Jamey Tucker’s BlogSquat

Glanced at the odometer this mornig before heading out for my story and got a chuckle. I know, I’m 13 years old.

The general opinion in Memphis is that former mayor Willie Herenton has lost his mind. First, he retires from the post he’s held for 428 years (seems that long anyway), then he picks up paperwork Thursday to possibly throw his hat into the ring of a special election that must be held to replace him.

“I was hoping you  could look for his brain in Nashville” a friend told me, “because he clearly has misplaced it somewhere.”

Viewer comments to stories about the latest Herenton adventure have called him “unstable”, “meglomaniac”, “educated fool”, and just plain “sick”.

But I’ve come to realize that Willie Herenton is none of those things, he is a stinkin’ genius!

Many people, especially politicians, want to reach a level of immortality. They want to be remembered. Names on buildings, or stamps, or dollar bills.  They could simply shake hands, retire, speak at a few Civitan clubs and walk into the sunset. But a generation or so later, who’s going to remember them?

Not Willie Herenton though. He has reached that immortality through these almost insane rides. Run to replace himself and every newspaper in the world carries the story. Actually win (and who says he couldn’t?) and anybody in the country who follows the teeniest amount of politics will know the name Willie Herenton.

But I think to Herenton it’s more than just people knowing his name. He wants people to talk about him. In barber shops and newsrooms and farmers markets and church Sunday school classes. What’s that old saying? “It’s all good publicity as long as they spell your name right”.

Willie Herenton is “Tin Cup”.

Notice the similarities in what people are saying about Tin Cup and what people say about Herenton?

What the clip doesn’t include is Rene Russo’s line after Roy begins to realize what he’d done. “Nobody is going to remember who won the U.S Open years from now, but you Roy! They’ll remember you. You’re…well, it’s….immortal!”

• Got another call about the aforementioned “wedding couple”. Apparently it is true. A reporter from WREG and a reporter from WMC did exchange vows recently. I’ve known producers and photographers and directors to be married to employees at the competition, but this is a first as far as two on-air competitors doing the nuptials.
• I ran into a former co-worker this week. Kevin Osgood, who was known as Kevin Yodjas back when we worked together at WHNT in Huntsville in the ’90s. Kevin is out of the business and working for a company that designs news sets for television studios. It caused me to remember what a magical time it was for our news team. We started as the #3 station in the market, but in two short years we were #1 in nearly every show. We had some great people working for us. Not only were we all dedicated to the station, we were having a blast.
• Speaking of WHNT, an older man walked up to me when I was at a doctor’s appointment yesterday and asked “aren’t you on tv?”. I introduced myself and told him where I work, but he said…”yeah, but I remember you from when you were in Huntsville.” The guy had no idea I was working in Nashville now but somehow placed me back at WHNT. That never stops surprising me.
• I covered the Presidential visit to Nashville this morning. Does it seem like it’s been 8 years since George W was on the campaign trail for the first time? He came to Memphis about this time 8 years ago.
• Brooke White may not be the best singer or the most exciting contestant on American Idol this year, but if she gets the right songwriters and producers, she could be the biggest star from this group, even if she doesn’t win it.
• Anybody else get the feeling that Governor Spitzer’s wife might have had a grip on the waistband of his underwear during his news conference Monday? For her to stand there with this creep for television and front page photos, she should have been granted the right to give him a royal wedgie for as long as he made his speech. She could have hooked the edges over his Dumbo looking ears.
• My son’s new little friend is the grandaughter of a singer who is half of a famous ‘70s pop group.
• Have you ever teared up a little just by hearing a favorite song that you haven’t heard in a long long time?

Wouldn’t it be cool if we got to set our clocks forward an hour Friday afternoon at 4 instead of in the middle of the night Sunday morning?

A quick poll this morning and I couldn’t find anyone who’s ever known a reporter from one station marrying a reporter from a competing station. I’m hearing that happened in the Memphis market last weekend. If true, congratulations to the happy couple. Anybody able to confirm this with a wedding cake photo?

I’m going to try the M.R.I again next week. This time, it’ll be in the afternoon instead of first thing in the morning. I’ll stay up most of the night before and work through the day. I’m banking on being sleepy enough to relax with the medication. Insurance doesn’t want to pay for the open-MRI so this may be the only way I can get it done.

Wal Mart is opening dozens of stores in small towns across America on Friday. Wouldn’t it be interesting to follow a local mom and pop business for a few months to see what impact a supercenter has on these folks?

I’m glad Danny Noriega was voted off Idol this week. Same with the other guy, whathisname.
Too bad Asia’h Epperson sang first Tuesday night. I think she may have gotten lost in the crowd. None of the people leaving had a chance of winning so it really doesn’t matter when they leave.

Paula either needs to double up her medication or cut it in half. Her current dosage isn’t working.

I haven’t had a dip of snuff in nearly two weeks. I’m jonesing for one tonight though.

Never mind what the publicist is saying, if Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer he is not doing well. I’ve known two people with that type of cancer. Both died within two months of being diagnosed.

