Flashback: Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction 1965

A dozen things I like on 12-12-12

1. My husband.  He's in KC, I'm in Miami.  I miss him.  He'll be here before Christmas.
2. My new job.  It's challenging and fun.
3. The condo John found.  It's about 15 miles from the station but the commute is a breeze when I go to work and not too bad when I come home.  We will live here for at least the next three months.
4. Living in a big city again.  The energy is contagious!
5. Walking on the beach.  The peace is unmatched!
6. The news.  There's lots of it and I have to make decisions that stretch muscles I haven't used in awhile.
7. Reconnecting with old friends.  It's been almost twenty years since we lived here but many of our pals are still here.  I went to a fabulous Christmas party last week...
8. How easy it is to get a taxi.  And relatively inexpensive.  Just go to the curb and wave. 
9. New sports teams!  Dolphins, Panthers, Heat, Hurricanes and more.  Surprisingly there isn't an MLS team but hopefully that will change so I can see Sporting Kansas City again.
10. The Publix at 69th and Collins.  It almost, ALMOST makes me forget about Wegmans.  Love the shopping cart escalator.
11. Impatient drivers.  Everyone here is in a hurry.  Definition of a split second?  The time it takes for the light to turn green and the guy/gal behind you to honk their horn.
12. Oye!  Learning Spanish by immersion.  

Clouds by Zach Sobiech

99 Things I'll Miss About Kansas City

Somewhere in a box, there are hard copies of lists of the things I miss about Memphis and Syracuse.

I posted the Baltimore list on my Facebook page.  Making lists?  It's something I just do.  A way of counting my blessings I guess.  So, on the eve of my departure for Miami, here goes (in no particular order):

1. Chicken Spiedini at Carmen's in Brookside.
2. The Westport Pioneers statue.
3. The LRC.  And Gary Lezak.
4. The thrift stores on Wornall.  All of them
5. Killer's insatiable appetite for junk food and the largest commercially available Coca-Cola from fill-in-the-blank.  Purchased mostly by photographers, reporters and some producers and assignment editors.  You know who you are.
6. Ward Parkway.  Breath-taking in every season.  Most cities don't have a Ward Parkway.
7. Talking digital with Billy Smith.  Cheers!
8. Mack at the Hy-vee store on 122nd and Stateline.  Always has a smile and a story to tell.
9. Buying wine at the Target stores in Missouri.  For that matter, the ability to buy wine in any store in Missouri.  Carrie Nation's impact on Kansas is antiquated.
10. The young men in suits who sell pies on Cleaver Boulevard in all kinds of weather.
11. Getting the "stink eye" from the anchors for talking in the studio during a newscast.
12. The River Market Antique Mall.
13. Having a treat for Stormy and running around the studio during the newscast with her hot on my heels.  (Another reason for the "stink eye".)
14. Union Station.  Especially at Christmas.
15. The way Russ Ptacek always entered my office.  Reckless courage.  I loved it!
16. The iconic Central Library Parking Garage made of book spines.
17. Playing games at the College Basketball Experience
18. The Grandview Triangle aka Three Trails Crossing.  
19. Jeff Penner's willingness to try new things.
20. The hysterical, inappropriate telephone calls I got on the station-issued cell phone that were not meant for me.  Some of you know what I'm talking about.  Note to KSHB management:  Change that number.  The next news director doesn't need the distraction.
21. The West Bottoms.
22. The testament to marriage I witnessed when Cynthia Newsome was diagnosed with cancer.  Her husband Ed is a champion, too!
23. Barbecue.  Oklahoma Joe's, Arthur Bryant's and Jack Stack.  In that order.
24. John Batten's sense of humor.
25. Sushi Haru at 135th and Stateline.  Get the Shaggy Dog.
26. Minnesota Twins fans who live here.  You know who you are.
27. Crown Center.  We took our great nephew there before the fountains were closed to the public (children) and he had a ball!
28. The quiet and wise counsel of Mark Clegg.
29. David Jimenez.  He should be more well-known in KC.
30. The iconic Nichols Fountain and more than 200 others.
31. The Border Patrol on WHB810.  More than once I snorted coffee through my nose, laughing at their antics on the way to work.  
32. Brooke Givens' Christmas sweaters.
33. Eating lunch at the Nelson-Atkins.
34. The subterranean storage units.  Did you know the temperature remains at a constant 68 degrees to 72 degrees year round?  Fascinating!
35. Keith King's dogged determination to get me to adopt a dog.  Soon.  Once we get a permanent home in SoFla.
36. The drive between Atkinson, KS and Weston, MO.
37. Jack's Smack.  And Jack Harry.
38. My South Kansas City neighborhood and neighbors.
39. Captain Gregg Bourdon.
40. Tony Botello aka Tony's Kansas City.  He should be sourced more.
41. The Flint Hills area.  Spectacular!
42. Judy Johnson.  My friend.  I will miss her.  She was first my real estate agent but her knowledge of KC is deep and wide.
43. The proximity to South Dakota.  In my adult life, I've never lived so close to home.
    
