I'm Lindsay Ferrier, a Nashville writer with a passion for family travel, exploring Tennessee, and raising kids without losing my mind in the process. This is where I share my discoveries, along with occasional deep thoughts, pop culture tangents and a sprinkling of snark. Want to get in touch? Use the CONTACT form at the top of the page.
August 5, 2007
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When I was in college, I spent a summer interning at CNN in Washington, DC and there I met a recently married couple. The wife was a news producer, the husband, a photographer, and both were intensely grateful to be working under one roof.
“When we were engaged,” the photographer told me, “we worked at competing local news stations here in DC and that was rough! We had this agreement that we would never reveal any exclusive news stories or scoops to each other. But it didn’t really work out so well.”
“Brian’s pager would go off at, like, three in the morning,” his wife, Carrie, told me. “And he would jump out of bed to go cover some breaking news story. And I would get out of bed, too, and call my station and follow him to the story in my car! And he’d try to lose me on the road!”
Fortunately, Hubs and I worked at the same TV station and never had to compete for a news story. At least, until now.
“What are you working on?” I asked him on the phone last Thursday morning.
“The Fisher Price recall story,” he said. “It’s really important and it affects just about every mother of young children in the city.”
I felt my face start to turn red. “Wait a second,” I said. “I told you last night about that recall. You know I’m working on a post about it! That’s my story.”
“And it’s a good one,” he said dismissively. “That’s why I pitched it.”
“Harumph,” I grumbled, before hanging up the phone. Hubs had freaking stolen my next blog post right out from under me. Again.
Like it or not, I’ve become my husband’s number one story source. Whether I’m thinking of writing about the city cutting library story time, nationwide recalls of Vegetable Booty, or salmonella-laden peanut butter, if I say it out loud, chances are I’ll see it on the news that night, usually before I’ve managed to get it online or in print myself.
It’s gotten so bad that Hubs has brazenly taken to asking me for my stories outright. “I don’t have any story ideas,” he’ll say over our morning coffee. “What’ve you got for me?”
What have I got for you? I don’t know, a knuckle sandwich, maybe? A severed horse’s head? You’re the one making the bucks, big boy. Get your own ideas.
And if you absolutely can’t come up with something on your own, then let me cut through all this nicety-nice crap and just give you a list right now of my next four blog posts:
1. Thousands of women are planning a boycott of the Tennessee Titans NFL football team because the players have the gall to wear baby blue and navy blue together on their jerseys. Major fashion violation.
2. This week, Smoothie King will start adding powdered Viagra to its smoothies upon request. Moms across the nation are horrified.
3. Assless chaps are the fashion must-have for fall.
4. In an effort to counter the rising costs of airplane travel, Southwest is set to begin offering hot air balloon rides from Nashville to New York, Philadelphia and Birmingham next month at a cost of $25 each way.
Oh, Hubs. I can’t believe I’m spilling the beans on all these exclusives. You won’t tell anyone, will you? I’m trusting you not to report these important stories on the news before I get a chance to write about them…
This post originally appeared on Parents.com.
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