Prof. McIntyre has a set of handcuffs?

Geeze, it's always the ones you would least expect, isn't it?

Oh, I wish jl had been there to take a video of Mr. McIntyre showing up with the bracelets.

There is no justice in the world.

"Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and BUY!"

I am liking the professor more and more. The picture I had of him arriving with those cuffs was worth its weight in gold.

By the way, my Thanksgiving holiday with three sick babies and several adults who had colds has put me in the hospital with pneumonia. As I am getting better this blog has truly become even more entertaining. Keep up the good work guys. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

That's terrible. It's the second time, isn't it? I'm taking up a collection right now to buy you the pneumonia vaccine. I wondered why we hadn't heard much from you lately. Thanks for letting us know. EL

Regina there is serious snuffling going on in my house as well, but no one has yet landed in the hospital. Hope everyone feels better soon!

Feel better, Regina. I'm thinking hot cups of ginger tea at you.

Geeze, it's always the ones you would least expect, isn't it?

Bow-tie wearing Anglophiles are in fact the first ones you should suspect.

Were they the plain regulation cuffs or the kinky fur-lined ones?

Bow-tie wearing Anglophiles are in fact the first ones you should suspect.

Who, us?

Hey Mr. McIntyre ... can you watch the local news without your head exploding? I can't. I refuse to watch any of it because the experience makes me feel stupider, as if they actually removed knowledge from my head and inserted all kinds of bad language habits.

Click here for a chuckle.

The family has expressed a firm preference that I not watch local TV news. Because of the shouting.

The family has expressed a firm preference that I not watch local TV news. Because of the shouting.

As I thought. I can't even make a joke about it because I'm afraid I will lose my composure and I don't have BG here to draw me a bath and fetch my velvet robe.

On another topic, has anyone seen the insane new product on TV -- The Snuggie -- The Blanket With Sleeves®

https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Sweet Fancy Vishnu! First I have to put all the broken gold chains I have sitting around into an envelope so that they will send me money for the Snuggie®.

No, I haven't seen the Snuggie before, but that isn't a half-bad idea. Plus, you get a free booklight! What's not to like?

Third time for pneumonia and I had the vaccine. Oh well. But I do appreciate the best wishes and I am going to try the ginger tea. What the heck, been here since Thursday after my attempts to take care of myself failed. So, I am ready to try anything.

Take care my sandbox (sorry owl meat) friends. You are great medicine.

Regina: get well quick, girl!
When you get out, go buy yourself the Snuggie, lay back on the couch and get waited on. Tell everyone you have to take it easy so you don't have a relapse.
Seriously, take it easy and heal quickly!!!

Good one, Bucky. Made me laugh!

Owl, that Snuggie is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I mean, why not a ROBE???

Regina - hope you're on the mend. Get well soon! A hospital is no place for rest!

I've always suspected that bow-tie guys are kinky.

I've seen the Snuggle. I'm not a gadget person.

Long ago, there was some sort of interview program where a panel of high schoolers asked questions of famous people. Jane Pauley was the questionee and a query concerned college major for television news people. Pauley said that her degree was in Poli Sci or Lit or something and that Mass Comm is certainly a nice major. It proves that you know how to talk if, indeed, you knew anything to talk about. (Re-reading that, I'm pretty sure she was clearer than I just quoted.) I think of that more and more, especially as I watch the local news. I understand that Baltimore is not a first tier news market, but, judging by our news people, it seems that we've fallen to 5th tier.

I've always suspected that bow-tie guys are kinky.

Only if you tie your own. Clip-ons don't count.

Eve, not a first tier newsmarket is candy coating it, IMHO! Is it too much to ask that the people who read the news on the local news program actually can read aloud without stumbling all over their words and spouting out utter nonsense? I've taken to reading CNN and the front page of the NY Times on-line and getting the weather and sports only on local channels if I can stand them long enough to do so. And that's usually only once or twice a week. The rest of the time, I'm now watching Ina Garten or Giada DiLaurentis during local news time.

