July 2007 Archives

Helaine and Stef left Saturday morning. The 'Stalker Tour' is on the move with Rick Springfield concerts in Boston and Laconia, NH. They've taken "Clicky," my Canon Digital Rebel camera, with them.

That left Saturday as a pretty hollow day for me. Luckily, I knew someone else who was being 'abandoned.' Matt Scott's wife and daughter were leaving town for Mississippi.

He and I decided to head to New York City and see a show.

If you carry a fishing pole, people just assume you're a fisherman. If you go to a Broadway show... a Broadway musical... a Sondhein musical... they assume you're gay! I know this because virtually everyone who heard we were going either commented or asked.

All I could think of was the time I went to the theater and stood in line behind a guy wearing a t-shirt which said, "I can't even think straight!"

Just as there are black Republicans, there are straight guys who enjoy the theater.

Since Matt was dropping his wife and daughter at LaGuardia Airport, I took the train to the city. I would walk crosstown and we'd meet outside the theater.

Taking the train from New Haven is very easy. Unfortunately, it's also quite a long trip. Union Station to Grand Central Terminal is around 1:45¹. I brought the NY Times, a photo magazine and my $30 camcorder.

I didn't have "Clicky," but I did want to try and make a short video essay. It was supposed to be about the day in general. Unfortunately, I didn't budget properly and my video ran out as I approached the theater!

My New York City travelogue video is at the bottom of this entry. It was entirely shot on the $30 camcorder and edited using Windows Movie Maker (included on every Windows XP or Vista computer). The music is "Look Busy" by Kevin MacLeod.

Yesterday's show was Steven Sondheim's Company. This is a revival of the 1970 musical about Bobby (Raúl Esperza), a bachelor, the three single women in his life and his five married couple friends.

What made this musical more interesting was how it was cast. There was no orchestra pit because the actors were also playing instruments on-stage!

This must have been a casting nightmare. Finding good actors is one thing. Finding good musicians is another. But finding people who can sing, dance and act (often simultaneously) really limits your choices. I, for instance, would be 0 for 3!

With all this going, the cast was dynamite. I especially enjoyed Raúl Esperza, (Bobby) who reminds me of Bradley Whitford (Studio 60, West Wing) and Angel Desai (Marta).

The show is funny, but often poignant and sad, as it traces Bobby's life from his 35^th to 36 ^th birthday. Being a grown-up bachelor has its good and bad points. Being single doesn't remove you from emotional tumult.

I'd recommend going to see it, but as I type this, they are nearly an hour into Company's last Broadway performance. Luckily, yesterday's matinée (and a few other performances, I'm sure) was taped for PBS' Great Performances.

After the show we had dinner at the Stage Deli, where I ate too much too much at a table that was much too small. We were back in Connecticut around 8:00 PM.

A few weeks ago the orthopedist said I could do anything on my fractured fibula, as long as I was wearing my 'boot.' That being said, my leg was very sore last night after doign a lot of walking. I haven't felt that much discomfort since I first put the boot on.

Today will be a day to sit.

¹ - Depending on the time of day, trains make different stops. At night, you stop at every station along the way. Most daytime trains run express from Stamford, only stopping at 125^th Street in Harlem before GCT.

I seldom do this, but it's my blog! This entry is an explanation and expansion of a comment left in the previous entry by Mike Sechrist.

A little background on Mike. He hired me in New Haven 23 years ago. He was news director then, but later became a TV general manager, running WKRN in Nashville.

Mike is one of the biggest proponents of VJs, or video journalists. The whole VJ concept is based on the assumption technology allows greater productivity in TV without injuring the product. If a crew is one, rather than two, people, you can cover twice as many stories with the same number of people.

Of course, the fear within the universe of TV employees is, you can cover just as many stories with half the number of people... and what business wouldn't cut their costs like that if they could?

I remember counting heads in the ABC control room, back when I used to fill-in on Good Morning America. There were better than a dozen folks on the payroll in the control room. I walked into our control room in New Haven on Friday night. Three! Technology at work.

I produced my little travelogue with a minimal amount of equipment. It was not broadcast quality, but it wasn't terrible. And, for a motivated audience, where content is much more important than production values, my $30 camcorder is all that's needed.

Mike worked hard to unlock the value of technology for his station. Going forward, I think the real value lies elsewhere. VJ type equipment can allow one or two people to produce narrowly focused, very salable content. Think of the show being the end product, not the station.

The example I often use is a fellow employee at the TV station who's a prolific knitter. She's got the skills necessary to produce a daily, weekly or even unscheduled video knitting show.

Unlike the conventional TV model, older content stays online forever (How many changes are there in knitting from year-to-year?), using search engines and word of mouth to attract new viewers along the way and providing a library of revenue producing programming. In computing parlance, this evergreen content is called 'long tail.'

Because the programming would be narrowly focused, each viewer would likely be worth more to an advertiser (knitting needles, yarn, patterns, etc). The whole concept of comparing CPM for an ad buy is turned on its ear because there are so few wasted viewers.

To a certain extent PhotoshopTV is doing this now. So is or-live, which presents surgical procedures live and recorded on demand, on their website.

Programs like Diggnation or Rocketboom, which are more broadly aimed, do not fit my revenue model, even though they are using the technology as I picture it being used.

There is money to be made for specialists who can produce their own material. It could be a show on ham radio or child rearing or golf or any number of topics. Content rules! If there's an connective interest and someone selling a product your audience might buy, the rest is academic!

Even better, distribution is much easier than TV or cable, since anyone can set up a website instantly¹ and bandwidth costs continue to drop rapidly.

Startup costs for a TV station are in the millions... often tens of millions of dollars. Start up costs for these web narrowcasts can be in the thousands, though often, hundreds of dollars!

I've been toying around with an idea for a web show myself. All I need is a little motivation. I figure a half dozen episodes in the can should get me started. I already have everything I need to produce it at home!

That's crazy, isn't it? I already have everything I need at home.

¹ - How instantly can you set up a site? My boss bought an iPhone and set up a website to go with it! If he's spent $25 on the website, he's gone overboard.

I've received a few emails from folks wondering where I got a camcorder for $30? A little explanation is necessary, because it's not quite that simple.

CVS and Rite Aid (among others), sell minimalistic camcorders made by Pure Digital. This camcorder has just a few controls - record, play, delete. There's no fast forward or rewind and no ability to review or delete what you've recorded, except the last shot you took.

