Thursday, October 27, 2005

I Give Great Soundbite

Took a couple hours off work today to gather with some of my neighbors to meet with Andrea McCarren, a reporter with our local ABC affiliate, to talk about the Great Road-Paving Controversy of 2005. She's doing a piece on the hideous overdevelopment of Western Loudoun County, and the wholesale destruction of our historic lands by land-rapers and greedheads who've been given free rein by some members of the Loudoun Country Board of Supervisors.

We met at the Georges Mill Schoolhouse, a beautifully restored 1880s building that's now a private residence -- you can actually see some of it in the photo in this post. They filmed us first sitting by the fire and chatting about our efforts to save our road -- an establishing-shot sort of deal. Then they interviewed us individually: Tom Bullock and I were presented as local-history mavens. Tom has an unimaginably cool collection of relics that he's found around here -- he's the owner of the Vulgar Fractions book I posted about a while back. Then it was my turn.

Kids, I give murderously good soundbite. Didn't know I had it in me, but I just killed. I talked about how the road, like the house we sat in and the sofa we occupied, is itself an antique, how there are stretches of the road where you can't tell what century you're in, and how, if you bend over and pick up a handful of dirt, you may very well be holding something that was kicked by Civil War soldiers.

I don't want to speculate wildly here, because this is a Serious Blog about Serious Issues, but when I was done, I'm pretty sure Andrea McCarren, Crack Investigative Reporter, wanted to have my babies.

The piece is a few weeks away from broadcast, but I'll eat my hat if my soundbite isn't the kicker to the segment. It's a tricorn, with a big-assed feather and a leather band, and I'll nosh the whole thing, down the hatch.

9 comments:

H. Rumbold, Master Barber said...

All politics is local.

Now that the season for skimmers is over, I don't really see you looking your best in a tricorn, unless the occasion is fancy dress. You might want to consider the Mosby or the Pork Pie.

H. Rumbold, Master Barber

Kevin Wolf said...

Ned, save the condiments. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Anyway, great soundbite is better than ... aw, hell, let me stop before I get into real trouble.

bafes (Funny, exactly the brand of condiment I had in mind. How odd.)

Anonymous said...

Nasty, crazy Philip Derry thanks ya thanks ya thanks ya. After all, he loved the dirt of that road...of which stuff he's made.

Anonymous said...

I was about to make the obvious comment about the Pork Pie being the obvious choice for a man who may have to eat his hat, but on viewing the link discover it is nothing like the hipster pork pie that I am familiar with. So I surf a little, and discover that there is precious little agreement on what really constitutes a pork pie anyway. I give up. How's a person supposed to make an impact round here?

Neddie said...

That Mosby is one seriously good-lookin' hat. I'd eat that in a Winchester minute (about 45 of your Big City minutes).

Bob, you're right, that's not the Porkpie Hat that Charles Mingus said Goodbye to. An early ancestor.

rcojheq, which, if fed to the Anagram Server, yields...nothing at all.

The Viscount LaCarte said...

I really don't want to burst your bubble, Mr. Jingo, but what have you been smoking? Haven't you ever dealt with the press before? Count yourself lucky if they don't misrepresent you as a supporter of the developement, or as a local kook who doesn't have a clue to what is going on.

I'm betting that all you will get is a 3 second background shot with the reporter babbling on incoherently and not one word of your eloquence even being used in the piece.

ynheet!

Anonymous said...

How's her shoulder? Did she mention it?

Neddie said...

Maskow refers to this, which I must have missed because this is the first I've heard of it... Not much of a consumer of the local TV news...

gubmbpjz: Gumby PJ's?

XTCfan said...

when I was done, I'm pretty sure Andrea McCarren, Crack Investigative Reporter, wanted to have my babies

Meaning, you'd have to investigate the reporter's crack?

sqrtsy (seriously)