Sexual harrassment day, Katrina stories and a general update

Sexual Harassment Day

OK, the title of the blog may be a little misleading, as we didn't get to go around sexually harassing people for eight hours today. Although that might have been an interesting day at work, walking around, slapping people on the ass and telling them "how fine" they looked.

Alright, maybe not...OK, maybe just a little, but we did get the sexual harassment video at work today along with a video about the history of The Times-Picayune. I was amazed to learn that, back in the 1940's, The Times-Picayune used carrier pigeons when reporting sporting events because there was no other way to relay the scores back in that day.

So they would attach notes to the carrier pigeon, and let them loose in the air so they could fly back to the roof The T-P where people awaited to take the notes off of them. If carrier pigeons exist, maybe storks do as well? Maybe I didn't come from inside a uterus after all! LIFE'S BEEN ALL A LIE! DAMN YOU HIGHER EDUCATION!

Anyway, in addition to the history video, like I mentioned, was the sexual harassment video. Now, this is a very serious subject that I never, absolutely never, take lightly. Ever. Never, never ever. However, when it's presented in a video format, some of the dialogue can be a bit, well, hokey.

The video was filmed in the very same conference room we were in, which kind of made is a little weird, like we were actually looking into the past. In the video, a woman stood at the front of the room, addressing a group of people, like ourselves. Again, kind of eerie.

During the point of the video where it discussed inappropriate touching, it made sure to hit all of the hot topics, such as massaging of the shoulders, brushing up against someone on a daily basis "on accident" and generally doing any touching that would warrant an eyebrow raise of the person being harassed.

I've heard all of that before, but next came something I've never heard of. The women giving the presentation told us that always, ALWAYS, the "strike zone" of a person's body was inappropriate. Now, I'm all for analogies, but seriously, do we have to use a baseball analogy for something else? I'm down with the whole "three strikes and your out analogy," but I've never told someone to keep their hands out of my strike zone. And since some umps have a different strike zone, where does it begin and end? I'm confused.

Also, we learned that, if you stub your toe and yell out "FUCK," it's OK the first time. A reprimand may come from your supervisor. But if you "stub your toe every five seconds," it may not be cool to keep yelling out "FUCK."

OK, that's fine, it's not like I'm going around saying, "FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCKERSON." But come on, this a newsroom, our pastime is cursing. We're like sailors, only we don't have a poop-deck to mop, which is perfectly fine with me, because I'm just dandy not mopping anything with a word that refers to fecal matter in it.

The video also touched on, but not inappropriately touched on, the way a person tells another how "nice" they look. Shit, I'm using a lot of quotations. Anyway, if a person just tells another that they look "nice," it's OK. But if they lean, leer and say that they look "nice," it may just be sexual harassment. Who the hell does that around the workplace anymore? Who leans back, checks someone out from head to toe, and says, "oooo, baby, you look nnniiicceeee." No one, that's who.

Katrina Story

Anywho, we saw another video before these two that was aimed at how The T-P came in a covered Katrina just shortly after it hit. Shortly, as in like, six days shortly. Here's a fun story I'm sure all of you will enjoy.

David Meeks, the City Editor, was talking about how the staff grouped up and took a bus into the city the Sunday after Katrina hit (six days). As they're pulling into the city, they're stopped by the National Guard and asked who they were and what they were doing there. Meeks told the National Guard that they were The T-P staff and they were headed into the city to report and set-up a temporary bureau that they were operate out of.

The National Guardsman asked Meeks if they were armed, and Meeks promptly stated that they were not. He then inquired if the National Guard was trying to keep weapons off the street, and the National Guardsman quickly replied, "No, we wanted to make sure you were armed."

He then handed The T-P staff a .357 and a shotgun. I shit you not, this actually took place. I'm almost positive this is the first time in the history of journalism that a staff had to be armed. Just a hunch.

General Update

The past two weeks have been pretty bad ass, as I've definitely indulged myself in the night life of New Orleans. Two weekends ago, I visited the lovely and always fun Bourbon St. for the first time, and let me be the first to say, "aaaaahhhhhh, bblllaarrrggg, ummmmmm, huuuhhhhhh?" OK, maybe that's what I was saying that night, but it's definitely a great place to spend an evening. That night, I had my first cab ride, flaming Dr. Pepper and Hurricane (the drink, not the storm).

Other than that, work has been going great, completed my first illustration the other week that ran as dominate art in the weekend tab. As we speak, I'm finishing up my second illustration and my first interactive online graphic, so I'm pretty pumped for that. I would seriously love to work down here, as the city is simply amazing, work is incredible and journalists are appreciate down here. Sounds like a winning threesome to me, although other threesomes don't sound too bad at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be back here sooner rather than later, but for the time being, I'm going to go play with my strike zone for awhile.