THE END

Just back from my last day of work at KTVL. The 6 PM newscast was interrupted by a group of my co-workers who bid me goodbye live on the air. I was actually quite moved by the gesture. The 11 PM newscast was a relatively sedate affair. But we all agreed that something else needed to be done.

You see, the weekend crew and morning crew have had a longtime pretend paper ball feud. Its history is pretty simple. Because we have no floor director, we have to throw paper balls at the weather guy to give time cues. Sometimes those time cues don't get picked up. This often annoys Trish, who is one of the best reporters I know and a person I respect very much. But sometimes, well...

We just can't help ourselves. I was hoping to put the blame on someone else, but there's no use. I did it.I hope you don't take our little bit of fun too personally or feel the need to react with violence, Trish. But before you answer that question, ask yourself, could you hit this face?Actually, I'm sure you could.

But to be more serious for a moment, I should say for the record that I will miss Trish and the other people I work with very much. They're a top notch batch of journalists and have fostered an atmosphere you don't see in many newsrooms. They made KTVL a nice place to come to work. Kudos to all of you.

And I promise, I left everything else at the station just as I found it.