…is getting it all together again.

AT&T, formerly AT&T is buying T-Mobile for a crap load of cash $39 BILLION!!!

I’m sure Judge Green is spinning in his grave.

The break UP of the Bell System did a lot for technology and a lot for careers.  But, it killed the low cost telephone service Americans had enjoyed for over a hundred years.

Now, it’s all coming back together, piece by piece.  But, will it help the cost?

Yes, AT&T has agreed to purchase T-Mobile from Germany’s Deutsche Telekom.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive says, “This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future.” 

OK, that sounds very Theodore Vailish.  Theodore Vail, was the father of the “Bell System” as well as the US Postal Service.  He believed that everyone should have access to communication infrastructure, and that businesses should pay more so that consumers could afford to have that access.

His theory was you pay for phone service at a rate that subsidizes the rates of the populace, and the populace i.e. the consumers, will call you and will come to you to buy your stuff.

Theo was a really smart guy.

Now, sounds like Randy is too. 

Verizon, AT&T’s largest rival has been a thorn in the flesh.  AT&T has been blasted for not being able to match them, and now, Verizon is selling the Apple iPhone, ending the AT&T monopoly on the device.  And, AT&T has not been able to match the network capacity of Verizon…a problem that will end with this new purchase.  So, hopefully service will go UP, and the price will go down.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

AT&T, can you hear me now?

…Hollywood is dead.

On this, my 500th post, when I should be celebrating, I’m a little blue.  But, I think it’s only fitting that my 500th post should be dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor died yesterday morning surrounded by her children.  She was 79, and it’s a miracle she lived that long.

I won’t say too much today about her.  I’ve posted before, several times.  You may grow tired of it, but I’m sure you would have been let down if I hadn’t mentioned it.

UP or down, she was always beautiful. 

 UP or down, she brought a great deal of entertainment to our lives.  She brought joy, beauty, taste, style, and art as well.

Aside from great performances, and she entertained us for nearly 70 years, there were hystronics, marriages, loves, loses, and more lives than most get to live.

She was a business woman and a philanthropist.  Her lines of perfumes garnered millions for research.

Seemingly always in love with the wrong man, she spoke the word AIDS when no one else would because her friend, Rock Hudson had shocked the world by dying from it.

By 1999, she had raised an estimated $50 million for AIDS research.

To date, that number is estimated at $270 million.

We can remember her for her beauty, her 62 movies, seven husbands and eight marriages, her four children, her two Oscars, the fact that she was the first star to make a million dollars for a movie, her style – one dress alone, from  A Place In The Sun, was “knocked-off” and worn by over 32,000 teenage girls in the 1950s alone -  her jewels, her business accumen, and her very public life drama, but we should remember that she was a giver, and that she has four children, 10 grand-children, and 4 great-grandchildren who are grieving and who’s lives will never be the same.

Farewell, Dame Elizabeth – you played it well, and you took Hollywood with you.

Yes, Michael, Hollywood Is Dead.

March 23, 1949.

My sister, Zola was born.

She’s three years, three months and three days older than I.

333, half of 666, I guess that means she’s only half evil!

But, anyway, I digress.  We’re pretty close.  We were the closest in age of all the kids, and we are of the “same generation”.  Translation:  we became teenagers in the 1960s.

The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys, Ricky Nelson…all that stuff.

We never fought much.

From the looks of that picture, we were as poor as she says we were, or whomever dressed me had no taste!

I think it was her.

She was bossy.  But most big sisters are.

She was very UPset that I was born without teeth.  Seriously, Mom had a time trying to keep her from feeding me chewable stuff.

We played a lot.

I remember standing on the wall at the foot of the drive way on Farmersville Pike watching for her to come over the hill from school.   I was bored with out her.

She hated her hair, so Mom gave her a perm.  She looked like a French Poodle, and hated it more.

She was a cheerleader, and practiced her “deer jumps” for hours.  I actually got pretty good at them too.

Her first car was the coolest ever; a 1964 Baby Blue Thunderbird. 

We still talk a lot.  We’re close.

Happy Birthday, Zola.  As big sisters go, you’re in the top two!

My birthday wish for you is that the line at the Social Security office isn’t too long today.

…about Monday.

It wasn’t all bad.

I talked to Mom.

I got to walk.

I’m swamped, behind, but nothing’s late.

I found a “lost” file.

The news is still scary.

I’m not sure we should go to war with a third country.

I have no idea what Peggy said in her comment on my post yesterday because my Spanish really, really, sucks.

Blue Honda lady had the day off.

I drove to work with less fear.

Deciding between Harry’s Law and Castle was frankly, a dilema.

Shallow, I know, but we all know I’m deeply shallow.

DWTS was much better than I’d expected.

Wendy Williams can’t dance … at all … she’s actually worse than Hate Kate Gosselin.

There are a couple of people I’d like to smack, ok, more than a couple!

Kirstie Alley can dance!  Seriously, I was stunned.

And the best line of the night came from her, “If I had to haul ass, it would take two trips!”

Ok, that was just awesome.