Recovering journalist living in California's Sierra Nevada
Back then, early oughts, I was field producing live shots for the Today Show. Not much money, but kinda fun way to spend an early morning. Usually pretty good stories, and the glamor. That too. So one night in April the crew booker called from Burbank – this would be maybe 8 pm Pacific – … More why I no longer work for NBC News ever
First off, the statute of limitations on my crime has surely expired and one little inter-state move of a ‘quantity for sale’ of marijuana probably doesn’t matter as much now as it sure as hell did in 1970. Second, jail is weird space. If you haven’t been in, there’s no way to get it. … More 24 Hours to Life in Reno
At its best, my childhood looked like Jean Sheperd’s “A Christmas Story” with me as Ralphie. I wanted the BB gun too, but also my school, the coal furnace, the front yard, clothes and snow suits… my life really looked like this. Until I was ten we lived in Ann Arbor, the college town. More than half … More Campus Years
I remember being frightened, but I don’t think I was ever as afraid as I should have been. Started fighting and covering wild fires in about 1973, first on casual crews out of the Forest Service station at Jerseydale, then for whoever would pay me to go watch and report back. So, mostly then … More Forest Fires
The private plane went into the Lake Michigan trying to land on Christmas Eve. I was working evenings, 6 to 2 AM so I was there when it happened and the city editor sent a photographer went over to Meigs Field which was on landfill off downtown. Meigs is no longer an airport, but is very big … More Night shift
Much of the discussion of politics and policy — on the left mostly, because the the right is just nasty — much of the talk just seems so naive…. foolish. The arguments that Pelosi should do this or Obama is a fake or a failure seem informed by some fantasy of what managing power is … More Making Power
Tom DeVries 