An anchorman's take on news, money, family, life and a lot more
Do you remember your old phone number from growing up? My childhood number was 9-1692 (before the days of prefixes and area codes). Chances are you can remember yours as well, even though it could have been decades ago. Now what’s the number of your son, daughter, parents or best friend? I couldn’t tell you. […]
As we approach Thanksgiving Day, most of us have plenty to be thankful for. But the fact is many people are hurting financially. 2012 has been another tough year. Jobs lost. Bills unpaid. Just about everything costs more. A lot of people need a lot of help. Last week Channel 8 started a project none […]
You may have seen the above ad in the Tulsa World or the billboards around the Tulsa metro. Two of the most popular television game shows ever are back on Channel 8. Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune begin Monday (9-17) in their old-time slots on our station. Jeopardy! at 4:30 and Wheel at 6:30. Kristin […]
You know what it’s like to take something for granted until you don’t have it anymore? Michelle and I sure do. We took a short trip to Oregon recently to visit family. I grew up there, and Michelle and I lived there when we were first married. I worked at this TV station during […]
A word of caution for parents wanting the hippest names for their babies: chances are what’s popular at the time, won’t be decades later. And vice versa. More on that later. The Social Security Administration is out with the most popular baby names 0f 2011. Sophia takes the top spot for the first time ever for the […]
It’s time for your fried food fix. The Tulsa State Fair is back. It’s 11 day run began on Thursday, and Kristin and I anchored our 4, 5 and 6 o’clock newscasts from out there for the first two days. We kicked off something new this year. We call it our Anchor Challenge. On Thursday, […]
I had one of those “Just keep your mouth shut, Mark” moments today. I’m curious how you would have responded in a similar situation. I was in a hurry before work and ran into the grocery store for a few things. It was early afternoon, the store wasn’t busy, so I quickly grabbed the stuff […]
Did you hear? If you’re a married couple you’re a rare breed. Closer to becoming extinct. A dinosaur. For the first time, married couples have dropped below half of all American households, according to the Census Bureau. Married couples are now the minority. From The New York Times: Married couples represented just 48 percent of […]
See that photo of the baby birds with beaks wide open, desperate for a meal? I took the picture this week on my back patio. Cute, isn’t it? Not to me. Every year, it represents the same thing for me. It means I’ve lost… again. Chalk up another thrill of victory for them, another agony […]
What do you say to an 83-year-old woman who just lost everything. I could only utter “I’m sorry.” When we rolled into Joplin Monday morning to cover the tornado disaster, I knew it would be a horrible sight. But nothing could prepare me for what I saw. Miles of destruction. It was hard to imagine […]
I heard hysterical laughing coming from the traffic department at work this week. What was that all about? So I checked it out. The ladies were gathered around a computer screen watching a video of an apparent spoof of the frustrations of working 8 hours a day in a cubicle. I don’t know where the […]
I’m getting a late start on my taxes. And I’m being punished for that. By my cat. Every year I lay all my receipts, tax papers and documents into neat piles on top of the kitchen table. They were neat, that is, until my cat wanted to play. So what do I tell my CPA […]
