MARK SMITH MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

Well, as anyone who knows a bad thing when he sees it realizes, I'm back on the tube.

Every Tuesday I sit in with host Karisa Gentry on "The Best of Pahrump" on Channel 30 and stir things up a bit for an hour or less.

Karisa is a natural, who can go from very straightforward and businesslike to laughing happily at the drop of a hat.

Sometimes I'll sit in the studio when she's on, relaxing in an off-camera chair and trying to keep it from squeaking audibly as she questions a guest or two.

As I said, she is a natural who simply has "it" where TV is concerned. There is that indefinable something that, when the camera's red light goes on, creates a supernova and elicits the delicate balance between a good-natured "just folks" girl and a budding Cronkite.

More than once we've gone live with her trying to keep from cracking up over something I've just unexpectedly lobbed at her off-air.

The best parts of the show are the phone calls that come in from across the ether, and I have to thank those like Stephanie and Flagman and the others who watch and listen and take the time to address their verbal letters to the editor and make their attitudes known.

Whether we've been discussing Dave Richards' possible return to Nye County or the ins and outs of Judge Robert Lane's new family court, something unexpected has always come up, some insight no one had thought of, and it makes for a refreshing mix.

On a couple of occasions station manager Rick Manning manned one of the floor cameras, and on another couple of occasions he was on the other end of one of the phone lines, putting in his two cents about this or that issue.

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Sometimes you have to laugh at what you see in the paper.

I'm not talking about the occasional error that needs a correction, just the items that don't make sense or are wildly inappropriate in some way and allow the reader a chuckle.

My own favorite was a headline years ago in the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader which mixed up "Turkey" and "Turkish." The result was something like "Turkey mine disaster kills 167." Man, you should have seen those drumsticks flyin'!

One that amused me before Christmas last year was a combination of headline and photo. "Angry, uneasy Israelis not in holiday mood," read the headline.

The photo, however, showed two Israeli soldiers, one of whom was clearly laughing delightedly, not the least bit uneasy or angry.

More recently, I was amused by a rampant series of headlines and captions, in order, "Double-hatted chief named to head Panaca Fire District," then the caption headline, "Wearing two hats," followed by the caption itself: "Kerry Lee wears the two hats of Panaca Fire Chief and Lincoln County Sheriff."

In the photo, of course, Kerry Lee isn't wearing any hat.

Sometimes the most disagreeable events result in some unintended humor. Such was a the case in California, where a headline read, "Man wounds three, kills self."

OK, so a lousy story about a lousy day.

But we all enjoyed a laugh over the "drop hed" that followed: "Why worker didn't shoot boss a mystery."

On a lighter note was the confusing hed in the Humboldt Sun. On top was an overhed that read: "Groundbreaking ceremony."

Below the photo was a second headline that read: "Flying A Garage open house to be held this weekend."

Now that is quick work-- ground breaking one day, open house on the weekend!

One of the great heds was on top of an editorial in the Boston Globe, no less, back in 1980. I had just returned from a five-year stay in Alaska and was dumbfounded.

In fact, a typesetter had been having some fun, and it got away from him. The original headline was something dreadfully dull like "Carter outlines new economic policy."

But what I found myself staring at was "Mush from the wimp."

The typesetter was looking for a new job by afternoon.