Today on the Morning Edition, we mentioned that the US Postal Service has created a new Taylor Hicks stamp.

It’s in honor of American Idol’s “Give Back” campaign and the show’s former winner.  Only 2000 of the 42 cent stamps will be sold.

Morning Edition watchers know - Rob is a BIG Taylor Hicks fan.  So I decided to post an old photo again.  Months ago, I snapped this photo with my cell phone camera after asking Rob to do his Taylor Hicks imitation, a rendition of TH’s famous “Whoooo!”.

I love this picture.  Hope you do too.

By the way, Taylor Hicks career, Rob says, has hit hard times.  Still, Taylor singing is Rob’s cell phone ring tone.

For once, the pollsters were right.
Clinton won Indiana.  Obama won North Carolina.
Now what?
Do you think it’s time for Mrs. Clinton to quit?  Who dreamed anyone would be asking that question?  At one point, she was the heavily favored almost-coronated candidate.
A previous blog based on this same general question got a lot of response.  Most said, no, she should stay in the race.  Many of you commented that she’d earned a shot at the White House and Obama had not.
I’m curious.  Has your opinion changed?  We’ll share some of your opinions on the air.

Thanks!

Yesterday, I was reminded of my promise for more “Behind the Scenes” entries here on the Morning Edition blog.

Today, a look at the bizarre breakfast habits of the Morning Edition family.  And we are a family, this exhausted band of people united by the cruelty of the clock and this 5 - 7 am TV newscast.  Just like a family, we laugh and fuss and work hard and hardly know it when another year has passed.  Some of us have been together for years!

But I digress from the critically important topic of breakfast.  Here’s who’s eating what today:

Jeff Crowe (studio cameras) - potato chips (Ruffles)
Rob Williams (weatherman) - Kashi cereal (dry)
Georgia Ann Crowe (director) - Special K cereal
Yasmeen Elayan (producer) - warm Pepsi (forgot to put it in the fridge)
Nicki Mayo (reporter) - Smoothie
Toby Laek (graphics) - Kashi Cereal and a no-bake cookie
David Thompson (audio) - Red Bull
Josh Smith (reporter) - fruit (see the picture), cheese, Special K, and LOTS of coffee

What’s on your breakfast menu?

Today, some Tri-Cities lawn and landscaping professionals will hop on their riding mowers and in their trucks for a slow-speed drive from Bluff City to State Street in Bristol.  The parade will serve as a protest.  The target of their rage: high gas prices.  These hard working men and women say at $3.45 a gallon for gas, their profit of late is paltry.

I shudder to think of how much gas they’ll have to spend for the drive from Bluff City to the heart of Bristol.

Are you to the point of protest?  Everyone is complaining about gas prices, but some are ready to take the next step. 

Me?  I just fill up the car and without even a glance at the final total.  I’d rather not know.  But I only need gas to get me to my job.  Needing gasoline in order to do your job?  That’s a different story.

If you were told that a protest was planned and you could join, would you?

Just curious.

Tell me what you think of this.  Here’s the Associated Press story from late Thursday:

(AP)
Nevada’s governor is planning to ask Steve Fossett’s widow to help pay the state’s tab in searching for
the missing adventurer.

A spokesman for Governor Jim Gibbons says any money paid by
Fossett’s family would be voluntary. The Silver State spent nearly
$700,000 on an unsuccessful month-long search for Fossett last fall.

The spokesman says the state is asking for the money in part
because of “ongoing budget difficulties.” Hotel magnate Barron
Hilton voluntarily sent the state a check $200,000 to cover some of
the search costs. The state is hoping the Fossett family will help
make up the $487,000 difference.

Fossett was declared legally dead in February by an Illinois
judge and is said to have left behind a “vast” eight-figure
estate.  Fossett has not been seen since his small plane took off
September 3rd.

(end of story)
Fair?  Rude?  What do you think?

