Thursday, April 30, 2009

I’ve got questions

Last night, in support of the Nebraska pork industry, I grilled a pair of thick bone-in chops. As I was enjoying the meats of my labor, we were also watching the President's 100-day news conference. Fork on the pork, ear on the tube, something caught my attention: the President recognized a reporter, Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times, for a question.

That name was familiar. That face looks vaguely familiar, too. Could Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times be the same Jeff Zeleny of the Daily Nebraskan, who covered the police beat for the UNL student newspaper around 1994 or so? And how on earth do I remember this minutia, when I commonly forget the name of someone I've just been introduced to 20 seconds earlier?

I’m guessing the Jeff Zeleny in the nice suit seated in the East Room at a White House press conference is the same guy who 15 years ago in jeans and t-shirt was in Sgt. Ann Heermann’s cramped office getting the low-down on the overnight mayhem in Lincoln. I sent off an email to the address available for Jeff Zeleny on the Times website. Do you think I’ll get a response?

Mr. Zeleny's question of President Obama:

“During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office? Enchanted you the most from serving in this office? Humbled you the most? And troubled you the most?”

The President had to write the four-parter down, which drew a good laugh. Is it just me, or did that sound like a question from The Dating Game? Am I dating myself by bringing up The Dating Game?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Yep, same Jeff we all knew at the DN.

Tom Casady said...

Well I'll be doggone. I got an early morning reply from Jeff Zeleny to the email I sent him last night, confirming that he is indeed the Jeff Zeleny of Daily Nebraskan fame. Go figure. Pretty good gig, indeed!

Ken said...

Good for Jeff, but I must admit, if I had a chance to ask the President a question I don't think it would be what is so enchanting about the job of being President. But that's just me.

Tom Casady said...

4:12-

Already tried it for five years, 1969-1974, Pete's IGA. Plenty of people still around Lincoln who can testify to my grocery sacking career.

Proud of it, too, if that was meant as an insult of some sort.

Anonymous said...

Chief,
Where was Pete's IGA located? I used to deliver quarters of beef to several of the grocery stores in Lincoln and other cities. Most of those Mom & Pop stores are gone now. I remember having donuts and coffee with a lot of the meat cutters in those small neighborhood stores. The huge Super stores now just aren't the same.

Gun Nut

Steve said...

Ah, bone-in chops! My favorite. Do you pick 'em up and gnaw the last little bits off, too, "With the grease just oozin' down your chin" as my dad used to say?

Grundle King said...

If anybody wants to really protest the backlash against pork right now...cook up one of these bad boys.

Anonymous said...

The aroma of frying bacon is the nearly-irresistible temptation that has probably broken the will of more vegetarians than anything else on the planet, and caused them to back-slide into the natural human state of omnivorousness.

Tom Casady said...

Gun nut-

Corner of 31st and U Streets. We handled a lot of hanging beef for our tiny size--Pete was a meat cutter by trade, and did lots of sides, quarters and loins for customers with freezers. We also serviced a few restaurants. If you had a burger at Little Bo's, it was probably our beef.

Little Bo's. That's a memory.