19 MAY 05: SILVER REFLECTIONS

"What fraternity is that?" a young man asked me at a drugstore the other day. I was wearing a shirt from my college years with three Greek letters on it - but the shirt was NOT from a fraternity. In fact, it wasn't even left on the ground on campus after a wild fraternity party.

"It's not a real fraternity," I explained. "I lived in a scholarship hall in college, and we made these shirts in hopes of impressing sorority girls." It would be sort of like U.S. soldiers holding a Koran with plastic gloves in parts of Iraq today....

"Did it work?" the young man dared to ask.

"Not for me, it didn't. I'm still single."

Actually, one of my scholarship hall roommates caught the eye of a nice-looking Alpha Delta Pi lady with his look-alike Greek shirt. At last report, she was a doctor in eastern Kansas. He was a minister in North Carolina, who may have burned his shirt long ago as the sin of false witness.

The Greek letters on the shirt are Beta Phi Delta, because I lived for four years at Battenfeld Hall. It was the size of a fraternity -- only on-campus, university-owned and cooperatively-run. All the members had daily work duties, to cover low-priced room and board. I puzzled hall mates, by cleaning the kitchen to radio stations from Mexico.

The young man at the drugstore was a total stranger, yet he peppered me all the way through the line with college and fraternity-related questions. It was as if no one in his peer group ever had been to college - or else he wanted to confirm if the movie "Animal House" was accurate.

"Did you have any athletes in your hall?" was one of the man's questions. No, not really. I tried playing intramural flag football a few times - and one evening a big guy across the line charged so hard at me that I did a reverse somersault on impact.

But this young man never asked the most important question of the discussion - where I went to college. The cut rates of scholarship halls are available at the University of Kansas. I don't know if such a thing is offered at Georgia or Alabama colleges - that is, outside the athletic dorms which the presidents might not want to count.

The timing of the questions was appropriate - because a BLOG SPECIAL EVENT begins today. On this day 25 years ago, I graduated from Kansas. Those were very different times - because for one thing, parents weren't told to shut up throughout the ceremony.

But graduation day was one of two milestones for me - because on May 19, 1980 I started work at a Kansas City radio station. I arrived a bit after 5:00 a.m. to do morning news at KJLA, a station which was starting to move away from a disco music format. Too bad - because I longed to read news to a disco beat, which is how they did it for awhile.

After four hours or so of morning news, I marked the big day in a personal way - by driving to Winchell's Donuts between the radio station and the family house. Even back then, I was getting in the habit of developing an unusual definition of "lunch."

Later in the day, it was on to Lawrence for the evening commencement exercise. I took a little Kodak Instamatic camera with me to record the event. For those of you who weren't around 25 years ago - this was back when you actually had to use film.

We walked down a hill to the university football stadium for our graduation, much as Chattahoochee Valley Community College students marched up the Phenix City Riverwalk for their commencement last week. Thankfully I jogged around those graduates without ruining their gowns....

The class of 1980 sat at the closed end of Kansas Memorial Stadium. Somewhere above me, a few seniors tried to make a political statement with a banner during the ceremony. I never turned around to see it - but I KNEW all day I should have brought a tape recorder instead of a camera, for radio.

When the ceremony was over and the diploma was in hand, I didn't really have time to find my family to celebrate. I had to drive an hour back to Kansas City, because radio duty called the next morning. Truly I'd entered the "real world" - well, as real as radio could be when the morning announcer fixed some contests. [True!]

I mark this 25-year milestone as my youngest niece prepares to take the same walk down the hill in Kansas. So I'm heading back home to see the ceremony, spend time with my family and do some reminiscing. In the blog era, I hope to share some of the trip here. And unlike Kodak Instamatics, you hopefully won't have to wait a few days for the results.

E-MAIL UPDATE: It's always nice to have celebrity blog readers - well, I think....

Richard,

Interesting story about the Columbus Police Department getting Tasers. It's kind of funny, I think I did that exact same story using the exact same facts you had in your story.

