1 MAR 09: Super Soaker Saturday

OK, go ahead and blame me if you wish. When I heard rain was in the forecast, I prayed for plenty of it. But I also prayed for NO damaging tornadoes. And I really don't think a construction company would have prayed for any, to give their crew work to do during a recession....

Columbus has had more than four inches of rain since Friday afternoon - and the stormy weather isn't finished yet. If the forecast is right, we could get a mix of rain and snow today. So it's the perfect time to make sure everything in your closet gets worn at least once.

Our sympathies go to people in the Lee County community of Salem dealing with tornado damage. This makes three years in a row that tornadoes have hit our area between 15 February and 1 March -- enough to make me wonder if local school districts should move up their "spring break" next year.

(Before anyone jumps to conclusions about the location of this tornado - Salem comes from the Hebrew word for "peace." I seriously doubt it was named after a brand of cigarettes.)

When I turned on TV Saturday evening, I saw the special coverage titled "Miracle in the Valley" - and admittedly was stunned for a moment. I mean, people are going to think some journalists really aren't left-wing atheistic liberals....

But then I heard no one was killed or injured from the Salem tornado. OK, that's worth giving credit to the One who's behind miracles. But that title is simply going to start another two-week debate in the "Sound Off" section of the newspaper.

Columbus escaped Saturday's storms with only rain. Well, only a lot of rain. I passed one house on Gentian Boulevard during the afternoon with a front yard covered with water. Too bad no one had contacted the people who ride kayaks on the Chattahoochee River....

The heavy rain flooded many of the usual Columbus locations. Times like Saturday remind us all of how "Lakebottom Park" gained its name -- and make me wonder why a park with that name doesn't have an outdoor swimming pool.

Yet in my neighborhood, the rain ended by midday Saturday -- and it was mild enough to go for a Saturday evening run. I feared parts of the Riverwalk would be closed due to flooding, but nothing was. The "runoff" worked well enough that my run was on.

(There was one muddy patch on the Riverwalk around Seventh Street, but a pile of pine straw from nearby trees washed onto the walkway to provide some traction. And no, the tree didn't wash down with the pine straw to provide hurdling practice.)

Several outdoor weekend activities were called off, because of the approaching storm. But college softball teams found a way to play some "Leadoff Classic" games at South Commons Saturday night. That's the thing which makes many college athletes different - they don't let bad hair days stop them from competing.

I don't know if Saturday's storm stopped Valley Interfaith Promise from holding its first-ever fund-raising bed race. Brian Hite of WBOJ-FM beat me to the best line about this - that the teams could have been racing water beds.

I usually keep the TV set turned off on Saturdays, for religious reasons. But when storm sirens sounded this weekend, I turned it on - and found WRBL providing no special coverage of the tornado at all. Hopefully that thrilled Richard Hyatt, who criticized other stations the other day for "cries of wolf."

In fact, a strange sight at WRBL originally was going to be our topic today. The station didn't have its usual newscasts at 12:00 noon and 5:00 p.m. Friday -- only two months after dropping all its newscasts on weekends. Is this station actually trying to copy WLTZ's approach?

A call to WRBL seeking an explanation brought a quick transfer to the general manager's voice mail. No, we didn't leave a message. It was after 5:00 on a Friday afternoon - and we certainly don't want to interrupt those management happy hours at the Marriott Hotel.

This admittedly is secondhand information, but I'm hearing WRBL scratched several Friday newscasts because its owner has ordered four days of mandatory furloughs between now and the end of March. For some of us, this might not be bad news - because we'll get to see a little more basketball when the NCAA tournament starts.

To its credit, WRBL did NOT switch its 3.2 digital channel to the Alabama high school basketball finals Saturday. It kept the "24/7 Weather" channel on the screen. But anyone who set their watches by its stopped clock is going to be late for events today and Monday.

So while we watch the sky for something wet and the ground for signs that it's dry, let's ponder what else is happening around the area:

+ The commander of Fort Benning's Third Brigade revealed soldiers will spend July in pre-deployment training in California's Mojave Desert. So if you see men in uniform outside with snow shovels today, they could be storing something for the trip.

+ North Carolina crushed Georgia Tech in men's college basketball 104-74. For some reason, I don't hear replacement rumors raging around Yellowjacket coach Paul Hewitt. His higher-ups must have VERY long memories of that trip to the finals five years ago.

+ Instant Message to West Georgia Eye Care Center: About your sign, "MARCH MADNESS LASIK" - I think I'll wait until April.

BUT SERIOUSLY: I should call this section "Partly Personal," to borrow one of his catch phrases -- but one of my broadcasting inspirations died Saturday night. Paul Harvey was 90 years old, and was a trusted radio news voice for many people for decades. It's too bad WRCG made him hard to hear for the last couple of years.

I first remember hearing Paul Harvey at 7:30 a.m. in the car, as my mother drove a group of us to junior high school. He had been a fixture on ABC Radio for more than 20 years at that point. His newscasts became an occasional habit for me, more than a "must-hear" one. But when I could, I listened - even in the bathtub during a college summer internship in Kansas, before going to work at 1:00 p.m.

Paul Harvey knew how to deliver the news - and also how to keep your attention. He did it with pauses at key moments in a story. He did it with surprise twists during "The Rest of the Story." And he did it with funny moments at the end of a newscast. I admittedly tried to copy all of those tricks, during my years in radio news - and still use them in writing from time to time.

(There were limits to my copying, though. I never have taken CitriCal, or bought any ocular health vitamins.)

During the LaughLine era when we wrote humor for a national audience, we e-mailed issues on a regular basis to PaulHarvey.com - and hoped he might read simply one little item. The national attention from that would have been wonderful. Maybe if I had added how often I shopped at Wal-Mart....

The last Paul Harvey newscast I heard was 13 February, as I drove home with groceries from his beloved Wal-Mart. He still had the wonderful writing style, but his voice clearly was tired. It's not clear who will replace that voice - if anyone. I'd like to think I could try. But WRCG never even invited me to be a substitute host of TalkLine.

So I'm saddened today by the death of Paul Harvey. But I'm thankful for all the things he taught me - through the news stories he presented, as well as how he presented them. In a way, I now feel liberated to copy his approach even more. And I won't be ashamed to admit who my inspiration is.

COMING THIS WEEK: Your comments about corpses and George Jones.... along with the first Little League e-mail of the season....

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