My wife and I just enjoyed some vacation time that included a visit to New York City.

The trip was full of surprises, including a chance get-together with former WALA co-worker (and now, WABC-TV senior meteorologist) Bill Evans, who happened to be walking down the street as we were having a cup of coffee at an outdoor cafe across from Lincoln Center.  It led to tour of his studio about 2 blocks away.

Another surprise?  We had just left a show when we spotted Larry Bird and Magic Johnson at the opening of a show about them, called “Magic Bird”.

I hadn’t been back to New York City since 9/11, so we wanted to pay a visit to the World Trade Center site as well as some of the fire stations that lost so many crews that day.  One fire station is right across the street from where the twin towers stood.  There is a huge memorial on the side of that fire station, and an immense construction project underway where the new towers are being built.

What goes on, outside the newscasts?

In a word, plenty.

After doing live reports for the 4 and the 5 p.m. newscasts right before the Alabama primary,  I had the chance to sit down for a one-on-one interview with GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.  He was in Mobile for a candidate forum sponsored by the Alabama Policy Institute.

Last week, I spoke to about 150 people at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mobile.

Monday, I was the MC for the Drug Education Council’s annual luncheon.  The 800 people there helped raise more than $125,000 for the cause.  Ben Vereen was the guest speaker.

Then, there are requests to fulfill, like this one from a Gulf Shores High School student, asking for a signed photocopy of my hand.

Last night, on the way home, a woman wanted to take a picture in a supermarket parking lot, even though I was carrying shopping bags filled with boxes of granola and yogurt.  Unfortunately, her phone was dead

I had no idea when I was asked to speak to the LECC meeting at the International Trade Club that I would be leaving with more than I arrived!

The LECC  is the acronym for the Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee, a forum which allows representatives of different local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to trade ideas.

I walked away with awards from Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran and U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown from my work on Fox 10 News Fugitive Files.  The presentation came as a complete surprise to me and I was grateful to receive them!

Thursday begins another year of the HiQ academic quiz program.  This year, it involves 15 Mobile County high schools with St. Luke’s replacing Daphne High School.  There are 15 regular season contests, 2 semi-final matches and 1 championship match.  I’ll be back asking the questions as we travel from Citronelle to Bryant and Baker to Williamson!

Despite having the day off Wednesday, it was a busy day.

My family and I took a drive to Gulf Shores where we enjoyed some Gulf seafood (I like blackened shrimp).

In the evening, I took up my usual spot behind the podium as the Master of Ceremonies for Mobile Ballet’s Nutcracker Charity Ball, where 34 debutantes were presented.

This was the ninth year of the event which has raised more than $700,000 for the Ballet and a number of charities (this year, the recipient was Wilmer Hall).

After my “official” duties were over, there was time for some east coast and west coast swing with my wife, and a little rumba thrown in for good measure

It’s not unusual to have cake served in our news conference room for some celebration, but this time, it was to celebrate the 500th arrest on Fox 10 News Fugitive Files, the weekly series I’ve produced for the past 17 years!  Special thanks to Zeliha Dukes, who wrote and produced a video compilation and Lenise Ligon who narrated it and picked up the cake that was served.

It was an awful day that changed the world.

I was in grade school, and had just come back from lunch (in those days, we left to walk home at 11:20 and had to be back in class by 1:00).  It was a normal day, except for the sight to our teachers unexpectedly huddled around transistor radios.   Nothing unusual was said during classtime, but as we left for the day at 3:30, the sixth grade teacher Mr. Egan looked sternly at all of us and told us to “go straight home”.  It was an odd message, and within minutes, I knew why.

Our hometown newspaper had already published a special edition and the black and white television, sitting on the sewing machine cabinet in our kitchen, broadcast the news about the assassination of the President in Dallas, Texas.

To those of us from New England, John Kennedy wasn’t just the President; he was our President.  He was a New Englander, and like so many in my hometown, he was a Catholic New Englander.

The idea that someone would shoot and kill our President was truly unthinkable.  These were the days before excessively violent video games and movies and non-stop crime coverage gradually desensitized the country.

In the days that  followed the assassination, our little television was on all the time, even as we were gathered around the kitchen table for lunch on Sunday.  That’s when I watched the murder of the President’s accused assassin live.  I remember Tom Pettit’s professional reporting as the country watched Dallas police wrestle nightclub owner Jack Ruby to the ground, and heard Lee Harvey Oswald groan as he died.

For my generation, November 22, 1963 was the day where innocence was lost.

Each Thanksgiving for at least the past 27 years, the station has sponsored a Thanksgiving luncheon for all the employees, and this year was no exception.  The fellowship was just as good as the turkey and dressing!

It was a beautiful night for a gala event.

The third annual Celebrate Hope was held at the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute, to raise awareness and money for the Institute.

There were plenty of prominent people there including Arlene Mitchell,  Gordon Moulton, Howard Bronson, Dr. Ron and Theresa Russell, Councilmembers Bess Rich and Gina Gregory and a host of others.

Who’s reading newspapers?

You can get a good idea by checking the figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The latest figures for the six months ending September 30, 2011 look like this:

Mobile Press-Register (Average Circulation-print only)

• Sunday:  88,041
• Average Monday-Friday:  68,455
• Saturday:  65,830

Pensacola News Journal (Average Circulation-print only)

• Sunday: 60,164
• Average Monday-Friday: 37,893
• Saturday: 37,951

I had heard about a week ago that New Orleans’ retired Catholic Archbishop, Philip Hannan was ailing, but it was still sad to discover this morning that he had died, ironically on the 47th anniversary of his ordination.  A few days ago, he asked that the bed in which he was born 98 years ago, be moved to his sickroom.   That is where he died.

His life story was certainly a fascinating one as a chaplain for paratroopers in World War II, a confidant of President John F. Kennedy as well as the priest asked by Jacqueline Kennedy to deliver the eulogy at the President’s funeral.

Upon assignment to New Orleans, he turned his attention to the poor, creating what was at the time the largest housing program for the elderly – 2,780 units – of any U.S. diocese.  He set up a hospice for AIDS patients, saying there was no contradiction in a ministry for homosexuals and drug addicts.      “We disapprove, too, of people being alcoholics or drinking too much. But we sure try to take care of them if they have that problem,” he said at the time.

Mobile Archbishop Thomas Rodi was ordained a priest by Bishop Hannan and has fond memories of him.  Rodi told me that when the owner of the football team that became the New Orleans Saints asked Hannan if it anyone might take offense at the name of the team, Hannan said no, but added that “Remember, most of the saints were martyrs”.  Hannan was present when the Saints became Superbowl victors.

Rodi also said Hannan was not a big fan of Mardi Gras, and when told that Mobile was the original home of the celebration, Hannan reportedly replied, “You can have it back whenever you want it!”.

A few years back, I was approached by someone in New Orleans to consider conducting a series of long-form interviews with Archbishop Hannan; a kind of oral history project.  Unfortunately, the plan never came to fruition.  He would have had more great stories to tell.