So...why IS KO gone?

[Muffstser]

Guesses:

(a) an illness in his family. Hope that's not it.

(b) Some kind of personal issues. Also hope that's not it.

(c) A contract issue with MSNBC, because they bring in network talent when a major story breaks. Understandable, but I REALLY hope that's not it.

(d) He got sick before going on air. Icky...hope that's not it.

What do you think? Unfortunately, I'm leaning towards (c)...

[gkhouston]

1. I'm guessing a, followed by d

I expect he'll tell us when he returns. Or not, as it suits him. Not really our business. I mean, when one of your co-workers is unexpectedly away, you wonder why, but if the information isn't forthcoming, you don't press. Lord knows I haven't explained every absence I've ever taken to every person who's asked.

[crispini]

2. (e) He had the vacay and just felt like lying around the house for a day.

Or, my favorite, "I have something I have to take care of so I'll be in late today." Covers everything that needs to be done, from cat vet appointments to exterminator visits to a broken garbage disposal (is that how that's spelled? it looks weird to me).

[gkhouston]

3. yes, that's how it's spelled

so, do you have to break the garbage before you dispose of it? Isn't that adding injury before insult?

[crispini]

4. LOL!

But is it a "disposal" or a "Disposall" (tm)? :P

What I've found out is that I don't actually NEED a disposal now that I have a compost heap. It's been broken for two weeks now and I haven't really noticed much. :shrug:

[gkhouston]

5. I didn't think you were supposed to put food in a compost

heap, just yard clippings and such. Aren't food scraps what make compost heaps smell nasty??

Can't say we use our disposal much, either, but we're pretty big on eating the leftovers before they mutate into new lifeforms. ;-)

[crispini]

6. Anything organic can go into a compost heap,

except for meat scraps and such. Most of my kitchen refuse is vegetable, tomato skins and cucumber peelings and so on.

Besides, I'm pretty sure the raccoons and the possums come around and poach off the scraps anyway. It's just feeding the wildlife. :D

[gkhouston]

7. must have been the meat scraps I was thinking of

So, do you have tiny pink cuffs for the raccoons or do you only restrain the larger wildlife? :evilgrin:

[crispini]

8. LOL!

I pretty much draw the line at "human," although I did have some negative thoughts about about the little bastid that ate the fish out of my pond. Can't ya just see it now... "Mmm. Fish snacks. Tasty bite size, too! How nice of the homeowner to lay on a buffet!"

It's pretty weird to think that I live in a major metropolitan area less than five miles from downtown! :P

Hey, I finally moved into the 21st century and got wireless. This stuff is SWEET. And DSL too. Who knew copper could be so fast?

[gkhouston]

9. I've got wireless on mine but the rassenfrassen card

only worked when I had Windows on the machine. Once I went over to Linux, it went straight into the crapper; it only works with 801b and the building's wired for g or vice versa. :grr:

[crispini]

10. Different card?

Any excuse for a trip to Fry's. :P

[gkhouston]

11. different driver for this card, or different

widget in the kernel. If I ever get out of the software dungeon, I'm going to upgrade my kernel and work on the wireless thing again, I just haven't had the time to bother.

[crispini]

15. wow, you're really an ubergeek if you can futz with the linux kernel.

your fu is mightier than my fu!

re: tech stuff -- I was really, really, really impressed with
SBC yahoo's DSL tech support. They had a decent front end call router and no queue. Plus, they were intelligent. Sad when your baseline customer service expectation is "I will get treated like shit" and they can shine just by doing a decent job.

[gkhouston]

17. I think you're pretty reality-based

if you expect to be treated like shit.

As for futzing with the kernel, some judicious googling will lead you to websites that will walk the average idiot (i.e., me) through how to configure and upgrade a Linux kernel. Mostly, it's a matter of having the right versions of 12-15 different software packages, so you do a lot of downloading and installing and compiling. And I keep the current working kernel around in case my new kernel choices aren't so intelligent. ;-)

[crispini]

19. honey, you're writing grammars for computer languages

you are way more than the average id10t. :P

[gkhouston]

21. you are so right

I am an exceptional idiot. :silly:

[gkhouston]

12. I know!

KO (along with a lot of other media types) was "worst person in the world" on Monday, right?

He was in time-out yesterday. ;-)

[Muffstser]

13. Here's why the worry:

Here’s my reason for concern re: Snark Daddy’s absence. Let’s face it…he’s been gone way too much. The network is trying to promote his show, but he’s not there. MSNBC is not exactly a “ratings powerhouse”, and there’s talk of merging with CNBC. While Keith’s a big draw, if he doesn’t show, who’s to say they won’t continue the show with someone else hosting (like Rev. Al, who’s becoming a permanent fixture on BowTieBoy’s program). I have no joy in saying this…in the words of “The Godfather”, it’s strictly business.

[crispini]

14. He's got a contract, presumably.

And Al Sharpton? :rofl: now THAT would be some funny stuff.

everyone takes vacay. we just miss him more than the non-KO obsessed, that's all. :P

[gkhouston]

16. I'd be shocked speechless if he *doesn't* have a contract.

Some of the time he's been away since the beginning of the year has been "comp time" rather than true vacation -- he took a few days here and there because of the extra time he put in covering the passing of the Pope. Yes, he just had a week off not long ago, but I suspect that was planned months in advance. Whatever came up yesterday may have been a spur-of-the-moment thing -- he was taken ill, or someone in his family was, etc. This happens to people around us all the time but we don't notice it so much because they aren't on television five days a week.

