Winter of 1977 I was holed up in a Yosemite Valley hotel room writing. Took an afternoon break with a friend to get a beer at the Broiler Room and nearly everybody was talking about The Airplane, about the marijuana being salvaged from a lake toward the south end of the Park. If I’d been more … More The Airplane
A bit more than 25 years ago now I spent some time in Fargo ND working for America’s Most Wanted. The case in particular was a missing child named Jeanna North, an 11 year old who had disappeared roller blading the three blocks between the Dairy Queen and her home. In that short distance she … More Missing
The New York paper (specifically our friend Carol Pogash) today reports that the people who run the Golden Gate Bridge will finally for heaven’s sake, install a suicide barrier. The average last year of about one successful and two foiled jumpers per week is apparently, at last, too many. So good. And about darn time. And here’s … More Jumping Off the Bridge
Today another story out there about who killed President Kennedy. Fifty years ago. Like maybe who or what did it is still alive and ready to confess. Or that finally confirming this or that version changes anything. It’s my sense that all these whodunit pieces in print and TV are created by people who weren’t … More JFK
I got an assignment back then to do a Thanksgiving piece for NPR and soldiered off by phone and car to make a little radio story about turkeys. They raise turkeys in the Central Valley down the hill from our Mariposa house and I figured the audio from a turkey ranch — twenty thousand anxious … More A Thanksgiving Tale
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
Tom DeVries 