February 18, 2010

Lisa started the show with a big announcement. Just before she went on air Lisa received word that she had won a Gracie Award! Lisa explained that the Gracie awards are given to deserving women in the broadcasting industry for excellence. The Gracie awards are named for Gracie Allen, who was George Burns wife and partner in the Burns and Allen Comedy act. Lisa said that although it will be expensive to go, she and Bill will travel to Beverly Hills to attend the celebration luncheon on May 26. She also said she believes Woody Allen was right when he said 80% of success is just showing up! To illustrate the point she explained that the clip that was submitted for consideration was an interview she had done with Gloria Steinem. It was an extremely early interview time and unbelievably Lisa was the only interviewer to show up! Lisa also said she has nothing to wear, so this may be a great motivator to lose a few pounds. Then she said she was going to stop talking about her award so as not to incite the evil eye.

After a short break Lisa said that since she had already won the award there was not going to be a time for her to give an acceptance speech, but that she had to take time now and thank Jaimee Kelsey. She said that Jaimee is a "Beshert" or a "meant to be". Lisa talked about how Jaimee and she met. Jaimee was referred to Lisa when she was buying a house and Lisa was working as a real estate attorney. When they met Lisa asked where she was buying a house and turned out it was two doors down from her. As Lisa got to know her better it turns out that her father was the head of ABC radio sales for 25 years or so. So when Lisa told her that her dream was to get out of law and produce her own radio show, it was Jaimee who held her hand and helped show her how to get started. Today they are like sisters. And when it came time to submit the audio clip for consideration by the Gracie Awards committee, it was Jaimee and her husband Brian who cut and edited the interview for submission. She thanks and loves them very much.

Next Lisa had some announcements to make regarding some upcoming events. Next Thursday the show will be live from "A taste of Stamford". Which is a presentation of a lot of different wonderful foods! Lisa said she will be in heaven and never passes up an opportunity to taste lots of food! The show will be set up at the Stamford Plaza Hotel, and she wants everybody who can make it to stop over and say hello.

Also coming up Saturday the Lisa Wexler show will be doing a sort of "Meet the Press" event at the Ridgefield Playhouse (Ridgefieldplayhouse.org) after the showing of the movie "Rudy". The event will feature Rudy Marconi the first selectman of Ridgefield who is running for Governor, so this is a great way for the public to meet him and ask questions. And its Free!

May 1st and 2nd Lisa will be at the Fairfield Women's Expo which will be held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel.


Switching gears Lisa discussed the Connecticut Governors race. It is shaping up to be an exciting race to watch! Ned Lamont announced on Monday that he is running and he is surging in the polls. Lisa thinks this is due to name recognition and money. Mr. Lamont's wife is extremely wealthy and works as a major money manager for a company based in Westport. Tom Foley is also running and has plenty of money to finance his run. Unlike Lamont and Foley Lisa says that Rudy Marconi will have to raise the money to finance his bid. Foley has already announced that he will opt out of public financing and Lisa thinks that Lamont will do the same. Then it was time for a break.

Lisa returned and talked about dreams. Dreams we have for our lives. She said we should never stop doing what it is we love. Because if you continue to do what you love all of these dreams come true for you that you never even knew that you had.

Changing focus to the economy and the just released statistics regarding unemployment, Lisa said that unemployment is actually higher than what it was expected to be by now, and she is worried. 8.4 million people have filed for unemployment benefits since the recession began. (Dec. 2007). Over 473,000 people filed for unemployment in this country just last week! There was one bit of good news from the WSJ which reported that there was an uptick in manufacturing orders and some companies in the manufacturing sector were hiring back previously laid off employees. Lisa said she would love to get into a discussion on whether listeners lives were better last year at this time or are better now. Lisa is sick of the talking heads and the spin masters she would like to hear from the community about how their lives are now versus last year. Lisa also shared a favorite saying of her father: "The rich man is the one who's income exceeds his expenses". Then it was time for a news break.

Lisa came back and had a caller on the line named Mohamed who was calling from Stanford. Mohamed shared with Lisa that he believes he is significantly better off now then he was last year. He said he is now able to put money into his savings again, as opposed to last year when he had to draw money out. He also said that his investments are up. Lisa said that she couldn't stomach the stock market anymore and that when it went down last year she "cut bait" and she isn't planning to get back in at all. She also said that she personally knows 7 people who have lost their jobs this month. These are people in jobs like middle management and marketing.