The camcorders are advertised as one-time-use. The idea is, you shoot your video and then return the camcorder to the store where, for some more money, they'll plunk it on a DVD. They they recycle the camcorder.

Someone, much wiser than me, figured if the drugstore can get your video off, so can you! You need a special cable (make it yourself or buy it online) and special software.

None of this is particularly difficult, but when seen in the aggregate, it's a complex process best suited to nerds and geeks.

Finally, after all that is done, you need to download and install the XVid codec. Without that, the video is invisible to your PC.

So, $30 camcorder - yes. But, there's a lot of work after you give CVS or Rite Aid your cash.

Here's the 'hangout' for all the people using these. Unfortunately, the good info is poorly organized and hidden within rambling conversations and pleas for help.

All this being said, you might ask why am I using this little POS¹ camcorder? Simply, it forces me to concentrate on the basics. I have to think about every shot. There's no zooming. With a relatively long lens, panning is prohibitively shaky. On top of that, you can only capture about 25 minutes of video.

It is a challenge, plain and simple. That's the fun!

¹ - In reality, the camcorder is very solidly built and the video quality is superb.

My boss brought his iPhone to work today. I asked nicely and he handed it over.

Much of the phone was interestingly neat... and then we went on the web. In fact we loaded this very page.

Page loading, as you've probably heard, took a while (and the Flash video I have from Sunday's entry isn't supported and didn't load). Amazingly, when the webpage filled the screen side-to-side, it was still quite readable! That's a lot of content on a tiny screen. It was tack sharp.

I turned the iPhone on its side. The webpage went from portrait to landscape. Impressive.

I tried a 'finger pinch.' Seamlessly, the iPhone began to smoothly zoom in on the text. Then I flicked my finger on the screen and the iPhone scrolled through the page.

It was a real 'wow' experience. Sorry Microsoft. I know you used that word to describe Vista. This is really woweriffic.

There are still many serious shortfalls to the iPhone. There's a lot it can't do that software alone will not fix. It was still very impressive to hold.

He made me give it back.

It looks like the boss is starting a paper trail on National Hurricane Center Director Bill Proenza. When Proenza criticized NOAA's budget for anniversary celebrations, saying it was taking money away from a satellite project that affected accuracy... I think that's when we entered the "don't get angry, get even," stage of employment.

I don't know much about Proenza, but what I've heard has been positive. Coming to run NHC from elsewhere in the Weather Service must be tough. It is, by far, the most visible job in the Weather Service.

There is incredible pressure to forecast at levels beyond our present scientific capability. Wouldn't that be the definition of pressure?

While all this tumult is going on upstairs, downstairs at least one forecaster seems to be throwing Proenza under the bus. This is from today's Miami Herald in an article titled, "Pressure builds for storm chief" :

Avila goes on to blame Proenza for something Avila acknowledges isn't what was actually said. It's getting messy.

Is this jealousy from a PhD whose boss is just a mister? It wouldn't be the first time. Most of Proenza's lead forecasters do have greater academic credentials than he does.

June and July, though part of the hurricane season, are normally quiet months in the tropics. It's not until mid-August that things begin to get busy. I hope, by then, the Hurricane Center will be able to concentrate on hurricanes.

Wow! Bill Roenza's gotta go as the director of the National Hurricane Center.

I didn't think so when I wrote an entry on Tuesday, but the Miami Herald has advanced its earlier story with additional comments from lead forecasters. There's no internal confidence for Proenza from those guys.

Part of what Proenza did was plead for a replacement for the soon-to-die Quickscat satellite. Then he quantified a value NHC's accuracy would fall if Quickscat was gone.

I thought his number was way off mark then. The hurricane forecasters at NHC seem to agree.

Obviously, every piece of observational equipment is important, but by the time a storm threatens land there are better tools than Quickscat, which only covers a given area a few times a day.

If you're NOAA, can you promote one of the insiders to replace Proenza (if he goes)? Doesn't that just legitimize this mutiny?

This story's not over.

Today is the fourth anniversary of this blog. My first posting is dated July 4, 2003. The photo on the left accompanied it.

You can read that entry if you like. I'll warn you, it's pretty meaningless stuff.

The bad news is, these blog entries last forever. The good news is, these blog entries last forever.

There was a www.geofffox.com before there was a blog. I've owned the domain for nearly 10 years. It was a random collection of pages with little to tie it all together.

Since the blog began I've racked up 1.4 million page reads. That number stuns me.

This is my 2,432nd entry. That also stuns me.

You have commented 2,708 times. Another stunner.

I've missed a few days here and there, but mostly I've stayed disciplined enough to write at least once a day, often more. It's weird because the rest of my life lacks any sense of discipline.

I have discovered how enjoyable writing can be. The real secret is, the first draft is not where the fun is. It's only after rewriting that I get any satisfaction.

Much of my rewriting time is spent removing catch phrases and other bad habits. Most of the time, rewriting removes, rather than adds, words. My goal is to tighten up the prose.

All the entries are rewritten - every one. Some are rewritten and revised multiple times. I've punched up words and phrases months after the original entry was 'published.'

I'm still disheartened that typos and poor grammar sneak through. Helaine and a few friends send me corrections all the time. They're always welcome.

There are mistakes in the blog. Mostly, I leave them in, though I'll often add a note to acknowledge my error. As a contemporaneous account of what's going on, that seems to be my obligation.

Really good blogs have a purpose - one topic that ties it all together. By that definition, this is not a good blog. It's only purpose is to state what's on my mind.

Over time I've added photos and video. I wouldn't doubt, at some future date, video will become a larger part of the blog's flow. That seems to be the future of the Internet. Right now it's a hassle.

It would be a shame to lose the elegance of the written word.

Thanks for stopping by. I enjoy being read.

I've been wearing the boot for my fractured fibula since June 11. I went back to the orthopedist this morning to see how things are going.

My impressions first, then hers.

There's a whole lot less pain overall and no pain at all when I'm in the boot. I walked all over Midtown Manhattan last Saturday with no problems... until I got home. Even then it was just a little sore, and that passed.

Tuesday at work, as I was walking onto our elevated anchor desk when I caught my foot on something and felt a twinge. Since then, without the boot there is some minor sensitivity, especially if I turn the leg to an uncomfortable position.

Today's appointment was for 11:30 AM and they took me right on time. A technician took me to the x-ray table¹, snapping off three shots. They're still old school at this office with actual film negatives that get chemically processed.

My doctor took a look and was pleased with my results. She pointed to an area which was a darker shade of gray than the surrounding bone. It was where the healing is taking place.

