreography in four weeks flat, and having a great time as well! Classes are taught by Vicky Fields, of Vicky Fields Dance, Inc., the co-owner of the studio. She has 25 years of experience in jazz, ballet, swing, Latin and ballroom dancing. If you want to learn Thriller and dance it in costume on the 16th Street Mall on Halloween, visit: www.DanzArtzStudios.com, or www.ThrillerDanceNight.com.


The Vertically Striped Music Recommendation:
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007)
I can’t even express how much I love this album. It’s got a great mix of sharply written lyrics, crazy vocals, cool harmonies, loud and angry stuff, beautiful stuff…It doesn’t even what kind of mood I’m in, I’m always in the mood for Modest Mouse, and this album just makes me happy. It’s varied and interesting, and it’s one of my absolute favorite albums, I just love it! The song I’m going to go out with isn’t one that got a lick of radio play, but it’s one of my favorites on the album, but I honestly could have played any song on the entire thing and been okay with that. I’m going to leave you today with the song, “Parting of the Sensory”
Shalom and Good Evening to you all!