Wednesday, February 22, 2012 @ 8:27am

What are we going to do about these high gas prices?

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: What are we going to do about these high gas prices?

Oil is over $100 a barrel; there are warnings it could hit $150, which would mean gas prices of $4.25 a gallon by spring, and maybe even $5...and we Americans can't believe it:

"It's unbelievable. I thought we were beyond this," said a woman in one news report.

It is unbelievable. But you know what's REALLY unbelievable? That anybody still thinks high gas prices are unbelievable!

I remember it being unbelievable when it broke $1. Then it was unbelievable when it broke $2 a gallon. Then $3 was really unbelievable.

You know what? I'm starting to believe it.

But Dave you say, how can prices be going up when the White House says we're drilling more than ever?

"Oil production in the United States has increased every year this president has been in office," said one report.

It's called the free market, people!

The thing that every Americans love, including this guy:

"It's power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched," said Obama.

And the way it works is, when we save gas, thereby creating a glut of gas, oil companies are free to refine less gas, and to send what's left over to South Africa -- at least according to news articles I've been reading:

"It's unbelievable."

Well, believe it!

So -- what are we going to do about these high gas prices? We are going to unleash a torrent of nasty tweets, like the world has never seen -- and then pay them. Until every middle east sheikdom has a mile-high skyscraper.

If you don't like it, it's a free country, you can go fracking in your backyard and find your own oil -- I hear in some places they can light the faucet on fire and get free hot water on demand.

I'm just relieved that $4 gas is the one scourge in America that appears to have nothing to do with gay marriage. So far anyway.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 @ 8:15am

President Obama sings again, this time it's the blues

The president just couldn't say no: Mick Jagger held out a mic almost by way of command, and soon Barack Obama was belting out the blues with the best of them.

The East Room of the White House was transformed into an intimate blues club on Tuesday night for a concert featuring blues all-stars of the past, present and future, and the president himself.

The surprise performance by Obama came at the end of the playlist when the blues ensemble was singing "Sweet Home Chicago," the blues anthem of Obama's home town.

Buddy Guy prodded the president, saying he'd heard that the president sang part of an Al Green tune recently, and adding, "You gotta keep it up."

Then Jagger handed over the mic, and Obama seemed compelled to comply.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 @ 12:42pm

Q&A: Meteorologist Rich Marriott analyzes fatal avalanche

KING-5 Meteorologist Rich Marriott, whose graduate research at the University of Washington turned into the Northwest Avalanche Center, says the skiers were prepared for the worst and there was nothing they could have done outside of not skiing that day.

Dave and Luke of 97.3 KIRO FM's Ross and Burbank Show asked Marriott about the conditions and risk factors.

Listen to Meteorologist Rich Marriott

Q: Were the conditions at Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass atypical?

A: Everything was done right, but you can't reduce risk to zero. Ninety nine out of a hundred times everybody gets through OK. This is that one time it just didn't come together properly. There were 14 or 15 people skiing those slopes broken into smaller groups. They already had three people come down and not release anything. This one skier just hit the sweet spot for the slope and it shattered. When it shattered, it shattered large enough to actually go into the safe areas at the edge of the trees and pull people out. There's a certain level of risk you can't get rid of, no matter what you're doing.

Q: The trees can't deflect the snow?

A: Normally, trees are enough to break the force of the avalanche so that you can shoulder behind them or hold on to the tree or keep it from flowing through freely, but this one apparently involved enough snow and it was low enough density to move through the trees with enough force to pull them back into the main flow of the avalanche.

It was a large avalanche as it broke out. The fracture line was reportedly around 3 to four feet deep in spots and that's a lot of snow considering hundreds of square yards start moving at one time. That's hundreds of tons of snow starting to shift down the slope very quickly.

Q: What's the most dangerous part of the avalanche?

A: Most fatalities with avalanches are through burial and suffocation, but a significant percentage of them are through trauma. I was caught in a small one one time and got caught in a tree and popped a disc.

It doesn't have to be a very large avalanche. I think the bulk of fatal avalanches run less than 100 meters.

Q: Have you gone over the information the skiers would have had on Sunday?

A: Absolutely. It's understandable and I probably would have skied that as well. I've actually skied that in the past. We knew there was some deep instability in the snowpack, but it wasn't really showing up very often. They were taking the precautions you'd normally expect to take.

Q: How big of a sport has this become?

