Re the suggestion that I could add anything to the subject: I live in the surreal situation of being able to see Manhattan from where I sail my boat, while at the same time being in the quiet waters where no horrors have occurred.

Everyone here knows someone or is related to someone who was involved in the event. The stunning figures of those who are dead or missing can be multiplied many times over by those who got out or who were simply nearby when the atrocity took place.

Yesterday, in New York City, ninety bomb hoaxes were perpetrated, causing many more building evacuations, with resulting confusion, fear, and anxiety for those hundreds of thousands of people who went back to work, already tense just from the thought of returning to places that they now viewed as vulnerable. The mayor has pledged to hunt these criminals down, too.

I live on one of the major commuter lines running north from the city, an area dotted with communites in which live many investment bankers, financial analysts, brokers, and others who work in associated jobs. The toll has been heavy, as one might expect, and the stark fact has been underscored that wealth is not a shield from madmen.

When I was in the Navy and was stationed at 90 Church St. in lower Manhattan in the late '60s and early '70s, my office was right across the street from the construction site of the World Trade Center buildings. When I arrived there, there was only a hole in the ground. When I was transferred 2 1/2 years later, the buildings were almost finished. From the window beside my desk, I saw it all.

What few people in the general public know is that the towers had problems during construction. First, when the north building was about 25% finished, a fire broke out, stopping construction. Work was halted again later when it was revealed that asbestos was being massively sprayed into the building, and the dangerous material was being caught in the wind and was being blown over a large area where the general public was (and, I might add, into my office.)

The third crisis happened after there had been a big snow and ice storm. The bare girders and other parts of the unfinished building were covered with very thick coatings of ice. The problem occurred when the temperature rose, melting the ice. Enormous sheets of thick ice started plummeting down from the building, hitting the ground, cars, windows, and even people. A couple of these missiles almost went through my window. Our building was evacuated, and all vehicular traffic was halted for a few square blocks surrounding the structure until all the ice had melted.

It was very impressive to see the twin monsters slowly come to life during those years. To see them collapse, as if I were watching a modern high-tech movie, and to see my old window in the Federal Building across the street charred and shattered, it reminds me that anything made by man can be destroyed by man.

Here is an article written before the attack by a respected analyst, Laurie Mylroie. Quite by chance, I caught an early 2001 appearance by her on BookTV after posting this article.

9/24/04: Seemed plausible at the time, but now, not...Armchair Provocateur.

Sorry if I used you all for therapy earlier with a long blathering e-mail. I promise to be shorter tonight.

Met a man last night at church who was in Pentagon office above where the plane hit. It the thing was 10 feet higher, he says, he'd have been gone. Lots of stories like this, along with the sadder ones. People asking themselves why were they spared.

I had an appointment on Capitol Hill this afternoon and was about up to the Pentagon when the cell phone rang cancelling it, so I got a couple of views of the area today.

The hole in the building seems to me to be smaller than it looks on TV, and my first thought was there was less destruction than I'd expected to see in terms of how much of the building was damaged.

I think that's partially a function of how large the Pentagon is, which you generally don't have an idea of, since it's not high-rise and is sort of off by itself without much to give you a comparison. Figuring a 757 at full speed made that limited a hole in the thing and didn't penetrate even to the inner courtyard gives you a sense of how massive it is.

Lots of people trying to help and show they care. Salvation Army is there feeding everyone, like they always are, EMTs, cops and firemen all set up in the south parking lot under tents and shelters. It almost looks like a county fair...until you round the corner of the building and see the destruction.

Lots of stories to be told in the next little while. And the devastation is multiplied a thousandfold in New York.

Sorry this ain't Tulsa TV, but it fits under memories I don't think I'll be forgetting...

What happened to the recent pledge for one person to stop dominating this page?

These are extraordinary circumstances. While the Guestbook is clearly not revolving around Tulsa or media right now, it is open to comments relevant to recent events.

We should ask Jim Ruddle of what he has encountered in NYC area due to this horrible event...

Just got a delayed mega-e-mail - Verestar - who is a part of the American Tower Company who builds/owns cel phone/beeper towers all over the US and also owns the DFW Teleport - had a NYC office close to the WTC. They service us in DC with satellite services too - daily.

Formerly they had and maybe still have a teleport full of satellite dishes on the river called Waterfront - which they acquired from a NYC group a few years back.