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44. The Border War.  Too bad one school had to mess it up for everybody.
45. Kansas Speedway.  Saw my first NASCAR race which was quite possibly my last one too but I can cross it off the Bucket List.
46. Marsha Depping.  And her memos.
47. Not shaving my legs in the winter.  This luxury won't be possible in South Florida.  TMI?  Sorry.
48. Kansas City Chiefs tailgaters at Arrowhead.  Always willing to share food, drink...or, in the case of the first game of 2012, some battery power after we needed a jump.  Thanks to the guy with the flag made of bras. You know who you are.
49. Toby Tobin.
50. The All-Star Game and afterglow.  We were so proud!
51. John McKenna.  A rocky beginning grew into a great friendship.
52. Nick Dutcher.  Still missed and mourned.  Nobody has eclipsed his love of breaking news.
53. The Merry Happy Joyful food drive.  The competitive nature of some of my former co-workers will always make me smile.  You know who you are.
54. Royals games.  They were not my favorite, favorite team but I loved games at Kauffman.  I won't ever forget the magic of the outfield fountains.
55. Seeing Elizabeth Alex "call the hogs" wearing a red pig head on Funny Hat Day.
56. Sporting Kansas City.  Especially Jimmy Nielsen and Matt Besler.
57. Allison and Shari.  They work at the Beauty Brands on Stateline and are wonderful!
58. The Plaza Lights.  Easy one.
59. The 2011 Race for the Cure fund-raising effort at 4720 Oak Street.  Incredible generosity.  You know who you are.
60. St. Joseph, Missouri.
61. Frank Boal's passion.
62. The stray cat that visited me many times in South KC.
63. The potential for a great park at Kaw Point.  Unfortunately, the pollution issue has yet to be addressed.
64. Dan Mason's desire to own my rubber band ball.  Sorry, guy.  It's going with me.
65. The anticipation for Trader Joe's.  On both sides of the state line.
66. House prices.
67. The weather extremes.  Hot, cold, flood, drought, tornado.  And more.  SoFla won't have that.
68. Sitting on my deck at the end of the day with a glass of red wine.  Somehow it won't be the same when I get off work at noon...
69. Being in the middle of the country.  Flyover?  Not really.  These people matter!
70. Ethics questions from Christa Dubill.
71. Kansas City strip steaks.  The absolute best.
72. How the area responded to the Joplin tornado.  You know who you are.
73. The World War One museum.
74. The trails in Olathe.
75. The Shakespeare Festival.
76. The Bowen "farm" at Red Bridge and Wornall.  We met the owner once, walking her dog.  The animals:  Curly (John's favorite).  The Wounded Goose.  Henny Penny.  And the swans, turkeys, goats and pony.
77. Coffee on Tuesdays with Amy Hawley.
78. The statuary on Shawnee Mission Parkway through Fairway, Kansas.
79. Not hearing the trains anymore after we moved from Olathe.
80. The Kansas City Zoo.
81. How Kansas City is the REAL Gateway to the West.  St. Louis = Poser.
82. Hallmark cards.  I don't buy any other brand now.
83. Hearing about the old days in KCK from Mike Vrabac.
84. Winning at the casinos.  Rarely happened.  OK almost never.
85. Gary Brauer's cooking.
86. Sounds of the Holiday.  I'm a sap for high school choral groups.
87. The impact of "The Day After" on global politics.
88. The Hotel Phillips.
89. Leavenworth, Kansas.  Especially taking photos in the shadow of the sign at the prison that says NO PHOTOS.  
90. Jack Baker.
91. KCI.  I know it has to change but it really is an easy airport to get in and out of.
92. Old Shawnee Days. 
93. Dottie's vet.  Dottie was our dog.  Quite possibly the saddest day of my life was when we had to put our beloved down.  That woman was a saint.
94. Brown's Deli.  Best. Egg. Salad. Ever.
95. Tracy Brogden-Miller.  First a competitor, then a mentor.  Strange magic.
96. The Kansas City Star.  Pretty good paper with some really fine writers.  Steve Kraske, Dave Helling. Wish more of my former co-workers made reading it a regular habit...
97. The Scout statue.
98. The lounger-recliners at the AMC at Ward Parkway.
99. A forced temporary three-month retirement that gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate my priorities.