Moving on to her "And then what happened" segment, Lisa recapped the story of Martin Grossman, a Jew, who became a pious Jew in prison, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to die this Tuesday February 16th. There was a plea made for a clemency hearing for this man as he had an IQ of 77, he had committed the crime when he was 19 years old and there were questions of culpability. A group of prominent humanitarian leaders, Jewish and Non Jewish, asked Governor Crist to grant a 60 day clemency hearing to review the evidence and possibly have Mr. Grossman's punishment be changed to life in prison instead of execution. Governor Crist also happens to be a good friend of Lisa's sister and brother in law, Jill and Bobby Zarin. The rabbis approached Jill and asked that she be their "Queen Esther". Then Lisa told the story behind Purim. Sadly Mr. Grossman was executed on Tuesday. Lisa said it is unconstitutional to execute retarded people in this country and believes that is exactly what we did on Tuesday in Florida. Then it was time for a break.

Returning from break Lisa gave some news on the goings on in the Middle East. First in Malaysia comes a story of 3 Muslim women convicted of adultery who under sharia law, were caned. Another Muslim woman was sentenced to be caned because she was caught drinking a beer. Caning sentences handed out by Islamic courts directly contradict Malaysian federal law barring women from receiving this punishment. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has turned to human shields using the bodies of women and children to protect themselves. Finally in Iran, there are new laws coming about to place more restrictions on women. The new law would allow men to take more than the already permitted 4 wives and won't have to inform the other wives about it. Lisa wonders why men would want more than one wife. They are also trying to reduce alimony amounts to women.

In other Middle Eastern News, Lisa discussed the Hamas leader that was killed in the Dubai hotel. It is a huge story in Israel because the Mossad is being blamed for a botched or sloppy job. Israel believes that the Mossad should never have been able to be found out. Some people in Israel are calling for the head of Mossad to step down.

Lisa takes another phone call and the caller is Mohamed from Stamford calling back. He wants to say that he is an American practicing Muslim and wants to explain that a lot of things that are going on in the Muslim world like canings are in direct conflict with Islam. Then it was time for a break.

Lisa receives another call, this time it is from her sister and star of Bravo TV's "The Real Housewives of New York City" Jill Zarin. She is calling in to congratulate Lisa on her Gracie Award. Lisa is glad to hear from Jill because she just found out about it before she went on the air and hasn't had any time to let her family know. Jill is extremely proud of Lisa and it is a wonderful moment among two very close sisters.

Lisa then told a story about taking her daughter to Johns Hopkins to visit the school yesterday. When they got there to visit the admissions counselor it was the same person who had let Lisa in 30 years prior. It was an emotional moment being there this time holding her daughter’s hand. Break for news.

Lisa introduces guest Caulleen Worrell, founder of usmilenow.com magazine. Caulleen wants to congratulate Lisa on her Gracie Award win. Lisa asks Caulleen why she started usmilenow.com and Caulleen said she had always wanted to own her own business and also wanted that business to help women connect with other women. She stated that usmilenow.com is not a blog. It features articles about women who are making a difference. There are all kinds of articles and tips that women will find helpful including beauty, finance, travel, etc. as well as advice from the magazine’s “Ask Yvette” column. Women from all over the country are profiled. It is free and she wants to keep it free for her readers. Lisa agrees that being free is important to her as well. She wants to keep her website free to her listeners as long as she can. Hopefully forever. Then it was time for a news break.

There is a story coming out about the woman who was the center of the Duke Lacrosse rape case. The woman, Crystal Gayle Mangum, was arrested recently and charged with attempted murder and arson. There were 3 children in the house when the alleged arson and attempted murder took place. Lisa wonders what this woman is doing out walking the streets after what she did to those boys.

Also in the news, heavy fines levied against 12 french winemakers for selling to US based Gallo Wines, phony Pino Noir. This reminded Lisa of a recent study done where people taste tested wine. The testers were told that one bottle cost ten dollars and the other bottle was sixty dollars. The testers overwhelmingly picked the more expensive bottle of wine as the best tasting. It was later revealed that the wine was the same. Seems to show proof that people are fooled by branding labels. Lisa deduces that it's all in the packaging.

And finally, Alabama shooter, Professor Amy Bishop, was rumored to have written a novel. It turns out the Boston Globe has an entire unpublished novel written by Professor Bishop. The novel follows a woman named Olivia, a scientist who moves to Alabama and struggles with her career while a global pandemic leaves women unable to become pregnant. She writes of her heroine "She was a professor having finally achieved tenure". It is believed that not receiving her tenure was what set Professor Bishop off. Ironically Professor Bishop is the second cousin to famed novelist John Irving which she used to brag about.

Just before ending her show Lisa wanted her listeners to go out and buy the book "Devotion" by Dani Shapiro. She said it is the best book she has read in 12 months, and Ms. Shapiro will be on the show tomorrow to discuss it.

By: Mike Schweitzer