Anyway 13 of their staff is now missing and presumed dead. That was the fiber point that I mentioned in my last posting - about using to get a TV signal to NYC which had been severed by the explosions...As days go by - more and more folks that I have dealt with or met have something in common. We know someone or know someone who knows someone affected by this tragedy. Seems like a much smaller country some days....

I am here awaiting a booking for ABC - overflow work in a city too busy.

I can offer satellite feeds but we own no dishes - have to sub-contract this out and dishes-for-hire are near non-existant.

I can video fiber out by 3 paths to NYC normally. Tomorrow's job for ABC is booked but learned today one of those paths via NYC was severed in an explosion in Manhattan - they connect to ABC via a telco switch in NYC. A second path terminates in another sub-contractor's building just evacuated for a second time today - they too can connect to ABC by a video switch in NYC but now their NYC staff is locked out of that building.

Now am I going - via Vyvx - the Tulsa-based company part of the Williams Bros. empire. They have NYC encircled with several switchpoints - some for news, some for spot distribution.

Why via fiber - "the skies are full" with all available satellite signals out/in to NYC and DC in use for news coverage most hours of the day...Got $500 an hour and a Vyvx connection - usually $600 a month recuring charge and maybe $1200 for a one-time installation cost and you TOO can be on Vyvx! But only 1 way - in or out. If you want bi-directional feeding - double that. News is not cheap and sometimes satellites can't do the job...Vyvx does.

25 years ago for KTUL it was - I think - $1200 an hour if we had to get a temporary AT&T ABC loop in. That seemed like $10,000 a service then!

Clothes -

I work in an unmentioned mixed use building with a Federal law enforcement agency. Last night a lot of staff of that unnamed agency was in BDU's with yellow agency badges splayed on all surfaces - off to various disaster sites in unmarked Fords and Dodge vans to record evidence and do general support work.

At Capitol Q - our Texas BBQ joint in ChinaTown - was an attractive woman with an FBI ERT (emergency response team) blue t-shirt and BDU's chowing down. The shirt covered a vest and in her waist pack was I presume the weapon NOT on her belt.

Hardest thing to find in DC now - the photog vest. With so many plain clothes agents on the streets - we are a sea of guys and gals NOT in BDU's nor suits - but wearing the fisherman/photog vest over that Beretta 92 or Glock in a ballistic cloth belt holster and badge everywhere in DC.

DC notes - all stations here working hard but self-promotion has started - why because almost all advertisers have pulled advertising spots from air. I presume we will start seeing corporate spots soon - like during the Gulf War - about us all bonding together in crisis on network/local news.

Every time I see another angle of that second plane crashing into the WTC in NYC - I want to cry and at the same time - I get mad at the stations for the repetition of "the beauty shot" of that horrific impact - it ain't a CGI animation - it's lives being ended in a most terrible way. Fox 5 does a 2:00 spot with a montage of shots of all but segues to places where folks can volunteer to help, give blood or call for psychological help. Children here are especially horrified by all. Several of those killed on the flight from Dulles were area students and teachers who had won a National Geographic Society trip and were flying to L.A.- many for the first time...

A lot of NIMBY here it seems - if you don't know anyone on the flights or working at the Pentagon or in NYC. It seems so dysfunctional of some folks. But also a lot of us are still appalled at the horror. I want to move away from DC out of fear it will happen again.

One of my junior associates in Operations has been suffering thru the pains of taking care of her dying, disabled Mother in Dallas via long distance; putting up with on the job harassment here too. When the planes started falling Tues. morning - she told me that she lost it. She said she was afraid of being entombed here in our sub-basement work area. She went to our useless Operations Manager - in a panic - wanting to know if staff could leave if it got worse. He screamed at her in front of a room full of folks already unnerved by the crashes. Mr. Sensitivity. He was was at the vanguard of all who evac'd from here at 2:45pm Tuesday - I heard. She is getting reprimanded tonight for "unprofessional conduct". I guess fear is unprofessional...

Bogus bomb threats are tying up traffic and resources in DC - 1 had all of American University emptied, there was another by Dick Cheney's office in early PM rush hour.

We are hearing of more bogus memorial websites sprouting up today - asking for credit card contributions for memorials or money for relief work. This is sick. If you donate anything - please give blood!

