Sasha Foo.

We have an anchor at WWL in New Orleans, Angela Hill, who’s been there over 30 years. She used to anchor with her hubby, Garland Robinette, who’s best known for being on the other side of the mic for Ray Nagin’s “pardon my French” speech. She’ll be there until she doesn’t want to be there, I guess. I wouldn’t characterize her as fast, low-key, and competent, but rather, New Orleanians are resistent to change. Her co-anchor used to be Hoda Kotb, who is fast, low-key, and competent.

No, it’s not, and particularly for women. At 40, you really have a decision to make: Stay in, and reconcile yourself to ongoing plastic surgery coupled with rear-guard action against the young babes coming up, or get out and hope your face still opens doors in the private sector. For all the grief I give local TV news here, I have to salute at least the non-Fox affiliates for keeping a few older women on the payroll. One seems to be on WXYZ every night, doing standups from some blood-slick crime scene or another, but my guess is, she keeps her job by being fast, low-key and competent. Because she is.

Of course, as a non-Catholic, the whole concept of Fat Tuesday went right over me head.

Here in Fort Wayne, the local morning anchor at channel 15 recently had a house fire; totally destroyed her home. This has lead to a surprisingly interesting series of reports (only quibble — the predictably sappy music throughout the reports).

She reported that she rose at 2:15 am ‘as usual’, and got ready and went to work — leaving her sleeping family behind. Later on, at the station, she heard the tones on the scanner, and the fire dispatch — and then HER address — captivating stuff, especially coupled with the video images of her totally destroyed home. (the smoke alarm went off, and her family called the fire department and escaped, unscathed)

But the thing that really struck me was the part about getting up every day at 2:15 am!

I didn’t have much riding on any of the props in CA except that I did want the indian gambling ones to go down. They were about nothing but more money and power for a very few already rich and powerful indians. And it is gambling, not gaming.

Your career path is a well trodden one here in Sacto, Basset. For years I’ve been seeing TV news people disappear from their TV jobs and turn up two weeks later as spokesindividuals for an endless number of utilities, state agencies, big businesses, etc. Some of them return to the news desk after a few years. It hints that the TV news bidness is not an easy ride.