Sticks, Stones, Bones, & Words

I love what I do.

I wanted to be a meteorologist before I even knew there was a word for it. I developed a fascination in weather by cutting the weather maps out of the newspapers as a 4-year-old.

As a teenager, I confirmed I wanted to be a television meteorologist.  For that, I have “Good Morning America” weatherman Sam Champion, who was working at WPSD in Paducah, Kentucky, back then, along with WPSD meteorologist Paul Bouchereau to thank.  Also, there’s former “Good Morning America” meteorologist John Coleman, who started the “The Weather Channel” back when it was fun and cutting edge.

It’s hard to believe my first network affiliate job was in 1996, more than a quarter of a century ago, in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It was seven years after I graduated at Murray State University after gaining “experience” as a weatherman in the 1980s.

I am still grateful to this day that Mike Michalak, the news director, in Rhinelander, hired me!

My career has taken me all across the country and I’ve lived in some great places and some I’d never wish on my worst enemy. I’ve met some amazing people and some that, again, I’d never wish on my worst enemy. Okay, that part may not be true!

I’ve seen so many changes over my time in the business. I love computers and I don’t miss the plexiglass maps I used in college.

Normally, I’d draw on the two weather maps with a marker and wash it off the next day.

However, since I was getting my resume tape together to look for my first job, I spent the Christmas break cutting out fronts, rain and snow symbols, and high and low pressure systems from poster board and taped them to the plexiglass to make it look classier.

OMG, I’m still laughing (and thankful) that Mike hired me!

Another big change in the industry is how viewers communicate with us. That’s the real reason I’m venting today.

Back in the day (the 1990s), if you wanted to complain about the news or someone on the news, you had to call the station or write a letter and mail it!

These days people just fire off emails and social media rants without putting much thought into what they’re saying and they definitely don’t proof them!

Let me say that over the years, I’ve developed a thick skin when it comes to viewer comments. Back then, it would upset me.

Now, it just pisses me off — not because of their comments, but because I’m professional and diplomatic in my responses and I can’t really say what I’m really thinking!

This week was an especially trying one.

All of the forecasters in our area were calling for a decent snow, including me.

On the morning of the snow, I called for a range of 1″-6″ across our large portion of Central Illinois. We ended up getting 1″-4″!

But, that wasn’t enough for some and the vitriol came swift!

One guy called us “shitty weathermen” (I guess the two female meteorologists in the market are safe!).

Another guy emailed me and said we all need to go back to “metrological [sic] school”.

He didn’t like my “diplomatic” response when I told him how much snow had officially been measured in Decatur because he was just guesstimating the accumulation outside his house.

I closed with “You have a great day and be safe.” and “P.S.  No thank you on going back to school.  And, it’s ‘meteorological’.”

Well, that didn’t set well with him.  

He replied back calling me “worthless” and closed his own postscript, “PS, “maybe” your PEOPLE skills need some work too. Your first reply sounded somewhat hostel [sic]. You failed at being diplomatic…..”

I’ve always replied to people when they send messages — good or bad. However, when people just want to argue, you’ll get one or two replies from me and then I ignore you.

My second (and final response) to him was “Have a great day Stan!”

And, he’s wrong!

In my initial response, I was truly being diplomatically because, in my mind, I had a three-word response for his belligerent email.

It starts with “Go”. And, only my dear sister and best friend, Tammy, knows the rest of it for sure! 🙂

As the wise poet Taylor Swift exclaimed in 2014…

I feel better already. Writing is such great therapy!

Anthony

P.S. While the nice people and their comments definitely outnumber the naysayers and mean people, here are three goodies from way back in the day.

These brought a smile and an eye roll to my face while writing this blog! 🙂

* In a letter to the station in Lubbock, Texas, on a story I did (1997):  “there are plenty of people who are angry at your substandard investigative reporting.”

* Email from retired USMC Major Eric K. (August 2006):  “I was very disappointed in your forecast…. I do know that if a Marine Corps weather specialist would miss a forecast by so much they would find themselves forecasting weather in Alaska.  So, keep working on it.  You will get better.”

