During all the recent Enron hubub, I ended up through an odd series of events showing up in the local media quite a few times. The Friday before we were all laid off, November 30th, I was approached by Channel 2 (CBS) on my way into the Enron building. While I was being interviewed by them, Channel 11 (NBC) approached and awaited a chance to talk to me. So after the interview with Channel 2 of about 5 minutes, I spoke with Channel 11 for another 5 minutes. Both channels aired segments of our interviews. Channel 2 posted the story in their Money section and it was also linked to in Yahoo! Finance. Channel 11 posted the story twice, once in their Headline News section and once in their Business section with my quote as the tag in the headline and a link to a video clip of the original newscast.

The following Monday, I was again stopped by Channel 2 for an interview on the way into the Enron building, before finding out for sure about the layoffs. While they were interviewing me, a man with a pad of paper and no camera approached and waited off camera. Channel 2 interviewed me for about 3 minutes. After the interview the man approached and said he was with the Houston Chronicle and also requested an interview. He and the Channel 2 reporter basically ended doing a tag team written interview for about 5 minutes. Then the Channel 2 reporter asked me to answer some of the additional questions on camera, which I did. Again, both interviews ended up being used. I have video of the Channel 2 news segment from Monday on tape and maybe I'll get it posted eventually. As for the Chronicle's story, they posted it in their Front Page section.

The Channel 2 reporter on Monday had asked for my cell phone number in case they wanted to do a follow up interview. Later in the afternoon on Monday, I received a phone call from another person from Channel 2 saying she had gotten my number from the reporter. They were doing a special on the effect the Enron collapse had had on a personal level, which would include a live discussion group with ex-Enron employees. They wanted me to come down and participate in the show. I agreed and told some of my (ex) co-workers about it. One of them came on the show with me. It was only a 30 minute special and too many of us showed up, so I ended up having to swap out with someone during the commerical. Thus, my actual time on camera was pretty short. My sister also recorded this show, so perhaps I will also get it posted some day.

The weirdest part about this entire flirtation with local fame is how many people saw me. *All* of my co-workers saw pretty much all of my appearances. People at the barn saw me. All my remote family members in the Houston area saw me. The guy at Mailboxes, Etc. saw me. Pretty much anyone I see often enough to know their name was telling me they saw me on T.V. At least it's good to know everyone is watching the news to keep up on current events when they could be watching junk T.V.


Last updated December 6th, Two Thousand and One.