Hiya pals. Just wanted you all to know I'll be traveling for the next few days to one of the gambling meccas of the country. No, not the big one. No, not the second biggest one. The third one. It's in Nevada, too. I'll let you figure out the rest (Golden Nugget). But I didn't want to leave you without a few random thoughts.
#1 - I read today that Michael Jackson's autopsy revealed a nearly bald man (just some peach fuzz) with nothing in his stomach except some undigested pharmaceuticals and a very frail body covered with needle marks.
#2 - Sarah Palin held interviews with all the networks yesterday (or the day before) on the shore of some lake way up by the Arctic Circle, bragging about her desire to indulge herself in fish guts rather than governing the state whose people elected her. As someone said "She has perfected the image of 'the victim'." I think if any of us were to elect her to anything ever again, we'd be the victims.
#3 - That crazy "leader" of Iran made a new speech saying there was absolutely no problem with his recent "election" and said the opposition couldn't produce even one piece of paper to say otherwise. Huh? Have you taken a good look at this guy? Do his eyes kind of resemble the spinning wheels of a slot machine?
#4 - John Boehner, the Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been forced to hold news briefings virtually every day saying how bad the latest Obama program will leave the nation. Hmmm, "leave the nation" . . . might be a good idea for Boehner. But you never heard me say that.
#5 - Walter Cronkhite apparently really is in a decline due to serious health problems, which in turn are probably due to his advanced age. He is in his early 90's. Prepare for another "big news story."
#6 - Speaking of "big news stories", I was appalled by the attention given by the media to the death of the previously mentioned Michael Jackson. It reminded me of a day in my past when a strange executive producer over me at a television station ordered me to lead every newscast with the latest on a Michael Jackson tour. That was over 20 years ago. She (the exec producer) isn't in the business any more to the best of my knowledge. But speaking of more current times, U.S. Representative Peter King of New York (I think that's his name) made an unfortunate statement to the media the other day, saying he was upset about all the media attention to this . . . (approximate quote) "child molestor, pedophile, pervert". Now, true as that may be it's not going to endear him to many of his mindless voters. If you're a politician and you want to be re-elected, you probably should keep thoughts like that to yourself.
Since I'm not a politician, I can say I was appalled by NBC's attention to the Jackson "story" and even moreso to Katie Couric's newscast on the night of the Jackson memorial.
But who am I? I'm not in the biz anymore and most people didn't listen to me when I was.
I could go on but I guess that's enough for y'all to mull over while I'm away.