I do not for a minute see MSNBC replacing Keith because he's been absent a few times. Most of those absences are planned (around baseball }() and either part of his normal vacation or ordinary comp time. The ratings for "Countdown" tank when Keith isn't there, and that's an argument for retaining him, not replacing him. If KO were a total flake, never showed up for work, came to work intoxicated, etc., etc., I'd be worried on many levels, but he's never had that kind of reputation, so I'm not going to go into a tizzy just because he wasn't there yesterday. I am envious of the amount of vacation/sick time he's got in his contract, however. ;-)

[crispini]

18. re: amount of vacay--

Yes, but think about it -- every day that KO shows up, he does a big chunk of writing and then goes ON AIR. I mean, at my job, that'd be like doing a customer-facing presentation every freakin day. I guess you get used to it... but I have "lite work" days where I work from home and just hang out and work and do laundry and if I get really ambitious I might bathe. :P If I had to do live customer presentations every day (not to imagine a nationwide live newscast) you'd have to pay me way more and I'd certainly need more vacay because I'd be freakin' stressed. I do ENJOY working in front of customers but it's like putting on a Broadway show or something -- every duck has to be in a row before I go talk to them. WAY more rehearsal.

[gkhouston]

20. oh, I'm not saying he doesn't deserve what he gets

I'm just saying the vacation package he has would be niiiiiice to have. Then again, I've been working all the hours that God sends for a couple of months now, so even the long weekend I'm about to take is pretty appealing.

[Berry Cool]

22. Well, it's true that it isn't any of our business

but I have a feeling he will tell us anyway.

I guess what concerns me is that a) he had a vacation so recently, so I seriously doubt this is more vacation time (especially because so few people choose to work Monday and then take Tuesday off, unless something is happening on Tuesday that they specifically want to take time off for) and b) there was no warning this time in the newsletter. That suggests something that happened suddenly and without warning. Otherwise I think we would have seen the usual "Alison in for Keith tonight" blurb. Under those circumstances, I'd be ticked off, yes (whether reasonably or not)...but I wouldn't be *worried.*

[gkhouston]

23. well, the day off in the middle of the week could be nothing

more than a dentist's appointment (help! I can't go on the air tonight because half of my face won't move!!), but I would have expected a blurb in the newsletter -- unless a routine appointment turned into a "guess what, you have a cracked tooth".

[orleans]

24. well, it's wednesday--he's still not on

it would be nice if allison would say something about it rather than pretend he doesn't exist. just to quell the curiosity of his fans. i see he hasn't updated the old blog since july 22.

[Catchawave]

25. Alison usually snarks he's on vacation or under

the weather, even when his back (?) problems flair up. That's what's so weird...:shrug:

[Berry Cool]

26. Uh, just a sec...

Have we ever actually been told that his back was flaring up? I don't recall that we have (although I will stand corrected if it has ever been said). I know there have been times when he appears to be doing a lot of leaning on the desk and no standups, and thus if he's off a day or two after that, the conjecture has been "Oh, his back must be acting up." But I don't think Alison, Alex or anyone else has ever said "...filling in for Keith, who has an aching back." We have heard that Keith is "under the weather," that he is "on vacation," and yes, once, we even got "on vacation--and when I say 'on vacation,' I mean 'at a baseball game.'" But I don't think we've ever been specifically told what is wrong with him when he's out "sick." Not that we need to be--Lord knows, I don't really need to know whether he's alternately praying to/defiling the porcelain god and I don't care to...and we don't really need to know about his back either...but what Catchawave says is a good point, which is that usually Alison says either that Keith is on vacation or under the weather, whereas so far it's been nothing but "...filling in for Keith Olbermann." I keep wondering if she's going to start giving some silly explanation just for the heck of it:

"...filling in for Keith Olbermann, who just didn't feel like working today."

"...filling in for Keith Olbermann, who sent along a message for me to give all of you: 'No, it's none of your damn business why I took the night off, and would you please GET A LIFE?'."

"...filling in for Keith Olbermann, who's decided not to come in to work anymore this summer now that it looks as if the Yankees could contend for that wild-card spot after all."

"...filling in for Keith Olbermann, who was feeling a little underappreciated so he decided to stay home a couple of nights and watch the KOEB go plum crazy with missing him."

Oh well, it would be interesting anyway.

[Catchawave]

27. LOL......

I did add a (?) after back, so chill :)

I only thought of that problem because it was discussed a few months ago here, and we know these back twinges can be painfully uncomfortable and unexpected. Yes, Alison usually announces a hint why he's not there, "under the weather" would be fine for me!

I wrote the show and asked them to send us a smoke signal, either in their newsletter or via a playful Alison snark if he's not returning tonight. Told them his fans are a little worried, that's all.

Also, my personal concern is that we know his history with Fox, ESPN and creative control. He did take a big whack at the media in his Worse segment the other night, in a playful TDS way, but it was a big whack nonetheless. What's funny, I thought to myself "who did he piss off with that one?". So, to me, the silence is deafening. Hope that made sense

:grouphug:

[crispini]

28. LOL. I like the second one.

When *was* the last time he was off, anyway? Prior to this, I mean.

[Berry Cool]

29. I can't even remember when he was last off like this.

But anyway, Catch, not to worry...I was just asking, were we ever told he was having back problems and that was why he wasn't in? I didn't think so.

Anyway, I must confess...I haven't really seriously considered the possibility that there was some sort of political problem going on...I really didn't see what grounds there could be for that. Nah, I was more worried about his health/personal life.

But he's back...he's back...I hope that means all is well...:-)