Odds And Ends

Hi guys. I kind of dropped off there again. Sorry. I haven't been home all weekend and then there's the weather issue. Please stop raining and don't freeze! Ugh. At least I still have power (knock on wood). You should have heard the huge tree limbs crashing down last night. Anyway, I actually did want to say a bit about Thursday's second hour in New Orleans. I'm not exactly sure what the point of the Charlie Rangel interview was since we've been through this with him before. And citing the Heritage Foundation? Um, no. I liked hearing about The Road Home Program and would really like 360 to look into it further, maybe giving it the same kind of treatment Drew Griffin gave the pension story. The Rick Sanchez piece on New Orlean's many leaks and the Gary Tuchman piece on the cost of living were both informative, but, uh, what was up with the pipe prop? Look at the cap; Anderson seems to be wondering the same thing.

Of course my favorite part of the hour was Anderson's interview with Herbert Gettridge. This isn't the first time I've seen Herbert. He was featured with Billy Crystal in the Comic Relief special and if I'm not mistaken he was even briefly on CNN's New Year's Eve special. It's amazing that Herbert is rebuilding his house by himself and quite frankly it's a little sad that he has to. I know he's had some help from various charity groups, but still. And the insurance situation is horrible. Herbert has been paying insurance since 1952, yet he's only being paid some of what's owed. Unbelievable. But he's dealing with it because Herbert is one tough cookie. Anderson asks if it's scary being all alone in the Ninth Ward with no electricity and Herbert replies that, "Man, I ain't scared of nothing, man. I've been all overseas. World War II carried me all over the world. I made it through the Japanese and the Germans. I made it and I came back. I can come through Katrina. It's not a big deal." He ain't taking nothing from no one. As Anderson wraps up the interview Herbert tells him to "be good and be careful." Aw, can he be my grandpa? Herbert, Anderson is always good. Careful? Eh, not so much. The best part of the interview was actually after it was over and Herbert started to take off while still miked. He's got stuff to do, people. Completely cracked Anderson up anyway. And very cute Anderson helping him. Funny too since he seemed to momentarily forget he had that whole audience thing just waiting to be thrown to commercial.

I'm going to transition now to Friday's show. I watched, but did not blog because...I'm bad. I needed a break and thought since Anderson wasn't there it was a good opportunity. Normally I don't like to short change the guest hosts, but the show just didn't look all that interesting to me. Except of course for the safe recovery of not only Ben Ownby, but also Shawn Hornbeck. I still can't quite believe it. The whole city is kind of in shock; but a good kind. One of my local tv stations even has a "where were you when you heard the news" kind of poll on their website. It's unbelievable to think that this kid I had been hearing about for four years was only about 30 minutes away from me the whole time. Just today I drove by the Imo's pizza that I'm pretty sure is the one where the kidnapper worked. Creepy. My hat's off to Geoff Hadler, the man who lead police to the truck and Mitchell Hults, the teenage friend of Ben's who got an amazing description of said truck as it sped away. If it wasn't for them, the boys would most likely not have been found. I haven't seen a lot of national coverage on this story (I know there's been a lot), but it seems like these two aren't getting their due.

As for 360's Friday night coverage on the story, I found it to be meh. I understand details were still breaking and I'm sure they didn't have anyone in the area yet, but was John Walsh and Ed Smart really the best they could do? It just seems kind of lazy to call these guys in to speculate. Couldn't they have run something from their St. Louis affiliate? My local stations gave great coverage. Though I am still pondering why reporter Jeff Small's very long interview with Geoff Hadler (mentioned above) was conducted outside in the freezing rain without even any umbrellas. They probably now both have pneumonia. Anyway, normally I love for our area to get national news coverage, but this just felt weird. For the local reporters it was more than just a news story to pounce on. One even admitted that he had practically cried upon hearing the news and acknowledged that he knew he was suppose to be objective, but after covering this for four years, just couldn't. I never understood the unease some communites have when national people "parachute" in, but now I kind of do. I'm just really happy both boys are back safe and sound. Unfortunately there are many more from my city still out there; as I'm sure there are in every city in the country. These days there are literally dozens of soul crushing news stories every single day, but sometimes you get one.

Screencaps by stillife.