If you did the story on your own, what a coincidence. But, my reporter's instinct tells me you just copied my work, without credit to me or my station. Please be a little more responsible with your entries.

Most of the time, I enjoy reading your bog. Sometimes you're kind of funny.

Chris Sweigart

News 3 On Your Side

News Reporter, WRBL-TV

Thank you for the words of correction, Mr. Sweigart. To show I'm fair and balanced, please note this: another TV station had the very same news story Wednesday night -- but I won't mention those call letters, either.

Regular blog readers know we get our topics from all sorts of news sources, local and otherwise. If I had claimed the stun gun story as my own, I would have done what big-time TV stations like to do -- put EXCLUSIVE! all over it, with at least one "I" or "me" in every sentence.

Let the record show that in the last 20 days, we've mentioned WRBL by name at least 13 times in this blog - and that OTHER station none. That doesn't even begin to count that pregnancy discrimination case WRBL lost in March....

(Let the record also show it was Chris Sweigart who received a stun gun jolt on WRBL several months ago - and he didn't respond to that joke about "much wimpier" reporters.)

One detail the other station noted Wednesday was that Columbus Police officers will feel the sting of stun guns themselves, before using them on the beat. So suspects shouldn't be surprised to hear a detective say, "Nothing shocks me anymore...."

As it happened, Wednesday's mail brought a stock tip brochure which said two federal law enforcement agencies recently rejected the use of stun guns. The brochure claims Taser and similar companies "are in deep trouble." Now hold on - what if they make a version which jump-starts car batteries?

This brochure pointed out all sorts of flaws with stun guns. They supposedly take 15 seconds to "reload and fire again" after one round. Huh -- you mean they don't come with extension cords?

(It also claimed a stun gun "misses or fails as much as one time out of four." That won't deter Columbus Police from ordering them. They'll note people still show up for Catfish games, and they're failing three times out of four.)

This brochure suggested I invest in a different company, which is offering "non-lethal weapons which are superior to the stun gun!" It can shoot bean bags, pepper gas rounds and something called a "soft round." I used to get those things back home in Kansas -- at Winchell's Donuts....

By the way, did you notice something wrong with Chris Sweigart's e-mail? He sent a follow-up:

Please excuse the spelling error... Freudian slip? Ha!

"Most of the time, I enjoy reading your "blog". Sometimes you're kind of funny."

Christopher Sweigart

News 3 On Your Side

News Reporter, WRBL-TV

And this comes from the man who has his own military BLOG on the WRBL web site! The Third Brigade in Iraq might take the word "bog" as a slap....

Now some final thoughts from various places, before we hit the road:

+ Which area library branch has posted signs comparing libraries to shopping malls? Its point is that children shouldn't be left alone at either place. But come to think of it, the main Columbus library DOES have the makings of a food court....

+ The evening news revealed burglaries in Columbus have increased 18 percent in three years, and most home burglaries are likely to occur during the day. So if more parents home-school their children, public school teachers could stand alongside criminals at job fairs.

(Police say one sign of a potential burglar is someone carrying pillowcases in your neighborhood. Let's face it, nobody offers home delivery of laundry anymore....)

+ Columbus State University announced it will provide scholarships, to help Columbus Police obtain associates' degrees. Hopefully the regular student body won't be intimidated, when all those officers climb out of a paddy wagon to go to class.

+ An estimated 2,000 people showed up at the Carmike 15 theaters, for a midnight screening of "Star Wars 3: Revengeof the Sith." I predict the Food Network eventually will do its own version of this, called "Revenge of the Sieve."

+ Russell County pinched Pinson Valley 5-1, and can clinch the Alabama 5A baseball title today. The first game begins at 11:00 a.m. in Montgomery - and remember, you seniors: the earlier you win, the more time you have to get your gown just right for tonight's graduation.

+ Instant Message to Columbus chiropractor Dr. Jay Brodwyn: After seeing one of your TV ads this week, I hate to break the news to you - but you haven't "got the Riverdragons' back" anymore. If anything, they turned their backs on you.

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