Joyce, last night I caught a little of the WJZ's 11 o'clock news as I was letting the dog in and out and locking up. Veteran's Affairs appointee, Shenseki, was speaking and the label below read "General Shenski" Now, an observation is that the local news does not DO new stories for late night, so I feel safe in saying that this typo was onscreen at least 3 times previously. Apparently, at WJZ, not only are there no editors, but once a mistake has been broadcast it is NEVER corrected.

And, while I'm on this rant, is it racist to point out that common sense should tell that there are very, very few Asian faces with Polish last names?

Too bad nobody covers television for the Sun. A blog on local news would be a good watchdog, but a maddening pointless one too.

I try really hard never to watch any local news because it instantly infuriates me. Things that make me insane:

When they say their weather map is so powerful that it can tell you the weather on your very own block. Uh, I have a window.

Live, local, late breaking. If only there was a less alliterative, more direct word in English ... oh yeah "news".

You are not my friends and you are not on my side.

Arms crossed and frowning ... uh oh, it's an investigative journalist on the loose.

etc

Eve and Owl Meat Geraldo, I know just what you mean! You ought to hear what they do to the names of Jewish day schools which are at least local - not even in some third world country! And I've said for years now that I just want my own weather show where I'll where a turban and have a crystal ball and "predict" the weather. It'd be at least as accurate as the "meteorologists"!

You can be a meteorologist too. I have four weather maps as hot links on a toolbar that give me radar for 100, 600 and 1800 miles. Now I'm a weatherman.

Use them if you like. I stripped out all the extraneous garbage and ads:

100 miles
http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_bwi_metroradar_large_usen.jpg

600 miles
http://image.weather.com/looper/archive/us_dca_closeradar_large_usen/3L.jpg?1107191105970

1800 miles
http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_ec_9regradar_large_usen.jpg

East coast visible satellite
http://image.weather.com/images/sat/regions/ec_vis_sat_720x486.jpg

Owl Meat Geraldo? I'm liking the playing with my name.

Joyce,

Another alternative to the news (at least in the afternoons) is Cash Cab on Discovery.

You think Baltimore's news shows are bad? You ought to watch the stuff they put on down here. For one thing, there is no "news" down here to speak of. So they fill up the hour with school board happenings and the occasional meth lab bust. And of course, every station's weather forecasting tools are the absolute best and most accurate anywhere! Bulls---. I've been drenched more than once from their 10% chance of a stray shower/sprinkles.

Why does 13 have to have a weather person standing out in the parking lot to say a few words, and then they go back inside to the other one? Maybe they think 2 weather guessers are better than one. Also, it gets me when the news reader says "let's go to (perky person) for a live report", and the reporter is out standing on top of Federal Hill talking about a murder in Towson or somewhere?

Do not even get me started on the whole "snow patrol" thing these stations promote. Once the word snow is verbalized, they schlep some poor reporter up to Carroll County to stand in the middle of Route 140, trying to interview passing motorists (going about 90 mph) to get their reaction to the impending doom. And once we actually DO get snow, i.e. 1/2 inch, they stay on all day with vital reports throughout the state, like we are under siege by some militia or something...Whew, sorry about that!

PCB Rob - I love Cash Cab. I want to go to NY and spend the whole time hailing cabs just to be on it. Not that I would do very well...Just think of the abundance of resources we have if we could do a "Blog shoutout"!

Fl Rob, when we first started Disney treks when my son was a little one, Orlando news was similar to yours. Cute animal stories, school board and occassional meth lab busts. I was shocked at the increase in crime the last time I was there about 2 years ago. Orlando is a real city now with real city problems. oooh, and the weather was still worthless!

OldPhil, I am often wondering aloud to my partner (who's bored with it already) about how a news program always has to stick someone out in front of whatever building they are reporting about (the city jail, the county jail, the hospitals, etc). How is that a "location" shot? And, why do they always take those poor young ones and throw them out into the middle of York Rd or Westminster Pike with a ruler so that we can see how much snow is on the road and how many cars can almost hit their young reporters?