My first x-ray (before I visited her) showed nothing. My next x-ray showed a small off-shade area. This time, the area has grown.

"So, the worse it looks, the better it is," I asked? Bingo!

She said I was healing quickly, something I was pleased to hear. As you get older... ugh, must I say this... As you got older, nothing works as well as it did when you were young. That includes your recuperative powers.

She said I have no restrictions on walking, as long as the boot is on. That's good, because my folks are coming in in a few weeks and I need to keep up! We have lots of plans, much of which includes walking.

This stress fracture happened as I was running, trying to get into shape. I'm not anxious to repeat that, but I still want to work on getting fit. Once I'm boot free, I plan on lots of bike riding.

Finally, I don't know who it was who invented my Velcro encrusted boot, but I am grateful. My leg would be in a cast without this technology. I can remove the boot to shower and sleep. That makes the whole adventure much more palatable.

It's still a pain, but I haven't let it change my life.

I will wear the boot another three weeks, until all pain is gone.

¹ - I still find it comical they throw a washcloth sized lead shield over my mid-section as the x-rays fire through my leg.

A few years ago I had a question about the Cassini space probe. I sent an email to Carolyn Porco of the imaging team, who I didn't know. She answered my query and put me on her mailing list.

This is a great mailing list - possibly the best I'm on!

Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for a while, moving in and out of the rings and past Saturn's multitude of moons. I'd put a number, but no one really knows how many there are, plus a lot depends on your definition of a moon!

One of the latest stops for Cassini was a nice photo session with Hyperion. It's reddish in color and pock marked with craters. Like so much else in space, Hyperion is potato shaped.

The potato factor has been constant topic of conversation between Dave brody, my former producer on Inside Space, and me. We have no idea why the natural order of space has chosen this particular vegetable to model so much on.

On most solid planets and moons, an incoming meteorite blasts into the surface, ejecting a significant portion of what was there. On hyperion, an oncoming meteorite hitting the surface would primarily compress it. Very little would be blasted back into space - even with Hyperion's minimal gravity.

All I could think of was Styrofoam. Hyperion acts as if it's made of Styrofoam!

Like Styrofoam, Hyperion is isn't very dense. If you had a large enough bathtub, Hyperion would float (as would Saturn itself). Hyperion has half the density of water.

I'm getting a little jealous. It seems we know more about Saturn and its moons than we know about Earth and ours. The Cassini instrumentation is quite good and has produced tons of data.

In fact, Casini was able to measure its effect on Hyperion as it looked on from 30,000+ miles away.

That's ridiculously precise!

Is there a practical application for the money spent on this mission? I can't see any and yet I'm pleased by the 'science in the abstract' we've been able to pull out. And, I thank Carolyn for sneaking me onto her list.

This afternoon, as I got out of bed, MSNBC, CNN Headline News and Fox were all carrying live helicopter coverage of a car chase on I-5 north of Los Angeles. I like to call this kind of stuff 'news porn.'

The driver of the 1997 Saturn was wanted for suspicion of DUI (or so said the on-screen graphics). The car was doing the speed limit and staying within the lines on the Interstate.

I have no idea how this story ended. Time took its toll and I had to leave.

The story itself is so unimportant that there's no real need to update America on what transpired. Which, of course begs the question - why cover it at all?

It all comes down to the definition of news. News used to mainly be about concepts and ideas. It is now much more event and celebrity oriented.

Events make for more compelling than nearly anything else... at least while the event's in progress. Concepts are much more difficult a story to put on TV.

Events and celebrities are 'low hanging fruit' when you're running a newsroom... even one that's covering the entire nation.

I am sure this unimportant story was a much bigger draw than anything else these three networks could have chosen to run. It will be interesting to see how CNN's main channel (running CNN International at this time) did in the ratings versus the other three.

I'll admit, I couldn't turn away.

How can I chastise these networks for what they ran when it was my own viewing choice? It's easy to be critical. It's much more difficult to be angry while they're being practical.

I've been in TV over 25 years, yet my heart is still in radio. I loved being a jock. It was what I wanted to be when I grew up!

Back then, I thought I was pretty good... though I cringe today when hearing some airchecks. I got as far as doing mornings in Philadelphia. That's not so awful.

A few years ago, CBS decided to change the format of WCBS-FM. For decades it had been a New York City fixture as 'the' oldies station. Though not the top station in the city, it had a very salable audience.

It was, alas, expensive to run. I would guess WCBS-FM had the most expensive jock staff in New York City, some of whom still needed board ops.

One day CBS just pulled the plug. Oldies gave way to 'Jack,' an automated format with a wide mix of music. Lots of people were upset.

As it turns out, New York City voted with its feet! Ratings slid and revenues dropped (much more than costs dropped).

Now CBS seems to have seen the error of its ways. The rumor is, sometime next week oldies will ring out again from 101.1 FM in New York.

I'm happy about the change. I'm happy the bean counters were wrong. I'm happy live jocks will return. I'm happy fun entertainment on the radio is valued.

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone" - Joni Mitchell.

Hey, CBS-FM. If you're looking for a fill-in weekend jock, I have a set of headphones ready to go.

Drudge has it on his front page, though pretty far down the left side. The AP wrote it up nicely. A bit of trouble Friday night at Obama Headquarters in Iowa.

Hmmm.... where have I heard this before? Here's the opening 'graph' of a story from the New York Times, June 17, 1972.

Here's a copy of the actual story that ran on page 30 in the Times and the text of the story that was on the front page of the Washington Post. Remember, we knew nothing else except there was a burglary in Larry O'Brien's office at the Watergate (The image of the front page on the left is from two days later, June 19, 1972).

I doubt last night's burglary was anything more than a burglary. The stolen laptops were probably the target.

On the other hand, Watergate also seemed like a meaningless burglary. Nixon was way ahead at the polls. He would end up winning the presidential election with 60% of the popular vote and nearly 97% of the Electoral College.

Why would CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) even care what O'Brien did or did not know?

Just for a second, let's make believe there was something politically evil going on Friday night in Iowa. Are there still Woodwards and Bernsteins in journalism? Are there Ben Bradlees and Katherine Grahams who would allow reporters to spend days and days pursuing leads which probably weren't going to pan out? Few thought Watergate would be anything more than the 2-bit burglary it was.

I'm afraid I know the answer.

Corporate journalism, where publishers (and TV managers) answer to stockholders, not individual owners and where the cost of debt service has entered into the daily decision making process, has changed journalism in profound ways.

