2 APR 03: BUSY SEASON

Apologies for not updating this blog in awhile -- and things may be hit-and-miss for the next couple of weeks. At work, we've been busy covering the warfare. At home, I've been busy with spring cleaning. And thankfully, I have NOT become confused - and hurled trash bags across property lines at anybody.

I've been keeping an overnight "war blog" at the TV station where I work - putting in new details on Operation Iraqi Freedom as they happen. Tonight we can report there are now TWO U.S. media casualties in 12 days: Connie Chung and Peter Arnett.

What WAS Peter Arnett thinking when he agreed to be interviewed by Iraqi television? Fox News Channel may have the motto, "We report, you decide" - but in Iraq it's more like: "We distort, it's already decided."

(If Peter Arnett wanted to make comments against the warfare, there's a much more appropriate place for that - The New
York Times.)

Be thankful my overnight tape editor isn't a journalist in Iraq. Early Monday, he offered the theory that Israelis are racists
and "all Jews basically look alike." What makes this comment more amazing was that he's NOT African-American, and does NOT belong to Operation PUSH.

I upset this tape editor a few nights ago when he commented upon seeing a rap star that he's "still in the ghetto." I called
such a comment borderline racism - and I was taken to task for taking his remarks too seriously. Did I miss something, or did the movie "Bringing Down the House" change all the rules?

Given what happened before, I took a different approach to the tape editor's comments about Israelis and Jews. I suggested I don't buy into "conspiracy theories," and said some people see things differently. I stopped short of saying about 95 percent of them did....

As for the cleaning: I have a few minutes to blog because I finally finished cleaning the computer room. It took about a week-and-a-half because there were so many papers, so much dust - and so much e-mail spam that kept building.

It's great to have all the scattered papers from the floor of this computer room arranged at last. My next job is the living room - and moving half of the papers I left in there back in here.

(I have a theory that this is genetic. A few years ago at my brother's house, he had so many papers scattered on HIS office
floor that I felt I'd somehow sent wrong messages to him.)

While we're here for a break before cleaning resumes, let's get caught up on some local topics:

+ Fellini's on First restaurant downtown wants to serve beer and wine. Columbus State University, which has property nearby, is opposed - while the nearby First Presbyterian Church has no position on it. These restaurant owners should be thankful they're not next to a Baptist church.

+ The Save-A-Lot grocery store in Phenix City closed, after about two years in business with the lowest prices in the area.
I'm saddened by this - but at least co-workers won't mock me anymore for bringing "Bubba Cola" to work.

(A staff member told me Save-A-Lot plans to open three new stores in Columbus in the next year. I sure hope so - because I may have to surrender to the Wal-Mart behemoth.)

+ Newscasters around the area kept pronouncing the country under fire in a true Southern accent - "eye-rack." I thought that's where you picked your glasses, after the vision exam.

+ Good old KANSAS made the NCAA men's Final Four for the second year in a row - and I'm thinking the Jayhawks actually could win the whole thing. They have the advantage of experience. They beat Texas during the regular season. And Roy Williams is patriotic enough to keep all his players out of the FRENCH Quarter.