Paul Stories: The Hand Signal For You’re Sitting On Your Mic
July 30, 2023
This one’s for the crew of The Computer Chronicles, who heard it about 50 times.
In the summer of 1970, I was a vacation relief engineer at KGW-TV in Portland. One day, I was the sound man for the local evening news. Tom Craven was the director. “You’d better not screw up,” he told me. I nervously checked and double-checked all the microphones.
John Cardis was the anchor, with Jack Cappel doing the weather. Things went fine for the first 20 minutes. In those days, the sports guy ran downstairs from the newsroom to the set at the last minute so he could include late baseball scores from the East.
Pat Stuckey literally runs into the studio, and sits down just as Tom calls, “Open Cardis mic, fade up on camera 1.” John says, “Now with the sports, here’s Pat Stuckey.” “Camera 2, Stuckey mic,” says Craven.
Still Awake? Read the rest of this interminable anecdote here.
More Music…55 KPES
July 30, 2023
KPES was the call sign of the 10 watt AM radio station I ran illegally in high school; the signal made it all the way to Tom Kervin’s house. If it was still running today, this would be at the top of it’s play list:
What MIT was like for me
July 30, 2023
(from June 20, 2021)
My MIT education was a lot like what an actor does when they prepare for a role; I hung around for four years, observing, learning how scientists and engineers acted and talked, Then (somehow) I graduated and left to make the movie that was my life. But like an actor, I never really learned to be a scientist or an engineer.
Thus, I say “Close enough for government work,” without ever having done any, or having had to measure anything precisely. My entire career in journalism was based on my computer knowledge from MIT, which was trivial. “I’m not a computer scientist, but I do play one on television,” and, in the newsroom, for that matter.
This and That
July 30, 2023
Good Design
Typography Tells A Story, from Linked-In
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One Schindler
Robert Malchman reports: “Greetings from Brussels. Our hotel elevator can apparently carry up to 8 persons, 630 kgms, or 1 Schindler. Thought you'd like to know. Cheers, Robert”
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Time Travel Links
Daniel Dern offers a time travel link: Lazy Boy (A man discovers his La-Z-Boy recliner is a 1-minute time machine.) And one from me, a time travel movie I was reminded of while cleaning up my columns from 2000: Bruce Willis’ The Kid.
Right Column Redux: Stories of a Young Journalist
July 30, 2023
The column to the right on this blog contains permanent content, most of which has appeared at one time or another in the main body. I’ve decided to include a reminder.
Stories of Journalism from a Young Journalist
These are stories from early in my career
Meme O’ The Week: Pilates of the Caribbean
July 30, 2023
End of July 31 Column (No. 889)
July 30, 2023
Start of July 24 Column. More or Less Continuous News Service since 1998
July 23, 2023
Couldda Been 1: Skipped A Grade
July 23, 2023
But for my mother, I could have been skipped a grade or two, to my lifelong detriment. She was bumped ahead two grades in grade school, a move she always regretted. As a result of her experience, she promised herself she would never allow it to be done to her children.
Mom was brilliant, and could easily handle the work. What no one was thinking about was the loss of friends and social immaturity which crippled her emotionally for a while. And who knows, maybe led to her marriage at age 15, which she didn’t regret, but come on now.