The President mentioned the building trades guys - one of our clients is a national union. They confirmed that a lot of folks in the trades and NYC companies are volunteering to help clear stuff at the WTC - at no charge - as being a part of the community. Somebody with skills doing something to help others in need is MORE of the American way than anything I can think of.

Bravo! After all the cops, firemen and EMS folks - here's some new heroes....

Thanks for your note on the guestbook. I saw it earlier but just haven't had time to collect thoughts or put anything down other than trying to plan for the next six hours. Even going home, there hasn't been much sleep. It could have been much worse here than it has been, as horrible as that is. Let me write some tonight as therapy:

I was pulling into the Baltimore-Washington airport for a 10:15 am flight when the radio bulletin came on regarding the first hit just before 9. By the time I had made it into the parking lot, the second plane had hit the WTC. I called the newsroom on cell phone, confirmed they were moving nonstop, and decided I could make a later flight if necessary. It was probably one of the best professional decisions I've made since breaking into CNN with the first news of the Reagan shooting. Called home, left a message that I was going to skip the flight and head back.

By the time I back in Washington on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, I was passed by a Secret Service vehicle scrambling presumably towards Andrews AFB, and as I got near the Anacostia River, I could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon.

On the hill above Bolling AFB, across the Potomac from National Airport, I could smell the burning jet fuel and the smoke was thick overhead. Five or six fire trucks passed going the opposite direction, where the D.C. Fire Academy is, the first without lights and siren, all the rest with. Tried to call the newsroom and home, but the cells were either jammed or shut down for emergency traffic. On the road, it was very light, a normal mid-morning traffic pattern. That would change in an hour or so.

I encountered the first backup as I merged on to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, where four lanes go down to three. As I got on the bridge, with a clear view to the north up the river, I could see the smoke drifting toward the southeast, crossing the runway at National Airport. By then, all activities were suspended, and it began to become more clear that these weren't just small private aircraft or even commuter type planes as first reported, but large commercial aircraft, an astonishing thought.

On the bridge, I also got through to the newsroom and to home. My wife and a friend had been on a walk, and she hadn't check the phone machine for my message and feared I was on a plane. Her friend's husband, a retired Army Colonel, rides Metro through the Pentagon every day on the way to work in Maryland. She was panicked. I tried to calm them, noting that the crash was on the other side of the building from the Metro tunnel and bus stations, and it appeared the trains were still running.

By 10:30 am, I was in our newsroom, about 13 miles from the Pentagon. As we saw the pictures via a traffic monitoring camera, I realized that the 757 had gone in on the Washington Blvd. side. Washington Blvd. is the road I have taken into the city three or four times a week for 13 years now. Had it been a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday, I might have been sitting in traffic by the heliport you see in all the pictures at 9:35 am on my way downtown for a 10 o'clock meeting.

That's a pretty small view of only the first 90 minutes, and I can't spare any more time. Maybe I'll get more down tomorrow night when sleep again won't come. Thanks for your good wishes. All of us are tired, but determined to support the many here who have lost loved ones on a personal level, and to hold each other up as a community.

John Hillis

Wonderful to hear from you, John. Thank you for taking time to let us know about your experience in D.C. We're all with you.

Mike, my prayers are with you (and so many others) in this trying time.

It has been trying for me as well, but for a different reason. I don't know anyone employed at the WTC, but I work for Boeing. The feeling one gets when seeing replay after replay of your products used as instruments of mass murder is one I would not wish on anyone. We were a pack of zombies at work yesterday, and not much better today. But compared to so many others, what we went through was nothing.

It may seem like a small gesture, but I urge all of you to fly an American flag on your homes (and cars, if possible) as a show of solidarity. Our mailman saw ours flying over our porch today and told us that it made him feel a little better.

Take care, T-town.

I may have mentioned it - all of a sudden DC is having prayer vigils, patriotic sing-alongs to show the world we are not cowed by terrorists. Some are brought to you by the Unification Church, others by legit Veterans groups.

Tomorrow we are all to wear red/white/blue to show support for our country....Sure...

A friend at DEA's MIS section said to tell all - be wary of unsolicited e-mail or "articles" on the tragedy coming to YOUR e-mail. I must have gotten 5 or 6 today from unknown wordsmiths.

Some are trying to get credit card numbers for "memorials" that don't exist off your Visa cards.