* QC Media Review Message Board (March 2007):  “Anthony is fine but lacks spark.”

Random Friday Thoughts — August 19, 2022

It’s Friday and that means I’m back with some things that I’ve been thinking about over the past week.

I appreciate you taking the time to check them out. If we disagree, that’s cool. Feel free to tell me about it — diplomatically.

Enjoy your weekend!

GAME, SET, MATCH*

(* Changes are pending on this policy, so this story is developing and could change at any time!)

In another life (in other words, if I could have a “do over”), I would have played basketball in high school and perfected my tennis game.

As a teenager, I loved (and lusted for) Swedish legend Bjorn Borg.

Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, and Martina Navratilova were also my favorites.

I didn’t care much for John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and after reading their autobiographies recently, my teenage feelings remain intact! 🙂

I’ve always been a fan of Serbian hottie and 21-time Grand Slam winner, Novak Djokovic.

However, I disagree with his views on being vaccinated against Covid-19.

Although I wish that everyone had gotten vaccinated back in the spring of 2021 and we would have saved more lives and altered the state of the pandemic. But, it is what is and that didn’t happen.

While Djokovic is not associated with the wider anti-vax movement, he RIGHTFULLY believes it’s a personal choice and an individual’s right.

He didn’t get to play the 2022 Australian Open, where he was the defending champion for the past three years, because all players had to be vaccinated.

And, at the time, he’s not getting to play in the U.S. Open in New York City later this month into early September for the same reason — he’s unvaccinated.

This is not a vaccine mandate from the U.S. Open, it’s from the American government — unvaccinated non-U.S. citizens cannot enter the country. 

Here’s my problem with his whining. When I traveled to Greece last fall and to Costa Rica this spring, the U.S. government required me to test negative within 3 days of returning home last fall and test negative a day before returning home this spring.

I didn’t want to take that test to return home for fear of being positive and being stuck in a foreign country. But, I paid for the tests both times and both were negative. I did it because it was U.S. policy.

If the imaginary Joe Smith, a minimum wage worker from Birkenhead, outside of Liverpool, England, wanted to visit his cousin in Newark, New Jersey, he’d have to vaccinated to enter the U.S.

Just because Djokovic is a multi-millionaire and one of the top tennis players in the world doesn’t give him any more right to come into the U.S. unvaccinated than any other non-U.S. citizen!

Djokovic, it’s the way it is!

“BIG SKY”

Last week, I talked about the Peacock reboot, “Queer As Folk”.

I fell in love with Jesse James Keitel and I’m now going to check out the ABC series “Big Sky” to see more of the non-binary, trans actress.

Plus, Reba McEntire has joined the crime thriller for the third season!

If that wasn’t enough, I have a sweet tooth for “eye candy” — Ryan Phillippe, Omar Metwally, and Jensen Ackles!

GRACE AND FRANKIE

I finally got around to watching the seventh and final season of Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie”. While I love Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Martin Sheen, I was ready for it to end.

While four episodes dropped last August and the final twelve episode debuted this past spring, I just wasn’t too excited to jump back into it (plus I was watching other series at the time).

Well, I’m done. I was very happy with the final season dealing with memory loss, aging, and fearing death.

I wasn’t thrilled with the storyline of a psychic telling one of the leads that she was going to die on a certain day and it became the focus of the last season!

My favorite characters other than Grace (Fonda) were Brianna (June Diane Raphael) and Joan-Margaret (Millicent Martin).

And, the two characters (*not actors*) that made my patience wear very thin were Frankie (Tomlin) and Sol (Sam Waterston) — just too eccentric and whiney, respectively!

BIRTHDAY GIRL…

Earlier this week, Madonna turned 64.

To celebrate her birthday, the “Queen of Pop” on Friday released “Finally Enough Love”, a 50-track, three disc collection, which is a 40-year retrospective of remastered and remixed songs.

Madonna is the only artist in music history to score 50 #1 hits on a single Billboard chart — hers is on the Dance Club Songs chart.

Here’s a fun version of “Music”, one of the songs that’ll be on the compilation, from a recent visit with Jimmy Fallon.

