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

Reflections on a Career

John and I watched this movie the other day and this passage (part of the above clip) spoke to me:

I wouldn't have had it any other way. But there are times when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents. What difference your being there at any time made to anything. Hardly made any difference at all, really, particularly in comparison with other...careers.

Leadership lessons in "Bridge on the River Kwai" are everywhere.  I wonder how many times my boss has watched this movie.  He loves movies and leadership and although I don't think he loves conflict, he definitely understands and appreciates Lt. Col. Nicholson's desire to build a great bridge and how conflicted he was, at the end.

We are building a bridge.  We want it to be the best bridge we can build.

But we can't be afraid to blow it up, if necessary.

Rushmore Mascots Hit the Road - Their American Journey

A fun thing happened at work today.  Four South Dakotans came to visit!  The Mt. Rushmore presidential mascots will be in KC all weekend.  Not surprisingly, the Secretary of Tourism knows my brother-in-law, Bob Drake.  Small world!

Welcome to KC, Len Jennings

Are you Larry's replacement?

Len Jennings Day at NBC2 - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida

Juking the stats...as the May book winds down

"Shocking admissions"  "Big Announcements"  "Exclusive details."

Bleah.

Short term strategy doesn't equal long term gain.

Viewers cannot/will not be fooled more than once so avoid creating false anticipation.  Re-titling newscasts, producing 15 minutes of content when customers expect more will only work for a short time.

Only quality wins.  Quality equals investigative stories, memorable storytelling and never, ever making a mistake.

Not easy but it's the only true path to success.

Flashback: The Carpenters A Song For You

If iPods had been invented in the early 70s, the first 99-cents I would have spent on iTunes would have been The Carpenters.  I still miss this voice.  Gone too soon.