When I jumped back into journalism two years ago as the associate producer of newscasts at 精东影业, I felt instantly at home.
Great coworkers. Great mission. Great bosses (they edit this, so I had to say that.)
There was only one maybe not so great thing, though: My cubicle.
Don't get me wrong. It's not like they put me in the basement with a red stapler, like Milton in "Office Space." I got a perfectly adequate desk in a space that once was home to the photocopier and office supplies 鈥� which I deduced after finding a trove of green highlighters.
What I didn't have was a nice bookshelf or the coup de grace, a locker to hang my coat and stow my heels. I have had locker envy from day one.
Recently, several of my newsroom colleagues and I were promoted. In my case, to supervising producer of newscasts, a job once held by my colleague Glenn Forbes, who was promoted to deputy editor of news.
I am excited about the new role for many reasons. I get to work closely with our talented hosts, assure that our newscasts are urgent and accurate and, perhaps most importantly, move up to a desk with a locker and a shelf.
Excuse me, my priorities are just fine.
A few weeks ago, Glenn said, 鈥淒id you hear, I鈥檓 moving desks, and you鈥檙e supposed to relocate to mine?鈥�
I didn't miss a beat, answering, 鈥淚鈥檝e already measured for drapes.鈥�
He thought I was joking.
Glenn is moving across the newsroom to be closer to the reporters he supervises. I've already planned what will populate my new space, from the order of books on the shelf to the color of picture frames to my collection of old presidential campaign buttons.
I'll start with removing the (used?) N95 respirator that's been on his desk since the advent of the COVID pandemic. Glenn's decorating style is a bit too "clutter chic" for me.
You might think I'm making too much of this new desk, but I鈥檝e spent more than a quarter century in broadcast news and sat at many a desk and I remember every one of them.
At a CBS station in Arkansas, the newsroom where I worked used to be a dentist鈥檚 office. I always wondered if cavities were filled where I sat. Some days I would have preferred to have my teeth drilled rather than cover another tornado outbreak.
In Buffalo, a newsroom renovation put me at a sparkling new desk next to a former Miss New York. She kept a large nun doll on her desk, given to her by a viewer 鈥� I don't know why. In-between snowstorms and when the mood struck, I would practice my ventriloquism by quietly reciting the 鈥楬ail Mary鈥� in a high-pitched voice. We laughed. Occupants of neighboring desks were never amused.
In Cleveland, I was assigned to Ted Henry鈥檚 old desk at Channel 5. For those unaware, Henry was a legendary anchor during the golden age of television news and everybody, including all of his former colleagues, loved him. That was a hard desk to fill.
Glenn's will be a hard one to fill, too. But with the help of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, I'll try.
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