If 1972 happened in 2007, how much would we know?

This follows a conversation on the family room sofa. I'd appreciate it if you'd drop a comment and tell me where you're reading this.

My website software doesn't verify your name or email address, so if you want to be anonymous, just enter some bogus info. However, I'd appreciate it if you gave me your real city.

If there's any kind of reasonable response, I'll tabulate the results for a later entry.

I'll wait another day or so before tabulating yesterday's responses.

A quick observation - I am surprised by the percentage from Connecticut. Breakouts I've seen in the past show more geographic diversity.

I'm now speculating, in-state readers go to the front page. Out-of-state readers are brought via search engines and go directly to inside pages. It's just a guess.

This has to be the fastest flame out in the history of government employment. Bill Proenza is out at the Hurricane Center. “Bill Proenza continues to serve as a NOAA employee,” is the official line... whatever that means.

Within the last few weeks Proenza picked a verbal fight with his bosses at National Weather Service Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD while pissing off his underlings in Florida.

When was the last time you signed a petition asking for your boss to be fired? His employees did.

When 'outsider' Proenza was promoted to NHC director, everything I heard was positive. He had run the Weather Service's Southern Region. How could it have turned this quickly?

Now Dr. Ed Rappaport, the center’s deputy director, is acting director. For his sake (and everyone else's), this had better be a year of amazing forecast accuracy.

The last two days at work have been hectic. We're installing some new computers which will be seen on-the-air during the weather broadcasts.

Cool technology. Hopefully, I'll do it justice.

I'm not sure how many computers are now under my control at work, but it's more than a dozen! The more computers you have, the more often you're going to get trouble.

I've mentioned this before, but it bares repeating... Before computers, if you lost your mechanical assistance performing your job, you'd slow down. Now, if there's a breakdown, you're dead.

Think about what's happened to the airlines more than once over the past year. Airplanes had the value of paperweights!

It's happened to cell phone networks, ATMs, TV stations too. Over the next few years it will only happen more often!

Helaine started it with a couch conversation Sunday evening. She wondered, as I had in the past, where were you while you were reading this blog? The numbers are in, and I'm a little surprised.

About 100 of you have left a note on my website over the past few days, telling me where you are. Since I average over 1,000 page reads a day, it's a significant, though not overpowering percentage of my readers. 59 of that group are reading in Connecticut.

That Connecticut number is a stunner, because website stat programs paint a very different picture. I tried to address this a few days ago and was a little confusing. Two of you responded, though it seems my poor choice of words let you miss the point.

Most 'regular' readers come in through the home page (or read my most recent entries through my RSS feed using Yahoo!, Google or an installed feed reader). Most out-of-state readers are probably here after following a search engine link which brought them to an older entry. They never saw my home page or my request.

Most of you (not all of you) know me from my job on TV. I'm not sure how that will affect my writing going forward... if it affects it at all. I already parse my words, remaining ever alert that what I say on my private website can reflect on my very public life.

A number of the respondents left their web address. That gave me a chance to take a peek at them.

Marko in Dayton, Ohio also has a blog - though no entries since April. He has built some pretty cool Pinewood Derby race cars with his son, referred to as "#2."

Doug Harris is also a blogger and also stopped blogging in April. Did something happen in April I didn't hear about?

Mike, in Arlington, VA has a website with a cool name: RadioMojo. His home page explains he'll no longer be doing whatever it was RadioMojo did. Its date: April 25^th.

You can't make this stuff up.

A reader name Mumbles linked to his photos on Flickr. There's a lot to like here. I enjoy looking at other photographers work, trying to find ways to improve mine.

I wonder if Mumbles knew I'd look at his work... or guessed I'd tell you to look? He probably wanted me to look at them. Mission accomplished.

Chuck Schultz sent his photo link too. He's into racing cars and dogs. You can tell a lot about a person by their photos. Dogs are very photogenic. They never mind posing nor care if you take too many photos.

I wonder if there was a downside to growing up as Charles Schultz... but not 'the' Charles Schultz.

Chuck is a ham operator. There are a bunch of them here. I wrote an article recently in the national ham radio magazine, QST. I'm sure that brought some of them to my site.

Jeff in Muncie, Indiana is a ham too, with a blog and a podcast. That's an undertaking. I listened to some of his latest entry about Hiram Percy Maxim, in many ways the father of ham radio. The podcast sounds like the kind of first class radio production you often hear on NPR.

Jeff has links on his blog... though none to me. I like links.

Am I boring you? You don't have to read this if I'm boring you.

My father left a message. My sister left a message. My cousin left a message.

Meredith has put much of her life online in a free form way. That's how this website started, but I found it too difficult to be free form on the web, which cries out for structure.

John, from "The new and exciting Bridgeport, CT" linked to his family's website. I like this idea a lot, but I like reading "Christmas letters".

My friend Kevin's family just put up a family blog with my help. With four girls out in the world, often away from their Connecticut roots, their blog promises to keep the family closer.

Adam left a link for his blog. It is the antithesis of this one in that I have long entries while Adam is often satisfied with a few words or a sentence.

I like his reference to your worst hair decision ever.

When I was a kid, a new barber-in-training cut my hair so short that even pre-teen Geoff knew he was in trouble. I'm still cringing over that. The guy who owned the shop told me to come back in a few days and the hair would have grown back enough to repair the damage.

More recently, a news director sent me to her hair stylist, who proceeded to make me look like Lyle Lovett. Even Lyle Lovett doesn't want to look like Lyle Lovett. And, I still had to wear the hair on-the-air. Mortifying!

Damon Scott checked in from Lubbock, TX. I've written about Lubbock a lot recently, because of the TV Guide Channel reality show about a Lubbock newsroom. They seem to be in reruns, because the DVR hasn't recorded anything the last two weeks.

Damon is a jock, doing afternoon drive on Mix100. His photo is nowhere to be found on the station's website. I looked. I always look for disk jockey photos.

When I was a disk jockey, I used to answer the 'hitline' trying to pick up girls who were calling to request songs. My first day in radio (really) I got a call from Jeanine, who told me about the sexual failings of a station's newsman.

There is a medical term to describe his unfortunate haste. Jeanine was a little more blunt.

Damon - don't pick up hitline chicks.

Actually, maybe they email photos first now? Damon, use your best judgment.

McD is another blogger who wrote back. His home page has a very nice line drawing of him (I think) in the upper left corner.

