Lesson Learned: Why you should not let friends rewrite your copy....

MY VERSION:
Today marked my third morning show appearance on WINK TV and CW6, talking about the "scene"; what's happening in Southwest Florida. The 4:45 alarm seemed particularly early after a late appearance at a house warming party. I was doing OK until the Costco Death By Chocolate Cake was cut and another glass of Cabernet was poured.

Nevertheless, I made it to the TV station with freshly washed hair and time to spare. But no time for coffee and even in my desperate state I could not bring myself to pumping a cup of the break room swill. As I sat on set and we came back from a commercial break, I thought the cameras were going to the news desk first, then to the set where I was. I coughed and cleared my throat in preparation just as the camera lit up in front of me. Great opening line.


I limped through the segment desperately needing to clear my throat and push that random strand of hair back. But it was over before I knew it and I had a full 50 minutes to get my throat in order and my hair back in place before the next hit.

Finally, salvation; I drove down the street to Bennett's Fresh Roast where I sit now next to the coffee king, my dear friend and former radio co-host; Bob Grissinger, AKA C. David Bennett. He suggested I give him a guest blog spot and offered to re-write this copy to prove his worth. Here it is. You be the judge.




HIS VERSION:
Today marked Gina's third appearance on set at Wink TV and CW6, to talk about "the scene".  In other words she's talking about where she drank wine the night before and what beautiful people she rubbed elbows with.  Her 4:45 wakeup (she slept?) came particularly early considering the fact that she was at some house warming party the night before, providing bawdy entertainment for those who chose to revel with her.  They served Costco "Death by Chocolate" cake at the party (it was a house warming...who had time to bake?) and drank some kind of decent cabernet.  Nevertheless she had time to bath and wash her hair (but not to bake a cake) and skipped brewing a pot of coffee.  Off she went to the studio building.

None of that coffee in the break room for her (I trained her well) since it's tastes somewhere in between freshly dipped water right out of the Caloosahatchee and the bathwater of a yak.    As she sat on the set she awaited her cue, thinking they'd go right to the news set first, not the "feature set". But no, as luck would have it (and as "Gina luck" has been defined for at least 15 years) they went to her first.  She didn't exactly have her finger up her nose to the first knuckle, but she hacked and coughed loudly to the startled amazement of those working on the floor.  Her hair dangling in front of her eyes, she croaked through the segment sounding much like a frog.  Fortunately, she had a 50 minute break before she had to do it again, IF they decided to let her back on.  Inexplicably, they did.

Afterwards, driving at breakneck speeds she careened down 1st Street to the delightful Bennett's Fresh Roast, a local institution of some repute located at 2011 Bayside Parkway.  Fresh roasted coffee everyday, and from-scratch hand cut donuts are served up to the delight of young, old, grumpy and happy every day of the year but Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And it's run by a charming man who used to work every day with Ms. Birch and kept her grounded in the reality of sidekick subservience.