By Staff
Melissa Beth Wiese was from Niles, but she worked out of our Dowagiac office while editing the Cassopolis Vigilant and Edwardsburg Argus.
Then she designed some South Bend Tribunes and now holds down a similar job at the Fresno Bee.
I last saw her on Dec. 8, when she visited on the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination.
She was born the year I graduated from high school. I gave her her Spice Girl name, Mel B.
One summer she went on vacation out west, maybe New Mexico. She spotted someone in a Dowagiac shirt and related this when she got home, but I razzed her pretty severely about neglecting the most fundamental journalistic questions.
So she e-mailed me last week, her lesson learned.
She was in some California establishment last Monday night, Jan. 30, and saw a fellow wearing a Dowagiac FFA jacket.
She sidled up to him, put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention and accuse him, “You're from Dowagiac?”
The young man, who bore a physical resemblance to Daniel Radcliffe of the “Harry Potter movies,” got it at a thrift store in Phoenix.
The tales that well-traveled coat could tell if it could talk.
Four tribes instead of two (Older Men, Older Women, Younger Men, Younger Women).
Each episode at least one castaway is banished to a separate island inspired by Palau's Janu, the Vegas showgirl in season 10.
Exile Island conceals an immunity idol. Its finder can spring it at tribal council even after being voted out - a twist that convinced host Jeff Probst to sign on for four more seasons.
And what an accomplished cast. Retired astronaut Dan Barry, 52, flew three space shuttle missions and made four space walks.
Bruce Kanegai, 58, a high school art teacher, is a fifth-degree karate black belt.
Courtney Marit, 31, trained under Bela Karolyi as a gymnast.
Oddly, the first castoff was Tina Scheer, 45, a lumber jill. She blazed trails in logging sports, for which she's been featured in Sports Illustrated for Women.
She was selected for “Survivor: Guatemala,” but as was mentioned in the Feb. 2 debut, her son Charlie, 16, died in a car accident 10 days before the game.
Cirie Fields, the 35-year-old nurse, is a married mother of three from South Carolina. She feels her life is boring, though she's never slept outside.
First to taste Exile Island was Misty Giles, 24, a beauty queen turned missile engineer.
Quips, Quotes and Qulunkers: “The GOP slashed social programs for the poor by $40 billion to help pay for $90 billion in new tax cuts - almost half of which will go to wealthy Americans with incomes in excess of $1 million. The net result of the Deficit Reduction Act will be a $50 billion increase in the deficit. In the bizarre world of President Bush's double-speak bills, the new spending measure takes its place alongside the Clear Skies Act, which sought to increase air pollution, and the Healthy Forests Initiative, which opened America's woodlands to more clear-cutting … nearly a third of the cuts - $12.7 billion - affect student-loan programs.”
in Rolling Stone, Jan. 26
Knightmare: Tom Jones, 65, joined the ranks of Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney. Is that why I heard “She's a Lady” and “It's Not Unusual” this week on the radio?
Happy birthday: The Daily News turns 109 today.