Ann, Lynley and Herb Miles

I’m going to make this short because I have the future in-laws in town for a gathering tomorrow night.  They are extremely low maintenance.  I score because Ann is making homemade meatloaf tonight, one of my all time favs, and Herb can fix just about anything.  We had a printer that wasn’t receiving a signal from the computer.  It sat there collecting dust and then Herb walks in and gets it to work in about five minutes.  Show off.

Later today it’s “take your future father-in-law to work day”.  He’s never seen how TV news is made.  I told him not to eat too much before we head to the station!

Perhaps Monday we’ll dissect the Tiger saga, or maybe we’ll be fatigued by it all by then.

Have a great and safe weekend.

Tiger has a chance to come clean. Instead, it's expected to be a rehearsed media event.

“Come one, Come all.  Let’s gather and I’m open game.  I’m going to make a statement, then fire away.  Just know that today is the first and last day that I’m going to address this.  After today, I’m only going to answer golf questions, and if you try the “end around” by asking if my personal life led to my 76, I’m telling you today it’s not going to work.  So gimmee your best shot.  I’ll stay until the last question.  Let’s get it all out on the table and then let’s move on.”

That’s how I think Tiger Woods should handle his media event Friday.  Play offense in front of hundreds of reporters and millions watching on TV.  Instead, we’re going to get THIS tightly orchestrated show.

Save it Tiger. 
Sure, I’ll watch out of curiosity.  Millions will.  You have a shot at coming off sincere and contrite.  Human, with flaws.   Bare your soul and the healing process has a chance with most of your fans (and sponsors).  Remember, you’re the one who wanted to be more than a golfer.  You wanted to build an image, a brand.  Well now you have the mother of all damage control on your hands.  An extraordinary fall from grace should be countered with an extraordinary exposure to the media elements.   Instead, it’s shaping up to be just another well controlled media event.  I guess tigers really never do change their stripes. 

I hope I eat my words with Tabasco on them.

UPDATE:  Click HERE for an interesting take on the whole thing.

UPDATE UPDATE:  Click HERE for another take on the whole thing.

 For all you politicos out there, CLICK HERE for a good loooooooong read.  Throw out party affiliation and just read it for what it’s worth.  It’s the new Governor of New Jersey laying it on the line.  Whether you agree with his politics, you gotta like direct approach.  he’s been in office 23 days, looked at the numbers and they just don’t jive.  Something has to give.  Regardless of the party affiliation, I like a politician that runs a city or state like we have to run our households. 

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Okay, this is purely hypothetical.  Don’t think for a moment that I have a rented movie wedged in between the seat of my car.  Here’s the theoretical question for you:  What do you do if you rented a movie and you go to return it (maybe a week or two late) and the Blockbuster you rented it from is out of business?  Furthermore, EVERY Blockbuster you have ever rented from in the city of Nashville has gone under?  Is possession nine tenths of the law?  Or will I try to buy a car in a few years and have this DVD torpedo my credit report?  Just askin’.

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I’m not digging on the Olympics yet but every time I look up from my work computer and see the snowboarding races, I watch.

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Funny... without having to be dirty. What a concept!

With the cold weather, I’ve taken my marathon training inside on the treadmill.  I have burned through my ipod music so I”ve taken to watching TV.  I have rediscovered Spin City.  I actually laugh out loud while running, no doubt irritating people around me.  The writing and timing on the show, is amazing.  As for Michael J. Fox, he may be among the most likable guys ever to grace the little screen.  His autobiography, “Lucky Man” is a humbling read.  Anyway, what’s your guilty pleasure on the tube?

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Last night News-2 Extra profiling the Sexual Assault Center in Nashville wasn’t a ratings grabber.  I did receive a few emails, including one from the man courageous enough to allow us to tell his story (we was sexually assaulted 35 years ago and only now coming to terms with it).  I have to remind myself that in this business, it’s all about ratings… but then there’s a night or two that may have a bigger impact on a smaller audience.  Let’s hope so.

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Perhaps the least favorite thing for anyone to do is to go to wakes and funerals.  Marty’s (calling him a handy man is an insult to all those that think they can fix and/or build anything.  Marty was the real McCoy.  More than that he was a genuine good guy) wake is tonight in Lawrenceburg.  So I guess it’s the man upsides that’s going to have the cool garage edition (one of the many “dream” projects I discussed with Marty through the years)  instead of me.  I can just see it,  the two will be shooting the breeze while Marty designs and builds the best garage ever.

Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.

1 in 6 women- & 1 in 33 men will be sexual assaulted in their lifetime.

60% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police.

