I don’t think it’s fair that one of the most poignant comments I’ve ever heard about living in the moment was spoken by a second billing character on The Office. But most of the mental scar tissue that comes from working in a television newsroom leaves a person with a lifeboat of unintended consequences.

I used to have this keychain. A knickknack I picked up in a place I know not where, or so it would be written in a more poetic blog than this. Like all keychains, its real purpose was to express the personality of the person who owned the keys it chained. That’s really a lot to ask out of a keychain, when you think about it, but mine served its purpose well. . A cartoon picture of a cow in the middle of a grassy pasture, with the caption “Outstanding in the Field” written across the bottom. For a guy who truly appreciates the value of a good “man walks into a bar” joke, this was comedy gold.

It bears repeating. Forty-three and single. It’s all starting to make a bit more sense.

I had been working in a television newsroom in Sioux Falls for just shy of three months, and on election night 1993, I found myself on the outskirts of a small town called Vermillion, many miles and a world away from my home away from home, the television newsroom. For everyone playing “Alma Maters of the Broadcast News Anchors” bingo, you’ll want to check your cards for Vermillion, because this is where Tom Brokaw went to college. Vermillion is the home of the University of South Dakota… if anything served as a barometer of the excitement level of this election cycle, the  Continue reading “Angry Cows And Other Musings From Working in a Television Newsroom” →