Thursday, January 15, 2009

10 seconds of my 15 minutes has been used

Today I was asked by a local TV station to help with some demonstrations for their news program to illustrate how freakin' cold it is in Minnesota. This morning the temp was -25°F. That's freakin' cold, my friends.[1]

I went to the station and we taped a few minutes of using a frozen banana to hammer a nail, blowing bubbles and watching them freeze and "popping" balloons. The edited footage was going to air tonight on the nine o'clock news.

Well, it turns out the big CBS news show with Katie Couric called down to the minor leagues for some video foder to fill up their national newscast. Long story short, they lumped about 10 seconds of the footage we shot into a story about how freakin' cold it is.

Here's the video. I'm the ugly bastard at about 1:37 using a banana to pound a nail.

Watch CBS Videos Online

So, what that means is I have 14:50 seconds of fame left.


[1] I must include a disclaimer here. While it is freakin' cold here in Minnesota, we must remember that there is an entire country further to the north of Minnesota (and another state). When it's freakin' cold here, it's usually f*cking cold in Canada.

5 comments:

Dr. Kev said...

Man that hat must be at least 20+ years old!! Didn't we get those back in the 80's when we had our paper routes?

MJenks said...

Crap...you know what this means? When the editor reads my book and comes across the you character I wrote in, he'll be like, "Wait...isn't this that dude from Minnesota with the banana?"

Liberal Arts Chemist said...

Yeah, we Canadians admire your example of stoic determination. Indeed, that is really how we are able to live up here (that and the free drugs). In my neck of the woods the overnight air temperature low was -35 oC with windchill to -45 oC. The daytime high today is -21 oC (you can do the conversions but the temperature scales cross at -40 oC or F). And yet oddly our lives go on but we all look like Ralphie's little brother from "A Christmas Story" who was so bundled up that he couldn't lower his arms.

We are all rooting for your new President up here. Congratulations.

Chemgeek said...

Kev: Yes, the hat is from 1985. The one I was wearing is without its tassel. I also have one with its tassel still intact. That's my dress hat. My hat is older than my students.

milkshake said...

You should have shown some booze poured from a clear bottle. 100 proof alcohol does not freeze at these temperatures but it gets viscous like silicone oil. Frozen bits of mercury melting in your palm are also impressive.