Czar of all (local) media

It is a testament to the life of utter mediocrity that I've led - although also shaped more than a tad by a modicum of common sense - that I've made it to age fifty without ever being on television. That changed this last week, although in a pretty pleasant way. The local station, WCAX, contacted me and wanted to do a live interview in the regards to the Professor of the Year award. I agreed, although I do not like public speaking and the entire things made me more than a little nervous. Happily, everyone I talked to at WCAX - the Associate Producer Alden Pellett, the Senior News Producer Christine Hinkel, and Mike McCune, who interviewed me (and even reporter Kristin Carlson, who when stepping aside to let me on stage said, "excuse me, professor" - if my students said that even once I'd faint) - could not have been nicer. I was waiting to walk up on stage and was chatting with Mike McCune and he was talking about what an honor the award was, and I told him that I assumed I had received it solely because I was the tallest nominee - he just laughed and said, "You don't have to tell me anything, look at me." Anyway, they all made me feel very comfortable and I actually enjoyed the experience. It's odd because the stage itself looks so nice, and then five feet beyond that in any direction it looks like a warehouse. The whole thing went very well - although, to be fair, I had pretty low goals, mainly being on stage without having my fly open, so I think I set myself up nicely for success. I have not watched the video - nor do I plan to do so - mainly because I hate the sound of my own voice, and it just makes me cringe. Seeing myself talk just destroys the self-deception that keeps me going that I'm marginically intelligent. I have a really funny class of juniors right now who were watching the video on a laptop at the beginning of class yesterday, and I almost jumped out the window. Luckily I distracted them by pointing out that my great friend Kerry Noonan was in Friday the 13th, part VI, and that set them off in another direction. Yes, I just threw one of my best friends under a bus, but this was a desperate situation.