Home, Sweet Homes

Road trip!  We've got the house on the market and we're heading south to Miami.

I haven't blogged in weeks.  On purpose.  I felt like I needed to stay low during the most intense time of my job search.  I took some trips, spent endless hours on the telephone and watched hours of newscasts from markets far and wide.

But it was a Facebook message from my former co-worker that put me on the right path.

"Know any morning Executive Producers?"
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Some things that I've wanted to blog about but didn't:

• The News Director in Wisconsin who allowed his anchor to use four precious minutes of air time to recriminate a viewer who wrote a critical message about her appearance.  Jennifer Livingston called the viewer a bully.  What?!  Seriously bad.
• Cable TV is ridiculously expensive.  I have had too much time on my hands but I haven't necessarily watched more television.  I have written the checks to Time Warner, though.  Bring on 4G wireless!
• Never watch the show "Doomsday Preppers" right before going to bed unless you want to dream of the zombie apocalypse all darn night.
• The Kansas City Chiefs are the Worst. Team. Ever.  I attended my final home game as a season ticket holder last week.  I wore black.  I foolishly hoped that they would win, up until midway through the third quarter.  Fire them all.  And some twice.  
• The television station in Denver that accidentally used a spoof shot of the Petraeus bio grabbed from the internet...SMH.  Credibility is precious.  Somebody should get suspended. 
• I cooked and baked quite a bit during my extended vacation from work.  And I wondered about things.  Like...who first decided to separate eggs and beat the hell out of the whites to form stiff peaks?  Can you imagine how long that would take if done by hand?

There's more but this is a start.  Right now I'm working on my "100 Things I'll Miss About Kansas City" list. I'll post that within the next ten days.

Dear Eric Winston. Don't judge.

Hello Eric.  You don't know me, just as you don't know 98% of the people who were in the stands Sunday.  Many of them are people like me (a season ticket holder).  (I tweeted you a welcome message last summer but I don't expect you to remember.)

I shouldn't be a season ticket holder.  I'm unemployed.  I bought my tickets in mid-June after a pretty successful May book.  (You don't know what that means but it doesn't matter)  I didn't figure I'd lose my job even before the season started.  Que sera.

I wasn't at the game Sunday.  I gave my tickets away,  I  wanted to be there but because I chose to spend the weekend in South Dakota with my family, helping our parents get ready for the winter.

Before I left, I charted all of the Chiefs-affiliated radio stations on a map that follows I-29 so my husband and I could listen to the game on the way back to KC.  We watched the first half on TV and then got in the car for the six-plus hour drive south.

We had just reached Yankton, SD when Matt Cassel went down.  Neither of us cheered.  Neither of us were happy that he got hurt.  However, I certainly understand the feelings of the good people who continue to support this team even though the product has not been what we expected.