Others may pass a new computer virus on to you - imbedded with the message.

Isn't enough that we are traumatized by yesterday's events - that now some other evil-spirited folks are false-flagging their deeds to jam up our computers for a joke or something more evil?

Hang in there, Mike. We're very relieved that you are OK and thanks, too, for the timely warning.

We have lost TV production business this week on a monthly PBS show because the producing staff of the client can't fly up from Miami due to airport closures in the aftermath of yesterday. Thousands of folks are affected by the air travel stoppage.

I was called after 3 hours sleep this morning and screamed at by our company president. My Australian MPEG broadcast test was cancelled last night - no baseball to feed due to terrorist threat, fiber and satellite space in short supply, too. I had been told that the contracted microwave truck was locked down at the Pentagon and could not be moved due to security concerns. Turns out now that the inexperienced, very rattled 20-something Ops person at our supplier's - had a SNG (satellite news gathering) truck locked down at the Pentagon and the microwave truck was at Dulles and it COULD have been rented to us. I did not know that - the Ops gal told my boss that I had cancelled the truck. I presumed it not available.

The boss awoke me to harrangue me about the job because we lost a day's income on this. Our client had no problem with the cancellation. They realized that DC was in crisis - their broadcasts are but tests of new technology and we do use news gathering gear. This is a once in a lifetime tragedy. My boss obviously is oblivious to all that is happening here and in NYC.

It all comes down to money - what doesn't? Our company is losing it greatly this week due to the actions of the hijackers - causing work cancellations left and right. We are not the only company in DC or the US to be hit economically by this tragedy. Your employer may be getting economic slaps from this.

My boss is way out of tune with the reality of the last 24 hours...he should be blaming the terrorists - not his employees..

Re World Trade Center blast - now missing are 4 TV transmitter engineers.

Several TV stations had their antennaes on the towers and engineering/transmitter sections on like the 110th floor. One engineer was able to call in to his station about the plane crashing into his building after it happened.

Nothing has been heard of any of them since...

I thought OKC was awful - today's mayhem was worse. Like a bad movie scenario sadly.

An "expert" on NBC said someone choreographed the image of the second plane flying into the second World Trade Center tower - being photographed/filmed/broadcast live - to stick in OUR minds and collective memories.

It came in after initial news coverage was live over the air in NYC and nationally - intentionally to shock us all forever...

The WB station here pre-empted daytime programming to carry news from Los Angeles' WB station of the Pentagon/NYC stories - it was surreal. National Geo's new channel switched it's feed to a FOX national news service for the next few days.

Heard tonight that maybe half of all original responding NYC firemen/EMS workers to the first crash at the World Trade Center to save and rescue victims were killed...So sad......

I worked 4pm yesterday to 5am today.

At 10:30am my girlfriend - who was pulling a 7am to 3pm shift at Voice of America's Russian Service called and woke me up to say turn on the TV - "it's awful out"... I had no idea how bad.

Her son is an employee of Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum in NYC and she was afraid for him - I tried numerous times to call him at home or work but the circuits were out of order. Hours later he reached her by e-mail to say that he was okay. Her daughter is a NPS ranger on the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu and she was worried that she could not reach her Mom. She connected 6 hours later.

My girlfriend works 3 blocks from the Capitol and at the time a third airliner was still missing and presumed headed for DC. She was very fatalistic about it - luckily there was no other plane headed to DC...

I started calling into work but management here had the Al Haig syndrome and was out of control. I have a disaster plan but nothing like this - they were ordering my guy on duty and other managers to jump in and take control of my department - without talking to our client or calling/beeping me. My staff of 2 was evacuated once when a suspicious package arrived after the Pentagon crash - someone's bad idea of a joke as folks were dying.

At 2:40pm - they threw my day guy and all other staff out for a security sweep. Then decided all should leave our mixed Fed agency/private building.

Jay - my day MC Op who was ejected was worried - his wife is a Navy Yeoman at the Naval Observatory - ground zero for a bomb on Dick Cheney when at home. They sent staff not called up for protective duty home. Last week she had spent a week at the Pentagon for training. She's glad that she was not there today. She was lucky - got a ride home with friends.

Originally they weren't going to let our staff get our cars out of the garage. How do you get home then??? For a long time one could leave DC today but getting in was a problem - then they shut down the Metro which moves a hundred thousand or so daily. Promised busses never showed up.

