The "Storm"

The other night, I was watching the local news. (Obviously only because I had to. The CBS Sunday night movie ran late, and I had nothing to do with myself while anxiously awaiting CSI: Weekends.) At least, when I do have to watch the local evening news, I prefer CBS to the other stations. (I'm not sure why this is since they all cover the same stories, but I think it's electric blue background. It seems like news could break at any minute, but also reminds me of the serenity I find at Sea World staring at the orcas.) Well, they seemed to be trying out a new weather girl. I assume the weekend weather spot is not nearly as cutthroat as the weekday prime time spot and offers less embarrassment should the rookie fall on her face. Also, the weather girl seemed quite nervous and not sure of herself when she turned to hit the various camera marks, and her gestures were a little stiff. It wasn't the easiest thing to watch, but I wanted her to pull through. Unfortunately, then what I can only imagine to be a meteorological worst nightmare occurred - as new weather girl stood in front of the green screen sweeping her hands to show storm fronts and lifting her arms to the sky to denote the temperatures up north, there was no weather map behind her. Yep, NO MAP! It must be how people on the "Antique Roadshow" feel when they find out Grandma's broach came from K-Mart and not Tiffany's, or how Jeff Bridges felt when he realized that he had indeed made the movie "Stick It" and not just imagined the whole thing during his extended "research" for "The Big Lebowski." Rather than showing the viewing audience at home how to interpret those crazy sun symbols versus the clouds dropping blue pellets, our new weather girl was stiffly sweeping across the earlier screen that showed the 7 day forecast. (Can you even imagine?!?!) If you think those gestures look silly under normal circumstances, you can picture how this played itself out. Plus, you would hope someone in the control room would figure this out. But, whether it was past the tech's bedtime or he was sipping Jameson in the booth, no one fixed the problem. New weather girl went on and on, as I cringed. I can't stand being embarrassed for someone. It's such an unpleasant emotion. But, then I consoled myself with the image of cute new weather girl causing heads to roll when she saw the tape of herself. I imagine lots of screaming and makeup throwing. I see bright, happy weather girl turning dark and scary - just like the sudden weather phenomena she is supposed to warn us about. After all, if you spent all that time learning how to Doppler radar, and someone screwed up your big break, wouldn't you be full of rage?