• Played Solitaire with a real deck of cards?
• Popped popcorn without a microwave?
• Listened to music on an AM-Radio?
• Played a record?
• Adjusted rabbit ears on a television?
• Watched a movie on a VHS tape?
• Drank a Coke in a 6 1/2 oz bottle?
• Played miniature golf?
• Looked at your high school yearbook?
• Taken a drive with no place to go?
• Went all day without a cellphone?
• Went all day without thinking you’ve got to check or send e-mail?
• Watched a good first-run sitcom on network television?
• Blew bubbles that you make yourself out of dishwashing soap and water?
• Climbed a tree?
• Went to a drive-in movie?
• Listened to music on a cassette or 8-track tape?
• Played H-O-R-S-E?
• Made hot chocolate that didn’t come from instant?
• Changed your own oil?
• Wrote a letter to a friend and mailed it with a stamp?
• Paid for a gas fill-up with cash?
• Flew a kite?
• Listened to a “Swap Show” or “Tradin’ Post” on AM Radio?
• Watched a tv show on your local channel when there’s a storm within 100 miles?

Even with the valium, I couldn’t go through with the MRI.

After taking the pills I was called back to the MRI room and I thought if I could see exactly what I was about to get into, I could get rationalize sitting there for about 45 minutes. In my mind, I knew it wasn’t possible to suffocate in the chamber. I could see with my own eyes that with the helmet thing on, I could still be able to breathe.

But I still couldn’t do it. The medication had eased my mind a bit and I didn’t feel that anxious about it, but laying on the table and having the cloth put over my eyes must have sobered me up as the valium didn’t have any effect.

I’m going to try again, maybe one afternoon rather than in the morning. My idea is to stay up most of the night, get as little sleep as possible and then after working through the day, take a valium before getting on the table. I think if they’d leave my eyes uncovered and let me sit there for a few minutes I might be able to doze off. Surely if I fell asleep at the start, I could make it for 45 minutes to an hour.

I’ve figured that the helmet thing is the deal-breaker for me. It covers both my nose and my mouth so when I breathe I can feel my breath hitting me in the face. It makes me feel like, instead of being in a tube that I’m in a box being buried alive.

Even the open-MRI’s use the same type of helmet thing. I’ll call the doctor next week and see what he recommends.

by the way, thanks for the comments, phone calls and e-mails.

Let me be the reason you back up your computer this week.

Turned on my main desktop last night…nothing. It had been only a year since my last crash when I had to buy a new hard drive. I lost everything last year. Now…I’ve lost it again.

Stupid me didn’t back up my main hard drive. On the “c” drive, I had my operating system, editing system software and some other files. I thought I had all of my pictures and music and video on a separate hard drive. Found out today, it was on a different hard drive all right, but the “d” drive was actually just a partition of my “c” drive.

After dropping a few hundred dollars on a new hard drive, labor and replacement RAM that somehow gave up the ghost too, I turned on my computer to find all of those pictures and about 700 songs were gone.

I’m in the process now of re-loading all of the software.

So back up Bub. You might thank me for it later.

Some football talk now. Auburn hired a new defensive coordinator today in Paul Rhoads. I found a YouTube video of the then-Pitt Panther coach talking about his coaching and defensive philosophy.

So I’m posting this here for the Auburn fans out there to see a bit of what we can expect for next season.

My wife noticed this during the first night of this season’s American Idol. Simon, Randy and Paula are being nicer to the contestants.

Last season’s early auditions seem to have been a lot more mean spirited than other seasons. I posted that the judges almost seemed like the group of “cool kids” in a high school cafeteria, poking fun and being mean to kids not in their “click” or “clique”.

Well it’s obvious someone at FOX or 19 Productions have gotten the word that some viewers didn’t like that attitude. Several times in nights 2 and 1, the judges warmed up to even the bad contestants. And several times I heard all of the judges use the word “nice”. “You’re a nice girl/guy”, or “I like you”. Even when they were giving them the heave-ho, Simon and Randy were being kind, not cruel.

Producers seem to be making an effort to keep things civil in the audition room. There’s been none of that hateful and hurtful gibes at the contestants who think, wrongly, that they can carry a tune. I haven’t seen the show take advantage of contestants who seem to be emotionally or mentally challenged.

Anybody else notice this? And if so, or if not, is the show as entertaining with kinder, gentler judges?

The premiere was Idol’s lowest rated in 4 years, but I doubt it’s because of the changes in attitudes. I think it’s because the families who’ve helped make this show such a big hit have turned off the television due to a lack of quality programming. Simply put, families didn’t see anything to watch over the last several months and have found other forms of entertainment. When Idol came back…they didn’t.

My 2-cents only.

at least get the annoying information right.

We’re watching an episode of COPS on the G4 network. We dvr’d this one because it’s in Memphis.

This is the first time I’ve watched the show on G4 so I didn’t know the bottom third scroll was going to stay on the screen through the entire program. This lower third is the most annoying thing I’ve seen on tv in quite some time. It has tabs for “trivia”, “expert”, “i-witness”, “chat” and “facts”.

The thing is…the folks at G4 don’t have their facts straight.

The first trivia question blocking a third of the show was: “where is Memphis located in the state of Tennessee?” and the choices were: a: northeast, b: northwest, c: southeast, and d: southwest.

the brainiacs at G4 told us the correct answer is C: southeast.