My very favorite "young reporter" incident:

Following Isabel, when the local news was on nonstop, bouncing back and forth between the same 3 or 4 locations. (And, of course, the people actually IN those locations had no electricity and could not heed the warnings being given!) After about a gazillion hours, one of the stations was down to what - judging by the quality of his on-air presence - HAD to have been an intern standing in Fells Point gesturing at people swimming in the floodwaters. Clearly, he was repeating verbatim what was being spoken into his earpiece when he said, "People are warned not to swim in this water. In addition to the danger of being sucked down the open manholes, there is all kind of shit...I mean stuff...in it." Screen went blank.

Intern disappeared from airtime.

My friend Shlomo and I used to always laugh about how one station always sticks Rob Roblin in the middle of the worst weather to demonstrate how miserable it is. On the edge of I-83 in the snow with trucks whizzing by. My favorite was at the beach during a hurricance with sand and spray blowing in his eyes and he exclaims, "I can't see. I can't see!" That's news. We used to joke that one day they would lock him in a car with the windows rolled up during a heatwave to demonstrate what could happen to your dog. It turns out that he volunteers for that duty so that he doesn't have to ask grieving mothers how they feel about their child being murdered.

Eve, the intern was more accurate with the first statement, I'm sure.

I'd rather stand out in a hurricane than ask someone how they feel about their child being murdered, too.

I turned from TV news to print permanently when Reagan was president. He visited Canada. I grew up on the border, so, at 10, we turned on the CBC to watch "The National" (Canada's daily national news program).

Reagan tripped, he said stupid things (for him). There were hecklers and protesters and very few spectators.

At 11, we switched to one of the big three stations (probably NBC). Reagan spoke to huge, cheering crowds, saying intelligent things (for him). No tripping, no protesters.

It was a beautiful lesson for a schoolchild. If it isn't sports, it doesn't belong on TV news.

Owl, I believe that he actually enjoys those gigs (he is exactly who I had in mind when I posted earlier). Have you noticed the certain glimmer in his eye (when not caused by irritating sand) when he is running down that farmer on the combine, or the already buzzed at 10 am guys riding the snowmobile around?

Baltimore must be a very comfortable market for the news "talent". Having been away from the area for almost 11 years, I go back and see the same but older faces on the tube. Some have been there 20 - 30 years; others longer. Not many move on after success in Bmore.

I always love how the local stations have to find the local angle. Whenever there is an earthquake in Nepal or Terrorist attack in Somalia, there is a great effort to track down someone living in Parkville or Columbia who once visted Nepal or who has a second cousin who lived in Ethiopia on account it is nearby Somalia.

having a morning laugh (yes, outloud) at the mental pictures of poor Rob Roblin out in exteme weather.

My personal favorite is when there's a hurricaine or tropical storm in Fl, LA, or Tx and they show their reporters literally blowing away and being pelted by the storm. I'm waiting for the day that they have to report that their reporter was killed by a car that landed on them or something equally as morbid. It's just a matter of time!

My read on Rob Roblin is that he decides to have a good time.

Eve - I absolutely agree! I give the guy a lot of credit quite honestly. He makes the mundane task of watching countless hours of snow overkill much more amusing.

I find Rob Roblin's speaking mannerisms quite annoying.

I think Rob Roblin does the location gigs so he can have a smoke.

Hal, he is Canadian, so maybe that is why.

Joyce,
The joke down here is you never want to see Mike Seidel or Jim Cantore (of the Weather Channel) in your neighborhood.

They mostly stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree here anyway, to report from the beach.

Fl Rob, If I lived in a coastal community, the weather channel people would be the LAST people I'd want to see too!

Joyce,
You got that right! I joke with my Baltimore friends and family that if I see them down here on TV, I'll go over and stand behind them and act goofy, like is common on live TV.

So, if they are down in PCB, and you see some guy waving behind them, it just might be me.

Rob - just don't take your pants off and run back and forth behind the reporter like I saw happen during a newscast from downtown one night. It WAS hilarious though because the reporter had no idea what was happening and the young man (who's pants were actually pulled down around his ankles) ran - or I should say shuffled behind her 2 or 3 times before I assume being heavy handed off the scene!