News Cut: June 7, 2008 Archive

Eyes on the sky

Posted at 8:41 AM on June 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

Again with the weather!

So, it's going to be one of those weekends. More storms are on the way and here at the News Cut Woodbury bureau, we're torn between wanting to cut the grass before heavy storms roll in, and being that guy -- the first one early on a Saturday to crank up a lawnmower. I'm not without entertainment, however. I'm watching my neighbor starting up her lawn sprinkler, and I'm wondering why she doesn't see the calamitous clouds above her.

Judging by the different hues of her lawn, she or her husband have made the typical "young homeowner" mistake: "If the fertilizer instructions say set the spreader at '6," setting it at '12' will be twice as good." They're about to learn another lesson: Water isn't going to make the mistake go away.

But back to the news. The National Weather Service has posted some severe thunderstorm warnings for the region says:

(As of 6:27 p.m.) Flash flood warningsn the far southeast corner of Minnesota and into Wisconsin. Evening rains could be as much as 3 inches. The warning is in effect until the early morning hours.(See map).

A flash flood watch is also in effect for SE Minn, a slightly wider area from around Redwood Falls, Mankato, over to Rochester south. That's until 10 Sunday morning.

We're told to expect "dime-sized" hail. A week ago, the hail was the size of a half-dollar, which just goes to show you the state of the American currency right now.

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Jim McKay, 1921-2008

Posted at 6:33 PM on June 7, 2008 by Bob Collins
Filed under: Icons

You want strange? I'll give you strange. Hours before Jim McKay died Saturday, I was listening to the Bob Costas show on a local radio station, with veteran CBS Sports host Jim Nance talking about Jim McKay. "I wonder if he's still alive," I said to myself. "There's a guy who deserves a great send-off when he goes."

An hour later, he went.

McKay was the voice of sports when there were only three TV stations to watch. He gave us, of course, ABC's Wide World of Sports and most people today can't begin to understand the world he opened up to us each Saturday. Never heard of that? How about "the agony of defeat"? He wrote it.

But McKay, at least in my mind, is best remembered for this line: "they're all gone." That's how we learned that the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, who were taken hostage by the Black September group, had not survived an attempt to rescue them. That day, McKay -- by himself it seems, although I'm sure he had more than a little help -- was our lone link to the unfolding tragedy. We sat and watched him on the edge of our seats for hours.

His work that day was every bit as memorable as Walter Cronkite taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes while telling us President Kennedy was dead.

There are a lot better writers than me to tell you about the life of Jim McKay. About all I can do is pass along that the United States lost one of its biggest legends.

There's some really great raw footage on YouTube available here. They are parts of an interview McKay (whose real name was McManus) did for Archives of American Television.

It says a lot about the ABC Network, for whom McKay toiled, that its Web site reveals "nothing found" when entering Jim McKay in the search field. He practically built the network.

The role of color in the campaign for president

Posted at 6:16 PM on June 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

I saw my first John McCain bumper sticker while driving home from work the other night. But what struck me wasn't that I hadn't seen one until now. What struck me was the color scheme:

Black and gold? First of all, those are Army colors. McCain was a Navy guy. But beyond that, I got to thinking: who's the last person to run for president in a general election who didn't have red, white, and/or blue as part of the bumper sticker color scheme.

I know there are collectors of campaign memorabilia in the News Cut audience. Step forward.

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Clinton's concession

Posted at 6:00 PM on June 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

There's a terrible ground hum on the audio. There's a metaphor there.... somewhere.

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