Well it's time to act like the Southerner that I am this weekend. Why you ask? Because some significant snow is expected up here in the hinterlands of Ohio. Yes, I know, the Southwest corner of Ohio is really Northern Kentucky, but still 2-3 inches of snow are expected this weekend. No, I'm not freaked out about it...my wife is...I'm just laughing.
((Me shooting Football in Chicago//Courtesy: Eric Hager(does that work Eric?))
I'm laughing because this may actually be the first "Big Snow Event"
that I have ever sat out. Even when I was working in the Sports department, I got sucked into the Vortex...everyone did. For the past 22 years, I worked in TV and for TV...it's like a porn addiction. I hate to make fun of a business that I worked in for so long but geez...you would think that it's never snowed anywhere before...ever...if you watch your local news.
The weather people hunker down and try and pinpoint the exact time of the 1st snowflake and just generally try to look busy, telling people to "Be Prepared" and make it sound like the potential end of the world as we know it. The Assignment Desk is calling all of their crews and putting on a big dry erase board all the stories that will need to be done. The News Director will walk around and look important and make sure that there is Pizza for all of the people in the Newsroom...but forget his frozen field crews. The reporters and photographers just groan...and dig out all of their cold weather gear because they are going to spend the next 48 hours of their lives standing out in it.
My favorite is the "Generic" live shot of downtown or the cityscape where the reporter says "Yes, it's snowing out here right now, you can see it coming down". Thanks moron...I was wondering what that was falling from the sky around my house. Really, I shouldn't mock the reporters, they are doing what they are told to do. Weather coverage becomes "Multiple Team Coverage" and someone always does the "Big Picture" story that states and restates the blatantly obvious...multiple times throughout the day. I had to do this one time in Nashville, standing on a bridge with a reporter in a -10 degree morning, every 30 minutes, walking out to the camera and him saying "It's bitterly cold and the roads are covered with snow, not a lot of people out on the road. Most people are staying home and so should you". Duh...
The other thing that I always found laughable is the "Grocery Store" story. News crews all over the path of the storm will descend on the local Kroger or other Grocery store du jour and show video of people buying milk and bread. I never could figure out why that, but I think that is because I grew up in Hurricane alley...Florida. Milk and bread didn't do you much good down there. If the power goes out, the milk goes bad. Fast.
So here I sit, I do have to work in the morning at my part-time job. But, I can walk there if I needed to, it's a half-mile away. I sit and I laugh. Sure, I'll watch the Local News...if for no other reason than to see what I could be doing and take comfort in knowing that I don't have to do it anymore. I guess there is always that chance that I get back into the TV business, then I would have to do it and you will all be sitting back and laughing at me, but right now I'm not. I don't miss it. I just get to write stories like this looking back at it all and thinking "Damn, I'm glad that's not me".
Enjoy some other goofballs in the snow...Courtesy: The You Tube
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