Then they made the city Feds evacuate about 2 hours after many had come to work - many of us imagined a Tom Clancy scenario with gridlock (yes) and planted car bombs creating more terror (Thank God, no..).

Metro started running again and I finally got in by driving in late in the afternoon. I had several services to cancel tonight and I learned Tulsa-based Vyvx's 800 service hubs thru the World Trade Center in NYC and that is why it was non-functioning. They may have lost friends there, too.

My girlfriend got home on Metro. My afternoon Op lives by BWI airport and North of NSA and there was no way to get here from there - security lock-down in area.

My overnight guy lives in Baltimore and no way could he get in - so I sit now alone in our building in Master Control for the next 12-14 hours.

I did not see the Pentagon smoke on the way in but went past Fort Meyer which is close by. It did NOT seem as secure as during Desert Storm days. Several folks here and several friends have military spouses - at the Pentagon - we are uncertain what is up with them - safe or worse...

Our Chief Engineer who put in 16 hours yesterday was the only employee here - our idiot management had powered down all the lights to save energy and darkened the sub-basement that we work in - but my automation kept GoodLife TV on air - unattended for 2 1/2 hours. I convinced the Chief to leave and am the only occupant of this floor of an 8 story building.

Staff keeps calling to see if we are open tomorrow - I guess so - no one in management left ME any word. Called our VP - he thought we were closed - called the big boss - like "dummy - of course we are open!". He lives in DC in grand style - his wife a reporter at KTUL's DC sister station.

Let the building staff guards and added GSA uniformed/plain clothes (but all armed) cops who don't know me on sight, that I am here all night. Took them coffee to stay awake too. Don't need to get shot or cuffed going to the bathroom..Folks are jumpy and scared.

Friends at news-based services GlobeCast and QWest TV are all over. My circuit to Vyvx I turned over for the Charlie Rose Show to use at sister company Pyramid Video. Just talked to an engineer here who free-lanced at GlobeCast and he was dead tired - had done too many live shots in town today. His company bought hotel rooms for all their DC staff.

Former Okie Steve Nease at QWest was running back and forth to the Chamber of Commerce roof pads that his company has - across from the White House. Their satellite truck out there somewhere.

The guys at DCI - whose microwave truck I used last night - were one of the first on the scene at the Pentagon and locked down inside a semi-secure area.

I just had a confused call from an Argentinian TV network thinking I was Atlantic Satellite in NJ regarding a live feed...

The only folks on the streets when I came in tonight - other than cops or Nat. Guard troops here are weirdos, winos and lost turistas. I had to stop for a convoy of about 30 Humvees of MP's going past the Convention Center - it was oddly familiar (to me) like something from "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Well - it truly and painfully is - for so many folks here in DC and all over the US....

I was driving into Washington when the hijacked jetliner plunged into the Pentagon. By 10 a.m. I was entering the Department of Transportation as it was being evacuated. Trying to leave D.C. was a mess. The entire Federal Government was heading home at the same time and it was total gridlock.

Somehow, I made my way across the 14th Street Bridge, (site of the Air Florida crash two decades ago) and watched the Pentagon on fire as military jets roared overhead. All commercial flights at nearby Reagan National and nationwide had been grounded. The local radio stations were reporting another hijacked jet was possibly heading for the Pentagon, so I left the area rather quickly.

Washington, D.C. is under siege and will never be the same. We all expected a terrorist act here sometime, but not something of this magnitude. It is sad. The area governments have declared an emergency. People here seem very frightened and angry.

Thank you for the report, Mike. We're relieved you are OK. John Hillis and Mike Bruchas must be in overdrive at this moment. Our thoughts are with everyone involved in this tragedy.

I just returned from NYC yesterday and the last thing we saw as we took off was the World Trade Center. It is strange, sad and tragic. Best wishes to anyone with ties there.

Our own Wilhelm Murg, who interviewed Carl (Uncle Zeb) Bartholomew, Lee Woodward and Gailard Sartain for Infinity Press, and David Bagsby for Cool and Strange Music (interviews linked from the Bulletin Board on the main page), wrote a substantial portion of this month's OUTline Magazine.

