The last few days have been rough as we lost a prince of a man whom we, in the KNBC family, loved so much. Steve Crowe, our video man in studio 10, had just celebrated 25 years at the station, and his 59 years on this earth when he died quietly in his sleep on Monday. He started with KNBC in maintenance and loved all things mechanical, especially airplanes. Steve is the the guy on the right in this picture:
Anyway, he was crochety and sour and mean -- on the outside. Until he started showing you pictures of his cat Mario or his dog Maddy (yes, he would kill me for telling you this) in Santa hats, or the abandoned baby bunnies he tried to handfeed and save (unsuccessfully, by the way. He was heartbroken they didn't make it.) And his whole goal was to put us on camera and make us look great, then make sure to take us down a notch so "your heads will fit through the double doors on your way out."
A rough week all around, as well, as we make the transition from fire season to mudslide season in just the space of a week. We've been doing fundraisers for the American Red Cross to offer help to people burned out of their homes -- a week before Thanksgiving, and of course with the economy how it is and all more people need food banks and fewer people are donating. All of this to get us to what I'm clicking on today! Well, yesterday Elita brought a bunch of groceries to a food drive run by our buddies the Frogmen in the Morning, Scott and Tommy with KFRG, who are actually living on site as they try to fill a tractor trailer full of food!
And yes, as the Frogmen posted it on YouTube, our girl got to ride in a fire truck as part of her visit!
We had so much in the way of rain, mud, and breaking news this morning we didn't get a chance to chat with Scott and Tommy so the fun stuff sometimes falls to the wayside.
In the category of we need a few laughs, I hearken back to my comments last week about the big three automakers. DID YOU SEE the Saturday Night Live opening sketch over the weekend? Hilarious. Neither NBC nor Hulu.com posted the opening sketch on their websites, but this SNL critic guy posted it on YouTube with his commentary. Enough of that sketch is on there that you'll get the gist of it, and we ran clips of it on our newscast Monday morning too.
And this one makes me laugh every time I see it, maybe because it's lampooning someone who worked here on our lot and is part of our extended news family. Some people have such a distinct style, they stand out and are memorable and successful -- but also very easily and hilariously mocked. Check out SNL's take on Dateline NBC's Keith Morrison. And Happy Thanksgiving!
