Windbag
by Scott Hardie on July 3, 2007
I don't know what Polaroids he has of whom, but somehow Tom Skilling has elevated himself to some kind of all-important weather-broadcasting god. When I grew up in Chicago, I watched him gradually get a bigger and bigger budget for his animated graphics, and gradually get a larger and larger timeframe to deliver his dull reports. By the time I left town, he had a whole 20 minutes of the hour-long midday newscast for the fucking weather, and boy did he find trivia to fill it: Average dew points across Cook County on this day in 1854, theta-e temperature predictions for every Cubs home game next season, you name it. Minutes would drag on while he blathered about a topic that is the very definition of "small talk," apparenty self-convinced of his critical importance to Chicagoans.
That said, imagine my reaction today while scanning the concise, no-nonsense, three-paragraph bios of the rest of the WGN news staff when I came upon Skilling's bio. Can you imagine being trapped in an elevator with this asshole?
Six Replies to Windbag
Aaron Shurtleff | July 3, 2007
I don't know nothin' about nothin' when it comes to this man, but I would not parade around that I had worked on a "special" which was called "Ten Inches of Partly Sunny".
That's not right!
But seriously, yeah, that's horrible!
Anna Gregoline | July 3, 2007
I couldn't even get through half of it without wanting to puke. Yeah. I turn to him to figure out the mysteries of freaking nature. What a blow-hard.
Scott Hardie | July 3, 2007
Hehe, well put.
Lori, forgive my hazy memory on this, but didn't you once meet Skilling and like him? I remember a female friend telling me about it, but that was many years ago and the details escape me now.
Anyway, to Lori or anyone else, sorry if I've caused offense. The guy gets on my nerves but I know he has a fan base across Chicagoland.
Anna Gregoline | July 4, 2007
My favorite news name? Dane Placko! That's a real name!!!!
I don't watch the news though, if I can possibly help it - I like to read the news.
Amy Austin | July 5, 2007
Ditto on what Aaron said, but *skimming* the bio gave me a chuckle on the phrase "weatherman's weatherman" -- ha!
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Bubba Franks! Bubba Franks, Y'all
There has to be a corny sexual position that nobody actually does (like Dirty Sanchez) named after that man. The rest of my trip is over and was richly enjoyed. We skipped Fearless in favor of playing Playstation games and scarfing down Chinese food while talking at length about the goo game and how it could be better. Go »Gigantism
Thanks to a friend who couldn't use them, I scored They Might Be Giants tickets to replace the broken Valentines gift that I originally bought for Kelly. We took in the show last night with two other friends who happened to be going, Nathan and Raquel, and it was a great time. Most of my concerts have been metal, so I'm used to screaming and head-banging, and I didn't exactly know how to get into the music, especially since I was the least familiar with the TMBG catalog. Go »No Disrespect
One of my pet peeves is people saying, "Have you ever noticed that the phrase 'no disrespect' is immediately followed by something disrespectful?" Well, YEAH. That's the point of the phrase. Go »Unexpected Easter
This has been an unusual few days. Kelly's father had a stroke on Thursday, so we left town suddenly to see him, ultimately choosing to drive since we can't afford plane tickets on no notice. He's going to be fine; his vision was affected at first but he seems recovered now, pending another examination. Go »Nooooooooooodge
You know what would be nice? If Google, one of the most web-savvy companies in existence, could manage to remember my goddamn user settings for more than 48 hours. I'm getting really sick of discovering them reset to defaults and having to change them all over again. Go »
Scott Hardie | July 3, 2007
Footnote: Way to go, Robin Baumgarten. I got ready for school every morning listening to her brief traffic reports and thinking that this woman was way too charismatic and savvy to keep cooped up in a helicopter. Sure enough, today she anchors the entire morning broadcast.
And Paul Konrad is a very funny man.