Newby the Weather Dog and Happy Belated Earthday
I've read that animals can detect earthquakes well before they happen. We've got a dog that alerts us to tornado warnings. Newby, one of the Scottish Terriers we rescued and who is the official guard dog at stately Larksmith Manor, started howling Tuesday night around 8:45. Seconds later we started hearing the tornado warning sirens. Newby howls whenever he hears an ambulance or fire truck in the midtown area which means he howls on a frequent basis. But he attempts to do harmony with the wailing of the constant sound of the siren while Mac, our auxillary Scotty, yelps along. We had to call them both in to the house while my wife tuned into the local stations for details on this particular "weathergasm". As I type this, I hear her complain that the radar pictures have gotten so complicated, she can't figured out what's going on. That's what happens when you're watching Super-duper Gonad, Viper 3-D Go Get-um multi-color ga-jillion watt radar. I hope we make it through this without any serious damage. I'm sure we will have video at 10pm, but unless the storm hits my house, I plan to be fast asleep.
I also wanted to apologize for not offering any Earthday celebrations over the weekend. I've been so swamped with a project that I forgot about Earthday even though my lovely and talented bride manned the booth for Memphis City Beautiful at the Earth Day celebration at Lictherman. She said it was very well attended. Perhaps those who drove up in their gas guzzlers were considering watching out for the planet.
I used to be a stickler about celebrating Earthday. Then I got slammed by a previous news director. I had posted briefly about this several months ago about how a news director down on the river back around 1990 teamed up with the sales department and agreed that the news department would put together a 21 PART SERIES THAT WOULD BE SPONSORED AND WOULD RUN IN THE 6 and 10 NEWSCASTS. I have witnessed births that took less time than it takes for a 21-part series. On top of everything else, the ND resigned a few days after he assigned me to the series. He didn't give me any direction other than the fact that it should be related to the environment and that I had five weeks to get it done. I started hustling to put together ideas and start shooting. You name it and I probably covered it. It was called Earthwatch. Fortunately for me, a new news director came in about three weeks later and managed to get the whole thing shaved down to 15 parts. That may not sound like a big difference, but it was. You try writing a 21 part series and see if you don't agree.
I've been indebted to that ND ever since.
So Happy Belated Earthday everybody.
I also wanted to apologize for not offering any Earthday celebrations over the weekend. I've been so swamped with a project that I forgot about Earthday even though my lovely and talented bride manned the booth for Memphis City Beautiful at the Earth Day celebration at Lictherman. She said it was very well attended. Perhaps those who drove up in their gas guzzlers were considering watching out for the planet.
I used to be a stickler about celebrating Earthday. Then I got slammed by a previous news director. I had posted briefly about this several months ago about how a news director down on the river back around 1990 teamed up with the sales department and agreed that the news department would put together a 21 PART SERIES THAT WOULD BE SPONSORED AND WOULD RUN IN THE 6 and 10 NEWSCASTS. I have witnessed births that took less time than it takes for a 21-part series. On top of everything else, the ND resigned a few days after he assigned me to the series. He didn't give me any direction other than the fact that it should be related to the environment and that I had five weeks to get it done. I started hustling to put together ideas and start shooting. You name it and I probably covered it. It was called Earthwatch. Fortunately for me, a new news director came in about three weeks later and managed to get the whole thing shaved down to 15 parts. That may not sound like a big difference, but it was. You try writing a 21 part series and see if you don't agree.
I've been indebted to that ND ever since.
So Happy Belated Earthday everybody.
posted by Joe Larkins at 6:55 PM
2 Comments:
In Collierville, our tornado sirens speak to us before the siren starts. "Tornado man" tells us that a tornado warning has been issued for the Collierville area (or something like that), then the siren starts. Lucy the Wonder Spaniel isn't too fond of tornado man. Doesn't mind the siren, but gets a little antsy when the disembodied voice starts speaking...
From the down on the river weather guys:"Hey thanks for the great weather pictures of the funnel cloud and the hail stones coming down! Keep sending them in! You get credit and we'll put it on the air!"
I guess it's all fun and games until somebody gets blown across the county or really conked by a softball sized hail stone! To quote Dave Brown: "Uhhh, that might hurt a little bit...."
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