For the September issue of OUTline, he interviewed Tulsa Opera's director and conductor, Carol Crawford, the Tulsa Philharmonic's executive director, Thomas Gerdom, Tulsa Ballet's artistic director, Marcello Angelini, the LPGA's Melissa McNamara, and artist/art space ("Quality 120") owner, Michael Sexton. Whew! As Wilhelm shows, Tulsa has a lot to offer.

My understanding is that the two audio channels are 6.2, which is the full mix, and 6.8, which is what they call "international sound". This is supposed to be just music and nats, so that different language speaking announcers can be substituted.

The engineers tell me that there's usually full mix on both channels, but we air 6.2 on both.

Don't bother watching the feed....my Rangers are getting spanked.

To brother Byram: it has its good and bad days. Tonight I roll in client messages of the ABC/ESPN International feed of the Giants/Broncos MNF game to Australia LIVE - without a twx or position list.

THIS IS ALIEN TALK TO YOU NON-TV WORKERS - the Western Union twx is probably now been replaced by a menu imbedded in a line of the video signal to control rooms - as we don't do this every day - we have no such way of looking ahead at breaks/positions of spots. Actually tried calling KTUL today to see if they had a list of spot positions...CBS had Net Alert for radio 30 years ago for stuff like this.

Then at 10pm Eastern we are concurrently recording a scrambled feed of an Oakland A's/vs. "somebody from Texas" (hmmm) West Coast baseball game off Fox Sports SouthWest to play till 4am. Channel 1 audio is program - Channel 2 is director count-down headset!

Evidently Fox Sports does a lot this way - have to ask brother Jimmy Reid in Dallas if he is familiar with it....

I was on KWGS-FM many years ago, as well as an occasional news stringer for KOTV and Ch 2. Also was a cameraman for Ch. 8 for awhile.

And during H.S. I was a devoted fan of Lee and Lionel--long live the King!! ;-)

Welcome, David.

Talked to Vyvx Central in Tulsa tonight to extend a video feed for tomorrow at 3am.

2 nights in a row now - NO ONE answered at Vyvx Network Operations and I called some nice folks in Vyvx Booking - they never seem to sleep in Tulsa. They said they had been deluged with calls on the USTA feeds from AUSTRALIA.

You folks in Tulsey don't realize how GLOBAL Williams Brothers' Vyvx is now - especially in handling sports feeds and commercial distribution nationally.

Re brother Byram - oyeh oyeh **RALPH BARDGETT** - I worked with him only a few days at 6 before he left to get into academic TV - HE IS A CLASS ACT....

Dear Mr. Hillis,

As a former member of the KOTV engineering staff often under the on-air direction of Ralph Bardgett during both the six and ten o'clock livecasts, I can attest to the "fun and games" of A/B rolls, Rex D. running in with a wet reel of film, Dino throwing script pages, the Moose tagging stories off the CBS Evening News tape while you are trying to load a Horn Bros furniture commercial that will run just before the start of the newscast and and all the other little things that made up a typical night in primetime.

God, I miss it sooo much!! Mike B! Consider yourself lucky you are still in the biz!!!

This is my first visit and I'm not sure I'm on the right track?

Tennis feeds?

The bats are out tonight. Must have seen 20 or more in my evening walkaround the neighborhood here in the wilds.

Talking about synching up tapes, one of the neat things our automation system does is record programming in halves for playback the next hour. Because it can take a while for a full-hour tape to rewind, the first 32 minutes is recorded, then at :29, the second tape starts rolling. The first rewinds so it's all set to boogie at the top of the hour, and at exactly :30:00:00, the automation does a frame-accurate switch from Tape 1 to Tape 2. The only problem is when news is making a fix in Tape 2, as happened the other night. Then tape 1 rewinds on the air, and up comes the "Please Stand By" slide. (Webmaster, how about one of those KOTV/CBS Please Stand By graphics here.)

Automation is very neat when it works, but tends to take the edge off us. I regale the kids here about the way we used to do film/tape cart audio tracks/ A/B rolls, natsof under, even sometimes sound on a third projector, all live in newscasts, so every little action was part of a wild and edgy electronic symphony. And in every minute of film, there were 10-20 individual splices, just waiting to break as they rolled through the projector.

Today, for the same output, we just push "play."

I guess directors live longer, though. Back then, they burned out or blew up about like air traffic controllers.

