Tom_Johnson's Blog

The Big Chicken (<<< click to learn more) is another one of my favorite things about living in the south.  It is a landmark in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta.  Kids love seeing it... adults love using it.  I say "using it" because The Big Chicken is literally used to give directions in and around Marietta.  You know... something like... "The Budget rent a car place is on the corner... right across from The Big Chicken."  Or... "Go to The Big Chicken... take a left and it's one mile down the road."  Very cool landmark and a lot of fun.  I took this pic last week during vacation.  My sons loved seeing it!!!  Funny joint huh?

(Chester State Park in SC)

Fall is officially here and I could not be happier about it.  I love fall... it's my favorite season for many reasons.  Among them:

* Cool, crisp mornings and evenings
* Football weekends
* Changing leaves
* Football weekends
* Boiled peanuts from roadside stands
* Chili
* Football weekends

Took a little poll among the cast and crew of FOX 35 Morning News... with just one exception... Fall is the favorite season here. What's your favorite season and why?

So I'm a big Frank Lloyd Wright fan.  I am fascinated with his strange but sometimes breathtaking architectural masterpieces.  I did not know until today that he actually designed one skyscraper in his lifetime.  You can see a picture of Price Tower (<<<Link) below.  Here's my question... why is it Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  From what I can tell this small city is about 50-miles north of Tulsa.  Now... the man who founded Phillips Petroleum... did so there.  But besides that... what merits Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper being there?  I'm sure there's more to Bartlesville than I know... I'd just like to hear what it is.  If you know... please tell!

So... we took part in Sheriff Ben Johnson's Battle of the Badges Fishing Tournament and I have to say... I had an absolute blast.  Me, FOX 35 Investigator Tom Sussi and FOX 35 Art Director Paul DeVault were on one boat with a guide.  Jim Van Fleet and Sheriff Johnson were with another guide on a different boat.  You can see below one of the two fish we caught.  It's a nice 28" redfish.  Nice fish... until you see what Van Fleet and the Sheriff caught!  Jim's like my little brother... so I ** HATE ** losing to him.  But I did and I'm man enough to take my lumps.  Jim... you won this year... but next year... I'm coming after you brother!

We had a GREAT guide named Troy Nash.  Check out his website and give him a shot next time you wanna hit the world's best redfishing grounds here in Central Florida!  You can find Troy at http://redfishing.com/.

Big thanks to Volusia Co. Sheriff Ben Johnson and all of his great people... especially Charlie Brown and Sandi Awad!  We all had a great time and are so happy to have helped raise a lot of money for the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranches.  See y'all next year!

I'm looking forward to a GREAT Saturday of college football.  Some great games on TV... take a look at this schedule... not too shabby, huh?!:

12:30 (9) Alabama @ Arkansas
 1:00 UCF @ Boston College
 3:30 (4) Florida @ Tennessee
 7:00 (18) Wake Forest @ (24) FSU
 7:45 (6) LSU @ (10) Auburn
 8:00 (3) Georgia @ Arizona State

Several of these obviously overlap.  Will you set up an extra TV to keep track of them all?  I'm gonna have at least one extra set and work the heck out of the picture-in-picture function!

I am really fired up about my major weekend activity.  I'm gonna fish in Volusia Co. Sheriff Ben Johnson's Battle of the Badges Family Fun Fest and Fishing Tournament!  Fishing is one the BIG things I told my wife I wanted to do when we moved to Central Florida 5 years ago and this will be the FIRST time I've been able to.   It's about time huh?

Anyway... check out the interview we did with Sheriff Johnson on the MORNINGS page.  Just click this LINK.  I hope to see you at Riverside Park in New Smyrna Beach Friday night and Saturday!

Did you guys see Knowson Moreno's high jumping highlight in Georgia's game this weekend?  Holy cow that dude can play!  Moments like this are why this kid is in the discussion for the Heisman this year.  If you missed it... take a look below:

So... the Miami Hurricanes storm into Gainesville this weekend taking on the #5 Gators.  Does anyone (other than UF and UM fans) really care though?  I would venture to say... not like they used to and that is sad.  There was a time when this game was played fairly often and it almost always meant something in the National Championship hunt.  It does again this year... just not in the way it once did.  This year... a Gators loss could (notice in the era of 2 loss Nat'l Champions I said "could") end their title hopes in week two.  But honestly... who really thinks Randy Shanno's gonna go take his swirling tropical stormers into The Swamp and beat Urban's giant water lizards?  It's certainly not out of the question (hello App. State and Michigan!). But I sure don't think it's very likely.  That my friends is sad.  Because no matter how you feel about these two teams individually... as a college football fan... this game was great when it was a real rivalry and really meant something.

Are there any other former rivalries that have totally gone away or that you feel like have lost their lustre?

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I'm SICK of this!  I know it's Florida.  I know it's part of the deal.  I'm still sick of it.

