Thanks for all the great feedback on the Prize @ 5. Listeners ask all the time where I come up with my questions and the answer is quite unremarkable…the questions just come to me based on what I read in the paper and Internet on the daily basis.

A personal note, RIP Sydney Pollack and Harvey Korman. We lost two of the best EVER in the past week. None of us gets out of this life alive…I know that. But still, it’s so hard to say good bye.

MONDAY
(Holiday-No question)

TUESDAY
I’ll bet you have one in the kitchen. The first one ws patented on May 27, 1919.
TOASTER (Winner-Ted Fukui, San Francisco)

WEDNESDAY
Adults were shown a list of 20 words and asked to identify the ones spelled incorrectly. These 7 were most often misspelled.
QUESTIONNAIRE, DEFINITELY, LIAISON, REFERRING, EMBARRASS, CALENDAR, RECEIVE
(Winner-Therese Porter, San Francisco)

THURSDAY
It is believed no man ever set foot on this until this day, May 29th, 55 years ago (1953).
MT. EVEREST (Winner-Bruce Dupuis, San Francisco)

FRIDAY
In honor of Harvey Korman, name this skit featuring Harvey and Carol Burnett. (I played the 16-second clip of Carol wearing the curtain rod…but here is a good long chunk from youtube).
IT WENT WITH THE WIND (Winner-Judy Lam, Millbrae)

On this day before Monica graduates from High School, I am thinking primarily of feeding our extended family after the big event.  I’m also spending an inordinate amount of time fretting about my dirty windows.  Can I clean them all in time for the party?  So now you see the extent of my neurosis.  On the brink of an empty nest  (although she doesn’t actually leave for UC San Diego until late September) I am busying myself with anything but reality.  In fact I even took a moment to reflect on my own graduation, from the very same school BTW.  On the day itself in 1976, I had a bad cold but was giving a speech so I took some medicine.  I think it was Contact.  Remember Contact? It took care of the sniffles but it pretty much wiped me out in the process. Anyway,  I’m one of those pathetic people for whom High School was the high point of their lives!  My fondest wish for Monica, on the other hand, is that graduation is the beginning of incredible things and an adulthood of surpassing happiness.

Many (if not all) of us notice it as we reach a certain age. Words go missing in conversation. “Where did I park the car?” “And I ‘d like you to meet my new co-worker…umm…” I notice the older I get the harder it is to come up with the just the right word on the air. As The Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Beck put it in “The Science Behind ‘Senior Moments’ “, of all the telltale signs of aging, the scariest are those that affect the mind. She adds that paying attention is critical to laying down memories, which scientists now think are distributed all around the brain. When, though, should you be concerned about memory lapses? If you forget the names of simple things, if you can’t remember the make, color and model of the car you’ve driven for years then it may be time to be concerned. Changes in behavior or mood or memory can also signal early Alzheimer’s. There are also a host of other things that can cause memory problems including depression, alcohol abuse, thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies and hormone fluctuations, and many are treatable. It’s an excellent article you can read in it’s entirety here.

We’ve just finished up day three of our 102 Days of Summer and come Wednesday morning at 8:40 a.m. our KDFC Beach tote has $400 worth of Classical Gas inside along with baseball game tickets and the soundtrack to the new Indiana Jones flick. Sign up now to join our Club KDFC here. If you’re already a member click here to let us know you’d like to play along this summer.

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Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge  (1937) which spans the strait at the mouth of the San Francisco Bay which is also named “Golden Gate” .  But which explorer gave the Golden Gate its name?  It happened back in 1846 and this lucky guy has an East Bay city named for him.  Scroll down for the answer to today’s Lunch Box Trivia question.  In the meantime, let’s sing a chorus of Happy Birthday to little Lucas Bennett Lieberman.  Turning one today, Lucas will trek across the Golden Gate Bridge with his parents , a tradition that began when his grandfather crossed the span on that first day back in’37 and one that I suspect will last a life time.

Answer:  John C. Fremont   

During our “final” week of Spring, I gave away tickets for Cal Shakes production of “Pericles” at the Bruns in Orinda.

MONDAY
According to Men’s Health Magazine, the handles of these have more bacteria than public restrooms.
SHOPPING CARTS (Winner-Debra Robinson, American Canyon)

TUESDAY
MSN says that theme parks and chain restaurants are bad ideas for first dates…but they’re not the worst.  This is the worst place to take a woman on a first date.
SPORTS BAR (Winner-Glen Bean, Berkeley)

WEDNESDAY
Having one of these creates an extra 7 hours of housework every week.
A HUSBAND (Winner-C.J. Enders, San Francisco)

THURSDAY
South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland and Lousiana…drivers in these states do this behind the wheel more than drivers in any other state.
TEXT MESSAGE (Winner-Michael Reardon, Daly City)

FRIDAY
Trip Adviser has compiled a list of the top ten free tourist destinations in America.   #1 is Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.    One is located in California.
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (Winner-Yao Sun, Cupertino)

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Earlier this week my Lunch Box Trivia winner was one C.K. Au.  When I asked him what C.K. stood for he said it was a long story.  Later he e-mailed me this charming explanation:

My initials C K actually stand for my full
name ‘Chi Kwan’.  But I have used my initials instead
of my name for about 35 years and the story behind it
has to do with one of your favorite artists in your
programs, violinist Gil Shaham.