There's something very folksy about the sketch. If it's possible to make a web page folksy, it's mission accomplished by virtue of this little sketch.

You told me where you were and you told me from all over the United States. Most responses came from people I don't know, though there are many readers who I count in my extended group of friends.

Seamus. Ireland. Cool. Thanks. I even know how to properly pronounce it! You are are token foreigner,

As long as you've read this far, I'll let you in on something. I really enjoy knowing you read this.

Though smaller, by far, than the audience I reach on television, this is a much more personal medium. I try to speak my mind and hope you will still think kindly of me even as I reveal myself as a guy lots of faults and insecurities.

I worry you'll tire of me, or I'll become boring to you. I want to stay fresh and write meaningful things, but is that possible when you force yourself to compose at the keyboard every single day? I don't know.

More than one a friend in LA has picked up on something trivial I've written about and said, "no one wants to know you ate corn last night." We depend on our friends for life's true wisdom.

At the bottom of this screen and on every computer I use on a regular basis, there is a counter. Every 15 or 20 minutes it tallies the page hits to my website. I look at it all the time.

At 3:00 AM EDT it resets to zero. I don't like that part.

As character actors go, he had quite a career. He was always the stiff, stern company man or governmental hack - the guy who had a ready "no" for anything you needed.

Charles Lane's resume on IMDB is as long as your arm. There are 300+ entries, many of them for multiple appearances on the same TV series. On Bewitched alone he was Mr. Roland, Mr. Cushman, Mr. Jameson, Mr. Harmon and Mr. Mr. Meikeljohn.

Like most character actors, he wasn't well known by name. If you're too well known, your value as a 'character' diminishes. The ratio of those who knew him to those who knew his name had to be 100:1, maybe more.

I most remember Charles Lane as Homer Bedloe, president of the railroad (the CF&RW) that employed Floyd and Charlie and ran the Cannonball between Hooterville and Pixley with that stop at Petticoat Junction's "Shady Rest Hotel."

Mr. Bedloe was out to get Kate Bradley, while Kate's Uncle Joe tried to get Bedloe. Kate was always victorious. By definition, everyone on Petticoat Junction prevailed against Uncle Joe! Homer Bedloe never got more than a Pyrrhic victory.

It wasn't until I read about him in Wikipedia and saw his 'original' name (Charles Gerstle Levison) that I realized he was Jewish. They had Jews in San Fransisco in 1905? Who knew?

Charles Lane was 102 when he died on Monday in Southern California. He was one of my all-time favorite mean people.

A documentary on his life is in production. I'd like to see "You Know the Face" when it's released. Meanwhile, the clip below is from Nickelodeon on the occasion of his 100^th birthday.

We're getting some equipment installed at work. That means a support tech in from Madison, WI and lots of extra time on-the-job (for both of us). Tonight he and I and Gil Simmons took a walk from the TV station to get dinner.

I've been meaning to say this, because I've been noticing it a lot more, but New Haven is becoming a happening place, especially downtown. I've been here 23 years and the changes are amazing.

As we walked past the Green and down Temple Street there was plenty of activity at outdoor cafes. I'm going to have to take Gil's word, but the bar scene is happening. More importantly, there are now dozens of nice places to eat downtown.

People are also moving into the downtown area with some very pricey condo conversions. An old girdle factory, phone company building, and other office space have become apartments and condos. When people live in a city, it will thrive.

Make no mistake, New Haven has plenty of problems. You can't watch my station or read the New Haven Register for long without reading about a shooting - often gang related. And, New Haven is still a very poor city, with lots of unemployed or underemployed people.

Gentrification often displaces people of more limited incomes who are priced out of the neighborhood. At the moment that's less likely to happen here because there were few living downtown.

Out-of-towner's think of Connecticut and visualize lower Fairfield County. New Haven is not Greenwich! This part of the state has little in common with the Gold Coast, beginning with income and housing prices.

I don't think there was a tipping point - a magic moment when everything began to change for New Haven. It just happened organically. Now the pace is picking up.

Like I said, after 23 years here it's a very welcome change.

I have been looking for a time to write all day - nada. I'll fill you in later tonight.

My job has little in the way of manual labor. I don't lift boxes or fix cars in a hot garage. Still, I'm exhausted after a really difficult week with lots of long days.

We just installed some new weather equipment. It won't make me more accurate, but it will allow me to make the weather presentation a little more compelling and a little more easily understood.

The new system we got replaces a few very old pieces of hardware. If you're a computer geek, you'll recognize the name "Silicon Graphics." Silicon Graphics, aka SGI, was the leader in computer hardware that worked well with video.

SGI did it with proprietary hardware - meaning it was very expensive. On the other hand, our SGI "O2" and "Octane" computers were both built like brick shit houses. Can I say that?

When PCs became dirt cheap and lightning fast, SGI had a problem.

Anyway, our two SGI boxes were dead, or dying, and had to be replaced. The new PC based equipment does nearly everything¹ the SGI machines did, but at many times the speed.

In the weather department that means it's possible to manipulate our data and present it with a little more movement and flash.

I've been through these graphic upgrades in the past - more than once. It's all incremental, with no individual upgrade being Earth shattering. Still, viewers would notice (and not in a good way) if we ever went back even a single step.

Of course the problem with new hardware is, you've got to learn how to use it. Then, you've got to learn how to integrate it into your presentation. I don't want to use flashy stuff just to be flashy. I'm still trying to tell a story with visual aids.

I worked a 12 hour day all week. On Monday I helped with the installation. Tuesday and Wednesday I trained and prepared new graphics. This morning was supposed to be the debut. It was just the start of another 12 hour day.

At air time the going got a little rough and our original equipment was re-energized and put back on-the-air. It's a sign of how we've come to accept computers as just another troubled relationship that no one was bent out of shape. It wasn't unexpected... though it wasn't expected either.

By 5:00 PM we had ironed out the kinks and went live.

So much of using these systems is trying to be artistically creative. I'm sure some of what I've done so far is is lots of effort with little reward. I've spent time producing graphics that just don't make the grade.

That comes with the territory. It will take a while to understand what I can do and how it will look (even before it's produced).

At the moment I'm mentally exhausted.

I expect to get a phone call or two over the weekend as others run into trouble. I might even have to run in for a hands on fix. I've got no problem with that.

I'm looking forward to Monday when the hours will be a little shorter and the challenge of this system will be fresher.