 Those statistics are the basis for tonight’s News-2 Extra at 10:15.  I profile the Sexual Assault Center in Nashville.  The staff there was great, finding courageous victims to open up about their challenges in getting their lives back.

In TV news a long story is considered 90-seconds.  These “extras” that we air during ratings allows the reporter, producer and photographer to go much deeper into a subject.  I tend to think of them as  “poor man’s 60 Minutes” pieces.  99-percent of local TV stations around the country don’t do long form stories anymore.

Last week Bob Mueller did one on the water main breaks downtown.  Not the most stimulating cocktail party conversation but it was actually extremely interesting to learn the history of a century old system and how they are correcting it.  Anyone that lives and/or works downtown now has a better sense of all the work that’s going to be going on for the next few months.  It’s a story that’s hard to tell in a 10-second soundbite.

Anyway, if you are up and a viewer of other channels, I invite you to flip to Channel 2 at 10pm and then hang with us for the Sexual Assault Center segment at 10:15pm.
It may make a difference for someone you know.

Kudos to photographer/editor Jeff Davidson for working his magic on this segment.

See ya later on News-2 at 4.

Received a call this morning from Marty’s brother that my friend Marty passed away this morning.  I”ve blogged about him recently.  Had stage 4 cancer and then suffered a stroke.  Life is definitely not fair.  Marty was truly one of the good ones.

I’m crunching to put together a special report that will air tomorrow night at 10:15.  I’ll blog about it tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience.

Oh, one more thing.  I’m done with the snow.

Whew!  Another year of not being sent back to CCD.
For those of you that don’t know, that’s Catholic Sunday School. (I went for 7 years and don’t know what CCD actually stands for).

My sibling and I have a running joke with Dad, warning us that he’ll do one of three things if we don’t send Mom a card for Valentine’s Day.

1.  Take away the car.
2. Cut off school tuition.
3. Send us back to CCD.

Clearly this dates back to our school years though it has managed to stay alive for decades.  Our typical response was, (and still will be in a phone call today) that of all the threats, going back to Sunday school was the worst.

Mom, Me & Lynley. Do I have it good or what?

This year is a particularly good year for me in sending Ma a Valentine.  Why?
I saved 20 bucks.  I didn’t have to FedEx it.  I’m not kidding.

I’d like to think that I’m a god son but I am a guy and we are sometimes selfish, stupid and forgetful.

I couldn’t ask for a better Mom.  She’s the most beautiful, unselfish person’s I’ve ever known.  I think she cares for her kids more than she did when we were growing up, if that’s even possible.  All she wants is for her kids to be happy.  As I take inventory of Gerayln, Sue, Jeff and me, I would say: mission accomplished.

I love you, Mom.

Any silly Valentine’s Day rituals you want to get off your chest?

Have a great and safe weekend.

Damn that J.Riggins. 
Had I not been fired from the trendy clothing store in 1979, I would have a spotless employment record.  Here’s the story that to this day, still sits in my craw.  (BTW- Just exactly is the craw located?)

The store at Scottsdale Mall in South Bend, Indiana was missing some money from the cash register.  All employees were given a lie detector test.  Not exactly what many 16-year olds have experienced but I had nothing to worry about.  I passed it with flying colors.  Thing is, I admitted to giving away my 10-percent employee discount.  A girlfriend of a friend of mine was going to buy the same sweater a few stores over.  Since the guy was the same size I bought the sweater for her.  She bought a few other things so I thought it was a good overall move.

Wrong.  Although I was consistantly the top salesperson at the store (working part-time no less), the hot shot district manager walked me down toward Orange Julius (are they around anymore?) and told me they had to let me go.  Are you freakin’ serious?  I brought in more business to that store and worked my butt off to exceed the $60 an hour quota for sales people.  I was a good ambassador for the brand because about every paycheck went on my back.  (Yes, Mom and Dad were also a big part of that).  Did I break company policy?  Absolutely, but my motives were for the good of the company.  I thought the guy was going to give me a good talking to and write something up in my file.  But fired?

A few weeks later I stopped by the store because several friends still worked there including Beth Batista (she was several years older than me and had a serious boyfriend but some names just stick with you), who was recently promoted to store manager.  Why the promotion?  It seems they got to the bottom of the missing cash.  The old store manager was skimming off the top at night. 

I remember, with apprehension, telling my parents and they couldn’t have been better about it.  Thanks Mom and Dad for not ripping me.

The District Manager looked something like this.

Epilogue:  J.Riggins is out of business.  I don’t know what happened to the weasel district manager but he couldn’t have gone far with that permed mullet.  I’ve been fortunate to hold down every job since.

