March 18, 2009

OK, so our newscasts can't possibly cover every single thing that happens in the world.
Every day, decisions have to made about what's interesting or important to our viewers... which means countless stories simply don't make the cut.

Today -- (March 17, as I write this) -- I decided to carefully scan the wire services, news websites, and broadcast sites to get a glimpse at some of the stories that were omitted from our broadcasts.

For better or worse, we didn't report on the man in Finland who lost his finger in an accident, and chose to have it replaced with a little prosthetic finger-shaped USB drive. Now he always has two gigabytes of storage ready for files and photos and other stuff. He just plugs his "finger" into the USB port on a computer, and he's in business.

We didn't report on the man in Oregon whose real name is Rip Van Winkle, who went to a doctor's office looking for help with his insomnia. That seems like a fairly interesting story.

A man was arrested in Bismarck after he fell asleep behind the wheel of his car in line at a drive-through restaurant, and just sat there, sleeping, with his engine running. He got in trouble because he had his 4-year old child in the car with him. I think I've gotten behind that guy in line before.

Here's one from the CNN wire.
It's about a man in California confined to a wheelchair for more than 20 years. But, miraculously, after a bite from a potentially deadly brown recluse spider, he was suddenly able to walk. How in the world did we overlook that story?

Here's another good one.
Researchers in Canada say they've found the fossil remains of a small, vicious dinosaur that lived 75-million years ago.
What's unusual is that it was only about the size of a modern chicken.
I can't help but wonder if it tasted like chicken?

We also missed the story about the jail in Montague County, Texas.
The new sheriff closed it down because the inmates were having too much fun. Nobody even wanted to escape.
According to Associated Press, the jail was "Animal House meets Mayberry"... with inmates running the place.
They had recliners, cell phones, drugs and on-staff girlfriends.

We overlooked the story about the Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who was sentenced to 90 days in jail for refusing to bring a pair of outhouses into compliance with state sewage laws.

Now you're a little better informed.
And you thought all that stuff about the recession and AIG executive bonuses was interesting.

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