Gil’s father Jacob Shaham and I were junior faculty
colleagues in the Physics Department at the University
of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (1972-1974). We
co-authored a paper published in Nature in 1974. We
also lived in the same housing complex at the edge of
campus – the Orchard Down.  

Gil’s father and I occasionally shared rides.  One
day, I was the passenger with Gil in a car seat in the
back.  His father introduced me to Gil, and he mistook
my name to be ‘chicken’.  After that, I used my
initials instead. That’s the funny story behind it.
I thought it would be fun to share this with you.

I saw the Shahams once again in Urbana in 1977 and I
had the pleasure of hearing Gil and Orly play at their home.

We mentioned how grphologists are being asked to analyze the three remaining presidential canidates signatures. No surprise that they are all ambitious. From what I read in the article on Yahoo News I’d like to see my own signature (not to mention my co-worker’s) analyzed for personality traits. “Handwriting is a reflection of the inner personality. It shows a person’s ego strength, how good they feel about themselves, their intellectual, communication and working styles,” graphologist Sheila Lowe, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis”, told AFP. You can read the article here.

No winner on Friday so our KDFC 102 Days of Summer beach tote will have $200 worth of “Classical Gas” inside (in card form…less mess). Also inside KDFC sunscreen, ball game tickets and the soundtrack to the new Indiana Jones film. Coming up next week, tickets to the Black and White Ball. Make sure you’re registered in our Club KDFC. See you Memorial Day Monday with the next name announcement at 8:40a.m.

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This is one I saw this morning on Yahoo, but didn’t have time to cover on the air. With gas prices soaring out of sight people are trying to squeak more miles from a tank. This CNN Money link explodes a few myths (not gas tanks) like the currently popular tip that filling up in the morning is better. According to the web page, “The theory goes that fluids are more dense at lower temperatures, so a gallon of cold gas actually has more gas molecules than a gallon of warmer gas. But the temperature of the gasoline as it comes out of the nozzle varies little during the course of the day, according to Consumer Reports, so there’s little, if any, benefit, to getting up early to pump gas.” Check out the rest of them here.

Friday morning at 8:40 we’ll call out the first Club KDFC member name to win a beach tote stuffed with tickets to ball games, KDFC sunscreen, a copy of the soundtrack to the new Indiana Jones flick and Classical Gas…a $100 gas card. It’s the kick-off of KDFC’s 102 Days of Summer. Join our Club KDFC to win. If you’re already a member, sign in to the club page and tell us you’d like to play along.

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My attempt to communicate in Italian was a dismal failure but in all other ways it was a fine evening last night in the KDFC studios.  Actually, the Einaudi Intimate Concert was held in the lobby where a beautiful grand piano stands at the ready.  What a pleasure to welcome Signori Einaudi to San Francisco.  He was smaller than I had imagined, soft-spoken and exceptionally pleasant despite his jet-lag.  He performed for about 45 minutes.  He warned John Evans that he would lose track of time while playing and would need John to give him some kind of signal when time was running low.  He did seem to be thoroughly lost in the moment as he played.  He also hummed (barely audibly) throughout the performance. He’s already big in Japan (as they say) and huge in England and the rest of Europe. I’m fairly certain that his haunting music will soon conquer America too.

I love this time of the year and am feeling even more grateful these days.

OUTDOORS
We’ve got a bunch of company coming this summer, beginning in early June.   We’re trying to finish some rather big projects in our yard.   Our property is 300 feet long with a slight grade.    Toward the end of the property, Tim built an art studio and behind it is our vegetable garden.   We decided to fence off that area to keep the dogs out.  Plus, we’re broken up the last of the old concrete patios and are recycling the chunks as stepping stones and the smaller pieces as new retaining walls for garden areas and steps.  It’s hard work and we love it.   But it’s also time consuming.  I’m hoping we get it finished in time.    Our mothers are coming again this summer.    Speaking of the garden, we’re eating the swiss chard, onions, radishes, carrots, peas.   And our fruits trees are LOADED this year.   We’re going to be making plenty of apricot and plum preserves.  And Martha Stewart’s got some great recipes for cobbler.   Our neighbors Tom and Randy donated their old backyard love seat and two chairs so we created an outdoor den including an old marble table and outdoor fire place.   We now have 14 different “rooms” in the yard.

SAY “CHEESE”
I must have 35 photo albums dating back to my childhood.     But in the past 5 years I have taken all of my pictures on my digital camera and downloaded them to my PC.   I decided I needed to get them printed so I copied them to two CDs and took them in.  They turned out great.   I finally finished my years long project and arranged them all in albums.   A real accomplishment.

AMERICAN IDOL
I am rooting for David Cook.  
I am still waiting for Melinda Doolittle’s debut CD of R&B and jazz torch songs.   Her “My Funny Valentine” is the best vocal of that song I have ever heard.

NEIGHBORS
A shout out to Bill and Maureen, who live at the end of our property.  We often chat when we’re tending our gardens.  Maureen also walks the ‘hood everyday with her friend Mary.   They have lived in the area for 50 to 60 years and have so many great stories.  Bill and Maureen share their apples with us.  Bill planted a redwood tree in one of the yards back in 1957.   That tree is as old as I am and more than 100 feet tall.   We were standing in awe of it Saturday afternoon.  It stands watch, along with two more redwoods also planted in the late 50s. 
If trees could talk…….