For my DC/NoVa friends... and anyone who loves a laugh.

It's been a bizarre couple of weeks. Christmas away from home was stranger than I thought. Now, as most of friends are out of the country or just hanging out sans work, I must begin a three week shift of half days. It could be a lot worse, and I get that. 3.5 hours of wrangling young Koreans is hardly laying railroad, but there's steam to vent regardless.

So in my beleaguered state, I decided to veg out in front of youtube for an hour or two, just as a nice way to deaden my mind. As it turns out, I'm really happy that I did.

Anyone who grew up in and around Washington DC has got to be familiar with Jim Vance and George Michael, the perennial geezers on NBC local news. Both men have easily been with the local NBC affiliate for the last 20 years. Neither man ever seemed to possess the professionalism of the great TV anchors - Conkrite, Rather, Jennings, etc - which is surely why they never got out of local news purgatory. But, I always enjoyed their boyish charms. DC is a city that does not produce much feel-good news, and these men often made the nightly morbid reviews tolerable.

Michael, clearly a redneck and a drinker, always seems like he is dying to say poop on air. Like he really wants to sneak one in there under his breath, so that he could show it to his buddies. Listen to him completely lose it at the 30 second mark... it's classic George Michael. If Michael is the boyish drinker, then Vance is most definitely the wily stoner. He could be reporting on missing children and there would still be a smirk right underneath that graying visage. They're a perfect duo. Where Michael is an irrepressibly high strung honky, Vance is an unnaturally mellow brother. If you know DC, then you have to know that they are almost a perfect synergy of the men in that city.

So finally, I'm on youtube and I click on some ludicrous link about a newscaster laughing at a clumsy model. Immediately I notice the DC News 4 backdrop. It's the end of the program, so George is on because he just did the sports. What I really love about this clip, is that it has 100% nothing to do with DC news. I mean, the fashion show is in Paris! So basically I'm assuming that the producers let George and Jim show this video because they thought it was funny. That, and they knew these two would get each other going like the cheeky, old codgers they are.

I can't tell you how nice it is to know that, while my life is in such a state of flux, so many things I love are right where they used to be.