We're frustrated Eric.  We want to love you...all of you.  But frankly, you, your coach and your teammates make it difficult.  We don't expect perfection.  We know balls are going to bounce the wrong way.

That said, most of us think you should have at least won one of the three home games this year.

We're frustrated, Eric.  But don't condemn all of us for the actions of a few.  Tens of thousands were at the game.  Hundreds of thousands watched on TV...and who knows how many of us listened to scratchy AM radio stations in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas because we are passionate fans.

I know this because I've shared food with them, shared sports talk with them and screamed my fool head off with them.  But not when our guys got hurt.  Never then.

Maybe some stepped over the line, Eric.  But the vast majority of us are good, decent people.

We want Matt Cassel to heal quickly and find another job.

Flashback: Andy Williams

When we were kids, the Andy Williams Show was a favorite...especially if the Osmonds were going to make an appearance.

I remember watching the TV coverage of the Bobby Kennedy funeral train in 1968.  He was on it with Ethel.  He sang at the funeral.

Glory, glory, hallelujah for Andy Williams.

Flashback: WORK TO DO - Isley Brothers

Me:  I'm not done yet.
Second grade teacher:  Finished!  Done means you're cooked through and through!

I can make it.

We had guests for the Labor Day weekend.  My brother Perry and his wife, Toni.  Our son Charlie.  Our nephew Paul.

Hurricane Isaac impacted our plans Friday with a rain out of the Twins game.  I tried and failed to give the tickets away but we ended up using them Sunday in the scorching, searing Missouri heat.  And of course, the Twins lost.  We came home from the K ready for a fine meal and more family time.

The title of this post refers to a "kitchen incident" that occurred Sunday night as I was preparing dinner for my guests.  The menu?  BBQ country-style ribs in the pressure cooker, cole slaw and beans.  Followed by Perry's delicious zucchini cake.

Ribs cooked this way are fall-off-the-bone tender so I was confident that I would be receiving accolades for hours after dinner.  Except for the stupid move I made with a sharp knife.

Quick rewind.  For Mother's Day, John and Charlie bought me some REALLY sharp knives.  I don't even like to put them in the dishwasher, so as not to dull the edges.  I love those knives.  And there's a bunch of 'em.  There's a paring knife, a chef's knife, six steak knives, a bread knife, a boning knife.  A fabulous pair of kitchen scissors that will cut through anything.  Even a tomato knife.

But it was the utility knife that did me in.

Five minutes before the ribs should leave the flame, I was attempting to open a jar of slaw dressing with the utility knife.

The blade slipped and I stabbed myself right in that fleshy part of the hand between the thumb and index finger.

I yelled.

Not in a panic, mind you.  More at myself.

I went to the sink and turned on the water, to wash the wound a bit.

Then blood started spurting from the hole in my hand and I really yelled.  Loud.

"I cut myself!"

Medic!  (My brother was in the National Guard and my nephew is active duty.)

Both sprang to action.

"Put pressure on it," my brother ordered and despite my morbid desire to see the blood blurting out and the fact that he's seventeen years younger than I am, I obeyed.  Paul was right there with the bandage.

It's not a big cut...just about a quarter of an inch.  But it is deep and it hurt like hell.

Pressure and a bandage was exactly what I needed.  That and for my brother to finish cooking dinner while I supervised, telling him what to do and when.

Just what I needed.

Thanks David Pogue, I needed this!

Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is...

When the news hits too close to home

Wednesday morning was one just like most others.  Wake up, turn on the morning news, make coffee, read the newspaper.  Our morning team was dealing with breaking news that day.  A wrong-way crash hurt three people.  I-435 had been closed for hours and was still closed at 6am.  Bummer for commuters.

That afternoon, I was on a conference call and idly clicked on to my Facebook page.  A message?  How fun!  I clicked it.

"The girls in the wrong way crash are Ken and Diane's daughters," my cousin messaged.  "They are headed to KC right now."

