15 Seconds Of Fame

After work yesterday I drove up to the local Kroger to try and fill my gas tank for just an arm (I'd like to keep my legs at least.) As I was pulling into the parking lot, I noticed that vans from two different news crews were parked nearby, one from CBS 46, the other from ABC. Now I've become used to seeing the odd news van (Fox 5, even CNN) in the area, filming what until recently was a dry Allatoona lakebed, thanks to the prevalent drought, but usually it was only a single crew at a time, not two crews from two different networks.

So before I started pumping the refined black gold (it must be, at that price!) into my Saturn, I walked over to the little metal box that houses the Kroger gas station attendant, and I asked him if he knew what was going on; why there were two news vans in the parking lot. He looked at me with a confused expression and came up to the glass, trying to peek around the corner to where I was pointing. He didn't even know they were there! (It's nice to see he was paying attention to his surroundings. But then again, I'd probably be fairly oblivious too if I were trapped in a little metal and glass box 8 hours a day.)

So I pumped my car full of the Texas Tea, hopped in, and drove slowly over to where one of the news crews was hanging out, sitting in the open door of the van, or leaning against a light pole. I powered down my passenger side window and asked "What's so exciting that news crews from two different networks are here to cover it?" They jumped to attention immediately and said "We want to talk to you!" I asked them what was going on, and they told me that the gun shop in that shopping center had been robbed on April 5th, and that the surveillance video had just been released, and they were covering the story (they told me that they assumed the other network was there for the same reason.) It must have been a really slow day for local news.

Anyway, the one guy picked up a video camera and was like, "We really want to talk to you, seriously!" and the lady (her name is Helen Neill) asked me if I would like to answer a few questions/do a brief interview. I was like, "Umm...okay, sure." (Guess that's what I get for being concerned (or would it be nosy) about what was going on!)

So I'm sitting there in my car, holding the brake pedal down so I don't run over any of the crew, and the camera guy comes over to kneel down beside my car and aim his huge camera at me, and Helen pulls a wireless mic out of a pouch, asks if I can please take my sunglasses off, and then says "Could you say your name, and then spell it please." After some minor adjustments and sound checks, she say "Just look at me," (not the huge camera RIGHT in my face) and starts to ask me questions like, "Do you live or work in the area? Are you concerned about the guns being on the street?" Etc.

I answer her questions and she tells me that I will be on the local news at 4 PM, and then the story will be posted on the CBS46.com Web site shortly after. She hands me her business card, thanks me for helping them out. I joke with her that I always make fun of the people that end up getting interviewed for the news, because they usually sound so stupid, and now I was going to BE one of those people. She and her camera man assured me that I did okay though, and sounded great compared to most of the people they'd talked to. I knew that my "interview" would be cut short, and the edit would probably make me sound less intelligent that I supposedly am, but it was out of my hands now. I'd just have to watch the 4 PM news and see how bad it was.

So I headed home, waited an hour or so, and then turned on CBS 46 for the local news. It was the first story that was covered..."a dozen or so guns, including one AK-47, stolen from a local Acworth store." First came the interview with the store owner, and then...there I was, large as life. If I'd actually had time to prepare for the interview, I would have said something like "I'm all for guns in the hands of responsible citizens, but I don't know of any responsible citizens that need an AK-47 assault rifle." But I didn't have time to prepare, and I was responding to questions she asked me (and quite lamely to one, since I only knew a few of the basic details about the story that she'd told me when I asked her what they were doing there.) Still, it could have been worse!

So here it is, my 15 (maybe less) seconds of fame! I'm not sure how long the story will remain online, but it was there at the time I wrote this. If you want to see me looking goofy on TV, here's the link to the story on their site:

Me, on TV!

I didn't intend for this blog to be so long, but I guess I felt like writing or something. hehe  Take care all, and have a great weekend! Peace.