¹ - Systems, like the one in our weather area, only have an installed base in the hundreds. The software is never finished, and always buggy, when it first comes out. Over time are all the features added (and the bugs swatted).

Right now, this system only works in a 3D world. It needs to work in both 3D and 2D simultaneously. The last sentence sounds confusing, because the whole concept is confusing... and difficult to achieve.

I readily admit, I don't use a different password for every account I have. I do have at least 10 different 'words' I use - most on a daily basis.

Adding more passwords becomes problematic, because obscure passwords for accounts that aren't used on often are easily forgotten. Remember, I lived through sixties!

My run-in with Dell today was particularly annoying.

I want to post on Dell's community forums because of a software shortcoming with this (mostly wonderful) laptop. I went to register using a password often used on 'occasional' sites where money is not involved.

My first choice was rejected, as was my second!

AreYouK1dd1ng (that would work)?

At work, one system I use requires me to change my password every month or two. That's another pain.

Passwords were a good idea when we only had one or two. Now, with large numbers of sites requiring them, it's time for a better idea.

This is about yesterday, Saturday. We didn't do anything special, but it was a great day.

Helaine and Steffie want me to update the look of my eyeglasses. I haven't had my eyes checked in a while, so I made an appointment for this coming Friday. Uh oh - that didn't fit in with Steffie's schedule.

We went to the optical center yesterday to pick out frames. I'll go back Friday to get my eyes checked. I suspect that's not the usual order of things.

Currently, my glasses are oval shaped. The new glasses are rectangular. I worry about making a Kerri Russell fashion faux pas.

"I used to like Geoff.... but something's changed. I just can't put my finger on it."

Helaine says it's good for me that the girl who waited on us had no idea who I was. She thinks I need more humility. Humility is so overrated.

It was great spending time with Steffie. I'm sure she'll cringe when she reads this, but there's a whole lot of maturity and understanding that wasn't there a year or two ago. She's funny and intelligent. She's fun to be with.

Don't ask why, but along the way I developed this desire to go go-cart riding. We headed to "The Game" in North Haven.

Before we had a chance to cart, we headed to the batting cage.

I've never been an athlete and yesterday was no exception. However, I didn't make a fool of myself. Steffie and Helaine did the batting cage too and were great.

Truth is, hitting the ball with the bat wasn't important. We just had a good time kibitzing and laughing and being a family.

Go-carts was a bad idea. I drive a car that can do 150 mph. Maybe a go-cart isn't the same thrill it used to be.

This is the same problem the Harlen Globetrotters have. They were great... until NBA players started showboating. Now, what's the big deal?

We scoured Route 5 looking for a diner... and found one. Every diner I know of is owned and run by Greeks. They really have it down to a science.

What is it about us and diners? Are we the anti-gourmand family? The food was great, especially my chicken pot pie with homemade crust.

When you add it all up it, nothing we did was so special. On the other hand, it was totally amazing.

You understand, right?

This is so strange. Everything has been fine with me today. I worked this afternoon, went to dinner tonight, came back to work and... I'm squeaky!

I don't know what's happened, but I have what seems like laryngitis. There's no pain. I had no inkling this was coming on. I am just squeaking.

I suppose I'll be on the news at 11, but I'm not sure. I can't be certain there's three minutes of voice in me!

I suspect, though I have no way of knowing, that this is related to my occasional lip swelling.

There are no guarantees. I am out of warranty!

In the past, I've talked about buying knockoff watches and other 'almost' things on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. You may decide for yourself whether my purchases have been good or not.

I really didn't think there was harm in what I was doing. I wasn't going to buy the high end, name brand, real deal anyway. I find it tough to believe anyone's buying the Roleckcs and eschewing the Rolex. They certainly never lost a sale from me.

In the past I heard shadow stories about how buying knockoffs support al-Qaeda. Seriously, is there a story with less credence?

Here's the part of the equation I never thought about. Knockoffs aren't limited to designer clothes and accessories. There are knockoff drugs and auto parts being made. These knockoffs replace items that provide 'mission critical' functions.

My watches come from China (though the case may say otherwise). So did the knockoff Colgate toothpaste, with poisonous additive. Did one beget the other?

If my $30 watch fails, who cares? It's different if it's my Lipitor or airplane engine component.

We have become very dependent on the Chinese to make stuff for us. They do, on the cheap. But we're also buying into their way of doing business, which doesn't seem to have the same respect for intellectual property as we're used to. On top of that, there is little regard for the manufacturing employees¹, much less the consumers at the end of the trail.

Corners are cut. Ingredients aren't what they seem. The controls we expect aren't in place. Does anyone police it?

I don't want to think my purchases encouraged this... but maybe they did

It's troubling. I'll admit it.

¹ - A nameless friend, in China to produce some news stories, visited a plant where workers were plating metal, dipping it, along with their unprotected hands and arms, into a mysterious chemical solution. As toothless as EPA and OSHA are, I can't imaging that happening here.

As poker playing goes, I've had better stretches. I still enjoy the game. Still play all the time. I'm just not playing as well as I have.

This time of year card playing gets increased attention because of the World Series of Poker. The WSOP is a series of 55 poker tournaments, all played in Las Vegas. There are different games played at different stakes, but the big daddy is the "$10,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament."

It's called the World Poker Championship. No dispute there.

In Hold'em, each player gets two cards. He tries to make the best five card poker hand using a combination of those two and five common cards, shared by everyone at the table.

No limit means any player, at any time, can push in all his chips. That's a gutsy, risky move, that's sometimes worthwhile.

This isn't like a bad Western. No one has to put up the deed to the ranch to stay in the game. You are only on the hook for what you've got on the table.

Hold'em is interesting because it's a betting game more than a card game. Yes, luck enters into it, but the really good players consistently show up at final tables. There is more than a little skill at work.

My friend Rick, probably more poker obsessed than I am, invited me to stop by his place after work. He was buying the pay-per-view broadcast of the final table and planned to watch until there was only one man standing.

The fact that there's a pay-per-view broadcast (cable, satellite and online) of this event is testament to how hot poker has become. It's also moved from a game played by old guys to one played by loads of twenty somethings.

I showed up around 11:50 pm and was ushered down to the basement. The 'game' was on one computer monitor while Rick played cards on the other. This was poker player Nirvanna.

What had started as a 6,358 players was down to four. Over $40 million in prize money had already been handed out, but the big payouts were still to come. No one left would win less than $1.8 million and one of them would head home with over $8 million!