 Today’s blog entry was going to be about something related to firings but I just felt compelled to get this personal saga into writing after all this time.  As I said, it still burns me up to this day.

Anyone have similar stories they need to get off their chest? 
Fire away.  (pun intended).

One of those mornings where I’m playing “catch up” will all the things I’ve put off for a few days.  It used to be when you worked the night shift, you slept in, made some coffee and read the paper.  Now it’s that PLUS surfing the web, returning phone calls, texts and emails.  I’m certainly more connected than I was when I climbed into this crazy business in 1985.  I’m not so sure things are actually better.  Let’s compare:

1985:

3 Network TV affiliate stations.
FOX wasn’t putting out a local news product yet.
Sports on a local newscast was given at least 4:30 minutes
TV people communicated by pager. Better yet, the local pay phone at 7-11.
Cell phones were for rich people.
Truckers communicated by CB.
Most major cities had at two newspapers.
Everyone hovered around the TV for the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.
We had to wait until Monday Night Football halftime to see highlights of other games.
Going “out” to eat was a big deal.

2010:

4 Network affiliate stations plus countless cable channels.
FOX is not only a player, but a leader in many areas around the country.
Local sportscasts are shorter than the commercial break before them.
TV people communicate by text, email and cell phone.
Cell phones are so common, landlines in homes are going the way of the dinosaur.
Do truckers still use CB’s?
Most two newspaper towns are one newspaper towns with the media giants buying up the rural papers so the news content really comes from one source.
Sorry to say but haven’t watched the Jerry Lewis Telethon in years, though I know it’s an important cause.
I’ve seen every critical NFL play in every game almost in real time.  By Monday morning I’m done with them.
Eating “out” is common place and just more convenient but also can add up.

These are just quick, stream of conciseness lists.  I’m sure many more will pop into my head as the day goes along.  I’d love to here are how your lives have changed and gotten, easier/harder through the years.

A couple of final thoughts on the Super Bowl…

Hey Colts, How’s that “resting your players” workin’ out for you?  I’m still cheesed that with a 14-0 record and up 15-10 in the 3rd quarter vs. the visiting Jets, Colts management decided to pull Peyton and a few other players.  The reasoning was because a “perfect season isn’t the goal.  Winning the Super Bowl is.”  I contend that had they beaten the Jets and played their starters some vs. the Bills, the Colts would have had an “edge” heading into the playoffs.  Instead they messed with the football gods.  Bad karma.

While Peyton explained why he didn’t shake hands at the end of the game citing the setup on the field after the final gun, I still think it was wrong not to congratulate Drew Brees right after the game.  Being graceful in defeat is one of the best images that those that accept being a role model, can project.  Missed opportunity.

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Between 6:30 and 7:30 last night, I’ve never seen snow change driving conditions so quickly.  What a mushy mess.

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I’m a big fan of our weather team and think it does a good job of trying to keep weather events in perspective.  Here’s a presentation that caught my eye.  It was on TV news website NewsBlues.  Click here.  I think you’ll find it entertaining.

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I leave you with a picture that Lynley sent me.  Another dreary, cold, slushy day in the ‘Ville.  Sometimes you just need to smile.

I get that people believe that the man (or woman) upstairs doesn’t heap on you what you can’t handle but this is ridiculous. My friend Marty, who is battling stage 4 bone cancer, just had a stroke. You won’t find a kinder, sweeter guy than Marty.  Please keep him and his family in your thoughts.

While most people will point toward the onside kick as the turning point of the Super Bowl, I think it was when the Saints went for it on 4th down late in the half.  I was screaming at the TV, “take the points!” In hindsight, that would have made it a 10-6 game with Peyton getting the ball back in decent shape.  Pinning the Colts deep after the 4th down forced them to play conservative. Down 10-3 at half is a lot better than being down 17-6.  Do you follow?  As it turned out, the Saints got the ball back and put 3 on the board.  Sometimes things just work out.

I’m happy for Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams.  The longtime Titans assistant coach always treated me fair during his time here.  He worked hard to get where he is.  It’s good to know that an old fashioned work ethic is rewarded from time to time.

Any Super Bowl commercials leave an impression on you?  I was not wowed.

I was waiting for Pete Townsend to smash his guitar at the end.  I mean that’s his signature move!

Lynley makes the best Turkey chili.  We had some friends over for the game and thought there might be some chili left over for “breakfast” today.  Nope.

We painted some trim in the house over the weekend.  Stunning how one man can get more paint on himself, the floor and glass than the trim itself.  I may have to hide my hands on the anchor desk today because I STILL have paint on my hands and arms.

I will be more inspired tomorrow.