A quiet place to think out loud Who put the filling in the pie in the sky?
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
HARD NEWS...
From our local newspaper:
The suspicious object that jammed traffic Monday on Interstate 75 and Daniels Parkway was not explosive, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office.The device — found on the side of Daniels Parkway under the northbound I-75 overpass — was prosthetic penis.
I'm sure we'll be covering it from all... er... angles.
Here's the newest word in the English language to piss me off: can't. Or.. "can not". Acording to dictionary.com: "can: is used to indicate physical or mental ability. Interesting. Even more interesting is the number of things people actually DO.. after telling you they CAN'T.
Just last night.. when one of our news crews was asked to cover (gasp) news.. they immediately informed us they CAN'T do that.. and finish the pre-arranged.. sit-on-my-ass-all-night story they had been "working" on for hours. How.. in a mere two hours.. could they drive four miles.. shoot a "vo" of a house.. drive ANOTHER four miles back.. and finish their "story"? A half hour was wasted arguing about how it CAN'T be done.. and yet.. it was. Imagine that. Apparently, they had both the physical and mental ability to get it done. You would think this would pleasantly surprise someone who, at first, thought themselves incapable. Apparently not.
Since I'm climbing back up on my soap box.. (didn't realize how out of shape I was).. I would like to point out the obvious. Telling the people you work with that you can't do your job.. is admitting you don't have the physical and/or mental ability to get it done. Now, sometimes, circumstances create a situation that is impossible to overcome. We can't be in two places at the same time. But isn't repeatedly saying you "can't" really PROVING that you're not qualified?
Or, perhaps, all of this is just another misuse of the English language. I love telling "PR-types" who tell me they "can't talk about it" how odd that is.. because we're talking about "it" as we speak. The confused look is priceless. At that point, I usually explain that we'll air a story that says.. Jane Doe WOULDN'T talk to us. In effect... she REFUSED. People often get angry at that. Just like people get angry at having to do something they said they "can't" do. Maybe some remedial English would help.
Oh well.. enough ranting. I just can't seem to get any work done today...
...my parents left home on a week's vacation. Except, since I live in Florida, that vacation happened at my house. It's just the first of many excuses I have about why I said (in February) that I would start writing here.. and haven't.
Thankfully, a gentle "Ahem" from a friend reminded me (again) of what I had said.
Since I last wrote.. I have been on a cruise (invited as a guest speaker - I highly recommend this).. been to Miami on a "much too much like college again" weekend.. and now we're getting ready for another hurricane season. I'm really betting on the odds this time.. we're due some peace and quiet.
I'm working late tonight... which is why.. one hour from airtime.. I am looking for things to write (insert your own joke here). One of the night crews is trying to explain why - since they have to spend 20 minutes getting a "vo" of breaking news - they can't go live at 11:14pm... even though their package was written at 8:45pm. All of a sudden.. "because I said so" is starting to make a lot more sense.
Stay tuned.. I will write more than once per major ratings period.. lol.
