Looking to live a richer, more satisfying life in 2004? Well, we have a few ideas for you, after polling a few members of the local press on their New Year’s resolutions. Not surprisingly, what they pledged said a little a bit about themselves.
Earlier this year, WSMV-Channel 4’s Larry Brinton uncovered the fabricated résumé of Gene Hughes, an upper-level school board employee who fibbed about being a professional football player, an attorney and a member of the military in his contrived biography. Despite these transgressions, schools director Pedro Garcia meted out a minute punishment for the congenital embellisher, demoting him and trimming his salary. But when Brinton wouldn’t let the matter go, reporting almost daily how Hughes remained employed and generously compensated, the Metro School Board turned up the heat on Garcia, who was finally forced to can the administrator. Still months later, Brinton has continued to dog Garcia, questioning his temperament for the job and even personally promising the schools director that he will continue to make life tough on him.
That won’t be changing anytime soon. For his 2004 New Year’s Resolution, Brinton says, “I want to get a job as Pedro Garcia’s henchman. It shouldn’t be that hard since I’m a lawyer, a Navy SEAL, have a Ph.D., played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and belonged to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Liars Club.”
Teddy Bart, host of radio and television’s Teddy Bart’s Roundtable, plans to bring Beyond Reason, a show about the unknown, back to the air. Before being shelved so Bart could concentrate on his news show, Beyond Reason delved into matters from UFOs to spirituality for nearly a decade, exposing a different side of Bart than the one who chats with governors, senators and Michael Schoenfeld.
“If the Roundtable is left-brain, then Beyond Reason is the opposite,” says Bart, who will still be hosting his talk show.
Danny Solomon, the lifestyles editor and rather saucy food critic for the Nashville City Paper, offers up the unusual resolution to “meditate in the morning before work.” Why? “So that I don’t run out of bed, run into the shower, run to the car like a Tasmanian devil without taking time for myself,” she says.
Solomon’s zany City Paper colleague, William Williams, who covers the business beat for the start-up daily, similarly eschews the standard New Year’s resolutions boilerplate in favor of a far quirkier pledge. “I resolve to sit in as a guest cellist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra,” he says. Williams admittedly has never picked up a cello, although he is a fine drummer.
WTVF Channel 5’s remarkably assured co-anchor Amy Marsalis offers up an ambitious resolution regarding her partner behind the desk, the inimitable Chris Clark. “My resolution is to laugh at more of Chris’ jokes.”
Clark retorts that he plans to “tell even more jokes because Amy enjoys them so much.” Got to love that witty anchor banter.
Tennessean sports writer Larry Woody, who covers auto racing along with a smattering of other sports, pledges to “remember the advice of my old sports editor John Bibb. 'It’s only a game.’ ” WZTV-Fox 17 sports anchor Skip Baldwin was equally succinct. “I have got to start working out,” says Baldwin, who does not appear particularly out-of-shape, although next to Ashley Webster, an avid runner, he might feel like he is. “I need to start running or at least walking again.”
Longtime WKRN anchor Anne Holt allegedly has a delicious sense of humor. But she was all business when asked about her resolution: “I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I try to take it one day at a time and set priorities that work for me.”
Equally serious was Dave Fox, the “never let them see you sweat” editor of the NashvillePost.com, the daily business Web site. Fox also edits Business Tennessee, the magazine formerly known as Nashville Post. Fox wants his Web site to break more news and reach new readers across the state with his newly named and focused magazine. The hard-working Fox also “pledges to see my seven-month-old son Oscar each day while he’s awake.”
Meanwhile, down at Scene central...
Desperately Seeking the News typically eschews making New Year’s resolutions, but it does make predictions. Look for the following column leads in 2004:
♦ Metro Council member Adam Dread has filed a resolution that would make all public deliberations of the city’s legislative body closed to members of The Tennessean.
♦ Authorities set bail at $500,000 for Pedro Garcia after the Metro Public Schools director was arrested for threatening to maim 72-year-old WSMV-Channel 4 reporter Larry Brinton.
♦ “Desperately Seeking the News” has uncovered previously guarded information on how Tim Chavez selects which point of view he plans to espouse for each column: “Heads equals conservative, tails equals liberal.”
♦ The Tennessean’s Brad Schmitt and Joe Biddle have announced they are leaving 1100 Broadway for the lucrative world of talk radio. Biddle will be replaced by another paunchy, white, middle-aged, one-time jock. An extra fax machine and DSL line will fill in for Schmitt.
Comments (0)