Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
The Next Challenge
Monday
February 10, 2003
I've been told to be in at Channel 10 between 7 and 7:15 PM on Wednesday night to clean out my desk. Guess it's a little less awkward than with a newsroom full of people. I really don't care; I just want my stuff back and to be done with it all. The entire staff could be there singing "Hey hey hey, goodbye" like Vince McMahon did for Eric Bischoff on WWE Raw tonight. Fine by me.
One really funny thing I never could talk about on here before was the "10 News Survivor" phenomenon. There's a big board in the station of everyone's name and picture (well not everyone -- Scott Massey's isn't up there, for example). But the similarity with it and the pictures on the Survivor webpage was striking awhile back. We joked that when someone was "voted off" (fired/released), they'd get an X through their picture like they did for the Survivor contestants.
It has a deeper meaning, too. Working there was kind of like Survivor; you had your alliances, your challenges, etc. Try to stay under the radar and not seem like a threat. Or something like that.
I was to extend my condolences to the family of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, who died today in Brandon. He was 44. It's incredibly sad just how many pro wrestlers have died before their time. In his prime, Hennig was one of the best in the world. Ironically, when I met Jimmy Hart on Friday, it was because Hart was at the station to promote the wrestling event that Hennig was scheduled to take part in tonight. The Mr. Perfect vs. Brutus Beefcake match at WrestleMania VI in 1990 will always be remembered as one of my favorites. There was a time when my brother Matt and I could recite the commentary from that match line-for-line. "And here comes Bruti".
My friend Tom Walters asked about the Counting Crows show that I'd mentioned, so here's the scoop on it... The concert takes place on Thursday, March 27 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa. Tickets go on sale to the general public on February 14. But, because I like to reward my readers, if you want tickets you can get them in a special internet pre-sale Wednesday at 5 PM EST:
http://www.countingcrowstickets.musictoday.com
Digging more into the mailbag, a gentleman named Steve Sheltraw in South Bend, Indiana wrote me in response to the column on high school basketball phenom LeBron James. He offered this retort:
There is one commentary that I really, really disagree with you and that is the LeBron James situation. I will bet you a pay check that the James family has earned more money than you and I put together this year. There are so many shady characters in the AAU/HS basketball community that these people are getting taken care of, in more ways than one. In fact, if your playing big time collegiate basketball, your getting taken care of.
Mr. Sheltraw may be exactly right. But James is still living in public housing. And people are still making a mint off of him. But let me say for sure that I'm not trying to imply that the system is clean. Quite the contrary, athletics=money and inherently it sometimes becomes a dirty game as a result. Such is life and human nature.
One point I noted while on the Precor machine on Sunday but failed to mention until now is the insanity that is Jack Obsourne (son of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne). Do you know what would happen if he were suddenly not rich, famous and powerful and instead enrolled as a student at, say, Hillwood High School in Nashville. Something tells me he'd get his ass kicked on a daily basis...
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