Get ready for a great night of music when the Air Force Band of Flight's full concert band performs at 7 p.m. March 6 in the Activity Center at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.
The 35-member band from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will perform a wide range of music, highlighting some of the patriotic tunes that always stir the audience. There also will be a medley saluting members of the various military services, which for me is always humbling to see all the veterans stand to be recognized for their service to the country and to their fellow citizens.
With the activity center's limited seating and the overwhelming support such military bands receive in the Mid-Ohio Valley, those wanting tickets need to beat a path rapidly to The News and Sentinel office or to WVU-P to pick up their tickets. Tickets will be available at the newspaper's front counter beginning Tuesday, Feb. 16.
As always, ticketholders need to be in their seats by 6:45 p.m. March 6, before doors open to non-ticketholders at 6:50 p.m. .... and judging from past performances, my guess is there won't be many, if any, seats available for non-ticketholders.
The performance is sponsored by WVU-P and The News and Sentinel, which we at the newspaper love to do.
***
Great Super Bowl game! Of course the difference between a great game and a good game is the team you want to win actually does.
Maybe I'm just getting too grumpy, but I didn't think the majority of the $3 million-per-30-second advertising spots were all that great. In fact, I only thought a couple of them were even worth watching, including the one with Betty White and the one with Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey. I have to admit the one for the "Late Show" with Letterman's longtime rival Leno took me by surprise. The only bigger surprise would be President Obama and Sarah Palin going to dinner together.
Of course, all that said, it didn't stop the game from having the highest TV ratings in history, beating out the 1983 finale of "M*A*S*H." The Nielson Co. estimated 106.5 million viewers watched the New Orleans Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts. The previous record was 105.97 million viewers.
Last year's Super Bowl drew only 98.7 million viewers to see the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals.
***
Speaking of Palin, maybe someday she'll actually say something that has some context, rather than just uttering sound bytes and hyperbole. She finds it really easy to criticize without offering any constructive comment or remedy. But then, that's the way it always is when you're on the outside trying to get in.
Hopefully Palin's assertion the country is "ready for another revolution" wasn't a call for armed rebellion! Hopefully she was merely being "folksy" and contending the ultra-conservative Tea Party is the "revolution" America is ready for.
***
I know I'm getting far too predictable when the counter people at Wendy's in Belpre tell me my lunch order before I place it.
Last week, as I approached the counter, Crystal said "chicken nuggets, side salad with Caesar dressing and a small Diet Coke" before I even got to her.
Come to think of it, Happy Garden on the South Side does the same when a cohort in crime and I order take-out.
It all reminds me of a Cajun restaruant in Louisiana were the waitress would put in my wife's and my order when she saw us drive into the parking lot. She never was wrong.