& DEATH ANNIVERSARIES…

Last week, I mentioned the 45th anniversary of Elvis’ death is this week and shared my three favorite Elvis songs: #3 “Kentucky Rain”, #2 “Suspicious Minds”, and at #1, “Blue Christmas”.

This week also marks the 4th anniversary of the passing of Aretha Franklin. So, in honor of the “Queen of Soul”, here’s my favorite Aretha Franklin song (a #1 duet with George Michael from 1987).

And, my favorite Aretha solo hit, “Freeway of Love” (#3, 1985).

Ironically, both Elvis and Aretha died on August 16th, Madonna’s birthday.

THE REIGN OF TELEVISION!

While the 1982 book “America in Search of Itself: The Making of the President 1956-1980” by Theodore H. White is mostly about presidents and presidential campaigns of that era, the chapter on television was a great read.

According to White, only 4.4 million American households had television sets in 1950. But, by 1980, that number was at 80 million — as close to saturation as statistically possible!

A turning point for television and newspapers was in 1963 when network evening news on CBS and NBC expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It was estimated that by the end of that year, about two-thirds of Americans were getting ALL of their news from the three networks — 50 million to 60 million viewers!

That was also the first year that Americans relied on television for news more than newspapers forcing some big city papers to cut out afternoon papers.

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

You Can’t Spend All Summer Outdoors

Summer is a time when most people spend more time outdoors on the lake or river, lounging in the pools, or vacationing.

Whatever you do, it’s great to escape the cold, snowy months of winter.

In the evenings, television networks are giving us fresh new shows so we don’t have to watch re-runs and pine for the return of our favorite shows.

Now that my favorites, “The Walking Dead”, “How To Get Away With Murder”, “Bates Motel”, “American Horror Story”, “Madam Secretary”, “American Crime” are on hiatus, and “The Following” and “Stalker” heading off to the television graveyard, here are the shows that excite me this summer.

I just have to include the trailers for the series finales of “The Following” and “Stalker”, both of which air Monday, May 18th!

R.I.P.

Now, my summer shows……

“Wayward Pines” kicked off on Fox, Thursday, May 14th, to rave reviews.

“Aquarius” with David Duchovny debuts on NBC on Thursday, May 28th.

Duchovny will play a detective who ends up on the hunt for a young serial killer, Charles Manson.

The third season of one of my favorite shows, “Hannibal”, returns on NBC Thursday, June 4th.

Ironically, that means Duchovny will be back-to-back on NBC Thursday night with his “The X-Files” television partner, Gillian Anderson, who plays Hannibal’s psychiatrist, Dr. Bedelia Du Maurie.

Those ready for the six new episodes of “The X-Files” will have to wait until January 24, 2016!

On USA, I’m going to check out “Mr. Robot”.  It premiers Wednesday, June 24th.

I kept seeing the promotions for it during “Dig”, a ten-episode thriller that has already concluded.  However, if you have On Demand, I highly recommending binge watching it.

And, on Tuesday, June 30th, I plan on checking out “Zoo” on CBS.

There isn’t much in this trailer.  It’s a drama about a global pandemic that causes animals to launch violent, coordinated attacks against humans stars James Wolk, Kristen Connolly, and Billy Burke.

And, the six-episode accompanying series to “The Walking Dead”, “Fear The Walking Dead” debuts some time late this summer on AMC.

Okay, while I don’t want to rush summer, here is the ONLY show that has piqued my curiosity for the fall.

“Scream Queens” comes to Fox in September.

What shows are you excited about?

Anthony

Breaking News…. I’m Returning To Morning Television Weather!

My friends, I told you I’d let you know as soon as I could.  I can now tell you that my vacation is almost over!

As you know from our friendship, I loved waking up very early in the morning and bringing you the first forecast of the day and I look forward to doing it again beginning Monday, March 4, 2013 for CBS4 in Rock Island, Illinois.

Friends, go to their Facebook page and “Like” them as a thank you for me.

Thank you CBS4 for welcoming me to your team.  I am thrilled to be back to television and forecasting.

Anthony

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