Unlike ESPN's after-the-fact edited coverage, the live broadcast didn't reveal all. There were no hole card cameras to show the player's secrets. I found it difficult to follow the live action with the same enthusiasm I'll have watching later.

Rick cashed a small win in a 45 player tournament and signed off his account as I took over, losing two nine person tournaments. Grrrrrr.

By 3:00 AM I was ready to call it a night.

In the three hours I spent in the basement, no players were knocked out. In fact, as I write this (with even less compelling audio coverage on in the background) the same four players are at the table!

There are no time limits in effect. They could be done in a few minutes or play on into Wednesday. The forced bets, or blinds, keep going up. That guarantees the game can't last forever, but nothing's being forced right now.

I think I'd like to go in Vegas to play in the World Series. $10,000 is too rich for me (especially since I'm likely to be 'dead money' against this competition), but there are other cheaper games played in the weeks leading up to the big show.

It seems a little decadent. It seems very exciting.

I got a 'real' email from PayPal today (There has been some confusion because of the quotes. It really and truly was from PayPal). It is one of the zillions of emails I get all the time that have a PayPal return address. It is one of a handful that's real... and within that group a smaller subset that wasn't expected.

It ended up in my spam folder. Even as I began to read it, my original assumption was - scam.

I feel bad for PayPal, which manages to have the least trustworthy return address in cyberspace! There's a dubious distinction.

What was missing from this email about privacy policies and security was any acknowledgment that PayPal attracts scamming emails the way poop attracts flies. Doesn't PayPal owe it to their users a brief, "We've seen it all and here are some of things you should look out for," in their emails?

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Unless email is cleaned up soon, its utility to advance our electronic society will stop dead in its tracks. Our email protocols were set up under the false assumption that Internet users would be trustworthy. Duh!

A switchover will be briefly painful and disruptive. However, the longer we wait, the worse the situation will become... and it will have to come. Not that I have to worry. Someone I've just met from Benin is giving me a lockbox full of gold bullion.

I just showed this link to Helaine. I guess I should show it to you too.

Jezebel.com, which claims "CELEBRITY, SEX, FASHION, WITHOUT AIRBRUSHING," has published the 'before' picture from Redbook's recent Faith Hill cover. There has been some serious work done on Faith... though she started out looking great!

Is it really necessary to further screw up every teenage girl (and now their moms) by portraying unattainable physicality? Do we need to spawn a new generation of Nicole Richies (look at the left forearm and wrist)?

Newspapers and TV stations have policies in place to protect us from doctored photos. Maybe it's time for one from Redbook.

Over the course of the hurricane season I'll see lots of different computer projections. Hurricanes are notoriously difficult to forecast - especially before they form.

With that in mind, here's the scenario presented by the Canadian CMC computer model. It builds a tropical system near the Dominican Republic, then streams it north, hitting Connecticut late Monday.

The color shading shows sea surface temperatures, which cool rapidly north of Cape Hatteras. Under this scenario, the storm would be extratropical by the time it got to New England. For all intents and purposes, that's a minor factor.

Can it happen? Sure. Will it happen? Probably not.

Unfortunately, no one (certainly not me) is happy with a 'probably not' level of confidence. This will bear watching. More than likely it will be one of the dozens of false alarms I see every season.

It's still scary to see.

A strong line of thunderstorms slid into Connecticut this afternoon. Though no 'watch box' was up first, the Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, then Tornado Warning, in pretty rapid succession.

I was on the air within minutes of getting into the station. I didn't even have time to tie my tie.

I spent two hours on-the-air, assisted by Matt Scott¹ for a while, but mostly on by myself. That's two hours of non-stop talking... or attempting to non-stop talk.

It's very difficult. It was made more difficult since I had to both talk and operate my computers.

I don't want to rehash much of the two hours, but I would like to tell you about one specific moment. It was more than a little weird. Eerie is a good descriptive word.

While tracking the strongest cell at-the-moment on the radar, I zoomed in tight. My map couldn't have shown more than a few miles on a side. At that range individual streets show up as off-white lines on the otherwise Earth toned map. The radar echo returns were bright - the sign of strong downpours.

I clicked a few on-screen boxes and pressed the left mouse button as my cursor hovered over an unmarked street. The name popped up - W TODD ST. I looked at the map and briefly stopped my rhetorical conversation.

It was my neighborhood. I could see my street, not far away.

Helaine and Stef were watching at home. I later learned, when I talked about how strong this particular storm was and how I could actually see the street where I lived on this map, they headed to the basement.

It was an out-of-body experience to realize I had inadvertently stumbled upon a storm headed toward my home. How could I not pause for a moment to collect my thoughts?

There was some storm damage in Connecticut this afternoon and evening. A tornado is suspected in New Milford based on the damage and a spotter's report of a funnel cloud. I passed some large downed tree branches on my way home tonight.

At my house, the greatest impact was a nasty leaky from our dining room skylight. Leaks can be fixed.

¹ - Matt came in on his own, out-of-town friend and infant daughter in tow. I can't tell you how grateful I am that he chose to help out.

Yesterday, before the fury of the thunderstorms that hit our area, Helaine was in full bore fix-up mode. She had reserved a 2 HP powerwasher from a local equipment rental place.

Thanks to Bernoulli's Principle, the tiny nozzle on the powerwasher shoots a jet of water with enough power to perform home liposuction or add a second navel to anyone nearby. The powerwasher's task - remove two years of grime and gunk from the back deck and patio furniture.

I helped Helaine get it out of her SUV. These powerwashers are heavy and a little unwieldy. There's a little bit of plumbing, with brass fittings, and a medium sized compressor.

We wheeled it to the back, attached our garden hose to the intake and opened up the sillcock (Don't look at me. I didn't name it). The pump on the washer started whirring as Helaine pointed the wand down toward the wooden deck.

It didn't take more than a minute for the end fitting on our hose to pop off! I guess a winter outside isn't the best for plastic fittings under pressure.

While I got ready for work, Helaine and Stef went to get another hose... and just in cast it was repairable (it was) another hose end and clamp.

Our problems out of the way, we hooked everything up and Helaine squeezed the trigger. For two seconds the spray was strong... and then it wasn't. She tried again. She tried again, again.

Sure, you could powerwash a deck this way, if you had a week or two. I called the rental place. Long story short, by late in the afternoon, we had another powerwasher. And then the rains came.

This morning, Helaine went at it again. When Steffie turned on her blow dryer, on the same GFI circuit as the washer, we popped a breaker. No problem. Easily reset, but this project was beginning to feel 'snake bit.'

