musings on a busy hotel

It has been a while since I visited this spot. As I warned in my first post, I write only when I have something to say.

This week, there was a meeting I had to attend. The hotel I chose is quite crowded today. It's raining and people are standing around the lobby, waiting for their rides or whatever. But last night, I noticed there are several sports teams staying here. There are other notable folk as well.

A track team from Minnesota is here. They had their meet end yesterday. There is a soccer team from Wisconsin who begin play today... unless the rain stops them. Not only is it raining, but the temperature is low and scheduled to drop. In fact, the town expects snow by nightfall. The final sports component is a girl's softball team. I'm not sure if they have played or are going to play. But the restaurant was filled with highschool kids in everything from uniforms to pajamas chowing down on the complimentary breakfast.

Last night, I saw only two types of people. There was a group or party of enormously obese people. These were dressed in sweat suits, or shorts and t-shirts, anything they could buy that was comfortable. The second group that made itself seen was cross dressers. Each man was very well dressed and perfectly made up. These congregated outside the entrance to smoke. It was amazing to see them do so. A couple of them had long cigarette holders and flouished them like a 1920's queen of fashion.

This morning, I ran into a woman whose house has been bought by the hotel so they can build another hotel. She alternated between cheer and tears. Her house is an old one (over 100 years) and her children have become attached. On the other hand, they are excited by the possibility of a larger garden for play. She is sad to be leaving the home on which she worked so hard (single mom) and pleased at the prospect of having enough ground to build a large garage/workshop/office.

Then there the people like me. More or less what the world considers normal, and here for whatever business brings people to a hotel.

There may have been a wedding reception at the hotel restaurant. I saw several hung over men in evening clothes, or what they still had on, rumpled and wine stained shirts, trousers with silk stripes down the sides, hanging bowties staring glumly at the breakfast buffet.

At any rate, I'm leaving this afternoon. My mother, her sister and a cousin invited me to lunch. Since they all have other plans for this evening, I'll head south and hopefully avoid the snow.

Broadcast news coverage

I've just finished watching 90 minutes of local and national news on television. While there are serious time constraints on what can be discussed in a news broadcast. The choices made and the paucity of information offered truly appalls me. For example, tonight, our local news consisted of:
- Capture of a suspected robber and a suspect in several murders
- List of three bills introduced in the state legislature
- Opening of new UAMS hospital
- Opening of Hot Springs racing season
- Corned beef sandwiches served at track opening
- Weather
- Weather broadcaster's 25th anniversary with station
- Children's inventions
- Sports
-Person of the week

The national news discussed:
- US Airlines crash
- Bank losses and the economy
- Obama's trip to Washington, prospective weather at inauguration
- mid-east peace process
- Person of the week (Captain of US Air plane)
- Death of Andrew Wyeth

I just looked at one source and found that lots more went on today that was never even hinted at:
- East Arkansas judge appeared before a judicial discipline committee
- Governor was asked to pardon an ex-drug dealer (to allow him to work on a community group he formed)
- Portions of an important road will be closed this week
- Judge ordered another parent to jail for contempt in the Tony Alamo under aged sex case

One source gave these world and national happenings:
- Hertz to drop 4,000 jobs
- Venezuelans to vote on Chavez term as president
- EU accuses Microsoft of harming competition (I'm not sure that is news anymore)
- Rebels in Congo declare truce
- UN agrees, in principle, to peace keeping forcer in Somalia
- Ethiopian peace keepers leave Mogadishu to cheering of Islamists
- Gas fire continues to burn $billions in Nigeria
- World class oil discovery in Uganda
- Thai military arrests more Burmese refugees & stories about treatment of previous lot
- North Korea's Kim il-Jong is reported to have chosen a successor
- Saudi Arabia deports Chinese workers
- Gunmen abduct three aid workers in the Philippines
- Israel to vote on Gaza cease fire
-Uganda bans meeting of African traditional rulers (kings) who were to discuss African unity

Perhaps some of these seem trivial, but each of them could have an impact on many of us.

There is another point. Broadcast news is strongest in reporting breaking stories. Newspapers are strongest in prolonged coverage and in-depth reports. Why then, do the networks continue to try in the areas where they are the weakest? It seems to me that smart reporting would be headlines and pictures where available and important. (I don't think photos of neighbors talking about someone in the neighborhood accused of a crime are germane to a story. Besides, they usually say "he seemed like a quiet fellow. I don't believe he could have don it."

Many years ago, TV networks decided that their news should be a profit making program rather than a public service (the original reason the FCC mandated news programs). This has led to an emphasis on the sensationalist stories about movie stars and former football players to the exclusion of news that could affect each one of us.