Ken (Kendall) Wiechmann is my cousin.  Our grandfathers were brothers so we aren't first cousins. Second?  Third?  Whatever.  We went to school together, starting in the one-room school house through 12th Grade.  We had the same last name so we walked one after the other at graduation in May, 1975.  I went off to college and he started his own career.  We hadn't seen each other in years.

When we were children, Kendall was always just a little bigger and a little stronger than I was.  We had a typical "cousins" relationship.  Our farms were a mile apart.  He had a sister who was Pam's age and a brother who was Paula's age.  We played together.  We swam in the creek together.  We poured water down gopher holes together.

"You're ugly," I would say to him.

"You're dumb," he would counter.

And we would throw dirt clods at each other.  (A common childhood  activity in South Dakota.  Dirt clods look like rocks but aren't as dense and turn into dust upon contact.)

Back to Wednesday afternoon.  I was frozen.  I raced to the assignment desk where Killer pulled the accident report. KrissaMarie (age 22) and Kayla Wiechmann (age 26), both of Nashville (formerly of South Dakota), were driving home to see their family.

Rory Liberty, a guy with a relatively clean record, apparently driving under the influence, crashed into their car.

I didn't know these girls but my heart ached for their worried parents.  Thursday I waited for the driver to be charged so I could tell their parents.  I looked at the girls' pictures on Facebook and wondered at their lives.

Another cousin told me about the driver who was right behind them when they collided with Rory Liberty's car.  He put out the fire that started and stayed with them until the ambulances came.

That truck mechanic saved them from further injury and possibly worse.

My family is grateful to Richard Jewell.

KSHB-TV Post-Olympics Coverage 1996

Words defined in real life

Schadenfreude

It's good to be first but better to be right

I've waited a few days to post about the DEBACLE at the "networks" of CNN and FOX.  Shame.

Read more here.

Learn.

Never make the mistakes they made.

Flashback: Styx Fooling Yourself

I was helping read scripts today and came across one about a proposal to reduce possession of small amounts of marijuana to a non-felony.  I remarked (out loud) that when I was in college in the 70s, marijuana was decriminalized in South Dakota.  Less than an ounce = a $200 fine.

Everybody I knew smoked a little weed in the late 70s, I said.  Me too.

But then I said I didn't graduate from college.

There was a bit of silence for a minute or two and then we all went on with our day.

Bottoms Up! I'm a news director! Or am I....

On the way home tonight, for some reason, I was navel-gazing considering my job title.

News director.

And just at that moment the newest Sonic radio commercial played on the Royals pre-game show.  (The displayed Sonic commercial has nothing to do with this post, by the way.  I just like it because it starts with a Kansas City reference.)

The Sonic radio commercial I heard was a somewhat amusing riff on oxymorons.  Jean jacket, relaxing fuel, etc.

My job title is a contradiction of terms.  News director.  Bah!  I don't direct the news.  I have no control over the news.

I'm a news responder.

Most days, I feel like all I've done is respond (and react) to news.

(Everyone knows that if you make a plan for severe weather, it will by-pass us to the north or south.  But the second we don't have a plan, tornado warnings will strike without notice.  Floods, frogs, plague.  A certainty the one time you don't have a plan.)

How I love it!

Flashback: Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today

Ignore the over-modulated audio and appreciate this song for the message.  Plus it includes the fabulous Jimmy Durante who sings, as well.

What Is Newsworthy?

Although I am trying hard not to be a shill for HBO, I can't resist sharing the trailers/teasers they release about their upcoming series that starts later this month.

This is an interesting question that is not answered in this video.

For me, newsworthy means it affects a lot of people, may or may not include conflict although conflict is preferred or has a "holy shit" factor that cannot be predicted.  For me, most celebrity information is not newsworthy.  Most of the news releases emailed, faxed and mailed to the assignment desk as not newsworthy.  Most of the email tips we get from viewers are not newsworthy.

But.

We have to process each one.  And try not to make decisions based on our cynical views.

My new bucket list

50 Things Everyone Should Know