Later, the extension cord plug jostled loose. That popped the breaker on the washer unit itself (who knew it had one).

Part way through the job, Helaine called me so I could see her work. It's not the kind of thing you'd notice in the abstract, but when you compare the before and after - wow! Our wood was now wood colored, as opposed to the darkened yuck it was.

The washer goes back this afternoon. Right now, it's sitting in the sun, drying off before we put it back in the truck.

Helaine's sense of satisfaction is quite evident. She set out to do this grimy job and damn it, it's done. Mission accomplished!

I feel awful for Mark Dixon and my other meteorologist friends at Channel 3. Here's a taste of a story about a weather faux pas from today's Hartford Courant:

I'm not saying it couldn't have happened to me - because it could have. I tend to treat any kind of unsolicited video or eyewitness account with a grain of salt, but I'm not perfect.

Just to give you a taste of what goes on, here's an email I received Thursday:

I was so busy, I didn't see this until long after the cell had passed through Thomaston. By that time, based on an NWS report, we had sent a reporter there. He found nothing.

I wrote asking Sharon where she got her info.

Sharon didn't mean to be bad or misleading. She was doing what she felt was right. But, she originally passed along second hand information as if she had obtained it herself.

I try my best to make personal contact with anyone who sends unsolicited material I use, but I know there are times I haven't stridently followed my own rule. Speaking to someone usually provides to best clues to their trustworthiness.

This stuff happens all the time. Most of the time it's a photo that someone claims comes from a friend or relative - but it doesn't. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the same bogus Katrina pictures!

There's a larger point to be made here and that gets to the crux of citizen journalism. Are we ready to trust random members of the public to provide our news coverage?

Opinionated reporters (Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, Brit Hume) may choose to report only certain aspects of a story, but you know where they're coming from and can adjust accordingly. With random citizens, who knows what they're trying to accomplish or maybe they're too naive, like Sharon, to even know.

A good TV station, like WFSB, steps up to the plate and admits when they are wrong. That's what good meteorologists and good journalists do.

On the other hand, when caught sending dubious material, I've found unsolicited citizen 'journalists' often stop responding.

This is the new world. There are aspects I don't approve of.

With the back deck power washed, the deck furniture sparkling clean and the weather perfect, I headed outside with my laptop this afternoon. How nice.

The sky was blue, occasionally interrupted by some milky white cirrus clouds. The neighborhood was quiet. Saturday is normally a day to hear gas engines as lawns get mowed and hedges trimmed.

A few birds were chattering in nearby trees. Their calls are rhythmic and cryptic. Are they saying anything or is this the equivalent of the bell on a buoy in a harbor?

A good time to take some pictures! I went inside and fitted "Clicky" with his 70-300mm telephoto lens.

It didn't take long to realize, birds are more easily heard than seen! Even repetitive calls were tough to pin down.

Can a bird throw its voice like a ventriloquist? It seemed that way.

Finally, one sat down in a bush not far from me. He was tiny, with a curved beak. Click. Captured in the camera.

Later I showed the shot to Helaine.

"What kind is it," she asked?

"Cute," I answered.

"No really," she said, getting more serious.

"Brown... it's a brown bird."

It is.

Tammy Faye Messner, she of the heavyweight makeup and previously disgraced life, died on Friday. The death was revealed Saturday by Larry King, on who's show she had appeared a few days earlier.

The last name Messner came late. Tammy Faye is best remembered by me as Tammy Faye Bakker, wife of Jim Bakker of TV's PTL Club. Alas, they succumbed to the huge buckets of money sent to them, using their ministry as a piggy bank. Jim Bakker was sent away to prison.

You remember the PTL scandal? They had the air conditioned dog house!

My memories of Jim and Tammy go way back in their career. In fact, when I looked around the web, what I'm about to tell you was nowhere to be found¹.

Before the PTL Club, Jim and Tammy worked for Reverend Pat Robertson. Surprise!

This was back when his, then little, satellite channel was called the Christian Broadcasting Network. In their latter days with Robertson, Jim and Tammy often appeared on and hosted Robertson's flagship 700 Club.

Long before Jim wore a shirt and tie, I remember the "Jim and Tammy Show," a Christian children's show! Yup, Pat Robertson had these two moral weaklings host a show for kids!

I remember sitting home in Charlotte, NC back in the early 70s, watching them and laughing. It was amazing sport for me.

The show seemed very over-the-top and totally insincere. Of course I had no way of knowing where their careers would go.

After her marriage to Jim ended, Tammy somehow managed to position herself as a tragic figure, caught up in a world out-of-control. I was never that charitable or forgiving toward her. All I could think about was all the money, a large percentage obtained from the poor, old and infirmed, that flowed to PTL and was squandered by the Bakkers.

I've always felt there should be a special category for crimes that openly betray trust. Stealing that way seems so much more repugnant than conventional forms of theft. Its 'enhanced punishment' would apply to crooked politicians and other civil servants on the take, con men of all stripes, and folks like Jim and Tammy.

Her makeup was the least of my concerns.

¹ - After finishing this entry, I did find this site which talked about the Jim and Tammy Show.

I've become a big follower of TV Guide Channel's Making News: Texas Style. Warts and all, the show has grown on me. In fact, my biggest upset was it went into reruns just as I was getting interested. Now, it's back.

I had two episodes on the DVR when I sat down tonight to watch. As always, there were a few story lines woven through the show, but I was most interested in a fresh out of college reporter named Kara Lee.

Her assignment was to produce a story on salvia. Here's how salvia.net describes it.

Psychoactive - that's the operative word. Oh, it's legal in Texas.

I thought the idea of a story was good, but was very disappointed in what I saw of her report. She and her photographer staged footage!

Since they had no one using salvia, they went back to her photographer's apartment, where he simulated smoking some. Even worse, there was never a mention that either of them considered that wrong.

It was.

You were wrong and it has nothing to do with whether you choose to personally partake of salvia. You simply can't stage footage for news. Or, if you must for illustrative purposes, you must clearly say it's an illustration and not a factual portrayal.

To me, this is a tenet deep within the foundation of journalism. You don't make shit up.

Like I said, I'm disappointed.

I know some of you back in West Texas are reading this. Will you please tell Kara... or tell me if I'm way off base.

Every year the Arts Council of Greater New Haven raises funds with "Off the Wall." The concept is simple. 55 photographers donate 3 prints each. The 165 photos are matted and framed prints and then exhibited for a week. 11