Good Morning Everyone!
Happy Monday!
I hope you have recuperated from the long holiday weekend. And I hope that your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine!
I avoided any nasty confrontations so that’s always good! That happy place really came in handy!
Okay, on to the first order of business today:
Happy Birthday, Phebe!

Our resident graphics artist, Lori, cooked up a wonderful birthday collage for Ms. Phebe, as well! Happy Birthday, Phebe! I hope you have a wonderful day! Enjoy!
So What did happen to the Nth Degree Anyway?
The other day I got an email from my good friend Rachel from Acoopervision. She wrote, "HOLY CRAP!!! Um..Sheryn...Did you send in a quesition and get in read on the Paul Harris show awhile back? Did you ask about the Nth Degree?? HOLY CRAP I'm listening to it right now. You cheeky monkey you!!!!!!!" (Apparently Rachel and I had the same thought because she made a video about the Nth Degree and posted it on her blog on Saturday! Go have a look, its great!)
I laughed when I read it! I haven’t thought about that day in quite a while now! But it was really the first time I had any indirect contact with Anderson Cooper so at the time it was a big deal!!! Okay I know I’m dorky but hey, I was thrilled to have had my question answered! I remember one day in January, reading a post by my friend LindaLee that Anderson was going to be on the Paul Harris Radio Show on KMOX in St. Louis, MO. She said that we could send Paul Harris questions to ask Anderson Cooper, so I decided to do just that. Then, I drew a blank! What do I want to know from Anderson Cooper? Well, I decide to ask about why the “tone” of AC360 had changed so much with the new 2 hour format. Did it have to do with what Anderson had been thru over the past year? And then I thought, since we were all bitching and moaning about wanting the Nth Degree back (partly because we all missed the snark) that I would throw that in as well. I never thought Paul would use my question. Never! But, he did! When he got to the Q&A portion of the show, the first question he asked Anderson was from LindaLee! We were all so happy for her! Cheers arose from the Sphere! Then, I heard:
“One more question from Sheryn in NJ who wrote to Paul Harris at KMOX.com: Hi I’m a fan of Anderson Cooper 360 please ask him if he feels going thru the tragic events of last year and now in West Virginia have changed the tone of his show and the stories he chooses to cover during the 2 hr per of the show every night. Also what happened to the Nth Degree, I want it back!”
So what was Anderson’s answer to my question?
Cooper: (giggles) Yeah, the Nth degree is the segment we did at the end of the it, and I get that a lot and maybe we’ll bring it back. We’ll see what we can do.
But, um, you know it has changed, there’s no doubt about it. You can’t go through something like Katrina where you see just the failure of officials at all levels, the state, local and federal. And, you know, I was reminded and I think we all should be reminded of the role that reporters are supposed to play and should be playing. And, you know, I felt honored to be in a spot in Waveland, MS or New Orleans where, you know, I could point out things which were not being done. And people were coming to me all the time and saying, "Look there’s a body over here and why isn’t somebody picking it up?" And, you know, to be able to put those questions to people in power, um, I was honored to be able to do that. And it was just a good reminder to me of what we are supposed to be doing. You know its not supposed to be just silly, fluff stories just to get people to watch, which is frankly what you see on cable news. You know, there are lot of stories which aren’t stores which people talk about every night, um, when there really are important things happening and I think its our job to show that.
Okay, I must say here that I couldn’t wait for the podcast to be posted because, frankly I didn’t hear a word Anderson had said! All I heard was him giggle about the Nth Degree part of my question! It threw me for a loop! OMG! First, I made the man laugh! So cool! And then it dawned on me that he was answering my question! When the podcast came out, I begged my husband to put it on my Ipod! And I proceeded to listen to that podcast every day for a week! (don’t laugh, you would too!)
So, Rachel got me to thinking about Anderson’s response to the Nth Degree part of my question. I didn’t really have a feel for how Anderson politely excuses stupid questions back then, but I do know! I went back and listened to the podcast yesterday. If ever there was a polite diss, that my friends was it!!! Anderson Cooper dissed me on talk radio!!! So funny!
Well Mr. Cooper, I’m taking you to task! Here are your words in blue and white. I bolded them so you won’t have any trouble searching for the quote! If you and your staff were wondering about how to work the Nth Degree back into AC360’s daily line-up, I have a suggestion for you! I think that you should bring the Nth Degree to the 360 Blog! That’s right, I know you are busy man but I would love to see you write one post a day in Nth Degree fashion. That would truly be awesome! I know that the 360 blog is used by all of your correspondents but there is one major thing missing from the blog lately, YOU! We Anderfans love your snark, your wit and your writing! Bringing the Nth Degree to the blog would showcase all of those things and more!
Secretly I’d love to send this idea to the 360 feedback line but I’m far too chicken to do so! So, I’ll just hope upon hope that the folks at 360 hear my plea and they love my idea! (Okay people, I do live in reality! I know that’s not going to happen! But still, it’s a great thought!)
For those of you who are are not familiar with the Nth Degree segments from the old 360, you can click
here and
here for some really great memories!
I’ll leave you with another entry in the ATA Video Contest.
This one comes from my friend Rachel (see above)!
Have a great day, everyone!