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10 JAN 04: JO-MAHA
Friday night was a time for mixed emotions, as several friends gathered to bid farewell to TV news reporter Jo Giles. She's moving to a bigger city - which translates in parts of Columbus into "no mo' Jo."
Jo Giles's reporting "beat" most recently was Columbus city government. In fact the Columbus Council issued a proclamation last Tuesday in her honor. Hopefully that won't go to her head - because we knew a man years ago who persuaded then-Mayor Bobby Peters to proclaim a day in honor of a relatively unknown news photographer.
Jo Giles tells me she's going to the Fox station in Omaha, Nebraska. In fact, on the day she went there for a job interview it was ten degrees F.! She apparently forgot about the alternative - Omaha, Georgia in Stewart County.
The departure of Jo Giles will pose a problem for me. I went to college at Kansas, and she went to arch-rival Missouri. Who will I pick on now, when the Jayhawks win during basketball season?
Jo Giles made a lot of friends during more than three years in Columbus. Amazingly, even a couple of Ledger-Enquirer reporters showed up for the Friday night farewell dinner. I'm not sure which one cracked the line about being "REAL journalists...."
I'd share some pictures of the Friday night farewell dinner at El Vaquero's near Cross-Country Plaza -- but I'm afraid to say my new digital camera refused to take any. For some reason, sometimes it acts like it's afraid to go out after dark.
Since it's a little chilly to do much outside, let's stay in and send some Instant Messages....
+ To Peachtree Mall: Who picks the music you play on your P.A. system? In the last few days I've heard a big band playing "In the Mood," the last movement of a Moussorgsky symphony and some "easy listening" singers doing the love theme from "The Godfather." Wouldn't Hillary Duff songs bring in younger shoppers?
+ To Foxie-105 FM: What do you mean, you're my "number-one station for life?" I don't plan to become a gangster rapper, serving long prison terms.
+ To Angel Anderson of WHAL-AM: The word is pronounced CON-STANT-LY. There's no fourth syllable.
+ To the Columbus Riverdragons: That was a good interview your "Mr. Washington" had Friday on Ritmo Latino Radio. He seemed to say fewer words in English than the host did....
COMING SUNDAY: A runaway car and a stuck truck....