Nicole workout tape & other tidbits

I know I tend to meander in these ramblings. Hence the title of my blog. Let's be honest though, you read this because at some point you are hoping I will spill the beans. You want me to give you the dirt. You want to know what goes on behind the scenes here on the set in the morning. So I'll begin with Nicole.

Why is it that she is the only person from the morning team who is posed like the thinker on our website? In case you aren't familiar with the scultpure, it's described this way, "It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle." It's pictured below. Well I guess she did have one of those battles today. I'll get to that later. One thing you need to know about Nicole is she could do one of those workout videos like Jane Fonda. It would include the routine calisthenics she does on the set. She runs from her little cubby hole in the back with the last minute updates from the road. She writes all of this stuff in a traffic reporter shorthand which no one can quite understand and it's loaded in the prompter.

Like I said it's sort of written in a different language. So the prompter operator is either jumping ahead or slowing down. So while the viewer looks at maps and traffic shots, what we see is Nicole's arms flailing about like crazy.


One minute she is furiously pushing her arms down (that indicates slow down) the next she is wildly throwing her arms in a circular fashion indicating that they need to pick up the pace. Today everyone in the studio joined her. I have to admit it's a pretty solid workout.


She's also a stickler on words, this morning she was looking for just the right word for a letter she was writing. So all of us are on the set throwing out words like settle, capitulate, acquiesce, give in, and settle. No, no, no, no and no from Nicole. By 7:35 she finally comes up with the word she wants, compromise.


What about Kim? Well normally she's gregarious, and spends time on the set chatting, but lately she's got her head buried in the new Harry Potter book in the weather office. So she is busy tinkering with her weather maps and on occasion diving into the book and reading. She still has the uncanny ability to start singing some of the most wretched songs of all time. Then they become trapped in your head for the day. A couple of weeks ago it was "Dream Weaver." Today it was "Philadelphia Freedom."

How about Andrea. Well I could tell you a lot about my co-anchor, but then she would kill me. So there's really no point in it. She's a private person who works in the public. So she doesn't want me blabbing about her in my blog. I'll respect her wishes.

So as you can see this is really pretty boring stuff. But I won't sign off without giving you some real dish. There is a new tyrant marching around the newsroom these days. Remember the 6 foot 6 Brut of a caveman, Rick Garner? I've blogged about him before, he's our website chieftan. As you are probably well aware, we all cower as he makes his way through the newsroom. That's because he slams his baseball bat on desks and roars, "Blog!!!"



Well you are not going to believe this, but now there is someone else who is even striking fear in Rich Garner. Janet Terry, pictured above with Andrea is now armed with a brand new Christophe hairdo. That hairdo has made her a human dynamo. She's beginning to assert herself in a ruthless fashion. She ordered me to her desk at 8:38 this morning.


Janet: "Mike get over here."
Me: "What?"
Janet: 'You are going to be interviewing Jeff Jacobovitz, we're talking about Michael Vick and the referee."
Me: "What about Lindsey Lohan?"
Janet: "No!!!! We only have four minutes, no way!"



So I'm interviewing Jeff during the 9 am show, and the producer shouts in my ear, "One minute."


I did it, I asked about Lohan. Now I will have to face the wrath of Janet Terry. I may just duck out the back door.


Well I should wrap up today's blog. Now I pose the question are you sorry you wanted to know all this behind the scenes stuff? We are really a pretty boring group. By the way I will give you one tidbit about Andrea, she hates this picture below. Today she got it re-done. Look for the remake on our website soon.