Well - sat thru the LIVE USTA sisters Williams match then thru it 3 more times for feeds to Australia.

Murphy's Law - our client elected NOT to be part of the Euro feed due to costs and got in an "Americas" feed which was interesting NOT. First the feed started late - we heard English with that on channel 1 and channel 2 had those great sound effects/natural sounds.

At 7:58pm we heard nothing but SPANISH on our feed! Turns out channel 1 was Spanish, channel 2 was Portuguese - both with natural sound mixed in! Made frantic calls to the supplier who called the uplink in NY who told us our client got out of Euro pool due to expense. The uplink guy - good dude named Hartley - who HAS to be an ex-Okie - got us a bootleg then legal English language dirty feed (we heard comments that folks at home do not hear).

He gave us and our client the secret phone numbers at USTA at Ashe Arena and I guess $$ were promised to USTA - to make our feed kosher and to get us a REAL feed tomorrow for Men's play. I'll see at 4pm Sunday - we will record it for a tape delayed playback.

My tape op and my Chief Engineer were not understanding what I had learned from the late Gene Tincher 30 years ago about recording stuff in segments and syncing all up - I had the match recorded on 3 60 min. tapes with interchange points in breaks. Seamless to folks in OZ. We had to mix the loud natural sound track with announcer track in a video control area for cameras - looped thru a mixer then back out fiber to transmit it. Our client had a 3 min. delay on it anyway....

Wow! What A flashback. I'm sitting here on a boring Saturday afternoon, I see the button to click for the old Sipes cartoons hut, I click it, and now with all our technology, it still doesn't work. It's just like old times. I should note that my mother shopped there every weekend and I think the cartoons were actually running three times that I was there.

Wilhelm, try the Toon Tracker RealVideo page, which shows cartoons 24/7.

The reference to Hughes Rudd by Mike Bruchas brought to mind a sign I saw on the CBS Washington Bureau bulletin board in 1969.

Playing on the last names of three CBS newsmen it read: "I'd Rather be Mudd, than Rudd."

Heard today that Heywood Hale Broun died at 83 - he was a class act IN A HAT no less!} on CBS doing CBS sports sidebar stories on Cronkite for many years. He, the late & crusty old Hughes Rudd, and Charles Kuralt all were "character" reporters for me and memorable that CBS could have these kinda special guys for features. Maybe I think of 6 in the '70's as a local equivalent for the feature work done there.

30 years ago I read stuff that Heywood Hale Broun SENIOR had written - a great sportswriter of earlier in this century and the recently departed Mr.Broun's daddy!

An unrelated note: movie critic Pauline Kael died Monday at the age of 82. Her 1969 essay, "Trash, Art and the Movies", is one of the best things I've read, full of "aha!" moments and crystal-clear analysis.

Archived Guestbook 90.

There, we had just heard about silent B & W films seen at the "Cartoon Hut" at Sipes, and at Shotgun Sam's (illustrated with pix from Stevo). A profile of John Hillis was spotted at Nelson's Buffeteria by Erick, much to the former's delight (it can be seen via link to the Photo Briefcase).

Greg thought that the Weird Al "UHF" station had been torn down. This was confirmed by Lowell. The rude word filter was sifting a bit too fine. Larry Strain returned to answer Jim Ruddle's query about a radio show featuring an imaginary, bubble-blowing duck named Gertie. This was not a particularly fond memory of Jim's.

Jim had better memories of two Tulsans who made good nationally. Hal Hamilton was a TU student who acted in "As The World Turns" in the late 50s, and "Days of Our Lives" in the 60s. Mary Stuart Houchins is a alum of Tulsa Central and Miss Ronan's speech class who starred in "Search for Tomorrow" for an incredible 35 years, and who chairs the organization "Bookpals" in NYC today.

Ed Dumit has arrived! Several of his former students at TU paid homage. We hope to hear more from Mr. Dumit.

Edwin told an Oral Roberts story. Ken Broo told about a visit from "Les Nessman" on the KOTV news set, a topic initiated by Mike Bruchas and amplified by John Hillis. Mike also told about John Chick's work as a photographer.

A new Lee Bayley page appeared on the site. We started by mentioning TU grad Steve Wilkerson and former Miss Green Country Andrea Baker, saxman and singer, husband and wife, who have jazz careers going full tilt.