Go away storms!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Wow!  With a couple of notable exceptions... the A.C.C. looked positively awful this weekend.  Thankfully... Miami torched tiny little Charleston Southern Thursday and Wake Forest did blast Baylor.  The rest of the A.C.C. was pitiful:

*  Clemson was the preseason favorite to win the conference and perhaps play a part in the National Championship equation.  Alabama made them look terrible with a 34-10 beat down in the dome.

* Virginia Tech always figures in the Nat'l Champ hunt.  They lost 27-22 to East Carolina... EAST CAROLINA people!

* Virginia looked like a I-AA school during the 52-7 drubbing they took from USC in CHARLOTTESVILLE!

* NC State went to Columbia and got blanked by Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks.  The Wolfpack put up a whopping 49 total yards passing and 89 total yards rushing.

To be fair... the A.C.C. is7-4 after the first weekend.  But with the embarrassments above... a lot of people are asking if that abbreviation should stand for Awful Competition Conference?

I can hardly concentrate this morning.  The '08-'09 football season is finally here.  South Carolina tore up NC State 34-0 last night in perhaps the biggest game on the season's opening night.  The Miami Hurricanes destroyed tiny little Charleston Southern 52-7.  The Gators play the Hawaii Warriors in The Swamp and UCF hosts SC State.  The number one team in the land are the Georgia Bulldogs.  They host I-AA power Georgia Southern.  (FYI - I refuse to refer to I-AA as "The Football Championship Subdivision or whatever it's officially called now!)  One of last year's major Cinderella teams... Missouri plays former Gators Coach Ron Zook's Illinois team on national TV Saturday night.  Tennessee gets it on with UCLA in a nationally televised Labor Day game.

Bottom line... this is opening weekend for college football!  Who's your favorite team and which games are you really fired up to watch this weekend?

Had a great time this weekend hanging out with 2,000 or so of my closest friends at the 16th Annual March of Dimes Mud Volleyball Challenge.  A record 168 teams entered and what a great day it was.  The rain from Fay cleared just before everthing got rolling at 8 a.m. making for perfect conditions to get muddy!

If you did not know it... I volunteer as a member of the March of Dimes Board of Directors and I am so proud of that... especially when I go to kickin' M.O.D. events like the Mud Volleyball Challenge.  We raised around $200,000 to help babies and try to put a stop to premature birth.  Check out the photo gallery by clicking on the MORNINGS tab above.

If you were there... thanks!  If you were not... make sure you become a part of it next year... it really is a muddy blast!

Well... here we go again... right?  I really could've gone the rest of my life without experiencing another tropical storm/hurricane in Central Florida.  After living at the tv station through 3 storms (Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne) in the summer of '04.  I have been through 8 hurricanes during my career in tv news.  Before Hurricane Charley... I kind of got a charge out of covering them.  That all changed when I was sitting in my house (the first I've ever owned) and the power went out... then large pieces of oak tree starting raining down on the roof as Charley's eye passed right over top of us.  I learned to have a much more healthy respect for these storms that night and I no longer look forward to covering them in any way.  What are your memories of that long, stormy summer of '04... the "Summer of Storms?"


(Charley bearing down on Central Florida)


(Frances comes ashore)


(Radar loop of Jeanne)

FIve years ago today... 10's of millions of people (including me) were plunged into darkness and uncertainty in the northeast... upper midwest and parts of Canada.  I will never forget it as long as I live.  It was a Thursday afternoon I think.  I was at home... my wife was working at the tv station we both worked for at the time.  I remember reaching into the refrigerator and seeing the bulb dim to a very odd brownish color... never seen anything like it before.  I shut the door and then it dawned on me that what I had seen was not normal.  So I re-opened the door. At that exact moment... the power went out!  It freaked me out.  The door shutting and the power fritzing were so close together that at first I thought the door closing caused the power problem!  I went outside to see if the power was out in the rest of the complex.  It was.  Then I walked down a the street a bit and the power was out there too.

I went home and called my wife at the tv station.  I asked if they had heard anything about the power going out in our little suburb.  Her response was essentially:  "You idiot... the power's out to half the country... I gotta go!"  (maybe that's a little stronger than it was... but you get the idea!)  That's when I started getting nervous.  This was less than 2 years after the 9/11 attacks.  We lost power for almost two days along with New York... Detroit and parts of Canada.  It turns out the whole thing was caused by overgrown trees (that were supposed to have been trimmed back) hit power lines... that knocked one power station out... then the whole northeast grid dominoed off-line!

Something very good came out of it in my neighborhood though.  When darkness fell... word started going around that there was going to be an impromptu cookout at the community pool.  A bunch of people were bringing grills and the idea was to cook the meat you were gonna lose anyway because of the power outage.  I met people I had never spoken with before that night.

NFL preseason games are already games are already going.  Two weeks from this coming Saturday... college football begins.  With all due respect to the Olympics... Major League Baseball... the NBA and any other sports... football is THE most popular sport in the U.S.A.!

We on the FOX 35 Morning News crew were talking about which we like more.  Heidi prefers the college game.  Jim likes college football better and so do I.  Our producers are mostly college football fans.  Our production staff is pretty much split down the middle.

So what do you think... do you live for the NFL or is college football King in your world?