I lived in Knoxville for four years, and traffic on the coast to coast interstate was horrible.  That was with all lanes open.  So I can’t really get my brain around the concept of closing - I said CLOSING - the road for 14 months.

I’ve heard some say they can’t remember a time when Knoxville traffic wasn’t awful.  Do you have a story to tell?

What do YOU think about the Mylie Cyrus picture?

It took me a while to realize who much of a mega-star this 15-year-old kid really is.  Pre-teen and teenage girls adore her.  Wal-Mart has embraced her.  I even saw an optometrist’s kiosk in the area that read: “Mylie Cyrus Frames Finally Here!”

Ok.

Then comes this revealing pictures snapped by uber-photographer Annie Liebovitz.  She’s snapped photos of all the famous people - even the Queen of England.  Vanity Fair magazine hired Liebovitz to photograph Cyrus.  I’m sure the Tennessee teen came to the photo shoot with an army of handlers - including, I’d imagine, her wise-of-the-ways-of-Hollywood-star-Dad Billy Ray Cyrus.

Now, Cyrus says she’s embarrassed by the photos and upset with Vanity Fair.  She’s especially unhappy, we’ve read, with the photo of her, topless, clinging to what appears to be a sheet or something.  Apparently, she didn’t know that might turn out in a way that’s not in keeping with her clean cut image.

I have two little boys, no daughters yet.  The “I’ll never do that” business can be dangerous when it comes to parenting.  Trust me, I’ve eaten a lot of my words spoken before I became a Dad.  But mark my words on this: I’ll never allow anyone to photograph my 15 year old daughter without a shirt on, sheet or no sheet included.

Never.

It’s the best way to prevent a misunderstanding.

What do you think?

This past Saturday, the Smith’s enjoyed an evening in Abingdon, Virginia, which included a stop at the Barter Theatre for a performance of “Keep on the Sunny Side.”

The musical based on The Carter Family has played several times before at The Barter Theatre, and I met several people at the show who loved it so much they keep coming back.  The show combines the mountain music the Carter family made famous with the story of the family’s life in the mountains of Scott County, Virginia. 

The show is remarkable for so many reasons.  One I’ll share with you: my wife doesn’t really like “Mountain Music” and she loved the show.

Get in the car and go to the Barter Theatre before “Keep on the Sunny Side” closes this limited run of performances.  And grab a brochure while you’re there.  It’s the 75th Anniversary year for the State Theatre of Virginia, and lots of special things have been planned.

It’s been a while since we’ve peeked “Behind the Scenes” here on the Morning Edition blog.
Some of you have told me you enjoy these “peeks”, so here we go.

Recently, our engineering department at WJHL changed the place where the Storm Team does the weather.  They’re making room for more updates in the future.  If you’ve visited a TV station, you konw that the weather maps are super-imposed behind the weather men.  In reality, they’re just pointing at a big green wall.

No big deal, right?

Actually, Rob says after YEARS of doing weather on one side of the studio, moving the wall to the other side left him feeling a bit dizzy.  “I’m all turned around,” Rob said the first time he did weather from the new location.  I couldn’t tell from watching him, and Rob says he’s used to it now.

I guess it’s like when you re-arrange the furniture.  For a little bit, it’s kind of weird.

When kids visit the station on school tours, the big green wall is their favorite thing to see.

More “Behind the Scenes” tidbits coming up.

Our question of the day is the question political pundits are asking ‘round the country this morning.

Should Hillary Clinton quit the campaign for the good of the party?

The question seems a bit ridiculous.  After all, Clinton won by a 10% spread in last night’s Pennsylvania primary vote count.  She’s proven that, despite a delegate and cash deficit, she can still win the big states.

Still, those very challenges have many insisting that Clinton’s insistence on staying in the race will weaken the party and open the door for a McCain win in November.  And best I can tell, no one thought that would happen as recently as just a few months ago.

So what do you think?  Should Clinton pack it in?  Or do you think this is, to borrow a phrase from our friends at the Bristol Motor Speedway, “politics… the way it outta be?”