A: When we started the avalanche center in the mid 70's the reason we were doing it was because of the increased use of the backcountry during the winter. It's been a pretty good growth sport, including snowshoeing. The bulk of avalanche fatalities in North America are among snowmobilers.

Q: You would have skied this and you're a guy who's studied this for years. It sounds like this was a freak accident?

A: It's something that can happen. It wasn't a glaring error. They didn't expect a slide this large to come out. If you think about it, the number of people who already came down the slope, if they missed that spot everybody would have gone on down the slope, and would have been back home that night.

Q: Should people be doing this?

A: Yeah, I think they should. You can be headed on to work in your car and have someone plow through a red light and come into the side of you. The only way you're going to avoid that is to not work...People get struck by lightning on a golf course.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 @ 8:59am

At your own risk

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: At your own risk

This has been a deadly week for backcountry skiers. Six killed in separate accidents -- three in the accident at Stevens Pass.

Which focuses a lot of attention on this free-skiing culture which flirts with avalanches and skis over cliffs on purpose. They've turned the stuff that used to be illegal into a growth industry. There are all sorts of videos on the dangers.

But these victims weren't crazy kids...these were all accomplished backcountry skiers; they knew the rules; they MADE the rules.

They used the buddy system, they crossed the dangerous slopes one at a time, they sheltered in the trees. And it still wasn't enough. So why do they do it all?

Because for every safety video, there are many more videos like this.

What you see in these videos is a culture that values freedom more than it fears danger. And maybe it's the soundtracks, maybe it's the subzero rosy checks -- but I have to say they look genuinely happy.

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Monday, February 20, 2012 @ 9:13am

The things Presidents say

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: The things Presidents say

Today we remember our two most famous presidents, Washington and Lincoln, who are in fact still with us through their most famous quotations.

Abraham Lincoln:

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich."

Or this famous one:

"You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

George Washington:

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force…a troublesome servant and a fearful master."

All these are memorable quotes, and all with one thing in common…Washington and Lincoln never said them. They may have THOUGHT them, but there's no record of it.

That Washington quote - is supposed to be in his Farewell Address, but it's not.

Lincoln's quote about not helping the poor by destroying the rich was actually in a pamphlet of sayings written by a preacher long after Lincoln's death. And the one about not fooling all of the people all of the time - is based on a recollection of a Lincoln speech published 54 years later.

Of course the Gospels were written long after Jesus, and entire religions are founded on that…so maybe we shouldn't doubt.

And heck, today, even with everything politicians say scrupulously YouTubed, we still can't always agree on what they said - and if we can't agree on what living people said a week ago, how can we expect to agree on what dead people said 200 years ago?

As Yogi Berra famously said, "I never said most of the things I said."

Or did he?

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Friday, February 17, 2012 @ 11:16am

A candy quiz of King Sized proportions

That King Size snicker bar you can get from the vending machine will soon be out of style, and worth a lot more on eBay, as Mars is discontinuing the high-calorie snack.

In its place, Mars will market the "normal-sized" Snickers bar but it will be smaller than the current candy bar. The King Size will be replaced by a "2toGopack," to encourage resealing the package and saving one of the bars for later. They say it will help fight obesity in America.

Phew, now, America can finally slim down.

What about the history of candy? Ross & Burbank and "Candy Man" Producer Andrew set up this quiz to put their sweet knowledge to the test.

Listen to Snickers gets slimmer; the guys take a candy quiz

Candy maker Forrest Mars Sr. got the idea for M&M's while visiting the front lines of which war:

-French Revolution

-Spanish Civil War

-World War I

-World War II

SIDE NOTE: While visiting Spain he encountered Spanish soldiers eating chocolate pellets covered by a hard candy shell. M&M's were first sold in 1941, as a convenience snack for GI's serving in WWII. The candies were a big hit because the candy coating kept the chocolate from melting.

Snickers, also made by Mars, was named after a pet owned by the Mars family. What kind of animal was Snickers?

-Cat

-Dog

-Turtle

-Horse

According to the wise old owl, how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

-Three.

Junior Mints were named after what?

-A movie

-A Broadway play ("Junior Miss.")

-A TV show

-A horse named "Snickers"

Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Benson's stories were adapted by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields into a play, directed by Moss Hart, which had a successful run on Broadway from November 18, 1941 to July 24, 1943.

Three Muskateers as we now know it is a chocolate bar filled with a light chocolate filling. But the original was filled with three flavors - Chocolate, Vanilla and What?

-Raspberry

-Strawberry

-Cherry

-Orange